The matted shades

Oh I do love to force a way
Through woods where lone the woodman goes
Through all the matted shades to stray
The brambles tearing at my clothes
& it may tear I love the noise
& hug the solitary joys

The woodman he from top to toe

In leathern doublet brushes on

He cares not where his rambles go

Thorns briers he beats them every one

Their utmost spite his armour foils

Unhurt he dares his daily toils

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Silent birds

Why are ye silent Birds
Where do ye fly
Winters not violent
With such a Spring sky
The wheatlands are green snow & frost are away
Birds why are ye silent on such a sweet day?

By the slated pig-stye
The redbreast scarce whispers
Where last Autumns leaves lie
The hedge sparrow just lispers
& why are the chaffinch & bullfinch so still
While the sulphur primroses bedeck the wood hill?

The bright yellow-hammers
Are strutting about
All still & none stammers
A single note out
From the hedge starts the blackbird at brook side to drink
I thought hed have whistled but he only said "prink”

The tree-creeper hustles
Up firs rusty bark
All silent he bustles
We neednt say hark
Theres no song in the forest in field or in wood
Yet the sun gilds the grass as though come in for good

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Those distant hills

What is there in those distant hills 

My fancy longs to see
That many a mood of joy instils
Say what can fancy be? 

Do old oaks thicken all the woods
With weeds & brakes as here
Does common water make the floods
That's common everywhere? 

Is grass the green that clothes the ground
Are springs the common springs
Daisies & cowslips dropping round
Are such the flowers she brings? 

Their brooms are they [the] yellow broom
Their briers the smelling brier? 
Questions from fancy seldom come 
But such are everywhere

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In safe assurance

This scene how beautious to the musing mind 
That now swift slides from my enchanted view 

The sun sweet setting yon far hills behind 
In other worlds his visits to renew 
What spangling glories all around him shine 
What nameless colours cloudless & serene 
Rich heavenly colours brightest in decline 
Atend his exit from this lovley scene 
So sets the Christians sun in glories clear 
So shines his soul at his departure here 
No clouding doubts nor misty fears arise 
To dim hopes golden rays of being forgiven 
His sun sweet setting in the clearest skies 
In safe assurance wings the soul to heaven

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Two short years

  

  O once I loved a pretty girl, and dearly love her still;

  I courted her in happiness for two short years or more.

  And when I think of Mary it turns my bosom chill,

  For my little of life's happiness is faded and is o'er.

  O fair was Mary Littlechild, and happy as the bee,

  And sweet was bonny Mary as the song of forest bird;

  And the smile upon her red lips was very dear to me,

  And her tale of love the sweetest that my ear has ever heard

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All to brown

I love to seek the brakes & fern

& rabbits up and down 
& then the pleasant autumn comes
& turns them all to brown

To common eyes they only seem 
A desert waste & drear

To taste & love they always shine
A garden through the year

Lord keep my love for quiet joys
O keep me to thy will
I know thy works & always find 
Thy mercies kinder still

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The Tramp

He eats (a moments stoppage to his song) 
The stolen turnip as he goes along
& hops along & heeds with careless eye 
The passing crowded stage coach reeling bye
He talks to none but wends his silent way
& finds a hovel at the close of day
Or under any hedge his house is made
He has no calling & he owns no trade
An old smoaked blanket arches oer his head
A whisp of straw or stubble makes his bed
He knows a lawless law that claims no kin 
But meet & plunder on & feel no sin— 
No matter where they go or where they dwell 
They dally with the winds & laugh at hell

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