| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Going down Hill on a Bicycle | | By Henry Charles Beeching (1859–1919) |
| | A Boy’s Song
WITH lifted feet, hands still, | |
| I am poised, and down the hill | |
| Dart, with heedful mind; | |
| The air goes by in a wind. | |
| |
| Swifter and yet more swift, | 5 |
| Till the heart with a mighty lift | |
| Makes the lungs laugh, the throat cry:— | |
| ‘O bird, see; see, bird, I fly! | |
| |
| ‘Is this, is this your joy? | |
| O bird, then I, though a boy, | 10 |
| For a golden moment share | |
| Your feathery life in air!’ | |
| |
| Say, heart, is there aught like this | |
| In a world that is full of bliss? | |
| ’Tis more than skating, bound | 15 |
| Steel-shod to the level ground. | |
| |
| Speed slackens now, I float | |
| Awhile in my airy boat; | |
| Till, when the wheels scarce crawl, | |
| My feet to the treadles fall. | 20 |
| |
| Alas, that the longest hill | |
| Must end in a vale; but still, | |
| Who climbs with toil, wheresoe’er, | |
| Shall find wings waiting there. | | | | |
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