A Seaside Portrait
A GREAT, still Shape, alone,
She sits (her harp has fallen) on the sand,
And sees her children, one by one, depart:—
Her cloak (that hides what sins beside her own!)
Wrapped fold on fold about her. Lo,
She comforts her...
John James Piatt
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On Her Art of Growing Old Gracefully
YOU ask a verse, to sing (ah, laughing face!)
Your happy art of growing old with grace?
O Muse, begin, and let the truth—but hold!
First let me see that you are growing old. -
strong in thy steadfast purpose, be
Like some brave master of the sea,
Whose keel, by Titan pulses quickened, knows
His will where’er he goes.
Some isle, palm-roofed, in spiced Pacific air
He seeks—though solitary zones apart,
Its place... -
A giant came to me when I was young,
My instant will to ask—
My earthly Servant, from the earth he sprung
Eager for any task!“What wilt thou, O my Master?” he began,
“Whatever can be,” I.
“Say thy first wish—whate’er thou wilt I can,”... -
I watch the leaves that flutter in the wind,
Bathing my eyes with coolness and my heart
Filling with springs of grateful sense anew,
Before my window—in wind and rain and sun.
And now the wind is gone and now the rain,
And all a motionless moment breathe;... -
A great, still Shape, alone,
She sits (her harp has fallen) on the sand,
And sees her children, one by one, depart:—
Her cloak (that hides what sins beside her own!)
Wrapped fold on fold about her. Lo,
She comforts her fierce heart,
As... -
I lift this sumach-bough with crimson flare,
And, touched with subtle pangs of dreamy pain,
Through the dark wood a torch I seem to bear
In Autumn’s funeral train. -
To the quick brow Fame grudges her best wreath
While the quick heart to enjoy it throbs beneath:
On the dead forehead’s sculptured marble shown,
Lo, her choice crown—its flowers are also stone. -
You ask a verse, to sing (ah, laughing face!)
Your happy art of growing old with grace?
O Muse, begin, and let the truth—but hold!
First let me see that you are growing old. -
Even as tender parents lovingly
Send a dear child in some true servant’s care
Forth in the street, for larger light and air,
Feeling the sun her guardian will be,
And dreaming with a blushful pride that she
Will earn sweet smiles and glances every-where,...