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James Russell Lowell - Inscriptions
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FOR A BELL AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY

I call as fly the irrevocable hours,
  Futile as air or strong as fate to make
Your lives of sand or granite; awful powers,
  Even as men choose, they either give or take.


FOR A MEMORIAL WINDOW TO SIR WALTER RALEIGH, SET UP IN ST. MARGARET`S,
WESTMINSTER, BY AMERICAN CONTRIBUTORS

The New World`s sons, from England`s breasts we drew
  Such milk as bids remember whence we came;
Proud of her Past, wherefrom our Present grew,
  This window we inscribe with Raleigh`s name.


PROPOSED FOR A SOLDIERS` AND SAILORS` MONUMENT IN BOSTON

To those who died for her on land and sea,
That she might have a country great and free,
Boston builds this: build ye her monument
In lives like theirs, at duty`s summons spent.


A MISCONCEPTION

B, taught by Pope to do his good by stealth,
`Twixt participle and noun no difference feeling,
In office placed to serve the Commonwealth,
Does himself all the good he can by stealing.


THE BOSS

Skilled to pull wires, he baffles Nature`s hope,
Who sure intended him to stretch a rope.


SUN-WORSHIP

If I were the rose at your window,
Happiest rose of its crew,
Every blossom I bore would bend inward,
_They`d_ know where the sunshine grew.


CHANGED PERSPECTIVE

Full oft the pathway to her door
I`ve measured by the selfsame track,
Yet doubt the distance more and more,
`Tis so much longer coming back!


WITH A PAIR OF GLOVES LOST IN A WAGER

We wagered, she for sunshine, I for rain,
And I should hint sharp practice if I dared;
For was not she beforehand sure to gain
Who made the sunshine we together shared?


SIXTY-EIGHTH BIRTHDAY

As life runs on, the road grows strange
With faces new, and near the end
The milestones into headstones change,
`Neath every one a friend.


INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT

In vain we call old notions fudge,
  And bend our conscience to our dealing;
The Ten Commandments will not budge,
  And stealing will continue stealing.
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