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diff --git a/30481-0.txt b/30481-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe2e984 --- /dev/null +++ b/30481-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1429 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30481 *** + +IOLÄUS + + + + +_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ + +A SON OF CAIN: POEMS. Cr. 8vo. 3/6 net. + +IN THE WAKE OF THE PH[OE]NIX: POEMS. F'cap. 8vo. 3/6 net. + + + + +IOLÄUS: + +THE MAN THAT WAS A GHOST + +BY + +JAMES A. MACKERETH + + LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. + 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON + NEW YORK, BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA + +1913 + + + + + TO THE MEMORY OF + MY FRIEND + ARTHUR RANSOM + + + + + +HAIL AND FAREWELL + +To A.R. + + + We range the ringing slopes of life; but you + Scale the last summit, high in lonelier air, + Whose dizzy pinnacle each soul must dare + For valedictions born and ventures new. + From dust to spirit climb, O brave and true! + Strong in the wisdom that is more than prayer; + High o'er the mists of pain and of despair, + Mount to the vision, and the far adieu. + + Merged in the vastness, with a calm surmise + Mount, lonely climber, brightened from afar; + Whose soul is secret as the evening-star; + Whose steps are toward the ultimate surprise: + No dubious morrow dims those daring eyes-- + Divinely lit whence truth's horizons are. + + + + + +_The sonnets in this volume have previously appeared in the columns of +"The Academy," "The Eye-Witness," and "The Yorkshire Observer." My +thanks are due to the Editors of these publications for their kind +permission to republish._ + +J.A.M. + + _Stocka House, + Cottingley, + Bingley._ + + + + + +CONTENTS + + + Title Poem: Page + + Ioläus 13 + + Sonnets: + + The Return 67 + The Soul and the Sea 69 + Nations Estranged 71 + The Passing-Bell 73 + Condemned 75 + To America. I. 77 + " II. 79 + To Italy. I. 81 + " II. 83 + + + + + +IOLÄUS: + +THE MAN THAT WAS A GHOST + + + Gold light across the golden coomb; + The sun went west with horns of fire; + Athwart the sweet, sea-breathing room + The swallows swooped; the village spire + Glowed red against a gleam of broom; + While earth its scented secrets told, + There, silent, sunset-aureoled, + Sat Ioläus, mild and old. + + In distance large the moving ships + Sailed on into the evening skies. + He gazed, and saw not. In eclipse + He tensely sat, like one who grips + Some semblance that his dream descries, + With such a look of far surprise + That half-uncanny seemed the man, + So warped with age, so weirdly wan: + He had such ghostly eyes. + + Then half to self, and half to me, + Aloof in passion and lone despair, + He spoke like one whose secrets flee + From silence unaware: + Now plaintively from a grief gone blind, + Heavy with cumbering care, + Now, thrilling thought like a white sea-wind, + His words, the echoes of his mind, + Haunted the air: + + ... 'Tis gone like the roses of long ago: + Yet a dawn's impassioned thrill + Makes blush the blossom's virgin snow + Far on in a faery hill. + Two faces there in the glamour glow + In a place that is strangely still. + + On the rim of the world is a ruined tower + Sky-poised above wide sea-foam, + Where a beautiful spirit waits hour by hour, + Far-eyed 'gainst a dawn like a phantom flower, + Till a ghostly lover comes home.... + + To leeward spread the freshening deep + Purple beneath a rosy gleam. + From a high, mist-engirdled steep + Thin anthems to the orient beam + Came faint as languid waves of sleep + That lap the lonely strands of dream. + + We sank our anchor solemnly + Into that lustrous, splendid sea; + For we, that chased the summer's smile + Across the world a wondering while, + Hailed at the heart the Happy Isle, + The haunted shores of Faëry! + + Beyond a gently-heaving brine + We broke with oars a trembling bay. + The swerving water, like rare wine, + Slid iridescent from our way. + A lovely hand was laid on mine + Pensively as to say: + "Life is divine!" + + The drifting, witching wonder grew. + From out the burgeoning bounds of space + It seemed some morn unearthly drew + To that grave glamourous place, + Where, fearful of some far adieu, + I talked with one who never knew + The peril of her face. + + The joy that lives is mightier far + Than foretaste of all grief unborn. + The earth to youth is a silver star + That glitters on the edge of morn, + A star! a star! a dancing star. + + The fair, the mystic, happy morn! + Dawn glimmered on the gladdening sea; + Each zephyr blew an elfin horn + To echoes in felicity. + All sounds to silver rhythm ran: + Came flutings as from piping Pan + In purpled hills of Arcady! + + Seaward we heard the breakers roar; + And the belated nightingales + Sang all their moonlight raptures o'er, + Enchanted still in echoing vales. + We lingered by the brightening shore; + We leapt upon the roseate strand: + The joy that in our hearts we bore + We loved, nor longed to understand. + Soft siren voices evermore + Chanted to chimes in Faeryland. + + O, life was like a bird that sings + At morning on a vernal bough! + The springtide at the heart of things + Sang as the spring knows how. + And fair was she, and both were young; + We knew not what made time so good; + Nature with glamour-tutored tongue + Spread glory in the blood. + + We climbed the dim and dreaming streets: + We reached a plateau crowned with pine: + The leaning roses breathed their sweets + 'Mid many a subtle-scented vine. + We wreathed our brows with ivy-twine. + + In mouldering majesty sublime, + Misty with eld, the mute of time, + A castle, dawn-enchanted, there + Above th' abyss sheer, shimmering fair, + Hung like a perilous dream in air. + Poised on a dizzy turret high, + Enfolded with the gorgeous sky, + We listened, she and I, + In wonder, 'mazed. Without a word + A soul had spoken, soul had heard. + All suddenly came, charged with tears, + The sweetness of the human years. + + We saw deep forests far away + Kindle to meet the kiss of day; + And mists with morn's delight uprise + Like love thoughts in a maiden's eyes. + We shared the dream that never dies. + + Our hearts were hushed with vague desire; + We breathed in kingdoms wildly new, + Enthralled by Memnon's mystic lyre + In regions whence the Ph[oe]nix flew; + Dumb splendour round us blown, and higher + On heaven's deep dome--the peacock's hue, + Bright flakes of crimsoning fire! + + Dew-fresh was all the wavering air. + We heard the reef's far rollers croon + About the ocean's margent, where + Loitered the waning moon ... + So fond the hour; the scene so fair; + And fate came home so soon ... + Some sorrow wept,--I knew not where. + Some sudden presence made the air + Chill as the breathless moon. + + Silent, upon a lonelier steep, + I gazed across a deeper deep, + Where the pale mists pass from the isles of sleep.-- + + Lost voices called in other years: + Old sweetness like a breaking grief + Rose in the heart and stung to tears: + In that clear moment brief + Life's dearest, dead so long before, + Returned to bless and die once more. + + The faintly crooning sabbath bells + At evening in the golden fells + I heard; the tinkle of the rills + In haunts where childish fancy fed; + I saw the orchard daffodils + About the calm homestead; + Ah, saddest thought that ever fills + An errant heart that memory thrills, + The heath-smell of his homeland hills + To one whose loves are dead ... + + What yearnings burn the human breast; + What wild desires like prisoned birds + Impel the heart from east to west; + What urgings baffling words + Beat up from nature unexpressed + Till soul distinct stands manifest, + On guard for heaven, or, wanton, hurled + Toward judgment through the world. + + Long following beauty's floating flame + Beneath the sky from sea to sea + No isle of rest, no haven could claim + The lonely, homeless heart in me. + Sick loneliness no more should be + Companion to my soul, for She + To fill the questing vision came, + Came down the breadths of blossoming foam + To give to loveliness a name, + To happiness a home! + + Yet thought toward passion moved with dread, + Like one who, hurrying to be wed, + Steps, darkling, on the dead. + + Far down we saw mute wavelets leap + Feebly as though remembering sleep; + The wheeling sea-birds proudly sway + In glory o'er the opal bay;-- + But at the heart the world grew grey; + Some joy had perished from the day; + Some love was grieving far away. + + No voice stirred through the haunted hill + Touched with the morn's inviolate gleam. + All fearfully wild heart and will + Drank rapture in the face of ill! + Our spirits thrilled to answer thrill, + And trembled in their dream. + + Truth comes, and tears, and glamour goes. + There's speech within the blood + More eloquent than language knows, + And woes make signal unto woes + While pity breathes and passion blows: + We looked:----we understood. + On summer's heart fell winter's snows ... + The death that dissipates the rose + Was busy in the bud ... + + The spectre beckoned: none could save ... + The sundering grave ... The sundering grave! ... + Our lonely love in time could be + But whisper of a broken wave + Lost in a boundless sea ... + She spoke, so fair, so pale, so brave,---- + Across infinity! + + Ah meekness mute with tragedy!... + My body stirred as in a grave, + And looked forth wonderingly ... + The everlasting sea serene + 'Neath everlasting sky + Shone, and across the morning sheen + The deathless winds went by. + And a face was there that I never had seen; + And a shadow stood where a glory had been; + The beauty hung at my heart like pain; + And love was lovely, but life was bane, + For all should die,--but the wonder remain, + And the earth, and the sea, and the sky ... + + The hills have winds, the fields have flowers; + Not all alone is the wintry tree; + The stars that gleam in cloudy bowers + Have stars for company; + The waste hath peace of the drifting hours; + And night brings joy to the hoary sea: + + But the heart of man is a lonely thing; + And lone the soul of the secret vows, + With its wasted love and its wounded wing, + In a withered world that hath no spring, + No burgeoning boughs: + The soul of man is the loneliest thing + In life's eternal wandering + That God allows ... + + O, isle of dreams, and orient shore! + Ah miracle in sea and sky! + Ah youth that fleeting love made soar + To heaven! The glory upon high + To dusk hath waned, yet comes once more + A wonder and a cry!... + + The ship's bell tolled off that fair land; + The sails bulged buoyantly: + The sun rose mute, and large, and bland; + The favouring wind swung free. + We stood from that enchanted strand + Into the morning sea. + + We rode down swinging winds away, + Far o'er the moving waters wan, + Seen low at pale meridan, + The land was grey. + + The dusk came down; and like a ghost + Rose the sad moon; the waves 'gan moan: + There on the deep no kindly coast,-- + The dark alone. + + And in two faces stared, and stared + The being without blood or breath, + The stilly spectre, horror-haired, + That haunteth all he murdereth; + At noon, at midnight stared, and stared + When sunrise flashed, when sunset flared, + The grizzly phantom horror-haired:-- + + Stalking frail beauty to her grave + I saw him moving evermore + A stealthy wanderer on the wave, + A shrouded shadow on the shore, + The worm his bondsman, and the brave + His victims evermore ... + + The Power that drives all mortal things, + Upbuoys all being's wanderings, + Moved in the void his urgent wings ... + + On down the weltering world we sped; + Across the lonely, drifting noon; + Along the wreathëd tides we fled + Beneath the memoried moon. + Sad love pursued where sorrow led; + And beauty, waiting to be dead, + Kissed under the dead moon. + + Love, speechless, yearned in hopeless eyes; + And hearts that hungered craved in vain. + Dumb pity heard sad pity's sighs; + And grief soothed grief again. + Fond smile to smile sent faint replies, + And faded back to pain. + + Entangled in the toils of fate, + Two stood at Eden's open gate-- + Banned, in a world found desolate ... + And love made league with hate ... + All time's long woe since man's wet eyes + Peered toward a promised paradise + Pressed home,--the weight of smothered cries, + Dead dreams, and hopeless pain + Of souls in silence slain. + + We saw the loathsome waste of death; + Sad soul at war with sense; + And suffering doomed to lingering breath; + And slandered innocence; + And beauty ravished at the bloom; + Saw strength flung prostrate; fall + The brave, life-worsted from the womb; + White truth made criminal: + Impotent, passionate, counting all, + We kissed----across a tomb ... + + The lustrous clouds trailed proudly by: + And through a rift of dazzling sky + I cursed God with a dreary cry ... + + The silence of the starry night; + The silver of the moonlit sea; + And loud in secret, stern, and trite, + The pulse of destiny. + Ah sadness scourged with doomed delight! + Ah wondrous misery! + + Pale topsails in the offing shone, + And faded into foam: + And down the noontide, one by one, + The pale, proud ships would roam; + Each sailor to his love went on; + Each wanderer to his home. + + And, ceasing not, death's nearing knell + Tolled in a heart that dreamed no more. + Our lips shook, sad as lips in hell; + But, fearful of the rending shore, + To fill all time with sad farewell + We would have sailed for evermore! + + For pleasantly a song she'd croon, + And feign the world a kindly place; + And tender was the haunting tune + To match her haunting grace; + And tenderly the witching moon + Toyed with her feeling face ... + + Our love was like the scent of flowers + To her who watches by the bed + Of one that dies in the dark hours, + The one her youth had wed: + At dawn she scares her tears away, + And through the cloud-enamelled day + Jests bravely for their bread. + + She shared with all the brighter part; + The witching sallies lightly flew; + Her thoughts seemed, spilt by subtle art, + Half tear-drops and half dew. + They loved her for her gracious heart, + And the glad winds blew. + + The sunbeam of her fleeting life + Gladdened the unsuspecting days; + And all the dusky imps of strife + Paled in her wisdom's lambent rays. + Her laugh to _one_ was as a knife: + But she had pleasure's praise. + + And I who loved that conquering smile, + And felt the tears in secret shed, + Who watched her life with kindly guile + Veiling its darlings dead, + Held in a choking hush the while + A heart that feigned--and bled ... + + Onward with blind rebellious breast + I ranged, with love, with bale opprest, + Piteous, passionate, all unblest, + The dispossessëd,--God-possest ... + + More lonely grew the leaden wave + That broke against the leaning sky; + The melancholy winds 'gan rave + Among the whimpering shrouds on high: + Most lonely up the leaden wave + Two climbed toward yet a lonelier grave-- + Where only one should lie. + + We neared a grey and grievous land + That thundered by a wintry sea; + I touched the sorrow of her hand, + But nothing sad said she: + She turned from love at death's command + To death eternally. + + We passed the numbly moaning bar; + We heard the harbour bell, + Its dull fog-muffled clang from far + Came like a lorn death-knell. + The quay-lights pushed a livid flare + Through shrouding mist; and all things there + Moved like grim shades in hell. + + The hammer's clamp on resonant steel; + The siren's shriek; the scream and whirr + Reverberant from forge and wheel; + The fury and the clangorous stir + And plunge of traffic; Vulcan's heel + Crashing on iron,--and the reel + Of sense at loss of _her_.-- + + None guessed when, playfully, she said, + With smile that brightened toward her dead, + "To-day across the world I ride + To meet a bridegroom, I the bride." + They thought her mischief lied. + + Around us was the deafening roar, + A void, a wild and drear eclipse. + A sadder sweetness than before + Shook her pale, smiling lips; + She waved adieu through vapours hoar, + And vanished in the shadows frore + Among the heedless ships ... + In that dread lapse of all farewell + The spirit, listening, plain could tell + That devils laughed in drifting hell + With guile upon their lips ... + + The world seemed all a hollow ghost + That would dissolve away; + And life itself a random boast + Of elements at play; + And time a swift elusive gleam, + And man the mockery of a dream, + A foam-bell to a moment's beam + Flung from the spray. + + I had worshipped her with sacred sighs, + Loved with the love that wondereth; + My life had found her maiden-wise, + And sweeter than the rose's breath; + Lit by a soul in paradise + The lights within her holy eyes, + The lady loved of death ... + + Bereft, forlorn, by passion driven, + And blanched with loss, by suffering riven, + With impious heart I fled from Heaven ... + + Thought like a frost gripped all the brain: + With frozen tears opprest, + The conscious blood with sullen pain + Lunged at the callous breast, + Where hope and love, a pallid twain, + Sat with a ghoul for guest. + + Over the watery wastes I fled + Where'er dim desolation led + Beneath sad sun and moon! + For faith was dead, and joy was dead, + And love was where the phantoms tread, + And bitterness was passion's bread: + "Grant, jester Death," I, laughing, said, + "Thy haggard fool a boon!" ... + + And unforgiving, unforgiven, + A derelict, by tempest driven, + I drave beneath the breadth of heaven ... + + Grim sorrow fell on all things fair; + To dust was turned the lover's breath. + Ah longing, like a pariah bare, + And passion, led by lewd despair + To kiss the smelling jowl of death! + + As in a sunless cavern cold, + Like one who flies a crime, + Fearful, and old as God is old, + The spirit shrank from time; + For a stifled scream was the angry gold + Of the weird sunset, and the noonday bold + Was the stare on the face of a crime. + + I saw as brain-blurred drunkards see; + I felt, yet could not feel; + I seemed in moving time to be + In nerveless immobility + As dust upon a wheel. + + Some world material moved around, + Mazed breadths of spume and brine; + Strange voices spake as from a bound + Far off, I answered with a sound, + Nor knew the answer mine; + And sometimes like a weary hound + I heard the darkness whine. + + In throbbing night 'twixt sleep and sleep + My tortured spirit heard + A wail that wandered down the deep, + A sorrow on the windy deep + Wail like a wounded bird; + And I wept as a haunted man doth weep + Who dare not speak a word. + + Sometimes I sensed heaven's bellied gloom, + Storm like dumb and pregnant doom + Scowl on the waters wild; + Or tempest 'neath a plunging sky + Down crashing waves with haunting cry + Scream like a tortured child; + + A blind thing staggering in the night + Strained, groaning, 'gainst a pervious power + That flashed and eddied, wild and white, + That wheeled and wailed from hour to hour; + And, somewhere, strangely burned to sight + Dawn like a doom a-flower ... + + On ever onward, darkly driven, + A soul, unsheltered, and unshriven, + With lodestar gone, with raiment riven, + Drove in the gale of the wrath of Heaven ... + + The monsoon blew; the changing stars + Rode by in deeper skies. + At times between the raking spars + I felt the blank moon rise; + Or heard the chanties of the tars + With a sad, sick surprise. + + And once a heaven, the sapphire's hue, + Flashed o'er the freshening wave; + They hurt the heart as laughers do + When love stands by a grave. + + And now a level ocean grey + Would lie along a level day, + Unwhipt of wing or wind; + Or sunset make a carmine stain + That sucked like sadness at the brain, + And sank into the mind, + And touched me with some wandering pain, + Some sentience of mankind again. + + ... And where was _she_?... Could sorrow fail + In aching time ... Ah voice in vain + That called for ever ... fading sail + On seas forlorn; sad wind and rain + Whispering ... all-wandering pain ... + And in the heart the wail-- + Never again on earth--never again. + + So dimly to a beauteous ghost + My being bowed a subject knee, + And lived, with love's sad sunset lost, + Alone 'mid all the sea. + A leper to a lonely coast, + I fled from all I cherished most; + And wildly, with a bleeding boast, + I clasped my agony ... + + Sad nature strained the leash in vain, + And flying, fled not; ever the chain + Of the Fear that followed; ever again + Relentless pity; guardian pain ... + + Like torturing dreams the days went by, + With all save self denied; + And Godward went man's desolate cry, + That Christ Himself had cried: + Alone each soul upon its tree + Cried to its kin,--but over me + The darkness that crushed Calvary + When God was crucified. + + The present lost, I found, aghast, + A dying heart, a deathless past; + And, ever nigh, and mocking me, + A madness, or a mystery ... + And hour by hour, in peril, passed + A soul toward judgment through the vast ... + + Life, a vague tumult in the blood, + Beat on 'gainst flesh and bone; + And in its echoing solitude + The heart tapped like a stone; + Till like some child at dark I stood + That stands fear-frozen in a wood,-- + Alone--yet not _alone_.-- + + For mine was ghostly company: + Chilled, in the eerie air + I felt _myself_ bend over me, + And point as with despair; + And, horror-thrilled, I turned to see + My body selfless there, + + And separate,--a house of clay + That mourned its tenant gone; + Its vacant eyes would fain delay, + Its piteous hands implored to stay + The soul that in it shone. + Where one had been, in mute dismay + Two, merged in mystery, went away-- + I and that other One ... + + With vision blurred, and bearings lost, + Streamed on amid a phantom host + The man that was a ghost ... + + Apart from human years I stood + A naked, probing mind. + Aloof I heard the beating blood, + The far-brought voices of the blood, + Flow round me like a wind; + In an abysmal solitude + I staggered like one blind.-- + + In wastes uncharted, far from bliss, + I heard a writhing chaos hiss; + And thought, that moved in time no more, + Wept on some wild, pre-natal shore.-- + + Appalled, the boundless vision burst + Through yawning gulfs of gloom; + To human hunger, human thirst + Infinite hell did loom; + Infinite bale to vision burst + In tracts of nebulous bloom; + And life through peril, lorn, accurst, + Passed on from doom to doom. + + The depths were full of throes unknown, + Weird wastes of vomited fire; + Wild mists of thunderous flame were blown + Athwart eclipse; I heard the groan + Of travailing worlds stupendous thrown + Through chaos to expire: + My spirit, cowed with vastness dire, + Gazed, poised in space,--alone,-- + Alone as a haunted life that lies + On the death-brink when a dread past cries, + And the live dark burns with eternal eyes. + + Rang, terror-wrung from shrivelled pride: + "Oh loneliest of the dead, + Thou with the deeply riven side, + And with the branded head, + Lo, I, in blasphemy that died, + Do envy all the dead, + + "And, fleeing self-hood, fain would die-- + But this can never be! + This mortal nevermore can lie + To immortality.-- + Oh! hearken to my ghostly cry, + Lone ghost of Calvary!"-- + I was my own infinity; + The cry, the echo I ... + + Oh brother, with the bone-sealed breast; + Brother in hope, in shame, + In joy, in sorrow, east and west + We know, but man, earth's awful guest, + Is vastness with a name,-- + Is spirit, hungry in the quest + Of spirit whence he came ... + + On through the void I shuddering fled, + Immortal, seeking to be dead, + With God behind me, God ahead, + Pursued, encompassed, lost,--and led ... + + God's outcasts only have their ease: + But I was not as these. + From deep to deep my soul was blown + Like sin toward judgment, ever alone + With the Eye unseen, and the Hand unknown. + + Sad nature strained the leash in vain, + And, flying, fled not; ever the chain + Of the Fear that followed; ever again + Relentless pity, guardian pain ... + + Slow time a sad nepenthe brought, + Numb poignance with no sigh, + When body, dim with sorrow, sought + Day with a dead man's eye.-- + + As from far off I darkly saw: + I lay as doomed men lie: + A lamb beneath a lion's paw, + Mute-meek, that lamb was I; + My soul I felt the monster gnaw, + I heard my body die. + + And, dumbly, 'thwart a dreader deep + I drifted, as on awful sleep, + Where sorrows burn, and never weep ... + + Delirium reigned. Fell darkness dire, + Vague terror, shapeless dole. + Forever climbing ghâts of fire + I struggled to a goal + Where, lone upon the suttee pyre, + I saw my life's long-lost desire-- + The widow of my soul! + + Far and far through smoke-red light + I saw her beckoning stand; + Anon, like a burning bird in fright, + She fled with a shriek through the lurid night, + And I wailed like a lost soul banned; + And an echo flew like an anguished sprite + And wailed in a hollow land. + + Then utter loss: and there was nought. + My sentience wholly sped: + No sound, no feeling, sight, or thought: + Yet I knew with a vacuous dread + I lay a thing by God unsought,-- + Dead, dead,--for ever dead ... + + Slow ages seemed to have their will: + And, moving toward the prime, + Th' Eternal Immanency still + Breathed in the senseless lime, + Till a dead thing felt the procreant thrill, + And shuddered back to time. + + It might have been ten thousand years + That over me had run; + It might have been ten thousand years + I had not sensed the sun.-- + Oh God, how much of sin that sears, + How many, many bitter years + Till soul from dust be won? + Oh Lord of Light, make sweet their tears + Who never see the sun!-- ... + + Mean as the dust, through the volant vast + Flung like chaff, as ashes cast + To the nether storms, I sank, pride past, + On the waiting wings of the First and Last ... + + Slowly, slowly came the grey + Where all was dark before. + Some monster left its mangled prey + Because the night was o'er: + And, sick beside an Indian shore, + I knew that it was day-- + + And strangely cared. Some cloudy pain + Seemed from my being rolled. + Afar upon a misty plain + The grey was turning gold. + I slept, and dreamt of rustling rain + On leaves in summers old. + + And faintly in my dream the corn + Shook under English skies; + To wreathe with silvery song the morn + I saw the laverock rise; + And I saw the Dead by a snow-white thorn, + Touched with the blush of a mounting morn, + Singing in paradise; + And a seraph blew on a golden horn; + And I saw with a mild surmise + + White shapes pass panoplied from war + In fields to sense unknown; + And over them a targe-like star + Blazed in its heaven alone; + And a chant of joy was blown afar; + And a soul-name rang 'neath that blinding star, + Which deep in a world crepuscular + My spirit knew for its own. + Then I turned, for the star-gleam dazzled my eyes, + And woke with a glad surprise!-- + + Woke with the earth-breath on my face. + The sunbeams filtered through + A tamarind in a stilly place; + I saw the brazen blue: + And suddenly Christ's healing grace + Fell round like holy dew. + + And kindly faces passed and smiled; + And gentle voices spoke; + And, wondering like a waking child, + The night within me broke, + And from a heart grown reconciled + Went heavenward like thin smoke. + + On all the bounds of ranging sight + The lifting gloom was riven. + The terrors of abysmal night + Fled like hushed horrors fly from light + By dawn's winged horsemen driven. + On the drifting hills of morn shone bright + The gonfalons of heaven. + + Warm winds from palm-hung pleasances + Came through the lattice bars + With scents and murmurous harmonies; + Like splintered scimitars + The moonbeams through the banyan trees + Gleamed under Indian stars. + + And far away, and far away + My heart went out forlorn; + 'Mid benizons from far away + I felt my soul reborn; + And man from every palm-fringed bay + And mountain town where sunsets stay, + From sounding cities smoking grey + Called, called me down the morn ... + + O magic of the morning sky! + O wonder of the moonlit sea! + O life--the vision and the cry + Into eternity!-- + Eternity beneath, on high, + Veiled within cloud and clod, + That life in folly would vainly fly + Through the nethermost deep, through the uttermost high,-- + Life that is God-doomed never to die + To the agony of God. + + Too long to self my life had given + What was for soul alone; + To rob the sanctuaries had striven + To build a lone love's throne. + In vain we prop each little heaven + While men's souls turn to stone. + + The good in ill let no man scorn; + The ill in good let all men find. + Our knowledge is the lesser morn; + Large night with stars behind + Shews most. Of spirit still is born + All life, all wonder; it shall bind + All hearts in wisdom. Unforlorn + He lives in deserts, though he mourn, + Who loveth all the Kind ... + + With storm gone by, from jeopardy, + With loss for gain, and blindness past, + Home to divine reality + The tides have borne me,--home at last. + Time like a silver flower doth blow + And blossom o'er a subtler sod, + And through the meads of light I go + Beneath the golden boughs of God ... + + My soul hath won to the city of love + With the burnished walls of the dreams' desires; + And my life is glad as a glittering dove + That coos in the sun upon golden spires; + And I welcome the winds of the world, and move + To the music of unseen choirs. + + Great powers are for us; mighty wings + Toward man's proud peril speed. + Life nourished at eternal springs, + Beats up through star and creed, + Till soul, ascendant, fetter-freed, + A soaring seraph sings!... + + On the rim of the world is a rosy tower + Sky-poised above wide sea-foam, + Where a beautiful spirit waits hour by hour, + Far-eyed 'gainst a dawn like a phantom flower, + Till a ghostly lover comes home ... + + Ah! love is as lust till it count love lost; + The soul is as sin till it weep sin's cost; + O, happy is he, though he suffer most, + Who wins to the Holy Ghost! + + So spake old Ioläus. There + That drifting, chant-like monody, + Its eerie passion, weird despair, + Had wrought on me like wizardry;-- + Withál he moved through strange eclipse + With God's faint finger at his lips, + And with such tense and far surprise, + That half uncanny seemed the man + With cloudy hair, in human guise, + So warped with age, so weirdly wan, + Whose dry flesh into spirit ran, + And saw with ghostly eyes. + + + + + +THE RETURN + +(To E.W.) + + + Home, O most pale adventurer, are you bound + From that strange kingdom where no love may trace + The life it loves to its abiding place, + Or hail it from afar with cheerful sound. + From deeps whose marges mortal ne'er hath found + You steal, and we are awed before your face-- + For you are weird with wonder, with the grace + Of death's most delicate lilies are you crowned. + + After the ranging sunset of Farewell-- + When life's loved country fades, and hope is lorn, + Is it not fair from that dim, tideless bourn + To drift back home to man's own star and dwell + Fondly with time, in tune with bud and bell, + With midnight's shimmer of stars and the sheen of morn? + + + + + +THE SOUL AND THE SEA + + + I hear the shouting of th' exultant sea, + Its reel and crash along the shuddering strand; + Through muffling mist the wide reverberant land + In thunderous labour laughs exultantly; + The wrestling wind's tumultuous revelry + Whips into whirling clouds the blanched sea-sand; + The primal powers in grim convulsion grand + Strive, straining agonists, frenzied to be free. + + And in the lapses of the roaring gale + I hear the cries of lives that rage and weep, + That sow for ever, and that never reap; + Brave hearts that travail with all hopes that fail + Break with the breakers; with a wandering wail + Flies sorrow with white lips along the deep. + + + + + +NATIONS ESTRANGED + +THE VOICE OF THE MILLIONS + + + Bound to one triumph, of one travail born, + Doomed to one death, in one brief life we moil; + The pangs that maim us and the powers that spoil + Are common sorrows heired from worlds outworn. + Alike in weakness, time too long hath torn + Our mother, Patience, and our father, Toil. + Brothers in hatred of the fates that foil, + Say not in vain we murmur and we mourn! + + O, by the love that lights our mothers' eyes, + By hearth and home, by common hopes and fears, + By all sad sweetness of the human years, + Partings, and meetings, by our infants' cries-- + One are we, through the heart's divine allies, + In long allegiance to eternal tears! + + + + + +THE PASSING-BELL + +AN IMPRESSION + + + A roaring furnace, and a passing-bell; + Grim vitreous gloom, and one low, raking gleam + From a spent sun that spills its passive beam + Athwart a smouldering city. Comes the smell + Of sweat and labour. The sad, sullen knell + _Boom_s in the brain. As in a baleful dream + A panting siren, veiled with hissing steam, + Shrieks like a _loom_ing horror deep in hell. + + A flaccid flood of faces, blanched with _doom_, + And raucous cries from out a blinking dark + Crowd on the callous dusk. With haunting _bark_ + Death hunts his hapless victims. Heaven's sick _bloom_ + Swoons in the frost. Through droning twilight--hark! + The slow, thick, ominous burden of the _tomb_. + + + + + +CONDEMNED + +_FIAT JUSTITIA: FIAT LUX_ + + + Our deeds avail not; and our dreams are thrust + Into the dark and wither from the sky. + We live in duress, and to sweetness die; + And lo! our guerdon is the world's distrust. + Yet have we dreamt of judgment that is just, + And seen a splendour trailing from on high; + From mean abortion mounts our piteous cry: + "Out of the dust, O Christ! out of the dust!" + + We are as leaves within the winter gale, + And are through tribulation darkly driven; + And all the promise that the prime hath given + Is as faint smoke before the winds that wail. + Wan from the drowning pools of bitter bale + Our futile faces front the hush of heaven! + + + + + +TO AMERICA + + +I. + + Thou of the starry wing, that canst not soar, + Confuséd power, still seeking, still unblest; + For ever clutching to a braggart breast + The hope portentous and the worldling's lore. + Furiously futile, with a raucous roar + Thy dizzy moments mock th' eternal quest; + To feverish ends, by factions fierce distrest, + Toiling, a sanguine Titan evermore,-- + + America!--Ah, burthen of the mind!-- + Cradled in truth, and 'mid distractions born + To pure emprise on that despotic morn + When freedom yearned along the westering wind, + And tyranny, that hound among the blind, + Bayed toward the deep where faith went forth--forlorn. + + + +II. + + Thou who didst dare th' unknown, precarious sea, + And down the unbounded winds adventurous roam, + Searching the world's horizons for a home, + A haven for the heart of liberty:-- + Boaster of freedom, found no longer free, + What vaporous phantom from time's ocean-foam + Blurs the translucence of th' eternal dome + Where sang the burning stars that beckoned thee? + + Thy heart hath caught the siren's doom-sweet cries, + And sips oblivion at fond Circe's nod. + Oh! for a seer whose soul is lightning-shod, + To stand imperial 'gainst th' impervious skies, + As Lincoln stood, with brave heaven-gazing eyes, + To appeal from guile's impermanence to God! + + + + + +TO ITALY + + +I. + + Italia, seated by the sapphire sea, + Crooning of summers rich from long ago, + Dreamer mid dreams, thy peerless face aglow + With rare romance and passionate poesy; + Hath time's delirium taken even thee, + Mother of Petrarch, Raphael, Angelo? + And dost thou purblind speed to weltering woe, + Dead to the wonder that was _Italy_? + + Farewell thy peace, farewell thy pride, farewell + The roseate rapture of the radiant years. + Thy breast shall nourish sorrows, and thy fears + Shall haunt the olives and the sunset bell; + Ah, thou shalt sigh for Francis and his cell, + And beat with Dante to the bourn of tears. + + + +II. + + Italia, dowered with Asia's amorous eyes, + With India's glow through snows Circassian, + The Muses' love since Dorian lightning ran + Kindling the west to perilous surprise,-- + Crowned with thy dawn-star, lo! portentous-wise, + Steps the stern pupil of the Mantuan + And lowers toward moon-mute deserts African + Where, stained with rapine's rose, thy honour lies. + + Dim grows the vision of th' enchanted shore. + Queen of the lovely and the lonely vow, + Farewell. False time hath charmed thee, and thy brow + Is toward eclipse and storms that rend and roar. + Fond valedictions fade afar, but thou + Canst be our dream's Italia nevermore. + + + + + +A SON OF CAIN + +By + +JAMES A. MACKERETH + +_Crown 8vo, 3/6 net._ + +SOME OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. + +_Westminster Review._--We write under the conviction that Mr. Mackereth +is destined to compel the admiration not only of a few critics but also +of the general public. + +_Times Literary Supplement._--He has a note of his own; one can always +enjoy the rich exuberance of his fancy and of his diction. + +_Daily Telegraph._--A true singer whom no reader with a taste for +contemporary poetry should overlook. + +_Yorkshire Daily Observer._--... We cannot afford to neglect such +poetry--it is vital... Alive with the spirit of the new century. + +_Aberdeen Free Press._--The "Ode on the Passing of Autumn"... a really +splendid poem... Mr. Mackereth is undoubtedly a poet of considerable +power and originality. + +_The Literary World._--There is a strength about his work which is very +rare in English verse.... Mr. Mackereth's name deserves to stand very +high among the poets of to-day. + +_The Star._--"A Son of Cain"... is a good goad for the withered +imagination.... Why does Mr. Mackereth's poem "The Lion" flash the light +on our sickly glazed eyeballs? Its symbolism makes the soul wince and +tremble and ache.... The virtue in the poem sounds a spiritual tocsin. + +_Irish Times._--... A note of his own, a passionate, vibrant note, but +true and strong. + +_Glasgow Evening Times._--... A volume of singular insight and power. + +_Dundee Advertiser._--... The title poem has the same haunting effect +upon the reader as "The Ancient Mariner." The "Ode on the Passing of +Autumn" is a fine achievement.... We congratulate Mr. Mackereth on his +undoubted powers of sustainment. + +_The Daily Chronicle._--His work is virile. His verse goes with a ring +and a tang. + +_The Scotsman._--The title poem is a grim and powerful ballad.... The +book will be read with interest and admiration by all who value the +classic traditions of English poetry. + +_The Yorkshire Post._--... He has the right to a place among those who +are creating the distinctive poetry of our time. In the two pieces, the +splendid "Ode on the Passing of Autumn," and "The Gods that Pass and Die +Not," Mr. Mackereth attains a height where splendid promise enlarges +into great performance. + +_The Bookman._--... It proves him to be the possessor of a quick eye for +beauty, of imagination and sensitiveness. It repeatedly echoes great +work, yet still remains undeniably his own. + +_The Nation._--What he has to say is vigorous and virile. He is not for +dealing in the vagueness of dissatisfaction, but endeavours to make his +writing an affirmation of joy. + +_The Glasgow Herald._--To pass to his poems is to pass into mountain air +where sane thought dwells.... His heart is in poetry, and his own +pleasure in it merely as a word movement is manifest in every line of +such poems as "Mad Moll" and "Pan Alive." + +_The New York Times._--A virile and hopeful singer ... resonant as a +trumpet-call to those who build the palace of life. + +_The Dial_ (Chicago).--Clearly the work of a poet.... The volume will +well reward him who ventures into its pages. + +_Literary Digest._--... The longer poems have a deep Atlantic roll.... +In all his thought one can feel the lift of a tide. + +LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. + + + + +IN THE WAKE OF THE PHOENIX + +POEMS + +By + +JAMES A. MACKERETH + +_F'cap 8vo. 3/6 net._ + +_Glasgow Herald._--"Always poetry--poetry vital with energy and clothed +with beauty and at times with splendour." + +_Literary World._--"Deserves attention from those who can enjoy one of +the finest pleasures of the mind--namely, that process by which the +spirit of an age becomes articulate.... Full of power, of ecstasy, of a +fury of joy." + +_Pall Mall Gazette._--"A signature which has come to be watched with the +greatest attention, and welcome wherever it appears." + +_The Athenæum._--"We quail before his thunderous broadsides of +language... as we read him he suggests stupendous phenomena." + +_The Times._--"Vigour of thought and imagination and remarkable wealth +of poetic diction." + +_The Scotsman._--"Will be read with especial interest and sympathy by +readers who like modern poetry that keeps alive the traditions of a +spiritualised nature-worship." + +_The Academy._--"We have nothing but admiration for the work." + +_Westminster Review._--"A poet of exceptionally fine calibre." + +_Aberdeen Free Press._--"Possesses great poetic merit.... The +magnificent 'Hymn to the Midnight.'" + +_The Morning Post._--"Power, originality, insight.... His work is above +all things virile... real passion and true imagination." + +_The Yorkshire Post._--"His imaginative insight into life's realities is +powerfully displayed in such pieces as 'Dreams,' and 'The Splendid +Mistake.' In 'The Seer in the Doomed City' he has achieved a vision +starkly impressive in its symbolism, haunting in its imaginative +conception, and noble in its moral." + +_T.P.'s Weekly._--"... breathing virility and strong kindness in every +line." + +_The Yorkshire Observer._--"Places the writer among the true poets of +his time." + +_The Irish Times._--"Here is verse which really sings, ideas which are +fresh and strong, language which is in the highest sense poetical." + +_The Baltimore News._--"Two unforgettable poems, 'A Hymn to Midnight,' +and 'At Moonrise.'" + +_Boston Transcript._--"Sincerity and vivid imagination.... Verse of +uncommon distinction." + +LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. +39, Paternoster Row, London, E.C. + + + + + PRINTED BY + GEORGE MIDDLETON + THE ST. OSWALD PRESS + AMBLESIDE + + + + +Transcriber's notes + + + - This book was part of Distributed Proofreaders' 2009 Halloween bash. + - Pages 15, 16, and 18: left in variant spellings "faery" and "faëry," + because there was too little textual evidence to decide to normalize + either way. + - Page 86: Corrected "endevours" to "endeavours." + - Page 87: Normalized "Literary World" to "Literary World." (i.e. + included a full-stop). + - In the TXT version, the oe-ligature has been transcribed as [OE] + (capital) or [oe] (small letters) + - Page numbers have been retained in the HTML version as (invisible) + A elements--use View Source or the equivalent function of your web + browser to view them. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ioläus, by James A. Mackereth + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30481 *** |