Why shouldst thou cease thy plaintive song
When I draw near?
Has mankind done thee any wrong,
That thou shouldst fear?
To see thee scampering to thy den,
So wild and shy,
’T would seem thou know’st the ways of men
As well as I.
’T is true the palmy days are o’er
When all thy kind—
Poor...
Not every thought can find its words,
Not all within is known;
For minds and hearts have many chords
That never yield their tone.
Tastes, instincts, feelings, passions, powers,
Sleep there, unfelt, unseen;
And other lives lie hid in ours—
The lives that might have been;
Affections whose transforming force
...
From “Ecclesiastical Sonnets,” Part III.
THERE are no colors in the fairest sky
So fair as these. The feather, whence the pen
Was shaped that traced the lives of these good men
Dropped from an angel’s wing. With moistened eye
We read of faith and purest charity
In statesman, priest, and humble citizen:
O, could we copy their mild virtues,...
I know lives, I could miss
Without a Misery —
Others — whose instant's wanting —
Would be Eternity —
The last — a scanty Number —
'Twould scarcely fill a Two —
The first — a Gnat's Horizon
Could easily outgrow —
Our lives are Swiss —
So still — so Cool —
Till some odd afternoon
The Alps neglect their Curtains
And we look farther on!
Italy stands the other side!
While like a guard between —
The solemn Alps —
The siren Alps
Forever intervene!
The Mind lives on the Heart
Like any Parasite —
If that is full of Meat
The Mind is fat.
But if the Heart omit
Emaciate the Wit —
The Aliment of it
So absolute.
Upon Concluded Lives
There's nothing cooler falls —
Than Life's sweet Calculations —
The mixing Bells and Palls —
Make Lacerating Tune —
To Ears the Dying Side —
'Tis Coronal — and Funeral —
Saluting — in the Road —
