Village Blacksmith, The _H.W. Longfellow_ 92
Way to Arcady, The _H.C. Bunner_ 243
When the Sultan Goes to Ispahan _T.B. Aldrich_ 253
Whip-poor-will, The _H. Van Dyke_ 291
White Jessamine, The _J.B. Tabb_ 235
Wild Honeysuckle, The _P. Freneau_ 1
Woman's Thought, A _R.W. Gilder_ 227
Woods that Bring the Sunset Near, The _R.W. Gilder_ 216
Wreck of the Hesperus, The _H.W. Longfellow_ 80
BOOK FIRST.
AMERICAN SONGS AND LYRICS
The Wild Honeysuckle.
Fair flower, that dost so comely grow,
Hid in this silent, dull retreat,
Untouched thy honey'd blossoms blow,
Unseen thy little branches greet;
No roving foot shall crush thee here,
No busy hand provoke a tear.
By Nature's self in white arrayed,
She bade thee shun the vulgar eye,
And planted here the guardian shade,
And sent soft waters murmuring by;
Thus quietly thy summer goes,--
Thy days declining to repose.
Smit with those charms, that must decay,
I grieve to see your future doom;
They died--nor were those flowers more gay--
The flowers that did in Eden bloom;
Unpitying frosts and Autumn's power
Shall leave no vestige of this flower.
From morning suns and evening dews
At first thy little being came;
If nothing once, you nothing lose,
For when you die you are the same;
The space between is but an hour,
The frail duration of a flower.
P. FRENEAU.
Song.
Who has robbed the ocean cave,
To tinge thy lips with coral hue?
Who from India's distant wave
For thee those pearly treasures drew?
Who from yonder orient sky
Stole the morning of thine eye?
Thousand charms, thy form to deck,
From sea, and earth, and air are torn;
Roses bloom upon thy cheek,
On thy breath their fragrance borne.
Guard thy bosom from the day,
Lest thy snows should melt away.
But one charm remains behind,
Which mute earth can ne'er impart;
Nor in ocean wilt thou find,
Nor in the circling air, a heart.
Fairest! wouldst thou perfect be,
Take, oh, take that heart from me.
J. SHAW.
"My Life is Like the Summer Rose."
My life is like the summer rose
That opens to the morning sky,
But ere the shades of evening close,
Is scattered on the ground--to die!
Yet on the rose's humble bed
The sweetest dews of night are shed,
As if she wept the waste to see,--
But none shall weep a tear for me!
My life is like the autumn leaf
That trembles in the moon's pale ray;
Its hold is frail,--its date is brief,
Restless,--and soon to pass away!
Yet ere that leaf shall fall and fade,
The parent tree will mourn its shade,
The winds bewail the leafless tree,--
But none shall breathe a sigh for me!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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