Erastus Wolcott Ellsworth

  • The Mayflower

    Down in the bleak December bay
    The ghostly vessel stands away;
    Her spars and halyards white with ice,
    Under the dark December skies.
    A hundred souls, in company,
    Have left the vessel pensively,—
    Have touched the frosty desert there,
    And...

  • From "What Is the Use?"

    I saw a man, by some accounted wise,
    For some things said and done before their eyes,
    Quite overcast, and, in a restless muse,
        Pacing a path about,
        And often giving out:
            “What is the use?”

    Then I, with true respect: “What meanest...