The later poems of John Clare 1837-1864 ... General editor Eric Robinson: Edited by Eric Robinson and David Powell: Associate editor Margaret Grainger |
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| 1. | KNIGHT TRANSCRIPTS 1 VOLUME ONE |
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 | The later poems of John Clare |  |
269
1. KNIGHT TRANSCRIPTS 1 VOLUME ONE
SONG
[I pluck summer blossoms]
1
I pluck summer blossoms,And think of rich bosoms,
The bosoms I've leaned on; and worshiped and won;
270
The wood daffodillies,
Have been found in our rambles when Summer begun.
2
Where I plucked thee—the blue bell,'Twas where the night dew fell,
And rested till morn, in the cups of the flowers;
I shook the sweet posies,
Blue bells and sweet roses,
As we sat in a cool shade in summers warm hours.
3
Bedlam-cowslips, and cuckoo's,With freck'd-lip, and hook'd nose,
Growing safe 'neath the hazzle, of thicket and woods:
And water-blobs, ladies-smocks,
Blooming, where hay cocks
May be found in the meadows, low places, and floods.
4
And cowslips, a fair band,For may-ball, or garland;
That bloom in the meadows, far as seen by the eye;
And pink-ragged-robbin,
Where the fish they are bobbing,
Their heads above water, to catch at the fly.
5
Wild-flowers, and wild roses:'Tis love makes the posies,
To paint summer ballads, of meadow, and glen;
Floods can't drown it, nor turn it;
Even flames cannot burn it,
Let it bloom 'till we walk, the green meadows again.
May 1844.
271
GRAVES OF INFANTS
1
Infants graves are steps of angels, whereEarth's brightest gems of innocence repose;
God is their parent, they need no tear,
He takes them to his bosom from earth's woes;
A bud their life-time, and a flower their close.
Their spirits are an iris of the skies,
Needing no prayers—a sunset's happy close.
Gone are the bright rays of their soft blue eyes;
Dews on flowers mourn them, and the gale that sighs.
2
Their lives were nothing but a sunny shower,Melting on flowers as tears melt from the eye:
Their death were dew-drops on heavens amaranthine bower;
'Twas told on flowers as summer gales went by.
They bowed, and trembled, yet they left no sigh,
And the sun smiled to show their end was well.
Infants have nought to weep for ere they die.
All prayers are needless—beads they need not tell;
White flowers their mourners are, nature their passing bell.
June 1844.
272
TO MISS C---
1
Thy glance is the brightest;Thy voice is the sweetest;
Thy step is the lightest;
Thy shape the compleatest;
Thy waist, I could span dear;
Thy neck's like a swan's dear;
And roses the sweetest,
On thy cheek's do appear.
2
The music of spring,Is the voice of my charmer;
When the nightingales sing,
She's as sweet;—who would harm her;
Where the snowdrop, and lily lies,
They shew her face:—but her eyes,
Are the dark clouds,—(yet warmer)—
From which the quick lightning flies,—
O'er the face of my charmer.
3
Her face is the snowdrop,So pure on its stem,
And love in her bosom,
She wears as a gem.
She is young as spring flowers,
And sweet as may showers,
Swelling the clover buds, bending the stem,
She's the sweetest of blossoms; she's loves favorite gem.
273
SONG
[By all those token flowers that spring]
By all those token flowers that spring;
To lovers welcome thoughts still bring,
Forget-me-not's of heavenly blue:
I love the leal and true.
To lovers welcome thoughts still bring,
Forget-me-not's of heavenly blue:
I love the leal and true.
By the speedwell's silver eye,
Looking hopes upon the sky,
By all these token blooms that tell,
My fondness sends speedwell.
Looking hopes upon the sky,
By all these token blooms that tell,
My fondness sends speedwell.
By the hare-bell's hazure sky,
(Like the hue of thy bright eye;)
That grows in woods, and groves so fair,
Where love I'd meet thee there.
(Like the hue of thy bright eye;)
That grows in woods, and groves so fair,
Where love I'd meet thee there.
By the violets sweet perfume;
By the primrose in its bloom;
For thy bosom, and thy hair,
I love thee maiden fair.
By the primrose in its bloom;
For thy bosom, and thy hair,
I love thee maiden fair.
By the daisy on the green;
By the crow flowers golden shene;
Flowers I gathered when a boy,
Thou art loves earliest toy.
By the crow flowers golden shene;
Flowers I gathered when a boy,
Thou art loves earliest toy.
By all the blooms of spring that tell,
In silent language love so well;
Those flowers of yellow, white, and blue;
I love the leal and true.
In silent language love so well;
Those flowers of yellow, white, and blue;
I love the leal and true.
274
TO LIBERTY
1
O spirit of the wind and sky;Where doth thy harp neglected lie?
Is there no heart thy bard to be,
To wake that soul of melody;
Is liberty herself a slave?
No God forbids it, On ye brave;
2
I've loved thee, as the common air,And paid thee worship every where;
In every soil beneath the sun,
Thy simple song, my heart has won;
And art thou silent! still a slave?
And thy son's living; On ye brave.
3
Gather on mountain, and on plain,Make gossamer the iron chain,
Make prison walls as paper screen,
That tyrant maskers may be seen;
Let earth, as well as heaven be free,
So, on ye brave for liberty.
4
I've loved thy being from a boy,The highland hills was once my joy;
Then morning mists did round them lie,
Like sunshine in the happiest sky.
Her hills, and valleys, seemed my own,
When Scottish land was freedom's throne.
275
5
And Scottish land is freedom's still;Her beacon fires on every hill,
Have told in characters of flame,
Her ancient birthright, and her fame;
A thousand hills will speak again,
In fire, that language ever plain.
6
To sychop[h]ants, and fawning knaves,That Scotland, ne'er was made for slaves.—
Her fruitful vales, her mountain thrones,
Are ruled by natures laws alone:
And nought but falshoods poisoned breath,
Will urge the Claymore from its sheath.
7
O spirit of the wind and sky,Where doth thy harp neglected lie;
Is there no heart thy bard to be,
To wake that soul of melody;
Is liberty herself a slave,
No God forbids it—on ye brave!
July 9th 1844
TO HIS WIFE
1
In my young days, I pluck't a rose;It grew upon a pleasant tree,—
No prickles on its stem arose,—
It never wounded me.
276
2
It grew upon a pleasant spot;On mountain heath so fair,
And pleasant was the little cot;
Near which it flourished there.
3
I knew it when a blooming bud,Nursed by the morning dew,
I knew the cottage where it stood,
And beautiful it grew.
4
Flowers on the hills had grown,The woods were all in tune,
The bud became full blown;
The sweetest rose of June.
5
I saw it every day,A hue that health will seek;
There's such a rose in May,
Comes on the maidens cheek.
6
I went again in spring;'Twas somewere near the may,
Birds had begun to sing,—
When I took the rose away.
7
I planted it with care,I watched it bloom from ill,
It scented all the air,
And blossoms sweeter still.
277
LOVE'S PAINS
1
This love, I canna' bear it,It cheats me night and day;
This love, I canna' wear it,
It takes my peace away.
2
This love, wa' once a flower;But now it is a thorn,—
The joy o' evening hour,
Turn'd to a pain e're morn.
3
This love, it wa' a bud,And a secret known to me;
Like a flower within a wood;
Like a nest within a tree.
4
This love, wrong understood,Oft' turned my joy to pain;
I tried to throw away the bud,
But the blossom would remain.
July 13th 1844
278
LOVE
1
Love is a secret;Like a bird in a shell;
Like a rose ere it blossom,—
All unseen will it dwell.
2
'Tis the kernel of fruits,The germ of all flowers,
The blaze of the diamond,
The moment of hours.
3
'Tis the star in night's darkness,The sky in the river,
The soul in mans bosom,—
That wears it for ever.
4
'Tis a word and the dearest,—Each language has shown;
'Tis a thought the sincerest,
Any tongue has made known.—
5
'Tis a flower in a basket,—All bloom and perfuming:
'Tis the gem of the casket,
Love, beauty, and woman.
279
I'VE HAD MANY & CR
1
I've had many an aching pain,A for sake o' somebody:
I have talked, but o' in vain,
When I thought o' somebody.
2
Nought could please me any where,I could heed nor smile, nor tear;
And yet I sighed, for half a year!
And that for sake o' somebody.
3
She was like the lily fair,The rose it blushed, for somebody;
Her neck was white, her cheek was rare,
I wot it smiled on somebody;—
4
Here's good luck to somebody;And best o' health for somebody;
The dearest thought I keep mysell,
I keep for sake o' somebody.
July 17th 1844.
280
SCOTLAND
1
My heart is in Scotland, wi' nature sae grand,Which seemed to me aince, my ain happy land:
When I gazed on the blue lake, and clomb the high brow;
It was my ain land then, and sae' it seems now.
2
I lov'd thee auld Scotland;—the mountain and flood;I lov'd the famed spots, where thy standard aince stood;
The blood fields of Flodden, and famed Bannockburn;
And I wish her foes visits may never return.—
3
I love thee auld Scotland, the mountain and glen,The bonniest o' lasses, and hailest o' men;
I love thy scotch beauties, in tartans sae bra,
The sweetest o' women, the world ever saw.
4
My heart's in thee Scotland, my heart's I' the north,The birthplace o' valor, the country o' worth;
In lands 'yont the sun;—and wherever I rove,
Thy health, and prosperity,—'tis Scotland I love.
5
Here's a health to auld Scotland, I ne'er wish her ill,I left her in freedom, and wish her free still;
Let her earn her ain living, and wear her ain claes,
And her worst lot be still, wi' her second hand faes.
July 18th 1844
281
HAYMAKING
1
Among the meadow hay cocks'Tis beautiful to lie
When pleasantly the day looks
And gold like is the sky
2
How lovely looks the hay-swarthWhen turning to the sun
How richly looks the dark path
When the rickings all are done
3
There's nothing looks more lovelyAs a meadow field in cock
There's nothing sounds more sweetly
As the evenings six o' clock
4
There's nothing sounds so welcomeAs their singing at their toil
Sweet maidens with tan'd faces
And bosoms fit to broil
5
And its beautiful to look onHow the hay-cleared meadow lies
How the sun pours down his welcome heat
Like gold from yonder skies
282
6
There's a calm upon the levelWhen the sun is getting low
Smooth as a lawn is the green level
Save where swarths their pointings shew
7
There the mother makes a journeyWith a babbie at her breast
While the sun is fit to burn ye
On the sabath day at rest
8
There's nothing like such beautyWith a woman ere compares
Unless the love within her arms
The infant which she heirs.
SONG
[Sweet the sun shines on the wild heaving sea]
1
Sweet the sun shines on the wild heaving sea;Sweet heaves the wind, oer the dark waving tree;
There, sweet the bright sun smiles,
There, gladly lorn labour toils,
While the sea waves, and boils;
All the long day.
283
2
And hither my Katie roams down the lone glen,'Mong moor's, and 'mong mountains, and far fra' a men—,
Sweet is her shape, and air,
O she is more than fair,
While the burn' dances there,
Down the green brae.—
EVENING
The cool of evening is the hour of heaven
The time earth holds communion with the sky
When angels thoughts to evening walks are given
And wispering in the hedges round us lie
Like heaven talking in our infancy
One sweet soft cupola appears the clouds
Purple and rose and gold far west doth lie
May blossoms on the hedges sleep in crowds
And evening rests in days retiring shrouds
The time earth holds communion with the sky
When angels thoughts to evening walks are given
And wispering in the hedges round us lie
Like heaven talking in our infancy
One sweet soft cupola appears the clouds
Purple and rose and gold far west doth lie
May blossoms on the hedges sleep in crowds
And evening rests in days retiring shrouds
Days restorative toils repose the hour
When infants cradle on the mothers breast
Like roses in the dews yet half in flower
While day yet lingers in the golden west
Beasts to their sheds, the small birds to their nest,
Clouds to the trees, dews to the flowers are given
The dews like cordials fall on toil and rest
The dog-rose glistens wi' the dews of even
And peace reposes in the midst of heaven
When infants cradle on the mothers breast
Like roses in the dews yet half in flower
While day yet lingers in the golden west
Beasts to their sheds, the small birds to their nest,
284
The dews like cordials fall on toil and rest
The dog-rose glistens wi' the dews of even
And peace reposes in the midst of heaven
It is the hour the lover meets his heart
At least the maid who keeps it in her breast
It is the hour that lovers will impart
Their heart's own secret 'ere the hour of rest
It is the hour the social life likes best
When neighbours, children, wife and husband meet
The hour when blessings they are doubly bless't
The hour when dews are brushed by lovers feet
The soft still hour when lov'd and happy meet
At least the maid who keeps it in her breast
It is the hour that lovers will impart
Their heart's own secret 'ere the hour of rest
It is the hour the social life likes best
When neighbours, children, wife and husband meet
The hour when blessings they are doubly bless't
The hour when dews are brushed by lovers feet
The soft still hour when lov'd and happy meet
SONG ‘Thou'rt mine Love’
1
Thou'rt mine Love, in gladness;In sickness, and sorrow;
Oh!—the love of to day,
Shall not change with the morrow,
While the bright mirror'd sky,
Is pourtray'd in the river:
While there's light in thine eye,
Thou'rt mine love for ever.
285
2
My delight's in thy keeping,In daylight and gloaming;
I dream of thee sleeping,
And think of thee roaming.
Thou'rt mine love in gladness,
In sickness, and sorrow;
Oh! the smile of to day,
Shall not change with the morrow.
July 21st 1844
SONG O wert thou in the storm
1
O wert thou in the storm,How I would shield thee:
To keep thee dry and warm,
A camp I would build thee.
2
Though the clouds pour'd again,Not a drop should harm thee;
The music of wind, and rain,
Rather should charm thee.
3
O wert thou in the storm,A shed I would build thee;
To keep thee dry and warm,—
How I would shield thee.—
286
4
The rain should not wet thee,Nor thunder clap harm thee.
By thy side I would sit me,—
To comfort, and warm thee.
5
I would sit by thy side love,While the dread storm was over;—
And the wings of an angel,
My charmer would cover.
July 25th 1844
SONG To Harriett
1
The tresses of thy glossy hair,As dark as is the ravens wing;
When flying in the sunny air,
Beneath the marble clouds of spring:
'Tis dark, nay black, as starless night;
Or glossy beauties softest light.
2
The thunder tempest near the sun,Wears awful darkness, on its breast;
Thy glossy hair as black, has none,—
But softest hues where love could rest.
Thy neck, and face, was snowy fair,
But beauty was her coal black hair.
287
3
Like darkness in a sunny sky,It lay upon her neck in light:
As black clouds over sunbeams lie;
'Till her white skin, seemed doubly white:—
While the rich light in those black eyes,
Outshone the sun in summer skies.—
FORGET-ME-NOT
1
The blue flower, Forget-me-not:What can it mean love,
Growing near the river grot,
In meadows green love.
2
The flowers they are heaven's blue,And bright like thee love:
When e'er these flowers you view,
Then think of me love.
3
In the morning then dearest,Think of me when thou'rt roaming,
In the spring meadow, fairest,
Or the grove in the gloaming.
288
4
By the river at noon love,Blue Forget-me-nots see;
By the light of the moon love,
In its hue think of me:
5
By the sweet walks of evening;By the stars in the sky;
By the moon when its beaming;
By the sun when its high.
6
Heavens poesy is talking,In the evening of thee;
And when thou art walking,
Sweet --- think of me.
July 28th 1844.
SUSAN DOWN THE LANE
1
Oh! happy memories, what are yeBut welcome flowers of spring;
The thoughts o' love, and melody,
Your early visits bring.
I've sung o' maids, and called them flowers;
And so I will again,—
The sweetest o' the summer hours,
Was with Susan down the lane.
289
2
She's like the hedge rose, white and red,Where spring and summer meet:—
The violets by the woodland shed,
No flower can be more sweet.
Its eye is dew drop's, silver grey,
Or blebs of sunny rain.—
Yet dearer than these flowers of May,
Is Susan down the lane.
3
How sweet the summer flowers appear,In many a secret place:
But still the fairest of the year,
Is Susan's bonny face:
The wild-hedge-rose, is fair and sweet,
In a summers shower of rain—
But the sweetest flower I e're could meet
Was Susan down the lane.
4
Those happy memories summer hours,Those violets of the wood;
That hedge of sweet-briar, hung with showers;
That by her cottage stood,
Than sweet briar hedge, or summer showers,
There's one as sweet again:
The fairest flower on meads, or bowers,
Is Susan down the lane.
290
SONG
[Farewell! auld Scotland, hills, and moors]
1
Farewell! auld Scotland, hills, and moors;I bid ye a' farewell!
I'm like a Scott; turned out o' doors,
In other lands to dwell.
Sae mopingly, and hopelessly;—
Do I now gang awa',
Ye banks, and braes,—I leave mysell,
In taking leave of a'—.
2
Farewell to Scotlands hills, that leuk,To hills ayont the sea;
Farewell to Scotland, like a beuk;
Homes hospitality:
Sojourning, and mourning,
I leave thy hills, and muirs,
And frae the world a brother Scott,
I seem turned out of doors.
291
MARY
1
It is the evening hour,How silent all doth lie,
The horned moon she shews her face,
In the river, with the sky;
Just by the path on which we pass,
The flaggy lake, lies still, as glass.
2
Spirit of her I love,Wispering to me:
Stories of sweet visions, as I rove:
Here stop and crop with me,
Sweet flowers, that in the still hour grew,
We'll take them home, nor shake off the bright dew.
3
Mary, or sweet spirit of thee,As the bright sun shines tomorrow;
Thy dark eyes these flowers shall see,
Gathered by me in sorrow,
In the still hour, when my mind was free,
To walk alone—yet wish I walk'd with thee.
292
SONG
[The rose of the morning,—]
1
The rose of the morning,—Is laden wi' dew;
But the rose o' the evening—
Is sweetest to view:
At the sweet hour o' sunset,
How lovely the gloaming;
To watch the young moon set,—
Wi' a sweet lassie roaming.
2
Then the thistles hangs cobwebs,The wild brier its dew,
While the bee on the knob-weed—
Looks drowsily too;—
'Tis sweet at the sunset—
O'er the fields to be roaming,
And watch the bright moon set—
Wi' a lassie at gloaming;
3
How lovely the fields lookAll beaded wi' dew
Sweet the grass in the bield-newk
Where the wren hides from view
Such scenes have a gem still
I love in the gloaming
On the green sward I would lie still
Or with a lassie be roaming.
293
4
If she talks very kind too,How sweet is the weather:
When we both in a mind go;—
Out walking together;
The bird on its nest she,
Will praise, when we're roaming;
The flower I like best she,
Will take home at gloaming.
5
The rose of the morning,Is laden wi' dew,
But the rose of the evening,
Is sweetest to view:
At the sweet hour o' sunset,—
How sweet in the gloaming;
To watch the young moon set,
Wi' a sweet lassie roaming.
STANZAS
[Black absence hides upon the past]
1
Black absence hides upon the pastI quite forget thy face
And memory like the angry blast
Will love's last smile erace
I try to think of what has been
But all is blank to me
And other faces pass between
My early love and thee
294
2
I try to trace thy memory nowAnd only find thy name
Those inky lashes on thy brow
Black hair, and eyes the same
Thy round pale face of snowy dyes
There's nothing paints thee there
A darkness comes before my eyes
For nothing seems so fair
3
I knew thy name so sweet and young'Twas music to my ears
A silent word upon my tongue
A hidden thought for years
Dark hair and lashes swarthy too
Arched on thy forehead pale
All else is vanished from my view
Like voices on the gale
TO MARY
1
I sleep with thee, and wake with thee,And yet thou art not there:—
I fill my arms, with thoughts of thee,
And press the common air.—
Thy eyes are gazing upon mine,
When thou art out of sight;
My lips are always touching thine,
At morning, noon, and night.
295
2
I think, and speak of other things,To keep my mind at rest:
But still to thee, my memory clings,
Like love in womans breast;—
I hide it from the worlds-wide eye;
And think, and speak contrary;
But soft, the wind comes from the sky,
And wispers tales of Mary.—
3
The night wind wispers in my ear,The moon shines in my face;
A burden still of chilling fear,
I find in every place.—
The breeze is wispering in the bush;
And the dew-fall from the tree,
All; sighing on, and will not hush,
Some pleasant tales of thee.—
SONG
[Wher hae ye been sae far awae]
1
Wher hae ye been sae far awaeMy fair creature?
I've been by the mountain side
Whar the siller burnie glide
I've been looking far, and wide
Farest creature
296
2
And what whar ye lurking thereDearest creature
I leuk'd ayont the sunny know
Where the yellow gowans grow
And then she blush'd and turn'd to go
Dearest creature
3
And what gaed ye, to leuk for thereMy fairest creature
I gaed to leuk ayont the know
For aine I saw some days ago
In tartan plaid fra' top to toe
And brown his feature
4
He leuk'd sa' kind the tother e'enAnd said fair creature
My heart leap'd fra' my bosom clean
I blush'd but it whar a' unseen
As mountain brere that blooms at e'en
Brown whar his feature
5
Then I'm the leuky mon to saeFairest creature
That bright ene I think on't well
I clasp'd her waist 'twas me mysell
What I might do, I may not tell
I kiss'd the fairest creature
Augst 20th 1844
297
A VISION
1
I lost the love, of heaven above;I spurn'd the lust, of earth below;
I felt the sweets of fancied love,—
And hell itself my only foe.
2
I lost earths joys, but felt the glow,Of heaven's flame abound in me:
'Till loveliness, and I did grow,
The bard of immortality.
3
I loved, but woman fell away;I hid me, from her faded fame:
I snatch'd the sun's eternal ray,—
And wrote 'till earth was but a name.
4
In every language upon earth,On every shore, o'er every sea;
I gave my name immortal birth,
And kep't my spirit with the free.
Augst 2nd 1844
298
SONG
[The bearded rye was in the row]
1
The bearded rye was in the row,The lintel in the pod;
No grass without its sod did grow,
No peas without a pod.
Between the Lammas open tide,—
And harvest getting in,
When Jockey walked by Jenny's side,
His courting to begin.
2
My dear saith he you are sa sweet,Your face it is sa fair,—
Your bonnet bow is tied so neat,
I'm in love I do declair.
Here Jenny love, and dot no sin,
That rye is in the ear,—
And e're it comes in ear again,
Shall I have o'at to fear?—
3
Na' Jockey lad your tongue's o'er glib,Such things I dinna tell,
Your pen will want a better knib,
To write love-letters well.—
I know the rye is in the ear,
But that I canna tell,
For what may hap anether year,—
Are secrets to my sell.
299
4
But Jenny love is like the bloom,Of these sweet simmer flowers;
And if na' more the like should come,
Where leuk for happy hours.—
War' these same fields o' corn and rye,
The last that would be sown;—
War my last hopes o' thee to die;
Where would my joy be known.
5
Then Jenny answered Jockey well;And waited no reply,
My joy I make to please my sell,—
Nor loose it all to sigh.—
There's mony a harvest to be met,—
And other fields o' rye:
And I'm o'er young to marry yet,
But I'll do't before I die.
THE MAID OF JERUSALEM
1
Maid of Jerusalem, by the Dead SeaI wandered all sorrowful thinking of thee;—
Thy city in ruins; thy kingdom deplored,—
All fallen and lost by the Ottoman's sword.
300
2
I saw thee sit there in disconsolate sighsWhere the hall of thy father's a ruined heap lies;
Thy fair fingers shewed me the place where they trod
In thy childhood, when flourished the kingdom of God.
3
The place where they fell, and the scenes where they lie,In the tombs of Siloa;—(the tear in her eye
She stifled,—transfix'd there, it grew like a pearl,
Beneath the dark lash of the sweet Jewish girl).
4
Jerusalem is fallen;—still thou art in bloom,As fresh as the ivy around the lone tomb,
And fair as the lily of morning that waves
Its sweet scented bells o'er the desolate graves.
5
When I think of Jerusalem in kingdoms yet free,I shall think of its ruins, and think upon thee,
Thou beautiful Jewess!—content thou may'st roam,
A bright spot in Eden still blooms as thy home.—
301
A VALENTINE
1
Here's a valentine nosegay for Mary,Some of springs early flowers;
The ivy is green by the dairy,
And so are these laurels of ours.—
Though the snow fell so deep, and the winter was dreary,
The laurels are green, and the sparrows are cheery.
2
The snowdrops in bunches grow under the rose;And aconites under the lilac like fairies;
The best in the bunches for Mary I chose;—
Their looks are as sweet, and as simple as Mary's;
The one will make spring, in my verses so bare,
The other will set off, and braid thy dark hair.
3
Red primroses too, at the old parlour end,Have bloom'd all the winter, ‘mid’ snow's cold and dreary,
Where the lavender cotton kept off the cold wind
Now to shine in my Valentine nosegay for Mary.
And shine in my verses all summer and be,
A memento of fondness, and friendship for thee.
302
4
Here's the crocus half opened, that spreads into gold;Like branches of sunbeams left there by a fairy,
I pluck them as such, in these verses so cold,
But they'l bloom twice as bright, in the presence of Mary.
These garden flowers cropt, I will go to the fields,
And see what the valleys and pasture land yields.
5
Here's the pale primrose, on the skirts of the wild wood,And violet blue, 'neath the thorn on the green:
The wild flowers we pluck't, in the days of our childhood,
On the very same spot, as no changes had been!
In the very same place, where the sun kiss'd the leaves,
And the woodbine its branches, with thorns interweaves.
6
And here in the pasture all swarming with rushes,Is a cowslip, as blooming and forward as spring,
And the pilewort like sunshine, glows under the bushes
While the chaffinch there sitting is trying to sing.
And the daisies are comeing, called ‘stars of the earth’;
To bring to the school-boy his spring time of mirth.
7
Here is the nosegay—how simple it shines,It speaks without words, to the ear and the eye:
The flowers of the spring, are the best Valentines,
They are young, fair, and simple, and pleasingly shy.
303
I send you these flowers, as a Valentine Mary.
APRIL
1
In April time, flowers come like dreams;—The nightingales, and cuckoo's sing,—
The may-fly setling on the streams,
Makes wrinkles with its russet wing:—
The rivers sedge is sprouting green,
The mare-blobs are in burnished gold,
The daisies spread about the green,
And all is lovely to behold.—
2
The skylark winnows in the air,And cheers the valley with his song;
The slopes are green, the scene is fair,
And herd-boys whistle all day long.
The ash tree's they are full of flower,
The fallen ones float on the stream;
The sun through haze like misty shower,
Shines warmly on the lovely scene.
3
The meadows they are emerald green,The river sparkles with the light;—
Like snow storms are the orchard seen;—
The fields are with daisies white,
304
That bye-and bye-are flowers of Gold,
The fields look warm, the air serene,
And all is lovely to behold.
4
'Tis spring the april of the year,The holiday of birds and flowers,
Some build ere yet the leaves appear,
While others wait for safer hours:—
Hid in green leaves that shun the shower,
They're safe and happy all along—
The meanest weed now finds a flower,
The simplest bird will learn a song.
EVENING
1
'Tis evening, the black snail has got on his track,And gone to its nest is the wren;—
And the packman snail too, with his home on his back;
Clings on the bowed bents like a wen.
2
The shepherd has made a rude mark with his foot,Where his shaddow reached when he first came;
And it just touched the tree where his secret love cut,
Two letters that stand for love's name.
305
3
The evening comes in with the wishes of love;—And the shepherd he looks on the flowers;—
And thinks who would praise the soft song of the dove,
And meet joy in these dewfalling hours.
4
For nature is love, and the wishers of love;When nothing can hear or intrude;
It hides from the eagle, and joins with the dove:
In beautiful green solitude.
THE WALK
1
The lonesome wood anemonie,Now trembles in the gale;
And bows in wood, and meadow lea,
Like maidens all so pale.
So Mary let the flowers be thine,
And we'll together go
Where they in quaking clusters shine,
And brimming rivers flow.—
2
The beauties they of early spring,A fairer beauty thou:
We'll gather them as fairy things,
To deck thy lovely brow,
We'll wander by the river side;
With waters flowing o'er:
We'll trace the marshes far and wide,
And talk love stories o'er.
306
3
For there's the bright-march-marygoldLike sun-rays from the west,
They'll shine like gold in thy black hair;
Or broach upon thy breast.
And though the stooping willow tree,
Shews not one leaf of gray,
The grassy sward has charms for thee,
And sunny is the day.
4
So come my dearest Mary Ann,And meet the morning air;
The larks are doing all they can,
To cheer thee, young, and fair;—
We'll crop the large marsh marygold,
And wood anemonie;
Sweet is the morning, free from cold,
And music's in each tree.
SONG
[There's not a land the sea surrounds]
1
There's not a land the sea surrounds,Sung by a thousand pens;
Or classic waters, classic grounds;
Like Scotland's bonny glens,
The valleys where the poet roams;
Each beacon lighted hill;
Her Scottish hearts, and Scottish homes;
Are green, and welcome still.
307
2
There's many maids in foreign vales,That it were well to shun;
But Scottish maids, in Scottish tales,—
Beat all beneath the sun;—
My boyhood saw them by the streams,
By vale, and naked hill;—
And still they haunt my manhoods dreams,—
Sweet, green, and welcome still—
SPRING VIOLETS
1
Push that rough maple bush aside,Its bark is all ridgy—and naked beside;
But it stands in the way of the flowers that engross
My eye—in bloom, by its stump of green moss:
How green is the moss, and how purple the flower,
I'll not pluck thee, sweet violets in thy own sheltered bower!
2
The first sunny days, they were nought but green leaves,When the bush, threw another bush, on the dead leaves;
So perfect, and true, and such shadows I love,
That it seemed an ink-drawing, of the maple above:
The moss it looks greener, the flowers are so blue
While the gold sun of spring looks delightfully through.
308
3
There's no flowers more red, than the flower of the larch,And none are so sweet as the violets of march;
In their dead leafy beds, how intensely dark blue,
By the moss maple stump, where the sunlight looks through:
Those sweet flowers that look up, in their beautiful bloom,
Will ne'er live to see the bright maple leaves come.
THE DRONEING BEE
1
The droneing bee has wakened up,And humming round the buttercup:
And round the bright star daisy hums;—
O'er every blade of grass he passes—
The dew-drop shines like looking glasses;
In every drop a bright sun comes:—
'Tis march, and spring, bright days we see,—
Round every blossom hums the bee.
2
As soon as daylight in the morning,The crimson curtains of the dawning,—
We hear, and see, the humming bee,—
Searching for hedge row violets,
Happy with the food he gets:—
Swimming o'er brook, and meadow lea;—
Then sits on maple stools at rest,
On the green mosses velvet breast.
309
3
About the molehill, round, and round,The wild bee hums with honied sound,—
Singing a song, of spring, and flowers,—
To school-boys heard in sunny hours.
When all the waters seem a blaze,
Of fire, and sunshine in such days;
When bee's buzz on with coal black eye;
Joined by the yellow butterfly.
4
And when it comes, a summer shower;It still will go from flower, to flower;
Then underneath the rushes,—
It sees the silver daisy flower,
And there it spends a little hour
Then hides among the bushes
But whence they come from, where they go
None but the wiser schoolboy's know.
TO THE LARK
Bird of the morn
When roseate clouds begin
To shew the opening dawn
Thy singing does begin
& oer the sweet green fields & happy vales
Thy pleasant song is heard mixed with the morning gales
When roseate clouds begin
To shew the opening dawn
Thy singing does begin
& oer the sweet green fields & happy vales
Thy pleasant song is heard mixed with the morning gales
310
Bird of the morn
What time the ruddy sun
Smiles on the pleasant corn
Thy singing is begun
Heartfelt & cheering over labours toil
Who chop in coppice wild & delve the russet soil
What time the ruddy sun
Smiles on the pleasant corn
Thy singing is begun
Heartfelt & cheering over labours toil
Who chop in coppice wild & delve the russet soil
Bird of the sun
How beautifull art thou
When morning has begun
To gild the mountains brow
How beautifull it is to see thee soar so blest
Winnowing thy russet wings above thy twitchy nest
How beautifull art thou
When morning has begun
To gild the mountains brow
How beautifull it is to see thee soar so blest
Winnowing thy russet wings above thy twitchy nest
Bird of the summers day
How oft I stand to hear
Thee sing thy airy way
With music wild & clear
Till thou becomes a speck upon the sky
Small as those clods that crumble where I lye
How oft I stand to hear
Thee sing thy airy way
With music wild & clear
Till thou becomes a speck upon the sky
Small as those clods that crumble where I lye
Thou bird of happiest song
The spring & summer too
Is thine the months along
The woods & vales to view
If climes were ever green thy song would be
The sunny music of eternal glee
The spring & summer too
Is thine the months along
The woods & vales to view
If climes were ever green thy song would be
The sunny music of eternal glee
311
SONNET
[Enough of misery keeps my heart alive]
Enough of misery keeps my heart aliveTo make it feel more mental agony
Till even life itself becomes all pain
And bondage more than hell to keep alive
And still I live, nor murmer nor complain
Save that the bonds which hold me may make free
My lonely solitude, and give me rest
When every foe hath ceased to trouble me
On the soft throbbings of a womans breast
Where love and truth and feeling live confest
The little cottage with those bonds of joy
My family—lifes blood within my breast
Is not more dear—than is each girl and boy
Which time matures and nothing can destroy.
JESSY
1
When the sabbath it comes to the greenThe maidens are there in their best
But Jessy is not to be seen
Though I walk till the sun's in the west
I fancy still each wood and plain
Where I and Jessy strayed
Then I was a country swain
And she a happy maid
312
2
But woods and wilds are lonely nowTheir wild flowers blow unseen
The birds sing lone upon the bough
Where Jessy once had been
But now through months she keeps away
And I am lone behind
Trees tell me so from day to day
When waving in the wind
3
Birds tell me so upon the boughThat I'm threadbare now and old
The very sun looks on me now
A being dead and cold
I had a place where I could rest
And love and quiet be
That quiet place was Jessy's breast
And still a hope to me
4
The spring comes brighter day by dayAnd brighter flowers appear
And though she ever keeps away
Her name is ever here
Jessy's love is so dear to my bosom
I wonder what tempts her to stay
The white thorn will soon be in blossom
And we may be married by May
313
SONNET
[Poets love nature, and themselves are love]
Poets love nature, and themselves are love;The scorn of fools, and mock of idle pride
The vile in nature worthless deeds approve
They court the vile, and spurn all good beside
Poets love nature, like the calm of heaven
Her gifts like heaven's love spread far and wide
In all her works there are no signs of leaven
Sorrow abashes from her simple pride
Her flowers like pleasures have their seasons birth
And bloom through region[s] here below
They are her very scriptures upon earth
And teach us simple mirth where e'er we go
Even in prison they can solace me
For where they bloom God is, and I am free.
MARY
1
'Tis April and the morning loveAwakes in balmy dew
Flowers are the meads adorning love
In yellow white and blue
And if thy heart is true my love
As true it used to be
Then leave thy cot and kye my love
And walk the fields with me
314
2
And we will walk the meadow loveAnd we will walk the grove
And by the winding river love
We'll walk and talk of love
And by the white thorn bushes love
Just budding into green
Where the shaded fountain rushes love
We'll steal a kiss unseen
3
Where the daisey on the brink my loveStands peeping in the flood
And the blackcap flies to drink my love
That whistles in the wood
Where the crowflower like the sun my love
Shines in the grass so green
Let's go where waters run my love
And live and love unseen
4
And live and love unseen my dearFor one sweet April day
Drear winter seems to last a year
While Mary is away
Where we can see and not be seen
By woods or shady grove
Or by the hawthorn's tender green
Let's meet, and live and love
315
THE SKYLARK
1
Although I am in prisonThy song is uprisen
And singing away to the cloud
In the blueness of morn
Over fields of green corn
With a song sweet rural and loud
2
When the day is serenestWhen the corn is the greenest
Thy bosom mounts up to the light
And sings in the sun
Like a vision begun
Of Pleasure and lonely delight
3
The daiseys they whitenPlains where the suns brighten
And warmeth thy nest where thy russet eggs lie
From whence thou'rt now springing
And the air it is ringing
To show that the minstrel of spring is on high
4
The cornflower is bloomingThe cowslip is coming
And many new buds on the silken grass lie
On the earth's grassy breast
Thou hast left thy brown nest
And towering above it a speck in the sky
316
5
Thou'rt the herald of sunshineAnd the soft dewy moonshine
Gilds sweetly the sleep of thy brown speckled breast
Thou'rt the bard of the spring
On thy brown russet wing
And of each grassy close thou'rt the poet and guest
6
There's the violet confidingIn the mossy wood riding
And primrose beneath the old thorn in the glen
And daiseys that go to bed
In the old sheltered homestead
Old friends with old faces I see them again
7
And thou feathered poetI see thee, and know it
Thou'rt one of the minstrels that cheered me last spring
With nature thou'rt blest
And green grass round thy nest
Will keep thee still happy to mount up and sing
THE HEATH
1
I love the heath, where spring had used to lie,—In boyhood 'neath her aromatic showers;
Where maidens walked so beautifully shy,—
Akin to nothing but the blooming flowers.
317
2
The rabits from the furze would squat, and run;The daiseys filling every open space;
And crowds of kingcups golden as the sun,
Shone on the molehills of that happy place.—
FLOWERS AND SPRING
1
And has the spring's all glorious eye,No lesson to the mind?
The birds that cleave the golden sky,
Things to the earth resigned;
Wild flowers that dance to every wind,
Do they no memory leave behind?
2
Aye flowers, the very name of flowers,That bloom in wood and glen;
Bring spring to me in winter hours,
And childhoods dreams again:
The primrose on the woodland lea,
Was more than wealth, and gold to me.
3
The violets by the woodland side,As thick as they could snive,
Ive talked to them with childish pride,
As things that were alive.
I find them now in mans distress,
They seem as sweet, yet valueless.
318
4
The cowslips on the meadow lea,How have I run for them:
I looked with wild and childish glee,
Upon each golden gem:
And when they bowed their heads so shy,
I laughed and thought they danced for joy.
5
And when a man, in early years,How sweet they used to come;
And give me tales of smiles and tears,
And thoughts more dear than home:
Secrets which words would then reprove,
They told the names of early love.
6
The primrose turned a babbling flower,Within its sweet recess:
I blushed to see their secret bower,
And turned her name to bless.
The violet said the eyes were blue,
I loved, and did they tell me true?
7
The cowslip in meadows every where,—My hearts own thoughts would steal.
I nip't them 'cause they should not hear;
They smiled, and would reveal.
And o'er each meadow right or wrong;
They sing the name I've worshiped long.
8
The brooks that mirrored clear the sky,Full well I know the spot.
The mouse ear looked with bright blue eye,
And said forget me not.
And from the brook I turn'd away,
But heard it many an after day.
319
9
The kingcup on its slender stalk,Within the pasture dell;
Would picture there a pleasant walk,
With one I loved so well.
They said how sweet at eventide,
'Twould be with true love at thy side.
10
And on the pastures woody knoll,I saw the wild blue-bell;
On sundays when I used to stroll,
With her I loved so well.
She culled their flowers the year before,
These bowed, and told the story o'er.
11
And every flower, that had a name,Would tell me who was fair,
But those without, as strangers came,
And blossomed silent there:
I stood to hear but all alone,
They bloomed and kept their thoughts unknown.
12
But seasons now have nought to say,The flowers no news to bring;
Alone I live from day to day,
Flowers seem the bier of spring;
And birds upon the bush, or tree,
All sing a different tale to me!
320
SWEET JESSY
1
Winter is nearly spentAnd gone to the desert of gloom
Sweet spring her heralds hath sent
Gay flowers in the valley to bloom
Where the sun turns to gold on the grass
And the flowers turn to stars in the night
The land and the sea and the air
Bids welcome to spring coming there
And my heart biddeth welcome to thee my delight
Sweet Jessy
2
I knew her in her childhoodIn scenes from strife and noise
When singing to the wild wood
Tales and songs of childish joys
Making playmates of flowers as she lay
And talking to birds as they flew
O'er the molehill of thyme all the day
Her voice and her features were known
I went up and called her mine own
Sweet Jessy
321
3
Thou'rt as young in mine eyeAs thy bridal day smile
In my heart thou shalt lie
Though the world may beguile
The dreams of thy childhood are dearest to me
And the very night smiles with the memory of thee
Sweet Jessy
THE RAREE SHOW
1
God bless us theres a mort to do'Bout Princes, and 'bout Queens
Let's go and see the raree show
And tell 'em what it means
'Twas thus to Richard Robin sed
And Robin made reply
I'll think on't when I go to bed
Sed Richard so will I
2
When morning came they both agree'dTo leave the village green
And see the sights of which we read
About the Prince and Queen
322
And such a mort of shows
They stayed till all the lamps and lights
Shone in the streets in rows
3
They saw flags stuck wi' evergreenAll gilt wi' crowns and names
Dick vowed the like wor never seen
And Bob he thought the same
And there wor V's, and there wor R's
[A hangin' on the lamps]
Bob sed they told o' bludy wars
But them's the tales o' scamps
4
Arches were stuck wi' evergreensUp to the very top
At Christmas time there may be seen
The like in Grocer's shop
And lots of letters for the name
Of but a Prince and Queen,
Some yellow as the very flame
The like o't ne'er wor seen
5
A roozin bonfire blazed at nightFire-works were blazing too
'Twould sarv'd our house for candle light
For half the winter through
And there wor fireworks on the hill
And crackers in the street
I see the bonfires blazing still
And faces I did meet
323
6
And there were morts o' things besideI can't think on't to tell
If they be Queen's and aint no pride
I on'y wish them well
The women they did gaily shine
Our Nan has no sich clothes
Misses on Sundays ben't so fine
As Queen's and Albert's shows
7
Some sez they beint the Prince and QueenAnd some pretends they be
I cam to see what's to be seen
And mort o' sights I see
And if I see the Queen agen
And ne'er o sight be seen
I've got a voice like other men
To say God save the Queen
A SCENE
1
The winding river glittersThrough the meadows emerald green
And in the sunshine twitters
How beautiful the scene
324
And the willows greening grey
While the white-thorn's sweetly weaving
Beneath the naked spray
2
Its tender leaves of greenO'er every hill and vale
Then comes the pleasant scene
Of maid with milking pail
The soft winds blowing over us
Woods waving too and fro
Soon spring's green leaves will cover us
Wherever we may go
SONG
[I seek her in the shady grove]
1
I seek her in the shady grove,And by the silent stream;
I seek her where my fancies rove,
In many a happy dream:
I seek her where I find her not,
In spring and summer weather,—
My thoughts paint many a happy spot,
But we ne'er meet together.
325
2
The trees and bushes speak my choice;And in the summer shower,
I often hear her pleasant voice,
In many a silent hour.
I see her in the summer brook;
In blossoms sweet and fair,
In every pleasant place I look,
My fancy paints her there.
3
The wind blows through the forest tree,And cheers the pleasant day.
There her sweet voice is sure to be,
To lull my cares away:—
The very hedges find a voice,
So does the gurgling rill:
But still the object of my choice,
Is lost and abscent still.
A LAMENT
1
The sun looks from a cloudy sky,On yellow bleaching reeds.—
The river streams run muddy by,
Among the flags and reeds.
And nature seems so lost and coy,
All silent and alone;
Left here without a single joy,
Or love to call my own.
326
2
How mournful now the river seems,Adown the vale to run;
That ran so sweet in my young dreams,
And glittered in the sun.
Now cold and dead, the meadow lies,
And muddy runs the stream:
The lark on drooping pinion flies,—
And spoiled is pleasures dream.
3
The wind comes moaning through the trees,—No maiden passes by.
And all the summer melodies,—
Are uttered in a sigh.
On many a knoll I set me down,
Beneath a silent sky,
And of the past all seem to frown,
And pass in sorrow by.
TO HIS WIFE
1
Thou sunshine in my calmer sky,Thou true-love in my vacant eye;
Where can I fly when lost to thee,
In this dark vale of misery.
Thou needle to my hapless north,
Thou sweet perrenial flower:
'Twas heaven that brought thy being forth,
To grace my lonely bower.
327
2
There is a spot, a lovely spot,Where all my cares would be forgot:
A place where I should then be free,—
With truth, and friendship, love and thee.
There I could find a home still free,—
From every weary care;
How rough so e'er lifes storms might be,
My heart could shelter there.
SONG
[A seaboy on the giddy mast]
A seaboy on the giddy mast
Sees nought but ocean waves
& hears the wild inconstant blast
Where loud the tempest raves
Sees nought but ocean waves
& hears the wild inconstant blast
Where loud the tempest raves
328
My life is like the ocean wave
& like the inconstant sea
In every hope appears a grave
& leaves no hope for me
& like the inconstant sea
In every hope appears a grave
& leaves no hope for me
My life is like the oceans lot
Bright gleams the morning gave
But storms oerwhelmed the sunny spot
Deep in the ocean wave
Bright gleams the morning gave
But storms oerwhelmed the sunny spot
Deep in the ocean wave
My life hath been the ocean storm
A black & troubled sea
When shall I find my life a calm
A port & harbour free
A black & troubled sea
When shall I find my life a calm
A port & harbour free
329
SONG
[The daiseys golden eye]
The daiseys golden eye
On the fallow land doth lie
Though the spring is just begun
Pewets watch it all the day
& the sky larks nest of hay
Leans agen its group of leaves in the sun
On the fallow land doth lie
Though the spring is just begun
Pewets watch it all the day
& the sky larks nest of hay
Leans agen its group of leaves in the sun
Theres the pilewort all in gold
Neath that ridge of finest mould
Blooms to cheer the ploughmans eye
There the mouse his hole hath made
& beneath its golden shade
Hides secure when the hawk is prowling bye
Neath that ridge of finest mould
Blooms to cheer the ploughmans eye
There the mouse his hole hath made
& beneath its golden shade
Hides secure when the hawk is prowling bye
Heres the speedwells sapphire blue
Was there anything more true
To the vernal season still
Here it decks the bank alone
Where the milkmaid throws a stone
At morn to cross the flooded rill
Was there anything more true
To the vernal season still
Here it decks the bank alone
Where the milkmaid throws a stone
At morn to cross the flooded rill
Here the cowslap chill with cold
On the rushy bed behold
Looking for [the] spring all day
Where the heavy bee will come
& find no sweets at home
Then quakes his weary wings & flyes away
On the rushy bed behold
Looking for [the] spring all day
Where the heavy bee will come
& find no sweets at home
Then quakes his weary wings & flyes away
330
& here are nameless flowers
Culled from cold & rawky hours
For Marys happy home
They grew in murky blea
Rush fields & naked lea
But suns will shine & pleasing spring will come
Culled from cold & rawky hours
For Marys happy home
They grew in murky blea
Rush fields & naked lea
But suns will shine & pleasing spring will come
SONG
[Sweet summer breath your choicest gales]
Sweet summer breath your choicest gales
To charm my lovers ear
Ye zephers wake your choicest tales
Where e'er she shall appear
& gently wave the meadow grass
Where soft she sets her feet
For my love is a country lass
& bonny as shes sweet
To charm my lovers ear
Ye zephers wake your choicest tales
Where e'er she shall appear
& gently wave the meadow grass
Where soft she sets her feet
For my love is a country lass
& bonny as shes sweet
The hedges only seem to mourn
The willow boughs to sigh
Though sunshine on the meads sojourn
To cheer me where I lye
The blackbird in the hedge row thorn
Sings loud his summer lay
He seems to sing both eve & morn
She wanders here to day
The willow boughs to sigh
Though sunshine on the meads sojourn
To cheer me where I lye
The blackbird in the hedge row thorn
Sings loud his summer lay
He seems to sing both eve & morn
She wanders here to day
331
The skylark in the summer cloud
One cheering anthem sings
& Mary where she wanders out
Can watch his trembling wings
Let zephers throw their sighs away
When woman comes abroad
To cheer the landscape all the day
Such glooms are ill bestowed
One cheering anthem sings
& Mary where she wanders out
Can watch his trembling wings
Let zephers throw their sighs away
When woman comes abroad
To cheer the landscape all the day
Such glooms are ill bestowed
I'll wander down the river way,
And wild flower poesys make;
For nature wispers all the day,—
She can't her promise break.
The meads already wear a smile;
The river runs more bright;
For down the path and o'er the stile,—
The maiden comes in sight.
And wild flower poesys make;
For nature wispers all the day,—
She can't her promise break.
The meads already wear a smile;
The river runs more bright;
For down the path and o'er the stile,—
The maiden comes in sight.
The scene begins to look divine,
We'll by the river walk;
Her arm already seems in mine,
And fancy hears her talk:
A vision this of early love,
The meadow, river,—rill.—
Scenes where I walked with Mary Dove,
Are in my memory still.
We'll by the river walk;
Her arm already seems in mine,
And fancy hears her talk:
A vision this of early love,
The meadow, river,—rill.—
Scenes where I walked with Mary Dove,
Are in my memory still.
332
AUTUMN
1
The autumn day it fades away,The fields are wet and dreary;
The rude storm takes the flowers of may,
And nature seemeth weary.
The partridge coveys shunning fate,
Hide in the bleaching stubble;
And many a bird without its mate,
Mourns o'er its lonely trouble.
2
On awthorns shine the crimson awe,Where spring brought may-day blossoms;
Decay is natures cheerless law,
Life's winter in our bosoms.
The fields are brown and naked all,
But hedges still are green:
But storms shall come at autumns fall,
And not a leaf be seen!
3
Yet happy love that warms the heart,Through darkest storms severe;
Keeps many a tender flower to start,—
When spring shall reappear,
Affections hope shall roseys meet;
Like those of summer bloom:—
And joys, and flowers, smell as sweet,
In seasons yet to come.
333
THE CHURCHYARD
1
‘The graves of those we loved’,How beautiful they lie;
From every care and strife removed;
Beneath heavens canopy.
2
Think of the hand that led you on,In childhoods happy way;
A guide where 'ere your steps have gone,
That would not lead astray!
3
The father is a real friend,The mother something more,
And when the churchyard holds them both,
The hope of life is o'er!
4
The maiden when she leaves the church,Stands where the nettles wave;
Upon a mound against the porch,
—It is her mothers grave!
5
The brother looks among the tombs,His sisters name to see;
Gone like a blossom just in bloom,
How beautiful was she!
334
6
The stone with sculpture spread aboutFrom fondest love was given.
But dear the mounds of those without,
In memories of the living.
7
And o'er her brother's grave—(that was.)The sister bending sighs,
While like the dew drops in the grass,
Tears glisten in her eyes!
8
A small low stone denotes the spot,—The little mound is green;
Strangers go by and notice not,—
There sleeps the ‘village queen’.
9
A sweetheart's name reposes there,Beneath that little stone;
To one, o' she was more than fair;
And dearer now she's gone!
10
These resting places of the dead,How beautiful they lie;
The green grass turf above them spread,
Beneath a summer sky.
335
SONG—MISS HAND
In this summers health & dew
Among the oaks & flowers
‘When looks were fond & words were few’
Canst thou remember hours
Spent there in love & happiness
Beneath the clear blue sky
When natures truth had power to bless
& nought gave cause to sigh
Among the oaks & flowers
‘When looks were fond & words were few’
Canst thou remember hours
Spent there in love & happiness
Beneath the clear blue sky
When natures truth had power to bless
& nought gave cause to sigh
The song thats breathed from lips we love
There nought so sweet can prove
The voice like angels songs above
There's nought so sweet but love
The walk at morn the seat at eve
The rest on hillocks green
There love leaves many an happy place
To think of what has been
There nought so sweet can prove
The voice like angels songs above
There's nought so sweet but love
The walk at morn the seat at eve
The rest on hillocks green
There love leaves many an happy place
To think of what has been
To think of when we get away
& so I've thought of thee
How sweet appeared that summers day
When thou as fair as May
Went with me through that happy scene
An angel by my side
How beautifull the park—how green
The oaks spread far & wide
& so I've thought of thee
How sweet appeared that summers day
When thou as fair as May
Went with me through that happy scene
An angel by my side
How beautifull the park—how green
The oaks spread far & wide
336
& we were known beyond the sea
& loved in other tongues
& there thou wert as dear to me
As beauty is in songs
The seat at noon the walk at eve
On molehills by the rill
So fond to stay so loath to leave
Are all in memory still
& loved in other tongues
& there thou wert as dear to me
As beauty is in songs
The seat at noon the walk at eve
On molehills by the rill
So fond to stay so loath to leave
Are all in memory still
STANZAS
[There is a hope for all who live]
1
There is a hope for all who liveBeneath this cold and cloudy sky
And many a joy that hope can give
Is dround in many a tearful eye
There is a hope of joyful sound
'Tis not in earth, in air, or sky
Go search the fields and mountains round
There nothing can the loss supply
2
I trace the meadows every dayI climb the mountains once in three
But still my eyes are all astray
For hopeful love ne'er comes to me
337
No matter for my being free
My hopeless nerves are all unstrung
For love, nor pleasure comes to me
SUMMER
1
The water elder is in flower,The woods are all in green;
The dark oak forms a shady bower,
And lovely is the scene.
2
The wild flower of the summer fields,Clothes every swelling hill;
And angels voices seem to shield,
In murmurs of the rill,
3
That whimpers o'er its winding source,As clear as morning showers,
Where grass and weeds grow rank and coarse;
And crouds of watered flowers.
4
The fallen oak stripped of its bark,In the wood valley lies;
Where dropping down the woodland lark,
Sings summer melodies.
338
SPRING
1
'Tis glorious spring; I sit me down,'Neath the horse-chesnuts blossomed bough;
The wheat looks dark upon the hill,
The men are singing at the plough;
The nettles flower beside the wall;
The daiseys spread upon the green;
The landrail starts his wonted call;
And every where the spring is seen.
2
The hemlocks in the woodland hedge,Are mounting to the awthorn bowers;
Where white may comes a certain pledge,
With kingcups, and with daisey flowers;
In which the ewes and lambs abide,
How beautiful the pictures seem,
Sweet gardens stretching far and wide;
The very hedges seem to dream.
3
The trees in leaf hide every town;The winter scenes are all away:
And where the fallow lands look brown,
The ploughman whistles half the day,
The heaths turn gold, the furze in flower,
The furze larks chirrup on the wing;
And every day, and every hour,
Comes with the beautiful of spring.
339
SONNET
[The flag top quivers in the breeze]
The flag top quivers in the breeze,That sighs among the willow trees:
In gentle waves the river heaves,
That sways like boats the lily leaves:
The bent grass trembles, as with cold;
And crow flowers nod their cups of gold,
Till every dew-drop in them found,
Is gently shook upon the ground.
Each wild weed, by the river side,
In different motions dignified,
Bows to the wind, quakes to the breeze,
And charms sweet summers harmonies.
The very nettle quakes away,
To glad the summers happy day.
SONG
[I sing no songs, to make thee grieve]
1
I sing no songs, to make thee grieve,I bring no cares for thy decay;
But still the happiest wishes weave,
That all thy life were May!—
340
2
And thou should'st flourish like a flower,A blossom by the brooklets side;
Thy life should be a rosy bower,
With nought to wish beside.
3
Thy life should be a happy dream,Without a care or strife.
And thou the sweetest picture seem,
That ever breathed this life.
4
She passed and turned a steady smile,She looked on me with steadfast eye,
I loved in silence, all the while:
And silent blessed her, passing bye;
5
She shewed me where her thoughts had been,She shewed me where her heart would be;
And though true love would keep unseen,
I blessed her silently.
SONG
[O come to the meadows my beautiful fair]
1
O come to the meadows my beautiful fair,With eye-brows so arching, and beautiful hair!
No eye e'er would hurt thee, no tongue would upbraid,
Nor hurt the sweet face of my beautiful maid.
341
2
Let us walk the green lanes where I met thy sweet looksAnd at eve' seek the meadows, and walk by the brooks
Thy eye-brows so arching need ne'er be afraid
Tho' I clasp to my arms my beautiful maid.
3
How sweet will the walk be in such a sweet placeWhile the setting sun leaves his last smile on thy face,
That eye-brow so arching, that bosom so fair
Thy sweet slender shape, and thy dark flowing hair.
4
The evening will come like a bird from the westAnd bring to thy bosom, both pleasure and rest
And I'll roam with thee maiden, and ne'er be afraid
To kiss the pale cheek of my beautiful maid.
SONG
[In bed she like a lily lay]
1
In bed she like a lily layHer sleep it heaved in happy sighs
A dream upon her lips did play
And sunrise hid within her eyes
Like lily leaves her white eye-lids
With jetty fringes o'er them lies
And each improper gaze forbids
From all who would their sleep surprise
342
2
And when she 'woke to see the mornNo rose in June was e're so fair
Her bosom blushed right through the lawn
As if her bonny breasts were bare
The mole it was a beauty spot
And glowed like sunlight from her face
That waking look is ne'er forgot
The room was Venus dwelling place
3
The rose is but a simple flowerCompared to living blooms like these
They have no strength they have no power
They stir not heart's hid ecstacies
The lily is a lovely flower
The rose it is the gardens queen
So blossomed in her bridal hour
The loved and lovely Imogene
OUT OF DOOR PLEASURES
The day is all round me the woods and the fieldsAnd sweet is the singing their birds music yields
The waterfall music, there's none such at home
It spreads like a sheet, and then falls into foam
The meadows are mown, what a beautiful hue
There is in green closes as I wander through
A green of all colors, yellow, brown and dark grey
While the footpaths all darkly goes winding away
Creeping on to a foot-brig that crosses a brook
Or a gate, or a stile, and how rustic they look
343
Lower down with their buckets, and try to creep through
There is nothing more sweet in the fields and the sun
Than those dear little footpaths that o'er the fields run
They lead us by maidens all making of hay
While we seem to steal kisses as we bid them good day
They lead us to springs with a stone by the brink
All ready to kneel on, to stoop down and drink
They lead us by bushes, all bowering and sweet
Where the wild thyme has cushioned mole-hills for a seat
And the wild thyme smells sweet, as we sit by the stile
And the green-linnet keeps on her nest all the while
The road smokes with dust as the oxen and sheep
Go mile after mile 'till they scarcely can creep
A hugh cloud of dust all the coaches conceals
They are hid in the smoak that flies up from the wheels
The dust like a cloud whirleth up all the day
As coaches and coaches keep flying away
Here nothing in nature displeases the eye
Out of doors there's the fields and the beautiful sky
There's the weeds by the hedge and the flowers in the grass
And everything pleases, wherever we pass
This grove of tall elms with their dark sombre green
How sweet their old shadows beneath them are seen
In the heat of the day how delicious to pass
As cool as an ice house, or the dews on the grass
Where every where else, it is scorching, and sear
But here it is pleasant throughout the whole year
The closes are mown, and the haytime is done
And the stacks stand about bleaching brown in the sun
The naked shorn sheep, and the sleek looking cows
Are turned in the eddish in quiet to browse
Out of doors we see nothing but pleasure and good
'Tis the greenness of childhood in valley and wood
Good health out of doors is all that we see
Where nature and quiet are happy and free
344
And the out-of-doors pleasures their sweet music yields.
O powers of mans destiny give me but these
With my wife and my children at evening to please.
SONG To his Wife
1
O Mary in the silent hourStill let my memory dwell
Thy face was like the lily flower
Thy eye the young gazelle—
2
I look on pleasures that have beenI look on things that are
In every place and every scene
And nothing find but care
3
There's something in thine arching browSo beautifully fair
It even warms my bosom now
To feel my home is there
4
So Mary in thy silent thoughtsStill keep a place for me
Then is my prison kindly bought
And happy shall I be
345
SONG
[The morning mist is changing blue]
1
The morning mist is changing blueLike smoke among the bushes
The one arched brig shines clearly through
Near beds of water rushes
The cows lie in the pasture fair
And maids the hay was turning
When a maid went by with inky hair
As bonny as the morning.
2
Her face was smiling like the sunHer bosom swelled a treasure
She looked—my heart was fairly won
I felt both pain and pleasure
But pain I know can soon be well
Old friendships are sincerest
And for my life I cannot tell
Which feeling was the dearest.
3
How bright the day how clear the skyHow sweet the woods were waving
The river ran as gently by
The waterfall was raving
All nature in her sweetest dress
Was still but sweetly dawning
That day the happiest maid went by
As bonny as the morning.
346
SONG
[Sweet lassie I will gang wi' thee]
1
Sweet lassie I will gang wi' theeWhere muircock crows and plovers cry
A mountain side our hame shall be
Na troubles never clamb sae high
We'll keep our rash thacked biggin warm
Wi' luv' and truth and harmless joy
Nor fear na' ills fra flud nor storm
Can e're the biggin roof destroy
2
And we wud live like twa true duvsAnd peck our little up together
Our only pillow should be love
Where we wud kiss wi' ain another
The morning sun our cloak would be
And we'd step down amang the heather
Till e'ening sun sets o'er the sea
And then we'd cuddle clos' together
3
And by our ingle sit at restAnd hear the storm beat by the door
While neet cam bulging up the west
Black rock clouds stretched fra' shore to shore
Then gang to bed and lie till morn
The starm still keepin' up a swither
Thy breasties whiter than blown thorn
I'd press and kiss them both together
347
4
I'd hear the[e] tak' thy breath sa sweetThy breastie panting like a bird
Thy eyelids closed to shut out neet
Thy muvin lips that speak na' word
I'd see thee sleep in innocense
Then wake and huggle ain anither
An' wisper words o' common sense
As we would cuddle close together
5
Sweet lassie I will gang wi' theeWhere muircocks crow an' plovers fly
On some high hill agen the sea
W'ell mak' a biggin snug and dry
And on thy bosom, a' my ain
I'll sleep an' we will lie together
The earth's vain cares shall be unknown
W'ell live like twa true doves together
6
And when death comes to part us twaAs many lang sin' syne has parted
We've lived to gang the better way
And loved in truth that can't be thwarted
Shud I gang first I'll luik for thee
In faith earths faults are a forgiven
If my luv' thou could na be
The happiest place cud na' be heaven
348
AN INVITE TO ETERNITY
1
Wilt thou go with me sweet maidSay maiden wilt thou go with me
Through the valley depths of shade
Of night and dark obscurity
Where the path hath lost its way
Where the sun forgets the day
Where there's nor life nor light to see
Sweet maiden wilt thou go with me
349
2
Where stones will turn to flooding streamsWhere plains will rise like ocean waves
Where life will fade like visioned dreams
And mountains darken into caves
Say maiden wilt thou go with me
Through this sad non-identity
Where parents live and are forgot
And sisters live and know us not
3
Say maiden wilt thou go with meIn this strange death of life to be
To live in death and be the same
Without this life, or home, or name
At once to be, & not to be
That was, and is not—yet to see
Things pass like shadows—and the sky
Above, below, around us lie
4
The land of shadows wilt thou traceAnd look—nor know each others face
The present mixed with reasons gone
And past, and present all as one
Say maiden can thy life be led
To join the living with the dead
Then trace thy footsteps on with me
We're wed to one eternity
350
SONNET
[The silver mist more lowly swims]
The silver mist more lowly swims
And each green bosomed valley dims
And o'er the neighbouring meadow lies
Like half seen visions by dim eyes
Green trees look grey, bright waters black
The lated crow has lost her track
And flies by guess her journey home
And each green bosomed valley dims
And o'er the neighbouring meadow lies
Like half seen visions by dim eyes
Green trees look grey, bright waters black
The lated crow has lost her track
And flies by guess her journey home
She flops along and cannot see
Her peaceful nest on odlin tree
The lark drops down and cannot meet
The taller black grown clumps of wheat
The mists that rise from heat of day
Fades field and meadow all away
Her peaceful nest on odlin tree
The lark drops down and cannot meet
The taller black grown clumps of wheat
The mists that rise from heat of day
Fades field and meadow all away
SONG
[How can I sing the songs of love]
1
How can I sing the songs of loveHow can I strike the chords to wake a strain
That every bosom moves
And nothing hears in vain
I've sung of blossoms blooming
In early spring
But these are cold to woman
What shall I sing
351
2
Love is the beating heartThat ever hidden secret of the soul
Of faith and life a living part
That animates the whole
'Tis in the bright eyes hidden
On beating bosoms seen
No where on earth forbidden
And woman is its queen
3
O where can man discoverThe pleasure love conceals
But in his faithful lover
Whose ways the truth reveals
'Tis not in joys of earth
But kin to joys above
For woman was its birth
And woman's heart is love
SONG
[My love's like the lilies]
1
My love's like the liliesMy love's like the roses
She's rich daffodillies
And pinks and sweet posies
She's the wealth of carnations
The flower of all graces
She's the pride of all nations
In bosoms and faces
352
2
She's the sweetest thought presentThe sweetest joy known
Both the King and the peasant
Love's language must own
She's the flower of all gardens
Linking falshood to stone
In natures awardings
Love[s] prize is her own
3
She's the pride of the valleyThe joy of the plain
Where summer winds dally
And bees hum their strain
Her skin's the white lily's
Her cheeks the red roses
Her dress daffodillies
And her breath the sweet posies
SONNET River Banks
How pleasant are the windings of the riverIn the delightful mornings of the may
Changing at every turn as 'twould for ever
Be something fresh to pleasure those who stray
By the green banks of waters day by day
353
On the wild flowers blooming to the spray
On the rivers banks—shining primroses
Even more bright than morn's first ray
Daiseys—and wind flowers—and no end of posies
Keep looking in the water all the way
And woodbines blooming round the wild dog-roses
How beautiful they blossom and how gay
They look to travellers by its sides in may.
THE SUN
1
Grand source of life and lightThou land of gold
In heaven's ether bright
A mistery to behold
Before creations birth
Thy light might be begun
Lighting another earth
Inimitable sun
2
Nay his heat these summer daysMay other spheres create
And new stars distant rays
May yet his light await
354
May be this day begun
To ope' in distant hours
Neath the prolific sun
3
Is he the ‘Lord of light’Is he the ‘great supreme’
In selfish eyes he might
Who mock the seraphim
Who scans the author right
Will darker errors shun
And feel that power above more bright
Can mar that glorious sun
4
Ere Adam he was madeOr Eve beheld the light
That sun dispelled night's shade
And shon in heaven as bright
As it is shining now
In the same course to run
On grass and woodland bough
Bright, burning, glorious sun
5
I see him shine to dayHow bright his disk appears
Six thousand mark his stay
Perhaps a million years
And still keeps shining on
Bright as when first begun
When a thousand years are gone
'Twill be the same bright sun
355
MORNING
The morning comes—the drops of dewHang on the grass and bushes too
The sheep more eager bite the grass
Whose moisture gleams like drops of glass
The hiefer licks in grass and dew
That makes her drink and fodder too
The little bird his morn song gives
His breast wet with the dripping leaves
Then stops abruptly just to fly
And catch the wakened butterfly
That goes to sleep behind the flowers
Or backs of leaves from dews and showers
The yellowhammer haply blest
Sits by the dyke upon her nest
The long grass hides her from the day
The water keeps the boys away
The morning sun is round and red
As crimson curtains round a bed
The dew drops hang on barley horns
As beads the necklace thread adorns
The dew drops hang wheat ears upon
Like golden drops against the sun
Hedge-sparrows in the bush cry ‘tweet’
O'er nests larks winnow in the wheat
'Till the sun turns gold and gets more high
And paths are clean, and grass gets dry
And longest shadows pass away
And brightness is the blaze of day.
356
FLOWERS
1
The flowers are silent in their bloomWithout a sorrow or a tomb
Enjoying homes by all so dear
The summer months of every year
2
Winds are its suitors, and they playMusic all the summer day
Round its beauty and its breath
That never hears the voice of death
3
They are the pearls of earth and airAnd meet with friendship every where
The scripture truths of every soil
Field flowers that neither spin nor toil
4
The flower is silent in its bloomWithout a sorrow or a tomb
Enjoying sunshine, winds and showers
Silence is the life of flowers
357
DEW
1
The tears of dew night leavesUpon the grass at morn
Shews nature inly gri[e]ves
For deeds that day has done
For beetles trod upon
Moths and butterflies destroyed
Nests with the young ones gone
Left desolate and void
2
For some the boys will getAnd some the hawk destroys
Nature will mourn them yet
For spoiling summers joys
Hawks steal young birds by day
And the owlet hawks by night
So nature mourns her griefs away
In dewy pearls so bright
3
Her tears of dew night leavesOn flower and grassy blade
At the havoc day has made
Dews fall at evening's gray
How heavy the gale sighed
When the birds were stole away
Loud chirping ere they died
358
SONG
[Smile kindly love when we shall meet]
1
Smile kindly love when we shall meetThink kind too when we part
For these love are the bitter sweet
That warm or chill the heart
A doubtful word, an awkward look
Interpreted unkind
Is printed in loves motley book
Which years will keep in mind
2
Let our first meeting love be smilesThat spring itself puts on
For nothing more the heart beguiles
For absent shadows gone
Thy first words be they sweet & few
And nothing speak in vain
And loves first kiss once felt so true
Will be the same again
CONTENT
1
I'm silverless, and pennylessI've no small coin about me
And yet I'm not in wants distress
The rich may live without me
359
And finds the single nappy
Yet wanting wealth—I'm never sad
While health can make me happy
2
For health's the flower of mountains prideThe lily of the valley
The red rose by the cottage side
While sickness keeps the alley
In poverty there is no shame
Industry's not the slave on't
And self-content's a happy name
So I whistle o'er the leave on't
3
I'm silverless, and pennylessAnd poor enough God knows
Yet in no pinfold of distress
While I get food and clothes
The heart that keeps its own command
Of little makes the more
Content—and all may understand
I've no wishes from my door
SONG
[Accept dear maid now summer glows]
1
Accept dear maid now summer glowsIts pure unsullied gem
Thy emblem this—a full blown rose
Just broken from its stem
360
2
Accept it as a favoured flowerFor thy soft breast to wear
'Twill blossom there one happy hour
A favourite with the fair
3
While on thy cheek the blossom glowsAs from a mirror clear
And makes thyself a living rose
In blossom all the year
4
It is a sweet and favourite flowerTo grace the maidens brow
And yet to me in evening's hour
A sweeter rose art thou
5
The rose like hues on insects wingMay wither in an hour
'Tis but at best a fading thing
But thou a living flower
SONG
[The summer is waining]
1
The summer is wainingThe autumn is staining
The hedges and woods with the hues of the west
So come in the dell
To bid it farewell
For sweets at their parting are often the best
361
2
Think where we met last loveAnd live for the past love
For sweet were those walks I once wandered with thee
On the banks of the Nenn
Where I'd wander again
And rest once again 'neath the wide spreading tree
3
The summer gets dullerThe trees are in colour
Yet sweeter than summer was walking with thee
Thy face of rose charmed me
And ne'er could I harm thee
From the day we first sheltered beneath the oak tree
WILD FLOWERS
1
Beautiful mortals of the glowing earthAnd children of the season crowd together
In showers and sunny weather
Ye beautiful spring hours
Sunshine and all together
I love wild flowers
362
2
The rain drops lodge on the swallows wingThen fall on the meadow flowers
Cowslips and enemonies all come with spring
Beaded with first showers
The skylarks in the cowslips sing
I love wild flowers
3
Blue-bells and cuckoo's in the woodAnd pasture cuckoo's too
Red yellow white and blue
Growing where herd cows meet the showers
And lick the morning dew
I love wild flowers
4
The lakes and rivers—summer hoursAll have their bloom as well
But few of these are childrens flowers
They grow where dangers dwell
In sun and shade and showers
I love wild flowers
5
They are such lovely thingsAnd make the very seasons where they come
The nightingale is smothered where she sings
Above their scented bloom
O what delight the cuckoo music brings
I love wild flowers
363
THE DYING CHILD
1
He could not die when trees were greenFor he loved the time too well
His little hands when flowers were seen
Was held for the blue-bell
As he was carried o'er the green
2
His eye glanced at the white-nosed beeHe knew those children of the spring
When he was well and on the lea
He held one in his hand to sing
Which filled his little heart with glee
3
Infants, the children of the springHow can an infant die
When butterflies are on the wing
Green grass, and such a sky
How can an infant die at spring
4
He held his hand for daiseys whiteAnd then for violets blue
And took them all to bed at night
What in the green fields grew
As childhoods sweet delight
364
5
And then he shut his little eyesAnd flowers would notice not
Birds nests and eggs, made no surprise
Nor any blossoms got
All met with pla[i]ntive sighs
6
When winter came and blasts did sighAnd bare was plain and tree
As he for ease in bed did lie
His soul seemed with the free
He died so quietly
THE CHURCHYARD
Look on this dust the living and the deadAre in its atoms—present life and past
Are all its future—'tis the bed
Of nations, and of empires that but last
Some years—and then seem nothing when they're past
Crowns, scepters, stars and garters—all the lust
Of greatness in these fields and hillocks lie
'Tis what life was at first—at last all must
Enrich those weeds o'er animated dust.
365
SONG
[The wing of the blackbird is the hue of her hair]
1
The wing of the blackbird is the hue of her hairThe hue of the rose is the face of my fair
And yet she's a romekin, slomekin thing
And as wild as a filly let loose in the spring
She'll jump o'er the anthills as quick as a bee
And shout to the birds on their nests in the tree
She's a good-for-nothing romikin slomekin thing
Yet as sweet as a queen by the side of a King
2
She's healthy and wealthy, and wild as a birdAnd startles with fear if a bramble be stirred
When far from her home she will run like the roe
And thinks rudeness watching where e'er she may go
But she has good excuses for being so wild
She's a woman in size, while she's only a child
She pictures in fancy, what innocence means
And sports like a baby not yet in her teens
3
O girlhood has joys what her mother would fainRecall to herself if they would come back again
And so would we all, but one's youth is the time
For health, love and innocence just's in their prime
A child so loves nature she does not mean sin
Only see what a rolicking humour she's in
She's a young sweet and good-for-naught, rolicking thing
Yet as fair as a queen by the side of a King
366
BALLAD
[I lie me down, and then I think]
1
I lie me down, and then I thinkI try to sleep an hour away
And fancy I'm on some broad brink
In foreign lands so far away
I think of one for loves dear sake
With her neat dress and bonnet on
The very moral in her make
Is bonny Mary Hamilton.
2
I sit upon the road-side hillChurch folks are going by to prayer
Of goodly ways there comes no Ill
And all have sabath faces there
I looked at one, my face grew pale
My self possession all was gone
I turned around to view the vale
And sighed for Mary Hamilton.
3
I feared offence, and dare not speakI praised the flowers—and meant hersel
The sweet-briar bloom excuse did make
The heath-bloom tinkled like a bell
The briar blushed warm and so did she
I wondered what she thought upon
But from that hour I longed to see
The blooming Mary Hamilton.
367
4
Her hands were white, her feet were smallHer neck the creamy cloud at e'en
I thought when she was gone away
What could those turning blushes mean
Her features were the pastoral bloom
I told her 'twas the very same
Like evenings blue her two eyes shone
And all her face was in a flame
Thus I loved Mary Hamilton.
5
We staid, the sun sank in the sea,And saw the pale moon climb the sky;
And dear as one's own life to me
Was Mary's parting smile and sigh;
I left her with a warm embrace,
And talked of time 'till time was gone,
And told her at that very place
I'd next meet Mary Hamilton.
6
The rising moon looked on the stream,New gilding all the sleepy flowers;
The dew fell on the heather bloom,
And made the most delightful hours;
The fern owl churred his evening call,
The chaffer made his evening song—
And dew had sprinkled drops o'er all
When I left Mary Hamilton.
368
THE ORPHAN CHILD
1
The sun, the shower, the clouds, the air,Seem sweet unto the Orphan Child
As to the rich mans heir.
Poor lonely thing the blossoms wild,
Its little dirty fingers pull
With self delight, 'though none is nigh
To praise and cherish what it shews
To strangers passing by
2
Yet its young heart and its dull eyeThat meets no kindred's kindly smile
Can look upon the sunny sky
And please itself the while
And chase the butterflies, and bees,—
And pull the blossoms wild,
For rich man's boys are pleased with these
So is the Orphan Child.
3
The daiseys in springs sunny hourIt pulls upon the trodden green
For gardens, or a garden flower
Its eyes have never seen
It calls the daiseys all its own
Before the workhouse door
And goes and plants them where they've grown
In places on the moor—
369
4
It is a thing of silent joysA thing of silent fears
It weeps to hear that moaning noise
When its sisters grief it hears
It shares the blessings of the sky
Some pleasures of the spring
When merry bee and butterfly
Will please that lonely thing.
THE INVITATION
1
Let us go in the fields love and see the green treeLet's go in the meadows and hear the wild bee
There's plenty of pleasure for you love and me
In the mirth and the music of nature
We can stand in the path love and hear the birds sing
And see the woodpigeon snap loud on the wing
While you stand beside me a beautiful thing
Health and beauty in every feature.
2
We can stand by the brig-foot and see the bright thingsOn the sun shining water, that merrily springs
Like sparkles of fire in their mazes and rings
While the insects are glancing and twitters
You see naught in shape but hear a deep song
That lasts through the sunshine the whole summer long
That pierces the ear as the heat gathers strong
And the lake like a burning fire glitters.
370
3
We can stand in the field love and gaze o'er the cornSee the lark from her wing shake the dews of the morn
Through the dew beaded woodbine the gale is just born
And there we can wander my dearie
We can walk by the wood where the rabbits pop in
Where the bushes are few, and the hedge gapped and thin
There's a wild-rosy bower and a place to rest in
So we can walk in and rest when we're weary.
4
The skylark my love from the barley is singingThe hare from her seat of wet clover is springing
The crow to its nest on the tall elm swinging
Bears a mouthful of worms for its young
We'll down the green meadow, and up the lone glen
And down the woodside far away from all men
And there we'll talk over our love tales again
Where last year the nightingale sung.
STANZAS
[I had a dream,—I thought I spoke]
1
I had a dream,—I thought I spoke,And still it was a dream;—
Another voice the silence broke,
That did so truly seem.
I thought of one in thoughts delight,
Nor wished the thought away;
Yet still came on the sleepless night,
And still the weary day
But sweet that voice hung on my ear,
Like sounds unearthly,—everywhere
371
2
It was a voice!—it seemed a dream,—A waking dream of sleep;
It haunted me, and still I seem
That waking voice to keep,
For there was one I valued more
Than all I'd ever seen;
I wished to keep as heretofore,
And be as I had been.
'Twas heard around—beneath—above,—
I wakened, and the voice was Love!
SONG
[There's pleasure in all the sun shines on]
1
There's pleasure in all the sun shines on,The earth, and the ocean that foams;
The cottage it looks so divine on,
And the homestead, that dearest of homes.
2
Those sheds that stand under the mountain,Those one-story huts by the wood;
With two windows that look to the fountain,
Where each shed seems a boat in the flood.
3
The flower borders under the window,Looking just as if floating away;
And the old chimney, black as a cinder,
Where the swallow makes dwellings of clay.
372
4
There's pleasure in all the sun shines on,The earth and the ocean that foams;
The cottage, it looks so divine on,
And the homestead, that dearest of homes.
SONNET The Nightingale
This is the month, the Nightingale, clod-brown,Is heard among the woodland shady boughs;
This is the time when, in the vale, grass-grown
The maiden hears at eve, her lovers vows.
What time the blue mist, round her patient cows,
Dim rises from the grass, and half conceals
Their dappled hides,—I hear the Nightingale,
That from the little blackthorn spinny steals,
To the old hazel hedge that skirts the vale,
And still unseen, sings sweet:—the ploughman feels
The thrilling music, as he goes along,
And imitates and listens,—while the fields
Lose all their paths in dusk, to lead him wrong
Still sings the Nightingale her sweet melodious song.
June 12./44.
373
THE VIOLET
1
I will not throw away the flower,The little violet blue;
I pluck'd it in a lonely hour,
When she I loved was true.
2
Beside a hedge upon a hill,All by itself it grew,
A type of her who loves me still,
In scent and colour true.
3
I'll keep the blossom many hours,Until it withered be;
A type of sweet and withered flowers,
But most of love, and thee.
A REGRET
I've none to love and none to fearAnd none to meet at gloaming
For I'm a woe worn prisoner here
No more with freedom roaming
Shut up from friends and all beside
With none to sit beside me
How gloomy now the moments glide
Where sore oppressions hide me
374
LOVE
1
Love is life's spring,—the summer of the soul,—The Eden of earth's happiness,—the spring
Of all on earth that's lovely!—no control
Can hinder its conception:—'tis the wing
That bears the turtle to its nest in spring;—
It is the mainspring that conducts the whole,—
The eternal anthem which all nature sings,
And woman is of man the life and soul,
As long as earth exists or planets roll!—
2
Love is an April sky of various shades,—To day all sunshine, and all showers tomorrow;
Buds early blighted,—blossoms born to fade,
And woman stamp'd with the pale hues of sorrow.
Care keeps her cash book where none like to borrow;
Tears are as lonely as the lonely dove;
Procrastinated falshood is hell's horror,—
Hope is its fire that kindles from above,—
Hate burns hell-deep in chronicles of love!—
3
Yet such is love, and of the purest water,—The secret essence of the living clay,
That feeds upon itself, and wrongs no daughter
Of Eve; but glides on in its own pure way,
Living as in its own light:—the diamond's ray
Has no reflection upon meaner things;
Impurity takes all its hues away,
While purity its grand impression brings.—
Love is the jewel in the crown of Kings.
375
STANZAS
[Would'st thou but know where Nature clings]
1
Would'st thou but know where Nature clings,That cannot pass away!
Stand not to look on human things,
For they shall all decay:—
False hearts shall change and rot to dust,
While truth exerts her powers;
Love lives with Nature, not with lust;
Go, find her in the flowers!
2
Dost dream o'er faces once so fair,Unwilling to forget?
Seek Nature in the fields, and there
The first love face is met.
The native gales are lovers' voices,
As nature's self can prove;
The wild field flowers are lovers choices,
And Nature's self is Love.
TO M*** C****
1
The Spring is coming round the skirted wild-woodWith many signs of flowers you loved in childhood;
When buttercups and daiseys, past all counting,
Covered the green, a gold and silver fountain.
376
2
The wood anemone we used to gather,The violets looking for the spring's warm weather,
The pilewort on the banks, the flocks of daisies,
And all the small spring flowers in sunny places.
3
And now we'll gather past years in our fancies,And take from childhood's book, Spring's sweet romances;
We'll trace again cow-commons and the wildwood,
Where we were wont to gather flowers in our childhood.
4
We'll go where violets grow among the bushes,And when thy hand's full tie them up with rushes;
We'll trace cow pastures overrun with daisies,
And gather water-blobs in marshy places.
5
And in the meadow where the willow boughs dip,We'll go and gather up the sunny cowslip;
And when we've gleaned cow commons field and wild wood,
We'll think ourselves as happy as in childhood.
SONG
[Mary, I love to sing]
1
Mary, I love to singAbout the flowers of Spring,
For they resemble thee.
377
Thy beauties will appear,
And youthful modesty.
2
Here's the Daisy's silver rim,With gold eye never dim,
Spring's earliest flowers so fair;
Here's the pilewort's golden rays,
Set the cow-green in a blaze,
Like the sunshine in thy hair.
3
Here's forget-me-not so blue,Is there any flower so true?
Can it speak thy happy lot?
When we courted in disguise,
This flower I used to prize,
For it said “Forget-me-not!”
4
Speedwell! and when we meetIn the meadow paths so sweet,
When the flowers I gave to thee,
All grew beneath the sun
May thy gentle heart be won
And I be blesst with thee!—
May 13/44
378
SPRING
1
How beautiful is Spring! the sun gleams gold,Reflecting like a mirror, burnished ever;
The skylark from the eddings near the fold,
Mounts up and sings!—bright gleams the flowing river
Full to the brim!—Winter is gone! and never
Attempts his scattered force to bring
Against such burnished scenes;—the true believer
Sees flowers in bloom and hears the woodlands ring,
With joys awake:—how beautiful is Spring!—
2
Poesy of seasons! scripture of the year!Whose buds put forth in promise to the sun,
And at their resurrection shall appear
Hued in all colours, as from rainbows won,—
Gold, blue, green, red, and white! the meadows run,
A garden world of bloom, and richly fling
Incense to every wind, and shower, and sun;
Music unceasing, woods and valleys bring
From birds about their nests! how beautiful is Spring!
3
The daisy's golden eye and silver rimCrowd every pasture like a fall of snow
And pilewort, where earth's diadems grow dim,
Stud emerald grass with gold where'er they grow
Spring flowers flood earth in showers to overflow;—
Meadow and close and pingle, where suns cling,
And shine on earliest flowers,—there they shew
Their rainbow maps of loveliness; and bring
Their painted crowds,—so beautiful is Spring!
379
4
Anemonies and lilies of the valleyCover whole acres of the forest glade;
And blue-bells, that in woods and spinneys dally,
Beneath the oak tree and the hazel's shade.
The bushiest place is like a carpet made;
No copse so thick, but there their blooms they bring,—
No spot so cold but meets their purple shade;
In every place where feathered warblers sing,
Wild flowers in armies come!—so beautiful is Spring.
5
The garish Summer comes with many tribesOf gay and gaudy flowers, in bright array;
But the hot sun the cloudy morning bribes,
And dries all moisture with his scorching ray;—
Corn-poppies oft a scarlet host display,—
The oak woods green, like rocky masses hing
On wooded hills,—the willows waving grey,
Hang mournful in the stream;—birds cease to sing:—
The sweetest poesy of the year is Spring!—
SONG
[Maiden dearest, leave a smile!]
1
Maiden dearest, leave a smile!It will bless in rest and toil;
Leave a smile before we part,
Bring back welcome to my heart;
Leave a smile to be my rest,
And let me know I'm blest.
380
2
My life and soul I love the[e] well,—Words may speak, but cannot tell,—
Language has not power to be
What thy smiles would speak to me
Leave a smile to be my rest,
And let me know I'm blest.
3
Maiden dearest! many a year,I've loved thee silent and in fear,
Seen thee in many a grove and vale,
And heard thy voice upon the gale.
Maiden with a smile approve,
And bless my love!
A LAMENT FOR JERUSALEM
1
Mockery sits on Salem's throne,And ruin lives upon her walls;
Her Holy City lies alone,
A ruined glory none recalls.
Oh! where's the glory and the gem
Of Sion's hill,—Jerusalem?—
381
2
Siloa is the place of tombs,The most entire of all around,
There the King-poet's memory blooms,—
Patriarchs and prophets rotting round!—
But Sion's hill hath lost its gem,—
Oh! where art thou! Jerusalem!—
3
Judah's fair maid's no coronet!The queen of Judah has no throne,
Dead ruins every where are met,—
The Holy City lies alone!
Queens sleep without their diadem
Dews are the city's weeping gem!
4
The grass grows on the mountain heath,The holy ruins lie below;
The Jews are scattered, like the breath
Of tempests centuries ago,
Oh! where's the glory and the gem
Of Sion's hill, Jerusalem?
5
Mockery sits on Salem's throne,And ruin lives upon her walls,
Her holy city lies alone,
A ruined glory none recalls!
Gone is the glory and the gem
Of Sion's hill, Jerusalem!—
382
LINES Written on a very boisterous day in May, 1844
'Tis May, and yet the skies are overcastWith clouds resembling a rough storm at sea;—
'Tis May,—and yet the hurricane goes past,
In dust, like foaming billows o'er the lea,
High over head close by me,—and 'tis He
Who wakes the sea, and drives the ships away
From anchor, into wrecks! Here I am free
From danger,—and the fields and woods the bay
To rest my weary limbs amid the storms of May.
BALLAD
[We'll walk among the tedded hay]
1
We'll walk among the tedded hay,That smel[l]s as sweet as flowers;
While the meadow water winds its way
Beneath the hawthorn bowers.
2
And when the bright green haycocks throwTheir shadows from the sun,
When thou art weary there we'll go,
And rest, the heat to shun.
383
3
We'll to the hawthorn shades retire,Where blooms the wild dog rose;
And smell the sweetly scented briar,
Where the shining river flows.
4
We'll talk o'er joys we once could prove,And blithely spend the day,
For those pleasant dreams of early youth
Can never pass away.
June 18/44.
THE HOUR OF PRAYER
1
Ave Maria! woman mild,—Mother ever young and fair,
Hushing slumbers to her child,—
It is the hour of Prayer!
2
When children bend the artless knee,And mothers kneel beside 'em there,
Maiden mild my guardian be,
In eve's still hour of Prayer!
3
A light in darkness, be thou still,Let love's affections be thy care;
Thou beacon light of good and ill,
Attend the hour of Prayer!
384
4
The darkness comes, the dews descend;—Thou woman ever mild and fair!
Be to the friendless still a friend,
In the silent hour of Prayer!
5
'Tis come!—the o'erpowering heat of daySeeks night, its peace to share;
Sweet maiden teach us how to pray
In silent hours of Prayer!
MORNING
1
The corn is in the ear,And the prime is on the year
And blossoms every where,
Sweet scent the early morning:
The summer is in flower,
And the soft refreshing shower
Scents the breezes every hour,
But most at early morning.
2
The brook runs down the dale,And the cuckoo tells her tale,
And the happy nightingale
Sings the song of early morning;
On the bank the hawthorn green,
Hides the linnet's nest unseen,
While sweet the blossom'd bean
Perfumes the early morning.
385
3
The maiden seeks her cow,And the ploughman holds his plough,
And from the woods dark brow
Sweet comes the sounds of morning;
On the powdered woodland oaks,
The glossy raven croaks,
And the lonely wo[o]dman's strokes,
Sound loud at early morning.
4
The corn is in the ear,And 'tis summer every where,
The prime of all the year,
That scents the early morning;
The water clear and blue,
With its lilies shining through,
And the long grass gem'd with dew
Proclaim the summer morning.
A GLOOMY DAY IN SUMMER
A dull gloom hangs above the peaceful fields,And in the moody mist the houses sleep,
Still as if tenantless!—the vapour shields
The heavens like a secret, that would keep
The doom sealed over our dull hours of sleep.
The evening comes as something not forgiven;
The clouds hang lowly but forbear to weep;—
Noontide and evening weigh the balance even,
And gloom shuts Hopes eyes from the sight of Heaven!
386
SPRING
1
And is Spring come again to cheer,The withered winter of the year?—
The grass to feed the hungry kine,—
The flowers to please those eyes of thine?
2
The daisey tempts the playful lamb,To crop its silver bloom;
The golden pilewort tempts the child,
For many a flower to come.
3
The tree's first foliage tells the childThe sweet approach of Spring:
The white-thorn leaves of tender green,
Where linnets build and sing.
4
The rose,—there is a rose of May,Though not the sweetest rose;
But Spring will have the sweetest day,
And the fairest flower that blows.
5
What is it?—search the fields, and find,—No garden owns the flower;—
It is the blossom of the mind!
The joy of every hour.
387
6
The birds are preachers!—bush and treeAre pulpits all around,—
Where shining flowers and droning bee,
As listeners gather round.
7
The vine trees open into leaf,How beautiful they are!
How lovely doth each tendril curl,
Like some Greek maiden's hair.
8
The fountain from its bed of sand,Boils up and curls away;
It runs, and so it will run on,
Through summers lasting day.
9
The footpath winding all the way,We trace it near a mile,
Through closes green, and fallows grey,
O'er many a gate and stile.
10
Grass on each side, and wild field flowers,And children running on,
Crop many a one and think them fair,
Till half the day is gone.
11
There's many a butterfly to chase,With meal upon its wing;
Till summer comes and spoils the sport
With children and the Spring!
388
DEATH'S MEMORIES
1
Death's memories are graves,Nor can they pass away;
Nature, in every hillock, saves
A green plot o'er decay;
And daisies like to clumps of snow,
Go each spring season there to blow.
2
Death's memories are graves,—The all that Nature granted,—
Where the tall mallow waves,
And the small flower blooms, self planted,
Where Mother's sleep and babes lie still,
And sunshine rests upon the hill.
3
Death's memories on tombs,Keep fragments of decay,
Like wrecks of lumber rooms,
Which Time throws out o' the way
If common weeds were not to come,
The graves would lie without a bloom!
389
EVENING
1
It is the silent hour when they who roam,Seek shelter, on the earth, or ocean's breast;
It is the hour when travel finds a home,
On deserts, or within the cot to rest.
It is the hour when joy and grief are blest,
And Nature finds repose where'er she roves;
It is the hour that lovers like the best,
When in the twilight shades, or darker groves,
The maiden wanders with the swain she loves.
2
The balmy hour when fond hearts fondly meet;The hour when dew like welcome rest descends
On wild-flowers, shedding forth their odours sweet;
The hour when sleep lays foes as quiet friends;—
The hour when labour's toilworn journey ends,
And seeks the cot for sweet repose till morn;—
The hour when prayer from all to God ascends;—
At twilight's hour love's softest sighs are born,
When lovers linger neath the flowering thorn.
3
Oh! at this hour I love to be abroad,Gazing upon the moonlit scene around
‘Looking through Nature up to Nature's God’
Regarding all with reverence profound!
The wild flowers studding every inch of ground,
And trees, with dews bespangled, looking bright
As burnished silver;—while the entrancing sound
Of melody, from the sweet bird of night,
Fills my whole soul with rapture and delight.
390
[Left in the world alone]
1
Left in the world aloneWhere nothing seems my own
And everything is weariness to me
'Tis a life without an end
'Tis a world without a friend
And everything is sorrowful I see
2
There's the crow upon the stackAnd other birds all black
While november's frowning wearily
And the black-clouds dropping rain
'Till the floods hide half the plain
And everything is weariness to me
3
The sun shines wan and paleChill blows the northern gale
And odd leaves shake and shiver on the tree
While I am left alone
Chilled as a mossy stone
And all the world is frowning over me
391
MARCH NOSEGAY
1
The bonny march morning is beaming,In strange and crimson grey;
White clouds are streaking and creaming,
In the sky till the noon of the day:
The fir dale looks darker and greener
And the grass hills below look the same
The air all about is serener
And the birds less familliar and tame.
2
Here's two or three flowers for my fair oneWood-primroses, and celandine too
I oft look about for a rare one
To put in a poesy for you
The birds look so cleanly and neatly
Though there's not a leaf on the grove
The sun shines about me so sweetly
I cannot help thinking of love.
3
So where the blue violets are peepingBy the warm sunny side of the woods
And the primrose 'neath early morn weeping
Amid a large cluster of buds
The morning it was such a rare one
So dewy so sunny and fair
I sought the wild flowers for my fair one
To wreath[e] in her black glossy hair.
392
VERSES TO M.A.B****
1
By the wood-hedge primroses are peepingBy the thorn root white violets are sleeping
'Neath the tears of the morning all smiling and weeping
On March's latest mornings
2
The primrose peeps aneath the thornBy woodland hedges newly born
Its sulphur bosom in the morn
Scented with dews so early
3
The violets too bloomed by the hedgePeeping in clumps by withered sedge
Of spring the sweet and early pledge
Sweet scenting early morning
4
By hazle stumps and mosses greenWhere the little brook is seen
And thou and I at spring have been
Walking at early morning
5
The lark is cheeping to the skyA march days stormy melody
Till clouds conseal it from the eye
In the wild and early morning
393
6
The crow is on the furrowed fieldThe blackbirds in the spinney shield
And in the new laid hedges build
Singing at early morning
7
The hanging mists the blebs of dewThat turns the pasture grass to blue
As if the heaven was looking through
To meet the early morning
8
In such a place—and can love severWe've met and could have talked for ever
The meadows and that winding river
Beheld our early mornings
9
And thou a lovely maiden fairAs sweet as any flower there
Went forth to take the cooler air
All in the early morning
10
Young buds now wait thy leisure hoursTo pluck the sweetest new born flowers
When spring revives the woodland bowers
As on this early morning
394
STANZAS
[The spring is come forth, but no spring is for me]
1
The spring is come forth, but no spring is for me,Like the spring of my boyhood, on woodland and lea,
When flowers brought me heaven, and knew me again
In the joy of their blooming o'er mountain and plain
My thoughts are confined, and imprisoned—O when
Will freedom find me my own vallies again?
2
The wind breath[e]s so sweet, and the day is so calm;In the woods and the thicket the flowers look so warm,
And the grass is so green, so delicious and sweet,
O when shall my manhood my youth's vallies meet,
The scenes where my children are laughing at Play,
The scenes where my memory is fading away.
3
The primrose looks happy in every fieldIn strange woods the violets their odours will yield
And flowers in the sunshine all brightly arrayed,
Will bloom just as fresh and as sweet in the shade:
But the wild flowers that bring me most joy & content
Are the blossoms that blow where my childhood was spent.
4
Then I played like a flower in the shade and the sunAnd slept as in Eden when daylight was done
There I lived with my parents, and felt my heart free,
And love—that was yet joy or sorrow to be,
Joy and sorrow it has been, like sunshine and showers
And their sun is still bright o'er my happiest hours.
395
5
The trees they are naked, the bushes are bareAnd the fields they are brown, as if winter lay there;
But the violets are there by the dykes and the dell,
Where I played ‘hen and chickens’—and heard the church bell
Which called me to prayer-book and sermons in vain
O when shall I see my own vallies again?—
6
The churches look bright as sun at noon day,There meadows look green e're the winter's away,
There the pooty still lies for the school boy to find
And a thought often brings these sweet places to mind
Where the trees waved like thunder no music so well
Then nought sounded harsh but the school-calling bell.
7
There are spots where I played, there are spots where I loved,There are scenes where the tales of my choice were approved
As green as at first—and their memory will be
The dearest of lifes recollections to me!—
The objects seen there in the care of my heart
Are as fair as at first—and will never depart.
8
Though no names are mentioned to sanction my themesTheir heart's beat with mine and make real my dreams:
Their memories with mine their diurnal course run,
True as night to the stars, and as day to the sun.
And as they are now so their memories will be
'Long as sense, truth, and reason, remaineth with me.
396
‘I AM’
1
I am—yet what I am, none cares or knows;My friends forsake me like a memory lost:—
I am the self-consumer of my woes;—
They rise and vanish in oblivion's host,
Like shadows in love's frenzied stifled throes:—
And yet I am, and live—like vapours tost
2
Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,—Into the living sea of waking dreams,
Where there is neither sense of life or joys,
397
Even the dearest, that I love the best
Are strange—nay, rather stranger than the rest.
3
I long for scenes, where man hath never trodA place where woman never smiled or wept
There to abide with my Creator, God;
And sleep as I in childhood, sweetly slept,
Untroubling, and untroubled where I lie,
The grass below—above the vaulted sky.
SONNET ‘I am’
I feel I am;—I only know I am,And plod upon the earth, as dull and void:
Earth's prison chilled my body with its dram
Of dullness, and my soaring thoughts destroyed,
I fled to solitudes from passions dream,
But strife persued—I only know, I am,
398
Of men disdaining bounds of place and time:—
A spirit that could travel o'er the space
Of earth and heaven,—like a thought sublime,
Tracing creation, like my maker, free,—
A soul unshackled—like eternity,
Spurning earth's vain and soul debasing thrall
But now I only know I am,—that's all.
SONG
[True love lives in absence]
1
True love lives in absence,Like angels we meet her
Dear as dreams of our childhood
Aye, dearer and sweeter.
2
The words we rememberBy absence unbroken
Are sweeter and dearer
Than when they were spoken.
3
There's a charm in the eyeThere's a smile on the face
Time, distance, or trouble
Can never deface.
399
4
The pleasures of childhoodWere angels above
And the hopes of my manhood
All centred in love.
5
The scenes where we metAye the joys of our childhood
There's nothing so sweet
As those fields of the wild-wood.
6
Where we met in the morningThe noon and the gloaming
And stayed till the moon
High in heaven was roaming.
7
Friends meet and are happy,So are hopes fixed above;
But there's nothing so dear
As first meetings of love.
400
SLEEP OF SPRING
O for that sweet untroubled rest
That Poets oft have sung
The babe upon its Mothers breast
The bird upon its young
The heart asleep without a pain
When shall I know that sleep again
That Poets oft have sung
The babe upon its Mothers breast
The bird upon its young
The heart asleep without a pain
When shall I know that sleep again
When shall I be as I have been
Upon my Mothers breast
Sweet nature's garb of verdant green
To woo my former rest
Lone in the meadow field & plain
& in my native wilds again
Upon my Mothers breast
Sweet nature's garb of verdant green
To woo my former rest
Lone in the meadow field & plain
& in my native wilds again
The sheep within the fallow field
The bird upon the green
The Larks that in the thistle's shield
& pipe from morn to e'en
O for the pasture fields & fen
When shall I see such rest agen
The bird upon the green
The Larks that in the thistle's shield
& pipe from morn to e'en
O for the pasture fields & fen
When shall I see such rest agen
I love the weeds along the fen
More sweet then garden flowers
Freedom haunts the humble glen
That blest my happiest hours
Here prisons injure health & me
I love sweet freedom & the free
More sweet then garden flowers
Freedom haunts the humble glen
That blest my happiest hours
Here prisons injure health & me
I love sweet freedom & the free
401
The crows upon the swelling hills
The cows upon the lea
Sheep feeding by the pasture rills
Are ever dear to me
Because sweet freedom is their mate
While I am lone & desolate
The cows upon the lea
Sheep feeding by the pasture rills
Are ever dear to me
Because sweet freedom is their mate
While I am lone & desolate
I loved the winds when I was young
When life was dear to me
I loved the song which nature sung
Endearing Liberty
I loved the wood the dale the stream
For then my boyhood used to dream
When life was dear to me
I loved the song which nature sung
Endearing Liberty
I loved the wood the dale the stream
For then my boyhood used to dream
Then toil itself was even play
'Twas pleasure e'en to weep
Twas joy to think of dreams by day
The beautifull of sleep
When shall I see the wood & plain
& dream those happy dreams again
'Twas pleasure e'en to weep
Twas joy to think of dreams by day
The beautifull of sleep
When shall I see the wood & plain
& dream those happy dreams again
[The bee loves a blossom and I love a woman]
1
The bee loves a blossom and I love a womanThe bird loves the valley, and I love the glen
Where flowers of all sorts, with her beauty is blooming
Oh! when shall I see womans beauty again
When the evening is near, o when shall I hear
The voice of my true love adown in the glen
402
2
The bird loves the bushes among the green fieldsThe flowers love the meadow and bloom in the sun
And I love the cottage that sanctions, and shields
The love of the woman my early days won
O when shall I see, her smiles dear to me
And see my fond children play in the sweet glen
3
The bee courts the blossom the whole summer dayWhen the blossoms bend down, and smiles up again
Oh when shall I fly from lifes follies away
And live there with true love adown in the glen
To share in her joys, and life's leisure employ
Along with my true love adown in the glen
HOPE OF HOME
1
'Tis not gone for ever,The light of the soul;
It flows like the river,
When it meets with controul!—
It rolls like the ocean,
Over mountain and glen,
Till past the commotion,
And the sun smiles again.
The valleys may tremble,
The mountains may move,
But I can't dissemble,—
In the soul of true love.
403
2
There's the children to love,And the woman to cherish;
Though the mountain may move:—
And the mortal may perish!
Yet the soul never dies;
Over valley and glen,
And the sun in the skies,
Shall shine bright again.—
Shine brightly and bless
All that life can approve,
The child to carress
And the woman to love.
3
For woman we cherishOur cares to the last
In their love truth will flourish
Till danger is past
Is fear round us gloaming
Does terror dismay
The woman dear woman
Exales it away
The soul ever lives
O 'tis not gone for ever
For the light woman gives
Is the sun to set never.
VALENTINE
[The Spring's coming on, my dear]
1
The Spring's coming on, my dear;The sun gets warm and high,
The winter storms are gone, my dear:
And brighter grows the sky.
404
How bright they smile and shine!—
Will you[r] love be what they appear,
My heart-ease Valentine?
2
For love is like the flowers of Spring,Born for an Aprils day:—
The lusty suns that summers bring,
Burn all their blooms away.
Here's snow-drops for thy dark brown hair;
They are—though cold they shine,—
What woman should be, pure and fair,
Just like my Valentine.
LINES, TO MARY
1
The brook goes winding like a snakeThrough many crooks and turns
Loud are the gugles which it makes
Like music—and then mourns
The thorn leans o'er its mimic waves
That o'er the pebbles run
The mimic foam in dark place raves
Then crimples in the sun.
2
Will Mary teach me how to loveOr nature how to woo
The brook[s] below the clouds above
Each others track pursue
405
Are portrates seen in flowers
Of those we love yet dare not claim
In springs delightful hours.
3
Yes in this brook I sit besideHer voice like music dwells
The flower her presence shews with pride
And loves true story tells
The very birds within the hedge
Love's happy thoughts proclaim
All heard or seen in springs first pledge
Seem speaking Mary's name.
March/44.
VALENTINE
[The morning is up betimes my dear]
1
The morning is up betimes my dearEach postman is loaded by Cupid
The letters are nothing but lovers and rhymes
Some loving or joking or stupid
'Tis an old fashioned thing to go church to be wed
And then nothing can alter the fassion
But to day like the birds many lovers are led
More warmly revealing their passion.
2
Thy love at the first gave such witching delightNo maiden on earth could be neater
And absence has kept thee so long from my sight
That thy beauty shines sweeter and sweeter
406
But the blossoms of spring are the dearest
And just so it is with my fair Valentine
The best are the sweet and the sincerest.
3
There's the Cyclamin flower of a delicate hueThere's the snowdrop so drooping of delicate white
There's the violet and crocus all over dark blue
That makes in a nosegay a valentine quite
I'll wed thee and love thee, and this is the day
We must call those we love Valentine
And I hope when we see the sweet blossoms of May
Thou'lt be a sweet blossom of mine.
SONG
[Love lives beyond]
Love lives beyond
The tomb—the earth—which fades like dew
I love the fond
The faithfull & the true
The tomb—the earth—which fades like dew
I love the fond
The faithfull & the true
Love lives in sleep
The happiness of healthy dreams
Eve's dews may weep
But love delightfull seems
The happiness of healthy dreams
Eve's dews may weep
But love delightfull seems
407
Tis seen in flowers
& in the evens pearly dew
On earths green hours
& in the heavens eternal blue
& in the evens pearly dew
On earths green hours
& in the heavens eternal blue
Tis heard in spring
When light & sunbeams warm & kind
On angels wing
Bring love & music to the mind
When light & sunbeams warm & kind
On angels wing
Bring love & music to the mind
& where is voice
So young & beautifully sweet
As natures choice
When spring & lovers meet
So young & beautifully sweet
As natures choice
When spring & lovers meet
Love lives beyond
The tomb the earth the flowers & dew
I love the fond
The faithfull young & true
The tomb the earth the flowers & dew
I love the fond
The faithfull young & true
408
SONG
[When in summer thou walkest]
When in summer thou walkest
In the meads by the river
& to thyself talkest
Dost thou think of me ever
A lost & a lorn one
That adores thee & loves thee
& when happy morn's gone
& natures calm moves thee
Leaving thee to thy sleep like an angel at rest
Does the man who adored thee still live in thy breast
In the meads by the river
& to thyself talkest
Dost thou think of me ever
A lost & a lorn one
That adores thee & loves thee
& when happy morn's gone
& natures calm moves thee
Leaving thee to thy sleep like an angel at rest
Does the man who adored thee still live in thy breast
Does nature e'er give thee
Loves past happy visions
& wrap thee & leave thee
In fancys elesian[s]
Thy beauty I clung too
As leaves to the tree
When thou fair & young too
Looked lightly on me
Till love came upon thee like suns to the west
& shed its perfuming & bloom on my breast
Loves past happy visions
& wrap thee & leave thee
In fancys elesian[s]
Thy beauty I clung too
As leaves to the tree
When thou fair & young too
Looked lightly on me
Till love came upon thee like suns to the west
& shed its perfuming & bloom on my breast
409
Flower of summers bright beaming
Thou star of the even
Thy grey eyes are beaming
Like light of the heaven
When shall I talk to thee
In eves dusky glooming
When shall I walk with thee
In summer flowers blooming before
& love thee as much as I loved thee
& be teazed with the sighs of loves abscence no more
Thou star of the even
Thy grey eyes are beaming
Like light of the heaven
When shall I talk to thee
In eves dusky glooming
When shall I walk with thee
In summer flowers blooming before
& love thee as much as I loved thee
& be teazed with the sighs of loves abscence no more
THE VOICES OF SPRING
1
There's the voices of SpringCan we know them again
The lark's on the wing
And the bee's on the plain
The same sort of voices around and below
As we heard in the meadows ago.
410
2
There's a chirp in the hedgeWhere the primroses grow
There's a song in the sedge
Where the grasshoppers go
The hedge sparrow there has her dwelling begun
And the spider is spinning his home in the sun.
3
There's a hum in the airTheres a song in the rain
All these features so rare
Shall we know them again
The pilewort and daisy are on the green bank;—
Hid by the dead grass tuft's all withered and rank.
4
These are those lost voicesThat love cherished so
Those sweetest of choices
Ten summer's ago
On the ear of my fancy they come in the spring
In the songs of the birds, and the brooks when they sing.
5
Loves favours I see themIn springs early flowers
These were my day dreams then
In summers green hours
And in fancy those faces they seem now to glow
With the same lovely features, as ten summers ago.
411
SONNET
[Bushes and trees the spirits of nature haunt ye and are glad]
Bushes and trees the spirits of nature haunt ye and are gladTo be in your still freshness and green shades
A dewy happiness that is never sad
Wispers among the leaves of your sweet glades
Like the sweet happy loves of tittering maids
Happy retreats and oceans of green leaves
Where sweet retirement bosoms in your shades
A still sweet calm of happiness and rest
How sweet the boughs through one another weaves
While the hedgesparrow cleans his brown hued breast
And thrushes hid in such a crowd of leaves
Which makes us start as from a fancied snake
So much its breast the startled lie deceives
And sweeter still when winds and branches shake
SONG
[My home is thine and where thou art]
1
My home is thine and where thou artMy fancies daily fly
My love is in thy beating heart
No other home have I
The spring and summer bloom of thee
And what thou art they are
Thy bonny breast my home shall be
And I thy love will share
412
2
Is there a thought to doat uponA joy uncrossed with cares
That thought to Hellen's breast is gone
That joy her bosom wears
Does summer show a lovely rose
The flower is Hellen's face
Is Edens garden where it grows
Then Hellen owns the place
3
Is there a happiness on earthIt lives near true-loves dwelling
Is there a joy of purest birth
'Tis in the breast of Hellen
Where Hellen is her home is mine
Without her, lonely is the dwelling
Spring cannot bloom nor summer shine
Without the love of Hellen
SONG
[Come beautiful maiden while autumn delays]
1
Come beautiful maiden while autumn delaysAnd the sunsets so sweet in the gold tinted west
While the fading beach tree sets the woods in a blaze
And the lark sings his song e're he sinks into rest
In Autumns gone by how fondly I press't thee
And loved thee sincerely, and so I do now
As I wandered along with thee ever near me
While the leaves they were fading on every bough
413
2
The sky rolls away with its ocean of cloudsThe earth seems as ocean, as billows the grove
Woods roar like the sea or the ships flapping shrouds
But earth has warm places for beings that love
By the hedges my sweet one we'll wander unseen
Where the leaves of all colours are leaving the trees
Where the rush beds all ripple like water so green
And not a wild flower is in bloom on the lea's—
3
Yet love is as warm as the sun in the skyAnd the winds they breath[e] music though ever so loud
The lark pipes its song in the fleecy clouds high
And the crow o'er the ploughed fields walks lonely and proud—
Then come my dear maiden enjoy the sweet morning
Down the walk in the meadows we'll wander away
There the bramble hedge hangs o'er the path like an awning
And the hedge sparrow hides at the bottom all day
4
Come in the fields then my first loved MaryCome while the harp of the woods is in tune
Here neath the knotty old oak we will tarry
While the sun press the hedges as warm as in June
Though time passes on thy name is a pleasure
So come my sweet Mary we'll wander alone
And I'll tell thee the trials I've suffered, My treasure
Yet forget every one if you'll call me your own—
414
TO MISS W---
Theres beauty in the intercourse of nature with her kind
Then come my dear Miss W--- and hear the sueing wind
That will not let thy hair alone, for all its glossy curls
But blows it in disorder like a string of broken pearls
That winnows round thy snowy neck to cool the summer heat
I wish I was the wind myself that kisses one so sweet
Then come my dear Miss W--- and hear the sueing wind
That will not let thy hair alone, for all its glossy curls
But blows it in disorder like a string of broken pearls
That winnows round thy snowy neck to cool the summer heat
I wish I was the wind myself that kisses one so sweet
2
The steppings stones are o'er the brook, that makes such croaking groansSo lightly step Miss W--- nor fear the cockling stones
The wheat-field shields the patridge's nest that craiks at early morn
The path's not wide enough for two, so follow through the corn
Or walk before Miss W--- dear with step so light and free
Thy figure and thy flowing hair are beautiful to me
3
The heath is full of yellow furze, and beautiful they shineAnd loved one it is passing sweet to feel thy arm in mine
The wind is shaking every bough, and beautiful it sings
This walk with thee is sweeter far among these lovely things
The knapweed flowers, and heather bells the ruddy and the blue
And all around speaks happiness so beautiful and true—
4
My sweetest love, loves sweetest love the corn waves in the galeAnd flowers so rich on every step make beautiful the vale
415
I've never spent a sweeter hour with thee since love was born
The rabbits dance upon the hills, and lick their velvet foot
Then hop away among the brakes, or hide them in the rut—
5
The hawk hangs still upon the air, a speck in yonder cloudAnd in the old grown hedges there the wood dove cooes aloud,
On the dwarf broom the butterfly, just like a flower alive
Basks in the sun, while toiling bees haste to and from the hive
The heath vetch clings around to every bush and tree
As my love dear Miss W--- clings fondly unto thee—
SONG
[The sun was shining o'er the hill]
1
The sun was shining o'er the hillThe church spire peeped above the trees
And merry went the sparkling rill
And happy sung the morning bees
When Jockey he a courting went
To Mary Johnson young and fair
The dew hung on the bowing bent
And crowds of cowslips nodded there
When Jockey he a courting went
To Mary Johnson young and fair
416
2
In each new place were Mary wentThere ne'er was seen the like before
Each lusty clown his money spent
And set the tavern in a roar
Her shape and make, and handsome face
Won welcome looks from every eye
The shepherd sighed and left his place
The ploughman looked his head awry
Each tongue spoke of her bonny face
And Mary Johnson's all the cry
3
Her lips as red as coral wereThe very hue of Jockeys seal
Her cheeks, first roses of the year
Would soften bosoms hard as steel
The very toast of all the town
The ballad of the noisy fair
All sung her praises up and down
And Mary walked the stranger there
As handsome as a rose just blown
Was Mary Johnson young and fair
4
Her bosom white as is the doveHer eyes were black as is the sloe
And she was Jockey's choisest love
And Jockey was her only beau
To day the bells rung might and main
And rung a peal till eventide
They made the valleys ring again
Till many a cloud looked petrified
For Jockey was the happy swain
And Mary Johnson was the bride
417
MARY
1
Alas there's no retreatingFrom the brightness of thy eyes
My heart with love is beating
Then do'nt my love despise
O slight not sweetest Mary
The love I bear to thee
Nor look at all contrary
To the claims of destiny
2
O let me be the nearestTo your bosom, and your love
I bring a love sincerest
What nature must approve
Where tears and sighs are pleaders
I own I've none to give
With such sad interceeders
My wishes cannot live
3
A honest heart that lieth notThat tells its story true
A written plea without a blot
Is what I offer you
Should thy love live without a stain
In constancy divine
Then heaven Mary glows again
And mine my love is thine
418
DRINKING SONG
1
Come along my good fellowLet's sit and get mellow
For sorrow we hav'nt got leisure
We've money and time
And that's just the prime
To enjoy it in comfort & pleasure
Call for ale or else wine
On roast beef we can dine
And joy we shall have without measure
2
The parson may preachAgainst ale, and beseach
His church folks to head no such liquor
But in neat sanded rooms
With young girls in their blooms
Pray who'd ever think of the vicar
Then leave that dull dunce
Let's have sandwich for lunch
And pull at the tankard or pitcher—
3
Let the dull parson thinkWas he here but to drink
He would say beer was made for to please us
When man is a dry
A good sermon's my eye
The vicar his task is to teaze us
Tankards foam o'er the rim
Where the fly loves to swim
And that is the lecture to please us
419
4
So come my old fellowLet's go and get mellow
For care brings no hour of leisure
We've money and time
And just now in prime
To sit down enjoying our pleasure
'Tis summer's prime hours
And the room smel[l]s of flowers
Now boys is the season for leisure
STANZAS
[The passing of a dream]
1
The passing of a dreamAre the thoughts I have to day
Cloud shadows they all seem
And pass as soon away
Their meaning and their shade
I cannot well define
The little left unsaid
Seems others, and not mine
2
Here's a place so dainty dress'tThat o'er my vision swim
Like a land in the far west
But alas my vision's dim
The trees are not the trees
Under which I used to play
And the flowers they cannot please
For I am sad to day
420
3
Here's the shumac all on fireLike hot coals amid the green
It might please my heart's desire
If elsewhere the place had been
Here dreams their troubles make
To a body without pain
When shall my mind awake
In its own loved scenes again
MARY AYRE
1
The music of thy voice is steelingAround the heart in fondest feeling
And leaves a passion past consealing
For bonny Mary Ayre
2
The breeze is flapping in the shrowdThe storm is singing in the cloud
And still the first in every crowd
Is bonny Mary Ayre
3
The flood and forrest doubly ravesA mist is hanging o'er the waves
And flowers are in a thousand graves
With floods and tempests o'er them
421
4
In every season of the yearHer voice in music songs I hear
In mountains, valleys, every where
I hear sweet Mary Ayre
5
There is a soul in natures voiceThat makes my lonely heart rejoice
The breezes wisper my first choice
And that is Mary Ayre
THE WIND & TREES
1
I love the song of tree and windHow beautiful they sing
The licken on the beach tree rind
E'en beats the flowers of spring
2
From the southwest sugh sugh it comesThen whizes round in pleasant hums
It sings the spirit of the storm
The trees with dancing waxes warm
3
They dance and bow, and dance againThe very trunks, each branch and grain
Shake and dance and wave and bow
In every form no matter how
422
4
In every storm they dance on highThe semblance of a stormy sky
Then sob and roar and bend and swee
The semblance of a stormy sea
5
I love the song of wood and windThe sobs before its roar behind
I love the stir of flood and tree
'Tis all of natures melody
6
I love the roaring of the windThe calm that follows cheers the mind
'Tis like the good mans end of peace
When joys begin and troubles cease
SONG
[There was the thorn and the stile it hung over]
1
There was the thorn and the stile it hung overAnd the neat little pasture all covered with sheep
There the woodbines I often had pulled for my lover
While the little bird started up out of its sleep
I wandered for weeks in that sweetest of season
And saw bush and hedge all covered with may
But to say they could please me was slighting of reason
When the charm that delighted me bloomed far away
423
2
There she would come like the charm of the summerIn a sweet modest dress, like the queen of the may
And ne'er from her tongue did I e're hear a murmur
Till that bitter hour we were parted away—
I have saught such a place since I left it, and often
Would stand by the hawthorn that grew by a stile
But nothing my first formed decision could soften
T'was there Mary met me to chatter and smile
3
I went there again, aye in just such a seasonAnd still the old hawthorn hung over the stile
But the charm it was gone, could I fancy the reason
Though the sun it shone bright on may blossoms the while
The knoll where we sat full of wild flowers was blooming
Yet nothing could please me in that happy dell
The silence told plainly no maiden was comeing
In her absence all pleasure had bid it farewell
SCOTLAND
[Auld Scotland's woods auld Scotland's braes]
1
Auld Scotland's woods auld Scotland's braesWhere dews the sweetest fa'
'Tis nature in her sunday claes
The dearest land o' a'
2
It bangs all lands beneath the sunAll lands ayont the sea
That land o' mists is freedoms ain
To every Scottish e'e
424
3
The biggen by the mountain sideAboon the rocks sae grand
The mountain fir that waves in pride
Oerleukin half the land
4
The burnie rimpling alangAnd laughing as it rins
Plays Scottish music a the day
Among the broom and w[h]ins
5
O bonny are the highland hillsThat overleuk the sea
The mountain and the siller rills
Nae sweeter land can be
SOME DAYS BEFORE THE SPRING
1
There's a gladness of heart in the first days of SpringThere's a pleasure in memory to hear the birds sing
The Pink or Hedgesparrow will sing at day break
Though a leaf on the hedges is hardly awake
As for flowers on the grass there's not one to be seen
And the grass in the fields scarce enough to be green
The ruts full of water all muddy and thick
Which the boy tries to stop with a bit of a stick
425
2
The bits of brown haystacks all cut to the coreIn the grassy close corners show winter is o'er
With the oaks frowning o'er them all mossy and grey
They will stand in the shelter 'till they cut the new hay
The field-fare is there a seeking hedge fruits
And the crow on the grass, is boreing for roots
With the jackdaw that nauntles among the molehills
In their grey powdered wigs, and bright yellow bills
3
The stones in the brooks, are all covered with greenAll trailing and spreading as mosses are seen
In the woods at the spring and the close of the year
When violets and primroses like sisters appear
How level the meadow, how saffron the sun
How fine is the web that the spider has spun
Round the twigs of the hedge and the bents of the vales
In the soft mornings sunshine and sweet evening gales
4
Then come let us walk and enjoy the brisk airAnd fancy the change when sweet spring it is there
Wild flowers in the grass, and nests in the tree
A hedge for the bird and a flower for the bee
So away let us walk while the sun's in the sky
And the paths o'er the greensward and rushes are dry
And Mary will see what there is to be seen
The hedges swelled buds, and the meadows more green
426
TO MARY ANN B****
1
Along the pleasant banks of NeneArise my love and walk with me
And we'll enjoy the morning scene
Where all is beautiful like thee
The river flooded to the brim
The yellow trees the uplands grey
That in the light of heaven swim
Like rocks and vallies far away
2
Come Mary Ann and walk with meAlong the pleasant banks of Nene
The mist is gone and every tree
In mornings light is plainly seen
Sweet is the breath of morning jaunts
While bright dew lies on every place
The bee is on its wild flower haunts
The rose is in thy bonny face
3
The east is hung with golden gemsIn crimson red and saphire blue
In gold and crystal fringed hems
The spiders lace is hung with dew
On each thorn branch and flowery stem
As if to decorate the place
For health and nature dwells with them
And shows its bloom upon thy face
427
4
Then walk with me sweet Mary AnnAnd in the meadows meet the morn
Where nature lives as it began
And all her joys are newly born
Then Mary come and make more dear
The scene—and Eden it will be
When every gale thy voice will hear
And every vale be full of thee
SPRING VIOLETS
Sweet Maiden of the early spring
In broach of gold & apron blue
The early suns of march will bring
Thy loved companions fair & true
So purely white so sweetly blue
Beside the sunny hedge they grow
In clusters to the springtime true
How beautifull they show
In broach of gold & apron blue
The early suns of march will bring
Thy loved companions fair & true
So purely white so sweetly blue
Beside the sunny hedge they grow
In clusters to the springtime true
How beautifull they show
The sparrows twitter in the hedge
& field mice rustle in the leaves
& there thou art thou bonny pledge
Like dreams spring fancies ever weaves
In purple vest and golden eye
All looking up for aprils dew
& catching pearls till gales pass bye
Then you are mornings weepers too
& field mice rustle in the leaves
& there thou art thou bonny pledge
Like dreams spring fancies ever weaves
428
All looking up for aprils dew
& catching pearls till gales pass bye
Then you are mornings weepers too
I love the April violet
With golden eye & dewy faces
They're in such lovely places met
The sunniest and the sweetest places
They are the breath of Spring & lie
On Hedgerow banks for all to get
The joy of every passer bye
The march & april violet
With golden eye & dewy faces
They're in such lovely places met
The sunniest and the sweetest places
They are the breath of Spring & lie
On Hedgerow banks for all to get
The joy of every passer bye
The march & april violet
[Come hither ye who thirst]
1
Come hither ye who thirstPure still the brook flows on
Its waters are not curst
Clear from its rock of stone
It bubbles and it boils
An everlasting rill
Then eddies and recoils
And wimples clearer still
Art troubled then come hither
And tast[e] of peace for ever
2
Art weary heres the placeFor weariness to rest
These flowers are herbs of grace
To cure the aching breast
429
Where dew drops only weep
Where nature turns god thanks
And sings herself to sleep
Art troubled with strife come hither
Here is peace and summer weather
3
Come hither for pleasure who listHere is oak boughs for a shade
Their leaves they will hide from the mist
Ere the sun his broad disk has displayed
Here is peace if thy bosom be troubled
Here is rest if thou'rt weary—sit down
Here pleasure you'll find it is doubled
For content is lifes only crown
Disciples of sorrow come hither
For no blasts my joys can wither
4
Art sick of the naughty worldThere's many been sick before thee
Then leave these young shoots with their tendrels curl'd
For the oaks that are mossy and hoary
Art weary with beating the flood
Here's a mossy bank—come and sit down
'Twas nature that planted this wood
Unknown to the sins of the town
Full of pride and contention come hither
We'll talk of our troubles together
5
The world is all tost in commotionThe blind lead the blind into strife
Come hither thou wreck of lifes ocean
Let solitude warm thee to life
430
Be anything but the worlds man
The dark of to day brings the suns of tomorrow
Be proud that your joy here began
Poor shipwreck of life journey hither
And we'll talk of lifes troubles together
TO MISS W
1
The wild hedge-rose it blooms so fairUpon the stem so briery
And grows the very likeness there
Of her I call my deary
The self same bloom is in her face
As that within the blossom
Its eye of gold, like pin of grace
Is that upon her bosom
2
The wild hedge rose how sweet it smellsUpon the evening tree
Will Jane now seek the heather dells
And crop the flower with me
Its blush is on her lovely cheek
Its gold eye on her breast
'Tis eaten in an apple streak
And on loves bosom press't—
431
3
It buds among the briars in MayAnd opens in the June
Will Jane now go the wild wood way
And meet the silver moon
Say will you go the wild wood way
At evenings dewy close
And talk a pleasant hour away
And love the wild-hedge-rose
MOON LIGHT WALK
1
The sun like the last look of loveHas smiled farewell on the tower and tree
And in the shades of every grove
Has left the calm that pleases me
While all around so pure does seem
I fancy that my God is near
Or think I live in some sweet dream
Where evenings moon is shining clear
2
Now evenings dews are falling downAnd moon beams on the gravel stoop
So bright they shine o'er darkness thrown
They seem as you could pick them up
And fir dale shadows in a group
Darker than darklike coffined palls
You'r naturally obliged to stoop
To feel where seems no ground at all
432
3
How sweet the bum clocks bagpipe droneThat buzzes by with evening song
He meets the traveller all alone
On furze clad heath and spinney strong
Now that the busy daylight talk
Has ceased, and left this scene alone
I'll wander down the moon lit walk
And call its pleasures all my own
THE BLACKBIRD
1
The blackbird is a bonny birdThat singeth in the wood
His song is in the evening heard
When the red cow chews her cud
His song is heard in morning loud
Upon the bright white thorn
While the blythe milkmaid sings as proud
And holds the world in scorn
2
O bonny is the blackbird stillOn top of yon fir tree
On which he wipes his golden bill
And blithely whistles he
He sings upon the sapling oak
In notes all rich and mellow
Oft' have I quit towns noise, and folk
In springs sweet summers weather
433
3
The blackbird is a bonny birdI love his mourning suit
And song in the spring mornings heard
As mellow as the flute
How sweet his song in April showers
Pipes from his golden bill
As yellow as the kingcup flowers
The sweetest ditty still
SONG
[Sweet is the light of thy bright eye]
1
Sweet is the light of thy bright eyeA living sun a living joy
Sweet is the smile of thy red cheek
Like rose skies when spring mornings break
Sweet are the swellings of thy breast
Like lilies when the lakes at rest
Thy figure, and thy dress so neat
And every thing about thee sweet
2
Sweet are my daily dreams of theeAnd when I see the bush and tree
And hear the little linnet's song
I think of thee the whole day long
They are what once thou loved to see
When walking in the valley free
They are what once did please thy ears
In shadows of departed years
434
3
Thy face is sweet, thy cares are youngThy voice is womans lovely tongue
Thy smiles are such as all delight
Thy thoughts are lilys clothed in light
Thy swan like neck, thy swelling breast
Like lilies on the lake at rest
Thou art of all the fairest flower
That blooms amid this earthly bower
HUNTING SONG
1
The woods are all colours and bright is the sunThe scent will lie strong on the fallows at morn
Hark-away to the field for the hunt has begun
Do'nt you hear the whip crack and the sound of the horn
The skies are ash coloured the fallows are brown
The red coated hunters are galloping by
And in the bleached woods at the end of the town
Horses caper, and dogs make a terrible cry
2
Hark-away to the noise there is health in the soundThe woods are as still as the ships in a bay
You hear the shrill whine of the favourite hound
That will track him, and harrass him all the long day
Hark-away to the woods, hark-away do but look
The fox has broke cover, and by the bent [spray]
Drops his tail but a moment, to lap at the brook
Then flies o'er the red russet fallows away
435
3
The woods as if painted in all colours shineIn brown's red and yellows the finest of scenes
The woods and the hedges look more than divine
Like paintings hung out in the beautiful greens
The cry of the hounds in the wild flurried sky
The sun crackles sweet on the stubbles so gray
'Tis the birthday of nature the foxhunters joy
So away to the fields, hark, forward, away—
MY EARLY HOME WAS THIS
1
Here sparrows built upon the treesAnd stock-doves hide their nest
The leaves where winnowed by the breeze
Into a calmer rest
The black-caps song was very sweet
That used the rose to kiss
It made the paradise complete
My early home was this
2
The red breast from the sweet briar bushDrop't down to pick the worm
On the horse chesnut sang the thrush
O'er the home where I was born
436
Fell o'er this ‘bower of bliss’
And on the bench sat boys and girls
—My early home was this
3
The old house stooped just like a caveThatched o'er with mosses green
Winter around the walls would rave
But all was calm within
The trees they were as green agen
Where bees the flowers would kiss
But flowers and trees seemed sweeter then
—My early home was this—
SONG Mary Appleby
1
I look upon the hedge row flowerI gaze upon the hedge-row tree
I walk alone the silent hour
And think of Mary Appleby
I see her in the brimming streams
I see her in the blooming hour
I hear her in the summer dreams
Of singing bird, and blooming flower
437
2
For Mary is the dearest birdAnd Mary is the sweetest flower
That in spring bush was ever heard
That ever bloomed on bank or bower
O bonny Mary Appleby
The sun did never sweeter shine
Than when in youth I courted thee
And dreaming fancied you'd be mine
3
The lark above the meadow singsWood pigeons coo in ivied trees
The butterflies on painted wings
Dance gaily with the meadow bees
All nature is in happy mood
The sueing breeze is blowing free
And o'er the field and by the wood
I think of Mary Appleby
4
O bonny Mary ApplebyMy once dear Mary Appleby
A crown of gold thy own should be
My handsome Mary Appleby
Thy face is like the summer rose
Its maiden bloom was all divine
And more than all the world bestows
I'd give had Mary e'er been mine
438
[How beautiful ye breathe ye passing gales]
1
How beautiful ye breathe ye passing galesAround the scenes of morning in its rest
The leavel meadows and the laughing vales
And broader lake with sunbeams on its breast
How beautiful ye glitter ye sunbeams
Upon the meadow lake and glassy glade
Where beautiful in all her youthful dreams
I walked with thee my once loved maid.
2
As lovely as the early gems of springThe day-break and young flowers that grace the mead
Then walked she out at morn a sweet young thing
Fairest of the wild-flowers choisest breed
That mantle every sod with gold and silver shene
While skies with golden hue, or crimson shade
Or rose, or purple overtops the green
There in the morning wandered my sweet maid.
3
Ye springing gales how beautiful ye breath[e]Along the tethered grass or silver pool
While sweet the ragged robbins wreath[e]
A brade of wild flowers by the waters cool
There wandered forth the maid with auburn hair
O'er thy sweet mead in sunlight and in shade
Pure as the wild flowers—as the summer fair.
The once loved, blooming beauty, fair, young maid.
439
HESPERUS
1
Hesperus the day is goneSoft falls the silent dew
A tear is now on many a flower
And heaven lives in you
2
Hesperus the evening mildFalls round us soft and sweet
'Tis like the breathings of a child
When day and evening meet
3
Hesperus the closing flowerSleeps on the dewy ground
While dews fall in a silent shower
And heaven breathes around
4
Hesperus thy twinkling rayBeams in the blue of heaven
And tells the traveller on his way
That earth shall be forgiven
440
[A rosey bud I would not kill]
1
A rosey bud I would not killTo spoil its rich perfume
For the sweet flower can do no ill
So let it longer bloom
I would not hurt a thought of love
For all the world contains
Nor spoil the feather of the dove
Or turn delight to pains
2
For nature is the only thingThat we should ne'er destroy
'Tis gladsome as the skylarks wing
That singeth hymns of joy
Its first and earliest offspring love
The tints of every rose
Those flush tints kindled from above
That with all nature grows
3
'Tis robbing life of one fond hourSome lonely thing of joy
To stoop and pluck a lonely flower
Or insect to destroy
A rosey bud I would not kill
To cheat the summer breath
For trueloves errand they fulfill
That never taste of death
441
SONG
[Smile again my lovely Lasses]
1
Smile again my lovely LassesLovely lasses smile again
Loves joy all grief surpasses
And care may sigh in vain
There's the hill beside the barn
There's the knoll upon the bank
Where lovers true may meet and join
Lovely lasses smile again
2
Pools they gather on the plainAnd tell of seasons dreary
Lovely lasses smile again
Then care will soon be weary
Green hills may shine in white
And clouds obscure the plain
Home's fire side will then delight
If lovely lasses smile again
TO A LARK SINGING IN WINTER
1
Wing-winnowing lark with speckled breastHas just shot up from nightly rest
To sing two minutes up the west
442
Heres some small straws about her nest
All hid from men
2
Thou farmers minstrel ever cheeryThough winters all about so dreary
I dare say thou sat warm and erie
Between the furrows
And now thy song that flows unweary
Scorns earthly sorrows
3
The little mouse comes out and nibblesThe small weed in the ground of stubbles
Where thou lark sat and slept from troubles
Amid the storm
The stubbles ic'el began to dribble
In sunshine warm
4
Sweet minstrel of the farm and ploughWhen ploughmans fingers gin to glow
How beautiful and sweet art thou
Above his head
The stubble field is in a glow
All else seems dead
5
All dead without the stubble groundWithout a sight without a sound
But music sunshines all around
Beneath thy song
Winter seems softened at thy sound
Nor nips to wrong
443
6
On all the stubble-blades of grassThe melted drops turn beads of glass
Rime feathers upon all we pass
Everywhere hings
And brown and green all hues that was
Feathered like wings
7
It is a morn of ragged rimeThe coldest blast of winter time
Is warmth to this Siberian clime
Dead winter sere
And yet that clod brown bird sublime
Sings loud and clear
8
The red round sun looks like a cheatHe only shines blood freezing heat
And yet this merry birds night seat
Seems warm's a sty
The stubble woods around it meet
And keep it dry
9
Each stubble stalk a jiant treeScarce higher than [an infant's] knee
Seem woods to stop the winds so blea
From this snug home
Boundless this stubble wood must be
[OMITTED]
10
How safe must be this birds sweet bedIn stubble fields with storms o'er head
Or skies like bluest curtains spread
444
With bit of thurrow o'er her head
Mayhap a stone
11
The god of nature guides her wellTo choose best dwellings for her sell
And in the spring her nest will tell
Her choice at least
For God loves little larks as well
As man or beast
12
Thou little bird thou bonny charmOf every field and every farm
In every season cold and warm
Thou sing'st thy song
I wish thy russet self no harm
Nor any wrong
13
Free from the snares thy nature shunsAnd nets and baits and pointed guns
Dangers thy timid nature shuns
May thou go free
Sweet bird as summer onward runs
I'll list' to thee
14
I'd writ one verse, and half anotherWhen thou dropt down and joined a brother
And o'er the stubble swopt together
To play 'till dark
Then in thy night nest shun cold weather
As snug's a Lark
445
15
Old russet fern I wish thee wellTill next years spring comes by itsel
Then build thy nest and hide it well
'Tween rig or thurrow
No doubt may be this is the dell
—Spring comes the morrow
16
Then blossomed beans will bloom above theeAnd bumble bee buz in and love thee
And nothing from thy nest shall moove thee
When may shines warm
And thy first minstrel[sy] above thee
Sing o'er the farm
SONG
[The moon above the hills is peeping]
1
The moon above the hills is peepingThe stars are in the purple skies
While lilies on the lake are sleeping
But not so dear as Nelly's eyes
I love the evening on the mountain
The tickling dripples from the spring
The sky's reflection in the fountain
But Nelly seems a dearer thing
She's lovely as her sister graces
For evening walks in sweetest places
446
2
How beautiful the moon is shiningHow silver bright the stars appear
The clouds lie round like silver lining
The sweetest time in all the year
The sweetest time for Nelly's rambles
Is sure the shut of silent eve
The heath is overhung with brambles
That often catch at Nelly's sleeve
Come Nelly while the light remains
And let us ramble down the lanes
3
Where bloom the Canterbury bellsAnd where the foxglove flower reposes
Where the chaffinch sleeps in lonely dells
In the dog-briar bushes hung with roses.
Come sweet Nelly charming creature
Let thy evening walk be mine
Womans charms in every feature
Sweet as is the eglantine
Let us walk the heath together
In light of love, and summer weather
SONG
[Among the green bushes the songs of the thrushes]
1
Among the green bushes the songs of the thrushesAre answering each other in music and glee
While the magpies and rooks in woods hedges—near brooks
Mount their spring dwellings on every high tree
447
And crop a white branch from the scented may tree
Where the silver brook wimples and thy rosy cheek dimples
Sweet will the eve of that courting hour be—
2
We'll notice wild flowers love that grow by thorn bowers loveThough sinful to crop them now beaded with dew
The violet is thine love, the primrose is mine love
To spring and each other, so blooming and true
With dew drops all beaded, the feather grass seeded
The cloud mountains turn to dark woods in the sky
The daisey bud closes while sleep the hedge roses
There's nothing seems waking but you love and I
3
Larks sleep in the rushes linets perch on the bushesWhile mag's on her nest with her tail peeping out
The moon it reveals her though she thinks night conceals her
Though bird nesting boys are not roving about
The night winds wont wrong her, nor aught that belong her
For night is the nurse of all nature in sleep.
The moon love is keeping a watch o'er the sleeping
And dews for real pleasures do nothing but weep
4
Among the green bushes we'll sit with the thrushesAnd blackbirds and linnets an hour or two long
That are up at the dawning by times in the morning
To cheery thy milking with music and song
Then come at the eve love and where the banks lean love
By the brook that flows on in its dribbles of song
While the moon looks so pale love and the trees look so hale love
I will tell the[e] a love tale an hour or two long—
448
THE AIK
1
O there is one sweet dear thingIn every bodys mind
Sweet as life is to a king
Sweet as kindred to its kind
Some love the awthorn bush
Some love the woodland brake
—I loved the singing thrush
And I lov'd the woodland aik
2
For the thrush it loo'd the aikAnd it built upo' the tap
And ere morn was wide awake
And every leaf did drap
Wi' the bright and glassy dew
While the thrush was on the aik
Singing every morning new
Pleased for its ain dear aik
3
O the mind has many thingsTo worship and admire
The hawk wi' winnowing wings
And the gilt fanes twittering fire
The aiks midsummer crown
Mang aither green luiks mellow
Theres some o' autumns brown
And some o gouden yellow
449
4
Morn and noon and eveBloom a' the aik thegether
And spring and autumn weave
Their several luiks o' weather
Brown dark green and yellow
And in its nest o' moss and clay
Where the thrush sings with its fellow
A' through the summers day
[I lay me down with thoughts of thee]
1
I lay me down with thoughts of theeAnd dream of thee in sleep
And when night dew hangs on the tree
'Tis beautiful to weep
'Tis beautiful to see thee pass
In visions of the night
With eyes as clear as liquid glass
And features fair as light
2
'Tis beautiful to see thy formIn the pupil of loves eye
A womans shadow soft and warm
Like an angel from the sky
With locks of auburn hanging down
Thy shoulders chaste and white
Thus fleecy clouds as soft as down
Hang round the moon at night
450
3
'Tis sweet to see thee vanish pastIn the dark and midnight eye
I try to clasp the vision fast
But faster it will fly—
Thou art the soul of midnight thought
The life of lonely dreams
Each night thou'rt in my fancy sought
Then beautiful all seems
THE ROUND OAK
1
The Apple top't oak in the old narrow laneAnd the hedge row of bramble and thorn
Will ne'er throw their green on my visions again
As they did on that sweet dewy morn
When I went for spring pooteys and birds nests to look
Down the border of bushes ayont the fair spring
I gathered the palm grass close to the brook
And heard the sweet birds in thorn bushes sing
2
I gathered flat gravel stones up in the shallowsTo make ducks and drakes when I got to a pond
The reed sparrows nest it was close to the sallows
And the wrens in a thorn bush a little beyond
451
As the bow shoots the arrow quick darting unseen
Till it came to the shallows where the water scarce drebbles
Then back dart again to the spring head of green
3
The nest of the magpie in the low bush of white thornAnd the carrion crows nest on the tree o'er the spring
I saw it in march on many a cold morn
When the arum it bloomed like a beautiful thing
And the apple top't oak aye as round as a table
That grew just above on the bank by the spring
Where every saturday noon I was able
To spend half a day and hear the birds sing
4
But now there's no holidays left to my choiceThat can bring time to sit in thy pleasures again
Thy limpid brook flows and thy waters rejoice
And I long for that tree—but my wishes are vain
All that's left to me now I find in my dreams
For fate in my fortune's left nothing the same
Sweet Apple top't oak that grew by the stream
I loved thy shade once—now I love but thy name
June 19/46
452
THE MAID IN THE SPRING
Sonnet
The maidens light foot seems to pity the flowersShe bruises with treading on in their blooming hours
In her hurrying haste she oft goes to tie
A broken cowslip stalk that the flower should not die
With a blade of the grass that her feet must crush
And for sake of the linets nest loves the green bush
And talks to the leaves smiling green in her eye
To hide the nest well till the young ones can fly
And when speed is most urgent she'll deem it not vain
To turn back and lift up the daisey again
Though her mother was ill and the docter was sought
Sick flowers must be minded to do as she ought
The nightingales her's and all birds on the wing
So the fond maiden sings to herself in the spring
HOPE & JOY
Hopes have many autumns so have joysSmall is the blast that fades them—less destroys
The tender leaves bear not the slightest wrong
Fading like first thoughts of young poets song
As stars melt the darkness to purple or grey
So hope melts the dread of our sorrows away
As thunder storms loose their dread blackness when near
So hope in our dangers will lessen their fear
Daiseys shut up at even like hail when we pass
But open by daylight bright stars in the grass
453
Are insights to heaven when the flower is full blown
Whether bred on the earth or sent down from above
Hope and joy are but two other names for true love
[My spirit lives in silent sighs]
1
My spirit lives in silent sighsAnd gazing upon thee
I hear thy silence make replies
To every thing but me
I see thy silence talk to flowers
The birds will sing to thee
And lonely in these lonely hours
You never talk to me
2
I never hear thy voice nor knowIts sound in fancy's ear
A silent shade where'ere I go
In beauty hovers near
Do wild flowers love; I think they do
And often stooping down
I hear them talk to shower and dew
On many a lovely mound
3
I often see thy fairy formIn springs bee singing hours
Light stepping on in fancy warm
As love among the flowers
454
So maids in summer hours
So rove as not to harm the grass
Nor tread upon the flowers
THE LONELY FLOWER
1
O bonny is the lonesome flowerThat blossoms in the lonely glen
Self sharing dew and sun and shower
And blooming from the eyes of men
2
And bonnily awoke the mornUpon its undefiled bloom
The sweetest flower that ere was born
Is hidden in the vales of broom
3
Its leaves are wet with drops of dewAnd so's the woodlarks spotted breast
Brushing them off from where she flew
The cowslip close beside her nest
455
4
Its root increased from year to yearIts peeps they blossomed all the may
The school-boy knew not where to spier
The milkmaid passed it every day
5
O bonny is the lonesome flowerThat blossoms in the lonely glen
Shares by itself the sun and shower
And blossoms from the eyes of men
SONG
[Is may to bloom without thee]
1
Is may to bloom without theeMy beautiful Hellen
And spring spread green about thee
And come not near thy dwelling
If thou art absent Hellen
The spring is abscent too
The birds no tales are telling
The morning brings no dew
2
The white-thorn bloom is swellingThe white flower peeping through
I thought of absent Hellen
And keen the winter blew
456
With Hellen cheerful hearted
But o how nature changed
When Hellen she departed
3
The grass and thorn turned blackFlowers frost nipt in the blast
As spring would ne'er come back
And the summer time was past
When spring flowers tales are telling
And birds begin to sing
I still expected Hellen
Would blossom with the spring
Feby 4th/47
SONG
[The kingcups shew their golden looks]
1
The kingcups shew their golden looksFlowers bloom before they wither
So come my love we'll stride the brooks
And climb the hill together
I love thee for thy happy face
Thy links of dark brown hair
I love thee for thy shape and face
Thy eyes so bright and fair
2
Sweet Hellen I love thee wellThou first sweet flower of spring
The ash tree bark thy name shall tell
Where I thy beauties sing
457
The speckled thrushes sing
And primrose neath the hazels born
Show the first loves of spring—
3
The spring is of thee—and the birdsThat in the woods rejoice
Thy beauties sing in better words
And emulate thy voice
The bushes in the green so warm
That loves the suns controul
Shews nature in its happiest charm
Where woman is the soul—
4
O Ellen my earthly loveWith angel face and eye
I see thee in the stars above
And varigated sky—
Thy happy cheeks of rosey glow
Thy eyes so bright and fair
Thy womans beauty here below
Reflects an angel there—
THE CAMP
1
Will you come to the camp in the pale moonlightWhere stars are the watchmen each sweet summers night
Will you come to the camp when the stars shine bright
In the pale moonlight
458
2
Will you come to the camp ere the moon goes downWhere the song shall be sung o'er the ale so brown
Will you come to the camp not a mile from the town
Ere the moon goes down
3
The joys of the camp are not cares of the crownThere'll be fiddling and dancing a mile from the town
Will you come to the camp ere the moon goes down
A mile from the town
4
The camp of the gipseys is sweet by moon lightIn the furze and the hawthorn—and all out of sight
There'll be fiddling, and dancing and singing to night
In the pale moon light
TO A STRANGER
1
The visions of love are as true as the seasonAs true as the flower to the bosom of spring
Sweet stranger I saw thee—thy look was so pleasing
Love touched on the chord of its slenderest string
I saw thee and loved thee, and fail to compare thee
To any thing else half so lovely as thou
The bird in its music has nothing to spare thee
And thou'rt fairer than blossoms that hang on the bough.
459
2
Thy looks were so blooming, thy smile so endearingMy glad heart was happy to gaze on thy face
The sweetest of flowers in the summer appearing
Was nought to compare when you bloomed in their place
Thy cheek sweetest health in her pride did adorn it
'Twas simple and lovely as woman could be
The roses of summer had spread their leaves o'er it
And made it the bloom of no being but thee.
3
Thy looks were so win[n]ing thy face so unseemingI never was charmed so by any before
The sweetest the rose is at mornings begining
But thou art far dearer full fifty times o'er
Sweet stranger I've seen thee, and love and admire thee
I know not thy name, on a stranger I gaze
As a stranger I dare not think love may inspire thee
'Tho I sing in a ballad of love in thy praise.
TWILIGHT
1
Sweet twilight, nurse of dewsAnd mother of sweet hours
460
Among the hawthorn bowers
That overhang the molehil greenly gray
Made as it were to intercept the way
2
Beetles are thy trumpetersAnd to thy silence play
Where the soft still rustle stirs
O'er dead winds of the day
Mid marshy sedge dull aspens and pasture rushes
O'er green corn fields and hedge row bushes
3
Thy hours have one light placeStreaky and dunly grey
As if the night was giving place
And bringing back the day
The sun seems coming so the eye beleives
But darkness deepens round and undeceives
4
O'er brooks the weeping ashHangs cool and grimly dark
I hear the water splash
And then half fearing mark
In ivy'd ash a robber near the stream
'Till from a nearer view I find it but a dream
461
5
Sweet twilight nurse of nightThy path the milk maid treads
With nimble step so light
Scarce bends the cowslips heads
But hastening on ere by thy light forsook
She leaves her cows all resting by the brook
6
Sweet twilight thy cool dewsAre beautifully spread
Where the nightingale its song renews
Close by the old cow shed
In that low hazel oft' I've heard her sing
While sombre evening came on downy wing
7
The playful rabit tooIts white scut glancing
Amid the silver dew
I've seen them oft advancing
In troops from spiney's where they love to dwell
Dancing on molehills in the open dell
8
Spring leaves seem old in greenAnd the dull thorn is lost in the[e]—
Dun twilight—but the hazel still is seen
In sleeping beauty by the old oak tree
Giving the woods a beauty and a power
While earth seems Eden in such an hour
462
9
Sweet twilight in thy dewsAnd silence I rejoice
Thy odd stars bid me muse
And give to silence voice
Now twilight ceases on the verge of even’
And darkness like a pawl spreads over heaven
THE SIMPLE FLOWER
1
I ever loved the simple flowerWhere woman cast her eye
There's not a bloom in walk or bower
Like that she wandered by
'Twas faith without a tear or sigh
It drank dews from above
'Twas joy and hope and poesy
—It won a womans love
2
I lov'd the flower she gazed uponAnd stooped to gaze again
It seemed the sweetest in the sun
The fairest on the plain
I loved sweet woman in that hour
The sun smiled sweet above
And when she looked upon that flower
The flower itself was Love
463
AN ACROSTIC On the Revd Wm Todman Yardley Hastings
Right is the man who builds his hopes on highEternal language written in the sky
Verse there is melody outpeering time
Diurnal tongues of stars and suns sublime
Wisdom is written there without disguise
Mind in that shining volume never dies
To day, tomorrow still remain the same
On the eternal record they proclaim
Death there is no inhabitant—they shine
Mid centuries past—and still appear divine
Another world in every star appears
'Neath the blue concave of the rolling spheres
Young worlds, and newer systems reappear
Another and another year by year
Revolving in immensity of space
Designed for heaven and the human race
Light there is endless—the eternal spheres
Envelope destinies unknown to years
Youth is their atmosphere—life never dies
Hours are as centuries in those happy skies
All there is timeless, endless, spaceless all
Stations for angels free from human thrall
To day—tomorrow never shadows there
In climes celestial lives no shades of care
Nought mortal lives—all that was dust is gone
God is their sovereign and the only one.
464
SONG
[Ive been roaming in the gloaming]
1
Ive been roaming in the gloaming,Where the mist fell o'er the braes;
I had na' thoughts o' sweethearts coming,
As the rain would spoil her claes;
The cobweb lace upon the fern
Bedeck'd wi' dew on every space
The very like that Mary had
When she was in her last years place
2
The burnie trotting down the braeA market pace is hardly seen
The river rolling far away
A race horse speed in silver sheene
And will the bonny Mary come
And will the bonny Mary dare
To face the mist and face the gloom
The evening walk with me to share
3
We'll wander o'er the ling clad brae,We'll wander by the mountain side
And meet joy where the burnie strae's
Gif' Mary'll be my bonny bride
The mist scarce sprinkles in my face
The evening now is calm and fair
The old thorn is our trysting place
And I'll meet bonny Mary there
465
THE FALSE ONE
1
O dinna paint her looks to meI canna bear to hear it
The last war faus, as faus can be
And now I dinna fear it
The last war faus to me laddie
As thine war faus to thee
I want na' more to grie' laddie
Sae let the hizze be.
2
When e'er they tauk'd o' what she warShe tossed her head so high
And to mak the matter waur laddie
She turn'd her nose awry—
When she war proved a whare laddie
She drop't her head fu' low
And I knew more than they could tell
So I let the hizzey gae.
3
I guess'd it lang, and thought it langTill a' the guess went by
The poet danged her in a sang
And still she wa' fu' high
But sin' I faund the hizzey's ways
She dinna luik at me
As red as madder in the braes
She burned my face to see.
466
SONG
[Maiden unknown let me worship before thee]
1
Maiden unknown let me worship before theeThou queen of my heart
Let me bow and adore thee
Thou spirit of beauty
Thou vision of woman
Let it still be my duty
To worship thee blooming
2
For love is the sunshineAnd woman's the flower
Cold cold is the moon shine
And dewy the hour
The moonlight has shame on't
We can't sit to rest
But the day has no blame on't
That Mary likes best
3
Come come in thy beautyA woman in soul
A daughter in duty
Nor feelings controul
Leave nothing to hinder
The truth which I sing
Nor let surly winter
Take place of the spring
467
[Adelaide, Adelaide why art thou sleeping]
1
Adelaide, Adelaide why art thou sleepingThe sun's oe'r the hill and the dew's on the bushes
The rose on thy cheek with blushes will deepen
And loud is the singing of blackbirds and thrushes
Adelaide why art thou sleeping
O'er the river the willow is weeping
Then wake from thy slumbers, rise with the sun
For morning, and music, and joy is begun
2
In the thornbush, the thrushes are singingOn the river the morehens are swim[m]ing
From the village church music is ringing
And no clouds are the morning beams dimming
Adelaide Adelaide rise love
For bright are the fields and the skies love
Green looks the cornfields, and clear the brooks run
The Glory and prime of the morning's begun
3
Can Adelaide fair, young, and bloomingLet the sunrise tell dews of the morning
That her summer of beauty is coming
And not wake to see the adorning
Come wake from thy s[l]umber
Here's charms without number
Woods, vale and mountain—the sunshine and shade
All wait with new beauties for fair Adelaide
468
[I've been gathering]
1
I've been gatheringThe springs happy weather in
Wild meadow flowers
While fell the spring showers;
And every drop reminds me
Of the days I left behind me
Of one I loved well, and the sweet places too
But these are loves secrets I must not tell you
2
In the meadows both talkingIn the meadows both walking
The sun all about us
Spring lived not without us
THE INVITATION
1
The morning tide is sweet and fairThe birds chirp loud in white thorn bushes
Sweet maiden let us take the air
Where runlets dribble through the rushes
469
2
I'll gaze upon thy happy faceThy comely shape thy eye shall charm
As in the early spring we trace
The healthy breath of field and farm
3
There is music without ere a birdThere is bloom without ere a flower
For eolean winds we oft' have heard
And the grass blooms fresher every hour
4
The very rushes seem as flowersThat nod above the marshy grass
Through which the winds in summer hours
Whistle and winnow as they pass
5
The lark may leave the new ploughed landAnd settle in another place
Yet poets see and understand
Sweet music in its russet face
6
And if we earnest look we seeThe daisey bud in April hours
And all the buds in spring agree
That hopes are sweeter far than flowers
470
THE OLD YEAR
1
The Old Year's gone awayTo nothingness and night
We cannot find him all the day
Nor hear him in the night
He left no footstep mark or place
In either shade or sun
Tho' last year he'd a neighbours face
In this he's known by none
2
All nothing every whereMists we on mornings see
They have more substance when they're here
And more of form than he
He was a friend by every fire
In every cot and hall
A guest to every hearts desire
And now he's nought at all
3
Old papers thrown awayOr garments cast aside
E'en the talk of yesterday
Are things identified
But time once torn away
No voices can recall
The eve of new years day
Left the old one lost to all
Jany 1st/45
471
SONG
[I fly from all I prize the most]
1
I fly from all I prize the mostI shun what I loved best to see
My joy seems gone—my peace seems lost
And all I loved is hate to me
I shun green fields and hate the light
The glorious sun the peaceful moon
More welcome is the darkest night
Then glaring daylight comes to[o] soon
2
'Tis not the kiss that pouts to leaveThe lips of woman that we love
'Tis not the world—that will deceive
Or any doubt of that above
'Tis something that my heart hath been
'Tis something that my heart approvd
'Tis something that my eyes have seen
And felt they loved—
3
I grieve not those I loved are goneThat happy years have pass'd away
That time to day keeps stealing on
To that ye call eternity
I grieve not that the seasons fade
That winter chills the summer dew
While mortal things are heavenly made
And all now doubt will soon be true
472
4
To thee my love, and only theeThe spring and summer seemeth true
Thy looks are like the flowers I see
Thy eyes like air-bells filled with dew
Thy look is that of happiest love
And playful as the summer sea
Thy health is from the skies above
And heaven itself is full of thee—
SONG—THE ECCHO
The caulderwood ecchoes are loud in their glee
Sounds—music repeatin' throug bushes & tree
& dear are the ecchoe's that babble & sing
As win's that fan through the brown heather o' spring
Of Jessey they sing joinin' songs o' the bee
That the sweet mountain lassie is dearest to me
Sounds—music repeatin' throug bushes & tree
& dear are the ecchoe's that babble & sing
As win's that fan through the brown heather o' spring
Of Jessey they sing joinin' songs o' the bee
That the sweet mountain lassie is dearest to me
473
The caulderwood ecchoes are callin' agen
Whats sed on the mountain they tell to the glen
Whats sed in the valley they spak on the hill
Sweet caulderwood ecchoes will never lie still
What I spak' to mysell they answer in glee
But what they tell Jessey sounds music to me
Whats sed on the mountain they tell to the glen
Whats sed in the valley they spak on the hill
Sweet caulderwood ecchoes will never lie still
What I spak' to mysell they answer in glee
But what they tell Jessey sounds music to me
Right dear are the ecchoes o' caulderwood glen
They are heard by scotch lasses & dear to scotch men
But when they name ‘Jessey’ mair sweetly they soun'
& music seems ringin' the mountains aroun'
For Jessie's a name I luv' dear to my sell
But Caulderwood echoes Love secrets will tell
They are heard by scotch lasses & dear to scotch men
But when they name ‘Jessey’ mair sweetly they soun'
& music seems ringin' the mountains aroun'
For Jessie's a name I luv' dear to my sell
But Caulderwood echoes Love secrets will tell
Sweet caulderwood glen to the valley replies
Callin' on callin' on till the starn's i' the skies
& then I meet Jessie to court her agen
When caulderwood ecchoes cant see to the glen
But if the moon shines then Jessey I see
& dear are the stories they mutter to me
Callin' on callin' on till the starn's i' the skies
& then I meet Jessie to court her agen
When caulderwood ecchoes cant see to the glen
But if the moon shines then Jessey I see
& dear are the stories they mutter to me
Auld caulderwood glen may thy ecchoes be still
On the summers green valley over mountain & rill
The muin shiney neet & the lang simmers day
Sweet caulderwood ecchoes are never awa'
& craggie burn ecchoes what do they a' ca'
That Jessie the mountain maids dearer then a'
On the summers green valley over mountain & rill
The muin shiney neet & the lang simmers day
Sweet caulderwood ecchoes are never awa'
& craggie burn ecchoes what do they a' ca'
That Jessie the mountain maids dearer then a'
474
SANG TO ANNIE
The broom it is bloomin'
I' yellow & green
& the e'enin' dews cumin'
On the daisey at e'en
When the mountains aye sweeter
Then citys by day
An' the brown ling lukes neater
Then gardens sae gay
The wee birdies cheepin'
In brackens sae green
An' the burnie rins dreepin'
Till it fa's i' the linn
The muircocks croons saucey
On the mountains sae bra'
Where Annie my lassie
Is dearer then a'
I' yellow & green
& the e'enin' dews cumin'
On the daisey at e'en
When the mountains aye sweeter
Then citys by day
An' the brown ling lukes neater
Then gardens sae gay
The wee birdies cheepin'
In brackens sae green
An' the burnie rins dreepin'
Till it fa's i' the linn
The muircocks croons saucey
On the mountains sae bra'
Where Annie my lassie
Is dearer then a'
The broom is na finer
Then the links o' her hair
Na' daisy diviner
Wi her smiles may compare
Na' mountain flower sweeter
Be't sweet as it may
Her face is compleater
& sweeter then they
The wee birdies music
Is nae like her sang
Music's heard when she's talkin'
An' a' the day lang
Nay fountain sae glassy
As the fount o' her e'e
Then the bonnie scotch lassie
Nane sweeter may be
Then the links o' her hair
Na' daisy diviner
Wi her smiles may compare
475
Be't sweet as it may
Her face is compleater
& sweeter then they
The wee birdies music
Is nae like her sang
Music's heard when she's talkin'
An' a' the day lang
Nay fountain sae glassy
As the fount o' her e'e
Then the bonnie scotch lassie
Nane sweeter may be
She's as bright as the sun beam
On the mountain taps gleamin
Her e'en bright as burn stream
By the mountain side streamin
Her face is as fine as
The wild rose i' simmer
Her shape as divine as
The saplin fir timmer
The flowers o' the brae
& the wins o' the hill
She's fairer an' sweeter
An bonnier still
Where the mountain win's pass ye
To freshen the scene
I'll meet the scotch lassie
I' the gloamin' at e'en
On the mountain taps gleamin
Her e'en bright as burn stream
By the mountain side streamin
Her face is as fine as
The wild rose i' simmer
Her shape as divine as
The saplin fir timmer
The flowers o' the brae
& the wins o' the hill
She's fairer an' sweeter
An bonnier still
Where the mountain win's pass ye
To freshen the scene
I'll meet the scotch lassie
I' the gloamin' at e'en
476
SONG
[Where doth true Love dwell]
Where doth true Love dwell
Doth it nestle in blossoms
Is it down the green Lane
Where the thorn trees remain
Doth it tread the green grass
Where the foot paths they pass
No—it dwells in a fond womans bosom
Doth it nestle in blossoms
Is it down the green Lane
Where the thorn trees remain
Doth it tread the green grass
Where the foot paths they pass
No—it dwells in a fond womans bosom
Doth it live in the brooks
As they image the skys
Doth it live in the fields
Where the pea bloom consceals
Is it in meadow hay
With the green crickets lay
No no—tis in fond womans eyes
As they image the skys
Doth it live in the fields
Where the pea bloom consceals
Is it in meadow hay
With the green crickets lay
No no—tis in fond womans eyes
Is it seen in the pea
Or the hue of the hip
Peach blossoms of spring
Or the goldfinches wing
In the bloom of the rose
Where the butterflye goes
No—tis met on a young woman's lip
Or the hue of the hip
Peach blossoms of spring
Or the goldfinches wing
In the bloom of the rose
Where the butterflye goes
No—tis met on a young woman's lip
The gales may sigh sweetly
The flower keep on blooming
Field wood & grove
We may seek for true love
Search earth sea & sky
'Twill never come nigh
For it dwells in the heart of a woman
The flower keep on blooming
Field wood & grove
We may seek for true love
477
'Twill never come nigh
For it dwells in the heart of a woman
THE GREEN LANE
1
I met thee on the sabath eveAll in the sunday dew
When sunshine o'er the hill took leave
Dip dipping out of view
And there we stroll'd for many hours
And said we'd meet again
But I can't forget the leaves and flowers
And the Old green lane
2
The spreading oak at the lane endWas ne'er so green and bright
Nor the thorn so sweet in that lone glen
As they were that sunday night
The sun it set and lowly drop't
Yet gold clouds did remain
And though the singing birds are stop't
I love the Old green lane
3
The beaten path went winding onThe bushes look'd so green
The leveret it went scouting on
And nothing else was seen
478
I wish 'twas here again
For memory can't forget as yet
That Old green lane
4
And what she wore, and what she wereI need not tell to you
I often heard the evening char
And saw the blebs of dew
Her smile the sweetest e're was seen
When shall I see't again
A sweeter treat I've never seen
Than her in the green lane
5
The breeze it wispered here she comesI look'd and there she sat
The partrich creak'd its evening songs
And whirr'd the merry chat
But what she said, or what I did
Must not be told again
They're secrets now for ever hid
Told in the Old green Lane
[O'er Scotland's vales and mountains high]
1
O'er Scotland's vales and mountains highI've tented sheep and herded kye
Where every bush and every tree
Was health and happiness to me
479
A sunday song of harmony
And every day on hills and dales
'Twas harmony in all her vales
2
The sea-waves, and the ocean sprayThe river shining far away
The cataract bursting o'er the rock
In silver foam with thunder shock
Where Scotlands scenes and Scotlands pride
And in my boyhood deified
I lov'd them all and every fame
That wore the tartan of its name
3
I love her rivers and her floodsHer mountains valleys, and her woods
I love her heaths of goss and heather
Her mountains mists and cloudy weather
The spreading hills all dark wi' kye
The muircocks where they wirring fly
Scotland I love thy every scene
Thy Bannockburn and Bonny Jean
480
LARKS AND SPRING
The sunny end of March is nighAnd not a cloud is in the sky
Along the footpath o'er the farm
The school-boy basket on his arm
Seeks the birds nest therein to look
He takes a stone to cross the brook
Made wider by the rainy night
And hums the music of delight
To see the rabits seek their burrow
Or ground lark from the fallow'd furrow
Start up and shiver while he sings
Then drop as though he'd lost his wings
As stunt and heavy as a stone
In the brown furrow still and lone
And still I love the ground-larks flight
Starting up the ploughmans height
And more and more unseal his eye
When rose leaves pave the eastern sky
To see the skylark as he springs
Shake mornings moisture from his wings
And rise and sing in music proud
Small as a bee beneath a cloud
'Till mixing with the vapours dun
He's lost in valleys of the sun
And singing on in springs delight
Some moments e're he comes in sight
481
To seek its mate amid the corn
A happy song the skylark brings
And spring's in every note he sings
With coppled crown, and speckled breast
The pilewort blooms above his nest
In rain it seeks the sheltering furrow
But sings when sunshine comes tomorrow
In every field they mount and sing
The songs of Nature and of Spring.
EARLY MORNING
1
The day it was dawning so soon in the morningWhen o'er the green meadow I wandered along
The birds were all silent in the mornings grey twilight
And nothing was heard but the grasshoppers song
2
Like the wind through a cloister the breeze blew its moistureIn blushes of mist as I wandered along
And the dew drops looked through on the beautiful blue
Of the cranesbill that grew in the meadow so strong
482
3
The skylark and linet rose up in a minuteAs soon as I moved mid the green waving bushes
And morning skip'd by me, both far off and nigh me
While the air on my cheeks came in beautiful gushes
4
The mist of the morning the meadows adorningAll verged the orison in purple and grey
And where the sun rises, his crimson surprises
Is waking from rest to emblazon the day
5
As I was returning, that midsummer morningAlong the green meadow so blooming and gay
I met a sweet maid there, with rose cheek and arms bare
And bid her good morning so soon in the day
6
Her voice was all melody, like leaves on a holidayHer blush was as sweet as the rose is in may
Her eyes were as bright as, the dews of that night was
When I met her that morning so soon in the day
7
The dews where she treaded their silver light shededAnd flew from her foot steps in showers of pearl
The grass brushed her light shoe so black and so bright to[o]
And sweet was the smile of this beautiful girl
8
I kissed her so fearful, but she looked so cheerfulAll fear of her anger soon vanished away
I left her all smiling the Summer beguiling
And promised to meet her the next happy day—
483
[There is a charm in nature felt and seen]
1
There is a charm in nature felt and seenIn every season of the varied year
In winters frost in springs reviving green
'Tis every where
2
In foreign lands how beautiful the sightOver a thousand mountains of snow sprey
With nought of green—but mountains pale as light
And all the way
3
The springs green herbage full of flowersAnd fields where lives the lark mid greener grain
We love and worship them in April hours
Then wish again
4
That spring with all her joys would longer lastBut summer with young buds is left to cho[o]se
And brings once more in memory of the past
Flowers of all hues
5
Then autumn red and yellow quickly passLike broods of nestling birds upon the wing
Till all is gone and nothing but the grass
Remembers spring
6
The wind the shower, the drapery of the skyWhen day cools over meadows into dun
And clouds in gold and crimson glories lie
In set of sun
484
7
A globe of fire and as a table roundThen wastes to half still shutting out the day
Till the curved rim drops quickly in the ground
And all is gray
SONG
[Soft falls the sweet evening]
1
Soft falls the sweet eveningBright shines the one star
The night clouds they're leaning
On mountains afar
The moon in dim brightness
The fern in its lightness
Tinge the valley with whiteness
Both near and afar
2
O soft falls the eveningAround those sweet glens
The hill's shadows leaning
Half over the glen
There meet me my deary
I'm lonely and weary
And nothing can cheer me
So meet me agen
3
The gate it clap'd slightlyThe noise it was small
The footstep fell lightly
And she pass'd the stone wall
485
I'm no longer weary
But happy and cheery
For in thee I meet all
SONG
[My mamme des not ken]
1
My mamme des not kenAnd my daddie must not know
Where I meet wi' a young man
Be't hail rain or snow
I stoll across the hame clos
And met him in the byre
And my new gown I'll darn it
For it caught agen the briar
2
I show my face the looking glassAnd steal my bonnet on
And when I see theres time to pass
Through the back door I'm gone
I gae back way to shun the street
That ne'er an eye may see
And Rabbie at the byre I meet
That came to meet wi' me
3
I cropt a win upo' the knowWhen Rabbie he was bye
It war' to me a gladsome show
And scent o' nought but joy
486
And that I need not take
And here it is at three moons old
I keep it for his sake
4
A' summer lang I could na' tireIn ganging to the fauld
The sweet-briar bush agen the byre
Smelt sweet through heat and cold
But mammie does not ken
And daddie must not know
That Jennie's fond of a young man
And meets where rushes grow
SONG
[There's suns in the dew blebs]
1
There's suns in the dew blebsLike diamonds they shine
There's beads on the cobwebs
And the thorn is divine
With the dews o' the e'ening
And gems o' the morning
The ilka leafs leaning
Wi' natures adorning
2
The muircock is whirrinThe patrich is scraitchin
The bum-clock is burrin
And the wild deer is reaching
487
Then hieing away
When near him the churn cried
And the mist curdled grey
3
But where is my charmerAnd where can she be
The sun glowing warmer
Sheds gold on the tree
The mist canna' reach her
A' gold in the lea
Could nature but teach her
She'd wander wi' me
4
I wait in the waukinWhere nobody sees
Where the trees they are talking
To the songs of the bees
When day gins to wander
There will many eye see
And talk over slander
O Lucy and me
488
THE AUTUMN WIND
1
The Autumn wind on suthering wingsPlays round the oak-tree strong
And through the hawthorn hedges sings
The years departing song
There's every leaf upon the whirl
Ten thousand times an hour
The grassy meadows crisp and curl
With here and there a flower
There's nothing in the world I find
That pleases like the Autumn wind
2
The chaffinch flies from out the bushesThe bluecap ‘tee hees’ on the tree
The wind sues on in merry gushes
His murmuring autumns minstrelsy
The robin sings his autumn song
Upon the crabtree overhead
The clouds like smoak slow sail along
Leaves rustle like the human tread
There's nothing suits my musing mind
So pleasant as the Autumn wind
489
3
How many miles it suthers onAnd stays to dally with the leaves
And when the first broad blast is gone
A stronger gust the foliage heaves
The poplar tree it turns to gray
As leaves lift up their underside
The birch it dances all the day
To rippling billows petrified
There's nothing calms the quiet mind
So welcome as the Autumn wind
4
Sweet twittering o'er the meadow grassSoft sueing o'er the fallow ground
The lark starts up as on they pass
With many a gush and moaning sound
It fans the feathers of the bird
And ruffs the robins ruddy breast
As round the hovel end it whirled
Then sobs and gallops o'er the west
In solitude the musing mind
Must ever love the Autumn wind
Oct 15th/45
490
LOVE OF LIBERTY
1
Bless't is the man with mind erect—That seeks no rise that fears no fall
For freedoms love shall him protect
And having nothing leaves him all
There liberty is ever free
Knowing that such a love must be
2
'Tis Adam's love for Adam's kinThat Eden of earths Liberty
That triumphs over death and sin
And will in natures love be free
'Twas so when this our world begun
Love—bright and lasting as the sun
3
Free bonds that knit the son and sireThe daughter and the mother too
The links of heavens eternal fire
Which death and hell can ne'er undo
The love of Liberty is free
Feeling that such a love must be
4
I bear my fate—but no misdeedsHas ever been my minds disgrace
But like the corn above the weeds
I make earths home my dwelling place
Love Liberty and think I'm free
For Freedom's love is all to me—
Feby 14th/47
491
[Flowers shall hang upon the pawls]
1
Flowers shall hang upon the pawlsBrighter than patterns upon shawls
And blossoms shall be in the coffin lids
Sadder than tears on greifs eyelids
Garlands shall hide pale corp[s]es faces
When beauty shall rot in charnel places
Spring flowers shall come in dews of sorrow
For the maiden goes down to her grave tomorrow
2
Last week she went walking and stepping alongGay as first flowers of spring or the tune of a song
Her eye was as bright as the sun in its calm
Her lips they were rubies her bosom was warm
And white as the snowdrop that lies on her breast
Now death like a dream is her bedfellow guest
And white as the sheets—aye and paler than they
Now her face in its beauty has perished to clay
3
Spring flowers they shall hang on her pawlMore bright than the pattern that bloom'd on her shawl
And blooms shall be strewn where the corp[s]es lies hid
More sad than the tears upon griefs eyelid
And ere the return of another sweet May
Shall be rotting to dust in the coffined clay
And the grave whereon the bright snowdrops grow
Shall be the same soil as the beauty below
Feby 11th/47
492
THE SHADY FOREST
1
'Tis beautiful sunshine and beautiful skiesThat please me the best whereso[e]ver I go
In the sweet shaded forest 'tis there my heart lies
Not needing a friend—or dreading a foe
O the sweet shady forest how sweet the green seems
So full of the summer and wild-flowers dreams
2
My heart has no malice for none of mankindMy heart feels no envy wherever I go
But I fly to green solitudes treat for my mind
And the sweet shady forest my image will show
There I'd live in its green, and in natures own plan
And where nothing hurts nature I then feel I'm a man
Feby 11th/47
THE THISTLE
1
I love the thistle with its ruddy flowersIt cheers me on the waste in lonely hours
It cheers me in lone sunshine out of doors
When seeking solitude on rushy moores
493
Where tears of morning glitter on the thorns
I love the thistle 'tis an ill used flower
And bees are singing round for many an hour
2
I love the thistle and its prickles tooCobwebs are round it with a veil of dew
I love the thistle where it bravely stands
For rights of Liberty in many lands
Simply defying every rogueish eye
With ‘wha dare meddle wi me’ that passes bye
My right is simple, blooming 'mong the flowers
That God's hand scatters on this land of ours
3
So I love the thistles spread round Scottish bowersBetter than any other of the wildling flowers
I love the warrior thistle where it stands
Though often wounded in the legs and hands
On Bannockburn its bloom undaunted stood
Dy'd deeper in the streams of human blood
Feby 13th/47
494
EVENING
1
Barn door fowls have gone to bedThough the sun is two yards high
Ere it reach the top lands head
That takes days lamp from out the sky
Now the horses round the cribs
Brouzes o'er the coarser hay
While the ploughmen comb their ribs
'Till the evening wanes to grey
2
Then the boy with speach all hoarseMocking the echo in the wood
Brings the cows from their green close
That in the hovel chew their cud
Now the owl on wheaten wing
And white hood scowling o'er his eyes
Jerking with a sudden spring
Through three-cornered barn hole flies
3
The sun is sinking low and redA coal turned dim from gazing
Among the oak-trees goes to bed
And sets the woods a blazing
The dewy leaves will quickly drop
And daylight close his eye
And labours rustic sounds will stop
'Neath evenings quiet sky
Feby 13th/47
495
SONG
[I would not be a wither'd leaf]
1
I would not be a wither'd leafTwirled in an autumn sky
Mine should not be a life so brief
To fade and fall and die
2
Nor would I be a wither'd flowerWhose stalk was broke before
The bud showed bloom in springs young hour
Heart sicken'd at the core
3
But I would be a happy thoughtWith thy sweet sleep to lie
To live unknown, unseen, unsought
And keep my lonely joy
4
Yes I would be a ray of lightIn the apple of thy eye
And watch o'er thee the live long night
In beauty, and in joy
March 3rd/47
496
THE WINTERS SPRING
1
The winter comes I walk aloneI want no birds to sing
To those who keep their hearts their own
The winter is the Spring
No flowers to please—no bees to hum
The coming Springs already come
2
I never want the christmas roseTo come before its time
The seasons each as God bestows
Are simple and sublime
I love to see the snow storm hing
'Tis but the winter garb of Spring
3
I never want the grass to bloomThe snow-storm's best in white
I love to see the tempest come
And love its piercing light
The dazzled eyes that love to cling
O'er snow white meadows sees the Spring
4
I love the snow the crimpling snowThat hangs on every thing
It covers every thing below
Like white doves brooding wing
A landscape to the aching sight
A vast expance of dazzling light
497
5
It is the foliage of the woodsThat winter's bring—The dress
White easter of the year in bud
That makes the winter Spring
The frost and snow his poseys bring
Natures white spirits of the Spring
Feby 23rd/47
SONNET Wood Anemonie
The wood anemonie through dead oak leavesAnd in the thickest woods now blooms anew
And where the green briar, and the bramble weaves
Thick clumps o' green, anemonies thicker grew
And weeping flowers, in thousands pearled in dew
People the woods and brakes, hid hollows there
White, yellow and purple hued the wide wood through
What pretty, drooping weeping flowers they are
The clipt' frilled leaves the slender stalk they bear
On which the drooping flower hangs weeping dew
How beautiful through april time and may
The woods look, filled with wild anemonie
And every little spinney now looks gay
With flowers mid brush wood and the hugh oak tree.
498
SONNET The Primrose
Sweet primrose peeping in the hazel copseBeneath the maple roots of grass green moss
Where hermit woodman at his labour stops
Or may be peeping by a clump of gorse
Its sulphur bunches flower with brunny eye
SONNET The Crow
How peaceable it seems for lonely menTo see a crow fly in the thin blue sky
Over the woods and fealds, o'er level fen
It speaks of villages, or cottage nigh
Behind the neighbouring woods—when march winds high
Tear off the branches of the hugh old oak
I love to see these chimney sweeps sail by
And hear them o'er the knarled forest croak
Then sosh askew from the hid woodmans stroke
That in the woods their daily labours ply
I love the sooty crow nor would provoke
Its march day exercises of croaking joy
I love to see it sailing to and fro
While feelds, and woods and waters spread below
499
SILENT LOVE
1
The dew it trembles on the thornThen vanishes so love is born
Young love that speaks in silent thought
'Till scorned, then withers and is nought
2
The pleasure of a single hourThe blooming of a single flower
The glitter of the morning dew
Such is young love when it is new
3
The twitter of the wild birds wingThe murmur of the bees
Lays of hay crickets when they sing
Or other things more frail than these
4
Such is young love when silence speaksTill weary with the joy it seeks
Then fancy shapes sup[p]lies
'Till sick of its own heart it dies
5
The dew drop falls at mornings hourWhen none are standing by
And noiseless fades the broken flower
So lovers in their silence die
500
1
[Is love a flower to bud then bloom]
Is love a flower to bud then bloomAnd give to sunshine its perfume
Then die and be as nothing where
The earth of the succeeding year
And is it nothing else but earth
Sure it is of holier birth
Not born to fade and pass away
But like the heavens eternal ray
Bright, beaming beautiful and high
As morning in a summer sky
As sunshine in sweet summer showers
As colours in the sweetest flowers
But love's not without shadows born
Nor roses bloom without a thorn
And love carressing or derided
The flower and leaf is undivided
Love cannot part or death desever
The heart truth keeps in love for ever
Nature cherisheth the flower
And keeps it in a wavering hour
To bloom perrennial—no decay
Can ever fade the flower away
Till earth becomes like heaven above
The paradise of heaven like love—
501
LOVES STORY
1
I do not love theeSo I'll not deceive thee
I do not love thee
Yet I'm lothe to leave thee
2
I do not love theeYet joys very essence
Comes with thy footstep
Is complete in thy presence
3
I do not love theeYet when gone I sigh
And think about thee
'Till the stars all die
4
I do not love theeYet thy black bright eyes
Bring to my hearts soul
Heaven and paradise
5
I do not love theeYet thy handsome ways
Bring me in absence
Almost hopeless days
502
6
I cannot hate theeYet my love seems debtor
To love thee more
So hating, love thee better
TO ADELAIDE
1
The may flowers are springingThe wild birds are singing
And beauty's face blooms in the sun and the shade
The wood gales are breathing
The wood bines are wreathing
And may brings her pleasures for sweet Adelaide
2
The sweet smiles of heavenSays none are forgiven
Who shun the grand garden that nature has made
Here the scents of the briar
And wild flowers we admire
The air is all fragrance like sweet Adelaide
3
The sun sets and risesWhile its grandeur surprises
How beautiful evening and morning is made
The white clouds are mountains
The blue skies are fountains
And dear is the walk with my sweet Adelaide
503
WEEP FOR JERUSALEM
1
Weep not for the Israelites by Babels lone streamsWhose altars are waste whose dwellings are dreams
For the God of their fathers, has left them a prey
To the strife of the heathen to murder and slay
Oh! weep for Jerusalem by the lone streams
Of Babel whose dwellings are nothing but dreams
2
The heathen has swept all their dwellings awayAnd God's holy city has fallen a prey
Their altars are desolate by the lone streams
Their cities are ruins, their dwellings are dreams
Their land desolations lone desert—and they
Like the dust which the whirlwind up gathers away
3
O weep for Jerusalem by Babels lone streamsWhose shrines are all desolate, whose kingdoms are dreams
Whose lands are but deserts whose children but clay
Which the strife of the whirlwind up gathers away
Like the ears from the sickle, the leaves in the blast
Their lands and their altars are perished and past
504
TO MARY ---
1
Mary sweet Mary the spring is returningThe birds in the hedges are singing so sweet
While love in my heart is continually burning
As you my sweet Mary I chance oft' to meet
Bright is the green of white-thorn on the hedges
And sweet is the song of the cricket and bee
And dear all around is the summers young pledges
But Mary dear Mary is dearest to me
2
In the hedge on the hill, there the green linnet buildsAnd the crow builds her nest in the bonny ash tree
'Tis there when the morning the summer sun gilds
I wander from home love thinking of thee
Sweet Mary dear Mary sweeter than summer
And sweeter than wild flowers the home of the bee
Every prospect at mornings dawn is a new commer
As I stray from my home love thinking of thee
3
Sweet Mary dear Mary how handsome art thouThy eyes are as bright as the sun in the stream
The hedge roses blushes are warm on thy brow
And you haunt me for ever like a beautiful dream
Sweet Mary dear Mary I wander away
Both morning and evening to think upon thee
Where whiter than snow are the bushes of may
And them I compare to thy beauty and thee
4
The rose is thy face and the daisey thy bosomAnd its pin head of gold is the brooch on thy breast
505
As the bright crimson sun dies away in the west
Then I wander home lonely and love but thee only
For thou'rt in every dew drop and wild flower I see
'Tis a week come next monday, since I wander'd out with thee
Still Mary dear Mary you'r dearest to me
[I love thee nature with a boundless love]
1
I love thee nature with a boundless loveThe calm of earth, the storms of roaring woods
The winds breathe happiness where e'er I rove
Theres lifes own music in the swelling floods
My harp is in the thunder melting clouds
The snow capt mountain, and the rolling sea
And hear ye not the voice where darkness shrouds
The heavens,—there lives happiness for me
2
Death breathes its pleasures when it speaks of himMy pulse beats calmer while its lightnings play
My eye with earths delusions waxing dim
Clears with the brightness of eternal day
The elements crash round me—it is he
And do I hear his voice and never start
From Eve's posterity I stand quite free
Nor feel her curses rankle round my heart
506
3
Love is not here—hope is—and in his voiceThe rolling thunder and the roaring sea
My pulse they leap and with the hills rejoice
Then strife and turmoil is a peace to me
No matter where lifes ocean leads me on
For nature is my mother and I rest
When tempests trouble and the sun is gone
Like to a weary child upon her breast—
SPRING
1
Here are violets Jessy for thy sleepBlue with the gales of Spring
In dews of morn they only weep
To thee they'll bloom and sing
2
Sing of green fields and freedom tooWhen thou and I together
Walked down the wood sides were they grew
In springs first happy weather
3
When hawthorns they were flushed in greenAnd hazels hung their trails
When sallows shone in golden sheen
And scented morning gales
507
4
When flowers fell down before the sunTo rise on blossoms new
And I a school boy used to run
To pluck them love for you
5
Nor have I seen them grow more sweetThan in my native dells
Where still my troubled visions meet
And dearest mem'ry dwells
6
For there my wandering fancy goesIn pastoral love to rest
And when the wind of summer blows
Where can I happier rest
7
For still my Jessy still for theeJust as those flowers were shaded
By natures woods—my love shall be
When every flower has faded
508
MARY
1
Mary my wife the summer is comeAnd mellow the note of the summer bees hum
And the green fields my Mary are pleasant to see
Where I in the summer went walking with thee
Still Mary my wife you may bloom as a flower
And summer bring to you as pleasant an hour
As it did when we rambled along the old lea
Yet Mary my wife no more may I see—
2
I would wander all summer, and look for wild flowersFor the summer's the same and as warm are the hours
As green are the bushes, and dark the oak tree
As they were my own Mary when I wandered with thee
When I see a wild flower or a bright bit of sky
Sweet Mary my wife then ever seems nigh
But when I look back the sweet vision is past
And all my bright fancies have fled with the blast
[Mary on the footpath ramble]
1
Mary on the footpath rambleAnd enjoy the sunday morn
O'er the pasture hung wi' bramble
And the ploughed grounds green with corn
Where the lark is just a rising
From its nest among the grain
509
Sings its happy songs again
While years alas! now intervene
Since we wandered o'er the green
2
Then I sought the ground-larks nestAnd its eggs I showed to thee
Pluck't the wild flower for thy breast
And the burdock from thy knee
That clung unto thy sunday gown
As through the cover we did go
Where the monument looks down
On the golden gorse below
And shows its bright and golden flowers
Like sunshine in sweet summer hours—
3
We passed the thicket then againTook the wicket to the road
Where we my love did entertain
Ourselves with beauties all abroad
The wild flower and the meadow bee
Such as My Mary never stings
The butterfly, o'er land and lea
For Mary would not stretch its wings
She'd hurt not snail, nor kill a fly
But love all life beneath the sky
4
The clouds were high and light as woolSome like feathers in a heap
The awthorn shadows sweet and cool
Hung o'er the spot where rest the sheep
Here we formed plans for future joy
And framed our path of life
Here we watched the hours go by
And first I called you wife
But wife, and home, and children dear
Are lost to me while I am here
510
THE FOREST FLOWER
1
There's a flower in the wilderness blooming unknownThough thousands are near it, it blossoms alone
The trees and the bushes hide it from view
And the paths disappear ere they come where it grew
2
Though left to itself 'tis a beautiful flowerEnjoying the dews and the drops of the shower
Yet solitude petrifies love into stone
And the forest flower's healthy hour blossoms alone
3
But go when the summer is gone from the woodIn vain do we look for the place where it stood
'Tis gone like a thought from the heat of the brain
And none may be like it to blossom again
[How hot the sun rushes]
1
How hot the sun rushesLike fire in the bushes
511
Birds nests are left lonely
The pewit sings only
And all seems disheartened, and lonely like me
2
Baked earth and burnt furrowsWhere the rabbit he burrows
And yet it looks pleasant beneath the green tree
The crows nest look darkly
O'er fallows dried starkly
And the sheep all look restless as nature and me
3
Yet I love a meadow dwellingWhere nature is telling
A tale to the clear stream—its dearest to me
To sit in green shadows
While the herd turns to gadders
And runs from the hums of the fly and the bee
4
This spot is the fairestThe sweetest and rarest
This sweet sombre shade of the bright green tree
Where the morehens flag-nest
On the waters calm breast
Lies near to this sweet spot thats been mother to me
512
MARY
A BALLAD
1
The skylark mounts up with the mornThe vallies are green with the spring
The linnets sit in the whitethorn
To build mossy dwellings and sing
I see the thorn bush getting green
I see the woods dance in the spring
But Mary can never be seen
Though the all cheering spring doth begin
2
I see the grey bark of the oakLook bright thro' the underwood now
To the plough-plodding horses they yoke
But Mary is not with her cow
The birds almost whistle her name
Say where can my Mary be gone
The spring brightly smiles—and 'tis shame
That she should be absent alone
3
The cowslips are out on the grassIncreasing like crowds at a fair
The river runs smoothly as glass
And the barges float heavily there
513
But Mary is not to be seen
Can Nature such absence allow
At milking on pasture and green
4
When Sabbath it comes to the greenThe maidens are there in their best
But Mary is not to be seen
Though I walk till the sun's in the west
I fancy still each wood and plain
Where I and my Mary have strayed
When I was a country swain
And she was the happiest maid
5
But woods they are all lonely nowAnd the wild flowers blow all unseen
The birds sing alone on the bough
Where Mary and I once have been
But for months she now keeps away
And I am a lonely hind
Trees tell me so from day to day
When waving in the wind
6
Birds tell me so upon the boughThat I'm thread bare and old
The very sun looks on me now
A being dead and cold
Once I'd a place where I could rest
And love and quiet be
That quiet place was Mary's breast
And still a hope to me—
514
7
The spring comes brighter by dayAnd brighter flowers appear
And though she long has kept away
Her name is ever dear
Then leave me still the meadow flowers
Where daffies blaze and shine
Give but the springs young hawthorn bowers
For then sweet Mary's mine
TO MISS B
1
Odd rot it what a shame it isThat love should puzzles grow
That we the one we seek should miss
And change from top to toe
The Gilafers a Gilafer
And nature owns the plan
And strange a thing it is to me
A man cant be a man
2
I traced the woods and mountains browAnd felt as feels a man
Love pleased me then that puzzles now
E'en do the best I can
Nature her same green mantle spread
And boundless is her span
The same bright sun is o'er my head
But I can't be a man
515
3
The turf is green and fair the skyAnd nature still divine
And summot lovely fills my eye
Just like this love of mine
And though I love—it may not be
For do the best I can
Mong such disordered company
I cannot be a man
4
Th[r]ough married ties—affections tiesAnd all the ties of love
I struggled to be just and wise
But just I cannot prove
The Bible says that God is love
I like so wise a plan
But was it ordered from above
That love was [not] wi' man
5
This contradiction puzzles meAnd it may puzzle all
Was Adam thus fore doomed to be
Our misery by his fall
Eves fall has been a fall to me
And do the best I can
Woman—I neither love nor see
And cannot be a man
SONG
[Its just upon the eve of May]
1
Its just upon the eve of MayThe shooting blade of corn
Are hung with dew at early day
And green's the hedge row thorn
516
Though such were all to me
When roaming round the lonely farm
Where Jenny used to be
For there beneath the woods dark brow
I loved and cannot leave her now.
2
Without her life seems all aloneI scarce can bear its noise
My heart feels heavy as a stone
And locks up fancys joys
The sun looks from the happy sky
On fields of wheat and corn
The sky lark meets the light on high
And singing makes the morn
Beside the thorn & woodside bough
I loved and cannot leave her now.
3
We met on such a morn as thisThe sun looked on the hill
But years have crept since that and this
And I love Jenny still
The crows had found a snug retreat
Among the sweet green corn
I never found a morn so sweet
Since first loves hopes were born
We loved beneath the white thorn bough
So truly I can't leave her now.
517
SONG
[Tis evening the sky is one broad dim of gray]
1
Tis evening the sky is one broad dim of grayThe hedges look dull as if mourning in green
The wind winnows chill now the sun is away
Yet still there is comfort while viewing the scene
The grass troubles by as if hushing to sleep
And something seems chearing where ever I roam
For here in the core of my heart I can keep
The smileing endearments that blest me at home
2
But love shall be nameless and I will be freeTo think of those joys when I wander alone
While the beetle booms by in his night reverie
And the lady bird climbs the tall grass as her own
Sweet dwelling without either neighbour or guest
I envy her ginnet I envy her home
Compared with my home oh how happy her rest
Whilst troubles pursue me where ever I roam
3
No comfort for me lived in palace or hallBut the cottage that stood in a garden of flowers
Where the vine and the woodbine climb'd up by the wall
Twas there that I lived in my happiest hours
Tis there I shall live when the strife is gone by
For the sun that shines there shines on vally & plain
Where green fields and bushes will gladden my eye
And make me contented and happy again
518
JESSEY
1
The spring of life is o'er with meAnd love and all gone by
Like broken bough upon yon tree
I'm left to fade and die
Stern ruin seized my home and me
And desolate's my cot.
Ruins of halls—the blasted tree
Are emblems of my lot
2
I liv'd and lov'd—I woo'd and wonHer love was all to me
But blights fell o'er that youthful one
And like a blasted tree
I withered till I all forgot
But Jessys smile on me
She never liv'd were love was not
And I from bonds was free
3
The spring it clothed the fields with prideWhen first we met together
And there unknown to all beside
We lov'd in sunny weather
We met where oaks green overhead
And white thorns hung with may
Wild thyme beneath her feet was spread
And Cows in quiet lay
519
4
I thought her face was sweeter farThan aught I'd seen before
As simple as the cowslips are
Upon the rushy moor
She seem'd the muse of that sweet spot
The Lady of the plain
And all was dull where she was not
Till love met there again
SONG
[How silent comes this gentle wind]
1
How silent comes this gentle windAnd fans the grass and corn
It leaves a thousand thoughts behind
Of happiness forlorn
The memory of my happier days
When I was hale and young
Where still my boyish fancy strays
Corn fields and woods among
2
It fans among the lazy weed[s]And stirs the wild flowers leaves
Sweet is the playful noise it breeds
While the heart its joys receives
While listening to the gentle sounds
That murmer thro' the grass
And much I love the airy rounds
Of crows that o'er me pass
520
3
And larks that fly above the cornFrit by a jilted stone
A few yards high at eve or morn
Then drop and hide alone
I love to see the breeze at eve
Go winnowing oer the land
And partridges their dwellings leave
And call on either hand
4
I love the all—that nature lovesThe water earth and sky
The greeness of the leafy groves
Brown fallows rising high
The breezes of the early morn
The early evening breeze
The Brown Larks mattin in the corn
The rooks song in the trees
5
I love the haunts of solitudeThe coverts of the free
Where man n'er ventures to intrude
And God gives peace to me
Where all I hear and all I see
In peace of freedom roam
Here shall my hearts own dwelling be
And find itself at home
SONG
[The rain is come in misty showers]
1
The rain is come in misty showersThe landscape lies in shrouds
521
Fall down between the clouds
And gild the earth else where so cold
With shreds like flowers of purest gold
2
And now it sweeps along the hillsJust like a falling cloud
The cornfields into silence stills
Where musty moisture shrouds
And now a darker cloud sweeps o'er
The rain drops faster than before
3
The cattle graze along the groundThe lark she wets her wings
And chatters as she whirls around
Then to the wet corn sings
And hides upon her twitchey nest
Refreshed with wet & speckled breast
4
And I the calm delight embraceTo walk along the fields
And feel the rain drops in my face
That sweetest pleasure yeilds
They come from heaven and there the free
Sends down his blessings upon me
5
I love to walk in summer showersWhen the rain falls gently down
I love to walk a lecture hours
A distance from the Town
To see the drops on bushes hing
And Blackbirds prune a dabbled wing
522
HYMN
[The Lord of life he reigns above]
1
The Lord of life he reigns aboveThe Lord beneath us lives in joy
The day beams from his face of love
The night dress darkened majesty
The thunder is his mighty voice
The Lightening speaks his awful eye
May we be found his lowly choice
Glad travellers thro the azure sky
2
The rain his bounty ever bringsThe wind his health diffuses wide
Throughout all nature King of Kings
Where nothing equal reigns beside
Bright as the ever living sun
His birthless endless living light
From everlasting sources run
Eternity still burning bright
3
The Lord of life prepares for meThis gay green earth this lower sphere
Supports my steps or weak I be
And guides me on from year to year
Lord of my birthright and my home
Lord of the earth the air and sea
Watch thou my footsteps while I roam
My Keeper and protector be
523
SONNET
[How beautiful the white thorn shews its leaves]
How beautiful the white thorn shews its leavesThe first in springs beginnings march or close
Of April and how very green it weaves
The branches in the underwood they burst
More green than grass the common eye receives
Pleasures o'er green white thorn clumps in the wood
So beautifully green it seems at first
It does the eye that gazes on it good
The green enthusaism of young spring
The Blackbird chooses it from all the wood
With moss to build his early nest and sing
Among the leaves the young are snugly nurst
Mornings young dew wets each pinfeathered wing
Before a bunch of May was from its white knobs burst.
[The leaves of Autumn drop by two's and three's]
The leaves of Autumn drop by two's and three'sAnd the black cloud hung o'er the old low church
Is fixed as is a rock that never stirs
But look again and you may well perceive
The weather cock is in another sky
And the cloud passing leaves the blue behind
524
The Autumn tans and varigates the leaves
The nuts are ripe in woods about the Town
Russet the cleared fields where the bindweed weaves
Round stubbles and still flowers the trefoil seeds
And troubles all the land from rig to furrow
Ther's nothing left but rubbish and foul weeds
I love to see the rabbits snug made burrow
Under the old edge bank or hugh mossed oak
Claspt fast with Ivy there the rabbit breeds
Where the Kite pelews and the Ravens croak
And hares and Rabbits at their leisure feed
So varying Autumn thro her changes runs
Season of sudden storms and brillient suns.
SONG
[A man may mourn a man may sigh]
1
A man may mourn a man may sighLeft under mans dominion
And here if woman charms his eye
His freedom leaves a pinion
They rob him of his liberty
Each hope of being free
Is taken by an evil eye
That feeds on slavery
O Love is but a Butterfly
Fond of Green fields and the blue sky
525
2
Aye love is fond of libertyGreen vallys and bright flowers
Sings seeking honey with the bee
For all the summer hours
A silent solitary thing
That lives within itself
You only see his azure wing
That flies from pride and pelf
O Love is like a Butterfly
Fond of green fields and purple sky
3
This love's a very tender thingThat withering fades from crime
A singing bee without a sting
A flower in frost and rime
More tender then the simple maid
Who from seduction flies
More fair then flowers that love can braid
The birth of Paradise
SONG
[Sukey's rare and Sukey's fair]
1
Sukey's rare and Sukey's fairSukey's got the coal black hair
526
That makes her looks so very fine
And in her breast this heart of mine
That keeps me like a thief in jail
Which is so very fair and white
It keeps me waken half the night
2
Sukey's neat, and Sukey's sweetSukey's every way complete
Like a lily in the shower
Rich as kingcup in the spring
The colour of the bridal ring
Queen of blossom of the bower
Bespangled with the morning dew
And paved with clumps of violets blue
3
Sukey's young, and Sukey's songThe market hill with music rung
And Sukey's ballad there
Her neck was white her cheek was red
Just like the sun a going bed
And coal black was her hair
A bulfinch on a blackthorn tree
Warnt half so beautiful as she
4
The crowds among, I heard it sungThe market with the ballad rung
The fiddle played so sweet
And Sukey tall stood near the wall
And heard the fiddle song and all
And I could some repeat
About her waist, her lips, and eyes
More rich than flowers or butterflies
527
5
Sukey's rare and Sukey's fairSukey's blythe and debonair
Love lives in every place
White as lilies and as sweet
Small white hands, and smaller feet
And beautiful her face
As roseys in the morning dew
As violets in their veils of blue
6
Sukey's rare, and Sukey's fairSukey's got the coal black hair
And in her neck the curled drakes tail
That makes her look so sweet and fine
And in her breast this heart of mine
That keeps me like a thief in jail
That swells so very fair and white
I cannot sleep a wink at night
SONG
[The rushbeds touched the boiling spring]
1
The rushbeds touched the boiling springAnd dipped and bowed and dipped again
The nodding flower would wabbling hing
Till it could scarce get back again
528
How twisting sweet the woodbine grew
Around the white thorn in the lane
Bedecked with gems of droppled dew—
2
Here Bloomfield lay beside the brookHis memory haunts the silver flood
Musing upon the open book
In happy and poetic mood
His fancies left on every place
The landscape seems his waking dream
Where Hannah shewed her rosey face
‘And leap't across the infant stream’
3
The rush tufts touched the boiling sandThen wabbling nodded up anew
Then danced at every winds command
And dipped to peirce the water through
The twisted woodbine was in flower
And pale among the thorn leaves grew
Here Bloomfield rested many an hour
While bees they sipped the morning dew
4
The little spring it boiled awayAnd dancing rose the silver sand
For ever boiling night and day
And never made an idle stand
The wild flower nodded on the brink
And made its wrinkles on the stream
Where Bloomfield often lay to think
And listless spend his summer dream
529
[There is a thought in every human breast]
There is a thought in every human breastA hope for better when the worst is bye
The poor man dreams on't in his nightly rest
And sees the Almighty in the evening sky
On thrones of gold sublimely sailing bye
Smiling upon him—that all sins forgiven
In one so harmless—shedding beams of joy
He thinks that wealth will make all trouble even
If not on earth God grants it all in heaven
SONG
[Bonny hills and bosky braes]
1
Bonny hills and bosky braesI maun leave them a' lassie
Where thy happy shadow strays
Still in fancies e'e lassie
Bonny hills, and flowing fountains
Siller lakes, and heather mountains
Music from each bush rebounding
My love maun leave them a' lassie
And the headlong tumbling Linn
Where thy sweet form's reflected in
Thou wilt heed its roaring din
When I'm far from thee lassie
530
2
Bonny hills and happy daysThey'll a' be stoun away lassie
Where my foolish fancy strays
To meet thy bonny sell lassie
Far away from love, and Pheobe
With two eyes as bright as Hebe
Solitude alone will see thee
In this pleasant place lassie
Where the water runs so clearly
Where I love thee a sa' dearly
Sitting on my knee or nearly
By the gentle spring lassie
3
Bonny hills and bosky braesI maun leave them a' lassie
Farther than the ocean strays
Desserts, seas and a' lassie
Where thy sweet form never rested
Where thy sma' foot never pressed it
The sun burnt up, and syne he blessed it
There I'm gaun to stray lassie
I kiss thee by the siller fountain
Farewell—ere e'ening blues the mountain
I'm gaun. But Hope saes ills surmounting
I'll come another day lassie
[Thy spirit visits me like dew]
1
Thy spirit visits me like dewThat glistens on the flowers
Falling in the morning blue
And in the evening hours
531
O'er my calm senses stealing
And love's soft dreams revealing
Seem wispering from the bowers
2
The foxgloves freckled bellsThat blossom by the wood
And in the forrest dells
In the midst of solitude
There I hear my lover call
Where the whitethorn forms a wall
And the foxglove blossoms tall
In the tears of eve bedewed
3
Spirit thou of every placeWhere loves memories are left
Places green as years of grace
Where hope lives of love bereft
My love lives in these green places
Where woodbine the white thorn embraces
Far from the crowd of worldly faces
Here loves spirit still is left
SONG The maid of the Desert
1
My home is not here it lies in the landWhere houses nor cities appear
Where the tent by the jungle is pitched on the sand
And the lion roars awfully near
532
Which I pledged in affection and truth
Yes that is the land and my heritage both
With the friends of her kindred and youth
2
Sweet maid of the desert as fresh as the flowerThat blooms round thy tent in the morn
I've spent in thy solitudes many an hour
The sweetest e'er since I was born
Sweet maid of the desert the mountains so grand
Tower dark o'er thy beautiful brow
As fair as the lily alone on the strand
In the depths of the desert art thou
3
Sweet maid of the desert the cross on thy browIs richer than gems of the east
Truth bloomed in thy childhood and warms thy love now
That burns in thy beautiful breast
Sweet maid of the desert thou rose of the west
Thou gem of the earth and the sea
While love is the diamond that decks thy white breast
My hope waits thy lover to be
AUTUMN
1
I love the fitfull gusts that shakesThe casement all the day
And from the mossy elm tree takes
The faded leaf away
533
With thousand others down the lane
2
I love to see the shaking twigDance till the shut of eve
The sparrow on the cottage rig
Whose chirp would make believe
That spring was just now flirting by
In summers lap with flowers to lie
3
I love to see the cottage smokeCurl upwards through the naked trees
The pigeons nestled round the coat
On dull november days like these
The cock upon the dunghill crowing
The mill sails on the heath agoing
4
The feather from the ravens breastFalls on the stubble lea
The acorns near the old crows nest
Fall pattering down the tree
The grunting pigs that wait for all
Scramble and hurry where they fall
534
SONG To—R. W.
1
Fare thee well thou pleasant placeAnd all that looks above the[e]
There Rebecca with her angel face
Sat on the grass to love me
I held her in my fond embrace
'Till the moonshine smiled above me
2
Blue violets bloomed 'neath arum leavesThe white-thorn spread to hide me
And catkins round the willow weaves
Where Rebecca sat beside me
Where spiders beaded lacework weaves
She wished good luck betide me
3
Fare thee well thou pleasant placeWhere willows wave above thee
There Rebecca with her happy face
Sat on the grass to love me
I held her in my fond embrace
'Till the moonshine smiled above me
535
SONG To—E. B.
1
Emma my darling the summer is byeThe autumn is faded and cloudy the sky
The willows are changing—the hips and the hawe's
Now glow on the hedges—as red as birds claws
'Till fieldfairs come from far far away
And carry off berries and hips all the day
Winds sing in the hedges like notes of a bird
And the sedges they cut like the edge of a sword
2
The hedges will shelter my Emma and meAs we walk down the wood neath the wind shaking tree
The seugh through the hedges, the swop of black crows
How the bushy tops dance, and how swift the mill goes
How sweet the flags rustle, how swift the waves run
While the river-lock bombs like the sound of a gun
The coots like to snow flakes sweep o'er the flood track
And the grim clouds above them look angry & black
3
So come my dear Emma lets walk in the fieldsThe fields of November a pleasant walk yields
There's the roost robbing reynard and the hounds in full cry
The still sweeing crows—pigeon flocks sewing by
The mellow brown fields—and the leaf littered brook
How sweet to the fancy of Emma they'll look
So come dearest Emma we'll up and away
A ramble in Autumn's as sweet as in May—
536
SONG
[Sweeter than the blossomed beans]
1
Sweeter than the blossomed beansWhere the bind weed, bell-flower leans
Than beauty in her teens
Is love
Than roses on the briar
I' the summer o' the year
By the waters running clear
Sweeter is love
She's the first flower all the year
The maid I love
2
The black upon the beanThe streak in bell-flowers Seen
Is the eye and neck I wean
Of Love
The blush upon the rose
In her bonny ripe cheek glows—
Than any flower that blows
Sweeter is love
Less rich the ruby glows
Than her I love
3
She's a living lily flowerA rose tree in a shower
A fond perenial flower
Is love
537
No mildew blights its bower
Than Edens sun or shower
Sweeter is love
Heavens first eternal hour
Is her I love
SONG
[Theres the wide spreading heath and its crowds of furze bushes]
1
Theres the wide spreading heath and its crowds of furze bushesThe apple-top't oak, and the crippled thorn tree
And the small bending valley o'erspread with bowed rushes,
That wave to the wind—and the song of the bee
Singing round summer wild flowers
In all sunny mild hours
In freedom and glee
While the low wharping camp among the green bushes
Forms a warm cozey nest for Maria and me
2
The beautiful gipsey with brown swarthy cheekAnd a bosom of snow melting under her gown
If you travelled the country round for a week
You'd find none so handsome in village or town
538
And my eyes never tire
Beneath the green tree
To gaze on her arms and her sunny tanned cheek
While we sit in the camp sweet Maria and me
3
The wheatear it sits on the thorn in the breakanThe furze linet sits on the apple top't oak
And the fire-tail weets there as its nest had been taken
And the cuckoo sings plain as if somebody spoke
While lovely Maria
By the crackling fire
Unlinks her dark hair
That falls o'er her shoulders a thunder cloud making
And covers her neck so lovely and fair
SONG
[O haud yer tongues ye sylvan elves]
1
O haud yer tongues ye sylvan elvesYer gladness is but waes
And keep yer sangs within yer selves,
For may be better days
Another birdie sings to me
Mak's ither music vain
And fills my heart wi' sorrows glee
Till pleasure springs frae pain
Sae haud yer tongues ye sylvan elves
And keep yer singing to yer selves
539
2
I wish I lived in upper skiesBeyond the golden starn
Angels wi' mercy in their eyes
My secret thoughts might learn
O' for the luv of those bright een
When you war sorrows ain
Makes my e'en sick o' places green
My heart cauld as a stane
Sae haud yer tongues ye sylvan elves
And keep yer singing to yer selves
3
O Susie, Susie, why sae coyWhen I am by yer side
Ye never luik ane kind reply
My simple love to guide
Sae haud yer tongues ye saucy elves
I've ither sangs to hear
And keep yer singing to yer silves
While Susie's musing here
O Susie Susie let me see
Thy ain hearts simple melodie
SONG
[Honey dew falls from the tree]
1
Honey dew falls from the treeWhere my Julia walks with me
With her white arm held in mine
Luscious smells the eglantine
540
Lit with tiney sparks of fire
As the red-hot sun goes down
Like a ball to fire the town.
2
Glow-worms fire the dark green grassWhere my Julia's small feet pass
And the king-cups rimmed wi' dew
Gold and white and pearly blue
Tap her on her evening track
Sandal shoes with ribbons black
And woodbines with a crimson streak
Nod again her bonnet peak.
3
The pearly west glowed golden charmsWhile I held Julia in my arms
Sweet Julia with the eye of dew
The heath bell has'n't one so blue
Her neck the lily of the vale
Is not so fair and sweetly pale
Her cheek, the rose crop't in the dew
Is not so blushing in its hue.
4
I kissed her, yes I kissed her twiceWhile the little whistling mice
From the hedge ran in and out
And bounced the silver dews about
I leaned upon my Julia's cheek
And could have rested there a week
But we returned to our repose
Just as the full round moon arose.
541
EVENING
How beautiful the eve comes inThe grazing kine the village din
Of happy children, cocks and hens
And chickens cheeping in their pens
And hogs that grunt the roots to eat
And dogs asleep on their fore-feet
And sparrows on the mossy thatch
Waiting whatever they may catch
Beneath the oak the old cart shed
There the capon goes to bed
On the old crippled waggon-see
Propped up with an axle-tree
By the wall on broken rail
Tweets red breasted firetail
And their neighbours pied flycatch
Build cobweb nest in the old thatch
Where beesom weed—that high wind leaves
Blossoms and blooms above the eaves
The old cow-crib is mossed and green
As if it just had painted been
The ramping kecks in orchard gaps
Shake like green neighbours in white caps
On which the snail will climb and dwell
For three weeks in its painted shell
There the white nosed ‘clock a clay’
Red and black spot[t]ed sits all day
Round which the white nosed bee will hum
To which the black nosed bee will come
More than a hundred times a day
Till evening shadows cool in grey
Wormwood, burdock—the cart conceals
Rotting and wanting both the wheels
542
Stands prop't with broken axle-tree
A hen pen with two slats away
And hen and chickens gone astray
A barrow left without a wheel
Since spring, which nettles now conceal
From free stones getting on the moor
The creeping donkeys pass the door
The geese on dunghills clean their quills
And squabble o'er the dainty pills
Thrown out by the huswifes cares
Who supper for her man prepares
Labour returning from its toils
Ditcher that the earth besoils
Hedgers from the wattled thorn
Scaring birdboy with his horn
Who blows it to the wandering moon
And thinks the village knows the tune
The shepherd in the nearly dark
Followed by his dogs gruff bark
The milkmaid tripping through the dew
Singing all the evening through
The owlet through the barn hole peeps
And all the village hides and sleeps.
PRAYER IN THE DESERT
1
Almighty, omnipotent—dweller on highProtector of earth and its dwellers—thine eye
Can look on this desert and bid it appear
As green as fresh pastures at spring of the year
543
And refill the cruise that is dry as the sand
Almighty omnipotent—dweller in bliss
Thy will has the power—and thy power can do this
2
Our food is exhausted—the cruises are dryBut thou art almighty—thy power can supply
Abundant for few—and sufficient for all
Alli our father let charity fall
While earth is our mother leave nature our friend
And this bare arid desert abundance shall send
This desert of sand shall produce from thine eye
Of food and of water sufficient supply
3
Thou God of Mahomet thou father of allNear hell and destruction on Alla we call
We bow to the sand in our faith not in fear
For God in the word of his prophet is here
We pray in the faith of Mahomet and trace
The desert of sand as thy own dwelling place
Almighty omnipotent hear us, and send
Supply to our wants, and our prophet defend
[In April all the lanes and woods are full of]
In April all the lanes and woods are full ofPrimroses violets and wood anemonies
Theres many a bunch or branch of may they pull off
Littered on roads, in lanes, by woods, where many has
Broke off as first in leaf—and sweet as any is
544
To fade where they were plucked—this rush swamp rather fenny is
Yet smell smock show their lilac up and down
And mosses green as grass among the brown.
SONG
[Though years may part my love from me]
1
Though years may part my love from meMy heart shall true & faithful be,
Though seas again between us roll
My heart's the needle to the pole,
2
Still pointing true to thee & home;Whenever I may stay or roam
The love long true I had for thee
Like suns that never set shall be.
3
Memory of thee shall still prevail,Thy voice shall cheer the morning gale
And should I cross the blue sea wave,
And should I fill a foreign grave,
4
Thy early smiles, & face so fairThe memory's dreams shall bless me there,
Smile in each wave around me spread
And bloom upon my lowly bed—
545
5
If there it be my lot to sleepThy spirit in the dews shall weep
And in the evening wind shall sigh
And bless me where I lowly lie.
SONG
[Where the ash tree weaves]
1
Where the ash tree weavesShadows over the river
And the willow's grey leaves
Shake and quiver—
Meet me & talk, love,
Down the grass-hoppers baulk, love,
And then love for ever—
2
There meet me, & talk, love,Of love's inward feelings
Where the clouds look like chalk, love,
And the huts & the shielings
Lie like love o'er the river
Here talk of love's feelings,
And love on for ever—
3
Where the bee hums his balladsBy the river so near it,
Round docks & wild salads
While all love to hear it,
546
And by old willow pollards
Bid love live for ever.
Janry 13th 1848.
SANG
[There is a land, I ken it weel]
1
There is a land, I ken it weelWhose mountains touch the clouds,
Where pine-woods in the tempests reel
And eagles scream aloud;
A land of which a' hearts are proud,
That to that mountain neuk belang,
That land o' mist, & storm, & cloud,
Is dearest to my sang—
2
It is the native's dearest hameOn every foreign strand,
He sees it there in heart the same,
His ain, his native land;
Where the fir trees frowning stand
O'er the huge rocks black & strang,
Where the Bruce aince gave command
That's the burden of his sang—
3
T'is the heart o' every ScotWhen he leaves his ain hearth stane,
His eye can see it not,
But tis in heart his ain;
547
Where he herded a' day lang,
When Scotland was his ain,
And the fire-side heard his sang—
SONG
[The autumns come again]
The autumns come again
& the clouds descend in rain
& the leaves they are falling from the wood
The summer's voice is still
Save the clacking of the mill
& the lowly muttered thunder of the flood
& the clouds descend in rain
& the leaves they are falling from the wood
The summer's voice is still
Save the clacking of the mill
& the lowly muttered thunder of the flood
There's nothing in the mead
But the rivers muddy speed
& the willow leaves all littered by its side
Sweet voices all are still
In the vale & on the hill
& the summer's blooms are withered in their pride
But the rivers muddy speed
& the willow leaves all littered by its side
Sweet voices all are still
In the vale & on the hill
& the summer's blooms are withered in their pride
548
Fled is the cuckoo's note
To countries far remote
& the nightingale is vanished from the wood
If you search the Lordship round
There is not a blossom found
& where the haycock scented is the flood
To countries far remote
& the nightingale is vanished from the wood
If you search the Lordship round
There is not a blossom found
& where the haycock scented is the flood
My true loves fled away
Since we walked in cocks of hay
On the sabbath in the summer of the year
& she's nowhere to be seen
On the meadow or the green
But she's coming when the happy spring is near
Since we walked in cocks of hay
On the sabbath in the summer of the year
& she's nowhere to be seen
On the meadow or the green
But she's coming when the happy spring is near
When the birds begin to sing
& the flowers begin to spring
& the cowslips in the meadows reappear
When the woodland oaks are seen
In their monarchy of green
Then Mary & loves pleasure will be here
& the flowers begin to spring
& the cowslips in the meadows reappear
When the woodland oaks are seen
In their monarchy of green
Then Mary & loves pleasure will be here
SONG
[I would not think thee half so fair]
1
I would not think thee half so fairHad I not known that thou excelled
The fairest that were blooming there
If not the sweetest I beheld
T'was so & more than so to me
For none could smile so sweet as thee—
549
2
Calm Sunday noons, & moonlight evesHow beautiful they made thee seem—
The poet such a vision weaves
As thou wert—seen in angel dreams,
A maiden soon to be a bride
With nought so beautiful beside—
3
We find a flower upon our walkIn places where we thought none grew
I saw thy smiles & heard thee talk
I thought none there as sweet as you
T'was so when last we met—the while—
Could absence e'er forget that smile—
4
I could'nt—and I loved thee moreWhen late in hidden thought I met thee
Than e'er I seemed to do before
—I saw, where I could not forget thee
When moonlight walks their views unfurled
And left thee fairest in the world
5
The best, the fairest & the dearest—The moon looked silent o'er our love
The only witness and the nearest
To thoughts as angels are above
I thought of thee & only thee
And felt that such was thine for me—
6
The moonlight walk—the rustic stileWhere she was richly seated
Her fine grey eyes owned every smile
Wi' which true love was treated
T'was heaven there & so t'will be
The next time that I meet wi' thee—
550
THE SOLDIERS GRAVE
1
No matter how the strife beginsSoldiers who fall the battle wins
Left dead beside his thundering gun
That corpse the battle field has won
Though on the turf he ends his days
It blossoms with his countrys praise
In fireside hopes and infants smiles
He fell and fame rewards his toils
2
The stars of earth white daisies shadeThe greensward where his bones are laid
Above his bones his blood was spilt
His sword rusts broken to the hilt
His gun his bretheren wheeled away
Belched fire and thunder in the fray
Beneath the turf his ashes rest
By every patriots wishes blest
3
His love was to his country trueHis fate is wept by mornings dew
And though his hopes were warm in vain
To see his childrens smiles again
That by the door still sit and play
While he lies rotting in the clay
The mother o'er the youngest sighs
And crops the daisey where he lies
551
4
Upon his cold and stubborn breastThe speckled lark has built her nest
The hare makes there her hiding form
Just where the heart-blood trickled warm
And stained the daisies round the place
Where he fell dead and left no trace
Yet there he fell and there he sleeps
Where wild thyme every morning weeps
THE SPIRIT OF LOVE
1
The spirit of Love is a beautiful thingAs ever o'er flowers and fair bosoms took wing
As ever broke silence through innocent lips
More sweet than the nectar the butterfly sips
From the breath of the rose tree sprinkled with dew
O Love is as sweet and as innocent too
The spirit of Love is an innocent thing
As ever o'er flowers and fair bosoms took wing
2
Not a sigh e'er escapes it to shew to the eyeOf her he adores that a lover is nigh
His eye thinks a language—and turns on her dress
What no tongue has spoken, no wisper can guess.
The language of love is as still as the grave
Its hopes are the sweetest that life ever gave
The spirit of Love is an innocent thing
As ever o'er flowers and fair bosoms took wing
552
3
Its fancies are sweet as the blossoms of springIts thoughts are as rich as the songs seraphs sing
Its love is the apple the ball of the eye
Who's light is loves language—a silent reply
The eve when we courted—the field where we met
Like the fire of the soul warms the fond bosom yet
O the spirit of Love is an innocent thing
As ever o'er flowers and fair bosoms took wing
SONG
[At closing day and early morn]
1
At closing day and early mornAmong green woods and rushes
I loved her in youths early dawn
Beneath the white thorn bushes
When white may hid their green gloss leaves.
O'er violet banks all sweetness
When like green leaves her bosom heaves
All happy thoughts and neetness—
2
She lived along the way side'Mong briars and brambles many
The dust ne'er soiled her bonny pride
Her face was first of any
The sweetest bloom amid the brown
The rose hue young and shy
I loved her when the sun went down
At milking of the kye
553
3
I loved her all the summer longAnd when it went away
Her cheek so fair—her years so young
My love was bound to stay
How pleasantly the path way seemed
That went her dwelling by
The setting sun how bright it gleamed
At milking of the kye
4
The docks and thistles by the doorBegemmed by summer showers
Henbane ne'er looked so bright before
All might be reckoned flowers
The very sparrows sung a song
How rich the bright blue sky
I loved her all the summer long
At milking of the kye
5
The swallows almost touched the roadSo low they dart in may
The mallow flowers fanned all abroad
The gnats were whewed away
O pleasantly the sun got up
And wandered o'er the sky
When for sweet cowslips I would stoop
At milking of the kye
6
How pleasantly the sun went downBehind the cots and dairies
The cobwebs o'er the bents of down
Seemed muslin gowns for fairies
What pleasure glowed on every thing
Left green beneath the sky
The jenny-wren would sweetly sing
At milking of the kye
554
SONG
[Scenes of love and days of pleasure]
1
Scenes of love and days of pleasureI must leave them all lassie
Scenes of love and hours of leisure
All are gone for aye lassie
No more thy velvet bordered dress
My fond and longing een shall bless
Thou lily in a wilderness
And who shall love thee then lassie
Long I've watched thy look so tender
Often clasped thy waist so slender
Heaven in thy love defend her
When I'm o'er the sea lassie
2
By the falls of proud NiagaraSoon I'll hear the roar lassie
Then I'll think of bonny Mary
On a foreign shore lassie
Where the dog star burns and broils
And the chasms chaldron boils
Whose spray the very heaven assails
There I'm going to bide lassie
3
By all the faith I've shown afore theeI'll sware by more than that lassie
By heaven and earth I'll still adore thee
Though we should part for aye lassie
By thy infant years so [loving]
By thy womans love so moving
That white breast thy goodness proving
555
By the sun that shines for ever
By loves light and its own giver
That loveth truth and erreth never
I'm thine for aye and all lassie
SONG Milking o' the Kye
1
Young Jenny wakens at the dawnFresh as carnations newly blawn
And o'er the pasture every morn
Goes milking o' the kye,
She sings her songs o' happy glee
While round her swirls the angry bee
The butterfly from tree to tree
Goes gaily flirting bye
2
Young Jenny was a bonny thingAs ever wakened in the spring
And blythe she to herself could sing
At milking o' the kye
She loved to hear the old crows croak
Upon the ash tree and the oak
And noisy pies that almost spoke
At milking o' the kye
556
3
As sweet as may upon the thornAs sweet as blue caps i' the corn
Red as corn poppies newly blawn
Was Jenny with the kye
Her cap was white, its ribbons blue
Her gown was drab her heart was true
Her apron whity brown and blue
At milking o' the kye
4
She crop't the wild thyme every nightScenting so sweet the dewy light
And hid it in her breast so white
At milking o' the kye
I met and clasped her in my arms
The finest flower on twenty farms
Her snow white breast my fancy warms
At milking o' the kye
RECOLECTIONS OF HOME
1
When we stray far away from the old pleasant villageWe love it the fonder the further away
The sweet pleasant songs of ploughmen oer their tillage
Are more pleasant sounds than the strange calls to day
That sweet little homestead with pollard ash and pond
Leads back a hundred miles wherever I may roam
A dove cotes wooden home where the pigeons coo so fond
Soon brings to my eye my own at the old house at home
557
2
The very layer of crab that's wattled in the hedgeThe old post in its red paint crushed with waggons rushing through
The teazles prickly burrs or the little hubs of sedge
Will bring me to the old place where I lived a moon ago
But the flowers here they tell me in their brown, red, white & blue
That their sisters are now in the fields around my house at home
Though the sun here shines as bright, and as christal be the dew
They are not so sweet as those flowers that in our meadows grew
3
A mossy plank across the flood though weedy be the dykeHere fifty miles away and I cross another stream
It brings me to my own fields the brigs so very like
So here I only wander in the middle of a dream
At home I did right cozie and lived as I would choose
And saw nothing but my sweet fields day after day
'Till I was forced to flee my corner and the muse
As the linnet from its nest by the awk is drove away
4
I always see a bit of home in every likely thingA white-thorn hedge, or bramble bush or pollard willow tree
Brings me my own snug homestead, and the budding of the spring [OMITTED]
558
SONG The old house at Home
1
O there is no other home but the old house at homeAnd go where we will
We are all uneasy still
For want of the corner seat and our fire at home
The place from which we come
There's nothing in the wide world like one's home
2
O there's nothing in the world that is so wideSeek for pleasure as we may
Its a dull and cloudy day
That takes us from the bright blink of our own fire side
The fire place so wide
There's nothing in the world like our own fire side
3
O its home, and its home, be true to your homeThough the world is e'er so wide
There's nothing else beside
Like the cottage where we lived, and the place from whence we came
Gold and silver cannot claim
The master or the power of our own fire side
559
SONG
[I saw her crop a rose]
1
I saw her crop a roseRight early in the day
And I went to kiss the place
Where she broke the rose away
And I saw the patten rings
Where she o'er the stile had gone
And I love all other things
Her bright eyes look upon
If she looks upon the hedge, or up the leafing tree
That white thorn and the brown oak are the dearest things to me
2
I have a pleasant hillWhich I sit upon for hours
Where she cropt some sprigs of thyme
And other little flowers
And she muttered as she did it
As does beauty in a dream
And I loved her when she hid it
On her breast so like to cream
Near the brown mole on her neck—that like a diamond shone
Then my eye was like to fire—but my heart was like a stone
3
There is a small green placeWhere cowslips early curled
Which on sabbath days I trace
The dearest in the world
A little oak spreads o'er it
And throws a shadow round
560
The greenest ever found
There is not a woodland nigh, nor is there a green grove
Yet there the maid stood nigh me and told me all her love
BOYS & SPRING
1
To see the Arum early shootIts cone curled leaves of green
About the white green mossy root
Where violet buds are seen
2
The little round hole in the rootsLooks battered hard and round
The mice come out to chimble fruits
And take hips under ground
3
The husks of hips and awes lie roundAll chimbled seed and skin
There noses now peep from the ground
And there the tails bob in
4
The nettles yellow roots are bareWhere sun shine looks about
Where thin and pricked the hedges are
The leaves are sprouting out
561
5
The violets blossom where they dwellThe childrens fingers smart
They kiss the place to make it well
And all is joy of heart
6
There's something yet in childhoods waysOn which I love to dwell
And oft I hunt in springs first days
The painted pooty shell
7
Children e're they go to schoolHunt hedges and thorn roots
They're badgers by the sedgy pool
And b[u]y the [painted poots]
8
And then they crush them nib to nibAgen the meadow brig
And don't their little tongues run glib
At running such a rig
9
They call them cocks and so they fightA little ‘cocking day’
The hardest breaks the whole outright
As heroe of the day
562
STANZAS—
[I would not pull a weed away]
1
I would not pull a weed awayWhere she stooped down to see
I would not pull a branch of may
Where she admired the tree
2
Like any child her quiet mindHad love for every thing
The dangerous of the reptile kind
She never feared a sting
3
Upon a worm I would not treadNor even crush the snake
For she would stroke its spotted head
And leave it in the brake
4
I would not wrong the meanest thingThat she had deign'd to touch
To every flower my eyes would cling
I loved her smiles so much
5
I had love for all she looked uponAnd love for all she did
The roads looked love where she had gone
As stranger paths ne'er did
563
6
The valley where I saw her gownFloating in the wind
A shower of may-bloom snowing down
Is pictured on my mind
7
I saw her by the river sedgeIn green gown floating gay
The may bloom winnowed from the hedge
And whitened all the way
HYMN TO THE CREATOR
1
Almighty creator and ruler as wellOf the earth and the heaven and darkness and hell
We adore thee—and worship as simple as when
Adam knelt in the garden the first of all men
The God of that sun that yet brings the broad day
When Eve the first flower in the first garden lay
That mercy that yet ever falls from the sky
Says that the meanest of beings never shall die
2
Almighty creator of all we beholdThe mountains bare rock and the meadows all gold
The wilderness old and the desert of sand
Are his in his glory and wild barren land
564
The earth well as heaven, his dwellings above
Almighty creator to seek and to save
We need from the cradle thy help to the grave
3
We need thee and fear thee so ought we to fearWhen thou hast no mercy none other will hear
And mercy thou shewest every day to our land
In keeping us all as the work of thy hand
In helping the feeble in seeking the lost
For man neither springs from a pillar or post
But breath[e]s from his father eternally yet
His hell or his heaven in mercy is met
4
Almighty creator of heaven and earthCreations protector its life and its birth
In thee all began and in thee all have end
Our father at first and at last the one friend
We love and adore thee or ought so to do
From the sunrise of morning to evenings bright dew
Through morning and evening and blackest midnight
Thou'rt our faith in nights darkness and love in morns light
SONG
[My Peggy's a young thing my Peggy's a gay thing]
1
My Peggy's a young thing my Peggy's a gay thingAs straight and as tall as a poplar tree
My Peggy's a gay thing my Peggy's a play thing
Where e're you see Peggy you'r sure to see me
565
My Peggy's as sweet as a sweet briar tree
Content to the one soon found out the other
So content it soon settled young Peggy and me
2
So I crop here full early to put in a poseyAnd I knew what I loved must fade and soon wither
With blue bell and red pink carnation and rosey
But Peggy was root, leaf and flower all together
From morning to evening we could not be parted
For love from the first to the last made us one
At ev'en so cozey we walked out glad hearted
And then we went church and were no longer one
3
So now we are seen all the day both togetherAs happy or happier than many gay things
For better for worse the one took the other
And Peggy's a goddess without any wings
So she never flew from me nor wished to be parted
My Peggy was fond as a pigeon of me
She made the plain home we lived in glad hearted
And fed the sweet linnets that sang on the tree
4
My Peggy was handsome my Peggy was tallAs straight and as trim as a poplar tree
As sweet as the woodbine nail'd up to the wall
Haunted all summer long with songs of the bee
My Peggy's a young thing my Peggy's a gay thing
And where you see Peggy you'r sure to see me
For Peggy's my own thing, and Peggy's my plaything
And dear I love Peggy as Peggy loves me
566
SONG The maid in the morning
1
The linnit sat upon its nestBy gales o' morning softly prest
His green wing and his greener breast
Was damp wi' dews o' morning
The dog rose neath the oak tree grew
Blush'd swelling neath a veil o' dew
A pinks nest to its prickles grew
Right early i' the morning
2
The sunshine glittered gold the whileA country maiden clomb the stile
Her straw hat couldn't hide the smile
That blushed like early morning
The lark with feathers all wet through
Looked up above the glassy dew
And to the neighbouring corn field flew
Fanning the gales o' morning
3
In every bush was heard a songEach green grass blade the whole way long
A silver shining drop there hung
The milky dews o' morning
Where stepping stones strides o'er the brook
The rosy maid I overtook
How ruddy was her healthy look
So early in the morning
567
4
I took her by the well turn'd armAnd led her over field and farm
And kiss'd her o'er her cheek so warm
A rose in early morning
The spiders lace work shone like glass
Tied to flowers and cat tail grass
The dew drops bounced before the lass
Sprinkling the early morning
5
Her dark curls fanned among the galesThe sky lark whistled o'er the vales
I told her loves delightful tales
Among the dews o' morning
She cropt a flower shook off the dew
And on her breast the wild rose grew
She blush'd as fair, as lovely too
The living rose o' morning
A LAMENT I cannot if I would be gay
1
I cannot if I would be gayNor love what I adored
Strife stole my feelings all away
Nor e'er a thought restored
I felt a love for many things
That would in raptures fall
Creations light on varied wings
And woman most of all
568
2
I loved them with a Poets loveAnd loved them as a man
I loved them as the blest above
And will do while I can
I loved them for a better place
Birds woman flowers and grass
And worship on the red rose face
Of every bonny lass
3
My muses they—and Poets tooThe sum of every song
I see them in the sun and dew
And all the year long
Angels on earth they are and give
Me feelings thoughts and tears
Fond hopes new feelings still to live
A longer length of years
4
To live and see when strife shall ceaseAnd kindred kindred meet
A land of love of health and peace
In cottage town and street
The winds shall blow and rivers flow
And clouds slow sail above
When earth shall turn to heaven below
And love be lost in love
569
EVENING
1
The sun had gaen down on the mountain sae loftyAnd left her bright spots on the hills and the sky
And the dew fa' o' e'en came around me so softly
As still as the wings o' the bee passing by
O come on ye balmy soft shades o' the e'enin
And langer above me remain thou calm sky
O blue gold and crimson like lofty rocks leaning
Seeming ready to fa' from their dwellings so high
2
Ye shades green and siller o' lakes and o' mountainsSoft greensward blebbed o'er with the milk o' nights dew
The bull rushy lake and the mossy fringed fountains
How dearly I love the mild e'enin' so blue
Brushing green broom by the side o' my true love
Whose green twigs are sprinkled wi' pin heads o' dew
The goudspink cheeps sleepy, half asleep cooes the blue dove
Where I went wi' my true love in her neat dress o' blue
3
O she was the rarest the bonniest, fairestThe dearest sincerest and but yet a young thing
O she was the prettiest wittiest and sweetest
But she seldom spoke love on our walks i' the spring
The sunset clouds faded in dewy mists braided
We saw not as far as we did when we came
She thought of her bonnet the dews falling on it
So arm in arm I—and my lassie went hame
570
PLEASANT SOUNDS
The rustling of leaves
The rustling of leaves under the feet in woods and under hedges. The crumping of cat-ice and snow down wood rides, narrow lanes and every street causeways. Rustling through a wood, or rather rushing while the wind hallows in the oak tops like thunder. The rustles of birds wings startled from their nests, or flying unseen into the bushes.
The whizzing of larger birds over head in a wood, such as crows, puddocks, buzzards &c.
The trample of roburst wood larks on the brown leaves, and the patter of Squirrels on the green moss. The fall of an acorn on the ground, the pattering of nuts on the hazel branches, ere they fall from ripeness. The flirt of the ground-larks wing from the stubbles, how sweet such pictures on dewy mornings when the dew flashes from its brown feathers.
TO MISS MARY ANN C.
1
There is a land of endless lifeWhere lovers pass away
And leave these coarser scenes of strife
And unrefined clay
A land of love and pure delight
In never fading flowers
There Mary's love shall take its flight
From this cold world of ours
571
2
Thy beaming eyes shall brighter beThy cheeks pure roses glow
Thy person with the clime agree
More white than driven snow
That bosom in itself a soul
Shall be immortal soon
Where each one hides a happy mole
Like burs around the moon
3
Thyself shall be the angel thereMid scenes for ever green
In flowers for ever bright and fair
Shall Mary live serene
I'll kiss the mole on either breast
Where mortals ne'er reprove
And share in my eternal rest
Her everlasting love
TO MARY
1
I wish I had for well I knowHer bonny breast was a' my own
I wish I had explained it so
What now for ever keeps unknown
I saw her bonny breast so white
I saw her bonny face so fair
I saw her beaming eyes so bright
But ne'er said what I likened there
I likened her in love so true
An angel and a woman too
572
2
I saw her smile on inward thoughtsI saw her heart resigned and pure
I saw her face with beauty frought
And felt first loves election sure
I thought of love but nothing said
No wispers from my gazing fell
In my own bosom born and bred
Mary where do I love so well
By evil eyes at close of day
My wild hedge rose was stole away
3
From thee they stole my e'en awayMy bonny bride of high degree
Else the wild rose at close of day
My hope and love had used to be
Its dewy leaves of carmine stain
I to thy sweet face would compare
I kissed the cups tween joy and pain
Cause Mary's bosom was not there
I kissed them as truths love and glee
I likened her's as true to me—
4
The moon sleeps calm upon the grassAnd shadows flings from bush and tree
Sweet Mary dear my bonny lass,
How much my fancy dwells on thee
I look upon thy breasts so white
And think my love is there enshrined
I kiss them by the pale moon light
And love thee stronger in my mind
Mary I loved through good and ill
And till death parts us love thee still
573
STANZAS To Adelaide
1
Adelaide beautiful Adelaide seeThe spring is returning to beauty and thee
The snowdrops are breaking the soil and appear
As white as thy neck at the spring of the year
Adelaide beautiful Adelaide here
The primroses come and tis spring of the year
2
The primroses come and the birds mate in pairsO when will my life be as happy as theirs
O when shall I woo thee and sit in the shade
Mong violets and primroses my sweet Adelaide
When in those bright eyes will those baby's appear
That I saw when I kissed thee last spring of the year
O Adelaide beautiful Adelaide hear
The snow drops have brought thee the spring of the year
3
The aconites open like rays of the sunAnd tell thee the pleasures of spring is begun
Then Adelaide beautiful Adelaide hear
Let us take lovers walks at the spring of the year
574
THE BEAN FIELD
A Bean field full in blossom smells as sweetAs Araby or Groves of orange flowers
Black eyed and white and feathered to ones feet
How sweet they smell in mornings dewy hours
When seething night is left upon the flowers
And when morns bright sun shines oer the field
The pea bloom glitters in the gems o' showers
And sweet the fragrance which the union yields
To battered footpaths crossing o'er the fields.
STANZAS
[There is a land of endless joy]
1
There is a land of endless joyAnd everlasting bliss
I knew it when I was a boy
Twas somewhere upon this
I knew that green and happy place
A land unknown to sin
Joy beamed in every happy face
For they were all our kin
575
2
Jews christian turks and gentle kindPossest that place above
Redeemed by Gods unbiased mind
And everlasting love
Some tuned their harps some sung their songs
Angelic women there
In infant worship all day long
Was fairest of the fair
3
They told me God the land possesedThe bushes trees and flowers
That every soul there on was blest
And all its joy was ours
That God they hummed there spirits joy
Was both the king and prince
I saw it when a little boy
But never found it since
LOVE
1
Life without the fear of deathOr dread of Lightening from above
No graves or any loss of breath
Is love
576
2
Truth without deception thisA joy ensured above
God is the author and the bliss
True love
3
Twas matchless Eve in paradiseWith beauty from above
That gave to Man without earth's vice
Her love
4
Adah & Zillah next in flowerAbout their Adam move
They slept beside him in the bower
In love
5
Rachael & Rebecca nextThe scripture came to prove
Love was their God the Bible text
Their love
6
Ruth and Nahoma eked the raceOf Adams hopes above
The first man shared their childrens grace
Their love
7
Kessia and Jemima tooJobs comforts from above
Gives Adams heart like Hermans dew
Their love
577
8
The Bibles race is heavens ownTurks own their God above
And Woman round Mahomets throne
Is love
9
All of mankind are heavens raceFrom Gods own power above
And woman with Eves mother face
Mans love
SONG
[The spring comes on daily]
1
The spring comes on dailyThe wood bank encloses
Its blue violets gaily
And brimstone primroses
Veined Ivy leaves traces
Green moss patches bring
In woods and sweet places
First sight o' the spring
The milk maid each morning in cotton drab Gown
As fresh as a Rose bears her milk to the Town
2
Spring is the happiestSeason of love
The grass is the nappiest
And greenest above
Blue skys are the clearest
578
Woods and ridings are dearest
When Adelaide's nigh
A cropping new primroses walking along
And hearing with pleasure the milking maids song
3
How bright peep the primrosesHow sweet violets smell
In the narrow green closes
And briar tangl'ed dell
The larks o'er the stubble shock
Singing full high
The Guns on the double cock
Watching hares running bye
One starts the Guns crack and wizzes a smoak
It falls and cries ‘auntie’ beneath the lopped oak
SONG
[Sweet is the violet scented pea]
1
Sweet is the violet scented peaHaunted by red legged sable bee
But sweeter far than all to me
Is her I love so dearly
Than perfumed pea or sable bee
The face I love so dearly
2
Sweet as the hedge row violet blueThan apple blossoms streaky hue
The black eyed bean flower bleb'd with dew
579
Than apple flowers or violets blue
The cheeks I love so dearly
3
Than woodbines upon branches thinThe clover flower all sweets within
Which pensive bees do gather in
Three times as sweet or nearly
Is the cheek the lip the eye the chin
Of her I love so dearly
TRUE LOVE
1
The inward tear the silent sighThe look spoke loud in beauties eye
Strikes like Thor's hammer i' the shock
Though marble bosoms only mock
2
If hidden tears and unheard sighsSpeak nothing—there no heart replies
If signs like these are passed unknown
Then love with two was never known
3
The maid that love in secret keepsThe eye that in the bosom weeps
The cheek that burns up fire to see
Her speak to others though it bee
580
4
Cold sweats that chill the brow of toilTo see her on another smile
Is love that boils through every vein
But owns no voices to explain
5
A hidden mystery of the breastA heart that sleeps without its rest
A word that's ever on the tongue
And keeps it silent all day long
6
A wish that aches to have its wayYet keeps it prisoner day by day
A thought for one and one alone
That petrifies the heart to stone
7
Love flashes in the human eyeAnd beatings of the heart reply
Love tingles in the virgin blood
Of woman in her maidenhood
8
For man those snowy hills do swellFor man those smiles do secrets tell
For man sweet womans love was born
Then who would beauties glances scorn
581
SONG
[Will Jockey cum to day mither]
1
Will Jockey cum to day mitherWill Jockey cum to day
He's taen sic likeings to my brither
He's sure to cum the day
Haud yer tongue lass mind yer rockie
But tither day ye wore a frock aye
What can ye mean to think o' Jocky
Yere bin content the season lang
The best beams in a harmless sang
2
Ye'll soon see falling tears mitherIf luv's a sin in youth
He leuks to me and talks wi' brither
But I know the secret truth
He's courted me the year mither
Judge nae the matter queer mither
Ye're a' the while as dear mither
As ye're bin the simmer lang
What use is't singing sangs
3
I'll hear nae farder preaching mitherIse bin a child ower lang
He led me frae the preaching mither
And wherefore did he wrang
I ken he often tauks wi' brither
I neither leuk at ane or tither
You ken as well as I mither
There's nae luv in a sang
Though I've sang the simmer lang
582
4
Nae dinna be sae saucey lassieI may be kenned ye ill
If luv has taen the [hold] lassie
There's nae cure i' the pill
Nae I dinna want a pill mither
He luiks at me and tauks to [b]rither
And twice we've bin at kirk the gither
—I'm's well now as a simmer lang
But sumhow canna sing a sang
5
He cums and tauks to brither mitherAnd luiks his thou[gh]ts at me
He aulas saes gud neet to brither
And luiks geud neet to me
Lassie ye seldom vexed yer mither
Yer ower too fair a flower to wither
So be ye are to cum the gither
Ill be nae damp to yer new claes
Cheer up and sing o'er ‘Loggan braes’
6
Jockey cums o' sabbath daysHis face is not the face oer brassy
Her mither sits to praise the claies
Howds him her box to win the lassie
He tak's a pinch and greets wi' granny
And helps his chair up nearer Fanny
And vows he loves her mair than any
She thinks her mither seldom wrang
And ‘Logan braes’ her daily sang
583
THE APRIL WIND AND MILK-MAID
1
Soft blows the April wind my loveOver the green silk grass
Heaves in the leafing trees above
And fans the milking lass
The ribbons on her bonnet poke
Flutter like startled birds
Plays in her curls, and almost spoke
Like lovers wispered words
She turns around but none is nigh
Save plovers in a cloudy sky
2
How beautiful her drapery swimsAs down the path she goes
How lovely shade her well turn'd limbs
Through her wind folding clothes
It bows in every silken flower
And trembles in the grass
At morning and at evening hour
Where goes the Milking lass
It flutters in her folding gown
And sings spring music to the town
3
The April wind is soft and sweetFlying o'er meadows—kissing flowers
Flirting round maidens slippered feet
Before it drops in sprinkling showers
584
That dances through the silken grass
And flutters in her gown behind
As singing goes the milking lass
O'er closes green—o'er fallows brown
Then bears her milk-pails to the town
‘THE WILLOW SHADED LANE’
1
‘The willow shaded Lane’The spots where lovers stray
I long to see those scenes again
In this sweet month of May
I long to take her well turn'd arm
At dewy close of day
And walk the road beside the farm
Along with Susan Grey
2
O Susan Grey I loveDown the willow shaded lane
When the stars look bright above
And the night dews on the grain
When the night dews on the grass
And the red sun goes away
I'll meet thee my bonny lass
And love thee Susan Grey
585
3
When the lark is on her eggsIn the flaggy wheat
Brightly shines the water skeggs
And the hare is on her seat
The stars look bright again
Bright glows the milky way
And down the willow shaded lane
I'll walk wi' Susan Grey
4
Around her bonny breast I'll clingAnd gaze upon her face
And muse upon that beautious thing
In that green and lovely place
How beautiful her drapery swims
Beneath the moonlight ray
To her my memory fondly clings
And I love Susan Grey
[Thou maiden Flower o' Scotish land]
1
Thou maiden Flower o' Scotish landWe'll seek the rose the gather
We'll walk the mountain hand in hand
And rest amang the heather
Come hither Scotish maid come hither
The mountain rose bush see
We winna crap sa fair a flower
But leave them blooming on the tree
With thoughts of love as pure as snow
We'll wander where the roses grow
586
2
I truth my dear we love descernAnd climb to meet the morning air
Walking amang the crimpled fern
And see the roses bloom sa fair
We'll see them on the mountains rare
But ane apiece we winna pu'
They're white as thy fair bosom now
And pearled and beaded wi' the dew
Scottish lassie let us go
Where the mountain roses grow
3
Come bonny flower o' Scottish landWi' hat o' straw and tartan plaid
And here I'll take thy lily hand
And yonder lead the bonny maid
And does thy blushes speak of fear
To seek wi' me the blooming brier
I winna wrang thy angel face
Thou bonny thing sae doubly dear
I winna wrang thy virtue so
While ganging where the roses grow
MISFORTUNE
1
Here's black misfortune hauds me downAnd keeps me scant o' Gear
I ever bear her winter frown
And am poor from year to year
587
In sunshine and in shades
Muses my requests disdain
Are naught but flirting jades
I'm scant o' grace and scant o' gear
And pennyless for a' the year
2
Misfortune is a flirting jadeHer face a bump o' sin
Of priest-craft-cant she makes a trade
And takes the simple in
She makes the rich oppress the poor
The poor she keeps as slaves
The pulpet stands at hells hot door
She reads them in their graves
I've stood her gab the whole year round
And now I'm all but underground
3
Sae' black misfortune hauds me downI'm waur than parritch puir
Though five bare shillings make a crown
I pennyless endure
While hypocrites are set to preach
And turn the right to wrong
I'm forced to hear but no beseach
I tell them in a song
No Priestcraft balls down me they cram
I only show them—That I am
588
CONTENTMENT
1
The rocks and sholes of lifeIm ever fain to shun
The incubus of strife
Leaves me undone
The poor mans cares are never o'er
The rich man owns his coach and four
2
But give me the humble cotAnd patience to endure
Contented wi' my humble lot
And I'll not ask for more
The poor man at his supper sits
By green wood fire that burns by fits
3
Give me the poor mans fareHis cot like clean pig stye
And I'll be happy there
In corner warm and dry
And sup and smoke short pipe at ease
And thank God for my bread and cheese
4
Give me the poor mans lotHis toil in woods to hack
A corner in his cot
With a garden at the back
Where Bears-breach powdered flowers
Amuse his leisure hours
589
5
A string pulls up the latchThere's his flagging bottom chair
And the martin neath the thatch
Hangs her mortar dwelling there
Give me a cottage to my mind
And I a peaceful home shall find
[Will ye gang wi' me to Scotland dear]
1
Will ye gang wi' me to Scotland dearWhere the mountains touch the sky
And leave your humdrum labours here
And climb the hills sa'e high
Come leave your fowl your pigs and kye
And your mud-floor dwelling here
Come put your wheel and knitting bye
We'll be off to Scotland dear
For the summer lark is in the sky
2
The daisys gold in silver rimIs blazing on the mountain side
And the skylarks wing in the sky grows dim
While the clouds like racers ride
So come with me to Scotland dear
And thy tartan plaid put on
The swallow has come to the new green year
And we'll to Scotland now be gone
So go wi' me to Scotland dear
Ere the winter of lifes comes on
590
And go with me to Scotland dear
And leave your English home
The gowans bloom, and the scented brere
Will tempt your steps to roam
And go with me to Scotland dear
Where the crimpled brackens grow
Where the rose blooms on the mountain brere
As white as driven snow
Then in the green bloom of the year
With me to Scotland go
And leave your English home
The gowans bloom, and the scented brere
Will tempt your steps to roam
And go with me to Scotland dear
Where the crimpled brackens grow
Where the rose blooms on the mountain brere
As white as driven snow
Then in the green bloom of the year
With me to Scotland go
SPRING WIND
1
The wind blows the trees aboutIn the green field
The wind blows the bees about
Which bushes shield
'Tis the green wind of May time
That suddenly wakes
That starts in the day time
When every thing shakes
The trees and the bushes, the grasses and grain
Like the waves of the ocean roll over the plain
2
The wind what can beat itSo frolic and playful
The beast cannot eat it
Though it fills all the day full
591
All tossing in billows
The wheat where streams glidder
Waving under the willows
Now the trees in the hedges are heaving like hair
And bushes are shaking like living things there
3
The water all curdlesLike wrinkles in ice
Like ribbed floating hurdles
That look rather nice
It swabbs the bullrushes
The flags it swirls through
By the ozier bed pushes
Where the white lilies grew
Whose broad leaves are wet with the plash o' the wave
Where the froth binds the bullrush like snow on the grave
4
It blows in my face nowThough I do'nt see it pass
It breathes on the flowers now
Now billows the grass
It sweeps the grey willows
Like the roof of a house
Swirls the sedges i' billows
O'er the nest o' the mouse
Flys Bees and crickets are singing all day
And winds mooving every green thing in its way
592
[I sigh with the wind like a storm stricken tree]
1
I sigh with the wind like a storm stricken treeAnd could weep with the morning but find not a tear
For love is inconstant like the ebb o' the sea
And all things are false which I look on or hear
Love seeks its own bosom from falshood and lies
And lives in itself turning bitter to sweet
It dreams of a smile from its own favour'd eyes
And deceives its own heart from passions high heat
2
I sigh with the wind and I moan with the treesBut the dew drops of tears are passions own flame
But Love will bloom fair after number of years
As it blossomed in Paradise—still its the same.
And so it will be Love, with you Love & me Love
Kept green in the soul to the end of the earth
'Twas so in thy infancy—so Let it be love
Love owns one Creator and no second birth
3
'Tis a child of the Soul—not a thing of the clay'Tis a tennant for heaven that never can die
'Tis a vision of joy that will ne'er pass away
So long as the sun lives the light of the sky—
For the Soul of earths nature is her clothing of green
And love in her essence is Heavens own light
And both are in Eden with Love all unseen
Where God is its being eternal and bright
593
[Her eyes are bright as the stars by night]
1
Her eyes are bright as the stars by nightAnd her lips like twin cherries red
Her cheeks are the rose when in dew it first blows
And her breasts like twin lillies in bed.
As sweet my young Love
As the pink or the clove
Or the streaky gilly-flower
Her breasts are as white
As heavens own light—
—And she grows to her bridal hour
2
Her eyes own light are diamonds brightThat looks upon Love as the sun
As dews on the flower in mornings shower
So her smiles revive when they're won
She's the spring of the year
And the brook so clear
And the primrose in bloom by its side
That looks to the sky with innocent eye
And the charm of the spring in its pride
3
The linnets nest so softly prestClings on the white thorn tree
To harm it where a sin the little ones within
Are so happy in their home so free
& it were sin to wrong
The maid in a Song
With feelings insincere
So I'll keep her like a Dove
In a happy thought o' Love
& think of her all the long year
594
[My love is fair and bonny]
1
My love is fair and bonnyRed flowers are in her gown
'Tis fine and bright as ony
And a comb is in her crown
A comb o' Tortoieshell
Her hair is brown and long
Its lapped up choice and well
And plaited in a thong
Her neck is white and fair
And dark brown is her hair
2
She's like a bunch of liliesThere's a mole upon her breast
And a bed of daffodilly's
Is not more richly dresst
A sattin gown on Sunday's
The like on't ne'er were seen
And a cotton gown on Monday's
With sprigs of bonny green
Her form is fine and fine her clothes is
Her cheeks a bunch of province roses
3
I love my love with silent loveThe secreter the dearer
Her choicest place is heaven above
And there I shall be near her
I'll love her in those scenes of bliss
As Eve & Adam's daughter
For there Love lives in spite of this
Like streams of living water
And there I'll wait my love to seek
In sundays sattins all the week
595
[Honey words make charms of blisses]
1
Honey words make charms of blissesWhich fondness keeps together
And these when ripe will melt in kisses
The dews of summer weather
The clouds will lay their heads on earth
To kiss it every morning
When showers of dew pearls have their birth
The woods and fields adorning
2
The busy bee will kiss the flowerAs often as he pleases
The butterfly in sunny hour
Will kiss but never teazes
The skylark mounts to kiss the sun
That o'er the green corn glitters
Then like a stone he drops when done
And in the meadow twitters
3
The twilight kisses mornings blushIn coal black night's retreating
And midday breezes kiss the bush
Its pleasant shadows meeting
Grass, corn and leaves in windy days
Are stirred in mighty putther
The flowers are ravished by the bees
The rest kiss one another
4
But Mary fairest of thy kindNo woman ne'er was fairer
Nature's a puzzle to my mind
A flirt I cannot bear her
596
Days sunshine and eve's dew
She kisses everything she meets
And I've not once kissed you
[There is a charm in Solitude that cheers]
There is a charm in Solitude that cheersA feeling that the world knows nothing of
A green delight the wounded mind endears
After the hustling world is broken off
Whose whole delight was crime at good to scoff
Green solitude his prison pleasure yields
The bitch fox heeds him not—birds seem to laugh
He lives the Crusoe of his lonely fields
Which dark green oaks his noontide leisure shields
[O the world keeps running round]
1
O the world keeps running roundWith contrariness to me
There's falshood in the sound
Of all I hear and see
My love she's not so pretty
As many others be
Nor talkative nor witty
Yet very dear to me
597
2
In the yellow gorse I see herBut that's wi' fancys eye
For I'm longing to be wi' her
While in prison bonds I lie
Furse bushes like to gilleflowers
More yellow are than gold
I've loved her there in summer hours
With joyfulness untold
3
The furze bush is a prickly treeThose flowers attract the bees
But false love's often wounded me
With sharper thorns than these
I met my love upon the heath
In summer's pleasant hours
She wore no thorns to be my death
She brought me nought but flowers
4
And she shall be my only loveNo other I'll prefer
For by that sun that shines above
I'll love but only her
We'll walk the molehill banks between
Where wild thyme smells so sweet
And at the dewy close o' e'en
I there my love shall meet
598
[There's music in the songs of birds]
1
There's music in the songs of birdsThere's music in the bee
There's music in a womans voice
When sitting on your knee
While walking in the mossy vales
Beneath the spreading beech
Song lives in singing nightingales
And in a womans speech
2
To hear her wisper in the dark'Tis heavens melody
Her calm reply her wise remark
Is more than song to me
The harp can touch no sweeter chord
In music's thrilling choice
Nor music breath[e] a sweeter word
Than comes from womans voice
3
There's music in the singing larkThat carols to the sky
To hear her wisper in the dark
'Tis heavens melody
There's music in a womans voice
While sitting on your knee
And Emma is my own heart's choice
When e'er she chooses me
599
THE SHEPHERD BOY
1
The fly or beetle on their trackAre things that know no sin
And when they whemble on their back
What terror they seem in
The shepherd boy wi' bits o' bents
Will turn them up again
And start them where they nimbly went
Along the grassy plain
And such the shepherd boy is found
While lying on the sun crackt ground
2
The lady-bird that seldom stopsFrom climbing all the day
Climbs up the rushes tassle tops
Spreads wings and flies away
He sees them—lying on the grass
Musing the whole day long
And clears the way to let them pass
And sings a nameless song
He watches pismires on the hill
Always busy never still
3
He sees the traveller beetle runWhere thick the grass wood weaves
To hide the black-snail from the sun
He props up plantain leaves
The lady-cows have got a house
Within the cowslip pip
The spider weaving for his spouse
On threads will often slip
So looks and lyes the shepherd boy
The summer long his whole employ—
600
[Swift goes the sooty swallow o'er the heath]
Swift goes the sooty swallow o'er the heathSwifter then skims the cloud rack of the skies
As swiftly flies its shadow underneath
And on his wing the twittering sunbeam lies
As bright as water glitters in the eyes
Of those it passes—'tis a pretty thing
The ornament of meadows—and clear skies
With dingy breast and narrow pointed wing
Its daily twittering is a song to spring.
[The spring comes cheery o'er the Scottish mountains]
1
The spring comes cheery o'er the Scottish mountainsOver the valley and brae O the spring comes cheery
Bright shines the sun o'er the gravel paved fountains
That ripples down mountains sides ne'er seeming weary
Sweet comes the spring cloathing hills wi' green brackan
Sweet the gold sunshine gilds Scotland a' over
Sweet are the songs which the goudspink are making
Which I hear as I go o'er the hills to my lover
2
Bonny Scotch lassie love how shall I woo theeTo clasp thy sweet waist, call thee more than my ain
The look o' thy eye is the light that gaes through me
And leaves heart and soul i' the spirit o' pain
But the smile of thy red lip my ain bonny lassie
Cures pain the severest o' body and mind
We've roamed up the mountain side by the stream's glassy
The pleasures o' love in green places to find
601
3
And pleasure I felt i the charms o' my dearieWhile we closely embraced in that green pleasant place
She blushed like briers bloom but luiked her sen cheery
And her white lily bosom presst close to my face
Do I love thee my Mary thou pink o' creation
She wispered ‘you do’ and she kissed as she spoke
I courted and gave her no sort o' vexation
And we'll soon be none ither than plain married folk
MARGARET
1
The sunday was warm and the blue and brown skippersWhere jumping and dancing along the gold broom
A ganging to Church in sweet shining slippers
I saw bonny Margarette just in her bloom
Her gown was the tartan red checked wi' blue
Her bonnet was straw platted sae small
Her bosom was beating so goodly and true
Her face the red rose—mine white as the wall
2
I wanted to tempt her away from Church booksAnd steal from the Church down the valley to stray
And sit down and court her in sweet pleasant nooks
But she never heard—or had nothing to say
So I kept in her company to the church door
And went in to preaching, and sat by her side
I gazed on her tartan but did nothing moor
Than two or three wishes she might be my bride
602
3
I left the Church seat with my hat in my handAnd kept by her side all the length of the way
I pressed that she would my best thoughts understand
So we took a new path in the valley to stray
Her young maiden innocence and beauty beside
Made me love her so dearly on those sabath hours
That a few weeks of courtship has made her my bride
And she loves me the dearest of wild forest flowers
[The rauk o' the hills & the mist o' the mountains]
1
The rauk o' the hills & the mist o' the mountainsLike the reek o' a pot and the smoke o' a kill
Draws further off still while the round sun is counting
His pulses o' light i' the morning sae still
Saftly and chill comes the breeze o' the ocean
Saft fans the brackin alang the hill side
The vale o' green broom-twigs are a' easy motion
Like a green sea o' waters wi' waves rolling wide
2
O maid o' the mountain here's scenes that would please yeWould ye climb but as high at the break o' the day
Walk wi' me o'er their taps love and make your life easy
And look o'er the ocean mist mealy and grey
Life and its cares will be under our feet love
Like a hawk that is cheated or a foe led astray
We can look on sweet nature in cold or in heat love
Unseen on the mountain tops a' the lang day
603
3
There's the clumps o' rest harrow luv' purple and yellowThere's the bushes o' sweet-briar luscious and sweet
There's the swallow that twitters and fallows his fellow
Like birds o' the ither world under our feet
Come to the mountain tops soon after day break
Where toads canna' climb and birds seldom fly
There's a place i' the rock where a biggin we make
And true love will welcome thy presence with joy
THE PANSEY
1
O how cruel is the fuelThat would give the heart unrest
Murder feelings sweet revealings
Planting daggers in the breast
Tricolored Pansies lovers fancies
How they shine in their bright hue
Shining Beaux in courting cloaths
Happy all the sunday through
2
Love may languish in its anguishPansies they are happy beaux
Sun or rain they feel no pain
Ever in their sunday cloaths
Blue and yellow not their fellow
With them in the garden grows
The sunshine rays sets them a blaze
Pansies Summers happy beaux
604
3
O how cruel is the fuelThat would give the heart unrest
Murder feelings sweet revealings
Planting daggers i' the breast
Tricoloured Pansies Lovers fancies
How they blaze wi' spangled wing
Shining beaux in courting cloaths
Brightest flowers of all the Spring
4
Tricoloured Pansies Lovers fanciesBright and beautiful ye are
Blue and yellow not your fellow
In the garden looks so fair
Yellow Blue if love be true
‘God is Love’ to prove it is
Cropt with Posies—Pinks and roses
Pretty Maidens crop you this
SONG
[The hurly burly wind]
1
The hurly burly windAnd it whirls the wheat about
While its comeing in the ear
And the barley's on the sprout
It whirls the wheat about me
In its suit of sunny green
And my lassie need not doubt me
She's the sweetest ever seen
605
2
Her hair is of the auburnAnd her cheek is of the rose
And my bonny Sarah Ann is
The sweetest flower that grows
Her lips are like the cherry
And her skin is lilly white
Her tongue is ever merry
Her smiles are all delight
3
The hurly-burly windAnd it whirls the wheat about
The billows swab behind
And the headaches scrail without
The bluecaps in the green
Eddie like Butterflies
And nothing still is seen
Where e'er we turn our eyes
4
My love is like the wild sceneHer gown is floating free
And I have like a child been
To seek her company
And I must like a child be
In fancy's to delight
So I walk to see the wild bee
And butterfly till night
606
[When Jenny was here I was seldom alone]
1
When Jenny was here I was seldom aloneHer hand went in mine and her arm on my own
Then her beautiful arm in its green cotton sleave
Was pressed to my side and you cannot beleive
What pleasure I felt—and what pleasure I feel
In thinking on't now though I vainly conceal
My passion pretending I'm talking to flowers
I'm talking to Jane in her innocent hours
2
I loved her when here—in her abscence I loveI'ts warm to my heart as the nest to the dove
At the sunset of even' she'd linger and stay
To see it go down till the night grizzled grey
I think of those kisses when trees left their green
And feel every wisper we uttered unseen
Where I stole the last kiss—here's the white thorn & breer
Though Jenny's long absent the stile is still here
3
I never half told her beneath the green boughThe pleasant love tales as I'm telling of now
I always court better when left to my sell
Sometimes beside her I nothing could tell
I could preach like loves sermon book wandering alone
When the woods look'd so green and I felt her my own
O how I could court her 'neath this setting sun
And succeed all the better than e'er I had done
4
When Jenny was with me how bleated the sheepWhile neath a wild rose bush we both fell asleep
I cropt her a rose in that innocent hour
While a bee stung her face that concealed in the flower
607
And the wind sings the story in that mossy dell
Last Michaelmas Jenny was close to my call
—Now abscent what dreariness hangs over all
SONG
[O Elenor! O Elenor]
1
O Elenor! O ElenorAs sweet as any rose
Thy cherry lip I would prefer
To any flower that blows
I long to kiss thee Elenor
That bonny cheek of thine
Thy cherry lip I do prefer
To all things but divine
Divinest flower save those above thee
I choose thee bonny maid and love thee
2
I choose thee as a maiden fairAnd sweetest of thy kind
Thy rosey cheeks thy dark brown hair
And thy good tempered mind
O Elenor O Elenor
Some mercy on me show
Thy cherry lip I would prefer
To all the flowers that blow
Before thee love I none prefer
My fairest only Elenor
608
3
My Elenor My ElenorI love thy face the best
Love to thy dress clings like a bur
That on thy heart could rest
Of all the blooms of all the trees
Thou art the choicest flower
Without thy smiles I only freeze
Without one welcome hour
But in thy love I'm ever cheery
Then come and give me welcome deary
SONG
[The hay was mown and grounds were cleared]
1
The hay was mown and grounds were clearedAnd flags were green each side the streams
On white thorn bush bell flowers appeared
As white as lillies are in dreams
While I was walking by the streams
With love and health in eather eye
With cheeks as rosey as sunbeams
A country maiden passed me by
2
The hedge rose showed her bonny cheekThe bell flowers hue her lily skin
My fancy eyed her one whole week
And much I tried the maid to win
I wooed her in the morning beams
Beside green flags and rustling reeds
She plucked a bent beside the streams
And bowed her head to count the seeds
609
3
Then plucked a dog rose from the brereThe palest on the bush got she
She got it for her lover dear
For then she had his company
I eyed the maid from top to toe
It was the same the very same
I started in my dream to know
And try to recollect her name
SONG
[In the meadows silk grasses we see the black snail]
1
In the meadows silk grasses we see the black snailCreaping out at the close of the eve sipping dew
While even's one star glitters over the vale
Like a lamp hung outside of that of blue
I walk with my truelove adown the green vale
The light feathered grasses keep tapping her shoe
In the white thorn the nightingale sings her sweet tale
And the blades of the grass are sprinkled with dew
2
If she stumbles I catch her and cling to her neckAs the meadow-sweet kisses the blush of the rose
Her wisper none hears and the kisses I take
The mild hues of Even' will never disclose
Her hair hung in ringlets adown her sweet cheek
That blushed like the brier in the hedge hung with dew
Her wisper was fragrance her face was so meek
The dove was the type on't that from the bush flew
610
SPRING
1
Come gentle Spring and show thy varied greensIn woods and fields and meadows by clear brooks
Come Gentle Spring and bring thy sweetest scenes
Where Peace and solitude the loveliest looks
Where the blue unclouded sky
Spreads the sweetest canopy
And study wiser grows without her books
2
Come hither gentle May and with thee bringFlowers of all colours and the wild briar rose
Come in wind floating drapery and bring
Fragrance and bloom that natures love bestows
Meadow pinks and columbines
Keksies white and Eglantines
And music of the Bee that seeks the rose
611
3
Come gentle Spring and bring thy choicest looksThy bosom graced with flowers thy face with smiles
Come gentle Spring and trace thy wandering brooks
O'er meadow gates and footpath crooked stiles
Come in thy proud and best array
April dews and first of May
And singing birds that come where heaven smiles
CLOCK A CLAY
1
In the cowslips peeps I lyeHidden from the buzzing fly
While green grass beneath me lies
Pearled wi' dew like fishes eyes
Here I lye a Clock a clay
Waiting for the time o' day
2
While grassy forests quake surpriseAnd the wild wind sobs and sighs
My gold home rocks as like to fall
On its pillars green and tall
When the pattering rain drives bye
Clock a Clay keeps warm and dry
612
3
Day by day and night by nightAll the week I hide from sight
In the cowslips peeps I lye
In rain and dew still warm and dry
Day and night and night and day
Red black spotted clock a clay
4
My home it shakes in wind and showersPale green pillar top't wi' flowers
Bending at the wild winds breath
Till I touch the grass beneath
Here still I live lone clock a clay
Watching for the time of day
SONG
[Come weal come woe I care not]
1
Come weal come woe I care notNor fear it not a fly
Though others ills I bear not
They often make me sigh
I'm poor, but not in natures choice
Her laws I always own
I hear her as a mothers voice
And never feel alone
Come weal come woe I never care
The ills of life I gladly bear.
613
2
The spring has clad the land in greenThe daisey opens on the lea
A golden stud in silver sheen
And spreads her choicest gifts for me
I scent the violets breath perfume
Beneath the white-thorn leafing shade
I see and bend me o'er their bloom
And think upon the lovely maid
Come weal come woe I never care
The ills o' life I gladly bear.
3
The knotting bloom is on the thornThe little bird is on its nest
And I've been happy all the morn
Leaning on my true loves breast
A breast as white as any curd
And soft as any pillows are
With voice o' music like the bird
And fair, o' she was more than fair
Come weal come woe I never care
The ills of life I gladly bear.
[The Spring comes clad in green]
1
The Spring comes clad in greenAnd the birds begin to sing
And the Lovers steps have been
Where the primroses spring
614
There the Lovers heedless stray
Where the blue-bell hides its bloom
In the merry month of May
Come sweet Phebe to the green wood shade
Where thou in childhood gathered flowers and played.
2
The Spring comes gladsome greenThe flower's come bright and blue
In meads and woodland shene
And Mary comes as true
There's the spinneys bright blue bells
Phebe's eyes are brown and true
Theres perfume in the cells
And the woods divinely blue
The Muse and music of my song
Is Phebe do not keep me long.
3
I know the secret place for theeThe ivy oak the primrose nook
I know the leaving knotty tree
The blue-bell bright—and brawling brook
Come my Phebe young and kind
To the green wood quickly come
Hear the murmurs of the wind
Seek the primrose sulphur bloom
Sweet faced Phebe hither stray
And be my lover all the day.
615
THE WIND
1
The frolicksome wind through the trees and the bushesKeeps sueing and sobbing and waiving all day
Frighting magpies from trees and from white thorns the thrushes
And waveing the river in wrinkles and spray
The unresting wind is a frolicksome thing
O'er hedges in floods and green fields of the spring
2
It plays in the smoke of the chimney at mornCurling this way and that i' the morns dewy light
It curls from the twitch heap among the green corn
Like the smoke from the cannon i'th' midst of a fight
But report there is none to create any alarm
From the smoke an old ground full hiding meadow & farm
3
How sweet curls the smoke oer the green o' the fieldHow majestic it rolls o'er the face o' the grass
And from the low cottage the elm timbers shield
In the calm o' the evening how sweet the curls pass
I' the sunset how sweet to behold the cot smoke
From the low red brick chimney beneath the dark oak
4
How sweet the wind wispers o' midsummers evesAnd fans the winged elder leaves o'er the old pales
While the cottage smoke o'er them a bright pillar leaves
Rising up and turns clouds by the strength of the gales
616
While dewy eve brings home the labouring folk
SONG
[On a bonny April morning]
1
On a bonny April morningBy the grey and green wood side
Where the blue-bells were adorning
There a pretty girl I spied
Her hair was brown and curling
Her eyes were bright and blue
Where the mossy brook was purling
O I loved the maiden true
2
I loved her fond and tenderAye tenderly and true
So heavens love defend her
A rose half blown i' dew
A blue-bell in the white thorn green
A violet in the shade
The sweetest flower I'd ever seen
Was that all beauteous maid
3
Her face was young and prettyAnd sweetly she could sing
And her bright eye drop't pity
At every cruel thing
The place was full of blue bells
Where that pretty girl I spied
A heaven in the green dells
Hid in this world so wide
617
SONG
[On mossy banks the violets blue]
1
On mossy banks the violets blueSweet smells in white thorn bushes
All beaded wi' the morning dew
Beneath the nests o' thrushes
I love the sunny sweet spring morn
Wheat lands and grounds of clover
I love the fields of sprouting corn
To look at or walk over
One only care remains with me
To sigh for one I cannot see
2
And when I see a pleasant placeI think how lovely she'd be there
And when I see an angel face
Theres something-nothing nigh so fair
I see the white thorn knot for may
The primrose at its mossy root
I hear green linnets on the sprey
Singing when all the rest are mute
But one I love I cannot see
That in such scenes were all to me
3
On mole hill turf by ivied woodsI love to see the springs may dew
Primrosey brooks their crimpled floods
That far into the woods we view
618
The blackbird lining hers wi' grass
The cock-bird with his sooty breast
Singing bye water clear as glass
I love such scenes and there I'm free
To think of one I cannot see
4
In every green and pleasant placeI think of one I may not see
The rosey blooms upon her face
Her eye beams happiness on me
The rushy green the primrose spring
The awthorn hedge the grassy baulk
Where wheatlands in dark places spring
And larks and linnets almost talk
They sing of her I may not see
And there I love their melody
SWEET SPRING
1
The spring it beams sweet on the green linnets wingThe wind ruffles soft on the ring-doves coy breast
And heedless the wild bees on spring blossoms hing
Sweed about by the wind as an unbidden guest
O I love the soft gush of the winds in the spring
And chaffinch in thorn hedges trying to sing
619
2
I love the sweet spring i' the flowers o' the larchCones o' purple rich studding the starry leaves green
They got through the storms and the blusters o' March
And mix with the things that are fair to be seen
I love all the buds and the blossoms that Spring
O'er the earth in her leisure is welcome to bring
3
I love the sweet Spring in its comeing at firstFlowering moss on the wall—swelling bud on the bush
I love the sweet flowers when they come one and all
First note of the c[h]affinch, first song of the thrush
I love the first sights o' the Spring as they come
The green o' the grass and the daisey in bloom
4
The sunbeams that close to the hedges approachPaints the sulphur hued primrose deliciously pale
And pilewort that shines like gold on a broach
And clusters o' violets scenting the gale
I love the first sight o' the Spring's bonny green
Where the lass she goes milking the cows i' the e'en
SONG
[Come we to the Summer, to the Summer we will come]
1
Come we to the Summer, to the Summer we will comeFor the woods are full of blue-bells and the hedges full of bloom
And the crow is on the oak a building of her nest
And love is burning diamonds in my true lovers breast
620
And I will to my true love with a fond request repair
I will look upon her face, I will in her beauty rest
And lay my acheing weariness upon her lovely breast.
2
The clock-a-clay is creeping on the open bloom o' MayThe merry bee is trampling the pinky threads all day
And the chaffinch it is brooding on its grey mossy nest
In the white thorn bush where I will lean upon my lovers breast
I'll lean upon her breast and I'll wisper in her ear
That I cannot get a wink o' sleep for thinking of my dear
I hunger at my meat and I daily fade away
Like the hedge rose that is broken in the heat of the day.
3
Among the white-thorn bushes at the edge of the greenMy Love is doing net work and is lovely to be seen
No cap or bonnet on her hair her comb with pearls inlaid
They shine like diamond drops o' dew upon the lovely maid
Her gown is silk or sattin—its colours red & blue
And her heart beats neath the gloss on't like a pendalum so true
I'll go and clasp a armfull about her bonny breast
And kiss, and ne'er disturb the chaffinch on its nest.
621
MY LOVE
1
My Love is like a pleasant thoughtA first flower of the May
My Love she is a charm unbought
Young, beautiful and gay
My Love she is a dream of joy
More living than a dream
A sweetness nothing would destroy
The sunlight i' the stream
My Love is all and more than these
A pleasant thought that's born to please
2
Than summer flowers her face more sweetThan morning dews her eye more clear
Here hedge-rose and wild woodbines meet
In them I pay her worship here
Wild woodbines streaky hues o' red
Hedge-roses blushing fleshy hue
Carnations glowing in their bed
My Love's as fair and sweet and true
My Love's a thought of more than these
To charm in secret witcheries
3
Sweet pleasant thoughts and happy dreamsMy lovers more o' womans kin
She's even sweeter than she seems
And o' her heart is warm within
622
Warm as the turtle in its nest
As nectar which the wild bees sip
As moles upon her bonny breast
Sweeter than all these visions prove
Is her I worship in first Love
I LOVE THEE
1
I know that I love theeI feel it all o'er me
If wrong, God reprove me
So much to adore thee
I know not the reason, but only I love thee
Around thee, about thee, below and above me
I know that I love and adore thee and now
The soul of my worship's none other than thou
I feel so and know it
There's none other before thee
These verses they show it
That I love and adore thee
2
Thy skin is the marbleAll snowy and white
Thy voice is the warble
Of the song bird of night
I love thee I feel without knowing the reason
Thy blooms like the lily's this beautiful season
Thy face is all beauty thy form I adore
I love thee—no language could ever say more
623
And leave thee O never
'Tis thee I would talk with
And love thee for ever
BALLAD
1
One summer's sunday morningJust by the break o' day
Dew-drops the grass adorning
Shone on the meadow way
I took my mornings rambles
Right early i' the morn
Down the hedge row hung wi' brambles
And o'er fields o' standing corn
2
And there I saw a bonny lassA comeing from the town
And tripping o'er the moist green grass
Bedecked in sunday gown
Why in such haste my bonny lass
And early in the day
At yonder town kind sir she said
I'm going to spend the day
3
The bee was on the buttercupStill clinging fast asleep
The grasshopper awake and up
Was springing in a leap
624
The lark was in the cloud
And gently waved the bright bullrush
Where the lock-pens roared aloud
4
She left the path to let me pass—For reasons just the same
I turned aside among the grass
My face burnt like to shame
The village spire was plainly seen
Some poplar trees behind
The awthorn bush was more then green
That wavered to the wind
5
We went by sheep and grazing stockAnd then we crossed the corn
The gilt hands on the old church clock
Was six that sunny morn
I'd gone too far to wander back
By meadow field and grove
Her tongue was loosed to pleasant clack
And mine was still with love
6
From the brown land the sooty crowFlew up and gave a quark
Magpies from white thorn bush did go
And noised as they would talk.
I stooped down to tie her shoe
And knock her pattens too
'Twas just the pleasant way to woo
What honest love should do
7
She went to see her friends that dayHer mother at the door
Good byed her out o' sight the way
Till we were seen no more
625
What in her bright eye shone
We went the way and passed for two
And both returned as one—
SONG
[I went my Sunday mornings rounds]
1
I went my Sunday mornings roundsOne pleasant summer day
And stood i' the green meadow grounds
'Mong cocks and swaths o' hay
Up the green rush the Lady bird
Clomb to its very tops
And there the crickets songs were heard
Like organs without stops
2
The sun was climbing up the skyA looking glass of gold
It melts and quivers on the eye
And blinds us to behold
Melting and shining to its height
It shines from pole to pole
And sliddering down at dewy night
Goes out a dying coal
3
I stood among the swathes and cocksHow sweet the light did seem
When a sweet lass with inky locks
Came tripping by the stream
626
To ask you why you walk
'Tis merely for my pleasure sir
As you stand there to talk
4
The wind came from the southern skyAnd tokened flying showers
The busy bee and butterfly
Her ribbons took for flowers
The wasp it buzzed about her mouth
Her lips seemed cherries red
The wind shook from the balmy south
The curls about her head
5
Young man she said you'l marry meAnd waited for reply
Why yes my dear but do'nt you see
Love is the stronger tie
And then I kissed her lips and cheeks
And made her merry hearted
I wed the maid in just three weeks
From the first day we parted
THE PINK OF OUR TOWN
1
I've seen the summer morningWith its jewels and its gems
The may the thorn adorning
Like snow upon their stems
627
The violet in the shade
Every sweet wild flower and green bud
But none beats my peerless maid
She's handsomer and fairer
Than flowers of hill and down
My Mary still is rarer
She's the pink of our town
2
Than Mary none's so bonnyThan Mary none's so fair
She's the sweetest face of ony
And beautiful's her hair
Her bosom's like a pillow
Her waist is but a span
She'll never wear the willow
Wi' likeing of a man
No wild flower e're was fairer
Search wood and hill and down
Mary's a flower still rarer
She's the pink of our town
3
O Mary lovely MarySince the first hour we met
My rest has been contrary
I cannot thee forget
I'll love thee and forever
We never can be parted
As flows the undrying river
True love is ne'er deserted
Mary's the fairest, sweetest
I've searched the hill and down
Of flowers she is the neetest
And the pink of our town
628
JERUSALEM
1
And is she now fallenThat city of souls
The land with Gods call on
—Like the planet that rolls
The land that God quickened
Is perished and dead
Her people they sickened
Her Alters are fled
2
Her alters are perishedNo holy hope gives
While the heathen are cherished
And their baal still lives
Gods chosen scorns fingers
Points low in the dust
A remnant still lingers
In iron and rust
3
The Agag's around themHave cut them away
And the heathens confine them
To dungeons a prey
The city of David
The land of the Lord
Like heathens depraved
All fell by the sword
629
4
O Lord God AlmightyOur fallen state see
The queen of the city
Is weeping for thee
Thy temple is fallen
Thy city is gone
And the daughters are calling
To thee when alone
5
Our Mothers are widdowsOur alters o'erthrown
And the Agag's forbid us
To put up a stone
Lord heed us and hear us
Though fallen we're men
We'll see Agag fear us
And our temple agen
6
Our prayer never ceasesBy day or by night
They're all ‘cut in pieces’
Who question thy might
Our speach shall not falter
On mountain or glen
Lord build thy own alter
Of our city agen
630
[Take back the rose nor let it wither]
1
Take back the rose nor let it witherOn heart so cold as mine
Yet once my love when seen together
Both would have been divine
But since my hopes are crushed & blighted
I've little love for flowers
My love for thee shall be requited
In warmer climes than ours
When hearts shall join and be united
In stronger types than flowers
2
The fairest flower but blooms to witherThe sweetest summers fly
But two fond hearts when joined together
In true love—never die
The rose it is the summers flower
It blooms in Lapland too
And comes to me in sorrows hour
Though given love by you
It comes to me without the power
To feel it or be true
3
I cannot bear to crop a flowerAnd see it die away
The rose perfumes the summer hour
Too lovely to decay
I'd rather chuse one on the tree
To bloom my summer guest
Than let one fade and die from thee
On my abandoned breast
631
This love song speaks the rest
Augst 26th/48
THE MILKMAID
1
The months have nearly traveled roundAnd wound the bottom of the year
All splashy is the greensward ground
Half full the waggon ruts appear
The maple green to pale gold turns
The hazel leaves blood red
The ring-dove on the odd oak mourns
As if his mate where dead
2
The pretty milkmaid picks her wayO'er fields and closes many a one
Sweet as the hedge rose on the spray
Where all the rest are shook and gone
By the round stack she milks her cows
Beside the broad ash pollard tree
Leaves drop off yellow i' the sloughs
And weary drones the last odd bee
3
Sweet smells the fallen leaves and grassThe fairy rings o' darker hue
Sweet is the song of milking lass
In field and close she wanders through
The green woodpecker swoops and squeaks
From one small hole in the ash tree
Red is the ploughboys chubby cheeks
—Wet stubbles rustle sweet to me
632
4
Red is the milkmaids elbows nowAnd beautifully turned her arm
Green o'er her head the oak tree bough
Hums the wild winds music charm
The milkmaid is a lovely thing
Close to her bonnet swoop the crows
She loves to see their sooty wing
Their fanning wings at days bright close
5
The magpie broods have saucy tonguesThey rag her the two closes through
The blackbird gives her sweeter songs
Hedge sparrows they will charm her too—
With sudden starts along the hedge
Her shoes are sullied o'er with dew
She walks beside the dykes o' sedge
The sweetest rose that ever grew
SONG
[Maiden with that sunny brow]
1
Maiden with that sunny browSmile my love and cheer me now
For my heart is left alone
And my life is chilled to stone
Rose tinged cheek and breast of snow
Hear me now before you go
How doatingly I love you
633
2
By the sunbeams shed from highBy the blue ethereal sky
That blesses you where 'e'er you go
And gives those eyes the brightest glow
Ah hear the words I have to say
Spoken on this summers day
I only look to love thee
3
Maiden with that dark brown hairCheeks rose tinged and bosom fair
Red lips and nose so acquiline
Dress so neat and shape divine
Hear me as I bless thee so
Hear my vows before I go
How through my life I'll love thee
4
Sweet is the rose tinge steeped in dewSweet is the evenings gold and blue
Sweet flies the swallow o'er the plain
Sweet smells the sweetbriar after rain
Let me kiss before you go
That cheek—and bosom like the snow
I'll ever ever love thee
WHAT IS LOVE
1
What is Love but pains disguiseThat dares not tell its secret pain
That ever shrinks from hearts replies
And tries to be himself again
634
That tries to keep his thoughts unknown
And in the green of Solitude
Keeps loves dear bondage all his own
2
There is but one in all the worldSearch earth or ocean clouds or air
With rosey cheek and ringlets curled
That seems to him so passing fair
Grace in her motion—music speaks
When e'er she talks or binds her hair
The fairest rose blooms on her cheeks
Her breasts the whitest lilies wear
3
The Poet is a silent thingA man in love none knoweth where
He sees her in the boiling spring
At even on the blooming brere
He hears her in the songs of birds
He sees her in the evening sky
A shepherdess among the herds
A milkmaid wi' the grazing kye
THE GIPSEY LASS
1
Just like berry brown is my bonny lassie OAnd in the smokey camp lives my bonny lassie O
Where the scented woodbine weaves
Round the white thorns glossy leaves
The sweetest maid on earth is my Gipsey lassie O
635
2
The brook it runs so clear by my bonny lassie OAnd the blackbird singeth near my bonny lassie O
And there the wild briar rose
Wrinkles the clear stream as it flows
By the smokey camp of my bonny lassie O
3
The ground lark singeth high o'er my bonny lassie OThe nightingale lives nigh my gipsey lassie O
They're with her all the year
By the brooks that run so clear
And there's none in all the world like my gipsey lassie O
4
With a bosom like as snow is my Gipsey lassie OWith a foot like the roe is my bonny lassie O
Like the sweet birds she will sing
While echo it will ring
Sure there's none in the world like my bonny lassie O
SCOTLAND
1
On the bleak hills o' Scotland my fancy reposesWhere the thistle blooms fairer than lilies or roses
The mountains o' mist and the dells o' brown bracken
Are dear to my childhood that land o Gods makin'
The scream o' the eagle, the loud water fall
Is dear to my manhood in freedom and thrall
Its tempests was music its cataracts joy
The music of nature I loved as a boy
636
2
Proud land o cakes and free born mountaineersWi' their blue thistle caps that scarce cover their ears
Wi' their short tartan petticoats half down the thigh
They're the bravest o' steel blades I ever came nigh
The Bannockburn kittle blades dinna ye learn
Ye'll never earn bread if the thistle ye spurn
So here's a gude health to auld Scotlands red thistle
Ane he that winna drink that may gae whistle
3
Auld Scotland the land o' the thistle and braveThe refuge for freedom her birth-place and grave
But we'll stick to her thistle and ever contrive
To give mountain welcome and keep her alive
The white mountain rose in her cap it will bloom
And give us Scotch welcome wherever we come
So here's health to auld Scotland the brave and the free
Her mountains and Glens are the dwellings for me
FOR MISS B---LL
1
Just like love is mans desireNow the thorn and then the briar
Wounds but never kills desire
Just like Love
2
On he journey's ever onSorrow soon as past is gone
Kisses make the world his own
Such is love
637
3
Just like love the wild hedge roseBlushing in the thorns it blows
Wounds its worshipers repose
The lot of love
4
True love lies bleeding every hourStill 'tis heavens eternal flower
Blooming by the lovers bower
Eternal love
5
Sun's may lower and storms may riseHeaven and earth may loose their skies
Yet naught shall dim in those bright eyes
That truely love
6
Love blooms in brightest flowersLove spreads the greenest bowers
The heaven of lifes hours
Is one true love
GREEN HILLS OF NATURE
1
Green hills of nature again I seeThe pilewort returns to the hum of the bee
Again I sit on your verdant swells
And listen to the shake of the cowslip bells
638
Within each golden vest
Like light in either eye
Or the mole on womans breast
While thrushes sing to cheer the spring
And charm from east to west
2
Green hills of nature again I seeThe dews on the flower and the leaf on the tree
Again I retire to your valleys and swells
And listen the hum o' the bees like bells
That sing round the pilewort suns
And bow like weighty things
Cowslips where the water runs
And the bee for honey clings
The bright green grass the sky like glass
And the brook with the chrystal springs
3
Come dear Amanda come with meAgain the delights o' the spring to see
Where the valley warps and the green hills swell
Hear the bees hum round the cowslips bell
With thy bonny face so fair
And thy sweet hazel eye
With thy long auburn hair
And thy lips vermil dye
I'll kiss thy dear cheek to the end of the week
For Amanda's my only joy
639
JEWISH MAIDS
1
O I love the dark eyes of the Jewish maidsLand of Israels diadems
Though their lot it be fallen in ruinous shades
They shine in the valley bright gems
By the plains of Jeosophat sweet they recline
Where the temples of God are no more
Like flowers from high heaven they blossom divine
Though the reign of their prophet is o'er
2
O I love the soft eyes of the dark Jewish maidsOn the plains of Jeosophat weeping
Gods image of beauty in ruins dark shades
While their land in its miseries sleeping
Their temples are fallen their alters o'erthrown
Jerusalems the song singers story
Their kings and their Princess's in toombs dead & gone
Where the weeds rankle high o'er their glory
3
O I love the dark eyes of the Jewish maidsThough their kingdom is perished and fled
Perrenial their bloom in their beautiful shades
Though they dwell in the tombs of the dead
I love the dark eyes of those beautiful girls
New Jerusalem shall know them again
They shall shine round their alters like diamonds & pearls
In Jehovah their love shall remain
640
A WISH
1
I wish I was the bonny thrushThat in the hazel sings
Hid i' the crimpt leaved stoven bush
Where blue the air bell springs
I wish I was the little flower
Beneath the mossy tree
I might enjoy one happy hour
A creeping strawberry
2
I hate to hear the vulgar crowdThe language of the vain
I'd sooner stiffen in a shroud
Upon the battle plain
My garden then would gather weeds
My children look and sigh
The tear drops on the book I read
While I in prison lie
3
I wish I was the garden peaBeneath the cottage thatch
That I my childrens joy might see
And all their pleasures watch
Or butterfly upon the wing
Their little sports to help
The sweetest birds that ever sing
Are their house sparrows chelp
641
4
While they laid down their little headsI'd sleep in blebs o' dew
And hear them talking in their beds
The starry season through
And see them in the morning charm
Stand 'mong the flowers so cool
And take their baskets on their arm
And creep like snails to school
5
O I would be an insectIn woods and thickets lone
An idle thing of solitude
To lewder life unknown
Hid in the bosom of a flower
Its lifetime there to dwell
Eternity would seem an hour
And I'd be resting well
SONG O how can I be blythe and free
1
O how can I be blythe and freeWhile thou art from my side
There's more in one kind smile from thee
Than all the world beside
642
2
Falshood is not in natures choiceNor is it found in thee
Thy lovely form thy angel voice
And temper all agree
3
To form and make thee what thou artThe fairest of the fair
A handsome face a gentle heart
Which love would long to wear
4
O how can I be blythe and freeWhile thou art from my side
There's more in one kind smile from thee
Than all the world beside
SEARCH FOR LOVE
1
I trace every blossom that grows in the fieldTo remember the likeness of love
The woodbine that streaks by the cow hovel bield
And blooms round the nest of the dove
The hedge rose that spreads all its blushes to view
Which the morn's pearly diamonds adorns
An emblem of love and a picture too true
A rose all surrounded with thorns
643
2
The wood-flowers were blooming above the green mossSome under the song-thrushes nest
Morning dews did their beautiful colours emboss
But love the green moss hadn't press't
Neath the wood rose and bramble wood anemonies grew
And the orchis grew richly and rare
The rich drooping blossoms were heavy with dew
But young love had never been there
3
The fir dale grew tall upon old Clifford hillAt its foot the crooked river runs bye
Birds and wild flowers live, fly and blossom there still
In solitude silence and joy
The fir-dales looked rich and loves sweet bonny face
Natures fancy full easy discerns
Her likeness was hid in that green shady place
I' the beauty of Juliet Burns
SONG
[Who loves the white thorn tree]
1
Who loves the white thorn treeAnd the river running free
There a maiden stood with me
In summer weather
644
While the sun went brightly down
O'er the meadows green and brown
We stood and loved together
2
How sweet her drapery flowedWhile the moor-cock oddly crowed
The kiss which love bestowed
Under that white thorn tree
Soft winds the water curled
The trees their branches furled
Sweetest nook in all the world
Is where she stood with me
3
Calm came the evening airThe sky was sweet and fair
I' the river shadowed there
Close by the awthorn tree
Round her neck I clasped my arms
And kissed her rosey charms
O'er the flood the Hackle swarms
Where the maiden stood wi' me
4
O there's something falls so dearOn the music of the ear
Where the river runs so clear
And my lover met wi' me
At the foot of Clifford Hill
Still I hear the clacking mill
And the river's running still
Under the trysting awthorn tree
645
SONG Chelmsford Maid
1
'Twas on a summer's morningI happened for to stray
When the farmers got the corn in
All by the break of day
Down the bonny Che[l]msford meadows
By the river running clear
There I met a modest maiden
In that gay time of the year
2
O bonny was her rosey faceAnd handsome was her gown
The sweetest girl in any place
The fairest in the town
Her eyes were dark like waters deep
When black clouds pass the sun
And o'er her gown two white hills peep
Like snow when springs begun
3
Her bosom's like a heap of snowAmong springs early flowers
Or lilys that in bunches grow
Among the rosey bowers
O bonny maid of Chelmsford town
Thy beauty is divine
There's many a breast as soft as down
But few so fair as thine
646
4
Her face is as the apple roundAnd reddens to the sun
When passing bye I see the ground
With heart already won
I passed her on one morn in May
Her eyes were looking down
And then my heart was ta'en away
By that rose of Chelmsford town
JANE W---N
1
Long as bees fly to seek the roseThat blooms upon the briar
As pilewort on the pasture grows
To set the green on fire
So long as may blooms deck the thorn
And cowslips gild the lea
My Jane the fairest maiden born
I'll love and think of thee
2
While in the thorn hedge sparrows buildAnd lay their eggs of blue
While primrose flowers the green woods gild
I'll love and think of you
The morn dews hang in christal drops
Primrose and blue bell too
We'll make the trembling gems to stop
But a sweeter gem are you
647
3
Let nights be short my bonny JaneAnd morning walks be long
The bee bangs at the window pane
And bids thee join his song
Come walk with me and while the bee
Goes singing down the lane
I'll cheat him of a flower for thee
And dearly love my Jane
SONG
[O'er the emerald meads I wandered]
1
O'er the emerald meads I wanderedIn the sunny afternoon
Where the rivers flood meandered
And the John-go-to-bed at noon
Shut up among the grass
As the eve was comeing nigh
There I saw a bonny lass
Wi' kindness in her eye
2
I' gown o' buff and spencer blackThe maid was neatly dresst
And sweetly went the summer rack
Soft over heavens breast
She went along the meadow grass
Like beauty in a dream
And lightly stepped the happy lass
And gently flowed the stream
648
3
I saw her in my memories eyeAn half an hour or more
Yet never saw a tree or sky
Look half so sweet before
The rustling flags and water-birds
And pleasant looking weather
Like pleasant thoughts and wispering words
When lovers talk together
4
They talked to me while standing thereAnd laughed and giggled too
And warmly gleamed the summer air
The sky was bright and blue
How sweet she o'er the meadow went
Like pleasures i' the mind
And scarcely bowed that horney bent
And scarcely stirred the wind
5
But in my heart and in my breastA burning spirit came
Her abscence leaves a wild unrest
Just like a sco[r]ching flame
That burns the aching breast
She passt and cometh not again
Who went the meadow way
My brightest fancy looks in vain
E'er since that pleasant day
6
In gown o' buff she passed me byeAlong the meadow way
And lovely was the autumn sky
And pleasant was the day
649
The maids buff coloured gown
The church tower in the trees is set
And that points to the town
CLARE TO HIS WIFE
1
O once I had a true loveAs bless't as I could be
Young Patty was my turtle dove
And Patty she loved me
We walked the fields together
By wild roses and woodbine
In summers sunshine weather
And Patty she was mine
2
We stooped to gather primrosesAnd violets white and blue
In pastures and green closes
All blistered wi' the dew
We sat upon green mole hills
Among the daisey flowers
To hear the small birds merry thrills
And share the sunny hours
650
3
The blackbird on her grassy nestWe would not scare away
Who nuzzling sat wi' scorchy breast
On her eggs for half the day—
The chaffinch cheep'd on the white thorn
And a pretty nest had she
The magpie chattered all the morn
From her nest upon the tree
4
And I would go to Patty's cotAnd Patty came to mine
As happy in each others thought
As birds at Valentine
And Patty had a kiss to give
And Patty had a smile
To bid me hope and bid me live
At every stopping stile
5
We loved one summer quite awayAnd when another came
The cowslip close and sunny day
It found us much the same
We both looked on the self same thing
Till both became as one
The birds did in the hedges sing
And happy time went on
6
The brambles from the hedge advanceIn love wi' Patty's eyes
On flowers like lady's at a dance
Flew scores of butterflies
I claimed a kiss at every stile
And had her kind replies
The bees did round the woodbines toil
Where sweet the small wind sighs
651
7
Then my Patty was a young thingAnd now she's past her teens
And we've been married many springs
And mixed in many scenes
And I'll be true for Patty's sake
And she'll be true for mine
And I this little ballad make
To be her valentine
Oct. 20th/48
CHILDHOOD
1
O dear to us ever the scenes of our childhoodThe green spots we played in the school where we met
The heavy old desk where we thought of the wild-wood
Where we pored o'er the sums which the master had set
I loved the old church-school, both inside and outside
I loved the dear Ash trees and sycamore too
The graves where the Buttercups burning gold outvied
And the spire where pelitory dangled and grew
2
The bees i' the wall that were flying aboutThe thistles the henbane and mallows all day
And crept in their holes when the sun had gone out
And the butterfly ceased on the blossoms to play
O dear is the round stone upon the green hill
The pinfold hoof printed with oxen—and bare
The old princess-feather tree growing there still
And the swallows and martins wheeling round in the air
652
3
Where the chaff whipping outward lodges round the barn doorAnd the dunghill cock struts with his hens in the rear
And sings ‘Cockadoodle’ full twenty times oer
And then claps his wings as he'd fly in the air
And there's the old cross with its round about steps
And the weathercock creaking quite round in the wind
And theres the old hedge with its glossy red heps
Where the green-linnets nest I have hurried to find—
4
—To be in time for the school or before the bell rung.There's the odd martins nest o'er the shoemakers door
On the shoemakers chimney the Old swallows sung
That had built and sung there in the season before
Then we went to seek pooty's among the old furze
On the heaths, in the meadows beside the deep lake
And return'd with torn cloathes all covered wi' burrs
And oh what a row my fond mother would make
5
Then to play boiling kettles just by the yard doorSeeking out for short sticks and a bundle of straw
Bits of pots stand for teacups after sweeping the floor
And the children are placed under school-mistress's awe
There's one set for pussy another for doll
And for butter and bread they'll each nibble an awe
And on a great stone as a table they loll
The finest small teaparty ever you saw
6
The stiles we rode upon ‘all a cock-horse’The mile a minute swee
On creaking gates—the stools o' moss
What happy seats had we
There's nought can compare to the days of our childhood
The mole-hills like sheep in a pen
Where the clodhopper sings like the bird in the wild wood
All forget us before we are men
Oct. 15th/48
653
[O could I be as I have been]
1
O could I be as I have beenAnd ne'er can be no more
A harmless thing in meadows green
Or on the wild sea shore
2
O could I be what once I wasIn heaths and valleys green
A dweller in the summer grass
Green fields and places green
3
A tennant of the happy fieldsBy grounds of wheat and beans
By gipsey's camps and milking bield
Where lussious woodbine leans
4
To sit on the deserted ploughLeft when the corn was sown
In corn and wild weeds buried now
In quiet peace unknown
5
The harrows resting by the hedgeThe roll within the Dyke
Hid in the Ariff and the sedge
Are things I used to like
6
I used to tread through fallow landsAnd wade through paths of grain
When wheat ears pattered on the hands
And head-aches left a stain
654
7
I wish I was what I have beenAnd what I was could be
As when I roved in shadows green
And loved my willow tree
8
To gaze upon the starry skyAnd higher fancies build
And make in solitary joy
Loves temple in the field
[Farewell to love and all I see]
Farewell to love and all I see
In these dull English skies
For all the world turns round wi' me
Lost in thy two bright eyes
In these dull English skies
For all the world turns round wi' me
Lost in thy two bright eyes
So fare-thee-well—a lover lost
I go where none can blame
And dearly shall I rue the cost
And scarcely keep a name
I go where none can blame
And dearly shall I rue the cost
And scarcely keep a name
The little flowers and wild birds song
I leave them far away
In other lands and other tongues
A lonely bard to stray
I leave them far away
In other lands and other tongues
A lonely bard to stray
In other lands I'll think of thee
Nor mortal love adore
The north star must its temple be
Where nought can change no more
Nor mortal love adore
The north star must its temple be
Where nought can change no more
655
MARY
A Ballad
1
Love is past and all the restThereto belonging fled away
The most esteemed and valued best
Are faded all and gone away
How beautiful was Mary's dress
While dancing at the meadow ball
—'Tis twenty years or more at least
Since Mary seemed the first of all
2
Lord how young bonny Mary burntWith blushes like the roses hue
My face like water thrown upon't
Turned white as lilies i' the dew
When grown a man I went to see
The school where Mary's name was known
I looked to find it on a Tree
But found it on a low grave stone
3
Now is past—was this the nowIn fine straw-hat and ribbons gay
I'd court her neath the white thorn bough
And tell her all I had to say
But all is gone—and now is past
And still my spirits chill alone
Loves name that perished in the blast
Grows mossy on a church-yard stone
Novr. 11th/48.
656
SLEEP ON DEAR BABY
1
Sleep on dear baby thy mother leans o'er theeThy brother is Shot and thy father's at sea
I nothing can tell o' the fate all before thee
But God and his angels are talking to thee
Thy brother he fell in the heat o' the battle
Thy father may yet be alive on the sea
But thou'rt growing up for new toys & a rattle
For God and his angels are talking to thee
2
Sleep on my baby thy mother bends o'er theeSleep on in her love babe a beautiful sleep
May the raptures of heaven and angels before thee
Make thee smile in my face and leave no cause to weep
This feather held oer thee will make thee to smile
This straw took away love would make thee to weep
But nothing but angels on infancy smile
So baby sleep on love in beautiful sleep
SONG
[If abscence can forget me]
1
If abscence can forget meGo where love once met thee
And loved so fondly there
We both admired together
When we courted in spring weather
And thyself appeared so fair
657
2
With kisses I carressed theeAs in my arms I press'd thee
Go and remember me
Remember him who told thee
Twas pleasure to behold thee
Beneath the hawthorn tree
3
O think of our embracesAs I kissed that first of faces
T'was neath that hawthorn tree
Think when my arms clasped round thee
You vowed you e're could love me
Now go remember me
4
O think of all I told theeAnd think I'm left so lonely
Go and remember me
The willow grey were waving
The little brook was raving
Where last I met with thee
5
‘Met last’—two words so lonelyMay pain my bosom only
To be estranged from thee
Alone among strange faces
Strange town and stranger places
O go remember me
658
SONG
[Here's the aconite a showing flower]
1
Here's the aconite a showing flowerBefore the valentine
Of every day there is an hour
Sweet spring I'll claim as thine
I see thee when the first flower comes
And love thee while I can
I see thee when the wild bee hums
And think of Mary Ann
2
The snowdrops in the orchard grassAs white as clumps of snow
Drooping—tell thee lovely lass
That winter's strife must go
With all his snow storms drifting deep
No longer to trepan
The snowdrop wakes the hive bees sleep
And I love Mary Ann
3
The first of young springs early hoursMy bonny love is she
The fairest rose in summer bowers
Is not so sweet as thee
My love she is a bonny lass
And I'll seek her when I can
The first white daisey in the grass
Brings me with Mary Ann—
659
SONG To J*** — W***** —
1
The gnats danced o'er the waters clearAnd clacking went the mill
And open was the rosey brere
That scents upon the hill
And merrily the swallow swims
Home hums the weary bee
The sun is lessening and declines
Behind the willow tree
2
And I'm sweet Jenney going to seeThat lives behind the hill
Where she can hear as well as me
The clacking of the mill
The blue fly settles on the dock
Then swiftly flies away
The sheep boy does the cuckoo mock
While rolling taws of clay
3
O my Jenney is a young thingLike blossoms seen in brooks
The primrose o' the early spring
Is nothing like her looks
The snow-flake fair o' ember week
The sweet-briar of the rill
The white-red of My Jenneys cheek
Is sweeter, fairer still
660
4
The gnats dance o'er the waters clearAnd clacking goes the mill
And open is the rosey brere
That blossoms on the hill
Like dirty unthawed snow the sheep
Lie heaps about the lands
Im going my Jenneys trist to keep
For 'tis as she demands—
SONG
['Twas somewhere in the April time]
1
'Twas somewhere in the April timeNot long before the May
A sitting on a bank o' thyme
I heard a maiden say
My truelove is a sailor
And e're he went away
We spent a year together
And here my lover lay—
2
The gold furze were in blossomSo was the daisey too
The dew pearls on the little flowers
Were emeralds in hue
On this same summer morning
Though then the sabath day
He cropt me spring polanthuses
Beneath the white thorn may
661
3
He crop't me spring polanthusesAnd said if they would keep
They'd tell me all loves fusses
For dews on them did weep
And I did weep at parting
Which lasted all the week
And when he turned for starting
My full heart could not speak
4
The same roots grow polanthus flowersBeneath the same haw tree
I cropt them in morns dewy hours
And here loves offerings be
O come to me my sailor beau
And ease my aching breast
The storms shall cease to rave & blow
And here thy life find rest
SONG
[In the gloaming o' moonlight so soft and so dreary]
1
In the gloaming o' moonlight so soft and so drearyWhere the Nightingale sang in the old whitethorn tree
Clear loud and strong while the sky looked so starry
It seems full of spirits the fa[r]ther we see
With a light pocket handkerchief round her new cap
Round her neck the white apron to shield her from dew
I stood with young Elenor near the thorn gap
Where her bonny white bosom beat warmly and true
662
2
In the gloaming of moonlight how sweet to be thereAmong the green bushes that dark shadows throw
Standing with sweetheart so bonny and fair
To see the sweet blushes all mantle and go
There I stood with my Elenor just in her bloom
Her face was as fair as the may on the thorn
And the woodbine behind her was shedding perfume
And there I and Elenor met the next morn
3
Her hair hung like shadows all curly and darkHer face warmed like dog roses under the dew
Her soft eyes were rubies and each had a spark
That shewed her fond bosom was loveing and true
No joy was like courting that maiden at night
When moonlight was wispering about to the flowers.
'Twas then I kissed Elenor by that pale light
And loved her so dear in those innocent hours
SONG
[O sweet are the smiles of my light hearted Phebe]
1
O sweet are the smiles of my light hearted PhebeAs she goes milking journeys o'er meadow and more
She'd make ye grow dizzy as nectar o' Hebe
Though ye ne're had a drop of the licquor before
As sweet are her cheeks as the crimson eye'd morning
That open their lids on the dewy pearled hill
Than violet and primrose the coppice adorning
Her eyes and her cheeks are more lovelier still
663
2
Her bosom seems softer than softest of pillowsThe softest of down's not so white as its hue
The snowy rimmed daisey laughing under the willows
Is dull when compared to't—tho pearly wi' dew
O dear what a face and a bosom has Pheby
The violets and lily's were never so fair
If maidens could all be such beauties as she be
I'd throw down my pen and give way to despair
3
But none seem so lovely and handsome as PhebyAnd none shew such faces bright eyes and fine hair
I praised her red cheeks—my heart jumped to hear Pheby
She said you may kiss the first rose you see there
I kissed her and felt like an infant gone ‘beeby’
And pressed that sweet rose as long as I dare
So I kissed the cheek once of my innocent Pheby
And we hope to be one by the end of the year—
SONG
[Sweet love I see the gales of Spring]
1
Sweet love I see the gales of SpringAre wanton, wooing with thy hair
The missle thrush begins to sing
The sloe tree shews its blossoms fair
The white thorn bush is shewing leaf
The path is printed down the lane
The grass is green the shower brief
Come love now let us meet again
664
2
O let us meet and walk and loveAnd through the fir dale coppice stray
And view the scaley cones above
Droop brown as dropping all the way
The moss that warms the primrose roots
The buds their brimstone flowers contain
Where all unchecked the wood rose shoots
Sweet love do let us meet again
3
In hat of straw and russet gownAnd shawl across thy shoulders thrown
We'll stroll the coppice up and down
Enjoying raptures all our own
The scolding calls of noisy jay
Shall please our ears and not in vain
We'll through the briery coppice stray
Sweet love do let us meet again—
[Some pretty face remembered in our youth]
Some pretty face remembered in our youthSeems ever with us wispering Love & Truth—
Augst 27th/48
| The later poems of John Clare | |