| Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900. |
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| Robert Browning. 1812–1889 |
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| 717. Thus the Mayne glideth |
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| THUS the Mayne glideth | |
| Where my Love abideth; | |
| Sleep 's no softer: it proceeds | |
| On through lawns, on through meads, | |
| On and on, whate'er befall, | 5 |
| Meandering and musical, | |
| Though the niggard pasturage | |
| Bears not on its shaven ledge | |
| Aught but weeds and waving grasses | |
| To view the river as it passes, | 10 |
| Save here and there a scanty patch | |
| Of primroses too faint to catch | |
| A weary bee.... And scarce it pushes | |
| Its gentle way through strangling rushes | |
| Where the glossy kingfisher | 15 |
| Flutters when noon-heats are near, | |
| Glad the shelving banks to shun, | |
| Red and steaming in the sun, | |
| Where the shrew-mouse with pale throat | |
| Burrows, and the speckled stoat; | 20 |
| Where the quick sandpipers flit | |
| In and out the marl and grit | |
| That seems to breed them, brown as they: | |
| Naught disturbs its quiet way, | |
| Save some lazy stork that springs, | 25 |
| Trailing it with legs and wings, | |
| Whom the shy fox from the hill | |
| Rouses, creep he ne'er so still. | |
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