Though the winds be dank,And the sky be sober,And the grieving DayIn a mantle grayHath let her waiting maiden robe her,–All the fields alongI can hear the songOf the meadow lark,As she flits and flutters,And laughs at the thunder when it mutters.O happy bird, of heart most gayTo sing when skies are gray! When the […]

Oh, I am hurt to death, my Love;The shafts of Fate have pierced my striving heart,And I am sick and weary ofThe endless pain and smart.My soul is weary of the strife,And chafes at life, and chafes at life. Time mocks me with fair promises;A blooming future grows a barren past,Like rain my fair full-blossomed […]

Breezes blowin’ middlin’ brisk,Snow-flakes thro’ the air a-whisk,Fallin’ kind o’ soft an’ light,Not enough to make things white,But jest sorter siftin’ downSo ‘s to cover up the brownOf the dark world’s rugged ways‘N’ make things look like holidays.Not smoothed over, but jest specked,Sorter strainin’ fur effect,An’ not quite a-gittin’ throughWhat it started in to do.Mercy […]

Why fades a dream?An iridescent rayFlecked in between the trystOf night and day.Why fades a dream?–Of consciousness the shadeWrought out by lack of light and madeUpon life’s stream.Why fades a dream? That thought may thrive,So fades the fleshless dream;Lest men should learn to trustThe things that seem.So fades a dream,That living thought may growAnd like […]

My soul, lost in the music’s mist,Roamed, rapt, ‘neath skies of amethyst.The cheerless streets grew summer meads,The Son of Phoebus spurred his steeds,And, wand’ring down the mazy tune,December lost its way in June,While from a verdant vale I heardThe piping of a love-lorn bird. A something in the tender strainRevived an old, long-conquered pain,And as […]

G’way an’ quit dat noise, Miss Lucy–Put dat music book away;What’s de use to keep on tryin’?Ef you practise twell you ‘re gray,You cain’t sta’t no notes a-flyin’Lak de ones dat rants and ringsF’om de kitchen to be big woodsWhen Malindy sings. You ain’t got de nachel o’gansFu’ to make de soun’ come right,You ain’t […]

God has his plans, and what if weWith our sight be too blind to seeTheir full fruition; cannot he,Who made it, solve the mystery?One whom we loved has fall’n asleep,Not died; although her calm be deep,Some new, unknown, and strange surpriseIn Heaven holds enrapt her eyes. And can you blame her that her gazeIs turned […]

Hello, ole man, you ‘re a-gittin’ gray,An’ it beats ole Ned to see the way‘At the crow’s feet’s a-getherin’ aroun’ yore eyes;Tho’ it ought n’t to cause me no su’prise,Fur there ‘s many a sun ‘at you ‘ve seen riseAn’ many a one you ‘ve seen go downSence yore step was light an’ yore hair […]

Mother ‘s gone a-visitin’ to spend a month er two,An’, oh, the house is lonesome ez a nest whose birds has flewTo other trees to build ag’in; the rooms seem jest so bareThat the echoes run like sperrits from the kitchen to the stair.The shetters flap more lazy-like ‘n what they used to do,Sence mother […]

Night is for sorrow and dawn is for joy,Chasing the troubles that fret and annoy;Darkness for sighing and daylight for song,–Cheery and chaste the strain, heartfelt and strong.All the night through, though I moan in the dark,I wake in the morning to sing with the lark. Deep in the midnight the rain whips the leaves,Softly […]

Over the hills and the valleys of dreamingSlowly I take my way.Life is the night with its dream-visions teeming,Death is the waking at day. Down thro’ the dales and the bowers of loving,Singing, I roam afar.Daytime or night-time, I constantly roving,–Dearest one, thou art my star.

I am the mother of sorrows,I am the ender of grief;I am the bud and the blossom,I am the late-falling leaf. I am thy priest and thy poet,I am thy serf and thy king;I cure the tears of the heartsick,When I come near they shall sing. White are my hands as the snowdrop;Swart are my […]

Love me. I care not what the circling yearsTo me may do.If, but in spite of time and tears,You prove but true. Love me–albeit grief shall dim mine eyes,And tears bedew,I shall not e’en complain, for then my skiesShall still be blue. Love me, and though the winter snow shall pile,And leave me chill,Thy passion’s […]

Bring me the livery of no other man.I am my own to robe me at my pleasure.Accepted rules to me disclose no treasure:What is the chief who shall my garments plan?No garb conventional but I ‘ll attack it.(Come, why not don my spangled jacket?)

Oh for the breath of the briny deep,And the tug of the bellying sail,With the sea-gull’s cry across the skyAnd a passing boatman’s hail.For, be she fierce or be she gay,The sea is a famous friend alway. Ho! for the plains where the dolphins play,And the bend of the mast and spars,And a fight at […]

The smell of the sea in my nostrils,The sound of the sea in mine ears;The touch of the spray on my burning face,Like the mist of reluctant tears. The blue of the sky above me,The green of the waves beneath;The sun flashing down on a gray-white sailLike a scimitar from its sheath. And ever the […]

Oh, summer has clothed the earthIn a cloak from the loom of the sun!And a mantle, too, of the skies’ soft blue,And a belt where the rivers run. And now for the kiss of the wind,And the touch of the air’s soft hands,With the rest from strife and the heat of life,With the freedom of […]

I have no fancy for that ancient cantThat makes us masters of our destinies,And not our lives, to hold or give them upAs will directs; I cannot, will not thinkThat men, the subtle worms, who plot and planAnd scheme and calculate with such shrewd wit,Are such great blund’ring fools as not to knowWhen they have […]

The snow lies deep upon the ground,And winter’s brightness all aroundDecks bravely out the forest sere,With jewels of the brave old year.The coasting crowd upon the hillWith some new spirit seems to thrill;And all the temple bells achime.Ring out the glee of Christmas time. In happy homes the brown oak-boughVies with the red-gemmed holly now;And […]

Pray, what can dreams availTo make love or to mar?The child within the cradle railLies dreaming of the star.But is the star by this beguiledTo leave its place and seek the child? The poor plucked rose within its glassStill dreameth of the bee;But, tho’ the lagging moments pass,Her Love she may not see.If dream of […]