POETRY BY THE WAY-SIDE by JOHN HANMER

Wandering along the vision-haunted way,
One did I meet, whom straight my heart did know;
But in strange seeming he was pleased to go,
And quaint, as by the forest-brook the jay;
The leaf-hid brook, with one particular ray
That the sun gilds, and of his orbed glow
Gives thence suggestion to the sense; e'en so
On mine the quick poetic spirit did play,
From a feather in the head of one who followed
A trade associate with the tortoise-shell,
Client of Mercury, through the towns and shires,
A rude Autolycus with hat rain-hollowed;
And still, as droopt fantastically it fell,
The shows of things conformed to his desires.

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