Out of the heart there flew a little singing bird,
Past the dawn and the dew, where leaves of morning stirred,
And the heart, which followed on, said: “Though the bird be flown
Which sang in the dew and the dawn, the song is still my own.”
Over the foot-worn track, over the rock and thorn,
The tired heart looked back to the olive leaves of morn,...
They rode from the camp at morn
With clash of sword and spur.
The birds were loud in the thorn,
The sky was an azure blur.
A gallant show they made
That warm noontide of the year,
Led on by a dashing blade,
By the poet-cavalier.
They laughed through the leafy lanes,
The long lanes of Dartmoor;
And they...
As i came down from Lebanon,
Came winding, wandering slowly down
Through mountain passes bleak and brown,
The cloudless day was well-nigh done.
The city, like an opal set
In emerald, showed each minaret
Afire with radiant beams of sun,
And glistened orange, fig, and lime,
Where song-birds made melodious chime,
As I came...
Oh, the wind from the desert blew in!—
Khamsin,
The wind from the desert blew in!
It blew from the heart of the fiery south,
From the fervid sand and the hills of drouth,
And it kissed the land with its scorching mouth;
The wind from the desert blew in!
It blasted the buds on the almond bough,
And shrivelled the...
Why dost thou hail with songful lips no more
The glorious sunrise?—Why is Memnon mute,
Whose voice was tuned as is the silvery flute
When Thebes sat queenly by the Nile’s low shore?
The chained slaves sweat no longer at the oar,
No longer shrines are raised to man and brute,
Yet dawn by dawn the sun thou didst salute
Gives thee the...
Be ye in love with April-tide?
I’ faith, in love am I!
For now ’t is sun, and now ’t is shower,
And now ’t is frost, and now ’t is flower,
And now ’t is Laura laughing-eyed,
And now ’t is Laura shy.
Ye doubtful days, O slower glide!
Still smile and frown, O sky!
Some beauty unforeseen I trace
In every...
Had i the power
To cast a bell that should from some grand tower,
At the first Christmas hour,
Outring,
And fling
A jubilant message wide,
The forgëd metals should be thus allied:—
No iron Pride,
But soft Humility, and rich-veined Hope
Cleft from a sunny slope;
And there should be
White Charity,
And...
Washington
when dreaming kings, at odds with swift paced time,
Would strike that banner down,
A nobler knight than ever writ or rhyme
With fame’s bright wreath did crown
Through armed hosts bore it till it floated high
Beyond the clouds, a light that cannot die!
Ah, hero of our younger race!
Great builder of a temple new!...
When sunshine met the wave,
Then love was born;
Then Venus rose to save
A world forlorn.
For light a thousand wings
Of joy unfurled,
And bound with golden rings
The icy world.
And color flamed the earth
With glad desire,
Till life sprang to the birth,
Fire answering fire,
And so...
Beside her ashen hearth she sate her down,
Whence he she loved had fled,—
His children plucking at her sombre gown
And calling for the dead.
One came to her clad in the robes of May,
And said sweet words of cheer,
Bidding her bear the burden in God’s way,
And feel her loved ones near.
And she who spake thus...
