Where health and plenty cheered the labouring swain

Where smiling spring its earliest visit paid,

And parting summer's lingering blooms delayed:

Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease,

Seats of my youth, when every sport could please,

How often have I loitered o'er thy green,

Where humble happiness endeare'd each scene;

How often I paus'd on every charm,

The sheltered cot, the cultivated farm,   (10)

The never-failing brook, the busy mill,

The decent church that topped the neighbouring hill,

The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade,

For talking age and whispering lovers made.

How often have I blessed the coming day,

When toil remitting lent its turn to play,

And all the village train, from labour free,

Led up their sports beneath the spreading tree,

While many a pastime circled in the shade,

The young contending as the old survey'd   (20)

And many a gambol frolicked o'er the ground,

And sleights of art and feats of strength went round.

And still as each repeated pleasure tired,

Succeeding sports the mirthful band inspired;

The dancing pair that sweetly sought renown,

By holding out to tire each other down;

The swain mistrustless of his smutted face,

While secret laughter titter'd round the place;

The bashful virgin's sidelong looks of love,

The matron's glance that would these looks reprove.   (30)

These were thy charms,^* sweet village; sports like these,

With sweet succession, taught e'en toil to please;

These round thy bowers their cheerful influence shed,

These were thy charms--but all these charms are fled.

Thy sports are fled and all thy charms withdrawn;

Amidst thy bowers the tyrant's hand is seen,

And Desolation saddens all thy green:

One only master grasps the whole domain,

And half a tillage stints thy smiling plain:   (40)

No more thy glassy brook reflects the day,

But choked with sedges, works its weedy way.

Along thy glades, a solitary guest,

The hollow-sounding bittern guards its nest;

Amidst thy desert walks the lapwing flies,

And tires their echoes with unvaried cries.

Sunk are thy bowers in shapeless ruin all,

And the long grass o'ertops the mould'ring wall;

And, trembling, shrinking from the spoiler's hand,

Far, far away thy children leave the land.   (50)

Where wealth accumulates and men decay:

Princes and lords may flourish or may fade;

A breath can make them, as a breath has made;

But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,

When once destroyed, can never be supplied.

When every rood of ground maintained its man;

For him light labour spread her wholesome store,

Just gave what life required, but gave no more:   (60)

His best companions, innocence and health;

And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.

Usurp the land and dispossess the swain;

Along the lawn, where scattered hamlets rose,

Unwieldy wealth and cumbrous pomp repose;

And every want to opulence allied,

And every pang that folly pays to pride.

These gentle hours that plenty bade to bloom,

Those calm desires that asked but little room,   (70)

Those healthful sports that graced the peaceful scene,

Lived in each look and brightened all the green;

These far departing, seek a kinder shore,

And rural mirth and manners are no more.

Thy glades forlorn confess the tyrant's power.

Here as I take my solitary rounds,

Amidst thy tangling walks and ruined grounds,

And, many a year elapsed, returned to view

Where once the cottage stood, the hawthorn grew,   (80)

Remembrance wakes with all her busy train,

Swells at my breast and turns the past to pain.

In all my griefs--and God has given my share--

I still had hopes my latest hours to crown,

Amidst these humble bowers to lay me down;

To husband out life's taper at the close

And keep the flame from wasting by repose.

I still had hopes, for pride attends us still,

Amidst the swains to show my book-learned skill,   (90)

Around my fire an evening group to draw,

And tell of all I felt and all I saw;

And, as a hare, whom hounds and horns pursue,

Pants to the place from whence at first she flew,

I still had hopes, my long vexations past,

Here to return--and die at home at last.

Retreats from care, that never must be mine,

How blest is he who crowns, in shades like these,

A youth of labour with an age of ease;   (100)