Fair shadow, faithless as my sun!
Of peace she robs my mind,
And to my sense, which rest doth shun,
Thou art no less unkind.

She my address disdainful flies,
And thou, like her, art fleet;
The real beauty she denies
And thou the counterfeit.

To cross my innocent desires
And make my griefs extreme,
A cruel mistress thus conspires
With a delusive dream.

Fair rebel to thyself and Time,
Who laugh'st at all my tears,
When thou hast lost thy youthful prime,
And age his trophy rears,

Weighing thy inconsiderate pride,
Thou shalt in vain accuse it:
" Why beauty am I now denied,
Or knew not then to use it? "

Then shall I wish, ungentle Fair,
Thou in like flames may'st burn!
Venus, if just, will hear my prayer,
And I shall laugh my turn.

Fair, order'd lights (whose motion without noise)
Resembles those true Joys
Whose spring is on that hil where you do grow
And we here tast sometimes below,)

With what exact obedience do you move
Now beneath, and now above,
And in your vast progressions overlook
The darkest night, and closest nook!

Some nights I see you in the gladsome East,
Some other neer the West,
And when I cannot see, yet do you shine
And beat about your endles line.

Silence, and light, and watchfulnes with you
Attend and wind the Clue,

Fair now is the springtide, now earth lies beholding
With the eyes of a lover the face of the sun;
Long lasteth the daylight, and hope is enfolding
The green-growing acres with increase begun.

Now sweet, sweet it is through the land to be straying
Mid the birds and the blossoms and the beasts of the field;
Love mingles with love, and no evil is weighing
On thy heart or mine, where all sorrow is healed.

From township to township, o'er down and by tillage
Far, far have we wandered and long was the day,

Fair Musidora starry-eyed,
With blue-black tresses floating wide,
And cheeks like tinted shells beside, —

Was seated in her tower one night,
Above the hills whose purple light
Merged in the moonlight's golden-white.

Her garments girdle-clasped, flowed round
By zephyrs stirred with leafy sound,
An amethyst her forehead crowned.

Afar surged the eternal sea,
Nigh, doves cooed in the bloss'ming tree,
And shadows crossed the gloomy lea.

But neither billows crested white,
Nor blossoms fairest to the sight,

Fair Mary sat at her father's castle gate,
A-watching the ships coming in;
Her father he came and sat by her side,
For he saw she looked pale and thin--
For he saw she looked pale and thin.

"Are you sick? Are you sick, dear Mary?" he said,
"Are you sick? Are you sick?" quoth he,
"Or are you in love with a jolly sailor lad,
Who sails the distant seas?"

"I am not sick, dear father," she says,
"I am not sick," quoth she,
"But I'm in love with a jolly sailor lad,
John Barbour is his name."

Fair Margret was a young ladye
An' come of high degree;
Fair Margret was a young ladye
An' proud as proud cou'd be.

Fair Margret was a rich ladye,
The king's cousin was she;
Fair Margret was a rich ladye
An' vain as vain cou'd be.

She war'd her wealth on the gay cleedin'
That comes frae 'yont the sea;
She spent her time frae morning till night
Adorning her fair bodye.

Ae night she sate in her stately ha'
Kaimin' her yellow hair,
When in there cum like a gentle knight
An' a white scarf he did wear.

Fair lovely Maid, or if that Title be
Too weak, too Feminine for Nobler thee,
Permit a Name that more Approaches Truth:
And let me call thee, Lovely Charming Youth.
This last will justifie my soft complaint,
While that may serve to lessen my constraint;
And without Blushes I the Youth persue,
When so much beauteous Woman is in view,
Against thy Charms we struggle but in vain
With thy deluding Form thou giv'st us pain,
While the bright Nymph betrays us to the Swain.
In pity to our Sex sure thou wer't sent,

Fair lady Isabel sits in her bower sewing,
Aye as the gowans grow gay
There she heard an elf-knight blawing his horn.
The first morning in May.

"If I had yon horn that I hear blawing,
And yon elf-knight to sleep in my bosom.'

This maiden had scarcely these words spoken,
Till in at her window the elf-knight has luppen.

"It's a very strange matter, fair maiden,' said he,
"I canna blaw my horn but ye call on me.

"But will ye go to yon greenwood side?
If ye canna gang, I will cause you to ride.'

Fair Isle at Sea--thy lovely name
Soft in my ear like music came.
That sea I loved, and once or twice
I touched at isles of Paradise.