I I cannot send thee gold Nor silver for a show; Nor are there jewels sold One-half so dear as thou. II No daffodil doth blow In this dull winter time, Nor purple violet grow In so unkind a clime. III To-day I have not got One spray of meadow-sweet, Nor blue forget-me-not My posy […]

In the field so wide and sunny Where the summer clover is, Where each year the mower searches For the nests of wild-bee honey, All along these silver birches Stand up straight in shining row, Dewdrops sparkling, shadows darkling, In the early morning glow; And in gleaming time they’re gleaming White, like angels when I’m […]

Ho, let the viol’s pleasing swifter grow– Let Music’s madness fascinate the will, And all Youth’s pulses with the ardour thrill! Hast thou, Old Time, e’er seen so brave a show? Did not the dotard smile as he said “No”? Pshaw! hang the grey-beard–let him prate his fill; Men are but dolts who talk of […]

On either side the great and still ice sea Are compassing snow mountains near and far; While, dominant, Schreckhorn and Finsteraar Hold their grim peaks aloft defiantly. Blind with excess of light and glory, we, Above whose heads in hottest mid-day glare The Schreckhorn and his sons arise in air, Sink in the weary snowfields […]

Saw ye ae flour in a fair garden, Where the lilac blossom blooms cheerily; “Fairest and rarest ever was seen,” Sing the merle and laverock merrily. Watered o’ dew i’ the earliest morn, Lilac blossom blooms cheerily; Bield aboot wi’ a sweet hawthorn, Where the merle and lark sing merrily. Wha shall pu’ this flour […]

White as early roses, girt by daffodillies, Gleam the feet of maidens moving rhythmically, Roses of the mountains, flowers of the valley, Hill rose and plain rose and white vale lilies. Dewy in the meadow lands, clover blossoms mellow Lift their heads of red and white to the bride’s adorning; Sweetly in the sky-realms all […]

Shall we, then, make our harvest of the sea And garner memories, which we surely deem May light these hearts of ours on darksome days, When loneliness hath power, and no kind beam Lightens about our feet the perilous ways? For of Eternity This present hour is all we call our own, And Memory’s edge […]

There’s a leaf in the book of the damask rose That glows with a tender red; From the bud, through the bloom, to the dust it goes, Into rose dust fragrant and dead. And this word is inscribed on the petals fine Of that velvety purple page– “Be true to thy youth while yet it […]

Out of the clinging valley mists I stray Into the summer midnight clear and still, And which the brighter is no man may say– Whether the gold beyond the western hill Where late the sun went down, or the faint tinge Of lucent green, like sea wave’s inner curve Just ere it breaks, that gleams […]

New lands, strange faces, all the summer days My weary feet have trod, mine eyes have seen; Among the snows all winter have I been, Rare Alpine air, and white untrodden ways. From the great Valais mountain peaks my gaze Hath seen the cross on Monte Viso plain, Seen blue Maggiore grey with driving rain, […]

Janet Balchrystie lived in a little cottage at the back of the Long Wood of Barbrax. She had been a hard-working woman all her days, for her mother died when she was but young, and she had lived on, keeping her father’s house by the side of the single-track railway-line. Gavin Balchrystie was a foreman […]