I loved my love from green of SpringUntil sere Autumn’s fall;But now that leaves are witheringHow should one love at all?One heart’s too smallFor hunger, cold, love, everything. I loved my love on sunny daysUntil late Summer’s wane;But now that frost begins to glazeHow should one love again?Nay, love and painWalk wide apart in diverse […]

“While I sit at the door,Sick to gaze within,Mine eye weepeth soreFor sorrow and sin:As a tree my sin standsTo darken all lands;Death is the fruit it bore. “How have Eden bowers grownWithout Adam to bend them!How have Eden flowers blown,Squandering their sweet breath,Without me to tend them!The Tree of Life was ours,Tree twelvefold-fruited,Most lofty […]

Did any bird come flyingAfter Adam and Eve,When the door was shut against themAnd they sat down to grieve? I think not Eve’s peacockSplendid to see,And I think not Adam’s eagle;But a dove may be. Did any beast come pushingThrough the thorny hedgeInto the thorny, thistly worldOut from Eden’s edge? I think not a lion,Though […]

Life is not sweet. One day it will be sweetTo shut our eyes and die:Nor feel the wild-flowers blow, nor birds dart byWith flitting butterfly,Nor grass grow long above our heads and feet,Nor hear the happy lark that soars sky high,Nor sigh that spring is fleet and summer fleet,Nor mark the waxing wheat,Nor know who […]

“Whose heart was breaking for a little love.” Down-stairs I laugh, I sport and jest with all:But in my solitary room aboveI turn my face in silence to the wall;My heart is breaking for a little love.Though winter frosts are done,And birds pair every one,And leaves peep out, for springtide is begun. I feel no […]

Ah, woe is me for pleasure that is vain,Ah, woe is me for glory that is past:Pleasure that bringeth sorrow at the last,Glory that at the last bringeth no gain!So saith the sinking heart; and so againIt shall say till the mighty angel-blastIs blown, making the sun and moon aghast,And showering down the stars like […]

Shall I forget on this side of the grave?I promise nothing: you must wait and seePatient and brave.(O my soul, watch with him and he with me.) Shall I forget in peace of Paradise?I promise nothing: follow, friend, and see,Faithful and wise.(O my soul, lead the way he walks with me.)

I, a princess, king-descended, decked with jewels, gilded, drest,Would rather be a peasant with her baby at her breast,For all I shine so like the sun, and am purple like the west. Two and two my guards behind, two and two before,Two and two on either hand, they guard me evermore;Me, poor dove, that must […]

“The iniquity of the fathers upon the children.” O the rose of keenest thorn!One hidden summer mornUnder the rose I was born. I do not guess his nameWho wrought my Mother’s shame,And gave me life forlorn,But my Mother, Mother, Mother,I know her from all other.My Mother pale and mild,Fair as ever was seen,She was but […]

O happy rose-bud bloomingUpon thy parent tree,–Nay, thou art too presuming;For soon the earth entombingThy faded charms shall be,And the chill damp consuming. O happy skylark springingUp to the broad blue sky,Too fearless in thy winging,Too gladsome in thy singing,Thou also soon shalt lieWhere no sweet notes are ringing. And through life’s shine and showerWe […]

I WISH you were a pleasant wren,And I your small accepted mate;How we’d look down on toilsome men!We’d rise and go to bed at eightOr it may be not quite so late. Then you should see the nest I’d build,The wondrous nest for you and me;The outside rough, perhaps, but filledWith wool and down: ah, […]

What can lambkins doAll the keen night through?Nestle by their woolly mother,The careful ewe. What can nestlings doIn the nightly dew?Sleep beneath their mother’s wingTill day breaks anew. If in field or treeThere might only beSuch a warm soft sleeping-placeFound for me!

Somewhere or other there must surely beThe face not seen, the voice not heard,The heart that not yet–never yet–ah me!Made answer to my word. Somewhere or other, may be near or far;Past land and sea, clean out of sight;Beyond the wandering moon, beyond the starThat tracks her night by night. Somewhere or other, may be […]

The year stood at its equinoxAnd bluff the North was blowing,A bleat of lambs came from the flocks,Green hardy things were growing;I met a maid with shining locksWhere milky kine were lowing. She wore a kerchief on her neck,Her bare arm showed its dimple,Her apron spread without a speck,Her air was frank and simple. She […]

I. I would not if I could undo my past,Tho’ for its sake my future is a blank;My past for which I have myself to thank,For all its faults and follies first and last.I would not cast anew the lot once cast,Or launch a second ship for one that sank,Or drug with sweets the bitterness […]

Keep love for youth, and violets for the spring:Or if these bloom when worn-out autumn grieves,Let them lie hid in double shade of leaves,Their own, and others dropped down withering;For violets suit when home birds build and sing,Not when the outbound bird a passage cleaves;Not with dry stubble of mown harvest sheaves,But when the green […]

(Margaret.) I said: This is a beautiful fresh rose.I said: I will delight me with its scent,Will watch its lovely curve of languishment,Will watch its leaves unclose, its heart unclose.I said: Old Earth has put away her snows,All living things make merry to their bent,A flower is come for every flower that wentIn autumn; the […]

She came among us from the SouthAnd made the North her home awhileOur dimness brightened in her smile,Our tongue grew sweeter in her mouth. We chilled beside her liberal glow,She dwarfed us by her ampler scale,Her full-blown blossom made us pale,She summer-like and we like snow. We Englishwomen, trim, correct,All minted in the self-same mould,Warm-hearted […]

A dream that waketh,Bubble that breaketh,Song whose burden sigheth,A passing breath,Smoke that vanisheth,–Such is life that dieth. A flower that fadeth,Fruit the tree sheddeth,Trackless bird that flieth,Summer time brief,Falling of the leaf,–Such is life that dieth. A scent exhaling,Snow waters failing,Morning dew that drieth,A windy blast,Lengthening shadows cast,–Such is life that dieth. A scanty measure,Rust-eaten […]

Why does the sea moan evermore?Shut out from heaven it makes its moan.It frets against the boundary shore;All earth’s full rivers cannot fillThe sea, that drinking thirsteth still. Sheer miracles of lovelinessLie hid in its unlooked-on bed:Anemones, salt, passionless,Blow flower-like; just enough aliveTo blow and multiply and thrive. Shells quaint with curve, or spot, or […]