“When earth is cold and there is no more sea,There will be what was Lingard. Otherwise,Why lure the race to ruin through the skies?And why have Leffingwell, or Calverly?”—“I wish the ghost would give his name,” said he;And searching gratitude was in his eyes.He stood then by the window for a time,And only after the…
Ye that have seen this woe that we have seen,—Look with a just regard,And with an even grace,Here on the shattered corpse of a shattered king,Here on a suffering world where men grow oldAnd wander like sad shadows till, at last,Out of the flare of life,Out of the whirl of years,Into the mist they go,Into…
Between the gray Arch and the old Hotel.“King Solomon was right, there’s nothing new,”Said he. “Behold a ruin who meant well.”He led me down familiar steps again,Appealingly, and set me in a chair.“My dreams have all come true to other men,”Said he; “God lives, however, and why care?“An hour among the ghosts will do no…
In almagest or chronicle of old,Whereat we smile because we are as yetThe last—though not the last who may forgetWhat cleavings and abrasions manifoldHave marked an armor that was never scrolledBefore for human glory and regret.With infinite unseen enemies in the wayWe have encountered the intangible,To vanquish where our fathers, who fought well,Scarce had assumed…
Look around—you haven’t farTo look—and why be dumb?Not the place that used to be,Not so many things to see;But there’s room for you and me.And you—you’ve come.Talk a little; or, if not,Show me with a signWhy it was that you forgotWhat was yours and mine.Friends, I gather, are small thingsIn an age when coins are…
May we who shrank to find him weakRemember that he cannot speak.For envy that we may recall,And for our faith before the fall,May we who are alive be slowTo tell what we shall never know.For penance he would not confess,And for the fateful emptinessOf early triumph undermined,May we now venture to be kind.
Now nor after shall he sayWorn-out words enough to kill,Or to lull down by their craft,Doubt, that was born yesterday,When he lied and when she laughed.Let him and another namefor the starlight on the snow,Let him teach her till she knowThat all seasons are the same,And all sheltered ways are fair,—Still, wherever she may go,Doubt…
Observe yourself as you discern yourselfIn your discredited ascendency;Without your velvet or your feathers now,Commend your new condition to your fate,And your conviction to the sieves of time.Meanwhile appraise yourself, Rembrandt van Ryn,Now as you are—formerly more or lessDistinguished in the civil scenery,And once a painter. There you are again,Where you may see that you…
Allurable to no sure theorem,The scorn or the humility of man.You say ‘Can I believe it?’—and I can;And I’m unwilling even to condemnThe benefaction of a stratagemLike hers—and I’m a Presbyterian.“Though blind, with but a wandering hour to live,He felt the other woman in the furThat now the wife had on. Could she forgiveAll that?…
Ha! Look you, there’s a rat.Last night there were a dozen on that shelf,And two of them were living in my hat.Look! Now he goes, but he’ll come back—Ha? But he will, I say …Il reviendra-z-à Pâques,Ou à la Trinité …Be very sure that he’ll return again;For said the Lord: Imprimis, we have rats,And having…
