challenges in cheery song the grasshoppers,
whose hoarse chirping rings from the hot hillsides.

And when from her toil she lifted her turgid bosom,
her sun-browned face with glossy curls surrounded,
how then thy vesper fires, O Tuscany,
did richly tinge with color her bold figure!

'Tis then the strong mother plays at ball with her infant,
the lusty child whom her naked breasts have just sated;
tosses him on high and prattles sweetly with him,
while he, with eye fixed on the shining eyes of his mother,

His little body trembling all over with fear, holds out
his tiny fingers imploring; then loud laughs the mother,
and into the one great embrace of love
lets him fall, clasped close to her bosom.

Around her smiles the scene of homely labor;
tremulous nod the oats on the green hillsides;
one hears the distant mooing of the ox,
and on the barn-roof the gay plumed cock is crowing.

* * * * *

Nature has her brave ones, who for her despise
the masks of glory dear to the vulgar throng.
'Tis thus, O Adrian, with holy visions
thou comfortest the souls of fellow-men.

'Tis thus, O artist, with thy blows severe
thou putt'st in stone the ages' ancient hope,
the lofty hope that cries, "Oh, when shall labor
be happy, and faithful love secure from harm?

"When shall a mighty nation of freemen
say in the face of the sun, 'Shine no more
on the idle ease and the selfish wars of tyrants,
but on the pious justice of labor?'"

THOMAS CAREW

(1598?-1639)

Thomas Carew is deservedly placed among the most brilliant
representatives of a class of lyrists who were not only courtiers but
men of rank; who, varied in accomplishments, possessing culture and
taste, expressed their play of fancy with elegance and ease. The lyre
of these aristocratic poets had for its notes only love and beauty,
disdain, despair, and love's bounty, sometimes frivolous in sound and
sometimes serious; and their work may be regarded as the ancestor of
the _vers de societe_, which has reached its perfection in Locker and
Austin Dobson. To Carew's lyrics we may apply Izaak Walton's famous
criticism: "They were old-fashioned poetry, but choicely good."

Thomas Carew, son of Sir Matthew Carew, was born in London about 1598.
He left Corpus Christi, Oxford, without a degree, and early fell into
wild habits. In 1613 his father wrote to Sir Dudley Carleton that "o