s: And the bend of his graceful bow is seen--


s: And dripping with gems of the river-dew.


s: As he lighted down from his courser toad,


s: Then round his breast his wings he wound,


s: And close to the river's brink he strode;


s: He sprang on a rock, he breathed a prayer,


s: And headlong plunged in the waters blue.


s: from the sea-silk beds in their coral caves;


s: With snail-plate armor snatched in haste,


s: They speed their way through the liquid waste.


s: On the mailed shrimp or the prickly prong,


s: And some on the jellied quarl that flings


s: His hope is high and his limbs are strong;


s: He spreads his arms like the swallow's wing,


s: And throws his feet with a frog-like fling;


s: But the water-sprites are gathering near


s: On his thigh the leech has fixed his hold,


s: The quad's long arms are round him rolled,


s: And the crab has struck with his giant claw.


s: He howls with rage, and he shrieks with pain;


s: He strikes around, but his blows are vain;


s: With hurry and dash, to the beach again;


s: And laid his cheek to the cleaving tide;


s: The strokes of his plunging arms are fleet,


s: And with all his might he flings his feet.


s: But the water-sprites are round him still,


s: And they stunned his ears with the scallop-stroke,


s: With the porpoise heave and the drum-fish croak.


s: When he reached the foot of the dog-wood tree.


s: He blessed the force of the charmed line,


s: For he saw around in the sweet moonshine


s: Giggling and laughing with all their might


s: From the sorrel-leaf and the henbane bud;


s: And with cobweb lint he stanched the blood.


s: And he felt new life in his sinews shoot


s: As he drank the juice of the calamus root.


s: He heaved at the stern and he heaved at the bow,


s: And he pushed her over the yielding sand


s: Till he came; to the verge of the haunted land.


s: For she glowed with purple paint without,


s: Then sprung to his seat with a lightsome leap,


s: And launched afar on the calm, blue deep.


s: But they heaved the billow before the prow,


s: And they dashed the surge against her side,


s: And they struck her keel with jerk and blow,


s: Till the gunwale bent to the rocking tide.


s: Like a feather that floats on a wind-tossed stream;


s: And the fluttering scallop behind would float,


s: But he bailed her out with his colon-bell,


s: And he kept her trimmed with a wary tread,


s: Till he came where the column of moonshine lay,


s: But he sculled with all his might and main,


s: And the track o'er which his boat must pass


s: Around, their limbs the sea-nymphs lave,


s: He kissed the beach and breathed a prayer;


s: And shine with a thousand changing dyes,


s: Till, lessening far, through ether driven,


s: And gleams with bleedings soft and bright


s: Till lost in the shades of fading night;


s: When Greece, her knee in suppliance bent,


s: In dreams, through camp and court he bore.


s: Then pressed that monarch's throne--a king:


s: True as the steel of their tried blades,


s: There had the Persian's thousands stood,


s: There had the glad earth drunk their blood


s: "To arms! they come! the Greek! the Greek!"


s: Strike--till the last armed foe expires!


s: Strike--for the green graves of your sires,


s: They fought like brave men, long and well;


s: They piled that ground with Moslem slain;


s: For the first time, her first-horn's breath;


s: The groan, the knell, the pall, the bier,


s: Come with her laurel-leaf, blood-bought,


s: Nor bade the dark hearse wave its plume,


s: Like torn branch from death's leafless tree,


s: Thinks of thy fate and checks her tears;


s: Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,


s: Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home;


s: A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there,


s: Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere.


s: There's no place like Home! there's no place like Home!


s: An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain;


s: O, give me my lowly thatched cottage again!


s: The birds singing gayly, that came at my call,--


s: Give me them,--and the peace of mind, dearer than all!


s: How sweet 'tis to sit 'neath a fond father's smile,


s: And the cares of a mother to soothe and beguile!


s: Let others delight mid new pleasures to roam,


s: But give me, oh, give me, the pleasures of home!


s: To thee I'll return, overburdened with care;


s: The heart's dearest solace will smile on me there;


s: No more from that, cottage again will I roam;


s: Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.


s: While a bolder note than this might swell


s: Ah, broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever!


s: Let the bell toll!--a saintly soul floats on the Stygian river;


s: And, Guy De Vere, halt thou no tear?--weep now or never more!


s: See! on yon drear and rigid bier low lies thy love, Lenore!


s: Come! let the burial rite be read--the funeral song be sung!--


s: An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young--


s: A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young.


s: "By you--by yours, the evil eye,--by yours, the slanderous tongue


s: Peccavimus; but rave not thus! and let a Sabbath song


s: Go up to God so solemnly the dead may feel no wrong!


s: The sweet Lenore hath "gone before," with Hope, that flew beside,


s: The life upon her yellow hair but not within her eyes--


s: The life still there, upon her hair--the death upon her eyes.


s: "From grief and groan, to a golden throne, beside the King of


s: Let no bell toll then!--lest her soul, amid its hallowed mirth,


s: Should catch the note as it doth float up from the damned Earth!


s: And I!--to-night my heart is light!  No dirge will I upraise,


s: But waft the angel on her flight with a Paean of old days!


s: Type of the antique Rome!  Rich reliquary


s: At length--at length--after so many days


s: (Thirst for the springs of lore that in thee lie,)


s: My very soul thy grandeur, gloom, and glory!


s: I feel ye now--I feel ye in your strength--


s: O spells more sure than e'er Judaean king


s: O charms more potent than the rapt Chaldee


s: Ever drew down from out the quiet stars!


s: Here, where a hero fell, a column falls!


s: Here, where the mimic eagle glared in gold,


s: Here, where the dames of Rome their gilded hair


s: Waved to the wind, now wave the reed and thistle!


s: Here, where on golden throne the monarch lolled,


s: Glides, spectre-like, unto his marble home,


s: Lit by the wan light of the horned moon,


s: The swift and silent lizard of the stones!


s: But stay! these walls--these ivy-clad arcades--


s: These mouldering plinths--these sad and blackened shafts--


s: These vague entablatures--this crumbling frieze--


s: These shattered cornices--this wreck--this ruin--


s: These stones--alas! these gray stones--are they all--


s: "Not all"--the Echoes answer me--"not all!


s: "Prophetic sounds and loud, arise forever


s: "From us, and from all Ruin, unto the wise,


s: "We rule the hearts of mightiest men--we rule


s: "Not all our power is gone--not all our fame--


s: "And cling around about us as a garment,


s: "Clothing us in a robe of more than glory."


s: Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing


s: And travellers, now, within that valley,


s: All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,


s: Till the fair and gentle Eulalie became my blushing bride--


s: Till the yellow-haired young Eulalie became my smiling bride.


s: With the moon-tints of purple and pearl,


s: Can vie with the modest Eulalie's most unregarded curl--


s: Can compare with the bright-eyed Eulalie's most humble


s: While ever to her dear Eulalie upturns her matron eye--


s: While ever to her young Eulalie upturns her violet eye.


s: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,


s: Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore


s: While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,


s: As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door


s: "'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door--


s: Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;


s: And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor--


s: Eagerly I wished the morrow;--vainly I had sought to borrow


s: From my books surcease of sorrow--sorrow for the lost Lenore--


s: For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore--


s: And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain


s: Thrilled me--filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;


s: So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating


s: "'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door--


s: Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;--


s: Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,


s: "Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;


s: But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping


s: And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,


s: Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering,


s: Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;


s: But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,


s: And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore!"


s: This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word "Lenore!"


s: Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,


s: Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.


s: "Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice;


s: Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;--


s: Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door--


s: Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,


s: By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,


s: "Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art


s: Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore--


s: Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,


s: For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being


s: Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door--


s: Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,


s: But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only


s: That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.


s: Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,


s: "Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store,


s: Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore


s: Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore--


s: But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,


s: Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking


s: Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore--


s: Thus I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing


s: To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;


s: This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining


s: On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er,


s: But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er,


s: Respite--respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore;


s: Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!"


s: On this home by Horror haunted--tell me truly, I implore--


s: Is there--is there balm in Gilead?--tell me--tell me, I implore!"


s: Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,


s: It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore:


s: Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore."


s: "Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!"  I shrieked,


s: "Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!


s: Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!


s: Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my


s: And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting


s: And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,


s: A full-orbed moon, that, like thine own soul, soaring,


s: Sought a precipitate pathway up through heaven,


s: There fell a silvery-silken veil of light,


s: With quietude and sultriness and slumber,


s: Where no wind dared to stir, unless on tiptoe--


s: Fell on the upturn'd faces of these roses


s: That gave out, in return for the love-light,


s: Their odorous souls in an ecstatic death--


s: That smiled and died in this parterre, enchanted


s: By thee, and by the poetry of thy presence.


s: I saw thee half reclining; while the moon


s: Fell on the upturn'd faces of the roses,


s: And on throe own, upturn'd--alas, in sorrow!


s: Was it not Fate, that, on this July midnight--


s: Was it not Fate, (whose name is also Sorrow),


s: That bade me pause before that garden-gate,


s: To breathe the incense of those slumbering roses?


s: No footstep stirred: the hated world all slept,


s: Save only thee and me.  (Oh, heaven!--oh, God!


s: How my heart beats in coupling those two words!)


s: Save only thee and me.  I paused--I looked--


s: And in an instant all things disappeared.


s: (Ah, bear in mind this garden was enchanted!)


s: The mossy banks and the meandering paths,


s: The happy flowers and the repining trees,


s: Were seen no more: the very roses' odors


s: All--all expired save thee--save less than thou:


s: Save only the divine light in throe eyes--


s: Save but the soul in throe uplifted eyes.


s: I saw but them--they were the world to me.


s: I saw but them--saw only them for hours--


s: Saw only there until the moon went down.


s: What wild heart-histories seemed to lie enwritten


s: Upon those crystalline, celestial spheres!


s: But now, at length, dear Dian sank from sight,


s: And thou, a ghost, amid the entombing trees


s: Didst glide away.  Only thine eyes remained.


s: They would not go--they never yet have gone.


s: Lighting my lonely pathway home that night,


s: They have not left me (as my hopes have) since.


s: They follow me--they lead me through the years--


s: They are my ministers--yet I their slave.


s: Their office is to illumine and enkindle--


s: My duty, to be saved by their bright light,


s: They fill my soul with Beauty (which is Hope),


s: And are far up in Heaven--the stars I kneel to


s: I see them still--two sweetly scintillant


s: That a maiden there lived whom you may know


s: And this maiden she lived with no other thought


s: But we loved with a love that was more than love--


s: With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven


s: The angels, not half so happy in heaven,


s: Yes!--that was the reason (as all men know,


s: That the wind came out of the cloud by night,


s: But our love it was stronger by far than the love


s: For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams


s: And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes


s: And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side


s: Of my darling--my darling--my life and my bride


s: What a world of merriment their melody foretells!


s: To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells


s: From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.


s: What a world of happiness their harmony foretell:


s: To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats


s: What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!


s: To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!


s: What a tale of terror, now their turbulency tells!


s: In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,


s: In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,


s: By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells


s: In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!


s: What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!


s: To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.


s: I heard the trailing garments of the Night


s: I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light


s: I felt her presence, by its spell of might,


s: The calm, majestic presence of the Night,


s: I heard the sounds of sorrow and delight,


s: That fill the haunted chambers of the Night,


s: From the cool cisterns of the midnight air


s: The fountain of perpetual peace flows there--


s: Thou layest thy finger on the lips of Care,


s: Peace! Peace! Orestes-like I breathe this prayer!


s: The welcome, the thrice-prayed for, the most fair,


s: And the skipper had taken his little daughter,


s: And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds,


s: And he watched how the veering flaw did blow


s: "Last night, the moon had a golden ring,


s: The skipper, he blew a whiff from his pipe,


s: She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed,


s: "Come hither! come hither! my little daughter,


s: He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat


s: "O father! I hear the church-bells ring,


s: "'Tis a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast!"


s: "Some ship in distress, that cannot live


s: Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark,


s: The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow


s: Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed


s: And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave,


s: And fast through the midnight dark and drear,


s: The breakers were right beneath her bows,


s: She struck where the white and fleecy waves


s: But the cruel rocks, they gored her side


s: Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice,


s: Like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank,


s: And he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed,


s: Christ save us all from a death like this,


s: Week in, week out, from morn till night,


s: You can hear him swing his heavy sledge,


s: It sounds to him like her mother's voice,


s: Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend,


s: Where, waiting till the west wind blows,


s: All things are new;--the buds, the leaves,


s: For Time will teach thee soon the truth,


s: Flashed like a falchion from its sheath,


s: Of household fires gleam warm and bright;


s: "Beware the pine tree's withered branch!


s: The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,


s: My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,


s: But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,


s: Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;


s: Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;


s: That shall soothe this restless feeling,


s: And the night shall be filled with music,


s: From the hearts that are broken with losses,


s: And he gathers the prayers as he stands,


s: And they change into flowers in his hands,


s: And beneath the great arch of the portal,


s: Through the streets of the City Immortal


s: On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;


s: He said to his friend, "If the British march


s: Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--


s: Through every Middlesex village and farm,


s: For the country-folk to be up and to arm."


s: Then he said, "Good night!" and with muffled oar


s: Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,


s: And a huge black hulk that was magnified


s: Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street,


s: The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,


s: And the measured tread of the grenadiers,


s: Marching down to their boats on the shore.


s: Then he climbed to the tower of the church,


s: Up the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,


s: And startled the pigeons from their perch


s: On the sombre rafters, that round him made


s: Up the trembling ladder, steep and tall,


s: Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,


s: That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread,


s: Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread


s: On the rising tide, like a bridge of boats.


s: On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.


s: Now gazed at the landscape far and near,


s: And turned and tightened his saddlegirth;


s: The belfry-tower of the Old North Church,


s: As it rose above the graves on the hill,


s: Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.


s: And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height


s: He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,


s: But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight


s: A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,


s: And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark


s: Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;


s: That was all!  And yet, through the gloom and the light,


s: The fate of a nation was riding that night;


s: And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,


s: Kindled the land into flame with its heat.


s: He has left the village and mounted the steep,


s: And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,


s: And under the alders, that skirt its edge,


s: Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,


s: Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.


s: When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.


s: And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare,


s: At the bloody work they would look upon.


s: When he came to the bridge in Concord town.


s: And the twitter of birds among the trees,


s: And felt the breath of the morning breeze


s: Who at the bridge would be first to fall,


s: How the British Regulars fired and fled,--


s: How the farmers gave them ball for ball,


s: From behind each fence and farmyard wall,


s: Then crossing the fields to emerge again


s: Under the trees at the turn of the road,


s: And so through the night went his cry of alarm


s: A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,


s: For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,


s: In the hour of darkness and peril and need,


s: The people will waken and listen to hear


s: And the midnight message of Paul Revere.


s: Robert of Sicily, brother of Pope Urbane


s: With retinue of many a knight and squire,


s: On St. John's eve, at vespers, proudly sat


s: And heard the priests chant the Magnificat.


s: "What mean these words?"  The clerk made answer meet,


s: "He has put down the mighty from their seat,


s: Thereat King Robert muttered scornfully,


s: "'Tis well that such seditious words are sung


s: Only by priests and in the Latin tongue;


s: For unto priests and people be it known,


s: There is no power can push me from my throne!"


s: And leaning back, he yawned and fell asleep,


s: Lulled by the chant monotonous and deep.


s: The church was empty, and there was no light,


s: Save where the lamps, that glimmered few and faint,


s: Lighted a little space before some saint.


s: He started from his seat and gazed around,


s: But saw no living thing and heard no sound.


s: He groped towards the door, but it was locked;


s: He cried aloud, and listened, and then knocked,


s: And uttered awful threatenings and complaints,


s: The sounds re-echoed from the roof and walls


s: As if dead priests were laughing in their stalls!


s: At length the sexton, hearing from without


s: The tumult of the knocking and the shout,


s: And thinking thieves were in the house of prayer,


s: Came with his lantern, asking, "Who is there?"


s: Half choked with rage, King Robert fiercely said,


s: "Open: 'tis I, the King!  Art thou afraid?"


s: The frightened sexton, muttering, with a curse,


s: "This is some drunken vagabond, or worse!"


s: Turned the great key and flung the portal wide;


s: Haggard, half naked, without hat or cloak,


s: Who neither turned, nor looked at him, nor spoke,


s: But leaped into the blackness of the night,


s: And vanished like a spectre from his sight.


s: Robert of Sicily, brother of Pope Urbane


s: Bare-headed, breathless, and besprent with mire,


s: With sense of wrong and outrage desperate,


s: Strode on and thundered at the palace gate;


s: Rushed through the court-yard, thrusting in his rage


s: To right and left each seneschal and page,


s: And hurried up the broad and sounding stair,


s: His white face ghastly in the torches' glare.


s: From hall to hall he passed with breathless speed;


s: Voices and cries he heard, but did not heed,


s: Until at last he reached the banquet--room,


s: Blazing with light, and breathing with perfume.


s: Wearing his robes, his crown, his signet-ring,


s: King Robert's self in features, form, and height,


s: But all transfigured with angelic light!


s: With a divine effulgence filled the air,


s: A moment speechless, motionless, amazed,


s: The throneless monarch on the Angel gazed,


s: Then said, "Who art thou? and why com'st thou here?"


s: To which King Robert answered with a sneer,


s: "I am the King, and come to claim my own


s: From an impostor, who usurps my throne!"


s: Up sprang the angry guests, and drew their swords;


s: The Angel answered, with unruffled brow,


s: "Nay, not the King, but the King's Jester, thou


s: Henceforth shalt wear the bells and scalloped cape,


s: And for thy counsellor shaft lead an ape;


s: Thou shalt obey my servants when they call,


s: Deaf to King Robert's threats and cries and prayers,


s: They thrust him from the hall and down the stairs;


s: And as they opened wide the folding-door,


s: His heart failed, for he heard, with strange alarms,


s: The boisterous laughter of the men-at-arms,


s: And all the vaulted chamber roar and ring


s: With the mock plaudits of "Long live the King!


s: Next morning, waking with the day's first beam,


s: He said within himself, "It was a dream!"


s: But the straw rustled as he turned his head,


s: There were the cap and bells beside his bed,


s: Around him rose the bare, discolored walls,


s: Close by, the steeds were champing in their stalls,


s: Shivering and chattering sat the wretched ape.


s: It was no dream; the world he loved so much


s: Had turned to dust and ashes at his touch!


s: Days came and went; and now returned again


s: The happy island danced with corn and wine,


s: And deep within the mountain's burning breast


s: Meanwhile King Robert yielded to his fate,


s: Dressed in the motley garb that Jesters wear,


s: With looks bewildered and a vacant stare,


s: Close shaven above the ears, as monks are shorn,


s: By courtiers mocked, by pages laughed to scorn,


s: What others left,--he still was unsubdued.


s: And half in earnest, half in jest, would say,


s: Sternly, though tenderly, that he might feel


s: The velvet scabbard held a sword of steel,


s: "Art thou the King?" the passion of his woe


s: And, lifting high his forehead, he would fling


s: The haughty answer back, "I am, I am the King!"


s: Almost three years were ended; when there came


s: Unto King Robert, saying that Pope Urbane


s: By letter summoned them forthwith to come


s: The Angel with great joy received his guests,


s: And gave them presents of embroidered vests,


s: And velvet mantles with rich ermine lined,


s: Whose loveliness was more resplendent made


s: With plumes, and cloaks, and housings, and the stir


s: And lo! among the menials, in mock state,


s: Upon a piebald steed, with shambling gait,


s: His cloak of fox-tails flapping in the wind,


s: In all the country towns through which they went.


s: The Pope received them with great pomp and blare


s: Of bannered trumpets, on Saint Peter's square,


s: While with congratulations and with prayers


s: Robert, the Jester, bursting through the crowd,


s: Into their presence rushed, and cried aloud,


s: This man, who wears my semblance to your eyes,


s: Do you not know me? does no voice within


s: The Pope in silence, but with troubled mien,


s: Gazed at the Angel's countenance serene;


s: The Emperor, laughing, said, "It is strange sport


s: To keep a madman for thy Fool at court!"


s: And the poor, baffled Jester in disgrace


s: The presence of the Angel, with its light,


s: Before the sun rose, made the city bright,


s: And with new fervor filled the hearts of men,


s: Who felt that Christ indeed had risen again.


s: With haggard eyes the unwonted splendor saw,


s: And, kneeling humbly on his chamber floor,


s: He heard the rushing garments of the Lord


s: Sweep through the silent air, ascending heavenward.


s: Valmond returning to the Danube's shore,


s: The land was made resplendent with his train,


s: And when once more within Palermo's wall,


s: And, seated on the throne in his great hall,


s: He heard the Angelus from convent towers,


s: As if the better world conversed with ours,


s: He beckoned to King Robert to draw nigher,


s: And with a gesture bade the rest retire;


s: And when they were alone, the Angel said,


s: "Art thou the King?"  Then bowing down his head,


s: King Robert crossed both hands upon his breast,


s: And meekly answered him: "Thou knowest best!


s: My sins as scarlet are; let me go hence,


s: And in some cloister's school of penitence,


s: Across those stones, that pave the way to heaven,


s: Walk barefoot, till my guilty soul is shriven!"


s: The Angel smiled, and from his radiant face


s: And through the open window, loud and clear,


s: They heard the monks chant in the chapel near,


s: "He has put down the mighty from their seat,


s: Rose like the throbbing of a single string


s: King Robert, who was standing near the throne,


s: With ermined mantle and with cloth of gold;


s: And when his courtiers came, they found him there


s: Kneeling upon the floor, absorbed in silent prayer.


s: Lord, he thought, in heaven that reignest,


s: Sprinkling our noon of time with freshest morning dew.


s: To breathe their marvellous notes I try;


s: And drink with glad, still lips the blessing of the sky.


s: Or Duty's rugged march through storm and strife, are here.


s: I view her common forms with unanointed eyes.


s: A more intense despair or brighter hope to find.


s: As if my brother's pain and sorrow were my own.


s: As theirs, I lay, like them, my best gifts on thy shrine!


s: He comes,--he comes,--the Frost Spirit comes!  You


s: On the naked woods and the blasted fields and the brown


s: He has smitten the leaves of the gray old trees where their


s: And the winds, which follow wherever he goes, have shaken


s: He comes,--he comes,--the Frost Spirit comes!--from


s: From the icy bridge of the Northern seas, which the white


s: Where the fisherman's sail is stiff with ice, and the luckless


s: In the sunless cold of the lingering night into marble statues


s: He comes,--he comes,--the Frost Spirit comes!--on the


s: And the dark Norwegian pines have bowed as his fearful


s: With an unscorched wing he has hurried on, where the fires


s: On the darkly beautiful sky above and the ancient ice below.


s: He comes,--he comes,--the Frost Spirit comes!--and


s: The torpid touch of his glazing breath, and ring to the


s: And the streams which danced on the broken rocks, or sang


s: Shall bow again to their winter chain, and in mournful


s: He comes,--he comes,--the Frost Spirit comes!--let us


s: And turn with the light of the parlor-fire his evil


s: And gather closer the circle round, when that fire-light


s: And laugh at the shriek of the baffled Fiend as his sounding


s: And, seen through Friendship's atmosphere,


s: The unaccustomed light of beauty, for thy sake.


s: The o'er-sunned bloom of summer's plain,


s: Calls from the weltering slope of life's autumnal


s: As springs the pine where falls the gay-leafed maple wood!


s: So, even my after-thoughts may have a charm for thee.


s: And the rough ore must find its honors in its use.


s: The unsung beauty hid life's common things below.


s: Where the strong working hand makes strong the working brain.


s: The burden of old crime, or mark of primal shame.


s: Since He whose name we breathe with awe.


s: In labor, as in prayer, fulfilling the same law.


s: Noiseless creeping, while we're sleeping,


s: Down the wild March flood shall bear them


s: Or where Steam, the slave, shall tear them


s: Where, through clouds, are glimpses given


s: The clouds, which rise with thunder, slake


s: Through which all hues and shapes of grace


s: There drooped thy more than mortal face,


s: The truth, that painter, bard, and sage,


s: Even in Earth's cold and changeful clime,


s: The hope, the trust, the purpose stayed,


s: But life, though falling like our grain,


s: For the thoughts and things of to-day are hid,


s: And the silver buckles of shoe and knee.


s: His face with lines of firmness wrought,


s: The face that a child would climb to kiss!


s: Like a penitent hymn of the Psalmist old,


s: Of the fast which the good man lifelong kept


s: With a haunting sorrow that never slept,


s: As the circling year brought round the time


s: Of an error that left the sting of crime,


s: When he sat on the bunch of the witchcraft courts,


s: With the laws of Moses and Hales Reports,


s: And spake, in the name of both, the word


s: The feeble life from the warlock's breast!


s: As he baffled the ghosts of the dead with charms


s: Of penitent tears, and prayers, and psalms,


s: And, with precious proofs from the sacred word


s: Of the boundless pity and love of the Lord,


s: His faith confirmed and his trust renewed


s: That the sin of his ignorance, sorely rued,


s: Might be washed away in the mingled flood


s: Of his human sorrow and Christ's dear blood!


s: By the cloudy shadows which o'er it glide!


s: In the infinite love that stooped to save,


s: "Who doth such wrong," he was wont to say,


s: Which God shall cast down upon his head!"


s: And the cunning trickster and knave of courts


s: Who the holy features of Truth distorts,--


s: Wide-eared to power, to the wronged and weak


s: For whose dabbled ermine respect were waste,


s: As from Koordish robber or Syrian Sheik!


s: O, leave the wretch to his bribes and sins;


s: Let him rot in the web of lies he spins!


s: To the Christian judge, let us turn and say


s: The hills curve round like a bonded bow;


s: And, round and round, over valley and hill,


s: And glimpses of chimneys and gabled eaves,


s: Through green elm arches and maple leaves,--


s: There pictured tiles in the fireplace show,


s: The dresser glitters with polished wares,


s: The long clock ticks on the foot-worn stairs,


s: And the low, broad chimney shows the crack


s: Lip from their midst springs the collage spire


s: With the crest of its cock in the sun afire;


s: And great salt marshes and glimmering sands,


s: And, where north and south the coast-lines run,


s: But my thoughts are full of the past and old,


s: And the shadows and shapes of early days


s: With measured movement and rhythmic chime


s: And, propped on his staff of age, looked down,


s: With his boyhood's love, on his native town,


s: Where, written, as if on its hills and plains,


s: For the voices of wood, and wave, and wind


s: To read in the ear of the musing mind:--


s: "As long as Plum Island, to guard the coast


s: As long as a salmon shall haunt the deep


s: Or red-backed perch, in Crane Pond swim;


s: Their time to come and their time to go;


s: The green, grass meadows by Turkey Hill;


s: As long as sheep shall look from the side


s: As long as a wandering pigeon shall search


s: The fields below from his white-oak perch,


s: When the barley-harvest is ripe and shorn,


s: And the dry husks fall from the standing corn;


s: And her care for the Indian corn forget,


s: Grow up and ripen as God's sweet corn!--


s: By the beak of bird, by the breath of frost


s: But husked by Death in the Planter's sight,


s: The sturgeon leaps, and the wild-fowl feeds


s: And the Lord of the Harvest deign to own


s: Of all the rides since the birth of time,


s: Tarred and feathered and carried in a cart


s: "Here's Flud Oirson, for his horrd horrt,


s: Torr'd an' futherr'd an' corr'd in a corrt


s: With conch-shells blowing and fish-horns' twang.


s: "Here's Flud Oirson, fur his horrd horrt,


s: And off he sailed through the fog and rain!


s: Looked for the coming that might not be!


s: What did the winds and the sea-birds say


s: Sharp-tongued spinsters, old wives gray,


s: Shook head, and fist, and hat, and cane,


s: And cracked with curses the old refrain:


s: Of the fields so green and the sky so blue.


s: "Hear me, neighbors!" at last he cried,"--


s: To the nameless horror that lives within?


s: The hand of God and the face of the dead!"


s: Said old Floyd Ireson, for his hard heart,


s: Then the wife of the skipper lost at sea


s: Said, God has touched him! why should we?"


s: "Cut the rogue's tether and let him run!"


s: So with soft relentings and rude excuse,


s: Half scorn, half pity, they cut him loose,


s: And left him alone with his shame and sin.


s: Tarred and feathered and carried in a cart


s: And its time of fable the tale comes down


s: Of a terror which haunted bush and brake,


s: On the desolate shore of a sailless sea,


s: Of the wood so dreary, and dark, and old,


s: Which drank with its lips of leaves the dew


s: When Time was young, and the world was new,


s: Ere the stones of Cheops were squared and hewn.


s: Of the mournful wail from the pine-wood blown,


s: Of the strange, vast splendors that lit the North,


s: Of the troubled throes of the quaking earth,


s: Till the settler's heart at his hearth grew cold,


s: And he shrank from the tawny wizard's boasts,


s: And the hovering shadows seemed full of ghosts,


s: The fear of his creed seemed verified;--


s: And think, if his lot were now thine own,


s: To grope with terrors nor named nor known,


s: And a feebler faith thy need might serve;


s: That the snake had two heads, and not a score!


s: Or the gray earth-flax of the Devil's Den,


s: Or coiled by the Northman's Written Rock,


s: For he earned a head where his tail should be,


s: And the two, of course, could never agree,


s: A snake with two heads, lurking so near!--


s: Shaking their heads in their dreary way,


s: And closer and closer, for fear of harm,


s: And how the spark, who was forced to stay,


s: By his sweetheart's fears, till the break of day,


s: Like a snowball growing while it rolled.


s: The nurse hushed with it the baby's cry;


s: And it served, in the worthy minister's eye,


s: With his eyes agog and his ears set wide,


s: Of his brains for the lore he learned at school,


s: To garnish the story, with here a streak


s: And the tales he heard and the notes he took,


s: Behold! are they not in his Wonder-Book?


s: Stories, like dragons, are hard to kill.


s: If the snake does not, the tale runs still


s: Publish the shame of their daily strife,


s: And, with mid cross-purpose, tug and strain


s: Of their gray heads, "Look at the Double Snake!


s: Singing, she wrought, and her merry glee


s: But when she glanced to the far-off town,


s: And a nameless longing filled her breast,


s: For something better than she had known.


s: And ask a draught from the spring that flowed


s: She stooped where the cool spring bubbled up,


s: And blushed as she gave it, looking down


s: On her feet so bare, and her tattered gown.


s: "Thanks!" said the Judge; "a sweeter draught


s: He spoke of the grass and flowers and trees,


s: Of the singing birds and the humming bees;


s: Then talked of the haying, and wondered whether


s: The cloud in the west would bring foul weather.


s: "My father should wear a broadcloth coat;


s: And the baby should have a new toy each day.


s: "And I'd feed the hungry and clothe the poor


s: And all should bless me who left our door."


s: The Judge looked back as he climbed the hill,


s: "No doubtful balance of rights and wrongs,


s: But he thought of his sisters, proud and cold,


s: And his mother, vain of her rank and gold.


s: So, closing his heart, the Judge rode on,


s: When he hummed in court an old love-tune;


s: And the young girl mused beside the well,


s: Yet oft, in his marble hearth's bright glow,


s: Oft, when the wine in his glass was red,


s: And closed his eyes on his garnished rooms


s: And the proud man sighed, with a secret pain,


s: Where the barefoot maiden raked her hay."


s: And many children played round her door.


s: But care and sorrow, and childbirth pain,


s: And she heard the little spring brook fall


s: She felt his pleased eyes read her face.


s: Then she took up her burden of life again,


s: The saddest are these: "It might have been!"


s: Ah, well! for us all some sweet hope lies


s: In smiles and tears, in sun and showers,


s: The sky, that flecked the ground of toil


s: Sweet day, sweet songs!--The golden hours


s: The joys and griefs that plume the wings


s: I matched with Scotland's heathery hills


s: But think, while falls that shade between


s: Where a mountain stream rolled darkly down


s: I walk with bare, hushed feet the ground


s: "God be praised!--the March of Havelock!


s: The minks were fish-wards, and the crows


s: Who travailed in pain with the births of God


s: Charm the black snake out of the ledges,


s: And there were the bluffs and the blue sea-line.


s: Turned the brown earth from their shares;


s: Nor sad by thinking, nor mad by drinking,


s: Have they burned the stocks for oven-wood?


s: "Would the old folk know their children?


s: Yet, "God be praised!" the Pilgrim said,


s: And, through dead leaves of hope, shall spring


s: Thou art not my friend, and I'm not thine.


s: Long I've been tossed like the driven foam;


s: Whose groves the frolic fairies planned;


s: A spot that is sacred to thought and Cod.


s: I tread on the pride of Greece and Rome;


s: And when I am stretched beneath the pines,


s: I laugh at the lore and the pride of man


s: At the sophist schools and the learned clan;


s: For what are they all, in their high conceit,


s: Where man in the bush with God may meet?


s: Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown


s: The heifer that lows in the upland faun,


s: Stops his horse, and lists with delight,


s: Whilst his files sweep round yon Alpine height;


s: Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent.


s: I thought the sparrow's note from heaven,


s: I brought him home, in his nest, at even;


s: He sings the song, but it cheers not now,


s: For I did not bring home the river and sky;--


s: He sang to my ear,--they sang to my eye.


s: With the sun and the sand and the wild uproar.


s: Was woven still by the snow-white choir.


s: Like the bird from the woodlands to the cage;--


s: I leave it behind with the games of youth:--


s: The ground-pine curled its pretty wreath,


s: Pine-cones and acorns lay on the ground;


s: Fall like sweet strains, or pensive smiles;


s: And groined the aisles of Christian Rome;


s: Know'st thou what wove yon woodbird's nest


s: Of leaves, and feathers from her breast?


s: And the same power that reared the shrine


s: Girds with one flame the countless host,


s: Trances the heart through chanting choirs,


s: And through the priest the mind inspires.


s: In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes,


s: Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook,


s: To please the desert and the sluggish brook,


s: Made the black water with their beauty gay;


s: Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool,


s: And court the flower that cheapens his array.


s: This charm is wasted on the earth and sky,


s: Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,


s: Why thou went there, O rival of the rose!


s: The self-same Power that brought me there brought you.


s: Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,


s: Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields,


s: Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heaven,


s: And veils the farm-house at the garden's end.


s: The sled and traveller stopped, the courier's feet


s: Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit


s: Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer


s: Curves his white bastions with projected roof


s: Round every windward stake, or tree, or door.


s: Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work


s: On coop or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths;


s: A swan-like form invests the hidden thorn;


s: Fills up the farmer's lane from wall to wall,


s: Maugre the farmer's sighs; and at the gate


s: And when his hours are numbered, and the world


s: Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,


s: Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art


s: To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,


s: Built in an age, the mad wind's night-work,


s: And the former called the latter "Little Prig";


s: Talents differ; all is well and wisely put;


s: Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?


s: Loved the wood-rose, and left it on its stalk?


s: At rich men's tables eaten bread and pulse?


s: Unarmed, faced danger with a heart of trust?


s: In man or maid, that thou from speech refrained,


s: O, be my friend, and teach me to be thine!


s: By the rude bridge that arched the flood,


s: And fired the shot heard round the world.


s: Down the dark stream which seaward creep.


s: On this green bank, by this soft stream,


s: When, like our sires, our sons are gone.


s: East, west, north, south, are his domain,


s: Miles off, three dangerous miles, is home;


s: Must borrow his winds who there would come.


s: Tugs at the heart-strings, numbs the sense,


s: Well, in this broad bed lie and sleep,--


s: The winds shall sing their dead-march old,


s: Flew near, with soft wing grazed my hand,


s: Fronts the north-wind in waistcoat gray,


s: I dine in the sun; when he sinks in the sea,


s: Than noontide twilights which snow makes


s: He shall bring store of seeds and crumbs,


s: Takes hearts like throe in special charge,


s: Helps who for their own need are strong,


s: Then Thorstein looked at Hakon, where he sate,


s: And said: "O Skald, sing now an olden song,


s: Such as our fathers heard who led great lives;


s: And, as the bravest on a shield is borne


s: Along the waving host that shouts him king,


s: So rode their thrones upon the thronging seas!"


s: Then the old man arose; white-haired he stood,


s: White-bearded with eyes that looked afar


s: From their still region of perpetual snow,


s: Over the little smokes and stirs of men:


s: His head was bowed with gathered flakes of years,


s: As winter bends the sea-foreboding pine,


s: But something triumphed in his brow and eye,


s: Which whoso saw it, could not see and crouch:


s: Loud rang the emptied beakers as he mused,


s: Brooding his eyried thoughts; then, as an eagle


s: Circles smooth-winged above the wind-vexed woods,


s: So wheeled his soul into the air of song


s: High o'er the stormy hall; and thus he sang:


s: "The fletcher for his arrow-shaft picks out


s: Wood closest-grained, long-seasoned, straight as light;


s: And, from a quiver full of such as these,


s: The wary bow-man, matched against his peers,


s: Long doubting, singles yet once more the best.


s: Who is it that can make such shafts as Fate?


s: Or hits the white so surely?  They are men,


s: Will every reed suffice, or cross-grained stick


s: Such answer household ends; but she will have


s: Souls straight and clear, of toughest fibre, sound


s: Down to the heart of heart; from these she strips


s: All needless stuff, all sapwood; hardens them;


s: From circumstance untoward feathers plucks


s: Crumpled and cheap; and barbs with iron will:


s: When she draws bow, 'tis not across the wind,


s: Nor 'gainst the sun, her haste-snatched arrow sings,


s: For sun and wind have plighted faith to her


s: Ere men have heard the sinew twang, behold,


s: In the butt's heart her trembling messenger!


s: "The song is old and simple that I sing;


s: Good were the days of yore, when men were tried


s: By ring of shields, as now by ring of gold;


s: But, while the gods are left, and hearts of men,


s: And the free ocean, still the days are good;


s: Through the broad Earth roams Opportunity


s: And knocks at every door of but or hall,


s: Until she finds the brave soul that she wants."


s: He ceased, and instantly the frothy tide


s: Musing, and, with his eyes upon the fire,


s: Saw shapes of arrows, lost as soon as seen;


s: lint then with that resolve his heart was bent,


s: Which, like a humming shaft, through many a stripe


s: Of day and night across the unventured seas,


s: Shot the brave prow to cut on Vinland sands


s: Whose strengthening joy may not be told!


s: And love, for others' sake that springs,


s: Gives half their charm to lovely things.


s: And makes them fresh and fair and green,


s: Whose  slender hands were nothing worth,


s: Fearless, or brimmed their eyes with dew.


s: Three times his kingly beard he smoothed,


s: He sat and watched the dead leaves fall,


s: For, in mere weeds, and stones, and springs,


s: They laughed, and called him good-for-naught.


s: Bringing our robin's-leaf to deck their hearse


s: Who in warm life-blood wrote their nobler verse.


s: Our trivial song to honor those who come


s: With ears attuned to strenuous trump and drum.


s: And shaped in squadron-strophes their desire


s: Live battle-odes whose lines mere steel and fire:


s: Yet sometimes feathered words are strong,


s: From Lethe's dreamless ooze, the common grave


s: Many loved Truth, and lavished Life's best oil


s: Content at last, for guerdon of their toil,


s: With the cast mantle she hath left behind her.


s: But these, our brothers, fought for her,


s: Those love her best who to themselves are true,


s: And what they dare to dream of, dare to do;


s: But beautiful, with danger's sweetness round her.


s: And all-repaying eyes, look proud on them in death.


s: Our slender life runs rippling by, and glides


s: To make the next age better for the last?


s: Something to live for here that shall outlive us?


s: What men call treasure, and the gods call dross,


s: A long account of nothings paid with loss,


s: Where we poor puppets, jerked by unseen wires,


s: After our little hour of strut and rave,


s: With all our pasteboard passions and desires,


s: Loves, hates, ambitions, and immortal fires,


s: Are tossed pell-mell together in the grave.


s: For in our likeness still we shape our fate.


s: By battle's flashes gropes a desperate way,


s: And every turf the fierce foot clings to bleeds.


s: Light the black lips of cannon, and the sword


s: But some day the live coal behind the thought,


s: Bursts up in flame; the war of tongue and pen


s: Learns with what deadly purpose it was fraught,


s: And, helpless in the fiery passion caught,


s: Shakes all the pillared state with shock of men


s: Confronts us fiercely, foe-beset, pursued,


s: And trips reproachful: "Was it, then, my praise,


s: And not myself was loved?  Prove now thy truth;


s: I claim of thee the promise of thy youth;


s: Give me thy life, or cower in empty phrase,


s: The victim of thy genius, not its mate!"


s: To front a lie in arms and not to yield,


s: Who stands self-poised on manhood's solid earth,


s: Not forced to frame excuses for his birth,


s: Fed from within with all the strength he needs.


s: wept with the passion of an angry grief.


s: Forgive me, if from present things I turn


s: To speak what in my heart will beat and burn,


s: And hang my wreath on his world-honored urn.


s: For him her Old-World moulds aside she threw,


s: And, choosing sweet clay from the breast


s: Vise, steadfast in the strength of God, and true.


s: Who loved his charge, but never loved to lead;


s: One whose meek flock the people joyed to be,


s: In that sure-footed mind's unfaltering skill,


s: That bent like perfect steel to spring again and thrust.


s: His was no lonely mountain-peak of mind,


s: Thrusting to thin air o er our cloudy bars,


s: A sea-mark now, now lost in vapors blind;


s: Broad prairie rather, genial, level-lined,


s: Fruitful and friendly for all human kind,


s: Yet also nigh to heaven and loved of loftiest stars.


s: Or, then, of Europe fronting mornward still,


s: And one of Plutarch's men talked with us face to face.


s: And some innative weakness there must be


s: Such as the Present gives, and cannot wait,


s: Still patient in his simple faith sublime,


s: Great captains, with their guns and drums,


s: These all are gone, and, standing like a tower,


s: The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man,


s: Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame,


s: New birth of our new soil, the first American.


s: First lets his fingers wander as they list,


s: And builds a bridge from Dreamland for his lay:


s: Then, as the touch of his loved instrument


s: Gives hope and fervor, nearer draws his theme


s: First guessed by faint auroral flushes sent


s: With our faint hearts the mountain strives;


s: Earth gets its price for what Earth gives us;


s: The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in,


s: The priest hath his fee who comes and shrives us,


s: At the devil's booth are all things sold,


s: Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold;


s: Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking


s: 'Tis only God may be had for the asking;


s: Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,


s: An instinct within it that reaches and towers,


s: And, groping blindly above it for light,


s: The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice,


s: And there's never a leaf nor a blade too mean


s: The little bird sits at his door in the sun,


s: His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings,


s: He pings to the wide world, and she to her nest,


s: In the nice ear of Nature which song is the best?


s: Comes flooding back with a ripply cheer,


s: Into every bare inlet and creek and bay;


s: Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it,


s: No matter how barren the past may have been,


s: 'Tis enough for us now that the leaves are green;


s: We sit in the warm shade and feel right well


s: How the sap creeps up and the blossoms swell;


s: We may shut our eyes but we cannot help knowing


s: That skies are clear and grass is growing;


s: That maize has sprouted, that streams are flowing,


s: That the robin is plastering his house hard by;


s: And if the breeze kept the good news back,


s: We could guess it all by yon heifer's lowing,


s: 'Tis as easy now for the heart to be true


s: As for grass to be green or skies to be blue,--


s: In the unscarred heaven they leave no wake;


s: And the eyes forget the tears they have shed,


s: And the sulphurous rifts of passion and woe


s: Lie deep 'neath a silence pure and smooth,


s: Like burnt-out craters healed with snow.


s: He stays to his home an' looks arter his folks;


s: He draws his furrer ez straight ez he can,


s: We can't never choose him o' course,--thet's flat;


s: Guess we shall hev to come round, (don't you?)


s: An' go in fer thunder an' guns, an' all that;


s: He's ben on all sides thet give places or pelf;


s: But consistency still wuz a part of his plan,--


s: He's been true to one party--an' thet is himself;--


s: He don't vally principle more 'n an old cud;


s: Wut did God make us raytional creeturs fer,


s: But glory an' gunpowder, plunder an' blood?


s: We were gittin' on nicely up here to our village,


s: With good old idees o' wut's right an' wut aint


s: We kind o' thought Christ went agin war an' pillage,


s: An' thet eppyletts worn't the best mark of a saint,


s: Sez this kind o' thing's an exploded idee.


s: The side of our country must oilers be took,


s: An' Presidunt Polk' you know he is our country.


s: An' the angel thet writes all our sins in a book


s: Puts the debit to him, an' to us the per contry


s: Sez this is his view o' the thing to a T.


s: Parson Wilbur he calls all these argimunts lies;


s: Sez they're nothin' on airth but jest fee, faw, fum:


s: An' thet all this big talk of our destinies


s: Is half on it ign'ance, an' t' other half rum,


s: Sez it aint no seek thing; an', of course, so must we.


s: Parson Wilbur sez he never heerd in his life


s: Thet th' Apostles rigged out in their swaller-tail coats,


s: An' marched round in front of a drum an' a fife,


s: To git some on 'em office, an' some on 'em votes,


s: Sez they didn't know everthin' down in Judee.


s: Wal, it's a marcy we've gut folks to tell us


s: The rights an' the wrongs o' these matters,


s: I vow, God sends country lawyers, an' other wise fellers


s: To start the world's team wen it gits in a Slough;


s: Sez the world 'll go right, ef he hollers out Gee!


s: God makes sech nights, all white an' still


s: There warn't no stoves (tell comfort died)


s: The ole queen's arm thet gran'ther Young


s: Fust this one, an' then thet, by spells--


s: An' she'd blush scarlit, right in prayer,


s: The blood clost roun' her heart felt glued


s: An' it clings hold like precerdents in law;


s: Your gra'ma'am put it there,--when, goodness knows,--


s: To jes this--worldify her Sunday-clo'es;


s: But the old chist wun't sarve her gran'son's wife,


s: (For, 'thout new funnitoor, wut good in life?)


s: An' so ole clawfoot, from the precinks dread


s: O' the spare chamber, slinks into the shed,


s: Where, dim with dust, it fust or last subsides


s: To holdin' seeds an' fifty things besides;


s: But better days stick fast in heart an' husk,


s: An' all you keep in't gits a scent o' musk.


s: Jes' so with poets: wut they've airly read


s: Git,s kind o' worked into their heart-an' head,


s: So 's 't they can't seem to write but jest on sheers


s: With furrin countries or played-out ideers,


s: O' wut some critter chose to feel 'way back.


s: This makes 'em talk o' daisies, larks, an' things,


s: Ez though we'd nothin' here that blows an' sings,--


s: (Why, I'd give more for one live bobolink


s: Than a square mile o' larks in printer's ink,)


s: This makes 'em think our fust o' May is May,


s: Which 't ain't, for all the almanicks can say.


s: They're apt to puff, an' May-day seldom looks


s: They're no more like than hornets'-nests an' hives,


s: I, with my trouses perched on cow-hide boots,


s: Tuggin' my foundered feet out by the roots,


s: Hev seen ye come to fling on April's hearse


s: Your muslin nosegays from the milliner's,


s: Puzzlin' to find dry ground your queen to choose,


s: An' dance your throats sore m morocker shoes


s: I've seen ye an' felt proud, thet, come wut would,


s: Our Pilgrim stock wuz pithed with hardihood.


s: Pleasure doos make us Yankees kind o' winch,


s: Ez though 'twuz sunthin' paid for by the inch;


s: Ef Dooty tells us thet the thing's to du,


s: I, country-born an' bred, know where to find


s: Some blooms thet make the season suit the mind,


s: An' seem to metch the doubtin' bluebird's notes,--


s: Half-vent'rin' liverworts in furry coats,


s: Bloodroots, whose rolled-up leaves ef you oncurl,


s: Each on 'em 's cradle to a baby-pearl,--


s: But these are jes' Spring's pickets; sure ez sin,


s: The rebble frosts'll try to drive 'em in;


s: For half our May's so awfully like Mayn't,


s: 'Twould rile a Shaker or an evrige saint;


s: Though I own up I like our back'ard springs


s: Thet kind o' haggle with their greens an' things,


s: An' when you most give up, 'ithout more words


s: Toss the fields full o' blossoms, leaves, an' birds


s: Thet's Northun natur', slow an' apt to doubt,


s: But when it doos git stirred, ther' 's no gin-out!


s: Fust come the blackbirds clatt'rin' in tall trees,


s: An' settlin' things in windy Congresses,--


s: Queer politicians, though, for I'll be skinned


s: Ef all on 'em don't head against the wind.


s: 'Fore long the trees begin to show belief,


s: Then saffern swarms swing off from' all the willers


s: So plump they look like yaller caterpillars,


s: Then gray hossches'nuts leetle hands unfold


s: Thet's robin-redbreast's almanick; he knows


s: Thet arter this ther' 's only blossom-snows


s: So, choosin' out a handy crotch an' spouse,


s: Then seems to come a hitch,--things lag behind,


s: Till some fine mornin' Spring makes up her mind,


s: An' ez, when snow-swelled avers cresh their dams


s: Heaped-up with ice thet dovetails in an' jams,


s: A leak comes spirtin thru some pin-hole cleft,


s: Grows stronger, fercer, tears out right an' left,


s: Then all the waters bow themselves an' come


s: Suddin, in one gret slope o' shedderin' foam,


s: Jes' so our Spring gits everythin' in tune


s: Then all comes crowdin' in; afore you think,


s: Young oak-leaves mist the side-hill woods with pink


s: The catbird in the laylock-bush is loud;


s: The orchards turn to heaps o' rosy cloud;


s: Red-cedars blossom tu, though few folks know it,


s: An' look all dipt in sunshine like a poet;


s: The lime-trees pile their solid stacks o' shade


s: An' drows'ly simmer with the bees' sweet trade;


s: In ellum-shrouds the flashin' hangbird clings


s: An' for the summer vy'ge his hammock slings;


s: All down the loose-walled lanes in archin' bowers


s: The barb'ry droops its strings o' golden flowers,


s: Whose shrinkin' hearts the school-gals love to try


s: With pins--they'll worry yourn so, boys, bimeby!


s: But I don't love your cat'logue style,--do you?--


s: One word with blood in 't 's twice ez good ez two:


s: 'Nuff sed, June's bridesman, poet o' the year,


s: Gladness on wings, the bobolink, is here;


s: Half-hid in tip-top apple-blooms he swings,


s: Or climbs aginst the breeze with quiverin' wings,


s: Runs down, a brook o' laughter, thru the air.


s: In Spring, with curus heats an' prickly pains,


s: Thet drive me, when I git a chance, to walk


s: With a queer critter thet can't seem to 'gree


s: Along o' me like most folks,--Mister Me.


s: Ther' 's times when I'm unsoshle ez a stone


s: I'm crowded jes' to think thet folks are nigh,


s: An' can't bear nothin' closer than the sky;


s: Now the wind's full ez shifty in the mind


s: Ez wut it is ou'-doors, ef I ain't blind,


s: An' sometimes, in the fairest sou'west weather,


s: My innard vane pints east for weeks together,


s: My natur' gits all goose-flesh, an' my sins


s: Come drizzlin' on my conscience sharp ez pins:


s: Wal, et sech times I jes' slip out o' sight


s: An' take it out in a fair stan'-up fight


s: With the one cuss I can't lay on the shelf,


s: The crook'dest stick in all the heap,--Myself.


s: 'Twuz so las' Sabbath arter meetin'-time:


s: F'indin' my feelin's wouldn't noways rhyme


s: An' took things from an east-wind pint o' view,


s: Where the pines be, up back o' Siah's Mills:


s: Pines, ef you're blue, are the best friends I know,


s: They mope an' sigh an' sheer your feelin's so,--


s: They hesh the ground beneath so, tu, I swan,


s: "Ther' 's a small school'us' there where four road, meet,


s: The door-steps hollered out by little feet,


s: An side-posts carved with names whose owners grew


s: To gret men, some on 'em an' deacons, tu;


s: 'Tain't used no longer, coz the town hez gut


s: A high-school, where they teach the Lord knows wut:


s: Three-story larnin' 's poplar now: I guess


s: We thriv' ez wal on jes' two stories less,


s: For it strikes me ther' 's sech a thing ez sinnin'


s: An' it's a kind o' favorite spot with me.


s: We're curus critters: Now ain't jes' the minute


s: Thet ever fits us easy while we're in it;


s: Long ez 'twuz futur', 'twould be perfect bliss,--


s: Soon ez it's past, thet time's wuth ten o' this


s: An' yit there ain't a man thet need be told


s: Thet Now's the only bird lays eggs o' gold.


s: A knee-high lad, I used to plot an' plan


s: An' think 'twuz life's cap-sheaf to be a man;


s: Now, gittin' gray, there's nothin' I enjoy


s: So the ole school'us' is a place I choose


s: Diy boyhood back, an' better things with it,--


s: Faith, Hope, an' sunthin' ef it isn't Cherrity,


s: It's want o' guile, an' thet's ez gret a rerrity.


s: Now, 'fore I knowed, thet Sabbath arternoon


s: I found me in the school'us' on my seat,


s: Drummin' the march to No-wheres with my feet.


s: Thinkin' o' nothin', I've heerd ole folks say,


s: Or ever hearn, to make your feelin's blue.


s: From this to thet I let my worryin' creep


s: Our lives in sleep are some like streams thet glide


s: Twixt flesh an' sperrit boundin' on each side,


s: Where both shores' shadders kind o' mix an' mingle


s: In sunthin' thet ain't jes' like either single;


s: An' when you cast off moorin's from To-day,


s: Make a new upside-down'ard world o' dream:


s: Sometimes they seem like sunrise-streaks an' warnin's


s: O' wut'll be in Heaven on Sabbath-mornin's,


s: An', mixed right in ez ef jest out o' spite,


s: Sunthin' thet says your supper ain't gone right.


s: I'm gret on dreams: an' often, when I wake,


s: I've lived so much it makes my mem'ry ache,


s: An' can't skurce take a cat-nap in my cheer


s: 'Thout hevin' 'em, some good, some bad, all queer.


s: Now I wuz settin' where I'd ben, it seemed,


s: An' ain't sure yit whether I rally dreamed,


s: Nor, ef I did, how long I might ha' slep',


s: When I hearn some un stompin' up the step,


s: An' lookirz' round, ef two an' two make four,


s: He wore a steeple-hat, tall boots, an' spurs


s: With rowels to 'em big ez ches'nut-burrs,


s: An' his gret sword behind him sloped away


s: Long'z a man's speech thet dunno wut to say.--


s: "Ef your name's Biglow, an' your given-name


s: I'm your gret-gran they multiplied by three."


s: "My wut?"  sez I.--your gret-gret-gret," sez he:


s: "You wouldn't ha' never ben here but for me.


s: Two hundred an' three year ago this May,


s: The ship I come in sailed up Boston Bay;


s: But wut on girth hev ,you gut up one for?


s: Coz we du things in England, 'tain't for you


s: I'm told you write in public prints: ef true,


s: It's nateral you should know a thing or two."--


s: "Thet air's an argymunt I can't endorse,--


s: 'Twould prove, coz you wear spurs, you kep' a horse:


s: But du pray tell me, 'fore we furder go,


s: 'Bout our affairs," sez I "in Kingdom-Come?"--


s: "Wal, I worked round at sperrit-rappin' some,


s: An' danced the tables till their legs wuz gone,


s: Sez he, "but mejums lie so like all-split


s: But, come now, ef you wun't confess to knowin',


s: You've some conjectures how the thing's a-goin'."--


s: "Gran'ther," sez I, "a vane warn't never known


s: An' yit, ef 'tain't gut rusty in the jints,


s: It's safe to trust its say on certin pints


s: An' the wind settles wut the weather'll be."


s: Could grow the wood to make a weathercock;


s: When I wuz younger'n you, skurce more'n a shaver,


s: No airthly wind," sez he, "could make me waver!"


s: (Ez he said this, he clinched his jaw an' forehead,


s: Hitchin' his belt to bring his sword-hilt forrard.)


s: "Jes' so it wuz with me," sez I, "I swow,


s: When I wuz younger'n wut you see me now,--


s: Nothin' from Adam's fall to Huldy's bonnet,


s: Thet I warm't full-cocked with my jedgment on it;


s: It's a sight harder to make up my mind,--


s: The moral question's ollus plain enough,--


s: It's jes' the human-natur' side thet's tough;


s: Wut's best to think mayn't puzzle me nor you,--


s: Ef you read History, all runs smooth ez grease,


s: Coz there the men ain't nothin' more'n idees,--


s: Th' idees hev arms an' legs an' stop the way


s: It's easy fixin' things in facts an' figgers,--


s: They can't resist, nor warn't brought up with nigers;


s: But come to try your the'ry on,--why, then


s: Your facts an' figgers change to ign'ant men


s: Actin' ez ugly--"--"Smite 'em hip an' thigh!"


s: Sez gran'ther, "and let every man-child die!


s: Oh for three weeks o' Crommle an' the Lord!


s: Up, Isr'el, to your tents an' grind the sword!


s: "Thet kind o' thing worked wal in ole Judee,


s: You think thet's ellerkence--I call it shoddy,


s: A thing," sez I, "wun't cover soul nor body;


s: I like the plain all-wool o' common-sense,


s: Thet warms ye now, an' will a twelvemonth hence.


s: You took to follerin' where the Prophets beckoned.


s: An', fust you knowed on, back come Charles the Second;


s: Now, wut I want's to hev all we gain stick,


s: An' the cure's gut to go a cent'ry deep"


s: "Wal, milk-an'-water ain't the best o' glue,"


s: Sez he, "an' so you'll find before you're thru;


s: "Strike soon," sez he, "or you'll be deadly ailin'--


s: Folks thet's afeared to fail are sure o' failin';


s: God hates your sneakin' creturs thet believe


s: He'll settle things they run away an' leave!"


s: He brought his foot down fiercely, ez he spoke,


s: When failing leaves falter through motionless air


s: How shimmer the low flats and pastures bare,


s: The bowl between me and those distant hills,


s: And smiles and shakes abroad her misty, tremulous hair!


s: No more the landscape holds its wealth apart.


s: But mingles with my senses and my heart;


s: 'Tis she that waves to sympathetic sleep,


s: Moving, as she is moved, each field and hill, and tree.


s: How fuse and mix, with what unfelt degrees,


s: Clasped by the faint horizon's languid arms,


s: The softened season all the landscape charms;


s: Those hills, my native village that embay,


s: And floating in mirage seem all the glimmering farms.


s: Close at my side; far distant sound the leaves;


s: The fields seem fields of dream, where Memory


s: Wanders like gleaning Ruth; and as the sheaves


s: So tremble and seem remote all things the sense receives.


s: The cock's shrill trump that tells of scattered corn,


s: Passed breezily on by all his flapping mates,


s: Faint and more faint, from barn to barn is borne,


s: Southward, perhaps to far Magellan's Straits;


s: Dimly I catch the throb of distant flails;


s: With watchful, measuring eye, and for his quarry waits.


s: Leeks cedar-berries blue, his autumn cheer;


s: The squirrel on the shingly shagbark's bough,


s: Now saws, now lists with downward eye and ear,


s: Then drops his nut, and, with a chipping bound,


s: Whisks to his winding fastness underground;


s: The clouds like swans drift down the streaming atmosphere.


s: O'er yon bare knoll the pointed cedar shadows


s: Drowse on the crisp, gray moss; the ploughman's call


s: Creeps, faint as smoke from black, fresh-furrowed meadows;


s: Says Autumn's here, and Winter soon will


s: Who snows his soft, white sleep and silence over all.


s: The birch, most shy and lady-like of trees,


s: Her poverty, as best she may, retrieves,


s: With some saved relics of her wealth of leaves


s: The swamp-oak, with his royal purple on,


s: Glares red as blood across the sinking sun,


s: As one who proudlier to a falling fortune cleaves


s: He looks a sachem, in red blanket wrapt,


s: Who, mid some council of the sad-garbed whites,


s: Erect and stern, in his own memories lapt,


s: With distant eye broods over other sights,


s: Sees the hushed wood the city's flare replace,


s: The wounded turf heal o'er the railway's trace,


s: And roams the savage Past of his undwindled rights.


s: The red-oak, softer-grained, yields all for lost,


s: And, with his crumpled foliage stiff and dry,


s: The chestnuts, lavish of their long-hid gold,


s: To the faint Summer, beggared now and old,


s: Pour back the sunshine hoarded 'neath her favoring eye.


s: And sadly, breaking not the general hush;


s: The maple-swamps glow like a sunset sea,


s: Each leaf a ripple with its separate flush;


s: All round the wood's edge creeps the skirting blaze;


s: Ere the rain falls, the cautious farmer burns his brush.


s: O'er yon low wall, which guards one unkempt zone,


s: Where vines, and weeds, and scrub-oaks intertwine


s: Safe from the plough, whose rough, discordant stone


s: Is massed to one soft gray by lichens fine,


s: The tangled blackberry, crossed and recrossed, weaves


s: A prickly network of ensanguined leaves;


s: Hard by, with coral beads, the prim black-alders shine.


s: Pillaring with flame this crumbling boundary,


s: Whose loose blocks topple 'neath the ploughboy's foot,


s: Who, with each sense shut fast except the eye,


s: Creeps close and scares the jay he hoped to shoot,


s: The woodbine up the elm's straight stem aspires.


s: Coiling it, harmless, with autumnal fires;


s: In the ivy's paler blaze the martyr oak stands mute.


s: Below, the Charles--a stripe of nether sky,


s: Whose gaps the misplaced sail sweeps bellying by,


s: Now flickering golden through a woodland screen,


s: Then spreading out at his next turn beyond,


s: Slips seaward silently through marshes purple and green.


s: Dear marshes! vain to him the gift of sight


s: Who cannot in their various incomes share,


s: From every season drawn, of shade and light,


s: Who sees in them but levels brown and bare;


s: Each change of storm or sunshine scatters free


s: For nature with cheap means still works her wonders rare.


s: In Spring they lie one broad expanse of green,


s: O'er which the light winds run with glimmering feet;


s: Here, yellower stripes track out the creek unseen


s: here, darker growths o'er hidden ditches meet;


s: And purpler stains show where the blossoms crowd,


s: Hung there becalmed, with the next breath to fleet.


s: All round, upon the river's slippery edge,


s: Witching to deeper calm the drowsy tide,


s: Whispers and leans the breeze-entangling sedge;


s: Through emerald glooms the lingering waters slide,


s: Or, sometimes wavering, throw back the sun,


s: And the stiff banks in eddies melt and run


s: Of dimpling light, and with the current seem to glide.


s: In Summer 'tis a blithesome sight to see,


s: As step by step, with measured swing, they pass,


s: The wide-ranked mowers evading to the knee,


s: Their sharp scythes panting through the thick-set grass


s: Then, stretched beneath a rick's shade in a ring,


s: Their nooning take, while one begins to sing


s: A stave that droops and dies 'neath the close sky of brass.


s: Meanwhile the devil-may-care, the bobolink,


s: Just ere he sweeps O'er rapture's tremulous brink,


s: And 'twixt the winrows most demurely drops,


s: A decorous bird of business, who provides


s: For his brown mate and fledglings six besides,


s: And looks from right to left, a farmer mid his crops.


s: Another change subdues them in the Fall,


s: But saddens not, they still show merrier tints,


s: When the first sunshine through their dew-drops glints,


s: Look how the yellow clearness, streamed across,


s: Redeems with rarer hues the season's loss,


s: As Dawn's feet there had touched and left their rosy prints.


s: Or come when sunset gives its freshened zest,


s: Lean o'er the bridge and let the ruddy thrill,


s: While the shorn sun swells down the hazy west,


s: Glow opposite; the marshes drink their fill


s: And swoon with purple veins, then slowly fade


s: Through pink to brown, as eastward moves the shade,


s: Lengthening with stealthy creep, of Simond's darkening hill.


s: Ere through the first dry snow the runner grates,


s: And the loath cart-wheel screams in slippery ruts,


s: While the firmer ice the eager boy awaits,


s: Trying each buckle and strap beside the fire,


s: And until bedtime--plays with his desire,


s: Twenty times putting on and off his new-bought skates;--


s: Then, every morn, the river's banks shine bright


s: With smooth plate-armor, treacherous and frail,


s: By the frost's clinking hammers forged at night,


s: "Gainst which the lances of the sun prevail,


s: When guitar arms in light shall melt away,


s: And states shall move free limbed, loosed from war's cramping


s: And now those waterfalls the ebbing river


s: Tinkle, as through their fresh-sparred grots they shiver


s: In grass-arched channels to the sun denied;


s: High flaps in sparkling blue the far-heard crow,


s: The silvered flats gleam frostily below,


s: Suddenly drops the gull and breaks the glassy tide.


s: But, crowned in turn by vying seasons three,


s: The others were too fleet and vanishing;


s: When the hid tide is at its highest flow,


s: O'er marsh and stream one breathless trance of snow


s: With brooding fulness awes and hushes everything.


s: The sunshine seems blown off by the bleak wind,


s: The brown ricks, snow-thatched by the storm in play,


s: Show pearly breakers combing o'er their lee,


s: White crests as of some just enchanted sea,


s: Checked in their maddest leap and hanging poised midway.


s: But when the eastern blow, with rain aslant,


s: From mid-sea's prairies green and rolling plains


s: Drives in his wallowing herds of billows gaunt,


s: And the roused Charles remembers in his veins


s: Old Ocean's blood and snaps his gyves of frost,


s: That tyrannous silence on the shores is tost


s: In dreary wreck, and crumbling desolation reigns.


s: With leaden pools between or gullies bare,


s: The blocks lie strewn, a bleak Stonehenge of ice;


s: No life, no sound, to break the grim despair,


s: Save sullen plunge, as through the sedges stiff


s: Down crackles riverward some thaw-sapped cliff,


s: Or ashen the close-wedged fields of ice crunch here and there.


s: But let me turn from fancy-pictured scenes


s: To that whose pastoral calm before me lies:


s: Here nothing harsh or rugged intervenes;


s: Smooths off the ravelled edges of the nigh,


s: Relieves the distant with her cooler sky,


s: And tones the landscape down, and soothes the wearied eyes


s: There gleams my native village, dear to me,


s: Though higher change's waves each day are seen,


s: Whelming fields famed in boyhood's history,


s: Sanding with houses the diminished green;


s: There, in red brick, which softening time defies,


s: Stand square and stiff the Muses' factories;


s: How with my life knit up is every well-known scene!


s: To outward sight, and through your marshes wind;


s: Fed from the mystic springs of long-ago,


s: Your twin flows silent through my world of mind


s: Grow dim, dear marshes, in the evening's gray!


s: And will forever, though these fleshly eyes grow blind.


s: "There comes Emerson first, whose rich words, every one,


s: Are like gold nails in temples to hang trophies on,


s: Whose prose is grand verse, while his verse, the Lord knows,


s: Is some of it pr----  No, 'tis not even prose;


s: I'm speaking of metres; some poems have welled


s: From those rare depths of soul that have ne'er been excelled;


s: They're not epics, but that doesn't matter a pin,


s: In creating, the only hard thing's to begin;


s: A grass-blade's no easier to make than an oak,


s: If you've once found the way you've achieved the grand stroke;


s: In the worst of his poems are mines of rich matter,


s: But thrown in a heap with a crash and a clatter


s: Now it is not one thing nor another alone


s: Makes a poem, but rather the general tone,


s: The something pervading, uniting, the whole,


s: The before unconceived, unconceivable soul,


s: So that just in removing this trifle or that, you


s: Take away, as it were, a chief limb of the statue;


s: Roots, wood, bark, and leaves, singly perfect may be,


s: But, clapt bodge-podge together, they don't make a tree.


s: "But, to come back to Emerson, (whom by the way,


s: I believe we left waiting,)--his is, we may say,


s: A Greek head on right Yankee shoulders, whose range


s: Has Olympus for one pole, for t' other the Exchange;


s: Life, nature, lore, God, and affairs of that sort,


s: As if they were fossils stuck round in a cabinet,


s: Of such vast extent that our earth's a mere dab in it;


s: Composed just as he is inclined to conjecture her,


s: Namely, one part pure earth, ninety-nine parts pure lecturer;


s: You are filled with delight at his clear demonstration,


s: Each figure, word, gesture, just fits the occasion,


s: With the quiet precision of science he'll sort em,


s: But you can't help suspecting the whole a post mortem.


s: "There is Bryant, as quiet, as cool, and as dignified,


s: As a smooth, silent iceberg, that never is ignified,


s: Save when by reflection 'tis kindled o' nights,


s: With a semblance of flame by the chill Northern Nights.


s: He may rank (Griswold says so) first bard of your nation,


s: (There's no doubt that he stands in supreme iceolation,)


s: Your topmost Parnassus he may set his heel on,


s: But no warm applauses come, peal following peal on--


s: He's too smooth and too polished to hang any zeal on:


s: Unqualified merits, I'll grant, if you choose, he has em,


s: But he lacks the one merit of kindling enthusiasm;


s: If he stir you at all, it is just, on my soul,


s: Like being stirred up with the very North Pole.


s: "He is very nice reading in summer, but inter


s: Nos, we don't want extra freezing in winter;


s: Take him up in the depth of July, my advice is,


s: But, deduct all you can, there's enough that's right good in


s: He has a true soul for field, river, and wood in him;


s: And his heart, in the midst of brick walls, or where'er it is,


s: Glows, softens, and thrills with the tenderest charities,


s: To you mortals that delve in this trade-ridden planet?


s: No, to old Berkshire's hills, with their lime stone and


s: "There is Whinier, whose swelling and vehement heart


s: Strains the strait-breasted drab of the Quaker apart,


s: And reveals the live Man, still supreme and erect,


s: Underneath the bemummying wrappers of sect;


s: There was ne'er a man born who had more of the swing


s: Of the true lyric bard and all that kind of thing;


s: And his failures arise, (though perhaps he don't know it,)


s: From the very same cause that has made him a poet,--


s: A fervor of mind which knows no separation


s: 'Twixt simple excitement and pure inspiration,


s: As my Pythoness erst sometimes erred from not knowing


s: If 'twere I or mere wind through her tripod was blowing;


s: Let his mind once get head in its favorite direction


s: And the torrent of verse bursts the dams of reflection,


s: While, borne with the rush of the metre along,


s: The poet may chance to go right or go wrong,


s: Content with the whirl and delirium of song;


s: Then his grammar's not always correct, nor his rhymes,


s: And he's prone to repeat his own lyrics sometimes,


s: Not his best, though, for those are struck off at white-heats


s: When the heart in his breast like a trip-hammer beats


s: And can ne'er be repeated again any more


s: Than they could have been carefully plotted before


s: "All honor and praise to the right-hearted bard


s: Who was true to The Voice when such service was hard,


s: Who himself was so free he dared sing for the slave


s: When to look but a protest in silence was brave;


s: 'There is Hawthorne, with genius so shrinking and rare


s: That you hardly at first see the strength that is there;


s: A frame so robust, with a nature so sweet,


s: So earnest, so graceful, so solid, so fleet,


s: Is worth a descent from Olympus to meet;


s: 'Tis as if a rough oak that for ages had stood,


s: With his gnarled bony branches like ribs of the wood


s: Should bloom, after cycles of struggle and scathe,


s: With a single anemone trembly and rathe;


s: His strength is so tender; his wildness so meek,


s: That a suitable parallel sets one to seek--


s: He's a John Bunyan Fouque, a Puritan Tieck;


s: When nature was shaping him, clay was not granted


s: For making so full-sized a man as she wanted,


s: So, to fill out her model, a little she spared


s: From some finer-grained stuff for a woman prepared.


s: And she could not have hit a more excellent plan


s: The success of her scheme gave her so much delight,


s: That she tried it again, shortly after, in Dwight,


s: Only, while she was kneading and shaping the clay,


s: She sang to her work in her sweet childish way,


s: And found, when she'd put the last touch to his soul,


s: That the music had somehow got mixed with the whole.


s: "Here's Cooper, who's written six volumes to show


s: He's as good as a lord: well, let's grant that he's so;


s: If a person prefer that description of praise,


s: Why, a coronet's certainly cheaper than bays;


s: But he need take no pains to convince us he's not


s: (As his enemies say) the American Scott.


s: Choose any twelve men, and let C. read aloud


s: That one of his novels of which he's most proud,


s: And I'd lay any bet that, without ever quitting


s: Their box, they'd be all, to a man, for acquitting.


s: He has drawn you he's character, though, that is new,


s: One wildflower he's plucked that is wet with the dew


s: Of this fresh Western world, and, the thing not to mince,


s: He has done naught but copy it ill ever since;


s: His Indians, with proper respect be it said,


s: Are just Natty Bumpo daubed over with red,


s: And his very Long Toms are the same useful Nat,


s: Rigged up in duck pants and a sou'-wester hat,


s: (Though once in a Coffin, a good chance was found


s: To have slipt the old fellow away underground.)


s: All his other men-figures are clothes upon sticks


s: (As a captain besieged, when his garrison's small,


s: bets up caps upon poles to be seen o'er the wall;)


s: And the women he draws from one model don't vary,


s: All sappy as maples and flat as a prairie.


s: When a character's wanted, he goes to the task


s: As a cooper would do in composing a cask;


s: He picks out the staves, of their qualities heedful,


s: Just hoops them together as tight as is needful,


s: And, if the best fortune should crown the attempt, he


s: Has made at the most something wooden and empty.


s: "Don't suppose I would underrate Cooper's abilities


s: If I thought you'd do that, I should feel very ill at ease;


s: The men who have given to one character life


s: And objective existence, are not very rife,


s: You may number them all, both prose-writers and singers,


s: Without overrunning the bounds of your fingers,


s: Than Adams the parson or Primrose the vicar.


s: "There is one thing in Cooper I like, too, and that is


s: That on manners he lectures his countrymen gratis,


s: Not precisely so either, because, for a rarity,


s: He is paid for his tickets in unpopularity.


s: Now he may overcharge his American pictures,


s: But you'll grant there's a good deal of truth in his


s: And I honor the man who is willing to sink


s: Half his present repute for the freedom to think,


s: And, when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak,


s: Will risk t'other half for the freedom to speak,


s: Caring naught for what vengeance the mob has in store,


s: Let that mob be the upper ten thousand or lower.


s: "There comes Poe, with his raven, like Barnaby Rudge,


s: Three-fifths of him genius and two-fifths sheer fudge,


s: Who talks like a book of iambs and pentameters,


s: In a way to make people of common-sense damn metres,


s: Who has written some things quite the best of their kind,


s: But the heart somehow seems all squeezed out by the mind,


s: Who--but hey-day!  What's this?  Messieurs Mathews and Poe,


s: You mustn't fling mud-balls at Longfellow so,


s: Does it make a man worse that his character's such


s: As to make his friends love him (as you thin) too much?


s: Why, there is not a bard at this moment alive


s: More willing than he that his fellows should thrive,


s: While you are abusing him thus, even now


s: He would help either one of you out of a dough;


s: You may say that he's smooth and all that till you're hoarse


s: But remember that elegance also is force;


s: After polishing granite as much as you will,


s: The heart keeps its tough old persistency still;


s: Deduct all you can that still keeps you at bay,


s: Why, he'll live till men weary of Collins and Gray.


s: Had Theocritus written in English, not Greek,


s: I believe that his exquisite sense would scarce change a line


s: In that rare, tender, virgin-like pastoral Evangeline.


s: That's not ancient nor modern, its place is apart


s: Where time has no sway, in the realm of pure Art,


s: 'Tis a shrine of retreat from Earth's hubbub and strife


s: As quiet and chaste as the author's own life.


s: "What!  Irving? thrice welcome, warm heart and fine brain,


s: You bring back the happiest spirit from Spain,


s: And the gravest sweet humor, that ever were there


s: Since Cervantes met death in his gentle despair;


s: Nay, don't be embarrassed, nor look so beseeching,--


s: I shan't run directly against my own preaching,


s: And, having just laughed at their Raphaels and Dantes,


s: Go to setting you up beside matchless Cervantes;


s: But allow me to speak what I honestly feel,--


s: Throw in all of Addison, minus the chill,


s: With the whole of that partnership's stock and good will,


s: Mix well, and while stirring, hum o'er, as a spell,


s: The fine old English Gentleman, simmer it well,


s: Sweeten just to your own private liking, then strain


s: That only the finest and clearest remain,


s: Let it stand out of doors till a soul it receives


s: From the warm lazy sun loitering down through green leaves,


s: And you'll find a choice nature, not wholly deserving


s: A name either English or Yankee,--just Irving.


s: "There's Holmes, who is matchless among you for wit;


s: A Leyden-jar always full-charged, from which flit


s: The electrical tingles of hit after hit;


s: In long poems 'tis painful sometimes, and invites


s: A thought of the way the new Telegraph writes,


s: Which pricks down its little sharp sentences spitefully


s: As if you got more than you'd title to rightfully,


s: And you find yourself hoping its wild father Lightning


s: Would flame in for a second and give you fright'ning.


s: He has perfect sway of what I call a sham metre,


s: But many admire it, the English pentameter,


s: And Campbell, I think, wrote most commonly worse,


s: With less nerve, swing, and fire in the same kind of verse,


s: Nor e'er achieved aught in 't so worthy of praise


s: As the tribute of Holmes to the grand Marseillaise.


s: Why, if B., to the day of his dying, should rhyme on,


s: Heaping verses on verses and tames upon tomes,


s: He could ne'er reach the best point and vigor of Holmes.


s: His are just the fine hands, too, to weave you a lyric


s: Full of fancy, fun, feeling, or spiced with satyric


s: In a measure so kindly, you doubt if the toes


s: That are trodden upon are your own or your foes'.


s: "There is Lowell, who's striving Parnassus to climb


s: With a whole bale of isms tied together with rhyme,


s: He might get on alone, spite of brambles and boulders,


s: But he can't with that bundle he has on his shoulders


s: The top of the hill he will ne'er come nigh reaching


s: Till he learns the distinction 'twixt singing and preaching;


s: His lyre has some chords that would ring pretty well,


s: But he'd rather by half make a drum of the shell


s: And rattle away till he's old as Methusalem,


s: At the head of a march to the last new Jerusalem.


s: "My friends, in the happier days of the muse,


s: We were luckily free from such things as reviews,


s: Then naught came between with its fog to make clearer


s: The heart of the poet to that of his hearer;


s: Then the poet brought heaven to the people, and they


s: Felt that they, too, were poets in hearing his lay;


s: Then the poet was prophet, the past in his soul


s: Pre-created the future, both parts of one whole;


s: Then for him there was nothing too great or too small.


s: Then the bard owned no clipper and meter of moods


s: Save the spirit of silence that hovers and broods


s: O'er the seas and the mountains, the rivers and woods


s: He asked not earth's verdict, forgetting the clods,


s: His soul soared and sang to an audience of gods.


s: 'Twas for them that he measured the thought and the line,


s: And shaped for their vision the perfect design,


s: With as glorious a foresight, a balance as true,


s: As swung out the worlds in the infinite blue;


s: Then a glory and greatness invested man's heart


s: The universal, which now stands estranged and apart,


s: In the free individual moulded, was Art;


s: Then the forms of the Artist seemed thrilled with desire


s: For something as yet unattained, fuller, higher,


s: As once with her lips, lifted hands, and eyes listening,


s: And her whole upward soul in her countenance glistening,


s: Which, once touched with flame, will leap heav'nward inspired--


s: And waited with answering kindle to mark


s: The first gleam of Orpheus that pained the red Dark.


s: Then painting, song, sculpture, did more than relieve


s: the need that men feel to create and believe,


s: And as, in all beauty, who listens with love


s: Hears these words oft repeated--'beyond and above.'


s: So these seemed to be but the visible sign


s: Of the grasp of the soul after things more divine;


s: They were ladders the Artist erected to climb


s: O'er the narrow horizon of space and of time,


s: And we see there the footsteps by which men had gained


s: To the one rapturous glimpse of the never-attained,


s: As shepherds could erst sometimes trace in the sod


s: The last spurning print of a sky-cleaving god.


s: When winds were hurrying o'er the floods


s: They laced her up, they starved her down,


s: They pinched her feet, they singed her hair,


s: This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,


s: On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings


s: In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,


s: Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.


s: Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;


s: Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,


s: As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,


s: Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!


s: He left the past year's dwelling for the new,


s: Stole with soft step its shining archway through,


s: Stretched m his last-found home, and knew the old no more.


s: Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,


s: From thy dead lips a clearer note is born


s: Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn!


s: Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:--


s: Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,


s: Let each new temple, nobler than the last,


s: Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,


s: Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!


s: Some good bank-stock, some note of hand,


s: (A landscape,--foreground golden dirt,--


s: Busts, cameos, gems,--such things as these,


s: Wealth's wasteful tricks I will not learn


s: Have you heard of the wonderful one-horse shay,


s: I'll tell you what happened without delay,


s: That the Deacon finished the one-hoss shay.


s: Now in building of chaises, I tell you what,


s: There is always somewhere a weakest spot,--


s: In hub, tire, felloe, in spring or thill,


s: In panel, or crossbar, or floor, or sill,


s: In screw, bolt, thoroughbrace,--lurking still,


s: That a chaise breaks down, but doesn't wear out.


s: With an "I dew vum," or an "I tell yeou,")


s: He would build one shay to beat the taown


s: 'n' the keounty 'n' all the kentry raoun';


s: It should be so built that it couldn' break daown,


s: "Fur," said the Deacon, "It's mighty plain


s: Thut the weakes' place mus' Stan' the strain;


s: T' make that place uz strong uz the rest."


s: So the Deacon inquired of the village folk


s: That couldn't be split nor bent nor broke,


s: That was for spokes and floor and sills;


s: He sent for lancewood to make the thins;


s: The crossbars were ash, from the straightest trees.


s: The panels of white-wood, that cuts like cheese,


s: But lasts like iron for things like these;


s: The hubs of logs from the "Settler's ellum,"--


s: Last of its timber,--they couldn't sell 'em,


s: And the wedges flew from between their lips,


s: Their blunt ends frizzled like celery-tips;


s: Thoroughbrace bison-skin, thick and wide;


s: "There!" said the Deacon, "naow she'll dew!"


s: Children and grandchildren--where were they?


s: But there stood the stout old one-hoss shay


s: The Deacon's masterpiece strong and sound.


s: In fact, there's nothing that keeps its youth,


s: Take it.--You're welcome.--No extra charge.)


s: FIRST of NOVEMBER,--the Earthquake-day--


s: There are traces of age in the one-hoss shay,


s: There couldn't be,--for the Deacon's art


s: That there wasn't a chance for one to start.


s: For the wheels were just as strong as the thins,


s: And the floor was just as strong as the sills,


s: And the panels just as strong as the floors


s: And the whipple-tree neither less nor more,


s: And the back-crossbar as strong as the fore,


s: "Huddup!" said the parson.--Off went they.


s: The parson was working his Sunday's text,--


s: Had got to fifthly, and stopped perplexed


s: Then something decidedly like a spill,--


s: At half past nine by the meet'n'-house clock--


s: As if it had been to the mill and ground!


s: You see, of course, if you're not a dunce,


s: To breast the loud winds' fitful spasms,


s: From some great height within the cloud,


s: There, heard you not the alp-hound's bark?


s: Then through the thick and blackening mist


s: Death glared on them, and breathed so near,


s: Of sleep that should out-dream the storm.


s: Then lower drooped their lids,--when, "List!


s: Death smiled on them, and it seemed good


s: And drowsy pleasure soothed their blood.


s: Brave words of cheer!  "But, hark again,--


s: There swings the Convent's guiding-bell,


s: Float swift or slow from cliff to cliff;


s: Follow well in order, get your weapons ready;


s: Have you your pistols?  have you your sharp-edged axes?


s: We must march, my darlings, we must bear the brunt of


s: We the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend,


s: So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and


s: Plain I see you, Western youths, see you tramping with the


s: Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied over there


s: We take up the task eternal, and the burden and the


s: We debouch upon a newer mightier world, varied world;


s: Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and


s: Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains


s: Conquering, holding, daring, venturing as we go the


s: We the rivers stemming, vexing and piercing deep the mines


s: We the surface broad surveying, we the virgin soil


s: From the peaks gigantic, from the great Sierras and the


s: From the mine and from the gully, from the hunting trail,


s: Central inland race are we, from Missouri, with the


s: All the hands of comrades clasping, all the Southern, all


s: O beloved race in all!  O my-breast aches with tender love


s: O I mourn and yet exult, I am rapt with love for all,


s: Waving high the delicate mistress, over all the starry


s: Raise the fang'd and warlike mistress, stern, impassive,


s: By those swarms upon our rear we must never yield or


s: Ages back in ghostly millions frowning there behind us


s: With accessions ever waiting, with the places of the dead


s: Through the battle, through defeat, moving yet and never


s: (Shrouded bards of other lands, you may rest, you have


s: Soon I hear you coming warbling, soon you rise and tramp


s: Not the cushion and the slipper, not the peaceful, and the


s: Not the riches safe and palling, not for us the tame


s: Do the corpulent sleepers sleep? have they lock'd and


s: Still be ours the diet hard, and the blanket on the


s: Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discouraged


s: Yet a passing hour I yield you in your tracks to pause


s: Far, far off the daybreak call--hark! how loud and clear I


s: Swift! to the head of the army!--swift!   Spring to your


s: O Captain! My Captain!  our fearful trip is done


s: The ship has weather'd every rack; the prize we sought is won;


s: The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,