Thnking of the River Thames

I was born in Lambeth by the Thames and have never lost my love of the river.

During the nineteen years I grew up in London I was never far away from it and now after fifty three years of living in the North it still exerts a power over me.

So much so that recently as we headed back to Manchester from Kent we chose to travel through Eltham to make the river crossing at Woolwich.

Now Woolwich Ferry is perhaps not as grand as Westminster Bridge but as we stood there surveying the broad sweep of the Thames I was reminded of Wordsworth poem written in 1802 and so for no other reason than I like it I have decided to quote it in full.

"Earth hath not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendor, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! The very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!"

*William Wordsworth, "Composed upon Westminster Bridge, Sept. 3, 1803", from Poems, Volume I, published 1807

Pictures; from The Thames Flows Down, Laurie Osmond