Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79. | | | | Introductory | | Written at an Inn at Henley | | William Shenstone (1714–1763) |
| | | TO thee, fair Freedom! I retire | |
| From flattery, cards and dice, and din; | |
| Nor art thou found in mansions higher | |
| Than the low cot or humble Inn. | |
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| ’T is here with boundless power I reign; | 5 |
| And every health which I begin | |
| Converts dull port to bright champagne; | |
| Such freedom crowns it, at an Inn. | |
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| I fly from pomp, I fly from plate! | |
| I fly from Falsehood’s specious grin! | 10 |
| Freedom I love, and form I hate, | |
| And choose my lodgings at an Inn. | |
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| Here, waiter! take my sordid ore, | |
| Which lackeys else might hope to win; | |
| It buys what courts have not in store, | 15 |
| It buys me freedom at an Inn. | |
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| Whoe’er has travelled life’s dull round, | |
| Where’er his stages may have been, | |
| May sigh to think he still has found | |
| The warmest welcome at an Inn. | 20 | | | |
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