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Poems

Tuckerman, Henry T. (1813-1871)

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POEMS.
  
THE SPIRIT OF POETRY.
  
THE APOLLO BELVIDERE.
  
MARY.
  
NORTHAMPTON.
  
LOVE AND FAME.
  
NEWPORT BEACH.
  
THE VESTAL.
  
WASHINGTON'S STATUE.
  
TO AN ELM.
  
TASSO TO LEONORA.
  
THE MODERN HERO.
  
HELOISE.
  
THE GREEK SLAVE.
  
ROME.
  
TRI-MOUNTAIN.
  
THE RINGLET.
  
WINTER.
  
VICTORINE.
  
IL PENSEROSO.
  
SLEEPY HOLLOW.
  
LORD BYRON AT VENICE.
  
LUNA.—AN ODE.
  
EVA.
  
TO LADY BLANCHE:
  
SURREY TO GERALDINE.
  
WEST POINT.
  
THE DIRGE OF THE MARINER.
  
THE NIGHT-BLOOMING CEREUS.
  
THE HOLY LAND.
  
LOVE AND TIME.
  
THE TWO PALMS.
  
THE UNKNOWN PORTRAIT.
  
TO THE CYPRESS.
  
LAKE CANEPO.
  
FAITH'S WARNING.
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SONNETS.
 1. 
I. FREEDOM.
 2. 
II. VANDERLYN'S ARIADNE.
 3. 
III. TO ONE DECEIVED.
 4. 
IV. SLEEP.
 5. 
V. THE WILLOW.
 6. 
VI. THE BALCONY.
 7. 
VII. ON A LANDSCAPE BY BACKHUYSEN.
 8. 
VIII. THE INDIAN SUMMER.
 9. 
IX. ON A PORTRAIT OF MRS. NORTON.
 10. 
X. ON A BUST OF WEBSTER.
 11. 
XI. SPRING
 12. 
XII. TO PIUS IX.
 13. 
XIII. TO THE SAME.
 14. 
XIV. ON THE DEATH OF ALLSTON.
 15. 
XV. FROM THE ITALIAN.
 16. 
XVI. THE BASSO-RELIEVO OF JUPITER AND HEBE.
 17. 
XVII. TO JENNY LIND.
 18. 
XVIII. DESOLATION.
 19. 
XIX. STEINHAUSEN'S HERO AND LEANDER.
 20. 
XX. DELAROCHE'S PICTURE OF NAPOLEON CROSSING THE ALPS.
 21. 
XXI. ALLEGHANIA.
 22. 
[XXII. O for a castle on a woodland height]
 23. 
[XXIII. The rain-drops patter on the casement still]
 24. 
[XXIV. What though our dream is broken? Yet again]
 25. 
[XXV. In my first youth, the feverish thirst for gain]
 26. 
[XXVI. Courage and patience! elements whereby]
 27. 
[XXVII. Like the fair sea that laves Italia's strand]
 28. 
[XXVIII. The buds have opened, and in leafy pride]
 29. 
XXIX. SEMPRE LO STESSO.

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117

SURREY TO GERALDINE.

“She was so beautiful as to authorize the raptures of her poetical lover; and too proud of such a suitor to let him escape. He betrays an indignant consciousness of the arts by which she keeps him entangled in her chain; and accuses her expressly of a love of general admiration, and of giving her countenance and favor to unworthy rivals.”—

Mrs. Jameson's Loves of the Poets.

Alone once more!—but with such deep emotion,
Waking to life a thousand hopes and fears,
Such wild distrust—such absolute devotion,
My bosom seems a dreary lake of tears;—
Tears that stern manhood long restrained from gushing,
As mountains keep a river from the sea,
Until spring's floods impetuously rushing,
Channel a bed, and set its waters free!
What mockery to all true and earnest feeling,
This fatal union of the false and fair!
Eyes, lips, and voice unmeasured bliss revealing,
With hearts whose lightness fills us with despair!
118

Oh God! some sorrows of our wondrous being,
A patient mind can partly clear away;
Ambition cools when fortune's gifts are fleeing,
And men grow thoughtful round a brother's clay;—
But to what end this waste of noble passion?
This wearing of a truthful heart to dust—
Adoring slaves of humor, praise, or fashion,
The vain recipients of a boundless trust?
Come home, fond heart, cease all instinctive pleading,
As the dread fever of insane desire,
To some dark gulf thy warm affections leading,
When love must long survive, though faith expire!
Though wonted glory from the earth will vanish,
And life seem desolate and hope beguile,
Love's cherished dream learn steadfastly to banish,
Till death thy spirit's conflict reconcile!
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