IMPERIAL Iffley, Cumnor bowered in green, And Templar Sandford in the boatman's call, And sweet-belled Appleton, and Wytham wall That doth upon adoring ivies lean; Meek Binsey; Dorchester where streams convene Bidding on graves her solemn shadow fall; Clear Cassington that soars perpetual; Holton and Hampton, and ye towers between: If one of all in your sad courts that come, Beloved and disparted! be your own, Kin to the souls ye had, while time endures, Known to each exiled, each estranged stone Home in the quarries of old Christendom, -- Ah, mark him: he will lay his cheek to yours. II Is this the end? is this the pilgrim's day For dread, for dereliction, and for tears? Rather, from grass and air and many spheres In prophecy his spirit sinks away; And under English eaves, more still than they, Far-off, incoming, wonderful, he hears The long-arrested and believing years Carry the sea-wall! Shall he, sighing, say, "Farewell to Faith, for she is dead at best Who had such beauty"? or with kisses lain For witness on her darkened doors, go by With a new psalm: "O banished light so nigh! Of them was I who bore thee and who blest; Even here remember me when thou shalt reign." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A LETTER TO LADY [MISS] MARGARET-CAVANDISH-HOLLES-HARLEY, WHEN A CHILD by MATTHEW PRIOR EPISTLE TO WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, ESQ. .. BILL ABOLISHING SLAVE TRADE by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD LINES TO ROBERT ALDERSON UPON HIS DEPARTURE FROM WARRINGTON by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THE SENTRY'S MISTAKE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN LITTLEHOLME; FOR J.S. AND A.W.S. by GORDON BOTTOMLEY |