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Home  »  American Sonnets  »  John Vance Cheney (1848–1922)

Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891.

Music

John Vance Cheney (1848–1922)

TAKE of the maiden’s and the mother’s sigh,

Of childhood’s dream, and hope that age doth bless,

Of roses and the south wind’s tenderness,

Of fir tree’s shadow, tint of sunset sky,

Of moon on meadow where the stream runs by,

Of lover’s kiss, his diffident caress,

Of blue eyes’ yellow, brown eyes’ darker, tress,

Of echoes from the morning bird on high,

Of passion of all pulses of the Spring,

Of prayer from every death-bed of the Fall,

Of joy and woe that sleep and waking bring,

Of tremor of each blood-beat great and small;

Now, pour into the empty soul each thing,

And let His finger touch that moveth all.