Lewis Morris

OH, hark ! the languid air is still,
The fields and woods seem hushed and dumb.
But listen, and you shall hear a thrill,
An inner voice of silence come,…

To spring, to bloom, to fade,
This is the sum of the laborious years ;
Life preludes death as laughter ends in tears :
All things that God has made…

A CRUEL little stream I know,
Which slowly, slowly crawls between
The ooze banks, fringed with sedges green,
That serve to bind its feeble flow.So sheltered that no passing breath…

THEY were two poor young girls, little older than children,
Who passed through the midnight streets of the city
Singing.Poorly clad, morning-eyed, with a strange look of shyness,
Linked arms, and round cheeks, and smooth heads bent together,…

THE silent surfaces sleep
With a sullen viscous flow,
And scarce in the squalid deep
Swing the dead weeds to and fro,…

OH who shall say that we are free!
Surely life's chains are strong to bind
From youth to age, from birth to death,
Body and mind.We run the riotous race of youth,…

THOUGH they may crowd
Rite upon rite, and mystic song on song;
Though the deep organ loud
Through the long nave reverberate full and strong ;…

O THRUSH, your song is passing sweet,
But never a song that you have sung
Is half so sweet as thrushes sang
When my dear love and I were young.O Roses, you are sweet and red,…

THE old lives are dead and gone and rotten,
The old thoughts shall never more be thought,
The old faiths have failed and are forgotten,
The old strifes are done, the fight is fought.…

TIME was they lifted thee so high
Between the gazer and the sky,
That all the worshipper might see
Was God no more, but only thee.So high was set thy cross, that they…

TAKE thou no thought for aught save right and truth,
Life holds for finer souls no equal prize;
Honours and wealth are baubles to the wise,
And pleasure flies on swifter wing than youth.…

IF I were poor and weak,
Bankrupt of hope, and desolate of love;
Without a tongue to speak
The strange dumb thoughts of thee which through me move ;…

MY soul is as a bird
Singing in fair weather,
Deep in shady woodlands through the evening's dewy calm;
Every glossy feather…

IF thou shall be in heart a child,
Forgiving, tender, meek, and mild,
Though with light stains of earth defiled,
Oh, soul, it shall be well.It shall be well with thee indeed,…

ONCE, and once again,
From the thick crowd of men,
Loud toil and high endeavour,
There comes a secret sound,…

DEAR little hand that clasps my own,
Embrowned with toil and seamed with strife ;
Pink little fingers not yet grown
To the poor strength of after-life,—…

THE nests are in the hedgerows,
The lambs are on the grass ;
With laughter sweet as music
Thy hours lightfooted pass,…

FAITHFUL souls that watch and yearn,
Expectant of the coming light,
With kindling hearts and eyes that burn
With hope to see the rule of right;The time of peace and of good will,…

To and fro, to and fro,
The long, long processions go,
Fainter now and now more bright,
Now in shadow, now in light ;…

UNDER the picture gallery wall,
As a sea-leaf clings to a wave-worn rock,
Nor shrinks from the surging impetuous shock
Of the breakers which gather and whiten and fall…

BENEATH these shadows holy
Age rests, or paces slowly,
And muses, muses always
On that which once has been,…