Tuscan, that wanderest through the realms of gloom,With thoughtful pace, and sad, majestic eyes,Stern thoughts and awful from thy soul arise,Like Farinata from his fiery tomb.Thy sacred song is like the trump of doom;Yet in thy heart what human sympathies,What soft compassion glows, as in the skiesThe tender stars their clouded lamps relume!Methinks I see […]

Half of my life is gone, and I have letThe years slip from me and have not fulfilledThe aspiration of my youth, to buildSome tower of song with lofty parapet.Not indolence, nor pleasure, nor the fretOf restless passions chat would not be stilled,But sorrow, and a care that almost killed,Kept me from what I may […]

L’eternite est une pendule, dont le balancier dit et redit sanscesse ces deux mots seulement dans le silence des tombeaux:“Toujours! jamais! Jamais! toujours!”–JACQUES BRIDAINE. Somewhat back from the village streetStands the old-fashioned country-seat.Across its antique porticoTall poplar-trees their shadows throw;And from its station in the hallAn ancient timepiece says to all,–“Forever–never!Never–forever!” Half-way up the stairs […]

The day is ending,The night is descending;The marsh is frozen,The river dead. Through clouds like ashesThe red sun flashesOn village windowsThat glimmer red. The snow recommences;The buried fencesMark no longerThe road o’er the plain; While through the meadows,Like fearful shadows,Slowly passesA funeral train. The bell is pealing,And every feelingWithin me respondsTo the dismal knell; Shadows […]

At Drontheim, Olaf the King Heard the bells of Yule-tide ring, As he sat in his banquet hall, Drinking the nut-brown ale, With his bearded Berserks hale And tall. Three days his Yule-tide feasts He held with Bishops and Priests, And his horn filled up to the brim; But the ale was never too strong, […]

(TRANSLATED FROM GUI BAROZAI.) I hear along our street Pass the minstrel throngs; Hark! they play so sweet, On their hautboys, Christmas songs! Let us by the fire Ever higher Sing them till the night expire! In December ring Every day the chimes; Loud the gleemen sing In the streets their merry rhymes. Let us […]