Old Portraits, Modern Sketches, Personal Sketches and Tributes - Complete, Volume VI., the Works of Whittier by John Greenleaf Whittier
page 76 of 362 (20%)
page 76 of 362 (20%)
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Thanks for my rest, ye mossy banks!
And unto you, cool zephyrs, thanks! Who, as my hair, my thoughts too shed, And winnow from the chaff my head. How safe, methinks, and strong behind These trees have I encamped my mind!" Here is a picture of a piscatorial idler and his trout stream, worthy of the pencil of Izaak Walton:-- "See in what wanton harmless folds It everywhere the meadow holds: Where all things gaze themselves, and doubt If they be in it or without; And for this shade, which therein shines Narcissus-like, the sun too pines. Oh! what a pleasure 't is to hedge My temples here in heavy sedge; Abandoning my lazy side, Stretched as a bank unto the tide; Or, to suspend my sliding foot On the osier's undermining root, And in its branches tough to hang, While at my lines the fishes twang." A little poem of Marvell's, which he calls Eyes and Tears, has the following passages:-- "How wisely Nature did agree With the same eyes to weep and see! |
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