Poems, partly of rural life, (in national English.) ::

How fresh the air, how soft the light,
That fann'd the cheeks and fill'd the sight,
When Robert, in the evening, met
His Jane before the sun had set,
Or gath'ring dews had fall'n to wet
The jasmine by the house's side,
Or dark'ning twilight came to hide
From his fond sight,
In airy night,
Sweet Whitburn water's green and white.

For climbing plants with flow'rs and leaves
Hid all the wall from ground to eaves;
And stems of snow-white lilies plied,
Wind-shaken, by the lawn spread wide
And long before the house's side;

And snow-white geese, with quiv'ring tails,
Were cackling by the snow-white rails,
And filled the sight,
In summer light,
With lively hues of green and white.

A snow-white bridge of trusty planks
Bore Robert o'er the brook's green banks,
Above the ribbon'd sedge's stalk,
And water sparkling on the chalk;
And when young Jenny took her walk
On Sunday evenings, in the height
Of summer, she was all in white;
And walk'd in mien
A stately queen,
In Whitburn water's white and green.

The appletrees with snow-white bloom
O'erspread the grassy orchard's gloom,
And hawthorns open'd to the heat,
In ev'ry hedge, their snow-white sheet;
And where she walk'd with light-shod feet,
The daisy-buds, not yet conceal'd
By grass, bespangled all the field;
While May's warm light,
Had thus bedight,
All Whitburn with its green and white.

But Robert had to go away
From Jenny, on from June till May;
And coming back he found her wan,
With black instead of white put on
For both the old folk that were gone,
And underneath their grassy heap
And chalk-white headstone lay asleep;
Betok'ning right,
To others' sight,
Their love of Whitburn's green and white.

But they, poor souls, could only save
Enough to take them to the grave,
And so left Jane, with tearful pray'r,
Behind, to God's unfailing care.
But Robert took her soon to share
The joys and trials of his life,
His everfaithful-hearted wife,
So dear's the light,
To his fond sight,
For olden days of green and white.

And so he went away and took
The little farm at Whitburn brook;

And train'd the jasmine round the door,
And kept the green as 'twas before,
With all the railings painted o'er
Snow-white, and red-legg'd geese to swim
The stream, or tread its weedy brim;
That so the light,
May give his sight,
Dear Whitburn's hues of green and white.

University of Virginia Library

WHITBURN'S GREEN AND WHITE.