Bayard Taylor
Bayard Taylor
Bayard Taylorwas an American poet, literary critic, translator, travel author, and diplomat...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth11 January 1825
CityKennett Square, PA
CountryUnited States of America
taken character giving
Fame is what you have taken, / Character's what you give; / When to this truth you waken, / Then you begin to live.
hope past night
Who thinks, at night, that morn will ever be? Who knows, far out upon the central sea, That anywhere is land? And yet, a shore Has set behind us, and will rise before: A past foretells a future...
hate spring lying
The source of each accordant strain Lies deeper than the Poet's brain. First from the people's heart must spring The passions which he learns to sing; They are the wind, the harp is he, To voice their fitful melody,-- The language of their varying fate, Their pride, grief, love, ambition, hate,-- The talisman which holds inwrought The touchstone of the listener's thought; That penetrates each vain disguise, And brings his secret to his eyes.
perfection unattainable aim
The maxims tell you to aim at perfection, which is well; but it's unattainable, all the same.
years poet process
The Poet's leaves are gathered one by one, In the slow process of the doubtful years.
summer mirrors self
Departed suns their trails of splendor drew Across departed summers: whispers came From voices, long ago resolved again Into the primeval Silence, and we twain, Ghosts of our present selves, yet still the same, As in a spectral mirror wandered there.
brother missing bliss
I know I am--that simplest bliss The millions of my brothers miss. I know the fortune to be born, Even to the meanest wretch they scorn.
charm verses wooing
Women are not apt to be won by the charms of verse.
wisdom doors dying
The Prophet's words were true; The mouth of Ali is the golden door Of Wisdom." When his friends to Ali bore These words, he smiled and said: "And should they ask The same until my dying day, the task Were easy; for the stream from Wisdom's well, Which God supplies, is inexhaustible.
wisdom wells streams
The stream from Wisdom's well, Which God supplies, is inexhaustible.
success art desire
There may come a day Which crowns Desire with gift, and Art with truth, And Love with bliss, and Life with wiser youth!
success
Life lives only in success.
moon light wind
The clouds are scudding across the moon, A misty light is on the sea; The wind in the shrouds has a wintry tune, And the foam is flying free.
half sin repentance
The knowledge of my sin Is half-repentance.