PoemsHoughton, Mifflin, 1887 - 112 pages |
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Aphrodite azure beautiful bird blue bosom brain breast breath brine calm child Christmas Day Christmas in California cloud dare dark darkling dawn dead deep divine dome dream dull dust EDWARD ROWLAND SILL empty eyes face fear feet Field Notes Five Lives flashes flower frog gleam glimmering gloom grass grow hand hath heart heaven hollow Hush jester laughing light lips lonely Medicean mind mist monad morning naught never night o'er Old earth peace pity poems Praxiteles prayer round saffron scorn shadow shine silent Sill sing sleep smile soft song soul sound stars stir sway sweet thee thine things thou art Thou hast thought thrill thro thrush tongues touch tree truth TRUTH AT LAST turn unto Venus of Milo vision voice wait waves weep whispering wild wild things wind wing wise wonder wondrous word
Popular passages
Page 44 - Shocked upon swords and shields. A prince's banner Wavered, then staggered backward, hemmed by foes. A craven hung along the battle's edge, And thought, "Had I a sword of keener steel — That blue blade that the king's son bears, — but this Blunt thing!" he snapt and flung it from his hand, And lowering crept away and left the field. Then came the king's son, wounded, sore bestead, And weaponless, and saw the broken sword, Hilt-buried in the dry and trodden sand, And ran and snatched it, and with...
Page 64 - Our faults no tenderness should ask, The chastening stripes must cleanse them all ; But for our blunders— oh, in shame Before the eyes of heaven we fall. ' Earth bears no balsam for mistakes ; Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool That did his will ; but Thou, O Lord, Be merciful to me, a fool...
Page 62 - The Fool's Prayer The royal feast was done; the King Sought some new sport to banish care, And to his jester cried: "Sir Fool, Kneel now, and make for us a prayer!" The jester doffed his cap and bells, And stood the mocking court before; They could not see the bitter smile Behind the painted grin he wore. He bowed his head, and bent his knee Upon the monarch's silken stool; 10 His pleading voice arose: "O Lord, Be merciful to me, a fool!
Page 27 - Forenoon, and afternoon, and night ! — Forenoon, And afternoon, and night ! — Forenoon, and — what ? The empty song repeats itself. No more ? Yea, that is Life : make this forenoon sublime, This afternoon a psalm, this night a prayer, And Time is conquered, and thy crown is won.
Page 33 - Has Time grown sleepy at his post, And let the exiled Summer back, Or is it her regretful ghost, Or witchcraft of the almanac ? While wandering breaths of mignonette In at the open window come, I send my thoughts afar, and let Them paint your Christmas Day at home.
Page 111 - What if some morning, when the stars were paling, And the dawn whitened, and the East was clear, Strange peace and rest fell on me from the presence Of a benignant Spirit standing near : And I should tell him, as he stood beside me, "This is our Earth — most friendly Earth, and fair; Daily its sea and shore through sun and shadow Faithful it turns, robed in its azure air : 'Author unknown.
Page 49 - IVE mites of monads dwelt in a round drop That twinkled on a leaf by a pool in the sun. To the naked eye they lived invisible ; Specks, for a world of whom the empty shell Of a mustard-seed had been a hollow sky. One was a meditative monad, called a sage; And, shrinking all his mind within, he thought : " Tradition, handed down for hours and hours, Tells that our globe, this quivering crystal world, Is slowly dying. What if, seconds hence, When I am very old, yon shimmering dome Come drawing down...
Page 62 - Tis not by guilt the onward sweep Of truth and right. O Lord, we stay; Tis by our follies that so long We hold the earth from heaven away. "These clumsy feet, still in the mire, Go crushing blossoms without end; These hard, well-meaning hands we thrust Among the heart-strings of a friend.
Page 63 - No pity, Lord, could change the heart From red with wrong to white as wool ; The rod must heal the sin: but, Lord, Be merciful to me, a fool!
Page 52 - The last was a strong-minded monadess, Who dashed amid the infusoria, Danced high and low, and wildly spun and dove Till the dizzy others held their breath to see. But while they led their wondrous little lives...