We summoned not the Silent Guest, And no man spake his name; By lips unseen our Cup was pressed, And mid the merry song and jest, The Uninvited came. Wise were they in the days of old, Who gave the Stranger place; And when the joyous catch was trolled, And toasts were quaffed and tales were told, They looked him in the face. God save us from the skeleton Who sitteth at the feast! God rest the manly spirit gone, Who sat beside the Silent One, And dreaded him the least!
From the maddening crowd they stand apart, The maidens four and the Work of Art; And none might tell from sight alone In which had culture ripest grown,— The Gotham Millions fair to see, The Philadelphia Pedigree, The Boston Mind of azure hue, Or the soulful Soul from Kalamazoo,— For all loved...
TELL the story to your sons Of the gallant days of yore, When the brig of seven guns Fought the fleet of seven score, From the set of sun till morn, through the long September night— Ninety men against two thousand, and the ninety won the fight...
IN the gloomy ocean bed Dwelt a formless thing, and said, In the dim and countless eons long ago, “I will build a stronghold high, Ocean’s power to defy, And the pride of haughty man to lay low.” Crept the minutes for the sad, Sped the cycles for the glad, But the march...
We summoned not the Silent Guest, And no man spake his name; By lips unseen our Cup was pressed, And mid the merry song and jest, The Uninvited came. Wise were they in the days of old, Who gave the Stranger place; And when the joyous catch was trolled, And toasts were quaffed and tales...
The love of man and woman is as fire, To warm, to light, but surely to consume And self-consuming die. There is no room For constancy and passionate desire. We stand at last beside a wasted pyre, Touch its dead embers, groping in the gloom; And where an altar stood, erect a tomb, And sing a...
