THE DEATH OF THE OLD YEAR. 47 He was full of joke and jest, But all his merry quips are o'er. To see him die, across the waste His son and heir doth ride post-haste, Every one for his own. The night is starry and cold, my friend, How hard he breathes! over the snow The cricket chirps: the light burns low: Shake hands before you die. Old year, we 'll dearly rue for you: you? His face is growing sharp and thin. Close up his eyes: tie up his chin: Step from the corpse, and let him in And waiteth at the door. There's a new foot on the floor, my friend, H OME they brought her warrior dead: She nor swooned nor uttered cry: All her maidens, watching, said, "She must weep or she will die." Then they praised him, soft and low, Yet she neither spoke nor moved. Stole a maiden from her place, Yet she neither moved nor wept. OUR ENEMIES HAVE FALLEN. Rose a nurse of ninety years, Set his child upon her knee, Like summer tempest came her tears, Ο OUR ENEMIES HAVE FALLEN. UR enemies have fallen, have fallen: the seed, The little seed they laughed at in the dark, Has risen and cleft the soil, and grown a bulk Of spanless girth, that lays on every side A thousand arms and rushes to the Sun. Our enemies have fallen, have fallen: they came; And would have strown it, and are fallen themselves. Our enemies have fallen, have fallen: they came, But we will make it fagots for the hearth, Our enemies have fallen, have fallen: they struck; With their own blows they hurt themselves, nor knew There dwelt an iron nature in the grain: The glittering axe was broken in their arms, Their arms were shattered to the shoulder-blade. 49 Our enemies have fallen, but this shall grow The tops shall strike from star to star, the fangs THE MAY QUEEN. I. ́OU must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear; To-morrow 'ill be the happiest time of all the glad Newyear; Of all the glad New-year, mother, the maddest, merriest day; For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May. II. There's many a black, black eye, they say, but none so bright as mine; There's Margaret and Mary, there's Kate and Caroline. But none so fair as little Alice in all the land, they say: So I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May. III. I sleep so sound all night, mother, that I shall never wake, the May. THE MAY QUEEN. IV. 51 As I came up the valley, whom think ye should I see, He thought of that sharp look, mother, I gave him yesterday, But I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May. V. He thought I was a ghost, mother, for I was all in white, VI. They say he's dying all for love, but that can never be : They say his heart is breaking, mother, — what is that to me? There's many a bolder lad 'ill woo me any summer day, And I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May. VII. Little Effie shall go with me to-morrow to the green, And you'll be there, too, mother, to see me made the Queen : VIII. The honeysuckle round the porch has woven its wavy bowers, And by the meadow-trenches blow the faint sweet cuckoo-flowers; And the wild marsh-marigold shines like fire in swamps and hollows gray, And I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May. |