Henry Alford

NOT fond displays of cost, nor pampered train
Of idle menials, me so much delight,
Nor mirrored halls, nor roofs with gilding bright,
Nor all the foolery of the rich and vain,…

There is a wood, not far from where I pass
My unrecorded hours in pleasant toil;--
Each tangle of the spreading boughs I know
And where each bird doth nestle; every poc…

EREWHILE I saw ye faintly through far haze
Spread many miles above the fields of sea;
Now ye rise glorious, and my steps are free
To wander through your valleys’ beaten ways,…

Hathern, LeicestershireTHE SIMPLE folk once used to throng
These mouldering steps beneath,
And every child that passed along
Its soft petitions breathe,…

THIS day without its record may not pass,
In which I first have seen the lowly roof
That shelters Wordsworth’s age. A love intense,
Born of the power that charmed me in his song,…

AT length here stand we, wrapt as in the cloud
In which light dwelt before the sun was born,
When the great fiat issued, in the morn
Of this fair world; alone and in a shroud…

I had the sweetest dream but yesternight
About the lady of my love:
I saw her sitting in a faint green light
With twisted boughs above.Her russet hair flowed moistly down her neck…

My own dear country--thy remembrance comes
Like softly--flowing music on my heart;
With thy green sunny hills, and happy homes,
And cots rose--bowered, bosomed in dells apart;…

Thou child of Man, fall down
With contrite heart and low;
Inheritor by fleshly birth
Of exile, death, and woe.Thou child of Man, rejoice!…

GLORY on glory greets our wondering sight
As we wind down these slopes; mountain and plain
Robed in rich sunshine, and the distant main
Lacing the sky with silver; and yon height,…

Written at Worthy Farm, near Porlock, SomersetTHIS side the brow of yon sea-bounding hill
There is an alley overarched with green,
Where thick-grown briers entwine themselves at will;
There, twinkling through the under-flowers, is seen…

WELCOME, stern Winter, though thy brows are bound
With no fresh flowers, and ditties none thou hast
But the wild music of the sweeping blast;
Welcome this chilly wind that snatches round…

WE stood upon the tomb of him whose praise
Time, nor oblivious thrift, nor envy chill,
Nor war, nor ocean with her severing space,
Shall hinder from the peopled world to fill;…

ONCE more I stray among this wilderness
Of ancient trees, and through the rustling fern,
Golden and sere, brush forward; at each turn
Meeting fresh avenues in winter dress…

I WAS a young fair tree:
Each spring with quivering green
My boughs were clad; and far
Down the deep vale a light…

ON thy green marge, thou vale of Avalon,
Not for that thou art crowned with ancient towers
And shafts and clustered pillars many an one,
Love I to dream away the sunny hours;…

(Recollection of Homer)EVEN thus, methinks, in some Ionian isle,
Yielding his soul to unrecorded joy,
Beside a fall like this, lingered awhile
On briery banks that wondrous minstrel-boy;…

HOW bare and bright thou sinkest to thy rest
Over the burnished line of the Severn sea!
While somewhat of thy power thou buriest
In ruddy mists, that we may look on thee.…

HOW soothing is that sound of far-off wheels
Under the golden sheen of the harvest-moon!
In the shade-checkered road it half reveals
A homeward-wending group, with hearts in tune…

I named thee once the silver thread,
When in the burning summer day
I stept across thy stony bed
Upon my homeward way.For down an old rock's mossy steep…

If, gentle stream, by promised sacrifice
Of kid or yearling, or by scattered flowers
Of votive roses culled from thy thick bowers,
Or golden cistus we could thee entice…

I.DEAR streamlet, tripping down thy devious course,
Or lulled in smoothest pools of sombre hue,
Or breaking over stones with murmurs hoarse,
To thee one grateful strain is surely due…