Three from Feldman & Robinson II

Poems from A Century of Sonnets: The Romantic-Era Revival.

"Give Me a Cottage on Some Cambrian Wild"

Give me a cottage on some Cambrian wild,
   Where, far from cities, I may spend my days:
And, by the beauties of the scene beguiled,
   May pity man's pursuits, and shun his ways.
While on the rock I mark the browsing goat,
   List to the mountain torrent's distant noise,
Or the hoarse bittern's solitary note,
   I shall not want the world's delusive joys;
But, with my little scrip, my book, my lyre,
   Shall think my lot complete, nor covet more;
And when, with time, shall wane the vital fire,
   I'll raise my pillow on the desert shore,
And lay me down to rest where the wild wave
Shall make sweet music o'er my lonely grave.

Henry Kirke White (1785-1806)

The Village Maid

Marked you, by yon thatched farm that skirts the down—
   Though, but for neatness, could she draw your eye—
A maid, in apron white, and russet gown,
   Who drove her kine, and passed, low courts'ying, by?
   She, in whose grange her cares and pleasures lie;
Whose wishes never, in their loftiest flights,
   Beyond the confines of her station fly;
She, in whose taste the wake or feast unites,
   Of mortal gladness, the supreme delights—
Who all of fame concenters, in the boast
That hers, of dairies, is esteemed the most;
   She, of her sex, my envy most excites.
I would, like hers, my soaring spirit found
Its limits in my station's narrow round.

Mary F. Johnson (d. 1863)

Rural Scenes

I never saw a man in all my days—
   One whom the calm of quietness pervades—
Who gave not woods and fields his hearty praise,
   And felt a happiness in summer shades.
There I meet common thoughts, that all may read
   Who love the quiet fields:—I note them well,
Because they give me joy as I proceed,
   And joy renewed, when I their beauties tell
In simple verse, and unambitious songs,
   That in some mossy cottage haply may
Be read, and win the praise of humble tongues
   In the green shadows of some after-day.
For rural fame may likeliest rapture yield
To hearts, whose songs are gathered from the field.

John Clare (1793-1864)

A Century of Sonnets (1999), ed. Paula R. Feldman & Daniel Robinson, ## 196, 272, 350; pp. 108f, 139, 173.

See also Three from Feldman & Robinson: Poems from A Century of Sonnets: The Romantic-Era Revival.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sun. 09/21/03 09:32:14 AM
Categorized as Literary & Sunday Poetry Series.