And that I walk thus proudly crowned withal Is that ’tis my distinction; if I fall, I shall not weep out of the vital day, To-morrow dust, nor wear a dull decay.

The rude wind is singing The dirge of the music dead; The cold worms are clinging Where kisses were lately fed.

When soft winds and sunny skies With the green earth harmonize, And the young and dewy dawn, Bold as an unhunted fawn, Up the windless heaven is gone,– Laugh–for ambushed in the day,– Clouds and whirlwinds watch their prey.

When May is painting with her colours gay The landscape sketched by April her sweet twin…

I stood upon a heaven-cleaving turret Which overlooked a wide Metropolis– And in the temple of my heart my Spirit Lay prostrate, and with parted lips did kiss The dust of Desolations [altar] hearth– And with a voice too faint to falter It shook that trembling fane with its weak prayer ‘Twas noon,–the sleeping skies […]

‘What art thou, Presumptuous, who profanest The wreath to mighty poets only due, Even whilst like a forgotten moon thou wanest? Touch not those leaves which for the eternal few Who wander o’er the Paradise of fame, In sacred dedication ever grew: One of the crowd thou art without a name.’ ‘Ah, friend, ’tis the […]

The death knell is ringing The raven is singing The earth worm is creeping The mourners are weeping Ding dong, bell–

1. When the lamp is shattered The light in the dust lies dead– When the cloud is scattered The rainbow’s glory is shed. When the lute is broken, Sweet tones are remembered not; When the lips have spoken, Loved accents are soon forgot. 2. As music and splendour Survive not the lamp and the lute, […]

Thy beauty hangs around thee like Splendour around the moon– Thy voice, as silver bells that strike Upon

1. ‘Sleep, sleep on! forget thy pain; My hand is on thy brow, My spirit on thy brain; My pity on thy heart, poor friend; And from my fingers flow The powers of life, and like a sign, Seal thee from thine hour of woe; And brood on thee, but may not blend With thine. […]

1. Summer was dead and Autumn was expiring, And infant Winter laughed upon the land All cloudlessly and cold;–when I, desiring More in this world than any understand, Wept o’er the beauty, which, like sea retiring, Had left the earth bare as the wave-worn sand Of my lorn heart, and o’er the grass and flowers […]

Rough wind, that moanest loud Grief too sad for song; Wild wind, when sullen cloud Knells all the night long; Sad storm whose tears are vain, Bare woods, whose branches strain, Deep caves and dreary main,– Wail, for the world’s wrong!

She left me at the silent time When the moon had ceased to climb The azure path of Heaven’s steep, And like an albatross asleep, Balanced on her wings of light, Hovered in the purple night, Ere she sought her ocean nest In the chambers of the West. She left me, and I stayed alone […]

Ariel to Miranda:–Take This slave of Music, for the sake Of him who is the slave of thee, And teach it all the harmony In which thou canst, and only thou, Make the delighted spirit glow, Till joy denies itself again, And, too intense, is turned to pain; For by permission and command Of thine […]

1. The keen stars were twinkling, And the fair moon was rising among them, Dear Jane! The guitar was tinkling, But the notes were not sweet till you sung them Again. 2. As the moon’s soft splendour O’er the faint cold starlight of Heaven Is thrown, So your voice most tender To the strings without […]

Best and brightest, come away! Fairer far than this fair Day, Which, like thee to those in sorrow, Comes to bid a sweet good-morrow To the rough Year just awake In its cradle on the brake. The brightest hour of unborn Spring, Through the winter wandering, Found, it seems, the halcyon Morn To hoar February […]

1. Now the last day of many days, All beautiful and bright as thou, The loveliest and the last, is dead, Rise, Memory, and write its praise! Up,–to thy wonted work! come, trace The epitaph of glory fled,– For now the Earth has changed its face, A frown is on the Heaven’s brow. 2. We […]

Dearest, best and brightest, Come away, To the woods and to the fields! Dearer than this fairest day Which, like thee to those in sorrow, Comes to bid a sweet good-morrow To the rough Year just awake In its cradle in the brake. The eldest of the Hours of Spring, Into the Winter wandering, Looks […]

These are two friends whose lives were undivided; So let their memory be, now they have glided Under the grave; let not their bones be parted, For their two hearts in life were single-hearted.

There was a little lawny islet By anemone and violet, Like mosaic, paven: And its roof was flowers and leaves Which the summer’s breath enweaves, Where nor sun nor showers nor breeze Pierce the pines and tallest trees, Each a gem engraven;– Girt by many an azure wave With which the clouds and mountains pave […]