When a fair bridge is builded o’er the gulfBetween two cities, some ambitious fool,Hot for distinction, pleads for earliest leaveTo push his clumsy feet upon the span,That men in after years may single him,Saying: “Behold the fool who first went o’er!”So be it when, as now the promise is,Next summer sees the edifice completeWhich some […]

“Ours is a Christian Army”; so he saidA regiment of bangomen who led.“And ours a Christian Navy,” added heWho sailed a thunder-junk upon the sea.Better they know than men unwarlike doWhat is an army and a navy, too.Pray God there may be sent them by-and-byThe knowledge what a Christian is, and why.For somewhat lamely the […]

Once I “dipt into the future far as human eye could see,”And saw–it was not Sandow, nor John Sullivan, but she–The Emancipated Woman, who was weeping as she ranHere and there for the discovery of Expurgated Man.But the sun of Evolution ever rose and ever set,And that tardiest of mortals hadn’t evoluted yet.Hence the tears […]

False to his art and to the high commandGod laid upon him, Markham’s rebel handBeats all in vain the harp he touched before:It yields a jingle and it yields no more.No more the strings beneath his finger-tipsSing harmonies divine. No more his lips,Touched with a living coal from sacred fires,Lead the sweet chorus of the […]

Swains and maidens, young and old,You to me this tale have told. Where the squalid town of DaeIrks the comfortable sea,Spreading webs to gather fish,As for wealth we set a wish,Dwelt a king by right divine,Sprung from Adam’s royal line,Town of Dae by the sea,Divers kinds of kings there be. Name nor fame had Picklepip:Ne’er […]

Let lowly themes engage my humble pen–Stupidities of critics, not of men.Be it mine once more the maunderings to traceOf the expounders’ self-directed race–Their wire-drawn fancies, finically fine,Of diligent vacuity the sign.Let them in jargon of their trade rehearseThe moral meaning of the random verseThat runs spontaneous from the poet’s penTo be half-blotted by ambitious […]

Why ask me, Gastrogogue, to dine(Unless to praise your rascal wine)Yet never ask some luckless sinnerWho needs, as I do not, a dinner?

O ye who push and fightTo hear a wanton sing–Who utter the delightThat has the bogus ring,– O men mature in years,In understanding young,The membranes of whose earsShe tickles with her tongue,– O wives and daughters sweet,Who call it love of artTo kiss a woman’s feetThat crush a woman’s heart,– O prudent dams and sires,Your […]

It is pleasant to think, as I’m watching my inkA-drying along my paper,That a monument fine will surely be mineWhen death has extinguished my taper. From each rhyming scribe of the journalist tribePurged clean of all sentiments narrow,A pebble will mark his respect for the starkStiff body that’s under the barrow. By fellow-bards thrown, thus […]

Yes, he was that, or that, as you prefer–Did so and so, though, faith, it wasn’t all;Lived like a fool, or a philosopher.And had whatever’s needful for a fall.As rough inflections on a planet mergeIn the true bend of the gigantic sphere,Nor mar the perfect circle of its verge,So in the survey of his worth […]

The way was long, the hill was steep,My footing scarcely I could keep. The night enshrouded me in gloom,I heard the ocean’s distant boom– The trampling of the surges vastWas borne upon the rising blast. “God help the mariner,” I cried,“Whose ship to-morrow braves the tide!” Then from the impenetrable darkA solemn voice made this […]

You promised to paint me a picture,Dear Mat,And I was to pay you in rhyme.Although I am loth to inflict yourMost easy of consciences, I’mOf opinion that fibbing is awful,And breaking a contract unlawful,Indictable, too, as a crime,A slight and all that. If, Lady Unbountiful, anyOf thatBy mortals called pity has partIn your obdurate soul–if […]

God dreamed–the suns sprang flaming into place,And sailing worlds with many a venturous race!He woke–His smile alone illumined space.

Ere Gabriel’s note to silence diedAll graves of men were gaping wide. Then Charles A. Dana, of “The Sun,”Rose slowly from the deepest one. “The dead in Christ rise first, ‘t is writ,”Quoth he–“ick, bick, ban, doe,–I’m It!” (His headstone, footstone, counted slow,Were “ick” and “bick,” he “ban” and “doe”: Of beating Nick the subtle […]

I muse upon the distant townIn many a dreamy mood.Above my head the sunbeams crownThe graveyard’s giant rood.The lupin blooms among the tombs.The quail recalls her brood. Ah, good it is to sit and traceThe shadow of the cross;It moves so still from place to placeO’er marble, bronze and moss;With graves to mark upon its […]

Posterity with all its eyesWill come and view him where he lies.Then, turning from the scene awayWith a concerted shrug, will say:“H’m, Scarabaeus Sisyphus–What interest has that to us?We can’t admire at all, at all,A tumble-bug without its ball.”And then a sage will rise and say:“Good friends, you err–turn back, I pray:This freak that you […]

“To the will of the people we loyally bow!”That’s the minority shibboleth now.O noble antagonists, answer me flat–What would you do if you didn’t do that?

Every religion is important. When men rise above existing conditions a new religion comes in, and it is better than the old one.–Professor Howison. Professor dear, I think it queerThat all these good religions(‘Twixt you and me, some two or threeAre schemes for plucking pigeons)– I mean ’tis strange that every changeOur poor minds to […]

Slain as they lay by the secret, slow,Pitiless hand of an unseen foe,Two score thousand old soldiers have crossedThe river to join the loved and lost.In the space of a year their spirits fled,Silent and white, to the camp of the dead. One after one, they fall asleepAnd the pension agents awake to weep,And orphaned […]

When I was young and full of faithAnd other fads that youngsters cherishA cry rose as of one that saithWith unction: “Help me or I perish!”‘Twas heard in all the land, and menThe sound were each to each repeating.It made my heart beat faster thenThan any heart can now be beating. For the world is […]