 | The Poetry of Real Life |  |
57
ON THE THAMES, NEAR HAMPTON COURT.
Here glides the Thames 'twixt meadows still and green,Unconscious of the turmoil and the fret
Which, further on, his prouder path beset—
Here Nature reigns, an undisputed queen,
Art dares not trespass on her still demesne;
Or, if she does, 'tis as an anchoret,
The world and the world's ways so to forget,
And grieving that such follies should have been—
The hills, with cloud-like undulations, make
Th' horizon vague, while the stream, far away,
Lingers, as loth our sight yet to forsake—
Not yet doth Commerce in thy broad lap play,
Thy foster-child, old Thames, nor strive to break
His leading-strings, and higher flights essáy.
| The Poetry of Real Life | |