Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE RIVER STOUR, by WILLIAM BARNES Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Stour, of all our streams the dearest Last Line: Be thy by-dwellers, gliding stour. Subject(s): Children; Rivers; Stour (river), England; Childhood | ||||||||
Stour, of all our streams the dearest Unto me, for thou was nearest To my boyhood in my play, Blest may be the sons and daughters That beside thy wand'ring waters Have their hearth, and spend their day. By happy homes of high and low Flow on dark river, ever flow. Thou through meady Blackmore wendest, And around its hillslopes bendest, Under cliffs, and down the dells; On by uplands under tillage, On beside the tower'd village, With its sweetly-chiming bells. There go, dear stream, and ever flow By souls, in joy, without a woe. Wind around the woody ridges; Shoot below thy archy bridges, Swelling by thy many brooks; Gliding slowly in thy deepness; Rolling fleetly at thy steepness; Whirling round the shady nooks; And pass the lands that fall and rise Below the sight of tearless eyes, Where the willow's head begloometh Depths below the clote, that bloometh Near the rushes' brown-clubb'd wand, While to mill by mill thou roamest, And below the mill-weir foamest In the wildly-heaving pond. And when, at night, the wheel may cease To roll, may inmates sleep in peace. Where a hoof or foot onspeedeth By a well-stein'd road, that leadeth O'er thy face to either side, To the town, that's many-streeted, Where, by loving friends, are greeted Friend and child, and maid and bride, May their welfare ne'er give out Until thy stream is dried by drought. Glowing under day's warm sunning, Sparkling with thy ripples' running, Taking to thee brooks and rills, Valley-draining, dell-bewending, Water-taking, water-sending, Down to dairy farms and mills, O blest below each village tow'r Be thy by-dwellers, gliding Stour. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE THREE CHILDREN by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN CHILDREN SELECTING BOOKS IN A LIBRARY by RANDALL JARRELL COME TO THE STONE ... by RANDALL JARRELL THE LOST WORLD by RANDALL JARRELL A SICK CHILD by RANDALL JARRELL CONTINENT'S END by ROBINSON JEFFERS ON THE DEATH OF FRIENDS IN CHILDHOOD by DONALD JUSTICE THE POET AT SEVEN by DONALD JUSTICE A WINTER NIGHT by WILLIAM BARNES |
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