I see it as it looked one afternoonIn August,–by a fresh soft breeze o’erblown.The swiftness of the tide, the light thereon,A far-off sail, white as a crescent moon.The shining waters with pale currents strewn,The quiet fishing smacks, the Eastern cove,The semi-circle of its dark, green grove.The luminous grasses, and the merry sunIn the grave sky; […]

(After Robert Schumann.) Prelude. Blue storm-clouds in hot heavens of mid-JulyHung heavy, brooding over land and sea:Our hearts, a-tremble, throbbed in harmonyWith the wild, restless tone of air and sky.Shall we not call him Prospero who heldIn his enchanted hands the fateful keyOf that tempestuous hour’s mystery,And with him to wander by a sun-bright shore,To […]

I. A dream of interlinking hands, of feetTireless to spin the unseen, fairy woof,Of the entangling waltz. Bright eyebeams meet,Gay laughter echoes from the vaulted roof.Warm perfumes rise; the soft unflickering glowOf branching lights sets off the changeful charmsOf glancing gems, rich stuffs, dazzling snowOf necks unkerchieft, and bare, clinging arms.Hark to the music! How […]

Down the long hall she glistens like a star,The foam-born mother of Love, transfixed to stone,Yet none the less immortal, breathing on.Time’s brutal hand hath maimed but could not mar.When first the enthralled enchantress from afarDazzled mine eyes, I saw not her alone,Serenely poised on her world-worshipped throne,As when she guided once her dove-drawn car,–But […]

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,With conquering limbs astride from land to land;Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall standA mighty woman with a torch, whose flameIs the imprisoned lightning, and her nameMother of Exiles. From her beacon-handGlows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes commandThe air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.“Keep, ancient lands, your […]

An Apologue. (“Poetry must be simple, sensuous, or impassioned;this man is neither simple, sensuous, nor impassioned;therefore he is not a poet.”) No man had ever heard a nightingale,When once a keen-eyed naturalist was stirredTo study and define–what is a bird,To classify by rote and book, nor failTo mark its structure and to note the scaleWhereon […]

So, Calchas, on the sacred Palatine,Thou thought of Mopsus, and o’er wastes of seaA flower brought your message. I divine(Through my deep art) the kindly mockeryThat played about your lips and in your eyes,Plucking the frail leaf, while you dreamed of home.Thanks for the silent greeting! I shall prize,Beyond June’s rose, the scentless flower of […]

What hast thou done to this dear friend of mine,Thou cold, white, silent Stranger? From my handHer clasped hand slips to meet the grasp of thine;Here eyes that flamed with love, at thy commandStare stone-blank on blank air; her frozen heartForgets my presence. Teach me who thou art,Vague shadow sliding ‘twixt my friend and me.I […]

Not while the fever of the blood is strong,The heart throbs loud, the eyes are veiled, no lessWith passion than with tears, the Muse shall blessThe poet-soul to help and soothe with song.Not then she bids his trembling lips expressThe aching gladness, the voluptuous pain.Life is his poem then; flesh, sense, and brainOne full-stringed lyre […]

When the vexed hubbub of our world of gainRoars round about me as I walk the street,The myriad noise of Traffic, and the beatOf Toil’s incessant hammer, the fierce strainOf struggle hand to hand and brain to brain,Ofttimes a sudden dream my sense will cheat,The gaudy shops, the sky-piled roofs retreat,And all at once I […]

The fervent, pale-faced Mother ere she sleep,Looks out upon the zigzag-lighted square,The beautiful bare trees, the blue night-air,The revelation of the star-strewn deep,World above world, and heaven over heaven.Between the tree-tops and the skies, her sightRests on a steadfast, ruddy-shining light,High in the tower, an earthly star of even.Hers is the faith in saints’ and […]

I. As the blind Milton’s memory of light,The deaf Beethoven’s phantasy of tone,Wrought joys for them surpassing all things knownIn our restricted sphere of sound and sight,–So while the glaring streets of brick and stoneVex with heat, noise, and dust from morn till night,I will give rein to Fancy, taking flightFrom dismal now and here, […]

Come closer, kind, white, long-familiar friend,Embrace me, fold me to thy broad, soft breast.Life has grown strange and cold, but thou dost bendMild eyes of blessing wooing to my rest.So often hast thou come, and from my sideSo many hast thou lured, I only bideThy beck, to follow glad thy steps divine.Thy world is peopled […]

PSALM LXXXIV. A brackish lake is there with bitter poolsAnigh its margin, brushed by heavy trees.A piping wind the narrow valley cools,Fretting the willows and the cypresses.Gray skies above, and in the gloomy spaceAn awful presence hath its dwelling-place. I saw a youth pass down that vale of tears;His head was circled with a crown […]

ROSH-HASHANAH, 5638. The golden harvest-tide is here, the cornBows its proud tops beneath the reaper’s hand.Ripe orchards’ plenteous yields enrich the land;Bring the first fruits and offer them this morn,With the stored sweetness of all summer hours,The amber honey sucked from myriad flowers,And sacrifice your best first fruits to-day,With fainting hearts and hands forespent with […]

Across the Eastern sky has glowedThe flicker of a blood-red dawn,Once more the clarion cock has crowed,Once more the sword of Christ is drawn.A million burning rooftrees lightThe world-wide path of Israel’s flight. Where is the Hebrew’s fatherland?The folk of Christ is sore bestead;The Son of Man is bruised and banned,Nor finds whereon to lay […]

If the sudden tidings cameThat on some far, foreign coast,Buried ages long from fame,Had been found a remnant lostOf that hoary race who dweltBy the golden Nile divine,Spake the Pharaoh’s tongue and kneltAt the moon-crowned Isis’ shrine–How at reverend Egypt’s feet,Pilgrims from all lands would meet! If the sudden news were known,That anigh the desert-placeWhere […]

What, can these dead bones live, whose sap is driedBy twenty scorching centuries of wrong?Is this the House of Israel, whose prideIs as a tale that’s told, an ancient song?Are these ignoble relics all that liveOf psalmist, priest, and prophet? Can the breathOf very heaven bid these Bones revive,Open the graves and clothe the ribs […]

Spoken by a Citizen of Malta–1300. A curious title held in high repute,One among many honors, thickly strewnOn my lord Bishop’s head, his grace of Malta.Nobly he bears them all,–with tact, skill, zeal,Fulfills each special office, vast or slight,Nor slurs the least minutia,–therewithalWears such a stately aspect of command,Broad-checked, broad-chested, reverend, sanctified,Haloed with white about […]

Wake, Israel, wake! Recall to-dayThe glorious Maccabean rage,The sire heroic, hoary-gray,His five-fold lion-lineage:The Wise, the Elect, the Help-of-God,The Burst-of-Spring, the Avenging Rod.* From Mizpeh’s mountain-ridge they sawJerusalem’s empty streets, her shrineLaid waste where Greeks profaned the Law,With idol and with pagan sign.Mourners in tattered black were there,With ashes sprinkled on their hair. Then from the […]