FAVOURITE POETRY: I AM A ROMANTIC

Say on, that I'm over Romantic

By Eliza Cook.

Say on, that I'm over romantic, 
In loving the wild and the free ; 


But, the waves of the dashing Atlantic, 
The Alps, and the eagle for me I 

The billows, so madly uprearing 

Their heads on the blast-ridden main, 

Mock the hurricane, dauntless, unfearing, 
And roar back the thunder again. 

The mountain, right heavenward bearing, 
Half lost in the sun and the snow, 

Can only be trod by the daring : 
The fearful may tremble below. 

The eagle is high in its dwelling, 
For ever the tameless, the proud ; 

It heeds not the storm-spirits' yelling, 

It swoops through the lightning- fraught cloud. 

Tell me not of a soft-sighing lover ; 

Such things may be had by the score : 
I'd rather be bride to a rover, 

And polish the rifle he bore. 

The storm, with its thunder affrighting ; 

The torrent and avalanche high ; 
These, these, would my spirit delight in ; 

Mid these would I wander and die ! 



Say on, that I'm over romantic, 
In loving the wild and the free ; 



But the waves of the dashing Atlantic, 
The Alps, and the eagle, for me !