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Home  »  Poems of Places An Anthology in 31 Volumes  »  Greenwich Hospital

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.

Greenwich

Greenwich Hospital

By William Lisle Bowles (1762–1850)

COME to these peaceful seats, and think no more

Of cold, of midnight watchings, or the roar

Of Ocean tossing on his restless bed!

Come to these peaceful seats, ye who have bled

For honor, who have traversed the great flood,

Or on the battle’s front with stern eye stood,

When rolled its thunder, and the billows red

Oft closed, with sudden flashings, o’er the dead.

O, heavy are the sorrows that beset

Old age! and hard it is,—hard to forget

The sunshine of our youth, our manhood’s pride!

But here, O aged men! ye may abide

Secure, and see the last light on the wave

Of Time, which wafts you silent to your grave;

Like the calm evening ray, that smiles serene

Upon the tranquil Thames, and cheers the sinking scene.