Dark grow the pine-woods, dark and drear
The woods that bring the sunset near.

When o'er wide seas the sun declines,
Far off its fading glory shines,-
Far off, sublime, and full of fear,—
The pine-woods bring the sunset near.

This house that looks to east, to west,
This, dear one, is our home, our rest;
Yonder the stormy sea, and here
The woods that bring the sunset near.

SUNSET FROM THE TRAIN

I

BUT then the sunset smiled,

Smiled once and turned toward dark,

Above the distant, wavering line of trees that filed

Along the horizon's edge;

Like hooded monks that hark

Through evening air

The call to prayer;

Smiled once, and faded slow, slow, slow away;

When, like a changing dream, the long cloud-wedge,

Brown-gray,

Grew saffron underneath and, ere I knew,

The interspace, green-blue—

The whole, illimitable, western, skyey shore,

The tender, human, silent sunset smiled once more.

II

Thee, absent loved one, did I think on now,

Wondering if thy deep brow

AFTER SORROW'S NIGHT

In dreams of me were lifted to the skies,

Where, by our far sea-home, the sunlight dies;

If thou didst stand, alone,

Watching the day pass slowly, slow, as here,
But closer and more dear,

Beyond the meadow and the long, familiar line

Of blackening pine;

91

When lo! that second smile; - dear heart, it was thine

own.

"AFTER SORROW'S NIGHT"

AFTER sorrow's night

Dawned the morning bright.

In dewy woods I heard

A golden-throated bird,

And "Love, love, love," it sang,

And "Love, love, love."

Evening shadows fell

In our happy dell.

From glimmering woods I heard

A golden-throated bird,

And "Love, love, love," it sang,
And "Love, love, love."

O, the summer night

Starry was and bright.

In the dark woods I heard

A golden-throated bird,

And "Love, love, love," it sang,

And "Love, love, love."

A NOVEMBER CHILD

NOVEMBER winds, blow mild
On this new-born child!
Spirit of the autumn wood,

Make her gentle, make her good!

Still attend her,

And befriend her,

Fill her days with warmth and color;
Keep her safe from winter's dolor.

On thy bosom

Hide this blossom

Safe from summer's rain and thunderi

When those eyes of light and wonder
Tire at last of earthly places-

Full of years and full of graces,

Then, O, then

Take her back to heaven again!

AT NIGHT

THE sky is dark, and dark the bay below
Save where the midnight city's pallid glow
Lies like a lily white

On the black pool of night.

O rushing steamer, hurry on thy way
Across the swirling Kills and gusty bay,
To where the eddying tide

Strikes hard the city's side!

For there, between the river and the sea, Beneath that glow, the lily's heart to me,A sleeping mother mild,

And by her breast a child!

NINE YEARS

CRADLE SONG

In the embers shining bright
A garden grows for thy delight,
With roses yellow, red, and white.

But, O my child, beware, beware!
Touch not the blossoms blowing there,
For every rose a thorn doth bear.

"NINE YEARS"

NINE years to heaven had flown,
And June came, with June's token -
The wild rose that had known

A maiden's silence broken.

'T was thus the lover spoke,

And thus she leaned and listened

(Below, the billows broke,

-

The blue sea shook and glistened):

"We have been happy, Love,

Through bright and stormy weather,

Happy all hope above,

For we have been together.

"To meet, to love, to wed,

Joy without stint or measure, —

This was our lot," he said,

"To find untouched our treasure;

"But had some blindfold fate

Bound each unto another

To turn from Heaven's gate,

Each heart-throb hide and smother!

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"O dear and faithful heart,

If thus had we been fated;
To meet, to know, to part -
Too early, falsely, mated!

"Were this our bitter plight,

Ah, could we have dissembled ?”
Her cheek turned pale with fright;
She hid her face, and trembled.

"BACK FROM THE DARKNESS TO THE LIGHT AGAIN"

"BACK from the darkness to the light again!" Not from the darkness, Love, for hadst thou lain. Within the shadowy portal of the tomb,

Thy light had warmed the darkness into bloom.

PART II

FATE

I FLUNG a stone into a grassy field;

How many tiny creatures there may yield

(I thought) their petty lives through that rude shock! To me a pebble, 't is to them a rock

Gigantic, cruel, fraught with sudden death.
Perhaps it crusht an ant, perhaps its breath
Alone tore down a white and glittering palace,
And the small spider damns the giant's malice
Who wrought the wreck - blasted his pretty art!

Who knows what day some saunterer, light of heart,
An idle wanderer through the fields of space,
Large-limbed, big-brained, to whom our puny race