SELECTED AND ARRANGED BY COVENTRY PATMORE
Reading edition
London MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1895
First Edition printed 1861 (dated 1862). Reprinted with corrections, and Index added, February 1862. Reprinted with corrections, 1863. Reprinted 1866, 1871, 1874, 1877, 1879, March and August 1882, 1884, 1891, 1892, 1895.
PREFACE
This volume will, I hope, be found to contain nearly all the genuine poetry in our language fitted to please children,—of and from the age at which they have usually learned to read,—in common with grown people. A collection on this plan has, I believe, never before been made, although the value of the principle seems clear.
The test applied, in every instance, in the work of selection, has been that of having actually pleased intelligent children; and my object has been to make a book which shall be to them no more nor less than a book of equally good poetry is to intelligent grown persons. The charm of such a book to the latter class of readers is rather increased than lessened by the surmised existence in it of an unknown amount of power, meaning and beauty, beyond that which is at once to be seen; and children will not like this volume the less because, though containing little or nothing which will not at once please and amuse them, it also contains much, the full excellence of which they may not as yet be able to understand.
The application of the practical test above mentioned has excluded nearly all verse written expressly for children, and most of the poetry written about children for grown people. Hence, the absence of several well-known pieces, which some persons who examine this volume may be surprised at not finding in it.
I have taken the liberty of omitting portions of a few poems, which would else have been too long or otherwise unsuitable for the collection; and, in a very few instances, I have ventured to substitute a word or a phrase, when that of the author has made the piece in which it occurs unfit for children's reading. The abbreviations I have been compelled to make in the "Ancient Mariner," in order to bring that poem within the limits of this collection, are so considerable as to require particular mention and apology.
No translations have been inserted but such as, by their originality of style and modification of detail, are entitled to stand as original poems.
Coventry Patmore.
INDEX OF FIRST LINES
PAGE
A barking sound the shepherd hears248
A chieftain to the Highlands bound246
A country life is sweet31
A fox, in life's extreme decay171
A fragment of a rainbow bright41
A lion cub, of sordid mind301
A Nightingale that all day long276
A parrot, from the Spanish main124
A perilous life, and sad as life may be76
A widow bird sate mourning for her love329
A wonder stranger ne'er was known165
Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase)19
Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight20
Among the dwellings framed by birds32
An ancient story I'll tell you anon159
An old song made by an aged old pate136
An outlandish knight came from the North lands221
Art thou the bird whom man loves best99
As I a fare had lately past9
As it fell upon a day169
As in the sunshine of the morn271
At dead of night, when mortals lose295
Attend all ye who list to hear our noble England's praise70
Before the stout harvesters falleth the grain115
Beside the Moldau's rushing stream96
Clear had the day been from the dawn35
Close by the threshold of a door nail'd fast303
Come dear children, let us away50
Come listen to me, you gallants so free44
Come live with me and be my Love7
Come unto these yellow sands67
Did you hear of the curate who mounted his mare304
Do you ask what the birds say? The sparrow, the dove3
Faintly as tolls the evening chime81
Fair daffodils, we weep to see207
Full fathom five thy father lies57
Gentlefolks, in my time, I've made many a rhyme149
Good-bye, good-bye to Summer106
Good people all, of every sort241
Hail, beauteous stranger of the grove43
Half a league, half a league174
Hamelin Town's in Brunswick150
Happy insect! what can be117
Her arms across her breast she laid200
Here lies, whom hound did ne'er pursue18
Ho, sailor of the sea68
How beautiful is the rain15
I am monarch of all I survey86
I come from haunts of coot and hern4
I had a dove, and the sweet dove died125
I sail'd from the Downs in the Nancy74
I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris and he38
I wander'd by the brook-side322
If all the world was apple-pie339
In ancient times, as story tells254
In distant countries have I been317
In her ear he whispers gaily119
In the hollow tree in the grey old tower107
Into the sunshine226
It chanced upon a winter's day281
It is an ancient Mariner58
It is not growing like a tree340
It was a summer evening184
It was the schooner Hesperus78
I've watch'd you now a full half-hour291
Jaffar, the Barmecide, the good Vizier96
Jenny Wren fell sick336
John Bull for pastime took a prance242
John Gilpin was a citizen138
King Lear once ruled in this land265
Lady Alice was sitting in her bower window220
Laid in my quiet bed in study as I were339
Little Ellie sits alone320
Little white Lily238
Lord Thomas he was a bold forester258
Mary-Ann was alone with her baby in arms30
My banks they are furnished with bees118
My heart leaps up when I behold341
Napoleon's banners at Boulogne178
No stir in the air, no stir in the sea23
Now ponder well, you parents dear100
Now the bright morning star, day's harbinger2
Now the hungry lion roars2
'Now, woman, why without your veil?'296
O Mary, go and call the cattle home55
O listen, listen, ladies gay82
O say what is that thing called Light126
O sing unto my roundelay239
O then, I see, Queen Mab hath been with you261
O where have ye been, Lord Randal, my son?26
O where have you been, my long, long, love273
O, young Lochinvar is come out of the west262
Oft I had heard of Lucy Gray13
Oh, hear a pensive prisoner's prayer116
Oh, to be in England88
Oh! what's the matter? what's the matter127
Old stories tell how Hercules292
On his morning rounds the master264
On the green banks of Shannon when Sheelah was nigh243
Once on a time a rustic dame147
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary191
One day, it matters not to know218
One morning (raw it was and wet)186
Open the door, some pity to show49
Our bugles sang truce, for the night-cloud had lower'd182
Piping down the valleys wild1
Proud Maisie is in the wood305
Remember us poor Mayers all233
See the Kitten on the wall8
Seven daughters had Lord Archibald197
Shepherds all, and maidens fair123
Sir John got him an ambling nag287
Some will talk of bold Robin Hood284
Spring, the sweet Spring, is the year's pleasant king223
The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold328
The boy stood on the burning deck35
The cock is crowing25
The crafty Nix, more false than fair196
The fox and the cat, as they travell'd one day251
The gorse is yellow on the heath314
The greenhouse is my summer seat244
The hollow winds begin to blow37
The Knight had ridden down from Wensley Moor108
The mountain and the squirrel122
The noon was shady, and soft airs252
The ordeal's fatal trumpet sounded215
The post-boy drove with fierce career312
The stately homes of England208
The stream was as smooth as glass, we said, 'Arise and let's away'84
The summer and autumn had been so wet133
The warm sun is failing, the bleak wind is wailing190
The Wildgrave winds his bugle horn200
There came a ghost to Margaret's door224
There came a man, making his hasty moan187
There was a jovial beggar131
There was a little boy and a little girl339
There was an old woman, as I've heard tell338
There was three kings into the East27
There were three jovial Welshmen337
There's that old hag Moll Brown, look, see, just past335
They glide upon their endless way6
They grew in beauty side by side315
Three fishers went sailing away to the west311
Three times, all in the dead of night98
Thou that hast a daughter76
Tiger, tiger, burning bright158
To grass, or leaf, or fruit, or wall302
To sea! to sea! the calm is o'er248
Toll for the brave56
Tread lightly here, for here, 'tis said254
'Twas in the prime of summer time88
'Twas on a lofty vase's side170
Under the green hedges after the snow48
Under the greenwood tree12
Underneath an old oak tree41
Up the airy mountain163
Up, Timothy, up with your staff and away324
Up! up! ye dames, ye lasses gay327
Upon a time a neighing steed216
When Arthur first in court began306
When as King Henry ruled this land228
When I remember'd again289
When I was still a boy and mother's pride127
When icicles hang by the wall22
When shall we three meet again214
When the British warrior queen180
Whither, 'midst falling dew283
Who is yonder poor maniac, whose wildly fixed eyes210
Will you hear a Spanish lady234
With farmer Allan at the farm abode329
Within a thick and spreading hawthorn bush316
Ye mariners of England176
Year after year unto her feet325
'You are old, Father William,' the young man cried173
You beauteous ladies great and small277
You spotted snakes with double tongue257
Young Henry was as brave a youth183
CONTENTS
The Child and the Piper
On May Morning
The Approach of the Fairies
Answer to a Child's Question
The Brook
Stars
The Shepherd to his Love
The Kitten and Falling Leaves
The Ferryman, Venus, and Cupid
Song
Lucy Gray, or Solitude
Rain in Summer
Epitaph on a Hare
Abou Ben Adhem and the Angel
La Belle Dame sans Mercy
Winter
The Inchcape Rock
Written in March
Lord Randal
John Barleycorn
Mary-Ann's Child
The Useful Plough
A Wren's Nest
A Fine Day
Casabianca, a True Story
Signs of Rain
How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix
The Rainbow
The Raven and the Oak
Ode to the Cuckoo
Robin Hood and Allin a Dale
Violets
The Palmer
The Forsaken Merman
The Sands o' Dee
The Loss of the Royal George
A Sea Dirge
The Ancient Mariner
Song of Ariel
How's my Boy?
The Spanish Armada
The Tar for all Weathers
The Fisherman
The Sailor
The Wreck of the Hesperus
A Canadian Boat Song
Rosabelle
The Ballad of the Boat
Verses, supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk
Home Thoughts from Abroad
The Dream of Eugene Aram
The Beleaguered City
Jaffar
Colin and Lucy
The Redbreast Chasing the Butterfly
The Children in the Wood
Robin Redbreast
The Owl
Hart Leap Well
The Summer Shower
The Mouse's Petition
The Grasshopper
The Shepherd's Home
The Lord of Burleigh
The Mountain and the Squirrel
Evening
The Parrot
Song
The Blind Boy
False Friends-like
Goody Blake and Harry Gill
The Jovial Beggar
Bishop Hatto
The Old Courtier
John Gilpin
The Milkmaid
Sir Sidney Smith
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
The Tiger
King John and the Abbot of Canterbury
The Fairies
The Suffolk Miracle
The Nightingale
On a favourite Cat drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes
The Fox at the Point of Death
The Old Man's Comforts and how he gained them
The Charge of the Light Brigade
Ye Mariners of England
Napoleon and the Sailor
Boadicea, an Ode
The Soldier's Dream
Love and Glory
After Blenheim
The Sailor's Mother
Mahmoud
Autumn, a Dirge
The Raven
The Nix
The Seven Sisters, or the Solitude of Binnorie
The Beggar Maid
The Wild Huntsman
To Daffodils
The Homes of England
Mary the Maid of the Inn
The Witches' Meeting
Adelgitha
The Council of Horses
St. Romuald
Lady Alice
The Outlandish Knight
Spring
Sweet William's Ghost
The Fountain
Fair Rosamund
The Hitchen May-Day Song
The Spanish Lady's Love
Little White Lily
Minstrel's Song in Ella
An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog
Nongtongpaw
Poor Dog Tray
The Faithful Bird
Lord Ullin's Daughter
The Sea
Fidelity
The Fox and the Cat
The Dog and the Water-Lily
An Epitaph on a Robin Redbreast
Baucis and Philemon
Lullaby for Titania
Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor
Queen Mab
Young Lochinvar
Incident Characteristic of a Favourite Dog
King Lear and his Three Daughters
The Butterfly and the Snail
The Dæmon Lover
The Nightingale and the Glow-worm
The Lady turned Serving-Man
Pairing Time Anticipated
To a Water Fowl
Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford
Sir John Suckling's Campaign
The Nun's Lament for Philip Sparrow
To a Butterfly
The Dragon of Wantley
The Ungrateful Cupid
The King of the Crocodiles
The Lion and the Cub
The Snail
The Colubriad
The Priest and the Mulberry-Tree
The Pride of Youth
Sir Lancelot du Lake
The Three Fishers
Alice Fell, or Poverty
The First Swallow
The Graves of a Household
The Thrush's Nest
The Last of the Flock
The Romance of the Swan's Nest
Song
Timothy
The Sleeping Beauty
Choral Song of Illyrian Peasants
The Destruction of Sennacherib
The Widow Bird
Dora
A Witch, Spoken by a Countryman
Nursery Rhymes
The Age of Children Happiest
The Noble Nature
The Rainbow