With heart as calm as Lakes that sleep, XXXVII. ODE TO DUTY. STERN Daughter of the Voice of God! And calm'st the weary strife of frail humanity! There are who ask not if thine eye Be on them; who, in love and truth, Where no misgiving is, rely Upon the genial sense of youth: Glad Hearts! without reproach or blot; Who do thy work, and know it not: Long may the kindly impulse last! But Thou, if they should totter, teach them to stand fast! Serene will be our days and bright, And they a blissful course may hold Yet find that other strength, according to their need. I, loving freedom, and untried; The task, in smoother walks to stray; But thee I now would serve more strictly, if I may. Through no disturbance of my soul, But in the quietness of thought: Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear Flowers laugh before thee on their beds; Thou dost preserve the Stars from wrong; And the most ancient Heavens, through Thee, are fresh and strong. To humbler functions, awful Power! The confidence of reason give; And in the light of truth thy Bondman let me live! POEMS REFERRING TO THE PERIOD OF OLD AGE. I. THE OLD CUMBERLAND BEGGAR. The class of Beggars, to which the Old Man here described belongs, will probably soon be extinct. It consisted of poor, and, mostly, old and infirm persons, who confined themselves to a stated round in their neighbourhood, and had certain fixed days, on which, at different houses, they regularly received alms, sometimes in money, but mostly in provisions. I SAW an aged Beggar in my walk ; And he was seated, by the highway side, Built at the foot of a huge hill, that they Who lead their horses down the steep rough road |