Classic Poem

In vivid greens the budded year
Spread fresh and fair and bold and gay:
Fair waved the grasses far and near,
Fair waved the bough with tasselled spray.

The mountains rose on either hand,
As large and free as piled cloud:
Down flowed the undulating land,
Down flowed the watercourses loud.

But sadness bound my eyes alway,
And nothing gave my heart delight,
Until I saw a wall of clay,
O'er which some flowering grass grew bright.

'twas man's bold hand had built the wall,
And trained the grass to level hight,
With every wind to rise and fall:
At this my heart felt some delight.