Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

FIFTH YEAR - FIRST HALF

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
ENGLAND, 1564-1616

A Violet Bank

I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows :
Quite over-canopied with lush woodbine,
With sweet musk roses and with eglantine.

JOHN KEATS

ENGLAND, 1795-1821

The Dove

I had a dove, and the sweet dove died;

And I have thought it died of grieving;
O, what could it grieve for? Its feet were tied
With a single thread of my own hand's weaving.

Sweet little red feet, why should you die?
Why should you leave me, sweet bird, why?

5

10

You lived alone in the forest tree,

Why, pretty thing, would you not live with me?
I kissed you oft, and gave you white peas;
Why not live sweetly, as in the green trees?

WILLIAM MOTHERWELL

SCOTLAND, 1797-1835

Sing on, Blithe Bird!

5 I've plucked the berry from the bush, the brown nut from the tree,

But heart of happy little bird ne'er broken was by me.

I saw them in their curious nests, close couching, slyly peer

With their wild eyes, like glittering beads, to note if harm were near;

I passed them by, and blessed them all; I felt that it was good

10 To leave unmoved the creatures small whose home was in the wood.

And here, even now, above my head, a lusty rogue doth sing,

He pecks his swelling breast and neck, and trims his little wing.

THE GLADNESS OF NATURE

9

He will not fly; he knows full well, while chirping on that spray,

I would not harm him for a world, or interrupt his lay.

Sing on, sing on, blithe bird! and fill my heart with summer gladness.

It has been aching many a day with measures full of sadness!

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

AMERICA, 1794-1878

The Gladness of Nature

Is this the time to be cloudy and sad,

When our mother Nature laughs around, When even the deep blue heavens look glad, And gladness breathes from the blossoming ground?

There are notes of joy from the hangbird and wren,

5

And the gossip of swallows through all the 10 sky,

The ground-squirrel gayly chirps by his den,
And the wilding-bee hums merrily by.

The clouds are at play in the azure space,

And their shadows at play on the bright green
vale,

And here they stretch to the frolic chase,
And there they roll on the easy gale.

5 There's a dance of leaves in that aspen bower, There's a titter of winds in that beechen tree, There's a smile on the fruit, and a smile on the flower,

And a laugh from the brook that runs to the

sea.

And look at the broad-faced sun, how he smiles 10 On the dewy earth that smiles in his ray, On the leaping waters and gay young isles, Ay, look, and he'll smile thy gloom away!

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
AMERICA, 1807-1882

An April Day

When the warm sun, that brings

Seedtime and harvest, has returned again,

15 'Tis sweet to visit the still wood, where springs

The first flower of the plain.

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »