Book: A Threefold Chord

• To Greville Matheson MacDonald

  First, most, to thee, my son, I give this book
  In which a friend's and brother's verses blend

  16 lines
• The Haunted House

  \Suggested by a drawing of Thomas Moran, the American painter\.
  This must be the very night!

  210 lines
• In The Winter

  In the winter, flowers are springing;
  In the winter, woods are green,

  40 lines
• Christmas-Day, 1878

  I think I might be weary of this day
  That comes inevitably every year,

  18 lines
• The New Year

  Be welcome, year! with corn and sickle come;
  Make poor the body, but make rich the heart:

  8 lines
• Two Rondels

  I.
  When, in the mid-sea of the night,

  30 lines
• Rondel

  Heart, thou must learn to do without--
  That is the riches of the poor,

  14 lines
• Song

  Lighter and sweeter
  Let your song be;

  4 lines
• Smoke

  Lord, I have laid my heart upon thy altar
  But cannot get the wood to burn;

  12 lines
• To A Certain Critic

  Such guests as you, sir, were not in my mind
  When I my homely dish with care designed;

  8 lines
• Song

  She loves thee, loves thee not!
  That, that is all, my heart.

  14 lines
• A Cry

  Lord, hear my discontent: all blank I stand,
  A mirror polished by thy hand;

  28 lines
• From Home

  Some men there are who cannot spare
  A single tear until they feel

  12 lines
• To My Mother Earth

  O Earth, Earth, Earth,
  I am dying for love of thee,

  100 lines
• Thy Heart

  Make not of thy heart a casket,
  Opening seldom, quick to close;

  4 lines
• O Lord, How Happy!

  \From the German of Dessler\.
  O Lord, how happy is the time

  49 lines
• No Sign

  O Lord, if on the wind, at cool of day,
  I heard one whispered word of mighty grace;

  32 lines
• November, 1851

  What dost thou here, O soul,
  Beyond thy own control,

  264 lines
• Of One Who Died In Spring

  Loosener of springs, he died by thee!
  Softness, not hardness, sent him home;

  4 lines
• An Autumn Song

  Are the leaves falling round about
  The churchyard on the hill?

  19 lines
• Triolet

  Few in joy's sweet riot
  Able are to listen:

  8 lines
• I See Thee Not

  Yes, Master, when thou comest thou shalt find
  A little faith on earth, if I am here!

  24 lines
• A Broken Prayer

  O Lord, my God, how long
  Shall my poor heart pant for a boundless joy?

  216 lines
• Come Down

  Still am I haunting
  Thy door with my prayers;

  8 lines
• A Mood

  My thoughts are like fire-flies, pulsing in moonlight;
  My heart like a silver cup, filled with red wine;

  4 lines
• The Carpenter

  O Lord, at Joseph's humble bench
  Thy hands did handle saw and plane;

  28 lines
• The Old Garden

  I.
  I stood in an ancient garden

  163 lines
• A Noonday Melody

  Everything goes to its rest;
  The hills are asleep in the noon;

  24 lines
• Who Lights The Fire?

  Who lights the fire--that forth so gracefully
  And freely frolicketh the fairy smoke?

  14 lines
• Who Would Have Thought?

  Who would have thought that even an idle song
  Were such a holy and celestial thing

  14 lines
• On A December Day

  I.
  This is the sweetness of an April day;

  30 lines
• Christmas Day, 1850

  Beautiful stories wed with lovely days
  Like words and music:--what shall be the tale

  14 lines
• To A February Primrose

  I know not what among the grass thou art,
  Thy nature, nor thy substance, fairest flower,

  14 lines
• In February

  Now in the dark of February rains,
  Poor lovers of the sunshine, spring is born,

  14 lines
• The True

  I envy the tree-tops that shake so high
  In winds that fill them full of heavenly airs;

  14 lines
• The Dwellers Within

  Down a warm alley, early in the year,
  Among the woods, with all the sunshine in

  14 lines
• Autumn's Gold

  Along the tops of all the yellow trees,
  The golden-yellow trees, the sunshine lies;

  14 lines
• Punishment

  Mourner, that dost deserve thy mournfulness,
  Call thyself punished, call the earth thy hell;

  14 lines
• Shew Us The Father

  "Shew us the Father." Chiming stars of space,
  And lives that fit the worlds, and means and powers,

  14 lines
• The Pinafore

  When peevish flaws his soul have stirred
  To fretful tears for crossed desires,

  40 lines
• The Prism

  I.
  A pool of broken sunbeams lay

  42 lines
• Sleep

  Oh! is it Death that comes
  To have a foretaste of the whole?

  45 lines
• Sharing

  On the far horizon there
  Heaps of cloudy darkness rest;

  44 lines
• In Bonds

  Of the poor bird that cannot fly
  Kindly you think and mournfully;

  12 lines
• Father

  Father, I cry to thee for bread
  With hungred longing, eager prayer;

  16 lines
• New Year's Eve: A Waking Dream

  I have not any fearful tale to tell
  Of fabled giant or of dragon-claw,

  176 lines
• From North Wales: To The Mother

  When the summer gave us a longer day,
  And the leaves were thickest, I went away:

  32 lines
• Come To Me

  Come to me, come to me, O my God;
  Come to me everywhere!

  28 lines
• A Fear

  O Mother Earth, I have a fear
  Which I would tell to thee--

  24 lines
• The Lost House

  Out of thy door I run to do the thing
  That calls upon me. Straight the wind of words

  15 lines
• The Talk Of The Echoes: A Fragment

  When the cock crows loud from the glen,
  And the moor-cock chirrs from the heather,

  22 lines
• The Goal

  In God alone, the perfect end,
  Wilt thou find thyself or friend.

  2 lines
• The Healer

  They come to thee, the halt, the maimed, the blind,
  The devil-torn, the sick, the sore;

  24 lines
• Oh That A Wind

  Oh that a wind would call
  From the depths of the leafless wood!

  32 lines
• A Vision of St. Eligius

  I.
  I see thy house, but I am blown about,

  27 lines
• Of The Son of Man

  I. I honour Nature, holding it unjust
  To look with jealousy on her designs;

  211 lines
• A Song-Sermon

  Job xiv. 13-15.
  RONDEL.

  16 lines
• Words In The Night

  I woke at midnight, and my heart,
  My beating heart, said this to me:

  80 lines
• Consider The Ravens

  Lord, according to thy words,
  I have considered thy birds;

  55 lines
• The Wind of The World

  Chained is the Spring. The Night-wind bold
  Blows over the hard earth;

  8 lines
• Sabbath Bells

  Oh holy Sabbath bells,
  Ye have a pleasant voice!

  21 lines
• Fighting

  Here is a temple strangely wrought:
  Within it I can see

  29 lines
• After The Fashion of An Old Emblem

  I have long enough been working down in my cellar,
  Working spade and pick, boring-chisel and drill;

  28 lines
• A Prayer In Sickness

  Thou foldest me in sickness;
  Thou callest through the cloud;

  14 lines
• Quiet Dead!

  Quiet, quiet dead,
  Have ye aught to say

  44 lines
• Let Your Light So Shine

  Sometimes, O Lord, thou lightest in my head
  A lamp that well might pharos all the lands;

  16 lines
• Triolet

  When the heart is a cup
  In the body low lying,

  8 lines
• The Souls' Rising

  See how the storm of life ascends
  Up through the shadow of the world!

  134 lines
• Awake!

  The stars are all watching;
  God's angel is catching

  30 lines
• To An Autograph-Hunter

  Seek not my name--it doth no virtue bear;
  Seek, seek thine own primeval name to find--

  16 lines
• With A Copy of: "In Memoriam"

  To: E.M. II.
  

  53 lines
• They Are Blind

  They are blind, and they are dead:
  We will wake them as we go;

  29 lines
• When The Storm Was Proudest

  When the storm was proudest,
  And the wind was loudest,

  30 lines
• The Diver

  \From Schiller\
  "Which of you, knight or squire, will dare

  163 lines
• To The Clouds

  Through the unchanging heaven, as ye have sped,
  Speed onward still, a strange wild company,

  14 lines
• Second Sight

  Rich is the fancy which can double back
  All seeming forms, and from cold icicles

  14 lines
• Not Understood

  Tumultuous rushing o'er the outstretched plains;
  A wildered maze of comets and of suns;

  14 lines
• Hom. IL. v. 403

  If thou art tempted by a thought of ill,
  Crave not too soon for victory, nor deem

  14 lines
• The Dawn

  And must I ever wake, gray dawn, to know
  Thee standing sadly by me like a ghost?

  14 lines
• Galileo

  "And yet it moves!" Ah, Truth, where wert thou then
  When all for thee they racked each piteous limb?

  14 lines, 1 comment
• Subsidy

  If thou wouldst live the Truth in very deed,
  Thou hast thy joy, but thou hast more of pain.

  14 lines
• The Prophet

  Speak, Prophet of the Lord! We may not start
  To find thee with us in thine ancient dress,

  14 lines
• The Watcher

  From out a windy cleft there comes a gaze
  Of eyes unearthly, which go to and fro

  14 lines
• The Beloved Disciple

  I.
  One do I see and twelve; but second there

  30 lines
• The Lily of The Valley

  There is not any weed but hath its shower,
  There is not any pool but hath its star;

  14 lines
• Evil Influence

  'Tis not the violent hands alone that bring
  The curse, the ravage, and the downward doom,

  14 lines, 3 comments
• Spoken of Several Philosophers

  I pray you, all ye men who put your trust
  In moulds and systems and well-tackled gear,

  14 lines, 1 comment
• Nature: A Moral Power

  Nature, to him no message dost thou bear
  Who in thy beauty findeth not the power

  14 lines
• To June

  Ah, truant, thou art here again, I see!
  For in a season of such wretched weather

  14 lines
• Summer

  Summer, sweet Summer, many-fingered Summer!
  We hold thee very dear, as well we may:

  14 lines
• On A Midge

  Whence do ye come, ye creatures? Each of you
  Is perfect as an angel! wings and eyes

  14 lines
• Steadfast

  Here stands a giant stone from whose far top
  Comes down the sounding water: let me gaze

  14 lines
• Provision

  Above my head the great pine-branches tower;
  Backwards and forwards each to the other bends,

  14 lines
• First Sight of The Sea

  I do remember how, when very young,
  I saw the great sea first, and heard its swell

  14 lines
• On The Source of The Arve

  Hears't thou the dash of water, loud and hoarse,
  With its perpetual tidings upward climb,

  14 lines
• Confidence

  Lie down upon the ground, thou hopeless one!
  Press thy face in the grass, and do not speak.

  14 lines
• Fate

  Oft, as I rest in quiet peace, am I
  Thrust out at sudden doors, and madly driven

  14 lines
• Unrest

  Comes there, O Earth, no breathing time for thee,
  No pause upon thy many-chequered lands?

  14 lines
• One With Nature

  I have a fellowship with every shade
  Of changing nature: with the tempest hour

  14 lines
• My Two Geniuses

  I.
  One is a slow and melancholy maid;

  45 lines
• Sudden Calm

  There is a bellowing in me, as of might
  Unfleshed and visionless, mangling the air

  14 lines
• Thou Also

  Cry out upon the crime, and then let slip
  The dogs of hate, whose hanging muzzles track

  14 lines
• The Aurora Borealis

  Now have I grown a sharpness and an edge
  Unto my future nights, and I will cut

  14 lines
• The Human

  Within each living man there doth reside,
  In some unrifled chamber of the heart,

  14 lines
• Written On A Stormy Night

  O wild and dark! a night hath found me now
  Wherein I mingle with that element

  14 lines
• Reverence Waking Hope

  A power is on me, and my soul must speak
  To thee, thou grey, grey man, whom I behold

  14 lines
• Born of Water

  Methought I stood among the stars alone,
  Watching a grey parched orb which onward flew

  14 lines
• To A Thunder-Cloud

  Oh, melancholy fragment of the night
  Drawing thy lazy web against the sun,

  14 lines
• Sun and Moon

  First came the red-eyed sun as I did wake;
  He smote me on the temples and I rose,

  14 lines
• Doubt Heralding Vision

  An angel saw me sitting by a brook,
  Pleased with the silence, and the melodies

  14 lines
• Life Or Death?

  Is there a secret Joy, that may not weep,
  For every flower that ends its little span,

  14 lines
• Lost and Found

  I missed him when the sun began to bend;
  I found him not when I had lost his rim;

  14 lines
• The Moon

  She comes! again she comes, the bright-eyed moon!
  Under a ragged cloud I found her out,

  14 lines, 1 comment
• Truth, Not Form!

  I came upon a fountain on my way
  When it was hot, and sat me down to drink

  14 lines
• God In Growth

  I said, I will arise and work some thing,
  Nor be content with growth, but cause to grow

  14 lines
• In A Churchyard

  There may be seeming calm above, but no!--
  There is a pulse below which ceases not,

  14 lines
• Power

  Power that is not of God, however great,
  Is but the downward rushing and the glare

  14 lines
• Death

  Yes, there is one who makes us all lay down
  Our mushroom vanities, our speculations,

  14 lines
• That Holy Thing

  They all were looking for a king
  To slay their foes, and lift them high:

  12 lines
• From Novalis

  Uplifted is the stone
  And all mankind arisen!

  32 lines
• What Man Is There of You?

  The homely words how often read!
  How seldom fully known!

  16 lines
• O Wind of God

  O wind of God, that blowest in the mind,
  Blow, blow and wake the gentle spring in me;

  14 lines
• Shall The Dead Praise Thee?

  I cannot praise thee. By his instrument
  The master sits, and moves nor foot nor hand;

  28 lines
• A Year Song

  Sighing above,
  Rustling below,

  40 lines
• Song

  Why do the houses stand
  When they that built them are gone;

  14 lines
• For Where Your Treasure Is, There Will Your Heart Be Also

  The miser lay on his lonely bed;
  Life's candle was burning dim.

  42 lines
• The Asthmatic To The Satan That Binds Him

  Satan, avaunt!
  Nay, take thine hour,

  42 lines
• Song-Sermon

  Lord, what is man
  That thou art mindful of him!

  8 lines
• Shadows

  All things are shadows of thee, Lord;
  The sun himself is but thy shade;

  20 lines
• A Winter Prayer

  Come through the gloom of clouded skies,
  The slow dim rain and fog athwart;

  20 lines
• Song of A Poor Pilgrim

  Roses all the rosy way!
  Roses to the rosier west

  28 lines
• An Evening Prayer

  I am a bubble
  Upon thy ever-moving, resting sea:

  16 lines
• Song-Sermon

  Mercy to thee, O Lord, belongs,
  For as his work thou giv'st the man.

  8 lines
• A Dream-Song

  The stars are spinning their threads,
  And the clouds are the dust that flies,

  16 lines
• Christmas, 1880

  Great-hearted child, thy very being The Son,
  Who know'st the hearts of all us prodigals;--

  35 lines
• Rondel

  I do not know thy final will,
  It is too good for me to know:

  14 lines
• The Sparrow

  O Lord, I cannot but believe
  The birds do sing thy praises then, when they sing to one another,

  24 lines
• December 23, 1879

  I.
  A thousand houses of poesy stand around me everywhere;

  43 lines
• Song-Prayer: After King David

  I shall be satisfied
  With the seeing of thy face.

  8 lines
• December 27, 1879

  Every time would have its song
  If the heart were right,

  56 lines
• Sunday

  December 28, 1879
  

  96 lines
• Song-Sermon

  In his arms thy silly lamb,
  Lo, he gathers to his breast!

  8 lines
• The Donkey In The Cart To The Horse In The Carriage

  I.
  I say! hey! cousin there! I mustn't call you brother!

  65 lines
• Room to Roam

  Strait is the path? He means we must not roam?
  Yes; but the strait path leads into a boundless home.

  2 lines, 1 comment
• Cottage-Songs

  I.--BY THE CRADLE.
  Close her eyes: she must not peep!

  125 lines
• The Wind And The Moon

  Said the Wind to the Moon, "I will blow you out!
  You stare

  66 lines
• The Foolish Harebell

  A harebell hung her wilful head:
  "I am tired, so tired! I wish I was dead."

  38 lines
• Song

  I was very cold
  In the summer weather;

  24 lines
• An Improvisation

  The stars cleave the sky.
  Yet for us they rest,

  16 lines
• Equity

  No bird can sing in tune but that the Lord
  Sits throned in equity above the heaven,

  14 lines
• Contrition

  Out of the gulf into the glory,
  Father, my soul cries out to be lifted.

  30 lines
• The Conselor

  On An Engraving of Scheffer's \Christus Consolator\
  

  46 lines
• To ----

  I cannot write old verses here,
  Dead things a thousand years away,

  20 lines
• To A Sister

  A fresh young voice that sings to me
  So often many a simple thing,

  24 lines
• The Shortest And Sweetest of Songs

  Come
  Home.

  2 lines, 1 comment

• By me, right now

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