Excerpt
EPIGRAMS POETRY
She comes like the hushed beauty of the night,
But sees too deep for laughter;
Her touch is a vibration and a light
From worlds before and after.
POETRYPoetry? Can I define it, you inquire?
Yes; by your pleasure,
Poetry is Thought, in princeliest attire,
Treading a measure.
[2] THE YEAR’S MINSTRELSYSpring, the low prelude of a lordlier song;
Summer, a music without hint of death:
Autumn, a cadence lingeringly long:
Winter, a pause;—the Minstrel-Year takes breath.
THE SUNAll the World’s bravery that delights our eyes,
Is but thy several liveries;
Thou the rich dye on them bestow’st,
Thy nimble Pencil paints this landscape as thou go’st.
[3] FAREWELLI strove with none, for none was worth my strife.
Nature I loved, and next to nature, art.
I warm’d both hands before the fire of life:
It sinks; and I am ready to depart.
LIFEAs a shaft that is sped from a bow unseen to an unseen mark,
As a bird that gleams in the firelight, and hurries from dark to dark,
As the face of the stranger who smiled as we passed in the crowded street,—
Our life is a glimmer, a flutter, a memory, fading, yet sweet!
[4] EPIGRAM ON THE DEATH OF EDWARD FORBES.Nature, a jealous mistress, laid him low.
He woo’d and won her; and, by love made bold,
She showed him more than mortal man should know,
Then slew him lest her secret should be told.
ON LONGFELLOW’S DEATHNo puissant singer he, whose silence grieves
To-day the great West’s tender heart and strong;
No singer vast of voice: yet one who leaves
His native air the sweeter for his song.
[5] DANIEL WEBSTERWe have no high cathedral for his rest,
Dim with proud banners and the dust of years;
All we can give him is New England’s breast
To lay his head on—and his country’s tears.
EUGENE FIELDFades his calm face beyond our mortal ken,
Lost in the light of lovelier realms above;
He left sweet memories in the hearts of men
And climbed to God on little children’s love.
[6] THE DEBTOR CHRISTQuid Mihi Et Tibi
What, woman, is my debt to thee,
That I should not deny
The boon thou dost demand of me?
“I gave thee power to die.”
TWO SPIRITSA spirit above and a spirit below,
A spirit of joy and a spirit of woe;
The spirit above is the spirit divine,
The spirit below is the spirit of wine.
[7] ON A SUN-DIALWith warning hand I mark Time’s rapid flight
From life’s glad morning to its solemn night;
Yet, through the dear God’s love, I also show
There’s Light above me by the Shade below.
BORROWINGFrom the French
Some of your hurts you have cured,
And the sharpest you still have survived,
But what torments of grief you endured
From evils which never arrived!
[8] YOUTHThe Tear, down Childhood’s cheek that flows,
Is like the dew-drop on the Rose;
When next the Summer breeze comes by,
And waves the bush, the Flower is dry....