'Dance and Finale'

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Dickens, Charles. 'Dance and Finale.' The Village Coquettes (1836): pp.17-18. Dickens Search. Eds. Emily Bell and Lydia Craig. Accessed [date]. https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836_The_Village_Coquettes_Dance_and_Finale.

CHORUS. Join the dance, with step as light

As ev’ry heart should be to-night;

Music, shake the lofty dome,

In honour of our Harvest Home.

Join the dance, and banish care,

All are young, and gay, and fair;

Even age has youthful grown,

In honour of our Harvest Home. 

Join the dance, bright faces beam,

Sweet lips smile, and dark eyes gleam;

All these charms have hither come,

In honour of our Harvest Home.

Join the dance, with step as light,

As ev’ry heart should be to-night;

Music shake the lofty dome

In honour of our Harvest Home.

QUINTET - Lucy - Rose - Edmunds - The Squire - Young Benson

No light bound

Of stag or timid hare,

O’er the ground

Where startled herds repair,

Do we prize

So high, or hold so dear,

As the eyes 

That light our pleasures here.

No cool breeze

That gently plays by night,

O’er calm seas,

Whose waters glisten bright;

No soft moan 

That sighs across the lea,

Harvest Home,

Is half so sweet as thee!

CHORUS. 

Hail to the merry autumn days, when yellow corn-fields shine,

Far brighter than the costly cup that holds the monarch's wine!

Hail to the merry harvest time, the gayest of the year,

The time of rich and bounteous crops, rejoicing, and good cheer. 
                                             Hail! Hail! Hail!