Every night my prayers I say,

To the true life together bend our mind,And take a furlough from the falser kind.No rich saloon, nor palace of the great,Nor suit at law should trouble our estate;On no vainglorious statues should we look,But of a walk, a talk, a little book,Baths, wells and meads, and the veranda shade,Let all our travels and our…

And my ship it keeps a-turning all around and all about;But when I’m a little older, I shall find the secret outHow to send my vessel sailing on beyond.For I mean to grow a little as the dolly at the helm,And the dolly I intend to come alive;And with him beside to help me, it’s…

Clinkum-clank by stane and cairn,Weary fa’ their horse-shoe-airn!Loud on the causey, saft on the sand,Round they rade by the tail of the land;Round and up by the Bour-Tree Den,Weary fa’ the red-coat men!Aft hae I gane where they hae radeAnd straigled in the gowden brooms –Aft hae I gane, a saikless maid,And O! sae bonny…

Remembrance wakened in my heartAnd I knew I loved her dearly.The fallows and the leafless treesAnd all my spirit tingled.My earliest thought of love, and Spring’sFirst puff of perfume mingled.In my still heart the thoughts awoke,Came lone by lone together –Say, birds and Sun and Spring, is LoveA mere affair of weather?

Out through the breach in the wall of the garden,Down by the banks of the river we go.Here is a mill with the humming of thunder,Here is the weir with the wonder of foam,Here is the sluice with the race running under–Marvellous places, though handy to home!Sounds of the village grow stiller and stiller,Stiller the…

Mostly little minds should take and tackle their pianoWhile the birds are singing in the morning of the day.