• XIII

    Prince mort en soldat à cause de la France,
          Âme certes élue,
    Fier jeune homme si pur tombé plein d'espérance,
          Je t'aime et te salue !

    Ce monde est si mauvais, notre pauvre patrie
          Va sous tant de ténèbres,
    Vaisseau désemparé dont l'équipage crie
          Avec des voix funèbres,

    Ce siècle...

  • « Quand je cause avec toi paisiblement,
    Ce m’est vraiment charmant, tu causes si paisiblement !

    Quand je dispute et te fais des reproches,
    Tu disputes, c’est drôle, et me fais aussi des reproches.

    ...
  • I served in a great cause:
    Long had I doubted the call I heard, wantoning the seasons dead;
    The opportune days were deserts, the sunlight fell on a waste,
    But the dawn brought me face to face with itself, with the opening flowers:
    I looked upon my sea casting its wrecks down the shore in the storm,
    The wrecks, my useless volitions, disordered, missent,...

  • From “The Light of the Harem”
    ALAS! how light a cause may move
    Dissension between hearts that love!
    Hearts that the world in vain has tried,
    And sorrow but more closely tied;
    That stood the storm when waves were rough,
    Yet in a sunny hour fall off,
    Like ships that have gone down at sea,
    When heaven was all tranquillity!

    A...

  • From “Sentinel Songs”
    THE FALLEN cause still waits,—
      Its bard has not come yet,
    His song—through one of to-morrow’s gates
      Shall shine—but never set.

    But when he comes—he ’ll sweep
      A harp with tears all stringed,
    And the very notes he strikes will weep,
      As they come, from his hand, woe-winged.

    Ah! grand shall be...

  • Si l'aveugle fureur, qui cause les batailles,
    Des pareils animaux n'a les coeurs allumés,
    Soit ceux qui vont courant ou soit les emplumés,
    Ceux-là qui vont rampant ou les armés d'écailles :

    Quelle ardente Erinnys de ses rouges tenailles
    Vous pincetait les coeurs de rage envenimés,
    Quand si cruellement l'un sur l'autre animés
    Vous détrempiez le fer en...

  • God made no act without a cause,

    Nor heart without an aim,

    Our inference is premature,

    Our premises to blame.

  • I had no Cause to be awake —

    My Best — was gone to sleep —

    And Morn a new politeness took —

    And failed to wake them up —


    But called the others — clear —

    And passed their Curtains by —

    Sweet Morning — when I oversleep —

    Knock — Recollect — to Me —


    I looked at Sunrise —...

  • Of Tolling Bell I ask the cause?

    "A Soul has gone to Heaven"

    I'm answered in a lonesome tone —

    Is Heaven then a Prison?


    That Bells should ring till all should know

    A Soul had gone to Heaven

    Would seem to me the more the way

    A Good News should be given.