| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 1705. Sonnets |
| | | By George Santayana |
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ON THE DEATH OF A METAPHYSICIAN
UNHAPPY dreamer, who outwinged in flight | |
| The pleasant region of the things I love, | |
| And soared beyond the sunshine, and above | |
| The golden cornfields and the dear and bright | |
| Warmth of the hearth,—blasphemer of delight, | 5 |
| Was your proud bosom not at peace with Jove, | |
| That you sought, thankless for his guarded grove, | |
| The empty horror of abysmal night? | |
| Ah, the thin air is cold above the moon! | |
| I stood and saw you fall, befooled in death, | 10 |
| As, in your numbed spirit’s fatal swoon, | |
| You cried you were a god, or were to be; | |
| I heard with feeble moan your boastful breath | |
| Bubble from depths of the Icarian sea. | |
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ON A PIECE OF TAPESTRY
HOLD high the woof, dear friends, that we may see | 15 |
| The cunning mixture of its colors rare. | |
| Nothing in nature purposely is fair,— | |
| Her mingled beauties never quite agree; | |
| But here all vivid dyes that garish be, | |
| To that tint mellowed which the sense will bear, | 20 |
| Glow, and not wound the eye that, resting there, | |
| Lingers to feed its gentle ecstasy. | |
| Crimson and purple and all hues of wine, | |
| Saffron and russet, brown and sober green | |
| Are rich the shadowy depths of blue between; | 25 |
| While silver threads with golden intertwine, | |
| To catch the glimmer of a fickle sheen,— | |
| All the long labor of some captive queen. | |
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