Part 1

Chapter 12,965 wordsPublic domain

This etext was transcribed by Les Bowler.

“_Whatever your occupation may be_, _and however crowded_ _your hours with affairs_, _do not fail to secure at least_ _a few minutes every day for refreshment of your_ _inner life with a bit of poetry_.”

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Poems You Ought to Know

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SELECTED BY ELIA W. PEATTIE (_Literary Editor of the Chicago Tribune_)

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ILLUSTRATED BY ELLSWORTH YOUNG

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[Picture: Publisher’s logo]

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CHICAGO NEW YORK TORONTO Fleming H. Revell Company LONDON AND EDINBURGH

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Each illustration copyrighted separately

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INTRODUCTION

Each morning, for several months, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE has published at the head of its first column, verses under the caption: “Poems You Ought to Know.” It has explained its action by the following quotation from Professor Charles Eliot Norton:

“_Whatever your occupation may be_, _and however crowded your hours with affairs_, _do not fail to secure at least a few minutes every day for refreshment of your inner life with a bit of poetry_.”

By publishing these poems THE TRIBUNE hopes to accomplish two things: first, to inspire a love of poetry in the hearts of many of its readers who have never before taken time or thought to read the best poems of this and other centuries and lands; and, secondly, to remind those who once loved song, but forgot it among the louder voices of the world, of the melody that enchanted them in youth.

The title has carried with it its own standard, and the poems have been kept on a plane above jocularity or mere prettiness of versification; rather have they tried to teach the doctrines of courage, of nature-love, of pure and noble melody. It has been the ambition of those selecting the verses to choose something to lift the reader above the “petty round of irritating concerns and duties,” and the object will have been achieved if it has helped anyone to “play the man,” “to go blithely about his business all the day,” with a consciousness of that abounding beauty in the world of thought which is the common property of all men.

No anthology of English verse can be complete, and none can satisfy all. The compiler’s individual taste, tempered and guided by established authority, is almost the only standard. This collection has been compiled not by one but by many thousands, and their selections here appear edited and winnowed as the idea of the series seemed to dictate. The book appears at the wide-spread and almost universal request of those who have watched the bold experiment of a great Twentieth-Century American newspaper giving the place of honor in its columns every day to a selection from the poets.

For permission to reprint certain poems by Longfellow, Lowell, Harte, Hay, Bayard Taylor, Holmes, Whittier, Parsons, and Aldrich, graciously accorded by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., the publishers, thanks are gratefully acknowledged. To Charles Scribner’s Sons, for an extract from Lanier’s poems, and, lastly, to the many thousand readers, who, by their sympathy, appreciation, and help have encouraged the continuance of the daily publication of the poems, similar gratitude is felt.

CONTENTS

ADDISON, JOSEPH The Spacious Firmament on High 58 ALDRICH, THOMAS BAILEY An Untimely Thought 73 Nocturne 210 ALLEN, ELIZABETH AKERS Rock Me to Sleep 30 ARNOLD, MATTHEW Requiescat 90 Self Dependence 156 Song of Callicles 214 BARBAULD, MRS. A. L. Life 161 BEATTY, PAKENHAM To Thine Own Self Be True 37 BEGBIE, HAROLD Grounds of the “Terrible” 164 BLAKE, WILLIAM The Lamb 153 The Tiger 176 BOKER, GEORGE H. Dirge for a Soldier 53 BOURDILLON, FRANCIS WILLIAM The Night Has a Thousand Eyes 115 BRONTË, EMILY Remembrance 42 BROWN, BROWNLEE Thalassa 140 BROWNING, ELIZABETH BARRETT The Cry of the Children 106 BROWNING, ROBERT Misconceptions 184 The Year’s at the Spring 135 BRYANT, WILLIAM CULLEN Thanatopsis 112 To a Waterfowl 225 BUNYAN, JOHN The Shepherd Boy’s Song 100 BURNS, ROBERT Banks o’ Doon 76 Highland Mary 152 John Anderson My Jo 185 Scots Wha Hae 182 BYRON, LORD Destruction of the Sennacherib 32 Maid of Athens 186 She Walks in Beauty 57 The Isles of Greece 232 CAMPION, THOMAS Cherry Ripe 36 CAREY, HENRY Sally in Our Alley 68 CARLYLE, THOMAS To-Day 179 CARY, PHOEBE Nearer Home 174 CHATTERTON, THOMAS Faith 144 CHAUCER, GEOFFREY An Emperor’s Daughter Stands Alone 60 CLARKE, MACDONALD In the Graveyard 166 COLERIDGE, SAMUEL TAYLOR Kubla Khan 190 CUNNINGHAM, ALLAN A Sea Song 134 DAVID Psalm XXIV 155 Psalm XLVIII 231 Psalm XLVI 44 Psalm XIX 74 Psalm LXXXIV 111 Psalm CXXI 119 DICKINSON, EMILY The Grass 217 DOBSON, AUSTIN A Lovers’ Quarrel 188 The Paradox of Time 208 The Pompadour’s Fan 75 In Quaque 188 DURIVAGE, FRANCIS A. All 160 ELIOT, GEORGE Two Lovers 48 FINCH, FRANCIS MILES Nathan Hale 212 FOSS, SAM WALTER He’d Had No Show 93 GARNETT, RICHARD The Ballad of the Boat 172 GILLINGTON, MARY C. Intra Muros 21 GOETHE, JOHANN WOLFGANG Mignon’s Song 110 HARTE, FRANCIS BRET Flynn of Virginia 204 The Society upon the Stanislaus 210 HAWKER, ROBERT STEPHEN The Song of the Western Men 129 HAY, JOHN Jim Bludso 64 Little Breeches 202 HENLEY, W. E. Invictus 131 HERBERT, GEORGE Virtue 34 HERRICK, ROBERT Counsel to Virgins 138 Delight in Disorder 62 HOLLAND, JOSIAH GILBERT Babyhood 40 HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL The Chambered Nautilus 87 The Last Leaf 84 HOOD, THOMAS Her Moral from Miss Kilmanseg 95 Past and Present 123 Song of the Shirt 85 The Death-Bed 33 HUNT, LEIGH Abou Ben Adhem 107 INGALLS, JOHN JAMES Opportunity 109 JACKSON, HENRY R. My Wife and Child 220 JONSON, BEN To Celia 187 KEATS, JOHN Ode on a Grecian Urn 97 KEY, FRANCIS SCOTT The Star-Spangled Banner 120 KINGSLEY, CHARLES The Three Fishers 230 KNOX, WILLIAM O Why Should the Spirit of Mortal 228 LAMB, CHARLES The Old Familiar Faces 18 LANIER, SIDNEY Evening Song 54 LEVER, CHARLES The Widow Malone 218 LOGAN, JOHN To the Cuckoo 94 LONGFELLOW, HENRY WADSWORTH Arsenal at Springfield 158 Serenade (“The Spanish Student”) 96 The Bridge 76 The Day Is Done 200 LOVELACE, RICHARD To Althea from Prison 98 To Lucasta on Going to the Wars 35 LOWE, JOHN Mary’s Dream 124 LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL Jonathan to John 222 June 194 The Heritage 116 To the Dandelion 170 LYTLE, WILLIAM H. Antony and Cleopatra 226 MACKAY, CHARLES A Deed and a Word 47 MAHONY, FRANCIS The Bells of Shandon 196 MCCREERY, J. L. There Is No Death 25 MCPHELIM, E. J. Elia 70 MEYNELL, ALICE The Shepherdess 130 MILTON, JOHN Song on a May Morning 163 MOORE, THOMAS Believe Me if All Those Endearing Young 101 Charms Oft in the Stilly Night 63 The Harp that Once 195 Though Lost to Sight 20 ’Tis the Last Rose of Summer 132 MULOCK, DINAH MARIA Douglas, Douglas, Tender and True 149 NEALE, JOHN M. Jerusalem the Golden 183 NEWMAN, JOHN HENRY Lead Kindly Light 72 O’CONNOR, JOSEPH The Fount of Castaly 142 PARSONS, THOMAS W. On a Bust of Dante 126 POE, EDGAR A. Annabel Lee 178 POPE, ALEXANDER Ode on Solitude 103 READ, THOMAS BUCHANAN Drifting 50 REALF, RICHARD A Holy Nation 23 RONSARD, PIERRE The Rose 143 ROSSETTI, CHRISTINA Uphill 148 RYAN, ABRAM Song of the Mystic 81 SCOTT, SIR WALTER Bonny Dundee 167 Border Ballad 169 Breathes there the Man 104 Where Shall the Lover Rest 216 SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM One Touch of Nature 89 Portia’s Speech on Mercy 207 Ruthless Time 46 Song from “Cymbeline” 71 Time Hath, My Lord 46 To Be or Not to Be 224 Macbeth’s Soliloquy 200 When in Disgrace with Fortune 19 SHELLEY, PERCY BYSSHE Music when Soft Voices Die 133 An Indian Serenade 141 SIDNEY, SIR PHILIP A Ditty 118 SILL, EDWARD ROWLAND The Fool’s Prayer 28 SPALDING, SUSAN MARR Fate 22 STEVENSON, ROBERT LOUIS A Requiem 90 SUCKLING, SIR JOHN Ballad upon a Wedding 192 Why So Pale and Wan 139 SWINBURNE, ALGERNON CHARLES A Match 137 TAYLOR, BAYARD Bedouin Song 67 The Song of the Camp 146 TENNYSON, LORD Break, Break, Break 24 Bugle Song 108 Crossing the Bar 193 Moral from “The Day Dream” 66 From “In Memoriam” 121 Tears, Idle Tears 151 THACKERAY, WILLIAM MAKEPEACE At the Church Gate 92 The Garret 198 TOMPKINS, JULIET WILBOR For All These 45 VILLON, FRANÇOIS Ballad—Dead Ladies 128 WALLER, EDMUND Go, Lovely Rose 82 On a Girdle 199 WHITE, JOSEPH BLANCO Night 79 WHITMAN, WALT O Captain, My Captain 38 Warble for Lilac Time 206 WHITTIER, JOHN G. Indian Summer 181 The Waiting 136 WILLARD, EMMA Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep 105 WITHER, GEORGE The Shepherd’s Resolution 80 WOODWORTH, SAMUEL The Old Oaken Bucket 86 WORDSWORTH, WILLIAM The Daffodils 162 The World Is Too Much with Us 102 To Sleep 17

TO SLEEP. BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

William Wordsworth was born in 1770 and died at Rydal Mount in 1850. He was educated in Cambridge, where he graduated in 1791. He traveled on the continent before that, but he settled down for several years in Dorset. A visit from Coleridge determined his career in 1796. He was again abroad in 1798, but returned the following year and went to live at Grasmere in the Lake District. He held severai government positions and was poet laureate from 1843 to his death. His chief works are, “The Evening Walk,” “Descriptive Sketches,” “The Excursion,” “White Doe of Rylston,” “Thanksgiving Ode,” “Peter Bell,” “Waggoner,” “River Duddon,” A Series of Sonnets, “The Borderers,” “Yarrow Revisited,” and “The Prelude.”

A flock of sheep that leisurely pass by One after one; the sound of rain, and bees Murmuring; the fall of rivers, winds and seas, Smooth fields, white sheets of water, and pure sky;

I’ve thought of all by turns, and still I lie Sleepless; and soon the small birds’ melodies Must hear, first utter’d from my orchard trees, And the first cuckoo’s melancholy cry.

Even thus last night and two nights more I lay, And could not win thee, Sleep, by any stealth; So do not let me wear tonight away; Without thee what is all the morning’s wealth? Come, blessed barrier between day and day, Dear mother of fresh thoughts and joyous health!

THE OLD FAMILIAR FACES. BY CHARLES LAMB.

Charles Lamb was born at London in 1775. His most successful writings are the “Tales from Shakespeare” (written in collaboration with his sister), and his “Essays of Ella.” Lamb died in 1834.

I have had playmates, I have had companions, In my days of childhood, in my joyful school days— All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.

I have been laughing, I have been carousing, Drinking late, sitting late, with my bosom cronies— All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.

I loved a love once, fairest among women; Closed are her doors on me, I must not see her— All, all are gone the old familiar faces.

I have a friend, a kinder friend has no man; Like an ingrate, I left my friend abruptly; Left him to muse on the old familiar faces.

Ghost-like I pace round the haunts of my childhood, Earth seemed a desert I was bound to traverse, Seeking to find the old familiar faces.

Friend of my bosom, thou more than a brother, Why wert not thou born in my father’s dwelling? So might we talk of the old familiar faces—

How some they have died, and some they have left me, And some are taken from me; all are departed— All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.

WHEN IN DISGRACE. BY WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon myself and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featur’d like him, like him with friends possess’d, Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope, With what I most enjoy contented least; Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, Haply I think on thee and then my state, (Like to the lark at break of day arising, From sullen earth), sings hymns at heaven’s gate; For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

“THOUGH LOST TO SIGHT, TO MEMORY DEAR.” THOMAS MOORE.

Sweetheart, good-by! The fluttering sail Is spread to waft me far from thee; And soon before the favoring gale My ship shall bound across the sea. Perchance, all desolate and forlorn, These eyes shall miss thee many a year; But unforgotten every charm— Though lost to sight, to memory clear.

Sweetheart, good-by! One last embrace! Oh, cruel fate, two souls to sever! Yet in this heart’s most sacred place Thou, thou alone, shall dwell forever. And still shall recollection trace In fancy’s mirror, ever near, Each smile, each tear, upon that face— Though lost to sight, to memory dear.

INTRA MUROS. BY MARY C. GELLINGTON.

At last ’tis gone, the fever of the day— Thank God, there comes an end to everything; Under the night cloud’s deepened shadowing, The noises of the city drift away Thro’ sultry streets and alleys, and the gray Fogs ’round the great cathedral rise and cling. I long and long, but no desire will bring Against my face the keen wind salt with spray.

O, far away, green waves, your voices call; Your cool lips kiss the wild and weedy shore; And out upon the sea line sails are brown— White sea birds, crying, hover—soft shades fall— Deep waters dimple ’round the dripping oar, And last rays light the little fishing town.

FATE. BY SUSAN MARR SPALDING.

Susan Marr Spalding was born in Bath, Me., and educated in a seminary there. From early girlhood she wrote verse, her sonnets being graceful and tender. At the death of her parents she lived with her uncle, a clergyman, in New York. She married Mr. Spalding, a literary man, and made her home in Philadelphia.

Two shall be born, the whole wide world apart, And speak in different tongues, and have no thought Each of the other’s being; and have no heed; And these, o’er unknown seas to unknown lands Shall cross, escaping wreck; defying death; And, all unconsciously, shape every act to this one end That, one day, out of darkness, they shall meet And read life’s meaning in each other’s eyes.

And two shall walk some narrow way of life So nearly side by side that, should one turn Ever so little space to right or left, They needs must stand acknowledged face to face. And yet, with wistful eyes that never meet. With groping hands that never clasp; and lips Calling in vain to ears that never hear; They seek each other all their weary days And die unsatisfied—and that is fate.

A HOLY NATION. BY RICHARD REALF.

Richard Realf was born in England in 1834 of poor parents and began writing poetry at an early age. His early work attracted the attention of Tennyson, Miss Mitford, Miss Jameson, Miss Martineau, and others, and they secured the publication of his volume, “Guesses at the Beautiful.” He dabbled some in sculpture, and even studied agricultural science. In 1854 he came to New York, where he wrote stories of slum life and assisted in establishing some institutions for the relief of the poor. He joined the first free soil parties moving to Kansas and was arrested. He did newspaper work until he joined John Brown’s party. He was Brown’s secretary of state. He was arrested in connection with the Harper’s Ferry affair, enlisted in 1862, was wounded, taught a black school in South Carolina in 1867, and for years led a hand to mouth existence, all that time writing poetry, some of it of the most exquisite beauty. Family troubles resulted in his suicide in San Francisco about 1875.

Let Liberty run onward with the years, And circle with the seasons; let her break The tyrant’s harshness, the oppressor’s spears; Bring ripened recompenses that shall make Supreme amends for sorrow’s long arrears; Drop holy benison on hearts that ache; Put clearer radiance into human eyes, And set the glad earth singing to the skies.

Clean natures coin pure statutes. Let us cleanse The hearts that beat within us; let us mow Clear to the roots our falseness and pretense, Tread down our rank ambitions, overthrow Our braggart moods of puffed self-consequence, Plow up our hideous thistles which do grow Faster than maize in May time, and strike dead The base infections our low greeds have bred.

BREAK, BREAK, BREAK. BY ALFRED TENNYSON.

Alfred Tennyson was born at Lincolnshire in 1809. In 1828 he wrote, with his brother, the “Poems by Two Brothers.” He went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he met his friend, Arthur Hallam, upon whose death he wrote “In Memoriam.” When Wordsworth died in 1850, the laureateship was given to Tennyson; later he was made a Baron. He died at Aldworth, on the Isle of Wight, in 1892, and has been given a place in Westminster Abbey near the grave of Chaucer. Other of his longer poems beside the one mentioned above are: “The Princess,” “Maud,” “Enoch Arden,” and the “Idyls of the King.”

Break, break, break, On thy cold gray stones, O, sea! And I would that my tongue could utter The thoughts that arise in me.

O, well for the fisherman’s boy That he shouts with his sister at play! O, well for the sailor lad That he sings in his boat on the bay!

And the stately ships go on, To the haven under the hill; But O, for the touch of a vanished hand, And the sound of a voice that is still!

Break, break, break, At the foot of thy crags, O, sea! But the tender grace of a day that is dead Will never come back to me.

THERE IS NO DEATH. BY J. L. McCREERY.