POETRY. 909 



I think he's gone ; an J now I only wish 



For liberty and liome, that I may see, 



And stretch myself and die upon that grave! 



A FAMILY OF COTTAGERS REDUCED BY THE MONOPO- 

 LIZERS OF LAND TO MIGRATE TO A CITY. 



[From the same.] 



BEHOLD the band 



With some small remnant of their household gear, 



Drawn by the horse which once they called their own; 



Behold them take a last look of that roof, 



From whence no smoke ascends, and onward move 



In silence: whilst each passing object wakes 



Remembrance of scenes tliat never more 



Will glad their hearts; — tlie mill, the smiddy blaze 



So cheerful, and the doubling hammer's clink, 



Now dying on the ear, now on the breeze 



Heard once again. Ah ! why that joyous bark 



Procursive! Little dost thou ween, poor thing! 



That ne'er again the slowly-stepping herd. 



And nibbling flock, thou'lt drive a-field or home; 



That ne'er a^jain thou'lt chase the limping hare, 



While, knowing well thy eager yelp, she scorns 



Thy utmost speed, and from the thistly lea, 



Espies, secure, thy puzzled fruitless search.— 



But soon thou wilt forget 



The cheerful fields ; not so the infant train, 

 Thy playmates gay. — 



Oft from their high 



And wretched roof, they look, trying, through clouds 

 Of driving smoke, a glimpse of the green fields 

 To gain, while, at the view, they feel their hearts 

 Sinking within them. Ah ! these vain regrets 

 For happiness that now is but a dream, 

 Are not their sorest evil. No ; disease 

 (The harvest of the crowded house of toil) 

 Approaches, withering first the opening bloom 



Of infant years 



O ! that heart-wringing cry, 



To take them home, — to take them home again,— 



Their ceaseless, death-bed cry, poor innocents! 



Repeated while the power to lisp is theirs ;— • 



Alas ! that home no more shall ye behold ; 



No more along the thistly lea pursue 



The flying down ; no more, transported, rush 



From learning's humble door, with playmates blythe, . 



To gather pebbles in the shallow burn. 



HIGHLAND 



