SOUTHAMPTON WATER. William Lisle Bowles Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
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 pp. 51-52.

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SOUTHAMPTON WATER . Smooth went our boat upon the summer seas , Leaving , for so it seemed , the world behind , Its sounds of mingled uproar : we , reclined Upon the sunny deck , heard but the breeze That o'er us whispering passed , or idly played With the lithe flag aloft . A woodland scene On either side drew its slope line of green , And hung the water's shining edge with shade . Above the woods , Netley ! thy ruins pale Peered as we passed ; and Vecta's Isle of Wight . azure hue Beyond the misty castle Kelshot Castle . met our view ; Where in mid channel hung the scarce seen sail . So all was calm and sunshine as we went Cheerily o'er the briny element . Oh ! were this little boat to us the world , As thus we wandered far from sounds of care , Circled by friends and gentle maidens fair , Whilst morning airs the waving pennant curled ; How sweet were life's long voyage , till in peace We gained that haven still , where all things cease !