English poet, critic & clergyman (1762-1850)
The cause of Freedom is the cause of God!
WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES
Edmund Burke
Back o'er the deep I turn my longing eyes,
And chide the wayward passions that rebel:
Yet boots it not to think, or to complain,
Musing sad ditties to the reckless main.
To dreams like these, adieu! the pealing bell
Speaks of the hour that stays not--and the day
To life's sad turmoil calls my heart away.
WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES
"On Landing at Ostend"
If, looking back upon the lengthened way
My feet have trod, since, long ago, I left
Those well-known shores, and when mine eyes are filled
With tears, I take the pencil in its turn, and shading light the landscape spread below..."
WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES
"Banwell Hill"
Why art thou come, man of despair and blood!
To these green vales and streams, o'erhung with wood;
These hills, where, far from life's discordant throng,
The lonely goat-maid chaunts her matin song;
This sylvan glen, where age in peace reclines,
Soothed by the whisper of his native pines;
Where, in the twilight of his closing days, Upon the glimmering lake he loves to gaze;
And, like his life, sees on the shadowy flood,
The still, sweet eve descending!
WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES
"The Sorrows of Switzerland"
The poetry of each age may be considered as vitally connected with, and as vividly reflective of, its character and progress, as either its politics or its religion.
WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES
The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles