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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

(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 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 […]