Yet, stranger! here, from year to year,

She keeps her shadowy kine;

Oh, Keith of Ravelston,

The sorrows of thy line!

Step out three steps, where Andrew stood

Why blanch thy cheeks for fear?
The ancient stile is not alone,

'Tis not the burn I hear!

She makes her immemorial moan,
She keeps her shadowy kine;
Oh, Keith of Ravelston,
The sorrows of thy line!

AMERICA

(Poetical Works, 1875)

Nor force nor fraud shall sunder us! O ye
Who north or south, on east or western land,
Native to noble sounds, say truth for truth,
Freedom for freedom, love for love, and God
For God; O ye who in eternal youth
Speak with a living and creative flood
This universal English, and do stand
Its breathing book; live worthy of that grand
Heroic utterance-parted, yet a whole,
Far yet unsever'd,-children brave and free
Of the great Mother-tongue, and ye shall be
Lords of an empire wide as Shakespeare's soul,
Sublime as Milton's immemorial theme,

And rich as Chaucer's speech, and fair as Spenser's dream.

William Allingbam

1824-1889

HOMEWARD BOUND

(From Flower Pieces and Other Poems, 1888)

I.

Head the ship for England!

Shake out every sail!
Blithe leap the billows,
Merry sings the gale.
Captain, work the reck'ning;
How many knots a day?-
Round the world and home again,
That's the sailor's way!

II.

We've traded with the Yankees,
Brazilians, and Chinese;
We've laughed with dusky beauties
In shade of tall palm-trees;
Across the line and Gulf-Stream-
Round by Table Bay-

Everywhere and home again,
That's the sailor's way!

III.

Nightly stands the North Star
Higher on our bow;

Straight we run for England;

Our thoughts are in it now.

Jolly time with friends ashore,
When we've drawn our pay!-
All about and home again,

That's the sailor's way!

IV.

Tom will to his parents,
Jack will to his dear,
Joe to wife and children,
Bob to pipes and beer;
Dicky to the dancing-room,
To hear the fiddles play;-

Round the world and home again,

That's the sailor's way!

Round the world and home again,
That's the sailor's way!

FOUR DUCKS ON A POND

(From the same)

Four ducks on a pond,

A grass-bank beyond,
A blue sky of spring,
White clouds on the wing;
What a little thing

To remember for years-
To remember with tears!

HEATHER

(From the same)

Vast barren hills and moors, cliffs over lakes,
Great headlands by the sea-a lonely land!
With Fishers' huts beside a yellow strand
Where wave on wave in foam and thunder breaks,

Or else a tranquil blue horizon takes

Sunlight and shadow. Few can understand

The poor folk's ancient tongue, sweet, simple, grand, Wherein a dreamy old-world half awakes.

And on these hills a thousand years ago

Their fathers wander'd, sun and stars for clock, With minds to wing above and creep below; Heard what we hear, the ocean's solemn shock,— Saw what we see, this Heather-flow'r aglow, Empurpling league-long slope and crested rock.

HALF-WAKING

(From the same)

I thought it was the little bed
I slept in long ago;

A straight white curtain at the head,
And two smooth knobs below.

I thought I saw the nursery fire,
And in a chair well-known
My mother sat, and did not tire
With reading all alone.

If I should make the slightest sound

To show that I'm awake,

She'd rise, and lap the blankets round,
My pillow softly shake;

Kiss me, and turn my face to see

The shadows on the wall,

And then sing Rousseau's Dream to me,
Till fast asleep I fall.

But this is not my little bed;

That time is far away;

With strangers now I live instead,
From dreary day to day.

George Meredith

1828-1909

JUGGLING JERRY

(From Modern Love and Poems of the English Roadside, 1862)

I.

Pitch here the tent, while the old horse grazes: By the old hedge-side we'll halt a stage.

It's nigh my last above the daisies:

My next leaf'll be man's blank page.
Yes, my old girl! and it's no use crying:
Juggler, constable, king, must bow.
One that outjuggles all's been spying
Long to have me, and he has me now.

II.

We've travelled times to this old common:
Often we've hung our pots in the gorse.
We've had a stirring life, old woman!
You, and I, and the old grey horse.
Races, and fairs, and royal occasions,
Found us coming to their call:
Now they'll miss us at our stations:
There's a Juggler outjuggles all!