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diff --git a/36153-h/36153-h.htm b/36153-h/36153-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..75849e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/36153-h/36153-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2999 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Memorial Day and Other Verse, by Helen Leah Reed. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + +p { margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + +hr { width: 33%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + +table { margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + +.pagenum { position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} + +.blockquot { margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.big {font-size: 125%;} +.huge {font-size: 150%;} +.giant {font-size: 200%;} + +.poem {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: left;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Memorial Day and Other Verse, by Helen Leah Reed + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Memorial Day and Other Verse + +Author: Helen Leah Reed + +Release Date: May 18, 2011 [EBook #36153] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMORIAL DAY AND OTHER VERSE *** + + + + +Produced by Heather Clark, David E. Brown, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<p class="center"><span class="giant">MEMORIAL DAY</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="huge">AND OTHER VERSE</span></p> + +<p class="center">(<i>ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATED</i>)</p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center">BY</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="huge">HELEN LEAH REED</span></p> + +<p class="center">AUTHOR OF SERBIA; A SKETCH<br/> +NAPOLEON'S YOUNG NEIGHBOR<br/> +THE BRENDA SERIES, ETC.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="center">DE WOLFE AND FISKE CO.<br/> +20 FRANKLIN ST.<br/> +BOSTON</p> +<p> </p> + + +<p class="center"> +COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY<br /> +HELEN LEAH REED</p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><i>Entered at Stationers' Hall</i><br /> +<br /> +<i>This book is sold for the benefit of work for blinded soldiers</i></p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center">THE·PLIMPTON·PRESS<br /> +NORWOOD·MASS·U·S·A</p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"> +TO THE MEMORY OF<br /> +<br /> +<span class="big">THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON</span><br /> +<br /> +SOLDIER, SCHOLAR, FRIEND</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p>The author thanks the editors of the following +publications for the right to reprint certain poems +of hers that they first published:</p> + + +<p class="blockquot"><i>Scribner's Magazine</i>, Horace III-29. <i>Collier's Weekly</i>, +Horace I-14. <i>Poet Lore</i>, Horace I-11. <i>Chicago Interocean</i>, +The Fading Vision. <i>The Christian Union</i>, Jack Frost and +the Flowers. <i>New York Sun</i>, The Rivals. <i>Metropolitan +Magazine</i>, Strength Renewed. <i>Christian Endeavor World</i>, +Town and Country. <i>Boston Transcript</i>, Summer in London; +His Monument; Memorial Day. <i>Boston Herald</i>, The Cry of +the Women. <i>Ladies' Home Journal</i>, The Christmas Letter. +<i>Woman's Home Companion</i>, Frightened. <i>The Delineator</i>, +The Victim; A Modern Grandmother. <i>The Youth's Companion</i>, +A Curiosity.</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CONTENTS</span></p> + + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><span class="big"><i>I</i></span></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><span class="big"><i>PATRIOTIC AND SERIOUS</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Memorial Day</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Flowers for the Brave</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_2">2</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>His Monument</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Your Country and Mine</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_4">4</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>The Grand Army Passes</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_5">5</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>The Harvard Regiment</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_6">6</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Summer in London</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_7">7</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Serbia</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_8">8</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Canadian Trooper to His Horse</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_9">9</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>The Cry of the Women</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_10">10</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Cassandra</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_11">11</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Song of Spring</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_12">12</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Life and Death</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_12">12</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Man of Today</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_13">13</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>The Fading Vision</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_14">14</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>The Titanic</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_15">15</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>If Love were All</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_16">16</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>The Rover</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_16">16</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Ah! Little Lake</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_17">17</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Severus</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_18">18</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Town and Country</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Strength Renewed</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_20">20</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>At Miami</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_20">20</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Which</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_21">21</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>The Blessed Dead</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_22">22</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Oak Leaves</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_22">22</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Self-satisfied</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_23">23</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>My Vigil</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_23">23</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>To Mrs. Julia Ward Howe</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_24">24</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>The Soarer</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_24">24</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>A Fancy</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_25">25</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>The Shrieking Woman</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_25">25</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>The Huguenot Lovers</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_26">26</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>To John Townsend Trowbridge</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_27">27</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Weed or Flower</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_27">27</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>To Thomas Wentworth Higginson</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_28">28</a></td></tr> + + + +<tr><td> </td><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><span class="big"><i>II</i></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><span class="big"><i>LIGHTER VERSE</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Frightened</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_31">31</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>The Christmas Letter</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_32">32</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>A Victim</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_33">33</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Jack Frost</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_34">34</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>A Curiosity</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_35">35</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>The First Lie</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_35">35</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>The Parasol</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_36">36</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>A Modern Grandmother</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_37">37</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Signs for the Serious</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_38">38</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Trimming</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_39">39</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>The Annex</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_40">40</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>A Liberty Bond</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_41">41</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>A Hero</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_42">42</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>The Rivals</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_44">44</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><span class="big"><i>III</i></span></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><span class="big"><i>FROM THE ODES OF HORACE</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>To Mæcenas</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_47">47</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>To Leuconoë</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_49">49</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Neobule</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_49">49</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>The Hardy Youth</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_50">50</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>To the State</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>To Apollo</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_52">52</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>To Diana</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_52">52</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>To Melpomene</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_53">53</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Horace and Lydia</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_54">54</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>To Censorinus</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_55">55</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>To Thaliarchus</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_56">56</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>To Chloe</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_56">56</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>To Fuscus</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_57">57</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>To Venus</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_57">57</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>A Palinode</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Lasting Fame</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_59">59</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><i>Religion</i></td><td align="right"> <a href="#Page_59">59</a></td></tr></table> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">PATRIOTIC AND SERIOUS</span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>MEMORIAL DAY</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + + +<p class="poem">No warrior he, a village lad,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">needing nor words nor other prod</span><br /> +To point his duty; he was glad<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">to tread the path his fathers trod.</span><br /> +Week days he worked in wood and field;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">with homely joys he decked his life;</span><br /> +The sword of hate he would not wield,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">nor take a part in cankering strife.</span><br /> +On Sunday in the little choir<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">he sang of Peace and brotherly love,</span><br /> +And as his thoughts soared higher and higher,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">they reached unmeasured heights above.</span><br /> +<br /> +A cry for Freedom rent the Land—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Our Country calls, come, come, 'tis War;</span><br /> +Together let us firmly stand;"<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">he answered, though his heart beat sore</span><br /> +At leaving home, and kin, and one<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">in whose fond eyes too late he read</span><br /> +That life for her had but begun<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">with the farewells he sadly said.</span><br /> +<br /> +A half a century has passed—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">and more—since all those myriads fell;</span><br /> +For he was one of those who cast<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">sweet life into a Battle's hell.</span><br /> +The village has become a town,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">brick buildings the old graveyard gird;</span><br /> +Of him who fought not for renown,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">no one now hears a spoken word,</span><br /> +But on the Monument his name<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">in gold is lettered with the rest.</span><br /> +Without a sordid thought of fame<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">he to his Country gave his best.</span><br /> +<br /> +Strew flowers, then, Memorial Day<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">for him, for all who for us fought.</span><br /> +With speech and music honors pay;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">teach what our brave defenders taught.</span><br /> +And now our sons are setting out;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">the call for Right rings to the sky,</span><br /> +"Our Country! Freedom!" hear them shout,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">re-echoing their Grandsires' cry.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>FLOWERS FOR BRAVE SOLDIERS</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Flowers for brave soldiers,<br /> +Flowers for those who gave us<br /> +A Country undivided.<br /> +Flowers for the dead!<br /> +<br /> +With flags we are marking<br /> +Their last earth-dwelling.<br /> +Our hearts are bending<br /> +In gratitude,<br /> +While we are praying<br /> +That this our Nation<br /> +Pass safe through peril,<br /> +Through deadly war.<br /> +<br /> +Flowers for brave soldiers—<br /> +Flowers for those who loved us,<br /> +Flowers to their memory,<br /> +This fair spring day!<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>HIS MONUMENT</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +From top to pedestal you scan it lightly—<br /> +Capped head to lettered base—and you are smiling.<br /> +What see you there to set your lips a-quiver?<br /> +An awkward figure cut from ugly granite,<br /> +Aye, roughly hewn, as if unhelped by chisel,<br /> +This peaceful man of war, sculptured grotesquely.<br /> +Still—there is metal in the gun he is holding,<br /> +And in the cannon balls piled up before him—<br /> +The artist's symbols of a real soldier.<br /> +Yet jeer no longer!<br /> +Before you is a soldier of the Union,<br /> +Crowned with the tears and prayers of many mourners.<br /> +The Village set him here for all to honor,<br /> +Here, in the centre of their foot-worn common,<br /> +Where on long, summer evenings boys at baseball<br /> +May gaze and gaze, and make him an example;<br /> +A hero they would follow.<br /> +Beholding him I see no granite figure,<br /> +But face a man who fought to save his country,<br /> +Whose heart was pierced when wife, and child and mother<br /> +Clung to him closely in that tearful parting.<br /> +Yet brave he marched away while flags were fluttering,<br /> +Though in his soul he knew that never, never,<br /> +Might he again see those he loved so dearly,<br /> +Nor look again upon the old white steeple,<br /> +Upon the little streets and shabby buildings<br /> +Straggling unevenly toward the Common;<br /> +Or if he came back, he'd be maimed and battered,<br /> +Subject to hateful pity.<br /> +Therefore I smile not at the queer, gaunt figure,<br /> +The tilted cap—the wide and baggy trousers,<br /> +The long loose overcoat, the dangling knapsack,<br /> +This is the man who fought to save our country!<br /> +Who, in his millions, marched from every village,<br /> +From every city of our mighty Nation;<br /> +Who heard the drums and trumpets blithely playing—<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span><br /> +"Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching."<br /> +So there it stands—thank-offering of a people—<br /> +Whether of rough-hewn stone, or bronze, or marble—<br /> +Proving our debt to those who saved the Union,<br /> +Pointing the way for those who'd like to follow—<br /> +Who to the death would fight were we in peril—<br /> +The Soldier's Monument!<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>YOUR COUNTRY AND MINE</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Sing of America, sing of our Country!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Land of two oceans, of palm-tree and pine!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Firm as the rock of her towering mountains,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Free as her rivers from Heaven-born fountains,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Unafraid as her eagle,—as true to the line;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sing of our Country,—your Country and mine!</span><br /> +Sing of America,—self-governed Country!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dear Land, thou to tyranny never wilt bow;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ever with thee the oppressed have had haven;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">While Freedom droops, thy true sons are not craven;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Look! They are fighting to honor thee now,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With Victory and Peace to bejewel thy brow.</span><br /> +Sing of America,—loving humanity!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Avenge ye the slaughtered!" Heed ye her decree;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ye who have reaped of the father's brave sowing,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">High hold your flag when the war winds are blowing!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Safe for all men keep the path of the sea;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Secure in their rights help small Nations to be.</span><br /> +Fight for America, noble America!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Liberty, Justice, and Truth—the divine,—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Carrying onward,—her lamp proudly burning—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Craving no empire, intrigue ever spurning,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Over the Earth shall her beacon-light shine!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fight for our Country, your Country and mine!</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>THE GRAND ARMY PASSES</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Behold a long procession passing proudly,<br /> +And yet no glittering pomp adorns its way,<br /> +Only the emblems of our States and Nation,<br /> +Only the flags that floated on the day<br /> +These men, our men, trod upon fields of glory;—<br /> +The tattered flags that this Grand Army bore<br /> +For the Republic—flags that furled and faded<br /> +To their old vividness our hearts restore.<br /> +The line of veterans once firm and crowded,<br /> +The long, long line is wavering and thin;<br /> +With faltering steps Old Age speaks mutely to them<br /> +Youth marched abreast when they were mustered in.<br /> +<br /> +Oh, Comrades of the Campfire and the Council,<br /> +Oh, Comrades who in peril won your fight!<br /> +Honor to you and to your dead companions,<br /> +You risked your all for Liberty and Right!<br /> +Fraternity and Charity your watchwords,<br /> +And Loyalty to this our own dear Land!<br /> +Our flag you have, the brazen star, the eagle<br /> +Undying symbols for your gallant band.<br /> +Look at them, youths and maidens, as they pass you,<br /> +While old-time war-tunes break upon the air,<br /> +And staring crowds applaud; read ye the message<br /> +That from the past these veterans nobly bear,<br /> +"Our gift—the gift of Freedom to the Nation,<br /> +Our great Republic would entrust to you,<br /> +Cherish it fondly, keeping it untarnished,<br /> +That, in the Future, looming on our view,<br /> +You with the World may share your gift of Freedom."<br /> +<br /> +This is the message that our youth must con,<br /> +While the Grand Army, answering its last roll-call<br /> +And laying down life's weapons, passes on.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>THE HARVARD REGIMENT</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +We saw the Regiment, alert and strong,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In marching line, on Soldiers' Field today,</span><br /> +Ah! ready they to battle with the wrong;—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">This flower of youth—eager and brave and gay.</span><br /> +<br /> +And we, on-looking, cheered them as they passed,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And we, down-heartened, prayed a silent prayer,</span><br /> +Gazing upon them with a grim forecast,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And many a sad-eyed mother watched them there.</span><br /> +<br /> +Proudly they turned, and at attention stood,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or shouldered arms while war-like music thrilled.</span><br /> +"Alas!" we listened in unhappy mood!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Why should these boys in martial ways be skilled?"</span><br /> +<br /> +No comfort for our grieving was revealed,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Until we looked across the valiant line</span><br /> +To the old College, far beyond this Field<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That honors men who fell at Freedom's shrine.</span><br /> +<br /> +"Oh, ancient College, that so long hast bred<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Son after son to heed his Country's call.</span><br /> +The answer to our questionings is read—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In yonder Tower of your Memorial Hall."</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>SUMMER IN LONDON</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Oh, the noise of Piccadilly—its rumble and its roar!<br /> +A tide of life's broad ocean surging toward the shore.<br /> +Who once has listened, ever can hear its long refrain<br /> +With haunting echo drowning or dirge or flaunting strain.<br /> +Who heeds it, in his vision may see a world-throng pass—<br /> +And over there the Green Park with laughing lad and lass;<br /> +While weary men and women and careless youth go by,<br /> +Where windows glow and glitter, and in the evening sky<br /> +A crescent moon is watching the laughing lass and lad.<br /> +The long, warm London twilight! Happy they are, though sad.<br /> +With kiss and tear they are parting. 'Tis late—the rush and roar—<br /> +The life of Picadilly is waning—is no more.<br /> +<br /> +Ah, the dark, the cold, the stillness of the trenches in the night,<br /> +Where freezing men are crouching in the lull before the fight.<br /> +Then for one the calm is broken by the rumble and the roar<br /> +Of far-off Picadilly, and in dreams, as oft before,<br /> +He sees her who wept at parting. What was that? A whining shell?<br /> +Once a man—that huddled horror! He was smiling as he fell.<br /> +<br /> +Summer has returned to London. Now the Green Park gleams anew.<br /> +Cheers and tears together mingle—but the breaking heart beats true.<br /> +Blare of trumpet!—blood and fire!—so her hero marched away.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span><br /> +Happy lad and lass they parted—now the pitying sky is gray.<br /> +Blood and fire! Through its heroes shall a nation live again.<br /> +Blare of trumpet! But in silence aching hearts must bear their pain.<br /> +Ah, the stillness of the trenches! ah, the rumble and the roar!<br /> +Cheers and tears by England offered for the lads who come no more.<br /> +</p> +<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>1915</i></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>SERBIA</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Serbia, valiant daughter of the Ages,<br /> +Happiness and light should be thy portion!<br /> +Yet thy day is dimmed, thine heart is heavy;<br /> +Long hast thou endured—a little longer<br /> +Bear thy burden, for a fair to-morrow<br /> +Soon will gleam upon thy flower-spread valleys,<br /> +Soon will brighten all thy shadowy mountains;<br /> +Soon will sparkle on thy foaming torrents<br /> +Rushing toward the world beyond thy rivers.<br /> +Bulgar, Turk and Magyar long assailed thee.<br /> +Now the Teuton's cruel hand is on thee<br /> +Though he break thy heart and rack thy body,<br /> +'Tis not his to crush thy lofty spirit.<br /> +Serbia cannot die. She lives immortal,<br /> +Serbia—all thy loyal men bring comfort<br /> +Fighting, fighting, and thy far-flung banner<br /> +Blazons to the world thy high endeavor,<br /> +—This thy strife for brotherhood and freedom—<br /> +Like an air-free bird unknowing bondage,<br /> +Soaring far from carnage, smoke and tumult,<br /> +Serbia—thy soul shall live forever!<br /> +Serbia, undaunted is, immortal!<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>A CANADIAN TROOPER TO HIS HORSE</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Rest here, my horse, the night is dull,—the blood-sick stars are gone,<br /> +Listen, for thou like me wert bred in far Saskatchewan.<br /> +And this September night at home, under a happier sky,<br /> +The bursting yellow sheaves upon the unbounded prairie lie.<br /> +Bread, bread—the staff and stay of life—'tis what the wheatlands yield;<br /> +But only death and agony are gathered from this field.<br /> +<br /> +There's respite now, but ah! good friend, before another day,<br /> +Although our bodies may be here, we, we, how far away!<br /> +We've ridden many a weary mile, together we have fought<br /> +For Freedom, honor and the right, and anything we've wrought<br /> +Our Country to the Empire will still more closely bind.<br /> +Ah! where the reddened maple leaf is fluttering in the wind,<br /> +There is my heart, oh noble horse, and may we gallop free<br /> +Some day again in Canada, our Land of Liberty.<br /> +<br /> +The night drags on toward the dawn, and far on yonder plain<br /> +I hear the throb of musketry, I feel its echoing pain.<br /> +I see the star-shells breaking, and nearer than their flare,<br /> +A wreath of deadly smoke points out that once a town was there.<br /> +Look, brother horse, the night is past, and glorious is the dawn,<br /> +Away with peril! We'll ride on for our Saskatchewan.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span><br /> +With day comes hope, and though again the sky with blood is red,<br /> +We'll ride against the enemy, for Victory lies ahead,<br /> +Aye! for the Empire—Victory that thou shalt help to bring.<br /> +And for the Allies Victory—on earth what greater thing!<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>THE CRY OF THE WOMEN</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +A new year dawning on a warring world!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And many fight, and many pray for peace;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">But yet the roar of battle will not cease,</span><br /> +Still man against his brother man is hurled.<br /> +<br /> +So we who wait—we women in our woe,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Who wait and work—who wait, and work, and weep—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">For us there is no rest, for us no sleep,</span><br /> +As our sad thoughts are wandering grim and slow,<br /> +<br /> +Across those dreary fields where far away<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Our hero myriads bleed and burn and die,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">We lift our hearts toward the pitying sky—</span><br /> +Dawns there no hope upon this New Year's day?<br /> +</p> + +<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>1915</i></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>CASSANDRA</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Of all the luckless women ever born,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or ever to be born here on our earth,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Most pitied be Cassandra, from her birth</span><br /> +Condemned to woes unearned by her. Forlorn,<br /> +She early read great Ilium's doom, and tried,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Clear-eyed, clear-voiced, her countrymen to warn.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But—she Apollo's passion in high scorn</span><br /> +Had once repelled, and of his injured pride<br /> +The God for her had bred this punishment,—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That good, or bad, all things she prophesied</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Though true as truth, should ever be decried</span><br /> +And flouted by the people. As she went<br /> +Far from old Priam's gates among the crowd,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To save her country was her heart intent.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pure, fearless, on an holy errand bent,</span><br /> +They called her "mad," who was a Princess proud.<br /> +"Alas, the City falls! Beware the horse!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Woe, woe, the Greeks!" Ah! why was she endowed</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With this sad gift? Able to pierce the cloud</span><br /> +That veils the future,—in its wasting course<br /> +She could not stop the storm. Bitter the pain<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When those she loved and trusted—weak resource—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Her prophecies believed not; when the force</span><br /> +Of all her pleading spent itself in vain.<br /> +Poor Maid! She knew no greater agony<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When dragged a slave in Agamemnon's train.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And though she fell—by Clytemnestra slain—</span><br /> +She smiled on Death who eased her misery.<br /> +For oh—what grief to one of faithful heart<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">It is—to know the evils that must be.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Helpless their doom to make the imperilled see,</span><br /> +Unskilled to shield them from the fatal dart!<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>SONG OF SPRING</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +On every bush are roses blooming, everywhere the nightingale<br /> +To his love again is warbling plaintively his oft-told tale.<br /> +Now within our balmy garden dances the tall cypress tree,<br /> +And the poplar never ceases clapping his slim hands in glee.<br /> +From the height of every bough-tip you can hear the turtle sing,<br /> +With loud voice proclaiming gaily the glad coming of the spring.<br /> +On the head of the narcissus gleams as bright his diadem,<br /> +As the crown of China's Emperor decked with many a costly gem.<br /> +Here the west wind, there the north wind, in true token of their love,<br /> +At the feet of yonder rose lay treasure poured down from above.<br /> +All the earth with musk is scented, and musk-laden is the air.<br /> +Everything proclaims that daily now draws nearer spring the fair.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">(<i>Versified from a Persian paraphrase.</i>)</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>LIFE AND DEATH</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Death after life" shall we sigh as we say it,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sigh as if death were the end for us all,</span><br /> +Pale at the thought, as in silence we weigh it,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yield our dull souls to it, bending in thrall?</span><br /> +<br /> +"Life after death"—look ahead, weakling spirit—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sure is the way to a world that is ours.</span><br /> +Death is fruition, why then should we fear it?<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Death—the fruition of life's budding powers.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>MAN OF TODAY</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +For thee he thought,<br /> +The Greek, who by the sea<br /> +Lay in his lithe-limbed grace, as dreamily<br /> +He gazed upon the sky begemmed with stars,<br /> +And pondered mysteries. Ah, few the bars<br /> +To stop that lofty spirit in its flight<br /> +Compared with those that lock our souls in night.<br /> +For thee he thought!<br /> +For thee he wrought,<br /> +The Tyrian, who of old<br /> +His rich web wove of purple dye and gold;<br /> +Whose little bark, outstanding many a storm,<br /> +To ruder lands the spirit and the form<br /> +Of Eastern culture bore. Ah! what we owe<br /> +To him today, let sage and poet show.<br /> +For thee he wrought!<br /> +For thee he fought!<br /> +The Saxon, who upheld<br /> +The freedom of our race; whose broad-ax felled<br /> +Imperial legions in the forest dim<br /> +Where loud his war-cry rang—a noble hymn<br /> +For manhood's victory over regal pride,<br /> +On the sad day when mighty Varus died.<br /> +For thee he fought!<br /> +For thee He taught!<br /> +The Nazarene who bore<br /> +The burden of the world, who by the shore<br /> +Of Galilee His words of wisdom spake<br /> +Whose life a pattern for our life we'd take,<br /> +Whose words, re-echoing to remotest time,<br /> +Shall lead us on toward a height sublime.<br /> +For thee He taught!<br /> +Man—man! thou heir of all the ages, thou,<br /> +Man of today! uplift thy drooping brow!<br /> +Think, work, fight, teach—thine heritage pass on<br /> +Tenfold increased. He'll reap who has foregone<br /> +Life's little, limited delights,—in measure<br /> +As selfless he has sown his earthly treasure.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>THE FADING VISION</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +The vision fades—dome, pinnacle and tower,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All the white beauty of the lake-side dream,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The artist's ideal, the poet's theme</span><br /> +Vanish away. Yet for no fleeting hour<br /> +<br /> +Was this proud fabric raised. The crumbling wall<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Entombs not memory's treasure, and we hold</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">This truth dear as the miser his loved gold,</span><br /> +Dome, pinnacle and tower cannot fall.<br /> +<br /> +No marvel this, that memory holds fast<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Such beauty, passing beauty seen before,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The grace and charm of every clime and shore,</span><br /> +Strength of today, the glories of the past,<br /> +<br /> +All met in one great whole—for not alone<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Man's hand the wonder wrought, but soaring high</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His spirit, like the bird that cleaves the sky,</span><br /> +Knew naught of obstacle from zone to zone.<br /> +<br /> +Deathless his work. Age shall repeat to age<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The story of the city by the Lake.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And as the waves that on the near sands break</span><br /> +Reach far-off shores, so on the pictured page<br /> +<br /> +Throughout remotest time, serene in pride,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wearing her crown of glory, shall be seen</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stately and fair, Chicago, Western queen,</span><br /> +With all the Nations gathered at her side.<br /> +<br /> +Gladly they met, each teaching and each taught,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Light-skinned or dark-skinned from the West or East.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Peoples unlike, as at a loving feast,</span><br /> +Distant no more, united in a thought.<br /> +<br /> +Columbia! this thy lesson, learn it well—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The comity of Nations; this the plan</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of God from time's first dawn, that man with man,</span><br /> +Bound in one brotherhood in peace should dwell.<br /> +<br /> +Great Voyager, whose caravels outsped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Man's swiftest fancy in those earlier days!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If, looking far beyond the curving bays</span><br /> +Of this new world thy glowing spirit read<br /> +<br /> +That here there stretched a mighty continent<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where a sure haven for mankind should be,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Small didst thou count thy peril on the sea,</span><br /> +Well knowing what thy sufferings had meant.<br /> +<br /> +For it was thine to turn toward the West<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The worn old-world, and westward as the star</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of Power moves, nor tyranny nor war</span><br /> +Its fires sustains—it shines for the oppressed.<br /> +<br /> +The vision fades—dome, pinnacle and tower—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yet fades not like the substance of a dream—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nation to Nation, State to State shall seem</span><br /> +Drawn to each other closer through its power.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>1893</i></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>THE TITANIC</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Out of the misty North<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A stealthy foeman stole;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Far from the haunted Pole</span><br /> +On the wide sea went he forth,<br /> +<br /> +And he met a giant ship<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As he scoured the sea for toll</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">It cannot reach its goal</span><br /> +Crushed in his icy grip.<br /> +<br /> +"Of every four just three"<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">This was his deadly dole.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Unseen he called the roll</span><br /> +Ah! a cold grave is the Sea.<br /> +<br /> +Yet the Sea is not the end,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And Life is not the whole.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Over each heroic soul</span><br /> +Shall Eternity extend.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>IF LOVE WERE ALL</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +If Love were all, how dark the world!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">What sorrow for the stricken heart!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">If Love were all, with Love grown cold—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">No tempest raging bleak and bold,</span><br /> +Its icy fury ever hurled<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As madly as the storms that dart</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Across the soul when Love is dead.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Poor soul, on bitter passion fed,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Seeing in Earth or Heaven—no bliss,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">When Love has died in Love's last kiss.</span><br /> +If Love were all!<br /> +<br /> +If Love were all, how fair the earth!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">What joy in every heart-throb here!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">If Love were all, and Love were kind,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Love's message, blown on every wind,</span><br /> +Thrilling the soul, would give small worth<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To cringing caution, or the jeer</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of those who murmur "Love must die"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">When Love's alight from eye to eye,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Life is a happy holiday.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Where's Winter?" Ah, 'twere ever May,</span><br /> +If Love were all!<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>THE ROVER</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +That it be love, I dare not say,<br /> +I only know when he's away,<br /> +Dark as the night, so dark the day.<br /> +<br /> +But still he'll rove, and still I'll try<br /> +Some light to see in yon grim sky.<br /> +<br /> +For I will prove if power there be<br /> +To lead him through the night to me<br /> +In that soul-star,—fair Constancy.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>AH! LITTLE LAKE</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Ah! little lake, though fair thou art,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A sapphire flashing to the sky,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thy charm is only for the eye,</span><br /> +Thy beauty cannot hold my heart.<br /> +<br /> +Green hill-sides bending to thy shore<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gleam clear in the autumnal light,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While far above, Monadnock's height</span><br /> +Keeps rugged guard thy waters o'er.<br /> +<br /> +And yet these very beauties cloy;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As in a prison I am bound,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Though fair the walls that gird me round,</span><br /> +My housemate is no longer joy.<br /> +<br /> +Thy loveliness breeds discontent,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For far my foolish heart would be,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">It longs for the unquiet sea,</span><br /> +And with desire is sorely rent.<br /> +<br /> +Hateful the walls that me debar<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From happier things that haunt me so,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Even my weary thoughts are slow</span><br /> +To reach the great, great world afar.<br /> +<br /> +I half believe there is no world<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Those cruel hill-tops there beyond.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oh—for the wizard Merlin's wand!</span><br /> +That all these mountain curves uncurled.<br /> +<br /> +I might behold the shore I love,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Might hear the roaring of the tide,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Might see the ocean, reaching wide</span><br /> +And boundless as the sky above.<br /> +<br /> +One hour beside that sea-kissed beach<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Quick throbbing to its love's caress,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Would yield to me more happiness</span><br /> +Than a whole life-time here could teach.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>SEVERUS SPEAKS</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +"For nearly eighteen years upon my head<br /> +The crown of Empire heavily has set.<br /> +The burden on my shoulders I have borne<br /> +Of an estate encumbered far and wide<br /> +With debts I had to pay. Ah! everywhere<br /> +Murmurs, revolts, or wars assailed my throne.<br /> +Now quiet comes—even in Britain here,<br /> +The most disturbing Province of them all.<br /> +Yet I must go, the profits I must leave<br /> +To others to enjoy—to hold with ease<br /> +What I with bitter travail have obtained.<br /> +Peace there must be, and mutual amity,<br /> +The one support to hold the Empire firm,<br /> +To keep the Glory of the Empire bright.<br /> +Discord would be the ruin of the pile,<br /> +That my poor hands have built so painfully.<br /> +Only when Peace prevails may we behold<br /> +How small things grow to greatness.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 14em;">—Now I die</span><br /> +And all the issue of the coming days<br /> +I leave to my successor, and my son,<br /> +Though he has been a cruel son to me.<br /> +Bassanius I name your Emperor,<br /> +The new-made Antoninus, who long tried<br /> +To get that title by the sword,<br /> +Who sought my death, the dangers knowing not<br /> +That always must surround a diadem,<br /> +Forgetting that the places of the great<br /> +Are guarded well by Envy and by Fear.<br /> +Blind is ambition, for it cannot see<br /> +That though a sovereign's power large may seem<br /> +To others, by himself the things possessed<br /> +Are counted small enough, aye small they <i>are</i>.<br /> +For titles cannot make a happy man.<br /> +While his thin thread of life must waver so,<br /> +His might is laid upon a weak support.<br /> +So men may point to me, and say 'Behold—<br /> +A man who once was all things in this world,<br /> +Yet now is nothing. For like meaner men<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span><br /> +He paid his debt to nature. His exploits<br /> +He left behind.' Aye, friends I leave my deeds<br /> +For you to register. Reproach or praise<br /> +The shadowing pencil of oblivion<br /> +At last will blot. And yet that all the care<br /> +That I have taken for the general good<br /> +May bring forth happy fruits when I am dust,<br /> +This would I make my one, my last request,<br /> +—Assist my sons with counsel and with aid,<br /> +That they may rule according to the law,<br /> +And you obey according to the right.<br /> +So, through you both—my legions and my sons—<br /> +The Empire shall be held in high respect."<br /> +<br /> +And then the dying Emperor feebly turned<br /> +Toward the urn wherein so soon must lie<br /> +His ashes—and he cried "So shalt thou hold<br /> +What the whole world one time could not contain."<br /> +Thus died Severus.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>TOWN AND COUNTRY</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +About the country they may talk who will,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who praise it ever to the town's despite.</span><br /> +Let him extol the charms of wood and hill<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who finds them peerless. None disputes his right.</span><br /> +<br /> +For me the town! Each well-worn footway old<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To me is dearer than your grass-grown lane.</span><br /> +Not all who struggle here contend for gold;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Green-growing things quit not the soul of pain.</span><br /> +<br /> +"God made the country." Ay, and God made man.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Working through man His power He displays,</span><br /> +And in the city's mazes His great plan<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is writ as clear as in calm country ways.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>STRENGTH RENEWED</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Antæus, as the ancient poets sing,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Though in his contest with the God of Power</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Doomed to be conquered, stayed the fatal hour,</span><br /> +And the onlookers set to wondering.<br /> +For overborne, to Earth he'd closely cling,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Until he rose again, a mighty tower.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thus could the Earth with strength her lover dower,</span><br /> +And very near to victory could bring.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So when I feel thy tender hand in mine,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I, too, dear love, against the world could stand,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Courage divine comes with thy lightest touch.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Afar from thee Antæus-like I pine,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But strength returns now as I clasp thy hand.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Ah! that so slight a thing should mean so much.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>AT MIAMI</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Here, where the proud hibiscus blooms in flame,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where swaying palms nod lightly to the sea,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where each azalea towers—a stately tree—</span><br /> +And orange blossoms charm, today I came<br /> +Upon a little flower unknown to fame,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Half hid in the scant sward, white as this shell</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From yonder beach, and I can hardly tell</span><br /> +What drew me to it, murmuring its name.<br /> +<br /> +"Bred in cool meadows, vagrant from the North,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fair Dewberry, what art thou doing here?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or chance, or purpose started thee to roam?</span><br /> +And yet whatever power sent thee forth,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Still it is thine to call the sudden tear,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To stir the trembling heart with thoughts of home."</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>WHICH</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Who then is rich, who poor? I'll tell you now<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of one, a meagre life who had to live,</span><br /> +Wear dingy garb, and scarcely could allow<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Himself what men call comfort; yet to give</span><br /> +Was his delight,—to give full-heartedly.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Though Fate had hampered him, he always knew</span><br /> +Some one still poorer. In humility<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He thus gave hope to him who had small view</span><br /> +Of happier things;—solace to him who wept;—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And to the beaten courage to endure.</span><br /> +He shared his little with the starved, and kept<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His best for those who needed most. Though poor,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">By giving he grew richer day by day</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">In all that brightens life's uncertain way.</span><br /> +<br /> +There was another who had never known<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A wish unsatisfied. For everything</span><br /> +That luxury could offer was his own.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thus all that learning, all that wealth could bring</span><br /> +Adorned his life. The many him would praise,—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For this world loves the prosperous,—and still</span><br /> +Close to himself he hugged his all. To raise<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A helping hand he never had the will.</span><br /> +He never heard the cries of men in need.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of all he had he would not give a part.</span><br /> +For "I" and "mine" was ever his one creed.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No balm had he for any aching heart.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Mean was his life (as was the other's great)</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Despite the splendor of his high estate.</span><br /> +And now in yonder world I wonder which—<br /> +For both are dead—is counted poor—or rich.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>THE BLESSED DEAD</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +They loved life, even as we, who went away<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From their dear dwelling-place to one unknown</span><br /> +To us who linger here. They could not stay,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor we go with them, so they went alone.</span><br /> +<br /> +Although their beating hearts with ours kept time,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Although their clinging hands we fondly held,</span><br /> +We could not walk the path they had to climb,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hardly we heard the death-call when it knelled.</span><br /> +<br /> +Trustful, or fearful of the way ahead,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They had to journey from this throbbing life,</span><br /> +And we—we know they are the blessed dead,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For they have gone away from pain and strife.</span><br /> +<br /> +We cannot see the land where they have gone.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Our eyes are dim, and they are hid in light,</span><br /> +But we are following them toward the dawn,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who knows when it will break upon our sight!</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>OAK-LEAVES</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Crinkled oak-leaves, twinkling in the sun,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Splashed by midday showers, dripping cold—</span><br /> +Serrate oak-leaves, silvered by the sun<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That has brushed yon dull brown grass with gold.</span><br /> +<br /> +Green and crinkled oak leaves, tremble now—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Strong you would be, strong would be and bold,</span><br /> +Ah! green oak-leaves, you are trembling now—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By the saucy wind deceived—cajoled!</span><br /> +<br /> +Trembling oak leaves—you are soon to fall,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Soon to hide the earth with yellowing mould</span><br /> +Twinkling, crinkling oak-leaves, soon you'll fall<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For the autumn sun is shining cold.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>SELF-SATISFIED</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Well satisfied with all his own, he stands<br /> +Holding a trembling balance in his hands;<br /> +On one scale—wealth and ease, men's praises, too—<br /> +Whatever charms the soul, and keeps it true.<br /> +But on the other scale—lo—the foul street<br /> +Where pallid children play, where poor folk greet,<br /> +And crowded houses dirty, dimly lit,<br /> +On whose dull walls all misery is writ,<br /> +Houses wherein the herded cannot fight<br /> +The ambushed evil lurking day and night.<br /> +Has he—contented one—who counts his gain,<br /> +Balanced the cost—the wretchedness and pain<br /> +Of those who help him hoard his heap of gold?<br /> +Ah, human life may be too dearly sold!<br /> +For see, the one scale weighs the other down.<br /> +His gold, his ease, his honors—by Heaven's frown<br /> +Withered to nothing, now, behold he stands—<br /> +Broken his scales—reaching imploring hands.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>MY VIGIL</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Companioned by the lonely hours,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My vigil with the stars I keep,—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The happy stars that never weep,—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The wakeful stars that never sleep,</span><br /> +Spirit of me that frets and cowers,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ah, what am I, that I should be</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And breathe in this Infinity?</span><br /> +<br /> +Unburdened of the weight of self,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Toward the highest heights I am borne,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Below lies Earth, begrimed and worn,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Far, far from me her praise, her scorn,</span><br /> +Her joys, her woes, her loss, her pelf,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">One with the happy stars am I!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Our limits the unbounded sky!</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>TO MRS. JULIA WARD HOWE</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Dear Lady of Tranquillity, Ah! lightly have the years<br /> +Their music on thy heart-strings played, and all the smiles and tears<br /> +That mark the joy of living, that sound the depths of pain<br /> +For thee make one great harmony—a happy heart's refrain.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">(<i>On her eighty-sixth birthday.</i>)</span></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>THE SOARER</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +There soars a warbler toward high Heaven,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His course seems sure and straight;—</span><br /> +So speeds an arrow from the bow-string,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yet who can read his fate!</span><br /> +<br /> +For while he carols like a seraph<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bound for a radiant star</span><br /> +Mayhap the fowler's eye, relentless,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Has doomed him from afar.</span><br /> +<br /> +A longer life the crawling snail hath<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Than thou—O wanderer bright—</span><br /> +Ah, let the sluggard crawl in safety,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thine is the realm of light!</span><br /> +<br /> +Like thee a soaring soul's in peril,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yet its one hour is worth</span><br /> +A whole Eternity of grovelling<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Closer to grimy earth.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>A FANCY</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +The world of dreams is all my own,<br /> +Wherein I wander—free, alone;—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And each weird, fervid fantasy</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Is dearer than earth's joys to me.</span><br /> +The waking world I share with you;<br /> +And yours, as mine, is the ocean's blue.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">For us both spring's early flowers are fair,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Or the cold stars gleam through the frosty air.</span><br /> +<br /> +But in the world of dreams I rove<br /> +Over sunny fields, or in shaded grove,—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Such beauty your eyes never saw—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And all is mine without let or law.</span><br /> +Ah! the hopes and fears that come and go<br /> +With my flying fancy, none may know;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Though unsubstantial, it seems</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My real world—this world of dreams.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>THE SHRIEKING WOMAN AT MARBLEHEAD</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +'Twas a Spanish galleon sailed the seas,—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Two centuries since have rolled—</span><br /> +Laden with silver and gems to please<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gay dames and gallants bold.</span><br /> +<br /> +But villainous pirates seized the ship<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As homeward she was bound;</span><br /> +Ah, she has made her last long trip<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For they ran her soon aground.</span><br /> +<br /> +From Oakum Bay into Marblehead<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They brought one lady fair,—</span><br /> +Her husband, alas, and his crew are dead,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And her they will not spare.</span><br /> +<br /> +Loud, loud she shrieked in the pirates' arms,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Oh, save me—Jesu, save!"</span><br /> +Cruel echo mocked at her wild alarms,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As they dug her a nameless grave.</span><br /> +<br /> +Yet once a year when the night has come<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That saw her dreadful death,</span><br /> +You can hear her above the ocean's boom<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shriek out with her dying breath.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>THE HUGUENOT LOVERS</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Sorrowful pleading on her face is written<br /> +With love commingled, and my heart throbs fast,<br /> +Flooded with currents of a deep emotion<br /> +Stirred by the memory of that awful past.<br /> +Note the sad gaze of him who bends above her,<br /> +What say his eyes in answer to her own?<br /> +What did he think as tenderly he kissed her?<br /> +What was the meaning of his whispered tone?<br /> +Spoke he of honor's claim poor love's outweighing,<br /> +Or did her circling arms so well enfold<br /> +That the white kerchief wearing-badge of safety—<br /> +He passed the lurking foe with spirit bold.<br /> +<br /> +Ah, they are vanished now—the maid and lover,<br /> +Their history the wisest cannot tell.<br /> +Mayhap upon that night of cruel slaughter,<br /> +Eager to meet the zealot's hate he fell.<br /> +Mayhap in some fair corner of the Kingdom,<br /> +Under the gentler rule of brave Navarre,<br /> +They showed the kerchief to their children's children,<br /> +And told the story of the unholy war.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>TO JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Gay Summer sees the flowering<br /> +Of buds that were the gift of Spring;<br /> +And Winter counts the ripened sheaves<br /> +That Autumn harvested. Who grieves<br /> +When he at length has won the race,<br /> +Or backward then his way would trace?<br /> +<br /> +Oh, honored Poet, Wit, and Sage,<br /> +This birthday marks an open page,<br /> +And here before its record's writ,<br /> +These words we would inscribe on it.<br /> +"Thou, upon whom thy years fourscore<br /> +So lightly sit, thou hast a store<br /> +Of memories such as they alone<br /> +May have whose hearts all truth have known.<br /> +Now may this year bring thee no less<br /> +Than all the past of happiness!"<br /> +</p> + +<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">(<i>On his eightieth birthday.</i>)</span></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>WEED OR FLOWER</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +"'Tis but a common thing," one coldly said,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Nay, call it not a flower—this little weed,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If plucking it, I kill it, root and seed—</span><br /> +Better the world were if it lay there dead."<br /> +<br /> +"Ah—rather let it live!" a second cried,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Weed it may be, and yet it has its use,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Here in its healing essence its excuse</span><br /> +For blooming lies, and here its only pride."<br /> +<br /> +"Destroy it not!" another pled, "Behold<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">This tapering leaf—this soft and tender green,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upon my canvas it shall bloom serene—</span><br /> +This tiny chalice-fleck of living gold."<br /> +<br /> +Then one bent over it, "Ah, flowret bright!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For only flowers in this garden grow,—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His earth, His sunshine made thee, o'er thee blow</span><br /> +His winds, frail thing! In thee He shows His might."<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON (IN MEMORY)</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Sage of the silver pen!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wherever thy thought was heard,</span><br /> +Thou wert a leader of men.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Poet of honored word!</span><br /> +Knight of the eagle glance,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Piercing the depths of wrong,</span><br /> +"Justice" thy cry, and thy lance<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">True in its aim, and strong.</span><br /> +<br /> +Man of the ruddy heart<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beating warm for our kind!</span><br /> +Thine was the hero's part;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eyes wert thou to the blind:</span><br /> +Thou a staff to the weak,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Here we our tribute lay—</span><br /> +Homage thou didst not seek—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Twined with a wreath of bay,</span><br /> +A garland woven of love,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Woven of love and tears,</span><br /> +Pure as the note of a dove,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Voicing thy peaceful years.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">(<i>Read at the Memorial Meeting Nov. 20, 1911.</i>)</span></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">LIGHTER VERSE</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>FRIGHTENED</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Today I had the awfulest time,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dear mother, in the wood.</span><br /> +That hill out there we were to climb,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And we'd been very good.</span><br /> +But nurse was walking up the hill,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When little Anne and I,</span><br /> +We had to stop and stand quite still,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And Anne began to cry.</span><br /> +<br /> +For something moved behind the trees,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">We felt so all alone—</span><br /> +Said I to Anne, "Stop crying, please,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I'll hit it with a stone."</span><br /> +Cried Anne, "Oh, listen, hear it growl."<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Said I, "I'm not afraid</span><br /> +Of bears or lions." "Now don't scowl.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">You look so cross," she said.</span><br /> +So then I had to smile and smile, for Anne was crying all the while.<br /> +And if we didn't <i>hear</i> a bear, I'm sure, dear mother, one was there.<br /> +<br /> +Boys always must take care of girls,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">You see you've told me so.</span><br /> +That's why I tried to pat Anne's curls,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And walked with her real slow.</span><br /> +But when we heard nurse calling out,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Come, children, come along!"</span><br /> +"Come, Nurse," you should have heard me shout—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Anne says my voice is strong.</span><br /> +"Run, Anne," I cried, "I'm almost five, and I'll kill any bear alive."<br /> +And if we didn't <i>see</i> a bear, I truly think that one was there.<br /> +<br /> +How glad I was when Nurse turn'd round,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For everything seemed queer.</span><br /> +The trees looked strange, and then that sound<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">We didn't like to hear.</span><br /> +Nurse laughed when we had told her all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">About the bear we saw.</span><br /> +"I came as quick's I heard you call,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And it's against the law</span><br /> +For bears to live where people stay. They are five hundred miles away."<br /> +But if we didn't <i>meet</i> a bear, I'm sure that <i>almost</i> one was there.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>THE CHRISTMAS LETTER</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +I'm always glad when Christmas comes, and yet I'd like it better;<br /> +If mother wouldn't bother me to write a Christmas letter<br /> +To uncle John and Cousin Kate and dear old Grand-aunt Gray,<br /> +And all whose presents come to me from places far away.<br /> +Of course I love my presents, and if givers should forget her,<br /> +No little girl, my mother says, need write a Christmas letter.<br /> +For oh! my ink makes awful blots, though I try to do real well,<br /> +And when you write them out of school, all words are hard to spell.<br /> +I mean to mind my mother, she's so kind I would not fret her,<br /> +But when she says, "Stop playing, dear. Come, write this Christmas letter,"<br /> +That's just the thing I hate to hear, and if I dared, I wouldn't<br /> +Remember how to hold a pen, I'd make believe I couldn't.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>A VICTIM</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +My Auntie has a camera, and when I'm out at play<br /> +And see her coming with it, I try to hide away.<br /> +For oh, it is so bothersome to hear her, with a laugh,<br /> +Call, "Stand just were you are, dear; I'll take a photograph."<br /> +<br /> +Sometimes, an angry lion, I have just begun to roar,<br /> +And all the children run from me to sneak behind the door,<br /> +When Auntie to our forest comes—why does she stop our fun?<br /> +I'd like to shoot that camera there with my wooden gun.<br /> +<br /> +Perhaps, a fire engine, I am rushing to a fire,<br /> +While people loudly call for help as flames rise higher and higher.<br /> +I hurry toward the hydrant here, for oh! the flames are hot!<br /> +When Auntie with her camera cries, "What a fine snapshot!"<br /> +<br /> +But then it doesn't seem to snap, so I must be polite,<br /> +And when she says, "Oh please, stand still, the sun is not just right,"<br /> +I have to pull up where I am, and see that house burn down,<br /> +For Auntie doesn't understand, even when I twist and frown.<br /> +<br /> +She only says, "Don't squirm, my pet! Oh, what a cunning pose!<br /> +Your scowl is better than a smile,"—so that's the way it goes—<br /> +A p'liceman or an admiral, no matter what I am,<br /> +I have to face that camera as quiet as a lamb.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>JACK FROST</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Oh! it is little Margery who has a garden-bed,<br /> +Wherein grow purple pansies and geraniums white and red,<br /> +With feverfew and dahlias, and delicate pink phlox,<br /> +And grandmother's fair favorites, old-fashioned hollyhocks.<br /> +<br /> +One night we feared Jack Frost might come to blight the tender flowers—<br /> +We almost felt his cruel breath in the early evening hours;<br /> +So Margery took coverings and spread them, thick and warm,<br /> +To shield the flowers, as blankets wrap a sleeping baby's form.<br /> +<br /> +Then in the morning, when we looked across the dewy grass,<br /> +And saw the traces Jack Frost leaves where he is wont to pass—<br /> +For each spreading tree and slender bush had felt his chill caress,<br /> +And some had drooped, and some had blushed in crimson loveliness—<br /> +<br /> +We hastened to the garden-bed, and there, in bright array,<br /> +The little flowers looked blithely up to greet the smiling day.<br /> +Safe hid from Jack Frost's piercing breath, he never saw them there,<br /> +And the flowers still bloom for Margery, to thank her for her care.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>A CURIOSITY</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +I knew a little boy, not very long ago,<br /> +Who was as bright and happy as any boy you know.<br /> +He had an only fault, and you will all agree<br /> +That from a fault like this a boy himself might free.<br /> +<br /> +"I wonder who is there, oh, see! now, why is this?"<br /> +And "Oh, where are they going?" and "Tell me what it is?"<br /> +Ah! "which" and "why" and "who," and "what" and "where" and "when,"<br /> +We often wished that never need we hear those words again.<br /> +<br /> +He seldom stopped to think; he almost always knew<br /> +The answer to the questions that around the world he threw.<br /> +To children seeking knowledge a quick reply we give,<br /> +But answering what he asked was pouring water through a sieve.<br /> +Yet you'll admit his fate was as sad as it was strange.<br /> +Our eyes we hardly trusted, who slowly saw him change.<br /> +More curious grew his head, stemlike his limbs, and hark!<br /> +He was at last a mere interrogation-mark!<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>THE FIRST LIE</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +I'm sure I did not break this cup;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">It just fell down,—I know it did—</span><br /> +For I was only climbing up,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Why</i> do they keep the cake-box hid?—</span><br /> +I wanted such a little bit!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And then I heard that creaking door,</span><br /> +I can't tell what it was I hit,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor how that cup got on the floor.</span><br /> +<br /> +The shelf it stood on was too high,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That cup my mother loved the most!</span><br /> +Oh dear! I never told a lie,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And mother whispered, "Do not boast,"</span><br /> +The day I said I never could.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(But there's that broken cup!)—and then</span><br /> +I promised that I never would—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So—I'll not tell a lie—<i>again</i>.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>THE PARASOL</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +You are the loveliest parasol<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I ever saw,—and all my own,—</span><br /> +What frilly frills! I feel as tall<br /> +As mother now. Here! take my doll.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dolls are for children—ladies grown</span><br /> +Have parasols, and fans, and rings,<br /> +And all those pretty, shiny things.<br /> +<br /> +Nurse calls you "sunshade," but I think<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That is too plain a word, for see!</span><br /> +You are so satiny and pink<br /> +And there is such a curly kink<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Here in your handle, there could be</span><br /> +No name too fine, I love you so,<br /> +I'll take you everywhere I go.<br /> +<br /> +Next Sunday when to church I walk,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Above my head I'll hold you high.</span><br /> +Oh! how the other girls will talk,<br /> +And maybe some of them will mock,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"How proud she feels," as I pass by—</span><br /> +I'd hold you up, straight down the aisle,<br /> +If only people wouldn't smile.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>A MODERN GRANDMOTHER</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +I want to see a grandmother like those there used to be,<br /> +In a cosy little farm-house, where I could go to tea;<br /> +A grandmother with spectacles and a funny, frilly cap,<br /> +Who would make me sugar cookies, and take me on her lap,<br /> +And tell me lots of stories of the days when she was small,<br /> +When everything was perfect—not like today at all.<br /> +<br /> +My grandmother is "grandma," and she lives in a hotel,<br /> +And when they ask "What is his age?" she smiles and will not tell.<br /> +Says she doesn't care to realize that she is growing old;<br /> +Then whispers—"But you're far too big a boy for me to hold."<br /> +Her dresses shine and rustle, and her hair is wavy brown,<br /> +And she has an automobile, that she steers, herself, down town.<br /> +<br /> +My grandmother is pretty. "Do I love her?" Rather—yes;<br /> +Our Norah calls her stylish, and on the whole I guess<br /> +She's better than the other kind, for once, when I was ill,<br /> +She helped my mother nurse me, and read to me until<br /> +I fell asleep; and stayed with me, and wasn't tired, and then<br /> +She played nine holes of golf with me when I got out again.<br /> +Yet, because I've never seen one, just once I want to see<br /> +A real old-fashioned grandmother, like those there used to be.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>SIGNS FOR THE SERIOUS</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +He has a taste that's superfine who flouts at every subway sign,<br /> +He reckons not that some there be, who cannot tell, unless they see<br /> +Spelled plain before them on the wall, what things their own they ought to call<br /> +For instance, when I come to town, whom you may dub a country clown—<br /> +How should I know what things to buy, if not a subway sign were nigh<br /> +To show—the pills I ought to take my all-consuming thirst to slake;—<br /> +The hair restorer that will soothe my infant son with his first tooth;—<br /> +The ruddy catsup that is sure all family jars and ills to cure;—<br /> +The dollar watch that daintily we'll serve, wound-up, for early tea;—<br /> +The window-screens that will not hide our failings from the country-side;—<br /> +What breakfast-food is our true friend, the dime cigars that I should send<br /> +My wife to cure her racking cough. The hooks and eyes that won't come off<br /> +Ah! hats, and soaps, and castor-oil, and cocoa that we need not boil;—<br /> +And well-made suits and patent soup, and phonographs.—But what a dupe<br /> +Of every city tradesman I, if all these vendibles I'd try<br /> +To purchase by my native wit! Yet what the subway "best" has writ<br /> +In flaming words, with weird device—that make I mine,—and pay the price.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>TRIMMING</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +When your father, long ago, tried to train you—and you know<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He thought mornings meant for school, and not for swimming—</span><br /> +How your heart beat loud in dread as relentlessly he said,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"You'll <i>remember</i>—when you've had another trimming."</span><br /> +<br /> +When your daughter buys a hat, and you're wondering thereat,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As before the glass she stands, its beauty hymning;</span><br /> +Ah! the mischief in her eyes, as she pleads, "Show no surprise<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">At the <i>cost</i>. One has to pay for <i>pretty trimming</i>."</span><br /> +<br /> +When the butcher brings your bill, and you stare at it until<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Your tongue with fervid words is fairly brimming,</span><br /> +Then you hear him meekly say, as your anger you display,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"It seems high, because there's so much <i>waste</i> in trimming."</span><br /> +<br /> +So when politicians try your votes to beg or buy<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With their sophistry—your common sense that's dimming—</span><br /> +Just <i>remember</i> then the <i>cost</i> (and the <i>waste</i>, should all be lost),<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of the smooth-tongued, wordy trimmer's <i>pretty trimming</i>.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>THE ANNEX</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage"<br /> +High halls do not a College make, nor book-lined shelves a sage.<br /> +So might I follow haltingly these olden words to show<br /> +That even in this newer home the Annex may not know<br /> +A greater zeal for learning than the old house could bestow.<br /> +But comparisons are odious, so I'll merely try to say<br /> +That cherished deep within the hearts of many here today<br /> +Is the memory of that early home in the classic Appian Way.<br /> +There first did the young Annex (whose real Christian name<br /> +Contains as many syllables as it has liens on fame)<br /> +Win laurels even brighter than its friends had hoped to claim.<br /> +And there, too, in their search, for intellectual recreation<br /> +Its students formed the short-lived <i>Appian Way Association</i><br /> +Of which this later Club is but an "Idler" imitation.<br /> +Just where the interloper dwelt was long a mystery.<br /> +In the past to Harvard students and to townsmen equally,<br /> +Till they cried, "There is no Annex—believe we only what we see!"<br /> +Now the Annex and its mission every year are better known,<br /> +From the smallest of beginnings strong and powerful it has grown:<br /> +Only Harvard Freshmen speak of it in supercilious tone,<br /> +Although custom would forbid us as we are passing near,<br /> +To salute the ancient building with a rousing Annex cheer,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span><br /> +We need no sign like this to prove that still we hold it dear.<br /> +Now the students who have profited by their foreseeing care<br /> +Fondly thank the Annex founders who knew not the word "despair."<br /> +Its best home was the hearts of those who planned the structure fair.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">(<i>Read at a College celebration.</i>)</span></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>A LIBERTY BOND</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +A liberty bond! What a queer contradiction!<br /> +Although truth, as you've heard, may be stranger than fiction.<br /> +For Liberty should from all fetters release us,<br /> +While bonds hold one fast, whether pauper or Crœsus.<br /> +Yet a Liberty Bond—I'd advise you to buy it—<br /> +Will ensure you your freedom—you'll see when you try it.<br /> +'Twill aid you to conquer foes cruel, despotic,<br /> +'Twill help save your Country, come, be patriotic!<br /> +A Liberty Bond—I'd advise you to buy one—<br /> +Will ensure you your freedom—rejoice when you try one!<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>A HERO</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Like many another I have crossed<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oftener than once the broad Atlantic,</span><br /> +And—feeling qualms when tempest-tossed,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Have shuddered at the waves gigantic,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Fearing that really nevermore</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I'd find myself again ashore.</span><br /> +<br /> +Then when—upset—and scarce awake,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In moments of perturbed reflection,</span><br /> +My wandering thoughts would slowly take<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Time and again the same direction.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I'd think of that adventurous man,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Who crossed the sea—first of my clan.</span><br /> +<br /> +'Tis not for me to hope to find<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upon my family tree's broad branches</span><br /> +Ancestors wholly to my mind;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I know that I am taking chances</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In digging them up from the past</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To deck this hardy tree at last.</span><br /> +<br /> +Indeed I would not waste my breath,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And even less my ink and paper,</span><br /> +To prove from Queen Elizabeth<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is my descent (<i>some</i> cut this caper),</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nor in King Alfred root my tree—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Here's jocund genealogy.</span><br /> +<br /> +A Governor or two, of course,—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or even a Colonial preacher</span><br /> +I'd not despise,—nor yet perforce<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A good Selectman, stern of feature,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Provided they came early here.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Such ancestors to me are dear.</span><br /> +<br /> +Yet of them all the man I hold<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A mighty hero—none seems greater—</span><br /> +Is he—that honest man and bold—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whether Psalm-singer, or bear-baiter,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">First of my name to reach the strand,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of this almost unpeopled land.</span><br /> +<br /> +He may have been of high estate,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He may have been a simple yeoman,</span><br /> +Undaunted by an adverse fate,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Brave was he as the bravest Roman.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">At naught he quailed, his heart was stout,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">When he for the New World set out.</span><br /> +<br /> +Compared with mine—a little skiff<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His boat was, on the untracked ocean,</span><br /> +Comforts were scarce, and breezes stiff—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No luxuries,—though I've a notion</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Billows were just as high as now,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">While Danger sat upon the prow.</span><br /> +<br /> +Just where would be his landing-place.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He hardly knew when waves he tossed on</span><br /> +While my woes at sea efface<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By merely murmuring, "Home is Boston."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Yet he had left his all behind</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In the new world his all to find.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">"R-e-e-d"—"e-i"—"e-a,"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Just how we spell it need not matter.</span><br /> +The name we honor here today<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Each clan may claim with equal clatter</span><br /> +British, euphonious, clear and short,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rede me a name of better sort!</span><br /> +</p> + +<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Read at a meeting of a Genealogical Society.</i></span></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>THE RIVALS</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Said the Bicycle to the Automobile:<br /> +"How high and mighty and gay you feel;<br /> +Yet I can remember the day when I<br /> +Would let no other one pass me by<br /> +Cart horse and roadster and racehorse too,<br /> +Far ahead of them all I flew.<br /> +Now my tires are unpumped and my warning bell<br /> +The attention of nobody can compel.<br /> +<br /> +"Though you maim your thousands where I hurt one,<br /> +Though ten times my farthest is your day's run,<br /> +Still I have been learning while lying here,<br /> +That a rival's coming for you to fear.<br /> +I have heard them talk of a wonderful thing,<br /> +That can fly in the air like a bird on the wing,<br /> +That can carry a man over land, over sea;<br /> +In a twinkling he is where he wishes to be.<br /> +<br /> +"So swiftly it speeds, in a week and a day<br /> +One may girdle the globe, I have heard them say,<br /> +While you are contented from dawn to dark<br /> +With a few score miles to have made your mark."<br /> +The giant, throughout his quivering frame,<br /> +Felt the truth that was mixed with his rival's blame.<br /> +"I'll never be such a clod as you,"<br /> +He sputtered as off on the road he flew;<br /> +And his end the Bicycle never knew.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">FROM THE ODES OF HORACE</span></p> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>TO MÆCENAS. III-29</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Mæcenas, scion of Tyrrhenian rulers,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A jar, as yet unpierced, of mellow wine</span><br /> +Long waits thee here, with balm for thee made ready<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And blooming roses in thy locks to twine.</span><br /> +<br /> +No more delay, nor always look with favor<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The sloping fields of Æsula upon;</span><br /> +Why gaze so long on ever marshy Tibur<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Near by the mount of murderer Telegon?</span><br /> +<br /> +Give up thy luxury—it palls upon thee—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thy tower that reaches yonder lofty cloud;</span><br /> +Cease to admire the smoke, the wealth, the uproar,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And all that well hath made our Rome so proud.</span><br /> +<br /> +Sometimes a change is grateful to the rich man,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A simple meal beneath a humble roof</span><br /> +Has often smoothed from care the furrowed forehead,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Though unadorned that home with purple woof.</span><br /> +<br /> +Bright Cepheus now his long-hid fire is showing,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Now flames on high the angry lion-star,</span><br /> +Now Procyon rages, and the sun revolving<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Brings back the thirsty season from afar.</span><br /> +<br /> +Seeking a cooling stream, the weary shepherd<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His languid flock leads to the shady wood</span><br /> +Where rough Sylvanus reigns, yet by the brookside.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No truant breeze disturbs the solitude.</span><br /> +<br /> +Ah, who but thee is busy now with statecraft?<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thou plannest for Rome's weal, disquieted,</span><br /> +Lest warring Scythian, Bactrian, or Persian<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Should'st plunge the city into awful dread.</span><br /> +<br /> +A prudent deity in pitchy darkness<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The issue of futurity conceals,</span><br /> +And smiles when man beyond the right of mortals,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His fear about the time to come reveals.</span><br /> +<br/> +Thou should'st concern thee only with the present,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All else progresses as the river flows,</span><br /> +Which gliding at one time in middle channel<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Toward the Tuscan Sea unruffled goes;</span><br /> +<br /> +Or at another time, herds, trees, and houses,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And broken rocks to one destruction drags,</span><br /> +When wild the flood provokes the quiet current<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With noise from neighboring woods and distant</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">crags.</span><br /> +<br /> +Happy he lives, and of himself is master,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That man who can at night with truth declare,</span><br /> +"I have lived to-day, to-morrow let the Father<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Make as he will my sky or dark or fair,</span><br /> +<br /> +"It is not his to render vain and worthless<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My happy past—the bliss has dearer grown</span><br /> +That the fleet-footed hour carried with it;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The joys that once have been are still my own.</span><br /> +<br /> +"Now upon me, again on others smiling,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fortune rejoices in her savage trade</span><br /> +Of shifting thus at will uncertain honors,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As stubbornly her mocking game is played.</span><br /> +<br /> +"I praise her when she stays, but if she leave me,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fluttering her airy wings in hasty flight,</span><br /> +I yield her what she gave, and wrapped in virtue,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In dowerless Poverty find my delight.</span><br /> +<br /> +"Although the mast may crack beneath the South<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">wind,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I will not rush with many a doleful prayer</span><br /> +To barter thus my vows, lest all my treasure<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From Tyre and Cyprus should become a share</span><br /> +<br /> +"Of what the greedy sea has in possession;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nay! then, protected in my two-oared boat,</span><br /> +With favoring winds, and with twin Pollux guiding<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Safe through the Ægean tempests I will float."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p class="poem">(<i>This version won, in 1890, the Sargent Prize, offered +annually to students of Harvard University and Radcliffe +College.</i>)</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>TO LEUCONOË. I-11</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Seek not to learn—Leuconoë,—a mortal may not know—<br /> +What term of life on you or me our deities bestow.<br /> +The Babylonian soothsayer consult not; better bear<br /> +Whatever comes, whether to you more winters Jove shall spare,<br /> +Or whether this may be the last, grinding the Tuscan sea<br /> +On yonder rocks. Even as we talk, time envious shall flee.<br /> +Filter your wine, be wise, and clip your hopes to life's brief span.<br /> +Then seize today; to-morrow trust as little as you can.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>TO NEOBULÉ. III-12</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Ah! Unhappy are the maidens, who love's game are kept from playing,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor in mellow wine may wash away their cares;</span><br /> +Who, scared by scolding uncles' tongues, their terror are displaying,—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But from you, though, Neobulé, Cupid bears</span><br /> +Your basket and your webs, yet all the zeal you have been showing<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For industrious Minerva, is the prey</span><br /> +Of fair Hebrus, Liparæan, when his shoulders, oiled and glowing,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He has bathed in Tiber's waters. Let me say</span><br /> +As a horseman, than Bellerophon he's really something greater;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Never worsted in a hand-fight, nor a race.</span><br /> +Skilled to shoot the flying stag-herd in the open,—swift he later<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Snares the boar, close-hidden in a shady place.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>THE HARDY YOUTH. III-2</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +The hardy youth, my friends, in bitter warfare<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To narrow poverty must learn to bend,</span><br /> +And, for his spear a horseman to be dreaded,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Courageous Parthians into flight must send.</span><br /> +And he must try all dangerous adventures,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His life out in the open he must pass;</span><br /> +The warring tyrant's wife and growing daughter<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Him spying from their hostile walls, "Alas,"</span><br /> +They sigh—for fear the royal husband,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Unskilled in warlike arts, should dare attack</span><br /> +This lion, fierce to touch, whom bloody anger<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Into the midst of slaughter has dragged back.</span><br /> +'Tis sweet and fit to perish for one's country,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Death follows fast upon the man who flees,</span><br /> +Nor spares the coward backs of youth retreating,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor saves them trembling on their timid knees,</span><br /> +Valor, of shabby failure all unconscious,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gleams with untarnished honor where she stands,</span><br /> +Assuming not, nor laying down her emblems,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As now the gaping populace demands.</span><br /> +Valor, when opening Heaven to those, who dying<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Deserve not death, by paths no other knows</span><br /> +Points out the way, and still while she is soaring,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Her scorn for crowds and humid earth she shows.</span><br /> +And there's a sure reward for loyal silence.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Him I'll forbid under my roof to sit</span><br /> +Who has divulged the Elusinian mysteries,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor in my fragile shallop shall he flit</span><br /> +Often great Jupiter, when once neglected,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The wicked near the innocent has put,</span><br /> +But punishment to overtake the guilty<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Has rarely failed, though she is lame of foot</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>TO THE STATE. I-14</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Oh! Ship of State! fresh billows to sea will bear thee back,<br /> +Then turn about and bravely toward the harbor tack,<br /> +Thou see'st that thy naked sides defending oarsmen lack.<br /> +<br /> +Behold! thy mast lies shattered before the swift south wind,<br /> +Listen! the yards are creaking, the ropes no longer bind,<br /> +Strength to endure the boisterous waves thy keel can hardly find.<br /> +<br /> +Now all thy sails are ragged; the gods are swept away<br /> +To whom, borne down by peril, thy quaking soul would pray.<br /> +Though lofty be thy lineage, its pride is vain today.<br /> +<br /> +The power and name thou boastest are now of no avail,<br /> +Thy stern is gayly painted, and still thy seamen quail,<br /> +Beware lest thou art made the sport of every idle gale.<br /> +<br /> +Ah! dearly loved, my country; my fond yet heavy care!<br /> +Thy discords lately wearied me, but now I breathe a prayer<br /> +That thee the tides of faction, the glittering rocks may spare.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>TO APOLLO. I-31</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +What prays the poet of enshrined Apollo?<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">What is he asking for with lifted hands,</span><br /> +Pouring a fresh libation from his flagon?—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Not fertile crop from rich Sardinian lands,—</span><br /> +Not the fair herds of sultry, damp Calabria,—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Not even Indian ivory and gold;—</span><br /> +Nor meadows that the Liris, silent river,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With sluggish flow has nibbled, as it rolled.</span><br /> +Let those whom Fortune has endowed with vineyards,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With the Calenian knife their grapevines trim,</span><br /> +Let the rich merchant from his golden goblet<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Drink wine by Syrian traffic bought for him.</span><br /> +Dear to the very gods he three times yearly,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yes four times, travels the Atlantic Sea</span><br /> +Unharmed. But I—I feed myself on olives,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ay, succory and soft mallows are for me.</span><br /> +<br /> +Let one enjoy sound health and my possessions—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Son of Latona, grant to me, I pray,</span><br /> +With a sane mind an old age all unsullied,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor let my gift—my lyre—be taken away.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>TO DIANA. III-22</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Diana, Protector of mountain and wood,<br /> +Who when three times invoked, hast so well understood,<br /> +And young mothers in child-birth hast rescued from death,<br /> +Goddess, triply endowed!<br /> +Let this tree overhanging my house here, this pine<br /> +Be for thee, that each year I shall consecrate thine,<br /> +Happy still—with the blood of a boar, whose last breath,<br /> +Planned a side-long attack.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>TO MELPOMENE. IV-3</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Oh, him whom at birth you with favor regarded<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Melpomene! never an Isthmian game</span><br /> +Shall render renowned, though he's skilled as a boxer,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor shall a swift horse lead him onward to fame.</span><br /> +Though a victor he rides in a chariot Achaian,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Not him shall the fortune of war ever show.</span><br /> +In the Capitol wearing the garland of laurel<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Because the proud threatenings of kings he laid low.</span><br /> +But every stream flowing over the country<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fertile Tibur around, and so every grove</span><br /> +With its thick-growing leaves shall ennoble the poet,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In Æolian song he ennobled shall prove.</span><br /> +The offspring of Rome, that is Queen among cities,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Me have deemed as a bard to be worthy a place</span><br /> +In her glorious choir, and less and less keenly<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Already the sharp bite of Envy I trace.</span><br /> +Oh—Pieris! oh Muse, who the sweet tone controllest<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of the golden-tongued lyre, able too, to endow</span><br /> +The dumb fishes as well, if it happen to please thee,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With the notes of the swan, 'tis from thee it comes now,</span><br /> +That I by the finger of those who are passing<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Lord of our own Roman lyre am shown,</span><br /> +For all inspiration, for all that is pleasing,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If it happen to please, thou hast made it my own.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>HORACE AND LYDIA. III-9</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +"One time when I was pleasing to you, Lydia,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And when no other youth, preferred to me,</span><br /> +Your snowy neck could with his arms encircle,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then happier I than Persia's King may be."</span><br /> +<br /> +"When of another you were less enamored,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor ranked me after Chloe in your love,</span><br /> +Then I, your Lydia, of wide reputation,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Than Roman Ilia more renowned could prove."</span><br /> +<br /> +"Now Thracian Chloe, skilled in mellow measures,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And expert on the harp, holds me her slave,</span><br /> +To die for her would never cause me terror,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If her—my soul—the Fates alive would save."</span><br /> +<br /> +"'Tis Calais, Ornytus' son, the Thurian,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who now consumes me with a mutual fire,</span><br /> +Ah! death for him twice over would I suffer,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Would but the Fates not let the boy expire."</span><br /> +<br /> +"What if our former love to us returning,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Us in a stronger yoke should join again!</span><br /> +Should I unbar the door to cast-off Lydia,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And give up fair-haired Chloe, ah, what then?"</span><br /> +<br /> +"Though he be lovelier than a constellation,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Though lighter than a cork, my dear, are you,</span><br /> +Than stormy Adriatic more uncertain,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With you I'd love to live, die gladly, too."</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>TO CENSORINUS. IV-8</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +With kindly thought I'd give, Oh Censorinus,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bowls and bronze vases pleasing to each friend;</span><br /> +Tripods I'd offer, prizes of brave Grecians,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And not the worst of gifts to you I'd send</span><br /> +Were I, forsooth, rich in such artist's treasure<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As Scopas and Parrhasius could convey,</span><br /> +This one in stone, and that in liquid color,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Skilled here a man,—a god there to portray.</span><br /> +But mine no power like this, nor does your spirit<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or your affairs need luxuries so choice.</span><br /> +Songs we can give, and on the gift set value,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Songs we can give, and you in songs rejoice.</span><br /> +Not marble carved with popular inscriptions<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whereby the spirit and the life return</span><br /> +After their death unto our upright leaders,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor Hannibal's swift flight, nor threatenings stern</span><br /> +Thrown back on him, nor flames from impious Carthage,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ever more clearly pointed out the praise</span><br /> +Of him who, after Africa was conquered,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Acquired a name, than did the Calabrian lays.</span><br /> +And you would lose, if writings should be silent,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The price of all that you so well have done.</span><br /> +And Romulus,—his fame had envy silenced—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where had he been—great Mars and Ilia's son?</span><br /> +Æacus, rescued from the Stygian waters,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The genius, the favor, and the tongue</span><br /> +Of mighty bards sent to the blessed islands,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He cannot die, whose praise the Muse has sung.</span><br /> +The Muse can deify. So tireless Hercules<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In Jove's desired banquets has a share.</span><br /> +And the Tyndaridæ's clear constellation<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of ships wrecked in the lowest depths takes care,</span><br /> +Liber, his brows adorned with living vine-leaf,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Brings to good issue every honest prayer.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>TO THALIARCHUS. I-9</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +You see how our Soracte now is standing<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hoary with heavy snow, and now its weight</span><br /> +To bear the struggling woods are hardly able,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And with the bitter cold the streams stagnate.</span><br /> +The cold melt thou away, oh, Thaliarchus,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By heaping logs upon thy fire, again</span><br /> +Replenishing, and from a Sabine flagon<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wine of a four years' vintage draw thou then.</span><br /> +Leave to the gods the rest; for at the moment<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They felled the winds upon the boiling sea</span><br /> +That battled fiercely, then there was not stirring<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or mountain-ash, or ancient cypress tree.</span><br /> +Cease thou to ask what is to be to-morrow,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The day that Fortune gives, score thou as gain.</span><br /> +As when a boy, thou shalt not scorn love's sweetness,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor smoothly moving dancers shalt disdain</span><br /> +While crabbed age from thy fresh youth is distant.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Now in the Field and in the Public Square</span><br /> +All the soft whisperings that come at night-fall<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shall at the trysting be repeated there.</span><br /> +Now, too, the tempting laugh from a far corner<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That must the maiden lurking there betray!</span><br /> +Also the pledge that she in feigned resistance,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lets from her arm or hand be taken away!</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>TO CHLOE. I-23</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Ah Chloe, like a fawn you now elude me,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Seeking its timid dam on lonely hills,</span><br /> +Its dam who not without an idle tremor<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">At breezes in the forest thrills.</span><br /> +For if before the breeze the bushes quiver<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With rustling leaves, or if green lizards start</span><br /> +Across the bramble, then it is it trembles,—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">This little fawn—in knees and heart.</span><br /> +But Chloe, I am not a cruel tiger,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor a Gætulian lion, thee to chase;</span><br /> +And now that thou art old enough to marry,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beside thy mother take thy place.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>TO FUSCUS. I-22</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Oh, Fuscus, he whose life is pure and upright,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wants not the Moorish javelin nor the bow,</span><br /> +Nor may he need the quiver, heavy laden<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With arrows poisoned for the lurking foe.</span><br /> +Whether he is about to make a journey<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To sultry Libya, or the unfriendly height</span><br /> +Of Caucasus, or to the distant places<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That famed Hydaspes washes in his flight.</span><br /> +For lately me a wolf fled in the forest—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Sabine forest, as my Lalage</span><br /> +I sang about,—beyond my boundaries wandering,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Care-free, unarmed—the creature fled from me.</span><br /> +Apulia, land of soldiers, never nourished<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In her broad woods a monster of such girth,</span><br /> +Nor Mauritania, arid nurse of lions,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To such a one has ever given birth.</span><br /> +Ah, put me on those plains, remote and barren,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where not a tree can feel the summer wind,</span><br /> +And grow again—a land of mist eternal—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whereover Jupiter still broods, unkind;</span><br /> +Or place me in that land denied man's dwelling,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Too near the chariot of the sun above,—</span><br /> +Still my own Lalage so sweetly smiling,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My sweetly-speaking Lalage I'll love.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>TO VENUS. III-26</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Lately was I to gentle maidens suited,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And not without some glory did contend,</span><br /> +But now my weapons and my lute made useless<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For contests, on this wall I will suspend,</span><br /> +That guards the left side of our sea-born Venus;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Here, here, place you my gleaming waxen torch,</span><br /> +My levers and my crow-bars that can threaten<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The doors that ought to open on this porch.</span><br /> +Oh, Goddess, thou who blessed Cyprus rulest,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And Memphis ever lacking Thracian snow,</span><br /> +My Queen, in passing, with thy whip uplifted<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Give to my haughty Chloe just one blow.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>A PALINODE. I-16</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +Oh, daughter, lovelier than your lovely mother,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whatever punishment you may desire</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Give my offending verses; in the fire</span><br /> +Throw them, please you, or in the Adriatic.<br /> +Not Dindymene, no, nor even Apollo<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So shakes the minds of priests within the shrine;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor so disturbing is the God of wine,</span><br /> +Nor Corybantes doubling their shrill cymbals,<br /> +As direful fits of anger that are frightened<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Neither by Noric sword nor savage flame,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor by ship-wrecking seas, nor them can tame</span><br /> +Great Jupiter himself, with all his thunders.<br /> +To our original clay, they say Prometheus<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Was forced to add a portion he had made</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of bits from every creature, and he laid</span><br /> +In human hearts rage from the furious lion.<br /> +With crushing ruin rage destroyed Thyestes;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And as a final cause rage may be known</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Why mighty cities fell, quite overthrown,</span><br /> +And why upon their walls a sneering army<br /> +Its plowshare drags along. But keep your temper!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Me, too in my sweet youth a frenzied heart</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Has tempted sorely, and its maddening dart</span><br /> +Has driven me to write impetuous verses<br /> +To change sad things for brighter I am seeking,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And since my offending verses I retract,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I beg of you in turn a friendly act,</span><br /> +That you again to me your heart give over.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>LASTING FAME. III-30</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +A monument outlasting brass I have builded,<br /> +Higher than pyramids in their crumbling glory,<br /> +That no devouring storm, nor futile North wind<br /> +Can overthrow, nor years in long succession,<br /> +Nor fleeting seasons. I shall not wholly perish.<br /> +In great part I'll escape the funeral pyre;<br /> +And lately praised, my praise will go on growing<br /> +To latest years. As long as Priest and Vestal<br /> +Ascend the Capitol, I shall be mentioned<br /> +Where Aufidus fierce rages, and where Daunus<br /> +A rustic race rules in an arid country.<br /> +Great, though of humble birth, I the first poet<br /> +To write in Latin rhythms Æolian lyrics,<br /> +Take pride, Melpomene, in well-earned merits,<br /> +And crown me willingly with Delphic laurel.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="poem"><span class="big"><i>RELIGION. I-34</i></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="poem"> +God's mean and careless servant—while I wander<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Deep in the madness of Philosophy,—</span><br /> +Now backward I must set my sail, and ponder<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where my forsaken course retraced shall be.</span><br /> +For Jupiter, who with his glittering fire<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So often cleaves apart the threatening clouds,</span><br /> +His wingèd car and thundering horses higher<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Toward air has driven where no shadow shrouds.</span><br /> +<br /> +Whereat the sluggish earth, each vagrant river,—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Styx, and hated Tænarus' dread abode,</span><br /> +And the Atlantic borders shake and shiver.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ah—to reverse high things and low, our God</span><br /> +Is able, and the mighty he can lower,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The obscure can raise. From this man Fortune steals</span><br /> +The crown to give to that one;—in her power,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Showing with hissing wings the joy she feels.</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="big">TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:</span></p> +<p> </p> + <p><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been retained + from the original.</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Inconsistencies between the poem titles in the Table of Contents and the + titles of the poems in the text have been retained from the original except:</span></p> + <p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>The Raven</i> in the Table of Contents changed to <i>The Rover</i></span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Obvious typographical errors have been corrected as follows:</span></p> + +<p> + <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Page 32: <i>Rememeber</i> changed to <i>Remember</i></span><br/> + <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Page 37: <i>everyhing</i> changed to <i>everything</i></span></p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Memorial Day and Other Verse, by Helen Leah Reed + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMORIAL DAY AND OTHER VERSE *** + +***** This file should be named 36153-h.htm or 36153-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/1/5/36153/ + +Produced by Heather Clark, David E. 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