Such a starved bank of moss
Till, that May morn,
Blue ran the flash across:
Violets were born!
Sky—what a scowl of cloud
Till, near and far,
Ray on ray split the shroud:
Splendid, a star!
World—how it walled about
Life with disgrace
Till God’s own smile came out;
That was thy...
As the Starved Maelstrom laps the Navies
As the Vulture teased
Forces the Broods in lonely Valleys
As the Tiger eased
By but a Crumb of Blood, fasts Scarlet
Till he meet a Man
Dainty adorned with Veins and Tissues
And partakes — his Tongue
Cooled by the Morsel for a...
It would have starved a Gnat —
To live so small as I —
And yet I was a living Child —
With Food's necessity
Upon me — like a Claw —
I could no more remove
Than I could coax a Leech away —
Or make a Dragon — move —
Not like the Gnat — had I —
The privilege...
TIME was when I was free as air,
The thistle's downy seed my fare,
My drink the morning dew;
I perch'd at will on ev'ry spray,
My form genteel, my plumage gay,
My strains for ever new.
But gaudy plumage, sprightly strain,
And form genteel, were all in vain,
And of a...
