I peeled bits o straws and I got switches too
From the grey peeling Willow as Idlers do
And I switched at the flyes as I sat all alone
Till my flesh blood & marrow wasted to dry bone
My illness was love though I knew not the smart
But the beauty o love was the blood o my heart

Crowded places I shunned them as noises to[o] rude
And flew to the silence of sweet solitude
Where the flower in green darkness, buds, blossoms & fades
Unseen of a shepherds & flower loving maids
The hermit bees find them but once & away

Twas i' the morning early
The dew was on the barley
Each hours a string o beads
Blue caps intensely blue
Corn poppys burnt me through
Seemed flowers among the weeds.

Where I met young Mary Boyfield
And did loves dearest joy feel
As she passed me i the corn
Her gown brushed gently by me
And love that could not flye me
Shone like the dewey morn.

Her cheeks the rosey breres bloom
Her eyes like ripples lately come
From gravel paving Spring
She looked accross the red & blue
Each colour wore a livelier hue

O Hellen Wright, O Hellen Wright
A cruel maid to me
My many vows o' love to slight
And not to let me be
To throw your image in my way
The light o' day to mark
Then cruelly my hopes betray
And leave me in the dark
When I had hopes your love to meet
You shunned me in the very street.

But when I passed wi careless eye
You passed me every day
I' streets nay fields where none came nigh
But only to betray
I owned my love when you was nigh
I said I loved you true
Since then you never once were bye

1

Sweet love I see the gales of Spring
Are wanton, wooing with thy hair
The missle thrush begins to sing
The sloe tree shews its blossoms fair
The white thorn bush is shewing leaf
The path is printed down the lane
The grass is green the shower brief
Come love now let us meet again

2

O let us meet and walk and love
And through the fir dale coppice stray
And view the scaley cones above
Droop brown as dropping all the way
The moss that warms the primrose roots
The buds their brimstone flowers contain

Who could but love a face so fair
Yet hope to be forgiven
Need pilgrims ever more despair
When once in sight of heaven

I trace every blossom that grows in the field
To remember the likeness of love
The woodbine that streaks by the cow hovel bield
And blooms round the nest of the dove
The hedge rose that spreads all its blushes to view
Which the morn's pearly diamonds adorns
An emblem of love and a picture too true
A rose all surrounded with thorns

2

The wood-flowers were blooming above the green moss
Some under the song-thrushes nest
Morning dews did their beautiful colours emboss
But love the green moss hadn't press't

1

Just like love is mans desire
Now the thorn and then the briar
Wounds but never kills desire
Just like Love

2

On he journey's ever on
Sorrow soon as past is gone
Kisses make the world his own
Such is love

3

Just like love the wild hedge rose
Blushing in the thorns it blows
Wounds its worshipers repose
The lot of love

4

True love lies bleeding every hour
Still 'tis heavens eternal flower
Blooming by the lovers bower
Eternal love

5

1

My Love is like a pleasant thought
A first flower of the May
My Love she is a charm unbought
Young, beautiful and gay
My Love she is a dream of joy
More living than a dream
A sweetness nothing would destroy
The sunlight i' the stream
My Love is all and more than these
A pleasant thought that's born to please.

2

Than summer flowers her face more sweet
Than morning dews her eye more clear
Here hedge-rose and wild woodbines meet
In them I pay her worship here
Wild woodbines streaky hues o' red

1

O Elenor! O Elenor
As sweet as any rose
Thy cherry lip I would prefer
To any flower that blows
I long to kiss thee Elenor
That bonny cheek of thine
Thy cherry lip I do prefer
To all things but divine
Divinest flower save those above thee**
I choose thee bonny maid and love thee

2

I choose thee as a maiden fair
And sweetest of thy kind
Thy rosey cheeks thy dark brown hair

In the mountains o the West
Lives the girl I love best
With her red rose cheeks and her coal black hair
Her face is like the rose and her breast the lily fair
In the mountains o the west lives the girl I love the best
O there's nothing half so sweet as Love and fair
In the lands not made of clay
Where the sun neer sets away
But shineth through the midnight bright and fair
I love the lassie best wi' the bright auburn hair
And she liveth in the land that knoweth no decay
And the maid I love the best is for ever bright and fair.