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Has seduced the poor fool from his winter retreat, And he creeps to the edge of my stove.

Alas! how he fumbles about the domains
Which this comfortless oven environ !

He cannot find out in what track he must crawl,
Now back to the tiles, then in search of the wall,
And now on the brink of the iron.

Stock-still there he stands, like a traveller bemazed!

The best of his skill he has tried;

His feelers, methinks, I can see him put forth To the east and the west, to the south and the north,

But he finds neither guide-post nor guide.

His spindles sink under him, foot, leg, and thigh! His eyesight and hearing are lost;

Between life and death his blood freezes and

thaws;

And his two pretty pinions of blue dusky gauze Are glued to his sides by the frost.

No brother, no mate has he near him, - while
Can draw warmth from the cheek of my Love;
As blest and as glad, in this desolate gloom,
As if green summer grass were the floor of my

room,

And woodbines were hanging above.

Yet, God is my witness, thou small, helpless Thing! Thy life I would gladly sustain

Till summer come up from the south, and, with crowds

Of thy brethren, a march thou shouldst sound through the clouds,

And back to the forests again!

VIII.

A POET'S EPITAPH.

ART thou a Statist, in the van
Of public conflicts trained and bred?
First learn to love one living man;
Then mayst thou think upon the dead.

A Lawyer art thou? - draw not nigh!
Go, carry to some fitter place
The keenness of that practised eye,
The hardness of that sallow face.

Art thou a Man of purplé cheer?
A rosy Man, right plump to see?
Approach; yet, Doctor, not too near,
This grave no cushion is for thee.

1799.

Or art thou one of gallant pride,
A Soldier and no man of chaff?

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Wrapt closely in thy sensual fleece,
O turn aside, and take, I pray,
That he below may rest in peace,
Thy ever-dwindling soul away!

A Moralist perchance appears;

Led, Heaven knows how! to this poor sod:
And he has neither eyes nor ears;
Himself his world, and his own God;

One to whose smooth-rubbed soul can cling

Nor form, nor feeling, great or small;
A reasoning, self-sufficing thing,

An intellectual All-in-all!

Shut close the door; press down the latch;

Sleep in thy intellectual crust;

Nor lose ten tickings of thy watch

Near this unprofitable dust.

But who is he, with modest looks,
And clad in homely russet-brown?
He murmurs near the running brooks
A music sweeter than their own.

He is retired as noontide dew,
Or fountain in a noonday grove ;
And you must love him, ere to you
He will seem worthy of your love.

The outward shows of sky and earth,
Of hill and valley, he has viewed;
And impulses of deeper birth
Have come to him in solitude.

In common things that round us lie
Some random truths he can impart,
The harvest of a quiet eye,

That broods and sleeps on his own heart.

But he is weak; both Man and Boy,

Hath been an idler in the land,
Contented if he might enjoy

The things which others understand.

Come hither in thy hour of strength;
Come, weak as is a breaking wave!
Here stretch thy body at full length;
Or build thy house upon this grave.

1799.

IX.

TO THE DAISY.

BRIGHT Flower! whose home is everywhere,
Bold in maternal Nature's care,

And all the long year through, the heir
Of joy and sorrow,

Methinks that there abides in thee

Some concord with humanity,

Given to no other flower I see
The forest thorough!

Is it that Man is soon deprest?

A thoughtless Thing! who, once unblest,
Does little on his memory rest,

Or on his reason,

And thou wouldst teach him how to find
A shelter under every wind,

A hope for times that are unkind
And every season?

Thou wander'st the wide world about,
Unchecked by pride or scrupulous doubt,
With friends to greet thee, or without,
Yet pleased and willing;

Meek, yielding to the occasion's call,
And all things suffering from all,

Thy function apostolical

In peace fulfilling.

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