English

Better had I never known
Christ's word, the lifted stone,
Who now must face a second time
The darkness and the slime.

Better had my sisters prayed
Vainly for the young Lord's aid,
And never seen, as now they must,
Love throttled twice by dust.

Lord, they are sorry benisons
You lay upon your chosen ones,
That they alone beneath the sky
Must twice lose, and twice die.

Storm
Wild one,
Take me in your whirl,
In your giddy reel,
In your shot-like leaps and flights.
Hear me call—stop and hear.
I know you, blusterer; I know you, wild one—
I know your mysterious call.

My step-grandfather sat during the noon spell
Against the wild crabapple tree, by the vines.
Flies about the high hot fern played, or fell
To his beard, or upon the big vein of his hand.
With their playing he seemed helpless and old, in a land
Where new stumps, piles of green brush, fresh-burnt pines,
Were young and stubborn. He mentioned the old times
As if he thought of this: “I have marched, and run
Over the old hills, old plowed land, with my gun
Bumping furrows—oh, years old. But in this new place

O world that changes under my hand,
O brown world, bitter and bright,
And full of hidden recesses
Of love and light—

O world, what use would there be to me
Of power beyond power
To change, or establish new balance,
To build, or deflower?

O world, what use would there be?
Had I the Creator's fire,
I could not build you nearer
To my heart's desire!

Herald of earliest dawn! at thy smile the blue waters are stirring again:
Wide the sea wakes from its sleep, as thy bright eye enkindles the sky and the main.
As the wind flutters thy locks, and plays with the folds of thy many-dyed veil,
Boldly we launch on the deep, and deck with thy purple the snow of our sail.
Earth then gives tokens of life, and again, as a giant refreshed with repose,
Youthfully starts from its dreams, and its cheeks are all flushed with the bloom of the rose.

In sorrow and sadness
I'm destined to roam;
Distracted and forsaken I wander alone.
All the works of nature are hidden from my view.
The pleasures of life I must bid them adieu.

I hear the merry songs of the birds that are gay at dawn
Singing praises to God for the new day that is born;
How I long to behold them in their plumage so gay,
Alas it is all dark, for me there is no day.

I feel the gentle breezes that sweep over the field,
Bringing the fragrance of flowers that it doth yield.

When the Rebels come a-marchin' I'm a Southern man
And I feed their horses on my best.
When the Yankees come a-marchin' I'm a Northern man,
And I feed their horses what the Rebels left.

You can tell Jeff Davis I'm a Democrat,
And I'll help his army all I can.
But if you see the Yankees as you go along,
Please tell Abe Lincoln I'm a Northern man.

You can tell Grant and Sherman I think they're great,
And their names will shine in history.
But if you see the Johnnies along this way,
Just give my respects to Robert E. Lee.

Through the forest there fluttered a song
Upborne upon airy gay wings;
As the breeze lisps the beech-boughs among
So softly it lit on my strings:
And my harp told the River again:
And the trees and the birds caught the strain:
And the flow'rs set up soft whisperings.

Through the forest came loitering Love:
There was budding and blooming at this:
The birds woke, with welcome, the grove
And the rocks and the springs felt the bliss;
It seemed 'twould be sunshine forever
As the sun shed red gold on the River

Sufî, hither gaze! for brightly shines the Mirror of the Cup;
Gaze into the ruby wine, and see what thing it flingeth up.

No one ever noosed the Anka—God's Bird—throw away thy snare!
All its mesh can ever catch thee, in this world, is empty air.

Cleave to pleasures of the Present! Adam, judging otherwise,
Lost his altered House of Peace; the lovely lawns of Paradise.

At Time's table, quick to vanish, quaff a cup, ere thou must go;
Ask not what He will not give thee, leave to always banquet so.

A grain adown the velvet strolled—Glory!
No purer pearl could be—Glory!
The pearl against a ruby rolled—Glory!
Most beautiful to see—Glory!
Big is the pearl by ruby's side—Glory!
Well for the bridegroom with his bride—Glory!