We walked beside the sea, After a day which perished silently Of its own glory, like the Princess weird Who, combating the Genius, scorched and seared, Uttered with burning breath, "Ho! victory!"...
"The woman's motive? shall we daub ourselves With finding roots for nettles? 'tis soft clay And easily explored. She had the means, The moneys, by the lady's liberal grace,...
The English have a scornful insular way Of calling the French light. The levity Is in the judgment only, which yet stands, For say a foolish thing but oft enough (And here's the secret of a hundred creeds,...
She has laughed as softly as if she sighed, She has counted six, and over, Of a purse well filled, and a heart well tried, Oh, each a worthy lover! They "give her time"; for her soul must slip...
He listened at the porch that day, To hear the wheel go on, and on; And then it stopped, ran back away, While through the door he brought the sun: But now my spinning is all done. ...
Hearken, oh hearken! let your souls behind you Turn, gently moved! Our voices feel along the Dread to find you, O lost, beloved! Through the thick-shielded and strong-marshalled angels,...
God, God! With a child's voice I cry, Weak, sad, confidingly, God, God! Thou knowest, eyelids, raised not always up Unto Thy love (as none of ours are), droop As ours, o'er many a tear!...
We sow the glebe, we reap the corn, We build the house where we may rest, And then, at moments, suddenly, We look up to the great wide sky, Inquiring wherefore we were born' For earnest or for jest?...
I thought once how Theocritus had sung Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years, Who each one in a gracious hand appears To bear a gift for mortals, old or young:...
But only three in all God's universe Have heard this word thou hast said, Himself, beside Thee speaking, and me listening! and replied One of us . . . that was God, . . . and laid the curse...
Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart! Unlike our uses and our destinies. Our ministering two angels look surprise On one another, as they strike athwart Their wings in passing. Thou, bethink thee, art...
Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor, Most gracious singer of high poems! where The dancers will break footing, from the care Of watching up thy pregnant lips for more....
Can it be right to give what I can give? To let thee sit beneath the fall of tears As salt as mine, and hear the sighing years Re-sighing on my lips renunciative...
I lift my heavy heart up solemnly, As once Electra her sepulchral urn, And, looking in thine eyes, I over-turn The ashes at thy feet. Behold and see What a great heap of grief lay hid in me,...
Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand Henceforward in thy shadow. Nevermore Alone upon the threshold of my door Of individual life, I shall command The uses of my soul, nor lift my hand...
The face of all the world is changed, I think, Since first I heard the footsteps of thy soul Move still, oh, still, beside me, as they stole Betwixt me and the dreadful outer brink...
What can I give thee back, O liberal And princely giver, who hast brought the gold And purple of thine heart, unstained, untold, And laid them on the outside of the wall...
Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed And worthy of acceptation. Fire is bright, Let temple burn, or flax; an equal light Leaps in the flame from cedar-plank or weed:...