Robert Herrick

Dean-Bourn, a Rude River in Devon

DEAN-BOURN, farewell; I never look to see
Deane, or thy warty incivility.
Thy rockie bottome, that doth teare thy streams,
And makes them frantick, ev’n to all extreames,
To my content, I never sho’d behold,
Were thy streams silver, or thy rocks all gold.
Rockie thou art; and rockie we discover
Thy men; and rockie are thy wayes all over.
O men, O manners! now, and ever knowne
To be a rockie generation!
A people currish, churlish as the seas,
And rude, almost, as rudest salvages;
With whom I did, and may re-sojourne when
Rockes turn to rivers, rivers turn to men.