Blooming, brooding, balmy May,
Tell me what to sing or say
To thy praise. I muse in vain-
Sonnet, song, and rhyming strain
...
Now o'er the laughing meadows,
Throned on her dewy car,
Queenly May comes with her train,
From southern climes afar,
...
'Had I a thousand mouths, a thousand tongues,
A thousand throats, inspired with brazen lungs,'
I'd rouse with thunder tones the slumbering world,
...
Lonely musing, sadly thinking,
Strength and spirits failing, sinking,
Drooping, shivering, cow'ring, shrinking,
In the wintry blast.
...
Dark and lone, at midnight sitting,
Not unthinking, not unwitting,
As I muse of my surroundings,
Sorrows deep and spirit woundings-
...
'Away from the dwellings of care-worn men
The waters are sparkling in wood and glen-
Away from the chamber and dusky hearth
...
My aul' neebour Johnnie had lang been awa',
Twa towmonds an' mair I kent naething ava
O' what he was daein', or whaur he had been,
...
The midnight hour hath chimed,
The night is wild and cold;
I see a trembling hand
Yon cottage door unfold.
...
The toils, the flames, the thunders of the siege
Are quench'd and hush'd. Night shrouds in funeral pall
...
'Angels and ministers of grace defend us,'
Not airs from Heaven, quite the reverse you send us,
Your priests who counsel war and vengeance dire,
...