Child Harold

Many are poets — though they use no pen
To show their labours to the shuffling age
Real poets must be truly honest men
Tied to no mongrel laws on flatterys page
No zeal have they for wrong or party rage
— The life of labour is a rural song
That hurts no cause — nor warfare tries to wage
Toil like the brook in music wears along —
Great little minds claim right to act the wrong.

Ballad

Summer morning is risen
& to even it wends
& still Im in prison
Without any friends

I had joys assurance
Though in bondage I lie
— I am still left in durance
Unwilling to sigh.

Still the forest is round me
Where the trees bloom in green
As if chains ne'er had bound me
Or cares had ne'er been.

Nature's love is eternal
In forest & plain
Her course is diurnal
To blossom again.

For home & friends vanished
I have kindness not wrath
For in days care has banished
My heart possessed both.

My hopes are all hopeless
My skys have no sun
Winter fell in youths mayday
& still freezes on.

But Love like the seed is
In the heart of a flower
It will blossom with truth
In a prosperous hour.

True love is eternal
For God is the giver
& love like the soul will
Endure — & forever

& he who studies natures volume through
& reads it with a pure unselfish mind
Will find Gods power all round in every view
As one bright vision of the almighty mind
His eyes are open though the world is blind
No ill from him creations works deform
The high & lofty one is great & kind
Evil may cause the blight & crushing storm
His is the sunny glory & the calm.

Song

The sun has gone down with a veil on his brow
While I in the forest sit museing alone
The maiden has been oer the hills for her cow
While my hearts affections are freezing to stone
Sweet Mary I wish that the day was my own
To live in a cottage with beauty & thee
The past I will not as a mourner bemoan
For abscence leaves Mary still dearer to me.

How sweet are the glooms of the midsummer even
Dark night in the bushes seems going to rest
& the bosom of Mary with fancys is heaving
Where my sorrows & feelings for seasons were blest
Nor will I repine though in love we're divided
She in the Lowlands & I in the glen
Of these forest beeches — by nature we're guided
& I shall find rest on her bosom agen.

How soft the dew falls on the leaves of the beeches
How fresh the wild flower seems to slumber below
How sweet are the lessons that nature still teaches
For truth is her tidings wherever I go
From school days of boyhood her image was cherished
In manhood sweet Mary was fairer then flowers
Nor yet has her name or her memory perished
Though abscence like winter oer happiness lowers.

Though cares still will gather like clouds in my sky
Though hopes may grow hopeless & fetters recoil
While the sun of existance sheds light in my eye
I'll be free in a prison & cling to the soil
I'll cling to the spot where my first love was cherished
Where my heart nay my soul unto Mary I gave
& when my last hope & existance is perished
Her memory will shine like a sun on my grave.

Mary thou ace of hearts thou muse of song
The pole star of my being & decay
Earths coward foes my shattered bark may wrong
Still thourt the sunrise of my natal day
Born to misfortunes — where no sheltering bay
Keeps off the tempest — wrecked where'er I flee
I struggle with my fate — in trouble strong —
Mary thy name loved long still keeps me free
Till my lost life becomes a part of thee.

Song a

I've wandered many a weary mile
Love in my heart was burning
To seek a home in Mary [s] smile
But cold is loves returning
The cold ground was a feather bed
Truth never acts contrary
I had no home above my head
My home was love & Mary

I had no home in early youth
When my first love was thwarted
But if her heart still beats with truth
We'll never more be parted
& changing as her love may be
My own shall never vary
Nor night nor day I'm never free
But sigh for abscent Mary.

Nor night nor day nor sun nor shade
Week month nor rolling year
Repairs the breach wronged love hath made
There madness — misery here
Lifes lease was lengthened by her smiles
— Are truth & love contrary
No ray of hope my life beguiles
I've lost love home & Mary

Love is the main spring of existance — It
Becomes a soul wherebye I live to love
On all I see that dearest name is writ
Falsehood is here — but truth has life above
Where every star that shines exists in love
Skys vary in their clouds — the seasons vary
From heat to cold — change cannot constant prove
The south is bright — but smiles can act contrary
My guide star gilds the north — & shines with Mary

Song b

Heres where Mary loved to be
& here are flowers she planted
Here are books she loved to see
& here the kiss she granted.

Here on the wall with smileing brow
Her picture used to cheer me
Both walls & rooms are naked now
No Marys nigh to hear me.

The church spire still attracts my eye
& leaves me broken hearted
Though grief hath worn their channels dry
I sigh o'er days departed.

The churchyard where she used to play
My feet could wander hourly
My school walks there was every day
Where she made winter flowery.

But where is angel Mary now
Loves secrets none disclose 'em
Her rosey cheeks & broken vow
Live in my aching bosom.

My life hath been one love — no blot it out
My life hath been one chain of contradictions
Madhouses Prisons wh-re shops — never doubt
But that my life hath had some strong convictions
That such was wrong — religion makes restrictions
I would have followed — but life turned a bubble
& clumb the jiant stile of maledictions
They took me from my wife & to save trouble
I wed again & made the error double

Yet abscence claims them both & keeps them too
& locks me in a shop in spite of law
Among a low lived set & dirty crew
Here let the Muse oblivions curtain draw
& let man think — for God hath often saw
Things here too dirty for the light of day
For in a madhouse there exists no law —
Now stagnant grows my too refined clay
I envy birds their wings to flye away

How servile is the task to please alone
Though beauty woo & love inspire the song
Mere painted beauty with her heart of stone
Thinks the world worships while she flaunts along
The flower of sunshine butterflye of song
Give me the truth of heart in womans life
The love to cherish one — & do no wrong
To none — O peace of every care & strife
Is true love in an estimable wife.

How beautifull this hill of fern swells on
So beautifull the chappel peeps between
The hornbeams — with its simple bell — alone
I wander here hid in a palace green
Mary is abscent — but the forest queen
Nature is with me — morning noon & gloaming
I write my poems in these paths unseen
& when among these brakes & beeches roaming
I sigh for truth & home & love & woman

I sigh for one & two — & still I sigh
For many are the whispers I have heard
From beautys lips — loves soul in many an eye
Hath pierced my heart with such intense regard
I Looked for joy & pain was the reward
I think of them I love each girl & boy
Babes of two mothers — on this velvet sward
& nature thinks — in her so sweet employ
While dews fall on each blossom weeping joy.

Here is the chappel yard enclosed with pales
& oak trees nearly top its little bell
Here is the little bridge with guiding rail
That leads me on to many a pleasant dell
The fernowl chitters like a startled knell
To nature — yet tis sweet at evening still —
A pleasant road curves round the gentle swell
Where nature seems to have her own sweet will
Planting her beech & thorn about the sweet fern hill.

I have had many loves — & seek no more —
These solitudes my last delights shall be
The leaf hid forest — & the lonely shore
Seem to my mind like beings that are free
Yet would I had some eye to smile on me
Some heart where I could make a happy home in
Sweet Susan that was wont my love to be
& Bessey of the glen — for I've been roaming
With both at morn & noon & dusky gloaming

Cares gather round I snap their chains in two
& smile in agony & laugh in tears
Like playing with a deadly serpent — who
Stings to the death — there is no room for fears
Where death would bring me happiness — his sheers
Kills cares that hiss to poison many a vein
The thought to be extinct my fate endears
Pale death the grand phis[i]cian cures all pain
The dead rest well — who lived for joys in vain.

Written in a Thunder storm July 15th 1841

The heavens are wrath — the thunders rattling peal
Rolls like a vast volcano in the sky
Yet nothing starts the apathy I feel
Nor chills with fear eternal destiny.

My soul is apathy — a ruin vast
Time cannot clear the ruined mass away
My life is hell — the hopeless die is cast
& manhoods prime is premature decay.

Roll on ye wrath of thunders — peal on peal
Till worlds are ruins & myself alone
Melt heart & soul cased in obdurate steel
Till I can feel that nature is my throne.

I live in love sun of undying light
& fathom my own heart for ways of good
In its pure atmosphere day without night
Smiles on the plains the forest & the flood.

Smile on ye elements of earth & sky
Or frown in thunders as ye frown on me
Bid earth & its delusions pass away
But leave the mind as its creator free

This twilight seems a veil of gause & mist
Trees seem dark hills between the earth & sky
Winds sob awake & then a gusty hist
Fanns through the wheat like serpents gliding bye
I love to stretch my length 'tween earth & sky
& see the inky foliage oer me wave
Though shades are still my prison where I lie
Long use grows nature which I easy brave
& think how sweet cares rest within the grave.

Remind me not of other years or tell
My broken hopes of joys they are to meet
While thy own falshood rings the loudest knell
To one fond heart that aches too cold to beat
Mary how oft with fondness I repeat
That name alone to give my troubles rest
The very sound though bitter seemeth sweet —
In my loves home & thy own faithless breast
Truths bonds are broke & every nerve distrest.

Life is to me a dream that never wakes
Night finds me on this lengthening road alone
Love is to me a thought that ever aches
A frost bound thought that freezes life to stone
Mary in truth & nature still my own
That warms the winter of my aching breast
Thy name is joy nor will I life bemoan —
Midnight when sleep takes charge of natures rest
Finds me awake & friendless — not distrest.

Tie all my cares up in thy arms O sleep
& give my weary spirits peace & rest
I'm not an outlaw in this midnight deep
If prayers are offered from sweet womans breast
One & one only made my being blest
& fancy shapes her form in every dell
On that sweet bosom I've had hours of rest
Though now through years of abscence doomed to dwell
Day seems my night & night seems blackest hell.

England my country though my setting sun
Sinks in the ocean gloom & dregs of life
My muse can sing my Marys heart was won
& joy was heaven when I called her wife
The only harbour in my days of strife
Was Mary when the sea roiled mountains high
When joy was lost & every sorrow rife
To her sweet bosom I was wont to flye
To undecieve by truth lifes treacherous agony.

Friend of the friendless from a host of snares
From lying varlets & from friendly foes
I sought thy quiet truth to ease my cares
& on the blight of reason found repose
But when the strife of nature ceased her throes
& other hearts would beat for my return
I trusted fate to ease my world of woes
Seeking loves harbour — where I now sojourn
— But hell is heaven could I cease to mourn.

For her for one whose very name is yet
My hell or heaven — & will ever be
Falsehood is doubt — but I can ne'er forget
Oaths virtuous falsehood volunteered to me
To make my soul new bonds which God made free
Gods gift is love & do I wrong the giver
To place affections wrong from Gods decree
— No[w] when farewell upon my lips did quiver
& all seemed lost — I loved her more then ever

I loved her in all climes beneath the sun
Her name was like a jewel in my heart
Twas heavens own choice — & so Gods will be done
Love ties that keep unbroken cannot part
Nor can cold abscence sever or desert
That simple beauty blessed with matchless charms
Oceans have rolled between us — not to part
E'en Icelands snows true loves delirium warms
For there Ive dreamed — & Mary filled my arms.

Song

O Mary sing thy songs to me
Of love & beautys melody
My sorrows sink beneath distress
My deepest griefs are sorrowless
So used to glooms & cares am I
My tearless troubles seem as joy
O Mary sing thy songs to me
Of love & beautys melody.

" To be beloved is all I need
& them I love are loved indeed"
The soul of woman is my shrine
& Mary made my songs divine
O for that time that happy time
To hear thy sweet Piana's chime
In music so divine & clear
That woke my soul in heaven to hear.

But heaven itself without thy face
To me would be no resting place
& though the world was one delight
No joy would live but in thy sight
The soul of woman is my shrine
Then Mary make those songs divine
For music love & melody
Breath all of thee & only thee.

Song

Lovely Mary when we parted
I ne'er felt so lonely hearted
As I do now in field & glen
When hope says " we shall meet agen"
& by yon spire that points to heaven
Where my earliest vows was given
By each meadow field & fen
I'll love thee till we meet agen.

True as the needle to the pole
My life I love thee heart & soul
Wa'n't thy love in my heart enrolled
Though love was fire 't'would soon be cold
By thy eyes of heavens own blue
My heart for thine was ever true
By sun & moon by sea & shore
My life I love thee more & more.

& by that hope that lingers last
For heaven when lifes hell is past
By time the present — past & gone
I've loved thee — & I love thee on
Thy beauty made youths life divine
Till my soul grew a part of thine
Mary I mourn no pleasures gone —
The past hath made us both as one.

Now melancholly autumn comes anew
With showery clouds & fields of wheat tanned brown
Along the meadow banks I peace pursue
& see the wild flowers gleaming up & down
Like sun & light — the ragworts golden crown
Mirrors like sunshine when sunbeams retire
& silver yarrow — there's the little town
& oer the meadows gleams that slender spire
Reminding me of one — & waking fond desire.

I love thee nature in my inmost heart
Go where I will thy truth seems from above
Go where I will thy landscape forms a part
Of heaven — e'en these fens where wood nor grove
Are seen — their very nakedness I love
For one dwells nigh that secret hopes prefer
Above the race of women — like the dove
I mourn her abscence — fate that would deter
My hate for all things — strengthens love for her.

Thus saith the great & high & lofty one
Whose name is holy — home eternity
In the high & holy place I dwell alone
& with them also that I wish to see
Of contrite humble spirits — from sin free
Who trembles at my word — & good recieve
— Thou high & lofty one — O give to me
Truths low estate & I will glad believe
If such I am not — such I'm feign to live

That form from boyhood loved & still loved on
That voice — that look — that face of one delight
Loves register for years, months, weeks — time past & gone
Her looks was ne'er forgot or out of sight
— Mary the muse of every song I write
Thy cherished memory never leaves my own
Though cares chill winter doth my manhood blight
& freeze like Niobe my thoughts to stone —
Our lives are two — our end & aim is one.

Ballad

Sweet days while God your blessings send
I call your joys my own
— & if I have an only friend
I am not left alone.

She sees the fields the trees the spires
Which I can daily see
& if true love her heart inspires
Life still has joys for me.

She sees the wild flower in the dells
That in my rambles shine
The sky that oer her homstead dwells
Looks sunny over mine.

The cloud that passes where she dwells
In less then half an hour
Darkens around these orchard dells
Or melts a sudden shower.

The wind that leaves the sunny south
& fans the orchard tree
Might steal the kisses from her mouth
& waft her voice to me.

O when will autumn bring the news
Now harvest browns the fen
That Mary as my vagrant muse
& I shall meet agen.

Tis pleasant now days hours begin to pass
To dewy Eve — To walk down narrow close
& feel ones feet among refreshing grass
& hear the insects in their homes discourse
& startled blackbird flye from covert close
Of white thorn hedge with wild fears fluttering wings
& see the spire & hear the clock toll hoarse
& whisper names — & think oer many things
That love hurds up in truths imaginings.

Fame blazed upon me like a comets glare
Fame waned & left me like a fallen star
Because I told the evil what they are
& truth & falshood never wished to mar
My Life hath been a wreck — & I've gone far
For peace & truth — & hope — for home & rest
— Like Edens gates — fate throws a constant bar —
Thoughts may o'ertake the sunset in the west
— Man meets no home within a womans breast
Though they are blazoned in the poets song
As all the comforts which our lifes contain
I read & sought such joys my whole life long
& found the best of poets sung in vain
But still I read & sighed & sued again
& lost no purpose where I had the will
I almost worshiped when my toils grew vain
Finding no antidote my pains to kill
I sigh a poet & a lover still.

Song

Dying gales of sweet even
How can you sigh so
Though the sweet day is leaving
& the sun sinketh low
How can you sigh so
For the wild flower is gay
& her dew gems all glow
For the abscence of day

Dying gales of sweet even
Breath music from toil
Dusky eve is loves heaven
& meets beautys smile
Love leans on the stile
Where the rustic brooks flow
Dying gales all the while
How can you sigh so

Dying gales round a prison
To fancy may sigh
But day here hath risen
Over prospects of joy
Here Mary would toy
When the sun it got low
Even gales whisper joy
& never sigh so

Labour lets man his brother
Retire to his nest
The babe meets its mother
& sleeps on her breast —
The sun in the west
Has gone down in the ocean
Dying gales gently sweep
O'er the hearts ruffled motion
& sing it to sleep

Song

The spring may forget that he reigns in the sky
& winter again hide her flowers in the snow
The summer may thirst when her fountains are dry
But I'll think of Mary wherever I go
The bird may forget that her nest is begun
When the snow settles white on the new budding tree
& nature in tempests forget the bright sun
But I'll ne'er forget her — that was plighted to me

How could I — how should I — that loved her so early
Forget — when I've sung of her beauty in song
How could I forget — what I've worshiped so dearly
From boyhood to manhood — & all my life long —
As leaves to the branches in summer comes duly
& blossoms will bloom on the stalk & the tree
To her beauty I'll cling — & I'll love her as truly
& think of sweet Mary wherever I be

Song

No single hour can stand for nought
No moment hand can move
But calenders a aching thought
Of my first lonely love

Where silence doth the loudest call
My secrets to betray
As moonlight holds the night in thrall
As suns reveal the day

I hide it in the silent shades
Till silence finds a tongue
I make its grave where time invades
Till time becomes a song

I bid my foolish heart be still
But hopes will not be chid
My heart will beat — & burn — & chill
First love will not be hid

When summer ceases to be green
& winter bare & blea —
Death may forget what I have been
But I must cease to be

When words refuse before the crowd
My Marys name to give
The muse in silence sings aloud
& there my love will live

Now harvest smiles embrowning all the plain
The sun of heaven oer its ripeness shines
" Peace-plenty" has been sung nor sung in vain
As all bring forth the makers grand designs
— Like gold that brightens in some hidden mines
His nature is the wealth that brings increase
To all the world — his sun forever shines
— He hides his face & troubles they increase
He smiles — the sun looks out in wealth & peace

This life is made of lying & grimace
This world is filled with whoring & decieving
Hypocrisy ne'er masks an honest face
Story's are told — but seeing is believing
& I've seen much from which there's no retrieving
I've seen deception take the place of truth
I've seen knaves flourish — & the country grieving
Lies was the current gospel in my youth
& now a man — I'm farther off from truth

Song

They near read the heart
Who would read it in mine
That love can desert
The first truth on his shrine
Though in Lethe I steep it
& sorrows prefer
In my hearts core I keep it
& keep it for her

For her & her only
Through months & through years
I've wandered thus lonely
In sorrow & fears
My sorrows I smother
Though troubles anoy
In this world & no other
I cannot meet joy

No peace nor yet pleasure
Without her will stay
Life looses its treasure
When Mary's away
Though the nightingale often
In sorrow may sing
— Can the blast of the winter
Meet blooms of the spring

Thou first best & dearest
Though dwelling apart
To my heart still the nearest
Forever thou art
& thou wilt be the dearest
Though our joys may be o'er
& to me thou art nearest
Though I meet thee no more

Song

Did I know where to meet thee
Thou dearest in life
How soon would I greet thee
My true love & wife
How soon would I meet thee
At close of the day
Though cares would still cheat me
If Mary would meet me
I'd kiss her sweet beauty & love them away

& when evening discovers
The sun in the west
I long like true lovers
To lean on thy breast
To meet thee my dearest
— Thy eyes beaming blue
Abscent pains the severest
Feel Mary's the dearest
And if Mary's abscent — how can I be true

How dull the glooms cover
This meadow & fen
Where I as a lover
Seek Mary agen
But silence is teazing
Wherever I stray
There's nothing seems pleasing
Or aching thoughts easing
Though Mary live's near me — she seems far away

O would these gales murmur
My love in her ear
Or a birds note inform her
While I linger here
But nature contrary
Turns night into day
No bird — gale — or fairy
Can whisper to Mary
To tell her who seeks her — while Mary's away

Dull must that being live who sees unmoved
The scenes & objects that his childhood knew
The school yard & the maid he early loved
The sunny wall where long the old Elms grew
The grass that e'en till noon retains the dew
Beneath the wallnut shade I see them still
Though not such fancys do I now pursue
Yet still the picture turns my bosom chill
& leaves a void — nor love nor hope may fill

After long abscence how the mind recalls
Pleasing associations of the past
Haunts of his youth — thorn hedges & old walls
& hollow trees that sheltered from the blast
& all that map of boyhood overcast
With glooms & wrongs & sorrows not his own
That oer his brow like the scathed lightening past
That turned his spring to winter & alone
Wrecked name & fame & all — to solitude unknown

So on he lives in glooms & living death
A shade like night forgetting & forgot
Insects that kindle in the springs young breath
Take hold of life & share a brighter lot
Then he the tennant of the hall & Cot
The princely palace too hath been his home
& Gipseys camp when friends would know him not
In midst of wealth a beggar still to roam
Parted from one whose heart was once his home

& yet not parted — still loves hope illumes
& like the rainbow brightest in the storm
It looks for joy beyond the wreck of tombs
& in lifes winter keeps loves embers warm
The oceans roughest tempest meets a calm
Cares thickest cloud shall break in sunny joy
O'er the parched waste showers yet shall fall like balm
& she the soul of life for whom I sigh
Like flowers shall cheer me when the storm is bye

Song

O Mary dear three springs have been
Three summers too have blossomed here
Three blasting winters crept between
Though abscence is the most severe
Another summer blooms in green
But Mary never once was seen

I've sought her in the fields & flowers
I've sought her in the forest groves
In avanues & shaded bowers
& every scene that Mary loves
E'en round her home I seek her here
But Marys abscent every where

Tis autumn & the rustling corn
Goes loaded on the creaking wain
I seek her in the early morn
But cannot meet her face again
Sweet Mary she is abscent still
& much I fear she ever will

The autumn morn looks mellow as the fruit
& ripe as harvest — every field & farm
Is full of health & toil — yet never mute
With rustic mirth & peace the day is warm

The village maid with gleans upon her arm
Brown as the hazel nut from field to field
Goes cheerily — the valleys native charm —
I seek for charms that autumn best can yield
In mellowing wood & time ybleaching field

Song

Tis autumn now & natures scenes
The pleachy fields & yellowing trees
Looses their blooming hues & greens
But nature finds no change in me
The fading woods the russet grange
The hues of nature may desert
But nought in me shall find a change
To wrong the angel of my heart
For Mary is my angel still
Through every month & every ill

The leaves they loosen from the branch
& fall upon the gusty wind
But my hearts silent love is staunch
& nought can tear her from my mind
The flowers are gone from dell & bower
Though crowds from summers lap was given
But love is an eternal flower
Like purple amaranths in heaven
To Mary first my heart did bow
& if she's true she keeps it now

Just as the summer keeps the flower
Which spring conscealed in hoods of gold
Or unripe harvest met the shower
& made earths blessings manifold
Just so my Mary lives for me
A silent thought for months & years
The world may live in revellry
Her name my lonely quiet cheers
& cheer it will what e'er may be
While Mary lives to think of me

Sweet comes the misty mornings in september
Among the dewy paths how sweet to stray
Greensward or stubbles as I well remember
I once have done — the mist curls thick & grey
As cottage smoke — like net work on the sprey
Or seeded grass the cobweb draperies run
Beaded with pearls of dew at early day
& oer the pleachy stubbles peeps the sun
The lamp of day when that of night is done

What mellowness these harvest days unfold
In the strong glances of the midday sun
The homesteads very grass seems changed to gold
The light in golden shadows seems to run
& tinges every spray it rests upon
With that rich harvest hue of sunny joy
Nature lifes sweet companion cheers alone —
The hare starts up before the shepherd boy
& partridge coveys wir on russet wings of joy

The meadow flags now rustle bleached & dank
& misted oer with down as fine as dew
The sloe & dewberry shine along the bank
Where weeds in blooms luxuriance lately grew
Red rose the sun & up the morehen flew
From bank to bank the meadow arches stride
Where foamy floods in winter tumbles through
& spread a restless ocean foaming wide
Where now the cowboys sleep nor fear the coming tide.

About the medows now I love to sit
On banks bridge walls & rails as when a boy
To see old trees bend oer the flaggy pit
With hugh roots bare that time does not destroy
Where sits the angler at his days employ
& there [the] Ivy leaves the bank to climb
The tree — & now how sweet to weary joy
— Aye nothing seems so happy & sublime
As sabbath bells & their delightfull chime.

Sweet solitude thou partner of my life
Thou balm of hope & every pressing care
Thou soothing silence oer the noise of strife
These meadow flats & trees — the Autumn air
Mellows my heart to harmony — I bear
Lifes burthen happily — these fenny dells
Seem Eden in this sabbath rest from care
My heart with loves first early memory swells
To hear the music of those village bells.

For in that hamlet lives my rising sun
Whose beams hath cheered me all my lorn life long
My heart to nature there was early won
For she was natures self — & still my song
Is her through sun & shade through right & wrong
On her my memory forever dwells
The flower of Eden — evergreen of song
Truth in my heart the same love story tells
— I love the music of those village bells.

Song

Heres a health unto thee bonny lassie O
Leave the thorns o' care wi' me
& whatever I may be
Here's happiness to thee
Bonny lassie O.

Here's joy unto thee bonny lassie O
Though we never meet again
I well can bear the pain
If happiness is thine
Bonny lassie O.

Here is true love unto thee bonny lassie O
Though abscence cold is ours
The spring will come wi' flowers
& love will wait for thee
Bonny lassie O.

So heres love unto thee bonny lassie O
Aye wherever I may be
Here's a double health to thee
Till life shall cease to love
Bonny lassie O

The blackbird startles from the homestead hedge
Raindrops & leaves fall yellow as he springs
Such images are natures sweetest pledge
To me there's music in his rustling wings
" Prink prink" he cries & loud the robin sings
The small hawk like a shot drops from the sky
Close to my feet for mice & creeping things
Then swift as thought again he suthers bye
& hides among the clouds from the pursueing eye.

Song

Her cheeks are like roses
Her eyes they are blue
& her beauty is mine
If her heart it is true.

Her cheeks are like roses —
& though she's away
I shall see her sweet beauty
On some other day.

Ere the flowers of the spring
Deck the meadow & plain
If theres truth in her bosom
I shall see her again.

I will love her as long
As the brooks they shall flow
For Mary is mine &
Whereso ever I go

Honesty & good intentions are
So mowed & hampered in with evil lies
She hath not room to stir a single foot
Or even strength to break a spiders web
— So lies keep climbing round loves sacred stem
Blighting fair truth whose leaf is evergreen
Whose roots are the hearts fibres & whose sun
The soul that cheers & smiles it into bloom
Till heaven proclaims that truth can never die.

The lightenings vivid flashes — rend the cloud
That rides like castled crags along the sky
& splinters them to fragments — while aloud
The thunders heavens artillery vollies bye
Trees crash, earth trembles — beast prepare to flye
Almighty what a crash — yet man is free
& walks unhurt while danger seems so nigh —
Heavens archway now the rainbow seems to be
That spans the eternal round of earth & sky & sea.

A shock, a moment, in the wrath of God
Is long as hell's eternity to all
His thunderbolts leave life but as the clod
Cold & inna[ni] mate — their temples fall
Beneath his frown to ashes — the eternal pall
Of wrath sleeps oer the ruins where they fell
& nought of memory may their creeds recall
The sin of Sodom was a moments yell
Fires death bed theirs their first grave the last hell.

The towering willow with its pliant boughs
Sweeps its grey foliage to the autumn wind
The level grounds where oft a group of cows
Huddled together close — or propped behind
An hedge or hovel ruminate & find
The peace — as walks & health & I pursue
For natures every place is still resigned
To happiness — new life's in every view
& here I comfort seek & early joys renew.

The lake that held a mirror to the sun
Now curves with wrinkles in the stillest place
The autumn wind sounds hollow as a gun
& water stands in every swampy place
Yet in these fens peace harmony & grace
The attributes of nature are alied
The barge with naked mast in sheltered place
Beside the brig close to the bank is tied
While small waves plashes by its bulky side.

Song

The floods come oer the meadow leas
The dykes are full & brimming
Field furrows reach the horses knees
Where wild ducks oft are swimming
The skyes are black the fields are bare
The trees their coats are loosing
The leaves are dancing in the air
The sun its warmth refusing.

Brown are the flags & fadeing sedge
& tanned the meadow plains
Bright yellow is the osier hedge
Beside the brimming drains
The crows sit on the willow tree
The lake is full below
But still the dullest thing I see
Is self that wanders slow.

The dullest scenes are not so dull
As thoughts I cannot tell
The brimming dykes are not so full
As my hearts silent swell
I leave my troubles to the winds
With none to share a part
The only joy my feeling finds
Hides in an aching heart.

Abscence in love is worse then any fate
Summer is winters desert & the spring
Is like a ruined city desolate
Joy dies & hope retires on feeble wing
Nature sinks heedless — birds unheeded sing
Tis solitude in citys — crowds all move
Like living death — though all to life still cling —
The strongest bitterest thing that life can prove
Is womans undisguise of hate & love.

Song

I think of thee at early day
& wonder where my love can be
& when the evening shadows grey
O how I think of thee.

Along the meadow banks I rove
& down the flaggy fen
& hope my first & early love
To meet thee once agen.

I think of thee at dewy morn
& at the sunny noon
& walks with thee — now left forlorn
Beneath the silent moon.

I think of thee I think of all
How blest we both have been —
The sun looks pale upon the wall
& autumn shuts the scene.

I can't expect to meet thee now
The winter floods begin
The wind sighs through the naked bough
Sad as my heart within.

I think of thee the seasons through
In spring when flowers I see
In winters lorn & naked view
I think of only thee.

While life breaths on this earthly ball
What e'er my lot may be
Wether in freedom or in thrall
Mary I think of thee.

Tis winter & the fields are bare & waste
The air one mass of " vapour clouds & storms"
The suns broad beams are buried & oercast
& chilly glooms the midday light deforms
Yet comfort now the social bosom warms
Friendship of nature which I hourly prove
Even in this winter scene of frost & storms
Bare fields the frozen lake & leafless grove
Are natures grand religion & true love.

Song

Thourt dearest to my bosom
As thou wilt ever be
While the meadows wear a blossom
Or a leaf is on the tree
I can forget thee never —
While the meadow grass is green
While the flood rolls down the river
Thou art still my bonny queen.

While the winter swells the fountain
While the spring awakes the bee
While the chamois loves the mountain
Thou'lt be ever dear to me
Dear as summer to the sun
As spring is to the bee
Thy love was soon as won
& so twill ever be.

Thou'rt loves eternal summer
The dearest maid I prove
With bosom white as ivory
& warm as virgin love
No falsehood gets between us
Theres nought the tie can sever
As cupid dwells with venus
Thou'rt my own love forever.

Song

In this cold world without a home
Disconsolate I go
The summer looks as cold to me
As winters frost & snow
Though winters scenes are dull & drear
A colder lot I prove
No home had I through all the year
But Marys honest love.

But Love inconstant as the wind
Soon shifts another way
No other home my heart can find
Life wasting day by day
I sigh & sit & sit & sigh
For better days to come
For Mary was my hope & joy
Her truth & heart my home.

Her truth & heart was once my home
& May was all the year
But now through seasons as I roam
Tis winter everywhere
Hopeless I go through care & toil
No friend I e'er possest
To reccompence for Marys smile
& the love within her breast.

My love was ne'er so blest as when
It mingled with her own
Told often to be told agen
& every feeling known
But now loves hopes are all bereft
A lonely man I roam
& abscent Mary long hath left
My heart without a home.

The Paigles Bloom In Shower's In Grassy Close
How Sweet To Be Among Their Blossoms Led
& Hear Sweet Nature To Herself Discourse
While Pale The Moon Is Bering Over Head
& Hear The Grazeing Cattle Softly Tread
Cropping The Hedgerows Newly Leafing Thorn
Sounds Soft As Visions Murmured Oer In Bed
At Dusky Eve Or Sober Silent Morn
For Such Delights Twere Happy Man Was Born

3

Green bushes & green trees where fancy feeds
On the retireing solitudes of May
Where the sweet foliage like a volume reads
& weeds are gifts too choice to throw away
How sweet the evening now succeeds the day
The velvet hillock forms a happy seat
The white thorn bushes bend with snowey may
Dwarf furze in golden blooms & violets sweet
Make this wild scene a pleasure grounds retreat

Where are my " friends" & children where are they
The children of two mothers born in joy
One roof has held them — " all" have been at play
Beneath the pleasures of a mothers eye
— & are my late hope's blighted — need I sigh
Hath care commenced his long perpetual reign
The spring & summer hath with me gone bye
Hope views the bud a flower & not in vain
Long is the night that brings no morn again

4

Now Come The Balm & Breezes Of The Spring
Not With The Pleasure's Of My Early Day's
When Nature Seemed One Endless Song To Sing
A Joyous Melody & Happy Praise
Ah Would They Come Agen — But Life Betrays
Quicksands & Gulphs & Storms That Howl & Sting
All Quiet Into Madness & Delays
Care Hides The Sunshine With Its Raven Wing
& Hell Glooms Sadness Oer The Songs Of Spring

5

Like Satans Warcry First In Paradise
When Love Lay Sleeping On The Flowery Slope
Like Virtue Wakeing In The Arms Of Vice
Or Deaths Sea Bursting In The Midst Of Hope
Sorrows Will Stay — & Pleasures Will Elope
In The Uncertain Cartnty Of Care
Joys Bounds Are Narrow But A Wider Scope
Is Left For Trouble Which Our Life Must Bear
Of Which All Human Life Is More Or Less The Heir.

6

My Mind Is Dark & Fathomless & Wears
The Hues Of Hopeless Agony & Hell
No Plummet Ever Sounds The Souls Affairs
There Death Eternal Never Sounds The Knell
There Love Imprisoned Sighs The Long Farewell
& Still May Sigh In Thoughts No Heart Hath Penned
Alone In Loneliness Where Sorrows Dwell
& Hopeless Hope Hopes On & Meets No End
Wastes Without Springs & Homes Without A Friend

Song.

Say What Is Love — To Live In Vain
To Live & Die & Live Again

Say What Is Love — Is It To Be
In Prison Still & Still Be Free

Or Seem As Free — Alone & Prove
The Hopeless Hopes of Real Love

Does Real Love On Earth Exist
Tis Like A Sun beam On The Mist

That Fades & No Where Will Remain
& Nowhere Is Oertook Again

Say What Is Love — A Blooming Name
A Rose Leaf On The Page Of Fame

That Blooms Then Fades — To Cheat No More
& Is What Nothing Was Before

Say What Is Love — What E'er It be
It Center's Mary Still With Thee

7

What Is The Orphan Child without A Friend
That Knows No Fathers Care Or Mothers Love
No Leading Hand His Infant Steps Defend
& None To Notice But His God Above
No Joy's Are Seen His Little Heart To Move
Care Turns All Joys to Dross & Nought To Gold
& Smiles In Fancys Time May Still Disprove
Growing To Cares & Sorrow's Menifold
Bird Of The Waste A Lamb Without A Fold

8

No Mothers Love or Fathers Care Have They
Left To The Storms Of Fate Like Creatures Wild
They Live Like Blossoms In The Winters Day
E'en Nature Frowns Upon The Orphan Child
On Whose Young Face A Mother Never Smiled
Foolhardy Care Increasing With His Years
From Friends & Joys Of Every Kind Exiled
Even Old In Care The Infant Babe Appears
& Many A Mother Meets Its Face in Tears

9

The Dog Can Find A Friend & Seeks His Side
The Ass Can Know Its Owner & Is Fed
But None Are Known To Be The Orphans Guide
Toil Breaks His Sleep & Sorrow Makes His Bed
No Mothers Hand Holds Out The Sugared Bread
To Fill His Little Hand — He Hears No Song
To Please His Pouting Humours — Love Is Dead
With Him & Will Be All His Whole Life Long
Lone Child Of Sorrow & Perpetual Wrong

10

But Providence That Grand Eternal Calm
Is With Him Like The Sunshine In The Sky
Nature Our Kindest Mother Void of Harm
Watches The Orphan's Lonely Infancy
Strengthening The Man When Childhoods Cares Are Bye
She Nurses Still Young Unreproached Distress
& Hears The Lonely Infants Every Sigh
Who Finds At Length To Make Its Sorrows Less
Mid Earths Cold Curses There Is One To Bless

11

Sweet Rural Maids Made Beautifull By Health
Brought Up Where Natures Calm Encircles All
Where Simple Love Remains As Sterling Wealth
Where Simple Habits Early Joys Recall
Of Youthfull Feelings Which No Wiles Enthrall
The Happy Milk Maid In Her Mean Array
Fresh As The New Blown Rose Outblooms Them All
E'en Queens Might Sigh To Be As Blest As They
While Milkmaids Laugh & Sing Their Cares Away

12

How Doth Those Scenes Which Rural Mirth Endears
Revise Old Feelings That My Youth Hath Known
& Paint The Faded Bloom Of Earlier Years
& Soften Feelings Petrefied To Stone
Joy Fled & Care Proclaimed Itself My Own
Farewells I Took Of Joys In Earliest Years
& Found The Greatest Bliss To Be Alone
My Manhood Was Eclipsed But Not In Fears
— Hell Came In Curses & She Laughed At Tears

13

But Memory Left Sweet Traces Of Her Smiles
Which I Remember Still & Still Endure
The Shadows Of First Loves My Heart Beguiles
Time Brought Both Pain & Pleasure But No Cure
Sweet Bessey Maid Of Health & Fancys Pure
How Did I Woo Thee Once — Still Unforgot
But Promises In Love Are Never Sure
& Where We Met How Dear Is Every Spot
& Though We Parted Still I Murmur Not

14

For Loves However Dear Must Meet With Clouds
& Ties Made Tight Get Loose & May Be Parted
Springs First Young Flowers The Winter Often Shrouds
& Loves First Hopes Are Very Often Thwarted
E'en Mine Beat High & Then Fell Broken Hearted
& Sorrow Mourned In Verse To Reconscile
My Feelings To My Fate Though Lone & Parted
Loves Enemies Are Like The Scorpion Vile
That Oer Its Ruined Hopes Will Hiss & Smile

Ballad

The Blackbird Has Built In The Pasture Agen
& The Thorn Oer The Pond Shows A Delicate Green
Where I Strolled With Patty Adown In The Glen
& Spent Summer Evenings & Sundays Unseen
How Sweet The Hill Brow
& The Low Of The Cow
& The Sunshine That Gilded The Bushes So Green
When Evening Brought Dews Natures Thirst To Allay
& Clouds Seemed To Nestle Round Hamlets & Farms
While In The Green Bushes We Spent The Sweet Day
& Patty Sweet Patty Was Still In My Arms

The Love Bloom That Redded Upon Her Sweet Lips
The Love Light That Glistened Within Her Sweet Eye
The Singing Bees There That The Wild Honey Sips
From Wild Blossoms Seemed Not So Happy As I
How Sweet Her Smile Seemed
While The Summer Sun Gleamed
& The Laugh Of The Spring Shadowed Joys From On High
While The Birds Sung About Us & Cattle Grazed Round
& Beauty Was Blooming On Hamlets & Farms
How Sweet Steamed The Inscence Of Dew From The Ground
While Patty Sweet Patty Sat Locked In My Arms

15

Yet Love Lives On In Every Kind of Weather
In Heat & Cold In Sunshine & In Gloom
Winter May Blight & Stormy Clouds May Gather
Nature Invigorates & Love Will Bloom
It Fears No Sorrow In A Life To Come
But Lives Within Itself From Year To Year
As Doth The Wild Flower In Its Own Perfume
As In The Lapland Snows Springs Blooms Appear
So True Love Blooms & Blossoms Every Where

Ballad

The Rose Of The World Was Dear Mary To Me
In The Days Of My Boyhood & Youth
I Told Her In Songs Where My Heart Wished To Be
& My Songs Where The Language of Truth

I Told Her In Looks When I Gazed In Her Eyes
That Mary Was Dearest To Me
I Told Her In Words & The Language Of Sighs
Where My Whole Hearts Affections Would Be

I Told her in love that all nature was true
I convinced her that nature was kind
But love in his trials had labour to do
Mary would be in the mind

Mary met me in spring where the speedwell knots grew
& the king cups were shining like flame
I chose her all colours red yellow & blue
But my love was one hue & the same

Spring summer & winter & all the year through
In the sunshine the shower & the blast
I told the same tale & she knows it all true
& Mary's my blossom at last

16

Love is of heaven still the first akin
Twas born In paradise & left its home
For desert lands stray hearts to nurse & win
Though pains like plagues pursue them where they roam
Its joys are ever green & blooms at home
The sailor rocking on the giddy mast
The soldier when the cannons cease to boom
& every heart its doubts or dangers past
Beats on its way for love & home at last

17

Nature thou truth of heaven if heaven be true
Falsehood may tell her ever changeing lie
But natures truth looks green in every view
& love in every Landscape glads the eye
How beautifull these slopeing thickets lie
Woods on the hills & plains all smooth & even
Through which we see the ribboned evening skie
Though Winter here in floods & snows was driven
Spring came like God & turned it all to heaven

18

There Is A Tale For Every Day To Hear
For Every Heart To Feel & Tongue To Tell
The Daughters Anzious Dread The Lovers Fear
Pains That In Cots & Palaces May Dwell
Not Short & Passing Like The Friends Farewell
Where Tears May Fall & Leave A Smile Beneath
Eternal Grief Rings In The Passing Bell
Tis Not The Sobs Of Momentary Breath
Ties Part Forever In The Tale Of Death

19

The Dew falls on the weed & on the flower
The rose & thistle bathe their heads in dew
The lowliest heart may have its prospering hour
The sadest bosom meet its wishes true
E'en I may joy love happiness renew
Though not the sweets of my first early days
When one sweet face was all the loves I knew
& my soul trembled on her eyes to gaze
Whose very censure seemed intended praise

20

A soul within the heart that loves the more
Giving to pains & fears eternal life
Burning the flesh till it consumes the core
So Love is still the eternal calm of strife
Thou soul within a soul thou life of life
Thou Essence of my hopes & fears & joys
M — y my dear first love & early wife
& still the flower my inmost soul enjoys
Thy love's the bloom no canker worm destroys

21

Flow on my verse though barren thou mayest be
Of thought — Yet sing & let thy fancys roll
In Early days thou sweept a mighty sea
All calm in troublous deeps & spurned controul
Thou fire & iceberg to an aching soul
& still an angel in my gloomy way
Far better opiate then the draining bowl
Still sing my muse to drive cares fiends away
Nor heed what loitering listener hears the lay

22

My themes be artless cots & happy plains
Though far from man my wayward fancies flee
Of fields & woods rehearse in willing strains
& I mayhap may feed on joys with thee
These cowslip fields this sward my pillow be
So I may sleep the sun into the west
My cot this awthorn hedge this spreading tree
— Mary & Martha once my daily guests
& still as mine both wedded loved & blest

23

I rest my wearied life in these sweet fields
Reflecting every smile in natures face
& much of joy this grass — These hedges yields
Not found in citys where crowds daily trace
Heart pleasures there hath no abideing place
The star gemmed early morn the silent even
Hath pleasures that our broken hopes deface
To love too well leaves nought to be forgiven
The Gates of Eden is the bounds of heaven

24

The apathy that fickle love wears through
The doubts & certaintys are still akin
Its every joy has sorrow in the view
Its holy truth like Eve's beguileing sin
Seems to be losses even while we win
Tormenting joys & cheating into wrong
& still we love — & fall into the Gin
My sun of love was short — & clouded long
& now its shadow fills a feeble song

Song

I saw her in my springs young choice
Ere loves hopes looked upon the crowd
Ere loves first secrets found a voice
Or dared to speak the name aloud.

I saw her in my boyish hours
A Girl as fair as heaven above.
When all the world seemed strewn with flowers
& every pulse & look was love.

I saw her when her heart was young
I saw her when my heart was true
When truth was all the themes I sung
& Love the only muse I knew.

Ere infancy had left her brow
I seemed to love her from her birth
& thought her then as I do now
The dearest angel upon earth

25

O she was more then fair — divinely fair
Can language paint the soul in those blue eyes
Can fancy read the feelings painted there
— Those hills of snow that on her bosom lies
Or beauty speak for all those sweet replies
That through loves visions like the sun is breaking
Wakeing new hopes & fears & stifled sighs
From first love's dreame's my love is scarcely waking
The wounds might heal but still the heart is aching.

26

Her looks was like the spring her very voice
Was springs own music more then song to me
Choice of my boyhood nay my souls first choice
From her sweet thralldom I am never free
Yet here my prison is a spring to me
Past memories bloom like flowers where e'er I rove
My very bondage though in snares — is free
I love to stretch me in this shadey Grove
& muse upon the memories of love.

Hail Solitude still Peace & Lonely good
Thou spirit of all joys to be alone
My best of friends these glades & this green wood
Where nature is herself & loves her own
The hearts hid anguish here I make it known
& tell my troubles to the gentle wind
Friends cold neglects have froze my heart to stone
& wrecked the voyage of a quiet mind
With wives & friends & every hope disjoined.

Wrecked of all hopes save one to be alone
Where Solitude becomes my wedded mate
Sweet Forest with rich beauties overgrown
Where solitude is queen & riegns in state
Hid in green trees I hear the clapping gate
& voices calling to the rambling cows
I Laugh at Love & all its idle fate
The present hour is all my lot alows
An age of sorrow springs from lovers vows.

Sweet is the song of Birds for that restores
The soul to harmony the mind to love
Tis natures song of freedom out of doors
Forests beneath free winds & clouds above
The Thrush & Nightingale & timid dove
Breathe music round me where the gipseys dwell —
Pierced hearts left burning in the doubts of love
Are desolate where crowds & citys dwell —
The splendid palace seems the gates of hell.
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