[ { "title": "Hymn To Death", "author": "William Cullen Bryant", "lines": [ "Oh! could I hope the wise and pure in heart", "Might hear my song without a frown, nor deem", "My voice unworthy of the theme it tries,--", "I would take up the hymn to Death, and say", "To the grim power, The world hath slandered thee", "And mocked thee. On thy dim and shadowy brow", "They place an iron crown, and call thee king", "Of terrors, and the spoiler of the world,", "Deadly assassin, that strik'st down the fair,", "The loved, the good--that breath'st upon the lights", "Of virtue set along the vale of life,", "And they go out in darkness. I am come,", "Not with reproaches, not with cries and prayers,", "Such as have stormed thy stern insensible ear", "From the beginning. I am come to speak", "Thy praises. True it is, that I have wept", "Thy conquests, and may weep them yet again:", "And thou from some I love wilt take a life", "Dear to me as my own. Yet while the spell", "Is on my spirit, and I talk with thee", "In sight of all thy trophies, face to face,", "Meet is it that my voice should utter forth", "", "Thy nobler triumphs: I will teach the world", "To thank thee.--Who are thine accusers?--Who?", "The living!--they who never felt thy power,", "And know thee not. The curses of the wretch", "Whose crimes are ripe, his sufferings when thy hand", "Is on him, and the hour he dreads is come,", "Are writ among thy praises. But the good--", "Does he whom thy kind hand dismissed to peace,", "Upbraid the gentle violence that took off", "His fetters, and unbarred his prison cell?", "Raise then the Hymn to Death. Deliverer!", "God hath anointed thee to free the oppressed", "And crush the oppressor. When the armed chief,", "The conqueror of nations, walks the world,", "And it is changed beneath his feet, and all", "Its kingdoms melt into one mighty realm--", "Thou, while his head is loftiest, and his heart", "Blasphemes, imagining his own right hand", "Almighty, sett'st upon him thy stern grasp,", "And the strong links of that tremendous chain", "That bound mankind are crumbled; thou dost break", "Sceptre and crown, and beat his throne to dust.", "Then the earth shouts with gladness, and her tribes", "Gather within their ancient bounds again.", "Else had the mighty of the olden time,", "Nimrod, Sesostris, or the youth who feigned", "His birth from Lybian Ammon, smote even now", "The nations with a rod of iron, and driven", "Their chariot o'er our necks. Thou dost avenge,", "In thy good time, the wrongs of those who know", "", "No other friend. Nor dost thou interpose", "Only to lay the sufferer asleep,", "Where he who made him wretched troubles not", "His rest--thou dost strike down his tyrant too.", "Oh, there is joy when hands that held the scourge", "Drop lifeless, and the pitiless heart is cold.", "Thou too dost purge from earth its horrible", "And old idolatries; from the proud fanes", "Each to his grave their priests go out, till none", "Is left to teach their worship; then the fires", "Of sacrifice are chilled, and the green moss", "O'ercreeps their altars; the fallen images", "Cumber the weedy courts, and for loud hymns,", "Chanted by kneeling crowds, the chiding winds", "Shriek in the solitary aisles. When he", "Who gives his life to guilt, and laughs at all", "The laws that God or man has made, and round", "Hedges his seat with power, and shines in wealth,--", "Lifts up his atheist front to scoff at Heaven,", "And celebrates his shame in open day,", "Thou, in the pride of all his crimes, cutt'st off", "The horrible example. Touched by thine,", "The extortioner's hard hand foregoes the gold", "Wrong from the o'er-worn poor. The perjurer,", "Whose tongue was lithe, e'en now, and voluble", "Against his neighbour's life, and he who laughed", "And leaped for joy to see a spotless fame", "Blasted before his own foul calumnies,", "Are smit with deadly silence. He, who sold", "His conscience to preserve a worthless life,", "", "Even while he hugs himself on his escape,", "Trembles, as, doubly terrible, at length,", "Thy steps o'ertake him, and there is no time", "For parley--nor will bribes unclench thy grasp.", "Oft, too, dost thou reform thy victim, long", "Ere his last hour. And when the reveller,", "Mad in the chase of pleasure, stretches on,", "And strains each nerve, and clears the path of life", "Like wind, thou point'st him to the dreadful goal,", "And shak'st thy hour-glass in his reeling eye,", "And check'st him in mid course. Thy skeleton hand", "Shows to the faint of spirit the right path,", "And he is warned, and fears to step aside.", "Thou sett'st between the ruffian and his crime", "Thy ghastly countenance, and his slack hand", "Drops the drawn knife. But, oh, most fearfully", "Dost thou show forth Heaven's justice, when thy shafts", "Drink up the ebbing spirit--then the hard", "Of heart and violent of hand restores", "The treasure to the friendless wretch he wronged.", "Then from the writhing bosom thou dost pluck", "The guilty secret; lips, for ages sealed,", "Are faithless to the dreadful trust at length,", "And give it up; the felon's latest breath", "Absolves the innocent man who bears his crime;", "The slanderer, horror smitten, and in tears,", "Recalls the deadly obloquy he forged", "To work his brother's ruin. Thou dost make", "Thy penitent victim utter to the air", "The dark conspiracy that strikes at life,", "", "And aims to whelm the laws; ere yet the hour", "Is come, and the dread sign of murder given.", "Thus, from the first of time, hast thou been found", "On virtue's side; the wicked, but for thee,", "Had been too strong for the good; the great of earth", "Had crushed the weak for ever. Schooled in guile", "For ages, while each passing year had brought", "Its baneful lesson, they had filled the world", "With their abominations; while its tribes,", "Trodden to earth, imbruted, and despoiled,", "Had knelt to them in worship; sacrifice", "Had smoked on many an altar, temple roofs", "Had echoed with the blasphemous prayer and hymn:", "But thou, the great reformer of the world,", "Tak'st off the sons of violence and fraud", "In their green pupilage, their lore half learned--", "Ere guilt has quite o'errun the simple heart", "God gave them at their birth, and blotted out", "His image. Thou dost mark them, flushed with hope,", "As on the threshold of their vast designs", "Doubtful and loose they stand, and strik'st them down.", "", "Alas, I little thought that the stern power", "Whose fearful praise I sung, would try me thus", "Before the strain was ended. It must cease--", "For he is in his grave who taught my youth", "The art of verse, and in the bud of life", "Offered me to the muses. Oh, cut off", "Untimely! when thy reason in its strength,", "Ripened by years of toil and studious search", "", "And watch of Nature's silent lessons, taught", "Thy hand to practise best the lenient art", "To which thou gavest thy laborious days.", "And, last, thy life. And, therefore, when the earth", "Received thee, tears were in unyielding eyes", "And on hard cheeks, and they who deemed thy skill", "Delayed their death-hour, shuddered and turned pale", "When thou wert gone. This faltering verse, which thou", "Shalt not, as wont, o'erlook, is all I have", "To offer at thy grave--this--and the hope", "To copy thy example, and to leave", "A name of which the wretched shall not think", "As of an enemy's, whom they forgive", "As all forgive the dead. Rest, therefore, thou", "Whose early guidance trained my infant steps--", "Rest, in the bosom of God, till the brief sleep", "Of death is over, and a happier life", "Shall dawn to waken thine insensible dust.", "Now thou art not--and yet the men whose guilt", "Has wearied Heaven for vengeance--he who bears", "False witness--he who takes the orphan's bread,", "And robs the widow--he who spreads abroad", "Polluted hands in mockery of prayer,", "Are left to cumber earth. Shuddering I look", "On what is written, yet I blot not out", "The desultory numbers--let them stand.", "The record of an idle revery." ], "linecount": "168" }, { "title": "A Song of Pitcairn's Island", "author": "William Cullen Bryant", "lines": [ "Come, take our boy, and we will go", "Before our cabin door;", "The winds shall bring us, as they blow,", "The murmurs of the shore;", "And we will kiss his young blue eyes,", "And I will sing him, as he lies,", "Songs that were made of yore:", "I'll sing, in his delighted ear,", "The island lays thou lov'st to hear.", "", "And thou, while stammering I repeat,", "Thy country's tongue shalt teach;", "'Tis not so soft, but far more sweet,", "Than my own native speech:", "For thou no other tongue didst know,", "When, scarcely twenty moons ago,", "Upon Tahete's beach,", "Thou cam'st to woo me to be thine,", "With many a speaking look and sign.", "", "I knew thy meaning--thou didst praise", "My eyes, my locks of jet;", "Ah! well for me they won thy gaze,--", "But thine were fairer yet!", "", "I'm glad to see my infant wear", "Thy soft blue eyes and sunny hair,", "And when my sight is met", "By his white brow and blooming cheek,", "I feel a joy I cannot speak.", "", "Come talk of Europe's maids with me,", "Whose necks and cheeks, they tell,", "Outshine the beauty of the sea,", "White foam and crimson shell.", "I'll shape like theirs my simple dress,", "And bind like them each jetty tress.", "A sight to please thee well:", "And for my dusky brow will braid", "A bonnet like an English maid.", "", "Come, for the soft low sunlight calls,", "We lose the pleasant hours;", "'Tis lovelier than these cottage walls,--", "That seat among the flowers.", "And I will learn of thee a prayer,", "To Him, who gave a home so fair,", "A lot so blessed as ours--", "The God who made, for thee and me,", "This sweet lone isle amid the sea." ], "linecount": "45" }, { "title": "Spring in Town", "author": "William Cullen Bryant", "lines": [ "The country ever has a lagging Spring,", "Waiting for May to call its violets forth,", "And June its roses--showers and sunshine bring,", "Slowly, the deepening verdure o'er the earth;", "To put their foliage out, the woods are slack,", "And one by one the singing-birds come back.", "", "Within the city's bounds the time of flowers", "Comes earlier. Let a mild and sunny day,", "Such as full often, for a few bright hours,", "Breathes through the sky of March the airs of May,", "Shine on our roofs and chase the wintry gloom--", "And lo! our borders glow with sudden bloom.", "", "For the wide sidewalks of Broadway are then", "Gorgeous as are a rivulet's banks in June,", "That overhung with blossoms, through its glen,", "Slides soft away beneath the sunny noon,", "And they who search the untrodden wood for flowers", "Meet in its depths no lovelier ones than ours.", "", "For here are eyes that shame the violet,", "Or the dark drop that on the pansy lies,", "And foreheads, white, as when in clusters set,", "The anemonies by forest fountains rise;", "", "And the spring-beauty boasts no tenderer streak", "Than the soft red on many a youthful cheek.", "", "And thick about those lovely temples lie", "Locks that the lucky Vignardonne has curled,", "Thrice happy man! whose trade it is to buy,", "And bake, and braid those love-knots of the world;", "Who curls of every glossy colour keepest,", "And sellest, it is said, the blackest cheapest.", "", "And well thou may'st--for Italy's brown maids", "Send the dark locks with which their brows are dressed,", "And Gascon lasses, from their jetty braids,", "Crop half, to buy a riband for the rest;", "But the fresh Norman girls their tresses spare,", "And the Dutch damsel keeps her flaxen hair.", "", "Then, henceforth, let no maid nor matron grieve,", "To see her locks of an unlovely hue,", "Frouzy or thin, for liberal art shall give", "Such piles of curls as nature never knew.", "Eve, with her veil of tresses, at the sight", "Had blushed, outdone, and owned herself a fright.", "", "Soft voices and light laughter wake the street,", "Like notes of woodbirds, and where'er the eye", "Threads the long way, plumes wave, and twinkling feet", "Fall light, as hastes that crowd of beauty by.", "The ostrich, hurrying o'er the desert space,", "Scarce bore those tossing plumes with fleeter pace.", "", "No swimming Juno gait, of languor born,", "Is theirs, but a light step of freest grace,", "Light as Camilla's o'er the unbent corn,", "A step that speaks the spirit of the place,", "Since Quiet, meek old dame, was driven away", "To Sing Sing and the shores of Tappan bay.", "", "Ye that dash by in chariots! who will care", "For steeds or footmen now? ye cannot show", "Fair face, and dazzling dress, and graceful air,", "And last edition of the shape! Ah no,", "These sights are for the earth and open sky,", "And your loud wheels unheeded rattle by." ], "linecount": "60" }, { "title": "To a Waterfowl", "author": "William Cullen Bryant", "lines": [ "Whither, midst falling dew,", "While glow the heavens with the last steps of day", "Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue", "Thy solitary way?", "", "Vainly the fowler's eye", "Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong", "As, darkly seen against the crimson sky,", "Thy figure floats along.", "", "Seek'st thou the plashy brink", "Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide,", "Or where the rocking billows rise and sing", "On the chafed ocean side?", "", "There is a Power whose care", "Teaches thy way along that pathless coast--", "The desert and illimitable air--", "Lone wandering, but not lost.", "", "All day thy wings have fanned,", "At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere,", "Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land,", "Though the dark night is near.", "", "And soon that toil shall end;", "Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest,", "And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend,", "Soon, o'er thy sheltered nest.", "", "Thou'rt gone, the abyss of heaven", "Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart", "Deeply has sunk the lesson thou hast given,", "And shall not soon depart.", "", "He who, from zone to zone,", "Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,", "In the long way that I must tread alone,", "Will lead my steps aright." ], "linecount": "32" }, { "title": "The Gladness of Nature", "author": "William Cullen Bryant", "lines": [ "Is this a time to be cloudy and sad,", "When our mother Nature laughs around;", "When even the deep blue heavens look glad,", "And gladness breathes from the blossoming ground?", "", "There are notes of joy from the hang-bird and wren,", "And the gossip of swallows through all the sky;", "The ground-squirrel gaily chirps by his den,", "And the wilding bee hums merrily by.", "", "The clouds are at play in the azure space,", "And their shadows at play on the bright green vale,", "And here they stretch to the frolic chase,", "And there they roll on the easy gale.", "", "There's a dance of leaves in that aspen bower,", "There's a titter of winds in that beechen tree,", "There's a smile on the fruit, and a smile on the flower,", "And a laugh from the brook that runs to the sea.", "", "And look at the broad-faced sun, how he smiles", "On the dewy earth that smiles in his ray,", "On the leaping waters and gay young isles;", "Ay, look, and he'll smile thy gloom away." ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "Summer Wind", "author": "William Cullen Bryant", "lines": [ "It is a sultry day; the sun has drank", "The dew that lay upon the morning grass,", "There is no rustling in the lofty elm", "That canopies my dwelling, and its shade", "Scarce cools me. All is silent, save the faint", "And interrupted murmur of the bee,", "Settling on the sick flowers, and then again", "Instantly on the wing. The plants around", "Feel the too potent fervors; the tall maize", "Rolls up its long green leaves; the clover droops", "Its tender foliage, and declines its blooms.", "But far in the fierce sunshine tower the hills,", "With all their growth of woods, silent and stern,", "As if the scortching heat and dazzling light", "Were but an element they loved. Bright clouds,", "Motionless pillars of the brazen heaven;--", "Their bases on the mountains--their white tops", "Shining in the far ether--fire the air", "With a reflected radiance, and make turn", "The gazer's eye away. For me, I lie", "Languidly in the shade, where the thick turf,", "Yet virgin from the kisses of the sun,", "Retains some freshness, and I woo the wind", "That still delays its coming. Why so slow,", "Gentle and voluble spirit of the air?", "Oh, come and breathe upon the fainting earth", "Coolness and life. Is it that in his caves", "He hears me? See, on yonder woody ridge,", "The pine is bending his proud top, and now,", "Among the nearer groves, chesnut and oak", "Are tossing their green boughs about. He comes!", "Lo, where the grassy meadow runs in wives!", "The deep distressful silence of the scene", "Breaks up with mingling of unnumbered sounds", "And universal motion. He is come,", "Shaking a shower of blossoms from the shrubs,", "And bearing on the fragrance; and he brings", "Music of birds, and rustling of young boughs,", "And soun of swaying branches, and the voice", "Of distant waterfalls. All the green herbs", "Are stirring in his breath; a thousand flowers,", "By the road-side and the borders of the brook,", "Nod gaily to each other; glossy leaves", "Are twinkling in the sun, as if the dew", "Were on them yet, and silver waters break", "Into small waves and sparkle as he comes." ], "linecount": "46" }, { "title": "The Death of the Flowers", "author": "William Cullen Bryant", "lines": [ "The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year,", "Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sere.", "Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the autumn leaves lie dead;", "They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbit's tread;", "The robin and the wren are flown, and from the shrubs the jay,", "And from the wood-top calls the crow through all the gloomy day.", "", "Where are the flowers, the fair young flowers, that lately sprang and stood", "In brighter light and softer airs, a beauteous sisterhood?", "Alas! they all are in their graves, the gentle race of flowers", "Are lying in their lowly beds, with the fair and good of ours.", "The rain is falling where they lie, but the cold November rain", "Calls not from out the gloomy earth the lovely ones again.", "", "The wind-flower and the violet, they perished long ago,", "And the brier-rose and the orchis died amid the summer glow;", "But on the hills the golden-rod, and the aster in the wood,", "And the yellow sun-flower by the brook in autumn beauty stood,", "Till fell the frost from the clear cold heaven, as falls the plague on men,", "And the brightness of their smile was gone, from upland, glade, and glen.", "", "And now, when comes the calm mild day, as still such days will come,", "To call the squirrel and the bee from out their winter home;", "When the sound of dropping nuts is heard, though all the trees are still,", "And twinkle in the smoky light the waters of the rill,", "The south wind searches for the flowers whose fragrance late he bore,", "And sighs to find them in the wood and by the stream no more.", "", "And then I think of one who in her youthful beauty died,", "The fair meek blossom that grew up and faded by my side.", "In the cold moist earth we laid her, when the forests cast the leaf,", "And we wept that one so lovely should have a life so brief:", "Yet not unmeet it was that one, like that young friend of ours,", "So gentle and so beautiful, should perish with the flowers." ], "linecount": "30" } ]