The Children's Garland of Verse (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 edition. Excerpt: ... king the reports came in Of his unsuccessful spies, And the sad panorama of human woes Passed daily under his eyes. And he grew ashamed of his useless life, And his maladies hatched in gloom; He opened his windows and let the air Of the free heaven into his room. And out he went in the world, and toiled In his own appointed way; And the people blessed him, the land was glad, And the king was well and gay. JoHN HAY. RAIN 147 RAIN More than the wind, more than the snow, More than the sunshine, I love rain; Whether it droppeth soft and low, Whether it rusheth amain. Dark as the night it spreadeth its wings, Slow and silently up on the hills; Then sweeps o'er the vale, like a steed that springs From the grasp of a thousand wills. Swift sweeps under heaven the raven cloud's flight; And the land and the lakes and the main Lie belted beneath with steel-bright light, The light of the swift-rushing rain. On evenings of summer, when sunlight is low, Soft the rain falls from opal-hued skies; And the flowers the most delicate summer can show Are not stirr'd by its gentle surprise. It falls on the pools, and no wrinkling it makes, But touching melts in, like the smile That sinks in the face of a dreamer, but breaks Not the calm of his dreams' happy wile. The grass rises up as it falls on the meads, The bird softlier sings in his bower, And the circles of gnats circle on like wing'd seeds Through the soft sunny lines of the shower. EBENEZER oNEs. Come, dear children, let us away; Down and away below Now my brothers call from the bay, Now the great winds shoreward blow, Now the salt tides seaward flow; Now the wild white horses play, Champ and chafe and toss in the spray. Children dear, let us away This way, this way ...