by William Cullen Bryant
Oh, gentle one, thy birthday sun should rise Amid a chorus of the merriest birds That ever sang the stars out of the sky In a June morning. Rivulets should send A voice of gladness from… Read the rest
Category: William Cullen Bryant
The West Wind
by William Cullen Bryant
Beneath the forest's skirts I rest,
Whose branching pines rise dark and high,
And hear the breezes of the West
Among the threaded foliage sigh.
Sweet Zephyr! why that sound of woe?
Is not thy home … Read the rest To A Waterfowl
by William Cullen Bryant
Whither, midst falling dew,
While glow the heavens with the last steps of day,
Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue
Thy solitary way?
Vainly the fowler's eye
Might mark thy distant flight to do … Read the rest A Winter Piece
by William Cullen Bryant
The time has been that these wild solitudes, Yet beautiful as wild, were trod by me Oftener than now; and when the ills of life Had chafed my spirit—when the unsteady pulse Beat with strange flutterings—I… Read the rest
Bocage’s Penitential Sonnet
by William Cullen Bryant
I've seen my life, without a noble aim, In the mad strife of passions waste away. Fool that I was! to live as if decay Would spare the vital essence in my frame! And Hope, whose… Read the rest
Green River
by William Cullen Bryant
When breezes are soft and skies are fair, I steal an hour from study and care, And hie me away to the woodland scene, Where wanders the stream with waters of green, As if the bright… Read the rest
Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood
by William Cullen Bryant
Stranger, if thou hast learned a truth which needs No school of long experience, that the world Is full of guilt and misery, and hast seen Enough of all its sorrows, crimes, and cares, To tire… Read the rest
Musings
by William Cullen Bryant
I pass'd on my nightly path alone; No friendly form was hovering near, No friendly voice was in mine ear, But the night wind's wailing tone. On the wide drear field no autumn bloom Look'd gay,… Read the rest
Song of the Stars
by William Cullen Bryant
When the radiant morn of creation broke, And the world in the smile of God awoke, And the empty realms of darkness and death Were moved through their depths by his mighty breath, And orbs of… Read the rest
Thanatopsis
by William Cullen Bryant
To him who in the love of Nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language; for his gayer hours
She has a voice of gladness, and a smile
And eloquence of beauty, … Read the rest