Sails and mirage Author:George Sterling Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE DESERTED NEST A chill is on the air, And, robbed by grey November of its leaves, The maple tosses, and the north wind grieves Among the branches ba... more »re. That limb above the street Holds yet, I see, the trustful robin's nest, Where once her eggs were warm below her breast When May tide morns were sweet. The fledglings long have flown; The mother bird as well has gone away, And in the little home where once they lay Are snowflakes early sown. Do they, the parents two, Remember now the refuge dear and small,— The dwelling once beloved over all, That held the orbs of blue? The snow, the wind, the rain Will make a ruin of the nest ere long. The spring will come at last with bud and song, But they two not again. The winter shakes my door, And bitter winds are on the frozen earth, And on that home of mating and of birth That is a home no more. KINGSHIP On whitest snows the darkest lies the stain. Fair are the flowers at the deadlier brinks, And he who deepest of life's nectar drinks Has at the last the fouler dregs to drain. Our dearest dreams are those that come in vain. Heavy the chain when golden are the links. Sadness is made the crown of him who thinks. Each new ideal brings the heart new pain. Nobility and sorrow somehow find A kinship. In the exalted courts of mind Our laugh is jester and our grief is king. Tho happiness be found the fairest goal, Man in his pleasure seems a trivial thing, And tears the coronation of the soul. THE FIRST FOOD Mother, in some sad evening long ago, From your young breast my groping lips were taken, Their hunger stilled, so soon again to waken, But nevermore that holy food to know. Ah! nevermore! for all the child might crave! Ah! nevermore! through years unkind and d...« less