The Poetry of Real Life A New Edition, Much Enlarged and Improved. By Henry Ellison |
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. |
The Poetry of Real Life | ||
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
Old Saxon tongue, old speech my fathers spake,For earnest thoughts and earnest men right fit,
Thou hast a sanctity, like Holy Writ,
To me, old Tongue, wherein my heart did make
Its first, articulate essays; for the sake
Of many a “household word” endeared to it,
And for the Muses' founts, where I would sit,
(The wells of English undefiled) and take
My fill! dear art thou, as the name of home,
Which I first learn'd to call upon in thee;
Dear for the stores which thou, their golden key,
Didst open: and, oh! may I be struck dumb,
When thou dost, in my mouth, aught else become
But what thou art, the language of the free!
The Poetry of Real Life | ||