威廉·考珀

在这里你会发现长诗任务:第五册——冬天早晨的散步诗人威廉·考伯

任务:第五册——冬天早晨的散步

那早上;太阳带着红彤彤的圆球冉冉升起,照亮了地平线;而那些被风吹散的云,随着圆盘的出现而更加热烈,从光秃秃的树林里看去,最像一座燃烧着的城市。他那斜斜的光线毫无效果地滑下白雪皑皑的山谷,用他自己的玫瑰色把一切都染红了,从每一棵草本植物和每一片尖尖的叶片上,都伸展出一长串的影子。在田野里。我的,在浩瀚的经线上蜿蜒前行,不顾地心引力,智者说我自己不过是一个稍纵即逝的影子,这使我莞尔一笑。我斜眼看肌肉比例?d边变换?D to a lean shank。像他们设计的那样?嘲笑我,在我身边一步一步地走;当我走近小屋,沿着灰泥墙走?墙,荒谬的景象! the legs without the man. The verdure of the plain lies buried deep Beneath the dazzling deluge; and the bents And coarser grass, upspearing o?er the rest, Of late unsightly and unseen, now shine Conspicuous, and in bright apparel clad, And fledged with icy feathers, nod superb. The cattle mourn in corners, where the fence Screens them, and seem half petrified to sleep In unrecumbent sadness. There they wait Their wonted fodder; not like hungering man, Fretful if unsupplied; but silent, meek, And patient of the slow-paced swain?s delay. He from the stack carves out the accustom?d load, Deep plunging, and again deep plunging oft, His broad keen knife into the solid mass: Smooth as a wall the upright remnant stands, With such undeviating and even force He severs it away: no needless care, Lest storms should overset the leaning pile Deciduous, or its own unbalanced weight. Forth goes the woodman, leaving unconcern?d The cheerful haunts of man; to wield the axe And drive the wedge in yonder forest drear, From morn to eve his solitary task. Shaggy, and lean, and shrewd, with pointed ears And tail cropp?d short, half lurcher and half cur, His dog attends him. Close behind his heel Now creeps he slow; and now, with many a frisk Wide scampering, snatches up the driften snow With ivory teeth, or ploughs it with his snout; Then shakes his powder?d coat, and barks for joy. Heedless of all his pranks, the sturdy churl Moves right toward the mark; nor stops for aught, But now and then with pressure of his thumb To adjust the fragrant charge of a short tube, That fumes beneath his nose: the trailing cloud Streams far behind him, scenting all the air. Now from the roost, or from the neighbouring pale, Where, diligent to catch the first fair gleam Of smiling day, they gossipp?d side by side, Come trooping at the housewife?s well-known call The feather?d tribes domestic. Half on wing, And half on foot, they brush the fleecy flood, Conscious, and fearful of too deep a plunge. The sparrows peep, and quit the sheltering eaves, To seize the fair occasion: well they eye The scatter?d grain, and thievishly resolved To escape the impending famine, often scared As oft return, a pert voracious kind. Clean riddance quickly made, one only care Remains to each, the search of sunny nook, Or shed impervious to the blast. Resign?d To sad necessity, the cock foregoes His wonted strut; and, wading at their head With well-consider?d steps, seems to resent His alter?d gait and stateliness retrench?d. How find the myriads, that in summer cheer The hills and valleys with their ceaseless songs, Due sustenance, or where subsist they now? Earth yields them nought: the imprison?d worm is safe Beneath the frozen clod; all seeds of herbs Lie cover?d close; and berry-bearing thorns, That feed the thrush (whatever some suppose), Afford the smaller minstrels no supply. The long protracted rigour of the year Thins all their numerous flocks. In chinks and holes Ten thousand seek an unmolested end, As instinct prompts; self-buried ere they die. The very rooks and daws forsake the fields, Where neither grub, nor root, nor earth-nut, now Repays their labour more; and, perch?d aloft By the way-side, or stalking in the path, Lean pensioners upon the traveller?s track, Pick up their nauseous dole, though sweet to them, Of voided pulse or half-digested grain. The streams are lost amid the splendid blank, O?erwhelming all distinction. On the flood, Indurated and fix?d, the snowy weight Lies undissolved; while silently beneath, And unperceived, the current steals away. Not so where, scornful of a check, it leaps The mill-dam, dashes on the restless wheel, And wantons in the pebbly gulf below: No frost can bind it there; its utmost force Can but arrest the light and smoky mist That in its fall the liquid sheet throws wide. And see where it has hung the embro