Fools may pine, and sots may swill,

O, the shadows that fleet o’er the springing wheat!O, the magic of running water!The spirit of spring is in every thing,The banners of spring are streaming,We march to a tune from the fifes of June,And life’s a dream worth dreaming.It’s all very well to sit and spellAt the lesson there’s no gainsaying;But what the deuce…

But if you’d see him in his proper place,Making the browns for bub and grub and doss,Go East among the merchants and their men,And where the press in noisiest, and the tidesOf trade run highest and widest, there and thenYou shall behold him, edging with equal stridesAlong the kerb; hawking in either handSome artful nothing…

A histrion angular and profound?A priest? a porter?–Child, althoughI have forgotten clean, I knowThat in the shade of Fujisan,What time the cherry-orchards blow,I loved you once in old Japan.As here you loiter, flowing-gownedAnd hugely sashed, with pins a-rowYour quaint head as with flamelets crowned,Demure, inviting–even so,When merry maids in MiyakoTo feel the sweet o’ the…

Moustache and whisker trooper-like in trim;Frank-faced, frank-eyed, frank-hearted; always brightAnd always punctual-morning, noon, and night;Bland as a Jesuit, sober as a hymn;Humorous, and yet without a touch of whim;Gentle and amiable, yet full of fight.His piety, though fresh and true in strain,Has not yet whitewashed up his common moodTo the dead blank of his particular…

Full fifteen generations in a stringOf heirs to his bequest have had to go.Thus Camden showed, and Barnes, and Stillingfleet,And Richardson, that bade our Lovelace be;Thus to his Genevieve young S. T. C.With thousands else that, wandering up and down,Quaint, privileged, liked and reputed well,Made the great School a part of London TownPatent as Paul’s…

And, teasing her along, the breezeBrought many a rounded grace more near.So passing, one with wave and beam,She left for memory to caressA laughing thought, a golden gleam,A hint of hidden loveliness.