Original Poetry

From the pale, broken ruins of the heart, The soul's bright wing, uplifted silently, Sweeps thro' the steadfast depths of the mind's heaven, Like the fixed splendor of the morning star— Nearer and nearer to the wasteless flame That in the centres of the universe Burns through the o'erlapping centuries of time. And shall it stagger midway on its path, And sink its radiance low as the dull dust, For the death-flutter of a fledgling hope? Or, with the headlong phrensy of a fiend, Front the keen arrows of Love's sunken sun, For that, with nearer vision it discerns What in the distance like ripe roses seemed Crimsoning with odorous beauty the gray rocks Are the red lights of wreckers! Just as well The obstinate traveler might in pride oppose His puny shoulder to the icy slip Of the blind avalanche, and hope for life; Or Beauty press her forehead in the grave, And think to rise as from the bridal bed. But let the soul resolve its course shall be Onward and upward, and the walls of pain May build themselves about it as they will, Yet leave it all-sufficient to itself. How like the very truth a lie may seem!— Led by that bright curse, Genius, some have gone On the broad wake of visions wonderful And seemed, to the dull mortals far below, Unraveling the web of fate, at will. And leaning on their own creative power, As on the confident arm of buoyant Love. But from the climbing of their wildering way Many have faltered, fallen,—some have died, Still wooing from across the lapse of years The faded splendour of a morning dream, And feeding sorrow with remembered smiles. Love, that pale passion-flower of the heart, Nursed into bloom and beauty by a breath, With the resplendence of its broken light, Even on the outposts of mortality, Dims the still watchfires of the waiting soul. O, tender-visaged Pity, stoop from heaven, And from the much-loved bosom of the past Draw back the nestling hand of Memory, Though it be quivering and pale with pain; And with the dead dust of departed Hope Choke up and wither into barrenness The sweetest fountain of the human heart, And stay its channels everlastingly From the endeavor of the loftier soul. Nay, 'twere a task outbalancing thy power, Nor can the almost-omnipotence of mind Away from aching bind the bleeding heart, Or keep at will its mighty sorrow down. And, were the white flames of the world below Binding my forehead with undying pain, The lily crowns of heaven I would put back, If thou wert there, lost light of my young dream!— Hope, opening with the faint flowers of the wood, Bloomed crimson with the summer's heavy kiss, But autumn's dim feet left it in the dust, And like tired reapers my lorn thoughts went down To the gloom-harvest of a hopeless love, For past all thought I loved thee: Listening close From the soft hour when twilight's rosy hedge Sprang from the fires of sunset, till deep night Swept with her cloud of stars the face of heaven, For the quick music, from the pavement rung Where beat the impatient hoof-strokes of the steed, Whose mane of silver, like a wave of light, Bathed the caressing hand I pined to clasp! It is as if a song-lark, towering high In pride of place, should stoop her sun-bathed wing, Low as the poor hum of the grasshopper. I scorn thee not, old man; no haunting ghost Born of the darkness of thy perjury Crosses the white tent of my dreaming now But for myself, that I should so have loved!— The sweet folds of that blessed charity, Pure as the cold veins of Pentelicus, Were all too narrow now to hide away One burning spot of shame—the wretched price Of proving traitor to the wondrous star That with a cloud of splendor wraps my way. And yet, from the bright wine-cup of my life, The rosy vintage, bubbling to the brim, Thou With a passionate lip didst drain away And to God's sweet gift—human sympathy— Making my bosom dumb as the dark grave, Didst leave me drifting on the waste of life, A fruitless pillar of the desert dust; For, from the ashes of a ruined hope There springs no life but an unwearied woe That feeding upon sunken lip and cheek Pushes its victims from mortality. Vainly the light rain of the summer time Waters the dead limbs of the blasted oak. Love is the worker of all miracles; And if within some cold and sunless cave Thou hadst lain lost and dying, prompted not My feet had struck that pathway, and I could, With the neglected sunshine of my hair, Have clasped thee from the hungry jaws of Death, And on my heart, as on a wave of light Have lulled thee to the beauty of soft dreams. Weak, weak imagination! be dissolved Like a chance snowflake in a sea of fire. Let the poor-spirited children of Despair Hang on the sepulchre of buried Hope The fadeless garlands of undying song. Though such gift turned on its pearly hinge Sweet Mercy's gate, I would not so debase me. Shut out from heaven, I, by the arch-fiend's wing, As by a star, would move, and radiantly Go down to sleep in Fame's bright arms the while Hard by, her handmaids, the still centuries Lilies and sunshine braided for my brow. Angel of Darkness, give, O give me hate For the blind weakness of my passionate love! And if thou knowest sweet pity, stretch thy wing, Spotted with sin and seamed with veins of fire, Between the gate of heaven and my life's prayer. For loving, thou didst leave me; and, for that The lowly straw-roof of a peasant's shed Sheltered my cradle slumbers, and that Morn, Clasping about my neck her dewy arms, Drew to the mountains my unfashioned youth, Where sunbeams built bright arches, and the wind Winnowed the roses down about my feet And as their drift of leaves my bosom was, Till the cursed hour, when pride was pillowed there, Crimsoned its beauty with the fires of hell. God hide from me the time when first I knew Thy shame to call a low-born maiden, Bride! Methinks I could have lifted my pale hands Though bandaged back with grave-clothes, in that hour To cover my hot forehead from thy kiss. For the heart strengthens when its food is truth, And o'er the passion-shaken bosom, trail And burn the lightnings of its love-lit fires Like a bright banner streaming on the storm. The day was almost over; on the hills The parting light was flitting like a ghost, And like a trembling lover eve's sweet star, In the dim leafy reach of the thick woods, Stood gazing in the blue eyes of the night. But not the beauty of the place nor hour Moved my wild heart with tempests of such bliss As shake the bosom of a god, new-winged, When first in his blue pathway up the skies He feels the embrace of immortality. A little moment, and the world was changed— Truth, like a planet striking through the dark, Shone cold and clear, and I was what I am, Listening along the wilderness of life For faint echoes of lost melody. The moonlight gather'd itself back from me And slanted its pale pinions to the dust. The drowsy gust, bedded in luscious blooms, Startled, as 'twere at the death-throes of peace, Down through the darkness moaningly fled off. O mournful Past! how thou dost cling and cling— Like a forsaken maiden to false hope— To the tired bosom of the living hour, Which, from thy weak embrace, the future time Jocundly beckons with a roseate hand. And, round about me honeyed memories drift From the fair eminences of young hope, Like flowers blown down the hills of Paradise, By some soft wave of golden harmony, Until the glorious smile of summers gone Lights the dull offing of the sea of Death. And though no friend nor brother ever made My soul the burden of one prayer to Heaven, I dread to go alone into the grave, And fold my cold arms emptily away From the bright shadow of such loveliness. Can the dull mist where swart October hides His wrinkled front and tawny cheek, wind-shorn, Be sprinkled with the orange fire that binds Away from her soft lap o'erbrimmed with flowers, The dew-wet tresses of the virgin May? Or can the heart just sunken from the day Feed on the beauty of the noontide smile?— O it is well life's fair things fade so soon, Else we could never take our clinging hands From Beauty's nestling bosom—never put The red wine of love's kisses sternly back, And feel the dull dust sitting on our lips Until the very grass grew over us. O it is well! else for this beautiful life Our overtempted hearts would sell away The shining coronals of Paradise. In the gray branches of the oaks, starlit, I hear the heavy murmurs of the winds, Like the low plains of evil witches, held By drear enchantments from their demon loves. Another night-time, and I shall have found A refuge from their mournful prophecies. Come, dear one, from my forehead smooth away Those long and heavy tresses, still as bright As when they lay 'neath the caressing hand That unto death betrayed me. Nay, 'tis well! I pray you do not weep; or soon or late, Were this sad doom unsaid, their light had filled The empty bosom of the waiting grave. There, now I think I have no further need— For unto all at last there comes a time When no sweet care can do us any good! Not in my life that I remember of, Could my neglect have injured any one, And if I have by my officious love, Thrown harmful shadows in the way of some, Be piteous to my natural weakness, friends: I never shall offend you any more! And now, most melancholy messenger, Touch my eyes gently with Sleep's heavy dew. I have no wish to struggle from thy arms, Nor is there any hand would hold me back. To die, is but the common heritage; But to unloose the clasp that to the heart Folds the dear dream of love, is terrible— To see the wildering visions fade away, As the bright petals of the young June rose Shook by some sudden tempest. On the grave Light from the open sepulchre is laid, And Faith leans yearningly away to heaven, But life hath glooms wherein no light may come! The night methinks is dismal, yet I see Over yon hill one bright and steady star Divide the darkness with its fiery wedge, And sprinkle glory on the lap of earth. Even so, above the still homes of the dead The benedictions of the living lie. Gatherers of waifs of beauty are we here, Building up homes of love for alien hearts That hate us for our trouble. When we see The tempest hiding from us the sun's face, About our naked souls we build a wall Of unsubstantial shadows, and sit down Hugging false peace upon the edge of doom. From the voluptuous lap of time that is, Like a sick child from a kind nurse's arms, We lean away, and long for the far off. And when our feet through weariness and toll Have gained the heights that showed so brightly well, Our blind and dizzied vision sees too late The cool broad shadows trailing at the base. And then our wasted arms let slip the flowers, And our pained bosoms wrinkle from the fair And smooth proportions of our primal years, And so our sun goes down, and wistful death Withdraws love's last delusion from our hearts, And mates us with the darkness. Well, 'tis well!

But yester e'en the city's streets I trod And breathed laboriously the fervid air; Panting and weary both with toil and care, I sighed for cooling breeze and verdant sod. This morn I rose from slumbers calm and deep, And through the casement of a rural inn, I saw the river with its margins green, All placid and delicious as my sleep. Like pencilled lines upon a tinted sheet The city's spires rose distant on the sky; Nor sound familiar to the crowded street Assailed my ear, nor busy scene mine eye; I saw the hills, the meadows and the river— I heard cool waters plash and green leaves quiver.

These sights and sounds refreshed me more than wine; My pulses bounded with a reckless play, My heart exalted like the rising day. Now—did my lips exclaim—is pleasure mine; A sweet delight shall fold me in its thrall; To day, at least, I'll feel the bliss of life; Like uncaged bird,—each limb with freedom rife— I'll sip a thousand sweets—enjoy them all! The will thus earnest could not be denied; I beckoned Pleasure and she gladly came: O'er hill and vale I roamed at her dear side— And made the sweet air vocal with her name: She all the way of weariness beguiled, And I was happy as a very child!