Joaquin Miller
Joaquin Miller
Cincinnatus Heine Miller /ˌsɪnsᵻˈneɪtəs ˈhaɪnə ˈmɪlər/, better known by his pen name Joaquin Miller /ˌhwɑːˈkiːn/, was a colorful American poet and frontiersman. He is nicknamed the "Poet of the Sierras" after the Sierra Nevada, about which he wrote in his Songs of the Sierras...
butterfly clouds snow
The gold-barr'd butterflies to and from And over the waterside wander'd and wove As heedless and idle as clouds that rove And drift by the peaks of perpetual snow.
arriving poet san talk
Let us go and talk with the poets. (on arriving in San Francisco)
alone books count exceeding feeds learned lives small soul
The soul that feeds on books alone --/ I count that soul exceeding small / That lives alone by book and creed, --/ A soul that has not learned to read.
honest enough physiognomy
Physiognomy is often a great falsifier, though as a rule it is honest enough.
ocean wind sea
Primeval forests! virgin sod! That Saxon has not ravish'd yet, Lo! peak on peak in stairways set- In stepping stairs that reach to God! Here we are free as sea or wind, For here are set Time's snowy tents In everlasting battlements Against the march of Saxon mind.
prison crime graves
The living grave of crime.
betrayal regret women
O woman, born first to believe us; Yea, also born first to forget; Born first to betray and deceive us, Yet first to repent and regret.
song stars profound
God's poet is silence! His song is unspoken, And yet so profound, so loud, and so far, It fills you, it thrills you with measures unbroken, And as soft, and as fair, and as far as a star.
adventure world lessons
He gained a world; he gave that world Its grandest lesson: "On! sail on!"
brother war heart
Is it worthwhile that we jostle a brother, Bearing his load on the rough road of life? Is it worthwhile that we jeer at each other, In blackness of heart - that we war to the knife? God pity us all in our pitiful strife
dream drinking wine
I throw a kiss across the sea, I drink the winds as drinking wine, And dream they all are blown from thee, I catch the whisper'd kiss of thine.
dog pups puppy
The biggest dog has been a pup.
writing sky awful
I saw the lightnings gleaming rod. Reach forth and write upon the sky The awful autograph of God.
book men dust
Man's books are but a climbing stair, Lain step by step, like stairs of stone; The stairway here, the temple there Man's lampad honor, and his trust, The God who called him from the dust.