blue,
Three cheers for the red, white, and blue,
Three cheers for the red, white, and blue,
The army and navy forever,
Three cheers for the red, white, and blue. 20
ROBERT HERRICK
ENGLAND, 1591-1674
Corinna going a-Maying
Get up, get up, for shame the blooming morn
Upon her wings presents the gods unshorn.
See how Aurora throws her fair,
Fresh-quilted colors through the air;
Get up, sweet slug-a-bed, and see 5
The dew-bespangled herb and tree.
Each flower has wept, and bowed toward the East
Above an hour since, yet you are not drest,
Nay not so much as out of bed,
When all the birds have matins said, 10
And sung their thankful hymns; 'tis sin,
Nay, profanation to keep in,
When as a thousand virgins on this day
Spring sooner than the lark to fetch in May.
Come, my Corinna, come, and coming, mark
How each field turns a street--each street a park,
Made green and trimmed with trees! see how
Devotion gives each house a bough,
Or branch! each porch, each door, ere this 5
An ark, a tabernacle is,
Made up of whitethorn neatly interwove,
As if he were those cooler shades of love.
Can such delights be in the street
And open fields, and we not see't? 10
Come we'll abroad, and let's obey
The proclamation made for May.
And sin no more, as we have done, by staying,
But, my Corinna! come, let's go a-Maying.
JOHN KEATS
ENGLAND, 1795-1821
Sweet Peas
Here are sweet peas, on tiptoe for a flight:
With wings of gentle flush o'er delicate white,
And taper fingers catching at all things,
To bind them all about with tiny rings.
Linger awhile upon some bending planks 5
That lean against a streamlet's rushy banks,
And watch intently Nature's gentle doings,
They will be found softer than ringdove's cooings.
How silent comes the water round that bend!
Not the minutest whisper does it send 1
|