On Monday night I closed my door, And thought you were not as heretofore, And little cared if we met no more. I seemed on Tuesday night to trace Something beyond mere commonplace In your ideas, and heart, and face. On Wednesday I did not opine Your life would ever be one with mine, Though […]

I rose up as my custom is On the eve of All-Souls’ day, And left my grave for an hour or so To call on those I used to know Before I passed away. I visited my former Love As she lay by her husband’s side; I asked her if life pleased her, now She […]

“A woman never agreed to it!” said my knowing friend to me. “That one thing she’d refuse to do for Solomon’s mines in fee: No woman ever will make herself look older than she is.” I did not answer; but I thought, “you err there, ancient Quiz.” It took a rare one, true, to do […]

Here goes a man of seventy-four, Who sees not what life means for him, And here another in years a score Who reads its very figure and trim. The one who shall walk to-day with me Is not the youth who gazes far, But the breezy wight who cannot see What Earth’s ingrained conditions are.

The chimes called midnight, just at interlune, And the daytime talk of the Roman investigations Was checked by silence, save for the husky tune The bubbling waters played near the excavations. And a warm air came up from underground, And a flutter, as of a filmy shape unsepulchred, That collected itself, and waited, and looked […]

At Westminster, hid from the light of day, Many who once had shone as monarchs lay. Edward the Pious, and two Edwards more, The second Richard, Henrys three or four; That is to say, those who were called the Third, Fifth, Seventh, and Eighth (the much self-widowered), And James the Scot, and near him Charles […]

ON THE NIGHT OF HIS FUNERAL From the slow march and muffled drum And crowds distrest, And book and bell, at length I have come To my full rest. A ten years’ rule beneath the sun Is wound up here, And what I have done, what left undone, Figures out clear. Yet in the estimate […]

He lay awake, with a harassed air, And she, in her cloud of loose lank hair, Seemed trouble-tried As the dawn drew in on their faces there. The chamber looked far over the sea From a white hotel on a white-stoned quay, And stepping a stride He parted the window-drapery. Above the level horizon spread […]

He paused on the sill of a door ajar That screened a lively liquor-bar, For the name had reached him through the door Of her he had married the week before. “We called her the Hack of the Parade; But she was discreet in the games she played; If slightly worn, she’s pretty yet, And […]

I I have risen again, And awhile survey By my chilly ray Through your window-pane Your upturned face, As you think, “Ah-she Now dreams of me In her distant place!” II I pierce her blind In her far-off home: She fixes a comb, And says in her mind, “I start in an hour; Whom shall […]

“No smoke spreads out of this chimney-pot, The people who lived here have left the spot, And others are coming who knew them not. If you listen anon, with an ear intent, The voices, you’ll find, will be different From the well-known ones of those who went.” “Why did they go? Their tones so bland […]

Let us off and search, and find a place Where yours and mine can be natural lives, Where no one comes who dissects and dives And proclaims that ours is a curious case, That its touch of romance can scarcely grace. You would think it strange at first, but then Everything has been strange in […]

Regret not me; Beneath the sunny tree I lie uncaring, slumbering peacefully. Swift as the light I flew my faery flight; Ecstatically I moved, and feared no night. I did not know That heydays fade and go, But deemed that what was would be always so. I skipped at morn Between the yellowing corn, Thinking […]

“More than half my life long Did they weigh me falsely, to my bitter wrong, But they all have shrunk away into the silence Like a lost song. “And the day has dawned and come For forgiveness, when the past may hold it dumb On the once reverberate words of hatred uttered Half in delirium […]

“Man, you too, aren’t you, one of these rough followers of the criminal? All hanging hereabout to gather how he’s going to bear Examination in the hall.” She flung disdainful glances on The shabby figure standing at the fire with others there, Who warmed them by its flare. “No indeed, my skipping maiden: I know […]

“What do you see in that time-touched stone, When nothing is there But ashen blankness, although you give it A rigid stare? “You look not quite as if you saw, But as if you heard, Parting your lips, and treading softly As mouse or bird. “It is only the base of a pillar, they’ll tell […]

I dream that the dearest I ever knew Has died and been entombed. I am sure it’s a dream that cannot be true, But I am so overgloomed By its persistence, that I would gladly Have quick death take me, Rather than longer think thus sadly; So wake me, wake me! It has lasted days, […]

Had you wept; had you but neared me with a frail uncertain ray, Dewy as the face of the dawn, in your large and luminous eye, Then would have come back all the joys the tidings had slain that day, And a new beginning, a fresh fair heaven, have smoothed the things awry. But you […]

“See, here’s the workbox, little wife, That I made of polished oak.” He was a joiner, of village life; She came of borough folk. He holds the present up to her As with a smile she nears And answers to the profferer, “‘Twill last all my sewing years!” “I warrant it will. And longer too. […]

By Rome’s dim relics there walks a man, Eyes bent; and he carries a basket and spade; I guess what impels him to scrape and scan; Yea, his dreams of that Empire long decayed. “Vast was Rome,” he must muse, “in the world’s regard, Vast it looms there still, vast it ever will be;” And […]