Oh, the day has set me dreamingIn a strange, half solemn wayOf the feelings I experiencedOn another long past day,–Of the way my heart made musicWhen the buds began to blow,And o’ little Lucy LandmanWhom I loved long years ago. It ‘s in spring, the poet tells us,That we turn to thoughts of love,And our […]

She told her beads with down-cast eyes,Within the ancient chapel dim;And ever as her fingers slimSlipt o’er th’ insensate ivories,My rapt soul followed, spaniel-wise.Ah, many were the beads she wore;But as she told them o’er and o’er,They did not number all my sighs.My heart was filled with unvoiced criesAnd prayers and pleadings unexpressed;But while I […]

The poor man went to the rich man’s doors,“I come as Lazarus came,” he said.The rich man turned with humble head,–“I will send my dogs to lick your sores!”

Aye, lay him in his grave, the old dead year!His life is lived–fulfilled his destiny.Have you for him no sad, regretful tearTo drop beside the cold, unfollowed bier?Can you not pay the tribute of a sigh? Was he not kind to you, this dead old year?Did he not give enough of earthly store?Enough of love, […]

There is a heaven, for ever, day by day,The upward longing of my soul doth tell me so.There is a hell, I ‘m quite as sure; for pray,If there were not, where would my neighbours go?

In the heavy earth the minerToiled and laboured day by day,Wrenching from the miser mountainBrilliant treasure where it lay.And the artist worn and wearyWrought with labour manifoldThat the king might drink his nectarFrom a goblet made of gold. On the prince’s groaning tableMid the silver gleaming brightMirroring the happy facesGiving back the flaming light,Shine the […]

One night in my room, still and beamless,With will and with thought in eclipse,I rested in sleep that was dreamless;When softly there fell on my lips A touch, as of lips that were pressingMine own with the message of bliss–A sudden, soft, fleeting caressing,A breath like a maiden’s first kiss. I woke-and the scoffer may […]

In the silence of my heart,I will spend an hour with thee,When my love shall rend apartAll the veil of mystery: All that dim and misty veilThat shut in between our soulsWhen Death cried, “Ho, maiden, hail!”And your barque sped on the shoals. On the shoals? Nay, wrongly said.On the breeze of Death that sweepsFar […]

Thou art my lute, by thee I sing,–My being is attuned to thee.Thou settest all my words a-wing,And meltest me to melody. Thou art my life, by thee I live,From thee proceed the joys I know;Sweetheart, thy hand has power to giveThe meed of love–the cup of woe. Thou art my love, by thee I […]

Our good knight, Ted, girds his broadsword on(And he wields it well, I ween);He ‘s on his steed, and away has goneTo the fight for king and queen.What tho’ no edge the broadsword hath?What tho’ the blade be made of lath?‘T is a valiant handThat wields the brand,So, foeman, clear the path! He prances off […]

In this old garden, fair, I walk to-dayHeart-charmed with all the beauty of the scene:The rich, luxuriant grasses’ cooling green,The wall’s environ, ivy-decked and gray,The waving branches with the wind at play,The slight and tremulous blooms that show between,Sweet all: and yet my yearning heart doth leanToward Love’s Egyptian fleshpots far away. Beside the wall, […]

When all is done, and my last word is said,And ye who loved me murmur, “He is dead,”Let no one weep, for fear that I should know,And sorrow too that ye should sorrow so. When all is done and in the oozing clay,Ye lay this cast-off hull of mine away,Pray not for me, for, after […]

Back to the breast of thy mother,Child of the earth!E’en her caress can not smotherWhat thou hast done.Follow the trail of the westering sunOver the earth.Thy light and his were as one–Sun, in thy worth.Unto a nation whose sky was as night,Camest thou, holily, bearing thy light:And the dawn came,In it thy fameFlashed up in […]

Round the wide earth, from the red field your valour has won,Blown with the breath of the far-speaking gun,Goes the word.Bravely you spoke through the battle cloud heavy and dun.Tossed though the speech toward the mist-hidden sun,The world heard. Hell would have shrunk from you seeking it fresh from the fray,Grim with the dust of […]

A little dreaming by the way,A little toiling day by day;A little pain, a little strife,A little joy,–and that is life. A little short-lived summer’s morn,When joy seems all so newly born,When one day’s sky is blue above,And one bird sings,–and that is love. A little sickening of the years,The tribute of a few hot […]

“I am but clay,” the sinner plead,Who fed each vain desire.“Not only clay,” another said,“But worse, for thou art mire.”

How’s a man to write a sonnet, can you tell,–How’s he going to weave the dim, poetic spell,–When a-toddling on the floorIs the muse he must adore,And this muse he loves, not wisely, but too well? Now, to write a sonnet, every one allows,One must always be as quiet as a mouse;But to write one […]

Thy tones are silver melted into sound,And as I dreamI see no walls around,But seem to hearA gondolierSing sweetly down some slow Venetian stream. Italian skies–that I have never seen–I see above.(Ah, play again, my queen;Thy fingers whiteFly swift and lightAnd weave for me the golden mesh of love.) Oh, thou dusk sorceress of the […]

I sit upon the old sea wall,And watch the shimmering sea,Where soft and white the moonbeams fall,Till, in a fantasy,Some pure white maiden’s funeral pallThe strange light seems to me. The waters break upon the shoreAnd shiver at my feet,While I dream old dreams o’er and o’er,And dim old scenes repeat;Tho’ all have dreamed the […]

Long time ago, we two set out,My soul and I.I know not why,For all our way was dim with doubt.I know not whereWe two may fare:Though still with every changing weather,We wander, groping on together. We do not love, we are not friends,My soul and I.He lives a lie;Untruth lines every way he wends.A scoffer […]