So all things come to our mind at last,He is close by your side in the twilight gloom,And you two are alone in the dim old room,Yet he is mute, as you bade him be, time past. You bade him to weary you, never againWith his idle love, in truth he was wise,For he spake […]

Soft o’er the meadow, and murmuring mere,Falleth a shadow, near and more near;Day like a white dove floats down the sky,Cometh the night, love, darkness is nigh;So dies the happiest day. Slow in thy dark eye riseth a tear,Hear I thy sad sigh, Sorrow is near;Hope smiling bright, love, dies on my breast,As day like […]

I said that I would seeHer once, to curse her fair, deceitful grace,To curse her for my life-long agony;But when I saw her face,I said, “Sweet Christ, forgive both her and me.” High swelled the chanted hymn,Low on the marble swept the velvet pall,I bent above, and my eyes grew dim,My sad heart saw it […]

Not far away does that bright city stand,‘Tis but the mist o’er its dividing stream,That wraps the glory of its glitt’ring strand,Its radiant skies, and mountains silvery gleam;Oh, often in the blindness of our fateWe wander very near the city’s gate. We love that unseen city, and we yearnEver within our earthly homes to seeIts […]

I never shall hear your voice again,Your voice so gentle and lowBut the thought of you, Jenny Allen,Will go with me where I go.Your sweet voice drowns the Atlantic waveAnd the rush of the Alpine snow. You were very fair, Jenny Allen,Fair as a woodland rose;Your heart was pure as an angel’s heart,Too good for […]

Here in the silent doorway let me lingerOne moment, for the porch is still and lonely;That shadow’s but the rose vine in the moonlight;All are asleep in peace, I waken only,And he I wait, by my own heart’s beatingI know how slow to him the tide creeps by,Nor life, nor death, could bar our hearts […]

Like emerald lakes the meadows lie,And daisies dot the main;The sunbeams from the deep blue skyDrop down in golden rain,And gild the lily’s silver bell,And coax buds apart,But I miss the sunshine of my youth,The summer of my heart. The wild birds sing the same glad songThey sang in days of yore;The laughing rivulet glides […]

Put the crown of your love on my forehead,Its sweet links clasped with a kiss,And all the great monarchs of EnglandNever wore such a gem as this.Give me your hand, little maiden,That sceptre so pearly white,And I’ll envy not the kingliest wandThat ever waved in might. I know ’tis like asking a morning cloudWith a […]

Again I see that May moon shine,Dost thou remember, soul of mine?I held your hand in mine, you know,And as I bent to whisper low,A tender light was in your eye,“Sweetheart, good-by, sweetheart, good-by.” There came a time my lips were whiteBeneath the pale and cold moonlight,And burning words I might not speak,You read, love, […]

Isabelle has gold, and lands,Fate gave her a fair lot;Like the white lilies of the fieldHer soft hands toil not.I gaze upon her splendorWithout an envious sigh;I have no wealth in lands and gold,And yet sweet peace have I. I know the blue sky smiles as brightOn the low field violet,As on the proud crest […]

I am an outcast, sinful and vile I know,But what are you, my lady, so fair, and proud, and high?The fringe of your robe just touched me, me so low–Your feet defiled, I saw the scorn in your eye,And the jeweled hand, that drew back your garments fine.What should you say if I told you […]

She sat in the cottage door, and the fair June moon looked downOn a face as pure as its own, an innocent face and sweetAs the roses dewy white that grow so thick at her feet,White royal roses, fit for a monarch’s crown. And one is clasped in her slender hand, and one on her […]

The Squire was none of your common menWhose ancestors nobody knows,But visible was his lineageIn the lines of his Roman nose,That turned in the true patrician curve–In the curl of his princely lips,In his slightly insolent eyelids,In his pointed finger-tips. Very erect and grand looked the SquireAs he walked o’er his broad estate,For he felt […]

I. Like idle clouds our lives move on,By change and chance as idly blown;Our hopes like netted sparrows fly,And vainly beat their wings and die.Fate conquers all with stony will,Oh, heart, be still–be still! II. No! change and chance are slaves that waitOn Him who guides the clouds, not fate,But the High King rules seas […]

Sitting alone in the windy tower,While the waves leap high, or are low at rest,What does she think of, hour by hour,With her strange eyes bent on the distant west,And a fresh white rose on her withered breast,What does she think of, hour by hour?The Lady Cecile. Low under the lattice, day by day,White homeward […]

How the sumac banners bent, dripping as if with blood,What a mournful presence brooded upon the slumbrous air;A mocking-bird screamed noisily in the depth of the silent wood,And in my heart was crying the raven of despair,Thrilling my being through with its bitter, bitter cry–“It were better to die, it were better to die.” For […]

Oh gay young husbandmen would you be sure of a cropUpspringing rankly, an abundant and bountiful yield?Go forth in the morning, and sow on your life’s broad fieldThis pleasantly odorous seed, then smooth the ground on top,Or leave it rough, with the utmost undeceit,Never you fear, it will thriftily thrive and grow,Loading the harvest plain […]

Last night she came unto me,And kneeling by my side,Laid her head upon my bosom,My beautiful, my bride;My lost one, with her soft dark eyes,And waves of sunny hair.I smoothed the shining tresses,With tearful, fond caresses,And words of thankful prayer. And then a thrill of doubt and pain,My jealous heart swept o’er;We were parted–she was […]

Who falsely called thee destroyer, still white Angel of Death?Oh not a destroyer here, but a kind restorer, thou,For the guilty look is gone, died out with her failing breath,And the sinless peace of a babe has come to lip and brow. Drowned in the heaving tide with her life, is her burden of woe,The […]

I. There’s a tear in your eye, little Sybil,Gathering large and slow;Oh, Sybil, sweet little Sybil,What are you thinking of now? Push back the velvet curtainsThat darken the lonely room,For shadows peer out of the crimson depths,And the statues gleam white in the gloom. How the cannons’ thunder rolls along,And shakes the lattice and wall,Oh, […]