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Poem by William Lisle Bowles


On Leaving a Village in Scotland


    Clysdale! as thy romantic vales I leave,
      And bid farewell to each retiring hill,
      Where musing memory seems to linger still,
    Tracing the broad bright landscape; much I grieve
    That, mingled with the toiling crowd, no more
      I may return your varied views to mark,
      Of rocks amid the sunshine towering dark,
    Of rivers winding wild,[1] or mountains hoar,
    Or castle gleaming on the distant steep!--
      Yet many a look back on thy hills I cast,
      And many a softened image of the past
    Sadly combine, and bid remembrance keep,
    To soothe me with fair scenes, and fancies rude,
    When I pursue my path in solitude.

[1] There is a wildness almost fantastic in the view of the river from Stirling Castle, the course of which is seen for many miles, making a thousand turnings.



William Lisle Bowles


William Lisle Bowles's other poems:
  1. On Resigning a Scholarship of Trinity College, Oxford, and Retiring to a Country Curacy
  2. Picture of an Old Man
  3. On an Unfortunate and Beautiful Woman
  4. Greenwich Hospital
  5. Elegiac Stanzas


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