Thomas Hardy — Geographical Knowledge

Where Blackmoor was, the road that led        &nbsp To Bath, she could not show, Nor point the sky that overspread        &nbsp Towns ten miles off or so. But that Calcutta stood this way,        &nbsp Cape Horn there figured fell, That here was Boston, here Bombay,        &nbsp She could declare full well. Less known to her the track athwart        &nbsp Froom Mead or Yell'ham Wood Than how to make some Austral port        &nbsp In seas of surly mood. She saw the glint of Guinea's shore        &nbsp Behind the plum-tree nigh, Heard old unruly Biscay's roar        &nbsp In the weir's purl hard by . . . "My son's a sailor, and he knows        &nbsp All seas and many lands, And when he's home he points and shows        &nbsp Each country where it stands. "He's now just there—by Gib's high rock -        &nbsp And when he gets, you see, To Portsmouth here, behind the clock,        &nbsp Then he'll come back to me!"