1. abbey
On First Entering Westminster Abbey

Holy of England! since my light is short
And faint, O rather by the sun anew
Of timeless passion set my dial true,
That with thy saints and thee I may consort,
And, wafted in the cool, enshadowed port
Of poets, seem a little sail long due,
And be...

Poet: Louise Imogen Guiney
Inscription on Melrose Abbey

The Earth goes on the earth glittering in gold,
The earth goes to the earth sooner than it wold;
The earth builds on the earth castles and towers,
The earth says to the earth—All this is ours.
Poet: Anonymous
On the Tombs in Westminster Abbey

Mortality, behold and fear
What a change of flesh is here!
Think how many royal bones
Sleep within these heaps of stones;
Here they lie, had realms and lands,
Who now want strength to stir their hands,
Where from their pulpits sealed with dust...

Poet: Francis Beaumont
Melrose Abbey

From “The Lay of the Last Minstrel,” Canto II.

IF thou wouldst view fair Melrose aright,
Go visit it by the pale moonlight;
For the gay beams of lightsome day
Gild, but to flout, the ruins gray.
When the broken arches are black in night,
And each...

Poet: Sir Walter Scott
Tintern Abbey

Five years have past; five summers, with the length
Of five long winters! and again I hear
These waters, 1 rolling from their mountain-springs
With a soft inland murmur.—Once again
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,
That on a wild, secluded scene...

Poet: William Wordsworth