A ruin of the past


Summers pleasures they are gone like to visions every one

& the cloudy days of autumn & of winter cometh on
I tried to call them back but unbidden they are gone
Far away from heart & eye & forever far away
Dear heart & can it be that such raptures meet decay
I thought them all eternal when by Langley Bush I lay
I thought them joys eternal when I used to shout & play
On its bank at "clink and bandy” "chock" & "taw" & "ducking stone”
Where silence sitteth now on the wild heath as her own
Like a ruin of the past all alone
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No words dare tell


Along the road were coupld maid & swain

& dick from dolly now for gifts did sue
Hed gen her ribbons & he deemd again
Some kind return as nothing but his due
& he told things as ploughmen rarely knew
Bout breaking hearts & pains—a mighty spell
Her sunday clo'hs might damage wi the dew
She quite forgot them while he talkd so well
She gave the contest up at last to what no words dare tell


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Life?


A shadow moving by ones side
That would a substance seem
That is yet is not - though descried
Like skies beneath the stream
A tree thats  ever in the bloom
Whose fruit is never rife
A wish for joys that never come
Such are the hope of Life
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