BOYS SING: Night! with all thine eyes look down! Darkness! weep thy holiest dew! Never smiled the inconstant moon On a pair so true. Haste, coy hour! and quench all light,...
As sunbeams pierce the glass, and streaming in, No crack or schism leave i' th' subtle skin: So the Divine Hand worked and brake no thread, But, in a mother, kept a maidenhead.
I. June was not over Though past the fall, And the best of her roses Had yet to blow, When a man I know (But shall not discover, Since ears are dull, And time discloses)...
Thanks to my stars, I once can see A window here from scribbling free! Here no conceited coxcombs pass, To scratch their paltry drabs on glass; Nor party fool is calling names,...
On these green banks, where falls too soon The shade of Autumn's afternoon, The south wind blowing soft and sweet, The water gliding at nay feet, The distant northern range uplit...
How tired I am! I sink down all alone Here by the wayside of the Present. Lo, Even as a child I hide my face and moan - A little girl that may no farther go; The path above me only seems to grow...
Why should I care for the Ages Because they are old and grey? To me, like sudden laughter, The stars are fresh and gay; The world is a daring fancy, And finished yesterday. ...
There! See the line of lights, A chain of stars down either side the street, Why can't you lift the chain and give it to me, A necklace for my throat? I'd twist it round...
The hoar-frost hisses 'neath the feet, And the worm-fence's straggling length, Smote by the morning's slanted strength, Sparkles one rib of virgin sleet.
Dead leaves are deep in all our forest walks; Their brightest tints not all extinguished yet, Shine redly glimmering through the dewy wet; And whereso'er thy musing foot is set,...
Ah little mill, you're rumbling still, Ah sunset flecked with gold! Ah deepening tinge, ah purple fringe Of lilac as of old! Ah hawthorn hedge, ah light-won pledge Of kisses warm and plenty,...
Years did I vainly seek the good Lord's grace, Prayed, fasted, and did penance dire and dread; Did kneel, with bleeding knees and rainy face, And mouth the dust, with ashes on my head;...
O well have we done the old tasks! in the old, old ways of earth. We have kept the house in order, we have given the children birth; And our sons went out with their fathers, and left us alone at the hearth! ...
Ye realms of beauty from afar, What speak ye to the saddened soul? What is the message of each star As ever ceaselessly ye roll? Thus do ye answer: "We declare God's glory; and to you 'tis given...
Do you remember how that night drew on? That night of sorrow, when the stars looked wan As eyes that gaze reproachful in a dream, Loved eyes, long lost, and sadder than the grave?...
Good-bye - yes, I am going. Sudden? Well, you are right; But a startling truth came home to me With sudden force last night. What is it? Shall I tell you? Nay, that is why I go....
Your house of hair, and lady's hand, At first did put me to a stand. I have it now - 'tis plain enough - Your hairy business is a muff. Your engine fraught with cooling gales,...
WITH half an eye your riddle I spy, I observe your wicket hemm'd in by a thicket, And whatever passes is strain'd through glasses. You say it is quiet: I flatly deny it....