Earth has not any thing to shew more fair:Dull would he be of soul who could pass byA sight so touching in its majesty:This City now doth like a garment wearThe beauty of the morning; silent, bare,Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lieOpen unto the fields, and to the sky;All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.Never did sun more beautifully steepIn 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!
Reading
Composed upon Westminster Bridge
Samuel Scott
The Building of Westminster Bridge
Source
From Poems, in Two Volumes, Volume 1 (1807), which is out of copyright. The text is copied from Project Gutenberg.
Read with this recording
1 recording
Water Music, Suite No. 2, HWV 349: Alla hornpipe
George Frideric Handel.
The English Concert, Trevor Pinnock