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“Breathes there the man?” |
Sir Walter Scott |
1791 |
English |
From “The Lay of the Last Minstrel,” Canto VI.
BREATHES there the man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart has ne’er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering... |
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“By cool Siloam’s shady rill” |
Reginald Heber |
|
English |
By cool Siloam’s shady rill
How sweet the lily grows!
How sweet the breath beneath the hill
Of Sharon’s dewy rose!
Lo, such the child whose early feet
The paths of peace have trod;
Whose secret heart, with influence sweet,
Is... |
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“Ca’ the yowes” |
Isabel Pagan |
|
English |
CA’ the yowes to the knowes, 1
Ca’ them whare the heather grows,
Ca’ them whare the burnie rows 2
My bonnie dearie.
As I gaed down the water side,
There I met my shepherd lad,
He rowed me sweetly in his plaid,
And he ca’d me... |
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“Come into the garden, Maud” |
Alfred, Lord Tennyson |
|
English |
Come into the garden, Maud,
For the black bat, night, has flown!
Come into the garden, Maud,
I am here at the gate alone;
And the woodbine spices are wafted abroad,
And the musk of the roses blown.
For a breeze of morning moves,
... |
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“Come to me, dearest” |
Joseph Brenan |
|
English |
Come to me, dearest, I ’m lonely without thee,
Daytime and night-time, I ’m thinking about thee;
Night-time and daytime, in dreams I behold thee;
Unwelcome the waking which ceases to fold thee.
Come to me, darling, my sorrows to lighten,
Come in thy beauty... |
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“Come to these scenes of peace” |
William Lisle Bowles |
1782 |
English |
Come to these scenes of peace,
Where, to rivers murmuring,
The sweet birds all the summer sing,
Where cares and toil and sadness cease!
Stranger, does thy heart deplore
Friends whom thou wilt see no more?
Does thy wounded spirit prove
Pangs... |
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“Come, let us kisse and parte” |
Michael Drayton |
1583 |
English |
Since there ’s no helpe,—come, let us kisse and parte,
Nay, I have done,—you get no more of me;
And I am glad,—yea, glad with all my hearte,
That thus so cleanly I myselfe can free.
Shake hands forever!—cancel all our vows;
And when we meet at any... |
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“Come, rest in this bosom” |
Thomas Moore |
1799 |
English |
From “Irish Melodies”
COME, rest in this bosom, my own stricken deer,
Though the herd have fled from thee, thy home is still here;
Here still is the smile, that no cloud can o’ercast,
And a heart and a hand all thy own to the last.
Oh! what was love made... |
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“Comin’ through the rye” |
Robert Burns |
1779 |
English |
Adapted
GIN a body meet a body
Comin’ through the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need a body cry?
Every lassie has her laddie,—
Ne’er a ane hae I;
Yet a’ the lads they smile at me
When comin’ through the rye.... |
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“Darkness is thinning” |
Saint Gregory |
|
English |
From the Latin by John Mason Neale
DARKNESS is thinning; shadows are retreating;
Morning and light are coming in their beauty;
Suppliant seek we, with an earnest outcry,
God the Almighty!
So that our Master, having mercy on us,
... |
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“Day is Dying” |
George Eliot |
|
English |
From “The Spanish Gypsy”
DAY is dying! Float, O song,
Down the westward river,
Requiem chanting to the Day,—
Day, the mighty Giver.
Pierced by shafts of Time he bleeds,
Melted rubies sending
Through the river and the sky,
... |
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“Die down, O dismal day” |
David Gray |
|
English |
Die down, O dismal day, and let me live;
And come, blue deeps, magnificently strewn
With colored clouds,—large, light, and fugitive,—
By upper winds through pompous motions blown.
Now it is death in life,—a vapor dense
Creeps round my window, till I cannot... |
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“Dinna ask me” |
John Dunlop |
|
English |
O, Dinna ask me gin I lo’e ye:
Troth, I daurna tell!
Dinna ask me gin I lo’e ye,—
Ask it o’ yoursel’.
O, dinna look sae sair at me,
For weel ye ken me true;
O, gin ye look sae sair at me,
I daurna look at you.
When ye... |
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“Drink to me only with thine eyes” |
Ben Jonson |
1592 |
English |
From the Greek of Philostratus
From “The Forest”
DRINK to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I ’ll not look for wine.
The thirst that from the soul doth rise
Doth ask a drink divine... |
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“Duncan Gray cam’ here to woo” |
Robert Burns |
1779 |
English |
Duncan Gray cam’ here to woo—
Ha, ha! the wooing o’t!
On blythe Yule night when we were fou—
Ha, ha! the wooing o’t!
Maggie coose her head fu’ high,
Looke asklent and unco skeigh,
Gart poor Duncan stand abeigh—... |
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“Eros is missing” |
Meleager of Gadara |
|
English |
From the Greek by Charles Whibley
EROS is missing. In the early morn
Forth from his bed the rascal took his flight.
Sweet are his tears; his smile is touched with scorn—
A nimble-tongued, swift-footed, fearless sprite!
And he is winged; his hands... |
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“Farewell to thee, Araby’s daughter” |
Thomas Moore |
1799 |
English |
From “The Fire-Worshippers”
FAREWELL,—farewell to thee, Araby’s daughter!
(Thus warbled a Peri beneath the dark sea;)
No pearl ever lay under Oman’s green water
More pure in its shell than thy spirit in thee.
O, fair as the sea-flower close to thee... |
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“Farewell! thou art too dear” |
William Shakespeare |
1584 |
English |
Sonnet Lxxxvii.
farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing,
And like enough thou know’st thy estimate:
The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing;
My bonds in thee are all determinate.
For how do I hold thee but by thy granting?
And for that... |
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“Farewell!—but whenever” |
Thomas Moore |
1799 |
English |
FAREWELL!—but whenever you welcome the hour
That awakens the night-song of mirth in your bower,
Then think of the friend that once welcomed it too,
And forgot his own griefs, to be happy with you.
His griefs may return—not a hope may remain
Of the few that... |
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“Farewell, Life” |
Thomas Hood |
1819 |
English |
Written During Sickness, April, 1845
FAREWELL, life! my senses swim,
And the world is growing dim;
Thronging shadows cloud the light,
Like the advent of the night,—
Colder, colder, colder still,
Upward steals a vapor chill;
Strong the... |
