Works

Of Beachville, village of the plain,
We now will sing a short refrain,
For here the Thames doth pleasant flow,
And charm to landscape doth bestow;
Though river here it is not deep,...

Be angry now no more!
If I have grieved thee - if
Thy kindness, mine before,
No hope may now restore:
Only forgive, forgive!

If still resentment burns
In thy cold breast, oh if...

Strange incidents do happen ever
On the famed Niagara river,
This thought to mind it now recalls
Event three miles above the falls.

Thrilling ventures there abound,...

A fable of the British and Russian dispute of 1885.


Russians suffer sad distress
For lack of freedom of the press,
But oft' times they are full able
To enlighten with a fable.
...

I say, as one who never feared
The wrath of a subscriber's bullet,
I pity him who has a beard
But has no little girl to pull it!

When wife and I have finished tea,...

Two youths came over from York state,
Bill Brown and Tom Dawes his mate,
For many months they were wishing
The sport of hunting and of fishing.

They rowed along the lake in punt,...

Scene 1: The first heroic deed

The slaying of the bear

Since ancient times, in fruitful Baltic lands,
Where flows the Daugava in its winding bed,
And in the fields the barley ripening stands,...

Scene 1: Kangars and Spidala combine against Bearslayer

Kangars learns that Bearslayer was in the Devil's Pit

Upon the hills the forests gloomy soughed,...

Scene 1: The Council of the Baltic gods

The gods gather

In azure vaults of heaven soaring bright,
In lofty castles filled with endless joy,
The God of Thunder, Perkons, dwells in light,...

Scene 1: Kaupa is seduced by wealth and power

Kaupa accepts Christianity

In mighty, ancient Rome,
The Pope's eternal See,
He called from Peter's dome,
The Holy Land to free.
...

Scene 1: Bearslayer is victorious on the Enchanted Isle

They go ashore on the Enchanted Isle

Though Spidala revenge had gained
And borne Bearslayer's love away,...

It is the turn of the 13th century, 800 years ago in Latvia. The
Baltic gods have gathered to consult the Father of Destiny about
their own fate and that of the Latvian people. Both are under threat...

Written for John Lockwood Kipling's

They killed a Child to please the Gods
In Earth's young penitence,
And I have bled in that Babe's stead
Because of innocence.
...

What land of Silence,
Where pale stars shine
On apple-blossom
And dew-drenched vine,
Is yours and mine?

The silent valley
That we will find,
Where all the voices
Of humankind...

Beat! beat! drums!--Blow! bugles! blow!
Through the windows--through doors--burst like a ruthless force,
Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation;
Into the school where the scholar is studying;...

Beaten back in sad dejection,
After years of weary toil
On that burning hot selection
Where the drought has gorged his spoil.

All in vain 'gainst him, the vulture,
I have battled without rest,...

Through fields of ash, burnt, without verdure,
where I was complaining one day to Nature,
and slowly sharpened the knife of my thought,
as I wandered aimlessly, against my heart,...

Send out the singers,let the room be still;
They have not eased my pain nor brought me sleep.
Close out the sun, for I would have it dark
That I may feel how black the grave will be....

(FOR THE BEATRICE CELEBRATION, 1890)

Nine mystic revolutions of the spheres
Since Dante's birth, and lo! a star new-born
Shining in heaven: and like a lark at morn...

Vision of light, above triumphal car
Vision of guidance, star of ev'ry star
And throned saint within the great white Rose,
I follow thee: the book at last to close,...