Love Of The Country.

Written At Clare-Hall, Herts. June 1804.     Welcome silence! welcome peace!      O most welcome, holy shade!     Thus I prove as years increase,      My heart and soul for quiet made.     Thus I fix my firm belief      While rapture's gushing tears descend;     That every flower and every leaf      Is moral Truth's unerring friend.     I would not for a world of gold      That Nature's lovely face should tire;     Fountain of blessings yet untold;      Pure source of intellectual fire!     Fancy's fair buds, the germs of song,      Unquicken'd midst the world's rude strife,     Shall sweet retirement render strong,      And morning silence bring to life.     Then tell me not that I shall grow      Forlorn, that fields and woods will cloy;     From Nature and her changes flow      An everlasting tide of joy.     I grant that summer heats will burn,      That keen will come the frosty night;     But both shall please: and each in turn      Yield Reason's most supreme delight.     Build me a shrine, and I could kneel      To Rural Gods, or prostrate fall;     Did I not see, did I not feel,      That one GREAT SPIRIT governs all.     O heav'n permit that I may lie      Where o'er my corse green branches ware;     And those who from life's tumult fly      With kindred feelings press my grave.