I. This is the sweetness of an April day; The softness of the spring is on the face Of the old year. She has no natural grace, But something comes to her from far away Out of the Past, and on her old decay The beauty of her childhood you can trace.– And yet she […]

Who would have thought that even an idle song Were such a holy and celestial thing That wickedness and envy cannot sing– That music for no moment lives with wrong? I know this, for a very grievous throng, Dark thoughts, low wishes, round my bosom cling, And, underneath, the hidden holy spring Stagnates because of […]

Now in the dark of February rains, Poor lovers of the sunshine, spring is born, The earthy fields are full of hidden corn, And March’s violets bud along the lanes; Therefore with joy believe in what remains. And thou who dost not feel them, do not scorn Our early songs for winter overworn, And faith […]

I know not what among the grass thou art, Thy nature, nor thy substance, fairest flower, Nor what to other eyes thou hast of power To send thine image through them to the heart; But when I push the frosty leaves apart And see thee hiding in thy wintry bower Thou growest up within me […]

Beautiful stories wed with lovely days Like words and music:–what shall be the tale Of love and nobleness that might avail To express in action what this sweetness says– The sweetness of a day of airs and rays That are strange glories on the winter pale? Alas, O beauty, all my fancies fail! I cannot […]

Down a warm alley, early in the year, Among the woods, with all the sunshine in And all the winds outside it, I begin To think that something gracious will appear, If anything of grace inhabit here, Or there be friendship in the woods to win. Might one but find companions more akin To trees […]

I envy the tree-tops that shake so high In winds that fill them full of heavenly airs; I envy every little cloud that shares With unseen angels evening in the sky; I envy most the youngest stars that lie Sky-nested, and the loving heaven that bears, And night that makes strong worlds of them unawares; […]

Along the tops of all the yellow trees, The golden-yellow trees, the sunshine lies; And where the leaves are gone, long rays surprise Lone depths of thicket with their brightnesses; And through the woods, all waste of many a breeze, Cometh more joy of light for Poet’s eyes– Green fields lying yellow underneath the skies, […]

When peevish flaws his soul have stirred To fretful tears for crossed desires, Obedient to his mother’s word My child to banishment retires. As disappears the moon, when wind Heaps miles of mist her visage o’er, So vanisheth his face behind The cloud of his white pinafore. I cannot then come near my child– A […]

A Microcosm In Terza Rima. I. Quiet I lay at last, and knew no more Whether I breathed or not, so worn I lay With the death-struggle. What was yet before Neither I met, nor turned from it away; My only conscious being was the rest Of pain gone dead–dead with the bygone day, And […]

From off the earth the vapours curled, Went up to meet their joy; The boy awoke, and all the world Was waiting for the boy! The sky, the water, the wide earth Was full of windy play– Shining and fair, alive with mirth, All for his holiday! The hill said “Climb me;” and the wood […]

What shall I be?–I will be a knight Walled up in armour black, With a sword of sharpness, a hammer of might. And a spear that will not crack– So black, so blank, no glimmer of light Will betray my darkling track. Saddle my coal-black steed, my men, Fittest for sunless work; Old Night is […]

Where went the feet that hitherto have come? Here yawns no gulf to quench the flowing past! With lengthening pauses broke, the path grows dumb; The grass floats in; the gazer stands aghast. Tremble not, maiden, though the footprints die; By no air-path ascend the lark’s clear notes; The mighty-throated when he mounts the sky […]

A Part Of The Story Omitted In The Old Romances. I. How sir Galahad despaired of finding the Grail. Through the wood the sunny day Glimmered sweetly glad; Through the wood his weary way Rode sir Galahad. All about stood open porch, Long-drawn cloister dim; ‘Twas a wavering wandering church Every side of him. On […]

“Shew us the Father.” Chiming stars of space, And lives that fit the worlds, and means and powers, A Thought that holds them up reveal to ours– A Wisdom we have been made wise to trace. And, looking out from sweetest Nature’s face, From sunsets, moonlights, rivers, hills, and flowers, Infinite love and beauty, all […]

Mourner, that dost deserve thy mournfulness, Call thyself punished, call the earth thy hell; Say, “God is angry, and I earned it well– I would not have him smile on wickedness:” Say this, and straightway all thy grief grows less:– “God rules at least, I find as prophets tell, And proves it in this prison!”–then […]

Oh! is it Death that comes To have a foretaste of the whole? To-night the planets and the stars Will glimmer through my window-bars But will not shine upon my soul! For I shall lie as dead Though yet I am above the ground; All passionless, with scarce a breath, With hands of rest and […]

I. A pool of broken sunbeams lay Upon the passage-floor, Radiant and rich, profound and gay As ever diamond bore. Small, flitting hands a handkerchief Spread like a cunning trap: Prone lay the gorgeous jewel-sheaf In the glory-gleaner’s lap! Deftly she folded up the prize, With lovely avarice; Like one whom having had made wise, […]

Of the poor bird that cannot fly Kindly you think and mournfully; For prisoners and for exiles all You let the tears of pity fall; And very true the grief should be That mourns the bondage of the free. The soul–she has a fatherland; Binds her not many a tyrant’s hand? And the winged spirit […]

On the far horizon there Heaps of cloudy darkness rest; Though the wind is in the air There is stupor east and west. For the sky no change is making, Scarce we know it from the plain; Droop its eyelids never waking, Blinded by the misty rain; Save on high one little spot, Round the […]