TO THE BRAMBLE 147 



Scorned bramble of the brake ! once more 



Thou bid'st me be a boy, 

 To gad with thee the woodlands o'er 



In freedom and in joy. 



EBENEZER ELLIOTT. 



[NOTE. The author of these verses, Ebenezer Elliott, by 

 trade an iron-founder, was born in Yorkshire in 1781, and 

 died in 1849. He became famous for his Corn-law Rhymes 

 (1830-6) ; but it was the picture of a primrose in a book of 

 botany that by leading him into the fields made him a poet.] 



EXERCISES 



1. Describe a blackberrying expedition. 



2. What other plant or bush produces flowers and fruit at 

 the same time ? What other plants have a locomotive power 

 similar to that of the bramble ? 



3. Fix as nearly as may be (for your district) the season of 

 primroses, of may-blossom, and of violets. 



4. What word, or phrase, or short passage in this poem do 

 you like best, as being specially poetical ? 



CLEAR FROST IN WINTER 



AND now, behold, the joyous winter-days, frosty, 

 succeed; and through the blue serene, for sight too 

 fine, the ethereal nitre flies, killing infectious damps, 

 and the spent air storing afresh with elemental life. 

 Close crowds the shining atmosphere, and binds our 

 strengthened bodies in its cold embrace, constringent ; 

 feeds and animates our blood; refines our spirits, 

 through the new-strung nerves in swifter sallies dart- 

 ing to the brain, where sits the soul, intense 



K2 



