Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) (284 page)

Robert of Lincoln

William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878)

MERRILY swinging on brier and weed,
 
Near to the nest of his little dame,
Over the mountain-side or mead,
 
Robert of Lincoln is telling his name:
  
Bob-o’-link, bob-o’-link,
  
5
  
Spink, spank, spink;
Snug and safe is that nest of ours,
Hidden among the summer flowers.
   
Chee, chee, chee.

Robert of Lincoln is gayly drest,
  
10
 
Wearing a bright black wedding-coat;
White are his shoulders and white his crest.
 
Hear him call in his merry note:
  
Bob-o’-link, bob-o’-link,
  
Spink, spank, spink;
  
15
Look, what a nice new coat is mine,
Sure there was never a bird so fine.
   
Chee, chee, chee.

Robert of Lincoln’s Quaker wife,
 
Pretty and quiet, with plain brown wings,
  
20
Passing at home a patient life,
 
Broods in the grass while her husband sings:
  
Bob-o’-link, bob-o’-link,
  
Spink, spank, spink;
Brood, kind creature; you need not fear
  
25
Thieves and robbers while I am here.
   
Chee, chee, chee.

Modest and shy as a nun is she;
 
One weak chirp is her only note.
Braggart and prince of braggarts is he,
  
30
 
Pouring boasts from his little throat;
  
Bob-o’-link, bob-o’-link,
  
Spink, spank, spink;
Never was I afraid of man;
Catch me, cowardly knaves, if you can!
  
35
   
Chee, chee, chee.

Six white eggs on a bed of hay,
 
Flecked with purple, a pretty sight!
There as the mother sits all day,
 
Robert is singing with all his might:
  
40
  
Bob-o’-link, bob-o’-link,
  
Spink, spank, spink;
Nice good wife, that never goes out,
Keeping house while I frolic about.
   
Chee, chee, chee.
  
45

Soon as the little ones chip the shell,
 
Six wide mouths are open for food;
Robert of Lincoln bestirs him well,
 
Gathering seeds for the hungry brood.
  
Bob-o’-link, bob-o’-link,
  
50
  
Spink, spank, spink;
This new life is likely to be
Hard for a gay young fellow like me.
   
Chee, chee, chee.

Robert of Lincoln at length is made
  
55
 
Sober with work, and silent with care;
Off is his holiday garment laid,
 
Half forgotten that merry air:
  
Bob-o’-link, bob-o’-link,
  
Spink, spank, spink;
  
60
Nobody knows but my mate and I
Where our nest and our nestlings lie.
   
Chee, chee, chee.

Summer wanes; the children are grown;
 
Fun and frolic no more he knows;
  
65
Robert of Lincoln’s a humdrum crone;
 
Off he flies, and we sing as he goes:
  
Bob-o’-link, bob-o’-link,
  
Spink, spank, spink;
When you can pipe that merry old strain,
  
70
Robert of Lincoln, come back again.
   
Chee, chee, chee.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

Song of Marion’s Men

William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878)

OUR band is few but true and tried,
 
Our leader frank and bold;
The British soldier trembles
 
When Marion’s name is told.
Our fortress is the good greenwood,
  
5
 
Our tent the cypress-tree;
We know the forest round us,
 
As seamen know the sea.
We know its walls of thorny vines,
 
Its glades of reedy grass,
  
10
Its safe and silent islands
 
Within the dark morass.

Woe to the English soldiery
 
That little dread us near!
On them shall light at midnight
  
15
 
A strange and sudden fear:
When, waking to their tents on fire,
 
They grasp their arms in vain,
And they who stand to face us
 
Are beat to earth again;
  
20
And they who fly in terror deem
 
A mighty host behind,
And hear the tramp of thousands
 
Upon the hollow wind.

Then sweet the hour that brings release
  
25
 
From danger and from toil:
We talk the battle over,
 
And share the battle’s spoil.
The woodland rings with laugh and shout,
 
As if a hunt were up,
  
30
And woodland flowers are gathered
 
To crown the soldier’s cup.
With merry songs we mock the wind
 
That in the pine-top grieves,
And slumber long and sweetly
  
35
 
On beds of oaken leaves.

Well knows the fair and friendly moon
 
The band that Marion leads —
The glitter of their rifles,
 
The scampering of their steeds.
  
40
’Tis life to guide the fiery barb
 
Across the moonlight plain;
’Tis life to feel the night-wind
 
That lifts the tossing mane.
A moment in the British camp —
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A moment — and away
Back to the pathless forest,
 
Before the peep of day.

Grave men there are by broad Santee,
 
Grave men with hoary hairs;
  
50
Their hearts are all with Marion,
 
For Marion are their prayers.
And lovely ladies greet our band
 
With kindliest welcoming,
With smiles like those of summer,
  
55
 
And tears like those of spring.
For them we wear these trusty arms,
 
And lay them down no more
Till we have driven the Briton,
 
Forever, from our shore.
  
60

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

June

William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878)

I GAZED upon the glorious sky
 
And the green mountains round,
And thought that when I came to lie
 
At rest within the ground,
‘Twere pleasant, that in flowery June,
  
5
When brooks send up a cheerful tune,
 
And groves a joyous sound,
The sexton’s hand, my grave to make,
The rich, green mountain-turf should break.

A cell within the frozen mould,
  
10
 
A coffin borne through sleet,
And icy clods above it rolled,
 
While fierce the tempests beat —
Away! — I will not think of these —
Blue be the sky and soft the breeze,
  
15
 
Earth green beneath the feet,
And be the damp mould gently pressed
Into my narrow place of rest.

There through the long, long summer hours,
 
The golden light should lie,
  
20
And thick young herbs and groups of flowers
 
Stand in their beauty by.
The oriole should build and tell
His love-tale close beside my cell;
 
The idle butterfly
  
25
Should rest him there, and there be heard
The housewife bee and humming-bird.

And what if cheerful shouts at noon
 
Come, from the village sent,
Or songs of maids, beneath the moon
  
30
 
With fairy laughter blent?
And what if, in the evening light,
Betrothèd lovers walk in sight
 
Of my low monument?
I would the lovely scene around
  
35
Might know no sadder sight nor sound.

I know that I no more should see
 
The season’s glorious show,
Nor would its brightness shine for me,
 
Nor its wild music flow;
  
40
But if, around my place of sleep,
The friends I love should come to weep,
 
They might not haste to go.
Soft airs, and song, and light, and bloom
Should keep them lingering by my tomb.
  
45

These to their softened hearts should bear
 
The thought of what has been,
And speak of one who cannot share
 
The gladness of the scene;
Whose part, in all the pomp that fills
  
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The circuit of the summer hills,
 
Is that his grave is green;
And deeply would their hearts rejoice
To hear again his living voice.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

The Past

William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878)

 
THOU unrelenting Past!
Strong are the barriers round thy dark domain,
 
And fetters, sure and fast,
Hold all that enter thy unbreathing reign.

 
Far in thy realm withdrawn,
  
5
Old empires sit in sullenness and gloom,
 
And glorious ages gone
Lie deep within the shadow of thy womb.

 
Childhood, with all its mirth,
Youth, Manhood, Age that draws us to the ground,
  
10
 
And last, Man’s Life on earth,
Glide to thy dim dominions, and are bound.

 
Thou hast my better years;
Thou hast my earlier friends, the good, the kind,
 
Yielded to thee with tears —
15
The venerable form, the exalted mind.

 
My spirit yearns to bring
The lost ones back — yearns with desire intense,
 
And struggles hard to wring
Thy bolts apart, and pluck thy captives thence.
  
20

 
In vain; thy gates deny
All passage save to those who hence depart;
 
Nor to the streaming eye
Thou giv’st them back — nor to the broken heart.

 
In thy abysses hide
  
25
Beauty and excellence unknown; to thee
 
Earth’s wonder and her pride
Are gathered, as the waters to the sea;

 
Labors of good to man,
Unpublished charity, unbroken faith,
  
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Love, that midst grief began,
And grew with years, and faltered not in death.

 
Full many a mighty name
Lurks in thy depths, unuttered, unrevered;
 
With thee are silent fame,
  
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Forgotten arts, and wisdom disappeared.

 
Thine for a space are they —
Yet shalt thou yield thy treasures up at last:
 
Thy gates shall yet give way,
Thy bolts shall fall, inexorable Past!
  
40

 
All that of good and fair
Has gone into thy womb from earliest time,
 
Shall then come forth to wear
The glory and the beauty of its prime.

 
They have not perished — no!
  
45
Kind words, remembered voices once so sweet,
 
Smiles, radiant long ago,
And features, the great soul’s apparent seat.

 
All shall come back; each tie
Of pure affection shall be knit again;
  
50
 
Alone shall Evil die,
And Sorrow dwell a prisoner in thy reign.

 
And then shall I behold
Him, by whose kind paternal side I sprung,
 
And her, who, still and cold,
  
55
Fills the next grave — the beautiful and young.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order