[ { "title": "Song of Fairies Robbing an Orchard", "author": "James Henry Leigh Hunt", "lines": [ "We, the Fairies, blithe and antic,", "Of dimensions not gigantic,", "Though the moonshine mostly keep us,", "Oft in orchards frisk and peep us.", "", "Stolen sweets are always sweeter,", "Stolen kisses much completer,", "Stolen looks are nice in chapels,", "Stolen, stolen, be your apples.", "", "When to bed the world are bobbing,", "Then's the time for orchard-robbing;", "Yet the fruit were scarce worth peeling,", "Were it not for stealing, stealing." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "Death", "author": "James Henry Leigh Hunt", "lines": [ "Death is a road our dearest friends have gone;", "Why with such leaders, fear to say, \"Lead on?\"", "Its gate repels, lest it too soon be tried,", "But turns in balm on the immortal side.", "Mothers have passed it: fathers, children; men", "Whose like we look not to behold again;", "Women that smiled away their loving breath;", "Soft is the travelling on the road to death!", "But guilt has passed it? men not fit to die?", "O, hush -- for He that made us all is by!", "Human we're all -- all men, all born of mothers;", "All our own selves in the worn-out shape of others;", "Our used, and oh, be sure, not to be ill-used brothers!" ], "linecount": "13" }, { "title": "Robin Hood, A Child.", "author": "James Henry Leigh Hunt", "lines": [ "It was the pleasant season yet,", "When the stones at cottage doors", "Dry quickly, while the roads are wet,", "After the silver showers.", "", "The green leaves they looked greener still,", "And the thrush, renewing his tune,", "Shook a loud note from his gladsome bill", "Into the bright blue noon.", "", "Robin Hood's mother looked out, and said", "\"It were a shame and a sin", "For fear of getting a wet head", "To keep such a day within,", "Nor welcome up from his sick bed", "Your uncle Gamelyn.\"", "", "And Robin leaped, and thought so too;", "And so he has grasped her gown,", "And now looking back, they have lost the view", "Of merry sweet Locksley town.", "", "Robin was a gentle boy,", "And therewithal as bold;", "To say he was his mother's joy,", "It were a phrase too cold.", "", "His hair upon his thoughtful brow", "Came smoothly clipped, and sleek,", "But ran into a curl somehow", "Beside his merrier cheek.", "", "Great love to him his uncle too", "The noble Gamelyn bare,", "And often said, as his mother knew,", "That he should be his heir.", "", "Gamelyn's eyes, now getting dim,", "Would twinkle at his sight,", "And his ruddy wrinkles laugh at him", "Between his locks so white:", "", "For Robin already let him see", "He should beat his playmates all", "At wrestling, running, and archery,", "Yet he cared not for a fall.", "", "Merriest he was of merry boys,", "And would set the old helmets bobbing;", "If his uncle asked about the noise,", "'Twas \"If you please, Sir, Robin.\"", "", "And yet if the old man wished no noise,", "He'd come and sit at his knee,", "And be the gravest of grave-eyed boys;", "And not a word spoke he.", "", "So whenever he and his mother came", "To brave old Gamelyn Hall,", "'Twas nothing there but sport and game,", "And holiday folks all:", "The servants never were to blame,", "Though they let the physic fall.", "", "And now the travellers turn the road,", "And now they hear the rooks;", "And there it is, — the old abode,", "With all its hearty looks.", "", "Robin laughed, and the lady too,", "And they looked at one another;", "Says Robin, \"I'll knock, as I'm used to do,", "At uncle's window, mother.\"", "", "And so he pick'd up some pebbles and ran,", "And jumping higher and higher,", "He reach'd the windows with tan a ran tan,", "And instead of the kind old white-haired man,", "There looked out a fat friar.", "", "\"How now,\" said the fat friar angrily,", "\"What is this knocking so wild?\"", "But when he saw young Robin's eye,", "He said \"Go round, my child.", "", "\"Go round to the hall, and I'll tell you all.\"", "\"He'll tell us all!\" thought Robin;", "And his mother and he went quietly,", "Though her heart was set a throbbing.", "", "The friar stood in the inner door,", "And tenderly said, \"I fear", "You know not the good squire's no more,", "Even Gamelyn de Vere.", "", "\"Gamelyn de Vere is dead,", "He changed but yesternight:\"", "\"Now make us way,\" the lady said,", "\"To see that doleful sight.\"", "", "\"Good Gamelyn de Vere is dead,", "And has made us his holy heirs:\"", "The lady stayed not for all he said,", "But went weeping up the stairs.", "", "Robin and she went hand in hand,", "Weeping all the way,", "Until they came where the lord of that land", "Dumb in his cold bed lay.", "", "His hand she took, and saw his dead look,", "With the lids over each eye-ball;", "And Robin and she wept as plenteously,", "As though he had left them all.", "", "\"I will return, Sir Abbot of Vere,", "I will return as is meet,", "And see my honoured brother dear", "Laid in his winding sheet.", "", "And I will stay, for to go were a sin,", "For all a woman's tears,", "And see the noble Gamelyn", "Laid low with the De Veres.\"", "", "The lady went with a sick heart out", "Into the kind fresh air,", "And told her Robin all about", "The abbot whom he saw there:", "", "And how his uncle must have been", "Disturbed in his failing sense,", "To leave his wealth to these artful men,", "At her's and Robin's expense.", "", "Sad was the stately day for all", "But the Vere Abbey friars,", "When the coffin was stript of its hiding pall,", "Amidst the hushing choirs.", "", "Sad was the earth-dropping \"dust to dust,\"", "And \"our brother here departed;\"", "The lady shook at them, as shake we must,", "And Robin he felt strange-hearted.", "", "That self-same evening, nevertheless,", "They returned to Locksley town,", "The lady in a dumb distress,", "And Robin looking down.", "", "They went, and went, and Robin took", "Long steps by his mother's side,", "Till she asked him with a sad sweet look", "What made him so thoughtful-eyed.", "", "\"I was thinking, mother,\" said little Robin,", "And with his own voice so true", "He spoke right out, \"That if I was a king,", "I'd see what those friars do.\"", "", "His mother stooped with a tear of joy,", "And she kissed him again and again,", "And said, \"My own little Robin boy,", "Thou wilt be a King of Men!\"" ], "linecount": "133" }, { "title": "A Night-Rain in Summer", "author": "James Henry Leigh Hunt", "lines": [ "Open the window, and let the air", "Freshly blow upon face and hair,", "And fill the room, as it fills the night,", "With the breath of the rain's sweet might.", "Hark! the burthen, swift and prone!", "And how the odorous limes are blown!", "Stormy Love's abroad, and keeps", "Hopeful coil for gentle sleeps.", "", "Not a blink shall burn to-night", "In my chamber, of sordid light;", "Nought will I have, not a window-pane,", "'Twixt me and the air and the great good rain,", "Which ever shall sing me sharp lullabies;", "And God's own darkness shall close mine eyes;", "And I will sleep, with all things blest,", "In the pure earth-shadow of natural rest." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "An Angel in the House", "author": "James Henry Leigh Hunt", "lines": [ "How sweet it were, if without feeble fright,", "Or dying of the dreadful beauteous sight,", "An angel came to us, and we could bear", "To see him issue from the silent air", "At evening in our room, and bend on ours", "His divine eyes, and bring us from his bowers", "News of dear friends, and children who have never", "Been dead indeed,--as we shall know forever.", "Alas! we think not what we daily see", "About our hearths,--angels that are to be,", "Or may be if they will, and we prepare", "Their souls and ours to meet in happy air;--", "A child, a friend, a wife whose soft heart sings", "In unison with ours, breeding its future wings." ], "linecount": "14" } ]