• The beautiful, which mocked his fond pursuing,
      The poet followed long;
    With passionate purpose the shy shadow wooing,
      And soul-betraying song.

    And still the fervor of his fond endeavor
      To him seemed poured in vain,
    And all in vain, forever and forever,
      The sorrow of his strain.

    But when at last he perished broken-...

  • A Naked house, a naked moor,
    A shivering pool before the door,
    A garden bare of flowers and fruit,
    And poplars at the garden foot;
    Such is the place that I live in,
    Bleak without and bare within.

    Yet shall your ragged moors receive
    The incomparable pomp of eve,
    And the cold glories of the dawn
    Behind your shivering trees...

  • I Love my Lady; she is very fair;
    Her brow is wan, and bound by simple hair;
      Her spirit sits aloof, and high,
      But glances from her tender eye
        In sweetness droopingly.

    As a young forest while the wind drives through,
    My life is stirred when she breaks on my view;
      Her beauty grants my will no choice
      But silent awe,...

  • O The SNOW, the beautiful snow,
    Filling the sky and the earth below!
    Over the house-tops, over the street,
    Over the heads of the people you meet,
              Dancing,
                Flirting,
                  Skimming along.
    Beautiful snow! it can do nothing wrong.
    Flying to kiss a fair lady’s cheek;
    Clinging to lips in a...

  • O Unseen Spirit! now a calm divine
      Comes forth from thee, rejoicing earth and air!
    Trees, hills, and houses, all distinctly shine,
      And thy great ocean slumbers everywhere.

    The mountain ridge against the purple sky
      Stands clear and strong, with darkened rocks and dells,
    And cloudless brightness opens wide and high
      A home aerial,...

  • They drift down the hall together;

           He smiles in her lifted eyes;

    Like waves of that mighty river,

           The strains of the "Danube" rise.


    They float on its rhythmic measure

           Like leaves on a summer-stream;

    And here, in this scene of pleasure,

           I bury my sweet, dead...

  • Come, cuddle your head on my shoulder, dear,

    Your head like the golden-rod,

    And we will go sailing away from here

    To the beautiful Land of Nod.

    Away from life's hurry and flurry and worry,

    Away from earth's shadows and gloom,

    To a world of fair weather we'll float off together,

    Where roses...