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Annie Livingston

Bonnie Annie Livingstone
Was walking out the way,
By came the laird of Glendinning,
And he 's stolen her away.
The Highlands are no for me, kind sir,
The Highlands are no for me,
And, if you wad my favour win,
You 'd take me to Dundee.

He mounted her on a milk-white steed,
Himself upon a grey,
He 's taen her to the Highland hills,
And stolen her quite away.

When they came to Glendinning gate,
They lighted on the green;
There many a Highland lord spoke free,
But fair Annie she spake nane.

When bells were rung, and mass begun,

On Woman's Love

And think'st thou that Woman will smile upon those,
Whom Adversity marks for her own?
Ah, no! — hand in hand with dame Fortune she goes,
On the affluent only her love she bestows,
And thinks that the fount from which happiness flows,
Is splendor and riches alone.

I hop'd that my Emily's love would not fade,
Though fortune and friends were all flown;
Foolish thought! — with my hopes her feign'd passion decay'd,
And deserted and spurn'd by the treacherous maid,
Adversity's storm I am doom'd to pervade,
Unpitied, uncheer'd, and alone!

The Love-Ron of Friar Thomas Hales

A mayde Cristes me bit yorne
that Ich hire wurche a luve-ron,
For hwan heo myhte best ileorne
To taken onoþer soþ lefmon,
that treowest were of alle berne
And best wyte cuþe a freo wymmon.
Ich hire nule nowiht werne;
Ich hire wule teche as Ic con.

Mayde, her þu myht biholde
this worldes luve nys bute o res
And is byset so fele volde,
Vikel and frakel and wok and les.
theos þeines þat her weren bolde
Beoþ aglyden so wyndes bles;
Under molde hi liggeþ colde
And faleweþ so doþ medewe gres.

Nis no mon iboren o lyve

The Mistriss

1

If e're passion in hopes of refining Delight
Shall engage me beyond the Amour of a Night
To seek dearer Arms, and a faithfuller kiss,
May it [be] for such Charms, such a Mistriss as this.
May her Face and her Mind to alure me conspire
And what one begun may the other raise higher,
Relenting her Nature and moving her Air
With Eyes of Desire to keep Hearts from Despair.

2

May She neither be easy, nor yet too severe,
But with Handsome Resistance her Yeilding endear,
By Winning Delays, pleasing Hope lead along,

Alma Mater

O mother Earth, by the bright sky above thee,
I love thee, O, I love thee!
And yet they say that I must leave thee soon;
 And if it must be so,
Then to what sun or moon
 Or star I am to go,
 Or planet, matters not for me to know.
O mother Earth, by the bright sky above thee,
I love thee, O I love thee!

O, whither will you send me?
O, wherefore will you rend me
 From your warm bosom, mother mine?—
I can't fix my affections
On a state of conic sections,
And I don't care how old Daedalus
May try to coax and wheedle us

The Laugh

An empty laugh, I heard it on the road
Shivering the twilight with its lance of mirth;
And yet why empty? Knowing not its birth,
This much I know, that it goes up to God;
And if to God, from God it surely starts,
Who has within Himself the secret springs
Of all the lovely, causeless, unclaimed things,
And loves them in His very heart of hearts.
A girl of fifteen summers, pure and free,
Æolian, vocal to the lightest touch
Of fancy's winnowed breath — Ah, happy such
Whose life is music of the eternal sea!

Love's World

If the year be at her Spring
I neither know nor care;
I have the bird-song of your speech,
The warm rain of your hair.
I question not if thrushes sing,
If roses load the air;
Beyond my heart I need not reach
When all is summer there.

I go not by the blue above,
By grasses green or sere;
Your silences, your sigh, your smile,
They mark my time o' year.
Its own brave wonder-world has love;
So fair it is, I fear
Sometimes 't will fade and go the while
I look upon you, dear.

Love's in Town

Color in the lilacs,
And singing in the air;
Sweet is for the having,
Plenty and to spare.

Fuzzy are the bushes,
The fields are all a-smile;
Phyllis has a feeling
Life is well worth while;

Dian tests her dimples,
Griselda fetches sighs;
Amaryllis loosens
The lightnings in her eyes;

Roxy knots her ribbons,
Belinda binds her zone; —
Pluck your heart up, Colin!
Philander, hold your own!

Tell it up and down,
Love 's in town!