When I was young

Verse, a breeze mid blossoms straying,

Where Hope clung feeding, like a bee--

Both were mine! Life went a making

With Nature, Hope, and Poesy,

When I was young!

When I was young?--Ah, woeful when!

Ah! For the change 'twixt Now and Then!

This breathing house not built with hands,

This body that does me grievous wrong,

O'er aery cliffs and glittering sands,

How lightly then it flashed along:--

Like those trim skiffs, unknown of yore,

On winding lakes and rivers wide,

That asks no aid of sail or oar,

That fears no spite of wind or tide!

Naught cared this body for wind or weather

When Youth and I liv'd in't together.

Flowers are lovely; Love is flower-like;

Friendship is a sheltering tree;

O! the joys, that came down shower-like,

Of Friendship, Love, and Liberty.

You will love me yet

You'll love me yet!--and I can tarry

Your love's protracted growing:

June reared that bunch of flowers you carry,

From seeds of April's sowing.

I plant a heartful now: some seed

At least is sure to strike,

And yield--what you'll not pluck indeed,

Not love, but, may be, like.

You'll look at least on love's remains,

A grave's one violet:

Your look?--that pays a thousand pains.

What's death? You'll love me yet!

How old I am

How old I am! I'm eighty years. I've worked both bard and

long.

Yet patient as my life has been, one dearest sight I have not seen,

It almost seems a wrong. A dream I had when life was young.

Alas! our dreams, they come not true.

I thought to see fair Carcassonne,

That lovely city, Carcassonne.

One sees it dimly from the height beyond the mountain blue.

Fain would I walk five weary leagues, I do not mind the road's

fatigues.

Thro' morn and evening's dew.

But bitter frosts would fall at night, and on the grapes that

withered blight,

I could not go to Carcassonne,

I never went to Carcassonne.

They say it is as gay all times as holidays at home.

The gentles ride in gay attire, and in the sun each gilded spire

Shoots up like those at Rome.

The bishop the procession leads, the generals curb their prancing

steeds.

Alas! I saw not Carcassonne.

Alas! I know not Carcassonne.

Life

Life! I know not what thou art,

But know that thou and I must part;

And when, or how, or where we met,

I own to me's a secret yet.

But this I know, when thou art fled,

Where'er they lay these limbs, this head,

No clod so valueless shall be,

As all that then remains of me.

O whither, whither dost thou fly,

Where bend unseen thy trackless course,

And in this strange divorce,

Ah tell where I must seek this compound I?

To the vast ocean of empyreal flame,

From whence thy essence came,

Dost thou thy flight pursue, when freed

From matter's base encumbering weed?

Or dost thou, hid from sight,

Wait, like some spell-bound knight,

Through blank oblivious years the appointed hour,

To break thy trance and reassume thy power?

Yet canst thou without thought or feeling be?

O say what art thou, when no more thou'rt thee?

Life! we've been long together,

Through pleasant and through cloudy weather;

'Tis hard to part when friends are dear;

Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear;

Then steal away, give little warning,

Choose thine own time;

Say not Good night, but in some brighter clime

Bid me Good morning.

A Red Rose

O, my luve is like a red, red rose,

That's newly sprung in June.

O, my luve is like the melodie,

That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonie lass,

So deep in luve am I,

And I will luve thee still, my dear,

Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,

And the rocks melt wi' the sun!

And I will luve thee still, my dear,

While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare the weel, my only luve,

And fare the weel a while!

And I will come again, my luve,

Tho' it were ten thousand mile!

A fond kiss

A fond kiss, and then we sever!

A farewell, and then forever!

Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,

Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.

Who shall say that Fortune grieves him?

While the star of hope she leaves him?

Me, nae cheerful twinkle lights me,

Dark despair around be nights me.

I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy:

Nothing could resist my Nancy!

But to see her was to love her,

Love but her, and love for ever.

Had we never lov'd so kindly,

Had we never lov'd so blindly,

Never met--or never parted--

We had ne'er been broken-hearted

Fare-thee-weel, thou first and fairest!

Fare-thee-weel, thou best and dearest!

Thine be ilka joy and treasure,

Peace, Enjoyment, Love, and Pleasure!

A fond kiss, and then we sever!

A farewell, alas, forever!

Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,

Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.