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Lord, I confess too, when I dine,
The pulse is thine;

And all those other bits that be

There placed by thee.

The worts, the purslain, and the messe
Of water cresse,

Which of thy kindness thou hast sent,
And my content,

Makes those, and my beloved beet,
To be more sweet.

'Tis thou that crown'st my glittering hearth With guiltless mirth,

And giv'st me wassail bowles to drink
Spiced to the brink.

Lord! 'tis thy plenty-dropping hand
That soiles my land,

And giv'st me for my bushel sowne,
Thrice ten for one.

Thou makest my teeming hen to lay
Her egg each day,

Besides my healthful ewes to bear
Me twins each year;

The while the conduits of my kine
Run cream for wine.

All these and better Thou dost send
Me, to this end,

That I should render for my part
A thankful heart,

Which fired with incense I resign
As wholly thine;

But the acceptance! that must be,
My Christ, by Thee.

HERRICK.

GOD'S PROVIDENCE.

AUTHOR of being! life-sustaining King!
Lo! Want's dependent eye from thee implores
The seasons, which provide nutritious stores!
Give to her prayers the renovating spring,
And summer's heats all perfecting, that bring
The fruits which autumn from a thousand shores
Selecteth provident! when earth adores

Her God, and all her vales exulting sing.
Without thy blessing, the submissive steer

Bends to the ploughman's galling yoke in vain;
Without thy blessing on the varied year,

Can the swarth reaper grasp the golden grain! Without thy blessing, all is blank and drear; With it, the joys of Eden bloom again.

WORDSWORTH.

THE HOLLY TREE.

O READER! hast thou ever stood to see
The Holly Tree?

The eye that contemplates it well perceives
Its glossy leaves

Order'd by an Intelligence so wise,

As might confound the Atheist's sophistries.

Below, a circling fence, its leaves are seen
Wrinkled and keen;

No grazing cattle through their prickly round
Can reach to wound;

But as they grow where nothing is to fear,
Smooth and unarm'd the pointless leaves appear.

I love to view these things with curious eyes,
And moralize:

And in this wisdom of the Holly Tree
Can emblems see

Wherewith perchance to make a pleasant rhyme,
One which may profit in the after-time.

Thus, though abroad perchance I might appear
Harsh and austere,

To those who on my leisure would intrude
Reserved and rude,

Gentle at home amid my friends I'd be
Like the high leaves upon the Holly Tree.

D

And should my youth, as youth is apt I know,
Some harshness show,

All vain asperities I day by day

Would wear away,

Till the smooth temper of my age should be
Like the high leaves upon the Holly Tree.

And as, when all the summer trees are seen
So bright and green,

The Holly leaves their fadeless hues display
Less bright than they;

But when the bare and wintry woods we see,
What then so cheerful as the Holly Tree?

So serious should my youth appear among
The thoughtless throng,

So would I seem amid the young and gay
More grave than they,

That in my age as cheerful I might be
As the green winter of the Holly Tree.

CONFIRMATION.

THE young ones gather'd in from hill and dale,
With holyday delight on every brow:
'Tis pass'd away, far other thoughts prevail,
For they are taking the batismal vow

SOUTHEY.

Upon their conscious selves; their own lips speak
The solemn promise. Strongest sinews fail,
And many a blooming, many a lovely cheek,
Under the holy fear of God turns pale.
While on each head His lawn-rob'd servant lays
An apostolic hand, and with prayer seals
The Covenant, the Omnipotent will raise

Their feeble souls; and bear with his regrets,
Who looking round the fair assemblage feels
That e'er the sun goes down their childhood sets.

I saw the mother's eye intensely bent
Upon a maiden trembling as she knelt :
In and for whom the pious mother felt,
Things that we judge of by a light too faint:
Tell, if ye may, some star-crown'd muse or saint,
Tell what rush'd in, from what she was relieved,
Then when her child, the hallowing touch receiv'd,
And such vibration to the mother went

That tears burst forth amain. Did gleams appear?
Open'd a vision of that blissful place

Where dwells a sister child? And was power given
Part of her lost one's glory back to trace

Even to this rite? For this she knelt, and ere
The summer leaf had faded, past to heaven.

WORDSWORTH.

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