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diff --git a/8402.txt b/8402.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..877fa3d --- /dev/null +++ b/8402.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2923 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of East and West: Poems, by Bret Harte + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: East and West: Poems + +Author: Bret Harte + +Posting Date: November 17, 2012 [EBook #8402] +Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8402] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EAST AND WEST: POEMS *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis A. Weyant and The Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + + + +EAST AND WEST + +Poems. + +by + +Bret Harte. + + + + +Contents. + + + +I. + + +A Greyport Legend +A Newport Romance +The Hawk's Nest +In the Mission Garden +The Old Major Explains +"Seventy-Nine" +Truthful James's Answer to "Her Letter" +Further Language from Truthful James +The Wonderful Spring of San Joaquin +On a Cone of the Big Trees +A Sanitary Message +The Copperhead +On a Pen of Thomas Starr King +Lone Mountain +California's Greeting to Seward +The Two Ships +The Goddess +Address +The Lost Galleon +The Second Review of the Grand Army + + + +II. + + +Before the Curtain +The Stage-Driver's Story +Aspiring Miss de Laine +California Madrigal +St. Thomas +Ballad of Mr. Cooke +Legends of the Rhine +Mrs. Judge Jenkins: Sequel to Maud Muller +Avitor +A White Pine Ballad +Little Red Riding-Hood +The Ritualist +A Moral Vindicator +Songs without Sense + + + + + +Part I. + + + + +East and West Poems. + + + + +A Greyport Legend. + +(1797.) + + + +They ran through the streets of the seaport town; +They peered from the decks of the ships that lay: +The cold sea-fog that came whitening down +Was never as cold or white as they. + "Ho, Starbuck and Pinckney and Tenterden! + Run for your shallops, gather your men, + Scatter your boats on the lower bay." + +Good cause for fear! In the thick midday +The hulk that lay by the rotting pier, +Filled with the children in happy play, +Parted its moorings, and drifted clear,-- + Drifted clear beyond the reach or call,-- + Thirteen children they were in all,-- + All adrift in the lower bay! + +Said a hard-faced skipper, "God help us all! +She will not float till the turning tide!" +Said his wife, "My darling will hear _my_ call, +Whether in sea or heaven she bide:" + And she lifted a quavering voice and high, + Wild and strange as a sea-bird's cry, + Till they shuddered and wondered at her side. + +The fog drove down on each laboring crew, +Veiled each from each and the sky and shore: +There was not a sound but the breath they drew, +And the lap of water and creak of oar; + And they felt the breath of the downs, fresh blown + O'er leagues of clover and cold gray stone, + But not from the lips that had gone before. + +They come no more. But they tell the tale, +That, when fogs are thick on the harbor reef, +The mackerel fishers shorten sail; +For the signal they know will bring relief: + For the voices of children, still at play + In a phantom hulk that drifts alway + Through channels whose waters never fail. + +It is but a foolish shipman's tale, +A theme for a poet's idle page; +But still, when the mists of doubt prevail, +And we lie becalmed by the shores of Age, + We hear from the misty troubled shore + The voice of the children gone before, + Drawing the soul to its anchorage. + + + + +A Newport Romance. + + + +They say that she died of a broken heart + (I tell the tale as 'twas told to me); +But her spirit lives, and her soul is part + Of this sad old house by the sea. + +Her lover was fickle and fine and French: + It was nearly a hundred years ago +When he sailed away from her arms--poor wench-- + With the Admiral Rochambeau. + +I marvel much what periwigged phrase + Won the heart of this sentimental Quaker, +At what golden-laced speech of those modish days + She listened--the mischief take her! + +But she kept the posies of mignonette + That he gave; and ever as their bloom failed +And faded (though with her tears still wet) + Her youth with their own exhaled. + +Till one night, when the sea-fog wrapped a shroud + Round spar and spire and tarn and tree, +Her soul went up on that lifted cloud + From this sad old house by the sea. + +And ever since then, when the clock strikes two, + She walks unbidden from room to room, +And the air is filled that she passes through + With a subtle, sad perfume. + +The delicate odor of mignonette, + The ghost of a dead and gone bouquet, +Is all that tells of her story; yet + Could she think of a sweeter way? + + * * * * * + +I sit in the sad old house to-night,-- + Myself a ghost from a farther sea; +And I trust that this Quaker woman might, + In courtesy, visit me. + +For the laugh is fled from porch and lawn, + And the bugle died from the fort on the hill, +And the twitter of girls on the stairs is gone, + And the grand piano is still. + +Somewhere in the darkness a clock strikes two; + And there is no sound in the sad old house, +But the long veranda dripping with dew, + And in the wainscot a mouse. + +The light of my study-lamp streams out + From the library door, but has gone astray +In the depths of the darkened hall. Small doubt + But the Quakeress knows the way. + +Was it the trick of a sense o'erwrought + With outward watching and inward fret? +But I swear that the air just now was fraught + With the odor of mignonette! + +I open the window, and seem almost-- + So still lies the ocean--to hear the beat +Of its Great Gulf artery off the coast, + And to bask in its tropic heat. + +In my neighbor's windows the gas-lights flare, + As the dancers swing in a waltz of Strauss; +And I wonder now could I fit that air + To the song of this sad old house. + +And no odor of mignonette there is + But the breath of morn on the dewy lawn; +And mayhap from causes as slight as this + The quaint old legend is born. + +But the soul of that subtle, sad perfume, + As the spiced embalmings, they say, outlast +The mummy laid in his rocky tomb, + Awakens my buried past. + +And I think of the passion that shook my youth, + Of its aimless loves and its idle pains, +And am thankful now for the certain truth + That only the sweet remains. + +And I hear no rustle of stiff brocade, + And I see no face at my library door; +For now that the ghosts of my heart are laid, + She is viewless forevermore. + +But whether she came as a faint perfume, + Or whether a spirit in stole of white, +I feel, as I pass from the darkened room, + She has been with my soul to-night! + + + + +The Hawk's Nest. + +(Sierras.) + + + +We checked our pace,--the red road sharply rounding; + We heard the troubled flow +Of the dark olive depths of pines, resounding + A thousand feet below. + +Above the tumult of the canon lifted, + The gray hawk breathless hung; +Or on the hill a winged shadow drifted + Where furze and thorn-bush clung; + +Or where half-way the mountain side was furrowed + With many a seam and scar; +Or some abandoned tunnel dimly burrowed,-- + A mole-hill seen so far. + +We looked in silence down across the distant + Unfathomable reach: +A silence broken by the guide's consistent + And realistic speech. + +"Walker of Murphy's blew a hole through Peters + For telling him he lied; +Then up and dusted out of South Hornitos + Across the long Divide. + +"We ran him out of Strong's, and up through Eden, + And 'cross the ford below; +And up this canon (Peters' brother leadin'), + And me and Clark and Joe. + +"He fou't us game: somehow, I disremember + Jest how the thing kem round; +Some say 'twas wadding, some a scattered ember + From fires on the ground. + +"But in one minute all the hill below him + Was just one sheet of flame; +Guardin' the crest, Sam Clark and I called to him. + And,--well, the dog was game! + +"He made no sign: the fires of hell were round him, + The pit of hell below. +We sat and waited, but never found him; + And then we turned to go. + +"And then--you see that rock that's grown so bristly + With chaparral and tan-- +Suthin' crep' out: it might hev been a grizzly, + It might hev been a man; + +"Suthin' that howled, and gnashed its teeth, and shouted + In smoke and dust and flame; +Suthin' that sprang into the depths about it, + Grizzly or man,--but game! + +"That's all. Well, yes, it does look rather risky, + And kinder makes one queer +And dizzy looking down. A drop of whiskey + Ain't a bad thing right here!" + + + + +In the Mission Garden. + +(1865.) + + + +Father Felipe. + + +I speak not the English well, but Pachita +She speak for me; is it not so, my Pancha? +Eh, little rogue? Come, salute me the stranger + Americano. + +Sir, in my country we say, "Where the heart is, +There live the speech." Ah! you not understand? So! +Pardon an old man,--what you call "ol fogy,"-- + Padre Felipe! + +Old, Senor, old! just so old as the Mission. +You see that pear-tree? How old you think, Senor? +Fifteen year? Twenty? Ah, Senor, just _Fifty_ + Gone since I plant him! + +You like the wine? It is some at the Mission, +Made from the grape of the year Eighteen Hundred; +All the same time when the earthquake he come to + San Juan Bautista. + +But Pancha is twelve, and she is the rose-tree; +And I am the olive, and this is the garden: +And Pancha we say; but her name is Francisca, + Same like her mother. + +Eh, you knew _her_? No? Ah! it is a story; +But I speak not, like Pachita, the English: +So? If I try, you will sit here beside me, + And shall not laugh, eh? + +When the American come to the Mission, +Many arrive at the house of Francisca: +One,--he was fine man,--he buy the cattle + Of Jose Castro. + +So! he came much, and Francisca she saw him: +And it was Love,--and a very dry season; +And the pears bake on the tree,--and the rain come, + But not Francisca; + +Not for one year; and one night I have walk much +Under the olive-tree, when comes Francisca: +Comes to me here, with her child, this Francisca,-- + Under the olive-tree. + +Sir, it was sad; ... but I speak not the English; +So! ... she stay here, and she wait for her husband +He come no more, and she sleep on the hillside; + There stands Pachita. + +Ah! there's the Angelus. Will you not enter? +Or shall you walk in the garden with Pancha? +Go, little rogue--stt--attend to the stranger. + Adios, Senor. + + + +Pachita (_briskly_). + + +So, he's been telling that yarn about mother! +Bless you, he tells it to every stranger: +Folks about yer say the old man's my father; + What's your opinion? + + + + +The Old Major Explains. + +(Re-Union Army of the Potomac, 12th May, 1871.) + + + +"Well, you see, the fact is, Colonel, I don't know as I can come: +For the farm is not half planted, and there's work to do at home; +And my leg is getting troublesome,--it laid me up last fall, +And the doctors, they have cut and hacked, and never found the ball. + +"And then, for an old man like me, it's not exactly right, +This kind o' playing soldier with no enemy in sight. +'The Union,'--that was well enough way up to '66; +But this 'Re-Union,'--maybe now it's mixed with politics? + +"No? Well, you understand it best; but then, you see, my lad, +I'm deacon now, and some might think that the example's bad. +And week from next is Conference.... You said the 12th of May? +Why, that's the day we broke their line at Spottsylvan-i-a! + +"Hot work; eh, Colonel, wasn't it? Ye mind that narrow front: +They called it the 'Death-Angle!' Well, well, my lad, we won't +Fight that old battle over now: I only meant to say +I really can't engage to come upon the 12th of May. + +"How's Thompson? What! will he be there? Well, now, I want to know! +The first man in the rebel works! they called him 'Swearing Joe:' +A wild young fellow, sir, I fear the rascal was; but then-- +Well, short of heaven, there wa'n't a place he dursn't lead his men. + +"And Dick, you say, is coming too. And Billy? ah! it's true +We buried him at Gettysburg: I mind the spot; do you? +A little field below the hill,--it must be green this May; +Perhaps that's why the fields about bring him to me to-day. + +"Well, well, excuse me, Colonel! but there are some things that drop +The tail-board out one's feelings; and the only way's to stop. +So they want to see the old man; ah, the rascals! do they, eh? +Well, I've business down in Boston about the 12th of May." + + + + +"Seventy-Nine" + +Mr. Interviewer Interviewed. + + + +Know me next time when you see me, won't you, old smarty? +Oh, I mean you, old figger-head,--just the same party! +Take out your pensivil, d--n you; sharpen it, do! +Any complaints to make? Lots of 'em--one of 'em's _you_. + +You! who are you, anyhow, goin' round in that sneakin' way? +Never in jail before, was you, old blatherskite, say? +Look at it; don't it look pooty? Oh, grin, and be d--d to you, do! +But, if I had you this side o' that gratin', I'd just make it lively + for you. + +How did I get in here? Well, what 'ud you give to know? +'Twasn't by sneakin' round where I hadn't no call to go. +'Twasn't by hangin' round a spyin' unfortnet men. +Grin! but I'll stop your jaw if ever you do that agen. + +Why don't you say suthin', blast you? Speak your mind if you dare. +Ain't I a bad lot, sonny? Say it, and call it square. +Hain't got no tongue, hey, hev ye. O guard! here's a little swell, +A cussin' and swearin' and yellin', and bribin' me not to tell. + +There, I thought that 'ud fetch ye. And you want to know my name? +"Seventy-Nine" they call me; but that is their little game. +For I'm werry highly connected, as a gent, sir, can understand; +And my family hold their heads up with the very furst in the land. + +For 'twas all, sir, a put-up job on a pore young man like me; +And the jury was bribed a puppos, and aftdrst they couldn't agree. +And I sed to the judge, sez I,--Oh, grin! it's all right my son! +But you're a werry lively young pup, and you ain't to be played upon! + +Wot's that you got--tobacco? I'm cussed but I thought 'twas a tract. +Thank ye. A chap t'other day--now, look'ee, this is a fact, +Slings me a tract on the evils o' keepin' bad company, +As if all the saints was howlin' to stay here along's we. + +No: I hain't no complaints. Stop, yes; do you see that chap,-- +Him standin' over there,--a hidin' his eves in his cap? +Well, that man's stumick is weak, and he can't stand the pris'n fare; +For the coffee is just half beans, and the sugar ain't no where. + +Perhaps it's his bringin' up; but he sickens day by day, +And he doesn't take no food, and I'm seein' him waste away. +And it isn't the thing to see; for, whatever he's been and done, +Starvation isn't the plan as he's to be saved upon. + +For he cannot rough it like me; and he hasn't the stamps, I guess, +To buy him his extry grub outside o' the pris'n mess. +And perhaps if a gent like you, with whom I've been sorter free, +Would--thank you! But, say, look here! Oh, blast it, don't give it to ME! + +Don't you give it to me; now, don't ye, don't ye, don't! +You think it's a put-up job; so I'll thank ye, sir, if you won't. +But hand him the stamps yourself: why, he isn't even my pal; +And if it's a comfort to you, why, I don't intend that he shall. + + + + +His Answer to "Her Letter." + +Reported by Truthful James. + + + +Being asked by an intimate party,-- + Which the same I would term as a friend,-- +Which his health it were vain to call hearty, + Since the mind to deceit it might lend; +For his arm it was broken quite recent, + And has something gone wrong with his lung,-- +Which is why it is proper and decent + I should write what he runs off his tongue: + +First, he says, Miss, he's read through your letter + To the end,--and the end came too soon; +That a slight illness kept him your debtor + (Which for weeks he was wild as a loon); +That his spirits are buoyant as yours is; + That with you, Miss, he challenges Fate +(Which the language that invalid uses + At times it were vain to relate). + +And he says that the mountains are fairer + For once being held in your thought; +That each rock holds a wealth that is rarer + Than ever by gold-seeker sought +(Which are words he would put in these pages, + By a party not given to guile; +Which the same not, at date, paying wages, + Might produce in the sinful a smile). + +He remembers the ball at the Ferry, + And the ride, and the gate, and the vow, +And the rose that you gave him,--that very + Same rose he is treasuring now +(Which his blanket he's kicked on his trunk, Miss, + And insists on his legs being free; +And his language to me from his bunk, Miss, + Is frequent and painful and free); + +He hopes you are wearing no willows, + But are happy and gay all the while; +That he knows (which this dodging of pillows + Imparts but small ease to the style, +And the same you will pardon),--he knows, Miss, + That, though parted by many a mile, +Yet were he lying under the snows, Miss, + They'd melt into tears at your smile. + +And you'll still think of him in your pleasures, + In your brief twilight dreams of the past; +In this green laurel-spray that he treasures, + It was plucked where your parting was last; +In this specimen,--but a small trifle,-- + It will do for a pin for your shawl +(Which the truth not to wickedly stifle + Was his last week's "clean up,"--and _his all_). + +He's asleep, which the same might seem strange, Miss, + Were it not that I scorn to deny +That I raised his last dose, for a change, Miss, + In view that his fever was high; +But he lies there quite peaceful and pensive. + And now, my respects, Miss, to you; +Which my language, although comprehensive, + Might seem to be freedom,--it's true. + +Which I have a small favor to ask you, + As concerns a bull-pup, which the same,-- +If the duty would not overtask you,-- + You would please to procure for me, _game_; +And send per express to the Flat, Miss, + Which they say York is famed for the breed, +Which though words of deceit may be that, Miss, + I'll trust to your taste, Miss, indeed. + +_P.S._--Which this same interfering + Into other folks' way I despise; +Yet if it so be I was hearing + That it's just empty pockets as lies +Betwixt you and Joseph, it follers, + That, having no family claims, +Here's my pile; which it's six hundred dollars, + As is yours, with respects, + + Truthful James. + + + +Further Language from Truthful James. + +(Nye's Ford, Stanislaus.) + +(1870.) + + + +Do I sleep? do I dream? +Do I wonder and doubt? +Are things what they seem? +Or is visions about? +Is our civilization a failure? +Or is the Caucasian played out? + +Which expressions are strong; +Yet would feebly imply +Some account of a wrong-- +Not to call it a lie-- +As was worked off on William, my pardner, +And the same being W. Nye. + +He came down to the Ford +On the very same day +Of that lottery drawed +By those sharps at the Bay; +And he says to me, "Truthful, how goes it?" +I replied, "It is far, far from gay; + +"For the camp has gone wild +On this lottery game, +And has even beguiled +'Injin Dick' by the same." +Which said Nye to me, "Injins is pizen: +Do you know what his number is, James?" + +I replied "7,2, +9,8,4, is his hand;" +When he started, and drew +Out a list, which he scanned; +Then he softly went for his revolver +With language I cannot command. + +Then I said, "William Nye!" +But he turned upon me, +And the look in his eye +Was quite painful to see; +And he says, "You mistake: this poor Injin +I protects from such sharps as you be!" + +I was shocked and withdrew; +But I grieve to relate, +When he next met my view +Injin Dick was his mate, +And the two around town was a-lying +In a frightfully dissolute state. + +Which the war-dance they had +Round a tree at the Bend +Was a sight that was sad; +And it seemed that the end +Would not justify the proceedings, +As I quiet remarked to a friend. + +For that Injin he fled +The next day to his band; +And we found William spread +Very loose on the strand, +With a peaceful-like smile on his features, +And a dollar greenback in his hand; + +Which, the same when rolled out, +We observed with surprise, +That that Injin, no doubt, +Had believed was the prize,-- +Them figures in red in the corner, +Which the number of notes specifies. + +Was it guile, or a dream? +Is it Nye that I doubt? +Are things what they seem? +Or is visions about? +Is our civilization a failure? +Or is the Caucasian played out? + + + + +The Wonderful Spring of San Joaquin. + + + +Of all the fountains that poets sing,-- +Crystal, thermal, or mineral spring; +Ponce de Leon's Fount of Youth; +Wells with bottoms of doubtful truth; +In short, of all the springs of Time +That ever were flowing in fact or rhyme, +That ever were tasted, felt, or seen,-- +There were none like the Spring of San Joaquin. + +_Anno Domini_ Eighteen-Seven, +Father Dominguez (now in heaven,-- +_Obiit_, Eighteen twenty-seven) +Found the spring, and found it, too, +By his mule's miraculous cast of a shoe; +For his beast--a descendant of Balaam's ass-- +Stopped on the instant, and would not pass. + +The Padre thought the omen good, +And bent his lips to the trickling flood; +Then--as the chronicles declare, +On the honest faith of a true believer-- +His cheeks, though wasted, lank, and bare, +Filled like a withered russet-pear +In the vacuum of a glass receiver, +And the snows that seventy winters bring +Melted away in that magic spring. + +Such, at least, was the wondrous news +The Padre brought into Santa Cruz. +The Church, of course, had its own views +Of who were worthiest to use +The magic spring; but the prior claim +Fell to the aged, sick, and lame. +Far and wide the people came: +Some from the healthful Aptos creek +Hastened to bring their helpless sick; +Even the fishers of rude Soquel +Suddenly found they were far from well; +The brawny dwellers of San Lorenzo +Said, in fact, they had never been so: +And all were-ailing,--strange to say,-- +From Pescadero to Monterey. + +Over the mountain they poured in +With leathern bottles, and bags of skin; +Through the canons a motley throng +Trotted, hobbled, and limped along. +The fathers gazed at the moving scene +With pious joy and with souls serene; +And then--a result perhaps foreseen-- +They laid out the Mission of San Joaquin. + +Not in the eyes of Faith alone +The good effects of the waters shone; +But skins grew rosy, eyes waxed clear, +Of rough vacquero and muleteer; +Angular forms were rounded out, +Limbs grew supple, and waists grew stout; +And as for the girls,--for miles about +They had no equal! To this day, +From Pescadero to Monterey, +You'll still find eyes in which are seen +The liquid graces of San Joaquin. + +There is a limit to human bliss, +And the Mission of San Joaquin had this; +None went abroad to roam or stay, +But they fell sick in the queerest way,-- +A singular _maladie du pays_, +With gastric symptoms: so they spent +Their days in a sensuous content; +Caring little for things unseen +Beyond their bowers of living green,-- +Beyond the mountains that lay between +The world and the Mission of San Joaquin. + +Winter passed, and the summer came: +The trunks of _madrono_ all aflame, +Here and there through the underwood +Like pillars of fire starkly stood. +All of the breezy solitude + Was filled with the spicing of pine and bay +And resinous odors mixed and blended, + And dim and ghost-like far away +The smoke of the burning woods ascended. +Then of a sudden the mountains swam, +The rivers piled their floods in a dam. + +The ridge above Los Gatos creek + Arched its spine in a feline fashion; +The forests waltzed till they grew sick, + And Nature shook in a speechless passion; +And, swallowed up in the earthquake's spleen, +The wonderful Spring of San Joaquin +Vanished, and never more was seen! + +Two days passed: the Mission folk +Out of their rosy dream awoke. +Some of them looked a trifle white; +But that, no doubt, was from earthquake fright. +Three days: there was sore distress, +Headache, nausea, giddiness. +Four days: faintings, tenderness +Of the mouth and fauces; and in less +Than one week,--here the story closes; +We won't continue the prognosis,-- +Enough that now no trace is seen +Of Spring or Mission of San Joaquin. + + +Moral. + +You see the point? Don't be too quick +To break bad habits: better stick, +Like the Mission folk, to your _arsenic_. + + + + +On a Cone of the Big Trees. + +_Sequoia Gigantea_. + + + +Brown foundling of the Western wood, + Babe of primeval wildernesses! +Long on my table thou hast stood + Encounters strange and rude caresses; +Perchance contented with thy lot, + Surroundings new and curious faces, +As though ten centuries were not + Imprisoned in thy shining cases! + +Thou bring'st me back the halcyon days + Of grateful rest; the week of leisure, +The journey lapped in autumn haze, + The sweet fatigue that seemed a pleasure, +The morning ride, the noonday halt, + The blazing slopes, the red dust rising, +And then--the dim, brown, columned vault, + With its cool, damp, sepulchral spicing. + +Once more I see the rocking masts + That scrape the sky, their only tenant +The jay-bird that in frolic casts + From some high yard his broad blue pennant. +I see the Indian files that keep + Their places in the dusty heather, +Their red trunks standing ankle deep + In moccasins of rusty leather. + +I see all this, and marvel much + That thou, sweet woodland waif, art able +To keep the company of such + As throng thy friend's--the poet's--table: +The latest spawn the press hath cast,-- + The "modern Pope's," "the later Byron's,"-- +Why e'en the best may not outlast + Thy poor relation,--_Sempervirens_. + +Thy sire saw the light that shone + On Mohammed's uplifted crescent, +On many a royal gilded throne + And deed forgotten in the present; +He saw the age of sacred trees + And Druid groves and mystic larches; +And saw from forest domes like these + The builder bring his Gothic arches. + +And must thou, foundling, still forego + Thy heritage and high ambition, +To lie full lowly and full low, + Adjusted to thy new condition? +Not hidden in the drifted snows, + But under ink-drops idly spattered, +And leaves ephemeral as those + That on thy woodland tomb were scattered. + +Yet lie thou there, O friend! and speak + The moral of thy simple story: +Though life is all that thou dost seek, + And age alone thy crown of glory,-- +Not thine the only germs that fail + The purpose of their high creation, +If their poor tenements avail + For worldly show and ostentation. + + + + +A Sanitary Message. + + + +Last night, above the whistling wind, + I heard the welcome rain,-- +A fusillade upon the roof, + A tattoo on the pane: +The key-hole piped; the chimney-top + A warlike trumpet blew; +Yet, mingling with these sounds of strife, + A softer voice stole through. + +"Give thanks, O brothers!" said the voice, + "That He who sent the rains +Hath spared your fields the scarlet dew + That drips from patriot veins: +I've seen the grass on Eastern graves + In brighter verdure rise; +But, oh! the rain that gave it life + Sprang first from human eyes. + +"I come to wash away no stain + Upon your wasted lea; +I raise no banners, save the ones + The forest wave to me: +Upon the mountain side, where Spring + Her farthest picket sets, +My reveille awakes a host + Of grassy bayonets. + + "I visit every humble roof; + I mingle with the low: +Only upon the highest peaks + My blessings fall in snow; +Until, in tricklings of the stream + And drainings of the lea, +My unspent bounty comes at last + To mingle with the sea." + +And thus all night, above the wind, + I heard the welcome rain,-- +A fusillade upon the roof, + A tattoo on the pane: +The key-hole piped; the chimney-top + A warlike trumpet blew; +But, mingling with these sounds of strife, + This hymn of peace stole through. + + + + +The Copperhead. + +(1864.) + + + +There is peace in the swamp where the Copper head sleeps, +Where the waters are stagnant, the white vapor creeps, +Where the musk of Magnolia hangs thick in the air, +And the lilies' phylacteries broaden in prayer; +There is peace in the swamp, though the quiet is Death, +Though the mist is miasm, the Upas tree's breath, +Though no echo awakes to the cooing of doves,-- +There is peace: yes, the peace that the Copperhead loves! + +Go seek him: he coils in the ooze and the drip +Like a thong idly flung from the slave-driver's whip; +But beware the false footstep,--the stumble that brings +A deadlier lash than the overseer swings. +Never arrow so true, never bullet so dread, +As the straight steady stroke of that hammershaped head; +Whether slave, or proud planter, who braves that dull crest, +Woe to him who shall trouble the Copperhead's rest! + +Then why waste your labors, brave hearts and strong men, +In tracking a trail to the Copperhead's den? +Lay your axe to the cypress, hew open the shade +To the free sky and sunshine Jehovah has made; +Let the breeze of the North sweep the vapors away, +Till the stagnant lake ripples, the freed waters play; +And then to your heel can you righteously doom +The Copperhead born of its shadow and gloom! + + + + +On a Pen of Thomas Starr King. + + + +This is the reed the dead musician dropped, + With tuneful magic in its sheath still hidden; +The prompt allegro of its music stopped, + Its melodies unbidden. + +But who shall finish the unfinished strain, + Or wake the instrument to awe and wonder, +And bid the slender barrel breathe again,-- + An organ-pipe of thunder? + +His pen! what humbler memories cling about + Its golden curves! what shapes and laughing graces +Slipped from its point, when his full heart went out + In smiles and courtly phrases! + +The truth, half jesting, half in earnest flung; + The word of cheer, with recognition in it; +The note of alms, whose golden speech outrung + The golden gift within it. + +But all in vain the enchanter's wand we wave: + No stroke of ours recalls his magic vision; +The incantation that its power gave + Sleeps with the dead magician. + + + + +Lone Mountain. + +(Cemetery, San Francisco.) + + + +This is that hill of awe +That Persian Sindbad saw,-- + The mount magnetic; +And on its seaward face, +Scattered along its base, + The wrecks prophetic. + +Here come the argosies +Blown by each idle breeze, + To and fro shifting; +Yet to the hill of Fate +All drawing, soon or late,-- + Day by day drifting;-- + +Drifting forever here +Barks that for many a year + Braved wind and weather; +Shallops but yesterday +Launched on yon shining bay,-- + Drawn all together. + +This is the end of all: +Sun thyself by the wall, + O poorer Hindbad! +Envy not Sindbad's fame: +Here come alike the same, + Hindbad and Sindbad. + + + + +California's Greeting to Seward. + +(1869.) + + + +We know him well: no need of praise + Or bonfire from the windy hill +To light to softer paths and ways + The world-worn man we honor still; + +No need to quote those truths he spoke + That burned through years of war and shame. +While History carves with surer stroke + Across our map his noon-day fame; + +No need to bid him show the scars + Of blows dealt by the Scaean gate, +Who lived to pass its shattered bars, + And see the foe capitulate; + +Who lived to turn his slower feet + Toward the western setting sun, +To see his harvest all complete, + His dream fulfilled, his duty done,-- + +The one flag streaming from the pole, + The one faith borne from sea to sea,-- +For such a triumph, and such goal, + Poor must our human greeting be. + +Ah! rather that the conscious land + In simpler ways salute the Man,-- +The tall pines bowing where they stand, + The bared head of El Capitan, + +The tumult of the waterfalls, + Pohono's kerchief in the breeze, +The waving from the rocky walls, + The stir and rustle of the trees; + +Till lapped in sunset skies of hope, + In sunset lands by sunset seas, +The Young World's Premier treads the slope + Of sunset years in calm and peace. + + + + +The Two Ships. + + + +As I stand by the cross on the lone mountain's crest, + Looking over the ultimate sea, +In the gloom of the mountain a ship lies at rest, + And one sails away from the lea: +One spreads its white wings on a far-reaching track, + With pennant and sheet flowing free; +One hides in the shadow with sails laid aback,-- + The ship that is waiting for me! + +But lo, in the distance the clouds break away! + The Gate's glowing portals I see; +And I hear from the outgoing ship in the bay + The song of the sailors in glee: +So I think of the luminous footprints that bore + The comfort o'er dark Galilee, +And wait for the signal to go to the shore, + To the ship that is waiting for me. + + + + +The Goddess. + +For the Sanitary Fair. + + + +"Who comes?" The sentry's warning cry + Rings sharply on the evening air: +Who comes? The challenge: no reply, + Yet something motions there. + +A woman, by those graceful folds; + A soldier, by that martial tread: +"Advance three paces. Halt! until + Thy name and rank be said." + +"My name? Her name, in ancient song, + Who fearless from Olympus came: +Look on me! Mortals know me best + In battle and in flame." + +"Enough! I know that clarion voice; + I know that gleaming eye and helm; +Those crimson lips,--and in their dew + The best blood of the realm. + +"The young, the brave, the good and wise, + Have fallen in thy curst embrace: +The juices of the grapes of wrath + Still stain thy guilty face. + +"My brother lies in yonder field, + Face downward to the quiet grass: +Go back! he cannot see thee now; + But here thou shalt not pass." + +A crack upon the evening air, + A wakened echo from the hill: +The watch-dog on the distant shore + Gives mouth, and all is still. + +The sentry with his brother lies + Face downward on the quiet grass; +And by him, in the pale moonshine, + A shadow seems to pass. + +No lance or warlike shield it bears: + A helmet in its pitying hands +Brings water from the nearest brook, + To meet his last demands. + +Can this be she of haughty mien, + The goddess of the sword and shield? +Ah, yes! The Grecian poet's myth + Sways still each battle-field. + +For not alone that rugged war + Some grace or charm from beauty gains; +But, when the goddess' work is done, + The woman's still remains. + + + + +Address. + +Opening of the California Theatre, San Francisco, Jan. 19, 1870 + + + +Brief words, when actions wait, are well +The prompter's hand is on his bell; +The coming heroes, lovers, kings, +Are idly lounging at the wings; +Behind the curtain's mystic fold +The glowing future lies unrolled,-- +And yet, one moment for the Past; +One retrospect,--the first and last. + +"The world's a stage," the master said. +To-night a mightier truth is read: +Not in the shifting canvas screen, +The flash of gas, or tinsel sheen; +Not in the skill whose signal calls +From empty boards baronial halls; +But, fronting sea and curving bay, +Behold the players and the play. + +Ah, friends! beneath your real skies +The actor's short-lived triumph dies: +On that broad stage, of empire won +Whose footlights were the setting sun, +Whose flats a distant background rose +In trackless peaks of endless snows; +Here genius bows, and talent waits +To copy that but One creates. + +Your shifting scenes: the league of sand, +An avenue by ocean spanned; +The narrow beach of straggling tents, +A mile of stately monuments; +Your standard, lo! a flag unfurled, +Whose clinging folds clasp half the world,-- +This is your drama, built on facts, +With "twenty years between the acts." + +One moment more: if here we raise +The oft-sung hymn of local praise, +Before the curtain facts must sway; +_Here_ waits the moral of your play. +Glassed in the poet's thought, you view +What _money_ can, yet cannot do; +The faith that soars, the deeds that shine, +Above the gold that builds the shrine. + +And oh! when others take our place, +And Earth's green curtain hides our face, +Ere on the stage, so silent now, +The last new hero makes his bow: +So may our deeds, recalled once more +In Memory's sweet but brief encore, +Down all the circling ages run, +With the world's plaudit of "Well done!" + + + + +The Lost Galleon. + + + +In sixteen hundred and forty-one, +The regular yearly galleon, +Laden with odorous gums and spice, +India cottons and India rice, +And the richest silks of far Cathay, +Was due at Acapulco Bay. + +Due she was, and over-due,-- +Galleon, merchandise, and crew, +Creeping along through rain and shine, +Through the tropics, under the line. + +The trains were waiting outside the walls, +The wives of sailors thronged the town, +The traders sat by their empty stalls, +And the viceroy himself came down; +The bells in the tower were all a-trip, +_Te Deums_ were on each father's lip, +The limes were ripening in the sun +For the sick of the coming galleon. + +All in vain. Weeks passed away, +And yet no galleon saw the bay: +India goods advanced in price; +The governor missed his favorite spice; +The senoritas mourned for sandal, +And the famous cottons of Coromandel; + +And some for an absent lover lost, +And one for a husband,--Donna Julia, +Wife of the captain, tempest-tossed, +In circumstances so peculiar: +Even the fathers, unawares, +Grumbled a little at their prayers; +And all along the coast that year +Votive candles were scarce and dear. + +Never a tear bedims the eye +That time and patience will not dry; +Never a lip is curved with pain +That can't be kissed into smiles again: +And these same truths, as far as I know, +Obtained on the coast of Mexico +More than two hundred years ago, + +In sixteen hundred and fifty-one,-- +Ten years after the deed was done,-- +And folks had forgotten the galleon: +The divers plunged in the Gulf for pearls, +White as the teeth of the Indian girls; +The traders sat by their full bazaars; +The mules with many a weary load, +And oxen, dragging their creaking cars, +Came and went on the mountain road. + +Where was the galleon all this while: +Wrecked on some lonely coral isle? +Burnt by the roving sea-marauders, +Or sailing north under secret orders? +Had she found the Anian passage famed, +By lying Moldonado claimed, +And sailed through the sixty-fifth degree +Direct to the North Atlantic sea? +Or had she found the "River of Kings," +Of which De Fonte told such strange things +In sixteen forty? Never a sign, +East or West or under the line, +They saw of the missing galleon; +Never a sail or plank or chip, +They found of the long-lost treasure-ship, +Or enough to build a tale upon. +But when she was lost, and where and how, +Are the facts we're coming to just now. + +Take, if you please, the chart of that day +Published at Madrid,--_por el Rey_; +Look for a spot in the old South Sea, +The hundred and eightieth degree +Longitude, west of Madrid: there, +Under the equatorial glare, +Just where the East and West are one, +You'll find the missing galleon,-- +You'll find the "San Gregorio," yet +Riding the seas, with sails all set, +Fresh as upon the very day +She sailed from Acapulco Bay. + +How did she get there? What strange spell +Kept her two hundred years so well, +Free from decay and mortal taint? +What? but the prayers of a patron saint! +A hundred leagues from Manilla town, +The "San Gregorio's" helm came down; +Round she went on her heel, and not +A cable's length from a galliot +That rocked on the waters, just abreast +Of the galleon's course, which was west-sou-west. + +Then said the galleon's commandante, +General Pedro Sobriente +(That was his rank on land and main, +A regular custom of Old Spain), +"My pilot is dead of scurvy: may +I ask the longitude, time, and day?" +The first two given and compared; +The third,--the commandante stared! + +"The _first_ of June? I make it second." +Said the stranger, "Then you've wrongly-reckoned; +I make it _first_: as you came this way, +You should have lost--d'ye see--a day; +Lost a day, as plainly see, +On the hundred and eightieth degree." +"Lost a day?" "Yes: if not rude, +When did you make east longitude?" +"On the ninth of May,--our patron's day." +"On the ninth?--_you had no ninth of May!_ +Eighth and tenth was there; but stay"-- +Too late; for the galleon bore away. + +Lost was the day they should have kept, +Lost unheeded and lost unwept; +Lost in a way that made search vain, +Lost in the trackless and boundless main; +Lost like the day of Job's awful curse, +In his third chapter, third and fourth verse; +Wrecked was their patron's only day,-- +What would the holy fathers say? + +Said the Fray Antonio Estavan, +The galleon's chaplain,--a learned man,-- +"Nothing is lost that you can regain: +And the way to look for a thing is plain +To go where you lost it, back again. +Back with your galleon till you see +The hundred and eightieth degree. +Wait till the rolling year goes round, +And there will the missing day be found; +For you'll find--if computation's true-- +That sailing _east_ will give to you +Not only one ninth of May, but two,-- +One for the good saint's present cheer, +And one for the day we lost last year." + +Back to the spot sailed the galleon; +Where, for a twelve-month, off and on +The hundred and eightieth degree, +She rose and fell on a tropic sea: +But lo! when it came to the ninth of May, +All of a sudden becalmed she lay +One degree from that fatal spot, +Without the power to move a knot; +And of course the moment she lost her way, +Gone was her chance to save that day. + +To cut a lengthening story short, +She never saved it. Made the sport +Of evil spirits and baffling wind, +She was always before or just behind, +One day too soon, or one day too late, +And the sun, meanwhile, would never wait: +She had two eighths, as she idly lay, +Two tenths, but never a _ninth_ of May; +And there she rides through two hundred years +Of dreary penance and anxious fears: +Yet through the grace of the saint she served, +Captain and crew are still preserved. + +By a computation that still holds good, +Made by the Holy Brotherhood, +The "San Gregorio" will cross that line +In nineteen hundred and thirty-nine: +Just three hundred years to a day +From the time she lost the ninth of May. +And the folk in Acapulco town, +Over the waters, looking down, +Will see in the glow of the setting sun +The sails of the missing galleon, +And the royal standard of Philip _Rey_; +The gleaming mast and glistening spar, +As she nears the surf of the outer bar. +A _Te Deum_ sung on her crowded deck, +An odor of spice along the shore, +A crash, a cry from a shattered wreck,-- +And the yearly galleon sails no more, +In or out of the olden bay; +For the blessed patron has found his day. + + * * * * * + +Such is the legend. Hear this truth: +Over the trackless past, somewhere, +Lie the lost days of our tropic youth, +Only regained by faith and prayer, +Only recalled by prayer and plaint: +Each lost day has its patron saint! + + + + +A Second Review of the Grand Army. + + + +I read last night of the Grand Review +In Washington's chiefest avenue,-- +Two Hundred Thousand men in blue, + I think they said was the number,-- +Till I seemed to hear their trampling feet, +The bugle blast and the drum's quick beat, +The clatter of hoofs in the stony street, +The cheers of people who came to greet, +And the thousand details that to repeat + Would only my verse encumber,-- +Till I fell in a reverie, sad and sweet, + And then to a fitful slumber. + +When, lo! in a vision I seemed to stand +In the lonely Capitol. On each hand +Far stretched the portico, dim and grand +Its columns ranged like a martial band +Of sheeted spectres, whom some command + Had called to a last reviewing. +And the streets of the city were white and bare; +No footfall echoed across the square; +But out of the misty midnight air +I heard in the distance a trumpet blare, +And the wandering night-winds seemed to bear + The sound of a far tattooing. + +Then I held my breath with fear and dread; +For into the square, with a brazen tread, +There rode a figure whose stately head + O'erlooked the review that morning, +That never bowed from its firm-set seat +When the living column passed its feet, +Yet now rode steadily up the street + To the phantom bugle's warning: + +Till it reached the Capitol square, and wheeled, +And there in the moonlight stood revealed +A well-known form that in State and field + Had led our patriot sires; +Whose face was turned to the sleeping camp, +Afar through the river's fog and damp, +That showed no flicker, nor waning lamp, + Nor wasted bivouac fires. + +And I saw a phantom army come, +With never a sound of fife or drum, +But keeping time to a throbbing hum + Of wailing and lamentation: +The martyred heroes of Malvern Hill, +Of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville, +The men whose wasted figures fill + The patriot graves of the nation. + +And there came the nameless dead,--the men +Who perished in fever swamp and fen, +The slowly-starved of the prison-pen; + And, marching beside the others, +Came the dusky martyrs of Pillow's fight, +With limbs enfranchised and bearing bright; +I thought--perhaps 'twas the pale moonlight-- + They looked as white as their brothers! + +And so all night marched the Nation's dead +With never a banner above them spread, +Nor a badge, nor a motto brandished; +No mark--save the bare uncovered head + Of the silent bronze Reviewer; +With never an arch save the vaulted sky; +With never a flower save those that lie +On the distant graves--for love could buy + No gift that was purer or truer. + +So all night long swept the strange array, +So all night long till the morning gray +I watched for one who had passed away, + With a reverent awe and wonder,-- +Till a blue cap waved in the lengthening line, +And I knew that one who was kin of mine +Had come; and I spake--and lo! that sign + Awakened me from my slumber. + + + + + +Part II. + + + + +Before the Curtain. + + + +Behind the footlights hangs the rusty baize, +A trifle shabby in the upturned blaze +Of flaring gas, and curious eyes that gaze. + +The stage, methinks, perhaps is none too wide, +And hardly fit for royal Richard's stride, +Or Falstaff's bulk, or Denmark's youthful pride. + +Ah, well! no passion walks its humble boards; +O'er it no king nor valiant Hector lords: +The simplest skill is all its space affords. + +The song and jest, the dance and trifling play, +The local hit at follies of the day, +The trick to pass an idle hour away,-- + +For these, no trumpets that announce the Moor, +No blast that makes the hero's welcome sure,-- +A single fiddle in the overture! + + + + +The Stage-Driver's Story. + + + +It was the stage-driver's story, as he stood with his back to the wheelers, +Quietly flecking his whip, and turning his quid of tobacco; +While on the dusty road, and blent with the rays of the moonlight, +We saw the long curl of his lash and the juice of tobacco descending. + +"Danger! Sir, I believe you,--indeed, I may say on that subject, +You your existence might put to the hazard and turn of a wager. +I have seen danger? Oh, no! not me, sir, indeed, I assure you: +'Twas only the man with the dog that is sitting alone in yon wagon. + +It was the Geiger Grade, a mile and a half from the summit: +Black as your hat was the night, and never a star in the heavens. +Thundering down the grade, the gravel and stones we sent flying +Over the precipice side,--a thousand feet plumb to the bottom. + +Half-way down the grade I felt, sir, a thrilling and creaking, +Then a lurch to one side, as we hung on the bank of the canon; +Then, looking up the road, I saw, in the distance behind me, +The off hind wheel of the coach just loosed from its axle, and following. + +One glance alone I gave, then gathered together my ribbons, +Shouted, and flung them, outspread, on the straining necks of my cattle; +Screamed at the top of my voice, and lashed the air in my frenzy, +While down the Geiger Grade, on _three_ wheels, the vehicle thundered. + +Speed was our only chance, when again came the ominous rattle: +Crack, and another wheel slipped away, and was lost in the darkness. +_Two_ only now were left; yet such was our fearful momentum, +Upright, erect, and sustained on _two_ wheels, the vehicle thundered. + +As some huge boulder, unloosed from its rocky shelf on the mountain, +Drives before it the hare and the timorous squirrel, far-leaping, +So down the Geiger Grade rushed the Pioneer coach, and before it +Leaped the wild horses, and shrieked in advance of the danger impending. + +But to be brief in my tale. Again, ere we came to the level, +Slipped from its axle a wheel; so that, to be plain in my statement, +A matter of twelve hundred yards or more, as the distance may be, +We travelled upon _one_ wheel, until we drove up to the station. + +Then, sir, we sank in a heap; but, picking myself from the ruins, +I heard a noise up the grade; and looking, I saw in the distance +The three wheels following still, like moons on the horizon whirling, +Till, circling, they gracefully sank on the road at the side of the + station. + +This is my story, sir; a trifle, indeed, I assure you. +Much more, perchance, might be said; but I hold him, of all men, most + lightly +Who swerves from the truth in his tale--No, thank you--Well, since you + _are_ pressing, +Perhaps I don't care if I do: you may give me the same, Jim,--no sugar." + + + + +Aspiring Miss de Laine. + +A Chemical Narrative. + + + +Certain facts which serve to explain +The physical charms of Miss Addie De Laine, +Who, as the common reports obtain, +Surpassed in complexion the lily and rose; +With a very sweet mouth and a _retrousse_ nose; +A figure like Hebe's, or that which revolves +In a milliner's window, and partially solves +That question which mentor and moralist pains, +If grace may exist _minus_ feeling or brains. + +Of course the young lady had beaux by the score, +All that she wanted,--what girl could ask more? +Lovers that sighed, and lovers that swore, +Lovers that danced, and lovers that played, +Men of profession, of leisure, and trade; +But one, who was destined to take the high part +Of holding that mythical treasure, her heart,-- +This lover--the wonder and envy of town-- +Was a practising chemist,--a fellow called Brown. + +I might here remark that 'twas doubted by many, +In regard to the heart, if Miss Addie had any; +But no one could look in that eloquent face, +With its exquisite outline, and features of grace, +And mark, through the transparent skin, how the tide +Ebbed and flowed at the impulse of passion or pride,-- +None could look, who believed in the blood's circulation +As argued by Harvey, but saw confirmation, +That here, at least, Nature had triumphed o'er art, +And, as far as complexion went, she had a heart. + +But this, _par parenthesis_. Brown was the man +Preferred of all others to carry her fan, +Hook her glove, drape her shawl, and do all that a belle +May demand of the lover she wants to treat well. +Folks wondered and stared that a fellow called Brown-- +Abstracted and solemn, in manner a clown, +Ill dressed, with a lingering smell of the shop-- +Should appear as her escort at party or hop. +Some swore he had cooked up some villanous charm, +Or love philter, not in the regular Pharm-- +Acopea, and thus, from pure _malis prepense_, +Had bewitched and bamboozled the young lady's sense; +Others thought, with more reason, the secret to lie +In a magical wash or indelible dye; +While Society, with its censorious eye +And judgment impartial, stood ready to damn +What wasn't improper as being a sham. + +For a fortnight the townfolk had all been agog +With a party, the finest the season had seen, +To be given in honor of Miss Pollywog, +Who was just coming out as a belle of sixteen. +The guests were invited: but one night before, +A carriage drew up at the modest back-door +Of Brown's lab'ratory; and, full in the glare +Of a big purple bottle, some closely-veiled fair +Alighted and entered: to make matters plain, +Spite of veils and disguises,--'twas Addie De Laine. + +As a bower for true love, 'twas hardly the one +That a lady would choose to be wooed in or won: +No odor of rose or sweet jessamine's sigh +Breathed a fragrance to hallow their pledge of troth by, +Nor the balm that exhales from the odorous thyme; +But the gaseous effusions of chloride of lime, +And salts, which your chemist delights to explain +As the base of the smell of the rose and the drain. +Think of this, O ye lovers of sweetness! and know +What you smell, when you snuff up Lubin or Pinaud. + +I pass by the greetings, the transports and bliss, +Which, of course, duly followed a meeting like this, +And come down to business;--for such the intent +Of the lady who now o'er the crucible leant, +In the glow of a furnace of carbon and lime, +Like a fairy called up in the new pantomime;-- +And give but her words as she coyly looked down, +In reply to the questioning glances of Brown: +"I am taking the drops, and am using the paste, +And the little, white powders that had a sweet taste, +Which you told me would brighten the glance of my eye, +And the depilatory, and also the dye, +And I'm charmed with the trial; and now, my dear Brown, +I have one other favor,--now, ducky, don't frown,-- +Only one, for a chemist and genius like you +But a trifle, and one you can easily do. +Now listen: tomorrow, you know, is the night +Of the birthday _soiree_ of that Pollywog fright; +And I'm to be there, and the dress I shall wear +Is _too_ lovely; but"--"But what then, _ma chere_?" +Said Brown, as the lady came to a full stop, +And glanced round the shelves of the little back shop. +"Well, I want--I want something to fill out the skirt +To the proper dimension, without being girt +In a stiff crinoline, or caged in a hoop +That shows through one's skirt like the bars of a coop; +Something light, that a lady may waltz in, or polk, +With a freedom that none but you masculine folk +Ever know. For, however poor woman aspires, +She's always bound down to the earth by these wires. +Are you listening? nonsense! don't stare like a spoon, +Idiotic; some light thing, and spacious, and soon-- +Something like--well, in fact--something like a balloon!" +Here she paused; and here Brown, overcome by surprise, +Gave a doubting assent with still wondering eyes, +And the lady departed. But just at the door +Something happened,--'tis true, it had happened before +In this sanctum of science,--a sibilant sound, +Like some element just from its trammels unbound, +Or two substances that their affinities found. + +The night of the anxiously looked-for _soiree_ +Had come, with its fair ones in gorgeous array; +With the rattle of wheels, and the tinkle of bells, +And the "How do ye dos," and the "Hope you are wells;" +And the crash in the passage, and last lingering look +You give as you hang your best hat on the hook; +The rush of hot air as the door opens wide; +And your entry,--that blending of self-possessed pride +And humility shown in your perfect-bred stare +At the folk, as if wondering how they got there; +With other tricks worthy of Vanity Fair. +Meanwhile that safe topic, the heat of the room, +Already was losing its freshness and bloom; +Young people were yawning, and wondering when +The dance would come off, and why didn't it then: +When a vague expectation was thrilling the crowd, +Lo, the door swung its hinges with utterance proud! +And Pompey announced, with a trumpet-like strain, +The entrance of Brown and Miss Addie De Laine. + +She entered: but oh, how imperfect the verb +To express to the senses her movement superb! +To say that she "sailed in" more clearly might tell +Her grace in its buoyant and billowy swell. +Her robe was a vague circumambient space, +With shadowy boundaries made of point-lace. +The rest was but guess-work, and well might defy +The power of critical feminine eye +To define or describe: 'twere as futile to try +The gossamer web of the cirrus to trace, +Floating far in the blue of a warm summer sky. + +'Midst the humming of praises and the glances of beaux, +That greet our fair maiden wherever she goes, +Brown slipped like a shadow, grim, silent, and black, +With a look of anxiety, close in her track. +Once he whispered aside in her delicate ear, +A sentence of warning,--it might be of fear: +"Don't stand in a draught, if you value your life." +(Nothing more,--such advice might be given your wife +Or your sweetheart, in times of bronchitis and cough, +Without mystery, romance, or frivolous scoff.) +But hark to the music: the dance has begun. +The closely-draped windows wide open are flung; +The notes of the piccolo, joyous and light, +Like bubbles burst forth on the warm summer night. +Round about go the dancers; in circles they fly; +Trip, trip, go their feet as their skirts eddy by; +And swifter and lighter, but somewhat too plain, +Whisks the fair circumvolving Miss Addie De Laine. + +Taglioni and Cerito well might have pined +For the vigor and ease that her movements combined; +E'en Rigelboche never flung higher her robe +In the naughtiest city that's known on the globe. +'Twas amazing, 'twas scandalous: lost in surprise, +Some opened their mouths, and a few shut their eyes. + +But hark! At the moment Miss Addie De Laine, +Circling round at the outer edge of an ellipse, +Which brought her fair form to the window again, +From the arms of her partner incautiously slips! +And a shriek fills the air, and the music is still, +And the crowd gather round where her partner forlorn +Still frenziedly points from the wide window-sill +Into space and the night; for Miss Addie was gone! + +Gone like the bubble that bursts in the sun; +Gone like the grain when the reaper is done; +Gone like the dew on the fresh morning grass; +Gone without parting farewell; and alas! +Gone with a flavor of Hydrogen Gas. + +When the weather is pleasant, you frequently meet +A white-headed man slowly pacing the street; +His trembling hand shading his lack-lustre eye, +Half blind with continually scanning the sky. + +Rumor points him as some astronomical sage, +Reperusing by day the celestial page; +But the reader, sagacious, will recognize Brown, +Trying vainly to conjure his lost sweetheart down, +And learn the stern moral this story must teach, +That Genius may lift its love out of its reach. + + + + +California Madrigal. + +On the Approach of Spring. + + + +Oh come, my beloved! from thy winter abode, +From thy home on the Yuba, thy ranch overflowed; +For the waters have fallen, the winter has fled, +And the river once more has returned to its bed. + +Oh, mark how the spring in its beauty is near! +How the fences and tules once more re-appear! +How soft lies the mud on the banks of yon slough +By the hole in the levee the waters broke through! + +All Nature, dear Chloris, is blooming to greet +The glance of your eye, and the tread of your feet; +For the trails are all open, the roads are all free, +And the highwayman's whistle is heard on the lea. + +Again swings the lash on the high mountain trail, +And the pipe of the packer is scenting the gale; +The oath and the jest ringing high o'er the plain, +Where the smut is not always confined to the grain. + +Once more glares the sunlight on awning and roof, +Once more the red clay's pulverized by the hoof, +Once more the dust powders the "outsides" with red, +Once more at the station the whiskey is spread. + +Then fly with me, love, ere the summer's begun, +And the mercury mounts to one hundred and one; +Ere the grass now so green shall be withered and sear, +In the spring that obtains but one month in the year. + + + + +St. Thomas. + +A Geographical Survey. + +(1868.) + + + +Very fair and full of promise +Lay the island of St. Thomas: +Ocean o'er its reefs and bars +Hid its elemental scars; +Groves of cocoanut and guava +Grew above its fields of lava. +So the gem of the Antilles,-- +"Isles of Eden," where no ill is,-- +Like a great green turtle slumbered +On the sea that it encumbered. +Then said William Henry Seward, +As he cast his eye to leeward, +"Quite important to our commerce +Is this island of St. Thomas." + +Said the Mountain ranges, "Thank'ee, +But we cannot stand the Yankee +O'er our scars and fissures poring, +In our very vitals boring, +In our sacred caverns prying, +All our secret problems trying,-- +Digging, blasting, with dynamit +Mocking all our thunders! Damn it! +Other lands may be more civil, +Bust our lava crust if we will." + +Said the Sea,--its white teeth gnashing +Through its coral-reef lips flashing,-- +"Shall I let this scheming mortal +Shut with stone my shining portal, +Curb my tide, and check my play, +Fence with wharves my shining bay? +Rather let me be drawn out +In one awful water-spout!" + +Said the black-browed Hurricane, +Brooding down the Spanish main, +"Shall I see my forces, zounds! +Measured by square inch and pounds, +With detectives at my back +When I double on my track, +And my secret paths made clear, +Published o'er the hemisphere +To each gaping, prying crew? +Shall I? Blow me if I do!" + +So the Mountains shook and thundered, +And the Hurricane came sweeping, +And the people stared and wondered +As the Sea came on them leaping: +Each, according to his promise, +Made things lively at St. Thomas. + +Till one morn, when Mr. Seward +Cast his weather eye to leeward, +There was not an inch of dry land +Left to mark his recent island. + +Not a flagstaff or a sentry, +Not a wharf or port of entry,-- +Only--to cut matters shorter-- +Just a patch of muddy water +In the open ocean lying, +And a gull above it flying. + + + + +The Ballad of Mr. Cooke. + +A Legend of the Cliff House, San Francisco. + + + +Where the sturdy ocean breeze +Drives the spray of roaring seas +That the Cliff-House balconies + Overlook: + +There, in spite of rain that balked, +With his sandals duly chalked, +Once upon a tight-rope walked + Mr. Cooke. + +But the jester's lightsome mien, +And his spangles and his sheen, +All had vanished, when the scene + He forsook;---- + +Yet in some delusive hope, +In some vague desire to cope, +One still came to view the rope + Walked by Cooke. + +Amid Beauty's bright array, +On that strange eventful day, +Partly hidden from the spray, + In a nook, + +Stood Florinda Vere de Vere; +Who with wind-dishevelled hair, +And a rapt, distracted air, + Gazed on Cooke. + +Then she turned, and quickly cried +To her lover at her side, +While her form with love and pride + Wildly shook, + +"Clifford Snook! oh, hear me now! +Here I break each plighted vow: +There's but one to whom I bow, + And that's Cooke!" + +Haughtily that young man spoke: +"I descend from noble folk. +'Seven Oaks,' and then 'Se'nnoak,' + Lastly Snook, + +Is the way my name I trace: +Shall a youth of noble race +In affairs of love give place + To a Cooke?" + +"Clifford Snook, I know thy claim +To that lineage and name, +And I think I've read the same + In Horne Tooke; + +But I swear, by all divine, +Never, never to be thine, +'Till thou canst upon yon line + Walk like Cooke." + +Though to that gymnastic feat +He no closer might compete +Than to strike a _balance_-sheet + In a book; + +Yet thenceforward, from that day, +He his figure would display +In some wild athletic way, + After Cooke. + +On some household eminence, +On a clothes-line or a fence, +Over ditches, drains, and thence + O'er a brook, + +He, by high ambition led, +Ever walked and balanced; +Till the people, wondering, said, + "How like Cooke!" + +Step by step did he proceed, +Nerved by valor, not by greed, +And at last the crowning deed + Undertook: + +Misty was the midnight air, +And the cliff was bleak and bare, +When he came to do and dare + Just like Cooke. + +Through the darkness, o'er the flow, +Stretched the line where he should go +Straight across, as flies the crow + Or the rook: + +One wild glance around he cast; +Then he faced the ocean blast, +And he strode the cable last + Touched by Cooke. + +Vainly roared the angry seas; +Vainly blew the ocean breeze; +But, alas! the walker's knees + Had a crook; + +And before he reached the rock +Did they both together knock, +And he stumbled with a shock-- + Unlike Cooke! + +Downward dropping in the dark, +Like an arrow to its mark, +Or a fish-pole when a shark + Bites the hook, + +Dropped the pole he could not save, +Dropped the walker, and the wave +Swift ingulfed the rival brave + Of J. Cooke! + +Came a roar across the sea +Of sea-lions in their glee, +In a tongue remarkably + Like Chinnook; + +And the maddened sea-gull seemed +Still to utter, as he screamed, +"Perish thus the wretch who deemed + Himself Cooke!" + +But, on misty moonlit nights, +Comes a skeleton in tights, +Walks once more the giddy heights + He mistook; + +And unseen to mortal eyes, +Purged of grosser earthly ties, +Now at last in spirit guise + Outdoes Cooke. + +Still the sturdy ocean breeze +Sweeps the spray of roaring seas, +Where the Cliff-House balconies + Overlook; + +And the maidens in their prime, +Reading of this mournful rhyme, +Weep where, in the olden time, + Walked J. Cooke. + + + + +The Legends of the Rhine. + + + +Beetling walls with ivy grown, +Frowning heights of mossy stone; +Turret, with its flaunting flag +Flung from battlemented crag; +Dungeon-keep and fortalice +Looking down a precipice +O'er the darkly glancing wave +By the Lurline-haunted cave; +Robber haunt and maiden bower, +Home of Love and Crime and Power,-- +That's the scenery, in fine, +Of the Legends of the Rhine. + +One bold baron, double-dyed +Bigamist and parricide, +And, as most the stories run, +Partner of the Evil One; +Injured innocence in white, +Fair but idiotic quite, +Wringing of her lily hands; +Valor fresh from Paynim lands, +Abbot ruddy, hermit pale, +Minstrel fraught with many a tale,-- +Are the actors that combine +In the Legends of the Rhine. + +Bell-mouthed flagons round a board; +Suits of armor, shield, and sword; +Kerchief with its bloody stain; +Ghosts of the untimely slain; +Thunder-clap and clanking chain; +Headsman's block and shining axe; +Thumbscrews, crucifixes, racks; +Midnight-tolling chapel bell, +Heard across the gloomy fell,-- +These, and other pleasant facts, +Are the properties that shine +In the Legends of the Rhine. + +Maledictions, whispered vows +Underneath the linden boughs; +Murder, bigamy, and theft; +Travellers of goods bereft; +Rapine, pillage, arson, spoil,-- +Every thing but honest toil, +Are the deeds that best define +Every Legend of the Rhine. + +That Virtue always meets reward, +But quicker when it wears a sword; +That Providence has special care +Of gallant knight and lady fair; +That villains, as a thing of course, +Are always haunted by remorse,-- +Is the moral, I opine, +Of the Legends of the Rhine. + + + + +Mrs. Judge Jenkins. + +[Being the Only Genuine Sequel to "Maud Muller."] + + + +Maud Muller, all that summer day, +Raked the meadow sweet with hay; + +Yet, looking down the distant lane, +She hoped the judge would come again. + +But when he came, with smile and bow, +Maud only blushed, and stammered, "Ha-ow?" + +And spoke of her "pa," and wondered whether +He'd give consent they should wed together. + +Old Muller burst in tears, and then +Begged that the judge would lend him "ten;" + +For trade was dull, and wages low, +And the "craps," this year, were somewhat slow. + +And ere the languid summer died, +Sweet Maud became the judge's bride. + +But, on the day that they were mated, +Maud's brother Bob was intoxicated; + +And Maud's relations, twelve in all, +Were very drunk at the judge's hall. + +And when the summer came again, +The young bride bore him babies twain. + +And the judge was blest, but thought it strange +That bearing children made such a change: + +For Maud grew broad and red and stout; +And the waist that his arm once clasped about + +Was more than he now could span. And he +Sighed as he pondered, ruefully, + +How that which in Maud was native grace +In Mrs. Jenkins was out of place; + +And thought of the twins, and wished that they +Looked less like the man who raked the hay + +On Muller's farm, and dreamed with pain +Of the day he wandered down the lane. + +And, looking down that dreary track, +He half regretted that he came back. + +For, had he waited, he might have wed +Some maiden fair and thoroughbred; + +For there be women fair as she, +Whose verbs and nouns do more agree. + +Alas for maiden! alas for judge! +And the sentimental,--that's one-half "fudge;" + +For Maud soon thought the judge a bore, +With all his learning and all his lore. + +And the judge would have bartered Maud's fair face +For more refinement and social grace. + +If, of all words of tongue and pen, +The saddest are, "It might have been," + +More sad are these we daily see: +"It is, but hadn't ought to be." + + + + +Avitor. + +An Aerial Retrospect. + + + +What was it filled my youthful dreams, +In place of Greek or Latin themes, +Or beauty's wild, bewildering beams? + Avitor? + +What visions and celestial scenes +I filled with aerial machines,-- +Montgolfier's and Mr. Green's! + Avitor. + +What fairy tales seemed things of course! +The rock that brought Sindbad across, +The Calendar's own winged-horse! + Avitor! + +How many things I took for facts,-- +Icarus and his conduct lax, +And how he sealed his fate with wax! + Avitor! + +The first balloons I sought to sail, +Soap-bubbles fair, but all too frail, +Or kites,--but thereby hangs a tail. + Avitor! + +What made me launch from attic tall +A kitten and a parasol, +And watch their bitter, frightful fall? + Avitor? + +What youthful dreams of high renown +Bade me inflate the parson's gown, +That went not up, nor yet came down? + Avitor? + +My first ascent, I may not tell: +Enough to know that in that well +My first high aspirations fell, + Avitor! + +My other failures let me pass: +The dire explosions; and, alas! +The friends I choked with noxious gas, + Avitor! + +For lo! I see perfected rise +The vision of my boyish eyes, +The messenger of upper skies, + Avitor! + + + + +A White-Pine Ballad. + + + +Recently with Samuel Johnson this occasion I improved, +Whereby certain gents of affluence I hear were greatly moved; +But not all of Johnson's folly, although multiplied by nine, +Could compare with Milton Perkins, late an owner in White Pine. + +Johnson's folly--to be candid--was a wild desire to treat +Every able male white citizen he met upon the street; +And there being several thousand--but this subject why pursue? +'Tis with Perkins, and not Johnson, that to-day we have to do. + +No: not wild promiscuous treating, not the winecup's ruby flow, +But the female of his species brought the noble Perkins low. +'Twas a wild poetic fervor, and excess of sentiment, +That left the noble Perkins in a week without a cent. + +"Milton Perkins," said the Siren, "not thy wealth do I admire, +But the intellect that flashes from those eyes of opal fire; +And methinks the name thou bearest surely cannot be misplaced, +And, embrace me, Mister Perkins!" Milton Perkins her embraced. + +But I grieve to state, that even then, as she was wiping dry +The tear of sensibility in Milton Perkins' eye, +She prigged his diamond bosom-pin, and that her wipe of lace +Did seem to have of chloroform a most suspicious trace. + +Enough that Milton Perkins later in the night was found +With his head in an ash-barrel, and his feet upon the ground; +And he murmured "Seraphina," and he kissed his hand, and smiled +On a party who went through him, like an unresisting child. + + +Moral. + +Now one word to Pogonippers, ere this subject I resign, +In this tale of Milton Perkins,--late an owner in White Pine,-- +You shall see that wealth and women are deceitful, just the same; +And the tear of sensibility has salted many a claim. + + + + +What the Wolf Really Said to Little Red Riding-Hood. + + + +Wondering maiden, so puzzled and fair, +Why dost thou murmur and ponder and stare? +"Why are my eyelids so open and wild?"-- +Only the better to see with, my child! +Only the better and clearer to view +Cheeks that are rosy, and eyes that are blue. + +Dost thou still wonder, and ask why these arms +Fill thy soft bosom with tender alarms, +Swaying so wickedly?--are they misplaced, +Clasping or shielding some delicate waist: +Hands whose coarse sinews may fill you with fear +Only the better protect you, my dear! + +Little Red Riding-Hood, when in the street, +Why do I press your small hand when we meet? +Why, when you timidly offered your cheek, +Why did I sigh, and why didn't I speak? +Why, well: you see--if the truth must appear-- +I'm not your grandmother, Riding-Hood, dear! + + + + +The Ritualist. + +By a Communicant of "St. James's." + + + +He wore, I think, a chasuble, the day when first we met; +A stole and snowy alb likewise: I recollect it yet. +He called me "daughter," as he raised his jewelled hand to bless; +And then, in thrilling undertones, he asked, "Would I confess?" + +O mother, dear! blame not your child, if then on bended knees +I dropped, and thought of Abelard, and also Eloise; +Or when, beside the altar high, he bowed before the pyx, +I envied that seraphic kiss he gave the crucifix. + +The cruel world may think it wrong, perhaps may deem me weak, +And, speaking of that sainted man, may call his conduct "cheek;" +And, like that wicked barrister whom Cousin Harry quotes, +May term his mixed chalice "grog," his vestments, "petticoats." + +But, whatsoe'er they do or say, I'll build a Christian's hope +On incense and on altar-lights, on chasuble and cope. +Let others prove, by precedent, the faith that they profess: +"His can't be wrong" that's symbolized by such becoming dress. + + + + +A Moral Vindicator. + + + +If Mr. Jones, Lycurgus B., +Had one peculiar quality, +'Twas his severe advocacy +Of conjugal fidelity. + +His views of heaven were very free; +His views of life were painfully +Ridiculous; but fervently +He dwelt on marriage sanctity. + +He frequently went on a spree; +But in his wildest revelry, +On this especial subject he +Betrayed no ambiguity. + +And though at times Lycurgus B. +Did lay his hands not lovingly +Upon his wife, the sanctity +Of wedlock was his guaranty. + +But Mrs. Jones declined to see +Affairs in the same light as he, +And quietly got a decree +Divorcing her from that L. B. + +And what did Jones, Lycurgus B., +With his known idiosyncrasy? +He smiled,--a bitter smile to see,-- +And drew the weapon of Bowie. + +He did what Sickles did to Key,-- +What Cole on Hiscock wrought, did he; +In fact, on persons twenty-three +He proved the marriage sanctity. + +The counsellor who took the fee, +The witnesses and referee, +The judge who granted the decree, +Died in that wholesale butchery. + +And then when Jones, Lycurgus B., +Had wiped the weapon of Bowie, +Twelve jurymen did instantly +Acquit and set Lycurgus free. + + + + +Songs Without Sense. + +For the Parlor and Piano. + + + +I.--The Personified Sentimental. + + +Affection's charm no longer gilds + The idol of the shrine; +But cold Oblivion seeks to fill + Regret's ambrosial wine. +Though Friendship's offering buried lies + 'Neath cold Aversion's snow, +Regard and Faith will ever bloom + Perpetually below. + +I see thee whirl in marble halls, + In Pleasure's giddy train; +Remorse is never on that brow, + Nor Sorrow's mark of pain. +Deceit has marked thee for her own; + Inconstancy the same; +And Ruin wildly sheds its gleam + Athwart thy path of shame. + + + +II.--The Homely Pathetic. + + +The dews are heavy on my brow; + My breath comes hard and low; +Yet, mother, dear, grant one request, + Before your boy must go. +Oh! lift me ere my spirit sinks, + And ere my senses fail: +Place me once more, O mother dear! + Astride the old fence-rail. + +The old fence-rail, the old fence-rail! + How oft these youthful legs, +With Alice' and Ben Bolt's, were hung + Across those wooden pegs. +'Twas there the nauseating smoke + Of my first pipe arose: +O mother, dear! these agonies + Are far less keen than those. + +I know where lies the hazel dell, + Where simple Nellie sleeps; +I know the cot of Nettie Moore, + And where the willow weeps. +I know the brookside and the mill: + But all their pathos fails +Beside the days when once I sat + Astride the old fence-rails. + + + +III.--Swiss Air. + + +I'm a gay tra, la, la, +With my fal, lal, la, la, +And my bright-- +And my light-- + Tra, la, le. [Repeat.] + +Then laugh, ha, ha, ha, +And ring, ting, ling, ling, +And sing fal, la, la, + La, la, le. [Repeat.] + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of East and West: Poems, by Bret Harte + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EAST AND WEST: POEMS *** + +***** This file should be named 8402.txt or 8402.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/4/0/8402/ + +Produced by Curtis A. Weyant and The Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions 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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