Page:Sir Walter Raleigh by Thoreau, Henry David,.djvu/123

 8. A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY'S RECREATIONS

Quivering fears, heart-tearing cares,

Anxious sighs, untimely tears,

Fly, fly to courts;

Fly to fond worldlings' sports,

Where strain'd sardonic smiles are glosing still,

And grief is forc'd to laugh against her will;

Where mirth's but mummery;

And sorrows only real be!

Fly from our country pastimes! fly,

Sad troop of human misery;

Come, serene looks,

Clear as the crystal brooks,

Or the pure azur'd heaven, that smiles to see

The rich attendance of our poverty.

Peace, and a secure mind,

Which all men seek, we only find.

Abused mortals! did you know

Where joy, heart's-ease, and comforts grow,

You'd scorn proud towers,

And seek them in these bowers,

Where winds sometimes our woods perhaps may shake,

But blustering care could never tempest make;

Nor murmurs e'er come nigh us,

Saving of fountains that glide by us.

Here's no fantastic masque, nor dance,

But of our kids, that frisk and prance:

Nor wars are seen,

Unless upon the green