• I crave, dear Lord,
    No boundless hoard
      Of gold and gear,
        Nor jewels fine,
        Nor lands, nor kine,
    Nor treasure-heaps of anything.—
        Let but a little hut be mine
    Where at the hearthstone I may hear
        The cricket sing,
        And have the shine
      Of one glad woman’s eyes to make,
      For my poor sake,...

  • 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,...