Limber-limbed, lazy god, stretched on the rock,

With pitying sorrow, or exultant joy,To tell of earthly tasks in His employ:For some were sorry when they saw how slowThe stream of heavenly love on earth must flow;And some were glad because their eyes had seen,Along its banks, fresh flowers and living green.So, at a certain hour, before the throneThe youngest angel, Asmiel, stood…

Long ago Apollo called to Aristæus,youngest of the shepherds,Saying, ‘I will make you keeper of my bees.’Golden were the hives, and golden was the honey;golden, too, the music,Where the honey-makers hummed among the trees.Happy Aristæus loitered in the garden, wanderedin the orchard,Careless and contented, indolent and free;Lightly took his labour, lightly took his pleasure,till the…

Before it, sleeps the unborn hourIn darkness, and beyond thy power:Behind its unreturning line,The vanished hour, no longer thine:One hour alone is in thy hands,–The NOW on which the shadow stands.

Put out his baby hand to me,Looked in my face, and smiled.It seemed as if he cameHome from a happy land,To tell me something that my heartWould surely understand.Somewhere, among bright dreams,A child that once was mineHad whispered wordless love to him,And given him a sign.Comfort of kindly speech,And counsel of the wise,Have helped me…

To those who loved her well in former daysMeans more than gratitude for glories fled;For every noble man that she hath bred,Lives in the bronze and marble that we raise,Immortalized by art’s immortal praise,To lead our sons as he our fathers led.These monuments of manhood strong and highDo more than forts or battle-ships to keepOur…

For Browning’s lineage! What if men have foundPoor footmen or rich merchants on the rollOf his forbears? Did they beget his soul?Nay, for he came of ancestry renownedThrough all the world, — the poets laurel-crownedWith wreaths from which the autumn takes no toll.The blazons on his coat-of-arms are these:The flaming sign of Shelley’s heart on…