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Inscription VIII. For The Cenotaph At Ermenonville.

By Robert Southey

Topics: classic

STRANGER! the MAN OF NATURE lies not here:     Enshrin'd far distant by his [1] rival's side     His relics rest, there by the giddy throng     With blind idolatry alike revered!     Wiselier directed have thy pilgrim feet     Explor'd the scenes of Ermenonville. ROUSSEAU     Loved these calm haunts of Solitude and Peace;     Here he has heard the murmurs of the stream,     And the soft rustling of the poplar grove,     When o'er their bending boughs the passing wind     Swept a grey shade. Here if thy breast be full,     If in thine eye the tear devout should gush,     His SPIRIT shall behold thee, to thine home     From hence returning, purified of heart.

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"STRANGER! the MAN OF NATURE lies not here:..."

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Author:Robert Southey

"STRANGER! the MAN OF NATURE lies not here:..." by Robert Southey

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Robert Southey

About Robert Southey

Robert Southey (1774–1843) was an English Romantic poet, historian, and biographer who served as Poet Laureate from 1813 to 1843. His poems include "The Battle of Blenheim" and "The Inchcape Rock," and he was a member of the Lake Poets alongside Wordsworth and Coleridge.

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"Enter this cavern Stranger! the ascent     Is long..."

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