THY life is like a fountain clear, upspringing
Beside the weary way I'm treading now;
I love to linger near, and feel it flinging
...
O'STRONG and pure of soul! — O earnest-hearted!
Like stranger-pilgrims at some way-side shrine
...
O FAITHFUL friend! O gentle wife!
I know I may not add to-day
One drop unto thy' wine of life,'
Of love, or happiness, or pride;
...
WE never met; yet to my soul
Thy name hath been a voice of singing,
And ever to thy glorious lays
The echoes of my heart are ringing.
...
A NAMELESS power lives in thy verse,
A gleam of things divine!
And with meek looks and claspèd hands
My spirit bows to thine.
...
'ENTHUSIAST,' 'Dreamer,' — such the names
Thine age bestows on thee,
For that great nature, going forth
In world-wide sympathy;
...
I SEND thee here no valentine,
I only dash thee off a line.
In trembling haste I send it, —
Give earnest heed to what I say;
...
We need not to be told thou art
Of Rome's own glorious race;
We hear her song breathe in thy voice,
In thy form behold her grace,
...
MUST silence rest upon thy lyre,
And will thy hand awake it never?
And must the great deeps of thy soul
Remain becalmed for ever?
...
APOLLO once had leave to travel;
He sought our Yankee land,
And he lionized it through,
With his golden lyre in hand.
...