Edmund Clarence Stedman Quotes

Where's he that died o' yesterday? What better chance hath he To clink the can and toss the pot When this night's junkets be? For the lad that died o' yesterday Is just as dead — ho! ho! — As the whoreson knave men laid away A thousand years ago.

What if there be a fated day When the Faery Isle shall pass away, And its beautiful groves and fountains seem The myths of a long, delicious dream! A century's joys shall first repay Our hearts, for the evil of that day; And the Elfin-King has sworn to wed A daughter of Earth, whose child shall be, By cross and water hallowe'd, From the fairies' doom forever free. What if there be a fated day! It is far away! it is far away! Maiden, fair Maiden, I, who sing Of this summer isle am the island King.

The Vestal, with her silvery content,
⁠The Lesbian, with the passion and the pain, — Which creature hath their one Creator lent
⁠More light of heaven? Who would dare restrain
The beams of either? who the radiance mar
Of the white planet or the burning star?

O, our feeble tests of greatness! Look for one so calm of soul As to take the even chalice of his life and drink the whole. Noble deeds are held in honor, but the wide world sorely needs Hearts of patience to unravel this, — the worth of common deeds.

The lady to her knightly guest's salute
⁠Turned her face full, so that he marked her eyes, — How dewy gray beneath each long, black lid,
And danger somewhere in their light lay hid.

There are some natures housed so chaste within
⁠Their placid dwellings that their heads control
The tumult of their hearts; and thus they win
⁠A quittance from this pleading of the soul
For Love, whose service does so wound and heal;
How should they crave for what they cannot feel?

From passion and from pain enfranchised quite,
⁠Alike from gain and never-stanched Regret,
Calm as the blind who have not seen the light,
⁠The dumb who hear no precious voice; and yet
The sun forever pours his lambent fire
And the high winds are vocal with desire.

Let the winds blow! a fiercer gale Is wild within me! what may quell That sullen tempest? I must sail Whither, O whither, who can tell!

Yes, my Prince was such as they,
Part of gold, and part of clay,
⁠Though his metal shone as bright,
⁠And his dross was hid from sight.
He who brightest is, and best
Still may fear the secret test
⁠That shall try his heart aright.

The year of jubilee has come; Gather the gifts of Earth with equal hand; Henceforth ye too may share the birthright soil, The corn, the wine, and all the harvest-home.

Give me to die unwitting of the day,
And stricken in Life's brave heat, with senses clear!

I dare aver He is a brave discoverer
Of climes his elders do not know.
He has more learning than appears
On the scroll of twice three thousand years.

Yet the son
⁠Seemed worthy, for his parts were of that mould
Oft-failing Nature strives to join in one,
⁠And shape a hero, — pure and wise and bold:
In arts and arms the wonder of his peers,
The flower of princes, prince of cavaliers;

I loved: and in the morning sky, A magic castle upward grew!

The two, that day,
Lured by a falling water's sound, went deep
Beyond the sunlight, in the forest-keep.

Here from a range of wooded uplands leapt
⁠A mountain brook and far-off meadows sought;
Now under firs and tasselled chestnuts crept,
⁠Then on through jagged rocks a passage fought,
Until it clove this shadowy gorge and cool
In one white cataract, — with a dark, broad pool

Beneath, the home of mottled trout. One side
⁠Rose the cliff's hollowed height, and overhung
An open sward across that basin wide.
⁠The liberal sun through slanting larches flung
Rich spots of gold upon the tufted ground,
And the great royal forest gloomed around.

At last the god cometh! The air runs over with splendor; The fire leaps high on the altar; Melodious thunders shake the ground. Hark to the Delphic responses! Hark! it is the god!

Hopeless of all he dared to hope so long, The music born within him dies away; Even the song he loved becomes a pain, Full-freighted with a yearning all in vain.