Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.
The Tamar Spring
By Robert Stephen Hawker (18031875)
F
The home where thy first waters sunlight claim:
The lark sits hushed beside thee, while I breathe,
Sweet Tamar Spring! the music of thy name.
Pass amid heathery vale, tall rock, fair bough;
But nevermore with footstep pure and free,
Or face so meek with happiness as now.
Thy course domestic, and thy paths of pride:
Depths that give back the soft-eyed violets’ gaze,
Shores where tall navies march to meet the tide.
Noble Northumberland’s embowered domain;
Thine, Cartha Martha, Morwell’s rocky falls,
Storied Cotehele, and Ocean’s loveliest plain.
That lures thee from thy native wilds to stray:
A thousand griefs will mingle with that stream,
Unnumbered hearts shall sigh those waves away.
Harsh multitudes will throng thy gentle brink;
Back with the grieving concourse of thy waves,
Home to the waters of thy childhood shrink.
Thy heart is quick with life; on to the sea!
How will the voice of thy far streams implore,
Again amid these peaceful weeds to be!
Thine the hushed valley and the lonely sod;
False dream, far vision, hollow hope resign,
Fast by our Tamar Spring, alone with God!