September 9, 1850 ANGEL of Death! extend thy silent reign! Stretch thy dark sceptre o’er this new domain No sable car along the winding road Has borne to earth its unresisting load; No sudden mound has risen yet to show Where the pale slumberer folds his arms below; No marble gleams to bid his memory […]

THE seed that wasteful autumn cast To waver on its stormy blast, Long o’er the wintry desert tost, Its living germ has never lost. Dropped by the weary tempest’s wing, It feels the kindling ray of spring, And, starting from its dream of death, Pours on the air its perfumed breath. So, parted by the […]

SHINE soft, ye trembling tears of light That strew the mourning skies; Hushed in the silent dews of night The harp of Erin lies. What though her thousand years have past Of poets, saints, and kings,– Her echoes only hear the last That swept those golden strings. Fling o’er his mound, ye star-lit bowers, The […]

COME, spread your wings, as I spread mine, And leave the crowded hall For where the eyes of twilight shine O’er evening’s western wall. These are the pleasant Berkshire hills, Each with its leafy crown; Hark! from their sides a thousand rills Come singing sweetly down. A thousand rills; they leap and shine, Strained through […]

“Purpureos spargam flores.” THE wreath that star-crowned Shelley gave Is lying on thy Roman grave, Yet on its turf young April sets Her store of slender violets; Though all the Gods their garlands shower, I too may bring one purple flower. Alas! what blossom shall I bring, That opens in my Northern spring? The garden […]

As the voice of the watch to the mariner’s dream, As the footstep of Spring on the ice-girdled stream, There comes a soft footstep, a whisper, to me,– The vision is over,–the rivulet free. We have trod from the threshold of turbulent March, Till the green scarf of April is hung on the larch, And […]

ONE broad, white sail in Spezzia’s treacherous bay On comes the blast; too daring bark, beware I The cloud has clasped her; to! it melts away; The wide, waste waters, but no sail is there. Morning: a woman looking on the sea; Midnight: with lamps the long veranda burns; Come, wandering sail, they watch, they […]

MEETING OF THE BERKSHIRE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, AT STOCKBRIDGE, SEPTEMBER 13,1854 SCARCE could the parting ocean close, Seamed by the Mayflower’s cleaving bow, When o’er the rugged desert rose The waves that tracked the Pilgrim’s plough. Then sprang from many a rock-strewn field The rippling grass, the nodding grain, Such growths as English meadows yield To […]

AFTER A LECTURE AT ALBANY ‘T WAS a vision of childhood that came with its dawn, Ere the curtain that covered life’s day-star was drawn; The nurse told the tale when the shadows grew long, And the mother’s soft lullaby breathed it in song. “There flows a fair stream by the hills of the West,”– […]

FAREWELL, for the bark has her breast to the tide, And the rough arms of Ocean are stretched for his bride; The winds from the mountain stream over the bay; One clasp of the hand, then away and away! I see the tall mast as it rocks by the shore; The sun is declining, I […]

NEW YORK, DECEMBER 22, 1855 NEW ENGLAND, we love thee; no time can erase From the hearts of thy children the smile on thy face. ‘T is the mother’s fond look of affection and pride, As she gives her fair son to the arms of his bride. His bride may be fresher in beauty’s young […]

CELEBRATION OF THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, FEBRUARY 22, 1856 WELCOME to the day returning, Dearer still as ages flow, While the torch of Faith is burning, Long as Freedom’s altars glow! See the hero whom it gave us Slumbering on a mother’s breast; For the arm he stretched to save us, Be its morn forever […]

THE mountains glitter in the snow A thousand leagues asunder; Yet here, amid the banquet’s glow, I hear their voice of thunder; Each giant’s ice-bound goblet clinks; A flowing stream is summoned; Wachusett to Ben Nevis drinks; Monadnock to Ben Lomond! Though years have clipped the eagle’s plume That crowned the chieftain’s bonnet, The sun […]

WE count the broken lyres that rest Where the sweet wailing singers slumber, But o’er their silent sister’s breast The wild-flowers who will stoop to number? A few can touch the magic string, And noisy Fame is proud to win them:– Alas for those that never sing, But die with all their music in them! […]

JANUARY 18, 1856 WHEN life hath run its largest round Of toil and triumph, joy and woe, How brief a storied page is found To compass all its outward show! The world-tried sailor tires and droops; His flag is rent, his keel forgot; His farthest voyages seem but loops That float from life’s entangled knot. […]

NOT charity we ask, Nor yet thy gift refuse; Please thy light fancy with the easy task Only to look and choose. The little-heeded toy That wins thy treasured gold May be the dearest memory, holiest joy, Of coming years untold. Heaven rains on every heart, But there its showers divide, The drops of mercy […]

BEHOLD the rocky wall That down its sloping sides Pours the swift rain-drops, blending, as they fall, In rushing river-tides! Yon stream, whose sources run Turned by a pebble’s edge, Is Athabasca, rolling toward the sun Through the cleft mountain-ledge. The slender rill had strayed, But for the slanting stone, To evening’s ocean, with the […]

NOT in the world of light alone, Where God has built his blazing throne, Nor yet alone in earth below, With belted seas that come and go, And endless isles of sunlit green, Is all thy Maker’s glory seen: Look in upon thy wondrous frame,– Eternal wisdom still the same! The smooth, soft air with […]

I MAY not rightly call thy name,– Alas! thy forehead never knew The kiss that happier children claim, Nor glistened with baptismal dew. Daughter of want and wrong and woe, I saw thee with thy sister-band, Snatched from the whirlpool’s narrowing flow By Mercy’s strong yet trembling hand. “Avis!”–With Saxon eye and cheek, At once […]

WHO is the shepherd sent to lead, Through pastures green, the Master’s sheep? What guileless “Israelite indeed” The folded flock may watch and keep? He who with manliest spirit joins The heart of gentlest human mould, With burning light and girded loins, To guide the flock, or watch the fold; True to all Truth the […]