I Did not think that I should find them there
When I came back again; but there they stood,
As in the days they dreamed of when young blood
Was in their cheeks and women called them fair.
Be sure, they met me with an ancient air,—
And, yes, there was a shop-worn brotherhood
About them; but the men were just as good,
And just as human as...
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Vengeful across the cold November moors,
Loud with ancestral shame there came the bleak,
Sad wind that shrieked, and answered with a shriek,
Reverberant through lonely corridors.
The old man heard it; and he heard, perforce,
Words out of lips that were no more to speak—
Words of the past that shook the old man’s cheek
Like dead,... -
They are all gone away,
The House is shut and still,
There is nothing more to say.Through broken walls and gray
The winds blow bleak and shrill:
They are all gone away.Nor is there one to-day
To speak them good or ill:
There is nothing more to say.Why is it then we stray
Around that sunken... -
We were ordered to Samoa from the coast of Panama,
And for two long months we sailed the unequal sea,
Till we made the horseshoe harbor with its curving coral bar,
Smelt the good green smell of grass and shrub and tree.
We had barely room for swinging with the tide—
There were many of us crowded in the bay:
Three Germans, and the English... -
A Man more kindly, in his careless way,
Than many who profess a higher creed;
Whose fickle love might change from day to day,
And yet be faithful to a friend in need;
Whose manners covered, through life’s outs and ins,
Like charity, a multitude of sins.A man of honor, too, as such things go;
Discreet and secret—qualities of use—... -
If wisdom’s height is only disenchantment,
As say the cynics of a certain school,
And sages grow more sad in their advancement,
Then folly is the wisdom of the fool.Since fools know happiness through lack of knowledge,
And see things fair because they shut their eyes,
Then any one can tell, who’s been to college,
That wisdom is... -
The Light of spring
On the emerald earth,
A man, a maid,
And a mood of mirth,
A foolish jest,
That a smile amends—
It took no more
To make us friends.An evening breeze,
The year in bloom,
Lips quickly met
In the garden’s gloom;
The trees about us,
The stars above—
It... -
Dear, if you love me, hold me most your friend,
Chosen from out the many who would bear
Your gladness gladly—heavily your care;
Who best can sympathize, best comprehend,
Where others fail; who, breathless to the end,
Follows your tale of joy or of despair.
Hold me your counsellor, because I dare
To lift my hand to guide you, that I lend... -
She sits within the white oak hall,
Hung with the trophies of the chase—
Helen, a stately maid and tall,
Dark-haired and pale of face;
With drooping lids and eyes that brood,
Sunk in the depths of some strange mood,
She gazes in the fireplace, where
The oozing pine logs snap and flare,
Wafting the perfume of their native... -
Such times as windy moods do stir
The foamless billows of the wheat,
I glimpse the floating limbs of her
In instant visions melting sweet.A milky shoulder’s dip and gleam,
Or arms that clasp upon the air,
An upturned face’s rosy dream,
Half blinded by the sunlit hair.A haunting mermaid mid the swell
And...