Samantha Mack

If any vague desire should rise,    That holy Death ere Arthur died    Had moved me kindly from his side, And dropt the dust on tearless...

"More than my brothers are to me,"—    Let this not vex thee, noble heart!    I know thee of what force thou art To hold the costliest...

Again at Christmas did we weave    The holly round the Christmas hearth;    The silent snow possess'd the earth, And calmly fell our...

What hope is here for modern rhyme    To him, who turns a musing eye    On songs, and deeds, and lives, that lie Foreshorten'd in the...

Take wings of fancy, and ascend,    And in a moment set thy face    Where all the starry heavens of space Are sharpen'd to a needle's...

I leave thy praises unexpress'd    In verse that brings myself relief,    And by the measure of my grief I leave thy greatness to be...

As sometimes in a dead man's face,    To those that watch it more and more,    A likeness, hardly seen before, Comes out—to some one of...

So many worlds, so much to do,    So little done, such things to be,    How know I what had need of thee, For thou wert strong as thou...

Risest thou thus, dim dawn, again,    And howlest, issuing out of night,    With blasts that blow the poplar white, And lash with storm...

Sleep, kinsman thou to death and trance    And madness, thou hast forged at last    A night-long Present of the Past In which we went...

I cannot see the features right,    When on the gloom I strive to paint    The face I know; the hues are faint And mix with hollow masks...

I dream'd there would be Spring no more,    That Nature's ancient power was lost:    The streets were black with smoke and frost, They...

When in the down I sink my head,    Sleep, Death's twin-brother, times my breath;    Sleep, Death's twin-brother, knows not Death, Nor...

When on my bed the moonlight falls,    I know that in thy place of rest    By that broad water of the west, There comes a glory on the...

You thought my heart too far diseased;    You wonder when my fancies play    To find me gay among the gay, Like one with any trifle...

Sweet soul, do with me as thou wilt;    I lull a fancy trouble-tost    With "Love's too precious to be lost, A little grain shall not be...

Dost thou look back on what hath been,    As some divinely gifted man,    Whose life in low estate began And on a simple village green;...

Yet pity for a horse o'er-driven,    And love in which my hound has part,    Can hang no weight upon my heart In its assumptions up to...

Tho' if an eye that's downward cast    Could make thee somewhat blench or fail,    Then be my love an idle tale, And fading legend of the...

If, in thy second state sublime,    Thy ransom'd reason change replies    With all the circle of the wise, The perfect flower of human...