Day! Faster and more fast, O’er night’s brim, day boils at last: Boils, pure gold, o’er the cloud-cup’s brim. Where spurting and suppressed it lay, For not a froth-flake touched the rim Of yonder gap in the solid gray Of the eastern cloud, an hour away; But forth one wavelet, then another, curled, Till the […]

Just for a handful of silver he left us, Just for a riband to stick in his coat– Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us, Lost all the others she lets us devote; They, with the gold to give, doled him out silver, So much was theirs who so little allowed; How all […]

All the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee: All the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem: In the core of one pearl all the shade and the shine of the sea: Breath and bloom, shade and shine,–wonder, wealth, and–how far above them– […]

Nobly, nobly, Cape Saint Vincent to the Northwest died away; Sunset ran, one glorious blood-red, reeking into Cadiz Bay; Bluish ‘mid the burning water, full in face Trafalgar deg. lay; In the dimmest Northeast distance dawned Gibraltar deg. grand and gray; “Here and here did England help me: how can I help England?”–say, Whoso turns […]

I Boot, saddle, to horse, and away! Rescue my castle before the hot day Brightens to blue from its silvery gray, CHO.–Boot, saddle, to horse, and away! II Ride past the suburbs, asleep as you’d say; Many’s the friend there, will listen and pray “God’s luck to gallants that strike up the lay– CHO.–Boot, saddle, […]

I King Charles, and who’ll do him right now? King Charles, and who’s ripe for fight now? Give a rouse; here’s, in hell’s despite now, King Charles! II Who gave me the goods that went since? Who raised me the house that sank once? Who helped me to gold I spent since? Who found me […]

Kentish Sir Byng stood for his King, Bidding the crop-headed Parliament swing: And, pressing a troop unable to stoop And see the rogues flourish and honest folk droop, Marched them along, fifty score strong, Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song. God for King Charles! Pym and such carles To the Devil that prompts ’em their treasonous […]

(Epilogue to “The Two Poets of Croisic.”) What a pretty tale you told me Once upon a time –Said you found it somewhere (scold me!) Was it prose or was it rhyme, Greek or Latin? Greek, you said, While your shoulder propped my head. Anyhow there’s no forgetting This much if no more, That a […]

It once might have been, once only: We lodged in a street together, You, a sparrow on the housetop lonely, I, a lone she-bird of his feather. Your trade was with sticks and clay, You thumbed, thrust, patted, and polished, Then laughed “They will see some day, Smith made, and Gibson demolished.” 8 My business […]

That fawn-skin-dappled hair of hers, And the blue eye Dear and dewy, And that infantine fresh air of hers! To think men cannot take you, Sweet, And infold you, Ay, and hold you, And so keep you what they make you, Sweet! You like us for a glance, you know– For a word’s sake Or […]

Let’s contend no more, Love, Strive nor weep: All be as before, Love, –Only sleep! What so wild as words are? I and thou In debate, as birds are, Hawk on bough! See the creature stalking While we speak! Hush and hide the talking, Cheek on cheek. What so false as truth is, False to […]

What is he buzzing in my ears? “Now that I come to die, Do I view the world as a vale of tears?” Ah, reverend sir, not I! What I viewed there once, what I view again Where the physic bottles stand On the table’s edge,–is a suburb lane, With a wall to my bedside […]

O the old wall here! How I could pass Life in a long midsummer day, My feet confined to a plot of grass, My eyes from a wall not once away! And lush and lithe do the creepers clothe Yon wall I watch, with a wealth of green: Its bald red bricks draped, nothing loath, […]

(Prologue to “The Two Poets of Croisic.”) Such a starved bank of moss Till, that May-morn, Blue ran the flash across: Violets were born! Sky–what a scowl of cloud Till, near and far, Ray on ray split the shroud: Splendid, a star! World–how it walled about Life with disgrace, Till God’s own smile came out: […]

All I can say is–I saw it! The room was as bare as your hand. I locked in the swarth little lady,–I swear, From the head to the foot of her–well, quite as bare! “No Nautch shall cheat me,” said I, “taking my stand [1] At this bolt which I draw!” And this bolt–I withdraw […]

Where the quiet-coloured end of evening smiles Miles and miles On the solitary pastures where our sheep Half-asleep Tinkle homeward thro’ the twilight, stray or stop As they crop– Was the site once of a city great and gay, (So they say) Of our country’s very capital, its prince Ages since Held his court in, […]

This is a spray the bird clung to, Making it blossom with pleasure, Ere the high tree-top she sprung to, Fit for her nest and her treasure. Oh, what a hope beyond measure Was the poor spray’s, which the flying feet hung to,– So to be singled out, built in, and sung to! This is […]

Beautiful Evelyn Hope is dead! Sit and watch by her side an hour. That is her book-shelf, this her bed; She plucked that piece of geranium-flower, Beginning to die too, in the glass; Little has yet been changed, I think: The shutters are shut, no light may pass Save two long rays thro’ the hinge’s […]

All that I know Of a certain star Is, it can throw (Like the angled spar) [A] Now a dart of red, Now a dart of blue; Till my friends have said They would fain see, too, My star that dartles the red and the blue! Then it stops like a bird; like a flower, […]

[Greek: Chairete, nikomen] First I salute this soil of the blessed, river and rock! Gods of my birthplace, daemons and heroes, honour to all! Then I name thee, claim thee for our patron, co-equal in praise –Ay, with Zeus the Defender, with Her of the aegis and spear! 4 Also, ye of the bow and […]