O! for the shade of the sycamore,That spreadeth its boughs at my cottage door!O! for the kiss of my bonnie bride,And the welcome glow of her warm fireside;And O! for the smile of my bonnie boy,And the pleasant sounds of its childish joy!Here, rolling about on the pelting foam,How my heart yearns for its quiet […]

“In the Vale of Grasmere, in Westmoreland, there is, or was lately, a gate, known under the cognomen of ‘The Wishing Gate,’ to which popular superstition attached the belief that all reasonable wishes there formed, would be attended with favourable results.’ BALLAD. ‘Tis dreamy midnight’s solemn hour,The busy village sleeps,And the pale moonbeam’s silver sheenIts […]

O! Father, hear!Thou know’st my secret thought,Thou know’st with love and fearI bend before Thy mighty throne,And before Thee I hold myself as nought.Alas! I’m in the world alone,All desolate upon the earth,And when my spirit hears the tone,The soft song of the birds in mirth,When the young nightingalesTheir tender voices blend,When from the flowery […]

Come, gentle phantasie,Come to my lone retreat,Beside the rolling sea,Where the playful billows beat;Come at still twilight’s time,When the star of evening beams above,And looks on earth with a look of love,From her far cerulean clime;And on the shoreThe waters’ roarShall to our ears rough music make,And sweet shall beTheir melody,As the wind doth o’er […]

“I called on the rushing blast.” –Ossiak. Wind of the winter night, whence comest thou?And whither, oh whither, art wandering now?Sad, sad is thy voice on this desolate moor,And mournful, oh mournful, thy howl at my door.Say where hast thou been on thy cloud-lifted car,Say what hast thou seen in thy roamings afar!What sorrow impels […]

Peerless orb of life and light,Here beneath the cloudless blue,Lo! we quaff the liquor bright,And pray for rain and pleasant dew.Here beneath thy ruddy beam,To thee we drain the goblet deep,Where the Rhine’s broad waters stream,And the grapes in clusters creep. Sun, O sun, thy splendours pourO’er the fruitful fields of earth,And to her remotest […]

He carved his name upon the tree,Ere he hied him o’er the billow,A token of love and memoryOn that lone drooping willow;And bade me come at twilight dim,In summer’s fragrant weather,Beneath its shade to think of him,And the joys we’d known together. Ah! little did we think, when lastWe met in sad emotion,That he’d find […]

She said she’d come at evening’s fall,By yon streamlet gently rolling,When darkness dim was spread o’er all.And the vesper bell was tolling;But long that bell hath ceased its tone,And the moon has risen above me,And I have waited long and loneFor the lass who vowed to love me! The time is long, the hours are […]

We come! We come!To soften the strokes of fate.And lead the wanderer back in dreamsTo his woodland cot, and his native streams,And his long-expecting mate. We come! We come!To the pillow of him oppressed,And send him a slumber deep and calm,And pour in visions a healing balmTo his wounded and aching breast We come! We […]

Star! that sendest the birdTo her dew-besprinkled nest,That sendest the hind to his cottage fire,And givest the weary rest!Star! O gentle star!Beacon of dreams and sleep!I lie me downOn the cold heath brown,To gaze on thy light and weep! I weep, O quiet star,With a grief that shall not depart,For thou wakest the thoughts of […]

Sweet deceiver! who so oftHast lulled my soul with visions soft;When the heart is new and young,Thou dost come with honeyed tongue,Whispering to confiding youthTales of Friendship, Love, and Truth:In thy mirror life is seenBright and pure and evergreen!–Alas! and must thy visions fade?Thy brightness darken into shade?–The clear, but cold realityBreathes upon thy reverie, […]

Light is love without esteem.Lighter than a feather,But ours has borneContempt and scorn,And sorrow’s wintry weather!Then, never more, never mare Shall we sever; I am thine–thou art mine, For ever and for ever. Never shall affliction’s scowlOr its touch divide us;Let fortune frown.Or men look down,And evil days betide us :Never more, never more Shall […]

Hurrah! for the land of the thistle!The clime of the fair and free!Where the lassies are bonnieAnd loving as ony,The pride of the North Countrie!Where Liberty dwells on the mountain,Where Beauty inhabits the plain,The land that never yet bent to the yokeOf the Roman, the Goth, or the Dane. Hurrah! for the land of the […]

Soldier of Poland! wherefore sigh?Freedom, though crushed, shall never die;Though for awhile her noble headBe trampled by the Cossack’s tread.Though the proud Russian lay her low,And laugh to scorn a nation’s woe;Though those whom free-born hearts deplore,Be banished from their native shore,And forced in foreign climes to roam,To seek a shelter and a home;Though thousand […]

‘Tis sweet, in the shade of the lofty trees,In the dewy morning time,To hear the song of the joyous lark,Or the distant village chime;Or to sit and think,By a streamlet’s brink,Breathing our thoughts in rhyme. Tis sweet, in the shade of the lofty trees,In the sultry hour of noon,To lie at length on the cooling […]

“O Night and Silence ye are wondrous strong.” –Byron. Tis sweet to roam aloneIn some sequestered wood,When slumbering Echo hears no soundWhen Night and Silence spread aroundA holy solitude;When through the vales,Capricious galesSweep fitfully along in melancholy mood. O! in that solemn hour,When starry Night has flungHer balmy mantle o’er the dale,And when the love-lorn […]

WHEN grasping tyranny offends,Or angry bigots frown;When rulers plot, for sefish ends,To keep the nations down;When statesmen form unholy leagueTo drive the world to war;When knaves in palaces intrigueFor ribbons or a star–We raise our heads, survey their deeds,And cheerily reply,Grub, little moles, grub under ground,There’s sunshine in the sky. When canting hypocrites combineTo curb […]

Many–and yet our fate is one,And little after all we crave–Enjoyment of the common sun,Fair passage to the common grave;Our bread and fire, our plain attire,The free possession of our own.Rulers be wise! and kings and czars,Let us alone–let us alone. We have a faith, we have a law;A faith in God, a hope in […]

“Didst ever see a hanging?”–“No, not one,Nor ever wish to see such scandal done.But once I saw a wretch condemn’d to die:A lean-faced, bright-eyed youth, who made me sighAt the recital of a dream he had.He was not sane, and yet he was not mad:Fit subject for a mesmerist he seem’d;for when he slept, he […]

Cleon hath a million acres,Ne’er a one have I;Cleon dwelleth in a palace,In a cottage I;Cleon hath a dozen fortunes,Not a penny I:yet the poorer of the twain isCleon, and not I. Cleon, true, possesseth acres,But the landscape I;Half the charms to me it yieldethMoney cannot buy;Cleon harbours sloth and dulness,Freshening vigour I;He in velvet, […]