A CAMP

HE bed was made, the room was fit,

The air was still, the water ran,
No need was there for maid or man,
When we put up, my ass and I,
At God's green caravanserai.

Robert Louis Stevenson

THE FAIRIES

F ye will with Mab find grace,
Set each platter in his place;

Rake the fire up, and get

Water in, ere sun be set.

Wash your pails and cleanse your dairies,
Sluts are loathsome to the fairies;

Sweep your house; Who doth not so,

Mab will pinch her by the toe.

Robert Herrick

TO PHILLIS, TO LOVE AND LIVE WITH HIM

LIVE live with me, and thou shalt see

The pleasures I'll prepare for thee:

What sweets the country can afford
Shall bless thy bed, and bless thy board.
The soft sweet moss shall be thy bed,
With crawling woodbine over-spread:
By which the silver-shedding streams
Shall gently melt thee into dreams.

Thy feasting-table shall be hills
With daisies spread, and daffodils;

Where thou shalt sit, and Red-breast by,
For meat, shall give thee melody.

Robert Herrick

THE HOUSE OF THE TREES

OP

PE your doors and take me in,
Spirit of the wood,

Wash me clean of dust and din,
Clothe me in your mood.

Take me from the noisy light
To the sunless peace,
Where at mid-day standeth Night
Signing Toil's release.

All your dusky twilight stores

To my senses give;

Take me in and lock the doors,
Show me how to live.

Lift your leafy roof for me,
Part your yielding walls:
Let me wander lingeringly
Through your scented halls.

Ope your doors and take me in,
Spirit of the wood;

Take me- make me next of kin

To your leafy brood.

Ethelwyn Wetherald

CRYSTAL WATER

RYSTAL water every day

CRYS

I may drink upon my way,
Fresh as dews of star-eyed Spring,
Cool as airs the light winds bring-
Child of Dust though I may be,
Here is joy, is meant for me.

Every night the arms of sleep
Take me to a refuge deep,
Some far off and silent place
In the utmost caves of space –
Child of Dust though I may be,
Here is joy, is meant for me.

Edith Wyatt

66

SOME UNSUSPECTED ISLE
FROM The Euganean Hills

OR me, and those I love,

FOR

May a windless bower be built,
Far from passion, pain, and guilt,
In a dell, 'mid lawny hills,
Which the wild sea-murmur fills,
And soft sunshine, and the sound
Of old forests echoing round,
And the light and smell divine

Of all flowers that breathe and shine:

We may live so happy there,

That the spirits of the air,
Envying us, may even entice
To our healing paradise
The polluting multitude;

But their rage would be subdued
By that clime divine and calm,

And the wind whose wings rain balm
On the uplifted soul, and leaves
Under which the bright sea heaves;
While each breathless interval
In their whisperings musical
The inspired soul supplies
With its own deep melodies,
And the love which heals all strife
Circling, like the breath of life,
All things in that sweet abode
With its own mild brotherhood:
They, not it, would change; and soon
Every sprite beneath the moon
Would repent its envy vain,
And the earth grow young again.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

B

EINKEHR

OEI einem Wirthe wundermild

Da war ich jüngst zu Gaste; Ein goldner Apfel war sein Schild An einem langen Aste.

Es war der gute Apfelbaum,

Bei dem ich eingekehret;

Mit süsser Kost und frischem Schaum

Hat er mich wohlgenähret.

Es kamen in sein grünes Haus

Viel leicht beschwingte Gäste;
Sie sprangen frei und hielten Schmaus
Und sangen auf das Beste.

Ich fand ein Bett zu süsser Ruh
Auf weichen grünen Matten;

Der Wirth, der deckte selbst mich zu
Mit seinem kühlen Schatten.

Nun fragt' ich nach der Schuldigkeit, Da schüttelt' er den Wipfel.

Gesegnet sei er alle Zeit

Von der Wurzel bis zum Gipfel.

Ludwig Uhland

W

DIE NACHT

IE schön, hier zu verträumen
Die Nacht im stillen Wald,

Wenn in den dunklen Bäumen
Das alte Märchen hallt.

Die Berg' im Mondesschimmer
Wie in Gedanken stehn,
Und durch verworrne Trümmer
Die Quellen klagend gehn.

Denn müd' ging auf den Matten
Die Schönheit nun zur Ruh',

Es deckt mit kühlen Schatten
Die Nacht das Liebchen zu.

Das ist das irre Klagen
In stiller Waldespracht,
Die Nachtigallen schlagen
Von ihr die ganze Nacht.