No More Learning

)--Ed. ]





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ANIMAL TRANQUILLITY AND DECAY


Composed 1798. --Published 1798.


[If I recollect right, these verses were an overflowing from 'The Old
Cumberland Beggar'. --I. F. ]

They were published in the first edition of "Lyrical Ballads" (1798),
but 'The Old Cumberland Beggar' was not published till 1800. In an early
MS. , however, the two are incorporated.

In the edition of 1798, the poem was called, 'Old Man Travelling; Animal
Tranquillity and Decay, a Sketch'. In 1800, the title was 'Animal
Tranquillity and Decay. A Sketch'. In 1845, it was 'Animal Tranquillity
and Decay'.

It was included among the "Poems referring to the Period of Old
Age. "--Ed.
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THE POEM


The little hedgerow birds,
That peck along the road, regard him not.
He travels on, and in his face, his step,
His gait, is one expression: every limb,
His look and bending figure, all bespeak 5
A man who does not move with pain, but moves
With thought. --He is insensibly subdued
To settled quiet: he is one by whom
All effort seems forgotten; one to whom
Long patience hath [1] such mild composure given, 10
That patience now doth seem a thing of which
He hath no need. He is by nature led
To peace so perfect that the young behold
With envy, what the Old Man hardly feels. [2]


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VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1805.

. . . has. . . 1798. ]


[Variant 2:

1815.

--I asked him whither he was bound, and what
The object of his journey; he replied
"Sir! I am going many miles to take
A last leave of my son, a mariner,
Who from a sea-fight has been brought to Falmouth,
And there is dying in an hospital. " 1798.