A New Kind of Literary Pulse

Hast thou been known to sing, O sea, that knowest thy strength? Hast thou been known to sing? Thy voice, can it rejoice? Naught save great sorrowing, To me, thy sounds incessant Do express ...  [+]

(The Dew-drier)

It is a custom in some parts of Africa for travelers into the jungles to send before them in the early morning little African boys called "Dew-driers" to brush with their bodies ...  [+]

'Tis a noble gift to be brown, all brown, Like the strongest things that make up this earth, Like the mountains grave and grand, Even like the very land, Even like the trunks of trees— Even oaks ...  [+]

I drew a picture long ago—
A picture of a sullen sea;
A picture that I value now
Because it clears Life's mystery.

My sea was dark and full of gloom;
I painted rocks ...  [+]

Again my fancy takes its flight,
And soars away on thoughtful wing,
Again my soul thrills with delight,
And this the fancied theme, I sing,
From Earthly scenes awhile, I find release, ...  [+]

I said a thoughtless word one day,
A loved one heard and went away;
I cried: "Forgive me, I was blind;
I would not wound or be unkind."
I waited long, but all in vain,
To win my loved ...  [+]

The rising sun had crowned the hills,
And added beauty to the plain;
O grand and wondrous spectacle!
That only nature could explain.

I stood within a leafy ...  [+]

I cannot sing, because when a child,
My mother often hushed me.
The others she allowed to sing,
No matter what their melody.

And since I've grown to manhood
All music I ...  [+]

O dainty bud, I hold thee in my hand—
A castaway, a dead, a lifeless thing.
A few days since I saw thee, wet with dew,
A bud of promise to thy parent cling,
Now thou art crushed yet lovely ...  [+]

It was my sad and weary lot
To toil in slavery;
But one thing cheered my lowly cot—
My husband was with me.

One evening, as our children played
Around our cabin door,
I ...  [+]

The sale began—young girls were there,
Defenceless in their wretchedness,
Whose stifled sobs of deep despair
Revealed their anguish and distress.

And mothers stood with ...  [+]

Like a fawn from the arrow, startled and wild,
A woman swept by us, bearing a child;
In her eye was the night of a settled despair,
And her brow was o'ershaded with anguish and care.
...  [+]