(MASSACHUSETTS SHORE, 180… I mind it was but yesterday: The sun was dim, the air was chill… Below the town, below the hill, The sails of my son’s ship did fil…

(SIERRAS, 1876) DRAMATIS PERSONAE First Tourist Second Tourist Yuba Bill, Driver

(NORTHERN MEXICO, 1640) As you look from the plaza at Leo… You can see her house, but the vie… From the porch of the church where… Where much of her past still lives…

It was the stage-driver’s story, a… wheelers, Quietly flecking his whip, and tur… While on the dusty road, and blent… We saw the long curl of his lash a…

Captain of the Western wood, Thou that apest Robin Hood! Green above thy scarlet hose, How thy velvet mantle shows! Never tree like thee arrayed,

Have you heard the story that goss… Of Burns of Gettysburg?—No? Ah,… Brief is the glory that hero earns… Briefer the story of poor John Bu… He was the fellow who won renown,—

Dow’s Flat. That’s its name; And I reckon that you Are a stranger? The same? Well, I thought it was true,— For thar isn’t a man on the river…

(CEMETERY, SAN FRANCISCO… This is that hill of awe That Persian Sindbad saw,— The mount magnetic; And on its seaward face,

Why, as to that, said the engineer… Ghosts ain’t things we are apt to… Spirits don’t fool with levers muc… And throttle-valves don’t take to… And as for Jim,

Coward of heroic size, In whose lazy muscles lies Strength we fear and yet despise; Savage,-whose relentless tusks Are content with acorn husks;

(AN AERIAL RETROSPECT) What was it filled my youthful dre… In place of Greek or Latin themes… Or beauty’s wild, bewildering beam… Avitor!

An empty bench, a sky of grayest e… A bare, bleak shed in blackest sil… Twelve years of platform, and befo… Twelve miles of prairie glimmering… North, south, east, west,—the same…

Act first, scene first. A study.… Half cell, half salon, opulent yet… Rare books, low-shelved, yet far a… Of common man to compass or to cra… Some slight relief of pamphlets th…

I’m sitting alone by the fire, Dressed just as I came from the d… In a robe even YOU would admire,… It cost a cool thousand in France… I’m be-diamonded out of all reason…

(TABLE MOUNTAIN, 1870) Which I wish to remark, And my language is plain, That for ways that are dark And for tricks that are vain,