The Midday sun, with fiercest glare,
Broods over the hazy, twinkling air;
    Along the level sand
The palm-tree’s shade unwavering lies,
Just as thy towers, Damascus, rise
    To greet yon wearied band.

The leader of that martial crew
...

Deep in the wave is a coral grove,
Where the purple mullet and gold-fish rove,
Where the sea-flower spreads its leaves of blue,
That never are wet with falling dew,
But in bright and changeful beauty shine,
Far down in the green and glassy brine.
...

Upon a rock yet uncreate,
Amid a chaos inchoate,
An uncreated being sate;
Beneath him, rock,
Above him, cloud.
And the cloud was rock,
And the rock was cloud.
The rock then growing soft and warm,
The cloud began to take a form,...

Inscribed to R. Aiken, Esq.
 “Let not ambition mock their useful toil,
  Their homely joys and destiny obscure;
Nor grandeur hear, with a disdainful smile,
  The short but simple annals of the poor.”
—GRAY.    

  MY loved, my honored, much-respected...

Alas! the weary hours pass slow,
  The night is very dark and still,
And in the marshes far below
  I hear the bearded whippoorwill.
I scarce can see a yard ahead;
  My ears are strained to catch each sound;
I hear the leaves about me shed,...

Not what we would, but what we must,
  Makes up the sum of living;
Heaven is both more and less than just
  In taking and in giving.
Swords cleave to hands that sought the plough,
And laurels miss the soldier’s brow.

Me, whom the city holds,...

From “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Act I. Sc. 1.

FOR aught that ever I could read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth:
But, either it was different in blood,
Or else misgraffèd in respect of years,
Or else...