OH clear smooth rivulet, creeping through our bridgeWith backward waves that cling around the shore,And is thy world beyond the dim blue ridgeMore dear than this, or does it need thee more?Oh lingering stream, upon thy ceaseless wayGlide to to-morrow; yet ’tis fair to-day:Beyond the hills and haze to-morrows hide;To-day is fair; glide lingering, ceaseless…
‘I am Love ‘; but her eyes lacked Love’s quick glow,And the tear that springs after;‘I am Life’; but she seemed too calm, too still,Like one who waits, but forgets to-morrow;Then she took my hand, and I did her will,And knew she was Sorrow.And she led me on through the world we see,Where smiles are…
Winged whispers through the leaves where wakeLong wind-wafts dying in a sigh,Replies of birds from brake to brake,Plash of the runnel on its stones,Soft voices, sweet for summer’s sake,There is a word in all your tones,A word that not till now ye spake,‘Goodbye, goodbye.’And yet, see, dearest, overheadThe branches bar a sultry sky,No earliest fleck…
The folded bud has stillTo-morrow at its will;Blown flowers can never blow again.Too soon so bright, bright noontide;The sun that now is highWill henceforth only sinkTowards the western brink;Day that’s at prime begins to die.Too soon so rich, ripe summer,For autumn tracks thee fast;Lo, death-marks on the leaf!Sweet summer, and my grief;For summer come is…
Ere the leaf burst upwards can any say‘Here is a green thing hidden awayIn the lingering new year snows’?Could I have loved one not her?Can I tell, can I tell?When northern seas feel their life, and stirIn their one day’s dawn, can they judge and aver‘Some other dawn were as well’?Could I, she lost, love…
That to have reached the best is leaving it;That final loss bears date from having found.So some proud vessel in a narrow soundSails at high water with the fair wind fit,And lo! the ebb along the sandy spit,Lower and lower till she jars, aground.‘Tis hard. We are young still but more content;‘Tis our ripe flush,…
Should be a castaway.’ If some one nowWould take that text and preach to us that preach, —Some one who could forget his truths were oldAnd what were in a thousand bawling mouthsWhile they filled his — some one who could so throwHis life into the old dull skeletonsOf points and morals, inferences, proofs,Hopes, doubts,…
To make day fair when they unclose.Be hushed around her, Night, and keepThy silent guard on her repose;But speed thine hours.Dear love, sleep on. This weary spaceI wake and long for day and thee,And count the slow stars from their west.Sleep while I hunger for thy face,Sleep, dearest, in unbroken rest;But dream of me.
If I were gone your life would be no moreThan his who, hungering on a rocky shore,Shipwrecked, alone, observes the ebb and flowOf hopeless ocean widening forth below,And is remembering all that was before.Dear, I believe it, at your strong heart’s coreI am the life; no need to tell me so.And yet–Ah, husband, though I…
Free, and unknowing sorrow,Blithely and lithely to and fro,With flowers for thy choosing still a-blow,Flaunt through the idle noon:But the day is short and the summer sped,And alas for the end of joy so soon;The days are short and the rose is dead,And thou wilt be dying to-morrow.’BUTTERFLY loquitur‘Sunshine and blossoms are on my way;What…
