Fortune and beauty thou might'st find, But my true resolvèd mind For I not for an hour did love, But with my soul had from above This endless holy fire. Henry Vaughan [1622-1695] THE LASS OF RICHMOND HILL ON Richmond Hill there lives a lass More bright than May-day morn, Whose charms all other maids surpass,A rose without a thorn. This lass so neat, with smiles so sweet, Ye zephyrs gay, that fan the air, And wanton through the grove, How happy will the shepherd be Who calls this nymph his own! O, may her choice be fixed on me! Mine's fixed on her alone. LET my SONG James Upton [1670-1749] voice ring out and over the earth, Amynta Let my voice swell out through the great abyss To the azure dome above, With a chord of faith in the harp of bliss: Let my voice thrill out beneath and above, O my Love and Life, O my Life and Love, 6171 James Thomson [1834-1882] GIFTS GIVE a man a horse he can ride, Give a man a boat he can sail; And his rank and wealth, his strength and health, Give a man a pipe he can smoke, Give a man a book he can read: And his home is bright with a calm delight, Though the room be poor indeed. Give a man a girl he can love, As I, O my love, love thee; And his heart is great with the pulse of Fate, At home, on land, on sea. James Thomson [1834+1882] AMYNTA My sheep I neglected, I broke my sheep-crook, Oh, what had my youth with ambition to do? Through regions remote in vain do I rove, Alas! 'tis too late at thy fate to repine; Gilbert Elliot [1722-1777] "O NANCY! WILT THOU GO WITH ME” O NANCY, Wilt thou go with me, Nor sigh to leave the flaunting town: Can silent glens have charms for thee, No longer dressed in silken sheen, No longer decked with jewels rare, O Nancy! when thou'rt far away, Wilt thou not cast a wish behind? Nor shrink before the wintry wind? O! can that soft and gentle mien Extremes of hardship learn to bear, Where thou wert fairest of the fair? O Nancy! canst thou love so true, Through perils keen with me to go, To share with him the pang of woe? Say, should disease or pain befall, Wilt thou assume the nurse's care; Where thou wert fairest of the fair? Cavalier's Song. And when at last thy love shall die, Wilt thou receive his parting breath? Wilt thou repress each struggling sigh, And cheer with smiles the bed of death? And wilt thou o'er his breathless clay Strew flowers and drop the tender tear? Nor then regret those scenes so gay Where thou wert fairest of the fair? 619 Thomas Percy [1729-1811] CAVALIER'S SONG IF doughty deeds my lady please, And he that bends not to thine eye Shall rue it to his smart! Then tell me how to woo thee, Love; O tell me how to woo thee! If gay attire delight thine eye I'll dight me in array; I'll tend thy chamber door all night, If sweetest sounds can win thine ear, But if fond love thy heart can gain, Nae maiden lays her skaith to me, For you alone I ride the ring, O tell me how to woo! Then tell me how to woo thee, Love; O tell me how to woo thee! Though ne'er another trow me. Robert Cunninghame-Graham [ ? -1797?] "MY HEART IS A LUTE” ALAS, that my heart is a lute, Whereon you have learned to play! For a many years it was mute, Until one summer's day You took it, and touched it, and made it thrill, I had known you, dear, so long! Yet my heart did not tell me why Like a babe that sees the light of the sun, Your lute is enshrined, cased in, So no hand but yours can win And wake it to minstrelsy; Yet leave it not silent too long, nor alone, Lest the strings should break, and the music be done. SONG Anne Barnard [1750-1825] From "The Duenna " HAD I a heart for falsehood framed, I ne'er could injure you; For though your tongue no promise claimed, Your charms would make me true:: |