Somewhere in the world there hide
Garden-gates that no one sees
Save they come in happy twos,—
Not in one, nor yet in threes.
But from every maiden’s door
Leads a pathway straight and true;
Map and survey know it not,—
He who finds, finds room for two!
Then they see the garden-gates!
Never skies so blue as theirs,...
St. Helena Island, South Carolina, in 1863
I WAS young and “Harry” was strong,
The summer was bursting from sky and plain,
Thrilling our blood as we bounded along,—
When a picture flashed, and I dropped the rein.
A black sea-creek, with snaky run
Slipping through low green leagues of sedge,
An ebbing tide, and a setting sun;
A...
God ploughed one day with an earthquake,
And drove his furrows deep!
The huddling plains upstarted,
The hills were all a-leap!
But that is the mountains’ secret,
Age-hidden in their breast;
“God’s peace is everlasting,”
Are the dream-words of their rest.
He hath made them the haunt of beauty,
The home elect...
