freed,
A pleasant course to run. C.

Down to the vale this streamlet hies,
Look, how it seems to run,
As if 't were pleased with summer skies,
And glad to meet the sun. C.

And glad to greet the sun. MS.

No guide it needs, no check it fears,
How merrily it goes!
'Twill murmur on a thousand years,
And flow as now it flows. C.

Down towards the vale with eager speed,
Behold this streamlet run
As if 'twere pleased with summer skies
And glad to meet the sun. C.]

[Variant 3:

1837.

The blackbird in the summer trees,
The lark upon the hill, 1800.]

[Variant 4:

1832.

... is .... 1800 and MS.]

[Variant 5:

1815.

... his hands, ... 1800.]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A:

"Pour me plaindre a moy, regarde noti tant ce qu'on moste, que ce qui
me reste de sauvre, et dedans et dehors."

Montaigne, 'Essais', iii. 12.

Compare also:

"Themistocles quidem, cum ei Simonides, an quis alius artem memoriae
polliceretur, _Oblivionis_, inquit, _mallem_; _nam memini etiam quae
nolo, oblivisci non possum quae volo_."

Cicero, 'De Finibus', II. 32.--Ed.]

* * * * *

TO A SEXTON

Composed 1799.--Published 1800

[Written in Germany, 1799.--I.F.]

One of the "Poems of the Fancy."--Ed.

Let thy wheel-barrow alone--
Wherefore, Sexton, piling still
In thy bone-house bone on bone?
'Tis already like a hill
In a field of battle made, 5
Where three thousand skulls are laid;
These died in peace each with the other,--
Father, sister, friend, and brother.

Mark the spot to which I point!
From this platform, eight feet square, 10
Take not even a finger-joint:
Andrew's whole fire-side is there.
Here, alone, before thine eyes,
Simon's sickly daughter lies,
From weakness now, and pain defended, 15
Whom he twenty winters tended.

Look but at the gardener's pride--
How he glories, when he sees
Roses, lilies, side by side,
Violets in families! 20
By the heart of Man, his tears,
By his hopes and by his fears,
Thou, too heedless, [1] art the Warden
Of a far superior garden.

Thus then, each to other dear,