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VERSES ON HEARING THAT AN AIRY AND PLEASANT SITUATION .. NEW BUILDINGS, by                    
First Line: There was a time! That time the muse bewails
Last Line: And give youth, ease and health to thy enfeebling arms.
Subject(s): Industrial Revolution; Leeds, England; Nature


THERE was a time! that time the Muse bewails,
When Sunny Hill enjoyed refreshing gales;
When Flora sported in its fragrant bowers,
And strewed with liberal hand her sweetest flowers!
Now sable vapours, pregnant with disease,
Clog the light pinions of the southern breeze;
Each verdant plant assumes a dusky hue,
And sooty atoms taint the morning dew.
No more the lily rears her spotless head,
Health, verdure, beauty, fragrance, all are fled:
Sulphureous clouds deform the rising day,
Nor own the power of Sol's meridian ray;
While sickly damps, from Aire's polluted stream,
Quench the pure radiance of his parting beam.
These are thy triumphs, Commerce! -- these thy spoils!
Yet sordid mortals glory in their toils,
Spurn the pure joys which simple Nature yields,
Her breezy hills, dark groves, and verdant fields;
With cold indifference view her blooming charms,
And give youth, ease and health to thy enfeebling arms.





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