Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
Poems of Sentiment: II. LifeFortune
Fitz-Greene Halleck (1790–1867)B
Delights in tantalizing and tormenting.
One day we feed upon their smiles,—the next
Is spent in swearing, sorrowing, and repenting.
Eve never walked in Paradise more pure
Than on that morn when Satan played the devil
With her and all her race. A lovesick wooer
Ne’er asked a kinder maiden, or more civil,
Than Cleopatra was to Antony
The day she left him on the Ionian sea.
With eye that charms, and beauty that outvies
The tints of the rainbow—bears upon his sting
The deadliest venom. Ere the dolphin dies
Its hues are brightest. Like an infant’s breath
Are tropic winds before the voice of death
The midnight earthquake from its sleep of years
To do its task of woe. The clouds that fling
The lightning brighten ere the bolt appears;
The pantings of the warrior’s heart are proud
Upon that battle-morn whose night-dews wet his shroud;
The sun is loveliest as he sinks to rest;
The leaves of autumn smile when fading fast;
The swan’s last song is sweetest.