• The wind of Hampstead Heath still burns my cheek
    As, home returned, I muse, and see arise
    Those rounded hills beneath the low, gray skies,
    With gleams of haze-lapped cities far to seek.
    These can I picture, but how fitly speak
    Of what might not be seen with searching eyes,
    And all beyond the listening ear that lies,
    Best known to bards...

  • Good morrow to thy sable beak
    And glossy plumage dark and sleek,
    Thy crimson moon and azure eye,
    Cock of the heath, so wildly shy:
    I see thee slyly cowering through
    That wiry web of silvery dew,
    That twinkles in the morning air,
    Like casements of my lady fair.

    A maid there is in yonder tower,
    Who, peeping from her early...



  •  * * *


    O Lapwing, thou fliest around the heath

    Nor seest the net that is spread beneath.

    Why dost thou not fly among the corn fields?

    They cannot spread nets where a harvest yields.


  • * * *


    The sword sung on the barren heath

    The sickle in the fruitful field

    The sword he sung a song of death

    But could not make the sickle yield[3]