• Ah, be not false, sweet Splendor!
        Be true, be good;
    Be wise as thou art tender;
        Be all that Beauty should.

    Not lightly be thy citadel subdued;
        Not ignobly, not untimely.
    Take praise in solemn mood;
        Take love sublimely.

  • She lives in light, not shadow;
      Not silence, but the sound
    Which thrills the stars of heaven
      And trembles from the ground.

    She breathes a finer ether,
      Beholds a keener sun;
    In her supernal being
      Music and light are one.

    Unknown the subtle senses
      That lead her through the day;
    Love, light, and song and...

  • I heard the bells of Bethlehem ring—
      Their voice was sweeter than the priests’;
    I heard the birds of Bethlehem sing
      Unbidden in the churchly feasts.

    They clung and sung on the swinging chain
      High in the dim and incensed air;
    The priests, with repetitions vain,
      Chanted a never-ending prayer.

    So bell and bird and priest...

  • Star-dust and vaporous light,—
      The mist of worlds unborn,—
    A shuddering in the awful night
      Of winds that bring the morn.

    Now comes the dawn: the circling earth;
      Creatures that fly and crawl;
    And Man, that last, imperial birth;
      And Christ, the flower of all.

  • If jesus Christ is a man,—
      And only a man,—I say
    That of all mankind I cleave to him,
      And to him will I cleave alway.

    If Jesus Christ is a God,—
      And the only God,—I swear
    I will follow Him through heaven and hell,
      The earth, the sea, and the air!

  • He speaks not well who doth his time deplore,
    Naming it new and little and obscure,
    Ignoble and unfit for lofty deeds.
    All times were modern in the time of them,
    And this no more than others. Do thy part
    Here in the living day, as did the great
    Who made old days immortal! So shall men,
    Gazing long back to this far-looming hour,
    ...

  • Through love to light! Oh wonderful the way
    That leads from darkness to the perfect day!
    From darkness and from sorrow of the night
    To morning that comes singing o’er the sea.
    Through love to light! Through light, O God, to thee,
    Who art the love of love, the eternal light of light!

  •   THE Night was dark, though sometimes a faint star
    A little while a little space made bright.
    The night was long and like an iron bar
    Lay heavy on the land: till o’er the sea
    Slowly, within the East, there grew a light
    Which half was starlight, and half seemed to be
    The herald of a greater. The pale white
    Turned slowly to pale rose, and...

  • What is a sonnet? ’T is the pearly shell
    That murmurs of the far-off murmuring sea;
    A precious jewel carved most curiously;
    It is a little picture painted well.
    What is a sonnet? ’T is the tear that fell
    From a great poet’s hidden ecstasy;
    A two-edged sword, a star, a song,—ah me!
    Sometimes a heavy-tolling funeral bell.
    This was...

  • When late I heard the trembling cello play,
    In every face I read sad memories
    That from dark, secret chambers where they lay
    Rose, and looked forth from melancholy eyes.
    So every mournful thought found there a tone
    To match despondence: sorrow knew its mate;
    Ill fortune sighed, and mute despair made moan;
    And one deep chord gave answer, “...