If there were in my kalendar No Emma, Florence, Mary, What would be my existence now - A hermit's? - wanderer's weary? - How should I live, and how Near would be death, or far? ...
How smartly the quarters of the hour march by That the jack-o'-clock never forgets; Ding-dong; and before I have traced a cusp's eye, Or got the true twist of the ogee over, A double ding-dong ricochetts....
"Instigator of the ruin - Whichsoever thou mayst be Of the masterful of Europe That contrived our misery - Hear the wormwood-worded greeting From each city, shore, and lea Of thy victims:...
I hear the bell-rope sawing, And the oil-less axle grind, As I sit alone here drawing What some Gothic brain designed; And I catch the toll that follows From the lagging bell,...
"The house is bleak and cold Built so new for me! All the winds upon the wold Search it through for me; No screening trees abound, And the curious eyes around Keep on view for me." ...
For Life I had never cared greatly, As worth a man's while; Peradventures unsought, Peradventures that finished in nought, Had kept me from youth and through manhood till lately Unwon by its style....
I thought and thought of thy crass clanging town To folly, till convinced such dreams were ill, I held my heart in bond, and tethered down Fancy to where I was, by force of will. ...
As some bland soul, to whom a debtor says "I'll now repay the amount I owe to you," In inward gladness feigns forgetfulness That such a payment ever was his due ...
[He travels southward, and looks around;] I journeyed from my native spot Across the south sea shine, And found that people in hall and cot Laboured and suffered each his lot Even as I did mine. ...
A plain tilt-bonnet on her head She took the path across the leaze. - Her spouse the vicar, gardening, said, "Too dowdy that, for coquetries, So I can hoe at ease. ...
I told her when I left one day That whatsoever weight of care Might strain our love, Time's mere assault Would work no changes there. And in the night she came to me, Toothless, and wan, and old,...