Poem by William Lisle Bowles

Salisbury Cathedral

HERE stood the city of the dead; look round,—
Dost thou not mark a visionary band,
Druids and bards upon the summits stand,
Of the majestic and time-hallowed mound?
Hark! heard ye not at times the acclaiming word
Of harps, as when those bards, in white array,
Hailed the ascending lord of light and day!
Here o’er the clouds the first cathedral rose,
Whose prelates now in yonder fane repose,
Among the mighty of years passed away;
For there her latest seat Religion chose,
There still to heaven ascends the holy lay,
And never may those shrines in dust and silence close.

1. Netley Abbey
2. Return of George the Third to Windsor Castle
3. Restoration of Malmesbury Abbey
4. Lockswell
5. Avenue in Savernake Forest

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