Puslapio vaizdai
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Thy friendly heart, thy nature mild,

Thy meekness and docility,

Creep to the love of man and child,
And win thine own felicity.

The gleanings of the sumptuous board,
Convey'd by some indulgent fair,

Are in a nook of safety stored,

And not dispensed till thou art there.

In stately hall and rustic dome,

The gaily-robed and homely poor Will watch the hour when thou shalt come, And bid thee welcome to the door.

The herdsman on the upland hill,
The ploughman in the hamlet near,
Are prone thy little paunch to fill,
And pleased thy little psalm to hear.

The woodman, seated on a log,

His meat divides atween the three; And now himself, and now his dog, And now he casts a crumb to thee.

For thee a feast the schoolboy strews

At noontide, when the form 's forsook ;

A worm to thee the delver throws,

And angler when he baits a hook.

At tents where tawny gipsies dwell,

In woods where hunters chase the hind, And at the hermit's lonely cell,

Dost thou some crumbs of comfort find.

Nor are thy little wants forgot,

In beggar's hut or Crispin's stall;

The miser only feeds thee not,

Who suffers ne'er a crumb to fall.

The youth who strays, with dark design, To make each well-stored nest a prey,

If dusky hues denote them thine,

Will draw his pilfering hands away.

The finch a spangled robe may wear,
The nightingale delightful sing,

The lark ascend most high in air,
The swallow fly most swift on wing.

The peacock's plumes in pride may swell, The parrot prate eternally;

But yet no bird man loves so well

As thou with thy simplicity.

THE JACKDAW.

Cowper.

THERE is a bird, who by his coat,
And by the hoarseness of his note,
Might be supposed a crow;

A great frequenter of the church,
Where, bishop-like, he finds a perch,
And dormitory too.

Above the steeple shines a plate,
That turns, and turns, to indicate

From what point blows the weather;
Look up your brains begin to swim,
'Tis in the clouds-that pleases him,
He chooses it the rather.

Fond of the speculative height,
Thither he wings his airy flight,

And thence securely sees
The bustle and the raree-show,

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You think, no doubt, he sits and muses On future broken bones and bruises,

If he should chance to fall.

No; not a single thought like that
Employs his philosophic pate,
Or troubles it at all.

He sees that this great round-about,
The world, with all its motley rout,
Church, army, physic, law;

Its customs, and its businesses,

Is no concern at all of his,

And says-what says he?-Caw.

Thrice happy bird! I too have seen
Much of the vanities of men ;

And, sick of having seen 'em,
Would cheerfully these limbs resign
For such a pair of wings as thine,

And such a head between 'em.

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WHAT ail'd thee, Robin, that thou could'st pursue

A beautiful creature,

That is gentle by nature!

Beneath the summer sky

From flower to flower let him fly;

'Tis all that he wishes to do.

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