Ashes to ashes, dust unto dust,What of his loving, what of his lust?What of his passion, what of his pain?What of his poverty, what of his pride?Earth, the great mother, has called him again:Deeply he sleeps, the world’s verdict defied.Shall he be tried again? Shall he go free?Who shall the court convene? Where shall it […]

Ah, Nora, my Nora, the light fades away,While Night like a spirit steals up o’er the hills;The thrush from his tree where he chanted all day,No longer his music in ecstasy trills.Then, Nora, be near me; thy presence doth cheer me,Thine eye hath a gleam that is truer than gold. I cannot but love thee; […]

Yes, my ha’t ‘s ez ha’d ez stone–Go ‘way, Sam, an’ lemme ‘lone.No; I ain’t gwine change my min’–Ain’t gwine ma’y you–nuffin’ de kin’. Phiny loves you true an’ deah?Go ma’y Phiny; whut I keer?Oh, you need n’t mou’n an’ cry–I don’t keer how soon you die. Got a present! Whut you got?Somef’n fu’ de […]

He had his dream, and all through life,Worked up to it through toil and strife.Afloat fore’er before his eyes,It colored for him all his skies:The storm-cloud darkAbove his bark,The calm and listless vault of blueTook on its hopeful hue,It tinctured every passing beam–He had his dream. He labored hard and failed at last,His sails too […]

Come when the nights are bright with starsOr when the moon is mellow;Come when the sun his golden barsDrops on the hay-field yellow.Come in the twilight soft and gray,Come in the night or come in the day,Come, O love, whene’er you may,And you are welcome, welcome. You are sweet, O Love, dear Love,You are soft […]

When labor is light and the morning is fair,I find it a pleasure beyond all compareTo hitch up my nag and go hurrying downAnd take Katie May for a ride into town;For bumpety-bump goes the wagon,But tra-la-la-la our lay.There’s joy in a song as we rattle alongIn the light of the glorious day. A coach […]

I stood by the shore at the death of day,As the sun sank flaming red;And the face of the waters that spread awayWas as gray as the face of the dead. And I heard the cry of the wanton seaAnd the moan of the wailing wind;For love’s sweet pain in his heart had he,But the […]

What says the wind to the waving trees?What says the wave to the river?What means the sigh in the passing breeze?Why do the rushes quiver?Have you not heard the fainting cryOf the flowers that said “Good-bye, good-bye”? List how the gray dove moans and grievesUnder the woodland cover;List to the drift of the falling leaves,List […]

Oh, de grubbin’-hoe ‘s a-rustin’ in de co’nah,An’ de plow ‘s a-tumblin’ down in de fiel’,While de whippo’will ‘s a-wailin’ lak a mou’nahWhen his stubbo’n hea’t is tryin’ ha’d to yiel’. In de furrers whah de co’n was allus wavin’,Now de weeds is growin’ green an’ rank an’ tall;An’ de swallers roun’ de whole place […]

The little bird sits in the nest and singsA shy, soft song to the morning light;And it flutters a little and prunes its wings.The song is halting and poor and brief,And the fluttering wings scarce stir a leaf;But the note is a prelude to sweeter things,And the busy bill and the flutter slightAre proving the […]

When storms ariseAnd dark’ning skiesAbout me threat’ning lower,To thee, O Lord, I raise mine eyes,To thee my tortured spirit fliesFor solace in that hour. The mighty armWill let no harmCome near me nor befall me;Thy voice shall quiet my alarm,When life’s great battle waxeth warm–No foeman shall appall me. Upon thy breastSecure I rest,From sorrow […]

The air is dark, the sky is gray,The misty shadows come and go,And here within my dusky roomEach chair looks ghostly in the gloom.Outside the rain falls cold and slow–Half-stinging drops, half-blinding spray. Each slightest sound is magnified,For drowsy quiet holds her reign;The burnt stick in the fireplace breaks,The nodding cat with start awakes,And then […]

An angel, robed in spotless white,Bent down and kissed the sleeping Night.Night woke to blush; the sprite was gone.Men saw the blush and called it Dawn.

We wear the mask that grins and lies,It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,–This debt we pay to human guile;With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,And mouth with myriad subtleties. Why should the world be over-wise,In counting all our tears and sighs?Nay, let them only see us, whileWe wear the mask. We smile, but, […]

If life were but a dream, my Love,And death the waking time;If day had not a beam, my Love,And night had not a rhyme,–A barren, barren world were thisWithout one saving gleam;I ‘d only ask that with a kissYou ‘d wake me from the dream. If dreaming were the sum of days,And loving were the […]

What if the wind do howl without,And turn the creaking weather-vane;What if the arrows of the rainDo beat against the window-pane?Art thou not armored strong and fastAgainst the sallies of the blast?Art thou not sheltered safe and wellAgainst the flood’s insistent swell? What boots it, that thou stand’st alone,And laughest in the battle’s faceWhen all […]

Phyllis, ah, Phyllis, my life is a gray day,Few are my years, but my griefs are not few,Ever to youth should each day be a May-day,Warm wind and rose-breath and diamonded dew–Phyllis, ah, Phyllis, my life is a gray day. Oh for the sunlight that shines on a May-day!Only the cloud hangeth over my life.Love […]

Uncle John, he makes me tired;Thinks ‘at he’s jest so all-firedSmart, ‘at he kin pick up, so,Ever’thing he wants to know.Tried to ketch me up last night,But you bet I would n’t bite.I jest kep’ the smoothes’ face,But I led him sich a chase,Could n’t corner me, you bet–I skipped all the traps he set.Makin’ […]

The cloud looked in at the window,And said to the day, “Be dark!”And the roguish rain tapped hard on the pane,To stifle the song of the lark. The wind sprang up in the tree topsAnd shrieked with a voice of death,But the rough-voiced breeze, that shook the trees,Was touched with a violet’s breath.

As lone I sat one summer’s day,With mien dejected, Love came by;His face distraught, his locks astray,So slow his gait, so sad his eye,I hailed him with a pitying cry: “Pray, Love, what has disturbed thee so?”Said I, amazed. “Thou seem’st bereft;And see thy quiver hanging low,–What, not a single arrow left?Pray, who is guilty […]