I am not prone to moralize
In scientific doubt
On certain facts that Nature tries
To puzzle us about, -
For I am no philosopher
Of wise elucidation,
But speak of things as they occur,
From simple observation.

I notice little things - to wit: -
I never missed a train
Because I didn't run for it;
I never knew it rain
That my umbrella wasn't lent, -
Or, when in my possession,
The sun but wore, to all intent,
A jocular expression.


I never knew a creditor
To dun me for a debt
But I was "cramped" or "busted;" or
I never knew one yet,
When I had plenty in my purse,
To make the least invasion, -
As I, accordingly perverse,
Have courted no occasion.

Nor do I claim to comprehend
What Natu...

Those ends in war the best contentment bring,
Whose peace is made up with a pardoning.

TOGETHER at the altar we
In vision oft were seen by thee,

Thyself as bride, as bridegroom I.
Oft from thy mouth full many a kiss
In an unguarded hour of bliss

I then would steal, while none were by.

The purest rapture we then knew,
The joy those happy hours gave too,

When tasted, fled, as time fleets on.
What now avails my joy to me?
Like dreams the warmest kisses flee,

Like kisses, soon all joys are gone.

The dirge is played, the throbbing death-peal rung,
The sad-voiced requiem sung;
On each white urn where memory dwells
The wreath of rustling immortelles
Our loving hands have hung,
And balmiest leaves have strown and tenderest blossoms flung.

The birds that filled the air with songs have flown,
The wintry blasts have blown,
And these for whom the voice of spring
Bade the sweet choirs their carols sing
Sleep in those chambers lone
Where snows untrodden lie, unheard the night-winds moan.

We clasp them all in memory, as the vine
Whose running stems intwine
The marble shaft, and steal around
The lowly stone, the nameless mound;
With sorrowing hearts resign
Our brothers true and tried, and close our broken line.

How fast the lamps of li...

 AN OLD STORY.


I.
It was roses, roses, all the way,
With myrtle mixed in my path like mad:
The house-roofs seemed to heave and sway,
The church-spires flamed, such flags they had,
A year ago on this very day.

II.
The air broke into a mist with bells,
The old walls rocked with the crowd and cries.
Had I said, “Good folk, mere noise repels
But give me your sun from yonder skies!”
They had answered, “And afterward, what else?”

III.
Alack, it was I who leaped at the sun
To give it my loving friends to keep.
Nought man could do, have I left undone:
And you see my harvest, what I reap
This very day, now a year is run.

IV.
There’s nobody on the house-tops now
Just a palsied few at the windows set
For ...

Mi hair is besprinkled wi' gray,
An mi face has grown wrinkled an wan; -
They say ivvery dog has his day,
An noa daat its th' same way wi a man.
Aw know at mi day is nah passed,
An life's twileet is all at remains;
An neet's drawin near varry fast, -
An will end all mi troubles an pains.

Aw can see misen, nah, as a lad,
Full ov mischief an frolic an fun; -
An aw see what fine chonces aw had,
An regret lots o' things at aw've done.
Thowtless deeds - unkind words - selfish gains, -
Time wasted, an more things beside,
But th' saddest thowt ivver remains, -
What aw could ha done, if aw'd but tried.

Aw've had a fair share ov life's joys,
An aw've nivver known th' want ov a meal;
Aw've ne'er laiked wi' luxuries' toys,
Nor suffered what sta...

I.

    O mirk, mirk is this midnight hour,
        And loud the tempest's roar;
    A waefu' wanderer seeks thy tow'r,
        Lord Gregory, ope thy door!

II.

    An exile frae her father's ha',
        And a' for loving thee;
    At least some pity on me shaw,
        If love it may na be.

III.

    Lord Gregory, mind'st thou not the grove
        By bonnie Irwin-side,
    Where first I own'd that virgin-love
        I lang, lang had denied?

IV.

    How often didst thou pledge and vow
        Thou wad for ay be mine;
    And my fond heart, itsel' sae true,
        It ne'er mistrusted thine.

V.

    Hard is thy heart, Lord Gregory,
        And flinty is thy breast
    Thou d...

So there sat they,
The estranged two,
Thrust in one pew
By chance that day;
Placed so, breath-nigh,
Each comer unwitting
Who was to be sitting
In touch close by.

Thus side by side
Blindly alighted,
They seemed united
As groom and bride,
Who'd not communed
For many years -
Lives from twain spheres
With hearts distuned.

Her fringes brushed
His garment's hem
As the harmonies rushed
Through each of them:
Her lips could be heard
In the creed and psalms,
And their fingers neared
At the giving of alms.

And women and men,
The matins ended,
By looks commended
Them, joined again.
Quickly said she,
"Don't undeceive them -
Better thus leave them:"
"Quite so," said he.

S...

They may rail at this life--from the hour I began it,
    I found it a life full of kindness and bliss;
And, until they can show me some happier planet,
    More social and bright, I'll content me with this.
As long as the world has such lips and such eyes,
    As before me this moment enraptured I see,
They may say what they will of their orbs in the skies,
    But this earth is the planet for you, love, and me.

In Mercury's star, where each moment can bring them
    New sunshine and wit from the fountain on high,
Tho' the nymphs may have livelier poets to sing them,
    They've none, even there, more enamored than I.
And as long as this harp can be wakened to love,
    And that eye its divine inspiration shall be,
They may talk as they will of their Edens above,...

Let there be light, said Time: and England heard:
And manhood grew to godhead at the word.
No light had shone, since earth arose from sleep,
So far; no fire of thought had cloven so deep.
A day beyond all days bade life acclaim
Shakespeare: and man put on his crowning name.
All secrets once through darkling ages kept
Shone, sang, and smiled to think how long they slept.
Man rose past fear of lies whereon he trod:
And Dante's ghost saw hell devour his God.
Bright Marlowe, brave as winds that brave the sea
When sundawn bids their bliss in battle be,
Lit England first along the ways whereon
Song brighter far than sunlight soared and shone.
He died ere half his life had earned his right
To lighten time with song's triumphant light.
Hope shrank, and felt the stroke...

The tossing spray of Cocheco's fall
Hardened to ice on its rocky wall,
As through Dover town in the chill, gray dawn,
Three women passed, at the cart-tail drawn!

Bared to the waist, for the north wind's grip
And keener sting of the constable's whip,
The blood that followed each hissing blow
Froze as it sprinkled the winter snow.

Priest and ruler, boy and maid
Followed the dismal cavalcade;
And from door and window, open thrown,
Looked and wondered gaffer and crone.

"God is our witness," the victims cried,
We suffer for Him who for all men died;
The wrong ye do has been done before,
We bear the stripes that the Master bore!

And thou, O Richard Waldron, for whom
We hear the feet of a coming doom,
On thy cruel heart and thy hand ...

Up this green woodland-ride let’s softly rove,
And list the nightingale - she dwells just here.
Hush ! let the wood-gate softly clap, for fear
The noise might drive her from her home of love ;
For here I’ve heard her many a merry year -
At morn, at eve, nay, all the live-long day,
As though she lived on song. This very spot,
Just where that old-man’s-beard all wildly trails
Rude arbours o’er the road, and stops the way -
And where that child its blue-bell flowers hath got,
Laughing and creeping through the mossy rails -
There have I hunted like a very boy,
Creeping on hands and knees through matted thorn
To find her nest, and see her feed her young.
And vainly did I many hours employ :
All seemed as hidden as a thought unborn.
And where those crimping fern-lea...

There have been times when I could storm and plead,
But you shall never hear me supplicate.
These long months that have magnified my need
Have made my asking less importunate,
For now small favors seem to me so great
That not the courteous lovers of old time
Were more content to rule themselves and wait,
Easing desire with discourse and sweet rhyme.
Nay, be capricious, willful; have no fear
To wound me with unkindness done or said,
Lest mutual devotion make too dear
My life that hangs by a so slender thread,
And happy love unnerve me before May
For that stern part that I have yet to play.

    He is a seer. He wears the wedding-ring
    Of Art and Nature; and his voice is bold.
    He should be quicker than the birds to sing,
    And fill'd with frenzy like the men of old
    Who sang their songs for country and for king.
    Nothing should daunt him, though the news were told
    By fiends from Hell! He should be swift to hold
    And swift to part with truth, as from a spring.
    He should discourse of war and war's alarm,
    And deeds of peace, and garlands to be sought,
    And love, and lore, and death, and beauty's charm,
    And warlike men subdued by tender thought,
    And grief dismiss'd, and hatred set at nought,
    And Freedom shielded by his strong right arm!

The Autumn day now fades away,
The fields are wet and dreary;
The rude storm takes the flowers of May,
And Nature seemeth weary;
The partridge coveys, shunning fate,
Hide in the bleaching stubble,
And many a bird, without its mate,
Mourns o'er its lonely trouble.

On hawthorns shine the crimson haw,
Where Spring brought may-day blossoms:
Decay is Nature's cheerless law--
Life's Winter in our bosoms.
The fields are brown and naked all,
The hedges still are green,
But storms shall come at Autumn's fall,
And not a leaf be seen.

Yet happy love, that warms the heart
Through darkest storms severe,
Keeps many a tender flower to start
When Spring shall re-appear.
Affection's hope shall roses meet,
Like those of Summer bloom,
An...

"And that a reply be received before midnight."
British Ultimatum.


Their Day was at twelve of the night,
    When the graves give up their dead.
And still, from the City, no light
    Yellows the clouds overhead.
Where the Admiral stands there's a star,
    But his column is lost in the gloom;
For the brazen doors are ajar,
    And the Lion awakes, and the doom.

He is not of a chosen race.
    His strength is the strength of the skies,
In whose glory all nations have place,
    In whose downfall Liberty dies.
He is mighty, but he is just.
    He shall live to the end of years.
He shall bring the proud to the dust.
    He shall raise the weak to the spheres.

It is night on the world's great mart,
    B...

There stood a low and ivied roof,
    As gazing rustics tell,
In times of chivalry and song
    'Yclept the holy well.

Above the ivies' branchlets gray
    In glistening clusters shone;
While round the base the grass-blades bright
    And spiry foxglove sprung.

The brambles clung in graceful bands,
    Chequering the old gray stone
With shining leaflets, whose bright face
    In autumn's tinting shone.

Around the fountain's eastern base
    A babbling brooklet sped,
With sleepy murmur purling soft
    Adown its gravelly bed.

Within the cell the filmy ferns
    To woo the clear wave bent;
And cushioned mosses to the stone
    Their quaint embroidery lent.

The fountain's face lay still as glass--
    Save wh...

In quel bel viso, ch' i' sospiro e bramo.

ON LAURA PUTTING HER HAND BEFORE HER EYES WHILE HE WAS GAZING ON HER.


    On the fair face for which I long and sigh
Mine eyes were fasten'd with desire intense.
When, to my fond thoughts, Love, in best reply,
Her honour'd hand uplifting, shut me thence.
My heart there caught--as fish a fair hook by,
Or as a young bird on a limèd fence--
For good deeds follow from example high,
To truth directed not its busied sense.
But of its one desire my vision reft,
As dreamingly, soon oped itself a way,
Which closed, its bliss imperfect had been left:
My soul between those rival glories lay,
Fill'd with a heavenly and new delight,
Whose strange surpassing sweets engross'd it quite.

MACGREGOR.