34 The Traveller's Return. THE TRAVELLER'S RETURN. SWEET to the morning traveller And cheering to the traveller The gales that round him play, When faint and wearily he drags Along his noontide way. And when beneath th' unclouded sun Full wearily toils he, The flowing water makes to him Most pleasant melody. And when the evening light decays, And all is calm around, There is sweet music to his ear In the distant sheep-bell's sound. And sweet the neighbouring church's bell That welcomes his return! TO FORTUNE. ANTHOLOGY. I CARE not, Fortune! what you me deny: You cannot rob me of free Nature's grace, You cannot shut the windows of the sky, Thro' which Aurora shows her brightening face: You cannot bar my constant feet to trace The woods and lawns, by living streams at eve: Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace, And I their toys to the great children leave: Of fancy, reason, virtue, nought can me bereave. THOMSON, 36 Day and Night. DAY AND NIGHT. WHEN the gay sun first breaks the shades of night, And streaks the distant eastern hills with light, And grazing flocks their milky fleeces show; We view the traces of th' almighty hand; Millions of stars in heaven's wide vault appear, And with new glories hang the boundless sphere. The Tame Stag. 37 The silver moon her western couch forsakes, And o'er the skies her nightly circle makes; Her solid globe beats back the sunny rays, And to the world her borrow'd light repays. THE TAME STAG. GAY. As a young stag the thicket pass'd, The stag was brought before his wife: E 38 The Lion and the Fawns. At first, within the yard confin'd, And, though repuls'd, disdains retreat; GAY. THE LION AND THE FAWNS. WHEN the grim lion ranging o'er the lawns, Finds, on some grassy lair, the couching fawns, Their bones he cracks, their reeking vitals draws, And grinds the quiv'ring flesh with bloody jaws. |