Henry Alford Poems

Would it were mine amidst the changes
Through which our varied lifetime ranges,
To live on Providence's bounty
...

I have a longing to be free;
The soul that in me hides
Its mouldering fires, unwillingly
Its day of liberation bides.
...

Freed from the womb, and from the bounds
With which the stepdame infancy
Our days of pupilage surrounds,
...

There is a wood, not far from where I pass
My unrecorded hours in pleasant toil;--
Each tangle of the spreading boughs I know
...

When the thing thou lovest is not one
That thou canst beg a blessing on;
When the thing thou lovest puts a screen
...

All day long the tear is swelling,
Drops, and then anew is swelling,
Constant, in its crystal dwelling.
...

I.

Ye must not die--your cheek is red,
Ye have not lost your bloom;
...

He went into the woods a laughing boy;
Each flower was in his heart; the happy bird
Flitting across the morning sun, or heard
...

Darkly the minster--towers, against the glow of the sunset,
Rise from the purple band of mist that beleaguers the city:
...

I thought, if I could go and stand
Beside our dear one's grave in Faith,
And lift the voice, and stretch the hand,
...