Needy Labour

Toiling in the naked fields
Where no bush a shelter yields
Needy Labour dithering stands
Beats & blows his numbing hands
& upon the crumping snows
Stamps in vain to warm his toes
Leaves are fled that once had power
To resist a summer shower

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Dazzling light

I love the snow, the crumpling snow
That hangs on everything,
It covers everything below
Like white dove's brooding wing,
A landscape to the aching sight,
A vast expanse of dazzling light

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Morning invites

The morning invites us to walk come along 

Tis so sweet that the sparrow een tries at a song 

The dews are all gone save amid the dark glooms 

Neath the woods crowded leaves were the sun never comes 

Nor need we regret that the dews linger there 

For brambles defye us to come if we dare

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The wild swan hurries

The crowds of starnels whizz & hurry by

& darken like a cloud the evening sky

The larks like thunder rise & suther round

Then drop & nestle in the stubble ground

The wild swan hurries high & noises loud

With white necks peering to the evening cloud

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Image by my friend #JohnAbbott

Despoild & bare

Hail scenes of Desolation & despair

Keen Winters over bearing sport & scorn

Torn by his Rage in ruins as you are

To me more pleasing then a summers morn

Your shatterd scenes appear—despoild & bare

Stript of your clothing naked & forlorn

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Image by my friend #KathrynParsons

Blowing his fingers

& foddering boys sojourn again
By ryhme hung hedge & frozen plain
Shuffling thro the sinking snows
Blowing his fingers as he goes
To where the stock in bellowings hoarse
Call for their meals in dreary close
& print full many a hungry track
Round circling hedge that guards the stack

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Jostling reeds

The slender rush in idle motion bows

With meek obedience to the floods below

Were jostling reeds & willows dangling boughs

Impede their gurgling progress as they flow

On the thorn bush that overhangs the streams

The morehen slumbers in her nest of sedge

While the shrill dormouse in its summer dreams

Chitters unceasing from the waters edge

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Image by my friend #AnnieLee

Wealth far richer

Then village childern seeking after toys

Their clownish hearts & ever heedless eyes

Find  nought in nature they as wealth can prize

With them self interest & the thoughts of gain

Are natures beautys all beside are vain

But he the man of science & of taste

Sees wealth far richer in the worthless waste

Where bits of lichen & a sprig of moss

Will all the raptures of his mind engross

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Mistletoe

Amidst the wreck of perishable leaves

How box or holly garden walks relieves

How fresh & fine appears the evergreen

How bright the ivy round the oak is seen

& on old thorns the long leaved mistletoe

While dark spurge laurel on the banks below

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Bird of the morn

Bird of the morn

When roseate clouds begin
To show the opening dawn
Thou gladly sing'st it in
& o'er the sweet green fields & happy vales
Thy pleasant song is heard mixed with the morning gales

Bird of the morn
What time the ruddy sun
Smiles on the pleasant corn
Thy singing is begun
Heartfelt & cheering over labourers toil
Who chop in coppice wild & delve the russet soil

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Spirit of the woods

Spirit of the woods awake

In thy wildest dress appear
Trace with me the curdled brake
Sound thy wildness in my ear
Genius of the woods that dwells
Sweeping boughs & grains among
As I climb thy rough rude dells
Breath thy roughness in my song

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O Native Scenes

O Native Scenes for ever dear
So blest so happy as I here have been
So charmd with nature in each varied scene
To leave you all is cutting and severe.
Ye hawthorn bushes that from winds would screen
Where oft Ive shelterd from a threatend shower
In youths past bliss in childhoods happy hour
Ye woods Ive wandered seeking out the nest
Ye meadows gay that rear'd rae many a flower
Where pulling cowslips Ive been doubly blest

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Image by my friend #CarryAkroyd

Love is …

Love is the beating heart
That ever hidden secret of the soul
Of faith & life a living part
That animates the whole
Tis in the bright eyes hidden
On beating bosoms seen
No where on earth forbidden
& woman is its queen

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Annual cheer

Neighbours resume their annual cheer
Wishing with smiles & spirits high
Glad Christmas & a happy year
To every morning passer-by
Milkmaids their Christmas journeys go
Accompanied with favourd swain
& children pace the crumping snow
To taste their grannys cake again

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Upon the fire

The block upon the fire is put
To sanction customs old desires
& many a faggots bands are cut
For the old farmers Christmas fires
Where loud-tongued Gladness joins the throng
& Winter meets the warmth of May
Till feeling soon the heat too strong
He rubs his shins & draws away

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Christmas box

& oft for pence & spicy ale
With winter nosegays pinnd before
The wassail-singer tells her tale
& drawls her Christmas carols oer
While prentice boy with ruddy face
& rime-bepowderd dancing locks
From door to door with happy pace
Runs round to claim his ‘Christmas box’

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A merry throng

The singing waits a merry throng
At early morn with simple skill
Yet imitate the angels song,
& chant their Christmas ditty still
& mid the storm that dies & swells
By fits in hummings softly steals
The music of the village bells
Ringing round their merry peals

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Glad Christmass comes

Glad Christmas comes & every hearth
Makes room to give him welcome now
E'en want will dry its tears in mirth
& crown him with a holly bough
Though tramping 'neath a winter sky
O'er snowy paths & rimy stiles
The housewife sets her spinning by
To bid him welcome with her smiles

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The birch tree there

White thorn wild cherry & the poplar bare

The sycamore all withered in the sun

No leaves are now upon the birch tree there

All now is stript to the cold wintry air

See not one tree but what has lost its leaves

& yet the landscape wears a pleasing hue

The winter chill on his cold bed receives

Foliage which once hung oer the waters blue

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Muse in silence

When summer ceases to be green
& winter bare & blea—
Death may forget what I have been
But I must cease to be

When words refuse before the crowd
My Marys name to give
The muse in silence sings aloud
& there my love will live

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Image by my friend #CarryAkroyd