Archive for the 'frederick goddard tuckerman' Category

Under the mountain, as when first I knew by Frederick Goddard Tuckerman

April 02nd, 2009 Comments(0)

I like how Tuckerman used such lovely language to describe a scene of desolation. Were it not for the line “Absent of beauty as a broken heart”, I think the red house would be a place I’d like to visit.

Under the mountain, as when first I knew
By Frederick Goddard Tuckerman

Under the mountain, as when first I knew
Its low dark roof, and chimney creeper-twined,
The red house stands; and yet my footsteps find
Vague in the walks, waste balm and fever few.
But they are gone: no soft-eyed sisters trip
Across the porch or lintels; where, behind,
The mother sat,—sat knitting with pursed lip.
The house stands vacant in its green recess,
Absent of beauty as a broken heart;
The wild rain enters, and the sunset wind
Sighs in the chambers of their loveliness,
Or shakes the pane; and in the silent noons,
The glass falls from the window, part by part,
And ringeth faintly in the grassy stones.

An upper chamber in a darkened house by Frederick Goddard Tuckerman

April 07th, 2005 Comments(0)

Here’s another sonnet…

An upper chamber in a darkened house
By Frederick Goddard Tuckerman

An upper chamber in a darkened house,
Where, ere his footsteps reached ripe manhood’s brink,
Terror and anguish were his cup to drink;
I cannot rid the thought, nor hold it close
But dimly dream upon that man alone:
Now though the autumn clouds most softly pass,
The cricket chides beneath the doorstep stone
And greener than the season grows the grass.
Nor can I drop my lids nor shade my brows,
But there he stands beside the lifted sash;
And with a swooning of the heart, I think
Where the black shingles slope to meet the boughs
And,shattered on the roof like smallest snows,
The tiny petals of the mountain ash.