Beyond the bourn of mortal death and birth,
Two lovers—parted sorrowing on earth—
Met in the land of dim and ghostly space.
Wondering, he gazed on her illumined face:
“Alone you bear the burden now,” he said,
“Of bondage; mine is ended,—I am dead.”
With rapturous note of victory, she cried,
“The Lord of Life be praised! I, too, have died...
-
-
Heaven is mirrored, Love, deep in thine eyes,
Soft falls its shimmering light upon thy face;
Tell me, Beloved, is this Paradise,
Or but Love’s bower in some deep-sheltered place?
Is that God’s burning bush that now appears,
Or but the sunlight slanting through the tress?
Is that sweet song the music of the spheres,
Or but the deep andante... -
Just when each bed was big with bloom,
And as prophetic of perfume,
When spring, with her bright horoscope,
Was sweet as an unuttered hope;Just when the last star flickered out,
And twilight, like a soul in doubt,
Hovered between the dark and dawn,
And day lay waiting to be born;Just when the gray and dewy air...
-
My little one begins his feet to try,
A tottering, feeble, inconsistent way;
Pleased with the effort, he forgets his play,
And leaves his infant baubles where they lie.
Laughing and proud his mother flutters nigh,
Turning to go, yet joy-compelled to stay,
And, bird-like, singing what her heart would say;
But not so certain of my bliss am... -
Spirit of “fire and dew,”
Whither hast fled?
Thy soul they never knew
Who call thee dead.Deep thoughts of why and how
Shadowed thine eyes:
Thou hast the answers now
Straight from the skies.Thrilled with a double power,
...
Nature and Art,—
Dowered with a double dower,
Reason and heart,— -
Were i transported to some distant star
With fifty little children, girls and boys,
Or to some fabled land unknown, afar,
Where never sound could come of this world’s noise;Our world begun anew, as when of yore
Sad Adam fled from Eden; I alone
The sole custodian of all human lore,—
No books to aid, all rules and records gone... -
O child, had I thy lease of time! such unimagined things
Are waiting for that soul of thine to spread its untried wings!Shalt thou not speak the stars, and go on journeys through the sky?
And read the soul of man as clear as now we read the eye?Who knows if science may not find some art to make thee new,—
To mend the garments of thy flesh when thou... -
I
separation
could she come back who has been dead so long,
How could I tell her of these years of wrong?
To what wild discords has my life been set
Striving the olden love-song to forget!
How could she know, in the abode of bliss,
The utter loneliness of life in this,—
The weariness that comes of nights unslept,
The... -
The mother-heart doth yearn at eventide,
And, wheresoe’er the straying ones may roam,
When even cometh on they all fare home.
’Neath feathered sheltering the brood doth hide;
In eager flights the birds wing to their nest,
While happy lambs and children miss the sun,
And to the folds do hurtle one by one,
As night doth gather slowly in the... -
Mark me how still I am!—The sound of feet
Unnumbered echoing through this vaulted hall,
Or voices harsh, on me unheeded fall,
Placed high in my memorial niche and seat,
In cold and marble meditation meet
Among proud tombs and pomp funereal
Of rich sarcophagi and sculptured wall,—
In death’s elaborate elect retreat.
I was a Prince...