Page:Beachy Head and Other Poems.pdf/26

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Would cheer him for long months, when to his toil The frozen earth closes her marble breast.

Ah! who is happy? Happiness! a word That like false fire, from marsh effluvia born, Misleads the wanderer, destin'd to contend In the world's wilderness, with want or woe— Yet they are happy, who have never ask'd What good or evil means. The boy That on the river's margin gaily plays, Has heard that Death is there—He knows not Death, And therefore fears it not; and venturing in He gains a bullrush, or a minnow—then, At certain peril, for a worthless prize, A crow's, or raven's nest, he climbs the boll,