romantic poems

Is love a flower to bud then bloom
And give to sunshine its perfume
Then die and be as nothing where
The earth of the succeeding year
And is it nothing else but earth
Sure it is of holier birth
Not born to fade and pass away
But like the heavens eternal ray
Bright, beaming beautiful and high
As morning in a summer sky
As sunshine in sweet summer showers
As colours in the sweetest flowers
But love's not without shadows born
Nor roses bloom without a thorn
And love carressing or derided

The Crow

How peaceable it seems for lonely men
To see a crow fly in the thin blue sky
Over the woods and fealds, o'er level fen
It speaks of villages, or cottage nigh
Behind the neighbouring woods — when march winds high
Tear off the branches of the hugh old oak
I love to see these chimney sweeps sail by
And hear them o'er the knarled forest croak
Then sosh askew from the hid woodmans stroke
That in the woods their daily labours ply
I love the sooty crow nor would provoke
Its march day exercises of croaking joy

1

I love the thistle with its ruddy flowers
It cheers me on the waste in lonely hours
It cheers me in lone sunshine out of doors
When seeking solitude on rushy moores
It cheers me resting on the way-side stones
Where tears of morning glitter on the thorns
I love the thistle 'tis an ill used flower
And bees are singing round for many an hour.

2

I love the thistle and its prickles too
Cobwebs are round it with a veil of dew
I love the thistle where it bravely stands

1

Bless't is the man with mind erect —
That seeks no rise that fears no fall
For freedoms love shall him protect
And having nothing leaves him all
There liberty is ever free
Knowing that such a love must be.

2

'Tis Adam's love for Adam's kin
That Eden of earths Liberty
That triumphs over death and sin
And will in natures love be free
'Twas so when this our world begun
Love — bright and lasting as the sun.

3

Free bonds that knit the son and sire

When spring comes unwelcome to the lovers eye[s]
And the voice o' the singing bird grates on the ear
When the green o' the white thorn idle fancies despise
And beauty o' womanhood fails to be dear
Then my thought shall be blighted and love pass away
And bitterness nip my fond heart to its core
And sweet sensibility drop and decay
O' then dearest Ellen I'll love thee no more
My beautiful Ellen ... no
I'll love thee no more.

When the wild flowers o' summer unnoticed forgotten
Shall flourish neglected and blossom unseen

1

My spirit lives in silent sighs
And gazing upon thee
I hear thy silence make replies
To every thing but me
I see thy silence talk to flowers
The birds will sing to thee
And lonely in these lonely hours
You never talk to me

2

I never hear thy voice nor know
Its sound in fancy's ear
A silent shade where'ere I go
In beauty hovers near

Love is a dreamer full of happy things
& joys for which words have no utterings
Illusions which the heart must ever prize
A beauty shade that neither lives nor dies

The corncraik rispt her summer call Just as the sun went down
Copper red a burning ball In woods behind the town
I wandered forth a maid to meet So bonny and so fair
No other flower was half so sweet And cole black was her hair.

Upon the grasses stood the dew Bead drop O' clearest pearl
Her hair was black her eyes were blue O what a lovely Girl
Her neck was like the lilly white Her breast was like the swan
She was in heart and loves delight A worship for a Man.

The corncraiks rispy song was oer The sun had left the light [alone]

O' Phebe lovely Phebe meet me in the hills O' gorse
We'll sit upon wild thyme so sweet And loves soft joys engross
Round thy white neck my arm shall fall Thy hand pressed close in mine
While wheat ears in the bushes catch And whitethroats sing divine

I'll kiss thy lips so softly prest And wait thy kind replys
And lean upon thy snowy breast And look love in thine eyes
My arm shall clasp thee round the waist Thy hand still held in mine
And nothing but ideas chaste Shall meet those ears of thine

She's lovely in her person And taller in her size
Then some bards make a verse on And lovely are her eyes
She's worth a Poets ransome She chills my heart on fire
Her face is very handsome And warm as my desire
O' beautifull is woman In her secret love for Man
Like flowers eternal blooming And I'll win her if I can

I'll win her and I['ll] wear her Like a nose gay on the breast
And on my heart I'll bear her Like a nosegay sweetly prest
She shall be mine for ever And that I'm sure she shall