•   That was a fair one which a Queen

      Pulled the great pearl from, in her spleen,

      And drank its rich corroded sheen;


      And dazzling bright was that which met,

      And clasped its fatal diamond net

      About Maria Antoinette;


      And cool and fresh the dripping band

      Which poor Undine...

  • Never for Society

    He shall seek in vain —

    Who His own acquaintance

    Cultivate — Of Men

    Wiser Men may weary —

    But the Man within


    Never knew Satiety —

    Better entertain

    Than could Border Ballad —

    Or Biscayan Hymn —

    Neither introduction

    Need...

  • 'Tis a new life—thoughts move not as they did

    With slow uncertain steps across my mind,

    In thronging haste fast pressing on they bid

    The portals open to the viewless wind;

    That comes not, save when in the dust is laid

    The crown of pride that gilds each mortal brow,

    And from before man's vision melting...

  • O, SWEET little maid of a Puritan line,

    O, dear little maid of a Puritan town,

    On the morn of that saint whom they name Valentine,

    I am asking a boon,—and I pray do not frown;

    For, coy little Puritan maid of to-day,

    I ask but a quaint little Puritan "Yea."


    Look around on the walls of your Puritan...

  • New feet within my garden go,

    New fingers stir the sod ;

    A troubadour upon the elm

    Betrays the solitude.


    New children play upon the green,

    New weary sleep below ;

    And still the pensive spring returns,

    And...




  • There lived an old man in the kingdom of Tess,

    Who invented a purely original dress;

    And when it was perfectly made and complete,

    He opened the door, and walked into the street.


    By way of a hat, he'd a loaf of Brown Bread,

    In the middle of which he inserted his head; -

    His Shirt...

  •         As when the sun in darkness sets,

                And night falls on the earth,

            Along the azure fields above

                The stars of heaven come forth;

     

            So when the sun of Liberty

                Grows dim to mortal eyes,

            From out the gloom, like radiant stars,...

  • No Autumn's intercepting Chill

    Appalls this Tropic Breast —

    But African Exuberance

    And Asiatic rest.

  • No Bobolink — reverse His Singing

    When the only Tree

    Ever He minded occupying

    By the Farmer be —


    Clove to the Root —

    His Spacious Future —

    Best Horizon — gone —

    Whose Music be His

    Only Anodyne —

    Brave Bobolink —

  • No Brigadier throughout the Year

    So civic as the Jay —

    A Neighbor and a Warrior too

    With shrill felicity

    Pursuing Winds that censure us

    A February Day,

    The Brother of the Universe

    Was never blown away —

    The Snow and he are intimate —

    I've often seem them play
    ...