Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
France: Vols. IX–X. 1876–79. | | | | Introductory | | France | | Oliver Goldsmith (1730–1774) |
| | (From The Traveller)
TO kinder skies, where gentler manners reign, | |
| I turn; and France displays her bright domain: | |
| Gay, sprightly land of mirth and social ease, | |
| Pleased with thyself, whom all the world can please, | |
| How often have I led thy sportive choir, | 5 |
| With tuneless pipe, beside the murmuring Loire! | |
| Where shading elms along the margin grew, | |
| And freshened from the wave the zephyr flew; | |
| And haply, though my harsh touch, faltering still, | |
| But mocked all tune, and marred the dancer’s skill, | 10 |
| Yet would the village praise my wondrous power, | |
| And dance, forgetful of the noontide hour. | |
| Alike all ages. Dames of ancient days | |
| Have led their children through the mirthful maze; | |
| And the gay grandsire, skilled in gestic lore, | 15 |
| Has frisked beneath the burden of threescore. | |
| So blest a life these thoughtless realms display, | |
| Thus idly busy rolls their world away: | |
| Theirs are those arts that mind to mind endear, | |
| For honor forms the social temper here,— | 20 |
| Honor, that praise which real merit gains, | |
| Or even imaginary worth obtains, | |
| Here passes current; paid from hand to hand, | |
| It shifts, in splendid traffic, round the land; | |
| From courts to camps, to cottages it strays, | 25 |
| And all are taught an avarice of praise; | |
| They please, are pleased, they give to get esteem, | |
| Till, seeming blest, they grow to what they seem. | | | | |
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