A MOTHER'S PICTURE
Sweet dignity and tenderness and grace,
Devotion, and the power to draw the heart:
This her inheritance, her dower, her art;
All these are radiant in that mother face.
ON A YOUNG HERO
Too soon? But heroes always die too soon!
This, this it is that makes them dear and great.
Grant us, O kindly Heaven, the supreme boon
To give our lives too soon—not die too late!
A HERO'S BRIDE
What tragic loss! but, O, what gain sublime,
What golden memory, life-enduring pride.
What shall it matter, brief or long the time?
Love of a noble soul—a hero's bride.
TO ONE WHO PRAISED "THE GAY LIFE"
Gay! as the hot crater's crust all lightning-lit—
But one tread more, and horror of the pit!
Gay! Yes, for a moment, and then weeping sorrow,
With wild remorse to meet the dawning morrow.
LYRIC LIVES
There are more poets than the rhyming race;
Souls beautiful of thought, and full of grace;
The spirit of poetry in them breathes and thrives;
They write not poems, but lead lyric lives.
SONG
A little longer still in summer suns,
On wintry nights, and where the wild brook runs,
To rest or wander;
