THE DOUBTERS. YE love, and sonnets write! Fate’s strange behest! The heart, its hidden meaning to declare, Must seek for rhymes, uniting pair with pair: Learn, children, that the will is weak, at best. Scarcely with freedom the o’erflowing breast As yet can speak, and well may it beware; Tempestuous passions sweep each chord that’s […]

Two words there ‘are, both short, of beauty rare, Whose sounds our lips so often love to frame, But which with clearness never can proclaim The things whose own peculiar stamp they bear. ‘Tis well in days of age and youth so fair, One on the other boldly to inflame; And if those words together […]

A FELLOW says: “I own no school or college;No master lives whom I acknowledge;And pray don’t entertain the thoughtThat from the dead I e’er learnt aught.”This, if I rightly understand,Means: “I’m a blockhead at first hand.” 1815.

No! in truth there’s here no lack:White the bread, the maidens black!To another town, next night:Black the bread, the maidens white! 1815.

THUS roll I, never taking ease,My tub, like Saint Diogenes,Now serious am, now seek to please;Now love and hate in turn one sees;The motives now are those, now these;Now nothings, now realities.Thus roll I, never taking ease,My tub, like Saint Diogenes. 1810.

IF thou to be a slave shouldst will,Thou’lt get no pity, but fare ill;And if a master thou wouldst be,The world will view it angrily;And if in statu quo thou stay,That thou art but a fool, they’ll say. 1815.

THOUGH tempers are bad and peevish folks swear,Remember to ruffle thy brows, friend, ne’er;And let not the fancies of women so fairE’er serve thy pleasure in life to impair. 1815.

WHEN head and heart are busy, say, What better can be found?Who neither loves nor goes astray, Were better under ground. 1815.

MODEST men must needs endure, And the bold must humbly bow;Thus thy fate’s the same, be sure, Whether bold or modest thou. 1815.

IF thou wouldst live unruffled by care,Let not the past torment thee e’er;If any loss thou hast to rue,Act as though thou wert born anew;Inquire the meaning of each day,What each day means itself will say;In thine own actions take thy pleasure,What others do, thou’lt duly treasure;Ne’er let thy breast with hate be supplied,And to […]

THE mist is fast clearing.And radiant is heaven,Whilst AEolus loosensOur anguish-fraught bond.The zephyrs are sighing,Alert is the sailor.Quick! nimbly be plying!The billows are riven,The distance approaches;I see land beyond! 1795.

SILENCE deep rules o’er the waters, Calmly slumb’ring lies the main,While the sailor views with trouble Nought but one vast level plain. Not a zephyr is in motion! Silence fearful as the grave!In the mighty waste of ocean Sunk to rest is ev’ry wave. 1795.

I FEEL that I’m possess’d of nought,Saving the free unfetterd thought Which from my bosom seeks to flow,And each propitious passing hourThat suffers me in all its power A loving fate with truth to know. 1814.

OLD age is courteous–no one more:For time after time he knocks at the door,But nobody says, “Walk in, sir, pray!”Yet turns he not from the door away,But lifts the latch, and enters with speed.And then they cry “A cool one, indeed!” 1814.

IF men are never their thoughts to employ,Take care to provide them a life full of joy;But if to some profit and use thou wouldst bend them,Take care to shear them, and then defend them. 1815.

MANY good works I’ve done and ended,Ye take the praise–I’m not offended;For in the world, I’ve always thoughtEach thing its true position hath sought.When praised for foolish deeds am I,I set off laughing heartily;When blamed for doing something good,I take it in an easy mood.If some one stronger gives me hard blows,That it’s a jest, […]

WEEP ye not, ye children dear, That as yet ye are unborn:For each sorrow and each tear Makes the father’s heart to mourn. Patient be a short time to it, Unproduced, and known to none;If your father cannot do it, By your mother ’twill be done. 1784.

Joy from that in type we borrow,Which in life gives only sorrow. Joy. A DRAGON-FLY with beauteous wingIs hov’ring o’er a silv’ry spring;I watch its motions with delight,–Now dark its colours seem, now bright;Chameleon-like appear, now blue,Now red, and now of greenish hue.Would it would come still nearer me,That I its tints might better see […]

A YOUNG fig-tree its form lifts high Within a beauteous garden;And see, a goat is sitting by. As if he were its warden. But oh, Quirites, how one errs! The tree is guarded badly;For round the other side there whirrs And hums a beetle madly. The hero with his well-mail’d coat Nibbles the branches tall […]

WHILE he is mark’d by vision clear Who fathoms Nature’s treasures,The man may follow, void of fear, Who her proportions measures. Though for one mortal, it is true, These trades may both be fitted,Yet, that the things themselves are two Must always be admitted. Once on a time there lived a cook Whose skill was […]