[Editor: This poem by William Blocksidge (also known as William Baylebridge) was published in Songs o’ the South (1908). This composition was the first in the section “Songs”.]
SONGS
Alpha and Omega
Across the fields of corn,
Across the fields of barley,
The farmer’s son forlorn
Doth wander early, early —
List to the song, to the song he sings:
List to the burden a full heart brings
Of one he loved so dearly!
My Love was fair, my Love was fair,
As fair as the opening morn;
More gold her hair, more gold her hair,
Than the bearded barley and corn;
And her breath as sweet as the breath I meet
In the breeze on the mountain born!
The dewy grass with diamonds hung
Holds duller gems than filled her eyes;
The flowerets peeping up among
The grass, though dreams of Paradise,
Were not so fair as she.
And she was not more fair than kind;
Nor was my Love more kind than true.
But Fate to loveliness is blind;
And Death has ta’en her for his due,
To break the heart of me!
Across the fields of corn,
Across the fields of barley,
The farmer’s son doth go forlorn,
Mourning her he loved so dearly
As the day is born.
Source:
William Blocksidge, Songs o’ the South, London: Watts, 1908, p. 1
Editor’s notes:
floweret = small flower; floret
list = (archaic) listen
morn = morning
ta’en = taken
doth = (archaic) does
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