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A Miscellany of Poems

consisting of Original Poems, Translations, Pastorals in the Cumberland Dialect, Familiar Epistles, Fables, Songs, and Epigrams, by the late Reverend Josiah Relph ... With a Preface and a Glossary

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The too free Nag.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


132

The too free Nag.

A Youthful Nag in pasture gay,
Had tasted thrice the sweets of May;
And thrice from kindly rack supply'd,
December's chilness had defy'd.
His leisure now he must forego,
The labours of the field to know,
Must with the load unwieldy toil,
Or rend the toughness of the soil.
Docil he plies to each command,
Prevents his Master's forming hand,
His every sinew strains to please,
And puts forth all his faculties.
No task's too hard, too long no days!
So great his generous love of praise!
But mark the sad, too sad event;
With labour unremitted spent,

133

Tastless and loathsome grows his food,
With lazy motion creeps his blood;
His feeble limbs he hardly rears,
And pines and dies in prime of years.