The Brook.

I come from haunts of coot and hern,
I make a sudden sally
And sparkle out among the fern,
To bicker down a valley.

By thirty hills I hurry down,
Or slip between the ridges,
By twenty thorps, a little town,
And half a hundred bridges.

Till last by Philip's farm I flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.

I clatter over stony ways
In little sharps and trebles,
I bubble into eddying bays,
I babble on the pebbles.

With many a curve my banks I fret
By many a field and fallow,

And many a fairy foreland set

With willow-weed and mallow.

I chatter, chatter, as I flow

To join the brimming river,

For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.

I wind about, and in and out,
With here a blossom sailing,
And here and there a lusty trout,
And here and there a grayling,

And here and there a foamy flake
Upon me, as I travel

With many a silver waterbreak
Above the golden gravel,

Lympha loqvax.

Qva stabulant fulicae, qvo devolat ardea, saltu
Inde dato liqvidas ordior ire vias:
Emicat inde meus filicem fons inter opacam,
Per vallem qverulis obstrepiturus aqvis.
Triginta obliqvus trepido decurrere colles,
Aut medius furtim per iuga lapsus eo:
Praevehor oppidulum, bis dena mapalia viso,
Et qvinqvaginta pontibus impedior.
Deniqve rura, Philippe, lavo tua pingvia, grandem
Ad fluvium socias appositurus aqvas:
Nam meus, ut variis mortalibus effluat aetas,
Perpetuus tenor est: semper iturus eo.
Garrulus argutor per levia saxa viarum,
Et sonitum tenuem tinnula lympha ciet:
Inqve sinus scateo nictantibus aeqvore bullis,
Et strepitant silices mobilitate mea.
Tortilis irrito ripas haud simplice flexu;
Curvaturqve mihi saepe novalis ager;
Saepe, Napaearum latebrae, procurrit in undas
Fronde freqvens malvae vimineaqve iugum.
Usqve cachinnor iens alacer, lymphasqve loqvaces,
Ubere dum fluvio miscear, usqve traho:
Namqve ego, decurrant homines breve qvamlibet aevum,
Dempto fine vagor: semper iturus eo.

Mille traho gyros huc ambitiosus et illuc,
Nunc in gurgitibus flore natante rosae,

Nunc pingvi trutta, muscam si adspexit inermem,
Vel glauco ad summum subsiliente lacum.

Est ubi, dum longos errores metior, orbem
Sensi lacteolum fluctibus ire meis;

Est ubi me dirimit candens argenteus undae,
Aurea qvem subter glarea lucet, obex.

And draw them all along, and flow
To join the brimming river,

For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.

I steal by lawns and grassy plots,
I slide by hazel covers;
I move the sweet forget-me-nots
That grow for happy lovers.
I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance,
Among my skimming swallows;
I make the netted sunbeam dance
Against my sandy shallows.

I murmur under moon and stars
In brambly wildernesses;
I linger by my shingly bars;
I loiter round my cresses;

And out again I curve and flow

To join the brimming river,

For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.

TENNYSON.

Contentment.

I care not, Fortune, what you me deny:
You cannot rob me of free Nature's grace;
You cannot shut the windows of the sky,
Through which Aurora shews her brightening face;
You cannot bar my constant feet to trace
The woods and lawns, by living stream, at eve.
Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace,
And I their toys to the great children leave:
Of fancy, reason, virtue, nought can me bereave.

THOMSON.

Omniaqve amne voluta traho, laticesqve tumentem
Ad fluvium tenues impliciturus ago:

Namqve ego, mortales varient breve qvamlibet aevum,
Cursibus aeternis irreqvietus eo.

Per saltus fugio furtim et per amoena vireta:
Sub coryli labor lubricus hospitium:

Tum moveo memores amarantos, qvem meus umos
Florem in amatores auxiliaris alit.

Nunc coit atra mihi, nunc albicat unda, meisqve
Summam rasus aqvam laetor hirundinibus.
Sol qvoqve purpureos intexens luce liqvores
Gestit arenosis luxuriare vadis.

Tum solus qveror ad lunam Titaniaqve astra,
Findens multiplici sqvalida tesqva rubo:
Mox, mea dum lambo nasturtia, lentius itur,
Aut in pumiceis otior obiicibus.

Inde novum excutiens maeandrum protinus erro
Uberibus fluvii consociandus aqvis:

Nam meus, ut variis mortalibus effluat aetas,
Perpetuus tenor est: semper iturus eo.

T. S. E.

Flumina amem silvasque.

Nil me sollicitat qvid tu, Fortuna, recuses,
Dum mihi ne valeas Naturae auferre favorem
Munificae, caeliqve amplas occludere valvas,
Qvas Aurora aperit, roseo spectabilis ore:
Neu possis retinere pedes qvin vespere lustrem
Saltusqve siluasqve ad vivi fluminis undam.
Si modo dia Salus dignetur robore nervos
Et tenues firmare fibras, sua gaudia nugax
Per me turba colat procerum: mihi Musa supersit
Et Ratio et Virtus: his nil me dotibus orbat.

K.

The Hymn of Arion.

Hail, Neptune, greatest of the gods,
Thou ruler of the salt sea floods:

Thou with the deep and dark-green hair,
That dost the golden trident bear:
Thou that with either arm outspread
Embosomest the earth we tread:

Thine are the beasts with fins and scales
That, round thy chariot, as it sails,
Plunging and tumbling, fast and free,
All reckless follow o'er the sea.
Thine are the gentle dolphin throng,
That love and listen to the song;
With whom the sister Nereids stray,
And in their crystal caverns play.
They bore me well to Pelops' isle,
And Sparta's rocky mountain-pile;
And through the deep Sicilian sea
The briny champain ploughed for me,
When wicked men had cast me o'er
Our vessel's side into the roar
Of clashing waters, and a grave
Yawned for me in the purple wave.

C. MERIVALE (from the Greek).

A Vote.

This only grant me, that my means may lie
Too low for envy, for contempt too high.
Some honour I would have,

Not from great deeds, but good alone;
Th' unknown are better than ill-known;
Rumour can ope the grave.

Acquaintance I would have, but when 't depends
Not on the number, but the choice, of friends.

COWLEY.