Poems by Arthur Henry Adams

All Poems Original Poems Translations

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Epitaph

The Earth Speaks:

HUSH! he drowses, drowses deep,

While my quiet arms I keep

Close about him in his sleep.

Once he glanced at me aghast,

Shuddered from my kiss, and passed —

But I hold him here at last.

He had frenzied thoughts of fame,

by Arthur Henry Adams

In Hyde Park

The white mist walks between the trees

In silver gown;

Her mystic floating draperies

The branches drown;

And lurking there with eager leer

And wonder new,

The lamps inquisitively peer

Their fingers through.

by Arthur Henry Adams

AD 19 — ?

AS in some quiet city bathed in sleep,

Where like a kiss the twilight lingereth,

When suddenly the earth stirs far beneath —

Just moves, then pauses — and a silence deep

Falls on all ere the second shock should sweep

Spire, column, pinnacle to shapeless death!

And white face peers at white face, and no breath

Is drawn, and every heart forgets to leap!

by Arthur Henry Adams

A Child

Little wisp of wonderment,

All the world your doll!

Hugging it in huge content,

Little wisp of wonderment;

Life has only laughter sent —

Everything is droll:

Little wisp of wonderment,

All the world your doll.

by Arthur Henry Adams

Just A Woman

YOU ask me why I love her;

Not a charm can you discover!

Would you see

The heart that a shut rose is,

And whose beauty ne'er uncloses

Save for me?

She is not rich or clever,

But her speeches thrill me ever,

by Arthur Henry Adams

Sydney

In her grey majesty of ancient stone

She queens it proudly, though the sun's caress

Her piteous cheeks, ravished of bloom, confess,

And her dark eyes his bridegroom glance have know.

Robed in her flowing parks, serene, alone,

She fronts the east; and with the tropic stress

Her smooth brow ripples into weariness;

Yet hers the sea for footstool, and for throne

by Arthur Henry Adams

Blossom Of Life

SO now she lies silent and sweet

With white flowers at her head and feet,

And she, the fairest flower, between.

The bud that with her bosom's swell

In dear delight once rose and fell

Now wafts her all it has to tell,

And wonders why she sleeps serene.

And yet in life how small a part,

by Arthur Henry Adams

Dawn

Far in the Eastern passage-way a sudden light;

The stone that blocked the sepulchre is backward rolled;

And down into the foetid, stifling vault of Night

The naked corpse of Dawn is lowered, grey and cold.

by Arthur Henry Adams

After Long Years

"AND have I changed?" she asked, and as she spoke

The old smile o'er her pale face bravely broke,

And in her eyes dead worlds of pathos woke.

Changed? When I knew again the ghost of each

Remembered trick of gesture, manner, speech,

And felt the beauty that no years could reach!

"I will go back with you without regret,

For not one word you spoke I dare forget,

by Arthur Henry Adams

From Wellington Terrace

WHITE stars above, red stars beneath,

And o'er the bay the brooding hills:

No murmur, save a quiet breath

That faintly through the darkness thrills,

The bay with shadowed lights a-blur;

On high a glow that waves and wanes;

And through the city here and there

The red-lit streets — like living veins!

by Arthur Henry Adams

Lament

PEACE, your little child is dead:

Peace, I cannot weep with you;

I have no more tears to shed;

I have mourned my baby too —

I, that ne'er was wooed or wed.

Love has looked within your eyes,

Love has filled your hungry heart;

You have borne the babe, your prize;

by Arthur Henry Adams

A Woman's Farewell

SO with this farewell kiss I taste at last

The all of life; the Future and the Past

Upon your dear lips dwell.

Love will not come again, though I implore;

And in my heart a twilight evermore —

Farewell!

A man's heart is so wide that I was wrong

To dream that I could fill it with the song

by Arthur Henry Adams