• “give me a fillet, Love,” quoth I,
    “To bind my Sweeting’s heart to me,
    So ne’er a chance of earth or sky
    Shall part us ruthlessly:
    A fillet, Love, but not to chafe
    My Sweeting’s soul, to cause her pain;
    But just to bind her close and safe
    Through snow and blossom sun and rain:
          A fillet, boy!”
          Love said, “Here ’...

  • Along the country roadside, stone on stone,
    Past waving grain-field, and near broken stile,
    The walls stretch onward, an uneven pile,
    With rankling vines and lichen overgrown:
    So stand they sentinel. Unchanged, alone,
    They ’re left to watch the seasons’ passing slow:
    The summer’s sunlight or the winter’s snow,
    The spring-time’s birdling,...

  • Throughout the soft and sunlit day
    The pennoned pines, in strict array,
    Stand grim and silent, gaunt and gray.

    But when the blasts of winter keen,
    They whisper each to each, and lean
    Like comrades with a bond between.

    And seeing them deport them so,
    One almost thinks they seek to show
    How mortal-like mere trees may grow.

    ...