In the full strength of years, matron and maid, The speechless babe, and the gray-haired man Shall one by one be gathered to thy side,
By those who in their turn shall follow them.
So live, that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan, which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.
THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS
THIS is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign, Sails the unshadowed main,
The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where the cold sea maids rise to sun their streaming hair. Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell, As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!
Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year's dwelling for the new, Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more. Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,
Cast from her lap, forlorn!
From thy dead lips a clearer note is born Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn!
While on mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!
SELF-DEPENDENCE
WEARY of myself, and sick of asking What I am, and what I ought to be, At this vessel's prow I stand, which bears me Forwards, forwards, o'er the starlit sea.
And a look of passionate desire
O'er the sea and to the stars I send : "Ye who from my childhood up have calm'd me, Calm me, ah, compose me to the end!
"Ah, once more," I cried, "ye stars, ye waters, On my heart your mighty charm renew;
Still, still let me, as I gaze upon you,
Feel my soul becoming vast like you!"
From the intense, clear, star-sown vault of heaven, Over the lit sea's unquiet way,
In the rustling night-air came the answer :
"Wouldst thou be as these are? Live as they.
"Unaffrighted by the silence round them, Undistracted by the sights they see,
These demand not that the things without them Yield them love, amusement, sympathy.
"And with joy the stars perform their shining, And the sea its long moon-silver'd roll; For self-poised they live, nor pine with noting All the fever of some differing soul. "Bounded by themselves, and unregardful
In what state God's other works may be, In their own tasks all their powers pouring, These attain the mighty life you see."
O air-born voice! long since, severely clear, A cry like thine in mine own heart I hear: "Resolve to be thyself; and know that he Who finds himself, loses his misery!"
THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB
THE Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee. Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, That host with their banners at sunset were seen : Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown, That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed; And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!
And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride: And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.
And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail, And the tents were all silent, the banners alone, The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.
And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal; And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!
I STOOD On the bridge at midnight, As the clocks were striking the hour, And the moon rose o'er the city, Behind the dark church-tower.
I saw her bright reflection In the waters under me, Like a golden goblet falling And sinking into the sea.
And far in the hazy distance
Of that lovely night in June, The blaze of the flaming furnace Gleamed redder than the moon.
Among the long, black rafters,
The wavering shadows lay,
And the current that came from the ocean Seemed to lift and bear them away;
As, sweeping and eddying through them, Rose the belated tide,
And, streaming into the moonlight, The sea-weed floated wide.
And like those waters rushing Among the wooden piers, A flood of thoughts came over me That filled my eyes with tears. How often, oh, how often,
In the days that had gone by, I stood on the bridge at midnight And gazed on that wave and sky! How often, oh, how often,
I had wished that the ebbing tide Would bear me away on its bosom O'er the ocean wild and wide! For my heart was hot and restless, And my life was full of care, And the burden laid upon me Seemed greater than I could bear But now it has fallen from me, It is buried in the sea; And only the sorrow of others Throws its shadow over me.
Yet whenever I cross the river
On its bridge with wooden piers, Like the odor of brine from the ocean Comes the thought of other years. And I think how many thousands Of care-encumbered men, Each bearing his burden of sorrow, Have crossed the bridge since then.
I see the long procession
Still passing to and fro,
The young heart hot and restless, And the old subdued and slow!
And forever and forever,
As long as the river flows,
As long as the heart has passions, As long as life has woes;
The moon and its broken reflection And its shadows shall appear, As the symbol of love in heaven,
And its wavering image here.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW.
SONG IN IMITATION OF THE ELIZABETHANS
SWEETEST Sweets that time hath rifled Live anew on lyric tongue,- Tresses with which Paris trifled, Lips to Antony's that clung. These surrender not their rose, Nor their golden puissance those. Vain the envious loam that covers Her of Egypt, her of Troy : Helen's, Cleopatra's lovers
Still desire them, still enjoy.
Fate but stole what Song restored : Vain the aspic, vain the cord.
Idly clanged the sullen portal, Idly the sepulchral door:
Fame the mighty, Love the immortal, These than foolish dust are more :
Nor may captive Death refuse
Homage to the conquering Muse.
SOVEREIGN POETS
THEY who create rob death of half its stings; They, from the dim inane and vague opaque Of nothingness, build with their thought, and make Enduring entities and beauteous things; They are the Poets they give airy wings To shapes marmorean; or they overtake The Ideal with the brush, or, soaring, wake Far in the rolling clouds their glorious strings. The Poet is the only potentate;
His sceptre reaches o'er remotest zones; His thought remembered and his golden tones Shall, in the ears of nations uncreate, Roll on for ages and reverberate
When Kings are dust beside forgotten thrones.
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