Book: A Song of Labour (1873)

• A Song of Labour

  *Respectfully Dedicated To My Fellow-Workers With Pick And Shovel Everywhere*
  "\Let each man honour his workmanship--his Can-do.\"--

  323 lines
• A Love Retrospect

  "\O meines Lebens goldne zeit.\"--
  Schiller

  119 lines
• John Keats

  "\He is made one with Nature; there is heard
  His voice in all her music.\"--

  67 lines
• The Dead Child

  "\All its innocent thoughts,
  Like rose leaves scattered.\"--

  51 lines, 2 comments
• The Autumn Walk

  I walk through the golden autumn wood
  When the leaves are in their decay:

  28 lines
• Eliore

  Young Eliore lay dreaming, and the light
  Of the young sun came in, and angel bright

  148 lines
• The Poet's Mission

  Would you hear the poet's mission? When the gods lean from above,
  Placing in his heart the wisdom and the music that they love,

  40 lines
• Baby's Hair

  I take the letter up with anxious eyes,
  And open it with beating heart, and there,

  53 lines
• The Deil's In That Bit Bairn

  The deil's in that bit bairn o' mine, for every noo and than
  He gies me siccan frichts, that whiles for fear I scarce can stan';

  28 lines
• Christmas

  Welcome again, O Christmas!
  Though ye come with the winter wind,

  32 lines
• The Buriel Of The Old Year

  Thou midnight wind, let not a whisper wave
  The stillness all around, until we lay

  28 lines
• Kate

  On New Year's Night I met with Kate,
  The pretty hostess of our party;

  48 lines
• Schiller And Sunshine

  I lay in the quiet sunshine
  Of the summer's golden heat;

  44 lines
• The Summer Day

  \"I speak of one, from many singled out--
  One of those heavenly days that cannot die.\"--

  51 lines
• The Thrush

  Like the songs I have heard in childhood
  Comes thy voice, O thrush, to me,

  36 lines
• The Spirit Of Love

  The Spirit of Love came down upon the earth,
  He came full-breath'd and strong,

  32 lines
• Oor Johnnie

  What lauchs o'love we hae at nicht wi' Johnnie, our wee wean,
  As he wamples aff his mither's knee to row on the hearth-stane;

  44 lines
• Poetic Aspirations

  Ah me! for all my toil and search,
  And rhyming, till the muse grow surly,

  64 lines
• A Retrospective Ode

  I see yet, bright as summer beams,
  The spot where all my childhood wander'd,

  96 lines
• Sterne

  I hate your Sterne, though still at times,
  When for a lighter half-hour yearning,

  48 lines
• Oh, Glorious Time!

  Oh, glorious time! (my spirit thus must speak).
  The incensed breeze from every nook is blown,

  48 lines
• Recollections of Byron

  "\Close thy Byron; open thy Goethe.\" --Carlyle
  

  49 lines
• Life and Death

  I stood in a dream between Life and Death,
  And I whisper'd to the twain--

  52 lines
• Janet

  On what part of this rough and toiling planet
  Are you now this lonely hour--sweet Janet, say?

  64 lines
• The Paidlin' Wean

  Come in the hoose this moment, paidlin' oot there in the rain,
  An', losh me! but ae buitie on, ye limmer o' a wean;

  24 lines
• Spring

  Spring, come with all thy sweetest looks,
  With dewy violets in thy hair;

  20 lines
• O, Softly Falls The Moonlight

  O! softly falls the moonlight
  On stream, and field, and tree,

  28 lines
• O, Summer Day

  O, summer day, pour down your love,
  That I may idly lie

  28 lines
• Agnes

  In quiet moments, when my thoughts depart
  For their sweet home within the silent land,

  29 lines
• O, Glad New Year

  O, glad New Year, with what a wealth of hope
  Thou comest to the world of toiling men,

  28 lines
• Frakenstein

  In my boyhood time long years ago,
  When life was half divine,

  40 lines
• Scott

  Bow thou to Genius, and thy worship give
  To our Magician, who, with wondrous wand,

  14 lines
• The Steerin' Wee Laddie

  He winna sup his poshie, the buffy, curly loon,
  But spurs and spurtles on my knee, an' quarrels for the spoon,

  28 lines
• The Preacher

  The spirit of God fell on him, and he pass'd
  From out the common bounds wherein we move,

  48 lines
• Maggie's Wean

  I ken'd Maggie weel ere she grew to a wife,
  An' smiled in the sunshine o' a' its sweet life;

  60 lines
• To One In Eternity

  "Nicht darf ich dir zu gleichen mich vermessen."-- \Goethe\
  

  99 lines
• The First Primrose

  I stood within a wood, and heard the wind
  Keep up its music in the solemn trees,

  36 lines
• Oor Rab

  Oor Rab's in his bed, an' he's sleepin' sae soun'
  That afore he wad wauken the hoose micht fa' doon.

  64 lines
• The Bridge

  I went to-night by the wooden bridge
  That steps across the stream;

  52 lines
• The Wind Blows Soft

  The wind blows soft, and cool, and sweet,
  As it blew in my infancy;

  36 lines
• Dante

  Brightly shone the brow of Dante,
  In those years of early youth,

  28 lines
• Willie

  He's a deil o' a wean--what ava can he mean?
  Lod, he'll ow'r-gang us a' yet, an' that'll be seen;

  72 lines
• The Village Fiddler

  I see him yet, that grey old man,
  Whose fiddle made many a winter night

  48 lines
• The Poet--A Dream

  A breath went through the Universe, and shook
  All things to music, and a mighty voice

  48 lines
• The May

  "Du Wonne der Natur."--Schiller.
  O come away to the woodland bowers,

  75 lines
• Artemus Ward

  I like Artemus Ward, that quaint
  Rough, sturdy, antiquated Showman,

  48 lines
• A Legend of St. Patrick

  I heard this old legend a few days ago--
  A legend so quaint

  87 lines, 1 comment
• Hope and Sleep

  Du dieu qui nous créa la clémence infinie, Pour adoucir, &c.
  The God who made us in infinite pow'r,

  17 lines
• Blind Ella

  "O, eine edle Himmelsgabe ist
  Das licht des auges."--\Schiller\

  54 lines
• A Terpsichorean Recollection

  I took her down a country dance,
  And ever in its giddy wheeling

  48 lines
• Lame Katie

  Little lame Katie, with her golden hair,
  And her dead mother's eyes, comes in to me,

  52 lines, 1 comment
• The Falling Leaves

  Ah! why will my heart beat faint and low
  At the sound of the falling leaves?

  40 lines
• Grand Old Thomas

  I like my labour and the gods,
  And rave about them in the fashion

  56 lines
• Past Spasmodics

  A life I thought had pass'd away,
  With all its old, spasmodic thinking,

  64 lines
• The First Break

  The first break in our happy household hearth
  Was my broad manly son, and far away

  48 lines
• The Two Watchwords

  I heard an angel singing in the air,
  And looking upward in my fear and dread,

  24 lines
• Old Adam

  Old Adam breaking stones by the wayside,
  Leans on his hammer for a moment's space,

  48 lines
• The Whussle

  Plague tak' his auld grannie, wha brocht frae the toon
  That whussle, an' gie'd him't to deave us wi' soun';

  64 lines
• The Dead Mother

  The feeble infant, but an hour in life,
  Lay wailing in our arms, while on the bed

  48 lines
• The Bowl O' Senna Leaf

  O a' the ills that come to swall a wearit mither's grief,
  The warst is when her laddie winna tak' his senna leaf;

  24 lines
• Rachel

  Rachel, soft and shy and blushing, pass'd into the angel wife,
  Tears of joy within the rapture of her sweetly-drooping eyes;

  52 lines
• Anna

  I loved her when I was at school--
  So early Cupid flung his fetter;

  56 lines
• First Love

  I look back to my early life,
  When I was seventeen or so;

  48 lines, 1 comment
• Those Footsteps

  In the quiet hush of the tender night,
  When my eyes fill up with tears,

  40 lines
• Wee Tottie

  Wee tottie's the smile that lichts up oor hearthstane--
  A dumpy bit thing that can scarce gang her lane;

  28 lines
• The Child's Grave

  It was a little grave--
  So little, you could almost think the sexton

  57 lines
• Oor Sis

  Oor Sis is a mitherly sort o' a bairn,
  An unco gleg thing, an' sae easy to learn,

  56 lines
• A Spirit Is Singing A Song

  A spirit is singing a song somewhere,
  As I go out to my work--

  32 lines
• Jock Buchan

  I still min' Jock Buchan, the lang gawkie fule,
  He was nearly man muckle though still at the schule,

  72 lines
• Night In The Village

  The street to-night is empty,
  And the last slow footstep gone;

  56 lines
• The Old Ruins

  Ah, the stream by the ruin in the wood
  Has long ago run dry,

  60 lines
• Gretchen

  I sit by the narrow window,
  Ere the summer sunlight dies,

  44 lines
• On The Engine Again

  Once more on the mighty engine, boys,
  With my hand on the driver's arm,

  96 lines
• Bertha

  Bertha grew up to noble womanhood
  Full of the light of smiles, and in her eyes,

  48 lines
• The Mother

  One night, returning from my work, I saw
  A woman standing by the churchyard gate,

  42 lines
• Tasso

  All pale by the dungeon door he stands,
  His own sweet sky above,

  32 lines
• Summer Dreamings

  There seems a moving life to-day
  In everything I see,

  44 lines
• The Old Love Living Yet

  There are some things still in this life of ours
  The years weed not away,

  32 lines, 1 comment
• On The Engine In The Night-Time

  On the engine in the night-time, with the darkness all around,
  And below the iron pulses beating on with mighty sound.

  56 lines
• Books

  "The beings of the mind are not of clay;
  Essentially immortal, they create

  191 lines
• I Miss My Bonnie Bairn

  I miss my bonnie bairn,
  I miss him unco sair,

  48 lines
• Ah! The Dreams

  Ah! the dreams that I had from the poet,
  When my soul drank in his song,

  40 lines
• The Spirit of The Times

  Come, fling for a moment, my fellows,
  The pick and shovel aside,

  96 lines
• One of The Four In Song

  A down the vista of the fading years,
  With solemn step and slow,

  40 lines
• Underneath The Stars

  "L`amor che muove il Sole e l'altre stelle." --\Dante\
  I have flung away my Dante, weary with the sounding line,

  61 lines
• Give Me A Song, Thou Poet

  The heart of the toiling world
  Shook with such sudden wrong

  24 lines
• The Dead Lark

  On the slope, half-hid in grass, and right beneath the sounding wire,
  Lay the lark, the sweetest singer in the Heavenly Father's choir,

  34 lines
• The Pool

  The wind through the summer woods blows cool,
  So I walk with quiet pace,

  32 lines
• Lucy

  Lucy is but a child as yet,
  And full of mirth and glee,

  36 lines
• The Sun

  Die Sonne tönt nach alter weise.--\Goethe\
  He rises as of old, he flings

  33 lines
• The Lark

  A spirit sang from the edge of a cloud
  A wondrous melody.

  24 lines
• The Unco Bit Wean

  Her faither says aften fu' plainly to me,
  'The wean, woman, 's juist like oor neebors, we see,

  56 lines
• Jeanie

  You were dead, they said;
  In the churchyard had been laid,

  77 lines
• The Twilight Is Here

  The twilight is here, and the stars are met,
  They wander side by side,

  24 lines
• The Fisherman

  Laughing eyes look over the bridge
  And seem, as they smile, to say,

  24 lines
• The Long Deep Grass In Springing

  The long deep grass is springing by the edges of the streams,
  And the trees have found a secret that bursts out in leafy gleams;

  36 lines
• Winter Visitors

  Oh, the summer time is beautiful, with all its sunny sky,
  The soft sweet carol of the birds and streams that wander by;

  44 lines
• In Happy Grandeur Swept The Moon

  In happy grandeur swept the moon,
  Her whispers on the silent trees,

  36 lines
• The Night Is Calm

  The night is calm, and sweet, and still--
  Such nights should ever be--

  40 lines
• Ellen

  Ellen came out in the evening light
  In all her youth and love,

  20 lines
• Glory

  Glory in winning a maid in the first wild heat of our youth,
  When heaven comes down to the earth, and we walk in a Paradise;

  24 lines
• I: An Unskilled Hand Upon The Strings

  It is a shame that I should lift my voice
  In these great days of toil, and thought, and song,

  14 lines
• II: Brighter The Flowers

  Brighter the flowers still grow on him who said,
  "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever,"

  14 lines
• III: A Youth Uprising

  A youth uprising with a pale, sweet face,
  Fraught with intensest wonder, with the Muse

  14 lines
• IV: Three Spirits Linking

  *Voltaire, D'Alembert, and Diderôt.*
  

  15 lines
• V: Lochleven

  Mide lake that laps with a most liquid tongue
  The base of these worn ruins. Have ye naught

  14 lines
• VI: Wherever Genius Whispers

  Wherever genius whispers, "Here shall be
  An immortality for men and time

  14 lines
• VII: Dark Eyes Within Whose Light

  Bark eyes within whose light as by some spell
  Girlhood and maidenhood rise up to claim,

  14 lines
• VIII: A Blessing On The Tinkers

  A blessing on the tinkers, and on him
  Who was their monarch--he who laid him down

  14 lines
• IX: Dare Profane The Wreath

  Dare I profane the wreath, and with blind aim
  Snatch from the cunning gods who hold above

  14 lines
• X: I Turn'd The Page

  I turn'd the pages writ by mighty men--
  Giants who in the past had toil'd and fought,

  14 lines
• XI: To Beat At Yarrow

  To be at Yarrow--this is no high wish,
  And yet what magic wraps the name. To stand

  14 lines
• XII: To Go Down To The Grave

  To go down to the grave with many a dream
  Hid in the breast, but never clothed in words,

  14 lines
• XIII: Such Music Had The Gods

  Such music had the gods as I have now,
  When all Olympus shook, and the quick stars

  13 lines
• XIV: O, Fond Memory!

  What dreams were mine to-night, O fond romance,
  That came upon me like a summer sleep,

  14 lines
• XV: A Poet In Whose Heart

  A poet in whose heart upsprung the life
  And soul of passion, nursing with its fires

  14 lines
• XVI: I Know Not How It Is

  I know not how it is, but when I hear
  The name of Wordsworth it is as a spell

  14 lines
• XVII: Spirit That Walkest

  Spirit that walkest on these waters, now
  Unseen but ever heard, take thou the form

  14 lines
• XVIII: A Sigh For The Past

  I lay amid the wreck of a rude time,
  When men were rough as the huge beams they laid

  14 lines
• XIX: I Walk With The Stern Dante

  I walk with the stern Dante through his hell:
  On either side a wall of spirits stands,

  14 lines
• XX: It Was A Spot So Quiet

  It was a spot so quiet that the stream
  Was in itself a silence, and the wood

  14 lines

• By me, right now

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