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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]