Since love and life, the future and the past,Died with the shutting of these silent doors,And thought became to me one purpose vast.I have not moved from where she sat. The castOf her fingers on this cushion lightly scoresIts surface still; and still I hear the lastTones of her laughter, and here lie her flowers.Poor…
Could heart desire for mistress or for friend?Phoenix of friends, and most divine of women,Skilled in all fence to venture or defendAnd with love’s science at your fingers’ end,No tears to vex, no ignorance to bore,A fancy ripe, the zest which sorrows lend!–I would to God we had not met before!–I would to God! and…
Gone ere we knew it, while our foolish eyes,Which should have watched its motions every oneWere looking elsewhere, at the hills, the skies,Chasing vain thoughts, as children butterflies,Until the hour struck and the day was done,And we looked up in passionate surpriseTo find that clouds had blotted out our sun.Our joys are gone. And what…
The bread I asked and offered me a stone,Deeming the rights of bounty thus abusedAnd my poor beggary but trampled on,Believe me now I would that wrong atoneWith such submission as a heart can show,Asking no bread of life but that aloneYour dear heart proffered and my pride let go.Give me your help, your pity,…
What remnant of old Europe in this wood,Of life primaeval rude as in the yearWhen thy first legions by the Danube stood.These are the very Dacians they subdued,Swineherds and shepherds clad in skins of deerAnd fox and marten still, a bestial brood,Than their own swine begotten swinelier.The fair oak–forest, their first heritage,Pastures them still, and…
I have no natural love of the “chaste muse.”If aught be worth the doing I would do it;And others, if they will, may tell the news.I care not for their laurels but would chooseOn the world’s field to fight or fall or run.My soul’s ambition will not take excuseTo play the dial rather than the…
And smart like wounds yet green. But one there isWhich, for the cause that it was dear to youIn days which counted upon greater bliss,Is fairer now and dearer far than these;And this the memory is of some hours spentOne afternoon when, seated at your knees,I made narration (it was middle LentAnd you with Judas…
I felt the south wind blow; and presently,With a tumultuous thrill and then a shake,The nightingale broke forth in melody.I rose in haste, and looked at the grey sky,And read an omen. From its corner nextA book I drew, blest book, where fly on flyAre all the letters of its well–thumbed text.I chose my cast,…
Desolate are the streets. Desolate is the city.A city taken by storm, where none are left but the slain.Sadly I rose at dawn, undid the latch of my shutters,Thinking to let in light, but I only let in love.Birds in the boughs were awake; I listen’d to their chaunting;Each one sang to his love; only…
And sought this combat with ungodly Man,And ceaseless still through years that do not ceaseHave warred with Powers and Principalities.My natural soul, e’er yet these strifes began,Was as a sister diligent to pleaseAnd loving all, and most the human clan.God knows it. And he knows how the world’s tearTouched me. And He is witness of…
