WOODSPRING ABBEY, 1836. William Lisle Bowles Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
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Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. 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. 26.

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WOODSPRING ABBEY , 1836. Three mailed men , in Canterbury Cathedral , rushed on the Archbishop of Canterbury , and murdered him before the altar . Conscience-stricken , they fled and built Woodspring Abbey , in the remote corner of Somersetshire , near Western Super Mare , where the land looks on the Atlantic sea . There are three unknown graves on the Flat Holms . These walls were built by men who did a deed Of blood : — terrific conscience , day by day , Followed , where'er their shadow seemed to stay , And still in thought they saw their victim bleed , Before God's altar shrieking : pangs succeed , As dire upon their heart the deep sin lay , No tears of agony could wash away : Hence ! to the land's remotest limit , speed ! These walls are raised in vain , as vainly flows Contrition's tear : Earth , hide them , and thou , Sea , Which round the lone isle , where their bones repose , Dost sound for ever , their sad requiem be , In fancy's ear , at pensive evening's close , Still murmuring Miserere , Domine .