Izaak Walton
Him did High Virtue perfectly endow,
Clean-wrought for living--Nature's gifted sage;
Uncoverer of Beauty on Time's gilded page,
Fine Priest of streams, of leaf and drooping bough;
Keeper of gladness, Faith's own solemn vow,--
Eschewing Gain and Competition's rage,
Measuring Life by Heaven's wiser gauge,
And breathing hope and blessedness enow!
Oh I have been much in delight to think,
How well his days were chosen to be spent.
And by the pools of Stafford, 'proached the brink
Of Paradise--and comfortably lent,
Him to sweet Themes of chaste divinity,
Kind songs of hope on skyward wings set free!
Him did High Virtue perfectly endow,
Clean-wrought for living--Nature's gifted sage;
Uncoverer of Beauty on Time's gilded page,
Fine Priest of streams, of leaf and drooping bough;
Keeper of gladness, Faith's own solemn vow,--
Eschewing Gain and Competition's rage,
Measuring Life by Heaven's wiser gauge,
And breathing hope and blessedness enow!
Oh I have been much in delight to think,
How well his days were chosen to be spent.
And by the pools of Stafford, 'proached the brink
Of Paradise--and comfortably lent,
Him to sweet Themes of chaste divinity,
Kind songs of hope on skyward wings set free!