Charles Mackay Poems

A mighty tempest rent the sky,
As if a god were passing by.
Bending to earth my humbled head,
In solemn and religious dread,
And kneeling on the sod,
...

A voice of wailing and of woe
Fills the proud monarch's regal hall,
There's madness on the kingly brow,
There's frenzy in the soul of Saul.
...

O! for the shade of the sycamore,
That spreadeth its boughs at my cottage door!
O! for the kiss of my bonnie bride,
And the welcome glow of her warm fireside;
And O! for the smile of my bonnie boy,
...

Earth heard the loud, the solemn sound,
And started from her utmost bound,
And Darkness, on his ebon car,
Spread his black wings, and fled afar;
The dun clouds opened with affright,
...

Far from bustle, strife, and care,
'Mong the woods I've wooed her.
And to her secluded nook,
By the margin of a brook,
...

A traveller on a dusty road
Strewed acorns on the lea;
And one took root and sprouted up,
And grew into a tree.
...

Alder tree, O alder tree,
Over his grave reclining;
I've braided a wreath of the fairest flowers
That ever were fed by the spring-time showers.
Or nursed by the summer shining.
...

The loud blast leaps from wave to wave,
Around our heads the thunders rave,
And dark, dark is the midnight sky,
Save when the lightning flashes high.
...

Come, soul-inspiring Mirth,
I'll twine a wreath for thee,
With flowers of spring-time birth,
Born amid Nature's glee:
Born when the cuckoo sung
...

Tis sweet to roam alone
In some sequestered wood,
When slumbering Echo hears no sound
When Night and Silence spread around
A holy solitude;
When through the vales,
...