American poet (1849-1887)
Alive the festal air
With gauze-winged creatures fair,
That flicker everywhere,
Dart, poise, and flash along.
EMMA LAZARUS
"Matins"
Does not the morn break thus,
Swift, bright, victorious.
EMMA LAZARUS
"Matins"
Until we are all free, we are none of us free.
EMMA LAZARUS
An Epistle to the Hebrews
I seem to have always one little window looking but into life.
EMMA LAZARUS
obituary, Century Magazine, 1887
Whatever sorrow thy young heart have found,
Open it well, this ever-sacred wound
Dealt by dark angels--give thy soul relief.
Naught makes us nobler than a noble grief.
EMMA LAZARUS
"Muse"
I dare reveal my private woe,
The secret blots of my imperfect heart,
Nor strive to shrink or swell mine own desert,
Nor beautify nor hide. For this I know,
That even as I am, thou also art.
EMMA LAZARUS
"Sympathy"
What vague, delicious dreams,
Born of this golden hour of afternoon,
And air balm-freighted, fill the soul with bliss,
Transpierced like yonder clouds with lustrous gleams,
Fantastic, brief as they, and, like them, spun
Of gilded nothingness!
EMMA LAZARUS
"Afternoon"
From bush and hedge and tree
Joy, unrestrained and free,
Breaks forth in melody,
Twitter and chirp and song.
EMMA LAZARUS
"Matins"
Breathless the earth seems waiting some wild blow,
Dreaded, but far too close to ward or shun.
EMMA LAZARUS
"Epochs: IV. Storm"
When angels visit earth, the messengers
Of God's decree, they come as lightning, wind:
Before the throne, they all are living fire.
EMMA LAZARUS
"The Birth of Man: A Legend of the Talmud"
Lo--a black line of birds in wavering thread
Bore him the greetings of the deathless dead!
EMMA LAZARUS
The Cranes of Ibicus