John B. Tabb Quotes

10 Sourced Quotes

Why should I stay? Nor seed nor fruit have I,
But, sprung at once to beauty's perfect round,
Nor loss nor gain nor change in me is found,—
A life-complete in death-complete to die.

John B. Tabb
And pray, who are you?"
Said the Violet blue
To the Bee, with surprise,
At his wonderful size,
In her eyeglass of dew.
"I, madam," quoth he,
"Am a publican Bee,
Collecting the tax
Of honey and wax.
Have you nothing for me?

John B. Tabb
He entered; but the mask he wore
Concealed his face from me.
Still, something I had seen before
He brought to memory. "Who art thou? What thy rank, thy name?"
I questioned, with surprise;
"Thyself" the laughing answer came,
"As seen of others' eyes."

John B. Tabb
Are ye the ghosts of fallen leaves,
O flakes of snow,
For which, through naked trees, the winds
A-mourning go?

John B. Tabb
Out of the dusk a shadow,
Then a spark;
Out of the clouds a silence,
Then a lark;
Out of the heart a rapture,
Then a pain;
Out of the dead, cold ashes,
Life again.

John B. Tabb
"Who are ye with clustered light, Little Sisters seven?" "Crickets, chirping all the night On the hearth of heaven."

John B. Tabb
Thou lingerest between A flower withdrawn, And — what thou ne'er shalt see — A blossom yet to be When thou art gone.

John B. Tabb
To his cousin the Bat Squeaked the envious Rat, "How fine to be able to fly!" Tittered she, "Leather wings Are convenient things; But nothing to sit on have I."

John B. Tabb
A flash of harmless lightning, A mist of rainbow dyes, The burnished sunbeams brightening From flower to flower he flies.

John B. Tabb
Hush! With sudden gush As from a fountain sings in yonder bush The Hermit Thrush.

John B. Tabb