Now the active young attorneys Briskly travel on their journeys, Looking big as any giants, On the horses of their clients; Like so many little Marses...
Do you not hear me calling, white deer with no horns? I have been changed to a hound with one red ear; I have been in the Path of Stones and the Wood of Thorns,...
I reached the highest place in Spoon River, But through what bitterness of spirit! The face of my father, sitting speechless, Child-like, watching his canaries, And looking at the court-house window...
As some bland soul, to whom a debtor says "I'll now repay the amount I owe to you," In inward gladness feigns forgetfulness That such a payment ever was his due ...
Here pause: the poet claims at least this praise, That virtuous Liberty hath been the scope Of his pure song, which did not shrink from hope In the worst moment of these evil days;...
O Curlew, cry no more in the air, Or only to the water in the West; Because your crying brings to my mind passion-dimmed eyes and long heavy hair That was shaken out over my breast:...
Bring the bowl which you boast, Fill it up to the brim; 'Tis to him we love most, And to all who love him. Brave gallants, stand up, And avaunt ye, base carles! Were there death in the cup,...
Shines the last age, the next with hope is seen, To-day slinks poorly off unmarked between: Future or Past no richer secret folds, O friendless Present! than thy bosom holds.
Thus did the prudent son escape from the hot conversation, But the father continued precisely as he had begun it What is not in a man can never come out of him, surely!...
Then when into the room the well-built son made his entry, Straightway with piercing glances the minister eyed him intently, And with carefulness watch'd his looks and the whole of his bearing,...
"Ne'er have I seen the market and streets so thoroughly empty! Still as the grave is the town, clear'd out! I verily fancy Fifty at most of all our inhabitants still may be found there....
Thus the men discoursed together; and meanwhile the mother Went in search of her son, at first in front of the dwelling On the bench of stone, for he was accustom'd to sit there....
O ye Muses, who gladly favour a love that is heartfelt, Who on his way the excellent youth have hitherto guided, Who have press'd the maid to his bosom before their betrothal,...
As the man on a journey, who, just at the moment of sunset, Fixes his gaze once more on the rapidly vanishing planet, Then on the side of the rocks and in the dark thicket still sees he...
When the pastor ask'd the foreign magistrate questions, What the people had suffer'd, how long from their homes they had wander'd, Then the man replied: "By no means short are our sorrows,...
But the Three, as before, were still sitting and talking together, With the landlord, the worthy divine, and also the druggist, And the conversation still concern'd the same subject,...
It is not with a hope my feeble praise Can add one moment's honor to thy own, That with thy mighty name I grace these lays; I seek to glorify myself alone: For that some precious favor thou hast shown...