Bury me low and let me lie
Under the wide and
starry sky.
Joying to live, I joyed to die,
Bury me low and let me lie.
Clear was my soul, my deeds were free,
Honour was called my name,
I fell not back from fear
Nor followed after fame.
Bury me low and let me lie
Under the wide and
starry sky.
Joying to live, I joyed to die,
Bury me low and let me lie.
Bury me low in
valleys green
And where the milder
breezeBlows fresh along the
stream,
Sings roundly in the trees -
Bury me low and let me lie
Under the wide and
starry sky.
Joying to live, I joyed to die,
Bury me low and let me lie.
WHAT MAN MAY LEARN, WHAT MAN MAY DO
WHAT man may learn, what man may do,
Of right or wrong of false or true,
While, skipper-like, his course he steers
Through nine and twenty mingled years,
Half misconceived and half forgot,
So much I know and
practise not.
Old are the words of
wisdom, old
The counsels of the wise and bold:
To close the ears, to check the tongue,
To keep the pining spirit young;
To act the right, to say the true,
And to be kind whate'er you do.
Thus we across the modern stage
Follow the wise of every age;
And, as oaks grow and rivers run
Unchanged in the unchanging sun,
So the
eternal march of man
Goes forth on an
eternal plan.
SMALL IS THE TRUST WHEN LOVE IS GREEN
SMALL is the trust when love is green
In sap of early years;
A little thing steps in between
And kisses turn to tears.
Awhile - and see how love be grown
In
loveliness and power!
Awhile, it loves the sweets alone,
But next it loves the sour.
A little love is none at all
That
wanders or that fears;
A
hearty love dwells still at call
To kisses or to tears.
Such then be mine, my love to give,
And such be yours to take:-
A faith to hold, a life to live,
For lovingkindness' sake:
Should you be sad, should you be gay,
Or should you prove unkind,
A love to hold the growing way
And keep the helping mind:-
A love to turn the laugh on care
When wrinkled care appears,
And, with an equal will, to share
Your losses and your tears.
KNOW YOU THE RIVER NEAR TO GREZ
KNOW you the river near to Grez,
A river deep and clear?
Among the lilies all the way,
That ancient river runs to-day
From snowy weir to weir.
Old as the Rhine of great renown,
She hurries clear and fast,
She runs amain by field and town
From south to north, from up to down,
To present on from past.
The love I hold was borne by her;
And now, though far away,
My
lonely spirit hears the stir
Of water round the starling spur
Beside the
bridge at Grez.
So may that love forever hold
In life an equal pace;
So may that love grow never old,
But, clear and pure and fountain-cold,
Go on from grace to grace.
IT'S FORTH ACROSS THE ROARING FOAM
IT'S forth across the roaring foam, and on towards the west,
It's many a
lonelyleague from home, o'er many a mountain crest,
From where the dogs of Scotland call the sheep around the fold,
To where the flags are flying beside the Gates of Gold.
Where all the deep-sea galleons ride that come to bring the corn,
Where falls the fog at eventide and blows the
breeze at morn;
It's there that I was sick and sad, alone and poor and cold,
In yon distressful city beside the Gates of Gold.
I slept as one that nothing knows; but far along my way,
Before the morning God rose and planned the coming day;
Afar before me forth he went, as through the sands of old,
And chose the friends to help me beside the Gates of Gold.
I have been near, I have been far, my back's been at the wall,
Yet aye and ever shone the star to guide me through it all:
The love of God, the help of man, they both shall make me bold
Against the gates of darkness as beside the Gates of Gold.
AN ENGLISH BREEZE
UP with the sun, the
breeze arose,
Across the talking corn she goes,
And smooth she rustles far and wide
Through all the voiceful countryside.
Through all the land her tale she tells;
She spins, she tosses, she compels
The kites, the clouds, the windmill sails
And all the trees in all the dales.
God calls us, and the day prepares
With
nimble, gay and
gracious airs:
And from Penzance to Maidenhead
The roads last night He watered.
God calls us from inglorious ease,
Forth and to travel with the
breezeWhile, swift and singing, smooth and strong
She gallops by the fields along.
AS IN THEIR FLIGHT THE BIRDS OF SONG
AS in their
flight the birds of song
Halt here and there in sweet and sunny dales,
But halt not overlong;
The time one rural song to sing
They pause; then following
bounteous gales
Steer forward on the wing:
Sun-servers they, from first to last,
Upon the sun they wait
To ride the sailing blast.
So he
awhile in our contested state,
Awhile abode, not longer, for his Sun -
Mother we say, no tenderer name we know -
With whose
diviner glow
His early days had shone,
Now to
withdraw her
radiance had begun.
Or lest a wrong I say, not she withdrew,
But the loud
stream of men day after day
And great dust columns of the common way
Between them grew and grew:
And he and she for
evermore might yearn,
But to the spring the rivulets not return
Nor to the bosom comes the child again.
And he (O may we fancy so!),
He, feeling time forever flow
And flowing bear him forth and far away
From that dear ingle where his life began
And all his treasure lay -
He, waxing into man,
And ever farther, ever closer wound
In this obstreperous world's
ignoble round,
From that poor
prospect turned his face away.
THE PIPER
AGAIN I hear you piping, for I know the tune so well, -
You rouse the heart to
wander and be free,
Tho' where you
learned your music, not the God of song can tell,
For you pipe the open
highway and the sea.
O piper,
lightlyfooting,
lightly piping on your way,
Tho' your music thrills and pierces far and near,
I tell you you had better pipe to someone else to-day,
For you cannot pipe my fancy from my dear.
You sound the note of travel through the
hamlet and the town;
You would lure the holy angels from on high;
And not a man can hear you, but he throws the
hammer down
And is off to see the countries ere he die.
But now no more I
wander, now unchanging here I stay;
By my love, you find me
safely sitting here:
And pipe you ne'er so
sweetly, till you pipe the hills away,
You can never pipe my fancy from my dear.
TO MRS. MACMARLAND
IN Schnee der Alpen - so it runs
To those
divine accords - and here
We dwell in Alpine snows and suns,
A motley crew, for half the year:
A motley crew, we dwell to taste -
A shivering band in hope and fear -
That sun upon the snowy waste,
That Alpine ether cold and clear.
Up from the laboured plains, and up
From low sea-levels, we arise
To drink of that
diviner cup
The rarer air, the clearer skies;
For, as the great, old, godly King
From mankind's turbid
valley cries,
So all we mountain-lovers sing:
I to the hills will lift mine eyes.
The bells that ring, the peaks that climb,
The
frozen snow's
unbroken curd
Might yet revindicate in rhyme
The pauseless
stream, the
absent bird.
In vain - for to the deeps of life
You, lady, you my heart have stirred;
And since you say you love my life,
Be sure I love you for the word.
Of kindness, here I nothing say -
Such loveless kindnesses there are
In that grimacing, common way,
That old, unhonoured social war.
Love but my dog and love my love,
Adore with me a common star -
I value not the rest above
The ashes of a bad cigar.