| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | The Poetic Land | | By William Caldwell Roscoe (1823–1859) |
| | | THE BUBBLE of the silver-springing waves, | |
| Castalian music, and that flattering sound, | |
| Low rustle of the loved Apollian leaves | |
| With which my youthful hair was to be crown’d. | |
| Grow dimmer in my ears; while Beauty grieves | 5 |
| Over her votary less frequent found; | |
| And, not untouch’d by storms, my life-boat heaves | |
| Thro’ the splash’d ocean-waters, outward bound. | |
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| And as the leaning mariner, his hand | |
| Clasp’d on his oar, strives trembling to reclaim | 10 |
| Some loved lost echo from the fleeting strand, | |
| So lean I back to the poetic land; | |
| And in my heart a sound, a voice, a name | |
| Hangs, as above the lamp hangs the expiring flame. | | | | |
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