Select Poetry for Young Folks, * 1 * THE PIPER. PIPING1 down the valleys wild, And he, laughing, said to me, "Pipe a song about a lamb: " So I piped with merry cheer. "Piper, pipe that song again: So I piped; he wept to hear. "Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe, While he wept with joy to hear. "Piper, sit thee down and write In a book, that all may read:" And I plucked a hollow reed,2 1 piping, playing on a musical pipe, — a kind of flute. 3 1 And I made a rural 1 pen, * 2 * W. BLAKE ANSWER TO A CHILD'S QUESTION. Do you ask what the birds say? The sparrow, the dove, The linnet, and thrush say, "I love and I love!" In the winter they're silent, the wind is so strong; What it says I don't know, but it sings a loud song. But green leaves and blossoms, and sunny warm weather, And singing and loving, all come back together; Then the lark is so brimful of gladness and love, The green fields below him, the blue sky above, That he sings, and he sings, and forever sings he, "I love my Love, and my Love loves me." * 3 * THE BLUEBIRD. S. T. COLERIDGE. I KNOW the song that the bluebird is singing, 1 rural, simple, rude. 2 stained, colored or made inky. Hark! how the music leaps out from his throat! Hark! was there ever so merry a note? Listen awhile, and you'll hear what he's saying, Up in the apple-tree, swinging and swaying: "Dear little blossoms, down under the snow, "Little white snowdrop, I pray you arise; EMILY HUNTINGTON MILLER. * 4 * THE DAISY. BEFORE the stars are in the sky, The daisy goes to rest, And so it sleeps in dewy night Then, with the songs of early birds, And children, when they go to bed, Then they may sleep secure and still And with the pretty daisy wake * 5 * WINTER JEWELS. A MILLION little diamonds Twinkled on the trees; "A jewel, if you please!" But, while they held their hands outstretched *6* LADY-BIRD, LADY-BIRD. LADY-BIRD, 2 lady-bird, fly away home! 1 darksome, dark, gloomy. 2 lady-bird, a small spotted beetle. The daisies have shut up their little bright eyes, And the bees and the birds are at rest. Lady-bird, lady-bird, fly away home! The glowworm is lighting her lamp; The dew's falling fast, and your fine speckled wings Will be wet with the close-clinging damp. Lady-bird, lady-bird, fly away home! The fairy bells tinkle afar; Make haste, or they'll catch you, and harness you fast, With a cobweb, to Oberon's 1 car. CAROLINE BOWLES SOUTHEY. * 7 * A LAUGHING SONG. WHEN the green woods laugh with the voice of joy, And the dimpling stream runs laughing by; When the meadows laugh with lively green, With their sweet round mouths, sing "Ha, ha, he!" 1 Ob'eron, the imaginary king of the fairies. |