s: Now rests in the mools where her mammie is laid;


s: The father toils sair their wee bannock to earn,


s: An' kens na the wrangs o' his mitherless bairn.


s: Her spirit, that passed in yon hour o' his birth,


s: Still watches his wearisome wanderings on earth;


s: Recording in heaven the blessings they earn


s: Wha couthilie deal wi' the mitherless bairn!


s: O, speak him na harshly,--he trembles the while,


s: He bends to your bidding, and blesses your smile;


s: In their dark hour o' anguish the heartless shall learn


s: That God deals the blow, for the mitherless bairn!


s: Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,


s: They are leaning their young heads against their mothers,


s: The young lambs are bleating in the meadows,


s: The young birds are chirping in the nest,


s: The young fawns are playing with the shadows,


s: The young flowers are blowing toward the west--


s: But the young, young children, O my brothers,


s: They are weeping in the playtime of the others,


s: Do you question the young children in the sorrow,


s: The old wound, if stricken, is the sorest,


s: Weeping sore before the bosoms of their mothers,


s: They look up with their pale and sunken faces,


s: For the man's hoary anguish draws and presses


s: "Your old earth," they say, "is very dreary;


s: Our young feet" they say, "are very weak;


s: Few paces have we taken, yet are weary--


s: Ask the aged why they weep, and not the children


s: And we young ones stand without, in our bewildering,


s: "True," say the children, "it may happen


s: Little Alice died last year--her grave is shapen


s: We looked into the pit prepared to take her:


s: Was no room for any work in the close clay!


s: From the sleep wherein she lieth none will wake her,


s: Crying, 'Get up, little Alice! it is day.'


s: If you listen by that grave, in sun and shower,


s: With your ear down, little Alice never cries;


s: Could we see her face, be sure we should not know her,


s: For the smile has time for growing in her eyes:


s: And merry go her moments, lulled and stilled in


s: It is good when it happens," say the children,


s: Alas, alas, the children! they are seeking


s: They are binding up their hearts away from breaking,


s: Go out, children, from the mine and from the city,


s: Sing out, children, as the little thrushes do;


s: Pluck your handfuls of the meadow cowslips pretty;


s: Laugh aloud, to feel your fingers let them through!


s: But they answer, "Are your cowslips of the meadows


s: Leave us quiet in the dark of the coal-shadows,


s: "For oh," say the children, "we are weary,


s: If we cared for any meadows, it were merely


s: Our knees tremble sorely in the stooping,


s: And, underneath our heavy eyelids drooping,


s: The reddest flower would look as pale as snow.


s: For, all day, we drag our burden tiring,


s: Or, all day, we drive the wheels of iron


s: "For, all day, the wheels are droning, turning;


s: Till our hearts turn, our heads, with pulses burning,


s: Turns the sky in the high window blank and reeling,


s: Turns the long light that drops adown the wall,


s: Turn the black flies that crawl along the ceiling:


s: All are turning, all the day, and we with all.


s: And all day, the iron wheels are droning;


s: 'O ye wheels, (breaking out in a mad moaning)


s: Ay, be silent!  Let them hear each other breathing


s: Let them touch each other's hands, in a fresh wreathing


s: Let them feel that this cold metallic motion


s: Is not all the life God fashions or reveals:


s: Let them prove their living souls against the notion


s: That they live in you, or under you, O wheels!


s: Still, all day, the iron wheels go onward,


s: And the children's souls, which God is calling sunward,


s: Now tell the poor young children, O my brothers,


s: So the blessed One, who blesseth all the others,


s: They answer, "Who is God that He should hear us,


s: While the rushing of the iron wheels is stirred?


s: When we sob aloud, the human creatures near us


s: Pass by, hearing not, or answer not a word!


s: And we hear not (for the wheels in their resounding)


s: Is it likely God, with angels singing round Him,


s: "Two words, indeed, of praying we remember,


s: 'Our Father,' looking upward in the chamber,


s: We know no other words except 'Our Father,'


s: And we think that, in some pause of angels' song,


s: God may pluck them with the silence sweet to gather,


s: And hold both within his right hand which is strong.


s: 'Our Father!' If He heard us, He would surely


s: Answer, smiling down the steep world very purely,


s: "But no!" say the children, weeping faster,


s: And they tell us, of His image is the master


s: Go to!" say the children,--"Up in Heaven,


s: Dark, wheel-like, turning clouds are all we find.


s: Do not mock us; grief has made us unbelieving:


s: We look up for God, but tears have made us blind."


s: Do you hear the children weeping and disproving,


s: For God's possible is taught by His world's loving,


s: And well may the children weep before you!


s: They have never seen the sunshine, nor the glory


s: They know the grief of man, without its wisdom;


s: They sink in man's despair, without its calm;


s: Are slaves, without the liberty in Christdom,


s: Are martyrs, by the pang without the palm:


s: Are worn as if with age, yet unretrievingly


s: The harvest of its memories cannot reap,--


s: Are orphans of the earthly love and heavenly.


s: They look up, with their pale and sunken faces,


s: For they mind you of their angels in high places,


s: "How long," they say, "how long, O cruel nation,


s: Will you stand, to move the world, on a child's heart,--


s: Stifle down with a mailed heel its palpitation,


s: And tread onward to your throne amid the mart?


s: Our blood splashes upward, O gold-heaper,


s: But the child's sob in the silence curses deeper


s: But with the wheels your feet must run--


s: They wept,--and, turning homeward, cried,


s: Then downwards from the steep hill's edge


s: Our doctor had called in another, I never had seen him before,


s: Harsh red hair, big voice, big chest, big merciless hands!


s: Wonderful cures he had done, O yes, but they said too of him


s: He was happier using the knife than in trying to save the limb,


s: And that I can well believe, for he looked so coarse and so red,


s: Here was a boy--I am sure that some of our children would die


s: Caught in a mill and crushed--it was all but a hopeless case:


s: Had? has it come?  It has only dawned.  It will come by and by.


s: Never since I was nurse, had I been so grieved and so vexed!


s: Emmie had heard him.  Softly she called from her cot to the next,


s: How should He know that it's me? such a lot of beds in the ward?"


s: He had brought his ghastly tools: we believed her asleep again--


s: Her dear, long, lean, little arms lying out on the counterpane;--


s: "If I were dead, you'd sometimes say, Poor Child!"


s: From eyes which, not to grieve me, brightly smiled.


s: I seem to hear your laugh, your talk, your song.


s: It is not true that Love will do no wrong.


s: And did you think, when you so cried and smiled,


s: How I, in lonely nights, should lie awake,


s: And of those words your full avengers make?


s: That sweet amends thrice told are come to thee,


s: My little Son, who looked from thoughtful eyes


s: And moved and spoke in quiet grown-up wise,


s: Having my law the seventh time disobeyed,


s: --His Mother, who was patient, being dead.


s: Then, fearing lest his grief should hinder sleep,


s: With darkened eyelids, and their lashes yet


s: Kissing away his tears, left others of my own;


s: A box of counters and a red-veined stone,


s: And two French copper coins, ranged there with careful art,


s: Ah, when at last we lie with tranced breath,


s: Than I whom Thou hast moulded from the clay,


s: "I will be sorry for their childishness."


s: Oh, to come home once more, when the dusk is falling,


s: To see the nursery lighted and the children's table spread;


s: "Mother, mother, mother!" the eager voices calling,


s: "The baby was so sleepy that he had to go to bed!"


s: Oh, to come home once more, and see the smiling faces,


s: Dark head, bright head, clustered at the pane;


s: Much the years have taken, when the heart its path retraces,


s: But until time is not for me, the image will remain.


s: Men and women now they are, standing straight and steady,


s: Grave heart, gay heart, fit for life's emprise;


s: Shoulder set to shoulder, how should they be but ready!


s: The future shines before them with the light of their own eyes.


s: Still each answers to my call; no good has been denied me,


s: My burdens have been fitted to the little strength that's mine,


s: Beauty, pride and peace have walked by day beside me,


s: The evening closes gently in, and how can I repine?


s: But oh, to see once more, when the early dusk is falling,


s: The nursery windows glowing and the children's table spread;


s: "Mother, mother, mother!" the high child voices calling,


s: "He couldn't stay awake for you, he had to go to bed!"


s: The little toy dog is covered with dust,


s: And the little toy soldier is red with rust,


s: Time was when the little toy dog was new,


s: And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue


s: "Now, don't you go till I come," he said,


s: Oh! the years are many, the years are long,


s: Ay, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand,


s: And they wonder, as waiting the long years through


s: Since he kissed them and put them there.


s: Has sailed where the noiseless surges roll.


s: On the scroll of twice three thousand years,


s: He knows, perchance, how spirits fare,--


s: Things that shall never, never be to mortal hearers told.


s: That was not fruit, nor flower, nor seed;


s: She could not think on the happy children


s: She heard her heart's blood drip in the night


s: She could not think on the new-washed children


s: New 'scaped from the band of merry children


s: She has seen them lie, the sleepy children


s: The night throbs on; O, let me pray, dear lad!


s: Crush off his name a moment from my mouth.


s: To Thee my eyes would turn, but they go back,


s: Back to my arm beside me, where he lay--


s: I cannot think that Thou hadst need of him!


s: He cannot praise Thee; all his life had learned


s: Was to hold fast my kisses in the night.


s: He had not felt this life; his lovely eyes


s: Just knew me for his mother, and he died.


s: And runs not out to meet me when I come--


s: What are my curses to Thee?  Thou hast heard


s: The curse of Abel's mother, and since then


s: We have not ceased to threaten at Thy throne,


s: To threat and pray Thee that Thou hold them still


s: Thou God of all the mothers.  If he lack


s: One of his kisses--ah, my heart, my heart,


s: Do angels kiss in heaven?  Give him back!


s: Forgive me, Lord, but I am sick with grief,


s: And tired of tears, and cold to comforting.


s: Thou art wise, I know, and tender, aye, and good,


s: Thou hast my child, and he is safe in Thee,


s: So little and alone!  He knows not Thee,


s: He only knows his mother--give him back.


s: The good Lord gave, the Lord has taken from me,


s: Blessed be His name, His holy will be done.


s: The mourners all have gone, all save I, his mother,


s: The little grave lies lonely in the sun.


s: Nay! I would not follow, though they did beseech me,


s: For the angels come now waiting for my dead.


s: Heaven's door is open, so my whispers soar there,


s: While the gentle angels lift him from his bed.


s: Oh Lord, when Thou gavest he was weak and helpless,


s: Could not rise nor wander from my shielding arm;


s: Lovely is he now and strong with four sweet summers,


s: Laughing, running, tumbling, hard to keep from harm.


s: If some tender mother, whose babe on earth is living,


s: Takes his little hand to guide his stranger feet


s: 'Mid the countless hosts that cross the floor of heaven,


s: Thou wilt not reprove her for Thy pity sweet.


s: If upon her breast she holds his baby beauty,


s: All his golden hair will fall about her hand,


s: Laughing let her fingers pull it into ringlets--


s: Long and lovely ringlets.  She will understand.


s: Wilful are his ways and full of merry mischief;


s: If he prove unruly, lay the blame on me.


s: Never did I chide him for his noise or riot,


s: Smiled upon his folly, glad his joy to see.


s: Each eve shall I come beside his bed so lowly;


s: "Hush-a-by, my baby," softly shall I sing,


s: So, if he be frightened, full of sleep and anger,


s: The song he loved shall reach him and sure comfort bring.


s: Lord, if in my praying, Thou shouldst hear me weeping,


s: Ever was I wayward, always full of tears,


s: Take no heed of this grief.  Sweet the gift Thou gavest


s: All the cherished treasure of those golden years.


s: Do not, therefore, hold me to Thy will ungrateful:


s: Soon I shall stand upright, smiling, strong, and brave,


s: With a son in heaven the sad earth forgetting,


s: But 'tis lonely yet, Lord, by the little grave.


s: Oh, 'tis lonely, lonely, by the little grave!


s: A strange, dim hymn, "For Charlie's sake."


s: All starred and belled for Charlie's sake.


s: God sealed--for Charlie's sake, and mine.


s: With faith and prayers, that precious hill,


s: Their rainbowed cloud of glooms and joys


s: Born with their songs, gone with their toys;


s: To bless the good child's gracious eyes,


s: Dance on his crutch, for good child's sake.


s: Might stir my sleeper's tranquil trance,


s: God's stillness.  Let them weep who wake.


s: As those dear arms whose outstretched plea


s: As, at one bound, our swift spring heaps


s: The stiff rails softened to swan's-down,


s: That arched o'er our first great sorrow,


s: Then, with eyes that saw not, I kissed her;


s: "Their graves are green, they may be seen,"


s: "Twelve steps or more from my mother's door,


s: "And when the ground was white with snow,


s: And then bethink me that--he is not there!


s: With the same beaming eyes and colored hair;


s: Scarcely believing that--he is not there!


s: Closed are his eyes; cold is his forehead fair;


s: Yet my heart whispers that--he is not there!


s: So long watched over with parental care,


s: Before the thought comes that--he is not there!


s: With my first breathing of the morning air


s: Then comes the sad thought that--he is not there!


s: I'm with his mother, offering up our prayer;


s: For our boy's spirit, though--he is not there!


s: Was but the raiment that he used to wear.


s: Is but his wardrobe locked;--he is not there!


s: I see it written, "Thou shalt see me there!"


s: So help us, thine afflicted ones, to bear,


s: 'Twill be our heaven to find that--he is there!


s: You loved the heavens so warm and clear and high;


s: And when I lifted you, soft came your cry,--


s: "Put me 'way up--'way, 'way up in blue sky"?


s: I laughed and said I could not;--set you down,


s: Your gray eyes wonder-filled beneath that crown


s: Of bright hair gladdening me as you raced by.


s: Has borne you voiceless to your dear blue sky.


s: Your tired knee that has so much to bear;


s: A child's dear eyes are looking lovingly


s: From underneath a thatch of tangled hair.


s: Perhaps you do not heed the velvet touch


s: Of warm, moist fingers, folding yours so tight;


s: You do not prize this blessing overmuch,--


s: You almost are too tired to pray to-night.


s: We are so dull and thankless; and too slow


s: To catch the sunshine till it slips away.


s: And now it seems surpassing strange to me


s: That, while I wore the badge of motherhood,


s: The little child that brought me only good.


s: And if some night when you sit down to rest,


s: You miss this elbow from your tired knee,--


s: This restless, curling head from off your breast--


s: This lisping tongue that chatters constantly;


s: If from your own the dimpled hands had slipped,


s: And ne'er would nestle in your palm again;


s: If the white feet into, their grave had tripped,


s: I could not blame you for your heartache then!


s: At little children clinging to their gown;


s: Or that the footprints, when the days are wet,


s: Are ever black enough to make them frown.


s: Or cap, or jacket, on my chamber-floor,--


s: And hear its patter in my house once more,--


s: There is no woman in God's world could say


s: My singing birdling from its nest has flown,


s: In the light of the moon, by the side of the water,


s: My seat on the sand and her seat on my knees,


s: We watch the bright billows, do I and my daughter,


s: We wonder what city the pathway of glory,


s: That broadens away to the limitless west,


s: Leads up to--she minds her of some pretty story


s: And says: "To the city that mortals love best."


s: Then I say: "It must lead to the far away city,


s: Stand two in the shadow of whispering trees,


s: And one loves my daughter, my beautiful daughter,


s: She steps to the boat with a touch of his fingers,


s: And out on the diamonded pathway they move;


s: The shallop is lost in the distance, it lingers,


s: It waits, but I know that its coming will prove


s: That it went to the walls of the wonderful city,


s: I wait for her coming from over the seas;


s: I wait but to welcome the dust of my daughter,


s: The path, as of old, reaching out in its splendor,


s: Gleams bright, like a way that an angel has trod;


s: I kiss the cold burden its billows surrender,


s: Sweet clay to lie under the pitiful sod:


s: But she rests, at the end of the path, in the city


s: The world is great: the birds all fly from me,


s: All out of reach: my little sister went,


s: The world is great: I tried to mount the hill


s: Above the pines, where the light lies so still,


s: The world is great: the wind comes rushing by.


s: I wonder where it comes from; sea birds cry


s: And hurt my heart: my little sister went,


s: The world is great: the people laugh and talk,


s: And make loud holiday: how fast they walk!


s: I'm lame, they push me: little Lisa went,


s: As down some empty gulf that opens sheer


s: And wilt thou come, on some far distant day,


s: With unknown face, and say, "Behold! I'm here,


s: The child you lost;" while we in sudden fear,


s: One darker than dark gipsy holds thee fast;


s: One whose strong fingers none has forced apart


s: Since first they closed on things that were too fair;


s: Nor shall we see thee other than thou wast,


s: But such as thou art printed in the heart,


s: In changeless baby loveliness still there.


s: Two springs she saw--two radiant Tuscan springs,


s: What time the wild red tulips are aflame


s: In the new wheat, and wreaths of young vine frame


s: The daffodils that every light breeze swings;


s: Just there to die; and Florence scrolls her name


s: Now, when the scented iris, straight and tall,


s: Shall hedge the garden gravel once again


s: With pale blue flags, at May's exulting call,


s: And when the amber roses, wet with rain,


s: We, left alone, shall seek one bud in vain.


s: Were the wee hands that now are white as snows;


s: And like pink coral, with their elfin toes,


s: The feet that on life's brambles never fell.


s: The mouth that never knew life's bitter sloes;


s: The little ear, now deaf in Death's strong spell.


s: Now, while the seasons in their order roll,


s: And sun and rain pour down from God's great dome,


s: And deathless stars shine nightly overhead,


s: Near other children, with her little doll,


s: She waits the wizard that will never come


s: To wake the sleep-struck playground of the dead.


s: Oh, bless the law that veils the Future's face;


s: Or bear the beauty of the evening skies,


s: The ticking of the death-watch would replace


s: The breeze's murmur would become the cries


s: Of stormy petrels where the breakers race.


s: We live as moves the walker in his sleep,


s: His feet are skirting as he goes his way:


s: If we could see the morrow from the steep


s: Its footing, and fall headlong from to-day.


s: One day, I mind me, now that she is dead,


s: When nothing warned us of the dark decree,


s: Such fancies as first came into my head.


s: I crooned them low, beside her little bed;


s: And the refrain was somehow "Come with me,


s: I crooned it, and--God help me!--felt no dread.


s: O Purple Sea, beyond the stress of storms,


s: Where never ripple breaks upon the shore


s: Of Death's pale Isles of Twilight as they dream,


s: Give back, give back, O Sea of Nevermore,


s: That leave the shores that are for those that seem!


s: What Arab myrrh, what spikenard, would be thine,


s: If I could swathe thy memory in such balm!


s: Oh, for wrecked gold, from depths for ever calm,


s: To fashion for thy name a fretted shrine;


s: Oh, for strange gems, still locked in virgin mine,


s: To stud the pyx, where thought would bring sweet psalm!


s: I have but this small rosary of rhyme,--


s: No rubies but heart's drops, no pearls but tears,


s: Makes ever holier for the soul, while years


s: Life hath quicksands,--Life hath snares!


s: What's she, so late from Penshurst come,


s: To welcome her the Spring breathes forth


s: Sweet stream, that winds through yonder glade,


s: How blest the Maid whose heart--yet free


s: Whom grief hath spared--who sheds no tear


s: Then, glittering like a star, she joins the festal band.


s: The patriot Mother's weight of anxious cares!


s: When youth had flown did hope still bless


s: Of innocence survive to mitigate distress?


s: Bright Spirit, not with amaranth crowned


s: And there shall bloom, with Thee allied,


s: And that intrepid Nymph, on Uri's steep descried!


s: And the harebell shakes on the windy hill--


s: She knew not those sweet words she spake,


s: But there's never a bird, so sweet a song


s: Her beauty smoothed earth's furrowed face!


s: A lonely stream between two barren wolds;


s: Her loose vest hung in rudely gathered folds


s: On her swart bosom, which in maiden pride


s: Pillowed a string of pearls; among her hair


s: Twined the light bluebell and the stone-crop gay;


s: And not far thence the small encampment lay,


s: Curling its wreathed smoke into the air.


s: She seemed a child of some sun-favored clime;


s: So still, so habited to warmth and rest;


s: When my thought fills with treasured memories,


s: Who shall learn the eyes' deep secret well,


s: Then you will crimson, loveliest cheeks:


s: Eyes will brighten and blushes will burn


s: When the one true lover bends and speaks.


s: Will anything sadden the flower-like face?


s: Where the deer come trooping down at even,


s: Drink the cowslip pool, and fear no harm,


s: As the too brief mountain sunshine flies,


s: Hast thou seen a slender-shouldered figure


s: When the freshets flood the Silver Water,


s: When the swallow flying northward braves


s: Sleeting rains that sweep the birchen foothills


s: Where the windflowers' pale plantation waves--


s: Springing from the dead leaves in their graves),--


s: Ancient ballads, fleeting through her brain,


s: Sing the cuckoo and the English primrose,


s: Seems to brighten through the gusty rain.


s: Forth she goes, in some old dress and faded,


s: Kilted are her skirts to clear the mosses,


s: And her bright braids in a 'kerchief pinned,


s: While she helps to serve the harvest supper


s: Moonlight rises on the burning woodland,


s: Thither flies her heart to join her treasure,


s: While she serves, with absent-musing eye,


s: "Would she mingle with her young companions!"


s: Ever, from the village sports and dances,


s: Did they seek her, wandering by the water,


s: They should find her comrades shy and strange:


s: Queens and princesses, and saints and fairies,


s: When young farmers from the southward ride,


s: You bring blithe airs where'er you tread,--


s: Blithe airs that blow from down and sea;


s: As love's first whisper, breathed a prayer--


s: Like a new snow-flake, white and "mute";


s: We deem her some stray child of light;--


s: Must kneel and pray for grace from Thee,


s: But childish troubles will soon pass by.--


s: But Heaven holds all for which you sigh.--


s: (But oh, that vine-clad head, those limbs of morn!


s: Those proud young shoulders, I myself made straight!


s: How shall ye wear the yoke that must be worn?)


s: Look thou, my son, what wisdom comes to thee:


s: (But oh, that singing mouth, those radiant eyes!


s: Those dancing feet--that I myself made free!


s: How shall I sadden them to make them wise?)


s: Nay, then, thou shalt!  Resist not--have a care!


s: (Yea, I must work my plans who sovereign sit;


s: Though I am God--to see thee so submit!)


s: Farewell my Youth! for now we needs must part,


s: Here hand from hand must sever, heart from heart,--


s: You'll wear no withered roses for my sake,


s: Though I go mourning for you all day long,


s: Finding no magic more in bower or brake,


s: To seal this severance more fast and sure.


s: A joyless fellowship, i' faith, 'twill be,


s: Till I shall tread the footpath way no more.


s: But when a blackbird pipes among the boughs,


s: Or when some joy foregone, some fate forsworn,


s: Looks through the dark eyes of the violet,


s: I may re-cross the set, forbidden bourne,


s: Our long, long parting for a little while,


s: Dream of the golden splendors of your smile,


s: Where art thou gone, light-ankled Youth?


s: Oh, talk not to me of a name great in story;


s: The days of our youth are the days of our glory;


s: And the myrtle and ivy of sweet two-and-twenty


s: Are worth all your laurels, though ever so plenty.


s: What are garlands and crowns to the brow that is wrinkled?


s: 'Tis but as a dead-flower with May-dew besprinkled:


s: Then away with all such from the head that is hoary!


s: What care I for the wreaths that can only give glory?


s: Oh Fame!--if I e'er took delight in thy praises,


s: 'Twas less for the sake of thy high-sounding phrases,


s: Than to see the bright eyes of the dear one discover,


s: She thought that I was not unworthy to love her.


s: There chiefly I sought thee, there only I found thee;


s: Her glance was the best of the rays that surround thee;


s: When it sparkled o'er aught that was bright in my story,


s: I knew it was love, and I felt it was glory.


s: There's not a joy the world can give like that it takes away,


s: When the glow of early thought declines in feeling's dull decay;


s: Then the few whose spirits float above the wreck of happiness


s: Are driven o'er the shoals of guilt or ocean of excess:


s: The magnet of their course is gone, or only points in vain


s: The shore to which their shivered sail shall never stretch again.


s: That heavy chill has frozen o'er the fountain of our tears,


s: And though the eye may sparkle still, 'tis where the ice appears.


s: All green and wildly fresh without, but worn and gray beneath.


s: Oh could I feel as I have felt,--or be what I have been,


s: Or weep as I could once have wept o'er many a vanished scene;


s: My thoughts, like flocking birds, would follow


s: Those winged thoughts of mine pursuing--


s: But I'd give all my lamps of silver bright


s: But through the rains and through the winds,


s: Ah, 'tis not thus the voice, that dwells


s: The lights and shades, the joy and pain,


s: Those friendships, in my boyhood twined,


s: Where Love's true light at last I've found,


s: How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,


s: Stolen on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!


s: My hasting days fly on with full career,


s: But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th.


s: Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth


s: And inward ripeness doth much less appear,


s: That some more timely-happy spirits endu'th.


s: Yet, be it less or more, or soon or slow,


s: It shall be still in strictest measure even


s: Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven:


s: The flowers and fruits of love are gone;


s: Such thoughts should shake my soul, nor now,


s: Seek out--less often sought than found--


s: Then look around, and choose thy ground,


s: Young Love's for us a farce that's played;


s: The heart's still sound.  Shall "cakes and ale"


s: Some in his youth, and more when he grew old.


s: And (must it then be told?) when youth had quite gone by.


s: I see (sit quiet now) a white hair on your head!"


s: Our ears were deaf, our eyes were blind,


s: With pains and joys each morning brought?


s: Though youth "turns spectre-thin and dies,"


s: Our hearts are young 'neath wrinkled rind:


s: Lovely thy tarrying, lovely too is night:


s: Youth's glowing hopes have dropped away,


s: That his strength might endure for a span,


s: From the winds of the north and the south


s: Of some mean things which here below reside,


s: Where birds, like watchful clocks, the noiseless date


s: Where bees at night get home and hive, and flowers,


s: Rise with the sun, and set in the same bowers;


s: The staidness of these things to man! for these


s: The birds nor sow nor reap, yet sup and dine,


s: He hath no root, nor to one place is tied,


s: He knows he hath a home, but scarce knows where;


s: That he hath quite forgot how to go there.


s: He knocks at all doors, strays and roams;


s: Nay, hath not so much wit as some stones have,


s: Which in the darkest nights point to their homes


s: Man is the shuttle, to whose winding quest


s: God ordered motion, but ordained no rest.


s: Having a glass of blessings standing by--


s: Let us (said He) pour on him all we can;


s: Let the world's riches, which dispersed lie,


s: Then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honor, pleasure:


s: When almost all was out, God made a stay,


s: Perceiving that, alone of all His treasure,


s: And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature:


s: But keep them with repining restlessness;


s: Let him be rich and weary, that at least,


s: There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,


s: It is not now as it hath been of yore;--


s: The things which I have seen I now can see no more.


s: Look round her when the heavens are bare;


s: That there hath passed away a glory from the earth.


s: Now, while the Birds thus sing a joyous song,


s: To me alone there came a thought of grief:


s: A timely utterance gave that thought relief,


s: The Cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep:


s: No more shall grief of mine the season wrong;


s: I hear the Echoes through the mountains throng,


s: The Winds come to me from the fields of sleep,


s: Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy Shepherd-boy!


s: Ye blessed Creatures, I have heard the call


s: The heavens laugh with you in your jubilee;


s: The fulness of your bliss, I feel--I feel it all.


s: Fresh flowers; while the sun shines warm,


s: And the Babe leaps up on his Mother's arm:--


s: A single Field which I have looked upon,


s: Both of them speak of something that is gone:


s: Where is it now, the glory and the dream?


s: Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:


s: The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,


s: Shades of the prison-house begin to close


s: But he beholds the light, and whence it flows,


s: The Youth, who daily farther from the East


s: At length the Man perceives it die away,


s: Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own;


s: Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind,


s: And even with something of a Mother's mind,


s: To make her Foster-child, her Inmate Man,


s: And that imperial palace whence he came.


s: Behold the Child among his new-born blisses,


s: See, where 'mid work of his own hand he lies,


s: Fretted by sallies of his Mother's kisses,


s: With light upon him from his Father's eyes!


s: See, at his feet, some little plan or chart,


s: Some fragment from his dream of human life,


s: Shaped by himself with newly-learned art;


s: To dialogues of business, love, or strife:


s: Filling from time to time his "humorous stage"


s: With all the Persons, down to palsied Age,


s: That Life brings with her in her equipage;


s: Thou, whose exterior semblance doth belie


s: Thou best Philosopher, who yet dost keep


s: That, deaf and silent, read'st the eternal deep,


s: Which we are toiling all our lives to find,


s: In darkness lost, the darkness of the grave:


s: Broods like the Day, a master o'er a Slave,


s: Thou little Child, yet glorious in the might


s: Of heaven-born freedom on thy being's height,


s: Why with such earnest pains dost thou provoke


s: Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife?


s: Full soon thy Soul shall have her earthly freight,


s: Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life!


s: The thought of our past years in me doth breed


s: For that which is most worthy to be blest--


s: With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast:--


s: High instincts before which our mortal Nature


s: Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised:


s: Are yet the fountain-light of all our day,


s: Are yet a master-light of all our seeing;


s: Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make


s: Our noisy years seem moments in the being


s: Of the eternal Silence: truths that wake,


s: Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavor,


s: Our Souls have sight of that immortal sea


s: And see the children sport upon the shore,


s: And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.


s: Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song!


s: What though the radiance which was once so bright


s: Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;


s: In years that bring the philosophic mind.


s: Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might;


s: To live beneath your more habitual sway.


s: I love the Brooks, which down their channels fret,


s: Even more than when I tripped lightly as they:


s: The innocent brightness of a new-born Day


s: The Clouds that gather round the setting sun


s: That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality;


s: Another race hath been, and other palms are won.


s: Thanks to the human heart by which we live,


s: Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,


s: To me the meanest flower that blows can give


s: Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.


s: Not she with traitorous kiss her Saviour stung,


s: She, while apostles shrank, could dangers brave,


s: Last at the cross and earliest at the grave.


s: There in the fane a beauteous creature stands,


s: The first best work of the Creator's hands,


s: A full-orbed bosom and a weight of care;


s: Whose teeth like pearls, whose lips like cherries, show,


s: And fawn-like eyes still tremble as they glow.


s: They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.


s: Not grave through pride, nor gay through folly;


s: "Has she no faults then, (Envy says), Sir?"


s: When all the world conspires to praise her,


s: Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles.


s: Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;


s: She was a queen of noble Nature's crowning,


s: A smile of hers was like an act of grace;


s: She had no winsome looks, no pretty frowning,


s: But if she smiled, a light was on her face,


s: Of peaceful radiance, silvering o'er the stream


s: Not quite a waking truth, not quite a dream,


s: But she is changed,--hath felt the touch of sorrow,


s: No love hath she, no understanding friend;


s: O grief! when Heaven is forced of earth to borrow


s: But when the stalk is snapped, the rose must bend.


s: The tallest flower that skyward rears its head


s: Grows from the common ground, and there must shed


s: Its delicate petals.  Cruel fate, too surely,


s: That they should find so base a bridal bed,


s: Who lived in virgin pride, so sweet and purely.


s: And she was loved, but not as others are


s: From whom we ask return of love,--but rather


s: As one might love a dream; a phantom fair


s: Of something exquisitely strange and rare,


s: Which all were glad to look on, men and maids,


s: Yet no one claimed--as oft, in dewy glades,


s: The peering primrose, like a sudden gladness,


s: Gleams on the soul, yet unregarded fades;--


s: The joy is ours, but all its own the sadness.


s: 'Tis vain to say--her worst of grief is only


s: The common lot, which all the world have known;


s: To her 'tis more, because her heart is lonely,


s: And yet she hath no strength to stand alone,--


s: Once she had playmates, fancies of her own,


s: And she did love them.  They are passed away


s: Women there are on earth, most sweet and high,


s: Who lose their own, and walk bereft and lonely,


s: Loving that one lost heart until they die,


s: Children, whose coming is like breath of flowers;


s: Consoled by subtler loves the angels know


s: Good deeds they do: they comfort and they bless


s: In duties others put off till the morrow;


s: Their look is balm, their touch is tenderness


s: Betimes the world smiles at them, as 'twere shame,


s: This maiden guise, long after youth's departed;


s: But in God's Book they bear another name--


s: Faithful in life, and faithful unto death,


s: Such souls, in sooth, illume with lustre splendid


s: That glimpsed, glad land wherein, the Vision saith,


s: How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.


s: The smiles that win, the tints that glow,


s: How given for nought her priceless gift,


s: How spoiled the bread, and spilled the wine,


s: Which, spent with due, respective thrift,


s: High thoughts had shaped the foolish brow,


s: The coward had grasped the hero's sword,


s: Though crowned with all the soul desires,


s: The foolish hie them post-haste through,


s: Of her bright face one glance will trace


s: Her health! and would on earth there stood


s: Went dripping music through her thought.


s: What fancies chaste, and loves, that grew


s: In heaven's own stainless light and dew!


s: Her thoughts are like a flock of butterflies.


s: And a bright flutter of speech, whereto she brings


s: A threefold eloquence--voice, hands and eyes.


s: As a bird's heart is hidden by its wings;


s: And you shall search through many wanderings


s: A woman, with a child's laugh in her blood;


s: A maid, wearing the shadow of motherhood--


s: Who dreamed that beauty passes like a dream?


s: For these red lips, with all their mournful pride,


s: Troy passed away in one high funeral gleam,


s: We and the laboring world are passing by:


s: Amid men's souls, that waver and give place,


s: Like the pale waters in their wintry race,


s: Under the passing stars, foam of the sky,


s: Bow down, archangels, in your dim abode:


s: Weary and kind one lingered by His seat;


s: Strong must she be and gentle, like a star


s: Her soul burn whitely; nor its arrowy beam


s: True to the earth she is, patient and calm.


s: Will from the steadfast way of life be drawn.


s: Gray-eyed and fearless, I behold her gaze


s: Sacred shall be the purport of her days,


s: Shall be for her adornment and her praise.


s: That rings true-tempered holy womanhood,


s: Of harvest, and fulfilment in the grain.


s: Delights to heap, at sunset, on the wain


s: Festoons and coronals of the golden yield.


s: Like crested waves the onward centuries roll.


s: Nor lifteth she her voice in barren prayer,


s: She, godlike in her womanhood, will fare


s: The homestead is her most especial care;


s: She loves the sacred hearth: she will defend


s: Fierce, like a wounded tigress, she can rend


s: And in her eyes, illumined from the pile


s: Glows like the moulded passion of a rose;


s: Mankind shall hold her motherhood in awe:


s: With diamond and with pearl he need not sue;


s: Nor will she deck herself for his delight:


s: A flower, the glowworm, or the drop of dew:


s: Courage from her.  I feel her arrowy beam


s: And passes down the future like a gleam,--


s: Her flocks are thoughts.  She keeps them white;


s: Mother and maid and soldier, bearing best


s: Her girl's lithe body under matron gray,


s: With faith concealed and courage unconfessed;


s: The worship all her deeds make manifest:


s: Her lance is high adventure, tipped with scorn;


s: Her banner to the suns and winds unfurled,


s: Washed white with laughter; and beneath her heart,


s: Shrined in a garland of laborious thorn,


s: Blooms the unchanging Rose of all the World.


s: For, rain being past, the whole land stirred


s: I have praised many loved ones in my song,


s: Before her shrine, to whom all things belong,


s: Perhaps the ripening future holds a time


s: Have fallen from the scope of human view,


s: When, both together, under the sweet sky,


s: We sleep beneath the daisies and the dew,


s: Men will recall thy gracious presence bland,


s: Conning the pictured sweetness of thy face;


s: Will pore o'er paintings by thy plastic hand,


s: And vaunt thy skill and tell thy deeds of grace.


s: Oh, may they then, who crown thee with true bays,


s: Saying, "What love unto her son she bore!"


s: Make this addition to thy perfect praise,


s: "Nor ever yet was mother worshipped more!"


s: So shall I live with Thee, and thy dear fame


s: Shall link my love unto thine honored name.


s: And man's lust roves the world untamed...


s: "What, you are stepping westward?"--"Yea."


s: Were in this place the guests of Chance:


s: Of travelling through the world that lay


s: His golden locks Time hath to silver turned;


s: O Time too swift, O swiftness never ceasing!


s: His youth 'gainst time and age hath ever spurned,


s: But spurned in vain; youth waneth by increasing:


s: Beauty, strength, youth, are flowers but fading seen;


s: Duty, faith, love, are roots, and ever green.


s: His helmet now shall make a hive for bees;


s: And lovers' sonnets turned to holy psalms,


s: A man-at-arms must now serve on his knees,


s: And feed on prayers, which are Age his alms:


s: But though from court to cottage he depart,


s: His Saint is sure of his unspotted heart.


s: And when he saddest sits in homely cell,


s: He'll teach his swains this carol for a song,--


s: "Blest be the hearts that wish my sovereign well,


s: Curst be the souls that think her any wrong."


s: To be your beadsman now that was your knight.


s: The World's a bubble, and the life of Man


s: In his conception wretched,--from the womb,


s: Curst from his cradle, and brought up to years


s: Who then to frail mortality shall trust,


s: But limns on water, or but writes in dust.


s: Yet whilst with sorrow here we live oppressed,


s: And where's a city from foul vice so free,


s: But may be termed the worst of all the three?


s: Domestic cares afflict the husband's bed,


s: Those that live single, take it for a curse,


s: Some would have children; those that have them moan


s: What is it, then, to have, or have no wife,


s: But single thraldom, or a double strife?


s: Our own affections still at home to please


s: Wars with their noise affright us; when they cease,


s: --What then remains, but that we still should cry


s: 'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate,


s: And we'll strive to please you every day.


s: When we for age could neither read nor write,


s: The soul, with nobler resolutions decked,


s: Her that, unbodied, can her Maker praise.


s: The seas are quiet when the winds give o'er;


s: So calm are we when passions are no more.


s: For then we know how vain it was to boast


s: Of fleeting things, so certain to be lost.


s: Clouds of affection from our younger eyes


s: Conceal that emptiness which age descries.


s: The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed,


s: As they draw near to their eternal home.


s: Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view


s: That stand upon the threshold of the new.


s: My prime of youth is but a frost of cares;


s: My crop of corn is but a field of tares;


s: And all my good is but vain hope of gain;


s: And now I live, and now my life is done!


s: The spring is past, and yet it is not sprung;


s: The fruit is dead, and yet the leaves be green;


s: My youth is gone, and yet I am but young;


s: I saw the world, and yet I was not seen;


s: My thread is cut, and yet it is not spun;


s: I sought my death, and found it in my womb;


s: I looked for life, and saw it was a shade;


s: I trod the earth, and knew it was my tomb;


s: The glass is full, and now my glass is run;


s: In the down-hill of life, when I find I'm declining,


s: Than a snug elbow-chair will afford for reclining,


s: With an ambling pad-pony to pace o'er the lawn,


s: And blithe as the lark that each day hails the dawn,


s: With a porch at my door, both for shelter and shade too,


s: And a purse when a friend wants to borrow;


s: From the bleak northern blast may my cot be completely


s: And at night may repose steal upon me more sweetly


s: And while peace and plenty I find at my board,


s: With a heart free from sickness and sorrow,


s: With my friends may I share what Today may afford,


s: And when I at last must throw off this frail covering,


s: Which I've worn for three-score years and ten,


s: On the brink of the grave I'll not seek to keep hovering,


s: But my face in the glass I'll serenely survey,


s: And with smiles count each wrinkle and furrow;


s: And this old worn-out stuff, which is threadbare Today,


s: This breathing house not built with hands,


s: Like those trim skiffs, unknown of yore,


s: Naught cared this body for wind or weather


s: Flowers are lovely; Love is flower-like;


s: Oh! the joys that came down shower-like,


s: And tears take sunshine from thine eyes!


s: "You are old, Father William," the young man cried;


s: "The few locks which are left you are gray;


s: You are hale, Father William,--a hearty old man:


s: "In the days of my youth," Father William replied,


s: "I remembered that youth would fly fast,


s: And abused not my health and my vigor at first,


s: "You are old, Father William," the young man cried,


s: And yet you lament not the days that are gone:


s: "I remembered that youth could not last;


s: I thought of the future, whatever I did,


s: That I never might grieve for the past."


s: You are cheerful, and love to converse upon death:


s: "I am cheerful, young man," Father William replied;


s: In the days of my youth, I remembered my God,


s: The few late flowers have moisture in the eye;


s: His circle (yearly narrowing) to the fire


s: When joys have lost their bloom and breath,


s: Heaven gives our years of fading strength


s: Long time a child, and still a child, when years


s: Had painted manhood on my check, was I,--


s: For yet I lived like one not born to die;


s: A thriftless prodigal of smiles and tears,


s: But sleep, though sweet, is only sleep; and waking,


s: I waked to sleep no more; at once o'ertaking


s: The vanguard of my age, with all arrears


s: Of duty on my back.  Nor child, nor man,


s: Nor youth, nor sage, I find my head is gray,


s: A rathe December blights my lagging May;


s: And still I am a child, though I be old:


s: I've learned sad lessons from the years;


s: And though I've learned some souls are base,


s: Thy broad ambitious branches, and thy root.


s: The port, well worth the cruise, is near,


s: The last of life, for which the first was made:


s: Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!"


s: Which lily leave and then as best recall?"


s: Mine be some figured flame which blends, transcends them all!"


s: Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a spark.


s: On joy, to solely seek and find and feast:


s: Irks care the crop-full bird?  Frets doubt the maw-crammed beast?


s: And not partake, effect and not receive!


s: Who gives, than of his tribes that take, I must believe.


s: Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go!


s: Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe!


s: Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail:


s: A brute I might have been, but would not sink i' the scale.


s: Whose spirit works lest arms and legs want play?


s: How far can that project thy soul on its lone way?


s: Of power each side, perfection every turn:


s: Should not the heart beat once "How good to live and learn"?


s: I, who saw power, see now Love perfect too:


s: Maker, remake, complete,--I trust what thou shalt do!"


s: Pulled ever to the earth, still yearns for rest:


s: Possessions of the brute,--gain most, as we did best!


s: I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!"


s: Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul!"


s: Life's struggle having so far reached its term:


s: From the developed brute; a God though in the germ.


s: Once more on my adventure brave and new:


s: What weapons to select, what armor to indue.


s: Leave the fire ashes, what survives is gold:


s: Young, all lay in dispute; I shall know, being old.


s: The deed off, calls the glory from the gray:


s: Take it and try its worth: here dies another day."


s: Let me discern, compare, pronounce at last,


s: The Future I may face now I have proved the Past."


s: Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play.


s: Toward making, than repose on aught found made:


s: Further.  Thou waitedest age: wait death nor be afraid!


s: Be named here, as thou callest thy hand thine own,


s: From fools that crowded youth, nor let thee feel alone.


s: Announced to each his station in the Past!


s: Right?  Let age speak the truth and give us peace at last!


s: Shun what I follow, slight what I receive;


s: They this thing, and I that: whom shall my soul believe?


s: Things done, that took the eye and had the price;


s: Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice:


s: So passed in making up the main account;


s: That weighed not as his work, yet swelled the man's amount:


s: Fancies that broke through language and escaped;


s: This, I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped.


s: Why time spins fast, why passive lies our clay,--


s: "Since life fleets, all is change; the Past gone, seize to-day?"


s: Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure:


s: Time's wheel runs back or stops: Potter and clay endure.


s: This Present, thou, forsooth, would fain arrest:


s: Try thee and turn thee forth, sufficiently impressed.


s: Around thy base, no longer pause and press?


s: Grow out, in graver mood, obey the sterner stress?


s: The festal board, lamp's flash and trumpet's peal,


s: And since, not even while the whirl was worst,


s: Bound dizzily,--mistake my end, to slake thy thirst:


s: What strain o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim!


s: Let age approve of youth, and death complete the same!


s: Sad is our life, for onward it is flowing,


s: In current unperceived because so fleet;


s: Sad are our hopes for they were sweet in sowing,


s: But tares, self-sown, have overtopped the wheat;


s: Sad are our joys, for they were sweet in blowing;


s: And still, O still, their dying breath is sweet:


s: And sweet is youth, although it hath bereft us


s: Of that which made our childhood sweeter still;


s: And sweet our life's decline, for it hath left us


s: And sweet are all things, when we learn to prize them


s: Not for their sake, but His who grants them or denies them.


s: Oh, a wonderful stream is the River Time,


s: With a faultless rhythm and a musical rhyme,


s: How the winters are drifting like flakes of snow!


s: And the year in the sheaf--so they come and they go


s: On the River's breast with its ebb and flow,


s: There's a magical Isle up the River Time


s: There's a cloudless sky and a tropical clime,


s: And the Junes with the roses are staying.


s: And the name of this Isle is the Long Ago,


s: There are brows of beauty and bosoms of snow--


s: They are heaps of dust, but we loved them so!


s: There are fragments of song that nobody sings,


s: There's a harp unswept and a lute without strings,


s: There are broken vows and pieces of rings,


s: There are hands that are waved when the fairy shore


s: And we sometimes hear through the turbulent roar


s: Sweet voices we heard in the days gone before,


s: Oh, remembered for aye be the blessed Isle


s: And when evening comes with its beautiful smile,


s: And our eyes are closing in slumber awhile,


s: May that "Greenwood" of soul be in sight.


s: Not our bloom only, but our strength--decay?


s: Grow stiffer, every function less exact,


s: Ah, 'tis not what in youth we dreamed 'twould be!


s: Mellowed and softened as with sunset glow,


s: As from a height, with rapt prophetic eyes,


s: And weep, and feel the fulness of the past,


s: And not once feel that we were ever young;


s: And feel but half, and feebly, what we feel.


s: Festers the dull remembrance of a change,


s: To hear the world applaud the hollow ghost


s: When I was young the twilight seemed too long.


s: And spelled the last enchanting lines again,


s: The while my mother hummed an ancient song,


s: Or sighed a little and said: "The hour is sweet!"


s: When I, rebellious, clamored for the light.


s: But now I love the soft approach of night,


s: And now with folded hands I sit and dream


s: While all too fleet the hours of twilight seem;


s: There are in all thy treasure-house no ways


s: But lead by soft descent and gradual slope


s: And thrice more happy are the happy days


s: That live divinely in the lingering rays.


s: When you look back, and forgetfully wonder


s: What you were like in your work and your play;


s: Then, it may be, there will often come o'er you


s: Glimpses of notes like the catch of a song--


s: Visions of boyhood shall float them before you,


s: Echoes of dreamland shall bear them along.


s: Routs and discomfitures, rushes and rallies,


s: Strife without anger, and art without malice,--


s: Then, you will say, not a feverish minute


s: Strained the weak heart, and the wavering knee,


s: Never the battle raged hottest, but in it


s: Neither the last nor the faintest were we!


s: O the great days, in the distance enchanted,


s: Days of fresh air, in the rain and the sun,


s: How we rejoiced as we struggled and panted--


s: How we discoursed of them, one with another,


s: Loved the ally with the heart of a brother,


s: Forty years on, growing older and older,


s: Feeble of foot and rheumatic of shoulder,


s: What will it help you that once you were strong?


s: God gives us bases to guard or beleaguer,


s: Games to play out, whether earnest or fun,


s: Fights for the fearless, and goals for the eager,


s: The fire is out, and spent the warmth thereof,


s: (This is the end of every song man sings!)


s: The golden wine is drunk, the dregs remain,


s: And health and hope have gone the way of love


s: This was a mistress, this, perhaps, a friend.


s: With pale, indifferent eyes, we sit and wait


s: For the dropped curtain and the closing gate:


s: This is the end of all the songs man sings.


s: "Le temps s'en va, le temps s'en va, ma dame!


s: Las! le temps non: mais nous nous en allons!"


s: Strange and drear the sound of mirth is--


s: Dawn drives the dreams away, yet some abide.


s: Once, in a tide of pale and sunless weather,


s: I dreamed I wandered on a bare hillside,


s: When suddenly the birds sang all together.


s: There was no leaf nor bud nor young grass springing;


s: The skies shone cold above the frost-bound stream:


s: It was not Spring, and yet the birds were singing.


s: Blackbird and thrush and plaintive willow-wren,


s: Chaffinch and lark and linnet, all were calling;


s: More sweet than in that dream I still remember:


s: Perchance the heart may keep its songs of Spring


s: Even through the wintry dream of life's December.


s: Weathered the perils of his spring, that blast


s: And of his summer, with dread passions fraught


s: That oft, like fire through the ripening corn,


s: Blight all with mocking death and leave distraught


s: Loved ones to mourn the ruined waste forlorn.


s: But now, though autumn gave but harvest slight,


s: For winter's sunshine, and the lengthened night


s: By hearth-side genial with the warmth of love.


s: Through silvered days of vistas gold and green


s: There's no dew left on the daisies and clover,


s: I've said my "seven times" over and over,


s: The lambs play always, they know no better;


s: O moon! in the night I have seen you sailing


s: You were bright! ah, bright! but your light is failing,--


s: You moon, have you done something wrong in heaven


s: I hope if you have, you will soon be forgiven,


s: O brave marsh marybuds, rich and yellow,


s: O cuckoopint, toll me the purple clapper


s: And show me your nest with the young ones in it;


s: I am old! you may trust me, linnet, linnet,--


s: You bells in the steeple, ring, ring out your changes,


s: And let the brown meadow-lark's note as he ranges


s: Yet birds' clearest carol by fall or by swelling


s: And bells have forgotten their old art of telling


s: "Turn again, turn again," once they rang cheerily,


s: Made his heart yearn again, musing so wearily


s: Poor bells! I forgive you; your good days are over,


s: No listening, no longing shall aught, aught discover:


s: The foxglove shoots out of the green matted heather


s: She was idle, and slept till the sunshiny weather:


s: I wish and I wish that the spring would go faster,


s: And I could grow on like the foxglove and aster,


s: I wait for the day when dear hearts shall discover,


s: "The child is a woman, the book may close over,


s: I wait for my story,--the birds cannot sing it,


s: The bells cannot ring it, but long years, oh, bring it!


s: I leaned out of window, I smelt the white clover,


s: Dark, dark was the garden, I saw not the gate,


s: "Now, if there be footsteps, he comes, my one lover,--


s: Hush, nightingale, hush! O sweet nightingale, wait


s: "The skies in the darkness stoop nearer and nearer,


s: A cluster of stars hangs like fruit in the tree,


s: The fall of the water comes sweeter, comes clearer:


s: To what art thou listening, and what dost thou see?


s: "You night-moths that hover, where honey brims over


s: From sycamore blossoms, or settle or sleep;


s: You glowworms, shine out, and the pathway discover


s: To him that comes darkling along the rough steep.


s: "Too deep for swift telling; and yet, my one lover,


s: I've conned thee an answer, it waits thee to-night."


s: By the sycamore passed he, and through the white clover,


s: Then all the sweet speech I had fashioned took flight;


s: Fair yellow daffodils, stately and tall!


s: When the wind wakes how they rock in the grasses,


s: And dance with the cuckoo-buds slender and small!


s: Here's two bonny boys, and here's mother's own lasses,


s: Sing them a song of the pretty hedge-sparrow,


s: That loved her brown little ones, loved them full fain;


s: Sing, "Heart, thou art wide though the house be but narrow,"--


s: Sweet wagging cowslips, they bend and they bow;


s: A ship sails afar over warm ocean waters,


s: And haply one musing doth stand at her prow.


s: O bonny brown sons, and O sweet little daughters,


s: A sunshiny world full of laughter and leisure,


s: And fresh hearts unconscious of sorrow and thrall!


s: Send down on their pleasure smiles passing its measure,


s: I have not wished it to mourn with me,--


s: And the foam was white in her wake like snow,


s: And her frail mast bowed when the breeze would blow,


s: I marked her course till a dancing mote,


s: And I stayed behind in the dear-loved home;


s: And my thoughts all day were about the boat,


s: My boat you shall find none fairer afloat,


s: And I think he sailed to the heavenly shore,


s: Down in the mosses and knot-grass pressed,


s: A softer sound than their tender twitter,


s: Right dearly I loved them; but when they were grown


s: And what is the shore where I stood to see


s: Can I call that home where I anchor yet,


s: Can I call that home where my nest was set,


s: There is the home where my thoughts are sent


s: Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been;


s: I am also called No-more, Too-late, Farewell;


s: Unto thine ear I hold the dead-sea shell


s: Cast up thy Life's foam-fretted feet between;


s: Unto thine eyes the glass where that is seen


s: Which had Life's form and Love's, but by my spell


s: Of ultimate things unuttered the frail screen.


s: Mark me, how still I am!  But should there dart


s: One moment through thy soul the soft surprise


s: Of that winged Peace which lulls the breath of sighs,--


s: Then shalt thou see me smile, and turn apart


s: When to the garden of untroubled thought


s: The sweet, wild ways with stainless bloom inwrought,


s: And bowers of innocence with beauty fraught,


s: It seemed some purer voice must speak before


s: I dared to tread that garden loved of yore,


s: That Eden lost unknown and found unsought.


s: Then just within the gate I saw a child,--


s: A stranger-child, yet to my heart most dear,--


s: Who held his hands to me and softly smiled


s: With eyes that knew no shade of sin or fear;


s: "Come in," he said, "and play awhile with me;


s: And all the dreams that ne'er came true,


s: It steals through that weird nether-world,


s: Would draw me downward through the brine!


s: Translated by John R. Thompson from the French of


s: Once, when I was little, as the summer night was falling,


s: Among the purple upland fields I lost my barefoot way;


s: The road to home was hidden fast, and frightful shadows, crawling


s: Seemed to hear your dear voice calling--


s: And rested on the mother-breast, returned, tired out from play.


s: And be sure that I was dearer for your sacrifice of tears.


s: Now on life's last Summertime the long last dusk is falling,


s: And I, who trod one way so long, can tread no other way


s: Until at death's dim crossroads I watch, hesitant, the crawling


s: Night-passages that maze me with the ultimate dismay.


s: Then when Death and Doubt shall blind me--


s: Though the grave-clothes swathe and bind you,


s: The pleasant streets of that dear old town,


s: And the thoughts of youth, are long, long thoughts."


s: I can see the shadowy lines of its trees,


s: And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."


s: I remember the black wharves and the slips,


s: And the beauty and mystery of the ships,


s: In their graves, o'erlooking the tranquil bay


s: And the friendships old and the early loves


s: Come back with a Sabbath sound, as of doves


s: I remember the gleams and glooms that dart


s: That in part are prophecies, and in part


s: There are things of which I may not speak;


s: There are thoughts that make the strong heart weak,


s: And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts"


s: And the trees that o'ershadow each well-known street,


s: And among the dreams of the days that were


s: But, oh, those orbs--too wildly bright--


s: I do be thinking, lassie, of the old days now;


s: For oh! your hair is tangled gold above your Irish brow;


s: And oh! your eyes are fairy flax! no other eyes so blue;


s: Come nestle in my arms, and swing upon the shoogy-shoo.


s: Sweet and slow, swinging low, eyes of Irish blue,


s: All my heart is swinging, dear, swinging here with you;


s: Irish eyes are like the flax, and mine are wet with dew,


s: Thinking of the old days upon the shoogy-shoo.


s: When meadow-larks would singing be in old Glentair,


s: Was one sweet lass had eyes of blue and tangled golden hair;


s: She was a wee bit girleen then, dear heart, the like of you,


s: When we two swung the braes among, upon the shoogy-shoo.


s: Ah well, the world goes up and down, and some sweet day


s: Its shoogy-shoo will swing us two where sighs will pass away;


s: So nestle close your bonnie head, and close your eyes so true,


s: And swing with me, and memory, upon the shoogy-shoo.


s: I'm going softly all my years in wisdom if in pain--


s: For, oh, the music stirs my blood as once it did before,


s: And still I hear in Babylon, in Babylon, in Babylon,


s: The dancing feet in Babylon, of those who took my floor.


s: I'm going silent all my years, but garnered in my brain


s: Is that swift wit which used to flash and cut them like a sword--


s: The foolish tongues in Babylon, of those who took my word.


s: I'm going lonely all my days, who was the first to crave


s: The pallid loves in Babylon of men who once loved me.


s: I'm sleeping early by a flame as one content and gray,


s: But, oh, I dream a dream of dreams beneath a winter moon,


s: I breathe the breath of Babylon, of Babylon, of Babylon,


s: The scent of silks in Babylon that floated to a tune.


s: A band of years has flogged me out--an exile's fate is mine,


s: The happy streets in Babylon, when once the dream was truth.


s: Banished the heart they can no longer fill,


s: Since restless Fancy, spreading swallow wings,


s: There is a patience, too, in things forgot;


s: They wait--they find the portal long unused;


s: And knocking there, it shall refuse them not,--


s: Ah, yes! though we, unheeding years on years,


s: In alien pledges spend the heart's estate,


s: They bide some blessed moment of quick tears--


s: Some gleam on flower, or leaf, or beaded dew,


s: Some tremble at the ear of memoried sound


s: Of mother-song,--they seize the slender clew,--


s: When that which lured us once now lureth not,


s: But the tired hands their garnered dross let fall,


s: This is the triumph of the things forgot--


s: And they are with us at Life's farthest reach,


s: As, in the stranger's land, their native speech


s: Feels music's soul through every fibre sent,


s: When we went with the winds in their blowing,


s: I have had playmates, I have had companions,


s: In my days of childhood, in my joyful schooldays,--


s: All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.


s: I have been laughing, I have been carousing,


s: Drinking late, sitting late, with my bosom cronies,--


s: I loved a Love once, fairest among women:


s: Closed are her doors on me, I must not see her,--


s: I have a friend, a kinder friend has no man:


s: Like an ingrate, I left my friend abruptly;


s: Left him, to muse on the old familiar faces.


s: Ghost-like, I paced round the haunts of my childhood.


s: Earth seemed a desert I was bound to traverse,


s: Friend of my bosom, thou more than a brother,


s: Why wert not thou born in my father's dwelling?


s: So might we talk of the old familiar faces--


s: How some they have died, and some they have left me,


s: And some are taken from me; all are departed,--


s: Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,


s: Tears from the depth of some divine despair


s: Rise in the heart and gather to the eyes,


s: And thinking of the days that are no more.


s: Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,


s: That brings our friends up from the underworld,


s: That sinks with all we love below the verge;


s: So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.


s: Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns


s: The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds


s: The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;


s: So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.


s: And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned


s: On lips that are for others; deep as love,


s: Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;


s: O Death in Life, the days that are no more!


s: Will ne'er be graved for sight or tread,


s: Now God be thanked for these thick tears,


s: Who reach their threescore years and ten,


s: When white hairs thatch the furrowed brow


s: Back on my past, through gathering tears,


s: The wise, the great, the young, the fair;


s: Here, in my snug little fire-lit chamber,


s: Saddening it is when the night has descended,


s: Still in my visions a golden-haired glory


s: She whom I loved--but 'tis just the old story:


s: Foolishly kissing the ring on my finger--


s: Nothing has changed since her spirit departed,


s: Save I, who, weary, and half broken-hearted,


s: Loud 'gainst the window the winter rain dashes,


s: Over the floor the red fire-light flashes


s: Just as of old--but the embers are scattered,


s: Flashed o'er the floor where the fairy feet pattered


s: Then, her dear voice, like a silver chime ringing,


s: Often these walls have re-echoed her singing,


s: Why should love bring naught but sorrow, I wonder?


s: Time and death, sooner or later, must sunder


s: Years have rolled by; I am wiser and older--


s: Not till my heart and its feelings grow colder,


s: With pensive eyes the little room I view,


s: Where, in my youth, I weathered it so long;


s: With a wild mistress, a stanch friend or two,


s: And a light heart still breaking into song:


s: Making a mock of life, and all its cares,


s: Lightly I vaulted up four pair of stairs,


s: In the brave days when I was twenty-one.


s: Yes; 'tis a garret--let him know't who will--


s: There was my bed--full hard it was and small;


s: Half a lame couplet charcoaled on the wall.


s: Ye joys, that Time hath swept with him away,


s: Come to mine eyes, ye dreams of love and fun;


s: For you I pawned my watch how many a day,


s: She comes with pouting lips and sparkling eyes:


s: Behold, how roguishly she pins her shawl


s: Across the narrow casement, curtain-wise;


s: Now by the bed her petticoat glides down,


s: And when did woman look the worse in none?


s: I have heard since who paid for many a gown,


s: One jolly evening, when my friends and I


s: Made happy music with our songs and cheers,


s: A shout of triumph mounted up thus high,


s: We rise,--we join in the triumphant strain,--


s: Tyrants shall never tread us down again,


s: In the brave days when I was twenty-one.


s: Let us begone--the place is sad and strange--


s: How far, far off, these happy times appear;


s: All that I have to live I'd gladly change


s: For one such month as I have wasted here--


s: To draw long dreams of beauty, love, and power,


s: From founts of hope that never will outrun,


s: And drink all life's quintessence in an hour,


s: And we'll tak a right guid willie-waught


s: Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight,


s: Make me a child again, just for to-night!


s: Mother, come back from the echoless shore,


s: Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care,


s: Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair;


s: Over my slumbers your loving watch keep;--


s: Rock me to sleep, mother,--rock me to sleep!


s: Backward, flow backward, O tide of the years!


s: Toil without recompense, tears all in vain,--


s: Take them, and give me my childhood again!


s: Tired of the hollow, the base, the untrue,


s: Mother, O mother, my heart calls for you!


s: Many a summer the grass has grown green,


s: Yet, with strong yearning and passionate pain,


s: Long I to-night for your presence again.


s: Come from the silence so long and so deep;--


s: Over my heart, in the days that are flown,


s: No love like mother-love ever has shone;


s: Faithful, unselfish, and patient, like yours:


s: From the sick soul and the world-weary brain.


s: Slumber's soft calms o'er my heavy lids creep;--


s: Come, let your brown hair, just lighted with gold.


s: Shading my faint eyes away from the light;


s: For with its sunny-edged shadows once more


s: Haply will throng the sweet visions of yore;


s: Lovingly, softly, its bright billows sweep;--


s: Rock me to sleep, mother,--rock me to sleep!


s: Mother, dear mother, the years have been long


s: Since I last listened your lullaby song:


s: Sing, then, and unto my soul it shall seem


s: Womanhood's years have been only a dream.


s: Clasped to your heart in a loving embrace,


s: With your light lashes just sweeping my face,


s: How dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood,


s: When fond recollection presents them to view!


s: The orchard, the meadow, the deep-tangled wild-wood,


s: And every loved spot which my infancy knew!


s: The wide-spreading pond, and the mill that stood by it,


s: The bridge, and the rock where the cataract fell,


s: The cot of my father, the dairy-house nigh it,


s: And e'en the rude bucket that hung in the well--


s: The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket,


s: The moss-covered bucket which hung in the well.


s: That moss-covered vessel I hailed as a treasure,


s: For often at noon, when returned from the field,


s: I found it the source of an exquisite pleasure,


s: The purest and sweetest that nature can yield.


s: How ardent I seized it, with hands that were glowing,


s: And quick to the white-pebbled bottom it fell;


s: Then soon, with the emblem of truth overflowing,


s: And dripping with coolness, it rose from the well--


s: The moss-covered bucket arose from the well.


s: How sweet from the green mossy brim to receive it,


s: As poised on the curb it inclined to my lips!


s: Not a full blushing goblet would tempt me to leave it,


s: The brightest that beauty or revelry sips.


s: And now, far removed from the loved habitation,


s: The tear of regret will intrusively swell,


s: As fancy reverts to my father's plantation,


s: And sighs for the bucket that hangs in the well--


s: The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket,


s: The moss-covered bucket that hangs in the well!


s: Springing and clinging from tree to tree,


s: With a twist and a twirl that are strange to see;


s: Spanning the beach with the condor's wing.


s: Thou shalt never to lighter grasp persuade;


s: While a maiden sits in thy drooping fold,


s: And swings and sings in the noonday shade!


s: I dream of thee still in the well-known spot,


s: Though our vessel strains o'er the ocean floods,


s: And the Northern forest beholds thee not;


s: I think of thee still with a sweet regret,


s: As the cordage yields to my playful grasp,--


s: Dost thou spring and cling in our woodlands yet?


s: Does the maiden still swing in thy giant clasp?


s: Oh! the old swimmin'-hole! whare the crick so still and deep


s: Looked like a baby-river that was laying half asleep,


s: And the gurgle of the worter round the drift jest below


s: Sounded like the laugh of something we onc't ust to know


s: Before we could remember anything but the eyes


s: Of the angels lookin' out as we left Paradise;


s: But the merry days of youth is beyond our controle,


s: And it's hard to part ferever with the old swimmin'-hole.


s: Oh! the old swimmin'-hole!  In the happy days of yore,


s: When I ust to lean above it on the old sickamore,


s: Oh! it showed me a face in its warm sunny tide


s: That gazed back at me so gay and glorified,


s: It made me love myself as I leaped to caress


s: My shadder smilin' up at me with sich tenderness.


s: But them days is past and gone, and old Time's tuck his toll


s: From the old man come back to the old swimmin'-hole.


s: Oh! the old swimmin'-hole!  In the long, lazy days


s: When the hum-drum of school made so many run-a-ways,


s: How pleasant was the journey down the old dusty lane,


s: Whare the tracks of our bare feet was all printed so plane


s: You could tell by the dent of the heel and the sole


s: They was lots o' fun on hand at the old swimmin'-hole.


s: But the lost joys is past!  Let your tears in sorrow roll


s: Like the rain that ust to dapple up the old swimmin'-hole.


s: Thare the bulrushes growed, and the cattails so tall,


s: And the sunshine and shadder fell over it all;


s: And it mottled the worter with amber and gold


s: Tel the glad lilies rocked in the ripples that rolled;


s: And the snake-feeder's four gauzy wings fluttered by


s: Like the ghost of a daisy dropped out of the sky,


s: Or a wownded apple-blossom in the breeze's controle


s: As it cut acrost some orchurd to'rds the old swimmin'-hole.


s: Oh! the old swimmin'-hole!  When I last saw the place,


s: The scenes was all changed, like the change in my face;


s: The bridge of the railroad now crosses the spot


s: Whare the old divin'-log lays sunk and fergot.


s: And I stray down the banks whare the trees ust to be--


s: But never again will theyr shade shelter me!


s: And I wish in my sorrow I could strip to the soul,


s: And dive off in my grave like the old swimmin'-hole.


s: I've wandered to the village, Tom, I've sat beneath the tree,


s: Upon the schoolhouse playground, that sheltered you and me;


s: But none were there to greet me, Tom; and few were left to know,


s: Who played with us upon that green some forty years ago.


s: The grass is just as green, Tom; barefooted boys at play


s: Were sporting, just as we did then, with spirits just as gay.


s: The old schoolhouse is altered some; the benches are replaced


s: By new ones, very like the same our jackknives once defaced;


s: The boys were playing some old game, beneath that same old tree;


s: I have forgot the name just now--you've played the same with me,


s: The river's running just as still; the willows on its side


s: Are larger than they were, Tom; the stream appears less wide;


s: And, kneeling down to get a drink, dear Tom, I started so,


s: To see how sadly I am changed since forty years ago.


s: Near by that spring, upon an elm, you know I cut your name,


s: My lids have long been dry, Tom, but tears came to my eyes;


s: I thought of her I loved so well, those early broken ties;


s: I visited the old churchyard, and took some flowers to strow


s: Upon the graves of those we loved some forty years ago.


s: Some are in the churchyard laid, some sleep beneath the sea,


s: And none are left of our old class, excepting you and me;


s: But when our time shall come, Tom, and we are called to go,


s: I hope we'll meet with those we loved some forty years ago.


s: Don't you remember sweet Alice, Ben Bolt,--


s: Who wept with delight when you gave her a smile,


s: In the old churchyard in the valley, Ben Bolt,


s: They have fitted a slab of the granite so gray,


s: Together we've lain in the noonday shade,


s: The mill-wheel has fallen to pieces, Ben Bolt,


s: And a quiet which crawls round the walls as you gaze


s: Do you mind of the cabin of logs, Ben Bolt.


s: And the button-ball tree with its motley limbs,


s: And where once the lords of the forest waved


s: And don't you remember the school, Ben Bolt,


s: And the shaded nook in the running brook


s: Grass grows on the master's grave, Ben Bolt,


s: And of all the boys who were schoolmates then


s: There is change in the things I loved, Ben Bolt,


s: They have changed from the old to the new;


s: But I feel in the deeps of my spirit the truth,


s: Twelvemonths twenty have passed, Ben Bolt,


s: Your presence a blessing, your friendship a truth,


s: But the tender grace of a day that is dead


s: Mary's Lamb                  Sarah Josepha Hale


s: Baby's Breakfast             Emilie Poulsson


s: Sephestia's Lullaby          Robert Greene


s: Rebecca's After-Thought      Elizabeth Turner


s: A Little Page's Song         William Alexander Percy


s: The World's Music            Gabriel Setoun


s: The Wind's Song              Gabriel Setoun


s: Child's Song in Spring       Edith Nesbit


s: Answer to a Child's Question Samuel Taylor Coleridge


s: The Cricket's Story          Emma Huntington Nason


s: Nurse's Song                 William Blake


s: October's Party              George Cooper


s: The Peddler's Caravan        William Brighty Rands


s: See'n Things                 Eugene Field


s: The Captain's Daughter       James Thomas Fields


s: Mary's Baby                  Shaemas OSheel


s: A Child's Song of Christmas  Marjorie L. C. Pickthall


s: A Visit from St. Nicholas    Clement Clarke Moore


s: The Children's Hour          Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


s: A Child's Laughter           Algernon Charles Swinburne


s: Letty's Globe                Charles Tennyson Turner


s: Dove's Nest                  Joseph Russell Taylor


s: The Child's Heritage         John G. Neihardt


s: Children's Song              Ford Madox Hueffer


s: In the Children's Hospital   Alfred Tennyson


s: The Mother's Prayer          Dora Sigerson Shorter


s: For Charlie's Sake           John Williamson Palmer


s: The First Snow-fall          James Russell Lowell


s: The Child's Wish Granted     George Parsons Lathrop


s: Sonnets from "Mimma Bella"   Eugene Lee-Hamilton


s: Somebody's Child             Louise Chandler Moulton


s: To-morrow                    John Collins


s: The Old Man's Comforts       Robert Southey


s: The Year's End               Timothy Cole


s: An Old Man's Song            Richard Le Gallienne


s: Blossom where there blows"  Giles Fletcher


s: in My bosom"                Thomas Lodge


s: full of woes"               Samuel Daniel


s: Love's Perjuries             William Shakespeare


s: Love's Emblems               John Fletcher


s: Love's Horoscope             Richard Crashaw


s: something of the sea"       Charles Sedley


s: love is bought"             Isaac Pocock


s: winning"                    Thomas Campbell


s: ever"                       George Gordon Byron


s: A Woman's Shortcomings       Elizabeth Barrett Browning


s: "Love hath a Language"       Helen Selina Sheridan


s: ground"                     Alfred Tennyson


s: "When will Love Come"        Pakenham Beatty


s: Song of Eros from "Agathon"  George Edward Woodberry


s: Song, "Take it, love"        Richard Le Gallienne


s: the house of love"          Alfred Noyes


s: Upon Julia's Clothes         Robert Herrick


s: Jove bestows"               Thomas Carew


s: others Prize"               Mark Akenside


s: The Lover's Choice           Thomas Bedingfield


s: none of Beauty's daughters" George Gordon Byron


s: "Flowers I would Bring"      Aubrey Thomas de Vere


s: outward view"               Hartley Coleridge


s: lovely hair"                Charles Swain


s: not love her"               Robert Browning


s: The Henchman                 John Green1eaf Whittier


s: "Girl of the Red Mouth"      Martin MacDermott


s: The Lover's Song             Edward Rowland Sill


s: Ballade of My Lady's Beauty  Joyce Kilmer


s: loosened hair"              Bliss Carman


s: happy tread"                William Watson


s: said, 'is King of Kings'"   Rupert Brooke


s: Song, "How do I love you"    Irene Rutherford McLeod


s: Of Corinna's Singing         Thomas Campion


s: Men's are"                  Thomas Campion


s: your conquering eyes"       George Etherege


s: Long He would Love Her"     George Etherege


s: I'll Never Love Thee More    James Graham


s: To Althea, from Prison       Richard Lovelace


s: A Deposition from Beauty     Thomas Stanley


s: agree at last"              John Sheffield


s: "False though She be"        William Congreve


s: and over the earth"         James Thomson


s: with Me"                    Thomas Percy


s: Cavalier's Song              Robert Cunninghame-Graham


s: falsehood framed"           Richard Brinsley Sheridan


s: "Take back the Virgin Page"  Thomas Moore


s: The Wandering Knight's Song  John Gibson Lockhart


s: highroad"                   Dana Burnett


s: The Lady's "Yes"             Elizabeth Barrett Browning


s: daughter"                   Alfred Tennyson


s: and I can tarry"            Robert Browning


s: Kate Temple's Song           Mortimer Collins


s: were Gone"                  William Ernest Henley


s: To-day"                     John Bennett


s: To-day                       Benjamin R. C. Low


s: The Serf's Secret            William Vaughn Moody


s: Song, "Song is so old"       Hermann Hagedorn


s: it said"                    Walter Savage Landor


s: Love's Philosophy            Percy Bysshe Shelley


s: first"                      Robert Browning


s: in the land, my love"       Joaquin Miller


s: Sabina wakes"               William Congreve


s: "Come into the Garden, Maud" Alfred Tennyson


s: A Lover's Lullaby            George Gascoigne


s: secure his Treasure"        Matthew Prior


s: "Wouldn't You Like to Know"  John Godfrey Saxe


s: "Sing Heigh-ho"              Charles Kingsley


s: Don't                        James Jeffrey Roche


s: Time's Revenge               Walter Learned


s: back my Heart"              John Suckling


s: Muckle-Mou'd Meg             James Ballantine


s: whose hearts are free"      George Etherege


s: The Lover's Resolution       George Wither


s: I love"                     William Browne


s: fond Lover"                 John Suckling


s: luster see"                 Richard Brinsley Sheridan


s: Love's Spite                 Aubrey Thomas de Vere


s: "When I was One-and-Twenty"  Alfred Edward Housman


s: Love's Young Dream           Thomas Moore


s: "We'll go no More a Roving"  George Gordon Byron


s: amid the sounds dispersing" Aubrey Thomas de Vere


s: Field-path"                 Charles Swain


s: A Woman's Last Word          Robert Browning


s: Windle-straws                Edward Dowden


s: The Chess-board              Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton


s: white rapture"              Charles Hanson Towne


s: The Nymph's Song to Hylas    William Morris


s: garden, yea"                Arthur O'Shaughnessy


s: without the rose"           Arthur O'Shaughnessy


s: whose sacred wine"          Edward Coote Pinkney


s: A Woman's Thought            Richard Watson Gilder


s: Lies"                       Irene Rutherford McLeod


s: Love's Prisoner              Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer


s: "I heard a Soldier"          Herbert Trench


s: where are you roaming"      William Shakespeare


s: at land"                    Charles Sackville


s: parting lover"              Matthew Prior


s: rising morn"                Allan Ramsay


s: "My Nannie's Awa"            Robert Burns


s: The Sea-lands                Orrick Johns


s: The Palm-tree and the Pine   Richard Monckton Milnes


s: The Flower's Name            Robert Browning


s: A song of Parting            H. C. Compton Mackenzie


s: and fair the day"           William Morris


s: absence Conquers love"      Frederick William Thomas


s: the sunlight strong"        Richard Le Gallienne


s: Love's Rosary                Alfred Noyes


s: array"                      William Blake


s: Porphyria's Lover            Robert Browning


s: Affaire d'Amour              Margaret Deland


s: The Lass that Died of Love   Richard Middleton


s: Of Joan's Youth              Louise Imogen Guiney


s: There's Wisdom in Women      Rupert Brooke


s: Maid's Tragedy"             John Fletcher


s: from "Aella"                Thomas Chatterton


s: His dying child"            Thomas Campbell


s: The Maid's Lament            Walter Savage Landor


s: "She is Far from the Land"   Thomas Moore


s: Beauty's Bloom"             George Gordon Byron


s: Rosalind's Scroll            Elizabeth Barrett Browning


s: The King of Denmark's Ride   Caroline E. S. Norton


s: "O that 'Twere Possible"     Alfred Tennyson


s: rocky dells"                Emily Bronte


s: dearest"                    Christina Georgina Rossetti


s: Love's Resurrection Day      Louise Chandler Moulton


s: Janette's Hair               Charles Graham Halpine


s: waited"                     Ernest Dowson


s: The King's Ballad            Joyce Kilmer


s: Her Dwelling-place           Ada Foster Murray


s: The Wife from Fairyland      Richard Le Gallienne


s: garden"                     Maurice Baring


s: "My True-love Hath My Heart" Philip Sidney


s: Song, "O sweet delight"      Thomas Campion


s: I sat against her feet"     Algernon Charles Swinburne


s: buds unfold"                Florence Earle Coates


s: lover's breast"             George Meredith


s: Love among the Ruins         Robert Browning


s: Earl Mertoun's Song          Robert Browning


s: Mary Beaton's Song           Algernon Charles Swinburne


s: A Woman's Question           Adelaide Anne Procter


s: low song of night"          Hildegarde Hawthorne


s: medlar"                     Theophile Marzials


s: The Newly-wedded             Winthrop Mackworth Praed


s: Love's Calendar              William Bell Scott


s: The Land of Heart's Desire   Emily Huntington Miller


s: The Irish Wife               Thomas D'Arcy McGee


s: The Shepherd's Wife's Song   Robert Greene


s: "Truth doth Truth Deserve"   Philip Sidney


s: A Wife's Song                William Cox Bennett


s: The Sailor's Wife            William Julius Mickle


s: An Old Man's Idyl            Richard Realf


s: The Poet's Song to his Wife  Bryan Waller Procter


s: Sonnets from "Amoretti"      Edmund Spenser


s: Sonnets from "To Delia"      Samuel Daniel


s: Sonnets from "Idea"          Michael Drayton


s: Sonnets from "Diana"         Henry Constable


s: upon the Air"               Louise Chandler Moulton


s: Sonnets after the Italian    Richard Watson Gilder


s: Stanzas from "Modern Love"   George Meredith


s: Sonnets from "Thysia"        Morton Luce


s: God's World                  Edna St. Vincent Millay


s: Song, "Phoebus, arise"       William Drummond


s: Dawn-angels                  A. Mary F. Robinson


s: Night's Mardi Gras           Edward J. Wheeler


s: spring"                     Robert Browning


s: A Starling's Spring Rondel   James Cousins


s: Spring, from "In Memoriam"   Alfred Tennyson


s: Nature sees"                Robert Burns


s: Home Thoughts, from Abroad   Robert Browning


s: Corinna's Going a-Maying     Robert Herrick


s: Summer Longings              Denis Florence MacCarthy


s: To the Willow-tree           Robert Herrick


s: The Holly-tree               Robert Southey


s: "Woodman, Spare that Tree"   George Pope Morris


s: The Beech Tree's Petition    Thomas Campbell


s: The Brook's Song             Alfred Tennyson


s: White Azaleas                Harriet McEwen Kimball


s: Four-leaf Clover             Ella Higginson


s: Lessons from the Gorse       Elizabeth Barrett Browning


s: To the Man-of-War-Bird       Walt Whitman


s: Lament of a Mocking-bird     Frances Anne Kemble


s: merry lark                  Hartley Coleridge


s: The Wood-Dove's Note         Emily Huntington Miller


s: Harold's Pilgrimage"        George Gordon Byron


s: A Passer-by                  Robert Bridges


s: The Port o' Heart's Desire   John S. McGroarty


s: "How's My Boy"               Sydney Dobell


s: The Mariner's Dream          William Dimond


s: The Fisher's Widow           Arthur Symons


s: The Leadman's Song           Charles Dibdin


s: Coridon's Song               John Chalkhill


s: Wields"                     Ernest McGaffey


s: The Angler's Invitation      Thomas Tod Stoddart


s: The Angler's Wish            Izaak Walton


s: A Maine Trail                Gertrude Huntington McGiffert


s: The King's Highway           John S. McGroarty


s: Ballad of Low-lie-down       Madison Cawein


s: whispers"                   Georgiana Goddard King


s: "I'd be a Butterfly"         Thomas Haynes Bayly


s: "I'm not a Single Man"       Thomas Hood


s: The Belle of the Ball-room   Winthrop Mackworth Praed


s: My Mistress's Boots          Frederick Locker-Lampson


s: Nell Gwynne's Looking-Glass  Laman Blanchard


s: A Dialogue from Plato        Austin Dobson


s: The Ladies of St. James's    Austin Dobson


s: The Cure's Progress          Austin Dobson


s: A Ballad of Dead Ladies      Justin Huntly McCarthy


s: If I Were King               Justin Huntly McCarthy


s: The Poet and the Wood-louse  Helen Parry Eden


s: Throckmorton's Bullfinch    William Cowper


s: Geist's Grave                Matthew Arnold


s: Villon's Ballade             Andrew Lang


s: The World's Way              Thomas Bailey Aldrich


s: at Saint Praxed's Church    Robert Browning


s: The Deacon's Masterpiece     Oliver Wendell Holmes


s: The Philosopher's Scales     Jane Taylor


s: The V-a-s-e                  James Jeffrey Roche


s: Then Ag'in                   Sam Walter Foss


s: Women's Longing              John Fletcher


s: Woman's Will                 John Godfrey Saxe


s: Epigram                      Byron's epitaph for Pitt


s: The Willow-tree              William Makepeace Thackeray


s: The Jam-pot                  Rudyard Kipling


s: The Poster-girl              Carolyn Wells


s: Then, nymphs, take vantage while ye may;


s: Not all the skill his wounds can stench,


s: Sweet birds, for love that sing and play


s: Naught but wounds his hands doth season,


s: That warms the bed of youth and blood:--


s: The hapless heart that's stung by thee!"


s: Then what d'ye think I did?--I drank him.


s: Still seeking flowers more sweet and rare,


s: Laughs and flies, when pressed and bidden.


s: Love's wing moults when caged and captured,


s: She has laughed as softly as if she sighed,


s: Of a purse well filled, and a heart well tried--


s: They "give her time"; for her soul must slip


s: She will lie to none with her fair red lip:


s: With a glance for one, and a glance for some,


s: Speaks common words with a blushful air,


s: But her silence says--what she never will swear--


s: Unless you can think, when the song is done,


s: Unless you can know, when unpraised by his breath,


s: Unless you can swear "For life, for death!"--


s: Unless you can dream that his faith is fast,


s: Unless you can die when the dream is past--


s: Those bounds which never yet were given,--


s: In a softer bed then the soft white snow's is,


s: Why would it sleep not? why should it start,


s: When never a leaf of the rose-tree stirred?


s: What made sleep flutter his wings and part?


s: Lie still, I said, for the wind's wing closes,


s: And mild leaves muffle the keen sun's dart;


s: Lie still, for the wind on the warm seas dozes,


s: And the wind is unquieter yet than thou art.


s: Does a thought in thee still as a thorn's wound smart?


s: Does the fang still fret thee of hope deferred?


s: What bids the lips of thy sleep dispart?


s: The green land's name that a charm encloses,


s: It never was writ in the traveller's chart,


s: And sweet on its trees as the fruit that grows is,


s: It never was sold in the merchant's mart.


s: The swallows of dreams through its dim fields dart,


s: And sleep's are the tunes in its tree-tops heard;


s: No hound's note wakens the wildwood hart,


s: In the world of dreams I have chosen my part,


s: Of true love's truth or of light love's art,


s: Two shall be born, the whole wide world apart,


s: And speak in different tongues and have no thought


s: And these, o'er unknown seas, to unknown lands


s: Shall cross, escaping wreck, defying death;


s: And bend each wandering step to this one end--


s: That, one day, out of darkness they shall meet


s: And read life's meaning in each other's eyes.


s: And two shall walk some narrow way of life


s: So nearly side by side that, should one turn


s: They needs must stand acknowledged, face to face.


s: And, yet, with wistful eyes that never meet


s: And groping hands that never clasp and lips


s: Calling in vain to ears that never hear,


s: They seek each other all their weary days


s: Some find Love late, some find him soon,


s: For some Love sings, for some Love sighs,


s: Awake, my heart, to be loved, awake, awake!


s: The darkness silvers away, the morn doth break,


s: It leaps in the sky: unrisen lustres slake


s: The o'ertaken moon.  Awake, O heart, awake!


s: She too that loveth awaketh and hopes for thee:


s: Her eyes already have sped the shades that flee,


s: Already they watch the path thy feet shall take:


s: Awake, O heart, to be loved, awake, awake!


s: And if thou tarry from her,--if this could be,--


s: She cometh herself, O heart, to be loved, to thee;


s: For thee would unashamed herself forsake:


s: Awake, to be loved, my heart, awake, awake!


s: Awake! The land is scattered with light, and see,


s: Uncanopied sleep is flying from field and tree;


s: And blossoming boughs of April in laughter shake:


s: Lo, all things wake and tarry and look for thee:


s: She looketh and saith, "O sun, now bring him to me.


s: Come, more adored, O adored, for his coming's sake,


s: And awake, my heart, to be loved, awake, awake!"


s: But her strength is the wind's wild strength above,


s: Love heeds no more the sighing of the wind


s: Against the perfect flowers: thy garden's close


s: Is grown a wilderness, where none shall find


s: One strayed, last petal of one last year's rose.


s: O bright, bright hair! O mouth like a ripe fruit!


s: Love, that was songful, with a broken lute


s: Let the wind blow against the perfect flowers,


s: And all thy garden change and glow with spring:


s: Love is grown blind with no more count of hours


s: Nor part in seed-time nor in harvesting.


s: You may hear the tread of their horses sped


s: They ride for life and they ride for death


s: They march for war and they march for peace,


s: For the lust of gold and fame's increase,


s: With straining eyes for a worthless prize


s: And men leave blood where their feet have stood


s: And knocked as the starry night went by;


s: And my true love cried "Who knocks?" and I said


s: And Love looked down from a lattice above


s: Where the roses were dry as the lips of the dead:


s: I plucked a leaf from the porch and crept


s: Away through a desert of scoffs and scorns


s: To a lonely place where I prayed and wept


s: And a voice rang out from a glory of light,


s: "Make room, make room for a faithful heart


s: The voice and the eyes and the soul of a man,


s: Only through love will you enter heaven.


s: The young girl questions: "Whether were it better


s: Or to rise up and bide by Fate and Chance,


s: The young girl questions: "Friend, shall I die calmer,


s: If I've lain for ever, sheets above the head,


s: Warm in a dream, or rise to take the worst


s: Of hunger for the truth, of drought and thirst?"


s: To amaze the dark heads with strange fire?


s: Of the whole earth with some great praise


s: Some time for feasting Heaven, was stored.


s: Whence a young stream, that trod on moss,


s: Where the cooled sunbeams, broke in wrack,


s: Against the green flame of the hawthorn-tree,


s: And livelier than the green sap's mantling glee


s: The Spring fire tingles through him headily


s: While she, with half-breathed jests that, sobbing, fail,


s: Sits, tight-lipped, quaking, eager-eyed and pale,


s: Doubt you to whom my Muse these notes intendeth,


s: Which now my breast, o'ercharged, to music lendeth?


s: To you! to you! all song of praise is due;


s: Who hath the eyes which marry state with pleasure?


s: Who keeps the key of Nature's chiefest treasure?


s: Only for you the heaven forgat all measure.


s: Who hath the lips where wit in fairness reigneth?


s: Who womankind at once both decks and staineth?


s: Only by you Cupid his crown maintaineth.


s: Who hath the feet, whose step all sweetness planteth?


s: Who else, for whom Fame worthy trumpets wanteth?


s: Who hath the breast, whose milk doth passions nourish?


s: Whose grace is such, that when it chides doth cherish?


s: Only through you the tree of life doth flourish.


s: Who hath the hand, which without stroke subdueth?


s: Who long-dead beauty with increase reneweth?


s: Who hath the hair, which loosest fastest tieth?


s: Who makes a man live then glad when he dieth?


s: Who hath the voice, which soul from senses sunders?