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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  347. The Grasshopper

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Richard Lovelace. 1618–1658

347. The Grasshopper

O THOU that swing’st upon the waving hair 
  Of some well-fillèd oaten beard, 
Drunk every night with a delicious tear 
  Dropt thee from heaven, where thou wert rear’d! 
 
The joys of earth and air are thine entire,         5
  That with thy feet and wings dost hop and fly; 
And when thy poppy works, thou dost retire 
  To thy carved acorn-bed to lie. 
 
Up with the day, the Sun thou welcom’st then, 
  Sport’st in the gilt plaits of his beams,  10
And all these merry days mak’st merry men, 
  Thyself, and melancholy streams.