The Dance of Life A Poem, by the author of "Doctor Syntax;%" [i.e. William Combe] Illustrated with coloured engravings, by Thomas Rowlandson |
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| II. |
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| VII. |
| VIII. |
 | CHAPTER II. CHILDHOOD. The Dance of Life |  |
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And then she shook her hoary head;
But I'll the very way pursue,
Which I was taught when Little Sue,
By the old Dame, Heav'n rest her soul,
The Mistress of the Village School.
For forty years, on yonder Green,
Her straw-roof'd, decent Cot was seen;
The little Grove, and hawthorn Bower,
Her Garden gay with fruit and flower,
The scene of Spring and Summer hour;
And when the wintry season came,
The hearth was bright with cheering flame.
There wisdom sat, in smiles array'd,
For terror ne'er her power display'd:
A chair, that once e'en wealth might own,
Was chang'd to humble Learning's throne:
A widow's placid form she wore,
No marks of age as yet she bore,
But still a kind of solemn grace
Spread its grave mantle o'er her face:
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Who soon his earthly circuit ran:
He had no more than Parish Cure,
And poor himself, he left her poor.
| CHAPTER II. CHILDHOOD. The Dance of Life | |