Five Part-Songs for Women's Choir, Set II

I love all beauteous things, 
I seek and adore them; 
God hath no better praise, 
And man in his hasty days 
Is honoured for them.

I too will something make
And joy in the making! 
Altho' tomorrow it seem' 
Like the empty words of a dream
Remembered, on waking. 

The idle life I lead 
Is like a pleasant sleep, 
Wherein I rest and heed 
The dreams that by me sweep. 

And still of all my dreams 
In turn so swiftly past, 
Each in its fancy seems 
A nobler than the last. 

And every eve I say, 
Noting my step in bliss, 
That I have known no day 
In all my life like this.

Crown Winter with green,
And give him good drink
To physic his spleen
Or ever he think.
 
His mouth to be bowl
His feet to the fire;
And let him, good soul,
No comfort desire.
 
So merry he be,
I bid him abide:
And merry be we
This good Yuletide.

The upper skies are palest blue 
Mottled with pearl and fretted snow: 
With tattered fleece of inky hue 
Close overhead the stormclouds go. 

Their shadows fly along the hill 
And o'er the crest mount one by one: 
The whitened planking of the mill 
Is now in shade and now in sun.