• Reluctantly I laid aside my smiles,
    Those little, pleasing knickknacks of the face,
    And dropped the words accustomed to my tongue,
    And took just half a breath in breathing’s space;
    And then I drew the curtains of my eyes
    And ceased to move, and rallied all my thought,
    Selecting all the verity that lies
    Through daily life, with false...

  • Ye white Sicilian goats, who wander all
      About the slopes of this wild mountain pass,
    Take heed your horny footsteps do not fall
      Upon the baby dreamer in the grass.

    Let him lie there, half waking, and rejoice
      In the safe shelter of his resting-place,
    In hearing of his shepherd father’s voice,
      In reach of fruity clusters o’er his...

  • Now is the cherry in blossom, Love,
      Love of my heart, with the apple to follow;
    Over the village at nightfall now
      Merrily veers and darts the swallow.

    At nightfall now in the dark marsh grass
      Awakes the chorus that sings old sorrow;
    The evening star is dim for the dew,
      And the apple and lilac will bloom to-morrow.

    The...

  • There is a race from eld descent,
      Of heaven by earth in joyous mood,
    Before the world grew wise and bent
      In sad, decadent attitude.
          To these each waking is a birth
          That makes them heir to all the earth,
          Singing, for pure abandoned mirth,
              Non nonny non, hey nonny no.

    Perchance ye meet them in the...

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    o Flower of passion, rocked by balmy gales,
        Flushed with life’s ecstasy,
    Before whose golden glow the poppy pales
        And yields her sovereignty!

    Child of the ardent south, thy burning heart
        Has felt the sun’s hot kiss.
    Thy creamy petals falling half apart
        Quiver with recent bliss.

    For joy at thy...

  • I Lift mine eyes against the sky,
    The clouds are weeping, so am I;
    I lift mine eyes again on high,
    The sun is smiling, so am I.
    Why do I smile? Why do I weep?
    I do not know; it lies too deep.

    I hear the winds of autumn sigh,
    They break my heart, they make me cry;
    I hear the birds of lovely spring,
    My hopes revive, I help...

  • So all day long I followed through the fields
      The voice of Autumn, calling from afar;
    And now I thought: “Yon hazel thicket yields
      A glimpse of her,” and now: “These asters are
    Sure sign that she of late has passed this way;
      Lo! here the traces of her yellow car.”

    And once I looked and seemed to see her stand
      Beneath a golden...

  • I Am immortal! I know it! I feel it!
      Hope floods my heart with delight!
    Running on air mad with life dizzy, reeling,
    Upward I mount,—faith is sight, life is feeling,
      Hope is the day-star of might!

    It was thy kiss, Love, that made me immortal,—
      “ ‘Kiss,’ Love? Our lips have not met!”
    Ah, but I felt thy soul through night’s portal,...

  •         YOU sang me a song:
            ’T was the close of the year—
                Sing again!
        I cannot remember the name
                Or the words:
                ’T is the same
            We listen to hear
    When the windows are open in spring,
            And the air’s full of birds;
    One calls from the branch some sweet thing,...

  • Untrammelled Giant of the West,
      With all of Nature’s gifts endowed,
    With all of Heaven’s mercies blessed,
      Nor of thy power unduly proud—
    Peerless in courage, force, and skill,
    And godlike in thy strength of will,—

    Before thy feet the ways divide:
      One path leads up to heights sublime;
    Downward the other slopes, where bide...