Trying to find this poem from the 1800s...

[7th caged tiger]

I'm trying to find this poem from the 1800s that has the year in the name of it, it has 18xx in it. The poem is by a guy I think and he is looking out over a shore or a bridge or the ocean or something.

I remember reading it in high school and cant find the name of it, Google is no help unless u know of the author or title. Which I dont. :(

None of the college books I had in the past, that were composed of compilations of different authors have had this poem. I've been wanting to read it again.

Any help would be welcomed, thanks. :thumbs_up

[IrishCanadian]

Welcome to he forum 7th caged tiger. The poem you talk about righs a bell. I'll take a look in the few anthologies I have but I can't promise anything.
Best of luck

[Xamonas Chegwe]

I think you might be referring to Wordsworth's "Composed upon Westminster Bridge", which is subtitled, "Sept. 3rd 1802".


Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

Or maybe "London 1802" by the same poet.


Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart:
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet the heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

[Whifflingpin]

Or maybe Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage - Canto IV" which includes:

"I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs;
A palace and a prison on each hand:
I saw from out the wave her structures rise
As from the strokes of an enchanter's wand:
A thousand Years their cloudy wings expand
Around me, and a dying Glory smiles
O'er the far times ..."

and

"Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean - roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
Man marks the earth with ruin - his control
Stops with the shore..."

All right, it does not have the year in the title, but its worth quoting anyway.

[IrishCanadian]

Yep ... i was thinking of Wordsworth.
http://www.online-literature.com/wordsworth/518/
or
http://www.online-literature.com/wordsworth/519/
these are just links the the complete texts of the poems Chegew mentioned. Are we on the right track?

[7th caged tiger]

I think you might be referring to Wordsworth's "Composed upon Westminster Bridge", which is subtitled, "Sept. 3rd 1802".


Yeah, that is probably it. Although, I could of swore it was from the 1830s or mid-1800s. I remembered it to be longer and better than it seems to me now, but who knows, I was only 17 when i read it back then. :p