Читать книгу The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith - Оливер Голдсмит - Страница 22

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There all around the gentlest breezes stray,

There gentle music melts on ev'ry spray;

Creation's mildest charms are there combin'd,

Extremes are only in the master's mind!

Stern o'er each bosom reason holds her state, 325

With daring aims irregularly great;

Pride in their port, defiance in their eye,

I see the lords of human kind pass by,

Intent on high designs, a thoughtful band,

By forms unfashion'd, fresh from Nature's hand; 330

Fierce in their native hardiness of soul,

True to imagin'd right, above control,

While e'en the peasant boasts these rights to scan,

And learns to venerate himself as man.

Thine, Freedom, thine the blessings pictur'd here, 335

Thine are those charms that dazzle and endear;

Too bless'd, indeed, were such without alloy,

But foster'd e'en by Freedom, ills annoy:

That independence Britons prize too high,

Keeps man from man, and breaks the social tie; 340

The self-dependent lordlings stand alone,

All claims that bind and sweeten life unknown;

Here by the bonds of nature feebly held,

Minds combat minds, repelling and repell'd.

Ferments arise, imprison'd factions roar, 345

Repress'd ambition struggles round her shore,

Till over-wrought, the general system feels

Its motions stop, or frenzy fire the wheels.

Nor this the worst. As nature's ties decay,

As duty, love, and honour fail to sway, 350