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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..59eb958 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #63973 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63973) diff --git a/old/63973-0.txt b/old/63973-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 8a06dc1..0000000 --- a/old/63973-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2731 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Short Flights, by Meredith Nicholson - -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 -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this ebook. - -Title: Short Flights - -Author: Meredith Nicholson - -Release Date: December 06, 2020 [EBook #63973] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: D A Alexander, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was - produced from images generously made available by the Library - of Congress) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHORT FLIGHTS *** - - - - - SHORT FLIGHTS - - BY - _MEREDITH NICHOLSON_ - - - _With a weak, uncertain wing - And a short flight, faltering - Like a heart afraid to sing._ - - - INDIANAPOLIS - THE BOWEN-MERRILL CO. - 1891 - - - - - Copyright 1890 - BY - MEREDITH NICHOLSON - - - - - TO MY UNCLE - - WILLIAM MORTON MEREDITH - - - - -CONTENTS - - - INVOCATION--TO THE SEASONS xi - - SAT EST VIXISSE 1 - - SONG 3 - - ’TIS NEVER NIGHT IN LOVE’S DOMAIN 5 - - ESTRANGED 7 - - WHEN FRIENDS ARE PARTED 8 - - WHEREAWAY 9 - - A SECRET 11 - - DISAPPOINTMENT 13 - - STRIVING 14 - - AN IDOLATER 16 - - LOVE’S MIDAS TOUCH 17 - - IN ETHER SPACES 18 - - MY PADDLE GLEAMED 20 - - FAITHLESS 21 - - GRAPE BLOOM 22 - - ILL-STARRED 23 - - THE SOLDIER HEART 25 - - AN UNWRITTEN LETTER 27 - - MY LADY OF THE GOLDEN HEART 28 - - DREAMS 30 - - CARDINAL NEWMAN 31 - - ON THE MEDITERRANEAN 32 - - WATCHING THE WORLD GO BY 34 - - RIGHTEOUS WRATH 36 - - SUNSET 37 - - RONDEAU OF EVENTIDE 38 - - A PRINCE’S TREASURE 39 - - DIEU VOUS GARDE 41 - - SWEETHEART TIME 42 - - THE ROAD TO HAPPINESS 44 - - GUARDING SHADOWS 46 - - ART’S LESSON 47 - - IN THE SHADOW 48 - - “LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT” 50 - - SONGS AND WORDS 51 - - FOR A NEW YEAR’S MORN 53 - - THREE FRIENDS 54 - - A RHYME OF LITTLE GIRLS 57 - - THE BATTLES GRANDSIRE MISSED 59 - - BARRED 61 - - A SLUMBER SONG 62 - - BEFORE THE FIRE 64 - - OCTOBER 66 - - IN WINTER I WAS BORN 68 - - GOOD NIGHT AND PLEASANT DREAMS 69 - - WHERE LOVE WAS NOT 71 - - DOWN THE AISLES 73 - - RUIN 74 - - HALF FLIGHTS 76 - - A KIND OF MAN 77 - - TRANSFIGURED 78 - - LOVE’S POWER 79 - - FIRE-HUNTING 80 - - HEARTACHE 81 - - FRIENDSHIP’S SACRAMENT 83 - - OMAR KHAYYAM 84 - - A DISCOVERY 86 - - - _SONNETS_ - - A MODERN PURITAN 89 - - THE LAW OF LIFE 90 - - TO EUGENE FIELD IN ENGLAND 91 - - DEPENDENCE 92 - - BY SHERIDAN’S GRAVE 93 - - VIKING 94 - - VIOLIN 95 - - WHAT THE BABIES SAY 96 - - SECRETS 97 - - BLIND 98 - - A FANCY 99 - - THOREAU 100 - - - - -_SHORT FLIGHTS_ - - - - -TO THE SEASONS. - - - _Seasons that pass me by in varied mood, - As on the impressionable land you leave a trace, - Molding sometime a delicate flower’s sweet face, - Touching again with green the somber wood, - Or drawing all beneath a snowy hood,-- - Am I not worthy as they to have a place - In your remembrance? Am I made too base - To know what weed and thorn have understood?_ - - _Fair vernal time, I need your quickening - Even as the sleeping Earth! O summer heat - Make flower and fruit in me that I may bring - Full hands to Autumn when above me beat - The serious winds; and Winter, make me strong - Like the glad music of your battle song!_ - - - - -SAT EST VIXISSE. - - - I. - - To have lived! - To have felt a quickened beat - Of the heart in spring; - To have known that something sweet - Moved the birds to sing; - To have seen dim waves of heat - O’er a field of green retreat! - - - II. - - To have found the hiding-place - Of the wild wood rose; - To have held, a little space, - Any flower that grows; - To have known a moment’s grace - Looking in a loved one’s face - To have lived, to have lived! - - - III. - - Still, doth it suffice alone - That the world is fair? - O’er what fields have these hands sown? - Are they gold or bare? - And though all the flowers are flown, - If to God my heart is known, - Then shall I in truth be shown - How to live, why to live! - - - - -SONG. - - - Glad and sad make rhyme, my dear, - Glad and sad make rhyme. - Though the sun may not appear, - Though there be a time - When the hours are very long, - And there is no joy for you, - Weave this thought into a song: - Glad and sad make jingle true-- - Happy jingle true! - - They are joined together, dear, - Joined together they, - Like the dark sky and the clear - Of an April day. - Like the grief that dies in gladness - Turmoil into peace will grow, - Soon there is an end of sadness-- - Glad and sad make rhyme, you know, - Perfect rhyme, you know. - - They make perfect rhyme, my dear. - Perfect as can be; - Falling sweet upon the ear, - Telling you and me - That the thorn and rose are wed, - That night holds in store the dawn, - And till hope and trust are dead - Glad and sad will jingle on, - Jingle, jingle on! - - - - -’TIS NEVER NIGHT IN LOVE’S DOMAIN. - - - ’Twas morning when one found his way - Within the garden lands of love. - He lingered till he thought the day - Should surely unto night yield sway. - But morning’s sun still shone above - In skies unmarred by evening’s gray, - While on the air rang this refrain-- - ’Tis never night in love’s domain. - - Love’s palace beauteous is, and tall, - And broad, and grand is his estate. - Gay courtiers throng each spacious hall - Where laughing echoes ceaseless fall - And mock the silent outcast, hate, - Who ever cowers by post and wall. - And scowls as rings the glad refrain-- - ’Tis never night in love’s domain. - - And thence through groves with myrtle grown - He followed Venus’ dove-drawn car - By paths he ne’er before had known, - And yet, the morning had not flown, - And yet, fresh winds blew from afar - As came, in ne’er decreasing tone, - The song through which ran this refrain-- - ’Tis never night in love’s domain. - - Ah, love of mine, how well we know - The glories of those garden lands - Through which Lethean waters flow! - Oft we have wandered to and fro - Down those bright halls, and seen the hands - Of tiny elves that beckoned so - They kept the time to this refrain-- - ’Tis never night in love’s domain. - - - - -ESTRANGED. - - - It was but yesterday that thou - Wert with love-whispers eloquent, - Yet come and look upon her now - That life is spent. - - How strangely white the face hath grown, - No longer prest by kisses fond; - Why turn’st, now that her soul hath flown - And rests beyond? - - Why enter’st not the darkened room - To touch again those cold, white lips-- - So cold and white, seen in the gloom - Of Death’s eclipse? - - Thou wert so loving once, but now - Take that cold hand as lovers may, - Implant a kiss on that calm brow, - Nor turn away. - - It was but yesterday that thou - Wert with love-whispers eloquent-- - Thou wilt not look upon her now - That life is spent. - - - - -WHEN FRIENDS ARE PARTED. - - - Time keeps no measure when true friends are parted,-- - No record day by day; - The sands move not for those who, loyal-hearted, - Friendship’s firm laws obey. - - It is not well to note with dull precision - The flight of days or years; - Memory depends not on a proof by vision, - And has no foolish fears. - - The migrant birds when they are Southward flying - Have no regrets; they go - Full of the knowledge born of faith undying, - That they again shall know - - The homes and nests which they have left behind them - Unmarred by change the while; - The Southern lands they seek will but remind them - Of the North’s summer smile. - - And so I know that you will come to meet me - In the old, well-loved way; - That, though a year go by, you still will greet me - As kindly as to-day. - - - - -WHEREAWAY. - - - Where are you going my bright blue eyes, - My boy so happy-hearted? - You are very young and very wise, - And early you have started. - Where is the city you’re bound for, lad? - Come tell me of it truly; - Is it one that is fair, and one that is glad - And was it builded newly? - Oh, tell me whereaway my lad-- - Whereaway? - - The day is fair and the skies are blue, - Come rest awhile and listen: - By far too great is the world for you, - The spires in dreams that glisten - Are far away from this quiet place - With many a mile between, - So rest, blue eyes, for a little space - Here where the slopes are green-- - Oh, tell me whereaway my lad-- - Whereaway? - - Oh, dim and vague is the early haze - That holds your world of seeming; - This day is fairer than other days - Only in boyish dreaming,-- - So do not hasten but pause to tell - Why you make such a hurry-- - Do you want to go, have you pondered well - About the cost and worry? - Oh, tell me whereaway my lad-- - Whereaway? - - Oh, dear blue eyes and brave young heart - Why must you turn to leave me? - Am I so old that we now must part, - Why will you go to grieve me? - But he turns away with a smile and nod - And will not tell me truly - About the place to which he will plod, - If old or builded newly; - He does not answer “Where, my lad?” - Whereaway? - - - - -A SECRET. - - - He said, “No one shall ever learn - This secret that my heart must keep; - No matter how the wolds may burn, - No matter how my heart may leap, - No one shall know I love her so, - No one shall know, no one shall know!” - - But though his lips were tightly sealed, - The very birds his secret guessed, - For in his eyes it was revealed, - And in his face it was confessed-- - “I love her so, I love her so, - But none shall know, but none shall know?” - - The wind soon found it and ran on - To tell it to the wondering flowers, - And bear it to the gates of dawn, - Where loiter all the coming hours, - That they might know he loved her so, - That they might know, that they might know! - - Some time all secrets must unfold, - And soon did he a listener seek, - To whom his story might be told - Before the laughing world should speak - And tell her (if she did not know!) - He loved her so, he loved her so! - - - - -DISAPPOINTMENT. - - - The broad-armed wave that reaches for the land - Sees not the towering rock that bars the way - Unto the longed-for play-ground of the strand, - Until, thrown back, it sees through tears of spray. - - - - -STRIVING. - - - It is not much that I can do. - My hands are weak. - The lines they draw seem never true; - The works I speak - Are not the ones I long to say,-- - I speak not prayers I long to pray. - - It is no coward spirit, no-- - I try to learn - How others bravely strive and go - Rewards to earn, - And yet success is never mine-- - I labor on a false design. - - They are not much, these little things - That form my task, - Yet constant seeking never brings - What I would ask, - And of what use is life to one - Who never knew a victory won? - - But this one thing I know, that He - Who guides the stars - Will look in charity on me - And see the scars - Which show that I have tried to trace - A path that weeds could not efface. - - - - -AN IDOLATER. - - - I read of pagan priests in idols hiding, - That with their own lips they might make reply - To prayers of worshippers in them confiding-- - To vouchsafe or deny. - - And all idolatry has not departed; - For yet I faith in one fair idol hold. - Unlike those of the heathen, hollow-hearted. - Voiceless, inert and cold; - - But one who dwells, a queen, among the living. - Whose eyes light lip, my waiting eyes to greet - And speak, before the lips, sweet answer giving - From her soul’s judgment seat. - - - - -LOVE’S MIDAS TOUCH. - - - Your love has made life dear to me; - Until you came I did not know - How beautiful the world could be-- - How full of joy its days could grow. - - Once peace was not in anything, - But love has made life dear to me; - The winter has given way to spring, - And skies are fair and clear to me. - - My heart is listening when you speak; - To hold your hand or touch your cheek,-- - Since love has made life dear to me! - Sends flying love and fear through me. - - Glad is the grass your feet have pressed, - Your eyes throw joy on all they see, - Around you there is gracious rest, - Your love has made life dear to me. - - - - -IN ETHER SPACES. - - - Somewhere in space there is a realm where lingers - Each word that ever fell from lips of man, - All music stirred to life by touch of fingers, - All sounds since time began. - - Rumble of quaking earth and plains upturning - Creation morn; the sullen beat of rain, - The coo of dove with olive-leaf returning, - The stir of life again. - - A Child’s soft treble in the temple, heeded - By doctors who about him listening drew; - “Father, forgive them,” on dark Calvary pleaded, - “They know not what they do.” - - The songs are there which echoed through dim ages, - And chants of kneeling priests at pagan shrines, - The speech of prophets writ on history’s pages - In God-directed lines. - - There dormant dwells the roar of battle royal, - The clash of arms amid war’s furnace flame, - Victorious cries of warriors brave and loyal, - A people’s loud acclaim; - - With words that gladdened hearts of earliest lovers, - And curses since night’s robes trailed Eden’s sky, - While vague as half-remembered dreams there hovers - Each mother’s lullaby. - - O sounds afar in ether spaces dwelling, - In mighty minstrelsy awake! Unite - In chords the story of the æons telling - Since stars first gemmed the night. - - - - -MY PADDLE GLEAMED. - - - My paddle gleamed, the light canoe - The river’s waters glided through - With scarce a sound to fret the air; - The sun shone bright, the morn was fair - And from the South soft breezes blew. - - O’erhead the swallows darting flew, - Then dropt to earth to brush the dew - From off the tangled grasses there - My paddle gleamed! - - In form as perfect, fresh and new - As when they first in Eden grew - God’s gifts, before, lay everywhere; - Behind, the city’s toil and care; - Content, I joy’s full measure knew-- - My paddle gleamed! - - - - -FAITHLESS. - - - Ah, yes! Thy love was like the stars, but not - Like faithful stars which gleam with steadfast light, - But as a darting ærolite, swift shot - Across the blackness of a sombre night, - Fading as quickly, and as soon forgot. - - - - -GRAPE BLOOM. - - - I walk ’mid vines which rest upon - An arbor o’er a garden way - Where southern breezes come to play - And never-ending races run. - - The dew drips from the clustering vines, - A swallow like a shuttle cleaves - The air above and vainly weaves - His fancies into unseen lines. - - But stealing forth and dwelling there - Within the shadows of the walk, - A perfume comes as when gods talk - And their glad breathings fill the air. - - Scarce seen among the vines the shapes - That hold and throw the rare perfume-- - The tiny bits of early bloom - Presageful of the coming grapes. - - And when they ripened grace the vine, - That sweetness shall return again, - Like hopes fulfilled to trustful men, - And have new life in autumn’s wine. - - - - -ILL-STARRED. - - - Oh, prayers and sympathetic tears - For each and every ill-starred knight - For whom ring no victorious cheers; - For those who, early in the fight, - Saw daylight turning into night - And yielded up to Fate their spears. - - The dented shield, the pierced cuirass, - Sad story is it that they tell - Of brave young knights whose hopes, alas! - Bore meagre fruit; who fighting fell - Before the foe they could not quell; - Who found no wine within the glass. - - For some there are but ill-equipped - To face the world; some weak of will - And some faint-hearted, feeble-lipped, - Fit but the lowest posts to fill, - Some shivering with the coward’s chill - And of the armor “courage” stripped. - - Oh, you ’gainst whom the fates are set, - E’en though you’ve failed on every field - To gain fair honor’s banneret, - Let high above be held each shield, - Each one with purpose strong annealed, - And all shall win a victory yet. - - - - -THE SOLDIER HEART. - - - One day in careless wise I said: - “They were no heroes, they who bled - To save the Nation and to free the slave; - There is no honor now in being brave;” - And thought not how my father hearing me-- - (He who had fought with Sherman to the sea, - True as a knight of storied chivalry), - Would feel the sting my words conveyed, as though - I deemed the venture of his life should go - A thing unworthy of remembrance. Then - His look of pain (soft are the hearts of men!) - Made me think deeply of the soldier’s part, - (As when on Memory’s day the quick tears start - To see the line each spring becoming less, - The slowing step, heads’ winter snowiness!) - And vowed I then that while my blood should run - I should not be a son - To speak a word not kindly of a soldier true; - To utter naught but praise of all who dared to do, - Whether in mail of gray or clad in honest blue! - - He who cares not - That his sire fought; - He who shall think not proudly of the days - His father felt the blaze - Of war’s red furnace flame against his cheek, - Has but a coward’s heart, too poor and weak - To throw the blood through faltering limb-- - Earth has no place for him! - - While there is hearth and home to save, - ’Tis something to be brave-- - ’Tis something to have ventured near to Death, - And felt his chilling breath! - - - - -AN UNWRITTEN LETTER. - - - She wrote a letter with her eyes, - Well-filled with words of bliss; - Then, like a prudent maid and wise, - She sealed it with a kiss. - - - - -MY LADY OF THE GOLDEN HEART. - - - My lady of the golden heart, she comes each day - Down by the lodge-gate that I keep; she comes demurely, - And her two hounds sedate do follow and obey - Her slightest wish, and they do love my lady surely. - - She comes each day, my lady of the golden heart, - Sometimes a-riding or sometimes she comes a-walking; - The birds along the hedge they do not even start - When she comes by, sometimes to her big hounds a-talking. - - “Good morrow” says my lady, (she whose heart is gold), - And gold out of her heart makes bright the gateway; - The sunshine of her face in winter time does hold - Green meadows and sweet flowers and makes a summer straightway. - - My lady, she whose heart is gold, my lady goes - Each day into the village, bread and good wine bearing - To those that sick be, and my gentle lady knows - All of the village folk and for them she be caring. - - Now as she comes each day, (gold is my lady’s heart), - Or goes away upon some errand Heaven has sent her, - The gates of my poor heart, they do fly far apart. - But there my lady fair and sweet, she will not enter. - - - - -DREAMS. - - - Like shadow-freighted ships which softly creep - Across some far-off ghostly main, - They haunt the chambers of the brain, - And kiss their fingers to the watchman, Sleep! - - - - -CARDINAL NEWMAN. - -“_To the last I never recognized the hold I had over young - men._”--_Apologia pro Vita Sua._ - - - No more the sun may know the strength it hath - To stir the bark in spring with quickening blood: - No more a storm controlleth its great wrath, - Or doleth out the measure of its flood! - - There is a quality of lasting youth - That knoweth not the force that gave it birth; - Some souls God pointeth subtler ways of truth, - As highest tribute to their lasting worth. - - He hath in souls like thine deposited - A quenchless flame as calm and strong as dawn; - Across the world thy potent fire is shed, - Born of the “kindly light” that leadeth on! - - - - -ON THE MEDITERRANEAN. - - -THE GREEK GIRL’S SONG. - - To-day my lover lends his flocks; - He roams with them through fragrant meads, - And guides across the barren rocks; - With his own hands the lambs he feeds, - And soothes them when the winds are cold - Or terror comes among the fold. - They soon forget the night’s alarms - When folded in his shielding arms. - - _So good and true to them is he - I know he will be kind to me._ - - My lover walks in paths of peace, - He would avoid the conflict’s noise - And bid the warring legions cease, - He is content with simple joys; - He fain would always journey through - Tall grasses shining in the dew - And tend his sheep and dream his dreams - Beside the quiet mountain streams; - - _So faithful is his love of home - His heart I know can never roam._ - - -THE SHEPHERD’S SONG. - - As fair as the flocks that graze - There ’gainst the hill’s restful side; - As sweet as the breath of night - When across dim flowery ways - Pours a mellifluous tide, - Winging an odorous flight: - - Thus is the maiden who sends - Songs to the shepherd who tends - Sheep by the streams, and who dies - In the delight of her eyes. - - Down by the shore in the night - Rush the great breakers, nor cease - Oft till the dawn lights the crest; - And so is love in its might, - Stirring my soul from its peace, - Leaving the shepherd no rest. - - Oh, if the sheep could but learn - For me the answer I yearn! - Come, my fair flock, we shall see - What is the answer for me! - - - - -WATCHING THE WORLD GO BY. - - - Swift as a meteor and as quickly gone - A train of cars darts swiftly through the night; - Scorning the wood and field it hurries on, - A thing of wrathful might. - - There, from a farmer’s home a woman’s eyes, - Roused by the sudden jar and passing flare, - Follow the speeding phantom till it dies,-- - An echo on the air. - - Narrow the life that always has been hers - The evening brings a longing to her breast; - Deep in her heart some aspiration stirs - And mocks her soul’s unrest. - - Her tasks are mean and endless as the days, - And sometimes love cannot repay all things; - An instrument that rudely touched obeys - Becomes discordant strings. - - The train that followed in the headlight’s glare, - Bound for the city and a larger world, - Made emphasis of her poor life of care - As from her sight it whirled. - - _Thus from all lonely hearts the great earth rolls, - Indifferent though one woman grieve and die, - Along its iron track are many souls - That watch the world go by._ - - - - -RIGHTEOUS WRATH. - - - How splendid is the righteous wrath - Born in a good man’s soul! - Ignoble things fly from his path, - Loud thunders round him roll,-- - Yet tenderness and love he hath. - - Like some gigantic forest fire, - His mighty anger sweeps; - An eager flame of awful ire, - At every wrong it leaps,-- - Still, lasting peace he doth desire. - - Then, swift as flies the meteor’s spark, - His anger disappears; - Born for the hour it met its mark,-- - He sootheth now love’s fears, - While wrong sits trembling in the dark! - - - - -SUNSET. - - - Two giants meet upon the hills - And one is day, the other night; - The trees draw near, the sky leans down - To watch their test of might. - - I cannot see them struggling there, - But soon I know that one is dead, - For lo! the trees and hills and sky - Are suddenly splashed with red! - - - - -RONDEAU OF EVENTIDE. - - - At eventide when we are prest - By shadows and seek any rest - That twilight brings at waning day, - Ah, well with us if we can say - For aye we sought and found the best. - - God’s hand all nature has caressed - Till beauty is his love confessed, - Till bud and bloom his love display - Through eventide. - - Why should we not pursue our quest - For such good things as bear the test - The things worth loving bear alway? - “Full life, full life,” we sometimes pray, - _Full life to higher life addressed_, - Till eventide! - - - - -A PRINCE’S TREASURE. - -[To His Royal Highness, Russell Fortune.] - - - Our little prince can’t understand - That this is one of many springs; - He thinks these days for him are planned, - And that for him the robin sings. - - All wonder-eyed he walks afield - And makes an invoice of the joys - God strews around for little boys, - And thinks for him they’re first revealed. - - It is a solemn thing to him! - He wonders if it’s alright to pull - The little wild flowers beautiful - That in the sea of grasses swim. - - More gentle than the violet, - He studies o’er those eyes of blue-- - Blue as his eyes are brown, and wet - As _his_, sometimes, are wet with dew! - - Appreciative eyes are his! - Into his apron takes he all - The flowers that to his hand may fall-- - The poorest weed so precious is! - - His feet leave but the vaguest hints - Of steps along the shadows where - The knightly trees bend down and swear - Allegiance to their little prince. - - O gentle, princely lad of ours, - May nature ever hold your heart, - And knowledge of her ways impart - Through lessons of the spring-time flowers; - - May spring itself pass ever on - And never lead to summer’s dust, - But make your life an endless dawn, - With endless love, and faith, and trust! - - - - -DIEU VOUS GARDE. - - - May Allah in thy heart unfold - Perpetual-blooming roses; - May His sweet peace to thee increase - Until the evening closes. - - And may tall palms before thee rise, - Hot sand to gardens turning; - May dates and wine be always thine, - Amid the desert’s burning. - - Let enemies be put to flight, - Before thy spear uplifted, - And may thy way be as a day - From starry vistas drifted. - - Oh, Allah watches through the night, - His trustful children viewing; - His love is deep, but he will keep - Renewing and renewing. - - - - -SWEETHEART TIME. - - - I. - - It is a time before the rose - Has blossomed to its form complete; - Before the hidden fragrance knows - How rare it is, and sweet. - - A time it is when hearts are light, - And shadows are a thing as far - Away as darkness from the sight - Of evening’s brightest star. - - There is an undertone of song - Vague, like the mists of early day; - An undertone that steals along, - Forever far away. - - - II. - - The walls that guard King Love’s fair home - Are tall and strong; yet cannot hold - From those who by the gateway roam - Some share of hoarded gold. - - So youth and maiden wandering near - In straying beams of light are caught. - Their eyes serene know not the tear - Through fuller loving wrought. - - It lasts for just a little while; - It is love’s playtime, one brief hour - With tender sighing to beguile-- - A bud before the flower; - - It is a time before the rose - Attains its fairest form complete; - Before the subtle fragrance knows - How rare it is, and sweet. - - - - -THE ROAD TO HAPPINESS. - - - Here’s the path our feet shall press - To the land of happiness; - There are guide-posts by the way - That we may not go astray; - Spots there are where we may rest, - Of King Happiness the guest; - Basking in the sunshine’s glow, - While the joyous pilgrims go - Ever onward to the gates - Where the Queen of Joy awaits - Those recruits her king shall gain - On the way to his domain. - - Such a joyous army this! - Banners leaping for a kiss - From the winds that sweep along - Beating songs that well belong - To a road whose glory lies - Always under sunny skies. - - By this road no toll gate stands - With its ever-barring hands, - Yet of every passing soul - There is asked a certain toll. - It is this--that we shall share, - As we tread the thoroughfare, - All we have with those who lose - What they gain, or who refuse - To accept what is bestowed - By the master of the road. - - What a simple engineer - Marked this path! It is so clear - That to miss it is to turn - And its cooling shadows spurn. - - Any road our feet may press - Is a road to happiness, - And that land is anywhere - That we turn away from care - To the army of a king - Who is ever journeying - To the city, by whose gates, - His fair queen of Joy awaits. - - - - -GUARDING SHADOWS. - - - Grim watchmen are the jealous trees - Above their moon-born shadows--Thus - May foolish men guard mysteries - Which they have made mysterious. - - - - -ART’S LESSON. - - - O glorious marble statue, - What gain I looking at you? - Your beauty is so old, - You are a form so cold - I can not understand you - Nor feel for him who planned you. - I easier lessons seek - Than those in chiseled Greek. - - I turn to you my fragrant; - Bedewed and straggling vagrant, - You are a simple flower, - And scarce live out the hour - Here in the garden by-way - (That still is Nature’s highway!) - Yet utter from the grass - Lessons from Phidias! - - - - -IN THE SHADOW. - - - I would not have thee otherwise, - O cloudy skies; - I would not change the night to day - Nor drive away - The shadows that are hanging o’er - My hearth and door. - - There is some good that lurketh where - The lightnings flare; - There is a peace that bideth in - The fiercest din; - A vernal light doth look upon - Fields winter-won. - - If God were not the Overheart, - Nor had a part - In all the wounds that hurt us so! - But He doth know - And doth in patience see and bless - In gentleness. - - How sturdy and how great, O earth! - Within thy girth - Thou wieldst what passion and what pain - O’er man’s domain; - And yet within thy shadows blest - Is perfect rest. - - Turn not unto the light too long - Friend, with thy song! - Thou hast not need to look afar - For hill or star; - Here in the shadow rest is found - Deep and profound. - - - - -“LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT.” - - - “Lead, kindly light,” I heard the glad bells ring, - And thought how God existeth everywhere. - ’Twas in a city strange that, sweetest thing! - “Lead, kindly light,” I heard the glad bells ring, - And Summer stole into the early spring, - For where the kind light leadeth all is fair. - “Lead, kindly light,” I heard the glad bells ring, - And thought how God existeth everywhere. - - - - -SONG AND WORDS. - - - I. - - The songs you sing, the songs you sing, - They are such songs as need not words, - They are the songs that soar and ring - Like utterance of wildwood birds. - The ear is puzzled at the sound-- - They are so far from common art - That what is best in them is found - By simply listening with the heart! - - - II. - - The words you speak, the words you speak, - Have little of philosophy; - They voice not things that wise men seek, - They have no hint of poetry, - And yet each syllable that slips - Up from your soul and bubbles o’er - The yielding gateway of your lips - A gracious meaning holds in store. - - - III. - - The songs you sing are simple songs, - Your words are words that children use - To tell of love, complain of wrongs; - You may the guiding notes confuse, - (If any notes e’er met your eyes!) - They rise, and live, and lingering, - Each song and word alternate dies - In words you speak, in songs you sing. - - - - -FOR A NEW YEAR’S MORN. - - - Like some tired reader who has put aside - His book a little while, sick of the tale, - Careless a moment how the plot may run, - Indifferent to the part he has perused, - Then with new interest going back to find - How fared it with the story’s people, so - Here at the gate of this new year I stand. - Weary we grew long since, my Comrade soul! - So tired we are of all our eyes have found, - So strong our yearning for new sights and sounds! - Yet on this morn the world is fair again,-- - Ah, very fair, and full of light and joy; - And holding forth new hope that comes of faith, - And adding to our faith that lies in God. - Now, like some traveler in a desert lost, - Straining his eyes across the wastes of sand, - Then, sudden, finding tracks but freshly made - That give new courage to the wanderer,-- - So now, my Comrade soul, we turn away - From dreary wastes, we see the tracks that show - Where others have gone on and found the way - As we can find it. Come, old Comrade,--friend! - Give me your hand, we must march on again! - - - - -THREE FRIENDS. - -[Paul Hamilton Hayne, Sidney Lanier and Robert Burns Wilson] - - - Three noble friends the South has given me, - Two biding now beyond the farthest gate, - One living still, great-hearted, soul elate, - From trammeling passions free. - - The twain now unbeholden to our eyes, - Were soldiers for a cause they thought was right-- - They were such men as set the torch alight - That marks our destinies; - - Yet, with a song that rings above the din - Of battle, and with brows where there might rest - The victor’s crown, or singer’s wreath, more blest, - Through hymns of peace to win. - - I read one morning, in a day long gone, - The songs of Hayne, all odorous of the pines; - The heart of Nature throbbed along the lines-- - Her joy was in his dawn. - - The hills and streams to him were never dumb, - They gave their secrets to his own heart’s keeping; - Grand music in the oaks and pines was sleeping - Waiting for him to come! - - And you, Lanier, cut down like some tall tree - By an insidious foe--upright and strong - Until the last, and with your parting song - From Deathland floating free! - - Sweet dawns were yours, bright noons and starry nights; - Your heart lay on the bosoms of the hills-- - Clear was your soul as dew that God distills - Upon His sacred heights! - - And you are gone, and only one remains - Of the three Southern singers loved so well; - To-night the wind in sympathy would quell - The grief of woods and plains-- - - Saying: “They were our friends, they understood - The messages we spoke into their ears; - Now they have passed beyond our hopes and fears - Unto a higher Good.” - - But he who still is here, he well has caught - The spirit that is Nature’s, and is hers - Only for her most loved interpreters-- - Ah, nobly he has wrought! - - And Southern winds that to the northward roam, - And misty stars that shine above us dim, - Each evening bring me utterance of him - To my far Northern home! - - - - -A RHYME OF LITTLE GIRLS. - - - Prithe tell me, don’t you think - Little girls are dearest - With their cheeks of tempting pink, - And their eyes the clearest? - Don’t you know that they are best - And of all the loveliest? - - Of all girls with roguish ways - They are surely truest; - Sunshine gleams through all their days, - They see skies the bluest, - And they wear a diadem - Summer has bestowed on them. - - Lydia doesn’t care a cent - For the newest dances; - She is not on flirting bent, - Has no killing glances, - But without the slightest art - She has captured many a heart. - - Older sisters cut you dead, - Little sisters never; - They don’t giggle when they’ve said - Something very clever,-- - They just get behind a chair, - Frowning, smiling at you there. - - Florence, Lydia, Margaret - Or a gentle Mary, - They form friendships that, once set, - Never more can vary,-- - Stanch young friends they are and true - Always clinging close to you. - - Buds must into blossoms blow, - (Morn so early leaves us!) - Maids must into women grow, - (There’s the thing that grieves us!) - Psyche knots of flying curls, - That’s good-bye to little girls! - - - - -THE BATTLES GRANDSIRE MISSED. - - - Come, boy, and sit upon my knee, - And turn to me your eyes, - That I, down in their depths may see - A hint of those blue skies - Beneath which once my father fought - (Your grandsire! and I am not old!) - What time our banner’s stars were caught - In treason’s eager hold. - - A boy, as you are now a boy, - I did not understand - That traitors could their flag destroy - And cut in twain their land; - I heard the tramp of marching men, - So long ago that seems! - You can not know what times were then - Though you may guess, in dreams. - - And then my father went away; - How would it be if I - Should leave you, boy of mine, to-day-- - Should leave you and should die? - Your eyes are wet; O closer come! - There is no more of war; - Peace long has shown that there are some - Kind things to struggle for. - - You “wonder whether grandpa got - In all the fights?” Well, lad, - It was Bull Run where he was shot, - The first big fight they had! - But let us, you and I, insist - That this of him be said: - The only battles that he missed - Were fought when he was dead. - - “He would have fought, had he been there?” - You ask of me, my child; - He never would have ceased to dare - Those who our flag defiled. - And always, in the spring, keep tryst - With Memory by the head - Of one who not a battle missed - Except when he was dead. - - - - -BARRED. - - - One cheerless night when winter winds were sowing - Over the world their cold, white seeds of snow, - While from my window pane the fire was throwing - Taunts to the elements with its bright glow, - - A poor, storm-driven bird, its lost way winging, - Paused when it saw the flame’s reflected light; - Unto the window for a moment clinging, - Then downward fell, forever lost to sight. - - And so it is, I thought, that poor hearts yearning - For more of life, charmed by its outward sheen, - Must backward fall, the truth too quickly learning, - That death, cold and unyielding, stands between. - - - - -A SLUMBER SONG. - - - Baby, you stand by a gate that leads - Into a land of dreams; - There’s a drowsy watchman here who heeds - Never the straggling gleams - Of light that stray from the far-off sun-- - Always for him it’s twilight begun-- - And we stand by the gate, - And watch and wait, - And watch--and wait! - - Little one, hear what the stream sings of, - Here in this quiet land; - It sings of the joy of mother love-- - Sings to birds in the sand-- - To the strange, tall birds with dreamy eyes, - That look at you, dear, in mute surprise, - While we stand by the gate, - And watch and wait, - And watch--and wait! - - If you open the gate, no one will know; - The guard will never guess. - You must open it gently, slowly--so! - No one has heard, unless - Those dreamful birds, or the dreamland sheep, - Heard you stealing through their land of sleep - While I stood by the gate, - To watch and wait, - And watch--and wait! - - Oh, strange are the birds and the sheep that dwell - Here in the land of dreams! - But you must not see, and you must not tell, - However strange it seems, - Or they’ll never let you in again, - And it would not please you, baby, then, - Just to stand by the gate, - And watch, and wait, - And watch--and wait! - - - - -BEFORE THE FIRE. - - - The winds go riding down the wold, - And back the forest legions throw; - A winter day the hours has told - On rosaries of drops of snow. - Through close-drawn blinds the lamplight falls, - And on a drifted whiteness lies, - Here within these cottage walls - The flames make stars of baby’s eyes. - - Rude fingers tap upon the pane - And entrance at the door demand; - The storm king and his lusty train - Go rushing o’er the land; - But homes where love a vigil keeps - Know not that summer ever dies, - Know not that summer even sleeps, - When flames make stars of baby’s eyes. - - The father to the mother reads, - The mother busy at his side; - He reads a tale of noble deeds, - Of men who for a nation died, - But oft they turn and fondly look - Upon the hero whom they prize - Beyond the people of the book, - Where flames make stars of baby’s eyes. - - Fierce winds may ride across the night, - And storms prevail o’er flood and field, - But where one lamp throws out its light, - A happy picture is revealed - Of two, who by the fireside sit, - And watch the glowing flames, while rise - Quick shadows that around them flit - And mock the stars in baby’s eyes. - - - - -OCTOBER. - - - The year is getting older, day by day; - Last night I heard a fierce wind riding by, - Rattling my western window, and no ray - Of moon or star illumined the black sky. - - Older the year has grown; the wind that came - Across the changing world last night to ride, - Passed here a year ago; it is the same - That rose before and summer’s strength defied. - - Ah, it is you, my old, familiar friend - October, come to pitch your tents awhile, - Madly descending from the earth’s far end - Over the farthest seas for many a mile. - - Yet your fierce advent and your winds severe - Are but the bluster of a friend we love; - Though you are winter’s neighbor you bring here - Rich gifts, and hang your bluest skies above. - - To-morrow you will tame your restless steeds - And drive the water-freighted clouds away; - Then you will scatter far the wild-flower’s seeds - At intervals throughout a peaceful day. - - Still, though your skies may be the summer’s own, - Of all your moods I like the wildest best; - I love the wind and its mad, warring tone, - Its anger, and its yearning and unrest; - - For in man’s soul there is an answering mood, - A passionate storm with wind and driving rain - All through a night--love by dull pain pursued, - Then days when skies are kind and blue again,-- - - Blue, but they shed their bitter, biting frost, - And the sun burns with but a mocking heat, - While ghost-like zephyrs seek for something lost, - Like followers in the summer’s slow retreat. - - - - -“IN WINTER I WAS BORN.” - - - In winter I was born, - So all my years I’ve loved the frost and snow - And the strong tireless winds that, passing, blow - A battle note forlorn. - - I love the year’s long night. - The tumult of great storms, the biting air - Make my heart’s summer time, when days are fair - And yield me true delight. - - In winter I was born, - And as I came so let me pass away, - Out from the world on a December day - When the delaying morn - - In the far East shall creep - Last time for me; then let the winds I love - Come from their far-off homes and play above - The place where I shall sleep. - - - - -GOOD NIGHT AND PLEASANT DREAMS. - - - Good-night and pleasant dreams! - Forgotten all that play-day world of yours, - Kind angels lead you now by distant shores; - Dear childish hands clasped lightly o’er your breast, - Dear eyes with lids that keep the dark away, - What sweet content is now by you possessed! - I feel your breath against my cheek and say - Good-night, good-night! - Good-night and pleasant dreams! - - Good-night and pleasant dreams! - The children’s lives so different are from ours, - Is there not made for them a land of flowers,-- - A childhood’s land of sleep where they are taken,-- - Where dreams are only dreams of childish toys - And only sounds of childish voices waken - The quiet ways, and say to girls and boys - Good-night, good-night! - Good-night and pleasant dreams! - - Good-night and pleasant dreams! - Go to your quiet land of sleep and dreaming, - Beyond the darkness, passed the stars a-gleaming. - The plains of your sleep-land are green and fair; - Out of the night they make a land of morning - From which is banished even childish care; - Stay on, sleep on, dear child, the night world scorning,-- - Good-night, good-night! - Good-night and pleasant dreams! - - Good-night and pleasant dreams! - Good-bye, and gentle angels guard your sleep, - Good-night, and angels watch above you keep. - Ah, if we could our childish days prolong-- - If sleep would always come as sweet as this, - Shielding us from the world of dark and wrong, - Just by the magic of a mother’s kiss, - And her good-night! - Good-night and pleasant dreams! - - - - -WHERE LOVE WAS NOT. - - - Once in a dream I saw a blackened world - Hung high in space, by bitter winds o’erblown; - And there no forests were, no flowers grew, - No river flowed, but all was sad and drear. - And on that smoke-encircled sphere there were - No cities full of life; no children spent - Glad hours in play; there, laughter ne’er was heard, - And day was endless day, and night ne’er came - With tired husband seeking home and wife, - And “home” was but a mocking echo there. - - And walking o’er that world I met a man, - Or ghost of what was man, wan, staring-eyed, - And bowed as though with age, albeit his locks - Were fair, and seeming youthful was his face; - And unto him I said in question: “Why - This waste and desolation, and where are - The people that once dwelt upon this world?” - And slow he made reply: “But yesterday - Did Love remove his court from this drear globe, - Which was as fair a world as ever came - From the Creator’s hand, and now, so soon, - That Love is flown has come this awful change-- - The cheerlessness, the people dead and gone.” - - He turned from me, it seemed, and I awoke-- - Back in a world that is controlled by Love. - - - - -DOWN THE AISLES. - - - Lone here in vague cathedral gloom I sit, - Far from the busy city’s noise and jar. - Such calm! It seems God might just now have writ - A new, sweet song of peace and whispered it - From star to star. - - I almost hear a sacred anthem pealing, - As o’er the quiet aisles I turn my eyes; - It seems I hear soft prayers to heaven stealing - Up rays that lead unto the Light-revealing - In Paradise. - - I think: “How oft have feet of mourners led - Down these long aisles where perfect silence reigns! - How oft have heart-uniting words been said - There at the altar, whither flowers were spread - From Love’s fair plains!” - - Yes, Death and Love have hither come and gone, - With slow, sad songs, with anthems glad and free; - And still, without, the world treads on and on - In aisles that lead to darkness--or the Dawn, - O God, and Thee! - - - - -RUIN. - - - The slowly crumbling wall, the broken gate, - O’er which soft silvery threads of Time are spun; - Through turrets tall, once grim and stern as Fate, - Now unresisted steals the changeless sun. - - The eager vines close clasp the pillars round, - As though to hide the signs of their decay; - The cheerless chambers echo with each sound - That enters in where Silence holds her sway. - - Upon the ground, with torn and riven crust, - There rests the cuirass of some daring knight, - Enfolding but the cold, unspeaking dust - Of him who nevermore shall lead the fight. - - And here the chariot-furrowed roadway lies, - Once trod by armies rich in valorous deeds, - Now haunted by the lonely wind which sighs - And creeps among the dead and tangled weeds. - - Ruin and ruins everywhere, but yet, - In fancy, see the myriad castles tall - Whereon the banners fair of Hope are set, - Then watch the wreck and ruin of it all! - - Forsaken cities far beyond the sea - Hold not such claim to pity as do those - Grand dwellings youth rears in such majesty - To crumble and form sepulchres for woes. - - O memory! keep and guard your treasures well; - Contented rest, and, what the past endears, - Unto the ever hopeful future tell, - And voice your glories through the coming years. - - - - -HALF FLIGHTS. - - - I think it were better that lips should forever be mute - Than flattering the voice should sound, or the speech irresolute. - - And better that arrows fly far past the mark, over-shot, - Than but timidly sent they should droop and transfix it not. - - The race should be vigorously pushed, though uneven the start, - And always, wherever assigned, let us act well the part, - Let firm be the footstep to tally with firm beat of heart. - - But more willing am I forever to steadily plod, - Inspired by a thought that my soul is not linked to a clod, - Than failing in flight, to fall, stricken again to the sod, - And stumble along in the pathway that leads me to God. - - - - -A KIND OF MAN. - - - I like a man who all mean things despises, - A man who has a purpose firm and true; - Who faces every doubt as it arises, - And murmurs not at what he finds to do. - - I like a man who shows the noble spirit - Displayed by knights of Arthur’s table round; - Who, face to face with life, proves his real merit, - Who has a soul that dwells above the ground; - - And yet, one who can understand the worry - Of some chance brother fallen in the road, - And speak to him a kind word ’mid the hurry, - Or lay an easing hand upon his load. - - Large hearted, brave-souled men to-day are needed, - Men ready when occasion’s doors swing wide; - Grand men to speak the counsel that is heeded, - And men in whom a nation may confide. - - The world is wide, and broad its starry arches, - But lagging malcontents it cannot hold; - The way of life to him who upright marches, - Has ending in a far-off street of gold. - - - - -TRANSFIGURED. - - - “A cold, hard man I said,” as day by day - I saw him pass the door, or, brooding, sit - Before his cottage, watching children play - The summer’s lingering twilight hours away-- - Ever uncouth and grim, with brows close knit. - - Until, one day, a wondrous change took place; - Upon the door the sign of mourning, and - His child lay dead! But, by what heavenly grace - Did all the hardened lines fade from his face, - Leaving of former self no slightest trace, - As with sweet Grief he journeyed, hand in hand? - - - - -LOVE’S POWER. - - - Within the palace of a brain - A Thought of Love dwelt all alone, - And there was not another Thought - That ever dared approach his throne; - - Until there came a Thought of Hate, - Half-crouching to the sacred seat, - But, Thought of Love stretched forth a hand, - And Thought of Hate died at his feet. - - - - -FIRE-HUNTING. - - - With dip and glide a light canoe - Crept through the waters of the lake; - So softly, lightly creeping through - That it did not the silence break. - - A lantern’s penetrating glow - Burned in the dark a path of light, - And far-off, on its margin, lo! - A pair of eyes gleamed strangely bright! - - The paddling ceased; there fell a hush. - Then came a ringing rifle-shot-- - A plunge into the underbrush-- - Upon the beach a dark blood-clot! - - With dip and glide a light canoe - Crept through the waters of the lake, - So softly, lightly creeping through - That it did not a ripple make. - - - - -“HEARTACHE.” - -[Lines naming a landscape painted by Mr. Theodore C. Steele, owned by -Mr. Louis C. Gibson.] - - - Although the fields of summer time are dear - And fair the days of sunshine-flooded hours - We would not always have the summer here,-- - We tire of flowers. - - Let come a short October afternoon, - Or yet a dreary day November sends;-- - A mist hangs o’er the tired earth, and soon - The night descends. - - Like some cowled monk grown weary of the world, - The evening creeps along in somber guise, - Her face in misty shadows thickly furled - To hide her eyes. - - O heartache of the earth, so near to us - These barren fields have on a sudden grown! - Cool hand of twilight touch us--tremulous, - Sick and alone. - - O skies of gray, come often in our need! - Come fall, O mists, efface the marks of tears,-- - The lessons of our heartache with us read, - And soothe our fears! - - Dear barren field, we lay our hearts on thine, - And leafless shrub, we make thy grief our own; - Come, Spring, and touch our hearts with life divine, - All heartache flown! - - - - -FRIENDSHIP’S SACRAMENT. - - - When I’ve partaken of your bread and wine, - And paused awhile beneath your friendly roof, - Good thoughts and honest purposes are mine, - Awhile from trivial things I stand aloof. - - It is a sacrament of friendship there, - When I’ve partaken of your bread and wine; - I feel in touch with all things sweet and fair; - My pilgrimage is to a true home’s shrine. - - Like the lost Arab, when his host will bring - The bit of cake, the salt in friendly sign, - When I’ve partaken of your bread and wine - Across my desert rose and lotus spring, - - And in my heart there is a genial glow. - To-night above me starry heavens shine, - Yet out of clouds the brightest stars will grow - When I’ve partaken of your bread and wine. - - - - -OMAR KHAYYAM. - - - King of the wise who, long ago, - Your tents built in the Persian sand, - Let me your sweet contentment know, - Here in my vigorous Western land. - - Some day, when I shall stand beside - The grave where you have lain so long-- - At Nishapur your body died, - But your soul lives in tender song-- - - I’ll pour upon your tomb the wine - Some Western grape has given me; - I’ll speak some verse, some flowing line - Born here, beyond the Western sea. - - And may the time be early night - When torches in the desert glow, - And in dim tents appears a light, - While sounds the camel’s moaning, low. - - Then I would be at Nishapur, - To stand in reverent pause and be - One happy hour a worshiper, - Your grave a Mecca made for me. - - Oh, my beloved, I shall taste - The grape’s blood, as your songs have said, - And pour it on the desert’s waste, - A tribute to the ghostly dead - - Whose spirits hover there, and plan - Strange journeys that can never end, - But, in a ghostly caravan, - For ages through the past extend. - - O, Muezzin, from the Tower of Night, - Look you toward the tomb of him - Who yearned in song for greater light - And found it at the goblet’s brim! - - Forget him not, because he keeps - Such silence; guard in light and gloom - Until I reach the place he sleeps, - With wine to pour upon his tomb. - - - - -A DISCOVERY. - -[According to a child.] - - - I have just discovered what makes bread white, - And why the leaves are so porous and light. - - We plant the seed in fall-time in the ground, - And all the winter long they grow and grow, - And when the fields and woods are winter-bound, - The tiny blades are green beneath the snow. - - And then in summer-time, when winter’s dead, - The ripened wheat is ground to flour, and so - When that light flour is made up into bread, - We see within the loaves the winter’s snow. - - And that is the reason why bread is white, - And why the loaves are so porous and light! - - - - -_SONNETS_ - - - - -A MODERN PURITAN. - - - As though Priscilla had smoothed out the frown - She had for all things that were worldly-wise-- - As though she stood again ’neath softer skies - Than on the bleak New England rocks looked down, - And all the sorrows of that time could drown,-- - Thus comes one, unaustere, with kindly eyes, - Stepping from out the past’s dim tapestries, - A Puritan with purity her crown. - - Yet, not the shy reserve that marks her ways - Nor lines of strength denoted in her face - O’er which the sweetest light ’neath heaven plays, - Compel our love, but traces of the race - That passes down its grandeur to our days, - Seeking the good and spurning all things base! - - - - -THE LAW OF LIFE. - -[To Mr. Charles H. Ham, author of “Manual Training”.] - - - “Labor the law of life,” that is your creed; - Once it was true that art meant only grace, - “A pretty flower this is,” “a glorious face,” - Men said, and so interpreting, did heed - No higher call than came from shepherd’s reed: - The brawny arm was for the warrior’s mace, - The supple limb was for the champion’s race, - But higher, better things were lost indeed! - - Now, in this newer day, what change is wrought! - We know the law of life is labor; so - The hand and mind in unison are taught, - With each the other’s ready servant. Lo! - What a grand world will swing beneath the sun - When Heart and Hand and Mind are all in one! - - - - -TO EUGENE FIELD IN ENGLAND. - - - Good poet of the city by the lake, - Critic and satirist I wave a hand - And send this greeting over sea and land-- - That kindest spirits round you tend, and make - Your ready feet to walk in Chaucer’s wake, - And in the paths of Keats and Shelley stand; - Or where the master of all singers planned - His songs, may your heart inspiration take. - - Where Dobson’s flowers find root in “paven ground,” - And Andrew Lang and Walter Pater bide, - I know that there for you a joy is found. - Cease not your western Pegasus to ride, - And when old book plates and rare volumes bore, - Quit London’s fog and dwell with us once more. - - - - -DEPENDENCE. - - - When a kind parent first his children guides - Into a bit of world they have not seen, - Though often told about its meadows green, - Or of some evil thing that there abides, - Their father’s careful care each one derides; - His guarded pace to them seems slow and mean, - Till sudden, they go hurrying back to lean - Against his surer, stronger heart. - - The sides - Of mountains where men’s daring feet would go - Alluring are, because no man has trod; - The restless slopes are tempting from below, - Yet seekers will not in the safe paths plod; - Like the weak children are taught to know - That man must always follow after God. - - - - -BY SHERIDAN’S GRAVE. - - - I stood upon the heights at Arlington, - And saw Potomac’s waters seaward flowing, - While all about me, past our human knowing - The soldiers lay--men who that soil had won - From enemies as brave, who would not shun - The wrath that followed on their whirlwind sowing, - And there among their graves the flowers were growing, - And on Virginia shone the springtime sun. - - Here lies the idol of my boyish dreaming, - Beside the storied river that had known - The camp-fires of a mighty army, gleaming - Where peace to-day her snowy scarf has thrown. - Sleep, Sheridan, beyond this world of seeming, - Your spirit guard this valley as its own! - - - - -VIKING. - -[Written In Du Chaillu’s Viking Age.] - - - What has been stolen from time’s jealous hand,-- - A newer Greece washed by the Baltic’s tide - Where fire of Northern genius burned and died; - Where long-dethronèd gods ruled o’er the land - And warriors fought with sword and threatening brand? - Was it these rugged shores that once defied - The world as it was known to them and tried - Adventurous keels on many an unknown strand? - - Parents of mighty nations, kings of the sea! - Fair-haired, strong-limbed path-blazers of the deep! - How full a life was theirs, how broad and free,-- - Passing one day Gibraltar’s tropic steep, - Seeking a while some Northern coast and drear, - Or sailing far to find the Western hemisphere! - - - - -VIOLIN. - - - Gently, beneath her perfect rounded chin, - The instrument is clasped, as mothers hold - Across their hearts a much-loved child, to fold - It from the world of misery and sin. - She draws the bow across the strings to win - To life the tones now soft, now strong and bold, - (But ever breathing some grand truth untold) - That dormant lie within the violin. - - O, mystery of music, wondrous art! - The sympathetic violin but steals - The loves and hates that dwell within her heart-- - The very hopes, the vague desires she feels-- - And at the bow’s quick touch they rise and start - In melody that inmost soul reveals. - - - - -WHAT THE BABIES SAY. - - - What things the babies say are listened to - As if the little heads were brimming o’er - With pretty fancies, such as ne’er before - Took form in human mind--as if they knew - The glories of the world, or false or true. - And with their careless-clutching fingers tore - From Miss Pandora’s box the bitter store - (If pleased) and handed out the sweets to you. - - O baby lips, whose lispings we repeat, - O baby tongue, so eager in attaining - The power through which your wishes may be heard; - May you remain forever pure and sweet, - And ne’er in anger move, but uncomplaining, - And ever by the noblest promptings stirred. - - - - -SECRETS. - - - How well her many secrets nature keeps - And never tells to us by word or sign,-- - The hidden source whence comes life-giving wine - Which through the trees in springtime tingling creeps; - The dwelling-place from which the wind low sweeps, - His stalwart forest legions to align - With leadership of giant oak or pine-- - She tells us not but, brooding silent, sleeps. - - So, safely locked within the human heart, - Are joys and sorrows of the long ago, - As hidden springs from which the sad tears start - When we scarce know the power that movers their flow; - And we from all the world are set apart - By precious secrets none may ever know. - - - - -BLIND. - - - As one who in a cavern underground - Can hear the jars and murmurings which tell - That far away a busy people dwell, - Not hearing, only knowing by the sound, - So dwells he in a world by darkness bound; - He hears and feels, but no dawn can dispell - The night for him on whom no light e’er fell - With power to drive away the night profound. - - But not for aye he walks the realm of night, - For one day there will break upon his eyes - A flood of rarer, dark o’ercoming light - Than ever flushed the arch of earthly skies, - And for him dawn a morning wondrous bright - Within the garden lands of Paradise. - - - - -A FANCY. - - - ’Neath sullen skies the marshalled clouds parade; - The Autumn wind sighs a weird monotone - In which I hear, in fancy, softly blown, - The stirring bugle notes that once were played - To mocking echoes in a Southern glade; - I hear the sentinel’s quick challenge tone-- - The noise and stir of war, all backward thrown - Across the gulf that peaceful years have made. - - But long ago the clouds of war had spent - Their fury; sounds of strife no longer fill - The field whereon sweet peace has spread her tent-- - But those same bugle tones are sounding still, - And ringing through the starry firmament, - Whilst Memory’s camp-fires blaze upon the hill. - - - - -THOREAU. - - - A prince he was, yet scorning princely ways, - A priest of nature, simple and sincere, - To whom the wild free things were far more dear - Than trammeling honors gathered of the days - That only served to show him some new phase - In life of flower and tree; whose greatest cheer - Came when the seasons changed and he would hear - The blue bird’s note or see the woods ablaze. - - Though joining not in endless race with men, - And caring not to lift life’s heavy load;-- - Of quiet life, of solitude though fond, - I love to read the thoughts traced by his pen, - And fancy that I walk Marlborough road - Or rest with him by peaceful Walden pond. - - - - -TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: - - -Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. - -Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHORT FLIGHTS *** - -***** This file should be named 63973-0.txt or 63973-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/9/7/63973/ - -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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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 -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this ebook. - -Title: Short Flights - -Author: Meredith Nicholson - -Release Date: December 06, 2020 [EBook #63973] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: D A Alexander, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was - produced from images generously made available by the Library - of Congress) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHORT FLIGHTS *** -</pre> -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.jpg" width="50%" alt="" /></div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - - - -<div class="titlepage"> -<h1>SHORT FLIGHTS</h1> - -<p>BY<br /> -<span class="large"><i>MEREDITH NICHOLSON</i></span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="verse"><i>With a weak, uncertain wing</i></div> -<div class="verse"><i>And a short flight, faltering</i></div> -<div class="verse"><i>Like a heart afraid to sing.</i></div> -</div></div> - -<p>INDIANAPOLIS<br /> -<span class="large">THE BOWEN-MERRILL CO.</span><br /> -1891</p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="center"> -Copyright 1890<br /> -BY<br /> -<span class="large">MEREDITH NICHOLSON</span></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - - -<p class="center"> -TO MY UNCLE<br /> - -<span class="large">WILLIAM MORTON MEREDITH</span></p> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_v"></a>[v]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">CONTENTS</h2> -</div> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" summary="table"> - -<tr><td>INVOCATION—<span class="smcap">To the Seasons</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_xi"> xi</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Sat Est Vixisse</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1"> 1</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Song</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_3"> 3</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">’Tis Never Night in Love’s Domain</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_5"> 5</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Estranged</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_7"> 7</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">When Friends are Parted</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_8"> 8</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Whereaway</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_9"> 9</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">A Secret</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_11"> 11</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Disappointment</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_13"> 13</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Striving</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_14"> 14</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">An Idolater</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_16"> 16</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Love’s Midas Touch</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_17"> 17</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">In Ether Spaces</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_18"> 18</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">My Paddle Gleamed</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_20"> 20</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Faithless</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_21"> 21</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Grape Bloom</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_22"> 22</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Ill-Starred</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_23"> 23</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Soldier Heart</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_25"> 25</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">An Unwritten Letter</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_27"> 27</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">My Lady of the Golden Heart</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_28"> 28</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Dreams</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_30"> 30</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Cardinal Newman</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_31"> 31</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">On the Mediterranean</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_32"> 32</a></td></tr> - - - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Watching the World Go By</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_34"> 34</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_vi"></a>[vi]</span></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Righteous Wrath</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_36"> 36</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Sunset</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_37"> 37</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Rondeau of Eventide</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_38"> 38</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">A Prince’s Treasure</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_39"> 39</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Dieu Vous Garde</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_41"> 41</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Sweetheart Time</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_42"> 42</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Road to Happiness</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_44"> 44</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Guarding Shadows</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_46"> 46</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Art’s Lesson</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_47"> 47</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">In the Shadow</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_48"> 48</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td>“<span class="smcap">Lead, Kindly Light</span>”</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_50"> 50</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Songs and Words</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_51"> 51</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">For a New Year’s Morn</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_53"> 53</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Three Friends</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_54"> 54</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">A Rhyme of Little Girls</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_57"> 57</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Battles Grandsire Missed</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_59"> 59</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Barred</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_61"> 61</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">A Slumber Song</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_62"> 62</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Before the Fire</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_64"> 64</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">October</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_66"> 66</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">In Winter I was Born</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_68"> 68</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Good Night and Pleasant Dreams</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_69"> 69</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Where Love Was Not</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_71"> 71</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Down the Aisles</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_73"> 73</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Ruin</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_74"> 74</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Half Flights</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_76"> 76</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">A Kind of Man</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_77"> 77</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Transfigured</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_78"> 78</a></td></tr> - - - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Love’s Power</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_79"> 79</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_vii"></a>[vii]</span></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Fire-Hunting</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_80"> 80</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Heartache</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_81"> 81</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Friendship’s Sacrament</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_83"> 83</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Omar Khayyam</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_84"> 84</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">A Discovery</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_86"> 86</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td> </td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2"><i>SONNETS</i></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">A Modern Puritan</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_89"> 89</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Law of Life</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_90"> 90</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">To Eugene Field in England</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_91"> 91</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Dependence</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_92"> 92</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">By Sheridan’s Grave</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_93"> 93</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Viking</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_94"> 94</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Violin</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_95"> 95</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">What the Babies Say</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_96"> 96</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Secrets</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_97"> 97</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Blind</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_98"> 98</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">A Fancy</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_99"> 99</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Thoreau</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_100"> 100</a></td></tr> -</table> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_viii"></a>[viii]</span></p> - - - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_ix"></a>[ix]</span> -<p class="ph1"><i>SHORT FLIGHTS</i></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_x"></a>[x]</span></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xi"></a>[xi]</span> -<h2 class="nobreak">TO THE SEASONS.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap"><i>SEASONS that pass me by in varied mood,</i></p> -<div class="indent-a"><i>As on the impressionable land you leave a trace,</i></div> -<div class="indent2"><i>Molding sometime a delicate flower’s sweet face,</i></div> -<div class="verse"><i>Touching again with green the somber wood,</i></div> -<div class="verse"><i>Or drawing all beneath a snowy hood,—</i></div> -<div class="indent2"><i>Am I not worthy as they to have a place</i></div> -<div class="indent2"><i>In your remembrance? Am I made too base</i></div> -<div class="verse"><i>To know what weed and thorn have understood?</i></div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"><i>Fair vernal time, I need your quickening</i></div> -<div class="indent2"><i>Even as the sleeping Earth! O summer heat</i></div> -<div class="verse"><i>Make flower and fruit in me that I may bring</i></div> -<div class="indent2"><i>Full hands to Autumn when above me beat</i></div> -<div class="indent4"><i>The serious winds; and Winter, make me strong</i></div> -<div class="indent4"><i>Like the glad music of your battle song!</i></div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_1"></a>[1]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">SAT EST VIXISSE.</h2> -</div> - - - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> - -<h3>I.</h3> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="indent4">To have lived!</div> -<div class="verse">To have felt a quickened beat</div> -<div class="indent2">Of the heart in spring;</div> -<div class="verse">To have known that something sweet</div> -<div class="indent2">Moved the birds to sing;</div> -<div class="verse">To have seen dim waves of heat</div> -<div class="verse">O’er a field of green retreat!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<h3>II.</h3> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">To have found the hiding-place</div> -<div class="indent2">Of the wild wood rose;</div> -<div class="verse">To have held, a little space,</div> -<div class="verse">Any flower that grows;</div> -<div class="verse">To have known a moment’s grace</div> -<div class="verse">Looking in a loved one’s face</div> -<div class="indent4">To have lived, to have lived!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_2"></a>[2]</span> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<h3>III.</h3> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Still, doth it suffice alone</div> -<div class="indent2">That the world is fair?</div> -<div class="verse">O’er what fields have these hands sown?</div> -<div class="indent2">Are they gold or bare?</div> -<div class="verse">And though all the flowers are flown,</div> -<div class="verse">If to God my heart is known,</div> -<div class="verse">Then shall I in truth be shown</div> -<div class="indent4">How to live, why to live!</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_3"></a>[3]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">SONG.</h2> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">GLAD and sad make rhyme, my dear,</p> -<div class="indent">Glad and sad make rhyme.</div> -<div class="verse">Though the sun may not appear,</div> -<div class="indent2">Though there be a time</div> -<div class="verse">When the hours are very long,</div> -<div class="indent2">And there is no joy for you,</div> -<div class="verse">Weave this thought into a song:</div> -<div class="indent2">Glad and sad make jingle true—</div> -<div class="indent4">Happy jingle true!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">They are joined together, dear,</div> -<div class="indent2">Joined together they,</div> -<div class="verse">Like the dark sky and the clear</div> -<div class="indent2">Of an April day.</div> -<div class="verse">Like the grief that dies in gladness</div> -<div class="indent2">Turmoil into peace will grow,</div> -<div class="verse">Soon there is an end of sadness—</div> -<div class="indent2">Glad and sad make rhyme, you know,</div> -<div class="indent4">Perfect rhyme, you know.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_4"></a>[4]</span> -<div class="verse">They make perfect rhyme, my dear.</div> -<div class="indent2">Perfect as can be;</div> -<div class="verse">Falling sweet upon the ear,</div> -<div class="indent2">Telling you and me</div> -<div class="verse">That the thorn and rose are wed,</div> -<div class="indent2">That night holds in store the dawn,</div> -<div class="verse">And till hope and trust are dead</div> -<div class="indent2">Glad and sad will jingle on,</div> -<div class="indent4">Jingle, jingle on!</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_5"></a>[5]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">’TIS NEVER NIGHT IN LOVE’S DOMAIN.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">’TWAS morning when one found his way</p> -<div class="indent">Within the garden lands of love.</div> -<div class="verse">He lingered till he thought the day</div> -<div class="verse">Should surely unto night yield sway.</div> -<div class="indent2">But morning’s sun still shone above</div> -<div class="verse">In skies unmarred by evening’s gray,</div> -<div class="indent4">While on the air rang this refrain—</div> -<div class="indent4">’Tis never night in love’s domain.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Love’s palace beauteous is, and tall,</div> -<div class="indent2">And broad, and grand is his estate.</div> -<div class="verse">Gay courtiers throng each spacious hall</div> -<div class="verse">Where laughing echoes ceaseless fall</div> -<div class="indent2">And mock the silent outcast, hate,</div> -<div class="verse">Who ever cowers by post and wall.</div> -<div class="indent4">And scowls as rings the glad refrain—</div> -<div class="indent4">’Tis never night in love’s domain.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_6"></a>[6]</span> -<div class="verse">And thence through groves with myrtle grown</div> -<div class="indent2">He followed Venus’ dove-drawn car</div> -<div class="verse">By paths he ne’er before had known,</div> -<div class="verse">And yet, the morning had not flown,</div> -<div class="indent2">And yet, fresh winds blew from afar</div> -<div class="verse">As came, in ne’er decreasing tone,</div> -<div class="indent4">The song through which ran this refrain—</div> -<div class="indent4">’Tis never night in love’s domain.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Ah, love of mine, how well we know</div> -<div class="indent2">The glories of those garden lands</div> -<div class="verse">Through which Lethean waters flow!</div> -<div class="verse">Oft we have wandered to and fro</div> -<div class="indent2">Down those bright halls, and seen the hands</div> -<div class="verse">Of tiny elves that beckoned so</div> -<div class="indent4">They kept the time to this refrain—</div> -<div class="indent4">’Tis never night in love’s domain.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_7"></a>[7]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">ESTRANGED.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">IT was but yesterday that thou</p> -<div class="indent">Wert with love-whispers eloquent,</div> -<div class="verse">Yet come and look upon her now</div> -<div class="indent6">That life is spent.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">How strangely white the face hath grown,</div> -<div class="indent2">No longer prest by kisses fond;</div> -<div class="verse">Why turn’st, now that her soul hath flown</div> -<div class="indent6">And rests beyond?</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Why enter’st not the darkened room</div> -<div class="indent2">To touch again those cold, white lips—</div> -<div class="verse">So cold and white, seen in the gloom</div> -<div class="indent6">Of Death’s eclipse?</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Thou wert so loving once, but now</div> -<div class="indent2">Take that cold hand as lovers may,</div> -<div class="verse">Implant a kiss on that calm brow,</div> -<div class="indent6">Nor turn away.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">It was but yesterday that thou</div> -<div class="indent2">Wert with love-whispers eloquent—</div> -<div class="verse">Thou wilt not look upon her now</div> -<div class="indent6">That life is spent.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_8"></a>[8]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">WHEN FRIENDS ARE PARTED.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">TIME keeps no measure when true friends are parted,—</p> -<div class="indent3">No record day by day;</div> -<div class="verse">The sands move not for those who, loyal-hearted,</div> -<div class="indent6">Friendship’s firm laws obey.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">It is not well to note with dull precision</div> -<div class="indent6">The flight of days or years;</div> -<div class="verse">Memory depends not on a proof by vision,</div> -<div class="indent6">And has no foolish fears.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">The migrant birds when they are Southward flying</div> -<div class="indent6">Have no regrets; they go</div> -<div class="verse">Full of the knowledge born of faith undying,</div> -<div class="indent6">That they again shall know</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">The homes and nests which they have left behind them</div> -<div class="indent6">Unmarred by change the while;</div> -<div class="verse">The Southern lands they seek will but remind them</div> -<div class="indent6">Of the North’s summer smile.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And so I know that you will come to meet me</div> -<div class="indent6">In the old, well-loved way;</div> -<div class="verse">That, though a year go by, you still will greet me</div> -<div class="indent6">As kindly as to-day.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9"></a>[9]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">WHEREAWAY.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">WHERE are you going my bright blue eyes,</p> -<div class="indent1">My boy so happy-hearted?</div> -<div class="verse">You are very young and very wise,</div> -<div class="indent4">And early you have started.</div> -<div class="verse">Where is the city you’re bound for, lad?</div> -<div class="indent4">Come tell me of it truly;</div> -<div class="verse">Is it one that is fair, and one that is glad</div> -<div class="indent4">And was it builded newly?</div> -<div class="verse">Oh, tell me whereaway my lad—</div> -<div class="indent8">Whereaway?</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">The day is fair and the skies are blue,</div> -<div class="indent4">Come rest awhile and listen:</div> -<div class="verse">By far too great is the world for you,</div> -<div class="indent4">The spires in dreams that glisten</div> -<div class="verse">Are far away from this quiet place</div> -<div class="indent4">With many a mile between,</div> -<div class="verse">So rest, blue eyes, for a little space</div> -<div class="indent4">Here where the slopes are green—</div> -<div class="verse">Oh, tell me whereaway my lad—</div> -<div class="indent8">Whereaway?</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10"></a>[10]</span> -<div class="verse">Oh, dim and vague is the early haze</div> -<div class="indent4">That holds your world of seeming;</div> -<div class="verse">This day is fairer than other days</div> -<div class="indent4">Only in boyish dreaming,—</div> -<div class="verse">So do not hasten but pause to tell</div> -<div class="indent4">Why you make such a hurry—</div> -<div class="verse">Do you want to go, have you pondered well</div> -<div class="indent4">About the cost and worry?</div> -<div class="verse">Oh, tell me whereaway my lad—</div> -<div class="indent8">Whereaway?</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Oh, dear blue eyes and brave young heart</div> -<div class="indent4">Why must you turn to leave me?</div> -<div class="verse">Am I so old that we now must part,</div> -<div class="indent4">Why will you go to grieve me?</div> -<div class="verse">But he turns away with a smile and nod</div> -<div class="indent4">And will not tell me truly</div> -<div class="verse">About the place to which he will plod,</div> -<div class="indent4">If old or builded newly;</div> -<div class="verse">He does not answer “Where, my lad?”</div> -<div class="indent8">Whereaway?</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11"></a>[11]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">A SECRET.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">HE said, “No one shall ever learn</p> -<div class="indent">This secret that my heart must keep;</div> -<div class="verse">No matter how the wolds may burn,</div> -<div class="indent2">No matter how my heart may leap,</div> -<div class="indent4">No one shall know I love her so,</div> -<div class="indent4">No one shall know, no one shall know!”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">But though his lips were tightly sealed,</div> -<div class="indent2">The very birds his secret guessed,</div> -<div class="verse">For in his eyes it was revealed,</div> -<div class="indent2">And in his face it was confessed—</div> -<div class="indent4">“I love her so, I love her so,</div> -<div class="indent4">But none shall know, but none shall know?”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">The wind soon found it and ran on</div> -<div class="indent2">To tell it to the wondering flowers,</div> -<div class="verse">And bear it to the gates of dawn,</div> -<div class="indent2">Where loiter all the coming hours,</div> -<div class="indent4">That they might know he loved her so,</div> -<div class="indent4">That they might know, that they might know!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12"></a>[12]</span> -<div class="verse">Some time all secrets must unfold,</div> -<div class="indent2">And soon did he a listener seek,</div> -<div class="verse">To whom his story might be told</div> -<div class="indent2">Before the laughing world should speak</div> -<div class="indent4">And tell her (if she did not know!)</div> -<div class="indent4">He loved her so, he loved her so!</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13"></a>[13]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">DISAPPOINTMENT.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - -<p class="drop-cap">THE broad-armed wave that reaches for the land</p> -<div class="indent">Sees not the towering rock that bars the way</div> -<div class="verse">Unto the longed-for play-ground of the strand,</div> -<div class="indent2">Until, thrown back, it sees through tears of spray.</div> -</div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14"></a>[14]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">STRIVING.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">IT is not much that I can do.</p> -<div class="indent3">My hands are weak.</div> -<div class="verse">The lines they draw seem never true;</div> -<div class="indent4">The works I speak</div> -<div class="indent8">Are not the ones I long to say,—</div> -<div class="indent8">I speak not prayers I long to pray.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">It is no coward spirit, no—</div> -<div class="indent4">I try to learn</div> -<div class="verse">How others bravely strive and go</div> -<div class="indent4">Rewards to earn,</div> -<div class="indent8">And yet success is never mine—</div> -<div class="indent8">I labor on a false design.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">They are not much, these little things</div> -<div class="indent4">That form my task,</div> -<div class="verse">Yet constant seeking never brings</div> -<div class="indent4">What I would ask,</div> -<div class="indent8">And of what use is life to one</div> -<div class="indent8">Who never knew a victory won?</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15"></a>[15]</span> -<div class="verse">But this one thing I know, that He</div> -<div class="indent4">Who guides the stars</div> -<div class="verse">Will look in charity on me</div> -<div class="indent4">And see the scars</div> -<div class="indent8">Which show that I have tried to trace</div> -<div class="indent8">A path that weeds could not efface.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16"></a>[16]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">AN IDOLATER.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">I READ of pagan priests in idols hiding,</p> -<div class="indent2-a">That with their own lips they might make reply</div> -<div class="verse">To prayers of worshippers in them confiding—</div> -<div class="indent10">To vouchsafe or deny.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And all idolatry has not departed;</div> -<div class="indent4">For yet I faith in one fair idol hold.</div> -<div class="verse">Unlike those of the heathen, hollow-hearted.</div> -<div class="indent10">Voiceless, inert and cold;</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">But one who dwells, a queen, among the living.</div> -<div class="indent4">Whose eyes light lip, my waiting eyes to greet </div> -<div class="verse">And speak, before the lips, sweet answer giving</div> -<div class="indent10">From her soul’s judgment seat.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17"></a>[17]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">LOVE’S MIDAS TOUCH.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">YOUR love has made life dear to me;</p> -<div class="indent">Until you came I did not know</div> -<div class="verse">How beautiful the world could be—</div> -<div class="indent2">How full of joy its days could grow.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Once peace was not in anything,</div> -<div class="indent2">But love has made life dear to me;</div> -<div class="verse">The winter has given way to spring,</div> -<div class="indent2">And skies are fair and clear to me.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">My heart is listening when you speak;</div> -<div class="verse">To hold your hand or touch your cheek,—</div> -<div class="verse">Since love has made life dear to me!</div> -<div class="verse">Sends flying love and fear through me.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Glad is the grass your feet have pressed,</div> -<div class="indent2">Your eyes throw joy on all they see,</div> -<div class="verse">Around you there is gracious rest,</div> -<div class="indent2">Your love has made life dear to me.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18"></a>[18]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">IN ETHER SPACES.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">SOMEWHERE in space there is a realm where lingers</p> -<div class="indent">Each word that ever fell from lips of man,</div> -<div class="verse">All music stirred to life by touch of fingers,</div> -<div class="indent6">All sounds since time began.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Rumble of quaking earth and plains upturning</div> -<div class="indent2">Creation morn; the sullen beat of rain,</div> -<div class="verse">The coo of dove with olive-leaf returning,</div> -<div class="indent6">The stir of life again.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">A Child’s soft treble in the temple, heeded</div> -<div class="indent2">By doctors who about him listening drew;</div> -<div class="verse">“Father, forgive them,” on dark Calvary pleaded,</div> -<div class="indent6">“They know not what they do.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">The songs are there which echoed through dim ages,</div> -<div class="indent2">And chants of kneeling priests at pagan shrines,</div> -<div class="verse">The speech of prophets writ on history’s pages</div> -<div class="indent6">In God-directed lines.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19"></a>[19]</span> -<div class="verse">There dormant dwells the roar of battle royal,</div> -<div class="indent2">The clash of arms amid war’s furnace flame,</div> -<div class="verse">Victorious cries of warriors brave and loyal,</div> -<div class="indent6">A people’s loud acclaim;</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">With words that gladdened hearts of earliest lovers,</div> -<div class="indent2">And curses since night’s robes trailed Eden’s sky,</div> -<div class="verse">While vague as half-remembered dreams there hovers</div> -<div class="indent6">Each mother’s lullaby.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">O sounds afar in ether spaces dwelling,</div> -<div class="indent2">In mighty minstrelsy awake! Unite</div> -<div class="verse">In chords the story of the æons telling</div> -<div class="indent6">Since stars first gemmed the night.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20"></a>[20]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">MY PADDLE GLEAMED.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">MY paddle gleamed, the light canoe</p> -<div class="indent3">The river’s waters glided through</div> -<div class="indent4">With scarce a sound to fret the air;</div> -<div class="indent2">The sun shone bright, the morn was fair </div> -<div class="verse">And from the South soft breezes blew.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">O’erhead the swallows darting flew,</div> -<div class="indent2">Then dropt to earth to brush the dew</div> -<div class="indent4">From off the tangled grasses there</div> -<div class="indent6">My paddle gleamed!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">In form as perfect, fresh and new</div> -<div class="verse">As when they first in Eden grew</div> -<div class="indent2">God’s gifts, before, lay everywhere;</div> -<div class="indent2">Behind, the city’s toil and care;</div> -<div class="verse">Content, I joy’s full measure knew—</div> -<div class="indent2">My paddle gleamed!</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21"></a>[21]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">FAITHLESS.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - -<p class="drop-cap2">AH, yes! Thy love was like the stars, but not</p> -<div class="indent2">Like faithful stars which gleam with steadfast light,</div> -<div class="verse">But as a darting ærolite, swift shot</div> -<div class="indent3">Across the blackness of a sombre night, </div> -<div class="verse">Fading as quickly, and as soon forgot.</div> -</div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22"></a>[22]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">GRAPE BLOOM.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">I WALK ’mid vines which rest upon</p> -<div class="indent1">An arbor o’er a garden way</div> -<div class="indent2">Where southern breezes come to play</div> -<div class="verse">And never-ending races run.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">The dew drips from the clustering vines,</div> -<div class="indent2">A swallow like a shuttle cleaves</div> -<div class="indent2">The air above and vainly weaves</div> -<div class="verse">His fancies into unseen lines.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">But stealing forth and dwelling there</div> -<div class="indent2">Within the shadows of the walk,</div> -<div class="indent2">A perfume comes as when gods talk</div> -<div class="verse">And their glad breathings fill the air.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Scarce seen among the vines the shapes</div> -<div class="indent2">That hold and throw the rare perfume—</div> -<div class="indent2">The tiny bits of early bloom</div> -<div class="verse">Presageful of the coming grapes.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And when they ripened grace the vine,</div> -<div class="indent2">That sweetness shall return again,</div> -<div class="indent2">Like hopes fulfilled to trustful men,</div> -<div class="verse">And have new life in autumn’s wine.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23"></a>[23]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">ILL-STARRED.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">OH, prayers and sympathetic tears</p> -<div class="indent">For each and every ill-starred knight</div> -<div class="verse">For whom ring no victorious cheers;</div> -<div class="indent2">For those who, early in the fight,</div> -<div class="indent2">Saw daylight turning into night</div> -<div class="verse">And yielded up to Fate their spears.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">The dented shield, the pierced cuirass,</div> -<div class="indent2">Sad story is it that they tell</div> -<div class="verse">Of brave young knights whose hopes, alas!</div> -<div class="indent2">Bore meagre fruit; who fighting fell</div> -<div class="indent2">Before the foe they could not quell;</div> -<div class="verse">Who found no wine within the glass.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">For some there are but ill-equipped</div> -<div class="indent2">To face the world; some weak of will</div> -<div class="verse">And some faint-hearted, feeble-lipped,</div> -<div class="indent2">Fit but the lowest posts to fill,</div> -<div class="indent2">Some shivering with the coward’s chill</div> -<div class="verse">And of the armor “courage” stripped.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24"></a>[24]</span> -<div class="verse">Oh, you ’gainst whom the fates are set,</div> -<div class="indent2">E’en though you’ve failed on every field</div> -<div class="verse">To gain fair honor’s banneret,</div> -<div class="indent2">Let high above be held each shield,</div> -<div class="indent2">Each one with purpose strong annealed,</div> -<div class="verse">And all shall win a victory yet.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25"></a>[25]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">THE SOLDIER HEART.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">ONE day in careless wise I said:</p> -<div class="indent">“They were no heroes, they who bled</div> -<div class="verse">To save the Nation and to free the slave;</div> -<div class="verse">There is no honor now in being brave;”</div> -<div class="verse">And thought not how my father hearing me—</div> -<div class="verse">(He who had fought with Sherman to the sea,</div> -<div class="verse">True as a knight of storied chivalry),</div> -<div class="verse">Would feel the sting my words conveyed, as though</div> -<div class="verse">I deemed the venture of his life should go</div> -<div class="verse">A thing unworthy of remembrance. Then</div> -<div class="verse">His look of pain (soft are the hearts of men!)</div> -<div class="verse">Made me think deeply of the soldier’s part,</div> -<div class="verse">(As when on Memory’s day the quick tears start</div> -<div class="verse">To see the line each spring becoming less,</div> -<div class="verse">The slowing step, heads’ winter snowiness!)</div> -<div class="verse">And vowed I then that while my blood should run</div> -<div class="verse">I should not be a son</div> -<div class="verse">To speak a word not kindly of a soldier true;</div> -<div class="verse">To utter naught but praise of all who dared to do,</div> -<div class="verse">Whether in mail of gray or clad in honest blue!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26"></a>[26]</span> -<div class="indent2">He who cares not</div> -<div class="indent2">That his sire fought;</div> -<div class="indent2">He who shall think not proudly of the days</div> -<div class="indent2">His father felt the blaze</div> -<div class="indent2">Of war’s red furnace flame against his cheek,</div> -<div class="indent2">Has but a coward’s heart, too poor and weak</div> -<div class="indent2">To throw the blood through faltering limb—</div> -<div class="indent2">Earth has no place for him!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="indent2">While there is hearth and home to save,</div> -<div class="verse">’Tis something to be brave—</div> -<div class="verse">’Tis something to have ventured near to Death,</div> -<div class="verse">And felt his chilling breath!</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27"></a>[27]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">AN UNWRITTEN LETTER.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<p class="drop-cap">SHE wrote a letter with her eyes,</p> -<div class="indent">Well-filled with words of bliss;</div> -<div class="verse">Then, like a prudent maid and wise,</div> -<div class="indent2">She sealed it with a kiss.</div> -</div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_28"></a>[28]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">MY LADY OF THE GOLDEN HEART.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">MY lady of the golden heart, she comes each day</p> -<div class="indent">Down by the lodge-gate that I keep; she comes demurely,</div> -<div class="verse">And her two hounds sedate do follow and obey</div> -<div class="indent2">Her slightest wish, and they do love my lady surely.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">She comes each day, my lady of the golden heart,</div> -<div class="indent2">Sometimes a-riding or sometimes she comes a-walking;</div> -<div class="verse">The birds along the hedge they do not even start</div> -<div class="indent2">When she comes by, sometimes to her big hounds a-talking.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“Good morrow” says my lady, (she whose heart is gold),</div> -<div class="indent2">And gold out of her heart makes bright the gateway;</div> -<div class="verse">The sunshine of her face in winter time does hold</div> -<div class="indent2">Green meadows and sweet flowers and makes a summer straightway.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">My lady, she whose heart is gold, my lady goes</div> -<div class="indent2">Each day into the village, bread and good wine bearing</div> -<div class="verse">To those that sick be, and my gentle lady knows</div> -<div class="indent2">All of the village folk and for them she be caring.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_29"></a>[29]</span> -<div class="verse">Now as she comes each day, (gold is my lady’s heart),</div> -<div class="indent2">Or goes away upon some errand Heaven has sent her,</div> -<div class="verse">The gates of my poor heart, they do fly far apart.</div> -<div class="indent2">But there my lady fair and sweet, she will not enter.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30"></a>[30]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">DREAMS.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<p class="drop-cap2">LIKE shadow-freighted ships which softly creep</p> -<div class="indent1">Across some far-off ghostly main,</div> -<div class="indent2">They haunt the chambers of the brain,</div> -<div class="verse">And kiss their fingers to the watchman, Sleep!</div> -</div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31"></a>[31]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">CARDINAL NEWMAN.</h2> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="center">“<i>To the last I never recognized the hold I had over young -men.</i>”—<i>Apologia pro Vita Sua.</i></p></div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">NO more the sun may know the strength it hath</p> -<div class="indent">To stir the bark in spring with quickening blood:</div> -<div class="verse">No more a storm controlleth its great wrath,</div> -<div class="indent2">Or doleth out the measure of its flood!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">There is a quality of lasting youth</div> -<div class="indent2">That knoweth not the force that gave it birth;</div> -<div class="verse">Some souls God pointeth subtler ways of truth,</div> -<div class="indent2">As highest tribute to their lasting worth.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">He hath in souls like thine deposited</div> -<div class="indent2">A quenchless flame as calm and strong as dawn; </div> -<div class="verse">Across the world thy potent fire is shed,</div> -<div class="indent2">Born of the “kindly light” that leadeth on!</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32"></a>[32]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">ON THE MEDITERRANEAN.</h2> -</div> - - -<h3>THE GREEK GIRL’S SONG.</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">TO-DAY my lover lends his flocks;</p> -<div class="indent">He roams with them through fragrant meads,</div> -<div class="verse">And guides across the barren rocks;</div> -<div class="indent2">With his own hands the lambs he feeds,</div> -<div class="verse">And soothes them when the winds are cold</div> -<div class="verse">Or terror comes among the fold.</div> -<div class="indent2">They soon forget the night’s alarms</div> -<div class="indent2">When folded in his shielding arms.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="indent4"><i>So good and true to them is he</i></div> -<div class="indent4"><i>I know he will be kind to me.</i></div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">My lover walks in paths of peace,</div> -<div class="indent2">He would avoid the conflict’s noise</div> -<div class="verse">And bid the warring legions cease,</div> -<div class="indent2">He is content with simple joys;</div> -<div class="verse">He fain would always journey through</div> -<div class="verse">Tall grasses shining in the dew</div> -<div class="indent2">And tend his sheep and dream his dreams </div> -<div class="indent2">Beside the quiet mountain streams;</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33"></a>[33]</span> -<div class="indent4"><i>So faithful is his love of home</i></div> -<div class="indent4"><i>His heart I know can never roam.</i></div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<h3>THE SHEPHERD’S SONG.</h3> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">As fair as the flocks that graze</div> -<div class="indent2">There ’gainst the hill’s restful side;</div> -<div class="indent4">As sweet as the breath of night</div> -<div class="verse">When across dim flowery ways</div> -<div class="indent2">Pours a mellifluous tide,</div> -<div class="indent4">Winging an odorous flight:</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="indent2">Thus is the maiden who sends</div> -<div class="indent2">Songs to the shepherd who tends</div> -<div class="indent2">Sheep by the streams, and who dies</div> -<div class="indent2">In the delight of her eyes.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Down by the shore in the night</div> -<div class="indent2">Rush the great breakers, nor cease</div> -<div class="indent4">Oft till the dawn lights the crest;</div> -<div class="verse">And so is love in its might,</div> -<div class="indent2">Stirring my soul from its peace,</div> -<div class="indent4">Leaving the shepherd no rest.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="indent2">Oh, if the sheep could but learn</div> -<div class="indent2">For me the answer I yearn!</div> -<div class="indent2">Come, my fair flock, we shall see</div> -<div class="indent2">What is the answer for me!</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_34"></a>[34]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">WATCHING THE WORLD GO BY.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">SWIFT as a meteor and as quickly gone</p> -<div class="indent">A train of cars darts swiftly through the night;</div> -<div class="verse">Scorning the wood and field it hurries on,</div> -<div class="indent4">A thing of wrathful might.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">There, from a farmer’s home a woman’s eyes,</div> -<div class="indent2">Roused by the sudden jar and passing flare,</div> -<div class="verse">Follow the speeding phantom till it dies,—</div> -<div class="indent4">An echo on the air.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Narrow the life that always has been hers</div> -<div class="indent2">The evening brings a longing to her breast;</div> -<div class="verse">Deep in her heart some aspiration stirs</div> -<div class="indent4">And mocks her soul’s unrest.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Her tasks are mean and endless as the days,</div> -<div class="indent2">And sometimes love cannot repay all things;</div> -<div class="verse">An instrument that rudely touched obeys</div> -<div class="indent4">Becomes discordant strings.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35"></a>[35]</span> -<div class="verse">The train that followed in the headlight’s glare,</div> -<div class="indent2">Bound for the city and a larger world,</div> -<div class="verse">Made emphasis of her poor life of care</div> -<div class="indent2">As from her sight it whirled.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"><i>Thus from all lonely hearts the great earth rolls,</i></div> -<div class="indent2"><i>Indifferent though one woman grieve and die,</i></div> -<div class="verse"><i>Along its iron track are many souls</i></div> -<div class="indent2"><i>That watch the world go by.</i></div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36"></a>[36]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">RIGHTEOUS WRATH.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse2"><p class="drop-cap">HOW splendid is the righteous wrath</p></div> -<div class="indent">Born in a good man’s soul!</div> -<div class="indent2">Ignoble things fly from his path,</div> -<div class="indent4">Loud thunders round him roll,—</div> -<div class="indent2">Yet tenderness and love he hath.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="indent2">Like some gigantic forest fire,</div> -<div class="indent4">His mighty anger sweeps;</div> -<div class="indent2">An eager flame of awful ire,</div> -<div class="indent4">At every wrong it leaps,—</div> -<div class="indent2">Still, lasting peace he doth desire.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Then, swift as flies the meteor’s spark,</div> -<div class="indent2">His anger disappears;</div> -<div class="verse">Born for the hour it met its mark,—</div> -<div class="indent2">He sootheth now love’s fears,</div> -<div class="verse">While wrong sits trembling in the dark!</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37"></a>[37]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">SUNSET.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">TWO giants meet upon the hills</p> -<div class="indent">And one is day, the other night;</div> -<div class="verse">The trees draw near, the sky leans down</div> -<div class="indent2">To watch their test of might.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">I cannot see them struggling there,</div> -<div class="indent2">But soon I know that one is dead,</div> -<div class="verse">For lo! the trees and hills and sky</div> -<div class="indent2">Are suddenly splashed with red!</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38"></a>[38]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">RONDEAU OF EVENTIDE.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap2">AT eventide when we are prest</p> -<div class="indent">By shadows and seek any rest</div> -<div class="indent2">That twilight brings at waning day,</div> -<div class="indent2">Ah, well with us if we can say</div> -<div class="verse">For aye we sought and found the best.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">God’s hand all nature has caressed</div> -<div class="verse">Till beauty is his love confessed,</div> -<div class="indent2">Till bud and bloom his love display</div> -<div class="indent6">Through eventide.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Why should we not pursue our quest</div> -<div class="verse">For such good things as bear the test</div> -<div class="indent2">The things worth loving bear alway?</div> -<div class="indent2">“Full life, full life,” we sometimes pray,</div> -<div class="verse"><i>Full life to higher life addressed</i>,</div> -<div class="indent6">Till eventide!</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39"></a>[39]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">A PRINCE’S TREASURE.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">[To His Royal Highness, Russell Fortune.]</p> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">OUR little prince can’t understand</p> -<div class="indent">That this is one of many springs;</div> -<div class="verse">He thinks these days for him are planned,</div> -<div class="indent2">And that for him the robin sings.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">All wonder-eyed he walks afield</div> -<div class="indent2">And makes an invoice of the joys</div> -<div class="indent2">God strews around for little boys,</div> -<div class="verse">And thinks for him they’re first revealed.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">It is a solemn thing to him!</div> -<div class="indent2">He wonders if it’s alright to pull</div> -<div class="indent2">The little wild flowers beautiful</div> -<div class="verse">That in the sea of grasses swim.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">More gentle than the violet,</div> -<div class="indent2">He studies o’er those eyes of blue—</div> -<div class="verse">Blue as his eyes are brown, and wet</div> -<div class="indent2">As <i>his</i>, sometimes, are wet with dew!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40"></a>[40]</span> -<div class="verse">Appreciative eyes are his!</div> -<div class="indent2">Into his apron takes he all</div> -<div class="indent2">The flowers that to his hand may fall—</div> -<div class="verse">The poorest weed so precious is!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">His feet leave but the vaguest hints</div> -<div class="indent2">Of steps along the shadows where</div> -<div class="indent2">The knightly trees bend down and swear</div> -<div class="verse">Allegiance to their little prince.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">O gentle, princely lad of ours,</div> -<div class="indent2">May nature ever hold your heart,</div> -<div class="indent2">And knowledge of her ways impart</div> -<div class="verse">Through lessons of the spring-time flowers;</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">May spring itself pass ever on</div> -<div class="indent2">And never lead to summer’s dust,</div> -<div class="verse">But make your life an endless dawn,</div> -<div class="indent2">With endless love, and faith, and trust!</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41"></a>[41]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">DIEU VOUS GARDE.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">MAY Allah in thy heart unfold</p> -<div class="indent">Perpetual-blooming roses;</div> -<div class="verse">May His sweet peace to thee increase</div> -<div class="indent2">Until the evening closes.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And may tall palms before thee rise,</div> -<div class="indent2">Hot sand to gardens turning;</div> -<div class="verse">May dates and wine be always thine,</div> -<div class="indent2">Amid the desert’s burning.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Let enemies be put to flight,</div> -<div class="indent2">Before thy spear uplifted,</div> -<div class="verse">And may thy way be as a day</div> -<div class="indent2">From starry vistas drifted.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Oh, Allah watches through the night,</div> -<div class="indent2">His trustful children viewing;</div> -<div class="verse">His love is deep, but he will keep</div> -<div class="indent2">Renewing and renewing.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42"></a>[42]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">SWEETHEART TIME.</h2> -</div> - - -<h3>I.</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">IT is a time before the rose</p> -<div class="indent1">Has blossomed to its form complete;</div> -<div class="verse">Before the hidden fragrance knows</div> -<div class="indent4">How rare it is, and sweet.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">A time it is when hearts are light,</div> -<div class="indent2">And shadows are a thing as far</div> -<div class="verse">Away as darkness from the sight</div> -<div class="indent4">Of evening’s brightest star.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">There is an undertone of song</div> -<div class="indent2">Vague, like the mists of early day;</div> -<div class="verse">An undertone that steals along,</div> -<div class="indent4">Forever far away.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> - -<h3>II.</h3> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">The walls that guard King Love’s fair home</div> -<div class="indent2">Are tall and strong; yet cannot hold</div> -<div class="verse">From those who by the gateway roam</div> -<div class="indent4">Some share of hoarded gold.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43"></a>[43]</span> -<div class="verse">So youth and maiden wandering near</div> -<div class="indent2">In straying beams of light are caught.</div> -<div class="verse">Their eyes serene know not the tear</div> -<div class="indent4">Through fuller loving wrought.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">It lasts for just a little while;</div> -<div class="indent2">It is love’s playtime, one brief hour</div> -<div class="verse">With tender sighing to beguile—</div> -<div class="indent4">A bud before the flower;</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">It is a time before the rose</div> -<div class="indent2">Attains its fairest form complete;</div> -<div class="verse">Before the subtle fragrance knows</div> -<div class="indent4">How rare it is, and sweet.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44"></a>[44]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">THE ROAD TO HAPPINESS.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">HERE’S the path our feet shall press</p> -<div class="indent">To the land of happiness;</div> -<div class="verse">There are guide-posts by the way</div> -<div class="verse">That we may not go astray;</div> -<div class="verse">Spots there are where we may rest,</div> -<div class="verse">Of King Happiness the guest;</div> -<div class="verse">Basking in the sunshine’s glow,</div> -<div class="verse">While the joyous pilgrims go</div> -<div class="verse">Ever onward to the gates</div> -<div class="verse">Where the Queen of Joy awaits</div> -<div class="verse">Those recruits her king shall gain</div> -<div class="verse">On the way to his domain.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Such a joyous army this!</div> -<div class="verse">Banners leaping for a kiss</div> -<div class="verse">From the winds that sweep along</div> -<div class="verse">Beating songs that well belong</div> -<div class="verse">To a road whose glory lies</div> -<div class="verse">Always under sunny skies. -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_45"></a>[45]</span> -<div class="verse">By this road no toll gate stands</div> -<div class="verse">With its ever-barring hands,</div> -<div class="verse">Yet of every passing soul</div> -<div class="verse">There is asked a certain toll.</div> -<div class="verse">It is this—that we shall share,</div> -<div class="verse">As we tread the thoroughfare,</div> -<div class="verse">All we have with those who lose</div> -<div class="verse">What they gain, or who refuse</div> -<div class="verse">To accept what is bestowed</div> -<div class="verse">By the master of the road.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">What a simple engineer</div> -<div class="verse">Marked this path! It is so clear</div> -<div class="verse">That to miss it is to turn</div> -<div class="verse">And its cooling shadows spurn.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Any road our feet may press</div> -<div class="verse">Is a road to happiness,</div> -<div class="verse">And that land is anywhere</div> -<div class="verse">That we turn away from care</div> -<div class="verse">To the army of a king</div> -<div class="verse">Who is ever journeying</div> -<div class="verse">To the city, by whose gates,</div> -<div class="verse">His fair queen of Joy awaits.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46"></a>[46]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">GUARDING SHADOWS.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - -<p class="drop-cap">GRIM watchmen are the jealous trees</p> -<div class="indent">Above their moon-born shadows—Thus</div> -<div class="verse">May foolish men guard mysteries</div> -<div class="indent2">Which they have made mysterious. </div> -</div></div> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47"></a>[47]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">ART’S LESSON.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">O glorious marble statue,</p> -<div class="indent">What gain I looking at you?</div> -<div class="verse">Your beauty is so old,</div> -<div class="verse">You are a form so cold</div> -<div class="verse">I can not understand you</div> -<div class="verse">Nor feel for him who planned you.</div> -<div class="verse">I easier lessons seek</div> -<div class="verse">Than those in chiseled Greek.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">I turn to you my fragrant;</div> -<div class="verse">Bedewed and straggling vagrant,</div> -<div class="verse">You are a simple flower,</div> -<div class="verse">And scarce live out the hour</div> -<div class="verse">Here in the garden by-way</div> -<div class="verse">(That still is Nature’s highway!)</div> -<div class="verse">Yet utter from the grass</div> -<div class="verse">Lessons from Phidias!</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48"></a>[48]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">IN THE SHADOW.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">I WOULD not have thee otherwise,</p> -<div class="indent3">O cloudy skies;</div> -<div class="verse">I would not change the night to day</div> -<div class="indent4">Nor drive away</div> -<div class="verse">The shadows that are hanging o’er</div> -<div class="indent4">My hearth and door.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">There is some good that lurketh where</div> -<div class="indent4">The lightnings flare;</div> -<div class="verse">There is a peace that bideth in</div> -<div class="indent4">The fiercest din;</div> -<div class="verse">A vernal light doth look upon</div> -<div class="indent4">Fields winter-won.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">If God were not the Overheart,</div> -<div class="indent4">Nor had a part</div> -<div class="verse">In all the wounds that hurt us so!</div> -<div class="indent4">But He doth know</div> -<div class="verse">And doth in patience see and bless</div> -<div class="indent4">In gentleness.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_49"></a>[49]</span> -<div class="verse">How sturdy and how great, O earth!</div> -<div class="indent4">Within thy girth</div> -<div class="verse">Thou wieldst what passion and what pain</div> -<div class="indent4">O’er man’s domain;</div> -<div class="verse">And yet within thy shadows blest</div> -<div class="indent4">Is perfect rest.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Turn not unto the light too long</div> -<div class="indent4">Friend, with thy song!</div> -<div class="verse">Thou hast not need to look afar</div> -<div class="indent4">For hill or star;</div> -<div class="verse">Here in the shadow rest is found</div> -<div class="indent4">Deep and profound.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_50"></a>[50]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">“LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT.”</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap2">“LEAD, kindly light,” I heard the glad bells ring,</p> -<div class="indent">And thought how God existeth everywhere.</div> -<div class="verse">’Twas in a city strange that, sweetest thing!</div> -<div class="verse">“Lead, kindly light,” I heard the glad bells ring,</div> -<div class="verse">And Summer stole into the early spring,</div> -<div class="indent2">For where the kind light leadeth all is fair.</div> -<div class="verse">“Lead, kindly light,” I heard the glad bells ring,</div> -<div class="indent2">And thought how God existeth everywhere. </div> -</div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_51"></a>[51]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">SONG AND WORDS.</h2> -</div> - - -<h3>I.</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">THE songs you sing, the songs you sing,</p> -<div class="indent">They are such songs as need not words,</div> -<div class="verse">They are the songs that soar and ring</div> -<div class="indent2">Like utterance of wildwood birds.</div> -<div class="verse">The ear is puzzled at the sound—</div> -<div class="indent2">They are so far from common art</div> -<div class="verse">That what is best in them is found</div> -<div class="indent2">By simply listening with the heart!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<h3>II.</h3> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">The words you speak, the words you speak,</div> -<div class="indent2">Have little of philosophy;</div> -<div class="verse">They voice not things that wise men seek,</div> -<div class="indent2">They have no hint of poetry,</div> -<div class="verse">And yet each syllable that slips</div> -<div class="indent2">Up from your soul and bubbles o’er</div> -<div class="verse">The yielding gateway of your lips</div> -<div class="indent2">A gracious meaning holds in store.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_52"></a>[52]</span></p> - - -<h3>III.</h3> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">The songs you sing are simple songs,</div> -<div class="indent2">Your words are words that children use</div> -<div class="verse">To tell of love, complain of wrongs;</div> -<div class="indent2">You may the guiding notes confuse,</div> -<div class="verse">(If any notes e’er met your eyes!)</div> -<div class="indent2">They rise, and live, and lingering,</div> -<div class="verse">Each song and word alternate dies</div> -<div class="indent2">In words you speak, in songs you sing.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_53"></a>[53]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">FOR A NEW YEAR’S MORN.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - -<p class="drop-cap2">LIKE some tired reader who has put aside</p> -<div class="indent">His book a little while, sick of the tale,</div> -<div class="verse">Careless a moment how the plot may run,</div> -<div class="verse">Indifferent to the part he has perused,</div> -<div class="verse">Then with new interest going back to find</div> -<div class="verse">How fared it with the story’s people, so</div> -<div class="verse">Here at the gate of this new year I stand.</div> -<div class="verse">Weary we grew long since, my Comrade soul!</div> -<div class="verse">So tired we are of all our eyes have found,</div> -<div class="verse">So strong our yearning for new sights and sounds!</div> -<div class="verse">Yet on this morn the world is fair again,—</div> -<div class="verse">Ah, very fair, and full of light and joy;</div> -<div class="verse">And holding forth new hope that comes of faith,</div> -<div class="verse">And adding to our faith that lies in God.</div> -<div class="verse">Now, like some traveler in a desert lost,</div> -<div class="verse">Straining his eyes across the wastes of sand,</div> -<div class="verse">Then, sudden, finding tracks but freshly made</div> -<div class="verse">That give new courage to the wanderer,—</div> -<div class="verse">So now, my Comrade soul, we turn away</div> -<div class="verse">From dreary wastes, we see the tracks that show</div> -<div class="verse">Where others have gone on and found the way</div> -<div class="verse">As we can find it. Come, old Comrade,—friend!</div> -<div class="verse">Give me your hand, we must march on again!</div> -</div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_54"></a>[54]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">THREE FRIENDS.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">[Paul Hamilton Hayne, Sidney Lanier and Robert Burns Wilson]</p> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">THREE noble friends the South has given me,</p> -<div class="indent">Two biding now beyond the farthest gate,</div> -<div class="indent2">One living still, great-hearted, soul elate,</div> -<div class="verse">From trammeling passions free.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">The twain now unbeholden to our eyes,</div> -<div class="indent2">Were soldiers for a cause they thought was right—</div> -<div class="indent2">They were such men as set the torch alight</div> -<div class="verse">That marks our destinies;</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Yet, with a song that rings above the din</div> -<div class="indent2">Of battle, and with brows where there might rest</div> -<div class="indent2">The victor’s crown, or singer’s wreath, more blest,</div> -<div class="verse">Through hymns of peace to win.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">I read one morning, in a day long gone,</div> -<div class="indent2">The songs of Hayne, all odorous of the pines;</div> -<div class="indent2">The heart of Nature throbbed along the lines—</div> -<div class="verse">Her joy was in his dawn.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_55"></a>[55]</span> -<div class="verse">The hills and streams to him were never dumb,</div> -<div class="indent2">They gave their secrets to his own heart’s keeping;</div> -<div class="indent2">Grand music in the oaks and pines was sleeping</div> -<div class="verse">Waiting for him to come!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And you, Lanier, cut down like some tall tree</div> -<div class="indent2">By an insidious foe—upright and strong</div> -<div class="indent2">Until the last, and with your parting song</div> -<div class="verse">From Deathland floating free!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Sweet dawns were yours, bright noons and starry nights;</div> -<div class="indent2">Your heart lay on the bosoms of the hills—</div> -<div class="indent2">Clear was your soul as dew that God distills</div> -<div class="verse">Upon His sacred heights!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And you are gone, and only one remains</div> -<div class="indent2">Of the three Southern singers loved so well;</div> -<div class="indent2">To-night the wind in sympathy would quell</div> -<div class="verse">The grief of woods and plains—</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Saying: “They were our friends, they understood</div> -<div class="indent2">The messages we spoke into their ears;</div> -<div class="indent2">Now they have passed beyond our hopes and fears</div> -<div class="verse">Unto a higher Good.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_56"></a>[56]</span> -<div class="verse">But he who still is here, he well has caught</div> -<div class="indent2">The spirit that is Nature’s, and is hers</div> -<div class="indent2">Only for her most loved interpreters—</div> -<div class="verse">Ah, nobly he has wrought!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And Southern winds that to the northward roam,</div> -<div class="indent2">And misty stars that shine above us dim,</div> -<div class="indent2">Each evening bring me utterance of him</div> -<div class="verse">To my far Northern home!</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_57"></a>[57]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">A RHYME OF LITTLE GIRLS.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">PRITHE tell me, don’t you think</p> -<div class="indent">Little girls are dearest</div> -<div class="verse">With their cheeks of tempting pink,</div> -<div class="indent2">And their eyes the clearest?</div> -<div class="indent4">Don’t you know that they are best</div> -<div class="indent4">And of all the loveliest?</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Of all girls with roguish ways</div> -<div class="indent2">They are surely truest;</div> -<div class="verse">Sunshine gleams through all their days,</div> -<div class="indent2">They see skies the bluest,</div> -<div class="indent4">And they wear a diadem</div> -<div class="indent4">Summer has bestowed on them.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Lydia doesn’t care a cent</div> -<div class="indent2">For the newest dances;</div> -<div class="verse">She is not on flirting bent,</div> -<div class="indent2">Has no killing glances,</div> -<div class="indent4">But without the slightest art</div> -<div class="indent4">She has captured many a heart.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_58"></a>[58]</span> -<div class="verse">Older sisters cut you dead,</div> -<div class="indent2">Little sisters never;</div> -<div class="verse">They don’t giggle when they’ve said</div> -<div class="indent2">Something very clever,—</div> -<div class="indent4">They just get behind a chair,</div> -<div class="indent4">Frowning, smiling at you there.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Florence, Lydia, Margaret</div> -<div class="indent2">Or a gentle Mary,</div> -<div class="verse">They form friendships that, once set,</div> -<div class="indent2">Never more can vary,—</div> -<div class="indent4">Stanch young friends they are and true</div> -<div class="indent4">Always clinging close to you.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Buds must into blossoms blow,</div> -<div class="indent2">(Morn so early leaves us!)</div> -<div class="verse">Maids must into women grow,</div> -<div class="indent2">(There’s the thing that grieves us!)</div> -<div class="indent4">Psyche knots of flying curls,</div> -<div class="indent4">That’s good-bye to little girls!</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_59"></a>[59]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">THE BATTLES GRANDSIRE MISSED.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">COME, boy, and sit upon my knee,</p> -<div class="indent">And turn to me your eyes,</div> -<div class="verse">That I, down in their depths may see</div> -<div class="indent2">A hint of those blue skies</div> -<div class="verse">Beneath which once my father fought</div> -<div class="indent2">(Your grandsire! and I am not old!)</div> -<div class="verse">What time our banner’s stars were caught</div> -<div class="indent2">In treason’s eager hold.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">A boy, as you are now a boy,</div> -<div class="indent2">I did not understand</div> -<div class="verse">That traitors could their flag destroy</div> -<div class="indent2">And cut in twain their land;</div> -<div class="verse">I heard the tramp of marching men,</div> -<div class="indent2">So long ago that seems!</div> -<div class="verse">You can not know what times were then</div> -<div class="indent2">Though you may guess, in dreams.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And then my father went away;</div> -<div class="indent2">How would it be if I</div> -<div class="verse">Should leave you, boy of mine, to-day—</div> -<div class="indent2">Should leave you and should die?</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_60"></a>[60]</span> -<div class="verse">Your eyes are wet; O closer come!</div> -<div class="indent2">There is no more of war;</div> -<div class="verse">Peace long has shown that there are some</div> -<div class="indent2">Kind things to struggle for.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">You “wonder whether grandpa got</div> -<div class="indent2">In all the fights?” Well, lad,</div> -<div class="verse">It was Bull Run where he was shot,</div> -<div class="indent2">The first big fight they had!</div> -<div class="verse">But let us, you and I, insist</div> -<div class="indent2">That this of him be said:</div> -<div class="verse">The only battles that he missed</div> -<div class="indent2">Were fought when he was dead.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">“He would have fought, had he been there?”</div> -<div class="indent2">You ask of me, my child;</div> -<div class="verse">He never would have ceased to dare</div> -<div class="indent2">Those who our flag defiled.</div> -<div class="verse">And always, in the spring, keep tryst</div> -<div class="indent2">With Memory by the head</div> -<div class="verse">Of one who not a battle missed</div> -<div class="indent2">Except when he was dead.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_61"></a>[61]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">BARRED.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">ONE cheerless night when winter winds were sowing</p> -<div class="indent">Over the world their cold, white seeds of snow,</div> -<div class="verse">While from my window pane the fire was throwing</div> -<div class="indent2">Taunts to the elements with its bright glow,</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">A poor, storm-driven bird, its lost way winging,</div> -<div class="indent2">Paused when it saw the flame’s reflected light;</div> -<div class="verse">Unto the window for a moment clinging,</div> -<div class="indent2">Then downward fell, forever lost to sight.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And so it is, I thought, that poor hearts yearning</div> -<div class="indent2">For more of life, charmed by its outward sheen,</div> -<div class="verse">Must backward fall, the truth too quickly learning,</div> -<div class="indent2">That death, cold and unyielding, stands between.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_62"></a>[62]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">A SLUMBER SONG.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">BABY, you stand by a gate that leads</p> -<div class="indent">Into a land of dreams;</div> -<div class="verse">There’s a drowsy watchman here who heeds</div> -<div class="indent2">Never the straggling gleams</div> -<div class="verse">Of light that stray from the far-off sun—</div> -<div class="verse">Always for him it’s twilight begun—</div> -<div class="indent7">And we stand by the gate,</div> -<div class="indent7">And watch and wait,</div> -<div class="indent7">And watch—and wait!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Little one, hear what the stream sings of,</div> -<div class="indent2">Here in this quiet land;</div> -<div class="verse">It sings of the joy of mother love—</div> -<div class="indent2">Sings to birds in the sand—</div> -<div class="verse">To the strange, tall birds with dreamy eyes,</div> -<div class="verse">That look at you, dear, in mute surprise,</div> -<div class="indent7">While we stand by the gate,</div> -<div class="indent7">And watch and wait,</div> -<div class="indent7">And watch—and wait!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_63"></a>[63]</span> -<div class="verse">If you open the gate, no one will know;</div> -<div class="indent2">The guard will never guess.</div> -<div class="verse">You must open it gently, slowly—so!</div> -<div class="indent2">No one has heard, unless</div> -<div class="verse">Those dreamful birds, or the dreamland sheep,</div> -<div class="verse">Heard you stealing through their land of sleep</div> -<div class="indent7">While I stood by the gate,</div> -<div class="indent7">To watch and wait,</div> -<div class="indent7">And watch—and wait!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Oh, strange are the birds and the sheep that dwell</div> -<div class="indent2">Here in the land of dreams!</div> -<div class="verse">But you must not see, and you must not tell,</div> -<div class="indent2">However strange it seems,</div> -<div class="verse">Or they’ll never let you in again,</div> -<div class="verse">And it would not please you, baby, then,</div> -<div class="indent7">Just to stand by the gate,</div> -<div class="indent7">And watch, and wait,</div> -<div class="indent7">And watch—and wait!</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_64"></a>[64]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">BEFORE THE FIRE.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">THE winds go riding down the wold,</p> -<div class="indent">And back the forest legions throw;</div> -<div class="verse">A winter day the hours has told</div> -<div class="indent2">On rosaries of drops of snow.</div> -<div class="verse">Through close-drawn blinds the lamplight falls,</div> -<div class="indent2">And on a drifted whiteness lies,</div> -<div class="verse">Here within these cottage walls</div> -<div class="indent2">The flames make stars of baby’s eyes.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Rude fingers tap upon the pane</div> -<div class="indent2">And entrance at the door demand;</div> -<div class="verse">The storm king and his lusty train</div> -<div class="indent2">Go rushing o’er the land;</div> -<div class="verse">But homes where love a vigil keeps</div> -<div class="indent2">Know not that summer ever dies,</div> -<div class="verse">Know not that summer even sleeps,</div> -<div class="indent2">When flames make stars of baby’s eyes.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_65"></a>[65]</span> -<div class="verse">The father to the mother reads,</div> -<div class="indent2">The mother busy at his side;</div> -<div class="verse">He reads a tale of noble deeds,</div> -<div class="indent2">Of men who for a nation died,</div> -<div class="verse">But oft they turn and fondly look</div> -<div class="indent2">Upon the hero whom they prize</div> -<div class="verse">Beyond the people of the book,</div> -<div class="indent2">Where flames make stars of baby’s eyes.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Fierce winds may ride across the night,</div> -<div class="indent2">And storms prevail o’er flood and field,</div> -<div class="verse">But where one lamp throws out its light,</div> -<div class="indent2">A happy picture is revealed</div> -<div class="verse">Of two, who by the fireside sit,</div> -<div class="indent2">And watch the glowing flames, while rise</div> -<div class="verse">Quick shadows that around them flit</div> -<div class="indent2">And mock the stars in baby’s eyes.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_66"></a>[66]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">OCTOBER.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">THE year is getting older, day by day;</p> -<div class="indent">Last night I heard a fierce wind riding by,</div> -<div class="indent1">Rattling my western window, and no ray</div> -<div class="verse">Of moon or star illumined the black sky.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Older the year has grown; the wind that came</div> -<div class="indent2">Across the changing world last night to ride,</div> -<div class="verse">Passed here a year ago; it is the same</div> -<div class="indent2">That rose before and summer’s strength defied.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Ah, it is you, my old, familiar friend</div> -<div class="indent2">October, come to pitch your tents awhile,</div> -<div class="verse">Madly descending from the earth’s far end</div> -<div class="indent2">Over the farthest seas for many a mile.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Yet your fierce advent and your winds severe</div> -<div class="indent2">Are but the bluster of a friend we love;</div> -<div class="verse">Though you are winter’s neighbor you bring here</div> -<div class="indent2">Rich gifts, and hang your bluest skies above.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_67"></a>[67]</span> -<div class="verse">To-morrow you will tame your restless steeds</div> -<div class="indent2">And drive the water-freighted clouds away;</div> -<div class="verse">Then you will scatter far the wild-flower’s seeds</div> -<div class="indent2">At intervals throughout a peaceful day.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Still, though your skies may be the summer’s own,</div> -<div class="indent2">Of all your moods I like the wildest best;</div> -<div class="verse">I love the wind and its mad, warring tone,</div> -<div class="indent2">Its anger, and its yearning and unrest;</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">For in man’s soul there is an answering mood,</div> -<div class="indent2">A passionate storm with wind and driving rain</div> -<div class="verse">All through a night—love by dull pain pursued,</div> -<div class="indent2">Then days when skies are kind and blue again,—</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Blue, but they shed their bitter, biting frost,</div> -<div class="indent2">And the sun burns with but a mocking heat,</div> -<div class="verse">While ghost-like zephyrs seek for something lost,</div> -<div class="indent2">Like followers in the summer’s slow retreat.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_68"></a>[68]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">“IN WINTER I WAS BORN.”</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="indent6"><span class="xxlarge">I</span>N winter I was born,</div> -<div class="verse">So all my years I’ve loved the frost and snow</div> -<div class="verse">And the strong tireless winds that, passing, blow</div> -<div class="indent6">A battle note forlorn.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="indent6">I love the year’s long night.</div> -<div class="verse">The tumult of great storms, the biting air</div> -<div class="verse">Make my heart’s summer time, when days are fair</div> -<div class="indent6">And yield me true delight.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="indent6">In winter I was born,</div> -<div class="verse">And as I came so let me pass away,</div> -<div class="verse">Out from the world on a December day</div> -<div class="indent6">When the delaying morn</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="indent6">In the far East shall creep</div> -<div class="verse">Last time for me; then let the winds I love</div> -<div class="verse">Come from their far-off homes and play above</div> -<div class="indent6">The place where I shall sleep.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_69"></a>[69]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">GOOD NIGHT AND PLEASANT DREAMS.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> - -<div class="indent4"><span class="xxlarge">G</span>OOD-NIGHT and pleasant dreams!</div> -<div class="verse">Forgotten all that play-day world of yours,</div> -<div class="verse">Kind angels lead you now by distant shores;</div> -<div class="indent2">Dear childish hands clasped lightly o’er your breast,</div> -<div class="indent4">Dear eyes with lids that keep the dark away,</div> -<div class="indent2">What sweet content is now by you possessed!</div> -<div class="indent4">I feel your breath against my cheek and say</div> -<div class="indent8">Good-night, good-night!</div> -<div class="indent8">Good-night and pleasant dreams!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="indent4">Good-night and pleasant dreams!</div> -<div class="verse">The children’s lives so different are from ours,</div> -<div class="verse">Is there not made for them a land of flowers,—</div> -<div class="indent2">A childhood’s land of sleep where they are taken,—</div> -<div class="indent4">Where dreams are only dreams of childish toys</div> -<div class="indent2">And only sounds of childish voices waken</div> -<div class="indent4">The quiet ways, and say to girls and boys</div> -<div class="indent8">Good-night, good-night!</div> -<div class="indent8">Good-night and pleasant dreams!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_70"></a>[70]</span> -<div class="indent4">Good-night and pleasant dreams!</div> -<div class="verse">Go to your quiet land of sleep and dreaming,</div> -<div class="verse">Beyond the darkness, passed the stars a-gleaming.</div> -<div class="indent2">The plains of your sleep-land are green and fair;</div> -<div class="indent4">Out of the night they make a land of morning</div> -<div class="indent2">From which is banished even childish care;</div> -<div class="indent4">Stay on, sleep on, dear child, the night world scorning,—</div> -<div class="indent8">Good-night, good-night!</div> -<div class="indent8">Good-night and pleasant dreams!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="indent4">Good-night and pleasant dreams!</div> -<div class="verse">Good-bye, and gentle angels guard your sleep,</div> -<div class="verse">Good-night, and angels watch above you keep.</div> -<div class="indent2">Ah, if we could our childish days prolong—</div> -<div class="indent4">If sleep would always come as sweet as this,</div> -<div class="indent2">Shielding us from the world of dark and wrong,</div> -<div class="indent4">Just by the magic of a mother’s kiss,</div> -<div class="indent8">And her good-night!</div> -<div class="indent8">Good-night and pleasant dreams!</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_71"></a>[71]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">WHERE LOVE WAS NOT.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">ONCE in a dream I saw a blackened world</p> -<div class="indent">Hung high in space, by bitter winds o’erblown;</div> -<div class="verse">And there no forests were, no flowers grew,</div> -<div class="verse">No river flowed, but all was sad and drear.</div> -<div class="verse">And on that smoke-encircled sphere there were</div> -<div class="verse">No cities full of life; no children spent</div> -<div class="verse">Glad hours in play; there, laughter ne’er was heard, </div> -<div class="verse">And day was endless day, and night ne’er came</div> -<div class="verse">With tired husband seeking home and wife,</div> -<div class="verse">And “home” was but a mocking echo there.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And walking o’er that world I met a man,</div> -<div class="verse">Or ghost of what was man, wan, staring-eyed,</div> -<div class="verse">And bowed as though with age, albeit his locks</div> -<div class="verse">Were fair, and seeming youthful was his face;</div> -<div class="verse">And unto him I said in question: “Why</div> -<div class="verse">This waste and desolation, and where are</div> -<div class="verse">The people that once dwelt upon this world?”</div> -<div class="verse">And slow he made reply: “But yesterday</div> -<div class="verse">Did Love remove his court from this drear globe,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_72"></a>[72]</span> -<div class="verse">Which was as fair a world as ever came</div> -<div class="verse">From the Creator’s hand, and now, so soon,</div> -<div class="verse">That Love is flown has come this awful change—</div> -<div class="verse">The cheerlessness, the people dead and gone.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">He turned from me, it seemed, and I awoke—</div> -<div class="verse">Back in a world that is controlled by Love.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_73"></a>[73]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">DOWN THE AISLES.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap2">LONE here in vague cathedral gloom I sit,</p> -<div class="indent1">Far from the busy city’s noise and jar.</div> -<div class="verse">Such calm! It seems God might just now have writ</div> -<div class="verse">A new, sweet song of peace and whispered it</div> -<div class="indent8">From star to star.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">I almost hear a sacred anthem pealing,</div> -<div class="indent2">As o’er the quiet aisles I turn my eyes;</div> -<div class="verse">It seems I hear soft prayers to heaven stealing</div> -<div class="verse">Up rays that lead unto the Light-revealing</div> -<div class="indent8">In Paradise.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">I think: “How oft have feet of mourners led</div> -<div class="indent2">Down these long aisles where perfect silence reigns!</div> -<div class="verse">How oft have heart-uniting words been said</div> -<div class="verse">There at the altar, whither flowers were spread</div> -<div class="indent8">From Love’s fair plains!”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Yes, Death and Love have hither come and gone,</div> -<div class="indent2">With slow, sad songs, with anthems glad and free;</div> -<div class="verse">And still, without, the world treads on and on</div> -<div class="verse">In aisles that lead to darkness—or the Dawn,</div> -<div class="indent8">O God, and Thee!</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_74"></a>[74]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">RUIN.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">THE slowly crumbling wall, the broken gate,</p> -<div class="indent">O’er which soft silvery threads of Time are spun;</div> -<div class="verse">Through turrets tall, once grim and stern as Fate,</div> -<div class="indent2">Now unresisted steals the changeless sun.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">The eager vines close clasp the pillars round,</div> -<div class="indent2">As though to hide the signs of their decay;</div> -<div class="verse">The cheerless chambers echo with each sound</div> -<div class="indent2">That enters in where Silence holds her sway.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Upon the ground, with torn and riven crust,</div> -<div class="indent2">There rests the cuirass of some daring knight,</div> -<div class="verse">Enfolding but the cold, unspeaking dust</div> -<div class="indent2">Of him who nevermore shall lead the fight.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And here the chariot-furrowed roadway lies,</div> -<div class="indent2">Once trod by armies rich in valorous deeds,</div> -<div class="verse">Now haunted by the lonely wind which sighs</div> -<div class="indent2">And creeps among the dead and tangled weeds.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_75"></a>[75]</span> -<div class="verse">Ruin and ruins everywhere, but yet,</div> -<div class="indent2">In fancy, see the myriad castles tall</div> -<div class="verse">Whereon the banners fair of Hope are set,</div> -<div class="indent2">Then watch the wreck and ruin of it all!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Forsaken cities far beyond the sea</div> -<div class="indent2">Hold not such claim to pity as do those</div> -<div class="verse">Grand dwellings youth rears in such majesty</div> -<div class="indent2">To crumble and form sepulchres for woes.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">O memory! keep and guard your treasures well;</div> -<div class="indent2">Contented rest, and, what the past endears,</div> -<div class="verse">Unto the ever hopeful future tell,</div> -<div class="indent2">And voice your glories through the coming years.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_76"></a>[76]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">HALF FLIGHTS.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">I think it were better that lips should forever be mute</p> -<div class="indent">Than flattering the voice should sound, or the speech irresolute.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And better that arrows fly far past the mark, over-shot,</div> -<div class="verse">Than but timidly sent they should droop and transfix it not.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">The race should be vigorously pushed, though uneven the start, </div> -<div class="verse">And always, wherever assigned, let us act well the part,</div> -<div class="verse">Let firm be the footstep to tally with firm beat of heart.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">But more willing am I forever to steadily plod,</div> -<div class="verse">Inspired by a thought that my soul is not linked to a clod,</div> -<div class="verse">Than failing in flight, to fall, stricken again to the sod,</div> -<div class="verse">And stumble along in the pathway that leads me to God.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_77"></a>[77]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">A KIND OF MAN.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">I like a man who all mean things despises,</p> -<div class="indent">A man who has a purpose firm and true;</div> -<div class="verse">Who faces every doubt as it arises,</div> -<div class="verse">And murmurs not at what he finds to do.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">I like a man who shows the noble spirit</div> -<div class="verse">Displayed by knights of Arthur’s table round;</div> -<div class="verse">Who, face to face with life, proves his real merit,</div> -<div class="verse">Who has a soul that dwells above the ground;</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And yet, one who can understand the worry</div> -<div class="verse">Of some chance brother fallen in the road,</div> -<div class="verse">And speak to him a kind word ’mid the hurry,</div> -<div class="verse">Or lay an easing hand upon his load.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Large hearted, brave-souled men to-day are needed,</div> -<div class="verse">Men ready when occasion’s doors swing wide;</div> -<div class="verse">Grand men to speak the counsel that is heeded,</div> -<div class="verse">And men in whom a nation may confide.</div> -</div> - -<div class="verse">The world is wide, and broad its starry arches,</div> -<div class="verse">But lagging malcontents it cannot hold;</div> -<div class="verse">The way of life to him who upright marches,</div> -<div class="verse">Has ending in a far-off street of gold.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_78"></a>[78]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">TRANSFIGURED.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">“A cold, hard man I said,” as day by day</p> -<div class="indent">I saw him pass the door, or, brooding, sit</div> -<div class="verse">Before his cottage, watching children play</div> -<div class="verse">The summer’s lingering twilight hours away—</div> -<div class="indent2">Ever uncouth and grim, with brows close knit.</div> -</div> - -<div class="verse">Until, one day, a wondrous change took place;</div> -<div class="indent2">Upon the door the sign of mourning, and</div> -<div class="verse">His child lay dead! But, by what heavenly grace</div> -<div class="verse">Did all the hardened lines fade from his face,</div> -<div class="verse">Leaving of former self no slightest trace,</div> -<div class="indent2">As with sweet Grief he journeyed, hand in hand?</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_79"></a>[79]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">LOVE’S POWER.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">WITHIN the palace of a brain</p> -<div class="indent">A Thought of Love dwelt all alone,</div> -<div class="verse">And there was not another Thought</div> -<div class="indent2">That ever dared approach his throne;</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Until there came a Thought of Hate,</div> -<div class="indent2">Half-crouching to the sacred seat,</div> -<div class="verse">But, Thought of Love stretched forth a hand,</div> -<div class="indent2">And Thought of Hate died at his feet.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_80"></a>[80]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">FIRE-HUNTING.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">WITH dip and glide a light canoe</p> -<div class="indent">Crept through the waters of the lake;</div> -<div class="verse">So softly, lightly creeping through</div> -<div class="indent2">That it did not the silence break.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">A lantern’s penetrating glow</div> -<div class="indent2">Burned in the dark a path of light,</div> -<div class="verse">And far-off, on its margin, lo!</div> -<div class="indent2">A pair of eyes gleamed strangely bright!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">The paddling ceased; there fell a hush.</div> -<div class="indent2">Then came a ringing rifle-shot—</div> -<div class="verse">A plunge into the underbrush—</div> -<div class="indent2">Upon the beach a dark blood-clot!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">With dip and glide a light canoe</div> -<div class="indent2">Crept through the waters of the lake,</div> -<div class="verse">So softly, lightly creeping through</div> -<div class="indent2">That it did not a ripple make.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_81"></a>[81]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">“HEARTACHE.”</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">[Lines naming a landscape painted by Mr. Theodore C. Steele, owned -by Mr. Louis C. Gibson.]</p> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap2">ALTHOUGH the fields of summer time are dear</p> -<div class="indent-a">And fair the days of sunshine-flooded hours</div> -<div class="verse">We would not always have the summer here,—</div> -<div class="indent7">We tire of flowers.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Let come a short October afternoon,</div> -<div class="indent2">Or yet a dreary day November sends;—</div> -<div class="verse">A mist hangs o’er the tired earth, and soon</div> -<div class="indent7">The night descends.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Like some cowled monk grown weary of the world,</div> -<div class="indent2">The evening creeps along in somber guise,</div> -<div class="verse">Her face in misty shadows thickly furled</div> -<div class="indent7">To hide her eyes.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">O heartache of the earth, so near to us</div> -<div class="indent2">These barren fields have on a sudden grown!</div> -<div class="verse">Cool hand of twilight touch us—tremulous,</div> -<div class="indent7">Sick and alone.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_82"></a>[82]</span> -<div class="verse">O skies of gray, come often in our need!</div> -<div class="indent2">Come fall, O mists, efface the marks of tears,—</div> -<div class="verse">The lessons of our heartache with us read,</div> -<div class="indent7">And soothe our fears!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Dear barren field, we lay our hearts on thine,</div> -<div class="indent2">And leafless shrub, we make thy grief our own;</div> -<div class="verse">Come, Spring, and touch our hearts with life divine,</div> -<div class="indent7">All heartache flown!</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_83"></a>[83]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">FRIENDSHIP’S SACRAMENT.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">WHEN I’ve partaken of your bread and wine,</p> -<div class="indent1">And paused awhile beneath your friendly roof,</div> -<div class="verse">Good thoughts and honest purposes are mine,</div> -<div class="indent3">Awhile from trivial things I stand aloof.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">It is a sacrament of friendship there,</div> -<div class="indent3">When I’ve partaken of your bread and wine; </div> -<div class="verse">I feel in touch with all things sweet and fair;</div> -<div class="indent3">My pilgrimage is to a true home’s shrine.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Like the lost Arab, when his host will bring</div> -<div class="indent3">The bit of cake, the salt in friendly sign,</div> -<div class="verse">When I’ve partaken of your bread and wine</div> -<div class="indent3">Across my desert rose and lotus spring,</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And in my heart there is a genial glow.</div> -<div class="indent3">To-night above me starry heavens shine,</div> -<div class="verse">Yet out of clouds the brightest stars will grow</div> -<div class="indent3">When I’ve partaken of your bread and wine.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_84"></a>[84]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">OMAR KHAYYAM.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">KING of the wise who, long ago,</p> -<div class="indent">Your tents built in the Persian sand,</div> -<div class="verse">Let me your sweet contentment know,</div> -<div class="indent2">Here in my vigorous Western land.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Some day, when I shall stand beside</div> -<div class="indent2">The grave where you have lain so long—</div> -<div class="verse">At Nishapur your body died,</div> -<div class="indent2">But your soul lives in tender song—</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">I’ll pour upon your tomb the wine</div> -<div class="indent2">Some Western grape has given me;</div> -<div class="verse">I’ll speak some verse, some flowing line</div> -<div class="indent2">Born here, beyond the Western sea.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And may the time be early night</div> -<div class="indent2">When torches in the desert glow,</div> -<div class="verse">And in dim tents appears a light,</div> -<div class="indent2">While sounds the camel’s moaning, low.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_85"></a>[85]</span> -<div class="verse">Then I would be at Nishapur,</div> -<div class="indent2">To stand in reverent pause and be</div> -<div class="verse">One happy hour a worshiper,</div> -<div class="indent2">Your grave a Mecca made for me.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Oh, my beloved, I shall taste</div> -<div class="indent2">The grape’s blood, as your songs have said,</div> -<div class="verse">And pour it on the desert’s waste,</div> -<div class="indent2">A tribute to the ghostly dead</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Whose spirits hover there, and plan</div> -<div class="indent2">Strange journeys that can never end,</div> -<div class="verse">But, in a ghostly caravan,</div> -<div class="indent2">For ages through the past extend.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">O, Muezzin, from the Tower of Night,</div> -<div class="indent2">Look you toward the tomb of him</div> -<div class="verse">Who yearned in song for greater light</div> -<div class="indent2">And found it at the goblet’s brim!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Forget him not, because he keeps</div> -<div class="indent2">Such silence; guard in light and gloom</div> -<div class="verse">Until I reach the place he sleeps,</div> -<div class="indent2">With wine to pour upon his tomb.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_86"></a>[86]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">A DISCOVERY.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">[According to a child.]</p> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">I have just discovered what makes bread white,</p> -<div class="indent1">And why the leaves are so porous and light.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">We plant the seed in fall-time in the ground,</div> -<div class="indent2">And all the winter long they grow and grow,</div> -<div class="verse">And when the fields and woods are winter-bound,</div> -<div class="indent2">The tiny blades are green beneath the snow.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And then in summer-time, when winter’s dead,</div> -<div class="indent2">The ripened wheat is ground to flour, and so</div> -<div class="verse">When that light flour is made up into bread,</div> -<div class="indent2">We see within the loaves the winter’s snow.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And that is the reason why bread is white,</div> -<div class="indent2">And why the loaves are so porous and light!</div> -</div></div></div> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_87"></a>[87]</span> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="SONNETS"><i>SONNETS</i></h2> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_88"></a>[88]</span></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_89"></a>[89]</span> -<h2 class="nobreak">A MODERN PURITAN.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap2">AS though Priscilla had smoothed out the frown</p> -<div class="indent-a">She had for all things that were worldly-wise—</div> -<div class="indent2">As though she stood again ’neath softer skies</div> -<div class="verse">Than on the bleak New England rocks looked down, </div> -<div class="verse">And all the sorrows of that time could drown,—</div> -<div class="indent2">Thus comes one, unaustere, with kindly eyes,</div> -<div class="indent2">Stepping from out the past’s dim tapestries,</div> -<div class="verse">A Puritan with purity her crown.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Yet, not the shy reserve that marks her ways</div> -<div class="indent2">Nor lines of strength denoted in her face</div> -<div class="verse">O’er which the sweetest light ’neath heaven plays,</div> -<div class="indent2">Compel our love, but traces of the race</div> -<div class="verse">That passes down its grandeur to our days,</div> -<div class="indent2">Seeking the good and spurning all things base!</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_90"></a>[90]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">THE LAW OF LIFE.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">[To Mr. Charles H. Ham, author of “Manual Training”.]</p> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap2">“LABOR the law of life,” that is your creed;</p> -<div class="indent1">Once it was true that art meant only grace,</div> -<div class="indent3">“A pretty flower this is,” “a glorious face,”</div> -<div class="verse">Men said, and so interpreting, did heed</div> -<div class="verse">No higher call than came from shepherd’s reed:</div> -<div class="indent3">The brawny arm was for the warrior’s mace,</div> -<div class="indent3">The supple limb was for the champion’s race,</div> -<div class="verse">But higher, better things were lost indeed!</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Now, in this newer day, what change is wrought!</div> -<div class="indent3">We know the law of life is labor; so</div> -<div class="verse">The hand and mind in unison are taught,</div> -<div class="indent3">With each the other’s ready servant. Lo!</div> -<div class="verse">What a grand world will swing beneath the sun</div> -<div class="verse">When Heart and Hand and Mind are all in one!</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_91"></a>[91]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">TO EUGENE FIELD IN ENGLAND.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">GOOD poet of the city by the lake,</p> -<div class="indent">Critic and satirist I wave a hand</div> -<div class="indent2">And send this greeting over sea and land—</div> -<div class="verse">That kindest spirits round you tend, and make</div> -<div class="verse">Your ready feet to walk in Chaucer’s wake,</div> -<div class="indent2">And in the paths of Keats and Shelley stand;</div> -<div class="indent2">Or where the master of all singers planned</div> -<div class="verse">His songs, may your heart inspiration take.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Where Dobson’s flowers find root in “paven ground,”</div> -<div class="indent2">And Andrew Lang and Walter Pater bide,</div> -<div class="verse">I know that there for you a joy is found.</div> -<div class="indent2">Cease not your western Pegasus to ride,</div> -<div class="verse">And when old book plates and rare volumes bore,</div> -<div class="verse">Quit London’s fog and dwell with us once more.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_92"></a>[92]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">DEPENDENCE.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">WHEN a kind parent first his children guides</p> -<div class="indent">Into a bit of world they have not seen,</div> -<div class="indent2">Though often told about its meadows green,</div> -<div class="verse">Or of some evil thing that there abides,</div> -<div class="verse">Their father’s careful care each one derides;</div> -<div class="indent2">His guarded pace to them seems slow and mean,</div> -<div class="indent2">Till sudden, they go hurrying back to lean</div> -<div class="verse">Against his surer, stronger heart.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="indent18">The sides</div> -<div class="verse">Of mountains where men’s daring feet would go</div> -<div class="indent2">Alluring are, because no man has trod;</div> -<div class="verse">The restless slopes are tempting from below,</div> -<div class="indent2">Yet seekers will not in the safe paths plod;</div> -<div class="verse">Like the weak children are taught to know</div> -<div class="indent2">That man must always follow after God.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_93"></a>[93]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">BY SHERIDAN’S GRAVE.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">I STOOD upon the heights at Arlington,</p> -<div class="indent1">And saw Potomac’s waters seaward flowing,</div> -<div class="indent2">While all about me, past our human knowing</div> -<div class="verse">The soldiers lay—men who that soil had won</div> -<div class="verse">From enemies as brave, who would not shun</div> -<div class="indent2">The wrath that followed on their whirlwind sowing,</div> -<div class="indent2">And there among their graves the flowers were growing,</div> -<div class="verse">And on Virginia shone the springtime sun.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Here lies the idol of my boyish dreaming,</div> -<div class="indent2">Beside the storied river that had known</div> -<div class="verse">The camp-fires of a mighty army, gleaming</div> -<div class="indent2">Where peace to-day her snowy scarf has thrown.</div> -<div class="verse">Sleep, Sheridan, beyond this world of seeming,</div> -<div class="indent2">Your spirit guard this valley as its own!</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_94"></a>[94]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">VIKING.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">[Written In Du Chaillu’s Viking Age.]</p> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">WHAT has been stolen from time’s jealous hand,—</p> -<div class="indent">A newer Greece washed by the Baltic’s tide</div> -<div class="indent2">Where fire of Northern genius burned and died;</div> -<div class="verse">Where long-dethronèd gods ruled o’er the land</div> -<div class="verse">And warriors fought with sword and threatening brand?</div> -<div class="indent2">Was it these rugged shores that once defied</div> -<div class="indent2">The world as it was known to them and tried</div> -<div class="verse">Adventurous keels on many an unknown strand?</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Parents of mighty nations, kings of the sea!</div> -<div class="indent2">Fair-haired, strong-limbed path-blazers of the deep!</div> -<div class="verse">How full a life was theirs, how broad and free,—</div> -<div class="indent2">Passing one day Gibraltar’s tropic steep,</div> -<div class="indent4">Seeking a while some Northern coast and drear,</div> -<div class="indent4">Or sailing far to find the Western hemisphere!</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_95"></a>[95]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">VIOLIN.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">GENTLY, beneath her perfect rounded chin,</p> -<div class="indent">The instrument is clasped, as mothers hold</div> -<div class="indent2">Across their hearts a much-loved child, to fold</div> -<div class="verse">It from the world of misery and sin.</div> -<div class="verse">She draws the bow across the strings to win</div> -<div class="indent2">To life the tones now soft, now strong and bold,</div> -<div class="indent2">(But ever breathing some grand truth untold)</div> -<div class="verse">That dormant lie within the violin.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">O, mystery of music, wondrous art!</div> -<div class="indent2">The sympathetic violin but steals</div> -<div class="verse">The loves and hates that dwell within her heart—</div> -<div class="indent2">The very hopes, the vague desires she feels—</div> -<div class="verse">And at the bow’s quick touch they rise and start</div> -<div class="indent2">In melody that inmost soul reveals.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_96"></a>[96]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">WHAT THE BABIES SAY.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">WHAT things the babies say are listened to</p> -<div class="indent">As if the little heads were brimming o’er</div> -<div class="indent2">With pretty fancies, such as ne’er before</div> -<div class="verse">Took form in human mind—as if they knew</div> -<div class="verse">The glories of the world, or false or true.</div> -<div class="indent2">And with their careless-clutching fingers tore</div> -<div class="indent2">From Miss Pandora’s box the bitter store</div> -<div class="verse">(If pleased) and handed out the sweets to you.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">O baby lips, whose lispings we repeat,</div> -<div class="indent2">O baby tongue, so eager in attaining</div> -<div class="indent4">The power through which your wishes may be heard;</div> -<div class="verse">May you remain forever pure and sweet,</div> -<div class="indent2">And ne’er in anger move, but uncomplaining,</div> -<div class="indent4">And ever by the noblest promptings stirred.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_97"></a>[97]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">SECRETS.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">HOW well her many secrets nature keeps</p> -<div class="indent">And never tells to us by word or sign,—</div> -<div class="indent2">The hidden source whence comes life-giving wine</div> -<div class="verse">Which through the trees in springtime tingling creeps;</div> -<div class="verse">The dwelling-place from which the wind low sweeps,</div> -<div class="indent2">His stalwart forest legions to align</div> -<div class="indent2">With leadership of giant oak or pine—</div> -<div class="verse">She tells us not but, brooding silent, sleeps.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">So, safely locked within the human heart,</div> -<div class="indent2">Are joys and sorrows of the long ago,</div> -<div class="verse">As hidden springs from which the sad tears start</div> -<div class="indent2">When we scarce know the power that movers their flow;</div> -<div class="verse">And we from all the world are set apart</div> -<div class="indent2">By precious secrets none may ever know.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_98"></a>[98]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">BLIND.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap2">AS one who in a cavern underground</p> -<div class="indent-a">Can hear the jars and murmurings which tell</div> -<div class="indent2">That far away a busy people dwell,</div> -<div class="verse">Not hearing, only knowing by the sound,</div> -<div class="verse">So dwells he in a world by darkness bound;</div> -<div class="indent2">He hears and feels, but no dawn can dispell</div> -<div class="indent2">The night for him on whom no light e’er fell </div> -<div class="verse">With power to drive away the night profound.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">But not for aye he walks the realm of night,</div> -<div class="indent2">For one day there will break upon his eyes</div> -<div class="verse">A flood of rarer, dark o’ercoming light</div> -<div class="indent2">Than ever flushed the arch of earthly skies,</div> -<div class="verse">And for him dawn a morning wondrous bright</div> -<div class="indent2">Within the garden lands of Paradise.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_99"></a>[99]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">A FANCY.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">’NEATH sullen skies the marshalled clouds parade;</p> -<div class="indent">The Autumn wind sighs a weird monotone</div> -<div class="indent2">In which I hear, in fancy, softly blown,</div> -<div class="verse">The stirring bugle notes that once were played</div> -<div class="verse">To mocking echoes in a Southern glade;</div> -<div class="indent2">I hear the sentinel’s quick challenge tone—</div> -<div class="indent2">The noise and stir of war, all backward thrown</div> -<div class="verse">Across the gulf that peaceful years have made.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">But long ago the clouds of war had spent</div> -<div class="indent2">Their fury; sounds of strife no longer fill</div> -<div class="verse">The field whereon sweet peace has spread her tent—</div> -<div class="indent2">But those same bugle tones are sounding still,</div> -<div class="verse">And ringing through the starry firmament,</div> -<div class="indent2">Whilst Memory’s camp-fires blaze upon the hill.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_100"></a>[100]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">THOREAU.</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<p class="drop-cap">A prince he was, yet scorning princely ways,</p> -<div class="indent">A priest of nature, simple and sincere,</div> -<div class="indent2">To whom the wild free things were far more dear</div> -<div class="verse">Than trammeling honors gathered of the days</div> -<div class="verse">That only served to show him some new phase</div> -<div class="indent2">In life of flower and tree; whose greatest cheer</div> -<div class="indent2">Came when the seasons changed and he would hear</div> -<div class="verse">The blue bird’s note or see the woods ablaze.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Though joining not in endless race with men,</div> -<div class="indent2">And caring not to lift life’s heavy load;—</div> -<div class="indent4">Of quiet life, of solitude though fond,</div> -<div class="verse">I love to read the thoughts traced by his pen,</div> -<div class="indent2">And fancy that I walk Marlborough road</div> -<div class="indent4">Or rest with him by peaceful Walden pond.</div> -</div></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="transnote"> -<p class="ph2">TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE:</p> - - - -<p>Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.</p> -</div> -<pre style='margin-top:6em'> -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHORT FLIGHTS *** - -This file should be named 63973-h.htm or 63973-h.zip - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/9/7/63973/ - -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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