Page:Sibylline Leaves (Coleridge).djvu/66

 A fever seized him, and he made confession Of all the heretical and lawless talk Which brought this judgment. So the youth was seized And cast into that hole. My husband's father Sobbed like a child—it almost broke his heart; And once, as he was working in the cellar, He hear'd a voice distinctly j 'twas the youth's, Who sung a doleful song about green fields, How sweet it were on lake or wild savannah To hunt for food, and be a naked man, And wander up and down at liberty. He always doted on the youth, and now His love grew desperate; and defying death, He made that cunning entrance I described; And the young man escaped.

'Tis a sweet tale: Such as would lull a listening child to sleep, His rosy face besoiled with unwiped tears.— And what became of him?

He went on ship-board, With those bold voyagers who made discovery