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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e78233 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #60481 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60481) diff --git a/old/60481-0.txt b/old/60481-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 73b3e6a..0000000 --- a/old/60481-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7366 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of In this our world, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: In this our world - -Author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman - -Release Date: October 12, 2019 [EBook #60481] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THIS OUR WORLD *** - - - - -Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was -produced from images made available by the HathiTrust -Digital Library.) - - - - - - - - - - IN THIS OUR WORLD - - -[Illustration] - - - - - IN THIS OUR WORLD - - - CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN - -[Illustration] - - BOSTON - SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY - PUBLISHERS - - - - - _Copyright, 1893, 1895_ - BY CHARLOTTE PERKINS STETSON - - _Copyright, 1898_ - BY SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY - - - _Entered at Stationers’ Hall_ - - - _Fifth edition, 1914_ - - - - - WOULD YE BUT UNDERSTAND! - JOY IS ON EVERY HAND! - YE SHUT YOUR EYES AND CALL IT NIGHT, - YE GROPE AND FALL IN SEAS OF LIGHT— - WOULD YE BUT UNDERSTAND. - - - - - CONTENTS. - - - THE WORLD PAGE - - BIRTH 1 - - NATURE’S ANSWER 2 - - THE COMMONPLACE 4 - - HOMES—A SESTINA 7 - - A COMMON INFERENCE 8 - - THE ROCK AND THE SEA 9 - - THE LION PATH 12 - - REINFORCEMENTS 13 - - HEROISM 14 - - FIRE WITH FIRE 16 - - THE SHIELD 18 - - TO THE PREACHER 19 - - A TYPE 20 - - COMPROMISE 21 - - PART OF THE BATTLE 22 - - STEP FASTER, PLEASE 23 - - A NEW YEAR’S REMINDER 23 - - OUT OF PLACE 24 - - LITTLE CELL 25 - - THE CHILD SPEAKS 26 - - TO A GOOD MANY 28 - - HOW WOULD YOU? 29 - - A MAN MUST LIVE 33 - - IN DUTY BOUND 33 - - DESIRE 34 - - WHY NOT? 35 - - OUT OF THE GATE 36 - - THE MODERN SKELETON 39 - - THE LESSON OF DEATH—TO S. T. D. 40 - - FOR US 43 - - THANKSGIVING 44 - - CHRISTMAS HYMN 44 - - CHRISTMAS 46 - - THE LIVING GOD 48 - - A PRAYER 50 - - GIVE WAY! 50 - - THANKSGIVING HYMN—FOR CALIFORNIA 51 - - CHRISTMAS CAROL—FOR LOS ANGELES 52 - - NEW DUTY 54 - - SEEKING 55 - - FINDING 56 - - TOO MUCH 57 - - THE CUP 58 - - WHAT THEN? 59 - - OUR LONELINESS 60 - - THE KEEPER OF THE LIGHT 61 - - IMMORTALITY 62 - - WASTE 63 - - WINGS 64 - - THE HEART OF THE WATER 66 - - THE SHIP 67 - - AMONG THE GODS 67 - - SONGS 69 - - HEAVEN 71 - - BALLAD OF THE SUMMER SUN 71 - - PIONEERS 74 - - EXILES 74 - - A NEVADA DESERT 75 - - TREE FEELINGS 76 - - MONOTONY—FROM CALIFORNIA 77 - - THE BEDS OF FLEUR-DE-LYS 78 - - IT IS GOOD TO BE ALIVE 79 - - THE CHANGELESS YEAR—SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 80 - - WHERE MEMORY SLEEPS—RONDEAU 81 - - CALIFORNIA CAR WINDOWS 81 - - LIMITS 82 - - POWELL STREET 82 - - From Russian Hill 85 - - “AN UNUSUAL RAIN” 86 - - THE HILLS 88 - - CITY’S BEAUTY 89 - - TWO SKIES—FROM ENGLAND 90 - - WINDS AND LEAVES—FROM ENGLAND 91 - - ON THE PAWTUXET 92 - - A MOONRISE 93 - - THEIR GRASS!—A PROTEST FROM CALIFORNIA 93 - - THE PROPHETS 95 - - SIMILAR CASES 95 - - A CONSERVATIVE 100 - - AN OBSTACLE 102 - - THE FOX WHO HAD LOST HIS TAIL 104 - - THE SWEET USES OF ADVERSITY 105 - - CONNOISSEURS 106 - - TECHNIQUE 107 - - THE PASTELLETTE 108 - - THE PIG AND THE PEARL 109 - - POOR HUMAN NATURE 111 - - OUR SAN FRANCISCO CLIMATE 111 - - CRITICISM 113 - - ANOTHER CREED 113 - - THE LITTLE LION 114 - - A MISFIT 115 - - ON NEW YEAR’S DAY 116 - - OUR EAST 117 - - UNMENTIONABLE 118 - - AN INVITATION FROM CALIFORNIA 120 - - RESOLVE 121 - - - WOMAN - - SHE WALKETH VEILED AND SLEEPING 125 - - TO MAN 125 - - WOMEN OF TO-DAY 128 - - TO THE YOUNG WIFE 129 - - FALSE PLAY 131 - - MOTHERHOOD 132 - - SIX HOURS A DAY 136 - - AN OLD PROVERB 137 - - REASSURANCE 138 - - MOTHER TO CHILD 140 - - SERVICES 142 - - IN MOTHER-TIME 144 - - SHE WHO IS TO COME 146 - - GIRLS OF TO-DAY 147 - - “WE, AS WOMEN” 148 - - IF MOTHER KNEW 150 - - THE ANTI-SUFFRAGISTS 152 - - WOMEN DO NOT WANT IT 154 - - WEDDED BLISS 157 - - THE HOLY STOVE 158 - - THE MOTHER’S CHARGE 160 - - A BROOD MARE 161 - - FEMININE VANITY 164 - - THE MODEST MAID 166 - - UNSEXED 168 - - FEMALES 169 - - A MOTHER’S SOLILOQUY 171 - - THEY WANDERED FORTH 173 - - BABY LOVE 174 - - - THE MARCH - - THE WOLF AT THE DOOR 177 - - THE LOST GAME 179 - - THE LOOKER-ON 181 - - THE OLD-TIME WAIL 184 - - FREE LAND IS NOT ENOUGH 186 - - WHO IS TO BLAME? 187 - - IF A MAN MAY NOT EAT NEITHER CAN HE WORK 189 - - HIS OWN LABOR 190 - - AS FLEW THE CROSS 193 - - TO LABOR 194 - - HARDLY A PLEASURE 195 - - NATIONALISM 197 - - THE KING IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE KING! 199 - - “HOW MANY POOR!” 200 - - THE DEAD LEVEL 203 - - THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE 204 - - THE AMŒBOID CELL 205 - - THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST 208 - - DIVISION OF PROPERTY 209 - - CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 210 - - WHAT’S THAT? 213 - - AN ECONOMIST 215 - - CHARITY 217 - - - - - THE WORLD. - - - - - BIRTH. - - - Lord, I am born! - I have built me a body - Whose ways are all open, - Whose currents run free, - From the life that is thine - Flowing ever within me, - To the life that is mine - Flowing outward through me. - - I am clothed, and my raiment - Fits smooth to the spirit, - The soul moves unhindered, - The body is free; - And the thought that my body - Falls short of expressing, - In texture and color - Unfoldeth on me. - - I am housed, O my Father! - My body is sheltered, - My spirit has room - ’Twixt the whole world and me, - I am guarded with beauty and strength, - And within it - Is room for still union, - And birth floweth free. - - And the union and birth - Of the house, ever growing, - Have built me a city— - Have born me a state— - Where I live manifold, - Many-voiced, many-hearted, - Never dead, never weary, - And oh! never parted! - The life of The Human, - So subtle—so great! - - Lord, I am born! - From inmost to outmost - The ways are all open, - The currents run free, - From thy voice in my soul - To my joy in the people— - I thank thee, O God, - For this body thou gavest, - Which enfoldeth the earth— - Is enfolded by thee! - - - - - NATURE’S ANSWER. - - - I. - - A man would build a house, and found a place - As fair as any on the earth’s fair face: - - Soft hills, dark woods, smooth meadows richly green, - And cool tree-shaded lakes the hills between. - - He built his house within this pleasant land, - A stately white-porched house, long years to stand; - - But, rising from his paradise so fair, - Came fever in the night and killed him there. - - “O lovely land!” he cried, “how could I know - That death was lurking under this fair show?” - - And answered Nature, merciful and stern, - “I teach by killing; let the others learn!” - - - II. - - A man would do great work, good work and true; - He gave all things he had, all things he knew; - - He worked for all the world; his one desire - To make the people happier, better, higher; - - Used his best wisdom, used his utmost strength; - And, dying in the struggle, found at length, - - The giant evils he had fought the same, - And that the world he loved scarce knew his name. - - “Has all my work been wrong? I meant so well! - I loved so much!” he cried. “How could I tell?” - - And answered Nature, merciful and stern, - “I teach by killing; let the others learn.” - - - III. - - A maid was asked in marriage. Wise as fair, - She gave her answer with deep thought and prayer, - - Expecting, in the holy name of wife, - Great work, great pain, and greater joy, in life. - - She found such work as brainless slaves might do, - By day and night, long labor, never through; - - Such pain—no language can her pain reveal; - It had no limit but her power to feel; - - Such joy—life left in her sad soul’s employ - Neither the hope nor memory of joy. - - Helpless, she died, with one despairing cry,— - “I thought it good; how could I tell the lie?” - - And answered Nature, merciful and stern, - “I teach by killing; let the others learn.” - - - - - THE COMMONPLACE. - - - Life is so weary commonplace! Too fair - Were those young visions of the poet and seer. - Nothing exciting ever happens here. - Just eat and drink, and dress and chat; - Life is so tedious, slow, and flat, - And every day alike in everywhere! - - Birth comes. Birth— - The breathing re-creation of the earth! - All earth, all sky, all God, life’s deep sweet whole, - Newborn again to each new soul! - “Oh, are you? What a shame! Too bad, my dear! - How well you stand it, too! It’s very queer - The dreadful trials women have to carry; - But you can’t always help it when you marry. - Oh, what a sweet layette! What lovely socks! - What an exquisite puff and powder box! - Who is your doctor? Yes, his skill’s immense— - But it’s a dreadful danger and expense!” - - Love comes. Love— - And the world widens at the touch thereof; - Deepens and lightens till the answer true - To all life’s questions seems to glimmer through. - “Engaged? I knew it must be! What a ring! - Worth how much? Well, you are a lucky thing! - But how was Jack disposed of?” “Jack? Oh, he - Was just as glad as I was to be free. - You might as well ask after George and Joe - And all the fellows that I used to know! - I don’t inquire for his past Kate and Carry— - Every one’s pleased. It’s time, you know, to marry.” - - Life comes. Life— - Bearing within it wisdom, work, and strife. - To do, to strive, to know, and, with the knowing, - To find life’s widest purpose in our growing. - “How are you, Jim? Pleasant weather to-day! - How’s business?” “Well, it doesn’t come my way.” - “Good-morning, Mrs. Smith! I hope you’re well! - Tell me the news!” “The news? There’s none to tell. - The cook has left; the baby’s got a tooth; - John has gone fishing to renew his youth. - House-cleaning’s due—or else we’ll have to move! - How sweet you are in that! Good-bye, my love!” - - Death comes. Death— - Love cries to love, and no man answereth. - Death the beginning, Death the endless end, - Life’s proof and first condition, Birth’s best friend. - “Yes, it’s a dreadful loss! No coming back! - Never again! How do I look in black? - And then he suffered so! Oh, yes, we all - Are well provided for. You’re kind to call, - And Mrs. Green has lost her baby too! - Dear me! How sad! And yet what could they do? - With such a hard time as they have, you know,— - No doubt ’t was better for the child to go!” - - Life is so dreary commonplace. We bear - One dull yoke, in the country or the town. - We’re born, grow up, marry, and settle down. - I used to think—but then a man must live! - The Fates dole out the weary years they give, - And every day alike in everywhere. - - - - - HOMES. - A SESTINA. - - - We are the smiling comfortable homes - With happy families enthroned therein, - Where baby souls are brought to meet the world, - Where women end their duties and desires, - For which men labor as the goal of life, - That people worship now instead of God. - - Do we not teach the child to worship God?— - Whose soul’s young range is bounded by the homes - Of those he loves, and where he learns that life - Is all constrained to serve the wants therein, - Domestic needs and personal desires,— - These are the early limits of his world. - - And are we not the woman’s perfect world, - Prescribed by nature and ordained of God, - Beyond which she can have no right desires, - No need for service other than in homes? - For doth she not bring up her young therein? - And is not rearing young the end of life? - - And man? What other need hath he in life - Than to go forth and labor in the world, - And struggle sore with other men therein? - Not to serve other men, nor yet his God, - But to maintain these comfortable homes,— - The end of all a normal man’s desires. - - Shall not the soul’s most measureless desires - Learn that the very flower and fruit of life - Lies all attained in comfortable homes, - With which life’s purpose is to dot the world - And consummate the utmost will of God, - By sitting down to eat and drink therein. - - Yea, in the processes that work therein— - Fulfilment of our natural desires— - Surely man finds the proof that mighty God - For to maintain and reproduce his life - Created him and set him in the world; - And this high end is best attained in homes. - - Are we not homes? And is not all therein? - Wring dry the world to meet our wide desires! - We crown all life! We are the aim of God! - - - - - A COMMON INFERENCE. - - - A night: mysterious, tender, quiet, deep; - Heavy with flowers; full of life asleep; - Thrilling with insect voices; thick with stars; - No cloud between the dewdrops and red Mars; - The small earth whirling softly on her way, - The moonbeams and the waterfalls at play; - A million million worlds that move in peace, - A million mighty laws that never cease; - And one small ant-heap, hidden by small weeds, - Rich with eggs, slaves, and store of millet seeds. - They sleep beneath the sod - And trust in God. - - A day: all glorious, royal, blazing bright; - Heavy with flowers; full of life and light; - Great fields of corn and sunshine; courteous trees; - Snow-sainted mountains; earth-embracing seas; - Wide golden deserts; slender silver streams; - Clear rainbows where the tossing fountain gleams; - And everywhere, in happiness and peace, - A million forms of life that never cease; - And one small ant-heap, crushed by passing tread, - Hath scarce enough alive to mourn the dead! - They shriek beneath the sod, - “There is no God!” - - - - - THE ROCK AND THE SEA. - - - THE ROCK. - - I am the Rock, presumptuous Sea! - I am set to encounter thee. - Angry and loud or gentle and still, - I am set here to limit thy power, and I will! - I am the Rock! - - I am the Rock. From age to age - I scorn thy fury and dare thy rage. - Scarred by frost and worn by time, - Brown with weed and green with slime, - Thou may’st drench and defile me and spit in my face, - But while I am here thou keep’st thy place! - I am the Rock! - - I am the Rock, beguiling Sea! - I know thou art fair as fair can be, - With golden glitter and silver sheen, - And bosom of blue and garments of green. - Thou may’st pat my cheek with baby hands, - And lap my feet in diamond sands, - And play before me as children play; - But plead as thou wilt, I bar the way! - I am the Rock! - - I am the Rock. Black midnight falls; - The terrible breakers rise like walls; - With curling lips and gleaming teeth - They plunge and tear at my bones beneath. - Year upon year they grind and beat - In storms of thunder and storms of sleet,— - Grind and beat and wrestle and tear, - But the rock they beat on is always there - I am the Rock! - - - THE SEA. - - I am the Sea. I hold the land - As one holds an apple in his hand, - Hold it fast with sleepless eyes, - Watching the continents sink and rise. - Out of my bosom the mountains grow, - Back to its depths they crumble slow; - The earth is a helpless child to me. - I am the Sea! - - I am the Sea. When I draw back - Blossom and verdure follow my track, - And the land I leave grows proud and fair, - For the wonderful race of man is there; - And the winds of heaven wail and cry - While the nations rise and reign and die, - Living and dying in folly and pain, - While the laws of the universe thunder in vain. - What is the folly of man to me? - I am the Sea. - - I am the Sea. The earth I sway; - Granite to me is potter’s clay; - Under the touch of my careless waves - It rises in turrets and sinks in caves; - The iron cliffs that edge the land - I grind to pebbles and sift to sand, - And beach-grass bloweth and children play - In what were the rocks of yesterday. - It is but a moment of sport to me. - I am the Sea! - - I am the Sea. In my bosom deep - Wealth and Wonder and Beauty sleep; - Wealth and Wonder and Beauty rise - In changing splendor of sunset skies, - And comfort the earth with rains and snows - Till waves the harvest and laughs the rose. - Flower and forest and child of breath - With me have life—without me, death. - What if the ships go down in me? - I am the Sea! - - - - - THE LION PATH. - - - I dare not! - Look! the road is very dark; - The trees stir softly and the bushes shake, - The long grass rustles, and the darkness moves - Here—there—beyond! - There’s something crept across the road just now! - And you would have me go? - Go _there_, through that live darkness, hideous - With stir of crouching forms that wait to kill? - Ah, _look_! See there! and there! and there again! - Great yellow glassy eyes, close to the ground! - Look! Now the clouds are lighter I can see - The long slow lashing of the sinewy tails, - And the set quiver of strong jaws that wait! - Go there? Not I! Who dares to go who sees - So perfectly the lions in the path? - - Comes one who dares. - - Afraid at first, yet bound - On such high errand as no fear could stay. - Forth goes he with the lions in his path. - And then—? - - He dared a death of agony, - Outnumbered battle with the king of beasts, - Long struggle in the horror of the night, - Dared and went forth to meet—O ye who fear! - Finding an empty road, and nothing there,— - A wide, bare, common road, with homely fields, - And fences, and the dusty roadside trees— - Some spitting kittens, maybe, in the grass. - - - - - REINFORCEMENTS. - - - Yea, we despair. Because the night is long, - And all arms weary with the endless fight - With blind, black forces of insulted law - Which we continually disobey, - And know not how to honor if we would. - - How can we fight when every effort fails, - And the vast hydra looms before us still - Headed as thickly as at dawn of day, - Fierce as when evening fell on us at war? - We are aweary, and no help appears; - No light, no knowledge, no sure way to kill - Our ancient enemy. Let us give o’er! - We do but fight with fate! Lay down your arms! - Retreat! Surrender! Better live as slaves - Than fight forever on a losing field! - - Hold, ye faint-hearted! Ye are not alone! - Into your worn-out ranks of weary men - Come mighty reinforcements, even now! - Look where the dawn is kindling in the east, - Brave with the glory of the better day,— - A countless host, an endless host, all fresh, - With unstained banners and unsullied shields, - With shining swords that point to victory, - And great young hearts that know not how to fear,— - The Children come to save the weary world! - - - - - HEROISM. - - - It takes great strength to train - To modern service your ancestral brain; - To lift the weight of the unnumbered years - Of dead men’s habits, methods, and ideas; - To hold that back with one hand, and support - With the other the weak steps of a new thought. - - It takes great strength to bring your life up square - With your accepted thought, and hold it there; - Resisting the inertia that drags back - From new attempts to the old habit’s track. - It is so easy to drift back, to sink; - So hard to live abreast of what you think! - - It takes great strength to live where you belong - When other people think that you are wrong; - People you love, and who love you, and whose - Approval is a pleasure you would choose. - To bear this pressure and succeed at length - In living your belief—well, it takes strength. - - And courage too. But what does courage mean - Save strength to help you face a pain foreseen? - Courage to undertake this lifelong strain - Of setting yours against your grandsire’s brain; - Dangerous risk of walking lone and free - Out of the easy paths that used to be, - And the fierce pain of hurting those we love - When love meets truth, and truth must ride above? - - But the best courage man has ever shown - Is daring to cut loose and think alone. - Dark as the unlit chambers of clear space - Where light shines back from no reflecting face. - Our sun’s wide glare, our heaven’s shining blue, - We owe to fog and dust they fumble through; - And our rich wisdom that we treasure so - Shines from the thousand things that we don’t know. - But to think new—it takes a courage grim - As led Columbus over the world’s rim. - To think it cost some courage. And to go— - Try it. It taxes every power you know. - - It takes great love to stir a human heart - To live beyond the others and apart. - A love that is not shallow, is not small, - Is not for one, or two, but for them all. - Love that can wound love, for its higher need; - Love that can leave love though the heart may bleed; - Love that can lose love; family, and friend; - Yet steadfastly live, loving, to the end. - A love that asks no answer, that can live - Moved by one burning, deathless force,—to give. - Love, strength, and courage. Courage, strength, and love, - The heroes of all time are built thereof. - - - - - FIRE WITH FIRE. - - - There are creeping flames in the near-by grass; - There are leaping flames afar; - And the wind’s black breath - Is hot with death,— - The worst of the deaths that are! - - And north is fire and south is fire, - And east and west the same; - The sunlight chokes, - The whole earth smokes, - The only light is flame! - - But what do I care for the girdle of death - With its wavering wall and spire! - I draw the ring - Where I am king, - And fight the fire with fire! - - My blaze is not as wide as the world, - Nor tall for the world to see; - But the flames I make - For life’s sweet sake, - Are between the fire and me. - - That fire would burn in wantonness - All things that life must use; - Some things I lay - In the dragon’s way - And burn because I choose. - - The sky is black, the air is red, - The earth is a flaming sea; - But I’m shielded well - In the seething hell, - By the fire that comes from me. - - There is nothing on earth a man need fear, - Nothing so dark or dire; - Though the world is wide, - You have more inside, - You can fight the fire with fire! - - - - - THE SHIELD. - - - Fight! said the Leader. Stand and fight! - How dare you yield! - What is the pain of the bitter blows, - The ache and sting and the blood that flows, - To a losing field! - - Yea, said they, you may stand and fight; - We needs must yield! - What is the danger and pain to you, - When every blow falls fair and true - On your magic shield? - - The magical cuirass over your breast, - Leather and steel, - Guarded like that, of course you dare - To meet the storm of battle there— - But we can feel! - - The Leader fell where he fought alone. - See the lifeblood start - Where one more blow has pierced too far, - Through a bosom hardened with scar on scar,— - The only shield, the only bar, - For that great heart! - - - - - TO THE PREACHER. - - - Preach about yesterday, Preacher! - The time so far away: - When the hand of Deity smote and slew, - And the heathen plagued the stiff-necked Jew; - Or when the Man of Sorrows came, - And blessed the people who cursed his name— - Preach about yesterday, Preacher! - Not about to-day! - - Preach about to-morrow, Preacher! - Beyond this world’s decay: - Of the sheepfold Paradise we priced - When we pinned our faith to Jesus Christ; - Of those hot depths that shall receive - The goats who would not so believe— - Preach about to-morrow, Preacher, - Not about to-day! - - Preach about the old sins, Preacher! - And the old virtues, too: - You must not steal nor take man’s life, - You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, - And woman must cling at every cost - To her one virtue, or she is lost— - Preach about the old sins, Preacher! - Not about the new! - - Preach about the other man, Preacher! - The man we all can see! - The man of oaths, the man of strife, - The man who drinks and beats his wife, - Who helps his mates to fret and shirk - When all they need is to keep at work— - Preach about the other man, Preacher! - Not about me! - - - - - A TYPE. - - - I am too little, said the Wretch, - For any one to see. - Among the million men who do - This thing that I am doing too, - Why should they notice me? - - My sin is common as to breathe; - It rests on every back. - And surely I am not to blame - Where everybody does the same,— - Am not a bit more black! - - And so he took his willing share - In a universal crime, - Thinking that no reproach could fall - On one who shared the fault of all, - Who did it all the time. - - Then Genius came, and showed the world - What thing it was they did; - How their offence had reached the poles - With stench of slain unburied souls, - And all men cowered and hid. - - Then Genius took that one poor Wretch - For now the time was ripe; - Stripped him of every shield and blind, - And nailed him up for all mankind - To study—as a type! - - - - - COMPROMISE. - - - It is well to fight and win— - If that may be; - It is well to fight and die therein— - For such go free; - - It is ill to fight and find no grave - But a prison-cell; - To keep alive, yet live a slave— - Praise those who fell! - - But worst of all are those who stand - With arms laid by, - Bannerless, helpless, no command, - No battle-cry. - - They live to save unvalued breath, - With lowered eyes; - In place of victory, or death,— - A compromise! - - - - - PART OF THE BATTLE. - - - There is a moment when with splendid joy, - With flashing blade and roar of thundering guns - And colors waving wide where triumph stands, - The last redoubt is carried; we have won! - This is the battle! We have conquered now! - - But the long hours of marching in the sun, - The longer hours of waiting in the dark, - Deadly dishonored work of hidden spy, - The dull details of commissariat, - Food, clothing, medicine, the hospital, - The way the transportation mules are fed,— - These are the battle too, and victory’s price. - - And we, in days when no attack is feared - And none is hoped,—no sudden courage called,— - Should strengthen our intrenchments quietly, - Review the forces, exercise the troops, - Feeling the while, not “When will battle come?” - But, “This is battle! We are conquering now!” - - - - - STEP FASTER, PLEASE. - - - Of all most aggravating things, - If you are hot in haste, - Is to have a man in front of you - With half a day to waste. - - There is this one thing that justifies - The man in the foremost place: - The fact that he is the man in front, - The leader of the race. - - But, for Heaven’s sake, if you are ahead, - Don’t dawdle at your ease! - You set the pace for the man behind; - Step faster, please! - - - - - A NEW YEAR’S REMINDER. - - - Better have a tender conscience for the record of your house, - And your own share in the work which they have done, - Though your private conscience aches - With your personal mistakes, - And you don’t amount to very much alone, - - Than to be yourself as spotless as a baby one year old, - Your domestic habits wholly free from blame, - While the company you stand with - Is a thing to curse a land with, - And your public life is undiluted shame. - - For the deeds men do together are what saves the world to-day— - By our common public work we stand or fall— - And your fraction of the sin - Of the office you are in - Is the sin that’s going to damn you, after all! - - - - - OUT OF PLACE. - - - Cell, poor little cell, - Distended with pain, - Torn with the pressure - Of currents of effort - Resisted in vain; - Feeling sweep by you - The stream of nutrition, - Unable to take; - Crushed flat and inactive, - While shudder across you - Great forces that wake; - Alone—while far voices - Across all the shouting - Call you to your own; - Held fast, fastened close, - Surrounded, enveloped, - How you starve there alone! - Cell, poor little cell, - Let the pain pass—don’t hold it! - Let the effort pass through you! - Let go! And give way! - You will find your own place; - You will join your own people; - See the light of your day! - - - - - LITTLE CELL. - - - Little Cell! Little Cell! with a heart as big as heaven, - Remember that you are but a part! - This great longing in your soul - Is the longing of the whole, - And your work is not done with your heart! - - Don’t imagine, Little Cell, - That the work you do so well - Is the only work the world needs to do! - You are wanted in your place - For the growing of the race, - But the growing does not all depend on you! - - Little Cell! Little Cell! with a race’s whole ambition, - Remember there are others growing, too! - You’ve been noble, you’ve been strong; - Rest a while and come along; - Let the world take a turn and carry you! - - - - - THE CHILD SPEAKS. - - - Get back! Give me air! Give me freedom and room, - The warm earth and bright water, the crowding sweet bloom - Of the flowers, and the measureless, marvellous sky,— - All of these all the time, and a shelter close by - Where silence and beauty and peace are my own - In a chamber alone. - - Then bring me the others! “A child” is a crime; - It is “children” who grow through the beautiful time - Of their childhood up into the age you are in. - “A child” must needs suffer and sicken and sin; - The life of a child needs the life of its kind, - O ye stupid and blind! - - Then the best of your heart and the best of your brain! - The face of all beauty! The soul without stain! - Your noblest! Your wisest! With us is the place - To consecrate life to the good of the race! - That our childhood may pass with the best you can give, - And our manhood so live! - - The wisdom of years, the experience deep - That shall laugh with our waking and watch with our sleep, - The patience of age, the keen honor of youth, - To guide us in doing and teach us in truth, - With the garnered ripe fruit of the world at our feet, - Both the bitter and sweet! - - What is this that you offer? One man’s narrow purse! - One woman’s strained life, and a heart straining worse! - Confined as in prisons—held down as in caves— - The teaching of tyrants—the service of slaves— - The garments of falsehood and bondage—the weight - Of your own evil state. - - And what is this brought as atonement for these? - For our blind misdirection, our death and disease; - For the grief of our childhood, the loss and the wrong; - For the pain of our childhood, the agony strong; - For the shame and the sin and the sorrow thereof— - Dare you say it is love? - - Love? First give freedom,—the right of the brute! - The air with its sunshine, the earth with its fruit. - Love? First give wisdom,—intelligent care, - That shall help to bring out all the good that is there. - Love? First give justice! There’s nothing above! - And then you may love! - - - - - TO A GOOD MANY. - - - O blind and selfish! Helpless as the beast - Who sees no meaning in a soul released - And given flesh to grow in—to work through! - Think you that God has nothing else to do - Than babble endlessly the same set phrase? - Are life’s great spreading, upward-reaching ways - Laid for the beasts to climb on till the top - Is reached in you, you think, and there you stop! - They were raised up, obedient to force - Which lifted them, unwitting of their course. - You have new power, new consciousness, new sight; - You can help God! You stand in the great light - Of seeing him at work. You can go on - And walk with him, and feel the glory won. - And here you sit, content to toil and strive - To keep your kind of animal alive! - Why, friends! God is not through! - The universe is not complete in you. - You’re just as bound to follow out his plan - And sink yourself in ever-growing Man - As ever were the earliest, crudest eggs - To grow to vertebrates with arms and legs. - Society holds not its present height - Merely that you may bring a child to light; - But you and yours live only in the plan - That’s working out a higher kind of man; - A higher kind of life, that shall let grow - New powers and nobler duties than you know. - Rise to the thought! Live in the widening race! - Help make the State more like God’s dwelling-place! - New paths for life divine, as yet untrod,— - A social body for the soul of God! - - - - - HOW WOULD YOU? - - - Half of our misery, half our pain, - Half the dark background of our self-reproach, - Is thought of how the world has sinned before. - We, being one, one with all life, we feel - The misdemeanors of uncounted time; - We suffer in the foolishness and sins - Of races just behind us,—burn with shame - At their gross ignorance and murderous deeds; - We suffer back of them in the long years - Of squalid struggling savagery of beasts,— - Beasts human and subhuman; back of them - In helpless creatures eaten, hunted, torn; - In submerged forests dying in the slime; - And even back of that in endless years - Of hot convulsions of dismembered lands, - And slow constricting centuries of cold. - So in our own lives, even to this day, - We carry in the chambers of the mind - The tale of errors, failures, and misdeeds - That we call sins, of all our early lives. - And the recurrent consciousness of this - We call remorse. The unrelenting gauge, - Now measuring past error,—this is shame. - And in our feverish overconsciousness, - A retroactive and preactive sense,— - Fired with our self-made theories of sin,— - We suffer, suffer, suffer—half alive, - And half with the dead scars of suffering. - - Friends, how would you, perhaps, have made the world? - Would you have balanced the great forces so - Their interaction would have bred no shock? - No cosmic throes of newborn continents, - No eras of the earth-encircling rain,— - Uncounted scalding tears that fell and fell - On molten worlds that hotly dashed them back - In storms of fierce repudiated steam? - Would you have made earth’s gems without the fire, - Without the water, and without the weight - Of crushing cubic miles of huddled rock? - Would you have made one kind of plant to reign - In all the earth, growing mast high, and then - Keep it undying so, and end of plants? - Would you have made one kind of animal - To live on air and spare the tender grass, - And stop him, somehow, when he grew so thick - That even air fell short. Or would you have - All plants and animals, and make them change - By some metempsychosis not called death? - For, having them, you have to have them change, - For growth is change, and life is growth; and change - Implies—in this world—what we miscall pain. - - You, wiser, would have made mankind, no doubt, - Not slowly, awfully, from dying brutes - Up into living humanness at last, - But fresh as Adam in the Hebrew tale; - Only you would have left the serpent out, - And left him, naked, in the garden still. - Or somehow, dodging this, have still contrived - That he should learn the whole curriculum - And never miss a lesson—never fail— - Be born, like Buddha, all accomplished, wise. - Would you have chosen to begin life old, - Well-balanced, cautious, knowing where to step, - And so untortured by the memory - Of childhood’s foolishness and youth’s mistakes? - Or, born a child, to have experience - Come to you softly without chance of loss, - Recurring years each rolling to your hand - In blissful innocent unconsciousness? - - O dreamers with a Heaven and a Hell - Standing at either end of your wild rush - Away from the large peace of knowing God, - Can you not see that all of it is good? - Good, with the postulate that this is life,— - And that is all we have to argue from. - Childhood means error, the mistakes that teach; - But only rod and threat and nurse’s tale, - Make childhood’s errors bring us shame and sin. - The race’s childhood grows by error too, - And we are not attained to manhood yet. - But grief and shame are only born of lies. - Once see the lovely law that needs mistakes, - And you are young forever. This is Life. - - - - - A MAN MUST LIVE. - - - A man must live. We justify - Low shift and trick to treason high, - A little vote for a little gold - To a whole senate bought and sold, - By that self-evident reply. - - But is it so? Pray tell me why - Life at such cost you have to buy? - In what religion were you told - A man must live? - - There are times when a man must die. - Imagine, for a battle-cry, - From soldiers, with a sword to hold,— - From soldiers, with the flag unrolled,— - This coward’s whine, this liar’s lie,— - A man must live! - - - - - IN DUTY BOUND. - - - In duty bound, a life hemmed in - Whichever way the spirit turns to look; - No chance of breaking out, except by sin; - Not even room to shirk— - Simply to live, and work. - - An obligation pre-imposed, unsought, - Yet binding with the force of natural law; - The pressure of antagonistic thought; - Aching within, each hour, - A sense of wasting power. - - A house with roof so darkly low - The heavy rafters shut the sunlight out; - One cannot stand erect without a blow; - Until the soul inside - Cries for a grave—more wide. - - A consciousness that if this thing endure, - The common joys of life will dull the pain; - The high ideals of the grand and pure - Die, as of course they must, - Of long disuse and rust. - - That is the worst. It takes supernal strength - To hold the attitude that brings the pain; - And they are few indeed but stoop at length - To something less than best, - To find, in stooping, rest. - - - - - DESIRE. - - - Lo, I desire! Sum of the ages’ growth— - Fruit of evolving—king of life— - I, holding in myself the outgrown past - In all its ever-rising forms—desire. - With the first grass-blade, I desire the sun; - With every bird that breathes, I love the air; - With fishes, joy in water; with my horse, - Exult in motion; with all living flesh, - Long for sweet food and warmth and mate and young; - With the whole rising tide of that which is, - Thirst for advancement,—crave and yearn for it! - Yea, I desire! Then the compelling will - Urges to action to attain desire. - What action? Which desire? Am I a plant, - Rooted and helpless, following the light - Without volition? Or am I a beast, - Led by desire into the hunter’s snare? - Am I a savage, swayed by every wish, - Brutal and feeble, a ferocious child? - Stand back, Desire, and put your plea in words. - No wordless wailing for the summer moon, - No Gilpin race on some strong appetite, - Stand here before the King, and make your plea. - If Reason sees it just, you have your wish; - If not, your wish is vain, plead as you will. - The court is open, beggar! I am King! - - - - - WHY NOT? - - - Why not look forward far as Plato looked - And see the beauty of our coming life, - As he saw that which might be ours to-day? - If his soul, then, could rise so far beyond - The brutal average of that old time, - When icy peaks of art stood sheer and high - In fat black valleys where the helot toiled; - If he, from that, could see so far ahead, - Could forecast days when Love and Justice both - Should watch the cradle of a healthy child, - And Wisdom walk with Beauty and pure Joy - In all the common ways of daily life,— - Then may not we, from great heights hardly won, - Bright hills of liberty, broad plains of peace, - And flower-sweet valleys of warm human love, - Still broken by the chasms of despair - Where Poverty and Ignorance and Sin - Pollute the air of all,—why not, from this, - Look on as Plato looked, and see the day - When his Republic and our Heaven, joined, - Shall make life what God meant it? - Ay, we do! - - - - - OUT OF THE GATE. - - - Out of the glorious city gate - A great throng came. - A mighty throng that swelled and grew - Around a face that all men knew— - A man who bore a noted name— - Gathered to listen to his fate. - - The Judge sat high. Unbroken black - Around, above, and at his back. - The people pressed for nearer place, - Longing, yet shamed, to watch that face; - And in a space before the throne - The prisoner stood, unbound, alone. - So thick they rose on every side, - There was no spot his face to hide. - - Then came the Herald, crying clear, - That all the listening crowd should hear; - Crying aloud before the sun - What thing this fallen man had done. - He—who had held a ruler’s place - Among them, by their choice and grace— - He—fallen lower than the dust— - Had sinned against his public trust! - - The Herald ceased. The Poet arose, - The Poet, whose awful art now shows - To this poor heart, and heart of every one, - The horror of the thing that he had done. - - “O Citizen! Dweller in this high place! - Son of the city! Sharer in its pride! - Born in the light of its fair face! - By it fed, sheltered, taught, and glorified! - Raised to pure manhood by thy city’s care; - Made strong and beautiful and happy there; - Loving thy mother and thy father more - For the fair town which made them glad before; - Finding among its maidens thy sweet wife; - Owing to it thy power and place in life; - Raised by its people to the lofty stand - Where thou couldst execute their high command; - Trusted and honored, lifted over all,— - So honored and so trusted, didst thou fall! - Against the people—who gave thee the power— - Thou hast misused it in an evil hour! - Against the city where thou owest all all— - Thy city, man, within whose guarding wall - Lie all our life’s young glories—ay, the whole! - The home and cradle of the human soul! - Against thy city, beautiful and strong, - Thou, with the power it gave, hast done this wrong!” - - Then rose the Judge. “Prisoner, thy case was tried - Fairly and fully in the courts inside. - Thy guilt was proven, and thou hast confessed, - And now the people’s voice must do the rest. - I speak the sentence which the people give: - It is permitted thee to freely live, - Redeem thy sin by service to the state, - But nevermore within this city’s gate!” - - Back rolled the long procession, sad and slow, - Back where the city’s thousand banners blow. - The solemn music rises glad and clear - When the great gates before them open near, - Rises in triumph, sinks to sweet repose, - When the great gates behind them swing and close. - Free stands the prisoner, with a heart of stone. - The city gate is shut. He is alone. - - - - - THE MODERN SKELETON. - - - As kings of old in riotous royal feasts, - Among the piled up roses and the wine, - Wild music and soft-footed dancing girls, - The pearls and gold and barbarous luxury, - Used to show also a white skeleton,— - To make life meeker in the sight of death, - To make joy sweeter by the thought thereof,— - - So our new kings in their high banqueting, - With the electric lustre unforeseen, - And unimagined costliness of flowers; - Rich wines of price and food as rare as gems, - And all the wondrous waste of artifice; - Midst high-bred elegance and jewelled ease - And beauty of rich raiment; they should set, - High before all, a sickly pauper child, - To keep the rich in mind of poverty,— - The sure concomitant of their estate. - - - - - THE LESSON OF DEATH. - TO S. T. D. - - - In memory of one whose breath - Blessed all with words wise, loving, brave; - Whose life was service, and whose death - Unites our hearts around her grave. - - · · · · · - - Another blow has fallen, Lord— - Was it from thee? - Is it indeed thy fiery sword - That cuts our hearts? We know thy word; - We know by heart wherein it saith - “Whom the Lord loves he chasteneth”— - But also, in another breath, - This: “The wages of sin is death.” - - How may we tell what pain is good, - In mercy sent? - And what is evil through and through, - Sure consequence of what we do, - Sure product of thy broken laws, - Certain effect of given cause, - Just punishment? - - Not sin of those who suffer, Lord— - To them no shame. - For father’s sins our children die - With Justice sitting idly by; - The guilty thrive nor yet repent, - While sorrow strikes the innocent— - Whom shall we blame? - - ’Tis not that one alone is dead, - And these bereft. - For her, for them, we grieve indeed; - But there are other hearts that bleed! - All up and down the world so wide - We suffer, Lord, on every side,— - We who are left. - - See now, we bend our stricken hearts, - Patient and still, - Knowing thy laws are wholly just, - Knowing thy love commands our trust, - Knowing that good is God alone, - That pain and sorrow are our own, - And seeking out of all our pain - To struggle up to God again— - Teach us thy will! - - When shall we learn by common joy - Broad as the sun, - By common effort, common fear, - All common life that holds us near, - And this great bitter common pain - Coming again and yet again— - That we are one? - - Yea, one. We cannot sin apart, - Suffer alone; - Nor keep our goodness to ourselves - Like precious things on hidden shelves. - Because we each live not our best, - Some one must suffer for the rest— - For we are one! - - Our pain is but the voice of wrong— - Lord, help us hear! - Teach us to see the truth at last, - To mend our future from our past, - To know thy laws and find them friends, - Leading us safe to lovely ends, - Thine own hand near. - - Not one by doing right alone - Can mend the way; - But we must all do right together,— - Love, help, and serve each other, whether - We joy or suffer. So at last - Shall needless pain and death be past, - And we, thy children living here, - Be worthy of our father dear! - God speed the day! - - · · · · · - - Oh, help us, Father, from this loss - To learn thy will! - So shall our lost one live again; - So shall her life not pass in vain; - So shall we show in better living— - In loving, helping, doing, giving— - That she lives still! - - - - - FOR US. - - - If we have not learned that God’s in man, - And man in God again; - That to love thy God is to love thy brother, - And to serve the Lord is to serve each other,— - Then Christ was born in vain! - - If we have not learned that one man’s life - In all men lives again; - That each man’s battle, fought alone, - Is won or lost for every one,— - Then Christ hath lived in vain! - - If we have not learned that death’s no break - In life’s unceasing chain; - That the work in one life well begun - In others is finished, by others is done,— - Then Christ hath died in vain! - - If we have not learned of immortal life, - And a future free from pain; - The kingdom of God in the heart of man, - And the living world on Heaven’s plan,— - Then Christ arose in vain! - - - - - THANKSGIVING. - - - Well is it for the land whose people, yearly, - Turn to the Giver of all Good with praise, - Chanting glad hymns that thank him, loudly, clearly, - Rejoicing in the beauty of his ways. - - Great name that means all perfectness and power! - We thank thee—not for mercy, nor release, - But for clear joy in sky and sea and flower, - In thy pure justice, and thy blessed peace. - - We live; behind us the dark past; before, - A wide way full of light that thou dost give; - More light, more strength, more joy and ever more— - O God of joy! we thank thee that we live! - - - - - CHRISTMAS HYMN. - - - Listen not to the word that would have you believe - That the voice of the age is a moan; - That the red hand of wrong - Is triumphant and strong, - And that wrong is triumphant alone; - There was never a time on the face of the earth - When love was so near its own. - - Do you think that the love which has died for the world - Has not lived for the world also? - Filling man with the fire - Of a boundless desire - To love all with a love that shall grow? - It was not for nothing the White Christ was born - Two thousand years ago. - - The power that gave birth to the Son of the King - All life doth move and thrill, - Every age as ’tis passed - Coming nearer at last - To the law of that wonderful will,— - As our God so loved the world that day, - Our God so loves it still. - - The love that fed poverty, making it thrive, - Is learning a lovelier way. - We have seen that the poor - Need be with us no more, - And that sin may be driven away; - The love that has carried the martyrs to death - Is entering life to-day. - - The spirit of Christ is awake and alive, - In the work of the world it is shown, - Crying loud, crying clear, - That the Kingdom is here, - And that all men are heirs to the throne! - There was never a time since the making of man - When love was so near its own! - - - - - CHRISTMAS. - - - Slow, slow and weak, - As first the tongue began to speak, - The hand to serve, the heart to feel, - Grew up among our mutual deeds, - Great flower out-topping all the weeds, - Sweet fruit that meets all human needs, - Our love—our common weal. - - It spread so wide, so high, - We saw it broad against the sky, - Down shining where we trod; - It stormed our new-born consciousness, - Omnipotent to heal and bless, - Till we conceived—we could no less, - It was the love of God! - - Came there a man at length - Whose heart so swelled with the great strength - Of love that would have way, - That in his body he fulfilled - The utmost service love had willed; - And the great stream, so held, so spilled, - Pours on until to-day. - - Still we look back to this grand dream, - Still stoop to drink at this wide stream, - Wider each year we live; - And on one yearly blessed day, - Seek not to earn and not to pay, - But to let love have its one way,— - To quench our thirst _to give_! - - Brothers, cease not to bless the name - Of him who loved through death and shame, - We cannot praise amiss; - But not in vain was sown the seed; - Look wide where thousands toil and bleed, - Where men meet death for common need— - Hath no man loved but this? - - Yea, all men love; we love to-day - Wide as the human race has sway, - Ever more deep, more dear; - No stream,—an everlasting sea, - Beating and throbbing to be free, - To give it forth there needs must be - One Christmas all the year! - - - - - THE LIVING GOD. - - - The Living God. The God that made the world - Made it, and stood aside to watch and wait, - Arranging a predestined plan - To save the erring soul of man— - Undying destiny—unswerving fate. - I see his hand in the path of life, - His law to doom and save, - His love divine in the hopes that shine - Beyond the sinner’s grave, - His care that sendeth sun and rain, - His wisdom giving rest, - His price of sin that we may not win - The heaven of the blest. - - Not near enough! Not clear enough! - O God, come nearer still! - I long for thee! Be strong for me! - Teach me to know thy will! - - The Living God. The God that makes the world, - Makes it—is making it in all its worth; - His spirit speaking sure and slow - In the real universe we know,— - God living in the earth. - I feel his breath in the blowing wind, - His pulse in the swinging sea, - And the sunlit sod is the breast of God - Whose strength we feel and see. - His tenderness in the springing grass, - His beauty in the flowers, - His living love in the sun above,— - All here, and near, and ours! - - Not near enough! Not clear enough! - O God, come nearer still! - I long for thee! Be strong for me! - Teach me to know thy will! - - The Living God. The God that is the world. - The world? The world is man,—the work of man. - Then—dare I follow what I see?— - Then—by thy Glory—it must be - That we are in thy plan? - That strength divine in the work we do? - That love in our mothers’ eyes? - That wisdom clear in our thinking here? - That power to help us rise? - God in the daily work we’ve done, - In the daily path we’ve trod? - Stand still, my heart, for I am a part— - I too—of the Living God! - - Ah, clear as light! As near! As bright! - O God! My God! My Own! - Command thou me! I stand for thee! - And I do not stand alone! - - - - - A PRAYER. - - - O God! I cannot ask thee to forgive; - I have done wrong. - Thy law is just; thy law must live,— - Whoso doth wrong must suffer pain. - But help me to do right again,— - Again be strong. - - - - - GIVE WAY! - - - Shall we not open the human heart, - Swing the doors till the hinges start; - Stop our worrying doubt and din, - Hunting heaven and dodging sin? - There is no need to search so wide, - Open the door and stand aside— - Let God in! - - Shall we not open the human heart - To loving labor in field and mart; - Working together for all about, - The glad, large labor that knows not doubt? - Can He be held in our narrow rim? - Do the work that is work for Him— - Let God out! - - Shall we not open the human heart, - Never to close and stand apart? - God is a force to give way to! - God is a thing you have to do! - God can never be caught by prayer, - Hid in your heart and fastened there— - Let God through! - - - - - THANKSGIVING HYMN. - FOR CALIFORNIA. - - - Our forefathers gave thanks to God, - In the land by the stormy sea, - For bread hard wrung from the iron sod - In cold and misery. - Though every day meant toil and strife, - In the land by the stormy sea, - They thanked their God for the gift of life— - How much the more should we! - - Stern frost had they full many a day, - Strong ice on the stormy sea, - Long months of snow, gray clouds hung low, - And a cold wind endlessly; - Winter, and war with an alien race— - But they were alive and free! - And they thanked their God for his good grace— - How much the more should we! - - For we have a land all sunny with gold,— - A land by the summer sea; - Gold in the earth for our hands to hold, - Gold in blossom and tree; - Comfort, and plenty, and beauty, and peace, - From the mountains down to the sea. - They thanked their God for a year’s increase— - How much the more should we! - - - - - CHRISTMAS CAROL. - FOR LOS ANGELES. - - - On the beautiful birthday of Jesus, - While the nations praising stand, - He goeth from city to city, - He walketh from land to land. - - And the snow lies white and heavy, - And the ice lies wide and wan, - But the love of the blessed Christmas - Melts even the heart of man. - - With love from the heart of Heaven, - In the power of his Holy Name, - To the City of the Queen of the Angels - The tender Christ-child came. - - The land blushed red with roses, - The land laughed glad with grain, - And the little hills smiled softly - In the freshness after rain. - - Land of the fig and olive! - Land of the fruitful vine! - His heart grew soft within him, - As he thought of Palestine,— - - Of the brooks with the banks of lilies, - Of the little doves of clay, - And of how he sat with his mother - At the end of a summer’s day, - - His head on his mother’s bosom, - His hand in his mother’s hand, - Watching the golden sun go down - Across the shadowy land,— - - A moment’s life with human kind; - A moment,—nothing more; - Eternity lies broad behind, - Eternity before. - - High on the Hills of Heaven, - Majestic, undefiled, - Forever and ever he lives, a God; - But once he lived, a Child! - - And the child-heart leaps within him, - And the child-eyes softer grow, - When the land lies bright and sunny, - Like the land of long ago; - - And the love of God is mingled - With the love of dear days gone, - When he comes to the city of his mother, - On the day her child was born! - - - - - NEW DUTY. - - - Once to God we owed it all,— - God alone; - Bowing in eternal thrall, - Giving, sacrificing all, - Before the Throne. - - Once we owed it to the King,— - Served the crown; - Life, and love, and everything, - In allegiance to the King, - Laying down. - - Now we owe it to Mankind,— - To our Race; - Fullest fruit of soul and mind, - Heart and hand and all behind, - Now in place. - - Loving-service, wide and free, - From the sod - Up in varying degree, - Through me and you—through you and me— - Up to God! - - - - - SEEKING. - - - I went to look for Love among the roses, the roses, - The pretty wingèd boy with the arrow and the bow; - In the fair and fragrant places, - ’Mid the Muses and the Graces, - At the feet of Aphrodite, with the roses all aglow. - - Then I sought among the shrines where the rosy flames were leaping— - The rose and golden flames, never ceasing, never still— - For the boy so fair and slender, - The imperious, the tender, - With the whole world moving slowly to the music of his will. - - Sought, and found not for my seeking, till the sweet quest led me - further, - And before me rose the temple, marble-based and gold above, - Where the long procession marches - ’Neath the incense-clouded arches - In the world-compelling worship of the mighty God of Love. - - Yea, I passed with bated breath to the holiest of holies, - And I lifted the great curtain from the Inmost,—the Most Fair,— - - Eager for the joy of finding, - For the glory, beating, blinding, - Meeting but an empty darkness; darkness, silence—nothing there. - - Where is Love? I cried in anguish, while the temple reeled and faded; - Where is Love?—for I must find him, I must know and understand! - Died the music and the laughter, - Flames and roses dying after, - And the curtain I was holding fell to ashes in my hand. - - - - - FINDING. - - - Out of great darkness and wide wastes of silence, - Long loneliness, and slow untasted years, - Came a slow filling of the empty places, - A slow, sweet lighting of forgotten faces, - A smiling under tears. - - A light of dawn that filled the brooding heaven, - A warmth that kindled all the earth and air, - A thrilling tender music, floating, stealing, - A fragrance of unnumbered flowers revealing - A sweetness new and fair. - - After the loss of love where I had sought him, - After the anguish of the empty shrine, - Came a warm joy from all the hearts around me, - A feeling that some perfect strength had found me, - Touch of the hand divine. - - I followed Love to his intensest centre, - And lost him utterly when fastened there; - I let him go and ceased my selfish seeking, - Turning my heart to all earth’s voices speaking, - And found him everywhere. - - Love like the rain that falls on just and unjust, - Love like the sunshine, measureless and free, - From each to all, from all to each, to live in; - And, in the world’s glad love so gladly given, - Came heart’s true love to me! - - - - - TOO MUCH. - - - There are who die without love, never seeing - The clear eyes shining, the bright wings fleeing. - Lonely they die, and ahungered, in bitterness knowing - They have not had their share of the good there was going. - - There are who have and lose love, these most blessed, - In joy unstained which they have once possessed, - Lost while still dear, still sweet, still met by glad affection,— - An endless happiness in recollection. - - And some have Love’s full cup as he doth give it— - Have it, and drink of it, and, ah,—outlive it! - Full fed by Love’s delights, o’erwearied, sated, - They die, not hungry—only suffocated. - - - - - THE CUP. - - - And yet, saith he, ye need but sip; - And who would die without a taste? - Just touch the goblet to the lip, - Then let the bright draught run to waste! - - She set her lip to the beaker’s brim— - ’Twas passing sweet! ’Twas passing mild! - She let her large eyes dwell on him, - And sipped again, and smiled. - - So sweet! So mild! She scarce can tell - If she doth really drink or no; - Till the light doth fade and the shadows swell, - And the goblet lieth low. - - O cup of dreams! O cup of doubt! - O cup of blinding joy and pain! - The taste that none would die without! - The draught that all the world must drain! - - - - - WHAT THEN? - - - Suppose you write your heart out till the world - Sobs with one voice—what then? - Small agonies that round your heart-strings curled - Strung out for choice, that men - May pick a phrase, each for his own pet pain, - And thank the voice so come, - They being dumb. What then? - - You have no sympathy? O endless claim! - No one that cares? What then? - Suppose you had—the whole world knew your name - And your affairs, and men - Ached with your headache, dreamed your dreadful dreams, - And, with your heart-break due, - Their hearts broke too. What then? - - You think that people do not understand? - You suffer? Die? What then? - Unhappy child, look here, on either hand, - Look low or high,—all men - Suffer and die, and keep it to themselves! - They die—they suffer sore— - You suffer more? What then? - - - - - OUR LONELINESS. - - - There is no deeper grief than loneliness. - Our sharpest anguish at the death of friends - Is loneliness. Our agony of heart - When love has gone from us is loneliness. - The crying of a little child at night - In the big dark is crowding loneliness. - Slow death of woman on a Kansas farm; - The ache of those who think beyond their time; - Pain unassuaged of isolated lives,— - All this is loneliness. - - Oh, we who are one body of one soul! - Great soul of man born into social form! - Should we not suffer at dismemberment? - A finger torn from brotherhood; an eye - Having no cause to see when set alone. - Our separation is the agony - Of uses unfulfilled—of thwarted law; - The forces of all nature throb and push, - Crying for their accustomed avenues; - And we, alone, have no excuse to be,— - No reason for our being. We are dead - Before we die, and know it in our hearts. - - Even the narrowest union has some joy, - Transient and shallow, limited and weak; - And joy of union strengthens with its strength, - Deepens and widens as the union grows. - Hence the pure light of long-enduring love, - Lives blended slowly, softly, into one. - Hence civic pride, and glory in our states, - And the fierce thrill of patriotic fire - When millions feel as one! - - When we shall learn - To live together fully; when each man - And woman works in conscious interchange - With all the world,—union as wide as man,— - No human soul can ever suffer more - The devastating grief of loneliness. - - - - - THE KEEPER OF THE LIGHT. - - - A lighthouse keeper with a loving heart - Toiled at his service in the lonely tower, - Keeping his giant lenses clear and bright, - And feeding with pure oil the precious light - Whose power to save was as his own heart’s power. - - He loved his kind, and being set alone - To help them by the means of this great light, - He poured his whole heart’s service into it, - And sent his love down the long beams that lit - The waste of broken water in the night. - - He loved his kind, and joyed to see the ships - Come out of nowhere into his bright field, - And glide by safely with their living men, - Past him and out into the dark again, - To other hands their freight of joy to yield. - - His work was noble and his work was done; - He kept the ships in safety and was glad; - And yet, late coming with the light’s supplies, - They found the love no longer in his eyes— - The keeper of the light had fallen mad. - - - - - IMMORTALITY. - - - When I was grass, perhaps I may have wept - As every year the grass-blades paled and slept; - Or shrieked in anguish impotent, beneath - The smooth impartial cropping of great teeth— - I don’t remember much what came to pass - When I was grass. - - When I was monkey, I’m afraid the trees - Weren’t always havens of contented ease; - Things killed us, and we never could tell why; - No doubt we blamed the earth or sea or sky— - I have forgotten my rebellion’s shape - When I was ape. - - Now I have reached the comfortable skin - This stage of living is enveloped in, - And hold the spirit of my mighty race - Self-conscious prisoner under one white face,— - I’m awfully afraid I’m going to die, - Now I am I. - - So I have planned a hypothetic life - To pay me somehow for my toil and strife. - Blessed or damned, I someway must contrive - That I eternally be kept alive! - In this an endless, boundless bliss I see,— - Eternal me! - - · · · · · - - When I was man, no doubt I used to care - About the little things that happened there, - And fret to see the years keep going by, - And nations, families, and persons die. - I didn’t much appreciate life’s plan - When I was man. - - - - - WASTE. - - - Doth any man consider what we waste - Here in God’s garden? While the sea is full, - The sunlight smiles, and all the blessed earth - Offers her wealth to our intelligence. - We waste our food, enough for half the world, - In helpless luxury among the rich, - In helpless ignorance among the poor, - In spilling what we stop to quarrel for. - We waste our wealth in failing to produce, - In robbing of each other every day - In place of making things,—our human crown. - We waste our strength, in endless effort poured - Like water on the sand, still toiling on - To make a million things we do not want. - We waste our lives, those which should still lead on - Each new one gaining on the age behind, - In doing what we all have done before. - We waste our love,—poured up into the sky, - Across the ocean, into desert lands, - Sunk in one narrow circle next ourselves,— - While these, our brothers, suffer—are alone. - Ye may not pass the near to love the far; - Ye may not love the near and stop at that. - Love spreads through man, not over or around! - Yea, grievously we waste; and all the time - Humanity is wanting,—wanting sore. - Waste not, my brothers, and ye shall not want! - - - - - WINGS. - - - A sense of wings— - Soft downy wings and fair— - Great wings that whistle as they sweep - Along the still gulfs—empty, deep— - Of thin blue air. - - Doves’ wings that follow, - Doves’ wings that fold, - Doves’ wings that flutter down - To nestle in your hold. - - Doves’ wings that settle, - Doves’ wings that rest, - Doves’ wings that brood so warm - Above the little nest. - - Larks’ wings that rise and rise, - Climbing the rosy skies— - Fold and drop down - To birdlings brown. - - Light wings of wood-birds, that one scarce believes - Moved in the leaves. - - The quick, shy flight - Of wings that flee in fright— - A start as swift as light— - Only the shaken air - To tell that wings were there. - - Broad wings that beat for many days - Above the land wastes and the water ways; - Beating steadily on and on, - Through dark and cold, - Through storms untold, - Till the far sun and summer land is won. - - And wings— - Wings that unfold - With such wide sweep before your would-be hold— - Such glittering sweep of whiteness—sun on snow— - Such mighty plumes—strong-ribbed, strong-webbed—strong-knit to go - From earth to heaven! - Hear the air flow back - In their wide track! - Feel the sweet wind these wings displace - Beat on your face! - See the great arc of light like rising rockets trail - They leave in leaving— - They avail— - These wings—for flight! - - - - - THE HEART OF THE WATER. - - - O the ache in the heart of the water that lies - Underground in the desert, unopened, unknown, - While the seeds lie unbroken, the blossoms unblown, - And the traveller wanders—the traveller dies! - - O the joy in the heart of the water that flows - From the well in the desert,—a desert no more,— - Bird-music and blossoms and harvest in store, - And the white shrine that showeth the traveller knows! - - - - - THE SHIP. - - - The sunlight is mine! And the sea! - And the four wild winds that blow! - The winds of heaven that whistle free— - They are but slaves to carry me - Wherever I choose to go! - - Fire for a power inside! - Air for a pathway free! - I traverse the earth in conquest wide; - The sea is my servant! The sea is my bride! - And the elements wait on me! - - · · · · · - - In dull green light, down-filtered sick and slow - Through miles of heavy water overhead, - With miles of heavy water yet below, - A ship lies, dead. - Shapeless and broken, swayed from side to side, - The helpless driftwood of an unknown tide. - - - - - AMONG THE GODS. - - - How close the air of valleys, and how close - The teeming little life that harbors there! - For me, I will climb mountains. Up and up, - Higher and higher, till I pant for breath - In that thin clearness. Still? There is no sound - Nor memory of sound upon these heights. - Ah! the great sunlight! The caressing sky, - The beauty, and the stillness, and the peace! - I see my pathway clear for miles below; - See where I fell, and set a friendly sign - To warn some other of the danger there. - The green small world is wide below me spread. - The great small world! Some things look large and fair - Which, in their midst, I could not even see; - And some look small which used to terrify. - Blessed these heights of freedom, wisdom, rest! - I will go higher yet. - - A sea of cloud - Rolls soundless waves between me and the world. - This is the zone of everlasting snows, - And the sweet silence of the hills below - Is song and laughter to the silence here. - Great fields, huge peaks, long awful slopes of snow. - Alone, triumphant, man above the world, - I stand among these white eternities. - - Sheer at my feet - Sink the unsounded, cloud-encumbered gulfs; - And shifting mists now veil and now reveal - The unknown fastnesses above me yet. - I am alone—above all life—sole king - Of these white wastes. How pitiful and small - Becomes the outgrown world! I reign supreme, - And in this utter stillness and wide peace - Look calmly down upon the universe. - - Surely that crest has changed! That pile of cloud - That covers half the sky, waves like a robe! - That large and gentle wind - Is like the passing of a presence here! - See how yon massive mist-enshrouded peak - Is like the shape of an unmeasured foot,— - The figure with the stars! - Ah! what is this? It moves, lifts, bends, is gone! - - With what a shocking sense of littleness— - A reeling universe that changes place, - And falls to new relation over me— - I feel the unseen presence of the gods! - - - - - SONGS. - - - I. - - O world of green, all shining, shifting! - O world of blue, all living, lifting! - O world where glassy waters smoothly roll! - Fair earth, and heaven free, - Ye are but part of me— - Ye are my soul! - - O woman nature, shining, shifting! - O woman creature, living, lifting! - Come soft and still to one who waits thee here! - Fair soul, both mine and free, - Ye who are part of me, - Appear! Appear! - - - II. - - How could I choose but weep? - The poor bird lay asleep; - For lack of food, for lack of breath, - For lack of life he came to death— - How could I choose but weep? - - How could I choose but smile? - There was no lack the while! - In bliss he did undo himself; - Where life was full he slew himself— - How could I choose but smile? - - Would ye but understand! - Joy is on every hand! - Ye shut your eyes and call it night, - Ye grope and fall in seas of light— - Would ye but understand! - - - - - HEAVEN. - - - Thou bright mirage, that o’er man’s arduous way - Hast hung in the hot sky, with fountains streaming, - Cool marble domes, and palm-fronds waving, gleaming,— - Vision of rest and peace to end the day! - Now he is weariest, alone, astray, - Spent with long labor, led by thy sweet seeming, - Faint as the breath of Nature’s lightest dreaming, - Thou waverest and vanishest away! - - Can Nature dream? Is God’s great sky deceiving? - Where joy like that the clouds above us show - Be sure the counterpart must lie below, - Sweeter than hope, more blessed than believing! - We lose the fair reflection of our home - Because so near its gates our feet have come! - - - - - BALLAD OF THE SUMMER SUN. - - - It is said that human nature needeth hardship to be strong, - That highest growth has come to man in countries white with snow; - And they tell of truth and wisdom that to northern folk belong, - And claim the brain is feeble where the south winds always blow. - They forget to read the story of the ages long ago: - The lore that built the pyramids where still the simoom veers, - The knowledge framing Tyrian ships, the greater skill that steers, - The learning of the Hindu in his volumes never done, - All the wisdom of Egyptians and the old Chaldean seers,— - Came to man in summer lands beneath a summer sun. - - It is said that human nature needeth hardship to be strong, - That courage bred of meeting cold makes martial bosoms glow; - And they point to mighty generals the northern folk among, - And call mankind emasculate where southern waters flow. - They forget to look at history and see the nations grow! - The cohorts of Assyrian kings, the Pharaohs’ charioteers, - The march of Alexander, the Persians’ conquering spears, - The legions of the Romans, from Ethiop to Hun, - The power that mastered all the world and held it years on years,— - Came to man in summer lands beneath a summer sun. - - It is said that human nature needeth hardship to be strong, - That only pain and suffering the power to feel bestow; - And they show us noble artists made great by loss and wrong, - And say the soul is lowered that hath pleasure without woe. - They forget the perfect monuments that pleasure’s blessings show; - The statue and the temple that no man living nears, - Song and verse and music forever in the ears, - The glory that remaineth while the sands of time shall run, - The beauty of immortal art that never disappears,— - Came to man in summer lands beneath a summer sun. - - The faith of Thor and Odin, the creed of force and fears, - Cruel gods that deal in death, the icebound soul reveres, - But the Lord of Peace and Blessing was not one! - Truth and Power and Beauty—Love that endeth tears— - Came to man in summer lands beneath a summer sun. - - - - - PIONEERS. - - - Long have we sung our noble pioneers, - Vanguard of progress, heralds of the time, - Guardians of industry and art sublime, - Leaders of man down all the brightening years! - To them the danger, to their wives the tears, - While we sit safely in the city’s grime, - In old-world trammels of distress and crime, - Playing with words and thoughts, with doubts and fears. - - Children of axe and gun! Ye take to-day - The baby steps of man’s first, feeblest age, - While we, thought-seekers of the printed page, - We lead the world down its untrodden way! - Ours the drear wastes and leagues of empty waves, - The lonely deaths, the undiscovered graves. - - - - - EXILES. - - - Exiled from home. The far sea rolls - Between them and the country of their birth; - The childhood-turning impulse of their souls - Pulls half across the earth. - Exiled from home. No mother to take care - That they work not too hard, grieve not too sore; - No older brother nor small sister fair; - No father any more. - - Exiled from home; from all familiar things; - The low-browed roof, the grass-surrounded door; - Accustomed labors that gave daylight wings; - Loved steps on the worn floor. - - Exiled from home. Young girls sent forth alone - When most their hearts need close companioning; - No love and hardly friendship may they own, - No voice of welcoming. - - Blinded with homesick tears the exile stands; - To toil for alien household gods she comes; - A servant and a stranger in our lands, - Homeless within our homes. - - - - - A NEVADA DESERT. - - - An aching, blinding, barren, endless plain, - Corpse-colored with white mould of alkali, - Hairy with sage-brush, slimy after rain, - Burnt with the sky’s hot scorn, and still again - Sullenly burning back against the sky. - - Dull green, dull brown, dull purple, and dull gray, - The hard earth white with ages of despair, - Slow-crawling, turbid streams where dead reeds sway, - Low wall of sombre mountains far away, - And sickly steam of geysers on the air. - - - - - TREE FEELINGS. - - - I wonder if they like it—being trees? - I suppose they do.... - It must feel good to have the ground so flat, - And feel yourself stand right straight up like that— - So stiff in the middle—and then branch at ease, - Big boughs that arch, small ones that bend and blow, - And all those fringy leaves that flutter so. - You’d think they’d break off at the lower end - When the wind fills them, and their great heads bend. - But then you think of all the roots they drop, - As much at bottom as there is on top,— - A double tree, widespread in earth and air - Like a reflection in the water there. - - I guess they like to stand still in the sun - And just breathe out and in, and feel the cool sap run; - And like to feel the rain run through their hair - And slide down to the roots and settle there. - But I think they like wind best. From the light touch - That lets the leaves whisper and kiss so much, - To the great swinging, tossing, flying wide, - And all the time so stiff and strong inside! - And the big winds, that pull, and make them feel - How long their roots are, and the earth how leal! - - And O the blossoms! And the wild seeds lost! - And jewelled martyrdom of fiery frost! - And fruit trees. I’d forgotten. No cold gem, - But to be apples—and bow down with them! - - - - - MONOTONY. - FROM CALIFORNIA. - - - When ragged lines of passing days go by, - Crowding and hurried, broken-linked and slow, - Some sobbing pitifully as they pass, - Some angry-hot and fierce, some angry cold, - Some raging and some wailing, and again - The fretful days one cannot read aright,— - Then truly, when the fair days smile on us, - We feel that loveliness with sharper touch - And grieve to lose it for the next day’s chance. - And so men question—they who never know - If beauty comes or horror, pain or joy— - If we, whose sky is peace, whose hours are glad, - Find not our happiness monotonous! - But when the long procession of the days - Rolls musically down the waiting year, - Close-ranked, rich-robed, flower-garlanded and fair; - Broad brows of peace, deep eyes of soundless truth, - And lips of love,—warm, steady, changeless love; - Each one more beautiful, till we forget - Our niggard fear of losing half an hour, - And learn to count on more and ever more,— - In the remembered joy of yesterday, - In the full rapture of to-day’s delight, - And knowledge of the happiness to come, - We learn to let life pass without regret, - We learn to hold life softly and in peace, - We learn to meet life gladly, full of faith, - We learn what God is, and to trust in Him! - - - - - THE BEDS OF FLEUR-DE-LYS. - - - High-lying, sea-blown stretches of green turf, - Wind-bitten close, salt-colored by the sea, - Low curve on curve spread far to the cool sky, - And, curving over them as long they lie, - Beds of wild fleur-de-lys. - - Wide-flowing, self-sown, stealing near and far, - Breaking the green like islands in the sea; - Great stretches at your feet, and spots that bend - Dwindling over the horizon’s end,— - Wild beds of fleur-de-lys. - - The light keen wind streams on across the lifts, - Thin wind of western springtime by the sea; - The close turf smiles unmoved, but over her - Is the far-flying rustle and sweet stir - In beds of fleur-de-lys. - - And here and there across the smooth, low grass - Tall maidens wander, thinking of the sea; - And bend, and bend, with light robes blown aside, - For the blue lily-flowers that bloom so wide,— - The beds of fleur-de-lys. - - THE PRESIDIO, SAN FRANCISCO. - - - - - IT IS GOOD TO BE ALIVE. - - - It is good to be alive when the trees shine green, - And the steep red hills stand up against the sky; - Big sky, blue sky, with flying clouds between— - It is good to be alive and see the clouds drive by! - - It is good to be alive when the strong winds blow, - The strong, sweet winds blowing straightly off the sea; - Great sea, green sea, with swinging ebb and flow— - It is good to be alive and see the waves roll free! - - - - - THE CHANGELESS YEAR. - SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. - - - Doth Autumn remind thee of sadness? - And Winter of wasting and pain? - Midsummer, of joy that was madness? - Spring, of hope that was vain? - - Do the Seasons fly fast at thy laughter? - Do the Seasons lag slow if thou weep, - Till thou long’st for the land lying after - The River of Sleep? - - Come here, where the West lieth golden - In the light of an infinite sun, - Where Summer doth Winter embolden - Till they reign here as one! - - Here the Seasons tread soft and steal slowly; - A moment of question and doubt— - Is it Winter? Come faster!—come wholly!— - And Spring rusheth out! - - We forget there are tempests and changes; - We forget there are days that are drear; - In a dream of delight, the soul ranges - Through the measureless year. - - Still the land is with blossoms enfolden, - Still the sky burneth blue in its deeps; - Time noddeth, ’mid poppies all golden, - And memory sleeps. - - - - - WHERE MEMORY SLEEPS. - RONDEAU. - - - Where memory sleeps the soul doth rise, - Free of that past where sorrow lies, - And storeth against future ills - The courage of the constant hills, - The comfort of the quiet skies. - - Fair is this land to tired eyes, - Where summer sunlight never dies, - And summer’s peace the spirit fills, - Where memory sleeps. - - Safe from the season’s changing cries - And chill of yearly sacrifice, - Great roses crowd the window-sills,— - Calm roses that no winter kills. - The peaceful heart all pain denies, - Where memory sleeps. - - - - - CALIFORNIA CAR WINDOWS. - - - Lark songs ringing to Heaven, - Earth light clear as the sky; - Air like the breath of a greenhouse - With the greenhouse roof on high. - - Flowers to see till you’re weary, - To travel in hours and hours; - Ranches of gold and purple, - Counties covered with flowers! - - A rainbow, a running rainbow, - That flies at our side for hours; - A ribbon, a broidered ribbon, - A rainbow ribbon of flowers. - - - - - LIMITS. - - - On sand—loose sand and shifting— - On sand—dry sand and drifting— - The city grows to the west; - Not till its border reaches - The ocean-beaten beaches - Will it rest. - - On hills—steep hills and lonely, - That stop at cloudland only— - The city climbs to the sky; - Not till the souls who make it - Touch the clear light and take it, - Will it die. - - - - - POWELL STREET. - - - You start - From the town’s hot heart - To ride up Powell Street. - Hotel and theatre and crowding shops, - And Market’s cabled stream that never stops, - And the mixed hurrying beat - Of countless feet— - Take a front seat. - Before you rise - Six terraced hills, up to the low-hung skies; - Low where across the hill they seem to lie, - And then—how high! - Up you go slowly. To the right - A wide square, green and bright. - Above that green a broad façade, - Strongly and beautifully made, - In warm clear color standeth fair and true - Against the blue. - Only, above, two purple domes rise bold, - Twin-budded spires, bright-tipped with balls of gold. - Past that, and up you glide, - Up, up, till, either side, - Wide earth and water stretch around—away— - The straits, the hills, and the low-lying, wide-spread, dusky bay. - Great houses here, - Dull, opulent, severe. - Dives’ gold birds on guarding lamps a-wing— - Dead gold, that may not sing! - Fair on the other side - Smooth, steep-laid sweeps of turf and green boughs waving wide. - This is the hilltop’s crown. - Below you, down - In blurred, dim streets, the market quarter lies, - Foul, narrow, torn with cries - Of tortured things in cages, and the smell - Of daily bloodshed rising; that is hell. - - But up here on the crown of Powell Street - The air is sweet; - And the green swaying mass of eucalyptus bends - Like hands of friends, - To gladden you despite the mansions’ frown. - Then you go down. - - Down, down, and round the turns to lower grades; - Lower in all ways; darkening with the shades - Of poverty, old youth, and unearned age, - And that quick squalor which so blots the page - Of San Francisco’s beauty,—swift decay - Chasing the shallow grandeur of a day. - - Here, like a noble lady of lost state, - Still calmly smiling at encroaching fate, - Amidst the squalor, rises Russian Hill,— - Proud, isolated, lonely, lovely still. - - So on you glide. - Till the blue straits lie wide - Before you; purple mountains loom across, - And islands green as moss; - With soft white fog-wreaths drifting, drifting through - To comfort you; - And light, low-singing waves that tell you reach - The end,—North Beach. - - - - - FROM RUSSIAN HILL. - - - A strange day—bright and still; - Strange for the stillness here, - For the strong trade-winds blow - With such a steady sweep it seems like rest, - Forever steadily across the crest - Of Russian Hill. - - Still now and clear,— - So clear you count the houses spreading wide - In the fair cities on the farther side - Of our broad bay; - And brown Goat Island lieth large between, - Its brownness brightening into sudden green - From rains of yesterday. - - Blue? Blue above of Californian sky, - Which has no peer on earth for its pure flame; - Bright blue of bay and strait spread wide below, - And, past the low, dull hills that hem it so,— - Blue as the sky, blue as the placid bay,— - Blue mountains far away. - - Thanks this year for the early rains that came - To bless us, meaning Summer by and by. - This is our Spring-in-Autumn, making one - The Indian Summer tenderness of sun— - Its hazy stillness, and soft far-heard sound— - And the sweet riot of abundant spring, - The greenness flaming out from everything, - The sense of coming gladness in the ground. - - From this high peace and purity look down; - Between you and the blueness lies the town. - Under those huddled roofs the heart of man - Beats warmer than this brooding day, - Spreads wider than the hill-rimmed bay, - And throbs to tenderer life, were it but seen, - Than all this new-born, all-enfolding green! - - Within that heart lives still - All that one guesses, dreams, and sees— - Sitting in sunlight, warm, at ease— - From this high island,—Russian Hill. - - - - - “AN UNUSUAL RAIN.” - - - Again! - Another day of rain! - It has rained for years. - It never clears. - The clouds come down so low - They drag and drip - Across each hill-top’s tip. - In progress slow - They blow in from the sea - Eternally; - Hang heavily and black, - And then roll back; - And rain and rain and rain, - Both drifting in and drifting out again. - - They come down to the ground, - These clouds, where the ground is high; - And, lest the weather fiend forget - And leave one hidden spot unwet, - The fog comes up to the sky! - And all our pavement of planks and logs - Reeks with the rain and steeps in the fogs - Till the water rises and sinks and presses - Into your bonnets and shoes and dresses; - And every outdoor-going dunce - Is wet in forty ways at once. - - Wet? - It’s wetter than being drowned. - Dark? - Such darkness never was found - Since first the light was made. And cold? - O come to the land of grapes and gold, - Of fruit and flowers and sunshine gay, - When the rainy season’s under way! - - And they tell you calmly, evermore, - They never had such rain before! - - What’s that you say? Come out? - Why, see that sky! - Oh, what a world! so clear! so high! - So clean and lovely all about; - The sunlight burning through and through, - And everything just blazing blue. - And look! the whole world blossoms again - The minute the sunshine follows the rain. - Warm sky—earth basking under— - Did it ever rain, I wonder? - - - - - THE HILLS. - - - The flowing waves of our warm sea - Roll to the beach and die, - But the soul of the waves forever fills - The curving crests of our restless hills - That climb so wantonly. - - Up and up till you look to see - Along the cloud-kissed top - The great hill-breakers curve and comb - In crumbling lines of falling foam - Before they settle and drop. - - Down and down, with the shuddering sweep - Of the sea-wave’s glassy wall, - You sink with a plunge that takes your breath, - A thrill that stirreth and quickeneth, - Like the great line steamer’s fall. - - We have laid our streets by the square and line, - We have built by the line and square; - But the strong hill-rises arch below - And force the houses to curve and flow - In lines of beauty there. - - And off to the north and east and south, - With wildering mists between, - They ring us round with wavering hold, - With fold on fold of rose and gold, - Violet, azure, and green. - - - - - CITY’S BEAUTY. - - - Fair, oh, fair are the hills uncrowned, - Only wreathed and garlanded - With the soft clouds overhead, - With the waving streams of rain; - Fair in golden sunlight drowned, - Bathed and buried in the bright - Warm luxuriance of light,— - Fair the hills without a stain. - - Fairer far the hills should stand - Crownèd with a city’s halls, - With the glimmer of white walls, - With the climbing grace of towers; - Fair with great fronts tall and grand, - Stately streets that meet the sky, - Lovely roof-lines, low and high,— - Fairer for the days and hours. - - Woman’s beauty fades and flies, - In the passing of the years, - With the falling of the tears, - With the lines of toil and stress; - City’s beauty never dies,— - Never while her people know - How to love and honor so - Her immortal loveliness. - - - - - TWO SKIES. - FROM ENGLAND. - - - They have a sky in Albion, - At least they tell me so; - But she will wear a veil so thick, - And she does have the sulks so quick, - And weeps so long and slow, - That one can hardly know. - - Yes, there’s a sky in Albion. - She’s shown herself of late. - And where it was not white or gray, - It was quite bluish—in a way; - But near and full of weight, - Like an overhanging plate! - - Our sky in California! - Such light the angels knew, - When the strong, tender smile of God - Kindled the spaces where they trod, - And made all life come true! - Deep, soundless, burning blue! - - - - - WINDS AND LEAVES. - FROM ENGLAND. - - - Wet winds that flap the sodden leaves! - Wet leaves that drop and fall! - Unhappy, leafless trees the wind bereaves! - Poor trees and small! - - All of a color, solemn in your green; - All of a color, sombre in your brown; - All of a color, dripping gray between - When leaves are down! - - O for the bronze-green eucalyptus spires - Far-flashing up against the endless blue! - Shifting and glancing in the steady fires - Of sun and moonlight too. - - Dark orange groves! Pomegranate hedges bright, - And varnished fringes of the pepper trees! - And O that wind of sunshine! Wind of light! - Wind of Pacific seas! - - - - - ON THE PAWTUXET. - - - Broad and blue is the river, all bright in the sun; - The little waves sparkle, the little waves run; - The birds carol high, and the winds whisper low; - The boats beckon temptingly, row upon row; - Her hand is in mine as I help her step in. - Please Heaven, this day I shall lose or shall win— - Broad and blue is the river. - - Cool and gray is the river, the sun sinks apace, - And the rose-colored twilight glows soft in her face. - In the midst of the rose-color Venus doth shine, - And the blossoming wild grapes are sweeter than wine; - Tall trees rise above us, four bridges are past, - And my stroke’s running slow as the current runs fast— - Cool and gray is the river. - - Smooth and black is the river, no sound as we float - Save the soft-lapping water in under the boat. - The white mists are rising, the moon’s rising too, - And Venus, triumphant, rides high in the blue. - I hold the shawl round her, her hand is in mine, - And we drift under grape-blossoms sweeter than wine— - Smooth and black is the river. - - - - - A MOONRISE. - - - The heavy mountains, lying huge and dim, - With uncouth outline breaking heaven’s brim; - And while I watched and waited, o’er them soon, - Cloudy, enormous, spectral, rose the moon. - - - - - THEIR GRASS! - A PROTEST FROM CALIFORNIA. - - - They say we have no grass! - To hear them talk - You’d think that grass could walk - And was their bosom friend,—no day to pass - Between them and their grass. - - “No grass!” they say who live - Where hot bricks give - The hot stones all their heat and back again,— - A baking hell for men. - - “O, but,” they haste to say, “we have our parks, - Where fat policemen check the children’s larks; - And sign to sign repeats as in a glass, - ‘Keep off the grass!’ - We have our cities’ parks and grass, you see!” - Well—so have we! - - But ’tis the country that they sing of most. “Alas,” - They sing, “for our wide acres of soft grass!— - To please us living and to hide us dead—” - You’d think Walt Whitman’s first was all they read! - You’d think they all went out upon the quiet - Nebuchadnezzar to outdo in diet! - You’d think they found no other green thing fair, - Even its seed an honor in their hair! - You’d think they had this bliss the whole year round,— - Evergreen grass!—and we, ploughed ground! - - But come now, how does earth’s pet plumage grow - Under your snow? - Is your beloved grass as softly nice - When packed in ice? - For six long months you live beneath a blight,— - No grass in sight. - You bear up bravely. And not only that, - But leave your grass and travel; and thereat - We marvel deeply, with slow western mind, - Wondering within us what these people find - Among our common oranges and palms - To tear them from the well-remembered charms - Of their dear vegetable. But still they come, - Frost-bitten invalids! to our bright home, - And chide our grasslessness! Until we say, - “But if you hate it so, why come? Why stay? - Just go away! - Go to—your grass!” - - - - - THE PROPHETS. - - - Time was we stoned the Prophets. Age on age, - When men were strong to save, the world hath slain them. - People are wiser now; they waste no rage— - The Prophets entertain them! - - - - - SIMILAR CASES. - - - There was once a little animal, - No bigger than a fox, - And on five toes he scampered - Over Tertiary rocks. - They called him Eohippus, - And they called him very small, - And they thought him of no value— - When they thought of him at all; - For the lumpish old Dinoceras - And Coryphodon so slow - Were the heavy aristocracy - In days of long ago. - - Said the little Eohippus, - “I am going to be a horse! - And on my middle finger-nails - To run my earthly course! - I’m going to have a flowing tail! - I’m going to have a mane! - I’m going to stand fourteen hands high - On the psychozoic plain!” - - The Coryphodon was horrified, - The Dinoceras was shocked; - And they chased young Eohippus, - But he skipped away and mocked. - Then they laughed enormous laughter, - And they groaned enormous groans, - And they bade young Eohippus - Go view his father’s bones. - Said they, “You always were as small - And mean as now we see, - And that’s conclusive evidence - That you’re always going to be. - What! Be a great, tall, handsome beast, - With hoofs to gallop on? - _Why! You’d have to change your nature!_” - Said the Loxolophodon. - They considered him disposed of, - And retired with gait serene; - That was the way they argued - In “the early Eocene.” - - There was once an Anthropoidal Ape, - Far smarter than the rest, - And everything that they could do - He always did the best; - So they naturally disliked him, - And they gave him shoulders cool, - And when they had to mention him - They said he was a fool. - - Cried this pretentious Ape one day, - “I’m going to be a Man! - And stand upright, and hunt, and fight, - And conquer all I can! - I’m going to cut down forest trees, - To make my houses higher! - I’m going to kill the Mastodon! - I’m going to make a fire!” - - Loud screamed the Anthropoidal Apes - With laughter wild and gay; - They tried to catch that boastful one, - But he always got away. - So they yelled at him in chorus, - Which he minded not a whit; - And they pelted him with cocoanuts, - Which didn’t seem to hit. - And then they gave him reasons - Which they thought of much avail, - To prove how his preposterous - Attempt was sure to fail. - Said the sages, “In the first place, - The thing cannot be done! - And, second, if it _could_ be, - It would not be any fun! - And, third, and most conclusive, - And admitting no reply, - _You would have to change your nature_! - We should like to see you try!” - They chuckled then triumphantly, - These lean and hairy shapes, - For these things passed as arguments - With the Anthropoidal Apes. - - There was once a Neolithic Man, - An enterprising wight, - Who made his chopping implements - Unusually bright. - Unusually clever he, - Unusually brave, - And he drew delightful Mammoths - On the borders of his cave. - To his Neolithic neighbors, - Who were startled and surprised, - Said he, “My friends, in course of time, - We shall be civilized! - We are going to live in cities! - We are going to fight in wars! - We are going to eat three times a day - Without the natural cause! - We are going to turn life upside down - About a thing called gold! - We are going to want the earth, and take - As much as we can hold! - We are going to wear great piles of stuff - Outside our proper skins! - We are going to have Diseases! - And Accomplishments!! And Sins!!!” - - Then they all rose up in fury - Against their boastful friend, - For prehistoric patience - Cometh quickly to an end. - Said one, “This is chimerical! - Utopian! Absurd!” - Said another, “What a stupid life! - Too dull, upon my word!” - Cried all, “Before such things can come, - You idiotic child, - _You must alter Human Nature_!” - And they all sat back and smiled. - Thought they, “An answer to that last - It will be hard to find!” - It was a clinching argument - To the Neolithic Mind! - - - - - A CONSERVATIVE. - - - The garden beds I wandered by - One bright and cheerful morn, - When I found a new-fledged butterfly - A-sitting on a thorn, - A black and crimson butterfly, - All doleful and forlorn. - - I thought that life could have no sting - To infant butterflies, - So I gazed on this unhappy thing - With wonder and surprise, - While sadly with his waving wing - He wiped his weeping eyes. - - Said I, “What can the matter be? - Why weepest thou so sore? - With garden fair and sunlight free - And flowers in goodly store—” - But he only turned away from me - And burst into a roar. - - Cried he, “My legs are thin and few - Where once I had a swarm! - Soft fuzzy fur—a joy to view— - Once kept my body warm, - Before these flapping wing-things grew, - To hamper and deform!” - - At that outrageous bug I shot - The fury of mine eye; - Said I, in scorn all burning hot, - In rage and anger high, - “You ignominious idiot! - Those wings are made to fly!” - - “I do not want to fly,” said he, - “I only want to squirm!” - And he drooped his wings dejectedly, - But still his voice was firm; - “I do not want to be a fly! - I want to be a worm!” - - O yesterday of unknown lack! - To-day of unknown bliss! - I left my fool in red and black, - The last I saw was this,— - The creature madly climbing back - Into his chrysalis. - - - - - AN OBSTACLE. - - - I was climbing up a mountain-path - With many things to do, - Important business of my own, - And other people’s too, - When I ran against a Prejudice - That quite cut off the view. - - My work was such as could not wait, - My path quite clearly showed, - My strength and time were limited, - I carried quite a load; - And there that hulking Prejudice - Sat all across the road. - - So I spoke to him politely, - For he was huge and high, - And begged that he would move a bit - And let me travel by. - He smiled, but as for moving!— - He didn’t even try. - - And then I reasoned quietly - With that colossal mule: - My time was short—no other path— - The mountain winds were cool. - I argued like a Solomon; - He sat there like a fool. - - Then I flew into a passion, - I danced and howled and swore. - I pelted and belabored him - Till I was stiff and sore; - He got as mad as I did— - But he sat there as before. - - And then I begged him on my knees; - I might be kneeling still - If so I hoped to move that mass - Of obdurate ill-will— - As well invite the monument - To vacate Bunker Hill! - - So I sat before him helpless, - In an ecstasy of woe— - The mountain mists were rising fast, - The sun was sinking slow— - When a sudden inspiration came, - As sudden winds do blow. - - I took my hat, I took my stick, - My load I settled fair, - I approached that awful incubus - With an absent-minded air— - And I walked directly through him, - As if he wasn’t there! - - - - - THE FOX WHO HAD LOST HIS TAIL. - - - The fox who had lost his tail found out - That now he could faster go; - He had less to cover when hid for prey, - He had less to carry on hunting day, - He had less to guard when he stood at bay; - He was really better so! - - Now he was a fine altruistical fox - With the good of his race at heart, - So he ran to his people with tailless speed, - To tell of the change they all must need, - And recommend as a righteous deed - That they and their tails should part! - - Plain was the gain as plain could be, - But his words did not avail; - For they all replied, “We perceive your case; - You do not speak for the good of the race, - But only to cover your own disgrace, - Because you have lost your tail!” - - Then another fox, of a liberal mind, - With a tail of splendid size, - Became convinced that the tailless state - Was better for all of them, soon or late. - Said he, “I will let my own tail wait, - And so I can open their eyes.” - - Plain was the gain as plain could be, - But his words did not avail, - For they all made answer, “My plausible friend, - You talk wisely and well, but you talk to no end. - We know you’re dishonest and only pretend, - For you have not lost your tail!” - - - - - THE SWEET USES OF ADVERSITY. - - - In Norway fiords, in summer-time, - The Norway birch is fair: - The white trunks shine, the green leaves twine, - The whole tree groweth tall and fine; - For all it wants is there,— - Water and warmth and air,— - Full fed in all its nature needs, and showing - That nature in perfection by its growing. - - But follow the persistent tree - To the limit of endless snow - There you may see what a birch can be! - The product showeth plain and free - How nobly plants can grow - With nine months’ winter slow. - ’Tis fitted to survive in that position, - Developed by the force of bad condition. - - See now what life the tree doth keep,— - Branchless, three-leaved, and tough; - In June the leaf-buds peep, flowers in July dare creep - To bloom, the fruit in August, and then sleep. - Strong is the tree and rough, - It lives, and that’s enough. - “Dog’s-ear” the name the peasants call it by— - A Norway birch—and less than one inch high! - - · · · · · - - That silver monarch of the summer wood, - Tall, straight, and lovely, rich in all things good, - Knew not in his perversity - The sweeter uses of adversity! - - - - - CONNOISSEURS. - - - “No,” said the Cultured Critic, gazing haughtily - Whereon some untrained brush had wandered naughtily, - From canons free; - “Work such as this lacks value and perspective, - Has no real feeling,—inner or reflective,— - Does not appeal to me.” - - Then quoth the vulgar, knowing art but meagrely, - Their unbesought opinions airing eagerly, - “Why, ain’t that flat?” - Voicing their ignorance all unconcernedly, - Saying of what the Critic scored so learnedly, - “I don’t like that!” - - The Critic now vouchsafed approval sparingly - Of what some genius had attempted daringly, - “This fellow tries; - He handles his conception frankly, feelingly. - Such work as this, done strongly and appealingly, - I recognize.” - - The vulgar, gazing widely and unknowingly, - Still volunteered their cheap impressions flowingly, - “Oh, come and see!” - But all that they could say of art’s reality - Was this poor voice of poorer personality, - “Now, that suits me!” - - - - - TECHNIQUE. - - - Cometh to-day the very skilful man; - Profoundly skilful in his chosen art; - All things that other men can do he can, - And do them better. He is very smart. - - Sayeth, “My work is here before you all; - Come now with duly cultured mind to view it. - Here is great work, no part of it is small; - Perceive how well I do it! - - “I do it to perfection. Studious years - Were spent to reach the pinnacle I’ve won; - Labor and thought are in my work, and tears. - Behold how well ’tis done! - - “See with what power this great effect is shown; - See with what ease you get the main idea; - A master in my art, I stand alone; - Now you may praise,—I hear.” - - And I, “O master, I perceive your sway, - I note the years of study, toil, and strain - That brought the easy power you wield to-day, - The height you now attain. - - “Freely your well-trained power I see you spend, - Such skill in all my life I never saw; - You have done nobly; but, my able friend, - What have you done it for? - - “You have no doubt achieved your dearest end: - Your work is faultless to the cultured view. - You do it well, but, O my able friend, - What is it that you do?” - - - - - THE PASTELLETTE. - - - “The pastelle is too strong,” said he. - “Lo! I will make it fainter yet!” - And he wrought with tepid ecstasy - A pastellette. - - A touch—a word—a tone half caught— - He softly felt and handled them; - Flavor of feeling—scent of thought— - Shimmer of gem— - That we may read, and feel as he - What vague, pale pleasure we can get - From this mild, witless mystery,— - The pastellette. - - - - - THE PIG AND THE PEARL. - - - Said the Pig to the Pearl, “Oh, fie! - Tasteless, and hard, and dry— - Get out of my sty! - Glittering, smooth, and clean, - You only seek to be seen! - I am dirty and big! - A virtuous, valuable pig. - For me all things are sweet - That I can possibly eat; - But you—how can you be good - Without being fit for food? - Not even food for me, - Who can eat all this you see, - No matter how foul and sour; - I revel from hour to hour - In refuse of great and small; - But you are no good at all, - And if I should gulp you, quick, - It would probably make me sick!” - Said the Pig to the Pearl, “Oh, fie!” - And she rooted her out of the sty. - A Philosopher chancing to pass - Saw the Pearl in the grass, - And laid hands on the same in a trice, - For the Pearl was a Pearl of Great Price. - Said he, “Madame Pig, if you knew - What a fool thing you do, - It would grieve even you! - Grant that pearls are not just to your taste, - Must you let them run waste? - You care only for hogwash, I know, - For your litter and you. Even so, - This tasteless hard thing which you scorn - Would buy acres of corn; - And apples, and pumpkins, and pease, - By the ton, if you please! - By the wealth which this pearl represents, - You could grow so immense— - You, and every last one of your young— - That your fame would be sung - As the takers of every first prize, - For your flavor and size! - From even a Pig’s point of view - The Pearl was worth millions to you. - Be a Pig—and a fool—(you must be them) - But try to know Pearls when you see them!” - - - - - POOR HUMAN NATURE. - - - I saw a meagre, melancholy cow, - Blessed with a starveling calf that sucked in vain; - Eftsoon he died. I asked the mother how—? - Quoth she, “Of every four there dieth twain!” - Poor bovine nature! - - I saw a sickly horse of shambling gait, - Ugly and wicked, weak in leg and back, - Useless in all ways, in a wretched state. - “We’re all poor creatures!” said the sorry hack. - Poor equine nature! - - I saw a slow cat crawling on the ground, - Weak, clumsy, inefficient, full of fears, - The mice escaping from her aimless bound. - Moaned she, “This truly is a vale of tears!” - Poor feline nature! - - Then did I glory in my noble race, - Healthful and beautiful, alert and strong, - Rejoicing that we held a higher place - And need not add to theirs our mournful song,— - Poor human nature! - - - - - OUR SAN FRANCISCO CLIMATE. - - - Said I to my friend from the East,— - A tenderfoot he,— - As I showed him the greatest and least - Of our hills by the sea, - “How do you like our climate?” - And I smiled in my glee. - - I showed him the blue of the hills, - And the blue of the sky, - And the blue of the beautiful bay - Where the ferry-boats ply; - And “How do you like our climate?” - Securely asked I. - - Then the wind blew over the sand, - And the fog came down, - And the papers and dust were on hand - All over the town. - “How do you like our climate?” - I cried with a frown. - - On the corner we stood as we met - Awaiting a car; - Beneath us a vent-hole was set, - As our street corners are— - And street corners in our San Francisco - Are perceptible far. - - He meant to have answered, of course, - I could see that he tried; - But he had not the strength of a horse, - And before he replied - The climate rose up from that corner in force, - And he died! - - SAN FRANCISCO, 1895. - - - - - CRITICISM. - - - The Critic eyed the sunset as the umber turned to gray, - Slow fading in the somewhat foggy west; - To the color-cultured Critic ’twas a very dull display, - “’Tis n’t half so good a sunset as was offered yesterday! - I wonder why,” he murmured, as he sadly turned away, - “The sunsets can’t be always at their best!” - - - - - ANOTHER CREED. - - - Another creed! We’re all so pleased! - A gentle, tentative new creed. We’re eased - Of all those things we could not quite believe, - But would not give the lie to. Now perceive - How charmingly this suits us! Science even - Has naught against our modern views of Heaven; - And yet the most emotional of women - May find this creed a warm, deep sea to swim in. - - Here’s something now so loose and large of fit - That all the churches may come under it, - And we may see upon the earth once more - A church united,—as we had before! - Before so much of precious blood was poured - That each in his own way might serve the Lord! - All wide divergence in sweet union sunk, - Like branches growing up into a trunk! - - And in our intellectual delight - In this sweet formula that sets us right; - And controversial exercises gay - With those who still prefer a differing way; - And our glad effort to make known this wonder - And get all others to unite thereunder,— - We, joying in this newest, best of creeds, - Continue still to do our usual deeds! - - - - - THE LITTLE LION. - - - It was a little lion lay— - In wait he lay—he lay in wait. - Came those who said, “Pray come my way; - We joy to see a lion play, - And laud his, gait!” - - The little lion mildly came— - In wait for prey—for prey in wait. - The people all adored his name, - And those who led him saw the same - With hearts elate. - - The little lion grew that day,— - In glee he went—he went in glee. - Said he, “I love to seek my prey, - But also love to see the way - My prey seek me!” - - - - - A MISFIT. - - - O Lord, take me out of this! - I do not fit! - My body does not suit my mind, - My brain is weak in the knees and blind, - My clothes are not what I want to find— - Not one bit! - - My house is not the house I like— - Not one bit! - My church is built so loose and thin - That ten fall out where one falls in; - My creed is buttoned with a pin— - It does not fit! - - The school I went to wasn’t right— - Not one bit! - The education given me - Was meant for the community, - And my poor head works differently— - It does not fit! - - I try to move and find I can’t— - Not one bit! - Things that were given me to stay - Are mostly lost and blown away, - And what I have to use to-day— - It does not fit! - - What I was taught I cannot do— - Not one bit! - And what I do I was not taught - And what I find I have not sought; - I never say the thing I ought— - It does not fit! - - I have not meant to be like this— - Not one bit! - But in the puzzle and the strife - I fail my friend and pain my wife; - Oh, how it hurts to have a life - That does not fit! - - - - - ON NEW YEAR’S DAY. - - - On New Year’s Day he plans a cruise - To Heaven straight—no time to lose! - Vowing to live so virtuously - That each besetting sin shall flee— - Good resolutions wide he strews - On New Year’s Day. - - A while he minds his p’s and q’s, - And all temptations doth refuse, - Recalling his resolves so free - On New Year’s Day. - - But in the long year that ensues, - They fade away by threes and twos— - The place we do not wish to see - Is paved with all he meant to be, - When he next year his life reviews— - On New Year’s Day. - - - - - OUR EAST. - - - Our East, long looking backward over sea, - In loving study of what used to be, - Has grown to treat our West with the same scorn - England has had for us since we were born. - - You’d think to hear this Eastern judgment hard - The West was just New England’s back yard! - That all the West was made for, last and least, - Was to raise pork and wheat to feed the East! - - A place to travel in, for rest and health, - A place to struggle in and get the wealth, - The only normal end of which, of course, - Is to return to its historic source! - - Our Western acres, curving to the sun, - The Western strength whereby our work is done, - All Western progress, they attribute fair - To Eastern Capital invested there! - - New England never liked old England’s scorn. - Do they think theirs more easy to be borne? - Or that the East, Britain’s rebellious child, - Will find the grandson, West, more meek and mild? - - In union still our sovereignty has stood, - A union formed with prayer and sealed with blood. - We stand together. Patience, mighty West! - Don’t mind this scolding from your last year’s nest! - - - - - UNMENTIONABLE. - - - There is a thing of which I fain would speak, - Yet shun the deed; - Lest hot disgust flush the averted cheek - Of those who read. - - And yet it is as common in our sight - As dust or grass; - Loathed by the lifted skirt, the tiptoe light, - Of those who pass. - - We say no word, but the big placard rests - Frequent in view, - To sicken those who do not with requests - Of those who do. - - “Gentlemen will not,” the mild placards say. - They read with scorn. - “Gentlemen must not”—they defile the way - Of those who warn. - - On boat and car the careful lady lifts - Her dress aside; - If careless—think, fair traveller, of the gifts - Of those who ride! - - On every hall and sidewalk, floor and stair, - Where man’s at home, - This loathsomeness is added to the care - Of those who come. - - As some foul slug his trail of slime displays - On leaf and stalk, - These street-beasts make a horror in the ways - Of those who walk. - - We cannot ask reform of those who do— - They can’t or won’t. - We can express the scorn, intense and true, - Of those who don’t. - - - - - AN INVITATION FROM CALIFORNIA. - - - Aren’t you tired of protection from the weather? - Of defences, guards, and shields? - Aren’t you tired of the worry as to whether - This year the farm land yields? - - Aren’t you tired of the wetness and the dryness, - The dampness, and the hotness, and the cold? - Of waiting on the weather man with shyness - To see if the last plans hold? - - Aren’t you tired of the doctoring and nursing, - Of the “sickly winters” and the pocket pills,— - Tired of sorrowing, and burying, and cursing - At Providence and undertakers’ bills? - - Aren’t you tired of all the threatening and doubting, - The “weather-breeder” with its lovely lie; - The dubiety of any sort of outing; - The chip upon the shoulder of the sky? - - Like a beaten horse who dodges your caresses, - Like a child abused who ducks before your frown, - Is the northerner in our warm air that blesses— - O come and live and take your elbow down! - - Don’t be afraid; you do not need defences; - This heavenly day breeds not a stormy end; - Lay down your arms! cut off your war expenses! - This weather is your friend! - - A friendliness from earth, a joy from heaven, - A peace that wins your frightened soul at length; - A place where rest as well as work is given,— - Rest is the food of strength. - - - - - RESOLVE. - - - To keep my health! - To do my work! - To live! - To see to it I grow and gain and give! - Never to look behind me for an hour! - To wait in weakness, and to walk in power; - But always fronting onward to the light, - Always and always facing toward the right. - Robbed, starved, defeated, fallen, wide astray— - On, with what strength I have! - Back to the way! - - - - - WOMAN. - - - - - SHE WALKETH VEILED AND SLEEPING. - - - She walketh veiled and sleeping, - For she knoweth not her power; - She obeyeth but the pleading - Of her heart, and the high leading - Of her soul, unto this hour. - Slow advancing, halting, creeping, - Comes the Woman to the hour!— - She walketh veiled and sleeping, - For she knoweth not her power. - - - - - TO MAN. - - - In dark and early ages, through the primal forests faring, - Ere the soul came shining into prehistoric night, - Two-fold man was equal; they were comrades dear and daring, - Living wild and free together in unreasoning delight. - - Ere the soul was born and consciousness came slowly, - Ere the soul was born, to man and woman too, - Ere he found the Tree of Knowledge, that awful tree and holy, - Ere he knew he felt, and knew he knew. - - Then said he to Pain, “I am wise now, and I know you! - No more will I suffer while power and wisdom last!” - Then said he to Pleasure, “I am strong, and I will show you - That the will of man can seize you; aye, and hold you fast!” - - Food he ate for pleasure, and wine he drank for gladness, - And woman? Ah, the woman! the crown of all delight!— - His now—he knew it! He was strong to madness - In that early dawning after prehistoric night. - - His—his forever! That glory sweet and tender! - Ah, but he would love her! And she should love but him! - He would work and struggle for her, he would shelter and defend her; - She should never leave him, never, till their eyes in death were dim. - - Close, close he bound her, that she should leave him never; - Weak still he kept her, lest she be strong to flee; - And the fainting flame of passion he kept alive forever - With all the arts and forces of earth and sky and sea. - - And, ah, the long journey! The slow and awful ages - They have labored up together, blind and crippled, all astray! - Through what a mighty volume, with a million shameful pages, - From the freedom of the forest to the prisons of to-day! - - Food he ate for pleasure, and it slew him with diseases! - Wine he drank for gladness, and it led the way to crime! - And woman? He will hold her—he will have her when he pleases— - And he never once hath seen her since the prehistoric time! - - Gone the friend and comrade of the day when life was younger, - She who rests and comforts, she who helps and saves; - Still he seeks her vainly, with a never-dying hunger; - Alone beneath his tyrants, alone above his slaves! - - Toiler, bent and weary with the load of thine own making! - Thou who art sad and lonely, though lonely all in vain! - Who hast sought to conquer Pleasure and have her for the taking, - And found that Pleasure only was another name for Pain,— - - Nature hath reclaimed thee, forgiving dispossession! - God hath not forgotten, though man doth still forget! - The woman-soul is rising, in despite of thy transgression; - Loose her now—and trust her! She will love thee yet! - - Love thee? She will love thee as only freedom knoweth; - Love thee? She will love thee while Love itself doth live! - Fear not the heart of woman! No bitterness it showeth! - The ages of her sorrow have but taught her to forgive! - - - - - WOMEN OF TO-DAY. - - - You women of to-day who fear so much - The women of the future, showing how - The dangers of her course are such and such— - What are you now? - - Mothers and Wives and Housekeepers, forsooth! - Great names! you cry, full scope to rule and please! - Boom for wise age and energetic youth!— - But are you these? - - Housekeepers? Do you then, like those of yore, - Keep house with power and pride, with grace and ease? - No, you keep servants only! What is more, - You don’t keep these! - - Wives, say you? Wives! Blessed indeed are they - Who hold of love the everlasting keys, - Keeping their husbands’ hearts! Alas the day! - You don’t keep these! - - And mothers? Pitying Heaven! Mark the cry - From cradle death-beds! Mothers on their knees! - Why, half the children born—as children die! - You don’t keep these! - - And still the wailing babies come and go, - And homes are waste, and husbands’ hearts fly far, - There is no hope until you dare to know - The thing you are! - - - - - TO THE YOUNG WIFE. - - - Are you content, you pretty three-years’ wife? - Are you content and satisfied to live - On what your loving husband loves to give, - And give to him your life? - - Are you content with work,—to toil alone, - To clean things dirty and to soil things clean; - To be a kitchen-maid, be called a queen,— - Queen of a cook-stove throne? - - Are you content to reign in that small space— - A wooden palace and a yard-fenced land— - With other queens abundant on each hand, - Each fastened in her place? - - Are you content to rear your children so? - Untaught yourself, untrained, perplexed, distressed, - Are you so sure your way is always best? - That you can always know? - - Have you forgotten how you used to long - In days of ardent girlhood, to be great, - To help the groaning world, to serve the state, - To be so wise—so strong? - - And are you quite convinced this is the way, - The only way a woman’s duty lies— - Knowing all women so have shut their eyes? - Seeing the world to-day? - - Have you no dream of life in fuller store? - Of growing to be more than that you are? - Doing the things you now do better far, - Yet doing others—more? - - Losing no love, but finding as you grew - That as you entered upon nobler life - You so became a richer, sweeter wife, - A wiser mother too? - - What holds you? Ah, my dear, it is your throne, - Your paltry queenship in that narrow place, - Your antique labors, your restricted space, - Your working all alone! - - Be not deceived! ’Tis not your wifely bond - That holds you, nor the mother’s royal power, - But selfish, slavish service hour by hour— - A life with no beyond! - - - - - FALSE PLAY. - - - “Do you love me?” asked the mother of her child, - And the baby answered, “No!” - Great Love listened and sadly smiled; - He knew the love in the heart of the child— - That you could not wake it so. - - “Do not love me?” the foolish mother cried, - And the baby answered, “No!” - He knew the worth of the trick she tried— - Great Love listened, and grieving, sighed - That the mother scorned him so. - - “Oh, poor mama!” and she played her part - Till the baby’s strength gave way: - He knew it was false in his inmost heart, - But he could not bear that her tears should start, - So he joined in the lying play. - - “Then love mama!” and the soft lips crept - To the kiss that his love should show,— - The mouth to speak while the spirit slept! - Great Love listened, and blushed, and wept - That they blasphemed him so. - - - - - MOTHERHOOD. - - - Motherhood: First mere laying of an egg, - With blind foreseeing of the wisest place, - And blind provision of the proper food - For unseen larva to grow fat upon - After the instinct-guided mother died,— - Posthumous motherhood, no love, no joy. - - Motherhood: Brooding patient o’er the nest, - With gentle stirring of an unknown love; - Defending eggs unhatched, feeding the young - For days of callow feebleness, and then - Driving the fledglings from the nest to fly. - - Motherhood: When the kitten and the cub - Cried out alive, and first the mother knew - The fumbling of furry little paws, - The pressure of the hungry little mouths - Against the more than ready mother-breast,— - The love that comes of giving and of care. - - Motherhood: Nursing with her heart-warm milk, - Fighting to death all danger to her young, - Hunting for food for little ones half-weaned, - Teaching them how to hunt and fight in turn,— - Then loving not till the new litter came. - - Motherhood: When the little savage grew - Tall at his mother’s side, and learned to feel - Some mother even in his father’s heart, - Love coming to new babies while the first - Still needed mother’s care, and therefore love,— - Love lasting longer because childhood did. - - Motherhood: Semi-civilized, intense, - Fierce with brute passion, narrow with the range - Of slavish lives to meanest service bowed; - Devoted—to the sacrifice of life; - Jealous beyond belief, and ignorant - Even of what should keep the child alive. - Love spreading with the spread of human needs, - The child’s new, changing, ever-growing wants, - Yet seeking like brute mothers of the past - To give all things to her own child herself. - Loving to the exclusion of all else; - To the child’s service bending a whole life; - Yet stunting the young creature day by day - With lack of Justice, Liberty, and Peace. - - Motherhood: Civilized. There stands at last, - Facing the heavens with as calm a smile, - The highest fruit of the long work of God; - The highest type of this, the highest race; - She from whose groping instinct grew all love— - All love—in which is all the life of man. - - Motherhood: Seeing with her clear, kind eyes, - Luminous, tender eyes, wherein the smile - Is like the smile of sunlight on the sea, - That the new children of the newer day - Need more than any single heart can give, - More than is known to any single mind, - More than is found in any single house, - And need it from the day they see the light. - Then, measuring her love by what they need, - Gives, from the heart of modern motherhood. - Gives first, as tree to bear God’s highest fruit, - A clean, strong body, perfect and full grown, - Fair for the purpose of its womanhood, - Not for light fancy of a lower mind; - Gives a clear mind, athletic, beautiful, - Dispassionate, unswerving from the truth; - Gives a great heart that throbs with human love, - As she would wish her son to love the world. - Then, when the child comes, lovely as a star, - She, in the peace of primal motherhood, - Nurses her baby with unceasing joy, - With milk of human kindness, human health, - Bright human beauty, and immortal love. - And then? Ah! here is the New Motherhood— - The motherhood of the fair new-made world— - O glorious New Mother of New Men! - Her child, with other children from its birth, - In the unstinted freedom of warm air, - Under the wisest eyes, the tenderest thought, - Surrounded by all beauty and all peace, - Led, playing, through the gardens of the world, - With the crowned heads of science and great love - Mapping safe paths for those small, rosy feet,— - Taught human love by feeling human love, - Taught justice by the laws that rule his days, - Taught wisdom by the way in which he lives, - Taught to love all mankind and serve them fair - By seeing, from his birth, all children served - With the same righteous, all-embracing care. - - O Mother! Noble Mother, yet to come! - How shall thy child point to the bright career - Of her of whom he boasts to be the son— - Not for assiduous service spent on him, - But for the wisdom which has set him forth - A clear-brained, pure-souled, noble-hearted man, - With health and strength and beauty his by birth; - And, more, for the wide record of her life, - Great work, well done, that makes him praise her name - And long to make as great a one his own! - And how shall all the children of the world, - Feeling all mothers love them, loving all, - Rise up and call her blessed! - This shall be. - - - - - SIX HOURS A DAY. - - - Six hours a day the woman spends on food! - Six mortal hours a day.... - With fire and water toiling, heat and cold; - Struggling with laws she does not understand - Of chemistry and physics, and the weight - Of poverty and ignorance besides. - Toiling for those she loves, the added strain - Of tense emotion on her humble skill, - The sensitiveness born of love and fear, - Making it harder to do even work. - Toiling without release, no hope ahead - Of taking up another business soon, - Of varying the task she finds too hard— - This, her career, so closely interknit - With holier demands as deep as life - That to refuse to cook is held the same - As to refuse her wife and motherhood. - Six mortal hours a day to handle food,— - Prepare it, serve it, clean it all away,— - With allied labors of the stove and tub, - The pan, the dishcloth, and the scrubbing-brush. - Developing forever in her brain - The power to do this work in which she lives; - While the slow finger of Heredity - Writes on the forehead of each living man, - Strive as he may, “His mother was a cook!” - - - - - AN OLD PROVERB. - - “As much pity to see a woman weep as to see a goose go barefoot.” - - - No escape, little creature! The earth hath no place - For the woman who seeketh to fly from her race. - Poor, ignorant, timid, too helpless to roam, - The woman must bear what befalls her, at home. - Bear bravely, bear dumbly—it is but the same - That all others endure who live under the name. - No escape, little creature! - - No escape under heaven! Can man treat you worse - After God has laid on you his infinite curse? - The heaviest burden of sorrow you win - Cannot weigh with the load of original sin; - No shame be too black for the cowering face - Of her who brought shame to the whole human race! - No escape under heaven! - - Yet you feel, being human. You shrink from the pain - That each child, born a woman, must suffer again. - From the strongest of bonds heart can feel, man can shape, - You cannot rebel, or appeal, or escape. - You must bear and endure. If the heart cannot sleep, - And the pain groweth bitter,—too bitter,—then weep! - For you feel, being human. - - And she wept, being woman. The numberless years - Have counted her burdens and counted her tears; - The maid wept forsaken, the mother forlorn - For the child that was dead, and the child that was born. - Wept for joy—as a miracle!—wept in her pain! - Wept aloud, wept in secret, wept ever in vain! - Still she weeps, being woman. - - - - - REASSURANCE. - - - Can you imagine nothing better, brother, - Than that which you have always had before? - Have you been so content with “wife and mother,” - You dare hope nothing more? - - Have you forever prized her, praised her, sung her, - The happy queen of a most happy reign? - Never dishonored her, despised her, flung her - Derision and disdain? - - Go ask the literature of all the ages! - Books that were written before women read! - Pagan and Christian, satirists and sages,— - Read what the world has said! - - There was no power on earth to bid you slacken - The generous hand that painted her disgrace! - There was no shame on earth too black to blacken - That much praised woman-face! - - Eve and Pandora!—always you begin it— - The ancients called her Sin and Shame and Death! - “There is no evil without woman in it,” - The modern proverb saith! - - She has been yours in uttermost possession,— - Your slave, your mother, your well-chosen bride,— - And you have owned, in million-fold confession, - You were not satisfied. - - Peace, then! Fear not the coming woman, brother! - Owning herself, she giveth all the more! - She shall be better woman, wife, and mother - Than man hath known before! - - - - - MOTHER TO CHILD. - - - How best can I serve thee, my child! My child! - Flesh of my flesh and dear heart of my heart! - Once thou wast within me—I held thee—I fed thee— - By the force of my loving and longing I led thee— - Now we are apart! - - I may blind thee with kisses and crush with embracing, - Thy warm mouth in my neck and our arms interlacing; - But here in my body my soul lives alone, - And thou answerest me from a house of thine own,— - That house which I builded! - - Which we builded together, thy father and I; - In which thou must live, O my darling, and die! - Not one stone can I alter, one atom relay,— - Not to save or defend thee or help thee to stay— - That gift is completed! - - How best can I serve thee? O child, if they knew - How my heart aches with loving! How deep and how true, - How brave and enduring, how patient, how strong, - How longing for good and how fearful of wrong, - Is the love of thy mother! - - Could I crown thee with riches! Surround, overflow thee - With fame and with power till the whole world should know thee; - With wisdom and genius to hold the world still, - To bring laughter and tears, joy and pain, at thy will, - Still—_thou_ mightst not be happy! - - Such have lived—and in sorrow. The greater the mind, - The wider and deeper the grief it can find. - The richer, the gladder, the more thou canst feel - The keen stings that a lifetime is sure to reveal. - O my child! Must thou suffer? - - Is there no way my life can save thine from a pain? - Is the love of a mother no possible gain? - No labor of Hercules—search for the Grail— - No way for this wonderful love to avail? - God in Heaven—O teach me! - - My prayer has been answered. The pain thou must bear - Is the pain of the world’s life which thy life must share. - Thou art one with the world—though I love thee the best; - And to save thee from pain I must save all the rest— - Well—with God’s help I’ll do it! - - Thou art one with the rest. I must love thee in them. - Thou wilt sin with the rest; and thy mother must stem - The world’s sin. Thou wilt weep; and thy mother must dry - The tears of the world lest her darling should cry. - I will do it—God helping! - - And I stand not alone. I will gather a band - Of all loving mothers from land unto land. - Our children are part of the world! do ye hear? - They are one with the world—we must hold them all dear! - Love all for the child’s sake! - - For the sake of my child I must hasten to save - All the children on earth from the jail and the grave. - For so, and so only, I lighten the share - Of the pain of the world that my darling must bear— - Even so, and so only! - - - - - SERVICES. - - - She was dead. Forth went the word, - And every creature heard. - To the last hamlet in the farthest lands, - To people countless as the sands - Of primal seas. - - And with the word so sent - Her life’s full record went,— - Of what fair line, how gifted, how endowed, - How educated; and then, told aloud, - The splendid tale of what her life had done; - And all the people heard and felt as one; - Exulting all together in their dead, - And the grand story of the life she led. - - But in the city where her body lay - Great services were held on that fair day: - People by thousands; music to the sky; - Flowers of a garnered season; winding by, - Processions, glorious in rich array, - All massing in the temple where she lay. - - Then, when the music rested, rose and stood - Those who could speak of her and count the good, - The measureless great good her life had spread, - That all might hear the praises of their dead. - And those who loved her sent from the world’s end - Their tribute to the memory of their friend; - While teachers to their children whispered low, - “See that you have as many when you go!” - - Then was recited how her life had part - In building up this science and that art, - Inventing here, administering there, - Helping to organize, create, prepare, - - With fullest figures to expatiate - On her unmeasured value to the state. - And the child, listening, grew in noble pride, - And planned for greater praises when he died. - - Then the Poet spoke of those long ripening years; - And tenderer music brought the grateful tears; - And then, lest grief upon their heartstrings hang, - Her children stood around the bier and sang: - - In the name of the mother that bore us— - Bore us strong—bore us free— - We will strive in the labors before us, - Even as she! Even as she! - - In the name of her wisdom and beauty, - Of her life full of light, - We will live in our national duty, - We will help on the right: - - We will love as her heart loved before us, - Warm and wide—strong and high! - In the name of the mother that bore us, - We will live! We will die! - - - - - IN MOTHER-TIME. - - - When woman looks at woman with the glory in her eyes, - When eternity lies open like a scroll, - - When immortal life is being felt,—the life that never dies,— - And the triumph of it ringeth - And the sweetness of it singeth - In the soul, - - Then we come to California, the Garden of the Lord, - Through all its leagues of endless blossoming; - And we sing, we sing together, to the whole world’s deep accord— - And we feel each other praying - Over what the flowers are saying - As we sing. - - We were waiting, we were growing, glad of heart and strong of soul, - Like the peace and power of all these virgin lands; - Through the years of holy maidenhood with motherhood for goal— - And soon we shall be holding - Fruit of all life’s glad unfolding - In our hands. - - White-robed mothers, flower-crowned mothers, in the splendor of their - youth, - In the grandeur of maturity and power; - Feeling life has passed the telling in its joyousness and truth, - - Feeling life will soon be giving - Them the golden key of living - In one hour. - - We come to California for the sunshine and the flowers; - Our motherhood has brought us here as one; - For the fruit of all the ages should share the shining hours, - With the blossoms ever-springing - And the golden globes low swinging, - In the sun. - - - - - SHE WHO IS TO COME. - - - A woman—in so far as she beholdeth - Her one Beloved’s face; - A mother—with a great heart that enfoldeth - The children of the Race; - A body, free and strong, with that high beauty - That comes of perfect use, is built thereof; - A mind where Reason ruleth over Duty, - And Justice reigns with Love; - A self-poised, royal soul, brave, wise, and tender, - No longer blind and dumb; - A Human Being, of an unknown splendor, - Is she who is to come! - - - - - GIRLS OF TO-DAY. - - - Girls of to-day! Give ear! - Never since time began - Has come to the race of man - A year, a day, an hour, - So full of promise and power - As the time that now is here! - - Never in all the lands - Was there a power so great, - To move the wheels of state, - To lift up body and mind, - To waken the deaf and blind, - As the power that is in your hands! - - Here at the gates of gold - You stand in the pride of youth, - Strong in courage and truth, - Stirred by a force kept back - Through centuries long and black, - Armed with a power threefold! - - First: You are makers of men! - Then Be the things you preach! - Let your own greatness teach! - When mothers like this you see - Men will be strong and free— - Then, and not till then! - - Second: Since Adam fell, - Have you not heard it said - That men by women are led? - True is the saying—true! - See to it what you do! - See that you lead them well! - - Third: You have work of your own! - Maid and mother and wife, - Look in the face of life! - There are duties you owe the race! - Outside your dwelling-place - There is work for you alone! - - Maid and mother and wife, - See your own work be done! - Be worthy a noble son! - Help man in the upward way! - Truly, a girl to-day - Is the strongest thing in life! - - - - - “WE, AS WOMEN.” - - - There’s a cry in the air about us— - We hear it before, behind— - Of the way in which “We, as women,” - Are going to lift mankind! - - With our white frocks starched and ruffled, - And our soft hair brushed and curled— - Hats off! for “we, as women,” - Are coming to help the world! - - Fair sisters, listen one moment— - And perhaps you’ll pause for ten: - The business of women as women - Is only with men as men! - - What we do, “we, as women,” - We have done all through our life; - The work that is ours as women - Is the work of mother and wife! - - But to elevate public opinion, - And to lift up erring man, - Is the work of the Human Being; - Let us do it—if we can. - - But wait, warm-hearted sisters— - Not quite so fast, so far. - Tell me how we are going to lift a thing - Any higher than we are! - - We are going to “purify politics” - And to “elevate the press.” - We enter the foul paths of the world - To sweeten and cleanse and bless. - - To hear the high things we are going to do, - And the horrors of man we tell, - One would think “we, as women,” were angels, - And our brothers were fiends of hell. - - We, that were born of one mother, - And reared in the selfsame place,— - In the school and the church together,— - We, of one blood, one race! - - Now then, all forward together! - But remember, every one, - That it is not by feminine innocence - The work of the world is done. - - The world needs strength and courage, - And wisdom to help and feed— - When “we, as women,” bring these to man, - We shall lift the world indeed! - - - - - IF MOTHER KNEW. - - - If mother knew the way I felt,— - And I’m sure a mother should,— - She wouldn’t make it quite so hard - For a person to be good! - - I want to do the way she says; - I try to all day long; - And then she just skips all the right, - And pounces on the wrong! - - A dozen times I do a thing, - And one time I forget; - And then she looks at me and asks - If I can’t remember yet? - - She’ll tell me to do something, - And I’ll really start to go; - But she’ll keep right on telling it - As if I didn’t know. - - Till it seems as if I couldn’t— - It makes me kind of wild; - And then she says she never saw - Such a disobliging child. - - I go to bed all sorry, - And say my prayers, and cry, - And mean next day to be so good - I just can’t wait to try. - - And I get up next morning, - And mean to do just right; - But mother’s sure to scold me - About something, before night. - - I wonder if she really thinks - A child could go so far, - As to be perfect all the time - As the grown up people are! - - If she only knew I tried to,— - And I’m sure a mother should,— - She wouldn’t make it quite so hard - For a person to be good! - - - - - THE ANTI-SUFFRAGISTS. - - - Fashionable women in luxurious homes, - With men to feed them, clothe them, pay their bills, - Bow, doff the hat, and fetch the handkerchief; - Hostess or guest, and always so supplied - With graceful deference and courtesy; - Surrounded by their servants, horses, dogs,— - These tell us they have all the rights they want. - - Successful women who have won their way - Alone, with strength of their unaided arm, - Or helped by friends, or softly climbing up - By the sweet aid of “woman’s influence;” - Successful any way, and caring naught - For any other woman’s unsuccess,— - These tell us they have all the rights they want. - - Religious women of the feebler sort,— - Not the religion of a righteous world, - A free, enlightened, upward-reaching world, - But the religion that considers life - As something to back out of!—whose ideal - Is to renounce, submit, and sacrifice, - Counting on being patted on the head - And given a high chair when they get to heaven,— - These tell us they have all the rights they want. - - Ignorant women—college-bred sometimes, - But ignorant of life’s realities - And principles of righteous government, - And how the privileges they enjoy - Were won with blood and tears by those before— - Those they condemn, whose ways they now oppose; - Saying, “Why not let well enough alone? - Our world is very pleasant as it is,”— - These tell us they have all the rights they want. - - And selfish women,—pigs in petticoats,— - Rich, poor, wise, unwise, top or bottom round, - But all sublimely innocent of thought, - And guiltless of ambition, save the one - Deep, voiceless aspiration—to be fed! - These have no use for rights or duties more. - Duties to-day are more than they can meet, - And law insures their right to clothes and food,— - These tell us they have all the rights they want. - - And, more’s the pity, some good women, too; - Good conscientious women, with ideas; - Who think—or think they think—that woman’s cause - Is best advanced by letting it alone; - That she somehow is not a human thing, - And not to be helped on by human means, - Just added to humanity—an “L”— - A wing, a branch, an extra, not mankind,— - These tell us they have all the rights they want. - - And out of these has come a monstrous thing, - A strange, down-sucking whirlpool of disgrace, - Women uniting against womanhood, - And using that great name to hide their sin! - Vain are their words as that old king’s command - Who set his will against the rising tide. - But who shall measure the historic shame - Of these poor traitors—traitors are they all— - To great Democracy and Womanhood! - - - - - WOMEN DO NOT WANT IT. - - - When the woman suffrage argument first stood upon its legs, - They answered it with cabbages, they answered it with eggs, - They answered it with ridicule, they answered it with scorn, - They thought it a monstrosity that should not have been born. - - When the woman suffrage argument grew vigorous and wise, - And was not to be silenced by these apposite replies, - They turned their opposition into reasoning severe - Upon the limitations of our God-appointed sphere. - - We were told of disabilities,—a long array of these, - Till one would think that womanhood was merely a disease; - And “the maternal sacrifice” was added to the plan - Of the various sacrifices we have always made—to man. - - Religionists and scientists, in amity and bliss, - However else they disagreed, could all agree on this, - And the gist of all their discourse, when you got down to it, - Was—we could not have the ballot because we were not fit! - - They would not hear to reason, they would not fairly yield, - They would not own their arguments were beaten in the field; - But time passed on, and someway, we need not ask them how, - Whatever ails those arguments—we do not hear them now! - - You may talk of woman suffrage now with an educated man, - And he agrees with all you say, as sweetly as he can; - ’Twould be better for us all, of course, if womanhood was free; - But “the women do not want it”—and so it must not be! - - ’Tis such a tender thoughtfulness! So exquisite a care! - Not to pile on our fair shoulders what we do not wish to bear! - But, oh, most generous brother! Let us look a little more— - Have we women always wanted what you gave to us before? - - Did we ask for veils and harems in the Oriental races? - Did we beseech to be “unclean,” shut out of sacred places? - Did we beg for scolding bridles and ducking stools to come? - And clamor for the beating stick no thicker than your thumb? - - Did we seek to be forbidden from all the trades that pay? - Did we claim the lower wages for a man’s full work to-day? - Have we petitioned for the laws wherein our shame is shown: - That not a woman’s child—nor her own body—is her own? - - What women want has never been a strongly acting cause - When woman has been wronged by man in churches, customs, laws; - Why should he find this preference so largely in his way - When he himself admits the right of what we ask to-day? - - - - - WEDDED BLISS. - - - “O come and be my mate!” said the Eagle to the Hen; - “I love to soar, but then - I want my mate to rest - Forever in the nest!” - Said the Hen, “I cannot fly, - I have no wish to try, - But I joy to see my mate careering through the sky!” - They wed, and cried, “Ah, this is Love, my own!” - And the Hen sat, the Eagle soared, alone. - - “O come and be my mate!” said the Lion to the Sheep; - “My love for you is deep! - I slay, a Lion should, - But you are mild and good!” - Said the Sheep, “I do no ill— - Could not, had I the will— - But I joy to see my mate pursue, devour, and kill.” - They wed, and cried, “Ah, this is Love, my own!” - And the Sheep browsed, the Lion prowled, alone. - - “O come and be my mate!” said the Salmon to the Clam; - “You are not wise, but I am. - I know sea and stream as well; - You know nothing but your shell.” - Said the Clam, “I’m slow of motion, - But my love is all devotion, - And I joy to have my mate traverse lake and stream and ocean!” - They wed, and cried, “Ah, this is Love, my own!” - And the Clam sucked, the Salmon swam, alone. - - - - - THE HOLY STOVE. - - - O the soap-vat is a common thing! - The pickle-tub is low! - The loom and wheel have lost their grace - In falling from the dwelling-place - To mills where all may go! - The bread-tray needeth not your love; - The wash-tub wide doth roam; - Even the oven free may rove; - But bow ye down to the Holy Stove, - The Altar of the Home! - - Before it bend the worshippers, - And wreaths of parsley twine; - Above it still the incense curls, - And a passing train of hired girls - Do service at the shrine. - We toil to keep the altar crowned - With dishes new and nice, - And Art and Love, and Time and Truth, - We offer up, with Health and Youth, - In daily sacrifice. - - Speak not to us of a fairer faith, - Of a lifetime free from pain. - Our fathers always worshipped here, - Our mothers served this altar drear, - And still we serve amain. - Our earliest dreams around it cling, - Bright hopes that childhood sees, - And memory leaves a vista wide - Where Mother’s Doughnuts rank beside - The thought of Mother’s Knees. - - The wood-box hath no sanctity; - No glamour gilds the coal; - But the Cook-Stove is a sacred thing - To which a reverent faith we bring - And serve with heart and soul. - The Home’s a temple all divine, - By the Poker and the Hod! - The Holy Stove is the altar fine, - The wife the priestess at the shrine— - Now who can be the god? - - - - - THE MOTHER’S CHARGE. - - - She raised her head. With hot and glittering eye, - “I know,” she said, “that I am going to die. - Come here, my daughter, while my mind is clear. - Let me make plain to you your duty here; - My duty once—I never failed to try— - But for some reason I am going to die.” - She raised her head, and, while her eyes rolled wild, - Poured these instructions on the gasping child: - - “Begin at once—don’t iron sitting down— - Wash your potatoes when the fat is brown— - Monday, unless it rains—it always pays - To get fall sewing done on the right days— - A carpet-sweeper and a little broom— - Save dishes—wash the summer dining-room - With soda—keep the children out of doors— - The starch is out—beeswax on all the floors— - If girls are treated like your friends they stay— - They stay, and treat you like their friends—the way - To make home happy is to keep a jar— - And save the prettiest pieces for the star - In the middle—blue’s too dark—all silk is best— - And don’t forget the corners—when they’re dressed - Put them on ice—and always wash the chest - Three times a day, the windows every week— - We need more flour—the bedroom ceilings leak— - It’s better than onion—keep the boys at home— - Gardening is good—a load, three loads of loam— - They bloom in spring—and smile, smile always, dear— - Be brave, keep on—I hope I’ve made it clear.” - - She died, as all her mothers died before. - Her daughter died in turn, and made one more. - - - - - A BROOD MARE. - - It is a significant fact that the phenomenal - improvement in horses during recent years is - accompanied by the growing conviction that good - points and a good record are as desirable in the - dam as in the sire, if not more so. - - - I had a quarrel yesterday, - A violent dispute, - With a man who tried to sell to me - A strange amorphous brute; - - A creature disproportionate, - A beast to make you stare, - An undeveloped, overgrown, - Outrageous-looking mare. - - Her fore legs they were weak and thin, - Her hind legs weak and fat; - She was heavy in the quarters, - With a narrow chest and flat; - - And she had managed to combine— - I’m sure I don’t know how— - The barrel of a greyhound - With the belly of a cow. - - She seemed exceeding feeble, - And he owned with manner bland - That she walked a little, easily, - But wasn’t fit to stand. - - I tried to mount the animal - To test her on the track; - But he cried in real anxiety, - “Get off! You’ll strain her back!” - - And then I sought to harness her, - But he explained at length - That any draught or carriage work - Was quite beyond her strength. - - “No use to carry or to pull! - No use upon the course!” - Said I, “How can you have the face - To call that thing a horse?” - - Said he, indignantly, “I don’t! - I’m dealing on the square; - I never said it was a horse, - I told you ’twas a mare! - - “A mare was never meant to race, - To carry, or to pull; - She is meant for breeding only, so - Her place in life is full.” - - Said I, “Do you pretend to breed - From such a beast as that? - A mass of shapeless skin and bone, - Or shapeless skin and fat?” - - Said he, “Her sire was thoroughbred, - As fine as walked the earth, - And all her colts receive from him - The marks of noble birth; - - “And then I mate her carefully - With horses fine and fit; - Mares do not need to have themselves - The points which they transmit!” - - Said I, “Do you pretend to say - You can raise colts as fair - From that fat cripple as you can - From an able-bodied mare?” - - Quoth he, “I solemnly assert, - Just as I said before, - A mare that’s good for breeding - Can be good for nothing more!” - - Cried I, “One thing is certain proof; - One thing I want to see; - Trot out the noble colts you raise - From your anomaly.” - - He looked a little dashed at this, - And the poor mare hung her head. - “Fact is,” said he, “she’s had but one, - And that one—well, it’s dead!” - - - - - FEMININE VANITY. - - - Feminine Vanity! O ye Gods! Hear to this man! - As if silk and velvet and feathers and fur - And jewels and gold had been just for her, - Since the world began! - - Where is his memory? Let him look back—all of the way! - Let him study the history of his race - From the first he-savage that painted his face - To the dude of to-day! - - Vanity! Oh! Are the twists and curls, - The intricate patterns in red, black, and blue, - The wearisome tortures of rich tattoo, - Just made for girls? - - Is it only the squaw who files the teeth, - And dangles the lip, and bores the ear, - And wears bracelet and necklet and anklet as queer - As the bones beneath? - - Look at the soldier, the noble, the king! - Egypt or Greece or Rome discloses - The purples and perfumes and gems and roses - On a masculine thing! - - Look at the men of our own dark ages! - Heroes too, in their cloth of gold, - With jewels as thick as the cloth could hold, - On the knights and pages! - - We wear false hair? Our man looks big! - But it’s not so long, let me beg to state, - Since every gentleman shaved his pate - And wore a wig. - - French heels? Sharp toes? See our feet defaced? - But there was a day when the soldier free - Tied the toe of his shoe to the manly knee— - Yes, and even his waist! - - We pad and stuff? Our man looks bolder. - Don’t speak of the time when a bran-filled bunch - Made an English gentleman look like Punch— - But feel of his shoulder! - - Feminine Vanity! O ye Gods! Hear to these men! - Vanity’s wide as the world is wide! - Look at the peacock in his pride— - Is it a hen? - - - - - THE MODEST MAID. - - - I am a modest San Francisco maid, - Fresh, fair, and young, - Such as the painters gladly have displayed, - The poets sung. - - Modest?—Oh, modest as a bud unblown, - A thought unspoken; - Hidden and cherished, unbeheld, unknown, - In peace unbroken. - - Far from the holy shades of this my home, - The coarse world raves, - And the New Woman cries to heaven’s dome - For what she craves. - - Loud, vulgar, public, screaming from the stage, - Her skirt divided, - Riding cross-saddled on the dying age, - Justly derided. - - I blush for her, I blush for our sweet sex - By her disgraced. - My sphere is home. My soul I do not vex - With zeal misplaced. - - Come then to me with happy heart, O man! - I wait your visit. - To guide your footsteps I do all I can, - Am most explicit. - - As veined flower-petals teach the passing bee - The way to honey, - So printer’s ink displayed instructeth thee - Where lies my money. - - Go see! In type and cut across the page, - Before the nation, - There you may read about my eyes, my age, - My education, - - My fluffy golden hair, my tiny feet, - My pet ambition, - My well-developed figure, and my sweet, - Retiring disposition. - - All, all is there, and now I coyly wait. - Pray don’t delay. - My address does the Blue Book plainly state, - And mamma’s “day.” - - SAN FRANCISCO, 1895. - - - - - UNSEXED. - - - It was a wild rebellious drone - That loudly did complain; - He wished he was a worker bee - With all his might and main. - - “I want to work,” the drone declared. - Quoth they, “The thing you mean - Is that you scorn to be a drone - And long to be a queen. - - “You long to lay unnumbered eggs, - And rule the waiting throng; - You long to lead our summer flight, - And this is rankly wrong.” - - Cried he, “My life is pitiful! - I only eat and wed, - And in my marriage is the end— - Thereafter I am dead. - - “I would I were the busy bee - That flits from flower to flower; - I long to share in work and care - And feel the worker’s power.” - - Quoth they, “The life you dare to spurn - Is set before you here - As your one great, prescribed, ordained, - Divinely ordered sphere! - - “Without your, services as drone, - We should not be alive; - Your modest task, when well fulfilled, - Preserves the busy hive. - - “Why underrate your blessed power? - Why leave your rightful throne - To choose a field of life that’s made - For working bees alone?” - - Cried he, “But it is not enough, - My momentary task! - Let me do that and more beside: - To work is all I ask!” - - Then fiercely rose the workers all, - For sorely were they vexed; - “O wretch!” they cried, “should this betide, - You would become _unsexed_!” - - And yet he had not sighed for eggs, - Nor yet for royal mien; - He longed to be a worker bee, - But not to be a queen. - - - - - FEMALES. - - - The female fox she is a fox; - The female whale a whale; - The female eagle holds her place - As representative of race - As truly as the male. - - The mother hen doth scratch for her chicks, - And scratch for herself beside; - The mother cow doth nurse her calf, - Yet fares as well as her other half - In the pasture free and wide. - - The female bird doth soar in air; - The female fish doth swim; - The fleet-foot mare upon the course - Doth hold her own with the flying horse— - Yea, and she beateth him! - - One female in the world we find - Telling a different tale. - It is the female of our race, - Who holds a parasitic place - Dependent on the male. - - Not so, saith she, ye slander me! - No parasite am I! - I earn my living as a wife; - My children take my very life. - Why should I share in human strife. - To plant and build and buy? - - The human race holds highest place - In all the world so wide, - Yet these inferior females wive, - And raise their little ones alive, - And feed themselves beside. - - The race is higher than the sex, - Though sex be fair and good; - A Human Creature is your state, - And to be human is more great - Than even womanhood! - - The female fox she is a fox; - The female whale a whale; - The female eagle holds her place - As representative of race - As truly as the male. - - - - - A MOTHER’S SOLILOQUY. - - - You soft, pink, moving thing! - Young limbs that crave - Motion as free as zephyr-lifted wave; - Uneasy with the push of unlearned powers! - Exploring slowly through half-conscious hours; - With what rich new surprise and joy you feel - Your own will move yourself from head to heel! - So, let me swaddle you in bandage tight, - Dress you in wide, confining folds of white, - Cover you warmly, hold you close, and so - A mother’s instinct-guided love I’ll show! - - Mysterious little frame! - Each organ new - And learning swiftly what it has to do! - - Thy life’s bright stream—as yet so newly thine— - Refreshed by heaven’s sunlit air divine; - With what delight you breathe in rosy ease - The strengthening, restful, blossom-scented breeze! - So, let me wrap you in a blanket shawl, - And veil your face in woollen, when at all - You meet the air. Here in my arms is best - The curtained bedroom where your elders rest; - So shall I guard you from a draught, and so - A mother’s instinct-guided love I’ll show. - - Young earnest mind at work! - Each sense attends - To teach you life’s approaching foes and friends; - Eye, ear, nose, tongue, and ever ready hand, - Eager to help you learn and understand. - What floods of happiness the day insures, - While each new knowledge is becoming yours! - So, let me firmly take away from you - The things you so persistently would view; - And when you stretch the hand that tells so much, - Rap your soft knuckles and exclaim, “Don’t touch!” - I’ll tell you what you ought to learn, and so, - A mother’s instinct-guided love I’ll show. - - An ordinary child at best, - So neighbors tell; - Not very large and strong, not very well; - A victim to the measles and the croup, - Fevers that flush and chill, and coughs that whoop; - To unknown naughtiness and well-known pain; - No racial progress here—no special gain! - But I, your mother, see with other eyes; - I hold you second to none under skies, - This estimate, unbased on any fact, - Shall teach you how to feel and how to act, - Shall make you wise, and true, and strong, and so, - A mother’s instinct-guided love I’ll show. - - - - - THEY WANDERED FORTH. - - - They wandered forth in springtime woods, - Three women, thickly hung - With yards and yards of woollen goods— - To play that they were young! - - The river raced with the racing air; - The woods were wild with song; - The glad birds darted everywhere— - And so they walked along! - - Stiff-bodied, fat, oppressed with cloth, - Dull-colored, sad to see, - Slow-moving over the bright grass, - Their shapeless shadows fall and pass, - And dreaming not—alas! alas! - Of what dear life might be! - - - - - BABY LOVE. - - - Baby Love came prancing by, - Cap on head and sword on thigh, - Horse to ride and drum to beat,— - All the world beneath his feet. - - Mother Life was sitting there, - Hard at work and full of care, - Set of mouth and sad of eye. - Baby Love came prancing by. - - Baby Love was very proud, - Very lively, very loud; - Mother Life arose in wrath, - Set an arm across his path. - - Baby Love wept loud and long, - But his mother’s arm was strong. - Mother had to work, she said. - Baby Love was put to bed. - - - - - THE MARCH. - - - - - THE WOLF AT THE DOOR. - - - There’s a haunting horror near us - That nothing drives away: - Fierce lamping eyes at nightfall, - A crouching shade by day; - There’s a whining at the threshold, - There’s a scratching at the floor. - To work! To work! In Heaven’s name! - The wolf is at the door! - - The day was long, the night was short, - The bed was hard and cold; - Still weary are the little ones, - Still weary are the old. - We are weary in our cradles - From our mother’s toil untold; - We are born to hoarded weariness - As some to hoarded gold. - - We will not rise! We will not work! - Nothing the day can give - Is half so sweet as an hour of sleep; - Better to sleep than live! - What power can stir these heavy limbs? - What hope these dull hearts swell? - What fear more cold, what pain more sharp, - Than the life we know so well? - - To die like a man by lead or steel - Is nothing that we should fear; - No human death would be worse to feel - Than the life that holds us here. - But this is a fear no heart can face— - A fate no man can dare— - To be run to earth and die by the teeth - Of the gnawing monster there! - - The slow, relentless, padding step - That never goes astray— - The rustle in the underbrush— - The shadow in the way— - The straining flight—the long pursuit— - The steady gain behind— - Death-wearied man and tireless brute, - And the struggle wild and blind! - - There’s a hot breath at the keyhole - And a tearing as of teeth! - Well do I know the bloodshot eyes - And the dripping jaws beneath! - There’s a whining at the threshold— - There’s a scratching at the floor— - To work! To work! In Heaven’s name! - The wolf is at the door! - - - - - THE LOST GAME. - - - Came the big children to the little ones, - And unto them full pleasantly did say, - “Lo! we have spread for you a merry game, - And ye shall all be winners at the same. - Come now and play!” - - _Great is the game they enter in,— - Rouge et Noir on a giant scale,— - Red with blood and black with sin, - Where many must lose and few may win, - And the players never fail!_ - - Said the strong children to the weaker ones, - “See, ye are many, and we are but few! - The mass of all the counters ye divide, - But few remain to share upon our side. - Play—as we do!” - - _Strange is the game they enter in,— - Rouge et Noir on a field of pain! - And the silver white and the yellow gold - Pile and pile in the victor’s hold, - While the many play in vain!_ - - Said the weak children to the stronger ones, - “See now, howe’er it fall, we lose our share! - And play we well or ill we always lose; - While ye gain always more than ye can use. - Bethink ye—is it fair?” - - _Strange is the game they enter in,— - Rouge et Noir, and the bank is strong! - Play they well or play they wide - The gold is still on the banker’s side, - And the game endureth long._ - - Said the strong children, each aside to each, - “The game is slow—our gains are all too small! - Play we together now, ’gainst them apart; - So shall these dull ones lose it from the start, - And we shall gain it all!” - - _Strange is the game that now they win,— - Rouge et Noir with a new design! - What can the many players do - Whose wits are weak and counters few - When the Power and the Gold combine?_ - - Said the weak children to the stronger ones, - “We care not for the game! - For play as we may our chance is small, - And play as ye may ye have it all. - The end’s the same!” - - _Strange is the game the world doth play,— - Rouge et Noir, with the counters gold, - Red with blood and black with sin; - Few and fewer are they that win - As the ages pass untold._ - - Said the strong children to the weaker ones, - “Ye lose in laziness! ye lose in sleep! - Play faster now and make the counters spin! - Play well, as we, and ye in time shall win! - Play fast! Play deep!” - - _Strange is the game of Rouge et Noir,— - Never a point have the little ones won. - The winners are strong and flushed with gain, - The losers are weak with want and pain, - And still the game goes on._ - - But those rich players grew so very few, - So many grew the poor ones, that one day - They rose up from that table, side by side, - Calm, countless, terrible—they rose and cried - In one great voice that shook the heavens wide, - “WE WILL NOT PLAY!” - - _Where is the game of Rouge et Noir? - Where is the wealth of yesterday? - What availeth the power ye tell, - And the skill in the game ye play so well? - If the players will not play?_ - - - - - THE LOOKER-ON. - - - The world was full of the battle, - The whole world far and wide; - Men and women and children - Were fighting on either side. - - I was sent from the hottest combat - With a message of life and death, - Black with smoke and red with blood, - Weary and out of breath, - - Forced to linger a moment, - And bind a stubborn wound, - Cursing the hurt that kept me back - From the fiery battle-ground. - - When I found a cheerful stranger, - Calm, critical, serene, - Well sheltered from all danger, - Painting a battle-scene. - - He was cordially glad to see me— - The coolly smiling wretch— - And inquired with admiration, - “Do you mind if I make a sketch?” - - So he had me down in a minute, - With murmurs of real delight; - My “color” was “delicious,” - My “action” was “just right!” - - And he prattled on with ardor - Of the moving scene below; - Of the “values” of the smoke-wreaths, - And “the splendid rush and go” - - Of the headlong desperate charges - Where a thousand lives were spent; - Of the “massing” in the foreground - With the “middle distance” blent. - - Said I, “You speak serenely - Of the living death in view. - These are human creatures dying— - Are you not human too? - - “This is a present battle, - Where all men strive to-day. - How does it chance you sit apart? - Which is your banner—say!” - - His fresh cheek blanched a little, - But he answered with a smile - That he fought not on either side; - He was watching a little while. - - “Watching!” said I, “and neutral! - Neutral in times like these!” - And I plucked him off his sketching stool - And brought him to his knees. - - I stripped him of his travelling cloak - And showed him to the sky: - By his uniform—a traitor! - By his handiwork—a spy! - - I dragged him back to the field he left; - To the fate he was fitted for. - We have no place for lookers on - When all the world’s at war! - - - - - THE OLD-TIME WAIL. - - An Associated Press despatch describe the - utterance of a Banners’ Alliance meeting in - Kansas as consisting mostly of “the old-time - wail of distress.” - - - Still Dives hath no peace. Broken his slumber, - His feasts are troubled, and his pleasures fail; - For still he hears from voices without number - The same old wail. - - They gather yet in field and town and city,— - The people, discontented, bitter, pale,— - And murmur of oppression, pain, and pity,— - The old-time wail. - - And weary Dives, jaded in his pleasures, - Finding the endless clamor tiresome, stale— - Would gladly give a part of his wide treasures - To quiet that old wail. - - Old? Yes, as old as Egypt. Sounding lowly - From naked millions, in the desert hid, - Starving and bleeding while they builded, slowly, - The Pharaohs’ pyramid. - - As old as Rome. That endless empire’s minions - Raised ever and again the same dull cry; - And even Cæsar’s eagle bent his pinions - While it disturbed the sky. - - As old as the Dark Ages. The lean peasant, - Numerous, patient, still as time went by - Made his lord’s pastimes something less than pleasant - With that unceasing cry. - - It grew in volume down the crowding ages; - Unheeded still, and unappeased, it swelled. - And now it pleads in vain, and now it rages— - The answer still withheld. - - A century ago it shrieked and clamored - Till trembled emperors and kings grew pale; - At gates of palaces it roared and hammered,— - The same old wail. - - It got no final answer, though its passion - Altered the face of Europe, monarchs slew; - But ere it sank to silence, in some fashion - Others were wailing, too. - - And now in broad America we hear it,— - From crowded street, from boundless hill and vale. - Hear, Dives! Have ye not some cause to fear it,— - This old-time wail? - - Louder, my brother! Let us wail no longer - Like those past sufferers whose hearts did break. - We are a wiser race, a braver, stronger— - Let us not ask, but take! - - So Dives shall have no distress soever, - No sound of anguished voice by land or sea; - The old-time wail shall so be stilled forever, - And Dives shall not be! - - - - - FREE LAND IS NOT ENOUGH. - - - Free land is not enough. In earliest days - When man, the baby, from the earth’s bare breast - Drew for himself his simple sustenance, - Then freedom and his effort were enough. - The world to which a man is born to-day - Is a constructed, human, man-built world. - As the first savage needed the free wood, - We need the road, the ship, the bridge, the house, - The government, society, and church,— - These are the basis of our life to-day, - As much necessities to modern man - As was the forest to his ancestor. - To say to the new-born, “Take here your land; - In primal freedom settle where you will, - And work your own salvation in the world,” - Is but to put the last come upon earth - Back with the dim forerunners of his race - To climb the race’s stairway in one life! - Allied society owes to the young— - The new men come to carry on the world— - Account for all the past, the deeds, the keys, - Full access to the riches of the earth. - Why? That these new ones may not be compelled, - Each for himself, to do our work again— - But reach their manhood even with to-day, - And gain to-morrow sooner. To go on— - To start from where we are and go ahead— - That is true progress, true humanity! - - - - - WHO IS TO BLAME? - - - Who was to blame in that old time - Of the unnoticed groan, - When prisoners without proof of crime - Rotted in dungeons wet with slime, - And died unknown? - - When torture was a common thing, - When fire could speak, - When the flayed wretch hung quivering, - And rack-strained tendons, string by string, - Snapped with a shriek? - - Is it the Headsman, following still - The laws his masters give? - Is it the Church or King who kill? - Or just the People, by whose will - Church, King, and Headsman live? - - The People, bowing slavish knee - With tribute fruits of earth; - The People, gathering to see - The stake, the axe, the gallows-tree, - In brutal mirth! - - The People, countenancing pain - By willing presence there; - The People—you might shriek in vain, - Poor son of Abel or of Cain— - The People did not care! - - And now, in this fair age we’re in, - Who is to blame? - When men go mad and women sin - Because the life they struggle in - Enforces shame! - - When torture is so deep, so wide— - The kind we give— - So long drawn out, so well supplied, - That men die now by suicide, - Rather than live! - - Is it the Rich Man, grinding still - The faces of the poor? - Is it our System which must kill? - Or just the People, by whose will - That system can endure? - - The People, bowing slavish knee - With tribute fruits of earth; - The People, who can bear to see - In crime and death and poverty - Fair ground for mirth! - - The People, countenancing pain - By willing presence there; - The People—you may shriek in vain— - Protest, rebel, beseech, complain— - The People do not care! - - Each man and woman feels the weight - Of their own private share; - But for the suffering of the state, - That falls on all men soon or late, - The People do not care! - - - - - IF A MAN MAY NOT EAT NEITHER CAN HE WORK. - - - How can he work? He never has been taught - The free use of what faculties he had. - Why should he work? Who ever yet has thought - To give a love of working to the lad. - - How can he work? His life has felt the lack - Of all that makes us work; the proud, the free, - Each saying to the world, “I give you back - Part of the glory you have given me!” - - Why should he work? He has no honor high, - Born of great trust and wealth and sense of power; - Honor, that makes us yearn before we die - To add our labor to the world’s rich dower. - - How can he work? He has no inner strength - Urging him on to action, no desire - To strain and wrestle, to achieve at length, - Burning in all his veins,—a hidden fire. - - Why should he work? There is no debt behind - That man’s nobility most longs to pay; - No claim upon him,—only the one blind - Brute instinct that his dinner lies that way. - - And that is not enough. Who may not eat - Freely at life’s full table all his youth, - Can never work in power and joy complete, - In fulness, and in honor, and in truth. - - - - - HIS OWN LABOR. - - - Let every man be given what he earns! - We cry, and call it justice. Let him have - The product of his labor—and no more! - Well, then, let us begin with life’s first needs, - And give him of the earth what he can make; - As much of air and light as he can make, - As much of ocean, and sweet wind and rain, - And flowers, and grass, and fruit, as he can make. - But no, we answer this is mockery: - No man makes these things. But of human wealth - Let every man be given what he makes, - The product of his labor, and no more. - Ah, well! So to the farmer let us give - Corn, and still corn, and only corn at last. - So to the grazier, meat; the fisher, fish; - Cloth to the weaver; to the mason, walls; - And let the writer sit and read his books— - The product of his labor—and naught else! - But no, we answer! Still you laugh at us. - We mean not his own labor in that sense, - But his share in the work of other men. - As much of what they make as he can buy - In fair exchange for labor of his own. - So let it be. As much of life’s rich fruit— - The product of the labor of the world— - As he can equal with his own two hands, - His own supply of energy and skill! - As much of Shakespeare, Homer, Socrates, - As much of Wagner, Beethoven, and Bach, - As much of Franklin, Morse, and Edison, - As much of Watt, and Stephenson and Bell, - Of Euclid, Aristotle, Angelo, - Columbus, Raleigh, and George Washington, - Of all the learning of our patient years, - Of all the peace and smoothness we have won, - Of all the heaped up sciences and arts, - And luxuries that man has ever made,— - He is to have what his own toil can match! - Or, passing even this, giving no thought - To this our heritage, our vast bequest, - Condemn him to no more of human help - From living men than he can give to them! - Toil of the soldiers on the western plains, - Toil of the hardened sailors on the sea, - Toil of the sweating ploughman in the field, - The engine-driver, digger in the mine, - And weary weaver in the roaring mill. - Of all the hands and brains and hearts that toil - To fill the world with riches day by day, - Shall he have naught of this but what one man - Can give return for from his own supply? - Brother—There is no payment in the world! - We work and pour our labor at the feet - Of those who are around us and to come. - We live and take our living at the hands - Of those who are around us and have been. - No one is paid. No person can have more - Than he can hold. And none can do beyond - The power that’s in him. To each child that’s born - Belongs as much of all our human good - As he can take and use to make him strong. - And from each man, debtor to all the world, - Is due the fullest fruit of all his powers, - His whole life’s labor, proudly rendered up, - Not as return—can moments pay an age? - But as the simple duty of a man. - Can he do less—receiving everything? - - - - - AS FLEW THE CROSS. - - - As flew the fiery cross from hand to hand, - Kindling the scattered people to one flame, - Out-blazing fiercely to a sudden war; - As beacon fires flamed up from hill to hill, - Crying afar to valleys hidden wide - To tell their many dwellers of a fear - That made them one—a danger shadowing all!— - So flies to-day the torch of living fire, - From mouth to mouth, from distant ear to ear; - And all the people of all nations hear; - The printed word, the living word that tells - Of the great glory of the coming day,— - The joy that makes us one forevermore! - - - - - TO LABOR. - - - Shall you complain who feed the world? - Who clothe the world? - Who house the world? - Shall you complain who are the world, - Of what the world may do? - As from this hour - You use your power, - The world must follow you! - - The world’s life hangs on your right hand! - Your strong right hand! - Your skilled right hand! - You hold the whole world in your hand. - See to it what you do! - Or dark or light, - Or wrong or right, - The world is made by you! - - Then rise as you never rose before! - Nor hoped before! - Nor dared before! - And show as was never shown before, - The power that lies in you! - Stand all as one! - See justice done! - Believe, and Dare, and Do! - - - - - HARDLY A PLEASURE. - - - She had found it dull in her city; - So had they, in a different mob. - She travelled to look for amusement; - They travelled to look for a job. - - She was loaded with fruit and candy, - And her section piled with flowers, - With magazine, novels, and papers - To shorten the weary hours. - - Her friends came down in a body - With farewells merry and sweet, - And left her with laughter and kisses, - On the broad plush-cushioned seat. - - She was bored before she started, - And the journey was dull and far. - “Travelling’s hardly a pleasure!” - Said the girl in the palace car. - - —————— - - Then they skulked out in the darkness - And crawled in under the cars, - To ride on the trucks as best they might, - To hang by the chains and bars. - - None came to see their starting, - And their friendliest look that day - Was that of a green young brakeman, - Who looked the other way. - - They were hungry before they started, - With the hunger that turns to pain— - “Travelling’s hardly a pleasure,” - Said the three men under the train. - - —————— - - She complained of the smoke and cinders, - She complained of the noise and heat, - She complained of the table service, - She complained of the things to eat. - - She said it was so expensive, - In spite of one’s utmost care; - That feeing the porters and waiters - Cost as much as a third-class fare. - - That the seats were dirty and stuffy, - That the berths were worse by far. - “Travelling’s hardly a pleasure!” - Said the girl in the palace car. - - —————— - - They hung on in desperate silence, - For a word was a tell-tale shout; - Their foul hats low on their bloodshot eyes, - To keep the cinders out. - - The dirt beat hard on their faces, - The noise beat hard on their ears, - And a moment’s rest to a straining limb - Meant the worst of human fears. - - They clutched and clung in the darkness - While the stiffness turned to pain. - “Travelling’s hardly a pleasure,” - Said the three men under the train. - - —————— - - She stepped airily out in the morning, - When the porter had brushed her awhile. - She gave him a silver dollar; - He gave her an ivory smile. - - She complained to her friends that morning - Of a most distressing dream: - “I thought I heard in the darkness - A sort of a jolting scream! - - “I thought I felt in the darkness - The great wheels joggle and swing; - Travelling’s hardly a pleasure - When you dream such a horrible thing!” - - —————— - - They crept shuddering out in the morning, - Red spots with the coal’s black stain. - “Travelling’s hardly a pleasure!” - Said the two men under the train. - - - - - NATIONALISM. - - - The nation is a unit. That which makes - You an American of our to-day - Requires the nation and its history, - Requires the sum of all our citizens, - Requires the product of our common toil, - Requires the freedom of our common laws, - The common heart of our humanity. - Decrease our population, check our growth, - Deprive us of our wealth, our liberty, - Lower the nation’s conscience by a hair, - And you are less than that you were before! - You stand here in the world the man you are - Because your country is America. - Our liberty belongs to each of us; - The nation guarantees it; in return - We serve the nation, serving so ourselves. - Our education is a common right; - The state provides it, equally to all, - Each taking what he can, and in return - We serve the state, so serving best ourselves. - Food, clothing, all necessities of life,— - These are a right as much as liberty! - The nation feeds its children. In return - We serve the nation, serving still ourselves— - Nay, not ourselves—ourself! We are but parts, - The unit is the state,—America. - - - - - THE KING IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE KING! - - - When man, the hunter, winning in the race, - Had conquered much, and, conquering, grown apace, - Till out of victory he found defeat, - And, having eaten all, had naught to eat,— - Then might some Jeremiah sad have said, - Seeing his hopeless case, “The King is dead!” - - But man is master most in power to change; - He turned his forest to a cattle range; - There was no foe to strive with—wherefore strive? - No food to kill—he kept his food alive. - Herding his dinner, see him sit and sing - Serene, “The King is dead! Long live the King!” - - When man the shepherd, after years did pass, - By nature’s increase grew, until the grass - Failed to support the requisite supply - Of cattle who must live lest he should die; - Again a grieved observer might be led - To pitifully say, “The King is dead!” - - But man, who turned his prey into a pet, - To outwit hunger, was not baffled yet; - He’d searched for grass so long he’d learned to praise it, - And now that grass was short—why, he could raise it! - His dinner sprouted with the happy spring - Profuse, “The King is dead! Long live the King!” - - When man, the farmer, growing very great, - Out of his children built the busy State, - Those greedy children, to his loud alarm, - Pinched all the profits off the old man’s farm, - Killing the golden goose, and while he bled, - Cried sage economists, “The King is dead!” - - But he, good sooth, was never more alive; - He watched the pools and trusts around him strive, - And when he’d learned the trick—it was not long— - He organized himself—a million strong! - Cornered the food supply! A Farmer’s Ring! - Hurrah! “The King is dead! Long live the King!” - - - - - “HOW MANY POOR!” - - - “Whene’er I take my walks abroad, how many poor I see!” - Said pious Watts, and thanked the Lord that not so poor was he. - I see so many poor to-day I think I’ll walk no more, - And then the poor in long array come knocking at my door. - The hungry poor! The dirty poor! The poor of evil smell! - Yet even these we could endure if they were only well! - But, O, this sick and crippled crew! The lame, the deaf, the blind! - What can a Christian person do with these upon his mind! - They keep diseases growing still like plants on greenhouse shelves, - And they’re so generous they will not keep them to themselves; - They propagate amazing crimes and vices scandalous, - And then at most uncertain times they wreak the same on us! - With charity we would prevent this poverty and woe, - But find the more we’ve fondly spent, the more the poor do grow! - We’ve tried by punishment full sore to mend the case they’re in; - The more we punish them the more they sin, and sin, and sin! - We make the punishment more kind, we give them wise reform, - And they, with a contented mind, flock to our prisons warm! - Then science comes with solemn air, and shows us social laws, - Explaining how the poor are there from a purely natural cause. - ’Tis natural for low and high to struggle and to strive; - ’Tis natural for the worse to die and the better to survive. - We swallowed all this soothing stuff, and easily were led - To think if we were stern enough, the poor would soon be dead. - But, O! in vain we squeeze, and grind, and drive them to the wall— - For all our deadly work we find it does not kill them all! - The more we struggle they survive! increase and multiply! - There seem to be more poor alive, in spite of all that die! - Whene’er I take my walks abroad how many poor I see, - And eke at home! How long, O Lord! How long must this thing be! - - - - - THE DEAD LEVEL. - - - There is a fear among us as we strive, - As we succeed or fail, or starve or revel, - That there will be no pleasure left alive - When we in peace and joy at last arrive - At one dead level. - - And still the strangest part of this strange fear - Is that it is not for ourselves we fear it. - We wish to rise and gain; we look ahead - To pleasant years of peace ere we are dead; - We wish that peace, but wish no other near it! - - Say, does it spoil your pleasure in a town - To have your neighbors’ gardens full of roses? - Is your house dearer when its eye looks down - On evil-smelling shanties rough and brown? - Is your nose safer than your neighbor’s nose is? - - Are you unhappy at some noble fête - To see the whole bright throng in radiant dresses? - Is your State safer when each other State - That borders it is full of want and hate? - Peace must be peace to all before it blesses. - - Is knowledge sweeter when it is hemmed in - By ignorance that does not know its master? - Is goodness easier when plenteous sin - Surrounds it? And can you not win - Joy for yourself without your friend’s disaster? - - O foolish children! With more foolish fear, - Unworthy even of a well-trained devil! - Good things are good for all men,—that is clear; - To doubt it shows your heads are nowhere near - To that much-dreaded level! - - - - - THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE. - - - Our business system has its base - On one small thought that’s out of place; - The merest trifle—nothing much, of course. - The truth is there—who says it’s not? - Only—the trouble is—you’ve got - The cart before the horse! - - You say unless a man shall work - Right earnestly, and never shirk, - He may not eat. Now look—the change is small, - And yet the truth is plain to see— - Unless man eats, and frequently, - He cannot work at all! - - And which comes first! Why, that is plain, - The man comes first. And, look again— - A baby! with an appetite to fit! - You have to feed him years and years, - And train him up with toil and tears, - Before he works a bit! - - So let us change our old ideas, - And learn with these advancing years - To give the oats before we ask for speed; - Not set the hungry horse to run, - And tell him when the race is done - That he shall have his feed! - - - - - THE AMŒBOID CELL. - - - Said the Specialized Cell to the Amœboid Cell, - “Why don’t you develop like me? - Just combine with the others, - Unite with your brothers, - And grow to a thing you can see,— - An organized creature like me!” - - Said the Amœboid Cell to the Specialized Cell, - “But where would my liberty be? - If I’m one with a class, - I should lose in the mass - All my Individualitee! - And that is a horror to me!” - - Said the Specialized Cell to the Amœboid Cell, - “What good does it do you to-day? - You’re amorphous and small, - You’ve no organs at all, - You can’t even get out of the way! - You don’t half understand what I say!” - - Said the Amœboid Cell to the Specialized Cell, - “But I’m independent and free! - I can float as I please - In these populous seas, - I’m not fastened to anybodee! - I have personal freedom, you see! - - “And when I want organs and members and such, - I project them,—an arm or a wing; - I can change as I will, - But you have to keep still— - Just a part of the mass where you cling! - You never can be but one thing!” - - Said the Specialized Cell to the Amœboid Cell, - “What you say is undoubtedly true, - But I’d rather be part - Of a thing with a heart - Than the whole of a creature like you! - A memberless morsel like you! - - “You say you’re immortal and separate and free, - Yet you’ve died by the billion before; - Just a speck in the slime - At the birthday of time, - And you never can be any more! - As you are, you’ve no future in store! - - “You say you can be many things in yourself, - Yet you’re all just alike to the end! - I am part of a whole— - Of a thing with a soul— - And the whole is the unit, my friend! - But that you can scarce comprehend! - - “You are only yourself,—just a series of ones; - You can only say ‘I’—never ‘we’; - All of us are combined - In a creature with mind, - And _we_ are the creature you see! - And the creature feeds _us_—which is _me_! - - “And being combined in a body like that - It can wisely provide us with food; - And we vary and change - In a limitless range; - We are specialized now, for our good! - And we each do our work—as we should! - - “What protection have you from the chances of Fate? - What provision have you for the morrow? - You get food when it drops, - And you die when it stops! - You can’t give or take, lend or borrow! - You helpless free-agent of sorrow!” - - Just then came a frost, and the Amœboid Cell - Died out by the billion again; - But the Specialized Cell - In the body felt well - And rejoiced in his place in the brain! - The dead level of life with a brain! - - - - - THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. - - - In northern zones the ranging bear - Protects himself with fat and hair. - Where snow is deep, and ice is stark, - And half the year is cold and dark, - He still survives a clime like that - By growing fur, by growing fat. - These traits, O Bear, which thou transmittest, - Prove the survival of the fittest! - - To polar regions, waste and wan, - Comes the encroaching race of man; - A puny, feeble little lubber, - He had no fur, he had no blubber. - The scornful bear sat down at ease - To see the stranger starve and freeze; - But, lo! the stranger slew the bear, - And ate his fat, and wore his hair! - These deeds, O Man, which thou committest, - Prove the survival of the fittest! - - In modern times the millionaire - Protects himself as did the bear. - Where Poverty and Hunger are, - He counts his bullion by the car. - Where thousands suffer, still he thrives, - And after death his will survives. - The wealth, O Crœsus, thou transmittest - Proves the survival of the fittest! - - But, lo! some people, odd and funny, - Some men without a cent of money, - The simple common Human Race, - Chose to improve their dwelling-place. - They had no use for millionaires; - They calmly said the world was theirs; - They were so wise, so strong, so many— - The millionaire? There wasn’t any! - These deeds, O Man, which thou committest, - Prove the survival of the fittest! - - - - - DIVISION OF PROPERTY. - - - Some sailors were starving at sea - On a raft where they happened to be, - When one of the crew - Who was hidden from view - Was found to be feasting most free. - - Then they cursed him in language profane, - Because there on the pitiless main - While the others did starve, - He could ladle and carve, - Eating food which they could not obtain. - - “But,” said he, “’tis my own little store! - To feed all of you would take more! - If I shared, ’twould be found - That it would not go round; - And you all would starve on as before! - - “It would only prolong your distress - To distribute this one little mess! - The supply is so small - I had best eat it all, - For me it will comfort and bless!” - - This reasoning sounded most fair, - But the men had large appetites there, - And while he explained - They ate all that remained, - Forgetting to leave out his share! - - - - - CHRISTIAN VIRTUES. - - - Oh, dear! - The Christian virtues will disappear! - Nowhere on land or sea - Will be room for charity! - Nowhere, in field or city, - A person to help or pity! - Better for them, no doubt, - Not to need helping out - Of their old miry ditch. - But, alas for us, the rich! - For we shall lose, you see, - Our boasted charity!— - Lose all the pride and joy - Of giving the poor employ, - And money, and food, and love - (And making stock thereof!). - Our Christian virtues are gone, - With nothing to practise on! - - It don’t hurt them a bit, - For they can’t practise it; - But it’s our great joy and pride— - What virtue have we beside? - We believe, as sure as we live, - That it is more blessed to give - Than to want, and waste, and grieve, - And occasionally receive! - And here are the people pressing - To rob us of our pet blessing! - No chance to endow or bedizen - A hospital, school, or prison, - And leave our own proud name - To Gratitude and Fame! - No chance to do one good deed, - To give what we do not need, - To leave what we cannot use - To those whom we deign to choose! - When none want broken meat, - How shall our cake be sweet? - When none want flannels and coals, - How shall we save our souls? - Oh, dear! Oh, dear! - The Christian virtues will disappear! - - The poor have their virtues rude,— - Meekness and gratitude, - Endurance, and respect - For us, the world’s elect; - Economy, self-denial, - Patience in every trial, - Self-sacrifice, self-restraint,— - Virtues enough for a saint! - Virtues enough to bear - All this life’s sorrow and care! - Virtues by which to rise - To a front seat in the skies! - How can they turn from this - To common earthly bliss,— - Mere clothes, and food, and drink, - And leisure to read and think, - And art, and beauty, and ease,— - There is no crown for these! - True, if their gratitude - Were not for fire and food, - They might still learn to bless - The Lord for their happiness! - And, instead of respect for wealth, - Might learn from beauty, and health, - And freedom in power and pelf, - Each man to respect himself! - And, instead of scraping and saving, - Might learn from using and having - That man’s life should be spent - In a grand development! - But this is petty and small; - These are not virtues at all; - They do not look as they should; - They don’t do _us_ any good! - Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Oh, dear! - The Christian virtues will disappear! - - - - - WHAT’S THAT? - - - I met a little person on my land, - A-fishing in the waters of my stream; - He seemed a man, yet could not understand - Things that to most men very simple seem. - - “Get off!” said I; “this land is mine, my friend! - Get out!” said I; “this brook belongs to me! - I own the land, and you must make an end - Of fishing here so free. - - “I own this place, the land and water too! - You have no right to be here, that is flat! - Get off it! That is all I ask of you!—” - “Own it?” said he; “what’s that?” - - “What’s that?” said I, “why, that is common sense! - I own the water and the fishing right; - I own the land from here to yonder fence; - Get off, my friend, or fight!” - - He looked at the clear stream so neatly kept; - He looked at teeming vine and laden tree, - And wealthy fields of grain that stirred and slept; - “I see!” he cried, “I see! - - “You mean you cut the wood and plowed the field, - From your hard labor all this beauty grew, - To you is due the richness of the yield; - You have some claim, ’tis true.” - - “Not so,” said I, with manner very cool, - And tossed my purse into the air and caught it; - “Do I look like a laborer, you fool? - It’s mine because I bought it!” - - Again he looked as if I talked in Greek, - Again he scratched his head and twirled his hat, - Before he mustered wit enough to speak. - “Bought it?” said he, “what’s that?” - - And then he said again, “I see! I see! - You mean that some men toiled with plows and hoes, - And while those worked for you, you toiled with glee - At other work for those.” - - “Not so!” said I, getting a little hot, - Thinking the man a fool as well as funny; - “I’m not a working-man, you idiot; - I bought it with my money!” - - And still that creature stared and dropped his jaw, - Till I could have destroyed him where he sat. - “Money,” said I, “money, and moneyed law!” - “Money?” said he, “what’s that?” - - - - - AN ECONOMIST. - - - The serene savage sitting in his tree - Saw empires rise and fall, - And moralized on their uncertainty. - (He never rose at all!) - - He was full fat from god-sent droves of prey; - He was full calm from satisfied desire; - He was full wise in that he chose to stay - Free from ambition’s fire. - - “See,” quoth the savage, “how they toil and strive - To make things better,—vain and idle wish! - Here is good store of what keeps man alive, - Of fruit, and flesh, and fish. - - “Poor discontented wretches, fed on air, - Seeking to change the normal lot of man, - To lure him from this natural strife and care, - With vague Utopian plan! - - “Here’s wealth and joy—why seek for any change? - Why labor for a more elaborate life? - As if God could not his own world arrange - Without our fretful strife! - - “Those who complain of savagery as low - Are merely proven lazy, and too weak - To live by skilful hunt and deadly blow; - It is their needs that speak. - - “Complain of warfare! Cry that peace is sweet! - Complain of hunting! Prate of toil and trade! - It only proves that they cannot compete - In the free life we’ve made.” - - Another empire reeled into its grave; - The savage sat serenely as before, - As calm and wise, as cunning and as brave— - Never an atom more. - - - - - CHARITY. - - - Came two young children to their mother’s shelf - (One was quite little, and the other big), - And each in freedom calmly helped himself. - (One was a pig.) - - The food was free and plenty for them both, - But one was rather dull and very small; - So the big smarter brother, nothing loath, - He took it all. - - At which the little fellow raised a yell - Which tired the other’s more æsthetic ears; - He gave him here a crust, and there a shell - To stop his tears. - - He gave with pride, in manner calm and bland, - Finding the other’s hunger a delight; - He gave with piety—his full left hand - Hid from his right. - - He gave and gave—O blessed Charity! - How sweet and beautiful a thing it is! - How fine to see that big boy giving free - What is not his! - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES - - - 1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling. - 2. Anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as - printed. - 3. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: In this our world - -Author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman - -Release Date: October 12, 2019 [EBook #60481] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THIS OUR WORLD *** - - - - -Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was -produced from images made available by the HathiTrust -Digital Library.) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class='tnotes covernote'> - -<p class='c000'><b>Transcriber’s Note:</b></p> - -<p class='c000'>The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='section ph1'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div>IN THIS OUR WORLD</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/i_frontispiece.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -</div> - -<div class='titlepage'> - -<div> - <h1 class='c002'>IN THIS OUR WORLD</h1> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c003'> - <div><span class='large'>CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='figcenter id002'> -<img src='images/title.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>BOSTON</div> - <div><span class='xlarge'>SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY</span></div> - <div>PUBLISHERS</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div><i>Copyright, 1893, 1895</i></div> - <div>BY CHARLOTTE PERKINS STETSON</div> - <div class='c004'><i>Copyright, 1898</i></div> - <div>BY SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY</div> - <div class='c003'><i>Entered at Stationers’ Hall</i></div> - <div class='c003'><i>Fifth edition, 1914</i></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c001'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>WOULD YE BUT UNDERSTAND!</div> - <div class='line in2'>JOY IS ON EVERY HAND!</div> - <div class='line'>YE SHUT YOUR EYES AND CALL IT NIGHT,</div> - <div class='line'>YE GROPE AND FALL IN SEAS OF LIGHT—</div> - <div class='line in2'>WOULD YE BUT UNDERSTAND.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_vii'>vii</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CONTENTS.</h2> -</div> - -<table class='table0' summary=''> - <tr> - <th class='c006'><span class='large'>THE WORLD</span></th> - <th class='c007'><span class='small'><span class='sc'>Page</span></span></th> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Birth</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Nature’s Answer</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_2'>2</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Commonplace</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_4'>4</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Homes—A Sestina</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_7'>7</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>A Common Inference</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_8'>8</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Rock and the Sea</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_9'>9</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Lion Path</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_12'>12</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Reinforcements</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_13'>13</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Heroism</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_14'>14</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Fire with Fire</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_16'>16</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Shield</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_18'>18</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>To the Preacher</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_19'>19</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>A Type</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_20'>20</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Compromise</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_21'>21</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Part of the Battle</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_22'>22</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Step Faster, Please</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_23'>23</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>A New Year’s Reminder</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_23'>23</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Out of Place</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_24'>24</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Little Cell</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_25'>25</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Child Speaks</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_26'>26</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>To a Good Many</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_28'>28</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>How would You?</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_29'>29</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>A Man must Live</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_33'>33</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>In Duty Bound</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_33'>33</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Desire</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_34'>34</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Why Not?</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_35'>35</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Out of the Gate</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_36'>36</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Modern Skeleton</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_39'>39</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Lesson of Death—to S. T. D.</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_40'>40</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>For Us</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_43'>43</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Thanksgiving</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_44'>44</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_viii'>viii</span><span class='sc'>Christmas Hymn</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_44'>44</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Christmas</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_46'>46</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Living God</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_48'>48</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>A Prayer</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_50'>50</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Give Way!</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_50'>50</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Thanksgiving Hymn—for California</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_51'>51</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Christmas Carol—for Los Angeles</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_52'>52</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>New Duty</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_54'>54</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Seeking</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_55'>55</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Finding</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_56'>56</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Too Much</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_57'>57</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Cup</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_58'>58</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>What Then?</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_59'>59</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Our Loneliness</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_60'>60</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Keeper of the Light</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_61'>61</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Immortality</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_62'>62</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Waste</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_63'>63</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Wings</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_64'>64</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Heart of the Water</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_66'>66</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Ship</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_67'>67</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Among the Gods</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_67'>67</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Songs</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_69'>69</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Heaven</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_71'>71</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Ballad of the Summer Sun</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_71'>71</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Pioneers</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_74'>74</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Exiles</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_74'>74</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>A Nevada Desert</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_75'>75</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Tree Feelings</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_76'>76</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Monotony—from California</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_77'>77</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Beds of Fleur-de-Lys</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_78'>78</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>It is Good to be Alive</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_79'>79</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Changeless Year—Southern California</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_80'>80</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Where Memory Sleeps—Rondeau</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_81'>81</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_ix'>ix</span><span class='sc'>California Car Windows</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_81'>81</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Limits</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_82'>82</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Powell Street</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_82'>82</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>From Russian Hill</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_85'>85</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>“<span class='sc'>An Unusual Rain</span>”</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_86'>86</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Hills</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_88'>88</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>City’s Beauty</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_89'>89</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Two Skies—from England</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_90'>90</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Winds and Leaves—from England</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_91'>91</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>On the Pawtuxet</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_92'>92</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>A Moonrise</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_93'>93</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Their Grass!—A Protest from California</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_93'>93</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Prophets</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_95'>95</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Similar Cases</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_95'>95</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>A Conservative</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_100'>100</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>An Obstacle</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_102'>102</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Fox who had Lost his Tail</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_104'>104</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Sweet Uses of Adversity</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_105'>105</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Connoisseurs</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_106'>106</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Technique</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_107'>107</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Pastellette</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_108'>108</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Pig and the Pearl</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_109'>109</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Poor Human Nature</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_111'>111</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Our San Francisco Climate</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_111'>111</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Criticism</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_113'>113</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Another Creed</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_113'>113</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Little Lion</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_114'>114</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>A Misfit</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_115'>115</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>On New Year’s Day</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_116'>116</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Our East</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_117'>117</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Unmentionable</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_118'>118</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>An Invitation from California</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_120'>120</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Resolve</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_121'>121</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <th class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_x'>x</span><span class='large'>WOMAN</span></th> - <th class='c007'> </th> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>She Walketh Veiled and Sleeping</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_125'>125</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>To Man</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_125'>125</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Women of To-Day</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_128'>128</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>To the Young Wife</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_129'>129</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>False Play</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_131'>131</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Motherhood</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_132'>132</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Six Hours a Day</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_136'>136</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>An Old Proverb</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_137'>137</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Reassurance</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_138'>138</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Mother to Child</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_140'>140</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Services</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_142'>142</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>In Mother-Time</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_144'>144</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>She who is to Come</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_146'>146</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Girls of To-Day</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_147'>147</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>“<span class='sc'>We, as Women</span>”</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_148'>148</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>If Mother Knew</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_150'>150</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Anti-Suffragists</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_152'>152</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Women do not Want It</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_154'>154</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Wedded Bliss</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_157'>157</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Holy Stove</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_158'>158</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Mother’s Charge</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_160'>160</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>A Brood Mare</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_161'>161</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Feminine Vanity</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_164'>164</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Modest Maid</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_166'>166</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Unsexed</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_168'>168</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Females</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_169'>169</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>A Mother’s Soliloquy</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_171'>171</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>They Wandered Forth</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_173'>173</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Baby Love</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_174'>174</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <th class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_xi'>xi</span><span class='large'>THE MARCH</span></th> - <th class='c007'> </th> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Wolf at the Door</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_177'>177</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Lost Game</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_179'>179</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Looker-on</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_181'>181</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Old-Time Wail</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_184'>184</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Free Land is Not Enough</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_186'>186</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Who is to Blame?</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_187'>187</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>If a Man may not eat neither can he Work</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_189'>189</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>His Own Labor</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_190'>190</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>As Flew the Cross</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_193'>193</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>To Labor</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_194'>194</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Hardly a Pleasure</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_195'>195</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Nationalism</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_197'>197</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The King is Dead! Long Live the King!</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_199'>199</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>“<span class='sc'>How Many Poor!</span>”</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_200'>200</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Dead Level</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_203'>203</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Cart before the Horse</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_204'>204</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Amœboid Cell</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_205'>205</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>The Survival of the Fittest</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_208'>208</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Division of Property</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_209'>209</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Christian Virtues</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_210'>210</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>What’s That?</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_213'>213</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>An Economist</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_215'>215</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Charity</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_217'>217</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_xiii'>xiii</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE WORLD.</h2> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_1'>1</span> - <h3 class='c002'>BIRTH.</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Lord, I am born!</div> - <div class='line'>I have built me a body</div> - <div class='line'>Whose ways are all open,</div> - <div class='line'>Whose currents run free,</div> - <div class='line'>From the life that is thine</div> - <div class='line'>Flowing ever within me,</div> - <div class='line'>To the life that is mine</div> - <div class='line'>Flowing outward through me.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I am clothed, and my raiment</div> - <div class='line'>Fits smooth to the spirit,</div> - <div class='line'>The soul moves unhindered,</div> - <div class='line'>The body is free;</div> - <div class='line'>And the thought that my body</div> - <div class='line'>Falls short of expressing,</div> - <div class='line'>In texture and color</div> - <div class='line'>Unfoldeth on me.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I am housed, O my Father!</div> - <div class='line'>My body is sheltered,</div> - <div class='line'>My spirit has room</div> - <div class='line'>’Twixt the whole world and me,</div> - <div class='line'>I am guarded with beauty and strength,</div> - <div class='line'>And within it</div> - <div class='line'>Is room for still union,</div> - <div class='line'>And birth floweth free.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_2'>2</span>And the union and birth</div> - <div class='line'>Of the house, ever growing,</div> - <div class='line'>Have built me a city—</div> - <div class='line'>Have born me a state—</div> - <div class='line'>Where I live manifold,</div> - <div class='line'>Many-voiced, many-hearted,</div> - <div class='line'>Never dead, never weary,</div> - <div class='line'>And oh! never parted!</div> - <div class='line'>The life of The Human,</div> - <div class='line'>So subtle—so great!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Lord, I am born!</div> - <div class='line'>From inmost to outmost</div> - <div class='line'>The ways are all open,</div> - <div class='line'>The currents run free,</div> - <div class='line'>From thy voice in my soul</div> - <div class='line'>To my joy in the people—</div> - <div class='line'>I thank thee, O God,</div> - <div class='line'>For this body thou gavest,</div> - <div class='line'>Which enfoldeth the earth—</div> - <div class='line'>Is enfolded by thee!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>NATURE’S ANSWER.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in22'>I.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A man would build a house, and found a place</div> - <div class='line'>As fair as any on the earth’s fair face:</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span>Soft hills, dark woods, smooth meadows richly green,</div> - <div class='line'>And cool tree-shaded lakes the hills between.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>He built his house within this pleasant land,</div> - <div class='line'>A stately white-porched house, long years to stand;</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But, rising from his paradise so fair,</div> - <div class='line'>Came fever in the night and killed him there.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“O lovely land!” he cried, “how could I know</div> - <div class='line'>That death was lurking under this fair show?”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And answered Nature, merciful and stern,</div> - <div class='line'>“I teach by killing; let the others learn!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in22 c003'>II.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A man would do great work, good work and true;</div> - <div class='line'>He gave all things he had, all things he knew;</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>He worked for all the world; his one desire</div> - <div class='line'>To make the people happier, better, higher;</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Used his best wisdom, used his utmost strength;</div> - <div class='line'>And, dying in the struggle, found at length,</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The giant evils he had fought the same,</div> - <div class='line'>And that the world he loved scarce knew his name.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Has all my work been wrong? I meant so well!</div> - <div class='line'>I loved so much!” he cried. “How could I tell?”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And answered Nature, merciful and stern,</div> - <div class='line'>“I teach by killing; let the others learn.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in22 c003'><span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>III.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A maid was asked in marriage. Wise as fair,</div> - <div class='line'>She gave her answer with deep thought and prayer,</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Expecting, in the holy name of wife,</div> - <div class='line'>Great work, great pain, and greater joy, in life.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>She found such work as brainless slaves might do,</div> - <div class='line'>By day and night, long labor, never through;</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Such pain—no language can her pain reveal;</div> - <div class='line'>It had no limit but her power to feel;</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Such joy—life left in her sad soul’s employ</div> - <div class='line'>Neither the hope nor memory of joy.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Helpless, she died, with one despairing cry,—</div> - <div class='line'>“I thought it good; how could I tell the lie?”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And answered Nature, merciful and stern,</div> - <div class='line'>“I teach by killing; let the others learn.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE COMMONPLACE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Life is so weary commonplace! Too fair</div> - <div class='line'>Were those young visions of the poet and seer.</div> - <div class='line'>Nothing exciting ever happens here.</div> - <div class='line'>Just eat and drink, and dress and chat;</div> - <div class='line'>Life is so tedious, slow, and flat,</div> - <div class='line'>And every day alike in everywhere!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>Birth comes. Birth—</div> - <div class='line'>The breathing re-creation of the earth!</div> - <div class='line'>All earth, all sky, all God, life’s deep sweet whole,</div> - <div class='line'>Newborn again to each new soul!</div> - <div class='line'>“Oh, are you? What a shame! Too bad, my dear!</div> - <div class='line'>How well you stand it, too! It’s very queer</div> - <div class='line'>The dreadful trials women have to carry;</div> - <div class='line'>But you can’t always help it when you marry.</div> - <div class='line'>Oh, what a sweet layette! What lovely socks!</div> - <div class='line'>What an exquisite puff and powder box!</div> - <div class='line'>Who is your doctor? Yes, his skill’s immense—</div> - <div class='line'>But it’s a dreadful danger and expense!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Love comes. Love—</div> - <div class='line'>And the world widens at the touch thereof;</div> - <div class='line'>Deepens and lightens till the answer true</div> - <div class='line'>To all life’s questions seems to glimmer through.</div> - <div class='line'>“Engaged? I knew it must be! What a ring!</div> - <div class='line'>Worth how much? Well, you are a lucky thing!</div> - <div class='line'>But how was Jack disposed of?” “Jack? Oh, he</div> - <div class='line'>Was just as glad as I was to be free.</div> - <div class='line'>You might as well ask after George and Joe</div> - <div class='line'>And all the fellows that I used to know!</div> - <div class='line'>I don’t inquire for his past Kate and Carry—</div> - <div class='line'>Every one’s pleased. It’s time, you know, to marry.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Life comes. Life—</div> - <div class='line'>Bearing within it wisdom, work, and strife.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>To do, to strive, to know, and, with the knowing,</div> - <div class='line'>To find life’s widest purpose in our growing.</div> - <div class='line'>“How are you, Jim? Pleasant weather to-day!</div> - <div class='line'>How’s business?” “Well, it doesn’t come my way.”</div> - <div class='line'>“Good-morning, Mrs. Smith! I hope you’re well!</div> - <div class='line'>Tell me the news!” “The news? There’s none to tell.</div> - <div class='line'>The cook has left; the baby’s got a tooth;</div> - <div class='line'>John has gone fishing to renew his youth.</div> - <div class='line'>House-cleaning’s due—or else we’ll have to move!</div> - <div class='line'>How sweet you are in that! Good-bye, my love!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Death comes. Death—</div> - <div class='line'>Love cries to love, and no man answereth.</div> - <div class='line'>Death the beginning, Death the endless end,</div> - <div class='line'>Life’s proof and first condition, Birth’s best friend.</div> - <div class='line'>“Yes, it’s a dreadful loss! No coming back!</div> - <div class='line'>Never again! How do I look in black?</div> - <div class='line'>And then he suffered so! Oh, yes, we all</div> - <div class='line'>Are well provided for. You’re kind to call,</div> - <div class='line'>And Mrs. Green has lost her baby too!</div> - <div class='line'>Dear me! How sad! And yet what could they do?</div> - <div class='line'>With such a hard time as they have, you know,—</div> - <div class='line'>No doubt ’t was better for the child to go!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Life is so dreary commonplace. We bear</div> - <div class='line'>One dull yoke, in the country or the town.</div> - <div class='line'>We’re born, grow up, marry, and settle down.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>I used to think—but then a man must live!</div> - <div class='line'>The Fates dole out the weary years they give,</div> - <div class='line'>And every day alike in everywhere.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>HOMES.<br /> <span class='c008'>A SESTINA.</span></h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>We are the smiling comfortable homes</div> - <div class='line'>With happy families enthroned therein,</div> - <div class='line'>Where baby souls are brought to meet the world,</div> - <div class='line'>Where women end their duties and desires,</div> - <div class='line'>For which men labor as the goal of life,</div> - <div class='line'>That people worship now instead of God.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Do we not teach the child to worship God?—</div> - <div class='line'>Whose soul’s young range is bounded by the homes</div> - <div class='line'>Of those he loves, and where he learns that life</div> - <div class='line'>Is all constrained to serve the wants therein,</div> - <div class='line'>Domestic needs and personal desires,—</div> - <div class='line'>These are the early limits of his world.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And are we not the woman’s perfect world,</div> - <div class='line'>Prescribed by nature and ordained of God,</div> - <div class='line'>Beyond which she can have no right desires,</div> - <div class='line'>No need for service other than in homes?</div> - <div class='line'>For doth she not bring up her young therein?</div> - <div class='line'>And is not rearing young the end of life?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And man? What other need hath he in life</div> - <div class='line'>Than to go forth and labor in the world,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>And struggle sore with other men therein?</div> - <div class='line'>Not to serve other men, nor yet his God,</div> - <div class='line'>But to maintain these comfortable homes,—</div> - <div class='line'>The end of all a normal man’s desires.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Shall not the soul’s most measureless desires</div> - <div class='line'>Learn that the very flower and fruit of life</div> - <div class='line'>Lies all attained in comfortable homes,</div> - <div class='line'>With which life’s purpose is to dot the world</div> - <div class='line'>And consummate the utmost will of God,</div> - <div class='line'>By sitting down to eat and drink therein.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Yea, in the processes that work therein—</div> - <div class='line'>Fulfilment of our natural desires—</div> - <div class='line'>Surely man finds the proof that mighty God</div> - <div class='line'>For to maintain and reproduce his life</div> - <div class='line'>Created him and set him in the world;</div> - <div class='line'>And this high end is best attained in homes.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Are we not homes? And is not all therein?</div> - <div class='line'>Wring dry the world to meet our wide desires!</div> - <div class='line'>We crown all life! We are the aim of God!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>A COMMON INFERENCE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A night: mysterious, tender, quiet, deep;</div> - <div class='line'>Heavy with flowers; full of life asleep;</div> - <div class='line'>Thrilling with insect voices; thick with stars;</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>No cloud between the dewdrops and red Mars;</div> - <div class='line'>The small earth whirling softly on her way,</div> - <div class='line'>The moonbeams and the waterfalls at play;</div> - <div class='line'>A million million worlds that move in peace,</div> - <div class='line'>A million mighty laws that never cease;</div> - <div class='line'>And one small ant-heap, hidden by small weeds,</div> - <div class='line'>Rich with eggs, slaves, and store of millet seeds.</div> - <div class='line in10'>They sleep beneath the sod</div> - <div class='line in14'>And trust in God.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A day: all glorious, royal, blazing bright;</div> - <div class='line'>Heavy with flowers; full of life and light;</div> - <div class='line'>Great fields of corn and sunshine; courteous trees;</div> - <div class='line'>Snow-sainted mountains; earth-embracing seas;</div> - <div class='line'>Wide golden deserts; slender silver streams;</div> - <div class='line'>Clear rainbows where the tossing fountain gleams;</div> - <div class='line'>And everywhere, in happiness and peace,</div> - <div class='line'>A million forms of life that never cease;</div> - <div class='line'>And one small ant-heap, crushed by passing tread,</div> - <div class='line'>Hath scarce enough alive to mourn the dead!</div> - <div class='line in10'>They shriek beneath the sod,</div> - <div class='line in14'>“There is no God!”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE ROCK AND THE SEA.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in12'>THE ROCK.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I am the Rock, presumptuous Sea!</div> - <div class='line'>I am set to encounter thee.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>Angry and loud or gentle and still,</div> - <div class='line'>I am set here to limit thy power, and I will!</div> - <div class='line in18'>I am the Rock!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I am the Rock. From age to age</div> - <div class='line'>I scorn thy fury and dare thy rage.</div> - <div class='line'>Scarred by frost and worn by time,</div> - <div class='line'>Brown with weed and green with slime,</div> - <div class='line'>Thou may’st drench and defile me and spit in my face,</div> - <div class='line'>But while I am here thou keep’st thy place!</div> - <div class='line in18'>I am the Rock!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I am the Rock, beguiling Sea!</div> - <div class='line'>I know thou art fair as fair can be,</div> - <div class='line'>With golden glitter and silver sheen,</div> - <div class='line'>And bosom of blue and garments of green.</div> - <div class='line'>Thou may’st pat my cheek with baby hands,</div> - <div class='line'>And lap my feet in diamond sands,</div> - <div class='line'>And play before me as children play;</div> - <div class='line'>But plead as thou wilt, I bar the way!</div> - <div class='line in18'>I am the Rock!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I am the Rock. Black midnight falls;</div> - <div class='line'>The terrible breakers rise like walls;</div> - <div class='line'>With curling lips and gleaming teeth</div> - <div class='line'>They plunge and tear at my bones beneath.</div> - <div class='line'>Year upon year they grind and beat</div> - <div class='line'>In storms of thunder and storms of sleet,—</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>Grind and beat and wrestle and tear,</div> - <div class='line'>But the rock they beat on is always there</div> - <div class='line in18'>I am the Rock!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in16 c003'>THE SEA.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I am the Sea. I hold the land</div> - <div class='line'>As one holds an apple in his hand,</div> - <div class='line'>Hold it fast with sleepless eyes,</div> - <div class='line'>Watching the continents sink and rise.</div> - <div class='line'>Out of my bosom the mountains grow,</div> - <div class='line'>Back to its depths they crumble slow;</div> - <div class='line'>The earth is a helpless child to me.</div> - <div class='line in18'>I am the Sea!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I am the Sea. When I draw back</div> - <div class='line'>Blossom and verdure follow my track,</div> - <div class='line'>And the land I leave grows proud and fair,</div> - <div class='line'>For the wonderful race of man is there;</div> - <div class='line'>And the winds of heaven wail and cry</div> - <div class='line'>While the nations rise and reign and die,</div> - <div class='line'>Living and dying in folly and pain,</div> - <div class='line'>While the laws of the universe thunder in vain.</div> - <div class='line'>What is the folly of man to me?</div> - <div class='line in18'>I am the Sea.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I am the Sea. The earth I sway;</div> - <div class='line'>Granite to me is potter’s clay;</div> - <div class='line'>Under the touch of my careless waves</div> - <div class='line'>It rises in turrets and sinks in caves;</div> - <div class='line'>The iron cliffs that edge the land</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>I grind to pebbles and sift to sand,</div> - <div class='line'>And beach-grass bloweth and children play</div> - <div class='line'>In what were the rocks of yesterday.</div> - <div class='line'>It is but a moment of sport to me.</div> - <div class='line in18'>I am the Sea!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I am the Sea. In my bosom deep</div> - <div class='line'>Wealth and Wonder and Beauty sleep;</div> - <div class='line'>Wealth and Wonder and Beauty rise</div> - <div class='line'>In changing splendor of sunset skies,</div> - <div class='line'>And comfort the earth with rains and snows</div> - <div class='line'>Till waves the harvest and laughs the rose.</div> - <div class='line'>Flower and forest and child of breath</div> - <div class='line'>With me have life—without me, death.</div> - <div class='line'>What if the ships go down in me?</div> - <div class='line in18'>I am the Sea!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE LION PATH.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I dare not!</div> - <div class='line in14'>Look! the road is very dark;</div> - <div class='line'>The trees stir softly and the bushes shake,</div> - <div class='line'>The long grass rustles, and the darkness moves</div> - <div class='line'>Here—there—beyond!</div> - <div class='line'>There’s something crept across the road just now!</div> - <div class='line'>And you would have me go?</div> - <div class='line'>Go <i>there</i>, through that live darkness, hideous</div> - <div class='line'>With stir of crouching forms that wait to kill?</div> - <div class='line'>Ah, <i>look</i>! See there! and there! and there again!</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>Great yellow glassy eyes, close to the ground!</div> - <div class='line'>Look! Now the clouds are lighter I can see</div> - <div class='line'>The long slow lashing of the sinewy tails,</div> - <div class='line'>And the set quiver of strong jaws that wait!</div> - <div class='line'>Go there? Not I! Who dares to go who sees</div> - <div class='line'>So perfectly the lions in the path?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Comes one who dares.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in22'>Afraid at first, yet bound</div> - <div class='line'>On such high errand as no fear could stay.</div> - <div class='line'>Forth goes he with the lions in his path.</div> - <div class='line'>And then—?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in12'>He dared a death of agony,</div> - <div class='line'>Outnumbered battle with the king of beasts,</div> - <div class='line'>Long struggle in the horror of the night,</div> - <div class='line'>Dared and went forth to meet—O ye who fear!</div> - <div class='line'>Finding an empty road, and nothing there,—</div> - <div class='line'>A wide, bare, common road, with homely fields,</div> - <div class='line'>And fences, and the dusty roadside trees—</div> - <div class='line'>Some spitting kittens, maybe, in the grass.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>REINFORCEMENTS.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Yea, we despair. Because the night is long,</div> - <div class='line'>And all arms weary with the endless fight</div> - <div class='line'>With blind, black forces of insulted law</div> - <div class='line'>Which we continually disobey,</div> - <div class='line'>And know not how to honor if we would.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>How can we fight when every effort fails,</div> - <div class='line'>And the vast hydra looms before us still</div> - <div class='line'>Headed as thickly as at dawn of day,</div> - <div class='line'>Fierce as when evening fell on us at war?</div> - <div class='line'>We are aweary, and no help appears;</div> - <div class='line'>No light, no knowledge, no sure way to kill</div> - <div class='line'>Our ancient enemy. Let us give o’er!</div> - <div class='line'>We do but fight with fate! Lay down your arms!</div> - <div class='line'>Retreat! Surrender! Better live as slaves</div> - <div class='line'>Than fight forever on a losing field!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Hold, ye faint-hearted! Ye are not alone!</div> - <div class='line'>Into your worn-out ranks of weary men</div> - <div class='line'>Come mighty reinforcements, even now!</div> - <div class='line'>Look where the dawn is kindling in the east,</div> - <div class='line'>Brave with the glory of the better day,—</div> - <div class='line'>A countless host, an endless host, all fresh,</div> - <div class='line'>With unstained banners and unsullied shields,</div> - <div class='line'>With shining swords that point to victory,</div> - <div class='line'>And great young hearts that know not how to fear,—</div> - <div class='line'>The Children come to save the weary world!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>HEROISM.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>It takes great strength to train</div> - <div class='line'>To modern service your ancestral brain;</div> - <div class='line'>To lift the weight of the unnumbered years</div> - <div class='line'>Of dead men’s habits, methods, and ideas;</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>To hold that back with one hand, and support</div> - <div class='line'>With the other the weak steps of a new thought.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>It takes great strength to bring your life up square</div> - <div class='line'>With your accepted thought, and hold it there;</div> - <div class='line'>Resisting the inertia that drags back</div> - <div class='line'>From new attempts to the old habit’s track.</div> - <div class='line'>It is so easy to drift back, to sink;</div> - <div class='line'>So hard to live abreast of what you think!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>It takes great strength to live where you belong</div> - <div class='line'>When other people think that you are wrong;</div> - <div class='line'>People you love, and who love you, and whose</div> - <div class='line'>Approval is a pleasure you would choose.</div> - <div class='line'>To bear this pressure and succeed at length</div> - <div class='line'>In living your belief—well, it takes strength.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And courage too. But what does courage mean</div> - <div class='line'>Save strength to help you face a pain foreseen?</div> - <div class='line'>Courage to undertake this lifelong strain</div> - <div class='line'>Of setting yours against your grandsire’s brain;</div> - <div class='line'>Dangerous risk of walking lone and free</div> - <div class='line'>Out of the easy paths that used to be,</div> - <div class='line'>And the fierce pain of hurting those we love</div> - <div class='line'>When love meets truth, and truth must ride above?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But the best courage man has ever shown</div> - <div class='line'>Is daring to cut loose and think alone.</div> - <div class='line'>Dark as the unlit chambers of clear space</div> - <div class='line'>Where light shines back from no reflecting face.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>Our sun’s wide glare, our heaven’s shining blue,</div> - <div class='line'>We owe to fog and dust they fumble through;</div> - <div class='line'>And our rich wisdom that we treasure so</div> - <div class='line'>Shines from the thousand things that we don’t know.</div> - <div class='line'>But to think new—it takes a courage grim</div> - <div class='line'>As led Columbus over the world’s rim.</div> - <div class='line'>To think it cost some courage. And to go—</div> - <div class='line'>Try it. It taxes every power you know.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>It takes great love to stir a human heart</div> - <div class='line'>To live beyond the others and apart.</div> - <div class='line'>A love that is not shallow, is not small,</div> - <div class='line'>Is not for one, or two, but for them all.</div> - <div class='line'>Love that can wound love, for its higher need;</div> - <div class='line'>Love that can leave love though the heart may bleed;</div> - <div class='line'>Love that can lose love; family, and friend;</div> - <div class='line'>Yet steadfastly live, loving, to the end.</div> - <div class='line'>A love that asks no answer, that can live</div> - <div class='line'>Moved by one burning, deathless force,—to give.</div> - <div class='line'>Love, strength, and courage. Courage, strength, and love,</div> - <div class='line'>The heroes of all time are built thereof.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>FIRE WITH FIRE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>There are creeping flames in the near-by grass;</div> - <div class='line'>There are leaping flames afar;</div> - <div class='line'>And the wind’s black breath</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>Is hot with death,—</div> - <div class='line'>The worst of the deaths that are!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And north is fire and south is fire,</div> - <div class='line'>And east and west the same;</div> - <div class='line'>The sunlight chokes,</div> - <div class='line'>The whole earth smokes,</div> - <div class='line'>The only light is flame!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But what do I care for the girdle of death</div> - <div class='line'>With its wavering wall and spire!</div> - <div class='line'>I draw the ring</div> - <div class='line'>Where I am king,</div> - <div class='line'>And fight the fire with fire!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>My blaze is not as wide as the world,</div> - <div class='line'>Nor tall for the world to see;</div> - <div class='line'>But the flames I make</div> - <div class='line'>For life’s sweet sake,</div> - <div class='line'>Are between the fire and me.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>That fire would burn in wantonness</div> - <div class='line'>All things that life must use;</div> - <div class='line'>Some things I lay</div> - <div class='line'>In the dragon’s way</div> - <div class='line'>And burn because I choose.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The sky is black, the air is red,</div> - <div class='line'>The earth is a flaming sea;</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>But I’m shielded well</div> - <div class='line'>In the seething hell,</div> - <div class='line'>By the fire that comes from me.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>There is nothing on earth a man need fear,</div> - <div class='line'>Nothing so dark or dire;</div> - <div class='line'>Though the world is wide,</div> - <div class='line'>You have more inside,</div> - <div class='line'>You can fight the fire with fire!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE SHIELD.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Fight! said the Leader. Stand and fight!</div> - <div class='line in8'>How dare you yield!</div> - <div class='line'>What is the pain of the bitter blows,</div> - <div class='line'>The ache and sting and the blood that flows,</div> - <div class='line in8'>To a losing field!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Yea, said they, you may stand and fight;</div> - <div class='line in8'>We needs must yield!</div> - <div class='line'>What is the danger and pain to you,</div> - <div class='line'>When every blow falls fair and true</div> - <div class='line in8'>On your magic shield?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The magical cuirass over your breast,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Leather and steel,</div> - <div class='line'>Guarded like that, of course you dare</div> - <div class='line'>To meet the storm of battle there—</div> - <div class='line in8'>But we can feel!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>The Leader fell where he fought alone.</div> - <div class='line in8'>See the lifeblood start</div> - <div class='line'>Where one more blow has pierced too far,</div> - <div class='line'>Through a bosom hardened with scar on scar,—</div> - <div class='line'>The only shield, the only bar,</div> - <div class='line in8'>For that great heart!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>TO THE PREACHER.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Preach about yesterday, Preacher!</div> - <div class='line in6'>The time so far away:</div> - <div class='line'>When the hand of Deity smote and slew,</div> - <div class='line'>And the heathen plagued the stiff-necked Jew;</div> - <div class='line'>Or when the Man of Sorrows came,</div> - <div class='line'>And blessed the people who cursed his name—</div> - <div class='line in2'>Preach about yesterday, Preacher!</div> - <div class='line in6'>Not about to-day!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Preach about to-morrow, Preacher!</div> - <div class='line in6'>Beyond this world’s decay:</div> - <div class='line'>Of the sheepfold Paradise we priced</div> - <div class='line'>When we pinned our faith to Jesus Christ;</div> - <div class='line'>Of those hot depths that shall receive</div> - <div class='line'>The goats who would not so believe—</div> - <div class='line in2'>Preach about to-morrow, Preacher,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Not about to-day!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Preach about the old sins, Preacher!</div> - <div class='line in6'>And the old virtues, too:</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>You must not steal nor take man’s life,</div> - <div class='line'>You must not covet your neighbor’s wife,</div> - <div class='line'>And woman must cling at every cost</div> - <div class='line'>To her one virtue, or she is lost—</div> - <div class='line in2'>Preach about the old sins, Preacher!</div> - <div class='line in4'>Not about the new!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Preach about the other man, Preacher!</div> - <div class='line in6'>The man we all can see!</div> - <div class='line'>The man of oaths, the man of strife,</div> - <div class='line'>The man who drinks and beats his wife,</div> - <div class='line'>Who helps his mates to fret and shirk</div> - <div class='line'>When all they need is to keep at work—</div> - <div class='line in2'>Preach about the other man, Preacher!</div> - <div class='line in6'>Not about me!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>A TYPE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I am too little, said the Wretch,</div> - <div class='line in4'>For any one to see.</div> - <div class='line'>Among the million men who do</div> - <div class='line'>This thing that I am doing too,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Why should they notice me?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>My sin is common as to breathe;</div> - <div class='line in4'>It rests on every back.</div> - <div class='line'>And surely I am not to blame</div> - <div class='line'>Where everybody does the same,—</div> - <div class='line in4'>Am not a bit more black!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>And so he took his willing share</div> - <div class='line in4'>In a universal crime,</div> - <div class='line'>Thinking that no reproach could fall</div> - <div class='line'>On one who shared the fault of all,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Who did it all the time.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then Genius came, and showed the world</div> - <div class='line in4'>What thing it was they did;</div> - <div class='line'>How their offence had reached the poles</div> - <div class='line'>With stench of slain unburied souls,</div> - <div class='line in4'>And all men cowered and hid.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then Genius took that one poor Wretch</div> - <div class='line in4'>For now the time was ripe;</div> - <div class='line'>Stripped him of every shield and blind,</div> - <div class='line'>And nailed him up for all mankind</div> - <div class='line in4'>To study—as a type!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>COMPROMISE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>It is well to fight and win—</div> - <div class='line in2'>If that may be;</div> - <div class='line'>It is well to fight and die therein—</div> - <div class='line in2'>For such go free;</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>It is ill to fight and find no grave</div> - <div class='line in2'>But a prison-cell;</div> - <div class='line'>To keep alive, yet live a slave—</div> - <div class='line in2'>Praise those who fell!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>But worst of all are those who stand</div> - <div class='line in2'>With arms laid by,</div> - <div class='line'>Bannerless, helpless, no command,</div> - <div class='line in2'>No battle-cry.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>They live to save unvalued breath,</div> - <div class='line in2'>With lowered eyes;</div> - <div class='line'>In place of victory, or death,—</div> - <div class='line in2'>A compromise!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>PART OF THE BATTLE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>There is a moment when with splendid joy,</div> - <div class='line'>With flashing blade and roar of thundering guns</div> - <div class='line'>And colors waving wide where triumph stands,</div> - <div class='line'>The last redoubt is carried; we have won!</div> - <div class='line'>This is the battle! We have conquered now!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But the long hours of marching in the sun,</div> - <div class='line'>The longer hours of waiting in the dark,</div> - <div class='line'>Deadly dishonored work of hidden spy,</div> - <div class='line'>The dull details of commissariat,</div> - <div class='line'>Food, clothing, medicine, the hospital,</div> - <div class='line'>The way the transportation mules are fed,—</div> - <div class='line'>These are the battle too, and victory’s price.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And we, in days when no attack is feared</div> - <div class='line'>And none is hoped,—no sudden courage called,—</div> - <div class='line'>Should strengthen our intrenchments quietly,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>Review the forces, exercise the troops,</div> - <div class='line'>Feeling the while, not “When will battle come?”</div> - <div class='line'>But, “This is battle! We are conquering now!”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>STEP FASTER, PLEASE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Of all most aggravating things,</div> - <div class='line in2'>If you are hot in haste,</div> - <div class='line'>Is to have a man in front of you</div> - <div class='line in2'>With half a day to waste.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>There is this one thing that justifies</div> - <div class='line in2'>The man in the foremost place:</div> - <div class='line'>The fact that he is the man in front,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The leader of the race.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But, for Heaven’s sake, if you are ahead,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Don’t dawdle at your ease!</div> - <div class='line'>You set the pace for the man behind;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Step faster, please!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>A NEW YEAR’S REMINDER.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Better have a tender conscience for the record of your house,</div> - <div class='line'>And your own share in the work which they have done,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Though your private conscience aches</div> - <div class='line in6'>With your personal mistakes,</div> - <div class='line'>And you don’t amount to very much alone,</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>Than to be yourself as spotless as a baby one year old,</div> - <div class='line'>Your domestic habits wholly free from blame,</div> - <div class='line in6'>While the company you stand with</div> - <div class='line in6'>Is a thing to curse a land with,</div> - <div class='line'>And your public life is undiluted shame.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>For the deeds men do together are what saves the world to-day—</div> - <div class='line'>By our common public work we stand or fall—</div> - <div class='line in6'>And your fraction of the sin</div> - <div class='line in6'>Of the office you are in</div> - <div class='line'>Is the sin that’s going to damn you, after all!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>OUT OF PLACE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Cell, poor little cell,</div> - <div class='line'>Distended with pain,</div> - <div class='line'>Torn with the pressure</div> - <div class='line'>Of currents of effort</div> - <div class='line'>Resisted in vain;</div> - <div class='line'>Feeling sweep by you</div> - <div class='line'>The stream of nutrition,</div> - <div class='line'>Unable to take;</div> - <div class='line'>Crushed flat and inactive,</div> - <div class='line'>While shudder across you</div> - <div class='line'>Great forces that wake;</div> - <div class='line'>Alone—while far voices</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>Across all the shouting</div> - <div class='line'>Call you to your own;</div> - <div class='line'>Held fast, fastened close,</div> - <div class='line'>Surrounded, enveloped,</div> - <div class='line'>How you starve there alone!</div> - <div class='line'>Cell, poor little cell,</div> - <div class='line'>Let the pain pass—don’t hold it!</div> - <div class='line'>Let the effort pass through you!</div> - <div class='line'>Let go! And give way!</div> - <div class='line'>You will find your own place;</div> - <div class='line'>You will join your own people;</div> - <div class='line'>See the light of your day!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>LITTLE CELL.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Little Cell! Little Cell! with a heart as big as heaven,</div> - <div class='line'>Remember that you are but a part!</div> - <div class='line'>This great longing in your soul</div> - <div class='line'>Is the longing of the whole,</div> - <div class='line'>And your work is not done with your heart!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Don’t imagine, Little Cell,</div> - <div class='line'>That the work you do so well</div> - <div class='line'>Is the only work the world needs to do!</div> - <div class='line'>You are wanted in your place</div> - <div class='line'>For the growing of the race,</div> - <div class='line'>But the growing does not all depend on you!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>Little Cell! Little Cell! with a race’s whole ambition,</div> - <div class='line'>Remember there are others growing, too!</div> - <div class='line'>You’ve been noble, you’ve been strong;</div> - <div class='line'>Rest a while and come along;</div> - <div class='line'>Let the world take a turn and carry you!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE CHILD SPEAKS.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Get back! Give me air! Give me freedom and room,</div> - <div class='line'>The warm earth and bright water, the crowding sweet bloom</div> - <div class='line'>Of the flowers, and the measureless, marvellous sky,—</div> - <div class='line'>All of these all the time, and a shelter close by</div> - <div class='line'>Where silence and beauty and peace are my own</div> - <div class='line in14'>In a chamber alone.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then bring me the others! “A child” is a crime;</div> - <div class='line'>It is “children” who grow through the beautiful time</div> - <div class='line'>Of their childhood up into the age you are in.</div> - <div class='line'>“A child” must needs suffer and sicken and sin;</div> - <div class='line'>The life of a child needs the life of its kind,</div> - <div class='line in14'>O ye stupid and blind!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>Then the best of your heart and the best of your brain!</div> - <div class='line'>The face of all beauty! The soul without stain!</div> - <div class='line'>Your noblest! Your wisest! With us is the place</div> - <div class='line'>To consecrate life to the good of the race!</div> - <div class='line'>That our childhood may pass with the best you can give,</div> - <div class='line in12'>And our manhood so live!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The wisdom of years, the experience deep</div> - <div class='line'>That shall laugh with our waking and watch with our sleep,</div> - <div class='line'>The patience of age, the keen honor of youth,</div> - <div class='line'>To guide us in doing and teach us in truth,</div> - <div class='line'>With the garnered ripe fruit of the world at our feet,</div> - <div class='line in12'>Both the bitter and sweet!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>What is this that you offer? One man’s narrow purse!</div> - <div class='line'>One woman’s strained life, and a heart straining worse!</div> - <div class='line'>Confined as in prisons—held down as in caves—</div> - <div class='line'>The teaching of tyrants—the service of slaves—</div> - <div class='line'>The garments of falsehood and bondage—the weight</div> - <div class='line in12'>Of your own evil state.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And what is this brought as atonement for these?</div> - <div class='line'>For our blind misdirection, our death and disease;</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>For the grief of our childhood, the loss and the wrong;</div> - <div class='line'>For the pain of our childhood, the agony strong;</div> - <div class='line'>For the shame and the sin and the sorrow thereof—</div> - <div class='line in12'>Dare you say it is love?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Love? First give freedom,—the right of the brute!</div> - <div class='line'>The air with its sunshine, the earth with its fruit.</div> - <div class='line'>Love? First give wisdom,—intelligent care,</div> - <div class='line'>That shall help to bring out all the good that is there.</div> - <div class='line'>Love? First give justice! There’s nothing above!</div> - <div class='line in12'>And then you may love!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>TO A GOOD MANY.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>O blind and selfish! Helpless as the beast</div> - <div class='line'>Who sees no meaning in a soul released</div> - <div class='line'>And given flesh to grow in—to work through!</div> - <div class='line'>Think you that God has nothing else to do</div> - <div class='line'>Than babble endlessly the same set phrase?</div> - <div class='line'>Are life’s great spreading, upward-reaching ways</div> - <div class='line'>Laid for the beasts to climb on till the top</div> - <div class='line'>Is reached in you, you think, and there you stop!</div> - <div class='line'>They were raised up, obedient to force</div> - <div class='line'>Which lifted them, unwitting of their course.</div> - <div class='line'>You have new power, new consciousness, new sight;</div> - <div class='line'>You can help God! You stand in the great light</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>Of seeing him at work. You can go on</div> - <div class='line'>And walk with him, and feel the glory won.</div> - <div class='line'>And here you sit, content to toil and strive</div> - <div class='line'>To keep your kind of animal alive!</div> - <div class='line'>Why, friends! God is not through!</div> - <div class='line'>The universe is not complete in you.</div> - <div class='line'>You’re just as bound to follow out his plan</div> - <div class='line'>And sink yourself in ever-growing Man</div> - <div class='line'>As ever were the earliest, crudest eggs</div> - <div class='line'>To grow to vertebrates with arms and legs.</div> - <div class='line'>Society holds not its present height</div> - <div class='line'>Merely that you may bring a child to light;</div> - <div class='line'>But you and yours live only in the plan</div> - <div class='line'>That’s working out a higher kind of man;</div> - <div class='line'>A higher kind of life, that shall let grow</div> - <div class='line'>New powers and nobler duties than you know.</div> - <div class='line'>Rise to the thought! Live in the widening race!</div> - <div class='line'>Help make the State more like God’s dwelling-place!</div> - <div class='line'>New paths for life divine, as yet untrod,—</div> - <div class='line'>A social body for the soul of God!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>HOW WOULD YOU?</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Half of our misery, half our pain,</div> - <div class='line'>Half the dark background of our self-reproach,</div> - <div class='line'>Is thought of how the world has sinned before.</div> - <div class='line'>We, being one, one with all life, we feel</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>The misdemeanors of uncounted time;</div> - <div class='line'>We suffer in the foolishness and sins</div> - <div class='line'>Of races just behind us,—burn with shame</div> - <div class='line'>At their gross ignorance and murderous deeds;</div> - <div class='line'>We suffer back of them in the long years</div> - <div class='line'>Of squalid struggling savagery of beasts,—</div> - <div class='line'>Beasts human and subhuman; back of them</div> - <div class='line'>In helpless creatures eaten, hunted, torn;</div> - <div class='line'>In submerged forests dying in the slime;</div> - <div class='line'>And even back of that in endless years</div> - <div class='line'>Of hot convulsions of dismembered lands,</div> - <div class='line'>And slow constricting centuries of cold.</div> - <div class='line'>So in our own lives, even to this day,</div> - <div class='line'>We carry in the chambers of the mind</div> - <div class='line'>The tale of errors, failures, and misdeeds</div> - <div class='line'>That we call sins, of all our early lives.</div> - <div class='line'>And the recurrent consciousness of this</div> - <div class='line'>We call remorse. The unrelenting gauge,</div> - <div class='line'>Now measuring past error,—this is shame.</div> - <div class='line'>And in our feverish overconsciousness,</div> - <div class='line'>A retroactive and preactive sense,—</div> - <div class='line'>Fired with our self-made theories of sin,—</div> - <div class='line'>We suffer, suffer, suffer—half alive,</div> - <div class='line'>And half with the dead scars of suffering.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Friends, how would you, perhaps, have made the world?</div> - <div class='line'>Would you have balanced the great forces so</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>Their interaction would have bred no shock?</div> - <div class='line'>No cosmic throes of newborn continents,</div> - <div class='line'>No eras of the earth-encircling rain,—</div> - <div class='line'>Uncounted scalding tears that fell and fell</div> - <div class='line'>On molten worlds that hotly dashed them back</div> - <div class='line'>In storms of fierce repudiated steam?</div> - <div class='line'>Would you have made earth’s gems without the fire,</div> - <div class='line'>Without the water, and without the weight</div> - <div class='line'>Of crushing cubic miles of huddled rock?</div> - <div class='line'>Would you have made one kind of plant to reign</div> - <div class='line'>In all the earth, growing mast high, and then</div> - <div class='line'>Keep it undying so, and end of plants?</div> - <div class='line'>Would you have made one kind of animal</div> - <div class='line'>To live on air and spare the tender grass,</div> - <div class='line'>And stop him, somehow, when he grew so thick</div> - <div class='line'>That even air fell short. Or would you have</div> - <div class='line'>All plants and animals, and make them change</div> - <div class='line'>By some metempsychosis not called death?</div> - <div class='line'>For, having them, you have to have them change,</div> - <div class='line'>For growth is change, and life is growth; and change</div> - <div class='line'>Implies—in this world—what we miscall pain.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>You, wiser, would have made mankind, no doubt,</div> - <div class='line'>Not slowly, awfully, from dying brutes</div> - <div class='line'>Up into living humanness at last,</div> - <div class='line'>But fresh as Adam in the Hebrew tale;</div> - <div class='line'>Only you would have left the serpent out,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>And left him, naked, in the garden still.</div> - <div class='line'>Or somehow, dodging this, have still contrived</div> - <div class='line'>That he should learn the whole curriculum</div> - <div class='line'>And never miss a lesson—never fail—</div> - <div class='line'>Be born, like Buddha, all accomplished, wise.</div> - <div class='line'>Would you have chosen to begin life old,</div> - <div class='line'>Well-balanced, cautious, knowing where to step,</div> - <div class='line'>And so untortured by the memory</div> - <div class='line'>Of childhood’s foolishness and youth’s mistakes?</div> - <div class='line'>Or, born a child, to have experience</div> - <div class='line'>Come to you softly without chance of loss,</div> - <div class='line'>Recurring years each rolling to your hand</div> - <div class='line'>In blissful innocent unconsciousness?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>O dreamers with a Heaven and a Hell</div> - <div class='line'>Standing at either end of your wild rush</div> - <div class='line'>Away from the large peace of knowing God,</div> - <div class='line'>Can you not see that all of it is good?</div> - <div class='line'>Good, with the postulate that this is life,—</div> - <div class='line'>And that is all we have to argue from.</div> - <div class='line'>Childhood means error, the mistakes that teach;</div> - <div class='line'>But only rod and threat and nurse’s tale,</div> - <div class='line'>Make childhood’s errors bring us shame and sin.</div> - <div class='line'>The race’s childhood grows by error too,</div> - <div class='line'>And we are not attained to manhood yet.</div> - <div class='line'>But grief and shame are only born of lies.</div> - <div class='line'>Once see the lovely law that needs mistakes,</div> - <div class='line'>And you are young forever. This is Life.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span> - <h3 class='c002'>A MAN MUST LIVE.</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A man must live. We justify</div> - <div class='line'>Low shift and trick to treason high,</div> - <div class='line in2'>A little vote for a little gold</div> - <div class='line in2'>To a whole senate bought and sold,</div> - <div class='line'>By that self-evident reply.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But is it so? Pray tell me why</div> - <div class='line'>Life at such cost you have to buy?</div> - <div class='line in2'>In what religion were you told</div> - <div class='line in6'>A man must live?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>There are times when a man must die.</div> - <div class='line'>Imagine, for a battle-cry,</div> - <div class='line in2'>From soldiers, with a sword to hold,—</div> - <div class='line in2'>From soldiers, with the flag unrolled,—</div> - <div class='line'>This coward’s whine, this liar’s lie,—</div> - <div class='line in6'>A man must live!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>IN DUTY BOUND.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>In duty bound, a life hemmed in</div> - <div class='line in2'>Whichever way the spirit turns to look;</div> - <div class='line'>No chance of breaking out, except by sin;</div> - <div class='line in6'>Not even room to shirk—</div> - <div class='line in6'>Simply to live, and work.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>An obligation pre-imposed, unsought,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Yet binding with the force of natural law;</div> - <div class='line'>The pressure of antagonistic thought;</div> - <div class='line in8'>Aching within, each hour,</div> - <div class='line in8'>A sense of wasting power.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A house with roof so darkly low</div> - <div class='line in2'>The heavy rafters shut the sunlight out;</div> - <div class='line'>One cannot stand erect without a blow;</div> - <div class='line in8'>Until the soul inside</div> - <div class='line in8'>Cries for a grave—more wide.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A consciousness that if this thing endure,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The common joys of life will dull the pain;</div> - <div class='line'>The high ideals of the grand and pure</div> - <div class='line in8'>Die, as of course they must,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Of long disuse and rust.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>That is the worst. It takes supernal strength</div> - <div class='line in2'>To hold the attitude that brings the pain;</div> - <div class='line'>And they are few indeed but stoop at length</div> - <div class='line in8'>To something less than best,</div> - <div class='line in8'>To find, in stooping, rest.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>DESIRE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Lo, I desire! Sum of the ages’ growth—</div> - <div class='line'>Fruit of evolving—king of life—</div> - <div class='line'>I, holding in myself the outgrown past</div> - <div class='line'>In all its ever-rising forms—desire.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>With the first grass-blade, I desire the sun;</div> - <div class='line'>With every bird that breathes, I love the air;</div> - <div class='line'>With fishes, joy in water; with my horse,</div> - <div class='line'>Exult in motion; with all living flesh,</div> - <div class='line'>Long for sweet food and warmth and mate and young;</div> - <div class='line'>With the whole rising tide of that which is,</div> - <div class='line'>Thirst for advancement,—crave and yearn for it!</div> - <div class='line'>Yea, I desire! Then the compelling will</div> - <div class='line'>Urges to action to attain desire.</div> - <div class='line'>What action? Which desire? Am I a plant,</div> - <div class='line'>Rooted and helpless, following the light</div> - <div class='line'>Without volition? Or am I a beast,</div> - <div class='line'>Led by desire into the hunter’s snare?</div> - <div class='line'>Am I a savage, swayed by every wish,</div> - <div class='line'>Brutal and feeble, a ferocious child?</div> - <div class='line'>Stand back, Desire, and put your plea in words.</div> - <div class='line'>No wordless wailing for the summer moon,</div> - <div class='line'>No Gilpin race on some strong appetite,</div> - <div class='line'>Stand here before the King, and make your plea.</div> - <div class='line'>If Reason sees it just, you have your wish;</div> - <div class='line'>If not, your wish is vain, plead as you will.</div> - <div class='line'>The court is open, beggar! I am King!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>WHY NOT?</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Why not look forward far as Plato looked</div> - <div class='line'>And see the beauty of our coming life,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>As he saw that which might be ours to-day?</div> - <div class='line'>If his soul, then, could rise so far beyond</div> - <div class='line'>The brutal average of that old time,</div> - <div class='line'>When icy peaks of art stood sheer and high</div> - <div class='line'>In fat black valleys where the helot toiled;</div> - <div class='line'>If he, from that, could see so far ahead,</div> - <div class='line'>Could forecast days when Love and Justice both</div> - <div class='line'>Should watch the cradle of a healthy child,</div> - <div class='line'>And Wisdom walk with Beauty and pure Joy</div> - <div class='line'>In all the common ways of daily life,—</div> - <div class='line'>Then may not we, from great heights hardly won,</div> - <div class='line'>Bright hills of liberty, broad plains of peace,</div> - <div class='line'>And flower-sweet valleys of warm human love,</div> - <div class='line'>Still broken by the chasms of despair</div> - <div class='line'>Where Poverty and Ignorance and Sin</div> - <div class='line'>Pollute the air of all,—why not, from this,</div> - <div class='line'>Look on as Plato looked, and see the day</div> - <div class='line'>When his Republic and our Heaven, joined,</div> - <div class='line'>Shall make life what God meant it?</div> - <div class='line in24'>Ay, we do!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>OUT OF THE GATE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Out of the glorious city gate</div> - <div class='line'>A great throng came.</div> - <div class='line'>A mighty throng that swelled and grew</div> - <div class='line'>Around a face that all men knew—</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>A man who bore a noted name—</div> - <div class='line'>Gathered to listen to his fate.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The Judge sat high. Unbroken black</div> - <div class='line'>Around, above, and at his back.</div> - <div class='line'>The people pressed for nearer place,</div> - <div class='line'>Longing, yet shamed, to watch that face;</div> - <div class='line'>And in a space before the throne</div> - <div class='line'>The prisoner stood, unbound, alone.</div> - <div class='line'>So thick they rose on every side,</div> - <div class='line'>There was no spot his face to hide.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then came the Herald, crying clear,</div> - <div class='line'>That all the listening crowd should hear;</div> - <div class='line'>Crying aloud before the sun</div> - <div class='line'>What thing this fallen man had done.</div> - <div class='line'>He—who had held a ruler’s place</div> - <div class='line'>Among them, by their choice and grace—</div> - <div class='line'>He—fallen lower than the dust—</div> - <div class='line'>Had sinned against his public trust!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The Herald ceased. The Poet arose,</div> - <div class='line'>The Poet, whose awful art now shows</div> - <div class='line'>To this poor heart, and heart of every one,</div> - <div class='line'>The horror of the thing that he had done.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“O Citizen! Dweller in this high place!</div> - <div class='line'>Son of the city! Sharer in its pride!</div> - <div class='line'>Born in the light of its fair face!</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>By it fed, sheltered, taught, and glorified!</div> - <div class='line'>Raised to pure manhood by thy city’s care;</div> - <div class='line'>Made strong and beautiful and happy there;</div> - <div class='line'>Loving thy mother and thy father more</div> - <div class='line'>For the fair town which made them glad before;</div> - <div class='line'>Finding among its maidens thy sweet wife;</div> - <div class='line'>Owing to it thy power and place in life;</div> - <div class='line'>Raised by its people to the lofty stand</div> - <div class='line'>Where thou couldst execute their high command;</div> - <div class='line'>Trusted and honored, lifted over all,—</div> - <div class='line'>So honored and so trusted, didst thou fall!</div> - <div class='line'>Against the people—who gave thee the power—</div> - <div class='line'>Thou hast misused it in an evil hour!</div> - <div class='line'>Against the city where thou owest all all—</div> - <div class='line'>Thy city, man, within whose guarding wall</div> - <div class='line'>Lie all our life’s young glories—ay, the whole!</div> - <div class='line'>The home and cradle of the human soul!</div> - <div class='line'>Against thy city, beautiful and strong,</div> - <div class='line'>Thou, with the power it gave, hast done this wrong!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then rose the Judge. “Prisoner, thy case was tried</div> - <div class='line'>Fairly and fully in the courts inside.</div> - <div class='line'>Thy guilt was proven, and thou hast confessed,</div> - <div class='line'>And now the people’s voice must do the rest.</div> - <div class='line'>I speak the sentence which the people give:</div> - <div class='line'>It is permitted thee to freely live,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>Redeem thy sin by service to the state,</div> - <div class='line'>But nevermore within this city’s gate!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Back rolled the long procession, sad and slow,</div> - <div class='line'>Back where the city’s thousand banners blow.</div> - <div class='line'>The solemn music rises glad and clear</div> - <div class='line'>When the great gates before them open near,</div> - <div class='line'>Rises in triumph, sinks to sweet repose,</div> - <div class='line'>When the great gates behind them swing and close.</div> - <div class='line'>Free stands the prisoner, with a heart of stone.</div> - <div class='line'>The city gate is shut. He is alone.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE MODERN SKELETON.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>As kings of old in riotous royal feasts,</div> - <div class='line'>Among the piled up roses and the wine,</div> - <div class='line'>Wild music and soft-footed dancing girls,</div> - <div class='line'>The pearls and gold and barbarous luxury,</div> - <div class='line'>Used to show also a white skeleton,—</div> - <div class='line'>To make life meeker in the sight of death,</div> - <div class='line'>To make joy sweeter by the thought thereof,—</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>So our new kings in their high banqueting,</div> - <div class='line'>With the electric lustre unforeseen,</div> - <div class='line'>And unimagined costliness of flowers;</div> - <div class='line'>Rich wines of price and food as rare as gems,</div> - <div class='line'>And all the wondrous waste of artifice;</div> - <div class='line'>Midst high-bred elegance and jewelled ease</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>And beauty of rich raiment; they should set,</div> - <div class='line'>High before all, a sickly pauper child,</div> - <div class='line'>To keep the rich in mind of poverty,—</div> - <div class='line'>The sure concomitant of their estate.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE LESSON OF DEATH.<br /> <span class='c008'>TO S. T. D.</span></h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>In memory of one whose breath</div> - <div class='line'>Blessed all with words wise, loving, brave;</div> - <div class='line'>Whose life was service, and whose death</div> - <div class='line'>Unites our hearts around her grave.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><hr class='poem' /></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Another blow has fallen, Lord—</div> - <div class='line in18'>Was it from thee?</div> - <div class='line'>Is it indeed thy fiery sword</div> - <div class='line'>That cuts our hearts? We know thy word;</div> - <div class='line'>We know by heart wherein it saith</div> - <div class='line'>“Whom the Lord loves he chasteneth”—</div> - <div class='line'>But also, in another breath,</div> - <div class='line'>This: “The wages of sin is death.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>How may we tell what pain is good,</div> - <div class='line in18'>In mercy sent?</div> - <div class='line'>And what is evil through and through,</div> - <div class='line'>Sure consequence of what we do,</div> - <div class='line'>Sure product of thy broken laws,</div> - <div class='line'>Certain effect of given cause,</div> - <div class='line in18'>Just punishment?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>Not sin of those who suffer, Lord—</div> - <div class='line in18'>To them no shame.</div> - <div class='line'>For father’s sins our children die</div> - <div class='line'>With Justice sitting idly by;</div> - <div class='line'>The guilty thrive nor yet repent,</div> - <div class='line'>While sorrow strikes the innocent—</div> - <div class='line in18'>Whom shall we blame?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>’Tis not that one alone is dead,</div> - <div class='line in18'>And these bereft.</div> - <div class='line'>For her, for them, we grieve indeed;</div> - <div class='line'>But there are other hearts that bleed!</div> - <div class='line'>All up and down the world so wide</div> - <div class='line'>We suffer, Lord, on every side,—</div> - <div class='line in18'>We who are left.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>See now, we bend our stricken hearts,</div> - <div class='line in18'>Patient and still,</div> - <div class='line'>Knowing thy laws are wholly just,</div> - <div class='line'>Knowing thy love commands our trust,</div> - <div class='line'>Knowing that good is God alone,</div> - <div class='line'>That pain and sorrow are our own,</div> - <div class='line'>And seeking out of all our pain</div> - <div class='line'>To struggle up to God again—</div> - <div class='line in18'>Teach us thy will!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>When shall we learn by common joy</div> - <div class='line in18'>Broad as the sun,</div> - <div class='line'>By common effort, common fear,</div> - <div class='line'>All common life that holds us near,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>And this great bitter common pain</div> - <div class='line'>Coming again and yet again—</div> - <div class='line in18'>That we are one?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Yea, one. We cannot sin apart,</div> - <div class='line in18'>Suffer alone;</div> - <div class='line'>Nor keep our goodness to ourselves</div> - <div class='line'>Like precious things on hidden shelves.</div> - <div class='line'>Because we each live not our best,</div> - <div class='line'>Some one must suffer for the rest—</div> - <div class='line in18'>For we are one!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Our pain is but the voice of wrong—</div> - <div class='line in18'>Lord, help us hear!</div> - <div class='line'>Teach us to see the truth at last,</div> - <div class='line'>To mend our future from our past,</div> - <div class='line'>To know thy laws and find them friends,</div> - <div class='line'>Leading us safe to lovely ends,</div> - <div class='line in18'>Thine own hand near.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Not one by doing right alone</div> - <div class='line in18'>Can mend the way;</div> - <div class='line'>But we must all do right together,—</div> - <div class='line'>Love, help, and serve each other, whether</div> - <div class='line'>We joy or suffer. So at last</div> - <div class='line'>Shall needless pain and death be past,</div> - <div class='line'>And we, thy children living here,</div> - <div class='line'>Be worthy of our father dear!</div> - <div class='line in18'>God speed the day!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><hr class='poem' /></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>Oh, help us, Father, from this loss</div> - <div class='line in18'>To learn thy will!</div> - <div class='line'>So shall our lost one live again;</div> - <div class='line'>So shall her life not pass in vain;</div> - <div class='line'>So shall we show in better living—</div> - <div class='line'>In loving, helping, doing, giving—</div> - <div class='line in18'>That she lives still!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>FOR US.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>If we have not learned that God’s in man,</div> - <div class='line in6'>And man in God again;</div> - <div class='line'>That to love thy God is to love thy brother,</div> - <div class='line'>And to serve the Lord is to serve each other,—</div> - <div class='line in6'>Then Christ was born in vain!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>If we have not learned that one man’s life</div> - <div class='line in6'>In all men lives again;</div> - <div class='line'>That each man’s battle, fought alone,</div> - <div class='line'>Is won or lost for every one,—</div> - <div class='line in6'>Then Christ hath lived in vain!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>If we have not learned that death’s no break</div> - <div class='line in6'>In life’s unceasing chain;</div> - <div class='line'>That the work in one life well begun</div> - <div class='line'>In others is finished, by others is done,—</div> - <div class='line in6'>Then Christ hath died in vain!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>If we have not learned of immortal life,</div> - <div class='line in6'>And a future free from pain;</div> - <div class='line'>The kingdom of God in the heart of man,</div> - <div class='line'>And the living world on Heaven’s plan,—</div> - <div class='line in6'>Then Christ arose in vain!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THANKSGIVING.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Well is it for the land whose people, yearly,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Turn to the Giver of all Good with praise,</div> - <div class='line'>Chanting glad hymns that thank him, loudly, clearly,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Rejoicing in the beauty of his ways.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Great name that means all perfectness and power!</div> - <div class='line in2'>We thank thee—not for mercy, nor release,</div> - <div class='line'>But for clear joy in sky and sea and flower,</div> - <div class='line in2'>In thy pure justice, and thy blessed peace.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>We live; behind us the dark past; before,</div> - <div class='line in2'>A wide way full of light that thou dost give;</div> - <div class='line'>More light, more strength, more joy and ever more—</div> - <div class='line in2'>O God of joy! we thank thee that we live!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>CHRISTMAS HYMN.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Listen not to the word that would have you believe</div> - <div class='line'>That the voice of the age is a moan;</div> - <div class='line in10'><span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>That the red hand of wrong</div> - <div class='line in10'>Is triumphant and strong,</div> - <div class='line'>And that wrong is triumphant alone;</div> - <div class='line'>There was never a time on the face of the earth</div> - <div class='line in10'>When love was so near its own.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Do you think that the love which has died for the world</div> - <div class='line'>Has not lived for the world also?</div> - <div class='line in10'>Filling man with the fire</div> - <div class='line in10'>Of a boundless desire</div> - <div class='line'>To love all with a love that shall grow?</div> - <div class='line'>It was not for nothing the White Christ was born</div> - <div class='line in10'>Two thousand years ago.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The power that gave birth to the Son of the King</div> - <div class='line'>All life doth move and thrill,</div> - <div class='line in10'>Every age as ’tis passed</div> - <div class='line in10'>Coming nearer at last</div> - <div class='line'>To the law of that wonderful will,—</div> - <div class='line'>As our God so loved the world that day,</div> - <div class='line in10'>Our God so loves it still.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The love that fed poverty, making it thrive,</div> - <div class='line'>Is learning a lovelier way.</div> - <div class='line in10'>We have seen that the poor</div> - <div class='line in10'>Need be with us no more,</div> - <div class='line'>And that sin may be driven away;</div> - <div class='line'>The love that has carried the martyrs to death</div> - <div class='line in10'>Is entering life to-day.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>The spirit of Christ is awake and alive,</div> - <div class='line'>In the work of the world it is shown,</div> - <div class='line in10'>Crying loud, crying clear,</div> - <div class='line in10'>That the Kingdom is here,</div> - <div class='line'>And that all men are heirs to the throne!</div> - <div class='line'>There was never a time since the making of man</div> - <div class='line in10'>When love was so near its own!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>CHRISTMAS.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Slow, slow and weak,</div> - <div class='line'>As first the tongue began to speak,</div> - <div class='line'>The hand to serve, the heart to feel,</div> - <div class='line'>Grew up among our mutual deeds,</div> - <div class='line'>Great flower out-topping all the weeds,</div> - <div class='line'>Sweet fruit that meets all human needs,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Our love—our common weal.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>It spread so wide, so high,</div> - <div class='line'>We saw it broad against the sky,</div> - <div class='line'>Down shining where we trod;</div> - <div class='line'>It stormed our new-born consciousness,</div> - <div class='line'>Omnipotent to heal and bless,</div> - <div class='line'>Till we conceived—we could no less,</div> - <div class='line in4'>It was the love of God!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Came there a man at length</div> - <div class='line'>Whose heart so swelled with the great strength</div> - <div class='line'>Of love that would have way,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>That in his body he fulfilled</div> - <div class='line'>The utmost service love had willed;</div> - <div class='line'>And the great stream, so held, so spilled,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Pours on until to-day.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Still we look back to this grand dream,</div> - <div class='line'>Still stoop to drink at this wide stream,</div> - <div class='line'>Wider each year we live;</div> - <div class='line'>And on one yearly blessed day,</div> - <div class='line'>Seek not to earn and not to pay,</div> - <div class='line'>But to let love have its one way,—</div> - <div class='line in4'>To quench our thirst <i>to give</i>!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Brothers, cease not to bless the name</div> - <div class='line'>Of him who loved through death and shame,</div> - <div class='line'>We cannot praise amiss;</div> - <div class='line'>But not in vain was sown the seed;</div> - <div class='line'>Look wide where thousands toil and bleed,</div> - <div class='line'>Where men meet death for common need—</div> - <div class='line in4'>Hath no man loved but this?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Yea, all men love; we love to-day</div> - <div class='line'>Wide as the human race has sway,</div> - <div class='line'>Ever more deep, more dear;</div> - <div class='line'>No stream,—an everlasting sea,</div> - <div class='line'>Beating and throbbing to be free,</div> - <div class='line'>To give it forth there needs must be</div> - <div class='line in4'>One Christmas all the year!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span> - <h3 class='c002'>THE LIVING GOD.</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The Living God. The God that made the world</div> - <div class='line'>Made it, and stood aside to watch and wait,</div> - <div class='line'>Arranging a predestined plan</div> - <div class='line'>To save the erring soul of man—</div> - <div class='line'>Undying destiny—unswerving fate.</div> - <div class='line'>I see his hand in the path of life,</div> - <div class='line'>His law to doom and save,</div> - <div class='line'>His love divine in the hopes that shine</div> - <div class='line'>Beyond the sinner’s grave,</div> - <div class='line'>His care that sendeth sun and rain,</div> - <div class='line'>His wisdom giving rest,</div> - <div class='line'>His price of sin that we may not win</div> - <div class='line'>The heaven of the blest.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'>Not near enough! Not clear enough!</div> - <div class='line in10'>O God, come nearer still!</div> - <div class='line in4'>I long for thee! Be strong for me!</div> - <div class='line in10'>Teach me to know thy will!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The Living God. The God that makes the world,</div> - <div class='line'>Makes it—is making it in all its worth;</div> - <div class='line'>His spirit speaking sure and slow</div> - <div class='line'>In the real universe we know,—</div> - <div class='line'>God living in the earth.</div> - <div class='line'>I feel his breath in the blowing wind,</div> - <div class='line'>His pulse in the swinging sea,</div> - <div class='line'>And the sunlit sod is the breast of God</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>Whose strength we feel and see.</div> - <div class='line'>His tenderness in the springing grass,</div> - <div class='line'>His beauty in the flowers,</div> - <div class='line'>His living love in the sun above,—</div> - <div class='line'>All here, and near, and ours!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'>Not near enough! Not clear enough!</div> - <div class='line in10'>O God, come nearer still!</div> - <div class='line in4'>I long for thee! Be strong for me!</div> - <div class='line in10'>Teach me to know thy will!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The Living God. The God that is the world.</div> - <div class='line'>The world? The world is man,—the work of man.</div> - <div class='line'>Then—dare I follow what I see?—</div> - <div class='line'>Then—by thy Glory—it must be</div> - <div class='line'>That we are in thy plan?</div> - <div class='line'>That strength divine in the work we do?</div> - <div class='line'>That love in our mothers’ eyes?</div> - <div class='line'>That wisdom clear in our thinking here?</div> - <div class='line'>That power to help us rise?</div> - <div class='line'>God in the daily work we’ve done,</div> - <div class='line'>In the daily path we’ve trod?</div> - <div class='line'>Stand still, my heart, for I am a part—</div> - <div class='line'>I too—of the Living God!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'>Ah, clear as light! As near! As bright!</div> - <div class='line in10'>O God! My God! My Own!</div> - <div class='line in4'>Command thou me! I stand for thee!</div> - <div class='line in10'>And I do not stand alone!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span> - <h3 class='c002'>A PRAYER.</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>O God! I cannot ask thee to forgive;</div> - <div class='line in8'>I have done wrong.</div> - <div class='line'>Thy law is just; thy law must live,—</div> - <div class='line'>Whoso doth wrong must suffer pain.</div> - <div class='line'>But help me to do right again,—</div> - <div class='line in8'>Again be strong.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>GIVE WAY!</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Shall we not open the human heart,</div> - <div class='line'>Swing the doors till the hinges start;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Stop our worrying doubt and din,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Hunting heaven and dodging sin?</div> - <div class='line'>There is no need to search so wide,</div> - <div class='line'>Open the door and stand aside—</div> - <div class='line in10'>Let God in!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Shall we not open the human heart</div> - <div class='line'>To loving labor in field and mart;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Working together for all about,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The glad, large labor that knows not doubt?</div> - <div class='line'>Can He be held in our narrow rim?</div> - <div class='line'>Do the work that is work for Him—</div> - <div class='line in10'>Let God out!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Shall we not open the human heart,</div> - <div class='line'>Never to close and stand apart?</div> - <div class='line in2'><span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>God is a force to give way to!</div> - <div class='line in2'>God is a thing you have to do!</div> - <div class='line'>God can never be caught by prayer,</div> - <div class='line'>Hid in your heart and fastened there—</div> - <div class='line in10'>Let God through!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THANKSGIVING HYMN.<br /> <span class='c008'>FOR CALIFORNIA.</span></h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Our forefathers gave thanks to God,</div> - <div class='line in2'>In the land by the stormy sea,</div> - <div class='line'>For bread hard wrung from the iron sod</div> - <div class='line in2'>In cold and misery.</div> - <div class='line'>Though every day meant toil and strife,</div> - <div class='line in2'>In the land by the stormy sea,</div> - <div class='line'>They thanked their God for the gift of life—</div> - <div class='line in2'>How much the more should we!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Stern frost had they full many a day,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Strong ice on the stormy sea,</div> - <div class='line'>Long months of snow, gray clouds hung low,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And a cold wind endlessly;</div> - <div class='line'>Winter, and war with an alien race—</div> - <div class='line in2'>But they were alive and free!</div> - <div class='line'>And they thanked their God for his good grace—</div> - <div class='line in2'>How much the more should we!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>For we have a land all sunny with gold,—</div> - <div class='line in2'>A land by the summer sea;</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>Gold in the earth for our hands to hold,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Gold in blossom and tree;</div> - <div class='line'>Comfort, and plenty, and beauty, and peace,</div> - <div class='line in2'>From the mountains down to the sea.</div> - <div class='line'>They thanked their God for a year’s increase—</div> - <div class='line in2'>How much the more should we!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>CHRISTMAS CAROL.<br /> <span class='c008'>FOR LOS ANGELES.</span></h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>On the beautiful birthday of Jesus,</div> - <div class='line in2'>While the nations praising stand,</div> - <div class='line'>He goeth from city to city,</div> - <div class='line in2'>He walketh from land to land.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And the snow lies white and heavy,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And the ice lies wide and wan,</div> - <div class='line'>But the love of the blessed Christmas</div> - <div class='line in2'>Melts even the heart of man.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>With love from the heart of Heaven,</div> - <div class='line in2'>In the power of his Holy Name,</div> - <div class='line'>To the City of the Queen of the Angels</div> - <div class='line in2'>The tender Christ-child came.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The land blushed red with roses,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The land laughed glad with grain,</div> - <div class='line'>And the little hills smiled softly</div> - <div class='line in2'>In the freshness after rain.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>Land of the fig and olive!</div> - <div class='line in2'>Land of the fruitful vine!</div> - <div class='line'>His heart grew soft within him,</div> - <div class='line in2'>As he thought of Palestine,—</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Of the brooks with the banks of lilies,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Of the little doves of clay,</div> - <div class='line'>And of how he sat with his mother</div> - <div class='line in2'>At the end of a summer’s day,</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>His head on his mother’s bosom,</div> - <div class='line in2'>His hand in his mother’s hand,</div> - <div class='line'>Watching the golden sun go down</div> - <div class='line in2'>Across the shadowy land,—</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A moment’s life with human kind;</div> - <div class='line in2'>A moment,—nothing more;</div> - <div class='line'>Eternity lies broad behind,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Eternity before.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>High on the Hills of Heaven,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Majestic, undefiled,</div> - <div class='line'>Forever and ever he lives, a God;</div> - <div class='line in2'>But once he lived, a Child!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And the child-heart leaps within him,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And the child-eyes softer grow,</div> - <div class='line'>When the land lies bright and sunny,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Like the land of long ago;</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>And the love of God is mingled</div> - <div class='line in2'>With the love of dear days gone,</div> - <div class='line'>When he comes to the city of his mother,</div> - <div class='line in2'>On the day her child was born!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>NEW DUTY.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Once to God we owed it all,—</div> - <div class='line in8'>God alone;</div> - <div class='line'>Bowing in eternal thrall,</div> - <div class='line'>Giving, sacrificing all,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Before the Throne.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Once we owed it to the King,—</div> - <div class='line in8'>Served the crown;</div> - <div class='line'>Life, and love, and everything,</div> - <div class='line'>In allegiance to the King,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Laying down.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Now we owe it to Mankind,—</div> - <div class='line in8'>To our Race;</div> - <div class='line'>Fullest fruit of soul and mind,</div> - <div class='line'>Heart and hand and all behind,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Now in place.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Loving-service, wide and free,</div> - <div class='line in8'>From the sod</div> - <div class='line'>Up in varying degree,</div> - <div class='line'>Through me and you—through you and me—</div> - <div class='line in8'>Up to God!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span> - <h3 class='c002'>SEEKING.</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I went to look for Love among the roses, the roses,</div> - <div class='line'>The pretty wingèd boy with the arrow and the bow;</div> - <div class='line in6'>In the fair and fragrant places,</div> - <div class='line in6'>’Mid the Muses and the Graces,</div> - <div class='line'>At the feet of Aphrodite, with the roses all aglow.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then I sought among the shrines where the rosy flames were leaping—</div> - <div class='line'>The rose and golden flames, never ceasing, never still—</div> - <div class='line in6'>For the boy so fair and slender,</div> - <div class='line in6'>The imperious, the tender,</div> - <div class='line'>With the whole world moving slowly to the music of his will.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Sought, and found not for my seeking, till the sweet quest led me further,</div> - <div class='line'>And before me rose the temple, marble-based and gold above,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Where the long procession marches</div> - <div class='line in6'>’Neath the incense-clouded arches</div> - <div class='line'>In the world-compelling worship of the mighty God of Love.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Yea, I passed with bated breath to the holiest of holies,</div> - <div class='line'>And I lifted the great curtain from the Inmost,—the Most Fair,—</div> - <div class='line in6'><span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>Eager for the joy of finding,</div> - <div class='line in6'>For the glory, beating, blinding,</div> - <div class='line'>Meeting but an empty darkness; darkness, silence—nothing there.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Where is Love? I cried in anguish, while the temple reeled and faded;</div> - <div class='line'>Where is Love?—for I must find him, I must know and understand!</div> - <div class='line in6'>Died the music and the laughter,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Flames and roses dying after,</div> - <div class='line'>And the curtain I was holding fell to ashes in my hand.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>FINDING.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Out of great darkness and wide wastes of silence,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Long loneliness, and slow untasted years,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Came a slow filling of the empty places,</div> - <div class='line in2'>A slow, sweet lighting of forgotten faces,</div> - <div class='line in10'>A smiling under tears.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A light of dawn that filled the brooding heaven,</div> - <div class='line in4'>A warmth that kindled all the earth and air,</div> - <div class='line in2'>A thrilling tender music, floating, stealing,</div> - <div class='line in2'>A fragrance of unnumbered flowers revealing</div> - <div class='line in10'>A sweetness new and fair.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>After the loss of love where I had sought him,</div> - <div class='line in4'>After the anguish of the empty shrine,</div> - <div class='line in2'><span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>Came a warm joy from all the hearts around me,</div> - <div class='line in2'>A feeling that some perfect strength had found me,</div> - <div class='line in10'>Touch of the hand divine.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I followed Love to his intensest centre,</div> - <div class='line in4'>And lost him utterly when fastened there;</div> - <div class='line in2'>I let him go and ceased my selfish seeking,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Turning my heart to all earth’s voices speaking,</div> - <div class='line in10'>And found him everywhere.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Love like the rain that falls on just and unjust,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Love like the sunshine, measureless and free,</div> - <div class='line in2'>From each to all, from all to each, to live in;</div> - <div class='line in2'>And, in the world’s glad love so gladly given,</div> - <div class='line in10'>Came heart’s true love to me!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>TOO MUCH.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>There are who die without love, never seeing</div> - <div class='line'>The clear eyes shining, the bright wings fleeing.</div> - <div class='line'>Lonely they die, and ahungered, in bitterness knowing</div> - <div class='line'>They have not had their share of the good there was going.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>There are who have and lose love, these most blessed,</div> - <div class='line'>In joy unstained which they have once possessed,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>Lost while still dear, still sweet, still met by glad affection,—</div> - <div class='line'>An endless happiness in recollection.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And some have Love’s full cup as he doth give it—</div> - <div class='line'>Have it, and drink of it, and, ah,—outlive it!</div> - <div class='line'>Full fed by Love’s delights, o’erwearied, sated,</div> - <div class='line'>They die, not hungry—only suffocated.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE CUP.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And yet, saith he, ye need but sip;</div> - <div class='line in2'>And who would die without a taste?</div> - <div class='line'>Just touch the goblet to the lip,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Then let the bright draught run to waste!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>She set her lip to the beaker’s brim—</div> - <div class='line in2'>’Twas passing sweet! ’Twas passing mild!</div> - <div class='line'>She let her large eyes dwell on him,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And sipped again, and smiled.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>So sweet! So mild! She scarce can tell</div> - <div class='line in2'>If she doth really drink or no;</div> - <div class='line'>Till the light doth fade and the shadows swell,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And the goblet lieth low.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>O cup of dreams! O cup of doubt!</div> - <div class='line in2'>O cup of blinding joy and pain!</div> - <div class='line'>The taste that none would die without!</div> - <div class='line in2'>The draught that all the world must drain!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span> - <h3 class='c002'>WHAT THEN?</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Suppose you write your heart out till the world</div> - <div class='line in6'>Sobs with one voice—what then?</div> - <div class='line'>Small agonies that round your heart-strings curled</div> - <div class='line in6'>Strung out for choice, that men</div> - <div class='line'>May pick a phrase, each for his own pet pain,</div> - <div class='line in6'>And thank the voice so come,</div> - <div class='line in6'>They being dumb. What then?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>You have no sympathy? O endless claim!</div> - <div class='line in6'>No one that cares? What then?</div> - <div class='line'>Suppose you had—the whole world knew your name</div> - <div class='line in6'>And your affairs, and men</div> - <div class='line'>Ached with your headache, dreamed your dreadful dreams,</div> - <div class='line in6'>And, with your heart-break due,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Their hearts broke too. What then?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>You think that people do not understand?</div> - <div class='line in6'>You suffer? Die? What then?</div> - <div class='line'>Unhappy child, look here, on either hand,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Look low or high,—all men</div> - <div class='line'>Suffer and die, and keep it to themselves!</div> - <div class='line in6'>They die—they suffer sore—</div> - <div class='line in6'>You suffer more? What then?</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span> - <h3 class='c002'>OUR LONELINESS.</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>There is no deeper grief than loneliness.</div> - <div class='line'>Our sharpest anguish at the death of friends</div> - <div class='line'>Is loneliness. Our agony of heart</div> - <div class='line'>When love has gone from us is loneliness.</div> - <div class='line'>The crying of a little child at night</div> - <div class='line'>In the big dark is crowding loneliness.</div> - <div class='line'>Slow death of woman on a Kansas farm;</div> - <div class='line'>The ache of those who think beyond their time;</div> - <div class='line'>Pain unassuaged of isolated lives,—</div> - <div class='line'>All this is loneliness.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Oh, we who are one body of one soul!</div> - <div class='line'>Great soul of man born into social form!</div> - <div class='line'>Should we not suffer at dismemberment?</div> - <div class='line'>A finger torn from brotherhood; an eye</div> - <div class='line'>Having no cause to see when set alone.</div> - <div class='line'>Our separation is the agony</div> - <div class='line'>Of uses unfulfilled—of thwarted law;</div> - <div class='line'>The forces of all nature throb and push,</div> - <div class='line'>Crying for their accustomed avenues;</div> - <div class='line'>And we, alone, have no excuse to be,—</div> - <div class='line'>No reason for our being. We are dead</div> - <div class='line'>Before we die, and know it in our hearts.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Even the narrowest union has some joy,</div> - <div class='line'>Transient and shallow, limited and weak;</div> - <div class='line'>And joy of union strengthens with its strength,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>Deepens and widens as the union grows.</div> - <div class='line'>Hence the pure light of long-enduring love,</div> - <div class='line'>Lives blended slowly, softly, into one.</div> - <div class='line'>Hence civic pride, and glory in our states,</div> - <div class='line'>And the fierce thrill of patriotic fire</div> - <div class='line'>When millions feel as one!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in30'>When we shall learn</div> - <div class='line'>To live together fully; when each man</div> - <div class='line'>And woman works in conscious interchange</div> - <div class='line'>With all the world,—union as wide as man,—</div> - <div class='line'>No human soul can ever suffer more</div> - <div class='line'>The devastating grief of loneliness.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE KEEPER OF THE LIGHT.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A lighthouse keeper with a loving heart</div> - <div class='line in2'>Toiled at his service in the lonely tower,</div> - <div class='line'>Keeping his giant lenses clear and bright,</div> - <div class='line'>And feeding with pure oil the precious light</div> - <div class='line in2'>Whose power to save was as his own heart’s power.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>He loved his kind, and being set alone</div> - <div class='line in2'>To help them by the means of this great light,</div> - <div class='line'>He poured his whole heart’s service into it,</div> - <div class='line'>And sent his love down the long beams that lit</div> - <div class='line in2'>The waste of broken water in the night.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>He loved his kind, and joyed to see the ships</div> - <div class='line in2'>Come out of nowhere into his bright field,</div> - <div class='line'>And glide by safely with their living men,</div> - <div class='line'>Past him and out into the dark again,</div> - <div class='line in2'>To other hands their freight of joy to yield.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>His work was noble and his work was done;</div> - <div class='line in2'>He kept the ships in safety and was glad;</div> - <div class='line'>And yet, late coming with the light’s supplies,</div> - <div class='line'>They found the love no longer in his eyes—</div> - <div class='line in2'>The keeper of the light had fallen mad.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>IMMORTALITY.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>When I was grass, perhaps I may have wept</div> - <div class='line'>As every year the grass-blades paled and slept;</div> - <div class='line'>Or shrieked in anguish impotent, beneath</div> - <div class='line'>The smooth impartial cropping of great teeth—</div> - <div class='line'>I don’t remember much what came to pass</div> - <div class='line in10'>When I was grass.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>When I was monkey, I’m afraid the trees</div> - <div class='line'>Weren’t always havens of contented ease;</div> - <div class='line'>Things killed us, and we never could tell why;</div> - <div class='line'>No doubt we blamed the earth or sea or sky—</div> - <div class='line'>I have forgotten my rebellion’s shape</div> - <div class='line in10'>When I was ape.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>Now I have reached the comfortable skin</div> - <div class='line'>This stage of living is enveloped in,</div> - <div class='line'>And hold the spirit of my mighty race</div> - <div class='line'>Self-conscious prisoner under one white face,—</div> - <div class='line'>I’m awfully afraid I’m going to die,</div> - <div class='line in10'>Now I am I.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>So I have planned a hypothetic life</div> - <div class='line'>To pay me somehow for my toil and strife.</div> - <div class='line'>Blessed or damned, I someway must contrive</div> - <div class='line'>That I eternally be kept alive!</div> - <div class='line'>In this an endless, boundless bliss I see,—</div> - <div class='line in10'>Eternal me!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><hr class='poem' /></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>When I was man, no doubt I used to care</div> - <div class='line'>About the little things that happened there,</div> - <div class='line'>And fret to see the years keep going by,</div> - <div class='line'>And nations, families, and persons die.</div> - <div class='line'>I didn’t much appreciate life’s plan</div> - <div class='line in10'>When I was man.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>WASTE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Doth any man consider what we waste</div> - <div class='line'>Here in God’s garden? While the sea is full,</div> - <div class='line'>The sunlight smiles, and all the blessed earth</div> - <div class='line'>Offers her wealth to our intelligence.</div> - <div class='line'>We waste our food, enough for half the world,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>In helpless luxury among the rich,</div> - <div class='line'>In helpless ignorance among the poor,</div> - <div class='line'>In spilling what we stop to quarrel for.</div> - <div class='line'>We waste our wealth in failing to produce,</div> - <div class='line'>In robbing of each other every day</div> - <div class='line'>In place of making things,—our human crown.</div> - <div class='line'>We waste our strength, in endless effort poured</div> - <div class='line'>Like water on the sand, still toiling on</div> - <div class='line'>To make a million things we do not want.</div> - <div class='line'>We waste our lives, those which should still lead on</div> - <div class='line'>Each new one gaining on the age behind,</div> - <div class='line'>In doing what we all have done before.</div> - <div class='line'>We waste our love,—poured up into the sky,</div> - <div class='line'>Across the ocean, into desert lands,</div> - <div class='line'>Sunk in one narrow circle next ourselves,—</div> - <div class='line'>While these, our brothers, suffer—are alone.</div> - <div class='line'>Ye may not pass the near to love the far;</div> - <div class='line'>Ye may not love the near and stop at that.</div> - <div class='line'>Love spreads through man, not over or around!</div> - <div class='line'>Yea, grievously we waste; and all the time</div> - <div class='line'>Humanity is wanting,—wanting sore.</div> - <div class='line'>Waste not, my brothers, and ye shall not want!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>WINGS.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A sense of wings—</div> - <div class='line in2'>Soft downy wings and fair—</div> - <div class='line'>Great wings that whistle as they sweep</div> - <div class='line in6'><span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>Along the still gulfs—empty, deep—</div> - <div class='line in8'>Of thin blue air.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in8'>Doves’ wings that follow,</div> - <div class='line in10'>Doves’ wings that fold,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Doves’ wings that flutter down</div> - <div class='line in10'>To nestle in your hold.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in8'>Doves’ wings that settle,</div> - <div class='line in10'>Doves’ wings that rest,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Doves’ wings that brood so warm</div> - <div class='line in10'>Above the little nest.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in8'>Larks’ wings that rise and rise,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Climbing the rosy skies—</div> - <div class='line in12'>Fold and drop down</div> - <div class='line in12'>To birdlings brown.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Light wings of wood-birds, that one scarce believes</div> - <div class='line in12'>Moved in the leaves.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in10'>The quick, shy flight</div> - <div class='line in10'>Of wings that flee in fright—</div> - <div class='line in10'>A start as swift as light—</div> - <div class='line in10'>Only the shaken air</div> - <div class='line in10'>To tell that wings were there.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Broad wings that beat for many days</div> - <div class='line in2'>Above the land wastes and the water ways;</div> - <div class='line in6'>Beating steadily on and on,</div> - <div class='line in10'><span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>Through dark and cold,</div> - <div class='line in10'>Through storms untold,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Till the far sun and summer land is won.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And wings—</div> - <div class='line in10'>Wings that unfold</div> - <div class='line'>With such wide sweep before your would-be hold—</div> - <div class='line'>Such glittering sweep of whiteness—sun on snow—</div> - <div class='line'>Such mighty plumes—strong-ribbed, strong-webbed—strong-knit to go</div> - <div class='line in10'>From earth to heaven!</div> - <div class='line in10'>Hear the air flow back</div> - <div class='line in10'>In their wide track!</div> - <div class='line in8'>Feel the sweet wind these wings displace</div> - <div class='line in10'>Beat on your face!</div> - <div class='line'>See the great arc of light like rising rockets trail</div> - <div class='line in10'>They leave in leaving—</div> - <div class='line in10'>They avail—</div> - <div class='line in10'>These wings—for flight!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE HEART OF THE WATER.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>O the ache in the heart of the water that lies</div> - <div class='line'>Underground in the desert, unopened, unknown,</div> - <div class='line'>While the seeds lie unbroken, the blossoms unblown,</div> - <div class='line'>And the traveller wanders—the traveller dies!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>O the joy in the heart of the water that flows</div> - <div class='line'>From the well in the desert,—a desert no more,—</div> - <div class='line'>Bird-music and blossoms and harvest in store,</div> - <div class='line'>And the white shrine that showeth the traveller knows!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE SHIP.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'>The sunlight is mine! And the sea!</div> - <div class='line in6'>And the four wild winds that blow!</div> - <div class='line in4'>The winds of heaven that whistle free—</div> - <div class='line in4'>They are but slaves to carry me</div> - <div class='line in8'>Wherever I choose to go!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'>Fire for a power inside!</div> - <div class='line in6'>Air for a pathway free!</div> - <div class='line in4'>I traverse the earth in conquest wide;</div> - <div class='line in4'>The sea is my servant! The sea is my bride!</div> - <div class='line in8'>And the elements wait on me!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><hr class='poem' /></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>In dull green light, down-filtered sick and slow</div> - <div class='line'>Through miles of heavy water overhead,</div> - <div class='line'>With miles of heavy water yet below,</div> - <div class='line in12'>A ship lies, dead.</div> - <div class='line'>Shapeless and broken, swayed from side to side,</div> - <div class='line'>The helpless driftwood of an unknown tide.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>AMONG THE GODS.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>How close the air of valleys, and how close</div> - <div class='line'>The teeming little life that harbors there!</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>For me, I will climb mountains. Up and up,</div> - <div class='line'>Higher and higher, till I pant for breath</div> - <div class='line'>In that thin clearness. Still? There is no sound</div> - <div class='line'>Nor memory of sound upon these heights.</div> - <div class='line'>Ah! the great sunlight! The caressing sky,</div> - <div class='line'>The beauty, and the stillness, and the peace!</div> - <div class='line'>I see my pathway clear for miles below;</div> - <div class='line'>See where I fell, and set a friendly sign</div> - <div class='line'>To warn some other of the danger there.</div> - <div class='line'>The green small world is wide below me spread.</div> - <div class='line'>The great small world! Some things look large and fair</div> - <div class='line'>Which, in their midst, I could not even see;</div> - <div class='line'>And some look small which used to terrify.</div> - <div class='line'>Blessed these heights of freedom, wisdom, rest!</div> - <div class='line'>I will go higher yet.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in22'>A sea of cloud</div> - <div class='line'>Rolls soundless waves between me and the world.</div> - <div class='line'>This is the zone of everlasting snows,</div> - <div class='line'>And the sweet silence of the hills below</div> - <div class='line'>Is song and laughter to the silence here.</div> - <div class='line'>Great fields, huge peaks, long awful slopes of snow.</div> - <div class='line'>Alone, triumphant, man above the world,</div> - <div class='line'>I stand among these white eternities.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in22'>Sheer at my feet</div> - <div class='line'>Sink the unsounded, cloud-encumbered gulfs;</div> - <div class='line'>And shifting mists now veil and now reveal</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span>The unknown fastnesses above me yet.</div> - <div class='line'>I am alone—above all life—sole king</div> - <div class='line'>Of these white wastes. How pitiful and small</div> - <div class='line'>Becomes the outgrown world! I reign supreme,</div> - <div class='line'>And in this utter stillness and wide peace</div> - <div class='line'>Look calmly down upon the universe.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Surely that crest has changed! That pile of cloud</div> - <div class='line'>That covers half the sky, waves like a robe!</div> - <div class='line in24'>That large and gentle wind</div> - <div class='line'>Is like the passing of a presence here!</div> - <div class='line'>See how yon massive mist-enshrouded peak</div> - <div class='line'>Is like the shape of an unmeasured foot,—</div> - <div class='line'>The figure with the stars!</div> - <div class='line'>Ah! what is this? It moves, lifts, bends, is gone!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>With what a shocking sense of littleness—</div> - <div class='line'>A reeling universe that changes place,</div> - <div class='line'>And falls to new relation over me—</div> - <div class='line'>I feel the unseen presence of the gods!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>SONGS.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in20'>I.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'>O world of green, all shining, shifting!</div> - <div class='line in4'>O world of blue, all living, lifting!</div> - <div class='line'>O world where glassy waters smoothly roll!</div> - <div class='line in8'><span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>Fair earth, and heaven free,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Ye are but part of me—</div> - <div class='line in12'>Ye are my soul!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'>O woman nature, shining, shifting!</div> - <div class='line in4'>O woman creature, living, lifting!</div> - <div class='line'>Come soft and still to one who waits thee here!</div> - <div class='line in8'>Fair soul, both mine and free,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Ye who are part of me,</div> - <div class='line in12'>Appear! Appear!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in19 c003'>II.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'>How could I choose but weep?</div> - <div class='line in4'>The poor bird lay asleep;</div> - <div class='line in4'>For lack of food, for lack of breath,</div> - <div class='line in4'>For lack of life he came to death—</div> - <div class='line in4'>How could I choose but weep?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'>How could I choose but smile?</div> - <div class='line in4'>There was no lack the while!</div> - <div class='line in4'>In bliss he did undo himself;</div> - <div class='line in4'>Where life was full he slew himself—</div> - <div class='line in4'>How could I choose but smile?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'>Would ye but understand!</div> - <div class='line in4'>Joy is on every hand!</div> - <div class='line in4'>Ye shut your eyes and call it night,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Ye grope and fall in seas of light—</div> - <div class='line in4'>Would ye but understand!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span> - <h3 class='c002'>HEAVEN.</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Thou bright mirage, that o’er man’s arduous way</div> - <div class='line in2'>Hast hung in the hot sky, with fountains streaming,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Cool marble domes, and palm-fronds waving, gleaming,—</div> - <div class='line'>Vision of rest and peace to end the day!</div> - <div class='line'>Now he is weariest, alone, astray,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Spent with long labor, led by thy sweet seeming,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Faint as the breath of Nature’s lightest dreaming,</div> - <div class='line'>Thou waverest and vanishest away!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Can Nature dream? Is God’s great sky deceiving?</div> - <div class='line in2'>Where joy like that the clouds above us show</div> - <div class='line in2'>Be sure the counterpart must lie below,</div> - <div class='line'>Sweeter than hope, more blessed than believing!</div> - <div class='line in2'>We lose the fair reflection of our home</div> - <div class='line in2'>Because so near its gates our feet have come!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>BALLAD OF THE SUMMER SUN.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>It is said that human nature needeth hardship to be strong,</div> - <div class='line'>That highest growth has come to man in countries white with snow;</div> - <div class='line'>And they tell of truth and wisdom that to northern folk belong,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>And claim the brain is feeble where the south winds always blow.</div> - <div class='line'>They forget to read the story of the ages long ago:</div> - <div class='line'>The lore that built the pyramids where still the simoom veers,</div> - <div class='line'>The knowledge framing Tyrian ships, the greater skill that steers,</div> - <div class='line'>The learning of the Hindu in his volumes never done,</div> - <div class='line'>All the wisdom of Egyptians and the old Chaldean seers,—</div> - <div class='line'>Came to man in summer lands beneath a summer sun.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>It is said that human nature needeth hardship to be strong,</div> - <div class='line'>That courage bred of meeting cold makes martial bosoms glow;</div> - <div class='line'>And they point to mighty generals the northern folk among,</div> - <div class='line'>And call mankind emasculate where southern waters flow.</div> - <div class='line'>They forget to look at history and see the nations grow!</div> - <div class='line'>The cohorts of Assyrian kings, the Pharaohs’ charioteers,</div> - <div class='line'>The march of Alexander, the Persians’ conquering spears,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>The legions of the Romans, from Ethiop to Hun,</div> - <div class='line'>The power that mastered all the world and held it years on years,—</div> - <div class='line'>Came to man in summer lands beneath a summer sun.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>It is said that human nature needeth hardship to be strong,</div> - <div class='line'>That only pain and suffering the power to feel bestow;</div> - <div class='line'>And they show us noble artists made great by loss and wrong,</div> - <div class='line'>And say the soul is lowered that hath pleasure without woe.</div> - <div class='line'>They forget the perfect monuments that pleasure’s blessings show;</div> - <div class='line'>The statue and the temple that no man living nears,</div> - <div class='line'>Song and verse and music forever in the ears,</div> - <div class='line'>The glory that remaineth while the sands of time shall run,</div> - <div class='line'>The beauty of immortal art that never disappears,—</div> - <div class='line'>Came to man in summer lands beneath a summer sun.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The faith of Thor and Odin, the creed of force and fears,</div> - <div class='line'>Cruel gods that deal in death, the icebound soul reveres,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>But the Lord of Peace and Blessing was not one!</div> - <div class='line'>Truth and Power and Beauty—Love that endeth tears—</div> - <div class='line'>Came to man in summer lands beneath a summer sun.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>PIONEERS.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Long have we sung our noble pioneers,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Vanguard of progress, heralds of the time,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Guardians of industry and art sublime,</div> - <div class='line'>Leaders of man down all the brightening years!</div> - <div class='line'>To them the danger, to their wives the tears,</div> - <div class='line in2'>While we sit safely in the city’s grime,</div> - <div class='line in2'>In old-world trammels of distress and crime,</div> - <div class='line'>Playing with words and thoughts, with doubts and fears.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Children of axe and gun! Ye take to-day</div> - <div class='line in2'>The baby steps of man’s first, feeblest age,</div> - <div class='line in2'>While we, thought-seekers of the printed page,</div> - <div class='line'>We lead the world down its untrodden way!</div> - <div class='line in2'>Ours the drear wastes and leagues of empty waves,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The lonely deaths, the undiscovered graves.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>EXILES.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Exiled from home. The far sea rolls</div> - <div class='line'>Between them and the country of their birth;</div> - <div class='line'>The childhood-turning impulse of their souls</div> - <div class='line in6'>Pulls half across the earth.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>Exiled from home. No mother to take care</div> - <div class='line'>That they work not too hard, grieve not too sore;</div> - <div class='line'>No older brother nor small sister fair;</div> - <div class='line in6'>No father any more.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Exiled from home; from all familiar things;</div> - <div class='line'>The low-browed roof, the grass-surrounded door;</div> - <div class='line'>Accustomed labors that gave daylight wings;</div> - <div class='line in6'>Loved steps on the worn floor.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Exiled from home. Young girls sent forth alone</div> - <div class='line'>When most their hearts need close companioning;</div> - <div class='line'>No love and hardly friendship may they own,</div> - <div class='line in6'>No voice of welcoming.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Blinded with homesick tears the exile stands;</div> - <div class='line'>To toil for alien household gods she comes;</div> - <div class='line'>A servant and a stranger in our lands,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Homeless within our homes.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>A NEVADA DESERT.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>An aching, blinding, barren, endless plain,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Corpse-colored with white mould of alkali,</div> - <div class='line'>Hairy with sage-brush, slimy after rain,</div> - <div class='line'>Burnt with the sky’s hot scorn, and still again</div> - <div class='line in4'>Sullenly burning back against the sky.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Dull green, dull brown, dull purple, and dull gray,</div> - <div class='line in4'>The hard earth white with ages of despair,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>Slow-crawling, turbid streams where dead reeds sway,</div> - <div class='line'>Low wall of sombre mountains far away,</div> - <div class='line in4'>And sickly steam of geysers on the air.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>TREE FEELINGS.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I wonder if they like it—being trees?</div> - <div class='line'>I suppose they do....</div> - <div class='line'>It must feel good to have the ground so flat,</div> - <div class='line'>And feel yourself stand right straight up like that—</div> - <div class='line'>So stiff in the middle—and then branch at ease,</div> - <div class='line'>Big boughs that arch, small ones that bend and blow,</div> - <div class='line'>And all those fringy leaves that flutter so.</div> - <div class='line'>You’d think they’d break off at the lower end</div> - <div class='line'>When the wind fills them, and their great heads bend.</div> - <div class='line'>But then you think of all the roots they drop,</div> - <div class='line'>As much at bottom as there is on top,—</div> - <div class='line'>A double tree, widespread in earth and air</div> - <div class='line'>Like a reflection in the water there.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I guess they like to stand still in the sun</div> - <div class='line'>And just breathe out and in, and feel the cool sap run;</div> - <div class='line'>And like to feel the rain run through their hair</div> - <div class='line'>And slide down to the roots and settle there.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>But I think they like wind best. From the light touch</div> - <div class='line'>That lets the leaves whisper and kiss so much,</div> - <div class='line'>To the great swinging, tossing, flying wide,</div> - <div class='line'>And all the time so stiff and strong inside!</div> - <div class='line'>And the big winds, that pull, and make them feel</div> - <div class='line'>How long their roots are, and the earth how leal!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And O the blossoms! And the wild seeds lost!</div> - <div class='line'>And jewelled martyrdom of fiery frost!</div> - <div class='line'>And fruit trees. I’d forgotten. No cold gem,</div> - <div class='line'>But to be apples—and bow down with them!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>MONOTONY.<br /> <span class='c008'>FROM CALIFORNIA.</span></h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>When ragged lines of passing days go by,</div> - <div class='line'>Crowding and hurried, broken-linked and slow,</div> - <div class='line'>Some sobbing pitifully as they pass,</div> - <div class='line'>Some angry-hot and fierce, some angry cold,</div> - <div class='line'>Some raging and some wailing, and again</div> - <div class='line'>The fretful days one cannot read aright,—</div> - <div class='line'>Then truly, when the fair days smile on us,</div> - <div class='line'>We feel that loveliness with sharper touch</div> - <div class='line'>And grieve to lose it for the next day’s chance.</div> - <div class='line'>And so men question—they who never know</div> - <div class='line'>If beauty comes or horror, pain or joy—</div> - <div class='line'>If we, whose sky is peace, whose hours are glad,</div> - <div class='line'>Find not our happiness monotonous!</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>But when the long procession of the days</div> - <div class='line'>Rolls musically down the waiting year,</div> - <div class='line'>Close-ranked, rich-robed, flower-garlanded and fair;</div> - <div class='line'>Broad brows of peace, deep eyes of soundless truth,</div> - <div class='line'>And lips of love,—warm, steady, changeless love;</div> - <div class='line'>Each one more beautiful, till we forget</div> - <div class='line'>Our niggard fear of losing half an hour,</div> - <div class='line'>And learn to count on more and ever more,—</div> - <div class='line'>In the remembered joy of yesterday,</div> - <div class='line'>In the full rapture of to-day’s delight,</div> - <div class='line'>And knowledge of the happiness to come,</div> - <div class='line'>We learn to let life pass without regret,</div> - <div class='line'>We learn to hold life softly and in peace,</div> - <div class='line'>We learn to meet life gladly, full of faith,</div> - <div class='line'>We learn what God is, and to trust in Him!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE BEDS OF FLEUR-DE-LYS.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>High-lying, sea-blown stretches of green turf,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Wind-bitten close, salt-colored by the sea,</div> - <div class='line'>Low curve on curve spread far to the cool sky,</div> - <div class='line'>And, curving over them as long they lie,</div> - <div class='line in12'>Beds of wild fleur-de-lys.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Wide-flowing, self-sown, stealing near and far,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Breaking the green like islands in the sea;</div> - <div class='line'>Great stretches at your feet, and spots that bend</div> - <div class='line'>Dwindling over the horizon’s end,—</div> - <div class='line in12'>Wild beds of fleur-de-lys.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>The light keen wind streams on across the lifts,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Thin wind of western springtime by the sea;</div> - <div class='line'>The close turf smiles unmoved, but over her</div> - <div class='line'>Is the far-flying rustle and sweet stir</div> - <div class='line in12'>In beds of fleur-de-lys.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And here and there across the smooth, low grass</div> - <div class='line in2'>Tall maidens wander, thinking of the sea;</div> - <div class='line'>And bend, and bend, with light robes blown aside,</div> - <div class='line'>For the blue lily-flowers that bloom so wide,—</div> - <div class='line in12'>The beds of fleur-de-lys.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'><span class='sc'>The Presidio, San Francisco.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>IT IS GOOD TO BE ALIVE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>It is good to be alive when the trees shine green,</div> - <div class='line'>And the steep red hills stand up against the sky;</div> - <div class='line'>Big sky, blue sky, with flying clouds between—</div> - <div class='line'>It is good to be alive and see the clouds drive by!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>It is good to be alive when the strong winds blow,</div> - <div class='line'>The strong, sweet winds blowing straightly off the sea;</div> - <div class='line'>Great sea, green sea, with swinging ebb and flow—</div> - <div class='line'>It is good to be alive and see the waves roll free!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span> - <h3 class='c002'>THE CHANGELESS YEAR.<br /> <span class='c008'>SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.</span></h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Doth Autumn remind thee of sadness?</div> - <div class='line'>And Winter of wasting and pain?</div> - <div class='line'>Midsummer, of joy that was madness?</div> - <div class='line in4'>Spring, of hope that was vain?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Do the Seasons fly fast at thy laughter?</div> - <div class='line'>Do the Seasons lag slow if thou weep,</div> - <div class='line'>Till thou long’st for the land lying after</div> - <div class='line in4'>The River of Sleep?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Come here, where the West lieth golden</div> - <div class='line'>In the light of an infinite sun,</div> - <div class='line'>Where Summer doth Winter embolden</div> - <div class='line in4'>Till they reign here as one!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Here the Seasons tread soft and steal slowly;</div> - <div class='line'>A moment of question and doubt—</div> - <div class='line'>Is it Winter? Come faster!—come wholly!—</div> - <div class='line in4'>And Spring rusheth out!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>We forget there are tempests and changes;</div> - <div class='line'>We forget there are days that are drear;</div> - <div class='line'>In a dream of delight, the soul ranges</div> - <div class='line in4'>Through the measureless year.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Still the land is with blossoms enfolden,</div> - <div class='line'>Still the sky burneth blue in its deeps;</div> - <div class='line'>Time noddeth, ’mid poppies all golden,</div> - <div class='line in4'>And memory sleeps.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span> - <h3 class='c002'>WHERE MEMORY SLEEPS.<br /> <span class='c008'>RONDEAU.</span></h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Where memory sleeps the soul doth rise,</div> - <div class='line'>Free of that past where sorrow lies,</div> - <div class='line in4'>And storeth against future ills</div> - <div class='line in4'>The courage of the constant hills,</div> - <div class='line'>The comfort of the quiet skies.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Fair is this land to tired eyes,</div> - <div class='line'>Where summer sunlight never dies,</div> - <div class='line in4'>And summer’s peace the spirit fills,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Where memory sleeps.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Safe from the season’s changing cries</div> - <div class='line'>And chill of yearly sacrifice,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Great roses crowd the window-sills,—</div> - <div class='line in4'>Calm roses that no winter kills.</div> - <div class='line'>The peaceful heart all pain denies,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Where memory sleeps.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>CALIFORNIA CAR WINDOWS.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Lark songs ringing to Heaven,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Earth light clear as the sky;</div> - <div class='line'>Air like the breath of a greenhouse</div> - <div class='line in2'>With the greenhouse roof on high.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Flowers to see till you’re weary,</div> - <div class='line in2'>To travel in hours and hours;</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>Ranches of gold and purple,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Counties covered with flowers!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A rainbow, a running rainbow,</div> - <div class='line in2'>That flies at our side for hours;</div> - <div class='line'>A ribbon, a broidered ribbon,</div> - <div class='line in2'>A rainbow ribbon of flowers.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>LIMITS.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>On sand—loose sand and shifting—</div> - <div class='line'>On sand—dry sand and drifting—</div> - <div class='line in4'>The city grows to the west;</div> - <div class='line'>Not till its border reaches</div> - <div class='line'>The ocean-beaten beaches</div> - <div class='line in6'>Will it rest.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>On hills—steep hills and lonely,</div> - <div class='line'>That stop at cloudland only—</div> - <div class='line in4'>The city climbs to the sky;</div> - <div class='line'>Not till the souls who make it</div> - <div class='line'>Touch the clear light and take it,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Will it die.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>POWELL STREET.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>You start</div> - <div class='line'>From the town’s hot heart</div> - <div class='line'>To ride up Powell Street.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>Hotel and theatre and crowding shops,</div> - <div class='line'>And Market’s cabled stream that never stops,</div> - <div class='line'>And the mixed hurrying beat</div> - <div class='line'>Of countless feet—</div> - <div class='line'>Take a front seat.</div> - <div class='line'>Before you rise</div> - <div class='line'>Six terraced hills, up to the low-hung skies;</div> - <div class='line'>Low where across the hill they seem to lie,</div> - <div class='line'>And then—how high!</div> - <div class='line'>Up you go slowly. To the right</div> - <div class='line'>A wide square, green and bright.</div> - <div class='line'>Above that green a broad façade,</div> - <div class='line'>Strongly and beautifully made,</div> - <div class='line'>In warm clear color standeth fair and true</div> - <div class='line'>Against the blue.</div> - <div class='line'>Only, above, two purple domes rise bold,</div> - <div class='line'>Twin-budded spires, bright-tipped with balls of gold.</div> - <div class='line'>Past that, and up you glide,</div> - <div class='line'>Up, up, till, either side,</div> - <div class='line'>Wide earth and water stretch around—away—</div> - <div class='line'>The straits, the hills, and the low-lying, wide-spread, dusky bay.</div> - <div class='line'>Great houses here,</div> - <div class='line'>Dull, opulent, severe.</div> - <div class='line'>Dives’ gold birds on guarding lamps a-wing—</div> - <div class='line'>Dead gold, that may not sing!</div> - <div class='line'>Fair on the other side</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>Smooth, steep-laid sweeps of turf and green boughs waving wide.</div> - <div class='line'>This is the hilltop’s crown.</div> - <div class='line'>Below you, down</div> - <div class='line'>In blurred, dim streets, the market quarter lies,</div> - <div class='line'>Foul, narrow, torn with cries</div> - <div class='line'>Of tortured things in cages, and the smell</div> - <div class='line'>Of daily bloodshed rising; that is hell.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But up here on the crown of Powell Street</div> - <div class='line'>The air is sweet;</div> - <div class='line'>And the green swaying mass of eucalyptus bends</div> - <div class='line'>Like hands of friends,</div> - <div class='line'>To gladden you despite the mansions’ frown.</div> - <div class='line'>Then you go down.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Down, down, and round the turns to lower grades;</div> - <div class='line'>Lower in all ways; darkening with the shades</div> - <div class='line'>Of poverty, old youth, and unearned age,</div> - <div class='line'>And that quick squalor which so blots the page</div> - <div class='line'>Of San Francisco’s beauty,—swift decay</div> - <div class='line'>Chasing the shallow grandeur of a day.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Here, like a noble lady of lost state,</div> - <div class='line'>Still calmly smiling at encroaching fate,</div> - <div class='line'>Amidst the squalor, rises Russian Hill,—</div> - <div class='line'>Proud, isolated, lonely, lovely still.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>So on you glide.</div> - <div class='line'>Till the blue straits lie wide</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>Before you; purple mountains loom across,</div> - <div class='line'>And islands green as moss;</div> - <div class='line'>With soft white fog-wreaths drifting, drifting through</div> - <div class='line'>To comfort you;</div> - <div class='line'>And light, low-singing waves that tell you reach</div> - <div class='line'>The end,—North Beach.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>FROM RUSSIAN HILL.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A strange day—bright and still;</div> - <div class='line'>Strange for the stillness here,</div> - <div class='line'>For the strong trade-winds blow</div> - <div class='line'>With such a steady sweep it seems like rest,</div> - <div class='line'>Forever steadily across the crest</div> - <div class='line in4'>Of Russian Hill.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Still now and clear,—</div> - <div class='line'>So clear you count the houses spreading wide</div> - <div class='line'>In the fair cities on the farther side</div> - <div class='line'>Of our broad bay;</div> - <div class='line'>And brown Goat Island lieth large between,</div> - <div class='line'>Its brownness brightening into sudden green</div> - <div class='line in4'>From rains of yesterday.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Blue? Blue above of Californian sky,</div> - <div class='line'>Which has no peer on earth for its pure flame;</div> - <div class='line'>Bright blue of bay and strait spread wide below,</div> - <div class='line'>And, past the low, dull hills that hem it so,—</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>Blue as the sky, blue as the placid bay,—</div> - <div class='line in4'>Blue mountains far away.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Thanks this year for the early rains that came</div> - <div class='line'>To bless us, meaning Summer by and by.</div> - <div class='line'>This is our Spring-in-Autumn, making one</div> - <div class='line'>The Indian Summer tenderness of sun—</div> - <div class='line'>Its hazy stillness, and soft far-heard sound—</div> - <div class='line'>And the sweet riot of abundant spring,</div> - <div class='line'>The greenness flaming out from everything,</div> - <div class='line in4'>The sense of coming gladness in the ground.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>From this high peace and purity look down;</div> - <div class='line'>Between you and the blueness lies the town.</div> - <div class='line'>Under those huddled roofs the heart of man</div> - <div class='line'>Beats warmer than this brooding day,</div> - <div class='line'>Spreads wider than the hill-rimmed bay,</div> - <div class='line'>And throbs to tenderer life, were it but seen,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Than all this new-born, all-enfolding green!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Within that heart lives still</div> - <div class='line'>All that one guesses, dreams, and sees—</div> - <div class='line'>Sitting in sunlight, warm, at ease—</div> - <div class='line'>From this high island,—Russian Hill.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>“AN UNUSUAL RAIN.”</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Again!</div> - <div class='line'>Another day of rain!</div> - <div class='line'>It has rained for years.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span>It never clears.</div> - <div class='line'>The clouds come down so low</div> - <div class='line'>They drag and drip</div> - <div class='line'>Across each hill-top’s tip.</div> - <div class='line'>In progress slow</div> - <div class='line'>They blow in from the sea</div> - <div class='line'>Eternally;</div> - <div class='line'>Hang heavily and black,</div> - <div class='line'>And then roll back;</div> - <div class='line'>And rain and rain and rain,</div> - <div class='line'>Both drifting in and drifting out again.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>They come down to the ground,</div> - <div class='line'>These clouds, where the ground is high;</div> - <div class='line'>And, lest the weather fiend forget</div> - <div class='line'>And leave one hidden spot unwet,</div> - <div class='line'>The fog comes up to the sky!</div> - <div class='line'>And all our pavement of planks and logs</div> - <div class='line'>Reeks with the rain and steeps in the fogs</div> - <div class='line'>Till the water rises and sinks and presses</div> - <div class='line'>Into your bonnets and shoes and dresses;</div> - <div class='line'>And every outdoor-going dunce</div> - <div class='line'>Is wet in forty ways at once.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Wet?</div> - <div class='line'>It’s wetter than being drowned.</div> - <div class='line'>Dark?</div> - <div class='line'>Such darkness never was found</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>Since first the light was made. And cold?</div> - <div class='line'>O come to the land of grapes and gold,</div> - <div class='line'>Of fruit and flowers and sunshine gay,</div> - <div class='line'>When the rainy season’s under way!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And they tell you calmly, evermore,</div> - <div class='line'>They never had such rain before!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>What’s that you say? Come out?</div> - <div class='line'>Why, see that sky!</div> - <div class='line'>Oh, what a world! so clear! so high!</div> - <div class='line'>So clean and lovely all about;</div> - <div class='line'>The sunlight burning through and through,</div> - <div class='line'>And everything just blazing blue.</div> - <div class='line'>And look! the whole world blossoms again</div> - <div class='line'>The minute the sunshine follows the rain.</div> - <div class='line'>Warm sky—earth basking under—</div> - <div class='line'>Did it ever rain, I wonder?</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE HILLS.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The flowing waves of our warm sea</div> - <div class='line in4'>Roll to the beach and die,</div> - <div class='line'>But the soul of the waves forever fills</div> - <div class='line'>The curving crests of our restless hills</div> - <div class='line in4'>That climb so wantonly.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Up and up till you look to see</div> - <div class='line in4'>Along the cloud-kissed top</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>The great hill-breakers curve and comb</div> - <div class='line'>In crumbling lines of falling foam</div> - <div class='line in4'>Before they settle and drop.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Down and down, with the shuddering sweep</div> - <div class='line in4'>Of the sea-wave’s glassy wall,</div> - <div class='line'>You sink with a plunge that takes your breath,</div> - <div class='line'>A thrill that stirreth and quickeneth,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Like the great line steamer’s fall.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>We have laid our streets by the square and line,</div> - <div class='line in4'>We have built by the line and square;</div> - <div class='line'>But the strong hill-rises arch below</div> - <div class='line'>And force the houses to curve and flow</div> - <div class='line in4'>In lines of beauty there.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And off to the north and east and south,</div> - <div class='line in4'>With wildering mists between,</div> - <div class='line'>They ring us round with wavering hold,</div> - <div class='line'>With fold on fold of rose and gold,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Violet, azure, and green.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>CITY’S BEAUTY.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Fair, oh, fair are the hills uncrowned,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Only wreathed and garlanded</div> - <div class='line in2'>With the soft clouds overhead,</div> - <div class='line'>With the waving streams of rain;</div> - <div class='line'>Fair in golden sunlight drowned,</div> - <div class='line in2'><span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>Bathed and buried in the bright</div> - <div class='line in2'>Warm luxuriance of light,—</div> - <div class='line'>Fair the hills without a stain.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Fairer far the hills should stand</div> - <div class='line in2'>Crownèd with a city’s halls,</div> - <div class='line in2'>With the glimmer of white walls,</div> - <div class='line'>With the climbing grace of towers;</div> - <div class='line'>Fair with great fronts tall and grand,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Stately streets that meet the sky,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Lovely roof-lines, low and high,—</div> - <div class='line'>Fairer for the days and hours.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Woman’s beauty fades and flies,</div> - <div class='line in2'>In the passing of the years,</div> - <div class='line in2'>With the falling of the tears,</div> - <div class='line'>With the lines of toil and stress;</div> - <div class='line'>City’s beauty never dies,—</div> - <div class='line in2'>Never while her people know</div> - <div class='line in2'>How to love and honor so</div> - <div class='line'>Her immortal loveliness.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>TWO SKIES.<br /> <span class='c008'>FROM ENGLAND.</span></h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>They have a sky in Albion,</div> - <div class='line in2'>At least they tell me so;</div> - <div class='line'>But she will wear a veil so thick,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>And she does have the sulks so quick,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And weeps so long and slow,</div> - <div class='line in2'>That one can hardly know.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Yes, there’s a sky in Albion.</div> - <div class='line in2'>She’s shown herself of late.</div> - <div class='line'>And where it was not white or gray,</div> - <div class='line'>It was quite bluish—in a way;</div> - <div class='line in2'>But near and full of weight,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Like an overhanging plate!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Our sky in California!</div> - <div class='line in2'>Such light the angels knew,</div> - <div class='line'>When the strong, tender smile of God</div> - <div class='line'>Kindled the spaces where they trod,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And made all life come true!</div> - <div class='line in2'>Deep, soundless, burning blue!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>WINDS AND LEAVES.<br /> <span class='c008'>FROM ENGLAND.</span></h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Wet winds that flap the sodden leaves!</div> - <div class='line'>Wet leaves that drop and fall!</div> - <div class='line'>Unhappy, leafless trees the wind bereaves!</div> - <div class='line in8'>Poor trees and small!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>All of a color, solemn in your green;</div> - <div class='line'>All of a color, sombre in your brown;</div> - <div class='line'>All of a color, dripping gray between</div> - <div class='line in8'>When leaves are down!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>O for the bronze-green eucalyptus spires</div> - <div class='line'>Far-flashing up against the endless blue!</div> - <div class='line'>Shifting and glancing in the steady fires</div> - <div class='line in10'>Of sun and moonlight too.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Dark orange groves! Pomegranate hedges bright,</div> - <div class='line'>And varnished fringes of the pepper trees!</div> - <div class='line'>And O that wind of sunshine! Wind of light!</div> - <div class='line in10'>Wind of Pacific seas!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>ON THE PAWTUXET.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Broad and blue is the river, all bright in the sun;</div> - <div class='line'>The little waves sparkle, the little waves run;</div> - <div class='line'>The birds carol high, and the winds whisper low;</div> - <div class='line'>The boats beckon temptingly, row upon row;</div> - <div class='line'>Her hand is in mine as I help her step in.</div> - <div class='line'>Please Heaven, this day I shall lose or shall win—</div> - <div class='line in10'>Broad and blue is the river.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Cool and gray is the river, the sun sinks apace,</div> - <div class='line'>And the rose-colored twilight glows soft in her face.</div> - <div class='line'>In the midst of the rose-color Venus doth shine,</div> - <div class='line'>And the blossoming wild grapes are sweeter than wine;</div> - <div class='line'>Tall trees rise above us, four bridges are past,</div> - <div class='line'>And my stroke’s running slow as the current runs fast—</div> - <div class='line in10'>Cool and gray is the river.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>Smooth and black is the river, no sound as we float</div> - <div class='line'>Save the soft-lapping water in under the boat.</div> - <div class='line'>The white mists are rising, the moon’s rising too,</div> - <div class='line'>And Venus, triumphant, rides high in the blue.</div> - <div class='line'>I hold the shawl round her, her hand is in mine,</div> - <div class='line'>And we drift under grape-blossoms sweeter than wine—</div> - <div class='line in10'>Smooth and black is the river.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>A MOONRISE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The heavy mountains, lying huge and dim,</div> - <div class='line'>With uncouth outline breaking heaven’s brim;</div> - <div class='line'>And while I watched and waited, o’er them soon,</div> - <div class='line'>Cloudy, enormous, spectral, rose the moon.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THEIR GRASS!<br /> <span class='c008'>A PROTEST FROM CALIFORNIA.</span></h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>They say we have no grass!</div> - <div class='line'>To hear them talk</div> - <div class='line'>You’d think that grass could walk</div> - <div class='line'>And was their bosom friend,—no day to pass</div> - <div class='line'>Between them and their grass.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“No grass!” they say who live</div> - <div class='line'>Where hot bricks give</div> - <div class='line'>The hot stones all their heat and back again,—</div> - <div class='line'>A baking hell for men.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>“O, but,” they haste to say, “we have our parks,</div> - <div class='line'>Where fat policemen check the children’s larks;</div> - <div class='line'>And sign to sign repeats as in a glass,</div> - <div class='line'>‘Keep off the grass!’</div> - <div class='line'>We have our cities’ parks and grass, you see!”</div> - <div class='line'>Well—so have we!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But ’tis the country that they sing of most. “Alas,”</div> - <div class='line'>They sing, “for our wide acres of soft grass!—</div> - <div class='line'>To please us living and to hide us dead—”</div> - <div class='line'>You’d think Walt Whitman’s first was all they read!</div> - <div class='line'>You’d think they all went out upon the quiet</div> - <div class='line'>Nebuchadnezzar to outdo in diet!</div> - <div class='line'>You’d think they found no other green thing fair,</div> - <div class='line'>Even its seed an honor in their hair!</div> - <div class='line'>You’d think they had this bliss the whole year round,—</div> - <div class='line'>Evergreen grass!—and we, ploughed ground!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But come now, how does earth’s pet plumage grow</div> - <div class='line'>Under your snow?</div> - <div class='line'>Is your beloved grass as softly nice</div> - <div class='line'>When packed in ice?</div> - <div class='line'>For six long months you live beneath a blight,—</div> - <div class='line'>No grass in sight.</div> - <div class='line'>You bear up bravely. And not only that,</div> - <div class='line'>But leave your grass and travel; and thereat</div> - <div class='line'>We marvel deeply, with slow western mind,</div> - <div class='line'>Wondering within us what these people find</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>Among our common oranges and palms</div> - <div class='line'>To tear them from the well-remembered charms</div> - <div class='line'>Of their dear vegetable. But still they come,</div> - <div class='line'>Frost-bitten invalids! to our bright home,</div> - <div class='line'>And chide our grasslessness! Until we say,</div> - <div class='line'>“But if you hate it so, why come? Why stay?</div> - <div class='line'>Just go away!</div> - <div class='line'>Go to—your grass!”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE PROPHETS.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Time was we stoned the Prophets. Age on age,</div> - <div class='line'>When men were strong to save, the world hath slain them.</div> - <div class='line'>People are wiser now; they waste no rage—</div> - <div class='line in6'>The Prophets entertain them!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>SIMILAR CASES.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>There was once a little animal,</div> - <div class='line in2'>No bigger than a fox,</div> - <div class='line'>And on five toes he scampered</div> - <div class='line in2'>Over Tertiary rocks.</div> - <div class='line'>They called him Eohippus,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And they called him very small,</div> - <div class='line'>And they thought him of no value—</div> - <div class='line in2'>When they thought of him at all;</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>For the lumpish old Dinoceras</div> - <div class='line in2'>And Coryphodon so slow</div> - <div class='line'>Were the heavy aristocracy</div> - <div class='line in2'>In days of long ago.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Said the little Eohippus,</div> - <div class='line in2'>“I am going to be a horse!</div> - <div class='line'>And on my middle finger-nails</div> - <div class='line in2'>To run my earthly course!</div> - <div class='line'>I’m going to have a flowing tail!</div> - <div class='line in2'>I’m going to have a mane!</div> - <div class='line'>I’m going to stand fourteen hands high</div> - <div class='line in2'>On the psychozoic plain!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The Coryphodon was horrified,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The Dinoceras was shocked;</div> - <div class='line'>And they chased young Eohippus,</div> - <div class='line in2'>But he skipped away and mocked.</div> - <div class='line'>Then they laughed enormous laughter,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And they groaned enormous groans,</div> - <div class='line'>And they bade young Eohippus</div> - <div class='line in2'>Go view his father’s bones.</div> - <div class='line'>Said they, “You always were as small</div> - <div class='line in2'>And mean as now we see,</div> - <div class='line'>And that’s conclusive evidence</div> - <div class='line in2'>That you’re always going to be.</div> - <div class='line'>What! Be a great, tall, handsome beast,</div> - <div class='line in2'>With hoofs to gallop on?</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span><i>Why! You’d have to change your nature!</i>”</div> - <div class='line in2'>Said the Loxolophodon.</div> - <div class='line'>They considered him disposed of,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And retired with gait serene;</div> - <div class='line'>That was the way they argued</div> - <div class='line in2'>In “the early Eocene.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>There was once an Anthropoidal Ape,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Far smarter than the rest,</div> - <div class='line'>And everything that they could do</div> - <div class='line in2'>He always did the best;</div> - <div class='line'>So they naturally disliked him,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And they gave him shoulders cool,</div> - <div class='line'>And when they had to mention him</div> - <div class='line in2'>They said he was a fool.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Cried this pretentious Ape one day,</div> - <div class='line in2'>“I’m going to be a Man!</div> - <div class='line'>And stand upright, and hunt, and fight,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And conquer all I can!</div> - <div class='line'>I’m going to cut down forest trees,</div> - <div class='line in2'>To make my houses higher!</div> - <div class='line'>I’m going to kill the Mastodon!</div> - <div class='line in2'>I’m going to make a fire!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Loud screamed the Anthropoidal Apes</div> - <div class='line in2'>With laughter wild and gay;</div> - <div class='line'>They tried to catch that boastful one,</div> - <div class='line in2'>But he always got away.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span>So they yelled at him in chorus,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Which he minded not a whit;</div> - <div class='line'>And they pelted him with cocoanuts,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Which didn’t seem to hit.</div> - <div class='line'>And then they gave him reasons</div> - <div class='line in2'>Which they thought of much avail,</div> - <div class='line'>To prove how his preposterous</div> - <div class='line in2'>Attempt was sure to fail.</div> - <div class='line'>Said the sages, “In the first place,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The thing cannot be done!</div> - <div class='line'>And, second, if it <i>could</i> be,</div> - <div class='line in2'>It would not be any fun!</div> - <div class='line'>And, third, and most conclusive,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And admitting no reply,</div> - <div class='line'><i>You would have to change your nature</i>!</div> - <div class='line in2'>We should like to see you try!”</div> - <div class='line'>They chuckled then triumphantly,</div> - <div class='line in2'>These lean and hairy shapes,</div> - <div class='line'>For these things passed as arguments</div> - <div class='line in2'>With the Anthropoidal Apes.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>There was once a Neolithic Man,</div> - <div class='line in2'>An enterprising wight,</div> - <div class='line'>Who made his chopping implements</div> - <div class='line in2'>Unusually bright.</div> - <div class='line'>Unusually clever he,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Unusually brave,</div> - <div class='line'>And he drew delightful Mammoths</div> - <div class='line in2'><span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>On the borders of his cave.</div> - <div class='line'>To his Neolithic neighbors,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Who were startled and surprised,</div> - <div class='line'>Said he, “My friends, in course of time,</div> - <div class='line in2'>We shall be civilized!</div> - <div class='line'>We are going to live in cities!</div> - <div class='line in2'>We are going to fight in wars!</div> - <div class='line'>We are going to eat three times a day</div> - <div class='line in2'>Without the natural cause!</div> - <div class='line'>We are going to turn life upside down</div> - <div class='line in2'>About a thing called gold!</div> - <div class='line'>We are going to want the earth, and take</div> - <div class='line in2'>As much as we can hold!</div> - <div class='line'>We are going to wear great piles of stuff</div> - <div class='line in2'>Outside our proper skins!</div> - <div class='line'>We are going to have Diseases!</div> - <div class='line in2'>And Accomplishments!! And Sins!!!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then they all rose up in fury</div> - <div class='line in2'>Against their boastful friend,</div> - <div class='line'>For prehistoric patience</div> - <div class='line in2'>Cometh quickly to an end.</div> - <div class='line'>Said one, “This is chimerical!</div> - <div class='line in2'>Utopian! Absurd!”</div> - <div class='line'>Said another, “What a stupid life!</div> - <div class='line in2'>Too dull, upon my word!”</div> - <div class='line'>Cried all, “Before such things can come,</div> - <div class='line in2'>You idiotic child,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span><i>You must alter Human Nature</i>!”</div> - <div class='line in2'>And they all sat back and smiled.</div> - <div class='line'>Thought they, “An answer to that last</div> - <div class='line in2'>It will be hard to find!”</div> - <div class='line'>It was a clinching argument</div> - <div class='line in2'>To the Neolithic Mind!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>A CONSERVATIVE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The garden beds I wandered by</div> - <div class='line in2'>One bright and cheerful morn,</div> - <div class='line'>When I found a new-fledged butterfly</div> - <div class='line in2'>A-sitting on a thorn,</div> - <div class='line'>A black and crimson butterfly,</div> - <div class='line in2'>All doleful and forlorn.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I thought that life could have no sting</div> - <div class='line in2'>To infant butterflies,</div> - <div class='line'>So I gazed on this unhappy thing</div> - <div class='line in2'>With wonder and surprise,</div> - <div class='line'>While sadly with his waving wing</div> - <div class='line in2'>He wiped his weeping eyes.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Said I, “What can the matter be?</div> - <div class='line in2'>Why weepest thou so sore?</div> - <div class='line'>With garden fair and sunlight free</div> - <div class='line in2'>And flowers in goodly store—”</div> - <div class='line'>But he only turned away from me</div> - <div class='line in2'>And burst into a roar.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>Cried he, “My legs are thin and few</div> - <div class='line in2'>Where once I had a swarm!</div> - <div class='line'>Soft fuzzy fur—a joy to view—</div> - <div class='line in2'>Once kept my body warm,</div> - <div class='line'>Before these flapping wing-things grew,</div> - <div class='line in2'>To hamper and deform!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>At that outrageous bug I shot</div> - <div class='line in2'>The fury of mine eye;</div> - <div class='line'>Said I, in scorn all burning hot,</div> - <div class='line in2'>In rage and anger high,</div> - <div class='line'>“You ignominious idiot!</div> - <div class='line in2'>Those wings are made to fly!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“I do not want to fly,” said he,</div> - <div class='line in2'>“I only want to squirm!”</div> - <div class='line'>And he drooped his wings dejectedly,</div> - <div class='line in2'>But still his voice was firm;</div> - <div class='line'>“I do not want to be a fly!</div> - <div class='line in2'>I want to be a worm!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>O yesterday of unknown lack!</div> - <div class='line in2'>To-day of unknown bliss!</div> - <div class='line'>I left my fool in red and black,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The last I saw was this,—</div> - <div class='line'>The creature madly climbing back</div> - <div class='line in2'>Into his chrysalis.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span> - <h3 class='c002'>AN OBSTACLE.</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I was climbing up a mountain-path</div> - <div class='line in2'>With many things to do,</div> - <div class='line'>Important business of my own,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And other people’s too,</div> - <div class='line'>When I ran against a Prejudice</div> - <div class='line in2'>That quite cut off the view.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>My work was such as could not wait,</div> - <div class='line in2'>My path quite clearly showed,</div> - <div class='line'>My strength and time were limited,</div> - <div class='line in2'>I carried quite a load;</div> - <div class='line'>And there that hulking Prejudice</div> - <div class='line in2'>Sat all across the road.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>So I spoke to him politely,</div> - <div class='line in2'>For he was huge and high,</div> - <div class='line'>And begged that he would move a bit</div> - <div class='line in2'>And let me travel by.</div> - <div class='line'>He smiled, but as for moving!—</div> - <div class='line in2'>He didn’t even try.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And then I reasoned quietly</div> - <div class='line in2'>With that colossal mule:</div> - <div class='line'>My time was short—no other path—</div> - <div class='line in2'>The mountain winds were cool.</div> - <div class='line'>I argued like a Solomon;</div> - <div class='line in2'>He sat there like a fool.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>Then I flew into a passion,</div> - <div class='line in2'>I danced and howled and swore.</div> - <div class='line'>I pelted and belabored him</div> - <div class='line in2'>Till I was stiff and sore;</div> - <div class='line'>He got as mad as I did—</div> - <div class='line in2'>But he sat there as before.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And then I begged him on my knees;</div> - <div class='line in2'>I might be kneeling still</div> - <div class='line'>If so I hoped to move that mass</div> - <div class='line in2'>Of obdurate ill-will—</div> - <div class='line'>As well invite the monument</div> - <div class='line in2'>To vacate Bunker Hill!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>So I sat before him helpless,</div> - <div class='line in2'>In an ecstasy of woe—</div> - <div class='line'>The mountain mists were rising fast,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The sun was sinking slow—</div> - <div class='line'>When a sudden inspiration came,</div> - <div class='line in2'>As sudden winds do blow.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I took my hat, I took my stick,</div> - <div class='line in2'>My load I settled fair,</div> - <div class='line'>I approached that awful incubus</div> - <div class='line in2'>With an absent-minded air—</div> - <div class='line'>And I walked directly through him,</div> - <div class='line in2'>As if he wasn’t there!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span> - <h3 class='c002'>THE FOX WHO HAD LOST HIS TAIL.</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The fox who had lost his tail found out</div> - <div class='line in2'>That now he could faster go;</div> - <div class='line'>He had less to cover when hid for prey,</div> - <div class='line'>He had less to carry on hunting day,</div> - <div class='line'>He had less to guard when he stood at bay;</div> - <div class='line in2'>He was really better so!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Now he was a fine altruistical fox</div> - <div class='line in2'>With the good of his race at heart,</div> - <div class='line'>So he ran to his people with tailless speed,</div> - <div class='line'>To tell of the change they all must need,</div> - <div class='line'>And recommend as a righteous deed</div> - <div class='line in2'>That they and their tails should part!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Plain was the gain as plain could be,</div> - <div class='line in2'>But his words did not avail;</div> - <div class='line'>For they all replied, “We perceive your case;</div> - <div class='line'>You do not speak for the good of the race,</div> - <div class='line'>But only to cover your own disgrace,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Because you have lost your tail!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then another fox, of a liberal mind,</div> - <div class='line in2'>With a tail of splendid size,</div> - <div class='line'>Became convinced that the tailless state</div> - <div class='line'>Was better for all of them, soon or late.</div> - <div class='line'>Said he, “I will let my own tail wait,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And so I can open their eyes.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>Plain was the gain as plain could be,</div> - <div class='line in2'>But his words did not avail,</div> - <div class='line'>For they all made answer, “My plausible friend,</div> - <div class='line'>You talk wisely and well, but you talk to no end.</div> - <div class='line'>We know you’re dishonest and only pretend,</div> - <div class='line in2'>For you have not lost your tail!”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE SWEET USES OF ADVERSITY.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>In Norway fiords, in summer-time,</div> - <div class='line in4'>The Norway birch is fair:</div> - <div class='line'>The white trunks shine, the green leaves twine,</div> - <div class='line'>The whole tree groweth tall and fine;</div> - <div class='line in4'>For all it wants is there,—</div> - <div class='line in4'>Water and warmth and air,—</div> - <div class='line'>Full fed in all its nature needs, and showing</div> - <div class='line'>That nature in perfection by its growing.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But follow the persistent tree</div> - <div class='line in4'>To the limit of endless snow</div> - <div class='line'>There you may see what a birch can be!</div> - <div class='line'>The product showeth plain and free</div> - <div class='line in4'>How nobly plants can grow</div> - <div class='line in4'>With nine months’ winter slow.</div> - <div class='line'>’Tis fitted to survive in that position,</div> - <div class='line'>Developed by the force of bad condition.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>See now what life the tree doth keep,—</div> - <div class='line in4'>Branchless, three-leaved, and tough;</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>In June the leaf-buds peep, flowers in July dare creep</div> - <div class='line'>To bloom, the fruit in August, and then sleep.</div> - <div class='line in4'>Strong is the tree and rough,</div> - <div class='line in4'>It lives, and that’s enough.</div> - <div class='line'>“Dog’s-ear” the name the peasants call it by—</div> - <div class='line'>A Norway birch—and less than one inch high!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><hr class='poem' /></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>That silver monarch of the summer wood,</div> - <div class='line'>Tall, straight, and lovely, rich in all things good,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Knew not in his perversity</div> - <div class='line in4'>The sweeter uses of adversity!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>CONNOISSEURS.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“No,” said the Cultured Critic, gazing haughtily</div> - <div class='line'>Whereon some untrained brush had wandered naughtily,</div> - <div class='line in8'>From canons free;</div> - <div class='line'>“Work such as this lacks value and perspective,</div> - <div class='line'>Has no real feeling,—inner or reflective,—</div> - <div class='line in8'>Does not appeal to me.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then quoth the vulgar, knowing art but meagrely,</div> - <div class='line'>Their unbesought opinions airing eagerly,</div> - <div class='line in8'>“Why, ain’t that flat?”</div> - <div class='line'>Voicing their ignorance all unconcernedly,</div> - <div class='line'>Saying of what the Critic scored so learnedly,</div> - <div class='line in8'>“I don’t like that!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>The Critic now vouchsafed approval sparingly</div> - <div class='line'>Of what some genius had attempted daringly,</div> - <div class='line in8'>“This fellow tries;</div> - <div class='line'>He handles his conception frankly, feelingly.</div> - <div class='line'>Such work as this, done strongly and appealingly,</div> - <div class='line in8'>I recognize.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The vulgar, gazing widely and unknowingly,</div> - <div class='line'>Still volunteered their cheap impressions flowingly,</div> - <div class='line in8'>“Oh, come and see!”</div> - <div class='line'>But all that they could say of art’s reality</div> - <div class='line'>Was this poor voice of poorer personality,</div> - <div class='line in8'>“Now, that suits me!”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>TECHNIQUE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Cometh to-day the very skilful man;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Profoundly skilful in his chosen art;</div> - <div class='line'>All things that other men can do he can,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And do them better. He is very smart.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Sayeth, “My work is here before you all;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Come now with duly cultured mind to view it.</div> - <div class='line'>Here is great work, no part of it is small;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Perceive how well I do it!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“I do it to perfection. Studious years</div> - <div class='line in2'>Were spent to reach the pinnacle I’ve won;</div> - <div class='line'>Labor and thought are in my work, and tears.</div> - <div class='line in2'>Behold how well ’tis done!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>“See with what power this great effect is shown;</div> - <div class='line in2'>See with what ease you get the main idea;</div> - <div class='line'>A master in my art, I stand alone;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Now you may praise,—I hear.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And I, “O master, I perceive your sway,</div> - <div class='line in2'>I note the years of study, toil, and strain</div> - <div class='line'>That brought the easy power you wield to-day,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The height you now attain.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Freely your well-trained power I see you spend,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Such skill in all my life I never saw;</div> - <div class='line'>You have done nobly; but, my able friend,</div> - <div class='line in2'>What have you done it for?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“You have no doubt achieved your dearest end:</div> - <div class='line in2'>Your work is faultless to the cultured view.</div> - <div class='line'>You do it well, but, O my able friend,</div> - <div class='line in2'>What is it that you do?”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE PASTELLETTE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“The pastelle is too strong,” said he.</div> - <div class='line in2'>“Lo! I will make it fainter yet!”</div> - <div class='line'>And he wrought with tepid ecstasy</div> - <div class='line in10'>A pastellette.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A touch—a word—a tone half caught—</div> - <div class='line in2'>He softly felt and handled them;</div> - <div class='line'>Flavor of feeling—scent of thought—</div> - <div class='line in10'>Shimmer of gem—</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>That we may read, and feel as he</div> - <div class='line in2'>What vague, pale pleasure we can get</div> - <div class='line'>From this mild, witless mystery,—</div> - <div class='line in10'>The pastellette.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE PIG AND THE PEARL.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Said the Pig to the Pearl, “Oh, fie!</div> - <div class='line'>Tasteless, and hard, and dry—</div> - <div class='line in8'>Get out of my sty!</div> - <div class='line'>Glittering, smooth, and clean,</div> - <div class='line'>You only seek to be seen!</div> - <div class='line'>I am dirty and big!</div> - <div class='line'>A virtuous, valuable pig.</div> - <div class='line'>For me all things are sweet</div> - <div class='line'>That I can possibly eat;</div> - <div class='line'>But you—how can you be good</div> - <div class='line'>Without being fit for food?</div> - <div class='line'>Not even food for me,</div> - <div class='line'>Who can eat all this you see,</div> - <div class='line'>No matter how foul and sour;</div> - <div class='line'>I revel from hour to hour</div> - <div class='line'>In refuse of great and small;</div> - <div class='line'>But you are no good at all,</div> - <div class='line'>And if I should gulp you, quick,</div> - <div class='line'>It would probably make me sick!”</div> - <div class='line'>Said the Pig to the Pearl, “Oh, fie!”</div> - <div class='line'>And she rooted her out of the sty.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>A Philosopher chancing to pass</div> - <div class='line'>Saw the Pearl in the grass,</div> - <div class='line'>And laid hands on the same in a trice,</div> - <div class='line'>For the Pearl was a Pearl of Great Price.</div> - <div class='line'>Said he, “Madame Pig, if you knew</div> - <div class='line'>What a fool thing you do,</div> - <div class='line'>It would grieve even you!</div> - <div class='line'>Grant that pearls are not just to your taste,</div> - <div class='line'>Must you let them run waste?</div> - <div class='line'>You care only for hogwash, I know,</div> - <div class='line'>For your litter and you. Even so,</div> - <div class='line'>This tasteless hard thing which you scorn</div> - <div class='line'>Would buy acres of corn;</div> - <div class='line'>And apples, and pumpkins, and pease,</div> - <div class='line'>By the ton, if you please!</div> - <div class='line'>By the wealth which this pearl represents,</div> - <div class='line'>You could grow so immense—</div> - <div class='line'>You, and every last one of your young—</div> - <div class='line'>That your fame would be sung</div> - <div class='line'>As the takers of every first prize,</div> - <div class='line'>For your flavor and size!</div> - <div class='line'>From even a Pig’s point of view</div> - <div class='line'>The Pearl was worth millions to you.</div> - <div class='line'>Be a Pig—and a fool—(you must be them)</div> - <div class='line'>But try to know Pearls when you see them!”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span> - <h3 class='c002'>POOR HUMAN NATURE.</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>I saw a meagre, melancholy cow,</div> - <div class='line'>Blessed with a starveling calf that sucked in vain;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Eftsoon he died. I asked the mother how—?</div> - <div class='line'>Quoth she, “Of every four there dieth twain!”</div> - <div class='line in10'>Poor bovine nature!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I saw a sickly horse of shambling gait,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Ugly and wicked, weak in leg and back,</div> - <div class='line'>Useless in all ways, in a wretched state.</div> - <div class='line in2'>“We’re all poor creatures!” said the sorry hack.</div> - <div class='line in10'>Poor equine nature!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I saw a slow cat crawling on the ground,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Weak, clumsy, inefficient, full of fears,</div> - <div class='line'>The mice escaping from her aimless bound.</div> - <div class='line in2'>Moaned she, “This truly is a vale of tears!”</div> - <div class='line in10'>Poor feline nature!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then did I glory in my noble race,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Healthful and beautiful, alert and strong,</div> - <div class='line'>Rejoicing that we held a higher place</div> - <div class='line in2'>And need not add to theirs our mournful song,—</div> - <div class='line in10'>Poor human nature!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>OUR SAN FRANCISCO CLIMATE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Said I to my friend from the East,—</div> - <div class='line in2'>A tenderfoot he,—</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>As I showed him the greatest and least</div> - <div class='line in4'>Of our hills by the sea,</div> - <div class='line'>“How do you like our climate?”</div> - <div class='line in4'>And I smiled in my glee.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I showed him the blue of the hills,</div> - <div class='line in4'>And the blue of the sky,</div> - <div class='line'>And the blue of the beautiful bay</div> - <div class='line in4'>Where the ferry-boats ply;</div> - <div class='line'>And “How do you like our climate?”</div> - <div class='line in4'>Securely asked I.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then the wind blew over the sand,</div> - <div class='line in4'>And the fog came down,</div> - <div class='line'>And the papers and dust were on hand</div> - <div class='line in4'>All over the town.</div> - <div class='line'>“How do you like our climate?”</div> - <div class='line in4'>I cried with a frown.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>On the corner we stood as we met</div> - <div class='line in4'>Awaiting a car;</div> - <div class='line'>Beneath us a vent-hole was set,</div> - <div class='line in4'>As our street corners are—</div> - <div class='line'>And street corners in our San Francisco</div> - <div class='line in4'>Are perceptible far.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>He meant to have answered, of course,</div> - <div class='line in4'>I could see that he tried;</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>But he had not the strength of a horse,</div> - <div class='line in4'>And before he replied</div> - <div class='line'>The climate rose up from that corner in force,</div> - <div class='line in4'>And he died!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>San Francisco, 1895.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>CRITICISM.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The Critic eyed the sunset as the umber turned to gray,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Slow fading in the somewhat foggy west;</div> - <div class='line'>To the color-cultured Critic ’twas a very dull display,</div> - <div class='line'>“’Tis n’t half so good a sunset as was offered yesterday!</div> - <div class='line'>I wonder why,” he murmured, as he sadly turned away,</div> - <div class='line in2'>“The sunsets can’t be always at their best!”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>ANOTHER CREED.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Another creed! We’re all so pleased!</div> - <div class='line'>A gentle, tentative new creed. We’re eased</div> - <div class='line'>Of all those things we could not quite believe,</div> - <div class='line'>But would not give the lie to. Now perceive</div> - <div class='line'>How charmingly this suits us! Science even</div> - <div class='line'>Has naught against our modern views of Heaven;</div> - <div class='line'>And yet the most emotional of women</div> - <div class='line'>May find this creed a warm, deep sea to swim in.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span>Here’s something now so loose and large of fit</div> - <div class='line'>That all the churches may come under it,</div> - <div class='line'>And we may see upon the earth once more</div> - <div class='line'>A church united,—as we had before!</div> - <div class='line'>Before so much of precious blood was poured</div> - <div class='line'>That each in his own way might serve the Lord!</div> - <div class='line'>All wide divergence in sweet union sunk,</div> - <div class='line'>Like branches growing up into a trunk!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And in our intellectual delight</div> - <div class='line'>In this sweet formula that sets us right;</div> - <div class='line'>And controversial exercises gay</div> - <div class='line'>With those who still prefer a differing way;</div> - <div class='line'>And our glad effort to make known this wonder</div> - <div class='line'>And get all others to unite thereunder,—</div> - <div class='line'>We, joying in this newest, best of creeds,</div> - <div class='line'>Continue still to do our usual deeds!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE LITTLE LION.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>It was a little lion lay—</div> - <div class='line'>In wait he lay—he lay in wait.</div> - <div class='line'>Came those who said, “Pray come my way;</div> - <div class='line'>We joy to see a lion play,</div> - <div class='line in4'>And laud his, gait!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The little lion mildly came—</div> - <div class='line'>In wait for prey—for prey in wait.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>The people all adored his name,</div> - <div class='line'>And those who led him saw the same</div> - <div class='line in4'>With hearts elate.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The little lion grew that day,—</div> - <div class='line'>In glee he went—he went in glee.</div> - <div class='line'>Said he, “I love to seek my prey,</div> - <div class='line'>But also love to see the way</div> - <div class='line in4'>My prey seek me!”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>A MISFIT.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>O Lord, take me out of this!</div> - <div class='line in8'>I do not fit!</div> - <div class='line'>My body does not suit my mind,</div> - <div class='line'>My brain is weak in the knees and blind,</div> - <div class='line'>My clothes are not what I want to find—</div> - <div class='line in8'>Not one bit!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>My house is not the house I like—</div> - <div class='line in8'>Not one bit!</div> - <div class='line'>My church is built so loose and thin</div> - <div class='line'>That ten fall out where one falls in;</div> - <div class='line'>My creed is buttoned with a pin—</div> - <div class='line in8'>It does not fit!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The school I went to wasn’t right—</div> - <div class='line in8'>Not one bit!</div> - <div class='line'>The education given me</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>Was meant for the community,</div> - <div class='line'>And my poor head works differently—</div> - <div class='line in8'>It does not fit!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I try to move and find I can’t—</div> - <div class='line in8'>Not one bit!</div> - <div class='line'>Things that were given me to stay</div> - <div class='line'>Are mostly lost and blown away,</div> - <div class='line'>And what I have to use to-day—</div> - <div class='line in8'>It does not fit!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>What I was taught I cannot do—</div> - <div class='line in8'>Not one bit!</div> - <div class='line'>And what I do I was not taught</div> - <div class='line'>And what I find I have not sought;</div> - <div class='line'>I never say the thing I ought—</div> - <div class='line in8'>It does not fit!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I have not meant to be like this—</div> - <div class='line in8'>Not one bit!</div> - <div class='line'>But in the puzzle and the strife</div> - <div class='line'>I fail my friend and pain my wife;</div> - <div class='line'>Oh, how it hurts to have a life</div> - <div class='line in8'>That does not fit!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>ON NEW YEAR’S DAY.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>On New Year’s Day he plans a cruise</div> - <div class='line'>To Heaven straight—no time to lose!</div> - <div class='line in2'><span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>Vowing to live so virtuously</div> - <div class='line in2'>That each besetting sin shall flee—</div> - <div class='line'>Good resolutions wide he strews</div> - <div class='line in8'>On New Year’s Day.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A while he minds his p’s and q’s,</div> - <div class='line'>And all temptations doth refuse,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Recalling his resolves so free</div> - <div class='line in8'>On New Year’s Day.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But in the long year that ensues,</div> - <div class='line'>They fade away by threes and twos—</div> - <div class='line in2'>The place we do not wish to see</div> - <div class='line in2'>Is paved with all he meant to be,</div> - <div class='line'>When he next year his life reviews—</div> - <div class='line in8'>On New Year’s Day.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>OUR EAST.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Our East, long looking backward over sea,</div> - <div class='line'>In loving study of what used to be,</div> - <div class='line'>Has grown to treat our West with the same scorn</div> - <div class='line'>England has had for us since we were born.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>You’d think to hear this Eastern judgment hard</div> - <div class='line'>The West was just New England’s back yard!</div> - <div class='line'>That all the West was made for, last and least,</div> - <div class='line'>Was to raise pork and wheat to feed the East!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>A place to travel in, for rest and health,</div> - <div class='line'>A place to struggle in and get the wealth,</div> - <div class='line'>The only normal end of which, of course,</div> - <div class='line'>Is to return to its historic source!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Our Western acres, curving to the sun,</div> - <div class='line'>The Western strength whereby our work is done,</div> - <div class='line'>All Western progress, they attribute fair</div> - <div class='line'>To Eastern Capital invested there!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>New England never liked old England’s scorn.</div> - <div class='line'>Do they think theirs more easy to be borne?</div> - <div class='line'>Or that the East, Britain’s rebellious child,</div> - <div class='line'>Will find the grandson, West, more meek and mild?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>In union still our sovereignty has stood,</div> - <div class='line'>A union formed with prayer and sealed with blood.</div> - <div class='line'>We stand together. Patience, mighty West!</div> - <div class='line'>Don’t mind this scolding from your last year’s nest!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>UNMENTIONABLE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>There is a thing of which I fain would speak,</div> - <div class='line in10'>Yet shun the deed;</div> - <div class='line'>Lest hot disgust flush the averted cheek</div> - <div class='line in10'>Of those who read.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>And yet it is as common in our sight</div> - <div class='line in10'>As dust or grass;</div> - <div class='line'>Loathed by the lifted skirt, the tiptoe light,</div> - <div class='line in10'>Of those who pass.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>We say no word, but the big placard rests</div> - <div class='line in10'>Frequent in view,</div> - <div class='line'>To sicken those who do not with requests</div> - <div class='line in10'>Of those who do.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Gentlemen will not,” the mild placards say.</div> - <div class='line in10'>They read with scorn.</div> - <div class='line'>“Gentlemen must not”—they defile the way</div> - <div class='line in10'>Of those who warn.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>On boat and car the careful lady lifts</div> - <div class='line in10'>Her dress aside;</div> - <div class='line'>If careless—think, fair traveller, of the gifts</div> - <div class='line in10'>Of those who ride!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>On every hall and sidewalk, floor and stair,</div> - <div class='line in10'>Where man’s at home,</div> - <div class='line'>This loathsomeness is added to the care</div> - <div class='line in10'>Of those who come.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>As some foul slug his trail of slime displays</div> - <div class='line in10'>On leaf and stalk,</div> - <div class='line'>These street-beasts make a horror in the ways</div> - <div class='line in10'>Of those who walk.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>We cannot ask reform of those who do—</div> - <div class='line in10'>They can’t or won’t.</div> - <div class='line'>We can express the scorn, intense and true,</div> - <div class='line in10'>Of those who don’t.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>AN INVITATION FROM CALIFORNIA.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Aren’t you tired of protection from the weather?</div> - <div class='line in2'>Of defences, guards, and shields?</div> - <div class='line'>Aren’t you tired of the worry as to whether</div> - <div class='line in2'>This year the farm land yields?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Aren’t you tired of the wetness and the dryness,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The dampness, and the hotness, and the cold?</div> - <div class='line'>Of waiting on the weather man with shyness</div> - <div class='line in2'>To see if the last plans hold?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Aren’t you tired of the doctoring and nursing,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Of the “sickly winters” and the pocket pills,—</div> - <div class='line'>Tired of sorrowing, and burying, and cursing</div> - <div class='line in2'>At Providence and undertakers’ bills?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Aren’t you tired of all the threatening and doubting,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The “weather-breeder” with its lovely lie;</div> - <div class='line'>The dubiety of any sort of outing;</div> - <div class='line in2'>The chip upon the shoulder of the sky?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>Like a beaten horse who dodges your caresses,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Like a child abused who ducks before your frown,</div> - <div class='line'>Is the northerner in our warm air that blesses—</div> - <div class='line in2'>O come and live and take your elbow down!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Don’t be afraid; you do not need defences;</div> - <div class='line in2'>This heavenly day breeds not a stormy end;</div> - <div class='line'>Lay down your arms! cut off your war expenses!</div> - <div class='line in2'>This weather is your friend!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A friendliness from earth, a joy from heaven,</div> - <div class='line in2'>A peace that wins your frightened soul at length;</div> - <div class='line'>A place where rest as well as work is given,—</div> - <div class='line in2'>Rest is the food of strength.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>RESOLVE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>To keep my health!</div> - <div class='line'>To do my work!</div> - <div class='line'>To live!</div> - <div class='line'>To see to it I grow and gain and give!</div> - <div class='line'>Never to look behind me for an hour!</div> - <div class='line'>To wait in weakness, and to walk in power;</div> - <div class='line'>But always fronting onward to the light,</div> - <div class='line'>Always and always facing toward the right.</div> - <div class='line'>Robbed, starved, defeated, fallen, wide astray—</div> - <div class='line'>On, with what strength I have!</div> - <div class='line'>Back to the way!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span> - <h2 class='c005'>WOMAN.</h2> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span> - <h3 class='c002'>SHE WALKETH VEILED AND SLEEPING.</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>She walketh veiled and sleeping,</div> - <div class='line'>For she knoweth not her power;</div> - <div class='line'>She obeyeth but the pleading</div> - <div class='line'>Of her heart, and the high leading</div> - <div class='line'>Of her soul, unto this hour.</div> - <div class='line'>Slow advancing, halting, creeping,</div> - <div class='line'>Comes the Woman to the hour!—</div> - <div class='line'>She walketh veiled and sleeping,</div> - <div class='line'>For she knoweth not her power.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>TO MAN.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>In dark and early ages, through the primal forests faring,</div> - <div class='line'>Ere the soul came shining into prehistoric night,</div> - <div class='line'>Two-fold man was equal; they were comrades dear and daring,</div> - <div class='line'>Living wild and free together in unreasoning delight.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Ere the soul was born and consciousness came slowly,</div> - <div class='line'>Ere the soul was born, to man and woman too,</div> - <div class='line'>Ere he found the Tree of Knowledge, that awful tree and holy,</div> - <div class='line'>Ere he knew he felt, and knew he knew.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>Then said he to Pain, “I am wise now, and I know you!</div> - <div class='line'>No more will I suffer while power and wisdom last!”</div> - <div class='line'>Then said he to Pleasure, “I am strong, and I will show you</div> - <div class='line'>That the will of man can seize you; aye, and hold you fast!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Food he ate for pleasure, and wine he drank for gladness,</div> - <div class='line'>And woman? Ah, the woman! the crown of all delight!—</div> - <div class='line'>His now—he knew it! He was strong to madness</div> - <div class='line'>In that early dawning after prehistoric night.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>His—his forever! That glory sweet and tender!</div> - <div class='line'>Ah, but he would love her! And she should love but him!</div> - <div class='line'>He would work and struggle for her, he would shelter and defend her;</div> - <div class='line'>She should never leave him, never, till their eyes in death were dim.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Close, close he bound her, that she should leave him never;</div> - <div class='line'>Weak still he kept her, lest she be strong to flee;</div> - <div class='line'>And the fainting flame of passion he kept alive forever</div> - <div class='line'>With all the arts and forces of earth and sky and sea.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>And, ah, the long journey! The slow and awful ages</div> - <div class='line'>They have labored up together, blind and crippled, all astray!</div> - <div class='line'>Through what a mighty volume, with a million shameful pages,</div> - <div class='line'>From the freedom of the forest to the prisons of to-day!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Food he ate for pleasure, and it slew him with diseases!</div> - <div class='line'>Wine he drank for gladness, and it led the way to crime!</div> - <div class='line'>And woman? He will hold her—he will have her when he pleases—</div> - <div class='line'>And he never once hath seen her since the prehistoric time!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Gone the friend and comrade of the day when life was younger,</div> - <div class='line'>She who rests and comforts, she who helps and saves;</div> - <div class='line'>Still he seeks her vainly, with a never-dying hunger;</div> - <div class='line'>Alone beneath his tyrants, alone above his slaves!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Toiler, bent and weary with the load of thine own making!</div> - <div class='line'>Thou who art sad and lonely, though lonely all in vain!</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>Who hast sought to conquer Pleasure and have her for the taking,</div> - <div class='line'>And found that Pleasure only was another name for Pain,—</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Nature hath reclaimed thee, forgiving dispossession!</div> - <div class='line'>God hath not forgotten, though man doth still forget!</div> - <div class='line'>The woman-soul is rising, in despite of thy transgression;</div> - <div class='line'>Loose her now—and trust her! She will love thee yet!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Love thee? She will love thee as only freedom knoweth;</div> - <div class='line'>Love thee? She will love thee while Love itself doth live!</div> - <div class='line'>Fear not the heart of woman! No bitterness it showeth!</div> - <div class='line'>The ages of her sorrow have but taught her to forgive!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>WOMEN OF TO-DAY.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>You women of to-day who fear so much</div> - <div class='line'>The women of the future, showing how</div> - <div class='line'>The dangers of her course are such and such—</div> - <div class='line in14'>What are you now?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>Mothers and Wives and Housekeepers, forsooth!</div> - <div class='line'>Great names! you cry, full scope to rule and please!</div> - <div class='line'>Boom for wise age and energetic youth!—</div> - <div class='line in14'>But are you these?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Housekeepers? Do you then, like those of yore,</div> - <div class='line'>Keep house with power and pride, with grace and ease?</div> - <div class='line'>No, you keep servants only! What is more,</div> - <div class='line in14'>You don’t keep these!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Wives, say you? Wives! Blessed indeed are they</div> - <div class='line'>Who hold of love the everlasting keys,</div> - <div class='line'>Keeping their husbands’ hearts! Alas the day!</div> - <div class='line in14'>You don’t keep these!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And mothers? Pitying Heaven! Mark the cry</div> - <div class='line'>From cradle death-beds! Mothers on their knees!</div> - <div class='line'>Why, half the children born—as children die!</div> - <div class='line in14'>You don’t keep these!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And still the wailing babies come and go,</div> - <div class='line'>And homes are waste, and husbands’ hearts fly far,</div> - <div class='line'>There is no hope until you dare to know</div> - <div class='line in14'>The thing you are!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>TO THE YOUNG WIFE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Are you content, you pretty three-years’ wife?</div> - <div class='line in2'>Are you content and satisfied to live</div> - <div class='line in2'>On what your loving husband loves to give,</div> - <div class='line in8'>And give to him your life?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span>Are you content with work,—to toil alone,</div> - <div class='line in2'>To clean things dirty and to soil things clean;</div> - <div class='line in2'>To be a kitchen-maid, be called a queen,—</div> - <div class='line in8'>Queen of a cook-stove throne?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Are you content to reign in that small space—</div> - <div class='line in2'>A wooden palace and a yard-fenced land—</div> - <div class='line in2'>With other queens abundant on each hand,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Each fastened in her place?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Are you content to rear your children so?</div> - <div class='line in2'>Untaught yourself, untrained, perplexed, distressed,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Are you so sure your way is always best?</div> - <div class='line in8'>That you can always know?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Have you forgotten how you used to long</div> - <div class='line in2'>In days of ardent girlhood, to be great,</div> - <div class='line in2'>To help the groaning world, to serve the state,</div> - <div class='line in8'>To be so wise—so strong?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And are you quite convinced this is the way,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The only way a woman’s duty lies—</div> - <div class='line in2'>Knowing all women so have shut their eyes?</div> - <div class='line in8'>Seeing the world to-day?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Have you no dream of life in fuller store?</div> - <div class='line in2'>Of growing to be more than that you are?</div> - <div class='line in2'>Doing the things you now do better far,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Yet doing others—more?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>Losing no love, but finding as you grew</div> - <div class='line in2'>That as you entered upon nobler life</div> - <div class='line in2'>You so became a richer, sweeter wife,</div> - <div class='line in8'>A wiser mother too?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>What holds you? Ah, my dear, it is your throne,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Your paltry queenship in that narrow place,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Your antique labors, your restricted space,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Your working all alone!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Be not deceived! ’Tis not your wifely bond</div> - <div class='line in2'>That holds you, nor the mother’s royal power,</div> - <div class='line in2'>But selfish, slavish service hour by hour—</div> - <div class='line in8'>A life with no beyond!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>FALSE PLAY.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Do you love me?” asked the mother of her child,</div> - <div class='line in6'>And the baby answered, “No!”</div> - <div class='line'>Great Love listened and sadly smiled;</div> - <div class='line'>He knew the love in the heart of the child—</div> - <div class='line in6'>That you could not wake it so.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Do not love me?” the foolish mother cried,</div> - <div class='line in6'>And the baby answered, “No!”</div> - <div class='line'>He knew the worth of the trick she tried—</div> - <div class='line'>Great Love listened, and grieving, sighed</div> - <div class='line in6'>That the mother scorned him so.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span>“Oh, poor mama!” and she played her part</div> - <div class='line in6'>Till the baby’s strength gave way:</div> - <div class='line'>He knew it was false in his inmost heart,</div> - <div class='line'>But he could not bear that her tears should start,</div> - <div class='line in6'>So he joined in the lying play.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Then love mama!” and the soft lips crept</div> - <div class='line in6'>To the kiss that his love should show,—</div> - <div class='line'>The mouth to speak while the spirit slept!</div> - <div class='line'>Great Love listened, and blushed, and wept</div> - <div class='line in6'>That they blasphemed him so.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>MOTHERHOOD.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Motherhood: First mere laying of an egg,</div> - <div class='line'>With blind foreseeing of the wisest place,</div> - <div class='line'>And blind provision of the proper food</div> - <div class='line'>For unseen larva to grow fat upon</div> - <div class='line'>After the instinct-guided mother died,—</div> - <div class='line'>Posthumous motherhood, no love, no joy.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Motherhood: Brooding patient o’er the nest,</div> - <div class='line'>With gentle stirring of an unknown love;</div> - <div class='line'>Defending eggs unhatched, feeding the young</div> - <div class='line'>For days of callow feebleness, and then</div> - <div class='line'>Driving the fledglings from the nest to fly.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Motherhood: When the kitten and the cub</div> - <div class='line'>Cried out alive, and first the mother knew</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span>The fumbling of furry little paws,</div> - <div class='line'>The pressure of the hungry little mouths</div> - <div class='line'>Against the more than ready mother-breast,—</div> - <div class='line'>The love that comes of giving and of care.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Motherhood: Nursing with her heart-warm milk,</div> - <div class='line'>Fighting to death all danger to her young,</div> - <div class='line'>Hunting for food for little ones half-weaned,</div> - <div class='line'>Teaching them how to hunt and fight in turn,—</div> - <div class='line'>Then loving not till the new litter came.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Motherhood: When the little savage grew</div> - <div class='line'>Tall at his mother’s side, and learned to feel</div> - <div class='line'>Some mother even in his father’s heart,</div> - <div class='line'>Love coming to new babies while the first</div> - <div class='line'>Still needed mother’s care, and therefore love,—</div> - <div class='line'>Love lasting longer because childhood did.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Motherhood: Semi-civilized, intense,</div> - <div class='line'>Fierce with brute passion, narrow with the range</div> - <div class='line'>Of slavish lives to meanest service bowed;</div> - <div class='line'>Devoted—to the sacrifice of life;</div> - <div class='line'>Jealous beyond belief, and ignorant</div> - <div class='line'>Even of what should keep the child alive.</div> - <div class='line'>Love spreading with the spread of human needs,</div> - <div class='line'>The child’s new, changing, ever-growing wants,</div> - <div class='line'>Yet seeking like brute mothers of the past</div> - <div class='line'>To give all things to her own child herself.</div> - <div class='line'>Loving to the exclusion of all else;</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>To the child’s service bending a whole life;</div> - <div class='line'>Yet stunting the young creature day by day</div> - <div class='line'>With lack of Justice, Liberty, and Peace.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Motherhood: Civilized. There stands at last,</div> - <div class='line'>Facing the heavens with as calm a smile,</div> - <div class='line'>The highest fruit of the long work of God;</div> - <div class='line'>The highest type of this, the highest race;</div> - <div class='line'>She from whose groping instinct grew all love—</div> - <div class='line'>All love—in which is all the life of man.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Motherhood: Seeing with her clear, kind eyes,</div> - <div class='line'>Luminous, tender eyes, wherein the smile</div> - <div class='line'>Is like the smile of sunlight on the sea,</div> - <div class='line'>That the new children of the newer day</div> - <div class='line'>Need more than any single heart can give,</div> - <div class='line'>More than is known to any single mind,</div> - <div class='line'>More than is found in any single house,</div> - <div class='line'>And need it from the day they see the light.</div> - <div class='line'>Then, measuring her love by what they need,</div> - <div class='line'>Gives, from the heart of modern motherhood.</div> - <div class='line'>Gives first, as tree to bear God’s highest fruit,</div> - <div class='line'>A clean, strong body, perfect and full grown,</div> - <div class='line'>Fair for the purpose of its womanhood,</div> - <div class='line'>Not for light fancy of a lower mind;</div> - <div class='line'>Gives a clear mind, athletic, beautiful,</div> - <div class='line'>Dispassionate, unswerving from the truth;</div> - <div class='line'>Gives a great heart that throbs with human love,</div> - <div class='line'>As she would wish her son to love the world.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>Then, when the child comes, lovely as a star,</div> - <div class='line'>She, in the peace of primal motherhood,</div> - <div class='line'>Nurses her baby with unceasing joy,</div> - <div class='line'>With milk of human kindness, human health,</div> - <div class='line'>Bright human beauty, and immortal love.</div> - <div class='line'>And then? Ah! here is the New Motherhood—</div> - <div class='line'>The motherhood of the fair new-made world—</div> - <div class='line'>O glorious New Mother of New Men!</div> - <div class='line'>Her child, with other children from its birth,</div> - <div class='line'>In the unstinted freedom of warm air,</div> - <div class='line'>Under the wisest eyes, the tenderest thought,</div> - <div class='line'>Surrounded by all beauty and all peace,</div> - <div class='line'>Led, playing, through the gardens of the world,</div> - <div class='line'>With the crowned heads of science and great love</div> - <div class='line'>Mapping safe paths for those small, rosy feet,—</div> - <div class='line'>Taught human love by feeling human love,</div> - <div class='line'>Taught justice by the laws that rule his days,</div> - <div class='line'>Taught wisdom by the way in which he lives,</div> - <div class='line'>Taught to love all mankind and serve them fair</div> - <div class='line'>By seeing, from his birth, all children served</div> - <div class='line'>With the same righteous, all-embracing care.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>O Mother! Noble Mother, yet to come!</div> - <div class='line'>How shall thy child point to the bright career</div> - <div class='line'>Of her of whom he boasts to be the son—</div> - <div class='line'>Not for assiduous service spent on him,</div> - <div class='line'>But for the wisdom which has set him forth</div> - <div class='line'>A clear-brained, pure-souled, noble-hearted man,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span>With health and strength and beauty his by birth;</div> - <div class='line'>And, more, for the wide record of her life,</div> - <div class='line'>Great work, well done, that makes him praise her name</div> - <div class='line'>And long to make as great a one his own!</div> - <div class='line'>And how shall all the children of the world,</div> - <div class='line'>Feeling all mothers love them, loving all,</div> - <div class='line'>Rise up and call her blessed!</div> - <div class='line in12'>This shall be.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>SIX HOURS A DAY.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Six hours a day the woman spends on food!</div> - <div class='line'>Six mortal hours a day....</div> - <div class='line'>With fire and water toiling, heat and cold;</div> - <div class='line'>Struggling with laws she does not understand</div> - <div class='line'>Of chemistry and physics, and the weight</div> - <div class='line'>Of poverty and ignorance besides.</div> - <div class='line'>Toiling for those she loves, the added strain</div> - <div class='line'>Of tense emotion on her humble skill,</div> - <div class='line'>The sensitiveness born of love and fear,</div> - <div class='line'>Making it harder to do even work.</div> - <div class='line'>Toiling without release, no hope ahead</div> - <div class='line'>Of taking up another business soon,</div> - <div class='line'>Of varying the task she finds too hard—</div> - <div class='line'>This, her career, so closely interknit</div> - <div class='line'>With holier demands as deep as life</div> - <div class='line'>That to refuse to cook is held the same</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span>As to refuse her wife and motherhood.</div> - <div class='line'>Six mortal hours a day to handle food,—</div> - <div class='line'>Prepare it, serve it, clean it all away,—</div> - <div class='line'>With allied labors of the stove and tub,</div> - <div class='line'>The pan, the dishcloth, and the scrubbing-brush.</div> - <div class='line'>Developing forever in her brain</div> - <div class='line'>The power to do this work in which she lives;</div> - <div class='line'>While the slow finger of Heredity</div> - <div class='line'>Writes on the forehead of each living man,</div> - <div class='line'>Strive as he may, “His mother was a cook!”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>AN OLD PROVERB.</h3> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c004'> - <div><span class='small'>“As much pity to see a woman weep as to see a goose go barefoot.”</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>No escape, little creature! The earth hath no place</div> - <div class='line'>For the woman who seeketh to fly from her race.</div> - <div class='line'>Poor, ignorant, timid, too helpless to roam,</div> - <div class='line'>The woman must bear what befalls her, at home.</div> - <div class='line'>Bear bravely, bear dumbly—it is but the same</div> - <div class='line'>That all others endure who live under the name.</div> - <div class='line in14'>No escape, little creature!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>No escape under heaven! Can man treat you worse</div> - <div class='line'>After God has laid on you his infinite curse?</div> - <div class='line'>The heaviest burden of sorrow you win</div> - <div class='line'>Cannot weigh with the load of original sin;</div> - <div class='line'>No shame be too black for the cowering face</div> - <div class='line'>Of her who brought shame to the whole human race!</div> - <div class='line in14'>No escape under heaven!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span>Yet you feel, being human. You shrink from the pain</div> - <div class='line'>That each child, born a woman, must suffer again.</div> - <div class='line'>From the strongest of bonds heart can feel, man can shape,</div> - <div class='line'>You cannot rebel, or appeal, or escape.</div> - <div class='line'>You must bear and endure. If the heart cannot sleep,</div> - <div class='line'>And the pain groweth bitter,—too bitter,—then weep!</div> - <div class='line in12'>For you feel, being human.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And she wept, being woman. The numberless years</div> - <div class='line'>Have counted her burdens and counted her tears;</div> - <div class='line'>The maid wept forsaken, the mother forlorn</div> - <div class='line'>For the child that was dead, and the child that was born.</div> - <div class='line'>Wept for joy—as a miracle!—wept in her pain!</div> - <div class='line'>Wept aloud, wept in secret, wept ever in vain!</div> - <div class='line in12'>Still she weeps, being woman.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>REASSURANCE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Can you imagine nothing better, brother,</div> - <div class='line'>Than that which you have always had before?</div> - <div class='line'>Have you been so content with “wife and mother,”</div> - <div class='line in8'>You dare hope nothing more?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span>Have you forever prized her, praised her, sung her,</div> - <div class='line'>The happy queen of a most happy reign?</div> - <div class='line'>Never dishonored her, despised her, flung her</div> - <div class='line in8'>Derision and disdain?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Go ask the literature of all the ages!</div> - <div class='line'>Books that were written before women read!</div> - <div class='line'>Pagan and Christian, satirists and sages,—</div> - <div class='line in8'>Read what the world has said!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>There was no power on earth to bid you slacken</div> - <div class='line'>The generous hand that painted her disgrace!</div> - <div class='line'>There was no shame on earth too black to blacken</div> - <div class='line in8'>That much praised woman-face!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Eve and Pandora!—always you begin it—</div> - <div class='line'>The ancients called her Sin and Shame and Death!</div> - <div class='line'>“There is no evil without woman in it,”</div> - <div class='line in8'>The modern proverb saith!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>She has been yours in uttermost possession,—</div> - <div class='line'>Your slave, your mother, your well-chosen bride,—</div> - <div class='line'>And you have owned, in million-fold confession,</div> - <div class='line in8'>You were not satisfied.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Peace, then! Fear not the coming woman, brother!</div> - <div class='line'>Owning herself, she giveth all the more!</div> - <div class='line'>She shall be better woman, wife, and mother</div> - <div class='line in8'>Than man hath known before!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span> - <h3 class='c002'>MOTHER TO CHILD.</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>How best can I serve thee, my child! My child!</div> - <div class='line'>Flesh of my flesh and dear heart of my heart!</div> - <div class='line'>Once thou wast within me—I held thee—I fed thee—</div> - <div class='line'>By the force of my loving and longing I led thee—</div> - <div class='line in8'>Now we are apart!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I may blind thee with kisses and crush with embracing,</div> - <div class='line'>Thy warm mouth in my neck and our arms interlacing;</div> - <div class='line'>But here in my body my soul lives alone,</div> - <div class='line'>And thou answerest me from a house of thine own,—</div> - <div class='line in8'>That house which I builded!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Which we builded together, thy father and I;</div> - <div class='line'>In which thou must live, O my darling, and die!</div> - <div class='line'>Not one stone can I alter, one atom relay,—</div> - <div class='line'>Not to save or defend thee or help thee to stay—</div> - <div class='line in8'>That gift is completed!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>How best can I serve thee? O child, if they knew</div> - <div class='line'>How my heart aches with loving! How deep and how true,</div> - <div class='line'>How brave and enduring, how patient, how strong,</div> - <div class='line'>How longing for good and how fearful of wrong,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Is the love of thy mother!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>Could I crown thee with riches! Surround, overflow thee</div> - <div class='line'>With fame and with power till the whole world should know thee;</div> - <div class='line'>With wisdom and genius to hold the world still,</div> - <div class='line'>To bring laughter and tears, joy and pain, at thy will,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Still—<i>thou</i> mightst not be happy!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Such have lived—and in sorrow. The greater the mind,</div> - <div class='line'>The wider and deeper the grief it can find.</div> - <div class='line'>The richer, the gladder, the more thou canst feel</div> - <div class='line'>The keen stings that a lifetime is sure to reveal.</div> - <div class='line in8'>O my child! Must thou suffer?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Is there no way my life can save thine from a pain?</div> - <div class='line'>Is the love of a mother no possible gain?</div> - <div class='line'>No labor of Hercules—search for the Grail—</div> - <div class='line'>No way for this wonderful love to avail?</div> - <div class='line in8'>God in Heaven—O teach me!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>My prayer has been answered. The pain thou must bear</div> - <div class='line'>Is the pain of the world’s life which thy life must share.</div> - <div class='line'>Thou art one with the world—though I love thee the best;</div> - <div class='line'>And to save thee from pain I must save all the rest—</div> - <div class='line in8'>Well—with God’s help I’ll do it!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span>Thou art one with the rest. I must love thee in them.</div> - <div class='line'>Thou wilt sin with the rest; and thy mother must stem</div> - <div class='line'>The world’s sin. Thou wilt weep; and thy mother must dry</div> - <div class='line'>The tears of the world lest her darling should cry.</div> - <div class='line in8'>I will do it—God helping!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And I stand not alone. I will gather a band</div> - <div class='line'>Of all loving mothers from land unto land.</div> - <div class='line'>Our children are part of the world! do ye hear?</div> - <div class='line'>They are one with the world—we must hold them all dear!</div> - <div class='line in8'>Love all for the child’s sake!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>For the sake of my child I must hasten to save</div> - <div class='line'>All the children on earth from the jail and the grave.</div> - <div class='line'>For so, and so only, I lighten the share</div> - <div class='line'>Of the pain of the world that my darling must bear—</div> - <div class='line in8'>Even so, and so only!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>SERVICES.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>She was dead. Forth went the word,</div> - <div class='line'>And every creature heard.</div> - <div class='line'>To the last hamlet in the farthest lands,</div> - <div class='line'>To people countless as the sands</div> - <div class='line'>Of primal seas.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>And with the word so sent</div> - <div class='line'>Her life’s full record went,—</div> - <div class='line'>Of what fair line, how gifted, how endowed,</div> - <div class='line'>How educated; and then, told aloud,</div> - <div class='line'>The splendid tale of what her life had done;</div> - <div class='line'>And all the people heard and felt as one;</div> - <div class='line'>Exulting all together in their dead,</div> - <div class='line'>And the grand story of the life she led.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But in the city where her body lay</div> - <div class='line'>Great services were held on that fair day:</div> - <div class='line'>People by thousands; music to the sky;</div> - <div class='line'>Flowers of a garnered season; winding by,</div> - <div class='line'>Processions, glorious in rich array,</div> - <div class='line'>All massing in the temple where she lay.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then, when the music rested, rose and stood</div> - <div class='line'>Those who could speak of her and count the good,</div> - <div class='line'>The measureless great good her life had spread,</div> - <div class='line'>That all might hear the praises of their dead.</div> - <div class='line'>And those who loved her sent from the world’s end</div> - <div class='line'>Their tribute to the memory of their friend;</div> - <div class='line'>While teachers to their children whispered low,</div> - <div class='line'>“See that you have as many when you go!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then was recited how her life had part</div> - <div class='line'>In building up this science and that art,</div> - <div class='line'>Inventing here, administering there,</div> - <div class='line'>Helping to organize, create, prepare,</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span>With fullest figures to expatiate</div> - <div class='line'>On her unmeasured value to the state.</div> - <div class='line'>And the child, listening, grew in noble pride,</div> - <div class='line'>And planned for greater praises when he died.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then the Poet spoke of those long ripening years;</div> - <div class='line'>And tenderer music brought the grateful tears;</div> - <div class='line'>And then, lest grief upon their heartstrings hang,</div> - <div class='line'>Her children stood around the bier and sang:</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'>In the name of the mother that bore us—</div> - <div class='line in6'>Bore us strong—bore us free—</div> - <div class='line in4'>We will strive in the labors before us,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Even as she! Even as she!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'>In the name of her wisdom and beauty,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Of her life full of light,</div> - <div class='line in4'>We will live in our national duty,</div> - <div class='line in6'>We will help on the right:</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'>We will love as her heart loved before us,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Warm and wide—strong and high!</div> - <div class='line in4'>In the name of the mother that bore us,</div> - <div class='line in6'>We will live! We will die!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>IN MOTHER-TIME.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>When woman looks at woman with the glory in her eyes,</div> - <div class='line'>When eternity lies open like a scroll,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span>When immortal life is being felt,—the life that never dies,—</div> - <div class='line in2'>And the triumph of it ringeth</div> - <div class='line in2'>And the sweetness of it singeth</div> - <div class='line in12'>In the soul,</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then we come to California, the Garden of the Lord,</div> - <div class='line'>Through all its leagues of endless blossoming;</div> - <div class='line'>And we sing, we sing together, to the whole world’s deep accord—</div> - <div class='line in2'>And we feel each other praying</div> - <div class='line in2'>Over what the flowers are saying</div> - <div class='line in12'>As we sing.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>We were waiting, we were growing, glad of heart and strong of soul,</div> - <div class='line'>Like the peace and power of all these virgin lands;</div> - <div class='line'>Through the years of holy maidenhood with motherhood for goal—</div> - <div class='line in2'>And soon we shall be holding</div> - <div class='line in2'>Fruit of all life’s glad unfolding</div> - <div class='line in12'>In our hands.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>White-robed mothers, flower-crowned mothers, in the splendor of their youth,</div> - <div class='line'>In the grandeur of maturity and power;</div> - <div class='line'>Feeling life has passed the telling in its joyousness and truth,</div> - <div class='line in2'><span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span>Feeling life will soon be giving</div> - <div class='line in2'>Them the golden key of living</div> - <div class='line in12'>In one hour.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>We come to California for the sunshine and the flowers;</div> - <div class='line'>Our motherhood has brought us here as one;</div> - <div class='line'>For the fruit of all the ages should share the shining hours,</div> - <div class='line in2'>With the blossoms ever-springing</div> - <div class='line in2'>And the golden globes low swinging,</div> - <div class='line in12'>In the sun.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>SHE WHO IS TO COME.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A woman—in so far as she beholdeth</div> - <div class='line in6'>Her one Beloved’s face;</div> - <div class='line'>A mother—with a great heart that enfoldeth</div> - <div class='line in6'>The children of the Race;</div> - <div class='line'>A body, free and strong, with that high beauty</div> - <div class='line in6'>That comes of perfect use, is built thereof;</div> - <div class='line'>A mind where Reason ruleth over Duty,</div> - <div class='line in6'>And Justice reigns with Love;</div> - <div class='line'>A self-poised, royal soul, brave, wise, and tender,</div> - <div class='line in6'>No longer blind and dumb;</div> - <div class='line'>A Human Being, of an unknown splendor,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Is she who is to come!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span> - <h3 class='c002'>GIRLS OF TO-DAY.</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Girls of to-day! Give ear!</div> - <div class='line'>Never since time began</div> - <div class='line'>Has come to the race of man</div> - <div class='line'>A year, a day, an hour,</div> - <div class='line'>So full of promise and power</div> - <div class='line in2'>As the time that now is here!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Never in all the lands</div> - <div class='line'>Was there a power so great,</div> - <div class='line'>To move the wheels of state,</div> - <div class='line'>To lift up body and mind,</div> - <div class='line'>To waken the deaf and blind,</div> - <div class='line in2'>As the power that is in your hands!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Here at the gates of gold</div> - <div class='line'>You stand in the pride of youth,</div> - <div class='line'>Strong in courage and truth,</div> - <div class='line'>Stirred by a force kept back</div> - <div class='line'>Through centuries long and black,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Armed with a power threefold!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>First: You are makers of men!</div> - <div class='line'>Then Be the things you preach!</div> - <div class='line'>Let your own greatness teach!</div> - <div class='line'>When mothers like this you see</div> - <div class='line'>Men will be strong and free—</div> - <div class='line in2'>Then, and not till then!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'><span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span>Second: Since Adam fell,</div> - <div class='line'>Have you not heard it said</div> - <div class='line'>That men by women are led?</div> - <div class='line'>True is the saying—true!</div> - <div class='line'>See to it what you do!</div> - <div class='line in2'>See that you lead them well!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Third: You have work of your own!</div> - <div class='line'>Maid and mother and wife,</div> - <div class='line'>Look in the face of life!</div> - <div class='line'>There are duties you owe the race!</div> - <div class='line'>Outside your dwelling-place</div> - <div class='line in2'>There is work for you alone!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Maid and mother and wife,</div> - <div class='line'>See your own work be done!</div> - <div class='line'>Be worthy a noble son!</div> - <div class='line'>Help man in the upward way!</div> - <div class='line'>Truly, a girl to-day</div> - <div class='line in2'>Is the strongest thing in life!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>“WE, AS WOMEN.”</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>There’s a cry in the air about us—</div> - <div class='line in2'>We hear it before, behind—</div> - <div class='line'>Of the way in which “We, as women,”</div> - <div class='line in2'>Are going to lift mankind!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span>With our white frocks starched and ruffled,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And our soft hair brushed and curled—</div> - <div class='line'>Hats off! for “we, as women,”</div> - <div class='line in2'>Are coming to help the world!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Fair sisters, listen one moment—</div> - <div class='line in2'>And perhaps you’ll pause for ten:</div> - <div class='line'>The business of women as women</div> - <div class='line in2'>Is only with men as men!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>What we do, “we, as women,”</div> - <div class='line in2'>We have done all through our life;</div> - <div class='line'>The work that is ours as women</div> - <div class='line in2'>Is the work of mother and wife!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But to elevate public opinion,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And to lift up erring man,</div> - <div class='line'>Is the work of the Human Being;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Let us do it—if we can.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But wait, warm-hearted sisters—</div> - <div class='line in2'>Not quite so fast, so far.</div> - <div class='line'>Tell me how we are going to lift a thing</div> - <div class='line in2'>Any higher than we are!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>We are going to “purify politics”</div> - <div class='line in2'>And to “elevate the press.”</div> - <div class='line'>We enter the foul paths of the world</div> - <div class='line in2'>To sweeten and cleanse and bless.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span>To hear the high things we are going to do,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And the horrors of man we tell,</div> - <div class='line'>One would think “we, as women,” were angels,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And our brothers were fiends of hell.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>We, that were born of one mother,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And reared in the selfsame place,—</div> - <div class='line'>In the school and the church together,—</div> - <div class='line in2'>We, of one blood, one race!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Now then, all forward together!</div> - <div class='line in2'>But remember, every one,</div> - <div class='line'>That it is not by feminine innocence</div> - <div class='line in2'>The work of the world is done.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The world needs strength and courage,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And wisdom to help and feed—</div> - <div class='line'>When “we, as women,” bring these to man,</div> - <div class='line in2'>We shall lift the world indeed!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>IF MOTHER KNEW.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>If mother knew the way I felt,—</div> - <div class='line in2'>And I’m sure a mother should,—</div> - <div class='line'>She wouldn’t make it quite so hard</div> - <div class='line in2'>For a person to be good!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I want to do the way she says;</div> - <div class='line in2'>I try to all day long;</div> - <div class='line'>And then she just skips all the right,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And pounces on the wrong!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>A dozen times I do a thing,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And one time I forget;</div> - <div class='line'>And then she looks at me and asks</div> - <div class='line in2'>If I can’t remember yet?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>She’ll tell me to do something,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And I’ll really start to go;</div> - <div class='line'>But she’ll keep right on telling it</div> - <div class='line in2'>As if I didn’t know.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Till it seems as if I couldn’t—</div> - <div class='line in2'>It makes me kind of wild;</div> - <div class='line'>And then she says she never saw</div> - <div class='line in2'>Such a disobliging child.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I go to bed all sorry,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And say my prayers, and cry,</div> - <div class='line'>And mean next day to be so good</div> - <div class='line in2'>I just can’t wait to try.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And I get up next morning,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And mean to do just right;</div> - <div class='line'>But mother’s sure to scold me</div> - <div class='line in2'>About something, before night.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I wonder if she really thinks</div> - <div class='line in2'>A child could go so far,</div> - <div class='line'>As to be perfect all the time</div> - <div class='line in2'>As the grown up people are!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span>If she only knew I tried to,—</div> - <div class='line in2'>And I’m sure a mother should,—</div> - <div class='line'>She wouldn’t make it quite so hard</div> - <div class='line in2'>For a person to be good!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE ANTI-SUFFRAGISTS.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Fashionable women in luxurious homes,</div> - <div class='line'>With men to feed them, clothe them, pay their bills,</div> - <div class='line'>Bow, doff the hat, and fetch the handkerchief;</div> - <div class='line'>Hostess or guest, and always so supplied</div> - <div class='line'>With graceful deference and courtesy;</div> - <div class='line'>Surrounded by their servants, horses, dogs,—</div> - <div class='line'>These tell us they have all the rights they want.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Successful women who have won their way</div> - <div class='line'>Alone, with strength of their unaided arm,</div> - <div class='line'>Or helped by friends, or softly climbing up</div> - <div class='line'>By the sweet aid of “woman’s influence;”</div> - <div class='line'>Successful any way, and caring naught</div> - <div class='line'>For any other woman’s unsuccess,—</div> - <div class='line'>These tell us they have all the rights they want.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Religious women of the feebler sort,—</div> - <div class='line'>Not the religion of a righteous world,</div> - <div class='line'>A free, enlightened, upward-reaching world,</div> - <div class='line'>But the religion that considers life</div> - <div class='line'>As something to back out of!—whose ideal</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span>Is to renounce, submit, and sacrifice,</div> - <div class='line'>Counting on being patted on the head</div> - <div class='line'>And given a high chair when they get to heaven,—</div> - <div class='line'>These tell us they have all the rights they want.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Ignorant women—college-bred sometimes,</div> - <div class='line'>But ignorant of life’s realities</div> - <div class='line'>And principles of righteous government,</div> - <div class='line'>And how the privileges they enjoy</div> - <div class='line'>Were won with blood and tears by those before—</div> - <div class='line'>Those they condemn, whose ways they now oppose;</div> - <div class='line'>Saying, “Why not let well enough alone?</div> - <div class='line'>Our world is very pleasant as it is,”—</div> - <div class='line'>These tell us they have all the rights they want.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And selfish women,—pigs in petticoats,—</div> - <div class='line'>Rich, poor, wise, unwise, top or bottom round,</div> - <div class='line'>But all sublimely innocent of thought,</div> - <div class='line'>And guiltless of ambition, save the one</div> - <div class='line'>Deep, voiceless aspiration—to be fed!</div> - <div class='line'>These have no use for rights or duties more.</div> - <div class='line'>Duties to-day are more than they can meet,</div> - <div class='line'>And law insures their right to clothes and food,—</div> - <div class='line'>These tell us they have all the rights they want.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And, more’s the pity, some good women, too;</div> - <div class='line'>Good conscientious women, with ideas;</div> - <div class='line'>Who think—or think they think—that woman’s cause</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span>Is best advanced by letting it alone;</div> - <div class='line'>That she somehow is not a human thing,</div> - <div class='line'>And not to be helped on by human means,</div> - <div class='line'>Just added to humanity—an “L”—</div> - <div class='line'>A wing, a branch, an extra, not mankind,—</div> - <div class='line'>These tell us they have all the rights they want.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And out of these has come a monstrous thing,</div> - <div class='line'>A strange, down-sucking whirlpool of disgrace,</div> - <div class='line'>Women uniting against womanhood,</div> - <div class='line'>And using that great name to hide their sin!</div> - <div class='line'>Vain are their words as that old king’s command</div> - <div class='line'>Who set his will against the rising tide.</div> - <div class='line'>But who shall measure the historic shame</div> - <div class='line'>Of these poor traitors—traitors are they all—</div> - <div class='line'>To great Democracy and Womanhood!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>WOMEN DO NOT WANT IT.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>When the woman suffrage argument first stood upon its legs,</div> - <div class='line'>They answered it with cabbages, they answered it with eggs,</div> - <div class='line'>They answered it with ridicule, they answered it with scorn,</div> - <div class='line'>They thought it a monstrosity that should not have been born.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span>When the woman suffrage argument grew vigorous and wise,</div> - <div class='line'>And was not to be silenced by these apposite replies,</div> - <div class='line'>They turned their opposition into reasoning severe</div> - <div class='line'>Upon the limitations of our God-appointed sphere.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>We were told of disabilities,—a long array of these,</div> - <div class='line'>Till one would think that womanhood was merely a disease;</div> - <div class='line'>And “the maternal sacrifice” was added to the plan</div> - <div class='line'>Of the various sacrifices we have always made—to man.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Religionists and scientists, in amity and bliss,</div> - <div class='line'>However else they disagreed, could all agree on this,</div> - <div class='line'>And the gist of all their discourse, when you got down to it,</div> - <div class='line'>Was—we could not have the ballot because we were not fit!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>They would not hear to reason, they would not fairly yield,</div> - <div class='line'>They would not own their arguments were beaten in the field;</div> - <div class='line'>But time passed on, and someway, we need not ask them how,</div> - <div class='line'>Whatever ails those arguments—we do not hear them now!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span>You may talk of woman suffrage now with an educated man,</div> - <div class='line'>And he agrees with all you say, as sweetly as he can;</div> - <div class='line'>’Twould be better for us all, of course, if womanhood was free;</div> - <div class='line'>But “the women do not want it”—and so it must not be!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>’Tis such a tender thoughtfulness! So exquisite a care!</div> - <div class='line'>Not to pile on our fair shoulders what we do not wish to bear!</div> - <div class='line'>But, oh, most generous brother! Let us look a little more—</div> - <div class='line'>Have we women always wanted what you gave to us before?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Did we ask for veils and harems in the Oriental races?</div> - <div class='line'>Did we beseech to be “unclean,” shut out of sacred places?</div> - <div class='line'>Did we beg for scolding bridles and ducking stools to come?</div> - <div class='line'>And clamor for the beating stick no thicker than your thumb?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span>Did we seek to be forbidden from all the trades that pay?</div> - <div class='line'>Did we claim the lower wages for a man’s full work to-day?</div> - <div class='line'>Have we petitioned for the laws wherein our shame is shown:</div> - <div class='line'>That not a woman’s child—nor her own body—is her own?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>What women want has never been a strongly acting cause</div> - <div class='line'>When woman has been wronged by man in churches, customs, laws;</div> - <div class='line'>Why should he find this preference so largely in his way</div> - <div class='line'>When he himself admits the right of what we ask to-day?</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>WEDDED BLISS.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“O come and be my mate!” said the Eagle to the Hen;</div> - <div class='line in10'>“I love to soar, but then</div> - <div class='line in10'>I want my mate to rest</div> - <div class='line in10'>Forever in the nest!”</div> - <div class='line in10'>Said the Hen, “I cannot fly,</div> - <div class='line in10'>I have no wish to try,</div> - <div class='line'>But I joy to see my mate careering through the sky!”</div> - <div class='line'>They wed, and cried, “Ah, this is Love, my own!”</div> - <div class='line'>And the Hen sat, the Eagle soared, alone.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span>“O come and be my mate!” said the Lion to the Sheep;</div> - <div class='line in10'>“My love for you is deep!</div> - <div class='line in10'>I slay, a Lion should,</div> - <div class='line in10'>But you are mild and good!”</div> - <div class='line in10'>Said the Sheep, “I do no ill—</div> - <div class='line in10'>Could not, had I the will—</div> - <div class='line'>But I joy to see my mate pursue, devour, and kill.”</div> - <div class='line'>They wed, and cried, “Ah, this is Love, my own!”</div> - <div class='line'>And the Sheep browsed, the Lion prowled, alone.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“O come and be my mate!” said the Salmon to the Clam;</div> - <div class='line in10'>“You are not wise, but I am.</div> - <div class='line in10'>I know sea and stream as well;</div> - <div class='line in10'>You know nothing but your shell.”</div> - <div class='line in10'>Said the Clam, “I’m slow of motion,</div> - <div class='line in10'>But my love is all devotion,</div> - <div class='line'>And I joy to have my mate traverse lake and stream and ocean!”</div> - <div class='line'>They wed, and cried, “Ah, this is Love, my own!”</div> - <div class='line'>And the Clam sucked, the Salmon swam, alone.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE HOLY STOVE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>O the soap-vat is a common thing!</div> - <div class='line in6'>The pickle-tub is low!</div> - <div class='line'>The loom and wheel have lost their grace</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span>In falling from the dwelling-place</div> - <div class='line in6'>To mills where all may go!</div> - <div class='line'>The bread-tray needeth not your love;</div> - <div class='line in6'>The wash-tub wide doth roam;</div> - <div class='line'>Even the oven free may rove;</div> - <div class='line'>But bow ye down to the Holy Stove,</div> - <div class='line in6'>The Altar of the Home!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Before it bend the worshippers,</div> - <div class='line in6'>And wreaths of parsley twine;</div> - <div class='line'>Above it still the incense curls,</div> - <div class='line'>And a passing train of hired girls</div> - <div class='line in6'>Do service at the shrine.</div> - <div class='line'>We toil to keep the altar crowned</div> - <div class='line in6'>With dishes new and nice,</div> - <div class='line'>And Art and Love, and Time and Truth,</div> - <div class='line'>We offer up, with Health and Youth,</div> - <div class='line in6'>In daily sacrifice.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Speak not to us of a fairer faith,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Of a lifetime free from pain.</div> - <div class='line'>Our fathers always worshipped here,</div> - <div class='line'>Our mothers served this altar drear,</div> - <div class='line in6'>And still we serve amain.</div> - <div class='line'>Our earliest dreams around it cling,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Bright hopes that childhood sees,</div> - <div class='line'>And memory leaves a vista wide</div> - <div class='line'>Where Mother’s Doughnuts rank beside</div> - <div class='line in6'>The thought of Mother’s Knees.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span>The wood-box hath no sanctity;</div> - <div class='line in6'>No glamour gilds the coal;</div> - <div class='line'>But the Cook-Stove is a sacred thing</div> - <div class='line'>To which a reverent faith we bring</div> - <div class='line in6'>And serve with heart and soul.</div> - <div class='line'>The Home’s a temple all divine,</div> - <div class='line in6'>By the Poker and the Hod!</div> - <div class='line'>The Holy Stove is the altar fine,</div> - <div class='line'>The wife the priestess at the shrine—</div> - <div class='line in6'>Now who can be the god?</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE MOTHER’S CHARGE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>She raised her head. With hot and glittering eye,</div> - <div class='line'>“I know,” she said, “that I am going to die.</div> - <div class='line'>Come here, my daughter, while my mind is clear.</div> - <div class='line'>Let me make plain to you your duty here;</div> - <div class='line'>My duty once—I never failed to try—</div> - <div class='line'>But for some reason I am going to die.”</div> - <div class='line'>She raised her head, and, while her eyes rolled wild,</div> - <div class='line'>Poured these instructions on the gasping child:</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Begin at once—don’t iron sitting down—</div> - <div class='line'>Wash your potatoes when the fat is brown—</div> - <div class='line'>Monday, unless it rains—it always pays</div> - <div class='line'>To get fall sewing done on the right days—</div> - <div class='line'>A carpet-sweeper and a little broom—</div> - <div class='line'>Save dishes—wash the summer dining-room</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span>With soda—keep the children out of doors—</div> - <div class='line'>The starch is out—beeswax on all the floors—</div> - <div class='line'>If girls are treated like your friends they stay—</div> - <div class='line'>They stay, and treat you like their friends—the way</div> - <div class='line'>To make home happy is to keep a jar—</div> - <div class='line'>And save the prettiest pieces for the star</div> - <div class='line'>In the middle—blue’s too dark—all silk is best—</div> - <div class='line'>And don’t forget the corners—when they’re dressed</div> - <div class='line'>Put them on ice—and always wash the chest</div> - <div class='line'>Three times a day, the windows every week—</div> - <div class='line'>We need more flour—the bedroom ceilings leak—</div> - <div class='line'>It’s better than onion—keep the boys at home—</div> - <div class='line'>Gardening is good—a load, three loads of loam—</div> - <div class='line'>They bloom in spring—and smile, smile always, dear—</div> - <div class='line'>Be brave, keep on—I hope I’ve made it clear.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>She died, as all her mothers died before.</div> - <div class='line'>Her daughter died in turn, and made one more.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>A BROOD MARE.</h3> - -<p class='c009'>It is a significant fact that the phenomenal improvement in horses -during recent years is accompanied by the growing conviction that -good points and a good record are as desirable in the dam as in the -sire, if not more so.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I had a quarrel yesterday,</div> - <div class='line in2'>A violent dispute,</div> - <div class='line'>With a man who tried to sell to me</div> - <div class='line in2'>A strange amorphous brute;</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span>A creature disproportionate,</div> - <div class='line in2'>A beast to make you stare,</div> - <div class='line'>An undeveloped, overgrown,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Outrageous-looking mare.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Her fore legs they were weak and thin,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Her hind legs weak and fat;</div> - <div class='line'>She was heavy in the quarters,</div> - <div class='line in2'>With a narrow chest and flat;</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And she had managed to combine—</div> - <div class='line in2'>I’m sure I don’t know how—</div> - <div class='line'>The barrel of a greyhound</div> - <div class='line in2'>With the belly of a cow.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>She seemed exceeding feeble,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And he owned with manner bland</div> - <div class='line'>That she walked a little, easily,</div> - <div class='line in2'>But wasn’t fit to stand.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I tried to mount the animal</div> - <div class='line in2'>To test her on the track;</div> - <div class='line'>But he cried in real anxiety,</div> - <div class='line in2'>“Get off! You’ll strain her back!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And then I sought to harness her,</div> - <div class='line in2'>But he explained at length</div> - <div class='line'>That any draught or carriage work</div> - <div class='line in2'>Was quite beyond her strength.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span>“No use to carry or to pull!</div> - <div class='line in2'>No use upon the course!”</div> - <div class='line'>Said I, “How can you have the face</div> - <div class='line in2'>To call that thing a horse?”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Said he, indignantly, “I don’t!</div> - <div class='line in2'>I’m dealing on the square;</div> - <div class='line'>I never said it was a horse,</div> - <div class='line in2'>I told you ’twas a mare!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“A mare was never meant to race,</div> - <div class='line in2'>To carry, or to pull;</div> - <div class='line'>She is meant for breeding only, so</div> - <div class='line in2'>Her place in life is full.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Said I, “Do you pretend to breed</div> - <div class='line in2'>From such a beast as that?</div> - <div class='line'>A mass of shapeless skin and bone,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Or shapeless skin and fat?”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Said he, “Her sire was thoroughbred,</div> - <div class='line in2'>As fine as walked the earth,</div> - <div class='line'>And all her colts receive from him</div> - <div class='line in2'>The marks of noble birth;</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“And then I mate her carefully</div> - <div class='line in2'>With horses fine and fit;</div> - <div class='line'>Mares do not need to have themselves</div> - <div class='line in2'>The points which they transmit!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span>Said I, “Do you pretend to say</div> - <div class='line in2'>You can raise colts as fair</div> - <div class='line'>From that fat cripple as you can</div> - <div class='line in2'>From an able-bodied mare?”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Quoth he, “I solemnly assert,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Just as I said before,</div> - <div class='line'>A mare that’s good for breeding</div> - <div class='line in2'>Can be good for nothing more!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Cried I, “One thing is certain proof;</div> - <div class='line in2'>One thing I want to see;</div> - <div class='line'>Trot out the noble colts you raise</div> - <div class='line in2'>From your anomaly.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>He looked a little dashed at this,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And the poor mare hung her head.</div> - <div class='line'>“Fact is,” said he, “she’s had but one,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And that one—well, it’s dead!”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>FEMININE VANITY.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Feminine Vanity! O ye Gods! Hear to this man!</div> - <div class='line in2'>As if silk and velvet and feathers and fur</div> - <div class='line in2'>And jewels and gold had been just for her,</div> - <div class='line in12'>Since the world began!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Where is his memory? Let him look back—all of the way!</div> - <div class='line in2'>Let him study the history of his race</div> - <div class='line in2'>From the first he-savage that painted his face</div> - <div class='line in12'>To the dude of to-day!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_165'>165</span>Vanity! Oh! Are the twists and curls,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The intricate patterns in red, black, and blue,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The wearisome tortures of rich tattoo,</div> - <div class='line in12'>Just made for girls?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Is it only the squaw who files the teeth,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And dangles the lip, and bores the ear,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And wears bracelet and necklet and anklet as queer</div> - <div class='line in12'>As the bones beneath?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Look at the soldier, the noble, the king!</div> - <div class='line in2'>Egypt or Greece or Rome discloses</div> - <div class='line in2'>The purples and perfumes and gems and roses</div> - <div class='line in12'>On a masculine thing!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Look at the men of our own dark ages!</div> - <div class='line in2'>Heroes too, in their cloth of gold,</div> - <div class='line in2'>With jewels as thick as the cloth could hold,</div> - <div class='line in12'>On the knights and pages!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>We wear false hair? Our man looks big!</div> - <div class='line in2'>But it’s not so long, let me beg to state,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Since every gentleman shaved his pate</div> - <div class='line in12'>And wore a wig.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>French heels? Sharp toes? See our feet defaced?</div> - <div class='line in2'>But there was a day when the soldier free</div> - <div class='line in2'>Tied the toe of his shoe to the manly knee—</div> - <div class='line in12'>Yes, and even his waist!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_166'>166</span>We pad and stuff? Our man looks bolder.</div> - <div class='line in2'>Don’t speak of the time when a bran-filled bunch</div> - <div class='line in2'>Made an English gentleman look like Punch—</div> - <div class='line in12'>But feel of his shoulder!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Feminine Vanity! O ye Gods! Hear to these men!</div> - <div class='line in2'>Vanity’s wide as the world is wide!</div> - <div class='line in2'>Look at the peacock in his pride—</div> - <div class='line in12'>Is it a hen?</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE MODEST MAID.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I am a modest San Francisco maid,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Fresh, fair, and young,</div> - <div class='line'>Such as the painters gladly have displayed,</div> - <div class='line in8'>The poets sung.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Modest?—Oh, modest as a bud unblown,</div> - <div class='line in8'>A thought unspoken;</div> - <div class='line'>Hidden and cherished, unbeheld, unknown,</div> - <div class='line in8'>In peace unbroken.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Far from the holy shades of this my home,</div> - <div class='line in8'>The coarse world raves,</div> - <div class='line'>And the New Woman cries to heaven’s dome</div> - <div class='line in8'>For what she craves.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Loud, vulgar, public, screaming from the stage,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Her skirt divided,</div> - <div class='line'>Riding cross-saddled on the dying age,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Justly derided.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_167'>167</span>I blush for her, I blush for our sweet sex</div> - <div class='line in8'>By her disgraced.</div> - <div class='line'>My sphere is home. My soul I do not vex</div> - <div class='line in8'>With zeal misplaced.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Come then to me with happy heart, O man!</div> - <div class='line in8'>I wait your visit.</div> - <div class='line'>To guide your footsteps I do all I can,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Am most explicit.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>As veined flower-petals teach the passing bee</div> - <div class='line in8'>The way to honey,</div> - <div class='line'>So printer’s ink displayed instructeth thee</div> - <div class='line in8'>Where lies my money.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Go see! In type and cut across the page,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Before the nation,</div> - <div class='line'>There you may read about my eyes, my age,</div> - <div class='line in8'>My education,</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>My fluffy golden hair, my tiny feet,</div> - <div class='line in8'>My pet ambition,</div> - <div class='line'>My well-developed figure, and my sweet,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Retiring disposition.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>All, all is there, and now I coyly wait.</div> - <div class='line in8'>Pray don’t delay.</div> - <div class='line'>My address does the Blue Book plainly state,</div> - <div class='line in8'>And mamma’s “day.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>San Francisco, 1895.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_168'>168</span> - <h3 class='c002'>UNSEXED.</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>It was a wild rebellious drone</div> - <div class='line in2'>That loudly did complain;</div> - <div class='line'>He wished he was a worker bee</div> - <div class='line in2'>With all his might and main.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“I want to work,” the drone declared.</div> - <div class='line in2'>Quoth they, “The thing you mean</div> - <div class='line'>Is that you scorn to be a drone</div> - <div class='line in2'>And long to be a queen.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“You long to lay unnumbered eggs,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And rule the waiting throng;</div> - <div class='line'>You long to lead our summer flight,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And this is rankly wrong.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Cried he, “My life is pitiful!</div> - <div class='line in2'>I only eat and wed,</div> - <div class='line'>And in my marriage is the end—</div> - <div class='line in2'>Thereafter I am dead.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“I would I were the busy bee</div> - <div class='line in2'>That flits from flower to flower;</div> - <div class='line'>I long to share in work and care</div> - <div class='line in2'>And feel the worker’s power.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Quoth they, “The life you dare to spurn</div> - <div class='line in2'>Is set before you here</div> - <div class='line'>As your one great, prescribed, ordained,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Divinely ordered sphere!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_169'>169</span>“Without your, services as drone,</div> - <div class='line in2'>We should not be alive;</div> - <div class='line'>Your modest task, when well fulfilled,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Preserves the busy hive.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Why underrate your blessed power?</div> - <div class='line in2'>Why leave your rightful throne</div> - <div class='line'>To choose a field of life that’s made</div> - <div class='line in2'>For working bees alone?”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Cried he, “But it is not enough,</div> - <div class='line in2'>My momentary task!</div> - <div class='line'>Let me do that and more beside:</div> - <div class='line in2'>To work is all I ask!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then fiercely rose the workers all,</div> - <div class='line in2'>For sorely were they vexed;</div> - <div class='line'>“O wretch!” they cried, “should this betide,</div> - <div class='line in2'>You would become <i>unsexed</i>!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And yet he had not sighed for eggs,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Nor yet for royal mien;</div> - <div class='line'>He longed to be a worker bee,</div> - <div class='line in2'>But not to be a queen.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>FEMALES.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The female fox she is a fox;</div> - <div class='line in2'>The female whale a whale;</div> - <div class='line'>The female eagle holds her place</div> - <div class='line'>As representative of race</div> - <div class='line in2'>As truly as the male.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_170'>170</span>The mother hen doth scratch for her chicks,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And scratch for herself beside;</div> - <div class='line'>The mother cow doth nurse her calf,</div> - <div class='line'>Yet fares as well as her other half</div> - <div class='line in2'>In the pasture free and wide.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The female bird doth soar in air;</div> - <div class='line in2'>The female fish doth swim;</div> - <div class='line'>The fleet-foot mare upon the course</div> - <div class='line'>Doth hold her own with the flying horse—</div> - <div class='line in2'>Yea, and she beateth him!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>One female in the world we find</div> - <div class='line in2'>Telling a different tale.</div> - <div class='line'>It is the female of our race,</div> - <div class='line'>Who holds a parasitic place</div> - <div class='line in2'>Dependent on the male.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Not so, saith she, ye slander me!</div> - <div class='line in2'>No parasite am I!</div> - <div class='line'>I earn my living as a wife;</div> - <div class='line'>My children take my very life.</div> - <div class='line'>Why should I share in human strife.</div> - <div class='line in2'>To plant and build and buy?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The human race holds highest place</div> - <div class='line in2'>In all the world so wide,</div> - <div class='line'>Yet these inferior females wive,</div> - <div class='line'>And raise their little ones alive,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And feed themselves beside.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_171'>171</span>The race is higher than the sex,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Though sex be fair and good;</div> - <div class='line'>A Human Creature is your state,</div> - <div class='line'>And to be human is more great</div> - <div class='line in2'>Than even womanhood!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The female fox she is a fox;</div> - <div class='line in2'>The female whale a whale;</div> - <div class='line'>The female eagle holds her place</div> - <div class='line'>As representative of race</div> - <div class='line in2'>As truly as the male.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>A MOTHER’S SOLILOQUY.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>You soft, pink, moving thing!</div> - <div class='line'>Young limbs that crave</div> - <div class='line'>Motion as free as zephyr-lifted wave;</div> - <div class='line'>Uneasy with the push of unlearned powers!</div> - <div class='line'>Exploring slowly through half-conscious hours;</div> - <div class='line'>With what rich new surprise and joy you feel</div> - <div class='line'>Your own will move yourself from head to heel!</div> - <div class='line'>So, let me swaddle you in bandage tight,</div> - <div class='line'>Dress you in wide, confining folds of white,</div> - <div class='line'>Cover you warmly, hold you close, and so</div> - <div class='line'>A mother’s instinct-guided love I’ll show!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Mysterious little frame!</div> - <div class='line'>Each organ new</div> - <div class='line'>And learning swiftly what it has to do!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_172'>172</span>Thy life’s bright stream—as yet so newly thine—</div> - <div class='line'>Refreshed by heaven’s sunlit air divine;</div> - <div class='line'>With what delight you breathe in rosy ease</div> - <div class='line'>The strengthening, restful, blossom-scented breeze!</div> - <div class='line'>So, let me wrap you in a blanket shawl,</div> - <div class='line'>And veil your face in woollen, when at all</div> - <div class='line'>You meet the air. Here in my arms is best</div> - <div class='line'>The curtained bedroom where your elders rest;</div> - <div class='line'>So shall I guard you from a draught, and so</div> - <div class='line'>A mother’s instinct-guided love I’ll show.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Young earnest mind at work!</div> - <div class='line'>Each sense attends</div> - <div class='line'>To teach you life’s approaching foes and friends;</div> - <div class='line'>Eye, ear, nose, tongue, and ever ready hand,</div> - <div class='line'>Eager to help you learn and understand.</div> - <div class='line'>What floods of happiness the day insures,</div> - <div class='line'>While each new knowledge is becoming yours!</div> - <div class='line'>So, let me firmly take away from you</div> - <div class='line'>The things you so persistently would view;</div> - <div class='line'>And when you stretch the hand that tells so much,</div> - <div class='line'>Rap your soft knuckles and exclaim, “Don’t touch!”</div> - <div class='line'>I’ll tell you what you ought to learn, and so,</div> - <div class='line'>A mother’s instinct-guided love I’ll show.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>An ordinary child at best,</div> - <div class='line'>So neighbors tell;</div> - <div class='line'>Not very large and strong, not very well;</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_173'>173</span>A victim to the measles and the croup,</div> - <div class='line'>Fevers that flush and chill, and coughs that whoop;</div> - <div class='line'>To unknown naughtiness and well-known pain;</div> - <div class='line'>No racial progress here—no special gain!</div> - <div class='line'>But I, your mother, see with other eyes;</div> - <div class='line'>I hold you second to none under skies,</div> - <div class='line'>This estimate, unbased on any fact,</div> - <div class='line'>Shall teach you how to feel and how to act,</div> - <div class='line'>Shall make you wise, and true, and strong, and so,</div> - <div class='line'>A mother’s instinct-guided love I’ll show.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THEY WANDERED FORTH.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>They wandered forth in springtime woods,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Three women, thickly hung</div> - <div class='line'>With yards and yards of woollen goods—</div> - <div class='line in4'>To play that they were young!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The river raced with the racing air;</div> - <div class='line in4'>The woods were wild with song;</div> - <div class='line'>The glad birds darted everywhere—</div> - <div class='line in4'>And so they walked along!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Stiff-bodied, fat, oppressed with cloth,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Dull-colored, sad to see,</div> - <div class='line'>Slow-moving over the bright grass,</div> - <div class='line'>Their shapeless shadows fall and pass,</div> - <div class='line'>And dreaming not—alas! alas!</div> - <div class='line in4'>Of what dear life might be!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_174'>174</span> - <h3 class='c002'>BABY LOVE.</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Baby Love came prancing by,</div> - <div class='line'>Cap on head and sword on thigh,</div> - <div class='line'>Horse to ride and drum to beat,—</div> - <div class='line'>All the world beneath his feet.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Mother Life was sitting there,</div> - <div class='line'>Hard at work and full of care,</div> - <div class='line'>Set of mouth and sad of eye.</div> - <div class='line'>Baby Love came prancing by.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Baby Love was very proud,</div> - <div class='line'>Very lively, very loud;</div> - <div class='line'>Mother Life arose in wrath,</div> - <div class='line'>Set an arm across his path.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Baby Love wept loud and long,</div> - <div class='line'>But his mother’s arm was strong.</div> - <div class='line'>Mother had to work, she said.</div> - <div class='line'>Baby Love was put to bed.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_175'>175</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE MARCH.</h2> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_177'>177</span> - <h3 class='c002'>THE WOLF AT THE DOOR.</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>There’s a haunting horror near us</div> - <div class='line in2'>That nothing drives away:</div> - <div class='line'>Fierce lamping eyes at nightfall,</div> - <div class='line in2'>A crouching shade by day;</div> - <div class='line'>There’s a whining at the threshold,</div> - <div class='line in2'>There’s a scratching at the floor.</div> - <div class='line'>To work! To work! In Heaven’s name!</div> - <div class='line in2'>The wolf is at the door!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The day was long, the night was short,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The bed was hard and cold;</div> - <div class='line'>Still weary are the little ones,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Still weary are the old.</div> - <div class='line'>We are weary in our cradles</div> - <div class='line in2'>From our mother’s toil untold;</div> - <div class='line'>We are born to hoarded weariness</div> - <div class='line in2'>As some to hoarded gold.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>We will not rise! We will not work!</div> - <div class='line in2'>Nothing the day can give</div> - <div class='line'>Is half so sweet as an hour of sleep;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Better to sleep than live!</div> - <div class='line'>What power can stir these heavy limbs?</div> - <div class='line in2'>What hope these dull hearts swell?</div> - <div class='line'>What fear more cold, what pain more sharp,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Than the life we know so well?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_178'>178</span>To die like a man by lead or steel</div> - <div class='line in2'>Is nothing that we should fear;</div> - <div class='line'>No human death would be worse to feel</div> - <div class='line in2'>Than the life that holds us here.</div> - <div class='line'>But this is a fear no heart can face—</div> - <div class='line in2'>A fate no man can dare—</div> - <div class='line'>To be run to earth and die by the teeth</div> - <div class='line in2'>Of the gnawing monster there!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The slow, relentless, padding step</div> - <div class='line in2'>That never goes astray—</div> - <div class='line'>The rustle in the underbrush—</div> - <div class='line in2'>The shadow in the way—</div> - <div class='line'>The straining flight—the long pursuit—</div> - <div class='line in2'>The steady gain behind—</div> - <div class='line'>Death-wearied man and tireless brute,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And the struggle wild and blind!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>There’s a hot breath at the keyhole</div> - <div class='line in2'>And a tearing as of teeth!</div> - <div class='line'>Well do I know the bloodshot eyes</div> - <div class='line in2'>And the dripping jaws beneath!</div> - <div class='line'>There’s a whining at the threshold—</div> - <div class='line in2'>There’s a scratching at the floor—</div> - <div class='line'>To work! To work! In Heaven’s name!</div> - <div class='line in2'>The wolf is at the door!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_179'>179</span> - <h3 class='c002'>THE LOST GAME.</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Came the big children to the little ones,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And unto them full pleasantly did say,</div> - <div class='line'>“Lo! we have spread for you a merry game,</div> - <div class='line'>And ye shall all be winners at the same.</div> - <div class='line in10'>Come now and play!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in6'><i>Great is the game they enter in,—</i></div> - <div class='line in8'><i>Rouge et Noir on a giant scale,—</i></div> - <div class='line in6'><i>Red with blood and black with sin,</i></div> - <div class='line in6'><i>Where many must lose and few may win,</i></div> - <div class='line in8'><i>And the players never fail!</i></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Said the strong children to the weaker ones,</div> - <div class='line in2'>“See, ye are many, and we are but few!</div> - <div class='line'>The mass of all the counters ye divide,</div> - <div class='line'>But few remain to share upon our side.</div> - <div class='line in10'>Play—as we do!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in6'><i>Strange is the game they enter in,—</i></div> - <div class='line in8'><i>Rouge et Noir on a field of pain!</i></div> - <div class='line in6'><i>And the silver white and the yellow gold</i></div> - <div class='line in6'><i>Pile and pile in the victor’s hold,</i></div> - <div class='line in8'><i>While the many play in vain!</i></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Said the weak children to the stronger ones,</div> - <div class='line in2'>“See now, howe’er it fall, we lose our share!</div> - <div class='line'>And play we well or ill we always lose;</div> - <div class='line'>While ye gain always more than ye can use.</div> - <div class='line in10'>Bethink ye—is it fair?”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in6'><span class='pageno' id='Page_180'>180</span><i>Strange is the game they enter in,—</i></div> - <div class='line in8'><i>Rouge et Noir, and the bank is strong!</i></div> - <div class='line in6'><i>Play they well or play they wide</i></div> - <div class='line in6'><i>The gold is still on the banker’s side,</i></div> - <div class='line in8'><i>And the game endureth long.</i></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Said the strong children, each aside to each,</div> - <div class='line in2'>“The game is slow—our gains are all too small!</div> - <div class='line'>Play we together now, ’gainst them apart;</div> - <div class='line'>So shall these dull ones lose it from the start,</div> - <div class='line in10'>And we shall gain it all!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in6'><i>Strange is the game that now they win,—</i></div> - <div class='line in8'><i>Rouge et Noir with a new design!</i></div> - <div class='line in6'><i>What can the many players do</i></div> - <div class='line in6'><i>Whose wits are weak and counters few</i></div> - <div class='line in8'><i>When the Power and the Gold combine?</i></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Said the weak children to the stronger ones,</div> - <div class='line in2'>“We care not for the game!</div> - <div class='line'>For play as we may our chance is small,</div> - <div class='line'>And play as ye may ye have it all.</div> - <div class='line in10'>The end’s the same!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in6'><i>Strange is the game the world doth play,—</i></div> - <div class='line in8'><i>Rouge et Noir, with the counters gold,</i></div> - <div class='line in6'><i>Red with blood and black with sin;</i></div> - <div class='line in6'><i>Few and fewer are they that win</i></div> - <div class='line in8'><i>As the ages pass untold.</i></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_181'>181</span>Said the strong children to the weaker ones,</div> - <div class='line in2'>“Ye lose in laziness! ye lose in sleep!</div> - <div class='line'>Play faster now and make the counters spin!</div> - <div class='line'>Play well, as we, and ye in time shall win!</div> - <div class='line in10'>Play fast! Play deep!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in6'><i>Strange is the game of Rouge et Noir,—</i></div> - <div class='line in8'><i>Never a point have the little ones won.</i></div> - <div class='line in6'><i>The winners are strong and flushed with gain,</i></div> - <div class='line in6'><i>The losers are weak with want and pain,</i></div> - <div class='line in8'><i>And still the game goes on.</i></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But those rich players grew so very few,</div> - <div class='line in2'>So many grew the poor ones, that one day</div> - <div class='line'>They rose up from that table, side by side,</div> - <div class='line'>Calm, countless, terrible—they rose and cried</div> - <div class='line'>In one great voice that shook the heavens wide,</div> - <div class='line in10'>“<span class='sc'>We will not play!</span>”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in6'><i>Where is the game of Rouge et Noir?</i></div> - <div class='line in8'><i>Where is the wealth of yesterday?</i></div> - <div class='line in6'><i>What availeth the power ye tell,</i></div> - <div class='line in6'><i>And the skill in the game ye play so well?</i></div> - <div class='line in8'><i>If the players will not play?</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE LOOKER-ON.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The world was full of the battle,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The whole world far and wide;</div> - <div class='line'>Men and women and children</div> - <div class='line in2'>Were fighting on either side.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_182'>182</span>I was sent from the hottest combat</div> - <div class='line in2'>With a message of life and death,</div> - <div class='line'>Black with smoke and red with blood,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Weary and out of breath,</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Forced to linger a moment,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And bind a stubborn wound,</div> - <div class='line'>Cursing the hurt that kept me back</div> - <div class='line in2'>From the fiery battle-ground.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>When I found a cheerful stranger,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Calm, critical, serene,</div> - <div class='line'>Well sheltered from all danger,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Painting a battle-scene.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>He was cordially glad to see me—</div> - <div class='line in2'>The coolly smiling wretch—</div> - <div class='line'>And inquired with admiration,</div> - <div class='line in2'>“Do you mind if I make a sketch?”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>So he had me down in a minute,</div> - <div class='line in2'>With murmurs of real delight;</div> - <div class='line'>My “color” was “delicious,”</div> - <div class='line in2'>My “action” was “just right!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And he prattled on with ardor</div> - <div class='line in2'>Of the moving scene below;</div> - <div class='line'>Of the “values” of the smoke-wreaths,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And “the splendid rush and go”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_183'>183</span>Of the headlong desperate charges</div> - <div class='line in2'>Where a thousand lives were spent;</div> - <div class='line'>Of the “massing” in the foreground</div> - <div class='line in2'>With the “middle distance” blent.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Said I, “You speak serenely</div> - <div class='line in2'>Of the living death in view.</div> - <div class='line'>These are human creatures dying—</div> - <div class='line in2'>Are you not human too?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“This is a present battle,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Where all men strive to-day.</div> - <div class='line'>How does it chance you sit apart?</div> - <div class='line in2'>Which is your banner—say!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>His fresh cheek blanched a little,</div> - <div class='line in2'>But he answered with a smile</div> - <div class='line'>That he fought not on either side;</div> - <div class='line in2'>He was watching a little while.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Watching!” said I, “and neutral!</div> - <div class='line in2'>Neutral in times like these!”</div> - <div class='line'>And I plucked him off his sketching stool</div> - <div class='line in2'>And brought him to his knees.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I stripped him of his travelling cloak</div> - <div class='line in2'>And showed him to the sky:</div> - <div class='line'>By his uniform—a traitor!</div> - <div class='line in2'>By his handiwork—a spy!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_184'>184</span>I dragged him back to the field he left;</div> - <div class='line in2'>To the fate he was fitted for.</div> - <div class='line'>We have no place for lookers on</div> - <div class='line in2'>When all the world’s at war!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE OLD-TIME WAIL.</h3> - -<p class='c009'>An Associated Press despatch describe the utterance of a -Banners’ Alliance meeting in Kansas as consisting mostly of “the -old-time wail of distress.”</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Still Dives hath no peace. Broken his slumber,</div> - <div class='line in2'>His feasts are troubled, and his pleasures fail;</div> - <div class='line'>For still he hears from voices without number</div> - <div class='line in12'>The same old wail.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>They gather yet in field and town and city,—</div> - <div class='line in2'>The people, discontented, bitter, pale,—</div> - <div class='line'>And murmur of oppression, pain, and pity,—</div> - <div class='line in12'>The old-time wail.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And weary Dives, jaded in his pleasures,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Finding the endless clamor tiresome, stale—</div> - <div class='line'>Would gladly give a part of his wide treasures</div> - <div class='line in12'>To quiet that old wail.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Old? Yes, as old as Egypt. Sounding lowly</div> - <div class='line in2'>From naked millions, in the desert hid,</div> - <div class='line'>Starving and bleeding while they builded, slowly,</div> - <div class='line in12'>The Pharaohs’ pyramid.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_185'>185</span>As old as Rome. That endless empire’s minions</div> - <div class='line in2'>Raised ever and again the same dull cry;</div> - <div class='line'>And even Cæsar’s eagle bent his pinions</div> - <div class='line in12'>While it disturbed the sky.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>As old as the Dark Ages. The lean peasant,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Numerous, patient, still as time went by</div> - <div class='line'>Made his lord’s pastimes something less than pleasant</div> - <div class='line in12'>With that unceasing cry.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>It grew in volume down the crowding ages;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Unheeded still, and unappeased, it swelled.</div> - <div class='line'>And now it pleads in vain, and now it rages—</div> - <div class='line in12'>The answer still withheld.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A century ago it shrieked and clamored</div> - <div class='line in2'>Till trembled emperors and kings grew pale;</div> - <div class='line'>At gates of palaces it roared and hammered,—</div> - <div class='line in12'>The same old wail.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>It got no final answer, though its passion</div> - <div class='line in2'>Altered the face of Europe, monarchs slew;</div> - <div class='line'>But ere it sank to silence, in some fashion</div> - <div class='line in12'>Others were wailing, too.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And now in broad America we hear it,—</div> - <div class='line in2'>From crowded street, from boundless hill and vale.</div> - <div class='line'>Hear, Dives! Have ye not some cause to fear it,—</div> - <div class='line in12'>This old-time wail?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_186'>186</span>Louder, my brother! Let us wail no longer</div> - <div class='line in2'>Like those past sufferers whose hearts did break.</div> - <div class='line'>We are a wiser race, a braver, stronger—</div> - <div class='line in12'>Let us not ask, but take!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>So Dives shall have no distress soever,</div> - <div class='line in2'>No sound of anguished voice by land or sea;</div> - <div class='line'>The old-time wail shall so be stilled forever,</div> - <div class='line in12'>And Dives shall not be!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>FREE LAND IS NOT ENOUGH.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Free land is not enough. In earliest days</div> - <div class='line'>When man, the baby, from the earth’s bare breast</div> - <div class='line'>Drew for himself his simple sustenance,</div> - <div class='line'>Then freedom and his effort were enough.</div> - <div class='line'>The world to which a man is born to-day</div> - <div class='line'>Is a constructed, human, man-built world.</div> - <div class='line'>As the first savage needed the free wood,</div> - <div class='line'>We need the road, the ship, the bridge, the house,</div> - <div class='line'>The government, society, and church,—</div> - <div class='line'>These are the basis of our life to-day,</div> - <div class='line'>As much necessities to modern man</div> - <div class='line'>As was the forest to his ancestor.</div> - <div class='line'>To say to the new-born, “Take here your land;</div> - <div class='line'>In primal freedom settle where you will,</div> - <div class='line'>And work your own salvation in the world,”</div> - <div class='line'>Is but to put the last come upon earth</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_187'>187</span>Back with the dim forerunners of his race</div> - <div class='line'>To climb the race’s stairway in one life!</div> - <div class='line'>Allied society owes to the young—</div> - <div class='line'>The new men come to carry on the world—</div> - <div class='line'>Account for all the past, the deeds, the keys,</div> - <div class='line'>Full access to the riches of the earth.</div> - <div class='line'>Why? That these new ones may not be compelled,</div> - <div class='line'>Each for himself, to do our work again—</div> - <div class='line'>But reach their manhood even with to-day,</div> - <div class='line'>And gain to-morrow sooner. To go on—</div> - <div class='line'>To start from where we are and go ahead—</div> - <div class='line'>That is true progress, true humanity!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>WHO IS TO BLAME?</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Who was to blame in that old time</div> - <div class='line in4'>Of the unnoticed groan,</div> - <div class='line'>When prisoners without proof of crime</div> - <div class='line'>Rotted in dungeons wet with slime,</div> - <div class='line in4'>And died unknown?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>When torture was a common thing,</div> - <div class='line in4'>When fire could speak,</div> - <div class='line'>When the flayed wretch hung quivering,</div> - <div class='line'>And rack-strained tendons, string by string,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Snapped with a shriek?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Is it the Headsman, following still</div> - <div class='line in4'>The laws his masters give?</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_188'>188</span>Is it the Church or King who kill?</div> - <div class='line'>Or just the People, by whose will</div> - <div class='line in4'>Church, King, and Headsman live?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The People, bowing slavish knee</div> - <div class='line in4'>With tribute fruits of earth;</div> - <div class='line'>The People, gathering to see</div> - <div class='line'>The stake, the axe, the gallows-tree,</div> - <div class='line in4'>In brutal mirth!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The People, countenancing pain</div> - <div class='line in4'>By willing presence there;</div> - <div class='line'>The People—you might shriek in vain,</div> - <div class='line'>Poor son of Abel or of Cain—</div> - <div class='line in4'>The People did not care!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And now, in this fair age we’re in,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Who is to blame?</div> - <div class='line'>When men go mad and women sin</div> - <div class='line'>Because the life they struggle in</div> - <div class='line in4'>Enforces shame!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>When torture is so deep, so wide—</div> - <div class='line in4'>The kind we give—</div> - <div class='line'>So long drawn out, so well supplied,</div> - <div class='line'>That men die now by suicide,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Rather than live!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Is it the Rich Man, grinding still</div> - <div class='line in4'>The faces of the poor?</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_189'>189</span>Is it our System which must kill?</div> - <div class='line'>Or just the People, by whose will</div> - <div class='line in4'>That system can endure?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The People, bowing slavish knee</div> - <div class='line in4'>With tribute fruits of earth;</div> - <div class='line'>The People, who can bear to see</div> - <div class='line'>In crime and death and poverty</div> - <div class='line in4'>Fair ground for mirth!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The People, countenancing pain</div> - <div class='line in4'>By willing presence there;</div> - <div class='line'>The People—you may shriek in vain—</div> - <div class='line'>Protest, rebel, beseech, complain—</div> - <div class='line in4'>The People do not care!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Each man and woman feels the weight</div> - <div class='line in4'>Of their own private share;</div> - <div class='line'>But for the suffering of the state,</div> - <div class='line'>That falls on all men soon or late,</div> - <div class='line in4'>The People do not care!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>IF A MAN MAY NOT EAT NEITHER CAN HE WORK.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>How can he work? He never has been taught</div> - <div class='line in2'>The free use of what faculties he had.</div> - <div class='line'>Why should he work? Who ever yet has thought</div> - <div class='line in2'>To give a love of working to the lad.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_190'>190</span>How can he work? His life has felt the lack</div> - <div class='line in2'>Of all that makes us work; the proud, the free,</div> - <div class='line'>Each saying to the world, “I give you back</div> - <div class='line in2'>Part of the glory you have given me!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Why should he work? He has no honor high,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Born of great trust and wealth and sense of power;</div> - <div class='line'>Honor, that makes us yearn before we die</div> - <div class='line in2'>To add our labor to the world’s rich dower.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>How can he work? He has no inner strength</div> - <div class='line in2'>Urging him on to action, no desire</div> - <div class='line'>To strain and wrestle, to achieve at length,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Burning in all his veins,—a hidden fire.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Why should he work? There is no debt behind</div> - <div class='line in2'>That man’s nobility most longs to pay;</div> - <div class='line'>No claim upon him,—only the one blind</div> - <div class='line in2'>Brute instinct that his dinner lies that way.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And that is not enough. Who may not eat</div> - <div class='line in2'>Freely at life’s full table all his youth,</div> - <div class='line'>Can never work in power and joy complete,</div> - <div class='line in2'>In fulness, and in honor, and in truth.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>HIS OWN LABOR.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Let every man be given what he earns!</div> - <div class='line'>We cry, and call it justice. Let him have</div> - <div class='line'>The product of his labor—and no more!</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_191'>191</span>Well, then, let us begin with life’s first needs,</div> - <div class='line'>And give him of the earth what he can make;</div> - <div class='line'>As much of air and light as he can make,</div> - <div class='line'>As much of ocean, and sweet wind and rain,</div> - <div class='line'>And flowers, and grass, and fruit, as he can make.</div> - <div class='line'>But no, we answer this is mockery:</div> - <div class='line'>No man makes these things. But of human wealth</div> - <div class='line'>Let every man be given what he makes,</div> - <div class='line'>The product of his labor, and no more.</div> - <div class='line'>Ah, well! So to the farmer let us give</div> - <div class='line'>Corn, and still corn, and only corn at last.</div> - <div class='line'>So to the grazier, meat; the fisher, fish;</div> - <div class='line'>Cloth to the weaver; to the mason, walls;</div> - <div class='line'>And let the writer sit and read his books—</div> - <div class='line'>The product of his labor—and naught else!</div> - <div class='line'>But no, we answer! Still you laugh at us.</div> - <div class='line'>We mean not his own labor in that sense,</div> - <div class='line'>But his share in the work of other men.</div> - <div class='line'>As much of what they make as he can buy</div> - <div class='line'>In fair exchange for labor of his own.</div> - <div class='line'>So let it be. As much of life’s rich fruit—</div> - <div class='line'>The product of the labor of the world—</div> - <div class='line'>As he can equal with his own two hands,</div> - <div class='line'>His own supply of energy and skill!</div> - <div class='line'>As much of Shakespeare, Homer, Socrates,</div> - <div class='line'>As much of Wagner, Beethoven, and Bach,</div> - <div class='line'>As much of Franklin, Morse, and Edison,</div> - <div class='line'>As much of Watt, and Stephenson and Bell,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_192'>192</span>Of Euclid, Aristotle, Angelo,</div> - <div class='line'>Columbus, Raleigh, and George Washington,</div> - <div class='line'>Of all the learning of our patient years,</div> - <div class='line'>Of all the peace and smoothness we have won,</div> - <div class='line'>Of all the heaped up sciences and arts,</div> - <div class='line'>And luxuries that man has ever made,—</div> - <div class='line'>He is to have what his own toil can match!</div> - <div class='line'>Or, passing even this, giving no thought</div> - <div class='line'>To this our heritage, our vast bequest,</div> - <div class='line'>Condemn him to no more of human help</div> - <div class='line'>From living men than he can give to them!</div> - <div class='line'>Toil of the soldiers on the western plains,</div> - <div class='line'>Toil of the hardened sailors on the sea,</div> - <div class='line'>Toil of the sweating ploughman in the field,</div> - <div class='line'>The engine-driver, digger in the mine,</div> - <div class='line'>And weary weaver in the roaring mill.</div> - <div class='line'>Of all the hands and brains and hearts that toil</div> - <div class='line'>To fill the world with riches day by day,</div> - <div class='line'>Shall he have naught of this but what one man</div> - <div class='line'>Can give return for from his own supply?</div> - <div class='line'>Brother—There is no payment in the world!</div> - <div class='line'>We work and pour our labor at the feet</div> - <div class='line'>Of those who are around us and to come.</div> - <div class='line'>We live and take our living at the hands</div> - <div class='line'>Of those who are around us and have been.</div> - <div class='line'>No one is paid. No person can have more</div> - <div class='line'>Than he can hold. And none can do beyond</div> - <div class='line'>The power that’s in him. To each child that’s born</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_193'>193</span>Belongs as much of all our human good</div> - <div class='line'>As he can take and use to make him strong.</div> - <div class='line'>And from each man, debtor to all the world,</div> - <div class='line'>Is due the fullest fruit of all his powers,</div> - <div class='line'>His whole life’s labor, proudly rendered up,</div> - <div class='line'>Not as return—can moments pay an age?</div> - <div class='line'>But as the simple duty of a man.</div> - <div class='line'>Can he do less—receiving everything?</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>AS FLEW THE CROSS.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>As flew the fiery cross from hand to hand,</div> - <div class='line'>Kindling the scattered people to one flame,</div> - <div class='line'>Out-blazing fiercely to a sudden war;</div> - <div class='line'>As beacon fires flamed up from hill to hill,</div> - <div class='line'>Crying afar to valleys hidden wide</div> - <div class='line'>To tell their many dwellers of a fear</div> - <div class='line'>That made them one—a danger shadowing all!—</div> - <div class='line'>So flies to-day the torch of living fire,</div> - <div class='line'>From mouth to mouth, from distant ear to ear;</div> - <div class='line'>And all the people of all nations hear;</div> - <div class='line'>The printed word, the living word that tells</div> - <div class='line'>Of the great glory of the coming day,—</div> - <div class='line'>The joy that makes us one forevermore!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_194'>194</span> - <h3 class='c002'>TO LABOR.</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Shall you complain who feed the world?</div> - <div class='line in8'>Who clothe the world?</div> - <div class='line in8'>Who house the world?</div> - <div class='line'>Shall you complain who are the world,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Of what the world may do?</div> - <div class='line in8'>As from this hour</div> - <div class='line in8'>You use your power,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The world must follow you!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The world’s life hangs on your right hand!</div> - <div class='line in8'>Your strong right hand!</div> - <div class='line in8'>Your skilled right hand!</div> - <div class='line'>You hold the whole world in your hand.</div> - <div class='line in2'>See to it what you do!</div> - <div class='line in8'>Or dark or light,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Or wrong or right,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The world is made by you!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then rise as you never rose before!</div> - <div class='line in8'>Nor hoped before!</div> - <div class='line in8'>Nor dared before!</div> - <div class='line'>And show as was never shown before,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The power that lies in you!</div> - <div class='line in8'>Stand all as one!</div> - <div class='line in8'>See justice done!</div> - <div class='line in2'>Believe, and Dare, and Do!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_195'>195</span> - <h3 class='c002'>HARDLY A PLEASURE.</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>She had found it dull in her city;</div> - <div class='line in2'>So had they, in a different mob.</div> - <div class='line'>She travelled to look for amusement;</div> - <div class='line in2'>They travelled to look for a job.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>She was loaded with fruit and candy,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And her section piled with flowers,</div> - <div class='line'>With magazine, novels, and papers</div> - <div class='line in2'>To shorten the weary hours.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Her friends came down in a body</div> - <div class='line in2'>With farewells merry and sweet,</div> - <div class='line'>And left her with laughter and kisses,</div> - <div class='line in2'>On the broad plush-cushioned seat.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>She was bored before she started,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And the journey was dull and far.</div> - <div class='line'>“Travelling’s hardly a pleasure!”</div> - <div class='line in2'>Said the girl in the palace car.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><hr /></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then they skulked out in the darkness</div> - <div class='line in2'>And crawled in under the cars,</div> - <div class='line'>To ride on the trucks as best they might,</div> - <div class='line in2'>To hang by the chains and bars.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>None came to see their starting,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And their friendliest look that day</div> - <div class='line'>Was that of a green young brakeman,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Who looked the other way.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_196'>196</span>They were hungry before they started,</div> - <div class='line in2'>With the hunger that turns to pain—</div> - <div class='line'>“Travelling’s hardly a pleasure,”</div> - <div class='line in2'>Said the three men under the train.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><hr /></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>She complained of the smoke and cinders,</div> - <div class='line in2'>She complained of the noise and heat,</div> - <div class='line'>She complained of the table service,</div> - <div class='line in2'>She complained of the things to eat.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>She said it was so expensive,</div> - <div class='line in2'>In spite of one’s utmost care;</div> - <div class='line'>That feeing the porters and waiters</div> - <div class='line in2'>Cost as much as a third-class fare.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>That the seats were dirty and stuffy,</div> - <div class='line in2'>That the berths were worse by far.</div> - <div class='line'>“Travelling’s hardly a pleasure!”</div> - <div class='line in2'>Said the girl in the palace car.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><hr /></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>They hung on in desperate silence,</div> - <div class='line in2'>For a word was a tell-tale shout;</div> - <div class='line'>Their foul hats low on their bloodshot eyes,</div> - <div class='line in2'>To keep the cinders out.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The dirt beat hard on their faces,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The noise beat hard on their ears,</div> - <div class='line'>And a moment’s rest to a straining limb</div> - <div class='line in2'>Meant the worst of human fears.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_197'>197</span>They clutched and clung in the darkness</div> - <div class='line in2'>While the stiffness turned to pain.</div> - <div class='line'>“Travelling’s hardly a pleasure,”</div> - <div class='line in2'>Said the three men under the train.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><hr /></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>She stepped airily out in the morning,</div> - <div class='line in2'>When the porter had brushed her awhile.</div> - <div class='line'>She gave him a silver dollar;</div> - <div class='line in2'>He gave her an ivory smile.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>She complained to her friends that morning</div> - <div class='line in2'>Of a most distressing dream:</div> - <div class='line'>“I thought I heard in the darkness</div> - <div class='line in2'>A sort of a jolting scream!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“I thought I felt in the darkness</div> - <div class='line in2'>The great wheels joggle and swing;</div> - <div class='line'>Travelling’s hardly a pleasure</div> - <div class='line in2'>When you dream such a horrible thing!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><hr /></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>They crept shuddering out in the morning,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Red spots with the coal’s black stain.</div> - <div class='line'>“Travelling’s hardly a pleasure!”</div> - <div class='line in2'>Said the two men under the train.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>NATIONALISM.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The nation is a unit. That which makes</div> - <div class='line'>You an American of our to-day</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_198'>198</span>Requires the nation and its history,</div> - <div class='line'>Requires the sum of all our citizens,</div> - <div class='line'>Requires the product of our common toil,</div> - <div class='line'>Requires the freedom of our common laws,</div> - <div class='line'>The common heart of our humanity.</div> - <div class='line'>Decrease our population, check our growth,</div> - <div class='line'>Deprive us of our wealth, our liberty,</div> - <div class='line'>Lower the nation’s conscience by a hair,</div> - <div class='line'>And you are less than that you were before!</div> - <div class='line'>You stand here in the world the man you are</div> - <div class='line'>Because your country is America.</div> - <div class='line'>Our liberty belongs to each of us;</div> - <div class='line'>The nation guarantees it; in return</div> - <div class='line'>We serve the nation, serving so ourselves.</div> - <div class='line'>Our education is a common right;</div> - <div class='line'>The state provides it, equally to all,</div> - <div class='line'>Each taking what he can, and in return</div> - <div class='line'>We serve the state, so serving best ourselves.</div> - <div class='line'>Food, clothing, all necessities of life,—</div> - <div class='line'>These are a right as much as liberty!</div> - <div class='line'>The nation feeds its children. In return</div> - <div class='line'>We serve the nation, serving still ourselves—</div> - <div class='line'>Nay, not ourselves—ourself! We are but parts,</div> - <div class='line'>The unit is the state,—America.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_199'>199</span> - <h3 class='c002'>THE KING IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE KING!</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>When man, the hunter, winning in the race,</div> - <div class='line'>Had conquered much, and, conquering, grown apace,</div> - <div class='line'>Till out of victory he found defeat,</div> - <div class='line'>And, having eaten all, had naught to eat,—</div> - <div class='line'>Then might some Jeremiah sad have said,</div> - <div class='line'>Seeing his hopeless case, “The King is dead!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But man is master most in power to change;</div> - <div class='line'>He turned his forest to a cattle range;</div> - <div class='line'>There was no foe to strive with—wherefore strive?</div> - <div class='line'>No food to kill—he kept his food alive.</div> - <div class='line'>Herding his dinner, see him sit and sing</div> - <div class='line'>Serene, “The King is dead! Long live the King!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>When man the shepherd, after years did pass,</div> - <div class='line'>By nature’s increase grew, until the grass</div> - <div class='line'>Failed to support the requisite supply</div> - <div class='line'>Of cattle who must live lest he should die;</div> - <div class='line'>Again a grieved observer might be led</div> - <div class='line'>To pitifully say, “The King is dead!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But man, who turned his prey into a pet,</div> - <div class='line'>To outwit hunger, was not baffled yet;</div> - <div class='line'>He’d searched for grass so long he’d learned to praise it,</div> - <div class='line'>And now that grass was short—why, he could raise it!</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_200'>200</span>His dinner sprouted with the happy spring</div> - <div class='line'>Profuse, “The King is dead! Long live the King!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>When man, the farmer, growing very great,</div> - <div class='line'>Out of his children built the busy State,</div> - <div class='line'>Those greedy children, to his loud alarm,</div> - <div class='line'>Pinched all the profits off the old man’s farm,</div> - <div class='line'>Killing the golden goose, and while he bled,</div> - <div class='line'>Cried sage economists, “The King is dead!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But he, good sooth, was never more alive;</div> - <div class='line'>He watched the pools and trusts around him strive,</div> - <div class='line'>And when he’d learned the trick—it was not long—</div> - <div class='line'>He organized himself—a million strong!</div> - <div class='line'>Cornered the food supply! A Farmer’s Ring!</div> - <div class='line'>Hurrah! “The King is dead! Long live the King!”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>“HOW MANY POOR!”</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Whene’er I take my walks abroad, how many poor I see!”</div> - <div class='line'>Said pious Watts, and thanked the Lord that not so poor was he.</div> - <div class='line'>I see so many poor to-day I think I’ll walk no more,</div> - <div class='line'>And then the poor in long array come knocking at my door.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_201'>201</span>The hungry poor! The dirty poor! The poor of evil smell!</div> - <div class='line'>Yet even these we could endure if they were only well!</div> - <div class='line'>But, O, this sick and crippled crew! The lame, the deaf, the blind!</div> - <div class='line'>What can a Christian person do with these upon his mind!</div> - <div class='line'>They keep diseases growing still like plants on greenhouse shelves,</div> - <div class='line'>And they’re so generous they will not keep them to themselves;</div> - <div class='line'>They propagate amazing crimes and vices scandalous,</div> - <div class='line'>And then at most uncertain times they wreak the same on us!</div> - <div class='line'>With charity we would prevent this poverty and woe,</div> - <div class='line'>But find the more we’ve fondly spent, the more the poor do grow!</div> - <div class='line'>We’ve tried by punishment full sore to mend the case they’re in;</div> - <div class='line'>The more we punish them the more they sin, and sin, and sin!</div> - <div class='line'>We make the punishment more kind, we give them wise reform,</div> - <div class='line'>And they, with a contented mind, flock to our prisons warm!</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_202'>202</span>Then science comes with solemn air, and shows us social laws,</div> - <div class='line'>Explaining how the poor are there from a purely natural cause.</div> - <div class='line'>’Tis natural for low and high to struggle and to strive;</div> - <div class='line'>’Tis natural for the worse to die and the better to survive.</div> - <div class='line'>We swallowed all this soothing stuff, and easily were led</div> - <div class='line'>To think if we were stern enough, the poor would soon be dead.</div> - <div class='line'>But, O! in vain we squeeze, and grind, and drive them to the wall—</div> - <div class='line'>For all our deadly work we find it does not kill them all!</div> - <div class='line'>The more we struggle they survive! increase and multiply!</div> - <div class='line'>There seem to be more poor alive, in spite of all that die!</div> - <div class='line'>Whene’er I take my walks abroad how many poor I see,</div> - <div class='line'>And eke at home! How long, O Lord! How long must this thing be!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_203'>203</span> - <h3 class='c002'>THE DEAD LEVEL.</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>There is a fear among us as we strive,</div> - <div class='line in2'>As we succeed or fail, or starve or revel,</div> - <div class='line'>That there will be no pleasure left alive</div> - <div class='line'>When we in peace and joy at last arrive</div> - <div class='line in2'>At one dead level.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And still the strangest part of this strange fear</div> - <div class='line in2'>Is that it is not for ourselves we fear it.</div> - <div class='line'>We wish to rise and gain; we look ahead</div> - <div class='line'>To pleasant years of peace ere we are dead;</div> - <div class='line in2'>We wish that peace, but wish no other near it!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Say, does it spoil your pleasure in a town</div> - <div class='line in2'>To have your neighbors’ gardens full of roses?</div> - <div class='line'>Is your house dearer when its eye looks down</div> - <div class='line'>On evil-smelling shanties rough and brown?</div> - <div class='line in2'>Is your nose safer than your neighbor’s nose is?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Are you unhappy at some noble fête</div> - <div class='line in2'>To see the whole bright throng in radiant dresses?</div> - <div class='line'>Is your State safer when each other State</div> - <div class='line'>That borders it is full of want and hate?</div> - <div class='line in2'>Peace must be peace to all before it blesses.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Is knowledge sweeter when it is hemmed in</div> - <div class='line in2'>By ignorance that does not know its master?</div> - <div class='line'>Is goodness easier when plenteous sin</div> - <div class='line'>Surrounds it? And can you not win</div> - <div class='line in2'>Joy for yourself without your friend’s disaster?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_204'>204</span>O foolish children! With more foolish fear,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Unworthy even of a well-trained devil!</div> - <div class='line'>Good things are good for all men,—that is clear;</div> - <div class='line'>To doubt it shows your heads are nowhere near</div> - <div class='line in2'>To that much-dreaded level!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Our business system has its base</div> - <div class='line'>On one small thought that’s out of place;</div> - <div class='line in2'>The merest trifle—nothing much, of course.</div> - <div class='line'>The truth is there—who says it’s not?</div> - <div class='line'>Only—the trouble is—you’ve got</div> - <div class='line in8'>The cart before the horse!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>You say unless a man shall work</div> - <div class='line'>Right earnestly, and never shirk,</div> - <div class='line in2'>He may not eat. Now look—the change is small,</div> - <div class='line'>And yet the truth is plain to see—</div> - <div class='line'>Unless man eats, and frequently,</div> - <div class='line in8'>He cannot work at all!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And which comes first! Why, that is plain,</div> - <div class='line'>The man comes first. And, look again—</div> - <div class='line in2'>A baby! with an appetite to fit!</div> - <div class='line'>You have to feed him years and years,</div> - <div class='line'>And train him up with toil and tears,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Before he works a bit!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_205'>205</span>So let us change our old ideas,</div> - <div class='line'>And learn with these advancing years</div> - <div class='line in2'>To give the oats before we ask for speed;</div> - <div class='line'>Not set the hungry horse to run,</div> - <div class='line'>And tell him when the race is done</div> - <div class='line in8'>That he shall have his feed!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE AMŒBOID CELL.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Said the Specialized Cell to the Amœboid Cell,</div> - <div class='line in4'>“Why don’t you develop like me?</div> - <div class='line in8'>Just combine with the others,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Unite with your brothers,</div> - <div class='line in4'>And grow to a thing you can see,—</div> - <div class='line in4'>An organized creature like me!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Said the Amœboid Cell to the Specialized Cell,</div> - <div class='line in4'>“But where would my liberty be?</div> - <div class='line in8'>If I’m one with a class,</div> - <div class='line in8'>I should lose in the mass</div> - <div class='line in4'>All my Individualitee!</div> - <div class='line in4'>And that is a horror to me!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Said the Specialized Cell to the Amœboid Cell,</div> - <div class='line in4'>“What good does it do you to-day?</div> - <div class='line in8'>You’re amorphous and small,</div> - <div class='line in8'>You’ve no organs at all,</div> - <div class='line in4'>You can’t even get out of the way!</div> - <div class='line in4'>You don’t half understand what I say!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_206'>206</span>Said the Amœboid Cell to the Specialized Cell,</div> - <div class='line in4'>“But I’m independent and free!</div> - <div class='line in8'>I can float as I please</div> - <div class='line in8'>In these populous seas,</div> - <div class='line in4'>I’m not fastened to anybodee!</div> - <div class='line in4'>I have personal freedom, you see!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“And when I want organs and members and such,</div> - <div class='line in4'>I project them,—an arm or a wing;</div> - <div class='line in8'>I can change as I will,</div> - <div class='line in8'>But you have to keep still—</div> - <div class='line in4'>Just a part of the mass where you cling!</div> - <div class='line in4'>You never can be but one thing!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Said the Specialized Cell to the Amœboid Cell,</div> - <div class='line in4'>“What you say is undoubtedly true,</div> - <div class='line in8'>But I’d rather be part</div> - <div class='line in8'>Of a thing with a heart</div> - <div class='line in4'>Than the whole of a creature like you!</div> - <div class='line in4'>A memberless morsel like you!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“You say you’re immortal and separate and free,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Yet you’ve died by the billion before;</div> - <div class='line in8'>Just a speck in the slime</div> - <div class='line in8'>At the birthday of time,</div> - <div class='line in4'>And you never can be any more!</div> - <div class='line in4'>As you are, you’ve no future in store!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_207'>207</span>“You say you can be many things in yourself,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Yet you’re all just alike to the end!</div> - <div class='line in8'>I am part of a whole—</div> - <div class='line in8'>Of a thing with a soul—</div> - <div class='line in4'>And the whole is the unit, my friend!</div> - <div class='line in4'>But that you can scarce comprehend!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“You are only yourself,—just a series of ones;</div> - <div class='line in4'>You can only say ‘I’—never ‘we’;</div> - <div class='line in8'>All of us are combined</div> - <div class='line in8'>In a creature with mind,</div> - <div class='line in4'>And <i>we</i> are the creature you see!</div> - <div class='line in4'>And the creature feeds <i>us</i>—which is <i>me</i>!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“And being combined in a body like that</div> - <div class='line in4'>It can wisely provide us with food;</div> - <div class='line in8'>And we vary and change</div> - <div class='line in8'>In a limitless range;</div> - <div class='line in4'>We are specialized now, for our good!</div> - <div class='line in4'>And we each do our work—as we should!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“What protection have you from the chances of Fate?</div> - <div class='line in4'>What provision have you for the morrow?</div> - <div class='line in8'>You get food when it drops,</div> - <div class='line in8'>And you die when it stops!</div> - <div class='line in4'>You can’t give or take, lend or borrow!</div> - <div class='line in4'>You helpless free-agent of sorrow!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_208'>208</span>Just then came a frost, and the Amœboid Cell</div> - <div class='line in4'>Died out by the billion again;</div> - <div class='line in8'>But the Specialized Cell</div> - <div class='line in8'>In the body felt well</div> - <div class='line in4'>And rejoiced in his place in the brain!</div> - <div class='line in4'>The dead level of life with a brain!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>In northern zones the ranging bear</div> - <div class='line'>Protects himself with fat and hair.</div> - <div class='line'>Where snow is deep, and ice is stark,</div> - <div class='line'>And half the year is cold and dark,</div> - <div class='line'>He still survives a clime like that</div> - <div class='line'>By growing fur, by growing fat.</div> - <div class='line'>These traits, O Bear, which thou transmittest,</div> - <div class='line'>Prove the survival of the fittest!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>To polar regions, waste and wan,</div> - <div class='line'>Comes the encroaching race of man;</div> - <div class='line'>A puny, feeble little lubber,</div> - <div class='line'>He had no fur, he had no blubber.</div> - <div class='line'>The scornful bear sat down at ease</div> - <div class='line'>To see the stranger starve and freeze;</div> - <div class='line'>But, lo! the stranger slew the bear,</div> - <div class='line'>And ate his fat, and wore his hair!</div> - <div class='line'>These deeds, O Man, which thou committest,</div> - <div class='line'>Prove the survival of the fittest!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_209'>209</span>In modern times the millionaire</div> - <div class='line'>Protects himself as did the bear.</div> - <div class='line'>Where Poverty and Hunger are,</div> - <div class='line'>He counts his bullion by the car.</div> - <div class='line'>Where thousands suffer, still he thrives,</div> - <div class='line'>And after death his will survives.</div> - <div class='line'>The wealth, O Crœsus, thou transmittest</div> - <div class='line'>Proves the survival of the fittest!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But, lo! some people, odd and funny,</div> - <div class='line'>Some men without a cent of money,</div> - <div class='line'>The simple common Human Race,</div> - <div class='line'>Chose to improve their dwelling-place.</div> - <div class='line'>They had no use for millionaires;</div> - <div class='line'>They calmly said the world was theirs;</div> - <div class='line'>They were so wise, so strong, so many—</div> - <div class='line'>The millionaire? There wasn’t any!</div> - <div class='line'>These deeds, O Man, which thou committest,</div> - <div class='line'>Prove the survival of the fittest!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>DIVISION OF PROPERTY.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Some sailors were starving at sea</div> - <div class='line'>On a raft where they happened to be,</div> - <div class='line in4'>When one of the crew</div> - <div class='line in4'>Who was hidden from view</div> - <div class='line'>Was found to be feasting most free.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_210'>210</span>Then they cursed him in language profane,</div> - <div class='line'>Because there on the pitiless main</div> - <div class='line in4'>While the others did starve,</div> - <div class='line in4'>He could ladle and carve,</div> - <div class='line'>Eating food which they could not obtain.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“But,” said he, “’tis my own little store!</div> - <div class='line'>To feed all of you would take more!</div> - <div class='line in4'>If I shared, ’twould be found</div> - <div class='line in4'>That it would not go round;</div> - <div class='line'>And you all would starve on as before!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“It would only prolong your distress</div> - <div class='line'>To distribute this one little mess!</div> - <div class='line in4'>The supply is so small</div> - <div class='line in4'>I had best eat it all,</div> - <div class='line'>For me it will comfort and bless!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>This reasoning sounded most fair,</div> - <div class='line'>But the men had large appetites there,</div> - <div class='line in4'>And while he explained</div> - <div class='line in4'>They ate all that remained,</div> - <div class='line'>Forgetting to leave out his share!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>CHRISTIAN VIRTUES.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Oh, dear!</div> - <div class='line'>The Christian virtues will disappear!</div> - <div class='line'>Nowhere on land or sea</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_211'>211</span>Will be room for charity!</div> - <div class='line'>Nowhere, in field or city,</div> - <div class='line'>A person to help or pity!</div> - <div class='line'>Better for them, no doubt,</div> - <div class='line'>Not to need helping out</div> - <div class='line'>Of their old miry ditch.</div> - <div class='line'>But, alas for us, the rich!</div> - <div class='line'>For we shall lose, you see,</div> - <div class='line'>Our boasted charity!—</div> - <div class='line'>Lose all the pride and joy</div> - <div class='line'>Of giving the poor employ,</div> - <div class='line'>And money, and food, and love</div> - <div class='line'>(And making stock thereof!).</div> - <div class='line'>Our Christian virtues are gone,</div> - <div class='line'>With nothing to practise on!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>It don’t hurt them a bit,</div> - <div class='line'>For they can’t practise it;</div> - <div class='line'>But it’s our great joy and pride—</div> - <div class='line'>What virtue have we beside?</div> - <div class='line'>We believe, as sure as we live,</div> - <div class='line'>That it is more blessed to give</div> - <div class='line'>Than to want, and waste, and grieve,</div> - <div class='line'>And occasionally receive!</div> - <div class='line'>And here are the people pressing</div> - <div class='line'>To rob us of our pet blessing!</div> - <div class='line'>No chance to endow or bedizen</div> - <div class='line'>A hospital, school, or prison,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_212'>212</span>And leave our own proud name</div> - <div class='line'>To Gratitude and Fame!</div> - <div class='line'>No chance to do one good deed,</div> - <div class='line'>To give what we do not need,</div> - <div class='line'>To leave what we cannot use</div> - <div class='line'>To those whom we deign to choose!</div> - <div class='line'>When none want broken meat,</div> - <div class='line'>How shall our cake be sweet?</div> - <div class='line'>When none want flannels and coals,</div> - <div class='line'>How shall we save our souls?</div> - <div class='line'>Oh, dear! Oh, dear!</div> - <div class='line'>The Christian virtues will disappear!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The poor have their virtues rude,—</div> - <div class='line'>Meekness and gratitude,</div> - <div class='line'>Endurance, and respect</div> - <div class='line'>For us, the world’s elect;</div> - <div class='line'>Economy, self-denial,</div> - <div class='line'>Patience in every trial,</div> - <div class='line'>Self-sacrifice, self-restraint,—</div> - <div class='line'>Virtues enough for a saint!</div> - <div class='line'>Virtues enough to bear</div> - <div class='line'>All this life’s sorrow and care!</div> - <div class='line'>Virtues by which to rise</div> - <div class='line'>To a front seat in the skies!</div> - <div class='line'>How can they turn from this</div> - <div class='line'>To common earthly bliss,—</div> - <div class='line'>Mere clothes, and food, and drink,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_213'>213</span>And leisure to read and think,</div> - <div class='line'>And art, and beauty, and ease,—</div> - <div class='line'>There is no crown for these!</div> - <div class='line'>True, if their gratitude</div> - <div class='line'>Were not for fire and food,</div> - <div class='line'>They might still learn to bless</div> - <div class='line'>The Lord for their happiness!</div> - <div class='line'>And, instead of respect for wealth,</div> - <div class='line'>Might learn from beauty, and health,</div> - <div class='line'>And freedom in power and pelf,</div> - <div class='line'>Each man to respect himself!</div> - <div class='line'>And, instead of scraping and saving,</div> - <div class='line'>Might learn from using and having</div> - <div class='line'>That man’s life should be spent</div> - <div class='line'>In a grand development!</div> - <div class='line'>But this is petty and small;</div> - <div class='line'>These are not virtues at all;</div> - <div class='line'>They do not look as they should;</div> - <div class='line'>They don’t do <i>us</i> any good!</div> - <div class='line'>Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Oh, dear!</div> - <div class='line'>The Christian virtues will disappear!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>WHAT’S THAT?</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I met a little person on my land,</div> - <div class='line in2'>A-fishing in the waters of my stream;</div> - <div class='line'>He seemed a man, yet could not understand</div> - <div class='line in2'>Things that to most men very simple seem.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_214'>214</span>“Get off!” said I; “this land is mine, my friend!</div> - <div class='line in2'>Get out!” said I; “this brook belongs to me!</div> - <div class='line'>I own the land, and you must make an end</div> - <div class='line in2'>Of fishing here so free.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“I own this place, the land and water too!</div> - <div class='line in2'>You have no right to be here, that is flat!</div> - <div class='line'>Get off it! That is all I ask of you!—”</div> - <div class='line in2'>“Own it?” said he; “what’s that?”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“What’s that?” said I, “why, that is common sense!</div> - <div class='line in2'>I own the water and the fishing right;</div> - <div class='line'>I own the land from here to yonder fence;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Get off, my friend, or fight!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>He looked at the clear stream so neatly kept;</div> - <div class='line in2'>He looked at teeming vine and laden tree,</div> - <div class='line'>And wealthy fields of grain that stirred and slept;</div> - <div class='line in2'>“I see!” he cried, “I see!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“You mean you cut the wood and plowed the field,</div> - <div class='line in2'>From your hard labor all this beauty grew,</div> - <div class='line'>To you is due the richness of the yield;</div> - <div class='line in2'>You have some claim, ’tis true.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Not so,” said I, with manner very cool,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And tossed my purse into the air and caught it;</div> - <div class='line'>“Do I look like a laborer, you fool?</div> - <div class='line in2'>It’s mine because I bought it!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_215'>215</span>Again he looked as if I talked in Greek,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Again he scratched his head and twirled his hat,</div> - <div class='line'>Before he mustered wit enough to speak.</div> - <div class='line in2'>“Bought it?” said he, “what’s that?”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And then he said again, “I see! I see!</div> - <div class='line in2'>You mean that some men toiled with plows and hoes,</div> - <div class='line'>And while those worked for you, you toiled with glee</div> - <div class='line in2'>At other work for those.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Not so!” said I, getting a little hot,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Thinking the man a fool as well as funny;</div> - <div class='line'>“I’m not a working-man, you idiot;</div> - <div class='line in2'>I bought it with my money!”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And still that creature stared and dropped his jaw,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Till I could have destroyed him where he sat.</div> - <div class='line'>“Money,” said I, “money, and moneyed law!”</div> - <div class='line in2'>“Money?” said he, “what’s that?”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c002'>AN ECONOMIST.</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The serene savage sitting in his tree</div> - <div class='line in2'>Saw empires rise and fall,</div> - <div class='line'>And moralized on their uncertainty.</div> - <div class='line in8'>(He never rose at all!)</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>He was full fat from god-sent droves of prey;</div> - <div class='line in2'>He was full calm from satisfied desire;</div> - <div class='line'>He was full wise in that he chose to stay</div> - <div class='line in8'>Free from ambition’s fire.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_216'>216</span>“See,” quoth the savage, “how they toil and strive</div> - <div class='line in2'>To make things better,—vain and idle wish!</div> - <div class='line'>Here is good store of what keeps man alive,</div> - <div class='line in8'>Of fruit, and flesh, and fish.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Poor discontented wretches, fed on air,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Seeking to change the normal lot of man,</div> - <div class='line'>To lure him from this natural strife and care,</div> - <div class='line in8'>With vague Utopian plan!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Here’s wealth and joy—why seek for any change?</div> - <div class='line in2'>Why labor for a more elaborate life?</div> - <div class='line'>As if God could not his own world arrange</div> - <div class='line in8'>Without our fretful strife!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Those who complain of savagery as low</div> - <div class='line in2'>Are merely proven lazy, and too weak</div> - <div class='line'>To live by skilful hunt and deadly blow;</div> - <div class='line in8'>It is their needs that speak.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Complain of warfare! Cry that peace is sweet!</div> - <div class='line in2'>Complain of hunting! Prate of toil and trade!</div> - <div class='line'>It only proves that they cannot compete</div> - <div class='line in8'>In the free life we’ve made.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Another empire reeled into its grave;</div> - <div class='line in2'>The savage sat serenely as before,</div> - <div class='line'>As calm and wise, as cunning and as brave—</div> - <div class='line in8'>Never an atom more.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_217'>217</span> - <h3 class='c002'>CHARITY.</h3> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c003'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Came two young children to their mother’s shelf</div> - <div class='line in2'>(One was quite little, and the other big),</div> - <div class='line'>And each in freedom calmly helped himself.</div> - <div class='line in10'>(One was a pig.)</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The food was free and plenty for them both,</div> - <div class='line in2'>But one was rather dull and very small;</div> - <div class='line'>So the big smarter brother, nothing loath,</div> - <div class='line in10'>He took it all.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>At which the little fellow raised a yell</div> - <div class='line in2'>Which tired the other’s more æsthetic ears;</div> - <div class='line'>He gave him here a crust, and there a shell</div> - <div class='line in10'>To stop his tears.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>He gave with pride, in manner calm and bland,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Finding the other’s hunger a delight;</div> - <div class='line'>He gave with piety—his full left hand</div> - <div class='line in10'>Hid from his right.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>He gave and gave—O blessed Charity!</div> - <div class='line in2'>How sweet and beautiful a thing it is!</div> - <div class='line'>How fine to see that big boy giving free</div> - <div class='line in10'>What is not his!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='tnotes'> - -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</h2> -</div> - <ol class='ol_1 c003'> - <li>Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling. - - </li> - <li>Anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed. - </li> - </ol> - -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's In this our world, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THIS OUR WORLD *** - -***** This file should be named 60481-h.htm or 60481-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/4/8/60481/ - -Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was -produced from images made available by the HathiTrust -Digital Library.) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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