Francis Bret Harte

Didn't know Flynn,--
Flynn of Virginia,--
Long as he's been 'yar?
Look 'ee here, stranger,…

(REPORTED BY TRUTHFUL JAMES)Being asked by an intimate party,--
Which the same I would term as a friend,--
Though his health it were vain to call hearty,
Since the mind to deceit it might lend;…

Wondering maiden, so puzzled and fair,
Why dost thou murmur and ponder and stare?
"Why are my eyelids so open and wild?"
Only the better to see with, my child!…

O bells that rang, O bells that sang
Above the martyrs’ wilderness,
Till from that reddened coast-line sprang
The Gospel seed to cheer and bless,…

(NEW JERSEY, 1780)Here’s the spot. Look around you. Above on the height
Lay the Hessians encamped. By that church on the right
Stood the gaunt Jersey farmers. And here ran a wall,--
You may dig anywhere and you’ll turn up a ball.…

(SIERRAS)We checked our pace, the red road sharply rounding;
We heard the troubled flow
Of the dark olive depths of pines resounding
A thousand feet below.Above the tumult of the canyon lifted,…

(A CHEMICAL NARRATIVE)Certain facts which serve to explain
The physical charms of Miss Addie De Laine,
Who, as the common reports obtain,
Surpassed in complexion the lily and rose;…

Last night, above the whistling wind,
I heard the welcome rain,--
A fusillade upon the roof,
A tattoo on the pane:…

(1797)They ran through the streets of the seaport town,
They peered from the decks of the ships that lay;
The cold sea-fog that came whitening down
Was never as cold or white as they.…

Луна плывёт над соснами, и где-то
Журчание реки,
В тумане Сьерра, снега минареты
Поднялись высоки.Костёр, в порыве пламенном, неистов,…

Coward,--of heroic size,
In whose lazy muscles lies
Strength we fear and yet despise;
Savage,--whose relentless tusks…

С Горы Столовой я, зовут меня Правдивый Яков:
Всегда я правду говорю, — вам это скажет всякий.
Я попросту вам расскажу о диспуте-расправе
В ученом горном обществе у нас на Станиславе.Скажу сначала, что нельзя нам кулаком своим…

(1864)There is peace in the swamp where the Copperhead sleeps,
Where the waters are stagnant, the white vapor creeps,
Where the musk of Magnolia hangs thick in the air,
And the lilies’ phylacteries broaden in prayer.…

I read last night of the grand review
In Washington's chiefest avenue,—
Two hundred thousand men in blue,
I think they said was the number,—…

(SIERRAS, 1876)Dramatis PersonaeFirst Tourist
Second Tourist
Yuba Bill, Driver
A StrangerFIRST TOURISTLook how the upland plunges into cover,…

(1856)Dow’s Flat. That’s its name;
And I reckon that you
Are a stranger? The same?
Well, I thought it was true,--…

And you are the poet, and so you want
Something--what is it?--a theme, a fancy?
Something or other the Muse won’t grant
To your old poetical necromancy;…

ABOVE the pines the moon was slowly drifting,
The river sang below;
The dim Sierras, far beyond, uplifting
Their minarets of snow.The roaring camp-fire, with rude humor, painted…

BEAUTIFUL! Sir, you may say so. Thar isn’t her match in the county;
Is thar, old gal,—Chiquita, my darling, my beauty?
Feel of that neck, sir,—thar 's velvet! Whoa! Steady,—ah, will you, you vixen!
Whoa! I say. Jack, trot her out; let the gentleman look at her paces.Morgan!—She ain't nothin' else, and I 've got the papers to prove it.…

As I stand by the cross on the lone mountain’s crest,
Looking over the ultimate sea,
In the gloom of the mountain a ship lies at rest,
And one sails away from the lea:…

"So she's here, your unknown Dulcinea, the lady you met on the train,
And you really believe she would know you if you were to meet her
again?""Of course," he replied, "she would know me; there never was
womankind yet…

Don't mind me, I beg you, old fellow,--I'll do very well here alone;
You must not be kept from your "German" because I've dropped in like
a stone.
Leave all ceremony behind you, leave all thought of aught but…

(LEGEND OF THE CLIFF HOUSE, SAN FRANCISCO)Where the sturdy ocean breeze
Drives the spray of roaring seas,
That the Cliff House balconies
Overlook:…