POETRY. iK)7 



Perhaps some veteran, whom Egyptic sands 

 Have reft of sight (O, when will warfare cease !) 

 Leans on his staff, and wishes that but once, 

 But only once, he could behold those blooms, 

 Which now recall his father's little field. 



THE EFFECTS OF JUDICIOUS CULTURE. 

 [From the same.] 



BY such resources so applied, I've seen, 

 As if it were, a new creation smile ; 

 Have seen the clover, red and white supplant 

 The purple heath-bell ; rustling ears succeed 

 The dreary stillness of the lurid moor; 

 The glutted heifer lowing for the pail, 

 "Where starving sheep picked up their scanty fare ; 

 The sheltering hawthorn blossom, where the furze 

 Its rugged aspect reared ; and I have heard, 

 Where melancholy plovers hovering screamed, 

 The partridge-call, at gloamin's lovely hour. 

 Far o'er the ridges break the tranquil hush ; 

 And morning larks ascend with songs of joy. 

 Where erst the whinchat chirped from stone to stone. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COTTAGER'S OCCUPATION IN 



WINTER 



[From the same.] 



HE shuts again his door, and turns his hand 

 To home employment, — mending now a hive, 

 With bark of brier darned pliant through the seams; 

 Or, looking forward through the wintry gloom 

 To summer days, and meadows newly mown, 

 Repairs his toothless rake ; or feeds his bees ; 

 Or drives a nail into his studded shoon ; 

 Or twists a wisp, and winds the spiral steps 

 Around the hen-roost ladder : deeply fixed. 

 Meanwhile his children quit their play, and stand 

 With look inquiring, and inquiring tongue, 

 Admiring much his skill. Thus glides the day ; 

 Thus glide the evening hours, when laid to rest 

 His imps are stilled, and with its deep-toned hum 

 The wool-wheel joins the excluded tempest's howl. 

 Perhaps some neighbour braves the blast, and cheers 

 The fire side ring ; then blaze the added peats, 

 Or moss-dug faggot, brightening roof and wall, 

 And rows of glancing plates that grace the shelves. 



The 



