Literature Network » William Wordsworth » Lyrical Ballads with Other Poems, 1800, Volume 1 » Animal Tranquility & Decay

Animal Tranquility & Decay

A SKETCH.

                  The little hedge-row birds
  That peck along the road, regard him not.
  He travels on, and in his face, his step,
  His gait, is one expression; every limb,
  His look and bending figure, all bespeak
  A man who does not move with pain, but moves
  With thought--He is insensibly subdued
  To settled quiet: he is one by whom
  All effort seems forgotten, one to whom
  Long patience has such mild composure given,
  That patience now doth seem a thing, of which
  He hath no need. He is by nature led
  To peace so perfect, that the young behold
  With envy, what the old man hardly feels.
  --I asked him whither he was bound, and what
  The object of his journey; he replied
  That he was going many miles to take
  A last leave of his son, a mariner,
  Who from a sea-fight had been brought to Falmouth,
  And there was lying in an hospital.

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