Listen to the world’s best poetry read out loud.

I see the winding water make

A short and then a shorter lake

As here stand I,

And house-boat high,

Survey the Upper Thames.

By sun the mud is amber-dyed

In ripples slow and fat and wide,

That flap against the house-boat side

And flop away in gems.

In mud and elder-scented shade

A reach away the breach is made

By dive and shout

That circles out

To Henley tower and town;

And Boats for Hire the rafters ring,

And pink on white the roses cling,

And red the bright geraniums swing

In baskets dangling down.

When shall I see the Thames again?

The prow-promoted gems again,

As beefy ATS

Without their hats

Come shooting through the bridge?

And ‘cheerioh’ and ‘cheeri-bye’

Across the waste of waters die

And low the mists of evening lie

And lightly skims the midge.