Watt's Songs Against Evil

<h2>INNOCENT PLAY.</h2> <div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Abroad in the meadows, to see the young lambs<br/></span> <span class="i0">Run sporting about by the side of their dams,<br/></span> <span class="i1">With fleeces so clean and so white;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Or a nest of young doves in a large open cage<br/></span> <span class="i0">When they play all in love, without anger or rage,<br/></span> <span class="i1">How much may we learn from the sight!<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">If we had been ducks, we might dabble in mud;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Or dogs, we might play till it ended in blood:<br/></span> <span class="i1">So foul and so fierce are their natures;<br/></span> <span class="i0">But Thomas and William, and such pretty names,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Should be cleanly and harmless as doves or as lambs,<br/></span> <span class="i1">Those lovely sweet innocent creatures.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Not a thing that we do, nor a word that we say,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Should injure another in jesting or play,<br/></span> <span class="i1">For he's still in earnest that's hurt:<br/></span> <span class="i0">How rude are the boys that throw pebbles and mire;<br/></span> <span class="i0">There's none but a madman will fling about fire,<br/></span> <span class="i1">And tell you "'Tis all but in sport!"<br/></span></div> </div> <p>&nbsp;</p> <div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="p008-illus.jpg" id="p008-illus.jpg"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/p008-illus.jpg" width-obs="500" height-obs="561" alt="Boys teasing another boy" title="" /></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />