A Longfellow Alphabet.
Awake! arise! the hour is late!
Angels are knocking at thy door!
They are in haste and cannot wait,
And once departed come no more.
A Fragment.
Bear a lily in thy hand;
Gates of brass cannot withstand
One touch of that magic wand.
Maidenhood.
Closed was the teacher’s task, and with heaven in their hearts and their faces
Up rose the children all, and each bowed him, weeping full sorely,
Downward to kiss that reverend hand.
Children of the Lord’s Supper.
Day after day we think what she is doing
In those bright realms of air;
Year after year, her tender steps pursuing,
Behold her grown more fair.
Resignation.
Each heart has its haunted chamber,
Where the silent moonlight falls!
On the floor are mysterious footsteps,
There are whispers along the walls!
The Haunted Chamber.
“Farewell!” the portly landlord cried;
“Farewell!” the parting guests replied,
But little thought that never more
Their feet would pass that threshold o’er.
Tales of a Wayside Inn.
Gone are all the barons bold,
Gone are all the knights and squires;
Gone the abbot, stern and cold,
And the brotherhood of friars.
Oliver Basselin.
How many centuries has it been
About those deserts blown!
How many strange vicissitudes has seen,
How many histories known!
Sand of the Desert.
It sees the ocean to its bosom clasp
The rocks and sea-sand with the kiss of peace,
It sees the wild winds lift it in their grasp,
And hold it up and shake it like a fleece.
The Lighthouse.
Just above yon sandy bar,
As the day grows faint and dimmer,
Lonely and lovely, a single star
Lights the air with a dusky glimmer.
Chrysaor.
Knelt the Black Robe chief with his children, a crucifix fastened
High on the trunk of the tree. This was their rural chapel.
Evangeline.
Left to myself, I wander as I will,
And as my fancy leads me, through this house;
Nor could I ask a dwelling more complete,
Were I indeed the goddess that he deems me.
The Masque of Pandora.
Month after month passed away, and in autumn the ships of the merchants
Came with kindred and friends, with cattle and corn for the Pilgrims.
The Courtship of Miles Standish.
Nine sisters, beautiful in form and face,
Came from their convent on the shining heights
Of Pierus, the mountain of delights,
To dwell among the people at its base.
The Nine Muses.
“O Cæsar, we who are about to die
Salute you!” was the gladiators’ cry
In the arena, standing face to face
With death and with the Roman populace.
Morituri Salutamus.
Peradventure of old, some bard in Ionian Islands,
Walking alone by the sea, hearing the wash of the waves,
Learned the secret from them of the beautiful verse elegiac.
Elegiac Verse.
Quiet, close, and warm,
Sheltered from all molestation,
And recalling by their voices
Youth and travel.
To an Old Danish Song-book.
River! that in silence windest
Through the meadows, bright and free,
Till at length thy rest thou findest
In the bosom of the sea!
To the River Charles.
Sudden and swift, a whistling ball
Came out of a wood, and the voice was still;
Something I heard in the darkness fall,
And for a moment my blood grew chill.
Killed at the Ford.
Thou standest, like imperial Charlemagne,
Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand
Outstretched with benedictions o’er the land,
Blessing the farms through all thy vast domains.
Autumn.
Up soared the lark into the air,—
A shaft of song, a winged prayer,
As if a soul, released from pain,
Were flying back to heaven again.
The Sermon of St. Francis.
Visions of the days departed, shadowy phantoms filled my brain;
They who live in history only seemed to walk the earth again.
The Belfry of Bruges.
Whereunto is money good?
Who has it not wants hardihood;
Who has it has much trouble and care;
Who once has had it has despair.
Poetic Aphorisms.
“Excelsior!”
Excelsior.
Youth is lovely, age is lonely,
Youth is fiery, age is frosty;
You bring back the days departed,
And the beautiful Wenonah.
Hiawatha.
Zeal was stronger than fear or love.
Tales of a Wayside Inn.