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Home  »  library  »  poem  »  To Hampstead

C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

To Hampstead

By Leigh Hunt (1784–1859)

Written in Surrey Jail, August 27th, 1813

SWEET upland, to whose walks, with fond repair,

Out of thy western slope I took my rise

Day after day, and on these feverish eyes

Met the moist fingers of the bathing air;—

If health, unearned of thee, I may not share,

Keep it, I pray thee, where my memory lies,

In thy green lanes, brown dells, and breezy skies,

Till I return, and find thee doubly fair.

Wait then my coming on that lightsome land,

Health, and the joy that out of nature springs,

And Freedom’s air-blown locks; but stay with me,

Friendship, frank entering with the cordial hand,

And Honor, and the Muse with growing wings,

And Love Domestic, smiling equably.