A SONG OF THE COUNTRY
by: John Stuart Blackie
(1809-1895)
- WAY from the roar and the rattle,
- The dust and the din of the town,
- Where to live is to brawl and to battle,
- Till the strong treads the weak man down!
- Away to the bonnie green hills
- Where the sunshine sleeps on the brae,
- And the heart of the greenwood thrills
- To the hymn of the bird on the spray.
- Away from the smoke and the smother,
- The veil of the dun and the brown,
- The push and the plash and the pother,
- The wear and the waste of the town!
- Away where the sky shines clear,
- And the light breeze wanders at will,
- And the dark pine-wood nods near
- To the light-plumed birch on the hill.
- Away from the whirling and wheeling,
- And steaming above and below,
- Where the heart has no leisure for feeling,
- And the thought has no quiet to grow.
- Away where the clear brook purls,
- And the hyacinth droops in the shade,
- And the wing of the fern uncoils
- Its grace in the depth of the glade.
- Away to the cottage so sweetly
- Embowered 'neath the fringe of the wood,
- Where the wife of my bosom shall meet me
- With thoughts ever kindly and good.
- More dear than the wealth of the world,
- Fond mother with bairnies three,
- And the plum-armed babe that has curled
- Its lips sweetly pouting for me.
- Then away from the war and the rattle
- The dust and the din of the town,
- Where to live is to brawl and to battle
- Till the strong treads the weak man down.
- Away where the green twigs nod
- In the fragrant breath of the May,
- And the sweet growth spreads on the sod,
- And the blithe birds sing on the spray.
"A Song of the Country" is reprinted from The Selected Poems of John Stuart Blackie. Ed. Archibald Stodart Walker. London: John Macqueen, 1896. |
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