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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

“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 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 […]

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 […]

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!”

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 […]