YES, we knew we must lose him,–though friendship may claim To blend her green leaves with the laurels of fame; Though fondly, at parting, we call him our own, ‘T is the whisper of love when the bugle has blown. As the rider that rests with the spur on his heel, As the guardsman that […]

O MY lost beauty!–hast thou folded quite Thy wings of morning light Beyond those iron gates Where Life crowds hurrying to the haggard Fates, And Age upon his mound of ashes waits To chill our fiery dreams, Hot from the heart of youth plunged in his icy streams? Leave me not fading in these weeds […]

INTRA MUROS THE sunbeams, lost for half a year, Slant through my pane their morning rays; For dry northwesters cold and clear, The east blows in its thin blue haze. And first the snowdrop’s bells are seen, Then close against the sheltering wall The tulip’s horn of dusky green, The peony’s dark unfolding ball. The […]

THAT age was older once than now, In spite of locks untimely shed, Or silvered on the youthful brow; That babes make love and children wed. That sunshine had a heavenly glow, Which faded with those “good old days” When winters came with deeper snow, And autumns with a softer haze. That–mother, sister, wife, or […]

A PROLOGUE? Well, of course the ladies know,– I have my doubts. No matter,–here we go! What is a Prologue? Let our Tutor teach: Pro means beforehand; logos stands for speech. ‘T is like the harper’s prelude on the strings, The prima donna’s courtesy ere she sings; Prologues in metre are to other pros As […]

WHEN Eve had led her lord away, And Cain had killed his brother, The stars and flowers, the poets say, Agreed with one another. To cheat the cunning tempter’s art, And teach the race its duty, By keeping on its wicked heart Their eyes of light and beauty. A million sleepless lids, they say, Will […]

WHEN legislators keep the law, When banks dispense with bolts and looks, When berries–whortle, rasp, and straw– Grow bigger downwards through the box,– When he that selleth house or land Shows leak in roof or flaw in right,– When haberdashers choose the stand Whose window hath the broadest light,– When preachers tell us all they […]

BRAVE singer of the coming time, Sweet minstrel of the joyous present, Crowned with the noblest wreath of rhyme, The holly-leaf of Ayrshire’s peasant, Good by! Good by!–Our hearts and hands, Our lips in honest Saxon phrases, Cry, God be with him, till he stands His feet among the English daisies! ‘T is here we […]

AN UNPUBLISHED POEM, BY MY LATE LATIN TUTOR IN candent ire the solar splendor flames; The foles, langueseent, pend from arid rames; His humid front the Give, anheling, wipes, And dreams of erring on ventiferous riper. How dulce to vive occult to mortal eyes, Dorm on the herb with none to supervise, Carp the suave […]

THOUGH young no more, we still would dream Of beauty’s dear deluding wiles; The leagues of life to graybeards seem Shorter than boyhood’s lingering miles. Who knows a woman’s wild caprice? ‘It played with Goethe’s silvered hair, And many a Holy Father’s “niece” Has softly smoothed the papal chair. When sixty bids us sigh in […]

A MATHEMATICAL STORY FACTS respecting an old arm-chair. At Cambridge. Is kept in the College there. Seems but little the worse for wear. That ‘s remarkable when I say It was old in President Holyoke’s day. (One of his boys, perhaps you know, Died, at one hundred, years ago.) He took lodgings for rain or […]

WITH SLIGHT ALTERATIONS BY A TEETOTALER–(…) COME! fill a fresh bumper, for why should we go While the nectar (logwood) still reddens our cups as they flow? Pour out the rich juices (decoction) still bright with the sun, Till o’er the brimmed crystal the rubies (dye-stuff) shall run. The purple-globed clusters (half-ripened apples) their life-dews […]

LORD of all being! throned afar, Thy glory flames from sun and star; Centre and soul of every sphere, Yet to each loving heart how near! Sun of our life, thy quickening ray Sheds on our path the glow of day; Star of our hope, thy softened light Cheers the long watches of the night. […]

O Love Divine, that stooped to share Our sharpest pang, our bitterest tear, On Thee we cast each earth-born care, We smile at pain while Thou art near! Though long the weary way we tread, And sorrow crown each lingering year, No path we shun, no darkness dread, Our hearts still whispering, Thou art near! […]

HER hands are cold; her face is white; No more her pulses come and go; Her eyes are shut to life and light;– Fold the white vesture, snow on snow, And lay her where the violets blow. But not beneath a graven stone, To plead for tears with alien eyes; A slender cross of wood […]

I PRAY thee by the soul of her that bore thee, By thine own sister’s spirit I implore thee, Deal gently with the leaves that lie before thee! For Iris had no mother to infold her, Nor ever leaned upon a sister’s shoulder, Telling the twilight thoughts that Nature told her. She had not learned […]

AH, here it is! the sliding rail That marks the old remembered spot,– The gap that struck our school-boy trail,– The crooked path across the lot. It left the road by school and church, A pencilled shadow, nothing more, That parted from the silver-birch And ended at the farm-house door. No line or compass traced […]

HIS TEMPTATION No fear lest praise should make us proud! We know how cheaply that is won; The idle homage of the crowd Is proof of tasks as idly done. A surface-smile may pay the toil That follows still the conquering Right, With soft, white hands to dress the spoil That sun-browned valor clutched in […]

HE sleeps not here; in hope and prayer His wandering flock had gone before, But he, the shepherd, might not share Their sorrows on the wintry shore. Before the Speedwell’s anchor swung, Ere yet the Mayflower’s sail was spread, While round his feet the Pilgrims clung, The pastor spake, and thus he said:– “Men, brethren, […]

HERE! sweep these foolish leaves away, I will not crush my brains to-day! Look! are the southern curtains drawn? Fetch me a fan, and so begone! Not that,–the palm-tree’s rustling leaf Brought from a parching coral-reef Its breath is heated;–I would swing The broad gray plumes,–the eagle’s wing. I hate these roses’ feverish blood! Pluck […]