| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| Tripping Down the Field-Path |
| | | Charles Swain (1803–74) |
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| TRIPPING down the field-path, | |
| Early in the morn, | |
| There I met my own love | |
| ’Midst the golden corn; | |
| Autumn winds were blowing, | 5 |
| As in frolic chase, | |
| All her silken ringlets | |
| Backward from her face; | |
| Little time for speaking | |
| Had she, for the wind, | 10 |
| Bonnet, scarf, or ribbon, | |
| Ever swept behind. | |
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| Still some sweet improvement | |
| In her beauty shone; | |
| Every graceful movement | 15 |
| Won me,—one by one! | |
| As the breath of Venus | |
| Seemed the breeze of morn, | |
| Blowing thus between us, | |
| ’Midst the golden corn. | 20 |
| Little time for wooing | |
| Had we, for the wind | |
| Still kept on undoing | |
| What we sought to bind. | |
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| Oh! that autumn morning | 25 |
| In my heart it beams, | |
| Love’s last look adorning | |
| With its dream of dreams: | |
| Still, like waters flowing | |
| In the ocean shell, | 30 |
| Sounds of breezes blowing | |
| In my spirit dwell; | |
| Still I see the field-path;— | |
| Would that I could see | |
| Her whose graceful beauty | 35 |
| Lost is now to me! | |
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