friend, Edward Nisbet.

W.R.

SONGS

I.

Though here fair blooms the rose and the woodbine waves on high,

And oak and elm and bracken frond enrich the rolling lea,

And winds as if from Arcady breathe joy as they go by,

Yet I yearn and I pine for my North Countrie.

I leave the drowsing south and in dreams I northward fly,

And walk the stretching moors that fringe the ever-calling sea;

And am gladdened as the gales that are so bitter-sweet go by,

While grey clouds sweetly darken o'er my North Countrie.

For there's music in the storms, and there's colour in the shades,

And there's joy e'en in the sorrow widely brooding o'er the sea;

And larger thoughts have birth among the moors and lowly glades

And reedy mounds and sands of my North Countrie.

II.

You who know what easeful arms

Silence winds about the dead,

Or what far-swept music charms

 Prev. P 2/27 next