Lyrical Ballads (1798)/Old Man travelling

For other versions of this work, see Animal Tranquillity and Decay.
​

OLD MAN TRAVELLING;

ANIMAL TRANQUILLITY AND 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 bespeakA man who does not move with pain, but movesWith thought—He is insensibly subduedTo settled quiet: he is one by whomAll effort seems forgotten, one to whomLong patience has such mild composure given,That patience now doth seem a thing, of whichHe hath no need. He is by nature led ​To peace so perfect, that the young beholdWith envy, what the old man hardly feels.—I asked him whither he was bound, and whatThe 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 an hospital."
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.