England and Yesterday

<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>IX.<br/><small>PORT MEADOW.</small></h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">The plain gives freedom. Hither, from the town,</div> <div class="verse">How oft a dreamer and a book of yore</div> <div class="verse">Escaped the lamplit Square, and heard no more</div> <div class="verse">From Cowley border surge the game’s renown;</div> <div class="verse">But bade the vernal sky with spices drown</div> <div class="verse">His head by Plato’s in the grass, before</div> <div class="verse">Yon oar that’s never old, the sunset oar,</div> <div class="verse">At Medley Lock was lain in music down!</div> <div class="verse">So seeming far the confines and the crowd,</div> <div class="verse">The gross routine, the cares that vex and tire,</div> <div class="verse">From this large light, sad thoughts in it, high-driven,</div> <div class="verse">Go happier than the inly-moving cloud</div> <div class="verse">That lets her vesture fall, a floss of fire,</div> <div class="verse">Abstracted, on the ivory hills of heaven.</div> </div></div> <hr> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />