LAWN AS WHITE AS DRIVEN SNOW,

69

The birds in nest would crouch to rest,

And home I'd trudge to mine;
And there in the moonlight, dark with dew,

Asking not wherefore nor why,
Would brood like a ghost, and as still as a post,
Old Nicholas Nye.

WALTER DE LA MARE

A SLUMBER DID MY SPIRIT SEAL

А
SLUMBER did

my spirit seal;
I had no human fears:
She seem'd a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.

No motion has she now, no force;
She neither hears nor sees;
Roll'd round in earth's diurnal course
With rocks, and stones, and trees.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

LAWN AS WHITE AS DRIVEN SNOW

Lawn as white as driven snow;
Cypress black as e'er was crow;
Gloves as sweet as damask roses;
Masks for faces and for noses;
Bugle bracelet, necklace amber,
Perfume for a lady's chamber;
Golden quoifs and stomachers,
For my lads to give their dears :

Pins and poking-sticks of steel,

What maids lack from head to heel: Come buy of me, come; come buy, come buy; Buy, lads, or else your lasses cry: , Come buy.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

OVER HILL, OVER DALE

Over hill, over dale,

: Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,

Thorough flood, thorough fire,
I do wander everywhere,
Swifter than the moon's sphere;
And I serve the fairy queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green.
The cowslips tall her pensioners be:
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours,

In those freckles live their savours;
I must go seek some dewdrops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

A SONG

A widow bird sate mourning for her love

Upon a wintry bough;
The frozen wind crept on above

The freezing stream below.

There was no leaf upon the forest bare,

No flower upon the ground, And little motion in the air Except the mill-wheel's sound.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

PACK, CLOUDS, AWAY

Pack, clouds, away, and welcome day,

With night we banish sorrow;
Sweet air blow soft, mount lark aloft

To give my Love good-morrow!
Wings from the wind to please her mind

Notes from the lark I'll borrow;
Bird prune thy wing, nightingale sing,
To give my Love good-morrow;

To give my Love good-morrow
Notes from them all I'll borrow.

Wake from thy nest, Robin-redbreast,

Sing birds in every furrow;
And from each bill, let music shrill

Give my fair Love good-morrow!
Blackbird and thrush in every bush,

Stare, linnet, and cock-sparrow,
You pretty elves, amongst yourselves
Sing my fair Love good-morrow!

To give my Love good-morrow
Sing birds in every furrow!

THOMAS HEYWOOD THE BONNY EARL OF MURRAY

Ye Highlands and ye Lawlands,
O where hae ye been?
They hae slain the Earl of Murray,
And hae laid him on the

green.

Now wae be to thee, Huntley,
And whairfore did you sae?
I bade you bring him wi' you,
But forbade you him to slay.

He was a braw gallant,
And he rid at the ring;
And the bonny Earl of Murray,
O he might hae been a king!

He was a braw gallant,
And he play'd at the ba';
And the bonny Earl of Murray
Was the flower amang them a'!

He was a braw gallant,
And he play'd at the glove;
And the bonny Earl of Murray,
He was the queen's luve!

O lang will his Lady
'Look owre the Castle Downe,
Ere she see the Earl of Murray
Come sounding through the town.

ANONYMOUS HELEN OF KIRCONNELL

I

I wish I were where Helen lies,
Night and day on me she cries;
O that I were where Helen lies,

On fair Kirconnell lea!

II Curst be the heart that thought the thought, And curst the hand that fired the shot, When in my arms burd Helen dropt,

And died to succour me!

III O think na ye my heart was sair, When my Love dropp'd and spak nae mair! There did she swoon wi' meikle care,

On fair Kirconnell lea.

IV

As I went down the water side,
None but my foe to be my guide,
None but my foe to be my guide,

On fair Kirconnell lea;

V

I lighted down my sword to draw,
I hacked him in pieces sma',
I hacked him in pieces sma',

For her sake that died for me.