Life’s Vesper-bells are ringing     In the temple of my heart,    And yon sunset, sure, is singing     “Nunc dimittis — Now depart!”    Ah! the eve is golden-clouded,     But…

    Farewell! that word has broken hearts     And blinded eyes with tears;    Farewell! one stays, and one departs;     Between them roll the years.     No wonder why who…

                    Lost!    Lost!    Lost!    The cry went up from a sea —    The waves were wild with an awful wrath,    Not a light shone down on the lone ship’s path;                    The clouds…

    Only a Dream!         It floated thro’     The sky of a lonely sleep    As floats a gleam        Athwart the Blue     Of a golden clouded Deep.     Only a Dream!        I…

    Old trees, old trees! in your mystic gloom     There’s many a warrior laid,    And many a nameless and lonely tomb     Is sheltered beneath your shade.    Old trees,…

    Sometimes a single hour     Rings thro’ a long life-time,    As from a temple tower     There often falls a chime    From blessed bells, that seems    To fold in Heaven’s…

    I sit to-night by the firelight,     And I look at the glowing flame,    And I see in the bright red flashes     A Heart, a Face, and…

   Betimes, I seem to see in dreams     What when awake I may not see;     Can night be God’s more than the day?     Do stars, not…

    And “Happy! Happy! Happy!”     Rang the bells of all the hours;    “Shyly! Shyly! Shyly!”     Looked and listened all the flowers;    They were wakened from their slumbers,     By…

    Each year cometh with all his days,     Some are shadowed and some are bright;    He beckons us on until he stays     Kneeling with us ‘neath Christmas…