The royal feast was done; the King
Sought some new sport to banish care,
And to his jester cried: “Sir Fool,
Kneel now, and make for us a prayer!”
The jester doffed his cap and bells,
And stood the mocking court before;
They could not see the bitter smile
Behind the painted grin he wore.
He bowed his head, and bent his...
A purple cloud hangs half-way down;
Sky, yellow gold below;
The naked trees, beyond the town,
Like masts against it show,—
Bare masts and spars of our earth-ship,
With shining snow-sails furled;
And through the sea of space we slip,
That flows all round the world.
Lend me thy fillet, Love!
I would no longer see:
Cover mine eyelids close awhile,
And make me blind like thee.
Then might I pass her sunny face,
And know not it was fair;
Then might I hear her voice, nor guess
Her starry eyes were there.
Ah! Banished so from stars and sun—
Why need it be my fate?
If...
if i were very sure
That all was over betwixt you and me,—
That, while this endless absence I endure
With but one mood, one dream, one misery
Of waiting, you were happier to be free,—
Then I might find again
In cloud and stream and all the winds that blow,
Yea, even in the faces of my fellowmen,
The old companionship;...
Yes, i know what you say:
Since it cannot be soul to soul,
Be it flesh to flesh, as it may;
But is Earth the whole?
Shall a man betray the Past
For all Earth gives?
“But the Past is dead?” At last
It is all that lives.
Which were the nobler goal,—
To snatch at the moment’s bliss
Or to swear I will...
The stars know a secret
They do not tell;
And morn brings a message
Hidden well.
There ’s a blush on the apple,
A tint on the wing,
And the bright wind whistles,
And the pulses sting.
Perish dark memories!
There ’s light ahead;
This world’s for the living,
Not for the dead.
In the...
O god, our Father, if we had but truth!
Lost truth—which thou perchance
Didst let man lose, lest all his wayward youth
He waste in song and dance;
That he might gain, in searching, mightier powers
For manlier use in those foreshadowed hours.
If, blindly groping, he shall oft mistake,
And follow twinkling motes
Thinking...
What if some morning, when the stars were paling,
And the dawn whitened, and the east was clear,
Strange peace and rest fell on me from the presence
Of a benignant spirit standing near;
And I should tell him, as he stood beside me:—
“This is our earth—most friendly earth, and fair;
Daily its sea and shore through sun and shadow
...
Farewell to such a world! Too long I press
The crowded pavement with unwilling feet.
Pity makes pride, and hate breeds hatefulness,
And both are poisons. In the forest sweet
The shade, the peace! Immensity, that seems
To drown the human life of doubts and dreams.
Far off the massive portals of the wood,
Buttressed with shadow,...
The Royal feast was done; the King
Sought some new sport to banish care,
And to his jester cried: “Sir Fool,
Kneel now, and make for us a prayer!”
The jester doffed his cap and bells,
And stood the mocking court before;
They could not see the bitter smile
Behind the painted grin he wore.
He bowed his head, and bent his...
