 | Early and late poems of Alice and Phoebe Cary |  |
THE OLD MAN WHO WOULD A-WOOING GO.
Mistress lady-lark, mistress lady-lark,
Fly up, fly out of the furrow!
And strip your two round shoulders stark,
For I your wings would borrow.
Ere the east has got a rosy mark,
I must bid my love good-morrow.
Fly up, fly out of the furrow!
And strip your two round shoulders stark,
For I your wings would borrow.
Ere the east has got a rosy mark,
I must bid my love good-morrow.
Mistress violet, mistress violet,
I want your tender and true eyes!
For mine are as cold and as black as jet,
And I want your heavenly blue eyes!
Modest violet, maiden violet,
Pray, can I borrow your blue eyes?
I want your tender and true eyes!
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And I want your heavenly blue eyes!
Modest violet, maiden violet,
Pray, can I borrow your blue eyes?
Mistress nightingale, mistress nightingale,
I want to borrow your fair tongue,
For I have to sing a sweeter tale
Than ever you in the air sung;
Melodious mistress nightingale,
Be still, and lend me your fair tongue!
I want to borrow your fair tongue,
For I have to sing a sweeter tale
Than ever you in the air sung;
Melodious mistress nightingale,
Be still, and lend me your fair tongue!
Master redbreast, robin redbreast,
Whose note has so oft my day cheered,
You wear the color my love loves best—
Will you lend it to a graybeard?
Oh, stay, my little man, stay in your nest,
And make me brave for a graybeard!
Whose note has so oft my day cheered,
You wear the color my love loves best—
Will you lend it to a graybeard?
Oh, stay, my little man, stay in your nest,
And make me brave for a graybeard!
Master golden-bill, master golden-bill,
Come speak, and tell me whether
You will lend, to make me a quill,
A hollow silver feather?
A letter with love I have to fill—
Say, shall we write together?
Come speak, and tell me whether
You will lend, to make me a quill,
A hollow silver feather?
A letter with love I have to fill—
Say, shall we write together?
| Early and late poems of Alice and Phoebe Cary | |