The Village and The Newspaper

by George Crabbe

Fear marks the flight and magnifies the sound;

The busy priest, detain’d by weightier care,

Defers his duty till the day of prayer;

And, waiting long, the crowd retire distrest,

To think a poor man’s bones should lie unblest.

BOOK II - THE ARGUMENT.

There are found, amid the Evils of a laborious Life, some Views of Tranquillity and Happiness - The Repose and Pleasure of a Summer Sabbath: interrupted by Intoxication and Dispute - Village Detraction - Complaints of the ’Squire - The Evening Riots - Justice - Reasons for this unpleasant View of Rustic Life: the Effect it should have upon the Lower Classes; and the Higher - These last have their peculiar Distresses: Exemplified in the Life and heroic Death of Lord Robert Manners - Concluding Address to His Grace the Duke of Rutland.

No longer truth, though shown in verse, disdain,

But own the Village Life a life of pain:

I too must yield, that oft amid those woes