Tireless to spin the unseen, fairy woofOf the entangling waltz. Bright eyebeams meet,Gay laughter echoes from the vaulted roof.Warm perfumes rise; the soft unflickering glowOf branching lights sets off the changeful charmsOf glancing gems, rich stuffs, the dazzling snowOf necks unkerchieft, and bare, clinging arms.Hark to the music! How beneath the strainOf reckless revelry, vibrates…
And naked branches point to frozen skies.When orchards burn their lamps of fiery gold,The grape glows like a jewel, and the cornA sea of beauty and abundance lies,Then the new year is born.Look where the mother of the months upliftsIn the green clearness of the unsunned West,Her ivory horn of plenty, dropping gifts,Cool, harvest-feeding dews,…
Quenching all her neighbor stars,Save the steady flame of Mars.White as silver shines the sea,Far-off sails like phantoms be,Gliding o’er that lake of light,Vanishing in nether night.Heavy hangs the tasseled corn,Sighing for the cordial morn;But the marshy-meadows bare,Love this spectral-lighted air,Drink the dews and lift their song,Chirp of crickets all night long;Earth and sea enchanted…
That never coronal of triumph wore,Untombed, dishonored, and unchapleted.If Victory makes the hero, raw SuccessThe stamp of virtue, unrememberedBe then the desperate strife, the storm and stressOf the last Warrior Jew. But if the manWho dies for freedom, loving all things less,Against world-legions, mustering his poor clan;The weak, the wronged, the miserable, to sendTheir death-cry’s…
From thy most meek disciple! Deign once moreEndure me at thy feet, enlighten me,As when upon my boyish head of yore,Midst the rapt circle gathered round thy kneeThy sacred vials of learning thou didst pour.By the large lustre of thy wisdom orbedBe my black doubts illumined and absorbed.II.Oft I recall that golden time when thou,Born…
Its only music the glad cry of mirth,While the warm sun weaves golden-tissued hours;Hope a bright angel, beautiful and trueAs Truth herself, and life a lovely toy,Which ne’er will weary us, ne’er break, a newEternal source of pleasure and of joy.A dream of roses: vision of Loves tree,Of beauty and of madness, and as brightAs…
Yellow as a shield of brass,In the dewy air of June,Poised between the vaulted skyAnd the ocean’s liquid glass.Earth lies in the shadow still;Low black bushes, trees, and lawnNight’s ambrosial dews absorb;Through the foliage creeps a thrill,Whispering of yon spectral dawnAnd the hidden climbing orb.Higher, higher, gathering light,Veiling with a golden gauzeAll the trembling atmosphere,See,…
Who did create her. Nature cometh hereTo lay its offerings upon thy shrine.The morning and the evening shower downBright jewels, — changeful opals, em’ralds fair.The burning noon sends floods of molten gold,The calm night crowns thee with its host of stars,The moon enfolds thee with her silver veil,And o’er thee e’er is arched the rainbow’s…
But bloometh here— this is no world of death;And nothing that once liveth, ever dies,And naught that breathes can ever cease to breathe,And naught that bloometh ever withereth.The gods can ne’er take back their gifts from men,They gave us life,— they cannot take again.Who hath known Death, and who hath seen his face?On what high…
The ways and the woods were made pleasant,And the flowering nooks of the earth.And the sunshine sufficed to rejoice me,And the air was as bracing as wine,And the sky and the shadows and grassesWere enough to make living divine.Then I saw on the ground two gray robins,One with glorious flame-colored vest,‘Neath the shade of some…
