“Who bears upon his baby brow the round
And top of sovereignty.”
Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act IV. Sc. 1.
LOOK 1 at me with thy large brown eyes,
Philip, my king!
Round whom the enshadowing purple lies
Of babyhood’s royal dignities.
Lay on my neck thy tiny hand
With Love’s invisible sceptre laden;
I am thine...
A Girl, who has so many wilful ways
She would have caused Job’s patience to forsake him;
Yet is so rich in all that ’s girlhood’s praise,
Did Job himself upon her goodness gaze,
A little better she would surely make him.
Yet is this girl I sing in naught uncommon,
And very far from angel yet, I trow.
Her faults, her sweetness, are...
“She loves with love that cannot tire:
And if, ah, woe! she loves alone,
Through passionate duty love flames higher,
As grass grows taller round a stone.”
—COVENTRY PATMORE.
SO, the truth ’s out. I ’ll grasp it like a snake,—
It will not slay me. My heart shall not break
Awhile, if only for the children’s sake.
For his...
“Two hands upon the breast, and labor is past.”
—RUSSIAN PROVERB.
“TWO hands upon the breast,
And labor ’s done;
Two pale feet crossed in rest,—
The race is won;
Two eyes with coin-weights shut,
And all tears cease;
Two lips where grief is mute,
Anger at peace:”
So pray we oftentimes, mourning our lot...
“Dowglas, Dowglas, tendir and treu”
COULD ye come back to me, Douglas, Douglas,
In the old likeness that I knew,
I would be so faithful, so loving, Douglas,
Douglas, Douglas, tender and true.
Never a scornful word should grieve ye,
I ’d smile on ye sweet as the angels do;
Sweet as your smile on me shone ever,
Douglas,...
From the near city comes the clang of bells:
Their hundred jarring diverse tones combine
In one faint misty harmony, as fine
As the soft note yon winter robin swells.
What if to Thee in thine infinity
These multiform and many-colored creeds
Seem but the robe man wraps as masquers’ weeds
Round the one living truth them givest him—Thee?...
“Some cotton has lately been imported into Farringdon, where the mills have been closed for a considerable time. The people, who were previously in the deepest distress, went out to meet the cotton: the women wept over the bales and kissed them, and finally sang the Doxology over them.”—Spectator of May 14, 1863.
“PRAISE God from whom all blessings flow,”
Praise him who...
“CARRY me across!”
The Syrian heard, rose up, and braced
His huge limbs to the accustomed toil:
“My child, see how the waters boil?
The night-black heavens look angry-faced;
But life is little loss.
“I ’ll carry thee with joy,
If needs be, safe as nestling dove:
For o’er this stream I pilgrims bring...
[September 20, 1854]
WILLIE, fold your little hands;
Let it drop,—that “soldier” toy;
Look where father’s picture stands,—
Father, that here kissed his boy
Not a mouth since,—father kind,
Who this night may (never mind
Mother’s sob, my Willie dear)
Cry out loud that He may hear
Who is God of battles,—cry,
“God...
