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In a World Like This

In a world like this,
When in misanthropic,
Cheerless mood, I wis,
Tired I take my flight,
Far from Love's warm tropic,—
Then I fret and sigh:
Better 'tis to die
Than to fawn and follow
With false look submiss,
Meeting day and night
Heartless hearts and hollow,
In a world like this.

In a world like this,
Trade's a daily duel,
If your aim you miss;
And I hear them say:
“Woods are made for fuel,
Not for poets' nooks,
Day-dreams, birds and brooks;
Bees are but for honey;
For our gospel is,

The Evening Hour

Fast fades the busy weary day,
Come, Alice, lay the needle down,
Lo, gentle twilight, cool and grey,
Comes stealing o'er the coppice brown,
Comes stealing over fields and skies;
Stand with me by our cottage door
And watch the yellow moon up rise,
She never rose more bright before.

They tell us evening hours are cold,
Her skies are dim, her dews are tears,
Earth weeping that her flowers grow old;
They do not know how time endears.
They never felt the calm delight
Each year of patient love bestows,
Nor think how yonder river bright

I Pray to my Soul

I pray to my soul.
I lock out the priest, I prohibit God, I forget how to read the books,
I refuse all presences but that presence which issues in my self.
My self alone in prayer to my self alone.

I pray to my soul
I pray to be saved from all narrowness of self,
I pray to be saved from all breadth of self,
I pray to be saved from the pertinence of my body,
I pray to be saved from the invisibility of my soul,
I pray to be saved from that which saves and that which damns,
I pray to be saved from light and from darkness,

Martial's Favourites

Polytinus? Chases girls to find a mate;
Hypnus? He thinks his boyhood infra-dig;
Secundus? Buttocks like a peach-fed pig;
Dindymus? Hates to seem effeminate;
Amphion? Could have been a girl from birth.
The charms, the pride, the petulant display
Of these five boys to my mind far outweigh
The golden dowry that a bride is worth.

To Liberty

O Goddess, on whose steps attend
Pleasure and laughter-loving H EALTH ,
White-mantled P EACE with olive-wand,
Young J OY , and diamond-sceptred Wealth ,
Blithe P LENTY with her loaded horn,
With S CIENCE bright-ey'd as the morn,
In Britain, which for ages past
Has been thy choicest darling care,
Who mad'st her wise, and strong, and fair,
May thy best blessings ever laft.

For thee the pining pris'ner mourns,
Depriv'd of food, of mirth, of light;
For thee pale slaves to galleys chain'd,

Dawn

Day's sweetest moments are at dawn;
Refreshed by his long sleep, the Light
Kisses the languid lips of Night,
Ere she can rise and hasten on.
All glowing from his dreamless rest
He holds her closely to his breast,
Warm lip to lip and limb to limb,
Until she dies for love of him.

As I Came in by Fiddich-Side

As I came in by Fiddich-side,
In a May morning,
I met Willie Mackintosh,
An hour before the dawning.

"Turn again, turn again,
Turn again, I bid ye;
If ye burn Auchindown,
Huntly he will head ye.'

"Head me, hang me,
That sall never fear me;
I'll burn Auchindown
Before the life leaves me.'

As I came in by Auchindown,
In a May morning,
Auchindown was in a bleeze,
An hour before the dawning.

Crawing, crawing,
For my crowse crawing,
I lost the best feather i my wing
For my crowse crawing.
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