Whose rustling sheath enswathes the corn
That bursts its chrysalis in scorn
Longer to lie in prison shades.
Among the merry lads and maids
The creaking ox-cart slowly wades
Twixt stalks and stubble, sacked and torn
At husking time.
The prying pilot crow persuades
The flock to join in thieving raids;
The sly racoon with craft inborn
His portion steals; from plenty’s horn
His pouch the saucy chipmunk lades
At husking time.
Ringing through the wildernessDulcet notes of song.Daintiest of forest flowersWeaving like a spell–Music through the Autumn hours,Little Elfin bell.
Where the tempests sweep,And the waters leap,And the storms rage overhead.Were you lying there on your couch aloneEre Egypt and Rome were born?Ere the Age of Stone,Or the world had knownThe Man with the Crown of Thorn.The winds screech down from the open west,And the thunders beat and breakOn the amethystOf your rugged breast,–But you…
Their elfin fingers caught and stayedThe sunbeams, as they wound their sheetsInto a filmy barricade‘Twixt earth and where the sunlight beats.A vagrant band of mischiefs these,With wings of grey and cobweb gown;They live along the edge of seas,And creeping out on foot of down,They chase and frolic, frisk and teaseAt blind-man’s buff with all the…
Invincible, terrible, beautiful, sheWith a sword at her side.To right and to left of her, battlements rearAnd fortresses frown;While she sits on her throne without favour or fearWith her cannon as crown.Coast guard and sentinel, watch of the wealOf a nation she keeps;But her hand is encased in a gauntlet of steel,And her thunder but…
Its benediction falling where the dimDusk of the forest creeps.Mute grows the great concerto–and the lightOf day is darkening, Good-night, Good-night.But through the night time I shall hear withinThe murmur of these trees,The calling of your distant violinSobbing across the seas,And waking wind, and star-reflected lightShall voice my answering. Good-night, Good-night.
Velvet cushioned, wild and wary,Then–the coyote’s cry.Rush of hoofs, and roar and rattle,Beasts of blood and breed,Twenty thousand frightened cattle,Then–the wild stampede.Pliant lasso circling widerIn the frenzied flight–Loping horse and cursing rider,Plunging through the night.Rim of dawn the darkness losingTrail of blackened soil;Perfume of the sage brush oozingOn the air like oil.Foothills to the Rockies…
