I leave it behind with the games of youth:" The ground-pine curled its pretty wreath, I inhaled the violet's breath; Around me stood the oaks and firs; Pine-cones and acorns lay on the ground; Again I saw, again I heard, The rolling river, the morning bird; I yielded myself to the perfect whole. Ralph Waldo Emerson SELF-DEPENDENCE Weary of myself, and sick of asking And a look of passionate desire O'er the sea and to the stars I send: "Ye who from my childhood up have calm'd me, Calm me, ah, compose me to the end! "Ah, once more," I cried, "ye stars, ye waters, On my heart your mighty charm renew; Still, still let me, as I gaze upon you, Feel my soul becoming vast like you!" From the intense, clear, star-sown vault of heaven, Over the lit sea's unquiet way, In the rustling night-air came the answer: These demand not that the things without them "And with joy the stars perform their shining, "Bounded by themselves, and unregardful O air-born voice! long since, severely clear, -Matthew Arnold. THE LAST WORD Creep into thy narrow bed, Let the long contention cease! They out-talk'd thee, hiss'd thee, tore thee? Charge once more, then, and be dumb! When the forts of folly fall, Find thy body by the wall! -Matthew Arnold ANNE RUTLEDGE Out of me unworthy and unknown The vibrations of deathless music; “With malice toward none, with charity for all." Out of me the forgiveness of millions toward millions, And the beneficent face of a nation Shining with justice and truth. I am Anne Rutledge who sleep beneath these weeds, Wedded to him, not through union, But through separation. Bloom forever, O Republic, From the dust of my bosom! - Edgar Lee Masters LUCINDA MATLOCK I went to the dances at Chandlerville, One time we changed partners, Driving home in the moonlight of middle June, And then I found Davis. We were married and lived together for seventy years, Ere I had reached the age of sixty. I spun, I wove, I kept the house, I nursed the sick, I made the garden, and for holiday Rambled over the fields where sang the larks, And many a flower and medicinal weed Shouting to the wooded hills, singing to the green valleys. At ninety-six I had lived enough, that is all, And passed to a sweet repose. What is this I hear of sorrow and weariness, Life is too strong for you It takes life to love Life. - Edgar Lee Masters INVICTUS Out of the night that covers me, In the fell clutch of circumstance Beyond this space of wrath and tears Finds and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul. - William Ernest Henley REQUIEM Under the wide and starry sky, This be the verse you grave for me: ULYSSES · Robert Louis Stevenson It little profits that an idle king, By this still hearth, among these barren crags, That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me. Life to the lees: all times I have enjoy'd |