• Descend, ye Nine! descend and sing;

        The breathing instruments inspire,

      Wake into voice each silent string,

        And sweep the sounding lyre;

        In a sadly-pleasing strain

        Let the warbling lute complain:

          Let the loud trumpet sound,

          Till the roofs all around
    ...

  • SISTER of Phœbus, gentle Queen,

    Of aspect mild and brow serene,

    Whose friendly beams by night appear

    The lonely traveller to cheer;

    Attractive Power, whose mighty sway

    ...

  • Thou magic lyre, whose fascinating sound

       Seduc'd the savage monsters from their cave,

    Drew rocks and trees, and forms uncouth around,

       And bade wild Hebrus hush his list'ning wave;

    No more thy undulating warblings flow

    O'er Thracian wilds of everlasting snow!


    Awake to sweeter sounds, thou...

  • Of all the Souls that stand create —

    I have elected — One —

    When Sense from Spirit — files away —

    And Subterfuge — is done —

    When that which is — and that which was —

    Apart — intrinsic — stand —

    And this brief Drama in the flesh —

    Is shifted — like a Sand —

    When Figures show their...

  • Of all the Sounds despatched abroad,

    There's not a Charge to me

    Like that old measure in the Boughs —

    That phraseless Melody —

    The Wind does — working like a Hand,

    Whose fingers Comb the Sky —

    Then quiver down — with tufts of Tune —

    Permitted Gods, and me —


    Inheritance, it...

  • Of Being is a Bird

    The likest to the Down

    An Easy Breeze do put afloat

    The General Heavens — upon —


    It soars — and shifts — and whirls —

    And measures with the Clouds

    In easy — even — dazzling pace —

    No different the Birds —


    Except a Wake of Music

    Accompany...

  • Of Bronze — and Blaze —

    The North — Tonight —

    So adequate — it forms —

    So preconcerted with itself —

    So distant — to alarms —

    An Unconcern so sovereign

    To Universe, or me —

    Infects my simple spirit

    With Taints of Majesty —

    Till I take vaster attitudes —

    And...

  • Of Consciousness, her awful Mate

    The Soul cannot be rid —

    As easy the secreting her

    Behind the Eyes of God.


    The deepest hid is sighted first

    And scant to Him the Crowd —

    What triple Lenses burn upon

    The Escapade from God —

  • Of Course — I prayed —

    And did God Care?

    He cared as much as on the Air

    A Bird — had stamped her foot —

    And cried "Give Me" —

    My Reason — Life —

    I had not had — but for Yourself —

    'Twere better Charity

    To leave me in the Atom's Tomb —

    Merry, and Nought, and gay, and...

  • Of Death I try to think like this —

    The Well in which they lay us

    Is but the Likeness of the Brook

    That menaced not to slay us,

    But to invite by that Dismay

    Which is the Zest of sweetness

    To the same Flower Hesperian,

    Decoying but to greet us —


    I do remember when a Child...