The poetical works of Robert Stephen Hawker Edited from the original manuscripts and annotated copies together with a prefatory notice and bibliography by Alfred Wallis |
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THE WELL OF ST. JOHN. |
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 | The poetical works of Robert Stephen Hawker |  |
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THE WELL OF ST. JOHN.
[_]
“The well of St. John in the Wilderness stands and flows softly in the eastern boundary of Morwenstow Glebe. In the old Latin Endowment, still preserved in Bishop Brentingham's Register in the Archives of Exeter, a.d. 1296, the Church land is said to extend eastward, ad quendam fontem Fohannis. Water wherewithal to fill the font for baptism is always drawn from this well by the Sacristan in pitchers set apart for this purpose.”
Went through the city, that the promised son
Was born to Zachary, and his name was John;
They little thought, that here in this far ground,
Beside the Severn sea, that Hebrew child
Would be a cherished memory of the wild;
Here, where the pulses of the ocean bound
Whole centuries away, while one meek cell,
Built by the fathers o'er a lonely well,
Still breathes the Baptist's sweet remembrance round.
A spring of silent waters with his name,
That from the angel's voice in music came,
Here in the wilderness so faithful found,
It freshens to this day the Levite's grassy mound.
The Festival of St. John the Baptizer, 1843.
| The poetical works of Robert Stephen Hawker | |