1 PASTOR, thou art from us taken
In the glory of thy years,
As the oak, by tempests shaken,
Falls ere time its verdure sears.
2 Pale and cold we see thee lying
In God's temple, once so dear.
And the mourners' bitter sighing
Falls unheeded on thine ear...
Death sets a Thing significant
The Eye had hurried by
Except a perished Creature
Entreat us tenderly
To ponder little Workmanships
In Crayon, or in Wool,
With "This was last Her fingers did" —
Industrious until —
The Thimble weighed too heavy —
The stitches...
Death warrants are supposed to be
An enginery of equity
A merciful mistake
A pencil in an Idol's Hand
A Devotee has oft consigned
To Crucifix or Block
Death's Waylaying not the sharpest
Of the thefts of Time —
There Marauds a sorer Robber,
Silence — is his name —
No Assault, nor any Menace
Doth betoken him.
But from Life's consummate Cluster —
He supplants the Balm.
Declaiming Waters none may dread —
But Waters that are still
Are so for that most fatal cause
In Nature — they are full —
The flowers of romance that I cherished,
Around me lie withered and dead;
The stars of my youth's shining heaven,
Were but meteors whose brightness misled;
...
It was the lunatic poet escaped from the local asylum,
Loudly he twanged on his banjo and sang with his voice like a saw-mill,
While as with fervour he sang there was borne o'er the shuddering wildwood,
Borne on the breath of the poet a flavour of rum and of onions.
He sang of the Deficit Demon that dwelt in the Treasury...
Defrauded I a Butterfly —
The lawful Heir — for Thee —
Delayed till she had ceased to know —
Delayed till in its vest of snow
Her loving bosom lay —
An hour behind the fleeting breath —
Later by just an hour than Death —
Oh lagging Yesterday!
Could she have guessed that it would be —
Could but a crier of the joy
Have climbed the...
Delia, th' unkindest girl on earth,
When I besought the fair,
That favour of intrinsic worth,
A ringlet of her hair, -
Refus'd that instant to comply
With my absurd request,
For reasons she could specify,
Some twenty score at least.
Trust me, my dear,...