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[Poems by Wilde in] Richard Henry Wilde

His Life and Selected Poems

Wilde, Richard Henry (1789-1847)

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Poems: Fugitive and Occasional

SOLOMON AND THE GENIE

[Farewell fair Florence! not I hope forever]

THE SIGNS OF LOVE

[The dream of life is over]

LINES IN AN ALBUM

[Light be the turf on thy tomb]

LINES FOR MUSIC

THE GUINEA FOWL

LINES ON THE FIRST LEAF OF AN ALBUM

[I knew that this must end—at first]

[The future bard of Paradise in youth]

SONNET TO LORD BYRON

[There is a narrow cheerless cell]

[The full levee, the crowded hall]

REPLY TO SOME MELANCHOLY VERSES BEGINNING “WHY DO WE LIVE?”

[In youth's first flush when hearts are light]

THE POET TO HIS LYRE

WRITTEN IN AN ALBUM

WRITTEN ON THE LEAF OF AN ALBUM UNDER TWO DOVES BILLING

SONNET FROM THE PORTUGUESE OF CAMOENS

EPIGRAM ON A DULL PREACHER FROM THE ITALIAN OF RONCALLI

SONNET FROM THE PORTUGUESE OF CAMOENS

EPITAPH ON A POET FROM THE ITALIAN OF RONCALLI

SONNET FROM THE PORTUGUESE OF CAMOENS

[Cast up a wreck by Fortune's tide]

LINES WRITTEN IN MARY[']S ‘RELIQUIARIUM’

[Mary farewell! Like the ill-omened toll]

LOVE AND REASON ON THE DEVICE OF A SEAL REASON GIVING WINGS TO LOVE WITH THE LEGEND “SE VEDE, VOLA”

[Bright as the diamond of the mine]

[At home, with other friends, in after years]

FEMALE INFLUENCE

ON BREAKING THE CHAIN OF A LOCKET

[What Alchemy's empiric art]

[It was as if he had been cast]

ON A SUN-DIAL NEAR VENICE

SONNET FROM THE PORTUGUESE OF CAMOENS

EPIGRAM FROM THE ITALIAN OF DE ROSSI

[No wonder if thy pulses thrill]

[It was a just reproof! ... and yet I thought]

LINES WRITTEN IN AN ALBUM

[Happy is he who sees thee smile]

[Choose as thou wilt! the land—the main]

[I have deceived myself! ... the dream was sweet]

[My hair is gray—the flower of life is past]

[My Sister! through how many trying scenes]

[If it be love, in every pulse's tide]

[This life is but a horrid dream]

NAPOLEON'S GRAVE

[Go! go, thou art false!—thy tears thy smiles]

[Why is it then, the Earth and Sky]

[A sister's kiss—an infant's prayer—]

[A Rose between two Hearts—by moonlight given]

['Tis the hour when Twilight stealing]

[Zoe farewell!—How much is in that word]

TO A LOVELY BRUNETTE WHOM THE AUTHOR SAW AT HER LATTICE

[Why should her misery o'er my own prevail]

[You call me sad!—you err—I'm gay]

[Yes! let us part, while yet we may]

[Oh! dearer by far than the land of our birth]

[Forget me not! or grave or gay]

[In utter loneliness of heart]

[Good-Night! good night!—those few kind words are all]

ON POWER'S IDEAL HEAD OF ROGERS' GENEVRA

[In this dull world of books and men]

[Farewell! my more than father land]

[Lady farewell! ... bear with thee o'er the wave]

[In sad constrained and tedious hours]

LINES WRITTEN IN LADY ---'S ALBUM

[They say no Love's so deep—so pure]

[Cease, cease thy song! it tells me much]

[Come! come to us hither! the goblet is flowing]

[Here all is heartless, hollow, loud]

FORCED CONTRIBUTION

STAR OF MY LOVE! I

STAR OF MY LOVE II

STAR OF MY LOVE III

STAR OF MY LOVE IV

STAR OF MY LOVE V

[Why is that gaze? Canst thou not tell]

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[What Alchemy's empiric art]

What Alchemy's empiric art
Found not with all its boasted powers
Life's true elixir—is a heart
Blended by mutual love with our's.

Unbounded wealth—perpetual youth—
Eternal life—what are they all
Compared with fond unwavering Truth
Heaven's only relic since the fall.

Who that has loved and been beloved
Would change for all the world can give
The one bright spell his heart has proved
Without which 'tis not life to live.

Birth—Riches—Talent—Glory—Friends,
All man can ask or fate supply
Are nothing 'till affection lends
It's own delicious Alchemy.

Whence has all Joy and Beauty birth?
Who lights the sun the stars the wave?
Whose magic gladdens Heaven and Earth?
Whose eye first pierced beyond the grave?

Love! Love, Almighty love! reply
All those who worship and rejoice—
But absence-tortured votaries sigh
And bitter Memory finds no voice!