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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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142

FAITH'S WARNING.

The vital elements of all things gifted
With promise or with truth,
By God's own hand benignantly are lifted
Into perennial youth.
O then, with gentle reverence, surrender
The wish to interfere,
Behold the miracle, devout and tender,
But enter not its sphere!
Childhood, with meek intelligence, appealing,
When guardians annoy,
As gush the sympathies its life revealing,
Asks freedom to enjoy.
Genius, by graceful waywardness, achieving
Its claim the boon to share,
A narrow doom in Fancy's world retrieving,
Expands untrammelled there.
143

The throes of nations plead that right be tested—
The Present grapple fairly with the Past,
For Liberty's pure zeal, if unmolested,
Will triumph at the last!
Profane not Love in its divine seclusion,
If true, its hope is sure;
Born in weak hearts it is a chance illusion,
That vainly would endure.
For all things destined to survive, engender
Their own progressive life,
And Truth forsaken by her last defender,
Yet conquers in the strife.
In its dim crypt of mould the seed implanted
Will germinate and spring;
Poised in her azure realm, the lark undaunted
Exultingly will sing.
The prayer of wisdom, in these later ages,
Is for unchartered right
To turn, at will, her own elected pages,
With unimpeded sight.
144

To their own law abandon all things real,
Nor, with incessant care,
Strive to conform to thy perverse ideal
What God created fair.
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