Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. III. The Eighteenth Century: Addison to Blake

Thomas Warton (1728–1790)

To the River Lodon

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.