Page:A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.djvu/324

318 if we had them here? We should still sing as of old,—

My books I'd fain cast off, I cannot read,

'Twixt every page my thoughts go stray at large

Down in the meadow, where is richer feed,

And will not mind to hit their proper targe. Plutarch was good, and so was Homer too,

Our Shakspeare's life was rich to live again,

What Plutarch read, that was not good nor true,

Nor Shakspeare's books, unless his books were men. Here while I lie beneath this walnut bough,

What care I for the Greeks or for Troy town,

If juster battles are enacted now

Between the ants upon this hummock's crown? Bid Homer wait till I the issue learn,

If red or black the gods will favor most,

Or yonder Ajax will the phalanx turn,

Struggling to heave some rock against the host. Tell Shakspeare to attend some leisure hour,

For now I 've business with this drop of dew,

And see you not, the clouds prepare a shower,—

I 'll meet him shortly when the sky is blue. This bed of herd's-grass and wild oats was spread

Last year with nicer skill than monarchs use,

A clover tuft is pillow for my head,

And violets quite overtop my shoes. And now the cordial clouds have shut all in,

And gently swells the wind to say all 's well,

The scattered drops are falling fast and thin,

Some in the pool, some in the flower-bell.