And all my toys beside me lay,
To keep me happy all the day.
And sometimes for an hour or so
I watched my leaden soldiers go,
With different uniforms and drills,
Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;
And sometimes sent my ships in fleets
All up and down among the sheets;
Or brought my trees and houses out,
And planted cities all about.
I was the giant great and still
That sits upon the pillow-hill,
And sees before him, dale and plain,
The pleasant land of counterpane.
Again to go a-sailing o’er the sea,To hear the cordage moanAnd the straining timbers groan,And to see the flying pennon lie a-lee.O sailor of the fleet,It is time to stir the feet!It’s time to man the dingy and to row!It’s lay your hand in mineAnd it’s empty down the wine,And it’s drain a health to…
I see the people marching by,As plain as day before my eye.Armies and emperor and kings,All carrying different kinds of things,And marching in so grand a way,You never saw the like by day.So fine a show was never seenAt the great circus on the green;For every kind of beast and manIs marching in that caravan.As…
O the clean gravel!O the smooth stream!Sailing blossoms, silver fishes,Pave pools as clear as air–How a child wishesTo live down there!We can see our colored facesFloating on the shaken poolDown in cool places,Dim and very cool;Till a wind or water wrinkle,Dipping marten, plumping trout,Spreads in a twinkleAnd blots all out.See the rings pursue each other;All…
The Psalm seems but the little kirkThat sings with its own voice.The cloud-rifts share their amber lightWith the surface of the mere –I think the very stones are gladTo feel each other near.Once more my whole heart leaps and swellsAnd gushes o’er with glee;The fingers of the sun and shadeTouch music stops in me.Now fancy…
On some lone foreland, watching sail by sail,The portbound ships for one ship that was late;And sail by sail, his heart burned up with joy,And cruelly was quenched, until at lastOne ship, the looked-for pennant at its mast,Bore gaily, and dropt safely past the buoy;And lo! the loved one was not there – was dead.Then…
When quite contented }thou canst dine at homeThou shall be free when }And drink a small wine of the march of Rome;When thou canst see unmoved thy neighbour’s plate,And wear my threadbare toga in the gate;When thou hast learned to love a small abode,And not to choose a mistress A LA MODE:When thus contained and…
