Another night has turned itself to day, Another day has melted into eve, And lo! again I tread the measured way Of word and thought, the twain to interweave, As flowers absorb the rays that they receive....
It seems a year, and more, since last we met, Since roseate spring repaid, in part, its debt To thy bright eyes, and o'er the lowlands fair Made daffodils so like thy golden hair...
O thou refulgent essence of all grace! O thou that with the witchery of thy face Hast made of me thy servant unto death, I pray thee pause, ere, musical of breath,...
That phantoms fair, with radiant hair, May seek at midnight hour The sons of men, belov'd again, And give them holy power; That souls survive the mortal hive, and sinless come and go,...
He liv'd and lov'd; he suffer'd; he was poor; But he was gifted with the gifts of Heaven, And those of all the week-days that are seven, And those of all the centuries that endure....
It is the joy, it is the zest of life, To know that Death, ungainly to the vile, Is not a traitor with a reckless knife, And not a serpent with a look of guile,...
I cannot deck my thought in proud attire, Or make it fit for thee in any dress, Or sing to thee the songs of thy desire, In summer's heat, or by the winter's fire, Or give thee cause to comfort or to bless....
Do what I will, I cannot chant so well As other men; and yet my soul is true. My hopes are bold; my thoughts are hard to tell, But thou can'st read them, and accept them, too,...
Who comes, to-day, with sunlight on his face, And eyes of fire, that have a sorrow's trace, But are not sad with sadness of the years, Or hints of tears?
See where it stands, the world-appointed flower, Pure gold at centre, like the sun at noon, - A mimic sun to light a true-love bower For fair Queen Mab, now dead or in a swoon,...