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[Page 164]SOUTHAMPTON CASTLE. 96
SOUTHAMPTON CASTLE. 9696 Southampton Castle is a magnificent pile, erected by the Marquis of Lansdowne, commanding the most striking views of the river, the Isle of Wight, the New Forest, et etc.
INSCRIBED TO THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE.
1 The moonlight is without; and I could lose
2 An hour to gaze, though Taste and Splendour here,
3 As in a lustrous fairy palace, reign!
4 Regardless of the lights that blaze within,
5 I look upon the wide and silent sea,
6 That in the shadowy moonbeam sleeps:
6 How still,
7 Nor heard to murmur, or to move, it lies;
8 Shining in Fancy's eye, like the soft gleam,
9 The eve of pleasant yesterdays!
9 The clouds
10 Have all sunk westward, and the host of stars
11 Seem in their watches set, as gazing on;
12 While night's fair empress, sole and beautiful,
13 Holds her illustrious course through the mid heavens[Page 165]
14 Supreme, the spectacle, for such she looks,
15 Of gazing worlds!
15 How different is the scene
16 That lies beneath this arched window's height!
17 The town, that murmured through the busy day,
18 Is hushed; the roofs one solemn breadth of shade
19 Veils; but the towers, and taper spires above,
20 The pinnets, and the gray embattled walls,
21 And masts that throng around the southern pier,
22 Shine all distinct in light; and mark, remote,
23 O'er yonder elms, St Mary's modest fane.
24 Oh! if such views may please, to me they shine
25 How more attractive! but few years have passed,
26 Since there I saw youth, health, and happiness,
27 All circling round an aged sire,97
97 Late Dean of Winchester, Dr Newton Ogle.
whose hairs28 Are now in peace gone down; he was to me
29 A friend, and almost with a father's smile
30 Hung o'er my infant Muse. The cheerful voice
31 Of fellowship, the song of harmony,
32 And mirth, and wit,98
98 I speak this of Mr Sheridan, who was often of the party.
were there.32 That scene is passed:
33 Cold death and separation have dissolved
34 The evening circle of once-happy friends!
35 So has it ever fared, and so must fare,
36 With all! I see the moonlight watery tract
37 That shines far off, beneath the forest-shades:
38 What seems it, but the mirror of that tide,
39 Which noiseless, 'mid the changes of the world,
40 Holds its inevitable course, the tide
41 Of years departing; to the distant eye
42 Still seeming motionless, though hurrying on
43 From morn till midnight, bearing, as it flows,[Page 166]
44 The sails of pleasurable barks! These gleam
45 To-day, to-morrow other passing sails
46 Catch the like sunshine of the vernal morn.
47 Our pleasant days are as the moon's brief light
48 On the pale ripple, passing as it shines!
49 But shall the pensive bard for this lament,
50 Who knows how transitory are all worlds
51 Before His eye who made them!
51 Cease the strain;
52 And welcome still the social intercourse
53 That soothes the world's loud jarring, till the hour
54 When, universal darkness wrapping all
55 This nether scene, a light from heaven shall stream
56 Through clouds dividing, and a voice be heard:
57 Here only pure and lasting bliss is found!
Source edition
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. 164-166. (Page images digitized from a copy held at the University of California Libraries.)
Editorial principles
Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. This ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.
Other works by William Lisle Bowles
- ABBA THULE'S LAMENT FOR HIS SON PRINCE LE BOO. ()
- ABSENCE. ()
- ABSENCE. OCTOBER 26, 1791. ()
- AGE. ()
- APPROACH OF SUMMER. ()
- ART AND NATURE. THE BRIDGE BETWEEN CLIFTON AND LEIGH WOODS. ()
- ASSOCIATIONS. ()
- AT DOVER, 1786. ()
- AT MALVERN. ()
- AT OXFORD, 1786. ()
- AT TYNEMOUTH PRIORY, AFTER A TEMPESTUOUS VOYAGE. ()
- AVENUE IN SAVERNAKE FOREST. ()
- BAMBOROUGH CASTLE. ()
- BATTLE OF CORRUNA. ()
- THE BATTLE OF THE NILE. ()
- THE BELLS, OSTEND. ()
- BEREAVEMENT. ()
- CADLAND, SOUTHAMPTON RIVER. ()
- A CENOTAPH, TO THE MEMORY OF LIEUTENANT-COLONEL ISAAC, WHO DIED AT CAPE ST NICHOLA MOLE, 1797. ()
- THE CONVENT. ()
- COOMBE-ELLEN. ()
- DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOKE, OF “THE BELLEROPHON,” KILLED IN THE SAME BATTLE. ()
- DIRGE OF NELSON. ()
- DISTANT VIEW OF ENGLAND FROM THE SEA. ()
- DOVER CLIFFS. ()
- THE DYING SLAVE. ()
- ELEGIAC STANZAS. WRITTEN DURING SICKNESS AT BATH. ()
- ELEGY WRITTEN AT THE HOTWELLS, BRISTOL, JULY, 1789. ()
- EPITAPH ON H. WALMSLEY, ESQ., IN ALVERSTOKE CHURCH, HANTS. ()
- EVENING. ()
- EXHIBITION, 1807. ()
- FAIRY SKETCH. SCENE — NETLEY ABBEY. ()
- A GARDEN-SEAT AT HOME. ()
- THE GRAVE OF HOWARD. ()
- GREENWICH HOSPITAL. ()
- THE HARP OF HOEL. ()
- THE HARP, AND DESPAIR, OF COWPER. ()
- HOPE, AN ALLEGORICAL SKETCH. ()
- HOPE. ()
- HOUR-GLASS AND BIBLE. ()
- HYMN TO WODEN. ()
- IN HORTO REV. J. STILL, APUD KNOYLE, VILLAM AMŒNISSIMAM. ()
- IN MEMORIAM. ()
- INFLUENCE OF TIME ON GRIEF. ()
- INSCRIPTION. ()
- LACOCK NUNNERY. JUNE 24, 1837. ()
- THE LAST SONG OF CAMOENS. ()
- MILTON. ON THE BUSTS OF MILTON, IN YOUTH AND AGE, AT STOURHEAD. ()
- THE MISSIONARY. ()
- MONODY ON HENRY HEADLEY. ()
- MONODY ON THE DEATH OF DR WARTON. ()
- MONODY, WRITTEN AT MATLOCK. ()
- MUSIC. ()
- MUSIC. ()
- NETLEY ABBEY. ()
- ON A BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPE. ()
- ON A BEAUTIFUL SPRING, FORMING A COLD BATH, AT COOMBE, NEAR DONHEAD, BELONGING TO MY BROTHER, CHAS. BOWLES, ESQ. ()
- ON A LANDSCAPE BY RUBENS. ()
- ON ACCIDENTALLY MEETING A LADY NOW NO MORE. WRITTEN MANY YEARS AFTER THE FOREGOING SONNETS. ()
- ON AN UNFORTUNATE AND BEAUTIFUL WOMAN. WRITTEN DECEMBER 1783. ()
- ON ENTERING SWITZERLAND. ()
- ON HEARING “THE MESSIAH” PERFORMED IN GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL, SEPT. 18, 1835. ()
- ON LANDING AT OSTEND. ()
- ON LEAVING A PLACE OF RESIDENCE. ()
- ON LEAVING A VILLAGE IN SCOTLAND. ()
- ON LEAVING WINCHESTER SCHOOL. WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1782. ()
- ON MR HOWARD'S ACCOUNT OF LAZARETTOS. ()
- ON RESIGNING A SCHOLARSHIP OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD, AND RETIRING TO A COUNTRY CURACY. ()
- ON THE DEATH OF THE REV. WILLIAM BENWELL, M.A. ()
- ON WILLIAM SOMMERS OF BREMHILL. ()
- OXFORD REVISITED. ()
- THE PHILANTHROPIC SOCIETY. INSCRIBED TO THE DUKE OF LEEDS. ()
- PICTURE OF A YOUNG LADY. ()
- PICTURE OF AN OLD MAN. ()
- PICTURES FROM THEOCRITUS. ()
- POLE-VELLUM, CORNWALL. A PICTURESQUE COTTAGE AND GROUNDS BELONGING TO J. LEMON, ESQ. ()
- RETROSPECTION. ()
- THE RHINE. ()
- THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EDMUND BURKE. ()
- THE RIVER CHERWELL. ()
- THE RIVER WAINSBECK. ()
- A RUSTIC SEAT NEAR THE SEA. ()
- SHAKSPEARE. ()
- SKETCH FROM BOWDEN HILL AFTER SICKNESS. ()
- SKETCHES IN THE EXHIBITION, 1805. ()
- SONG OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN. ()
- SOUTHAMPTON WATER. ()
- THE SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY BY SEA: A DESCRIPTIVE AND HISTORICAL POEM. ()
- THE SPIRIT OF NAVIGATION. ()
- ST MICHAEL'S MOUNT. INSCRIBED TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD SOMERS. ()
- STANZAS FOR MUSIC. ()
- SUMMER EVENING AT HOME. ()
- SUN-DIAL, IN THE CHURCHYARD OF BREMHILL. ()
- THE SYLPH OF SUMMER. ()
- TO A FRIEND. ()
- TO SIR WALTER SCOTT. ON ACCIDENTLY MEETING AND PARTING WITH SIR WALTER SCOTT, WHOM I HAD NOT SEEN FOR MANY YEARS, IN THE STREETS OF LONDON, MAY 1828. ()
- TO THE RIVER ITCHIN. ()
- [TRANSLATION] OF A LATIN POEM BY THE REV. NEWTON OGLE, DEAN OF MANCHESTER. ()
- THE TWEED VISITED. ()
- THE VISIONARY BOY. ()
- WARDOUR CASTLE. ()
- WATER-PARTY ON BEAULIEU RIVER, IN THE NEW FOREST. ()
- THE WINDS. ()
- WINTER EVENING AT HOME. ()
- WOODSPRING ABBEY, 1836. ()