Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PRAISES OF WILTSHIRE, by CHARLES WILLIAM BRODRIBB First Line: But let not the forests of scotland, harbour of horned deer Last Line: If those ancestral habitations know me a grandson. Subject(s): Wiltshire, England | ||||||||
But let not the forests of Scotland, harbour of horned deer, Nor Cornwall's coastline nor green Shakespearean Arden Muster against Wiltshire's praises; not Snowdon or Exmoor, Nor the level Fenland's flat scenery, flaming at even. Here throng no week-end visitors exacting amusements, Gorgeous hotels, arabesque bandstands and flimsy casinos; Neither upon this Plain pours Whitechapel out for an airing. Nay, fogger and teamster still toil on it, earning a sober Livelihood in the valleys that spire-high Salisbury peeps on. Here in chalk the gallant war horse, immemorial outline, Snorts on his own hillside, and here a manoeuvring army Practises its tactics for a nation's victory elsewhere. Here the Present gives place to the Past, as turfy reminders Stand of man's primitive fosse-fortresses, high above envy. Here earth guards hidden ossuaries and traces of ancient Urn-burial: yon grassy barrow curves over a chieftain Gone to ash, or kings' bones bear beechen copses upon them. Neither has age abolished sarsen monumentally sited: Avebury encircled invites her curious Aubreys, And Stonehengethe shepherd's lean-to till custody ringed it. See the pleasant township, medieval Laycock, a wonder, And for fifty widows Froxfield's quadrangular almshouse. Add many fine palacesthy noble library, Longleat, Thy galleries, Bowood, once wartime shelter of exiled Bloomsbury when Lansdowne's Periclean piety housed it. Add the Netherhampton pierced gate and garden, a PATRON'S Hospitable mansion, near Herbert's rectory, hard by Pembroke's lordly demesne. Addison this country has also Claim upon, and old Hobbes whom vasty Leviathan argues Of subtle intelligencedeepest moonraker of Avon. Hail to honest Mother-earth! All hail untrumpeted Urchfont, And Wootton and the Cannings; hail Marlborough and the Devizes, If those ancestral habitations know me a grandson. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HARNET AND THE BITTLE by JOHN YONGE AKERMAN WALLFLOWERS' SONG'; OGBOURNE, WILTSHIRE by UNKNOWN FOR SUSANNA TESDALE; A BRASS OF 1656 by UNKNOWN ON A SAMPLER 'IN AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE OF CHARLES S.' by UNKNOWN AMONG THE LAKES by CHARLES WILLIAM BRODRIBB AN EPITAPH (AFTER THE GREEK EPIGRAMS) by CHARLES WILLIAM BRODRIBB ARS GUBERNANDI by CHARLES WILLIAM BRODRIBB AT THE FIREMEN'S EXHIBITION by CHARLES WILLIAM BRODRIBB AUTHORS IN LONDON by CHARLES WILLIAM BRODRIBB AUTUMN'S SPLENDOURS by CHARLES WILLIAM BRODRIBB |
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