It is not the lark’s clear toneCleaving the morning air with a soaring cry,Nor the nightingale’s dulcet melody all the balmy night–Not these aloneMake the sweet sounds of summer;But the drone of beetle and bee, the murmurous hum of the flyAnd the chirp of the cricket hidden out of sight–These help to make the summer. […]

The spare-room windows wide were raised,And you could look that summer dayOn pastures green, and sunny hills,And low rills wandering away.Near by, the square front yard was sweetWith rose and caraway. Upon a couch drawn near the light,The Deacon’s only daughter lay,Bending upon the distant hillsHer eyes of dark and thoughtful gray;The blue veins on […]

Gayly a knight set forth against the foe,For a fair face had shone on him in dreams;A voice had stirred the silence of his sleep,“Go win the battle, and I will be thine.” So, for the love of those appealing eyes,Led by low accents of fair Gloria’s voice,He wound the bugle down his castle’s steep,And […]

The years go by, but they little seemLike those within our dream;The years that stood in such luring guise,Beckoning us into Paradise,To jailers turn as time goes byGuarding that fair land, By-and-By,Where we thought to blissfully rest,The sound of whose forests’ balmy leavesSwaying to dream winds strangely sweet,We heard in our bed ‘neath the cottage […]

The sky is dark and the air is full of snow,I go to a warmer clime afar and away;Though my heart is so tired I do not care for it now,But here in my empty nest I cannot stay;Thus cried the swallow,I go from the falling snow, oh, follow me–oh, follow. One night my mate […]

Yes! yes! I dare say it is so,And you should be pitied, but how could I know,Watching alone by the moon-lit bay;But that is past for many a day,For the woman that loved, died years ago,Years ago. She had loving eyes, with a wistful lookIn their depths that day, and I know you tookHer face […]

You will journey many a weary day and long,Ere you will see so restful and sweet a place,As this, my home, my nest so downy and warm,The labor of many happy and hopeful days;But its low brown walls are laid and softly lined,And oh, full happily now my rest I take,And care not I when […]

Oh, the days are growing longer;So rang the jubilant song of the swallow;I come a-bringing beauty into the land,The sky of the West grows warm and yellow,Oh, gladness comes with my light-winged band,And the days are growing longer. Oh, the days are growing longer,The wavy gleam of fluttering wings,Touching the silent earth so lightly,Will wake […]

I sit in the cloud and the darknessWhere I lost you, peerless one;Your bright face shines upon fairer lands,Like the dawning of the sun,And what to you is the rustic youth,You sometimes smiled upon. You have roamed through mighty cities,By the Orient’s gleaming sea,Down the glittering streets of Venice,And soft-skied Araby:Life to you has been […]

Come to me soft-eyed sleep,With your ermine sandalled feet;Press the pain from my troubled browWith your kisses cool and sweet;Lull me with slumbrous song,Song of your clime, the blest,While on my heavy eyelidsYour dewy fingers rest. Come with your native flowers,Heartsease and lotus bloom,Enwrap my weary sensesWith the cloud of their perfume;For the whispers of […]

In the unquiet night,With all her beauty bright,She walketh my silent chamber to and fro;Not twice of the same mind,Sometimes unkind–unkind,And again no cooing dove hath a voice so sweet and low. Such madness of mirth liesIn the haunting hazel eyes,When the melody of her laugh charms the listening night;Its glamour as of oldMy charmed […]

Now while the crimson light fades in the west,And twilight drops her purple shadows low–We stand with Memory on the mountain’s crest,That overlooks the land of Long Ago. Unmoved and still the form beside us stands,While mournful tears our heavy eyes o’erflow,As silently he lifts his shadowy hands,And points us to the land of Long […]

A long, low waste of yellow sandLay shining northward far as eye could reach,Southward a rocky bluff rose highBroken in wild, fantastic shapes.Near by, one jagged rock towered high,And o’er the waters leaned, like giant grim,Striving to peer into the mysteriesThe ocean whispers of continually,And covers with her soft, treacherous face.For the rest, the sun […]

Clasp your arms round her neck to-night,Little Nell,Arms so delicate, soft and white,And yet so strong in love’s strange might;Clasp them around the kneeling form,Fold them tenderly close and warm,And who can tellBut such slight links may draw her back,Away from the fatal, fatal track;Who can tell,Little Nell? Press your lips to the lips of […]

On the shore I sit and gazeOut on the twilight sea,For my ship may come, though many daysI have waited patiently;With waiting trusting eyes,A lonely watch I keepFor its silver sails to riseLike a blossom out of the deep. It is built of a costly wood,Bearing the strange perfumeOf the gorgeous solitude,Where it grew in […]

Clear shone the moon, my mansion wallsTowered white above the wood,Near, down the dark oak avenueAn humble cottage stood. My gardener’s cottage, small and brown,Yet precious unto me;For there she dwelt, who sat by meThat night beside the sea. So sweet, the white rose on her neckWas not more fair than she,As silently her soft […]

“I leave my child to Heaven.” And with these wordsUpon her lips, the Lady Mildred passedUnto the rest prepared for her pure soul;Words that meant only this: I cannot trustUnto her earthly parent my young child,So leave her to her heavenly Father’s care;And Heaven was gentle to the motherless,And fair and sweet the maiden, Gladys, […]

It stands alone on a haunted shore,With curious words of deathless loreOn its massive gate impearled;And its carefully guarded mystic keyLocks in its silent mysteryFrom the seeking eyes of the world. Oft do its stately walls repeatEchoes of music wildly sweetSwelling to gladness high–With mournful ballads of ancient time,And funeral hymns–and a nursery rhymeDying away […]

Oh! the day was dark and dreary,For clouds swept o’er the sun,The burden of life seemed heavy,And its warfare never done;But I heard a voice at twilight,It whispered in my ear,“Oh, doubting heart, look upward,Dear soul, be of good cheer.Oh, weary heart, look upward,Dear soul, be of good cheer.” And lo! on looking upwardThe stars […]

The world is asleep! All hushed is Nature’s warm, sweet breath.The world is asleep, and dreaming the silent dream of snow,But through the silence that seems like the silence of death,Under their shroud of ermine, the souls of the roses glow. And forever the heart of the water throbs and beats,Though bound by a million […]