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Inscription VII. For A Tablet On The Banks Of A Stream.

By Robert Southey

Topics: classic

Stranger! awhile upon this mossy bank     Recline thee. If the Sun rides high, the breeze,     That loves to ripple o'er the rivulet,     Will play around thy brow, and the cool sound     Of running waters soothe thee. Mark how clear     It sparkles o'er the shallows, and behold     Where o'er its surface wheels with restless speed     Yon glossy insect, on the sand below     How the swift shadow flies. The stream is pure     In solitude, and many a healthful herb     Bends o'er its course and drinks the vital wave:     But passing on amid the haunts of man,     It finds pollution there, and rolls from thence     A tainted tide. Seek'st thou for HAPPINESS?     Go Stranger, sojourn in the woodland cot     Of INNOCENCE, and thou shalt find her there.

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"Stranger! awhile upon this mossy bank..."

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Author:Robert Southey

"Stranger! awhile upon this mossy bank..." 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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