XLV Mablethorpe
[Published in Manchester Athænaum Album, 1850. Written, 1837. Republished, altered, in Life, vol. I, p. 161.]
How often, when a child I lay reclined,
I took delight in this locality!
Here stood the infant Ilion of the mind,
And here the Grecian ships did seem to be.
And here again I come and only find
The drain-cut levels of the marshy lea,—
Gray sand banks and pale sunsets—dreary wind,
Dim shores, dense rains, and heavy clouded sea.