The miscellaneous works of David Humphreys Late Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America to the Court of Madrid |
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 | The miscellaneous works of David Humphreys |  |
Here planters find a ceaseless source of charms
In clearing fields, and adding farms to farms:
'Tis independence prompts their daily toil,
And calls forth beauties from the desert soil:
What untry'd pleasure fills each raptur'd sense,
When sturdy toil, through darken'd wilds immense,
First pours the day-beams on the op'ning glade,
And glebes embrown'd with everlasting shade!
Here equal fortunes, ease, the ground their own,
Augment their numbers with increase unknown.
Here hamlets grow. Here Europe's pilgrims come,
From vassall'd woes to find a quiet home.
The eye no view of waning cities meets,
Of mould'ring domes, of narrow, fetid streets;
Of grey-hair'd wretches, who ne'er own'd a shed,
And beggars dying for the want of bread:
But oft, in transport, round th' horizon roves,
O'er mountains, vallies, towns, and stately groves;
Then dwells, best pleas'd, on cultivated plains,
Steeds, flocks, and herds, commix'd with lab'ring swains.
In clearing fields, and adding farms to farms:
'Tis independence prompts their daily toil,
And calls forth beauties from the desert soil:
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When sturdy toil, through darken'd wilds immense,
First pours the day-beams on the op'ning glade,
And glebes embrown'd with everlasting shade!
Here equal fortunes, ease, the ground their own,
Augment their numbers with increase unknown.
Here hamlets grow. Here Europe's pilgrims come,
From vassall'd woes to find a quiet home.
The eye no view of waning cities meets,
Of mould'ring domes, of narrow, fetid streets;
Of grey-hair'd wretches, who ne'er own'd a shed,
And beggars dying for the want of bread:
But oft, in transport, round th' horizon roves,
O'er mountains, vallies, towns, and stately groves;
Then dwells, best pleas'd, on cultivated plains,
Steeds, flocks, and herds, commix'd with lab'ring swains.
| The miscellaneous works of David Humphreys | |