AULD ROB MORRIS. THERE's auld Rob Morris that wons in yon glen, He's the king o' guid fellows and wale of auld men: He has gowd in his coffers, he has owsen and kine, And ae bonnie lassie, his darling and mine. She's fresh as the morning, the fairest in May; She's sweet as the ev'ning amang the new hay; As blythe and as artless as the lambs on the lea, And dear to my heart as the light to my e'e. But O, she's an heiress, auld Robin's a laird, And my daddie has naught but a cot-house and yard; A wooer like me maunna hope to come speed, dead. The day comes to me, but delight brings me nane: The night comes to me, but my rest it is gane; I wander my lane like a night-troubled ghaist, And I sigh as my heart it wad burst in my breast. 0, had she but been of a lower degree, Beside the sceptre. Thus I made my home ransom From those twin jailers of the daring heart, not; I then might hae hoped she wad smiled upon At last, in one mad hour, I dared to pour me! 0, how past describing had then been my bliss, As now my distraction no words can express! ROBERT BURNS. The thoughts that burst their channels into song, And sent them to thee, such a tribute, lady, As beauty rarely scorns, even from the meanest. The name-appended by the burning heart That longed to show its idol what bright things It had created - yea, the enthusiast's name, CLAUDE MELNOTTE'S APOLOGY AND That should have been thy triumph, was thy DEFENCE. PAULINE, by pride Angels have fallen ere thy time; by pride, And a revengeful heart, had power upon thee. kings Have stooped from their high sphere; how Love, like Death, Levels all ranks, and lays the shepherd's crook scorn! That very hour-when passion, turned to wrath, For their revenge! Thou hadst trampled on the worm, It turned, and stung thee! LORD EDWARD BULWER LYTTON. LEFT BEHIND. It was the autumn of the year; The strawberry-leaves were red and sear; You told me of your toilsome past; You did not see the bitter trace You walk the sunny side of fate; The wise world smiles, and calls you great ; Your life's proud aim, your art's high truth, I used to dream in all these years Of patient faith and silent tears, That Love's strong hand would put aside FLORENCE PERCY. Where the bright eyes of angels only Should come around us, to behold A paradise so pure and lonely! Would this be world enough for thee?" Playful she turned, that he might see The passing smile her cheek put on ; But when she marked how mournfully His eyes met hers, that smile was gone; And, bursting into heartfelt tears, "Yes, yes," she cried, "my hourly fears, My dreams, have boded all too right, We part forever part-to-night! I knew, I knew it could not last, 'T was bright, 't'was heavenly, but 'tis past! O, ever thus, from childhood's hour, I've seen my fondest hopes decay; I never loved a tree or flower VIOLA. A blank, my lord. She never told | In the spring a livelier iris changes on the her love, But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud, burnished dove; In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. Then her cheek was pale and thinner than should be for one so young, We men may say more, swear more: but, indeed, And her eyes on all my motions with a mute Our shows are more than will; for still we prove SHAKESPEARE. LOCKSLEY HALL. ' observance hung. And I said, "My cousin Amy, speak, and speak the truth to me; Trust me, cousin, all the current of my being sets to thee." COMRADES, leave me here a little, while as yet On her pallid cheek and forehead came a color 't is early morn, and a light, Leave me here, and when you want me, sound As I have seen the rosy red flushing in the upon the bugle horn. northern night. "Tis the place, and all around it, as of old, the And she turned, her bosom shaken with a curlews call, sudden storm of sighs; Dreary gleams about the moorland, flying over All the spirit deeply dawning in the dark of Locksley Hall: hazel eyes, Locksley Hall, that in the distance overlooks the Saying, "I have hid my feelings, fearing they sandy tracts, should do me wrong"; And the hollow ocean-ridges roaring into Saying, "Dost thou love me, cousin?" weeping, cataracts. Many a night from yonder ivied casement, ere I went to rest, Did I look on great Orion sloping slowly to the west. "I have loved thee long." Love took up the glass of time, and turned it in his glowing hands; Every moment, lightly shaken, ran itself in golden sands. Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising through Love took up the harp of life, and smote on all the mellow shade, the chords with might; Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver Smote the chord of self, that, trembling, passed braid. When I dipt into the future far as human eye In the spring a fuller crimson comes upon the In the spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest; in music out of sight. Is it well to wish thee happy?- having known | Never! though my mortal summers to such length me; to decline of years should come On a range of lower feelings and a narrower heart As the many-wintered crow that leads the clang. than mine! ing rookery home. Yet it shall be thou shalt lower to his level day Where is comfort? in division of the records of by day, the mind? What is fine within thee growing coarse to sym- Can I part her from herself, and love her, as 1 pathize with clay. knew her, kind? As the husband is, the wife is; thou art mated | I remember one that perished; sweetly did she with a clown, speak and move; And the grossness of his nature will have weight Such a one do I remember, whom to look at was to drag thee down. to love. He will hold thee, when his passion shall have Can I think of her as dead, and love her for the spent its novel force, love she bore? Something better than his dog, a little dearer than No, his horse. What is this? his eyes are heavy, -think not Comfort? comfort scorned of devils! this is truth they are glazed with wine. the poet sings, Go to him; it is thy duty, -kiss him; take his That a sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering hand in thine. happier things. It may be my lord is weary, that his brain is Drug thy memories, lest thou learn it, lest thy overwrought, heart be put to proof, Soothe him with thy finer fancies, touch him with In the dead, unhappy night, and when the rain thy lighter thought. is on the roof. He will answer to the purpose, easy things to un- Like a dog, he hunts in dreams; and thou art derstand,staring at the wall, Better thou wert dead before me, though I slew Where the dying night-lamp flickers, and the thee with my hands. Better thou and I were lying, hidden from the heart's disgrace, Rolled in one another's arms, and silent in a last embrace. Cursed be the social wants that sin against the strength of youth! Cursed be the social lies that warp us from the living truth! Cursed be the sickly forms that err from honest nature's rule! Cursed be the gold that gilds the straitened forehead of the fool! Well-'t is well that I should bluster! shadows rise and fall. Then a hand shall pass before thee, pointing to his drunken sleep, To thy widowed marriage-pillows, to the tears that thou wilt weep. Thou shalt hear the "Never, never," whispered by the phantom years, And a song from out the distance in the ringing of thine ears; And an eye shall vex thee, looking ancient kindness on thy pain. Turn thee, turn thee on thy pillow; get thee to thy rest again. thou less unworthy proved, Would to God-for I had loved thee more than ever wife was loved. Am I mad, that I should cherish that which bears but bitter fruit? I will pluck it from my bosom, though my heart be at the root. Baby lips will laugh me down; my latest rival brings thee rest, Baby fingers, waxen touches, press me from the mother's breast. O, the child too clothes the father with a dear- | And his spirit leaps within him to be gone beness not his due. fore him then, Half is thine and half is his: it will be worthy Underneath the light he looks at, in among the of the two. throngs of men ; O, I see thee old and formal, fitted to thy petty Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reappart, ing something new : With a little hoard of maxims preaching down a That which they have done but earnest of the daughter's heart. things that they shall do: Every gate is thronged with suitors, all the Far along the world-wide whisper of the southmarkets overflow. wind rushing warm, I have but an angry fancy: what is that which I With the standards of the peoples plunging through should do? I had been content to perish, falling on the foeman's ground, When the ranks are rolled in vapor, and the winds are laid with sound. the thunder-storm; Till the war-drum throbbed no longer, and the battle-flags were furled In the parliament of man, the federation of the world. But the jingling of the guinea helps the hurt There the common sense of most shall hold a that honor feels, fretful realm in awe, And the nations do but murmur, snarling at each And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in uniother's heels. versal law. Can I but relive in sadness? I will turn that So I triumphed ere my passion sweeping through earlier page. me left me dry, Hide me from my deep emotion, O thou won- Left me with the palsied heart, and left me with drous mother-age! Make me feel the wild pulsation that I felt before the strife, When I heard my days before me, and the tumult of my life; Yearning for the large excitement that the coming years would yield, Eager-hearted as a boy when first he leaves his father's field, And at night along the dusky highway near and nearer drawn,~ Sees in heaven the light of London flaring like a dreary dawn; the jaundiced eye; Eye, to which all order festers, all things here are out of joint. Science moves, but slowly slowly, creeping on from point to point : Slowly comes a hungry people, as a lion, creeping nigher, Glares at one that nods and winks behind a slowly dying fire. Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns. |
