Lyrical Ballads 1798: Old Man Travelling

Old Man Travelling

OLD MAN TRAVELLING; ANIMAL TRANQUILLITY AND DECAY, A SKETCH.

                    The little hedge-row birds,
    That peck along the road, regard him not.
    He travels on, and in his face, his step,
    His gait, is one expression; every limb,
    His look and bending figure, all bespeak
    A man who does not move with pain, but moves
    With thought--He is insensibly subdued
    To settled quiet: he is one by whom
    All effort seems forgotten, one to whom
    Long patience has such mild composure given,
    That patience now doth seem a thing, of which
    He hath no need. He is by nature led
    To peace so perfect, that the young behold
    With envy, what the old man hardly feels.
    --I asked him whither he was bound, and what
    The object of his journey; he replied
    "Sir! I am going many miles to take
    "A last leave of my son, a mariner,
    "Who from a sea-fight has been brought to Falmouth,
    And there is dying in an hospital."

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