• “where are you going, my pretty maid?”
    “I am going a-milking, sir,” she said.
    “May I go with you, my pretty maid?”
    “You ’re kindly welcome, sir,” she said.
    “What is your father, my pretty maid?”
    “My father ’s a farmer, sir,” she said.
    “What is your fortune, my pretty maid?”
    “My face is my fortune, sir,” she said.
    “Then I won’t...

  • Tell me not, sweet, I am unkinde,
      That from the nunnerie
    Of thy chaste breast and quiet minde,
      To warre and armes I flee.

    True, a new mistresse now I chase.—
      The first foe in the field;
    And with a stronger faith imbrace
      A sword, a horse, a shield.

    Yet this inconstancy is such
      As you, too, shall adore;...

  • Sad is our youth, for it is ever going,
    Crumbling away beneath our very feet;
    Sad is our life, for onward it is flowing
    In current unperceived, because so fleet;
    Sad are our hopes, for they were sweet in sowing,—
    But tares, self-sown, have overtopped the wheat;
    Sad are our joys, for they were sweet in blowing,—
    And still, O, still their...

  • GOING—the great round Sun,
      Dragging the captive Day
    Over behind the frowning hill,
      Over beyond the bay,—
              Dying:
    Coming—the dusky Night,
      Silently stealing in,
    Wrapping himself in the soft warm couch
      Where the golden-haired Day hath been
              Lying.

    Going—the bright, blithe Spring;
      ...

  • Going to Heaven!

    I don't know when —

    Pray do not ask me how!

    Indeed I'm too astonished

    To think of answering you!

    Going to Heaven!

    How dim it sounds!

    And yet it will be done

    As sure as flocks go home at night

    Unto the Shepherd's arm!


    Perhaps you're...

  • Going to Him! Happy letter!

    Tell Him —

    Tell Him the page I didn't write —

    Tell Him — I only said the Syntax —

    And left the Verb and the pronoun out —

    Tell Him just how the fingers hurried —

    Then — how they waded — slow — slow —

    And then you wished you had eyes in your pages —

    So...

  • Some keep the Sabbath going to Church —

    I keep it, staying at Home —

    With a Bobolink for a Chorister —

    And an Orchard, for a Dome —


    Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice —

    I just wear my Wings —

    And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,

    Our little Sexton — sings.


    God...

  • The going from a world we know

    To one a wonder still

    Is like the child's adversity

    Whose vista is a hill,

    Behind the hill is sorcery

    And everything unknown,

    But will the secret compensate

    For climbing it alone?