The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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Title: The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Release Date: July 3, 2004 [EBook #1365]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COMPLETE WORKS OF LONGFELLOW ***
This etext was prepared by Don Lainson
THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
(From the PUBLISHER'S NOTE: "The present Household Edition of Mr. Longfellow's Poetical Writings . . . contains all his original verse that he wished to preserve, and all his translations except the Divina Commedia. The poems are printed as nearly as possible in chronological order . . . Boston, Autumn, 1902." Houghton Mifflin Company.)
CONTENTS.
VOICES OF THE NIGHT.
Prelude
Hymn to the Night
A Psalm of Life
The Reaper and the Flowers
The Light of Stars
Footsteps of Angels
Flowers
The Beleaguered City
Midnight Mass for the Dying Year
EARLIER POEMS.
An April Day
Autumn
Woods in Winter
Hymn of the Moravian Nuns of Bethlehem
Sunrise on the Hills
The Spirit of Poetry
Burial of the Minnisink
L'Envoi
BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS.
The Skeleton in Armor
The Wreck of the Hesperus
The Village Blacksmith
Endymion
It is not Always May
The Rainy Day
God's-Acre
To the River Charles
Blind Bartimeus
The Goblet of Life
Maidenhood
Excelsior
POEMS ON SLAVERY.
To William E. Channing
The Slave's Dream
The Good Part, that shall not be taken away
The Slave in the Dismal Swamp
The Slave singing at Midnight
The Witnesses
The Quadroon Girl
The Warning
THE SPANISH STUDENT.
THE BELFRY OF BRUGES AND OTHER POEMS.
Carillon
The Belfry of Bruges
A Gleam of Sunshine
The Arsenal at Springfield
Nuremberg
The Norman Baron
Rain In Summer
To a Child
The Occultation of Orion
The Bridge
To the Driving Cloud
SONGS
The Day Is done
Afternoon in February
To an Old Danish Song-Book
Walter von der Vogelweid
Drinking Song
The Old Clock on the Stairs
The Arrow and the Song
SONNETS
Mezzo Cammin
The Evening Star
Autumn
Dante
Curfew
EVANGELINE: A TALE OF ACADIE.
THE SEASIDE AND THE FIRESIDE.
Dedication
BY THE SEASIDE.
The Building of the Ship
Seaweed
Chrysaor
The Secret of the Sea
Twilight
Sir Humphrey Gilbert
The Lighthouse
The Fire of Drift-Wood
BY THE FIRESIDE.
Resignation
The Builders
Sand of the Desert In an Hour-Glass
The Open Window
King Witlaf's Drinking-Horn
Gaspar Becerra
Pegasus in Pound
Tegner's Drapa
Sonnet on Mrs. Kemble's Reading from Shakespeare
The Singers
Suspiria
Hymn for my Brother's Ordination
THE SONG OF HIAWATHA.
Introduction
I. The Peace-Pipe
II. The Four Winds
III. Hiawatha's Childhood
IV. Hiawatha and Madjekeewis
V. Hiawatha's Fasting
VI. Hiawatha's Friends
VII. Hiawatha's Sailing
VIII. Hiawatha's Fishing
IX. Hiawatha and the Pearl-Feather
X. Hiawatha's Wooing
XI. Hiawatha's Wedding-Feast
XII. The Son of the Evening Star
XIII. Blessing the Cornfields
XIV. Picture-Writing
XV. Hiawatha's Lamentation
XVI. Pau-Puk-Keewis
XVII. The Hunting of Pau-Puk-Keewis
XVIII. The Death of Kwasind
XIX. The Ghosts
XX. The Famine
XXI. The White Man's Foot
XXII. Hiawatha's Departure
<NOTES>
THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH.
I. Miles Standish
II. Love and Friendship
III. The Lover's Errand
IV. John Alden
V. The Sailing of the May flower
VI. Priscilla
VII. The March of Miles Standish
VIII. The Spinning-Wheel
IX. The Wedding-Day
BIRDS OF PASSAGE.
FLIGHT THE FIRST.
Birds of Passage
Prometheus, or the Poet's Forethought
Epimetheus, or the Poet's Afterthought
The Ladder of St. Augustine
The Phantom Ship
The Warden of the Cinque Ports
Haunted Houses
In the Churchyard at Cambridge
The Emperor's Bird's-Nest
The Two Angels
Daylight and Moonlight
The Jewish Cemetery at Newport
Oliver Basselin
Victor Galbraith
My Lost Youth
The Ropewalk
The Golden Mile-Stone
Catawba Wine
Santa Filomena
The Discoverer of the North Cape
Daybreak
The Fiftieth Birthday of Agassiz
Sandalphon
FLIGHT THE SECOND.
The Children's Hour
Enceladus
The Cumberland
Snow-Flakes
A Day of Sunshine
Something left Undone
Weariness
TALES OF A WAYSIDE INN.
Part First
Prelude
The Wayside Inn
The Landlord's Tale
Paul Revere's Ride
Interlude
The Student's Tale
The Falcon of Ser Federigo
Interlude
The Spanish Jew's Tale
The Legend of Rabbi Ben Levi
Interlude
The Sicilian's Tale
King Robert of Sicily
Interlude
The Musician's Tale
The Saga of King Olaf
I. The Challenge of Thor
II. King Olaf's Return
III. Thora of Rimol
IV. Queen Sigrid the Haughty
V. The Skerry of Shrieks
VI. The Wraith of Odin
VII. Iron-Beard
VIII. Gudrun
IX. Thangbrand the Priest
X. Raud the Strong
XI. Bishop Sigurd at Salten Fiord
XII. King Olaf's Christmas
XIII. The Building of the Long Serpent
XIV. The Crew of the Long Serpent
XV. A Little Bird in the Air
XVI. Queen Thyri and the Angelica Stalks
XVII. King Svend of the Forked Beard
XVIII. King Olaf and Earl Sigvald
XIX. King Olaf's War-Horns
XX. Einar Tamberskelver
XXI. King Olaf's Death-drink
XXII. The Nun of Nidaros
Interlude
The Theologian's Tale.
Torquemada
Interlude
The Poet's Tale
The Birds of Killingworth
Finale
PART SECOND.
Prelude
The Sicilian's Tale
The Bell of Atri
Interlude
The Spanish Jew's Tale
Kambalu
Interlude
The Student's Tale
The Cobbler of Hagenau
Interlude
The Musician's Tale
The Ballad of Carmilhan
Interlude
The Poet's Tale
Lady Wentworth
Interlude
The Theologian's Tale
The Legend Beautiful
Interlude
The Student's Second Tale
The Baron of St. Castine
Finale
PART THIRD.
Prelude
The Spanish Jew's Tale
Azrael
Interlude
The Poet's Tale
Charlemagne
Interlude
The Student's Tale
Emma and Eginhard
Interlude
The Theologian's Tale
Elizabeth
Interlude
The Sicilian's Tale
The Monk of Casa-Maggiore
Interlude
The Spanish Jew's Second Tale
Scanderbeg
Interlude
The Musician's Tale
The Mother's Ghost
Interlude
The Landlord's Tale
The Rhyme of Sir Christopher
Finale
FLOWER-DE-LUCE.
Flower-de-Luce
Palingenesis
The Bridge of Cloud
Hawthorne
Christmas Bells
The Wind over the Chimney
The Bells of Lynn
Killed at the Ford
Giotto's Tower
To-morrow
Divina Commedia
Noel
BIRDS OF PASSAGE
FLIGHT THE THIRD.
Fata Morgana
The Haunted Chamber
The Meeting
Vox Populi
The Castle-Builder
Changed
The Challenge
The Brook and the Wave
Aftermath
THE MASQUE OF PANDORA.
I. The Workshop of Hephaestus
II. Olympus
III. Tower of Prometheus on Mount Caucasus
IV. The Air
V. The House of Epimetheus
VI. In the Garden
VII. The House of Epimetheus
VIII. In the Garden
THE HANGING OF THE CRANE
MORITURI SALUTAMUS
A BOOK OF SONNETS.
Three Friends of Mine
Chaucer
Shakespeare
Milton
Keats
The Galaxy
The Sound of the Sea
A Summer Day by the Sea
The Tides
A Shadow
A Nameless Grave
Sleep
The Old Bridge at Florence
Il Ponte Vecchio di Firenze
Nature
In the Churchyard at Tarrytown
Eliot's Oak
The Descent of the Muses
Venice
The Poets
Parker Cleaveland
The Harvest Moon
To the River Rhone
The Three Silences of Molinos
The Two Rivers
Boston
St. John's, Cambridge
Moods
Woodstock Park
The Four Princesses at Wilna
Holidays
Wapentake
The Broken Oar
The Cross of Snow
BIRDS OF PASSAGE
FLIGHT THE FOURTH.
Charles Sumner
Travels by the Fireside
Cadenabbia
Monte Cassino
Amalfi
The
Belisarius
Songo River
KERAMOS
BIRDS OF PASSAGE.
FLIGHT THE FIFTH.
The Herons of Elmwood
A Dutch Picture
Castles in Spain
Vittoria Colonna
The Revenge of Rain-in-the-Face
To the River Yvette
The Emperor's Glove
A Ballad or the French Fleet
The Leap of Roushan Beg
Haroun Al Raschid.
King Trisanku
A Wraith in the Mist
The Three Kings
Song: "Stay, Stay at Home, my Heart, and Rest."
The White Czar
Delia
ULTIMA THULE.
Dedication
Poems
Bayard Taylor
The Chamber over the Gate
From my Arm-Chair
Jugurtha
The Iron Pen
Robert Burns
Helen of Tyre
Elegiac
Old St. David's at Radnor
FOLK-SONGS.
The Sifting of Peter
Maiden and Weathercock
The Windmill
The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls
SONNETS
My Cathedral
The Burial of the Poet
Night
L'ENVOI.
The Poet and his Songs
IN THE HARBOR.
Becalmed
The Poet's Calendar
Autumn Within
The Four Lakes of Madison
Victor and Vanquished
Moonlight
The Children's Crusade
Sundown
Chimes
Four by the Clock
Auf Wiedersehen
Elegiac Verse
The City and the Sea
Memories
Hermes Trismegistus
To the Avon
President Garfield
My Books
Mad River
Possibilities
Decoration Day
A Fragment
Loss and Gain
Inscription on the Shanklin Fountain
The Bells of San Blas
FRAGMENTS.
"Neglected record of a mind neglected"
"O Faithful, indefatigable tides"
"Soft through the silent air"
"So from the bosom of darkness"
CHRISTUS: A MYSTERY.
Introitus
PART I. THE DIVINE TRAGEDY.
The First Passover
I. Vox Clamantis
II. Mount Quarantania
III. The Marriage in Cana
IV. In the Cornfields
V. Nazareth
VI. The Sea of Galilee
VII. The Demoniac of Gadara
IX. The Tower of Magdala
X. The House of Simon the Pharisee
The Second Passover
I. Before the Gates of Machaerus
II. Herod's Banquet-Hall
III. Under the Wall of Machaerus
IV. Nicodemus at Night
V. Blind Bartimeus
VI. Jacob's Well
VII. The Coasts of Caesarea Philippi
VIII. The Young Ruler
IX. At Bethany
X. Born Blind
XI. Simon Magus and Helen of Tyre
The Third Passover
I. The Entry into Jerusalem
II. Solomon's Porch
III. Lord, is it I?
IV. The Garden of Gethsemane
V. The Palace of Caiaphas
VI. Pontius Pilate
VII. Barabbas in Prison
VIII. Ecce Homo
IX. Aceldama
X. The Three Crosses
XI. The Two Maries
XII. The Sea of Galilee
Epilogue. Symbolum Apostolorum
First Interlude. The Abbot Joachim
PART II. THE GOLDEN LEGEND. Prologue: The Spire of Strasburg Cathedral I. The Castle of Vautsberg on the Rhine Courtyard of the Castle II. A Farm in the Odenwald A Room in the Farmhouse Elsie's Chamber The Chamber of Gottlieb and Ursula A Village Church A Room in the Farmhouse In the Garden III. A Street in Strasburg Square in Front of the Cathedral In the Cathedral The Nativity: A Miracle-Play Introitus I. Heaven II. Mary at the Well III. The Angels of the Seven Planets IV. The Wise Men of the East V. The Flight into Egypt VI. The Slaughter of the Innocents VII. Jesus at Play with his Schoolmates VIII. The Village School IX. Crowned with Flowers Epilogue IV. The Road to Hirschau The Convent of Hirschau in the Black Forest The Scriptorium The Cloisters The Chapel The Refectory The Neighboring Nunnery V. A Covered Bridge at Lucerne The Devil's Bridge The St. Gothard Pass At the Foot of the Alps The Inn at Genoa At Sea VI. The School of Salerno The Farm-house in the Odenwald The Castle of Vautsberg on the Rhine Epilogue. The Two Recording Angels Ascending Second Interlude. Martin Luther
PART III. THE NEW ENGLAND TRAGEDIES. John Endicott Giles Corey of the Salem Farms Finale. St. John
JUDAS MACCABAEUS
Act I. The Citadel of Antiochus at Jerusalem
Act II. The Dungeons in the Citadel
Act III. The Battle-field of Beth-Horon
Act IV. The Outer Courts of the Temple at Jerusalem
Act V. The Mountains of Ecbatana
MICHAEL ANGELO
Dedication
PART FIRST
I. Prologue at Ischia
Monologue : The Last Judgment
II. San Silvestro
III. Cardinal Ippolito
IV. Borgo delle Vergine at Naples
V. Vittoria Colonna
PART SECOND.
I. Monologue
II. Viterbo
IV. Fra Sebastiano del Piombo
V. Palazzo Belvedere
VI. Palazzo Cesarini
PART THIRD.
I. Monologue
II. Vigna di Papa Giulio
III. Bindo Altoviti
IV. In the Coliseum
V. Macello de' Corvi
VI. Michael Angelo's Studio
VII. The Oaks of Monte Luca
VIII. The Dead Christ
TRANSLATIONS.
Prelude
From the Spanish
Coplas de Manrique
Sonnets.
I. The Good Shepherd
II. To-morrow
III. The Native Land
IV. The Image of God
V. The Brook
Ancient Spanish Ballads.
I. Rio Verde, Rio Verde
II. Don Nuno, Count of Lara
III. The peasant leaves his plough afield
Vida de San Millan
San Miguel, the Convent
Song: "She is a maid of artless grace"
Santa Teresa's Book-Mark
From the Cancioneros
I. Eyes so tristful, eyes so tristful
II. Some day, some day
III. Come, O death, so silent flying
IV. Glove of black in white hand bare
From the Swedish and Danish.
Passages from Frithiof's Saga
I. Frithiof's Homestead
II. A Sledge-Ride on the Ice
III. Frithiof's Temptation
IV. Frithiof's Farewell
The Children of the Lord's Supper
King Christian
The Elected Knight
Childhood
From the German.
The Happiest Land
The Wave
The Dead
The Bird and the Ship
Whither?
Beware!
Song of the Bell
The Castle by the Sea
The Black Knight
Song of the Silent Land
The Luck of Edenhall
The Two Locks of Hair
The Hemlock Tree
Annie of Tharaw
The Statue over the Cathedral Door
The Legend of the Crossbill
The Sea hath its Pearls
Poetic Aphorisms
Silent Love
Blessed are the Dead
Wanderer's Night-Songs
Remorse
Forsaken
Allah
From the Anglo-Saxon.
The Grave
Beowulf's Expedition to Heort
The Soul's Complaint against the Body
From the French
Song: Hark! Hark!
Song: "And whither goest thou, gentle sigh"
The Return of Spring
Spring
The Child Asleep
Death of Archbishop Turpin
The Blind Girl of Castel-Cuille
A Christmas Carol
Consolation
To Cardinal Richelieu
The Angel and the Child
On the Terrace of the Aigalades
To my Brooklet
Barreges
Will ever the dear days come back again?
At La Chaudeau
A Quiet Life
The Wine of Jurancon
Friar Lubin
Rondel
My Secret
From the Italian.
The Celestial Pilot
The Terrestrial Paradise
Beatrice
To Italy
Seven Sonnets and a Canzone
I. The Artist
II. Fire.
III. Youth and Age
IV. Old Age
V. To Vittoria Colonna
VI. To Vittoria Colonna
VII. Dante
VIII. Canzone
The Nature of Love
From the Portuguese.
Song: If thou art sleeping, maiden
From Eastern sources.
The Fugitive
The Siege of Kazan
The Boy and the Brook
To the Stork
From the Latin.
Virgils First Eclogue
Ovid in Exile
VOICES OF THE NIGHT
<Greek poem here—Euripides.>
PRELUDE.
Pleasant it was, when woods were green,
And winds were soft and low,
To lie amid some sylvan scene.
Where, the long drooping boughs between,
Shadows dark and sunlight sheen
Alternate come and go;
Or where the denser grove receives
No sunlight from above,
But the dark foliage interweaves
In one unbroken roof of leaves,
Underneath whose sloping eaves
The shadows hardly move.
Beneath some patriarchal tree
I lay upon the ground;
His hoary arms uplifted he,
And all the broad leaves over me
Clapped their little hands in glee,
With one continuous sound;—
A slumberous sound, a sound that brings
The feelings of a dream,
As of innumerable wings,
As, when a bell no longer swings,
Faint the hollow murmur rings
O'er meadow, lake, and stream.
And dreams of that which cannot die,
Bright visions, came to me,
As lapped in thought I used to lie,
And gaze into the summer sky,
Where the sailing clouds went by,
Like ships upon the sea;
Dreams that the soul of youth engage
Ere Fancy has been quelled;
Old legends of the monkish page,
Traditions of the saint and sage,
Tales that have the rime of age,
And chronicles of Eld.
And, loving still these quaint old themes,
Even in the city's throng
I feel the freshness of the streams,
That, crossed by shades and sunny gleams,
Water the green land of dreams,
The holy land of song.
Therefore, at Pentecost, which brings
The Spring, clothed like a bride,
When nestling buds unfold their wings,
And bishop's-caps have golden rings,
Musing upon many things,
I sought the woodlands wide.
The green trees whispered low and mild;
It was a sound of joy!
They were my playmates when a child,
And rocked me in their arms so wild!
Still they looked at me and smiled,
As if I were a boy;
And ever whispered, mild and low,
"Come, be a child once more!"
And waved their long arms to and fro,
And beckoned solemnly and slow;
O, I could not choose
Into the woodlands hoar,—
Into the blithe and breathing air,
Into the solemn wood,
Solemn and silent everywhere
Nature with folded hands seemed there
Kneeling at her evening prayer!
Like one in prayer I stood.
Before me rose an avenue
Of tall and sombrous pines;
Abroad their fan-like branches grew,
And, where the sunshine darted through,
Spread a vapor soft and blue,
In long and sloping lines.
And, falling on my weary brain,
Like a fast-falling shower,
The dreams of youth came back again,
Low lispings of the summer rain,
Dropping on the ripened grain,
As once upon the flower.
Visions of childhood! Stay, O stay!
Ye were so sweet and wild!
And distant voices seemed to say,
"It cannot be! They pass away!
Other themes demand thy lay;
Thou art no more a child!
"The land of Song within thee lies,
Watered by living springs;
The lids of Fancy's sleepless eyes
Are gates unto that Paradise,
Holy thoughts, like stars, arise,
Its clouds are angels' wings.
"Learn, that henceforth thy song shall be,
Not mountains capped with snow,
Nor forests sounding like the sea,
Nor rivers flowing ceaselessly,
Where the woodlands bend to see
The bending heavens below.
"There is a forest where the din
Of iron branches sounds!
A mighty river roars between,
And whosoever looks therein
Sees the heavens all black with sin,
Sees not its depths, nor bounds.
"Athwart the swinging branches cast,
Soft rays of sunshine pour;
Then comes the fearful wintry blast
Our hopes, like withered leaves, fail fast;
Pallid lips say, 'It is past!
We can return no more!,
"Look, then, into thine heart, and write!
Yes, into Life's deep stream!
All forms of sorrow and delight,
All solemn Voices of the Night,
That can soothe thee, or affright,—
Be these henceforth thy theme."
HYMN TO THE NIGHT.
[Greek quotation]
I heard the trailing garments of the Night
Sweep through her marble halls!
I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light
From the celestial walls!
I felt her presence, by its spell of might,
Stoop o'er me from above;
The calm, majestic presence of the Night,
As of the one I love.
I heard the sounds of sorrow and delight,
The manifold, soft chimes,
That fill the haunted chambers of the Night
Like some old poet's rhymes.
From the cool cisterns of the midnight air
My spirit drank repose;
The fountain of perpetual peace flows there,—
From those deep cisterns flows.
O holy Night! from thee I learn to bear
What man has borne before!
Thou layest thy finger on the lips of Care,
And they complain no more.
Peace! Peace! Orestes-like I breathe this prayer!
Descend with broad-winged flight,
The welcome, the thrice-prayed for, the most fair,
The best-beloved Night!
A PSALM OF LIFE. WHAT THE HEART OF THE YOUNG MAN SAID TO THE PSALMIST.
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!
Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,—act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;—
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
THE REAPER AND THE FLOWERS.
There is a Reaper, whose name is Death,
And, with his sickle keen,
He reaps the bearded grain at a breath,
And the flowers that grow between.
"Shall I have naught that is fair?" saith he;
"Have naught but the bearded grain?
Though the breath of these flowers is sweet to me,
I will give them all back again."
He gazed at the flowers with tearful eyes,
He kissed their drooping leaves;
It was for the Lord of Paradise
He bound them in his sheaves.
"My Lord has need of these flowerets gay,"
The Reaper said, and smiled;
"Dear tokens of the earth are they,
Where he was once a child.
"They shall all bloom in fields of light,
Transplanted by my care,
And saints, upon their garments white,
These sacred blossoms wear."
And the mother gave, in tears and pain,
The flowers she most did love;
She knew she should find them all again
In the fields of light above.
O, not in cruelty, not in wrath,
The Reaper came that day;
'T was an angel visited the green earth,
And took the flowers away.
THE LIGHT OF STARS.
The night is come, but not too soon;
And sinking silently,
All silently, the little moon
Drops down behind the sky.
There is no light in earth or heaven
But the cold light of stars;
And the first watch of night is given
To the red planet Mars.
Is it the tender star of love?
The star of love and dreams?
O no! from that blue tent above,
A hero's armor gleams.
And earnest thoughts within me rise,
When I behold afar,
Suspended in the evening skies,
The shield of that red star.
O star of strength! I see thee stand
And smile upon my pain;
Thou beckonest with thy mailed hand,
And I am strong again.
Within my breast there is no light
But the cold light of stars;
I give the first watch of the night
To the red planet Mars.
The star of the unconquered will,
He rises in my breast,
Serene, and resolute, and still,
And calm, and
And thou, too, whosoe'er thou art,
That readest this brief psalm,
As one by one thy hopes depart,
Be resolute and calm.
O fear not in a world like this,
And thou shalt know erelong,
Know how sublime a thing it is
To suffer and be strong.
FOOTSTEPS OF ANGELS.
When the hours of Day are numbered,
And the voices of the Night
Wake the better soul, that slumbered,
To a holy, calm delight;
Ere the evening lamps are lighted,
And, like phantoms grim and tall,
Shadows from the fitful firelight
Dance upon the parlor wall;
Then the forms of the departed
Enter at the open door;
The beloved, the true-hearted,
Come to visit me once more;
He, the young and strong, who cherished
Noble longings for the strife,
By the roadside fell and perished,
Weary with the march of life!
They, the holy ones and weakly,
Who the cross of suffering bore,
Folded their pale hands so meekly,
Spake with us on earth no more!
And with them the Being Beauteous,
Who unto my youth was given,
More than all things else to love me,
And is now a saint in heaven.
With a slow and noiseless footstep
Comes that messenger divine,
Takes the vacant chair beside me,
Lays her gentle hand in mine.
And she sits and gazes at me
With those deep and tender eyes,
Like the stars, so still and saint-like,
Looking downward from the skies.
Uttered not, yet comprehended,
Is the spirit's voiceless prayer,
Soft rebukes, in blessings ended,
Breathing from her lips of air.
Oh, though oft depressed and lonely,
All my fears are laid aside,
If I but remember only
Such as these have lived and died!
FLOWERS.
Spake full well, in language quaint and olden,
One who dwelleth by the castled Rhine,
When he called the flowers, so blue and golden,
Stars, that in earth's firmament do shine.
Stars they are, wherein we read our history,
As astrologers and seers of eld;
Yet not wrapped about with awful mystery,
Like the burning stars, which they beheld.
Wondrous truths, and manifold as wondrous,
God hath written in those stars above;
But not less in the bright flowerets under us
Stands the revelation of his love.
Bright and glorious is that revelation,
Written all over this great world of ours;
Making evident our own creation,
In these stars of earth, these golden flowers.
And the Poet, faithful and far-seeing,
Sees, alike in stars and flowers, a part
Of the self-same, universal being,
Which is throbbing in his brain and heart.
Gorgeous flowerets in the sunlight shining,
Blossoms flaunting in the eye of day,
Tremulous leaves, with soft and silver lining,
Buds that open only to decay;
Brilliant hopes, all woven in gorgeous tissues,
Flaunting gayly in the golden light;
Large desires, with most uncertain issues,
Tender wishes, blossoming at night!
These in flowers and men are more than seeming;
Workings are they of the self-same powers,
Which the Poet, in no idle dreaming,
Seeth in himself and in the flowers.
Everywhere about us are they glowing,
Some like stars, to tell us Spring is born;
Others, their blue eyes with tears o'er-flowing,
Stand like Ruth amid the golden corn;
Not alone in Spring's armorial bearing,
And in Summer's green-emblazoned field,
But in arms of brave old Autumn's wearing,
In the centre of his brazen shield;
Not alone in meadows and green alleys,
On the mountain-top, and by the brink
Of sequestered pools in woodland valleys,
Where the slaves of nature stoop to drink;
Not alone in her vast dome of glory,
Not on graves of bird and beast alone,
But in old cathedrals, high and hoary,
On the tombs of heroes, carved in stone;
In the cottage of the rudest peasant,
In ancestral homes, whose crumbling towers,
Speaking of the Past unto the Present,
Tell us of the ancient Games of Flowers;
In all places, then, and in all seasons,
Flowers expand their light and soul-like wings,
Teaching us, by most persuasive reasons,
How akin they are to human things.
And with childlike, credulous affection
We behold their tender buds expand;
Emblems of our own great resurrection,
Emblems of the bright and better land.
THE BELEAGUERED CITY.
I have read, in some old, marvellous tale,
Some legend strange and vague,
That a midnight host of spectres pale
Beleaguered the walls of Prague.
Beside the Moldau's rushing stream,
With the wan moon overhead,
There stood, as in an awful dream,
The army of the dead.
White as a sea-fog, landward bound,
The spectral camp was seen,
And, with a sorrowful, deep sound,
The river flowed between.
No other voice nor sound was there,
No drum, nor sentry's pace;
The mist-like banners clasped the air,
As clouds with clouds embrace.
But when the old cathedral bell
Proclaimed the morning prayer,
The white pavilions rose and fell
On the alarmed air.
Down the broad valley fast and far
The troubled army fled;
Up rose the glorious morning star,
The ghastly host was dead.
I have read, in the marvellous heart of man,
That strange and mystic scroll,
That an army of phantoms vast and wan
Beleaguer the human soul.
Encamped beside Life's rushing stream,
In Fancy's misty light,
Gigantic shapes and shadows gleam
Portentous through the night.
Upon its midnight battle-ground
The spectral camp is seen,
And, with a sorrowful, deep sound,
Flows the River of Life between.
No other voice nor sound is there,
In the army of the grave;
No other challenge breaks the air,
But the rushing of Life's wave.
And when the solemn and deep churchbell
Entreats the soul to pray,
The midnight phantoms feel the spell,
The shadows sweep away.
Down the broad Vale of Tears afar
The spectral camp is fled;
Faith shineth as a morning star,
Our ghastly fears are dead.