THE ARGUMENT. Introduction. Ringing of Bells in a neighboring Village on the Birth of an Heir. General Reflections on Human Life. The subject proposed. Childhood. Youth. Manhood. Love. Marriage. Domestic Happiness and Affliction. War. Peace. Civil Dissension. Retirement from Active Life. Old Age and its Enjoyments. Conclusion. HUMAN LIFE. THE lark has sung his carol in the sky; Now, glad at heart, the gossips breathe their prayer, The babe, the sleeping image of his sire. and then these sounds shall hail In every cottage-porch with garlands green, He rests in holy earth with them that went before. It glimmers like a meteor, and is gone! To minstrel-harps at midnight's witching-hour! We cast a longer shadow in the sun! 2 Yet, all forgot, how oft the eye-lids close, And from the slack hand drops the gathered rose! How oft, as dead, on the warm turf we lie, While many an emmet comes with curious eye; And on her nest the watchful wren sits by! |