I
the sun had set;
The leaves with dew were wet:
Down fell a bloody dusk
On the woods, that second of May,
Where Stonewall’s corps, like a beast of prey,
Tore through, with angry tusk.
“They’ve trapped us, boys!”
Rose from our...
Do you remember, my sweet, absent son,
How in the soft June days forever done
You loved the heavens so warm and clear and high;
And, when I lifted you, soft came your cry,—
“Put me ’way up,—’way, ’way up in blue sky”?
I laughed and said I could not,—set...
I warn, like the one drop of rain
On your face, ere the storm;
Or tremble in whispered refrain
With your blood, beating warm.
I am the presence that ever
Baffles your touch’s endeavor,—
Gone like the glimmer of dust
Dispersed by a gust...
Under the apple bough
Love, in a dream of leaves,
Dreamed we of love, as now,—
All that gives beauty or grieves.
Over the sad world then
Curved like the sky that bough;
I was in heaven then,—
You are in heaven now.
The sunshine of thine eyes,
(O still, celestial beam!)
Whatever it touches it fills
With the life of its lambent gleam.
The sunshine of thine eyes,
Oh, let it fall on me!
Though I be but a mote of the air,
I could turn to gold for...
Soft-throated south, breathing of summer’s ease
(Sweet breath, whereof the violet ’s life is made!)
Through lips moist-warm, as thou hadst lately stayed
’Mong rosebuds, wooing to the cheeks of these
Loth blushes faint and maidenly,—rich breeze,
Still doth...
Come not again! I dwell with you
Above the realm of frost and dew,
Of pain and fire, and growth to death.
I dwell with you where never breath
Is drawn, but fragrance vital flows
From life to life, even as a rose
Unseen pours sweetness through each...
