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Poems by Frederick Goddard Tuckerman

Tuckerman, Frederick Goddard (1821-1873)

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PART I.
  
November.
  
April.
  
May Flowers.
  
Hymn for the Dedication of a Cemetery.
  
Inspiration.
  
Infatuation.
  
Sonnet.
  
Picomegan.
  
The Superlative.
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Sonnets.
 1. 
[I. The starry flower, the flower-like stars that fade]
 2. 
[II. And so, as this great sphere now turning slow]
  
The Question.
  
Twilight.
  
Elidore
  
The Clearing.
  
To the River.
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PART II.
  
A Soul that out of Nature's Deep.
  
The Stranger.
  
The School-Girl.
  
A Sample of Coffee Beans.
  
A Latter-day Saint.
  
Anybody's Critic.
  
Rhotruda.
  
Coralie.
  
As sometimes in a Grove.
  
Mark Atherton.
  
Sidney.
  
Refrigerium.
  
The Old Beggar.
  
Paulo to Francesca.
  
When the Dim Day.
  
Hymn to the Virgin.
  
Margites.
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Sonnets.
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PART 1.
 1. 
[I. Sometimes, when winding slow by brook and bower]
 2. 
[II. Wherefore, with this belief, held like a blade]
 3. 
[III. And borne with theirs, my proudest thoughts do seem]
 4. 
[IV. Nor looks that backward life so bare to me]
 5. 
[V. And so the day drops by; the horizon draws]
 6. 
[VI. Not sometimes, but, to him that heeds the whole]
 7. 
[VII. Dank fens of cedar; hemlock-branches gray]
 8. 
[VIII. As when, down some broad River dropping, we]
 9. 
[IX. Yet wear we on; the deep light disallowed]
 10. 
[X. An upper chamber in a darkened house]
 11. 
[XI. What profits it to me, though here allowed]
 12. 
[XII. Tall, stately plants, with spikes and forks of gold]
 13. 
[XIII. As one who walks and weeps by alien brine]
 14. 
[XIV. Not proud of station; nor in worldly pelf]
 15. 
[XV. And she, her beauty never made her cold]
 16. 
[XVI. Yet Nature, where the thunder leaves its trace]
 17. 
[XVII. All men,—the Preacher saith,—whate'er or whence]
 18. 
[XVIII. Perchance his own small field some charge demands]
 19. 
[XIX. Yet vain, perhaps, the fruits our care applaud]
 20. 
[XX. Still craves the spirit: never Nature solves]
 21. 
[XXI. O Father, God! to whom, in happier days]
 22. 
[XXII. The morning comes; not slow, with reddening gold]
 23. 
[XXIII. Shall I not see her? Yes; for one has seen]
 24. 
[XXIV. Perhaps a dream; yet surely truth has beamed]
 25. 
[XXV. By this low fire I often sit to woo]
 26. 
[XXVI. For Nature daily through her grand design]
 27. 
[XXVII. So, to the mind long brooding but on it]
 28. 
[XXVIII. Not the round natural world, not the deep mind]
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PART II.
 1. 
[I. That boy,”—the farmer said, with hazel wand]
 2. 
[II. Nor idle all, though naught he sees in thine]
 3. 
[III. Yes; though the brine may from the desert deep]
 4. 
[IV. But Grief finds solace faint in others' ills]
 5. 
[V. No shame dissuades his thought, no scorn despoils]
 6. 
[VI. No! cover not the fault. The wise revere]
 7. 
[VII. His heart was in his garden; but his brain]
 8. 
[VIII. Companions were we in the grove and glen]
 9. 
[IX. But unto him came swift calamity]
 10. 
[X. Thy baby, too, the child that was to be]
 11. 
[XI. Still pressing through these weeping solitudes]
 12. 
[XII. How most unworthy, echoing in mine ears]
 13. 
[XIII. Even as a lover, dreaming, unaware]
 14. 
[XIV. The breeze is sharp, the sky is hard and blue]
 15. 
[XV. Gertrude and Gulielma, sister-twins]
 16. 
[XVI. Under the mountain, as when first I knew]
 17. 
[XVII. Roll on, sad world! not Mercury or Mars]
 18. 
[XVIII. And Change, with hurried hand, has swept these scenes]
 19. 
[XIX. And faces, forms, and phantoms, numbered not]
 20. 
[XX. O hard endeavour, to blend in with these]
 21. 
[XXI. Last night I dreamed we parted once again]
 22. 
[XXII. Put off thy bark from shore, tho' near the night]
 23. 
[XXIII. Some truths may pierce the spirit's deeper gloom]
 24. 
[XXIV. Each common object, too,—the house, the grove]
 25. 
[XXV. Small gossip, whispering at the window-pane]
 26. 
[XXVI. Yet from indifference may we hope for peace]
 27. 
[XXVII. But the heart murmurs at so harsh a tone]
 28. 
[XXVIII. Yet sometimes, with the sad respectant mind]
 29. 
[XXIX. How oft in schoolboy-days, from the school's sway]
 30. 
[XXX Yet, even mid merry boyhood's tricks and scapes]
 31. 
[XXXI. My Anna ! when for thee my head was bowed]
 32. 
[XXXII. Oh for the face and footstep! woods and shores]
 33. 
[XXXIII. One still dark night, I sat alone and wrote]
 34. 
[XXXIV. My Anna! though thine earthly steps are done]
 35. 
[XXXV. Nor all of solemn is my thought of her]
 36. 
[XXXVI. Farewell! farewell, O noble heart! I dreamed]
  
[XXXVII. As Eponina brought, to move the king]

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[I. Sometimes, when winding slow by brook and bower]

Sometimes, when winding slow by brook and bower,
Beating the idle grass,—of what avail,
I ask, are these dim fancies, cares, and fears?
What though from every bank I drew a flower,—
Bloodroot, king-orchis, or the pearlwort pale,—
And set it in my verse with thoughtful tears?
What would it count, though I should sing my death,
And muse and mourn with as poetic breath
As, in damp garden walks, the autumn gale
Sighs o'er the fallen floriage? What avail
Is the swan's voice, if all the hearers fail?
Or his great flight, that no eye gathereth,
In the blending blue? And yet, depending so,
God were not God, whom knowledge cannot know.
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