John Kenyon - Lines Suggested By Ode XXIX. Book I. Of Horace lyrics

And so, dear Hicks! on 'Nature's wealth' Your new-found phrase—and rustic health Intent, and cottage-life; You scheme from town to steal away, And chain yourself, or so they say, To that grave joy—a wife. What parish girl shall find employ To deck the bride? what louting boy Lead out the one-horse chair, When, just at noon-day, forth you ride, Correctly spousal, side by side, And sadly take the air? And can it be, dear Hicks! that you For such dull raptures would eschew The life we lead in town? No, Hicks! I'd just as soon believe One might hold water in a sieve, Or make up-Thames run down, As you desert the volumes rare Panizzi buys up every where, Or gets by hooks and crooks; Or bear to lose your daily walk To the Museum, and his talk, Still better than his books.