The poems of Richard Henry Stoddard :: :: University of Virginia Library

The poems of Richard Henry Stoddard

complete edition

Stoddard, Richard Henry (1825-1903)

THE BOOK OF THE EAST.

[Up in an old pagoda's highest tower]

What time my husband went to banishment

[Moulan is weaving at her cottage door]

II.

[We started when the clarion of the cock]

[Millions of flowers are blowing in the fields]

[The shadows of the swallows]

[The farmer cuts the So leaves]

[East, or west, to the pastures]

[He saw in sight of his house]

[Before the scream of the hawk]

[The dark and rainy weather]

[Stretched in flowers and moonlight]

[It grieves the bee and butterfly]

[Now the wind is softest]

[The grove is crowned with hoar-frost]

[I hear the sacred swan]

A WOMAN'S POEM.

WITHOUT AND WITHIN.

ON THE TOWN.

THE BALLAD OF VALLEY FORGE.

THE CHILDREN OF ISIS.

[Why stand ye gazing into Heaven?]

THE MESSENGER AT NIGHT.

OUT TO SEA.

A GREEK SONG.

“WANDERING ALONG A WASTE.”

HEAD, OR HEART.

DRIFTING.

THE PROUD LOVER.

[I know a little rose]

[It is a winter night]

LEAVES.

COURAGE AND PATIENCE.

TO BAYARD TAYLOR.

TO EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN.

TO JAMES LORIMER GRAHAM, JR.

COLONEL FREDERICK TAYLOR.

TO JERVIS McENTEE, ARTIST.

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.

TO A FRIEND.

IN MEMORIAM.

LATER POEMS.

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[We parted in the streets of Ispahan]

[PERSIA.]

We parted in the streets of Ispahan.
I stopped my camel at the city gate;
Why did I stop? I left my heart behind.

145

I heard the sighing of thy garden palms,
I saw the roses burning up with love,
I saw thee not: thou wert no longer there.

We parted in the streets of Ispahan.
A moon has passed since that unhappy day;
It seems an age: the days are long as years.

I send thee gifts by every caravan,
I send thee flasks of attar, spices, pearls,
I write thee loving songs on golden scrolls.

I meet the caravans when they return.
“What news?” I ask. The drivers shake their heads.
We parted in the streets of Ispahan.