The Project Gutenberg EBook of Stories in Verse, by Henry Abbey

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Title: Stories in Verse

Author: Henry Abbey

Release Date: October 16, 2007 [EBook #23037]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORIES IN VERSE ***

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STORIES IN VERSE.

BY

HENRY ABBEY.

The sense of the world is short--
To love and be beloved.

EMERSON.

NEW YORK:
A. D. F. RANDOLPH & CO., PUBLISHERS,

COR. BROADWAY AND NINTH STREET.
1869.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
HENRY L. ABBEY,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of
New York.

RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:
PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.

TO

RICHARD GRANT WHITE,

WITH GRATITUDE FOR HIS FRIENDSHIP, AND WITH ADMIRATION FOR HIS ELEGANT
SCHOLARSHIP.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

BLANCHE 1

KARAGWE, AN AFRICAN 28

DEMETRIUS 55

THE STRONG SPIDER 82

GRACE BERNARD 94

VEERA 112

BLANCHE:

AN EXHALATION FROM WITHERED VIOLETS.

I.

THE VENDER OF VIOLETS.

"Violets! Violets! Violets!"
This was the cry I heard
As I passed through the street of a city;
And quickly my heart was stirred
To an incomprehensible pity,
At the undertone of the cry;
For it seemed like the voice of one
Who was stricken, and all undone,
Who was only longing to die.

"Violets! Violets! Violets!"
The voice came nearer still.
"Surely," I said, "it is May,
And out on valley and hill,
The violets blooming to-day,
Send this invitation to me
To come and be with them once more;
I know they are dear as can be,
And I hate the town with its roar."

"Violets! Violets! Violets!"
Children of sun and of dew,
Flakes of the blue of the sky,
There is somebody calling to you
Who seems to be longing to die;
Yet violets are so sweet
T