POE M S. D E TO THE CUCKOO, H AIL, beauteous Stranger of the grove! Thou Meffenger of Spring! Now Heaven repairs thy rural feat, And woods thy welcome fing. What time the daify decks the green, Thy certain voice we hear; Hast thou a star to guide thy path, Or mark the rolling year? : Delightful Visitant! with thee I hail the time of flowers, And hear the found of music sweet From birds among the bowers. The school-boy, wandering thro' the wood To pull the primrose gay, Starts, the new voice of Spring to hear, What time the pea puts on the bloom An annual guest in other lands, Sweet Bird! thy bower is ever green, Thou hast no forrow in thy fong, No winter in thy year! O could could I fly, I'd fly with thee! We'd make, with joyful wing, Our annual visit o'er the globe, Companions of the Spring. 1 B2 S 0 N G, THE BRAES OF YARROW. "T HY braes were bonny, Yarrow stream! " When first on them I met my lover; Thy braes how dreary, Yarrow stream! "When now thy waves his body cover! "For ever now, O Yarrow stream! "Thou art to me a stream of forrow; " For never on thy banks shall I "Behold my love, the flower of Yarrow, " He promised me a milk-white steed, "To bear me to his father's bowers; "He promised me a little page, "To 'squire me to his father's towers; "He ** He promised me a wedding-ring, "The wedding-day was fix'd to-morrow; " Now he is wedded to his grave, "Alas, his watery grave, in Yarrow! " Sweet were his words when last we met; 66 66 My passion I as freely told him! Glasp'd in his arms, I little thought "That I should never more behold him! " Scarce was he gone, I saw his ghost; "It vanish'd with a shriek of forrow; "Thrice did the water-wraith ascend, " And gave a doleful groan thro' Yarrow. "His mother from the window look'd, "With all the longing of a mother; "His little sister weeping walk'd "The green-wood path to meet her brother: |