‘Tis late at night, and in the realm of sleep

And made a river of the road;A sea of mist that overflowedThe house, the barns, the gilded vane,And drowned the upland and the plain,Through which the oak-trees, broad and high,Like phantom ships went drifting by;And, hidden behind a watery screen,The sun unseen, or only seenAs a faint pallor in the sky;–Thus cold and colorless and…

In some ancient Spanish legendOr chronicle of old.It was when brave King SanchezWas before Zamora slain,And his great besieging armyLay encamped upon the plain.Don Diego de OrdonezSallied forth in front of all,And shouted loud his challengeTo the warders on the wall.All the people of Zamora,Both the born and the unborn,As traitors did he challengeWith taunting…

Neat as a pin, and blooming as a rose,Stood Mistress Stavers in her furbelows,Just as her cuckoo-clock was striking nine.Above her head, resplendent on the sign,The portrait of the Earl of Halifax,In scarlet coat and periwig of flax,Surveyed at leisure all her varied charms,Her cap, her bodice, her white folded arms,And half resolved, though he…

On the sick or wounded bison,But another vulture, watchingFrom his high aerial look-out,Sees the downward plunge, and follows;And a third pursues the second,Coming from the invisible ether,First a speck, and then a vulture,Till the air is dark with pinions.So disasters come not singly;But as if they watched and waited,Scanning one another’s motions,When the first descends,…

And near the story’s end a deep,Sonorous sound at times was heard,As when the distant bagpipes blow.At this all laughed; the Landlord stirred,As one awaking from a swound,And, gazing anxiously around,Protested that he had not slept,But only shut his eyes, and keptHis ears attentive to each word.Then all arose, and said ‘Good Night.’Alone remained the…

The solemn grove uplifts its shield of goldTo the red rising moon, and loud and deepThe nightingale is singing from the steep;It is midsummer, but the air is cold;Can it be death? Alas, beside the foldA shepherd’s pipe lies shattered near his sheep.Lo! in the moonlight gleams a marble white,On which I read: ‘Here lieth…