Works

Oh! how this Mary loved to eat,--
It was her chief delight;
She would have something, sour or sweet,
To munch from morn till night.
She to the pantry daily stole,
And slyly she would take...

It was long, long ago that a soul like a flower
Unfolded, and blossomed, and passed in an hour.
It was long, long ago; and the memory seems
Like the pleasures and sorrows that come in our dreams.
...

I.

A little mound of earth
Is all the land I own:
Death gave it me, - five feet by three,
And mark'd it with a stone.


II.

My home, my garden-grave,...

Some one is always sitting there,
In the little green orchard;
Even when the sun is high
In noon's unclouded sky,
And faintly droning goes
The bee from rose to rose,...

The King's son walks in the garden fair -
Oh, the maiden's heart is merry!
He little knows for his toil and care,
That the bride is gone and the bower is bare.
Put on garments of white, my maidens!
...

Once there lived, I'm not sure where,
May be Arcadee,
Sweet-Heart and his mistress fair,
Little He and She;

And they danced a measure light,
Danced in very glee.
Hand in hand, a pretty sight,...

OH, here the air is sweet and still,
And soft's the grass to lie on;
And far away's the little hill
They took for Christ to die on.

And there's a hill across the brook,...

One yestereve, in the waning light,
When the wind was still and the gloaming bright,
There came a breath from a far countrie,
And the ghost of a Little House called to me.
...

My little joys went by me
As little children run
Across the fields at sunset
When playing time is done.

And now alone at twilight
What is there may content
The heart that loved their laughter...

Jump jump jump
Jump away
From this town into
The next, to-day.

Jump jump jump
Jump over the moon;
Jump all the morning,
And all the noon.

Jump jump jump
Jump all night;...

O The Little Lady's dainty
As the picture in a book,
And her hands are creamy-whiter
Than the water-lilies look;
Her laugh's the undrown'd music
Of the maddest meadow-brook. -...

Now is the time when India is gay
With wedding parties; and the radiant throngs
Seem like a scattered rainbow taking part
In human pleasures. Dressed in bright array,...

In my little Green House, quite content am I,
When the hot sun pours down from the sky;
For oh, I love the country the beautiful country.
Who'd live in a London street when there's the country?
...

When I was a little boy, long ago,
And spoke of the theater as the "show,"
The first one that I went to see,
Mother's brother it was took me -
(My uncle, of course, though he seemed to be...

There is a lasting little flower,
That everybody knows,
Yet none has thought to think about
The little Native Rose.

The wattle and the waratah,
The world has heard of those;...

The little needle always knows the North,
The little bird remembereth his note,
And this wise Seer within me never errs.
I never taught it what it teaches me;
I only follow, when I act aright.
...

'Twas a very small garden;
The paths were of stone,
Scattered with leaves,
With moss overgrown;
And a little old Cupid
Stood under a tree,
With a small broken bow
He stood aiming at me.
...

When a man gits on his uppers in a hard-pan sort of town,
An' he ain't got nothin' comin', an' he can't afford ter eat,
An' he's in a fix fer lodgin', an' he wanders up an' down,...

The little old poem that nobody reads
Blooms in a crowded space,
Like a ground-vine blossom, so low in the weeds
That nobody sees its face -
Unless, perchance, the reader's eye...

Creak, little wood thing, creak,
When I touch you with elbow or knee;
That is the way you speak
Of one who gave you to me!

You, little table, she brought -
Brought me with her own hand,...