164 SELECT POETRY

Kind to my offspring, to my partner true,
And duteous to my parents—what are you ?”
Montgomery

 

THE COTTAGER AND HIS LANDLORD
FROM THE LATIN OF MILTON.

A peasant to his lord paid yearly court,

Presenting pippins of so rich a sort,

That he, displeased to have a part alone,

Removed the tree, that all might be his own.

The tree, too old to travel, though before

So fruitful, withered, and would yield no more.

The squire, perceiving all his labour void,

Cursed his own pains, so foolishly employed ;

And, “ Oh!” he cried, “ that I had lived content

With tribute, small indeed, but kindly meant !

My avarice has expensive proved to me,

And cost me both my pippins and my tree.”
Cowper.

 

THE PARROT.

Tue deep affections of the breast,

That Heaven to living things imparts,
Are not exclusively possessed

By human hearts.

A Parrot, from the Spanish main,
Full young, and early caged, came o’er,
With bright wings, to the bleak domain
Of Mulla’s! shore,

Mulla—the island of Mull, one of the Hebrides, situated
on the north-west of Scotland.