FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53  
54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   >>  
We glory in his art Who ne'er, to help the under man, Neglects the upper part. But toe the mark for him, and heel Respond to thee in kine-- Or kid--or calf, shouldst thou reveal A taste so superfine: Thus let him jest--join in his laugh-- Draw on his stock, and be A shoer'd there's no rival half Sole liberal as he. Then, Poet, hail the Shoe-ma-ker For all his goodly deeds,-- Yea, bless him free for booting thee-- The first of all thy needs! And when at last his eyes grow dim, And nerveless drops his clamp, In golden shoon pray think of him Upon his latest tramp. THE OLD RETIRED SEA CAPTAIN. The old sea captain has sailed the seas So long, that the waves at mirth, Or the waves gone wild, and the crests of these, Were as near playmates from birth: He has loved both the storm and the calm, because They seemed as his brothers twain,-- The flapping sail was his soul's applause, And his rapture, the roaring main. But now--like a battered hulk seems he, Cast high on a foreign strand, Though he feels "in port," as it need must be, And the stay of a daughter's hand-- Yet ever the round of the listless hours,-- His pipe, in the languid air-- The grass, the trees, and the garden flowers, And the strange earth everywhere! And so betimes he is restless here In this little inland town, With never a wing in the atmosphere But the wind-mill's, up and down; His daughter's home in this peaceful vale, And his grandchild 'twixt his knees-- But never the hail of a passing sail, Nor the surge of the angry seas! He quits his pipe, and he snaps its neck-- Would speak, though he coughs instead, Then paces the porch like a quarter-deck With a reeling mast o'erhead! Ho! the old sea captain's cheeks glow warm, And his eyes gleam grim and weird, As he mutters about, like a thunder-storm, In the cloud of his beetling beard. ROBERT BURNS WILSON. What intuition named thee?--Through what thrill Of the awed soul came the command divine Into the mother-heart, foretelling thine Should palpitate with his whose raptures will Sing on while daisies bloom and lavrocks trill Their undulating ways up through the fine Fair mists of heavenly reaches? Thy pure line Falls as the dew of anthems, quiring still The sweeter since the Scottish singer rais
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53  
54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   >>  



Top keywords:

captain

 

daughter

 

erhead

 

quarter

 

coughs

 

reeling

 
betimes
 

restless

 
strange
 
flowers

languid

 
garden
 
inland
 

peaceful

 
grandchild
 

passing

 
atmosphere
 

thunder

 
lavrocks
 

undulating


daisies

 
raptures
 

sweeter

 

quiring

 

Scottish

 

singer

 

anthems

 

reaches

 

heavenly

 

palpitate


Should

 

beetling

 

ROBERT

 
WILSON
 
mutters
 

intuition

 

divine

 

mother

 

foretelling

 

command


Through

 

thrill

 
cheeks
 

goodly

 
liberal
 
nerveless
 

booting

 
Respond
 
Neglects
 

superfine