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[Illustration: Yours Sincerely,

Elizabeth Porter Gould.]




    STRAY PEBBLES
    FROM THE
    SHORES OF THOUGHT

    BY
    ELIZABETH PORTER GOULD


    BOSTON
    PRESS OF T. O. METCALF & CO.
    1892




    COPYRIGHT 1892
    BY
    ELIZABETH PORTER GOULD




CONTENTS.


  POEMS OF NATURE:
                                                              PAGE
      To Walt Whitman                                           11
      To Summer Hours                                           12
      A True Vacation                                           13
      A Question                                                14
      To a Butterfly                                            16
      In a Hammock                                              18
      O rare, sweet summer day                                  20
      An Old Man's Reverie                                      22
      On Jefferson Hill                                         26
      On Sugar Hill                                             28
      At "Fairfield's," Wenham                                  29
      Blossom-time                                              31
      The Primrose                                              33
      Joy, all Joy                                              35
      Among the Pines                                           37
      Conscious or Unconscious                                  39


  POEMS OF LOVE:

      Love's How and Why                                        43
      Love's Guerdon                                            44
      A Birthday Greeting                                       45
      Three Kisses                                              48
      If I were only sure                                       50
      Absence                                                   52
      A Love Song                                               53
      In Her Garden                                             55
      Love's Wish                                               56
      Is there anything purer                                   58
      Longing                                                   60
      Young Love's Message                                      61
      A Diary's Secret                                          63
      A Monologue                                               65
      A Priceless Gift                                          66
      The Ocean's Moan                                          67
      Love's Flower                                             70
      Renunciation                                              71
      Love Discrowned                                           74
      A Widow's Heart Cry                                       76
      Together                                                  78
      Shadowed Circles                                          80


  MISCELLANEOUS POEMS:

      A Song of Success                                         85
      The Under World                                           87
      She Knows                                                 88
      At Pittsford, Vermont                                     90
      Childhood's Days                                          92
      An Answer                                                 94
      Where, What, Whence                                       96
      Heroes                                                    98
      A Magdalen's Easter Cry                                  100
      For the Anniversary of Mrs. Browning's Death             103
      Robert Browning                                          105
      To Neptune, in behalf of S. C. G.                        107
      To the <DW29>s growing on the grave of A. S. D.          109
      A Broken Heart                                           111
      My Release                                               113
      The god of music                                         115
      To Wilhelm Gericke                                       118
      For E. T. F.
        1.--After the birth of her son                         119
        2.--Upon the death of her son                          121
      To C. H. F.                                              123
      An Anniversary Poem                                      126
      A Comfort                                                128
      An Anniversary                                           129
      To Miss Elizabeth P. Peabody                             131
      At Life's Setting                                        133
      Grandma Waiting                                          136
      Does it Pay                                              144
      Auxilium ab Alto                                         145
      Limitations                                              147
      The Muse of History                                      148
      An Impromptu to G. H. T.                                 151
      To Mrs. Partington                                       153
      Lines for the Seventieth Birthday Anniversary of Walt
            Whitman                                            156


  SONNETS:

      The Known God                                            161
      To Phillips Brooks                                       163
      At the "Porter Manse"                                    165
      Our Lady of the Manse                                    167
      To B. P. Shillaber                                       169
      To Our Mary                                              171
      A Birthday Remembrance                                   173
      Josef Hofmann                                            175
      After the Denial                                         177
      Gethsemane                                               179
      On Lake Memphremagog                                     181
      Luke 23: 24                                              183
      To Members of my Home Club                               185


  FOR MY LITTLE NEPHEWS AND NIECES:

      Mamma's Lullaby                                          189
      Warren's Song                                            190
      Baby Mildred                                             192
      Rosamond and Mildred                                     194
      'Chilla                                                  196
      Childish Fancies                                         197
      What little Bertram did                                  199
      "Dear little Mac"                                        202
      Willard and Florence on Mt. Wachusett                    207
      A little Brazilian                                       210
      The little doubter                                       213
      Our Kitty's Trick                                        217
      A Message                                                220




POEMS OF NATURE.




TO WALT WHITMAN.


            "I loafe and invite my soul."
                And what do I feel?
      An influx of life from the great central power
      That generates beauty from seedling to flower.

            "I loafe and invite my soul."
                And what do I hear?
      Original harmonies piercing the din
      Of measureless tragedy, sorrow, and sin.

            "I loafe and invite my soul."
                And what do I see?
      The temple of God in the perfected man
      Revealing the wisdom and end of earth's plan.

    _August, 1891._




TO SUMMER HOURS.


DAY.

      Trip lightly, joyous hours,
      While Day her heart reveals.
      Such wealth from secret bowers
      King Time himself ne'er steals.
      O joy, King Time ne'er steals!


NIGHT.

      Breathe gently, tireless hours,
      While Night in beauty sleeps.
      Hold back e'en softest showers,--
      Enough that mortal weeps.
      Ah me, that my heart weeps!




A TRUE VACATION.

IN A HAMMOCK.


      "Cradled thus and wind caressed,"
              Under the trees,
              (Oh what ease.)
      Nature full of joyous greeting;
      Dancing, singing, naught secreting,
      Ever glorious thoughts repeating--
              Pause, O Time,
              I'm satisfied!
              Now all life
              Is glorified!

_Porter Manse, Wenham, Mass._




A QUESTION.


               Is life a farce?
               Tell me, O breeze,
      Bearing the perfume of flowers and trees,
               While gaily decked birds
      Pour forth their gladness in songs beyond words,
      And cloudlets coquette in the fresh summer air
      Rejoicing in everything being so fair--
               Is life a farce?

               How can it be, child,
               When Nature at heart
      Is but the great spirit of love and of art
      Eternally saying, "I must God impart."

               Is life a farce?
               Tell me, O soul,
      Struggling to act out humanity's whole
               'Midst Error and Wrong,
      And failure in sight of true victory's song;
      With Wisdom and Virtue at times lost to view,
      And love for the many lost in love for the few--
              Is life a farce?

              How can it be, child,
              When humanity's heart
      Is but the great spirit of love and of art
      Eternally crying, "I must God impart."




TO A BUTTERFLY.


      O butterfly, now prancing
             Through the air,
             So glad to share
      The freedom of new living,
      Come, tell me my heart's seeking.
            Shall I too know
            After earth's throe
      Full freedom of my being?
            Shall I, as you,
            Through law as true,
      Know life of fuller meaning?

      O happy creature, dancing,
            Is time too short
            With pleasure fraught
      For you to heed my seeking?

      Ah, well, you've left me thinking:
            If here on earth
            A second birth
      Can so transform a being,
            Why may not I
            In worlds on high
      Be changed beyond earth's dreaming?




IN A HAMMOCK.


      The rustling leaves above me,
      The breezes sighing round me,
      A network glimpse of bluest sky
      To meet the upturned seeing eye,
      The greenest lawn beneath me,
      Loved flowers and birds to greet me,
      A well-kept house of ancient days
      To tell of human nature's ways,--
          Oh happy, happy hour!

      Whence comes all this to bless me,
      The soft wind to caress me,
      The life which does my strength renew
      For purer visions of the true?
      Alas! no one can tell me.
      But, hush! let Nature lead me.
      Let even wisest questions cease
      While I breathe in such life and peace
          This happy, happy hour.

_Porter Manse, Wenham, Mass._




O RARE, SWEET SUMMER DAY.

      "The day is placid in its going,
        To a lingering motion bound,
      Like a river in its flowing--
        Can there be a softer sound?"

                          --_Wordsworth._


          O rare, sweet summer day,
          Could'st thou not longer stay?
        The soothing, whispering wind's caress
          Was bliss to weary brain,
        The songs of birds had power to bless
          As in fair childhood's reign.

      The tinted clouds were free from showers,
        The sky was wondrous clear,
      The precious incense of rare flowers
        Made sweet the atmosphere;
      The shimmering haze of mid-day hour
        Was balm to restlessness,
      While thought of silent hidden power
        Was strength for helplessness--
        O rare, sweet summer day,
        Could'st thou not longer stay?

_Porter Manse._




AN OLD MAN'S REVERIE.


      Blow breezes, fresh breezes, on Love's swiftest wing,
      And bear her the message my heart dares to sing.
      Pause not on the highways where gathers earth's dust,
      Nor in the fair heavens, though cloudlets say must.
      But blow through the valleys where flowers await
      To give of their essence ere yielding to fate;
      Or blow on the hill tops where atmospheres lie
      Imbued with the health which no money can buy.
      But fail not, O breezes, on Love's swiftest wing
