Singer And Song.

    A singer sang in sorrow long
    And breathed his life into his song.

    Unknown, unheard, the song went wide,
    Until the singer, starving, died.

    Now in their hearts the nations write
    And wear the singer's song of might.

    Ah, singers fail and fall from view,
    But songs are always, always new!

    If garlands none to singers cling,
    Bays wreathe above the songs they sing.

Freeman Edwin Miller

Freeman Edwin Miller was an American poet, journalist, and teacher, best known for his work in Oklahoma. Born on November 9, 1864, in New Jersey, Miller moved to Oklahoma in 1894, where he became a prominent figure in the literary and educational communities. He is remembered for his contributions to early Oklahoma literature, as well as his work in promoting education and journalism in the region. He passed away on July 14, 1951.

Freeman Edwin Miller

My Shadow And I.

Freeman Edwin Miller, Simple Poetry

Greatness Lives Apart.

Freeman Edwin Miller, Simple Poetry

The Race For Homes.

Freeman Edwin Miller, Simple Poetry

My Mollie, O!

Freeman Edwin Miller, Simple Poetry

English

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O, Sacred Souls That Grandly Sing.

    O sacred souls that grandly sing
        The secret songs of human hearts,
        Where your wild music madly starts,
    The sorrows into raptures spring!
    Within the warbles of your chimes
        Man reads the longings of his days,
        And finds, amid your lofty lays,
    Glad music for his gloomy times.

    How sweet the mute, melodious cries
        Which only lives like yours may hear,
        Where pleasures thrill the singer's ear
    With laughing strains of lullabies!
    You know soft voices, rich with love,
        That mingle in the fields and woods,
        To bless the silent solitudes
    With carols coming from above.

    Your golden harps resound alway,
        Where valley bound with blossom lies,
        An...

Freeman Edwin Miller

The Singer

Years since (but names to me before),
Two sisters sought at eve my door;
Two song-birds wandering from their nest,
A gray old farm-house in the West.

How fresh of life the younger one,
Half smiles, half tears, like rain in sun!
Her gravest mood could scarce displace
The dimples of her nut-brown face.

Wit sparkled on her lips not less
For quick and tremulous tenderness;
And, following close her merriest glance,
Dreamed through her eyes the heart's romance.

Timid and still, the elder had
Even then a smile too sweetly sad;
The crown of pain that all must wear
Too early pressed her midnight hair.

Yet ere the summer eve grew long,
Her modest lips were sweet with song;
A memory haunted all her words
Of clover-fields and singing...

John Greenleaf Whittier

The Singer

The singer only sang the Joy of Life,
    For all too well, alas! the singer knew
How hard the daily toil, how keen the strife,
    How salt the falling tear; the joys how few.

He who thinks hard soon finds it hard to live,
    Learning the Secret Bitterness of Things:
So, leaving thought, the singer strove to give
    A level lightness to his lyric strings.

He only sang of Love; its joy and pain,
    But each man in his early season loves;
Each finds the old, lost Paradise again,
    Unfolding leaves, and roses, nesting doves.

And though that sunlit time flies all too fleetly,
    Delightful Days that dance away too soon!
Its early morning freshness lingers sweetly
    Throughout life's grey and tedious afternoon.

And he, whose dreams ...

Adela Florence Cory Nicolson

The Growth Of Song.

    A tender song in shadows grew,
    And humble hearts were homes it knew.

    But through its wondrous music stole
    The longings of the human soul;

    The hopes of hosts unsatisfied
    Within its numbers wandered wide;

    And strangely wet with toilsome tears
    It held the yearnings of the years;

    Till millions with their woes oppressed,
    Proclaimed the song of peace and rest;

    Till nations in their troubled ways
    Found comfort in the joyous lays,

    And all the halting race of wrong
    Exalts the loving might of song!

    Ah, song that soothes our many cries
    With fondness of thy lullabies,

    We love, we bless, we scepter thee
    Proud empress of the hearts that be!

Freeman Edwin Miller

Ex Anima.

    The gloomy hours of silence wake
        Remembrance and her train,
    And phantoms through the fancies chase
        The mem'ries that remain;
    And hidden in the dark embrace
        Of days that now are gone,
    I see a form, a fairy form,
        And fancy hurries on!

    I see the old familiar smile,
        I hear the tender tone,
    I greet the softness of the glance
        That cheered me when alone;
    The ruby chains of rich romance
        That bound our bosoms o'er,
    I still can know, I still can feel,
        As they were felt before.

    I name the vows, the fresh young vows,
        That we together said;
    What matters it? She can not know;
        She slumbers with the dead!
    Again the fields ...

Freeman Edwin Miller

Sing Me The Old Songs, Mother.

    Our souls are the deserts of sorrow,
        Our hearts are the ashes of hope,
    And madly from gladness we borrow
        The brightness where sadness may grope;
    My raptures in wretchedness vanish,
        My bosom is weeping with wrongs;
    Then sing me the old songs, mother,
        Then sing me the dear old songs.

    My joys are in memory lying,
        Still ardently happy with youth,
    When smiles in ambition were dying,
        And life was the vision of youth;
    My brow for your gentle caresses
        And kisses of tenderness longs;
    Then sing me the old songs, mother,
        Then sing me the dear old songs.

    Sweet murmurs in mystical measures
        Come soothingly over my soul,
    Where voices of babyis...

Freeman Edwin Miller