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WEEK ST. MARY
TOWER |
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1. |
Thou for many years hast stood,
Overlooking field and wood;
From thy top the village green
And the distant sea are seen. |
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2. |
From thee also may be viewed
Widemouth beach and town of Bude,
And thro’ the drear waste of night
Can be seen the Lundy light. |
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3. |
From thy belfry rings the call,
“Come to Church, ye people all,”
And the same bell’s mournful toll
To the graves doth summon all. |
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4. |
Unchanged, thro many changes, thou
Art scarce the worse for age e’en now.
On thy walls so strong and gray,
The force of storms is thrown away. |
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5. |
Long ago was thy foundation,
Laid ‘midst general exultation.
But the men who work’d that day,
Centuries since, have turned to clay. |
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6. |
Would that on thee were conferred
Power to tell what thou hast heard,
Things that men have said and done
In the days long past and gone. |
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7. |
Strange the stories thou could’st
tell
Of those who in the village dwell.
Queer indeed would be the history,
Revealing much that’s now a mystery. |
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8. |
Thro’ the day dost thou look down
On the busy little town,
And at night strict watch doth keep,
While the foil-worn peasants sleep. |
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9. |
Since on the thee sun first shined
Mary Week has much declined,
Men have fled and trade has waned,
Markets stopped and pockets drained. |
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10. |
Since, on Greenmore’s grass and
heather,
Bonaventure strolled at leisure,
Funerals many hast thou seen
Winding o’er the churchyard green. |
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11. |
There, beneath thy shadow, rest
Rich and poor, whom none molest;
Deaf to all that men may say,
Sleeping till the judgement day |
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12. |
Then from calm and lengthened sleep
Some shall wake no more to weep;
Some with terror and dismay
Will the trumpet’s sound obey. |
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13. |
Scoffers then will cowards turn,
Sinful people all shall mourn
But the true and upright man
Shall be set at God’s right hand. |
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14. |
Adieu, old Tower, tall and strong;
My stay at Week will not be long;
Like thee may I e’er be straight,
And in every act upright. |
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T. C. JACOB
Week St. Mary 1879 |
