Mad for Poetry

    Into a temple vast and dim,    Solemn and vast and dim,    Just when the last sweet Vesper Hymn         Was floating far away,    With eyes that tabernacled tears —    Her…

    I nearly died, I almost touched the door    That swings between forever and no more;    I think I heard the awful hinges grate,    Hour after hour, while I…

    I saw his face to-day; he looks a chief     Who fears not human rage, nor human guile;    Upon his cheeks the twilight of a grief,     But…

    Hearts that are great beat never loud,     They muffle their music when they come;    They hurry away from the thronging crowd     With bended brows and lips…

    There never was a valley without a faded flower,     There never was a heaven without some little cloud;    The face of day may flash with light…

    The summer rose the sun has flushed     With crimson glory may be sweet;    ‘Tis sweeter when its leaves are crushed     Beneath the wind’s and tempest’s feet….

    Pure faced page! waiting so long     To welcome my muse and me;    Fold to thy breast, like a mother, the song     That floats from my spirit…

    “O Songs!” I said:    “Stop sounding in my soul    Just for a little while and let me sleep,    Resting my head on the breast    Of Silence;” but the rhythmic…

    Those hearts of ours — how strange! how strange!    How they yearn to ramble and love to range    Down through the vales of the years long gone,    Up…