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 this merry scene, When Mary and Susan and Emily, With their sweet round mouths, sing Ha, ha, he!

When the painted birds laugh in the shade, Where our table with cherries and nuts is spread, Come live and be merry and join with me, To sing the sweet chorus of Ha, ha, he!

The Fairy Glee of Oberon, which Stevens's exquisite music has familiarized to modern ears, will immediately occur to the reader of these laughing stanzas. We may also trace another less obvious resemblance to Jonson, in an ode gratulatory to the Right Honourable Hierome, Lord Weston, for his return from his embassy, in the year 1632. The accord is to be found, not in the words nor in the subject; for either would betray imitation: but in the style of thought, and, if I may so term it, the date of the expression.

Such pleasure as the teeming earth Doth take in easy nature's birth, When she puts forth the life of every thing: And in a dew of sweetest rain, She lies delivered without pain, Of the prime beauty of the year, the spring.

The rivers in their shores do run, The clouds rack clear before the sun, The rudest winds obey the calmest air: Rare plants from every bank do rise, And every plant the sense surprise, Because the order of the whole is fair!

The very verdure of her nest, Wherein she sits so richly drest, As all the wealth of season there was spread; Doth show the graces and the hours Have multiplied their arts and powers, In making soft her aromatic bed.

Such joys, such sweets, doth your return Bring all your friends, fair lord, that burn With love, to hear your modesty relate The bus'ness of your blooming wit, With all the fruit shall follow it, Both to the honor of the king and state.

The following poem of Blake is in a different character. It expresses with majesty and pathos the feelings of a benevolent mind, on being present at a sublime display of national munificence and charity.