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Songs of Doubt and Dream (Poems)

Fawcett, Edgar (1847-1904)

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[section]
  
THE BARTHOLDI STATUE.
  
EVOLUTION.
  
PEACE AND WAR.
  
A NINETEENTH CENTURY KING.
  
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOON.
  
MARRIED BOHEMIANS.
  
A RETROSPECT.
  
NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S WIFE.
  
AT A WINDOW.
  
BIRD-LANGUAGE.
  
A CITY ECLOGUE.
  
MEMORIAL VERSES.
  
IN THE YEAR TEN THOUSAND.
  
A SLAYER OF POETS.
  
PAUL AVENEL.
  
THE ASPIRER.
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REVERIES.
 1. 
I.—A Tulip-Bulb.
 2. 
[II. O swan, what memories rarely sweet]
 3. 
III.—In Mid-Ocean.
 4. 
[IV. While the broad night above me broods]
 5. 
V.—A Squirrel.
 6. 
[VI. Dear lavish blossoms that light the Junes]
 8. 
[VIII. Somehow I have lived without you]
 9. 
[IX. I feel the huge dim city round me lie]
 10. 
X.—To a Reformer.
 11. 
XI.—Grass.
  
QUEEN CHRISTINA AND DE LIAR.
  
CAPRICE.
  
SUB ROSÂ.
  
ANACREONTIC.
  
PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE.
  
JACYNTH.
  
AFRICAN BALLAD.
  
A DIALOGUE.
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LYRIC INTERLUDE.
 1. 
[I. You tell me, friend, that seeing how fate has said]
 2. 
II.—A Graveyard.
 3. 
III.—In Poverty.
 4. 
IV.—Low Life.
 5. 
[V. The year was dying, the wind went sighing]
 6. 
VI.—To E. N. C.
 7. 
[VII. The clouded east was fiery-creased where the late moon mounted up]
 8. 
VIII.—A Blackberry Idyl.
 9. 
IX.—Pigeons.
 10. 
X.—A Dead World.
 11. 
XI.—For a Book of Light Rhymes.
 12. 
XII.—Environment.
 13. 
XIII.—Death's Plaint.
 14. 
[XIV. Ho! for Dreamland's happy harbors]
 15. 
XV.—Meteors.
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HOW A QUEEN LOVED.
 1. 
I.
 2. 
II.
 3. 
III.
  
THE TEARS OF TULLIA.
  
THE DYING ACTOR.
  
VICISSITUDE.
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TWO SCENES IN THE LIFE OF BEAU BRUMMELL.
 1. 
I. 1810.
 2. 
II. 1836.
  
THARAK AND THE LION.
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INTERMEZZO.
 1. 
I.—The Wood-Turtle.
 2. 
[II. Above the porch, full in dawn's rosy view]
 3. 
[III. Shadows hung dense on the burnished lake]
 4. 
IV.—Asters and Goldenrods.
 5. 
[V. All day the reapers on the hill]
 6. 
VI.—To a Friend Who Slept Ill.
 7. 
[VII. How long ere the blast that is nipping and bitter]
 8. 
VIII.—Babes in the Wood.
 9. 
IX.—Aquarelle.
 10. 
[X. How sad, in this wide airy glade]
 11. 
XI.—Cradle-Song.
 12. 
[XII. They led the pale Christ through the mouthing throng]
 13. 
[XIII. How marvellously all the deeps of night]
 14. 
XIV.—To a Literary Fop.
 15. 
[XV. Think not that you may calmly tread]
 16. 
[XVI. An old man mused, amid twilight's haze]
 17. 
[XVII. I saw in dreams a system of dead worlds]
  
THE CARISFORT CURSE.
  
AGNOSTIC AND CHRISTIAN.
  
KATE ROMNEY.
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INCONGRUITIES.
 1. 
I.
 2. 
II.
  
THE MILKY WAY.
  
HISTORY.
  
ENNUI.
  
ILLEGITIMACY.
  
THE ICICLE.
  
COURAGE!

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[V. All day the reapers on the hill]

All day the reapers on the hill
Have plied their task with sturdy will,
But now the field is void and still.
And wandering thither, I have found
The bearded spears in sheaves well-bound,
And stacked in many a golden mound.
And while cool evening suavely grows,
While o'er the sunset's dying rose
The first great white star throbs and glows,
While from the clear east, red of glare,
The ascendant harvest moon floats fair
Through dreamy deeps of purple air;
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While in among the slanted sheaves
A tender light its glamour weaves,
An elfish light that lures, deceives,
Then, swayed by fancy's dear command,
Amid the past I seem to stand,
In hallowed Bethlehem's harvest-land!
And through the vague field, dim-descried,
A homeward host of shadows glide,
And sickles gleam on every side.
Shadows of man and maid I trace,
With shapes of strength and shapes of grace,
Yet gaze but on a single face.
A candid brow, still smooth with youth;
A smile of calm; a mien of truth...
The patient star-eyed gleaner, Ruth!
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