Love, Seasons & Form
More Ardeen Foster Poems
Featured PoemsLonging
Dost ever think of me,
You there, I here,
On lips of budding day,
When Night hath flown her way,
And wish me near?
Dost ever think of me,
You there, I here,
Within the Passion-Noon,
And pray I may come soon,
And wish me near?
Dost ever think of me,
You there, I here,
When weary sun lies down,
And dons his golden crown,
And wish me near?
Dost ever think of me,
You there, I here,
Within the soul of Night,
Revealed in Love’s keen light,
And wish me near?
Overview Short Summary
“Longing” asks whether an absent beloved thinks of the speaker at dawn, noon, sunset and night. The distance never changes—“You there, I here”—but the repeated question keeps hope alive throughout the day.
Interpretation Meaning and Emotional Conflict
The speaker cannot know whether affection is mutual, so longing takes the form of repeated questions. Time moves forward, but uncertainty remains. The poem captures the mixture of loneliness and hope that comes with separation.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Separation: The lovers occupy different places.
- Memory: The speaker hopes to remain present in the beloved’s thoughts.
- Waiting: Each hour becomes another occasion for expectation.
- Reciprocal love: The central question is whether longing is shared.
Poetic Craft Refrain, Time Imagery and Mood
The repeated lines “Dost ever think of me” and “And wish me near?” form a refrain. Dawn, noon, sunset and night organize the four stanzas, while personification gives night movement and the sun weariness. The mood is tender, wistful and unresolved.
Good-Bye, Old Year
I mourn you as you die!
Good-bye, Old Year, good-bye!
’Twere wise of you to go,
So let your mantle lie.
You’ve worn it with sweet grace,
And borne a gracious face—
My privilege to know—
’Tis hard to fill your place.
Ah! good you’ve been to me.
God wills—it was to be:
The present for the past—
Perchance a meagre fee?
The past we know and well!
The future? Who may tell?
The New Year’s come at last:
No tolling! Chime the bell.
Chime it with main and might,
Let mourning-garbs be white,
Nor sack-cloth nor a bier,
Nor tears to scald the sight.
The Yule-ode shall be sung,
The old shall suckle young.
Hail! for the suckling’s here
In swaddling-clothes—New Year—
Proclaim him, every tongue!
Overview Short Summary
“Good-Bye, Old Year” begins as a farewell to a valued year and gradually becomes a welcome for the new one. The speaker allows grief, but refuses to end with funeral bells. The poem closes by imagining the New Year as a newborn child.
Interpretation Meaning and New Year Message
The poem accepts that the past cannot remain, even when it has been kind. Instead of denying loss, it changes mourning into celebration. The future is uncertain, but renewal deserves a hopeful welcome.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Endings and beginnings: The death of one year creates the birth of another.
- Gratitude: The speaker thanks the Old Year before letting it go.
- Uncertainty: The past is known, but the future cannot be predicted.
- Renewal: Bells, white garments and the infant image replace despair with hope.
Poetic Craft Personification, Symbols and Structure
Both years are personified: the Old Year dies with dignity, while the New Year arrives in swaddling clothes. Funeral images—mourning garments, sackcloth and a bier—are rejected in favor of bells and song. Short rhyming stanzas make the poem suitable for seasonal reading and recitation.
My Easter-Lily
As far ago, as on the Easter Morn,
When two sad Marys hailed the dancing sun,
And wept beside the sepulchre of One—
The One who sank beneath the traitors’ scorn,
And died, that all men might again be born—
The lily was proclaimed the queen that day,
Having soft petals, nor a cruel thorn,
But fragrance like the breath of Maiden May.
And biding till the Easter blush shall wake,
The maiden strokes her lily’s pearly head:
“O, soothing harbinger of love that sleeps!
Were he but come, my heart would cease to ache.
A letter? And from him! Soon we shall wed.
My lily is in tears; for joy she weeps.”
Overview Short Summary
“My Easter-Lily” joins the Christian meaning of Easter with a private story of romantic waiting. The first eight lines connect the lily with resurrection and purity. The closing six lines show a young woman receiving hopeful news from the absent person she loves.
Symbolism Meaning of the Easter Lily
The lily represents purity, resurrection, hope and love returning after apparent absence. Its lack of thorns separates it from images of cruelty, while its fragrance suggests comfort. In the final scene, drops on the flower become tears of joy.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Resurrection and renewal: Easter changes grief into hope.
- Waiting for love: The maiden’s private longing parallels the movement from sorrow to joy.
- Messages and return: A letter ends uncertainty and promises reunion.
- Religious and romantic love: The poem places both kinds of hope beside one another.
Poetic Craft Structure, Imagery and Tone
The fourteen-line structure resembles a sonnet, with an eight-line historical-religious opening followed by a six-line personal scene. The “dancing sun,” “Easter blush” and “pearly head” create bright visual imagery. The tone moves from solemn remembrance to intimate relief.
Rebel-Chimes
Go! soothing slumber. Flushed with rest, I wake
To know the ravishment of rebel-rhymes.
And by your leave the liberty I take,
As hitherto my joy a score of times,
To note the melody these brass tongues make,
When in the glory of their wildest chimes.
Sestina! by your grace my point I’ll make:
Your very form is brimming rich with chimes,
Alluring me to follow in your wake,
And dance at your behest at divers times.
Such ragged, rugged, zigzag roads you take,
While scattering your crazy rebel-rhymes!
O, fragrant tune! rare heritage of rhymes—
The kind these rebel six-line stanzas make!
I grasp the bell-rope—presto! hear the chimes,
Soft, laughing, tripping melody they make.
Ring out, ye slaves! Ring out a billion times!
And music from the soul of chaos take.
To yield ecstatic melody, you take
A complement of luscious, stirring rhymes:
Now in the pathless realm of panic, wake
The slumbering tongues of Pan’s Arcadian chimes,
And these you mingle deftly, till you make
The sprites go drunk with melody by times.
The art that most intoxicates by times,
And of its slaves advantage strives to take,
Is music: that that rides the untamed rhymes,
Yet may be tamed. And it were ours to make
And harness it with rare, transporting chimes,
Whose brazen throats the bliss of passion wake.
Old dead world, wake in rapture! Laugh by times;
Repeat your rhymes and bolder measure take,
Keen joy to make. Ring out! ye rebel chimes.
Overview Short Summary
“Rebel-Chimes” was inspired by bells at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London. The speaker hears their ringing as a form of rebellious music and compares the movement of the chimes with the repeated end-words of a sestina.
Interpretation What Is the Poem About?
The poem celebrates the attempt to shape wild sound without destroying its energy. Bells appear chaotic, intoxicating and free, while the sestina supplies a demanding pattern. Foster is interested in the tension between artistic discipline and creative rebellion.
Poetic Form Sestina Form and Repeated End-Words
A traditional sestina uses six recurring end-words across six six-line stanzas, followed by a shorter closing stanza. Foster repeatedly works with “wake,” “rhymes,” “take,” “times,” “make” and “chimes,” but the poem describes its own path as “ragged,” “rugged” and “zigzag.” That looseness suits the title: this is a deliberately unruly conversation with fixed form rather than a quiet exercise in perfect regularity.
Poetic Craft Sound Devices, Imagery and Audio
- Sound imagery: Brass tongues, bell-ropes and brazen throats make the ringing physical.
- Personification: Chimes laugh, melodies wake and music behaves like an intoxicating force.
- Alliteration: Phrases such as “ragged, rugged” imitate energetic movement.
- Classical reference: Pan and Arcadia connect wild music with pastoral myth.
- Repetition: Recurring end-words reproduce the return of bell sounds.
A public-domain audio reading is available in LibriVox’s Sestinas collection.
Poet, Books & Poems
Ardeen Foster: Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Ardeen Foster?
Ardeen Foster was an American poet and author whose library records give the birth year 1862. His work appeared under the names Ardeen Foster and Ardennes Jones-Foster. Besides poetry, the title page of his 1906 collection credits him with novels, short stories and collaborative dramatic work.
What are Ardeen Foster’s best-known poems?
The titles most often found in modern online collections include “Master—Not Man,” “Faith,” “Nature,” “Prayer-Time,” “The Word That Rules the World,” “Longing,” “Good-Bye, Old Year,” “My Easter-Lily” and “Rebel-Chimes.”
What is Ardeen Foster’s Poetical Works?
The Poetical Works of Ardennes Jones-Foster appeared in 1892. Later expanded editions were issued under the shorter name Ardeen Foster, including a 1906 volume and a revised fourth edition published by McElroy Publishing Company in 1908.
Which Ardeen Foster poems are short and inspirational?
“Master—Not Man,” “Prayer-Time,” “The Word That Rules the World” and “Good-Bye, Old Year” are among his most accessible short poems. They focus on independence, daily prayer, love and renewal.
Which Ardeen Foster poems are about love?
“The Word That Rules the World” presents love as a universal power, while “Longing” explores separation and the hope of being remembered. “Master—Not Man” also ends by presenting loyal friendship as the one form of service the independent speaker willingly accepts.
What kind of poem is Rebel-Chimes?
“Rebel-Chimes” is identified by Foster as a sestina. It uses recurring end-words associated with bells, rhyme, waking, making and time, but treats the form with deliberate energy and irregularity. The poem was inspired by the chimes of St Martin-in-the-Fields.
Are Ardeen Foster’s poems public domain?
Yes. The editions used for this page were published in 1906 and 1908 and are identified by Internet Archive and HathiTrust as public-domain material. The source link attached to each poem opens the relevant digitized book record.
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