OLD and abandon'd by each venal friend Here H(olland) took the pious resolution To smuggle some few years and strive to mend A broken character and constitution. On this congenial spot he fix'd his choice, Earl Godwin trembled for his neighbouring sand, Here Seagulls scream and cormorants rejoice, And Mariners tho' shipwreckt dread to land, Here reign the blustring north and blighting east, No tree is heard to whisper, bird to sing, Yet nature cannot furnish out the feast, Art he invokes new horrors still to bring: Now mouldring fanes and battlements arise, Arches and turrets nodding to their fall, Unpeopled palaces delude his eyes, And mimick desolation covers all. Ah, said the sighing Peer, had Bute been true Nor Shelburn's, Rigby's, Calcraft's friendship vain, Far other scenes than these had bless'd our view And realis'd the ruins that we feign. Purg'd by the sword and beautifyed by fire, Then had we seen proud London's hated walls, Owls might have hooted in S. Peters Quire, And foxes stunk and litter'd in S. Pauls. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AGAINST THEM WHO LAY UNCHASTITY TO THE SEX OF WOMAN by WILLIAM HABINGTON THE CHILD ALONE: 4. PICTURE-BOOKS IN WINTER by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON PRODIGAL by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN TO THE DAUGHTER OF A NYMPH by AGNES COCHRAN BUAMBLETT THE WANDERER: 6. PALINGENSIS: THE SOUL'S SCIENCE by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |