Tune–Luther’s Chorale“Ein’ feste burg ist unser Gott” I Of old our City hath renown.Of God are her foundations,Wherein this day a King we crownElate among the nations.Acknowledge, then, thou King–And you, ye people, sing–What deeds His arm hath wrought:Yea, let their tale be taughtTo endless generations. II So long, so far, Jehovah guidesHis people’s path […]

Who lives in suit of armour pentAnd hides himself behind a wall,For him is not the great event,The garland nor the Capitol.And is God’s guerdon less than they?Nay, moral man, I tell thee Nay:Nor shall the flaming forts be wonBy sneaking negatives alone,By Lenten fast or Ramazan;But by the challenge proudly thrown–Virtue is that becrowns […]

Down in the street the last late hansoms goStill westward, but with backward eyes of redThe harlot shuffles to her lonely bed;The tall policeman pauses but to throwA flash into the empty portico;Then he too passes, and his lonely treadLinks all the long-drawn gas-lights on a threadAnd ties them to one planet swinging low. O […]

OF THREE CHILDREN CHOOSING A CHAPLET OF VERSE You and I and Burd so blithe–Burd so blithe, and you, and I–The Mower he would whet his scytheBefore the dew was dry. And he woke soon, but we woke soonAnd drew the nursery blind,All wondering at the waning moonWith the small June roses twined:Low in her […]

Nay, more than violetsThese thoughts of thine, friend!Rather thy reedy brook–Taw’s tributary–At midnight murmuring,Descried them, the delicateDark-eyed goddesses,There by his cressy bedDissolved and dreamingDreams that distilled into dewAll the purple of night,All the shine of a planet. Whereat he whispered;And they arising– Of day’s forget-me-notsThe duskier sisters–Descended, relinquishedThe orchard, the trout-pool,Torridge and Tamar,The Druid circles,Sheepfolds […]

Deep, Love, yea, very deep.And in the dark exiled,I have no sense of light but still to creepAnd know the breast, but not the eyes. Thy childSaw ne’er his mother near, nor if she smiled;But only feels her weep. Yet clouds and branches greenThere be aloft, somewhere,And winds, and angel birds that build between,As I […]

If a leaf rustled, she would start:And yet she died, a year ago.How had so frail a thing the heartTo journey where she trembled so?And do they turn and turn in fright,Those little feet, in so much night? The light above the poet’s headStreamed on the page and on the cloth,And twice and thrice there […]

Not on the neck of prince or hound,Nor on a woman’s finger twin’d,May gold from the deriding groundKeep sacred that we sacred bind:Only the heelOf splendid steelShall stand secure on sliding fate,When golden navies weep their freight. The scarlet hat, the laurell’d staveAre measures, not the springs, of worth;In a wife’s lap, as in a […]

Senex. Saye, cushat, callynge from the brake,What ayles thee soe to pyne?Thy carefulle heart shall cease to akeWhen dayes be fyneAnd greene thynges twyne:Saye, cushat, what thy griefe to myne? Turtur. Naye, gossyp, loyterynge soe late,What ayles thee thus to chyde?My love is fled by garden-gate;Since Lammas-tydeI wayte my bryde.Saye, gossyp, whom dost thou abyde? […]

TO A MOTHER, ON SEEING HER SMILE REPEATED IN HER DAUGHTER’S EYES A thousand songs I might have madeOf You, and only You;A thousand thousand tongues of fireThat trembled down a golden wireTo lamp the night with stars, to braidThe morning bough with dew. Within the greenwood girl and boyHad loiter’d to their lure,And men […]

(From ‘Troy Town’.) When as abroad, to greet the morn,I mark my Graciosa walk,In homage bends the whisp’ring corn,Yet to confessIts awkwardnessMust hang its head upon the stalk. And when she talks, her lips do healThe wounds her lightest glances give:–In pity then be harsh, and dealSuch wounds that IMay hourly die,And, by a word […]

(From ‘Troy Town’.) A month ago Lysander pray’dTo Jove, to Cupid, and to Venus,That he might die if he betray’dA single vow that pass’d between us. Ah, careless gods, to hear so illAnd cheat a maid on you relying!For false Lysander’s thriving still,And ’tis Corinna lies a-dying.

To commemorate the virtue of Homoeopathy in restoring one apparently drowned. Love, that in a tear was drown’d,Lives revived by a tear.Stella heard them mourn aroundLove that in a tear was drown’d,Came and coax’d his dripping swound,Wept ‘The fault was mine, my dear!‘Love, that in a tear was drown’d,Lives, revived by a tear.

Sapphics. Down the green hill-side fro’ the castle windowLady Jane spied Bill Amaranth a-workin’;Day by day watched him go about his ampleNursery garden. Cabbages thriv’d there, wi’ a mort o’ green-stuff–Kidney beans, broad beans, onions, tomatoes,Artichokes, seakale, vegetable marrows,Early potatoes. Lady Jane cared not very much for all these:What she cared much for was a […]

‘Tis pretty to be in Ballinderry,‘Tis pretty to be in Ballindoon,But ’tis prettier far in County KerryCoortin’ under the bran’ new moon,Aroon, Aroon! ‘Twas there by the bosom of blue KillarneyThey came by the hundther’ a-coortin’ me;Sure I was the one to give back their blarney,An’ merry was I to be fancy-free. But niver a […]

(From ‘Troy Town’) Be aisy an’ list to a chuneThat’s sung of bowld Tim the Dragoon–Sure, ’twas he’d niver missTo be stalin’ a kiss,Or a brace, by the light of the moon–Aroon–Wid a wink at the Man in the Moon! Rest his sowl where the daisies grow thick;For he’s gone from the land of the […]

In youth I dreamed, as other youths have dreamt,Of love, and thrummed an amateur guitarTo verses of my own,–a stout attemptTo hold communion with the Evening StarI wrote a sonnet, rhymed it, made it scan.Ah me! how trippingly those last lines ran.– O Hesperus! O happy star! to bendO’er Helen’s bosom in the tranced west,To […]

By Lord T-n. So bluff Sir Leolin gave the bride away:And when they married her, the little churchHad seldom seen a costlier ritual.The coach and pair alone were two-pound-ten,And two-pound-ten apiece the wedding-cakes;–Three wedding-cakes. A Cupid poised a-topOf each hung shivering to the frosted lovesOf two fond cushats on a field of ice,As who should […]

(From ‘Troy Town’.) Toiling love, loose your pack,All your sighs and tears unbind:Care’s a ware will break a back,Will not bend a maiden’s mind. In this State a man shall needNeither priest nor law giver:Those same lips that are his creedShall confess their worshipper. All the laws he must obey,Now in force and now repeal’d,Shift […]

My Juggins, see: the pasture green,Obeying Nature’s kindly law,Renews its mantle; there has beenA thaw. The frost-bound earth is free at last,That lay ‘neath Winter’s sullen yoke‘Till people felt it getting pastA joke. Now forth again the Freshers fare,And get them tasty summer suitsWherein they flaunt afield and scareThe brutes. Again the stream suspects the […]