Josiah Gilbert Holland

  • From “Bitter Sweet”
    THUS is it all over the earth!
      That which we call the fairest,
    And prize for its surpassing worth,
                Is always rarest.

    Iron is heaped in mountain piles,
      And gluts the laggard forges;
    But gold-flakes gleam...

  • From “Bitter Sweet”
    SIXTEEN barrels of cider
    Ripening all in a row!
    Open the vent-channels wider!
    See the froth, drifted like snow,
    Blown by the tempest below!
    Those delectable juices
    Flowed through the sinuous sluices
    Of sweet...

  • From “Bitter-Sweet”
    WHAT is the little one thinking about?
    Very wonderful things, no doubt;
        Unwritten history!
        Unfathomed mystery!
    Yet he laughs and cries, and eats and drinks,
    And chuckles, and crows, and nods, and winks,
    As if his...

  • Rockaby, lullaby, bees in the clover!
    Crooning so drowsily, crying so low,
    Rockaby, lullaby, dear little rover!
          Down into wonderland,
          Down to the under-land,
                Go, now go!
    Down into wonderland go.

    Rockaby, lullaby,...

  •     there ’s a song in the air!
        There ’s a star in the sky!
        There ’s a mother’s deep prayer
        And a baby’s low cry!
    And the star rains its fire while the Beautiful sing,
    For the manger of Bethlehem cradles a king.

        There ’s a tumult...

  • What is the little one thinking about?
    Very wonderful things, no doubt!
        Unwritten history!
        Unfathomed mystery!
    Yet he laughs and cries, and eats and drinks,
    And chuckles and crows, and nods and winks,
    As if his head were as full of kinks...

  • If i shall ever win the home in heaven
    For whose sweet rest I humbly hope and pray,
    In the great company of the forgiven
    I shall be sure to find old Daniel Gray.

    I knew him well; in truth, few knew him better;
    For my young eyes oft read for him the Word...