Seeming Failure (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
O wave upon the strand!What urges thee in vainTo lift the baffled handIn suppliance again?"The passion that impelsThe tidal energiesIn ...
John Bannister Tabb Poems on Death & Dying (66 Poems)
The Fall Of The Sparrow (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
Are you dying, little Bird?"Yea; the song so often heard,And the gift of suffering,Back to God again I bring."All in ...
Deflowered (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
All the light of heavenIn a single beamUnto earth was given,As a perfect dream,Wherein one bated breathOf ecstacy is Death.All ...
The Wreck (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
Was it thy lord the seaThat wrought this tragedy,A spouse to spurn?Or didst thou faithless proveAnd to thine ancient love,The ...
The Phantom Wraith (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
When roars the wind and beats the rain,A face before my window-pane—A phantom of the storm—I see,My own benighted effigy.So, ...
My Photograph (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
My sister Sunshine smiled on me,And of my visage wrought a shade."Behold," she cried, "the mysteryOf which thou art afraid!"For ...
Spectators (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
Around us, wheresoe'er we tread,The while our shadows pass them by,As in Bethsaida's porch the deadWith upturned faces lie,Dreading, perchance, ...
Soil-Song (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
I give what ne'er was mine—To every seed the powerOf stem and leaf and flower,Of fruit or fragrance fine;And take ...
Initiated (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
Thou hast put on the livery,And learned the shibboleth,And pledged for all eternityThe brotherhood of Death.Yet to thy wonder-wakened eyesThe ...
The Annunciation (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
"Fiat!"—The flaming wordFlashed, as the brooding BirdUttered the doom far heardOf Death and Night."Fiat!"—A cloistered womb—A sealed, untainted tomb—Wakes to ...
Indian Summer (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
'Tis said, in death, upon the faceOf Age, a momentary traceOf Infancy's returning graceForestalls decay;And here, in Autumn's dusky reign,A ...
The Dayspring (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
What hand with spear of lightHath cleft the side of Night,And from the red wound wideFashioned the Dawn, his bride?Was ...
Between (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
Beneath the dome of Yesterday,My buried Self I see—Of Time a portion passed away,And nevermore to be.Beneath lo, morrow's dome, ...
The Conqueror (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
He cloistered here a virgin Thought—His vow of Chastity,Whereto from year to year he broughtFirst-fruit of victory.And here, his latest ...
Her Pilot (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
Death seemed afraid to wake her;For, traversing the deep,When home he came to take her,He kept her fast asleep.And, haply, ...
To Edgar Allan Poe On the Fiftieth Anniversary of His Death. (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
Dead fifty years? No so,Nay, fifty years agoDeath, obloquy and spite,To curse his ashes came.But lo, the living lightBeneath the ...
The Voyagers (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
The Spring in festival array,From Death to Life, from Night to Day,Came floating o'er the main;And now with banners brave ...
Autumn Gold (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
Death in the house, and the golden-rodA-bloom in the field!O blossom, how, from the lifeless clod,When the fires are out ...
Separation (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
"Till Death do us part,Ever one to remain,"To the new-plighted heartWas a whisper of pain:For the soul cannot die;And the ...
Mater Dei (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
As Faith, a pilgrim, seeks the tombWhere once in Death's eclipsing gloomHer Hope o'erclouded lay;So Love unto the blessed wombWhere ...
Awakening (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
Do they that sleep, O Blossoms, yearn,When ye from them to us return,Again with you to rise?Or do they in ...
A Cattle Plague (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
"What ails you?" tenderly I spokeTo a dejected calf.He answered, "At a killing jokeI'm dying, sir, to laugh.They little know, ...
An Alien (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
I saw in heaven, the hovering wings beneath,A Shade unbanished by the Light above:What is thy name? "The messenger of ...
Foiled (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
Ah, Death, thou art a lover,And with thy rival Life,For proud possession of herDidst wage perpetual strife,Till Fate adjudged thee ...
To A Drop Of Poison (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
As once, the seal of Solomon beneath,The Genius in bonds, rebellious lay;So lieth here a mightier captive Death,Fate-bound his fond ...
Poe’s Cottage At Fordham (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
Here, where to pinching penury the gloomOf Death was wedded, came Immortal Love,And Genius, with all the pomp thereof,To consecrate ...
Bondage (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
Cries Death, "O Man, thy liberty,What boots it! Low thou bowest the kneeSubservient to masters three—Thy conquerors—Pain, Age, and Me. ...
The Fagot (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
If thou art fit to feedA dying flame,Supply the present need;Be this thine aim,And God, when sinks the light,Will give ...
Two Epitaphs (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
"Love lingers here where Life has fled."Where, Death, thy victory?"Life lingers here where Love is dead."Then hail, O Death, to ...
The Wind (John Bannister Tabb Poems)
Now, in his joy,A whistling Boy,Now, sombre and defiantHis every breathA threat of death,A blind, demented Giant. (John Bannister Tabb)