Over our heads the branches made
A canopy of woven shade.
The birds about this beechen tent
Like deft attendants came and went.
A shy wood-robin, fluting low,
Furnished the music for the show.
The cricket and the grasshopper
A portion of the audience were.
Thither did Fancy leap to fling
Light summersaults around...
A flame went flitting through the wood;
The neighboring birds all understood
Here was a marvel of their kind;
And silent was each feathered throat
To catch the brilliant stranger’s note,
And folded every songster’s wing
To hide its sober coloring.
Against the tender green outlined,
He bore himself with splendid ease,...
My little neighbor’s table ’s set,
And slyly he comes down the tree,
His feet firm in each tiny fret
The bark has fashioned cunningly.
He pauses on a favorite knot;
Beneath the oak his feast is spread;
He asks no friend to share his lot,
Or dine with him on acorn bread.
He keeps his whiskers trim and neat,
...
Over their graves rang once the bugle’s call,
The searching shrapnel and the crashing ball;
The shriek, the shock of battle, and the neigh
Of horse; the cries of anguish and dismay;
And the loud cannon’s thunders that appall.
Now through the years the brown pine-needles fall,
The vines run riot by the old stone wall,
By hedge, by...
As some mysterious wanderer of the skies,
Emerging from the deeps of outer dark,
Traces for once in human ken the arc
Of its stupendous curve, then swiftly flies
Out through some orbit veiled in space, which lies
Where no imagination may embark,—
Some onward-reaching track that God did mark
For all eternity beneath his eyes,—
So...
The name thou wearest does thee grievous wrong.
No mimic thou! That voice is thine alone!
The poets sing but strains of Shakespeare’s song;
The birds, but notes of thine imperial own!
Hast thou a lamp, a little lamp,
Put in that hand of thine?
And did He say, who gave it thee,
The world hath need this light should be,
Now, therefore, let it shine?
And dost thou say, with bated breath,
It is a little flame;
I ’ll let the lamps of broader wick
Seek out the lost and cheer the sick,
While I seek...
De massa ob de sheepfol’,
Dat guards de sheepfol’ bin,
Look out in de gloomerin’ meadows,
Wha’r de long night rain begin—
So he call to de hirelin’ shepa’d,
“Is my sheep, is dey all come in?”
Oh den, says de hirelin’ shepa’d:
“Dey ’s some, dey ’s black and thin,
And some, dey ’s po’ ol’ wedda’s;
But de res’, dey ’s all...
As i came down Mount Tamalpais,
To north the fair Sonoma Hills
Lay like a trembling thread of blue
Beneath a sky of daffodils;
Through tules green a silver stream
Ran south to meet the tranquil bay,
Whispering a dreamy, tender tale
Of vales and valleys far away.
As I came down Mount Tamalpais,
To south the city...
Within my heart I long have kept
A little chamber cleanly swept,
Embroidered with a fleur-de-lis,
And lintel boughs of redwood-tree;
A bed, a book, a crucifix,
Two little copper candlesticks
With tapers ready for the match
The moment I his football catch,
That when in thought he comes to me
He straightway at his ease may...
