OLD MAN TRAVELLING

ANIMAL TRANQUILLITY AND DECAY

A Sketch

                           The little hedgerow birds,
                 That peck along the roads, 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 hath 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
                 "Sir! I am going many miles to take
                 A last leave of my son, a mariner,
                 Who from a sea-fight has been brought to Falmouth,
                 And there is dying in a hospital."

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