And seek what erst I all too little sought,
Some spot secure of rest, I do not find.
Retrace my steps I dare not, lest each nook
I late rejected should reject me now,
And sweetest arbours, restlessly forsook,
No more be prone their leafage to allow.
So to the untrod distance do I strain,
Which seemeth ever further to extend;
Desiring oft, in irritable pain,
Premature sleep would bring that settled End,
When I shall know it all, or else forget
This far too little which for more doth fret.
Of the gaunt Claudian Aqueduct alongThe lone Campagna to sepulchral Rome,A Northern youth, companionless, reclined,Pondering on records of the Roman Past,Kingdom, Republic, Empire, longwhile gone.Hard-by, through marble tomb revivified,Rippled and bubbled water crystalline,Inwelling from the far-off Sabine hills.When lo! upon the tomb’s deep-dinted rimSlowly there broadened on his gaze two shapes,Material embodiment of thoseThe great…
Rhone, through broad belts of green,Flecked with the light of almond groves,Upon itself reverting, rovesReluctant from the scene.Yet from stern moat and storied tower,From sprouting vine, from spreading flower,My footsteps cannot chooseBut turn aside, as though some friendWere waiting for my voice, and wendUnto thy vale, Vaucluse!For here, by Sorgue’s sequestered stream,Did Petrarch fly from…
The brow which thought impregnates ofttimes aches;Death-stricken is the womb in giving birth.Cracked is the vase by heat which doth illume,The driest logs the swiftest burn to nought,Sweet flowers are stifled by their own perfume,And bees when honey-clogged are easy caught.Snapped are true chords e’en by the note they give,The largest wave is broken by…
I must end this endless inhuman wrongWithin hail of my own free shore.So fling out the war-flag’s folds, and let the righteous cannons roar!”‘Twas a quick, rash word, for the strong Young LandIs a Land whose ways are peace;It weareth no mail, and its keels are mannedWith cotton, and corn, and fleece,While lands there are…
But now with happy pride your Father smiles,Your Mother weeps.You went as came the swallow, homeward drawNow it hath winged its way to winters green;But never swallow or wandering sea-bird sawWhat You have seen.For You have circled the earth with pinions fleet,The seasons through, and everywhere a throngOf glowing hearts your coming trooped to greetWith…
Not in the squalid street nor pompous square:So that he again may beFrom contamination free,His pedestal the plain, his canopy the air!There leave him all alone!Too much, too long, he herded with his kind,Lured by the frolic phantoms that dethroneHonest heart and homely mind,Phantoms that besot and blind,Then leave the troubled soul to suffer and…
