THOUGH old the thought and oft exprest,

A tale which grew in wonder year by year;As every time he told it, Joe drew nearTo the main fight, till faded and grown gray,The original scene to bolder tints gave way;Then Joe had heard the foe’s scared double-quickBeat on stove drum with one uncaptured stick,And, ere death came the lengthening tale to lop,Himself had…

The poplars shiver, the pine-trees moan,My hair by the autumn breeze is blown,Under thy window I sing alone,Alone, alone, ah woe! alone!The darkness is pressing coldly around,The windows shake with a lonely sound,The stars are hid and the night is drear,The heart of silence throbs in thine ear,In thy chamber thou sittest alone,Alone, alone, ah…

And gave them, in few words, his parting charge!‘My son and daughter, me ye see no more;The happy hunting-grounds await me, greenWith change of spring and summer through the year:But, for remembrance, after I am gone,Be kind to little Sheemah for my sake:Weakling he is and young, and knows not yetTo set the trap, or…

And said: ‘O Skald, sing now an olden song,Such as our fathers heard who led great lives;And, as the bravest on a shield is borneAlong the waving host that shouts him king,So rode their thrones upon the thronging seas!’Then the old man arose; white-haired he stood,White-bearded with eyes that looked afarFrom their still region of…

Simply as breathing, a world’s honors wornAs life’s indifferent gifts to all men born;Dumb for himself, unless it were to God,But for his barefoot soldiers eloquent,Tramping the snow to coral where they trod,Held by his awe in hollow-eyed content;Modest, yet firm as Nature’s self; unblamedSave by the men his nobler temper shamed;Never seduced through show…

Yet scarce a presence, rather sayThe warning aureole of one.And yet I felt it everywhere;Walked I the woodland’s aisles along,It seemed to brush me with its hair;Bathed I, I heard a mermaid’s song.How sweet it was! A buttercupCould hold for me a day’s delight,A bird could lift my fancy upTo ether free from cloud or…