Mid-noon is past; upon the sultry mead No zephyr breathes, no cloud its shadow throws: If we advance unstrengthened by repose, Farewell the solace of the vagrant reed!...
Whence that low voice? A whisper from the heart, That told of days long past, when here I roved With friends and kindred tenderly beloved; Some who had early mandates to depart,...
No record tells of lance opposed to lance, Horse charging horse, 'mid these retired domains; Tells that their turf drank purple from the veins Of heroes, fallen, or struggling to advance,...
The old inventive Poets, had they seen, Or rather felt, the entrancement that detains Thy waters, Duddon! 'mid these flowery plains The still repose, the liquid lapse serene,...
Fallen, and diffused into a shapeless heap, Or quietly self-buried in earth's mould, Is that embattled House, whose massy Keep, Flung from yon cliff a shadow large and cold....
I rose while yet the cattle, heat-opprest, Crowded together under rustling trees Brushed by the current of the water-breeze; And for 'their' sakes, and love of all that rest,...
Return, Content! for fondly I pursued, Even when a child, the Streams, unheard, unseen; Through tangled woods, impending rocks between; Or, free as air, with flying inquest viewed...
Methinks 'twere no unprecedented feat Should some benignant Minister of air Lift, and encircle with a cloudy chair, The One for whom my heart shall ever beat With tenderest love; or, if a safer seat...
But here no cannon thunders to the gale; Upon the wave no haughty pendants cast A crimson splendour: lowly is the mast That rises here, and humbly spread, the sail;...
Not hurled precipitous from steep to steep; Lingering no more 'mid flower-enameled lands And blooming thickets; nor by rocky bands Held; but in radiant progress toward the Deep...
The Kirk of Ulpha to the pilgrim's eye Is welcome as a star, that doth present Its shining forehead through the peaceful rent Of a black cloud diffused o'er half the sky:...
I thought of Thee, my partner and my guide, As being past away. Vain sympathies! For, backward, Duddon, as I cast my eyes, I see what was, and is, and will abide;...
Who swerves from innocence, who makes divorce Of that serene companion, a good name, Recovers not his loss; but walks with shame, With doubt, with fear, and haply with remorse:...
The Rock-a-By Lady from Hushaby street Comes stealing; comes creeping; The poppies they hang from her head to her feet, And each hath a dream that is tiny and fleet -...
Some ask'd me where the Rubies grew: And nothing I did say, But with my finger pointed to The lips of Julia. Some ask'd how Pearls did grow, and where: Then spoke I to my girl,...
Stout Romulus, Romes founder, and first King, Whom vestal Rhea to the world did bring; His Father was not Mars as some devis'd, But 'mulus in Armour all disguiz'd:...
If I were a bee and you were a rose, Would you let me in when the gray wind blows? Would you hold your petals wide apart, Would you let me in to find your heart, If you were a rose? ...
Lady, life's sweetest lesson wouldst thou learn, Come thou with me to Love's enchanted bower High overhead the trellised roses burn; Beneath thy feet behold the feathery fern, - A leaf without a flower....
A weary lot is thine, fair maid, A weary lot is thine! To pull the thorn thy brow to braid, And press the rue for wine. A lightsome eye, a soldier's mien, A feather of the blue,...