[Page 13]

THE BELLS, OSTEND.
12 Written on landing at Ostend, and hearing, very early in the morning, the carillons.

1 How sweet the tuneful bells' responsive peal!
2 As when, at opening morn, the fragrant breeze
3 Breathes on the trembling sense of pale disease,
4 So piercing to my heart their force I feel!
5 And hark! with lessening cadence now they fall!
6 And now, along the white and level tide,
7 They fling their melancholy music wide;
8 Bidding me many a tender thought recall
9 Of summer-days, and those delightful years
10 When from an ancient tower, in life's fair prime,
11 The mournful magic of their mingling chime
12 First waked my wondering childhood into tears!
13 But seeming now, when all those days are o'er,
14 The sounds of joy once heard, and heard no more.
15 1787.

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Title (in Source Edition): THE BELLS, OSTEND.
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Genres: sonnet

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Bowles, William Lisle, 1762-1850. The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. I. With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes by George Gilfillan. Edinburgh: James Nichol, 9 North Bank Street..., 1855, p. 13.  (Page images digitized from a copy held at the University of California Libraries.)

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Other works by William Lisle Bowles