THE TASK. BOOK V. ARGUMENT. A frosty morning. The foddering of cattle. The woodman and his dog. The poultry. Whimsical effects of frost at a waterfall. The Empress of Russia's palace of ice. Amusements of monarchs. War one of them. Wars, whence. And whence monarchy. The evils of it. English and French loyalty contrasted. The Bastile, and a prisoner there. Liberty the chief recommendation of this country. Modern patriotism questionable, and why. The perishable nature of the best human institutions. Spiritual liberty not perishable. The slavish state of man by nature. Deliver him, Deist, if you can. Grace must do it. The respective merits of patriots and martyrs stated. Their different treatment. Happy freedom of the man whom grace makes free. His relish of the works of God. Address to the Creator. THE WINTER MORNING WALK. 'Tis morning; and the sun with ruddy orb That I myself am but a fleeting shade, 1 The glow-worm shews the matin to be near, And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire. Hamlet, i. 5. 5 10 Provokes me to a smile. With eye askance I view the muscular proportioned limb Transformed to a lean shank. The shapeless pair, He from the stack carves out the accustomed load, 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 To adjust the fragrant charge of a short tube Earth yields them nought: the imprison'd worm is safe Beneath the frozen clod; all seeds of herbs 81 Lie covered close, and berry-bearing thorns That feed the thrush, (whatever some suppose,) The long protracted rigour of the year Thins all their numerous flocks. In chinks and holes Ten thousand seek an unmolested end 2 While the cock to the barn door 3 Ilk hopping bird, wee, hapless thing What comes o'thee? L'Allegro, 49. Where wilt thou cower thy chitt'ring wing An' close thy e'e? Burns. 85 As instinct prompts, self buried ere they die. The very rooks and daws forsake the fields, Where neither grub nor root nor earth-nut now 90 Repays their labour more; and perch'd aloft By the way-side, or stalking in the path, Pick up their nauseous dole, though sweet to them, The streams are lost amid the splendid blank 35 95 100 No frost can bind it there. Its utmost force Can but arrest the light and smoky mist 105 That in its fall the liquid sheet throws wide. And see where it has hung the embroidered banks With forms so various, that no powers of art, The pencil or the pen, may trace the scene! Here glittering turrets rise, upbearing high (Fantastic misarrangement,) on the roof 110 The sun-beam. There emboss'd and fretted wild The growing wonder takes a thousand shapes Capricious, in which fancy seeks in vain 120 The likeness of some object seen before. 4 'Twas nature's will; who sometimes undertakes, For the reproof of human vanity, Art to outstrip in her peculiar walk. The pillar'd vestibule, Expanding yet precise, the roof Excursion, p. 263. And in defiance of her rival powers; As she with all her rules can never reach. Less worthy of applause though more admired, When thou would'st build; no quarry sent its stores To enrich thy walls: but thou didst hew the floods, In such a palace Aristaus found Cyrene, when he bore the plaintive tale 125 130 135 The gloomy clouds find weapons, arrowy sleet 140 And snow that often blinds the traveller's course, And wraps him in an unsuspected tomb. Silently as a dream the fabric rose. No sound of hammer or of saw was there". 145 Were soon conjoined, nor other cement ask'd 150 Gleamed through the clear transparency, that seemed Another moon new-risen', or meteor fallen 5 Might seem design'd to humble man, when proud Of his best workmanship by plan and tool. Wordsworth. Second Sonn. on Staffa. The sport of nature, aided by blind chance Rudely to mock the works of toiling man. Excursion, p. 101. Sharp sleet of arrowy showers. Par. Reg. iii. 324. 6 There was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building. 1 Kings, vi. 7. 7 As when the sun new risen. Par. Lost, i. 594. |