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A Farewell: To C. E. G.

By Charles Kingsley

Topics: classic

My fairest child, I have no song to give you;          No lark could pipe in skies so dull and gray;     Yet, if you will, one quiet hint I'll leave you,          For every day.     I'll tell you how to sing a clearer carol          Than lark who hails the dawn or breezy down     To earn yourself a purer poet's laurel          Than Shakespeare's crown.     Be good, sweet maid, and let who can be clever;          Do lovely things, not dream them, all day long;     And so make Life, and Death, and that For Ever,          One grand sweet song.     February 1, 1856.

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"My fairest child, I have no song to give you;..."

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Author:Charles Kingsley

"My fairest child, I have no song to give you;..." by Charles Kingsley

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Charles Kingsley

About Charles Kingsley

Charles Kingsley (1819–1875) was an English novelist, historian, and poet whose poem "The Three Fishers" and children's book "The Water-Babies" are Victorian classics. He was also a social reformer and advocate for "Christian Socialism."

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