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The Lives of Donne, Wotton, Hooker, Hebert, and Sanderson
The Lives of Donne Wotton Hooker Hebert and Sanderson Author:Izaak Walton Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: [The following are the verses mentioned on page Ixxviii.] THE RETIREMENT. STANZES IRREGULIERS, MR. IZAAK WALTON. Farewell, thou busy world, and may W... more »e never meet again ; Here I can eat, and sleep, and pray, And do more good iu one short day Than he who his whole age out-wears Upon the most conspicuous theatres, Where nought but vanity and vice appears. Good God! how sweet are all things here ! How beautiful the fields appear! How cleanly do we feed and lie ! Lord! what good hours do we keep ! How quietly we sleep! What peace, what unanimity ! How innocent from the lewd fashion Is all our business, all our recreation! Oh how happy here 'a our leisure! Oh how innocent our pleasure ! Oh ye valleys, Oh ye mountains ! Oh ye groves and crystal fountains, How I love, at liberty, By turns to come and visit ye ! Dear solitude, the soul's best friend, That man acquainted with himself dost make, And all his Maker's wonders to intend : With thee I here converse at will, And would be glad to do so still, For it is thou alone, that keep'st the soul awake. v. How calm and quiet a delight Is it, alone, To read, and meditate, and write, By none offended, and offending none ! To walk, ride, sit, or sleep at one's own ease ! And, pleasing a man's self, none other to displease. Oh my beloved nymph, fair Dove ! Princess of rivers! how I love Upon thy flowery banks to lie, And view thy silver stream, When gilded by a summer's beam ! And in it, all thy wanton fry, Playing at liberty : And, with my angle, upon them The all of treachery I ever learnt, industriously to try. Such streams Rome's yellow Tiber cannot show, The Iberian Tagus, or Ligurian Po; The Maese, the Danube, and the Rhine Are puddle water all, compared with thine : And ...« less