THE RIVER DUDDON
VII
THE RIVER DUDDON
“CHANGE me, some God, into that breathing rose!” The love-sick Stripling fancifully sighs, The envied flower beholding, as it lies On Laura’s breast, in exquisite repose; Or he would pass into her bird, that throws The darts of song from out its wiry cage; Enraptured,–could he for himself engage The thousandth part of what the Nymph bestows; And what the little careless innocent Ungraciously receives. Too daring choice! 10 There are whose calmer mind it would content To be an unculled floweret of the glen, Fearless of plough and scythe; or darkling wren That tunes on Duddon’s banks her slender voice.