[50] As on I strode with monstrous strides M. P.: And on as I strode with my great strides An. Anth. [51] and held M. P., An. Anth. [54] through] all M. P. [58] flame] fire M. P.: flames An. Anth. [59] While crash the roof fell in I wish M. P. [62] _Both_] SLAUGHTER and FAMINE M. P. [63] Four letters form his name. M. P. [65] How shall I give him honour due? M. P. [67] we] I M. P. [71] and] of M. P. [75 foll.] For him that did so much for you. [To _Slaughter_. For _you_ he turn'd the dust to mud With his fellow creatures' blood! [To _Famine_. And hunger scorch'd as many more, To make _your_ cup of joy run o'er. [To _Both_. Full ninety moons, he by my troth! Hath richly cater'd for you both! And in an hour would you repay An eight years' debt? Away! away! I alone am faithful! I Cling to him everlastingly. LABERIUS. M. P. [Below 81] 1798] 1796 S. L. 1828, 1829, and 1834. FROST AT MIDNIGHT[240:1] The Frost performs its secret ministry, Unhelped by any wind. The owlet's cry Came loud--and hark, again! loud as before. The inmates of my cottage, all at rest, Have left me to that solitude, which suits 5 Abstruser musings: save that at my side My cradled infant slumbers peacefully. 'Tis calm indeed! so calm that it disturbs And vexes meditation with its strange And extreme silentness. Sea, hill, and wood, 10 This populous village! Sea, and hill, and wood, With all the numberless goings-on of life, Inaudible as dreams! the thin blue flame Lies on my low-burnt fire, and quivers not; Only that film,[240:2] which fluttered on the grate, 15 Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing. Methinks, its motion in this hush of nature Gives it dim sympathies with me who live, Making it a companionable form, Whose puny flaps and freaks the idling Spirit 20 By its own moods interprets, every where Echo or mirror seeking of itself, And makes a toy of Thought. But O! how oft, How oft, at school, with most believing mind, Presageful, have I gazed upon the bars, 25 To watch that fluttering _stranger_! and as oft With unclosed lids, already had I dreamt Of my sweet birth-place, and the old church-tower, Whose bells, the poor man's only music, rang From morn to evening, all the hot Fair-day, 30 So sweetly, that they stirred and haunted me With a wild pleasure, falling on mine ear Most like articulate sounds of things to come! So gazed I, till the soothing things, I dreamt, Lulled me to sleep, and sleep prolonged my dreams! 35 And so I brooded all the following morn, Awed by the stern preceptor's face, mine eye Fixed with mock study on my swimming book: Save if the door half opened, and I snatched