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


s: Whilst bleeding hearts around him flow'd,


s: And fix'd the wild and wand'ring thought.


s: But both, tho' false, were well received;


s: Where love, and peace, and truth does flow,


s: Lest, once more wandering from that heaven,


s: Since that poor swain that sighs for you


s: That welcome hour, that ends this smart,


s: WHY dost thou shade thy lovely face? O why


s: The sunshine of the Sun's enlivening eye?


s: Without thy light what light remains in me?


s: Thou art my life; my way, my light 's in thee;


s: My life 's a thousand deaths. Thou art my way--


s: Without thee, Love, I travel not but stray.


s: My light thou art--without thy glorious sight


s: My eyes are darken'd with eternal night.


s: My Love, thou art my way, my life, my light.


s: Thou art my light; if hid, how blind am I!


s: Thou art my life; if thou withdraw'st, I die.


s: My eyes are dark and blind, I cannot see:


s: To whom or whither should my darkness flee,


s: But to that light?--and who 's that light but thee?


s: If I have lost my path, dear lover, say,


s: Love, shall a lamb of Israel's sheepfold stray?


s: My path is lost, my wandering steps do stray;


s: Whom should I seek but thee, my path, my way?


s: And yet thou turn'st thy face away and fly'st me!


s: And yet I sue for grace and thou deny'st me!


s: Speak, art thou angry, Love, or only try'st me?


s: Thou art the pilgrim's path, the blind man's eye,


s: The dead man's life. On thee my hopes rely:


s: Dissolve thy sunbeams, close thy wings and stay!


s: See, see how I am blind, and dead, and stray!


s: --O thou that art my life, my light, my way!


s: Then work thy will! If passion bid me flee,


s: Stretch'd out no farther than from me to thee!


s: THY soul within such silent pomp did keep,


s: Time's unheard feet scarce make less noise,


s: Or the soft journey which a planet goes:


s: Life seem'd all calm as its last breath.


s: A still tranquillity so hush'd thy breast,


s: You dare not tell her whence they spring:


s: Five Years Old, 1704. The Author then Forty


s: LORDS, knights, and squires, the numerous band


s: To show their passions by their letters.


s: Lest those bright eyes, that cannot read,


s: Should dart their kindling fire, and look


s: Dear Five-years-old befriends my passion,


s: For, though the strictest prudes should know it,


s: 'Tis so ordain'd (would Fate but mend it!),


s: I sung, and gazed: I play'd, and trembled:


s: They bring me music, wreaths, and mirth,


s: to Lady Margaret Cavendish Holles-Harley, when a Child


s: AS doctors give physic by way of prevention,


s: Mat, alive and in health, of his tombstone took care;


s: For delays are unsafe, and his pious intention


s: May haply be never fulfill'd by his heir.


s: Then take Mat's word for it, the sculptor is paid;


s: That the figure is fine, pray believe your own eye;


s: Yet credit but lightly what more may be said,


s: For we flatter ourselves, and teach marble to lie.


s: Yet counting as far as to fifty his years,


s: His virtues and vices were as other men's are;


s: High hopes he conceived, and he smother'd great fears,


s: In a life parti-colour'd, half pleasure, half care.


s: Nor to business a drudge, nor to faction a slave,


s: He strove to make int'rest and freedom agree;


s: In public employments industrious and grave,


s: And alone with his friends, Lord! how merry was he!


s: Now in equipage stately, now humbly on foot,


s: Both fortunes he tried, but to neither would trust;


s: And whirl'd in the round as the wheel turn'd about,


s: He found riches had wings, and knew man was but dust.


s: This verse, little polish'd, tho' mighty sincere,


s: Sets neither his titles nor merit to view;


s: It says that his relics collected lie here,


s: And no mortal yet knows too if this may be true.


s: Fierce robbers there are that infest the highway,


s: So Mat may be kill'd, and his bones never found;


s: False witness at court, and fierce tempests at sea,


s: So Mat may yet chance to be hang'd or be drown'd.


s: If his bones lie in earth, roll in sea, fly in air,


s: To Fate we must yield, and the thing is the same;


s: And if passing thou giv'st him a smile or a tear,


s: He cares not--yet, prithee, be kind to his fame.


s: THERE ance was a may, and she lo'ed na men;


s: She biggit her bonnie bow'r doun in yon glen;


s: But now she cries, Dool and a well-a-day!


s: Come doun the green gait and come here away!


s: When bonnie young Johnnie cam owre the sea,


s: He said he saw naething sae lovely as me;


s: He hecht me baith rings and mony braw things--


s: She raised sic a pother 'twixt him and his mother


s: That werena my heart's licht, I wad dee.


s: The day it was set, and the bridal to be:


s: The wife took a dwam and lay doun to dee;


s: She maned and she graned out o' dolour and pain,


s: Till he vow'd he never wad see me again.


s: Said--What had he do wi' the likes of me?


s: Appose I was bonnie, I wasna for Johnnie--


s: Nor dribbles o' drink rins thro' the draff,


s: Nor pickles o' meal rins thro' the mill-e'e--


s: And then she ran in and made a loud din--


s: Believe your ain e'en, an ye trow not me.


s: His bonnet stood ay fu' round on his brow,


s: His auld ane look'd ay as well as some's new:


s: But now he lets 't wear ony gait it will hing,


s: And casts himsel dowie upon the corn bing.


s: The live-lang nicht he ne'er steeks his e'e--


s: Were I but young for thee, as I hae been,


s: We should hae been gallopin' doun in yon green,


s: And linkin' it owre the lily-white lea--


s: may] maid.  biggit] built.  gait] way, path.  hecht]


s: suppose.  pickles] small quantities.  hing] hang.  dowie]


s: dejectedly.  hund the tykes] direct the dogs.  steeks]


s: Yet change so soon you'd ne'er suspect them,


s: For she'd persuade they wound by chance,


s: Whilst all the stars that round her burn,


s: WHEN the fierce North-wind with his airy forces


s: And the red lightning with a storm of hail comes


s: How the poor sailors stand amazed and tremble,


s: While the hoarse thunder, like a bloody trumpet,


s: Such shall the noise be, and the wild disorder


s: (If things eternal may be like these earthly),


s: Such the dire terror when the great Archangel


s: Tears the strong pillars of the vault of Heaven,


s: Breaks up old marble, the repose of princes,


s: Sees the graves open, and the bones arising,


s: Hark, the shrill outcries of the guilty wretches!


s: Lively bright horror and amazing anguish


s: Stare thro' their eyelids, while the living worm lies


s: Thoughts, like old vultures, prey upon their heart-strings,


s: And the smart twinges, when the eye beholds the


s: Lofty Judge frowning, and a flood of vengeance


s: Hopeless immortals! how they scream and shiver,


s: While devils push them to the pit wide-yawning


s: Hideous and gloomy, to receive them headlong


s: Stop here, my fancy: (all away, ye horrid


s: How He sits God-like! and the saints around Him


s: O may I sit there when He comes triumphant,


s: Dooming the nations! then ascend to glory,


s: While our Hosannas all along the passage


s: Where they sought Him, there they found Him,


s: All bright as an angel new dropp'd from the sky,


s: At distance I gaze and am awed by my fears:


s: When your love runs in blushes through every vein;


s: When it darts from your eyes, when it pants in your heart,


s: And thus, might I gratify both, I would do:


s: Still an angel appear to each lover beside,


s: wawking] watching.  lave] rest.  wale] choice, best.


s: Not grave through pride, nor gay through folly;


s: 'Has she no faults then (Envy says), Sir?'


s: When all the world conspires to praise her,


s: WHAT beck'ning ghost, along the moonlight shade


s: Invites my steps, and points to yonder glade?


s: 'Tis she!--but why that bleeding bosom gored,


s: Is it, in Heav'n, a crime to love too well?


s: For those who greatly think, or bravely die?


s: Why bade ye else, ye Pow'rs! her soul aspire


s: Ambition first sprung from your blest abodes;


s: The glorious fault of angels and of gods;


s: Thence to their images on earth it flows,


s: And in the breasts of kings and heroes glows.


s: Most souls, 'tis true, but peep out once an age,


s: Dull sullen pris'ners in the body's cage:


s: Dim lights of life, that burn a length of years,


s: Useless, unseen, as lamps in sepulchres;


s: Like Eastern kings a lazy state they keep,


s: And close confined to their own palace, sleep.


s: From these perhaps (ere Nature bade her die)


s: Fate snatch'd her early to the pitying sky.


s: And sep'rate from their kindred dregs below,


s: So flew the soul to its congenial place,


s: But thou, false guardian of a charge too good!


s: Thou, mean deserter of thy brother's blood!


s: See on these ruby lips the trembling breath,


s: These cheeks now fading at the blast of Death:


s: Cold is that breast which warm'd the world before,


s: And those love-darting eyes must roll no more.


s: Thus, if eternal Justice rules the ball,


s: Thus shall your wives, and thus your children fall;


s: On all the line a sudden vengeance waits,


s: And frequent herses shall besiege your gates.


s: There passengers shall stand, and pointing say


s: (While the long fun'rals blacken all the way),


s: 'Lo! these were they whose souls the Furies steel'd


s: And cursed with hearts unknowing how to yield.'


s: The gaze of fools, and pageant of a day!


s: So perish all whose breast ne'er learn'd to glow


s: For others' good, or melt at others' woe!


s: Thy fate unpitied, and thy rites unpaid?


s: No friend's complaint, no kind domestic tear


s: Pleased thy pale ghost, or graced thy mournful bier.


s: By foreign hands thy dying eyes were closed,


s: By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed,


s: By foreign hands thy humble grave adorn'd,


s: By strangers honour'd, and by strangers mourn'd!


s: What tho' no friends in sable weeds appear,


s: Grieve for an hour, perhaps, then mourn a year,


s: To midnight dances, and the public show?


s: What tho' no weeping Loves thy ashes grace,


s: What tho' no sacred earth allow thee room,


s: Nor hallow'd dirge be mutter'd o'er thy tomb?


s: Yet shall thy grave with rising flow'rs be drest,


s: And the green turf lie lightly on thy breast:


s: There shall the morn her earliest tears bestow,


s: There the first roses of the year shall blow;


s: While angels with their silver wings o'ershade


s: The ground now sacred by thy reliques made.


s: So peaceful rests, without a stone, a name,


s: What once had beauty, titles, wealth, and fame.


s: How loved, how honour'd once, avails thee not,


s: 'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be!


s: Poets themselves must fall, like those they sung,


s: Deaf the praised ear, and mute the tuneful tongue.


s: Ev'n he, whose soul now melts in mournful lays,


s: Shall shortly want the gen'rous tear he pays;


s: Then from this closing eyes thy form shall part,


s: And the last pang shall tear thee from his heart;


s: Life's idle business at one gasp be o'er,


s: The Muse forgot, and thou beloved no more!


s: Thy charms are sweet, but charms are frail:


s: Swift as the short-lived flower they fly,


s: And, crown'd with youth's immortal pride,


s: String after string is sever'd from the heart;


s: Till loosen'd life, at last but breathing clay,


s: Whose eyes have wept o'er every friend laid low,


s: Dragg'd ling'ring on from partial death to death,


s: Till, dying, all he can resign is--breath.


s: Scorn their counsel, scorn their pother;--


s: Where hopeless Anguish pour'd his groan,


s: His frame was firm--his powers were bright,


s: Strain ev'ry nerve, stretch ev'ry plume,


s: THE Curfew tolls the knell of parting day,


s: The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,


s: The plowman homeward plods his weary way,


s: And leaves the world to darkness and to me.


s: Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,


s: And all the air a solemn stillness holds,


s: Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,


s: And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds;


s: The moping owl does to the moon complain


s: Of such as, wand'ring near her secret bow'r,


s: Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade,


s: Where heaves the turf in many a mould'ring heap,


s: The rude Forefathers of the hamlet sleep.


s: The breezy call of incense-breathing Morn,


s: The swallow twitt'ring from the straw-built shed,


s: The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn,


s: No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.


s: For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,


s: No children run to lisp their sire's return,


s: Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.


s: Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,


s: Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke:


s: How jocund did they drive their team afield!


s: How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke!


s: Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,


s: Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile


s: The short and simple annals of the poor.


s: The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r,


s: And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,


s: The paths of glory lead but to the grave.


s: Nor you, ye Proud, impute to These the fault,


s: If Memory o'er their Tomb no Trophies raise,


s: Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault


s: The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.


s: Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?


s: Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,


s: Or Flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of death?


s: Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;


s: Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd,


s: But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page


s: Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll;


s: Chill Penury repress'd their noble rage,


s: And froze the genial current of the soul.


s: The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:


s: Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,


s: And waste its sweetness on the desert air.


s: Some village Hampden that with dauntless breast


s: The little tyrant of his fields withstood,


s: Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,


s: Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.


s: Th' applause of list'ning senates to command,


s: The threats of pain and ruin to despise,


s: And read their history in a nation's eyes,


s: Their lot forbade: nor circumscribed alone


s: Their glowing virtues, but their crimes confined;


s: Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne,


s: The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide,


s: To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame,


s: With incense kindled at the Muse's flame.


s: Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,


s: Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;


s: They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.


s: Yet ev'n these bones from insult to protect


s: With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture deck'd,


s: Their name, their years, spelt by th' unletter'd muse,


s: This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd,


s: Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,


s: Nor cast one longing ling'ring look behind?


s: On some fond breast the parting soul relies,


s: Some pious drops the closing eye requires;


s: Ev'n from the tomb the voice of Nature cries,


s: Ev'n in our Ashes live their wonted Fires.


s: For thee, who, mindful of th' unhonour'd dead,


s: Dost in these lines their artless tale relate;


s: Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate,


s: 'Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn


s: 'There at the foot of yonder nodding beech


s: That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high,


s: His listless length at noontide would he stretch,


s: And pore upon the brook that babbles by.


s: 'Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn,


s: Mutt'ring his wayward fancies he would rove,


s: Now drooping, woeful wan, like one forlorn,


s: Or crazed with care, or cross'd in hopeless love.


s: 'One morn I miss'd him on the custom'd hill,


s: Along the heath and near his fav'rite tree;


s: Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he;


s: Slow through the church-way path we saw him borne.


s: Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay


s: Graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn:'


s: Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth


s: Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,


s: Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,


s: Heav'n did a recompense as largely send:


s: He gain'd from Heav'n ('twas all he wish'd) a friend.


s: Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,


s: (There they alike in trembling hope repose,)


s: The shrieks of death, thro' Berkley's roofs that ring,


s: She-wolf of France, with unrelenting fangs,


s: That tear'st the bowels of thy mangled mate,


s: From thee be born, who o'er thy country hangs


s: The scourge of Heav'n. What terrors round him wait!


s: Amazement in his van, with Flight combined,


s: And Sorrow's faded form, and Solitude behind.


s: Thy son is gone. He rests among the dead.


s: The swarm that in thy noon tide beam were born?


s: Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows,


s: While proudly riding o'er the azure realm


s: Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm;


s: Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway,


s: That, hush'd in grim repose, expects his evening prey.


s: Reft of a crown, he yet may share the feast:


s: A baleful smile upon their baffled guest.


s: Long years of havoc urge their destined course,


s: And thro' the kindred squadrons mow their way.


s: Ye Towers of Julius, London's lasting shame,


s: With many a foul and midnight murder fed,


s: Revere his consort's faith, his father's fame,


s: Twined with her blushing foe, we spread:


s: Now, brothers, bending o'er th' accursed loom


s: Stamp we our vengeance deep, and ratify his doom.


s: And give to rapture all thy trembling strings,


s: A thousand rills their mazy progress take:


s: The laughing flowers, that round them blow,


s: Now the rich stream of music winds along


s: Thro' verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign:


s: The rocks and nodding groves rebellow to the roar.


s: Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs,


s: And frantic Passions hear thy soft controul.


s: And dropp'd his thirsty lance at thy command.


s: Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feather'd king


s: The terror of his beak, and lightnings of his eye.


s: With antic Sports, and blue-eyed Pleasures,


s: Slow melting strains their Queen's approach declare:


s: Where'er she turns the Graces homage pay.


s: With arms sublime, that float upon the air,


s: O'er her warm cheek and rising bosom move


s: The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love.


s: And Death, sad refuge from the storms of fate!


s: Say, has he giv'n in vain the heav'nly Muse?


s: Her sceptres wan, and birds of boding cry,


s: Hyperion's march they spy, and glitt'ring shafts of war.


s: Where shaggy forms o'er ice-built mountains roam,


s: To cheer the shiv'ring native's dull abode,


s: She deigns to hear the savage youth repeat


s: Their feather-cinctured chiefs, and dusky loves.


s: Th' unconquerable Mind, and Freedom's holy flame.


s: Till the sad Nine, in Greece's evil hour,


s: Left their Parnassus for the Latian plains.


s: Alike they scorn the pomp of tyrant Power,


s: And coward Vice, that revels in her chains.


s: They sought, O Albion! next, thy sea-encircled coast.


s: In thy green lap was Nature's darling laid,


s: Stretch'd forth his little arms, and smiled.


s: This pencil take (she said), whose colours clear


s: Thine too these golden keys, immortal boy!


s: Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears.


s: He pass'd the flaming bounds of place and time:


s: He saw; but blasted with excess of light,


s: Behold, where Dryden's less presumptuous car,


s: With necks in thunder clothed, and long-resounding pace.


s: Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.


s: Yet oft before his infant eyes would run


s: Such forms as glitter in the Muse's ray,


s: With orient hues, unborrow'd of the Sun:


s: Yet shall he mount, and keep his distant way


s: Beneath the Good how far--but far above the Great.


s: Still had she gazed; but 'midst the tide


s: She stretch'd in vain to reach the prize.


s: Know, one false step is ne'er retrieved,


s: In numbers warmly pure and sweetly strong:


s: Thy babe and Pleasure's, nursed the pow'rs of song!


s: And gauds, and pageant weeds, and trailing pall:


s: O chaste, unboastful nymph, to thee I call!


s: By all her blooms and mingled murmurs dear,


s: Soothed sweetly sad Electra's poet's ear:


s: In warbled wand'rings round thy green retreat;


s: Still ask thy hand to range their order'd hues.


s: You loved her hills, and led her laureate band;


s: And turn'd thy face, and fled her alter'd land.


s: Love, only Love her forceless numbers mean;


s: Shall gain thy feet to bless the servile scene.


s: Faint 's the cold work till thou inspire the whole;


s: Thou, only thou, canst raise the meeting soul!


s: And all thy sons, O Nature, learn my tale.


s: To bless the turf that wraps their clay;


s: IF aught of oaten stop, or pastoral song,


s: May hope, chaste Eve, to soothe thy modest ear,


s: O nymph reserved, while now the bright-hair'd sun


s: Sits in yon western tent, whose cloudy skirts,


s: Now air is hush'd, save where the weak-eyed bat


s: With short shrill shriek flits by on leathern wing,


s: As oft he rises, 'midst the twilight path


s: Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum:


s: Whose numbers, stealing through thy darkening vale,


s: May not unseemly with its stillness suit,


s: And many a nymph who wreathes her brows with sedge,


s: And sheds the freshening dew, and, lovelier still,


s: Then lead, calm votaress, where some sheety lake


s: Cheers the lone heath, or some time-hallow'd pile,


s: Or if chill blustering winds, or driving rain,


s: Prevent my willing feet, be mine the hut


s: And hamlets brown, and dim-discover'd spires,


s: And hears their simple bell, and marks o'er all


s: While Spring shall pour his show'rs, as oft he wont,


s: And bathe thy breathing tresses, meekest Eve!


s: While sallow Autumn fills thy lap with leaves,


s: Or Winter, yelling through the troublous air,


s: Shall Fancy, Friendship, Science, rose-lipp'd Health


s: Soft maids and village hinds shall bring


s: At length some dear-bought caution earn'd:


s: What joy to call a heart like hers one's own!


s: Will care's rude lesson learn to please?


s: Or placed thy friends above her stern decrees?


s: Through yon wild thicket next the plain,


s: Gives balm for all the thorns that pierce,


s: From whose right arm, beneath whose eyes,


s: The world, the clustering spheres, He made;


s: Which stand from earth to topmost heaven;


s: With God's good poor, which, last and least


s: Sweet the young nurse, with love intense,


s: While his vague mind's in quest of sweets,


s: Glorious the Almighty's stretched-out arm;


s: Glorious the song, when God 's the theme;


s: I'VE heard them lilting at our ewe-milking,


s: But now they are moaning on ilka green loaning--


s: The Flowers of the Forest are a' wede away.


s: At bughts, in the morning, nae blythe lads are scorning,


s: Nae daffing, nae gabbing, but sighing and sabbing,


s: Ilk ane lifts her leglin and hies her away.


s: In hairst, at the shearing, nae youths now are jeering,


s: Bandsters are lyart, and runkled, and gray:


s: At fair or at preaching, nae wooing, nae fleeching--


s: At e'en, in the gloaming, nae swankies are roaming


s: 'Bout stacks wi' the lasses at bogle to play;


s: But ilk ane sits eerie, lamenting her dearie--


s: Dool and wae for the order sent our lads to the Border!


s: The English, for ance, by guile wan the day;


s: The Flowers of the Forest, that fought aye the foremost,


s: The prime of our land, lie cauld in the clay.


s: We'll hear nae mair lilting at our ewe-milking;


s: Sighing and moaning on ilka green loaning--


s: loaning] lane, field-track.  wede] weeded.  bughts]


s: sheep-folds.  daffing] joking.  leglin] milk-pail.  hairst]


s: harvest.  bandsters] binders.  lyart] gray-haired.  runkled]


s: Thou, like the world, th' oppress'd oppressing,


s: Such aid from Heaven as some have feign'd they drew,


s: An eloquence scarce given to mortals, new


s: And undebased by praise of meaner things;


s: That ere through age or woe I shed my wings,


s: But thou hast little need. There is a Book


s: By seraphs writ with beams of heavenly light,


s: On which the eyes of God not rarely look,


s: A chronicle of actions just and bright--


s: There all thy deeds, my faithful Mary, shine;


s: And since thou own'st that praise, I spare thee mine.


s: 'Twas my distress that brought thee low,


s: But well thou play'dst the housewife's part,


s: And still to love, though press'd with ill,


s: LIKE thee I once have stemm'd the sea of life,


s: Like thee have languish'd after empty joys,


s: Like thee have labour'd in the stormy strife,


s: Been grieved for trifles, and amused with toys.


s: Forget my frailties; thou art also frail:


s: Forgive my lapses; for thyself may'st fall:


s: Nor read unmoved my artless tender tale--


s: Till clay-cauld death sall blin' my e'e,


s: yowes] ewes.  knowes] knolls, little hills.  rows] rolls.  row'd]


s: Where'er they lay these limbs, this head,


s: Ah, tell where I must seek this compound I?


s: Through blank oblivious years th' appointed hour


s: To break thy trance and reassume thy power?


s: Yet canst thou without thought or feeling be?


s: O say, what art thou, when no more thou'rt thee?


s: Through pleasant and through cloudy weather;


s: 'Tis hard to part when friends are dear;


s: Say not Good-night, but in some brighter clime


s: The schoolboy, wand'ring through the wood


s: Starts, the new voice of Spring to hear,


s: WHEN the sheep are in the fauld, and the kye at hame,


s: The waes o' my heart fa' in showers frae my e'e,


s: Young Jamie lo'ed me weel, and sought me for his bride;


s: But saving a croun he had naething else beside:


s: To make the croun a pund, young Jamie gaed to sea;


s: And the croun and the pund were baith for me.


s: When my father brak his arm, and the cow was stown awa;


s: My mother she fell sick,--and my Jamie at the sea--


s: My father couldna work, and my mother couldna spin;


s: I toil'd day and night, but their bread I couldna win;


s: Auld Rob maintain'd them baith, and wi' tears in his e'e


s: Said, 'Jennie, for their sakes, O, marry me!'


s: My heart it said nay; I look'd for Jamie back;


s: But the wind it blew high, and the ship it was a wrack;


s: His ship it was a wrack--Why didna Jamie dee?


s: My father urged me sair: my mother didna speak;


s: But she look'd in my face till my heart was like to break:


s: They gi'ed him my hand, tho' my heart was in the sea;


s: Sae auld Robin Gray he was gudeman to me.


s: I hadna been a wife a week but only four,


s: When mournfu' as I sat on the stane at the door,


s: I saw my Jamie's wraith,--for I couldna think it he,


s: Till he said, 'I'm come hame to marry thee.'


s: O sair, sair did we greet, and muckle did we say;


s: We took but ae kiss, and we tore ourselves away:


s: I wish that I were dead, but I'm no like to dee;


s: I gang like a ghaist, and I carena to spin;


s: I daurna think on Jamie, for that wad be a sin;


s: But I'll do my best a gude wife aye to be,


s: ON parent knees, a naked new-born child,


s: Weeping thou sat'st while all around thee smiled:


s: So live, that sinking to thy life's last sleep,


s: Calm thou may'st smile, whilst all around thee weep.


s: Sweet his tongue as the throstle's note,


s: cryne] hair.  rode] complexion.  dent] fasten.  gre] grow.  ouph]


s: Worn with life's care, love yet was love.


s: O THOU with dewy locks, who lookest down


s: Through the clear windows of the morning, turn


s: Which in full choir hails thy approach, O Spring!


s: The hills tell one another, and the listening


s: Valleys hear; all our longing eyes are turn'd


s: Come o'er the eastern hills, and let our winds


s: Kiss thy perfumed garments; let us taste


s: Thy morn and evening breath; scatter thy pearls


s: Upon our lovesick land that mourns for thee.


s: O deck her forth with thy fair fingers; pour


s: Thy golden crown upon her languish'd head,


s: Whose modest tresses are bound up for thee.


s: His breast is Love's all-worshipp'd tomb,


s: And I am black, but O, my soul is white!


s: But I am black, as if bereaved of light.


s: And, sitting down before the heat of day,


s: And, pointing to the East, began to say:


s: 'Look at the rising sun: there God does live,


s: And gives His light, and gives His heat away,


s: And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive


s: 'And we are put on earth a little space,


s: That we may learn to bear the beams of love;


s: And these black bodies and this sunburnt face


s: Are but a cloud, and like a shady grove.


s: 'For when our souls have learn'd the heat to bear,


s: The cloud will vanish; we shall hear His voice,


s: Saying, "Come out from the grove, my love and care,


s: And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice."'


s: When I from black and he from white cloud free,


s: And round the tent of God like lambs we joy,


s: I'll shade him from the heat till he can bear


s: And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair,


s: And be like him, and he will then love me.


s: There 's not a bonnie flower that springs


s: airts] points of the compass.  row] roll.


s: And we'll tak a right guid-willie waught


s: gowans] daisies.  fit] foot.  dine] dinner-time.  fiere]


s: partner.  guid-willie waught] friendly draught.


s: jo] sweetheart.  brent] smooth, unwrinkled.  beld] bald.  pow]


s: Thou'll break my heart, thou bonnie bird,


s: Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,


s: Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee!


s: scaith] harm.  tent] watch.  steer] molest.


s: Green be your woods, and fair your flowers,


s: Now green 's the sod, and cauld 's the clay,


s: Till clay-cauld death shall blin' my e'e,


s: While view'd impearl'd earth's rich inlay,


s: O TIME! who know'st a lenient hand to lay


s: Softest on sorrow's wound, and slowly thence


s: The faint pang stealest unperceived away;


s: And think, when thou hast dried the bitter tear


s: That flows in vain o'er all my soul held dear,


s: And meet life's peaceful evening with a smile:


s: As some lone bird, at day's departing hour,


s: Sings in the sunbeam, of the transient shower


s: Forgetful, though its wings are wet the while:--


s: Yet ah! how much must this poor heart endure,


s: Which hopes from thee, and thee alone, a cure!


s: That would have mock'd the sense of pain


s: And pu' the cress-flower round the spring;


s: And the nut that hung frae the hazel tree;


s: But lang may her minny look o'er the wa',


s: But lang may she seek i' the green-wood shaw;


s: And lang, lang greet or Kilmeny come hame!


s: When grief grew calm, and hope was dead,


s: When mess for Kilmeny's soul had been sung,


s: When the bedesman had pray'd and the dead bell rung,


s: Late, late in gloamin' when all was still,


s: When the fringe was red on the westlin hill,


s: The wood was sere, the moon i' the wane,


s: The reek o' the cot hung over the plain,


s: Like a little wee cloud in the world its lane;


s: Late, late in the gloamin' Kilmeny came hame!


s: Where gat you that joup o' the lily scheen?


s: That bonnie snood of the birk sae green?


s: And these roses, the fairest that ever were seen?


s: But nae smile was seen on Kilmeny's face;


s: As still was her look, and as still was her e'e,


s: As the stillness that lay on the emerant lea,


s: Or the mist that sleeps on a waveless sea.


s: For Kilmeny had been, she knew not where,


s: And Kilmeny had seen what she could not declare;


s: Kilmeny had been where the cock never crew,


s: Where the rain never fell, and the wind never blew.


s: But it seem'd as the harp of the sky had rung,


s: And the airs of heaven play'd round her tongue,


s: When she spake of the lovely forms she had seen,


s: That neither has flesh, blood, nor bane;


s: And down in yon green-wood he walks his lane.


s: But the air was soft and the silence deep,


s: She kenn'd nae mair, nor open'd her e'e,


s: Till waked by the hymns of a far countrye.


s: She 'waken'd on a couch of the silk sae slim,


s: All striped wi' the bars of the rainbow's rim;


s: 'What spirit has brought this mortal here?'--


s: 'Lang have I journey'd, the world wide,'


s: 'Baith night and day I have watch'd the fair,


s: As the spirits that sojourn in this countrye:


s: I have brought her away frae the snares of men,


s: They clasp'd her waist and her hands sae fair,


s: They kiss'd her cheek and they kemed her hair,


s: Saying, 'Bonnie Kilmeny, ye're welcome here!


s: Many a lang year through the world we've gane,


s: For it 's they who nurice the immortal mind.


s: We have watch'd their steps as the dawning shone,


s: Have soothed their ardent minds to sleep,


s: We have seen! we have seen! but the time must come,


s: And the angels will weep at the day of doom!


s: And the sigh that heaves a bosom sae fair!


s: And the praise of virtue frae beauty's mouth!


s: O tell of the joys that are waiting here;


s: And tell of the signs you shall shortly see;


s: Of the times that are now, and the times that shall be.'--


s: And she walk'd in the light of a sunless day;


s: The fountain of vision, and fountain of light:


s: The emerald fields were of dazzling glow,


s: Then deep in the stream her body they laid,


s: That her youth and beauty never might fade;


s: And they smiled on heaven, when they saw her lie


s: In the stream of life that wander'd bye.


s: And she heard a song, she heard it sung,


s: She kenn'd not where; but sae sweetly it rung,


s: It fell on the ear like a dream of the morn:


s: The sun that shines on the world sae bright,


s: A borrow'd gleid frae the fountain of light;


s: And the moon that sleeks the sky sae dun,


s: And the angels shall miss them travelling the air.


s: But lang, lang after baith night and day,


s: When the sun and the world have elyed away;


s: When the sinner has gane to his waesome doom,


s: Kilmeny shall smile in eternal bloom!'--


s: But so swift they wain'd her through the light,


s: 'Twas like the motion of sound or sight;


s: They came, they pass'd, and backward flew,


s: Appear'd like those o'er which they flew!


s: The lowermost vales of the storied heaven;


s: From thence they can view the world below,


s: And heaven's blue gates with sapphires glow,


s: And they seated her high on a purple sward,


s: And bade her heed what she saw and heard,


s: And note the changes the spirits wrought,


s: For now she lived in the land of thought.


s: She look'd, and she saw nor sun nor skies,


s: She look'd, and she saw nae land aright,


s: But an endless whirl of glory and light:


s: Far swifter than wind, or the linked flame.


s: She hid her e'en frae the dazzling view;


s: She look'd again, and the scene was new.


s: And that land had glens and mountains gray;


s: And that land had valleys and hoary piles,


s: Its fields were speckled, its forests green,


s: And its lakes were all of the dazzling sheen,


s: Like magic mirrors, where slumbering lay


s: The sun and the sky and the cloudlet gray;


s: Which heaved and trembled, and gently swung,


s: For there they were seen on their downward plain


s: Little peaceful heavens in the bosom of earth.


s: For she found her heart to that land did cleave;


s: She saw the plaid and the broad claymore,


s: And the brows that the badge of freedom bore;


s: And she thought she had seen the land before.


s: Her sovereign shield till love stole in,


s: And the guardian maid wi' the dauntless e'e,


s: And she saw till the queen frae the lion fled,


s: Till the bonniest flower of the world lay dead;


s: And she saw the red blood fall like rain;


s: And she turn'd away, and could look nae mair.


s: And they trampled him down, but he rose again;


s: And he baited the lion to deeds of weir,


s: Till he lapp'd the blood to the kingdom dear;


s: When crown'd with the rose and clover leaf,


s: He gowl'd at the carle, and chased him away


s: To feed wi' the deer on the mountain gray.


s: He gowl'd at the carle, and geck'd at Heaven,


s: But his mark was set, and his arles given.


s: She look'd again, and the scene was new.


s: Burst frae their bounds like fiends of hell;


s: Till the cities and towers were wrapp'd in a blaze,


s: And the thunder it roar'd o'er the lands and the seas.


s: The widows they wail'd, and the red blood ran,


s: And she threaten'd an end to the race of man;


s: She met wi' the gowl o' the lion's mouth.


s: But lang may she cower in her bloody nest,


s: And lang, lang sleek her wounded breast,


s: And the string of his harp wad cease to play.


s: But she saw till the sorrows of man were bye,


s: Till the stars of heaven fell calmly away,


s: The friends she had left in her own countrye;


s: To tell of the place where she had been,


s: And the glories that lay in the land unseen;


s: Shall bloom in beauty when time is gane.


s: And when she awaken'd, she lay her lane,


s: All happ'd with flowers, in the green-wood wene.


s: When seven lang years had come and fled,


s: When scarce was remember'd Kilmeny's name,


s: Late, late in a gloamin' Kilmeny came hame!


s: For there was no pride nor passion there;


s: And her cheek the moss-rose in the shower;


s: To suck the flowers, and drink the spring.


s: But wherever her peaceful form appear'd,


s: The wild beasts of the hill were cheer'd;


s: The wolf play'd blythly round the field,


s: Broke from their bughts and faulds the tame,


s: And murmur'd and look'd with anxious pain


s: The buzzard came with the throstle-cock;


s: And the tod, and the lamb, and the leveret ran;


s: And the merle and the mavis forhooy'd their young;


s: When a month and a day had come and gane.


s: There laid her down on the leaves sae green,


s: And Kilmeny on earth was never mair seen.


s: But O, the words that fell from her mouth


s: Were words of wonder, and words of truth!


s: But all the land were in fear and dread,


s: For they kendna whether she was living or dead.


s: It wasna her hame, and she couldna remain;


s: And return'd to the land of thought again.


s: yorlin] the yellow-hammer.  hindberrye] bramble.  minny]


s: mother.  greet] mourn.  westlin] western.  its lane] alone, by


s: itself.  low'd] flamed.  eiry leme] eery gleam.  linn]


s: waterfall.  joup] mantle.  swa'd] swelled.  waik] a row of deep


s: damp grass.  wene] ?whin, a furze-bush.  maike] a mate, match,


s: equal.  his lane] alone, by himself.  happ'd] covered.  speer]


s: inquire.  fere] fellow.  eident] unintermittently.  kemed]


s: combed.  kyth] show, appear.  gleid] spark, glow.  elyed]


s: vanished.  marled] variegated, parti-coloured.  leifu'] lone,


s: wistful.  girn'd] snarled.  weir] war.  gowl'd] howled.  geck'd]


s: mocked.  arles] money paid on striking a bargain; fig. a


s: beating.  lened] crouched.  swink'd] laboured.  brainyell'd]


s: stirred, beat.  mooted] moulted.  sey] essay.  unmeled]


s: stared, gazed.  corby] raven.  houf] haunt.  raike] ramble.  tod]


s: What fond and wayward thoughts will slide


s: Thy mornings showed, thy nights conceal'd,


s: In earth and heaven, in glade and bower,


s: 'The floating clouds their state shall lend


s: Grace that shall mould the maiden's form


s: Where rivulets dance their wayward round,


s: EARTH has not anything to show more fair:


s: Dull would he be of soul who could pass by


s: The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,


s: Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie


s: All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.


s: In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;


s: Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!


s: The river glideth at his own sweet will:


s: And all that mighty heart is lying still!


s: IT is a beauteous evening, calm and free,


s: Breathless with adoration; the broad sun


s: The gentleness of heaven broods o'er the sea:


s: Dear Child! dear Girl! that walkest with me here,


s: If thou appear untouch'd by solemn thought,


s: Thy nature is not therefore less divine:


s: Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the year;


s: And worshipp'st at the Temple's inner shrine,


s: God being with thee when we know it not.


s: ONCE did she hold the gorgeous East in fee;


s: And was the safeguard of the West: the worth


s: No guile seduced, no force could violate;


s: And what if she had seen those glories fade,


s: Those titles vanish, and that strength decay;


s: Yet shall some tribute of regret be paid


s: When her long life hath reach'd its final day:


s: Men are we, and must grieve when even the Shade


s: Of that which once was great is pass'd away.


s: O FRIEND! I know not which way I must look


s: To think that now our life is only drest


s: For show; mean handy-work of craftsman, cook,


s: Or groom!--We must run glittering like a brook


s: In the open sunshine, or we are unblest:


s: The wealthiest man among us is the best:


s: Plain living and high thinking are no more:


s: Is gone; our peace, our fearful innocence,


s: And pure religion breathing household laws.


s: MILTON! thou shouldst be living at this hour:


s: Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,


s: Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,


s: Have forfeited their ancient English dower


s: Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;


s: And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power!


s: Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;


s: Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:


s: Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,


s: So didst thou travel on life's common way,


s: In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart


s: GREAT men have been among us; hands that penn'd


s: And tongues that utter'd wisdom--better none:


s: Young Vane, and others who call'd Milton friend.


s: These moralists could act and comprehend:


s: In splendour: what strength was, that would not bend


s: But in magnanimous meekness. France, 'tis strange,


s: Hath brought forth no such souls as we had then.


s: IT is not to be thought of that the flood


s: Of British freedom, which, to the open sea


s: Of the world's praise, from dark antiquity


s: Hath flow'd, 'with pomp of waters, unwithstood,'


s: Roused though it be full often to a mood


s: Which spurns the check of salutary bands,--


s: That this most famous stream in bogs and sands


s: Armoury of the invincible Knights of old:


s: We must be free or die, who speak the tongue


s: That Shakespeare spake; the faith and morals hold


s: Which Milton held.--In everything we are sprung


s: Of Earth's first blood, have titles manifold.


s: WHEN I have borne in memory what has tamed


s: Great Nations, how ennobling thoughts depart


s: When men change swords for ledgers, and desert


s: The student's bower for gold, some fears unnamed


s: Now, when I think of thee, and what thou art,


s: For dearly must we prize thee; we who find


s: Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles.


s: Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;


s: That floats on high o'er vales and hills,


s: And calm'st the weary strife of frail humanity!


s: They fail, thy saving arms, dread Power! around them cast.


s: Yet seek thy firm support, according to their need.


s: But thee I now would serve more strictly, if I may.


s: My hopes no more must change their name,


s: I long for a repose that ever is the same.


s: No farther than they breed a second Will more wise.


s: Flowers laugh before thee on their beds,


s: Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong;


s: And the most ancient heavens, through Thee, are fresh and strong.


s: And in the light of truth thy bondman let me live!


s: NUNS fret not at their convent's narrow room,


s: And hermits are contented with their cells,


s: And students with their pensive citadels;


s: Maids at the wheel, the weaver at his loom,


s: Sit blithe and happy; bees that soar for bloom,


s: High as the highest peak of Furness fells,


s: Will murmur by the hour in foxglove bells:


s: Ourselves no prison is: and hence for me,


s: In sundry moods, 'twas pastime to be bound


s: Within the Sonnet's scanty plot of ground;


s: Pleased if some souls (for such there needs must be)


s: Who have felt the weight of too much liberty,


s: Should find brief solace there, as I have found.


s: SCORN not the Sonnet; Critic, you have frown'd,


s: Mindless of its just honours; with this key


s: Shakespeare unlock'd his heart; the melody


s: Of this small lute gave ease to Petrarch's wound;


s: A thousand times this pipe did Tasso sound;


s: With it Camöens sooth'd an exile's grief;


s: Amid the cypress with which Dante crown'd


s: It cheer'd mild Spenser, call'd from Faery-land


s: To struggle through dark ways; and when a damp


s: Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand


s: The Thing became a trumpet; whence he blew


s: THE world is too much with us; late and soon,


s: Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:


s: We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!


s: This sea that bares her bosom to the moon;


s: The winds that will be howling at all hours,


s: And are up-gather'd now like sleeping flowers;


s: For this, for everything, we are out of tune;


s: It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be


s: So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,


s: Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;


s: Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;


s: Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.


s: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood


s: THERE was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,


s: It is not now as it hath been of yore;--


s: The things which I have seen I now can see no more.


s: Look round her when the heavens are bare;


s: That there hath pass'd away a glory from the earth.


s: Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song,


s: To me alone there came a thought of grief:


s: A timely utterance gave that thought relief,


s: The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep;


s: No more shall grief of mine the season wrong;


s: I hear the echoes through the mountains throng,


s: The winds come to me from the fields of sleep,


s: Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy


s: Ye blessed creatures, I have heard the call


s: The heavens laugh with you in your jubilee;


s: The fulness of your bliss, I feel--I feel it all.


s: Fresh flowers; while the sun shines warm,


s: And the babe leaps up on his mother's arm:--


s: A single field which I have look'd upon,


s: Both of them speak of something that is gone:


s: Where is it now, the glory and the dream?


s: Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:


s: The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,


s: Shades of the prison-house begin to close


s: But he beholds the light, and whence it flows,


s: The Youth, who daily farther from the east


s: At length the Man perceives it die away,


s: Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own;


s: Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind,


s: And, even with something of a mother's mind,


s: To make her foster-child, her Inmate Man,


s: And that imperial palace whence he came.


s: Behold the Child among his new-born blisses,


s: See, where 'mid work of his own hand he lies,


s: Fretted by sallies of his mother's kisses,


s: With light upon him from his father's eyes!


s: See, at his feet, some little plan or chart,


s: Some fragment from his dream of human life,


s: Shaped by himself with newly-learned art;


s: To dialogues of business, love, or strife;


s: Filling from time to time his 'humorous stage'


s: With all the Persons, down to palsied Age,


s: That Life brings with her in her equipage;


s: Thou, whose exterior semblance doth belie


s: Thou best philosopher, who yet dost keep


s: That, deaf and silent, read'st the eternal deep,


s: Which we are toiling all our lives to find,


s: In darkness lost, the darkness of the grave;


s: Broods like the Day, a master o'er a slave,


s: Is but a lonely bed without the sense or sight


s: A place of thought where we in waiting lie;


s: Thou little Child, yet glorious in the might


s: Of heaven-born freedom on thy being's height,


s: Why with such earnest pains dost thou provoke


s: Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife?


s: Full soon thy soul shall have her earthly freight,


s: Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life!


s: The thought of our past years in me doth breed


s: For that which is most worthy to be blest--


s: With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast:--


s: High instincts before which our mortal Nature


s: Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised:


s: Are yet the fountain-light of all our day,


s: Are yet a master-light of all our seeing;


s: Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make


s: Our noisy years seem moments in the being


s: Of the eternal Silence: truths that wake,


s: Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour,


s: Our souls have sight of that immortal sea


s: And see the children sport upon the shore,


s: And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.


s: Then sing, ye birds, sing, sing a joyous song!


s: What though the radiance which was once so bright


s: Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;


s: In years that bring the philosophic mind.


s: Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might;


s: To live beneath your more habitual sway.


s: I love the brooks which down their channels fret,


s: Even more than when I tripp'd lightly as they;


s: The innocent brightness of a new-born Day


s: The clouds that gather round the setting sun


s: That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality;


s: Another race hath been, and other palms are won.


s: Thanks to the human heart by which we live,


s: Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,


s: To me the meanest flower that blows can give


s: Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.


s: I turned to share the transport--O! with whom


s: But Thee, deep buried in the silent tomb,


s: That spot which no vicissitude can find?


s: Love, faithful love, recall'd thee to my mind--


s: But how could I forget thee? Through what power,


s: To my most grievous loss?--That thought's return


s: Was the worst pang that sorrow ever bore,


s: Save one, one only, when I stood forlorn,


s: Knowing my heart's best treasure was no more;


s: That neither present time, nor years unborn


s: Could to my sight that heavenly face restore.


s: I THOUGHT of Thee, my partner and my guide,


s: For, backward, Duddon! as I cast my eyes,


s: Still glides the Stream, and shall for ever glide;


s: The Form remains, the Function never dies;


s: While we, the brave, the mighty, and the wise,


s: Enough, if something from our hands have power


s: To live, and act, and serve the future hour;


s: And if, as toward the silent tomb we go,


s: Through love, through hope, and faith's transcendent dower,


s: We feel that we are greater than we know.


s: FROM low to high doth dissolution climb,


s: And sink from high to low, along a scale


s: Of awful notes, whose concord shall not fail;


s: Which they can hear who meddle not with crime,


s: Truth fails not; but her outward forms that bear


s: The longest date do melt like frosty rime,


s: That in the morning whiten'd hill and plain


s: And is no more; drop like the tower sublime


s: His crown of weeds, but could not even sustain


s: Some casual shout that broke the silent air,


s: THERE 's not a nook within this solemn Pass,


s: Taught by his summer spent, his autumn gone,


s: That Life is but a tale of morning grass


s: Wither'd at eve. From scenes of art which chase


s: That thought away, turn, and with watchful eyes


s: Rocks, rivers, and smooth lakes more clear than glass


s: Untouch'd, unbreathed upon. Thrice happy quest,


s: That moral sweeten by a heaven-taught lay,


s: Lulling the year, with all its cares, to rest!


s: WHY art thou silent! Is thy love a plant


s: Of such weak fibre that the treacherous air


s: Of absence withers what was once so fair?


s: Is there no debt to pay, no boon to grant?


s: Yet have my thoughts for thee been vigilant--


s: Bound to thy service with unceasing care,


s: The mind's least generous wish a mendicant


s: For nought but what thy happiness could spare.


s: Speak--though this soft warm heart, once free to hold


s: A thousand tender pleasures, thine and mine,


s: Than a forsaken bird's-nest filled with snow


s: 'Mid its own bush of leafless eglantine--


s: Speak, that my torturing doubts their end may know!


s: Thou first must guess what life lead we,


s: Chorus. Yet Brignall banks are fresh and fair,


s: SOUND, sound the clarion, fill the fife!


s: BREATHES there the man with soul so dead,


s: Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd


s: If such there breathe, go, mark him well;


s: The mind that thought for Britain's weal,


s: That shrouds, O PITT, thy hallow'd tomb!


s: Short, bright, resistless course was given.


s: Roll'd, blazed, destroy'd--and was no more.


s: O'er their wild mood full conquest gain'd,


s: The pride he would not crush, restrain'd,


s: Show'd their fierce zeal a worthier cause,


s: And brought the freeman's arm to aid the freeman's laws.


s: Hadst thou but lived, though stripp'd of power,


s: Thy thrilling trump had roused the land,


s: Thy strength had propp'd the tottering throne.


s: When Death, just hovering, claim'd his prey,


s: Then--while on Britain's thousand plains


s: And, if thou mourn'st they could not save


s: Lays heroes, patriots, bards, and kings;


s: Where stiff the hand, and still the tongue,


s: Of those who fought, and spoke, and sung;


s: Till through the British world were known


s: These spells are spent, and, spent with these,


s: 'The ship was cheer'd, the harbour clear'd,


s: The ship drawn by a storm toward the South Pole.


s: The ship drove fast, loud roar'd the blast,


s: It crack'd and growl'd, and roar'd and howl'd,


s: Till a great sea-bird, called the Albatross, came through the


s: snow-fog, and was received with great joy and hospitality.


s: Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,


s: From the fiends, that plague thee thus!--


s: Why look'st thou so?'--'With my crossbow


s: And the good south wind still blew behind,


s: 'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,


s: The fair breeze continues; the ship enters the Pacific Ocean, and


s: The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,


s: Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,


s: And every tongue, through utter drought,


s: The ancient Mariner beholdeth a sign in the element afar off.


s: With throats unslaked, with black lips baked,


s: It seemeth him but the skeleton of a ship.


s: And straight the Sun was fleck'd with bars


s: Alas! (thought I, and my heart beat loud)


s: Are those her sails that glance in the Sun,


s: And its ribs are seen as bars on the face of the setting Sun. The


s: Are those her ribs through which the Sun


s: No twilight within the courts of the Sun.


s: The stars were dim, and thick the night,


s: The steersman's face by his lamp gleam'd white;


s: Each turn'd his face with a ghastly pang,


s: But Life-in-Death begins her work on the ancient Mariner.


s: The Wedding-Guest feareth that a spirit is talking to him;


s: 'Fear not, fear not, thou Wedding-Guest!


s: But the ancient Mariner assureth him of his bodily life, and


s: proceedeth to relate his horrible penance.


s: And envieth that they should live, and so many lie dead.


s: For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky,


s: But the curse liveth for him in the eye of the dead men.


s: Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse,


s: I dreamt that they were fill'd with dew;


s: And the rain pour'd down from one black cloud;


s: The thick black cloud was cleft, and still


s: They groan'd, they stirr'd, they all uprose,


s: The helmsman steer'd, the ship moved on;


s: They raised their limbs like lifeless tools--


s: 'Twas not those souls that fled in pain,


s: For when it dawn'd--they dropp'd their arms,


s: Sweet sounds rose slowly through their mouths,


s: "Is it he?" quoth one, "is this the man?


s: First Voice: '"But tell me, tell me! speak again,


s: Second Voice: "Still as a slave before his lord,


s: The Mariner hath been cast into a trance; for the angelic power


s: First Voice: "But why drives on that ship so fast,


s: Second Voice: "The air is cut away before,


s: Fly, brother, fly! more high, more high!


s: 'Twas night, calm night, the Moon was high;


s: The pang, the curse, with which they died,


s: And the ancient Mariner beholdeth his native country.


s: The angelic spirits leave the dead bodies,


s: The skiff-boat near'd: I heard them talk,


s: Where are those lights so many and fair,


s: "Strange, by my faith!" the Hermit said--


s: The planks looked warp'd! and see those sails,


s: The ancient Mariner is saved in the Pilot's boat.


s: Stunn'd by that loud and dreadful sound,


s: Like one that hath been seven days drown'd


s: Laugh'd loud and long, and all the while


s: "Say quick," quoth he, "I bid thee say--


s: Forthwith this frame of mine was wrench'd


s: He went like one that hath been stunn'd,


s: With walls and towers were girdled round:


s: And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills


s: Where blossom'd many an incense-bearing tree;


s: And here were forests ancient as the hills,


s: But O, that deep romantic chasm which slanted


s: Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!


s: As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted


s: And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,


s: As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,


s: Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,


s: Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:


s: And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever


s: Five miles meandering with a mazy motion


s: Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,


s: Then reach'd the caverns measureless to man,


s: And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far


s: A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!


s: And all who heard should see them there,


s: ALL thoughts, all passions, all delights,


s: That crazed that bold and lovely Knight,


s: This breathing house not built with hands,


s: Like those trim skiffs, unknown of yore,


s: Naught cared this body for wind or weather


s: Flowers are lovely! Love is flower-like;


s: Which tells me, Youth 's no longer here!


s: And tears take sunshine from thine eyes!


s: (I knew not where, but 'twas some faery place),


s: Their pinions, ostrich-like, for sails outspread,


s: Two lovely children run an endless race,


s: And looks and listens for the boy behind:


s: O'er rough and smooth with even step he pass'd,


s: And knows not whether he be first or last.


s: ALL Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair--


s: The bees are stirring--birds are on the wing--


s: Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!


s: And I, the while, the sole unbusy thing,


s: Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.


s: Yet well I ken the banks where amaranths blow,


s: Have traced the fount whence streams of nectar flow.


s: Bloom, O ye amaranths! bloom for whom ye may,


s: For me ye bloom not! Glide, rich streams, away!


s: With lips unbrighten'd, wreathless brow, I stroll:


s: And would you learn the spells that drowse my soul?


s: Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve,


s: He sank, he rose, he twinkled, he troll'd


s: My thoughts are with the Dead; with them


s: Their virtues love, their faults condemn,


s: I LOVED him not; and yet now he is gone,


s: I check'd him while he spoke; yet, could he speak,


s: For reasons not to love him once I sought,


s: Who lately lived for me, and when he found


s: He hid his face amid the shades of death.


s: Who wasted his for me; but mine returns,


s: With stifling heat, heaving it up in sleep,


s: Tears that had melted his soft heart: for years


s: 'Merciful God!' such was his latest prayer,


s: Quieter is his breath, his breast more cold


s: Where children spell, athwart the churchyard gate,


s: Pray for him, gentle souls, whoe'er you be,


s: Your pleasures spring like daisies in the grass,


s: Cut down, and up again as blithe as ever.


s: Verse calls them forth; 'tis verse that gives


s: PROUD word you never spoke, but you will speak


s: Four not exempt from pride some future day.


s: Resting on one white hand a warm wet cheek,


s: 'This man loved me'--then rise and trip away.


s: The tear that would have soothed it all.


s: --Tho' youth, where you are, long will stay--


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: Lightly advancing thro' her star-trimm'd crowd,


s: Where you but once have been must ever be,


s: And at your voice Pride from his throne must rise.'


s: 'Come, come! why should we stand beneath


s: There, straight and tall, the hazel twig


s: Come then, while fresh and calm the air,


s: Leucippe. But I would rather go when they


s: Alciphron. I like the shepherds very well,


s: Alciphron. To you may none of them repeat


s: Leucippe. Don't keep your arm about my waist.


s: Leucippe.                     Well then, do.


s: Leucippe.           Alas! and not play too?


s: THERE is a mountain and a wood between us,


s: Where the lone shepherd and late bird have seen us


s: Between us now the mountain and the wood


s: Seem standing darker than last year they stood,


s: The few late flowers have moisture in the eye;


s: His circle (yearly narrowing) to the fire


s: I STROVE with none, for none was worth my strife.


s: Nature I loved and, next to Nature, Art:


s: I warm'd both hands before the fire of life;


s: I HAVE had playmates, I have had companions,


s: In my days of childhood, in my joyful school-days--


s: All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.


s: I have been laughing, I have been carousing,


s: Drinking late, sitting late, with my bosom cronies--


s: I loved a Love once, fairest among women:


s: Closed are her doors on me, I must not see her--


s: I have a friend, a kinder friend has no man:


s: Like an ingrate, I left my friend abruptly;


s: Left him, to muse on the old familiar faces.


s: Ghost-like I paced round the haunts of my childhood,


s: Earth seem'd a desert I was bound to traverse,


s: Friend of my bosom, thou more than a brother,


s: Why wert not thou born in my father's dwelling?


s: So might we talk of the old familiar faces--


s: How some they have died, and some they have left me,


s: And some are taken from me; all are departed--


s: Extinct, with scarce the sense of dying:


s: So soon to exchange the imprisoning womb


s: A clear beam forth, then straight up shut


s: (With her nine moons' long workings sicken'd)


s: That should thy little limbs have quicken'd?


s: That has his day; while shrivell'd crones


s: Though thou want'st not, thou shalt have them,


s: Loving hearts were they which gave them.


s: For the deck it was their field of fame,


s: And her arms along the deep proudly shone;


s: 'Hearts of oak!' our captains cried, when each gun


s: Their shots along the deep slowly boom:--


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: THROUGH grief and through danger thy smile hath cheer'd my way,


s: Till hope seem'd to bud from each thorn that round me lay;


s: The darker our fortune, the brighter our pure love burn'd,


s: Till shame into glory, till fear into zeal was turn'd:


s: Yes, slave as I was, in thy arms my spirit felt free,


s: And bless'd even the sorrows that made me more dear to thee.


s: Thy rival was honour'd, while thou wert wrong'd and scorn'd;


s: Thy crown was of briers, while gold her brows adorn'd;


s: She woo'd me to temples, whilst thou lay'st hid in caves;


s: Her friends were all masters, while thine, alas! were slaves;


s: Yet cold in the earth, at thy feet, I would rather be


s: Than wed what I loved not, or turn one thought from thee.


s: They slander thee sorely, who say thy vows are frail--


s: Hadst thou been a false one, thy cheek had look'd less pale!


s: They say, too, so long thou hast worn those lingering chains,


s: That deep in thy heart they have printed their servile stains:


s: O, foul is the slander!--no chain could that soul subdue--


s: Where shineth thy spirit, there Liberty shineth too!


s: AT the mid hour of night, when stars are weeping, I fly


s: To the lone vale we loved, when life shone warm in thine eye;


s: And I think oft, if spirits can steal from the regions of air


s: To revisit past scenes of delight, thou wilt come to me there,


s: And tell me our love is remember'd even in the sky.


s: Then I sing the wild song it once was rapture to hear,


s: When our voices commingling breathed like one on the ear;


s: And as Echo far off through the vale my sad orison rolls,


s: I think, O my love! 'tis thy voice from the Kingdom of Souls


s: Faintly answering still the notes that once were so dear.


s: Strike, tawdry slaves, and ye shall know


s: Wrongs, vengeance, and the Cause are ours,


s: Why shrieks for help yon wretch, who goes


s: HAME, hame, hame, O hame fain wad I be--


s: When the flower is i' the bud and the leaf is on the tree,


s: The larks shall sing me hame in my ain countree;


s: Hame, hame, hame, O hame fain wad I be--


s: The green leaf o' loyaltie 's beginning for to fa',


s: The bonnie White Rose it is withering an' a';


s: But I'll water 't wi' the blude of usurping tyrannie,


s: An' green it will graw in my ain countree.


s: O, there 's nocht now frae ruin my country can save,


s: But the keys o' kind heaven, to open the grave;


s: That a' the noble martyrs wha died for loyaltie


s: May rise again an' fight for their ain countree.


s: The great now are gane, a' wha ventured to save,


s: The new grass is springing on the tap o' their grave;


s: But the sun through the mirk blinks blythe in my e'e,


s: 'I'll shine on ye yet in your ain countree.'


s: Say that health and wealth have miss'd me,


s: I PLAY'D 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 touch'd 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 christen'd;


s: Time pass'd. My eldest girl was married,


s: But though first love's impassion'd blindness


s: I still have thought of you with kindness,


s: When our young days of gathering flowers


s: Frail as thy love, the flowers were dead


s: The bowl goes trim. The moon doth shine.


s: And shut mine eyes, and steal my breath;


s: How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.


s: The smiles that win, the tints that glow,


s: THE isles of Greece! the isles of Greece


s: I dream'd that Greece might still be free;


s: To think such breasts must suckle slaves.


s: The breast of Childhood: instincts fresh from God


s: Inspire it, ere the heart beneath the rod


s: Of grief hath bled, or caught the plague of sin.


s: How mighty was that fervour which could win


s: Its way to infant souls!--and was the sod


s: Like Joseph went they forth, or Benjamin,


s: And did their soft lips kiss the Sepulchre?


s: Faded! They sank not through ignoble fear;


s: They felt not Moslem steel. By mountain, stream,


s: In sands, in fens, they died--no mother near!


s: NOT a drum was heard, not a funeral note,


s: Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot


s: O'er the grave where our hero we buried.


s: By the struggling moonbeam's misty light


s: But he lay like a warrior taking his rest


s: But we steadfastly gazed on the face that was dead,


s: We thought, as we hollow'd his narrow bed


s: That the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head,


s: Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that 's gone,


s: But little he'll reck, if they let him sleep on


s: In the grave where a Briton has laid him.


s: When the clock struck the hour for retiring;


s: From the field of his fame fresh and gory;


s: We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone,


s: IF I had thought thou couldst have died,


s: While e'en thy chill, bleak corse I have,


s: And all that did then attend and follow,


s: Were silent with love, as you now, Apollo,


s: It breaks in our bosom, and then we bleed.


s: If envy or age had not frozen your blood--


s: Heaven smiles, and faiths and empires gleam


s: And leave, if naught so bright may live,


s: Not gold, not blood, their altar dowers,


s: In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.


s: And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.


s: Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.


s: Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight--


s: Until we hardly see, we feel that it is there.


s: The moon rains out her beams, and heaven is overflow'd.


s: As from thy presence showers a rain of melody:--


s: To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not:


s: With music sweet as love, which overflows her bower:


s: Among the flowers and grass which screen it from the view:


s: Makes faint with too much sweet those heavy-winged thieves.


s: Joyous and clear and fresh--thy music doth surpass.


s: That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine.


s: A thin wherein we feel there is some hidden want.


s: What love of thine own kind? what ignorance of pain?


s: Thou lovest, but ne'er knew love's sad satiety.


s: Or how could thy notes flow in such a crystal stream?


s: Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.


s: I know not how thy joy we ever should come near.


s: Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground!


s: The world should listen then, as I am listening now.


s: Who totters forth, wrapp'd in a gauzy veil,


s: And feeble wanderings of her fading brain,


s: Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth,


s: Among the stars that have a different birth,


s: That finds no object worth its constancy?


s: O WILD West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being


s: Thou from whose unseen presence the leaves dead


s: Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,


s: Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,


s: The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,


s: Each like a corpse within its grave, until


s: Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow


s: Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill


s: (Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)


s: With living hues and odours plain and hill;


s: Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;


s: Thou on whose stream, 'mid the steep sky's commotion,


s: Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed,


s: Shook from the tangled boughs of heaven and ocean,


s: Angels of rain and lightning! there are spread


s: On the blue surface of thine airy surge,


s: Like the bright hair uplifted from the head


s: Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge


s: The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge


s: Of the dying year, to which this closing night


s: Black rain, and fire, and hail, will burst: O hear!


s: Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams


s: Lull'd by the coil of his crystalline streams,


s: Quivering within the wave's intenser day,


s: All overgrown with azure moss, and flowers


s: So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou


s: For whose path the Atlantic's level powers


s: Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below


s: The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear


s: Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear,


s: And tremble and despoil themselves: O hear!


s: If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;


s: If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;


s: A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share


s: The impulse of thy strength, only less free


s: The comrade of thy wanderings over heaven,


s: As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed


s: Scarce seem'd a vision--I would ne'er have striven


s: As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.


s: I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!


s: A heavy weight of hours has chain'd and bow'd


s: One too like thee--tameless, and swift, and proud.


s: Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:


s: What if my leaves are falling like its own?


s: Will take from both a deep autumnal tone,


s: Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,


s: Drive my dead thoughts over the universe,


s: Like wither'd leaves, to quicken a new birth;


s: Scatter, as from an unextinguish'd hearth


s: Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!


s: If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?


s: When light rode high, and the dew was gone,


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: For your cradle, your home, and your bier?


s: I DREAM'D that, as I wander'd by the way,


s: Bare Winter suddenly was changed to Spring;


s: Along a shelving bank of turf, which lay


s: Under a copse, and hardly dared to fling


s: Its green arms round the bosom of the stream,


s: But kiss'd it and then fled, as thou mightest in dream.


s: There grew pied wind-flowers and violets;


s: Daisies, those pearl'd Arcturi of the earth,


s: The constellated flower that never sets;


s: Faint oxlips; tender bluebells, at whose birth


s: The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets--


s: Like a child, half in tenderness and mirth--


s: Its mother's face with heaven-collected tears


s: When the low wind, its playmate's voice, it hears.


s: And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine,


s: Green cowbind and the moonlight-colour'd May,


s: And cherry-blossoms, and white cups whose wine


s: Was the bright dew yet drain'd not by the day;


s: With its dark buds and leaves wandering astray;


s: And flowers, azure, black, and streak'd with gold,


s: And nearer to the river's trembling edge


s: There grew broad flag-flowers, purple prank'd with white,


s: And floating water-lilies, broad and bright,


s: Which lit the oak that overhung the hedge


s: With moonlight beams of their own watery light;


s: And bulrushes, and reeds of such deep green


s: As soothed the dazzled eye with sober sheen.


s: Methought that of these visionary flowers


s: That the same hues which in their natural bowers


s: Kept these imprison'd children of the Hours


s: Within my hand;--and then, elate and gay,


s: I hasten'd to the spot whence I had come,


s: That I might there present it--O! to whom?


s: AWAY! the moor is dark beneath the moon,


s: Rapid clouds have drunk the last pale beam of even:


s: Away! the gathering winds will call the darkness soon,


s: And profoundest midnight shroud the serene lights of heaven.


s: Pause not! the time is past! Every voice cries, 'Away!'


s: Tempt not with one last tear thy friend's ungentle mood:


s: Thy lover's eye, so glazed and cold, dares not entreat thy stay:


s: Duty and dereliction guide thee back to solitude.


s: Pour bitter tears on its desolated hearth;


s: Watch the dim shades as like ghosts they go and come,


s: And complicate strange webs of melancholy mirth.


s: The leaves of wasted autumn woods shall float around thine head,


s: The blooms of dewy Spring shall gleam beneath thy feet:


s: The cloud shadows of midnight possess their own repose,


s: For the weary winds are silent, or the moon is in the deep;


s: Some respite to its turbulence unresting ocean knows;


s: Whatever moves or toils or grieves hath its appointed sleep.


s: Thou in the grave shalt rest:--yet, till the phantoms flee,


s: Which that house and heath and garden made dear to thee erewhile,


s: From the music of two voices, and the light of one sweet smile.


s: And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,


s: I THOUGHT to meet no more, so dreary seem'd


s: Death's interposing veil, and thou so pure,


s: Friend of this worthless heart! but happier thoughts


s: Spring like unbidden violets from the sod,


s: The shadows fall more soothing: the soft air


s: Is full of cheering whispers like thine own;


s: The deep knell dying down, the mourners' pause,


s: Waiting their Saviour's welcome at the gate.--


s: And sought with us along th' accustom'd way


s: The hallow'd porch, and entering in, beheld


s: O! hadst thou brought a strain from Paradise


s: To cheer us, happy soul, thou hadst not touch'd


s: Than those deep-warbled anthems, high and low,


s: Low as the grave, high as th' Eternal Throne,


s: Till gently, like soft golden clouds at eve


s: Around the western twilight, all subside


s: Counts thy sad honours, coffin, bier, and pall;


s: Listen! it is no dream: th' Apostles' trump


s: Gives earnest of th' Archangel's;--calmly now,


s: (Most like a warrior's, to the martial dirge


s: Of a true comrade), in the grave we trust


s: Pass shuddering, when the handful of pure earth


s: Once and again the thought, 'for ever gone,'


s: Come o'er us like a cloud; yet, gentle spright,


s: One look, and we have seen our last of thee,


s: Till we too sleep and our long sleep be o'er.


s: Thou, who canst change the heart, and raise the dead!


s: As Thou art by to soothe our parting hour,


s: I AM! yet what I am who cares, or knows?


s: My friends forsake me like a memory lost.


s: They rise and vanish, an oblivious host,


s: Shadows of life, whose very soul is lost.


s: And yet I am--I live--though I am toss'd


s: Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,


s: Where there is neither sense of life, nor joys,


s: And all that 's dear. Even those I loved the best


s: Are strange--nay, they are stranger than the rest.


s: I long for scenes where man has never trod--


s: For scenes where woman never smiled or wept--


s: And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,


s: Full of high thoughts, unborn. So let me lie,--


s: The grass below; above, the vaulted sky.


s: E'en while with ours thy footsteps trod,


s: The natural hue of health, from vermeil lips?--


s: The lustrous passion from a falcon-eye?--


s: To tinge, on siren shores, the salt sea-spry?


s: The mellow ditties from a mourning tongue?--


s: That thou mayst listen the cold dews among?


s: Heart's lightness from the merriment of May?--


s: Though he should dance from eve till peep of day--


s: And thought to leave her far away behind;


s: Beneath my palm-trees, by the river side,


s: I sat a-weeping: in the whole world wide


s: There was no one to ask me why I wept,--


s: Cheated by shadowy wooer from the clouds,


s: Beneath dark palm-trees by a river side?


s: There came a noise of revellers: the rills


s: Into the wide stream came of purple hue--


s: The earnest trumpet spake, and silver thrills


s: Like to a moving vintage down they came,


s: Crown'd with green leaves, and faces all on flame;


s: All madly dancing through the pleasant valley,


s: O then, O then, thou wast a simple name!


s: Tall chestnuts keep away the sun and moon:--


s: Within his car, aloft, young Bacchus stood,


s: And little rills of crimson wine imbrued


s: His plump white arms and shoulders, enough white


s: 'Whence came ye, merry Damsels! whence came ye,


s: 'We follow Bacchus! Bacchus on the wing,


s: Bacchus, young Bacchus! good or ill betide,


s: We dance before him thorough kingdoms wide:--


s: 'Whence came ye, jolly Satyrs! whence came ye,


s: Why have ye left your forest haunts, why left


s: 'For wine, for wine we left our kernel tree;


s: For wine we left our heath, and yellow brooms,


s: For wine we follow Bacchus through the earth;


s: Great god of breathless cups and chirping mirth!


s: Over wide streams and mountains great we went,


s: And, save when Bacchus kept his ivy tent,


s: Onward these myriads--with song and dance,


s: With zebras striped, and sleek Arabians' prance,


s: Bearing upon their scaly backs, in files,


s: Plump infant laughers mimicking the coil


s: Of seamen, and stout galley-rowers' toil:


s: With toying oars and silken sails they glide,


s: Mounted on panthers' furs and lions' manes,


s: From rear to van they scour about the plains;


s: About the wilds they hunt with spear and horn,


s: And from their treasures scatter pearled hail;


s: Great Brahma from his mystic heaven groans,


s: Before young Bacchus' eye-wink turning pale.


s: Into these regions came I, following him,


s: And I have told thee all thou mayest hear.


s: In search of pleasure throughout every clime;


s: To lose in grieving all my maiden prime.


s: Like an own babe I nurse thee on my breast:


s: But now of all the world I love thee best.


s: Her playmate, and her wooer in the shade.


s: MY heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains


s: My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,


s: Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains


s: One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:


s: That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees,


s: Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,


s: Singest of summer in full-throated ease.


s: O for a draught of vintage! that hath been


s: Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,


s: Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!


s: Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,


s: With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,


s: That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,


s: And with thee fade away into the forest dim:


s: Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget


s: What thou among the leaves hast never known,


s: Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;


s: Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last grey hairs,


s: Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;


s: Where but to think is to be full of sorrow


s: Where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,


s: Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.


s: And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,


s: Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown


s: Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.


s: I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,


s: Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,


s: But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet


s: The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;


s: White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;


s: Fast-fading violets cover'd up in leaves;


s: The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,


s: The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.


s: I have been half in love with easeful Death,


s: Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,


s: Now more than ever seems it rich to die,


s: To cease upon the midnight with no pain,


s: While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad


s: Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain--


s: Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!


s: The voice I hear this passing night was heard


s: Perhaps the self-same song that found a path


s: Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,


s: Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam


s: Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.


s: To toll me back from thee to my sole self!


s: Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades


s: Past the near meadows, over the still stream,


s: Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep


s: Fled is that music:--do I wake or sleep?


s: THOU still unravish'd bride of quietness,


s: Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time,


s: Sylvan historian, who canst thus express


s: A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:


s: What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape


s: What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?


s: What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?


s: What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?


s: Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard


s: Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;


s: Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,


s: Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave


s: Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;


s: Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,


s: Though winning near the goal--yet, do not grieve;


s: She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,


s: For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!


s: Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed


s: Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;


s: More happy love! more happy, happy love!


s: That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,


s: A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.


s: To what green altar, O mysterious priest,


s: Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,


s: And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?


s: Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,


s: Is emptied of its folk, this pious morn?


s: And, little town, thy streets for evermore


s: O Attic shape! fair attitude! with brede


s: With forest branches and the trodden weed;


s: Thou, silent form! dost tease us out of thought


s: When old age shall this generation waste,


s: Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe


s: Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,


s: 'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,--that is all


s: Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'


s: O GODDESS! hear these tuneless numbers, wrung


s: By sweet enforcement and remembrance dear,


s: And pardon that thy secrets should be sung


s: And, on the sudden, fainting with surprise,


s: Saw two fair creatures, couched side by side


s: In deepest grass, beneath the whisp'ring roof


s: Of leaves and trembled blossoms, where there ran


s: 'Mid hush'd, cool-rooted flowers, fragrant-eyed,


s: They lay calm-breathing on the bedded grass;


s: Their arms embraced, and their pinions too;


s: Their lips touch'd not, but had not bade adieu,


s: And ready still past kisses to outnumber


s: Fairer than Phoebe's sapphire-region'd star,


s: Or Vesper, amorous glow-worm of the sky;


s: Fairer than these, though temple thou hast none,


s: No voice, no lute, no pipe, no incense sweet


s: O brightest! though too late for antique vows,


s: Too, too late for the fond believing lyre,


s: When holy were the haunted forest boughs,


s: I see, and sing, by my own eyes inspired.


s: Thy voice, thy lute, thy pipe, thy incense sweet


s: Thy shrine, thy grove, thy oracle, thy heat


s: Yes, I will be thy priest, and build a fane


s: Where branched thoughts, new grown with pleasant pain,


s: Instead of pines shall murmur in the wind:


s: Far, far around shall those dark-cluster'd trees


s: Fledge the wild-ridged mountains steep by steep;


s: And there by zephyrs, streams, and birds, and bees,


s: The moss-lain Dryads shall be lull'd to sleep;


s: With the wreath'd trellis of a working brain,


s: With buds, and bells, and stars without a name,


s: With all the gardener Fancy e'er could feign,


s: Who breeding flowers, will never breed the same;


s: And there shall be for thee all soft delight


s: A bright torch, and a casement ope at night,


s: SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness!


s: Conspiring with him how to load and bless


s: With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;


s: To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,


s: And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;


s: To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells


s: With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,


s: And still more, later flowers for the bees,


s: Until they think warm days will never cease,


s: For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.


s: Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?


s: Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,


s: Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;


s: Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,


s: Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook


s: Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers;


s: And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep


s: Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.


s: Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?


s: Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,--


s: While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,


s: And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;


s: Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn


s: Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;


s: And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;


s: Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft


s: The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;


s: And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.


s: Wolf's-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine;


s: By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine;


s: Nor let the beetle, nor the death-moth be


s: For shade to shade will come too drowsily,


s: And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul.


s: Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud,


s: That fosters the droop-headed flowers all,


s: And hides the green hill in an April shroud;


s: Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave,


s: Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows,


s: Emprison her soft hand, and let her rave,


s: And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes.


s: She dwells with Beauty--Beauty that must die;


s: Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh,


s: Turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips:


s: Veil'd Melancholy has her sovran shrine,


s: Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue


s: Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine;


s: His soul shall taste the sadness of her might,


s: MOTHER of Hermes! and still youthful Maia!


s: As thou wast hymned on the shores of Baiae?


s: Seek as they once were sought, in Grecian isles,


s: By bards who died content on pleasant sward,


s: Save of the quiet primrose, and the span


s: Rounded by thee, my song should die away


s: Written on the Blank Page before Beaumont and Fletcher's


s: Through the thought still spread beyond her:


s: And thou shalt quaff it:--thou shalt hear


s: And there she wept and sigh'd fill sore;


s: Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;


s: Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,


s: MUCH have I travell'd in the realms of gold,


s: And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;


s: That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne:


s: Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:


s: Then felt I like some watcher of the skies


s: Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes


s: He stared at the Pacific--and all his men


s: Look'd at each other with a wild surmise--


s: WHEN I have fears that I may cease to be


s: Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,


s: Hold like rich garners the full-ripen'd grain;


s: When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,


s: Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;


s: And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!


s: Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore


s: Of the wide world I stand alone, and think,


s: Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.


s: Shutting with careful fingers and benign


s: Our gloom-pleased eyes, embower'd from the light,


s: O soothest Sleep! if so it please thee, close,


s: In midst of this thine hymn, my willing eyes,


s: Then save me, or the passed day will shine


s: Save me from curious conscience, that still lords


s: Its strength for darkness, burrowing like a mole;


s: BRIGHT Star, would I were steadfast as thou art--


s: Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,


s: Like Nature's patient sleepless Eremite,


s: The moving waters at their priest-like task


s: Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,


s: Of snow upon the mountains and the moors--


s: No--yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,


s: Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,


s: To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,


s: Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,


s: And so live ever--or else swoon to death.


s: O MANY a day have I made good ale in the glen,


s: That came not of stream or malt, like the brewing of men:


s: My bed was the ground; my roof, the green-wood above;


s: And the wealth that I sought, one far kind glance from my Love.


s: Alas! on that night when the horses I drove from the field,


s: That I was not near from terror my angel to shield!


s: She stretch'd forth her arms; her mantle she flung to the wind,


s: And swam o'er Loch Lene, her outlaw'd lover to find.


s: O would that a freezing sleet-wing'd tempest did sweep,


s: And I and my love were alone, far off on the deep;


s: I'd ask not a ship, or a bark, or a pinnace, to save--


s: With her hand round my waist, I'd fear not the wind or the wave.


s: 'Tis down by the lake where the wild tree fringes its sides,


s: The maid of my heart, my fair one of Heaven resides:


s: I think, as at eve she wanders its mazes among,


s: The birds go to sleep by the sweet wild twist of her song.


s: TOO solemn for day, too sweet for night,


s: Come not in darkness, come not in light;


s: When the gloom is soft, and the light is dim.


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


s: Lull'd by the faint breezes sighing through her hair;


s: Sleeps she and hears not the melancholy numbers


s: Breathed to my sad lute 'mid 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: O 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 forests far away.


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


s: Still Heaven's messenger of comfort to me--


s: Come--this fond bosom, O faithfullest and fairest,


s: Bleeds with its death-wound, its wound of love for thee!


s: From eyes by thoughts like these beguiled;


s: SHE was a queen of noble Nature's crowning,


s: A smile of hers was like an act of grace;


s: She had no winsome looks, no pretty frowning,


s: But if she smiled, a light was on her face,


s: Of peaceful radiance, silvering o'er the stream


s: Not quite a waking truth, not quite a dream,


s: But she is changed,--hath felt the touch of sorrow,


s: No love hath she, no understanding friend;


s: O grief! when Heaven is forced of earth to borrow


s: But when the stalk is snapt, the rose must bend.


s: The tallest flower that skyward rears its head


s: Grows from the common ground, and there must shed


s: Its delicate petals. Cruel fate, too surely,


s: That they should find so base a bridal bed,


s: Who lived in virgin pride, so sweet and purely.


s: And she was loved, but not as others are


s: From whom we ask return of love,--but rather


s: As one might love a dream; a phantom fair


s: Of something exquisitely strange and rare,


s: Which all were glad to look on, men and maids,


s: Yet no one claim'd--as oft, in dewy glades,


s: The peering primrose, like a sudden gladness,


s: Gleams on the soul, yet unregarded fades;--


s: The joy is ours, but all its own the sadness.


s: 'Tis vain to say--her worst of grief is only


s: The common lot, which all the world have known;


s: To her 'tis more, because her heart is lonely,


s: And yet she hath no strength to stand alone,--


s: Once she had playmates, fancies of her own,


s: And she did love them. They are past away


s: WHEN we were idlers with the loitering rills,


s: Our love was nature; and the peace that floated


s: On the white mist, and dwelt upon the hills,


s: To sweet accord subdued our wayward wills:


s: One soul was ours, one mind, one heart devoted,


s: That, wisely doting, ask'd not why it doted,


s: And ours the unknown joy, which knowing kills.


s: But now I find how dear thou wert to me;


s: That man is more than half of nature's treasure,


s: Of that fair beauty which no eye can see,


s: Of that sweet music which no ear can measure;


s: And now the streams may sing for others' pleasure,


s: Stand shadowless like Silence, listening


s: To silence, for no lonely bird would sing


s: Shaking his languid locks all dewy bright


s: With tangled gossamer that fell by night,


s: Where are the songs of Summer?--With the sun,


s: And Morning sings with a warm odorous mouth.


s: On panting wings through the inclement skies,


s: And tear with horny beak their lustrous eyes.


s: Where are the blooms of Summer?--In the west,


s: Blushing their last to the last sunny hours,


s: When the mild Eve by sudden Night is prest


s: Like tearful Proserpine, snatch'd from her flow'rs


s: Where is the pride of Summer,--the green prime,--


s: The many, many leaves all twinkling?--Three


s: On the moss'd elm; three on the naked lime


s: Trembling,--and one upon the old oak-tree!


s: Gone into mournful cypress and dark yew,


s: Or wearing the long gloomy Winter through


s: The squirrel gloats on his accomplish'd hoard,


s: The ants have brimm'd their garners with ripe grain,


s: The sweets of Summer in their luscious cells;


s: The swallows all have wing'd across the main;


s: Amongst the sunless shadows of the plain.


s: She sits and reckons up the dead and gone


s: Whilst all the wither'd world looks drearily,


s: In the hush'd mind's mysterious far away,


s: Doubtful what ghostly thing will steal the last


s: O go and sit with her, and be o'ershaded


s: Upon her forehead, and a face of care;--


s: To make her bower,--and enough of gloom;


s: If only for the rose that died, whose doom


s: Is Beauty's,--she that with the living bloom


s: Of conscious cheeks most beautifies the light:


s: Enough of bitter fruits the earth doth bear,--


s: Enough of chilly droppings for her bowl;


s: To frame her cloudy prison for the soul!


s: THERE is a silence where hath been no sound,


s: There is a silence where no sound may be,


s: In the cold grave--under the deep, deep sea,


s: Or in wide desert where no life is found,


s: Which hath been mute, and still must sleep profound;


s: No voice is hush'd--no life treads silently,


s: But clouds and cloudy shadows wander free,


s: But in green ruins, in the desolate walls


s: Of antique palaces, where Man hath been,


s: Though the dun fox or wild hyaena calls,


s: And owls, that flit continually between,


s: Shriek to the echo, and the low winds moan--


s: There the true Silence is, self-conscious and alone.


s: IT is not death, that sometime in a sigh


s: This eloquent breath shall take its speechless flight;


s: That sometime these bright stars, that now reply


s: In sunlight to the sun, shall set in night;


s: That this warm conscious flesh shall perish quite,


s: And all life's ruddy springs forget to flow;


s: That thoughts shall cease, and the immortal sprite


s: It is not death to know this--but to know


s: That pious thoughts, which visit at new graves


s: So duly and so oft--and when grass waves


s: The smile that bless'd one lover's heart


s: WE watch'd her breathing thro' the night,