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The Task, and Minor Poems [ed.] by E. Lee
The Task and Minor Poems by E Lee - ed. Author:William Cowper General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1900 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: BOOK IV. QSDtnfer Stoning. Argument. -- The post comes in -- The newspaper is read -- The world contemplated at a distance -- Address to winter -- The rural amusements of a winter evening compared with the fashionable ones -- Address to evening -- A brown study -- Fall of snow in the evening -- The waggoner -- A poor family piece -- The rural thief -- Public- houses -- The multitude of them censured -- The farmer's daughter; what she was; what she is -- The simplicity of country manners almost lost -- Causes of the change -- Desertion of the country by the rich -- Neglect of magistrates -- The militia principally in fault -- The new recruit and his transformation -- Reflection on bodies corporate -- The love of rural objects natural to all, and never to be totally extinguished. Hark ! 'tis the twanging horn ! O'er yonder bridge, That with its wearisome but needful length Bestrides the wintry flood, in which the moon Sees her unwrinkled face reflected bright, He comes, the herald of a noisy world, 5 With spattered boots, strapped waist, and frozen locks, News from all nations lumbering at his back. True to his charge, the close-packed load behind, Yet careless what he brings, his one concern Is to conduct it to the destined inn, 10 And having dropped the expected bag -- pass on. He whistles as he goes, light-hearted wretch, Cold and yet cheerful: messenger of grief Perhaps to thousands, and of joy to some, To him indifferent whether grief or joy. 15 Houses in ashes, and the fall of stocks, Births, deaths, and marriages, epistles wet With tears that trickled down the writer's cheeks ...« less