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Poems descriptive, dramatic, legendary and contemplative

Simms, William Gilmore (1806-1870)

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VOL. I.
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NORMAN MAURICE;
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ACT I.
 1. 
SCENE I.
 2. 
SCENE II.
 3. 
SCENE III.
 4. 
SCENE IV.
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ACT II.
 1. 
SCENE I.
 2. 
SCENE II.
 3. 
SCENE III.
 4. 
SCENE IV.
 5. 
SCENE V.
 6. 
SCENE VI.
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ACT III.
 1. 
SCENE I.
 2. 
SCENE II.
 3. 
SCENE III.
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ACT IV.
 1. 
SCENE I.
 2. 
SCENE II.
 3. 
SCENE III.
 4. 
SCENE IV.
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ACT V.
 1. 
SCENE I.
 2. 
SCENE II.
 3. 
SCENE III.
 4. 
SCENE IV.
 5. 
SCENE V.
 6. 
SCENE VI.
 7. 
SCENE VII.
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ATALANTIS; A STORY OF THE SEA.
  
[prologue]
  
[castlist]
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ACT I.
 1. 
SCENE I.
 2. 
SCENE II.
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ACT II.
 1. 
SCENE I.
 2. 
SCENE II.
 3. 
SCENE III.
 4. 
SCENE IV.
 5. 
SCENE V.
 6. 
SCENE VI.
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ACT III.
 1. 
SCENE I.
 2. 
SCENE II.
 3. 
SCENE III.
 4. 
SCENE IV.
  
THE CASSIQUE OF ACCABEE;
  
ALBERT AND ROSALIE
  
A STORY OF GOD'S JUDGMENT.
  
THE LAST FIELDS OF THE BILOXI;
  
THE HUNTER OF CALAWASSEE;
  
THE SHIP OF THE PALATINES.
  
THE TRYST OF ACAYMA.
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VASCO NUNEZ;
 1. 
I.
 2. 
II.
  
THE SIOUX BOY;
  
THE SYREN OF TSELICA;
  
THE CITY OF THE SILENT.
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VOL. II.
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SOUTHERN PASSAGES AND PICTURES.
  
FLIGHT TO NATURE.
  
THE BROOKLET.
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SABBATH IN THE FOREST.
 1. 
1. FREEDOM OF THE SABBATH.
 2. 
[2.] FLOWERS AND TREES.
 3. 
3. THE SAME SUBJECT.
 4. 
4. RELIGIOUS MUSINGS.
 5. 
5. SOLACE OF THE WOODS.
 6. 
6. POETRY OF THE FOREST.
  
THE LOST PLEIAD.
  
FIRST DAY OF SPRING.
  
BALLAD.
  
SONNET.—BY THE SWANANNOA.
  
TO TIME.
  
THE TRAVELLER'S REST.
  
THE MOCK-BIRD.
  
AUTUMN TWILIGHT.
  
BALLAD.
  
HAST THOU A SONG FOR A FLOWER.
  
ENIGMA.
  
SONNET.
  
TO THE BREEZE.
  
LYRICAL BALLAD.
  
THE NEW MOON.
  
FOREST REVERIE BY STARLIGHT.
  
INSCRIPTION FOR THERMOPYLÆ.
  
BY THE EDISTO.
  
THE APPROACH OF SUMMER.
  
NIGHT STORM.
  
“WELL,” SANG A BLUE-EYED DAMSEL.
  
NATURE'S FAVORITE.
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SONNETS.—DAWNINGS OF FANCY.
 1. 
[I. Voices are on the winds!—I hear them now]
 2. 
[II. Nor only of delight! The music swells]
 3. 
[III. Whoso denies this wholesome, natural want]
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SONNETS.—POPULAR MISDIRECTION.
 1. 
[I. How went the cry in Greece, an ominous sound]
 2. 
[II. We are no more a people of the free]
 3. 
[III. Sudden, the mighty nation goes not down]
 4. 
[IV. Would we recall our virtues and our peace]
  
THE FIRST DREAM OF LOVE.
  
HAUNTED WOODS.—A FRAGMENT.
  
THE STATESMAN.
  
SLEEPING CHILD.
  
THE GRAPE-VINE SWING.
  
SONNET.—THE OLD MASTERS.
  
SEASIDE SOLITUDE.
  
MENTAL SOLITUDE.
  
“SUCH, O BEAUTY!”
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SONNETS.—THE CAPRICE OF THE SENSIBILITIES.
 1. 
[I. True,—love hath its perils and denials—takes]
 2. 
[II. It is, indeed, the nature that acquires]
 3. 
[III. Not such are love's true sorrows;—in her fate]
 4. 
[IV. That stroke which shatters the devoted heart]
 5. 
[V. Thus is it that the heart which other woe]
 6. 
[VI. No fruits, no life!—what matter if the tree]
  
MOTHER AND CHILD.
  
COME, WHEN THE EVENING INTO SILENCE CLOSES.
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SONNETS.
 1. 
I. TROPHIES.—HOW PLANTED.
 2. 
II. WHERE PLANTED.
 3. 
III. TRIUMPH.
 4. 
IV. GLORY AND ENDURING FAME.
  
THE SWALLOWS.
  
SONNET.—DEATH IN YOUTH.
  
SUNSET PIECE.
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SONNETS.—TO MY FRIEND.
 1. 
[I. Ambition owns no friend yet be thou mine]
 2. 
[II. Thou wilt remark my fate when I am dead]
  
FLOWERS IN AUTUMN.
  
THE LAND OF THE PINE.
  
THE INUTILE PURSUIT.
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SONNETS.—THE SOUL IN IMAGINATIVE ART.
 1. 
[I. Methinks each noble purpose of man's heart]
 2. 
[II. Thy thought but whisper'd rises up a spirit]
 3. 
[III. At every whisper we endow with life]
  
THE SHADED WATER.
  
AT A CHILD'S GRAVE.
  
REMINISCENCE.
  
EVENING BY THE SEA-SHORE.
  
CONGAREE BOAT-HORN BY MOONLIGHT.
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SONNETS.—INVOLUNTARY STRUGGLE.
 1. 
[I. Not in the rashness of warm confidence]
 2. 
[II. Even as the boy whom the stern prophet sire]
  
TO THE MOCK-BIRD,
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SONNETS.—DESPONDENCY AND SELF-REPROACH.
 1. 
[I. Oh friend, but thou art come to see me die]
 2. 
[II. Hadst thou come sooner! But 'tis not too late]
 3. 
[III. Ah! thou didst use to steer her chartfully]
  
STANZAS IN APRIL.
  
A LAST PRAYER.
  
ZEPHYRS, THAT WAIT ON MY LADY.
  
SUMMER-NIGHT WIND.
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SONNETS.—PROGRESS IN DENIAL.
 1. 
[I. “Yet, onward still!” the spirit cries within]
 2. 
[II. Thousands must perish in this hopeless strife]
  
BALLAD.
  
IMMORTALITY.
  
EVENING AT SEA.
  
WHERE BY DARRO'S EVENING WATERS.
  
SOUL-FLIGHT.
  
THE CHILD-ANGEL.
  
CAPE HATTERAS.
  
SONNET.—THE AGE OF GOLD.
  
BILLOWS.
  
FALL OF THE LEAF.
  
THE EUTAW MAID.
  
ALF-SONG.
  
STANZAS.
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HEADS OF THE POETS.
 1. 
I.—CHAUCER.
 2. 
II.—SHAKSPEARE.
 3. 
III.—THE SAME.
 4. 
IV.—SPENSER.
 5. 
V.—MILTON.
 6. 
VI.—BURNS.
 7. 
VII.—SCOTT.
 8. 
VIII.—BYRON.
 9. 
IX.—A GROUP.
  
SONNET TO THE PAST.
  
STANZAS.
  
THE WESTERN EMIGRANTS.
  
FIRST PURPOSELESS STRIVINGS OF THE IMAGINATION.
  
STANZAS.
  
THE DECAY OF A PEOPLE.
  
THE TEXAN HUNTER.
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SONNETS.
 1. 
I. THE APPROACH OF WINTER.
 2. 
[II. Yet bitter were the lessons of that past]
 3. 
III. CHILDHOOD.
 4. 
IV. YOUTH.
 5. 
V. STRUGGLE.
 6. 
VI. MANHOOD.
  
THE SHADE-TREES.
  
THE SACRIFICE UPON OUR ALTARS.
  
OH! WELCOME YE THE STRANGER.
  
CHILDRENS' EVENING GAMBOLS.
  
THE MINIATURE.
  
BEAUTY'S SPRING-TIME.
  
THE UNQUIET SPIRIT.
  
SONNET.—REPROACH AND CONSOLATION.
  
BALLAD.
  
SUMMER WEST WIND.
  
THE KINGS IN SHEOL.
  
MONNA.
  
UR-LIGHT.
  
THE LONELY ISLET.
  
SYBILLA.
  
THE BURDEN OF THE DESERT.
  
THE EDGE OF THE SWAMP.
  
THE STRUGGLE OF ENDOWMENT WITH FORTUNE.
  
MORAL CHANGE.
  
SONNET.—FRIENDSHIP.
  
THE LAY OF THE CARIB DAMSEL.
  
THE MAGIC VOICE.
  
ELODIE.
  
NIGHT-WATCHING.
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SONNETS.—RECOMPENSE.
 1. 
[I. Not profitless the game, even when we lose]
 2. 
[II. And this, methinks, were no unseemly boast]
 3. 
[III. And other lessons of humanity]
  
SUMMER IN THE SOUTH.
  
HEART ESSENTIAL TO GENIUS.
  
THE CAPTIVE.
  
TWINS IN DEATH.
  
GLORY.
  
BALLAD.—WHERE ART THOU?
  
FANCY.
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SONNETS.—SPIRIT-FLIGHTS.
 1. 
[I. Ah me! that sleeping like Endymion]
 2. 
[II. Upon the poet's soul they flash forever]
  
YES, LONE WERE MY BOSOM.
  
SONNET.—AIMS.
  
CHANGES OF HOME.
  
THE FOREST GRAVE.
  
THOU HAST EYES LIKE STARS.
  
“LA BOLSA DE LAS SIERRAS.”
  
SONG IN MARCH.
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SONNETS.
 1. 
I. FAERY GLIMPSES.
 2. 
II. CHILD FANCIES.
  
MORNING IN THE FOREST.
  
REPININGS.
  
WONDERS OF THE SEA.
  
IMAGINATION.
  
'TIS A LOWLY GRAVE.
  
SILENCE.
  
VIA SACRA.
  
THE BARD.
  
BLESSINGS ON CHILDREN.
  
THE HURRICANE.
  
SONG.—THE BREEZE THAT SIGHS.
  
ON THE DEATH OF AN OBSCURE CITIZEN.
  
ABANDONMENT.
  
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE BELOVED.
  
IN ABSENCE.
  
AT PARTING.
  
MORAL EXILE.
  
THE STREAMLET.
  
SPRING TIME.
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HISTORICAL LEGENDS.
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CAIUS MARIUS.
 1. 
I.
 2. 
II.
 3. 
III.
 4. 
IV.
 5. 
V.
 6. 
VI.
 7. 
VII.
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BERTRAM:
 1. 
I.
 2. 
II.
 3. 
III.
 4. 
IV.
 5. 
V.
  
THE DEATH OF CLEOPATRA.
  
SAUL AT ENDOR.
  
SAUL'S LAST BATTLE.
  
THE REBELLION OF ABSALOM.
  
FRANCESCA DA RIMINI.

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STANZAS.

Ah! not that song, nor any song:
Thy music mocks the heart
With memories cherish'd still too long,
That will not now depart;
For me, o'er whom a blighted past
Will still its withering trophies cast,
There is no heaven in art:—
The strain that cannot hope restore,
But makes me feel the lost the more.
I ask not music's power to show
What earth has once possess'd;
Nor does it need that all should know
My heart has once been bless'd:
The tear thy song has made to start,
Betrays the secret of my heart,
The pang that will not rest;
But wakes to instant strength and sting,
When memory spreads her dusky wing.
That night-bird, with its chant, still nigh,
A sad, mysterious tone,
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Recalling, with its boding cry,
The ghosts of glories gone;
Bends o'er me with each human strain,
Restores that hour, with all its pain,
Dark hour, I could not shun;
Brings back the full soul's trial then,
Which left me desolate 'mongst men!
They tell me that thy song is sweet,
And eyes that look delight,
Follow, with silent love, thy feet,
And gladden in thy sight;—
It needs not proof like this—thy strain,
That brings the perish'd back again,
The musical, the bright,—
May well persuade me of thy grace,
In pure white soul and angel face.
Enough—thou hast her charm divine,
To kindle and to move;
On others let thy beauties shine,
In others waken love;
Perchance—and it is sure my prayer—
Life's joys alone, and not its care,
Thy future fate may prove;
Enough, resembling her, I see
Her virtues, not herself, in thee.
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