Graydigger’s Home by William Stafford
Graydigger’s Home by William Stafford Paw marks near one burrow show Graydigger at home, I bend low, from down there swivel my head, grasstop level–the world goes on forever, the mountains a bigger burrow, their snow like last winter. From a room inside the world even the strongest wind has a soft sound: a new […]
For My Young Friends Who Are Afraid by William Stafford
For My Young Friends Who Are Afraid by William Stafford There is a country to cross you will find in the corner of your eye, in the quick slip of your foot–air far down, a snap that might have caught. And maybe for you, for me, a high, passing voice that finds its way by […]
Atavism by William Stafford
Atavism by William Stafford 1 Sometimes in the open you look up where birds go by, or just nothing, and wait. A dim feeling comes you were like this once, there was air, and quiet; it was by a lake, or maybe a river you were alert as an otter and were suddenly born like […]
Ask Me by William Stafford
Ask Me by William Stafford Some time when the river is ice ask me mistakes I have made. Ask me whether what I have done is my life. Others have come in their slow way into my thought, and some have tried to help or to hurt: ask me what difference their strongest love or […]
Allegiances by William Stafford
Allegiances by William Stafford It is time for all the heroes to go home if they have any, time for all of us common ones to locate ourselves by the real things we live by. Far to the north, or indeed in any direction, strange mountains and creatures have always lurked- elves, goblins, trolls, and […]
Across Kansas by William Stafford
Across Kansas by William Stafford My family slept those level miles but like a bell rung deep till dawn I drove down an aisle of sound, nothing real but in the bell, past the town where I was born. Once you cross a land like that you own your face more: what the light struck […]
A Ritual To Read To Each Other by William Stafford
A Ritual To Read To Each Other by William Stafford If you don’t know the kind of person I am and I don’t know the kind of person you are a pattern that others made may prevail in the world and following the wrong god home we may miss our star. For there is many […]
To the Fringed Gentian by William Cullen Bryant
To the Fringed Gentian by William Cullen Bryant Thou blossom bright with autumn dew, And colored with the heaven’s own blue, That openest when the quiet light Succeeds the keen and frosty night. Thou comest not when violets lean O’er wandering brooks and springs unseen, Or columbines, in purple dressed, Nod o’er the ground-bird’s hidden […]
To a Waterfowl by William Cullen Bryant
To a Waterfowl by William Cullen Bryant Whither, midst falling dew, While glow the heavens with the last steps of day Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue Thy solitary way? Vainly the fowler’s eye Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong As, darkly seen against the crimson sky, Thy figure floats […]
To A Cloud by William Cullen Bryant
To A Cloud by William Cullen Bryant Beautiful cloud! with folds so soft and fair, Swimming in the pure quiet air! Thy fleeces bathed in sunlight, while below Thy shadow o’er the vale moves slow; Where, midst their labour, pause the reaper train As cool it comes along the grain. Beautiful cloud! I would I […]
The Yellow Violet by William Cullen Bryant
The Yellow Violet by William Cullen Bryant When beechen buds begin to swell, And woods the blue-bird’s warble know, The yellow violet’s modest bell Peeps from last-year’s leaves below. Ere russet fields their green resume, Sweet flower, I love, in forest bare, To meet thee, when thy faint perfume Alone is in the virgin air. […]
The West Wind by William Cullen Bryant
The West Wind by William Cullen Bryant Beneath the forest’s skirts I rest, Whose branching pines rise dark and high, And hear the breezes of the West Among the threaded foliage sigh. Sweet Zephyr! why that sound of wo? Is not thy Home among the flowers? Do not the bright June roses blow, To meet […]
The Strange Lady by William Cullen Bryant
The Strange Lady by William Cullen Bryant The summer morn is bright and fresh, the birds are darting by, As if they loved to breast the breeze that sweeps the cool dear sky; Young Albert, in the forest’s edge, has heard a rustling sound An arrow slightly strikes his hand and falls upon the ground. […]
The Skies by William Cullen Bryant
The Skies by William Cullen Bryant Ay! gloriously thou standest there, Beautiful, boundless firmament! That swelling wide o’er earth and air, And round the horizon bent, With thy bright vault, and sapphire wall, Dost overhang and circle all. Far, far below thee, tall old trees Arise, and piles built up of old, And hills, whose […]
The Living Lost by William Cullen Bryant
The Living Lost by William Cullen Bryant Matron! the Children of whose love, Each to his grave, in youth have passed, And now the mould is heaped above The dearest and the last! Bride! who dost wear the widow’s veil Before the Wedding flowers are pale! Ye deem the human heart endures No deeper, bitterer […]
The Gladness of Nature by William Cullen Bryant
The Gladness of Nature by William Cullen Bryant Is this a time to be cloudy and sad, When our mother Nature laughs around; When even the deep blue heavens look glad, And gladness breathes from the blossoming ground? There are notes of joy from the hang-bird and wren, And the gossip of swallows through all […]
The Death of the Flowers by William Cullen Bryant
The Death of the Flowers by William Cullen Bryant The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year, Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sere. Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the autumn leaves lie dead; They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbit’s tread; The robin […]
The Death of Lincoln by William Cullen Bryant
The Death of Lincoln by William Cullen Bryant Oh, slow to smit and swift to spare, Gentle and merciful and just! Who, in the fear of God, didst bear The sword of power, a nation’s trust! In sorrow by thy bier we stand, Amid the awe that hushes all, And speak the anguish of a […]
The Constellations by William Cullen Bryant
The Constellations by William Cullen Bryant O constellations of the early night, That sparkled brighter as the twilight died, And made the darkness glorious! I have seen Your rays grow dim upon the horizon’s edge, And sink behind the mountains. I have seen The great Orion, with his jewelled belt, That large-limbed warrior of the […]
Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant
Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant To him who in the love of nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language; for his gayer hours She has a voice of gladness, and a smile And eloquence of beauty; and she glides Into his darker musings, with a mild And healing sympathy that […]
Summer Wind by William Cullen Bryant
Summer Wind by William Cullen Bryant It is a sultry day; the sun has drank The dew that lay upon the morning grass, There is no rustling in the lofty elm That canopies my dwelling, and its shade Scarce cools me. All is silent, save the faint And interrupted murmur of the bee, Settling on […]
Spring in Town by William Cullen Bryant
Spring in Town by William Cullen Bryant The country ever has a lagging Spring, Waiting for May to call its violets forth, And June its roses–showers and sunshine bring, Slowly, the deepening verdure o’er the earth; To put their foliage out, the woods are slack, And one by one the singing-birds come back. Within the […]
October by William Cullen Bryant
October by William Cullen Bryant Ay, thou art welcome, heaven’s delicious breath! When woods begin to wear the crimson leaf, And suns grow meek, and the meek suns grow brief And the year smiles as it draws near its death. Wind of the sunny south! oh, still delay In the gay woods and in the […]
November by William Cullen Bryant
November by William Cullen Bryant Yet one smile more, departing, distant sun! One mellow smile through the soft vapoury air, Ere, o’er the frozen earth, the loud winds ran, Or snows are sifted o’er the meadows bare. One smile on the brown hills and naked trees, And the dark rocks whose summer wreaths are cast, […]
Mutation by William Cullen Bryant
Mutation by William Cullen Bryant They talk of short-lived pleasure–be it so– Pain dies as quickly; stern, hard-featured pain Expires, and lets her weary prisoner go. The fiercest agonies have shortest reign; And after dreams of horror, comes again The welcome morning with its rays of peace. Oblivion, softly wiping out the stain, Makes the […]
Love and Folly by William Cullen Bryant
Love and Folly by William Cullen Bryant Love’s worshippers alone can know The thousand mysteries that are his; His blazing torch, his twanging bow, His blooming age are mysteries. A charming science–but the day Were all too short to con it o’er; So take of me this little lay, A sample of its boundless lore. […]
June by William Cullen Bryant
June by William Cullen Bryant I gazed upon the glorious sky And the green mountains round, And thought that when I came to lie At rest within the ground, “Twere pleasant, that in flowery June, When brooks send up a cheerful tune, And groves a joyous sound, The sexton’s hand, my grave to make, The […]
Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood by William Cullen Bryant
Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood by William Cullen Bryant Stranger, if thou hast learned a truth which needs No School of long experience, that the world Is full of guilt and misery, and hast seen Enough of all its sorrows, crimes, and cares, To tire thee of it, enter this wild wood And […]
William Cullen Bryant – William Cullen Bryant
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Hymn To Death by William Cullen Bryant
Hymn To Death by William Cullen Bryant Oh! could I Hope the wise and pure in heart Might hear my Song without a frown, nor deem My voice unworthy of the theme it tries,– I would take up the hymn to Death, and say To the grim power, The world hath slandered thee And mocked […]
Hymn of the City by William Cullen Bryant
Hymn of the City by William Cullen Bryant Not in the solitude Alone may man commune with heaven, or see Only in savage wood And sunny vale, the present Deity; Or only hear his voice Where the winds whisper and the waves rejoice. Even here do I behold Thy steps, Almighty!–here, amidst the crowd, Through […]
Consumption by William Cullen Bryant
Consumption by William Cullen Bryant Ay, thou art for the grave; thy glances shine Too brightly to shine long; another Spring Shall deck her for men’s eyes—but not for thine— Sealed in a Sleep which knows no wakening. The fields for thee have no medicinal leaf, And the vexed ore no mineral of power; And […]
After a Tempest by William Cullen Bryant
After a Tempest by William Cullen Bryant The day had been a day of wind and storm;– The wind was laid, the storm was overpast,– And stooping from the zenith, bright and warm Shone the great sun on the wide earth at last. I stood upon the upland slope and cast My eye upon a […]
A Song of Pitcairn’s Island by William Cullen Bryant
A Song of Pitcairn’s Island by William Cullen Bryant Come, take our boy, and we will go Before our cabin door; The winds shall bring us, as they blow, The murmurs of the shore; And we will kiss his young blue eyes, And I will sing him, as he lies, Songs that were made of […]
A Forest Hymn by William Cullen Bryant
A Forest Hymn by William Cullen Bryant The groves were God’s first temples. Ere man learned To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave, And spread the roof above them,—ere he framed The lofty vault, to gather and roll back The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood, Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt […]