 | Poems of house and home |  |
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POEMS OF HOUSE AND HOME.
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COUNTERPARTS.
A LOVER'S CONCEIT.
I send, Sweet, my yearning
Half-kisses to thee;
Oh, send thy returning
Half-kisses to me.
Half-kisses to thee;
Oh, send thy returning
Half-kisses to me.
When our half-kisses meet, love,
What marvels have birth!—
All fair things, and sweet, love;
New Heaven, new Earth!
What marvels have birth!—
All fair things, and sweet, love;
New Heaven, new Earth!
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SONG.
Give me a home, thy heart,
For Love to lie in:
The world is wide—oh, let
The lost dove fly in.
For Love to lie in:
The world is wide—oh, let
The lost dove fly in.
Give me a home, thy heart,
For Song to light in,
For dreary hours to dream
And waken bright in.
For Song to light in,
For dreary hours to dream
And waken bright in.
Give me a home, thy heart,
For Love to see in,
For Earth to look like Heaven,
And Heaven to be in!
For Love to see in,
For Earth to look like Heaven,
And Heaven to be in!
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FOUR HAPPY WALLS.
PRAYER AT HOUSE-WARMING.
Four happy walls to shut the dark away,Four happy walls to keep the light secure:
These we call ours—oh, make them yours, we pray,
Kind gods of the hearth, domestic guardians sure.
Four walls shall close our sphere of love complete,
Though all the world within our love we fold;—
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Our home your heaven, your home our heaven hold!
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A SONG OF CONTENT.
The eagle nestles near the sun;The dove's low nest for me!—
The eagle's on the crag: sweet One,
The dove's in our green tree.
For hearts that beat like thine and mine,
Heaven blesses humble earth;
The angels of our Heaven shall shine
The angels of our hearth!
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THE HOUSE'S DARLING.
O sweet, shy girl, with roses in her heartAnd love-light in her face, like those up-grown;
Full of still dreams and thoughts that, dream-like, start
From fits of solitude when not alone!
Gay dancer over thresholds of bright days,
Tears quick to her eyes as laughter to her lips!—
A game of hide-and-seek with Time she plays,
Time hiding his eyes from her in blithe eclipse.
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Blessed by soft dews of happiness and love;
Cradled in tenderest arms! Her mother's kiss
Seals all her good-night prayers. Her father's smile
Brightens her mornings. Through the Earth shall move
Her child-sweet soul, not far from Heaven the while!
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HOMEWARD ON THE TRAIN.
What homes are waiting now
With doors ajar, with quickening hearts,—the smile
Of firelit quiet touching lip and brow—
For us, far off the while!
With doors ajar, with quickening hearts,—the smile
Of firelit quiet touching lip and brow—
For us, far off the while!
Tidings have gone before—
Swift messengers, that traverse without fear
Darkness as day, whispering through many a door
Whose threshold knows us near!
Swift messengers, that traverse without fear
Darkness as day, whispering through many a door
Whose threshold knows us near!
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For some, perchance, the years
Have traveled with their faces, that to-night
Return—ah, yes, from change, and Time, and tears!—
Where breathed their morning light.
Have traveled with their faces, that to-night
Return—ah, yes, from change, and Time, and tears!—
Where breathed their morning light.
And some but yesterday
Kissed parting lips, then smiling dared to part,
Trusting to-morrow, with its constant ray,
Should light heart back to heart.
Kissed parting lips, then smiling dared to part,
Trusting to-morrow, with its constant ray,
Should light heart back to heart.
.... But who is he?—what door
Is open now for him?—What mother stands,
Yearning to fold her wanderer safe once more
From the world's restless sands?
Is open now for him?—What mother stands,
Yearning to fold her wanderer safe once more
From the world's restless sands?
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What faithful one beside
Hope's gentle watch-fire waits for Love's new bliss?—
What children, playing in Time's crawling tide,
Hold lips for father's kiss?
Hope's gentle watch-fire waits for Love's new bliss?—
What children, playing in Time's crawling tide,
Hold lips for father's kiss?
One silent passenger,
In the quick press of eager tongue and brain!
Whither? I know not, nor who waits him there.
He travels on the train!
In the quick press of eager tongue and brain!
Whither? I know not, nor who waits him there.
He travels on the train!
Ah me! if some glad door,
To-morrow, reaches longing arms for him,
Joyous come home! (He has gone home before.)
There bright eyes must grow dim!
To-morrow, reaches longing arms for him,
Joyous come home! (He has gone home before.)
There bright eyes must grow dim!
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Travelers, near or far!
Remember, loosening hands (ah, clasp again!)
The silent passenger in yonder car,—
Death travels on every train!
Remember, loosening hands (ah, clasp again!)
The silent passenger in yonder car,—
Death travels on every train!
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HER DREAM OF LOSS.
In a dark cavern is a frail flower sown,
The orphan of a beam
In some fair garden of the Sun. Alone,
In darkness and in dream,
The orphan of a beam
In some fair garden of the Sun. Alone,
In darkness and in dream,
It grows and gropes for the far light above,
Whose sweet tradition old
Haunts its pure-lifted face. An imaged dove
Nestling, its wings doth fold
Whose sweet tradition old
Haunts its pure-lifted face. An imaged dove
Nestling, its wings doth fold
In the blind flower's white core. ... My heart I know
That sunless flower to be.
Oh! dear lost face, Earth's cavern far below
Prisons my love for thee!
That sunless flower to be.
Oh! dear lost face, Earth's cavern far below
Prisons my love for thee!
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THE TRUNDLE-BED.
Do you remember, Will?—long, long ago!.... Yet there thou liest, though all the sweet Past lies dead,
That nestled in thee, old, old trundle-bed!
Nest of delicious fancies, dreams that grow
No more!—quick magic-car to Fairyland!
Ghosts walked the earth then (in our garret too:
For Madge, the housemaid, told us—and she knew!)
In thee we saw them near, how near us, stand!
Stars then looked out of Heaven; to Heaven, light
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Though from the heart of her who bent so close,
Hushing us like fixed flowers that feel the night.
.... Fresh morn, poor little dreamers lost or dead,
No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.
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NOONING AT THE HALF-WAY HOUSE.
A BIRTHDAY.
Here at the Half-way House, a one-hour's guest,I see far back, in yon bright valley deep,
A tender mother rock her child asleep
In the warm cradle of her happy breast;
And, forward, where the path I go must lead—
Downward how far I cannot guess nor know—
In thick, blind mist, a house secure, but low,
Where I shall rest to-night, and shall not heed
The fierce, sharp tempest on the beaten wold
Nor the close darkness. ... I will journey on
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In trust that when the anxious day is gone,
My sleep shall be the same—how soft and mild!—
As, on my mother's breast, yon new-born child.
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A SCATTERED FAMILY.
We have been all together on the earth;But now the band that bound our gentle sheaf
Is loosed—the powerful magic bond of birth;
Our hearts no longer turn one golden leaf
Each day; no more, through every winter night,
Brightening within though skies without may frown,
We all are gathered close about one light,
With loving wreaths the warm quick hours to crown:
For the one word of “Home,” which we had worn,
From the soul's lips, to worldly language clear,
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From other firesides, winter-lighted, borne.....
“Home!”—'t was a word of Heaven homeless here,
Whose wandering echo in our hearts we found!
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THE LAND OF MEMORY.
Deep in some far enchanted sunshine closed,
(We sigh and dream but pass forever on,)
Shines a fair Land. The glad young Morning there
Comes up as rosily from the lighted East
As over the green walls of Paradise;
There noonday gathers only blissful calm;
There twilight nestles, a still bird of Heaven,
With purple wings o'er soft delicious vales.
Oh, you may know the beauty of that Land
By those that travel hither from its bounds—
Through the cold faces, through the shapes malign
That gather round us, through the dreary toils
That bar us like a prison, lo! they come,
By sweet enchantment opening doors of air!
(We sigh and dream but pass forever on,)
Shines a fair Land. The glad young Morning there
Comes up as rosily from the lighted East
As over the green walls of Paradise;
There noonday gathers only blissful calm;
There twilight nestles, a still bird of Heaven,
With purple wings o'er soft delicious vales.
Oh, you may know the beauty of that Land
By those that travel hither from its bounds—
Through the cold faces, through the shapes malign
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That bar us like a prison, lo! they come,
By sweet enchantment opening doors of air!
It is no silent Land!—the joyous birds,
That filled lost hours so full with singing, sing
From sunlit bough to bough, shaking the leaves
Among the dancing blossoms of the rain
In sunshine, while the rainbow clings above;
And dear blithe brooks leap on, forever, laughing,
Prattling their silver fancies everywhere,
Like children lost whom all things know and love.
Ah, 't is no silent Land, for they are there,
Kind words, there never dead, from voices kind,
That feed the longing of the soul with love.
That filled lost hours so full with singing, sing
From sunlit bough to bough, shaking the leaves
Among the dancing blossoms of the rain
In sunshine, while the rainbow clings above;
And dear blithe brooks leap on, forever, laughing,
Prattling their silver fancies everywhere,
Like children lost whom all things know and love.
Ah, 't is no silent Land, for they are there,
Kind words, there never dead, from voices kind,
That feed the longing of the soul with love.
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Transplanted deep in that enchanted earth,
Nothing grows old, leaves fall not, nor flowers die;
The plow of change goes over no old graves
In the dear face and in the loving heart.
O loveliest Land in all the sphere of Time!—
Far green oasis girt by restless sand,
Circling with barren sky our empty life,
While with tired limbs and thirsty lips we yearn
For its bright fountains glittering to our eyes,
Only returning to returning dreams!—
O ever-blossoming Land of Memory!
Nothing grows old, leaves fall not, nor flowers die;
The plow of change goes over no old graves
In the dear face and in the loving heart.
O loveliest Land in all the sphere of Time!—
Far green oasis girt by restless sand,
Circling with barren sky our empty life,
While with tired limbs and thirsty lips we yearn
For its bright fountains glittering to our eyes,
Only returning to returning dreams!—
O ever-blossoming Land of Memory!
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BLUE SKY.
When dreary rains have veiled the day
For many darkling hours,
Till birds forget their singing May
And bees their honey-flowers:
How quickens all the earth anew
If, 'mong the clouds alone,
A single break of happy blue
By the dark heaven is shown!
For many darkling hours,
Till birds forget their singing May
And bees their honey-flowers:
How quickens all the earth anew
If, 'mong the clouds alone,
A single break of happy blue
By the dark heaven is shown!
“Blue sky! blue sky!” we cheerily cry;
Our pulses waken new;
Our hearts, uplifted, blithe and high,
Sing, lark-like, in the blue!
Blue sky! blue sky! An open door,
Though small, may hold the sun,
And through it watchful Hope once more
Sees her Bright Day begun!
Our pulses waken new;
Our hearts, uplifted, blithe and high,
Sing, lark-like, in the blue!
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Though small, may hold the sun,
And through it watchful Hope once more
Sees her Bright Day begun!
| Poems of house and home | |