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Foliage Various Poems - William Henry Davies · The Art of Public Speaking

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Section one of Foliage by William Henry Davies. This is
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  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: This has been read by Rosslyn Carlyle. Foliage by William
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Henry Davies. Thunder Storms. My mind has thunder storms that
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: brood for heavy hours until they rain me words. My
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  Speaker 1: thoughts are drooping flowers and sulking silent birds. Yet come
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: dark thunder storms, and brood your heavy hours, for when
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: you rein me. Words, my thoughts are dancing flowers and
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: joyful singing birds. End of poem. This recording is in
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Strong Moments written by William Henry Davies,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: read for librovokx dot org by Roslyn Carlyle. Sometimes I
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: hear fine ladies sing. Sometimes I smoke and drink with men.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I play at games of cards. Judge me to
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: be no strong man. Then the strongest moment of my
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: life is when I think about the poor. When, like
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: a spring that rain has fed, my pity rises more
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  Speaker 1: and more. The flower that loves the warmth and light
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: has all its mornings bathed in dew. My heart has moments,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: it's wet with tears. My weakness is they are so few.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: End of poem. This recording is in the public domain.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: A greeting written by William Henry Davies read for LibriVox
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: dot Org by Rosslyn Carlyle. Good Morning, life and all
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: things glad and beautiful. My pockets nothing hold but he
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: that owns the gold. The sun is my great friend.
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  Speaker 1: His spending has no end. Hail to the morning sky,
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  Speaker 1: which bright clouds measure high. Hail to you birds whose
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: throats would number leaves by notes. Hail to you shady bowers,
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  Speaker 1: and you green fields of flowers. Hail to you women
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: fair that make a show so rare in cloth as
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: white as milk, beat calico or silk. Good morning, life,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: and all things glad and beautiful. End of poem. This
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Sweet Stay at Home by William Henry Davies read for
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  Speaker 2: librebox dot Org by Ashley. Sweet Stay at Home, Sweet
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  Speaker 2: well content, Thou knowest of no strange continent, Thou hast
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  Speaker 2: not felt thy bosom. Keep a gentle motion with the
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: deep thaous not sailed in Indian seas where scent comes
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: forth in every breeze. Thao has not seen the rich
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: grape grow for miles as far as eyes can go.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Thou hast not seen a summer's night when maids could
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: sow by a worm's light, nor the North sea in
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  Speaker 2: spring send out bright hues that, like birds flit about
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: in solid cages of white ice. Sweet stay at home,
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Sweet love one place. Thou hast not seen black fingers
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  Speaker 2: pick white cotton when the bloom is thick, nor heard
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  Speaker 2: black throats in harmony. Nor hast thou sat on stones
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: that lie flat on the earth that once did rise
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  Speaker 2: to hide proud kings from the common eyes. Thou hast
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: not seen plains full of bloom, where green things had
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: such little room. They please the eye like fear of flowers.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Sweet stay at home all these long hours, Sweet well content,
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  Speaker 2: Sweet love one place, Sweet simple maid. Bless thy dear face,
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  Speaker 2: For thou hast made more homely stuff, nurture thy gentle
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: self enough. I love thee for a heart that's kind,
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: not for the knowledge in thy mind. End of poem.
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  Speaker 2: Recording is in the public domain.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: The Starved by William Henry Davies read for Librovokes Dot
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  Speaker 1: org by Rosslyn Carlyle. My little lamb, what is a mess?
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  Speaker 1: If there was milk in mother's kiss, you would not
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  Speaker 1: look as white as les the wolf of hunger. It
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  Speaker 1: is he that takes away thy milk from me, and
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: I have much to do for thee. If thou couldst
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: live on love, I know no babe in all the
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: land could show more rosy cheeks and louder crow thy
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: father's dead. Alas for THEE, I cannot keep this wolf
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  Speaker 1: from me that takes thy milk so bold and free.
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  Speaker 1: If thy dear father lived, he'd drive away this beast
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  Speaker 1: with whom I strive, And thou, my pretty lamb, woodst thrive. Ah,
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  Speaker 1: My poor babe, My love's so great. I'd swallow common
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  Speaker 1: rags for meat if they could make milk rich and sweet,
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  Speaker 1: My little lamb, what is a mess? Come? I must
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  Speaker 1: wake thee with a kiss, for death would own a
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  Speaker 1: sleep like this. End of poem. This recording is in
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: the public domain. A May Morning written by William Henry
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  Speaker 1: Davies read for LibriVox dot Org by Rosslyn Carlyle. The
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  Speaker 1: sky is clear, the sun is bright. The cows are red,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: the sheep are white. Trees in the meadows make happy shadows.
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  Speaker 1: Birds in the hedge are perched and sing. Swallows and
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  Speaker 1: larks are on the wing. Two merry cuckoos are making echoes.
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  Speaker 1: Bird and the beast have the dew. Yet my road
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  Speaker 1: shines dry. There's bright and wet. Death gives no warning
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  Speaker 1: on this May morning. I see no Christ nailed on
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  Speaker 1: a tree, dying for sin, no sin. I see no
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  Speaker 1: thoughts for sadness, all thoughts for gladness. End of poem.
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  Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: And The Lonely Dreamer by William Henry Davis read four
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  Speaker 3: LibriVox dot Org by A saff coss lives his lonely life,
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  Speaker 3: and when he dies, a thousand hearts may be will
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  Speaker 3: utter sighs because they liked his songs. And now their
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: bird slips with his head beneath his wing unheard. But
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: what kind hand will tant his grave and bring those
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: blossoms there of which he used to sing? Who will
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: kiss his mound and wish the time would come to
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  Speaker 3: lie with him inside that silent tomb? And will forget
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  Speaker 3: the dreamer's skill and shed a tear because a loving
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  Speaker 3: heart is dead. I ho for gossip than and common size,
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  Speaker 3: and let his death bring tears in no one's eyes.
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  Speaker 3: And of poem. This recording is in the public domain.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Christmas by William Henry Davies gread for Librovoks dot Org
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: by Rosslyn Carlyle. Christmas has come. Let's eat and drink.
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  Speaker 1: This is no time to sit and think, for well,
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  Speaker 1: to study books and pen and Welcome to all kinds
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  Speaker 1: of men. Let all men now get rid of care,
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  Speaker 1: and what one has, let others share. Then tis the same,
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  Speaker 1: no matter which of us is poor or which is rich.
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  Speaker 1: Let each man have enough this day, since those that
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  Speaker 1: can are glad to pay. There's nothing now to rich
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  Speaker 1: or good for poor men, not the king's own food. Now,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: like a singing bird, my feet touch earth, and I
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: must drink and eat. Welcome to all men. I'll not
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  Speaker 1: care what any of my fellows wear. We'll not let
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  Speaker 1: cloth divide our souls. They'll swim stark naked in the bowls. Welcome,
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  Speaker 1: poor beggar. I'll not see that hand of yours dislodge
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  Speaker 1: a flea while you sit at my side and beg
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  Speaker 1: or right foot scratching your left leg. Fairwell, restraint. We
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  Speaker 1: will not now measure the ale our brains allow, but
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  Speaker 1: drink as much as we can hold. Will count no
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  Speaker 1: change when we spend gold. This is no time to save,
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  Speaker 1: but spend to give for nothing, not to lend. Let
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: foos make friends. Let them forget the mischief, making dead
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  Speaker 1: that fret the living with complaint like this, he wronged
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  Speaker 1: us once, hate him and his Christmas has come. Let
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  Speaker 1: every man eat, drink, be merry all he can. Ail's
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  Speaker 1: my best mark. But if fort wine or whiskey's yours,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: let it be mine. No matter what lies in the balls,
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  Speaker 1: We'll make it rich with our own souls. Fairwell to
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  Speaker 1: study books and pain, and welcome to all kinds of men.
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  Speaker 1: End of poem. This recording is in the public domain.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Laughing Rose written by William Henry Davies, read for LibriVox
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: dot Org by Rosslyn Carlyle. If I were gusty April, now,
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  Speaker 1: how I would blow at Laughing Rose. I'd make her
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  Speaker 1: ribbons slip their knots, and all her hair come loose.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: If I were merry April, now, how I would pelt
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  Speaker 1: her cheeks with showers. I'd make carnations rich and warm
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  Speaker 1: of her vermelion flowers. Since she will laugh in April's face,
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  Speaker 1: no matter how he rains or blows. Then, oh that
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  Speaker 1: I wild April were to play with laughing Rose. End
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  Speaker 1: of poem. This recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 4: Seeking Joy by William Henry Davies red for Librevox dot
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  Speaker 4: org by Shakira s Earl.
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  Speaker 5: Joy.
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  Speaker 4: How I sought thee silver I spent and gold on
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  Speaker 4: the pleasures of this world, in splendid garments clad. The
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  Speaker 4: wine I drank was sweet, rich morsels I did eat, Oh,
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  Speaker 4: but my life was sad. Joy, How I sought thee joy.
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  Speaker 4: I have found thee far from the halls of mirth,
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  Speaker 4: back to the soft green earth, where people are not many.
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  Speaker 4: I find thee joy in ours, with clouds and birds
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  Speaker 4: and flowers. Thou dost not charge one penny? Joy, I
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  Speaker 4: have found thee end of poem. This recording is in
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  Speaker 4: the public domain.
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: The Old Oak Tree by William Henry Davis, read for
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  Speaker 3: LibriVox dot org by a sough course. I sit beneath
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  Speaker 3: your leaves, old Oak, you mighty one of all the
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  Speaker 3: trees within whose hollow trun command could stable his big
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  Speaker 3: horse with ease. I see your knuckles are and strong,
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: but I have no fear they'll come to blows. Your
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: life is long, and miney is short. But which has
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: known the greater woes? Thou hast not seen starved women here,
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: or man gone mad because ill fed, who stares at
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  Speaker 3: stones in city streets, mistaking them for hunks of bread.
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  Speaker 3: Thou hast not felt the shivering backs of homeless children
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: lying down and sleeping in the cold night air like
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: doors and walls in London town. Knowing thou hast not
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: known such shame, And only storms have come thy way.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: Methinks I could in comfort spend my summer with thee
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  Speaker 3: day by day, to lie by day in thy green shade,
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  Speaker 3: and in thy hollow rest. At night, and through the
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  Speaker 3: open doorway sea, the stars turn over leaves of light
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: and of pom. This recording is in the public domain.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: Poor King's by William Henry Davis, read for LibriVox dot Org.
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  Speaker 3: By a saff course. God's pity on poor kings. They
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: know no gentle rest the north and south cry out
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  Speaker 3: cries come from east and west. Come open this new
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  Speaker 3: dock building, bazaar, or fair lord, what a wretched life
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  Speaker 3: such man must bear? There followed watched and spied no
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  Speaker 3: liberty they know some I will watch them still, no
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: matter where they go. When in green lanes I muse alone,
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: and here birds sing God's pity, then say I on
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  Speaker 3: some poor king and of poem. This recording is in
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  Speaker 3: the public domain.
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: Love and the Muse by William Henry Davies read for
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: Librivos dot Org by Shaki Assul. My back is turned
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: on spring and all her flowers. The birds no longer
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: charm from tree to tree. The cuckoo had his home
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: in this green world. Ten days before his voice was
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: heard by me. Had I an answer from a dear
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  Speaker 4: one's lips.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: My love of.
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: Life would soon regain its power and suckle my sweet
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  Speaker 4: dreams that tug my heart and whimper to be nourish'd
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  Speaker 4: every hour. Give me that answer now, and then, my muse,
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  Speaker 4: that for my sweet life's sake must never die, will
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: rise like that great wave that leaps and hangs the
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  Speaker 4: sea weed on a vessel's mast top high end of palm.
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: This recording is in the public domain.
• 17:08
  Speaker 5: My Youth by William Henry Davies read for Librivax dot
• 17:12
  Speaker 5: Org by Anusha Ayir. My youth was my old age,
• 17:18
  Speaker 5: weary and long. It had too many cares to think
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  Speaker 5: of song. My molten days all came when I was young.
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: Now in life's prime, my soul comes out in flower. Late,
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  Speaker 5: as with Robin comes my singing power. I was not
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  Speaker 5: born to joy till this late hour. End of poem.
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: This recording is in the public domain.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Smiles by William Henry Day read for LibriVox dot Org
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: by Rosslyn Carlyle. I saw a black girl once as
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: black as winter's night, till through her parted lips there
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: came a flood of light. It was the milky way
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: across her face, so black. Her two lips closed again,
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  Speaker 1: and night came back. I see a maiden now fair
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: as a summer's day. Yet through her parted lips, I
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: see the milky way It makes the broad daylight and
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: summertime luke black. Her two lips close again, and night
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  Speaker 1: comes back. End of poem. This recording is in the
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: public domain. Mad Paul by William Henry Davies read for
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot Org by Rosslyn Carlyle. There goes Mad Paul,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: dressed in wild flowers. Poor crazy Paul, now old and
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: wan her hair all down like any child. She swings
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: her two arms like a man. Poor crazy Paul is
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: never sad. She never misses one that dies. When neighbors
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: show their newborn babes, they seem familiar to her eyes.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Her bonnet's always in her hand or on the ground
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: and lying near. She thinks it is a thing for
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: play or pretty show, and not to wear. She gives
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: the sick no sympathy. She never soothes a child that cries.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: She never whimpers night or day. She makes no moons,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: she makes no sighs. She talks about some battle old
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: fought many a day from yesterday, and when that war
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: is done, her love ha ha Paul laughs and skips away.
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  Speaker 1: End of poem. This recording is in the public domain.
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: Joy Supreme by William Henry Davies, Readful LibriVox dot Org
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: by Anusha Ayir. The birds are pirates of her notes.
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: The blossoms steel her face's light. The stars in ambush
• 20:26
  Speaker 5: lie all day to take her glances for the night.
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: Her voice kin shame, rain, pulsed leaves. Young Robin has
• 20:36
  Speaker 5: no notes as sweet in autumn, when the air is
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: still and all the other birds are mute. When I
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: set eyes on ripe red plums that seem a sin
• 20:51
  Speaker 5: and shame to bite. Such are her lips, which I
• 20:56
  Speaker 5: would kiss, and still would keep before my sight. When
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: I behold proud gossamer make silent billows in the air,
• 21:08
  Speaker 5: then think I of her head's fine stuff, finer than gossamer's.
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: I swear the miser has his joy with gold beneath
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: his pillow. In the night, my head shall lie on
• 21:24
  Speaker 5: soft warm hair, And misers know not that delight. Captains
• 21:31
  Speaker 5: that own their ships can boast their joy to feel
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: the rolling brine. But I shall lie near her and
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: feel her soft, warm bosom swell on mine. End of poem.
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: This recording is in the public domain.
• 21:55
  Speaker 6: Francis Thompson by William Henry Davis read for Libervox dot
• 22:00
  Speaker 6: Org by Marianne. Thou hast no home, and thou couldt
• 22:06
  Speaker 6: see in every street the window's light dragging thy limbs
• 22:10
  Speaker 6: about all night. No window kept alight for thee. However
• 22:16
  Speaker 6: much thou wert distressed or tired of moving, and felt sick,
• 22:21
  Speaker 6: Thy life was on the open deck. Thou hast no
• 22:25
  Speaker 6: cabin for thy rest. Thy bark was helpless neath the sky.
• 22:32
  Speaker 6: No pilot thought thee worth his pains to guide for
• 22:35
  Speaker 6: love or money gains. Like phantom ships, the rich sailed
• 22:40
  Speaker 6: by thy shadow mocked thee night and day, thy life's
• 22:46
  Speaker 6: companion it alone. It did not sigh, It did not moan,
• 22:52
  Speaker 6: but mocked thy moves in every way in spite of
• 22:57
  Speaker 6: all the mind had force, and like a stream whose
• 23:02
  Speaker 6: surface flows the wrong way when a strong wind blows
• 23:06
  Speaker 6: it underneath, maintained its course oft. Didst thou think thy
• 23:11
  Speaker 6: mind would flower too late for good? As some bruised
• 23:15
  Speaker 6: tree that blooms in autumn, and we see fruit not
• 23:19
  Speaker 6: worth picking, hard and sour. Some poets feign their wounds
• 23:25
  Speaker 6: and scars. If they had known real suffering hours, they'd
• 23:30
  Speaker 6: show in place of fancy's flowers, more of imaginations stars.
• 23:37
  Speaker 6: So if thy fruits of poesy are rich, it is
• 23:42
  Speaker 6: at this dear cost that they were nipped by sorrows, frost,
• 23:47
  Speaker 6: in nights of homeless misery and of poem. This recording
• 23:54
  Speaker 6: is in the public domain.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: The Birdman by William Henry Davies read for librovox dot
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Org by Rosslyn carlyle Man is a bird. He rises
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: on fine wings into the heaven's clear light. He flies
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: away and sings. There's music in his flight. Man is
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: a bird in swiftest speed. He burns with twist and
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: dive and leap. A bird whose sudden turns can drive
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: the fryne sheep Man is a bird over the mountain
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: high whose head is in the skies, cut from its
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: shoulder by a cloud. The birdman flies man is a
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: bird eagles from mountain crag swooped down to prove his worth,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: But now they rise to drag him down from heaven
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: to Earth. End of poem. This recording is in the
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: public domain.
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: Winter's Beauty by William Henry Davies Readfullybrivox dot Org by
• 25:11
  Speaker 5: Anusha Ayear. Is it not fine to walk in spring?
• 25:17
  Speaker 5: When leaves are born, and here birds sing? And when
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: they lose their singing powers in summer, watch the bees
• 25:26
  Speaker 5: at flowers? Is it not fine when summers past to half?
• 25:33
  Speaker 5: The leaves no longer fast biting my heel where'er I go?
• 25:38
  Speaker 5: Or dancing lightly on my toe? Now winters here and
• 25:43
  Speaker 5: rivers freeze. As I walk out, I see the trees
• 25:48
  Speaker 5: wherein the pretty squills sleep, all standing in the snow
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: so deep, And every twig, however small, is blossomed white
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: and beautiful. Then welcome winter with thy power, to make
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: this tree a big white flower, To make this tree
• 26:09
  Speaker 5: a lovely sight, with fifty brown arms draped in white,
• 26:15
  Speaker 5: while thousands of small fingers show in soft white gloves
• 26:21
  Speaker 5: of purest snow. End of poem. This recording is in
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: the public domain.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: The Church Organ by William Henry Davies read for librivoks
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: dot org by Roslyn Carlyle. The homeless man has heard
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: thy voice. Its sound doth move his memory deep. He
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: stares bewildered as a man that shook by earthquake in
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: his sleep. Thy solemn voice doth bring to mind the
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: days that are forever gone. Thou bringst to mind our
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: early days. Yere we made sacond homes or none. End
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: of poem. This recording is in the public domain.
• 27:13
  Speaker 6: High Ho the Rain by William Henry Davies read for
• 27:18
  Speaker 6: LibriVox dot org by Marianne. The lark that in the
• 27:24
  Speaker 6: heaven dim can match a rainy hour with his own
• 27:27
  Speaker 6: music's shower, can make me sing like him. High Ho
• 27:33
  Speaker 6: the rain sing when a nightingale pours forth her own
• 27:39
  Speaker 6: sweet soul to hear dread thunder roll into a tearful tale.
• 27:44
  Speaker 6: High Ho the rain sing when a sparrow's seen trying
• 27:50
  Speaker 6: to lie at rest by pressing his warm breast to
• 27:53
  Speaker 6: leaves so wet and green high ho the rain and
• 28:00
  Speaker 6: of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Love's
• 28:10
  Speaker 6: Inspiration by William Henry Davies read for LibriVox dot Org
• 28:15
  Speaker 6: by Marianne. Give me the chance, and I will make
• 28:21
  Speaker 6: thy thoughts of me like worms this day, take wings
• 28:25
  Speaker 6: and change to butterflies, that in the golden light shall
• 28:29
  Speaker 6: play thy cold, clear heart. The quiet pool that never
• 28:34
  Speaker 6: heard Love's nightingale, shall hear his music night and day,
• 28:39
  Speaker 6: and in no seasons shall it fail. I'll make thy
• 28:44
  Speaker 6: happy heart my port, where all my thoughts are anchored, fast,
• 28:49
  Speaker 6: thy meditations, full of praise, the flags of glory on
• 28:53
  Speaker 6: each mast. I'll make my soul thy shepherd, soon with
• 28:59
  Speaker 6: all thy thoughts my grateful flock, And thou shalt say
• 29:03
  Speaker 6: each time I go, how long my love ere thoalt
• 29:08
  Speaker 6: come back? End of poem. This recording is in the
• 29:14
  Speaker 6: public domain.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Night Wanderers by William Henry Davies read for librovoks dot
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: org by Rosslyn Carlyle. They hear the bell of midnight
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: tall and shiver in their flesh and soul. They lie
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: on hard cold wood or stone, iron, and ache in
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: every bone. They hate the night. They see no eyes
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: of loved ones in the starlit skies, they see the
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: cold dark water near. They dare not take long looks,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: for fear delf fall. Like those poor birds that see
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: a snake's eyes staring at their tree. Some of them laugh,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: half mad, and some all through the chilly night or
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: dam like poor weak infants. Some converse and cough like giants,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: deep and hoarse. End of poem. This recording is in
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Young Beauty by William Henry Davis read
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: for Librovoks dot Org by Rosslyn Carlile. When at each
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: door the ruffian winds have laid a dying man to groan,
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: and filled the air on winter nights with cries of
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: infants left alone, and everything that has a bed will
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: sigh for others that have none. On such a night,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: when bitter cold, Young Beauty, full of love thoughts sweet,
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: can reiden in her looking glass with but one gown on.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: In bare feet, she from her own reflected charms, can
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: feel the joy of summer's heat. End of poem. This
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain.
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: Who I know?
• 31:28
  Speaker 6: By William Henry Davies read for LibriVox dot org by Marianne.
• 31:34
  Speaker 6: I do not know his grace, the duke outside, whose
• 31:37
  Speaker 6: guilted gait there died of want, a feeble poor old man,
• 31:43
  Speaker 6: with but his shadow at his side. I do not
• 31:47
  Speaker 6: know his lady fair, who in a bath of milk
• 31:50
  Speaker 6: doth lie more milk than could feed fifty babes, that,
• 31:55
  Speaker 6: for the want of it, must die. But well I
• 31:59
  Speaker 6: know the mother poor three pounds of flesh wrapped in
• 32:03
  Speaker 6: her shawl, A puny babe that stripped at home looks
• 32:08
  Speaker 6: like a rabbit skinned so small. And well I know
• 32:12
  Speaker 6: the homeless waif fed by the poorest of the poor,
• 32:17
  Speaker 6: since I have seen that child alone, crying against a
• 32:20
  Speaker 6: bolted door, and of poem. This recording is in the
• 32:26
  Speaker 6: public domain.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: Sweet Birds I come by William Henry Davies right for
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: librivoks dot org by Rosslyn Carlyle. The bird that now
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: on bush and tree near leaves so green, looks down
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: to see flowers. Looking up, he either sings and aches
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: to see, or claps his wings. Why should I slave
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: for finer dress or ornaments? Will flowers smile less for
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: rags than silk, Are birds less dumb for tramp and
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: squire sweet birds? I come. End of poem. This recording
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. The Two Lives by William
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: Henry Davies read for Librevoks dot org by Roslyn Carlyle. Now,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: how could I, with gold to spare, who know the
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: harlot's arms and wine, sit in this green field all alone?
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: If nature was not truly mine? That pleasure life wakes
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: stale at morn from heavy sleep that no rest brings.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: This life of quiet joy wakes fresh and claps its
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: wings at morn and sings. So here sit I alone
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: till noon, in one long dream of quiet bliss. I
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: hear the lark and share his joy with no more
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: wine drops than were his. Such nature is thy charm
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: and power. Since I have made the muse my wife,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: to keep me from the harlot's arms and save me
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: from a drunkard's life. End of poem. This recording is
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: in the public domain.
• 34:37
  Speaker 6: Hidden Love by William Henry Davies, read for LibriVox dot
• 34:41
  Speaker 6: org by Marianne. The bird of Fortune sings when free.
• 34:46
  Speaker 6: The captured soon grows dumb, and we to hear his
• 34:51
  Speaker 6: fast declining powers must soon forget that he is ours.
• 34:56
  Speaker 6: So when I win that maid, no doubt love soon
• 35:01
  Speaker 6: will seem to be half out, Like blighted leaves drooped
• 35:05
  Speaker 6: to the ground, whose roots are still untouched and sound.
• 35:10
  Speaker 6: So will our love's root still be strong when others
• 35:13
  Speaker 6: think the leaves go wrong. Though we may quarrel, twill
• 35:17
  Speaker 6: not prove that she and I are less in love.
• 35:21
  Speaker 6: The parrot, though he mocked the dove, died when she died,
• 35:26
  Speaker 6: and proved his love. When merry springtime comes, we hear
• 35:31
  Speaker 6: how all things into love must stir, how birds would
• 35:35
  Speaker 6: rather sing than eat, How joyful sheep would rather bleat,
• 35:40
  Speaker 6: and daffodils gnawed heads of gold and dance in April's
• 35:44
  Speaker 6: sparkling cold. So in our early love did we dance much,
• 35:49
  Speaker 6: and skip and laugh with glee. But let none think
• 35:53
  Speaker 6: that our love is flown. If when we're married, littles
• 35:57
  Speaker 6: shone e'n, though our life be dumb of song, our
• 36:02
  Speaker 6: hearts can still be singing, strong and of poem. This
• 36:09
  Speaker 6: recording is in the public domain. Life is Jolly by
• 36:18
  Speaker 6: William Henry Davies read for LibriVox dot Org by Mirianne.
• 36:24
  Speaker 6: This life is jolly Oh. I envy no man's lot.
• 36:29
  Speaker 6: My eyes can much admire, and still my heart crave not.
• 36:34
  Speaker 6: There's no true joy in gold. It breeds desire for more.
• 36:39
  Speaker 6: Whatever wealth man has desire can keep him poor. This
• 36:45
  Speaker 6: life is jolly Oh. Power has his fawning slaves, but
• 36:51
  Speaker 6: if he rests his mind, those wretches turn bold knaves.
• 36:56
  Speaker 6: Fame's field is full of flowers. It dazzles as we pass,
• 37:01
  Speaker 6: But men who walk that field starve for the common grass.
• 37:07
  Speaker 6: This life is jolly Oh. Let others know they die
• 37:12
  Speaker 6: enough to know I live, and make no question why
• 37:17
  Speaker 6: I care, not whence I came, nor whither I shall go.
• 37:21
  Speaker 6: Let others think of these. This life is jolly oh.
• 37:28
  Speaker 6: End of poem. This recording is in the public domain.
• 37:36
  Speaker 7: The Fog by William Henry Davies read for LibriVox dot
• 37:41
  Speaker 7: Org by Spyra. I saw the fog grow thick, which
• 37:46
  Speaker 7: soon made blind myken. It made tall men of boys,
• 37:51
  Speaker 7: and giants of tall men. It clutched my throat. I coughed.
• 37:56
  Speaker 7: Nothing was in my head except two heavy eyes, like
• 38:00
  Speaker 7: balls of burning lead. And when it grew so black
• 38:05
  Speaker 7: that I could know no place. I lost all judgment
• 38:08
  Speaker 7: then of distance and of space. The street lamps and
• 38:13
  Speaker 7: the lights upon the halted cars could either be on
• 38:17
  Speaker 7: earth or be the heavenly stars. A man passed by
• 38:22
  Speaker 7: me close. I asked my way. He said, come follow me,
• 38:27
  Speaker 7: my friend. I followed where he led. He wrapped the
• 38:31
  Speaker 7: stones in front. Trust me, he said, and come I
• 38:36
  Speaker 7: followed like a child. A blind man led me home.
• 38:41
  Speaker 7: End of poem. This recording is in the public domain.
• 38:50
  Speaker 7: A Woman's Charms by William Henry Davies read Forlibrivox dot
• 38:56
  Speaker 7: Org by Spira. My purse is yours, sweetheart, For eye
• 39:01
  Speaker 7: can count no coins with you close by. I scorn
• 39:05
  Speaker 7: like sailors them when they have drawn on shore their
• 39:09
  Speaker 7: deep sea. Pay only my thoughts I value now, which,
• 39:14
  Speaker 7: like the simple glow worms, throw their beams to greet
• 39:18
  Speaker 7: thee bravely love their glorious light in heaven above. Since
• 39:23
  Speaker 7: I have felt thy waves of light beating against my soul,
• 39:27
  Speaker 7: the sight of gems from Afric's continents move me to
• 39:32
  Speaker 7: no great wonderment. Since I, sweetheart, have known thine hair,
• 39:37
  Speaker 7: the fur of ermine, sable bear, or silver fox. For
• 39:42
  Speaker 7: me can keep no more to praise than common sheep.
• 39:46
  Speaker 7: Though ten Isaiah's souls were mine, they could not sing
• 39:50
  Speaker 7: such charms as thine. Two little hands that show with pride,
• 39:55
  Speaker 7: two timid little feet that hide, two eyes no dark sin,
• 40:00
  Speaker 7: or as show they're burning like in Mexico, two coral gates,
• 40:05
  Speaker 7: wherein is shown your queen of charms, on a white throne,
• 40:10
  Speaker 7: Your queen of charms. The lovely smile that on its
• 40:14
  Speaker 7: white throne could beguile. The mastiff from his gates in hell,
• 40:18
  Speaker 7: who buy no wine nor bark, could tell his masters
• 40:22
  Speaker 7: what thing made him go, And countless other charms. I
• 40:26
  Speaker 7: know October's hedge has far less hues than thou hast
• 40:31
  Speaker 7: charms from which to choose. End of poem. This recording
• 40:37
  Speaker 7: is in the public domain.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: Dreams of the Sea by William Henry Davies. I know
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: not why I yearn for thee again to sail once
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: more upon thy fickle flood. I'll hear thy waves under
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: my deaf bed. Thy salt is lodged forever in my blood.
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: Yet I have seen thee lashed the vessel's sides in
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: fury with thy many tailed whip. And I have seen
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: thee too like Galilee, when Jesus walked in peace to
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: Simon's ship. And I have seen thy gentle breeze as
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: soft as summers, when it makes the cornfields run. And
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: I have seen thy rude and lusty gale make ships
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: show half their bellies to the sun. Thou knowest the
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: way to time the wildest life. Thou knowest the way
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: to bend the great and proud. I think of that armada,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: whose puffed sails, greedy and large, came swallowing every cloud.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: But I have seen the sea boy, young and drowned,
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: lying on shore, and by thy cruel hand, as seaweed
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: beard was on his tender chin. His heaven blue eyes
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: were filled with common sand. And yet for all I
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: yearn for thee again tis sail once more upon thy
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: fickle flood. I'll hear thy waves wash under my death bed.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: Thy salt is lodged forever in my blood. End of poem.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain. The Wonder Maker
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: by William Henry Davies. Come, if thou art cold, to
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: Summer's charms, her clouds of green, her starry flowers, And
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: let this bird, this wandering bird, make his fine wonder yours.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: He hiding in the leaves so green, when sampling this
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: fair world of ours, cries cuckoo, clear and like Lot's wife.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: I look, though it should cost my life when I
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: can hear that charmed one's voice. I taste of immortality.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: My joys so great that on my heart doth lie eternity,
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: as light as any little flower, so strong a wonder
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: works in me. Cuckoo, he cries and fills my soul
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: with all that's rich and beautiful. End of poem. This
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. The Helpless by William
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: Henry Davies. Those poor heart broken wretches doomed to hear
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: at night the clock's hard tones. They have no beds
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: to warm their limbs, but with those limbs must warm
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: cold stones. Those poor weak men, whose coughs and ailings
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: force them to tear at iron railings. Those helpless men
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: that starve my pity, whose waking day is never done,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: who save for their own shadows, are doomed night and
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: day to walk alone. They know no bright face, but
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: the sun's so cold and dark are human ones. End
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: of poem. This recording is in the public domain. An
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: Early Love by William Henry Davies. Ah, sweet young blood,
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: that makes thee heart so full of joy and light
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: that dying children dance with it. From early morn till night,
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: My dreams were blossoms. HER's the fruit. She was My
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: dearest care with gentle hand, and for it eye made
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: playthings of her hair. I made my fingers rings of gold,
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: and bangles for my wrist. You should have felt this soft,
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: warm thing I made to glove my fist, and she
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: should have a crown. I swore with only gold enough
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: to keep together stones more rich than that fine metal stuff.
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: Her golden hair gave me more joy than Jason's heart
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: could hold when all his men cried out, Ah, look
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: he has the fleece of gold. End of poem. This
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain.
• 45:59
  Speaker 5: Dream Tragedy by William Henry Davies read fulibrivax dot Org
• 46:04
  Speaker 5: by Anusha a year Mumbai. Thou art not always kind
• 46:10
  Speaker 5: o sleep? What awful secrets them dost keep in store?
• 46:15
  Speaker 5: And ofttimes make us know what hero has not fallen
• 46:20
  Speaker 5: low in sleep before a monster, grim and wind from
• 46:25
  Speaker 5: mercy unto him. Knights, constables and men at arms have
• 46:30
  Speaker 5: quail'd and wind in sleep's alarms. Thou wert not kind
• 46:35
  Speaker 5: last night to make me like a very coward, shake, shake,
• 46:40
  Speaker 5: like a thin red currant bush robbed of its fruit
• 46:44
  Speaker 5: by a strong thrush. I felt this earth did move
• 46:50
  Speaker 5: more slow and slower, yet began to go, and not
• 46:55
  Speaker 5: a bird was heard to sing. Men and great beasts
• 47:00
  Speaker 5: were shivering. All living things knew well that when this
• 47:04
  Speaker 5: earth stood still, destruction then would follow with a mighty crash.
• 47:10
  Speaker 5: Twas then I broke that awful hush e'en as mother
• 47:16
  Speaker 5: who does come running in haste back to her home
• 47:19
  Speaker 5: and looks at once and lo, the child she left
• 47:24
  Speaker 5: asleep is gone and wild. She shrieks and loud. So
• 47:29
  Speaker 5: did I break with a mad cry that dream and wake.
• 47:35
  Speaker 5: End of poem. This recording is in the public domain.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: Children at Play by William Henry Davies read for librovox
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: dot Org by Rosslyn Carlyle. I hear a merry noise. Indeed,
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: is it the geese and ducks that take their first place,
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: plunge in a quiet pond, that into scores of ripples
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: break or children make this merry sound? I see an
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: oak tree. Its strong back could not be bent an inch,
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: though all its leaves were stone or iron. Even a
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: boy with many a lusty call rides on a bough
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: bare back through heaven. I see two children dig a
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: hole and planting it a cherry stone. We'll come tomorrow,
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: one child said, And then the tree will be full grown,
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: and all its boughs have cherries. Red Ah, children, what
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: a life to lead. You love the flowers, But when
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: they're past, no flowers are missed by your bright eyes.
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: And when cold winter comes at last, snowflakes shall be
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: your butterflies. End of poem. This recording is in the
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: public domain. When the Cuckoo Sings by William Henry Davies
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: in summer, when the cuckoo sings and clouds like greater
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: moons can shine, when every leafy tree doth hold a
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: loving heart that beats with mine. Now when the brute
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: has Chriss's green as well as stones to check his pace,
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: and if the owl appears, he's forced by small birds
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: to some hiding place. Then, like red Robin in the spring,
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: I shun those haunts where men are found. My house
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: holds little joy until leaves fall and birds can make
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: no sound. Let none invade that wilderness into whose dark
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: green depths. I go save some fine lady, all in
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: white comes like a pillar of pure snow. End of poem.
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain.
• 50:05
  Speaker 6: Return to Nature by William Henry Davies read for LibriVox
• 50:09
  Speaker 6: dot Org by Marianne. My song is of that city
• 50:14
  Speaker 6: which has men too poor and men too rich, Where
• 50:18
  Speaker 6: some are sick, too richly fed, while others take the
• 50:23
  Speaker 6: sparrow's bread. Where some have beds to warm their bones,
• 50:28
  Speaker 6: while others sleep on hard, cold stones that suck away
• 50:32
  Speaker 6: their body's heat. Where men are drunk in every street,
• 50:37
  Speaker 6: men full of poison, like those flies that still attack
• 50:41
  Speaker 6: the horses eyes. Where some men freeze for want of cloth,
• 50:47
  Speaker 6: while others show their jewels worth and dress in satin
• 50:51
  Speaker 6: fur or silk. Where fine rich ladies wash in milk,
• 50:56
  Speaker 6: while starving mothers have no food to make them fit
• 51:00
  Speaker 6: in flesh and blood, so that their watery breasts can
• 51:03
  Speaker 6: give their babies milk and make them live. Where one
• 51:08
  Speaker 6: man does the work of four and dies worn out
• 51:11
  Speaker 6: before his hour, while some seek work in vain and
• 51:16
  Speaker 6: grief doth make their fretful lives as brief, Where ragged
• 51:21
  Speaker 6: men are seen to wait for charity that's small and late,
• 51:26
  Speaker 6: while others haunt in idle leisure theater doors to pay
• 51:29
  Speaker 6: for pleasure. No more, I'll walk those crowded places and
• 51:35
  Speaker 6: take hot dreams from Harlot's faces. I'll know no more
• 51:40
  Speaker 6: those passions dreams while musing near these quiet streams. That
• 51:46
  Speaker 6: biting state of savage lust which true love absent, burns
• 51:51
  Speaker 6: to dust. Gold's rattle shall not rob my ears of
• 51:55
  Speaker 6: the sweet music of the spheres. I'll walk abroad with
• 51:59
  Speaker 6: fancy free each leafy summer's morn. I'll see the trees,
• 52:05
  Speaker 6: all legs or bodies when they vary in their shapes
• 52:08
  Speaker 6: like men. I'll walk abroad and see again how quiet
• 52:13
  Speaker 6: pools are pricked by rain, and you shall hear a
• 52:17
  Speaker 6: song as sweet as when green leaves and rain drops meet.
• 52:21
  Speaker 6: I'll hear the nightingale's fine mood rattling with thunder in
• 52:26
  Speaker 6: the wood, made bolder by each mighty crash who drives
• 52:31
  Speaker 6: her notes with every flash of lightning through the summer's night.
• 52:35
  Speaker 6: No more, I'll walk in that pale light that shows
• 52:38
  Speaker 6: the homeless man awake, ragged and cold. Harlot and Rake
• 52:44
  Speaker 6: that have their hearts and rags and die before that
• 52:47
  Speaker 6: poor wretch they pass by. Nay, I have found a
• 52:52
  Speaker 6: life so fine that every moment seems divine by shunning
• 52:57
  Speaker 6: all these pleasures full that bring repentance, cold and dull,
• 53:02
  Speaker 6: such misery seen in days gone by that made a coward.
• 53:07
  Speaker 6: Now I fly to green things like a bird. Alas
• 53:11
  Speaker 6: in days gone by, I could not pass ten men,
• 53:14
  Speaker 6: but what the eyes of one would burn me for
• 53:17
  Speaker 6: no kindness done? And wretched women I passed by sent
• 53:21
  Speaker 6: after me a moan or sigh ah, wretched days, For
• 53:27
  Speaker 6: in that place my soul's leaves saw the human face,
• 53:31
  Speaker 6: and not the sun's for warmth and light, and so
• 53:34
  Speaker 6: was never free from blight. But seek me now, and
• 53:38
  Speaker 6: you will find me on some soft green bank, reclined,
• 53:42
  Speaker 6: watching the stately deer close by that in a great
• 53:45
  Speaker 6: deep hollow lie shaking their tails with all the ease
• 53:49
  Speaker 6: that lambs can. First look for the trees. Then, if
• 53:55
  Speaker 6: you seek me, find me quick. Seek me no more
• 53:59
  Speaker 6: where men are thin, but in green lanes, where I
• 54:02
  Speaker 6: can walk a mile and still no human folk tread
• 54:05
  Speaker 6: on my shadow. Seek me where the strange oak tree
• 54:09
  Speaker 6: is that can bear one white leaved branch. Among the
• 54:12
  Speaker 6: green which many a woodman has not seen. If you
• 54:17
  Speaker 6: would find me, go where cows and sheep stand under
• 54:20
  Speaker 6: shady boughs, where furious squirrels shake a tree as though
• 54:24
  Speaker 6: they like to bury me under a leaf shower heavy,
• 54:28
  Speaker 6: And I laugh at them for spite, and stand seek
• 54:32
  Speaker 6: me no more in human ways? Who am a coward?
• 54:36
  Speaker 6: Since those days my mind was burned by poor men's
• 54:39
  Speaker 6: eyes and frozen by poor women's sighs. Then send your
• 54:44
  Speaker 6: pearls across the sea, your feathers scent and ivory, you
• 54:49
  Speaker 6: distant lands. But let my bales be brought by cuckoos,
• 54:53
  Speaker 6: nightingales that come and spring from your far shores, sweet
• 54:58
  Speaker 6: birds that carry riches, doors that men can dream of
• 55:02
  Speaker 6: when they prize find silks and pearls for merchandise, and
• 55:06
  Speaker 6: dream of ships that take the floods sunk to their
• 55:09
  Speaker 6: decks with such vain goods, bringing the traitor's silk, whose soft,
• 55:15
  Speaker 6: smooth tongue persuades the poor too oft from sweet content,
• 55:19
  Speaker 6: and pearls whose fires make ashes of our best desires.
• 55:25
  Speaker 6: For I have heard the size and whines of rich
• 55:27
  Speaker 6: men that drink costly wines and eat the best of
• 55:31
  Speaker 6: fish and fowl, men that have plenty and still growl
• 55:35
  Speaker 6: because they cannot, like kings, live alas they whine, we
• 55:41
  Speaker 6: cannot save. Since I have heard those rich ones sigh,
• 55:46
  Speaker 6: made poor by their desires so high, I cherish more
• 55:50
  Speaker 6: a simple mind, that I am well, content to find
• 55:54
  Speaker 6: my pictures in the open air, and let my walls
• 55:57
  Speaker 6: and floors go bare, that I, with lovely things can
• 56:00
  Speaker 6: fill my rooms. Whene'er sweet fancy, will I make a
• 56:05
  Speaker 6: fallen tree my chair, and soon forget no cushions there
• 56:09
  Speaker 6: I lie upon the grass or straw, and no soft
• 56:12
  Speaker 6: down do I sigh? For for with me all the
• 56:16
  Speaker 6: time I keep sweet dreams that do I wake or sleep,
• 56:20
  Speaker 6: shed on me still their kindly beams. I I am
• 56:25
  Speaker 6: richer with my dreams than banks where men dull, eyed
• 56:29
  Speaker 6: and cold, without a tremble shovel gold. A happy life
• 56:33
  Speaker 6: is this. I walk and hear more birds than people talk.
• 56:38
  Speaker 6: I hear the birds that sing unseen on boughs now
• 56:42
  Speaker 6: smothered with leaves green. I sit and watch the swallows
• 56:46
  Speaker 6: there making a circus in the air, that speed around
• 56:50
  Speaker 6: straight going crow as sharks around a ship can go.
• 56:54
  Speaker 6: I hear the sky lark out of sight, hid perfectly
• 56:57
  Speaker 6: in all this light. The dappled cows and fields. I
• 57:01
  Speaker 6: pass upon their bosoms in deep grass, old oak trees
• 57:06
  Speaker 6: with their bowels gone. I see with springs, green finery on.
• 57:11
  Speaker 6: I watch the buzzing bees for hours, to see them
• 57:14
  Speaker 6: rush at laughing flowers and butterflies that lie so still.
• 57:19
  Speaker 6: I see great houses on the hill with shining roofs,
• 57:23
  Speaker 6: and there shines one. It seems that Heaven has dropped
• 57:26
  Speaker 6: the sun. I see yon cloudlet sail, the skies racing
• 57:31
  Speaker 6: with clouds ten times its size. I walk green pathways
• 57:36
  Speaker 6: where love waits to talk in whispers, at old gates,
• 57:40
  Speaker 6: past stiles on which I lean alone, carved with the
• 57:45
  Speaker 6: names of lovers gone. I stand on arches whose dark
• 57:49
  Speaker 6: stones can turn the wind's soft sighs to groans. I
• 57:53
  Speaker 6: hear the cuckoo when first he makes this green world's
• 57:56
  Speaker 6: discovery and recreates it in my mind, proving my eyes
• 58:01
  Speaker 6: were growing blind. I see the rainbow come forth clear
• 58:05
  Speaker 6: and wave her colored scarf to cheer the sun long
• 58:09
  Speaker 6: swallowed by a flood. So do I live in lane
• 58:12
  Speaker 6: and wood? Let me look forward to each spring as
• 58:17
  Speaker 6: eager as the birds that sing and feed My eyes
• 58:20
  Speaker 6: on spring's young flowers, before the bees, by many hours,
• 58:25
  Speaker 6: my heart to leap and sing her praise before the birds.
• 58:28
  Speaker 6: By many days go white, my hair and skin go dry.
• 58:34
  Speaker 6: But let my heart a dewdrop lie inside those leaves
• 58:38
  Speaker 6: when they go wrong, as fresh as when my life
• 58:42
  Speaker 6: was young, and of poem. This recording is in the
• 58:47
  Speaker 6: public domain.
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: A strange city by William Henry Davies, a wondrous city
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: that had temples there more wretch than that one built
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: by David's son, which called forth Over's Gold. When Israel
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: made Lebanon have naked for her sake. I saw white
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: towers where so called traitors died true men whose tongues
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: were bells to honest hearts and rang out boldly in
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: false monarch's ears. Saw old black gateways, on whose arches
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: crouched stone lions with their bodies gnawed by age. I
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: looked with awe on iron gates that could tell bloody
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: stones if they had our tongues. I saw tall mountains,
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: spires shine in the sun, that stood amidst their army
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: of low streets. I saw in buildings pictures statues rare
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: made in those days when Rome was young and new
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: in marbled quarried from Cassara's Hills, statues by sculptors that
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: could almost make fine cobwebs out of stone so light
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: they worked pictures that breathe in us a living soul
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: such as we seldom feel come from that life. The
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: artist copies many a lovely sight, such as the half
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: sunk barge with bales of hay or sparkling coals. Employed
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: my wondering eyes. I saw Old Thames, whose ripples swarmed
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: with stars bread by the sun on that fine summer's day.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: I saw in fancy fowl and green banks there, and
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: Liza's barge rowed past a thousand Swans. I walked in
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: parks and heard sweet music cry in solemn courtyards midst
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: the men at arms, which suddenly would leap those stony
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: walls and spring up with loud laughter into trees. I
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: walked in busy streets where music offed, went on the
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: mark with men, and oftentimes heard the organ in cathedral
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: when the boys like nightingales sang in that thunder storm.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: The organ, with its rich and solemn towns as near
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: a God's voice as a man conceives nor ever dreamt
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: the silent misery that solemn organ brought to homeless men.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: I heard the drums and soft brass instruments, led by
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: the silver cornets, clear and high, whose sounds turned playing
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: children into stones. I saw at night the city's lights
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: shine bright, a greater milky way. How in its spell
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: it fascinated with ten thousand eyes, like those sweet wiles
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: of an enchantress, who would still detain her nightgneald cold
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: in love. It was an iceberg with long arms unseen,
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: that felt the deep for vessels far away. All things
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: seemed strange. I stired, like any child that pours on
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: some old face and sees a world which its familiar
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: Grandad and his dame head with their love and laughter.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: Until then my feet had not yet felt the cruel
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: rocks beneath the pleasant moss. I seemed to tread. But
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: soon my ears grew weary of that din my eyes
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: grew tired of all that flesh and stone. And as
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: a snail that crawls on a smooth stalk will reach
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: the end and find a sharpened thorn, so did I
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: reach the cruel end. At last I saw the starving
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: mother and her child. Who feared that death would surely
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: end its sleep, and curse the wolf of hunger with
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: her mounds. And yet methought, when first I entered there
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: into that city with my wondering mind, how marvelous its
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: many sights and sounds, the traffic, with its sound of
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: heavy seas that have and would again unseat the rocks.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: How common then seem'd nature's hills and fields compared with
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: these high domes, and even streets and churches with white
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: towers and bodies black. The Terriffic's sound was music to
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: my ears, a sound of where the white waves, hour
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: by hour, attack a reef of coral rising. Yet, or
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: where a mighty worship in a fog steams into a
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: large fleet of little boots. Aye, And that fog was
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: strange and wonderful, that made men blind and grope their way.
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: At noon, I saw that city with fierce human surge,
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: with millions of dark waves that still spread out to
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: swallow more of their green boundaries. Then came a day
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: that noise so stirred my soul. I called them hellish sounds,
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: and thought red war was better far than peace in
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: such a town to hear that din all day sometimes
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: my mind went crazed, and it seemed stray inge as
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: I were lost in some vast forest full of chattering apes.
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: How sick I grew to hear that lasting noise, and
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: all those people forced across my sight, knowing the acres
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: of green fields and woods that in some country parts
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: outnumbered men. In half an hour ten thousand men I
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: passed more than nine thousand should have been green trees.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: There on a summer's day, I saw such crowds that
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: where there was no man, man's shadow was millions, all
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: cramped together in one hive, storing methought more bitter stuff
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: than sweet. The air was foul and stale. From their
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: green homes. Young blood had brought its fresh and rosy cheeks,
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: which soon turned color like blue streams in flood. Iye solitude,
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: black solitude. Indeed to meet a million souls, and no
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: not one. This world must soon grow staled, one compelled
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: to look all day that faces strange and cold, oft
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: full of smoke. That town, its summer's day was darker
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: than a summer's night at sea. Poison was there, and
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: stell men rushed for it like cows for acorns that
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: have made them sick, that town was wretch, and old
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: man's flesh was cheap, but common earth was dear to
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: buy one foot. If I must be fenced end, then
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: let my fence be some green hedgerow, under its green sprays,
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: that shake suspended. Let me walk in joy, as I
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: do now in these dear months I love. End of poem.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain. End of Foliage
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: by William Henry Davies
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 3: Eight