I have no feud with fate, nor age, nor time,
Who knew great Helen in her golden prime.
THE OBELISK (1881)
Beneath a stone wrenched from Egyptian sands
Six rivers run through six imperial lands;
Nile, Bosphorus, Tiber, Seine, and Thames, till now
The Hudson wears the jewel on her brow.
Land that we love! O be thou, by this sign,
Tho' last, the noblest of the mighty line.
CROWNED ABSURDITIES
I asked me: what in all the world so odd
And laughable to men, and unto God—
The hight of comedy in earthly things?
That lot of little men pretending to be kings!
TO "LITTLE LADY MARGARET"—WITH A BOOK OF POEMS
They who love the poets
Will never lack a friend—
Up the road, and down the road,
And to the very end.
SACRILEGE
Wed, thou, with sweet and silent Death,
Rather than join the prurient throng
Would soil, with foul, empoisoned breath,
The sanctity of song.
TO THE HERO OF A SCIENTIFIC ROMANCE
If you wish, go be a pig,
In and out of season;
But do not bore us with a big
Philosophic reason.
