Come to me in the silence of the night;Come in the speaking silence of a dream;Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as brightAs sunlight on a stream;Come back in tears,O memory, hope, love of finished years. O dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,Where souls brimful of […]

Out of the church she followed themWith a lofty step and mien:His bride was like a village maid,Maude Clare was like a queen. “Son Thomas,” his lady mother said,With smiles, almost with tears:“May Nell and you but live as trueAs we have done for years; “Your father thirty years agoHad just your tale to tell;But […]

Two doves upon the selfsame branch,Two lilies on a single stem,Two butterflies upon one flower:–O happy they who look on them. Who look upon them hand in handFlushed in the rosy summer light;Who look upon them hand in handAnd never give a thought to night.

I plucked pink blossoms from mine apple-tree,And wore them all that evening in my hair:Then in due season when I went to seeI found no apples there. With dangling basket all along the grassAs I had come I went the selfsame track:My neighbors mocked me while they saw me passSo empty-handed back. Lilian and Lilias […]

I looked for that which is not, nor can be,And hope deferred made my heart sick in truthBut years must pass before a hope of youthIs resigned utterly. I watched and waited with a steadfast will:And though the object seemed to flee awayThat I so longed for, ever day by dayI watched and waited still. […]

I never said I loved you, John:Why will you tease me, day by day,And wax a weariness to think uponWith always “do” and “pray”? You know I never loved you, John;No fault of mine made me your toast:Why will you haunt me with a face as wanAs shows an hour-old ghost? I dare say Meg […]

A blue-eyed phantom far beforeIs laughing, leaping toward the sun;Like lead I chase it evermore,I pant and run. It breaks the sunlight bound on bound;Goes singing as it leaps alongTo sheep-bells with a dreamy soundA dreamy song. I laugh, it is so brisk and gay;It is so far before, I weep:I hope I shall lie […]

Strike the bells wantonly,Tinkle tinkle well;Bring me wine, bring me flowers,Ring the silver bell.All my lamps burn scented oil,Hung on laden orange-trees,Whose shadowed foliage is the foilTo golden lamps and oranges.Heap my golden plates with fruit,Golden fruit, fresh-plucked and ripe;Strike the bells and breathe the pipe;Shut out showers from summer hours;Silence that complaining lute;Shut out […]

If I might see another SpringI’d not plant summer flowers and wait:I’d have my crocuses at once,My leafless pink mezereons,My chill-veined snowdrops, choicer yetMy white or azure violet,Leaf-nested primrose; anythingTo blow at once not late. If I might see another SpringI’d listen to the daylight birdsThat build their nests and pair and sing,Nor wait for […]

When I am dead, my dearest,Sing no sad songs for me;Plant thou no roses at my head,Nor shady cypress-tree:Be the green grass above meWith showers and dewdrops wet;And if thou wilt, remember,And if thou wilt, forget. I shall not see the shadows,I shall not feel the rain;I shall not hear the nightingaleSing on, as if […]

I tell my secret? No indeed, not I:Perhaps some day, who knows?But not to-day; it froze, and blows, and snows,And you’re too curious: fie!You want to hear it? well:Only, my secret’s mine, and I won’t tell. Or, after all, perhaps there’s none:Suppose there is no secret after all,But only just my fun.To-day’s a nipping day, […]

She sat and sang alwayBy the green margin of a stream,Watching the fishes leap and playBeneath the glad sunbeam. I sat and wept alwayBeneath the moon’s most shadowy beam,Watching the blossoms of the MayWeep leaves into the stream. I wept for memory;She sang for hope that is so fair:My tears were swallowed by the sea;Her […]

Some are laughing, some are weeping;She is sleeping, only sleeping.Round her rest wild flowers are creeping;There the wind is heaping, heapingSweetest sweets of Summer’s keeping,By the cornfields ripe for reaping. There are lilies, and there blushesThe deep rose, and there the thrushesSing till latest sunlight flushesIn the west; a fresh wind brushesThrough the leaves while […]

The hope I dreamed of was a dream,Was but a dream; and now I wakeExceeding comfortless, and worn, and old,For a dream’s sake. I hang my harp upon a tree,A weeping willow in a lake;I hang my silenced harp there, wrung and snaptFor a dream’s sake. Lie still, lie still, my breaking heart;My silent heart, […]

“A cup for hope!” she said,In springtime ere the bloom was old:The crimson wine was poor and coldBy her mouth’s richer red. “A cup for love!” how low,How soft the words; and all the whileHer blush was rippling with a smileLike summer after snow. “A cup for memory!”Cold cup that one must drain alone:While autumn […]

Pardon the faults in me,For the love of years ago:Good by.I must drift across the sea,I must sink into the snow,I must die. You can bask in this sun,You can drink wine, and eat:Good by.I must gird myself and run,Though with unready feet:I must die. Blank sea to sail upon,Cold bed to sleep in:Good by.While […]

O pleasant eventide!Clouds on the western sideGrow gray and grayer, hiding the warm sun:The bees and birds, their happy labors done,Seek their close nests and bide. Screened in the leafy woodThe stock-doves sit and brood:The very squirrel leaps from bough to boughBut lazily; pauses; and settles nowWhere once he stored his food. One by one […]

I will accept thy will to do and be,Thy hatred and intolerance of sin,Thy will at least to love, that burns withinAnd thirsteth after Me:So will I render fruitful, blessing stillThe germs and small beginnings in thy heart,Because thy will cleaves to the better part.–Alas, I cannot will. Dost not thou will, poor soul? Yet […]

I bore with thee long weary days and nights,Through many pangs of heart, through many tears;I bore with thee, thy hardness, coldness, slights,For three and thirty years. Who else had dared for thee what I have dared?I plunged the depth most deep from bliss above;I not My flesh, I not My spirit spared:Give thou Me […]

Does the road wind up-hill all the way?Yes, to the very end.Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?From morn to night, my friend. But is there for the night a resting-place?A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.May not the darkness hide it from my face?You cannot miss that inn. Shall I […]