Lyrical Recreations Author:Samuel Ward General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1883 Original Publisher: Macmillan Subjects: History / General Literary Criticism / Poetry Poetry / General Poetry / American / General Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When yo... more »u buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: PANACEA. When skies are gray, and droops my mateless heart Within this attic drear, I wander forth into the restless mart, Through labour's busy sphere, Or thread the moist and dismal lanes, Where poverty reveals its pains. My wind-swept garret then a palace seems, A tropic sun my fire, My books a mine of bliss, while cheerly steams The kettle's soothing choir. My toast is made, my tea is brewed Once more with smiling gratitude. 20 PANACEA. So I, comparing mine with sadder stars, Thus magnify its light, Which seems to those encaged by misery's bars With happiest lustre bright; The lot of captiYe, drudge, or slave Is brighter far, beside the grave, Than mine, compared with that by them deplored, Or than the grander fate Of Croesus, revelling amidst his hoard, A king without a state, -- Though for his standard taketh he The measure of my poverty. MONTAUK LIGHT. Latitude414'12" ff. LongitudeJ'1'51''54" W. Before the stars appear on high, I open wide my Cyclops eye, Like them unseen by day ; Though, while they roll in distant realms, My vacant face still guides the helms That o'er the waters stray. The only living things I view, At times, are cormorant and mew; Yet, from my stage-box grand, I watch the drama of the skies, And hear, through awful symphonies, The Storm-King lead his band. 22 MONT AUK LIGHT. When clouds obscure the starry host, My smile beams brighter on the tossed And storm-imperilled ...« less