A child should always say what’s true

And the great dead themselves, with jovial breathBid you be merry and remember death.

And in the blue and glowing daysMore thick than rain he showers his rays.Though closer still the blinds we pullTo keep the shady parlour cool,Yet he will find a chink or twoTo slip his golden fingers through.The dusty attic spider-cladHe, through the keyhole, maketh glad;And through the broken edge of tilesInto the laddered hay-loft smiles.Meantime…

Be ours the quest of a plain theme,The piety of speech.As monkish scribes from morning breakToiled till the close of light,Nor thought a day too long to makeOne line or letter bright:We also with an ardent mind,Time, wealth, and fame forgot,Our glory in our patience findAnd skim, and skim the pot:Till last, when round the…

My Otto, over sea and land,Till you shall come to Nelly’s hand.How shall I your Nelly know?By her blue eyes and her black brow,By her fierce and slender look,And by her goodness, little book!What shall I say when I come there?You shall speak her soft and fair:See – you shall say – the love they…

Give the jolly heaven aboveAnd the byway nigh me.Bed in the bush with stars to see,Bread I dip in the river –There’s the life for a man like me,There’s the life for ever.Let the blow fall soon or late,Let what will be o’er me;Give the face of earth aroundAnd the road before me.Wealth I seek…

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 upFrom low sea-levels, we ariseTo drink of that diviner cupThe rarer air, the…