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University of Virginia Library

The poems of Richard Henry Stoddard

complete edition

Stoddard, Richard Henry (1825-1903)

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SONGS OF SUMMER.

THE FLIGHT OF YOUTH.

[Thy father is a King, my child]

[A few frail summers had touched thee]

THE SONG OF THE SYRENS.

[Range yourselves, my merry men]

THE SHADOW OF THE HAND.

THE SPEECH OF LOVE.

[You may drink to your leman in gold]

[The sky is a drinking-cup]

[Spring, they tell me, comes in bloom]

[The gray old Earth goes on]

[There is no sin to hearts that love]

[Here I lie, a tress of hair]

[The sky is thick upon the sea]

[Many's the time I've sighed for summer]

[The house is dark and dreary]

[The phantom that walks in the sun]

THE NIGHT BEFORE THE BRIDAL.

[Dim grows the sky, and dusk the air]

SUMMER AND AUTUMN.

ROSES AND THORNS.

[Beneath the heavy curtains]

[Rattle the window, Winds]

THE VEILED STATUE.

“POEMS OF THE ORIENT.”

[Wrecks of clouds of a sombre gray]

[No, I will not leave you, Madam]

CARMEN NATURÆ TRIUMPHALE.

INVOCATION TO SLEEP.

THE STORK AND THE RUBY.

[We are bent with age and cares]

PAIN IN AUTUMN.

THE FIRST SNOW.

THE ABDICATION OF NOMAN.

THE CHILDREN'S PRAYER.

[By the margent of the sea]

THE FISHER AND CHARON.

GREAT AND SMALL.

THE SQUIRE OF LOW DEGREE.

THE SERENADE OF MA-HAN-SHAN.

THE SLEDGE AT THE GATE.

THE GRAPE GATHERER.

SICILIAN PASTORAL.

[We parted in the streets of Ispahan]

THE SEARCH FOR PERSEPHONE.

ON A CHILD'S PICTURE.

THE KING'S BELL.

THE BOOK OF THE EAST.

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LEAVES.

What is life, and what are we?
Only leaves upon a tree,
Green to-day, to-morrow sear,
Then we are no longer here.

Others, fair and brave as we,
Grew of old upon the tree;
Now they crumble in the mould,
With their histories untold.

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So shall we: it is our lot
Thus to die and be forgot.
By and by the tree will fall,
And Oblivion cover all.