Faintest breeze will fan it
Far or near;
World as light as feather;
Moonshine rays,
Rainbow tints together,
As it plays.
Drooping, sinking, failing,
Nigh to earth,
Mounting, whirling, sailing,
Full of mirth;
Life there, welling, flowing,
Waving round;
Pictures coming, going,
Without sound.
Quick now, be this airy
Globe repelled!
Never can the fairy
Star be held.
Touched–it in a twinkle
Disappears!
Leaving but a sprinkle,
As of tears.
And Meadowsweet, the chosen of them allBy wandering children, yellow as the creamOf those great cows–winds on as in a dreamBy mill and footbridge, hamlet old and small(Red roofs, gray tower), and sees the sunset gleamOn mullion’d windows of an ivied Hall.There, once upon a time, the heavy KingTrod out its perfume from the Meadowsweet,Strown…
A straight white curtain at the head,And two smooth knobs below.I thought I saw the nursery fire,And in a chair well-knownMy mother sat, and did not tireWith reading all alone.If I should make the slightest soundTo show that I’m awake,She’d rise, and lap the blankets round,My pillow softly shake;Kiss me, and turn my face to…
Sad blue hills afar;Love in his shroud.Scarcely a tear to shed;Hardly a word to say;The end of a summer day;Sweet Love dead.
Uncoils two little green leaves and two brown,With tiny root taking hold on the clayAs, lifting and strengthening day by day,It pushes red branchless, sprouts new leaves,And cell after cell the Power in it weavesOut of the storehouse of soil and clime,To fashion a Tree in due course of time;Tree with rough bark and boughs’…
Dearer twenty-thousand-foldThan gold, is Amy Margaret.‘Amy’ is friend, is ‘Margaret’The pearl for crown or carkanet?Or peeping daisy, summer’s pet?Which are you, Amy Margaret?A friend, a daisy, and a pearl,A kindly, simple, precious girl, —Such, howsoe’er the world may twirl,Be ever, — Amy Margaret!
To westward, sea and sky alone,And sunsets. Put a mossy stone,With mortal name and date, a harpAnd bunch of wild flowers, carven sharp;Then leave it free to winds that blow,And patient mosses creeping; slow,And wandering wings, and footsteps rareOf human creature pausing there.
