"I met a nameless man, sister, Who loitered round our door: I said: Her husband loves her much. "Fie, sister, fie, a wicked lie, A lie, a wicked lie; I have none other love but him, Nor will have till I die. And you have turned him from our door, I will go seek him thro' the world In sorrow till I die." "Go seek in sorrow, sister, And find in sorrow too : If thus you shame our father's name F SPRING. ROST-LOCKED all the winter, Seeds, and roots, and stones of fruits, What shall make their sap ascend That they may put forth shoots? Tips of tender green, Leaf, or blade, or sheath; Telling of the hidden life That breaks forth underneath, Life nursed in its grave by Death. Blows the thaw-wind pleasantly, By fits looks down the waking sun : Young leaves clothe early hedgerow trees; There is no time like Spring, When life's alive in everything, Before new nestlings sing, Before cleft swallows speed their journey back Along the trackless track, God guides their wing, He spreads their table that they nothing lack, — Before the daisy grows a common flower, Before the sun has power To scorch the world up in his noontide hour. There is no time like Spring, Like Spring that passes by; There is no life like Spring-life born to die, Piercing the sod, Clothing the uncouth clod, Hatched in the nest, Fledged on the windy bough, Strong on the wing: There is no time like Spring that passes by, Now newly born, and now Hastening to die. THE LAMBS OF GRASMERE, 1860. THE HE upland flocks grew starved and thinned : Their shepherds scarce could feed the lambs Whose milkless mothers butted them, Or who were orphaned of their dams. The lambs athirst for mother's milk Filled all the place with piteous sounds: Their mothers' bones made white for miles The pastureless wet pasture grounds. Day after day, night after night, From lamb to lamb the shepherds went, With teapots for the bleating mouths Instead of nature's nourishment. The little shivering gaping things Soon knew the step that brought them aid, And fondled the protecting hand, And rubbed it with a woolly head. Then, as the days waxed on to weeks, These lambs with frisky heads and tails And following the beloved feet That once had sought for them and found. These very shepherds of their flocks, These loving lambs so meek to please, Are worthy of recording words And honor in their due degrees: So I might live a hundred years, And roam from strand to foreign strand, Yet not forget this flooded spring And scarce-saved lambs of Westmoreland. A BIRTHDAY. Y heart is like a singing bird MY Whose nest is in a watered shoot; My heart is like an apple-tree Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit; My heart is like a rainbow shell That paddles in a halcyon sea; My heart is gladder than all these Because my love is come to me. Raise me a dais of silk and down; In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys; Is come, my love is come to me. REMEMBER. R SONNET. EMEMBER me when I am gone away, Gone far away into the silent land; When you can no more hold me by the hand, Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay. Remember me when no more, day by day, You tell me of our future that you planned : Only remember me; you understand It will be late to counsel then or pray. Yet if you should forget me for a while And afterwards remember, do not grieve: For if the darkness and corruption leave A vestige of the thoughts that once I had, Better by far you should forget and smile Than that you should remember and be sad. |