Excerpt from Wayside Pictures, Hymns, and Poems Giving the feet of Time a tardy pace, Through heated hollows, and rude rifts to moil, When boyhood blossoms opened on his face, And greenness clothed the tree which gave his being grace. II. His father was with honest hinds enrolled, Unskilled in letters, save the Book Divine. Some mountain sheep he kept without a fold, A steady horse, and still some steadier kine. His mother's heart all gentle things enshrine, Which filled his opening hours with rosy light, As fancy-fraught he roved mid peak and pine, And read the lore of Nature's loneliest height, V. And ever taught himself by all things pure and bright. And as he sang beside the lonely tree, In blissful brightness, by the glowworm's bower, III. Mere stone-crops nestled in the hedgerows free, And fays stole forth from many a closing flower, Enraptured with the mystery of the hour That o'er his senses like a vision crept, Filling his soul with the enchanter's power, From the cloud-isles of eve a being swept, Then came the darkness of the dangerous mine, His daily, nightly tasks of tedious toil. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.