Baptistry

One winter eve, at twilight, when the sound Of sorrowful winds scarce troubled Nature’s rest, As she lay sleeping, with her hair unbound, Holding her grey robe to her shivering breast, I enter’d through a low-arch’d oaken door, Circled with curious sculpture; and I crept With slow, hush’d footsteps, o’er the shadow’d floor, Where […]

Aunt Dorothys Lecture

Come, go and practise-get your work- Do something, Nelly, pray. I hate to see you moon about In this uncertain way! Why do you look so vacant, child? I fear you must be ill. Surely you are not thinking of That Captain Cameron still? Ah, yes-I fear’d so! You may blush; I blush for […]

At Sea

When the investing darkness growls, And deep reverberates to deep; When keyhole whines and chimney howls, And all the roofs and windows weep; Then, through the doorless walls of sleep, The still-sealed ear and shuttered sight, Phantoms of memory steal and creep, The very ghosts of sound and light- Dream-visions and dream-voices of a […]

At Long Last

Late, late, the prize is drawn, the goal attained, The Heart’s Desire fulfilled, Love’s guerdon gained. Wealth’s use is past, Fame’s crown of laurel mocks The downward-drooping head and grizzled locks. The end is reached-the end of toil and strife- The end of life. Love flowers and fades like grass, and flowers again; The […]

An Old Doll

Low on her little stool she sits To make a nursing lap, And cares for nothing but the form Her little arms enwrap. With hairless skull that gapes apart, A broken plaster ball, One chipped glass eye that squints askew, And ne’er a nose at all- No raddle left on grimy cheek, No mouth […]

An Anniversary

I. AS flower to sun its drop of dew Gives from its crystal cup, So I, as morning gift to you, This poor verse offer up. II. As flowers upon the summer wind Their air-born odours shake, So, in all fragrance you may find, I give but what I take. III. My tree blooms […]

All Saints Day 1868

“But they are at peace.” Never to weary more, nor suffer sorrow,- Their strife all over, and their work all done: At peace-and only waiting for the morrow; Heaven’s rest and rapture even now begun. So tired once! long fetter’d, sorely burden’d, Ye struggled hard and well for your release; Ye fought in faith […]

All Saints Day 1867

Blessed are they whose baby-souls are bright, Whose brows are sealèd with the cross of light, Whom God Himself has deign’d to robe in white- Blessed are they! Blessed are they who follow through the wild His sacred footprints, as a little child; Who strive to keep their garments undefiled- Blessed are they! Blessed […]

After Our Likeness

Before me now a little picture lies- A little shadow of a childish face, Childishly sweet, yet with the dawning grace Of thought and wisdom on her lips and eyes. Fair, oval, broad-brow’d face-small, delicate head- Transparent skin, with blue veins shining through- All the soft outlines, beautiful and true, Bring me the echo […]

A Story At Dusk

An evening all aglow with summer light And autumn colour-fairest of the year. The wheat-fields, crowned with shocks of tawny gold, All interspersed with rough sowthistle roots, And interlaced with white convolvulus, Lay, flecked with purple shadows, in the sun. The shouts of little children, gleaning there The scattered ears and wild blue-bottle flowers- […]

A Sigh In The Night

O sweet darkness, still, and calm, and lonely! Spread thy downy pinions round about. Spare me from thy hidden riches only One dream-face; blot all the others out. Bring him now, for thou hast power to free him, From that ugly garb he wears by day; Bring him now-my darling!-let me see him Ere […]

A Sermon

Midsummer, 1867. We have heard many sermons, you and I, And many more may hear, When sitting quiet in cathedral nave, With folded palms and faces meek and grave;- But few like this one, dear. We ofttimes watch together ‘fore the veil, With reverent, gleaming eyes, While priestly hands are busy with the folds,- […]

A Prayer

Spirit and Breath of Life, whate’er Thy name! Bear with Thy creature, Man, That makes his dwelling-place a blot of shame Upon the Ordered Plan. Not Thy hand, O Divine Designer, hurled Athwart the starlit skies One blood-stained, greed-diseased, hate-eaten world, To shock celestial eyes. Not Thy default, O Beautiful, this crust Of fratricidal […]

A Dream Of Venice

Numb, half asleep, and dazed with whirl of wheels, And gasp of steam, and measured clank of chains, I heard a blithe voice break a sudden pause, Ringing familiarly through the lamp-lit night, “Wife, here’s your Venice!” I was lifted down, And gazed about in stupid wonderment, Holding my little Katie by the hand- […]

Synge’s Grave by Winifred Mary Letts

MY grief! that they have laid you in the town Within the moidher of its thousand wheels And busy feet that travel up and down. They had a right to choose a better bed Far off among the hills where silence steals In on the soul with comfort-bringing tread. The curlew would have keened for […]

Sonnet Of Motherhood XXXI poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems

  Beloved, I who shall be mother soon Need mothering myself this tired hour, As heavily the sweet and precious power Weighs on my heart till I am near to swoon. Console me, soothe me, Dearest, with the boon Of your firm strength, and little comforts shower Soft on the drifting doubtings that devour Patience […]

Sonnet Of Motherhood XLV poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems | Poetry Monster

Sonnet Of Motherhood XLV poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems | Poetry Monster Dearest, your mother feels (though dead) this birth— Laughs at the fire within your shining eyes— Your eyes, yet mine, wherein such glory lies Never before beheld upon the earth. She scents the fragrance of the lily-mirth Lilting this body that […]