I

A SHADOW

SAID unto myself, if I were dead,

What would befall these children?

would be

Their fate, who now are looking up to me

What

For help and furtherance? Their lives, I said, Would be a volume wherein I have read

But the first chapters, and no longer see
To read the rest of their dear history,
So full of beauty and so full of dread.
Be comforted; the world is very old,

And generations pass, as they have passed,
A troop of shadows moving with the sun;
Thousands of times has the old tale been told;

The world belongs to those who come the last, They will find hope and strength as we have done.

A

A NAMELESS GRAVE

SOLDIER of the Union mustered out,"

Is the inscription on an unknown grave At Newport News, beside the salt-sea wave, Nameless and dateless; sentinel or scout Shot down in skirmish, or disastrous rout Of battle, when the loud artillery drave Its iron wedges through the ranks of brave And doomed battalions, storming the redoubt. Thou unknown hero sleeping by the sea In thy forgotten grave! with secret shame I feel my pulses beat, my forehead burn, When I remember thou hast given for me All that thou hadst, thy life, thy very name, And I can give thee nothing in return.

L

SLEEP

ULL me to sleep, ye winds, whose fitful sound Seems from some faint Æolian harpstring caught;

Seal up the hundred wakeful eyes of thought As Hermes with his lyre in sleep profound The hundred wakeful eyes of Argus bound; For I am weary, and am overwrought

With too much toil, with too much care distraught,

And with the iron crown of anguish crowned.
Lay thy soft hand upon my brow and cheek,
O peaceful Sleep! until from pain released
I breathe again uninterrupted breath!
Ah, with what subtile meaning did the Greek
Call thee the lesser mystery at the feast
Whereof the greater mystery is death!

THE OLD BRIDGE AT FLORENCE

ADDEO GADDI built me.

I am old,

plant my foot of

stone

Upon the Arno, as St. Michael's own

Was planted on the dragon. Fold by fold Beneath me as it struggles, I behold

Its glistening scales. Twice hath it overthrown My kindred and companions. Me alone

It moveth not, but is by me controlled.

I can remember when the Medici

Were driven from Florence; longer still ago
The final wars of Ghibelline and Guelf.
Florence adorns me with her jewelry;
And when I think that Michael Angelo
Hath leaned on me, I glory in myself.

G

IL PONTE VECCHIO DI FIRENZE

ADDI mi fece; il Ponte Vecchio sono;

Cinquecent' anni già sull' Arno pianto Il piede, come il suo Michele Santo Piantò sul draco. Mentre ch' io ragiono Lo vedo torcere con flebil suono

Le rilucenti scaglie. Ha questi affranto
Due volte i miei maggior. Me solo intanto
Neppure muove, ed io non l' abbandono.
Io mi rammento quando fur cacciati
I Medici; pur quando Ghibellino
E Guelfo fecer pace mi rammento.
Fiorenza i suoi giojelli m' ha prestati;

E quando penso ch' Agnolo il divino
Su me posava, insuperbir mi sento.