Excerpt
THE BROOK. I come from haunts of coot and hern,I make sudden sallyAnd sparkle out among the fern,To bicker down a valley. By thirty hills I hurry down,Or slip between the ridges,By twenty thorps, a little town,And half a hundred bridges.
I chatter over stony ways,In little sharps and trebles,I bubble into eddying bays,I babble on the pebbles. With many a curve my banks I fretBy many a field and fallow,And many a fairy foreland setWith willow-weed and mallow.
And here and there a foamy lakeUpon me, as I travelWith many a silvery waterbreakAbove the golden gravel, And draw them all along, and flowTo join the brimming river,For men may come and men may go,But I go on for ever. "I CHATTER OVER STONY WAYS, IN LITTLE SHARPS AND TREBLES."
SONG FROM "MAUD." See what a lovely shell,Small and pure as a pearl,Lying close to my foot,Frail, but a work divine,Made so fairily wellWith delicate spire and whorl,How exquisitely minute,A miracle of design! What is it? a learned manCould give it a clumsy name.Let him name it who can,The beauty would be the same. The tiny cell is forlorn,Void of the little living willThat made it stir on the shore.Did he stand at the diamond doorOf his house in a rainbow frill?Did he push, when he was uncurl'd,A golden foot or a fairy hornThro' his dim water-world. Slight, to be crushed with a tapOf my finger-nail on the sand,Small, but a work divine,Frail, but of force to withstand,Year upon year, the shockOf cataract seas that snapThe three-decker's oaken spineAthwart the ledges of rock,Here on the Breton strand! "SEE WHAT A LOVELY SHELL, LYING CLOSE TO MY FOOT."
A FAREWELL. Flow down, cold rivulet, to the sea,Thy tribute wave deliver:No more by thee my steps shall be,For ever and for ever. Flow, softly flow, by lawn and lea,A rivulet then a river:Nowhere by thee my steps shall be,For ever and for ever. But here will sigh thine alder tree,And here thine aspen shiver;And here by thee will hum the bee,For ever and for ever. A thousand suns will stream on thee,A thousand moons will quiver;But not by thee my steps shall be,For ever and for ever. "FLOW DOWN, COLD RIVULET, TO THE SEA."
SONG FROM "MAUD." Come into the garden, Maud,For the black bat, night, has flown,Come into the garden, Maud,I am here at the gate alone;And the woodbine spices are wafted abroad,And the musk of the roses blown. For a breeze of morning moves,And the planet of Love is on high,Beginning to faint in the light that she lovesOn a bed of daffodil sky,To faint in the light of the sun she loves,To faint in his light, and to die.
There has fallen a splendid tearFrom the passion-flower at the gate.She is coming, my dove, my dear;She is coming, my life, my fate;The red rose cries, "She is near, she is near;"And the white rose weeps, "She is late;"The larkspur listens, "I hear, I hear;"And the lily whispers, "I wait." She is coming, my own, my sweet;Were it ever so airy a tread,My heart would hear her and beat,Were it earth in an earthy bed;My dust would hear her and beat,Had I lain for a century dead;Would start and tremble under her feet,And blossom in purple and red. "THE RED ROSE CRIES, 'SHE IS NEAR, SHE IS NEAR.'"
BREAK, BREAK, BREAK. Break, break, break,On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!And I would that my tongue could utterThe thoughts that arise in me. O well for the fisherman's boy,That he shouts with his sister at play!O well for the sailor lad,That he sings in his boat on the bay! And the stately ships go onTo their haven under the hill;But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand,And the sound of a voice that is still...!