On His Eightieth Birthday

"Now thou art gone, tho' not gone far,     It seems that there are worlds between us;     Shine here again, thou wandering star!     Earth's pla"

"In his own image the Creator made, His own pure sunbeam quickend thee, O man! Thou breathing dial! since thy day began The present hour was ever m"

"There falls with every wedding chime A feather from the wing of Time. You pick it up, and say How fair To look upon its colors are! Another drop"

"No, my own love of other years! No, it must never be. Much rests with you that yet endears, Alas! but what with me? Could those bright years oer"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"