• The fountains mingle with the river
    And the rivers with the ocean,
    The winds of heaven mix for ever
    With a sweet emotion;
    Nothing in the world is single,
    All things by a law divine
    In one another's being mingle—
    Why not I with thine?

    See the mountains kiss high heaven,
    And the waves clasp one another;
    No sister-flower would be forgiven
    ...

  • I loved her for that she was beautiful;
    And that to me she seem'd to be all Nature,
    And all varieties of things in one:
    Would set at night in clouds of tears, and rise
    All light and laughter in the morning; fear
    No petty customs nor appearances;
    But think what others only dream'd about;
    And say what others did but think; and do
    What others dared...

  • Give all to love;
    Obey thy heart;
    Friends, kindred, days,
    Estate, good-fame,
    Plans, credit, and the Muse,—
    Nothing refuse.

    'Tis a brave master;
    Let it have scope:
    Follow it utterly,
    Hope beyond hope:
    High and more high
    It dives into noon,
    With wing unspent,
    Untold intent;
    But it is a God,
    Knows its own...

  • I have loved flowers that fade,
    Within whose magic tents
    Rich hues have marriage made
    With sweet unmemoried scents:
    A honeymoon delight—
    A joy of love at sight,
    That ages in an hour—
    My song be like a flower!

    I have loved airs that die
    Before their charm is writ
    Along a liquid sky
    Trembling to welcome it.
    Notes, that with...

  • Escape me?
    Never—
    Beloved!
    While I am I, and you are you,
    So long as the world contains us both,
    Me the loving and you the loth,
    While the one eludes, must the other pursue.
    My life is a fault at last, I fear:
    It seems too much like a fate, indeed!
    Though I do my best I shall scarce succeed.
    But what if I fail of my purpose here?
    It is...

  • I wonder do you feel today
    As I have felt since, hand in hand,
    We sat down on the grass, to stray
    In spirit better through the land,
    This morn of Rome and May?

    For me, I touched a thought, I know,
    Has tantalized me many times,
    (Like turns of thread the spiders throw
    Mocking across our path) for rhymes
    To catch at and let go.

    Help me to...

  • 1

    The gray sea and the long black land;
    And the yellow half-moon large and low;
    And the startled little waves that leap
    In fiery ringlets from their sleep,
    As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
    And quench its speed i' the slushy sand.
    2

    Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
    Three fields to cross till a...
  • Look off, dear Love, across the sallow sands,
    And mark yon meeting of the sun and sea;
    How long they kiss in sight of all the lands,
    Ah! longer, longer we.

    Now, in the sea's red vintage melts the sun
    As Egypt's pearl dissolved in rosy wine
    And Cleopatra night drinks all. 'Tis done,
    Love, lay thine hand in mine.

    Come forth, sweet...

  • Ah, God, the way your little finger moved
    As you thrust a bare arm backward
    And made play with your hair
    And a comb a silly gilt comb
    Ah, God—that I should suffer
    Because of the way a little finger moved.

  • Cold in the earth—and the deep snow piled above thee,
    Far, far removed, cold in the dreary grave!
    Have I forgot, my only Love, to love thee,
    Sever’d at last by Time’s all-severing wave?

    Now, when alone, do my thoughts no longer hover
    Over the mountains, on that northern shore,
    Resting their wings where heath and fern-leaves cover
    Thy noble heart for...