s: Whose force but yours the bolts of beauty thunders?


s: To you! to you! all song of praise is due;


s: Doubt you to whom my Muse these notes intendeth,


s: Which now my breast, o'ercharged, to music lendeth?


s: His mother's doves, and team of sparrows;


s: Growing on's cheek (but none knows how);


s: Daphne's snowy hand but touched does melt,


s: My Daphne's voice tunes all the spheres,


s: Fair is my love for April's in her face,


s: Her lovely breasts September claims his part,


s: And lordly July in her eyes takes place,


s: But cold December dwelleth in her heart;


s: Blest be the months that set my thoughts on fire,


s: Accurst that month that hindereth my desire.


s: Like Phoebus' fire, so sparkle both her eyes,


s: As air perfumed with amber is her breath,


s: Like swelling waves her lovely breasts do rise,


s: As earth, her heart, cold, dateth me to death:


s: Aye me, poor man, that on the earth do live,


s: When unkind earth death and despair doth give!


s: Love 'twixt her breasts his trophies doth imprint,


s: Her eyes shine favor, courtesy, and grace,


s: But touch her heart, ah, that is framed of flint!


s: Therefore my harvest in the grass bears grain;


s: The rock will wear, washed with a winter's rain.


s: Girt with a crimson robe of brightest dye,


s: Whiter than be the flocks that straggling feed,


s: When washed by Arethusa's Fount they lie,


s: Decked with the ruddy glister of her love,


s: Whenas her brightness Neptune's fancy move,


s: Her tresses gold, her eyes like glassy streams,


s: Her teeth are pearl, the breasts are ivory


s: Her cheeks like rose and lily yield forth gleams;


s: Her brows bright arches framed of ebony:


s: Pallas, in wit,--all three, if you well view,


s: How blest were I if thou would'st prove me.


s: For dead, thy breath to life might move me.


s: My love in her attire doth show her wit,


s: For every season she hath dressings fit,


s: But change she earth, or change she sky,


s: They look like rose-buds filled with snow;


s: Threatening with piercing frowns to kill


s: By your weak accents; what's your praise


s: That they still were to run by her side,


s: Through swords, through seas, whither she would ride.


s: All the gain, all the good, of the elements' strife.


s: Have you marked but the fall o' the snow


s: O so white, O so soft, O so sweet is she!


s: Among that sweet-strained moisture, rare delight,


s: Her hand seemed milk in milk, it was so white.


s: Some asked how pearls did grow, and where;


s: Thy breath, which to all flowers hath lent


s: Gems which from thee have all their worth.


s: These flowers, as in their causes, sleep.


s: In every eye, but in my thoughts most fair.


s: Like tapers on the altar shine her eyes;


s: We sit and talk, and kiss away the hours


s: As chastely as the morning dews kiss flowers:


s: I touch her, like my beads, with devout care,


s: And come unto my courtship as my prayer.


s: Dwelt all that's good, and all that's fair!


s: Wondered who thus had stole their skill.


s: The nested birds shall raise their throats,


s: Fond bird! 'tis not the morning breaks,--


s: When all the flowers were fresh and gay;


s: Comes trinkling down her swan-white neck,


s: Her anger darkens all the cheerful light.


s: Her face is fairer than the hawthorn white,


s: When all a-flower in May the hedgerows stand;


s: While she is kind, I know of no affright;


s: All heaven in her glorious eyes is spanned;


s: Her smile is softer than the summer's night,


s: Gladder than daybreak on the Faery strand;


s: Her silver speech is like the singing flight


s: What if the Winter chase the Summer bland!


s: The gold sun in her hair burns ever bright.


s: If she be sad, straightway all joy is banned;


s: Love is my Lord in all the world's despite


s: The sun has gane down o'er the lofty Benlomond


s: And left the red clouds to preside o'er the scene,


s: While lanely I stray, in the calm simmer gloamin',


s: To muse on sweet Jessie, the Flower o' Dunblane.


s: How sweet is the brier, wi' its saft fauldin' blossom,


s: And sweet is the birk, wi' its mantle o' green;


s: Yet sweeter and fairer, and dear to this bosom,


s: Is lovely young Jessie, the Flower o' Dunblane.


s: She's modest as ony, and blithe as she's bonnie;


s: For guileless simplicity marks her its ain;


s: And far be the villain, divested of feeling,


s: Wha'd blight in its bloom the sweet Flower o' Dunblane.


s: Sing on, thou sweet mavis, thy hymn to the e'ening!


s: Thou'rt dear to the echoes of Calderwood glen;


s: Sae dear to this bosom, sae artless and winning,


s: Is charming young Jessie, the Flower o' Dunblane.


s: How lost were my days till I met wi' my Jessie!


s: The sports o' the city seemed foolish and vain;


s: I ne'er saw a nymph I would ca' my dear lassie


s: Till charmed wi' sweet Jessie, the Flower o' Dunblane.


s: Though mine were the station o' loftiest grandeur,


s: Amidst its profusion I'd languish in pain,


s: And reckon as naething the height o' its splendor,


s: If wanting sweet Jessie, the Flower o' Dunblane.


s: Flowers I would bring if flowers could make thee fairer,


s: And music, if the Muse were dear to thee;


s: (For loving these would make thee love the bearer)


s: And loveliest flowers would but conceal the wearer:--


s: A rose I marked, and might have plucked; but she


s: Blushed as she bent, imploring me to spare her,


s: Alas! and with what gifts shall I pursue thee,


s: What offerings bring, what treasures lay before thee;


s: When earth with all her floral train doth woo thee,


s: And all old poets and old songs adore thee;


s: And love to thee is naught; from passionate mood


s: These are but gauds: nay, what are lips?


s: Did Helen's breast, though ne'er so soft,


s: For crystal brows--there's naught within;


s: She is singing an air that is known to me,


s: In the happy morning of life and of May,


s: And wild voice pealing up to the sunny sky,


s: And feet like sunny gems on an English green,


s: Maud in the light of her youth and her grace,


s: Singing of Death, and of Honor that cannot die,


s: Till I well could weep for a time so sordid and mean,


s: For your sweetness hardly leaves me a choice


s: But to move to the meadow and fall before


s: Her feet on the meadow grass, and adore,


s: Not her, who is neither courtly nor kind,


s: Holds earth aught--speak truth--above her?


s: Aught like this tress, see, and this tress,


s: Because you spend your lives in praising;


s: To praise, you search the wide world over:


s: If earth holds aught--speak truth--above her?


s: I reach her with her green-armed bowers,


s: Oh, lovely Mary Donnelly, it's you I love the best!


s: If fifty girls were round you I'd hardly see the rest.


s: Be what it may the time of day, the place be where it will,


s: Sweet looks of Mary Donnelly, they bloom before me still.


s: Her eyes like mountain water that's flowing on a rock,


s: How clear they are, how dark they are! they give me many a shock.


s: Could ne'er express the charming lip that has me in its power.


s: Her nose is straight and handsome, her eyebrows lifted up,


s: Her chin is very neat and pert, and smooth like a china cup,


s: Her hair's the brag of Ireland, so weighty and so fine;


s: It's rolling down upon her neck, and gathered in a twine.


s: The dance o' last Whit-Monday night exceeded all before;


s: No pretty girl for miles about was missing from the floor;


s: But Mary kept the belt of love, and O but she was gay!


s: She danced a jig, she sung a song, that took my heart away.


s: When she stood up for dancing, her steps were so complete,


s: The music nearly killed itself to listen to her feet;


s: The fiddler moaned his blindness, he heard her so much praised,


s: And evermore I'm whistling or lilting what you sung,


s: Your smile is always in my heart, your name beside my tongue;


s: But you've as many sweethearts as you'd count on both your hands,


s: Oh, you're the flower o' womankind in country or in town;


s: The higher I exalt you, the lower I'm cast down.


s: O might we live together in a lofty palace hall,


s: Where joyful music rises, and where scarlet curtains fall!


s: O might we live together in a cottage mean and small,


s: With sods of grass the only roof, and mud the only wall!


s: O lovely Mary Donnelly, your beauty's my distress:


s: It's far too beauteous to be mine, but I'll never wish it less.


s: The proudest place would fit your face, and I am poor and low;


s: But blessings be about you, dear, wherever you may go!


s: Under yonder beech-tree single on the green-sward,


s: Couched with her arms behind her golden head,


s: Knees and tresses folded to slip and ripple idly,


s: Lies my young love sleeping in the shade.


s: Had I the heart to slide an arm beneath her,


s: Press her parting lips as her waist I gather slow,


s: Waking in amazement she could not but embrace me:


s: Then would she hold me and never let me go?


s: Shy as the squirrel and wayward as the swallow,


s: Swift as the swallow along the river's light


s: Circleting the surface to meet his mirrored winglets,


s: Fleeter she seems in her stay than in her flight.


s: Shy as the squirrel that leaps among the pine-tops,


s: Wayward as the swallow overhead at set of sun,


s: She whom I love is hard to catch and conquer,


s: Hard, but O the glory of the winning were she won!


s: When her mother tends her before the laughing mirror,


s: Tying up her laces, looping up her hair,


s: Often she thinks, were this wild thing wedded,


s: More love should I have, and much less care.


s: When her mother tends her before the lighted mirror,


s: Loosening her laces, combing down her curls,


s: I should miss but one for many boys and girls.


s: Heartless she is as the shadow in the meadows,


s: Flying to the hills on a blue and breezy noon.


s: No, she is athirst and drinking up her wonder:


s: Earth to her is young as the slip of the new moon.


s: Deals she an unkindness, 'tis but her rapid measure,


s: Even as in a dance; and her smile can heal no less:


s: Lovely are the curves of the white owl sweeping


s: Lone on the fir-branch, his rattle-note unvaried,


s: Brooding o'er the gloom, spins the brown eve-jar.


s: Darker grows the valley, more and more forgetting:


s: So were it with me if forgetting could be willed.


s: Tell the grassy hollow that holds the bubbling well-spring,


s: Tell it to forget the source that keeps it filled.


s: Stepping down the hill with her fair companions,


s: Arm in arm, all against the raying West,


s: Boldly she sings, to the merry tune she marches;


s: Brave in her shape, and sweeter unpossessed.


s: Sweeter, for she is what my heart first awaking


s: Whispered the world was; morning light is she.


s: Love that so desires would fain keep her changeless;


s: Fain would fling the net, and fain have her free.


s: Happy happy time, when the white star hovers


s: Low over dim fields fresh with bloomy dew,


s: Near the face of dawn, that draws athwart the darkness,


s: Threading it with color, like yewberries the yew.


s: Thicker crowd the shades as the grave East deepens


s: Glowing, and with crimson a long cloud swells.


s: Maiden still the morn is; and strange she is, and secret;


s: Strange her eyes; her cheeks are cold as cold sea-shells.


s: Sunrays, leaning on our southern hills and lighting


s: Wild cloud-mountains that drag the hills along,


s: Oft ends the day of your shifting brilliant laughter


s: Chill as a dull face frowning on a song.


s: Ay, but shows the South-west a ripple-feathered bosom


s: Blown to silver while the clouds are shaken and ascend


s: Scaling the mid-heavens as they stream, there comes a sunset


s: Rich, deep like love in beauty without end.


s: When at dawn she sighs, and like an infant to the window


s: Turns grave eyes craving light, released from dreams,


s: Beautiful she looks, like a white water-lily


s: Bursting out of bud in havens of the streams.


s: When from bed she rises clothed from neck to ankle


s: In her long nightgown sweet as boughs of May,


s: Beautiful she looks, like a tall garden-lily


s: Pure from the night, and splendid for the day.


s: Mother of the dews, dark eye-lashed twilight,


s: Low-lidded twilight, o'er the valley's brim,


s: Rounding on thy breast sings the dew-delighted skylark,


s: Clear as though the dewdrops had their voice in him.


s: Hidden where the rose-flush drinks the rayless planet,


s: Fountain-full he pours the spraying fountain-showers.


s: Let me hear her laughter, I would have her ever


s: Cool as dew in twilight, the lark above the flowers.


s: All the girls are out with their baskets for the primrose;


s: Up lanes, woods through, they troop in joyful bands.


s: My sweet leads: she knows not why, but now she loiters,


s: Eyes the bent anemones, and hangs her hands.


s: Such a look will tell that the violets are peeping,


s: Springs in her bosom for odors and for color,


s: Covert and the nightingale; she knows not why.


s: Kerchiefed head and chin she darts between her tulips,


s: Streaming like a willow gray in arrowy rain:


s: Some bend beaten cheek to gravel, and their angel


s: She will be; she lifts them, and on she speeds again.


s: Black the driving rain cloud breasts the iron gateway:


s: She is forth to cheer a neighbor lacking mirth.


s: Saw I once a white dove, sole light of earth.


s: Prim little scholars are the flowers of her garden,


s: Trained to stand in rows, and asking if they please.


s: I might love them well but for loving more the wild ones:


s: O my wild ones! they tell me more than these.


s: You, my wild one, you tell of honied field-rose,


s: Violet, blushing eglantine in life; and even as they,


s: They by the wayside are earnest of your goodness,


s: You are of life's, on the banks that line the way.


s: Peering at her chamber the white crowns the red rose,


s: Jasmine winds the porch with stars two and three.


s: Parted is the window; she sleeps; the starry jasmine


s: Breathes a falling breath that carries thoughts of me.


s: Sweeter unpossessed, have I said of her my sweetest?


s: Not while she sleeps: while she sleeps the jasmine breathes,


s: Luring her to love: she sleeps; the starry jasmine


s: Bears me to her pillow under white rose-wreaths.


s: Yellow with birdfoot-trefoil are the grass-glades;


s: Yellow with cinquefoil of the dew-gray leaf;


s: Yellow with stonecrop; the moss-mounds are yellow;


s: Blue-necked the wheat sways, yellowing to the sheaf.


s: Green-yellow bursts from the copse the laughing yaffle;


s: Sharp as a sickle is the edge of shade and shine:


s: Earth in her heart laughs looking at the heavens,


s: Thinking of the harvest: I look and think of mine.


s: This I may know: her dressing and undressing


s: Such a change of light shows as when the skies in sport


s: Shift from cloud to moonlight; or edging over thunder


s: Slips a ray of sun; or sweeping into port


s: White sails furl; or on the ocean borders


s: White sails lean along the waves leaping green.


s: Visions of her shower before me, but from eyesight


s: Guarded she would be like the sun were she seen.


s: Front door and back of the mossed old farmhouse


s: Open with the morn, and in a breezy link


s: Freshly sparkles garden to stripe-shadowed orchard,


s: Green across a rill where on sand the minnows wink.


s: Busy in the grass the early sun of summer


s: Swarms, and the blackbird's mellow fluting notes


s: Call my darling up with round and roguish challenge:


s: Quaintest, richest carol of all the singing throats!


s: Cool was the woodside; cool as her white dairy


s: Keeping sweet the cream-pan; and there the boys from school,


s: Cricketing below, rushed brown and red with sunshine;


s: O the dark translucence of the deep-eyed cool!


s: Spying from the farm, herself she fetched a pitcher


s: Full of milk, and tilted for each in turn the beak.


s: Then a little fellow, mouth up and on tiptoe,


s: Said, "I will kiss you": she laughed and leaned her cheek.


s: Doves of the fir-wood walling high our red roof


s: Through the long noon coo, crooning through the coo.


s: Loose droop the leaves, and down the sleepy roadway


s: Sometimes pipes a chaffinch; loose droops the blue.


s: Cows flap a slow tail knee-deep in the river,


s: Breathless, given up to sun and gnat and fly.


s: Nowhere is she seen; and if I see her nowhere,


s: Lightning may come, straight rains and tiger sky.


s: O the golden sheaf, the rustling treasure-armful!


s: O the nutbrown tresses nodding interlaced!


s: Nodding!  O the girdle slack about the waist!


s: Slain are the poppies that shot their random scarlet


s: Quick amid the wheat-ears: wound about the waist,


s: Gathered, see these brides of Earth one blush of ripeness!


s: O the nutbrown tresses nodding interlaced.


s: Large and smoky red the sun's cold disk drops,


s: Clipped by naked hills, on violet shaded snow:


s: Eastward large and still lights up a bower of moonrise,


s: Whence at her leisure steps the moon aglow.


s: Nightlong on black print-branches our beech-tree


s: Gazes in this whiteness: nightlong could I.


s: Here may life on death or death on life be painted.


s: Let me clasp her soul to know she cannot die!


s: Gossips count her faults; they scour a narrow chamber


s: Where there is no window, read not heaven or her.


s: "When she was a tiny," one aged woman quavers,


s: Plucks at my heart and leads me by the ear.


s: Faults she had once as she learned to run and tumbled:


s: Faults of feature some see, beauty not complete.


s: Yet, good gossips, beauty that makes holy


s: Earth and air, may have faults from head to feet.


s: Hither she comes; she comes to me; she lingers,


s: Deepens her brown eyebrows, while in new surprise


s: High rise the lashes in wonder of a stranger;


s: Yet am I the light and living of her eyes.


s: Something friends have told her fills her heart to brimming,


s: Nets her in her blushes, and wounds her, and tames.--


s: Sure of her haven, O like a dove alighting,


s: Arms up, she dropped: our souls were in our names.


s: Soon will she lie like a white frost sunrise.


s: Yellow oats and brown wheat, barley pale as rye,


s: Long since your sheaves have yielded to the thresher,


s: Felt the girdle loosened, seen the tresses fly.


s: Soon will she lie like a blood-red sunset.


s: Swift with the to-morrow, green-winged Spring!


s: Sing from the South-west, bring her back the truants,


s: Nightingale and swallow, song and dipping wing.


s: Soft new beech-leaves, up to beamy April


s: Spreading bough on bough a primrose mountain, you,


s: Lucid in the moon, raise lilies to the skyfields,


s: Youngest green transfused in silver shining through:


s: Fairer than the lily, than the wild white cherry:


s: Borne to me by dreams when dawn is at my eyelids:


s: Fair as in the flesh she swims to me on tears.


s: Could I find a place to be alone with heaven,


s: I would speak my heart out: heaven is my need.


s: Every woodland tree is flushing like the dogwood,


s: Flashing like the whitebeam, swaying like the reed.


s: Flushing like the dogwood crimson in October;


s: Streaming like the flag-reed South-west blown;


s: Flashing as in gusts the sudden-lighted whitebeam:


s: All seem to know what is for heaven alone.


s: Forehead, straight nose, and cheeks that be


s: Of some strange metal, thread by thread,


s: Are those that do her bright eyes wrong,


s: And troublous, faint lines wrought in there,


s: And with white hand she touched a bough;


s: O sweet brown hat, brown hair, brown eyes,


s: But for the lash that shades their light


s: What though, perchance, we no more meet,--


s: She made the stars of heaven more bright


s: O, soft, soft, where the sunshine spread,


s: My Lady's birthday crowns the growing year;


s: A flower of Spring before the Spring is here;


s: To sing of her and this fair day to keep


s: The very Loves forsake their Winter sleep;


s: Where'er she goes their circling wings they spread,


s: And shower celestial roses o'er her head.


s: I, too, would chant her worth and dare to raise


s: A hymn to what's beyond immortal praise.


s: Go, little verse, and lay in vesture meet


s: And clypt and kissed them all the night.


s: Though she be made of flowers and light,


s: I see her in the festal warmth to-night,


s: Her rest all grace, her motion all delight.


s: Endowed with all the woman's arts that please,


s: In her soft gown she seems a thing of ease,


s: Whom sorrow may not reach or evil blight.


s: To-morrow she will toil from floor to floor


s: Confessor to men's erring hearts... ah me!


s: 'Neath oaks that mused and pines that dreamed,


s: "Oh! Love," they said, "is King of Kings,


s: "Oh! Love," they said, and "Love," they said,


s: If I was drawn here from a distant place,


s: 'Twas not to pray nor hear our friend's address,


s: But, gazing once more on your winsome face,


s: On that pure shrine that has too long ignored


s: The gifts that once I brought so frequently


s: How sweet your quiet beauty seemed to me.


s: Enchanting girl, my faith is not a thing


s: By futile prayers and vapid psalm-singing


s: My creed is simple: that the world is fair,


s: And beauty the best thing to worship there,


s: Then were my hopes greater than my despair,


s: Then all the world were heaven, nothing woe.


s: Ah! were her heart relenting as her hand,


s: That seems to melt even with the mildest touch,


s: Under wide heavens, but yet there is not such.


s: So as she shows she seems the budding rose,


s: Yet sweeter far than is an earthly flower;


s: Sovereign of beauty, like the spray she grows;


s: Compassed she is with thorns and cankered flower.


s: Yet were she willing to be plucked and worn,


s: She would be gathered, though she grew on thorn.


s: Ah! when she sings, all music else be still,


s: Ne'er breathed such glee from Philomela's bill,


s: Nor from the morning-singer's swelling throat.


s: Ah! when she riseth from her blissful bed


s: She comforts all the world as doth the sun,


s: And at her sight the night's foul vapor's fled;


s: When she is set the gladsome day is done.


s: Shine in my arms, and set thou in my breast!


s: That hills and valleys, dales and fields,


s: The shepherd swains shall dance and sing


s: But Time drives flocks from field to fold;


s: Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,


s: Soon break, soon wither,--soon forgotten,


s: But could youth last, and love still breed,


s: Where, whilst mine eye with plenty feasts,


s: The groves and meadows swell with flowers,


s: Who then can blame the life that strives


s: Their boughs shall blossom, mellow fruit


s: My sweetest Lesbia, let us live and love,


s: And though the sager sort our deeds reprove,


s: Let us not weigh them.  Heaven's great lamps do dive


s: Into their west, and straight again revive:


s: But soon as once set is our little light,


s: Then must we sleep one ever-during night.


s: If all would lead their lives in love like me,


s: Then bloody swords and armor should not be;


s: No drum nor trumpet peaceful sleeps should move,


s: Unless alarm came from the Camp of Love:


s: But fools do live and waste their little light,


s: And seek with pain their ever-during night.


s: When timely death my life and fortune ends,


s: Let not my hearse be vexed with mourning friends;


s: But let all lovers, rich in triumph, come


s: And with sweet pastimes grace my happy tomb:


s: And, Lesbia, close up thou my little light,


s: And crown with love my ever-during night.


s: Leave her or not, follow her needs must I.


s: O that her grace would my wished comforts give!


s: How rich in her, how happy should I live!


s: Envy should cease, her would I love alone:


s: Who loves by looks, is seldom true to one.


s: Could I enchant, and that it lawful were,


s: Her would I charm softly that none should hear;


s: But love enforced rarely yields firm content:


s: So would I love that neither should repent.


s: E'en with her sighs, the strings do break.


s: E'en from my heart the strings do break.


s: Were my heart as some men's are, thy errors would not move me;


s: But thy faults I curious find, and speak because I love thee:


s: Patience is a thing divine, and far, I grant, above me.


s: Foes sometimes befriend us more, our blacker deeds objecting,


s: Than the obsequious bosom-guest with false respect affecting:


s: Friendship is the Glass of Truth, our hidden stains detecting.


s: When I use of eyes enjoy, and inward light of reason,


s: Thy observer will I be and censor, but in season:


s: Hidden mischief to conceal in State and Love is treason.


s: O, did ever voice so sweet but only feign?


s: O, why is the good of man with evil mixed?


s: Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,


s: But if from you they've learned such ill,


s: Which my strong faith shall purchase me,


s: That heart which thy false oaths did wound;


s: Than thine shall by Love's hand be bound,


s: If those bright suns must know no shade,


s: What, still being gathered, still must grow.


s: Of heaven, that's but from hell released.


s: Go tell her through your chirping bills,


s: At her fair hands how have I grace entreated


s: Heart, let her go, for she'll not be converted--


s: She is most fair, though she be marble-hearted.


s: How often have my sighs declared my anguish,


s: Heart, let her go, for I cannot endure it--


s: She gave the wound, and she alone must cure it.


s: But shall I still a true affection owe her,


s: Which prayers, sighs, tears do show her,


s: Heart, let her go, if they no grace can gain me--


s: She made me hers, and hers she will retain me.


s: But if the love that hath and still doth burn me


s: Heart, let her go, O heart I pray thee, let her!


s: Fixed in the heart, how can the heart forget her?


s: From the rude blasts of wanton breath!--


s: Which can make Thyrsis' heart your prey:


s: Still present with us, though unsighted.


s: Till night's black wings do overtake me,


s: Those that their mistress' scorn did bear


s: Would backwards run till they meet mine,


s: There are two births; the one when light


s: And in those souls did plant new powers;


s: Love makes those young whom age doth chill,


s: And whom he finds young keeps young still.


s: Our eyes, our ears, our taste, smell, touch,


s: 'Tis not her birth, her friends, nor yet her treasure,


s: Nor do I covet her for sensual pleasure,


s: Sure he that loves his lady 'cause she's fair,


s: Delights his eye, so loves himself, not her.


s: Something there is moves me to love, and I


s: Do know I love, but know not how, nor why.


s: And the last age should show your heart.


s: And tear our pleasures with rough strife


s: Though when I loved thee thou wert fair,


s: Beauties, like stars, in borrowed luster shine;


s: Love's fires thus mutual influence return;


s: Thine cease to shine, when mine to burn.


s: And thy despised disdain too late shall find


s: Too late then wilt thou shower thy tears,


s: For I would change each hour, like them,


s: Since that poor swain that sighs for you


s: Will still live on, will still live on and die.


s: Can never break, can never break in vain.


s: Where few do hit, whilst thousands miss,


s: This lass so neat, with smiles so sweet,


s: Let my voice ring out and over the earth,


s: Let my voice swell out through the great abyss


s: With a chord of faith in the harp of bliss:


s: Let my voice thrill out beneath and above,


s: And his rank and wealth, his strength and health,


s: And his home is bright with a calm delight,


s: And his heart is great with the pulse of Fate,


s: My sheep I neglected, I broke my sheep-crook,


s: And all the gay haunts of my youth I forsook;


s: No more for Amynta fresh garlands I wove;


s: For ambition, I said would soon cure me of love.


s: Oh, what had my youth with ambition to do?


s: Oh, give me my sheep, and my sheep-hook restore,


s: And I'll wander from love and Amynta no more.


s: Through regions remote in vain do I rove,


s: And bid the wide ocean secure me from love!


s: O fool! to imagine that aught could subdue


s: A love so well founded, a passion so true!


s: Alas! 'tis too late at thy fate to repine;


s: Poor shepherd, Amynta can never be thine:


s: Thy tears are all fruitless, thy wishes are vain,


s: You took it, and touched it, and made it thrill,


s: And it thrills and throbs, and quivers still!


s: Like a babe that sees the light of the sun,


s: And for whom this great world has just begun.


s: Yet leave it not silent too long, nor alone,


s: Lest the strings should break, and the music be done.


s: For though your tongue no promise claimed,


s: For friends in all the aged you'll meet,


s: But when they find that you have blessed


s: Believe me, if all those endearing young charms,


s: Were to change by to-morrow, and fleet in my arms,


s: Thou wouldst still be adored, as this moment thou art,


s: And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart


s: It is not while beauty and youth are thine own,


s: That the fervor and faith of a soul may be known,


s: To which time will but make thee more dear!


s: No, the heart that has truly loved never forgets,


s: As the sunflower turns to her god when he sets


s: The same look which she turned when he rose!


s: Only of thee and me the night wind sings,


s: The earth is filled with wondered whisperings


s: The rain and sunshine tell the eager plant


s: Only of thee and me, till all shall fade;


s: Only of us the whole world's thoughts can be--


s: For we are Love, and God Himself is made


s: My faint spirit was sitting in the light


s: It panted for thee like the hind at noon


s: Thy barb, whose hoofs outspeed the tempest's flight,


s: My heart, for my weak feet were weary soon,


s: Ah! fleeter far than fleetest storm or steed,


s: The heart which tender thought clothes like a dove


s: In the battle, in the darkness, in the need,


s: Nor claim one smile for all the comfort, love,


s: Love's on the meadow, and Love's in the mart!


s: I've met Love a-smiling--for Love's in my heart!


s: You and I have laughed the leagues apart


s: And the throb wherein those old lips met


s: Sweet in her green dell the flower of beauty slumbers,


s: Lulled by the faint breezes sighing through her hair;


s: Sleeps she, and hears not the melancholy numbers


s: Breathed to my sad lute amid the lonely air?


s: Down from the high cliffs the rivulet is teeming


s: To wind round the willow-banks that lure him from above:


s: Oh that, in tears from my rocky prison streaming,


s: I too could glide to the bower of my love!


s: Ah, where the woodbines with sleepy arms have wound her,


s: Opes she her eyelids at the dream of my lay,


s: Listening like the dove, while the fountains echo round her,


s: To her lost mate's call in the forest far away?


s: Come, then, my bird! for the peace thou ever bearest,


s: Still Heaven's messenger of comfort be to me;


s: Come! this fond bosom, my faithfulest, my fairest,


s: Bleeds with its death-wound,--but deeper yet for thee.


s: The air is cool in the fresh woodland spaces,


s: The sunset fills the wide sky with its splendor,


s: I stop and listen for a voice strong, tender,


s: You are the heart of every gleam of glory,


s: About you gathers all the fair year's story;


s: Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,


s: Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.


s: Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying:


s: And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.


s: "Quand vous serez bien vieille, le soir a la chandelle


s: Assise aupres du feu devisant et filant,


s: Direz, chantant mes vers en vous esmerveillant,


s: Ronsard m'a celebre du temps que j'etois belle."


s: They'll say: "she once was fresh and fair,


s: Ah! dreary thoughts and dreams are those,


s: When you are old and gray and full of sleep,


s: And nodding by the fire, take down this book,


s: And slowly read and dream of the soft look


s: Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;


s: How many loved your moments of glad grace,


s: And loved your beauty with love false or true;


s: But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,


s: And loved the sorrows of your changing face.


s: And bending down beside the glowing bars


s: June reared that bunch of flowers you carry,


s: And yield--what you'll not pluck indeed,


s: Heart, fear nothing, for, heart, thou shalt find her--


s: Next time, herself!--not the trouble behind her


s: Left in the curtain, the couch's perfume!


s: As she brushed it, the cornice-wreath blossomed anew:


s: Yon looking-glass gleamed at the wave of her feather.


s: Range the wide house from the wing to the center.


s: Still the same chance! she goes out as I enter.


s: Spend my whole day in the quest,--who cares?


s: But 'tis twilight, you see,--with such suites to explore,


s: Such closets to search, such alcoves to importune!


s: While the one eludes, must the other pursue.


s: Though I do my best I shall scarce succeed.


s: So the chase takes up one's life, that's all.


s: While, look but once from your farthest bound


s: Than a new one, straight to the self-same mark,


s: Come in the evening, or come in the morning;


s: Come when you're looked for, or come without warning:


s: Kisses and welcome you'll find here before you,


s: And the oftener you come here the more I'll adore you!


s: Light is my heart since the day we were plighted;


s: Red is my cheek that they told me was blighted;


s: The green of the trees looks far greener than ever,


s: And the linnets are singing, "True lovers don't sever!"


s: I'll pull you sweet flowers, to wear if you choose them,--


s: Or, after you've kissed them, they'll lie on my bosom;


s: I'll fetch from the mountain its breeze to inspire you;


s: I'll fetch from my fancy a tale that won't tire you.


s: Oh! your step's like the rain to the summer-vexed farmer,


s: Or saber and shield to a knight without armor;


s: I'll sing you sweet songs till the stars rise above me,


s: Then, wandering, I'll wish you in silence to love me.


s: We'll look through the trees at the cliff and the eyrie;


s: We'll tread round the rath on the track of the fairy;


s: We'll look on the stars, and we'll list to the river,


s: Till you ask of your darling what gift you can give her:


s: Oh! she'll whisper you--"Love, as unchangeably beaming,


s: And trust, when in secret, most tunefully streaming;


s: Till the starlight of heaven above us shall quiver,


s: As our souls flow in one down eternity's river."


s: So come in the evening, or come in the morning;


s: Come when you're looked for, or come without warning:


s: Kisses and welcome you'll find here before you,


s: And the oftener you come here the more I'll adore you!


s: Light is my heart since the day we were plighted;


s: Red is my cheek that they told me was blighted;


s: The green of the trees looks far greener than ever,


s: And the linnets are singing, "True lovers don't sever!"


s: She smiles and smiles, and will not sigh,


s: She looked, and smiled, and saw them through.


s: And cry, Long, long I've looked for thee!


s: Then will she weep--with smiles, till then


s: I looked and saw your eyes in the shadow of your hair,


s: As a traveler sees the stream in the shadow of the wood;--


s: And I said, "My faint heart sighs, ah me! to linger there,


s: To drink deep and to dream in that sweet solitude."


s: I looked and saw your heart in the shadow of your eyes,


s: As a seeker sees the gold in the shadow of the stream;


s: And I said, Ah, me! what art should win the immortal prize,


s: Whose want must make life cold and Heaven a hollow dream?"


s: I looked and saw your love in the shadow of your heart,


s: As a diver sees the pearl in the shadow of the sea;


s: And I murmured, not above my breath, but all apart,--


s: "Ah! you can love, true girl, and is your love for me?"


s: Twelve times dearer, twelve hours longer,--


s: I found in dreams a place of wind and flowers,


s: Full of sweet trees and color of glad grass,


s: A lady clothed like summer with sweet hours,


s: Sorrow had filled her shaken eyelids' blue,


s: And her mouth's sad red heavy rose all through


s: She held a little cithern by the strings,


s: Shaped heartwise, strung with subtle-colored hair


s: That in dead years had done delicious things.


s: The seven strings were named accordingly;


s: The rest were pleasure, sorrow, sleep, and sin,


s: There were three men with her, each garmented


s: With gold, and shod with gold upon the feet;


s: The first man's hair was wound upon his head:


s: His face was red, and his mouth curled and sad;


s: A riven hood was pulled across his eyes;


s: The next 'was Shame, with hollow heavy face


s: Colored like green wood when flame kindles it.


s: The last was Fear, that is akin to Death;


s: He is Shame's friend, and always as Shame saith


s: Seeing the air's face is not so delicate


s: And seeing where maidens served her on their knees,


s: Then Fear said: I am Pity that was dead.


s: And her sweet mouth a song in a strange tongue;


s: There was no sound but long tears following


s: Long tears upon men's faces, waxen white


s: Great glad mouths open, and fair cheeks made red


s: Or lips wherein my whole soul's life abides;


s: Doubtless for her sake all my days shall be


s: Forth, ballad, and take roses in both arms,


s: Even till the top rose touch thee in the throat


s: Borgia, thy gold hair's color burns in me,


s: Thy mouth makes beat my blood in feverish rhymes;


s: Then it may be, seeing how sweet she is,


s: That she will stoop herself none otherwise


s: And kiss thee with soft laughter on thine eyes,


s: Let us go hence, my songs; she will not hear.


s: Keep silence now, for singing time is over,


s: And over all old things and all things dear.


s: She loves not you nor me as all we love her.


s: Yea, though we sang as angels in her ear,


s: Let us rise up and part; she will not know.


s: Let us go seaward as the great winds go,


s: Full of blown sand and foam; what help is there?


s: There is no help, for all these things are so,


s: And how these things are, though ye strove to show,


s: Let us go home and hence; she will not weep.


s: We gave love many dreams and days to keep,


s: Flowers without scent, and fruits that would not grow,


s: Saying, "If thou wilt, thrust in thy sickle and reap."


s: All is reaped now; no grass is left to mow;


s: And we that sowed, though all we fell on sleep,


s: Let us go hence and rest; she will not love.


s: She shall not hear us if we sing hereof,


s: Nor see love's ways how sore they are and steep.


s: Come hence, let be, lie still; it is enough.


s: And though she saw all heaven in flower above,


s: Let us give up, go down; she will not care.


s: Though all the stars made gold of all the air,


s: One moon-flower making all the foam-flowers fair;


s: Though all those waves went over us, and drove


s: Deep down the stifling lips and drowning hair,


s: Let us go hence, go hence; she will not see.


s: Sing all once more together; surely she,


s: She too, remembering days and words that were,


s: Will turn a little towards us, sighing; but we,


s: We are hence, we are gone, as though we had not been there.


s: Nay, and though all men seeing had pity on me,


s: There's nae lark loves the lift, my dear,


s: There's nae bee loves the heather-bells,


s: O, you plant the pain in my heart with your wistful eyes,


s: Like a walking ghost I am, and no words to woo,


s: For it's pale you are, and the fear on you is over me too,


s: Sure it's one complaint that's on us, asthore, this day,


s: The smart of the bee that stung us his honey must cure, they say,


s: I'll coax the light to your eyes, and the rose to your face,


s: O where was the King o' the World that day--only me?


s: Thrush, blackbird, linnet, without pause


s: Did you step from the star to the mountain,


s: Earth may be smitten with fire or frost--


s: 'Twill outlast life and 'twill laugh at death.


s: By what name shall I learn to greet her?


s: With the selfsame sunlight shining upon her,


s: She is standing somewhere--she I shall honor,


s: She that I wait for, my queen, my queen!


s: Something that could not be hers, my queen!


s: I will not dream of her tall and stately,


s: I will not say she must move sedately,--


s: Whatever she does it will then be right.


s: Or that sweet calm which is just between;


s: And whenever she comes she will find me ready


s: But she must be courteous, she must be holy,


s: But I'll give my heart to my lady's keeping,


s: And ever her strength on mine shall lean;


s: And the stars may fall, and the saints be weeping


s: Ere I cease to love her, my queen, my queen!


s: What wrongs are borne, what deeds are done


s: Oh, for an hour when the day is breaking,


s: Down by the shore where the tide is making,


s: Fair as white cloud, thou, love, near me,


s: None but the waves and thyself to hear me!


s: Oh, to my breast how these arms would press thee!


s: Wildly my heart in its joy would bless thee!


s: Oh, how the soul thou has won would woo thee,


s: Out where the breeze on the broom-bush dances,


s: Watching the lark, with the sun-ray o'er us,


s: Winging the notes of his Heaven-taught chorus!


s: Thou would'st but love, and I would woo thee,


s: Oh, for an hour where the sun first found us,


s: Out in the eve with its red sheets round us,


s: Brushing the dew from the gale's soft winglets,


s: Pearly and sweet, with thy long dark ringlets!


s: Oh, to be there on the sward beside thee,


s: Telling my tale, though I know you'd chide me!


s: Sweet were thy voice, though it should undo me,--


s: Oh, for an hour by night or by day, love,


s: Just as the Heavens and thou might say, love!


s: Far from the stare of the cold-eyed many,


s: Bound in the breath of my dove-souled Nanny!


s: Oh, for the pure chains that have bound me,


s: Warm from thy red lips circling round me!


s: Queen of the pure hearts, do I love thee!


s: I think, perchance, they touch thy cheek,


s: I will make you brooches and toys for your delight


s: Of bird-song at morning and star-shine at night.


s: I will make a palace fit for you and me,


s: Of green days in forests and blue days at sea.


s: I will make my kitchen, and you shall keep your room,


s: Where white flows the river and bright blows the broom,


s: And you shall wash your linen and keep your body white


s: In rainfall at morning and dewfall at night.


s: And this shall be for music when no one else is near


s: The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear!


s: That only I remember, that only you admire,


s: Of the broad road that stretches and the roadside fire.


s: Dusting their feet in the careless clover,


s: And filling their hearts with the blackbird's tune.


s: The "brown bright nightingale" strikes with pity


s: The Sensitive heart of a count or clown;


s: But where is the song for our leafy city,


s: And where the rhymes for our lovely town?


s: "O for the Thames, and its rippling reaches,


s: Poets, be still, though your hearts I harden;


s: We've flowers by day and have scents at dark,


s: The limes are in leaf in the cockney garden,


s: "Come for a blow," says a reckless fellow,


s: "Come to the downs, where the gorse is yellow;


s: Come to the fields where bluebells shiver,


s: Yes, I will come when this wealth is over


s: The lilac's better than fields of clover;


s: I'll come when blossoming May has flown.


s: This misty town that your face shines through?


s: But heart and life of the whirl--'tis you!


s: Margaret! pearl! I have sought and found you;


s: And, though the paths of the wind are free,


s: I'll follow the ways of the world around you,


s: There's a road to heaven, a road to hell,


s: A road for the sick and one for the well;


s: There's a road for the false and a road for the true,


s: There's a road through prairie and forest and glen,


s: There's a road over earth and a road over sea,


s: There's a road for animal, bird, and beast,


s: A road for the greatest, a road for the least;


s: There's a road that is old and a road that is new,


s: There's a road for the heart and a road for the soul,


s: There's a road for a part and a road for the whole;


s: There's a road for love,--which few ever see,--


s: 'Tis the road to you and the road for me.


s: For the love that is purest and sweetest


s: Some day, some day of days, threading the street


s: Some day, some day of days, thus may we meet.


s: Perchance the sun may shine from skies of May,


s: Through every vein with summer on that day.


s: Once more life's perfect youth will all come back,


s: Once more my perfect youth will nothing lack.


s: I shut my eyes now, thinking how 'twill be--


s: And glance to glance, and hand to hand in greeting,


s: Shall vanish in the moment of that meeting.


s: When leaning with my head against a flower


s: Don't say I didn't, for I heard you say--


s: You spoke from that flower on the window sill--


s: "First tell me what it was you thought you heard."


s: "Having found the flower and driven a bee away,


s: I listened and I thought I caught the word--


s: What was it?  Did you call me by my name?


s: Someone said 'Come'--I heard it as I bowed."


s: "I may have thought as much, but not aloud."


s: By the rosy cliffs of Devon, on a green hill's crest,


s: I would build me a house as a swallow builds its nest;


s: I would curtain it with roses, and the wind should breathe to me


s: The sweetness of the roses and the saltness of the sea.


s: Where the Tuscan olives whiten in the hot blue day,


s: I would hide me from the heat in a little hut of gray,


s: While the singing of the husbandmen should scale my lattice green


s: Narrow is the street, Dear, and dingy are the walls


s: Wherein you wait my coming as the twilight falls.


s: All day with dreams I gild the grime till at your step I start--


s: Ah Love, my country in your arms--my home upon your heart!


s: I wish, because the sweetness of your passing


s: Makes all the earth a garden where you tread,


s: That I might be the meanest of your roses,


s: To pave your path with petals passion-red!


s: I wish, because the softness of your breathing


s: Stirs the white jasmine at your window frame,


s: That I might be the fragrance of a flower,


s: To stir the night breeze with your dearest name!


s: I wish, because the glory of your dreaming


s: Strews all the field of heaven with throbbing stars,


s: That I might storm the portals of your slumber,


s: And soar with you beyond night's golden bars!


s: Though at its close my foolish heart must break!


s: But most of all, I wish, my dearest darling,


s: To be the Blessed Morning when you wake!


s: Sweet have I known the blossoms of the morning


s: But now my flowers have found a fuller fragrance,


s: Long have I worshiped in my soul's enshrining


s: High visions of the noble and the true--


s: Now all my aims and all my prayers are purer,


s: Wise have I seen the uses of life's labor;


s: To all its puzzles found some answering clue.


s: But now my life has learned a nobler meaning,


s: In the past days I chafed at pain and waiting,


s: Grasping at gladness as the children do;


s: Now it is sweet to wait and joy to suffer,


s: In the long years of silences that part us


s: Dimmed by my tears and darkened to my view,


s: Close shall I hold my memories and my madness,


s: Whether our lips shall touch or hands shall hunger,


s: Life will be sweeter and more worth the living,


s: My triumph shines, more sweet than late;


s: When, from these mortal mists withdrawn,


s: Breathed in fire his whole soul through me.


s: Then shouldst thou walk, where'er thou art,


s: The music fills their throbbing throats,


s: Oh, fair!  Oh, white!  Oh, pure as snow!


s: On countless graves how sweet they grow!


s: Oh, fair!  Oh, red!  Like blood of slain;


s: Oh, fair!  Oh, pure!  Oh, white and red!


s: Then, lady, at last thou art sick of my sighing?


s: So long as I sue, thou wilt still be denying?


s: Ah, well! shall I vow then to serve thee forever,


s: And swear no unkindness our kinship can sever?


s: Nay, nay, dear my lass! here's an end of endeavor.


s: Yet let no sweet ruth for my misery grieve thee.


s: The man who has loved knows as well how to leave thee.


s: The gorse is enkindled, there's bloom on the heather,


s: And love is my joy, and so too is fair weather;


s: I still ride abroad, though we ride not together.


s: My horse is my mate; let the wind be my master.


s: Though Care may pursue, yet my hound follows faster.


s: The red deer's a-tremble in coverts unbroken.


s: He hears the hoof-thunder; he scents the death-token.


s: Shall I mope at home, under vows never spoken?


s: The brown earth's my book, and I ride forth to read it.


s: The stream runneth fast, but my will shall outspeed it.


s: I love thee, dear lass, but I hate the hag Sorrow.


s: As sun follows rain, and to-night has its morrow,


s: So I'll taste of joy, though I steal, beg, or borrow!


s: Song that is merged in the chant of the whole,


s: What should we doubt of the years that roll?


s: One with the clover that scents the wold,


s: One with the stars, when earth grows old.


s: Heart of my heart, we are one with the wind,


s: One with the clouds that are whirled o'er the lea,


s: One as the waves are at one with the sea!


s: One, still one, while the world grows old.


s: He keeps his state,--keep thou in thine,


s: That falls from love's own guiding star;


s: That paves her path with moonbeams white,


s: And when you wake at the morning's break


s: The star that stays till the leaping rays--


s: From dawn to night unquenched their light--


s: My heart shall be thy garden.  Come, my own,


s: Among my fairest thoughts, my tallest flowers,


s: From root to crowning petal, thine alone.


s: Thine is the place from where the seeds are sown


s: Up to the sky inclosed, with all its showers.


s: But ah, the birds, the birds!  Who shall build bowers


s: To keep these thine?  O friend, the birds have flown.


s: For as these come and go, and quit our pine


s: To follow the sweet season, or, new-corners,


s: Sing one song only from our alder-trees,


s: My heart has thoughts, which, though thine eyes hold mine.


s: Flit to the silent world and other summers,


s: With wings that dip beyond the silver seas.


s: Home, home from the horizon far and clear,


s: Flocks of the memories of the day draw near


s: Oh which are they that come through sweetest light


s: Which with the straightest and the swiftest flight?


s: I shall go forth 'neath different stars,


s: Lest Death should fall in love with you.


s: Then hold me close, the gods are strong,


s: The breasts that heave because they ran,


s: Half shy, half frightened, reaching back


s: Good-night.  Good-night.  Ah, good the night


s: Till that last night when death shall be


s: One brief "Good-night," for thee and me.


s: When, "Hark!" you said,--"Was that a bell


s: Would sell her doves and team of sparrows.


s: Would change her face and look much younger.


s: So sugared, so melting, so soft, so delicious,


s: The first stanza from " Measure for Measure," by


s: The second stanza from "The Bloody Brothers," by


s: Now gentle sleep hath closed up those eyes


s: Which, waking, kept my boldest thoughts in awe;


s: And free access unto that sweet lip lies,


s: From which I long the rosy breath to draw.


s: Methinks no wrong it were, if I should steal


s: From those two melting rubies one poor kiss;


s: None sees the theft that would the thief reveal,


s: Nor rob I her of aught that she can miss;


s: There would be little sign I had done so;


s: O, she may wake, and therewith angry grow!


s: Well if she do, I'll back restore that one,


s: And twenty hundred thousand more for loan.


s: How deep it struck, speak, gods! you know


s: Count the bees that on Hybla are playing,


s: Count the flowers that enamel its fields,


s: Count the flocks that on Tempe are straying,


s: To a heart full of love, let me hold thee,


s: But the wretch that can number his kisses,


s: I am just two and two, I am warm, I am cold,


s: And the parent of numbers that cannot be told,


s: I am lawful, unlawful--a duty, a fault--


s: I am often sold dear, good for nothing when bought;


s: An extraordinary boon, and a matter of course,


s: And yielded with pleasure when taken by force.


s: Away with your fictions of flimsy romance,


s: Those tissues of falsehood which folly has wove!


s: Give me the mild beam of the soul-breathing glance,


s: Or the rapture which dwells on the first kiss of love.


s: Ye rhymers, whose bosoms with phantasy glow,


s: Whose pastoral passions are made for the grove;


s: From what blest inspiration your sonnets would flow,


s: Could you ever have tasted the first kiss of love!


s: If Apollo should e'er his assistance refuse,


s: Or the Nine be disposed from your service to rove,


s: Invoke them no more, bid adieu to the muse,


s: And try the effect of the first kiss of love.


s: I hate you, ye cold compositions of art!


s: Though prudes may condemn me, and bigots reprove,


s: I court the effusions that spring from the heart,


s: Which throbs with delight to the first kiss of love.


s: Your shepherds, your flocks, those fantastical themes,


s: Perhaps may amuse, yet they never can move:


s: Arcadia displays but a region of dreams;


s: What are visions like these to the first kiss of love?


s: Oh! cease to affirm that man, since his birth,


s: From Adam till now, has with wretchedness strove;


s: Some portion of Paradise still is on earth,


s: And Eden revives in the first kiss of love.


s: When age chills the blood, when our pleasures are past--


s: For years fleet away with the wings of the dove--


s: The dearest remembrance will still be the last,


s: Our sweetest memorial the first kiss of love.


s: Say that health and wealth have missed me,


s: All the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee:


s: All the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem:


s: In the core of one pearl all the shade and the shine of the sea:


s: Breath and bloom, shade and shine,--wonder, wealth,


s: Brightest truth, purest trust in the universe--all were for me


s: If only in dreams may man be fully blest,


s: Is heaven a dream?  Is she I clasped a dream?


s: Or stood she here even now where dewdrops gleam


s: And miles of furze shine golden down the West?


s: I seem to clasp her still--still on my breast


s: Her bosom beats,--I see the blue eyes beam:--


s: I think she kissed these lips, for now they seem


s: Scarce mine: so hallowed of the lips they pressed!


s: Yon thicket's breath--can that be eglantine?


s: Those birds--can they be morning's choristers?


s: Can this be earth?  Can these be banks of furze?


s: Like burning bushes fired of God they shine!


s: I seem to know them, though this body of mine


s: Passed into spirit at the touch of hers!


s: There is many a love in the land, my love,


s: Then kill me dead with your love, my love,


s: Phillis took a red rose from the tangles of her hair,--


s: Time, the Golden Age; the place, Arcadia, anywhere,--


s: Phillis laughed, the saucy jade: "Sir Shepherd, wilt have this,


s: Or"--Bashful god of skipping lambs and oaten reeds!--"a kiss?"


s: Bethink thee, gentle Corydon!  A rose lasts all night long,


s: A kiss but slips from off your lips like a thrush's evening song.


s: A kiss that goes, where no one knows!  A rose, a crimson rose!


s: Corydon made his choice and took--Well, which do you suppose?


s: Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings,


s: Sleep, angry beauty, sleep and fear not me!


s: Those lips shut up, that never kindly spoke:


s: What sight can more content a lover's mind


s: Than beauty seeming harmless, if not kind?


s: My words have charmed her, for secure she sleeps,


s: Though guilty much of wrong done to my love;


s: And in her slumber, see! she close-eyed weeps:


s: Dreams often more than waking passions move.


s: Plead, Sleep, my cause, and make her soft like thee:


s: For the gray morn breaks from thine eyes.


s: Since ghost there's none to affright thee.


s: Till she can dress her beauty at your eyes.


s: The merchant bows unto the seaman's star,


s: The ploughman from the sun his season takes;


s: But still the lover wonders what they are,


s: Who look for day before his mistress wakes;


s: Awake, awake, break through your veils of lawn!


s: Then draw your curtains and begin the dawn.


s: Sweet air, blow soft; mount, lark, aloft


s: Bird, prune thy wing, nightingale, sing,


s: From his bright beams, than her fair eyes.


s: Though this was fair, and that was braw,


s: Up! quit thy bower! late wears the hour,


s: Long have the rooks cawed round the tower;


s: The lulling stream that soothed thy dream


s: Waste not these hours, so fresh and gay;


s: Lo! while thou sleep'st they haste away!


s: She starts, she trembles, and she weeps!


s: When the drowsy world is dreaming, love!


s: Then awake!--the heavens look bright, my dear,


s: 'Tis never too late for delight, my dear;


s: Is to steal a few hours from the night, my dear!


s: But the Sage, his star-watch keeping, love,


s: Is the eye from that casement peeping, love.


s: He might happen to take thee for one, my dear!


s: Had Heaven but tongues to speak, as well


s: Oh think what tales 'twould have to tell


s: Thou, who keep'st captive, sweet and clear,


s: See, where she comes, with limbs of day,


s: The dawn! with wild-rose hands and feet,


s: Where lies in happy sleep a girl so fair!


s: And cage cold fancies in a moonlight snare.


s: Hang o'er her poised, but breathe nor sigh nor prayer:


s: And let the wind sweep back your cloudy hair!


s: And star with dew the lawn her feet shall tread;


s: Ambrosial dreams with healthful slumbers wed;


s: When from her couch she lifts her golden head;


s: Leave warm 'mid the gray grass their dusky bed.


s: Though thy sweet wishes wing its flight?


s: Sleep on, sleep on, sweet bride of sleep!


s: Sleep not!--from her soft sleep should fly,


s: With looks whose brightness well might make


s: Where they have dozed and dreamed all day


s: And the woodbine spices are wafted abroad,


s: Beginning to faint in the light that she loves


s: To faint in the light of the sun she loves,


s: All night has the casement jessamine stirred


s: Till a silence fell with the waking bird,


s: I said to the rose, "The brief night goes


s: O young lord-lover, what sighs are those,


s: But mine, but mine," so I sware to the rose,


s: And the soul of the rose went into my blood,


s: From the lake to the meadow and on to the wood,


s: From the meadow your walks have left so sweet


s: The white lake-blossom fell into the lake


s: But the rose was awake all night for your sake,


s: Queen rose of the rosebud garden of girls,


s: In gloss of satin and glimmer of pearls,


s: Shine out, little head, sunning over with curls,


s: The red rose cries, "She is near, she is near";


s: And the white rose weeps, "She is late";


s: For thoughts, like waves that glide by night,


s: When coarser souls are wrapped in sleep--


s: With my farewells.  Till then, good-night!


s: You would have blushed yourself to death


s: But when night comes, released from doubt,


s: But when the night-wind wakes and thrills


s: Wherewith they bring their babes to rest;


s: Let reason's rule now reign thy thought;


s: That o'er the green corn-field did pass,


s: In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,


s: When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;


s: I sung, and gazed: I played, and trembled:


s: Fair Hebe I left, with a cautious design


s: To escape from her charms, and to drown them in wine,


s: I tried it; but found, when I came to depart,


s: The wine in my head, and still love in my heart.


s: I repaired to my Reason, entreated her aid;


s: Who paused on my case and each circumstance weighed,


s: Then gravely pronounced, in return to my prayer,


s: That "Hebe was fairest of all that was fair!"


s: "That's a truth," replied I, "I've no need to be taught;


s: I came for your counsel to find out a fault."


s: "If that's all," quoth Reason, "return as you came;


s: To find fault with Hebe, would forfeit my name."


s: What hopes then, alas! of relief from my pain,


s: While, like lightning, she darts through each throbbing vein?


s: My Senses surprised, in her favor took arms;


s: And Reason confirms me a slave to her charms.


s: It was a lordling's daughter, the fairest one of three,


s: That liked of her master as well as well might be;


s: Till looking on an Englishman, the fair'st that eye could see


s: Long was the combat doubtful that love with love did fight,


s: To leave the master loveless, or kill the gallant knight:


s: To put in practice either, alas! it was a spite


s: But one must be refused: more mickle was the pain,


s: That nothing could be used to turn them both to gain;


s: For of the two the trusty knight was wounded with disdain:


s: Thus art with arms contending was victor of the day,


s: Which by a gift of learning did bear the maid away;


s: Then lullaby, the learned man hath got the lady gays


s: An' though at last they catch them fast,


s: She reached the porch and closed the door?


s: Where Pleasure beams with Heaven's own light,


s: Faith, on whose breast the Loves repose,


s: Whose chain of flowers no force can sever,


s: "She has beauty, but you must keep your heart cool;


s: She has wit, but you mustn't be caught so":


s: Thus Reason advises, but Reason's a fool,


s: And 'tis not the first time I have thought so,


s: 'Tis not the first time I have thought so.


s: "She is lovely; then love her, nor let the bliss fly;


s: 'Tis the charm of youth's vanishing season";


s: Thus Love has advised me, and who will deny


s: Ye tight little fairy, just fresh from the dairy,


s: I love your hills and I love your dales,


s: I'll put your basket all safe in a nook;


s: They may talk of the pleasure of sleeping


s: And your damsel that walks in the morning


s: And you came and kissed me milking the cow.


s: Come behind and kiss me milking the cow!


s: God makes sech nights, all white an' still


s: There warn't no stoves (tell comfort died)


s: The ole queen's-arm thet gran'ther Young


s: Fust this one, an' then thet, by spells--


s: An' she'd blush scarlit, right in prayer,


s: The blood clost roun' her heart felt glued


s: You'll have a care, some four years hence,


s: And blow those kisses through that screen--


s: The love of an Irish lass fell to my fate--


s: The priest was a prophet that christened her Kate.


s: The sweet of her eye there was nothing to mate;


s: And a smile--well, her smile was like--nothing but Kate.


s: What wonder my heart was unwilling to wait!


s: A Katherine masking in mischievous Kate.


s: Fond, serious, patient, and even sedate;


s: Yet stay!  Should I credit the sunshine to Kate?


s: The saucy surrender she made at the gate.


s: You gave me my Katherine--leave me my Kate!


s: Long from the lists of love I stood aloof


s: My heart was steeled and I was beauty-proof;


s: My practice was, in easy-chair reclined,


s: To join the smoke that wreathed itself above.


s: Love, I said in my wisdom, Love is dead,


s: For all his fabled triumphs--and instead


s: Yet when Love, taking vengeance, smote me sore,


s: My Siren called me from no classic shore;


s: For when my peace of mind at length was stole,


s: By brown eyes wide with truth and tenderness.


s: Since time was short and blood was bold,


s: And watched her freckles change from gold


s: Oh! stop, quo' Kate, I'm yours, I'll try


s: They ha'e plagued my heart, an' pleased my e'e,


s: I ha'e thought an' thought, but darena tell,


s: An' smiles as saft as the young rose-bud,


s: Has pierced me through an' through the heart,


s: Gin that's the case, there's time, and place,


s: And when we're ane, baith flesh and bane,


s: Young Rory O'More courted Kathleen bawn,


s: He was bold as a hawk,--she as soft as the dawn;


s: He wished in his heart pretty Kathleen to please,


s: And he thought the best way to do that was to tease.


s: "Now, Rory, be aisy," sweet Kathleen would cry


s: (Reproof on her lip, but a smile in her eye),


s: "With your tricks I don't know, in troth, what I'm about,


s: Faith, you've teased till I've put on my cloak inside out."


s: You've thrated my heart for this many a day;


s: And 'tis plazed that I am, and why not, to be sure?


s: For 'tis all for good luck," says bold Rory O'More.


s: "Indeed, then," says Kathleen, "don't think of the like,


s: For I half gave a promise to soothering Mike;


s: The ground that I walk on he loves, I'll be bound."


s: "Faith," says Rory, "I'd rather love you than the ground."


s: "Now, Rory, I'll cry if you don't let me go;


s: Sure I drame ev'ry night that I'm hating you so!"


s: "Oh," says Rory, "that same I'm delighted to hear,


s: For drames always go by conthrairies, my dear;


s: And bright mornin' will give dirty night the black lie!


s: Since 'tis all for good luck," says bold Rory O'More.


s: "Arrah, Kathleen, my darlint, you've teased me enough,


s: Sure I've thrashed for your sake Dinny Grimes and Jim Duff;


s: And I've made myself, drinkin' your health, quite a baste,


s: So I think, after that, I may talk to the praste."


s: Then Rory, the rogue, stole his arm round her neck,


s: So soft and so white, without freckle or speck,


s: And he looked in her eyes that were beaming with light,


s: And he kissed her sweet lips;--don't you think he was right?


s: "Now, Rory, leave off, sir: you'll hug me no more;


s: That's eight times to-day that you've kissed me before."


s: "Then here goes another," says he, "to make sure,


s: For there's luck in odd numbers," says Rory O'More.


s: "Oh, 'tis time I should talk to your mother,


s: "Oh, don't talk to my mother," says Mary,


s: "Then, suppose I would talk to your father,


s: "Oh, don't talk to my father," says Mary,


s: As beautiful Kitty one morning was tripping,


s: With a pitcher of milk, from the fair of Coleraine,


s: When she saw me she stumbled, the pitcher down tumbled,


s: And all the sweet buttermilk watered the plain.


s: "Oh! what shall I do now--'twas looking at you, now;


s: Sure, sure, such a pitcher I'll ne'er meet again!


s: 'Twas the pride of my dairy!  Oh! Barney MacCleary,


s: You're sent as a plague to the girls of Coleraine."


s: I sat down beside her and gently did chide her,


s: That such a misfortune should give her such pain;


s: A kiss then I gave her, and, ere I did leave her,


s: She vowed for such pleasure she'd break it again.


s: 'Twas hay-making season--I can't tell the reason--


s: Misfortunes will never come single, 'tis plain;


s: For very soon after poor Kitty's disaster


s: The devil a pitcher was whole in Coleraine.


s: "Ah, sweet Kitty Neil, rise up from that wheel,


s: Your neat little foot will be weary from spinning;


s: Come trip down with me to the sycamore-tree,


s: Half the parish is there, and the dance is beginning.


s: The sun is gone down, but the full harvest-moon


s: Shines sweetly and cool on the dew-whitened valley,


s: While all the air rings with the soft, loving things


s: Each little bird sings in the green shaded alley."


s: With a blush and a smile, Kitty rose up the while,


s: Her eye in the glass, as she bound her hair, glancing;


s: 'Tis hard to refuse when a young lover sues,


s: So she couldn't but choose to go off to the dancing.


s: And now on the green the glad groups are seen,


s: Each gay-hearted lad with the lass of his choosing;


s: And Pat, without fail, leads out sweet Kitty Neil,--


s: Somehow, when he asked, she ne'er thought of refusing.


s: Now, Felix Magee puts his pipes to his knee,


s: And with flourish so free sets each couple in motion;


s: With a cheer and a bound, the lads patter the ground,


s: The maids move around just like swans on the ocean:


s: Cheeks bright as the rose--feet light as the doe's,


s: Now coyly retiring, now boldly advancing--


s: Search the world all around, from the sky to the ground,


s: No such sight can be found as an Irish lass dancing!


s: Sweet Kate! who could view your bright eyes of deep blue,


s: Beaming humidly through their dark lashes so mildly,


s: Your fair-turned arm, heaving breast, rounded form,


s: Nor feel his heart warm, and his pulses throb wildly?


s: Young Pat feels his heart, as he gazes, depart,


s: Subdued by the smart of such painful yet sweet love;


s: The sight leaves his eye, as he cries with a sigh,


s: "Dance light, for my heart it lies under your feet, love!"


s: An' he begged that aw'd wed him i' May;--


s: But th' tale wur at th' end o' my tung,--


s: For aw thought to seem forrud wur wrung,


s: Though it isn't a thing one should own,--


s: Iv aw'd th' pikein' o' th' world to mysel',


s: "Aw'd tak him just while he're inclined,


s: An' mak th' best o' th' job when it's done!"


s: An' aw wouldn't for th' world be too late;


s: Not far from old Kinvara, in the merry month of May,


s: When birds were singing cheerily, there came across my way,


s: As if from out the sky above an angel chanced to fall,


s: A little Irish cailin in an ould plaid shawl.


s: She tripped along right joyously, a basket on her arm;


s: Was her modest blue eyes beaming 'neath her ould plaid shawl.


s: I courteously saluted her--"God save you, miss," says I;


s: "God save you kindly, sir," said she, and shyly passed me by;


s: Off went my heart along with her, a captive in her thrall,


s: Imprisoned in the corner of her ould plaid shawl.


s: Enchanted with her beauty rare, I gazed in pure delight,


s: Till round an angle of the road she vanished from my sight;


s: But ever since I sighing say, as I that scene recall,


s: "The grace of God about you and your ould plaid shawl."


s: I've heard of highway robbers that with pistols and with knives,


s: To a simple little cailin in an ould plaid shawl.


s: Oh! graceful the mantillas that the signorinas wear,


s: And tasteful are the bonnets of Parisian ladies fair,


s: But never cloak, or hood, or robe, in palace, bower, or hall,


s: Clad half such witching beauty as that ould plaid shawl.


s: Oh! some men sigh for riches, and some men live for fame,


s: And some on history's pages hope to win a glorious name:


s: My aims are not ambitious, and my wishes are but small--


s: You might wrap them all together in an ould plaid shawl.


s: For peace of mind I'll never find until my own I call


s: That little Irish cailin in her ould plaid shawl.


s: Oh, 'tis little Mary Cassidy's the cause of all my misery,


s: And the raison that I am not now the boy I used to be;


s: Oh, she bates the beauties all that we read about in history,


s: And sure half the country-side is as hot for her as me.


s: Travel Ireland up and down, hill, village, vale and town--


s: Fairer than the Cailin Donn, you're looking for in vain;


s: Oh, I'd rather live in poverty with little Mary Cassidy


s: Than emperor, without her, be of Germany or Spain.


s: Cheeks like the rose in June, song like the lark in tune,


s: Working, resting, night or noon, she never leaves my mind;


s: Oh, till singing by my cabin fire sits little Mary Cassidy,


s: 'Tis little aise or happiness I'm sure I'll ever find.


s: What is wealth, what is fame, what is all that people fight about


s: Take all I own to-day, kith, kin, and care away,


s: Ship them all across the say, or to the frozen zone:


s: Lave me an orphan bare--but lave me Mary Cassidy,


s: I never would feel lonesome with the two of us alone.


s: "Now where are ye goin'," ses I, "wid the shawl


s: Would ye not wait for McMullen's machine,


s: Wid that iligant instep befittin' a queen?


s: Oh, you wid the wind-soft gray eye wid a wile in it,


s: You wid the lip wid the troublesome smile in it,


s: Sure, the road's wet, ivery rain-muddied mile in it--"


s: "Ah, the Saints'll be kapin' me petticoats clean!"


s: "But," ses I, "would ye like it to meet Clancy's bull,


s: Or the tinks poachin' rabbits above Slieve-na-coul?


s: An' the ford at Kilmaddy is big wid the snows,


s: An' the whisht Little People that wear the green close,


s: They'd run from the bog to be makin' a catch o' ye,


s: The king o' them's wishful o' weddin' the match o' ye,


s: 'Twould be long, if they did, ere ye lifted the latch o' ye--"


s: "What fairy's to touch her that sings as she goes!"


s: "Ah, where are ye goin', ses I, "wid the shawl,


s: An' the gray eyes a-dreamin' beneath it an' all?


s: The road by the mountain's a long one, depend


s: Ye'll be done for, alannah, ere reachin' the end;


s: Ye'll be bate wid the wind on each back-breakin' bit on it,


s: Wet wid the puddles and lamed wid the grit on it,--


s: Since lonesome ye're layin' yer delicut fit on it--"


s: "Sure whin's a road lonesome that's stepped wid a friend?"


s: Still 'twas me that went wid her right on to the end!


s: "Ahoy! and O-ho! and it's who's for the ferry?"


s: (The briar's in bud and the sun going down)


s: "And I'll row ye so quick and I'll row ye so steady,


s: And 'tis but a penny to Twickenham Town."


s: The ferryman's slim and the ferryman's young,


s: With just a soft tang in the turn of his tongue;


s: And he's fresh as a pippin and brown as a berry,


s: And 'tis but a penny to Twickenham Town.


s: "Ahoy! and O-ho! and it's I'm for the ferry,"


s: "And it's late as it is and I haven't a penny--


s: She'd a rose in her bonnet, and oh! she looked sweet


s: As the little pink flower that grows in the wheat,


s: With her cheeks like a rose and her lips like a cherry--


s: It's sure but you're welcome to Twickenham Town.


s: "Ahoy! and O-ho!"--You're too late for the ferry,


s: (The briar's in bud and the sun has gone down)


s: And he's not rowing quick and he's not rowing steady;


s: It seems quite a journey to Twickenham Town.


s: "Ahoy! and O-ho!" you may call as you will;


s: The young moon is rising o'er Petersham Hill;


s: And, with Love like a rose in the stern of the wherry,


s: There's danger in crossing to Twickenham Town.


s: Why should two hearts in one breast lie,


s: Where we (thou know'st) do sell our hay,


s: (His beard no bigger, though, than thine)


s: The king (God bless him!) 'twould undo him


s: Her mouth so small, when she does speak,


s: Thou'dst swear her teeth her words did break,


s: There's that that would be thought upon,


s: Just in the nick the cook knocked thrice,


s: Marched boldly up, like our trained-band,


s: Healths first go round, and then the house,


s: But yet 'twas thought he guessed her mind,


s: Dear Chloe, how blubbered is that pretty face!


s: Thy cheek all on fire, and thy hair all uncurled:


s: Prithee quit this caprice; and (as old Falstaff says),


s: Let us e'en talk a little like folks of this world.


s: How canst thou presume thou hast leave to destroy


s: The beauties which Venus but lent to thy keeping?


s: Those looks were designed to inspire love and joy:


s: More ordinary eyes may serve people for weeping.


s: To be vexed at a trifle or two that I writ,


s: Your judgment at once, and my passion you wrong:


s: You take that for fact, which will scarce be found wit:


s: Od's life! must one swear to the truth of a song?


s: What I speak, my fair Chloe, and what I write, shows


s: The difference there is betwixt nature and art:


s: I court others in verse, but I love thee in prose:


s: And they have my whimsies, but thou hast my heart.


s: The god of us verse-men (you know, Child) the sun,


s: How after his journeys he sets up his rest;


s: If at morning o'er earth 'tis his fancy to run;


s: At night he reclines on his Thetis's breast.


s: So when I am wearied with wandering all day,


s: To thee, my delight, in the evening I come:


s: No matter what beauties I saw in my way:


s: They were but my visits, but thou art my home.


s: Then finish, dear Chloe, this pastoral war;


s: And let us, like Horace and Lydia, agree:


s: For thou art a girl as much brighter than her,


s: Phillis kept sheep along the western plains,


s: And Corydon did feed his flocks hard by:


s: This shepherd was the flower of all the swains


s: That traced the downs of fruitful Thessaly;


s: And Phillis, that did far her flocks surpass


s: In silver hue, was thought a bonny lass.


s: A bonny lass, quaint in her country 'tire,


s: Her locks, her looks, did set the swain on fire,


s: He looked, he sighed, he courted with a kiss,


s: No better could the silly swad than this.


s: Shepherds can fancy, but they cannot say:


s: Phillis 'gan smile, and wily thought to prove


s: What uncouth grief poor Corydon did pay;


s: She asked him how his flocks or he did fare,


s: Yet pensive thus his sighs did tell his care.


s: The shepherd blushed when Phillis questioned so,


s: And swore by Pan it was not for his flocks:


s: "'Tis love, fair Phillis, breedeth all this woe,


s: My thoughts are trapped within thy lovely locks;


s: Thine eye hath pierced, thy face hath set on fire;


s: Fair Phillis kindleth Corydon's desire."


s: "Can shepherds love?" said Phillis to the swain.


s: "Such saints as Phillis," Corydon replied.


s: "Men when they lust can many fancies feign,"


s: That lust had lies; "But love," quoth he, "says truth:


s: Thy shepherd loves, then, Phillis, what ensu'th?"


s: Phillis was won, she blushed and hung her head;


s: The swain stepped to, and cheered her with a kiss:


s: With faith, with troth, they struck the matter dead;


s: So used they when men thought not amiss:


s: Phillis was loved, and she liked Corydon.


s: Well met, pretty nymph, says a jolly young swain


s: To a lovely young shepherdess crossing the plain;


s: Why so much in haste?--now the month it was May--


s: May I venture to ask you, fair maiden, which way?


s: Then straight to this question the nymph did reply,


s: With a blush on her cheek, and a smile in her eye,


s: I came from the village, and homeward I go,


s: And now, gentle shepherd, pray why would you know?


s: I hope, pretty maid, you won't take it amiss,


s: If I tell you my reason for asking you this;


s: I would see you safe home--(now the swain was in love!)


s: Of such a companion if you would approve.


s: Your offer, kind shepherd, is civil, I own;


s: But I see no great danger in going alone;


s: Nor yet can I hinder, the road being free


s: And if you could like--(now the swain he took heart)--


s: Such a sweetheart as me, why we never would part.


s: O that's a long word, said the shepherdess then,


s: I've often heard say there's no minding you men.


s: You'll say and unsay, and you'll flatter, 'tis true!


s: Then to leave a young maiden's the first thing you do.


s: O judge not so harshly, the shepherd replied,


s: To prove what I say, I will make you my bride.


s: To-morrow the parson--(well-said, little swain!)--


s: Shall join both our hands, and make one of us twain.


s: Then what the nymph answered to this isn't said,


s: The very next morn, to be sure, they were wed.


s: Now when shall we see such a wedding in town?


s: Sae loun that there nae blast could blaw:--


s: She whiles did smile, she whiles did greet;


s: Straight to the well-known door I haste,


s: Then (till the marriage-rites proclaimed


s: With hostile scythes, demands his tithes


s: Than a coach-and-four, and goold galore,


s: Her fluttering curtsey takes our hearts,


s: Her blushing grace and pleased surprise.


s: Sweet milk that smacked of mountain thyme,


s: The mutual thought,--we stood and pledged


s: Sweet Mary,--bless those budding charms!--


s: The words we spoke were free from guile;


s: She stooped, she blushed, she fixed her wheel,--


s: O, who could blame what flatterers speak,


s: Did smiles like this reward their skill?


s: Frowned the Laird on the Lord: "So, red-handed I catch thee?


s: We've a gallows outside and a chiel to dispatch thee:


s: He met frown with smile, did the young English gallant:


s: Then the Laird's dame: "Nay, Husband, I beg!


s: He's comely: be merciful!  Grace for the callant


s: "No mile-wide-mouthed monster of yours do I marry:


s: "Foul fare kith and kin of you--why do you tarry?"


s: "To tame your fierce temper!" quoth she.


s: "Shove him quick in the Hole, shut him fast for a week:


s: Cold, darkness, and hunger work wonders:


s: Who lion-like roars, now mouse-fashion will squeak,


s: And 'it rains' soon succeed to 'it thunders.'"


s: In flitted a lass, and a voice like a lark


s: Chirped, "Muckle-mouth Meg still ye're scorning?


s: "Go hang, but here's parritch to hearten ye first!"


s: "Did Meg's muckle-mouth boast within some


s: Such music as yours, mine should match it or burst:


s: No frog-jaws!  So tell folk, my Winsome!"


s: Soon week came to end, and, from Hole's door set wide,


s: Out he marched, and there waited the lassie:


s: "Yon gallows, or Muckle-mouth Meg for a bride!


s: Consider!  Sky's blue and turf's grassy:


s: "Life's sweet; shall I say ye wed Muckle-mouth Meg?"


s: "Not I," quoth the stout heart: "too eerie


s: The mouth that can swallow a bubblyjock's egg:


s: Shall I let it munch mine?  Never, Dearie!"


s: "Not Muckle-mouth Meg?  Wow, the obstinate man!


s: "Ay, would he--with just for a dowry your can!"


s: "Will I widen thee out till thou turnest


s: From Margaret Minnikin-mou', by God's grace,


s: "Oh, what hae ye brought us hame now, my brave lord,


s: Strappit flaught owre his braid saddle-bow?


s: Some bauld Border reiver to feast at our board,


s: He's buirdly an' stalwart in lith an' in limb;


s: The field was a saft eneugh litter for him,


s: Then saddle an' munt again, harness an' dunt again,


s: An' when ye gae hunt again, strike higher game."


s: "Hoot, whisht ye, my dame, for he comes o' gude kin,


s: This night he maun share o' our gude cheer within,


s: He's gallant Wat Scott, heir o' proud Harden Ha',


s: But now he is snug in auld Elibank's paw,


s: Though saddle an' munt again, harness an' dunt again,


s: I'll ne'er when I hunt again strike higher game."


s: "Is this young Wat Scott? an' wad ye rax his craig,


s: Gae, gaur the loun marry our muckle-mou'd Meg


s: Or we'll ne'er get the jaud aff our han'!"


s: "Od! hear our gudewife, she wad fain save your life;


s: But Meg's muckle mou set young Wat's heart agrue.


s: Ne'er saddle nor munt again, harness nor dunt again,


s: Wat ne'er shall hunt again, ne'er see his hame.


s: Syne muckle-mou'd Meg pressed in close to his side,


s: But aye as Wat glowered at his braw proffered bride,


s: "A bride or a gallows, a rope or a wife!"


s: Wat boldly strode forward to part wi' his life,


s: Then saddle an' munt again, harness an' dunt again,


s: Fain wad Wat hunt again, fain wad be hame.


s: Meg's tear touched his bosom, the gibbet frowned high,


s: He gae a glance round wi' a tear in his eye,


s: Meg shone like a star through the gloom.


s: She rushed to his arms, they were wed on the spot,


s: Nae bauld border laird had a wife like Wat Scott;


s: So saddle an' munt again, harness an' dunt again,


s: Threescore o' nobles rade to the king's ha',


s: But bonnie Glenlogie's the flower o' them a',


s: Wi' his milk-white steed and his bonnie black e'e,


s: "Glenlogie, dear mither, Glenlogie for me!"


s: "O haud your tongue, dochter, ye'll get better than he";


s: "O say na sae, mither, for that canna be;


s: Though Doumlie is richer, and greater than he.


s: Yet if I maun tak' him, I'll certainly dee.


s: "Where will I get a bonnie boy, to win hose and shoon,


s: Will gae to Glenlogie, and come again soon?"


s: "O here am I, a bonnie boy, to win hose and shoon,


s: Will gae to Glenlogie and come again soon."


s: When he gaed to Glenlogie, 'twas "Wash and go dine";


s: 'Twas "Wash ye, my pretty boy, wash and go dine."


s: "O 'twas ne'er my father's fashion, and it ne'er shall be mine


s: To gar a lady's errand wait till I dine.


s: "But there is, Glenlogie, a letter for thee."


s: The first line that he read, a low smile ga'e he;


s: The next line that he read, the tear blindit his e'e:


s: But the last line he read, he gart the table flee.


s: "Gar saddle the black horse, gar saddle the brown;


s: Gar saddle the swiftest steed e'er rade frae a town";


s: But lang ere the horse was brought round to the green,


s: O bonnie Glenlogie was two mile his lane.


s: When he cam' to Glenfeldy's door, sma' mirth was there;


s: Bonnie Jean's mither was tearing her hair;


s: "Ye're welcome, Glenlogie, ye're welcome," said she,


s: "Ye're welcome, Glenlogie, your Jeanie to see."


s: Pale and wan was she, when Glenlogie gaed ben,


s: But red rosy grew she whene'er he sat down;


s: She turned awa' her head, but the smile was in her e'e,


s: "O binna feared, mither, I'll maybe no dee."


s: O, young Lochinvar is come out of the west,


s: Through all the wide Border his steed was the best;


s: And, save his good broadsword, he weapon had none,


s: He rode all unarmed, and he rode all alone.


s: So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war,


s: There never was knight like the young Lochinvar.


s: He stayed not for brake, and he stopped not for stone,


s: He swam the Eske river where ford there was none;


s: The bride had consented, the gallant came late;


s: Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar.


s: Among bridesmen, and kinsmen, and brothers, and all.


s: Then spoke the bride's father, his hand on his sword,


s: (For the poor craven bridegroom said never a word),


s: "O come ye in peace here, or come ye in war,


s: Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord Lochinvar?"


s: "I long wooed your daughter, my suit you denied;--


s: Love swells like the Solway, but ebbs like its tide,--


s: And now am I come, with this lost love of mine,


s: To lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine.


s: There are maidens in Scotland more lovely by far,


s: That would gladly be bride to the young Lochinvar."


s: The bride kissed the goblet; the knight took it up,


s: He quaffed off the wine, and he threw down the cup.


s: She looked down to blush, and she looked up to sigh,


s: With a smile on her lips, and a tear in her eye.


s: He took her soft hand, era her mother could bar,--


s: "Now tread we a measure!" said young Lochinvar.


s: So stately his form, and so lovely her face,


s: That never a hall such a galliard did grace;


s: While her mother did fret, and her father did fume.


s: And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume;


s: And the bride-maidens whispered, "'Twere better by far,


s: To have matched our fair cousin with young Lochinvar."


s: One touch to her hand, and one word in her ear,


s: When they reached the hall-door, and the charger stood near;


s: So light to the croupe the fair lady he swung,


s: So light to the saddle before her he sprung!


s: "She is won! we are gone! over bank, bush, and scaur;


s: They'll have fleet steeds that follow," quoth young Lochinvar.


s: There was mounting 'mong Graemes of the Netherby clan;


s: Forsters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves, they rode and they ran:


s: There was racing and chasing on Cannobie Lee,


s: But the lost bride of Netherby ne'er did they see.


s: So daring in love, and so dauntless in war,


s: Have ye e'er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar?


s: The priest and bridegroom wait the bride,


s: I know what you're going to say," she said,


s: And she stood up, looking uncommonly tall:


s: "You are going to speak of the hectic fall,


s: And no other summer was like it, you know,


s: Now aren't you, honestly?"  "Yes," I said.


s: "I know what you're going to say," she said:


s: That day in June when the woods were wet,


s: And you carried me"--here she drooped her head--


s: "You are going to say that since that time


s: And"--her clear glance fell, and her cheek grew red--


s: "And have I noticed your tone was queer.


s: "I know what you're going to say," I said:


s: "You're going to say you've been much annoyed;


s: And I'm short of tact--you will say, devoid--


s: And I'm clumsy and awkward; and call me Ted;


s: And you'll have me, anyway, just as I am.


s: Now aren't you, honestly?"  "Ye-es," she said.


s: My lips breathe love's first faltering word?


s: And when you blushed and could not speak,


s: Because you've got those long, soft curls,


s: I played with you 'mid cowslips blowing,


s: When garlands weaving, flower-balls throwing,


s: Through groves and meads, o'er grass and heather,


s: I thought your heart was touched as nearly;


s: O, then, I thought my heart was breaking,--


s: My own young flock, in fair progression,


s: Than when my youngest child was christened:--


s: Time passed.  My eldest girl was married,


s: But though first love's impassioned blindness


s: I still have thought of you with kindness,


s: When our young days of gathering flowers


s: Why, then, with all heaven's luster glowing,


s: The light her love o'er mine is throwing!


s: Fairest of the fairest, rival of the rose,


s: That is Mabel of the Hills, as everybody knows.


s: Do you ask me near what stream this sweet floweret grows?


s: That's an ignorant question, sir, as everybody knows.


s: Ask you what her age is, reckoned as time goes?


s: Just the age of beauty, as everybody knows.


s: Is she tall as Rosalind, standing on her toes?


s: She is just the perfect height, as everybody knows.


s: What's the color of her eyes, when they ope or close?


s: Just the color they should be, as everybody knows.


s: Is she lovelier dancing, or resting in repose?


s: Both are radiant pictures, as everybody knows.


s: Do her ships go sailing on every wind that blows?


s: She is richer far than that, as everybody knows.


s: Has she scores of lovers, heaps of bleeding beaux?


s: That question's quite superfluous, as everybody knows.


s: I could tell you something, if I only chose!--


s: But what's the use of telling what everybody knows?


s: The moon was full, the fields were gleaming;


s: Her face with youth and health was beaming.


s: 'Twas love and fear and triumph blended;


s: And with a "Thank you, Ned!" dissembled;


s: Sweet, rosy, darling mouth,--I kissed her!


s: To feel once more that fresh, wild thrill


s: They were strolling together up the hill,


s: Where the wind came blowing merry and chill;


s: And it blew the curls, a frolicsome race,


s: Till, scolding and laughing, she tied them in,


s: And it blew a color, bright as the bloom


s: All over the cheeks of the prettiest girl


s: The wildest tricks with the little maid,


s: O western wind, do you think it was fair


s: To play such tricks with her floating hair?


s: To blow her against the young man's breast,


s: And kissed her mouth and her dimpled chin?


s: The fluttering flags, the tattered flags,


s: Red, white, and blue, shot through and through;


s: Turned red and white with sheer delight,


s: Has stripling Will, the thoughtful-eyed,


s: The hedgerows green, the summer's grace,


s: The beaux discussed the bright newcomer,


s: With "Gadzooks, sir," and "Ma'am, my duty,"


s: Then all the beaux vowed 'twas their duty


s: With whispers bold and eyes still bolder;


s: Left "Squire, his mark," on divers faces,


s: To see what caused that telltale flushing.


s: That they would lead that Graybeard forth


s: And--oons! Their wrath cooled as they looked,--


s: Sweet Pam she bridled, blushed and smiled--


s: The wild thing loved and could but show it!


s: And won her faith, her love, her beauty.


s: Is it true, then, my girl, that you mean it--


s: Does that hour seem so sweet now between it


s: And to hate, perchance, him who has trapped your


s: Will you have the Court fool of the papers,


s: Who earns his scant bread by his capers,


s: When we met quite by chance at the theatre


s: I'd no thought, love, that mischief would be at her


s: Make a difference 'twixt Sevres and delf--


s: That I'd have the calm nerve to importune


s: I surprised you, poor child, I dare say,


s: Or perhaps--does the moonlight affect your


s: You're released!  With some wooer replace me


s: If you don't mean your Yes of last night.


s: In my birthplace and graveyard, Bohemia--


s: To watch the world with a heart grown cold,


s: These gray hairs are by chance, you see--


s: If women could be fair, and yet not fond,


s: Or that their love were firm, not fickle still,


s: I would not marvel that they make men bond


s: By service long to purchase their good will;


s: But when I see how frail those creatures are,


s: I muse that men forget themselves so far.


s: To mark the choice they make, and how they change,


s: How oft from Phoebus they do flee to Pan;


s: Unsettled still, like haggards wild they range,


s: These gentle birds that fly from man to man;


s: Who would not scorn and shake them from the fist,


s: And let them fly, fair fools, which way they list?


s: Yet for disport we fawn and flatter both,


s: To pass the time when nothing else can please,


s: And train them to our lure with subtle oath,


s: Till, weary of their wiles, ourselves we ease;


s: And then we say when we their fancy try,


s: To play with fools, O what a fool was I!


s: And I might have gone near to love thee,


s: That lips could speak, had power to move thee:


s: And since thou canst with more than one,


s: Armed with her briers, how sweet her smell!


s: But plucked and strained through ruder hands,


s: And I shall sigh, while some will smile,


s: And speak what straight they will repent.


s: But grant us perfect, they're not known.


s: Which, star-like, sparkle in their skies;


s: All hearts your captives, yours yet free;


s: Wise poets, that wrapped Truth in tales,


s: Knew her themselves through all her veils.


s: Quit, quit, for shame, this will not move:


s: And teach her fair steps tread our earth:


s: Of crystal flesh, through which to shine;


s: Of gems that in their bright shades play.


s: And when it comes, say, "Welcome, friend!"


s: Can crown old Winter's head with flowers.


s: Whilst bleeding hearts around him flowed,


s: Street and square and river were there--


s: Short and sweet, and we've come to the end of it--


s: Shall no sonnet, then, ever be penned of it?


s: How its evening grew chill without warning,


s: When the flowers you had dropped at your feet


s: If there was one soft charm that you wanted


s: And your eyes learned a look for me only--


s: And sometimes your hand would touch my hand,


s: I cared not to find out what "No" meant;


s: Nor your lips to grow yielding with "Yes."


s: Love is done with and dead; if there lingers


s: It is laid with this kiss on your fingers--


s: If he climbed in disguise to your lattice,


s: The fault is not mine if I love you too much,


s: Such ever your graces, your tenderness such,


s: And the music the heart gave the tongue.


s: A time is now coming when Love must be gone,


s: Acknowledge our friendship, our passion disown,


s: "See," said the maid, with laughing eyes--


s: Flashed from her eyelid as she said it--


s: One might, perhaps, have cause to dread it;


s: To let it sting one--don't you think so?"


s: "A temple to Friendship," said Laura, enchanted,


s: "I'll build in this garden,--the thought is divine!"


s: Her temple was built, and she now only wanted


s: An image of Friendship to place on the shrine.


s: She flew to a sculptor, who set down before her


s: A Friendship, the fairest his art could invent;


s: But so cold and so dull, that the youthful adorer


s: Saw plainly this was not the idol she meant.


s: "O never," she cried, "could I think of enshrining


s: An image whose looks are so joyless and dim:--


s: But yon little god, upon roses reclining,


s: We'll make, if you please, sir, a Friendship of him."


s: So the bargain was struck.  With the little god laden


s: She joyfully flew to her shrine in the grove:


s: "Farewell," said the sculptor, "you're not the first maiden


s: Who came but for Friendship and took away Love!"


s: King Francis was a hearty king, and loved a royal sport,


s: And one day, as his lions fought, sat looking on the court.


s: The nobles filled the benches, and the ladies in their pride,


s: Valor and love, and a king above, and the royal beasts below.


s: Ramped and roared the lions, with horrid laughing jaws;


s: The bloody foam above the bars came whisking through the air;


s: De Lorge's love o'erheard the King, a beauteous lively dame,


s: He surely would do wondrous things to show his love of me;


s: King, ladies, lovers, all look on; the occasion is divine;


s: I'll drop my glove to prove his love; great glory will be mine."


s: The leap was quick, return was quick, he has regained his place,


s: That all must love thee who behold thee;


s: But, placed in all thy charms before me,


s: When joined with hope, when still possessing;


s: How prompt are striplings to believe her!


s: Not thrice your branching limes have blown


s: In glowing health, with boundless wealth,


s: You needs must play such pranks as these.


s: They seemed, to those who saw them meet,


s: That never has known the barber's shear,


s: Sighing, and singing of midnight strains,


s: The brightest eyes that ever have shone,


s: Sit down and all shall happen as you wish.


s: You turn your face, but does it bring your heart?


s: I'll work then for your friend's friend, never fear,


s: Treat his own subject after his own way,


s: Fix his own time, accept too his own price,


s: When next it takes mine.  Will it? tenderly?


s: Oh, I'll content him,--but to-morrow, Love!


s: This evening more than usual, and it seems


s: As if--forgive now--should you let me sit


s: Here by the window, with your hand in mine,


s: Both of one mind, as married people use,


s: Cheerful and fresh as ever.  Let us try.


s: To-morrow how you shall be glad for this!


s: And mine the man's bared breast she curls inside.


s: Don't count the time lost neither; you must serve


s: For each of the five pictures we require;


s: My serpentining beauty, rounds on rounds!


s: --How could you ever prick those perfect ears,


s: Even to put the pearl there! oh, so sweet--


s: And, I suppose, is looked on by in turn,


s: While she looks--no one's: very dear, no less.


s: You smile? why, there's my picture ready made,


s: There's what we painters call our harmony!


s: --You, at the point of your first pride in me


s: (That's gone you know),--but I, at every point;


s: My youth, my hope, my art, being all toned down


s: There's the bell clinking from the chapel-top;