Thou foolish blossom, all untimely blown!
  Poor jest of summer, come when woods are chill!
Thy sister buds, in June’s warm redness grown,
  That lit with laughter all the upland hill,

Have traceless passed; save on each thornëd stem
  Red drops tell how...

As doth his heart who travels far from home
Leap up whenever he by chance doth see
One from his mother-country lately come,
Friend from my home—thus do I welcome thee.
Thou art so late arrived that I the tale
Of thy high lineage on thy brow can trace,...

Sweet stream that winds through yonder glade,
Apt emblem of a virtuous maid!
Silent and chaste she steals along,
Far from the world's gay busy throng:
With gentle yet prevailing force,
Intent upon her destined course;
Graceful and useful all she does,
...

All ye who have gained the haven of safe days,
  And rest at ease, your wanderings being done,
  Except the last, inevitable one,
Be well content, I say, and hear men’s praise:
Yet in the quiet of your sheltered bays,—
  Bland waters shining in an equal...

When love with unconfined wings
. . . Hovers within my gates,
And my divine Althea brings
. . . To whisper at the grates;
When I lie tangled in her hair
. . . And fettered to her eye,
The birds that wanton in the air
. . . Know no such liberty.
When...

That so much change should come when thou dost go,
Is mystery that I cannot ravel quite.
The very house seems dark as when the light
Of lamps goes out. Each wonted thing doth grow
So altered, that I wander to and fro
Bewildered by the most familiar sight,
And feel...

The scarlet tide of summer’s life
  Is ebbing toward a shoreless sea;
Late fell before the reaper’s knife
  The ripened grain—a type of thee.

How fresh and young the earth looked, when
  The sun first kissed thy silken head!
Now blazing grass and...

I Love to hear thine earnest voice,
  Wherever thou art hid,
Thou testy little dogmatist,
  Thou pretty Katydid!
Thou mindest me of gentlefolks,—
  Old gentlefolks are they,—
Thou say’st an undisputed thing
  In such a solemn way.