What art thou--friend or foe? Stand! stand! My heart is true as steel, Steady still in woe and weal, Strong to bear, though quick to feel-- Take my hand!
The Grey-beard Winter sat alone and still, Locking his treasures in the flinty earth; And like a miser comfortless and chill, Frown'd upon pleasure and rejected mirth; ...
Winds are sighing round the drooping eaves; Sadly float the midnight hours away; Dun and grey athwart the ivy-leaves, Fall the first pale chilly tints of day, Ah me! the weary, weary tints of day. ...
The lights have faded from the little casement, As though her closing eyes had brought on night; And now she dreams--Ah! dreams supremely bright, While silence reigns around from roof to basement....
From what rock-hollow'd cavern deep in ocean, Where jagged columns break the billow's beat, Whirl'd upward by some wild mid-world commotion, Has this rose-tinted shell steer'd to my feet? ...
The day fades fast; And backward ebbs the tide of light From the far hills in billows bright, Scattering foam, as they sweep past, O'er the low clouds that bank the sky, And barrier day off solemnly....
Peace! Let me go, or ere it be too late; Dip not your arrows in the honey-mead; Paint not the wound through which my heart doth bleed; Leave me unmock'd, unpitied to my fate-- Peace! Let me go. ...
Time sets his footprints on our little Earth, And, walk he ne'er so softly, some sweet thing Falls 'neath each foot-fall, crush'd amid its mirth, Tracking the course of Life's short wandering,...
Autumn went faintly flying o'er the land, Trailing her golden hair along the West, Weeping to find her waving fields despoil'd, Her yellow leaves all floating on the wind:...
This day it was--Ah! years ago, Long years ago, when first we met; When first her voice thrill'd through my heart, Aeolian-sweet, thrill'd through my heart; And glances from her soft brown eyes,...