 | The high-top sweeting And Other Poems |  |
141
A PILLOW OF ROSES.
My home is afar from the town and its jar,
Where cool country breezes are blowing;
Where birds, unafraid, warble soft in the shade,
And beauty and bounty are growing.
No flatterers woo me, no lovers pursue,
So peace in my cottage reposes;
My days glide along like the flow of a song,
And I dream on a pillow of roses;
Ah, never a sleep is so balmy and deep,
No eyelid so happily closes,
As hers who lies down without kingdom or crown
To dream on a pillow of roses!
Where cool country breezes are blowing;
Where birds, unafraid, warble soft in the shade,
And beauty and bounty are growing.
No flatterers woo me, no lovers pursue,
So peace in my cottage reposes;
My days glide along like the flow of a song,
And I dream on a pillow of roses;
Ah, never a sleep is so balmy and deep,
No eyelid so happily closes,
As hers who lies down without kingdom or crown
To dream on a pillow of roses!
The fur of the ermine is costly and rare,
And royalty claims it to robe her;
And buoyant as air are the gossamers fair
That silver the grass in October;
But neither would spread so delightful a bed
To solace the world-weary comer,
As roses, which grew in the sunshine and dew,
And stole all the sweet of the summer.
Ah, never a sleep is so balmy and deep,
No eyelid so happily closes,
As hers who lies down without kingdom or crown
To dream on a pillow of roses!
And royalty claims it to robe her;
And buoyant as air are the gossamers fair
That silver the grass in October;
But neither would spread so delightful a bed
To solace the world-weary comer,
As roses, which grew in the sunshine and dew,
And stole all the sweet of the summer.
142
No eyelid so happily closes,
As hers who lies down without kingdom or crown
To dream on a pillow of roses!
The down of the eider is dainty and soft
In her nest by the boreal billow,
By covetous mariners plundered too oft
For a monarch's luxurious pillow;
But the rest of a queen is not always serene,
And a king upon thorns oft reposes;
How gladly they 'd lay down the sceptre to-day
To dream on my pillow of roses!
Ah, never a sleep is so balmy and deep,
No eyelid so happily closes,
As hers who lies down without kingdom or crown
To dream on a pillow of roses!
In her nest by the boreal billow,
By covetous mariners plundered too oft
For a monarch's luxurious pillow;
But the rest of a queen is not always serene,
And a king upon thorns oft reposes;
How gladly they 'd lay down the sceptre to-day
To dream on my pillow of roses!
Ah, never a sleep is so balmy and deep,
No eyelid so happily closes,
As hers who lies down without kingdom or crown
To dream on a pillow of roses!
| The high-top sweeting And Other Poems | |