Page images
PDF
EPUB

ARGUMENT OF THE FIFTH BOOK.

Afrosty morning.-The foddering of cattle.-The woodman and his dog. The poultry.-Whimsical effects of frost at a waterfall.-The Empress of Russia's palace of ice.-Amusements of monarchs.-War, one of them. -Wars, whence-And whence monarchy.-The evils of it.-English and French loyalty contrasted.-The Bastile, and a prisoner there.-Liberty the chief recommendation of this country.-Modern patriotism questionable, and why.-The perishable nature of the best human institutions.-Spiritual liberty not perishable.—The slavish state of man by nature.-Deliver him, Deist, if you can.-Grace must do it.-The respective merits of patriots and martyrs stated. Their different treatment.Happy freedom of the man whom grace makes free.His relish of the works of God.-Address to the Crea

tor.

THE TASK.

BOOK V.

THE WINTER MORNING WALK.

'TIS morning; and the sun, with ruddy orb
Ascending, fires th' horizon; while the clouds,
That crowd away before the driving wind,
More ardent as the disk emerges more,
Resemble most some city in a blaze,

Seen through the leafless wood. His slanting ray
Slides ineffectual down the snowy vale,
And, tinging all with his own rosy hue,
From ev'ry herb and ev'ry spiry blade
Stretches a length of shadow o'er the field.
Mine, spindling into longitude immense,
In spite of gravity, and sage remark
That I myself am but a fleeting shade,
Provokes me to a smile. With eye askance
I view the muscular proportion'd limb
Transform'd to a lean shank. The shapeless pair,

As they design'd to mock me, at my side
Take step for step; and, as I near approach
The cottage, walk along the plaster'd wall,
Prepost'rous sight! the legs without the man.
The verdure of the plain lies buried deep
Beneath the dazzling deluge; and the bents,
And coarser grass, upspearing o'er the rest,
Of late unsightly and unseen, now shine
Conspicuous, and, in bright apparel clad
And fledg'd with icy feathers, nod superb.
The cattle mourn in corners where the fence
Screens them, and seem half petrified to sleep
In unrecumbent sadness. There they wait
Their wonted fodder; not like hung'ring man,
Fretful if unsupplied; but silent, meek,

And patient of the slow-pac'd swain's delay.
He from the stack carves out th' accustom'd load,
Deep-plunging, and again deep-plunging oft,
His broad keen knife into the solid mass:
Smooth as a wall the upright remnant stands,
With such undeviating and even force
He severs it away: no needless care,
Lest storms should overset the leaning pile
Deciduous, or its own unbalanc'd weight.
Forth goes the woodman, leaving unconcern'd
The cheerful haunts of man; to wield the axe
And drive the wedge, in yonder forest drear,
From morn to eve his solitary task.

Shaggy, and lean, and shrewd, with pointed ears
And tail cropp'd short, half lurcher and half cur-

His dog attends him. Close behind his heel
Now

creeps he slow, and now with many a frisk Wide-scamp'ring, snatches up the drifted snow With iv'ry teeth, or ploughs it with his snout; Then shakes his powder'd coat, and barks for joy. Heedless of all his pranks, the sturdy churl Moves right towards the mark; nor stops for aught, But now and then with pressure of his thumb T'adjust the fragrant charge of a short tube That fumes beneath his nose: the trailing cloud Streams far behind him, scenting all the air. Now from the roost, or from the neighb'ring pale, Where, diligent to catch the first faint gleam Of smiling day, they gossip'd side by side, Come trooping at the housewife's well-known call The feather'd tribes domestic. Half on wing, And half on foot, they brush the fleecy flood, Conscious and fearful of too deep a plunge. The sparrows peep, and quit the shelt'ring eaves To seize the fair occasion. Well they eye The scatter'd grain; and, thievishly resolv'd T' escape th' impending famine, often scar'd, As oft return-a pert voracious kind. Clean riddance quickly made, one only care Remains to each-the search of sunny nook, Or shed impervious to the blast. Resign'd To sad necessity, the cock foregoes. His wonted strut; and, wading at their head With well-consider'd steps, seems to resent His alter'd gait and stateliness retrench'd.

« PreviousContinue »