| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909. | | | | Lately Our Songsters Loiter’d in Green Lanes | | By Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) |
| | | LATELY our songsters loiter’d in green lanes, | |
| Content to catch the ballads of the plains; | |
| I fancied I had strength enough to climb | |
| A loftier station at no distant time, | |
| And might securely from intrusion doze | 5 |
| Upon the flowers thro’ which Ilissus flows. | |
| In those pale olive grounds all voices cease, | |
| And from afar dust fills the paths of Greece. | |
| My slumber broken and my doublet torn, | |
| I find the laurel also bears a thorn. | 10 | | | |
|
|
