WATER-PARTY ON BEAULIEU RIVER, IN THE NEW FOREST. 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. 134-135.

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WATER-PARTY ON BEAULIEU RIVER , IN THE NEW FOREST . I thought 'twas a toy of the fancy , a dream That leads with illusion the senses astray , And I sighed with delight as we stole down the stream , While the sun , as he smiled on our sail , seemed to say , Rejoice in my light , ere it fade fast away ! We left the loud rocking of ocean behind , And stealing along the clear current serene , The Phædria Cutter belonging to Nathaniel Ogle , Esq. spread her white sails to the wind , And they who divided had many a day been , Gazed with added delight on the charms of the scene . Each bosom one spirit of peace seemed to feel ; We heard not the tossing , the stir , and the roar Of the ocean without ; we heard only the keel , The keel that went whispering along the green shore , And the stroke , as it dipped , of the feathering oar . Beneath the dark woods now , as winding we go , What sounds of rich harmony burst on the ear ! Hark , cheer'ly the loud-swelling clarionets blow ; Now the tones gently die , now more mellow we hear The horns through the high forest echoing clear ! They cease ; and no longer the echoes prolong The swell of the concert ; in silence we float — In silence ! Oh , listen ! 'tis woman's Mrs Sheridan . sweet song — The bends of the river reply to each note , And the oar is held dripping and still from the boat . Mark the sun that descends o'er the curve of the flood ! Seize , Wilmot , Mrs Wilmot , well known for her great talents in drawing , et cet . the pencil , and instant convey To the tablet the water , the banks , and the wood , That their colours may live without change or decay , When these beautiful tints die in darkness away . So when we are parted , and tossed on the deep , And no longer the light on our prospect shall gleam , The semblance of one lovely scene we may keep , And remember the day , and the hour , like a dream , When we sighed with delight as we stole down the stream !