LINES
WRITTEN UPON SEEING A BLIND YOUNG WOMAN IN NORTH WALES,
Who supports herself, and an aged and infirm Mother, by selling Stockings and Gloves of her own Knitting, which she offers to Travellers as they pass by; in doing which she has been known to run close by the Side of a Carriage for several Miles.
POOR BLIND BET.
The morning purple on the hill,
The village spire, the ivy’d tow’r,
The sparkling wheel of yonder mill,
The grove, green field, and op’ning flow’r,
Are lost to thee!
Dark child of Nature, as thou art!
Yet thy poor bosom heaves no sigh;
E’en now thy dimpling cheeks impart
Their knowledge of some pleasure nigh:—
’Tis good for thee!
Thou seem’st to say “I’ve sunshine too;
’Tis beaming in a spotless breast;
No shade of guilt obstructs the view,
And there are many not so blest,
Who day’s blush see.
“Dear are those eyes, by mine ne’er seen,
Which I protect from many a tear;
Kind stranger! ’tis on yonder green
A mother’s aged form I rear:
Oh! buy of me!”