The Writings of James Russell Lowell: PoemsHoughton, Mifflin and Company, 1890 |
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Common terms and phrases
beautiful beneath better birds brain brave breath brood brow charm dare dead dear death deed divine doubt dream dumb dust E. L. GODKIN ears earth eccentric orbit exiled artist eyes fair faith fame fancy Fate feel feet fire flame God's gods dethroned grace grave gray half Haply happy hath hear heard heart HEARTSEASE heaven hope idlesse immortal instinct knew life's light lives look macaroons man's manhood MEERSCHAUM memory mind mood morn mortal Muse Nature neath never nobler o'er once Ovid passion past pictured song poet praise prodom round Roundhead sense shape shining silent sing siren passion soaring free song soul stars stars control stir sunshine sure sweet thee things thou thought thrill Time's to-day toil touch touch of joy tree Twixt verse Veuve Clicquot voice wait wind wings wise words
Popular passages
Page 24 - Great captains, with their guns and drums, Disturb our judgment for the hour, But at last silence comes; These all are gone, and, standing like a tower, Our children shall behold his fame, The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man, Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame, New birth of our new soil, the first American.
Page 23 - ... in the strength of God, and true. How beautiful to see Once more a shepherd of mankind indeed, Who loved his charge, but never loved to lead ; One whose meek flock the people joyed to be, Not lured by any cheat of birth, But by his clear-grained human worth, And brave old wisdom of sincerity ! They knew that outward grace is dust; They could not choose but trust In that sure-footed mind's unfaltering skill, And supple-tempered will That bent like perfect steel to spring again and thrust.
Page 22 - Such was he, our Martyr-Chief, Whom late the Nation he had led, With ashes on her head, Wept with the passion of an angry grief : Forgive me, if from present things I turn To speak what in my heart will beat and burn, And hang my wreath on his world-honored urn.
Page 31 - Bow down, dear Land, for thou hast found release! Thy God, in these distempered days, Hath taught thee the sure wisdom of His ways, And through thine enemies hath wrought thy peace! Bow down in prayer and praise ! No poorest in thy borders but may now Lift to the juster skies a man's enfranchised brow.
Page 26 - We rather seem the dead that stayed behind. Blow, trumpets, all your exultations blow! For never shall their aureoled presence lack; I see them muster in a gleaming row, With ever-youthful brows that nobler show; We find in our dull road their shining track; In every nobler mood We feel the orient of their spirit glow, Part of our life's unalterable good, Of all our saintlier aspiration; They come transfigured back, Secure from change in their high-hearted ways, Beautiful evermore, and with the rays...
Page 181 - All round about our feet shall shine A light like that the wise men saw, If we our loving wills incline To that sweet Life which is the Law. So shall we learn to understand The simple faith of shepherds then, And, clasping kindly hand in hand, Sing, "Peace on earth, good-will to men!
Page 5 - not yet for him, Whose large horizon, westering, star by star Wins from the void to where on Ocean's rim The sunset shuts the world with golden bar, Not yet his thews shall fail, his eye grow dim...
Page 4 - Rough are the steps, slow-hewn in flintiest rock, States climb to power by; slippery those with gold Down which they stumble to eternal mock: No chafferer's hand shall long the sceptre hold, Who, given a Fate to shape, would sell the block. "We sing old Sagas, songs of weal and woe, Mystic because too cheaply understood; Dark sayings are not ours; men hear and know, See Evil weak, see strength alone in Good, Yet hope to stem God's fire with walls of tow.
Page 88 - She gave us this unblemished gentleman : What shall we give her back but love and praise As in the dear old unestranged days Before the inevitable wrong began ? Mother of States and undiminished men, Thou gavest us a country, giving him...
Page 18 - From happy homes and toils, the fruitful nest Of those half-virtues which the world calls best, Into War's tumult rude; But rather far...