English

For how long known this boundless wash of light,
This smell of purity, this gleaming waste,
This wind? This brown, strewn wrack how old a sight,
These pebbles round to touch and salt to taste.

See, the slow marbled heave, the liquid arch,
Before the waves' procession to the land
Flowers in foam; the ripples' onward march,
Their last caresses on the pure hard sand.

For how long known these bleaching corks, new-made
Smooth and enchanted from the lapping sea?
Since first I laboured with a wooden spade

A amiling look she had, a figure slight,
With cheerful air, and step both quick and light;
A strange and foreign look the maiden bore,
That suited the quaint Belgian dress she wore;
Yet the blue, fearless eyes in her fair face,
And her soft voice, told her of English race;
And ever, as she flitted to and fro,
She sang, (or murmured, rather,) soft and low,
Snatches of song, as if she did not know
That she was singing, but the happy load
Of dream and thought thus from her heart o'erflowed:
And while on household cares she passed along,

Young Willie stands in his stable door,
And combing down his steed;
And looking through his white fingers,
His nose began to bleed;
And looking through his white fingers,
His nose began to bleed.

Gie corn to my horse, mother,
And meat unto my man,
For I'm awa to Maggie's bowers;
I'll win or she lie doon.

Oh bide this nicht wi' me, Willie,
Oh bide this nicht wi' me;
The besten cock o' a' the reest
At your supper shall be.

A' your cocks an' a' your reests
I value nae a prin;

With elegies, sad songs, and murning layes,
Quhill Craig his Kala wald to pitie move,
Poore braine-sicke man! he spends his dearest dayes;
Such sillie rime can not make women love.
Morice, quho sight of neuer saw a booke,
With a rude stanza this faire virgine tooke.

Before mine eyes are sea and sky,
And from the sea, a mountain high
Bathed in the softest silver light;
The sun's great shield so dazzling bright
Upon the tranquil sea doth lie.

Such radiant gems I there descry
Nor Emperors nor Queens may buy;
They shine like flashing stars of night
Before mine eyes.

Oh mountain, soft as clouds that fly,
Oh clouds, 'twixt heaven and earth that ply,
And sea of silver, shorn of might
By peaceful sky; most blessed sight
To soothe, to cheer, to fortify
Before mine eyes.

Farewell, my lyre! for now the course is run.
Lay thee to sleep; our singing-time is done.
Before thy tones my sorrow often fled
As Saul's of old. The echoes of them sped
Through many a good, yea, far more worthy breast.
I'm done with thee. Be still, and take thy rest!

“Syea” I once did sing and “Frithiof's Lay,”
To Nature, Man, and God mine anthems rang:
In sober truth I lived but when I sang.
From north to south the winds did shift and sway,
My poor heart had from thorns full many a pang,

M ERRY'S the trade of a poet; but somewhat a dear one, I fear me;
For, as my book grows apace, all of my sequins I lose.

These things my soul showed clear to me
As in a trance I lay;
And I shall know them while I live,
Through day and night and day.

O fair are freedom and victory!
The sweet sky rained with wings.
I was so happy that I seemed
Like one of those fair things.

For, as through still clear waters, fell
Dissolving phantoms white,
Like wavering dreams slow shaken down
From a great fount of light.

And sweetly, sweetly from my flesh
I felt the fetters slip.
With pennons fair on the blue air
I sailed, a white-plumed ship.

Onward I flew o'er seas so clear
That still my wraith below,
Like a mute pilgrimaging thought,

What next I saw ill can I tell,
And ill can understand;
But yet I know that once I went
Through that magic land.

It was a waste of jagged rock
(Nor beast nor shrub was nigh),
Whereon a glittering palace lay
Like ruins of the sky.

I crept within; I stood within
Far down the toppling ledge
Scaffolds of wood in order stood
From edge to shuddering edge.

And spiders wove and silence lay
On each deserted wall.
Like a wild stream from beam to beam
I fell through that great hall.