Scoffers and
defamers!
Warner - World's Best Literature - v28 - Songs, Hymns, Lyrics
As it lay asleep, as it lay asleep.
I set it down in the darkness deep,
Smoothed its limbs and laid it out,
And drew the curtains round about;
And into the dark, dark room I hied,
Where he lay awake at the woman's side;
And though the chamber was black as night,
He saw my face, for it was so white:
I gazed in his eyes, and he shrieked in pain,
And I knew he never would sleep again;
And back to my grave went silently,
And soon my baby was brought to me:
My son and daughter beside me rest,
My little baby is on my breast;
Our bed is warm and our grave is deep,
But he cannot sleep, he cannot sleep.
ROBERT BUCHANAN.
LITTLE WILLIE
Pº
OOR little Willie,
With his many pretty wiles;
Worlds of wisdom in his looks,
And quaint, quiet smiles;
Hair of amber, touched with
Gold of heaven so brave;
All lying darkly hid
In a workhouse grave.
You remember little Willie:
Fair and funny fellow! he
Sprang like a lily
From the dirt of poverty.
## p. 16465 (#165) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16465
Poor little Willie!
Not a friend was nigh,
When, from the cold world,
He crouched down to die.
In the day we wandered foodless,
Little Willie cried for bread;
In the night we wandered homeless,
Little Willie cried for bed.
Parted at the workhouse door,
Not a word we said:
Ah, so tired was poor Willie,
And so sweetly sleep the dead.
'Twas in the dead of winter
We laid him in the earth;
The world brought in the New Year,
On a tide of mirth.
But for lost little Willie
Not a tear we crave:
Cold and hunger cannot wake him
In his workhouse grave.
We thought him beautiful,
Felt it hard to part;
We loved him dutiful:
Down, down, poor heart !
The storms they may beat;
The winter winds may rave;
Little Willie feels not,
In his workhouse grave.
No room for little Willie;
In the world he had no part;
On him stared the Gorgon-eye
Through which looks no heart.
Come to me, said Heaven;
And if Heaven will save,
Little matters though the door
Be a workhouse grave.
GERALD Massey.
XXVIII-1030
## p. 16466 (#166) ##########################################
16466
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
THE APPARITION
I
IN the grayness rose:
I could not sleep for thinking of one dead.
Then to the chest I went
Where lie the things of my beloved spread.
Quietly these I took:
A little glove, a sheet of music torn,
Paintings, ill-done perhaps;
Then lifted up
dress that she had worn.
And now I came to where
Her letters are, they lie beneath the rest,-
And read them in the haze:
She spoke of many things, was sore opprest.
But these things moved me not:
Not when she spoke of being parted quite,
Of being misunderstood,
Or growing weary of the world's great fight.
Not even when she wrote
Of our dead child, and the handwriting swerved:
Not even then I shook ;
Not even by such words was I unnerved.
I thought — She is at peace;
Whither the child has gone, she too has passed,
And a much-needed rest
Is fallen upon her; she is still at last.
But when at length I took
From under all those letters one small sheet,
Folded and writ in haste,
Why did my heart with sudden sharpness beat?
Alas, it was not sad!
Her saddest words I had read calmly o'er.
Alas, it had no pain!
Her painful words, all these I knew before.
A hurried, happy line!
A little jest, too slight for one so dead:
This did I not endure;
Then with a shuddering heart no more I read.
STEPHEN PHILLIPS.
## p. 16467 (#167) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16467
THE OTHER ONE
S"
WEET little maid with winsome eyes
That laugh all day through the tangled hair;
Gazing with baby looks so wise
Over the arm of the oaken chair:
Dearer than you is none to me,
Dearer than you there can be none;
Since in your laughing face I see
Eyes that tell of another one.
Here where the firelight softly glows,
Sheltered and safe and snug and warm,
What to you is the wind that blows,
Driving the sleet of the winter storm?
Round your head the ruddy light
Glints on the gold from your tresses spun,
But deep is the drifting snow to-night
Over the head of the other one.
Hold me close as you sagely stand,
Watching the dying embers shine;
Then shall I feel another hand
That nestled once in this hand of mine -
Poor little hand, so cold and chill,
Shut from the light of stars and sun,
Clasping the withered roses still
That hide the face of the sleeping one.
Laugh, little maid, while laugh you may!
Sorrow comes to us all, I know ;-
Better perhaps for her to stay
Under the drifting robe of snow.
Sing while you may your baby songs,
Sing till your baby days are done;
But oh, the ache of the heart that longs
Night and day for the other one!
HARRY THURSTON PECK.
## p. 16468 (#168) ##########################################
16468
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
IN USUM DELPHINI
Hºw
ow fain were I, O Curly-pate,
To smooth the wrinkle from thy brow,
The tangled sentence to make straight,
Nor vex thee with the why and how.
But darker riddles for thee wait:
Who may emend the scroll of fate ?
That moldering myth of lust and hate
For thee how gladly I'd revise,
Nor suffer aught to desecrate
The gleam of those unsullied eyes:
This page I'd spare thee to translate;
But who man's heart can expurgate ?
In vain for boyhood's prince-estate
Our love betrays the bitter trust.
The Three no tribute will abate
From king or churl: all mortals must -
Or on the throne or at the gate
Read life's full lesson soon or late.
GEORGE M. WHICHER.
THE WOODSIDE WAY
I
WANDERED down the woodside way,
Where branching doors ope with the breeze,
And saw a little child at play
Among the strong and lovely trees:
The dead leaves rustled to her knees;
Her hair and eyes were brown as they.
“O little child,” I softly said,
“You come a long, long way to me;
The trees that tower overhead
Are here in sweet reality,
But you're the child I used to be,
And all the leaves of May you tread. ”
ETHELWYN WETHERALD,
## p. 16469 (#169) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16469
THE TWO LOCKS OF HAIR
A
YOUTH, light-hearted and content,
I wander through the world;
Here, Arab-like, is pitched my tent,
And straight again is furled.
Yet oft I dream that once a wife
Close in my heart was locked,
And in the sweet repose of life
A blessed child I rocked.
I wake! Away, that dream,- away!
Too long did it remain!
So long, that both by night and day
It ever comes again.
The end lies ever in my thought; –
To a grave so cold and deep
The mother beautiful was brought;
Then dropped the child asleep.
But now the dream is wholly o’er;
I bathe mine eyes and see;
And wander through the world once more,
A youth so light and free.
Two locks,- and they are wondrous fair,-
Left me that vision mild:
The brown is from the mother's hair,
The blond is from the child.
And when I see that lock of gold,
Pale grows the evening-red;
And when the dark lock I behold,
I wish that I were dead.
GUSTAV PFIZER.
Longfellow's Translation.
## p. 16470 (#170) ##########################################
16470
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
THE BRAMBLE FLOWER
THY
why fruit full well the schoolboy knows,
Wild bramble of the brake!
So put thou forth thy small white rose:
I love it for his sake.
Though woodbines flaunt and roses glow
O’er all the fragrant bowers,
Thou need'st not be ashamed to show
Thy satin-threaded flowers.
For dull the eye, the heart is dull,
That cannot feel how fair,
Amid all beauty beautiful,
Thy tender blossoms are;
How delicate thy gauzy frill,
How rich thy branchy stem,
How soft thy voice when woods are still,
And thou sing'st hymns to them;
While silent showers are falling slow,
And, 'mid the general hush,
A sweet air lifts the little bough,
Lone whispering through the bush!
The primrose to the grave is gone;
The hawthorn flower is dead;
The violet by the mossed gray stone
Hath laid her weary head:
But thou, wild bramble! back dost bring,
In all their beauteous power,
The fresh green days of life's fair spring,
And boyhood's blossomy hour.
Scorned bramble of the brake! once more
Thou bidd'st me be a boy,
To gad with thee the woodlands o'er,
In freedom and in oy.
EBENEZER ELLIOT.
BEGONE, DULL CARE
B
EGONE, dull care!
I prithee begone from me;
Begone, dull care!
Thou and I can never agree.
## p. 16471 (#171) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16471
Long while thou hast been tarrying here,
And fain thou wouldst me kill;
But i' faith, dull care,
Thou never shalt have thy will.
Too much care
Will make a young man gray;
Too much care
Will turn an old man to clay:
My wife shall dance, and I will sing,
So merrily pass the day;
For I hold it is the wisest thing
To drive dull care away.
Hence, dull care!
l'll none of thy company;
Hence, dull care!
Thou art no pair for me.
We'll hunt the wild boar through the wold,
So merrily pass the day;
And then at night, o'er a cheerful bowl,
We'll drive dull care away.
Author Unknown.
T"
THERE WAS A JOLLY MILLER
HERE was a jolly miller once lived on the river Dee; [he;
He danced and sang from morn till night, no lark so blithe as
And this the burden of his song forever used to be:
«I care for nobody, no not I, if nobody cares for me.
“I live by my mill, God bless her! she's kindred, child, and wife;
I would not change my station for any other in life;
No lawyer, surgeon, or doctor e'er had a groat from me:
I care for nobody, no not I, if nobody cares for me. ”
When spring begins his merry career, oh, how his heart grows gay:
No summer's drought alarms his fear, nor winter's cold decay;
No foresight mars the miller's joy, who's wont to sing and say,
“Let others toil from year to year, I live from day to day. ”
Thus, like the miller, bold and free, let us rejoice and sing:
The days of youth are made for glee, and time is on the wing;
This song shall pass from me to thee, along the jovial ring :
Let heart and voice and all agree to say, “Long live the king. ”
ISAAC BICKERSTAFF. "
## p. 16472 (#172) ##########################################
16472
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
VANITAS! VANITATUM VANITAS!
I
've set my heart upon nothing, you see;
Hurrah!
And so the world goes well with me:
Hurrah!
And who has a mind to be fellow of mine,
Why, let hiin take hold and help me drain
These moldy lees of wine.
I set my heart at first upon wealth;
Hurrah!
And bartered away my peace and health:
But ah!
The slippery change went about like air,-
And when I had clutched me a handful here,
Away it went there!
I set my heart upon woman next;
Hurrah!
For her sweet sake was oft perplexed:
But ah!
The False one looked for a daintier lot,
The Constant one wearied me out and out,
The Best was not easily got.
I set my heart upon travels grand;
Hurrah!
And spurned our plain old fatherland:
But ah!
Naught seemed to be just the thing it should, -
Most comfortless beds and indifferent food!
My tastes misunderstood!
I set my heart upon sounding fame:
Hurrah!
And lo! I'm eclipsed by some upstart's name;
And ah!
When in public life I loomed quite high,
The folks that passed me would look awry;
Their very worst friend was I.
And then I set my heart upon war:
Hurrah!
We gained some battles with éclat;
Hurrah !
## p. 16473 (#173) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16473
We troubled the foe with sword and flame-
And some of our friends fared quite the same:
I lost a leg for fame.
Now I've set my heart upon nothing, you see;
Hurrah !
And the whole wide world belongs to me:
Hurrah!
The feast begins to run low, no doubt;
But at the old cask we'll have one good bout -
Come, drink the lees all out!
GOETHE.
Translation of John Sullivan Dwight.
DEATH AN EPICUREAN
D
EATH loveth not the woeful heart,
Or the soul that's tired of living.
Nay, it's up and away
With the heart that's gay
And the life that's worth the giving.
Seldom he stops where his welcome's sure,
Where age and want are sighing.
Nay, it's up and away,
For he scorns to stay
With the wretch who would be dying.
Ah, it's youth and love and a cloudless sky
The epicurean's after.
Nay, it's up and away
When the world's in May
And life is full of laughter.
JEAN WRIGHT.
## p. 16474 (#174) ##########################################
16474
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
SIR JOHN BARLEYCORN
TH
HERE came three men out of the West,
Their victory to try;
And they have taken a solemn oath
Poor Barleycorn should die.
They took a plow and plowed him in,
And harrowed clods on his head;
And then they took a solemn oath
Poor Barleycorn was dead.
There he lay sleeping in the ground
Till rain from the sky did fall;
Then Barleycorn sprung up his head,
And so amazed them all.
1
i
There he remained till midsummer,
And looked both pale and wan;
Then Barleycorn he got a beard,
And became a man.
Then they sent men with scythes so sharp,
To cut him off at knee;
And then poor little Barleycorn
They served him barbarously :
Then they sent men with pitchforks strong,
To pierce him through the heart;
And, like a dreadful tragedy,
They bound him to a cart.
And then they brought him to a barn,
A prisoner, to endure;
And so they fetched him out again,
And laid him on the floor:
Then they set men with holly clubs
To beat the flesh from his bones;
But the miller he served him worse than that,
For he ground him betwixt two stones.
Oh, Barleycorn is the choicest grain
That ever was sown on land!
It will do inore than any grain
By the turning of your hand.
It will make a boy into a man,
And a man into an ass;
It will change your gold into silver,
And your silver into brass :
## p. 16475 (#175) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16475
It will make the huntsman hunt the fox,
That never wound his horn;
It will bring the tinker to the stocks,
That people may him scorn;
It will put sack into a glass,
And claret in the can;
And it will cause a man to drink
Till he neither can go nor stan'.
Author Unknown.
SPARKLING AND BRIGHT
SPAR
PARKLING and bright in liquid light
Does the wine our goblets gleam in,
With a hue as red as the rosy bed
Which a bee would choose to dream in.
Then fill to-night, with hearts as light,
To loves as gay and fleeting,
As bubbles that swim on the beaker's brim
And break on the lips while meeting.
Oh! if mirth might arrest the flight
Of time through life's dominions,
We here awhile would now beguile
The graybeard of his pinions.
So drink to-night, with hearts as light,
To loves as gay and fleeting,
As bubbles that swim on the beaker's brim
And break on the lips while meeting.
But since delight can't tempt the wight,
Nor fond regret delay him,
Nor Love himself can hold the elf,
Nor sober Friendship stay him,
We'll drink to-night, with hearts as light,
To loves as gay and fleeting,
As bubbles that swim on the beaker's brim
And break on the lips while meeting.
CHARLES FENNO HOFFMAN.
## p. 16476 (#176) ##########################################
16476
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
WASSAIL CHORUS
From (The Coming of Love and Other Poems. ? John Lane: London and
New York, 1898.
CHORUS
C
HRISTMAS knows a merry, merry place,
Where he goes with fondest face,
Brightest eye, brightest hair:
Tell the Mermaid where is that one place –
Where?
RALEIGH
'Tis by Devon's glorious halls,
Whence, dear Ben, I come again:
Bright with golden roofs and walls-
El Dorado's rare domain
Seem those halls when sunlight launches
Shafts of gold through leafless branches,
When the winter's feathery mantle blanches
Field and farm and lane.
CHORUS
Christmas knows a merry, merry place,
Where he goes with fondest face,
Brightest eye, brightest hair:
Tell the Mermaid where is that one place -
Where?
DRAYTON
'Tis where Avon's wood-sprites weave
Through the boughs a lace of rime,
While the bells of Christmas Eve
Fling for Will the Stratford-chime
O'er the river-flags embossed
Rich with flowery runes of frost -
O'er the meads where snowy tufts are tossed -
Strains of olden time.
CHORUS
Christmas knows a merry, merry place,
Where he goes with fondest face,
Brightest eye, brightest hair:
## p. 16477 (#177) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16477
Tell the Mermaid where is that one place
Where?
“MR. W. H. )
'Tis, methinks, on any ground
Where our Shakespeare's feet are set.
There smiles Christmas, holly-crowned
With his blithest coronet.
Friendship's face he loveth well:
'Tis a countenance whose spell
Sheds a balm o'er every mead and dell
Where we used to fret.
CHORUS
Christmas knows a merry, merry place,
Where he goes with fondest face,
Brightest eye, brightest hair:
Tell the Mermaid where is that one place -
Where?
HEYWOOD
More than all the pictures, Ben,
Winter weaves by wood or stream,
Christmas loves our London, when
Rise thy clouds of wassail-steam
Clouds like these, that, curling, take
Forms of faces gone, and wake
Many a lay from lips we loved, and make
London like a dream.
CHORUS
Christmas knows a merry, merry place,
Where he goes with fondest face,
Brightest eye, brightest hair:
Tell the Mermaid where is that one place-
Where?
BEN JONSON
Love's old songs shall never die,
Yet the new shall suffer proof;
Love's old drink of Yule brew I,
Wassail for new love's behoof:
Drink the drink I brew, and sing
Till the berried branches swing,
## p. 16478 (#178) ##########################################
16478
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
Till our song make all the Mermaid ring -
Yea, from rush to roof.
FINALE
Christmas loves this merry, merry place:
Christmas saith with fondest face,
Brightest eye, brightest hair,
« Ben! the drink tastes rare of sack and mace;
Rare! »
THEODORE WATTS-DUNTON.
MEDIÆVAL LATIN STUDENT SONGS
Time's A-FLYING (LAURIGER HORATIUS)
(“Two lyrics of distinguished excellence, which still hold their place in the
(Commersbuch, cannot claim certain antiquity in their present form.
The first starts with an allusion to the Horatian tempus edax rerum. ”]
L
AUREL-CROWNED Horatius,
True, how true thy saying!
Swift as wind Aies over us
Time, devouring, slaying.
Where are, oh! those goblets full
Of wine honey-laden,
Strifes and loves and bountiful
Lips of ruddy maiden?
Grows the young grape tenderly,
And the maid is growing;
But the thirsty poet, see,
Years on him are snowing!
What's the use on hoary curls
Of the bays undying,
If we may not kiss the girls,
Drink while time's a-flying?
Translation of John Addington Symonds.
GAUDEAMUS IGITUR
[“Having alluded to (Gaudeamus Igitur,' I shall close my translations with
a version of it into English. The dependence of this lyric upon the rhythm
and substance of the poem "On Contempt for the World)
is perhaps
the reason why it is sung by German students after the funeral of a comrade.
## p. 16479 (#179) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16479
The Office for the Dead sounding in their ears, occasions the startling igitur
[“therefore )) — «let us then”) with which it opens; and their mind reverts to
solemn phrases in the midst of masculine determination to enjoy the present
while it is yet theirs. ”]
Et us live, then, and be glad
While young life's before us!
After youthful pastime had,
After old age hard and sad,
Earth will slumber o'er us.
LET
Where are they who in this world,
Ere we kept, were keeping ?
Go ye to the gods above;
Go to hell; inquire thereof:
They are not: they're sleeping.
Brief is life, and brevity
Briefly shall be ended:
Death comes like a whirlwind strong,
Bears us with his blast along;
None shall be defended.
Live this university,
Men that learning nourish;
Live each member of the same,
Long live all that bear its name;
Let them ever flourish!
Live the commonwealth also,
And the men that guide it!
Live our town in strength and health,
Founders, patrons, by whose wealth
We are here provided!
Live all girls! A health to you,
Melting maids and beauteous!
Live the wives and women too,
Gentle, loving, tender, true,
Good, industrious, duteous!
Perish cares that pule and pine!
Perish envious blamers!
Die the Devil, thine and mine!
Die the starch-neck Philistine!
Scoffers and defamers!
Translation of John Addington Symonds.
## p. 16480 (#180) ##########################################
16480
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
A CITIZEN OF COSMOPOLIS
WHAT
At is the name of your country — where
Is the land of your love that you leave behind ?
And what is the country to which you fare,
And what is the hope that you have in mind ? -
"My land is wherever my rest I find,
My home is wherever I chance to be,
My way and mine end are by fate assigned -
Io vengo da Cosmopoli! » *
((
Is there no woman whose songs ensnare
Your heart to follow, yet unresigned ?
No subtle thread of a golden hair,
Like Lilith's hair, round your heart entwined ?
«In no fetter of gold is my heart confined,
No siren lures me across the sea,
I am not to hold, I am not to bind
Io vengo da Cosmopoli! »
(c
When flames of the burning cities flare,
And towers fall down, being undermined,
When drums are beaten and trumpets blare,
And the neigh of the war-horse is on the wind, -
Under which king? – “Since Fortune is blind
And I am her soldier, I do not see
Or friend or foe in the ranks aligned:
Io vengo da Cosmopoli ! »
ENVOI
-
« The world, my lords, has been cruel and kind, —
I have laughed and suffered, but not repined:
If I live or die matters little to me,
Or whether my grave with a cross be signed –
Io vengo da Cosmopoli! »
ELIZABETH PULLEN.
*«I come from Cosmopolis. ”
## p. 16481 (#181) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16481
THE TROOPER TO HIS MARE
OP
LD girl that has borne me far and fast
On pawing hoofs that were never loath,
Our gallop to-day may be the last
For you, or for me, or perhaps for both!
As I tighten your girth do you nothing daunt?
Do you catch the hint of our forming line ?
And now the artillery moves to the front,
Have you never a qualm, Bay Bess of mine?
It is dainty to see you sidle and start,
As you move to the battle's cloudy marge,
And to feel the swells of your wakening heart
When our sonorous bugles sound a charge.
At the scream of the shell and the roar of the drum
You feign to be frightened with roguish glance;
But up the green slopes where the bullets hum
Coquettishly, darling, I've known you dance.
Your skin is satin, your nostrils red,
Your eyes are a bird's, or a loving girl's;
And from delicate fetlock to stately head
A throbbing vein-cordage around you curls.
O joy of my heart! if you they slay,
For triumph or rout I little care;
For there isn't in all the wide valley to-day
Such a dear little bridle-wise, thoroughbred mare!
CHARLES G. HALPINE.
THE BALLAD OF THE BOAT
He stream was smooth as glass: we said, “Arise and let's away;"
The Siren sang beside the boat that in the rushes lay;
And, spread the sail and strong the oar, we gayly took our way.
When shall the sandy bar be crossed ? When shall we find the bay?
THE
The broadening flood swells slowly out o'er cattle-dotted plains;
The stream is strong and turbulent, and dark with heavy rains:
The laborer looks up to see our shallop speed away.
When shall the sandy bar be crossed? When shall we find the bay?
Now are the clouds like fiery shrouds; the sun, superbly large,
Slow as an oak to woodman's stroke sinks Alaming at their marge.
XXVIII-1031
## p. 16482 (#182) ##########################################
16482
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
The waves are bright with mirrored light as jacinths on our way.
When shall the sandy bar be crossed ? When shall we find the bay ?
The moon is high up in the sky, and now no more we see
The spreading river's either bank; and surging distantly,
There booms a sullen thunder as of breakers far away:
Now shall the sandy bar be crossed; now shall we find the bay!
The sea-gull shrieks high overhead, and dimly to our sight
The moonlit crests of foaming waves gleam towering through the
night.
We'll steal upon the mermaid soon, and start her from her lay,
When now the sandy bar is crossed, and we are in the bay.
What rises white and awful as a shroud-infolded ghost ?
What roar of rampant tumult bursts in clangor on the coast ?
Pull back, pull back! The raging food sweeps every oar away.
O stream, is this thy bar of sand ? O boat, is this the bay?
RICHARD GARNETT.
THE CROSS BY THE WAY
(KROAZ ANN HENT)
WEET in the greenwood a birdie sings;
Golden-yellow its two bright wings;
Red its heartikin, blue its crest:
Oh, but it sings with the sweetest breast!
Su
Early, early it 'lighted down
On the edge of my ingle-stone,
As I prayed my morning prayer,-
“Tell me thy errand, birdie fair. ”
Then sung it as many sweet things to me
As there are roses on the rose-tree:
« Take a sweetheart, lad, an' you may;
To gladden your heart both night and day. ”
Past the cross by the way as I went,
Monday, I saw her fair as a saint:
Sunday, I will go to mass,
There on the green I'll see her pass.
Water poured in a beaker clear
Dimmer shows than the eyes of my dear;
## p. 16483 (#183) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16483
Pearls themselves are not more bright
Than her little teeth, pure and white.
Then her hands and her cheek of snow,
Whiter than milk in a black pail, show.
Yes, if you could my sweetheart see,
She would charm the heart from thee.
Had I as many crowns at my beck
As hath the Marquis of Poncalec,
Had I a gold-mine at my door,
Wanting my sweetheart I were poor.
If on my door-sill up should come
Golden flowers for furze and broom,
Till my court were with gold piled high,
Little I'd reck, but she were by.
Doves must have their close warm nest,
Corpses must have the tomb for rest;
Souls to Paradise must depart:
And I, my love, must to thy heart.
Every Monday at dawn of day
I'll on my knees to the cross by the way;
At the new cross by the way I'll bend,
In thy honor, my gentle friend!
Mediæval Breton.
Translation of Tom Taylor.
THE FAIRY QUEEN
C°
HOME, follow, follow me
You, fairy elves that be,
Which circle on the green
Come, follow Mab your queen!
Hand in hand let's dance around;
For this place is fairy ground.
When mortals are at rest,
And snoring in their nest,-
Unheard and unespied,
Through keyholes we do glide;
Over tables, stools, and shelves,
W trip it with our fairy ves.
## p. 16484 (#184) ##########################################
16484
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
And if the house be foul
With platter, dish, or bowl,
Up-stairs we nimbly creep,
And find the sluts asleep;
There we pinch their arms and thighs -
None escapes and none espies.
But if the house be swept,
And from uncleanness kept,
We praise the household maid,
And duly she is paid;
For we use, before we go,
To drop a tester in her shoe.
Upon a mushroom's head
Our table-cloth we spread:
A grain of rye or wheat
Is manchet which we eat;
Pearly drops of dew we drink,
In acorn cups, filled to the brink.
The grasshopper, gnat, and fly,
Serve us for our minstrelsy;
Grace said, we dance awhile,
And so the time beguile;
And if the moon doth hide her head,
The glow-worm lights us home to bed.
On tops of dewy grass
So nimbly do we pass,
The young and tender stalk
Ne'er bends when we do walk;
Yet in the morning may be seen
Where we the night before have been.
Author Unknown.
THE FAIRY QUEEN SLEEPING
W* Seeking lovely dreams for thee, –
,-
Where is there we have not been
Gathering gifts for our sweet queen ?
We are come with sound and sight
Fit for fairy's sleep to-night:
## p. 16485 (#185) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16485
First around thy couch shall sweep
Odors such as roses weep
When the earliest spring rain
Calls them into life again;
Next upon thine ear shall float
Many a low and silver note
Stolen from a dark-eyed maid,
When her lover's serenade,
Rising as the stars grew dim,
Wakened from her thoughts of him;
There shall steal o'er lip and cheek
Gales, but all too light to break
Thy soft rest,- such gales as hide
All day orange-flowers inside,
Or that, through hot noontide, dwell
In the purple hyacinth bell;
And before thy sleeping eyes
Shall come glorious pageantries,-
Palaces of gems and gold
Such as dazzle to behold,
Gardens in which every tree
Seems a world of bloom to be,
Fountains whose clear waters show
The white pearls that lie below.
During slumber's magic reign
Other times shall live again:
First thou shalt be young and free
In thy days of liberty,
Then again be wooed and won
By thy stately Oberon;
Or thou shalt descend to earth,
And see all of mortal birth -
No, that world's too full of care
For e'en dreams to linger there. -
But behold, the sun is set,
And the diamond coronet
Of the young moon is on high
Waiting for our revelry;
And the dew is on the flower,
And the stars proclaim our hour:
Long enough thy rest has been,-
Wake, Titania, wake, our queen!
LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON.
## p. 16486 (#186) ##########################################
16486
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
THE MERRY PRANKS OF ROBIN GOOD-FELLOW
F
ROM Oberon, in fairy-land,
The king of ghosts and shadowes there,
Mad Robin, I, at his command,
Am sent to view the night-sports here.
What revel rout
Is kept about
In every corner where I go,
I will o'ersee,
And merrie be,
And make good sport with ho, ho, ho!
More swift than lightning can I flye
About this aëry welkin soone,
And in a minute's space descrye
Each thing that's done belowe the moone.
There's not a hag
Or ghost shall wag,
Or cry 'Ware goblins! where I go;
But Robin, I,
Their feates will spy,
And send them home with ho, ho, ho!
Whene'er such wanderers I meete,
As from their night-sports they trudge home,
With counterfeiting voice I greete,
And call on them with me to roame
Through woods, through lakes,
Through bogs, through brakes;
Or else unseene, with them I go,
All in the nicke,
To play some tricke,
And frolick it with ho, ho, ho!
Sometimes I meete them like a man,
Sometimes an ox, sometimes a hound;
And to a horse I turn me can,
To trip and trot about them round;
But if to ride,
My backe they stride,
More swift than wind away I goe;
O’er hedge and lands,
Through pools and ponds,
I whirry, laughing ho, ho, ho!
## p. 16487 (#187) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16487
When lads and lasses merry be,
With possets and with junkets fine,
Unseene of all the company,
I eat their cakes and sip their wine;
And to make sport
I fume and snort,
And out the candles do I blow;
The maids I kiss,-
They shrieke, Who's this ?
I answer naught but ho, ho, ho!
Yet now and then, the maids to please,
At midnight I card up their wooll,
And when they sleepe and take their ease,
With wheel to threads their flax I pull.
I grind at mill
Their malt up still;
I dress their hemp, I spin their tow:
If any wake,
And would me take,
I wend me, laughing ho, ho, ho!
When house or hearth doth sluttish lye,
I pinch the maidens black and blue;
The bedd-clothes from the bedd pull I,
And lay them naked all to view.
'Twixt sleepe and wake
I do them take,
And on the key-cold floor them throw;
If out they cry,
Then forth I fly,
And loudly laugh out, ho, ho, ho!
When any need to borrow aught,
We lend them what they do require,
And for the use demand we naught,-
Our owne is all we do desire.
If to repay
They do delay,
Abroad amongst them then I go;
And night by night,
I them afright,
With pinchings, dreams, and ho, ho, ho!
When lazie queans have naught to do
But study how to cog and lye,
## p. 16488 (#188) ##########################################
16488
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
To make debate and mischief too,
'Twixt one another secretly,
I marke their gloze,
And it disclose
To them whom they have wronged so.
When I have done
I get me gone,
And leave them scolding, ho, ho, ho!
When men do traps and engines set
In loopeholes where the vermine creepe,
Who from their foldes and houses get
Their duckes, and geese, and lambes, and sheepe,
I spy the gin,
And enter in,
And seeme a vermine taken so;
But when they there
Approach me neare,
I leap out, laughing ho, ho, ho!
By wells and rills, in meadowes greene,
We nightly dance our heyday guise,
And to our fairye kinge and queene
We chant our moonlighte minstrelsies.
When larkes 'gin sing,
Away we fling;
And babes new-born steale as we go,
And elfe in bed
We leave instead,
And wend us, laughing ho, ho, ho!
From hag-bred Merlin's time have I
Thus nightly reveled to and fro;
And for my prankes, men call me by
The name of Robin Good-Fellow.
Friends, ghosts, and sprites
Who haunt the nightes,
The hags and goblins, do me know;
And beldames old
My feates have told -
So vale, vale! Ho, ho, ho!
Author Unknown.
## p. 16489 (#189) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16489
THE FAIRY NURSE
SWE
WEET babe! a golden cradle holds thee,
And soft the snow-white fleece infolds thee;
In airy bower I'll watch thy sleeping,
Where branchy trees to the breeze are sweeping.
Shuheen, sho, lulo lo!
When mothers languish broken-hearted,
When young wives are from husbands parted,
Ah! little think the keeners lonely,
They weep some time-worn fairy only.
Shuheen, sho, lulo lo!
Within our magic halls of brightness
Trips many a foot of snowy whiteness, –
Stolen maidens, queens of fairy,
And kings and chiefs a slaugh shee 'airy.
Shuheen, sho, lulo lo!
Rest thee, babe! I love thee dearly,
And as thy mortal mother nearly :
Ours is the swiftest steed and proudest,
That moves where the tramp of the host is loudest.
Shuheen, sho, lulo lo!
Rest, thee, babe! for soon thy slumbers
Shall fee at the magic Koelshie's numbers;
In airy bower I'll watch thy sleeping,
Where branchy trees to the breeze are sweeping.
Shuheen, sho, lulo lo!
EDWARD WALSH.
SONG OF THE FAIRY PEDDLER
L
ADY and gentleman fays, come buy!
No peddler has such a rich packet as I.
Who wants a gown,
Of purple fold,
Embroidered down
The seams with gold ?
See here! A tulip richly laced
To please a royal fairy's taste!
## p. 16490 (#190) ##########################################
16490
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
Who wants a cap
Of crimson grand ?
By great good hap
I've one on hand;
Look, sir! A cock’s-comb, flowering red:
'Tis just the thing, sir, for your head!
Who wants a frock
Of vestal hue ?
Or snowy smock?
Fair maid, do you?
O me! a lady's smock so white,-
Your bosom's self is not more bright.
Who wants to sport
A slender limb ?
I've every sort
Of hose for him –
Both scarlet, striped, and yellow ones:
This woodbine makes such pantaloons!
Who wants (hush! hush! )
A box of paint ?
'Twill give a blush
Yet leave no taint:
This rose with natural rouge is filled,
From its own dewy leaves distilled.
Then, lady and gentleman fays, come buy!
You never will meet such a merchant as I!
GEORGE DARLEY.
SONG OF THE FAIRIES
Y THE moon we sport and play;
With the night begins our day:
As we dance the dew doth fall;
Trip it, little urchins, all,
B
Lightly as the little bee,
Two by two, and three by three,
And about go we, and about go we.
JOHN LYLY.
## p. 16491 (#191) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16491
THE FLOWER OF BEAUTY
SWE
Weet in her green dell the flower of beauty slumbers,
Lulled by the faint breezes sighing through her hair;
Sleeps she, and hears not the melancholy numbers
Breathed to my sad lute amid the lonely air.
Down from the high cliffs the rivulet is teeming
To wind round the willow-banks that lure him from above:
Oh that, in tears from my rocky prison streaming,
I too could glide to the bower of my love!
Ah, where the woodbines with sleepy arms have wound her,
Opes she her eyelids at the dream of my lay,
Listening like the dove, while the fountains echo round her
To her lost mate's call in the forest far away.
Come, then, my bird! for the peace thou ever bearest,
Still Heaven's messenger of comfort to me;
Come! this fond bosom, my faithfulest, my fairest,
Bleeds with its death-wound, - but deeper yet for thee.
GEORGE DARLEY.
SERENADE
R.
ISE, lady mistress, rise!
The night hath tedious been;
No sleep has fallen on my eyes,
Nor slumber made me sin:
Is she not a saint then, say,
Thought of whom keeps sin away?
Rise, madam, rise, and give me light,
Whom darkness still will cover,
And ignorance, darker than night,
Till thou smile on thy lover:
All want day till thy beauty rise;
For the gray morn breaks from thine eyes.
NATHANIEL FIELD.
## p. 16492 (#192) ##########################################
16492
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
FAITHFUL FRIENDS
W"
HILST as fickle fortune smiled
Thou and I were both beguiled.
Every one that flatters thee
Is no friend in misery.
Words are easy, like the wind:
Faithful friends are hard to find.
»
Every man will be thy friend
Whilst thou hast wherewith to spend;
But if store of crowns be scant,
No man will supply thy want.
If that one be prodigal,
Bountiful they will him call;
And with such-like flattering,
Pity but he were a king! ”
If he be addict to vice,
Quickly him they will entice;
If to woman he be bent,
They have him at commandment.
But if fortune once do frown,
Then farewell his great renown:
They have fawned on him before,
Use his company no more.
He that is thy friend indeed,
He will help thee in thy need:
If thou sorrow he will weep;
If thou wake he cannot sleep:
Thus of every grief in heart
He with thee doth bear a part.
These are certain signs to know
Faithful friend from flattering foe.
RICHARD BARNFIELD.
THE NIGHTINGALE
s it fell upon a day
In the merry month of May,
Sitting in a pleasant shade
Which a grove of myrtles made,
A
## p. 16493 (#193) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16493
Beasts did leap and birds did sing,
Trees did grow and plants did spring;
Everything did banish moan
Save the Nightingale alone.
She, poor bird, as all forlorn,
Leaned her breast up till a thorn,
And there sung the doleful'st ditty,
That to hear it was great pity.
Fie, fie, fie, now would she cry;
Teru, teru, by-and-by:
That to hear her so complain
Scarce I could from tears refrain;
For her griefs so lively shown
Made me think upon mine own. -
Ah, thought I, thou mourn'st in vain;
None takes pity on thy pain:
Senseless trees, they cannot hear thee,
Ruthless beasts, they will not cheer thee;
King Pandion, he is dead,
All thy friends are lapped in lead;
All thy fellow-birds do sing
Careless of thy sorrowing:
Even so, poor bird, like thee
None alive will pity me.
RICHARD BARNFIELD.
CRITIC AND POET
N°
TO MAN had ever heard a nightingale,
When once a keen-eyed naturalist was stirred
To study and define - what is a bird;
To classify by rote and book, nor fail
To mark its structure, and to note the scale
Whereon its song might possibly be heard.
Thus far, no farther; so he spake the word.
When of a sudden, - hark, the nightingale!
Oh, deeper, higher than he could divine,
That all-unearthly, untaught strain! He saw
The plain brown warbler, unabashed. “Not mine »
(He cried) “the error of this fatal flaw.
No bird is this,- it soars beyond my line:
Were it a bird, 'twould answer to my law. ”
EMMA LAZARUS.
## p. 16494 (#194) ##########################################
16494
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
ELLEN TERRY'S BEATRICE
A
WIND of spring, that whirls the feignèd snows
Of blossom petals in the face, and flees;
Elusive, made of mirthful mockeries,
Yet tender with the prescience of the rose;
A strain desired, that through the memory goes,
Too subtle-slender for the voice to seize;
A flame dissembled, only lit to tease,
Whose touch were half a kiss, if one but knows. -
She shows by Leonato's dove-like daughter
A falcon by a prince to be possessed,
Gay-graced with bells that ever chiming are;
In azure of the bright Sicilian water,
A billow that has rapt into its breast
The swayed reflection of a dancing star!
HELEN GRAY CONE.
A VOLUME OF DANTE
I
LIE unread alone; none heedeth me:
Day after day the cobwebs are unswept
From my dim covers. I have lain and slept
In dust and darkness for a century.
An old forgotten volume I. Yet see!
Such mighty words within my heart are kept
That, reading once, great Ariosto wept
In vain despair so impotent to be.
And once with pensive eyes and drooping head,
Musing, Vittoria Colonna came,
And touched my leaves with dreamy finger-tips,
Lifted me up half absently, and read;
Then kissed the page with sudden tender lips,
And sighed, and murmured one beloved
CAROLINE WILDER FELLOWES.
ame.
THE LADY POVERTY
HE Lady Poverty was fair,
But she has lost her looks of late,
With change of times and change of air
Ah, slattern! she neglects her hair,
T"
## p. 16495 (#195) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16495
Her gown, her shoes; she keeps no state,
As once when her pure feet were bare.
Or - almost worse, if worse can be-
She scolds in parlors, dusts, and trims,
Watches and counts. Oh, is this she
Whom Francis met, whose step was free,
Who with Obedience caroled hymns,
In Umbria walked with Chastity ?
Where is her ladyhood ? Not here,
Not among modern kinds of men;
But in the stony fields, where clear
Through the thin trees the skies appear,
In delicate spare soil and fen,
And slender landscape and austere.
