The Farmer\'s Boy

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The deed discover'd, and the news once spread,
Vengeance hangs o'er the unknown culprit's head:
And careful _Shepherds_ extra hours bestow
In patient _watchings_ for the common foe;
A foe most dreaded now, when rest and peace
Should wait the season of the flock's increase.

In part these nightly terrors to dispel,
GILES, ere he sleeps, his little Flock must tell.
From the fire-side with many a shrug he hies,
Glad if the full-orb'd Moon salute his eyes,
And through the unbroken stillness of the night
Shed on his path her beams of cheering light.
With saunt'ring step he climbs the distant stile,
Whilst all around him wears a placid smile;
There views the white-rob'd clouds in clusters driv'n,
And all the glorious pageantry of heav'n.
Low, on the utmost bound'ry of the sight,
The rising vapours catch the silver light;
Thence Fancy measures, as they parting fly,
Which first will throw its shadow on the eye,
Passing the source of light; and thence away,
Succeeded quick by brighter still than they.
For yet above these wafted clouds are seen
(In a remoter sky, still more serene,)
Others, detach'd in ranges through the air,
Spotless as snow, and countless as they're fair;
Scatter'd immensely wide from east to west,
The beauteous 'semblance of a _Flock_ at rest.
These, to the raptur'd mind, aloud proclaim
Their MIGHTY SHEPHERD'S everlasting Name.

Whilst thus the loit'rer's utmost stretch of soul
Climbs the still clouds, or passes those that roll,
And loos'd _Imagination_ soaring goes
High o'er his home, and all his little woes,
TIME glides away; neglected Duty calls:
At once from plains of light to earth he falls,
And down a narrow lane, well known by day,
With all his speed pursues his sounding way,
In thought still half absorb'd, and chill'd with cold;
When, lo! an object frightful to behold;
A grisly SPECTRE, cloth'd in silver-gray,
Around whose feet the waving shadows play,
Stands in his path!... He stops, and not a breath
Heaves from his heart, that sinks almost to death.
Loud the owl halloos o'er his head unseen;
All else is silent, dismally serene:
Some prompt ejaculation, whisper'd low,
Yet bears him up against the threat'ning foe;
And thus poor Giles, though half inclin'd to fly,
Mutters his doubts, and strains his stedfast eye.
''Tis not my crimes thou com'st here to reprove;
'No murders stain my soul, no perjur'd love:
'If thou'rt indeed what here thou seem'st to be,
'Thy dreadful mission cannot reach to me.
'By parents taught still to mistrust mine eyes,
'Still to approach each object of surprise
'Lest Fancy's formful visions should deceive
'In moon-light paths, or glooms of falling eve,
'This then's the moment when my heart should try
'To scan thy motionless deformity;
'But oh, the fearful task! yet well I know
'An aged ash, with many a spreading bough,
'(Beneath whose leaves I've found a Summer's bow'r,
'Beneath whose trunk I've weather'd many a show'r,)
'Stands singly down this solitary way,
'But far beyond where now my footsteps stay.
'Tis true, thus far I've come with heedless haste;
'No reck'ning kept, no passing objects trac'd:...
'And can I then have reach'd that very tree?
'Or is its reverend form assum'd by thee?'
The happy thought alleviates his pain:
He creeps another step; then stops again;
Till slowly, as his noiseless feet draw near,
Its perfect lineaments at once appear;
Its crown of shiv'ring ivy whispering peace,
And its white bark that fronts the moon's pale face.
Now, whilst his blood mounts upward, now he knows
The solid gain that from conviction flows;
And strengthen'd Confidence shall hence fulfill
(With conscious Innocence more valued still)
The dreariest task that winter nights can bring,
By church-yard dark, or grove, or fairy ring;
Still buoying up the timid mind of youth,
Till loit'ring Reason hoists the scale of Truth.
With these blest guardians _Giles_ his course pursues,
Till numbering his heavy-sided ewes,
Surrounding stillness tranquilize his breast,
And shape the dreams that wait his hours of rest.

As when retreating tempests we behold,
Whose skirts at length the azure sky unfold,
And full of murmurings and mingled wrath,
Slowly unshroud the smiling face of earth,
Bringing the bosom joy: so WINTER flies!...
And see the Source of Life and Light uprise!
A height'ning arch o'er southern hills he bends;
Warm on the cheek the slanting beam descends,
And gives the reeking mead a brighter hue,
And draws the modest _primrose_ bud to view.
Yet frosts succeed, and winds impetuous rush,
And hail-storms rattle thro' the budding bush;
And night-fall'n LAMBS require the shepherd's care,
And teeming EWES, that still their burdens bear;
Beneath whose sides tomorrow's dawn may see
The milk-white strangers bow the trembling knee;
At whose first birth the pow'rful instinct's seen
That fills with champions the daisied green:
For ewes that stood aloof with fearful eye,
With stamping foot now men and dogs defy,
And obstinately faithful to their young,
Guard their first steps to join the bleating throng.

But casualties and death from damps and cold
Will still attend the well-conducted fold:
Her tender offspring dead, the dam aloud
Calls, and runs wild amidst the unconscious crowd:
And orphan'd sucklings raise the piteous cry;
No wool to warm them, no defenders nigh.
And must her streaming milk then flow in vain?
Must unregarded innocence complain?
No;... ere this strong solicitude subside,
Maternal fondness may be fresh apply'd,
And the adopted stripling still may find
A parent most assiduously kind.
For this he's doom'd awhile disguis'd to range,
(For fraud or force must work the wish'd-for change;)
For this his predecessor's skin he wears,
Till cheated into tenderness and cares,
The unsuspecting dam, contented grown,
Cherish and guard the fondling as her own.

Thus all by turns to fair perfection rise;
Thus twins are parted to increase their size:
Thus instinct yields as interest points the way,
Till the bright flock, augmenting every day,
On sunny hills and vales of springing flow'rs
With ceaseless clamour greet the vernal hours.

The humbler _Shepherd_ here with joy beholds
The approv'd economy of crowded folds,
And, in his small contracted round of cares,
Adjusts the practice of each hint he hears:
For Boys with emulation learn to glow,
And boast their pastures, and their healthful show
Of well-grown Lambs, the glory of the Spring;
And field to field in competition bring.

E'en GILES, for all his cares and watchings past,
And all his contests with the wintry blast,
Claims a full share of that sweet praise bestow'd
By gazing neighbours, when along the road,
Or village green, his curly-coated throng
Suspends the chorus of the spinner's song;
When Admiration's unaffected grace
Lisps from the tongue, and beams in every face:
Delightful moments!... Sunshine, Health, and Joy,
Play round, and cheer the elevated Boy!
'_Another_ SPRING!' his heart exulting cries;
'_Another_ YEAR! with promis'd blessings rise!...
'ETERNAL POWER! from whom those blessings flow,
'Teach me still more to wonder, more to know:
'_Seed-time_ and _Harvest_ let me see again;
'Wander the _leaf-strewn_ wood, _frozen_ plain:
'Let the first Flower, corn-waving Field, Plain, Tree,
'Here round my home, still lift my soul to THEE;
'And let me ever, midst thy bounties, raise
'An humble note of thankfulness and praise!'--

APRIL 22, 1798.

NOTES

_A fav'rite morsel with the Rook, &c._ P. 9, l. 104.

In these verses, which have much of picturesque, there is a severe charge
against _Rooks and Crows_, as very formidable depredators; and their
destruction, as such, seems to be recommended. Such was the prevalent
opinion some years back. It is less general now: and I am sure the
humanity of the Author, and his benevolence to Animals in general, will
dispose him to rejoice in whatever plea can be offered in stay of
execution of this sentence. And yet more so, if it shall appear that
ROOKS, at least, deserve not only mercy, but _protection_ and
_encouragement_ from the Farmer.

I shall quote a passage from BEWICK'S interesting HISTORY of BIRDS: the
narrative part of which is often as full of information as the
embellishments cut in wood are beautiful.... It is this.

Speaking of Birds of the PIE-KIND in general, he says "Birds of this kind
[Footnote: P. 63] are found in every part of the known world, from
Greenland to the Cape of Good Hope. In many respects they may be said to
be of singular benefit to mankind: principally by destroying great
quantities of noxious insects, worms, and reptiles. ROOKS, in particular,
are fond of the erucae of the _hedge-chaffer_, or chesnut _brown beetle_:
for which they search with indefatigable pains. These insects," he adds in
a note, "appear in hot weather in formidable numbers: disrobing the fields
and trees of their verdure, blossoms, and fruit; spreading desolation and
destruction wherever they go.... They appeared in great numbers in IRELAND
during a hot summer, and committed great ravages. In the year 1747 whole
meadows and corn-fields were destroyed by them in SUFFOLK. The decrease of
Rookeries in that County was thought to be the occasion of it. The many
Rookeries with us is in some measure the reason why we have so few of
these destructive animals."[Footnote: Wallis's History of Northumberland.]

"Rooks," he subjoins, "are often accus'd of feeding on the corn just after
it has been sown, and various contrivances have been made both to kill and
frighten them away; but, in our estimation, the advantages deriv'd from
the destruction which they make among grubs, earth-worms, and noxious
insects of various kinds, will greatly overpay the injury done to the
future harvest by the small quantity of corn they may destroy in searching
after their favourite food." [Footnote: Mr. Bewick does not seem to have
been quite aware that much of this mischief, as I have been informed by a
sensible neighboring Farmer and Tenant, is done in the grub-state of the
chaffer by biting through the _roots_ of grass, &c. A latent, and
imperceptibly, but rapidly spreading mischief, against which the _rooks_
and birds of similar instinct are, in a manner, the sole protection. C.
L.]

"In general they are sagacious, active, and faithful to each other. They
live in pairs; and their mutual attachment is constant. They are a
clamorous race: mostly build in trees, and form a kind of society in which
there appears something like a regular government. A Centinel watches for
the general safety, and gives notice on the appearance of danger."

Under the Title, "ROOKS," (p. 71) Mr. BEWICK repeats his observations on
the useful property of this Bird.

I confess myself solicitous for their safety and kind treatment.
We have two which were lam'd by being blown down in a storm (a calamity
which destroys great numbers almost every spring). One of them is
perfectly domesticated. The other is yet more remarkable; since although
enjoying his natural liberty completely, he recognizes, even in his
flights at a distance from the house, his adoptive home, his human
friends, and early protectors.

The ROOK is certainly a very beautiful and very sensible Bird; very
confiding, and very much attach'd. It will give me a pleasure, in which I
doubt not that the Author of this delightful Poem will partake, if any
thing here said shall avail them with the Farmer; and especially with the
SUFFOLK FARMER.

C. L.

_Destroys life's intercourse; the social plan._ P. 46, l. 341.

"Allowing for the imperfect state of sublunary happiness, which is
comparative at best, there are not, perhaps, many nations existing whose
situation is so desirable; where the means of subsistence are so easy, and
the wants of the people so few. The evident distinction of ranks, which
subsists at _Otaheite_, does not so materially affect the felicity of the
nation as we might have supposed. The simplicity of their whole life
contributes to soften the appearance of distinctions, and to reduce them
to a level. Where the climate and the custom of the country do not
absolutely require a perfec: garment; where it is easy at every step to
gather as many plants as form not only a decent, but likewise a customary
covering; and where all the necessaries of life are within the reach of
every individual, at the expence of a trifling labour; ambition and envy
must in a great measure be unknown. It is true, the highest classes of
people possess some dainty articles, such as pork, fish, fowl, and cloth,
almost exclusively; but the desire of indulging the appetite in a few
trifling luxuries can at most render individuals, and not whole nations,
unhappy. Absolute want occasions the miseries of the lower class in some
civiliz'd states, and is the result of the unbounded voluptuousness of
their superiors. At _Otaheite_ there is not, in general, that disparity
between the highest and the meanest man, that subsists in England between
a reputable tradesman and a labourer. The affection of the Otaheitans for
their chiefs, which they never fail'd to express upon all occasions, gave
us great reason to suppose that they consider themselves as one family,
and respect their eldest borm in the persons of their chiefs. The lowest
man in the nation speaks as freely with his king as with his equal, and
has the pleasure of seeing him as often as he likes. The king, at times,
amuses himself with the occupations of his subjects; and not yet deprav'd
by false notions of empty state, he often paddles his own canoe, without
considering such an employment derogatory to his dignity. How long such an
happy equality may last is uncertain: and how much the introduction of
foreign luxuries may hasten its dissolution cannot be too frequently
repeated to Europeans. If the knowledge of a few individuals can only be
acquired at such a price as the happiness of nations, it were better for
the discoverers and the discovered that the _South Sea_ had still remain'd
unknown to _Europe_ and its restless inhabitants."

REFLECTIONS ON OTAHEITE: Cook's second Voyage.

APPENDIX

When the FIRST EDITION of this POEM appear'd in March last, I intimated a
design of accompanying it with some CEITICAL REMARKS. With that design
various Engagements have since greatly interfer'd. From one of the most
laborious and constant of those, that of the office of a Justice of the
Peace for the County of Suffolk, I am now discharg'd. Why those who are in
power have done this, they have not explain'd: and it being an office from
which any one who holds it is removable at _pleasure_, they are not call'd
to explain. Had it been for Crime or Misconduct as a Magistrate, of course
Trial and Conviction should have preceded my Removal. As it is, I feel, as
I have publicly declar'd, no shame in the removal. I have held an office
honorable because extensively useful; because unprofitable and burthensome
to the individual; because independently and conscientiously exercis'd,
with a devotion, such as it requir'd, of my time, my thoughts, and my best
faculties, daily to its discharge. My Collegues,--and they are and have
been, during a course of seventeen years, those of them who now act, and
those who are dead or absent, men with whom to have acted was indeed
satisfactory and pleasant,--my late Collegues part with me, and I with
them, regrettingly. Our reciprocal Esteem is not lessen'd by this
abruption of our official intercourse. And as every man who feels what
Society is, ought to determine to be serviceable to the Public, my removal
from this office neither weakens the determination, nor probably will be
found to have impair'd the means of effecting it. I am therefore well
content;--as I ought to be. I sought not the office. I have never sought
any. It solicited my acceptance; unask'd and unexpected. I owe my
appointment to the Duke of GRAFTON, very soon after I came to reside in
this County. He was then _Lord Lieutenant_. I have not yielded that
appointment to disgust; though there were those who were not sparing in
their endeavours to disgust me with it: I have not relinquished it to suit
my convenience; though in times like these an office of no little expence,
and which shut me out from sources of professional emolument, was to me
certainly not convenient: I have not consulted my ease or health by a
voluntary retirement. I am remov'd, I am superseded, I am struck out from
an office of incredible and hourly increasing anxiety. Circumstances like
this are not new. They have repeatedly taken place in relation to very
high offices; and the Public remembers men to whom they have happen'd
whose internal dignity and worth is above any official dignity. Had I felt
that I _merited_ to be remov'd, I should not have thought myself a fit
Editor of the FARMER'S BOY; a Poem which breathes every where modest
independence, benevolence, innocence, and virtue. As it is, I think myself
no way less fit than ever for any laudable and becoming employ. And I have
accordingly announc'd my intention of resuming my profession as a
BARRISTER. In the mean time, the leisure which has thus been thrown to me
may properly and usefully be devoted to the Remarks which I had before
meditated; and for which I had in some measure pledg'd myself to the
PUBLIC.

The FIRST of these will naturally be that which relates to the _manner_
and circumstances of the Composition. There is such proof in it of Genius
disregarding difficulty, and of powers of retention and arrangement, that
it will be believ'd I could not overpass it: and that it would have been
stated at the first if it had been then in my power to state it.

I now lay it before the Public in the words of Mr. SWAN: who in a Letter
address'd to me in _The Ladies Museum_ of this Month, after congratulating
me on my "successful efforts," (and with such a Production to propose to
public Attention how could they be unsuccessful?) "in rescuing from
oblivion a Poem, which for the harmony of its numbers, the beauty of its
imagery, originality of thought, elegance and chasteness of diction,
(every circumstance consider'd,) stands unrivall'd in the Annals of
English Literature, and will descend to Posterity with increasing
celebrity," states the _motive_ on which he writes: (a motive well
meriting a Letter and a public statement:) "to throw light upon the manner
of the composition of the Farmer's Boy; which appears to him (and most
justly) no inconsiderable addition to the well-earn'd laurels of the
Author."

For the pleasure of the view which it includes of the character and
manners of Mr. BLOOMFIELD, I shall, with the Author of this interesting
Letter, go beyond the mere fact; and give his narration of the cause and
manner of the _Discovery_, as well at the Discovery itself.

Mr. SWAN thus expresses himself:

"From the pleasure I receiv'd in reading the FARMER'S BOY, and from some
strange coincidences in the early part of Mr. Bloomfield's life with my
own, I was naturally enough anxious to become acquainted with the Author.
For this purpose I obtain'd his address, and found him ... the modest, the
unambitious person you describe; wondering at the praise and admiration
with which his Poem has been receiv'd; whose utmost ambition was to have
presented a fair copy to his aged Mother, as a pledge of filial affection,
and a picture of his juvenile avocations. So unexpected was the fame of
his production, that the whole of his good fortune appears to him as a
dream."--'I had no more idea,' says he, 'to be sent for by the Duke of
Grafton, and be so kindly and generously treated, than of the hour I shall
die.'

"I gave him," Mr. SWAN continues, "my card of address, an invitation to my
house, and a sincere profession of friendship; if, among his numerous
admirers, and noble and royal patrons, the latter was worthy of
acceptance."

"Last Sunday afternoon [Footnote: The Letter is dated 12 July, 1800.] I
was highly pleas'd with his company, and gratified and entertain'd with
his conversation.--Sir, he is all ... nay, more than you have describ'd."

"Among other subjects of conversation respecting the _Farmer's Boy_, I
wish'd to be inform'd of his manner of composition. I enquir'd, as he
compos'd it in a garret, amid the bustle and noise of six or seven fellow
workmen, whether he us'd a slate; or wrote it on paper with a pencil, or
pen and ink. But what was my surprize when told that he had us'd
neither.--My business, during the greatest part of my life having led me
into the line of litterary pursuits, and made me acquainted with litterary
men, I am, consequently, pretty well inform'd of the methods us'd by
authors for the retention of their productions. We are told, if my
recollection is just, that Milton took his Daughters as his amanuenses;
that Savage, when his poverty precluded him the conveniency of pen, ink,
and paper, us'd to study in the streets, and go into shops to record the
productions of his fertile genius; that Pope, when on visits at Lord
Bolingbroke's, us'd to ring up the servants at any hour in the night for
pen and ink, to write any thought that struck his lively and wakeful
imagination; that Dr. Blacklock, though blind, had the happy faculty of
writing down, in a very legible hand, the chaste and elegant productions
of his Muse."

"With these and many other methods of composition we are acquainted; but
that of a great part of _the Farmer's Boy_ stands, in my opinion, first on
the List of Litterary [Footnote: I have ventur'd to restore litterary to
that mode of spelling, with the double _t_, which the Analogy of our
language seems to require. L.] Phaenomena.--Sir, Mr. Bloomfield, either
from the contracted state of his pecuniary resources to purchase Paper, or
from other reasons, compos'd the latter part of his _Autumn_ and the whole
of his _Winter_ in his head, without committing one line to paper.--This
cannot fail to surprize the Litterary World: who are well acquainted with
the treacherousness of memory, and how soon the most happy ideas, for want
of sufficient quickness in noting down, are lost in the rapidity of
thought."

"But this is not all.--He went still a step farther.--He not only compos'd
and committed that part of the work to his retentive memory, but he
corrected it all in his head. And, as he said, when it was thus
prepar'd,... _I had nothing to do but to write it down_."

"By this new and wonderful mode of composition he studied and completed
his Farmer's Boy in a garret; among six or seven workmen, without their
ever suspecting any thing of the matter."

"Sir, this to me was both new and wonderful: and induc'd me rather to
communicate the information to you through the medium of the Press than by
writing; that it may meet the eye of many, who will be equally struck and
pleas'd with the novelty of the idea as myself."

I have on this part of the subject, only, after quoting thus much at
present from the Letter of Mr. SWAN, to add, that I entirely agree with
him, I believe, as to the force, clearness, and comprehensiveness of
intellect manifested by this experiment, and its success.

I now pass to part of what has been fully and excellently said by Dr.
DRAKE of HADLEIGH, while investigating the merits of this astonishing
Rural Poem.

In a Letter from HADLEIGH [Footnote: 9 March, 1800.] Dr. DRAKE had given
me this distinct and vivid representation of his general idea of the Poem.

"I have read THE FARMER'S BOY with a mixture of astonishment and delight.
There is a pathetic simplicity in his sentiments and descriptions that
does honour to his head and heart."

"His copies from Nature are truly original and faithful, and are touched
with the hand of a Master.... His versification occasionally displays an
energy and harmony which might decorate even the pages of a DARWIN."

"The general characteristics of his Style, however, are sweetness and
ease. In short, I have no hesitation in declaring, that I think it, as a
Rural and descriptive Poem, superior to any production since the days of
THOMSON."

"It wants no reference to its Author's uneducated poverty to render its
excellence the more striking; they are such as would confer durable Fame
on the first and most polish'd Poet in the Kingdom."

I shall now take the liberty of extracting part of the CRITIQUE which Dr.
DRAKE, agreeably to his intimation to me, has made of the FARMER'S BOY in
his LITTERARY HOURS.[Footnote: Vol. II, Ess. xxxix, p. 444.]

"From the pleasing duty of describing such a 'character' (meaning the
personal character of Mr. BLOOMFIELD) let us now turn our attention to
the species of composition of which his Poem is so perfect a specimen. It
has been observ'd in my sixteenth number that PASTORAL POETRY in this
country, with very few exceptions, has exhibited a tame and servile
adherence to classical imagery and costume; at the same time totally
overlooking that profusion of picturesque beauty, and that originality of
manner and peculiarity of employment, which our climate and our rustics
every where present."

"A few Authors were mention'd in that Essay as having judiciously deviated
from the customary plan: to these may now be added the name of
_Boomfield_; the _Farmers Boy_, though not assuming the form of an
Eclogue, being peculiarly and exclusively, throughout, a _pastoral
Composition_; not like the Poem of _Thomson_, taking a wide excursion
through all the phenomena of the _Seasons_, but nearly limited to the
rural _occupation_ and business of the fields, the dairy, and the farm
yard."

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