GRAND'THER BALDWIN'S THANKSGIVING UNDERNEATH protected branches, from the highway just aloof;Stands the house of Grand'ther Baldwin, with its gently sloping roof.Square of shape and solid-timbered, it was standing, I have heard,In the days of Whig and Tory, under royal George the Third.Many a time, I well remember, I have gazed with Childish aweAt the bullet-hole remaining in the sturdy oaken door,Turning round half-apprehensive (recking not how... more...

GREEN FIELDS AND RUNNING BROOKS   Ho! green fields and running brooks!  Knotted strings and fishing-hooks  Of the truant, stealing down  Weedy backways of the town.   Where the sunshine overlooks,  By green fields and running brooks,  All intruding guests of chance  With a golden tolerance,   Cooing doves, or pensive pair  Of picnickers,... more...

BOOK I. The Swede I sing, by Heaven ordain'd to saveHis country's glories from a Danish grave,Restore her laws, her Papal rites efface,And fix her freedom on a lasting base. Celestial Liberty! by whom impell'dFrom early youth fair honour's path he held;By whose strong aid his patient courage roseSuperior to the rushing tide of woes,And at whose feet, when Heaven his toils repaid,His brightest wreaths the grateful hero laid:Me too assist; with... more...

HAFBUR AND SIGNE Young Hafbur King and Sivard King   They lived in bitter enmity;’Twas Signe proud that caused their feud,   Of maidens all the fairest she. It was youthful Hafbur King   Awaked at midnight with a bound,And full of dread he straightway said   His wondrous dream to all around. “Methought I was in heaven’s domain,   Within that place so fair to view,And held to... more...

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THE ORCHARD’S GRANDMOTHER. I MUST ask you to go back more than two hundred years, and watch two people in a quiet old English garden. One is an old lady reading. In her young days she was a famous beauty. That was very long ago, to be sure; but I think she is a beauty still—do not you? She has such a lovely face, and her eyes are so sweet and bright! and better than that, they are the kind which see pleasant things in everybody,... more...

HARRY'S HORN-BOOK.   BOY   CAT.   DOG.   JUG.   COW.   PIG.   BED.   FOX.   COCK.   DUCK.   MILL.   GOAT.   STAG.   ROSE.   HARE.   BEAR.   LAMP.   HOUSE.   CLOCK.   PEARS.   GOOSE.   HORSE.   SHEEP.   CHAIR.   KNIFE.  ... more...

1.  HAWTHORN AND LAVENDER ENVOY My songs were once of the sunrise:   They shouted it over the bar;First-footing the dawns, they flourished,   And flamed with the morning star. My songs are now of the sunset:   Their brows are touched with light,But their feet are lost in the shadows   And wet with the dews of night. Yet for the joy in their making   Take them, O fond and true,And for his... more...

THE SLEEP Of all the thoughts of God that are Borne inward unto souls afar, Along the Psalmist’s music deep, Now tell me if that any is, For gift or grace, surpassing this— ‘He giveth His beloved, sleep’! What would we give to our beloved? The hero’s heart to be unmoved, The poet’s star-tuned harp, to sweep, The patriot’s voice, to teach and rouse, The monarch’s crown, to light the... more...

Helen of Troy Wild flight on flight against the fading dawnThe flames' red wings soar upward duskily.This is the funeral pyre and Troy is deadThat sparkled so the day I saw it first,And darkened slowly after. I am sheWho loves all beauty—yet I wither it.Why have the high gods made me wreak their wrath—Forever since my maidenhood to sowSorrow and blood about me? Lo, they keepTheir bitter care above me even now.It was the gods who led... more...