| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 121. Hawthorne |
| | | By Amos Bronson Alcott |
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| ROMANCER, far more coy than that coy sex! | |
| Perchance some stroke of magic thee befell, | |
| Ere thy baronial keep the Muse did vex, | |
| Nor grant deliverance from enchanted spell, | |
| But tease thee all the while and sore perplex, | 5 |
| Till thou that wizard tale shouldst fairly tell, | |
| Better than poets in thy own clear prose. | |
| Painter of sin in its deep scarlet dyes, | |
| Thy doomsday pencil Justice doth expose, | |
| Hearing and judging at the dread assize; | 10 |
| New England’s guilt blazoning before all eyes, | |
| No other chronicler than thee she chose. | |
| Magician deathless! dost thou vigil keep, | |
| Whilst ’neath our pines thou feignest deathlike sleep? | |
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