I think that saving a little child
And bringing him to his own,
Is a derned sight better business,
Than, loafing around the throne.
“Little Breeches,”—John Hay.
John Hay, a famous American poet and prose-writer, was born in Salem, Ind., October 8, 1838, and died in 1905. His literary fame rests on his famous “Pike County Ballads.”
Thy Soul ...
Is as far from my grasp, is as free,
As the stars from the mountain-tops be,
As the pearl in the depths of the sea,
From the portionless king that would be.
“Stanzas from Music,”—Edmund Clarence Stedman.
Edmund Clarence Stedman, a distinguished American man of letters, was born in Hartford, Conn., October 8, 1833, and died in 1908. He wrote: “Nature and Elements of Poetry,” “Poets of America,” “Victorian Anthology,” “Victorian Poets,” “Poems Now First Collected,” etc.
Backward, flow backward, O tide of the years!
I am so weary of toil and of tears—
Toil without recompense, tears all in vain!
Take them, and give me my childhood again!
“Rock Me to Sleep,”—Elizabeth Akers Allen.
Elizabeth Akers Allen, a noted American poet, was born at Strong, Me., October 9, 1832, and died in 1911. She wrote: “The Silver Bridge and Other Poems,” and a volume of “Poems,” the best known among them being: “Rock Me to Sleep, Mother.”
Woodman, spare that tree!
Touch not a single bough!
In youth it sheltered me,
And I’ll protect it now.