Short Poems

Make thy lasting abode where fixed Eternity dwelleth!
Come, ye varying hues, come and illuminate man!

Dearly I honour a friend, but an enemy too has his uses;
Friends point out what I can, enemies show what I ought.

“God alone sees into the heart.” 'Tis an adequate reason
Why we too should see something of wholesome repute.

What religion I own? thou askest:—None of thy naming.
Why? thou askest again:—Why, for religion itself.

“How shall I know which State is best?”—Why, just as thou knowest
Which of women is best. Neither an utterance needs.

By a pale lantern—under the cold moon
We were drinking heavily together.
Frightened by our orgies, a white heron
Flaffed out of the river shallows. It was midnight.

Measureless an it extend—the noble arena of heaven,
Heaven is dragged by fools down to the level of earth.

Tell me no more, I pray, of your suns and nebulous hazes;
Think you Nature is vast only to set you a sum?
Nothing in infinite space is so august as your object,
But there is nought august, friend, in indefinite space.

Crime sincerely I hate, and hate with a special aversion
Since it brings in its train wearisome prattle of good.
“Good thou mockest?”—Nay, let all continue its practice,
But, for heaven's sake, prate of it never again.

Majesty of mankind! In the haunts of man shall I seek thee?
Thou hast been hitherto with a minority found.
Only a few there are who count, the others are ciphers;
And what prizes exist in the commotion are lost.