Strathearn Lyrics; And Other Poems (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1889 Excerpt: ...wedded ere he died. John long had loved the gentle Lucy Grey With the sordid passion of a servile mind, And sought to stem the current of her will; But her young heart had fled its parent home, And found a refuge in another's breast. One lovely day in flowery summer's reign, Fair Lucy bent her footsteps to the fields To gather flowers scarce, fairer than herself; To grace the table in her castle home.. While thus she strayed across the flowery mead, A bull half maddened by the stinging gnats, With lowering front, and heavy bellowing roar, Bore down upon her. Noticing her plight, An artist who was sketching near at hand Threw art aside and hastened to her aid. He drew the brute's attention to himself, And saved her life at peril of his own. And thus they met, two hearts whose mutual love Beamed eloquent from their tale-telling eyes. They met again, and yet again they met, For who can still the plunging of the heart, Or check the speed of fancy's airy flight? 94 LUCY GREY. As stars to night, so love to mortals is, And shines more radiant in life's darkest hour. Love is the sweetest flower on all the earth, And blooms perennial on a chequered waste; The storms of fate may bow it to the earth, But cannot blast its constancy of bloom. So Lucy felt her life filled up at last, And seemed to live for happy love alone; And Philip Brooks, to him a new life dawned Of sunny splendour peopled with delight. Before that heavenly ray had crossed his path, His art was all the mistress ere he knew. The ideal beauties which his pencil drew Had charmed the world's all-criticising eye; Yet their completeness never could approach The angel-sweetness of his Lucy's face. Entranced beside the river's eddying flow, In the broken shadow of a chestnut tree Sat Lucy Grey. A robin perch...