Richard Realf

  • Let Liberty run onward with the years,
    And circle with the seasons; let her break
    The tyrant’s harshness, the oppressor’s spears;
    Bring ripened recompenses that shall make
    Supreme amends for sorrow’s long arrears;
    Drop holy benison on hearts that ache;...

  • Fair are the flowers and the children, but their subtle suggestion is fairer;
    Rare is the roseburst of dawn, but the secret that clasps it is rarer;
    Sweet the exultance of song, but the strain that precedes it is sweeter;
    And never was poem yet writ, but the meaning...

  • By the waters of Life we sat together,
      Hand in hand in the golden days
    Of the beautiful early summer weather,
      When skies were purple and breath was praise,
    When the heart kept tune to the carol of birds,
      And the birds kept tune to the songs which ran...

  • O earth! thou hast not any wind that blows
    Which is not music; every weed of thine
    Pressed rightly flows in aromatic wine;
    And every humble hedgerow flower that grows,
    And every little brown bird that doth sing,
    Hath something greater than itself, and...

  • Fair are the flowers and the children, but their subtle suggestion is fairer;
    Rare is the roseburst of dawn, but the secret that clasps it is rarer;
    Sweet the exultance of song, but the strain that precedes it is sweeter;
    And never was poem yet writ, but the meaning...