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University of Virginia Library

Poems of Nathaniel Parker Willis .

with a memoir of the author

Willis, Nathaniel Parker (1806-1867)

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Scriptural Poems.

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FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT.

HAGAR IN THE WILDERNESS.

THE SACRIFICE OF ABRAHAM.

THE SHUNAMMITE.

JEPHTHAH'S DAUGHTER.

DAVID'S GRIEF FOR HIS CHILD.

RIZPAH WITH HER SONS,

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(FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT.)

BAPTISM OF CHRIST.

CHRIST'S ENTRANCE INTO JERUSALEM.

THE HEALING OF THE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS.

THE WIDOW OF NAIN.

LAZARUS AND MARY.

SCENES IN GETHSEMANE.

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Religious Poems.

TO MY MOTHER FROM THE APPENINES.

THE MOTHER TO HER CHILD.

ON THE DEATH OF A MISSIONARY.

ON WITNESSING A BAPTISM.

THE BELFRY PIGEON.

DEDICATION HYMN.

THOUGHTS WHILE MAKING THE GRAVE OF A NEW-BORN CHILD.

A THOUGHT OVER A CRADLE.

ON THE PICTURE OF A “CHILD TIRED OF PLAY.”

TO A CITY PIGEON.

A CHILD'S FIRST IMPRESSION OF A STAR.

LINES ON LEAVING EUROPE.

ON THE DEPARTURE OF REV. MR. WHITE FROM HIS PARISH,

A TRUE INCIDENT.

BIRTH-DAY VERSES.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON,

REVERIE AT GLENMARY.

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THE ELMS OF NEW HAVEN.

THE BURIAL OF THE CHAMPION OF HIS CLASS, AT YALE COLLEGE.

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[Come out, love—the night is enchanting]

THE WHITE CHIP HAT.

LADY IN THE WHITE DRESS, I HELPED INTO THE OMNIBUS.

TO THE LADY IN THE CHEMISETTE WITH BLACK BUTTONS.

YOU KNOW IF IT WAS YOU.

LOVE IN A COTTAGE.

THE DECLARATION.

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Miscellaneous Poems.

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THE SCHOLAR OF THEBET BEN KHORAT.

1.

2.

THE DYING ALCHYMIST.

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1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

THE DEATH OF HARRISON

ANDRE'S REQUEST TO WASHINGTON.

LORD IVON AND HIS DAUGHTER.

THE CONFESSIONAL.

THE PITY OF THE PARK FOUNTAIN.

“CHAMBER SCENE.

THE WIFE'S APPEAL.

TO A STOLEN RING.

TO HER WHO HAS HOPES OF ME.

“SHE WAS NOT THERE.”

FAIL ME NOT THOU!

TO M---, FROM ABROAD.

TO A FACE BELOVED.

BETTER MOMENTS.

SUNRISE THOUGHTS AT THE CLOSE OF A BALL.

UNSEEN SPIRITS.

TO LAURA W---, TWO YEARS OF AGE.

THE SOLDIER'S WIDOW.

ON THE DEATH OF A YOUNG GIRL.

ACROSTIC-SONNET.

ROARING BROOK.

TO HELEN IN A HUFF.

ON THE DEATH OF EDWARD PAYSON, D. D.

JANUARY 1, 1828.

ON A PICTURE OF A GIRL LEADING HER BLIND MOTHER THROUGH THE WOOD.

JANUARY 1, 1829.

ON SEEING A BEAUTIFUL BOY AT PLAY.

SPIRIT-WHISPERS.

UPON THE PORTRAIT OF THE HON. MRS. STANHOPE.

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343

ROARING BROOK.

[_]

[A passage of scenery in Connecticut.]

It was a mountain stream that with the leap
Of its impatient waters had worn out
A channel in the rock, and wash'd away
The earth that had upheld the tall old trees,
Till it was darken'd with the shadowy arch
Of the o'er-leaning branches. Here and there
It loiter'd in a broad and limpid pool
That circled round demurely, and anon
Sprung violently over where the rock
Fell suddenly, and bore its bubbles on,
Till they were broken by the hanging moss,
As anger with a gentle word grows calm.
In spring-time, when the snows were coming down,
And in the flooding of the autumn rains,
No foot might enter there—but in the hot
And thirsty summer, when the fountains slept
You could go up its channel in the shade,
To the far sources, with a brow as cool
As in the grotto of the anchorite.
Here when an idle student have I come,
And in a hollow of the rock lain down
And mused until the eventide, or read

344

Some fine old poet till my nook became
A haunt of faery, or the busy flow
Of water to my spell-bewilder'd ear
Seem'd like the din of some gay tournament.
Pleasant have been such hours, and though the wise
Have said that I was indolent, and they
Who taught me have reproved me that I play'd
The truant in the leafy month of June,
I deem it true philosophy in him
Whose path is in the rude and busy world,
To loiter with these wayside comforters.