POETRY. 459 



CONTRAST between the Post-horse and Farmer's Horse. 



From the same. 



SHORT-sighted Dobbin ! — thou canst only see 

 The trivial hardships that encompass thee: 

 Thy chains were freedom, and thy toils repose, 

 Could the poor post-horse tell thee all his woes; 

 Shew thee his bleeding shoulders, and unfold 

 The dreadful anguish he endures for gold : 

 Hir'd at each call of business, lust, or rage, 

 That prompt the trav'ller on from stage to stage. 

 Still on his strength depends their boasted speed ; 

 For them his limbs grow weak, his bare ribs bleed ; 

 And though he groaning quickens at command, 

 Their extra shilling in the rider's hand 

 Becomes his bitter scourge : — 'tis he must feel 

 The double efforts of the lash and steel : 

 Till when, up hill, the deslin'd inn he gains, 

 And trembling under complicated pains. 

 Prone from his nostrils, darting on the ground. 

 His breath emitted floats in clouds around : 

 Drops chase each other down his chest and sides, 

 And spatter'd mud his native colour hides : 

 Through his swoln veins the boiling torrent flows, 

 And every nerve a separate torture knows. 

 His harness loos'd, he welcomes, eager-eyed, 

 The pail's full draught that quivers by his side; 

 And joys to see the well-known stable-door, 

 As the starv'd mariner the friendly shore. 



Ah, well for him if here his sufF'rings ceas'd. 

 And ample hours of rest his pains appeas'd ! 

 But rous'd again, and sternly bade to rise. 

 And shake refreshing slumber from his eyes, 

 Ere his exhausted spirits can return. 

 Or through his frame reviving ardour burn, 

 Come forth he must, though limping, maim'd and sore; 

 He hears the whip; the chaise is at the^oor : — 

 The collar tightens, and again he feels 

 His half-hcal'd wounds inflam'd ; again the wheels 

 With tiresome sameness in his cars resound. 

 O'er blinding dust, or niiies of flinty ground. 

 Thus nightly robb'd, and injur'd day by day, 

 His picce-nieal niurd'rers wear his life MWay. 



