Behold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts, and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.

No Nightingale did ever chaunt
So sweetly to reposing bands 
Of Travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian Sands:
No sweeter voice was ever heard
In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.

Will no one tell me what she sings?
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago: 
Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of today?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again!

Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sung
As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work,
And o'er the sickle bending;
I listen'd till I had my fill;
And, as I mounted up the hill, 
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.

There never was any music 
In the golden throat of a bird, 
More fine and clear than the piping 
That in dreams I heard 
Cry through the Heart Lake's rushes, 
And falter and fade away, 
Like odours of thyme one crushes 
In the heat of the day. 

There never was any piping 
So sweet and tender and gay, 
It came like the wind, and lightly 
It blew away — 
It laughed and it grew not weary, 
It sighed and was sweeter yet, 
It sang for the hope of Eri 
And her heavy fret. 

There never was any piping 
So merry and none so sad, 
For it sang of a far green island 
Where, scarlet-clad, 
All under the druid quicken, 
Wild dancers gather and go, 
And under the oaks, unstricken, 
Feeds Saav, the doe. 

And when silence took the piping, 
"It's O to be there," I cried, 
"To dance with no thought of grieving 
For joy that died — 
To dance, and be never weary 
For night or day, 
With the kindliest folk of Eri 
Till the dew's away. 
Sweet, sweet is the twilight dancing, 
Not sweet is the homespun day." 
But the dawn through the rushes glancing 
Drove my dream away.