That I should ill requite thee to constrain Thou, as a gallant bark from Albion's coast, 90 95 100 105 So thou, with sails how swift! hast reach'd the shore, • Garth. 110 115 And, while the wings of Fancy still are free, COWPER. 120 O NANCY, WILT THOU GO WITH ME. O NANCY! wilt thou go with me, Nor sigh to leave the flaunting town? No longer deck'd with jewels rare; O Nancy! when thou art far away, Wilt thou not cast a look behind? Extremes of hardship learn to bear, Where thou wast fairest of the fair? O Nancy! canst thou love so true, To share with him the pang of woe ? 5 10 15 20 Nor wistful those gay scenes recall, And when at last thy love shall die, 25 Wilt thou receive his parting breath? Wilt thou repress each struggling sigh, And cheer with smiles the bed of death? And wilt thou o'er his breathless clay Strew flowers, and drop the tender tear, Nor then regret those scenes so gay, Where thou wast fairest of the fair? PERCY. THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. Ir was a summer evening, Old Kaspar's work was done, And he before his cottage door Was sitting in the sun, And by him sported on the green His little grandchild Wilhelmine. She saw her brother Peterkin Roll something large and round, Which he beside the rivulet In playing there had found; 30 5 10 He came to ask what he had found, That was so large, and smooth, and round. Old Kaspar took it from the boy, Who stood expectant by; And then the old man shook his head, 15 And with a natural sigh, ""T is some poor fellow's skull," said he, "Who fell in the great victory. “I find them in the garden, For there's many here about; And often when I go to plough, The ploughshare turns them out! For many a thousand men," said he, “Were slain in that great victory." "Now tell us what 't was all about," "It was the English," Kaspar cried, And many a childing mother then, "With fire and sword the country round Was wasted far and wide, And new-born baby died; 45 But things like that you know, must be 238 THEY SIN WHO TELL US LOVE CAN DIE. "They say it was a shocking sight After the field was won; For many thousand bodies here Lay rotting in the sun; But things like that, you know must be 30 "Great praise the Duke of Marlborough won. 55 And our good Prince Eugene-" "Why 't was a very wicked thing!" Said little Wilhelmine. "Nay-nay-my little girl," quoth he, It was a famous victory. "And everybody praised the Duke "But what good came of it at last ? " "Why, that I cannot tell," said he, 60 65 SOUTHEY. THEY SIN WHO TELL US LOVE CAN DIE. THEY sin who tell us Love can die. In Heaven Ambition cannot dwell, 5 They perish where they have their birth; Its holy flame for ever burneth, From Heaven it came, to Heaven returneth; 10 |