• No one could tell me where my Soul might be.
    I searched for God, but God eluded me.
    I sought my Brother out, and found all three.

  • The soul of the world is abroad to-night—
    Not in yon silvery amalgam of moonbeam and ocean, nor in the pink heat-lightning tremulous on the horizon;
    Not in the embrace of yonder pair of lovers either, heart beating to heart in the shadow of the fishing-smack drawn up on the beach.
    All that—shall I call it illusion? Nay, but at best it is a pale reflection of the truth....

  • Amid the chapel’s chequered gloom
      She laughed with Dora and with Flora,
    And chattered in the lecture-room,—
      That saucy little sophomora!
        Yet while, as in her other schools,
          She was a privileged transgressor,
        She never broke the simple rules
          Of one particular professor.

    But when he spoke of varied lore,...

  • Sweet eyes by sorrow still unwet,
    To you the world is radiant yet,
    A palace-hall of splendid truth
    Touched by the golden haze of youth,
    Where hopes and joys are ever rife
    Amid the mystery of life;
    And seeking all to understand,
    The world to you is Wonderland.

    I turn and watch with unshed tears
    The furrowed track of ended...

  • Sweet little maid with winsome eyes
      That laugh all day through the tangled hair;
    Gazing with baby looks so wise
      Over the arm of the oaken chair,
        Dearer than you is none to me,
          Dearer than you there can be none;
        Since in your laughing face I see
          Eyes that tell of another one.

    Here where the firelight...

  •     after all,
    One country, brethren! We must rise or fall
    With the Supreme Republic. We must be
    The makers of her immortality,—
        Her freedom, fame,
        Her glory or her shame:
    Liegemen to God and fathers of the free!

        After all—
    Hark! from the heights the clear, strong, clarion call
    And the command imperious: “...

  • De gray owl sing fum de chimbly top:
      “Who—who—is—you-oo?”
    En I say: “Good Lawd, hit’s des po ’me,
    En I ain’t quite ready fer de Jasper Sea;
    I ’m po’ en sinful, en you ’lowed I ’d be;
      Oh, wait, good Lawd, ’twell ter-morror!”

    De gray owl sing fum de cypress tree:
      “Who—who—is—you-oo?”
    En I say: “Good Lawd, ef you look you ’ll...

  • In the white moonlight, where the willow waves,
    He halfway gallops among the graves—
    A tiny ghost in the gloom and gleam,
    Content to dwell where the dead men dream,

    But wary still!
    For they plot him ill;
    For the graveyard rabbit hath a charm
    (May God defend us!) to shield from harm.

    Over the shimmering slabs he goes—
    ...

  • He did n’t know much music
      When first he come along;
    An’ all the birds went wonderin’
      Why he did n’t sing a song.

    They primped their feathers in the sun,
      An’ sung their sweetest notes;
    An’ music jest come on the run
      From all their purty throats!

    But still that bird was silent
      In summer time an’ fall;
    ...

  • A little way to walk with you, my own—
        Only a little way,
    Then one of us must weep and walk alone
        Until God’s day.

    A little way! It is so sweet to live
        Together, that I know
    Life would not have one withered rose to give
        If one of us should go.

    And if these lips should ever learn to smile,
        With thy...