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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


OLD CHURCH IN AN ENGLISH PARK by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS

Poet Analysis

First Line: CROWNING A FLOWERY SLOPE, IT STOOD ALONE
Last Line: REIGNED THERE, THE O'ERSHADOWING SPIRIT OF THE SCENE.
Subject(s): CHURCHES; CATHEDRALS;

CROWNING a flowery slope, it stood alone
In gracious sanctity. A bright rill wound,
Caressingly, about the holy ground;
And warbled, with a never-dying tone,
Amidst the tombs. A hue of ages gone
Seemed, from that ivied porch, that solemn gleam
Of tower and cross, pale-quivering on the stream,
O'er all th' ancestral woodlands to be thrown --
And something yet more deep. The air was fraught
With noble memories, whispering many a thought
Of England's fathers: loftily serene,
They that had toiled, watched, struggled, to secure,
Within such fabrics, worship free and pure,
Reigned there, the o'ershadowing spirit of the scene.



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