Poet's Corner, Fairmont Southampton Hotel, Bermuda

In a shady grove...

From Edmund Waller (1605-1687), on Bermuda (From The Battell of the Summer Islands)

“Bermudas, walled with rocks, who does not know

That happy Island…”

“…the kind spring, which but salutes us here,

Inhabits there and courts them all the year…

Heaven sure has kept this spot of earth uncurst

To show how all things were created first.”

From Thomas Moore (1779-1852), “Why Did I Wake?”

“Before I laid me down to sleep

  Awhile I from the lattice gazed

Upon that still and moonlit deep

  With isles like floating gardens raised.

I felt as if the scenery there

   Were lighted by a Grecian sky,

And then I breathed the blissful air

    That late had thrilled to Sappho’s sigh…”