



Produced by Bryan Ness, Stephen Hutcheson, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)









                               A BOOK OF
                                EPIGRAMS


                              GATHERED BY
                             Ralph A. Lyon

                                EVANSTON
                            William S. Lord
                                  1902




                                EPIGRAMS




                                 POETRY


    She comes like the hushed beauty of the night,
      But sees too deep for laughter;
    Her touch is a vibration and a light
      From worlds before and after.

                                                     [Charles E. Markham




                                 POETRY


    Poetry? Can I define it, you inquire?
      Yes; by your pleasure,
    Poetry is Thought, in princeliest attire,
      Treading a measure.

                                                       [Duffield Osborne




                         THE YEAR'S MINSTRELSY


    Spring, the low prelude of a lordlier song;
      Summer, a music without hint of death:
    Autumn, a cadence lingeringly long:
      Winter, a pause;--the Minstrel-Year takes breath.

                                                         [William Watson




                                THE SUN


    All the World's bravery that delights our eyes,
    Is but thy several liveries;
    Thou the rich dye on them bestow'st,
    Thy nimble Pencil paints this landscape as thou go'st.

                                                         [Abraham Cowley




                                FAREWELL


    I strove with none, for none was worth my strife.
      Nature I loved, and next to nature, art.
    I warm'd both hands before the fire of life:
      It sinks; and I am ready to depart.

                                                   [Walter Savage Landor




                                  LIFE


    As a shaft that is sped from a bow unseen to an unseen mark,
    As a bird that gleams in the firelight, and hurries from dark to dark,
    As the face of the stranger who smiled as we passed in the crowded
              street,--
    Our life is a glimmer, a flutter, a memory, fading, yet sweet!

                                                [William Cranston Lawton




                 EPIGRAM ON THE DEATH OF EDWARD FORBES.


    Nature, a jealous mistress, laid him low.
      He woo'd and won her; and, by love made bold,
    She showed him more than mortal man should know,
      Then slew him lest her secret should be told.

                                                          [Sydney Dobell




                         ON LONGFELLOW'S DEATH


    No puissant singer he, whose silence grieves
      To-day the great West's tender heart and strong;
    No singer vast of voice: yet one who leaves
      His native air the sweeter for his song.

                                                         [William Watson




                             DANIEL WEBSTER


    We have no high cathedral for his rest,
      Dim with proud banners and the dust of years;
    All we can give him is New England's breast
      To lay his head on--and his country's tears.

                                                 [Thomas William Parsons




                              EUGENE FIELD


    Fades his calm face beyond our mortal ken,
      Lost in the light of lovelier realms above;
    He left sweet memories in the hearts of men
      And climbed to God on little children's love.

                                                       [Frank L. Stanton




                           THE DEBTOR CHRIST

                          _Quid Mihi Et Tibi_


    What, woman, is my debt to thee,
      That I should not deny
    The boon thou dost demand of me?
      "I gave thee power to die."

                                                           [John B. Tabb




                              TWO SPIRITS


    A spirit above and a spirit below,
    A spirit of joy and a spirit of woe;
    The spirit above is the spirit divine,
    The spirit below is the spirit of wine.

                                                              [Anonymous




                             ON A SUN-DIAL


    With warning hand I mark Time's rapid flight
    From life's glad morning to its solemn night;
    Yet, through the dear God's love, I also show
    There's Light above me by the Shade below.

                                                [John Greenleaf Whittier




                               BORROWING

                           _From the French_


    Some of your hurts you have cured,
    And the sharpest you still have survived,
    But what torments of grief you endured
    From evils which never arrived!

                                                    [Ralph Waldo Emerson




                                 YOUTH


    The Tear, down Childhood's cheek that flows,
    Is like the dew-drop on the Rose;
    When next the Summer breeze comes by,
    And waves the bush, the Flower is dry.

                                                       [Sir Walter Scott




                              MY TROUBLES


    I wrote down my troubles every day;
      And after a few short years,
    When I turned to the heartaches passed away,
      I read them with smiles, not tears.

                                                    [John Boyle O'Reilly




                              SENSIBILITY


    The soul of Music slumbers in the shell,
    Till waked and kindled by the Master's spell;
    And feeling Hearts--touch them but lightly--pour
    A thousand melodies unheard before!

                                                          [Samuel Rogers




                            IS LOVE SO BLIND


    The records of ancient times declare
      That hapless Love is blind,
    Yet many's the virtue, sweet and rare,
      That only Love can find.

                                                       [Henry W. Allport




                                SYMPATHY


    What gem hath dropp'd and sparkles o'er his chain?
    The Tear most sacred, shed for other's pain,
    That starts at once--bright--pure--from Pity's mine,
    Already polish'd by the Hand Divine.

                                                             [Lord Byron




                                 GRIEF


    What cannot be preserved when Fortune takes,
    Patience her injury a mockery makes.
    The robb'd, that smiles, steals something from the Thief;
    He robs himself, that spend a bootless Grief.

                                                    [William Shakespeare




                              OPPORTUNITY


    It is a hag whom Life denies his kiss
      As he rides questward in knight-errant wise;
    Only when he hath passed her is it his
      To know too late the Fairy in disguise.

                                                         [Madison Cawein




                              COMPETITION


    The race is won! As victor I am hailed
      With deafening cheers from eager throats; and yet
      Gladder the victory could I forget
    The strained, white faces of the