1872 ONE memory trembles on our lips; It throbs in every breast; In tear-dimmed eyes, in mirth’s eclipse, The shadow stands confessed. O silent voice, that cheered so long Our manhood’s marching day, Without thy breath of heavenly song, How weary seems the way! Vain every pictured phrase to tell Our sorrowing heart’s desire,– The […]

1871 PRECISELY. I see it. You all want to say That a tear is too sad and a laugh is too gay; You could stand a faint smile, you could manage a sigh, But you value your ribs, and you don’t want to cry. And why at our feast of the clasping of hands Need […]

1874 OLD TIME, in whose bank we deposit our notes, Is a miser who always wants guineas for groats; He keeps all his customers still in arrears By lending them minutes and charging them years. The twelvemonth rolls round and we never forget On the counter before us to pay him our debt. We reckon […]

1873 I HAVE come with my verses–I think I may claim It is not the first time I have tried on the same. They were puckered in rhyme, they were wrinkled in wit; But your hearts were so large that they made them a fit. I have come–not to tease you with more of my […]

1876 “Dumque virent genua Et decet, obducta solvatur fonte senectus.” THE muse of boyhood’s fervid hour Grows tame as skies get chill and hazy; Where once she sought a passion-flower, She only hopes to find a daisy. Well, who the changing world bewails? Who asks to have it stay unaltered? Shall grown-up kittens chase their […]

1875 IT is a pity and a shame–alas! alas! I know it is, To tread the trodden grapes again, but so it has been, so it is; The purple vintage long is past, with ripened clusters bursting so They filled the wine-vats to the brim,-‘t is strange you will be thirsting so! Too well our […]

1878 YES! the vacant chairs tell sadly we are going, going fast, And the thought comes strangely o’er me, who will live to be the last? When the twentieth century’s sunbeams climb the far-off eastern hill, With his ninety winters burdened, will he greet the morning still? Will he stand with Harvard’s nurslings when they […]

1877 I LIKE, at times, to hear the steeples’ chimes With sober thoughts impressively that mingle; But sometimes, too, I rather like–don’t you?– To hear the music of the sleigh bells’ jingle. I like full well the deep resounding swell Of mighty symphonies with chords inwoven; But sometimes, too, a song of Burns–don’t you? After […]

1880 “How many have gone?” was the question of old Ere Time our bright ring of its jewels bereft; Alas! for too often the death-bell has tolled, And the question we ask is, “How many are left?” Bright sparkled the wine; there were fifty that quaffed; For a decade had slipped and had taken but […]

A MODERNIZED VERSION 1879 I DON’T think I feel much older; I’m aware I’m rather gray, But so are many young folks; I meet ’em every day. I confess I ‘m more particular in what I eat and drink, But one’s taste improves with culture; that is all it means, I think. Can you read […]

1882 NOT bed-time yet! The night-winds blow, The stars are out,–full well we know The nurse is on the stair, With hand of ice and cheek of snow, And frozen lips that whisper low, “Come, children, it is time to go My peaceful couch to share.” No years a wakeful heart can tire; Not bed-time […]

ASTRONOMER, MATHEMATICIAN. 1809-1890 1881 FOR him the Architect of all Unroofed our planet’s starlit hall; Through voids unknown to worlds unseen His clearer vision rose serene. With us on earth he walked by day, His midnight path how far away! We knew him not so well who knew The patient eyes his soul looked through; […]

1883 COME, heap the fagots! Ere we go Again the cheerful hearth shall glow; We ‘ll have another blaze, my boys! When clouds are black and snows are white, Then Christmas logs lend ruddy light They stole from summer days, my boys, They stole from summer days. And let the Loving-Cup go round, The Cup […]

1885 THE minstrel of the classic lay Of love and wine who sings Still found the fingers run astray That touched the rebel strings. Of Cadmus he would fain have sung, Of Atreus and his line; But all the jocund echoes rung With songs of love and wine. Ah, brothers! I would fain have caught […]

1884 SHE gathered at her slender waist The beauteous robe she wore; Its folds a golden belt embraced, One rose-hued gem it bore. The girdle shrank; its lessening round Still kept the shining gem, But now her flowing locks it bound, A lustrous diadem. And narrower still the circlet grew; Behold! a glittering band, Its […]

1887 I STOOD On Sarum’s treeless plain, The waste that careless Nature owns; Lone tenants of her bleak domain, Loomed huge and gray the Druid stones. Upheaved in many a billowy mound The sea-like, naked turf arose, Where wandering flocks went nibbling round The mingled graves of friends and foes. The Briton, Roman, Saxon, Dane, […]

THIRTY-SIXTH VARIATION 1886 THIS shred of song you bid me bring Is snatched from fancy’s embers; Ah, when the lips forget to sing, The faithful heart remembers! Too swift the wings of envious Time To wait for dallying phrases, Or woven strands of labored rhyme To thread their cunning mazes. A word, a sigh, and […]

1888 TIME is a thief who leaves his tools behind him; He comes by night, he vanishes at dawn; We track his footsteps, but we never find him Strong locks are broken, massive bolts are drawn, And all around are left the bars and borers, The splitting wedges and the prying keys, Such aids as […]

As I look from the isle, o’er its billows of green, To the billows of foam-crested blue, Yon bark, that afar in the distance is seen, Half dreaming, my eyes will pursue Now dark in the shadow, she scatters the spray As the chaff in the stroke of the flail; Now white as the sea-gull, […]

1889 THE Play is over. While the light Yet lingers in the darkening hall, I come to say a last Good-night Before the final Exeunt all. We gathered once, a joyous throng: The jovial toasts went gayly round; With jest, and laugh, and shout, and song, We made the floors and walls resound. We come […]