Hermann Hagedorn Poems

Lord, in this hour of tumult,
   Lord, in this night of fears,
Keep open, oh, keep open
   My eyes, my ears.
...

How like the stars are these white, nameless faces—
These far innumerable burning coals!
This pale procession out of stellar spaces,
...

Clear air and grassy lea,
Stream-song and cattle-bell—
Dear man, what fools are we
In prison-walls to dwell!
...

Not long did we lie on the torn, red field of pain.
We fell, we lay, we slumbered, we took rest,
...

For such as you, I do believe,
Spirits their softest carpets weave.
And spread them out with gracious hand
Wherever you walk, wherever you stand.
...

Pyres in the night, in the night!
And the roaring yellow and red.
Trooper, trooper, why so white?
We are out to gather our dead.
...

Like a young child who to his mother's door
   Runs eager for the welcoming embrace,
   And finds the door shut, and with troubled face
Calls and through sobbing calls, and o'er and o'er
...

Song is so old,
Love is so new --
Let me be still
And kneel to you.
...

My true love from her pillow rose
   And wandered down the summer lane.
She left her house to the wind's carouse,
   And her chamber wide to the rain.
...