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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Mountain Idylls, by Alfred Castner King.
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<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13809 ***</div>
<br />
<div class="figure">
<a name='frontis'></a><img src="images/frontis.jpg" alt="A.C. KING">
<h4>A.C. KING</h4>
</div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<h1>Mountain Idylls<br>
and Other Poems</h1>
<h3>BY</h3>
<h2>ALFRED CASTNER KING</h2>
<br />
<div class='subhead'>CHICAGO: NEW YORK: TORONTO<br>
Fleming H. Revell Company<br>
LONDON <i>and</i> EDINBURGH</div>
<br />
<div class='subhead'>1901 <br>
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY<br>
MAY</div><br>
<div class='subhead'>New York: 158 Fifth Avenue<br>
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.<br>
London: 21 Paternoster Square<br>
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street</div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<h4>TO THE MANY FRIENDS WHO HAVE SO<br>
KINDLY ASSISTED IN THE ARRANGEMENT<br>
OF THE MANUSCRIPTS FOR<br>
PUBLICATION, AFTER THE SHADOWS<br>
OF HOPELESS BLINDNESS DESCENDED<br>
UPON ME FOREVER, THIS VOLUME<br>
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED</h4>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<h2><b>Table of Contents.</b></h2>
<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
<a href='#PREFACE'><b>Preface</b></a><br />
<a href='#Grandeur'><b>Grandeur</b> </a><br />
<a href='#Natures_Child'><b>Nature's Child</b> </a><br />
<a href='#To_the_Pines'><b>To the Pines</b> </a><br />
<a href='#Reflections'><b>Reflections</b> </a><br />
<a href='#Lifes_Mystery'><b>Life's Mystery</b> </a><br />
<a href='#The_Fallen_Tree'><b>The Fallen Tree</b> </a><br />
<a href='#There_Is_an_Air_of_Majesty'><b>There is an Air of Majesty</b> </a><br />
<a href='#Think_Not_That_the_Heart_Is_Devoid_of_Emotion'><b>Think Not That the Heart Is Devoid of Emotion</b> </a><br />
<a href='#Humanitys_Stream'><b>Humanity's Stream</b></a><br />
<a href='#Natures_Lullaby'><b>Nature's Lullaby</b> </a><br />
<a href='#The_Spirit_of_freedom_is_Born_of_the_Mountains'><b>The Spirit of freedom is Born of the Mountains</b></a><br />
<a href='#The_Valley_of_the_San_Miguel'><b>The Valley of the San Miguel</b></a><br />
<a href='#To_Mother_Huberta'><b>To Mother Huberta</b></a><br />
<a href='#Suggested_by_a_Mountain_Eagle'><b>Suggested by a Mountain Eagle</b></a><br />
<a href='#The_Silvery_San_Juan'><b>The Silvery San Juan</b> </a><br />
<a href='#As_the_Shifting_Sands_of_the_Desert'><b>As the Shifting Sands of the Desert</b></a><br />
<a href='#Missed'><b>Missed</b></a><br />
<a href='#If_I_Have_Lived_Before'><b>If I Have Lived Before</b></a><br />
<a href='#The_Darker_Side'><b>The Darker Side</b></a><br />
<a href='#The_Miner'><b>The Miner</b></a><br />
<a href='#Lifes_Undercurrent'><b>Life's Undercurrent</b></a><br />
<a href='#They_Cannot_See_the_Wreaths_We_Place'><b>They Cannot See the Wreaths We Place</b></a><br />
<a href='#MothermdashAlpha_and_Omega'><b>Mother—Alpha and Omega</b></a><br />
<a href='#Empty_are_the_Mothers_Arms'><b>Empty are the Mother's Arms</b></a><br />
<a href='#In_Deo_Fides'><b>In Deo Fides</b></a><br />
<a href='#Shall_Love_as_the_Bridal_Wreath_Whither_and_Die'><b>Shall Love, as the Bridal Wreath, Whither and Die?</b></a><br />
<a href='#Shall_Our_Memories_Live_When_the_Sod_Rolls_Above_Us'><b>Shall Our Memories Live When the Sod Rolls Above Us?</b></a><br />
<a href='#A_Reverie'><b>A Reverie</b></a><br />
<a href='#Loves_Plea'><b>Love's Plea</b></a><br />
<a href='#Ashes_to_Ashes_Dust_to_Dust'><b>Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust</b></a><br />
<a href='#Despair'><b>Despair</b></a><br />
<a href='#Hidden_Sorrows'><b>Hidden Sorrows</b></a><br />
<a href='#O_A_Beautiful_Thing_is_the_Flower_That_Fadeth'><b>O, a Beautiful Thing Is the Flower That Fadeth!</b></a><br />
<a href='#Smiles'><b>Smiles</b></a><br />
<a href='#A_Request'><b>A Request</b></a><br />
<a href='#Battle_Hymn'><b>Battle Hymn</b></a><br />
<a href='#The_Nations_Peril'><b>The Nations Peril</b></a><br />
<a href='#Echoes_from_Galilee'><b>Echoes from Galilee</b></a><br />
<a href='#Go_And_Sin_No_More'><b>Go, And Sin No More</b></a><br />
<a href='#Gently_Lead_Me_Star_Divine'><b>Gently Lead Me, Star Divine</b></a><br />
<a href='#Dying_Hymn'><b>Dying Hymn</b></a><br />
<a href='#In_Mortem_Meditare'><b>In Mortem Meditare</b></a><br />
<a href='#Deprive_This_Strange_and_Complex_World'><b>Deprive This Strange and Complex World</b></a><br />
<a href='#The_Legend_of_St_Regimund'><b>The Legend of St. Regimund</b></a><br />
<a href='#As_The_Indian'><b>As The Indian</b></a><br />
<a href='#The_Fragrant_Perfume_of_the_Flowers'><b>The Fragrant Perfume of the Flowers</b></a><br />
<a href='#An_Answer'><b>An Answer</b></a><br />
<a href='#Fame'><b>Fame</b></a><br />
<a href='#The_First_Storm'><b>The First Storm</b></a><br />
<a href='#Thoughts'><b>Thoughts</b></a><br />
<a href='#From_A_Saxon_Legend'><b>From A Saxon Legend</b></a><br />
<a href='#Christmas_Chimes'><b>Christmas Chimes</b></a><br />
<a href='#The_Unknowable'><b>The Unknowable</b></a><br />
<a href='#The_Suicide'><b>The Suicide</b></a><br />
<a href='#I_Think_When_I_Stand_In_The_Presence_of_Death'><b>I Think When I Stand in the Presence of Death</b></a><br />
<a href='#Hope'><b>Hope</b></a><br />
<a href='#Metabole'><b>Metabole</b></a><br />
<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='List_of_Illustrations'></a><h2><b>List of Illustrations.</b> </h2>
<br />
<p><a href="#frontis">Portrait of Author</a></p>
<p><a href="#007">"Grandeur"</a></p>
<p><a href="#011">Mount Wilson</a></p>
<p><a href="#012">Mountain View in San Juan</a></p>
<p><a href="#014">Scene in Ouray</a></p>
<p><a href="#016">Uncompahgre Cañon</a></p>
<p><a href="#018">Mountain Scene in San Juan</a></p>
<p><a href="#021">Emerald Lake</a></p>
<p><a href="#026">Scene near Telluride</a></p>
<p><a href="#032">Bridal Veil Falls</a></p>
<p><a href="#034">Lizard Head</a></p>
<p><a href="#038">Trout Lake</a></p>
<p><a href="#040">Box Cañon Looking Inward</a></p>
<p><a href="#042">Ouray, Colorado</a></p>
<p><a href="#048">Box Cañon Looking Outward</a></p>
<p><a href="#060">Ironton Park</a></p>
<p><a href="#076">Bear Creek Falls</a></p>
<br />
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<div class="figure">
<a name='007'></a><img src="images/007.jpg" alt="A wilderness of weird fantastic shapes.">
<h4><a href='#a_wilderness'>"A wilderness of weird fantastic shapes."</a></h4>
</div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='PREFACE'></a><h2>PREFACE</h2>
<p><i>"Of making many books there is no end."—Eccles. 12:12.</i></p>
<br />
<p>When the above words were written by Solomon, King of Israel, about
three thousand years ago, they were possibly inspired by the existence
even at that early period of an extensive and probably overweighted
literature.</p>
<p>The same literary conditions are as true to-day as when the above truism
emanated from that most wonderful of all human intellects. Every age and
generation, as well as every changing religious or political condition,
has brought with it its own peculiar and essentially differing current
literature, which, as a rule, continued a brief season, and then
vanished, perishing with the age and conditions which called it into
being; leaving, however, an occasional volume, masterpiece, or even
quotation, to become classic, and in the form of standard literature
survive for generations, and in many instances for ages.</p>
<p>Poetry has always occupied a unique position in literature; and though
from a pecuniary stand-point usually unprofitable, it enjoys the decided
advantage of longevity.</p>
<p>The mysterious ages of antiquity have bequeathed to all succeeding time
several of earth's noblest epics, while the contemporaneous prose, if
any existed, has long lain buried in the inscrutable archives of the
remote past.</p>
<p>The two most notable of these, the Iliad and the Odyssey, are believed
to have been transmitted from generation to generation, orally, by the
minstrels and minnisingers, until the introduction or inception of the
Greek alphabet, when they were reduced to parchment, and, surviving all
the vicissitudes of time and sequent political and religious change,
still occupy a prominent place in literature.</p>
<p>The Book of Job, generally accepted as the most ancient of writings, now
extant, whether sacred or secular, was doubtless originally a primitive
though sublime poetical effusion.</p>
<p>The prose works contemporaneous with Chaucer, Spencer, and even with
that most wonderful of literary epochs, the Elizabethan age, are now
practically obsolete, while the poetical efforts remain in some
instances with increased prominence.</p>
<p>Someone, (although just who is difficult to determine,—though it savors
of the Greek School of Philosophy,—)has delivered the following
injunction: "Do right because it is right, not from fear of punishment
or hope of reward." Waiving the question as to whether it is right or
not to compose poetry, he who aspires in that direction can reasonably
expect no material recompense, though the experience of Dante,
Cervantes, Leigh Hunt, and others, proves conclusively that poets do not
always escape punishment. In fact, about the only emolument to be
expected is the gratification of an inherent and indefinable impulse,
which impels one to the task with equal force, whether the ultimate
result be affluence or a dungeon.</p>
<p>The author of this unpretentious volume has long questioned the
advisability of adding a book to our already inflated and overloaded
literature, unless it should contain something in the nature of a
deviation from beaten literary paths.</p>
<p>Whether the reading public will regard this as such or not is a question
for the future to determine, as every book is a creature of
circumstance, and at the date of its publication an algebraic unknown
quantity.</p>
<p>It was not the original intention of the author to publish any of his
effusions in collective form until more mature years and riper judgment
should better qualify him for the task of composition, and should enable
him to still further pursue the important studies of etymology,
rhetoric, Latin and Greek, and complete the education which youthful
environment denied.</p>
<p>On the 17th of March, A.D. 1900, occurred an accident in the form of a
premature mining explosion which banished the light of the Colorado sun
from his eyes forever, adding the almost insurmountable barrier of
total and hopeless blindness to those of limited means and insufficient
education. At first further effort seemed useless, but as time
meliorates in some degree even the most deplorable and distressing
physical conditions, ambition slowly rallied, and while lying for
several months a patient in various hospitals in an ineffectual attempt
to regain even partial sight, the following ideas and efforts of past
years were gradually recalled from the recesses of memory, and reduced
to their present form, in which, with no small hesitation and misgiving,
they are presented to the consideration of the reading public, which in
the humble opinion of the author has frequently failed to receive and
appreciate productions of vastly superior merit.</p>
<p><i>Ouray, Colorado, March 15, 1901.</i></p>
<br />
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<div class="figure">
<a name='011'></a><img src="images/011.jpg" alt="MOUNT WILSON.">
<h4><a href='#I_stood'>"I stood at sunrise on the topmost part,<br>
<span style='margin-left: 2em;'>Of lofty mountain, massively sublime."</span></a><br><br>
MOUNT WILSON, SAN MIGUEL COUNTY, COLORADO.</h4>
</div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<h2><b>Mountain Idylls and Other Poems</b> </h2>
<hr style='width: 45%;' />
<a name='Grandeur'></a><h2><b>Grandeur.</b> </h2>
<p>Dedicated to the mountains of the San Juan district, Colorado, as seen
from the summit of Mt. Wilson.</p>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span><a name="I_stood"></a>I stood at sunrise, on the topmost part<br /></span>
<span>Of lofty mountain, massively sublime;<br /></span>
<span>A pinnacle of trachyte, seamed and scarred<br /></span>
<span>By countless generations' ceaseless war<br /></span>
<span>And struggle with the restless elements;<br /></span>
<span>A rugged point, which shot into the air,<br /></span>
<span>As by ambition or desire impelled<br /></span>
<span>To pierce the eternal precincts of the sky.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span class='i9'>Below, outspread,<br /></span>
<span>A scene of such terrific grandeur lay<br /></span>
<span>That reeled the brain at what the eyes beheld;<br /></span>
<span>The hands would clench involuntarily<br /></span>
<span>And clutch from intuition for support;<br /></span>
<span>The eyes by instinct closed, nor dared to gaze<br /></span>
<span>On such an awful and inspiring sight.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The sun arose with bright transcendent ray,<br /></span>
<span>Up from behind a bleak and barren reef;<br /></span>
<span>His face resplendent with beatitude,<br /></span>
<span>Solar effulgence and combustive gleam;<br /></span>
<span>Bathing the scene in such a wealth of light<br /></span>
<span>That none could marvel that primeval man,<br /></span>
<span>Rude and untaught, whene'er the sun appeared,<br /></span>
<span>Fell down and worshiped.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span><a name='a_wilderness'></a>A wilderness of weird, fantastic shapes,<br /></span>
<span>Of precipice and stern declivity;<br /></span>
<span>Of dizzy heights, and towering minarets;<br /></span>
<span>Colossal columns and basaltic spires<br /></span>
<span>Which pointing heavenward, appeared to wave<br /></span>
<span>In benediction o'er the depths beneath.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Uneven crags and cliffs of various form;<br /></span>
<span>Abysmal depths, and dire profundities;<br /></span>
<span>Chasms so deep and awful that the eye<br /></span>
<span>Of soaring eagle dare not gaze below,<br /></span>
<span>Lest, dizzied, he should lose his aerial poise,<br /></span>
<span>And headlong falling, reach the gulf beneath.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span><a name="Majestic_turrets"></a>Majestic turrets, and the stately dome<br /></span>
<span>Which, ovaled by the slow but tireless hand<br /></span>
<span>Of eons of disintegrating time,<br /></span>
<span>Still with impressive aspect rears its brow<br /></span>
<span>Defiant of mutation and decay.<br /></span>
</div></div><br>
<div class="figure">
<a name='012'></a><img src="images/012.jpg" alt="MOUNTAIN VIEW.">
<h4><a href='#Majestic_turrets'>"Majestic turrets and the stately dome."</a><br><br>
MOUNTAIN VIEW, SAN JUAN, COLORADO.</h4>
</div><br>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>The crevice deep and inaccessible;<br /></span>
<span>Fissure and rent, where the intrusive dike's<br /></span>
<span>Creative and destructive agency<br /></span>
<span>Leaves many an enduring monument<br /></span>
<span>Of metamorphic and eruptive power;<br /></span>
<span>Of molten deluge, and volcanic flood;<br /></span>
<span>Fracture and break, the silent stories tell<br /></span>
<span>Of dire convulsion in the ages past;<br /></span>
<span>Of subterranean catastrophe,<br /></span>
<span>And cataclysm of internal force.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span><a name="The_trachyte"></a>The trachyte wall, beseamed and battle scarred;<br /></span>
<span>The porphyritic tower and citadel;<br /></span>
<span>The granite ramparts and embattlements<br /></span>
<span>Of nature's fort, impregnable and wild,<br /></span>
<span>Stand as a symbol of eternal strength,<br /></span>
<span>And hurl a challenge to the elements!<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Cañons of startling and appalling depths,<br /></span>
<span>With caverns, vast and gloomy, which would seem<br /></span>
<span>Meet for the haunt of centaur or of gnome;<br /></span>
<span>The gorgon and the labyrinthodon;<br /></span>
<span>The clumsy mammoth and the dinosaur;<br /></span>
<span>Or all gigantic and unwieldy shapes<br /></span>
<span>Which earth has seen in the mysterious past,<br /></span>
<span><a name="Would_seem"></a>Would seem in more accord and harmony<br /></span>
<span>With such surroundings than the puny form<br /></span>
<span>Of insignificant, conceited man.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>And interspersed amid these solemn peaks<br /></span>
<span>Lie many a pleasant vale and grassy slope,<br /></span>
<span>Besprinkled with the drooping columbine,<br /></span>
<span>And fragrant growths of all harmonious tints,<br /></span>
<span>Whose variegated colors punctuate<br /></span>
<span>Grandeur with beauty, and fearless, bloom<br /></span>
<span>In the forbidding shadow of the cliffs,<br /></span>
<span>And to the margin of the snowy combs<br /></span>
<span>Which still resist the sun's persuasive ray.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>A lakelet, cool, pellucid and serene,<br /></span>
<span>Fed by the drippings from eternal snows,<br /></span>
<span>Lies like a mirror 'neath a frowning cliff,<br /></span>
<span>Or as a gem, majestically ensconced<br /></span>
<span>In diadem of crag and pinnacle.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Down towards the distant valley's sultry clime,<br /></span>
<span><a name="Both_solitary"></a>Both solitary, and in straggling groups;<br /></span>
<span>In solid phalanx, rigid and compact;<br /></span>
<span>In labyrinth of branches interspread,<br /></span>
<span>Impervious to the rain and midday sun;<br /></span>
<span>In form spontaneous, without regard<br /></span>
<span>To law of uniformity, there stand<br /></span>
<span>In silent awe, or whispering to the breeze,<br /></span>
<span>The sombre fir and melancholy pine.<br /></span>
<span>And many a denuded avenue<br /></span>
<span>Of varying and considerable width,<br /></span>
<span>Cut through the growth of balsam, spruce and pine,<br /></span>
<span>Which stands erect and proud on either hand,<br /></span>
<span>Attests the swift and desolating force<br /></span>
<span>Of fearful, devastating avalanche.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br><div class="figure">
<a name='014'></a><img src="images/014.jpg" alt="SCENE IN OURAY.">
<h4><a href='#The_trachyte'> "The trachyte wall beseamed and battle scarred."</a><br><br>
SCENE IN OURAY COUNTY, COLORADO.</h4>
</div><br>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>The mountain rill its pleasant music makes,<br /></span>
<span>As the descendant waters roll along,<br /></span>
<span>In rhythmic flow and dulcet cantabile,<br /></span>
<span>In various concord and harmonious pitch,<br /></span>
<span>Pursuant of its journey to the sea;<br /></span>
<span>The murmuring treble of the rivulet,<br /></span>
<span>Uniting with the deep and ponderous bass<br /></span>
<span>Of torrent wild and foaming cataract;<br /></span>
<span>The thunderous, reverberating tones<br /></span>
<span>And seething ebullition of the falls<br /></span>
<span>Are blended in one grand euphonious chord.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Far in the hazy distance, as the eye<br /></span>
<span>With vague perceptive vision penetrates,<br /></span>
<span>Lie the vast mesas of ethereal hue,<br /></span>
<span>Stretched in a calm and sleepy quietude,<br /></span>
<span>Dreamy repose and blue tranquillity;<br /></span>
<span>The eye which rests upon the drowsy scene<br /></span>
<span>Beholds a dim horizon, which presents<br /></span>
<span>No line of demarcation or of bounds;<br /></span>
<span>A merging union, blurred and indistinct;<br /></span>
<span>Fuliginous confusion, that the eye<br /></span>
<span>In viewing gazes, but no more discerns<br /></span>
<span>Which is the earth, and which the azure sky.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span class='i5'>But mark the change!<br /></span>
<span>A cloud, which floated in the atmosphere,<br /></span>
<span>An inconsiderable and feathery speck<br /></span>
<span>Of no proportions, now augmented, wears<br /></span>
<span>A threatening aspect, ominously dark;<br /></span>
<span>Enveloping the heaven's canopy<br /></span>
<span>In lowering shadow and portentous gloom;<br /></span>
<span>In pall of ambient obscurity.<br /></span>
<span>The fork-ed lightnings ramify and play<br /></span>
<span>Upon a background of sepulchral black;<br /></span>
<span>The growling thunders rumble a reply<br /></span>
<span>Of detonation awful and profound,<br /></span>
<span>To every corruscation's vivid gleam;<br /></span>
<span>In deep crescendo and fortissimo,<br /></span>
<span>In quavering tremolo and stately fugue<br /></span>
<span>Echoes, reverberates and dies away!<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>But soon the sun, with smiling radiance,<br /></span>
<span>Through orifice, through rift and aperture,<br /></span>
<span>Invades the storm, and dissipates the clouds,<br /></span>
<span>Which scatter, cowering and ephemeral,<br /></span>
<span>Hugging the cliffs, and o'er the dire abyss<br /></span>
<span>Hover, in fleecy, ever changing form,<br /></span>
<span>And in a transient season disappear;<br /></span>
<span>Vanish, as man must vanish, and are gone.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The moist precipitation of the storm<br /></span>
<span>Revives, refreshes and invigorates<br /></span>
<span>The various vegetation, and bedews<br /></span>
<span>Each blade of grass and floweret with a tear;<br /></span>
<span>As nature, weeping o'er the faults of man.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br><div class="figure">
<a name='016'></a><img src="images/016.jpg" alt="UNCOMPAHGRE CANYON.">
<h4><a href='#Would_seem'>"Would seem in more accord and harmony,<br />
<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>With such surroundings than the puny form</span><br />
Of insignificant, conceited man."</a><br><br>
UNCOMPAHGRE CAÑON, NEAR OURAY, COLORADO.</h4>
</div><br>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>The day recedes, and twilight's neutral shade<br /></span>
<span>Succeeds in turn, and ushers in the night,<br /></span>
<span>Whose wings, outstretched and shadowy, descend,<br /></span>
<span>And in nocturnal mantle robes the scene.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>A hush prevails! Oppressive and profound;<br /></span>
<span>A silence, broken only by the breeze;<br /></span>
<span>A dormant quiet-essence and repose;<br /></span>
<span>Pervading calm and sweet oblivion,—<br /></span>
<span>As nature wrapt in soft refreshing sleep.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Far in the east a solitary star<br /></span>
<span>Peeps through the sombre curtain of the night—<br /></span>
<span>In hesitating dubitation burns;<br /></span>
<span>In lonely splendor, flashes for a time,<br /></span>
<span>Till scattering celestial lights appear,—<br /></span>
<span>The vanguard of an astral multitude<br /></span>
<span>Of constellations, jewelled and serene,<br /></span>
<span>Which fill the lofty dome of space, until<br /></span>
<span>The heavens sparkle with the myriad<br /></span>
<span>Of spectra, nebulae and satellite;<br /></span>
<span>With stellar scintillation, and the orbs<br /></span>
<span>Of less refulgence, which, reflective shine;<br /></span>
<span>With falling star and trailing meteor;<br /></span>
<span>In one grand culmination, glittering<br /></span>
<span>To their Creator's glory!<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>A burst of mellow lunar radiance<br /></span>
<span>Inundates and illuminates the scene;<br /></span>
<span>The waxing moon, in her meridian full,<br /></span>
<span>Her beam vicarious disseminates,<br /></span>
<span>And shining, hides with her superior light,<br /></span>
<span>The twinkling beauty of the firmament!<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>At the stupendous and inspiring sight<br /></span>
<span>Of cosmic grandeur of the universe,<br /></span>
<span>A sense of vague and overwhelming awe;<br /></span>
<span>Of inconceivable immensity,<br /></span>
<span>The being's inmost recess permeates;<br /></span>
<span>And man, the atom in comparison,<br /></span>
<span>In spellbound admiration, mutely stands;<br /></span>
<span>With speculative meditation, dwells<br /></span>
<span>On that most solemn of impressive thoughts,<br /></span>
<span>The goodness of the Deity to man!<a name='FNanchor_A_1'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_1'><sup>[A]</sup></a><br /></span>
</div></div>
<br><div class="figure">
<a name='018'></a><img src="images/018.jpg" alt="MOUNTAIN SCENE.">
<h4><a href='#Both_solitary'>"Both solitary and in straggling groups;<br />
<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>In solid phalanx, rigid and compact."</span></a><br /><br><br>
MOUNTAIN SCENE, SAN JUAN COUNTY, COLORADO.</h4>
</div><br>
<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
<a name='Footnote_A_1'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_1'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p> Composed at St. Anthony's hospital, Denver, Colo., from whence the
author was led hopelessly blind.</p></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Natures_Child'></a><h2><b>Nature's Child.</b> </h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>I love to tread the solitudes,<br /></span>
<span>The forests and the trackless woods,<br /></span>
<span>Where nature, undisturbed by man,<br /></span>
<span>Pursues her voluntary plan.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span><a name="Where_natures"></a>Where nature's chemistry distills<br /></span>
<span>The fountains and the laughing rills,<br /></span>
<span>I love to quaff her sparkling wine,<br /></span>
<span>And breathe the fragrance of the pine.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>I love to dash the crystal dews<br /></span>
<span>From floral shapes of varied hues,<br /></span>
<span>And interweave the modest white<br /></span>
<span>Of columbine in garlands bright.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>I love to lie within the shade,<br /></span>
<span>On grassy couch, by nature made,<br /></span>
<span>And listen to the warbling notes<br /></span>
<span>From her fair songsters' feathered throats.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>And freed from artificial wants,<br /></span>
<span>I love to dwell in nature's haunts,<br /></span>
<span><a name="And_by_the_mountain"></a>And by the mountain's crystal lake<br /></span>
<span>A rustic habitation make.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>I love to scale the mountain height<br /></span>
<span>And watch the eagle in his flight,<br /></span>
<span>Or gaze upon the azure sea<br /></span>
<span>Of aerial immensity.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>I love the busy marts of trade,<br /></span>
<span>I love the things which men have made,<br /></span>
<span>Though man has charms, none such as these,<br /></span>
<span>In him the child of nature sees.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='To_the_Pines'></a><h2><b>To the Pines.</b> </h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>Ye sad musicians of the wood,<br /></span>
<span>Whose dirges fill the solitude,<br /></span>
<span>Whose minor strains and melodies<br /></span>
<span>Are wafted on the whispering breeze,<br /></span>
<span>Whose plaintive chants and listless sighs,<br /></span>
<span>Ascend as incense to the skies;<br /></span>
<span>Do solemn tones afford relief,<br /></span>
<span>With you, as men, a vent for grief?<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br><div class="figure">
<a name='021'></a><img src="images/021.jpg" alt="EMERALD LAKE.">
<h4><a href='#Inverted_in'>"Inverted in fantastic form,<br />
<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>Below the water line."</span></a><br /><br><br>
EMERALD LAKE, SAN MIGUEL COUNTY, COLORADO.</h4>
</div><br>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Reflections'></a><h2><b>Reflections.</b> </h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>On the margin of a lakelet,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>In a rugged mountain clime,<br /></span>
<span>Where precipice and pinnacle<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of countenance sublime,<br /></span>
<span>Cast their weird, austere reflections<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>In the water's glistening sheen,<br /></span>
<span>I strolled in contemplative mood,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Both pensive and serene.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>As in a crystal mirror,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>In that lakelet's placid face,<br /></span>
<span>I saw the mountains upside down,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>With all their pristine grace;<br /></span>
<span>I saw each cliff and point of rocks,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>I saw the stately pine,<br /></span>
<span><a name="Inverted_in"></a>Inverted in fantastic form<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Below the water line.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>I paused in admiration;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And with calm complacency<br /></span>
<span>I marveled at this photograph<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>From nature's gallery;<br /></span>
<span>And as my eyes surveyed the scene<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>With solemn grandeur fraught,<br /></span>
<span>This simile flashed through my mind<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>As instantly as thought:<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>As the stern, majestic mountains,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Without error or mistake,<br /></span>
<span>Were reflected in the bosom<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of that cool, pellucid lake,<br /></span>
<span>So our every thought and action,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Be it deed of hate or love,<br /></span>
<span>May be photographed in record<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>In that gallery above.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br />
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Lifes_Mystery'></a><h2><b>Life's Mystery.</b> </h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>I live, I move, I know not how, nor why,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Float as a transient bubble on the air,<br /></span>
<span>As fades the eventide I, too, must die;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>I came, I know not whence; I journey, where?<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br />
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='The_Fallen_Tree'></a><h2><b>The Fallen Tree.</b> </h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>I passed along a mountain road,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Which led me through a wooded glen,<br /></span>
<span>Remote from dwelling or abode<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And ordinary haunts of men;<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>And wearied from the dust and heat.<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Beneath a tree, I found a seat.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The tree, a tall majestic spruce,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Which had, perhaps for centuries,<br /></span>
<span>Withstood, without a moment's truce,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The wing-ed warfare of the breeze;<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>A monarch of the solitude,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Which well might grace the noblest wood.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Beneath its cool and welcome shade,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Protected from the noontide rays,<br /></span>
<span>The birds amid its branches played<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And caroled forth their twittering praise;<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>A squirrel perched upon a limb<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>And chattered with loquacious vim.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>E'er yet that selfsame week had sped,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>On my return, I sought its shade;<br /></span>
<span>But where it reared its form, instead;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>A fallen monarch I surveyed,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Prostrate and broken on the ground,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Nor longer cast its shade around.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Uprooted and disheveled, there<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The monarch of the forest lay;<br /></span>
<span>As if in desolate despair<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Its last resistance fell away,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>And overwhelmed, in evil hour<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Went down before the tempest's power.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Such are the final works of fate;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The birds to other branches flew;<br /></span>
<span>And man, whatever his estate,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Must face that same mutation, too!<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>To-day, I stand erect and tall,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>The morrow—may record my fall.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br />
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='There_Is_an_Air_of_Majesty'></a><h2><b>There is an Air of Majesty.</b> </h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>There is an air of majesty,<br /></span>
<span>A bearing dignified and free,<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>About the mountain peaks;<br /></span>
<span>Each crag of weather-beaten stone<br /></span>
<span>Presents a grandeur of its own<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>To him who seeks.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>There is a proud, defiant mein,<br /></span>
<span>Expressive, stern, and yet serene,<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>About the precipice;<br /></span>
<span>Whose rugged form looks grimly down,<br /></span>
<span>And answers, with an austere frown<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>The sunlight's kiss.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The mountain, with the snow bank crowned;<br /></span>
<span>The gorge, abysmal and profound;<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>Impress with aspect grand:<br /></span>
<span>With unfeigned reverence I see<br /></span>
<span>In canon and declivity<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>The All-Wise Hand.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br />
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Think_Not_That_the_Heart_Is_Devoid_of_Emotion'></a><h2><b>Think Not that the Heart is Devoid of Emotion.</b> </h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>Think not that the heart is devoid of emotion,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Because of a countenance rugged and stern,<br /></span>
<span>The bosom may hide the most fervent devotion,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>As shadowy forests hide floweret and fern;<br /></span>
<span>As the pearls which are down in the depths of the ocean,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The heart may have treasures which few can discern.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Think not the heart barren, because no reflection<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Is flashed from the depths of its secret embrace;<br /></span>
<span>External appearance may baffle detection,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And yet the heart beat with an ethical grace:<br /></span>
<span>The breast may be charged with the truest affection<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And never betray it by action or face.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br><div class="figure">
<a name='026'></a><img src="images/026.jpg" alt="SCENE NEAR TELLURIDE.">
<h4><a href='#Where_natures'>"Where nature's chemistry distills,<br>
The fountain and the laughing rills."</a><br /><br><br>
SCENE NEAR TELLURIDE, SAN MIGUEL COUNTY, COLORADO.</h4>
</div><br>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Humanitys_Stream'></a><h2><b>Humanity's Stream.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>I stood upon a crowded thoroughfare,<br /></span>
<span>Within a city's confines, where were met<br /></span>
<span>All classes and conditions, and surveyed,<br /></span>
<span>From a secluded niche or aperture,<br /></span>
<span>The various, ever-changing multitude<br /></span>
<span>Which passed along in restless turbulence,<br /></span>
<span>And, as a human river, ebbed and flowed<br /></span>
<span>Within its banks of brick and masonry.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Within this vast and heterogeneous throng,<br /></span>
<span>One might discern all stages and degrees,<br /></span>
<span>From wealth and power to helpless indigence;<br /></span>
<span>Extravagance to trenchant penury,<br /></span>
<span>And all extremes of want and misery.<br /></span>
<span>Some blest by wealth, some cursed by poverty;<br /></span>
<span>Some in positions neutral to them both;<br /></span>
<span>Some wore a gaunt and ill-conditioned look<br /></span>
<span>Which told its tale of lack of nourishment;<br /></span>
<span>While others showed that irritated air<br /></span>
<span>Which speaks of gout and pampered appetite;<br /></span>
<span>Some following vocations quite reverse<br /></span>
<span>From those which nature had endowed them for;<br /></span>
<span>Some passed with face self-satisfied and calm,<br /></span>
<span>As if the world bore nothing else but joy;<br /></span>
<span>And some there were who, from the cradle's mouth,<br /></span>
<span>As they pursued their journey to the grave,<br /></span>
<span>Had felt no throb save that of misery;<br /></span>
<span>The man of large affairs passed by in haste,<br /></span>
<span>With mind preoccupied, nor thought of else<br /></span>
<span>Save undertakings which concerned himself;<br /></span>
<span>The shallow son of misplaced opulence<br /></span>
<span>Came strutting by with self-important air,<br /></span>
<span>With head erect in a contemptuous poise,<br /></span>
<span>As if the stars were subject to his will,<br /></span>
<span>And e'en the golden sun was something base,<br /></span>
<span>Which had offended with its wholesome light<br /></span>
<span>In shining on so great a personage,<br /></span>
<span>A being more than ordinary clay,<br /></span>
<span>And much superior to the vulgar herd!<br /></span>
<span>Some faces passed which knew no kindly look,<br /></span>
<span>And felt no friendly pressure of the hand;<br /></span>
<span>And if the face depict the character,<br /></span>
<span>Some passed so steeped in crime and villainy<br /></span>
<span>That Judas' vile, ill-favored countenance<br /></span>
<span>Would seem in contrast quite respectable;<br /></span>
<span>Some features glowed with unfeigned honesty,<br /></span>
<span>Some grimaced in dissimulating craft,<br /></span>
<span>Some smiled benignantly and passed along;<br /></span>
<span>Some faces meek, some stern and resolute;<br /></span>
<span>Some the embodiment of gentleness;<br /></span>
<span>Some whose specific aspects plainly told<br /></span>
<span>Their fondest dreams were not of earth, but heaven;<br /></span>
<span>A newly wedded couple passed that way,<br /></span>
<span>In the sweet zenith of their honeymoon,<br /></span>
<span>But little dreaming what the future held.<br /></span>
<span>The light and trivial fool, the brainless fop;<br /></span>
<span>The staid and sober priest and minister;<br /></span>
<span>And she who worshiped at proud fashion's shrine;<br /></span>
<span>The mental giant, serious and sad;<br /></span>
<span>The thoughtful student and philosopher;<br /></span>
<span>And some of intellect diminutive;<br /></span>
<span>The man of letters, with abstracted mien,<br /></span>
<span>And he whose every thought was on the toil<br /></span>
<span>Which made his bare existence possible;<br /></span>
<span>The blushing maiden, pure and innocent;<br /></span>
<span>The stately grandam, dignified and gray;<br /></span>
<span>The matron, with the babe upon her breast;<br /></span>
<span>The silly superannuated flirt,<br /></span>
<span>Who nursed her waning beauty day by day,<br /></span>
<span>And still essayed to act the role of youth;<br /></span>
<span>The gay coquette and belle of other days,<br /></span>
<span>Who in life's morning, with disdainful laugh,<br /></span>
<span>Had quaffed the cup of pleasure to its dregs,<br /></span>
<span>And now, grown old, must pay the penalty<br /></span>
<span>In wrinkles and uncourted loneliness;<br /></span>
<span>The widow, who, but newly desolate,<br /></span>
<span>Would grasp a hand, then start to find it gone;<br /></span>
<span>The spendthrift and the sordid usurer,<br /></span>
<span>Who knew no sentiment save lust for gold;<br /></span>
<span>The bloated drunkard, sinking 'neath the weight<br /></span>
<span>Of wassail inclination dissolute;<br /></span>
<span>The youth, who, following his baleful steps,<br /></span>
<span>Reeled for the first time from intemperance;<br /></span>
<span>And she who had forgot her covenant,<br /></span>
<span>In brazen infamy and unwept shame;—<br /></span>
<span>The good, the bad, the impious and unjust,<br /></span>
<span>The energetic and the indolent,<br /></span>
<span>The adolescent and the venerable,<br /></span>
<span>Passed by, pursuant of their various ways.<br /></span>
</div>
<hr style='width: 45%;' /><br />
<div class='stanza'>
<span>The aged and decrepit plodded by,<br /></span>
<span>Whom one would think were ripe for any tomb,<br /></span>
<span>Yet quailed at dissolution's very thought;<br /></span>
<span>The crippled and deformed, with cane and crutch,<br /></span>
<span>Came limping by, as eddies in the stream;<br /></span>
<span>The mendicant, whose eyes might never see<br /></span>
<span>The golden sunlight, felt his way along,<br /></span>
<span>And though the world was dark, still shrank from death.<br /></span>
<span>Some faces showed the trace of recent tears,<br /></span>
<span>And some revealed the impress of despair;<br /></span>
<span>Others endeavored with a careless smile<br /></span>
<span>To hide a breast surcharged with hopelessness,<br /></span>
<span>As one afflicted with a foul disease<br /></span>
<span>Strives to avoid the scrutinizing gaze<br /></span>
<span>By the assumption of indifference;<br /></span>
<span>Some whose misfortunes and adversities<br /></span>
<span>And oft repeated disappointments, dried<br /></span>
<span>The fountain heads of kindness, and had turned<br /></span>
<span>Life's sweetest joys to gall and bitterness.<br /></span>
<span>Each face betrayed some sort or form of woe;<br /></span>
<span>In more than one I read a tragedy.<br /></span>
</div>
<hr style='width: 45%;' /><br />
<div class='stanza'>
<span>How complex is existence! What a maze<br /></span>
<span>Of complication and entanglement!<br /></span>
<span>Each thread combining with the other threads<br /></span>
<span>Fulfills its office in the labyrinth;<br /></span>
<span>Each link concatenates the other links<br /></span>
<span>Which constitute the vast and endless chain<br /></span>
<span>Of human life, and human destiny,—<br /></span>
<span>The strange phantasmagoria of fate.<br /></span>
</div>
<hr style='width: 45%;' /><br />
<div class='stanza'>
<span>So we, in life's procession, pass along<br /></span>
<span>To the accompaniment of secret dirge,<br /></span>
<span>Or laughter interspersed with tear and groan;<br /></span>
<span>Nor pause a moment, nor retrace a step,<br /></span>
<span>But march in Fate's spectacular review<br /></span>
<span>In pageant to our common goal—<br /></span>
<span class='i12'>The Grave.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br />
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Natures_Lullaby'></a><h2><b>Nature's Lullaby.</b> </h2>
<div class="subhead">A MOUNTAIN NOCTURNE</div>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>In forest shade my couch is made.<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And there I calmly lie,<br /></span>
<span>With thought confined in pensive mind,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And contemplate the sky;<br /></span>
<span>I wonder if the frowning cliff,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The valley and the wood,<br /></span>
<span>Or rugged freaks of mountain peaks,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Enjoy their solitude.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The heavens hold a sphere of gold,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>A full and placid moon,<br /></span>
<span>Suspended high, in cloudless sky,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>With constellations strewn;<br /></span>
<span>Its mellow beam, on rill and stream,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>In silvery sheen I see;<br /></span>
<span>Before its light, the shades of night<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>As evil spirits, flee.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>In space afar, a shooting star,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>With swift, uncertain course,<br /></span>
<span>In dazzling sparks its passage marks,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>As it expends its force;<br /></span>
<span>The mountains bare reflect its glare<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of weird, unearthly light,<br /></span>
<span>And e'en the skies, in glad surprise,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Behold its gorgeous flight.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The spruce and pine, at timber-line,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>In straggling patches strewn,<br /></span>
<span>Surcharge the breeze with melodies,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The forests' plaintive tune;<br /></span>
<span>As they descend, the waters blend<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>In babbling harmony,<br /></span>
<span>And soothe to rest my tranquil breast,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>With Nature's lullaby.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br><div class="figure">
<a name='032'></a><img src="images/032.jpg" alt="BRIDAL VEIL FALLS.">
<h4><a href='#Where_the_torrent'>"Where the torrent falls o'er the mountain wall."</a><br /><br><br>
BRIDAL VEIL FALLS, NEAR TELLURIDE, SAN MIGUEL COUNTY, COLORADO.</h4>
</div><br>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='The_Spirit_of_freedom_is_Born_of_the_Mountains'></a><h2><b>The Spirit of freedom is Born of the Mountains.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>The spirit of freedom is born of the mountains,<br /></span>
<span>In gorge and in cañon it hovers and dwells;<br /></span>
<span>Pervading the torrents and crystalline fountains,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Which dash through the valleys and forest clad dells.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The spirit of freedom, so firm and impliant,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Is borne on the breeze, whose invisible waves<br /></span>
<span>Descend from the mountain peaks, stern and defiant—<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Created for freemen, but never for slaves.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='The_Valley_of_the_San_Miguel'></a><h2><b>The Valley of the San Miguel.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>In the golden West, by fond Nature blest,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Lies a vale which my heart holds dear;<br /></span>
<span>Where the zephyr blows from eternal snows<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And tempers the atmosphere;<br /></span>
<span><a name="Where_the_torrent"></a>Where the torrent falls o'er the mountain walls,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>As its thunderous echoes thrill,<br /></span>
<span>Where the sparkling mist, by the rainbow kissed,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Decks the Valley of San Miguel<a name='FNanchor_B_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_B_2'><sup>[B]</sup></a>.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Where the birds of spring, in their season sing,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Their spontaneous melodies;<br /></span>
<span>Where the columbine and the stately pine<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Stand quivering in the breeze;<br /></span>
<span>Where the aspen tall hugs the trachyte wall,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And the wild rose bedecks the hill;<br /></span>
<span>Where the willows weep, and their vigils keep,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>On the banks of the San Miguel.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span><a name="Where_the_mountains"></a>Where the mountains high, cleave the azure sky,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>With their turrets so bleak and gray;<br /></span>
<span>Where the morning light crowns the dizzy height,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>At the break of the summer's day;<br /></span>
<span>Where the crags look down with an austere frown,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>O'er the valley so calm and still;<br /></span>
<span>Where the mesas blue, blend their dreamy hue<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>With the skies of the San Miguel.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Where the mountains hold a vast wealth of gold,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>In the quartz ledge and placer bar;<br /></span>
<span>Where the hills resound with the constant sound<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of the stamp mill's battering jar;<br /></span>
<span>Where the waters dash with the rhythmic splash<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of the cascade and mountain rill,<br /></span>
<span>As they laugh and flow to the lands below,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Through the turbulent San Miguel.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Where the shadows glide, in the eventide,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>As the sun, to nocturnal rest,<br /></span>
<span>With the dazzling rays of a world ablaze,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Sinks into the distant west;<br /></span>
<span>When the yellow leaf of existence brief,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Brings the hour when the pulse is still,<br /></span>
<span>May my ashes rest in the golden West,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>On the banks of the San Miguel.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br><div class="figure">
<a name='034'></a><img src="images/034.jpg" alt="LIZARD HEAD.">
<h4><a href='#Where_the_mountains'>"Where the mountains high, cleave the azure sky,<br />
<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>With their turrets so bleak and gray."</span></a><br /><br><br>
LIZARD HEAD, SAN MIGUEL COUNTY, COLORADO.</h4>
</div><br>
<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
<a name='Footnote_B_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_B_2'>[B]</a><div class='note'><p> San Miguel, pronounced "Magill," the Spanish form of St. Michael.</p></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='To_Mother_Huberta'></a><h2><b>To Mother Huberta.</b></h2>
<br />
<p><i>As repeated in chorus on the anniversary of her Names-day by the
Sisters of St. Hubert at St. Anthony's Hospital, Denver, Col., Oct. 29,
1900.</i></p>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>Mother, our greetings be to thee,<br /></span>
<span>On the glad anniversary<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of this, thy festive day;<br /></span>
<span>Thy daughters, daughters not of earth,<br /></span>
<span>But bound by cords of Heavenly birth,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Their love and greetings pay.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>We thank thee, Mother, for thy care,<br /></span>
<span>Thy watchfulness, and fervent prayer;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And if 'tis Heaven's will,<br /></span>
<span>May many a returning year<br /></span>
<span>And namesday find our Mother here,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Constant and watchful still.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Blest be that autumn brown and sere!<br /></span>
<span>Bless-ed the day and blest the year,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of his<a name='FNanchor_C_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_C_3'><sup>[C]</sup></a> nativity!<br /></span>
<span>Blest be the hospitals, which rise,<br /></span>
<span>Resultant of thy enterprise,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Thy zeal and fervency.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Blest be that hunter<a name='FNanchor_D_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_D_4'><sup>[D]</sup></a> saint of thine!<br /></span>
<span>Bless-ed the deer, and blest the sign<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Between its antlers broad!<br /></span>
<span>To us, thy daughters, is it given<br /></span>
<span>To bless thee, in the name of Heaven,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And blessing thee, bless God.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
<a name='Footnote_C_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_C_3'>[C]</a><div class='note'><p> St. Hubert.</p></div>
<a name='Footnote_D_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_D_4'>[D]</a><div class='note'><p> St. Hubert, the apostle of Ardennes, a saint of the Roman Catholic
Church, the patron of huntsmen. He was of a noble family of Acquitaine.
While hunting in the forests of Ardennes he had a vision of a stag with
a shining crucifix between its antlers, and heard a warning voice. He
was converted, entered the church, and eventually became Bishop of
Maestricht and Liege. He worked many miracles, and is said to have died
in 727 or 729. Spofford's Cyclopædia, Vol. 4, page 470.</p></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Suggested_by_a_Mountain_Eagle'></a><h2><b>Suggested by a Mountain Eagle.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>I gazed at the azure-hued mantle of heaven,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The measureless depths of ethereal space;<br /></span>
<span>I gazed at the clouds, so invisibly driven,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And an eagle, which wheeled with symmetrical grace.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>I gazed at that eagle, majestically wheeling,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>With dignity, born of the free mountain air;<br /></span>
<span>I envied that bird, with an envious feeling<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Which springs from a heart that is shackled with care.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>I envied that eagle, which bowed to no master,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>But soared at his will, through the ambient skies,<br /></span>
<span>Defiant of danger, and scorning disaster,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>He screamed at the cliffs, which re-echoed his cries.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>I envied that bird, on that fair summer morning,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>When nature lay decked with spontaneous art,<br /></span>
<span>As he circled, with aspect defiant and scorning,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And perched on a pinnacle's loftiest part.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br><div class="figure">
<a name='038'></a><img src="images/038.jpg" alt="TROUT LAKE.">
<h4><a href='#And_by_the_mountain'>"And by the mountain crystal lake<br />
<span style='margin-left: 2em;'>A rustic habitation make."</span></a><br /><br><br>
TROUT LAKE, SAN MIGUEL COUNTY, COLORADO.</h4>
</div><br>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>And scanning the scene with a stern indecision,<br /></span>
<span>He spread his dark wings, with intuitive cries,<br /></span>
<span>And sped, till acute and inquisitive vision<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Discerned but a movable speck in the skies.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>When the shades of the evening, so listless and dreary,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Descend on the valley, his wing never flags,<br /></span>
<span>As through the dark shadows he soars to his eyerie,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Which nestles among the impregnable crags.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Ah! fain would I rise on thy feathery pinions,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Above the material cares of the day,<br /></span>
<span>And float over earth's most enchanting dominions,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>As clouds, by the zephyrs, are wafted away!<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br />
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='The_Silvery_San_Juan'></a><h2><b>The Silvery San Juan.</b> </h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>Wherever I wander, my spirit still dwells,<br /></span>
<span>In the silvery San Juan<a name='FNanchor_E_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_E_5'><sup>[E]</sup></a> with its streamlet and dells;<br /></span>
<span>Whose mountainous summits, so rugged and high,<br /></span>
<span>With their pinnacles pierce the ethereal sky;<br /></span>
<span>Where the daisy, the rose, and the sweet columbine<br /></span>
<span>Blend their colors with those of the sober hued pine;<br /></span>
<span><a name="Where_the_ceaseless"></a>Where the ceaseless erosions of measureless time,<br /></span>
<span>Have chiseled the grotto and canon sublime;<br /></span>
<span>Have sculptured the cliff, and the stern mountain wall;<br /></span>
<span>Have formed the bold turret, impressive and tall;<br /></span>
<span><a name="Have_cut"></a>Have cut the deep gorge with its wonderful caves,<br /></span>
<span>Sepulchral and gloomy; whose vast architraves<br /></span>
<span>Support the stalactites, both pendant and white,<br /></span>
<span>Which with the stalagmites beneath them unite;<br /></span>
<span>Where nestles a valley, sequestered and grand,<br /></span>
<span>Worn out of the rock by the same tireless hand,<br /></span>
<span>Surrounded by mountains, majestic and gray,<br /></span>
<span><a name="Which_smile_from"></a>Which smile from their heights on the Town of Ouray.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br><div class="figure">
<a name='040'></a><img src="images/040.jpg" alt="BOX CANYON LOOKING INWARD.">
<h4><a href='#Where_the_ceaseless'>"Where the ceaseless erosions of measureless time,<br>
Have chiseled the grotto and canon sublime."</a><br /><br><br>
BOX CAÑON, LOOKING INWARD, OURAY, COLORADO.</h4>
</div><br>
<div class='poem'>
<hr style='width: 45%;' /><br />
<div class='stanza'>
<span><a name="Wherever_I_wander"></a>Wherever I wander, my ears hear the sound<br /></span>
<span>Of thy waters, which plunge with a turbulent bound<br /></span>
<span>O'er the precipice, seething and laden with foam;<br /></span>
<span>My ears hear their music wherever I roam;<br /></span>
<span>Where the cataract's rhapsody, joyous and light,<br /></span>
<span>Enchants in the morning and soothes in the night;<br /></span>
<span>Where blend the loud thunders, sonorous and deep,<br /></span>
<span>With the sobs of the rain as the black heavens weep;<br /></span>
<span>Where the whispering zephyr, and murmuring breeze,<br /></span>
<span>Unite with the soft, listless sigh of the trees;<br /></span>
<span>And where to the fancy, the voices of air<br /></span>
<span>Wail in tones of distress, or in shrieks of despair;<br /></span>
<span>Where mourneth the night wind, with desolate breath,<br /></span>
<span>In accents suggestive of sorrow and death;<br /></span>
<span>As falls from the heavens, so fleecy and light,<br /></span>
<span>The winter's immaculate mantle of white;<br /></span>
<span>Wherever I wander, these sounds greet my ears,<br /></span>
<span>And the silvery San Juan to my fancy appears.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
<a name='Footnote_E_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_E_5'>[E]</a><div class='note'><p> Pronounced San Wan. Spanish form of St. John.</p></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='As_the_Shifting_Sands_of_the_Desert'></a><h2><b>As the Shifting Sands of the Desert.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>As the shifting sands of the desert<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Are born by the simoon's wrath,<br /></span>
<span>And in wanton and fleet confusion,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Are strewn on its trackless path;<br /></span>
<span>So our lives with resistless fury,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Insensibly and unknown,<br /></span>
<span>With a restless vacillation<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>By the winds of fate are blown;<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>But an All-Wise Hand<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>May have changed the sand,<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>For a purpose of His own.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>As the troubled and turbulent waters,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>As the waves of the angry main,<br /></span>
<span>Respond with their undulations<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>To the breath of the hurricane;<br /></span>
<span>So our lives on Time's boundless ocean<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Unwittingly toss and roll,<br /></span>
<span>And unconsciously drift with the current<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Which evades our assumed control;<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>But a Hand of love,<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>From the skies above,<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>May have guided us past a shoal.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Ephemeral, mobile, and fleeting,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Our delible paths we tread;<br /></span>
<span>And fade as the crimson sunset,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>When the heavens are tinged with red;<br /></span>
<span>As the gorgeously tinted rainbow<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Retains not its varied dyes,<br /></span>
<span>We change, with the constant mutation,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of desert, of sea, and skies;<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>But the Hand which made,<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>Knows each transient shade,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Which passes before the eyes.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br><div class="figure">
<a name='042'></a><img src="images/042.jpg" alt="OURAY, COLORADO.">
<h4><a href='#Which_smile_from'>"Which smile from their heights on the town of Ouray."</a><br><br>
OURAY, COLORADO.</h4></div><br>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Missed'></a><h2><b>Missed.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>Pity the child who never feels<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>A mother's fond caress;<br /></span>
<span>That childish smile a void conceals<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of aching loneliness.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Pity the heart which loves in vain,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>What balm or mystic spell<br /></span>
<span>Can soothe that bosom's secret pain,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The pain it may not tell?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Pity those missed by Cupid's darts,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>For 'twas ordained for such,<br /></span>
<span>Who love at random, but whose hearts<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Feel no responsive touch.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br />
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='If_I_Have_Lived_Before'></a><h2><b>If I Have Lived Before.</b> </h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>If I have lived before, some evidence<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Should that existence to the present bind;<br /></span>
<span>Some innate inkling of experience<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Should still imbue and permeate the mind,<br /></span>
<span>If we, progressing, pass from state to state,<br /></span>
<span>Or retrograde, as turns the wheel of fate.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>If I have lived before, and could my eyes<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>But view the scenes wherein that life was spent,<br /></span>
<span>Or even for an instant recognize<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The climes, conditions and environment<br /></span>
<span>Beloved by them in that pre-natal span,<br /></span>
<span>Though past and future both be sealed to man;<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Or, if perchance, kind memory should ope'<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Her floodgates, with fond recollection fraught,<br /></span>
<span>'Twould then renew the dormant fires of hope,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Now smothered out by speculative thought;<br /></span>
<span>'Twould then rekindle faith within a breast,<br /></span>
<span>Where doubt is now the sole remaining guest.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='The_Darker_Side'></a><h2><b>The Darker Side.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>They say that all nature is smiling and gay,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And the birds the most happy of all,<br /></span>
<span>But the sparrow, pursued by the sparrowhawk,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Savors more of the wormwood and gall.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>They say that all nature is smiling and gay,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>But the groan may dissemble the laugh;<br /></span>
<span>E'en now from the meadow is wafted the sound<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of a bovine bewailing her calf.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>They say that all nature is smiling and gay,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>But the moss often covers the rock;<br /></span>
<span>Every animal form is beset by a foe,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>For the wolf always follows the flock.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>For the animal holds all inferior flesh<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>As its just and legitimate prey;<br /></span>
<span>Every scream of the eagle a panic creates<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>As the weaker things scamper away.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>They say that all nature is smiling and gay,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>But the smiles are all needed to sweeten<br /></span>
<span>The struggle we see so incessantly waged<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>To eat, and avoid being eaten.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>And men, with their genial competitive ways<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Present no decided improvements,<br /></span>
<span>For their personal gain they will sacrifice all<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Who may stand in the way of their movements.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br />
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='The_Miner'></a><h2><b>The Miner.</b> </h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span class='i3'>Clink! Clink! Clink!<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The song of the hammer and drill!<br /></span>
<span>At the sound of the whistle so shrill and clear,<br /></span>
<span>He must leave the wife and the children dear,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>In his cabin upon the hill.<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>Clink! Clink! Clink!<br /></span>
<span>But the arms that deliver the sturdy stroke,<br /></span>
<span>Ere the shift is done, may be crushed or broke,<br /></span>
<span>Or the life may succumb to the gas and smoke,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Which the underground caverns fill.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span class='i3'>Clink! Clink! Clink!<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The song of the hammer and drill!<br /></span>
<span>As he toils in the shaft, in the stope or raise,<br /></span>
<span>'Mid dangers which lurk, but elude the gaze,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>His nerves with no terrors thrill.<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>Clink! Clink! Clink!<br /></span>
<span>For the heart of the miner is strong and brave;<br /></span>
<span>Though the rocks may fall, and the shaft may cave<br /></span>
<span>And become his dungeon, if not his grave,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>He braves every thought of ill.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span class='i3'>Clink! Clink! Clink!<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The song of the hammer and drill!<br /></span>
<span>But the heart which is beating in unison<br /></span>
<span>With the steady stroke, e'er the shift is done,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>May be cold and forever still.<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>Clink! Clink! Clink!<br /></span>
<span>He may reap the harvest of danger sowed,<br /></span>
<span>The hole which he drills he may never load,<br /></span>
<span>For the powder may e'en in his hand explode,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>To mangle, if not to kill.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span class='i3'>Clink! Clink! Clink!<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The song of the hammer and drill!<br /></span>
<span>Facing dangers more grim than the cannon's mouth;<br /></span>
<span>Breathing poisons more foul than the swamps of the south<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>In their tropical fens distill.<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>Clink! Clink! Clink!<br /></span>
<span>Thus the battle he fights for his daily bread;<br /></span>
<span>Thus our gold and our silver, our iron and lead,<br /></span>
<span>Cost us lives, as true as our blood is red,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And probably always will.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Lifes_Undercurrent'></a><h2><b>Life's Undercurrent.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>Within the precincts of a hospital,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>I wandered in a sympathetic mood;<br /></span>
<span>Where face to face with wormwood and with gall,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>With wrecks of pain and stern vicissitude,<br /></span>
<span>The eye unused to human misery<br /></span>
<span>Might view life's undercurrent vividly.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>My gaze soon rested on the stricken form<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of one succumbing to the fever's drouth,<br /></span>
<span>With throbbing brow intolerably warm,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>With wasted lips and mute appealing mouth;<br /></span>
<span>And when I watched that prostrate figure there<br /></span>
<span>I thought that fate must be the worst to bear.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>I next beheld a thin but patient face,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Aged by the constant twinge of hopeless pain,<br /></span>
<span>Wheeled in an easy chair from place to place,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>A form which ne'er might stand erect again;<br /></span>
<span>I viewed that human shipwreck in his chair,<br /></span>
<span>And thought a fate like that was worst to bear.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Within her room a beauteous maiden lay,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Moaning in agony no words express,<br /></span>
<span>A cancer eating rapidly away<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Her vital force,—so foul and pitiless;<br /></span>
<span>And when I saw that face, so young and fair,<br /></span>
<span>I thought such anguish was the worst to bear.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br><div class="figure">
<a name='048'></a><img src="images/048.jpg" alt="BOX CANYON LOOKING OUTWARD.">
<h4><a href='#Have_cut'>"Have cut the deep gorge with its wonderful curves."</a><br /><br><br>
BOX CAÑON, LOOKING OUTWARD, OURAY, COLORADO.</h4>
</div><br>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>A helpless paralytic met my eyes,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Whose hands might never grasp a friendly hand,<br /></span>
<span>But hung distorted and of shrunken size,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Insensible to muscular command;<br /></span>
<span>His face an abject picture of despair;<br /></span>
<span>I thought a fate like that was worst to bear.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>With wasted form, emaciate and wan,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>A pale consumptive coughed with labored breath,<br /></span>
<span>His sunken eyes and hectic flush upon<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>His cheek, foretold a sure but lingering death;<br /></span>
<span>I thought, whene'er I met his hollow stare,<br /></span>
<span>A wasting death like that was worst to bear.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>That day with fetters obdurate and fast,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>With chain of summer, winter, spring and fall,<br /></span>
<span>Is bounden to the dim receding past;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Time o'er my life has spread a somber pall,<br /></span>
<span>With sightless eyes I grope and clutch the air,<br /></span>
<span>My lot is now the hardest lot to bear.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='They_Cannot_See_the_Wreaths_We_Place'></a><h2><b>They Cannot See the Wreaths We Place.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>They cannot see the wreaths we place<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Upon the silent bier,<br /></span>
<span>They cannot see the tear-stained face,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Nor feel the scalding tear,<br /></span>
<span>And now can flowers or graven stone,<br /></span>
<span>For wrongs done them in life atone?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Better the flower that smooths the thorns<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>On earthly pathway found,<br /></span>
<span>Than that which uselessly adorns<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The bier or silent mound.<br /></span>
<span>And neither tear nor floral token<br /></span>
<span>Retracts the hasty word, when spoken.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Then strew the flowers ere life has fled,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>While yet their eyes discern;<br /></span>
<span>Why waste their fragrance on the dead<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Who no fond smile return?<br /></span>
<span>The heaving breast with sorrow aches,<br /></span>
<span>Comfort the throbbing heart which breaks.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='MothermdashAlpha_and_Omega'></a><h2><b>Mother.—Alpha and Omega.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>Mother! Mother!<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The startled cry of childish fright<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Rang through the silence of the night,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>As but the mother's fond caress<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Could soothe its infantile distress;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And the mother answered, with loving stroke<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of her gentle hand, as she softly spoke:<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>"Hush, hush, my child, that troubled cry;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>What evil can harm thee, with mother nigh?"<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Mother! Mother!<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Long years have passed, and the fevered brow<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of a bearded man, she is stroking now,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>As through delirium and pain<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>He cries as a little child, again.<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And the mother answered, with loving stroke<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of her careworn hand, as she softly spoke:<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>"Hush, hush, my child, that troubled cry;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>What evil can harm thee, with mother nigh?"<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Mother! Mother!<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Still time rolls on, and an old man stands<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Trembling on life's declining sands;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>As memory bridges the flood of years<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>He cries as a child, with childish tears;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And memory answers, with loving stroke<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of a vanished hand, and an echo spoke:<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>"Hush, hush, my child, that troubled cry;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>What evil can harm thee, with mother nigh?"<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Empty_are_the_Mothers_Arms'></a><h2><b>Empty are the Mother's Arms.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>Ah, empty are the mother's arms<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Which clasp a vanished form;<br /></span>
<span>A darling spared from life's alarms,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And safe from earthly storm.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>In absent reverie, she hears<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>That voice, nor can forget;<br /></span>
<span>The fond illusion disappears,—<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Her arms are empty, yet.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br />
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='In_Deo_Fides'></a><h2><b>In Deo Fides.</b> </h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>Almighty God! Supreme! Most High!<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Before Thy throne, in reverence, we kneel;<br /></span>
<span>We cannot realize Thine infinity;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Beholding not, we can Thy presence feel;<br /></span>
<span>Though veiled impenetrably, Thou dost reveal<br /></span>
<span>Such evidence as clouds cannot conceal!<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Acknowledged, though unseen, Almighty Power!<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Within its secret depths, the bosom pays<br /></span>
<span>In pleasure's or affliction's calmer hour,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The heart's sincerest offering of praise;<br /></span>
<span>Intuitive, unuttered prayers arise<br /></span>
<span>Without the outstretched arms, or reverently clos-ed eyes.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Down deep within the soul's mysterious seat,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The voice of reason, and inherent sense,<br /></span>
<span>Admits Thy Sovereign Power, and doth entreat<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The guidance of a Just Omnipotence;<br /></span>
<span>Thus doth the human essence e'er depend<br /></span>
<span>On that Supreme. Eternal. Without End.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Supreme, Mysterious Power! Whate'er Thou be,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Can e'er our mortal natures comprehend,<br /></span>
<span>This side the veil which shrouds futurity,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Thy Wisdom, Power, and Love? The end<br /></span>
<span>Of all conclusions, reasoned o'er and o'er,<br /></span>
<span>We know Thou dost exist! Can we know more?<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Shall_Love_as_the_Bridal_Wreath_Whither_and_Die'></a><h2><b>Shall Love, as the Bridal Wreath, Whither and Die?</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>Shall love as the bridal wreath, wither and die?<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Or remain ever constant and sure,<br /></span>
<span>As the years of the future pass rapidly by,<br /></span>
<span>And the waves of adversity's tempest roll high,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Ever changeless and fervent endure?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Mistake not the fancy, that lasts but a day,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>For the love which eternally thrives;<br /></span>
<span>That sentiment false, is as prone to decay<br /></span>
<span>As the wreath is to fade and to wither away;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And like it, it never revives.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Shall_Our_Memories_Live_When_the_Sod_Rolls_Above_Us'></a><h2><b>Shall Our Memories Live When the Sod Rolls Above Us?</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>Shall our memories live, when the sod rolls above us<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And marks our last home with a mouldering heap?<br /></span>
<span>Shall the voices of those who profess that they love us<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>E'er mention our names, as we dreamlessly sleep?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Will their eyes ever dim at some fond recollection,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Or their hands ever plant a small flower o'er the breast,<br /></span>
<span>Or will they gaze with a sad circumspection<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>At the tablets, which tell of our last solemn rest?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Ah! soon shall the hearts which our memories cherish<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Forget, as they strive with the cares of their own;<br /></span>
<span>And even the last dim remembrance shall perish<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>As we peacefully slumber, unwept and unknown.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>But if our lives, though of transient duration,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Are filled with some work in humanity's name,<br /></span>
<span>Some uplifting effort, or self-immolation,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Our memories shall live in the temples of Fame.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br />
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='A_Reverie'></a><h2><b>A Reverie.</b> </h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>O, tomb of the past<br /></span>
<span>Where buried hopes lie,<br /></span>
<span>In my visions I see<br /></span>
<span>Thy phantoms pass by!<br /></span>
<span>A form, long departed,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Before me appears;<br /></span>
<span>A sweet voice, long silent,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Again greets my ears.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Fond memory dwells<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>On the things that have been;<br /></span>
<span>And my eyes calmly gaze<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>On a long vanished scene;<br /></span>
<span>A scene such as memory<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Stores deep in the breast,<br /></span>
<span>Which only appears<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>In a season of rest.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Once more we wander,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Her fair hand in mine;<br /></span>
<span>Once more her promise,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>"I'll ever be thine";<br /></span>
<span>Once more the parting,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The shroud, and the pall,<br /></span>
<span>The sods' hollow thump<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>As they coffinward fall.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The reverie ends—<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>All the fancies have flown;<br /></span>
<span>And my sad, lonely heart,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Now seems doubly alone;<br /></span>
<span>As the Ivy, whose tendrils<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Reach longingly out,<br /></span>
<span>Yet finds not an oak<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>To entwine them about.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br />
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Loves_Plea'></a><h2><b>Love's Plea.</b> </h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>I love thee, my darling, both now and forever,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>My heart feels the thralldom of love's mystic spell,<br /></span>
<span>'Tis fettered with shackles which nothing can sever,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>To the heart which responds to its passionate swell.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>I love thee, my darling, with love that is stronger,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Than all the fond ties which the heart holds enshrined;<br /></span>
<span>Adversity, sorrow or pain can no longer<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Detract from this heart, if with thine intertwined.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>I love thee, my darling, with sacred affection,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Which death, nor the cycles of time shall efface;<br /></span>
<span>Nor from my heart's mirror, erase thy reflection,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Nor tear thy fond heart from its fervent embrace.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Ashes_to_Ashes_Dust_to_Dust'></a><h2><b>Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>Is there a Death? The light of day<br /></span>
<span>At eventide shall fade away;<br /></span>
<span>From out the sod's eternal gloom<br /></span>
<span>The flowers, in their season, bloom;<br /></span>
<span>Bud, bloom and fade, and soon the spot<br /></span>
<span>Whereon they flourished knows them not;<br /></span>
<span>Blighted by chill, autumnal frost;<br /></span>
<span>"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust!"<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Is there a Death? Pale forms of men<br /></span>
<span>To formless clay resolve again;<br /></span>
<span>Sarcophagus of graven stone,<br /></span>
<span>Nor solitary grave, unknown,<br /></span>
<span>Mausoleum, or funeral urn,<br /></span>
<span>No answer to our cries return;<br /></span>
<span>Nor silent lips disclose their trust;<br /></span>
<span>"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust!"<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Is there a Death? All forms of clay<br /></span>
<span>Successively shall pass away;<br /></span>
<span>But, as the joyous days of spring<br /></span>
<span>Witness the glad awakening<br /></span>
<span>Of nature's forces, may not men,<br /></span>
<span>In some due season, rise again?<br /></span>
<span>Then why this calm, inherent trust,<br /></span>
<span>"If ashes to ashes, dust to dust?"<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Despair'></a><h2><b>Despair.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>Ill fares the heart, when hope has fled;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>When vanishes each prospect fair,<br /></span>
<span>When the last flickering ray has sped,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And naught remains but mute despair;<br /></span>
<span>When inky blackness doth enshroud<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The hopes the heart once held in store,<br /></span>
<span>As some tall pine, by great winds bowed,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Doth snap, and when the tempest's o'er,<br /></span>
<span><a name="Its_noble_form"></a>Its noble form, magnificent and proud,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Doth prostrate lie, nor ever riseth more;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Thus breaks the heart, which sees no hope before.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Ill fares the heart, when hope has fled;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>That heart is as some ruin old,<br /></span>
<span>With ancient arch and wall, o'erspread<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>With moss, and desolating mold;<br /></span>
<span>Whose banquet halls, where once the sound<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of revelry rang unconfined,<br /></span>
<span>Now, with the hoot of owls resound,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Or echo back the mournful wind;<br /></span>
<span>In whose foul nooks the gruesome bat is found.<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The heart a ruin is, when unresigned;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>No hope before, and but regret behind.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br><div class="figure">
<a name='060'></a><img src="images/060.jpg" alt="IRONTON PARK.">
<h4><a href='#Its_noble_form'> "Its noble form magnificent and proud,<br />
Doth prostrate lie, nor ever riseth more."</a><br /><br><br>
IRONTON PARK, OURAY COUNTY, COLORADO.</h4>
</div><br>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>Ill fares the heart, when hope has fled;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>That heart, to fate unreconciled,<br /></span>
<span>Though throbbing, is as truly dead<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>As though by foul decay defiled;<br /></span>
<span>That heart is as a grinning skull,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>With smiling mockery, and stare<br /></span>
<span>Of eyeless sockets, or the hull<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of shipwrecked vessel, bleached and bare,<br /></span>
<span>Derelict, morbid, apathetic, dull,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>As drowning men, who clutch the empty air,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The heart goes down, which feels but blind despair.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br />
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Hidden_Sorrows'></a><h2><b>Hidden Sorrows.</b> </h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>For some the river of life would seem<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Free from the shallow, the reef, or bar,<br /></span>
<span>As they gently glide down the silvery stream<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>With scarcely a ripple, a lurch, or jar;<br /></span>
<span>But under the surface, calm and fair,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Lurk the hidden snags, and the secret care;<br /></span>
<span>The waters are deepest where still, and clear,<br /></span>
<span>And the sternest anguish forbids a tear.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>For others, the pathway of life is strewn<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>With many a thorn, for each rose or bud;<br /></span>
<span>And their journey o'er mountain, o'er moor, and dune,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Can be plainly tracked by footprints of blood;<br /></span>
<span>But deeper still lies the hidden smart<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of some secret sorrow, which gnaws the heart,<br /></span>
<span>And rankles under a surface clear;<br /></span>
<span>For the sternest anguish forbids a tear.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>But, when the journey's end we see,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>At the bar of the Judge of quick and dead,<br /></span>
<span>The cross, which the one bore silently<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>May outweigh his of the bloodstained tread.<br /></span>
<span>The cross unseen, and the cross of light,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>May balance in that Judge's sight;<br /></span>
<span>O'er the heart that is breaking a smile may appear,<br /></span>
<span>For the sternest anguish forbids a tear.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='O_A_Beautiful_Thing_is_the_Flower_That_Fadeth'></a><h2><b>O, a Beautiful Thing Is the Flower That Fadeth!</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>O, a beautiful thing is the flower that fadeth,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And perishing, smiles on the chill autumn wind;<br /></span>
<span>A sweet desolation its ruin pervadeth,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>A fragrant remembrance still lingers behind.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>O, a beautiful thing is the glad consummation<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of a life that is upright, untarnished and pure;<br /></span>
<span>That spirit, when freed from this earth's animation,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Shall live, as the heavens eternal endure!<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Smiles'></a><h2><b>Smiles.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>There is the warm, congenial smile,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Benign, and honest, too,<br /></span>
<span>Free from deception, fraud, and guile;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The smile of friendship true.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>There is the smile most fair to see,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Which wreathes the modest glance<br /></span>
<span>Of spotless maiden purity;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The smile of innocence.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>There is the smile of woman's love,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>That potent, siren spell,<br /></span>
<span>Which uplifts men to heaven above,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Or lures them down to hell!<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>There is the vain, derisive smile,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of cynical conceit;<br /></span>
<span>The drunken leer, the grimace vile,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of lives with crime replete.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>There is the smile of vacancy,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Expressionless, we find<br /></span>
<span>On idiot physiognomy,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The vacuum of a mind.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>There is a smile, which more than tears<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Or language can express;<br /></span>
<span>The grim disguise which anguish wears,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The mask of dire distress<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>There is a smile of practiced art,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>More false than treason's kiss;<br /></span>
<span>But penetrate that dual heart,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And hear the serpent's hiss.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>A smile, the visage shall embrace,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>When nature's cup is full;<br /></span>
<span>Behind the stern and frowning face<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>There lies a grinning skull.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br />
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='A_Request'></a><h2><b>A Request.</b> </h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>When close by my bed the Death Angel shall stand<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And deliver his summons, at last;<br /></span>
<span>When my brow feels the chill of his cold, clammy hand,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And mortality's struggles are past;<br /></span>
<span>When my pain throbbing temples, with death sweat are cold,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And the spirit its strivings shall cease,<br /></span>
<span>As with muscular shrug, it relaxes its hold,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And the suffering clay is at peace;<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>E'er my spirit shall plunge through the shadowy vale,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>My lips shall this wish have expressed,<br /></span>
<span>That all which remains of mortality frail,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>In some fair enclosure may rest;<br /></span>
<span>Where disorganized, this pale form shall sustain<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The fragrant and beautiful flowers,<br /></span>
<span>And reproduce beauty, again and again,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Through nature's grand organic powers.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br />
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Battle_Hymn'></a><h2><b>Battle Hymn.</b> </h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>Almighty Power! Who through the past<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Our Nation's course has safely led;<br /></span>
<span>Behold again the sky o'ercast,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Again is heard the martial tread!<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Our stay in each contingency,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Our Father's God, we turn to thee!<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>For lo! The bugle note of war<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Is wafted from a southern strand!<br /></span>
<span>O Lord of Battles! we implore<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The guidance of Thy mighty hand,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>While as of yore, the hero draws<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>His sword in Freedom's sacred cause!<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>And when at last the oaken wreath<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Shall crown afresh the victor's brow;<br /></span>
<span>And Peace the conquering sword resheath,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Be with us then, as well as now!<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Our stay in each contingency,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>In peace or war, we turn to Thee!<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='The_Nations_Peril'></a><h2><b>The Nations Peril.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span class='i4'><i>Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,</i></span>
<span class='i4'><i>Where wealth accumulates and men decay.</i></span>
<span class='i18'><i>—Goldsmith.</i></span>
</div></div>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>I fear the palace of the rich,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>I fear the hovel of the poor;<br /></span>
<span>Though fortified by moat and ditch,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The castle strong could not endure;<br /></span>
<span>Nor can the squalid hovel be<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>A source of strength, and those who cause<br /></span>
<span>This widening discrepancy<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Infringe on God's eternal laws.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The heritage of man, the earth,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Was framed for homes, not vast estates;<br /></span>
<span>A lowering scale of human worth<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Each generation demonstrates,<br /></span>
<span>Which feels the landlord's iron hand,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And hopeless, plod with effort brave;<br /></span>
<span>Who love no home can love no land;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>These own no home, until the grave.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The nation's strongest safeguards lie<br /></span>
<span>In free and unencumbered homes;<br /></span>
<span>Not in its hordes of vagrancy,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Nor in its proud, palatial domes;<br /></span>
<span>Nor can the mercenary sword<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>E'er cross with that the freeman draws.<br /></span>
<span>Nor oil upon the waters poured<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Perpetuate an unjust cause.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Eternal Justice, still prevail<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And stay this menace ere too late!<br /></span>
<span>Ere sturdy manhood droop and fail,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The law, immutable, of fate;<br /></span>
<span>No foe can daunt the stalwart heart<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of him who guards that sacred ground<br /></span>
<span>Where every hero owns a part,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Where each an ample home has found.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>No more shall battle's lurid gleam<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The cloudless sky of peace obscure;<br /></span>
<span>Nor blood becrimson field, or stream,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Nor avarice grind down the poor;<br /></span>
<span>But onward let thy progress be<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>A pageant, beautiful and grand;<br /></span>
<span>May He who e'er has guided thee<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Protect thee still, my native land!<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Echoes_from_Galilee'></a><h2><b>Echoes from Galilee.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>What means this gathering multitude,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Upon thy shores, O, Galilee,<br /></span>
<span>As various as the billows rude<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>That sweep thy ever restless sea?<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Can but the mandate of a King<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>So varied an assemblage bring?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Behold the noble, rich, and great,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>From Levite, Pharisee and Priest,<br /></span>
<span>Down to the lowest dregs of fate,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>From mightiest even to the least;<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Yes, in this motley throng we find<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>The palsied, sick, mute, halt, and blind.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Is this some grand affair of state,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>A coronation, or display,<br /></span>
<span>By some vainglorious potentate,—<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Or can this concourse mark the day<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Of some victorious hero's march<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Homeward, through triumphal arch?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Or, have they come to celebrate<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Some sacred sacerdotal rite;<br /></span>
<span>By civic feast, to emulate<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Some deed, on history's pages bright?<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Or can this grand occasion be<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Some battle's anniversary?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>But wherefore come the halt and blind?<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>What comfort can the pain-distressed<br /></span>
<span>In such a tumult hope to find?<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>What is there here, to offer rest<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>To those, whom adverse fate has hurled,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Dismantled, on a hostile world?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Let us approach! A form we see,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Fairest beyond comparison;<br /></span>
<span>For such an heavenly purity,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>From other eyes, hath never shown;<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Nor such a calm, majestic brow<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>On earth hath ne'er appeared, till now.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Draw nearer. Lo! a voice we hear,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Resonant, soft, pathetic, sweet;<br /></span>
<span>In ringing accents, calm and clear,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>He sways the thousands at his feet,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>With more than mortal eloquence,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Or man's compassion, in his glance.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Ah! Strange, that such a form should stand<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>In raiment soiled, and travel stained;<br /></span>
<span>Yes, mark the contour of that hand,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>A hand by menial toil profaned.<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Can one from such a station reach<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>All classes by sheer force of speech?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Can eloquence from mortal tongue<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Break through the barriers, which divide<br /></span>
<span>The toiling and down-trodden throng<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>From affluence, and official pride?<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Then how can yonder speaker hold<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>An audience so manifold?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>He spake as never orator<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Before, or since, with burning thought,<br /></span>
<span>In parable, and metaphor;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Each simple illustration taught<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Some sacred truth, some truth which could<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>By sage, or fool, be understood.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>With similes of common things,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The lilies of the field, the salt<br /></span>
<span>Which lost its savour; gently brings<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>A lesson, from the common fault<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Of self-admiring Pharisee,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Of ostentatious piety.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>And from the prostrate penitent,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The Publican, who beat his breast,<br /></span>
<span>Remorsefully his garment rent,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And thus, with tears, his sin confessed;<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>"Lord, Lord, a sinner vile am I,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Be merciful, and hear my cry!"<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>And from that man, beset by thieves,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And left upon the road, to die;<br /></span>
<span>No aid or comfort he receives<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>From Priest, or Levite, passing by;<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>How the despised Samaritan<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Proved the true neighbor to that man.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Yes, finished with such fervency<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of gesture, and similitude;<br /></span>
<span>Such depths of love, and purity<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>His hearers marvelled, as they stood;<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Nor through his discourse, was there heard,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Abusive, vain, or idle word.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Who may this wondrous speaker be?<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Is he some judge, or orator?<br /></span>
<span>Some one in high authority?<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Physician, prince, or conqueror?<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Answer, thou ever restless sea,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Who may this wondrous person be?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>With echoes soft, the sea replies,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>This is a Judge, and Orator;<br /></span>
<span>A Judge, beyond all judges wise,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And eloquent, as none before;<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>A Judge, majestic, calm, serene;<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>And yet, an humble Nazarene.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>He is a Ruler, whose command<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The myriads of the skies obey,<br /></span>
<span>As in the hollow of His hand<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>He holds all human destiny.<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>The tempest wild concedes his will,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>And calms before His "Peace, be still."<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>A great Physician, too, is He,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Whose word, the leper purifies;<br /></span>
<span>The mute converse, the blind ones see;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>At his command, the dead arise;<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>He cures the ravages of sin,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>And makes the foulest sinner clean.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>He is a Prince, a Prince whose power<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Knows neither limit nor degree,<br /></span>
<span>Whose glory, not the passing hour,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Nor cycles of futurity,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Can augment, alter, or decrease—<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Prince is He, the Prince of Peace.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>He is earth's greatest Conqueror,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>But conquers not with crimson sword;<br /></span>
<span>Love is the weapon of His war,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Forgiveness, and gentle word;<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>But, greatest of all victories,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>O'er the dark grave, His banner flies.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Go_And_Sin_No_More'></a><h2><b>Go, And Sin No More.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span class='i1'>When the poor, erring woman sought<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>In tears the Master's feet,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Her breast, with deep contrition fraught,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Repentance, full, complete,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Divine compassion filled His eyes,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>He spake, says Sacred Lore,—<br /></span>
<span>"O, erring heart, forgiven, rise,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Go, thou, and sin no more."<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span class='i1'>The tear of contrite sorrow, shed<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>By penitence, cast down,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Shall flash, when solar rays have fled,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>In an eternal crown;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>That tear shall scintillate, and shine,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>When comets cease to soar;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>If thou would'st wear that gem divine,<br /></span>
<span>Go, thou, and sin no more!<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br />
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Gently_Lead_Me_Star_Divine'></a><h2><b>Gently Lead Me, Star Divine.</b> </h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span class='i1'>Gently lead me, Star Divine,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Lead with bright unchanging ray;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>O'er my lowly pathway shine,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>I shall never lose my way;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Though uncertain be my tread,<br /></span>
<span>Pitfalls deep, and mountains high,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Safely shall my feet be led,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>By Thy beacon, in the sky.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span class='i1'>Long ago, while journeying<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Westward, o'er the desert wild,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Sages sought a promised King<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>In the person of a child;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>By Thy bright illuminings,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>To that manger, in the fold,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Thou did'st lead those shepherd kings;<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Lead me, as Thou lead'st of old.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<br><div class="figure">
<a name='076'></a><img src="images/076.jpg" alt="BEAR CREEK FALLS.">
<h4><a href='#Wherever_I_wander'> "Wherever I wander my ears hear the sound,<br>
Of thy waters which plunge with a turbulent sound."</a><br /><br><br>
BEAR CREEK FALLS, UNCOMPAHGRE CAÑON, NEAR OURAY, COLORADO.</h4></div><br>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Dying_Hymn'></a><h2><b>Dying Hymn.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span class='i1'>The hour-glass speeds its final sands,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>In splendor sinks the golden sun,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>So men must yield to death's demands<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>When human life its course has run.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span class='i1'>We view the ruins of the past,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>We stand surrounded by decay,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Our transient hours are speeding fast<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>And, e'er we think, have passed away.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span class='i1'>Weep not, nor mourn with idle tear<br /></span>
<span>That hour, inevitable and sure;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>We move, our sojourn finished here,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>To nobler realms which shall endure.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='In_Mortem_Meditare'></a><h2><b>In Mortem Meditare.</b></h2>
<div class="subhead">DYING THOUGHTS.</div>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>As Life's receding sunset fades<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>And night descends,<br /></span>
<span>I calmly watch the gathering shades,<br /></span>
<span>As darkness stealthily invades<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>And daylight ends.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Earth's span is drawing to its close,<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>With every breath;<br /></span>
<span>My pain-racked brain no respite knows,<br /></span>
<span>Yet shrinks it, from the grim repose<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>It feels in death.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The curtain falls on Life's last scene,<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>The end is neared;<br /></span>
<span>At last I face death's somber screen,<br /></span>
<span>The fleeting joys which intervene<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>Have disappeared.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>And as a panoramic scroll<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>The past unreels;<br /></span>
<span>The mocking past, beyond control,<br /></span>
<span>Though buried, as a parchment roll,<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>Its tale reveals.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>I stand before the dread, unknown,<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>Yet solemn fact;<br /></span>
<span>I see the seeds of folly sown<br /></span>
<span>In wayward years, maturely grown,<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>Nor can retract.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>My weaknesses rise to my sight;<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>And now, too late,<br /></span>
<span>I fain would former actions right,<br /></span>
<span>Which years have buried in their flight;<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>Now sealed by fate.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>My frailties and iniquities<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>I plainly see;<br /></span>
<span>Committed acts accusive rise,<br /></span>
<span>Omitted duties criticise<br /></span>
<span>In mockery.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>I feel I have offended oft,<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>E'en at my best<br /></span>
<span>Have failed to guide my course aloft;<br /></span>
<span>Perhaps in trival hour, have scoffed<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>With idle jest.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Prone to misgiving, prone to doubt,<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>And frail from birth;<br /></span>
<span>More light and frivolous than devout;<br /></span>
<span>With life's brief candle flickering out,<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>I speed from earth.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Can grief excuse indifference<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>With groan or tear?<br /></span>
<span>Can deep remorse and penitence,<br /></span>
<span>Or anguish mitigate offense<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>With pang sincere?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Ah! Tears can ne'er unlock the past<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>Which opens not;<br /></span>
<span>And what is done is welded fast,<br /></span>
<span>Through all eternity to last,<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>Nor change one jot.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Whate'er may lie beyond the veil<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>I calmly face,<br /></span>
<span>And sink, as grievous tears bewail<br /></span>
<span>My faults and imperfections frail,<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>In death's embrace.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>And as I think the matter o'er,<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>Pensive and sad,<br /></span>
<span>While its shortcomings I deplore,<br /></span>
<span>The fruits which my existence bore<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>Were not all bad.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>From all which can rejoice or grieve<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>I shortly go,<br /></span>
<span>And now, in life's declining eve<br /></span>
<span>I wonder, hope, try to believe—<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>Soon I shall know!<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>My spirit flees, as night enwraps,<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>To its reward;<br /></span>
<span>The earth recedes, I feel it lapse;<br /></span>
<span>I sink as dissolution snaps<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>The silver cord.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>O, Thou whose presence I can feel<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>Each hour I live,<br /></span>
<span>While passing through death's stern ordeal,<br /></span>
<span>Wilt Thou Thy mercy still reveal,<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>And still forgive?<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Deprive_This_Strange_and_Complex_World'></a><h2><b>Deprive This Strange and Complex World.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>Deprive this strange and complex world<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of all the charms of art;<br /></span>
<span>Deprive it of those sweeter joys<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Which music doth impart;<br /></span>
<span>But oh, preserve that smile, which tells<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The secret of the heart!<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The world may lose its massive piles<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Which point their spires above;<br /></span>
<span>May spare the tuneful nightingale<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And gently cooing dove;<br /></span>
<span>But woe betide it, if it lose<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The sentiment of love!<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='The_Legend_of_St_Regimund'></a><h2><b>The Legend of St. Regimund.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>St. Regimund, e'er he became a saint,<br /></span>
<span>Was much imbued with vulgar earthly taint;<br /></span>
<span>E'er he renounced the honors of a Knight<br /></span>
<span>And doffed his coat of mail and helmet bright,<br /></span>
<span>For sober cassock and monastic hood,<br /></span>
<span>Leaving the castle for the cloister rude,<br /></span>
<span>And changed the banquet's sumptuous repast<br /></span>
<span>For frugal crusts and the ascetic fast;<br /></span>
<span>Forsook his charger and equipments for<br /></span>
<span>The crucifix and sacerdotal war;<br /></span>
<span>While yet with valiant sword and blazoned shield<br /></span>
<span>He braved the dangers of the martial field,<br /></span>
<span>Or sought the antlered trophies of the chase<br /></span>
<span>In forest and sequestered hunting place;<br /></span>
<span>Or, tiring of the hunt's exciting sport,<br /></span>
<span>Enjoyed the idle pleasures of the court,<br /></span>
<span>Whiling away the time with games of chance,<br /></span>
<span>With music and the more voluptuous dance,<br /></span>
<span>The hollow paths of vanity pursued,<br /></span>
<span>Laughed, jested, swore, drank, danced, and even wooed;<br /></span>
<span>No tongue more prone to questionable wit,<br /></span>
<span>Nor chaste, when time and place demanded it;<br /></span>
<span>His basso voice, both voluble and strong,<br /></span>
<span>Excelled in wassail mirth and ribald song;<br /></span>
<span>He swore with oaths most impious and unblest;<br /></span>
<span>Ate much, drank more, on these lines did his best;<br /></span>
<span>Caroused by day, caroused by candle light,<br /></span>
<span>In fact behaved like any other knight.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>This medieval knight (the legend saith)<br /></span>
<span>For months would scarcely draw a sober breath;<br /></span>
<span>But as his appetite grew more and more<br /></span>
<span>Drank each day worse than on the day before;<br /></span>
<span>Was drunk all night, all day continued so,<br /></span>
<span>Indulged in every vice he chanced to know.<br /></span>
<span>But long debauch and riotous excess<br /></span>
<span>Reduce their strongest votaries to distress;<br /></span>
<span>When nature can the strain no longer stand<br /></span>
<span>She chastens with a sure and irate hand,<br /></span>
<span>So when the day of reckoning had come,<br /></span>
<span>She smote with fever and delirium<br /></span>
<span>This valiant knight whom we have tried to paint;<br /></span>
<span>A very slim foundation for a saint!<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The crisis reached, his fever stricken brain<br /></span>
<span>Surrendered reason to excessive pain;<br /></span>
<span>Nor moment's respite, comatose and kind,<br /></span>
<span>Relieved the raging furnace of his mind;<br /></span>
<span>And gruesome spectres, awful and unreal,<br /></span>
<span>Through his disordered vagaries would steal;<br /></span>
<span>When last his scorching temples sought repose<br /></span>
<span>In hasty nap or intermittent doze,<br /></span>
<span>His eyes beheld, though starting from his head,<br /></span>
<span>A grizzly figure leaning o'er his bed,<br /></span>
<span>With aspect foul beyond descriptive word,<br /></span>
<span>As one for months in sepulchre interred,<br /></span>
<span>Restored again to animated breath,<br /></span>
<span>A weird composite type of life and death;<br /></span>
<span>With countenance most hideous and vile,<br /></span>
<span>Leering with ghastly and unearthly smile;<br /></span>
<span>Pointing its shriveled finger, as in scorn,<br /></span>
<span>Of mockery and accusation born.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>As he beheld in terror and surprise<br /></span>
<span>This gruesome shape which mocked before his eyes<br /></span>
<span>He could distinguish in its haughty mien<br /></span>
<span>A bearing, something as his own had been;<br /></span>
<span>Nor had its withered visage quite the look<br /></span>
<span>Of vampire, ghoul or evanescent spook;<br /></span>
<span>And as the apparition o'er him bent,<br /></span>
<span>He saw that every seam or lineament,<br /></span>
<span>Contour of feature, prominence of bone,<br /></span>
<span>Bore all a striking semblance to his own.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The horror stricken knight essayed to speak,<br /></span>
<span>But words responded tremulous and weak,<br /></span>
<span>And mustering his dissipated strength,<br /></span>
<span>A sitting posture he assumed at length,—<br /></span>
<span>"Whate'er thou art, thou harbinger of gloom,<br /></span>
<span>Thou fiend or ghoul, fresh from the new made tomb,<br /></span>
<span>Thou vampire, diabolical and fell,<br /></span>
<span>Thou stygian shade or denizen of hell,<br /></span>
<span>I charge thee, thing of evil, to confess<br /></span>
<span>Why thou hast thus disturbed my sore distress.<br /></span>
<span>Why hast thou burst my chamber's bolted door<br /></span>
<span>Where guest unbidden never trod before?<br /></span>
<span>Break this suspense, so horrible and still!<br /></span>
<span>Declare thy tidings, be they good or ill,<br /></span>
<span>Be thou from Heaven or from the realms below.<br /></span>
<span>I charge thee speak, be thou a friend or foe;<br /></span>
<span>Break thou thy silence, ominous and deep,<br /></span>
<span>Or hence! Pursue thy way and let me sleep!"<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The grizzly spectre, still more ghastly grown,<br /></span>
<span>Surveyed with visage obdurate as stone,<br /></span>
<span>Then smiled with grimace of derisive craft,<br /></span>
<span>And in a most repugnant manner, laughed,<br /></span>
<span>But all the knight discerned with eye and ear,<br /></span>
<span>Was his own maudlin laugh and drunken leer.<br /></span>
<span>"Breathe thou thy message," shrieked the frantic knight<br /></span>
<span>"Discharge thy purpose, though it blast and blight,<br /></span>
<span>I charge thee, speak, by all that is most fair.<br /></span>
<span>By all most foul, I charge thee to declare;<br /></span>
<span>By my bright armor and my trusty sword;<br /></span>
<span>I charge thee, speak, by Holy Rood and Word!"<br /></span>
<span>He sank exhausted, in such pallid fright<br /></span>
<span>The snowy sheets looked dark beside such white.<br /></span>
<span>The spectre paused in silence for awhile,<br /></span>
<span>Then broke into a most repulsive smile,<br /></span>
<span>And answered in a weird and hollow tone,<br /></span>
<span>Enough to freeze the marrow in the bone:<br /></span>
<span>"I am thy blasted spirit's counterpart,<br /></span>
<span>A body fit for thy most evil heart,<br /></span>
<span>I am thy life, its psychic image sent<br /></span>
<span>To bear thee company, till thou repent."<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>'Tis said, for forty days the spectre stayed.<br /></span>
<span>For forty days the knight incessant prayed;<br /></span>
<span>With scourge, with vigil and ascetic rite,<br /></span>
<span>With fast, with groan remorseful and contrite,<br /></span>
<span>He cleansed his blackened spirit by degrees,<br /></span>
<span>And purified it from its vanities;<br /></span>
<span>And as he prayed, the spectre's gruesome scowl<br /></span>
<span>Grew day by day less hideous and foul,<br /></span>
<span>As he waxed holy, it became more bright;<br /></span>
<span>And after forty days, arrayed in white<br /></span>
<span>It spread its spotless arms, devoid of taint<br /></span>
<span>Above this erstwhile knight and henceforth saint<br /></span>
<span>In benediction, as he knelt in prayer,—<br /></span>
<span>Then vanished instantly to empty air.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Such is the tale, embellished by the Muse,<br /></span>
<span>'Tis true or false, believe it as you choose;<br /></span>
<span>Some folks accept the story out and out,<br /></span>
<span>While some prefer to entertain a doubt.<br /></span>
<span>But if it be fictitious and unreal,<br /></span>
<span>'Tis not subscribed and sworn, and bears no seal;<br /></span>
<span>It points a moral, as the legend old,<br /></span>
<span>If it conveys it, 'twas not vainly told,<br /></span>
<span>For should I such an apparition see—<br /></span>
<span>I think t'would almost make a monk of me.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='As_The_Indian'></a><h2><b>As The Indian.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span class='i6'><i>Lo, the poor Indian, whose untutored mind</i></span>
<span class='i6'><i>Sees God in the clouds and hears Him in the wind.</i></span>
<span class='i25'><i>—Pope.</i></span>
</div></div>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>Within the wind, my untaught ear<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The voice of Deity can hear,<br /></span>
<span>And in the fleeting cloud discern<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>His movements, vast and taciturn;<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>For in the universe I trace<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>The wondrous grandeur of His face.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>I see him in each blade of grass,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Each towering peak and mountain pass;<br /></span>
<span>Each forest, river, lake and fen<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Reveals the God of worlds and men;<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>His works of wisdom prove to me,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>A wise, creative Deity.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='The_Fragrant_Perfume_of_the_Flowers'></a><h2><b>The Fragrant Perfume of the Flowers.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>The fragrant perfume of the flowers,<br /></span>
<span>Exuding in the summer hours,<br /></span>
<span>E'en as the altar's incense rare<br /></span>
<span>Disseminated through the air,<br /></span>
<span>May never reach the azure skies,<br /></span>
<span>Yet can the earth aromatize.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>And so the voice of secret prayer,<br /></span>
<span>Ascending on the wings of air,<br /></span>
<span>Though it should reach no listening ear,<br /></span>
<span>Of Deity inclined to hear,<br /></span>
<span>Still soothes the anguish of the mind,<br /></span>
<span>And leaves a tranquil peace behind.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='An_Answer'></a><h2><b>An Answer.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>When passing years have streaked with frost<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>These tresses now as jet,<br /></span>
<span>When life's meridian is crossed<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And beauty's sun has set,<br /></span>
<span>When youth's last fleeting charm is lost,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Wilt thou be constant yet,<br /></span>
<span>Nor time thy sentiment exhaust<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And cause thee to forget?<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>If so—<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>My answer, I confess,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Shall be a calm, decided "Yes";<br /></span>
<span class='i3'>But otherwise a "No"!<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Fame'></a><h2><b>Fame.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>There is a cliff, no matter where,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Which softened by the agencies<br /></span>
<span>Of rain, exposure to the air,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And alternating thaw and freeze,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Most readily admits the edge<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Of chisel, or the sharpened wedge.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The travelers, while passing by,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Within its shade find welcome rest;<br /></span>
<span>And one of them mechanically,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>As is a custom in the west,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Upon its surface stern and gray<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Carved out his name, and went his way.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Though inartistic and uncouth,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>That effort of a novice hand<br /></span>
<span>Exemplifies a striking truth,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And may Time's ravages withstand,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>To be by future ages read,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>When years and centuries have fled.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>So on life's mighty thoroughfare,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The multitude of every class<br /></span>
<span>Leave no inscriptions chiseled, where<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Their transient footsteps chanced to pass,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>And waft to each succeeding age<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>No echoes from their pilgrimage.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Though many pass, yet few record<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Their names in characters sublime,<br /></span>
<span>By grand achievement, work or word<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Upon the monolith of Time;<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>But few inscribe a lasting name<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>On the eternal cliffs of Fame.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='The_First_Storm'></a><h2><b>The First Storm.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>The leafless branch and meadow sere,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>The dull and leaden skies,<br /></span>
<span>Join with the mournful wind and drear<br /></span>
<span>In dirges for the passing year,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Which unreturning flies.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The night in starless gloom descends,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Nor can the pale moonshine<br /></span>
<span>Break through the clouds whose veil extends<br /></span>
<span>In boundless form, and darkly blends<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>With the horizon's line.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Fond nature, in a playful mood,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>In cover of the night,<br /></span>
<span>Arrays the plain and forest rude,<br /></span>
<span>The city and the solitude,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>In robe of spotless white.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Thoughts'></a><h2><b>Thoughts.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>I dug a grave, one smiling April day,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>A grave whose small proportions testified<br /></span>
<span>To empty arms, and playthings put away,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>To ears which heard, when only fancy cried;<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>I wondered, as I shaped that little mound,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>If in my home such grief should e'er be found.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>I dug a grave, 'twas in the month of June;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>A grave for one who at his zenith died;<br /></span>
<span>When, on that mound with floral tributes strewn,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The tear-drops fell of one but late his bride,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>I wondered if upon my silent bier<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Should rest the moist impression of a tear.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>I dug a grave by Autumn's sober light,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>A grave of full dimensions; 'twas for one<br /></span>
<span>Whose hair had changed its raven hue to white,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Whose course had finished with the setting sun;<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>I wondered, as I toiled with pick and spade,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Where, and by whom, would my last home be made.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='From_A_Saxon_Legend'></a><h2><b>From A Saxon Legend.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>Within a vale in distant Saxony,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>In time uncertain, though 'twas long ago.<br /></span>
<span>There dwelt a woman, most unhappily,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>From borrowed trouble, and imagined woe.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Hers was a husband generous, and kind,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Her children, three, were not of uncouth mold;<br /></span>
<span>Hers was a thatch which mocked at rain and wind;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Within her secret purse were coins of gold.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The drouth had ne'er descended on her field,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Nor had distemper sore distressed her kine;<br /></span>
<span>The vine had given its accustomed yield,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>So that her casks were filled with ruddy wine.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Her sheep and goats waxed fat, and ample fleece<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Rewarded every harvest of the shear;<br /></span>
<span>Her lambs all bleated in sequestered peace,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Nor prowling wolf occasioned nightly fear.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>With all she fretted, pined, and brooded sore,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Harbored each slight vexation, courted grief,<br /></span>
<span>Shut out the smiling sunshine from her door,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And magnified each care to bas relief.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Still waxed her grievous burden more and more,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Till, with a resolution, rash and blind,<br /></span>
<span>At dead of night she fled her humble door,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>As if to leave her grievous load behind.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>She journeyed as the night wore slowly on,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Unmindful of the tuneful nightingale,<br /></span>
<span>Till in due time her footsteps fell upon<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>A hill, the demarcation of the vale.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>As Lot's wife, in her flight, could not refrain<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>From viewing foul Gomorrah's funeral pyre,<br /></span>
<span>From one last glance across that ancient plain,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>At guilty Sodom wreathed in vengeful fire;<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>So when this woman reached the summit's crest,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>She turned her eyes in one last farewell look,<br /></span>
<span>The fruitful vale lay stretched in placid rest,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And all was silent save the breeze and brook.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The moon in partial fullness, mild, serene,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Flooding the landscape with her mellow light,<br /></span>
<span>Illumined every old familiar scene,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Brought their associations to her sight.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>When, lo! as if by touch of magic wand,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>On every roof, of tile, of thatch or wood,<br /></span>
<span>As instantly as magic doth respond,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>A cross, of various size and form there stood.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>O'er homes unknown to frown or grievous word,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>O'er homes where laughter hid the silent wail,<br /></span>
<span>O'er homes where discontent was never heard,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Huge crosses glistened in the moonlight pale.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>A cross o'er every habitation rose,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>O'er ducal palace, and the cottage small<br /></span>
<span>Where slept the husbandman in deep repose;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And, lo, her cross was smallest of them all!<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Christmas_Chimes'></a><h2><b>Christmas Chimes.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span class='i1'>Once more the merry Christmas bells,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Are ringing far and wide;<br /></span>
<span>Their chime in rhythmic chorus swells,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>While every brazen throat foretells,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>A joyous Christmastide.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span class='i1'>What is the burden of your chime,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>Ye bells of Christmastide?<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>What tidings in your clangorous rhyme,<br /></span>
<span>What message would your tongues sublime<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>To human hearts confide?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span class='i1'>Our chime is of salvation's plan,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>And every Christmastide<br /></span>
<span>Since Christmas bells to chime, began<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>We've caroled Heaven's gift to man,<br /></span>
<span class='i2'>A Saviour crucified.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='The_Unknowable'></a><h2><b>The Unknowable.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>O! Sun, resplendent in the smiling morn,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>As thou dost view the wastes of earth and sky,<br /></span>
<span>Canst thou behold the realms of the Unborn,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Canst thou behold the realms of those who die?<br /></span>
<span>Where dwells the spirit e'er its mortal birth,<br /></span>
<span class='i4'>E'er yet it suffereth<br /></span>
<span>The pain and sorrow incident to earth?<br /></span>
<span class='i4'>Where after death?<br /></span>
<span>The Sun gave answer, with refulgent glow:<br /></span>
<span>Child of a fleeting hour, thou too must die to know.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Canst tell, thou jeweled canopy of space,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Bewildering, and boundless to the eyes,<br /></span>
<span>Knowest thou the unborn spirits' dwelling place?<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Knowest thou the distant regions of the skies<br /></span>
<span>Where rest the spirits freed from mundane strife,<br /></span>
<span class='i4'>From mortal grief and care?<br /></span>
<span>Knowest thou the secret of the future life?<br /></span>
<span class='i4'>Canst thou tell where?<br /></span>
<span>From Space infinite echoed the reply:<br /></span>
<span>Child of a transient day, thou too, to know, must die.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Ye Winds who blow and cleave the formless skies,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Ye Winds who blow with desolating breath,<br /></span>
<span>Can ye reveal pre-natal mysteries,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And can ye solve the mystery of death?<br /></span>
<span>Within thy ambient and viewless folds<br /></span>
<span class='i4'>Imprisoned in the air,<br /></span>
<span>May not the spirits wait their earthly moulds?<br /></span>
<span class='i4'>Then tell ye where.<br /></span>
<span>The answer came invisible and low:<br /></span>
<span>Frail child of earthly clay, thou too must die to know.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>What are your tidings, O ye raging Seas?<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Do your waves wash the islands of the blest,<br /></span>
<span>Or view the Gardens of Hesperides?<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Know you the unborn spirits' place of rest?<br /></span>
<span>And do your waters lave that unknown shore?<br /></span>
<span class='i4'>And when the night is gone,<br /></span>
<span>Shall the freed spirit, tired and faint no more,<br /></span>
<span class='i4'>Behold the dawn?<br /></span>
<span>The sad sea murmured, as its waves rolled high:<br /></span>
<span>As all those gone before, thou, too, to know, must die.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='The_Suicide'></a><h2><b>The Suicide.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>What anguish rankled 'neath that silent breast?<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>What spectral figures mocked those staring eyes,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Luring them on to Stygian mysteries?<br /></span>
<span>What overpowering sense of grief distressed?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>What desperation nerved that rigid hand<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>To pull the trigger with such deadly aim?<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>What deep remorse, or terror, overcame<br /></span>
<span>The dread inherent, of death's shadowy strand?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Perhaps the hand of unrelenting fate<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Fell with such tragic pressure, that the mind<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>In frenzy, uncontrollable and blind,<br /></span>
<span>Sought but the darkness, black and desolate.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Perhaps 'twas some misfortune's stunning blight,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Perhaps unmerited, though deep disgrace,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Or vision of a wronged accusing face<br /></span>
<span>Pictured indelibly before the sight.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Perhaps the gnawing of some secret sin,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Some aberration fraught with morbid gloom,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>A buried hope which ever burst its tomb,<br /></span>
<span>Despondency, disaster, or chagrin.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>That heart which throbbed in pain and discontent<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Is silent as the grave for which it yearned;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>That brain, which once with proud ambition burned,<br /></span>
<span>Now oozes through the bullet's ghastly rent.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Those eyes, transfixed with such a gruesome stare,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Once beamed with laughter, innocent and bright;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The morning gave no presage of the night;<br /></span>
<span>A smile may be the prelude of despair.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Whate'er his secret, it remains untold,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>For why to human anguish add one groan?<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Is grief the deeper grief because unknown?<br /></span>
<span>So let the grave his form and burden hold.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Ye who have felt no crushing weight of care,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>From blame profuse, in charity refrain;<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Some depths of sorrow overwhelm the brain,<br /></span>
<span>Some loads too great for human strength to bear.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='I_Think_When_I_Stand_In_The_Presence_of_Death'></a><h2><b>I Think When I Stand in the Presence of Death.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>I think when I stand in the presence of Death,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>How futile is earthy endeavor,<br /></span>
<span>If it be, with the flight of the last labored breath,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The tongue has been silenced forever.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>For no message is flashed from the lustreless eyes,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>When clos-ed so languid and weary,<br /></span>
<span>And no voice from the darkness re-echoes our cries,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>In response to the agonized query!<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>We gaze at the solemn mysterious shroud<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>With a vague and insatiate yearning,<br /></span>
<span>And perceive but the sombre exterior cloud,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>With our vision of no discerning.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Not a whispering sound, not a glimmer of light,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>From that shadowy strand uncertain;<br /></span>
<span>But He who ordained the day and night,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Framed also Death's silent curtain.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Hope'></a><h2><b>Hope.</b></h2>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>Hope is the shadowy essence of a wish,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>A fond desire which floats before our eyes;<br /></span>
<span>With lurid aberration, feverish,—<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>We clutch the shadow which elusive, flies;<br /></span>
<span>Though at our grasp the mocking fancy flees,<br /></span>
<span>Hope still pursues and soothes realities.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Hope, as a mirage on the desert waste,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Lures the lost traveler, by a vision fair<br /></span>
<span>Of gushing fountains which he may not taste,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of streamlets cool depicted on the air;<br /></span>
<span>With tongue outstretched and parched he onward speeds,<br /></span>
<span>But as he moves the phantom scene recedes.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>In the foul dungeon or the narrow cell,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>The prisoner doth pace his lonely beat,<br /></span>
<span>And as he treads, his shackles clank a knell<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Responsive to each movement of his feet;<br /></span>
<span>Yet through his grated window, he discerns<br /></span>
<span>The star of hope which ever brightly burns.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>A noble ship her ponderous anchor weighs,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Glides from the harbor and is lost to sight;<br /></span>
<span>A young wife waves farewell. As many days<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>In passing turn her golden tresses white,<br /></span>
<span>She scans the horizon through a mist of tears,<br /></span>
<span>Hopes for that vanished sail which ne'er appears.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>A galley slave in age and clime remote,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Chained to his seat, unwilling plies the oar;<br /></span>
<span>Before his eyes fond dreams of freedom float,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>He hopes amid the battle's crash and roar;<br /></span>
<span>And as the waves the imprisoned wretches drown,<br /></span>
<span>Hopes, as his fetters draw him swiftly down.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>A mighty host in force of arms we see,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>With march invasive, cross a boundary line;<br /></span>
<span>At its approach no freemen turn and flee,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Each with his life defends his family shrine;<br /></span>
<span>As burning homes illuminate the sky<br /></span>
<span>With ghastly light, they hope and fight and die.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Beside the bed where rests the pallid form,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Of loved one stricken with the fever's breath,<br /></span>
<span>E'en when the loving hands, no longer warm,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Portend the sure and swift approach of Death,<br /></span>
<span>Hope holds the spirit in its house of clay,<br /></span>
<span>And with that spirit only, soars away.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The guilty wretch, for murder doomed to die,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Hoped, in his dungeon as the death watch paced,<br /></span>
<span>Hoped, as the death cap veiled his evil eye,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Hoped, as the noose around his neck was placed,<br /></span>
<span>Hoped, as the chaplain read his final prayer,<br /></span>
<span>Hoped, as he struggled in the viewless air.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>In the glad sunshine of life's vernal spring,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Hope buoys the spirit with expectancy;<br /></span>
<span>Hope with her dulcet voice and fluttering wing,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>Sings of life's goal with siren harmony;<br /></span>
<span>When silvered temples tell that life declines,<br /></span>
<span>That goal, though yet unreached, still brightly shines.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Yes! As through failure and vicissitude,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>We sail along with many an adverse wind,<br /></span>
<span>Hope plants her beacon in the tempest rude,<br /></span>
<span class='i1'>And leads with generous radiance unconfined;<br /></span>
<span>And when the yawning grave receives its prey,<br /></span>
<span>Hope speeds the spirit on its astral way.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<a name='Metabole'></a><h2><b>Metabole.</b> </h2>
<div class="subhead">AN APOSTROPHE TO THE MOON.</div>
<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
<span>O, silvery moon, fair mistress of the night,<br /></span>
<span>Thou mellow, ever vaccilating orb,<br /></span>
<span>How many eons of unmeasured time<br /></span>
<span>Hast thou, observant from thy astral poise,<br /></span>
<span>Thy ever-changing station in the skies,<br /></span>
<span>Beheld the wastes of earth, of air and space—<br /></span>
<span>Ruling the waters, and the sombre night?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Pale queen of night, fair coquette of the skies,<br /></span>
<span>Thou, who with fickle, sweet inconstancy<br /></span>
<span>Receives the smile from the admiring sun,<br /></span>
<span>And straight transmits it to the sordid earth,—<br /></span>
<span>How many cycles of the silent past<br /></span>
<span>Hast thou beheld the rise and fall of man,<br /></span>
<span>His proud ascendency and swift decline;<br /></span>
<span>His zenith and his pitiful decay;<br /></span>
<span>E'er he emerged from out the dismal cave,<br /></span>
<span>His habitation rude and primitive;<br /></span>
<span>E'er yet the forest trembled at his stroke,<br /></span>
<span>E'er his indenting chisel cleaved the stones<br /></span>
<span>And framed the first crude human domicile?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>As time rolled on and human skill advanced<br /></span>
<span>By almost imperceptible degrees<br /></span>
<span>Of slow, experimental tutorage,<br /></span>
<span>Along a nobler, more artistic plane,<br /></span>
<span>He hewed the stones in form of ornament,<br /></span>
<span>Sculptured device of various design,<br /></span>
<span>Embellishment of cunning symmetry,<br /></span>
<span>Man's first attempt to scale the realms of art.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Thou hast beheld him on his suppliant kneel,<br /></span>
<span>Engaged in worship, audible or mute,<br /></span>
<span>Invoking thy protection and thy aid,<br /></span>
<span>Thy gracious favor and beatitude;<br /></span>
<span>With arms outstretched in reverential awe,<br /></span>
<span>Propitiating thee, with fervent prayer<br /></span>
<span>For the remission of thy baleful stroke.<br /></span>
<span>Thou hast beheld his superstitious fear<br /></span>
<span>And heard his curses, and his solemn prayers<br /></span>
<span>As thy dark form eclipsed the smiling sun.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Thou hast beheld him fashion and adorn<br /></span>
<span>The gorgeous altar and the totem pole;<br /></span>
<span>With fervent zeal, and blind simplicity,<br /></span>
<span>From base materials of wood or stone,<br /></span>
<span>Carve out a God, then kneel and worship it.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Thou, too, hast heard the slave-whip's poignant crack,<br /></span>
<span>The sound of avarice and turpitude,<br /></span>
<span>As hands unwilling plied their arduous task,<br /></span>
<span>Creating monuments to iron will,<br /></span>
<span>Human injustice, greed and servitude.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Thou hast beheld him shape the pyramids,<br /></span>
<span>Heap up the mound and build the massive wall,<br /></span>
<span>Create the castle and the towering spire,<br /></span>
<span>The ponderous dome and stately edifice.<br /></span>
</div>
<hr style='width: 45%;' /><br />
<div class='stanza'>
<span>From thy observant orbit in the skies,<br /></span>
<span>Did'st thou behold that sacrilegious tower,<br /></span>
<span>Which reared its massive form on Babel's plain,<br /></span>
<span>Built by misguided and presumptuous men,<br /></span>
<span>In vain and ineffectual attempt<br /></span>
<span>To scale the heavens surreptitiously?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>E'er the completion of the impious pile,<br /></span>
<span>Thou mayest have heard, with silent nonchalance,<br /></span>
<span>That strange catastrophe of human speech,<br /></span>
<span>That dire confusion of the languages,<br /></span>
<span>Confounding all the tongues and dialects<br /></span>
<span>To unknown chaos of peculiar sounds.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Changing the conversation of the day<br /></span>
<span>To accents strange and unintelligible,<br /></span>
<span>Unlike to common and accepted terms;<br /></span>
<span>To tones mysterious and unnatural,<br /></span>
<span>Conglomerated forms of utterance<br /></span>
<span>Which bore no semblance to the human voice.<br /></span>
<span>Some rent the air with unaccustomed words<br /></span>
<span>Striving in desperation to converse,<br /></span>
<span>With ears which heard, but could not understand.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Some cursed, with oaths unknown to all but them,<br /></span>
<span>While some essayed to frame the words of prayer,<br /></span>
<span>Or to articulate the stern command,<br /></span>
<span>And one, in most supreme authority,<br /></span>
<span>Declaimed a ponderous regal ordinance,<br /></span>
<span>But heard a sea of unfamiliar sounds,<br /></span>
<span>Confused and desultory turbulence, and dissonance of harsh, discordant tones,<br /></span>
<span>Instead of due attention and applause;<br /></span>
<span>Nor were his words and usual forms of speech<br /></span>
<span>Respected by the idle, wondering craft,<br /></span>
<span>Which lately comprehended and obeyed.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Workmen addressed each other, but conveyed<br /></span>
<span>No sense of meaning in their jargonings;<br /></span>
<span>Nor had cognizance from the stammered tones,<br /></span>
<span>Answered in turn, in verbal nothingness;<br /></span>
<span>The crabbed cynic might no longer rail;<br /></span>
<span>Nor those of sober countenance discourse<br /></span>
<span>In melancholy and foreboding strains;<br /></span>
<span>Nor light and frivolous sons of levity<br /></span>
<span>On others perpetrate the humorous jest;<br /></span>
<span>Fathers attempted to correct their sons,<br /></span>
<span>Who, listening with filial reverence,<br /></span>
<span>Heard but unknown and strange garrulity.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Some shrank in terror, as their ears discerned<br /></span>
<span>Their own distorted efforts to converse;<br /></span>
<span>Some ran in aimless frenzy to and fro,<br /></span>
<span>Falling upon the earth with frantic cries;<br /></span>
<span>Some stood in gaping wonder, nor perceived<br /></span>
<span>The dire calamity, which bound them all<br /></span>
<span>In one unbroken chain of misery.<br /></span>
<span>Some beat their breasts in paroxysmal woe;<br /></span>
<span>Some wore the driveling look of idiocy;<br /></span>
<span>Some lost their reason and serenely smiled;<br /></span>
<span>Some stalked with features imperturbable,<br /></span>
<span>Finding no tear nor vent for their distress;<br /></span>
<span>Some groaned, some shrieked, some wept in their despair,<br /></span>
<span>Relaxing all attempts at vocal speech;<br /></span>
<span>Some recognized the face but not the voice<br /></span>
<span>Of some familiar friend, and grasped the hand,<br /></span>
<span>Spoke with the eyes, when words no longer served.<br /></span>
</div>
<hr style='width: 45%;' /><br />
<div class='stanza'>
<span>Did'st thou behold that temple which arose<br /></span>
<span>On Mount Moriah's slope, the proud result<br /></span>
<span>Of the endeavors of a noble race,<br /></span>
<span>Whose tireless energy and wondrous skill<br /></span>
<span>In architecture and the various arts<br /></span>
<span>Were famed throughout the world; whose nimble hands<br /></span>
<span>Carved out the pillar and the pedestal,<br /></span>
<span>The column, polished and cylindrical,<br /></span>
<span>The slab and ornamented architrave<br /></span>
<span>From Parian marble of unblemished hue;<br /></span>
<span>With stately cedars from the sloping sides<br /></span>
<span>Of proud but long denuded Lebanon,<br /></span>
<span>Erected that superb and marvelous pile<br /></span>
<span>Whose wondrous grandeur and imposing form,<br /></span>
<span>Correct proportions and true symmetry<br /></span>
<span>And perfect uniformity of shape,<br /></span>
<span>Beauty of contour and embellishment,<br /></span>
<span>Splendor of finish and magnificence,<br /></span>
<span>Excelled the proudest edifice of earth—<br /></span>
<span>A fitting tribute to the Deity?<br /></span>
</div>
<hr style='width: 45%;' /><br />
<div class='stanza'>
<span>Thou hast beheld the triumphs of his skill<br /></span>
<span>Touched by the desolating hand of time,<br /></span>
<span>Crumble, disintegrate and pass away—<br /></span>
<span>Resolved to pristine particles of dust.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>His strongest castle, bold and insolent,<br /></span>
<span>Of warlike aspect and defiant mien,<br /></span>
<span>With wall and rampart unassailable,<br /></span>
<span>Impregnable to the assaults of man—<br /></span>
<span>Surrender at the mold's insidious tread.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span class='i5'>Thou hast beheld<br /></span>
<span>His palace and his most exalted courts<br /></span>
<span>Bestrewn with fragments of the Peristyle;<br /></span>
<span>The broken column, slab and monolith<br /></span>
<span>O'erhung with pendant moss and slimy mold;<br /></span>
<span>Its dismal haunts and gloomy apertures<br /></span>
<span>Become the habitation of the bat,<br /></span>
<span>The hissing serpent and the scorpion,<br /></span>
<span>The basking lizard dull and indolent,<br /></span>
<span>And forms of reptile, foul and venomous.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The throne where ruled the king with iron sway<br /></span>
<span>Is vacant as the empty wastes of air,<br /></span>
<span>Is ruled by desolation and decay.<br /></span>
<span>No more the sceptered voice in stern command<br /></span>
<span>Rings through its halls, nor can the dazzling flash<br /></span>
<span>Of the tiara and the diadem,<br /></span>
<span>The ensign and insignia of power,<br /></span>
<span>The emblazoned crest and jeweled coat of arms,<br /></span>
<span>Or proud escutcheon of illustrious name<br /></span>
<span>Excite with envy or inspire with fear.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The boisterous carousal and the sound<br /></span>
<span>Of wassail mirth, inebriate and loud,<br /></span>
<span>And midnight revelry, is hushed and still.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span class='i5'>Time shifts the scenes—<br /></span>
<span>The haughty prince and the most abject slave,<br /></span>
<span>Who cowered and trembled 'neath his austere glance,<br /></span>
<span>The fawning and ignoble sycophant,<br /></span>
<span>The courtier and the basest serf, have met<br /></span>
<span>On equal terms beneath the silent dust.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>From thy celestial 'minions thou hast seen<br /></span>
<span>His proudest temples sink into decay,<br /></span>
<span>Grim desolation and desuetude;<br /></span>
<span>The silent hush succeed the plaintive hymn,<br /></span>
<span>The anthem cease to swell in rhythmic praise,<br /></span>
<span>Or vaulted dome re-echo with the sound<br /></span>
<span>Of pipe, of organ, harp and dulcimer;<br /></span>
<span>The voice of sacerdotal eloquence<br /></span>
<span>Become as silent as the unborn thought;<br /></span>
<span>The fragrant perfume of the frankincense,<br /></span>
<span>The scent of swinging censor and of myrrh,<br /></span>
<span>Supplanted by foul odors of decay;<br /></span>
<span>The sacred flame extinguished and forgot,<br /></span>
<span>Its votaries and congregations fled;<br /></span>
<span>The forms who ministered and forms who knelt,<br /></span>
<span>The burnished altar and the hoary priest,<br /></span>
<span>Commingling their atoms in the dust.<br /></span>
</div>
<hr style='width: 45%;' /><br />
<div class='stanza'>
<span>Thou, too, hast heard the clash of hostile arms,<br /></span>
<span>The blast of trumpet and the martial tread,<br /></span>
<span>The neigh of charger anxious for the fray,<br /></span>
<span>The din and the confusion of the fight,<br /></span>
<span>The noise and turmoil of contending hosts,<br /></span>
<span>The crunch of breaking bones and shrieks of pain;<br /></span>
<span>The angry challenge and defiant taunt,<br /></span>
<span>The cries of rage and curses of despair,<br /></span>
<span>The dying groan and gnash of clench-ed teeth,<br /></span>
<span>The plea for mercy, with uplifted arms,<br /></span>
<span>As through the bosom plunged the ruthless steel;<br /></span>
<span>The clank of shackles and the captives groan,<br /></span>
<span>As marched the vanquished forth to servitude,<br /></span>
<span>To ceaseless toil rewarded by the scourge;<br /></span>
<span>To stand within the slave marts and endure<br /></span>
<span>The taunts and bear the chains of slavery.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Did'st thou look down with neutral radiance<br /></span>
<span>On that incursion from the Scythian plain,<br /></span>
<span>A surging multitude beyond the power<br /></span>
<span>Of mental computation and which seemed<br /></span>
<span>A seething mass of spears and shapes of war,<br /></span>
<span>A sea of bellicose barbarity,<br /></span>
<span>O'erwhelming helpless and ill-fated Tyre<br /></span>
<span>With a resistless deluge of the sword?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Or when that vast and uncomputed horde<br /></span>
<span>Swept westward from the steppes of Tartary<br /></span>
<span>With stern Atilla riding at its head,<br /></span>
<span>Leaving in ruthless Mongol truculence,<br /></span>
<span>Awake, both red and blackened by the torch;<br /></span>
<span>The scourge<a name='FNanchor_F_6'></a><a href='#Footnote_F_6'><sup>[F]</sup></a>, perhaps of God, perhaps of Hell!<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Did'st thou not flinch when t'ward the Christian west<br /></span>
<span>The fell invasion of the Saracen<br /></span>
<span>Headed its course with crimson scimitar;<br /></span>
<span>Supplanting the mild precepts of the Cross<br /></span>
<span>With those of lust, of hate and bigotry?<br /></span>
</div>
<hr style='width: 45%;' /><br />
<div class='stanza'>
<span>Did'st thou not weep when proud Atlantis sunk<br /></span>
<span>Beneath the surging and engulfing waves,<br /></span>
<span>The aftermath of Earth's most tragic shock;<br /></span>
<span>Or when the ark, upon that greatest flood,<br /></span>
<span>Which from the black and pregnant heavens fell.<br /></span>
<span>For forty days and forty weary nights,<br /></span>
<span>Above the ruins of a deluged world,<br /></span>
<span>Floated in safety with its living freight?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Did'st Thou look down in idle apathy,<br /></span>
<span>When grim Vesuvius, from his dormant rest<br /></span>
<span>Awoke, in molten fury, and o'ercame<br /></span>
<span>With liquid flood and scoriaceous hail<br /></span>
<span>The sleeping cities which beneath him lay;<br /></span>
<span>Interring with such fiery burial<br /></span>
<span>That neither remnant nor inhabitant<br /></span>
<span>Escaped from that both grave and funeral pyre;<br /></span>
<span>Nor vestige of their proud magnificence<br /></span>
<span>Rose from the scene with charred and blackened form;<br /></span>
<span>And rolling centuries, in passing, left<br /></span>
<span>But dim remembrance in the minds of men?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Did'st thou, in age more ancient and remote,<br /></span>
<span>Gaze from thy poise with cold complacency<br /></span>
<span>Upon the guilty cities<a name='FNanchor_G_7'></a><a href='#Footnote_G_7'><sup>[G]</sup></a> of the plain,<br /></span>
<span>Surcharged with lust and the extremes of sin,<br /></span>
<span>Which Holy Writ avers, when 'neath the shower<br /></span>
<span>Of well deserved combustion from the skies,<br /></span>
<span>They sunk in conflagration with their vice;<br /></span>
<span>And perishing, to ages yet to come<br /></span>
<span>Bequeathed a foul and blasted heritage,<br /></span>
<span>An infamous and execrated name?<br /></span>
</div>
<hr style='width: 45%;' /><br />
<div class='stanza'>
<span>Art thou to human anguish so inured<br /></span>
<span>That thou hast neither sentiment of grief<br /></span>
<span>Nor sense of pity for terrestrial ills?<br /></span>
<span>Can agonizing and heart-rending scenes<br /></span>
<span>Relax thy obdurate and placid face<br /></span>
<span>To semblance of emotion? Can man's woes<br /></span>
<span>Excite thy tranquil immobility<br /></span>
<span>To the pathetic look of tenderness,<br /></span>
<span>Or touch thy bosom's calm indifference<br /></span>
<span>With profuse throbs of sympathetic ruth?<br /></span>
<span>Can'st thou unmoved behold the widow's tears,<br /></span>
<span>Or those of orphaned childish innocence,<br /></span>
<span>Or those which wondering infant eyes have shed<br /></span>
<span>On unresponsive breasts, which nevermore<br /></span>
<span>Throb with maternal warmth and suckle them?<br /></span>
<span>Can'st thou with cold, unsympathizing light<br /></span>
<span>Illuminate the ruined maid's despair<br /></span>
<span>Without the echo of a lunar groan?<br /></span>
<span>Hast thou no pang of sorrow or regret<br /></span>
<span>For guilty man, nor tear for his distress,<br /></span>
<span>Or are the tides within thy moist control<br /></span>
<span>The copious weepings of thy mellow lids—<br /></span>
<span>Thy sea of teardrops shed for human woes?<br /></span>
</div>
<hr style='width: 45%;' /><br />
<div class='stanza'>
<span>Did'st thou behold, when that most favored star,<br /></span>
<span>Transcending in refulgence all the orbs<br /></span>
<span>Of boundless and bejewelled firmament,<br /></span>
<span>With flash of overwhelming brilliancy<br /></span>
<span>Plunged through the wondering heavens, whose pale spheres<br /></span>
<span>In contrast dimmed to insignificance,<br /></span>
<span>And gliding through the twinkling realms of space,<br /></span>
<span>Burst with such splendor as the envious stars<br /></span>
<span>Had never witnessed since the heavens stood;<br /></span>
<span>Halting in glory o'er Judea's plain?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Halted and burned in stellar reverence,<br /></span>
<span>Above a fold where wrapped in swaddling clothes<br /></span>
<span>A new-born infant in a manger lay;<br /></span>
<span>In humble contrast to the throne of light,<br /></span>
<span>He left to tread the thorny paths of earth;<br /></span>
<span>In undefiled and stainless innocence,<br /></span>
<span>Which earth with all her foul iniquities<br /></span>
<span>Might never tarnish nor pollute with sin.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Perhaps upon that sage triumvirate<br /></span>
<span>Which journeyed from the famed and affluent East,<br /></span>
<span>In regal pomp and rich munificence,<br /></span>
<span>To lay their costly presents at His feet<br /></span>
<span>And worship at that new-born infant's shrine,<br /></span>
<span>Thou shed'st thy mellow rays and lit the way<br /></span>
<span>O'er deserts to the hills of Bethlehem;<br /></span>
<span>Dividing honors with that prince of stars.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Wert thou a witness on that selfsame night<br /></span>
<span>When humble shepherds on Judea's hills,<br /></span>
<span>Watching their flocks with all attentive care,<br /></span>
<span>Beheld unwonted grandeur in the skies?<br /></span>
<span>The ordinary stars were glittering<br /></span>
<span>In unaccustomed glory, and the orbs<br /></span>
<span>Which twinkle in that pale celestial train<br /></span>
<span>Which cleaves in twain the ambient universe,<br /></span>
<span>Had changed their milky hue to that of gold;<br /></span>
<span>But all the forms of stellar brilliancy<br /></span>
<span>Made way for that most bright and luminous<br /></span>
<span>Which glowed with holy radiance, which might<br /></span>
<span>Not emanate from aught but sacred star;<br /></span>
<span>Dispensing such serene magnificence<br /></span>
<span>That e'en the admiring heavens stood abashed.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span class='i6'>At such a sight,<br /></span>
<span>Though savoring more of blessing than of curse,<br /></span>
<span>Small marvel 'twas their unenlightened minds<br /></span>
<span>Were seized with sudden and peculiar fear,<br /></span>
<span>So that their trembling knees together smote.<br /></span>
<span>And as they stood<br /></span>
<span>In awestruck trepidation and alarm<br /></span>
<span>The heavens as the bifurcated door<br /></span>
<span>Of some familiar, hospitable tent,<br /></span>
<span>Parted their gorgeous curtains and disclosed<br /></span>
<span>A multitude of the celestial host,<br /></span>
<span>Numerous beyond all efforts to compute,<br /></span>
<span>Solemn of countenance, yet beautiful<br /></span>
<span>Beyond the comprehension of the eye,<br /></span>
<span>Surging in such immaculate array<br /></span>
<span>Of various raiment as the stainless white<br /></span>
<span>Of snows which countless centuries have placed<br /></span>
<span>On rugged Ararat's tremendous heights,<br /></span>
<span>Were blended in an essence!<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span class='i7'>Then for a moment's time<br /></span>
<span>The heavens were silent as those forms were fair;<br /></span>
<span>Then instantly throughout the realms of light<br /></span>
<span>Was heard a crash in sacred unison,<br /></span>
<span>As all the trumpets and the harps of heaven<br /></span>
<span>And all the varied instruments of earth<br /></span>
<span>Had burst in one grand, detonating chord;<br /></span>
<span>Now rose the quavering, vibratory tones<br /></span>
<span>Of flageolet and solitary reed;<br /></span>
<span>Now as a blending of all instruments<br /></span>
<span>In echoing harmonics, sweet and low,<br /></span>
<span>In soft reverberating resonance;<br /></span>
<span>The voice of cornet and sonorous horn<br /></span>
<span>Blent with the warbling accents of the flute<br /></span>
<span>And chime of mellow bells, unknown to earth;<br /></span>
<span>Pæan of dulcimer and harpsichord<br /></span>
<span>In combination of concordant tone,<br /></span>
<span>Melting the stars with dulcet symphony.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>But sweeter than those instruments of joy,<br /></span>
<span>Tuned by angelic fingers, rose the strains<br /></span>
<span>Of vocal concord and mellifluence,<br /></span>
<span>As swelled in chorus those seraphic throats<br /></span>
<span>In falling cadence and ecstatic flight,<br /></span>
<span>Surpassing heaven's grandest melody<br /></span>
<span>In all that appertains to choral song!<br /></span>
<span>The acme of celestial harmony<br /></span>
<span>Which angel ears discerned with glad surprise;<br /></span>
<span>But sweeter than that song, the glad refrain<br /></span>
<span>Wafted from angel tongues innumerable,<br /></span>
<span>To earth and the inhabitants thereof,<br /></span>
<span>"Peace! Peace on Earth, the Deity's Good Will!"<br /></span>
</div>
<hr style='width: 45%;' /><br />
<div class='stanza'>
<span>Didst thou not shrink, when on Golgotha's crest<br /></span>
<span>Three crosses as three grizzly spectres rose,<br /></span>
<span>Spreading their ghastly arms protestingly,<br /></span>
<span>In silent malediction o'er the scene,<br /></span>
<span>And even nature paused and stood aghast<br /></span>
<span>In shuddering horror at the awful sight,<br /></span>
<span>Relaxing with the trembling earthquake shock<br /></span>
<span>Her sympathetic tension?<br /></span>
<span>And when the lightning rent the canopy<br /></span>
<span>Of black sepulchral clouds, which like a shroud<br /></span>
<span>Enveloped earth on that terrific night,<br /></span>
<span>They lit a face compassionate and pure,<br /></span>
<span>E'en from beneath the cruel crown of thorns<br /></span>
<span>Glancing in pity, kindled not with wrath<br /></span>
<span>At his tormentors, those who loved him not—<br /></span>
<span>The multitude which surged about the cross<br /></span>
<span>Cursing with accents vile and crying loud,<br /></span>
<span>Crucify Him! Crucify Him!<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>"Rejected and despised of men—"<br /></span>
<span>Earth, which hath ever slain her noblest sons,<br /></span>
<span>Slays also her Redeemer!<br /></span>
</div>
<hr style='width: 45%;' /><br />
<div class='stanza'>
<span>Creation is but systematized decay,<br /></span>
<span>And <i>Change</i> is blazoned on the very skies,<br /></span>
<span>As in ephemeral telluric scenes,<br /></span>
<span>And through the whole cosmogony of worlds,<br /></span>
<span>Is written and rewritten!<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Thou who hast seen the stately mastodon<br /></span>
<span>Roam at his will o'er earth's prolific plains,<br /></span>
<span>And the unwieldy megatherium<br /></span>
<span>Dragging his cumbrous, disproportioned weight<br /></span>
<span>Through quaternary marsh and stagnant fen;<br /></span>
<span>Or watched the ichthyosaurus plow the seas,<br /></span>
<span>Churning the waters till the glistening foam<br /></span>
<span>Rode on the greenish undulating waves;<br /></span>
<span>And huge saurian and reptilian shapes<br /></span>
<span>Amphibious and pelagic, swim and crawl,<br /></span>
<span>Cleaving the waters with tremendous strokes,<br /></span>
<span>Writhing with foul contortions in disport,<br /></span>
<span>Splashing and laving in the thermal seas<br /></span>
<span>Of the remote and prehistoric past;<br /></span>
<span>Thou who hast seen them fail and pass away<br /></span>
<span>Shalt also shine when man has disappeared.<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>Thou who hast seen the rank luxuriance<br /></span>
<span>Of vegetation flourish and decay,<br /></span>
<span>Vanish and pass away insensibly,<br /></span>
<span>Perish from off the earth which nourished it,<br /></span>
<span>And time supplant its rich exuberance<br /></span>
<span>With arid wastes of bleak sterility;<br /></span>
<span>Wilt thou look down in silent unconcern<br /></span>
<span>When countless eons of denuding time<br /></span>
<span>Have rendered earth as barren as thyself,<br /></span>
<span>Bereft of verdure's last habiliment;<br /></span>
<span>When men, with all their passions and desires,<br /></span>
<span>Their strange combines of evil and of good,<br /></span>
<span>Their proud achievements and exalted aims<br /></span>
<span>Have passed away forever?<br /></span>
</div><div class='stanza'>
<span>The universe is but a sepulcher<br /></span>
<span>For worlds defunct, as earth for living forms!<br /></span>
<span>And thou, O Moon, who hast surveyed all this<br /></span>
<span>Thyself shalt be consumed with fervent heat,<br /></span>
<span>For e'en the firmament shall pass away.<br /></span>
</div>
<hr style='width: 45%;' /><br />
<div class='stanza'>
<span class='i7'>Supreme Intelligence,<br /></span>
<span>Thou who createst worlds and satellites,<br /></span>
<span>(And Who canst estimate the universe)<br /></span>
<span>Weighing the heavens in Thy balances,<br /></span>
<span>Who hast ordained the laws of cosmic space<br /></span>
<span>To guide aright the planetary spheres;<br /></span>
<span>Thou Ruler of the infinite and great,<br /></span>
<span>Alike of vast and infinitesimal;<br /></span>
<span>Thou fundamental cause of all that is,<br /></span>
<span>In process of creation and decay,<br /></span>
<span>In the mutation and the ravages<br /></span>
<span>Sequent of constant lapse and flight of time<br /></span>
<span>Reveal Thy laws that we may follow them:<br /></span>
<span>Help us to recognize in all Thy works,<br /></span>
<span>Whether of atom or stupendous mass,<br /></span>
<span>The hand of Deity.<br /></span>
</div></div>
<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
<a name='Footnote_F_6'></a><a href='#FNanchor_F_6'>[F]</a><div class='note'><p> Atilla was believed by the early Christians to have been a scourge
sent direct from God, and some historians aver that he himself
encouraged the belief.</p></div>
<a name='Footnote_G_7'></a><a href='#FNanchor_G_7'>[G]</a><div class='note'><p> Sodom and Gommorah.</p></div>
<br />
<hr style='width: 65%;' />
<h3>FINIS.</h3>
<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13809 ***</div>
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