• An Idyll of Dandaloo

    On Western plains, where shade is not,

    'Neath summer skies of cloudless blue,

    Where all is dry and all is hot,

    There stands the town of Dandaloo --

    A township where life's total sum

    Is sleep, diversified with rum.


    Its grass-grown streets with dust are deep;

    'Twere vain endeavour to...

  • If all the griefs I am to have

    If all the griefs I am to have

    Would only come today,

    I am so happy I believe

    They'd laugh and run away.


    If all the joys I am to have

    Would only come today,

    They could not be so big as this

    That happens to me now.

  • If any sink, assure that this, now standing —

    If any sink, assure that this, now standing —

    Failed like Themselves — and conscious that it rose —

    Grew by the Fact, and not the Understanding

    How Weakness passed — or Force — arose —


    Tell that the Worst, is easy in a Moment —

    Dread, but the Whizzing, before the Ball —

    When the Ball enters, enters...

  • If anybody's friend be dead

    If anybody's friend be dead

    It's sharpest of the theme

    The thinking how they walked alive —

    At such and such a time —


    Their costume, of a Sunday,

    Some manner of the Hair —

    A prank nobody knew but them

    Lost, in the Sepulchre —


    How warm, they were, on such a day,
    ...

  • If Blame be my side — forfeit Me —

    If Blame be my side — forfeit Me —

    But doom me not to forfeit Thee —

    To forfeit Thee? The very name

    Is sentence from Belief — and House —

  • If ever the lid gets off my head

    If ever the lid gets off my head

    And lets the brain away

    The fellow will go where he belonged —

    Without a hint from me,


    And the world — if the world be looking on —

    Will see how far from home

    It is possible for sense to live

    The soul there — all the time.

  • If He dissolve — then — there is nothing — more —

    If He dissolve — then — there is nothing — more —

    Eclipse — at Midnight —

    It was dark — before —

    Sunset — at Easter —

    Blindness — on the Dawn —

    Faint Star of Bethlehem —

    Gone down!


    Would but some God — inform Him —

    Or it be too late!

    Say — that the pulse just...

  • If He were living — dare I ask —

    If He were living — dare I ask —

    And how if He be dead —

    And so around the Words I went —

    Of meeting them — afraid —


    I hinted Changes — Lapse of Time —

    The Surfaces of Years —

    I touched with Caution — lest they crack —

    And show me to my fears —


    Reverted to adjoining...

  • If I can stop one Heart from breaking

    If I can stop one heart from breaking,

    I shall not live in vain ;

    If I can ease one life the aching,

    Or cool one pain,

    Or help one fainting robin

    Unto his nest again,

    I shall not live in vain.

  • If I could bribe them by a Rose

    If I could bribe them by a Rose

    I'd bring them every flower that grows

    From Amherst to Cashmere!

    I would not stop for night, or storm —

    Or frost, or death, or anyone —

    My business were so dear!


    If they would linger for a Bird

    My Tambourin were soonest heard

    Among the April...