OLD MAN TRAVELLING...

OLD MAN TRAVELLING; ANIMAL TRANQUILLITY AND DECAY, A SKETCH.

The little hedge-row birds,

That peck along the road, regard him not.

He travels on, and in his face, his step,

His gait, is one expression; every limb,

His look and bending ?gure, all bespeak

A man who does not move with pain, but moves

With thought--He is insensibly subdued

To settled quiet: he is one by whom

All effort seems forgotten, one to whom

Long patience has such mild composure given,

That patience now doth seem a thing, of which

He hath no need. He is by nature led

To peace so perfect, that the young behold

With envy, what the old man hardly feels.

--I asked him whither he was bound, and what

The object of his journey; he replied

"Sir! I am going many miles to take

"A last leave of my son, a mariner,

"Who from a sea-?ght has been brought to Falmouth,

And there is dying in an hospital."