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Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.

III. On Revisiting the River Loddon

Thomas Warton (1728–1790)

AH! what a weary race my feet have run

Since first I trod thy banks with alders crowned,

And thought my way was all through fairy ground,

Beneath thy azure sky and golden sun,—

Where first my muse to lisp her notes begun!

While pensive memory traces back the round

Which fills the varied interval between;

Much pleasure, more of sorrow, marks the scene.

Sweet native stream! those skies and suns so pure

No more return to cheer my evening road!

Yet still one joy remains, that not obscure

Nor useless, all my vacant days have flowed

From youth’s gay dawn to manhood’s prime mature,

Nor with the Muse’s laurel unbestowed.