HENRY ABBEY QUOTES
American poet (1842-1911)
The moon will press her dimpled cheek
Against the bosom of the sky,
And, as we dreamed once, seem to speak
To silver clouds which drift them by.
HENRY ABBEY
"May Dreams"
All governments, books, customs, buildings, railways, ships, and all the stark realities that men have made, are but imagination's utterances.
HENRY ABBEY
"Eleusinia"
I sought for love on the highway,
For love unselfish and pure,
And found it in good deeds blooming,
Tho' often in haunts obscure.
HENRY ABBEY
"Trailing Arbutus"
We see the clouds of summer go and come,
And thirsty verdure praying them to give:
We cry, "O Nature, tell us why we live!"
She smiles with beauty, but her lips are dumb.
HENRY ABBEY
"While the Days Go By"
In Success few mornings frown;
For the youth, to view the town,
When morning came, with Sorrow went
Through statued park and street;
And they joined a gilded throng,
As it coldly moved along
Toward the temple built to Fortune,
Low to worship at her feet.
HENRY ABBEY
"The City of Success"
Our yesterdays are like a lonely and a ruined land wherein a breeze of recollection sighs--a fading land to which is no return.
HENRY ABBEY
"Invocation to the Sun"
The artist labors while he may, but finds at best too brief the day; and, tho' his works outlast the time and nation that they make sublime, he feels and sees that Nature knows nothing of time in what she does, but has a leisure infinite wherein to do her work aright.
HENRY ABBEY
"Along the Nile"
Life is the wave's deep whisper on the shore of a great sea beyond.
HENRY ABBEY
"The Roman Sentinel"
Hear in a realm of wordless dreams--
That inner life which knows and thinks;
My thirsty spirit comes and drinks
The petal dew of golden streams;
Where death is less than what it seems,
And life is subtler than the Sphinx.
HENRY ABBEY
"May Dreams"
What do we plant when we plant the tree? We plant the ship that will cross the sea, we plant the mast to carry the sails, we plant the planks to withstand the gales--the keel, the keelson, and beam and knee--we plant the ship when we plant the tree.
HENRY ABBEY
"What Do We Plant"
We watch our hopes, far flickering in the night,
Once radiant torches, lighted in our youth,
To guide, through years, to some broad morn of truth;
But these go out and leave us with no light.
HENRY ABBEY
"While the Days Go By"
Love is the key-note of the universe--the theme, the melody.
HENRY ABBEY
"The Troubadour"
For looking down the ladder of our deeds,
The rounds seem slender: all past work appears
Unto the doer faulty: the heart bleeds,
And pale Regret comes weltering in tears,
To think how poor our best has been, how vain,
Beside the excellence we would attain.
HENRY ABBEY
"Faciebat"
In the temple, high in place
Stood Dame Fortune, fair of face,
Holding Plutus, god of riches,
In her fond and fickle arms.
Horns of plenty at her feet
Emptied half their contents sweet,
And winged Cupid stood before her,
Fascinated by her charms.
HENRY ABBEY
"The City of Success"
All bold, great actions that are seen too near,
Look rash and foolish to unthinking eyes;
But at a distance they at once appear
In their true grandeur.
HENRY ABBEY
"The Statue"
The noblest works of human art and pride show that their makers were not satisfied.
HENRY ABBEY
"Faciebat"
We journey up the storied Nile;
The timeless water seems to smile;
The slow and swarthy boatman sings;
The dahabeah spreads her wings;
We catch the breeze and sail away,
Along the dawning of the day,
Along the East, wherein the morn
Of life and truth was gladly born.
HENRY ABBEY
"Along the Nile"
The years like birds of passage go
To that eternal clime, the past;
And May's immortal lot is cast
Upon their flight o'er all below,
Like sunlight on a field of snow,
Or some sweet rose-leaf on the blast.
HENRY ABBEY
"May Dreams"
The end we know not; but we wander on, down the regretful wilderness of time.
HENRY ABBEY
"Emmanuel"
Men over-estimate what they desire
Through ignorance of it: credulous Pursuit
Thinks his betrothed, Possession, is divine;
But finds she is a mortal like himself.
HENRY ABBEY
"Karagwe"