10 James Henry Thomas Poems: Meaning, Themes and Literary Devices

Have you watched the results of a thrown rubber ball,
How quickly it rebounds when it strikes a stone wall?
Just so hard as you throw it, so it will return;
It teaches a lesson that we all should learn.

So a bad deed when done with an evil intent,
Comes back again to us without our consent.
It comes at a time when we’re prosperous and gay,
And stops our progress without a delay.

We hide the bad deeds when we bury them deep,
But they rise up again, and right straight at us peep;
We are fearful, astonished, when these deeds condemn
Us, by bursting upon us with power and vim.

We then tell a lie to demolish this plant,
And try to destroy it forever, but can’t.
We sever it ’way to some depth in the ground,
But the roots from which it came are solid and sound.

And when we are dead and in graves are hurled,
These deeds will spring upward, and show to the world
What we did in the dark, and then tried to keep hid,
But God, in his providence, lifted the lid.

You may plant your bad deeds in the day or by night,
And try to conceal them in darkness from light;
But as sure as the sun keeps his course to the west,
These deeds will confront you and put you to test.

So let us not sow any acts of discord,
But when we are tempted converse with the Lord;
Don’t rush with a passion and lose self-control,
For we in this way may endanger the soul.

Lo! the winter now is past;
Spring comes riding in at last,
With her healthful, balmy breeze,
Greeting birds and budding trees.

List! I hear her gay “Ha! ha!”
Ringing through the meadows far,
Getting everything in tune,
Budding trees for shade in June.

She has tuned the atmosphere
With her season of the year;
Light and gracefully she steps,
Winning everything she helps.

Winter tried to keep her ’way,
Till the near approach of May;
But the sun’s hot rays forbade—
And have many glad hearts made.

E’en the ground-hog has come out
Of his burrow with a shout,
For his shadow failed to show,
As it did six weeks ago.

Gentle Spring, why lingered thou?
Thou delayed the farmers’ plow;
’Tis upon thee we depend
For a happy harvest end.

Breathe thou now upon the earth,
And she will give gentle birth
To more smiling buds and flowers,
Making glad these hearts of ours.

’Tis in my castle snug and neat
That thoughts both old and new
Are welcome. These I always greet,
For they to me are true.

New thoughts the old ones introduce;
Their hands I grasp and shake,
I tightly hold and turn not loose,
To my dull senses wake.

Old thoughts I reverence with care,
For they have paved the way
For new ones that are bright and rare,
Which Nature’s truths convey.

’Tis in my thinking castle that
I with these thoughts converse;
We have a pleasant social chat,
While them with care I nurse.

Then by God’s help I mold new ones,
New thoughts formed in my mold.
Each helpful thought that through me runs
At some time will be told.

Yea, some day will be told
In words simple and true;
These worthy gems of faultless gold
May serve to strengthen you.

Great thoughts whose origin is God
Are reproduced on earth
By thinking men who labor hard
To give them honest birth.

Thoughts are conceived in rugged forms,
Unpolished and disguised,
But when refined their beauty charms,
And how we are surprised!

God thought, and from his thought there sprang
Creations great and small;
Earth, moon, sun, stars His praises sang,
His wisdom formed them all.

There is no law to keep mankind
From thinking, no not one;
No law can govern any mind,
For this cannot be done.

This blessed castle, ten by twelve,
In which I have absorbed
Some thoughts that truly made me delve
Below the surface sod,

Has been my comfort and retreat,
My solace and my friend;
In it I take my lonely seat
And o’er poetry bend.

Sometimes I chase a fleeting thought
To realms beyond the skies;
I see it fleeing till ’tis caught
By patience, brains and eyes.

When it I catch, to it I hold
Till its great power spreads
O’er me in sheets of polished gold,
And its sweet essence sheds.

And when I catch the spirit of
The thought that I have chased,
I then my energies involve,
And let no moments waste.

In youth we build air-castles high,
Most beautiful and fine;
We build a glowing edifice
That almost looks divine.

Its domes and towers reach the skies,
With great columns and beams,
And arched windows of brilliant hue
Reflecting sunset gleams.

We walk between its stately walls,
And climb its marble stairs;
Into its high towers we soar,
Away from worldly cares.

Bedecked in our matchless pearls,
Clothed in our robes of white,
We breathe heaven’s refreshing air
With joy and great delight.

How securely we fix ourselves
In our air-castles high;
We care not how the world moves on,
Nor how the needy cry.

Our lofty minds are high above
The famished and the poor,
Nor care we for the feeble knocks
For mercy at our door.

But ah! a shock comes from below—
“What can it be?” we say;
That vain foundation was unsafe,
And now it’s giving way.

Look at that fair mansion you built,
Now leans its stately form!
Oh see it sinking, sinking down
Before a trying storm!

So with our reveries and dreams:
With selfishness we view
Our future life all full of blooms,
Sweet flowers, fresh and pure.

But when we think to gather up
Those flowers sweet and fine,
They quickly vanish from our sight,
And then we pine and pine.