I have been young, and I have counted friends.
A hopeless sail I spread, too late, too late.
Why should I from isle to isle Sail, a hopeless sailor?
THE FAR-FARERS
THE broad sun, The bright day:
White sails On the blue bay:
The far-farers Draw away.
Light the fires And close the door.
To the old homes, To the loved shore, The far-farers Return no more.
HOME, MY LITTLE CHILDREN, HERE ARE SONGS FOR YOUCOME, my little children, here are songs for you;Some are short and some are long, and all, all are new.
You must learn to sing them very small and clear, Very true to time and tune and pleasing to the ear.
Mark the note that rises, mark the notes that fall, Mark the time when broken, and the swing of it all.
So when night is come, and you have gone to bed, All the songs you love to sing shall echo in your head.
COME FROM THE DAISIED MEADOWS
HOME from the daisied meadows, where you linger yet -Home, golden-headed playmate, ere the sun is set;For the dews are falling fast And the night has come at last.
Home with you, home and lay your little head at rest, Safe, safe, my little darling, on your mother's breast.
Lullaby, darling; your mother is watching you;she'll be your guardian and shield.
Lullaby, slumber, my darling, till morning be bright upon mountain and field.
Long, long the shadows fall.
All white and smooth at home your little bed is laid.
All round your head be angels.
EARLY IN THE MORNING I HEAR ON YOUR PIANOEARLY in the morning I hear on your piano You (at least, I guess it's you) proceed to learn to play.
Mostly little minds should take and tackle their piano While the birds are singing in the morning of the day.
FAIR ISLE AT SEA
FAIR Isle at Sea - thy lovely name Soft in my ear like music came.
That sea I loved, and once or twice I touched at isles of Paradise.
LOUD AND LOW IN THE CHIMNEY
LOUD and low in the chimney The squalls suspire;Then like an answer dwindles And glows the fire, And the chamber reddens and darkens In time like taken breath.
Near by the sounding chimney The youth apart Hearkens with changing colour And leaping heart, And hears in the coil of the tempest The voice of love and death.
Love on high in the flute-like And tender notes Sounds as from April meadows And hillside cotes;But the deep wood wind in the chimney Utters the slogan of death.
I LOVE TO BE WARM BY THE RED FIRESIDE
I LOVE to be warm by the red fireside, I love to be wet with rain:
I love to be welcome at lamplit doors, And leave the doors again.
AT LAST SHE COMES
AT last she comes, O never more In this dear patience of my pain To leave me lonely as before, Or leave my soul alone again.
MINE EYES WERE SWIFT TO KNOW THEE
MINE eyes were swift to know thee, and my heart As swift to love. I did become at once Thine wholly, thine unalterably, thine In honourable service, pure intent, Steadfast excess of love and laughing care:
And as she was, so am, and so shall be.
I knew thee helpful, knew thee true, knew thee And Pity bedfellows: I heard thy talk With answerable throbbings. On the stream, Deep, swift, and clear, the lilies floated; fish Through the shadows ran. There, thou and IRead Kindness in our eyes and closed the match.
FIXED IS THE DOOM
FIXED is the doom; and to the last of years Teacher and taught, friend, lover, parent, child, Each walks, though near, yet separate; each beholds His dear ones shine beyond him like the stars.
We also, love, forever dwell apart;
With cries approach, with cries behold the gulph, The Unvaulted; as two great eagles that do wheel in air Above a mountain, and with screams confer, Far heard athwart the cedars.
Yet the years Shall bring us ever nearer; day by day Endearing, week by week, till death at last Dissolve that long divorce. By faith we love, Not knowledge; and by faith, though far removed, Dwell as in perfect nearness, heart to heart.
We but excuse Those things we merely are; and to our souls A brave deception cherish.
So from unhappy war a man returns Unfearing, or the seaman from the deep;So from cool night and woodlands to a feast May someone enter, and still breathe of dews, And in her eyes still wear the dusky night.
MEN ARE HEAVEN'S PIERS
MEN are Heaven's piers; they evermore Unwearying bear the skyey floor;Man's theatre they bear with ease, Unfrowning cariatides!
I, for my wife, the sun uphold, Or, dozing, strike the seasons cold.
She, on her side, in fairy-wise Deals in diviner mysteries, By spells to make the fuel burn And keep the parlour warm, to turn Water to wine, and stones to bread, By her unconquered hero-head.
A naked Adam, naked Eve, Alone the primal bower we weave;Sequestered in the seas of life, A Crusoe couple, man and wife, With all our good, with all our will, Our unfrequented isle we fill;And victor in day's petty wars, Each for the other lights the stars.
Come then, my Eve, and to and fro Let us about our garden go;And, grateful-hearted, hand in hand Revisit all our tillage land, And marvel at our strange estate, For hooded ruin at the gate Sits watchful, and the angels fear To see us tread so boldly here.
Meanwhile, my Eve, with flower and grass Our perishable days we pass;Far more the thorn observe - and see How our enormous sins go free -Nor less admire, beside the rose, How far a little virtue goes.
THE ANGLER ROSE, HE TOOK HIS ROD
THE angler rose, he took his rod, He kneeled and made his prayers to God.
The living God sat overhead:
The angler tripped, the eels were fed SPRING CAROLWHEN loud by landside streamlets gush, And clear in the greenwood quires the thrush, With sun on the meadows And songs in the shadows Comes again to me The gift of the tongues of the lea, The gift of the tongues of meadows.
Straightway my olden heart returns And dances with the dancing burns;It sings with the sparrows;
To the rain and the (grimy) barrows Sings my heart aloud -To the silver-bellied cloud, To the silver rainy arrows.
It bears the song of the skylark down, And it hears the singing of the town;And youth on the highways And lovers in byways Follows and sees:
And hearkens the song of the leas And sings the songs of the highways.
