Thames

Crossing the striplingThames at Bab-lock-hithe, Trailing in the cool stream thy fingers wet, 32 As the slow punt swings round.

—Arnold, Matthew

I call him Jordan and it will do. He has no other name before or after.What was there to call him, fished as he was from the stinkingThames? A child can't be called Thames, no and not Nile either, for all his likeness to Moses.But I wanted to give hima river name, a name not bound to anything, just as the waters aren't bound to anything.

—Winterson,Jeanette

O born in days when wits were fresh and clear, And life ran gaily as the sparklingThames: Before this strange disease of modern life, With its sick hurry, its divided aims, Its heads o'ertaxed, its palsied hearts, was rifeö Fly hence, our contact fear!

—Arnold, Matthew

The Rhine is not more impassable than the Nile or Euphrates, and the Arabian fleet might have sailed without a naval combat into the mouth of theThames. Perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pupils might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctityand truth of the revelation of Mahomet.

—Gibbon, Edward

Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song, Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long. But at my back in a cold blast I hear The rattle of the bones, and chuckle spread from ear to ear. See Marvell 556:62.

—Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)

Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.

—Spenser, Edmund

It is a little plaything-house that I got out of Mrs Chevenix's shop, and it is the prettiest bauble you ever saw. It is set in enamelled meadows with filigree hedges†barges as solemn as Barons of the Exchequer move under my window† Thank God! theThames is between me and the Duchess of Queensberry.

—Walpole, Horace, 4th Earl of Orford

The Knight in the triumph of his heart made several 6 reflections on thegreatness of the British Nation; as, that one Englishman could beat three Frenchmen; that we could never be in danger of Popery so long as we took care of our fleet; that theThames was thenoblest river in Europe; that London Bridge was a greater piece of work than any of the Seven Wonders of the World; with many other honest prejudices which naturally cleave to the heart of a true Englishman.

—Addison,Joseph

Sweet Swan of Avon! What a sight it were To see thee in our waters yet appear, And make those flights upon the banks of Thames That so did take Eliza, and our James!

—Jonson, Ben

I wander through each charter'd street, Near where the charter'd Thames does flow, And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

—Blake,William

The signal-elm, that looks on Ilsley downs, The Vale, the three lone weirs, the youthful Thames. 33

—Arnold, Matthew