The Builders: And Other Poems

Front Cover
C. Scribner's Sons, 1897 - 87 pages

From inside the book

Selected pages

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 39 - FOUR things a man must learn to do If he would make his record true: To think without confusion clearly; To love his fellow-men sincerely; To act from honest motives purely; To trust in God and Heaven securely.
Page 6 - When tulips bloom in Union Square, And timid breaths of vernal air Go wandering down the dusty town, Like children lost in Vanity Fair; When every long, unlovely row Of westward houses stands aglow, And leads the eyes...
Page 23 - THERE is a bird I know so well, It seems as if he must have sung Beside my crib when I was young; Before I knew the way to spell The name of even the smallest bird, His gentle-joyful song I heard. Now see if you can tell, my dear. What bird it is that, every year, Sings "Sweet — sweet — sweet — very merry cheer.
Page 16 - IF ALL THE SKIES IF all the skies were sunshine, Our faces would be fain To feel once more upon them The cooling plash of rain.
Page 35 - CROM the misty shores of midnight, touched with splendours of the moon, To the singing tides of heaven, and the light more clear than noon, Passed a soul that grew to music till it was with God in tune. Brother of the greatest poets, true to nature, true to art; Lover of Immortal Love, uplifter of the human heart; Who shall cheer us with high music, who shall sing, if thou depart ? Silence here — for love is silent, gazing on the lessening sail; Silence here — for grief is voiceless when the...
Page 8 - Leaks upward slowly from the ground, While on the wing the blue-birds ring Their wedding-bells to woods around. The flirting chewink calls his dear Behind the bush ; and very near, Where water flows, where green grass grows, Song-sparrows gently sing,
Page 48 - Self is the only prison that can ever bind the soul ; Truth is the only angel that can bid the gates unroll ; And when he comes to call thee, arise and follow fast; His way may lie through darkness, but it leads to light at last.
Page 64 - Who seeks for heaven alone to save his soul, May keep the path, but will not reach the goal; While he who walks in love may wander far, Yet God will bring him where the blessed are.
Page 29 - I longed to hear a simpler strain, — the wood-notes of the veery. The laverock sings a bonny lay above the Scottish heather; It sprinkles down from far away like light and love together; He drops the golden notes to greet his brooding mate, his dearie; I only know one song more sweet, — the vespers of the veery. In English gardens green and bright and full of fruity treasure, I heard the blackbird with delight repeat his merry measure...
Page 23 - Of many colors, smart and gay; His suit is Quaker brown and gray, With darker patches at his throat. And yet of all the well-dressed throng Not one can sing so brave a song. It makes the pride of looks appear A vain and foolish thing, to hear His "Sweet — sweet — sweet — very merry cheer.

Bibliographic information