True as the church clock hand the hour pursues He plods about his toils and reads the news, And at the blacksmith's shop his hour will stand To talk of "Lunun" as a foreign land. For from his cottage door in peace or strife He neer went fifty miles in all his life. His knowledge with old notions still combined Is twenty years behind the march of mind. He views new knowledge with suspicious eyes And thinks it blasphemy to be so wise. On steam's almighty tales he wondering looks As witchcraft gleaned from old blackletter books. Life gave him comfort but denied him wealth, He toils in quiet and enjoys his health, He smokes a pipe at night and drinks his beer And runs no scores on tavern screens to clear. He goes to market all the year about And keeps one hour and never stays it out. Een at St. Thomas tide old Rover's bark Hails Dapple's trot an hour before it's dark. He is a simple-worded plain old man Whose good intents take errors in their plan. Oft sentimental and with saddened vein He looks on trifles and bemoans their pain, And thinks the angler mad, and loudly storms With emphasis of speech oer murdered worms. And hunters cruel--pleading with sad care Pity's petition for the fox and hare, Yet feels self-satisfaction in his woes For war's crushed myriads of his slaughtered foes. He is right scrupulous in one pretext And wholesale errors swallows in the next. He deems it sin to sing, yet not to say A song--a mighty difference in his way. And many a moving tale in antique rhymes He has for Christmas and such merry times, When "Chevy Chase," his masterpiece of song, Is said so earnest none can think it long. Twas the old vicar's way who should be right, For the late vicar was his heart's delight, And while at church he often shakes his head To think what sermons the old vicar made, Downright and orthodox that all the land Who had their ears to hear might understand, But now such mighty learning meets his ears He thinks it Greek or Latin which he hears, Yet church receives him every sabbath day And rain or snow he never keeps away. All words of reverence still his heart reveres, Low bows his head when Jesus meets his ears, And still he thinks it blasphemy as well Such names without a capital to spell. In an old corner cupboard by the wall His books are laid, though good, in number small, His Bible first in place; from worth and age Whose grandsire's name adorns the title page, And blank leaves once, now filled with kindred claims, Display a world's epitome of names. Parents and children and grandchildren all Memory's affections in the lists recall. And prayer-book next, much worn though strongly bound, Proves him a churchman orthodox and sound. The "Pilgrim's Progress" and the "Death of Abel" Are seldom missing from his Sunday table, And prime old Tusser in his homely trim, The first of bards in all the world with him, And only poet which his leisure knows; Verse deals in fancy, so he sticks to prose. These are the books he reads and reads again