romantic poems

When the heavens with stars are gleaming
Like a diadem of light,
And the moon's pale rays are streaming,
Decking earth with radiance bright;
When the autumn's winds are sighing,
O'er the hill and o'er the lea,
When the summer time is dying,
Wanderer, wilt thou think of me?

When thy life is crowned with gladness.
And thy home with love is blest,
Not one brow o'ercast with sadness,
Not one bosom of unrest —
When at eventide reclining,
At thy hearthstone gay and free,

W HEN LOVE Had strove
Us to subdue,
Whose Crime
With Time
Still bolder grew;
Though Ye
Said He
Will still
Rebell
Yet I
Reveng'd will bee,
Sufficientlie
Upon my Selfe for You, and die.

When L OVE
Was wove
And ty'd about
His Crosse
So close

" W HAREFORE sou'd ye talk o' love, "
— Unless it be to pain us?
Wharefore sou'd ye talk o' love
— Whan ye say the sea maun twain us? "

" It's no because my love is light,
— Nor for your angry deddy;
It's a' to buy ye pearlins bright,
— An' to busk ye like a leddy. "

" O Willy, I can caird an' spin,
— Sae ne'er can want for cleedin';
An' gin I hae my Willy's heart,
— I hae a' the pearls I'm heedin'.

" Will it be time to praise this cheek
— Whan years an' tears hae blenched it?

Lover
Weep not, nor backward turn your beams,
Fond eyes; sad sighs, lock in your breath,
Lest on this wind, or in those streams,
My grieved soul fly or sail to death.
Fortune destroys me if I stay,
Love kills me if I go away:
Since Love and Fortune both are blind,
Come, Reason, and resolve my doubtful mind.
Reason

Fly, and blind Fortune be thy guide,
And gainst the blinder god rebel:
Thy lovesick heart shall not reside
Where Scorn and self-willed Error dwell,
Where entrance unto Truth is barred,

Hide thou thy face in clouds and mysteries
Wield as thou wilt thy power that makes and mars
But hear, that in thy roaring wheel of stars
One atom dares to love thee ere it dies.

Do I say no-one has loved as I love?
I believe thousands have loved as I love
And if thousands have loved a thousand times more than I love
Why so much the better.

I live in an age of varied powers and knowledge,
Of steam, science, democracy, journalism, art;
But when my love rises like a sea,
I have to go back to an obscure tribe and a slain man
To formulate a blessing.

Sweet for a little even to fear, and sweet
O love, to lay down fear at love's fair feet;
Shall not some fiery memory of his breath
Lie sweet on lips that touch the lips of death?
You leave me not; yet, if thou wilt, be free;
Love me no more, but love my love of thee,
Love where thou wilt, and live thy life; and I,
One thing I can, and one love cannot--die.
Pass from me; yet thine arms, thine eyes, thine hair,
Feed my desire and deaden my despair.
Yet once more ere time change us, ere my cheek

This fairest one of all the stars, whose flame,
For ever lit, my inner spirit fills,
Came to me first one day between the hills.

I wondered very much; but God the Lord
Said, " From Our Virtue, lo! this light is pour'd."
So in a dream it seemed that I was led
By a great Master to a garden spread
With lilies underfoot and overhead.

Thou's welcome, wean! mishanter fa' me,
If ought of thee, or of thy mammy,
Shall ever daunton me, or awe me,
My sweet wee lady,
Or if I blush when thou shalt ca' me
Tit-ta or daddy.

Wee image of my bonnie Betty,
I fatherly will kiss and daut thee,
As dear an' near my heart I set thee
Wi' as guid will,
As a' the priests had seen me get thee
That's out o' hell.

What tho' they ca' me fornicator,
An' tease my name in kintra clatter:
The mair they talk I'm kent the better,
E'en let them clash;