DEDICATION TO SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. DEAR SIR, I can have no expectation, in an address of this kind, either to add to your reputation or to establish my own. You can gain nothing from my admiration, as I am ignorant of that art in which you are said to excel; and I may lose much by the severity of your judgment, as few have a juster taste in poetry than you. Setting interest therefore aside, to which I never paid much attention, I must be indulged at present in following my affections. The only dedication I ever made was to my brother, because I loved him better than most other men. He is since dead. Permit me to inscribe this poem to you. How far you may be pleased with the versification and mere mechanical parts of the attempt, I do not pretend to inquire; but I know you will object- and indeed several of our best and wisest friends concur in the opinionthat the depopulation it deplores is nowhere to be seen, and the disorders it laments are only to be found in the poet's own imagination. To this I scarce make any other answer than that I sincerely believe what I have written; that I have taken all possible pains in my country excursions for these four or five years past to be certain of what I allege, and that all my views and in quiries have led me to believe those miseries real which I here attempt to display. But this is not the place to enter into an inquiry whether, the country be depopulating or not; the discussion would take up much room, and I should prove myself, at best, an indifferent politician to tire the reader with a long preface, when I want his unfatigued attention to a long poem. In regretting the depopulation of the country, I inveigh against the increase of our luxuries; and here, also, I expect the shout of modern politicians against me. For twenty or thirty years past it has been the fashion to consider luxury as one of the greatest material advantages, and all the wisdom of antiquity, in that particular, as erroneous. Still, however, I must remain a professed ancient on that head, and continue to think those luxuries prejudicial to states, by which so many vices are introduced, and so many kingdoms have been undone. Indeed, so much has been poured out of late on the other side of the question, that merely for the sake of novelty and variety one would sometimes wish to be in the right. I am, dear Sir, Your sincere friend and ardent admirer, THE DESERTED VILLAGE SWEET AUBURN! loveliest village of the plain, Seats of my youth, when every sport could please, The sheltered cot, the cultivated farm, The decent church that topped the neighboring hill, How often have I blessed the coming day, When toil remitting lent its turn to play, And all the village train, from labor free, The young contending as the old surveyed; And many a gambol frolicked o'er the ground, And sleights of art and feats of strength went round; And still, as each repeated pleasure tired, Succeeding sports the mirthful band inspired; 5 ΤΟ 15 20 25 By holding out to tire each other down; The swain mistrustless of his smutted face, While secret laughter tittered round the place; The bashful virgin's sidelong looks of love, 'The matron's glance that would those looks reprove. 30 35 And desolation saddens all thy green: One only master grasps the whole domain, 40 No more thy glassy brook reflects the day, The hollow-sounding bittern guards its nest; 45 And the long grass o'ertops the mouldering wall; And trembling, shrinking from the spoiler's hand, 50 Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay : Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade A breath can make them, as a breath has made : But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, 55 When once destroyed, can never be supplied. A time there was, ere England's griefs began, But times are altered; trade's unfeeling train Amidst thy tangling walks and ruined grounds, 60 65 70 75 80 85 |