Edith, the silent stars are coldly gleaming,
The night wind moans, the leafless trees are still.
Edith, there is a life beyond this seeming,
So sleeps the ice-clad lake beneath thy hill.
So silent beats the pulse of thy pure heart,
So shines the thought of thy unquestioned eyes.
O life! why wert thou helpless in thy art?
O...
Hymettus’ bees are out on filmy wing,
Dim Phosphor slowly fades adown the west,
And Earth awakes. Shine on me, O my king!
For I with dew am laden and oppressed.
Long through the misty hours of morning gray
The flowers have watched to hail thee from yon sea!
Sad Asphodel, that pines to meet thy ray,
And Juno’s roses, pale for...
I mid the hills was born,
Where the skilled bowmen
Send with unerring shaft
Death to the foemen.
But I love to steer my bark,—
To fear a stranger,—
Over the Maelstrom’s edge,
Daring the danger;
And where the mariner
Paleth affrighted,
Over the sunken rocks
I dash on delighted.
The far...
Breathe, trumpets, breathe
Slow notes of saddest wailing,—
Sadly responsive peal, ye muffled drums;
Comrades, with downcast eyes
And banners trailing,
Attend him home,—
The youthful warrior comes.
Upon his shield,
Upon his shield returning,
Borne from the field of honor
Where he fell;
Glory...
New england’s dead! New England’s dead!
On every hill they lie;
On every field of strife, made red
By bloody victory.
Each valley, where the battle poured
Its red and awful tide,
Beheld the brave New England sword
With slaughter deeply dyed.
Their bones are on the northern hill,
And on the southern...
The quarry whence thy form majestic sprung
Has peopled earth with grace,
Heroes and gods that elder bards have sung,
A bright and peerless race;
But from its sleeping veins ne’er rose before
A shape of loftier name
Than his, who Glory’s wreath with meekness wore,
The noblest son of Fame.
Sheathed is the sword that...
It is the same infrequent star,—
The all-mysterious light,
That like a watcher, gazing on
The changes of the night,
Toward the hill of Bethlehem took
Its solitary flight.
It is the same infrequent star;
Its sameness startleth me,
Although the disk is red as blood,
And downward silently
It looketh on...
I cannot look above and see
Yon high-piled, pillowy mass
Of evening clouds, so swimmingly
In gold and purple pass,
And think not, Lord, how thou wast seen
On Israel’s desert way,
Before them, in thy shadowy screen,
Pavilioned all the day!
Or, of those robes of gorgeous hue
Which the Redeemer wore,
When...
Science long watched the realms of space,
A planet’s devious path to trace:
Convinced of heaven’s harmonious law,
“A World beyond” Leverrier saw.
Thus when he views earth’s sins and woes,
With a like faith the Christian knows
There is a world beyond, to prove
God’s perfect wisdom, power, and love.
It is not death to die,
To leave this weary road,
And, midst the brotherhood on high,
To be at home with God.
It is not death to close
The eye long dimmed by tears,
And wake in glorious repose,
To spend eternal years.
It is not death to bear
The wrench that sets us free
From dungeon-chain, to breathe...
