Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SONNET TO WILLIAM AND MARY HOWITT. The breath of Spring is stirring in the wood, Whose budding boughs confess the genial gale; And thrush and blackbird tell their tender tale; The hawthorn tree, that leafless long has stood, Shows signs of blossoming; the streamlet's flood Hath shrunk into its banks, and in each vale The lowly violet, and the primrose pale, Have lured the bee to seek his wonted food. Then up ! and to your forest haunts repair, Where Robin Hood once held his revels gay; Yours is the greensward smooth, and vocal spray ; And I, as on your pilgrimage ye fare, In all your sylvan luxuries shall share When I peruse them in your minstrel lay- SONNET TO THE SAME. Winter hath bound the brooks in icy chains; The bee that murmured in the cowslip bell Now feasts securely in his honied cell; Silence is on the woods and on the plains, And darkening clouds and desolating rains Have marred your forest fountain's quiet spell; Yet, though retired from these awhile ye dwell, Your hearts' best hoard of poesy remains. The sports of childhood, the exhaustless store Of home-born thoughts and feelings dear to each, Converse, or silence eloquent as speech; History's rich page, tradition's richer lore, Of tale and legend prized in days of yore;— These, worthy of the Muse, are in your reach. THE NORTH COUNTRIE. " But he, I ween, was of the North Countrie." Deattie's Minstrel. The North Countrie! the North Countrie! Who hath not heard its fame ? From shore to shore, from sea to sea, It bears an honoured name. Legend, and tale, and minstrelsy, And painter's magic hand, Have made it seem to heart and eye A loved and lovely land. The North Countrie! the North Countrie! There mighty mountains rise, And many a...