U

69

! up! my Friend, and quit your books, Or surely you'll grow double:

Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks; Why all this toil and trouble?

The sun, above the mountain's head,

A freshening lustre mellow

Through all the long green fields has spread, His first sweet evening yellow.

Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:

Come, hear the woodland Linnet,

How sweet his music! on my life,

There's more of wisdom in it.

And hark! how blithe the Throstle sings!

He, too, is no mean preacher:

Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.

One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,

Of moral evil and of good,

Than all the sages can.

Enough of Science and of Art;

Close up these barren leaves;

Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.

WORDSWORTH (The Tables Turned).

70

NDER the greenwood tree

U who loves to lie with me,

And tune his merry note

Unto the sweet bird's throat

Come hither, come hither, come hither!
Here shall he see

No enemy

But winter and rough weather.

Who doth ambition shun,
And loves to live i' the sun,
Seeking the food he eats,

And pleased with what he gets,

Come hither, come hither, come hither!

Here shall he see

No enemy

But winter and rough weather.

SHAKSPERE (As You Like It).

71

May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes,
I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods,
Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook,
To please the desert and the sluggish brook.
The purple petals, fallen in the pool,
Made the black water with their beauty gay;
Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool,
And court the flower that cheapens his array.
Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why

This charm is wasted on the earth and sky,
Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,
Then Beauty is its own excuse for being:
Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose!
I never thought to ask, I never knew;
But, in my simple ignorance, suppose

The self-same Power that brought me there brought you.

EMERSON (The Rhodora).

H

72

AST thou named all the birds without a gun? Loved the wood-rose, and left it on its stalk?

At rich men's tables eaten bread and pulse? Unarmed, faced danger with a heart of trust? And loved so well a high behavior,

In man or maid, that thou from speech refrained, Nobility more nobly to repay?

O, be my friend, and teach me to be thine! EMERSON (Forbearance).