Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79. | | | | Netley Abbey | | Netley Abbey | | Nicholas Thirning Moile (1797?–1873) |
| | (From Trial of Anne Ayliffe, for Heresy)
IN Netley Abbey,—on the neighboring isle, | |
| The woods of Binstead shade as fair a pile,— | |
| Where sloping meadows fringe the shores with green, | |
| A river of the ocean rolls between, | |
| Whose murmurs, borne on sunny winds, disport | 5 |
| Through oriel windows and a cloistered court; | |
| O’er hills so fair, o’er terraces so sweet, | |
| The sea comes twice each day to kiss their feet;— | |
| Where sounding caverns mine the garden bowers, | |
| Where groves intone, where many an ilex towers, | 10 |
| And many a fragrant breath exhales from fruits and flowers;— | |
| And lowing herds and feathered warblers there | |
| Make mystic concords with repose and prayer; | |
| Mixed with the hum of apiaries near, | |
| The mill’s far cataract, and the sea-boy’s cheer, | 15 |
| Whose oars beat time to litanies at noon, | |
| Or hymns at complin by the rising moon; | |
| Where, after chimes, each chapel echoes round | |
| Like one aerial instrument of sound, | |
| Some vast harmonious fabric of the Lord’s. | 20 | | | |
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