And not one weary,And not one spent.And lo, and behold!Past Willow-cum-LeighStretched with its watersThe great green sea.Says Farmer Bates,“I puffs and I blows,What’s under the water,Why, no man knows!”Says Farmer Giles,“My wind comes weak,And a good man drowndedIs far to seek.”But Farmer Turvey,On twirling toesUp’s with his gaiters,And in he goes:Down where the mermaidsPluck and playOn their twangling harpsIn a sea-green day;Down where the mermaids,Finned and fair,Sleek with their combsTheir yellow hair....Bates and Giles—On the shingle sat,Gazing at Turvey’sFloating hat.But never a rippleNor bubble toldWhere he was suppingOff plates of gold.Never an echoRilled through the seaOf the feasting and dancingAnd minstrelsy.They called—called—called:Came no reply:Nought but the ripples’Sandy sigh.Then glum and silentThey sat instead,Vacantly broodingOn home and bed,Till both togetherStood up and said:—“Us knows not, dreams not,Where you be,Turvey, unlessIn the deep blue sea;But excusing silver—And it comes most willing—Here’s us two payingOur forty shilling;For it’s sartin sure, Turvey,Safe and sound,You danced us square, Turvey,Off the ground!”Walter de la Mare
And not one weary,And not one spent.And lo, and behold!Past Willow-cum-LeighStretched with its watersThe great green sea.Says Farmer Bates,“I puffs and I blows,What’s under the water,Why, no man knows!”Says Farmer Giles,“My wind comes weak,And a good man drowndedIs far to seek.”But Farmer Turvey,On twirling toesUp’s with his gaiters,And in he goes:Down where the mermaidsPluck and playOn their twangling harpsIn a sea-green day;Down where the mermaids,Finned and fair,Sleek with their combsTheir yellow hair....Bates and Giles—On the shingle sat,Gazing at Turvey’sFloating hat.But never a rippleNor bubble toldWhere he was suppingOff plates of gold.Never an echoRilled through the seaOf the feasting and dancingAnd minstrelsy.They called—called—called:Came no reply:Nought but the ripples’Sandy sigh.Then glum and silentThey sat instead,Vacantly broodingOn home and bed,Till both togetherStood up and said:—“Us knows not, dreams not,Where you be,Turvey, unlessIn the deep blue sea;But excusing silver—And it comes most willing—Here’s us two payingOur forty shilling;For it’s sartin sure, Turvey,Safe and sound,You danced us square, Turvey,Off the ground!”Walter de la Mare
And not one weary,And not one spent.And lo, and behold!Past Willow-cum-LeighStretched with its watersThe great green sea.Says Farmer Bates,“I puffs and I blows,What’s under the water,Why, no man knows!”Says Farmer Giles,“My wind comes weak,And a good man drowndedIs far to seek.”But Farmer Turvey,On twirling toesUp’s with his gaiters,And in he goes:Down where the mermaidsPluck and playOn their twangling harpsIn a sea-green day;Down where the mermaids,Finned and fair,Sleek with their combsTheir yellow hair....Bates and Giles—On the shingle sat,Gazing at Turvey’sFloating hat.But never a rippleNor bubble toldWhere he was suppingOff plates of gold.Never an echoRilled through the seaOf the feasting and dancingAnd minstrelsy.They called—called—called:Came no reply:Nought but the ripples’Sandy sigh.Then glum and silentThey sat instead,Vacantly broodingOn home and bed,Till both togetherStood up and said:—“Us knows not, dreams not,Where you be,Turvey, unlessIn the deep blue sea;But excusing silver—And it comes most willing—Here’s us two payingOur forty shilling;For it’s sartin sure, Turvey,Safe and sound,You danced us square, Turvey,Off the ground!”
Walter de la Mare
Walter de la Mare
Auld Daddy Darkness creeps frae his hole,Black as a blackamoor, blin’ as a mole:Stir the fire till it lowes, let the bairnie sit,Auld Daddy Darkness is no wantit yit.See him in the corners hidin’ frae the licht,See him at the window gloomin’ at the nicht;Turn up the gas licht, close the shutters a’,An’ Auld Daddy Darkness will flee far awa’.Awa’ to hide the birdie within its cosy nest,Awa’ to lap the wee flooers on their mither’s breast,Awa’ to loosen Gaffer Toil frae his daily ca’,For Auld Daddy Darkness is kindly to a’.He comes when we’re weary to wean’s frae oor waes,He comes when the bairnies are getting aff their claes;To cover them sae cosy, an’ bring bonnie dreams,So Auld Daddy Darkness is better than he seems.Steek yer een, my wee tot, ye’ll see Daddy then;He’s in below the bed claes, to cuddle ye he’s fain;Noo nestle to his bosie, sleep and dream yer fill,Till Wee Davie Daylight comes keekin’ owre the hill.James Ferguson
Auld Daddy Darkness creeps frae his hole,Black as a blackamoor, blin’ as a mole:Stir the fire till it lowes, let the bairnie sit,Auld Daddy Darkness is no wantit yit.See him in the corners hidin’ frae the licht,See him at the window gloomin’ at the nicht;Turn up the gas licht, close the shutters a’,An’ Auld Daddy Darkness will flee far awa’.Awa’ to hide the birdie within its cosy nest,Awa’ to lap the wee flooers on their mither’s breast,Awa’ to loosen Gaffer Toil frae his daily ca’,For Auld Daddy Darkness is kindly to a’.He comes when we’re weary to wean’s frae oor waes,He comes when the bairnies are getting aff their claes;To cover them sae cosy, an’ bring bonnie dreams,So Auld Daddy Darkness is better than he seems.Steek yer een, my wee tot, ye’ll see Daddy then;He’s in below the bed claes, to cuddle ye he’s fain;Noo nestle to his bosie, sleep and dream yer fill,Till Wee Davie Daylight comes keekin’ owre the hill.James Ferguson
Auld Daddy Darkness creeps frae his hole,Black as a blackamoor, blin’ as a mole:Stir the fire till it lowes, let the bairnie sit,Auld Daddy Darkness is no wantit yit.
See him in the corners hidin’ frae the licht,See him at the window gloomin’ at the nicht;Turn up the gas licht, close the shutters a’,An’ Auld Daddy Darkness will flee far awa’.
Awa’ to hide the birdie within its cosy nest,Awa’ to lap the wee flooers on their mither’s breast,Awa’ to loosen Gaffer Toil frae his daily ca’,For Auld Daddy Darkness is kindly to a’.
He comes when we’re weary to wean’s frae oor waes,He comes when the bairnies are getting aff their claes;To cover them sae cosy, an’ bring bonnie dreams,So Auld Daddy Darkness is better than he seems.
Steek yer een, my wee tot, ye’ll see Daddy then;He’s in below the bed claes, to cuddle ye he’s fain;Noo nestle to his bosie, sleep and dream yer fill,Till Wee Davie Daylight comes keekin’ owre the hill.
James Ferguson
James Ferguson
Allingham, William(1824-1889)
The Fairies,162The Lepracaun,40
Arnold, Matthew(1822-1888)
The Forsaken Merman,152
Blake, William(1757-1827)
Nurse’s Song,158The Tiger,98
Branch, Anna Hempstead(18- )
A Song for My Mother,215
Browning, Robert(1812-1889)
The Pied Piper of Hamelin,109Song (“The Year’s at the Spring”),36
Bunyan, John(1628-1688)
The Pilgrim,76
Burns, Robert(1759-1796)
Bannockburn,138To a Mouse,159
Byron, Lord(1788-1824)
The Destruction of Sennacherib,92
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor(1772-1834)
Kubla Khan,19
Colum, Padraic(1881- )
The Terrible Robber Men,100
Conkling, Hilda(1910- )
Tree-Toad,223
Cowper, William(1731-1800)
Epitaph on a Hare,73
Cunningham, Allan(1784-1842)
A Sea Song,72
Davies, William H.(1870- )
Nature’s Friend,221
de la Mare, Walter(1873- )
Berries,24Jim Jay,197Off the Ground,249
Dickinson, Emily(1830-1886)
The Snow,214
Dobell, Sydney(1824-1874)
A Chanted Calendar,143
Emerson, Ralph Waldo(1803-1882)
Fable,140
Ferguson, James(?)
Auld Daddy Darkness,256
Frost, Robert(1875- )
Good Hours,141
Gifford, Fannie Stearns(1884- )
Moon Folly,189
Graves, Robert(1895- )
Star-Talk,193
Herrick, Robert(1591-1674)
To Violets,38
Hodgson, Ralph(about 1879- )
“Time, you Old Gipsy Man,”124
Howe, Julia Ward(1819-1910)
Battle Hymn of the Republic,133
Hunt, Leigh(1784-1859)
Jaffár,87
Jonson, Ben(1574-1637)
Hymn to Diana,59
Keats, John(1795-1821)
La Belle Dame Sans Merci,168Meg Merrilies,22
Kingsley, Charles(1819-1875)
The Sands of Dee,234
Lanier, Sidney(1842-1881)
Song of the Chattahoochee,206
Lindsay, Vachel(1879- )
The Ghosts of the Buffaloes,199
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth(1807-1882)
My Lost Youth,130The Skeleton in Armor,237
Lowell, James Russell(1819-1891)
The Fountain,217
Macaulay, Thomas Babington(1800-1859)
Ivry,94
Markham, Edwin(1852- )
A Prayer,245
Marlowe, Christopher(1562-1593)
The Shepherd to His Love,62
Masefield, John(1874- )
Sea Fever,211
Milton, John(1608-1674)
On May Morning,39
Moore, Thomas(1780-1852)
By Bendemeer’s Stream,244The Minstrel-Boy,137
Nashe, Thomas(1567-1601?)
Spring,175
Noyes, Alfred(1880- )
A Song of Sherwood,89
Poe, Edgar Allan(1809-1849)
Israfel,82
Rossetti, Christina(1830-1894)
A Christmas Carol,203
Scott, Sir Walter(1771-1832)
Gathering Song of Donald Dhu,135Hunting Song,44Young Lochinvar,246
Shakespeare, William(1564-1616)
“Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind,”108Lullaby for Titania,78“Under the Greenwood Tree”37Winter,142
Shelley, Percy Bysshe(1792-1822)
Hymn of Pan,29The Cloud,145
Stevenson, Robert Louis(1850-1894)
Escape at Bedtime,205Romance,28
Swinburne, Algernon Charles(1837-1909)
“When the Hounds of Spring,”32
Tennyson, Alfred(1809-1892)
Bugle Song,151The Lady of Shalott,46
Unknown
An Ancient Christmas Carol,225An Old Christmas Carol,226An Old Song of Fairies,186King John and the Abbot of Canterbury,228Robin Hood and the Butcher,64Sir Patrick Spens,101Sister, Awake!236The Gay Gos-Hawk,178
Whitman, Walt(1819-1892)
O Captain! My Captain!212
Wordsworth, William(1770-1850)
“I Wandered Lonely,”176The Solitary Reaper,128Written in March,31
Yeats, William Butler(1865- )
The Song of Wandering Aengus,60
A wet sheet and a flowing sea,72An ancient story I’ll tell you anon,228“Are you awake, Gemelli,193As Joseph was a-waukin’,226Auld Daddy Darkness creeps frae his hole,256Behold her, single in the field,128Blow, blow, thou winter wind,108Come, all you brave gallants, and listen a while,64Come, dear children, let us away,152Come, follow, follow me,186Come live with me and be my love,62Do diddle di do,197First came the primrose,143From the forests and highlands,29Hamelin Town’s in Brunswick,109He came all so still,225Here lies, whom hound did ne’er pursue,73I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,145I had for my winter evening walk,141I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,211I wandered lonely as a cloud,176I went out to the hazel wood,60I will go up the mountain after the Moon,189I will make you brooches and toys for your delight,28In Heaven a spirit doth dwell,82In the bleak mid-winter,203In Xanadu did Kubla Khan,19Into the sunshine,217It sifts from leaden sieves,214Jaffár, the Barmecide, the good Vizier,87Last night at black midnight I woke with a cry,199Little Cowboy, what have you heard,40Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,133My mother’s hands are cool and fair,215Now glory to the Lord of Hosts, from whom all glories are!,94Now the bright morning star, day’s harbinger,39O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,212O! I wish the sun was bright in the sky,100“O Mary, go and call the cattle home,234“O well is me, my gay gos-hawk,178O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,168O, young Lochinvar is come out of the West!,246Often I think of the beautiful town,130Old Meg she was a Gipsy,22On either side the river lie,46Out of the hills of Habersham,206Pibroch of Donuil Dhu,135Queen and Huntress, chaste and fair,59Say what you like,221Scots, wha hae wi’ Wallace bled,138Sherwood in the twilight, is Robin Hood awake?,89Sister, awake! close not your eyes!,236“Speak! speak! thou fearful guest!,237Spring, the sweet Spring, is the year’s pleasant king,175Teach me, Father, how to go,245The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,92The Cock is crowing,31The king sits in Dunfermline toun,101The lights from the parlour and kitchen shone out,205The Minstrel-boy to the war is gone,137The mountain and the squirrel,140The splendor falls on castle walls,151The year’s at the spring,36There was an old woman,24There’s a bower of roses by Bendemeer’s stream,244Three jolly Farmers,249Tiger! Tiger! burning bright,98Time, you old gipsy man,124Tree-toad is a small gray person,223Under the greenwood tree,37Up the airy mountain,162Waken, lords and ladies gay!,44Wee, sleekit, cow’rin’, tim’rous beastie,159Welcome, maids of honor,38When icicles hang by the wall,142When the hounds of spring are on winter’s traces,32When the voices of children are heard on the green,158Who would true valor see,76You spotted snakes with double tongue,78