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The Nightingale and Glow-worm by William Cowper
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A nightingale that all day long
Had cheer’d the village with his song,
Nor yet at eve his note suspended,
Nor yet when eventide was ended,
Began to feel as well he might
The keen demands of appetite;
When looking eagerly around,
He spied far off upon the ground,
A something shining in the dark,
And knew the glow-worm by his spark,
So stooping down from hawthorn top,
He thought to put him in his crop;
The worm, aware of his intent,
Harangu’d him thus right eloquent.
Did you admire my lamp, quoth he,
As much as I your minstrelsy?
You would abhor to do me wrong,
As much as I to spoil your song,
For ‘twas the self-same pow’r divine,
Taught you to sing, and me to shine,
That you with music, I with light,
Might beautify and cheer the night.
The songster heard his short oration,
And warbling out his approbation,
Releas’d him as my story tells,
And found a supper somewhere else.
Hence jarring sectaries may learn
Their real int’rest to discern:
That brother should not war with brother,
And worry and devour each other,
But sing and shine by sweet consent,
Till life’s poor transient life is spent
Respecting in each other’s case
The gifts of nature and of grace.
Those Christians best deserve the name
Who studiously make peace their aim;
Peace, both the duty and the prize
Of him that creeps and him that flies.
William Cowper February 1780
Article submitted Tuesday, December 07, 2010 & read 33 times.
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