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Poems

By W. C. Bennett: New ed
Bennett, W. C. (1820-1895)
  
[dedication]

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[Forms beyond my vision fleeting]
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BABY MAY AND OTHER POEMS.
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THE WORN WEDDING-RING AND OTHER HOME POEMS.
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NARRATIVE POEMS AND BALLADS.
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SONGS AND LYRICAL POEMS.
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WAR SONGS.
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POEMS OF THOUGHT.
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POEMS OF FANCY AND FEELING.
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SONNETS.
  
WRITTEN IN WINDSOR CASTLE.
  
[Friends, could I live a life of art alone]
  
[You shall be thought of with the scents of Spring]
  
[You cross my dusty path with dreams divine]
  
[Nor, Alchemists, turning to gold the lead]
  
[With you, too, comes the Shakespeare of all sound]
  
[Of poet-homes was our delightful talk]
  
[Nor were those, breathing not your Boston air]
  
[And as the glory of the still May moon]
  
[So you have been with Severn, and have heard]
  
[What pleasant talk you bear across the sea]
  
[And you have paced the streets that Cæsar trod]
  
On being told that Charles Dickens had said that “the bust of Clytie must have been modelled from a real Greek girl, or it could not have been so beautiful.”
  
“Should not the truest Art interpret rather than daguerreotype?”
  
IN THE DULWICH GALLERY—BEFORE GUIDO'S “ST. SEBASTIAN.”
  
IN LONDON—AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY—BEFORE MURILLO'S “HOLY FAMILY.”
  
ON A VIOLET-STAND.
  
AT ROME—FROM THE HILL OF THE CAPITOL.
  
ON A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE COLISEUM.
  
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR.
  
ROBERT BROWNING.
  
BEFORE WILKIE'S “COLUMBUS.”
  
AT SOUTH KENSINGTON—IN THE TURNER GALLERY.
  
AT DULWICH.
  
IN THE SISTINE CHAPEL—BEFORE MICHAEL ANGELO'S “LAST JUDGMENT.”
  
AT DULWICH.
  
AT ANTWERP—BEFORE RUBENS' “DESCENT FROM THE CROSS.”
  
[Venice! Dear friends, how comes she to your eyes?]
  
[On the Rialto, too, your steps have been]
  
[Ah, those Italian lakes! My town-dull'd eyes]
  
[When the laburnum droops its golden rain]
  
BEFORE THE DULWICH GALLERY.
  
IN THE CAPITOL—BEFORE THE FAUN OF “PRAXITELES,”
  
IN THE VATICAN—BEFORE THE APOLLO BELVEDERE.
  
AT THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM—BEFORE “THE TURNERS.”
  
AT FLORENCE—BEFORE THE “VENUS DE MEDICI.”
  
IN THE VATICAN—BEFORE THE FRESCOES OF THE “STANZE DI RAFFAELLO.”
  
IN ITALY—1860.
  
[So this is yours, our Wordsworth's pictured face]
  
[What! Gad's Hill's haunted greenness you have seen.]
  
IN THE DULWICH GALLERY—BEFORE MURILLO'S “FLOWER-GIRL.”
  
THACKERAY.
  
ITALY.
  
MRS. BROWNING.
  
AT MILAN—IN THE CONVENT OF THE MADONNA DELLE GRAZIE.
  
EDGAR ALLAN POE.
  
AT ALFRED TENNYSON'S.
  
AT ROME—IN THE FORUM.
  
IN THE TOWER OF LONDON.
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WRITTEN IN NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE'S “TRANSFORMATION.”
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JOHN RUSKIN.
  
IN PARIS—AT THE LOUVRE—BEFORE MURILLO'S “IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.”
  
IN LONDON—BEFORE HOLMAN HUNT'S “FINDING OF CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE.”
  
[And of our great ones, him you should have known]
  
AT ROME—BEFORE ST. PETER'S.
  
AT ROME—IN ST. PETER'S.
  
IN LONDON—BEFORE ST. PAUL'S.
  
IN LONDON—IN TRAFALGAR-SQUARE—BEFORE THE STATUE OF GENERAL SIR CHARLES JAMES NAPIER.
  
GARIBALDI.
  
AT FLORENCE—IN FRA ANGELICO'S CELL IN THE CONVENT OF ST. MARK.
  
AT ROME—IN THE FORUM.
  
ON A PHOTOGRAPH OF TASSO.
  
FLORENCE.
  
ON A PHOTOGRAPH OF DANTE.
  
AT FLORENCE—IN SANTA CROCE—BY THE TOMB OF MACHIAVELLI.
  
AT PISA—IN THE CAMPO SANTO—BEFORE THE FRESCOES AND TOMB OF BENOZZO GOZZOLI.
  
MILAN, 1860.
  
IN LONDON—BEFORE MR. CROPSEY'S “AUTUMN ON THE HUDSON.”
  
TO MARY HOWITT.
  
TO MARY RUSSELL MITFORD.
  
TO KEATS.
  
TO LEIGH HUNT.
  
A RECOLLECTION OF THE PERFORMANCE OF “ION.”
  
WRITTEN IN MACAULAY'S “LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.”
  
MOTHERWELL'S GRAVE.
  
AT ROME—ON THE PINCIAN HILL.
  
[Would God had homed me near your fireside, friends]
  
[Yours be a life of pleasure, lapp'd in ease]
  
BEFORE MR. JOHN RUSKIN'S “TURNERS,” AT DENMARK HILL.
  
WRITTEN IN DR. HOLMES'S “ELSIE VENNER.”
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WRITTEN IN “EMERSON'S ESSAYS.”

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I.

[Prophets thou hast, O earth, even as of old]

Prophets thou hast, O earth, even as of old;
See that thou know'st them! Well it is that thou
Shut'st not thine ears, so dinned with nothings now,
To the great teachings by their rapt tongues told;
Diverse those tongues, yet wisdom all unfold
Harmonious, for to one God they vow
Their living hours, and at one altar bow,
Bidding all, in all things, one faith behold;
Some act like Havelock, and in thund'rous deeds
Preach nobleness even in the gaze of death;
So Livingstone, our lives, with greatness feeds;
Others sustain our souls with holiest breath
And wisdom priceless. Such he wisely heeds
Who takes to heart what Emerson still saith.
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