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Poems

Год написания книги
2017
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That of a sweet and radiant maid,
Who knows not why she is afraid, —
Love's yet unseen!
Another – rarest 'mong the rare —
To see the gaze of chosen fair
Return prolonged and wistful stare
Of eager een.

But – dream o'er all to stir my soul,
And shine the brightest on the roll,
Is when a land of tyrant's toll
By sword is rid.
I say not dagger – with the sword
When Right enchampions the horde,
All in broad day – so that the bard
May sing the victor with the starred
Bayard and Cid!

AN OLD-TIME LAY

("Jamais elle ne raille.")

{Bk. III. xiii.}

Where your brood seven lie,
Float in calm heavenly,
Life passing evenly,
Waterfowl, waterfowl! often I dream
For a rest
Like your nest,
Skirting the stream.

Shine the sun tearfully
Ere the clouds clear fully,
Still you skim cheerfully,
Swallow, oh! swallow swift! often I sigh
For a home
Where you roam
Nearing the sky!

Guileless of pondering;
Swallow-eyes wandering;
Seeking no fonder ring
Than the rose-garland Love gives thee apart!
Grant me soon —
Blessed boon!
Home in thy heart!

JERSEY

("Jersey dort dans les flots.")

{Bk. III. xiv., Oct. 8, 1854.}

Dear Jersey! jewel jubilant and green,
'Midst surge that splits steel ships, but sings to thee!
Thou fav'rest Frenchmen, though from England seen,
Oft tearful to that mistress "North Countree";
Returned the third time safely here to be,
I bless my bold Gibraltar of the Free.

Yon lighthouse stands forth like a fervent friend,
One who our tempest buffets back with zest,
And with twin-steeple, eke our helmsman's end,
Forms arms that beckon us upon thy breast;
Rose-posied pillow, crystallized with spray,
Where pools pellucid mirror sunny ray.

A frigate fretting yonder smoothest sky,
Like pauseless petrel poising o'er a wreck,
Strikes bright athwart the dearly dazzled eye,
Until it lessens to scarce certain speck,
'Neath Venus, sparkling on the agate-sprinkled beach,
For fisher's sailing-signal, just and true,
Until Aurora frights her from the view.

In summer, steamer-smoke spreads as thy veil,
And mists in winter sudden screen thy sight,
When at thy feet the galley-breakers wail
And toss their tops high o'er the lofty flight
Of horrid storm-worn steps with shark-like bite,
That only ope to swallow up in spite.

L'ENVOY.

But penitent in calm, thou givest a balm,
To many a man who's felt thy rage,
And many a sea-bird – thanks be heard! —
Thou shieldest – sea-bird – exiled bard and sage.

THEN, MOST, I SMILE

("Il est un peu tard.")

{Bk. III. xxx., Oct. 30, 1854.}

Late it is to look so proud,
Daisy queen! come is the gloom
Of the winter-burdened cloud! —
"But, in winter, most I bloom!"
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