Not yet, my soul, these friendly fields desert, Where thou with grass, and rivers, and the breeze, And the bright face of day, thy dalliance hadst; Where to thine ear first sang the enraptured birds; Where love and thou that lasting bargain made. The ship rides trimmed, and from the eternal shore Thou hearest airy […]

It is not yours, O mother, to complain, Not, mother, yours to weep, Though nevermore your son again Shall to your bosom creep, Though nevermore again you watch your baby sleep. Though in the greener paths of earth, Mother and child, no more We wander; and no more the birth Of me whom once you […]

CHILD. O Mother, lay your hand on my brow! O mother, mother, where am I now? Why is the room so gaunt and great? Why am I lying awake so late? MOTHER. Fear not at all: the night is still. Nothing is here that means you ill – Nothing but lamps the whole town through, […]

Yet, O stricken heart, remember, O remember How of human days he lived the better part. April came to bloom and never dim December Breathed its killing chills upon the head or heart. Doomed to know not Winter, only Spring, a being Trod the flowery April blithely for a while, Took his fill of music, […]

Peace and her huge invasion to these shores Puts daily home; innumerable sails Dawn on the far horizon and draw near; Innumerable loves, uncounted hopes To our wild coasts, not darkling now, approach: Not now obscure, since thou and thine are there, And bright on the lone isle, the foundered reef, The long, resounding foreland, […]

With half a heart I wander here As from an age gone by A brother – yet though young in years. An elder brother, I. You speak another tongue than mine, Though both were English born. I towards the night of time decline, You mount into the morn. Youth shall grow great and strong and […]

I am a kind of farthing dip, Unfriendly to the nose and eyes; A blue-behinded ape, I skip Upon the trees of Paradise. At mankind’s feast, I take my place In solemn, sanctimonious state, And have the air of saying grace While I defile the dinner plate. I am “the smiler with the knife,” The […]

Sing clearlier, Muse, or evermore be still, Sing truer or no longer sing! No more the voice of melancholy Jacques To wake a weeping echo in the hill; But as the boy, the pirate of the spring, From the green elm a living linnet takes, One natural verse recapture – then be still.

A Camp (1) The bed was made, the room was fit, By punctual eve the stars were lit; The air was still, the water ran, No need was there for maid or man, When we put up, my ass and I, At God’s green caravanserai. (1) From TRAVELS WITH A DONKEY

For love of lovely words, and for the sake Of those, my kinsmen and my countrymen, Who early and late in the windy ocean toiled To plant a star for seamen, where was then The surfy haunt of seals and cormorants: I, on the lintel of this cot, inscribe The name of a strong tower.

The Country of the Camisards (1) We travelled in the print of olden wars, Yet all the land was green, And love we found, and peace, Where fire and war had been. They pass and smile, the children of the sword – No more the sword they wield; And O, how deep the corn Along […]

Here all is sunny, and when the truant gull Skims the green level of the lawn, his wing Dispetals roses; here the house is framed Of kneaded brick and the plumed mountain pine, Such clay as artists fashion and such wood As the tree-climbing urchin breaks. But there Eternal granite hewn from the living isle […]

MY HOUSE, I say. But hark to the sunny doves That make my roof the arena of their loves, That gyre about the gable all day long And fill the chimneys with their murmurous song: OUR HOUSE, they say; and MINE, the cat declares And spreads his golden fleece upon the chairs; And MINE the […]

My body which my dungeon is, And yet my parks and palaces:- Which is so great that there I go All the day long to and fro, And when the night begins to fall Throw down my bed and sleep, while all The building hums with wakefulness – Even as a child of savages When […]

Say not of me that weakly I declined The labours of my sires, and fled the sea, The towers we founded and the lamps we lit, To play at some with paper like a child. But rather say: IN THE AFTERNOON OF TIME A STRENUOUS FAMILY DUSTED FROM ITS HANDS THE SAND OF GRANITE, AND […]

Far ‘yont amang the years to be When a’ we think, an’ a’ we see, An’ a’ we luve, ‘s been dung ajee By time’s rouch shouther, An’ what was richt and wrang for me Lies mangled throu’ther, It’s possible – it’s hardly mair – That some ane, ripin’ after lear – Some auld professor […]

Frae nirly, nippin’, Eas’lan’ breeze, Frae Norlan’ snaw, an’ haar o’ seas, Weel happit in your gairden trees, A bonny bit, Atween the muckle Pentland’s knees, Secure ye sit. Beeches an’ aiks entwine their theek, An’ firs, a stench, auld-farrant clique. A’ simmer day, your chimleys reek, Couthy and bien; An’ here an’ there your […]

A mile an’ a bittock, a mile or twa, Abune the burn, ayont the law, Davie an’ Donal’ an’ Cherlie an’ a’, An’ the mune was shinin’ clearly! Ane went hame wi’ the ither, an’ then The ither went hame wi’ the ither twa men, An’ baith wad return him the service again, An’ the […]

When aince Aprile has fairly come, An’ birds may bigg in winter’s lum, An’ pleisure’s spreid for a’ and some O’ whatna state, Love, wi’ her auld recruitin’ drum, Than taks the gate. The heart plays dunt wi’ main an’ micht; The lasses’ een are a’ sae bricht, Their dresses are sae braw an’ ticht, […]

O, I wad like to ken – to the beggar-wife says I – Why chops are guid to brander and nane sae guid to fry. An’ siller, that’s sae braw to keep, is brawer still to gi’e. – IT’S GEY AN’ EASY SPIERIN’, says the beggar-wife to me. O, I wad like to ken – […]