1. THE TABLES TURNED; AN EVENING SCENE, ON THE SAME SUBJECT.
1
Up! up! my friend, and clear your looks,
2
Why all this toil and trouble?
3
Up! up! my friend, and quit your books,
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Or surely you'll grow double.
5
The sun above the mountain's head,
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A freshening lustre mellow,
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Through all the long green fields has spread,
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His first sweet evening yellow.
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Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife,
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Come, hear the woodland linnet,
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How sweet his music; on my life
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There's more of wisdom in it.
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And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
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And he is no mean preacher;
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Come forth into the light of things,
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Let Nature be your teacher.
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She has a world of ready wealth,
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Our minds and hearts to bless--
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Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
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Truth breathed by chearfulness.
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One impulse from a vernal wood
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May teach you more of man;
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Of moral evil and of good,
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Than all the sages can.
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Sweet is the lore which nature brings;
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Our meddling intellect
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Misshapes the beauteous forms of things;
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--We murder to dissect.
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Enough of science and of art;
30
Close up these barren leaves;
31
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
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