• Read more about WILD FLOWERS (1806)

WILD FLOWERS; OR, PASTORAL AND LOCAL POETRY (1806)

CONTENTS

Editors' Introduction

Abner and the Widow Jones: a Familiar Ballad

• Read more about A FIRST VIEW OF THE SEA (1805)

A FIRST VIEW OF THE SEA (1805)

⁽¹⁾

Published in The Monthly Mirror, 20 (September 1805), 197–98.

Mr. Editor,

• Read more about TO HIS WIFE (1804)

TO HIS WIFE

⁽¹⁾

Dated by Bloomfield: ‘Whittlebury Forest, Sept. 16, 1804.’

• Read more about GOOD TIDINGS (1804)

GOOD TIDINGS; OR, NEWS FROM THE FARM (1804)

How vain this tribute; vain this lowly lay;

Yet nought is vain which gratitude inspires!

The Muse, besides, her duty thus approves

To virtue, to her country, to mankind!

Thomson

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GOOD TIDINGS; OR, NEWS FROM THE FARM (1804)

Introduction

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SONG, SUNG BY MR. BLOOMFIELD AT THE ANNIVERSARY OF DOCTOR JENNER’S BIRTH-DAY, 1803.

⁽¹⁾

Published in The Gentleman’s Magazine for June 1803, (pp. 550–1); it also appeared

• Read more about RURAL TALES, BALLADS AND SONGS (1802)

WINTER SONG

1

Dear Boy, throw that Icicle down,

And sweep this deep Snow from the door:

Old Winter comes on with a frown;

A terrible frown for the poor.

In a Season so rude and forlorn,5

How can age, how can infancy bear

• Read more about MARY’S EVENING SIGH (1801–2)

MARY’S EVENING SIGH (1802)

⁽¹⁾

Published in The Monthly Mirror, 14 (1802), 195, and later included, in a lightly
revised form, in Wild Flowers.

• Read more about RURAL TALES, BALLADS AND SONGS (1802)

LUCY. A SONG

1

THY favourite Bird is soaring still:

My Lucy, haste thee o’er the dale;

The Stream’s let loose, and from the Mill

All silent comes the balmy gale;

Yet; so lightly on its way, 5

Seems to whisper, ‘Holiday.’

• Read more about RURAL TALES, BALLADS AND SONGS (1802)

HUNTING SONG

1

YE darksome Woods where Echo dwells,

Where every bud with freedom swells

To meet the glorious day:

The morning breaks; again rejoice;

And with old Ringwood’s well-known voice 5

Bid tuneful Echo play.