Richard Watson Gilder

Richard Watson Gilder in 1863

Richard Watson Gilder (February 8, 1844 – November 19, 1909) was an American poet and editor.

Quotes

The New Day (1875)

The New Day: A Poem in Songs and Sonnets (New York: The Century Co., 1875)

• I love her doubting and anguish;
  I love the love she withholds;
  I love my love that loveth her
  And anew her being moulds.
  • Part III. XII: "Song (I Love Her Gentle Forehead)", line 9; p. 55.

• The Smile of her I love is like the dawn
  Whose touch makes Memnon sing:
  O, see where wide the golden sunlight flows—
  The barren desert blossoms as the rose!
  • Part III. XXIV: "The Smile of Her I Love", line 1; p. 69.

• Not from the whole wide world I chose thee—
  Sweetheart, light of the land and the sea!
  The wide, wide world could not inclose thee,
  For thou art the whole wide world to me.
  • Part IV. IV: "Song (Not from the Whole Wide World)", line 1; p. 86.

• Heaven from the hopeless doubter
  The true believer makes:
  Against the darkness outer
  The light God's likeness takes.
  • Part IV. XVII: "He Knows Not the Path of Duty", line 9; p. 100.

• Through love to light! Oh wonderful the way
  That leads from darkness to the perfect day!
  • "After-Song", line 1; p. 103.

Lyrics and Other Poems (1885)

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1885

• From all the misty morning air, there comes a summer sound,—
  A murmur as of waters from skies, and trees and ground.
  The birds they sing upon the wing, the pigeons bill and coo.
  • "A Midsummer Song", stanza 2; p. 11.

• I am a woman—therefore I may not
  Call to him, cry to him,
  Fly to him,
  Bid him delay not.
  • "A Woman's Thought", line 1; p. 16.

• O white and midnight sky, O starry bath,
  Wash me in thy pure, heavenly crystal flood:
  Cleanse me, ye stars, from earthly soil and scath—
  Let not one taint remain in spirit or blood!
  • "The Celestial Passion", line 1; p. 111.