Classic Poem

" THOU CREATIVE SILENCE STRANGE ! "

Hath the lily breathed to the root
What stars from it shall shoot?
What bloom life hath in its fragrant hour,
Hath the seed told the flower?
Hath the dark whispered to the sun
What heaven shall be when day is done? —
Thou Creative Silence strange,
Dumbly bear us, change through change!

THE EBB

Like echoing cliffs above my blood
My senses are; with passion roars
The ear, eyes darken, — life's abud!
But when love ebbs, — Atlantic shores
Sorrow not so when the sea's flood
Back on the sea's heart pours.

THE CHEAT

When my tiny hands would hold
Sticks and straw, they turned to gold.
Life reverses fairy law,
The wealth I hold turns sticks and straw.
'T is a cheat, whichever way,
Boy or man, with gold we play.

VALE !

Rear who will a marble pile!
Of death I know but this:
No rising sun gives back thy smile,
No darkness yields thy kiss.

THE STATUE

All flawed in beauty, shorn of fate,
Deep droops yon statue, sad at heart;
Some Greek isle hides his lovely mate,
And robs his form of perfect art.

THE ONYX

Love, the sexton, from the sod
Gave me this onyx; prize it, you;
A carven Eros, graved " Adieu! " —
Who breaks the image, finds the god.