COMPOSED NEAR CALAIS, ON THE ROAD LEADING TO ARDRES, AUGUST 7, 1802

Jones! asfrom Calais southward you and I

Went pacing side by side, this public Way

Streamed with the pomp of a too-credulous day,

When faith was pledged to new-born Liberty:

A homeless sound of joy was in the sky:

From hour to hour the antiquated Earth,

Beat like the heart of Man: songs, garlands, mirth,

Banners, and happy faces, far and nigh!

And now, sole register that these things were,

Two solitary greetings have I heard,

“Good morrow, Citizen!” a hollow word,

As if a dead man spake it! Yet despair

Touches me not, though pensive as a bird

Whose vernal coverts winter hath laid bare.