Palace and Pyramid; the brimming tideOf lavish Nile washed all his land with gold.Armies of slaves toiled ant-wise at his feet,World-circling traffic roared through mart and street,His priests were gods, his spice-balmed kings enshrined,Set death at naught in rock-ribbed charnels deep.Seek Pharaoh’s race to-day and ye shall findRust and the moth, silence and dusty sleep.‘O…
The hands crost idly, the shut eyes unseen,Unseeing, the locked lips whose song hath fled;Yet mystic-lived, like some rich, tropic flower,His fame puts forth fresh blossoms hour by hour;Wide spread the laden branches dropping dewOn the low, laureled brow misunderstood,That bent not, neither bowed, until subduedBy the last foe who crowned while he o’erthrew.Fair was…
Now on a thin-ledged chasm’s rock-crumbling lip,Now on a tottering pinnacle that dareThe front of heaven, while always unawaresWeird monsters start above, around, beneath,Each glaring from some uglier mask of death,So the White Czar imperial progress madeThrough terror-haunted days. A shock, a cryWhose echoes ring the globe-the spectre’s laid.Hurled o’er the abyss, see the crowned…
Bows its proud tops beneath the reaper’s hand.Ripe orchards’ plenteous yields enrich the land;Bring the first fruits and offer them this morn,With the stored sweetness of all summer hours,The amber honey sucked from myriad flowers,And sacrifice your best first fruits to-day,With fainting hearts and hands forespent with toil,Offer the mellow harvest’s splendid spoil,To Him who…
The swiftness of the tide, the light thereon,A far-off sail, white as a crescent moon.The shining waters with pale currents strewn,The quiet fishing-smacks, the Eastern cove,The semi-circle of its dark, green grove.The luminous grasses, and the merry sunIn the grave sky; the sparkle far and wide,Laughter of unseen children, cheerful chirpOf crickets, and low lisp…
Yet life is not a vision nor a prayer,But stubborn work; she may not shun her task.After the first compassion, none will spareHer portion and her work achieved, to ask.She pleads for respite,—she will come ere longWhen, resting by the roadside, she is strong.Nay, for the hurrying throng of passers-byWill crush her with their onward-rolling…
Shall charm his sense and fire his blood,And bend his will to mine.’Poor child of passion! ask of meElixir of death or sleep,Or Lethe’s stream; but love is free,And woman must wait and weep.
For one the hour had struck, he paused; the placeRang with an awful Voice:‘Soul, choose thy lot!Two paths are offered; that, in velvet-flower,Slopes easily to every earthly prize.Follow the multitude and bind thine eyes,Thou and thy sons’ sons shall have peace with power.This narrow track skirts the abysmal verge,Here shalt thou stumble, totter, weep and…
O’er the monastery gardenRich in flower, fruit and foliage.Through the avenue of nut trees,Pace two grave and ghostly friars,Snowy white their gowns and girdles,Black as night their cowls and mantles.Lithe and ferret-eyed the younger,Black his scapular denotingA lay brother; his companionLarge, imperious, towers above him.‘T is the abbot, great Fra Pedro,Famous through all SaragossaFor his…
Behind thy pearly veil’sOpaque, mysterious woof?Where sleek red kine, and dappled, crunch day-longThick, luscious blades and purple clover-heads,Nigh me I still can markCool fields of beaded grass.No more; for on the rim of the globed worldI seem to stand and stare at nothingness.But songs of unseen birdsAnd tranquil roll of wavesBring sweet assurance of continuous…
