Four ducks on a pond,

The shallow tide-wave courses to the land,And all along the down a fringe one seesOf ducal woods. That ‘dim discovered spire’Is Chichester, where Collins felt a fireTouch his sad lips; thatched Felpham roofs are these,Where happy Blake found heaven more close at hand.Goodwood and Arundel possess their lords,Successive in the towers and groves, which stay;These…

Buttressed with a grassy mound;Where Day and Night and Day go byAnd bring no touch of human sound.Washing of the lonely seas,Shaking of the guardian trees,Piping of the salted breeze;Day and Night and Day go byTo the endless tune of these.Or when, as winds and waters keepA hush more dead than any sleep,Still morns to…

Sad blue hills afar;Love in his shroud.Scarcely a tear to shed;Hardly a word to say;The end of a summer day;Sweet Love dead.

You see the silent, soft, and cruel snowFalling again, and think what ills betideUnshelter’d creatures,- your sad thoughts may goWhere War and Winter now, two spectre-wolves,Hunt in the freezing vapour that involvesThose Asian peaks of ice and gulfs below.Does this young Soldier heed the snow that fillsHis mouth and open eyes? or mind, in truth,To-night,…

Dearer twenty-thousand-foldThan gold, is Amy Margaret.‘Amy’ is friend, is ‘Margaret’The pearl for crown or carkanet?Or peeping daisy, summer’s pet?Which are you, Amy Margaret?A friend, a daisy, and a pearl,A kindly, simple, precious girl, —Such, howsoe’er the world may twirl,Be ever, — Amy Margaret!

Only the plaintive yellow birdSighing in sultry fields around,Chary, chary, chary, chee-ee! –Only the grasshopper and the bee? –‘Tip-tap, rip-rap,Tick-a-tack-too!Scarlet leather, sewn together,This will make a shoe.Left, right, pull it tight;Summer days are warm;Underground in winter,Laughing at the storm! ‘Lay your ear close to the hill.Do you not catch th etiny clamour,Busy click of an…

Where the tide moves bright under boundless light,And the surge on the glittering strand;Where the children wade in the shallow pools,Or run from the froth in play;Where the swift little boats with milk-white wingsAre crossing the sapphire bay,And the ship in full sail, with a fortunate gale,Holds proudy on her way;Where the nets are spread…

And away to the bleak black uplandUnder a clouded moon.The moon came forth from her cavern,He saw the sudden gleamOf a tarn in the swarthy moorland;Or perhaps the whole was a dream.For I never could find that waterIn all my walks and rides:Far-off, in the Land of Memory,That midnight pool abides.Many fine things had I…

The tide came creeping up the wall,Love me true!I opened my gate; who there should stand–The waves roll so gayly O,But a fair lady, with a cup in her hand,Love me true!The cup was gold, and full of wine,The waves roll so gayly O,‘Drink,’ said the lady, ‘and I will be thine,’Love me true!‘Enter my…

The carven-stones lie scatter’d in briar and nettle-bed!The only feet are those that come at burial of the dead.A little rocky rivulet runs murmuring to the tide,Singing a song of ancient days, in sorrow, not in pride;The boortree and the lightsome ash across the portal grow,And heaven itself is now the roof of Abbey Assaroe.It…

O Spirit of the Summertime !Bring back the roses to the dells ;The swallow from her distant clime,The honey-bee from drowsy cells.Bring back the friendship of the sun ;The gilded evenings, calm and late,When merry children homeward run,And peeping stars bid lovers wait.Bring back the singing; and the scentOf meadowlands at dewy prime;—Oh, bring again…

Sad blue hills afar;Love in his shroud.Scarcely a tear to shed;Hardly a word to say;The end of a summer day;Sweet Love dead.