A king dwelt in Jerusalem:
He was the wisest man on earth;
He had all riches from his birth,
And pleasures till he tired of them:
Then, having tested all things, he
Witnessed that all are vanity.
O When and Where
All knowledge hath taught me,
All sorrow hath brought me,
Are smothered sighs
That pleasure lies,
Like the last gleam of evening's ray,
So far and far away,--far away.
Under the cold moist herbs
No wind the calm disturbs.
O when and where?
Nor here nor there.
Grass cools my face, grief heats my heart.
Will this life I swoon with never part?
Fancies at Leisure
I. Noon Rest
Following the river's course,
We come to where the sedges plant
Their thickest twinings at its source;--
A spot that makes the heart to pant,
Feeling its rest and beauty. Pull
The reeds' tops thro' your fingers; dull
Your sense of the world's life; and toss
The thought away of hap or cross:
Then shall the river seem to call
Your name, and the slow quiet crawl
Between your eyelids like a swoon;
And all the sounds at heat of noon
And all the silence shall so sing
Your eyes asleep as that no wing
Of bird in rustling by, no prone
Willow-branch on your hair, no drone
Droning about and past you,--nought
May soon avail to rouse you, caught
With sleep thro' heat in the sun's light,--
So good, tho' losing sound and sight,
You scarce would waken, if you might.
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