This the true sign of ruin to a race— It undertakes no march, and day by day Drowses in camp, or, with the laggard’s pace, Walks sentry o’er possessions that decay; Destined, with sensible waste, to fleet away;— For the first secret of continued power Is the continued conquest;—all our sway Hath surety in the uses of the hour; If that we waste, in vain walled town and lofty tower!
Lithe and long as the serpent train, Springing and clinging from tree to tree, Now darting upward, now down again, With a twist and a twirl that are strange to see; Never took serpent a deadlier hold, Never the cougar a wilder spring, Strangling the oak with the boa’s fold, Spanning the...
When that my mood is sad, and in the noise And bustle of the crowd I feel rebuke, I turn my footsteps from its hollow joys And sit me down beside this little brook; The waters have a music to mine ear It glads me much to hear. It is a quiet glen, as you may see, Shut in from all...
Not in the sky, Where it was seen, Nor on the white tops of the glistening wave, Nor in the mansions of the hidden deep,— Though green, And beautiful, its caves of mystery;— Shall the bright watcher have A place, and as of old high station keep. Gone, gone! Oh, never more to cheer The mariner...
The Wind blew wide the casement, and within— It was the loveliest picture!—a sweet child Lay in its mother’s arms, and drew its life, In pauses, from the fountain,—the white round Part shaded by loose tresses, soft and dark, Concealing, but still showing, the fair realm Of so much rapture, as...
Now are the winds about us in their glee, Tossing the slender tree; Whirling the sands about his furious car, March cometh from afar; Breaks the sealed magic of old Winter’s dreams, And rends his glassy streams; Chafing with potent airs, he fiercely takes Their fetters from the lakes, And, with...
