She was a Phantom of delight When first she gleamed upon my sight; A lovely Apparition, sent To be a moment’s ornament; Her eyes as stars of Twilight fair; Like Twilight’s, too, her dusky hair; But all things else about her drawn From May-time and the cheerful Dawn; A dancing Shape, an Image gay, To…
Category: Poetry
HIS PILGRIMAGE
GIVE me my scallop-shell of quiet, My staff of faith to walk upon, My scrip of joy, immortal diet, My bottle of salvation, My gown of glory, hope’s true gage; And thus I’ll take my pilgrimage. Blood must be my body’s balmer; No other balm will there be given; Whilst my soul, like quiet palmer,…
Too Many Miles
There have been many songs of cowboys, railroaders, and such, of the lonely trucker, not so much. But of one lonely trucker, this story I can tell, of how he left home one night, and drove straight into hell. He’d just got back from Chicago, just pulled into the yard, The dispatcher said, I…
I WOULD NOT LIVE ALWAY
I WOULD not live alway: I ask not to stay, Where storm after storm rises dark o’er the way; The few lurid mornings that dawn on us here Are enough for life’s woes, full enough for its cheer. I would not live alway, thus fettered by sin, Temptation without and corruption within: E’en the…
THE GLORY TO BE REVEALED Exoriar aliis.
SINKS the swift sun; yet sinks but to arise In other regions far beyond our sight: We follow him with dim and dazzled eyes, Till every ray is quenched in silent night. We miss him, but he comes not; he has gone To show his glory in more cloudless air: Nothing is lost to him,…
THE FROZEN CASCADE: THE BRIDE OF THE ROCK.
In beauty perfected, with lavish grace, She casts herself about his rugged form, With all her vesture on, of snowy white, Nor left one pendant out, one dropping pearl. Could she be fairer? Through her inmost veins The warm sun searches, as for some weak spot; But with a pride refined she smileth back: “I…
SERENADE BY THE SEA
Breezes lull my lady fair, Cool her eyelids, soothe her hair, While the murmuring surges seem To float her through a world of dream. Shadowy sloops are gliding in Safe the harbor-bar within. Silently each phantom pale Drops the anchor, furls the sail. She, meanwhile, remote from me Drifts on sleep’s unfathomed sea. So may…
GOD IS LOVE
WHO fathoms the Eternal Thought? Who talks of scheme and plan? The Lord is God! he needeth not The poor device of man; I walk with bare hushed feet the ground Ye tread with boldness shod; I dare not fix with mete and bound The love and power of God. Ye praise his justice; even…
SEAGULLS AT FRESH POND.
Lake of boyish dreams! I linger round Thy calm, clear waters and thine altered shores Till thought brings back the plash of childhood’s oars,– Long hid in memory’s depths, a vanished sound. Alone unchanged, the sea-birds yet are found Far floating on thy wave by threes and fours, Or grouped in hundreds, while a white…
TO MY SHADOW.
A mute companion at my side Paces and plods, the whole day long, Accepts the measure of my stride, Yet gives no cheer by word or song. More close than any doggish friend, Not ranging far and wide, like him, He goes where’er my footsteps tend, Nor shrinks for fear of life or limb. I…