Song Of The Furies
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) Up and lead the dance of Fate! Lift the song that mortals hate! Tell what rights are ours on earth, Over all of human birth. Swift of foot to avenge are we! He whose hands are clean and pure, Naught our wrath to […]
Prometheus Amid Hurricane And Earthquake
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) Earth is rocking in space! And the thunders crash up with a roar upon roar, And the eddying lightnings flash fire in my face, And the whirlwinds are whirling the dust round and round- And the blasts of the winds universal leap […]
Prayer Artemis
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) STROPHE IV Though Zeus plan all things right, Yet is his heart’s desire full hard to trace; Nathless in every place Brightly it gleameth, e’en in darkest night, Fraught with black fate to man’s speech-gifted race. ANTISTROPHE IV Steadfast, ne’er thrown in […]
Lament Two Brothers Slain Each Other039s Hand
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) Now do our eyes behold The tidings which were told: Twin fallen kings, twin perished hopes to mourn, The slayer, the slain, The entangled doom forlorn And ruinous end of twain. Say, is not sorrow, is not sorrow’s sum On home and […]
Lament For The Two Brothers Slain By Each Others Hand
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) Now do our eyes behold The tidings which were told: Twin fallen kings, twin perished hopes to mourn, The slayer, the slain, The entangled doom forlorn And ruinous end of twain. Say, is not sorrow, is not sorrow’s sum On home and […]
Fragment From Aeschylus
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) The man who rightly acts without coercion Will not be grieved, can never wholly sink in wretchedness; While the lawless criminal is forcibly dragged under In the current of time when from the shattered mast The elements rip down his sails. He […]
Complaint Prometheus
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) PROMETHEUS (alone) O holy Aether, and swift-winged Winds, And River-wells, and laughter innumerous Of yon Sea-waves! Earth, mother of us all, And all-viewing cyclic Sun, I cry on you,– Behold me a god, what I endure from gods! Behold, with throe on throe, […]
Battle Salamis
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) The night was passing, and the Grecian host By no means sought to issue forth unseen. But when indeed the day with her white steeds Held all the earth, resplendent to behold, First from the Greeks the loud-resounding din Of song triumphant […]
A Prayer For Artemis
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) STROPHE IV Though Zeus plan all things right, Yet is his heart’s desire full hard to trace; Nathless in every place Brightly it gleameth, e’en in darkest night, Fraught with black fate to man’s speech-gifted race. ANTISTROPHE IV Steadfast, ne’er thrown in […]
Vain
I O foolish tears, go back! Learn to cover your jealous pride far down in the nerveless heart that ye are voices for. Your sobbings mar the unfinished picture that my trembling life would fill up to greet its dawn. I know, poor heart, that you are reaching up to a Love that finds […]
Myself
“La patience est amère; mais le fruit en est doux!” I Away down into the shadowy depths of the Real I once lived. I thought that to seem was to be. But the waters of Marah were beautiful, yet they were bitter. I waited, and hoped, and prayed; Counting the heart-throbs and the tears […]
My Heritage
“My heritage!” It is to live within The marts of Pleasure and of Gain, yet be No willing worshiper at either shrine; To think, and speak, and act, not for my pleasure, But others’. The veriest slave of time And circumstances. Fortune’s toy! To hear of fraud, injustice, and oppression, And feel who is […]
Miserimus
“Sounding through the silent dimness Where I faint and weary lay, Spake a poet: ‘I will lead thee To the land of song to-day.’” I O bards! weak heritors of passion and of pain! Dwellers in the shadowy Palace of Dreams! With your unmated souls flying insanely at the stars! Why have you led […]
Memory
I see her yet, that dark-eyed one, Whose bounding heart God folded up In His, as shuts when day is done, Upon the elf the blossom’s cup. On many an hour like this we met, And as my lips did fondly greet her, I blessed her as love’s amulet: Earth hath no treasure, dearer, […]
Karazah Karl
Come back to me! my life is young, My soul is scarcely on her way, And all the starry songs she’s sung, Are prelude to a grander lay. Come back to me! Let this song-born soul receive thee, Glowing its fondest truth to prove; Why so early did’st thou leave me, Are our heaven-grand […]
Judith
“Repent, or I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight thee with the sword of my mouth.” -Revelation ii. 16. I Ashkelon is not cut off with the remnant of a valley. Baldness dwells not upon Gaza. The field of the valley is mine, and it is clothed in verdure. The steepness of […]
Infelix
Where is the promise of my years; Once written on my brow? Ere errors, agonies and fears Brought with them all that speaks in tears, Ere I had sunk beneath my peers; Where sleeps that promise now? Naught lingers to redeem those hours, Still, still to memory sweet! The flowers that bloomed in sunny […]
Hemlock Furrows
I O crownless soul of Ishmael! Uplifting and unfolding the white tent of dreams against the sunless base of eternity! Looking up through thy dumb desolation for white hands to reach out over the shadows, downward, from the golden bastions of God’s eternal Citadel! Praying for Love to unloose the blushing bindings of his […]
Genius
“Where’er there’s a life to be kindled by love, Wherever a soul to inspire, Strike this key-note of God that trembles above Night’s silver-tongued voices of fire.” Genius is power. The power that grasps in the universe, that dives out beyond space, and grapples with the starry worlds of heaven. If genius achieves nothing, […]
Fragment
“Oh! I am sick of what I am. Of all Which I in life can ever hope to be. Angels of light be pitiful to me.” The cold chain of life presseth heavily on me tonight. The thundering pace of thought is curbed, and, like a fiery steed, dasheth against the gloomy walls of […]
Dying
I Leave me; oh! leave me, Lest I find this low earth sweeter than the skies. Leave me lest I deem Faith’s white bosom bared to the betraying arms of Death. Hush your fond voice, lest it shut out the angel trumpet-call! See my o’erwearied feet bleed for rest. Loose the clinging and the […]
Dreams Beauty
Visions of Beauty, of Light, and of Love, Born in the soul of a Dream, Lost, like the phantom-bird under the dove, When she flies over a stream- Come ye through portals where angel wings droop, Moved by the heaven of sleep? Or, are ye mockeries, crazing a soul, Doomed with its waking to […]
Depths
I Lost-lost-lost! To me, for ever, the seat near the blood of the feast. To me, for ever, the station near the Throne of Love! To me, for ever, the Kingdom of Heaven-and I the least. Oh, the least in love- The least in joy- The least in life- The least in death- The […]
Battle Stars
Alone on the hill of storms The voice of the wind shrieks through the mountain. The torrent rushes down the rocks. Red are hundred streams of the light-covered paths of the dead. Shield me in from the storm, I that am a daughter of the stars, and wear the purple and gold of bards, […]
Aspiration
Poor, impious Soul! that fixes its high hopes In the dim distance, on a throne of clouds, And from the morning’s mist would make the ropes To draw it up amid acclaim of crowds- Beware! That soaring path is lined with shrouds; And he who braves it, though of sturdy breath, May meet, half […]
Answer Me
I In from the night. The storm is lifting his black arms up to the sky. Friend of my heart, who so gently marks out the lifetrack for me, draw near to-night; Forget the wailing of the low-voiced wind: Shut out the moanings of the freezing, and the starving, and the dying, and bend […]
Adelina Patti
Thou Pleiad of the lyric world Where Pasta, Garcia shone, Come back with thy sweet voice again, And gem the starry zone. Though faded, still the vision sees The loveliest child of night, The fairest of the Pleiades, Its glory and its light. How fell with music from thy tongue The picture which it […]
What Of The Night
To you, who look below, Where little candles glow – Who listen in a narrow street, Confused with noise of passing feet – To you ’tis wild and dark; No light, no guide, no ark, For travellers lost on moor and lea, And ship-wrecked mariners at sea. But they who stand apart, With hushed […]
Vows
Nay, ask me not. I would not dare pretend To constant passion and a life-long trust. They will desert thee, if indeed they must. How can we guess what Destiny will send- Smiles of fair fortune, or black storms to rend What even now is shaken by a gust? The fire will burn, or […]
To Morrow
The lighthouse shines across the sea; The homing fieldfares sing for glee: “Behold the shore!” Alas for shattered wing and breast! The lighthouse breakers make their nest, And hedges bloom for them no more- No more. In their old church the lovers stand. His wedding ring is on her hand, All partings o’er. Alas […]
The Winged Mariners
Through the wild night, the silence and the dark, Through league on league of the uncharted sky, Lonelier than dove of fable from its ark, The fieldfares fly. Mate with his tiny mate, and younglings frail, That only knew the crevice of their tree Until, in faith stupendous, they set sail Across the sea. […]
The Watchman
Through jewelled windows in the walls The tender daylight smiles; Majestic music swells and falls Adown the stately aisles; Shadows of carven roof and rood, Of stony saints and angels, brood Above the altar-glow; They cannot dim the shining face Of one conspicuous in his place Amid the forms below. He that was once […]
The Virgin Martyr
Every wild she-bird has nest and mate in the warm April weather, But a captive woman, made for love – no mate, no nest has she. In the spring of young desire, young men and maids are wed together, And the happy mothers flaunt their bliss for all the world to see: Nature’s sacramental […]
The Vain Question
Why should we court the storms that rave and rend, Safe at our household hearth? Why, starved and naked, without home or friend, Unknowing whence we came or where we wend, Follow from no beginning to no end An uncrowned martyr’s path? Is it worth while to waste our all in vain? To seek, […]
The Soldiers Grave
‘Twas long ago, in the summer-time, On a day as sad as this, That I laid my babe in its father’s arms, And he gave it his farewell kiss; When the army sail’d from the English shores In a mist of sun and rain, To the vine-clad hills and citadels And the olive groves […]
The Silence In The Church
(No. 1.) O Holy Spirit, we entreat, Send down Thy quickening fire; Let Thine own presence, dread and sweet, These waiting hearts in spire. In every thought and word and deed, Breathe Thou the breath of life- The fulness of the grace they need For their appointed strife. Help them to hold, in clasp […]
The Season
And must I wear a silken life, Hemmed in by city walls? And must I give my garden up For theatres and balls? Nay, though the cage be made of gold, ‘Tis better to be free; The green of the green meadows, love, Is quite enough for me. I’d rather ramble through the lanes […]
The Resting Place
“Because I live, ye shall live also.” Calmly the Paschal moonlight now is sleeping On mossy hillock and on headstone grey, Where still our Mother holds in faithful keeping Such as, while living, in her dear arms lay. Ah! loving and beloved, we know ye rest, E’en in the grave, upon her hallow’d breast. […]
The Old Manor House
An old house, crumbling half away, all barnacled and lichen-grown, Of saddest, mellowest, softest grey,-with a grand history of its own- Grand with the work and strife and tears of more than half a thousand years. Such delicate, tender, russet tones of colour on its gables slept, With streaks of gold betwixt the stones, […]
The Old Maids Story
Ay, many and many a year’s gone by, Since the dawn of that day in spring, When we met in the pine-woods, Harry and I, And he gave me this golden ring. I had lovers in plenty, of high degree, Who wooed in my father’s hall; But none were so noble and brave as […]