White swan of cities, slumbering in thy nest
So wonderfully built among the reeds
Of the lagoon, that fences thee and feeds,
As sayeth thy old historian and thy guest!
White water-lily, cradled and caressed
By ocean streams, and from the silt and weeds
Lifting thy golden filaments and seeds,
Thy sun-illumined spires, thy crown and crest!
White phantom city, whose untrodden streets
Are rivers, and whose pavements are the shifting
Shadows of palaces and strips of sky;
I wait to see thee vanish like the fleets
Seen in mirage, or towers of cloud uplifting
In air their unsubstantial masonry.
Keramos and Other Poems 1878
- Nature
- In the Churchyard at Tarrytown
- Eliot's Oak
- The Descent of the Muses
- Venice
- The Poets
- Parker Cleaveland
- The Harvest Moon
- To the River Rhone
- The Three Silences of Molinos
- The Two Rivers
- Boston
- St. John's, Cambridge
- Moods
- Woodstock Park
- The Four Princesses at Wilna
- Holidays
- Wapentake
- The Broken Oar