O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell, Let it not be among the jumbled heap Of murky buildings; climb with me the steep, -Nature's observatory - whence the dell,Its flowery slopes, its river's crystal swell, May seem a span; let me...

Sonnet to SleepO soft embalmer of the still midnight, Shutting with careful fingers and benignOur gloom-pleas'd eyes, embower'd from the light, Enshaded in forgetfulness divine:O soothest Sleep! if so it please thee, close,...

On Visiting the Tomb of BurnsThe town, the churchyard, and the setting sun, The clouds, the trees, the rounded hills all seem, Though beautiful, cold - strange - as in a dreamI dreamed long ago. Now new begun,The short-lived, pal...

19The King of Cyprus to His Queen (1399) Thy beauty has swooped down upon my soul; Thou hast me in the talons of thy love, And hold'st me in the dizziness above, High o'er the cloud, high o'er the thunder's roll. The wo...

17Peter of Portugal to Inez de Castro (1356) O Inez, canst thou hear from underground, Sweet bride of nard and myrrh, the loud bells ring? Wilt thou not be my Queen, now I am King, And leave thy vault, embalmed one, to be crown...

16Laura to Petrarch (1345) Sweet Florentine that sitteth by the hearth When hums my spinning, and the shadows leap As leaps the fire and with its stealthy creep, The winter twilight hushes all the earth: A husba...

15Rienzi to the She-Wolf of Rome (1320) Among the shattered columns where I prowl, Beneath the self-same stars that saw the rise Of this dead Rome, I hear, mid the wind's sighs, Thou iron-dugg'd nurse, the phantom of thy howl;...

32Savonarola to His Fate (1498) I dreamt I drifted on an oarless raft, And that I knew the stream I was upon Was whirling on to join the Phlegethon As straight and certain as a cross-bow shaft; And in my agony I sob...

34Columbus to His Fetters (1502) Ye solemn fetters, that I love to keep, An iron proof of man's injustice here, Until such day, as, laid within my bier, Ye shall surround me in my final sleep: Each link is the rewar...

24ELEANOR BRACKEN TO MARGARET GREY.1460May every little shining pin I drive Into thy waxen image make thee yell As in the endless echoing vaults of Hell Men yell unheard,—yet leave thee still alive,That I may li...