ning when we had
a young prig of a Scotch lawyer to breakfast with us, my dear Sister,
with her usual simplicity, put the toasting fork with a slice of bread
into the hands of this Edinburgh genius. Our little book-case stood on
one side of the fire. To prevent loss of time, he took down a book, and
fell to reading, to the neglect of the toast, which was burnt to a
cinder. Many a time have we laughed at this circumstance, and other
cottage simplicities of that day. By the bye, I have a spite at one of
this series of Sonnets (I will leave the reader to discover which) as
having been the means of nearly putting off for ever our acquaintance
with dear Miss Fenwick, who has always stigmatized one line of it as
vulgar, and worthy only of having been composed by a country squire.--I.
F.]

In 1815, this was classed among the "Poems proceeding from Sentiment and
Reflection." From 1820 to 1843, it found a place among the
"Miscellaneous Sonnets," and in 1845 was restored to its earlier one
among the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection."--ED.

I

I am not One who much or oft delight
To season my fireside with personal talk,--
Of[1] friends, who live within an easy walk,
Or neighbours, daily, weekly, in my sight:
And, for my chance-acquaintance, ladies bright, 5
Sons, mothers, maidens withering on the stalk,[A]
These all wear out of me, like Forms, with chalk
Painted on rich men's floors, for one feast-night.
Better than such discourse doth silence long,
Long, barren silence, square with my desire; 10
To sit without emotion, hope, or aim,
In the loved presence of my cottage-fire,[2]
And listen to the flapping of the flame,
Or kettle whispering its faint undersong.

II

"Yet life," you say, "is life; we have seen and see, 15
And with a living pleasure we describe;
And fits of sprightly malice do but bribe
The languid mind into activity.
Sound sense, and love itself, and mirth and glee
Are fostered by the comment and the gibe." 20
Even be it so: yet still among your tribe,
Our daily world's true Worldlings, rank not me!
Children are blest, and powerful; their world lies
More justly balanced; partly at their feet,
And part far from them:--sweetest melodies 25
Are those that are by distance made more sw