Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79. | | | | London | | London | | Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) |
| | | THOUGH grief and fondness in my breast rebel | |
| When injured Thales bids the town farewell, | |
| Yet still my calmer thoughts his choice commend, | |
| I praise the hermit, but regret the friend; | |
| Who now resolves, from vice and London far, | 5 |
| To breathe in distant fields a purer air, | |
| And, fixed on Cambria’s solitary shore, | |
| Give to St. David one true Briton more. | |
| For who would leave, unbribed, Hibernia’s land, | |
| Or change the rocks of Scotland for the Strand? | 10 |
| There none are swept by sudden fate away, | |
| But all whom hunger spares with age decay: | |
| Here malice, rapine, accident, conspire, | |
| And now a rabble rages, now a fire; | |
| Their ambush here relentless ruffians lay, | 15 |
| And here the fell attorney prowls for prey; | |
| Here falling houses thunder on your head, | |
| And here a female atheist talks you dead. * * * * * | | | | |
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