Edmund Gosse

  • When Roman fields are red with cyclamen,
      And in the palace gardens you may find,
      Under great leaves and sheltering briony-bind,
    Clusters of cream-white violets, oh then
    The ruined city of immortal men
      Must smile, a little to her fate resigned,...

  • 1805–1875
    a Being cleaves the moonlit air,
      With eyes of dew and plumes of fire,
    New-born, immortal, strong and fair;
            Glance ere he goes!
    His feet are shrouded like the dead,
      But in his face a wild desire
    Breaks like the dawn that...

  • In these restrained and careful times
    Our knowledge petrifies our rhymes;
    Ah! for that reckless fire men had
    When it was witty to be mad,

    When wild conceits were piled in scores,
    And lit by flaring metaphors,
    When all was crazed and out of tune...

  • Between two golden tufts of summer grass,
    I see the world through hot air as through glass,
    And by my face sweet lights and colors pass.

    Before me, dark against the fading sky,
    I watch three mowers mowing, as I lie:
    With brawny arms they sweep in harmony...