Once before, this self-same air
Passed me, though I know not where.
Strange! how very like it came!
Touch and fragrance were the same;
Sound of mingled voices, too,
With a light laugh ringing through;
Some one moving,—here or there,—
Some one passing up the stair,
Some one calling from without,
Or a far-off childish shout...
-
-
A purple cloud hangs half-way down;
Sky, yellow gold below;
The naked trees, beyond the town,
Like masts against it show,—Bare masts and spars of our earth-ship,
With shining snow-sails furled;
And through the sea of space we slip,
That flows all round the world. -
Sorrow, my friend,
When shall you come again?
The wind is slow, and the bent willows send
Their silvery motions wearily down the plain.
The bird is dead
That sang this morning through the summer rain!Sorrow, my friend,
I owe my soul to you.
And if my life with any glory end
Of tenderness for others, and the words are... -
Once hoary Winter chanced—alas!
Alas! hys waye mistaking—
A leafless apple-tree to pass
Where Spring lay dreaming. “Fie, ye lass!
Ye lass had best he waking,”
Quoth he, and shook hys robe, and, lo!
Lo! forth didde flye a cloud of snowe.Now in ye bough an elfe there dwelte,
An elfe of wondrous powere,
That when ye... -
The blackcaps pipe among the reeds,
And there ’ll be rain to follow;
There is a murmur as of wind
In every coign and hollow;
The wrens do chatter of their fears
While swinging on the barley-ears.Come, hurry, while there yet is time,
Pull up thy scarlet bonnet.
Now, sweetheart, as my love is thine,
There is a... -
BEHAVE yoursel’ before folk,
Behave yoursel’ before folk,
And dinna be sae rude to me,
As kiss me sae before folk.
It wouldna give me meikle pain,
Gin we were seen and heard by nane,
To tak’ a kiss, or grant you ane;
But gudesake! no before folk.
Behave yoursel’ before folk,
Behave yoursel’ before... -
We knew it would rain, for all the morn
A spirit on slender ropes of mist
Was lowering its golden buckets down
Into the vapory amethystOf marshes and swamps and dismal fens—
Scooping the dew that lay in the flowers,
Dipping the jewels out of the sea,
To scatter them over the land in showers.We knew it would rain, for...
-
Once before, this self-same air
Passed me, though I know not where.
Strange! how very like it came!
Touch and fragrance were the same;
Sound of mingled voices, too,
With a light laugh ringing through;
Some one moving,—here or there,—
Some one passing up the stair,
Some one calling from without,
Or a far-off childish shout... -
[1415]
From “King Henry V.,” Act III. Sc. 1.
ONCE more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead!
In peace, there ’s nothing so becomes a man,
As modest stillness, and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon... -
“The dead hand clasped a letter.”
—SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.HERE in this leafy place,
Quiet he lies,
Cold, with his sightless face
Turned to the skies;
’T is but another dead;—
All you can say is said.Carry his body hence,—
Kings must have slaves;
Kings climb to eminence
Over men’s graves....