Animal Tranquillity and Decay
Reading edition
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 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 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 such mild composure given, 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. 1 2 5 10
Variant 1:
1805
...has... 1798
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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." ... he replied That he was going many miles to take A last leave of his son, a mariner, Who from a sea-fight had been brought to Falmouth, And there was dyingi in an hospital. 1798 1800 to 1805
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Sub-Footnote i:
The edition of 1800 has "lying," evidently a misprint.—Ed.
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