O little feet! that such long years
Must wander on through hopes and fears,
Must ache and bleed beneath your load;
I, nearer to the wayside inn
Where toil shall cease and rest begin,
Am weary, thinking of your road!
O little hands! that, weak or strong,
Have still to serve or rule so long,
Have still so long to give or ask;
I, who so much with book and pen
Have toiled among my fellow-men,
Am weary, thinking of your task.
O little hearts! that throb and beat
With such impatient, feverish heat,
Such limitless and strong desires;
Mine that so long has glowed and burned,
With passions into ashes turned
Now covers and conceals its fires.
O little souls! as pure and white
And crystalline as rays of light
Direct from heaven, their source divine;
Refracted through the mist of years,
How red my setting sun appears,
How lurid looks this soul of mine!
Birds of Passage 1863
- Birds of Passage
- Prometheus, or the Poet's Forethought
- Epimetheus, or the Poet's Afterthought
- The Ladder of St. Augustine
- The Phantom Ship
- The Warden of the Cinque Ports
- Haunted Houses
- In the Churchyard at Cambridge
- The Emperor's Bird's-Nest
- The Two Angels
- Daylight and Moonlight
- The Jewish Cemetery at Newport
- Oliver Basselin
- Victor Galbraith
- My Lost Youth
- The Ropewalk
- The Golden Mile-Stone
- Catawba Wine
- Santa Filomena
- The Discoverer of the North Cape
- Daybreak
- The Fiftieth Birthday of Agassiz
- Children
- Sandalphon
- The Children's Hour
- Enceladus
- The Cumberland
- Snow-Flakes
- A Day of Sunshine
- Something Left Undone
- Weariness