The spirits of our fathers rise not from every wave, They left the sea behind them long ago; It was many years of 'slogging,' where strong men must be brave,...
When white and ruby dawn among the rakes Breaks in, she's with the harrying Ideal, And by some strange retributive appeal Within the sleepy brute, an angel wakes.
The splendor falls on castle walls And snowy summits old in story; The long light shakes across the lakes, And the wild cataract leaps in glory. Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying...
O soft enchantress, let me tell the truth Of all the beauties decking out your youth! I'll paint the charms for you to see Of childhood married with maturity. ...
Not on the neck of prince or hound, Nor on a woman's finger twin'd, May gold from the deriding ground Keep sacred that we sacred bind: Only the heel Of splendid steel...
Sweet and shrill the crickets hiding in the grasses brown and lean Pipe their gladness - sweeter, shriller - one would think the world was green. O the haze is on the hilltops, and the haze is on the lake!...
In the morn when the keen blade bites the tree, And the chips on the dead leaves dance, And the bush echoes back right merrily Blow for blow as the sunbeams glance...
Of John Cabanis, wrath and of the strife Of hostile parties, and his dire defeat Who led the common people in the cause Of freedom for Spoon River, and the fall Of Rhodes, bank that brought unnumbered woes...
From this bleeding hand of mine, Take this sprig of Eglantine: Which, though sweet unto your smell, Yet the fretful briar will tell, He who plucks the sweets, shall prove Many thorns to be in love.
He lay, and those who watched him were amazed To see unheralded beneath the lids Twin tears, new-gathered at the price of pain, Start and at once run crookedly athwart...
When wintry weather's all a-done, An' brooks do sparkle in the zun, An' naisy-builden rooks do vlee Wi' sticks toward their elem tree; When birds do zing, an' we can zee...
Now that the winter's gone, the earth hath lost Her snow-white robes, and now no more the frost Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream Upon the silver lake or crystal stream;...
Ah, give again the pitiless snow and sleet November's leaves, or raving winds, that beat The heart's own doors, or rain's long ache and fret! Only, not spring and all this delicate sweet!...