The poems of Richard Watson Gilder/Index of First Lines

by Richard Watson Gilder

INDEX OF FIRST LINES

A barren stretch that slants to the salt sea's gray, 5.
A century's summer breezes shook, 122.
A little English earth and breathèd air, 157.
A little longer still in summer suns, 453.
A little, loosened leaf of painted paper, 447.
A maiden sought her love in a dark room, 88.
A melancholy, life o'er-wearied man, 335.
A night of stars and dreams, of dreams and sleep, 24.
A power there is that trembles through the earth, 256.
A sense of pureness in the air, 324.
A song for you, my darling, 277.
A song of the maiden morn, 20.
A soul inhuman? No, but human all, 164.
A Sower went forth to sow, 27.
A stranger in a far and ancient land, 250.
A violet lay in the grass, 78.
"A weary waste without her?" Ah, but think, 398.
A white lie, even as the black, I learned to hate, 370.
A woman, who has been a man's desire, 403.
A wondrous song, 333.
A word said in the dark, 87.
After sorrow's night, 91.
Agnostic! Ah, what idle name for him, 398.
Ah, be not false, sweet Splendor! 223.
Ah, loving, exquisite, enraptured soul, 393.
Ah, near, dear friend of many and many years! 328.
Ah, no! that sacred land, 239.
Ah, Time, go not so soon, 153.
Alas, poor, fated, passionate, shivering thing! 278.
All mouth, no mind: a mindless mouth in sooth, 303.
All round the glimmering circuit of the isle, 274.
All summer long the people knelt, 113.
An old, blind poet, sitting sad and lone, 336.
And can it be? 373.
"And this, then, is thy love," I hear thee say, 11.
And were that best, Love, dreamless, endless sleep! 9.
Angelo, thou art the master; for thou in thy art, 249.
As doth the bird, on outstretched pinions, dare, 175.
As down the city street, 145.
As I hobble, old and halt, 345.
As melting snow leaves bare the mountain-side, 29.
As soars the eagle, intimate of light, 266.
As the long day of cloud and storm and sun, 64.
At the dim end of day, 328.

"Back from the darkness to the light again!" 94.
Back to my body came I in the gray of the dawning, 266.
Back to the old place I've come home again, 412.
Battling, through trackless lands, 'gainst savage foes, 341.
Because Heaven's cost is Hell, and perfect joy, 52.
Because the rose must fade, 231.
Before the listening world behold him stand, 33.
Behold our first great warrior of the sea, 391.
Behold these maidens in a row, 156.
Beneath a stone wrenched from Egyptian sands, 421.
Beneath the deep and solemn midnight sky, 63.
Beyond all beauty is the unknown grace, 78.
Beyond the branches of the pine, 64.
Brother of sorrow and mortality! 69.
But, friend of mine,—and his,—I am afraid! 308.
But then the sunset smiled, 90.
But yesterday a world of haze, 327.
By this road have past, 258.
By this stairway narrow, steep, 212.

Call him not blind, 278.
Call me not dead when I, indeed, have gone, 66.
Came to a master of song, 225.
Cast into the pit, 175.
Caught in the golden net of the poet's song, 444.
Chide not the poet that he strives for beauty, 377.
Come, soldiers, arouse ye! 116.
Come, Spirit of Song! true, faithful friend of mine! 112.
Come to me ye who suffer, for to all, 8.
Comrades, the circle narrows, heads grow white, 193.

Dark Southern girl! the dream-like day is past, 347.
Dear bard and prophet, that thy rest is deep, 392.
Dear friend, who lovedst well this pleasant life! 67.
Dear heart, I would that after many days, 35.
Death is a sorry plight, 224.
Deep in the ocean of night, 148.
Despise not thou thy father's ancient creed, 54.
"Do you love me?" Elsie asked, 222.
Done is the day of care, 217.
Down in the meadow and up on the hight, 221.

Each moment holy is, for out from God, 66.
Each New Year is a leaf of our love's rose, 228.
Each of us answers to a call, 125.
Each picture was a painted memory, 260.
Edmund, in this book you'll find, 138.
Enchanted city, O farewell, farewell! 348.
Enraptured memory, and all ye powers of being, 202.
Erewhile I sang the praise of them whose lustrous names, 161.

Even when joy is near, 265.
Ever when slept the poet his dreams were music, 399.

Face once the thought: This piled up sky of cloud, 174.
Fades the rose; the year grows old, 232.
Fame is an honest thing, 209.
Fixt in one desire, 267.
Fly, thistle-down, fly, 21.
Following the sun, westward the march of power! 125.
Four-walled is my tower, 280.
Friend, why goest thou forth, 106.
Friends, beware! 334.
From every motion, every lovely line, 420.
From love to love she passes on this day, 420.
From the happy first time, 346.
From the shade of the elms that murmured above thy birth, 205.

Gay!—as the hot crater's crust all lightning-lit, 453.
Gentle and generous, brave-hearted, kind, 310.
"Give me a theme," the little poet cried, 126.
Give thy day to Duty, 350.
Glorious that ancient art! 212.
Glory and honor and fame and everlasting laudation, 160.
God of the strong, God of the weak, 356.
Grace, majesty, and the calm bliss of life, 145.
Great God, to whom since time began, 57.
Great nature is an army gay, 170.
Great Universe—what dost thou with thy dead! 68.
Greece was; Greece is no more, 201.

He fails who climbs to power and place, 163.
He is gone! We shall not see again, 139.
He knows not the path of duty, 37.
He of the ocean is, its thunderous waves, 210.
He pondered well, looked in his heart, 337.
He sang the rose, he praised its fragrant breath, 335.
He speaks not well who doth his time deplore, 270.
He the great World-Musician at whose stroke, 49.
He who hath the sacred fire, 367.
Henceforth before these feet, 227.
Her delicate form, her night of hair, 345.
Her voice was like the song of birds, 218.
Here, by the great waters, 315.
Here for the world to see men brought their fairest, 204.
Here rests the heart whose throbbing shook the earth! 298.
Here stays the house, here stay the selfsame places, 100.
Here was as loyal soul as ever drew, 452.
His life was generous as his life was long, 347.
His was the love of art and song, 300.
Home of my forebears, home of my dreaming childhood, 409.
How curves the little river, through Glen Gilder, O Glen Gilder, 417.

How easily my neighbor chants his creed, 180.
How strange the musician's memory, never wrong, 390.
How strange to look upon the life beyond, 230.
How to the singer comes the song? 253.
How wonderful and sweet, 452.

I am a woman—therefore I may not, 98.
I am the spirit of the morning sea, 73.
I asked me: what in all the world so odd, 421.
I asked you to read my poem, so shameless was I, 420.
I awoke in the morning not knowing, 445.
I called you once to the sea, 325.
I came to a great city. Palaces, 298.
I care not if the skies are white, 147.
I count my time by times that I meet thee, 32.
I dreamed a rose; it bloomed, 440.
I dreamed a tender and mysterious dream, 419.
I flung a stone into a grassy field, 94.
I give this token to the son of him, 349.
I heard the bells of Bethlehem ring, 243.
I knew the Rucellai had choice of villas, 295.
I know a girl—she is a poet's daughter, 123.
"I know," he said, 110.
I know not if I love her overmuch, 4.
I know thou art not that brown mountain-side, 22.
I like her gentle hand that sometimes strays, 4.
I like your book, my boy, 133.
I looked from the window with hungry eyes, 452.
I love her gentle forehead, 19.
I met a traveler on the road, 7.
I pray thee, dear, think not alone of me, 23.
I read that, in his sleep, the poet died, 332.
I read the poet's verses by the stream, 454.
I remember, 307.
I sat in the crowded theater. The first notes, 120.
I saw not the leaf, 223.
I see it all; my soul the dregs hath drunk, 369.
I thought I knew the mountain's every mood, 150.
I thought in Egypt, Death was more than Life, 299.
I thought in Syria, Life was more than Death, 300.
I thought this day to bring to thee, 24.
I will be brave for thee, dear heart; for thee, 14.
I would that in the verse she loved some word, 140.
I would that my words were as my fingers, 20.
If ever flashed upon this mortal scene, 215.
If Jesus Christ is a man, 53.
If, lest thy heart betray thee, 305.
If, one great day, the God I see 457.
If songs were perfume, color, wild desire, 210.
If you wish, go be a pig, 421.
In a far, lonely land at last I came, 401.

In a little theater, in the Jewry of the New World, 406.
In a night of midsummer, on the still eastern shore, 390.
In a starry night of June, before the moon had come, 286.
In darkness of the visionary night, 55.
In Heaven's happy bowers, 96.
In her young eyes the children looked and found, 153.
In life's hard fight this poet did his part, 333.
In Love of City here we take our stand, 349.
In one rich drop of blood, ah, what a sea, 273.
In that dread, dreamed-of hour, 233.
In the child-garden buds and blows, 216.
In the cities no longer the blaring of trumpets that summon to battle, 404.
In the embers shining bright, 93.
In the hall of the king the loud mocking of many at one, 45.
In the House of State at Albany, 402.
In the long studio from whose towering walls, 110.
In the morning of the skies, 132.
In the old farm-house living-room, 285.
In the white midday's full, imperious show, 185.
In thine anger it was said, 401.
In this high ode with its great shadow-kings, 344.
In this valley far and lonely, 255.
In those clear, piercing, piteous eyes behold, 357.
In Wordsworth's orchard, one sweet summer day, 293.
In youth he braved a monarch's ire, 392.
Into this musing, Memory! thou hast brought, 306.
Is Hope a phantom? Holds the crystal cup, 305.
Is 't I for whom the law's brute penalty, 172.
Is this the price of beauty! Fairest, thou, 167.
It was but yesterday she walked these streets, 394.

John Carman of Carmeltown, 103.

Keep pure thy soul! 229.

Land of the South,—whose stricken heart and brow, 114.
Laureate of the Gentle Heart! 309.
Let fall the ruin propt by Europe's hands! 246.
Let not thy listening spirit be abashed, 378.
Let other gray-beards mourn the flight of years, 420.
Life came to me and spoke, 151.
Life is the cost, 171.
Life is the hammer that strikes, 344.
Lightnings and tremblings and a voice of thunder, 389.
Like the bright picture ere the lamp is lit, 254.
Lisa Romana! no mean city gave, 309.
Lo! here another, 263.
Lo, now it comes once more; lo, my heart leaps again, 327.
Lonely Pope upon his throne, 296.
"Lost leaders"—no, they are not lost, 397.
Love is not bond to any man, 37.

Love, Love, my love, 30.
Love me not, Love, for that I first loved thee, 14.
Lovelier, lovelier this place, 452.
Love's look finds loveliness in all the world, 254.

Many the names, the souls, the faces dear, 310.
Many the songs of power the poet wrought, 129.
Maria mia! all in white, 418.
Me mystic? Have your way! 257.
Men grow old before their time, 137.
Midway the valley, fronting the flusht morn, 437.
Mother and Child! There is no holier sight, 330.
Mother of heroes, she—of them who gave, 331.
Mountains and valleys! dear ye are to me, 259.
Mountains in whose vast shadows live great names, 391.
Mourn for his death, but for his life rejoice, 332.
Music beneath the Stars! remembering him, 458.
My chimney is builded, 82.
My love for thee doth march like armèd men, 12.
My love grew with the growing night, 23.
My songs are all of thee, what tho' I sing, 35.
Myriads of souls from out the unknown vast, 448.

Navies nor armies can exalt the state, 164.
Nine years to heaven had flown, 93.
No bugle on the blast, 207.
No heavenly maid we here behold, 52.
"No, no," she said, 262.
No song-bird, singing, soaring, 285.
No verses I can bring her, 345.
Not alone in pain and gloom, 174.
Not from the whole wide world I chose thee, 31.
Not here, but somewhere, so men say, 262.
Not his to guide the ship while tempests blow, 118.
Not ignoble are the days of, 315.
Not wreaths alone, for him who wins the fight, 349.
Not yet the orchard lifted, 75.
November winds, blow mild, 92.
Now is the city great! That deep-voiced bell, 269.
Now who can take from us what we have known, 62.
Now you who rhyme, and I who rhyme, 141.

O birds of Westland, singing on, 458.
O, dear is the song of the pine, 220.
O ease my heart, sad song, O ease my heart! 213.
O, father's gone to market-town, he was up before the day, 76.
O gates of ice! long have ye held our loved ones, 107.
O, give me music in the twilight hour! 384.
O glorious Sabbath sun, thou art, 307.
O highest, strongest, sweetest woman-soul! 36.
O, how shall I help to right the world that is going wrong! 112.

O kindred stars, wherethrough his soul in flight, 424.
O, love is not a summer mood, 36.
O majesty and loveliness in one! 297.
O man of light and lore! 177.
O man with your rule and measure, 131.
O mighty river, triumphing to the sea, 34.
O purer far than ever I, 445.
O strange Spring days, when from the shivering ground, 32.
O sweet wild roses that bud and blow, 22.
O, that was the year the last of those before thee, 235.
O thou my Love, love first my lonely soul! 15.
O thou whom Virgil and thy Beatrice, 281.
O veil of stars! O dread magnificence! 459.
O white and midnight sky! O starry bath! 41.
O, whither has she fled from out the dawning and the day? 440.
Of a dream I would sing and a river I saw in a dream, 437.
Of all earth's shrines this is the mightiest, 247.
Of his dear Lord he painted all the life, 297.
Of life, of death the mystery and woe, 145.
Of my fair lady's lovers there were two, 87.
Of other men I know no jealousy, 16.
On that old faith I will take hold once more, 369.
On the day that Christ ascended, 242.
On the sad winter trees, 232.
On the sun-dial in the garden, 434.
On the wild rose tree, 77.
On this day Browning died? 158.
On this great day a child of time and fate, 341.
Once, looking from a window on a land, 58.
Once only, Love, may love's sweet song be sung, 17.
Once wandering far in Asia, lo, we came, 340.
Once when a maiden maidenly went by, 31.
Once when we walked within a summer field, 18.
One by one the flowers of the garden, 436.
One day the poet's harp lay on the ground, 43.
One deed may mar a life, 230.
One rose of song, 396.
One Sabbath eve, betwixt green Avon's banks, 292.
One singer in the oratorio, 387.
One who this valley passionately loved, 323.
Over the roofs of the houses I hear the barking of Leo, 154.

Passion is a wayward child, 155.
Patriot, and sage, and lover of his kind, 451.
"Pity the blind!" Yes, pity those, 400.

Queens have there been of many a fair domain, 280.
Quietly, like a child, 158.

Rejoice! Rejoice! 388.
Relentless Time, that gives both harsh and kind, 374.

Rhymes and writers of our day, 293.
Rich is the music of sweet instruments, 387.
Rock's the song-soil, truly, 215.
Rose of the world, 189.
Rose-dark the solemn sunset, 234.

Said the Poet unto the Seer, 41.
Shade of our greatest, O look down to-day! 163.
She lives in light, not shadow, 278.
She saw the bayonets flashing in the sun, 114.
Silent, silent are the unreturning! 235.
Since ancient Time began, 208.
Sir Knight, thou lovest not, 305.
Slowly to the day the rose, 361.
So fair, so pure my lady as she doth go, 134.
So fierce the buffets of untimely fate, 339.
Some element from nature seems withdrawn, 351.
Some from books resound their rhymes, 226.
Something missing from the garden? 434.
Something there is in Death not all unkind, 136.
Souls live for whom the illimitable sands, 299.
Sow thou sorrow and thou shalt reap it, 174.
Speed, speed, speed, 261.
Star-dust and vaporous light, 244.
Stay as the tree—go as the wind, 307.
Straight soars to heaven the white magnificence, 342.
Strolling toward Shottery on one showery day, 291.
Such pictures of the heavens were never seen, 368.
Summer's rain and winter's snow, 33.
Sweet dignity and tenderness and grace, 453.
Sweet Grecian girl who on the sunbright wall, 156.
Sweet mouth, dark eyes, deep heart, 149.
Sweet rose that bloomed on the red field of war, 125.
Sweetness and strength, high tragedy and mirth, 451.

Tell me what is this innumerable throng, 49.
Tell you the news, 288.
That I should love thee seemeth meet and wise, 30.
The Angel of Life stood forth on the threshold of Birth, 379.
The birds were singing, the skies were gay, 21.
The bright sun has been hid so long, 291.
The cloud was thick that hid the sun from sight, 11.
The clouds upon the mountains rest, 327.
The critic scanned the poet's book, 344.
The day began as other days begin, 380.
The days were cold, and clouded. On a day, 399.
The evening star trembles and hides from him, 67.
The garden still is green, 436.
The gray walls of the garden, 431.
The leaves are dark and large, Love, 154.
The man of brains, of fair repute, and birth, 303.

The marble pool, like the great sea, hath moods, 432.
The mountain that the morn doth kiss, 60.
The night was black and drear, 99.
The night was dark, tho' sometimes a faint star, 3.
The North Star draws the hero; he abides, 268.
The pallid watcher of the eastern skies, 12.
The poet died last night, 136.
The poet from his own sorrow, 169.
The poet's day is different from another, 253.
The poets silent and the poets fled? 451.
The purple of the summer fields, the dark, 150.
The secret—he has learned it, 380.
The sky is dark, and dark the bay below, 92.
The smile of her I love is like the dawn, 25.
The speech that day doth utter, and the night, 61.
The spirit of adventure is, 316.
The sun rose swift and sent a golden gleam, 6.
The White Czar's people cry, 164.
The wind from out the west is blowing, 89.
The winding path, 455.
The window's white, the candle's red, 149.
The winds of morning move and sing, 89.
The years are angels that bring down from Heaven, 153.
There are four sisters known to mortals well, 120.
There are more poets than the rhyming race, 453.
There at the chasm's edge behold her lean, 215.
There is nothing new under the sun, 10.
There was a field green and fragrant with grass, 7.
These are the sounds that I heard at the home in "The Pines," 348.
They said, "God made him," ah, the clean, great God! 400.
They said that all the troubadours had flown, 135.
They who love the poets, 421.
This actor in great Shakespeare's shadow moved, 394.
This bronze doth keep the very form and mold, 117.
This day, a strange and beautiful word was spoken, 275.
This day I heard such music that I thought, 128.
This day I read in the sad scholar's page, 269.
This hour my heart went forth, as in old days, 264.
This is an island of the golden Past, 245.
This is her picture painted ere mine eyes, 6.
This is my creed, 168.
This is not Death, nor Sorrow, nor sad Hope, 209.
This is the earth he walked on; not alone, 53.
This is the end of the town that I love the best, 219.
This is the eternal mystery of art, 388.
This is the flower of thought, 124.
This is the house she was born in, full four-score years ago, 101.
This man loved Lincoln, him did Lincoln love, 310.
This night the enchanting musicians rendered a trio of Beethoven, 330.
This night, when I blew out my candle flame, 419.
This timeless river—oldest of all time, 340.

This watery vague how vast! This misty globe, 219.
Tho' summer days are all too fleet, 260.
Thou art not fit to die?—Why not? 173.
Thou art so used, Love, to thine own bird's song, 17.
Thou Christ, my soul is hurt and bruised! 245.
Thou grim and haggard wanderer, who dost look, 54.
Thou thinkest thou hast lived, 338.
Thou who lov'st and art forsaken, 106.
Thou who wouldst serve thy country and thy kind, 400.
Three blossoms in a happy garden grow, 435.
Three messengers to me from heaven came, 61.
Thrice is sweet music sweet when every word, 346.
Through all the cunning ages, 272.
Through love to light! O, wonderful the way, 38.
Through starry space two angels dreamed their flight, 224.
Through the garden sunset-window, 431.
Thunder in the north sky, 148.
Thus did he speak, thus was he comforted, 336.
Thy lover, Love, would have some nobler way, 16.
Thy mind is like a crystal brook, 229.
'T is night upon the lake. Our bed of boughs, 59.
'T is twelve o' the clock, 146.
To-day I saw the picture of a man, 5.
To-night the music doth a burden bear, 150.
To rest from weary work one day of seven, 55.
To see the rose of morning slow unfold, 229.
To send fit thanks, I would I had the art, 350.
To the ancient races of, 318.
To Thee, Eternal Soul, be praise! 374.
Too much of praise for the quick, pitiless blow! 271.
Too soon? But heroes always die too soon! 453.
Touch not with dark regret his perfect fame, 135.
True love to liberty is never foe, 372.
'T was in the year when mutterings, loud and deep, 111.
'T was said: When roll of drum and battle's roar, 450.
'T was Sunday evening as I wandered down, 140.
Two heroes do the world's insistent work, 339.
Two men on thrones, or crouched behind, 301.
Two streams of music beat upon my heart, 452.
Two travelers met upon a plain, 26.

Ungenerous! 353.

Was ever music lovelier than to-night? 386.
Watchman! What seest thou in the New Dawn? 422.
We are alike, and yet,—O strange and sweet! 30.
We have come nearer, friend! 439.
We met upon the crowded way, 96.
Wed, thou, with sweet and silent Death, 421.
Were true hearts bells, all breezes would be bringing, 346.
What can love do for thee, Love? 25.

What do you know of me, my gentlest one! 338.
What domes and pinnacles of mist and fire, 228.
What is a sonnet? 'T is the pearly shell, 134.
What is her playing like? 118.
What is her playing like? 119.
What makes the garden grow, 456.
What shall we name it, 311.
What strange, fond trick is this mine eyes are playing! 261.
What, then, is Life—what Death? 181.
What, then, shall make these songs of mine more real, 381.
What think you of the Table Round, 433.
What tragic loss! but, O, what gain sublime, 453.
What would I save thee from, dear heart, dear heart? 13.
What would I win thee to? dear heart and true! 13.
When at life's last the stricken player lies, 212.
When Christ cried: "It is done!" 176.
When fell the first great sorrow of my life, 454.
When fell, to-day, the word that she had gone, 331.
When from this mortal scene, 207.
When I am dead and buried, then, 80.
When I was a child joyfully I ran, 375.
When in the golden western summer skies, 69.
"When in the morning you wake," 443.
When in the starry gloom, 50.
When late I heard the trembling 'cello play, 257.
When late in summer the streams run yellow, 81.
When love dawned on that world which is my mind, 62.
When on that joyful sea, 19.
When on thy bed of pain thou layest low, 157.
When shall true love be love without alloy, 9.
When some new thought of love in me is born, 18.
When that great shade into the silence vast, 206.
When the girls come, 441.
When the great organs, answering each to each, 211.
When the last doubt is doubted, 28.
When the last movement fell, I thought: Ah, me! 388.
When the true poet comes, how shall we know him? 132.
When the war fleet puts to sea, 446.
When to sleep I must, 66.
When with their country's anger, 273.
Where led the bright and blameless plume, 302.
While joy-bells are ringing, 279.
While others hedged, or silent lay, 304.
White, pillared neck; a brow to make men quake, 170.
Who are the men that good men most despise? 269.
Who builds the state? Not he whose power, 342.
Winds to the silent morn, 234.
Wise Rembrandt! thou couldst paint, and thou alone, 244.
With wild surprise, 126.
Within the second dolorous circle where, 26.

Without intent, I find a book I've writ, 382.
Would the gods might give, 230.

Ye living soldiers of the mighty war, 115.
Years have flown since I knew thee first, 32.
Yes, I have heard the nightingale, 233.
Yes, 't is a glorious sight, 218.
Yesterday, when we were friends, 153.
Your pretty book doth please me, 125.