Page:Lyrical ballads, Volume 2, Wordsworth, 1800.djvu/33

25 The happy man will creep about the fields

Following his fancies by the hour, to bring

Tears down his cheek, or solitary smiles

Into his face, until the setting sun

Write Fool upon his forehead. Planted thus

Beneath a shed that overarch'd the gate

Of this rude church-yard, till the stars appear'd

The good man might have commun'd with himself

But that the Stranger, who had left the grave,

Approach'd; he recogniz'd the Priest at once,

And after greetings interchang'd, and given

By Leonard to the Vicar as to one

Unknown to him, this dialogue ensued.

LEONARD.

You live, Sir, in these dales, a quiet life:

Your years make up one peaceful family;

And who would grieve and fret, if, welcome come

And welcome gone, they are so like each other,

They cannot be remember'd. Scarce a funeral

Comes to this church-yard once in eighteen months;