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Poems by Frederick Goddard Tuckerman

Tuckerman, Frederick Goddard (1821-1873)

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PART I.
  
November.
  
April.
  
May Flowers.
  
Hymn for the Dedication of a Cemetery.
  
Inspiration.
  
Infatuation.
  
Sonnet.
  
Picomegan.
  
The Superlative.
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Sonnets.
 1. 
[I. The starry flower, the flower-like stars that fade]
 2. 
[II. And so, as this great sphere now turning slow]
  
The Question.
  
Twilight.
  
Elidore
  
The Clearing.
  
To the River.
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PART II.
  
A Soul that out of Nature's Deep.
  
The Stranger.
  
The School-Girl.
  
A Sample of Coffee Beans.
  
A Latter-day Saint.
  
Anybody's Critic.
  
Rhotruda.
  
Coralie.
  
As sometimes in a Grove.
  
Mark Atherton.
  
Sidney.
  
Refrigerium.
  
The Old Beggar.
  
Paulo to Francesca.
  
When the Dim Day.
  
Hymn to the Virgin.
  
Margites.
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Sonnets.
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PART 1.
 1. 
[I. Sometimes, when winding slow by brook and bower]
 2. 
[II. Wherefore, with this belief, held like a blade]
 3. 
[III. And borne with theirs, my proudest thoughts do seem]
 4. 
[IV. Nor looks that backward life so bare to me]
 5. 
[V. And so the day drops by; the horizon draws]
 6. 
[VI. Not sometimes, but, to him that heeds the whole]
 7. 
[VII. Dank fens of cedar; hemlock-branches gray]
 8. 
[VIII. As when, down some broad River dropping, we]
 9. 
[IX. Yet wear we on; the deep light disallowed]
 10. 
[X. An upper chamber in a darkened house]
 11. 
[XI. What profits it to me, though here allowed]
 12. 
[XII. Tall, stately plants, with spikes and forks of gold]
 13. 
[XIII. As one who walks and weeps by alien brine]
 14. 
[XIV. Not proud of station; nor in worldly pelf]
 15. 
[XV. And she, her beauty never made her cold]
 16. 
[XVI. Yet Nature, where the thunder leaves its trace]
 17. 
[XVII. All men,—the Preacher saith,—whate'er or whence]
 18. 
[XVIII. Perchance his own small field some charge demands]
 19. 
[XIX. Yet vain, perhaps, the fruits our care applaud]
 20. 
[XX. Still craves the spirit: never Nature solves]
 21. 
[XXI. O Father, God! to whom, in happier days]
 22. 
[XXII. The morning comes; not slow, with reddening gold]
 23. 
[XXIII. Shall I not see her? Yes; for one has seen]
 24. 
[XXIV. Perhaps a dream; yet surely truth has beamed]
 25. 
[XXV. By this low fire I often sit to woo]
 26. 
[XXVI. For Nature daily through her grand design]
 27. 
[XXVII. So, to the mind long brooding but on it]
 28. 
[XXVIII. Not the round natural world, not the deep mind]
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PART II.
 1. 
[I. That boy,”—the farmer said, with hazel wand]
 2. 
[II. Nor idle all, though naught he sees in thine]
 3. 
[III. Yes; though the brine may from the desert deep]
 4. 
[IV. But Grief finds solace faint in others' ills]
 5. 
[V. No shame dissuades his thought, no scorn despoils]
 6. 
[VI. No! cover not the fault. The wise revere]
 7. 
[VII. His heart was in his garden; but his brain]
 8. 
[VIII. Companions were we in the grove and glen]
 9. 
[IX. But unto him came swift calamity]
 10. 
[X. Thy baby, too, the child that was to be]
 11. 
[XI. Still pressing through these weeping solitudes]
 12. 
[XII. How most unworthy, echoing in mine ears]
 13. 
[XIII. Even as a lover, dreaming, unaware]
 14. 
[XIV. The breeze is sharp, the sky is hard and blue]
 15. 
[XV. Gertrude and Gulielma, sister-twins]
 16. 
[XVI. Under the mountain, as when first I knew]
 17. 
[XVII. Roll on, sad world! not Mercury or Mars]
 18. 
[XVIII. And Change, with hurried hand, has swept these scenes]
 19. 
[XIX. And faces, forms, and phantoms, numbered not]
 20. 
[XX. O hard endeavour, to blend in with these]
 21. 
[XXI. Last night I dreamed we parted once again]
 22. 
[XXII. Put off thy bark from shore, tho' near the night]
 23. 
[XXIII. Some truths may pierce the spirit's deeper gloom]
 24. 
[XXIV. Each common object, too,—the house, the grove]
 25. 
[XXV. Small gossip, whispering at the window-pane]
 26. 
[XXVI. Yet from indifference may we hope for peace]
 27. 
[XXVII. But the heart murmurs at so harsh a tone]
 28. 
[XXVIII. Yet sometimes, with the sad respectant mind]
 29. 
[XXIX. How oft in schoolboy-days, from the school's sway]
 30. 
[XXX Yet, even mid merry boyhood's tricks and scapes]
 31. 
[XXXI. My Anna ! when for thee my head was bowed]
 32. 
[XXXII. Oh for the face and footstep! woods and shores]
 33. 
[XXXIII. One still dark night, I sat alone and wrote]
 34. 
[XXXIV. My Anna! though thine earthly steps are done]
 35. 
[XXXV. Nor all of solemn is my thought of her]
 36. 
[XXXVI. Farewell! farewell, O noble heart! I dreamed]
  
[XXXVII. As Eponina brought, to move the king]

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210

[XII. How most unworthy, echoing in mine ears]

How most unworthy, echoing in mine ears
The verse sounds on!—Life, Love, Experience, Art,
Fused into grief, and like a grief-filled heart,
Where all emotion tends and turns to tears,
Broken by its own strength of passion and need:
Unworthy, though the bitter waters start
In these dim eyes, reviewing thought and word
The high desire, the faint accomplished deed
Unuttered love and loss,—and feverish
Beatings against a gate for ever barred.
Yet over and again I range and read
The blotted page, re-turning leaf and leaf;
And half-believe the words are what I wish,
And pore upon my verse, and court my grief.
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