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Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery
Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery Author:John Clare 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: ON AN INFANT'S GRAVE. Beneath the sod where smiling creep The daisies into view, The ashes of an Infant sleep, Whose soul's as smiling too; Ah! doubly h... more »appy, doubly blest, (Had I so happy been!) Recall'd to heaven's eternal rest, Ere it knew how to sin. Thrice happy Infant! great the bliss Alone reserv'd for thee; Such joy 'twas my sad fate to miss, And thy good luck to see; For oh! when all must rise again, And sentence then shall have, What crowds will wish with me, in vain, They'd fill'd an infant's grave. ON CRUELTY. Compassion sighs, and feels, and weeps, Retracing every pain Inhuman man, in vengeance, heaps On all the lower train. Ah, Pity! oft thy heart has bled, As galling now it bleeds; And tender tears thy eyes have shed To witness cruel deeds. The lash that weal'd poor Dobbin's hide, The strokes that cracking fall On dogs, dumb cringing by thy side— Ah! thou hast felt them all. The burthen'd asses, 'mid the laugh To see them whipp'd, would move ' Thy soul to breathe in their behalf Humanity and love. E'en 'plaining flies to thee have spoke, Poor trifles as they be; And oft the spider's web thou'st broke, To set the captive free. The pilfering mouse, entrapp'd and cag"d Within the wiry grate, Thy pleading powers has oft engag'd To mourn its rigid fate. ' How beat thy breast with conscious woes, To see the sparrows die : Poor little thieves of many foes, Their food they dearly buy. Where nature groans, where nature cries Beneath the butcher's knife, How vain, how many were thy sighs, To save such guiltless life. And ah! that most inhuman plan, Where reason's name's ador'd, Unfriendly treatment— man to man Thy tears have oft deplor'd. Nor wise, nor good...« less