Short Poems

Great Spirit whom the sea of boundless thought
Nurtures within its unimagined caves,
In which thou sittest sole, as in my mind,
Giving a voice to its mysterious waves--

And that I walk thus proudly crowned withal
Is that 'tis my distinction; if I fall,
I shall not weep out of the vital day,
To-morrow dust, nor wear a dull decay.

O pillow cold and wet with tears!
Thou breathest sleep no more!

As in a swoon, one instant,
Another sun, ineffable, full-dazzles me,
And all the orbs I knew—and brighter, unknown orbs;
One instant of the future land, Heaven's land.

After a long, long course, hundreds of years, denials,
Accumulations, rous'd love and joy and thought,
Hopes, wishes, aspirations, ponderings, victories, myriads of readers,
Coating, compassing, covering—after ages' and ages' encrustations,
Then only may these songs reach fruition.

The brave Empedocles defying fools
Pronounced the word that mortals hate to hear
“I am divine I am not mortal made
I am superior to my human weeds”
Not sense but Reason is the Judge of truth
Reason's twofold; part human part divine
That human part may be described & taught
The other portion language cannot speak

Wouldst thou be gathered to Christ's chosen flock,
Shun the broad way too easily explored,
And let thy path be hewn out of the Rock,
The living Rock of God's eternal Word.

I've got an arrow here;
Loving the hand that sent it,
I the dart revere.

Fell, they will say, in ‘skirmish’!
Vanquished, my soul will know,
By but a simple arrow
Sped by an archer's bow.

You wonder Who this Thing has writ,
So full of Fibs, so void of Wit?
Lord! never ask who thus could serve ye?
Who can it be but Fibster H[erve]y.

Gilded hummingbirds are whizzing
Through the palace garden,
Deceived by the jade petals
Of the Emperor's jewel-trees.