A Draught Of Sunshine

Hence Burgundy, Claret, and Port, Away with old Hock and madeira, Too earthly ye are for my sport; There's a beverage brighter and clearer. Instead of a piriful rummer, My wine overbrims a whole summer; My bowl is the sky, And I drink at my eye, Till I feel in the brain A Delphian pain Then follow, my Caius! then follow: On the green of the hill We will drink our fill Of golden sunshine, Till our brains intertwine With the glory and grace of Apollo! God of the Meridian, And of the East and West, To thee my soul is flown, And my body is earthward press'd. It is an awful mission, A terrible division; And leaves a gulph austere To be fill'd with worldly fear. Aye, when the soul is fled To high above our head, Affrighted do we gaze After its airy maze, As doth a mother wild, When her young infant child Is in an eagles claws And is not this the cause Of madness? - God of Song, Thou bearest me along Through sights I scarce can bear: O let me, let me share With the hot lyre and thee, The staid Philosophy. Temper my lonely hours, And let me see thy bowers More unalarm'd!

A Dream, After Reading Dante's Episode Of Paolo And Francesca

As Hermes once took to his feathers light, When lulled Argus, baffled, swooned and slept, So on a Delphic reed, my idle spright So played, so charmed, so conquered, so bereft The dragon-world of all its hundred eyes; And seeing it asleep, so fled away, Not to pure Ida with its snow-cold skies, Nor unto Tempe, where Jove grieved a day; But to that second circle of sad Hell, Where in the gust, the whirlwind, and the flaw Of rain and hail-stones, lovers need not tell Their sorrows. Pale were the sweet lips I saw, Pale were the lips I kissed, and fair the form I floated with, about that melancholy storm.

A Galloway Song
Ah! ken ye what I met the day Out oure the Mountains A coming down by craggi[e]s grey An mossie fountains -A[h] goud hair'd Marie yeve I pray Ane minute's guessing -For that I met upon the way Is past expressing. As I stood where a rocky brig A torrent crosses I spied upon a misty rig

A troup o' Horses -And as they trotted down the glen I sped to meet them To see if I might know the Men To stop and greet them. First Willie on his sleek mare came At canting gallop -His long hair rustled like a flame On board a shallop. Then came his brother Rab and then Young Peggy's Mither And Peggy too -- adown the glen They went togither -I saw her wrappit in her hood Fra wind and raining -Her cheek was flush wi' timid blood 'Twixt growth and waning -She turn'd her dazed head full oft For there her Brithers Came riding with her Bridegroom soft And mony ithers. Young Tam came up an' eyed me quick With reddened cheek -Braw Tam was daffed like a chick -He coud na speak -Ah Marie they are all gane hame Through blustering weather An' every heart is full on flame Ah! Marie they are all gone hame Fra happy wedding, Whilst I -- Ah is it not a shame? Sad tears am shedding. Party of lovers Pensive they sit, and roll their languid eyes, Nibble their toast, and cool their tea with sighs, Or else forget the purpose of the night, Forget their tea -- forget their appetite. See with cross'd arms they sit -- ah! happy crew, The fire is going out and no one rings For coals, and therefore no coals Betty brings. A fly is in the milk-pot -- must he die By a humane society? No, no; there Mr. Werter takes his spoon, Inserts it, dips the handle, and lo! soon The little straggler, sav'd from perils dark, Across the teaboard draws a long wet mark. Arise! take snuffers by the handle, There's a large cauliflower in each candle. A winding-sheet, ah me! I must away To No. 7, just beyond the circus gay. 'Alas, my friend! your coat sits very well; Where may your tailor live?' 'I may not tell. O pardon me -- I'm absent now and then. Where might my tailor live? I say again I cannot tell, let me no more be teaz'd -He livesin Wapping, might live where he pleas'd.'