John Bannister Tabb Poems

''Tis well,' the Goat, flea-bitten said,
'You hide where Nature put you:
For if you dared to show your head,
By Gemini, I'd butt you!'
...

Now that the birds are gone
That sang the summer through,
And now that, one by one,
The leaves are going too,
...

Dumb Silence and her sightless sister Sleep
Glide, mistlike, through the deepening Vale of Night;
Waking, where'er their shadowy garments sweep,
...

To highest heaven the Lark alone
Of earthly messengers is known;
To Silence all things else above,
He chants the litany of Love.
...

Lord, as from Thy body bleeding,
Wave by wave is life receding
From these limbs of mine:
As it drifts away from me
...

'He did God's will by night and day,
But always in the devil's way.'
...

'Pere --'s dead! Ah, it is well;
He'll never worry us in hell!'
...

Orbs of Autumnal beauty, breathed to light
From blooms of May,
Rounded between the touch of lengthening night
And lessening day,
...

'His sins were long ago forgiven;
So let him pass
at once
to heaven.'
...

Heeds yonder star thy song,
O warbler of the night?
'I know not, for the way is long
That leads unto the light.
...