James Thomson Poems

When now no more th' alternate twins are fired,
And Cancer reddens with the solar blaze,
Short is the doubtful empire of the Night;
...

THE wine of Love is music,
   And the feast of Love is song:
And when Love sits down to the banquet,
   Love sits long:
...

Crown'd with the sickle and the wheaten sheaf,
While Autumn, nodding o'er the yellow plain,
Comes jovial on; the Doric reed once more,
...

If those who live in shepherd's bower,
Press not the rich and stately bed;
The new-mown hay and breathing flower
...

I loathe, O Lord, this life below,
And all its fading fleeting joys;
...

It was a sad, ay 'twas a sad farewell,
I still afresh the pangs of parting feel;
Against my breast my heart impatient beat,
...

MY love o'er the water bends dreaming;
   It glideth and glideth away:
She sees there her own beauty, gleaming
   Through shadow and ripple and spray.
...

*


Sweet Ravelrig, I ne'er could part
...

E. S.
Once a lively image of human nature,
Such as God made it
When he pronounced every work of his to be good.
...

When Britain first, at Heaven's command,
Arose from out the azure main;
This was the charter of the land,
And guardian angels sung this strain:
...