Lord, I confess too, when I dine, And all those other bits that be There placed by thee. The worts, the purslain, and the messe Which of thy kindness thou hast sent, Makes those, and my beloved beet, 'Tis thou that crown'st my glittering hearth With guiltless mirth, And giv'st me wassail bowles to drink Lord! 'tis thy plenty-dropping hand And giv'st me for my bushel sowne, Thou makest my teeming hen to lay Besides my healthful ewes to bear The while the conduits of my kine All these and better Thou dost send That I should render for my part Which fired with incense I resign But the acceptance! that must be, HERRICK. GOD'S PROVIDENCE. AUTHOR of being! life-sustaining King! Her God, and all her vales exulting sing. Bends to the ploughman's galling yoke in vain; 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 eye that contemplates it well perceives Order'd by an Intelligence so wise, As might confound the Atheist's sophistries. Below, a circling fence, its leaves are seen No grazing cattle through their prickly round But as they grow where nothing is to fear, I love to view these things with curious eyes, And in this wisdom of the Holly Tree Wherewith perchance to make a pleasant rhyme, Thus, though abroad perchance I might appear To those who on my leisure would intrude Gentle at home amid my friends I'd be D And should my youth, as youth is apt I know, All vain asperities I day by day Would wear away, Till the smooth temper of my age should be And as, when all the summer trees are seen The Holly leaves their fadeless hues display But when the bare and wintry woods we see, So serious should my youth appear among So would I seem amid the young and gay That in my age as cheerful I might be CONFIRMATION. THE young ones gather'd in from hill and dale, SOUTHEY. Upon their conscious selves; their own lips speak Their feeble souls; and bear with his regrets, I saw the mother's eye intensely bent That tears burst forth amain. Did gleams appear? Where dwells a sister child? And was power given Even to this rite? For this she knelt, and ere WORDSWORTH. |