Elizabethan Sonnet Cycles: Idea, Fidessa and Chloris

To the River Ankor

XXXII

Our floods’ queen, Thames, for ships and swans is crowned,
And stately Severn for her shore is praised;
The crystal Trent for fords and fish renowned,
And Avon’s fame to Albion’s cliff is raised.
  Carlegion Chester vaunts her holy Dee;
York many wonders of her Ouse can tell;
The Peak, her Dove, whose banks so fertile be;
And Kent will say her Medway doth excel.
  Cotswold commends her Isis to the Thame;
Our northern borders boast of Tweed’s fair flood;
Our western parts extol their Wilis’ fame;
And the old Lea brags of the Danish blood.
  Arden’s sweet Ankor, let thy glory be,
  That fair Idea only lives by thee!