Our dearest joys forever flow From fountains of the Long Ago, That from the heights of pleasures past Flood all the present valleys vast, And with eternal glees provide The future's endless ocean tide....
O lyrist of the lowly and the true, The song I sought for you Hides yet unsung. What hope for me to find, Lost in the d'dal mind, The living utterance with lovely tongue! To say, as erst was sung...
The lark's in the sky, love, The flowers on the lea, The whitethorn's in bloom, love, To please thee and me; 'Neath its shade we can rest, love, And sit on the hill, And as last we met, love,...
Best and brightest, come away! Fairer far than this fair Day, Which, like thee to those in sorrow, Comes to bid a sweet good-morrow To the rough Year just awake In its cradle on the brake....
1. The keen stars were twinkling, And the fair moon was rising among them, Dear Jane! The guitar was tinkling, But the notes were not sweet till you sung them Again.
1. Now the last day of many days, All beautiful and bright as thou, The loveliest and the last, is dead, Rise, Memory, and write its praise! Up, - to thy wonted work! come, trace...
Two-faced Janus,[1] god of Time! Be my Phoebus while I rhyme; To oblige your crony Swift, Bring our dame a new year's gift; She has got but half a face; Janus, since thou hast a brace,...
Simple you were, and good. No kindlier heart Beat than the heart within your gentle breast. Labour you had, and happiness, and rest, And were the maid of nations. Now you start...
When youth was high, and life was new And days sped musical and fleet, She stood amid the morning dew, And sang her earliest measures sweet, - Sang as the lark sings, speeding fair...
I cannot touch the harp again, And sing another idle lay, To cool a maddening, burning brain, And drive the midnight fiend away. Music, own sister to the soul. Bids roses bloom on cheeks all pale;...
Sence fair Jessica hez left us Seems ez ef she hed bereft us, When she went, o' half o' livin'; Fer we never knowed she'd driven Into us so much content, Till fair Jessica hed went....
I gaze upon my son once more, With eyes and heart that tire, As solemnly he stands before The screen drawn round the fire; With hands behind clasped hand in hand, Now loosely and now fast,...
While briers an' woodbines budding green, An' paitricks scraichin' loud at e'en, An' morning poussie whidden seen, Inspire my muse, This freedom in an unknown frien'...
While new-ca'd ky, rowte at the stake, An' pownies reek in pleugh or braik, This hour on e'enin's edge I take To own I'm debtor, To honest-hearted, auld Lapraik,...