American Sonnets

Selected and Edited by T. W. Higginson and E. H. Bigelow

A wide-ranging expertly selected 250 selections by 152 authors.

Bibliographic Record Preface

Contents

Bibliographical Notes

SECOND EDITION

BOSTON AND NEW YORK: HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & Co., 1891
NEW YORK: BARTLEBY.COM, 2012

Oscar Fay Adams. 1855–1919.	Indifference
John Albee. 1833–1915.	At the Grave of Champernowne
Amos Bronson Alcott. 1799–1888.	Immortality
Thomas Bailey Aldrich. 1836–1907.	At Fredericksburg
	“Enamored architect of airy rhyme”
	“I vex me not with brooding on the years”
	Sleep
Elizabeth Ann (Chase) (Akers) Allen. 1832–1911.	Hughenden
Washington Allston. 1779–1843.	On a Falling Group in the Last Judgment of Michael Angelo
Annie Rankin Annan.	Rydal Water
Thomas Gold Appleton. 1812–1884.	Pompeii
Obadiah Cyrus Auringer. 1849–1937.	The Untimely Singer
	A Day and a Friend
Julie (Wetherill) Baker. 1858– .	A Day of Joy
Arlo Bates. 1850–1918.	Sonnets in Shadow (IX.)
	Sonnets in Shadow (XVIII.)
Peter Bayley, Jr.. 1778?–1823.	On Hearing an Eolian Harp
Henry Augustin Beers. 1847–1926.	Waiting for Winter
	Tò Pân
Park Benjamin. 1809–1864.	New York Harbor on a Calm Day
James Berry Bensel. 1856–1886.	A Portrait
	A Wedding Sonnet
George Washington Bethune. 1805–1862.	On a Picture of the Magdalene Asleep
Melville Madison Bigelow. 1846–1921.	The Sun
	Two Days
William Hunter Birckhead.	Not Forever
	Life’s Dreams
Gertrude Bloede (“Stuart Sterne”). 1845–1905.	“From out eternal stillness do we come”
George Henry Boker. 1823–1890.	“Brave comrade, answer!”
	To England
Anna Charlotte (Lynch) Botta. 1815–1891.	Longing
Richard Rogers Bowker. 1848–1933.	Thomas à Kempis; De Imitatione Christi
Hjalmar Hjorth Boyeson. 1848–1895.	Evolution
	The Air
Julia Boynton.	Divided
Louise Brooks.	May
	July
	September, 1889
William Cullen Bryant. 1794–1878.	November
	October
	William Tell
Henry Cuyler Bunner. 1855–1896.	Farewell to Salvini
George Shepard Burleigh. 1821–1903.	Seaconnet at Midnight
	An Ocean Sunrise
John White Chadwick. 1840–1904.	Crow’s Nest
	Carpe Diem
William Ellery Channing. 1818–1901.	“The day has past”
	“Hearts of eternity”
John Vance Cheney. 1848–1922.	Music
Thomas Stephens Collier. 1842–1893.	Incarnation
Helen Gray Cone. 1859–1934.	The Passing of the Year
Ina Donna Coolbrith. 1841–1928.	Beside the Dead
Sylvia Lawson Covey.	At Dawn
Ralph Adams Cram. 1863–1942.	Last Light
Christopher Pearse Cranch. 1813–1892.	Life and Death (I.)
	Life and Death (II.)
	Robert Browning
Charles Henry Crandall. 1858–1923.	Waiting
Ellen Dean.	On Hearing Hoffman’s Melusina
Mary Mapes Dodge. 1831–1905.	The Human Tie
	Over the World
Julia Caroline (Ripley) Dorr. 1825–1913.	To-day
	Remembrance
Héloïse Durant.	Dante’s Mask
	Oasis
Louis Dyer. 1851–1908.	Lines to a Friend
Maurice Francis Egan. 1852–1924.	Of Flowers
	Theocritus
Edgar Fawcett. 1847–1904.	Two Phases
	Crowns
	The Hours
	A Tiger-Lily
Caroline Wilder Fellowes.	A Volume of Dante
David Skaats Foster. 1852–1920.	The Cricket
William Prescott Foster. 1856– .	A Child’s Grave
Wendell Phillips Garrison. 1840–1907.	Evening
	Freedom of the Mind
William Gibson. 1826–1887.	On an Etruscan Tomb
	Genoa
Richard Watson Gilder. 1844–1909.	The Celestial Passion
	“My songs are all of thee”
	On the Life-Mask of Abraham Lincoln
	The Sonnet
Elaine Goodale Eastman. 1863–1953.	Baby
	Mother
Bessie Gray. 1854–1925.	Venice
Louise Imogen Guiney. 1861–1920.	Among the Flags
	Knight Falstaff
Henry Hamilton. 1840–1916.	The Poet’s Praise
Paul Hamilton Hayne. 1830–1886.	Cloud Fantasies
	Freshness of Poetic Perception
	A Comparison
William James Henderson. 1855–1937.	Eve
Mary Potter Thacher Higginson. 1844–1941.	The Playmate Hours
Thomas Wentworth Higginson. 1823–1911.	Sonnet to Duty
	Sub Pondere Crescit
	The Snowing of the Pines
	“Since Cleopatra died”
Charles Lotin Hildreth. 1858?–1896.	Memory
Warren Holden. 1817–1903.	The Violin
Josiah Gilbert Holland. 1819–1881.	Two Homes
Oliver Wendell Holmes. 1809–1894.	Nearing the Snow-Line
	1643 “Veritas” 1878
	To J. G. Whittier on His Eightieth Birthday
Louisa Parsons (Stone) Hopkins. 1834–1895.	The Boulder
George Washington Wright Houghton. 1850–1891.	Columbus
Henry Raymond Howland. 1844–1930.	Snow Born
Mary (Clemmer) (Ames) Hudson. 1839–1884.	Distance
Helen Maria (Fiske) (Hunt) Jackson. 1830–1885.	Burnt Ships
	October
	Thought
	Ariadne’s Farewell
Lucia (White) Jennison (“Owen Innsley”). 1850– .	Titles
	Bondage
	Her Roses
	At Sea
Sophie Jewett (“Ellen Burroughs”). 1861–1909.	A Friendship
Robert Underwood Johnson. 1853–1937.	On Nearing Washington
Charles de Kay. 1848–1935.	Under Brooklyn Bridge
James Benjamin Kenyon. 1858–1924.	Rizpah
Elizabeth Clementine (Dodge) (Stedman) Kinney. 1810–1889.	April
Albert Laighton. 1829–1887.	Trailing Arbutus
Sidney Lanier. 1842–1881.	The Mocking Bird
	An Frau Nannette Falk-Auerbach
	To Nannette Falk-Auerbach
	The Harlequin of Dreams
Lucy Larcom. 1824–1893.	“They said”
Wilbur Larremore. 1855–1918.	Emerson
George Parsons Lathrop. 1851–1898.	The Lover’s Year
	“O wholesome Death”
William Cranston Lawton. 1853–1941.	My Fatherland (I.)
	My Fatherland (II.)
Emma Lazarus. 1849–1887.	Symphonic Studies: Prelude
	Symphonic Studies: Epilogue
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 1807–1882.	Divina Commedia
	A Shadow
	The Two Rivers
	The Cross of Snow
William Sinclair Lord. 1863–1925.	Recompense
James Russell Lowell. 1819–1891.	To the Spirit of Keats
	To a Friend
	The Maple
	To a Lady Playing on the Cithern
Maria (White) Lowell. 1821–1853.	To ——. “I love thee—not because thy love for me”
	To ——. “I love thee for thyself,—thyself alone”
Charles Henry Lüders. 1858–1891.	The Haunts of the Halcyon
George Lunt. 1803–1885.	Milton
Adeline Treadwell (Parsons) Lunt.	In Ecclesia
Frances Laughton Mace. 1836–1899.	The Succession
	Thy Song
Charles Edwin Markham. 1852–1940.	The Last Furrow
	After Reading Shakspeare
	The Cricket
	Sewing the Shroud
Juliet C. Marsh.	The Pines’ Thought
Mary Augusta Mason.	On the Mountain
George McKnight. 1840–1897.	Memento Mori
	The Birth of Sorrow
	Partial Readings
Langdon Elwyn Mitchell. 1862–1935.	Decoration Day
Harriet Monroe. 1860–1936.	With a Copy of Shelley
Jessie (Goodwin) Moore.	Snow Sonnet
James Herbert Morse. 1841– .	Brook Song
Louise (Chandler) Moulton. 1835–1908.	The Cup of Death
	Hic Jacet
	A Parable
	Robert Browning
James Ernest Nesmith. 1856–1898.	A Summer Tempest
Sarah Margaret (Fuller) Ossoli. 1810–1850.	Beethoven
Theodore Parker. 1810–1860.	The Way, the Truth, the Life
James Gates Percival. 1795–1856.	Acrostic Sonnet: Emilie Marshall
Carlotta Perry. 1839–1914.	Love’s Meaning
	Eternal
Lilla (Cabot) Perry.	“I will not wish all grief and loss and fears”
	Switzerland
	On Millet’s Picture of Two Women Sewing by Lamplight
John James Piatt. 1835–1917.	My Shadow’s Stature
	A Book of Gold
	The Young State
Henry Pickering. 1781–1838.	To the Night Blooming Cereus
Edgar Allan Poe. 1809–1849.	Silence
	To Science
Margaret (Junkin) Preston. 1820–1897.	At St. Oswald’s
	Flood-Tide
Lizette Woodworth Reese. 1856–1935.	Daffodils
Anna (Matlack) Richards. 1835–1900.	“I, who am young”
James Riley.	The Whippoorwill
James Whitcomb Riley. 1849–1916.	Time
	“When she comes home”
Anna Katherine (Green) Rohlfs. 1846–1935.	In Farewell
Alice Marland (Wellington) Rollins. 1847–1897.	Experience
	Thought
Henry Shelton Sanford, Jr. 1865–1891.	The Flight of Joy
Minot Judson Savage. 1841–1918.	Infidelity
John Godfrey Saxe. 1816–1887.	Parting
Andrew Bice Saxton.	The Invisible Land
	The Overflowing Cup
Clinton Scollard. 1860–1932.	A Pearl
	Wheat
	The Arctic Circe
Frank Dempster Sherman. 1860–1916.	Perpetuity
	Re-awakening
Edward Rowland Sill. 1841–1887.	To a Face at a Concert
William Gilmore Simms. 1806–1870.	Solace of the Woods
May Riley Smith. 1842?–1927.	Trust
Susan Marr Spaulding.	Dear Hands
Eliza Allen Starr. 1824–1901.	Hepaticas on Palm-Sunday
	The Sea Gull
Edmund Clarence Stedman. 1833–1908.	The Swallow
	Whittier’s Eightieth Birthday
Julia Noyes Stickney. 1830– .	Murillo
Richard Henry Stoddard. 1825–1903.	Florence Nightingale
William Wetmore Story. 1819–1895.	Clytie
	“After long days of dull perpetual rain”
William Struthers.	In Winter
Bayard Taylor. 1825–1878.	Nubia
	“The soul goes forth and finds no resting place”
Celia (Laighton) Thaxter. 1835–1894.	“As happy dwellers by the sea-side hear”
Edith Matilda Thomas. 1854–1925.	The Fountains of the Rain
	Frost
	Solitude
	On the Sonnet
Maurice Thompson. 1844–1901.	On a Garden Statue of Persephone
	A Green Heron
Henry Timrod. 1828–1867.	“I scarcely grieve, O Nature! at the lot”
Lewis Frank Tooker. 1855–1925.	Indian Summer
Mary Ashley (van Voorhis) Townsend. 1832–1832.	The Wind
Robertson Trowbridge.	Symphony
Henry Theodore Tuckerman. 1813–1871.	The Indian Summer
William Bartlett Tyler.	Recollection
Jones Very. 1813–1880.	Love
	Nature
	The Wind-Flower
	He Was Acquainted with Grief
David Atwood Wasson. 1823–1887.	Love against Love
	Pride
Daniel Webster. 1782–1852.	The Memory of the Heart
Edith Wharton. 1862–1937.	Euryalus
Sarah Helen (Power) Whitman. 1803–1878.	To Edgar Allan Poe: “When first I looked”
	To Edgar Allan Poe: “If thy sad heart”
Ernest Whitney. 1858–1893.	A Drop of Ink
John Greenleaf Whittier. 1807–1892.	Requital
	Forgiveness
Richard Henry Wilde. 1789–1847.	To the Mocking-Bird
Nathaniel Parker Willis. 1806–1867.	Acrostic: Emilie Marshall
Robert Burns Wilson. 1850–1916.	The Snow-Flake
	To Robert Louis Stevenson
George Edward Woodberry. 1855–1930.	At Gibraltar (I.)
	At Gibraltar (II.)
Sarah (Channing) Woolsey (“Susan Coolidge”). 1835–1905.	Of Such As I Have