{"id":2623,"date":"2012-04-08T20:53:56","date_gmt":"2012-04-08T20:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/?p=2623"},"modified":"2012-04-29T12:06:53","modified_gmt":"2012-04-29T12:06:53","slug":"the-tamar-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/?p=2623","title":{"rendered":"‘The Tamar Spring’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

THE TAMAR SPRING<\/strong><\/p>\n

The source of this storied river of the West is on a rushy knoll, in a moorland of this parish. The Torridge also flows from the self-same mound.<\/em><\/p>\n

Fount of a rushing river! wild flowers wreathe
\nThe home where thy first waters sunlight claim;
\nThe lark sits hushed beside thee, while I breathe,
\nSweet Tamar spring! the music of thy name.<\/p>\n

On! through the goodly channel, on! to the sea!
\nPass amid heathery vale, tall rock, fair bough:
\nBut never more with footsteps pure and free,
\nOr face so meek with happiness as now.<\/p>\n

Fair is the future scenery of thy days,
\nThy course domestic, and thy paths of pride:
\nDepths that give back the soft-eyed violet’s gaze,
\nShores where tall navies march to meet the tide.<\/p>\n

Thine, leafy Tetcott, and those neighbouring walls,
\nNoble Northumberland’s embowered domain;
\nThine, Cartha Martha, Morwell’s rocky falls,
\nStoried Cotehele, and Ocean’s loveliest plain.<\/p>\n

Yet false the vision, and untrue the dream,
\nThat lures thee from thy native wilds to stray;
\nA thousand griefs will mingle with that stream,
\nUnnumbered hearts shall sigh those waves away.<\/p>\n

Scenes fierce with men, thy seaward current laves,
\nHarsh multitudes will throng thy gentle brink;
\nBack! with the grieving concourse of thy waves,
\nHome! to the waters of thy childhood shrink!<\/p>\n

Thou heedest not! thy dream is of the shore,
\nThy heart is quick with life; On! to the sea!
\nHow will the voice of thy far streams implore
\nAgain amid these peaceful weeds to be!<\/p>\n

My Soul! my Soul! a happier choice be thine –
\nThine the hushed valley, and the lonely sod;
\nFalse dreams, far vision, hollow hope resign,
\nFast by our Tamar spring, alone with God!<\/p>\n

*\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *<\/p>\n

From Cornish Ballads & Other Poems<\/em> by R. S. Hawker, edited by C. E. Byles, John Lane 1904. Byles provides the following footnote:<\/p>\n

This poem is entitled “That Ancient River,” with reference to Judges v. 21, in <\/em>Ecclesia, 1840, and Mr. Godwin, therefore, assigned that date to its production: it is quoted in <\/em>Footprints of Former Men, 1870, and in <\/em>The Cornish Ballads, 1869. It was, however, first printed in the second series of <\/em>Records of the Western Shore, 1836, as “The Source of the Tamar,” with some verbal differences.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Tamar rises in a ditch on the south side of a lane leading from Woolley Cross to Bradworthy, about 100 yards from the old Moorwinstow\/Bradworthy boundary marker. Whether Hawker’s description of the Torridge ‘flowing from the self same mound’ was ever completely accurate is debatable – nowadays that river rises in an inaccessible-looking area to the north of the road, quite some distance from the Tamar spring.<\/p>\n

Photos \u00a9 Angela Williams, 2010<\/p>\n

LINKS<\/strong><\/p>\n

– Cornish Ballads and Other Poems<\/em> at the Open Library<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

– Rivers of Bradworthy: sources of the Tamar and Torridge<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A poem by Robert Stephen Hawker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[203,23,36,202,28,201,199,200,198,204],"class_list":["post-2623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-bradworthy","tag-cornwall","tag-devon","tag-moorwinstow","tag-poem","tag-poetry-2","tag-river","tag-spring","tag-tamar","tag-woolley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2623"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2650,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2623\/revisions\/2650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}