The sea is mighty, but a mightier swaysHis restless billows. Thou, whose hands have scoopedHis boundless gulfs and built his shore, thy breath,That moved in the beginning o’er his face,Moves o’er it evermore. The obedient wavesTo its strong motion roll, and rise and fall.Still from that realm of rain thy cloud goes up,As at the […]

My friend, thou sorrowest for thy golden prime,For thy fair youthful years too swift of flight;Thou musest, with wet eyes, upon the timeOf cheerful hopes that filled the world with light,–Years when thy heart was bold, thy hand was strong,And quick the thought that moved thy tongue to speak,And willing faith was thine, and scorn […]

Seven long years has the desert rainDropped on the clods that hide thy face;Seven long years of sorrow and painI have thought of thy burial-place. Thought of thy fate in the distant west,Dying with none that loved thee near;They who flung the earth on thy breastTurned from the spot williout a tear. There, I think, […]

I. When to the common rest that crowns our days, Called in the noon of life, the good man goes, Or full of years, and ripe in wisdom, lays His silver temples in their last repose; When, o’er the buds of youth, the death-wind blows, And blights the fairest; when our bitter tears Stream, as […]

Stranger, if thou hast learned a truth which needs No school of long experience, that the world Is full of guilt and misery, and hast seen Enough of all its sorrows, crimes, and cares, To tire thee of it, enter this wild wood And view the haunts of Nature. The calm shade Shall bring a […]

Erewhile, on England’s pleasant shores, our sires Left not their churchyards unadorned with shades Or blossoms; and indulgent to the strong And natural dread of man’s last home, the grave, Its frost and silence–they disposed around, To soothe the melancholy spirit that dwelt Too sadly on life’s close, the forms and hues Of vegetable beauty.–There […]

The time has been that these wild solitudes, Yet beautiful as wild, were trod by me Oftener than now; and when the ills of life Had chafed my spirit–when the unsteady pulse Beat with strange flutterings–I would wander forth And seek the woods. The sunshine on my path Was to me as a friend. The […]

Soon as the glazed and gleaming snow Reflects the day-dawn cold and clear, The hunter of the west must go In depth of woods to seek the deer. His rifle on his shoulder placed, His stores of death arranged with skill, His moccasins and snow-shoes laced,– Why lingers he beside the hill? Far, in the […]

An Indian girl was sitting where Her lover, slain in battle, slept; Her maiden veil, her own black hair, Came down o’er eyes that wept; And wildly, in her woodland tongue, This sad and simple lay she sung: “I’ve pulled away the shrubs that grew Too close above thy sleeping head, And broke the forest […]

Oh, deem not they are blest alone Whose lives a peaceful tenor keep; The Power who pities man, has shown A blessing for the eyes that weep. The light of smiles shall fill again The lids that overflow with tears; And weary hours of woe and pain Are promises of happier years. There is a […]

Dost thou idly ask to hear At what gentle seasons Nymphs relent, when lovers near Press the tenderest reasons? Ah, they give their faith too oft To the careless wooer; Maidens’ hearts are always soft: Would that men’s were truer! Woo the fair one, when around Early birds are singing; When, o’er all the fragrant […]

Hear, Father, hear thy faint afflicted flock Cry to thee, from the desert and the rock; While those, who seek to slay thy children, hold Blasphemous worship under roofs of gold; And the broad goodly lands, with pleasant airs That nurse the grape and wave the grain, are theirs. Yet better were this mountain wilderness, […]

And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill before the Lord; and they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the days of the harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley-harvest. And Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took sackcloth, and […]

It is a sultry day; the sun has drunk The dew that lay upon the morning grass; There is no rustling in the lofty elm That canopies my dwelling, and its shade Scarce cools me. All is silent, save the faint And interrupted murmur of the bee, Settling on the sick flowers, and then again […]

It is the spot I came to seek,– My fathers’ ancient burial-place Ere from these vales, ashamed and weak, Withdrew our wasted race. It is the spot–I know it well– Of which our old traditions tell. For here the upland bank sends out A ridge toward the river-side; I know the shaggy hills about, The […]

Ay, thou art for the grave; thy glances shine Too brightly to shine long; another Spring Shall deck her for men’s eyes,–but not for thine– Sealed in a sleep which knows no wakening. The fields for thee have no medicinal leaf, And the vexed ore no mineral of power; And they who love thee wait […]

“I know where the timid fawn abides In the depths of the shaded dell, Where the leaves are broad and the thicket hides, With its many stems and its tangled sides, From the eye of the hunter well. “I know where the young May violet grows, In its lone and lowly nook, On the mossy […]

I saw an aged man upon his bier, His hair was thin and white, and on his brow A record of the cares of many a year;– Cares that were ended and forgotten now. And there was sadness round, and faces bowed, And woman’s tears fell fast, and children wailed aloud. Then rose another hoary […]

This little rill, that from the springs Of yonder grove its current brings, Plays on the slope a while, and then Goes prattling into groves again, Oft to its warbling waters drew My little feet, when life was new, When woods in early green were dressed, And from the chambers of the west The warmer […]

The stormy March is come at last, With wind, and cloud, and changing skies, I hear the rushing of the blast, That through the snowy valley flies. Ah, passing few are they who speak, Wild stormy month! in praise of thee; Yet, though thy winds are loud and bleak, Thou art a welcome month to […]