Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring!
Even yet thou art to me

No bird, but an invisible thing,

A voice, a mystery;

The same whom in my schoolboy days
I listened to; that Cry

Which made me look a thousand ways
In bush, and tree, and sky.

To seek thee did I often rove
Through woods and on the green;
And thou wert still a hope, a love;
Still longed for, never seen.

And I can listen to thee yet;
Can lie upon the plain
And listen, till I do beget
That golden time again.

O blessed Bird! the earth we pace
Again appears to be

An unsubstantial, faery place:

That is fit home for Thee!

WORDSWORTH.

HELEN OF KIRKCONNEL

I WISH I were where Helen lies!
Night and day on me she cries;

O that I were where Helen lies,
On fair Kirkconnel Lee!

Curst be the heart that thought the thought
And curst the hand, that fired the shot,
When in my arms burd Helen dropt,
And died to succour me!

O think na ye my heart was sair,

When my love dropt down and spak' nae mair!

There did she swoon wi' meikle care,

On fair Kirkconnel Lee.

O that I were where Helen lies!
Night and day on me she cries;
Out of my bed she bids me rise,
Says, Haste, and come to me!'

O Helen fair! O Helen chaste!
If I were with thee, I were blest,
Where thou lies low, and takes thy rest,
On fair Kirkconnel Lee.

I wish my grave were growing green,
A winding-sheet drawn ower my een,
And I in Helen's arms lying,
On fair Kirkconnel Lee.

I wish I were where Helen lies!
Night and day on me she cries,
And I am weary of the skies,

For her sake that died for me.

TO ALTHEA FROM PRISON

WHEN Love with unconfinèd wings

Hovers within my gates;

And my divine Althea brings

To whisper at the grates:
When I lie tangled in her hair,
And fetter'd to her eye;

The Gods that wanton in the air,
Know no such liberty.

When flowing cups run swiftly round
With no allaying Thames,

Our careless heads with roses bound,
Our hearts with loyal flames;
When thirsty grief in wine we steep,
When healths and draughts go free,
Fishes that tipple in the deep,
Know no such liberty.

When, like committed linnets, I

With shriller throat shall sing

The sweetness, mercy, majesty,
And glories of my KING;

When I shall voice aloud, how good
He is, how great should be;
Enlarged winds that curl the flood,
Know no such liberty.

UNKNOWN.