Poems of Sidney Lanier Author:Sidney Lanier, William Hayes Ward Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE MOCKING BIRD. Superb and sole, upon a plumed spray That o'er the general leafage boldly grew, He summ'd the woods in song ; or typic drew The wat... more »ch of hungry hawks, the lone dismay Of languid doves when long their lovers stray, And all birds' passion-plays that sprinkle dew At morn in brake or bosky avenue. Whate'er birds did or dreamed, this bird could say. Then down he shot, bounced airily along The sward, twitched in a grasshopper, made song Midflight, perched, prinked, and to his art again. Sweet Science, this large riddle read me plain : How may the death of that dull insect be The life of yon trim Shakspere on the tree ? TAMPA ROBINS. The robin laughed in the orange-tree : " Ho, windy North, a fig for thee : While breasts are red and wings are bold And green trees wave us globes of gold, Time's scythe shall reap but bliss for me —Sunlight, song, and the orange-tree. Burn, golden globes in leafy sky, My orange-planets : crimson I Will shine and shoot among the spheres (Blithe meteor that no mortal fears) And thrid the heavenly orange-tree With orbits bright of minstrelsy. If that I hate wild winter's spite— The gibbet trees, the world in white, The sky but gray wind over a grave— Why should I ache, the season's slave ? I'll sing from the top of the orange-tree Gramercy, winter's tyranny. I '11 south with the sun, and keep my clime; My wing is king of the summer-time ; My breast to the sun his torch shall hold ; And I '11 call down through the green and gold Time, take thy scythe, reap bliss for me, Bestir thee under the orange-tree." Tampa, Florida, 1877. THE CRYSTAL. At midnight, death's and truth's unlocking time, When far within the spirit's hearing rolls The great soft rumble of...« less