To transmute crime to wisdom, so to stem The vice of Japhet by the thought of Shem. HE could condense cerulean ether FORBORE the ant-hill, shunned to tread, I HAVE no brothers and no peers, THE brook sings on, but sings in vain He planted where the deluge ploughed, FOR what need I of book or priest, Salute the bard who is alive And only sees what he doth give. COIN the day-dawn into lines In which its proper splendor shines; Which all its marvel shall rehearse, Chasing with words fast-flowing things; nor try To plant thy shrivelled pedantry On the shoulders of the sky. Ан, not to me those dreams belong! THE Muse's hill by Fear is guarded, A bolder foot is still rewarded. His instant thought a poet spoke, An inch of ground the lightning strook But lit the sky with flame.' IF bright the sun, he tarries, THE Asmodean feat is mine, SLIGHTED Minerva's learnèd tongue, But leaped with joy when on the wind The shell of Clio rung. FRAGMENTS ON NATURE AND LIFE NATURE THE patient Pan, Drowsily humming Music to the march of time. This poor tooting, creaking cricket, Feigns to sleep, sleeping never; Well he knows his own affair, COME search the wood for flowers, Wild tea and wild pea, Grapevine and succory, Coreopsis And liatris, Flaunting in their bowers; Grass with green flag half-mast high, Forest full of essences Fit for fairy presences, Sweet fern, mint and vernal grass, Wild rose, lily, dry vanilla, — To bring their first fruits to the sun. Nervèd leaf of hellebore, Sweet willow, checkerberry red, With its savory leaf for bread. Silver birch and black With the selfsame spice. Found in polygala root and rind, Sassafras, fern, benzoine, The frost to spare, what scents so well. |