Not in the solitude Alone may man commune with Heaven, or see Only in savage wood And sunny vale, the present Deity; Or only hear his voice Where the winds whisper and the waves rejoice. Even here do I behold Thy steps, Almighty!–here, amidst the crowd, Through the great city rolled, With everlasting murmur deep […]

Wild was the day; the wintry sea Moaned sadly on New-England’s strand, When first the thoughtful and the free, Our fathers, trod the desert land. They little thought how pure a light, With years, should gather round that day; How love should keep their memories bright, How wide a realm their sons should sway. Green […]

The night winds howled–the billows dashed Against the tossing chest; And Danae to her broken heart Her slumbering infant pressed. “My little child”–in tears she said– “To wake and weep is mine, But thou canst sleep–thou dost not know Thy mother’s lot, and thine. “The moon is up, the moonbeams smile– They tremble on the […]

Beneath the waning moon I walk at night, And muse on human life–for all around Are dim uncertain shapes that cheat the sight, And pitfalls lurk in shade along the ground, And broken gleams of brightness, here and there, Glance through, and leave unwarmed the death-like air. The trampled earth returns a sound of fear– […]

Gone is the long, long winter night; Look, my beloved one! How glorious, through his depths of light, Rolls the majestic sun! The willows, waked from winter’s death, Give out a fragrance like thy breath– The summer is begun! Ay, ’tis the long bright summer day: Hark, to that mighty crash! The loosened ice-ridge breaks […]

‘Tis sweet, in the green Spring, To gaze upon the wakening fields around; Birds in the thicket sing, Winds whisper, waters prattle from the ground; A thousand odours rise, Breathed up from blossoms of a thousand dyes. Shadowy, and close, and cool, The pine and poplar keep their quiet nook; For ever fresh and full, […]

Fair insect! that with threadlike legs spread out And blood-extracting bill and filmy wing, Dost murmur, as thou slowly sail’st about, In pitiless ears, full many a plaintive thing, And tell how little our large veins should bleed, Would we but yield them to thy bitter need? Unwillingly I own, and, what is worse, Full […]