The world TRANSFORMED
UNWARMED by any sunset light
The gray day darkened into night,
A night made hoary with the swarm
And whirl-dance of the blinding storm,
As zigzag, wavering to and fro,
Crossed and recrossed the wingëd snow:
And ere the early bedtime came
The white drift piled the window-frame,
And through the glass the...
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Still sits the school-house by the road,
A ragged beggar sunning;
Around it still the sumachs grow,
And blackberry vines are running.Within, the master’s desk is seen,
Deep scarred by raps official;
The warping floor, the battered seats,
The jack-knife’s carved initial;The charcoal frescos on its wall;
Its... -
God called the nearest angels who dwell with Him above:
The tenderest one was Pity, the dearest one was Love.“Arise,” He said, “my angels! a wail of woe and sin
Steals through the gates of heaven, and saddens all within.“My harps take up the mournful strain that from a lost world swells,
The smoke of torment clouds the light and blights the... -
Our fathers’ God! from out whose hand
The centuries fall like grains of sand,
We meet to-day, united, free,
And loyal to our land and Thee,
To thank Thee for the era done,
And trust Thee for the opening one.Here, where of old, by Thy design,
The fathers spake that word of Thine
Whose echo is the glad refrain
Of rended... -
She came and stood in the Old South Church
A wonder and a sign,
With a look the old-time sibyls wore,
Half-crazed and half-divine.Save the mournful sackcloth about her wound,
Unclothed as the primal mother,
With limbs that trembled and eyes that blazed
With a fire she dare not smother.Loose on her shoulders fell her...
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Unnoted as the setting of a star
He passed; and sect and party scarcely knew
When from their midst a sage and seer withdrew
To fitter audience, where the great dead are
In God’s republic of the heart and mind,
Leaving no purer, nobler soul behind. -
I write my name as one,
On sands by waves o’errun
Or winter’s frosted pane,
Traces a record vain.Oblivion’s blankness claims
Wiser and better names,
And well my own may pass
As from the strand or glass.Wash on, O waves of time!
Melt, noons, the frosty rime!
Welcome the shadow vast,
The silence that... -
BLESSINGS on thee, little man,
Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan!
With thy turned-up pantaloons,
And thy merry whistled tunes;
With thy red lip, redder still
Kissed by strawberries on the hill;
With the sunshine on thy face,
Through thy torn brim’s jaunty grace;
From my heart I give thee joy,—
I was once a barefoot boy!... -
Still sits the school-house by the road,
A ragged beggar sunning;
Around it still the sumachs grow,
And blackberry vines are running.Within, the master’s desk is seen,
Deep scarred by raps official;
The warping floor, the battered seats,
The jack-knife’s carved initial;The charcoal frescoes on its wall;
Its... -
From “Snow-Bound”
THE SUN that brief December day
Rose cheerless over hills of gray,
And, darkly circled, gave at noon
A sadder light than waning moon.
Slow tracing down the thickening sky
Its mute and ominous prophecy,
A portent seeming less than threat,
It sank from sight before it set.
A chill no coat, however stout,...