Animal Tranquillity and Decay + 

A Sketch + 

The little hedge-row birds + 

That peck along the road, regard him not. + 

He travels on, and in his face, his step, + 

His gait, is one expression; every limb, + 

His look and bending figure, all bespeak + 

A man who does not move with pain, but moves + 

With thought.⁠—He is insensibly subdued + 

To settled quiet: he is one by whom + 

All effort seems forgotten; one to whom + 

Long patience hath such mild composure given, + 

That patience now doth seem a thing of which + 

He hath no need. He is by nature led + 

To peace so perfect, that the young behold + 

With envy, what the Old Man hardly feels. + 

—I asked him whither he was bound, and what + 

The object of his journey: he replied + 

That he was going many miles to take + 

A last leave of his Son, a Mariner, + 

Who from a sea-fight had been brought to Falmouth, + 

And there was dying in an hospital. + 