Francis Turner Palgrave (1824 – 1897)
British critic and poet, most famous for his anthology, the Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics.
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In the season of white wild roses
We two went hand in hand:
But now in the ruddy autumn
Together already we stand.
Let the children play
And sit like flowers upon thy grave
And crown with flowers,—that hardly have
A briefer blooming-tide than they.
This little Collection differs, it is believed, from others in the attempt made to include in it all the best original lyrical pieces and songs in our language, by writers not living, and none besides the best. The Editor will regard as his fittest readers those who love poetry so well, that he can offer them nothing not already known and valued.
In the hollow
Silver voices ripple and cry
Follow, O follow!
The azure lake is argent now
Beneath the pale moonshine:
I seek a sign of hope in heaven:
Fair Polestar! thou are mine.
A thousand other beacons blaze;
I follow thee alone...
Kiss and cling to them, kiss and leave them,
Bright and beguiling:—
Bright and beguiling, as She who glances
Along the shore and the meadows along,
And sings for heart's delight, and dances
Crowned with apples, and ruddy, and strong:—
Can we see thee, and not remember
Thy sun-brown cheek and hair sun-golden,
O sweet September?
There is a garden where lilies
And roses are side by side;
And all day between them in silence
The silken butterflies glide.
Follow, O follow!—and we follow
When once the mind has raised itself to grasp and to delight in excellence, those who love most will be found to love most wisely.
A thousand forms and passions glow
Upon the world-wide canvas. So
With larger scope our art we ply;
And if the crown be harder won,
Diviner rays around it run,
With strains of fuller harmony.
Earth all one tomb lies round me,
Domed with an iron sky:
And God Himself in His power,
God cannot save me! I cry.
Shakespeare's stage must hold the glass to every age.
With the cry I wake;—and around me
The mother and child at her feet
Breathe peace in even whispers;
And the night falls heavy and sweet.
The monument outlasting bronze was promised well by bards of old.
Sleep puts out silent fingers,
And leads me back to the roar
Of the dead salt sea that vomits
Wrecks of the past ashore.
I see the lost Love in beauty
Go gliding over the main:
I feel the ancient sweetness,
The worm and the wormwood again.
They bring back light on their faces;
But they cannot bring back to me
What the lilies say to the roses,
Or the songs of the butterflies be.
I may not enter the garden,
Though I know the road thereto;
And morn by morn to the gateway
I see the children go.
The Sun whispers, O remember!
You have but thirty days to run,
O sweet September!
Time's corrosive dewdrop eats
The giant warrior to a crust
Of earth in earth and rust in rust.
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