Katharine Lee Bates Poems

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
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THOUGH the winds but stir on their hoary thrones
Of hemlock and pungent pine,
All the whispering woodland tones
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[sung to tune: "All Saints New"]
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The Old Year groaned as he trudged away,
His guilty shadow black on the snow,
And the heart of the glad New Year turned grey
At the road Time bade him go.
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My love, my love, if you could come once more
From your high place,
I would not question you for heavenly lore,
But, silent, take the comfort of your face.
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Honor and pity for the smitten field,
The valorous ranks mown down like precious corn,
Whose want must famish love morn after morn,
Till Death, the good physician, shall have healed
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At the crowded gangway they kissed good-bye.
He had half a mind to scold her.
An officer's mother and not keep dry
The epaulet on his shoulder.
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WHITE year, white year,
Muffled soft in snow,
A diamond spray whose gems are gone
Before their grace we know
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Bodies glad, erect,
Beautiful with youth,
Life's elect,
Nature's truth,
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1899

Who would trust England, let him lift his eyes
To Nelson, columned o'er Trafalgar Square,
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