The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

All alone on Airly Beacon,
With his baby on my knee!
‘Airly Beacon’
Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever;
Do noble things, not dream them, all day long:
And so make Life, Death, and that vast for-ever
One grand, sweet song.
‘A Farewell’ (1858)
What we can we will be,
Honest Englishmen.
Do the work that’s nearest,
Though it’s dull at whiles,
Helping, when we meet them,
Lame dogs over stiles.
‘Letter to Thomas Hughes’
’Tis the hard grey weather
Breeds hard English men.
‘Ode to the North-East Wind’
Come; and strong within us
Stir the Vikings’ blood;
Bracing brain and sinew;
Blow, thou wind of God!
‘Ode to the North-East Wind’
‘O Mary, go and call the cattle home,
And call the cattle home,
And call the cattle home,
Across the sands of Dee.’
The western wind was wild and dank with foam,
And all alone went she.
‘The Sands of Dee’
The western tide crept up along the sand,
And o’er and o’er the sand,
And round and round the sand,
As far as eye could see.
The rolling mist came down and hid the land:
And never home came she.
‘The Sands of Dee’
Three fishers went sailing away to the west,
Away to the west as the sun went down;
Each thought on the woman who loved him the best,