Like a golden goblet falling And far in the hazy distance Among the long, black rafters The wavering shadows lay, And the current that came from the ocean As, sweeping and eddying through them, Rose the belated tide, And, streaming into the moonlight, The seaweed floated wide. And like those waters rushing Among the wooden piers, A flood of thoughts came o'er me How often, O how often, In the days that had gone by, I had stood on that bridge at midnight How often, O how often, I had wished that the ebbing tide Would bear me away on its bosom O'er the ocean wild and wide! 8 12 16 20 24 32 40 35 For my heart was hot and restless, And the burden laid upon me Seemed greater than I could bear. But now it has fallen from me, And only the sorrow of others Yet whenever I cross the river On its bridge with wooden piers, Like the odor of brine from the ocean Comes the thought of other years. And I think of how many thousands Each bearing his burden of sorrow," I see the long procession Still passing to and fro, t The young heart hot and restless, And the old subdued and slow! And forever and forever, As long as the river flows, As long as the heart has passions, As long as life has woes; 48 44 1845. The moon and its broken reflection And its shadows shall appear, As the symbol of love in heaven, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 60 A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT WHAT was he doing, the great god Pan, He tore out a reed, the great god Pan, Ere he brought it out of the river. High on the shore sat the great god Pan, And hack'd and hew'd as a great god can, He cut it short, did the great god Pan, (How tall it stood in the river!) Then drew the pith, like the heart of a man, 12 18 Steadily from the outside ring, And notch'd the poor dry empty thing "This is the way," laugh'd the great god Pan "The only way, since gods began To make sweet music, they could succeed." Sweet, sweet, sweet, O Pan! Yet half a beast is the great god Pan, The true gods sigh for the cost and pain,— 1860. Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 24 30 36 42 THE ARROW AND THE SONG I SHOT an arrow into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where; 1845. I breathed a song into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where; Long, long afterward, in an oak 12 "THE WORLD'S GREAT AGE BEGINS ANEW" From Hellas THE world's great age begins anew, The earth doth like a snake renew 'Her winter weeds outworn: Heaven smiles, and faiths and empires gleam, Like wrecks of a dissolving dream. A brighter Hellas rears its mountains From waves serener far; A new Peneus rolls his fountains Against the morning star. Where fairer Tempes bloom, there sleep |