Composed On The Banks Of A Rocky Stream

Composed 1820.--Published 1820

One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.

Dogmatic Teachers, of the snow-white fur! Ye wrangling Schoolmen, of the scarlet hood! Who, with a keenness not to be withstood, Press the point home, or falter and demur, Checked in your course by many a teasing burr; These natural council-seats your acrid blood Might cool;--and, as the Genius of the flood Stoops willingly to animate and spur Each lighter function slumbering in the brain, Yon eddying balls of foam, these arrowy gleams That o'er the pavement of the surging streams Welter and flash, a synod might detain With subtle speculations, haply vain, But surely less so than your far-fetched themes!