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Maintains a deep and reverential care
For the unoffending creatures whom he

loves.

168

"The pleasure-house is dust:-behind, before, This is no common waste, no common gloom; But Nature, in due course of time, once more Shall here put on her beauty and her bloom. 172

"She leaves these objects to a slow decay, That what we are, and have been, may be known;

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But at the coming of the milder day,

These monuments shall all be overgrown.

One lesson, Shepherd, let us two divide, Taught both by what she shows, and what conceals;

Never to blend our pleasure or our pride

With sorrow of the meanest thing that

176

feels."

1800.

18c

William Wordsworth.

THE SEA

ག་

SIR PATRICK SPENS

THE king sits in Dunfermline town
Drinking the blude-red wine;
"O whare will I get a skeely skipper
To sail this new ship o' mine?"

O up and spak an eldern knight,

knee:

Sat at the king's right kn

"Sir Patrick Spens is the best sailor That ever sail'd the sea."

Our king has written a braid letter,
And seal'd it with his hand,

And sent it to Sir Patrick Spens,
Was walking on the strand.

"To Noroway, to Noroway,

To Noroway o'er the faem;
The king's daughter of Noroway,

'T is thou maun bring her hame."

The first word that Sir Patrick read,
Sae loud, loud laughed he;

The neist word that Sir Patrick read

The tear blinded his e'e.

16

20

"O wha is this has done this deed

And tauld the king o' me,,

To send us out, at this time of the year,
To sail upon the sea?

1

24

"Be it wind, be it weet, be it hail, be it sleet, Our ship must sail the faem; The king's daughter of Noroway, "T is we must fetch her hame."

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They hoysed their sails on Monenday morn

Wi' a' the speed they may';

They hae landed in Noroway
Upon a Wodensday.

They hadna been a week, a week
In Noroway but twae,

When that the lords o' Noroway

Began aloud to say:

"Ye Scottishmen spend a' our king's gowd,

And a' our

queenis fee!"

"Ye lie, ye lie, ye liars loud,

Fu' loud I hear ye lie!

"For I brought

as much white monie i

As gane my men and me,

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36

40

And I brought a half-fou o' gude red gowd

Out o'er the sea wi', me.

"Mak ready, mak ready, my merry men a'! Our gude ship sails the morn."..

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"Now ever alack, my master dear,

I fear a deadly storm.

"I saw the new moon late yestreen Wi' the auld moon in her arm; And if we gang to sea, master,

I fear we'll come to harm."

They hadna sail'd a league, a league,
A league but barely three,

When the lift grew dark, and the wind
blew loud,

And gurly grew the sea.

[blocks in formation]

The ankers brak, and the topmasts lap,

It was sic a deadly storm:

And the waves cam owre the broken ship Till a' her sides were torn.

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"O where will I get a gude sailor,

To take my helm in hand,

Till I get up to the tall topmast,

To see if I can spy land?"

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"O here am I, a sailor gude,
To take the helm in hand,

Till you go up to the tall topmast;
But I fear you'll ne'er spy land."

He hadna gane a step, a step,

A step but barely ane,

When a bout flew out of our goodly ship,

And the salt sea it came in.

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72

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