All Things Human

Birthday Gifts (For a Child)
by Adelaide Anne Procter (1825-1864)
         I
Why do you look sad, my Minnie?
   Tell me darling

The Watcher
by Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1879)
The night was dark and fearful,
   The blast swept wailing by;
A Watcher, pale and tearful,
   Look

The West
by John Reed (1887-1920)
Gulls to their home on the aged rock
   Wheeling athwart the spray,
Thrill of the wind from the isles of Ind
   In the heart of the dying day.
Dreams in the depths of the solemn pines
   Ancient before our birth,
Hearing the speech of the plains that reach
   To the ends of the happy earth.
Out of the years [...]

Across the Red Sky
by Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923)
Across the red sky two birds flying,
Flying with drooping wings.
Silent and solitary their ominous flight.
All day the triumphant sun with yellow banners
Warred and warred with the earth, and when she yielded
Stabbed her heart, gathered her blood in a chalice,
Spilling it over the evening sky.
When the dark plumaged birds go [...]

Song (