Thoughts on the Distant Aspect of Dartmouth Castle

From my vantage I can see you guarding the entrance of the Dart

I overlook its safe estuary

Ships are moored

Away from the winter storms

You have given refuge to them all without enquiry

 

The days of the azure waters are far away

Maybe they will never return

But this is of no consequence to you

My sweet sister

 

Kingswear

Sweet village

Why look inland?

For the adventures

Of the sea

Await you

 

In January 1891 a young woman named Emily Wright stayed in Dartmouth. She appears to have written a number of poems during her stay.

The two examples shown above were given to a William Smith a fisherman who recorded them in his diary as well as noting that Emily had written other poems.

Nothing is known of the poet and my researches into the subject have drawn a complete blank.

The fisherman William Smith died in Taunton in 1950 and his diary made its way to auction some twenty years later.

I purchased  the diary in Dartmouth in 1977.