Sweet Thames, run softly

Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song is a refrain from Prothalamion (1596) by Edmund Spenser. This poem was written in celebration of a marriage, and describes a scene of white swans, beautiful nymphs and vibrant flowers: the Thames of The Fire Sermon, however, is grim, autumnal and desolate: the river will take us on a journey through a moral Waste Land: ...till I end my song takes on a more melancholic tone.

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