IN MEMORIAM F. A. S. VET, O stricken heart, remember, O remember YET How of human days he lived the better part. April came to bloom and never dim December Breathed its killing chills upon the head or heart. Doomed to know not Winter, only Spring, a being Trod the flowery April blithely for awhile, Took his fill of music, joy of thought and seeing, Came and stayed and went, nor ever ceased to smile. Came and stayed and went, and now when all is finished, You alone have crossed the melancholy stream, Yours the pang, but his, O his, the undiminished Undecaying gladness, undeparted dream. All that life contains of torture, toil, and treason, Shame, dishonour, death, to him were but a name. Here, a boy, he dwelt through all the singing season And ere the day of sorrow departed as he came. DAVOS, 1881. PEA TO MY FATHER EACE and her huge invasion to these shores Puts daily home; innumerable sails Dawn on the far horizon and draw near; To our wild coasts, not darkling now, approach: Not now obscure, since thou and thine art there, And bright on the lone isle, the foundered reef, The long, resounding foreland, Pharos stands. These are thy works, O father, these thy crown; Whether on high the air be pure, they shine Along the yellowing sunset, and all night Among the unnumbered stars of God they shine: Or whether fogs arise and far and wide The low sea-level drown each finds a tongue And all night long the tolling bell resounds: Till the stars vanish, till the sun return, In the first hour, the seaman in his skiff Moves through the unmoving bay, to where the town Its earliest smoke into the air upbreathes And the rough hazels climb along the beach. To the tugg'd oar the distant echo speaks. The ship lies resting, where by reef and roost Thou and thy lights have led her like a child. This hast thou done, and I -1 can I be base? I must arise, O father, and to port Some lost, complaining seaman pilot home. IN THE STATES WITH half a heart I wander here As from an age gone by A brother - yet though young in years, You speak another tongue than mine, Youth shall grow great and strong and free, But age must still decay: To-morrow for the States England and Yesterday. SAN FRANCISCO. for me, |