James Russell Lowell

"For a cap and bells our lives we pay, Bubbles we earn with a whole soul's tasking: 'Tis heaven alone that is given away, 'Tis only God may be had for the asking."

"And what is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days; Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune, And over it softly her warm ear lays: Whether we look, or whether we listen, We hear life murmur, or see it glisten; Every clod feels a stir of might, An instinct within it that reaches and towers, And, grasping blindly above it for light, Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers."

"Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it; We are happy now because God wills it."

"Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how; Everything is happy now, Everything is upward striving; 'Tis as easy now for the heart to be true As for grass to be green or skies to be blue,— 'Tis the natural way of living: Who knows whither the clouds have fled? In the unscarred heaven they leave no wake; And the eyes forget the tears they have shed, The heart forgets its sorrow and ache; The soul partakes the season's youth, And the sulphurous rifts of passion and woe Lie deep 'neath a silence pure and smooth, Like burnt-out craters healed with snow."

"The Holy Supper is kept, indeed, In whatso we share with another's need,— Not that which we give, but what we share,— For the gift without the giver is bare; Who bestows himself with his alms feeds three,— Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me."

"A reading-machine, always wound up and going, He mastered whatever was not worth the knowing."

"There comes Emerson first, whose rich words, every one, Are like gold nails in temples to hang trophies on; Whose prose is grand verse while his verse the Lord knows Is some of it pr— No, 't is not even prose!"

"In creating, the only hard thing's to begin; A grass-blade's no easier to make than an oak, If you've once found the way you've achieved the grand stroke."

"And I honor the man who is willing to sink Half his present repute for the freedom to think, And, when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak, Will risk t'other half for the freedom to speak, Caring naught for what vengeance the mob has in store, Let that mob be the upper ten thousand or lower."

"There comes Poe, with his raven, like Barnaby Rudge, Three-fifths of him genius and two-fifths sheer fudge."

"For though he builds glorious temples, 'tis odd He leaves never a doorway to get in a god."

"Nature fits all her children with something to do, He who would write and can't write, can surely review."

"Ez fer war, I call it murder— There you hev it plain an' flat; I don't want to go no furder Than my Testyment fer that."

"You've gut to git up airly Ef you want to take in God."

"Ef you take a sword an’ dror it, An’ go stick a feller thru, Guv’mint ain’t to answer for it, God’ll send the bill to you."

"Laborin' man an' laborin' woman Hev one glory an' one shame; Ev'y thin' thet's done inhuman Injers all on 'em the same."

"’Tain’t by turnin’ out to hack folks You’re agoin’ to git your right, Nor by lookin’ down on black folks Coz you’re put upon by white; Slavery ain’t o’ nary color, ’Tain’t the hide thet makes it wus, All it keers fer in a feller ’S jest to make him fill its pus."

"This goin' ware glory waits ye haint one agreeable feetur."

"Gineral C. is a dreffle smart man; He’s ben on all sides thet give places or pelf; But consistency still wuz a part of his plan,— He’s ben true to one party, an’ thet is himself."

"We kind o' thought Christ went agin war an' pillage."

"But John P. Robinson, he Sez they did n't know everythin' down in Judee."

"A marciful Providunce fashioned us holler O' purpose thet we might our principles swaller."

"I du believe with all my soul In the gret Press's freedom, To pint the people to the goal An' in the traces lead 'em."

"I don't believe in princerple, But oh I du in interest."

"It ain't by princerples nor men My preudunt course is steadied— I scent wich pays the best, an' then Go into it baldheaded."

"Of my merit On thet pint you yourself may jedge; All is, I never drink no sperit, Nor I haint never signed no pledge."

"Ez to my princerples, I glory In hevin' nothin' o' the sort."

"God makes sech nights, all white an' still, Fur'z you can look or listen, Moonshine an' snow on field an' hill, All silence an' all glisten."

"Zekle crep' up quite unbeknown An' peeked in thru' the winder, An there sot Huldy all alone, 'ith no one nigh to hender."

"The very room, coz she was in, Seemed warm from floor to ceilin'"

"'T was kin' o' kingdom-come to look On sech a blessed cretur."

"She thought no v'ice hed sech a swing Ez hisn in the choir; My! when he made Ole Hunderd ring She knowed the Lord was nigher."

"His heart kep' goin' pity-pat, But hern went pity-Zekle."

"To say why gals acts so or so, Or don't, 'ould be persumin'; Mebby to mean yes an' say no Comes nateral to women."

"He stood a spell on one foot fust Then stood a spell on t' other, An' on which one he felt the wust He could n't ha' told ye nuther."

"All kin' o' smily round the lips, An' teary round the lashes."

"Like streams that keep a summer mind Snow-hid in Jenooary."

"My gran'ther's rule was safer 'n 'tis to crow: Don't never prophesy — onless ye know."

"It's 'most enough to make a deacon swear."

"The one thet fust gits mad 's 'most ollers wrong."

"Folks never understand the folks they hate."

"Ef you want peace, the thing you've gut tu du Is jes' to show you're up to fightin', tu."

"Bad work follers ye ez long's ye live."

"No, never say nothin' without you're compelled tu, An' then don't say nothin' thet you can be held tu."

"The surest plan to make a Man Is, think him so."

"Our papers don't purtend to print on'y wut Guv'ment choose, An' thet insures us all to git the very best o' noose."

"Our Pilgrim stock wuz pithed with hardihood."

"Soft-heartedness, in times like these, Shows sof'ness in the upper story."

"Earth's biggest country 's gut her soul, An' risen up earth's greatest nation."

"Under the yaller pines I house, When sunshine makes 'em all sweet-scented, An' hear among their furry boughs The baskin' west-wind purr contented."