What ’s the brightness of a brow? What ’s a mouth of pearls and corals? Beauty vanishes like a vapor, Preach the men of musty morals! Should the crowd then, ages since, Have shut their ears to singing Homer, Because the music fled as soon As fleets the violets’ aroma? Ah, for me, I thrill to see The bloom a velvet cheek discloses, Made of dust—I well believe it! So are lilies, so are roses!
What memory fired her pallid face, What passion stirred her blood, What tide of sorrow and desire Poured its forgotten flood Upon a heart that ceased to beat, Long since, with thought that life was sweet, When nights were rich with vernal dusk, And the rose burst its bud? Had not the...
Wild stream the clouds, and the fresh wind is singing, Red is the dawn, and the world white with rime,— Music, O music! The hunter’s horn ringing! Over the hilltop the mounted men climb. Flashing of scarlet, and glitter, and jingle, The deep bay, the rhythm of hoof and of cry,— Echo, O echo! The...
Said the archangels, moving in their glory, Seeing the suns bend out along their courses, Seeing the earth swim up in vernal light, Seeing the year renew her ancient story,— Ask we here the Lord of all the finer forces To make us now a poet whose song shall reach our height! Fain...
Couldst thou, Great Fairy, give to me The instant’s wish, that I might see Of all the earth’s that one dear sight Known only in a dream’s delight, I would, beneath some island steep, In some remote and sun-bright deep, See high in heaven above me now A palm-tree wave its rhythmic bough! And yet...
It was nothing but a rose I gave her,— Nothing but a rose Any wind might rob of half its savor, Any wind that blows. When she took it from my trembling fingers With a hand as chill,— Ah, the flying touch upon them lingers, Stays, and thrills them still! Withered, faded, pressed between...
