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673 Works of Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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Half Fledged

Story type: Poetry

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I feel the stirrings in me of great things.New half-fledged thoughts rise up and beat their wings,And tremble on the margin of their nest,Then flutter back, and hide within my breast. Beholding space, they doubt their untried strength.Beholding men, they fear them. But at length,Grown all too great and active for the heartThat broods them […]

The Year

Story type: Poetry

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What can be said in New Year rhymes,That’s not been said a thousand times? The new years come, the old years go,We know we dream, we dream we know. We rise up laughing with the light,We lie down weeping with the night. We hug the world until it stings,We curse it then and sigh for […]

The Unattained

Story type: Poetry

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A vision beauteous as the morn,With heavenly eyes and tresses streaming,Slow glided o’er a field late shornWhere walked a poet idly dreaming.He saw her, and joy lit his face,“Oh, vanish not at human speaking,”He cried, “thou form of magic grace,Thou art the poem I am seeking. “I’ve sought thee long! I claim thee now –My […]

In The Crowd

Story type: Poetry

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How happy they are, in all seeming,How gay, or how smilingly proud,How brightly their faces are beaming,These people who make up the crowd!How they bow, how they bend, how they flutter,How they look at each other and smile,How they glow, and what bon mots they utter!But a strange thought has found me the while! It […]

And They Are Dumb

Story type: Poetry

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I have been across the bridges of the years.Wet with tearsWere the ties on which I trod, going backDown the trackTo the valley where I left, ‘neath skies of Truth,My lost youth. As I went, I dropped my burdens, one and all –Let them fall;All my sorrows, all my wrinkles, all my care,My white hair,I […]

Life And I

Story type: Poetry

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Life and I are lovers, strayingArm in arm along:Often like two children Maying,Full of mirth and song, Life plucks all the blooming hoursGrowing by the way;Binds them on my brow like flowers,Calls me Queen of May. Then again, in rainy weather,We sit vis-a-vis,Planning work we’ll do togetherIn the years to be. Sometimes Life denies me […]

As some dusk mother shields from all alarmsThe tired child she gathers to her breast,The brunette Night doth fold me in her arms,And hushes me to perfect peace and rest.Her eyes of stars shine on me, and I hearHer voice of winds low crooning on my ear.O Night, O Night, how beautiful thou art!Come, fold […]

All For Me

Story type: Poetry

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The world grows green on a thousand hills –By a thousand willows the bees are humming,And a million birds by a million rills,Sing of the golden season coming.But, gazing out on the sun-kist lea,And hearing a thrush and a blue-bird singing,I feel that the summer is all for me,And all for me are the joys […]

Into Space

Story type: Poetry

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If the sad old world should jump a cogSometime, in its dizzy spinning,And go off the track with a sudden jog,What an end would come to the sinning,What a rest from strife and the burdens of lifeFor the millions of people in it,What a way out of care, and worry and wear,All in a beautiful […]

Through Dim Eyes

Story type: Poetry

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Is it the world, or my eyes, that are sadder?I see not the grace that I used to seeIn the meadow-brook whose song was so glad, orIn the boughs of the willow tree.The brook runs slower–its song seems lowerAnd not the song that it sang of old;And the tree I admired looks weary and tiredOf […]

The Punished

Story type: Poetry

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Not they who know the awful gibbet’s anguish,Not they who, while sad years go by them, inThe sunless cells of lonely prisons languish,Do suffer fullest penalty for sin. ‘Tis they who walk the highways unsuspected,Yet with grim fear for ever at their side,Who hug the corpse of some sin undetected,A corpse no grave or coffin-lid […]

Nothing Remains

Story type: Poetry

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Nothing remains of unrecorded agesThat lie in the silent cemetery time;Their wisdom may have shamed our wisest sages,Their glory may have been indeed sublime.How weak do seem our strivings after power,How poor the grandest efforts of our brains,If out of all we are, in one short hourNothing remains. Nothing remains but the Eternal Spaces,Time and […]

What Gain?

Story type: Poetry

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Now, while thy rounded cheek is fresh and fair,While beauty lingers, laughing, in thine eyes,Ere thy young heart shall meet the stranger, “Care,”Or thy blithe soul become the home of sighs,Were it not kindness should I give thee restBy plunging this sharp dagger in thy breast?Dying so young, with all thy wealth of youth,What part […]

To The West

Story type: Poetry

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Not to the crowded East,Where, in a well-worn groove,Like the harnessed wheel of a great machine,The trammelled mind must move–Where Thought must follow the fashion of Thought,Or be counted vulgar and set at naught. Not to the languid South,Where the mariners of the brainAre lured by the Sirens of the Sense,And wrecked upon its main […]

I set out for the Land of Content,By the gay crowded pleasure-highway,With laughter, and jesting, I wentWith the mirth-loving throng for a day;Then I knew I had wandered astray,For I met returned pilgrims, belated,Who said, “We are weary and sated,But we found not the Land of Content.” I turned to the steep path of fame,I […]

High in the heavens I saw the moon this morning,Albeit the sun shone bright;Unto my soul it spoke, in voice of warning,“Remember Night!”

Life, like a romping schoolboy, full of glee,Doth bear us on his shoulder for a time.There is no path too steep for him to climb.With strong, lithe limbs, as agile and as free,As some young roe, he speeds by vale and sea,By flowery mead, by mountain peak sublime,And all the world seems motion set to […]

[Read at Reunion of the G. A. T., Madison, Wis., July 4, 1872.] After the battles are over,And the war drums cease to beat,And no more is heard on the hillsideThe sound of hurrying feet,Full many a noble action,That was done in the days of strifeBy the soldier is half forgotten,In the peaceful walks of […]

Burdened

Story type: Poetry

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“Genius, a man’s weapon, a woman’s burden.”–Lamartine. Dear God! there is no sadder fate in lifeThan to be burdened so that you can notSit down contented with the common lotOf happy mother and devoted wife. To feel your brain wild and your bosom rifeWith all the sea’s commotion; to be fraughtWith fires and frenzies which […]

Let Them Go

Story type: Poetry

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Let the dream go. Are there not other dreamsIn vastness of clouds hid from thy sightThat yet shall gild with beautiful gold gleams,And shoot the shadows through and through with light?What matters one lost vision of the night?Let the dream go!! Let the hope set. Are there not other hopesThat yet shall rise like new […]

Five Kisses

Story type: Poetry

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I–THE MOTHER’S KISS Love breathed a secret to her listening heart,And said “Be silent.” Though she guarded it,And dwelt as one within a world apart,Yet sun and star seemed by that secret lit.And where she passed, each whispering wind ablow,And every little blossom in the sod,Called joyously to her, “We know, we know,For are we […]

Alone it stands in Poesy’s fair land,A temple by the muses set apart;A perfect structure of consummate art,By artists builded and by genius planned,Beyond the reach of the apprentice hand,Beyond the ken of the untutored heart,Like a fine carving in a common mart,Only the favoured few will understand.A chef d’auvre toiled over with great care,Yet […]

Helena

Story type: Poetry

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Last night I saw Helena. She whose praiseOf late all men have sounded. She for whomYoung Angus rashly sought a silent tombRather than live without her all his days. Wise men go mad who look upon her long,She is so ripe with dangers. Yet meanwhileI find no fascination in her smile,Although I make her theme […]

That was a curious dream; I thought the threeGreat planets that are drawing near the sunWith such unerring certainty begunTo talk together in a mighty glee.They spoke of vast convulsions which would beThroughout the solar system–the rare funOf watching haughty stars drop, one by one,And vanish in a seething vapour sea. I thought I heard […]

Uselessness

Story type: Poetry

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Let mine not be that saddest fate of allTo live beyond my greater self; to seeMy faculties decaying, as the treeStands stark and helpless while its green leaves fall.Let me hear rather the imperious call,Which all men dread, in my glad morning time,And follow death ere I have reached my prime,Or drunk the strengthening cordial […]

There is no chance, no destiny, no fate,Can circumvent or hinder or controlThe firm resolve of a determined soul.Gifts count for nothing; will alone is great;All things give way before it, soon or late.What obstacle can stay the mighty forceOf the sea-seeking river in its course,Or cause the ascending orb of day to wait? Each […]

"Artist’s Life"

Story type: Poetry

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Of all the waltzes the great Strauss wrote,Mad with melody, rhythm–rifeFrom the very first to the final note.Give me his “Artist’s Life!” It stirs my blood to my finger-ends,Thrills me and fills me with vague unrest,And all that is sweetest and saddest blendsTogether within my breast. It brings back that night in the dim arcade,In […]

I think I never passed so sad an hour,Dear friend, as that one at the church to-night.The edifice from basement to the towerWas one resplendent blaze of coloured light.Up through broad aisles the stylish crowd was thronging,Each richly robed like some king’s bidden guest.“Here will I bring my sorrow and my longing,”I said, “and here […]

Inevitable

Story type: Poetry

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To-day I was so weary and I layIn that delicious state of semi-waking,When baby, sitting with his nurse at play,Cried loud for “mamma,” all his toys forsaking. I was so weary and I needed rest,And signed to nurse to bear him from the room.Then, sudden, rose and caught him to my breast,And kissed the grieving […]

The Ocean Of Song

Story type: Poetry

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In a land beyond sight or conceiving,In a land where no blight is, no wrong,No darkness, no graves, and no grieving,There lies the great ocean of song.And its waves, oh, its waves unbeholdenBy any save gods, and their kind,Are not blue, are not green, but are golden,Like moonlight and sunlight combined. It was whispered to […]

We will be what we could be. Do not say,“It might have been, had not or that, or this.”No fate can keep us from the chosen way;He only might, who IS. We will do what we could do. Do not dreamChance leaves a hero, all uncrowned to grieve.I hold, all men are greatly what they […]

Though with gods the world is cumbered,Gods unnamed, and gods unnumbered,Never god was known to beWho had not his devotee.So I dedicate to mine,Here in verse, my temple-shrine. ‘Tis not Ares,–mighty Mars,Who can give success in wars.‘Tis not Morpheus, who doth keepGuard above us while we sleep,‘Tis not Venus, she whose duty‘Tis to give us […]

I Dream

Story type: Poetry

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Oh, I have dreams. I sometimes dream of LifeIn the full meaning of that splendid word.Its subtle music which few men have heard,Though all may hear it, sounding through earth’s strife.Its mountain heights by mystic breezes kissedLifting their lovely peaks above the dust;Its treasures which no touch of time can rust,Its emerald seas, its dawns […]

A Song Of Life

Story type: Poetry

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In the rapture of life and of living,I lift up my heart and rejoice,And I thank the great Giver for givingThe soul of my gladness a voice.In the glow of the glorious weather,In the sweet-scented, sensuous air,My burdens seem light as a feather –They are nothing to bear. In the strength and the glory of […]

I do not undertake to sayThat literal answers come from Heaven,But I know this–that when I prayA comfort, a support is givenThat helps me rise o’er earthly thingsAs larks soar up on airy wings. In vain the wise philosopherPoints out to me my fabric’s flaws,In vain the scientists averThat “all things are controlled by laws.”My […]

In The Long Run

Story type: Poetry

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In the long run fame finds the deserving man.The lucky wight may prosper for a day,But in good time true merit leads the vanAnd vain pretence, unnoticed, goes its way.There is no Chance, no Destiny, no Fate,But Fortune smiles on those who work and wait,In the long run. In the long run all godly sorrow […]

Don’t look for the flaws as you go through life;And even when you find them,It is wise and kind to be somewhat blind,And look for the virtue behind them;For the cloudiest night has a hint of lightSomewhere in its shadows hiding;It’s better by far to hunt for a star,Than the spots on the sun abiding. […]

Two Sunsets

Story type: Poetry

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In the fair morning of his life,When his pure heart lay in his breast,Panting, with all that wild unrestTo plunge into the great world’s strife That fills young hearts with mad desire,He saw a sunset. Red and goldThe burning billows surged and rolled,And upward tossed their caps of fire. He looked. And as he looked, […]

Worth While

Story type: Poetry

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It is easy enough to be pleasantWhen life flows by like a song,But the man worth while is the one who will smileWhen everything goes dead wrong.For the test of the heart is trouble,And it always comes with the years,And the smile that is worth the praises of earthIs the smile that shines through tears. […]

The House Of Life

Story type: Poetry

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All wondering, and eager-eyed, within her porticoI made my plea to Hostess Life, one morning long ago. “Pray show me this great house of thine, nor close a single door;But let me wander where I will, and climb from floor to floor! For many rooms, and curious things, and treasures great and smallWithin your spacious […]

You call me an angel of love and of light,A being of goodness and heavenly fire,Sent out from God’s kingdom to guide you aright,In paths where your spirit may mount and aspire,You say that I glow like a star on its course,Like a ray from the altar, a spark from the source. Now list to […]

So many gods, so many creeds,So many paths that wind and wind,While just the art of being kind,Is all the sad world needs.

Dear love, if you and I could sail away,With snowy pennons to the winds unfurled,Across the waters of some unknown bay,And find some island far from all the world; If we could dwell there, evermore alone,While unrecorded years slip by apace,Forgetting and forgotten and unknownBy aught save native song-birds of the place; If Winter never […]

Let us clear a little space,And make Love a burial-place. He is dead, dear, as you see,And he wearies you and me. Growing heavier, day by day,Let us bury him, I say. Wings of dead white butterflies,These shall shroud him, as he lies In his casket rich and rare,Made of finest maiden-hair. With the pollen […]

"Love Is Enough"

Story type: Poetry

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Love is enough. Let us not ask for gold.Wealth breeds false aims, and pride, and selfishness;In those serene, Arcadian days of oldMen gave no thought to princely homes and dress.The gods who dwelt on fair Olympia’s heightLived only for dear love and love’s delight.Love is enough. Love is enough. Why should we care for fame?Ambition […]

Life is a privilege. Its youthful daysShine with the radiance of continuous Mays.To live, to breathe, to wonder and desire,To feed with dreams the heart’s perpetual fire,To thrill with virtuous passions, and to glowWith great ambitions–in one hour to knowThe depths and heights of feeling–God! in truth,How beautiful, how beautiful is youth! Life is a […]

Through Tears

Story type: Poetry

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An artist toiled over his pictures;He laboured by night and by day,He struggled for glory and honourBut the world, it had nothing to say.His walls were ablaze with the splendoursWe see in the beautiful skies;But the world beheld only the coloursThat were made out of chemical dyes. Time sped. And he lived, loved, and suffered;He […]

Sirs, when you pity us, I sayYou waste your pity. Let it stay,Well corked and stored upon your shelves,Until you need it for yourselves. We do appreciate God’s thoughtIn forming you, before He broughtUs into life. His art was crude,But oh! so virile in its rude, Large, elemental strength; and thenHe learned His trade in […]

What We Need

Story type: Poetry

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What does our country need? No armies standingWith sabres gleaming ready for the fight;Not increased navies, skilful and commanding,To bound the waters with an iron might;Not haughty men with glutted purses tryingTo purchase souls, and keep the power of place;Not jewelled dolls with one another vyingFor palms of beauty, elegance, and grace. But we want […]

Plea To Science

Story type: Poetry

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O Science, reaching backward through the distance,Most earnest child of God,Exposing all the secrets of existence,With thy divining rod,I bid thee speed up to the heights supernal,Clear thinker, ne’er sufficed;Go seek and bind the laws and truths eternal,But leave me Christ. Upon the vanity of pious sagesLet in the light of day;Break down the superstitions […]

Respite

Story type: Poetry

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The mighty conflict, which we call existence,Doth wear upon the body and the soul,Our vital forces wasted in resistance,So much there is to conquer and control. The rock which meets the billows with defiance,Undaunted and unshaken day by day,In spite of its unyielding self-reliance,Is by the warfare surely worn away. And there are depths and […]

My Ships

Story type: Poetry

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If all the ships I have at seaShould come a-sailing home to me,Ah, well! the harbour could not holdSo many sails as there would beIf all my ships came in from sea. If half my ships came home from sea,And brought their precious freight to me,Ah, well! I should have wealth as greatAs any king […]

Her Love

Story type: Poetry

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The sands upon the ocean sideThat change about with every tide,And never true to one abide,A woman’s love I liken to. The summer zephyrs, light and vain,That sing the same alluring strainTo every grass blade on the plain –A woman’s love is nothing more. The sunshine of an April dayThat comes to warm you with […]

However the battle is ended,Though proudly the victor comesWith fluttering flags and prancing nagsAnd echoing roll of drums,Still truth proclaims this mottoIn letters of living light, –No question is ever settledUntil it is settled right. Though the heel of the strong oppressorMay grind the weak in the dust;And the voices of fame with one acclaimMay […]

Let no man pray that he know not sorrow,Let no soul ask to be free from pain,For the gall of to-day is the sweet of to-morrow,And the moment’s loss is the lifetime’s gain. Through want of a thing does its worth redouble,Through hunger’s pangs does the feast content,And only the heart that has harboured troubleCan […]

God’s Measure

Story type: Poetry

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God measures souls by their capacityFor entertaining his best Angel, Love.Who loveth most is nearest kin to God,Who is all Love, or Nothing. He who sitsAnd looks out on the palpitating world,And feels his heart swell in him large enoughTo hold all men within it, he is nearHis great Creator’s standard, though he dwellsOutside the […]

You never can tell when you send a word,Like an arrow shot from a bowBy an archer blind, be it cruel or kind,Just where it may chance to go!It may pierce the breast of your dearest friend,Tipped with its poison or balm;To a stranger’s heart in life’s great mart,It may carry its pain or its […]

Noblesse Oblige

Story type: Poetry

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I hold it the duty of one who is giftedAnd specially dowered in all men’s sight,To know no rest till his life is liftedFully up to his great gifts’ height. He must mould the man into rare completeness,For gems are set only in gold refined.He must fashion his thoughts into perfect sweetness.And cast out folly […]

Here And Now

Story type: Poetry

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Here, in the heart of the world,Here, in the noise and the din,Here, where our spirits were hurledTo battle with sorrow and sin,This is the place and the spotFor knowledge of infinite thingsThis is the kingdom where ThoughtCan conquer the prowess of kings Wait for no heavenly life,Seek for no temple alone;Here, in the midst […]

Unconquered

Story type: Poetry

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However skilled and strong art thou, my foe,However fierce is thy relentless hate,Though firm thy hand, and strong thy aim, and straightThy poisoned arrow leaves the bended bow, To pierce the target of my heart, ah! knowI am the master yet of my own fate.Thou canst not rob me of my best estate,Though fortune, fame, […]

“All that I ask,” says Love, “is just to standAnd gaze, unchided, deep in thy dear eyes;For in their depths lies largest Paradise.Yet, if perchance one pressure of thy handBe granted me, then joy I thought completeWere still more sweet. “All that I ask,” says Love, “all that I ask,Is just thy hand-clasp. Could I […]

"Does It Pay?"

Story type: Poetry

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If one poor burdened toiler o’er life’s road,Who meets us by the way,Goes on less conscious of his galling load,Then life, indeed, does pay. If we can show one troubled heart the gainThat lies alway in loss,Why, then, we too are paid for all the painOf bearing life’s hard cross. If some despondent soul to […]

Sestina

Story type: Poetry

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I wandered o’er the vast green plains of youth,And searched for Pleasure. On a distant heightFame’s silhouette stood sharp against the skies.Beyond vast crowds that thronged a broad highwayI caught the glimmer of a golden goal,While from a blooming bower smiled siren Love. Straight gazing in her eyes, I laughed at LoveWith all the haughty […]

The Optimist

Story type: Poetry

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The fields were bleak and sodden.Not a wingOr note enlivened the depressing wood;A soiled and sullen, stubborn snowdrift stoodBeside the roadway. Winds came mutteringOf storms to be, and brought the chilly stingOf icebergs in their breath. Stalled cattle mooedForth plaintive pleadings for the earth’s green food.No gleam, no hint of hope in anything. The sky […]

‘Twixt what thou art, and what thou wouldst be, letNo “If” arise on which to lay the blame.Man makes a mountain of that puny word,But, like a blade of grass before the scythe,It falls and withers when a human will,Stirred by creative force, sweeps toward its aim. Thou wilt be what thou couldst be. CircumstanceIs […]

Which Are You?

Story type: Poetry

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There are two kinds of people on earth to-day;Just two kinds of people, no more, I say. Not the sinner and saint, for it’s well understoodThe good are half bad, and the bad are half good. Not the rich and the poor, for to rate a man’s wealthYou must first know the state of his […]

The Creed To Be

Story type: Poetry

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Our thoughts are moulding unmade spheres,And, like a blessing or a curse,They thunder down the formless years,And ring throughout the universe. We build our futures by the shapeOf our desires, and not by acts.There is no pathway of escape;No priest-made creeds can alter facts. Salvation is not begged or bought;Too long this selfish hope sufficed;Too […]

Not like a daring, bold, aggressive boy,Is inspiration, eager to pursue,But rather like a maiden, fond, yet coy,Who gives herself to him who best doth woo. Once she may smile, or thrice, thy soul to fire,In passing by, but when she turns her face,Thou must persist and seek her with desire,If thou wouldst win the […]

Should some great angel say to me to-morrow,“Thou must re-tread thy pathway from the start,But God will grant, in pity, for thy sorrow,Some one dear wish, the nearest to thy heart.” This were my wish!–from my life’s dim beginningLET BE WHAT HAS BEEN! wisdom planned the wholeMy want, my woe, my errors, and my sinning,All, […]

Three Friends

Story type: Poetry

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Of all the blessings which my life has known,I value most, and most praise God for three:Want, Loneliness, and Pain, those comrades true, Who masqueraded in the garb of foesFor many a year, and filled my heart with dread.Yet fickle joys, like false, pretentious friends,Have proved less worthy than this trio. First, Want taught me […]

Uncontrolled

Story type: Poetry

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The mighty forces of mysterious spaceAre one by one subdued by lordly man.The awful lightning that for eons ranTheir devastating and untrammelled race,Now bear his messages from place to placeLike carrier doves. The winds lead on his van;The lawless elements no longer canResist his strength, but yield with sullen grace. His bold feet scaling heights […]

You will be what you will to be;Let failure find its false contentIn that poor word “environment,”But spirit scorns it, and is free. It masters time, it conquers space,It cowes that boastful trickster Chance,And bids the tyrant CircumstanceUncrown and fill a servant’s place. The human Will, that force unseen,The offspring of a deathless Soul,Can hew […]

To An Astrologer

Story type: Poetry

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Nay, seer, I do not doubt thy mystic lore,Nor question that the tenor of my life,Past, present, and the future, is revealedThere in my horoscope. I do believeThat yon dead moon compels the haughty seasTo ebb and flow, and that my natal starStands like a stern-browed sentinel in spaceAnd challenges events; nor lets one grief,Or […]

Under the snow, in the dark and the cold,A pale little sprout was humming;Sweetly it sang, ‘neath the frozen mould,Of the beautiful days that were coming. “How foolish your songs!” said a lump of clay;“What is there, I ask, to prove them?Just look at the walls between you and the day,Now, have you the strength […]

The Times

Story type: Poetry

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The times are not degenerate. Man’s faithMounts higher than of old. No crumbling creedCan take from the immortal soul the needOf that supreme Creator, God. The wraithOf dead beliefs we cherished in our youthFades but to let us welcome new-born Truth. Man may not worship at the ancient shrineProne on his face, in self-accusing scorn.That […]

Sorrow’s Uses

Story type: Poetry

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The uses of sorrow I comprehendBetter and better at each year’s end. Deeper and deeper I seem to seeWhy and wherefore it has to be. Only after the dark, wet daysDo we fully rejoice in the sun’s bright rays. Sweeter the crust tastes after the fastThan the sated gourmand’s finest repast. The faintest cheer sounds […]

All in the dark we grope along,And if we go amissWe learn at least which path is wrong,And there is gain in this. We do not always win the raceBy only running right;We have to tread the mountain’s baseBefore we reach its height. The Christs alone no errors made;So often had they trodThe paths that […]

A Marine Etching

Story type: Poetry

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A yacht from its harbour ropes pulled free,And leaped like a steed o’er the race-track blue,Then up behind her the dust of the sea,A gray fog, drifted, and hid her from view.

Love thyself last. Look near, behold thy dutyTo those who walk beside thee down life’s road.Make glad their days by little acts of beautyAnd help them bear the burden of earth’s load. Love thyself last. Look far and find the strangerWho staggers ‘neath his sin and his despair;Go, lend a hand, and lead him out […]

Christmas Fancies

Story type: Poetry

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When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow,We hear sweet voices ringing from lands of long ago,And etched on vacant placesAre half-forgotten facesOf friends we used to cherish, and loves we used to know –When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow. Uprising from the ocean of the present surging near,We […]

Sorry

Story type: Poetry

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There is much that makes me sorry as I journey down life’s way,And I seem to see more pathos in poor human lives each day.I’m sorry for the strong, brave men who shield the weak from harm,But who, in their own troubled hours, find no protecting arm. I’m sorry for the victors who have reached […]

Man has explored all countries and all lands,And made his own the secrets of each clime.Now, ere the world has fully reached its prime,The oval earth lies compassed with steel bands,The seas are slaves to ships that touch all strands,And even the haughty elements, sublimeAnd bold, yield him their secrets for all time,And speed like […]

If all the end of this continuous strivingWere simply TO ATTAIN,How poor would seem the planning and contriving,The endless urging and the hurried driving,Of body, heart, and brain! But ever in the wake of true achievingThere shines this glowing trail –Some other soul will be spurred on, conceivingNew strength and hope, in its own power […]

As we journey along, with a laugh and a song,We see, on youth’s flower-decked slope,Like a beacon of light, shining fair on the sight,The beautiful Station of Hope. But the wheels of old Time roll along as we climb,And our youth speeds away on the years;And with hearts that are numb with life’s sorrows we […]

Like some schoolmaster, kind in being stern,Who hears the children crying o’er their slatesAnd calling, “Help me, master!” yet helps not,Since in his silence and refusal liesTheir self-development, so God abidesUnheeding many prayers. He is not deafTo any cry sent up from earnest hearts;He hears and strengthens when He must deny.He sees us weeping over […]

We walk on starry fields of whiteAnd do not see the daisies,For blessings common in our sightWe rarely offer praises.We sigh for some supreme delightTo crown our lives with splendour,And quite ignore our daily storeOf pleasures sweet and tender. Our cares are bold and push their wayUpon our thought and feeling;They hang about us all […]

Contrasts

Story type: Poetry

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I see the tall church steeples –They reach so far, so far;But the eyes of my heart see the world’s great martWhere the starving people are. I hear the church bells ringingTheir chimes on the morning air;But my soul’s sad ear is hurt to hearThe poor man’s cry of despair. Thicker and thicker the churches,Nearer […]

Thy Ship

Story type: Poetry

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Hadst thou a ship, in whose vast hold lay storedThe priceless riches of all climes and lands,Say, wouldst thou let it float upon the seasUnpiloted, of fickle winds the sport,And of wild waves and hidden rocks the prey? Thine is that ship; and in its depths concealedLies all the wealth of this vast universe –Yea, […]

Fate And I

Story type: Poetry

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Wise men tell me thou, O Fate,Art invincible and great. Well, I own thy prowess; stillDare I flout thee with my will Thou canst shatter in a spanAll the earthly pride of man. Outward things thou canst control;But stand back–I rule my soul! Death? ‘Tis such a little thing –Scarcely worth the mentioning. What has […]

Use all your hidden forces. Do not missThe purpose of this life, and do not waitFor circumstance to mould or change your fate;In your own self lies Destiny. Let thisVast truth cast out all fear, all prejudice,All hesitation. Know that you are great,Great with divinity. So dominateEnvironment, and enter into bliss.Love largely and hate nothing. […]

A Plea To Peace

Story type: Poetry

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When mighty issues loom before us, allThe petty great men of the day seem small,Like pigmies standing in a blaze of lightBefore some grim majestic mountain-height.War, with its bloody and impartial hand,Reveals the hidden weakness of a land,Uncrowns the heroes trusting Peace has madeOf men whose honour is a thing of trade,And turns the searchlight […]

Presumption

Story type: Poetry

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Whenever I am prone to doubt or wonder –I check myself, and say, “That mighty OneWho made the solar system cannot blunder –And for the best all things are being done.”Who set the stars on their eternal coursesHas fashioned this strange earth by some sure plan.Bow low, bow low to those majestic forces,Nor dare to […]

High Noon

Story type: Poetry

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Time’s finger on the dial of my lifePoints to high noon! and yet the half-spent dayLeaves less than half remaining, for the dark,Bleak shadows of the grave engulf the end.To those who burn the candle to the stick,The sputtering socket yields but little light.Long life is sadder than an early death.We cannot count on ravelled […]

Thought-Magnets

Story type: Poetry

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With each strong thought, with every earnest longingFor aught thou deemest needful to thy soul,Invisible vast forces are set throngingBetween thee and that goal ‘Tis only when some hidden weakness altersAnd changes thy desire, or makes it less,That this mysterious army ever faltersOr stops short of success. Thought is a magnet; and the longed-for pleasure,Or […]

Smiles

Story type: Poetry

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Smile a little, smile a little,As you go along,Not alone when life is pleasant,But when things go wrong.Care delights to see you frowning,Loves to hear you sigh;Turn a smiling face upon her –Quick the dame will fly. Smile a little, smile a little,All along the road;Every life must have its burden,Every heart its load.Why sit […]

You And To-Day

Story type: Poetry

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With every rising of the sunThink of your life as just begun. The past has shrived and buried deepAll yesterdays–there let them sleep, Nor seek to summon back one ghostOf that innumerable host. Concern yourself with but to-day;Woo it and teach it to obey Your wish and will. Since time beganTo-day has been the friend […]

The Reason

Story type: Poetry

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Do you know what moves the tidesAs they swing from low to high?‘Tis the love, love, love,Of the moon within the sky.Oh! they follow where she guides,Do the faithful-hearted tides. Do you know what moves the earthOut of winter into spring?‘Tis the love, love, love,Of the sun, the mighty king.Oh the rapture that finds birthIn […]

Mission

Story type: Poetry

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If you are sighing for a lofty work,If great ambitions dominate your mind,Just watch yourself and see you do not shirkThe common little ways of being kind. If you are dreaming of a future goal,When, crowned with glory, men shall own your power,Be careful that you let no struggling soulGo by unaided in the present […]

Repetition

Story type: Poetry

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Over and over and overThese truths I will weave in song –That God’s great plan needs you and me,That will is greater than destiny,And that love moves the world along. However mankind may doubt it,It shall listen and hear my creed –That God may ever be found within,That the worship of self is the only […]

Begin The Day

Story type: Poetry

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Begin each morning with a talk to God,And ask for your divine inheritanceOf usefulness, contentment, and success.Resign all fear, all doubt, and all despair.The stars doubt not, and they are undismayed,Though whirled through space for countless centuries,And told not why or wherefore: and the seaWith everlasting ebb and flow obeys,And leaves the purpose with the […]

Words

Story type: Poetry

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Words are great forces in the realm of life:Be careful of their use. Who talks of hate,Of poverty, of sickness, but sets rifeThese very elements to mar his fate. When love, health, happiness, and plenty hearTheir names repeated over day by day,They wing their way like answering fairies near,Then nestle down within our homes to […]

The Fire Brigade

Story type: Poetry

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Hark! high o’er the rattle and clamour and clatterOf traffic-filled streets, do you hear that loud noise?And pushing and rushing to see what’s the matter,Like herds of wild cattle, go pell-mell the boys. There’s a fire in the city! the engines are coming!The bold bells are clanging, “Make way in the street!”The wheels of the […]

Be careful what rubbish you toss in the tide.On outgoing billows it drifts from your sight,But back on the incoming waves it may rideAnd land at your threshold again before night.Be careful what rubbish you toss in the tide. Be careful what follies you toss in life’s sea.On bright dancing billows they drift far away,But […]

All the uniforms were blue, all the swords were bright and new,When the regiment went marching down the street,All the men were hale and strong as they proudly moved along,Through the cheers that drowned the music of their feet.Oh the music of the feet keeping time to drums that beat,Oh the splendour and the glitter […]

Woman To Man

Story type: Poetry

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Woman is man’s enemy, rival, and competitor.–JOHN. J. INGALLS. You do but jest, sir, and you jest not well,How could the hand be enemy of the arm,Or seed and sod be rivals! How could lightFeel jealousy of heat, plant of the leaf,Or competition dwell ‘twixt lip and smile?Are we not part and parcel of yourselves?Like […]

Reply to Rudyard Kipling’s “He travels the fastest who travels alone.” Who travels alone with his eyes on the heights,Though he laughs in the day time oft weeps in the nights; For courage goes down at the set of the sun,When the toil of the journey is all borne by one. He speeds but to […]

The earth is yours and mine,Our God’s bequest.That testament divineWho dare contest? Usurpers of the earth,We claim our share.We are of royal birth.Beware! beware! Unloose the hand of greedFrom God’s fair land,We claim but what we need –That, we demand.

Now

Story type: Poetry

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I leave with God to-morrow’s where and how,And do concern myself but with the Now,That little word, though half the future’s length,Well used, holds twice its meaning and its strength. Like one blindfolded groping out his way,I will not try to touch beyond to-day.Since all the future is concealed from sightI need but strive to […]

All the aim of life is justGetting back to God.Spirit casting off its dust,Getting back to God.Every grief we have to bearDisappointment, cross, despairEach is but another stairClimbing back to God. Step by step and mile by mile –Getting back to God;Nothing else is worth the while –Getting back to God.Light and shadow fill each […]

Womanhood

Story type: Poetry

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She must be honest, both in thought and deed,Of generous impulse, and above all greed;Not seeking praise, or place, or power, or pelf,But life’s best blessings for her higher self,Which means the best for all.She must have faith,To make good friends of Trouble, Pain, and Death,And understand their message.She should beAs redolent with tender sympathyAs […]

Morning Prayer

Story type: Poetry

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Let me to-day do something that shall takeA little sadness from the world’s vast store,And may I be so favoured as to makeOf joy’s too scanty sum a little moreLet me not hurt, by any selfish deedOr thoughtless word, the heart of foe or friend;Nor would I pass, unseeing, worthy need,Or sin by silence when […]

Oh! I hear the people calling through the day time and the night time,They are calling, they are crying for the coming of the right time.It behooves you, men and women, it behooves you to be heeding,For there lurks a note of menace underneath their plaintive pleading. Let the land usurpers listen, let the greedy-hearted […]

Oh! the earth is full of sinningAnd of trouble and of woe,But the devil makes an inningEvery time we say it’s so.And the way to set him scowling,And to put him back a pace,Is to stop this stupid growling,And to look things in the face. If you glance at history’s pages,In all lands and eras […]

A Man’s Ideal

Story type: Poetry

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A lovely little keeper of the home,Absorbed in menu books, yet eruditeWhen I need counsel; quick at reparteeAnd slow to anger. Modest as a flower,Yet scintillant and radiant as a star.Unmercenary in her mould of mind,While opulent and dainty in her tastes.A nature generous and free, albeitThe incarnation of economy.She must be chaste as proud […]

Grief

Story type: Poetry

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As the funeral train with its honoured deadOn its mournful way went sweeping,While a sorrowful nation bowed its headAnd the whole world joined in weeping,I thought, as I looked on the solemn sight,Of the one fond heart despairing,And I said to myself, as in truth I might,“How sad must be this SHARING.” To share the […]

Illusion

Story type: Poetry

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God and I in space aloneAnd nobody else in view.“And where are the people, O Lord,” I said,“The earth below, and the sky o’er head,And the dead whom once I knew?” “That was a dream,” God smiled and said –“A dream that seemed to be true.There were no people, living or dead,There was no earth, […]

Assertion

Story type: Poetry

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I am serenity. Though passions beatLike mighty billows on my helpless heart,I know beyond them lies the perfect sweetSerenity, which patience can impart.And when wild tempests in my bosom rage,“Peace, peace,” I cry, “it is my heritage.” I am good health. Though fevers rack my brainAnd rude disorders mutilate my strength,A perfect restoration after pain,I […]

I Am

Story type: Poetry

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I know not whence I came,I know not whither I go;But the fact stands clear that I am hereIn this world of pleasure and woe.And out of the mist and murkAnother truth shines plain –It is my power each day and hourTo add to its joy or its pain. I know that the earth exists,It […]

Wishing

Story type: Poetry

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Do you wish the world were better?Let me tell you what to do:Set a watch upon your actions,Keep them always straight and true;Rid your mind of selfish motives;Let your thoughts be clean and high.You can make a little EdenOf the sphere you occupy. Do you wish the world were wiser?Well, suppose you make a start,By […]

We Two

Story type: Poetry

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We two make home of any place we go;We two find joy in any kind of weather;Or if the earth is clothed in bloom or snow,If summer days invite, or bleak winds blow,What matters it if we two are together?We two, we two, we make our world, our weather. We two make banquets of the […]

What is the explanation of the strange silence of American poets concerning American triumphs on sea and land? Literary Digest. Why should the poet of these pregnant timesBe asked to sing of war’s unholy crimes? To laud and eulogize the trade which thrivesOn horrid holocausts of human lives? Man was a fighting beast when earth […]

Twin-Born

Story type: Poetry

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He who possesses virtue at its best,Or greatness in the true sense of the word,Has one day started even with that herdWhose swift feet now speed but at sin’s behest.It is the same force in the human breastWhich makes men gods or demons. If we girdThose strong emotions by which we are stirredWith might of […]

Floods

Story type: Poetry

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In the dark night, from sweet refreshing sleepI wake to hear outside my window-paneThe uncurbed fury of the wild spring rain,And weird winds lashing the defiant deep,And roar of floods that gather strength and leapDown dizzy, wreck-strewn channels to the main.I turn upon my pillow and againCompose myself for slumber.Let them sweep;I once survived great […]

Some cawing Crows, a hooting Owl,A Hawk, a Canary, an old Marsh-Fowl,One day all meet togetherTo hold a caucus and settle the fateOf a certain bird (without a mate),A bird of another feather. “My friends,” said the Owl, with a look most wise,“The Eagle is soaring too near the skies,In a way that is quite […]

(Written on the day of Queen Victoria’s funeral) The Queen is taking a drive to-day,They have hung with purple the carriage-way,They have dressed with purple the royal trackWhere the Queen goes forth and never comes back. Let no man labour as she goes byOn her last appearance to mortal eye:With heads uncovered let all men […]

A curious vision on mine eyes unfurledIn the deep night. I saw, or seemed to see,Two Centuries meet, and sit down vis-a-visAcross the great round table of the world:One with suggested sorrows in his mien,And on his brow the furrowed lines of thought;And one whose glad expectant presence broughtA glow and radiance from the realms […]

(Written on the day of President McKinley’s death) In the midst of sunny waters, lo! the mighty Ship of StateStaggers, bruised and torn and wounded by a derelict of fate,One that drifted from its moorings in the anchorage of hate. On the deck our noble Pilot, in the glory of his prime,Lies in woe-impelling silence, […]

Let Me Lean Hard

Story type: Poetry

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Let me lean hard upon the Eternal Breast:In all earth’s devious ways I sought for restAnd found it not. I will be strong, said I,And lean upon myself. I will not cryAnd importune all heaven with my complaint.But now my strength fails, and I fall, I faint:Let me lean hard. Let me lean hard upon […]

Penalty

Story type: Poetry

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Because of the fullness of what I hadAll that I have seems void and vain.If I had not been happy I were not sad;Though my salt is savorless, why complain? From the ripe perfection of what was mine,All that is mine seems worse than naught;Yet I know as I sit in the dark and pine,No […]

Through rivers of veins on the nameless questThe tide of my life goes hurriedly sweeping,Till it reaches that curious wheel o’ the breast,The human heart, which is never at rest.Faster, faster, it cries, and leaping,Plunging, dashing, speeding away,The wheel and the river work night and day. I know not wherefore, I know not whither,This strange […]

The year outgrows the spring it thought so sweet,And clasps the summer with a new delight,Yet wearied, leaves her languors and her heatWhen cool-browed autumn dawns upon his sight. The tree outgrows the bud’s suggestive grace,And feels new pride in blossoms fully blown.But even this to deeper joy gives placeWhen bending boughs ‘neath blushing burdens […]

Earnestness

Story type: Poetry

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The hurry of the times affects us soIn this swift rushing hour, we crowd and pressAnd thrust each other backward as we go,And do not pause to lay sufficient stressUpon that good, strong, true word, Earnestness.In our impetuous haste, could we but knowIts full, deep meaning, its vast import, oh,Then might we grasp the secret […]

Come, cuddle your head on my shoulder, dear,Your head like the golden-rod,And we will go sailing away from hereTo the beautiful Land of Nod.Away from life’s hurry and flurry and worry,Away from earth’s shadows and gloom,To a world of fair weather we’ll float off together,Where roses are always in bloom. Just shut your eyes and […]

The Tiger

Story type: Poetry

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In the still jungle of the senses layA tiger soundly sleeping, till one dayA bold young hunter chanced to come that way. “How calm,” he said, “that splendid creature lies!I long to rouse him into swift surprise.”The well aimed arrow shot from amorous eyes, And lo! the tiger rouses up and turns,A coal of fire […]

Only a simple rhyme of love and sorrow,Where “blisses” rhymed with “kisses,” “heart,” with “dart:”Yet, reading it, new strength I seemed to borrow,To live on bravely and to do my part. A little rhyme about a heart that’s bleeding–Of lonely hours and sorrow’s unrelief:I smiled at first; but there came with the readingA sense of […]

I may not reach the heights I seek,My untried strength may fail me,Or, half-way up the mountain peak,Fierce tempests may assail me.But though that place I never gain,Herein lies comfort for my pain–I will be worthy of it. I may not triumph in success,Despite my earnest labor;I may not grasp results that blessThe efforts of […]

Methinks ofttimes my heart is like some beeThat goes forth through the summer day and sings.And gathers honey from all growing thingsIn garden plot or on the clover lea. When the long afternoon grows late, and sheWould seek her hive, she cannot lift her wings.So heavily the too sweet bin den clings,From which she would […]

The Saddest Hour

Story type: Poetry

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The saddest hour of anguish and of lossIs not that season of supreme despairWhen we can find no least light anywhereTo gild the dread, black shadow of the Cross;Not in that luxury of sorrow whenWe sup on salt of tears, and drink the gallOf memories of days beyond recall–Of lost delights that cannot come again. […]

Show Me The Way

Story type: Poetry

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Show me the way that leads to the true life.I do not care what tempests may assail me,I shall be given courage for the strife;I know my strength will not desert or fail me;I know that I shall conquer in the fray:Show me the way. Show me the way up to a higher plane,Where body […]

My Heritage

Story type: Poetry

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I into life so full of love was sentThat all the shadows which fall on the wayOf every human being could not stay,But fled before the light my spirit lent. I saw the world through gold and crimson dyes:Men sighed and said, “Those rosy hues will fadeAs you pass on into the glare and shade!”Still […]

Resolve

Story type: Poetry

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Build on resolve, and not upon regret,The structure of thy future. Do not gropeAmong the shadows of old sins, but letThine own soul’s light shine on the path of hopeAnd dissipate the darkness. Waste no tearsUpon the blotted record of lost years,But turn the leaf and smile, oh, smile, to seeThe fair white pages that […]

At Eleusis

Story type: Poetry

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I, at Eleusis, saw the finest sight,When early morning’s banners were unfurled.From high Olympus, gazing on the world,The ancient gods once saw it with delight.Sad Demeter had in a single nightRemoved her sombre garments! and mine eyesBeheld a ‘broidered mantle in pale dyesThrown o’er her throbbing bosom. Sweet and clearThere fell the sound of music […]

There is a courage, a majestic thingThat springs forth from the brow of pain, full-grown,Minerva-like, and dares all dangers known,And all the threatening future yet may bring;Crowned with the helmet of great suffering;Serene with that grand strength by martyrs shown,When at the stake they die and make no moan,And even as the flames leap up […]

Let there be many windows to your soul,That all the glory of the universeMay beautify it. Not the narrow paneOf one poor creed can catch the radiant raysThat shine from countless sources. Tear awayThe blinds of superstition; let the lightPour through fair windows broad as Truth itselfAnd high as God. Why should the spirit peerThrough […]

Solitude

Story type: Poetry

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Laugh, and the world laughs with you;Weep, and you weep alone;For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,But has trouble enough of its own.Sing, and the hills will answer;Sigh, it is lost on the air;The echoes bound to a joyful sound,But shrink from voicing care. Rejoice, and men will seek you;Grieve, and they turn […]

Red Carnations

Story type: Poetry

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One time in Arcadie’s fair bowersThere met a bright immortal band,To choose their emblems from the flowersThat made an Eden of that land. Sweet Constancy, with eyes of hope,Strayed down the garden path aloneAnd gathered sprays of heliotrope,To place in clusters at her zone. True Friendship plucked the ivy green,Forever fresh, forever fair.Inconstancy with flippant […]

Life Is Too Short

Story type: Poetry

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Life is too short for any vain regretting;Let dead delight bury its dead, I say,And let us go upon our way forgettingThe joys and sorrows of each yesterdayBetween the swift sun’s rising and its settingWe have no time for useless tears or fretting:Life is too short. Life is too short for any bitter feeling;Time is […]

A Sculptor

Story type: Poetry

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As the ambitious sculptor, tireless, liftsChisel and hammer to the block at hand,Before my half-formed character I standAnd ply the shining tools of mental gifts.I’ll cut away a huge, unsightly sideOf selfishness, and smooth to curves of graceThe angles of ill-temper. And no traceShall my sure hammer leave of silly pride.Chip after chip must fall […]

Beyond

Story type: Poetry

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It seemeth such a little way to meAcross to that strange country–the Beyond;And yet, not strange, for it has grown to beThe home of those of whom I am so fond,They make it seem familiar and most dear,As journeying friends bring distant regions near. So close it lies that when my sight is clearI think […]

Mockery

Story type: Poetry

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Why do we grudge our sweets so to the livingWho, God knows, find at best too much of gall,And then with generous, open hands kneel, givingUnto the dead our all? Why do we pierce the warm hearts, sin or sorrow,With idle jests, or scorn, or cruel sneers,And when it cannot know, on some to-morrow,Speak of […]

As By Fire

Story type: Poetry

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Sometimes I feel so passionate a yearningFor spiritual perfection here below,This vigorous frame, with healthful fervor burning,Seems my determined foe, So actively it makes a stern resistance,So cruelly sometimes it wages warAgainst a wholly spiritual existenceWhich I am striving for. It interrupts my soul’s intense devotions;Some hope it strangles, of divinest birth,With a swift rush […]

If I Should Die

Story type: Poetry

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RONDEAU. If I should die, how kind you all would grow!In that strange hour I would not have one foe.There are no words too beautiful to sayOf one who goes forevermore awayAcross that ebbing tide which has no flow. With what new lustre my good deeds would glow!If faults were mine, no one would call […]

Mesalliance

Story type: Poetry

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I am troubled to-night with a curious pain;It is not of the flesh, it is not of the brain,Nor yet of a heart that is breaking:But down still deeper, and out of sight–In the place where the soul and the body unite–There lies the scat of the aching. They have been lovers in days gone […]

Drouth

Story type: Poetry

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Why do we pity those who weep? The painThat finds a ready outlet in the flowOf salt and bitter tears is blessed woe,And does not need our sympathies. The rainBut fits the shorn field for new yield of grain;While the red, brazen skies, the sun’s fierce glow,The dry, hot winds that from the tropics blowDo […]

Bleak Weather

Story type: Poetry

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Dear Love, where the red lilies blossomed and grewThe white snows are falling;And all through the woods where I wandered with youThe loud winds are calling;And the robin that piped to us tune upon tune,Neath the oak, you remember,O’er hill-top and forest has followed the JuneAnd left us December. He has left like a friend […]

The Creed

Story type: Poetry

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Whoever was begotten by pure love,And came desired and welcome into life,Is of immaculate conception. HeWhose heart is full of tenderness and truth,Who loves mankind more than he loves himself,And cannot find room in his heart for hate,May be another Christ. We all may beThe Saviours of the world if we believeIn the Divinity which […]

If all the year was summer time,And all the aim of lifeWas just to lilt on like a rhyme,Then I would be your wife. If all the days were August days,And crowned with golden weather,How happy then through green-clad waysWe two could stray together! If all the nights were moonlit nights,And we had naught to […]

You will forget me. The years are so tender,They bind up the wounds which we think are so deep;This dream of our youth will fade out as the splendorFades from the skies when the sun sinks to sleep;The cloud of forgetfulness, over and overWill banish the last rosy colors away,And the fingers of time will […]

(Suggested by the “Clarimonde” OF Theophile Gautier.) Adieu, Romauld! But thou canst not forget me.Although no more I haunt thy dreams at night,Thy hungering heart forever must regret me,And starve for those lost moments of delight. Naught shall avail thy priestly rites and duties,Nor fears of Hell, nor hopes of Heaven beyond:Before the Cross shall […]

The Trio

Story type: Poetry

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We love but once. The great gold orb of lightFrom dawn to even-tide doth cast his ray;But the full splendor of his perfect mightIs reached but once throughout the livelong day. We love but once. The waves, with ceaseless motion,Do day and night plash on the pebbled shore;But the strong tide of the resistless oceanSweeps […]

The Lost Garden

Story type: Poetry

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There was a fair green garden slopingFrom the south-east side of the mountain-ledge;And the earliest tint of the dawn came gropingDown through its paths, from the day’s dim edge.The bluest skies and the reddest rosesArched and varied its velvet sod;And the glad birds sang, as the soul supposesThe angels sing on the hills of God. […]

Love’s Coming

Story type: Poetry

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She had looked for his coming as warriors come,With the clash of arms and the bugle’s call:But he came instead with a stealthy tread,Which she did not hear at all. She had thought how his armor would blaze in the sun,As he rode like a prince to claim his bride:In the sweet dim light of […]

Art And Heart

Story type: Poetry

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Though critics may bow to art, and I am its own true lover,It is not art, but heart, which wins the wide world over. Though smooth be the heartless prayer, no ear in Heaven will mind it,And the finest phrase falls dead if there is no feeling behind it. Though perfect the player’s touch, little, […]

Old And New

Story type: Poetry

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Long have the poets vaunted, in their lays,Old times, old loves, old friendship, and old wine.Why should the old monopolize all praise?Then let the new claim mine. Give me strong new friends when the old prove weakOr fail me in my darkest hour of need;Why perish with the ship that springs a leakOr lean upon […]

Perfectness

Story type: Poetry

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All perfect things are saddening in effect.The autumn wood robed in its scarlet clothes,The matchless tinting on the royal roseWhose velvet leaf by no least flaw is flecked,Love’s supreme moment, when the soul uncheckedSoars high as heaven, and its best rapture knows–These hold a deeper pathos than our woes,Since they leave nothing better to expect. […]

Attraction

Story type: Poetry

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The meadow and the mountain with desireGazed on each other, till a fierce unrestSurged ‘neath the meadow’s seemingly calm breast,And all the mountain’s fissures ran with fire. A mighty river rolled between them there.What could the mountain do but gaze and burn?What could the meadow do but look and yearn,And gem its bosom to conceal […]

Gracia

Story type: Poetry

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Nay, nay, Antonio! nay, thou shalt not blame her,My Gracia, who hath so deserted me.Thou art my friend, but if thou dost defame herI shall not hesitate to challenge thee. “Curse and forget her?” So I might another,One not so bounteous-natured or so fair;But she, Antonio, she was like no other–I curse her not, because […]

Ad Finem

Story type: Poetry

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On the white throat of the’ useless passionThat scorched my soul with its burning breathI clutched my fingers in murderous fashion,And gathered them close in a grip of death;For why should I fan, or feed with fuel,A love that showed me but blank despair?So my hold was firm, and my grasp was cruel–I meant to […]

Not quite the same the spring-time seems to me,Since that sad season when in separate waysOur paths diverged. There are no more such daysAs dawned for us in that lost time when weDwelt in the realm of dreams, illusive dreams;Spring may be just as fair now, but it seemsNot quite the same. Not quite the […]

From The Grave

Story type: Poetry

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When the first sere leaves of the year were falling,I heard, with a heart that was strangely thrilled,Out of the grave of a dead Past calling,A voice I fancied forever stilled. All through winter and spring and summer,Silence hung over that grave like a pall,But, borne on the breath of the last sad comer,I listen […]

A Waltz-Quadrille

Story type: Poetry

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The band was playing a waltz-quadrille,I felt as light as a wind-blown feather,As we floated away, at the caller’s will,Through the intricate, mazy dance together.Like mimic armies our lines were meeting,Slowly advancing, and then retreating,All decked in their bright array;And back and forth to the music’s rhymeWe moved together, and all the timeI knew you […]

Beppo

Story type: Poetry

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Why art thou sad, my Beppo? But last eve,Here at my feet, thy dear head on my breast,I heard thee say thy heart would no more grieveOr feel the olden ennui and unrest. What troubles thee? Am I not all thine own?–I, so long sought, so sighed for and so dear?And do I not live […]

Tired

Story type: Poetry

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I am tired to-night, and something,The wind maybe, or the rain,Or the cry of a bird in the copse outside,Has brought back the past and its pain.And I feel, as I sit here thinking,That the hand of a dead old JuneHas reached out hold of my heart’s loose strings,And is drawing them up in tune. […]

The solemn Sea of Silence lies between us;I know thou livest, and them lovest me,And yet I wish some white ship would come sailingAcross the ocean, beating word from thee. The dead calm awes me with its awful stillness.No anxious doubts or fears disturb my breast;I only ask some little wave of language,To stir this […]

Time And Love

Story type: Poetry

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Time flies. The swift hours hurry byAnd speed us on to untried ways;New seasons ripen, perish, die,And yet love stays.The old, old love–like sweet, at first,At last like bitter wine–I know not if it blest or curstThy life and mine. Time flies. In vain our prayers, our tears!We cannot tempt him to delays;Down to the […]

Conversion

Story type: Poetry

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I have lived this life as the skeptic lives it;I have said the sweetness was less than the gall;Praising, nor cursing, the Hand that gives it,I have drifted aimlessly through it all.I have scoffed at the tale of a so-called heaven;I have laughed at the thought of a Supreme Friend;I have said that it only […]

Change

Story type: Poetry

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Changed? Yes, I will confess it–I have changed.I do not love in the old fond way.I am your friend still–time has not estrangedOne kindly feeling of that vanished day. But the bright glamour which made life a dream,The rapture of that time, its sweet content,Like visions of a sleeper’s brain they seem–And yet I cannot […]

Desolation

Story type: Poetry

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I think that the bitterest sorrow or painOf love unrequited, or cold death’s woe,Is sweet compared to that hour when we knowThat some grand passion is on the wane; When we see that the glory and glow and graceWhich lent a splendor to night and dayAre surely fading, and showing the grayAnd dull groundwork of […]

Isaura

Story type: Poetry

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Dost thou not tire, Isaura, of this play?“What play?” Why, this old play of winning hearts!Nay, now, lift not thine eyes in that feigned way:‘Tis all in vain–I know thee and thine arts. Let us be frank, Isaura. I have madeA study of thee; and while I admireThe practised skill with which thy plans are […]

The Coquette

Story type: Poetry

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Alone she sat with her accusing heart,That, like a restless comrade frightened sleep,And every thought that found her, left a dartThat hurt her so, she could not even weep. Her heart that once had been a cup well filledWith love’s red wine, save for some drops of gallShe knew was empty; though it had not […]

New And Old

Story type: Poetry

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I and new love, in all its living bloom,Sat vis-a-vis, while tender twilight hoursWent softly by us, treading as on flowers.Then suddenly I saw within the roomThe old love, long since lying in its tomb.It dropped the cerecloth from its fleshless faceAnd smiled on me, with a remembered graceThat, like the noontide, lit the gloaming’s […]

[AFTER JAMES THOMSON.] As I came through the Valley of Despair,As I came through the valley, on my sight,More awful than the darkness of the night,Shone glimpses of a Past that had been fair,And memories of eyes that used to smile,And wafts of perfume from a vanished isle,As I came through the valley. As I […]

But One

Story type: Poetry

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The year has but one June, dear friend;The year has but one June;And when that perfect month doth end,The robin’s song, though loud, though long,Seems never quite in tune. The rose, though still its blushing faceBy bee and bird is seen,May yet have lost that subtle grace–That nameless spell the winds knowWhich makes it garden’s […]

Guilo

Story type: Poetry

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Yes, yes! I love thee, Guilo; thee alone.Why dost thou sigh, and wear that face of sorrow?The sunshine is to-day’s, although it shoneOn yesterday, and may shine on to-morrow. I love but thee, my Guilo! be content;The greediest heart can claim but present pleasure.The future is thy God’s. The past is spent.To-day is thine; clasp […]

The Duet

Story type: Poetry

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I was smoking a cigarette;Maud, my wife, and the tenor, McKey,Were singing together a blithe duet,And days it were better I should forgetCame suddenly back to me–Days when life seemed a gay masque ball,And to love and be loved was the sum of it all. As they sang together, the whole scene fled,The room’s rich […]

Little Queen

Story type: Poetry

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Do you remember the name I wore–The old pet-name of Little Queen–In the dear, dead days that are no more,The happiest days of our lives, I ween?For we loved with that passionate love of youthThat blesses but once with its perfect bliss–A love that, in spite of its trust and truth,Seems never to thrive in […]

Wherefore?

Story type: Poetry

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Wherefore in dreams are sorrows borne anew,A healed wound opened, or the past revived?Last night in my deep sleep I dreamed of you;Again the old love woke in me, and thrivedOn looks of fire, and kisses, and sweet wordsLike silver waters purling in a stream,Or like the amorous melodies of birds:A dream–a dream! Again upon […]

Delilah

Story type: Poetry

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In the midnight of darkness and terror,When I would grope nearer to God,With my back to a record of errorAnd the highway of sin I have trod,There come to me shapes I would banish–The shapes of the deeds I have done;And I pray and I plead till they vanish–All vanish and leave me, save one. […]

Queries

Story type: Poetry

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Well, how has it been with you since we metThat last strange time of a hundred times?When we met to swear that we could forget–I your caresses, and you my rhymes–The rhyme of my lays that rang like a bell,And the rhyme of my heart with yours, as well? How has it been since we […]

Upon The Sand

Story type: Poetry

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All love that has not friendship for its baseIs like a mansion built upon the sand.Though brave its walls as any in the land,And its tall turrets lift their heads in grace;Though skilful and accomplished artists traceMost beautiful designs on every hand,And gleaming statues in dim niches stand,And fountains play in some flow’r-hidden place: Yet, […]

Reunited

Story type: Poetry

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Let us begin, dear love, where we left off;Tie up the broken threads of that old dream,And go on happy as before, and seemLovers again, though all the world may scoff. Let us forget the graves which lie betweenOur parting and our meeting, and the tearsThat rusted out the gold-work of the years,The frosts that […]

What Shall We Do?

Story type: Poetry

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Here now forevermore our lives must part.My path leads there, and yours another way.What shall we do with this fond love, dear heart?It grows a heavier burden day by day. Hide it? In all earth’s caverns, void and vast,There is not room enough to hide it, dear;Not even the mighty storehouse of the pastCould cover […]

They drift down the hall together;He smiles in her lifted eyes;Like waves of that mighty river,The strains of the “Danube” rise.They float on its rhythmic measureLike leaves on a summer-stream;And here, in this scene of pleasure,I bury my sweet, dead dream. Through the cloud of her dusky tresses,Like a star, shines out her face,And the […]

Answered

Story type: Poetry

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Good-bye–yes, I am going.Sudden? Well, you are right;But a startling truth came home to meWith sudden force last night.What is it? Shall I tell you?Nay, that is why I go.I am running away from the battlefieldTurning my back on the foe. Riddles? You think me cruel!Have you not been most kind?Why, when you question me […]

How does Love speak?In the faint flush upon the tell-tale cheek,And in the pallor that succeeds it; byThe quivering lid of an averted eye–The smile that proves the patent to a sigh–Thus doth Love speak. How does Love speak?By the uneven heart-throbs, and the freakOf bounding pulses that stand still and ache,While new emotions, like […]

Impatience

Story type: Poetry

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How can I wait until you come to me?The once fleet mornings linger by the way,Their sunny smiles touched with malicious gleeAt my unrest; they seem to pause, and playLike truant children, while I sigh and say,How can I wait? How can I wait? Of old, the rapid hoursRefused to pause or loiter with me […]

Communism

Story type: Poetry

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When my blood flows calm as a purling river,When my heart is asleep and my brain has sway,It is then that I vow we must part forever,That I will forget you, and put you awayOut of my life, as a dream is banishedOut of the mind when the dreamer awakes;That I know it will be, […]

The Common Lot

Story type: Poetry

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It is a common fate–a woman’s lot–To waste on one the riches of her soul,Who takes the wealth she gives him, but cannotRepay the interest, and much less the whole. As I look up into your eyes and waitFor some response to my fond gaze and touch,It seems to me there is no sadder fateThan […]

Individuality

Story type: Poetry

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O yes, I love you, and with all my heart;Just as a weaker woman loves her own,Better than I love my beloved art,Which, till you came, reigned royally, alone,My king, my master. Since I saw your faceI have dethroned it, and you hold that place. I am as weak as other women are:Your frown can […]

After the fierce midsummer all ablazeHas burned itself to ashes, and expiresIn the intensity of its own fires,There come the mellow, mild, St. Martin days,Crowned with the calm of peace, but sad with haze.So after Love has led us, till he tiresOf his own throes and torments and desires,Comes large-eyed friendship: with a restful gazeHe […]

"Carlos"

Story type: Poetry

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Last night I knelt low at my lady’s feet.One soft, caressing hand played with my hair,And one I kissed and fondled. Kneeling there,I deemed my meed of happiness complete. She was so fair, so full of witching wiles –Of fascinating tricks of mouth and eye;So womanly withal, but not too shy –And all my heaven […]

La Mort D’amour

Story type: Poetry

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When was it that love died? We were so fond,So very fond a little while ago.With leaping pulses, and blood all aglow,We dreamed about a sweeter life beyond, When we should dwell together as one heart,And scarce could wait that happy time to come.Now side by side we sit with lips quite dumb,And feel ourselves […]

Love’s Sleep

Story type: Poetry

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(Vers de Societe) We’ll cover Love with roses,And sweet sleep he shall takeNone but a fool supposesLove always keeps awake.I’ve known loves without number –True loves were they, and tried;And just for want of slumberThey pined away and died. Our love was bright and cheerfulA little while agone;Now he is pale and tearful,And–yes, I’ve seen […]

True Culture

Story type: Poetry

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The highest culture is to speak no ill,The best reformer is the man whose eyesAre quick to see all beauty and all worth;And by his own discreet, well-ordered life,Alone reproves the erring. When thy gazeTurns in on thine own soul, be most severe.But when it falls upon a fellow-manLet kindliness control it; and refrainFrom that […]

The Voluptuary

Story type: Poetry

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Oh, I am sick of love reciprocated,Of hopes fulfilled, ambitions gratified.Life holds no thing to be anticipated,And I am sad from being satisfied. The eager joy felt climbing up a mountainHas left me now the highest point is gained.The crystal spray that fell from Fame’s fair fountainWas sweeter than the waters were when drained. The […]

The Lippo

Story type: Poetry

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Now we must part, my Lippo. Even so,I grieve to see thy sudden pained surprise;Gaze not on me with such accusing eyes –‘Twas thine own hand which dealt dearLove’s death-blow. I loved thee fondly yesterday. Till thenThy heart was like a covered golden cupAlways above my eager lip held up.I fancied thou wert not as […]

Life Is Love

Story type: Poetry

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Is anyone sad in the world, I wonder?Does anyone weep on a day like this,With the sun above and the green earth under?Why, what is life but a dream of bliss? With the sun and the skies and the birds above me,Birds that sing as they wheel and fly –With the winds to follow and […]

A March Snow

Story type: Poetry

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Let the old snow be covered with the new:The trampled snow, so soiled, and stained, and sodden.Let it be hidden wholly from our viewBy pure white flakes, all trackless and untrodden.When Winter dies, low at the sweet Spring’s feet,Let him be mantled in a clean, white sheet.Let the old life be covered by the new:The […]

Thou Christ of mine, Thy gracious ear low bendingThrough these glad New Year days,To catch the countless prayers to heaven ascending –For e’en hard hearts do raiseSome secret wish for fame, or gold, or power,Or freedom from all care –Dear, patient Christ, who listeneth hour on hour,Hear now a Christian’s prayer. Let this young year […]

Lean Down

Story type: Poetry

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Lean down and lift me higher, Josephine!From the Eternal Hills hast thou not seenHow I do strive for heights? but lacking wings,I cannot grasp at once those better thingsTo which I in my inmost soul aspire.Lean down and lift me higher. I grope along–not desolate or sad,For youth and hope and health all keep me […]

Applause

Story type: Poetry

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I hold it one of the sad certain lawsWhich makes our failures sometime seem more kindThan that success which brings sure loss behind –True greatness dies, when sounds the world’s applauseFame blights the object it would bless, becauseWeighed down with men’s expectancy, the mindCan no more soar to those far heights, and findThat freedom which […]

Over the banisters bends a face,Daringly sweet and beguiling.Somebody stands in careless graceAnd watching the picture, smiling. The light burns dim in the hall below,Nobody sees her standing,Saying good-night again, soft and low,Halfway up to the landing. Nobody only the eyes of brown,Tender and full of meaning,That smile on the fairest face in town,Over the […]

The Secrets

Story type: Poetry

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Think not some knowledge rests with thee alone;Why, even God’s stupendous secret, Death,We one by one, with our expiring breath,Do pale with wonder seize and make our own;The bosomed treasures of the earth are shown,Despite her careful hiding; and the airYields its mysterious marvels in despairTo swell the mighty store-house of things known.In vain the […]

All roads that lead to God are good.What matters it, your faith, or mine?Both centre at the goal divineOf love’s eternal Brotherhood. The kindly life in house or street –The life of prayer and mystic rite –The student’s search for truth and light –These paths at one great Junction meet. Before the oldest book was […]

Dust-Sealed

Story type: Poetry

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I know not wherefore, but mine eyesSee bloom, where other eyes see blight.They find a rainbow, a sunrise,Where others but discern deep night. Men call me an enthusiast,And say I look through gilded haze:Because where’er my gaze is cast,I see something that calls for praise. I say, “Behold those lovely eyes –That tinted cheek of […]

"Advice"

Story type: Poetry

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I must do as you do? Your way I ownIs a very good way. And still,There are sometimes two straight roads to a town,One over, one under the hill. You are treading the safe and the well-worn way,That the prudent choose each time;And you think me reckless and rash to-day,Because I prefer to climb. Your […]

PART V A visit to a cave some miles awayWas next in order. So, one sunny day,Four prancing steeds conveyed a laughing loadOf merry pleasure-seekers o’er the road.A basket picnic, music, and croquetWere in the programme. Skies were blue and clear,And cool winds whispered of the Autumn near.The merry-makers filled the time with pleasure:Some floated […]

PART VI There was a week of bustle and of hurry;A stately home echoed to voices sweet,Calling, replying; and to tripping feetOf busy bridesmaids, running to and fro,With all that girlish fluttering and flurryPreceding such occasions. Helen’s roomWas like a lily-garden, all in bloom,Decked with the dainty robes of her trousseau.My robe was fashioned by […]

A Pin

Story type: Poetry

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Oh! I know a certain woman who is reckoned with the good,But she fills me with more terror than a raging lion could.The little chills run up and down my spine whene’er we meet,Though she seems a gentle creature and she’s very trim and neat. And she has a thousand virtues and not one acknowledged […]

PART VII With much hard labour and some pleasure fraught,The months rolled by me noiselessly, that taughtMy hand to grow more skilful in its art,Strengthened my daring dream of fame, and broughtSweet hope and resignation to my heart. Brief letters came from Helen, now and then:She was quite well–oh yes! quite well, indeed!But still so […]

The Coming Man

Story type: Poetry

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Oh! not for the great departed,Who formed our country’s laws,And not for the bravest-hearted,Who died in freedom’s cause,And not for some living heroTo whom all bend the knee,My muse would raise her song of praise–But for the man to be. For out of the strife which womanIs passing through to-day,A man that is more than […]

PART I I sat and sewed, and sang some tender tune,Oh, beauteous was that morn in early June!Mellow with sunlight, and with blossoms fair:The climbing rose-tree grew about me there,And checked with shade the sunny porticoWhere, morns like this, I came to read, or sew. I heard the gate click, and a firm, quick treadUpon […]

PART II To little birds that never tire of hummingAbout the garden in the summer weather,Aunt Ruth compared us, after Helen’s coming,As we two roamed, or sat and talked together.Twelve months apart, we had so much to sayOf school days gone–and time since passed away;Of that old friend, and this; of what we’d done;Of how […]

PART III One golden twelfth-part of a checkered year;One summer month, of sunlight, moonlight, mirth,With not a hint of shadows lurking near,Or storm-clouds brewing. ‘Twas a royal day:Voluptuous July held her lover, Earth,With her warm arms, upon her glowing breast,And twined herself about him, as he laySmiling and panting in his dream-stirred rest.She bound him […]

PART IV “Maurine, Maurine, ’tis ten o’clock! arise,My pretty sluggard, open those dark eyesAnd see where yonder sun is! Do you knowI made my toilet just four hours ago?” ‘Twas Helen’s voice: and Helen’s gentle kissFell on my cheek. As from a deep abyss,I drew my weary self from that strange sleepThat rests not nor […]

About May

Story type: Poetry

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One night Nurse Sleep held out her handTo tired little May.“Come, go with me to Wonderland,”She said, “I know the way.Just rock-a-by–hum-m-m,And lo! we comeTo the place where the dream-girls play.” But naughty May, she wriggled awayFrom Sleep’s soft arms, and said:“I must stay awake till I eat my cake,And then I will go to […]

Vanity Fair

Story type: Poetry

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In Vanity Fair, as we bow and smile,As we talk of the opera after the weather,As we chat of fashion and fad and style,We know we are playing a part together.You know that the mirth she wears, she borrows;She knows you laugh but to hide your sorrows;We know that under the silks and laces,And back […]

The Giddy Girl

Story type: Poetry

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[This recitation is intended to be given with an accompaniment of waltz music, introducing dance-steps at the refrain “With one, two, three,” etc.] A giddy young maiden with nimble feet,Heigh-ho! alack and alas!Declared she would far rather dance than eat,And the truth of it came to pass.For she danced all day and she danced all […]

We plucked a red rose, you and I,All in the summer weather;Sweet its perfume and rare its bloom,Enjoyed by us together.The rose is dead, the summer fled,And bleak winds are complaining;We dwell apart, but in each heartWe find the thorn remaining. We sipped a sweet wine, you and I,All in the summer weather.The beaded draught […]

His Youth

Story type: Poetry

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“Dying? I am not dying? Are you mad?You think I need to ask for heavenly grace?I think you are a fiend, who would be gladTo see me struggle in death’s cold embrace. “But, man, you lie! for I am strong–in truthStronger than I have been in years; and soonI shall feel young again as in […]

Under The Sheet

Story type: Poetry

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What a terrible night! Does the Night, I wonder–The Night, with her black veil down to her feetLike an ordained nun, know what lies underThat awful, motionless, snow-white sheet?The winds seem crazed, and, wildly howling,Over the sad earth blindly go.Do they and the dark clouds over them scowling,Do they dream or know? Why, here in […]

Forbidden Speech

Story type: Poetry

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The passion you forbade my lips to utterWill not be silenced. You must hear it inThe sullen thunders when they roll and mutter:And when the tempest nears, with wail and din,I know your calm forgetfulness is broken,And to your heart you whisper, “He has spoken.” All nature understands and sympathisesWith human passion. When the restless […]

The Summer Girl

Story type: Poetry

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She’s the jauntiest of creatures, she’s the daintiest of misses,With her pretty patent leathers or her alligator ties,With her eyes inviting glances and her lips inviting kisses,As she wanders by the ocean or strolls under country skies. She’s a captivating dresser, and her parasols are stunning;Her fads will take your breath away, her hats are […]

The Signboard

Story type: Poetry

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I will paint you a sign, rumseller,And hang it above your door;A truer and better signboardThan ever you had before.I will paint with the skill of a master,And many shall pause to seeThis wonderful piece of painting,So like the reality. I will paint yourself, rumseller,As you wait for that fair young boy,Just in the morning […]

(Intended for recitation at club dinners.) To-night when I came from the club at eleven,Under the gaslight I saw a face–A woman’s face! and I swear to heavenIt looked like the ghastly ghost of–Grace! And Grace? why, Grace was fair; and I tarried,And loved her a season as we men do.And then–but pshaw! why, of […]

Aristarchus

Story type: Poetry

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(THE NAME OF THE MOUNTAIN IN THE MOON) It was long and long ago our love began;It is something all unmeasured by time’s span:In an era and a spot, by the Modern World forgot,We were lovers, ere God named us, Maid and Man. Like the memory of music made by streams,All the beauty of that […]

Dell And I

Story type: Poetry

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In a mansion grand, just over the wayLives bonny, beautiful Dell;You may have heard of this lady gay,For she is a famous belle.I live in a low cot opposite–You never have heard of me;For when the lady moon shines bright,Who would a pale star see?But ah, well! ah, well! I am happier far than Dell,As […]

“I think I hear the sound of horses feetBeating upon the gravelled avenue.Go to the window that looks on the street,He would not let me die alone, I knew.”Back to the couch the patient watcher passed,And said: “It is the wailing of the blast.” She turned upon her couch and, seeming, slept,The long, dark lashes […]

How Will It Be?

Story type: Poetry

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How will it be when one of us aloneGoes on that strange last journey of the soul?That certain search for an uncertain goal,That voyage on which no comradeship is known?Will our dear sea sing with the old sweet tone,Though one sits stricken where its billows roll?Will space be dumb, or from the mystic poleWill spirit-messages […]

Memory’s River

Story type: Poetry

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In Nature’s bright blossoms not always reposesThat strange subtle essence more rare than their bloom,Which lies in the hearts of carnations and roses,That unexplained something by men called perfume.Though modest the flower, yet great is its powerAnd pregnant with meaning each pistil and leaf,If only it hides there, if only abides there,The fragrance suggestive of […]

Love’s Way

Story type: Poetry

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Love gives us copious potions of delight,Of pain and ecstasy, and peace and care;Love leads us upward, to the mountain height,And, like an angel, stands beside us there;Then thrusts us, demon-like, in some abyss:Where, in the darkness of despair, we grope,Till, suddenly, Love greets us with a kissAnd guides us back to flowery fields of […]

Like the tenth wave, that offers to the shoreAccumulated opulence and force,So does my heart, which thought it loved of yore,Carry increasing passion down the courseOf time to proffer thee.Oh! not the faintFirst ripple of the sea should be its pride,But the great climax of its unrestraint,Which culminates in one commanding tide. The lesser billows […]

The Confession

Story type: Poetry

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I How shall a maid make answer to a manWho summons her, by love’s supreme decree,To open her whole heart, that he may seeThe intricate strange ways that love began.So many streams from that great fountain ranTo feed the river that now rushes free,So deep the heart, so full of mystery;How shall a maid make […]

Sit still, I say, and dispense with heroics!I hurt your wrists? Well, you have hurt me.It is time you found out that all men are not stoics,Nor toys to be used as your mood may be.I will not let go of your hands, nor leave youUntil I have spoken. No man, you say,Dared ever so […]

What is flirtation? Really,How can I tell you that?But when she smiles I see its wiles,And when he lifts his hat. ‘Tis walking in the moonlight,‘Tis buttoning on a glove,‘Tis lips that speak of plays next week,While eyes are talking love. ‘Tis meeting in the ball-room,‘Tis whirling in the dance;‘Tis something hid beneath the lidMore […]

Husband And Wife

Story type: Poetry

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Reach out your arms, and hold me close and fast,Tell me you have no memories of your pastThat mar this love of ours, so great, so vast. Some truths are cheapened when too oft averred–Does not the deed speak louder than the word?(Dear Christ! that old dream woke again and stirred.) As you love me, […]

How does Love speak?In the faint flush upon the tell-tale cheek,And in the pallor that succeeds it; byThe quivering lid of an averted eye–The smile that proves the parent of a sigh:Thus doth Love speak. How does Love speak?By the uneven heart-throbs, and the freakOf bounding pulses that stand still and acheWhile new emotions, like […]

Reincarnation

Story type: Poetry

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He slept as weary toilers do,She gazed up at the moon.He stirred and said, “Wife, come to bed”;She answered, “Soon, full soon.”(Oh! that strange mystery of the dead moon’s face.) Her cheek was wan, her wistful mouthWas lifted like a cup,The moonful night dripped liquid light:She seemed to quaff it up.(Oh! that unburied corpse that […]

How Salvator Won

Story type: Poetry

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The gate was thrown open, I rode out alone,More proud than a monarch who sits on a throne.I am but a jockey, yet shout upon shoutWent up from the people who watched me ride out;And the cheers that rang forth from that warm-hearted crowd,Were as earnest as those to which monarch e’er bowed. My heart […]

Robin’s Mistake

Story type: Poetry

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What do you think Red RobinFound by a mow of hay?Why, a flask brimful of liquor,That the mowers brought that dayTo slake their thirst in the hayfield.And Robin he shook his head:“Now I wonder what they call it,And how it tastes?” he said. “I have seen the mowers drink it–Why isn’t it good for me?So […]

New Year Resolve

Story type: Poetry

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As the dead year is clasped by a dead December,So let your dead sins with your dead days lie.A new life is yours and a new hope. RememberWe build our own ladders to climb to the sky. Stand out in the sunlight of promise, forgettingWhatever the past held of sorrow and wrong.We waste half our […]

What We Want

Story type: Poetry

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All hail the dawn of a new day breaking,When a strong-armed nation shall take awayThe weary burdens from backs that are achingWith maximum labour and minimum pay;When no man is honoured who hoards his millions;When no man feasts on another’s toil;And God’s poor suffering, striving billionsShall share His riches of sun and soil. There is […]

When from dawn till noon seems one long day,And from noon till night another,Oh, then should a little boy come from play,And creep into the arms of his mother.Snugly creep and fall asleep,Oh, come, my baby, do;Creep into my lap, and with a napWe’ll break the day in two. When the shadows slant for afternoon,When […]

High o’er the clouds a Sunbeam shone,And far down under him,With a subtle grace that was all her own,The Mist gleamed, fair and dim. He looked at her with his burning eyesAnd longed to fall at her feet;Of all sweet things there under the skies,He thought her the thing most sweet. He had wooed oft, […]

The Two Glasses

Story type: Poetry

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There sat two glasses, filled to the brim,On a rich man’s table, rim to rim.One was ruddy and red as blood,And one was as clear as the crystal flood. Said the glass of wine to his paler brother:“Let us tell tales of the past to each other.I can tell of banquet, and revel, and mirth,Where […]

A Servian Legend

Story type: Poetry

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Long, long ago, ere yet our race began,When earth was empty, waiting still for man,Before the breath of life to him was givenThe angels fell into a strife in heaven. At length one furious demon grasped the sunAnd sped away as fast as he could run,And with a ringing laugh of fiendish mirth,He leaped the […]

The Maniac

Story type: Poetry

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I saw them sitting in the shade;The long green vines hung over,But could not hide the gold-haired maidAnd Earl, my dark-eyed lover.His arm was clasped so close, so close,Her eyes were softly lifted,While his eyes drank the cheek of roseAnd breasts like snowflakes drifted. A strange noise sounded in my brain;I was a guest unbidden.I […]

Summer Dreams

Story type: Poetry

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When the Summer sun is shining,And the green things push and grow,Oft my heart runs over measure,With its flowing fount of pleasure,As I feel the sea winds blow;Ah, then life is good, I know. And I think of sweet birds building,And of children fair and free;And of glowing sun-kissed meadows,And of tender twilight shadows,And of […]

Between the ringing of bells and the musical clang of chimesI hear a sound like the breaking of chains, all through these Christmas times.For the thought of the world is waking out of a slumber deep and long,And the race is beginning to understand how Right can master Wrong. And the eyes of the world […]

Peek-A-Boo

Story type: Poetry

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The cunningest thing that a baby can doIs the very first time it plays peek-a-boo; When it hides its pink little face in its hands,And crows, and shows that it understands What nurse, and mamma and papa, too,Mean when they hide and cry, “Peek a-boo, peek-a-boo.” Oh, what a wonderful thing it is,When they find […]

Time’s Gaze

Story type: Poetry

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Time looked me in the eyes while passing byThe milestone of the year. That piercing gazeWas both an accusation and reproach.No speech was needed. In a sorrowing lookMore meaning lies than in complaining words,And silence hurts as keenly as reproof. Oh, opulent, kind giver of rich hours,How have I used thy benefits! As babesUnstring a […]

In what I do I note the marring flaw,The imperfections of the work I see;Nor am I one who rather DO than BE,Since its reversal is Creation’s law. Nay, since there lies a better and a worse,A lesser and a larger, in men’s view,I would be better than the thing I do,As God is greater […]

Above the din of commerce, above the clamour and rattleOf labour disputing with riches, of Anarchists’ threats and groans,Above the hurry and hustle and roar of that bloodless battle,Where men are fighting for riches, I hear the falling of thrones. I see no savage host, I hear no martial drumming,But down in the dust at […]

All through the Castle of High-bred Ease,Where the chief employment was do-as-you-please,Spread consternation and wild despair.The queen was wringing her hands and hair;The maids of honour were sad and solemn;The pages looked blank as they stood in column;The court-jester blubbered, “Boo-hoo, boo-hoo”The cook in the kitchen dropped tears in the stewAnd all through the castle […]

Art Thou Alive?

Story type: Poetry

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Art thou alive? Nay, not too soon reply,Tho’ hand, and foot, and lip, and ear, and eye,Respond, and do thy bidding yet may beGrim death has done his direst work with thee.Life, as God gives it, is a thing apartFrom active body and from beating heart.It is the vital spark, the unseen fire,That moves the […]

I knew that a baby was hid in the house;Though I saw no cradle and heard no cry,But the husband went tiptoeing round like a mouse,And the good wife was humming a soft lullaby;And there was a look on the face of that motherThat I knew could mean only one thing, and no other. “The […]

The Ladder

Story type: Poetry

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Unto each mortal who comes to earthA ladder is given by God, at birth,And up this ladder the soul must go,Step by step, from the valley below;Step by step, to the centre of space,On this ladder of lives, to the Starting Place. In time departed (which yet endures)I shaped my ladder, and you shaped yours.Whatever […]

The Phantom Ball

Story type: Poetry

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You remember the hall on the corner?To-night as I walked down streetI heard the sound of music,And the rhythmic beat and beat,In time to the pulsing measureOf lightly tripping feet. And I turned and entered the doorway–It was years since I had been there–Years, and life seemed altered:Pleasure had changed to care.But again I was […]

The Foolish Elm

Story type: Poetry

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The bold young Autumn came riding alongOne day where an elm-tree grew.“You are fair,” he said, as she bent down her head,“Too fair for your robe’s dull hue.You are far too young for a garb so old;Your beauty needs colour and sheen.Oh, I would clothe you in scarlet and goldBefitting the grace of a queen. […]

Who is a Christian in this Christian landOf many churches and of lofty spires?Not he who sits in soft upholstered pewsBought by the profits of unholy greed,And looks devotion, while he thinks of gain.Not he who sends petitions from the lipsThat lie to-morrow in the street and mart.Not he who fattens on another’s toil,And flings […]

All your wonderful inventions,All your houses vast and tall,All your great gun-fronted vessels,Every fort and every wall,With the passing of the ages,They shall pass and they shall fall. As you sit among the idolsThat your avarice gave birth,As you count the hoarded treasuresThat you think of priceless worth,Time is digging tombs to hide themIn the […]

He said as he sat in her theatre boxBetween the acts, “What beastly weather!How like a parrot the lover talks–And the lady is tame, and the villain stalks–I hope they finally die together.” He thought–“You are fair as the dawn’s first ray;I know the angels keep guard above you.And so I chatter of weather, and […]

God’s Answer

Story type: Poetry

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Once in a time of trouble and of careI dreamed I talked with God about my pain;With sleepland courage, daring to complainOf what I deemed ungracious and unfair.‘Lord, I have grovelled on my knees in prayerHour after hour,’ I cried; ‘yet all in vain;No hand leads up to heights I would attain,No path is shown […]

Where have they gone to–the little girlsWith natural manners and natural curls;Who love their dollies and like their toys,And talk of something besides the boys? Little old women in plenty I find,Mature in manners and old of mind;Little old flirts who talk of their “beaux,”And vie with each other in stylish clothes. Little old belles […]

Two thousand years had passed since Christ was born,When suddenly there rose a mighty hostOf women, sweeping to a central goalAs many rivers sweep on to the sea.They came from mountains, valleys, and from coasts,And from all lands, all nations, and all ranks,Speaking all languages, but thinking one.And that one language–Peace. ‘Listen,’ they said,And straightway […]

The Suicide

Story type: Poetry

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Vast was the wealth I carried in life’s pack–Youth, health, ambition, hope and trust; but TimeAnd Fate, those robbers fit for any crime,Stole all, and left me but the empty sack.Before me lay a long and lonely trackOf darkling hills and barren steeps to climb;Behind me lay in shadows the sublimeLost lands of Love’s delight. […]

"Now I Lay Me"

Story type: Poetry

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When I pass from earth away,Palsied though I be and grey,May my spirit keep so youngThat my failing, faltering tongueFrames that prayer so dear to me,Taught me at my mother’s knee:“Now I lay me down to sleep,”(Passing to Eternal restOn the loving parent breast)“I pray the Lord my soul to keep;”(From all danger safe and […]

The World-Child

Story type: Poetry

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At times I am the mother of the world;And mine seem all its sorrows, and its fears.That rose, which in each mother-heart is curled,The rose of pity, opens with my tears,And, waking in the night, I lie and harkTo the lone sobbing, and the wild alarms,Of my World-child, a wailing in the dark:The child I […]

The Heights

Story type: Poetry

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I cried, ‘Dear Angel, lead me to the heights,And spur me to the top.’The Angel answered, ‘StopAnd set thy house in order; make it fairFor absent ones who may be speeding there.Then will we talk of heights.’ I put my house in order. ‘Now lead on!’The Angel said, ‘Not yet;Thy garden is besetBy thorns and […]

The Messenger

Story type: Poetry

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She rose up in the early dawn,And white and silently she movedAbout the house. Four men had goneTo battle for the land they loved,And she, the mother and the wife,Waited for tidings from the strife.How still the house seemed! and her treadWas like the footsteps of the dead. The long day passed, the dark night […]

Not great Vesuvius, in all his ire,Nor all the centuries, could hide your shame.There is the little window where you came,With eyes that woke the demon of desire,And lips like rose leaves, fashioned out of fire;And from the lava leaps the molten flameOf your old sins. The walls cry out your name –Your face seems […]

Meg’s Curse

Story type: Poetry

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The sun rode high in a cloudless skyOf a perfect summer morn.She stood and gazed out into the street,And wondered why she was born.On the topmost branch of a maple-treeThat close by the window grew,A robin called to his mate enthralled:“I love but you, but you, but you.” A soft look came in her hardened […]

Master of sweet and loving lore,Give us the open mindTo know religion means no more,No less, than being kind. Give us the comprehensive sightThat sees another’s need;And let our aim to set things rightProve God inspired our creed. Give us the soul to know our kinThat dwell in flock and herd,The voice to fight man’s […]

What is right living? Just to do your bestWhen worst seems easier. To bear the illsOf daily life with patient cheerfulnessNor waste dear time recounting them.To talkOf hopeful things when doubt is in the air.To count your blessings often, giving thanks,And to accept your sorrows silently,Nor question why you suffer. To acceptThe whole of life […]

The Platonic

Story type: Poetry

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I knew it the first of the summer,I knew it the same at the end,That you and your love were plighted,But couldn’t you be my friend?Couldn’t we sit in the twilight,Couldn’t we walk on the shoreWith only a pleasant friendshipTo bind us, and nothing more? There was not a word of follySpoken between us two,Though […]

In his great cushioned chair by the fenderAn old man sits dreaming to-night,His withered hands, licked by the tenderWarm rays of the red anthracite,Are folded before him, all listless;His dim eyes are fixed on the blaze,While over him sweeps the resistlessFlood-tide of old days. He hears not the mirth in the hallway,He hears not the […]

As the grey twilight, tiptoed down the deepAnd shadowy valley, to the day’s dark end,She whom I thought my ever-faithful friend,Fair-browed, calm-eyed and mother-bosomed Sleep,Met me with smiles. ‘Poor longing heart, I keepSweet joy for you,’ she murmured. ‘I will sendOne whom you love, with your own soul to blendIn visions, as the night hours […]

Well, Mabel, ’tis over and ended–The ball I wrote was to be;And oh! it was perfectly splendid–If you could have been here to see.I’ve a thousand things to write youThat I know you are wanting to hear,And one, that is sure to delight you–I am wearing Joe’s diamond, my dear! Yes, mamma is quite ecstaticThat […]

Art Versus Cupid

Story type: Poetry

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[A room in a private house. A maiden sitting before a fire meditating.] MAIDEN Now have I fully fixed upon my part.Good-bye to dreams; for me a life of art!Beloved art! Oh, realm serene and fair,Above the mean and sordid world of care,Above earth’s small ambitions and desires!Art! art! the very word my soul inspires!From […]

THE WIFE The house is like a garden,The children are the flowers,The gardener should come methinksAnd walk among his bowers,Oh! lock the door on worryAnd shut your cares away,Not time of year, but love and cheer,Will make a holiday. THE HUSBAND Impossible! You women do not knowThe toil it takes to make a business grow.I […]

False

Story type: Poetry

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False! Good God, I am dreaming!No, no, it never can be–You who are so true in seeming,You, false to your vows and me?My wife and my fair boy’s motherThe star of my life–my queen–To yield herself to anotherLike some light Magdalene! Proofs! what are proofs–I defy them!They never can shake my trust;If you look in […]

(FROM THE DRAMA OF MIZPAH) AHASUERAS Is this the way to greet thy loving spouse,But now returned from scenes of blood and strife?I pray thee raise thy veil and let me gazeUpon that beauty which hath greater powerTo conquer me than all the arts of war! VASHTI My beauty! Ay, my BEAUTY! I do hold,In […]

(FROM THE DRAMA OF MIZPAH) AHASUERAS Tell me thy name! ESTHER My name, great sire, is Esther. AHASUERAS So thou art Esther? Esther! ’tis a nameBreathed into sound as softly as a sigh.A woman’s name should melt upon the lipsLike Love’s first kisses, and thy countenanceIs fit companion for so sweet a name! ESTHER Thou […]

Two Sinners

Story type: Poetry

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There was a man, it was said one time,Who went astray in his youthful prime.Can the brain keep cool and the heart keep quietWhen the blood is a river that’s running riot?And boys will be boys, the old folks say,And a man is the better who’s had his day The sinner reformed; and the preacher […]

Honeymoon Scene

Story type: Poetry

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(FROM THE DRAMA OF MIZPAH) AHASUERAS What were thy thoughts, sweet Esther? Something passedAcross thy face, that for a moment veiledThy soul from mine, and left me desolate.Thy thoughts were not of me? ESTHER Ay, ALL of thee!I wondered, if in truth, thou wert contentWith me–thy choice. Was there no other oneOf all who passed […]

Lord, let us pray. Give us the open mind, O God,The mind that dares believeIn paths of thought as yet untrod;The mind that can conceiveLarge visions of a wider wayThan circumscribes our world to-day. May tolerance temper our own faith,However great our zeal;When others speak of life and death,Let us not plunge a steelInto the […]

The Cost

Story type: Poetry

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God finished woman in the twilight hourAnd said, ‘To-morrow thou shalt find thy place:Man’s complement, the mother of the race –With love the motive power –The one compelling power.’ All night she dreamed and wondered. With the lightHer lover came–and then she understoodThe purpose of her being. Life was goodAnd all the world seemed right […]

Be Not Dismayed

Story type: Poetry

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Be not dismayed, be not dismayed when deathSets its white seal upon some worshipped face.Poor human nature for a little spaceMust suffer anguish, when that last drawn breathLeaves such long silence; but let not thy faithFail for a moment in God’s boundless grace.But know, oh know, He has prepared a placeFairer for our dear dead […]

Ascension

Story type: Poetry

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I have been down in the darkest water –Deep, deep down where no light could pierce;Alone with the things that are bent on slaughter,The mindless things that are cruel and fierce.I have fought with fear in my wave-walled prison,And begged for the beautiful boon of death;But out of the billows my soul has risenTo glorify […]

Lais When Young

Story type: Poetry

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Lais when young, and all her charms in flower,Lais, whose beauty was the fateful lightThat led great ships to anchor in the nightAnd bring their priceless cargoes to her bower,Lais yet found her cup of sweet turned sour.Great Plato’s pupil, from his lofty height,Zenocrates, unmoved, had seen the whiteSweet wonder of her, and defied her […]

Lais When Old

Story type: Poetry

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Lais, when old and all her beauty gone,Lais, the erstwhile courted pleasure queen,Walked homeless through Corinth.One mocked her mien –One tossed her coins; she took them and passed on.Down by the harbour sloped a terraced lawn,Where fountains played; she paused to view the scene.A marble palace stood in bowers of green‘Twas here of old she […]

The Deadliest Sin

Story type: Poetry

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There are not many sins when once we sift them.In actions of evolving human soulsStriving to reach high goalsAnd falling backward into dust and mire,Some element we find that seems to lift themAbove our condemnation–even higherInto the realm of pity and compassion.So beauteous a thing as love itself can fashionA chain of sins; descending to […]

In the face of the sun are great thunderbolts hurled,And the storm-clouds have shut out its light;But a Rainbow of Promise now shines on the world,And the universe thrills at the sight. ‘Tis the flag of our Union, the red, white, and blue,Our Star-spangled Banner–our pride;Fair symbol of all that is noble and true,Flung out […]

Existence

Story type: Poetry

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You are here, and you are wanted,Though a waif upon life’s stair;Though the sunlit hours are hauntedWith the shadowy shapes of care.Still the Great One, the All-SeeingCalled your spirit into being –Gave you strength for any fate.Since your life by Him was needed,All your ways by Him are heeded –You can trust and you can […]

Whatever the strength of our foes is now,Whatever it may have been,This is our slogan, and this our vow –They shall not win, they shall not win. Though out of the darkness they call the aidOf the evil forces of Sin,We utter our slogan unafraid –They shall not win, they shall not win. We know […]

Holiday Songs

Story type: Poetry

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I Sailing away on a summer sea,Out of the bleak March weather;Drifting away for a loaf and play,Just you and I together;And it’s good-bye worry and good-bye hurryAnd never a care have we;With the sea below and the sun aboveAnd nothing to do but dream and love,Sailing away together. Sailing away from the grim old […]

In the dawn of the day when the sea and the earthReflected the sunrise above,I set forth with a heart full of courage and mirthTo seek for the Kingdom of Love.I asked of a Poet I met on the wayWhich cross-road would lead me aright;And he said “Follow me, and ere long you shall seeIts […]

Astrolabius

Story type: Poetry

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(THE CHILD OF ABELARD AND HELOISE) I wrenched from a passing comet in its flight,By that great force of two mad hearts aflame,A soul incarnate, back to earth you came,To glow like star-dust for a little night.Deep shadows hide you wholly from our sight;The centuries leave nothing but your name,Tinged with the lustre of a […]

Completion

Story type: Poetry

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When I shall meet God’s generous dispensersOf all the riches in the heavenly store,Those lesser gods, who act as RecompensersFor loneliness and loss upon this shore,Methinks abashed, and somewhat hesitating,My soul its wish and longing will declare.Lest they reply: ‘Here are no bounties waiting:We gave on earth, your portion and your share.’ Then shall I […]

He That Hath Ears

Story type: Poetry

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‘He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.’–St. John the Divine. The Spirit says unto the churches,‘Ere ever the churches beganI lived in the centre of Being –The life of the Purpose and Plan;I flowed from the mind of the MakerThrough nature to man. ‘I sleep in the […]

Answers

Story type: Poetry

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What is the end of each man’s toil,Brother, O Brother?A handful of dust in a bit of soil –His name forgotten as centuries roll,Though blazoned to-day on Glory’s scroll;For the lordliest work of brain or handIs only an imprint made on sand;When the tidal wave sweeps over the shoreIt is there no more,Brother, my Brother. […]

When silence flees before the voice of Love,Of what expression does that god approve?Is dulcet song or flowing verse his choice,Or stately prose, made regal by his voice?Speaks Love in couplets, or in epics grand?And is Love humble, or does he command? There is no language that Love does not speak:To-day commanding and to-morrow meek,One […]

How Is It?

Story type: Poetry

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You who are loudly crying out for peace,You who are wanting love to vanquish hate,How is it in the four walls of your homeThe while you wait? Do those who form your household welcome your approach in the morningAs the earth welcomes the presence of dawn,Or do they dread your coming lest you censure and […]

The Land Between

Story type: Poetry

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Between the little Here and larger Yonder,There is a realm (or so one day I read)Where faithful spirits love-enchained may wander,Till some remembering soul from earth has fled.Then, reunited, they go forth afar,From sphere to sphere, where wondrous angels are. Not many spirits in that realm are waiting;Not many pause upon its shores to rest;For […]

For the courage which comes when we call,While troubles like hailstones fall;For the help that is somehow nigh,In the deepest night when we cry;For the path that is certainly shownWhen we pray in the dark alone,Let us give thanks. For the knowledge we gain if we waitAnd bear all the buffets of fate;For the vision […]

Love’s Mirage

Story type: Poetry

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Midway upon the route, he paused athirstAnd suddenly across the wastes of heat,He saw cool waters gleaming, and a sweetGreen oasis upon his vision burst.A tender dream, long in his bosom nursed,Spread love’s illusive verdure for his feet;The barren sands changed into golden wheat;The way grew glad that late had seemed accursed. She shone, the […]

I know the need of the world,Though it would not have me know.It would hide its sorrow deep,Where only God may go.Yet its secret it can not keep;It tells it awake, or asleep,It tells it to all who will heed,And he who runs may read.The need of the world I know. I know the need […]

There must be lonely moments when God feelsThe need of prayer –Such lonely moments, knowing not anywhere,In any spot or place,In all the far recesses of vast space,Dwells any one to whom His prayers may rise,And then, methinks–so urgent is His need –God bids His prayers descend.He that has ears to hear, let him take […]

One By One

Story type: Poetry

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Little by little and one by one,Out of the ether, were worlds created;Star and planet and sea and sun,All in the nebulous Nothing waitedTill the Nameless One Who has many a nameCalled them to being and forth they came. All things mighty and all things small,Stone and flower and sentient being,Each is an answer to […]

The Gulf Stream

Story type: Poetry

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Skilled mariner, and counted sane and wise,That was a curious thing which chanced to me,So good a sailor on so fair a sea.With favouring winds and blue unshadowed skies,Led by the faithful beacon of Love’s eyes,Past reef and shoal, my life-boat bounded freeAnd fearless of all changes that might beUnder calm waves, where many a […]

Musing upon the tragedies of earth,Of each new horror which each hour gives birth,Of sins that scar and cruelties that blightLife’s little season, meant for man’s delight,Methought those monstrous and repellent crimesWhich hate engenders in war-heated times,To God’s great heart bring not so much despairAs other sins which flourish everywhereAnd in all times–bold sins, bare-faced […]

Helen Of Troy

Story type: Poetry

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ON THE ISLE OF CRANAE The world an abject vassal to her charms,And kings competing for a single smile,Yet love she knew not, till upon this isleShe gave surrender to abducting arms.Not Theseus, who plucked her lips’ first kiss,Not Menelaus, lawful mate and spouse,Such answering passion in her heart could rouse,Or wake such tumult in […]

It May Be

Story type: Poetry

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Let us be silent for a little while;Let us be still and listen. We may hearEchoes from other worlds not far a way. City on city rising, steeple out-topping steeple,Gaining and hoarding and spending, and armies on battle bent,People and people and people, and ever more human people –This is not all of creation, this […]

The Trinity

Story type: Poetry

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Much may be done with the world we are in,Much with the race to better it;We can unfetter it,Free it from chains of the old traditions;Broaden its viewpoint of virtue and sin;Change its conditionsOf labour and wealth;And open new roadways to knowledge and health.Yet some things ever must stay as they areWhile the sea has […]

Widows

Story type: Poetry

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The world was widowed by the death of Christ:Vainly its suffering soul for peace has soughtAnd found it not.For nothing, nothing, nothing has sufficedTo bring back comfort to the stricken houseFrom whence has gone the Master and the Spouse. In its long widowhood the world has strivenTo find diversion. It has turned awayFrom the vast […]

I had been almost happy for an hour,Lost to the world that knew me in the parkAmong strange faces; while my little girlLeaped with the squirrels, chirruped with the birdsAnd with the sunlight glowed. She was so dear,So beautiful, so sweet; and for the timeThe rose of love, shorn of its thorn of shame,Bloomed in […]

Husks

Story type: Poetry

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She looked at her neighbour’s house in the light of the waning day –A shower of rice on the steps, and the shreds of a bride’s bouquet.And then she drew the shade, to shut out the growing gloom,But she shut it into her heart instead. (Was that a voice in the room?) ‘My neighbour is […]

Conversation

Story type: Poetry

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We were a baker’s dozen in the house–six women and six menBesides myself; and all of us had knownThose benefits supposed to come from school and church and brush and pen,And opportunities of being thrownIn contact with the cultured and the gifted people of the day.Being the thirteenth one among six pairsI deemed it wise […]

I, Too

Story type: Poetry

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I saw fond lovers in that glowThat oft-times fades away too soon:I saw and said, ‘Their joy I know –I, too, have had my honeymoon.’ A young expectant mother’s gazeHeld earth and heaven within its scope:My thoughts went back to holy days –I said, ‘I, too, have known that hope.’ I saw a stricken mother […]

Meditations

Story type: Poetry

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HIS I was so proud of you last night, dear girl,While man with man was striving for your smile.You never lost your head, nor once dropped downFrom your high placeAs queen in that gay whirl. (It takes more poise to wear a little crownWith modesty and graceThan to adorn the lordlier thrones of earth.) You […]

A Song Of Home

Story type: Poetry

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I am singing a song to the boys to-day,A song of the home that is far away.And I know that an echo the word is wakingIn many a heart that is secretly aching,Yes, almost breaking, thinking of Home, dear Home.But thought, dear boys, is a carrier dove,And it flies straight into the hearts you love. […]

Bristling with steeples, high against the hill,Like some great thistle in the rosy dawnIt stood; the Town-of-Christian-Churches, stood.The Traveller surveyed it with a smile.‘Surely,’ He said, ‘here is the home of peace;Here neighbour lives with neighbour in accord;God in the heart of all. Else why these spires?’(Christmas season, and every bell ringing.) The sudden shriek […]

The Swan Of Dijon

Story type: Poetry

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I was in Dijon when the war’s wild blastWas at its loudest; when there was no soundFrom dawn to dawn, save soldiers marching past,Or rattle of their wagons in the street.When every engine whistle would repeatPersistently, with meaning tense, profound,‘We carry men to slaughter’ or ‘we bringRemnants of men back as war’s offering.’ And there […]

I What have you done, and what are you doing with life, O Man!O Average Man of the world –Average Man of the Christian world we call civilised?What have you done to pay for the labour pains of the mother who bore you?On earth you occupy space; you consume oxygen from the air:And what do […]

Veils

Story type: Poetry

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Veils, everywhere float veils; veils long and black,Framing white faces, oft-times young and fair,But, like a rose touched by untimely frost,Showing the blighting marks of sorrow’s track. Veils, veils, veils everywhere. They tell the costOf man-made war. They show the awful tollPaid by the hearts of women for the crimes,The age-old crimes by selfishness ill-named‘Justice’ […]

Divorced

Story type: Poetry

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Thinking of one thing all day long, at nightI fall asleep, brain weary and heart sore;But only for a little while. At three,Sometimes at two o’clock, I wake and lie,Staring out into darkness; while my thoughtsBegin the weary treadmill-toil again,From that white marriage morning of our youthDown to this dreadful hour. I see your faceLit […]

In France I saw a hill–a gentle slopeRising above old tombs to greet the gleamFrom soft spring skies. Beyond these skies dwells hope,But those green graves bespeak a broken dream. There was a row of narrow beds, new-made;Each bore a starry banner and a cross.And each the name of one who, ere he playedHis role […]

Suddenly and without warning they came –The Revealing Angels came.Suddenly and simultaneously, through city streets,Through quiet lanes and country roads they walked.They walked crying: ‘God has sent us to findThe vilest sinners of earth.We are to bring them before Him, before the Lord of Life.’ Their voices were like bugles;And then all war, all strife,And […]

The Well-Born

Story type: Poetry

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So many people–people–in the world;So few great souls, love ordered, well begun,In answer to the fertile mother need!So few who seemThe image of the Maker’s mortal dream;So many born of mere propinquity –Of lustful habit, or of accident.Their mothers feltNo mighty, all-compelling wish to seeTheir bosoms garden-placesAbloom with flower faces;No tidal wave swept o’er them […]

Oh! we love all the French, and we speak in FrenchAs along through France we go.But the moments to us that are keen and sweetAre the ones when our khaki boys we meet,Stalwart and handsome and trim and neat;And we call to them–‘Boys, hello!’‘Hello, American boys,Luck to you, and life’s best joys!American boys, hello!’ We […]

De Rochambeau

Story type: Poetry

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ON THE PRESENTATION OF AN AMERICAN BANNER TO CAMP ROCHAMBEAU BY THE MARQUISE DE ROCHAMBEAU AT TOURS, FRANCE, JUNE 1, 1918 Here is a picture I carry awayOn memory’s wall. A green June day,A golden sun in an amethyst sky,And a beautiful banner floating as highAs the lofty spires of the city of Tours,And a […]

Sisters Of Mine

Story type: Poetry

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Sisters, sisters of mine, have we done what we couldIn all the old ways, through all the new days,To better the race and to make life sweet and good?Have we played the full part that was ours in the start,Sisters of mine? Sisters, sisters of mine, as we hurry alongTo a larger world, with our […]

Over the din of battle,Over the cannons’ rattle,Over the strident voices of men and their dying groans,I hear the falling of thrones. Out of the wild disorderThat spreads from border to border,I see a new world rising from ashes of ancient towns;And the rulers wear no crowns. Over the blood-charged water,Over the fields of slaughter,Down […]

O well have we done the old tasks! in the old, old ways of earth.We have kept the house in order, we have given the children birth;And our sons went out with their fathers, and left us alone at the hearth! We have cooked the meats for their table; we have woven their cloth at […]

Back of each soldier who fights for France,Ay, back of each woman and manWho toils and prays through these long tense days,Is the spirit of Great Joan.For the love she gave, and the life she gave,In the eyes of God sufficedTo crown her with light, and power, and might,That made her second to Christ. And […]

The Graduates

Story type: Poetry

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I saw them beautiful, in fair array upon Commencement Day;Lissome and lovely, radiant and sweetAs cultured roses, brought to their estateBy careful training. Finished and complete(As teachers calculate). They passed in maiden grace along the aisle,Leaving the chaste white sunlight of a smileUpon the gazing throng.Musing I thought upon their place as mothers of the […]

Speak

Story type: Poetry

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Obscured the sun, the world is dark;Maid of Orleans, Joan of Arc,Send down thy spark. Let every heart in France be stirred,By such an all-compelling wordAs thou once heard. Say to each soul, ‘Lo! I am near;My voice still speaks in accents clear.Be still and hear. ‘The France I saved can not be lost;Though tempest-torn […]

The deepest tragedies of life are notPut into books, or acted on the stage.Nay, they are lived in silence, by tense heartsIn homes, among dull unperceiving kin,And thoughtless friends, who make a whip of wordsWherewith to lash these hearts, and call it wit. There is a tragedy lived everywhereIn Christian lands, by an increasing hordeOf […]

Oh! the maidens of France are certainly fine,And I think every fellow will stateThat the ‘what-you-may-call-it’ coiffured wayThey put up their hair is great!And they know how to dress, and they wear their clothesIn a fetching, Frenchy way;And yet to me, there is just one girl –The girl of the U.S.A. I like to listen […]

War Mothers

Story type: Poetry

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There is something in the sound of drum and fifeThat stirs all the savage instincts into life. In the old times of peace we went our ways,Through proper daysOf little joys and tasks. Lonely at times,When from the steeple sounded wedding chimes,Telling to all the world some maid was wife –But taking patiently our part […]

Passing The Buck

Story type: Poetry

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Whatever the task that comes your way,Just take it as part of your luck.Look it right square in the eyes, and say,‘This is MY task, I’ll do it to-day’:Don’t pass the buck. Oh! whether you cook, or whether you fight,Or whether you trundle a truck,Just tackle your job and do it right:Don’t pass the buck. […]

Berlin, Germany, gave the school children a half holiday to celebrate the sinking of the Lusitania. War declares a holiday;Little children, run and play.Ring-a-rosy round the earthWith the garland of your mirth. Shrill a song brim full of gleeOf a great ship sunk at sea.Tell with pleasure and with prideHow a hundred children died. Sing […]

The Undertone

Story type: Poetry

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When I was very young I used to feel the dark despairs of youth;Out of my little griefs I would invent great tragedies and woes;Not only for myself, but for all those I held most dearI would invent vast sorrows in my melancholy moods of thought.Yet down deep, deep in my heart there was an […]

You may thrill with the speed of your thoroughbred steed,You may laugh with delight as you ride the ocean,You may rush afar in your touring car,Leaping, sweeping, by things that are creeping –But you never will know the joy of motionTill you rise up over the earth some day,And soar like an eagle, away–away. High […]

The Stevedores

Story type: Poetry

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We are the army stevedores, lusty and virile and strong,We are given the hardest work of the war, and the hours are long.We handle the heavy boxes, and shovel the dirty coal;While soldiers and sailors work in the light, we burrow below like a mole.But somebody has to do this work, or the soldiers could […]

Gypsying

Story type: Poetry

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Gypsying, gypsying, through the world together,Never mind the way we go, never mind what port.Follow trails, or fashion sails, start in any weather:While we journey hand in hand, everything is sport. Gypsying, gypsying, leaving care and worry:Never mind the ‘if’ and ‘but’ (words for coward lips).Put them out with ‘fear’ and ‘doubt,’ in the pack […]

Camp Followers

Story type: Poetry

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In the old wars of the world there were camp followers,Women of ancient sins who gave themselves for hire,Women of weak wills and strong desire.And, like the poison ivy in the woodsThat winds itself about tall virile treesUntil it smothers them, so theseRuined the bodies and the souls of men.More evil were they than Red […]

Song Of The Road

Story type: Poetry

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I am a Road; a good road, fair and smooth and broad;And I link with my beautiful tetherTown and Country together,Like a ribbon rolled on the earth, from the reel of God.Oh, great the life of a Road! I am a Road; a long road, leading on and on;And I cry to the world to […]

Come Back Clean

Story type: Poetry

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This is the song for a soldierTo sing as he rides from homeTo the fields afar where the battles areOr over the ocean’s foam:‘Whatever the dangers waitingIn the lands I have not seen,If I do not fall–if I come back at all,Then I will come back clean. ‘I may lie in the mud of the […]

The Faith We Need

Story type: Poetry

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Too tall our structures, and too swift our pace;Not so we mount, not so we gain the race.Too loud the voice of commerce in the land;Not so truth speaks, not so we understand.Too vast our conquests, and too large our gains;Not so comes peace, not so the soul attains. But the need of the world […]

Camouflage

Story type: Poetry

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Camouflage is all the rage.Ladies in their fight with age –Soldiers in their fight with foes –Demagogues who mask and poseIn the guise of statesmen–girlsBlack of eyes with golden curls –Politicians, votes in mind,Smiling, affable and kind,All use camouflage to-day.As you go upon your way,Walk with caution, move with care;Camouflage is everywhere!

The Price He Paid

Story type: Poetry

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I said I would have my fling,And do what a young man may;And I didn’t believe a thingThat the parsons have to say.I didn’t believe in a GodThat gives us blood like fire,Then flings us into hell becauseWe answer the call of desire. And I said: ‘Religion is rot,And the laws of the world are […]

I said, ‘I will place my heart, my heart all broken,Beside the world’s torn heart, that it may knowThe comradeship of sorrow that is not spoken,But is carried on wings of all the winds that blow.I will go homeless into homes of grieving,And find my own grief easier to be borne.’So over menacing seas I […]

Three Souls

Story type: Poetry

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Three Souls there were that reached the Heavenly Gate,And gained permission of the Guard to wait.Barred from the bliss of Paradise by sin,They did not ask or hope to enter in.‘We loved one woman (thus their story ran);We lost her, for she chose another man.So great our love, it brought us to this door;We only […]

When Love Is Lost

Story type: Poetry

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When love is lost, the day sets towards the night,Albeit the morning sun may still be bright,And not one cloud-ship sails across the sky.Yet from the places where it used to lieGone is the lustrous glory of the light. No splendour rests in any mountain height,No scene spreads fair and beauteous to the sight;All, all […]

Oh! it is not just the men who face the guns,Not the fighters at the Front alone, to-dayWho will bring the longed-for close to the bloody fray, for thoseCould not carry on that fray without the onesWho are working at war’s problems far away. You are ALL our splendid heroes in the strife,And we class […]

Oh, boastful, wicked land, that once was beautiful and great,How bitter and how black must be your self-invited fate,While Time goes down the centuries and sings his hymn of hate! Time’s voice is just. His words ring true. For as the past recedes,The clear-eyed Future slowly writes the story of its deeds;And as Time toward […]

Occupation

Story type: Poetry

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There must in heaven be many industriesAnd occupations, varied, infinite;Or heaven could not be heaven.What gracious tasksThe Mighty Maker of the universeCan offer souls that have prepared on earthBy holding lovely thoughts and fair desires! Art thou a poet to whom words come not?A dumb composer of unuttered sounds,Ignored by fame and to the world […]

DEDICATED TO THE MEN AND WOMEN OF FRANCE Our Motherland, dear Motherland,The source of beauty and of Art,Who but thy children understandThe love which permeates each heart!We see, through rainbow-tints of tears,Thy glory of a thousand years.O country of the Great and Free,We live for thee, we live for thee,Dear Motherland of France. O Motherland, […]

In the journey of life, as we travel alongTo the mystical goal that is hidden from sight,You may stumble at times into Roadways of Wrong,Not seeing the sign-board that points to the right.Through caverns of sorrow your feet may be led,Where the noon of the day will like midnight appear.But no matter whither you wander […]

All the world was wearying,All the world was sad;Everything was shadow-filled;Things were going bad.Then a rumour stirred all heartsAs a wind stirs trees –Ten thousand men a dayComing over seas! Soon we saw them marching by –God! what a sight! –Shoulders back, and heads erect,Faces full of light.Smiling like a morn in May,Moving like a […]

What Would It Be?

Story type: Poetry

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Now what were the words of Jesus,And what would He pause and say,If we were to meet in home or street,The Lord of the world to-day?Oh, I think He would pause and say:‘Go on with your chosen labour;Speak only good of your neighbour;Widen your farms, and lay down your arms,Or dig up the soil with […]

WOODROW WILSON America will not turn back;She did not idly start,But weighed full carefully and wellHer grave, important part.She chose the part of Freedom’s friend,And will pursue it, to the end. Great Liberty, who guards her gates,Will shine upon her course,And light the long, adventurous pathWith radiance from God’s Source.And though blood dye that ocean […]

Limitless

Story type: Poetry

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When the motive is right and the will is strongThere are no limits to human power;For that great Force back of us moves alongAnd takes us with it, in trial’s hour. And whatever the height you yearn to climb,Though it never was trod by the foot of man,And no matter how steep–I say you CAN,If […]

The Hour

Story type: Poetry

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This is the world’s stupendous hour –The supreme moment for the raceTo see the emptiness of power,The worthlessness of wealth and place,To see the purpose and the planConceived by God for growing man. And they who see and comprehendThat ultimate and lofty aimWill wait in patience for the end,Knowing injustice cannot claimOne lasting victory, or […]

The Convention

Story type: Poetry

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From the Queen Bee mother, the mother Beast, and the mother Fowl in the fen,A call went up to the human world, to Woman, the mother of men.The call said, ‘Come: for we, the dumb, are given speech for a day,And the things we have thought for a thousand years we are going at last […]

DECORATION POEM FOR SOLDIERS’ GRAVES, TOURS, FRANCE, MAY 30, 1918 Flowers of France in the Spring,Your growth is a beautiful thing;But give us your fragrance and bloom –Yea, give us your lives in truth,Give us your sweetness and graceTo brighten the resting-placeOf the flower of manhood and youth,Gone into the dust of the tomb. This […]

All that a man can say of woman’s charms,Mine eyes have spoken and my lips have toldTo you a thousand times. Your perfect arms(A replica from that lost Melos mould),The fair firm crescents of your bosom (shownWith full intent to make their splendours known), Your eyes (that mask with innocence their smile),The (artful) artlessness of […]

Our Atlas

Story type: Poetry

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Not Atlas, with his shoulders bent beneath the weighty world,Bore such a burden as this man, on whom the Gods have hurledThe evils of old festering lands–yea, hurled them in their mightAnd left him standing all alone, to set the wrong things right. It is the way the Fates have done since first Time’s race […]

The Superwoman

Story type: Poetry

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What will the superwoman be, of whom we sing –She who is coming over the dim borderOf Far To-morrow, after earth’s disorderIs tidied up by Time? What will she bringTo make life better on tempestuous earth?How will her worthBe greater than her forbears? What new powerWithin her being will burst into flower? She will bring […]

I had seen our splendid soldiers in their khaki uniforms,And their leaders with a Sam Brown belt;I had seen the fighting Britons and Colonials in swarms,I had seen the blue-clad Frenchmen, and I feltThat the mighty martial showHad no new sight to bestow,Till I walked on Piccadilly, and my word!By the bonnie Highland laddiesIn their […]

Certitude

Story type: Poetry

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There was a time when I was confidentThat God’s stupendous mystery of birthWas mine to know. The wonder of it lentNew ecstasy and glory to the earth.I heard no voice that uttered it aloud,Nor was it written for me on a scroll;Yet, if alone or in the common crowd,I felt myself a consecrated soul.My child […]

Men Of The Sea

Story type: Poetry

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Many the songs of the brave boys sentOver The Top in the battle’s thunder;But mine is the song of the men who wentOver the top of the waves–and under. Men of the sea, Men of the sea,I lift mine eyes to the Flags unfurled –The Flags of Victory blowing freeOver the new-born world.And I cry […]

A Son Speaks

Story type: Poetry

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Mother, sit down, for I have much to sayAnent this widespread ever-growing themeOf woman and her virtues and her rights. I left you for the large, loud world of men,When I had lived one little score of years.I judged all women by you, and my heartWas filled with high esteem and reverenceFor your angelic sex; […]

Compassion

Story type: Poetry

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He was a failure, and one day he died.Across the border of the mapless landHe found himself among a sad-eyed bandOf disappointed souls; they, too, had triedAnd missed their purpose. With one voice they criedUnto the shining Angel in command:‘Oh, lead us not before our Lord to stand,For we are failures, failures! Let us hide.’ […]

‘Invisible and silent’–MysterySurrounded that great Guardian of the Sea.That Father–Mother–of the mighty main.While loud in valley and on field and hill –And over anguished plainThe battles thundered. God himself is stillAnd hidden from men’s view; and it were meetThat this subliminal forceShould move in utter silence on its courseInvisible–Inaudible–till that hourWhen Time, Fate’s Minister, should […]

The German Fleet

Story type: Poetry

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Lie down, and let the billows hide your shame,Oh, shorn and naked outcast of the seas!You who confided to each ocean breezeYour coming conquests, and made loud acclaimOf your own grandeur and exalted fame;You who have catered to they world’s disease;You who have drunk hate’s wine, and found the lees;Lie down! and let all men […]

The Younger Born

Story type: Poetry

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The modern English-speaking young girl is the astonishment of the world and the despair of the older generation. Nothing like her has ever been seen or heard before. Alike in drawing-rooms and the amusement places of the people, she defies conventions in dress, speech, and conduct. She is bold, yet not immoral. She is immodest, […]

They rode through the bannered city –The King and the Commoner,And the hopes of the world were with them,And the heart of the world was astir.For the moss-grown walls seemed fallingThat have shut away men from Kings;And Deep unto Deep was callingFor the coming of greater things. They rode to an age-old PalaceWhere the feet […]

Seeking for happiness we must go slowly;The road leads not down avenues of haste;But often gently winds through by ways lowly,Whose hidden pleasures are serene and chasteSeeking for happiness we must take heedOf simple joys that are not found in speed. Eager for noon-time’s large effulgent splendour,Too oft we miss the beauty of the dawn,Which […]

We are the Allies of God to-day,And the width of the earth is our right of way.Let no man question or ask us why,As we speed to answer a wild world cry;Let no man hinder or ask us where,As out over water and land we fare;For whether we hurry, or whether we wait,We follow the […]

Said Willie to Tom, ‘Let us hie awayTo the wonderful Island of Endless Play. It lies off the border of “No School Land,”And abounds with pleasure, I understand. There boys go swimming whenever they pleaseIn a lovely river right under the trees. And marbles are free, so you need not buy;And kites of all sizes […]

Does It Pay

Story type: Poetry

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If one poor burdened toiler o’er life’s road,Who meets us by the way,Goes on less conscious of his galling load,Then life indeed, does pay. If we can show one troubled heart the gain,That lies alway in loss,Why then, we too, are paid for all the painOf bearing life’s hard cross. If some despondent soul to […]

There are curious isles in the River of Sleep,Curious isles without number.We’ll visit them all as we leisurely creepDown the winding stream whose current is deep,In our beautiful barge of Slumber. The very first isle in this wonderful streamQuite close to the shore is lying,And after a supper of cakes and creamWe come to the […]

Who thinks how desolate and strangeTo me must seem the autumn’s change,When housed in attic or in chest,A lonely and unwilling guest,I lie through nights of bleak December,And think in silence, and remember. I think of hempen fields, where IOnce played with insects floating by,And joyed alike in sun and rain,Unconscious of approaching pain.I dwell […]

Now, dear, it isn’t the bold things,Great deeds of valour and might,That count the most in the summing up of life at the end of the day.But it is the doing of old things,Small acts that are just and right;And doing them over and over again, no matter what others say;In smiling at fate, when […]

It is easy to sit in the sunshineAnd talk to the man in the shade;It is easy to float in a well-trimmed boat,And point out the places to wade. But once we pass into the shadows,We murmur and fret and frown,And, our length from the bank, we shout for a plank,Or throw up our hands […]

Life’s Opera

Story type: Poetry

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Like an opera-house is the world, I ween,Where the passionate lover of music is seenIn the balcony near the roof:While the very best seat in the first stage-boxIs filled by the person who laughs and talksThrough the harmony’s warp and woof.

The Salt Sea-Wind

Story type: Poetry

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When Venus, mother and maker of blisses,Rose out of the billows, large-limbed, and fair,She stood on the sands and blew sweet kissesTo the salt sea-wind as she dried her hair. And the salt sea-wind was the first to caress herTo praise her beauty and call her sweet,The first of the whole wide world to possess […]

As when the old moon lighted by the tenderAnd radiant crescent of the new is seen,And for a moment’s space suggests the splendorOf what in its full prime it once has been,So on my waning years you cast the gloryOf youth and pleasure, for a little hour;And life again seems like an unread story,And joy […]

Two Nights

Story type: Poetry

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(Suggested by the lives of Napoleon and Josephine.) I. One night was full of rapture and delight–Of reunited arms and swooning kisses,And all the unnamed and unnumbered blissesWhich fond souls find in love of love at night. Heart beat with heart, and each clung into eachWith twining arms that did but loose their holdTo cling […]

New Year, I look straight in your eyes –Our ways and our interests blend;You may be a foe in disguise,But I shall believe you a friend.We get what we give in our measure,We cannot give pain and get pleasure;I give you good will and good cheer,And you must return it, New Year. We get what […]

Thanksgiving for the strong armed day,That lifted war’s red curse,When Peace, that lordly little word,Was uttered in a voice that stirred –Yea, shook the Universe. Thanksgiving for the Mighty HourThat brimmed the Victor’s cup,When England signalled to the foe,‘The German flag must be brought lowAnd not again hauled up!’ Thanksgiving for the sea and airFree […]

Concentration

Story type: Poetry

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The age is too diffusive. Time and ForceAre frittered out and bring no satisfaction.The way seems lost to straight determined action.Like shooting stars that zig-zag from their courseWe wander from our orbit’s pathway; spoilThe role we’re fitted for, to fail in twenty.Bring empty measures, that were shaped for plenty,At last as guerdon for a life […]

I feel the great immensity of life.All little aims slip from me, and I reachMy yearning soul toward the Infinite. As when a mighty forest, whose green leavesHave shut it in, and made it seem a bowerFor lovers’ secrets, or for children’s sports,Casts all its clustering foliage to the winds,And lets the eye behold it, […]

Thoughts

Story type: Poetry

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Thoughts do not need the wings of wordsTo fly to any goal.Like subtle lightnings, not like birds,They speed from soul to soul. Hide in your heart a bitter thought –Still it has power to blight;Think Love–although you speak it notIt gives the world more light.

Good-bye to the cradle, the dear wooden cradleThe rude hand of Progress has thrust it aside.No more to its motion o’er sleep’s fairy ocean,Our play-weary wayfarers peacefully glide. No more by the rhythm of slow-moving rocker,Their sweet dreamy fancies are fostered and fed;No more to low singing the cradle goes swinging–The child of this era […]

A Good Sport

Story type: Poetry

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I was a little lad, and the older boys called to me from the pier:They called to me: ‘Be a sport: be a sport! Leap in and swim!’I leaped in and swam, though I had never been taught a stroke.Then I was made a hero, and they all shouted:‘Well done! Well done,Brave boy, you are […]

The Traveled Man

Story type: Poetry

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Sometimes I wish the railroads all were torn out,The ships all sunk among the coral strands.I am so very weary, yea so worn out,With tales of those who visit foreign lands. When asked to dine, to meet these traveled people,My soup seems brewed from cemetery bones.The fish grows cold on some cathedral steeple,I miss two […]

Be Not Content

Story type: Poetry

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Be not content–contentment means inaction;The growing soul aches on its upward quest;Satiety is twin to satisfaction;All great achievements spring from life’s unrest. The tiny roots, deep in the dark mould hiding,Would never bless the earth with leaf and flowerWere not an inborn restlessness abidingIn seed and germ, to stir them with its power. Were man […]

You know that oasis, fresh and fairIn the city desert, as Greeley square? That bright triangle of scented bloomThat lies surrounded by grime and gloom? Right in the breast of the seething townLike a gleaming gem or a wanton’s gown? Ah, wonderful things that tulip bedUnto my listening soul has said. Over the rattle and […]

Action

Story type: Poetry

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For ever stars are wingingTheir swift and endless race;For ever suns are swingingTheir mighty globes through space.Since by his law requiredTo join God’s spheres inspired,The earth has never tired,But whirled and whirled and whirled.For ever streams are flowing,For ever seeds are growing,Alway is Nature showingThat Action rules the world. And since by God requestedTo BE, […]

When Tom and I were married, we took a little flat;I had a taste for singing and playing and all that.And Tom, who loved to hear me, said he hoped I would not stopAll practice, like so many wives who let their music drop.So I resolved to set apart an hour or two each dayTo […]

Two Roses

Story type: Poetry

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A humble wild-rose, pink and slender,Was plucked and placed in a bright bouquet,Beside a Jacqueminot’s royal splendour,And both in my lady’s boudoir lay. Said the haughty bud, in a tone of scorning,“I wonder why you are called a rose?Your leaves will fade in a single morning;No blood of mine in your pale cheek glows. “Your […]

Custer

Story type: Poetry

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BOOK FIRST I. All valor died not on the plains of Troy.Awake, my Muse, awake! be thine the joyTo sing of deeds as dauntless and as braveAs e’er lent luster to a warrior’s grave.Sing of that noble soldier, nobler man,Dear to the heart of each American.Sound forth his praise from sea to listening sea–Greece her […]

Satiety

Story type: Poetry

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To yearn for what we have not had, to sitWith hungry eyes glued on the Future’s gate,Why, that is heaven compared to having itWith all the power gone to appreciate. Better to wait and yearn, and still to wait,And die at last with unappeased desire,Than live to be the jest of such a fate,For that […]

A Solar Eclipse

Story type: Poetry

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In that great journey of the stars through spaceAbout the mighty, all-directing Sun,The pallid, faithful Moon has been the oneCompanion of the Earth. Her tender face,Pale with the swift, keen purpose of that raceWhich at Time’s natal hour was first begun,Shines ever on her lover as they runAnd lights his orbit with her silvery smile. […]

Earthly Pride

Story type: Poetry

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How baseless is the mightiest earthly pride,The diamond is but charcoal purified,The lordliest pearl that decks a monarch’s breastIs but an insect’s sepulchre at best.

He said he loved me! Then he called my hairSilk threads wherewith sly Cupid strings his bow,My cheek a rose leaf fallen on new snow;And swore my round, full throat would bring despairTo Venus or to Psyche. Time and careWill fade these locks; the merry god, I trow,Uses no grizzled cords upon his bow.How will […]

Let the wild red-rose bloom. Though not to theeSo delicately perfect as the whiteAnd unwed lily drooping in the light,Though she has known the kisses of the beeAnd tells her amorous tale to passers-byIn perfumed whispers and with untaught grace,Still let the red-rose bloom in her own place;She could not be the lily should she […]

The Depths

Story type: Poetry

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Not only sun-kissed heights are fair. BelowThe cold, dark billows of the frowning deepDo lovely blossoms of the ocean sleep,Rocked gently by the waters to and fro.The coral beds with magic colours glow,And priceless pearl-encrusted molluscs heapThe glittering rocks where shining atoms leapLike living broken rainbows. Even soWe find the sea of sorrow. Black as […]

Go Plant A Tree

Story type: Poetry

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God, what a joy it is to plant a tree,And from the sallow earth to watch it rise,Lifting its emerald branches to the skiesIn silent adoration; and to seeIts strength and glory waxing with each spring.Yes, ’tis a goodly, and a gladsome thingTo plant a tree. Nature has many marvels; but a treeSeems more than […]

The Kettle

Story type: Poetry

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There’s many a house of grandeur,With turret, tower and dome,That knows not peace or comfort,And does not prove a home.I do not ask for splendorTo crown my daily lot,But this I ask–a kitchenWhere the kettle’s always hot. If things are not all ship-shape,I do not fume or fret,A little clean disorderDoes not my nerves upset.But […]

Death’s Protest

Story type: Poetry

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Why dost thou shrink from my approach, O Man?Why dost thou ever flee in fear, and clingTo my false rival, Life? I do but bringThee rest and calm. Then wherefore dost thou banAnd curse me? Since the forming of God’s planI have not hurt or harmed a mortal thing,I have bestowed sweet balm for every […]

Pain’s Purpose

Story type: Poetry

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How blind is he who prays that God will sendAll pain from earth. Pain has its use and place;Its ministry of holiness and grace.The darker tones upon the canvas blendWith light and colour; and their shadows lendThe painting half its dignity. EffaceThe sombre background, and you lose all traceOf that perfection which is true art’s […]

Each new invention doubles our worries an’ our troubles,These scientific fellows are spoilin’ of our land;With motor, wire, an’ cable, now’-days we’re scarcely ableTo walk or ride in peace o’ mind, an’ ’tisn’t safe to stand. It fairly makes me crazy to see how tarnal lazyThe risin’ generation grows–an’ science is to blame.With telephones for […]

Was, Is, and Yet-to-BeWere chatting over a cup of tea. In tarnished finery smelling of must,Was talked of people long turned to dust; Of titles and honours and high estate,All forgotten or out of date; Of wonderful feasts in the long ago,Of pride that perished with nothing to show. “I loathe the present,” said Was, […]

In Memory’s Mansion are wonderful rooms,And I wander about them at will;And I pause at the casements, where boxes of bloomsAre sending sweet scents o’er the sill.I lean from a window that looks on a lawn:From a turret that looks on the wave.But I draw down the shade, when I see on some glade,A stone […]

Mistakes

Story type: Poetry

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God sent us here to make mistakes,To strive, to fail, to re-begin,To taste the tempting fruit of sin,And find what bitter food it makes, To miss the path, to go astray,To wander blindly in the night;But, searching, praying for the light,Until at last we find the way. And looking back along the past,We know we […]

They tell me new methods now govern the Muses,The modes of expression have changed with the times;That low is the rank of the poet who usesThe old-fashioned verse with intentional rhymes.And quite out of date, too, is rhythmical metre;The critics declare it an insult to art.But oh! the sweet swing of it, oh! the clear […]

The quality folk went riding by,All in a coach and four,And pretty Annette, in a calico gown(Bringing her marketing things from town),Stopped short with her Sunday store,And wondered if ever it should betideThat she in a long plumed hat would rideAway in a coach and four. A lord there was, oh a lonely soul,There in […]

Dual

Story type: Poetry

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You say that your nature is double; that lifeSeems more and more intricate, complex, and dual,Because in your bosom there wages the strife‘Twixt an angel of light and a beast that is cruel –An angel who whispers your spirit has wings,And a beast who would chain you to temporal things. I listen with interest to […]

Pain can go guised as joy, dross pass for gold,Vulgarity can masquerade as wit,Or spite wear friendship’s garments; but I holdThat passionate feeling has no counterfeit.Chief jewel from Jove’s crown ’twas sent men, lentFor inspiration and for sacrament. Jove never could have made the UniverseHad he not glowed with passion’s sacred fire;Though man oft turns […]

I Who has not felt his heart leap up, and glowWhat time the Tulips first begin to blow,Has one sweet joy still left for him to know. It is like early love’s imagining,That fragile pleasure which the Tulips bring,When suddenly we see them, in the Spring. Not all the garden’s later royal train,Not great triumphant […]

I list your prattle, baby boy,And hear your pattering feetWith feelings more of pain than joyAnd thoughts of bitter-sweet. While touching your soft hands in playSuch passionate longings riseFor my wee boy who strayed awaySo soon to Paradise. You win me with your infant art;But when our play is o’er,The empty cradle in my heartSeems […]

In England

Story type: Poetry

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In England there are wrongs, no doubt,Which should be righted; so men say,Who seek to weed earth’s garden outAnd give the roses right of way.Yes, right of way to fruit and rose,Where now but poison ivy grows. In England there is wide unrestThey tell me, who should know. And yetI saw but hedges gaily dressed,And […]

Sir Knight of the world’s oldest order,Sir Knight of the Army of God,You have crossed the strange mystical border,The ground-floor of truth you have trod;You stand on the typical thresholdWhich leads to the temple above;Where you come as a stone, and a Christ-chosen one,In the Kingdom of Friendship and Love. As you stand in this […]

Diamonds

Story type: Poetry

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The tears of fallen women turned to iceBy man’s cold pity for repentant vice.

Karma

Story type: Poetry

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I We cannot choose our sorrows. One there wasWho, reverent of soul, and strong with trust,Cried, ‘God, though Thou shouldst bow me to the dust,Yet will I praise thy everlasting laws.Beggared, my faith would never halt or pause,But sing Thy glory, feasting on a crust.Only one boon, one precious boon I mustDemand of Thee, O […]

Sapphires

Story type: Poetry

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Lost rays of light that wandered off aloneAnd down through space were hurledFrom that great sapphire sun beyond our ownPale, puny little world.

Turquoise

Story type: Poetry

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A baby went to heaven while it slept,And, waking, missed its mother’s arms, and wept.Those angel tear-drops, falling earthward throughGod’s azure skies, into the turquoise grew.

The Gossips

Story type: Poetry

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A rose in my garden, the sweetest and fairest,Was hanging her head through the long golden hours;And early one morning I saw her tears falling,And heard a low gossiping talk in the bowers. The yellow Nasturtium, a spinster all faded,Was telling a Lily what ailed the poor Rose:‘That wild, roving Bee, who was hanging about […]

Reform

Story type: Poetry

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The time has come when men with hearts and brainsMust rise and take the misdirected reinsOf government; too long left in the handsOf aliens and of lackeys. He who standsAnd sees the mighty vehicle of StateHauled through the mire to some ignoble fateAnd makes not such bold protest as he can,Is no American,

Together

Story type: Poetry

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We two in the fever and fervour and glowOf life’s high tide have rejoiced together;We have looked out over the glittering snow,And known we were dwelling in Summer weather,For the seasons are made by the heart I hold,And not by outdoor heat or cold. We two, in the shadows of pain and woe,Have journeyed together […]

A Minor Chord

Story type: Poetry

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I heard a strain of music in the street –A wandering waif of sound. And then straightwayA nameless desolation filled the day.The great green earth that had been fair and sweet,Seemed but a tomb; the life I thought repleteWith joy, grew lonely for a vanished May.Forgotten sorrows resurrected layLike bleaching skeletons about my feet. Above […]

Petition

Story type: Poetry

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God, may Thy loving Spirit work,In heart of Russian, and of Turk,Until throughout each clime and land,Armenian and Jew may stand,And claim the right of every soulTo seek by its own path, the goal.Parts of the Universal Force,Rills from the same eternal SourceBack to that Source, all races go.God, help Thy world to see it […]

A Waft Of Perfume

Story type: Poetry

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A waft of perfume from a bit of laceMoved lightly by a passing woman’s hand;And on the common street, a sensuous graceShone suddenly from some lost time and land. Tall structures changed to dome and parapet;The stern-faced Church an oracle became;In sheltered alcoves marble busts were set;And on the wall frail Lais wrote her name. […]

The birds laugh loud and long togetherWhen Fashion’s followers speed awayAt the first cool breath of autumn weather.Why, this is the time, cry the birds, to stay!When the deep calm sea and the deep sky overBoth look their passion through sun-kissed space,As a blue-eyed maid and her blue-eyed loverMight each gaze into the other’s face. […]

Sun Shadows

Story type: Poetry

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There never was success so nobly gained,Or victory so free from selfish dross,But in the winning some one had been painedOr some one suffered loss. There never was so nobly planned a fete,Or festal throng with hearts on pleasure bent,But some neglected one outside the gateWept tears of discontent. There never was a bridal morning […]

The Plough

Story type: Poetry

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If you listen you will hear, from east to west,Growing sounds of discontent and deep unrest.It is just the progress-driven plough of God,Tearing up the well-worn custom-bounded sod;Shaping out each old tradition-trodden trackInto furrows, fertile furrows, rich and black.Oh, what harvests they will yieldWhen they widen to a field. They will widen, they will broaden, […]

"He That Looketh"

Story type: Poetry

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Yea, she and I have broken God’s command,And in His sight are branded with our shame.And yet I do not even know her name,Nor ever in my life have touched her handOr brushed her garments. But I chanced to standBeside her in the throng! A sweet, swift flameShot from her flesh to mine–and hers the […]

Brotherhood

Story type: Poetry

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When in the even ways of lifeThe old world jogs along,Our little coloured flags we flaunt:Our little separate selves we vaunt:Each pipes his native song.And jealousy and greed and prideJoin their ungodly hands,And this round lovely world divideInto opposing lands. But let some crucial hour of painSound from the tower of time,Then consciousness of brotherhoodWakes […]

PART I She was a light and wanton maid:Not one whom fickle Love betrayed,For indolence was her undoer.Fair, frivolous, and very poor,She scorned the thought of toil, in youth,And chose the path that leads from truth. More women fall from want of goldThan love leads wrong, if truth were told;More women sin for gay attireThan […]

(AT BOX HILL, SURREY) A modern hour from London (as we spinInto a silver thread the miles of spaceBetween us and our goal), there is a placeApart from city traffic, dust, and din,Green with great trees, where hides a quiet Inn.Here Nelson last looked on the lovely faceWhich made his world; and by its magic […]

If I Were

Story type: Poetry

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If I were a raindrop, and you were a leaf,I would burst from the cloud above you,And lie on your breast in a rapture of rest,And love you, love you, love you. If I were a brown bee, and you were a rose,I would fly to you, love, nor miss you;I would sip and sip […]

Fair Freedom’s ship, too long adrift –Of every wind the sport –Now rigged and manned, her course well planned,Sails proudly out of port;And fluttering gaily from the mastThis motto is unfurled,Let all men heed its truth who read:“Republics rule the World!” The universe is high as God!Good is the final goal;The world revolves and man […]

The quiet graves of our country’s bravesThrough thirty Junes and DecembersHave solemnly lain under sun and rain,And yet the Nation remembers. The marching of feet and the flags on the streetTold once again this morning,In the voice of the drum how the day had comeFor those lowly beds’ adorning. Then swiftly back on Time’s worn […]

Warned

Story type: Poetry

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They stood at the garden gate.By the lifting of a lidShe might have read her fateIn a little thing he did. He plucked a beautiful flower;Tore it away from its placeOn the side of the blooming bower;And held it against his face. Drank in its beauty and bloom,In the midst of his idle talk;Then cast […]

When from our mortal visionGrown men and women goTo sail strange fields ElysianAnd know what spirits know,I think of them as tourists,In some sun-gilded clime,‘Mong happy sights and dear delightsWe all shall find, in time. But when a child goes yonderAnd leaves its mother here,Its little feet must wander,It seems to me, in fear.What paths […]

Forward

Story type: Poetry

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Let me look always forward. Never back.Was I not formed for progress? OtherwiseWith onward pointing feet and searching eyesWould God have set me squarely on the trackUp which we all must labour with life’s pack?Yonder the goal of all this travel lies.What matters it, if yesterday the skiesWith light were golden, or with clouds were […]

The Eternal Will

Story type: Poetry

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There is no thing we cannot overcomeSay not thy evil instinct is inherited,Or that some trait inborn makes thy whole life forlorn,And calls down punishment that is not merited. Back of thy parents and grandparents liesThe Great Eternal Will. That, too, is thineInheritance; strong, beautiful, divine,Sure lever of success for one who tries. Pry up […]

God Rules Alway

Story type: Poetry

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Into the world’s most high and holy placesMen carry selfishness, and graft and greed.The air is rent with warring of the races;Loud Dogmas drown a brother’s cry of need.The Fleet-of-Creeds, upon Time’s ocean lurches;And there is mutiny upon her decks;And in the light of temples, and of churches,Against life’s shores drift wrecks and derelicts.(God rules, […]

The Cure

Story type: Poetry

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You may talk of reformations, of the Economic Plan,That shall stem the Social Evil in its course;But the Ancient Sin of nations, must be got at in THE MAN.If you want to cleanse a river, seek the source. Ever since his first beginning, Man has had his way, in lust.He has never learned the law […]

On the river of life, as I float along,I see with the spirit’s sightThat many a nauseous weed of wrongHas root in a seed of right.For evil is good that has gone astray,And sorrow is only blindness,And the world is always under the swayOf a changeless law of kindness. The commonest error a truth can […]

With ever some wrong to be righting,With self ever seeking for place,The world has been striving and fightingSince man was evolved out of space.Bold history into dark regionsHis torchlight has fearlessly cast,He shows us tribes warring in legions,In jungles of ages long passed. Religion, forgetting her station,Forgetting her birthright from God,Set nation to warring with […]

The Forecast

Story type: Poetry

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It may be that I dreamed a dream; it may be that I sawThe forecast of a time to come by some supernal law. I seemed to dwell in this same world, and in this modern time;Yet nowhere was there sight or sound of poverty or crime.All strife had ceased; men were disarmed; and quiet […]

"Has Been"

Story type: Poetry

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That melancholy phrase “It might have been,”However sad, doth in its heart enfoldA hidden germ of promise! for I holdWHATEVER MIGHT HAVE BEEN SHALL BE.Though inSome other realm and life, the soul must winThe goal that erst was possible. But coldAnd cruel as the sound of frozen mouldDropped on a coffin, are the words “Has […]

Little Girls

Story type: Poetry

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Whether you frolic with comrade boys,Or sit at your studies, or play with toys,Whatever your station, or place, or sphere,For just one purpose God sent you here;And always and ever, you are to me –Dear little Mothers, of Men to be. So would I guard you from all mean things;From the dwarfing of wealth, and […]

Duty’s Path

Story type: Poetry

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Out from the harbour of youth’s bayThere leads the path of pleasure;With eager steps we walk that wayTo brim joy’s largest measure.But when with morn’s departing beamGoes youth’s last precious minute,We sigh “‘Twas but a fevered dream –There’s nothing in it.” Then on our vision dawns afarThe goal of glory, gleamingLike some great radiant solar […]

To build a house, with love for architect,Ranks first and foremost in the joys of life.And in a tiny cabin, shaped for two,The space for happiness is just as greatAs in a palace. What a world were thisIf each soul born received a plot of ground;A little plot, whereon a home might rise,And beauteous green […]

The Muse said, Let us sing a little songWherein no hint of wrong,No echo of the great world need, or pain,Shall mar the strain.Lock fast the swinging portal of thy heart;Keep sympathy apart.Sing of the sunset, of the dawn, the sea;Of any thing or nothing, so there beNo purpose to thy art.Yea, let us make, […]

Always At Sea

Story type: Poetry

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Always at sea I think about the dead.On barques invisible they seem to sailThe self-same course; and from the decks cry ‘Hail’!Then I recall old words that they have said,And see their faces etched upon the mist –Dear faces I have kissed. Always the dead seem very close at sea.The coarse vibrations of the earth […]

The Suitors

Story type: Poetry

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There is a little BungalowPerched on a granite ledge,And at its feet two suitors meet;(I watch them, and I know)One waits outside the casement edge;One paces to and fro. The Patient Rock speaks not a word;The Sea goes up and down,And sings full oft, in cadence soft;(I listen, and have heard)Again he wears an angry […]

The Jealous Gods

Story type: Poetry

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‘Oh life is wonderful,’ she said,‘And all my world is bright;Can Paradise show fairer skies,Or more effulgent light?’(Speak lower, lower, mortal heart,The jealous gods may hear.) She turned for answer; but his gazeCut past her like a lance,And shone like flame on one who cameWith radiant glance for glance.(You spoke too loud, O mortal heart,The […]

Song Of The Rail

Story type: Poetry

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Oh, an ugly thing is an iron rail,Black, with its face to the dust.But it carries a message where winged things fail;It crosses the mountains, and catches the trail,While the winds and the sea make sport of a sail;Oh, a rail is a friend to trust. The iron rail, with its face to the sod,Is […]

The Squanderer

Story type: Poetry

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God gave him passions, splendid as the sun,Meant for the lordliest purposes; a partOf nature’s full and fertile mother heart,From which new systems and new stars are spun.And now, behold, behold, what he has done!In Folly’s court and carnal Pleasures’ martHe flung the wealth life gave him at the start.(This, of all mortal sins, the […]

A changing medley of insistent sounds,Like broken airs, played on a Samisen,Pursues me, as the waves blot out the shore.The trot of wooden heels; the warning cryOf patient runners; laughter and strange wordsOf children, children, children everywhere:The clap of reverent hands, before some shrine;And over all the haunting temple bells,Waking, in silent chambers of the […]

Long have I searched, cathedral shrine, and hall,To find a symbol, from the hand of art,That gave the full expression (not a part)Of that ecstatic peace which follows allLife’s pain and passion. Strange it should befallThis outer emblem of the inner heartWas waiting far beyond the great world’s mart –Immortal answer, to the mortal call. […]

Now is the time when India is gayWith wedding parties; and the radiant throngsSeem like a scattered rainbow taking partIn human pleasures. Dressed in bright array,They fling upon the bride their wreaths of songs –The Little Lady of the Bullock Cart. Here is the temple ready for the rite:The large-eyed bullocks halt; and waiting armsLift […]

East And West

Story type: Poetry

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The Day has never understood the Gloaming or the Night;Though sired by one Creative Power, and nursed at Nature’s breast;The White Man ever fails to read the Dark Man’s heart aright;Though from the self-same Source they came, upon the self-same quest;So deep and wide, the Great Divide,Between the East and West. But like a shadow […]

Rangoon

Story type: Poetry

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Just a changing sea of colourSurging up and flowing down;And pagodas shining golden, night and noon;And a sun-burst-tinted throngOf young priests that move alongUnder sun-burst-hued umbrellas through the town.That’s Rangoon.

I When first we met (the Sea and I),Like one before a King,I stood in awe; nor felt nor sawThe sun, the winds, the earth, the skyOr any other thing.God’s Universe, to me,Was just the Sea. When next we met, the lordly MainPlayed but a courtier’s part;Crowned Queen was I; and earth and sky,And sun […]

In India’s land one listens aghastTo the people who scream and bawl;For each caste yells at a lower caste,And the Britisher yells at them all.

The Truth Teller

Story type: Poetry

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The Truth Teller lifts the curtain,And shows us the people’s plight;And everything seems uncertain,And nothing at all looks right.Yet out of the blackness groping,My heart finds a world in bloom;For it somehow is fashioned for hoping,And it cannot live in the gloom. He tells us from border to border,That race is warring with race;With riot […]

Just You

Story type: Poetry

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All the selfish joys of earth,I am getting through.That which used to lure and leadNow I pass and give no heed;Only one thing seems of worth –Just you. Not for me the lonely height,And the larger view;Lowlier ways seem fair and wide,While we wander side by side.One thing makes the whole world bright –Just you. […]

Reflection

Story type: Poetry

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Twice have I seen God’s full reflected grace.Once when the wailing of a child at birthProclaimed another soul had come to earth,That look shone on, and through the mother’s face. And once when silence, absolute and vast,Followed the final indrawn mortal breath,Sudden upon the countenance of deathThat supreme glory of God’s grace was cast.

The Englishman

Story type: Poetry

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Born in the flesh, and bred in the bone,Some of us harbour stillA New World pride: and we flaunt or hideThe Spirit of Bunker Hill.We claim our place, as a separate race,Or a self-created clan;Till there comes a day when we like to say,‘We are kin of the Englishman.’ For under the front that seems […]

Canada

Story type: Poetry

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England, father and mother in one,Look on your stalwart son.Sturdy and strong, with the valour of youth,Where is another so lusty?Coated and mailed, with the armour of truth,Where is another so trusty?Flesh of your flesh, and bone of your bone,He is yours alone. England, father and mother in one,See the wealth of your son.Forests primeval, […]

In the banquet hall of ProgressGod has bidden to a feastAll the women in the East. Some have said ‘We are not ready, –We must wait another day.’Some, with voices clear and steady,‘Lord, we hear, and we obey.’ Others, timid and uncertain,Step forth trembling in the light,Many hide behind the curtainWith their faces hid from […]

The world has crowned a thousand kings:But destiny has keptHer weightiest hour of kingly powerTo offer England’s son.The rising bell of Progress rings;And Truths which long have slept,Like prophets strange, predicting change,Before Time’s chariot run. The greatest Empire of the Earth.Old England proudly stands.Like arteries her ColoniesReach out from sea to sea.She clasps all races […]

Two Voices

Story type: Poetry

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VIRTUE O wanton one, O wicked one, how was it that you came,Down from the paths of purity, to walk the streets of shame?And wherefore was that precious wealth, God gave to you in trust,Flung broadcast for the feet of men to trample in the dust? VICE O prudent one, O spotless one, now listen […]

They walked the valley of the dead;Lit by a weird half light;No sound they made, no word they said;And they were pale with fright.Then suddenly from unseen places cameLoud laughter, that was like a whip of flame. They looked, and saw, beyond, above,A land where wronged souls wait;(Those spirits called to earth by love,And driven […]

The wonderful age of the world I sing –The age of battery, coil and spring,Of steam, and storage, and motored thing. Though faith may slumber and art seem dead,And all that is spoken has once been said,And all that is written were best unread; Though hearts are iron and thoughts are steel,And all that has […]

MORTAL:‘The night is cold, the hour is late, the world is bleak anddrear;Who is it knocking at my door?’ THE NEW YEAR:‘I am Good Cheer.’ MORTAL:‘Your voice is strange; I know you not; in shadows dark I grope.What seek you here?’ THE NEW YEAR:‘Friend, let me in; my name is Hope.’ MORTAL:‘And mine is Failure; […]

All wantonly in hours of joy,I made a song of pain.Soon Grief drew near, and paused to hear,And sang the sad refrain,Again and yet again. Then recklessly in my despair,I sang of hope one day.And Joy turned back upon life’s track,And smiled, and came my way,And sat her down to stay.

A Little Song

Story type: Poetry

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Oh, a great world, a fair world, a true world I find it;A sun that never forgets to rise,On the darkest night, a star in the skies,And a God of love behind it. Oh, a good life, a sweet life, a large life I take it,Is what He offers to you, and me;A chance to […]

(Written on the day of Queen Victoria’s funeral) The Queen is taking a drive to-day,They have hung with purple the carriage-way,They have dressed with purple the royal trackWhere the Queen goes forth and never comes back. Let no man labour as she goes byOn her last appearance to mortal eye;With heads uncovered let all men […]

Conquest

Story type: Poetry

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Talk not of strength, until your heart has knownAnd fought with weakness through long hours alone. Talk not of virtue, till your conquering soulHas met temptation and gained full control. Boast not of garments, all unscorched by sin,Till you have passed, unscathed, through fires within. Oh, poor that pride the unscarred soldier shows,Who safe in […]

The Sirius

Story type: Poetry

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‘Since Sinus crossed the Milky Way, sixty thousand years have gone.’–GARRETT P. SERVISS. Since Sirius crossed the Milky WayFull sixty thousand years have gone,Yet hour by hour, and day by day,This tireless star speeds on and on. Methinks he must be moved to mirthBy that droll tale of Genesis,Which says creation had its birthFor such […]

At Fontainebleau

Story type: Poetry

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At Fontainebleau, I saw a little bedFashioned of polished wood, with gold ornate,Ambition, hope, and sorrow, ay, and hateOnce battled there, above a childish head,And there in vain, grief wept, and memory pleadIt was so small! but Ah, dear God, how greatThe part it played in one sad woman’s fate.How wide the gloom, that narrow […]

The Masquerade

Story type: Poetry

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Look in the eyes of trouble with a smile,Extend your hand and do not be afraid.‘Tis but a friend who comes to masquerade.And test your faith and courage for awhile. Fly, and he follows fast with threat and jeer.Shrink, and he deals hard blow on stinging blow,But bid him welcome as a friend, and lo!The […]

Intermediary

Story type: Poetry

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When from the prison of its body free,My soul shall soar, before it goes to Thee,Thou great Creator, give it power to knowThe language of all sad, dumb things below.And let me dwell a season still on earthBefore I rise to some diviner birth:Invisible to men, yet seen and heard,And understood by sorrowing beast and […]

Life’s Car

Story type: Poetry

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‘Hurry up!’No lingering by old doors of doubt –No loitering by the way,No waiting a To-morrow car,When you can board To-day.Success is somewhere down the track;Before the chance is goneAccelerate your laggard pace,Swing on, I say, swing on –Hurry up! ‘Step lively!’Belated souls are following fast,They shout and signal, ‘Wait.’Conductor Time brooks no delay,He rings […]

True Brotherhood

Story type: Poetry

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God, what a world, if men in street and martFelt that same kinship of the human heartWhich makes them, in the face of flame and flood,Rise to the meaning of true Brotherhood!

The Decadent

Story type: Poetry

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Among the virile hosts he passed along,Conspicuous for an undetermined graceOf sexless beauty. In his form and faceGod’s mighty purpose somehow had gone wrong.Then on his loom, he wove a careful song,Of sensuous threads; a wordy web of laceWherein the primal passions of the raceAnd his own sins made wonder for the throng. A little […]

Lord, Speak Again

Story type: Poetry

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When God had formed the Universe, He thoughtOf all the marvels therein to be wroughtAnd to His aid then Motherhood was brought. ‘My lesser self, the feminine of Me,She will go forth throughout all time,’ quoth He,‘And make My world what I would have it be. ‘For I am weary, having laboured so,And for a […]

My Heaven

Story type: Poetry

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Unhoused in deserts of accepted thought,And lost in jungles of confusing creeds,My soul strayed, homeless, finding its own needsUnsatisfied with what tradition taught. The pros and cons, the little ifs and ands,The but and maybe, and the this and that,On which the churches thicken and grow fat,I found but structures built on shifting sands. And […]

On a bleak, bald hill with a dull world under,The dreary world of the Commonplace,I have stood when the whole world seemed a blunderOf dotard Time, in an aimless race.With worry about me and want before me –Yet deep in my soul was a rapture springThat made me cry to the grey sky o’er me:‘Oh, […]

God’s Kin

Story type: Poetry

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There is no summit you may not attain,No purpose which you may not yet achieve,If you will wait serenely and believeEach seeming loss is but a step toward gain. Between the mountain-tops lie vale and plain;Let nothing make you question, doubt or grieve;Give only good, and good alone receive;And as you welcome joy, so welcome […]

‘The Way’

Story type: Poetry

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However certain of the way thou art,Take not the self-appointed leader’s part.Follow no man, and by no man be led,And no man lead. AWAKE, and go ahead.Thy path, though leading straight unto the goalMight prove confusing to another soul.The goal is central; but from east, and west,And north, and south, we set out on the […]

The Leader To Be

Story type: Poetry

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What shall the leader be in that great dayWhen we who sleep and dream that we are slavesShall wake and know that Liberty is ours?Mark well that word–not yours, not mine, but ours.For through the mingling of the separate streamsOf individual protest and desire,In one united sea of purpose, liesThe course to Freedom. When Progression […]

The Greater Love

Story type: Poetry

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Hear thou my prayer, great God of opulence;Give me no blessings, save as recompenseFor blessings which I lovingly bestowOn needy stranger or on suffering foe.If Wealth, by chance, should on my path appear,Let Wisdom and Benevolence stand near,And Charity within my portal wait,To guard me from acquaintance intimate. Yet in this intricate great art of […]

Thank God for life, in such an age as this,Rich with the promises of better things.Thank God for being part of this great nation’s heart,Whose strong pulsations are not ruled by kings. Our thanks for fearless and protesting speechWhen cloven hoofs show ‘neath the robes of state.For us no servile song of ‘Kings can do […]

Time Enough

Story type: Poetry

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I know it is early morning,And hope is calling aloud,And your heart is afire with Youth’s desireTo hurry along with the crowd.But linger a bit by the roadside,And lend a hand by the way,‘Tis a curious fact that a generous actBrings leisure and luck to a day. I know it is only the noontime –There […]

Before the statue of a giant Hun,There stood a dwarf, misshapen and uncouth.His lifted eyes seemed asking: ‘Why, in sooth,Was I not fashioned like this mighty one?Would God show favour to an older sonLike earthly kings, and beggar without ruthAnother, who sinned only by his youth?Why should two lives in such divergence run?’ Strange, as […]

The Spur

Story type: Poetry

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I asked the rock beside the road what joy existence lent.It answered, ‘For a million years my heart has been content.’ I asked the truffle-seeking swine, as rooting by he went,‘What is the keynote of your life?’ He grunted out, ‘Content.’ I asked a slave, who toiled and sung, just what his singing meant.He plodded […]

Awakened!

Story type: Poetry

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Slowly the People waken; they have been,Like weary soldiers, sleeping in their tents,While traitors tiptoed through the silent campIntent on plunder. Suddenly a sound –A careless movement of too bold a thief –Starts one dull sleeper; then another stirs,A third cries out a warning, and at lastThe people are awake! Oh, when as oneThe many […]

Shadows

Story type: Poetry

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I am sorry in the gladnessOf the joys that crown my days,For the souls that sit in sadnessOr walk uninviting ways. On the radiance of my labourThat a loving fate bestowed,Falls the shadow of my neighbour,Crushed beneath a thankless load. As the canticle of pleasureFrom my lovelit altar rolls,There is one discordant measure,As I think […]

‘Let go the Cross’–GERTRUDE RUNSHON. I heard a strange voice in the distance callingAs from a star an echo might be falling. It spoke four syllables, concise and brief,Charged with a God-sent message of relief: Let go the cross! Oh, you who cling to sorrow,Hark to the new command and comfort borrow. Even as the […]

I left the farm when mother died and changed my place of dwellingTo daughter Susie’s stylish house right on the city street:And there was them before I came that sort of scared me, tellingHow I would find the town folks’ ways so difficult to meet;They said I’d have no comfort in the rustling, fixed-up throng,And […]

Somebody’s baby was buried to-day –The empty white hearse from the grave rumbled back,And the morning somehow seemed less smiling and gayAs I paused on the walk while it crossed on its way,And a shadow seemed drawn o’er the sun’s golden tract. Somebody’s baby was laid out to rest,White as a snowdrop, and fair to […]

(At the Old Homestead) I tread the paths of earlier timesWhere all my steps were set to rhymes. I gaze on scenes I used to seeWhen dreaming of a vague To be. I walk in ways made bright of oldBy hopes youth-limned in hues of gold. But lo! those hopes of future blissSeem dull beside […]

Success

Story type: Poetry

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As we gaze up life’s slope, as we gazeIn the morn, ere the dewdrops are dry,What splendour hangs over the ways,What glory gleams there in the sky,What pleasures seem waiting us, highOn the peak of that beauteous slope,What rainbow-hued colours of hope,As we gaze! As we climb up the hill, as we climb,Our hearts, our […]

So, thou hast the art, good dame, thou swearest,To keep Time’s perishing touch at bayFrom the roseate splendour of the cheek so tender,And the silver threads from the gold away.And the tell-tale years that have hurried by usShall tip-toe back, and, with kind good-will,They shall take the traces from off our faces,If we will trust […]

Heaven And Hell

Story type: Poetry

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While forced to dwell apart from thy dear face,Love, robed like sorrow, led me by the handAnd taught my doubting heart to understandThat which has puzzled all the human race.Full many a sage has questioned where in spaceThose counter worlds were? where the mystic strandThat separates them? I have found each land,And Hell is vast, […]

As yon great Sun in his supreme conditionAbsorbs small worlds and makes them all his own,So does my love absorb each vain ambition,Each outside purpose which my life has known.Stars cannot shine so near that vast orb’d splendour;They are content to feed his flames of fire:And so my heart is satisfied to renderIts strength, its […]

Couleur De Rose

Story type: Poetry

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I want more lives in which to loveThis world so full of beauty,I want more days to use the waysI know of doing duty;I ask no greater joy than this(So much I am life’s lover),When I reach age to turn the pageAnd read the story over.(O love, stay near!) O rapturous promise of the Spring!O […]

Last Love

Story type: Poetry

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The first flower of the spring is not so fairOr bright as one the ripe midsummer brings.The first faint note the forest warbler singsIs not as rich with feeling, or so rareAs when, full master of his art, the airDrowns in the liquid sea of song he flingsLike silver spray from beak, and breast, and […]

Life’s Track

Story type: Poetry

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This game of life is a dangerous play,Each human soul must watch alway,From the first to the very last.I care not however strong and pure –Let no man say he is perfectly sureThe dangerous reefs are past. For many a rock may lurk near by,That never is seen when the tide is high –Let no […]

An Ode To Time

Story type: Poetry

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Ho! sportsman Time, whose chargers fleetThe moments, madly driven,Beat in the dust beneath their feetSweet hopes that years have given;Turn, turn aside those reckless steeds,Oh! do not urge them my way;There’s nothing that Time wants or needsIn this contented by-way. You have down-trodden, in your race,So much that proves your power,Why not avoid my humble […]

Regret with streaming eyes doth seem alwayA maiden widowed on her wedding day. While dark Remorse, with eyes too sad for tears,A crushed, desponding Magdalene appears. One, with a hungering heart unsatisfied,Mourns for imagined joys that were denied. The other, pierced by recollected sin,Broods o’er the scars of pleasures that have been.

Easter Morn

Story type: Poetry

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A truth that has long lain buriedAt Superstition’s door,I see, in the dawn uprisingIn all its strength once more. Hidden away in the darkness,By Ignorance crucified,Crushed under stones of dogmas –Yet lo! it has not died. It stands in the light transfigured,It speaks from the heights above,“EACH SOUL IS ITS OWN REDEEMER;THERE IS NO LAW […]

There was a flame, oh! such a tiny flame –One fleeting hour had spanned its birth and death,But for a silly child with playful breathWho fanned it into fury. It becameA mighty conflagration. Ah, the cost!House, home, and thoughtless child alike were lost. Lady beware. Fan not the harmless glowOf admiration into ardent love,Lean not […]

Shrines

Story type: Poetry

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About a holy shrine or sacred place,Where many hearts have bowed in earnest prayer,The loveliest spirits congregate from space,And bring their sweet, uplifting influence there. If in your chamber you pray oft and well,Soon will these angel-messengers arriveAnd make their home with you, and where they dwellAll worthy toil and purposes shall thrive. I know […]

She gave her soul and body for a carriage,And livened lackey with a vacant grin,And all the rest–house, lands–and called it marriage:The bargain made, a husband was thrown in. And now, despite her luxury, she’s faded,Gone is the bloom that was so fresh and bright;She has the dark-rimmed eye, the countenance jaded,Of one who watches […]

Swimming Song

Story type: Poetry

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I am coming, coming to thee,My strong-armed lover, the Sea!On thy great broad breast I will lie and rest,And thou shalt talk to me. I have come to thee, all unsought,I have stolen an hour from thought,And peace and power thou canst give in that hour,Which thy rival Earth gives not. Alone here, under the […]

The sun may be clouded, yet ever the sunWill sweep on its course till the cycle is run.And when into chaos the systems are hurled,Again shall the Builder reshape a new world. Your path may be clouded, uncertain your goal;Move on, for the orbit is fixed for your soul.And though it may lead into darkness […]

A soul immortal, Time, God everywhere,Without, within–how can a heart despair,Or talk of failure, obstacles, and doubt?(What proofs of God? The little seeds that sprout,Life, and the solar system, and their laws.Nature? Ah, yes; but what was Nature’s cause?) All mighty words are short: God, life, and death,War, peace, and truth, are uttered in a […]

The Two Ages

Story type: Poetry

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On great cathedral window I have seenA summer sunset swoon and sink away,Lost in the splendours of immortal art.Angels and saints and all the heavenly hosts,With smiles undimmed by half a thousand years,From wall and niche have met my lifted gaze.Sculpture and carving and illumined page,And the fair, lofty dreams of architects,That speak of beauty […]

Double Carnations

Story type: Poetry

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A wild Pink nestled in a garden bed,A rich Carnation flourished high above her,One day he chanced to see her pretty headAnd leaned and looked again, and grew to love her. The Moss (her humble mother) saw with fearThe ardent glances of the princely stranger;With many an anxious thought and dewy tearShe sought to hide […]

Never Mind

Story type: Poetry

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Whatever your work and whatever its worth,No matter how strong or clever,Some one will sneer if you pause to hear,And scoff at your best endeavour.For the target art has a broad expanse,And wherever you chance to hit it,Though close be your aim to the bull’s-eye fame,There are those who will never admit it. Though the […]

Two Women

Story type: Poetry

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I know two women, and one is chasteAnd cold as the snows on a winter waste,Stainless ever in act and thought(As a man, born dumb, in speech errs not).But she has malice toward her kind,A cruel tongue and a jealous mind.Void of pity and full of greed,She judges the world by her narrow creed;A brewer […]

Whatever is a cruel wrong,Whatever is unjust,The honest years that speed alongWill trample in the dust.In restless youth I railed at fateWith all my puny might,But now I know if I but waitIt all will come out right. Though Vice may don the judge’s gownAnd play the censor’s part,And Fact be cowed by Falsehood’s frownAnd […]

For he who climbs to say his prayerMeets half way the descending Grace. ELSA BARKER, in British Review. This is the secret of all prayersThat in God’s sight have worth,They must be uttered from the stairsThat wind away from earth;And he who mounts to speak the word,He shall be heard. He shall be heard. And […]

Up to the gates of gleaming Pearl,There came the spirit of a girl,And to the white-robed Guard she said:‘Dear Angel, am I truly dead?Just yonder, lying on my bed,I heard them say it; and they wept.And after that, methinks I slept.Then when I woke, I saw your face,And suddenly was in this place.It seems a […]

The Second Coming

Story type: Poetry

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How will Christ come back again,How will He be seen, and where,Where His chosen way?Will He come in dead of night,Shining in His robes of light,Or at dawn of day? Will it be at Christmas time,When the bells are all achime,That He is re-born?Or will He return and bringWide and wondrous wakeningOn some Easter morn? […]

My Flower Room

Story type: Poetry

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My Flower Room is such a little place,Scarce twenty feet by nine; yet in that spaceI have met God; yea, many a radiant hourHave talked with Him, the All-Embracing-Cause,About His laws.And He has shown me, in each vine and flowerSuch miracles of powerThat day by day this Flower Room of mineHas come to be a […]

Arrow And Bow

Story type: Poetry

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It is easy to stand in the pulpit, or in the closet to kneel,And say: ‘God do this; God do that! –Make the world better; relieve the sorrows of man; for the sake of Thy Son,Oh, forgive all sin!’ Then, having planned out God’s work, to feel Our duty is done.It is easy to be […]

Now what were the words of Jesus,And what would He pause and say,If we were to meet in home or streetThe Lord of the world to-day?Oh, I think He would pause and say,‘Go on with your chosen labour;Speak only good of your neighbour;Widen your farms, and lay down your arms,Or dig up the soil with […]

The Harp’s Song

Story type: Poetry

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All day, all day in a calm like deathThe harp hung waiting the sea wind’s breath. When the western sky flushed red with shameAt the sun’s bold kiss, the sea wind came. Said the harp to the breeze, Oh, breathe as softAs the ring-dove cooes from its nest aloft. I am full of a song […]

For ‘Mabel Brown’ I never cared(My rightful name by birth),But when the name of Smith I shared,I seemed to own the earth,(I wrote it without ‘y’ or ‘e’ –Plain ‘Mrs. Jack Smith’ suited me.) My happiest hour, as I look backOn times of great content,Was when folks called me ‘Mrs. Jack,’Though ‘Mrs. Smith’ was meant.It […]

The Sword

Story type: Poetry

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Amidst applauding cheers I won a prize.A cynic watched me, with ironic eyes;An open foe, in open hatred, sneered;I cared for neither. Then my friend appeared.Eager, I listened for his glad ‘Well done.’But sudden shadow seemed to shroud my sun.He praised me: yet each slow, unwilling wordForced from its sheath base Envy’s hidden sword,Two-edged, it […]

SPRING A sudden softness in the wind;A glint of song, a-wing;A fragrant sound that trails behind,And joy in everything. A sudden flush upon the cheek,The teardrop quick to start;A hope too delicate to speak,And heaven within the heart. SUMMER A riotous dawn and the sea’s great wonder;The red, red heart of a rose uncurled;And beauty […]

There was once a little comet who lived near the Milky Way!She loved to wander out at night and jump about and play.The mother of the comet was a very good old star –She used to scold her reckless child for venturing out too far;She told her of the ogre, Sun, who loved on stars […]

The Last Dance

Story type: Poetry

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WHEN LOVE FOR HIS MAKER AWOKE IN MAN, THE DANCE BEGAN The wave of the ocean, the leaf of the wood,In the rhythm of motion proclaim life is good.The stars are all swinging to metres and rhyme,The planets are singing while suns mark the time.The moonbeams and rivers float off in a trance,The Universe quivers–on, […]

HE Let us be friends. My life is sad and lonely,While yours with love is beautiful and bright.Be kind to me: I ask your friendship only.No Star is robbed by lending darkness light. SHE I give you friendship as I understand it,A sentiment I feel for all mankind. HE Oh, give me more; may not […]

A Vagabond Mind

Story type: Poetry

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Since early this morning the world has seemed surgingWith unworded rhythm, and rhyme without thought.It may be the Muses take this way of urgingThe patience and pains by which poems are wrought.It may be some singer who passed into glory,With songs all unfinished, is lingering nearAnd trying to tell me the rest of the story,Which […]

Great dignity ever attends great grief,And silently walks beside it;And I always know when I see such woeThat Invisible Helpers guide it.And I know deep sorrow is like a tide,It cannot ever be flowing;The high-water mark in the night and the dark –Then dawn, and the outward going. But the people who pull at my […]

An Old Song

Story type: Poetry

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Two roadways lead from this land to That, and one is the road of Prayer;And one is the road of Old-time Songs, and every note is a stair. A shabby old man with a music machine on the sordid city street;But suddenly earth seemed Arcady, and life grew young and sweet.For the city street fled, […]

Lord of all the Universe, when I think of YOU,Flinging stars out into space, moving suns and tides;Then this little mortal mind gets the larger view,And the carping self of me runs away and hides. Then I see all shadowed paths leading out to Light;See the false things fade away, leaving but the True;See the […]

Praise Day

Story type: Poetry

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Let us halt now for a space in our hurrying;Let us take time to look up and look out;Let us refuse for a spell to be worrying;Let us decline to both question and doubt.If one goes cavilling,Hair splitting, flaw hunting–ready for strife –All the best pleasure is missed in the travellingOnward through life. Just for […]

Oh! that is a beautiful land I wis,The land of the Gone-Away Souls.Yes, a lovelier region by far than this(Though this is a world most fair),The goodliest goal of all good goals,Else why do our friends stay there?I walk in a world that is sweet with friends,And earth I have ever held dear;Yes, love with […]

Reward

Story type: Poetry

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Fate used me meanly; but I looked at her and laughed,That none might know how bitter was the cup I quaffed.Along came Joy, and paused beside me where I sat,Saying, ‘I came to see what you were laughing at.’

This Is My Task

Story type: Poetry

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When the whole world resounds with rude alarmsOf warring arms,When God’s good earth, from border unto borderShows man’s disorder,Let me not waste my dower of mortal mightIn grieving over wrongs I cannot right.This is my task: amid discordant strifeTo keep a clean sweet centre in my life;And though the human orchestra may bePlaying all out […]

The Statue

Story type: Poetry

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A granite rock in the mountain sideGazed on the world and was satisfied.It watched the centuries come and go,It welcomed the sunlight yet loved the snow,It grieved when the forest was forced to fall,Yet joyed when steeples rose white and tallIn the valley below it, and thrilled to hearThe voice of the great town roaring […]

Behold The Earth

Story type: Poetry

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Behold the earth swung in among the starsFit home for gods if men were only kind –Do thou thy part to shape it to those ends,By shaping thine own life to perfectness.Seek nothing for thyself or thine own kinThat robs another of one hope or joy,Let no man toil in poverty and painTo give thee […]

What They Saw

Story type: Poetry

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Sad man, Sad man, tell me, pray,What did you see to-day? I saw the unloved and unhappy old, waiting for slow delinquent death to come.Pale little children toiling for the rich, in rooms where sunlight is ashamed to go.The awful alms-house, where the living dead rot slowly in their hideous open graves.And there were shameful […]

His Last Letter

Story type: Poetry

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Well, you are free;The longed for, lied for, waited for decreeIs yours to-day.I made no protest; and you had your say,And left me with no vestige of repute.Neglect, abuse, and cruelty you chargeWith broken marriage vows. The list is largeBut not to be denied. So I was mute. Now you shall listen to a few […]

It was long, long ago that a soul like a flowerUnfolded, and blossomed, and passed in an hour.It was long, long ago; and the memory seemsLike the pleasures and sorrows that come in our dreams. The kind years have crowned me with many a joySince the going away of my wee little boy;Each one as […]

I am running forth to meet you, O my Master,For they tell me you are surely on the way;Yes, they tell me you are coming back again(While I run, while I run).And I wish my feet were winged to speed on faster,And I wish I might behold you here to-day,Lord of men. I am running, […]

Martyrs Of Peace

Story type: Poetry

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Fame writes ever its song and story,For heroes of war, in letters of glory. But where is the story and where is the songFor the heroes of peace and the martyrs of wrong? They fight their battles in shop and mine;They die at their posts and make no sign. They herd like beasts in a […]

The Eternal Now

Story type: Poetry

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Time with his back against the mighty wall,Which hides from view all future joy and sorrow,Hears, without answer, the impatient callOf puny man, to tell him of to-morrow. Moral, be wise, and to the silence bow,These useless and unquiet ways forsaking;Concern thyself with the Eternal Now –To-day hold all things, ready for thy taking.

If I were a man, a young man, and knew what I know to-day,I would look in the eyes of Life undauntedBy any Fate that might threaten me.I would give to the world what the world most wanted –Manhood that knows it can do and be;Courage that dares, and faith that can seeClear into the […]

Now much there is need of doing must not be done in haste;But slowly and with patience, as a jungle is changed to a town.But listen, my brothers, listen; it is not always so:When a murderer’s hand is lifted to kill, there is no time to waste;And the way to change his purpose is first […]

Earth Bound

Story type: Poetry

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New paradise, and groom and bride;The world was all their own;Her heart swelled full of love and pride;Yet were they quite alone?‘Now how is it, oh how is it, and why is it’ (in fearAll silent to herself she spake) ‘that something strange seems here?’ Along the garden paths they walked –The moon was at […]

A Successful Man

Story type: Poetry

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There was a man who killed a loving maidIn some mad mood of passion; and he paidThe price, upon a scaffold. Now his nameStands only as a synonym for shame.There was another man, who took to wifeA loving woman. She was full of life,Of hope, and aspirations; and her prideClothed her like some rich mantle. […]

Separation

Story type: Poetry

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HE One decade and a half since first we cameWith hearts aflameInto Love’s Paradise, as man and mate;And now we separate.Soon, all too soon,Waned the white splendour of our honeymoon.We saw it fading; but we did not knowHow bleak the path would be when once its glowWas wholly gone.And yet we two were forced to […]

How large thy task, O teacher of the young,To take the ravelled threads by parents flungWith careless hands, and through consummate careTo weave a fabric, fine and firm and fair.God’s uncompleted work is thine to do –Be brave and true!

Beauty Making

Story type: Poetry

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Methinks there is no greater work in lifeThan making beauty. Can the mind conceiveOne little corner in celestial realmsUnbeautiful, or dull or commonplace?Or picture ugly angels, illy clad?Beauty and splendour, opulence and joy,Are attributes of God and His domain,And so are worth and virtue. But why preachOf virtue only to the sons of men,Ignoring beauty, […]

One day when England’s June was at its best,I saw a stately and imperious swanFloating on Avon’s fair untroubled breast.Sudden, it seemed as if all strife had goneOut of the world; all discord, all unrest. The sorrows and the sinnings of the raceFaded away like nightmares in the dawn.All heaven was one blue background for […]

Angel of Peace, the hounds of war,Unleashed, are all abroad,And war’s foul trade again is madeMan’s leading aim in life.Blood dyes the billow and the sod;The very winds are rifeWith tales of slaughter. Angel, pray,What can we do or think or sayIn times like these?‘Child, think of God!’ ‘Before this little speck in spaceCalled Earth […]

Peace should not come along this foul, earth way.Peace should not come, until we cleanse the path.God waited for us; now in awful wrathHe pours the blood of men out day by dayTo purify the highroad for her feet.Why, what would Peace do, in a world where heartsAre filled with thoughts like poison-pointed darts?It were […]

The Winds Of Fate

Story type: Poetry

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One ship drives east and another drives west,With the self-same winds that blow,‘Tis the set of the sailsAnd not the galesThat tell them the way to go.Like the winds of the sea are the winds of fate,As we voyage along through life,‘Tis the set of the soulThat decides its goalAnd not the calm or the […]

There are, there areInvisible Great Helpers of the race.Across unatlased continents of space,From star to star.In answer to some soul’s imperious need,They speed, they speed. When the earth-loving young are forced to standUpon the border of the Unknown Land,They come, they come–those angels who have trodThe altitudes of God,And to the trembling heartTheir strength impart.Have […]

A toast to the splendid daughtersOf the New World over the waters,A world that is great as new;Daughters of brave old races,Daughters of heights and spaces,Broad seas and broad earth places –Hail to your land and you! The sun and the winds have fed you;The width of your world has led youOut into the larger […]

Oh the Kings of earth have mobilised their men.See them moving, valour proving,To the fields of glory going,Banners flowing, bugles blowing,Every one a mother’s son,Brave with uniform and gun,Keeping step with easy swing,Yes, with easy step and light marching onward to the fight,Just to please the warlike fancy of a King;Who has mobilised his army […]

Replies

Story type: Poetry

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You have lived long and learned the secret of life, O Seer!Tell me what are the best three things to seek –The best three things for a man to seek on earth? The best three things for a man to seek, O Son! are these:Reverence for that great Source from whence he came;Work for the […]

Neutral (war)

Story type: Poetry

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That pale word ‘Neutral’ sits becominglyOn lips of weaklings. But the men whose brainsFind fuel in their blood, the men whose mindsHold sympathetic converse with their hearts,Such men are never neutral. That word standsUnsexed and impotent in Realms of Speech.When mighty problems face a startled worldNo virile man is neutral. Right or wrongHis thoughts go […]

A book has been made for the King,A book of beauty and art;To the good king’s eyesA smile shall riseHiding the ache in his heart –Hiding the hurt and the griefAs he turns it, leaf by leaf. A book has been made for the King,A book of blood and of blight;To the Great King’s eyesA […]

Said the Kaiser’s god to the god of the Czar:‘Hark, hark, how my people pray.Their faith, methinks, is greater by farThan all the faiths of the others are;They know I will help them slay.’ Said the god of the Czar: ‘My people callIn a medley of tongues; they knowI will lend my strength to them […]

The Ghosts (war)

Story type: Poetry

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There was no wind, and yet the airSeemed suddenly astir;There were no forms, and yet all spaceSeemed thronged with growing hosts.They came from Where, and from Nowhere,Like phantoms as they were;They came from many a land and place –The ghosts, the ghosts, the ghosts. And some were white, and some were grey,And some were red […]

Why should the poet of these pregnant timesBe asked to sing of war’s unholy crimes? To laud and eulogise the trade which thrivesOn horrid holocausts of human lives? Man was a fighting beast when earth was young,And war the only theme when Homer sung. ‘Twixt might and might the equal contest lay:Not so the battles […]

Europe (war)

Story type: Poetry

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Little lads and grandsires,Women old with care;But all the men are dying menOr dead men over there. No one stops to dig graves;Who has time to spare?The dead men, the dead menHow the dead men stare. Kings are out a-hunting –Oh, the sport is rare;With dying men and dead menFalling everywhere. Life for lads and […]

There is no summit you may not attain,No purpose which you may not yet achieve,If you will wait serenely and believe.Each seeming loss is but a step to’rd gain. Between the mountain-tops lie vale and plain;Let nothing make you question, doubt, or grieve;Give only good, and good alone receive;And as you welcome joy, so welcome […]

After (war)

Story type: Poetry

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Over the din of battle,Over the cannons’ rattle,Over the strident voices of men and their dying groans,I hear the falling of thrones. Out of the wild disorderThat spreads from border to border,I see a new world rising from ashes of ancient towns;And the Rulers wear no crowns. Over the blood-charged water,Over the fields of slaughter,Down […]

The Tower-Room

Story type: Poetry

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There is a room serene and fair,All palpitant with light and air;Free from the dust, world’s noise and fuss –God’s Tower-room in each of us. Oh! many a stair our feet must press,And climb from self to selflessness,Before we reach that radiant roomAbove the discord and the gloom. So many, many stairs to climb,But mount […]

Father

Story type: Poetry

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He never made a fortune, or a noiseIn the world where men are seeking after fame;But he had a healthy brood of girls and boysWho loved the very ground on which he trod.They thought him just a little short of God;Oh you should have heard the way they said his name –‘Father.’ There seemed to […]

Kamehameha First, of the Hawaiian Islands, conquered his foes in a great battle, driving them over the high mountain peak known as Palione of the famous scenic views of the world, and the goal of all visitors in Honolulu. The Hula (pronounced hoola) was the national muscle and abdominal dance of Hawaii, and the late […]

Our hearts were not set on fighting,We did not pant for the fray,And whatever wrongs need righting,We would not have met that way.But the way that has opened before usLeads on thro’ a blood-red field;And we swear by the great God o’er us,We will die, but we will not yield. The battle is not of […]

Belgium (war)

Story type: Poetry

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Ruined? destroyed? Ah, no; though blood in rivers ranDown all her ancient streets; though treasures manifoldLove-wrought, Time-mellowed, and beyond the price of goldAre lost, yet Belgium’s star shines still in God’s vast plan. Rarely have Kings been great, since kingdoms first began;Rarely have great kings been great men, when all was told.But, by the lighted […]

Knitting (war)

Story type: Poetry

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At the concert and the playEverywhere you see them sitting,Knitting, knitting.Women who the other dayThought of nothing but their frocksOr their jewels or their locks,Women who have lived for pleasure,Who have known no work but leisure,Now are knitting, knitting, knittingFor the soldiers over there. On the trains and on the shipsWith a diligence befitting,They are […]

Oh! I feel the growing gloryOf our life upon this sphere,Of the life that like a riverRuns forever and forever,From the somewhere to the here,And still on and onward flowing,Leads us out to larger knowing,Through the hidden, to the clear. And I feel a deep thanksgivingFor the sorrows I have known;For the worries and the […]

Only Be Still

Story type: Poetry

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‘Only be still, and in the silence grow,’If thou art seeking what the gods bestow.This is the simple, safe, and certain wayThat leads to knowledge for which all men prayOf higher laws to govern things below. But in our restless discontent we goWith noisy importuning day on day –Drowning the inner voice that strives to […]

Pardoned Out

Story type: Literature

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I’m pardoned out. Again the starsShine on me with their myriad eyes.So long I’ve peered ‘twixt iron bars,I’m awed by this expanse of skies.The world is wider than I thought,And yet ’tis not so wide, I know,But into its remotest spotMy tale of shame can go. I’m pardoned out. Old Father TimeWho seemed to halt […]

Oh, vain is the stern protestingOf winds, when the tide runs high;And vainly the deep-sea watersCall out, as the waves speed by;For, deaf to the claim of the ocean,To the threat of the loud winds dumb,Past reef and bar, to shores afar,They rush when the hour is come. Vainly the tempest thunders,Of unsexed waves that […]

Progression

Story type: Poetry

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To each progressive soul there comes a dayWhen all things that have pleased and satisfiedGrow flavourless, the springs of joy seem dried.No more the waters of youth’s fountains play;Yet out of reach, tiptoeing as they may,The more mature and higher pleasures hide.Life, like a careless nurse, fails to provideNew toys for those the soul has […]

Acquaintance

Story type: Poetry

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Not we who daily walk the city’sNot those who have been cradled in its heart,Best understand its architectural artOr realise its grandeur. Oft we meetSome stranger who has staid his passing feetAnd lingered with us for a single hour,And learned more of cathedral, and of tower,Than we who deem our knowledge quite complete. Not always […]

There is no progress in the world of bees,However wise and wonderful they are.Their wisdom makes not increase. Lies the bar,To wider goals, in that tense strife to pleaseA Sovereign Ruler? Forth from flowers to treesTheir little quest is; not from star to star.This is not growth; the mighty avatarComes not to do his work […]

The roses all were pink and red,Before the Bumble Bee,A lover bold, with cloak of gold,Came singing merrilyAlong the sunlit ways that ledFrom woodland, and from lea. He paused beside an opening rose,The garden’s pet and pride;She burst in flower that very hour,While wooing zephyrs sighed;No smile had she for one of those,And hope within […]

I Look To Science

Story type: Poetry

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I look to Science for the cure of Crime;To patient righting of a thousand wrongs;To final healing of a thousand ills.Blind runner now, and cruel egotistIt yet leads on to more than mortal sight,And the large knowledge that means humbleness,And tender love for all created things. I look to Science for the Coming RaceGrowing from […]

I love the tropics, where sun and rainGo forth together, a joyous train,To hold up the green, gay side of the world,And to keep earth’s banners of bloom unfurled. I love the scents that are hidden thereBy housekeeper Time, in her chests of air:Strange and subtle and all a-rife,With vague lost dreams of a bygone […]

Most Blest Is He

Story type: Poetry

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Most blest is he who in the morning timeSets forth upon his journey with no staffShaped by another for his use. Who seesThe imminent necessity for toil,And with each morning wakens to the thoughtOf tasks that wait his doing. Never yetHas unearned leisure and the gift of goldBestowed such benefits upon the youngAs need and […]

Nirvana

Story type: Poetry

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A drop of water risen from the oceanForgot its cause, and spake with deep emotionUnto a passing breeze. ‘How desolateAnd all forlorn is my unhappy fate.I know not whence I came, or where I go.Scorched by the sun, or chilled by winds that blow,I dwell in space a little time, then passOut into the night […]

At Bay

Story type: Poetry

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WIFE Reach out your arms, and hold me close and fast.Tell me there are no memories of your pastThat mar this love of ours, so great, so vast. HUSBAND Some truths are cheapened when too oft averred.Does not the deed speak louder than the word?(Dear God, that old dream woke again and stirred.) WIFE As […]

With brooding mien and sultry eyes,Outside the gates of ParadiseEve sat, and fed the faggot flameThat lit the path whence Adam came.(Strange are the workings of a woman’s mind.) His giant shade preceded him,Along the pathway green, and dim;She heard his swift approaching tread,But still she sat with drooping head.(Dark are the jungles of unhappy […]

All in the time when Earth did most deploreThe cold, ungracious aspect of young May,Sweet Summer came, and bade him smile once more;She wove bright garlands, and in winsome playShe bound him willing captive. Day by dayShe found new wiles wherewith his heart to please;Or bright the sun, or if the skies were gray,They laughed […]

All roads that lead to God are good;What matters it, your faith, or mine;Both centre at the goal divineOf love’s eternal Brotherhood. The kindly life in house or street;The life of prayer, and mystic rite;The student’s search for truth and light;These paths at one great junction meet. Before the oldest book was writ,Full many a […]

Christ Crucified

Story type: Poetry

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Now ere I slept, my prayer had been that I might see my wayTo do the will of Christ, our Lord and Master, day by day;And with this prayer upon my lips, I knew not that I dreamed,But suddenly the world of night a pandemonium seemed.From forest, and from slaughter house, from bull ring, and […]

The Trip To Mars

Story type: Poetry

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Oh! by and by we shall hear the cry,‘This is the way to Mars.’Come take a trip, on the morning Ship;It sails by the Isle of Stars. ‘A glorious view of planets newWe promise by night and day.Past dying suns our good ship runs,And we pause at the Milky Way.’ I am almost sure we […]

If Christ came questioning His world to-day,(If Christ came questioning,)‘What hast thou done to glorify thy God,Since last My feet this lower earth plane trod?’How could I answer Him; and in what wayOne evidence of my allegiance bring;If Christ came questioning. If Christ came questioning, to me alone,(If Christ came questioning,)I could not point to […]

Fiction And Fact

Story type: Poetry

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In books I read, how men have lived and died,With hopeless love deep in their bosoms hidden.While she for whom they long in secret sighed,Went on her way, nor guessed this flame unbidden. In real life, I never chanced to seeThe woman who was loved, and did not know it,And observation proves this fact to […]

England, Awake!

Story type: Poetry

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A beautiful great lady, past her prime,Behold her dreaming in her easy chair;Gray robed, and veiled; in laces old and rare,Her smiling eyes see but the vanished time,Of splendid prowess, and of deeds sublime.Self satisfied she sits, all unawareThat peace has flown before encroaching care,And through her halls stalks hunger, linked with crime. England, awake! […]

Be Not Attached

Story type: Poetry

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‘Be not attached.’ So runs the great commandFor those who seek to ‘know’ and ‘understand.’Who sounds the waters of the deeper seaMust first draw up his anchor and go free. But not for me, that knowledge. I must waitUntil again I enter through life’s gate.I am not brave enough to sail awayTo farther seas, and […]

An Episode

Story type: Poetry

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Along the narrow Moorish streetA blue-eyed soldier strode.(Ah, well-a-day)Veiled from her lashes to her feetShe stepped from her abode,(Ah, lack-a-day). Now love may guard a favoured wifeWho leaves the harem door;(Ah, well-a-day)But hungry hearted is her lifeWhen she is one of four.(Ah, lack-a-day.) If black eyes glow with sudden fireAnd meet warm eyes of blue […]

I am the voice of the voiceless;Through me the dumb shall speak;Till the deaf world’s ear be made to hearThe cry of the wordless weak.From street, from cage, and from kennel,From jungle and stall, the wailOf my tortured kin proclaims the sinOf the mighty against the frail. I am a ray from the centre;And I […]

Time’s Defeat

Story type: Poetry

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Time has made conquest of so many thingsThat once were mine. Swift-footed, eager youthThat ran to meet the years; bold brigand health,That broke all laws of reason unafraid,And laughed at talk of punishment. Close ties of blood and friendship, joy of life,Which reads its music in the major keyAnd will not listen to a minor […]

I have listened to the sighing of the burdened and the bound,I have heard it change to crying, with a menace in the sound;I have seen the money-getters pass unheeding on the way,As they went to forge new fetters for the people day by day. Then the voice of Labour thundered forth its purpose and […]

I Arise, O master artist of the age,And paint the picture which at once shall beImmortal art and bless’d prophecy.The bruised vision of the world assuage;To earth’s dark book add one illumined page,So scintillant with truth, that all who seeShall break from superstition and stand free.Now let this wondrous work thy hand engage.The mortal sorrow […]

The White Man

Story type: Poetry

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Wherever the white man’s feet have trod(Oh far does the white man stray)A bold road rifles the virginal sod,And the forest wakes out of its dream of God,To yield him the right of way.For this is the law: BY THE POWER OF THOUGHT,FOR WORSE, OR FOR BETTER, ARE MIRACLES WROUGHT. Wherever the white man’s pathway […]

A Moorish Maid

Story type: Poetry

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Above her veil a shrouded Moorish maidShowed melting eyes, as limpid as a lake;A brow untouched by care; a band of jetty hair,And nothing more. The all-concealing haikFell to her high arched instep. At her sideAn old duenna walked; her withered faceHalf covered only, since no lingering graceBespoke the beauty once her master’s pride. Above […]

I Know Not

Story type: Poetry

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Death! I know not what room you are abiding in,But I will go my way,Rejoicing day by day,Nor will I flee or stayFor fear I tread the path you may be hiding in. Death! I know not, if my small barque be nearing you;But if you are at sea,Still there my sails float free;‘What is […]

Interlude

Story type: Poetry

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The days grow shorter, the nights grow longer;The headstones thicken along the way,And life grows sadder, but love grows stronger,For those who walk with us day by day. The tear comes quicker, the laugh comes slower;The courage is lesser to do and dare;And the tide of joy in the heart falls lower,And seldom covers the […]

Resurrection

Story type: Poetry

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Pausing a moment ere the day was done,While yet the earth was scintillant with light,I backward glanced. From valley, plain, and height,At intervals, where my life-path had run,Rose cross on cross; and nailed upon each oneWas my dead self. And yet that gruesome sightLent sudden splendour to the falling night,Showing the conquests that my soul […]

The voices of the city–merged and swelledInto a mighty dissonance of sound,And from the medley rose these broken strainsIn changing time and ever-changing keys. I Pleasure seekers, silken clad,Led by cherub Day,Ours the duty to be glad,Ours the toil of play. Sleep has bound the commonplace,Pleasure rules the dawn.Small hours set the merry paceAnd we […]

Two Ghosts

Story type: Poetry

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Two dead men boarded a spectral shipIn the astral Port of Space;On that ghost-filled barque, they met in the dark,And halted, face to face. ‘Now whither away’–called one of the ghosts,‘This ship sets sail for Earth.On the astral plane you must remain,Where the newly dead have birth.’ ‘But I could not stay and I would […]

Woman

Story type: Poetry

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Strange are the ways that her feet have trodSince first she was set in the path of duty,Finished and fair by the hand of God,To carry her message of love and beauty.Delicate creature of light and shade,She gleamed like an opal, on wide worlds under:And earth looked up to her half afraid,While heaven looked down […]

They are waking, they are waking,In the east, and in the west;They are throwing wide their windows to the sun;And they see the dawn is breaking,And they quiver with unrest,For they know their work is waiting to be done. They are waking in the city,They are waking on the farm;They are waking in the boudoir, […]

See?

Story type: Poetry

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If one proves weak who you fancied strong,Or false who you fancied true,Just ease the smart of your wounded heartBy the thought that it is not you! If many forget a promise made,And your faith falls into the dust,Then look meanwhile in your mirror and smile,And say, ‘I am one to trust!’ If you search […]

The Purpose

Story type: Poetry

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Over and over the task was set,Over and over I slighted the work,But ever and alway I knew that yetI must face and finish the toil I shirk. Over and over the whip of painHas spurred and punished with blow on blow;As ever and alway I tried in vainTo shun the labour I hated so. […]

The Empty Bowl

Story type: Poetry

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I held the golden vessel of my soulAnd prayed that God would fill it from on high.Day after day the importuning cryGrew stronger–grew, a heaven-accusing doleBecause no sacred waters laved my bowl.‘So full the fountain, Lord, wouldst Thou denyThe little needed for a soul’s supply?I ask but this small portion of Thy whole.’Then from the […]

What Happens?

Story type: Poetry

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When thy hand touches mine, through all the meshOf intricate and interlaced veinsShoot swift delights that border on keen pains:Flesh thrills to thrilling flesh. When in thine eager eyes I look to findA comrade to my thought, thy ready brainDelves down and makes its inmost meaning plain:Mind answers unto mind. When hands and eyes are […]

Keep Going

Story type: Poetry

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Is the goal distant, and troubled the road,And the way long?And heavy your load?Then gird up your courage, and say ‘I am strong,’And keep going. Is the work weary, and endless the grindAnd petty the pay?Then brace up your mindAnd say ‘Something better is coming my way,’And keep doing. Is the drink bitter life pours […]

Just as I shape the purport of my thought,Lord of the Universe, shape Thou my lot.Let each ill thought that in my heart may be,Mould circumstance and bring ill luck to me. Until I weed the garden of my mindFrom all that is unworthy and unkind,Am I not master of my mind, dear Lord?Then as […]

A TRIBUTE TO THE POLICEMEN OF ENGLAND’S CAPITAL Here in my cosy corner,Before a blazing log,I’m thinking of cold LondonWrapped in its killing fog;And, like a shining beaconAbove the picture grim,I see the London ‘Bobby,’And sing my song for him. I see his stalwart figure,I see his kindly face,I hear his helpful answerAt any hour […]

(AMERICA’S GREAT EMOTIONAL ACTRESS) The Radiant Rulers of Mystic RegionsWhere souls of artists are fitted for birthGathered together their lovely legionsAnd fashioned a woman to shine on earth.They bathed her in splendour,They made her tender,They gave her a nature both sweet and wild;They gave her emotions like storm-stirred oceans,And they gave her the heart of […]

Aquileia

Story type: Poetry

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[On the election of the Roman Emperor Maximus, by the Senate, A.D. 238, a powerful army, headed by the Thracian giant Maximus, laid siege to Aquileia. Though poorly prepared for war, the constancy of her citizens rendered her impregnable. The women of Aquileia cut off their hair to make ropes for the military engines. The […]

Romney

Story type: Poetry

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Nay, Romney, nay–I will not hear you sayThose words again: “I love you, love you sweet!”You are profane–blasphemous. I repeat,You are no actor for so grand a play. You love with all your heart? Well, that may be;Some cups are fashioned shallow. Should I tryTo quench my thirst from one of those, when dry –I […]

What would I ask the kindly fates to giveTo crown her life, if I could have my way?My strongest wishes would be negative,If they would but obey. Give her not greatness. For great souls must standAlone and lonely in this little world:Cleft rocks that show the great Creator’s hand,Thither by earthquakes hurled. Give her not […]

My Home

Story type: Poetry

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This is the place that I love the best,A little brown house like a ground-bird’s nest,Hid among grasses, and vines, and trees,Summer retreat of the birds and bees. The tenderest light that ever was seenSifts through the vine-made window screen –Sifts and quivers, and flits and fallsOn home-made carpets and gray-hung walls. All through June, […]

An Afternoon

Story type: Poetry

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I am stirred by the dream of an afternoonOf a perfect day–though it was not June;The lilt of winds, and the droning tuneThat a busy city was humming. And a bronze-brown head, and lips like wineLeaning out through the window-vineA-list for steps that were maybe mine –Eager steps that were coming. I can see it […]

Mother says, “Be in no hurry,Marriage oft means care and worry.” Auntie says, with manner grave,“Wife is synonym for slave.” Father asks, in tones commanding,“How does Bradstreet rate his standing?” Sister crooning to her twins,Sighs, “With marriage care begins.” Grandma, near life’s closing days,Murmurs, “Sweet are girlhood’s ways.” Maud, twice widowed (“sod and grass”)Looks at […]

River And Sea

Story type: Poetry

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We stood by the river that sweptIn its glory and grandeur away;But never a pulse o’ me leapt,And you wondered at me that day. We stood by the lake as it layWith its dimpled face turned to the light;Was it strange I had nothing to sayTo so fair and enchanting a sight? I look on […]

Hidden Gems

Story type: Poetry

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We know not what lies in us, till we seek;Men dive for pearls–they are not found on shore,The hillsides most unpromising and bleakDo sometimes hide the ore. Go, dive in the vast ocean of thy mind,O man! far down below the noisy waves,Down in the depths and silence thou mayst findRare pearls and coral caves. […]

All Mad

Story type: Poetry

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“He is mad as a hare, poor fellow,And should be in chains,” you say.I haven’t a doubt of your statement,But who isn’t mad, I pray?Why, the world is a great asylum,And people are all insane,Gone daft with pleasure or folly,Or crazed with passion and pain. The infant who shrieks at a shadow,The child with his […]

By-And-Bye

Story type: Poetry

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“By-and-bye,” the maiden sighed–“by-and-byeHe will claim me for his bride,Hope is strong and time is fleet;Youth is fair, and love is sweet,Clouds will pass that fleck my sky,He will come back by-and-bye–by-and-bye.” “By-and-bye,” the soldier said–“by-and-bye,After I have fought and bled,I shall go home from the wars,Crowned with glory, seamed with scars.Joy will flash from […]

Foes

Story type: Poetry

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Thank Fate for foes! I hold mine dearAs valued friends. He cannot knowThe zest of life who runneth hereHis earthly race without a foe. I saw a prize. “Run,” cried my friend;“‘Tis thine to claim without a doubt.”But ere I half-way reached the end,I felt my strength was giving out. My foe looked on the […]

Over The May Hill

Story type: Poetry

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All through the night time, and all through the day time,Dreading the morning and dreading the night,Nearer and nearer we drift to the May timeSeason of beauty and season of blight,Leaves on the linden, and sun on the meadow,Green in the garden, and bloom everywhere,Gloom in my heart, and a terrible shadow,Walks by me, sits […]

Two Sat Down

Story type: Poetry

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Two sat down in the morning time,One to sing and one to spin.All men listened the song sublime –But no one listened the dull wheel’s din. The singer sat in a pleasant nook,And sang of a life that was fair and sweet,While the spinner sat with a steadfast look,Busily plying her hands and feet. The […]

Bound And Free

Story type: Poetry

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Come to me, Love! Come on the wings of the wind!Fly as the ring-dove would fly to his mate!Leave all your cares and your sorrows behind!Leave all the fears of your future to Fate!Come! and our skies shall be glad with the goldThat paled into gray when you parted from me.Come! but remember that, just […]

Is It Done?

Story type: Poetry

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It is done! in the fire’s fitful flashes,The last line has withered and curled.In a tiny white heap of dead ashesLie buried the hopes of your world.There were mad foolish vows in each letter,It is well they have shrivelled and burned,And the ring! oh, the ring was a fetter,It was better removed and returned. But […]

Slipping Away

Story type: Poetry

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Slipping away–slipping away!Out of our brief year slips the May;And Winter lingers, and Summer flies;And Sorrow abideth, and Pleasure dies;And the days are short, and the nights are long;And little is right, and much is wrong. Slipping away is the Summer time;It has lost its rhythm and lilting rhyme –For the grace goes out of […]

A Leaf

Story type: Poetry

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Somebody said, in the crowd, last eve,That you were married, or soon to be.I have not thought of you, I believe,Since last we parted. Let me see:Five long Summers have passed since then –Each has been pleasant in its own way –And you are but one of a dozen menWho have played the suitor a […]

Poems Of The Week

Story type: Poetry

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SUNDAY Lie still and rest, in that serene reposeThat on this holy morning comes to thoseWho have been burdened with the cares which makeThe sad heart weary and the tired head ache.Lie still and rest –God’s day of all is best. MONDAY Awake! arise! Cast off thy drowsy dreams!Red in the East, behold the Morning […]

Aesthetic

Story type: Poetry

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In a garb that was guiltless of coloursShe stood, with a dull, listless air –A creature of dumps and of dolours,But most undeniably fair. The folds of her garment fell round her,Revealing the curve of each limb;Well proportioned and graceful I found her,Although quite alarmingly slim. From the hem of her robe peeped one sandal […]

Fleeing Away

Story type: Poetry

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My thoughts soar not as they ought to soar,Higher and higher on soul-lent wings;But ever and often, and more and moreThey are dragged down earthward by little things,By little troubles and little needs,As a lark might be tangled among the weeds. My purpose is not what it ought to be,Steady and fixed, like a star […]

Little Blue Hood

Story type: Poetry

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Every morning and every nightThere passes our window near the street,A little girl with an eye so bright,And a cheek so round and a lip so sweet!The daintiest, jauntiest little missThat ever any one longed to kiss, She is neat as wax, and fresh to view,And her look is wholesome, and clean, and good.Whatever her […]

Toward even, when the day leans downTo kiss the upturned face of night,Out just beyond the loud-voiced townI know a spot of calm delight.Like crimson arrows from a quiverThe red rays pierce the waters flowing,While we go dreaming, singing, rowingTo Leudemanns-on-the-River. The hills, like some glad mocking-bird,Send back our laughter and our singing,While faint–and yet […]

No Spring

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Up from the South come the birds that were banished,Frightened away by the presence of frost.Back to the vale comes the verdure that vanished,Back to the forest the leaves that were lost.Over the hillside the carpet of splendour,Folded through Winter, Spring spreads down again;Along the horizon, the tints that were tender,Lost hues of Summer-time, burn […]

A Girl’s Faith

Story type: Poetry

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Across the miles that stretch between,Through days of gloom or glad sunlight,There shines a face I have not seenWhich yet doth make my world more bright. He may be near, he may be far,Or near or far I cannot see,But faithful as the morning starHe yet shall rise and come to me. What though fate […]

One leaned on velvet cushions like a queen –To see him pass, the hero of an hour,Whom men called great. She bowed with languid mien,And smiled, and blushed, and knew her beauty’s power. One trailed her tinselled garments through the street,And thrust aside the crowd, and found a placeSo near, the blooded courser’s prancing feetCast […]

Guerdon

Story type: Poetry

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Upon the white cheek of the Cherub YearI saw a tear.Alas! I murmured, that the Year should borrowSo soon a sorrow.Just then the sunlight fell with sudden flame:The tear becameA wondrous diamond sparkling in the light –A beauteous sight. Upon my soul there fell such woeful loss,I said, “The CrossIs grievous for a life as […]

Snowed Under

Story type: Poetry

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Of a thousand things that the Year snowed under –The busy Old Year who has gone away –How many will rise in the Spring, I wonder,Brought to life by the sun of May?Will the rose-tree branches, so wholly hiddenThat never a rose-tree seems to be,At the sweet Spring’s call come forth unbidden,And bud in beauty, […]

I. Though there was wrong on both sides, they never would have separated had it not been for the old man. He was Ben’s father, and Ben was an only child–a spoiled, selfish, high-tempered lad, who had grown up with the idea that his father, Anson English, or the “old man,” as his dutiful son […]