Before I knew that earth with wo was rife;
Ere I had heard or seen the din or strife
Which all too soon salutes the eye and ear;
Before my breast had felt the sharpen’d knife
Affliction points at every bosom here;
O, those were blissful days, when all my sky was clear.
XV.
There is a peaceful river near my home,
Along whose banks the moss-grown evergreen
Spreadeth an ample shade, a leafy dome,