Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“

OLD MAN TRAVELLING;

ANIMAL TRANQUILLITY AND DECAY,

A SKETCH.

The little hedge-row birds,

That peck along the road, regard him not.
He travels on, and in his face, his step,
His gait, is one expression; every limb,

His look and bending figure, all bespeak

A man who does not move with pain, but moves With thought-He is insensibly subdued

To settled quiet: he is one by whom

All effort seems forgotten, one to whom

Long patience has such mild composure given, That patience now doth seem a thing, of which He hath no need. He is by nature led

To peace so perfect, that the young behold
With envy, what the old man hardly feels.

---I asked him whither he was bound, and what

The object of his journey; he replied

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Sir! I am going many miles to take

A last leave of my son, a mariner,

"Who from a sea-fight has been brought to

Falmouth,

"And there is dying in an hospital."

THE COMPLAINT

OF A FORSAKEN

INDIAN WOMAN.

[When a Northern Indian, from sickness, is unable to continue his journey with his companions; he is left behind, covered over with Deer-skins, and is supplied with water, food and fuel if the situation of the place will afford it. He is informed of the track which his companions intend to pursue, and if he is unable to follow, or overtake them, he perishes alone in the Desart; unless he should have the good fortune to fall in with some other Tribes of Indians. It is unnecessary to add that the females are equally, or still more, exposed to the same fate. See that very interesting work,

Hearne's Journey from Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean. When the Northern Lights, as the same writer informs us, vary their position in the air, they make a rustling and a crackling noise. This circumstance is alluded to in the first stanza of the following poem.]

THE COMPLAINT,

&c.

BEFORE I see another day,

Oh let my body die away!

In sleep I heard the northern gleams;
The stars they were among my dreams;
In sleep did I behold the skies,
I saw the crackling flashes drive;
And yet they are upon my eyes,
And yet I am alive.

Before I see another day,

Oh let my body die away!

N

« AnkstesnisTęsti »