THAMES RIVER QUOTES
quotations about the Thames River
The Thames shouldered its way past Blackfriars Bridge, impatient with the ancient piers, no longer the passive stream that slid past Chelsea Marina, but a rush of ugly water that had scented the open sea and was ready to make a run for it.
J. G. BALLARD
Millennium People
Thou who shalt stop where Thames' translucent wave
Shines a broad mirror through the shadowy cave,
Where lingering drops from mineral roofs distil,
And pointed crystals break the sparkling rill,
Unpolished gems no ray on pride bestow,
And latent metals innocently glow:
Approach. Great nature studiously behold!
And eye the mine without a wish for gold.
Approach: but awful! Lo the Egerian grot,
Where, nobly pensive, St. John sate and thought;
Where British sighs from dying Wyndham stole,
And the bright flame was shot through Marchmont's soul.
Let such, such only, tread the sacred floor,
Who dare to love their country and be poor.
ALEXANDER POPE
"On His Grotto at Twickenham"
Compared with other major rivers of the world, the Thames is very small. It has a total length of just 213 miles (344 kilometers). In contrast, the Mississippi River is 2,347 miles (3,780 kilometers) long and the Nile river, the world's longest river, is 4,130 miles (6,650 kilometers) long. Being such a short river, the Thames does not have as many features as bigger rivers have. It is slow and meandering for most of its length. At certain points, the river's meanders are so exaggerated that it nearly turns back on itself.
ROB BOWDEN
Settlements of the River Thames
O ROVING Muse! recall that wondrous year
When winter reigned in bleak Britannia's air;
When hoary Thames, with frosted osiers crowned,
Was three long moons in icy fetters bound.
The waterman, forlorn, along the shore,
Pensive reclines upon his useless oar:
See harnessed steeds desert the stony town,
And wander roads unstable not their own:
Wheels o'er the hardened water smoothly glide,
And raze with whitened tracks the slippery tide;
Here the fat cook piles high the blazing fire,
And scarce the spit can turn the steer entire;
Booths sudden hide the Thames, long streets appear,
And numerous games proclaim the crowded fair.
So, when the general bids the martial train
Spread their encampment o'er the spacious plain,
Thick-rising tents a canvas city build,
And the loud dice resound through all the field.
JOHN GAY
"The Frozen River"
Along the shore of silver-streaming Thames,
Whose rushy bank the which his river hems.
EDMUND SPENSER
"Prothalamion", Hymns, Visions, Elegiac poems
For centuries London's residents have sailed on the River Thames' waters, docked and traded on its shores and built their homes not far from the waters that connect the English capital with the country's pastoral countryside. But Thames locals have, on occasion, also been known to use the river as a veritable dumping ground for just about anything that needs disposing. It's for that reason the Thames has been dubbed the city's "longest archaeological site," and earned a reputation as a hot spot for amateur and professional archaeologists alike to find everything from weapons to jewelry to art to ... well, you can just imagine.
ALANNA MARTINEZ
"London's River Thames Has Been a Hot Spot for Lost Art for Centuries", The Observer, June 1, 2017
I think the Thames River is a really misunderstood river. Going through Chatham, and even London, it gets the reputation of being an inner-city river with not too much going on in regards to wildlife and even nature.
TREVOR THOMPSON
"River canoe to spotlight natural gem in Chatham-Kent", Chatham Daily News, July 13, 2015
The Thames is liquid history.
JOHN BURNS
attributed, Front-Line Thames
O, clear are England's waters all, her rivers, streams, and rills,
Flowing stilly through her valleys lone and winding by her hills;
But river, stream, or rivulet through all her breadth who names
For beauty and for pleasantness with our own pleasant Thames?
WILLIAM COX BENNETT
"The Glories of Our Thames", Songs of a Song Writer
London's river Thames in the 18th century was not quite what it is like today. England flourished with thousands of habitats; the city's trash flowed directly to the river, which acted as a heartline for London. Marine life started to die due to pollution, sewage, Industrial waste and by 1957 Thames was declared "biologically dead" by the Natural History Museum.
THE ECONOMIC TIMES
"How Thames became one of the cleanest rivers", May 26, 2017
The yellow leaves begin to fade
And flutter from the Temple elms,
And at my feet the pale green Thames
Lies like a rod of rippled jade.
OSCAR WILDE
"Symphony in Yellow"
The Thames is dear to the Londoners. It is the scene of half their pleasures. In the summer season it is ever in their thoughts, and they are often on its bosom. He who in treating of the mighty metropolis would omit to devote a chapter to the Thames, would, in Cockney estimation, betray as great a want of judgment as the itinerant player who proposed performing Shakespeare's tragedy of Hamlet without the character of Hamlet himself.
A.D.
"The Banks and Bosom of the Thames", The Metropolitan, Volume 41
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, 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, September 3, 1802
What better place than this then could we find
By this sweet stream that knows not of the sea,
This little stream whose hamlets scarce have names,
This far-off lonely mother of the Thames.
WILLIAM MORRIS
"The Months: June"
The Thames is no ordinary waterway, it is the golden thread of our nation's history.
WINSTON CHURCHILL
attributed, "Walking the Thames: from its source in the Cotswolds to the coast", The Times, June 3, 2017
Where Thames along the daisied meads
His wave in lucid mazes leads,
Silent, slow, serenely flowing,
Wealth on either side bestowing,
There in a safe though small retreat,
Content and Love have fixed their seat--
Love, that counts his duty pleasure;
Content, that knows and hugs his treasure.
From art, from jealousy secure,
As faith unblamed, as friendship pure,
Vain opinion nobly scorning,
Virtue aiding, life adorning,
Fair Thames, along thy flowery side,
May thou whom truth and reason guide
All their tender hours improving,
Live like us, beloved and loving.
DAVID MALLET
"Where Thames Along the Daisied Meads"
No turbots dignify my boards;
But gudgeons, flounders--what my Thames affords.
ALEXANDER POPE
"The Second Satire of the Second Book of Horace"
See, this regal Thames is winding
Among its poplared islands with a slow majestic pace;
We should see the towers of Windsor if the sun were not so blinding,
It casts a glow on all the trees, and a glory on your face.
BESSIE RAYNER BELLOC
"Up the River", Ballads and Songs
But her own king she likens to his Thames;
Serene yet strong, majestic yet sedate,
Swift without violence, without terror great.
MATTHEW PRIOR
"Carmen Seculare"
Thames, maiden Thames,
Glancing, shining
Silver-blue;
While for you
The lilied stems
Are pining.
Ah! thou lovest best to play
Slily with the wanton swallow,
While he whispers thee to follow
Him away.
ALEXANDER HUME BUTLER
"Thames", Poems Written in Barracks