Shall that bright flower the countless ages toiled And travailed to bring forth--shall that rare rose, Whose bloom and fragrance earth and heaven unclose Their treasuries to enrich, by death be foiled? Its matchless splendour trampled down and spoiled? Shall that Celestial Love--who watched its throes Through centuries of long struggles and of...Learn More

O solemn portal, veiled in mist and cloud, Where all who have lived throng in, an endless line, Forbid to tell by backward look or sign What destiny awaits the advancing crowd; Bourne crossed but once with no return allowed: Dumb, spectral gate, terrestrial yet divine; Beyond whose arch all powers and fates combine, Pledged to divulge no secrets of...Learn More

If death be final, what is life, with all Its lavish promises, its thwarted aims, Its lost ideals, its dishonoured claims, Its uncompleted growth? A prison wall, Whose heartless stones but echo back our call; An epitaph recording but our names; A puppet-stage where joys and griefs and shames Furnish a demon jesters' carnival; A plan without a...Learn More

In the old void of unrecorded time, In long, slow aeons of the voiceless past, A seed from out the weltering fire-mist cast Took root--a struggling plant that from its prime Through rudiments uncouth, through rock and slime, Grew, changing form and issue--and clinging fast, Stretched its aspiring tendrils--till at last Shaped like a spirit it began...Learn More

Beyond the low marsh-meadows and the beach, Seen through the hoary trunks of windy pines, The long blue level of the ocean shines. The distant surf, with hoarse, complaining speech, Out from its sandy barrier seems to reach; And while the sun behind the woods declines, The moaning sea with sighing boughs combines, And waves and pines make answer,...Learn More