[ { "title": "Song", "author": "John Clare", "lines": [ "Mary, leave thy lowly cot", " When thy thickest jobs are done;", "When thy friends will miss thee not,", " Mary, to the pastures run.", "Where we met the other night", " Neath the bush upon the plain,", "Be it dark or be it light,", " Ye may guess we'll meet again.", "", "Should ye go or should ye not,", " Never shilly-shally, dear.", "Leave your work and leave your cot,", " Nothing need ye doubt or fear:", "Fools may tell ye lies in spite,", " Calling me a roving swain;", "Think what passed the other night--", " I'll be bound ye'll meet again." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Song", "author": "John Clare", "lines": [ "One gloomy eve I roamed about", " Neath Oxey's hazel bowers,", "While timid hares were darting out,", " To crop the dewy flowers;", "And soothing was the scene to me,", " Right pleased was my soul,", "My breast was calm as summer's sea", " When waves forget to roll.", "", "But short was even's placid smile,", " My startled soul to charm,", "When Nelly lightly skipt the stile,", " With milk-pail on her arm:", "One careless look on me she flung,", " As bright as parting day;", "And like a hawk from covert sprung,", " It pounced my peace away." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Song", "author": "Edward Thomas", "lines": [ "AT poet's tears,", "Sweeter than any smiles but hers,", "She laughs; I sigh;", "And yet I could not live if she should die.", "", "And when in June", "Once more the cuckoo spoils his tune,", "She laughs at sighs;", "And yet she says she loves me till she dies." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Song", "author": "John Clare", "lines": [ "I peeled bits of straws and I got switches too", "From the grey peeling willow as idlers do,", "And I switched at the flies as I sat all alone", "Till my flesh, blood, and marrow was turned to dry bone.", "My illness was love, though I knew not the smart,", "But the beauty of love was the blood of my heart.", "Crowded places, I shunned them as noises too rude", "And fled to the silence of sweet solitude.", "Where the flower in green darkness buds, blossoms, and fades,", "Unseen of all shepherds and flower-loving maids--", "The hermit bees find them but once and away.", "There I'll bury alive and in silence decay.", "", "I looked on the eyes of fair woman too long,", "Till silence and shame stole the use of my tongue:", "When I tried to speak to her I'd nothing to say,", "So I turned myself round and she wandered away.", "When she got too far off, why, I'd something to tell,", "So I sent sighs behind her and walked to my cell.", "Willow switches I broke and peeled bits of straws,", "Ever lonely in crowds, in Nature's own laws--", "My ball room the pasture, my music the bees,", "My drink was the fountain, my church the tall trees.", "Who ever would love or be tied to a wife", "When it makes a man mad all the days of his life?" ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "Song", "author": "John Clare", "lines": [ "I wish I was where I would be,", " With love alone to dwell,", "Was I but her or she but me,", " Then love would all be well.", "I wish to send my thoughts to her", " As quick as thoughts can fly,", "But as the winds the waters stir", " The mirrors change and fly." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Song", "author": "John Clare", "lines": [ "I would not feign a single sigh", " Nor weep a single tear for thee:", "The soul within these orbs burns dry;", " A desert spreads where love should be.", "I would not be a worm to crawl", " A writhing suppliant in thy way;", "For love is life, is heaven, and all", " The beams of an immortal day.", "", "For sighs are idle things and vain,", " And tears for idiots vainly fall.", "I would not kiss thy face again", " Nor round thy shining slippers crawl.", "Love is the honey, not the bee,", " Nor would I turn its sweets to gall", "For all the beauty found in thee,", " Thy lily neck, rose cheek, and all.", "", "I would not feign a single tale", " Thy kindness or thy love to seek;", "Nor sigh for Jenny of the Vale,", " Her ruby smile or rosy cheek.", "I would not have a pain to own", " For those dark curls and those bright eyes", "A frowning lip, a heart of stone,", " False love and folly I despise." ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "Song", "author": "George Gordon, Lord Byron", "lines": [ "Breeze of the night in gentler sighs", " More softly murmur o'er the pillow;", "For Slumber seals my Fanny's eyes,", " And Peace must never shun her pillow.", "", "Or breathe those sweet Æolian strains", " Stolen from celestial spheres above,", "To charm her ear while some remains,", " And soothe her soul to dreams of love.", "", "But Breeze of night again forbear,", " In softest murmurs only sigh:", "Let not a Zephyr's pinion dare", " To lift those auburn locks on high.", "", "Chill is thy Breath, thou breeze of night!", " Oh! ruffle not those lids of Snow;", "For only Morning's cheering light", " May wake the beam that lurks below.", "", "Blest be that lip and azure eye!", " Sweet Fanny, hallowed be thy Sleep!", "Those lips shall never vent a sigh,", " Those eyes may never wake to weep." ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "Song", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "Cold, cold is the blast when December is howling,", "Cold are the damps on a dying man's brow,--", "Stern are the seas when the wild waves are rolling,", "And sad is the grave where a loved one lies low;", "But colder is scorn from the being who loved thee,", "More stern is the sneer from the friend who has proved thee,", "More sad are the tears when their sorrows have moved thee,", "Which mixed with groans anguish and wild madness flow--", "", "And ah! poor -- has felt all this horror,", "Full long the fallen victim contended with fate:", "'Till a destitute outcast abandoned to sorrow,", "She sought her babe's food at her ruiner's gate--", "Another had charmed the remorseless betrayer,", "He turned laughing aside from her moans and her prayer,", "She said nothing, but wringing the wet from her hair,", "Crossed the dark mountain side, though the hour it was late.", "'Twas on the wild height of the dark Penmanmawr,", "That the form of the wasted -- reclined;", "She shrieked to the ravens that croaked from afar,", "And she sighed to the gusts of the wild sweeping wind.--", "I call not yon rocks where the thunder peals rattle,", "I call not yon clouds where the elements battle,", "But thee, cruel -- I call thee unkind!'--", "", "Then she wreathed in her hair the wild flowers of the mountain,", "And deliriously laughing, a garland entwined,", "She bedewed it with tears, then she hung o'er the fountain,", "And leaving it, cast it a prey to the wind.", "'Ah! go,' she exclaimed, 'when the tempest is yelling,", "'Tis unkind to be cast on the sea that is swelling,", "But I left, a pitiless outcast, my dwelling,", "My garments are torn, so they say is my mind--'", "", "Not long lived --, but over her grave", "Waved the desolate form of a storm-blasted yew,", "Around it no demons or ghosts dare to rave,", "But spirits of peace steep her slumbers in dew.", "Then stay thy swift steps mid the dark mountain heather,", "Though chill blow the wind and severe is the weather,", "For perfidy, traveller! cannot bereave her,", "Of the tears, to the tombs of the innocent due.--" ], "linecount": "39" }, { "title": "Song", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "Fierce roars the midnight storm", "O'er the wild mountain,", "Dark clouds the night deform,", "Swift rolls the fountain--", "", "See! o'er yon rocky height,", "Dim mists are flying--", "See by the moon's pale light,", "Poor Laura's dying!", "", "Shame and remorse shall howl,", "By her false pillow--", "Fiercer than storms that roll,", "O'er the white billow;", "", "No hand her eyes to close,", "When life is flying,", "But she will find repose,", "For Laura's dying!", "", "Then will I seek my love,", "Then will I cheer her,", "Then my esteem will prove,", "When no friend is near her.", "", "On her grave I will lie,", "When life is parted,", "On her grave I will die,", "For the false hearted." ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "Song", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "Rarely, rarely, comest thou,", "Spirit of Delight!", "Wherefore hast thou left me now", "Many a day and night?", "Many a weary night and day", "'Tis since thou art fled away.", "", "How shall ever one like me", "Win thee back again?", "With the joyous and the free", "Thou wilt scoff at pain.", "Spirit false! thou hast forgot", "All but those who need thee not.", "", "As a lizard with the shade", "Of a trembling leaf,", "Thou with sorrow art dismayed;", "Even the sighs of grief", "Reproach thee, that thou art not near,", "And reproach thou wilt not hear.", "", "Let me set my mournful ditty", "To a merry measure;", "Thou wilt never come for pity,", "Thou wilt come for pleasure;", "Pity then will cut away", "Those cruel wings, and thou wilt stay.", "", "I love all that thou lovest,", "Spirit of Delight!", "The fresh Earth in new leaves dressed,", "And the starry night;", "Autumn evening, and the morn", "When the golden mists are born.", "", "I love snow, and all the forms", "Of the radiant frost;", "I love waves, and winds, and storms,", "Everything almost", "Which is Nature's, and may be", "Untainted by man's misery.", "", "I love tranquil solitude,", "And such society", "As is quiet, wise, and good", "Between thee and me", "What difference? but thou dost possess", "The things I seek, not love them less.", "", "I love Love--though he has wings,", "And like light can flee,", "But above all other things,", "Spirit, I love thee--", "Thou art love and life! Oh, come,", "Make once more my heart thy home." ], "linecount": "48" }, { "title": "Song", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "Come ! sweet is the hour,", "Soft Zephyrs breathe gently around,", "The anemone's night-boding flower,", "Has sunk its pale head on the ground.", "", "'Tis thus the world's keenness hath torn,", "Some mild heart that expands to its blast,", "'Tis thus that the wretched forlorn,", "Sinks poor and neglected at last.--", "", "The world with its keenness and woe,", "Has no charms or attraction for me,", "Its unkindness with grief has laid low,", "The heart which is faithful to thee.", "The high trees that wave past the moon,", "As I walk in their umbrage with you,", "All declare I must part with you soon,", "All bid you a tender adieu!--", "", "Then ! dearest farewell,", "You and I love, may ne'er meet again;", "These woods and these meadows can tell", "How soft and how sweet was the strain.--" ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "Song", "author": "Edgar Allan Poe", "lines": [ "I saw thee on thy bridal day--", " When a burning blush came o'er thee,", "Though happiness around thee lay,", " The world all love before thee:", "", "And in thine eye a kindling light", " (Whatever it might be)", "Was all on Earth my aching sight", " Of Loveliness could see.", "", "That blush, perhaps, was maiden shame--", " As such it well may pass--", "Though its glow hath raised a fiercer flame", " In the breast of him, alas!", "", "Who saw thee on that bridal day,", " When that deep blush _would_ come o'er thee,", "Though happiness around thee lay,", " The world all love before thee." ], "linecount": "16" } ]