The tide rises, the tide falls,

Who mad’st thy crook from the accursed tree,On which thy powerful arms were stretched so long!Lead me to mercy’s ever-flowing fountains;For thou my shepherd, guard, and guide shalt be ;I will obey thy voice, and wait to seeThy feet all beautiful upon the mountains.Hear, Shepherd! thou who for thy flock art dying,Oh, wash away these…

Where foes no more molest,Nor sentry’s shot alarms!Ye have slept on the ground before,And started to your feetAt the cannon’s sudden roar,Or the drum’s redoubling beat.But in this camp of DeathNo sound your slumber breaks;Here is no fevered breath,No wound that bleeds and aches.All is repose and peace,Untrampled lies the sod;The shouts of battle cease,It…

As the statues in the gloomWatch o’er Maximilian’s tomb,So those volumes from their shelvesWatched him, silent as themselves.Ah! his hand will nevermoreTurn their storied pages o’er;Nevermore his lips repeatSongs of theirs, however sweet.Let the lifeless body rest!He is gone, who was its guest;Gone, as travellers haste to leaveAn inn, nor tarry until eve.Traveller! in what…

And the dry leaves strew the path;With the falling of the snow,With the cawing of the crow,Once again the fields we mowAnd gather in the aftermath.Not the sweet, new grass with flowersIs this harvesting of ours;Not the upland clover bloom;But the rowen mixed with weeds,Tangled tufts from marsh and meads,Where the poppy drops its seedsIn…

Seemed his own image there to trace,As in the waters of a brook.‘Dear child! who me resemblest so,’It whispered, ‘come, O come with me!Happy together let us go,The earth unworthy is of thee!‘Here none to perfect bliss attain;The soul in pleasure suffering lies;Joy hath an undertone of pain,And even the happiest hours their sighs.‘Fear doth…

Mad River, O Mad River?Wilt thou not pause and cease to pourThy hurrying, headlong waters o’erThis rocky shelf forever?What secret trouble stirs thy breast?Why all this fret and flurry?Dost thou not know that what is bestIn this too restless world is restFrom over-work and worry?THE RIVERWhat wouldst thou in these mountains seek,O stranger from the…

So spins the flying world away!This clay, well mixed with marl and sand,Follows the motion of my hand;Far some must follow, and some command,Though all are made of clay!Thus sang the Potter at his taskBeneath the blossoming hawthorn-tree,While o’er his features, like a mask,The quilted sunshine and leaf-shadeMoved, as the boughs above him swayed,And clothed…

And all her hope and all her prideAre in the village school.Her soul, like the transparent airThat robes the hills above,Though not of earth, encircles thereAll things with arms of love.And thus she walks among her girlsWith praise and mild rebukes;Subduing e’en rude village churlsBy her angelic looks.She reads to them at eventideOf One who…

Whose windows, looking o’er the bay,Gave to the sea-breeze damp and cold,An easy entrance, night and day.Not far away we saw the port,The strange, old-fashioned, silent town,The lighthouse, the dismantled fort,The wooden houses, quaint and brown.We sat and talked until the night,Descending, filled the little room;Our faces faded from the sight,Our voices only broke the…

And silent chambers of the household markThe movements of the myriad orbs of light!Through my closed eyelids, by the inner sight,I see the constellations in the arcOf their great circles moving on, and hark!I almost hear them singing in their flight.Better than sleep it is to lie awake,O’er-canopied by the vast starry domeOf the immeasurable…

As Roman actors used to sayAt the conclusion of a play;?And rose, and spread his hands abroad,And smiling bowed from side to side,As one who bears the palm away.And generous was the applause and loud,But less for him than for the sun,That even as the tale was doneBurst from its canopy of cloud,And lit the…

I am the Thunderer!Here in my Northland,My fastness and fortress,Reign I forever!Here amid icebergsRule I the nations;This is my hammer,Miölner the mighty;Giants and sorcerersCannot withstand it!These are the gauntletsWherewith I wield it,And hurl it afar off;This is my girdle;Whenever I brace it,Strength is redoubled!The light thou beholdestStream through the heavens,In flashes of crimson,Is but my…

While the sullen gales of autumnShake the windows.The ungrateful worldHas, it seems, dealt harshly with thee,Since, beneath the skies of Denmark,First I met thee.There are marks of age,There are thumb-marks on thy margin,Made by hands that clasped thee rudely,At the alehouse.Soiled and dull thou art;Yellow are thy time-worn pages,As the russet, rain-molestedLeaves of autumn.Thou art…

Meditatest, with slender pipe, the Muse of the woodlands.We our country’s bounds and pleasant pastures relinquish,We our country fly; thou, Tityrus, stretched in the shadow,Teachest the woods to resound with the name of the fairAmaryllis.TITYRUS.O Meliboeus, a god for us this leisure created,For he will be unto me a god forever; his altarOftentimes shall imbue…

That shall laugh at all disaster,And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!’The merchant’s wordDelighted the Master heard;For his heart was in his work, and the heartGiveth grace unto every Art.A quiet smile played round his lips,As the eddies and dimples of the tidePlay round the bows of ships,That steadily at anchor ride.And with a voice that…

Knelt Astrid the Abbess,At midnight, adoring,Beseeching, entreatingThe Virgin and Mother.She heard in the silenceThe voice of one speaking,Without in the darkness,In gusts of the night-wind,Now louder, now nearer,Now lost in the distance.The voice of a strangerIt seemed as she listened,Of some one who answered,Beseeching, imploring,A cry from afar offShe could not distinguish.The voice of Saint…

And hear its leaves repeat their benisonOn him, whose hand thy stones memorial laid;Then I remember one of whom was saidIn the world’s darkest hour, ‘Behold thy son!’And see him living still, and wandering onAnd waiting for the advent long delayed.Not only tongues of the apostles teachLessons of love and light, but these expandingAnd sheltering…

Suddenly comes the dark, with hardly a pause in its coming,Hardly a moment between the two lights, the day and the lamplight;Yet how grand is the winter! How spotless the snow is, and perfect!’Thus spake Elizabeth Haddon at nightfall to Hannah the housemaid,As in the farm-house kitchen, that served for kitchen and parlor,By the window…