Select Poetry for Young Folks,

* 1 *

THE PIPER.

PIPING1 down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,

And he, laughing, said to me,

"Pipe a song about a lamb: "

So I piped with merry cheer. "Piper, pipe that song again:

So I piped; he wept to hear.

"Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe,
Sing thy songs of happy cheer:
So I sang the same again,

While he wept with joy to hear.

"Piper, sit thee down and write

In a book, that all may read:"
So he vanished from my sight.

And I plucked a hollow reed,2

1 piping, playing on a musical pipe, — a kind of flute.
2 reed, a plant or grass having a hollow jointed stem.

3

1

And I made a rural 1 pen,
And I stained 2 the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs,
Every child may joy to hear.

* 2 *

W. BLAKE

ANSWER TO A CHILD'S QUESTION.

Do you ask what the birds say? The sparrow, the dove,

The linnet, and thrush say, "I love and I love!" In the winter they're silent, the wind is so strong; What it says I don't know, but it sings a loud

song.

But green leaves and blossoms, and sunny warm weather,

And singing and loving, all come back together; Then the lark is so brimful of gladness and love, The green fields below him, the blue sky above, That he sings, and he sings, and forever sings he, "I love my Love, and my Love loves me."

* 3 *

THE BLUEBIRD.

S. T. COLERIDGE.

I KNOW the song that the bluebird is singing,
Out in the apple-tree where he is swinging.
Brave little fellow! the skies may be dreary,
Nothing cares he while his heart is so cheery.

1 rural, simple, rude.

2 stained, colored or made inky.

Hark! how the music leaps out from his throat! Hark! was there ever so merry a note?

Listen awhile, and you'll hear what he's saying, Up in the apple-tree, swinging and swaying:

"Dear little blossoms, down under the snow,
You must be weary of winter, I know;
Hark! while I sing you a message of cheer,
Summer is coming, and spring-time is here!

"Little white snowdrop, I pray you arise;
Bright yellow crocus, come, open your eyes
Sweet little violets hid from the cold,
Put on your mantles of purple and gold;
Daffodils, daffodils! say, do you hear?
Summer is coming, and spring-time is here!"

EMILY HUNTINGTON MILLER.

* 4 *

THE DAISY.

BEFORE the stars are in the sky,

The daisy goes to rest,
And folds its little shining leaves
Upon its golden breast.

And so it sleeps in dewy night
Until the morning breaks,

Then, with the songs of early birds,
So joyously awakes.

And children, when they go to bed,
Should fold their hands in prayer,
And place themselves and all they love
In God's protecting care.

Then they may sleep secure and still
Through hours of darksome1 night,

And with the pretty daisy wake
In cheerful morning light.

* 5 *

WINTER JEWELS.

A MILLION little diamonds

Twinkled on the trees;
And all the little maidens said,

"A jewel, if you please!"

But, while they held their hands outstretched
To catch the diamonds gay,
A million little sunbeams came
And stole them all away.

*6*

LADY-BIRD, LADY-BIRD.

LADY-BIRD, 2 lady-bird, fly away home!
The field-mouse is gone to her nest;

1 darksome, dark, gloomy. 2 lady-bird, a small spotted beetle.

The daisies have shut up their little bright eyes, And the bees and the birds are at rest.

Lady-bird, lady-bird, fly away home!

The glowworm is lighting her lamp;

The dew's falling fast, and your fine speckled wings

Will be wet with the close-clinging damp.

Lady-bird, lady-bird, fly away home!

The fairy bells tinkle afar;

Make haste, or they'll catch you, and harness you fast,

With a cobweb, to Oberon's 1 car.

CAROLINE BOWLES SOUTHEY.

* 7 *

A LAUGHING SONG.

WHEN the green woods laugh with the voice of joy,

And the dimpling stream runs laughing by;
When the air does laugh with our merry wit,
And the green hill laughs with the noise of it;

When the meadows laugh with lively green,
And the grasshopper laughs in the merry scene;
When Mary, and Susan, and Emily,

With their sweet round mouths, sing "Ha, ha, he!"

1 Ob'eron, the imaginary king of the fairies.