O radiant, rainless Summer!
The year's bright sunset is nigh;
When Autumn, the gay newcomer
Shall paint, with her rainbow dye
The fresh green leaves of the forest;
To fade in the gray twilight,
When rain and frost, on the chill wind tossed,
Shall herald the year's great night.
The year's bright sunset is nigh;
When Autumn, the gay newcomer
Shall paint, with her rainbow dye
The fresh green leaves of the forest;
To fade in the gray twilight,
When rain and frost, on the chill wind tossed,
Shall herald the year's great night.
And from the bell-towers tolling,
At the midnight of the year,
Shall the brazen tongues be calling
To the old year's frosty bier;
'Till the birth of another cycle
They publish from strand to strand,
Where the streamlets creep and the swift floods sweep
O'er the rainless Summer land.
At the midnight of the year,
Shall the brazen tongues be calling
To the old year's frosty bier;
'Till the birth of another cycle
They publish from strand to strand,
Where the streamlets creep and the swift floods sweep
O'er the rainless Summer land.
STONES AND JEWELS OF FAME
Sometimes I think if I should write an ode,
To be, by every idler said or sung,
The jest and sport of every schoolboy's tongue,
Common as stones down-trodden in the road,
As poets oft have purchased deathless fame,
I should not be so pleased with my success,
As if some little gem of higher art
My hand might pen, the nobler few to bless,
The delving mind, the contemplative heart,
Stones for the many, jewels for the less.
To be, by every idler said or sung,
The jest and sport of every schoolboy's tongue,
Common as stones down-trodden in the road,
As poets oft have purchased deathless fame,
I should not be so pleased with my success,
As if some little gem of higher art
My hand might pen, the nobler few to bless,
The delving mind, the contemplative heart,
Stones for the many, jewels for the less.
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