A very West-of-Wessex girl,
       &nbsp As blithe as blithe could be,
       &nbsp Was once well-known to me,
And she would laud her native town,
       &nbsp And hope and hope that we
Might sometime study up and down
       &nbsp Its charms in company.

But never I squired my Wessex girl
       &nbsp In jaunts to Hoe or street
       &nbsp When hearts were high in beat,
Nor saw her in the marbled ways
       &nbsp Where market-people meet
That in her bounding early days
       &nbsp Were friendly with her feet.

Yet now my West-of-Wessex girl,
       &nbsp When midnight hammers slow
       &nbsp From Andrew’s, blow by blow,
As phantom draws me by the hand
       &nbsp To the place - Plymouth Hoe -
Where side by side in life, as planned,
       &nbsp We never were to go!