Languid, And Sad, And Slow, From Day To Day

William Lisle Bowles

Languid, and sad, and slow, from day to day
I journey on, yet pensive turn to view
(Where the rich landscape gleams with softer hue)
The streams and vales, and hills, that steal away.
So fares it with the children of the earth:
For when life’s goodly prospect opens round,
Their spirits beat to tread that fairy ground,
Where every vale sounds to the pipe of mirth.
But them vain hope and easy youth beguiles,
And soon a longing look, like me, they cast
Back on the pleasing prospect of the past:
Yet Fancy points where still far onward smiles
Some sunny spot, and her fair colouring blends,
Till cheerless on their path the night descends!

Next 10 Poems

• William Lisle Bowles : Netley Abbey
• William Lisle Bowles : O Poverty! Though From Thy Haggard Eye
• William Lisle Bowles : O Thou, Whose Stern Command And Precepts Pure
• William Lisle Bowles : On A Beautiful Landscape
• William Lisle Bowles : On A Distant View Of England
• William Lisle Bowles : On Hearing
• William Lisle Bowles : On The Funeral Of Charles The First
• William Lisle Bowles : On The Funeral Of Charles The First At Night, In St. George's Chapel, Windsor
• William Lisle Bowles : Sonnet: At Dover Cliffs, July 20th 1787
• William Lisle Bowles : Sonnet: At Ostend, July 22nd 1787

Previous 10 Poems

• William Lisle Bowles : Ix. O Poverty! Though From Thy Haggard Eye...
• William Lisle Bowles : Iv. To The River Wenbeck
• William Lisle Bowles : In Youth
• William Lisle Bowles : In Age
• William Lisle Bowles : Iii. O Thou, Whose Stern Command And Precepts Pure...
• William Lisle Bowles : Ii. Written At Bamborough Castle.
• William Lisle Bowles : I. Written At Tinemouth, Northumberland, After A Tempestuous Voyage.
• William Lisle Bowles : Evening
• William Lisle Bowles : Bereavement
• William Lisle Bowles : At Dover Cliffs, July 20th 1787