From “The Princess”
SWEET and low, sweet and low,
Wind of the western sea,
Low, low, breathe and blow,
Wind of the western sea!
Over the rolling waters go,
Come from the dying moon, and blow,
Blow him again to me;
While my little one, while my pretty one, sleeps.
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From “Sea Dreams”
WHAT does little birdie say
In her nest at peep of day?
Let me fly, says little birdie,
Mother, let me fly away.
Birdie, rest a little longer,
Till the little wings are stronger.
So she rests a little longer,
Then she flies away.What does little baby say,
In her bed at peep of day?
Baby... -
From “In Memoriam”
XXII.
THE PATH by which we twain did go,
Which led by tracts that pleased us well,
Through four sweet years arose and fell,
From flower to flower, from snow to snow.* * * * *
But where the path we walked began
To slant the fifth autumnal slope,
As we descended, following Hope,... -
From “The Princess”
O SWALLOW, Swallow, flying, flying South,
Fly to her, and fall upon her gilded eaves,
And tell her, tell her what I tell to thee.O tell her, Swallow, thou that knowest each,
That bright and fierce and fickle is the South,
And dark and true and tender is the North.O Swallow, Swallow, if I could follow, and...
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From “The Miller’s Daughter”
IT is the miller’s daughter,
And she is grown so dear, so dear,
That I would be the jewel
That trembles at her ear:
For, hid in ringlets day and night,
I ’d touch her neck so warm and white.And I would be the girdle
About her dainty, dainty waist,
And her heart would beat against me... -
From “Queen Mary”
SHAME upon you, Robin,
Shame upon you now!
Kiss me would you? with my hands
Milking the cow?
Daisies grow again,
Kingcups blow again,
And you came and kissed me milking the cow.Robin came behind me,
Kissed me well I vow;
Cuff him could I? with my hands... -
From “Merlin and Vivien”
IN Love, if Love be Love, if Love be ours,
Faith and unfaith can ne’er be equal powers;
Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all.It is the little rift within the lute,
That by and by will make the music mute,
And ever widening slowly silence all.The little rift within the lover’s lute
Or little... -
Like souls that balance joy and pain,
With tears and smiles from heaven again
The maiden Spring upon the plain
Came in a sun-lit fall of rain.
In crystal vapor everywhere
Blue isles of heaven laughed between,
And far, in forest-deeps unseen,
The topmost elm-tree gathered green
From draughts of balmy air....
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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,
And the planet of Love is on high,
Beginning to faint in the light that she loves,
... -
It was the time when lilies blow,
And clouds are highest up in air,
Lord Ronald brought a lily-white doe
To give his cousin, Lady Clare.I trow they did not part in scorn:
Lovers long-betrothed were they:
They too will wed the morrow morn:
God’s blessing on the day!“He does not love me for my birth,
Nor for...