Poems

Two Figures in Dense Violet Light I had as lief be embraced by the portier of the hotel As to get no more from the moonlight […]

Valley Candle My candle burned alone in an immense valley. Beams of the huge night converged upon it, Until the wind blew. The beams of the […]

1861 Arm’d year! year of the struggle! No dainty rhymes or sentimental love verses for you, terrible year! Not you as some pale poetling, seated at […]

A Boston Ballad, 1854 TO get betimes in Boston town, I rose this morning early; Here’s a good place at the corner–I must stand and see […]

A child said, What is the grass? A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; How could I answer the […]

A Child’s Amaze SILENT and amazed, even when a little boy, I remember I heard the preacher every Sunday put God in his statements, As contending […]

A Clear Midnight THIS is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless, Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson […]

A Farm-Picture THROUGH the ample open door of the peaceful country barn, A sun-lit pasture field, with cattle and horses feeding; And haze, and vista, and […]

A Glimpse A GLIMPSE, through an interstice caught, Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a bar-room, around the stove, late of a winter night–And […]

A Hand-Mirror Hold it up sternly! See this it sends back! (Who is it? Is it you?) Outside fair costume–within ashes and filth, No more a […]