William Henry Venable

  • On His First Visit to the West
    COME as artist, come as guest,
    Welcome to the expectant West,
    Hero of the charmèd pen,
    Loved of children, loved of men.
    We have felt thy spell for years;
    Oft with laughter, oft with tears,
    Thou hast touched the...

  • From “Saga of the Oaks and other Poems”

    FROM some sweet home, the morning train
            Brings to the city,
    Five days a week, in sun or rain,
    Returning like a song’s refrain,
            A school girl pretty.

    A wild flower’s unaffected grace...

  • Prime cantante!
    Scherzo! Andante!
    Piano, pianissimo!
    Presto, prestissimo!
    Hark! are there nine birds or ninety and nine?
    And now a miraculous gurgling gushes
    Like nectar from Hebe’s Olympian bottle,
    The laughter of tune from a rapturous...

  • From some sweet home, the morning train
          Brings to the city,
    Five days a week, in sun or rain,
    Returning like a song’s refrain,
          A school girl pretty.

    A wild flower’s unaffected grace
          Is dainty miss’s;
    Yet in her shy,...