s: At the doorway she gave him her hand, with a smile;


s: "I have known you," she said, "such a brief little while,


s: Yet you seem like a friend of long standing; I say


s: Call and see you to-morrow?" the words seemed to fall


s: Of themselves from his lips; words he longed to recall


s: When once uttered, for deep in his conscience he knew


s: That the one word for him to speak now, was adieu.


s: The lady's soft, cushion-like hand rested still


s: In his own, and the contact was pleasant.  A thrill


s: From the finger tips quickened his pulses.


s: Call to-morrow at four." The soft hand slipped away


s: He said to himself, with a sense of relief,


s: As he ran down the steps, "for at five my train goes."


s: Yet the five o'clock train bore no Roger Montrose


s: From New York.  Mrs. Travers had asked him to dine.


s: A tete-a-tete dinner with beauty and wine,


s: To stir the man's senses and deaden his brain.


s: (The devil keeps always good chefs in his train.)


s: It was ten when he rose for departure.  The room


s: Seemed a garden of midsummer fragrance and bloom.


s: The lights with their soft rosy coverings made


s: A glow like late sunsets, in some tropic glade.


s: The world seemed afar, with its dullness and duty,


s: And life was a rapture of love and of beauty.


s: God knows how it happened; they never knew how.


s: He turned with a formal conventional bow,


s: And some well chosen words of politeness, to go.


s: Her mouth was a rose Love had dropped in the snow


s: Of her face.  It smiled up to him, luscious and sweet.


s: In the tip of each finger he felt his heart beat,


s: Like five hearts all in one, as her hand touched his own.


s: She murmured "good-night," in a tremulous tone.


s: White, intense, through the soft golden mist which the wine


s: Had cast over his vision, he saw her face shine.


s: Her low lidded eyes held a lion-like glow.


s: You have seen sudden storms lash the ocean?  You know


s: How the cyclone, unheralded, rises in wrath,


s: And leaves devastation and death in its path?


s: So swift, sudden passion may rise in its power,


s: And ruin and blight a whole life in an hour.


s: Two unanchored souls in its maelstrom were whirled,


s: Drawn down by love's undertow, lost to the world.


s: The dark, solemn billows of night shut them in.


s: They must seem to their true, better selves, when again


s: The tide drifts them back to the notice of men.


s: _Forget me, dear; forget and cease to love me,


s: I am not worth one memory, kind or true,


s: Let silent, pale Oblivion spread above me


s: Her winding sheet, for I am dead to you.


s: I am enslaved, who dreamed of being free.


s: Say for my soul, in life's dark purgatory,


s: One little prayer, then cease to think of me.


s: From out your heart; the wound will heal and harden.


s: Death does not dig so deep a grave as shame.


s: Farewell!  I shall never again seek your side;


s: I will stay with my sins and leave you with your pride.


s: Let the swift flame of scorn dry the tears of regret,


s: Shut me out of your life, lock the door and forget.


s: I shall pass from your skies as a vagabond star


s: Passes out of the great solar system afar


s: Into blackness and gloom; while the heavens smile on,


s: Scarce knowing the poor erring creature is gone.


s: Say a prayer for the soul sunk in sinning; I die


s: To you, and to all who have known me.  Good-bye.


s: I break through the silence of years, my old friend,


s: To beg for a favor; oh, grant it!  I send


s: Roger's letter in confidence to you, and ask,


s: In the name of our sweet early friendship, a task,


s: Which, however painful, I pray you perform.


s: Poor Roger! his bark is adrift in the storm.


s: He has veered from the course; with no compass of faith


s: To point to the harbor, he goes to his death.


s: You are giving your talents and time, I am told,


s: To aiding the poor; let this victim of gold


s: Be included.  His life has not learned self-control,


s: And luxury stunted the growth of his soul.


s: In blindness of spirit he took the wrong track,


s: But he sees his great error and longs to come back.


s: Oh, help me to reach him and save him, Maurice.


s: My heart yearns to show him the infinite peace


s: Found but in God's love.  Let us pity, forgive


s: And help him, dear friend, to seek Christ and to live


s: In the light of His mercy.  I know you will do


s: What I ask, you were ever so loyal and true.


s: Though bitter the task (why, your heart must well know),


s: Your wish shall be ever my pleasure.  I go


s: On the search for the prodigal.  Not for his sake,


s: But because you have asked me, I willingly make


s: This effort to find him.  Sometimes, I contend,


s: It is kinder to let a soul speed to the end


s: Of its swift downward course than to check it to-day,


s: But to see it to-morrow pursue the same way.


s: The man who could wantonly stray from your side


s: Into folly and sin has abandoned all pride.


s: There is little to hope from him.  Yet, since his name


s: Is the name you now bear, I will save him from shame,


s: God permitting.  To serve and obey you is still


s: Held an honor, Madame, by Maurice Somerville.


s: The search for your husband is finished.  Oh, pray


s: Tear all love and all hope from your heart ere I say


s: What I must say.  The man has insulted your trust;


s: He has dragged the most sacred of ties in the dust,


s: And ruined the fame of a woman who wore,


s: Until now, a good name.  He has gone.  Close the door


s: Of your heart in his face if he seeks to come back.


s: The sleuth hounds of justice were put on his track,


s: And his life since he left you lies bare to my gaze.


s: He sailed yesterday on the "Paris."  For days


s: Preceding the journey he lived as the guest


s: Of one Mrs. Zoe Travers, who comes from the West!


s: A widow, young, fair, well-connected.  I hear


s: He followed her back to New York from the Pier,


s: My letter sounds brutal and harsh.  Would to God


s: I might soften the facts in some measure; but no,


s: In matters like this the one thing is to know


s: The whole truth, and at once.  Though the pain be intense


s: It pulls less on the soul than the pangs of suspense.


s: Like a surgeon of fate, with my pen for a knife,


s: I cut out false hopes which endanger your life.


s: Let the law, like a nurse, cleanse the wound--there is shame


s: And disgrace for you now in the man's very name.


s: Though justice is blindfolded, yet she can hear


s: One needs but to give her this musical hint


s: To save you the sight of your sorrows in print.


s: Closed doors, private hearing; a sentence or two


s: In the journals; then dignified freedom for you.


s: When love, truth and loyalty vanish, the tie


s: As a friend to rely on--a serf to command.


s: Some women there are who would willingly barter


s: A queen's diadem for the crown of a martyr.


s: They want to be pitied, not envied.  To know


s: That the world feels compassion makes joy of their woe;


s: And the keenest delight in their misery lies,


s: If only their friends will look on with wet eyes.


s: In fact, 'tis the prevalent weakness, I find,


s: Of the sex.  As a mass, women seem disinclined


s: To be thought of as happy; they like you to feel


s: That their bright smiling faces are masks which conceal


s: A dead hope in their hearts.  The strange fancy clings


s: To the mind of the world that the rarest of things--


s: Contentment--is commonplace; and, that to shine


s: Or seem to be hiding an ache in the breast.


s: Yet the commonest thing in the world is unrest,


s: If you want to be really unique, go along


s: And act as if Fate had not done you a wrong,


s: And declare you have had your deserts in this life.


s: The part of the patient, neglected young wife


s: Contained its attractions for Mabel Montrose.


s: She was one of the women who live but to pose


s: In the eyes of their friends; and she so loved her art


s: That she really believed she was living the part.


s: The suffering martyr who makes no complaint


s: Was a role more important, by far, than the saint


s: Or reformer.  As first leading lady in grief,


s: Her pride in herself found a certain relief.


s: The ardent and love-selfish husband had not


s: Been so dear to her heart, or so close to her thought,


s: As this weak, reckless sinner, who woke in her soul


s: Its dominant wish--to reform and control.


s: (How often, alas, the reformers of earth,


s: If they studied their purpose, would find it had birth


s: In this thirst to control; in the poor human passion


s: The minds and the manners of others to fashion!


s: We sigh o'er the heathen, we weep o'er his woes,


s: While forcing him into our creeds and our clothes.


s: If he adds our diseases and vices as well,


s: Still, at least we have guided him into _our_ hell


s: And away from his own heathen hades.  The pleasure


s: Derived from that thought but reformers can measure.)


s: The thing Mabel Montrose loved best on this earth


s: Was a sinner, and Roger but doubled his worth


s: In her eyes when he wrote her that letter.  And still


s: When the last message came from Maurice Somerville


s: And the bald, ugly facts, unsuspected, unguessed,


s: Lay before her, the _woman_ awoke in her breast,


s: And the patient reformer gave way to the wife,


s: Who was torn with resentment and jealousy's strife.


s: Ah, jealousy! vain is the effort to prove


s: Your right in the world as the offspring of love;


s: For oftener far, you are spawned by a heart


s: Love knows you, indeed, for you serve in his train,


s: But crowned like a monarch you royally reign


s: Came to Mabel Montrose that her own life was not


s: Free from blame.  (How few women, indeed, think of this


s: When they grieve o'er the ruin of marital bliss!)


s: She was shocked and indignant.  Pain gave her a new


s: Role to play without study; she missed in her cue


s: And played badly at first, was resentful and cried


s: Against Fate for the blow it had dealt to her pride


s: (Though she called it her love), and declared her life blighted.


s: It is one thing, of course, for a wife to be slighted


s: For the average folly the world calls a sin,


s: Such as races, clubs, games; when a woman steps in


s: The matter assumes a new color, and Mabel,


s: Who dearly loved sinners, at first seemed unable


s: To pardon, or ask God to pardon, the crime


s: Of her husband; an angry disgust for a time


s: Drove all charity out of her heart.  For a thief,


s: For a forger, a murderer, even, her grief


s: Had been mingled with pity and pardon; the one


s: Thing she could not forgive was the thing he had done.


s: It was wicked, indecent, and so unrefined.


s: To the lure of the senses her nature was blind,


s: And her mantle of charity never had been


s: Wide enough to quite cover that one vulgar sin.


s: In the letter she sent to Maurice, though she said


s: Little more than her thanks for his kindness, he read


s: All her tense nervous feelings between its few lines.


s: Though we study our words, the keen reader divines


s: What we _thought_ while we penned them; thought odors reveal


s: What words not infrequently seek to conceal.


s: Maurice read the grief, the resentment, the shame


s: Which Mabel's heart held; to his own bosom came


s: Stealing back, masked demurely as friendly regard,


s: The hope of a lover--that hope long debarred.


s: His letters grew frequent; their tone, dignified,


s: Unselfish, and manly, appealed to her pride.


s: Sweet sympathy mingled with praise in each line


s: (As a gentle narcotic is stirred into wine),


s: Soothed pain, stimulated self love, and restored her


s: The pleasure of knowing the man still adored her.


s: Understand, Mabel Montrose was not a coquette,


s: She lacked all the arts of the temptress; and yet


s: She was young, she was feminine; love to her mind


s: Was extreme admiration; it pleased her to find


s: She was still, to Maurice, an ideal.  A woman


s: Must be quite unselfish, almost superhuman,


s: And full of strong sympathy, who, in her soul,


s: Feels no wrench when she knows she has lost all control


s: O'er the heart of a man who once loved her.


s: And went back to her world and its duties.  Her eyes,


s: Seemed to say when she looked at you, "please sympathize,


s: On the slight graceful form or the beautiful face.


s: Twas a sorrow of mind, not a sorrow of heart,


s: And the two play a wholly dissimilar part


s: Kept his place as good friend through sheer force of his will


s: But his heart was in tumult; he longed for the time


s: When, free once again from the legalized crime


s: Of her ties, she might listen to all he would say.


s: There was anguish, and doubt, and suspense in delay,


s: Yet Mabel spoke never of freedom.  At length


s: He wrote her, "My will has exhausted its strength.


s: Read the song I enclose; though my lips must be mute,


s: The muse may at least improvise to her lute."


s: She sang by the shores of a laughing sea,


s: And oh, but the world seemed fair to me,


s: And he prisoned the bird in a cage of gold,


s: And oh, but the world grew dark and cold,


s: And the caged bird pines for the air and the sea,


s: And I long for the right to set her free


s: The hunter has gone with a sneer at fate,


s: Ere the year of love grow sere and late.


s: To the song of your muse I have listened.  Oh, cease


s: To think of me but as a friend, dear Maurice.


s: Once a wife, a wife alway.  I vowed from my heart,


s: "For better, for worse, until death do us part."


s: No mention was made in the service that day


s: Of breaking my fetters if joy flew away.


s: "For better, for worse," a vow lightly spoken,


s: When Fate brings the "worse," how lightly 'tis broken!


s: The "worse," in my case, is the worst fate can give.


s: Tho' I shrank from the blow, I must bear it and live,


s: Not for self, but for duty; nor strive to evade


s: Fulfilling the promise I willingly made.


s: While Roger has sinned, and his sinning would be,


s: In the eyes of the law, proof to render me free,


s: It was God heard my vows and the Church sealed the bond.


s: Until one of us passes to death's dim beyond,


s: Though seas and though sins may divide us for life,


s: We are bound to each other as husband and wife.


s: In God's Court of Justice divorce is a word


s: Which falls without import or meaning when heard;


s: And the women who cast off old fetters that way,


s: To give place to the new, on the great Judgment Day


s: Must find, in the last summing up, that they stand


s: Side by side, in God's eyes, with the Magdalene band.


s: Dear Maurice, be my brother, my counselor, friend.


s: We are lonely without you and Ruth, at Bay Bend.


s: Come sometimes and brighten our lives; put away


s: The thoughts which are making you restless to-day


s: And give me your strong noble friendship; indeed


s: 'Tis a friend that I crave, not a lover I need.


s: You write like a woman, and one, it is plain,


s: Whose sentiment hangs like a cloud o'er her brain.


s: You gaze through a sort of traditional mist,


s: And behold a mirage of God's laws which exist


s: But in fancy.  God made but one law--it is love.


s: A law for the earth, and the kingdoms above,


s: The base and the spire of His intricate plan


s: Of existence.  All evils the world ever saw


s: Had birth in man's breaking away from this law.


s: God cancels a marriage when love flies away.


s: "Till death do us part" should be altered to say,


s: "Till disgust or indifference part us."  I know


s: You never loved Roger, my heart tells me so.


s: He won you, I claim, through a mesmeric spell;


s: You dreamed of an Eden, and wakened in hell.


s: You pitied his weakness, you struggled to save him,


s: He paid with a crime the devotion you gave him.


s: And the blackest of insults relentlessly hurled


s: At your poor patient heart in the gaze of the world.


s: In God's mighty ledger the stroke of a pen


s: Has been drawn through your record of marriage.  Though men


s: Call you wedded I hold you are widowed.  Why cling


s: To the poor, empty, meaningless form of a thing--


s: To the letter, devoid of all spirit?  God never


s: Herself from all possible joy, or to make


s: True faithfulness suffer for faithlessness' sake.


s: When I think of your wrongs, when I think of my woes,


s: That black word divorce like a bright planet glows


s: In the skies of the future.  Oh, Mabel, be fair


s: To yourself and to me.  For the years of despair


s: I have suffered you owe me some recompense, surely.


s: The heart that has worshipped so long and so purely


s: Ought not to be slighted for mere sentiment.


s: We must live as our century bids us.  Its bent


s: Is away from the worn ruts of thought.  Where of old


s: Of man's wishes and passions, to-day she is free;


s: Free to think and to act; free to do and to be


s: What she pleases.  The poor, pining victim of fate


s: And man's cruelty, long ago went out of date.


s: In the mansion of Life there were some things askew,


s: Which the strong hand of Progress has righted.  The new,


s: Better plan puts old notions of sex on the shelf.


s: Who is true to a knave, is untrue to herself.


s: Oh, be true to yourself, and have pity on one


s: Who has long dwelt in shadow and pines for the sun.


s: Love, starving on memories, begs for one taste


s: Of sweet hope, ere the remnant of youth goes to waste.


s: You write like a man who sees self as his goal.


s: You speak of your woes--yet my travail of soul


s: Seems mere sentiment to you.  Maurice, pause and think


s: Of the black, bitter potion life gave me to drink


s: When I dreamed of love's nectar.  Too fresh is the taste


s: Of its gall on my lip for my heart in such haste


s: To reach out for the cup that is proffered anew.


s: I am weary of love as men know it.  The calm


s: Of a sweet, tranquil friendship would act like a balm


s: On the wounds of my heart; that platonic regard,


s: Which we read of in books, or hear sung by the bard,


s: But so seldom can find when we want it.  I thought,


s: For a time, you had conquered mere self, and had brought


s: Such a friendship to comfort and rest me.  But no,


s: That dream, like full many another, must go.


s: The love that is based on attraction of sex


s: Is a love that has brought me but sorrow.  Why vex


s: My poor soul with the same thing again?  If you love


s: With a higher emotion, you know how to prove


s: And sustain the assertion by conduct.  Maurice,


s: Love must rise above passion, to infinite peace


s: And serenity, ere it is love, to my mind.


s: For the women of earth, in the ranks of mankind


s: There are too many lovers and not enough friends.


s: 'Tis the friend who protects, 'tis the lover who rends.


s: He who _can_ be a friend while he _would_ be a lover


s: Is the rarest and greatest of souls to discover.


s: Have I found, dear Maurice, such a treasure in you?


s: If not, I must say with this letter--adieu.


s: As he finished the letter there seemed but one phrase


s: To the heart of the reader.  It shone on his gaze


s: Bright with promise and hope.  "_Too fresh is the taste


s: Of its gall on my lip for my heart in such haste


s: To reach out for the cup that is offered anew._"


s: "_In such haste._"  Ah, how hope into certainty grew


s: As he read and re-read that one sentence.  "Let fate


s: Take the whole thing in charge, I can wait--I can wait.


s: I have lived through the night; though the dawn may be gray


s: And belated, it heralds the coming of day."


s: So he talked with himself, and grew happy at last.


s: The five hopeless years of his sorrow were cast


s: Like a nightmare behind him.  He walked once again


s: With a joy in his personal life, among men.


s: There seemed to be always a smile on his lip,


s: For he felt like a man on the deck of a ship


s: Who has sailed through strange seas with a mutinous crew,


s: And now in the distance sights land just in view.


s: The house at Bay Bend was re-opened.  Once more,


s: Where the waves of the Sound wash the New England shore,


s: Walked Maurice; and beside him, young hope, with the tip


s: Of his fair rosy fingers pressed hard on his lip,


s: Urging silence.  If Mabel Montrose saw the boy


s: With the pursed prudent mouth and the eyes full of joy


s: She said nothing.  Grave, dignified (Ah, but so fair!),


s: There was naught in her modest and womanly air


s: To feed or encourage such hope.  Yet love grew


s: Like an air plant, with only the night and the dew


s: To sustain it; while Mabel rejoiced in the friend,


s: Who, in spite of himself, had come back to Bay Bend,


s: Yielding all to her wishes.  Such people, alone,


s: Who gracefully gave up their plans for her own,


s: Were congenial to Mabel.  Though looking the sweet,


s: Fragile creature, with feminine virtues replete,


s: Her nature was stubborn.  Beneath that fair brow


s: Lurked an obstinate purpose to make others bow


s: To herself in small matters.  She fully believed


s: She was right, always right; and her friends were deceived,


s: As a rule, into thinking the same; for her eyes


s: Held a look of such innocent grief and surprise


s: When her will was opposed, that one felt her misused,


s: And retired from the field of dispute, self-accused.


s: The days, like glad children, went hurrying out


s: From the schoolhouse of time; months pursued the same route


s: More sedately; a year, then two years, passed away,


s: Yet hope, unimpaired, in the lover's heart lay,


s: As a gem in the bed of a river might lie,


s: Unharmed and unmoved while its waters ran by.


s: His toil for the poor still continued, but not


s: With that fervor of zeal which a dominant thought


s: Lends to labor.  Fair love gilded dreams filled his mind,


s: While the corners were left for his suffering kind.


s: He was sorry for sorrow; but love made him glad,


s: And nothing in life now seemed hopeless or sad.


s: His tete-a-tete visits with Mabel were rare;


s: She ordered her life with such prudence and care


s: Lest her white name be soiled by the gossips.  And yet,


s: Though his heart, like a steed checked too closely, would fret


s: Sometimes at these creed-imposed fetters, he felt


s: Keen delight in her nearness; in knowing she dwelt


s: Within view of his high turret window.  Each day


s: Which gave him a glimpse of her, love laid away


s: As a poem in life's precious folio.  Night


s: Held her face like a picture, dream-framed for his sight.


s: So he fed on the crumbs from love's table, the while


s: Fate sat looking on with a cynical smile.


s: And they scarce dare sigh that they love her,


s: When love is lost, the day sets toward the night.


s: Albeit the morning sun may still be bright,


s: And not one cloud ship sails across the sky.


s: Yet from the places where it used to lie,


s: Gone is the lustrous glory of the light.


s: No splendor rests on any mountain height,


s: No scene spreads fair, and beauteous, to the sight.


s: All, all seems dull and dreary to the eye,


s: Love lends to life its grandeur and its might,


s: Love goes, and leaves behind it gloom and blight.


s: Like ghosts of time the pallid hours drag by,


s: And grief's one happy thought is that we die.


s: Ah! what can recompense us for its flight,


s: Life is a ponderous lesson book, and Fate


s: The teacher.  When I came to love's fair leaf


s: My teacher turned the page and bade me wait.


s: "Learn first," she said, "love's grief";


s: And o'er and o'er through many a long to-morrow


s: She kept me conning that sad page of sorrow.


s: Cruel the task; and yet it was not vain.


s: Now the great book of life I know by heart.


s: In that one lesson of love's loss and pain


s: For, by the depths of woe, the mind can measure


s: The beauteous unsealed summits of love's pleasure.


s: Now, with the book of life upon her knee,


s: Fate sits! the unread page of love's delight


s: By her firm hand is half concealed from me,


s: Ah Fate! be kind! so well I learned love's sorrow,


s: Give me its full delight to learn to-morrow.


s: If I were a rain drop, and you were a leaf,


s: And lie on your breast in a rapture of rest,


s: If I were a brown bee, and you were a rose,


s: I would sip and sip from your nectared lip,


s: If I were a doe, dear, and you were a brook,


s: I would kneel by your bank, in the grasses dank,


s: For joys that passed from bud to blight,


s: For passions balked, with strain and fret


s: As the king bird feeds on the heart of the bee,


s: As the south wind kisses the leaf at will,


s: From the leaf of thy lips I would drink my fill.


s: As the sun pries into the heart of a rose,


s: I would pry in thy heart, and its thoughts disclose.


s: As the deep night shelters the day in its arms,


s: I would hide thee, dear, from the world's alarms.


s: Now do I know the deep red depths of hell.


s: Swift from those fair supernal heights I fell


s: Which rippled through the verdure of a dell.


s: She lay like Eve; dear God, I dare not tell


s: Of her perfections; of the glow and gleam


s: Of sudden thigh, and sweetly rounded breast.


s: Then, like a cloud, he came, from God knows where,


s: And on her eyes and mouth mad kisses pressed.


s: I fell, and fell, through leagues of scorching space,


s: Love is the source of all supreme delight,


s: Who follows Love shall stand upon the height,


s: Yet through the darkest depths, Love, too, leads there.


s: Courage needs he who would with bold Love fare,


s: Let him set forth with all his strength bedight;


s: Yet in his heart this song to banish care--


s: "Love is the source of all supreme delight."


s: And he must sing this song both day and night,


s: Though he be led down shadowy pathways where


s: Black waters moan, through valleys struck with blight,


s: "Love is the bitter fountain of despair."


s: Let him be brave, and bravely let him dare


s: Whate'er betide, and feel no coward fright.


s: Who shares the worst, the best deserves to share;


s: Who follows Love shall stand upon the height.


s: Ah! sweet is peace to those who faced the fight,


s: And bright the crown those faithful ones shall wear,


s: Who whispered, when the shadows veiled their sight,


s: "Yet through the darkest depths, Love, too, leads there."


s: To hearts that best know Love, his dark is fair,


s: His sorrow gladness, and his wrong is right.


s: All joys lie waiting on his winding stair;


s: All ways, ail paths of Love lead to the light.


s: While my poor heart with love is burning.


s: Three things my ladye seemeth like to me--


s: She seems like moonlight on a waveless sea.


s: And like the delicate fragrance, which exhales,


s: When Day's warm garments brush the dewy vales.


s: And when my heart grows weary of earth's sound,


s: She seems like silence--restful and profound.


s: The moon flower, grown from a slip so slender,


s: Has burst in a star bloom, full and white.


s: The air is filled with a perfume tender,


s: The breath that blows from that garden height.


s: Yet moments lag that should take their flight


s: On wings, like the wings of a homing dove,


s: And the world goes wrong where it should go right,


s: For this is a night that is lost to love.


s: Again, like a queen, who would rashly spend her


s: The proud moon seems, on her track of splendor,


s: Enriching the world with her silver light.


s: She flings on the crest of each billow a bright


s: But I sigh as I gaze on the glorious sight,


s: Oh, I would that the moon might never wend her


s: Till the haughty heart of my lady surrender


s: And the faithful love of a life requite.


s: For the moon was made for a lover's delight;


s: And grayer than gloom must its luster prove


s: To the soul that sighs under sorrow's blight,


s: For the saddest words that youth can write


s: Are, "This is a night that is lost to love."


s: Leave the rocks and the drift wood bare,


s: When your thoughts are for others than me,


s: And Joy, like a desolate mourner, gropes


s: With joy at the wheel, and the sun above


s: When bards were men to whom the world gave ear,


s: And song an art the great gods deemed sublime,


s: Who sought to make his willful lady hear


s: By weaving strange new melodies of rhyme,


s: Which voiced his love, his sorrow, and his fear.


s: Sweetheart, my soul is heavy now with fear,


s: Lest thou shalt frown upon me for all time.


s: Ah! would that I had skill to weave a rhyme


s: Tho' all the world were deaf, if thou didst hear


s: And smile, my song would seem to me sublime.


s: But ah! too vast, too awful and sublime,


s: Is my great passion, born of grief and fear,


s: To clothe in verse.  Why, if the world could hear


s: And understand my love, then for all time,


s: So long as there was sound or listening ear,


s: All space would ring and echo with my rhyme.


s: Such passion seems belittled by a rhyme--


s: It needs the voice of nature.  The sublime,


s: Loud thunder crash, that hurts the startled ear,


s: And stirs the heart with awe, akin to fear,


s: The weird, wild winds of equinoctial time;


s: These voices tell my love, wouldst thou but hear.


s: And listening at the flood tides, thou might'st hear


s: The love I bear thee surging through the rhyme


s: Of breaking billows, many a moon full time.


s: Why, I have heard thee call the sea sublime,


s: When every wave but voiced the anguished fear


s: Of my man's heart to thy unconscious ear.


s: Vain, then, the hope that thou wilt lend thine ear


s: My lays of longing or my strains of fear.


s: Vain is the hope to weave for thee a rhyme,


s: Which wins thy gracious favor for all time.


s: Though in her ear love sings a song sublime,


s: And my sad rhyme ends, like my love, in fear.


s: _Bright like the comforting blaze on the hearth,


s: Sweet like the blooms on the young apple tree,


s: Fragrant with promise of fruit yet to be


s: _Better and greater than talent is worth,


s: And where is the glory of brush or of pen


s: Like the glory of mothers and molders of men--


s: _Crowned since the great solar system had birth,


s: They reign unsurpassed in their beautiful sphere.


s: They are queens who can look in God's face without fear--


s: A man whose mere name was submerged in the sea


s: Of letters which followed it, B. A., M. D.,


s: And Minerva knows what else, held forth at Bellevue


s: In medical Science (though, mayhap, a truth


s: That was old in Confucius' earliest youth),


s: And a bevy of bright women students sat near,


s: Absorbing his wisdom with eye and with ear.


s: Close by, lay the corpse of a man, half in view.


s: Dear shades of our dead and gone grandmamas! you


s: Whose modesty hung out red flags on each cheek,


s: Danger signals--if some luckless boor chanced to speak


s: The words "leg" or "liver" before you, I think


s: Your gray ashes, even, would deepen to pink


s: Should your ghost happen into a clinic or college


s: Where your granddaughters congregate seeking for knowledge.


s: Forced to listen to what they are eager to hear,


s: No doubt you would fancy the world out of gear,


s: And deem modesty dead, with last century belles.


s: Honored ghosts, you, would err! for true modesty dwells


s: In the same breast with knowledge, and takes no offense.


s: Truth never harmed anything yet but pretense.


s: There are fashions in modesty; what in your time


s: Had been deemed little less than an absolute crime


s: In matters of dress, or behavior, to-day


s: Is the custom.  And however daring you may


s: Deem our manners and modes, yet, were facts fully known,


s: _Our morals compare very well with your own._


s: The women composing the class at Bellevue


s: Were young--under thirty; some pleasing to view,


s: Some plain.  Roman features prevailed, with brown hair,


s: But one was so feminine, soft eyed and fair


s: That she seemed out of place in a clinic, as though


s: A rose in a vegetable garden should grow.


s: While her face was intelligent, none would avow


s: That cold intellect dwelt on that fair oval brow,


s: Or looked out of the depths of those golden gray eyes,


s: The color of smoke against clear, sunny skies.


s: 'Twas a warm woman face, made for fireside nooks,


s: Not a face to be bent over medical books.


s: There was nothing aggressive in features or form;


s: She was meant for still harbors, and not for the storm


s: And the strife of rude waters.  The swell of her breast


s: Suggested love's sweet downy cushion of rest


s: For the cheeks of fair children.  Her plump little hands,


s: Seemed fashioned for sewing small gussets and bands


s: And fussing with laces and ribbons, instead


s: Of cutting cold flesh and dissecting the dead.


s: And yet, as a student she ranked with the first.


s: But conscience, in labor once chosen, not thirst


s: For such knowledge, had spurred her to action.  This day


s: She seemed inattentive, her air was distrait,


s: As if thought had slipped free of the bridle and rein


s: It was true; it was strange, too, but there in the class,


s: While the learned man was talking, her mind seemed to pass


s: Out, away from the clinic, away from the town,


s: To a New England midsummer garden close down


s: By the salt water's edge; and she felt the wind blowing


s: Among her loose locks as she leaned o'er her sewing,


s: While the voice of a man stirred her heart into song.


s: She was called from her dream by the clang of the gong


s: Which foretells an arrival at Bellevue.  The class


s: Was dismissed for the day.  In the hall, forced to pass


s: By the stretcher (low brougham of misery), she


s: Whom we know was Ruth Somerville, looked down to see


s: The white, haggard face of the man whom her mind


s: Had strayed off in a waking day vision to find


s: Which arose in her heart, was held back, nor passed by


s: The white sentinels set on her lip.  The serene,


s: Lofty look which deep feeling controlled gives the mien


s: Marked her air as she turned to the surgeon and said:


s: "This man lying here, either dying or dead,


s: Was a classmate, at Yale, of my brother's; my friend


s: Is his wife.  Let me stay by his side to the end,


s: Grown old with his sins and grown gaunt with his woes,


s: Opened slowly; a wondering look of surprise


s: Met the soft orbs above him.  "Ruth--Ruth Somerville,"


s: He said feebly.  "Tell Mabel"--then sighed, and was still.


s: But it was not the stillness of death.  There was life


s: In that turbulent heart yet; that heart torn with strife,


s: Scarred with passion, and wracked by the pangs of remorse.


s: "Death's swift leaden messenger missed in its course


s: By the breadth of a hair," said the surgeon.  "The ball


s: Lies in there by the shoulder.  His chances are small


s: For a new start on earth.  While a sober man might


s: Hope to conquer grim Death in this hand-to-hand fight,


s: Here old Alcohol stands as Death's second, fierce, cruel,


s: And stronger than Life's one aid, skill, in the duel.


s: You tell me the wife of this man is your friend?


s: He was shot by a woman, who then made an end


s: Of her own life.  I hope it was not----" "Oh, no--no,


s: Not his wife," Ruth replied, "for he left her to go


s: With this other, his victim--poor creature--they say


s: She was good till she met him.  Ah! what a black way


s: For love's rose scented path to lead down to, and end.


s: God pity her, pity her."  "Her, not your friend?


s: Of the staid old physician.  Ruth's eyes met his own


s: In brave, silent warfare; the blue and the gray


s: I pity the woman who suffered.  His wife


s: Goes her way well contented.  Love was in her life


s: But an incident; while to this other, dear God,


s: It was all; on what sharp, burning ploughshares she trod,


s: Down what chasms she leaped, how she tossed the whole world,


s: Like a dead rose, behind her, to lie and be whirled


s: In the maelstrom of love for one moment.  Ah, brief


s: Is the rapture such souls find, and long is their grief,


s: Black their sin, blurred their record, and scarlet their shame.


s: And yet when I think of them, sorrow, not blame,


s: Stirs my being.  Blind passion is only the weed


s: Of fair, beautiful love.  Both are sprung from one seed;


s: One grows wild, one is trained and directed.  Condemn


s: The hand that neglected--but ah! pity _them_.


s: You speak with much feeling.  But now, if the friends


s: Of this man are to see him before his life ends


s: I recommend action on your part.  His stay


s: On this planet, I fear, will be finished to-day.


s: Who gives her at best but the dregs of his life,


s: In the hey day of health, when he's drained his last cup


s: Has a fashion of wanting to settle things up.


s: Craves forgiveness, and hopes with a few final tears


s: To wash out the sins and the insults of years.


s: Having wasted life's feast, shall refuse her death's crumb.


s: There are souls to whom crumbs are sufficient, at least


s: They seem not to value love's opulent feast.


s: They neglect, they ignore, they abuse, or destroy


s: What to some poor starved life had been earth's rarest joy.


s: 'Tis a curious fact that love's banqueting table


s: Full often is spread for the guest the least able


s: To do the feast justice.  The gods take delight


s: In offering crusts to the starved appetite


s: And rich fruits, to the sated or sickly.


s: Of the surgeon were fixed on Ruth's face with a wise


s: Knowing look in their depths, and he said to himself,


s: "There's a mystery here which young Cupid, sly elf,


s: Could account for.  I judge by her voice and her face


s: That the wife of this man holds no very warm place


s: In Miss Somerville's heart, though she names her as friend.


s: Ah, full many a drama has come to an end


s: 'Neath the walls of Bellevue, and the curtain will fall


s: On one actor to-night; though the audience call,


s: He will make no response, once he passes from view,


s: For Death is the prompter who gives him the cue."


s: The wisest minds err.  When a clergyman tries


s: To tell a man where he will go when he dies,


s: Just the length of a life here, both usually err.


s: So it is not surprising that Roger, at dawn,


s: Sat propped up by pillows, still haggard and wan,


s: But seemingly stronger, and eager to tell


s: His story to Ruth ere the death shadows fell.


s: "If I go before Mabel can reach me," he sighed,


s: "Tell her this: that my heart was all hers when I died,


s: Was all hers while I lived.  Ah!  I see how you start,


s: But that other--God pity her--not with my heart,


s: But my sensual senses I loved her.  The fire


s: Of her glance blinded men to all things save desire.


s: It called to the beast chained within us.  Her lips


s: Held the nectar that makes a man mad when he sips.


s: Her touch was delirium.  In the fierce joys


s: Of her kisses there lurked the fell curse which destroys


s: All such rapture--satiety.  When passion dies,


s: And the mind finds no pleasure, the spirit no ties


s: To replace it, disgust digs its grave.  Ay! disgust


s: Is ever the sexton who buries dead lust.


s: When two people wander from virtue's straight track,


s: One always grows weary and longs to go back.


s: Well, I wearied.  God knows how I struggled to hide


s: The truth from the poor, erring soul at my side.


s: And God knows how I hated my life when I first


s: Found that passion's mad potion had palled on my thirst.


s: Once false to my virtues, now false to my sin,


s: I seemed less to myself than I ever had been.


s: We parted.  This bullet hole here in my breast


s: Proceeds with the story and tells you the rest.


s: She smiled, I remember, in saying adieu:


s: Then two swift, sharp reports--and I woke in Bellevue


s: No more with wild sorrow that sad bosom stirs.


s: She is dead, sir, the woman you led to her ruin.


s: The woman led me.  Ah! not all the undoing


s: In these matters lies at man's door.  In the mind


s: Of full many a so-called chaste woman we find


s: Unchaste longings.  The world heaps on man its abuse


s: When he woos without wedding; yet women seduce


s: And betray us; they lure us and lead us to shame;


s: As they share in the sin, let them share in the blame.


s: Is not changed by the death of two people!  Oh, Ruth,


s: Be just ere you judge me! the death of my child


s: Half unbalanced my reason; weak, wretched and wild


s: With drink and with sorrows, the devil's own chance


s: Flung me down by the side of a woman whose glance


s: Was an opiate, lulling the conscience.  I fell,


s: With the woman who tempted me, down to dark hell.


s: In the honey of sin hides the sting of the bee.


s: The honey soon sated--the sting stayed with me.


s: Like a damned soul I looked from my Hades, above


s: To the world I had left, and I craved the pure love


s: That but late had seemed cold, unresponsive.  Her eyes,


s: Mabel's eyes, shone in dreams from the far distant skies


s: Of the lost world of goodness and virtue.  Like one


s: Who is burning with thirst 'neath a hot desert sun,


s: I longed for her kiss, cool, reluctant, but pure.


s: Ah! man's love for good women alone can endure,


s: For virtue is God, the Eternal.  The rest


s: Is but chaos.  The worst must give way to the best.


s: Tell Mabel--Ruth, Ruth, she is here, oh thank God.


s: She stood, like a violet sprung from the sod,


s: By his bedside; pale, beautiful, dewy with tears.


s: The spectre of death bridged the chasm of years:


s: He sighed on her bosom.  "Forgive, oh forgive!"


s: She kissed his pale forehead and answered him: "Live,


s: Live, my husband! oh plead with the angels to stay


s: Until God, too, has pardoned your sins.  Let us pray."


s: Ruth slipped from the room all unnoticed.  She seemed


s: Like a sleeper who wakens and knows he has dreamed


s: And is dazed with reality.  On, as if led


s: By some presence unseen, to the inn of the dead


s: She passed swiftly; the pale silent guest whom she sought


s: Lay alone on her narrow and unadorned cot.


s: No hand had placed blossoms about her; no tear


s: Of love or of sorrow had hallowed that bier.


s: The desperate smile life had left on her face


s: Death retained; but he touched, too, her brow with a grace


s: And a radiance, subtle, mysterious.  Under


s: The half drooping lids lay a look of strange wonder,


s: As if on the sight of those sorrowing eyes


s: The unexplored country had dawned with surprise.


s: The pure, living woman leaned over the dead,


s: Lovely sinner, and kissed her.  "God rest you," she said.


s: "Poor suffering soul, you were forged in that Source


s: Where the lightnings are fashioned.  Love guided, your force


s: Would have been like a current of life giving joys,


s: And not like the death dealing bolt which destroys.


s: Oh, shame to the parents who dared give you birth,


s: To live and to love and to suffer on earth,


s: With the serious lessons of life unexplained,


s: And your passionate nature untaught and untrained.


s: You would not lie here in your youth and your beauty


s: If your mother had known what was motherhood's duty.


s: The age calls to woman, "Go, broaden your lives,"


s: While for lack of good mothers the Potter's Field thrives.


s: But you, poor unfortunate, you shall not lie


s: In that dust heap of death; while the summers roll by


s: You shall sleep where green hillsides are kissed by the wave,


s: And the soft hand of pity shall care for your grave.


s: _Ruth's Letter to Maurice, Six Months Later._


s: The springtime is here in our old home again,


s: Which again you have left.  Oh, most worthy of men,


s: Why grieve for unworthiness?  Why waste your life


s: For a woman who never was meant for a wife?


s: Mabel Lee has no love in her nature.  Your heart


s: Would have starved in her keeping.  She plays her new part,


s: As the faithful, forgiving, sweet spouse, with content.


s: Astray for a season.  She stands up still higher


s: On her pedestal, now, for Bay Bend to admire.


s: She is pleased with herself.  As for Roger, he trots


s: Like a lamb in her wake, with the blemishing spots


s: Of his sins washed away by the Church.  Oh I seem


s: To myself, in these days, like one waked from a dream


s: I saw a fair snowy sailed ship yesterday.


s: The masts shone like gold, and the furrowed waves laughed,


s: To be beat into foam by the beautiful craft.


s: But close in the harbor I saw the ship lying;


s: What seemed like the wings of a sea gull when flying,


s: Were weather stained sheets; there were no masts of gold,


s: And the craft was uncleanly, unseaworthy, old.


s: Well, the man whom I loved, and loved vainly, and whom


s: I fancied had shadowed my whole life with gloom,


s: Has been shown to my sight like that ship in the Bay,


s: And all my illusions have vanished away.


s: The man is by nature weak, selfish, unstable.


s: I think if some woman more loving than Mabel,


s: More tender, more tactful, less painfully good,


s: Had directed his home-life, perchance Roger would


s: Have evolved his best self, that pure atom of God,


s: Which lies deep in each heart like a seed in the sod.


s: 'Tis the world's over-virtuous women, ofttimes,


s: Who drive men of weak will into sexual crimes.


s: I pity him.  (God knows I pity, each, all


s: Of the poor striving souls who grope blindly and fall


s: By the wayside of life.)  But the love which unbidden


s: Crept into my heart, and was guarded and hidden


s: For years, that has vanished.  It passed like a breath,


s: In the gray Autumn morning when Roger faced death,


s: As he thought, and uncovered his heart to my sight.


s: Like a corpse, resurrected and brought to the light,


s: Which crumbles to ashes, the love of my youth


s: Crumbled off into nothingness.  Ah, it is truth;


s: Love can die!  You may hold it is not the true thing,


s: Not the genuine passion, which dies or takes wing;


s: But the soil of the heart, like the soil of the earth,


s: May, at varying times of the seasons, give birth


s: To bluebells, and roses, and bright goldenrod.


s: Each one is a gift from the garden of God,


s: Though it dies when its season is over.  Why cling


s: To the withered dead stalk of the blossoms of spring


s: Through a lifetime, Maurice?  It is stubbornness only,


s: Not constancy, which makes full many lives lonely.


s: They want their own way, and, like cross children, fling


s: Back the gifts which, in place of the lost flowers of spring,


s: Fate offers them.  Life holds in store for you yet


s: Better things, dear Maurice, than a dead violet,


s: As it holds better things than dead daisies for me.


s: To Roger Montrose, let us leave Mabel Lee,


s: With our blessing.  They seem to be happy; or she


s: Seems content with herself and her province; while he


s: Has the look of one who, overfed with emotion,


s: Tries a diet of spiritual health-food, devotion.


s: He is broken in strength, and his face has the hue


s: Of a man to whom passion has bidden adieu.


s: He has time now to worship his God and his wife.


s: She seems better pleased with the dregs of his life


s: What they will of their future.  Maurice, for my sake


s: And your own, put them out of your thoughts.  All too brief


s: And too broad is this life to be ruined by grief


s: Over one human atom.  Like mellowing rain,


s: Which enriches the soil of the soul and the brain,


s: Should the sorrow of youth be; and not like the breath


s: Of the cyclone, which carries destruction and death.


s: Come, Maurice, let philosophy lift you above


s: The gloom and despair of unfortunate love.


s: Sometimes, if we look a woe straight in the face,


s: It loses its terrors and seems commonplace;


s: While sorrow will follow and find if we roam.


s: Come, help me to turn the old house into home.


s: We have youth, health, and competence.  Why should we go


s: Out into God's world with long faces of woe?


s: Let us laugh at despair and contentment will come.


s: Let us teach earth's repiners to look through glad eyes,


s: For the world needs the happy far more than the wise.


s: I am one of the women whose talent and taste


s: Lie in home-making.  All else I do seems mere waste


s: Make a house seem a home without aid of a man.


s: He is sinew and bone, she is spirit and life.


s: Until the veiled future shall bring you a wife,


s: Me a mate (and both wait for us somewhere, dear brother),


s: Let us bury old corpses and live for each other.


s: You will write, and your great heart athrob through your pen


s: Shall strengthen earth's weak ones with courage again.


s: Where your epigrams fail, I will offer a pill,


s: And doctor their bodies with "new woman" skill.


s: (Once a wife, I will drop from my name the M. D.


s: I hold it the truth that no woman can be


s: An excellent wife and an excellent mother,


s: And leave enough purpose and time for another


s: Profession outside.  And our sex was not made


s: To jostle with men in the great marts of trade.


s: The wage-earning women, who talk of their sphere,


s: Have thrown the domestic machine out of gear.


s: They point to their fast swelling ranks overjoyed;


s: The banner of Feminine "Rights," when unfurled,


s: Means a flag of distress to the rest of the world.


s: And poor Cupid, depressed by such follies and crimes,


s: Sits weeping, alone, in the Land of Hard Times.


s: The world needs wise mothers, the world needs good wives,


s: The world needs good homes, and yet woman strives


s: To be everything else but domestic.  God's plan


s: Was for woman to rule the whole world, _through a man_.


s: There is nothing a woman of sweetness and tact


s: Can not do without personal effort or act.


s: She needs but infuse lover, husband or son


s: With her own subtle spirit, and lo! it is done.


s: Though the man is unconscious, full oft, of the cause,


s: And fancies himself the sole maker of laws.


s: Well, let him.  The cannon, no doubt, is the prouder


s: For not knowing its noise is produced by the powder.


s: Yet this is the law: _Who can love, can command_.)


s: But I wander too far from the subject in hand,


s: Which is, your home coming.  Make haste, dear; I find


s: More need every day of your counseling mind.


s: I work well in harness, but poorly alone.


s: Until that bright day when Fate brings us our own,


s: Let us labor together.  I see many ways,


s: Many tasks, for the use of our talents and days.


s: Your wisdom shall better the workingmen's lives,


s: While I will look after their daughters and wives,


s: And teach them to cook without waste; for, indeed,


s: It is knowledge like this which the poor people need,


s: Not the stuff taught in schools.  You shall help them to think,


s: While I show them what they can eat and can drink


s: With least cost, and most pleasure and benefit.  Please


s: Write me and say you will come, dear Maurice.


s: Home, sister, and duty are all waiting here;


s: Who keeps close to duty finds pleasure dwells near.


s: No, no.  I have gambled with destiny twice,


s: And have staked my whole hopes on a home; but the dice


s: Thrown by Fate made me loser.  Henceforward, I know


s: My lot must be homeless.  The gods will it so.


s: I fought, I rebelled; I was bitter.  I strove


s: To outwit the great Cosmic Forces, above,


s: Or beyond, or about us, who guide and control


s: The course of all things from the moat to the soul.


s: The river may envy the peace of the pond,


s: But law drives it out to the ocean beyond.


s: If it roars down abysses, or laughs through the land,


s: It follows the way which the Forces have planned.


s: So man is directed.  His only the choice


s: To help or to hinder--to weep or rejoice.


s: But vain is refusal--and vain discontent,


s: For at last he must walk in the way that was meant.


s: My way leads through shadow, alone to the end


s: I must work out my karma, and follow its trend.


s: I must fulfill the purpose, whatever it be,


s: And look not for peace till I merge in God's sea.


s: Though bankrupt in joy, still my life has its gain;


s: I have climbed the last round in the ladder of pain.


s: There is nothing to dread.  I have drained sorrow's cup


s: And can laugh as I fling it at Fate bottom up.


s: I have missed what I sought; yet I missed not the whole.


s: The best part of love is in loving.  My soul


s: Is enriched by its prodigal gifts.  Still, to give


s: And to ask no return, is my lot while I live.


s: Such love may be blindness, but where are love's eyes?


s: Such love may be folly, love seldom is wise.


s: Such love may be madness, was love ever sane?


s: Such love must be sorrow, for all love is pain.


s: Love goes where it must go, and in its own season.


s: Love cannot be banished by will or by reason.


s: Love gave back your freedom, it keeps me its slave.


s: I shall walk in its fetters, unloved, to my grave.


s: So be it.  What right has the ant, in the dust,


s: To cry that the world is all wrong, and unjust,


s: Because the swift foot of a messenger trod


s: Down the home, and the hopes, that were built in the sod?


s: What is man but an ant, in this universe scheme?


s: Though dear his ambition, and precious his dream,


s: God's messengers speed all unseen on their way,


s: And the plans of a lifetime go down in a day.


s: No matter.  The aim of the Infinite mind,


s: Which lies back of it all, must be great, must be kind.


s: Can the ant or the man, though ingenious and wise,


s: Swing the tides of the sea--set a star in the skies?


s: Can man fling a million of worlds into space,


s: To whirl on their orbits with system and grace?


s: Can he color a sunset, or create a seed,


s: Or fashion one leaf of the commonest weed?


s: Can man summon daylight, or bid the night fall?


s: Then how dare he question the Force which does all?


s: Where so much is flawless, where so much is grand,


s: All, all must be right, could our souls understand.


s: Ah, man, the poor egotist!  Think with what pride


s: He boasts his small knowledge of star and of tide.


s: But when fortune fails him, or when a hope dies,


s: The Maker of stars and of seas he denies!


s: I questioned, I doubted.  But that is all past;


s: I have learned the true secret of living at last.


s: It is, to accept what Fate sends, and to know


s: That the one thing God wishes of man--is to grow.


s: Growth, growth out of self, back to him--the First Cause:


s: Therein lies the purpose, the law of all laws.


s: Tears, grief, disappointment, well, what are all these


s: To the Builder of stars and the Maker of seas?


s: Does the star long to shine, when He tells it to set,


s: As the heart would remember when told to forget?


s: Does the sea moan for flood tide, when bid to be low,


s: As a soul cries for pleasure when given life's woe?


s: In the Antarctic regions a volcano glows,


s: While low at its base lie the up-reaching snows.


s: With patient persistence they steadily climb,


s: And the flame will be quenched in the passage of time.


s: My heart is the crater, my will is the snow,


s: Which yet may extinguish its volcanic glow.


s: When self is once conquered, the end comes to pain,


s: And that is the goal which I seek to attain.


s: I seek it in work, heaven planned, heaven sent;


s: In the kingdom of toil waits the crown of content.


s: Work, work! ah, how high and divine was its birth,


s: When God, the first laborer, fashioned the earth.


s: The world cries for workers; not toilers for pelf,


s: But souls who have sought to eliminate self.


s: Can the lame lead the race?  Can the blind guide the blind?


s: We must better ourselves ere we better our kind.


s: There are wrongs to be righted; and first of them all,


s: Is to lift up the leaners from Charity's thrall.


s: Sweet, wisdomless Charity, sowing the seed


s: Which it seeks to uproot, of dependence and need.


s: For vain is the effort to give man content


s: By clothing his body, by paying his rent.


s: The garment re-tatters, the rent day recurs;


s: Who seeks to serve God by such charity errs.


s: Give light to the spirit, give strength to the mind,


s: And the body soon cares for itself, you will find.


s: First, faith in God's wisdom, then purpose and will,


s: And, like mist before sunlight, shall vanish each ill.


s: To the far realm of Wisdom there lies a short way.


s: To find it we need but the password--Obey.


s: Obey like the acorn that falls to the sod,


s: To rise, through the heart of the oak tree, to God.


s: Though slow be the rising, and distant the goal,


s: Serenity waits at the end for each soul.


s: I seek it.  Not backward, but onward I go,


s: And since sorrow means growth, I will welcome my woe.


s: In the ladder of lives we are given to climb,


s: Each life counts for only a second of time.


s: The one thing to do in the brief little space,


s: Is to make the world glad that we ran in the race.


s: No soul should be sad whom the Maker deemed worth


s: The great gift of song as its dower at birth.


s: While I pass on my way, an invisible throng


s: Breathes low in my ear the new note of a song.


s: So I am not alone; for by night and by day


s: These mystical messengers people my way.


s: And to wait for the true inspiration to come.


s: The Beautiful Land of Nod.  (Poems, songs and stories.)


s: Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker G. Eddy


s: prohibiting slavery in the United States."_


s: Gigantic sire, unfallen still thy crest!


s: Primeval dweller where the wild winds rest,


s: What power sustains thee in thy rock-bound cell.


s: "Let there be light"--from chaos dark set free,


s: Proud from yon cloud-crowned height to look henceforth


s: Recalling oft the bitter draft which turns


s: Stern, passionless, no soul those looks betray;


s: Though kindred rocks, to sport at mortal clay--


s: Much as the chisel of the sculptor's art


s: "Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart."


s: Like a trained falcon in the Gallic van,


s: With all the strength of weakness--vanity!


s: Great as thou art, and paralleled by none,


s: Admired by all, still art thou drear and lone!


s: The moon looks down upon thine exiled height;


s: The stars, so cold, so glitteringly bright,


s: Yield to the sun's more genial, mighty ray;


s: The white waves kiss the murmuring rill--


s: When starlight blends with morning's hue,


s: When noonday's length'ning shadows flee,


s: O gentle presence, peace and joy and power;


s: O Life divine, that owns each waiting hour,


s: Thou Love that guards the nestling's faltering flight!


s: Keep Thou my child on upward wing tonight.


s: Can I behold the snare, the pit, the fall:


s: His arm encircles me, and mine, and all.


s: For hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain!


s: Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear


s: No ill,--since God is good, and loss is gain.


s: Seeking and finding, with the angels sing:


s: "Lo, I am with you alway,"--watch and pray.


s: No snare, no fowler, pestilence or pain;


s: No night drops down upon the troubled breast,


s: When heaven's aftersmile earth's tear-drops gain,


s: And mother finds her home and heav'nly rest.


s: Darts not from those who watch and love.


s: That greetings glorious from high heaven,


s: Which chastens pride and earth-born fear,


s: Through God, who gave that word of might


s: "Let there be light, and there was light."


s: I'm sitting alone where the shadows fall


s: Where tear-dews of night seek the loving rose,


s: Till vestal pearls that on leaflets lay,


s: I'm watching alone o'er the starlit glow,


s: And sketching in light the heaven of my youth--


s: Its starry hopes and its waves of truth.


s: I'm dreaming alone of its changeful sky--


s: Of a mother's love, that no words could speak


s: When parting the ringlets to kiss my cheek.


s: I'm thinking alone of a fair young bride,


s: How the glance of her husband's watchful eye


s: Upturned to his mother's in playful grace;


s: And the unsealed fountains of grief and joy


s: That gushed at the birth of that beautiful boy.


s: I'm weeping alone that the vision is fled,


s: The leaves all faded, the fruitage shed,


s: And wishing this earth more gifts from above,


s: Our reason made right and hearts all love.


s: Low, sad, and sweet, whose measures bind


s: By faith, and breathed in raptured song,


s: 'Gainst which the winds and waves can shock,


s: Ye soft sighing zephyrs through foliage and vine!


s: Ye echoing moans from the footsteps of time!


s: Break not on the silence, unless thou canst bear


s: A message from heaven--"No partings are there."


s: Here gloom hath enchantment in beauty's array,


s: And whispering voices are calling away--


s: Their wooings are soft as the vision more vain--


s: I would live in their empire, or die in their chain.


s: Here smileth the blossom and sunshine not dead--


s: Flowers fresh as the pang in the bosom that bled,--


s: Yes, constant as love that outliveth the grave,


s: And time cannot quench in oblivion's wave.


s: And thou, gentle cypress, in evergreen tears,


s: Art constant and hopeful though winter appears.


s: My heart hath thy verdure, it blossoms above;


s: Like thee, it endureth and liveth in love.


s: Ambition, come hither! These vaults will unfold


s: Then rush into life, and roll on with its tide,


s: And bustle and toil for its pomp and its pride.


s: The tired wings flitting through far crimson glow,


s: Which steepeth the trees when the day-god is low;


s: The voice of the night-bird must here send a thrill


s: To the heart of the leaves when the winds are all still.


s: 'Mid graves do I hear the glad voices that swell,


s: And call to my spirit with seraphs to dwell;


s: They come with a breath from the verdant springtime,


s: Blest beings departed! Ye echoes at dawn!


s: O tell of their radiant home and its morn!


s: Then I'll think of its glory, and rest till I see


s: My loved ones in glory still waiting for me.


s: I've watched in the azure the eagle's proud wing,


s: His soaring majestic, and feathersome fling--


s: Careening in liberty higher and higher--


s: Like genius unfolding a quenchless desire.


s: Would a tear dim his eye, or pinion lose power


s: To gaze on the lark in her emerald bower?


s: When higher he soareth to compass his rest,


s: What vision so bright as the dream in his breast!


s: God's eye is upon him. He penciled his path


s: Whose omniscient notice the frail fledgling hath.


s: Though lightnings be lurid and earthquakes may shock,


s: He rides on the whirlwind or rests on the rock.


s: My course, like the eagle's, oh, still be it high,


s: Celestial the breezes that waft o'er its sky!


s: When onward and upward and heavenward borne.


s: Oh, mountain monarch, at whose feet I stand,--


s: Clouds to adorn thy brow, skies clasp thy hand,--


s: With peaceful presence hath begirt thee round.


s: And thou, majestic oak, from yon high place


s: Guard'st thou the earth, asleep in night's embrace,--


s: Thy sheltering shade, her noonday glories crown?


s: Whate'er thy mission, mountain sentinel,


s: To my lone heart thou art a power and spell;


s: A lesson grave, of life, that teacheth me


s: Faithful and patient be my life as thine;


s: As strong to wrestle with the storms of time;


s: Her dazzling crown, her sceptered throne,


s: Love hath one race, one realm, one power.


s: To probe the wound, then pour the balm--


s: Right reigns, and blood was not its price.


s: Whose heart bore its grief and is still!


s: The track behind thee is with glory crowned;


s: The turf where thou hast trod is holy ground.


s: While Justice grasped the sword to hold her throne,


s: And on her altar our loved Lincoln's own


s: Thou point'st thy phantom finger, grim and cold,


s: To the dark record of our guilt unrolled,


s: The chain and charter I have lived to see


s: The pomp and tinsel of unrighteous power;


s: Ere thou grow tremulous with shadowy night!


s: Say, will the young year dawn with wisdom's light


s: And heal her wounds too tenderly to last?


s: Hearts bleeding ere they break in silence yet,


s: Wrong jubilant and right with bright eye wet,--


s: Thou hast borne burdens, and may take thy rest,


s: Pillow thy head on time's untired breast.


s: Blest Christmas morn, though murky clouds


s: Thy light was born where storm enshrouds


s: Gently thou beckonest from the giant hills


s: And wakening murmurs from the drowsy rills--


s: O gladsome dayspring! 'reft of mortal sigh


s: With thy still fathomless Christ-majesty.


s: E'en as Thou gildest gladdened joy, dear God,


s: Give risen power to prayer; fan Thou the flame


s: And stern, dark shadows cast on Thy blest name,


s: Lift Thou a patient love above earth's ire,


s: Piercing the clouds with its triumphal spire.


s: While sacred song and loudest breath of praise


s: Echo amid the hymning spheres of light,--


s: With heaven's lyres and angels' loving lays,--


s: Send to the loyal struggler for the right,


s: Joy--not of time, nor yet by nature sown,


s: But the celestial seed dropped from Love's throne.


s: Prolong the strain "Christ risen!" Sad sense, annoy


s: No more the peace of Soul's sweet solitude!


s: Deep loneness, tear-filled tones of distant joy,


s: Depart! Glad Easter glows with gratitude--


s: Love's verdure veils the leaflet's wondrous birth--


s: Rich rays, rare footprints on the dust of earth.


s: Not life, the vassal of the changeful hour,


s: Nor burdened bliss, but Truth and Love attest


s: The solemn splendor of immortal power,--


s: Poured on the sense which deems no suffering vain


s: That wipes away the sting of death--sin, pain.


s: To rise in the morning and drink in the view--


s: The blossoms whose fragrance and charms ever new


s: To gaze on the sunbeams enkindling the sky--


s: A light that illumines my spiritual eye,


s: To form resolutions, with strength from on high,


s: As reason with appetite, pleasures deny,


s: May comfort my soul all the wearisome day,


s: To daily remember my blessings and charge,


s: Increase Thou my faith and my vision enlarge,


s: And bless me with Christ's promised rest;


s: From vanity, folly, and all that is wrong--


s: To breathe forth a prayer that His love I may know,


s: 'Twill be sweet when I ponder the days may be few


s: Some dear remembrance in a weary breast.


s: Bird of the airy wing, and fold thy plumes?


s: Wouldst chant thy vespers 'mid rich glooms?


s: In deeper solitude, where nymph or saint


s: Thou canst in azure bright soar far above;


s: To make me love thee as I love life less!


s: Whose streams will never dry or cease to flow;


s: Hushed in the heart whereunto none reply,


s: Companionless! Bird, bear me through the sky!


s: To the editor of the _Item_, Lynn, Mass.


s: This blazoned, brilliant temperance hall


s: Come, rest in this bosom, my own stricken deer.--_Moore._


s: Was that fold for the lambkin soft virtue's repose,


s: Where the weary and earth-stricken lay down their woes,--


s: When the fountain and leaflet are frozen and sere,


s: And the mountains more friendless,--their home is not here?


s: When the herd had forsaken, and left them to stray


s: From the green sunny slopes of the woodland away;


s: Where the music of waters had fled to the sea,


s: And this life but one given to suffer and be?


s: Was it then thou didst call them to banish all pain,


s: And the harpstring, just breaking, reecho again


s: To a strain of enchantment that flowed as the wave,


s: Where they waited to welcome the murmur it gave?


s: Oh, there's never a shadow where sunshine is not,


s: And never the sunshine without a dark spot;


s: Yet there's one will be victor, for glory and fame,


s: Without heart to define them, were only a name!


s: _Who sent me the picture depictive of Isaiah xi._


s: Shield and guide and guard them; and, when


s: They would lay their pure hearts' off'ring,


s: Tis borne on the zephyr at eventide's hour;


s: It falls on the heart like the dew on the flower,--


s: An infinite essence from tropic to pole,


s: The promise, the home, and the heaven of Soul.


s: Hope happifies life, at the altar or bower,


s: And loosens the fetters of pride and of power;


s: It comes through our tears, as the soft summer rain,


s: To beautify, bless, and make joyful again.


s: The harp of the minstrel, the treasure of time;


s: A rainbow of rapture, o'erarching, divine;


s: The God-given mandate that speaks from above,--


s: No place for earth's idols, but hope thou, and love.


s: Say, are the sheaves and the gladness a dream,


s: Joy for thee, happy friend! thy bark is past


s: The dangerous sea, and safely moored at last--


s: Soft gales celestial, in sweet music bore--


s: "You've traveled long, and far from mortal joys,


s: To Soul's diviner sense, that spurns such toys,


s: "When hope soared high, and joy was eagle-plumed,


s: Thy pinions drooped; the flesh was weak, and doomed


s: But faith triumphant round thy death-couch shed


s: "Intensely grand and glorious life's sphere,--


s: Where mortal yearnings come not, sighs are stilled,


s: And home and peace and hearts are found and filled,


s: "Bearest thou no tidings from our loved on earth,


s: The toiler tireless for Truth's new birth


s: Our joy is gathered from her parting sigh:


s: This hour looks on her heart with pitying eye,--


s: "When, severed by death's dream, I woke to Life,


s: She deemed I died, and could not know the strife


s: That waking with a love that steady turns


s: "Years had passed o'er thy broken household band,


s: When angels beckoned me to this bright land,


s: She that has wept o'er thee, kissed my cold brow,


s: And parting prayer, I only know my wife,


s: Where farewells cloud not o'er our ransomed rest--


s: Hither to reap, with all the crowned and blest,


s: "When Love's rapt sense the heartstrings gently sweep


s: With joy divinely fair, the high and deep,


s: She shall mount upward unto purer skies;


s: We shall be waiting, in what glad surprise,


s: The lark's shrill song doth wake the dawn:


s: Ne'er perish young, like things of earth,


s: The languid brooklets yield their sighs,


s: The sword is sheathed, 'tis freedom's hour,


s: Where knowledge plants the foot of power


s: Forth from this fount the streamlets flow,


s: And wreaths are twined round Plymouth Rock,


s: Where echoes still my day-dreams thrill,


s: Wild spirit of song,--midst the zephyrs at play


s: In bowers of beauty,--I bend to thy lay,


s: And woo, while I worship in deep sylvan spot,


s: The Muses' soft echoes to kindle the grot.


s: Wake chords of my lyre, with musical kiss,


s: To vibrate and tremble with accents of bliss.


s: Here morning peers out, from her crimson repose,


s: On proud Prairie Queen and the modest Moss-rose;


s: And vesper reclines--when the dewdrop is shed


s: On the heart of the pink--in its odorous bed;


s: But Flora has stolen the rainbow and sky,


s: To sprinkle the flowers with exquisite dye.


s: Here fame-honored hickory rears his bold form,


s: And bares a brave breast to the lightning and storm,


s: While palm, bay, and laurel, in classical glee,


s: Chase tulip, magnolia, and fragrant fringe-tree;


s: And sturdy horse-chestnut for centuries hath given


s: Its feathery blossom and branches to heaven.


s: Here is life! Here is youth! Here the poet's world-wish,--


s: Cool waters at play with the gold-gleaming fish;


s: From light colored softly by blossom and leaves;


s: In lap of the pear-tree, with musical flow.


s: Dark sentinel hedgerow is guarding repose,


s: Midst grotto and songlet and streamlet that flows


s: Where beauty and perfume from buds burst away,


s: And ope their closed cells to the bright, laughing day;


s: Yet, dwellers in Eden, earth yields you her tear,--


s: Oft plucked for the banquet, but laid on the bier.


s: Earth's beauty and glory delude as the shrine


s: Or fount of real joy and of visions divine;


s: But hope, as the eaglet that spurneth the sod,


s: May soar above matter, to fasten on God,


s: And freely adore all His spirit hath made,


s: Where rapture and radiance and glory ne'er fade.


s: Oh, give me the spot where affection may dwell


s: In sacred communion with home's magic spell!


s: Where flowers of feeling are fragrant and fair,


s: And those we most love find a happiness rare;


s: But clouds are a presage,--they darken my lay:


s: This life is a shadow, and hastens away.


s: An alder growing from the bent branch of a pear-tree.


s: A meeting with loved ones in dreams I have had,


s: A phantom of joy, it fled with the light,


s: My soul is enchained to life's dreary night,


s: Ah, sleep, twin sister of death and of night!


s: My thoughts 'neath thy drap'ry still lie.


s: Alas! that from dreams so boundless and bright


s: Those moments most sweet are fleetest alway,


s: For love claspeth earth's raptures not long,


s: Till darkness and death like mist melt away,


s: O'er ocean or Alps, the stranger who roams


s: For life hath its music in low minor tones,


s: But drops of pure nectar our brimming cup fill,


s: Or when, like the thrill of that mountain rill,


s: And tell how that heart is silent and sad,


s: 'Tis breaking alone, but a young heart and glad--


s: Might cheer it, perchance, when she sings.


s: Ah, why should the brief bliss of life's little day


s: Grow cold in this spot as the spiritless clay,


s: And thought be at work with the long-buried hours,


s: And tears be bedewing these fresh-smiling flowers!


s: Ah, wherefore the memory of dear ones deemed dead


s: Should bow thee, as winds bow the tall willow's head!


s: Beside you they walk while you weep, and but pass


s: From your sight as the shade o'er the dark wavy grass.


s: The cypress may mourn with her evergreen tears,


s: And, like the blue hyacinth, change not with years;


s: Yea, flowers of feeling may blossom above,


s: To yield earth the fragrance of goodness and love;


s: So one heart is left me--she breathes in my ear,


s: "I'm living to bless thee; for this are we here."


s: And when this sweet pledge to my lone heart was given,


s: Earth held but this joy, or this happiness heaven!


s: Here the rock and the sea and the tall waving pine


s: Enchant deep the senses,--subduing, sublime;


s: Yet stronger than these is the spell that hath power


s: To sweep o'er the heartstrings in memory's hour.


s: Of the past 'tis the talisman, when _we three met_,


s: When the star of our friendship arose not to set;


s: And pure as its rising, and bright as the star,


s: Be its course through our heavens, whether near or afar.


s: _Mother's New Year Gift to the Little Children_


s: In Truth, the Life, the Principle of man.


s: A painless heraldry of Soul, not sense,--


s: And sickness, sin, and death are banished hence.


s: Laughed right to scorn, and guilt, grown bold,


s: 'Tis freedom's birthday--blood-bought boon!


s: Respectfully inscribed to my friends in Lynn.


s: When the hoarse wave revisits thy shore!


s: Witness my presence and utter my speech.


s: E'er to mock the bright truth of the soul.


s: Soft as when parting thy sympathy glowed!


s: Saw ye my Saviour? Heard ye the glad sound?


s: Mourner, it calls you,--"Come to my bosom,


s: Sinner, it calls you,--"Come to this fountain,


s: Strongest deliverer, friend of the friendless,


s: Thou the water, the bread, and the wine.


s: The laying of the corner-stone of The Mother Church.


s: God of the rolling year! to Thee we raise


s: A nation's holiest hymn in grateful praise!


s: Yet wherefore this Thy love? Thou knowest best!


s: Thou who, impartial, blessings spreadst abroad,


s: Thou wisdom, Love, and Truth,--divinely God!


s: Who giveth joy and tears, conflict and rest,


s: Teaching us thus of Thee, who knowest best!


s: Ruler Supreme! to Thee we'll meekly bow,


s: When we have learned of Truth what Thou doest now--


s: Why from this festive hour some dear lost guest


s: Bears hence its sunlit glow--Thou knowest best!


s: How have our honored dead fought on in gloom!


s: Peace her white wings will spread over their tomb;


s: Why waited their reward, triumph and rest,


s: Till molds the hero form? Thou knowest best!


s: Shades of our heroes! the Union now is one,


s: Tears of the bleeding slave poured on her breast,


s: When to be wiped away, Thou knowest best!


s: Thou who in the Christ hallowed its grief,--


s: O meekest of mourners, while yet the chief,--


s: Give to the pleading hearts comfort and rest,


s: For storm or shine, pure peace is thine,


s: And of these stones, or tyrants' thrones,


s: False fears are foes--truth tatters those,


s: The centuries break, the earth-bound wake,


s: Who took delight, when none where near  [_spelling unchanged_]


s: Proud Signild’s bold brothers have taken her hand,


s: They’ve wedded her into a far distant land.


s: They’ve wedded her far from her own native land,


s: To her father’s foul murderer gave they her hand.


s: And so for eight winters the matter it stood,


s: Their face for eight winters she never once view’d.


s: Proud Signild she brews, and the ruddy wine blends;


s: To her brothers so courteous a bidding she sends.


s: Sir Loumor then laughed to his heart’s very core—


s: Not once had he laughed for eight winters before.


s: To the top of the castle proud Signild she goes,


s: And thence she so many a wistful look throws.


s: And now she perceives down the green hillock’s side


s: Her seven bold brothers so furiously ride.


s: Proud Signild she stands on the castle’s high peak,


s: She hears in the courtyard her seven brothers speak.


s: Proud Signild she hastes her array to put on,


s: And unto the hall to Sir Loumor she’s gone.


s: “Now hear thou, Sir Loumor, thou lord, great and fine,


s: “Wilt welcome these seven bold brothers of mine?”


s: “I’ll welcome these seven bold brothers of thine,


s: Proud Signild, as if they were brothers of mine.”


s: Sir Loumor again a wild laughter outsent,


s: And the hard marble wall by that laughter was rent.


s: Then outspake the child in the cradle that lay,


s: No word had the child ever spoke till that day:


s: “It shows that no good is about to take place,


s: When my father he laughs in my dear mother’s face.”


s: With his foot he the cradle has spurned with such force


s: That out rolled the baby, a blood-besprent corse.


s: So matters passed on ’till of evening the fall,


s: To the evening repast the relations went all.


s: Sir Loumor her lord she placed at the board’s head,


s: To the stools at the bottom her brothers she led.


s: To Sir Loumor she handed the stout ruddy wine,


s: To her brothers she only sweet milk will assign.


s: Sir Loumor pretended to drink deep and fast,


s: But in secret the wine down beneath him he cast.


s: Proud Signild now to the bed chamber wends,


s: And the bed she prepares for her dear-beloved friends.


s: The bed she outspreads on the hard rugged stone,


s: And that to prevent them from sleeping was done.


s: And under their sides she placed slily their knives,


s: Which well they might trust in defence of their lives.


s: She also has placed underneath their bed heads


s: Their actons of steel, and their keen naked blades.


s: ’Twas late, late at night, and the lights were burnt low,


s: And away to their couches it lists them to go.


s: No sooner proud Signild had sunk to repose,


s: Than from her white side dread Sir Loumor arose.


s: To the hall, the dark hall, took Sir Loumor his way,


s: Proud Signild’s seven brothers intending to slay.


s: To the side of the bed upon tip toe he drew,


s: And the seven bold brothers he traitorously slew.


s: In his fell hand uptakes he both faulchion and knife,


s: And each of the sleepers deprived he of life.


s: In a bowl he collects of the murdered the gore,


s: And that he brings in the proud Signild before.


s: In, in at the door-way Sir Loumor he sped,


s: From Signild’s cheek faded the beautiful red.


s: “Sir Loumor, my lord, thy looks fill me with fright,


s: Say where hast thou been in the midst of the night?”


s: “I’ve been to the hall, if the truth I must tell,


s: I heard my two hunting hawks screech there, and yell.”


s: “O why of thy hawks art thou talking, my lord?


s: May God in his mercy my dears brothers guard.”


s: Sir Loumor produced of her brothers the gore,


s: And that by her foot he has placed on the floor.


s: “Now drink thou, proud Signild, my much beloved Dame,


s: This blood from the veins of thy brothers that came.”


s: “With a terrible thirst I must needs be distrest,


s: “But to bed and to sleep, my dear lord, now repair,


s: Full little, be sure for my brothers I care.


s: “I care not although all my kindred are slain,


s: Since thee, my heart’s dearest, alive I retain.”


s: So things in this fashion for eight winters stood,


s: And Sir Loumor his brothers and sisters ne’er view’d.


s: Sir Loumor he brews, and the ruddy wine blends,


s: To his brothers and sisters a bidding he sends.


s: Then laughed the proud Signild, that dame fair of face,


s: And the first time it was for full eight winters space.


s: Sir Loumor’s relations she placed at the board,


s: And she handed them mead with so many a fair word.


s: Of the wine, the clear wine, drank Sir Loumor so free,


s: For his life not the slightest precaution took he.


s: On the soft down she spread their beds high from the ground,


s: She wished to procure for them slumbers so sound.


s: She spread out their beds on the bolsters of blue,


s: Thereon with her fingers the sleep runes she drew.


s: No sooner Sir Loumor had sunk to repose,


s: Than from his embrace the proud Signild arose.


s: From out of a corner she took a keen sword,


s: She’ll awake with its point the dear kin of her lord.


s: To the sleeping apartment proud Signild then sped,


s: And straightway his five belov’d brothers slew dead.


s: Though her heart it was sad, and the tears in her eyes,


s: His three belov’d sisters she slew in like guise.


s: Then swift in a bowl she collects the red gore,


s: And that she brought in good Sir Loumor before.


s: She took off the chaplet her brow from around,


s: And firmly the hands of Sir Loumor she bound.


s: “Now wake thou, Sir Loumor, and speak to thy wife,


s: I’ll not, whilst thou sleepest, deprive thee of life.


s: “Now drink, O Sir Loumor, the kind and the good,


s: Drink, drink thy dear brothers’ and sisters’ heart’s blood.”


s: “O sore would the thirst be, O Signild, full sore,


s: That ever could tempt me to drink of that gore.


s: “Thyself to thy bed, my sweet Signild, betake,


s: For the death of my kindred my heart will not break.”


s: Sir Loumor sought after his trusty brown brand,


s: And found to his fear he was bound foot and hand.


s: “O Signild, proud Signild, I pray thee now spare,


s: And aye to be kind to thee, Signild, I swear.”


s: “Methinks that thou didst little kindness display,


s: The time thou my father didst murderously slay!


s: “Thou slewest my father with treacherous glaive,


s: And then my dear brothers, so beauteous and brave.


s: “Then hope not for mercy, on vengeance I’m bent,


s: Because all I cherished from me thou hast rent.”


s: Then she drew forth the knife from her sleeve bloody red,


s: And Sir Loumor she stabbed till the life from him fled.


s: Then out from its cradle the little child spake:


s: “That deed, if I live, I will some day ywrake.”


s: “I know that thou art of the very same blood,


s: And I never expect thou to me wilt be good.”


s: The child by the small of the leg she has ta’en,


s: And against the bed side she has beat out its brain.


s: “Now I, the proud Signild, have slain man for man,


s: And I’ll hie me away to my land and my clan.”


s: The Knight takes hawk, and the man takes hound,


s: And away to the good green-wood they rambled;


s: There beasts both great and small they found,


s: And there throughout the night they lie,


s: And no one sought their rest to trouble;


s: And early cocks commenced their crowing,


s: The Damsel pats on his breast the knight:


s: So full of courage, strength, and fury.”


s: Each full of courage, strength, and beauty,


s: “And if me they’ll have as a brother dear,


s: Their brother straight to be I’m willing;


s: That thou wilt not go lightly nigh them,


s: Far distant off thou may’st descry them.”


s: Or ten times seven, the straight road fled,


s: Seven knights he meets in burnished arms


s: Pray tell us what thou hast been doing!”


s: Thy silvan spoil, we pray thee show it.”


s: “No knight will part with his prey so light


s: For which in wood he’s toiled and panted;


s: With a maiden bright you slept last night,


s: Her brothers’ leave nor sought nor granted.”


s: It pleased me, Sirs, beyond all measure;


s: But thou shalt die, thou knight enamour’d;


s: So make thy shrift ’neath the linden straight,


s: The little birds shall hear it stammer’d.


s: When the tidings reached the maiden’s ear


s: She shed I ween for the bold knight twenty.


s: Knights Peter and Olaf they sat o’er the board,


s: Betwixt them in jesting passed many a word.


s: “Now hear thou, Sir Olaf my comrade, do tell


s: Why thou hast ne’er wedded some fair demoiselle?”


s: “What need with a housewife myself to distress,


s: So long as my little gold horn I possess?


s: “So long as my little gold horn I possess,


s: “The Damsel is not in the world to be found,


s: But what I can lure with that little horn’s sound.”


s: “I know a proud damsel that dwells by the rill,


s: On her thou couldst never accomplish thy will.


s: “I’ll gage my war courser, the steady and tried,


s: Thou never canst lure the fair Mettie, my bride.”


s: “Against him I’ll gage my grey courser of power,


s: That she shall this evening repair to my bower.


s: “My courser so proud, and my neck bone so white


s: I’ll gage that I lure the fair Mettie this night.”


s: ’Twas late in the evening, mist fell from the skies,


s: Sir Olaf he plays in his very best guise.


s: Sir Olaf he plays on his gold harp a strain,


s: That heard the proud Mettie far over the plain.


s: Sir Olaf a tune on his golden horn blew,


s: To the house of fair Mettie the thrilling sounds flew.


s: Long stood the fair Mettie and listened thereto:


s: “Now shall I or not to that horn-player go?”


s: Long stood damsel Mettie in doubt and in care:


s: “No one of my maidens take with me I dare.”


s: The maid and the little brown messan her friend,


s: Through the paths of the forest so lonely they wend.


s: Her mantle of blue the fair Mettie puts on,


s: And unto the bower of Sir Olaf she’s gone.


s: On the door of the chamber she gave a low knock:


s: “Sir Olaf, I pray thee, arise and unlock.”


s: “O none have I summoned to me at this hour,


s: At what I have heard I’m so sorely distrest.”


s: “At what thou hast heard, be thou glad or distrest,


s: “But soon should the door to thee open I wot,


s: Provided Sir Peter thy sweetheart were not.


s: “Although in my heart I may love thee full dear,


s: Sir Peter for me to admit thee’s too near.”


s: The night-dew falls chilly my scarlet dress o’er.”


s: “Though chill fall the night-dew thy scarlet dress o’er,


s: I dare not, O Mettie, fling open my door.”


s: “Since into thy bower thou lett’st me not come,


s: O let thy swains guide me, dear heart, to my home.”


s: “The night it is bright, and the moon sheds her ray,


s: Fair maid, thou wilt find without trouble thy way.


s: “The moon’s in the sky, and shines clear o’er the mead,


s: So back by thyself to thy chamber proceed.”


s: The maid, and the little brown messan her friend,


s: They home through the forest so lonely must wend.


s: And when to the gate of the castle she came,


s: Sir Peter was leaning against it his frame.


s: “Thrice welcome, thrice welcome, thou proud Mettelil,


s: Say where hast thou been in the night season still?”


s: “I walked out, my lord, by no mortal eye seen,


s: And I gathered the herbs both the blue and the green.


s: “The herbs I collected with diligent hand,


s: Which just at this season in fullest bloom stand.


s: “I stood in the meadows throughout the long night,


s: And harked to the nightingale’s song with delight.”


s: “No! not to the song from the nightingale’s throat,


s: But unto Sir Olaf his gilded horn’s note.


s: “This night’s walk, and others of similar sort,


s: Will make thee the subject of common report.


s: “The walk of this night, and perhaps many more,


s: By the Saints, my fair Mettie, this walking give o’er.


s: “Now hear thou proud Mettie, to bed hie away,


s: And ’neath the white linen thy fair body lay.


s: “Depart to thy bed, that I rede thee to do,


s: Would’st have me remain to thee tender and true.


s: “I’ve lost now my courser, the steady and tried,


s: Because thou hast proved thee a false, fickle bride.”


s: And what became of her no man ever knew,


s: Nor whither her ashes before the wind flew.


s: But as soon as her bower in ruddy flame blazed


s: In the breast of Sir Peter such anguish was raised.


s: Sir Peter he grieved to his very death day,


s: Sir Olaf ne’er ventured to cross his friend’s way.


s: I counsel each swain, in affectionate part,


s: To tempt not too hardly the maid of his heart.


s: Printed for THOMAS J. WISE, Hampstead, N.W.


s: Taken from The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon Charles


s: Sonnet (with a Copy of _Mademoiselle de Maupin_)


s: Translations from the French of Villon:--


s: Epistle in form of a Ballad to his Friends


s: eipate tô basilêi, chamai pese daidalos aula;


s: ouketi Phoibos echei kaluban, ou mantida daphnên,


s: ou pagan laleousan; apesbeto kai lalon hudôr.]


s: Years have risen and fallen in darkness or in twilight,


s: Ages waxed and waned that knew not thee nor thine,


s: While the world sought light by night and sought not thy light,


s: Since the sad last pilgrim left thy dark mid shrine.


s: Save for words more sad than tears of blood, that said:


s: _Tell the king, on earth has fallen the glorious dwelling,_


s: _And the watersprings that spake are quenched and dead._


s: _Not a cell is left the God, no roof, no cover_


s: _In his hand the prophet laurel flowers no more._


s: And the great king's high sad heart, thy true last lover,


s: Felt thine answer pierce and cleave it to the core.


s: And dying, _Thou hast conquered_, he said,


s: And the world that was thine and was ours


s: When the Graces took hands with the Hours


s: Age on age thy mouth was mute, thy face was hidden,


s: Song forsook their tongues that held thy name forbidden,


s: Light their eyes that saw the strange God's kingdom come.


s: Fire for light and hell for heaven and psalms for pæans


s: Filled the clearest eyes and lips most sweet of song,


s: When for chant of Greeks the wail of Galileans


s: Made the whole world moan with hymns of wrath and wrong.


s: Yea, not yet we see thee, father, as they saw thee,


s: They that worshipped when the world was theirs and thine,


s: They whose words had power by thine own power to draw thee


s: Down from heaven till earth seemed more than heaven divine.


s: Though the word on its lips be the last,


s: Yet it may be, lord and father, could we know it,


s: We that love thee for our darkness shall have light


s: More than ever prophet hailed of old or poet


s: Standing crowned and robed and sovereign in thy sight.


s: To the likeness of one God their dreams enthralled thee,


s: Who wast greater than all Gods that waned and grew;


s: Son of God the shining son of Time they called thee,


s: Who wast older, O our father, than they knew.


s: For no thought of man made Gods to love or honour


s: Ere the song within the silent soul began,


s: Nor might earth in dream or deed take heaven upon her


s: Till the word was clothed with speech by lips of man.


s: Be their flight with the swan or the swallow,


s: Thou the word, the light, the life, the breath, the glory,


s: Strong to help and heal, to lighten and to slay,


s: Thine is all the song of man, the world's whole story;


s: Not of morning and of evening is thy day.


s: Old and younger Gods are buried or begotten


s: From uprising to downsetting of thy sun,


s: Risen from eastward, fallen to westward and forgotten,


s: And their springs are many, but their end is one.


s: Divers births of godheads find one death appointed,


s: As the soul whence each was born makes room for each;


s: God by God goes out, discrowned and disanointed,


s: But the soul stands fast that gave them shape and speech.


s: Are they soundless and sightless and hollow,


s: Without eye, without speech, without ear?


s: Time arose and smote thee silent at his warning,


s: Change and darkness fell on men that fell from thee;


s: Dark thou satest, veiled with light, behind the morning,


s: Till the soul of man should lift up eyes and see.


s: Till the blind mute soul get speech again and eyesight,


s: Man may worship not the light of life within;


s: In his sight the stars whose fires grow dark in thy sight


s: Shine as sunbeams on the night of death and sin.


s: Time again is risen with mightier word of warning,


s: Change hath blown again a blast of louder breath;


s: Clothed with clouds and stars and dreams that melt in morning,


s: Lo, the Gods that ruled by grace of sin and death!


s: They are conquered, they break, they are stricken,


s: They are dust that shall rise not or quicken


s: Though the world for their death's sake wail.


s: They are scattered, they fly, they are fled;


s: They are fled beyond hail, beyond hollo,


s: And the cry of the chase, and the cheer.


s: Day by day thy shadow shines in heaven beholden,


s: Even the sun, the shining shadow of thy face:


s: King, the ways of heaven before thy feet grow golden;


s: God, the soul of earth is kindled with thy grace.


s: In thy lips the speech of man whence Gods were fashioned,


s: In thy soul the thought that makes them and unmakes;


s: By thy light and heat incarnate and impassioned,


s: Soul to soul of man gives light for light and takes.


s: As they knew thy name of old time could we know it,


s: Healer called of sickness, slayer invoked of wrong,


s: Light of eyes that saw thy light, God, king, priest, poet,


s: Song should bring thee back to heal us with thy song.


s: Nor thy power from the place thereof hurled;


s: Out of heaven they shall cast not the day,


s: They shall cast not out song from the world.


s: With the gift thou hast given us of speech


s: Take heart in heaven from eastward, while the west,


s: Is as a port with clouds for harbour bar


s: To fold the fleet in of the winds from far


s: That stir no plume now of the bland sea's breast:


s: Above the soft sweep of the breathless bay


s: Southwestward, far past flight of night and day,


s: Lower than the sunken sunset sinks, and higher


s: Than dawn can freak the front of heaven with fire,


s: My thought with eyes and wings made wide makes way


s: To find the place of souls that I desire.


s: Disrobed and disentrammelled; if the might,


s: The fire and force that filled with ardent light


s: The souls whose shadow is half the light we see,


s: Survive and be suppressed not of the night;


s: This hour should show what all day hid from me.


s: Night knows not, neither is it shown to day,


s: By sunlight nor by starlight is it shown,


s: Nor to the full moon's eye nor footfall known,


s: Their world's untrodden and unkindled way.


s: With sounds of winter or with winds of May.


s: But here, where light and darkness reconciled


s: Hold earth between them as a weanling child


s: Between the balanced hands of death and birth,


s: Even as they held the new-born shape of earth


s: When first life trembled in her limbs and smiled,


s: Here hope might think to find what hope were worth.


s: Slow smooth strong lapse of Lethe--past the toil


s: Be quenched not, O our brethren, but be strong


s: As ere ye too shook off our temporal coil;


s: If yet these twain survive your worldly breath,


s: Joy trampling sorrow, life devouring death,


s: If perfect life possess your life all through


s: And like your words your souls be deathless too,


s: To-night, of all whom night encompasseth,


s: My soul would commune with one soul of you.


s: That were above the sundawn in our skies,


s: Son of the songs of morning,--thine that were


s: First lights to lighten that rekindling air


s: Wherethrough men saw the front of England rise


s: And heard thine loudest of the lyre-notes there--


s: If yet thy fire have not one spark the less,


s: Across the sunrise and the sunset's mark


s: Send of thy lyre one sound, thy fire one spark,


s: To change this face of our unworthiness,


s: Across this hour dividing light from dark.


s: To change this face of our chill time, that hears


s: No song like thine of all that crowd its ears,


s: Of all its lights that lighten all day long


s: Sees none like thy most fleet and fiery sphere's


s: Outlightening Sirius--in its twilight throng


s: No thunder and no sunrise like thy song.


s: Hath not the sea-wind swept the sea-line bare


s: To pave with stainless fire through stainless air


s: A passage for thine heavenlier feet to tread


s: Ungrieved of earthly floor-work? hath it spread


s: No covering splendid as the sun-god's hair


s: Hath not the sunset strewn across the sea


s: What hour save this should be thine hour--and mine,


s: Than thine own soul; if thou take thought of me,


s: Marlowe, as all my soul takes thought of thine?


s: Before the moon's face as before the sun


s: The morning star and evening star are one


s: For all men's lands as England. O, if night


s: Hang hard upon us,--ere our day take flight,


s: Shed thou some comfort from thy day long done


s: On us pale children of the latter light!


s: For surely, brother and master and lord and king,


s: Where'er thy footfall and thy face make spring


s: In all souls' eyes that meet thee wheresoe'er,


s: And have thy soul for sunshine and sweet air--


s: Some late love of thine old live land should cling,


s: Some living love of England, round thee there.


s: Here from her shore across her sunniest sea


s: My soul makes question of the sun for thee,


s: And waves and beams make answer. When thy feet


s: Made her ways flowerier and their flowers more sweet


s: Like spray these waves cast off her foemen's fleet.


s: Like foam they flung it from her, and like weed


s: Its wrecks were washed from scornful shoal to shoal,


s: From rock to rock reverberate; and the whole


s: Sea laughed and lightened with a deathless deed