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diff --git a/old/kgdlv10.txt b/old/kgdlv10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a2cec89 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/kgdlv10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3619 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Kingdom of Love, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox +#4 in our series by Ella Wheeler Wilcox + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.06/12/01*END* +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + + + + + +This etext was produced by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk, +from the 1909 Gay and Hancock edition. + + + + + +THE KINGDOM OF LOVE AND OTHER POEMS + +by Ella Wheeler Wilcox + + + + +Contents: + +The Kingdom Of Love +Meg's Curse +Solitude +The Gossips +Platonic +Grandpa's Christmas +After The Engagement +A Holiday +False +Two Sinners +The Phantom Ball +Words And Thoughts +Wanted--A Little Girl +The Suicide +"Now I Lay Me" +The Messenger +A Servian Legend +Peek-A-Boo +The Falling Of Thrones +Her Last Letter +The Princess's Finger-Nail +A Baby In The House +The Foolish Elm +Robin's Mistake +New Year Resolve +What We Want +Breaking The Day In Two +The Rape Of The Mist +The Two Glasses +The Maniac +What Is Flirtation? +Husband And Wife +How Does Love Speak? +Reincarnation +As You Go Through Life +How Salvator Won +The Watcher +How Will It Be? +Memory's River +Love's Way +A Man's Last Love +The Lady And The Dame +Confession +A Married Coquette +Forbidden Speech +The Summer Girl +The Ghost +The Signboard +A Man's Repentance +Aristarchus +Dell And I +About May +Vanity Fair +The Giddy Girl +A Girl's Autumn Reverie +His Youth +Under The Sheet +A Pin +The Coming Man + + + +THE KINGDOM OF LOVE + + + +In the dawn of the day when the sea and the earth + Reflected the sunrise above, +I set forth with a heart full of courage and mirth + To seek for the Kingdom of Love. +I asked of a Poet I met on the way + Which cross-road would lead me aright; +And he said "Follow me, and ere long you shall see + Its glittering turrets of light." + +And soon in the distance a city shone fair. + "Look yonder," he said; "How it gleams!" +But alas! for the hopes that were doomed to despair, + It was only the "Kingdom of Dreams." +Then the next man I asked was a gay Cavalier, + And he said: "Follow me, follow me"; +And with laughter and song we went speeding along + By the shores of Life's beautiful sea. + +Then we came to a valley more tropical far + Than the wonderful vale of Cashmere, +And I saw from a bower a face like a flower + Smile out on the gay Cavalier; +And he said: "We have come to humanity's goal: + Here love and delight are intense." +But alas and alas! for the hopes of my soul - + It was only the "Kingdom of Sense." + +As I journeyed more slowly I met on the road + A coach with retainers behind; +And they said: "Follow me, for our Lady's abode + Belongs in that realm, you will find." +'Twas a grand dame of fashion, a newly-made bride, + I followed, encouraged and bold; +But my hopes died away like the last gleams of day, + For we came to the "Kingdom of Gold." + +At the door of a cottage I asked a fair maid. + "I have heard of that realm," she replied; +"But my feet never roam from the 'Kingdom of Home,' + So I know not the way," and she sighed. +I looked on the cottage; how restful it seemed! + And the maid was as fair as a dove. +Great light glorified my soul as I cried: + "Why, HOME is the 'Kingdom of Love'!" + + + +MEG'S CURSE + + + +The sun rode high in a cloudless sky + Of a perfect summer morn. +She stood and gazed out into the street, + And wondered why she was born. +On the topmost branch of a maple-tree + That close by the window grew, +A robin called to his mate enthralled: + "I love but you, but you, but you." + +A soft look came in her hardened face - + She had not wept for years; +But the robin's trill, as some sounds will, + Jarred open the door of tears. +She thought of the old home far away; + She heard the whr-r-r of the mill; +She heard the turtle's wild, sweet call, + And the wail of the whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will. + +She saw again that dusty road + Whence he came riding down; +She smelled once more the flower she wore + In the breast of her simple gown. +Out on the new-mown meadow she heard + Two blue-jays quarrel and fret, +And the warning cry of a Phoebe bird + "More wet, more wet, more wet." + +With a blithe "Hello" to the men below + Who were spreading the new-mown hay, +The rider drew rein at her window-pane - + How it all came back to-day! +How young she was, and how fair she was; + What innocence crowned her brow! +The future seemed fair, for Love was there - + And now--and now--and now. + +In a dingy glass on the wall near by + She gazed on her faded face. +"Well, Meg, I declare, what a beauty you are! + She sneered, "What an angel of grace! +Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! + What a thing of beauty and grace!" +She reached out her arms with a moaning sob: + "Oh, if I could go back!" +Then, swift and strange, came a sudden change; + Her brow grew hard and black. + +"A curse on the day and a curse on that man, + And on all who are his," she cried; +"May he starve and be cold, may he live to be old + When all who loved him have died." +Her wild voice frightened the robin away + From the branch by the window-sill; +And little he knew as away he flew, + Of the memories stirred by his trill. + +He called to his mate on the grass below, + "Follow me," as he soared on high; +And as mates have done since the world begun + She followed, and asked not why. +The dingy room seemed curtained with gloom; + Meg shivered with nameless dread. +The ghost of her youth and her murdered truth + Seemed risen up from the dead. + +She hurried out into the noisy street, + For the silence made her afraid; +To flee from thought was all she sought, + She cared not whither she strayed. +Still on she pressed in her wild unrest + Up avenues skirting the park, +Where fashion's throng moved gayly along + In Vanity Fair--when hark! + +A clatter of hoofs down the stony street, + The snort of a frightened horse +That was running wild, and a laughing child + At play in its very course. +With one swift glance Meg saw it all. + "HIS child--my God! HIS child!" +She cried aloud, as she rushed through the crowd + Like one grown suddenly wild. + +There, almost under the iron feet, + Hemmed in by a passing cart, +Stood the baby boy--the pride and joy + Of the man who had broken her heart. +Past swooning women and shouting men + She fled like a flash of light; +With her slender arm she gathered from harm + The form of the laughing sprite. + +The death-shod feet of the mad horse beat + Her down on the pavings grey; +But the baby laughed out with a merry shout, + And thought it splendid play. +He pulled her gown and called to her: "Say, + Dit up and do dat some more, +Das jus' ze way my papa play + Wiz me on ze nursery floor." + +When the frightened father reached the scene, + His boy looked up and smiled +From the stiffening fold of the arm, death-cold, + Of Meg, who had died for his child. +Oh! idle words are a woman's curse + Who loves as woman can; +For put to the test, she will bare her breast + And die for the sake of the man. + + + +SOLITUDE + + + +Laugh, and the world laughs with you: +Weep, and you weep alone; + For the sad old earth + Must borrow its mirth, +It has trouble enough of its own. + +Sing, and the hills will answer; +Sigh, it is lost on the air; + The echoes bound + To a joyful sound, +But shrink from voicing care. + +Rejoice, and men will seek you; +Grieve, and they turn and go; + They want full measure + Of all your pleasure, +But they do not want your woe. + +Be glad, and your friends are many; +Be sad, and you lose them all; + There are none to decline + Your nectared wine, +But alone you must drink life's gall. + +Feast, and your halls are crowded; +Fast, and the world goes by; + Succeed and give, + And it helps you live, +But it cannot help you die. + +There is room in the halls of pleasure +For a long and lordly train; + But one by one + We must all file on +Through the narrow aisles of pain. + + + +THE GOSSIPS + + + +A rose in my garden, the sweetest and fairest, + Was hanging her head through the long golden hours; +And early one morning I saw her tears falling, + And heard a low gossiping talk in the bowers. +The yellow Nasturtium, a spinster all faded, + Was telling a Lily what ailed the poor Rose: +"That wild roving Bee who was hanging about her, + Has jilted her squarely, as every one knows. + +"I knew when he came, with his singing and sighing, + His airs and his speeches so fine and so sweet, +Just how it would end; but no one would believe me, + For all were quite ready to fall at his feet." +"Indeed, you are wrong," said the Lily-belle proudly, + "I cared nothing for him; he called on me once, +And would have come often, no doubt, if I'd asked him, + But though he was handsome, I thought him a dunce." + +"Now, now, that's not true," cried the tall Oleander. + "He has travelled and seen every flower that grows; +And one who has supped in the garden of princes, + We all might have known would not we with the Rose." +"But wasn't she proud when he showed her attention? + And she let him caress her," said sly Mignonette; +"And I used to see it and blush for her folly. + The silly thing thinks he will come to her yet." + +"I thought he was splendid," said pretty pert Larkspur, + "So dark, and so grand with that gay cloak of gold; +But he tried once to kiss me, the impudent fellow! + And I got offended; I thought him too bold." +"Oh, fie!" laughed the Almond, "that does for a story. + Though I hang down my head, yet I see all that goes; +And I saw you reach out trying hard to detain him, + But he just tapped your cheek and flew by to the Rose. + +"He cared nothing for her; he only was flirting + To while away time, as I very well knew; +So I turned a cold shoulder on all his advances, + Because I was certain his heart was untrue." +"The Rose is served right for her folly in trusting + An oily-tongued stranger," quoth proud Columbine. +"I knew what he was, and thought once I would warn her, + But of course the affair was no business of mine." + +"Oh, well," cried the Peony, shrugging her shoulders, + "I saw all along that the Bee was a flirt; +But the Rose has been always so praised and so petted, + I thought a good lesson would do her no hurt." +Just then came the sound of a love-song sung sweetly, + I saw my proud Rose lifting up her bowed head; +And the talk of the gossips was hushed in a moment, + And the flowers all listened to hear what was said. + +And the dark, handsome Bee, with his cloak o'er his shoulder, + Came swift through the sunlight and kissed the sad Rose, +And whispered: "My darling, I've roved the world over, + And you are the loveliest flower that grows." + + + +PLATONIC + + + +I knew it the first of the summer, + I knew it the same at the end, +That you and your love were plighted, + But couldn't you be my friend? +Couldn't we sit in the twilight, + Couldn't we walk on the shore +With only a pleasant friendship + To bind us, and nothing more? + +There was not a word of folly + Spoken between us two, +Though we lingered oft in the garden + Till the roses were wet with dew. +We touched on a thousand subjects - + The moon and the worlds above, - +And our talk was tinctured with science, + And everything else, save love. + +A wholly Platonic friendship + You said I had proven to you +Could bind a man and a woman + The whole long season through, +With never a thought of flirting, + Though both were in their youth +What would you have said, my lady, + If you had known the truth! + +What would you have done, I wonder, + Had I gone on my knees to you +And told you my passionate story, + There in the dusk and the dew? +My burning, burdensome story, + Hidden and hushed so long - +My story of hopeless loving - + Say, would you have thought it wrong? + +But I fought with my heart and conquered, + I hid my wound from sight; +You were going away in the morning, + And I said a calm good-night. +But now when I sit in the twilight, + Or when I walk by the sea +That friendship, quite Platonic, + Comes surging over me. + +And a passionate longing fills me + For the roses, the dusk, the dew; +For the beautiful summer vanished, + For the moonlight walks--and YOU. + + + +GRANDPA'S CHRISTMAS + + + +In his great cushioned chair by the fender + An old man sits dreaming tonight, +His withered hands, licked by the tender + Warm rays of the red anthracite, +Are folded before him, all listless; + His dim eyes are fixed on the blaze, +While over him sweeps the resistless + Flood-tide of old days. + +He hears not the mirth in the hallway, + He hears not the sounds of good cheer, +That through the old homestead ring alway + In the glad Christmas-time of the year. +He heeds not the chime of sweet voices + As the last gifts are hung on the tree. +In a long-vanished day he rejoices - + In his lost Used-to-be. + +He has gone back across dead Decembers + To his childhood's fair land of delight; +And his mother's sweet smile he remembers, + As he hangs up his stocking at night. +He remembers the dream-haunted slumber + All broken and restless because +Of the visions that came without number + Of dear Santa Claus. + +Again, in his manhood's beginning, + He sees himself thrown on the world, +And into the vortex of sinning + By Pleasure's strong arms he is hurled. +He hears the sweet Christmas bells ringing, + "Repent ye, repent ye, and pray"; +But he joins with his comrades in singing + A bacchanal lay. + +Again he stands under the holly + With a blushing face lifted to his +For love has been stronger than folly, + And has turned him from vice unto bliss; +And the whole world is lit with new glory + As the sweet vows are uttered again, +While the Christmas bells tell the old story + Of peace unto men. + +Again, with his little brood 'round him, + He sits by the fair mother-wife; +He knows that the angels have crowned him + With the truest, best riches of life; +And the hearts of the children, untroubled, + Are filled with the gay Christmas-tide; +And the gifts for sweet Maudie are doubled, + Tis her birthday, beside. + +Again,--ah, dear Jesus, have pity - + He finds in the chill, waning day, +That one has come home from the city - + Frail Maudie, whom love led astray. +She lies with her babe on her bosom - + Half-hid by the snow's fleecy spread; +A bud and a poor trampled blossom - + And both are quite dead. + +So fair and so fragile! just twenty - + How mocking the bells sound to-night! +She starved in this great land of plenty, + When she tried to grope back to the light. +Christ. are Thy disciples inhuman, + Or only for MEN hast Thou died? +No mercy is shown to a woman + Who once steps aside. + +Again he leans over the shrouded + Still form of the mother and wife; +Very lonely the way seems, and clouded, + As he looks down the vista of life. +With the sweet Christmas chimes there is blended + The knell for a life that is done, +And he knows that his joys are all ended + And his waiting begun. + +So long have the years been, so lonely, + As he counts them by Christmases gone. +"I am homesick," he murmurs; "if only + The Angel would lead the way on. +I am cold, in this chill winter weather; + Why, Maudie, dear, where have you been? +And you, too, sweet wife--and together - + O Christ, let me in" + +The children ran in from the hallway, + "Were you calling us, grandpa?" they said. +Then shrank, with that fear that comes alway + When young eyes look their first on the dead. +The freedom so longed for is given. + The children speak low and draw near: +"Dear grandpa keeps Christmas in Heaven + With grandma, this year." + + + +AFTER THE ENGAGEMENT + + + +Well, Mabel, 'tis over and ended - + The ball I wrote was to be; +And oh! it was perfectly splendid - + If you COULD have been here to see. +I've a thousand things to write you + That I know you are wanting to hear, +And one, that is sure to delight you - + I am wearing Joe's diamond, my dear! + +Yes, mamma is quite ecstatic + That I am engaged to Joe; +She thinks I am rather erratic, + And feared that I might say "No." +But, Mabel, I'm twenty-seven + (Though nobody DREAMS it, dear), +And a fortune like Joe's isn't given + To lay at one's feet each year. + +You know my old fancy for Harry - + Or, at least, I am certain you guessed +That it took all my sense not to marry + And go with that fellow out west. +But that was my very first season - + And Harry was poor as could be, +And mamma's good practical reason + Took all the romance out of me. + +She whisked me off over the ocean, + And had me presented at court, +And got me all out of the notion + That ranch life out west was my forte. +Of course I have never repented - + I'm not such a goose of a thing; +But after I had consented + To Joe--and he gave me the ring - + +I felt such a queer sensation. + I seemed to go into a trance, +Away from the music's pulsation, + Away from the lights and the dance. +And the wind o'er the wild prairie + Seemed blowing strong and free, +And it seemed not Joe, but Harry + Who was standing there close to me. + +And the funniest feverish feeling + Went up from my feet to my head, +With little chills after it stealing - + And my hands got as numb as the dead. +A moment, and then it was over: + The diamond blazed up in my eyes, +And I saw in the face of my lover + A questioning, strange surprise. + +Maybe 'twas the scent of the flowers, + That heavy with fragrance bloomed near, +But I didn't feel natural for hours; + It was odd now, wasn't it, dear? +Write soon to your fortunate Clara, + Who has carried the prize away, +And say you'll come on when I marry, - + I think it will happen in May. + + + +A HOLIDAY + + + +THE WIFE + +The house is like a garden, + The children are the flowers, +The gardener should come methinks + And walk among his bowers, +Oh! lock the door on worry + And shut your cares away, +Not time of year, but love and cheer, + Will make a holiday. + +THE HUSBAND + +Impossible! You women do not know +The toil it takes to make a business grow. +I cannot join you until very late, +So hurry home, nor let the dinner wait. + +THE WIFE + +The feast will be like Hamlet + Without a Hamlet part: +The home is but a house, dear, + Till you supply the heart. +The Xmas gift I long for + You need not toil to buy; +Oh! give me back one thing I lack - + The love-light in your eye. + +THE HUSBAND + +Of course I love you, and the children too +Be sensible, my dear, it is for you +I work so hard to make my business pay. +There, now, run home, enjoy your holiday. + +THE WIFE (turning) + +He does not mean to wound me, + I know his heart is kind. +Alas! that man can love us + And be so blind, so blind. +A little time for pleasure, + A little time for play; +A word to prove the life of love + And frighten Care away! +Tho' poor my lot in some small cot + THAT were a holiday. + +THE HUSBAND (musing) + +She has not meant to wound me, nor to vex - +Zounds! but 'tis difficult to please the sex. +I've housed and gowned her like a very queen +Yet there she goes, with discontented mien. +I gave her diamonds only yesterday: +Some women are like that, do what you may. + + + +FALSE + + + +False! Good God, I am dreaming! + No, no, it never can be - +You who are so true in seeming, + You, false to your vows and me? +My wife and my fair boy's mother + The star of my life--my queen - +To yield herself to another + Like some light Magdalene! + +Proofs! what are proofs--I defy them! + They never can shake my trust; +If you look in my face and deny them + I will trample them into the dust. +For whenever I read of the glory + Of the realms of Paradise, +I sought for the truth of the story + And found it in your sweet eyes. + +Why, you are the shy young creature + I wooed in her maiden grace; +There was purity in each feature, + And my heaven I found in your face. +And, "not only married but mated," + I would say in my pride and joy; +And our hopes were all consummated + When the angels gave us our boy. + +Now you could not blot that beginning + So beautiful, pure and true, +With a record of wicked sinning + As a common woman might do. +Look up in your old frank fashion, + With your smile so free from art; +And say that no guilty passion + Has ever crept into your heart. + +How pallid you are, and you tremble! + You are hiding your face from view! +"Tho' a sinner, you cannot dissemble" - + My God! then the tale is true? +True, and the sun above us + Shines on in the summer skies? +And men say the angels love us, + And that God is good and wise. + +Yet he lets a wanton thing like you + Ruin my home and my name! +Get out of my sight or I strike you + Dead in your shameless shame! +No, no, I was wild, I was brutal; + I would not take your life, +For the efforts of death would be futile + To wipe out the sin of a wife. +Wife--why, that word has seemed sainted + I uttered it like a prayer; +And now to think it is tainted - + Christ! how much we can bear! + +"Slay you!" my boy's stained mother - + Nay, that would not punish, or save; +A soul that has outraged another + Finds no sudden peace in the grave. +I will leave you here to REMEMBER + The Eden that was your own, +While on toward my life's December + I walk in the dark alone. + + + +TWO SINNERS + + + +There was a man, it was said one time, +Who went astray in his youthful prime. +Can the brain keep cool and the heart keep quiet +When the blood is a river that's running riot? +And boys will be boys, the old folks say, +And a man is the better who's had his day + +The sinner reformed; and the preacher told +Of the prodigal son who came back to the fold. +And Christian people threw open the door, +With a warmer welcome than ever before. +Wealth and honour were his to command, +And a spotless woman gave him her hand. +And the world strewed their pathway with blossoms abloom, +Crying, "God bless ladye, and God bless groom!" + +There was a maiden who went astray, +In the golden dawn of her life's young day. +She had more passion and heart than head, +And she followed blindly where fond Love led. +And Love unchecked is a dangerous guide +To wander at will by a fair girl's side. + +The woman repented and turned from sin, +But no door opened to let her in. +The preacher prayed that she might be forgiven, +But told her to look for mercy--in heaven. +For this is the law of the earth, we know: +That the woman is stoned, while the man may go. + +A brave man wedded her after all, +But the world said, frowning, "We shall not call." + + + +THE PHANTOM BALL + + + +You remember the hall on the corner? + To-night as I walked down street +I heard the sound of music, + And the rhythmic beat and beat, +In time to the pulsing measure + Of lightly tripping feet. + +And I turned and entered the doorway - + It was years since I had been there - +Years, and life seemed altered: + Pleasure had changed to care. +But again I was hearing the music + And watching the dancers fair. + +And then, as I stood and listened, + The music lost its glee; +And instead of the merry waltzers + There were ghosts of the Used-to-be - +Ghosts of the pleasure-seekers + Who once had danced with me. + +Oh, 'twas a ghastly picture! + Oh, 'twas a gruesome crowd! +Each bearing a skull on his shoulder, + Each trailing a long white shroud, +As they whirled in the dance together, + And the music shrieked aloud. + +As they danced, their dry bones rattled + Like shutters in a blast; +And they stared from eyeless sockets + On me as they circled past; +And the music that kept them whirling + Was a funeral dirge played fast. + +Some of them wore their face-cloths, + Others were rotted away. +Some had mould on their garments, + And some seemed dead but a day. +Corpses all, but I knew them + As friends, once blithe and gay. + +Beauty and strength and manhood - + And this was the end of it all: +Nothing but phantoms whirling + In a ghastly skeleton ball. +But the music ceased--and they vanished, + And I came away from the hall. + + + +WORDS AND THOUGHTS + + + +He said as he sat in her theatre box +Between the acts, "What beastly weather! +How like a parrot the lover talks - +And the lady is tame, and the villain stalks - +I hope they finally die together." + +He thought--"You are fair as the dawn's first ray; +I know the angels keep guard above you. +And so I chatter of weather, and play, +While all the time I am mad to say, +I love you, love you, love you." + +He said--"The season is almost run; +How glad we are, when the whirl is over! +For the toil of pleasure is more than its fun, +And what is it all, when all is done, +But the stick of a rocket that has descended?" + +He thought--"Oh God! to be off somewhere +Afar with you, from this scene of fashion; +To know you were mine, and to have you care, +And to lose myself in the crimson snare +Of your lips, in a kiss of passion." + +He said--"You are going abroad, no doubt, +This land of Liberty coldly scorning. +I too shall journey a bit about, +From Wall Street up by the L. Road out +To Harlem, and down each morning." + +He thought--"It must follow on land or sea, +This pent-up, passionate, dumb devotion, +Till the cry of a rapture that may not be +Shall reach your heart from the heart of me +And stir you with strange emotion." + + + + +WANTED--A LITTLE GIRL + + + +Where have they gone to--the little girls +With natural manners and natural curls; +Who love their dollies and like their toys, +And talk of something besides the boys? + +Little old women in plenty I find, +Mature in manners and old of mind; +Little old flirts who talk of their "beaux," +And vie with each other in stylish clothes. + +Little old belles who, at nine and ten, +Are sick of pleasure and tired of men; +Weary of travel, of balls, of fun, +And find no new thing under the sun. + +Once, in the beautiful long ago, +Some dear little children I used to know; +Girls who were merry as lambs at play, +And laughed and rollicked the livelong day. + +They thought not at all of the "style" of their clothes, +They never imagined that boys were "beaux" - +"Other girls' brothers" and "mates" were they, +Splendid fellows to help them play. + +Where have they gone to? If you see +One of them anywhere send her to me. +I would give a medal of purest gold +To one of those dear little girls of old, +With an innocent heart and an open smile, +Who knows not the meaning of "flirt" or "style." + + + +THE SUICIDE + + + +Vast was the wealth I carried in life's pack - + Youth, health, ambition, hope and trust; but Time + And Fate, those robbers fit for any crime, +Stole all, and left me but the empty sack. +Before me lay a long and lonely track + Of darkling hills and barren steeps to climb; + Behind me lay in shadows the sublime +Lost lands of Love's delight. Alack! Alack! + +Unwearied, and with springing steps elate, + I had conveyed my wealth along the road. + The empty sack proved now a heavier load: +I was borne down beneath its worthless weight. +I stumbled on, and knocked at Death's dark gate. + There was no answer. Stung by sorrow's goad + I FORCED my way into that grim abode, +And laughed, and flung Life's empty sack to Fate. + +Unknown and uninvited I passed in + To that strange land that hangs between two goals, + Round which a dark and solemn river rolls - +More dread its silence than the loud earth's din. +And now, where was the peace I hoped to win? + Black-masted ships slid past me in great shoals, + Their bloody decks thronged with mistaken souls. +(God punishes mistakes sometimes like sin.) + +Not rest and not oblivion I found. + My suffering self dwelt with me just the same; + But here no sleep was, and no sweet dreams came +To give me respite. Tyrant Death, uncrowned +By my own hand, still King of Terrors, frowned + Upon my shuddering soul, that shrank in shame + Before those eyes where sorrow blent with blame, +And those accusing lips that made no sound. + +What gruesome shapes dawned on my startled sight + What awful sighs broke on my listening ear! + The anguish of the earth, augmented here +A thousand-fold, made one continuous night. +The sack I flung away in impious spite + Hung yet upon me, filled, I saw in fear. + With tears that rained from earth's adjacent sphere, +And turned to stones in falling from that height. + +And close about me pressed a grieving throng, + Each with his heavy sack, which bowed him so + His face was hidden. One of these mourned: "Know +Who enters here but finds the way more long +To those fair realms where sounds the angels' song. + There is no man-made exit out of woe; + Ye cannot dash the locked door down and go +To claim thy rightful joy through paths of wrong." + +He passed into the shadows dim and grey, + And left me to pursue my path alone. + With terror greater than I yet had known. +Hard on my soul the awful knowledge lay, +Death had not ended life nor found God's way; + But, with my same sad sorrows still my own, + Where by-roads led to by-roads, thistle-sown, +I had but wandered off and gone astray. + +With earth still near enough to hear its sighs, + With heaven afar and hell but just below, + Still on and on my lonely soul must go +Until I earn the right to Paradise. +We cannot force our way into God's skies, + Nor rush into the rest we long to know; + But patiently, with bleeding steps and slow +Toil on to where selfhood in Godhood dies. + + + +"NOW I LAY ME" + + + +When I pass from earth away, +Palsied though I be and grey, +May my spirit keep so young +That my failing, faltering tongue +Frames that prayer so dear to me, +Taught me at my mother's knee: +"Now I lay me down to sleep," +(Passing to Eternal rest +On the loving parent breast) +"I pray the Lord my soul to keep;" +(From all danger safe and calm +In the hollow of His palm;) +"If I should die before I wake," +(Drifting with a bated breath +Out of slumber into death,) +"I pray the Lord my soul to take." +(From the body's claim set free +Sheltered in the Great to be.) +Simple prayer of trust and truth. +Taught me in my early youth - +Let my soul its beauty keep +When I lay me down to sleep. + + + +THE MESSENGER + + + +She rose up in the early dawn, + And white and silently she moved +About the house. Four men had gone + To battle for the land they loved, +And she, the mother and the wife, +Waited for tidings from the strife. +How still the house seemed! and her tread +Was like the footsteps of the dead. + +The long day passed, the dark night came; + She had not seen a human face. +Some voice spoke suddenly her name. + How loud it echoed in that place +Where, day by day, no sound was heard +But her own footsteps! "Bring you word," +She cried to whom she could not see, +"Word from the battle-plain to me?" + +A soldier entered at the door, + And stood within the dim firelight: +"I bring you tidings of the four," + He said, "who left you for the fight." +"God bless you, friend," she cried; "speak on! +For I can bear it. One is gone?" +"Ay, one is gone!" he said. "Which one?" +"Dear lady, he, your eldest son." + +A deathly pallor shot across + Her withered face; she did not weep. +She said: "It is a grievous loss, + But God gives His beloved sleep. +What of the living--of the three? +And when can they come back to me?" +The soldier turned away his head: +"Lady, your husband, too, is dead." + +She put her hand upon her brow; + A wild, sharp pain was in her eyes. +"My husband! Oh, God, help me now!" + The soldier heard her shuddering sighs. +The task was harder than he thought. +"Your youngest son, dear madam, fought +Close at his father's side; both fell +Dead, by the bursting of a shell." + +She moved her lips and seemed to moan. + Her face had paled to ashen grey: +"Then one is left me--one alone," + She said, "of four who marched away. +Oh, overruling, All-wise God, +How can I pass beneath Thy rod!" +The soldier walked across the floor, +Paused at the window, at the door, + +Wiped the cold dew-drops from his cheek + And sought the mourner's side again. +"Once more, dear lady, I must speak: + Your last remaining son was slain +Just at the closing of the fight; +Twas he who sent me here to-night." +"God knows," the man said afterward, +"The fight itself was not so hard." + + + +A SERVIAN LEGEND + + + +Long, long ago, ere yet our race began, +When earth was empty, waiting still for man, +Before the breath of life to him was given +The angels fell into a strife in heaven. + +At length one furious demon grasped the sun +And sped away as fast as he could run, +And with a ringing laugh of fiendish mirth, +He leaped the battlements and fell to earth. + +Dark was it then in heaven, but light below; +For there the demon wandered to and fro, +Tilting aloft upon a slender pole +The orb of day--the pilfering old soul. + +The angels wept and wailed; but through the dark +The Great Creator's voice cried sternly: "Hark! +Who will restore to me the orb of Light, +Him will I honour in all heaven's sight." + +Then over the battlements there dropped another. +(A shrewder angel well there could not be.) +Quoth he: "Behold my love for thee, my brother, +For I have left all heaven to stay with thee. + +"Thy loneliness and wanderings I will share, +Thy heavy burden I will help thee bear." +"Well said," the demon answered, "and well done, +But I'll not tax you with this heavy sun. + +"Your company will cheer me, it is true, +And I could never think of burdening you." +Idly they wandered onward, side by side, +Till, by and by, they neared a silvery tide. + +"Let's bathe," the angel suddenly suggested. +"Agreed," the demon answered. "I'll go last, +Because I needs must leave quite unmolested +This tiresome sun, which I will now make fast. + +He set the pole well in the sandy turf, +And called a jackdaw near to watch the place. +Meanwhile the angel paddled in the surf, +And playfully dared his brother to a race. + +They swam around together for a while, +The demon always keeping near his prize, +Till presently the angel, with a smile, +Proposed a healthful diving exercise. + +The demon hesitated. "But," thought he, +"The jackdaw will inform me with a cry +If this good brother tries deceiving me; +I will not be outdone by him--not I! + +Down, down they went. The angel in a trice +Rose up again, and swift to shore he sped. +The jackdaw shrieked, but lo! a mile of ice +The demon found had frozen o'er his head. + +He swore an oath, and gathered all his force, +And broke the ice, to see the sun, of course, +Held firmly in the radiant angel's hand, +Who sailed away toward the heavenly land. + +He gave pursuit. Wrath lent speed to his chase; +All heaven leaned down to watch the exciting race. +On, on they came, and still the Evil One +Gained on the angel burdened with the sun. + +With bated breath and faces white as ghosts, +Over the walls leaned heaven's affrighted hosts. +Up, up, still up, the angel almost spent, +Threw one foot forward o'er the battlement. + +The demon seized the other with a shout; +So fierce his clutch he pulled the bottom out, +As the good angel, fainting, laid the sun +Down by the throne of God, who cried: "Well done! +Thy great misfortune shall be made divine: +MAN will I create with a foot like thine!" + + + +PEEK-A-BOO + + + +The cunningest thing that a baby can do +Is the very first time it plays peek-a-boo; + +When it hides its pink little face in its hands, +And crows, and shows that it understands + +What nurse, and mamma and papa, too, +Mean when they hide and cry, "Peek a-boo, peek-a-boo." + +Oh, what a wonderful thing it is, +When they find that baby can play like this! + +And every one listens, and thinks it true +That baby's gurgle means "Peek-a-boo, peek-a-boo"; + +And over and over the changes are rung +On the marvellous infant who talks so young. + +I wonder if any one ever knew +A baby that never played peek-a-boo, peek-a-boo. + +'Tis old as the hills are. I believe +Cain was taught it by Mother Eve; + +For Cain was an innocent baby, too, +And I am sure he played peek-a-boo, peek-a-boo. + +And the whole world full of the children of men, +Have all of them played that game since then. + +Kings and princes and beggars, too, +Every one has played peek-a-boo, peek-a-boo. + +Thief and robber and ruffian bold, +The crazy tramp and the drunkard old, + +All have been babies who laughed and knew +How to hide, and play peek-a-boo, peek-a-boo. + + + +THE FALLING OF THRONES + + + +Above the din of commerce, above the clamour and rattle + Of labour disputing with riches, of Anarchists' threats and groans, +Above the hurry and hustle and roar of that bloodless battle, + Where men are fighting for riches, I hear the falling of thrones. + +I see no savage host, I hear no martial drumming, + But down in the dust at our feet lie the useless crowns of kings; +And the mighty spirit of Progress is steadily coming, coming, + And the flag of one republic abroad to the world he flings. + +The Universal Republic, where worth, not birth, is royal; + Where the lowliest born may climb on a self-made ladder to fame; +Where the highest and proudest born, if he be not true and loyal, + Shall find no masking title to cover and gild his shame. + +Not with the bellow of guns and not with sabres whetting, + But with growing minds of men is waged this swordless fray; +While over the dim horizon the sun of royalty, setting, + Lights, with a dying splendour, the humblest toiler's way. + + + +HER LAST LETTER + + + +Sitting alone by the window, + Watching the moonlit street, +Bending my head to listen + To the well-known sound of your feet, +I have been wondering, darling, + How I can bear the pain, +When I watch, with sighs and tear-wet eyes, + And wait for your coming in vain. + +For I know that a day approaches + When your heart will tire of me; +When by door and gate I may watch and wait + For a form I shall not see; +When the love that is now my heaven, + The kisses that make my life, +You will bestow on another, + And that other will be--your wife. + +You will grow weary of sinning + (Though you do not call it so), +You will long for a love that is purer + Than the love that we two know. +God knows I have loved you dearly, + With a passion strong as true; +But you will grow tired and leave me, + Though I gave up all for you. + +I was as pure as the morning + When I first looked on your face; +I knew I never could reach you + In your high, exalted place. +But I looked and loved and worshipped + As a flower might worship a star, +And your eyes shone down upon me, + And you seemed so far--so far. + +And then? Well, then, you loved me, + Loved me with all your heart; +But we could not stand at the altar - + We were so far apart. +If a star should wed with a flower + The star must drop from the sky, +Or the flower in trying to reach it + Would droop on its stalk and die. + +But you said that you loved me, darling, + And swore by the heavens above +That the Lord and all of His angels + Would sanction and bless our love. +And I? I was weak, not wicked. + My love was as pure as true, +And sin itself seemed a virtue + If only shared by you. + +We have been happy together, + Though under the cloud of sin, +But I know that the day approaches + When my chastening must begin. +You have been faithful and tender, + But you will not always be, +But I think I had better leave you + While your thoughts are kind of me. + +I know my beauty is fading - + Sin furrows the fairest brow - +And I know that your heart will weary + Of the face you smile on now. +You will take a bride to your bosom + After you turn from me; +You will sit with your wife in the moonlight, + And bold her babe on your knee. + +O God! I never could bear it; + It would madden my brain, I know; +And so while you love me dearly + I think I had better go. +It is sweeter to feel, my darling - + To know as I fall asleep - +That some one will mourn me and miss me, + That some one is left to weep, + +Than to die as I should in the future, + To drop in the street some day, +Unknown, unwept, and forgotten + After you cast me away. +Perhaps the blood of the Saviour + Can wash my garments clean; +Perchance I may drink of the waters + That flow through pastures green. + +Perchance we may meet in heaven, + And walk in the streets above, +With nothing to grieve us or part us + Since our sinning was all through love +God says, "Love one another," + And down to the depths of hell +Will He send the soul of a woman + Because she loved--and fell? + +* * * + +And so in the moonlight he found her, + Or found her beautiful clay, +Lifeless and pallid as marble, + For the spirit had flown away. +The farewell words she had written + She held to her cold, white breast, +And the buried blade of a dagger + Told how she had gone to rest. + + + +THE PRINCESS'S FINGER-NAIL: A TALE OF NONSENSE LAND + + + +All through the Castle of High-bred Ease, +Where the chief employment was do-as-you-please, +Spread consternation and wild despair. +The queen was wringing her hands and hair; +The maids of honour were sad and solemn; +The pages looked blank as they stood in column; +The court-jester blubbered, "Boo-hoo, boo-hoo" +The cook in the kitchen dropped tears in the stew +And all through the castle went sob and wail, +For the princess had broken her finger-nail: +The beautiful Princess Red-as-a-Rose, +Bride-elect of the Lord High-Nose, +Broken her finger-nail down to the quick - +No wonder the queen and her court were sick. +Never sorrow so dread before +Had dared to enter that castle door. +Oh! what would my Lord His-High-Nose say +When she took off her glove on her wedding-day? +The fairest princess in Nonsense Land, +With a broken finger-nail on her hand! +'Twas a terrible, terrible accident, +And they called a meeting of parliament; +And never before that royal Court +Had come such question of grave import +As "How could you hurry a nail to grow?" +And the skill of the kingdom was called to show. +They sent for Monsieur File-'em-off; +He smoothed down the corners so ragged and rough. +They sent for Madame la Diamond-Dust, +Who lived on the fingers of upper-crust; +They sent for Professor de Chamois-Skin, +Who took her powder and rubbed it in; +They sent for the pudgy nurse Fat-on-the-Bone +To bathe her finger in eau-de-Cologne; +And they called the court surgeon, Monsieur Red-Tape, +To hear what he thought of the new nail's shape, +Over the kingdom the telegrams flew +Which told how the finger-nail thrived and grew; +And all through the realm of Nonsense Land +They offered up prayers for the princess's hand. +At length the glad tidings were heard with a shout +What the princess's finger-nail had grown out: +Pointed and polished and pink and clean, +Befitting the hand of a some-day queen. +Salutes were fired all over the land +By the home-guard battery pop-gun band; +And great was the joy of my Lord High-Nose, +Who straightway ordered his wedding clothes, +And paid his tailor, Don Wait-for-aye, +Who died of amazement the self-same day. +My lord by a jury was judged insane; +For they said--and the truth of the saying was plain - +That a lord of such very high pedigree +Would never be paying his bills, you see, +Unless he was out of his head; and so +They locked him up without more ado. +And the beautiful Princess Red-as-a-Rose +Pined for her lover, my Lord High-Nose, +Till she entered a convent and took the veil - +And this is the end of my nonsense tale. + + + +A BABY IN THE HOUSE + + + +I knew that a baby was hid in the house; + Though I saw no cradle and heard no cry, +But the husband went tiptoeing round like a mouse, + And the good wife was humming a soft lullaby; +And there was a look on the face of that mother +That I knew could mean only ONE thing, and no other. + +"The MOTHER," I said to myself; for I knew + That the woman before me was certainly that, +For there lay in the corner a tiny cloth shoe, + And I saw on the stand such a wee little hat; +And the beard of the husband said plain as could be, +"Two fat, chubby hands have been tugging at me." + +And he took from his pocket a gay picture-book, + And a dog that would bark if you pulled on a string; +And the wife laid them up with such a pleased look; + And I said to myself, "There is no other thing +But a babe that could bring about all this, and so +That one is in hiding here somewhere, I know." + +I stayed but a moment, and saw nothing more, + And heard not a sound, yet I knew I was right; +What else could the shoe mean that lay on the floor, + The book and the toy, and the faces so bright? +And what made the husband as still as a mouse? +I am sure, VERY sure, there's a babe in that house. + + + +THE FOOLISH ELM + + + +The bold young Autumn came riding along + One day where an elm-tree grew. +"You are fair," he said, as she bent down her head, + "Too fair for your robe's dull hue. +You are far too young for a garb so old; + Your beauty needs colour and sheen. +Oh, I would clothe you in scarlet and gold + Befitting the grace of a queen. + +"For one little kiss on your lips, sweet elm, + For one little kiss, no more, +I would give you, I swear, a robe more fair + Than ever a princess wore. +One little kiss on those lips, my pet, + And lo! you shall stand, I say, +Queen of the forest, and, better yet, + Queen of my heart alway." + +She tossed her head, but he took the kiss - + 'Tis the way of lovers bold - +And a gorgeous dress for that sweet caress + He gave ere the morning was old. +For a week and a day she ruled a queen + In beauty and splendid attire; +For a week and a day she was loved, I ween, + With the love that is born of desire. + +Then bold-eyed Autumn went on his way + In search of a tree more fair; +And mob-winds tattered her garments and scattered + Her finery here and there. +Poor and faded and ragged and cold + She rocked in her wild distress, +And longed for the dull green gown she had sold + For her fickle lover's caress. + +And the days went by and Winter came, + And his tyrannous tempests beat +On the shivering tree, whose robes of flame + He had trampled under his feet. +I saw her reach up to the mocking skies + Her poor arms, bare and thin; +Ah, well-a-day! it is ever the way + With a woman who trades with sin. + + + +ROBIN'S MISTAKE + + + +What do you think Red Robin +Found by a mow of hay? +Why, a flask brimful of liquor, +That the mowers brought that day +To slake their thirst in the hayfield. +And Robin he shook his head: +"Now I wonder what they call it, +And how it tastes?" he said. + +"I have seen the mowers drink it - +Why isn't it good for me? +So I'll just draw out the stopper +And get at the stuff, and see!" +But alas! for the curious Robin, +One draught, and he burned his throat +From his bill to his poor crop's lining, +And he could not utter a note. + +And his head grew light and dizzy, +And he staggered left and right, +Tipped over the flask of brandy, +And spilled it, every mite. +But after awhile he sobered, +And quietly flew away, +And he never has tasted liquor, +Or touched it, since that day. + +But I heard him say to his kindred, +In the course of a friendly chat, +"These men think they are above us, +Yet they drink such stuff as that! +Oh, the poor degraded creatures! +I am glad I am only a bird!" +Then he flew up over the meadow, +And that was all I heard. + + + +NEW YEAR RESOLVE + + + +As the dead year is clasped by a dead December, + So let your dead sins with your dead days lie. +A new life is yours and a new hope. Remember + We build our own ladders to climb to the sky. + +Stand out in the sunlight of promise, forgetting + Whatever the past held of sorrow and wrong. +We waste half our strength in a useless regretting; + We sit by old tombs in the dark too long. + +Have you missed in your aim? Well, the mark is still shining. + Did you faint in the race? Well, take breath for the next. +Did the clouds drive you back? But see yonder their lining. + Were you tempted and fell? Let it serve for a text. + +As each year hurries by, let it join that procession + Of skeleton shapes that march down to the past, +While you take your place in the line of progression, + With your eyes to the heavens, your face to the blast. + +I tell you the future can hold no terrors + For any sad soul while the stars revolve, +If he will stand firm on the grave of his errors, + And instead of regretting--resolve, resolve! + +It is never too late to begin rebuilding, + Though all into ruins your life seems hurled; +For see! how the light of the New Year is gilding + The wan, worn face of the bruised old world. + + + +WHAT WE WANT + + + +All hail the dawn of a new day breaking, +When a strong-armed nation shall take away +The weary burdens from backs that are aching +With maximum labour and minimum pay; +When no man is honoured who hoards his millions; +When no man feasts on another's toil; +And God's poor suffering, striving billions +Shall share His riches of sun and soil. + +There is gold for all in the earth's broad bosom, +There is food for all in the land's great store; +Enough is provided if rightly divided; +Let each man take what he needs--no more. +Shame on the miser with unused riches, +Who robs the toiler to swell his hoard, +Who beats down the wage of the digger of ditches, +And steals the bread from the poor man's board. + +Shame on the owner of mines whose cruel +And selfish measures have brought him wealth, +While the ragged wretches who dig his fuel +Are robbed of comfort and hope and health. +Shame on the ruler who rides in his carriage +Bought with the labour of half-paid men - +Men who are shut out of home and marriage +And are herded like sheep in a hovel-pen. + +Let the clarion voice of the nation wake him +To broader vision and fairer play; +Or let the hand of a just law shake him +Till his ill-gained dollars shall roll away. +Let no man dwell under a mountain of plunder, +Let no man suffer with want and cold; +We want right living, not mere alms-giving; +We want just dividing of labour and gold. + + + +BREAKING THE DAY IN TWO + + + + +When from dawn till noon seems one long day, + And from noon till night another, +Oh, then should a little boy come from play, + And creep into the arms of his mother. +Snugly creep and fall asleep, + Oh, come, my baby, do; +Creep into my lap, and with a nap + We'll break the day in two. + +When the shadows slant for afternoon, + When the midday meal is over, +When the winds have sung themselves into a swoon, + And the bees drone in the clover, +Then hie to me, hie, for a lullaby - + Come, my baby, do; +Creep into my lap, and with a nap + We'll break the day in two. + +We'll break it in two with a crooning song, + With a soft and soothing number; +For the day has no right to be so long + And keep my baby from slumber. +Then rock-a-by, rock, may white dreams flock + Like angels over you; +Baby's gone, and the deed is done, + We've broken the day in two. + + + +THE RAPE OF THE MIST + + + +High o'er the clouds a Sunbeam shone, + And far down under him, +With a subtle grace that was all her own, + The Mist gleamed, fair and dim. + +He looked at her with his burning eyes + And longed to fall at her feet; +Of all sweet things there under the skies, + He thought her the thing most sweet. + +He had wooed oft, as a Sunbeam may, + Wave, and blossom, and flower; +But never before had he felt the sway + Of a great love's mighty power. + +Tall cloud-mountains and vast space-seas, + Wind, and tempest, and fire - +What are obstacles such as these + To a heart that is filled with desire? + +Boldly he trod over cloud and star, + Boldly he swam through space, +She caught the glow of his eyes afar + And veiled her delicate face. + +He was so strong and he was so bright, + And his breath was a breath of flame; +The Mist grew pale with a vague, strange fright, + As fond, yet fierce, he came. + +Close to his heart she was clasped and kissed; + She swooned in love's alarms, +And dead lay the beautiful pale-faced Mist + In the Sunbeam's passionate arms. + + + +THE TWO GLASSES + + + +There sat two glasses, filled to the brim, +On a rich man's table, rim to rim. +One was ruddy and red as blood, +And one was as clear as the crystal flood. + +Said the glass of wine to his paler brother: +"Let us tell tales of the past to each other. +I can tell of banquet, and revel, and mirth, +Where I was king, for I ruled in might; +And the proudest and grandest souls on earth +Fell under my touch, as though struck with blight. +From the heads of kings I have torn the crown; +From the heights of fame I have hurled men down; +I have blasted many an honoured name; +I have taken virtue and given shame; +I have tempted the youth, with a sip, a taste, +That has made his future a barren waste. +Far greater than any king am I, +Or than any army under the sky. +I have made the arm of the driver fail, +And sent the train from its iron rail. +I have made good ships go down at sea, +And the shrieks of the lost were sweet to me. +Fame, strength, wealth, genius, before me fall, +And my might and power are over all. +Ho! ho! pale brother," laughed the wine, +"Can you boast of deeds as great as mine?" + +Said the glass of water: "I cannot boast +Of a king dethroned or a murdered host; +But I can tell of hearts that were sad, +By my crystal drops made light and glad; +Of thirsts I have quenched, and brows I have laved; +Of hands I have cooled and souls I have saved. +I have leaped through the valley and dashed down the mountain; +Slept in the sunshine and dripped from the fountain. +I have burst my cloud-fetters and dropped from the sky, +And everywhere gladdened the landscape and eye. +I have eased the hot forehead of fever and pain; +I have made the parched meadows grow fertile with grain; +I can tell of the powerful wheel o' the mill, +That ground out the flour and turned at my will; +I can tell of manhood, debased by you, +That I have uplifted and crowned anew. +I cheer, I help, I strengthen and aid, +I gladden the heart of man and maid; +I set the chained wine-captive free, +And all are better for knowing me." + +These are the tales they told each other, +The glass of wine and its paler brother, +As they sat together, filled to the brim, +On the rich man's table, rim to rim. + + + +THE MANIAC + + + +I saw them sitting in the shade; + The long green vines hung over, +But could not hide the gold-haired maid + And Earl, my dark-eyed lover. +His arm was clasped so close, so close, + Her eyes were softly lifted, +While his eyes drank the cheek of rose + And breasts like snowflakes drifted. + +A strange noise sounded in my brain; + I was a guest unbidden. +I stole away, but came again + With two knives snugly hidden. +I stood behind them. Close they kissed, + While eye to eye was speaking; +I aimed my steels, and neither missed + The heart I sent it seeking. + +There were two death-shrieks mingled so + It seemed like one voice crying, +I laughed--it was such bliss, you know, + To hear and see them dying. +I laughed and shouted while I stood + Above the lovers, gazing +Upon the trickling rills of blood + And frightened eyes fast glazing. + +It was such joy to see the rose + Fade from her cheek for ever; +To know the lips he kissed so close + Could answer never, never. +To see his arm grow stark and cold, + And know it could not hold her; +To know that while the world grew old + His eyes could not behold her. + +A crowd of people thronged about, + Brought thither by my laughter; +I gave one last triumphant shout - + Then darkness followed after. +That was a thousand years ago; + Each hour I live it over, +For there, just out of reach, you know, + SHE lies, with Earl, my lover. + +They lie there, staring, staring so + With great, glazed eyes to taunt me. +Will no one bury them down low, + Where they shall cease to haunt me? +He kissed her lips, not mine; the flowers + And vines hung all about them. +Sometimes I sit and laugh for hours + To think just how I found them. + +And then I sometimes stand and shriek + In agony of terror: +I see the red warm in her cheek, + Then laugh loud at my error. +My cheek was all too pale, he thought; + He deemed hers far the brightest. +Ha! but my dagger touched a spot + That made HER face the whitest! + +But oh! the days seem very long, + Without my Earl, my lover; +And something in my head seems wrong + The more I think it over. +Ah! look--she is not dead--look there! + She's standing close beside me! +Her eyes are open--how they stare! + Oh, hide me! hide me! hide me! + + + +WHAT IS FLIRTATION? + + + +What is flirtation? Really, + How can I tell you that? +But when she smiles I see its wiles, + And when he lifts his hat. + +'Tis walking in the moonlight, + 'Tis buttoning on a glove, +'Tis lips that speak of plays next week, + While eyes are talking love. + +'Tis meeting in the ball-room, + 'Tis whirling in the dance; +'Tis something hid beneath the lid + More than a simple glance. + +'Tis lingering in the hallway, + 'Tis sitting on the stair, +'Tis bearded lips on finger-tips, + If mamma isn't there. + +'Tis tucking in the carriage, + 'Tis asking for a call; +'Tis long good-nights in tender lights, + And that is--no, not all! + +'Tis parting when it's over, + And one goes home to sleep; +Best joys must end, tra la, my friend, + But one goes home to weep! + + + +HUSBAND AND WIFE + + + +Reach out your arms, and hold me close and fast, +Tell me you have no memories of your past +That mar this love of ours, so great, so vast. + +Some truths are cheapened when too oft averred - +Does not the deed speak louder than the word? +(Dear Christ! that old dream woke again and stirred.) + +As you love me, you never loved before? +Though oft you say it--say it yet once more; +My heart is jealous of those days of yore. + +Sweet wife, dear comrade, mother of my child, +My life is yours, by memory undefiled. +(It stirs again, that passion brief and wild.) + +You never knew such happy hours as this, +We two alone, our hearts surcharged with bliss, +Nor other kisses sweet as my own kiss? + +I was the thirsty field, long parched with drouth, +You were the warm rain blowing from the South. +(But oh! the crimson madness of her mouth.) + +You would not, if you could, go down life's track +For just one little moment, and bring back +Some vanished raptures that you miss or lack? + +I am content. You are my life, my all. +(One burning hour, but one, could I recall. +God! how men lie, when driven to the wall!) + + + +HOW DOES LOVE SPEAK? + + + + How does Love speak? +In the faint flush upon the tell-tale cheek, +And in the pallor that succeeds it; by +The quivering lid of an averted eye - +The smile that proves the parent of a sigh: + Thus doth Love speak. + + How does Love speak? +By the uneven heart-throbs, and the freak +Of bounding pulses that stand still and ache +While new emotions, like strange barges, make +Along vein-channels their disturbing course, +Still as the dawn, and with the dawn's swift force: + Thus doth Love speak. + + How does Love speak? +In the avoidance of that which we seek +The sudden silence and reserve when near; +The eye that glistens with an unshed tear; +The joy that seems the counterpart of fear, +As the alarmed heart leads in the breast, +And knows, and names, and greets its godlike guest: + Thus doth Love speak. + + How does Love speak? +In the proud spirit suddenly grown meek, +The haughty heart grown humble; in the tender +And unnamed light that floods the world with splendour; +In the resemblance which the fond eyes trace +In all fair things to one beloved face; +In the shy touch of hands that thrill and tremble; +In looks and lips that can no more dissemble: + Thus doth Love speak. + + How does Love speak? +In wild words that uttered seem so weak +They shrink ashamed to silence; in the fire +Glance strikes with glance, swift flashing high and higher, +Like lightnings that precede the mighty storm +In the deep, soulful stillness; in the warm, +Impassioned tide that sweeps thro' throbbing veins, +Between the shores of keen delights and pains; +In the embrace where madness melts in bliss, +And in the convulsive rapture of a kiss: + Thus doth Love speak. + + + +REINCARNATION + + + +He slept as weary toilers do, + She gazed up at the moon. +He stirred and said, "Wife, come to bed"; + She answered, "Soon, full soon." +(Oh! that strange mystery of the dead moon's face.) + +Her cheek was wan, her wistful mouth + Was lifted like a cup, +The moonful night dripped liquid light: + She seemed to quaff it up. +(Oh! that unburied corpse that lies in space.) + +Her life had held but drudgery - + She spelled her Bible thro'; +Of books and lore she knew no more + Than little children do. +(Oh! the weird wonder of that pallid sphere.) + +Her youth had been a loveless waste, + Starred by no holiday. +And she had wed for roof, and bread; + She gave her work in pay. +(Oh! the moon-memories, vague and strange and dear.) + +She drank the night's insidious wine, + And saw another scene: +A stately room--rare flowers in bloom, + Herself in silken sheen. +(Oh! vast the chambers of the moon, and wide.) + +A step drew near, a curtain stirred; + She shook with sweet alarms. +Oh! splendid face; oh! manly grace; + Oh! strong impassioned arms. +(Oh! silent moon, what secrets do you hide!) + +The warm red lips of thirsting love + On cheek and brow were pressed; +As the bees know where honeys grow, + They sought her mouth, her breast. +(Oh! the dead moon holds many a dead delight.) + +The speaker stirred and gruffly spake, + "Come, wife, where have you been?" +She whispered low, "Dear God, I go - + But 'tis the seventh sin." +(Oh! the sad secrets of that orb of white.) + + + +AS YOU GO THROUGH LIFE + + + +Don't look for the flaws as you go through life; + And even when you find them, +It is wise and kind to be somewhat blind + And look for the virtue behind them. +For the cloudiest night has a hint of light + Somewhere in its shadows hiding; +It is better by far to hunt for a star, + Than the spots on the sun abiding. + +The current of life runs ever away + To the bosom of God's great ocean. +Don't set your force 'gainst the river's course + And think to alter its motion. +Don't waste a curse on the universe - + Remember it lived before you. +Don't butt at the storm with your puny form, + But bend and let it go o'er you. + +The world will never adjust itself + To suit your whims to the letter. +Some things must go wrong your whole life long, + And the sooner you know it the better. +It is folly to fight with the Infinite, + And go under at last in the wrestle; +The wiser man shapes into God's plan + As water shapes into a vessel. + + + + +HOW SALVATOR WON + + + +The gate was thrown open, I rode out alone, +More proud than a monarch who sits on a throne. +I am but a jockey, yet shout upon shout +Went up from the people who watched me ride out; +And the cheers that rang forth from that warm-hearted crowd, +Were as earnest as those to which monarch e'er bowed. + +My heart thrilled with pleasure so keen it was pain +As I patted my Salvator's soft silken mane; +And a sweet shiver shot from his hide to my hand +As we passed by the multitude down to the stand. + +The great waves of cheering came billowing back, +As the hoofs of brave Tenny rang swift down the track; +And he stood there beside us, all bone and all muscle, +Our noble opponent, well trained for the tussle +That waited us there on the smooth, shining course. +My Salvator, fair to the lovers of horse, +As a beautiful woman is fair to man's sight - +Pure type of the thoroughbred, clean-limbed and bright, - +Stood taking the plaudits as only his due, +And nothing at all unexpected or new. + +And then, there before us the bright flag is spread, +There's a roar from the grand stand, and Tenny's ahead; +At the sound of the voices that shouted "a go!" +He sprang like an arrow shot straight from the bow. +I tighten the reins on Prince Charlie's great son - +He is off like a rocket, the race is begun. +Half-way down the furlong, their heads are together, +Scarce room 'twixt their noses to wedge in a feather; +Past grand stand, and judges, in neck-to-neck strife, +Ah, Salvator, boy! 'tis the race of your life. +I press my knees closer, I coax him, I urge, +I feel him go out with a leap and a surge; +I see him creep on, inch by inch, stride by stride, +While backward, still backward, falls Tenny beside. +We are nearing the turn, the first quarter is past - +'Twixt leader and chaser the daylight is cast. +The distance elongates, still Tenny sweeps on, +As graceful and free-limbed and swift as a fawn; +His awkwardness vanished, his muscles all strained - +A noble opponent, well born and well trained. +I glanced o'er my shoulder, ha! Tenny, the cost +Of that one's second flagging, will be--the race lost. +One second's weak yielding of courage and strength, +And the daylight between us has doubled its length. + +The first mile is covered, the race is mine--no! +For the blue blood of Tenny responds to a blow. +He shoots through the air like a ball from a gun, +And the two lengths between us are shortened to one, +My heart is contracted, my throat feels a lump, +For Tenny's long neck is at Salvator's rump; +And now with new courage grown bolder and bolder, +I see him, once more running shoulder to shoulder. +With knees, hands, and body I press my grand steed +I urge him, I coax him, I pray him to heed! +Oh, Salvator! Salvator! list to my calls, +For the blow of my whip will hurt both if it falls. +There's a roar from the crowd like the ocean in storm +As close to my saddle leaps Tenny's great form: + +One more mighty plunge, and with knee, limb, and hand, +I lift my horse first by a nose past the stand. +We are under the string now--the great race is done, +And Salvator, Salvator, Salvator won! +Cheer, hoar-headed patriarchs; cheer loud, I say. +'Tis the race of a century witnessed to-day! +Though ye live twice the space that's allotted to men, +Ye never will see such a grand race again. +Let the shouts of the populace roar like the surf +For Salvator, Salvator, king of the turf! +He has broken the record of thirteen long years; +He has won the first place in a vast line of peers. +'Twas a neck-to-neck contest, a grand, honest race, +And even his enemies grant him his place. +Down into the dust let old records be hurled, +And hang out 2.05 in the gaze of the world. + + + +THE WATCHER + + + +"I think I hear the sound of horses feet + Beating upon the gravelled avenue. +Go to the window that looks on the street, + He would not let me die alone, I knew." +Back to the couch the patient watcher passed, +And said: "It is the wailing of the blast." + +She turned upon her couch and, seeming, slept, + The long, dark lashes shadowing her cheek; +And on and on the weary moments crept, + When suddenly the watcher heard her speak: +"I think I hear the sound of horses' hoofs--" +And answered, "'Tis the rain upon the roofs." + +Unbroken silence, quiet, deep, profound. + The restless sleeper turns: "How dark, how late! +What is it that I hear--a trampling sound? + I think there is a horseman at the gate." +The watcher turns away her eyes tear-blind: +"It is the shutter beating in the wind." + +The dread hours passed; the patient clock ticked on; + The weary watcher moved not from her place. +The grey dim shadows of the early dawn + Caught sudden glory from the sleeper's face. +"He comes! my love! I knew he would!" she cried; +And, smiling sweetly in her slumbers, died. + + + +HOW WILL IT BE? + + + +How will it be when one of us alone + Goes on that strange last journey of the soul? +That certain search for an uncertain goal, + That voyage on which no comradeship is known? +Will our dear sea sing with the old sweet tone, + Though one sits stricken where its billows roll? +Will space be dumb, or from the mystic pole + Will spirit-messages be backward blown? +When our united lives are wrenched apart, + And day no more means fond companionship, +When fervent night, and lovely languorous dawn, + Are only memories to one sad heart, +And but in dreams love-kisses burn the lip, - + Dear God, how can this same fair world move on? + + + +MEMORY'S RIVER + + + +In Nature's bright blossoms not always reposes + That strange subtle essence more rare than their bloom, +Which lies in the hearts of carnations and roses, + That unexplained something by men called perfume. +Though modest the flower, yet great is its power + And pregnant with meaning each pistil and leaf, +If only it hides there, if only abides there, + The fragrance suggestive of love, joy, and grief. + +Not always the air that a master composes + Can stir human heart-strings with pleasure or pain. +But strange, subtle chords, like the scent of the roses, + Breathe out of some measures, though simple the strain. +And lo! when you hear them, you love them and fear them, + You tremble with anguish, you thrill with delight, +For back of them slumber old dreams without number, + And faces long vanished peer out into sight. + +Those dear foolish days when the earth seemed all beauty, + Before you had knowledge enough to be sad; +When youth held no higher ideal of duty + Than just to lilt on through the world and be glad. +On harmony's river they seemed to afloat hither + With all the sweet fancies that hung round that time - +Life's burdens and troubles turn into air-bubbles + And break on the music's swift current of rhyme. + +Fair Folly comes back with her spell while you listen + And points to the paths where she led you of old. +You gaze on past sunsets, you see dead stars glisten, + You bathe in life's glory, you swoon in death's cold. +All pains and all pleasures surge up through those measures, + Your heart is wrenched open with earthquakes of sound; +From ashes and embers rise Junes and Decembers, + Lost islands in fathoms of feeling refound. + +Some airs are like outlets of memory's oceans, + They rise in the past and flow into the heart; +And down them float shipwrecks of mighty emotions, + All sea-soaked and storm-tossed and drifting apart: +Their fair timbers battered, their lordly sails tattered, + Their skeleton crew of dead days on their decks; +Then a crash of chords blending, a crisis, an ending - + The music is over, and vanished the wrecks. + + + +LOVE'S WAY + + + +Love gives us copious potions of delight, + Of pain and ecstasy, and peace and care; +Love leads us upward, to the mountain height, + And, like an angel, stands beside us there; +Then thrusts us, demon-like, in some abyss: + Where, in the darkness of despair, we grope, +Till, suddenly, Love greets us with a kiss + And guides us back to flowery fields of hope. + +Love makes all wisdom seem but poorest folly, + And yet the simplest mind with Love grows wise, +The gayest heart he teaches melancholy, + Yet glorifies the erstwhile brooding eyes. +Love lives on change, and yet at change Love mocks, + For Love's whole life is one great paradox. + + + +A MAN'S LAST LOVE + + + +Like the tenth wave, that offers to the shore +Accumulated opulence and force, +So does my heart, which thought it loved of yore, + Carry increasing passion down the course +Of time to proffer thee. + Oh! not the faint + First ripple of the sea should be its pride, +But the great climax of its unrestraint, + Which culminates in one commanding tide. + +The lesser billows of each crude emotion + Break on life's strand, recede, and then unite +With love's large sea; and to some late devotion + Unrecognised, they bring their lost delight. +So all the vanished fancies of my past +Live yet in this one passion, grand and vast. + + +THE LADY AND THE DAME + + + +So thou hast the art, good dame, thou swearest, + To keep Time's perishing touch at bay +From the roseate splendour of the cheek so tender, + And the silver threads from the gold away; +And the tell-tale years that have hurried by us + Shall tiptoe back, and, with kind good-will, +They shall take their traces from off our faces, + If we will trust to thy magic skill. + +Thou speakest fairly; but if I listen + And buy thy secret and prove its truth, +Hast thou the potion and magic lotion + To give me also the HEART of youth? +With the cheek of rose and the eye of beauty, + And the lustrous locks of life's lost prime, +Wilt thou bring thronging each hope and longing + That made the glory of that dead Time? + +When the sap in the trees sets young buds bursting, + And the song of the birds fills the air like spray, +Will rivers of feeling come once more stealing + From the beautiful hills of the far-away? +Wilt thou demolish the tower of reason + And fling for ever down into the dust +The caution Time brought me, the lessons life taught me, + And put in their places my old sweet trust? + +If Time's footprint from my brow is driven, + Canst thou, too, take with thy subtle powers +The burden of thinking, and let me go drinking + The careless pleasures of youth's bright hours? +If silver threads from my tresses vanish, + If a glow once more in my pale cheek gleams, +Wilt thou slay duty and give back the beauty + Of days untroubled by aught but dreams? + +When the soft, fair arms of the siren Summer + Encircle the earth in their languorous fold. +Will vast, deep oceans of sweet emotions + Surge through my veins as they surged of old? +Canst thou bring back from a day long vanished + The leaping pulse and the boundless aim? +I will pay thee double for all thy trouble, + If thou wilt restore all these, good dame. + + + +CONFESSION + + + +I + +How shall a maid make answer to a man +Who summons her, by love's supreme decree, +To open her whole heart, that he may see +The intricate strange ways that love began. +So many streams from that great fountain ran +To feed the river that now rushes free, +So deep the heart, so full of mystery; +How shall a maid make answer to a man? + +If I turn back each leaflet of my heart, +And let your eyes scan all the records there, +Of dreams of love that came before I KNEW, +Though in those dreams you had no place or part, +Yet, know that each emotion was a stair +Which led my ripening womanhood to YOU. + +II + +Nay, I was not insensate till you came; +I know man likes to think a woman clay, +Devoid of feeling till the warming ray +Sent from his heart lights her with sudden flame. +You asked for truth; I answer without shame; +My human heart pulsed blood by night and day, +And I believed that Love had come my way +Before he conquered with your face and name. + +I do not know when first I felt this fire +That lends such lustre to my hopes and fears, +And burns a pathway to you with each thought. +I think in that great hour when God's desire +For worlds to love flung forth a million spheres, +This miracle of love in me was wrought. + +An open door, a moonlit sky, +A child-like maid with musing eye, +A manly footstep passing by. + +Light as a dewdrop falls from space +Upon a rosebud's folded grace, +A kiss fell on her girlish face. + +"Good-night, good-bye," and he was gone. +And so was childhood; it was dawn +In that young heart the moon shone on. + +His name? his face? dim memories; +I only know in that first kiss +Was prophesied this later bliss. + +The dreams within my bosom grew; +Nay, grieve not that my tale is true, +Since all those dreams led straight to you. + +One time when Autumn donned her robes of splendour +And rustled down the year's receding track, +As I passed dreaming by, a voice all tender +Haled me with youth's soft call to linger back. +I turned and listened to a golden story! +A wondrous tale, half human, half divine - +A page from bright September's book of glory, +To memorise and make forever mine. +Strange argosies from passion's unknown oceans +Cruised down my veins, a vague elusive fleet, +With foreign cargoes of unnamed emotions, +While wafts of song blew shoreward, dim and sweet, +And sleeping still (because unwaked by you) +I dreamed and dreamed, and thought my visions true. +I woke when all the crimson colour faded +And wanton Autumn's lips and cheeks were pale; +And when the sorrowing year had slowly waded, +With failing footsteps, through the snow-filled vale. +I woke and knew the glamour of a season +Had lent illusive lustre to a dream, +And looking in the clear calm eyes of Reason, +I smiled and said, "Farewell to things that seem." +'Twas but a red leaf from a lush September +The wind of dreams across my pathway blew, +But oh! my love! the whole round year remember, +With all its seasons I bestow on you. +The red leaf perished in the first cold blast +The full year's harvests at your feet I cast. + +L'ENVOI + +Absolve me, prince; confession is all over. +But listen and take warning, oh! my lover. +You put to rout all dreams that may have been; +You won the day, but 'tis not all to win; +GUARD WELL THE FORT, LEST NEW DREAMS ENTER IN. + + + +A MARRIED COQUETTE + + + +Sit still, I say, and dispense with heroics! + I hurt your wrists? Well, you have hurt me. +It is time you found out that all men are not stoics, + Nor toys to be used as your mood may be. +I WILL NOT let go of your hands, nor leave you + Until I have spoken. No man, you say, +Dared ever so treat you before? I believe you, + For you have dealt only with BOYS till to-day. + +You women lay stress on your fine perception, + Your intuitions are prated about; +You claim an occult sort of conception + Of matters which men must reason out. +So then, of course, when you ask me kindly + "To call again soon," you read my heart. +I cannot believe you were acting blindly; + You saw my passion for you from the start. + +You are one of those women who charm without trying; + The clay you are made of is magnet ore, +And I am the steel; yet, there's no denying + You led me to loving you more and more. +You are fanning a flame that may burn too brightly, + Oft easily kindled, but hard to put out; +I am not a man to be played with lightly, + To come at a gesture and go at a pout. + +A brute you call me, a creature inhuman; + You say I insult you, and bid me go. +And you? Oh, you are a saintly woman, + With thoughts as pure as the drifted snow. +Pah! you are but one of a thousand beauties + Who think they are living exemplary lives: +They break no commandments, and do all their duties + As Christian women and spotless wives. + +But with drooping of lids, and lifting of faces, + And baring of shoulders, and well-timed sighs, +And the devil knows what other subtle graces, + You are mental wantons, who sin with the eyes. +You lure love to wake, yet bid it keep under, + You tempt us to fall, but bid reason control; +And then you are full of an outraged wonder + When we get to wanting you, body and soul. + +Why, look at yourself! You were no stranger + To the fact that my heart was already on fire. +When you asked me to call you knew my danger, + Yet here you are, dressed in the gown I admire; +For half of the evil on earth is invented + By vain, pretty women with nothing to do +But to keep themselves manicured, powdered, and scented, + And seek for sensations amusing and new. + +But when I play at love at a lady's commanding, + I always am certain to win one game; +So there--there--there! I will leave my branding + On the lips that are free now to cry "Shame, shame!" +You hate me? Quite likely! It does not surprise me, + Brute force? I confess it; BUT STILL YOU WERE KISSED; +And one thing is certain--you cannot despise me + For having been played with, controlled, and dismissed. + +And the next time you see that a man is attracted + By the beauty and graces that are not for him, +Don't lead him on to be half distracted; + Keep out of deep waters although you can swim. +For when he is caught in the whirlpool of passion, + Where many bold swimmers are seen to drown, +A man will reach out and, in desperate fashion, + Will drag whoever is nearest him down. + +Though the strings of his heart may be wrenched and riven + By a maiden coquette who has led him along, +She can be pardoned, excused, and forgiven, + For innocence blindfolded walks into wrong. +But she who has willingly taken the fetter + That Cupid forges at Hymen's command - +Well, she is the woman who ought to know better; + She needs no mercy at any man's hand. + +In the game of hearts, though a woman be winner, + The odds are ever against her, you know; +The world is ready to call her a sinner, + And man is ready to make her so. +Shame is likely, and sorrow is certain, + And the man has the best of it, end as it may. +So now, my lady, we'll drop the curtain, + And put out the lights. We are through with our play. + + + +FORBIDDEN SPEECH + + + +The passion you forbade my lips to utter + Will not be silenced. You must hear it in +The sullen thunders when they roll and mutter: + And when the tempest nears, with wail and din, +I know your calm forgetfulness is broken, +And to your heart you whisper, "He has spoken." + +All nature understands and sympathises + With human passion. When the restless sea +Turns in its futile search for peace, and rises + To plead and to pursue, it pleads for me. +And with each desperate billow's anguished fretting. +Your heart must tell you, "He is not forgetting." + +When unseen hands in lightning strokes are writing + Mysterious words upon a cloudy scroll, +Know that my pent-up passion is inditing + A cypher message for your woman's soul; +And when the lawless winds rush by you shrieking, +Let your heart say, "Now his despair is speaking." + +Love comes, nor goes, at beck or call of reason, + Nor is love silent--though it says no word; +By day or night, in any clime or season, + A dominating passion must be heard. +So shall you hear, through Junes and through Decembers, +The voice of Nature saying, "He remembers." + + + +THE SUMMER GIRL + + + +She's the jauntiest of creatures, she's the daintiest of misses, +With her pretty patent leathers or her alligator ties, +With her eyes inviting glances and her lips inviting kisses, +As she wanders by the ocean or strolls under country skies. + +She's a captivating dresser, and her parasols are stunning; +Her fads will take your breath away, her hats are dreams of style; +She is not so very bookish, but with repartee and punning +She can set the savants laughing and make even dudelets smile. + +She has no attacks of talent, she is not a stage-struck maiden; +She is wholly free from hobbies, and she dreams of no "career"; +She is mostly gay and happy, never sad or care-beladen, +Though she sometimes sighs a little if a gentleman is near. + +She's a sturdy little walker and she braves all kinds of weather, +And when the rain or fog or mist drive rival crimps a-wreck, +Her fluffy hair goes curling like a kinked-up ostrich feather +Around her ears and forehead and the white nape of her neck. + +She is like a fish in water; she can handle reins and racket; +From head to toe and finger-tips she's thoroughly alive; +When she goes promenading in a most distracting jacket, +The rustle round her feet suggests how laundresses may thrive. + +She can dare the wind and sunshine in the most bravado manner, +And after hours of sailing she has merely cheeks of rose; +Old Sol himself seems smitten, and at most will only tan her, +Though to everybody else he gives a danger-signal nose. + +She's a trifle sentimental, and she's fond of admiration, +And she sometimes flirts a little in the season's giddy whirl; +But win her if you can, sir, she may prove your life's salvation, +For an angel masquerading oft is she, the Summer Girl. + + + +THE GHOST + + + +Through the open door of dreamland +Came a ghost of long ago, long ago. +When I wakened, all unheeding +Was the phantom to my pleading; +For he would not turn and go, +But beside me all the day, +In my work and in my play, +Trod this ghost of long ago, long ago. + +Not a vague and pallid phantom +Was this ghost that came to me, followed me: +Though he rose from regions haunted, +Though he came unbid, unwanted, +He was very fair to see. +Like the radiant sun in space +Was the halo round the face +Of that ghost that came to me, followed me. + +And he wore no shroud or cere-cloth +As he wandered at my side, close beside: +He was clothed in royal splendour +And his eyes were deep and tender, +While he walked in stately pride; +And he seemed like some great king, +Not afraid of anything, +As he wandered at my side, close beside. + +Then I turned to him commanding +That he go the way he came, whence he came. +But he answered me in sorrow, +"May the Past not seek to borrow +From the Present without blame - +Just one memory from its store, +Ere it goes to come no more, +Back the pathway that it came, whence it came?" + +Then ashamed of my full coffers, +I gave forth from Memory's hold (wondrous hold!) +All I owed of tax and duty +For remembered hours of beauty, +Which I paid in thoughts of gold; +Yet my present seemed to be +Richer still for all the fee +I gave forth from Memory's hold (wondrous hold!). + + + +THE SIGNBOARD + + + +I will paint you a sign, rumseller, + And hang it above your door; +A truer and better signboard + Than ever you had before. +I will paint with the skill of a master, + And many shall pause to see +This wonderful piece of painting, + So like the reality. + +I will paint yourself, rumseller, + As you wait for that fair young boy, +Just in the morning of manhood, + A mother's pride and joy. +He has no thought of stopping, + But you greet him with a smile, +And you seem so blithe and friendly, + That he pauses to chat awhile. + +I will paint you again, rumseller, + I will paint you as you stand, +With a foaming glass of liquor + Extended in your hand. +He wavers, but you urge him - + Drink, pledge me just this one! +And he takes the glass and drains it, + And the hellish work is done. + +And next I will paint a drunkard - + Only a year has flown, +But into that loathsome creature + The fair young boy has grown. +The work was sure and rapid. + I will paint him as he lies +In a torpid, drunken slumber, + Under the wintry skies. + +I will paint the form of the mother + As she kneels at her darling's side, +Her beautiful boy that was dearer + Than all the world beside. +I will paint the shape of a coffin, + Labelled with one word--"Lost" +I will paint all this, rumseller, + And will paint it free of cost. + +The sin and the shame and the sorrow, + The crime and the want and the woe +That are born there in your workshop, + No hand can paint, you know. +But I'll paint you a sign, rumseller, + And many shall pause to view +This wonderful swinging signboard, + So terribly, fearfully true. + + + +A MAN'S REPENTANCE +(Intended for recitation at club dinners.) + + + +To-night when I came from the club at eleven, + Under the gaslight I saw a face - +A woman's face! and I swear to heaven + It looked like the ghastly ghost of--Grace! + +And Grace? why, Grace was fair; and I tarried, + And loved her a season as we men do. +And then--but pshaw! why, of course, she is married, + Has a husband, and doubtless a babe or two. + +She was perfectly calm on the day we parted; + She spared me a scene, to my great surprise. +"She wasn't the kind to be broken-hearted," + I remember she said, with a spark in her eyes. + +I was tempted, I know, by her proud defiance, + To make good my promise there and then. +But the world would have called it a mesalliance! + I dreaded the comments and sneers of men. + +So I left her to grieve for a faithless lover, + And to hide her heart from the cold world's sight +As women do hide them, the wide earth over; + My God! WAS it Grace that I saw to-night? + +I thought of her married, and often with pity, + A poor man's wife in some dull place. +And now to know she is here in the city, + Under the gaslight, and with THAT face! + +Yet I knew it at once, in spite of the daubing + Of paint and powder, and she knew me; +She drew a quick breath that was almost sobbing + And shrank in the shade so I should not see. + +There was hell in her eyes! She was worn and jaded + Her soul is at war with the life she has led. +As I looked on that face so strangely faded + I wonder God did not strike me dead. + +While I have been happy and gay and jolly, + Received by the very best people in town, +That girl whom I led in the way to folly, + Has gone on recklessly down and down. + +* * * + +Two o'clock, and no sleep has found me; + That face I saw in the street-lamp's light +Peers everywhere out from the shadows around me - + I know how a murderer feels to-night. + + + +ARISTARCHUS +(THE NAME OF THE MOUNTAIN IN THE MOON) + + + + It was long and long ago our love began; + It is something all unmeasured by time's span: +In an era and a spot, by the Modern World forgot, + We were lovers, ere God named us, Maid and Man. + + Like the memory of music made by streams, + All the beauty of that other love life seems; +But I always thought it so, and at last I know, I know, + We were lovers in the Land of Silver Dreams. + + When the moon was at the full, I found the place; + Out and out, across the seas of shining space, +On a quest that could not fail, I unfurled my memory's sail + And cast anchor in the Bay of Love's First Grace. + + At the foot of Aristarchus lies this bay, + (Oh! the wonder of that mountain far away!) +And the Land of Silver Dreams all about it shines and gleams, + Where we loved before God fashioned night or day. + + We were souls, in eerie bodies made of light; + We were winged, and we could speed from height to height; +And we built a nest called Hope, on the sheer Moon Mountain Slope, + Where we sat, and watched new worlds wheel into sight. + + And we saw this little planet known as Earth, + When the mighty Mother Chaos gave it birth; +But in love's conceit we thought all those worlds from space were +brought, + For no greater aim or purpose than our mirth. + + And we laughed in love's abandon, and we sang, + Till the echoing peals of Aristarchus rang, +As hot hissing comets came, and white suns burst into flame, + And a myriad worlds from out the darkness sprang. + + I can show you, when the Moon is at its best, + Aristarchus, and the spot we made our nest, +Oh! I always wondered why, when the Moon was in the sky, + I was stirred with such strange longing, and unrest. + + And I knew the subtle beauty and the force + Of our love was never bounded by Earth's course. +So with Memory's sail unfurled, I went cruising past this world, + And I followed till I traced it to its source. + + + +DELL AND I + + + + In a mansion grand, just over the way + Lives bonny, beautiful Dell; + You may have heard of this lady gay, + For she is a famous belle. + I live in a low cot opposite - + You never have heard of me; + For when the lady moon shines bright, + Who would a pale star see? +But ah, well! ah, well! I am happier far than Dell, + As strange as that may be. + + Dell has robes of the richest kind - + Pinks and purples and blues; + And she worries her maid and frets her mind + To know which one to choose. + Which shall it be now, silk or lace? + In which will I be most fair? + She stands by the mirror with anxious face, + And her maid looks on in despair. +Ah, well! ah, well! I am not worried, you see, like Dell, + For I have but one to wear. + + Dell has lovers of every grade, + Of every age and style; + Suitors flutter about the maid, + And bask in her word and smile. + She keeps them all, with a coquette's art, + As suits her mood or mirth, + And vainly wonders if in ONE heart + Of all true love has birth. +Ah, well! ah, well! I never question myself like Dell, + For I KNOW a true heart's worth. + + Pleasure to Dell seems stale and old, + Often she sits and sighs; + Life to me is a tale untold, + Each day is a glad surprise. + Dell will marry, of course, some day, + After her belleship is run; + She will cavil the matter in worldly way + And wed Dame Fortune's son +But, ah, well! sweet to tell, I shall not dally and choose like Dell, + For I love and am loved by--ONE. + + + +ABOUT MAY + + + +One night Nurse Sleep held out her hand + To tired little May. +"Come, go with me to Wonderland," + She said, "I know the way. +Just rock-a-by--hum--m--m, + And lo! we come +To the place where the dream-girls play." + +But naughty May, she wriggled away + From Sleep's soft arms, and said: +"I must stay awake till I eat my cake, + And then I will go to bed; +With a by-lo, away I will go." + But the good nurse shook her head. + +She shook her head and away she sped, + While May sat munching her crumb. +But after the cake there came an ache, + Though May cried: "Come, Sleep, come, +And it's oh! my! let us by-lo-by" - + All save the echoes were dumb. + +She ran after Sleep toward Wonderland, + Ran till the morning light; +And just as she caught her and grasped her hand, + A nightmare gave her a fright. +And it's by-lo, I hope she'll know + Better another night. + + + +VANITY FAIR + + + +In Vanity Fair, as we bow and smile, + As we talk of the opera after the weather, +As we chat of fashion and fad and style, + We know we are playing a part together. +You know that the mirth she wears, she borrows; +She knows you laugh but to hide your sorrows; +We know that under the silks and laces, +And back of beautiful, beaming faces, +Lie secret trouble and grim despair, + In Vanity Fair. + +In Vanity Fair, on dress parade, + Our colours look bright and our swords are gleaming; +But many a uniform's worn and frayed, + And most of the weapons, despite their seeming, +Are dull and blunted and badly battered, +And close inspection will show how tattered +And stained are the banners that float above us. +Our comrades hate, while they swear to love us; +And robed like Pleasure walks gaunt-eyed Care, + In Vanity Fair. + +In Vanity Fair, as we strive for place, + As we rush and jostle and crowd and hurry, +We know the goal is not worth the race - + We know the prize is not worth the worry; +That all our gain means loss for another; +That in fighting for self we wound each other; +That the crown of success weighs hard and presses +The brow of the victor with thorns--not caresses; +That honours are empty and worthless to wear, + In Vanity Fair. + +But in Vanity Fair, as we pass along, + We meet strong hearts that are worth the knowing +'Mong poor paste jewels that deck the throng, + We see a solitaire sometimes glowing. +We find grand souls under robes of fashion, +'Neath light demeanours hide strength and passion; +And fair fine honour and godlike resistance +In halls of pleasure may have existence; +And we find pure altars and shrines of prayer + In Vanity Fair. + + + +THE GIDDY GIRL + + + +[This recitation is intended to be given with an accompaniment of +waltz music, introducing dance-steps at the refrain "With one, two, +three," etc.] + +A giddy young maiden with nimble feet, +Heigh-ho! alack and alas! +Declared she would far rather dance than eat, +And the truth of it came to pass. +For she danced all day and she danced all night; +She danced till the green earth faded white; +She danced ten partners out of breath; +She danced the eleventh one quite to death; +And still she redowaed up and down - +The giddiest girl in town. +With one, two, three; one, two, three; one, two, three--kick; +Chassee back, chassee back, whirl around quick. +The name of this damsel ended with E - + Heigh-ho; alack and a-day! +And she was as fair as a maiden need be, + Till she danced her beauty away. +She danced her big toes out of joint; +She danced her other toes all to a point; +She danced out slipper and boot and shoe; +She danced till the bones of her feet came through. +And still she redowaed, waltzed, and whirled - +The giddiest girl in the world. +With one, two, three; one, two, three; one, two, three--kick; +Chassee back, chassee back, whirl around quick. + +Now the end of my story is sad to relate - + Heigh-ho! and away we go! +For this beautiful maiden's final fate + Is shrouded in gloom and woe. +She danced herself into a patent top; +She whirled and whirled till she could not stop; +She danced and bounded and sprang so far, +That she stuck at last on a pointed star; +And there she must dance till the Judgment Day, +And after it, too, for she danced away +Her soul, you see, so she has no place anywhere out of space, +With her one, two, three; one, two, three; one, two, three--kick; +Chassee back, chassee back, whirl about quick. + + + +A GIRL'S AUTUMN REVERIE + + + +We plucked a red rose, you and I, + All in the summer weather; +Sweet its perfume and rare its bloom, + Enjoyed by us together. +The rose is dead, the summer fled, + And bleak winds are complaining; +We dwell apart, but in each heart + We find the thorn remaining. + +We sipped a sweet wine, you and I, + All in the summer weather. +The beaded draught we lightly quaffed, + And filled the glass together. +Together we watched its rosy glow, + And saw its bubbles glitter; +Apart, alone we only know + The lees are very bitter. + +We walked in sunshine, you and I, + All in the summer weather: +The very night seemed noonday bright, + When we two were together. +I wonder why with our good-bye + O'er hill and vale and meadow +There fell such shade, our paths seemed laid + For evermore in shadow. + +We dreamed a sweet dream, you and I, + All in the summer weather, +Where rose and wine and warm sunshine + Were mingled in together. +We dreamed that June was with us yet, + We woke to find December. +We dreamed that we two could forget, + We woke but to remember. + + + +HIS YOUTH + + + +"Dying? I am not dying? Are you mad? + You think I need to ask for heavenly grace? +_I_ think YOU are a fiend, who would be glad + To see me struggle in death's cold embrace. + +"But, man, you lie! for I am strong--in truth + Stronger than I have been in years; and soon +I shall feel young again as in my youth, + My glorious youth--life's one great priceless boon. + +"O youth, youth, youth! O God! that golden time, + When proud and glad I laughed the hours away. +Why, there's no sacrifice (perhaps no crime) + I'd pause at, could it make me young to-day. + +"But I'm not OLD! I grew--just ill, somehow; + Grew stiff of limb, and weak, and dim of sight. +It was but sickness. I am better now, + Oh, vastly better, ever since last night. + +"And I could weep warm floods of happy tears + To think my strength is coming back at last, +For I have dreamed of such an hour for years, + As I lay thinking of my glorious past. + +"You shake your head? Why, man, if you were sane + I'd strike you to my feet, I would, in truth. +How dare you tell me that my hopes are vain? + How dare you say I have outlived my youth? + +"'In heaven I may regain it'? Oh, be still! + I want no heaven but what my glad youth gave. +Its long, bright hours, its rapture and its thrill - + O youth, youth, youth! it is my YOUTH I crave. + +"There is no heaven! There's nothing but a deep + And yawning grave from which I shrink in fear. +I am not sure of even rest or sleep; + Perhaps we lie and THINK as I have here. + +"Think, think, think, think, as we lie there and rot, + And hear the young above us laugh in glee. +How dare you say I'm dying! I AM NOT. + I would curse God if such a thing could be. + +"Why, see me stand! why, hear this strong, full breath - + Dare you repeat that silly, base untruth?" +A cry--a fall--the silence known as death + Hushed his wild words. Well, has he found his youth? + + + +UNDER THE SHEET + + + +What a terrible night! Does the Night, I wonder - + The Night, with her black veil down to her feet +Like an ordained nun, know what lies under + That awful, motionless, snow-white sheet? +The winds seem crazed, and, wildly howling, + Over the sad earth blindly go. +Do they and the dark clouds over them scowling, + Do they dream or know? + +Why, here in the room, not a week or over - + Tho' it must be a week, not more than one - +(I cannot recken of late or discover + When one day is ended or one begun), +But here in this room we were laughing lightly, + And glad was the measure our two hearts beat; +And the royal face that was smiling so brightly + Lies under that sheet. + +I know not why--it is strange and fearful, + But I am afraid of her, lying there; +She who was always so gay and cheerful, + Lying so still with that stony stare: +She who was so like some grand sultana, + Fond of colour and glow and heat, +To lie there clothed in that awful manner + In a stark white sheet. + +She who was made out of summer blisses, + Tropical, beautiful, gracious, fair, +To lie and stare at my fondest kisses - + God! no wonder it whitens my hair +Shriek, O wind! for the world is lonely; + Trail cloud-veil to the nun Night's feet! +For all that I prize in life is only + A shape and a sheet. + + + +A PIN + + + +Oh! I know a certain woman who is reckoned with the good, +But she fills me with more terror than a raging lion could. +The little chills run up and down my spine whene'er we meet, +Though she seems a gentle creature and she's very trim and neat. + +And she has a thousand virtues and not one acknowledged sin, +But she is the sort of person you could liken to a pin. +And she pricks you, and she sticks you, in a way that can't be said - +When you seek for what has hurt you, why, you cannot find the head. + +But she fills you with discomfort and exasperating pain - +If anybody asks you why, you really can't explain. +A pin is such a tiny thing--of that there is no doubt - +Yet when it's sticking in your flesh, you're wretched till it's out! + +She is wonderfully observing. When she meets a pretty girl +She is always sure to tell her if her "bang" is out of curl. +And she is so sympathetic; to her friend who's much admired, +She is often heard remarking: "Dear, you look so WORN and tired!" + +And she is a careful critic; for on yesterday she eyed +The new dress I was airing with a woman's natural pride, +And she said: "Oh, how becoming!" and then softly added, "It +Is really a misfortune that the basque is such a fit." + +Then she said: "If you had heard me yestereve, I'm sure, my friend, +You would say I am a champion who knows how to defend." +And she left me with a feeling--most unpleasant, I aver - +That the whole world would despise me if it hadn't been for her. + +Whenever I encounter her, in such a nameless way +She gives me the impression I am at my worst that day; +And the hat that was imported (and that cost me half a sonnet) +With just one glance from her round eyes becomes a Bowery bonnet. + +She is always bright and smiling, sharp and shining for a thrust; +Use does not seem to blunt her point, nor does she gather rust. +Oh! I wish some hapless specimen of mankind would begin +To tidy up the world for me, by picking up this pin. + + + +THE COMING MAN + + + +Oh! not for the great departed, + Who formed our country's laws, +And not for the bravest-hearted, + Who died in freedom's cause, +And not for some living hero + To whom all bend the knee, +My muse would raise her song of praise - + But for the man TO BE. + +For out of the strife which woman + Is passing through to-day, +A man that is more than human + Shall yet be born, I say. +A man in whose pure spirit + No dross of self will lurk; +A man who is strong to cope with wrong, + A man who is proud to work. + +A man with hope undaunted, + A man with godlike power, +Shall come when he most is wanted, + Shall come at the needed hour. +He shall silence the din and clamour + Of clan disputing with clan, +And toil's long fight with purse-proud might + Shall triumph through this man. + +I know he is coming, coming, + To help, to guide, to save. +Though I hear no martial drumming, + And see no flags that wave. +But the great soul travail of woman, + And the bold free thought unfurled, +Are heralds that say he is on the way - + The coming man of the world. + +Mourn not for vanished ages, + With their great heroic men, +Who dwell in history's pages + And live in the poet's pen. +For the grandest times are before us, + And the world is yet to see +The noblest worth of this old earth + In the men that are to be. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Kingdom of Love, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox + diff --git a/old/kgdlv10.zip b/old/kgdlv10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f1504e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/kgdlv10.zip |