Seraph! thy memory is to me Like some enchanted far-off isle In some tumultuous sea, Some ocean vexed as it may be With storms; but where, meanwhile, Serenest skies continually...
Oh, let me plead with thee to have a nook, A garden nook, not far from thy domain, That there, with harp, and voice, and poet-book, I may be true to thee, and, passion-fain,...
With delicate, mad hands, behind his sordid bars, Surely he hath his posies, which they tear and twine; Those scentless wisps of straw, that miserably line...
Thou wast that all to me, love, For which my soul did pine, A green isle in the sea, love, A fountain and a shrine, All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers, And all the flowers were mine. ...
Why did you go away without one word, Wave of the hand, or token of good-bye, Nor leave some message for me with flower or bird, Some sign to find you by;
O daughter of our Southern sun, Sweet sister of each flower, Dost dream in terraced Avalon A shadow-haunted hour? Or stand with Guinevere upon Some ivied Camelot tower? ...
From all the rest I single out you, having a message for you: You are to die Let others tell you what they please, I cannot prevaricate, I am exact and merciless, but I love you There is no escape for you. ...
Within this false world we may count ourselves blest, If we have but one friend who is faithful and true; And so in your friendship contented I'll rest, And believe I have found that one blessing in you.
You make our faults too gross, and thence maintain Our darker future. May your fears be vain! At times the small black fly upon the pane May seem the black ox of the distant plain.
Across what calm of tropic seas, 'Neath alien clusters of the nights, Looked, in the past, such eyes as these? Long-quenched, relumed, ancestral lights!
To Oratists, to male or female, Vocalism, measure, concentration, determination, and the divine power to use words. Are you full-lung'd and limber-lipp'd from long trial? from vigorous practice? from physique?...
A fellow says: "I own no school or college; No master lives whom I acknowledge; And pray don't entertain the thought That from the dead I e'er learnt aught." This, if I rightly understand,...
Lily of Streams lay by my side last night And to my prayers gave answers of delight; Day came before our fairy-tale was finished, Because the tale was long, not short the night. ...
Here's to Lady Nicotine! Saint and Sorceress and Queen! Saint, whose purple halo rings Lift our eyes from earthly things; Witch, whose wand of scented briar Transmutes dead weeds to fragrant fire;...