• O curfew of the setting sun! O Bells of Lynn!
    O requiem of the dying day! O Bells of Lynn!

    From the dark belfries of yon cloud-cathedral wafted,
    Your sounds aerial seem to float, O Bells of Lynn!

    Borne on the evening wind across the crimson twilight,
    O’er land and sea they rise and fall, O Bells of Lynn!

    The fisherman in his boat, far out...

  • An old man in a lodge within a park;
    The chamber walls depicted all around
    With portraitures of huntsman, hawk, and hound,
    And the hurt deer. He listeneth to the lark,
    Whose song comes with the sunshine through the dark
    Of painted glass in leaden lattice bound;
    He listeneth and he laugheth at the sound,
    Then writeth in a book like any...

  • I pace the sounding sea-beach and behold
    How the voluminous billows roll and run,
    Upheaving and subsiding, while the sun
    Shines through their sheeted emerald far unrolled,
    And the ninth wave, slow gathering fold by fold
    All its loose-flowing garments into one,
    Plunges upon the shore, and floods the dun
    Pale reach of sands, and changes...

  • As a fond mother, when the day is o’er,
    Leads by the hand her little child to bed,
    Half willing, half reluctant to be led,
    And leave his broken playthings on the floor,
    Still gazing at them through the open door,
    Nor wholly reassured and comforted
    By promises of others in their stead,
    Which, though more splendid, may not please him more;...

  • Poet! i come to touch thy lance with mine;
    Not as a knight, who on the listed field
    Of tourney touched his adversary’s shield
    In token of defiance, but in sign
    Of homage to the mastery, which is thine,
    In English song; nor will I keep concealed,
    And voiceless as a rivulet frost-congealed,
    My admiration for thy verse divine.
    Not of...

  • A fleet with flags arrayed
      Sailed from the port of Brest,
    And the Admiral’s ship displayed
      The signal: “Steer southwest.”
    For this Admiral D’Anville
      Had sworn by cross and crown
    To ravage with fire and steel
      Our helpless Boston Town.

    There were rumors in the street,
      In the houses there was fear
    Of the...

  • How cold are thy baths, Apollo!
      Cried the African monarch, the splendid,
    As down to his death in the hollow
      Dark dungeons of Rome he descended,
      Uncrowned, unthroned, unattended;
    How cold are thy baths, Apollo!

    How cold are thy baths, Apollo!
      Cried the Poet, unknown, unbefriended,
    As the vision, that lured him to follow,...

  • The tide rises, the tide falls,
    The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
    Along the sea-sands damp and brown
    The traveller hastens toward the town,
        And the tide rises, the tide falls.

    Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
    But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;
    The little waves, with their soft, white hands,
    Efface the...

  • Sadly as some old mediæval knight
    Gazed at the arms he could no longer wield,
    The sword two-handed and the shining shield
    Suspended in the hall, and full in sight,
    While secret longings for the lost delight
    Of tourney or adventure in the field
    Came over him, and tears but half concealed
    Trembled and fell upon his beard of white,
    ...

  • Her ways were gentle while a babe,
      With calm and tranquil eye,
    That turned instinctively to seek
      The blueness of the sky.
    A holy smile was on her lip
      Whenever sleep was there;
    She slept, as sleeps the blossom, hushed
      Amid the silent air.

    And ere she left with tottling steps
      The low-roofed cottage door,
    ...