English

You are now
In London, that great sea, whose ebb and flow
At once is deaf and loud, and on the shore
Vomits its wrecks, and still howls on for more.
Yet in its depths what treasures! You will see
That which was Godwin,--greater none than he
Though fallen--and fallen on evil times--to stand
Among the spirits of our age and land,
Before the dread tribunal of to come
The foremost,--while Rebuke cowers pale and dumb.
You will see Coleridge--he who sits obscure
In the exceeding lustre and the pure

A baby's eyes, ere speech begin,
Ere lips learn words or sighs,
Bless all things bright enough to win
A baby's eyes.

Love, while the sweet thing laughs and lies
And sleep flows out and in,
Sees perfect in them Paradise!

Their glance might cast out pain and sin,
Their speech make dumb the wise,
By mute glad godhead felt within
A baby's eyes.

I

A BABY'S feet, like seashells pink,
— Might tempt, should heaven see meet,
An angel's lips to kiss, we think,
A baby's feet.

Like rose-hued sea-flowers toward the heat
— They stretch and spread and wink
Their ten soft buds that part and meet.

No flower-bells that expand and shrink
— Gleam half so heavenly sweet,
As shine on life's untrodden brink
A baby's feet.

II

A baby's hands, like rosebuds furled,
— Where yet no leaf expands,

AUTOCRAT — PROFESSOR — POET

At a Bookstore

Anno Domini 1972

A CRAZY bookcase, placed before
A low-price dealer's open door;
Therein arrayed in broken rows
A ragged crew of rhyme and prose,
The homeless vagrants, waifs, and strays
Whose low estate this line betrays
(Set forth the lesser birds to lime)
Your CHOICE AMONG THESE BOOKS 1 DIME !

Ho! dealer; for its motto's sake
This scarecrow from the shelf I take;

Where is this patriarch you are kindly greeting?
Not unfamiliar to my ear his name,
Nor yet unknown to many a joyous meeting
In days long vanished, — is he still the same,

Or changed by years, forgotten and forgetting,
Dull-eared, dim-sighted, slow of speech and thought,
Still o'er the sad, degenerate present fretting,
Where all goes wrong, and nothing as it ought?

Old age, the graybeard! Well, indeed, I know him, —
Shrunk, tottering, bent, of aches and ills the prey;
In sermon, story, fable, picture, poem,

1.
A soft answer turneth away wrath:
But grievous words stir up anger.

2.
The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright:
But the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.
3.

The eyes of the Lord are in every place,
Beholding the evil and the good.
4.

A wholesome tongue is a tree of life:
But perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.
5.

A fool despiseth his father's instruction:
But he that regardeth reproof is prudent.
7.

The lips of the wise disperse knowledge:

4
1. Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know
understanding.
2. For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.
3. For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of
my mother.
4. He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my
words: keep my commandments, and live.
5. Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from
the words of my mouth.

1.
Wisdom hath builded her house,
She hath hewn out her seven pillars:
2.
She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine;
She hath also furnished her table.
3.
She hath sent forth her maidens, she crieth
Upon the highest places of the city,
4.
"Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither":
As for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,
5.
"Come, eat ye of my bread,
And drink of the wine which I have mingled.
6.
Forsake the foolish, and live;
And go in the way of understanding."

32.
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty;
And he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.

29. Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
30. They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
31. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
32. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
33. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.