FAIR MAID, HAD I NOT HEARD

FAIR

AIR maid, had I not heard thy baby cries,
Nor seen thy girlish, sweet vicissitude,
Thy mazy motions, striving to elude,
Yet wooing still a parent's watchful eyes,
Thy humours, many as the opal's dyes,
And lovely all ;-methinks thy scornful mood,
And bearing high of stately womanhood,—
Thy brow, where Beauty sits to tyrannise
O'er humble love, had made me sadly fear thee;
For never sure was seen a royal bride,
Whose gentleness gave grace to so much pride—
My very thoughts would tremble to be near thee:
But when I see thee at thy father's side,

Old times unqueen thee, and old loves endear thee. HARTLEY Coleridge

IT WAS NOT IN THE WINTER

T was not in the winter

IT

Our loving lot was cast:

It was the time of roses

We plucked them as we passed!

That churlish season never frown'd
On early lovers yet!

O, no-the world was newly crown'd
With flowers, when first we met.

'Twas twilight, and I bade you go,
But still you held me fast:

It was the time of roses-
We plucked them as we passed!

THOMAS HOOD

1 Two verses are omitted,

I love thee-I love thee!

Thy bright and hazel glance,
The mellow lute upon those lips
Whose tender tones entrance ;

But most, dear heart of hearts, thy proofs,
That still these words enhance ;

I love thee-I love thee!

Whatever be thy chance.

THOMAS HOOD

WH

BALLAD OF HUMAN LIFE

HEN we were girl and boy together,
We tossed about the flowers

And wreathed the blushing hours

Into a posy green and sweet.

I sought the youngest, best,

And never was at rest

Till I had laid them at thy fairy feet.

But the days of childhood they were fleet,

And the blooming sweet-briar breathed weather,
When we were boy and girl together.

When we were lad and lass together,
And sought the kiss of night
Before we felt aright,

Sitting and singing soft and sweet.

The dearest thought of heart
With thee 'twas joy to part,

And the greater half was thine, as meet.
Still my eyelids dewy, my veins they beat
At the starry summer-evening weather,
When we were lad and lass together.

And we are man and wife together,
Although thy breast, once bold
With song, be closed and cold
Beneath flowers' roots and birds' light feet.
Yet sit I by thy tomb,

And dissipate the gloom

With songs of loving faith and sorrow sweet.
And fate and darkling grave kind dreams do cheat,
That, while fair life, young hope, despair and

death are,

We're boy and girl, and lass and lad, and man and wife together.

THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES

SONG FROM "TORRISMOND"

HOW many times do I love thee, dear?

Tell me how many thoughts there be
In the atmosphere

Of a new-fall'n year,

Whose white and sable hours appear

:

The latest flake of Eternity
So many times do I love thee, dear!

How many times do I love again?
Tell me how many beads there are
In a silver chain

Of evening rain,

Unravelled from the tumbling main,

And threading the eye of a yellow star :— So many times do I love again!

THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES

IF

SONG 1

F thou wilt ease thine heart
Of love and all its smart,
Then sleep, dear, sleep;

And not a sorrow

Hang any tear on your eyelashes!
Lie still and deep,

Sad soul, until the sea-wave washes
The rim o' the sun to-morrow,
In eastern sky.

But wilt thou cure thine heart
Of love and all its smart,
Then die, dear, die ;

1 From Death's Fest-Book.

'Tis deeper, sweeter,

Than on a rose bank to lie dreaming
With folded eye;

And then alone, amid the beaming

Of love's stars, thou❜lt meet her

In eastern sky.

THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES

TO ONE IN PARADISE

HOU wast that all to me, love,

THOU

For which my soul did pine—

A green isle in the sea, love,

A fountain and a shrine

All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers

And all the flowers were mine.

Ah, dream too bright to last!
Ah, starry hope that didst arise
But to be overcast !

A voice from out the Future cries,
"On! on!"-but o'er the Past
(Dim gulf!) my spirit hovering lies
Mute, motionless, aghast.

For alas alas! with me
The light of Life is o'er.

"No more-no more-no more-
(Such language holds the solemn sea
To the sands upon the shore)
Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree,
Or the stricken eagle soar !