Woodman, spare that tree!
Touch not a single bough!
In youth it sheltered me,
And I ’ll protect it now.
’T was my forefather’s hand
That placed it near his cot;
There, woodman, let it stand,
Thy axe shall harm it not.
That old familiar tree,
Whose glory and renown
Are spread o’er land and sea—...
We were boys together,
And never can forget
The school-house near the heather,
In childhood where we met;
The humble home to memory dear,
Its sorrows and its joys;
Where woke the transient smile or tear,
When you and I were boys.
We were youths together,
And castles built in air,
Your heart was like a...
Near the lake where drooped the willow,
Long time ago!
Where the rock threw back the billow,
Brighter than snow,
Dwelt a maid, beloved and cherished
By high and low;
But with autumn’s leaf she perished,
Long time ago!
Rock and tree and flowing water,
Long time ago!
Bee and bird and blossom...
This book is all that ’s left me now!
Tears will unbidden start,—
With faltering lip and throbbing brow
I press it to my heart.
For many generations past,
Here is our family tree;
My mother’s hands this Bible clasped,
She, dying, gave it me.
Ah! well do I remember those
Whose names these records bear;
...
Where hudson’s wave o’er silvery sands
Winds through the hills afar,
Old Cronest like a monarch stands,
Crowned with a single star!
And there, amid the billowy swells
Of rock-ribbed, cloud-capped earth,
My fair and gentle Ida dwells,
A nymph of mountain-birth.
The snow-flake that the cliff receives,
The...
Jeannie marsh of Cherry Valley
At whose call the muses rally;
Of all the nine none so divine
As Jeannie Marsh of Cherry Valley.
She minds me of her native scenes,
Where she was born among the cherries
Of peaches, plums, and nectarines,
Pears, apricots, and ripe strawberries.
Jeannie Marsh of Cherry Valley,
In whose...
Once more, once more, my Mary dear,
I sit by that lone stream,
Where first within thy timid ear
I breathed love’s burning dream.
The birds we loved still tell their tale
Of music, on each spray,
And still the wild-rose decks the vale—
But thou art far away.
In vain thy vanished form I seek,
By wood and stream...
Clime of the brave! the high heart’s home,
Laved by the wild and stormy sea!
Thy children, in this far-off land,
Devote to-day their hearts to thee;
Our thoughts, despite of space and time,
To-day are in our native clime,
Where passed our sinless years, and where
Our infant heads first bowed in prayer.
Stern land! we love...
Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there ’s no place like home;
A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there,
Which, seek through the world, is ne’er met with elsewhere.
Home, Home, sweet, sweet Home!
There ’s no place like Home! there ’s no place like Home!
An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain;...
Not on a prayerless bed, not on a prayerless bed
Compose thy weary limbs to rest;
For they alone are blest
With balmy sleep
Whom angels keep;
Nor, though by care opprest,
Or anxious sorrow,
Or thought in many a coil perplexed
For coming morrow,
Lay not thy head
On...
