A FAREWELL. FLOW A FAREWELL. LOW down, cold rivulet, to the sea, No more by thee my steps shall be, Flow, softly flow, by lawn and lea, Nowhere by thee my steps shall be, But here will sigh thine alder-tree, A thousand suns will stream on thee, 67 H THE BEGGAR MAID. ER arms across her breast she laid; She was more fair than words can say: Barefooted came the beggar maid Before the King Cophetua. In robe and crown the king stept down, "She is more beautiful than day." As shines the moon in clouded skies, So sweet a face, such angel grace, In all that land had never been: Cophetua sware a royal oath : 64 This beggar maid shall be my queen! M OVE eastward, happy earth, and leave Yon orange sunset waning slow; From fringes of the faded eve, O, happy planet, eastward go; Till over thy dark shoulder glow Thy silver sister-world, and rise To glass herself in dewy eyes That watch me from the glen below. Ah, bear me with thee, smoothly borne, THE SKIPPING-ROPE. URE never yet was Antelope Stand off, or else my skipping-rope How lightly whirls the skipping-rope ! How fairy-like you fly! Go, get you gone, you muse and mope, – I hate that silly sigh. Nay, dearest, teach me how to hope, Or tell me how to die. There, take it, take my skipping-rope And hang yourself thereby. THE SAILOR-BOY. 71 H' THE SAILOR-BOY. E rose at dawn, and, fired with hope, Shot o'er the seething harbor-bar, And reach'd the ship and caught the rope, And whistled to the morning star. And while he whistled long and loud, "The sands and yeasty surges mix In caves about the dreary bay, And on thy ribs the limpet sticks, And in thy heart the scrawl shall play." "Fool," he answer'd, "death is sure To those that stay and those that roam, But I will nevermore endure To sit with empty hands at home. "My mother clings about my neck, My sisters crying stay for shame'; My father raves of death and wreck, They are all to blame, they are all to blame. "God help me! save I take my part Of danger on the roaring sea, A devil rises in my heart, Far worse than any death to me." |