Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, INSCRIPTION FOR A TABLET AT GODSTOW NUNNERY, by ROBERT SOUTHEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

INSCRIPTION FOR A TABLET AT GODSTOW NUNNERY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Here, stranger, rest thee! From the neighbouring towers
Last Line: Young man, and learn to reverence womankind!
Subject(s): Graves; Honor; Nuns; Oxford, England; Rest; Strangers; Women; Tombs; Tombstones


HERE, stranger, rest thee! from the neighbouring towers
Of Oxford, haply thou hast forced thy bark
Up this strong stream, whose broken waters here
Send pleasant murmurs to the listening sense:
Rest thee beneath this hazel; its green boughs
Afford a grateful shade, and to the eye
Fair is its fruit: stranger! the seemly fruit
Is worthless, all is hollowness within,
For on the grave of Rosamund it grows!
Young, lovely, and beloved, she fell seduced,
And here retired to wear her wretched age
In earnest prayer and bitter penitence,
Despised and self-despising: think of her,
Young man, and learn to reverence womankind!





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