Poem by Paul Hamilton Hayne

* * *

Too oft the poet in elaborate verse,
Flushed with quaint images and gorgeous tropes,
Casteth a doubtful light, which is not hope's,
On the dark spot where Death hath sealed his curse
In monumental silence. Nature starts
Indignant from the sacrilege of words
That ring so hollow, and forlornly girds
Her great woe round her; there's no trick of Art's
But shows most ghastly by a new-made tomb.
I see no balm in Gilead; he is lost,
The beautiful soul that loved thee, thy life's bloom
Is withered by the sudden blighting frost;
O Grief! how mighty; Creeds! how vain ye are:
Earth presses closely,—Heaven is cold and far.

1. An Idle Poet, Dreaming in the Sun
2. Along the Path Thy Bleeding Feet Have Trod
3. Baby’s First Word
4. A Phantom in the Clouds
5. “The Old Man of the Sea”

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