DECEMBER 17, 1877 I BELIEVE that the copies of verses I’ve spun, Like Scheherezade’s tales, are a thousand and one; You remember the story,–those mornings in bed,– ‘T was the turn of a copper,–a tale or a head. A doom like Scheherezade’s falls upon me In a mandate as stern as the Sultan’s decree I’m […]

A LOVELY show for eyes to see I looked upon this morning,– A bright-hued, feathered company Of nature’s own adorning; But ah! those minstrels would not sing A listening ear while I lent,– The lark sat still and preened his wing, The nightingale was silent; I longed for what they gave me not– Their warblings […]

At the meeting of the New York Harvard Club, February 21, 1878. “CHRISTO ET ECCLESLE.” 1700 To GOD’S ANOINTED AND HIS CHOSEN FLOCK So ran the phrase the black-robed conclave chose To guard the sacred cloisters that arose Like David’s altar on Moriah’s rock. Unshaken still those ancient arches mock The ram’s-horn summons of the […]

THEY tell us that the Muse is soon to fly hence, Leaving the bowers of song that once were dear, Her robes bequeathing to her sister, Science, The groves of Pindus for the axe to clear. Optics will claim the wandering eye of fancy, Physics will grasp imagination’s wings, Plain fact exorcise fiction’s necromancy, The […]

MAY 28, 1879. ENCHANTER of Erin, whose magic has bound us, Thy wand for one moment we fondly would claim, Entranced while it summons the phantoms around us That blush into life at the sound of thy name. The tell-tales of memory wake from their slumbers,– I hear the old song with its tender refrain,– […]

Breakfast at the Century Club, New York, May, 1879. SUCH kindness! the scowl of a cynic would soften, His pulse beat its way to some eloquent words, Alas! my poor accents have echoed too often, Like that Pinafore music you’ve some of you heard. Do you know me, dear strangers–the hundredth time comer At banquets […]

APRIL 4, 1880 I BRING the simplest pledge of love, Friend of my earlier days; Mine is the hand without the glove, The heart-beat, not the phrase. How few still breathe this mortal air We called by school-boy names! You still, whatever robe you wear, To me are always James. That name the kind apostle […]

January 14, 1880 CHICAGO sounds rough to the maker of verse; One comfort we have–Cincinnati sounds worse; If we only were licensed to say Chicago! But Worcester and Webster won’t let us, you know. No matter, we songsters must sing as we can; We can make some nice couplets with Lake Michigan, And what more […]

Read at the Centennial Celebration of the foundation of Phillips Academy, Andover. 1778-1878 THESE hallowed precincts, long to memory dear, Smile with fresh welcome as our feet draw near; With softer gales the opening leaves are fanned, With fairer hues the kindling flowers expand, The rose-bush reddens with the blush of June, The groves are […]

MAY 26, 1880 SIRE, son, and grandson; so the century glides; Three lives, three strides, three foot-prints in the sand; Silent as midnight’s falling meteor slides Into the stillness of the far-off land; How dim the space its little arc has spanned! See on this opening page the names renowned Tombed in these records on […]

“BRING me my broken harp,” he said; “We both are wrecks,–but as ye will,– Though all its ringing tones have fled, Their echoes linger round it still; It had some golden strings, I know, But that was long–how long!–ago. “I cannot see its tarnished gold, I cannot hear its vanished tone, Scarce can my trembling […]

At The Centennial Anniversary Dinner Of The Massachusetts Medical Society, June 8, 1881 THREE paths there be where Learning’s favored sons, Trained in the schools which hold her favored ones, Follow their several stars with separate aim; Each has its honors, each its special claim. Bred in the fruitful cradle of the East, First, as […]

For The Semi-Centennial Celebration Of The Settlement Of Cambridge, Mass., December 28, 1880 YOUR home was mine,–kind Nature’s gift; My love no years can chill; In vain their flakes the storm-winds sift, The snow-drop hides beneath the drift, A living blossom still. Mute are a hundred long-famed lyres, Hushed all their golden strings; One lay […]

FROM the first gleam of morning to the gray Of peaceful evening, lo, a life unrolled! In woven pictures all its changes told, Its lights, its shadows, every flitting ray, Till the long curtain, falling, dims the day, Steals from the dial’s disk the sunlight’s gold, And all the graven hours grow dark and cold […]

THIS is our place of meeting; opposite That towered and pillared building: look at it; King’s Chapel in the Second George’s day, Rebellion stole its regal name away,– Stone Chapel sounded better; but at last The poisoned name of our provincial past Had lost its ancient venom; then once more Stone Chapel was King’s Chapel […]

ALONE, beneath the darkened sky, With saddened heart and unstrung lyre, I heap the spoils of years gone by, And leave them with a long-drawn sigh, Like drift-wood brands that glimmering lie, Before the ashes hide the fire. Let not these slow declining days The rosy light of dawn outlast; Still round my lonely hearth […]

PRIDE of the sister realm so long our own, We claim with her that spotless fame of thine, White as her snow and fragrant as her pine! Ours was thy birthplace, but in every zone Some wreath of song thy liberal hand has thrown Breathes perfume from its blossoms, that entwine Where’er the dewdrops fall, […]

ON HER SEVENTIETH BIRTHDAY, JUNE 14, 1882 I. AT THE SUMMIT SISTER, we bid you welcome,–we who stand On the high table-land; We who have climbed life’s slippery Alpine slope, And rest, still leaning on the staff of hope, Looking along the silent Mer de Glace, Leading our footsteps where the dark crevasse Yawns in […]

ON HIS RETURN FROM SOUTH AMERICA AFTER FIFTEEN YEARS DEVOTED TO CATALOGUING THE STARS OF THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE Read at the Dinner given at the Hotel Vendome, May 6,1885. ONCE more Orion and the sister Seven Look on thee from the skies that hailed thy birth,– How shall we welcome thee, whose home was heaven, […]

AT A DINNER GIVEN HIM ON HIS EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1885 With a bronze statuette of John of Bologna’s Mercury, presented by a few friends. FIT emblem for the altar’s side, And him who serves its daily need, The stay, the solace, and the guide Of mortal men, whate’er his creed! Flamen or Auspex, […]