• How calm they sleep beneath the shade
      Who once were weary of the strife,
    And bent, like us, beneath the load
          Of human life!

    The willow hangs with sheltering grace
      And benediction o’er their sod,
    And Nature, hushed, assures the soul
          They rest in God.

    O weary hearts, what rest is here,
      From all that...

  • From “As You Like It,” Act II. Sc. 5.

          UNDER the greenwood tree
          Who loves to lie with me,
          And tune his merry note
          Unto the sweet bird’s throat,
    Come hither, come hither, come hither;
          Here shall he see
          No enemy
    But Winter and rough weather.

          Who doth ambition shun
          And...

  • George Iii. and a Dying Woman in Windsor Forest

    OUTSTRETCHED beneath the leafy shade
    Of Windsor forest’s deepest glade,
        A dying woman lay;
    Three little children round her stood,
    And there went up from the greenwood
        A woful wail that day.

    “O mother!” was the mingled cry,
    “O mother, mother! do not die,
        And...