Poems of Thomas Bailey Aldrich / [by Thomas Bailey Aldrich] [electronic text]

QUATRAINS.

1.
DAY AND NIGHT.

DAY is a snow-white Dove of heaven That from the East glad message brings Night is a stealthy, evil Raven, Wrapped to the eyes in his black wings.

2.
MAPLE LEAVES.

OCTOBER turned my maple's leaves to gold; The most are gone now; here and there one lingers: Soon these will slip from out the twigs' weak hold, Like coins between a dying miser's fingers.

3.
A CHILD'S GRAVE.

A LITTLE mound with chipped headstone, The grass, ah me! uncut about the sward, Summer by summer left alone With one white lily keeping watch and ward.

4.
PESSIMIST AND OPTIMIST.

THIS one sits shivering in Fortune's smile, Taking his joy with bated, doubtful breath. This other, gnawed by hunger, all the while Laughs in the teeth of Death.

5.
GRACE AND STRENGTH.

MANOAH'S son, in his blind rage malign Tumbling the temple down upon his foes, Did no such feat as yonder delicate vine That day by day untired holds up a rose.

6.
AMONG THE PINES.

FAINT murmurs from the pine-tops reach my ear, As if a harp-string—touched in some far sphere— Vibrating in the lucid atmosphere, Let the soft south wind waft its music here.

7.
FROM THE SPANISH.

To him that hath, we are told, Shall be given. Yes, by the Cross! To the rich man fate sends gold, To the poor man loss on loss.

8.
MASKS.

BLACK Tragedy lets slip her grim disguise And shows you laughing lips and roguish eyes;But when, unmasked, gay Comedy appears, 'T is ten to one you find the girl in tears.

9.
COQUETTE.

OR light or dark, or short or tall, She sets a springe to snare them all; All's one to her—above her fan She'd make sweet eyes at Caliban.

10.
EPITAPHS.

Honest Iago. When his breath was fled Doubtless these words were carven at his head. Such lying epitaphs are like a rose That in unlovely earth takes root and grows.

11.
POPULARITY.

SUCH kings of shreds have wooed and won her, Such crafty knaves her laurel owned, It has become almost an honor Not to be crowned.

12.
HUMAN IGNORANCE.

WHAT mortal knows Whence come the tint and odor of the rose? What probing deep Has ever solved the mystery of sleep?

13.
SPENDTHRIFT.

THE fault's not mine, you understand: God shaped my palm so I can hold But little water in my hand And not much gold.

14.
THE IRON AGE.

THE wide-lipped Sphinx, with bent perplexéd brow, Crouches in desert sand, inert and pale, Hearing the engine's raucous scream, that now Sends Echo flying through the Memphian vale.

15.
MYRTILLA.

THIS is the difference, neither more nor less, Between Medusa's and Myrtilla's face: The former slays us with its awfulness, The latter with its grace.

16.
ON HER BLUSHING.

NOW the red wins upon her cheek; Now white with crimson closes In desperate struggle—so to speak, A War of Roses.

17.
ON A VOLUME OF ANONYMOUS POEMS ENTITLED A MASQUE OF POETS.

VAIN is the mask. Who cannot at desire Name every Singer in the hidden choir? That is a thin disguise which veils with care The face, but lets the changeless heart lie bare.

18.
FAME.

OF all the thousand verses you have writ, If Time spare none, you will not care at all; If Time spare one, you will not know of it: Nor shame nor fame can scale a churchyard wall.

19.
THE DIFFERENCE.

SOME weep because they part, And languish broken-hearted, And others—O my heart!— Because they never parted.

20.
ON READING—.

GREAT thoughts in crude, unshapely verse set forth, Lose half their preciousness, and ever must. Unless the diamond with its own rich dust Be cut and polished, it seems little worth.

21.
THE ROSE.

FIXED to her necklace, like another gem, A rose she wore— the flower June made for her; Fairer it looked than when upon the stem, And must, indeed, have been much happier.

22.
MOONRISE AT SEA.

"MOONRISE AT SEA." Page 223.

UP from the dark the moon begins to creep; And now a pallid, haggard face lifts she Above the water-line: thus from the deep A drownéd body rises solemnly.

23.
ROMEO AND JULIET.

FROM mask to mask, amid the masquerade, Young Passion went with challenging, soft breath: "Art Love?" he whispered; "art thou Love, sweet maid?" Then Love, with glittering eyelids, "I am Death."

24.
OMAR KHAYYÁM.

(After Fitzgerald.)

SULTAN and Slave alike have gone their way With Bahrám Gúr, but whither none may say; Yet he who charmed the wise at Naishápúr Seven centuries since still charms the wise today.

25.

CIRCUMSTANCE.

LINKED to a clod, harassed, and sad With sordid cares, she never knew life's sweet Who should have moved in marble halls, and had Kings and crown-princes at her feet.

26.
HERRICK.

IT often chances that the staunchest boat Goes down in seas whereon a leaf might float. What mighty epics have been wrecked by Time Since Herrick launched his cockle-shells of rhyme!

27.
MEMORIES.

TWO things there are with Memory will abide— Whatever else befall— while life flows by: That soft cold hand-touch at the altar side; The thrill that shook you at your child's first cry.

28.
FROM EASTERN SOURCES.

I.

IN youth my hair was black as night, My life as white as driven snow: As white as snow my hair is now, And that is black which once was white.

II.

No wonder Sajib wrote such verses, when He had the bill of nightingale for pen; Or that his lyrics were divine Whose only ink was tears and wine.

III.

A POOR dwarf's figure, looming through the dense Mists of a mountain, seemed a shape immense, On seeing which, a giant, in dismay, Took to his heels and ran away.

29.
EVIL EASIER THAN GOOD.

ERE half the good I planned to doWas done, the short-breathed day was through.Had my intents been dark instead of fairI had done all, and still had time to spare.

30.
THE PARCÆ.

IN their dark House of Cloud The three weird sisters toil till time be sped: One unwinds life; one ever weaves the shroud; One waits to cut the thread,