The Vale of Avoca
There is not in this wide world a valley so sweet
As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet;
O, the last ray of feeling and life must depart
Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart!
Yet it was not that Nature had shed o’er the scene
Her purest of crystal and brightest of green;
’T was not the soft magic of streamlet or hill,—
O, no! it was something more exquisite still.
’T was that friends, the beloved of my bosom, were near,
Who made every dear scene of enchantment more dear,
And who felt how the best charms of nature improve,
When we see them reflected from looks that we love.
Sweet Vale of Avoca! how calm could I rest
In thy bosom of shade, with the friends I love best;
Where the storms that we feel in this cold world should cease,
And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace.
Source: Bartleby.com (archived copy)
About this poem
This poem by Thomas Moore (1779–1852) is better known as “The Meeting of the Waters.” It appeared in his Irish Melodies and describes the place in County Wicklow, Ireland, where the Avonmore and Avonbeg rivers join to form the Avoca.
Moore praises the valley as the sweetest in the world, then surprises the reader: its charm comes not from nature but from the friends who were with him there. The poem ends with a wish to rest in the valley with those he loves. It is still sung in Ireland, and the spot is marked as a tourist site.