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The Finding of The Book and Other Poems

By William Alexander
Alexander, William (1824-1911)

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Poems Imaginative and Reflective
  
[I never yet heard music, howe'er sweet]
  
THE FINDING OF THE BOOK
  
FAITH'S RESURGENCE
  
THE FOYLE GRAVEL-BOAT
  
PICTURA POESIS
  
PICTURA MATHESIS
  
PICTURA ZETESIS
  
BEAUTY OF WORSHIP
  
DEATH OF MATTHEW ARNOLD
  
FONS JUVENTUTIS
  
THE SONNET, THE LADY, AND THE PRINCE
  
THE DISTANT SAIL
  
THE OLD MAN AND THE SHIP
  
VOYAGE TO BABYLON
  
DEATH OF SAMUEL WILBERFORCE, BISHOP OF WINCHESTER
  
EPITAPH ON AGNES JONES
  
EPITAPH ON REV. ROBERT HIGINBOTHAM
  
INSCRIPTION
  
EPITAPH ON SINCLAIR MULHOLLAND
  
THE HIMALAYAN DAWN
  
ROBERT BURNS
  
A FINE DAY ON LOUGH SWILLY
  
YESTERDAY
  
THE BIRTHDAY CROWN
  
AMONG THE SANDHILLS
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Historical
  
A MINOR LATIN POET IMPROVING VIRGIL
  
A MINOR LATIN POET IMPROVING VIRGIL
  
ST. AUGUSTINE BY THE ITALIAN LAKES
  
A NAMELESS PENITENT
  
ST. AUGUSTINE'S RECOLLECTION OF CASSICIACUM
  
DEATH OF ARCHBISHOP MALACHY
  
SIR TESCELIN'S REMONSTRANCE
  
YOUTH RENEWED
  
THE ROSE OF THE INFANTA
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THE ICE-BOUND SHIP
  
[section]
 I. 
I
 II. 
II
 III. 
III
 IV. 
IV
 V. 
V
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Scriptural and Devotional
  
FUNERAL OF JACOB
  
THE HARP AND THE NORTH WIND
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PSALM LXVIII
 I. 
I
 II. 
II
 III. 
III
 IV. 
IV
 V. 
V
 VI. 
VI
 VII. 
VII
  
PSALM CIV
  
SHIYR SHYRIYM
  
SEMADAR
  
HIS NAME
  
MUSIC OR WORDS?
  
REPENTANCE AND FAITH
  
THE WOUNDED SEA-BIRD
  
IMPERFECT REPENTANCE
  
TENEBRÆ
  
THE CHAMBER PEACE
  
RECOGNITION
  
WRITTEN IN A VOLUME OF SERMONS
  
BOAZ ASLEEP
  
THE PREACHER'S MEDITATION
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Oxford Poems
  
ODE
  
THE WATERS OF BABYLON
  
TO ROBERT JOCELYN ALEXANDER
  
ISHMAEL
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Recently Written
  
A MISSIONARY'S MEDITATION
  
IS WAR THE ONLY THING THAT HAS NO GOOD IN IT?
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Sonnets chiefly in my Library
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ADVICE TO SONNET-WRITERS
 1. 
1If thou canst mould thy work as Winter does
 2. 
2If thou hast merely art mosaicwise
 3. 
3A CRITIC OF POETRY
 4. 
4THE CRITIC ANSWERED
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SONNETS CHIEFLY SUGGESTED BY ST. AUGUSTINE
 5. 
5WHAT WE LOVE IN LOVING GOD
 6. 
6This, this is what I love, and what is this?
 7. 
7IDEAS FADING IN THE MEMORY
 8. 
8REVIVAL OF MEMORY
 9. 
9MARVELS OF MEMORY
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SONNETS ON PRAYER
 10. 
10ON PRAYER
 11. 
11AN ETERNAL ROSE AND MOTHER
 12. 
12The roses and the mothers cannot choose
 13. 
13WHAT PRAYER IS NOT
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ST. JOHN AT PATMOS
 14. 
14What be his dreams in Patmos?
 15. 
15IN GALILEE
 16. 
16GROWTH OF KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST
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LEGEND: HOW ST. JOHN'S BETROTHAL WAS BROKEN
 17. 
17An antique legend speaks to this effect:
 18. 
18Then follow'd something more. A little space
 19. 
19FALSE ETHICAL CONCEPTION OF THIS LEGEND
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ST. LUKE'S HELLENIC CHARACTER
 20. 
20Methought I saw one pass, son of the race
 21. 
21BEARING ON HIS GOSPEL
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COWLEY'S POEMS
 22. 
22Thee, far-off poet near the first of all
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CRASHAW'S POEMS
 23. 
23Among earth's poets certain known of few
 24. 
24Sensuous, some say, a very amorist
 25. 
25In our tongue's youth something he strongly wrought
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GIBBON'S ‘MEMOIRS’
 26. 
26He lived to learn, to watch his knowledge grow
 27. 
27Wherefore his picture evermore was hued
 28. 
28Yet with what art, thro' what enormous space
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THE HEREAFTER
 29. 
29THE DEISTS ON ETERNAL PUNISHMENT
 30. 
30ETERNAL SIN
 31. 
31FREEWILL
 32. 
32CONJECTURAL HOPE—THE UNIVERSALISTS
 33. 
33THE HOPE OF OUR FOREFATHERS
 34. 
34HOPE AGAIN
 35. 
35VICTRIX DELECTATIO
 36. 
36Spiritual ocean, measurelessly broad!
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THE PRINCESS ALICE
 37. 
37Child, with the soft hymn by a father's bed
 38. 
38Sweet watcher by the wounded
 39. 
39The brightness and the shadow finely blent
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ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT CARNOT
 40. 
40What voice is that which o'er the ocean
 41. 
41Beside the dead man two veil'd women sit
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[[SONNETS 42–47]]
 42. 
42THE HOME OF THE DYMOCKS
 43. 
43FROST—MORNING
 44. 
44SUNSET
 45. 
45THE VOICE OF OCEAN
 46. 
46THE LAST DAY OF SUMMER
 47. 
47A HOT DAY BY LOUGH SWILLY
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THE QUEEN'S VISIT TO IRELAND
 49. 
49Each good and perfect gift man's heart to move
 50. 
50Writ in a fair charáctery of flowers
 51. 
51The young alone are fair, the old are great
 52. 
52So let a ‘favourable speed’ assist
 53. 
53O that a fortnight's Truce of God might sound!
  
L'ENVOI

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80

THE BIRTHDAY CROWN

If aught of simple song have power to touch
Your silent being, O ye country flowers,
Twisted by tender hands
Into a royal brede,
O hawthorn, tear thou not the soft white brow
Of the small queen upon her rustic throne,
But breathe thy finest scent
Of almond round about.
And thou, laburnum, and what other hue
Tinct deeper gives variety of gold,
Inwoven lily, and vetch
Bedropp'd with summer's blood,
I charge you wither not this long June day!
Oh, wither not until the sunset come,
Until the sunset's shaft
Slope through the chestnut-tree;
81

Until she sit, high-gloried round about
With the great light above her mimic court—
Her threads of sunny hair
Girt sunnily by you.
What other crown that queen may wear one day,
What drops may touch her forehead not of balm,
What thorns, what cruel thorns,
I will not guess to-day.
Only, before she is discrowned of you,
Ye dying flowers, and thou, O dying light,
My prayer shall rise—‘O Christ!
Give her the unfading crown.
‘The crown of blossoms worn by happy bride,
The thorny crown o'er pale and dying lips,
I dare not choose for her—
Give her the unfading crown!’
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