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The poems of Richard Henry Stoddard

complete edition
Stoddard, Richard Henry (1825-1903)

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[section]
  
PROEM.
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EARLY POEMS.
  
THE CASTLE IN THE AIR.
  
HYMN TO FLORA.
  
ODE.
  
LEONATUS.
  
SPRING.
  
AUTUMN.
  
THE WITCH'S WHELP.
  
HYMN TO THE BEAUTIFUL.
  
TO A CELEBRATED SINGER.
  
ARCADIAN IDYL.
  
THE SOUTH.
  
TRIUMPHANT MUSIC.
  
A HOUSEHOLD DIRGE.
  
[How are songs begot and bred?]
  
SILENT SONGS.
  
[There's a new grave in the old churchyard]
  
SONG.
  
SONG.
  
SONG.
  
THE TWO BRIDES.
  
[I sympathize with all thy grief]
  
A SERENADE.
  
[The yellow Moon looks slantly down]
  
[Along the grassy slope I sit]
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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 SEA.
  
THE SHADOW OF THE HAND.
  
THE SPEECH OF LOVE.
  
[You may drink to your leman in gold]
  
THE SEA.
  
BIRDS.
  
THE LOST LAMB.
  
[The sky is a drinking-cup]
  
ON THE PIER.
  
[Spring, they tell me, comes in bloom]
  
[The gray old Earth goes on]
  
[There is no sin to hearts that love]
  
THE DIVAN.
  
[Here I lie, a tress of hair]
  
[The sky is thick upon the sea]
  
DAY AND NIGHT.
  
THE DEAD.
  
THE SEA.
  
[Many's the time I've sighed for summer]
  
A SERENADE.
  
[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.
  
THE HELMET.
  
ROSES AND THORNS.
  
[Beneath the heavy curtains]
  
[Rattle the window, Winds]
  
THE VEILED STATUE.
  
DEAD LEAVES.
  
“POEMS OF THE ORIENT.”
  
THE SEA.
  
AT REST.
  
[Wrecks of clouds of a sombre gray]
  
[No, I will not leave you, Madam]
  
THE SHADOW.
  
NOVEMBER.
  
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]
  
CHORIC HYMN.
  
THE FISHER AND CHARON.
  
GREAT AND SMALL.
  
THE POPLAR.
  
MISERRIMUS.
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THE SQUIRE OF LOW DEGREE.
  
[prologue]
  
[THE KING SPEAKS.]
  
[THE PRINCESS ANSWERS.]
  
[THE KING SPEAKS.]
  
[THE PRINCESS ANSWERS.]
  
[THE KING SPEAKS.]
  
[THE PRINCESS ANSWERS.]
  
IMOGEN.
  
THE FLAMINGO.
  
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.
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THE BOOK OF THE EAST.
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PERSIAN SONGS.
  
[Sweet are the garden spaces]
  
[The heart where love and patience dwell]
  
[Not wholly, poet, from the eyes]
  
[My little soul, my lover]
  
[Two strings for my guitar]
  
[Your hands are red with henna]
  
[She does not hear my sighing]
  
[Do not yet put on your slippers]
  
[I fell in love with a Turkish maid]
  
[It is a morn in winter]
  
[Joy may be a miser]
  
[Thus to waste the precious hours]
  
[Day and night my thoughts incline]
  
[In the market-place one day]
  
[Apart from all the creatures of the earth]
  
[What sweetness is there in the honeycomb]
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TARTAR SONGS.
  
[Yes, we are merry Cossacks]
  
[The merry spring is here]
  
[I am drunk with thy fragrant breath]
  
[I wandered by a river]
  
[O follower of the Prophet]
  
[He rode from the Khora Tukhan]
  
[Blow, Wind, blow]
  
[My war-horse was fond of my singing]
  
[I am a white falcon, hurrah!]
  
[I am dying of the brand]
  
[Wail on, thou bleeding nightingale]
  
[Forgive me, mother dear]
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ARAB SONGS.
  
[O lovely fawn! O my gazelle]
  
[Break thou my heart, ah, break it]
  
[Beloved, since they watch us]
  
[Thou art my only love]
  
[I hid my love when near you]
  
[“Girl, I love thee!” Her reply]
  
[If you meet my sweet gazelle]
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CHINESE SONGS.
  
[Up in an old pagoda's highest tower]
  
What time my husband went to banishment
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[Moulan is weaving at her cottage door]
 1. 
I.
 2. 
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 WINE-CUP.
  
THE KING'S SENTINEL.
  
THE BALLAD OF CRECY.
  
ROME.
  
CÆSAR.
  
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
  
THE CHILDREN OF ISIS.
  
[Why stand ye gazing into Heaven?]
  
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.
  
ADSUM.
  
VATES PATRIÆ.
  
AT GADSHILL.
  
THE COUNTRY LIFE.
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AN INVOCATION.
 1. 
I. BEFORE THE SHRINE.
 2. 
II. BEFORE THE STATUE OF ISIS.
  
A CATCH.
  
THE KING IS COLD.
  
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]
  
THE DYING LOVER.
  
UNDER THE ROSE.
  
EVEN-SONG.
  
UNDER THE TREES.
  
[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.
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IN MEMORIAM.
  
[I am followed by a spirit]
  
[What shall I sing, and how]
  
[The Christmas-time drew slowly near]
  
[I sit in my lonesome chamber]
  
[You think, I see it by your looks]
  
[What shall we do when those we love]
  
[We sat by the cheerless fireside]
  
[It looks in at the window]
  
[What shall I do next summer]
  
[When first he died there was no day]
  
The dreary winter days are past
  
[Out of the deeps of heaven]
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LATER POEMS.
  
AN OLD MAN'S SONG OF MAY.
  
AN OLD MAN'S NEW-YEAR'S SONG.
  
THE VANISHED MAY.
  
A NEW YEAR'S SONG.
  
MAY-DAY.
  
UP IN THE TREES.
  
AN OLD SONG REVERSED.
  
SONGS UNSUNG.
  
SISTE, VIATOR.
  
YOUTH AND AGE.
  
IRREPARABLE.
  
THE TWO ANCHORS.
  
TOO OLD FOR KISSES.
  
THE LADY'S GIFT.
  
THE MARRIAGE KNOT.
  
PHILLIS.
  
THE NECKLACE OF PEARLS.
  
THE FLOWER OF LOVE LIES BLEEDING.
  
WISHING AND HAVING.
  
THE FOLLOWER.
  
LOVE'S WILL.
  
THE FILLET.
  
A CATCH.
  
LOVE.
  
AT LAST.
  
A DIRGE.
  
A CARCANET.
  
A ROSE SONG.
  
LILIAN.
  
GOING HOME.
  
AT THE WINDOW.
  
SORROW AND JOY.
  
IN ALSATIA.
  
THE FLOWN BIRD.
  
THE RIVALS.
  
THE VOICE OF EARTH.
  
SAINT AND SINNER.
  
BRAHMA'S ANSWER.
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HYMNS OF THE MYSTICS.
  
[Roses I see, the sweetest roses]
  
[The love I bear you, dearest]
  
[The flying of the arrow]
  
[Their names who famous were of old]
  
[Trust not fortune. She will be]
  
[Men seek retreats, and some retire]
  
[What harmonious is with thee]
  
[Though thou shouldst live a thousand years]
  
[Pain and pleasure both decay]
  
[The whole of this great world, I say]
  
[When the drum of sickness beats]
  
[To bear what is, to be resigned]
  
[Why should man struggle early, late]
  
[Old Bishop Ivo met one day]
  
[The carver thought, the carver wrought]
  
[There was of old a Moslem saint]
  
[Said Ibn Abi Wakkoo, whose strong bow]
  
[There came to Nushervan, surnamed the Just]
  
[Let me a simple tale repeat]
  
[He needs a guide no longer]
  
[How many, many centuries]
  
[Walking along the shore one morn]
  
[“Shall we, O Master,” Ke Loo said]
  
THOMAS MOORE.
  
SALVE, REGINA.
  
DIES NATALIS CHRISTI.
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THE MASQUE OF THE THREE KINGS.
 1. 
I.
 2. 
II.
  
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
  
A WEDDING UNDER THE DIRECTORY.
  
TWO KINGS.
  
TO THE MEMORY OF KEATS.
  
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
  
THE VICTORIES OF PEACE.
  
HISTORY.
  
GUESTS OF THE STATE.
  
THE PEARL OF THE PHILIPPINES.
  
WRATISLAW.
  
THE DEAD MASTER.
  
HYMN TO THE SEA.

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380

THE RIVALS.

A king of a most royal line
Stood at his gates, as History saith:
He stretched his hand, he made the sign
To put a captive there to death.
As those who can no further fly
Turn sharp and grasp the deadly swords,
So the poor wretch about to die
Abused the king with bitter words.
“What does he say?” the king began,
To whom his jargon was unknown.
His Vizier, a kind-hearted man,
Who knew that language like his own.
Answered him, “‘O my lord!’ he cries,
‘Who stay their hasty hands from blood—
God made for such men Paradise.
He loves, He will defend the good.’”
The King's great heart was touched at this.
“The captive's blood shall not be shed.”
Then—for a serpent needs must hiss—
A rival of the Vizier said:
“It is not decorous that we
Whose blood comes down from noble springs—
No matter what the end may be,
We should speak truth before our kings.
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The man who kneels respited here
Abused our gracious, clement lord:
There was no blessing, O Vizier,
There was a curse in every word.”
Sternly to him the king: “I see,
You speak the truth, no doubt; but still
His falsehood better pleaseth me,
For he meant good, and you mean ill.
If I should punish, as I might,
(Be thankful that I am not just)
Your head, when I commanded ‘Smite!’
Would roll before me in the dust.”
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