Edmund Clarence Stedman Quotes

Yes, my Prince was such as they, Part of gold, and part of clay, ⁠Though his metal shone as bright, ⁠And his dross was hid from sight. He who brightest is, and best Still may fear the secret test ⁠That shall try his heart aright.

The Vestal, with her silvery content, ⁠The Lesbian, with the passion and the pain,— Which creature hath their one Creator lent ⁠More light of heaven? Who would dare restrain The beams of either? who the radiance mar Of the white planet or the burning star?

Yet the son ⁠Seemed worthy, for his parts were of that mould Oft-failing Nature strives to join in one, ⁠And shape a hero,—pure and wise and bold: In arts and arms the wonder of his peers, The flower of princes, prince of cavaliers;

The lady to her knightly guest's salute ⁠Turned her face full, so that he marked her eyes,— How dewy gray beneath each long, black lid, And danger somewhere in their light lay hid. There are some natures housed so chaste within ⁠Their placid dwellings that their heads control The tumult of their hearts; and thus they win ⁠A quittance from this pleading of the soul For Love, whose service does so wound and heal; How should they crave for what they cannot feel? From passion and from pain enfranchised quite, ⁠Alike from gain and never-stanched Regret, Calm as the blind who have not seen the light, ⁠The dumb who hear no precious voice; and yet The sun forever pours his lambent fire And the high winds are vocal with desire.

The two, that day, Lured by a falling water's sound, went deep Beyond the sunlight, in the forest-keep. Here from a range of wooded uplands leapt ⁠A mountain brook and far-off meadows sought; Now under firs and tasselled chestnuts crept, ⁠Then on through jagged rocks a passage fought, Until it clove this shadowy gorge and cool In one white cataract,—with a dark, broad pool Beneath, the home of mottled trout. One side ⁠Rose the cliff's hollowed height, and overhung An open sward across that basin wide. ⁠The liberal sun through slanting larches flung Rich spots of gold upon the tufted ground, And the great royal forest gloomed around.