Some bear the dreams of happy years
Or bring a cargo all of gold;
Some bear a freight of useless tears,
For love and sorrow long untold.
And each man takes the proffered dower
For golden grain or bitter loss;
O, happy he that hath the power
To take the gold and leave the dross.
The Obelisk
(Place de la Concorde, Paris)
There rise the palace walls as fair to-day,
As when with arms and banners gleaming bright,
The pageantry of royal pomp and might
Passed through the guarded gates and went its way.
The blue, translucent beams of morning play
On arch triumphal, veiled in silver light;
And here, where blind, red fury reached its height,
An ancient column rises grim and gray.
Slumbering in mystic sleep it seems to be,
And dreaming dreams of Egypt long ago,
Unmindful of the ceaseless ebb and flow
About its feet of life's unresting sea;
But 'mid the roar, I hear it murmur low:
Poor fools, they know not all is vanity!
The Parting Ways
We trod together pleasant ways;
The earth was fair and blue the sky;
Clear were the nights and bright the days
And life was joy, for you were nigh.