Thou art my Muse, my ‘May’, my ‘Madeline’:But ‘Julia’! — ah! that gentle name to meIs something far too sacred for the throngOf worldly listeners ’round me. Yet ev’n nowI weave a chaplet for thy sinless brow; —Wilt thou not wear it? ‘T is a fashionable song, —I will not say of what, — but…
Yet I cling to the bond, e’en while sick of the maskI must wear, as of one whom his commonplace taskAnd proof-armor of dullness have steeled to her charms!Ah! how lovely she looked as she flung from her arms,In heaps to this table (now starred with the stainsOf her booty yet wet with those yesterday…
All shades of danger, tides, and weary calms;Head-currents, cold and famine, savage beasts,And men more savage; all the while my faceLooked northward toward the pole; if mortal strengthCould have sustained me, I had never turnedTill I had seen the star which never setsFreeze in the Arctic zenith. That I failedTo solve the mysteries of the…
Look! coral-leaved! and — mark these spotsRed staining red in crimson clots,Like a sweet lip bitten throughIn a pique. There, where that hueIs spilt in drops, some fairy thingHath gashed the azure of its wing,Or thence, perhaps, this very morn,Plucked the splinters of a thorn.Rose! I make thy bliss my care!In my lady’s dusky hairThou…
One, facing battle, blight and blast,Through twice a hundred fields has passed;Its deeds against a ruffian foe,Stream, valley, hill, and mountain know,Till every wind that sweeps the landGoes, glory laden, from the strand.The other, with a narrower scope,Yet led by not less grand a hope,Hath won, perhaps, as proud a place,And wears its fame with…
I should be dumb before thee, feathered sage!And gaze upon thy phiz with solemn awe,But for a most audacious wish to gaugeThe hoarded wisdom of thy learned craw.Art thou, grave bird! so wondrous wise indeed?Speak freely, without fear of jest or gibe –What is thy moral and religious creed?And what the metaphysics of thy tribe?A…
Sad fancies have been flitting through my brain;Now it has been a vessel losing way,Rounding a stormy headland; now a grayDull waste of clouds above a wintry main;And then, a banner, drooping in the rain,And meadows beaten into bloody clay.Strolling at random with this shadowy woeAt heart, I chanced to wander hither! Lo!A league of…
It may be that across the foamWhich bore her from her childhood’s home,By some strange spell, my Katie brought,Along with English creeds and thought —Entangled in her golden hair —Some English sunshine, warmth, and air!I cannot tell — but here to-day,A thousand billowy leagues awayFrom that green isle whose twilight skiesNo darker are than Katie’s…
A beautiful recess in neighboring woods.Trees of the soberest hues, thick-leaved and tall,Arch it o’erhead and column it around,Framing a covert, natural and wild,Domelike and dim; though nowhere so enclosedBut that the gentlest breezes reach the spotUnwearied and unweakened. Sound is hereA transient and unfrequent visitor;Yet if the day be calm, not often then,Whilst the…
Is Heaven’s gain and thine; upon the crossGod hangs the crown, the pinion, and the lyre:And thou hast won them all. Could we desireTo quench that diadem’s celestial light,To hush thy song and stay thy heavenward flight,Because we miss thee by this autumn fire?Ah, no! ah, no! — chant on! — soar on! — Reign…
