WIST

We twain have met like the ships upon the sea,
Who hold an hour’s converse, so short, so sweet;
One little hour! And then, away they speed
On lonely paths, through mist and cloud and foam,
To meet no more.

Alexander Smith (1830-1867) Scottish poet
“A Life-Drama,” Sc. IV (1853)

Full text.

A man gazing on the stars is proverbially at the mercy of the puddles on the road.

Alexander Smith (1830-1867) Scottish poet
“Men of Letters”

In life there is nothing more unexpected and surprising than the arrivals and departures of pleasure. If we find it in one place to-day, it is vain to seek it there to-morrow. You can not lay a trap for it.

Alexander Smith (1830-1867) Scottish poet
“The Fear of Dying” (1857)

Death is the ugly fact which Nature has to hide, and she hides it well.

Alexander Smith (1830-1867) Scottish poet
“The Fear of Dying” (1857)

We hear the wail of the remorseful winds
In their strange penance. And this wretched orb
Knows not the taste of rest; a maniac world,
Homeless and sobbing through the deep she goes.

Alexander Smith (1830-1867) Scottish poet
“Unrest and Childhood”
Full text.

Good humor and generosity carry the day with the popular heart all the world over.

Alexander Smith (1830-1867) Scottish poet
Dreamthorp, ch. 12 (1863)