The Norton Anthology of English literature. Volume 2

240 Gazing, with looks where envy and contempt Are often strangely mingled, on the car0 carriage Where prosperous Fortune sits; what secret care Or sick satiety is often hid, Beneath the splendid outside: He knows not

7. Sun-dew. Drosera rotundifolia. Buck-bean. line 194]. Menyanthes trifoliatum [Smith's note]. 4. The Beacons formerly lighted up on the hills to 8. Plover. Tringa vanelltis [Smith's note]. give notice of the approach of an enemy. These 9. Arcadia, an imagined land of peace and sim-signals would still be used in case of alarm, if the plicity. Telegraph [the signaling apparatus] now substi1. Coot. Fulica aterrima [Smith's note]. tuted could not be distinguished on account of fog 2. A reedy plant burned for light. or darkness [Smith's note]. 3. "With blossom'd furze, unprofitably gay." Gold-5. Curlew. Charadrilis oedienemus [Smith's note]. smith [Smith's note, citing The Deserted Village, 6. A bed stuffed with tufts of wool.

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54 / CHARLOTTE SMITH

245 How frequently the child of Luxury Enjoying nothing, flies from place to place In chase of pleasure that eludes his grasp; And that content is e'en less found by him, Than by the labourer, whose pick-axe smooths

250 The road before his chariot; and who doffs What was an hat; and as the train pass on, Thinks how one day's expenditure, like this, Would cheer him for long months, when to his toil The frozen earth closes her marble breast.

255 Ah! who is happy? Happiness! a word That like false fire,0 from marsh effluvia born, xvill-o'-the-wisp Misleads the wanderer, destin'd to contend In the world's wilderness, with want or woe� Yet they are happy, who have never ask'd

260 What good or evil means. The boy That on the river's margin gaily plays, Has heard that Death is there.�He knows not Death, And therefore fears it not; and venturing in He gains a bullrush, or a minnow�then,

265 At certain peril, for a worthless prize, A crow's, or raven's nest, he climbs the boll" hole, trunk Of some tall pine; and of his prowess proud, Is for a moment happy. Are your cares, Ye who despise him, never worse applied?

270 The village girl is happy, who sets forth To distant fair, gay in her Sunday suit, With cherry colour'd knots, and flourish'd shawl, And bonnet newly purchas'd. So is he Her little brother, who his mimic drum

275 Beats, till he drowns her rural lovers' oaths Of constant faith, and still increasing love; Ah! yet a while, and half those oaths believ'd, Her happiness is vanish'd; and the boy While yet a stripling, finds the sound he lov'd

280 Has led him on, till he has given up His freedom, and his happiness together. I once was happy, when while yet a child, I learn'd to love these upland solitudes, And, when elastic as the mountain air, 285 To my light spirit, care was yet unknown And evil unforseen:�Early it came, And childhood scarcely passed, I was condemned, A guiltless exile, silently to sigh, While Memory, with faithful pencil, drew 290 The contrast; and regretting, I compar'd With the polluted smoky atmosphere

And dark and stifling streets, the southern hills That to the setting Sun, their graceful heads Rearing, o'erlook the frith," where Vecta7 breaks firth, inlet

7. Vecta. The Isle of Wight, which breaks the somewhere described as "Vecta shouldering the force of the waves when they are driven by south-Western Waves" [Smith's note]. west winds against this long and open coast. It is

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BEACHY HEAD / 55

295 With her white rocks, the strong impetuous tide, When western winds the vast Atlantic urge To thunder on the coast.�Haunts of my youth! Scenes of fond day dreams, I behold ye yet! Where 'twas so pleasant by thy northern slopes

300 To climb the winding sheep-path, aided oft By scatter'd thorns: whose spiny branches bore Small woolly tufts, spoils of the vagrant lamb There seeking shelter from the noon-day sun; And pleasant, seated on the short soft turf,

305 To look beneath upon the hollow way While heavily upward mov'd the labouring wain,� wagon And stalking slowly by, the sturdy hind To ease his panting team, stopp'd with a stone The grating wheel.

Advancing higher still

310 The prospect widens, and the village church But little, o'er the lowly roofs around Rears its gray belfry, and its simple vane; Those lowly roofs of thatch are half conceal'd By the rude arms of trees, lovely in spring,8

315 When on each bough, the rosy-tinctur'd bloom Sits thick, and promises autumnal plenty. For even those orchards round the Norman Farms, Which, as their owners mark the promis'd fruit, Console them for the vineyards of the south, Surpass not these.

320 Where woods of ash, and beech, And partial copses, fringe the green hill foot, The upland shepherd rears his modest home, There wanders by, a little nameless stream That from the hill wells forth, bright now and clear,