I step across the mystic border-land, And look upon the wonder-world of Art. How beautiful, how beautiful its hills! And all its valleys, how surpassing fair… The winding paths that lead up to the he…

It is easy enough to be pleasant, When life flows by like a song, But the man worth while is one who will… When everything goes dead wrong. For the test of the heart is trouble,

All wondering, and eager-eyed, within he… I made my plea to Hostess Life, one mor… “Pray show me this great house of thine,… But let me wander where I will, and cli… For many rooms, and curious things, and…

In the rapture of life and of living, I lift up my head and rejoice, And I thank the great Giver for giving The soul of my gladness a voice. In the glow of the glorious weather,

I do not undertake to say That literal answers come from Heaven, But I know this—that when I pray A comfort, a support is given That helps me rise o’er earthly things

Don’t look for the flaws as you go throu… And even when you find them, It is wise and kind to be somewhat blind… And look for the virtue behind them; For the cloudiest night has a hint of li…

In the fair morning of his life, When his pure heart lay in his breast, Panting, with all that wild unrest To plunge into the great world’s strife That fills young hearts with mad desire,

In the youth of the year, when the birds… When the green was showing on tree and h… And the tenderest light of all lights wa… The world from zenith to outermost edge, My soul grew sad and longingly lonely!

Of all the waltzes the great Strauss wr… mad with melody, rhythm—rife From the very first to the final note, Give me his “Artist’s Life!” It stirs my blood to my finger ends,

I think I never passed so sad an hour, Dear friend, as that one at the church t… The edifice from basement to the tower Was one resplendent blaze of coloured li… Up through broad aisles the stylish crow…

To-day I was so weary and I lay In that delicious state of semi-waking, When baby, sitting with his nurse at pla… Cried loud for “mamma,” all his toys for… I was so weary and I needed rest,

In a land beyond sight or conceiving, In a land where no blight is, no wrong, No darkness, no graves, and no grieving, There lies the great ocean of song. And its waves, oh, its waves unbeholden

We will be what we could be. Do not say… “It might have been, had not this, or th… No fate can keep us from the chosen way; He only might who is. We will do what we could do. Do not dre…

Under the light of the silver moon We two sat, when our hearts were young; The night was warm with the breath of J… And loud from the meadow the cricket sun… And darker and deeper, oh, love, than th…

Though with gods the world is cumbered, Gods unnamed, and gods unnumbered, Never god was known to be Who had not his devotee. So I dedicate to mine,

When thy hand touches mine, through all… Of intricate and interlacèd veins Shoot swift delights that border on keen… Flesh thrills to thrilling flesh. When in thine eager eyes I look to find

That which we had we still possess, Though leaves may drop and stars may fal… No circumstance can make it less Or take it from us, all in all. That which is lost we did not own;

Oh, I have dreams. I sometimes dream o… In the full meaning of that splendid wor… Its subtle music which few men have hear… Though all may hear it, sounding through… Its mountain heights by mystic breezes k…

Alone it stands in Poesy’s fair land, A temple by the muses set apart; A perfect structure of consummate art, By artists builded and by genius planned… Beyond the reach of the apprentice hand,

Fling my past behind me, like a robe Worn threadbare in the seams, and out of… I have outgrown it. Wherefore should I… And dwell up on its beauty, and its dyes Of Oriental splendour, or complain

That was a curious dream; I thought the… Great planets that are drawing near the… With such unerring certainty begun To talk together in a mighty glee. They spoke of vast convulsions which wou…

Let mine not be that saddest fate of all To live beyond my greater self; to see My faculties decaying, as the tree Stands stark and helpless while its gree… Let me hear rather the imperious call,

There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, Can circumvent or hinder or control The firm resolve of a determined soul. Gifts count for nothing; will alone is g… All things give way before it, soon or l…

Falling upon the frozen world last night… I heard the slow beat of the Winter rai… Poor foolish drops, down-dripping all in… The ice-bound Earth but mocked their pu… Far better had the fixedness of white

Life, like a romping schoolboy, full of… Doth bear us on his shoulder for a time. There is no path too steep for him to cl… With strong, lithe limbs, as agile and a… As some young roe, he speeds by vale and…

“Genius, a man’s weapon, a woman’s burde… Dear God! there is no sadder fate in li… Than to be burdened so that you can not Sit down contented with the common lot Of happy mother and devoted wife.

Let the dream go. Are there not other d… In vastness of clouds hid from thy sight That yet shall gild with beautiful gold… And shoot the shadows through and throug… What matters one lost vision of the nigh…

Love breathed a secret to her listening… And said “Be silent.” Though she guard… And dwelt as one within a world apart, Yet sun and star seemed by that secret l… And where she passed, each whispering wi…

I look down the lengthening distance Far back to youth’s valley of hope. How strange seemed the ways of existence… How infinite life and its scope! What dreams, what ambitions came throngi…

Last night I saw Helena. She whose pr… Of late all men have sounded. She for… Young Angus rashly sought a silent tomb Rather than live without her all his day… Wise men go mad who look upon her long,

Nothing remains of unrecorded ages That lie in the silent cemetery time; Their wisdom may have shamed our wisest… Their glory may have been indeed sublime… How weak do seem our strivings after pow…

I and my Soul are alone to-day, All in the shining weather; We were sick of the world, and put it aw… So we could rejoice together. Our host, the Sun, in the blue, blue sk…

Now, while thy rounded cheek is fresh an… While beauty lingers, laughing, in thine… Ere thy young heart shall meet the stran… Or thy blithe soul become the home of si… Were it not kindness should I give thee…

[In an interview with Lawrence Barrett,… Not to the crowded East, Where, in a well-worn groove, Like the harnessed wheel of a great mach… The trammelled mind must move—

I set out for the Land of Content, By the gay crowded pleasure-highway, With laughter, and jesting, I went With the mirth-loving throng for a day; Then I knew I had wandered astray,

High in the heavens I saw the moon this… Albeit the sun shone bright; Unto my soul it spoke, in voice of warni… ‘Remember Night! ’

After the battles are over, And the war drums cease to beat, And no more is heard on the hillside The sound of hurrying feet, Full many a noble action,

I have been across the bridges of the ye… Wet with tears Were the ties on which I trod, going ba… Down the track To the valley where I left, 'neath skie…

As some dusk mother shields from all ala… The tired child she gathers to her breas… The brunette Night doth fold me in her… And hushes me to perfect peace and rest. Her eyes of stars shine on me, and I he…

The world grows green on a thousand hill… By a thousand willows the bees are hummi… And a million birds by a million rills, Sing of the golden season coming. But, gazing out on the sun-kist lea,

If the sad old world should jump a cog Sometime, in its dizzy spinning, And go off the track with a sudden jog, What an end would come to the sinning, What a rest from strife and the burdens…

Is it the world, or my eyes, that are sa… I see not the grace that I used to see In the meadow-brook whose song was so gl… In the boughs of the willow tree. The brook runs slower—its song seems low…

Not they who know the awful gibbet’s ang… Not they who, while sad years go by them… The sunless cells of lonely prisons lang… Do suffer fullest penalty for sin. ’Tis they who walk the highways unsuspec…

I feel the stirrings in me of great thin… New half-fledged thoughts rise up and be… And tremble on the margin of their nest, Then flutter back, and hide within my br… Beholding space, they doubt their untrie…

What can be said in New Year rhymes, That’s not been said a thousand times? The new years come, the old years go, We know we dream, we dream we know. We rise up laughing with the light,

A vision beauteous as the morn, With heavenly eyes and tresses streaming… Slow glided o’er a field late shorn Where walked a poet idly dreaming. He saw her, and joy lit his face.

How happy they are, in all seeming, How gay, or how smilingly proud, How brightly their faces are beaming, These people who make up the crowd! How they bow, how they bend, how they fl…

Life and I are lovers, straying Arm in arm along: Often like two children Maying, Full of mirth and song, Life plucks all the blooming hours

Upon the white cheek of the Cherub Year I saw a tear. Alas! I murmured, that the Year should… So soon a sorrow. Just then the sunlight fell with sudden…

Toward even when the day leans down, To kiss the upturned face of night, Out just beyond the loud-voiced town I know a spot of calm delight. Like crimson arrows from a quiver

Every morning and every night There passes our window near the street, A little girl with an eye so bright, And a cheek so round and a lip so sweet! The daintiest, jauntiest little miss

Up from the South come the birds that w… Frightened away by the presence of frost… Back to the vale comes the verdure that… Back to the forest the leaves that were… Over the hillside the carpet of splendou…

After the May time and after the June t… Rare with blossoms and perfume sweet, Cometh the round world’s royal noon time… The red midsummer of blazing heat, When the sun, like an eye that never clo…

I saw the wild honey-bee kissing a rose A wee one, that grows Down low on the bush, where her sisters… Cannot see all that’s done As the moments roll on.

Across the miles that stretch between, Through days of gloom or glad sunlight, There shines a face I have not seen Which yet doth make my world more bright… He may be near, he may be far,

One leaned on velvet cushions like a que… To see him pass, the hero of an hour, Whom men called great. She bowed with… And smiled, and blushed, and knew her be… One trailed her tinselled garments throu…

Slipping away—slipping away! Out of our brief year slips the May; And Winter lingers, and Summer flies; And Sorrow abideth, and Pleasure dies; And the days are short, and the nights a…

It is done! in the fire’s fitful flashes… The last line has withered and curled. In a tiny white heap of dead ashes Lie buried the hopes of your world. There were mad foolish vows in each lett…