O love, so sweet at first.
So bitter in the end!
Thou canst be fiercest foe,
As well as fairest friend.
Are these poor withered leaves
The fruitage of thy May?
Thou that wert strong to save,
How art thou swift to slay!
Ay, thou art swift to slay,
Despite thy kiss and clasp,
Thy long, caressing look,...
Afternoon
when in thy glass thou studiest thy face,
Not long, nor yet not seldom, half repelled
And half attracted; when thou hast beheld
Of Time’s slow ravages the crumbling trace,
(Deciphered now with many an interspace
The characters erewhile that Beauty spelled),
And in thy throat a choking fear hath swelled
Of Love, grown cold...
We, sighing, said, “Our Pan is dead;
His pipe hangs mute beside the river;
Around it wistful sunbeams quiver,
But Music’s airy voice is fled.
Spring mourns as for untimely frost;
The bluebird chants a requiem;
The willow-blossom waits for him;
The Genius of the wood is lost.”
Then from the flute, untouched by hands,...
“master of human destinies am I!
Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait.
Cities and fields I walk; I penetrate
Deserts and seas remote, and passing by
Hovel and mart and palace—soon or late
I knock unbidden once at every gate!
“If sleeping, wake—if feasting, rise before
I turn away. It is the hour of fate,
And they who...
Read me no moral, priest, upon my life,—
Reserve that for your flock.
A few short hours will end my mortal strife,
Upon the gallows block.
Before the gaping crowd, who come to see
A fellow mortal die,
Preach if you choose, and take your text from me,—
To them I cannot lie.
And still the less can I, a finite man...
I had my birth where stars were born,
In the dim æons of the past:
My cradle cosmic forces rocked,
And to my first was linked my last.
Through boundless space the shuttle flew,
To weave the warp and woof of fate:
In my begetting were conjoined
The infinitely small and great.
The outmost star on being’s rim,
...
I like the man who faces what he must
With step triumphant and a heart of cheer;
Who fights the daily battle without fear;
Sees his hopes fail, yet keeps unfaltering trust
That God is God,—that somehow, true and just
His plans work out for mortals; not a tear
Is shed when fortune, which the world holds dear,
Falls from his grasp—better,...
Time
time has no flight—’t is we who speed along;
The days and nights are but the same as when
The earth awoke with the first rush of song,
And felt the swiftly passing feet of men.
INFALLIBILITY
“BELIEVE in me,” the Prophet cried,—
“I hold the key of life and light:”
And, lo, one touched him, and he died
...
Ancient of days, Who sittest, throned in glory;
To Thee all knees are bent, all voices pray;
Thy love has blest the wide world’s wondrous story,
With light and life since Eden’s dawning day.
O Holy Father, Who hast led Thy children
In all the ages, with the Fire and Cloud,
Through seas dry-shod; through weary wastes bewildering;...
O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by;
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee to-night.
For Christ is born of Mary,
And, gathered all above,
While mortals sleep...
