The Home Book of Verse Volume Iii Part 76

I leave this notice on my door For each accustomed visitor:-- "I am gone into the fields To take what this sweet hour yields;-- Reflection, you may come to-morrow, Sit by the fireside with Sorrow.-- You with the unpaid bill, Despair,-- You tiresome verse-reciter, Care,-- I will pay you in the grave,-- Death will listen to your stave.

Expectation too, be off!

To-day is for itself enough; Hope, in pity mock not Woe With smiles, nor follow where I go; Long having lived on thy sweet food, At length I find one moment's good Alter long pain--with all your love, This you never told me of."

Radiant Sister of the Day Awake! arise! and come away!

To the wild woods and the plains, To the pools where winter rains Image all their roof of leaves, Where the pine its garland weaves Of sapless green, and ivy dun, Round sterns that never kiss the sun.

Where the lawns and pastures be, And the sandhills of the sea;-- Where the melting h.o.a.r-frost wets The daisy-star that never sets, And wind-flowers, and violets, Which yet join not scent to hue, Crown the pale year weak and new; When the night is left behind In the deep east, dun and blind, And the blue noon is over us, And the mult.i.tudinous Billows murmur at our feet, Where the earth and ocean meet, And all things seem only one In the universal sun.

Percy Bysshe Sh.e.l.ley [1792-1822]

"MY HEART'S IN THE HIGHLANDS"

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here; My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer; A-chasing the wild deer, and following the roe,-- My heart's in the Highlands wherever I go.

Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North, The birthplace of valor, the country of worth; Wherever I wander, wherever I rove, The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.

Farewell to the mountains high covered with snow; Farewell to the straths and green valleys below; Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods; Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here; My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer, A-chasing the wild deer, and following the roe,-- My heart's in the Highlands wherever I go.

Robert Burns [1759-1796]

"AFAR IN THE DESERT"

Afar in the desert I love to ride, With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side.

When the sorrows of life the soul o'ercast, And, sick of the present, I cling to the past; When the eye is suffused with regretful tears, From the fond recollections of former years; And shadows of things that have long since fled Flit over the brain, like the ghosts of the dead: Bright visions of glory that vanished too soon; Day-dreams that departed ere manhood's noon; Attachments by fate or falsehood reft; Companions of early days lost or left-- And my native land--whose magical name Thrills to the heart like electric flame; The home of my childhood; the haunts of my prime; All the pa.s.sions and scenes of that rapturous time When the feelings were young, and the world was new, Like the fresh bowers of Eden unfolding to view; All--all now forsaken--forgotten--foregone!

And I--a lone exile remembered of none-- My high aims abandoned,--my good acts undone-- Aweary of all that is under the sun-- With that sadness of heart which no stranger may scan, I fly to the desert afar from man.

Afar in the desert I love to ride, With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side, When the wild turmoil of this wearisome life, With its scenes of oppression, corruption, and strife-- The proud man's frown, and the base man's fear-- The scorner's laugh, and the sufferer's tear-- And malice, and meanness, and falsehood, and folly, Dispose me to musing and dark melancholy; When my bosom is full, and my thoughts are high, And my soul is sick with the bondman's sigh-- Oh! then there is freedom, and joy, and pride, Afar in the desert alone to ride!

There is rapture to vault on the champing steed, And to bound away with the eagle's speed, With the death-fraught firelock in my hand-- The only law of the Desert Land!

Afar in the desert I love to ride, With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side.

Away--away from the dwellings of men, By the wild deer's haunt, by the buffalo's glen; By valleys remote where the oribi plays, Where the gnu, the gazelle, and the hartebeest graze, And the kudu and eland unhunted recline By the skirts of gray forest o'erhung with wild vine: Where the elephant browses at peace in his wood, And the river-horse gambols unscared in the flood, And the mighty rhinoceros wallows at will In the fen where the wild a.s.s is drinking his fill.

Afar in the desert I love to ride, With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side.

O'er the brown karroo, where the bleating cry Of the springbok's fawn sounds plaintively: And the timorous quagga's shrill whistling neigh Is heard by the fountain at twilight gray; Where the zebra wantonly tosses his mane, With wild hoof scouring the desolate plain; And the fleet-footed ostrich over the waste Speeds like a horseman who travels in haste, Hieing away to the home of her rest, Where she and her mate have scooped their nest, Far hid from the pitiless plunderer's view In the pathless depths of the parched karroo.

Afar in the desert I love to ride, With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side.

Away--away--in the wilderness vast Where the white man's foot hath never pa.s.sed, And the quivered Coranna or Bechuan Hath rarely crossed with his roving clan: A region of emptiness, howling and drear, Which man hath abandoned from famine and fear; Which the snake and the lizard inhabit alone, With the twilight bat from the yawning stone; Where gra.s.s, nor herb, nor shrub takes root, Save poisonous thorns that pierce the foot; And the bitter melon, for food and drink, Is the pilgrim's fare by the salt-lake's brink; A region of drought, where no river glides, Nor rippling brook with osiered sides; Where sedgy pool, nor bubbling fount, Nor tree, nor cloud, nor misty mount, Appears, to refresh the aching eye; But the barren earth and the burning sky, And the blank horizon, round and round, Spread--void of living sight or sound.

And here, while the night-winds round me sigh, And the stars burn bright in the midnight sky, As I sit apart by the desert stone, Like Elijah at h.o.r.eb's cave, alone, "A still small voice" comes through the wild, Like a father consoling his fretful child, Which banishes bitterness, wrath, and fear, Saying--Man is distant, but G.o.d is near!

Thomas Pringle [1789-1834]

SPRING SONG IN THE CITY

Who remains in London, In the streets with me, Now that Spring is blowing Warm winds from the sea; Now that trees grow green and tall, Now the sun s.h.i.+nes mellow, And with moist primroses all English lanes are yellow?

Little barefoot maiden, Selling violets blue, Hast thou ever pictured Where the sweetlings grew?

Oh, the warm wild woodland ways, Deep in dewy gra.s.ses, Where the wind-blown shadow strays, Scented as it pa.s.ses!

Peddler breathing deeply, Toiling into town, With the dusty highway You are dusky brown; Hast thou seen by daisied leas, And by rivers flowing, Lilac-ringlets which the breeze Loosens lightly blowing?

Out of yonder wagon Pleasant hay-scents float, He who drives it carries A daisy in his coat: Oh, the English meadows, fair Far beyond all praises!

Freckled orchids everywhere Mid the snow of daisies!

Now in busy silence Broods the nightingale, Choosing his love's dwelling In a dimpled dale; Round the leafy bower they raise Rose-trees wild are springing; Underneath, through the green haze, Bounds the brooklet singing.

And his love is silent As a bird can be, For the red buds only Fill the red rose-tree; Just as buds and blossoms blow He'll begin his tune, When all is green and roses glow Underneath the moon.

Nowhere in the valleys Will the wind be still, Everything is waving, Wagging at his will: Blows the milkmaid's kirtle clean With her hand pressed on it; Lightly o'er the hedge so green Blows the plowboy's bonnet.

Oh, to be a-roaming In an English dell!

Every nook is wealthy, All the world looks well, Tinted soft the Heavens glow, Over Earth and Ocean, Waters flow, breezes blow, All is light and motion!

Robert Buchanan [1841-1901]

IN CITY STREETS

Yonder in the heather there's a bed for sleeping, Drink for one athirst, ripe blackberries to eat; Yonder in the sun the merry hares go leaping, And the pool is clear for travel-wearied feet.

Sorely throb my feet, a-tramping London highways, (Ah! the springy moss upon a northern moor!) Through the endless streets, the gloomy squares and byways, Homeless in the City, poor among the poor!

London streets are gold--ah, give me leaves a-glinting 'Midst gray d.y.k.es and hedges in the autumn sun!

London water's wine, poured out for all unstinting-- G.o.d! For the little brooks that tumble as they run!

Oh, my heart is fain to hear the soft wind blowing, Soughing through the fir-tops up on northern fells!

Oh, my eye's an ache to see the brown burns flowing Through the peaty soil and tinkling heather-bells.

Ada Smith [18--

THE VAGABOND (To an Air of Schubert)

Give to me the life I love, Let the lave go by me, Give the jolly heaven above And the byway nigh me.

Bed in the bush with stars to see, Bread I dip in the river-- There's the life for a man like me, There's the life for ever.