“A MAD WORLD, MY MASTERS.” {12} Footnote: {12} Fraser’s Magazine, No. CCCXXXVII. 1858. The cholera, as was to be expected, has reappeared in England again; and England, as was to be expected, has taken no sufficient steps towards meeting it; so that if, as seems but too probable, the plague should spread next summer, we […]

Let me begin this lecture {1} with a scene in the North Atlantic 863 years since. FOOTNOTE{1} This lecture was delivered in America in 1874. “Bjarne Grimolfson was blown with his ship into the Irish Ocean; and there came worms and the ship began to sink under them. They had a boat which they had […]

Ah tyrant Love, Megaera’s serpents bearing,Why thus requite my sighs with venom’d smart?Ah ruthless dove, the vulture’s talons wearing,Why flesh them, traitress, in this faithful heart?Is this my meed? Must dragons’ teeth aloneIn Venus’ lawns by lovers’ hands be sown? Nay, gentlest Cupid; ’twas my pride undid me;Nay, guiltless dove; by mine own wound I […]

It was Earl Haldan’s daughter,She looked across the sea;She looked across the water;And long and loud laughed she:‘The locks of six princessesMust be my marriage fee,So hey bonny boat, and ho bonny boat!Who comes a wooing me?’ It was Earl Haldan’s daughter,She walked along the sand;When she was aware of a knight so fair,Came sailing […]

The single eye, the daughter of the light;Well pleased to recognise in lowliest shadeSome glimmer of its parent beam, and madeBy daily draughts of brightness, inly bright.The taste severe, yet graceful, trained arightIn classic depth and clearness, and repaidBy thanks and honour from the wise and staid–By pleasant skill to blame, and yet delight,And high […]

Linger no more, my beloved, by abbey and cell and cathedral;Mourn not for holy ones mourning of old them who knew not the Father,Weeping with fast and scourge, when the bridegroom was taken from them.Drop back awhile through the years, to the warm rich youth of the nations,Childlike in virtue and faith, though childlike in […]

Yon sound’s neither sheep-bell nor bark,They’re running–they’re running, Go hark!The sport may be lost by a moment’s delay;So whip up the puppies and scurry away.Dash down through the cover by dingle and dell,There’s a gate at the bottom–I know it full well;And they’re running–they’re running,Go hark! They’re running–they’re running, Go hark!One fence and we’re out […]

Come away with me, Tom,Term and talk are done;My poor lads are reaping,Busy every one.Curates mind the parish,Sweepers mind the court;We’ll away to SnowdonFor our ten days’ sport;Fish the August eveningTill the eve is past,Whoop like boys, at poundersFairly played and grassed.When they cease to dimple,Lunge, and swerve, and leap,Then up over Siabod,Choose our nest, […]

O blessed drums of Aldershot!O blessed South-west train!O blessed, blessed Speaker’s clock,All prophesying rain! O blessed yaffil, laughing loud!O blessed falling glass!O blessed fan of cold gray cloud!O blessed smelling grass! O bless’d South wind that toots his hornThrough every hole and crack!I’m off at eight to-morrow morn,To bring such fishes back! Eversley, April 1, […]

A hasty jest I once let fall–As jests are wont to be, untrue–As if the sum of joy to youWere hunt and picnic, rout and ball. Your eyes met mine: I did not blame;You saw it: but I touched too nearSome noble nerve; a silent tearSpoke soft reproach, and lofty shame. I do not wish […]

My fairest child, I have no song to give you;No lark could pipe in skies so dull and gray;Yet, if you will, one quiet hint I’ll leave you,For every day. I’ll tell you how to sing a clearer carolThan lark who hails the dawn or breezy downTo earn yourself a purer poet’s laurelThan Shakespeare’s crown. […]

Welcome, wild North-easter.Shame it is to seeOdes to every zephyr;Ne’er a verse to thee.Welcome, black North-easter!O’er the German foam;O’er the Danish moorlands,From thy frozen home.Tired we are of summer,Tired of gaudy glare,Showers soft and steaming,Hot and breathless air.Tired of listless dreaming,Through the lazy day:Jovial wind of winterTurns us out to play!Sweep the golden reed-beds;Crisp the […]

Ode On The Installation Of The Duke Of Devonshire, Chancellor Of The University Of Cambridge, 1862 {A} Hence a while, severer Muses;Spare your slaves till drear October.Hence; for Alma Mater choosesNot to be for ever sober:But, like stately matron gray,Calling child and grandchild round her,Will for them at least be gay;Share for once their holiday;And, […]

There is no inn in Snowdon which is not awful dear,Excepting Pen-y-gwrydd (you can’t pronounce it, dear),Which standeth in the meeting of noble valleys three–One is the vale of Gwynant, so well beloved by me,One goes to Capel-Curig, and I can’t mind its name,And one it is Llanberris Pass, which all men knows the same;Between […]

Hark! hark! hark!The lark sings high in the dark.The were wolves mutter, the night hawks moan,The raven croaks from the Raven-stone;What care I for his boding groan,Riding the moorland to come to mine own?Hark! hark! hark!The lark sings high in the dark. Hark! hark! hark!The lark sings high in the dark.Long have I wander’d by […]

Oh England is a pleasant place for them that’s rich and high,But England is a cruel place for such poor folks as I;And such a port for mariners I ne’er shall see againAs the pleasant Isle of Aves, beside the Spanish main. There were forty craft in Aves that were both swift and stout,All furnished […]

Oh, Mr. Froude, how wise and good,To point us out this way to glory–They’re no great shakes, those Snowdon Lakes,And all their pounders myth and story.Blow Snowdon! What’s Lake Gwynant to Killarney,Or spluttering Welsh to tender blarney, blarney, blarney? So Thomas Hughes, sir, if you choose,I’ll tell you where we think of going,To swate and […]

I once had a sweet little doll, dears,The prettiest doll in the world;Her cheeks were so red and so white, dears,And her hair was so charmingly curled.But I lost my poor little doll, dears,As I played in the heath one day;And I cried for more than a week, dears,But I never could find where she […]

Soft soft wind, from out the sweet south sliding,Waft thy silver cloud webs athwart the summer sea;Thin thin threads of mist on dewy fingers twiningWeave a veil of dappled gauze to shade my babe and me. Deep deep Love, within thine own abyss abiding,Pour Thyself abroad, O Lord, on earth and air and sea;Worn weary […]

When all the world is young, lad,And all the trees are green;And every goose a swan, lad,And every lass a queen;Then hey for boot and horse, lad,And round the world away;Young blood must have its course, lad,And every dog his day. When all the world is old, lad,And all the trees are brown;And all the […]