s: At the sons of our ancient more-than-peers.


s: The glory of Titian, the grandeur of Huss;


s: Prophets and singers and saints of the West.


s: Forget, and forgive, that we did you wrong.


s: In the wealth of the richest bloods of earth.


s: Da Boy from Rome.  [Thomas Augustine Daly]


s: We meant full well and we tried full hard,


s: Yea, we had to sweat for our brother's sin,


s: We lost and lost, while our comrades throve,


s: The sudden stroke and the slow heartbreak,


s: And while we are laying life's sword aside,


s: Our epitaph this, when once we have died:


s: We wonder if this can be really the close,


s: And we cry, though it seem to our dearest of foes,


s: They went forth to battle, but they always fell;


s: Their eyes were fixed above the sullen shields;


s: Nobly they fought and bravely, but not well,


s: And sank heart-wounded by a subtle spell.


s: They knew not fear that to the foeman yields,


s: They were not weak, as one who vainly wields


s: A futile weapon; yet the sad scrolls tell


s: How on the hard-fought field they always fell.


s: A sad sweet plea for pity and for peace;


s: And that which pierced the heart was but a word,


s: Though the white breast was red-lipped where the sword


s: Pressed a fierce cruel kiss, to put surcease


s: On its hot thirst, but drank a hot increase.


s: Ah, they by some strange troubling doubt were stirred,


s: And died for hearing what no foeman heard.


s: They went forth to battle but they always fell;


s: Their might was not the might of lifted spears;


s: Of troubling music, and they fought not well.


s: Their wreaths are willows and their tribute, tears;


s: Their names are old sad stories in men's ears;


s: Yet they will scatter the red hordes of Hell,


s: Who went to battle forth and always fell.


s: The Eagle that is forgotten.  [Nicholas Vachel Lindsay]


s: Sleep softly . . . eagle forgotten . . . under the stone.


s: Time has its way with you there, and the clay has its own.


s: The others, that mourned you in silence and terror and truth,


s: The widow bereft of her crust, and the boy without youth,


s: Where are those lovers of yours, on what name do they call,


s: The lost, that in armies wept over your funeral pall?


s: They call on the names of a hundred high-valiant ones,


s: A hundred white eagles have risen, the sons of your sons.


s: The zeal in their wings is a zeal that your dreaming began,


s: The valor that wore out your soul in the service of man.


s: Sleep on, O brave-hearted, O wise man that kindled the flame --


s: To live in mankind is far more than to live in a name,


s: To live in mankind, far, far more than to live in a name! --


s: Sing me the daring of life for life, the magnanimous passion


s: Of man for man in the mean populous streets of To-day!


s: (Written after seeing Millet's world-famous painting)


s: Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans


s: And on his back the burden of the world.


s: Who made him dead to rapture and despair,


s: A thing that grieves not and that never hopes,


s: Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox?


s: Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw?


s: Whose was the hand that slanted back this brow?


s: Whose breath blew out the light within this brain?


s: Is this the Thing the Lord God made and gave


s: To trace the stars and search the heavens for power;


s: Is this the Dream He dreamed who shaped the suns


s: And marked their ways upon the ancient deep?


s: Down all the stretch of Hell to its last gulf


s: There is no shape more terrible than this --


s: More tongued with censure of the world's blind greed --


s: More filled with signs and portents for the soul --


s: More fraught with menace to the universe.


s: What gulfs between him and the seraphim!


s: Slave of the wheel of labor, what to him


s: What the long reaches of the peaks of song,


s: The rift of dawn, the reddening of the rose?


s: Through this dread shape the suffering ages look;


s: Through this dread shape humanity betrayed,


s: Cries protest to the Judges of the World,


s: O masters, lords and rulers in all lands,


s: This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched?


s: How will you ever straighten up this shape;


s: Give back the upward looking and the light;


s: How will the Future reckon with this Man?


s: How answer his brute question in that hour


s: When whirlwinds of rebellion shake the world?


s: How will it be with kingdoms and with kings --


s: With those who shaped him to the thing he is --


s: Speak! said my soul, be stern and adequate;


s: The sunset falls from Heaven, the year is late,


s: Love waits with fallen tresses at thy gate


s: Speak! in the rigor of thy fate and mine,


s: Ere these scant, dying days, bright-lipped with wine,


s: All one by one depart, resigned, divine,


s: Speak! thou art lonely in thy chilly mind,


s: With all this desperate solitude of wind,


s: The solitude of tears that make thee blind,


s: Speak! thou hast need of me, heart, hand and head,


s: A dirge of hope, of young illusions dead --


s: (To Peary and his men, before the last expedition)


s: Here is a vision to shake the blood of Song,


s: And make Fame's watchman tremble at his post.


s: What shall prevail against the spirit of man,


s: When cold, the lean and snarling wolf of hunger,


s: The threatening spear of ice-mailed Solitude,


s: Silence, and space, and ghostly-footed Fear


s: Shivering, endured no bleakness like the void


s: These men have warmed with their own flaming will,


s: And peopled with their dreams.  The wind from fierce


s: The whip of the world's doubt, and in their souls


s: Courage to die -- if death shall be the price


s: Of that cold cup that will assuage their thirst;


s: They climb, and fall, and stagger toward the goal.


s: They lay themselves the road whereby they travel,


s: And sue God for a franchise.  Does He watch


s: Behind the lattice of the boreal lights?


s: In that grail-chapel of their stern-vowed quest,


s: Ninety of God's long paces toward the North,


s: Will they behold the splendor of His face?


s: To conquer the world must man renounce the world?


s: These have renounced it.  Had ye only faith


s: Ye might move mountains, said the Nazarene.


s: Why, these have faith to move the zones of man


s: Out to the point where All and Nothing meet.


s: They catch the bit of Death between their teeth,


s: And leap the gates of knowledge.  They have dared


s: The doors of the forbidden -- dared to hurl


s: That like the heavenly kingdom must be taken


s: The leader of this quest has held the world


s: And shall he fail?  They never fail who light


s: Their lamp of faith at the unwavering flame


s: Since the beginning.  He shall find the strange --


s: The white immaculate Virgin of the North,


s: She waits and listens through the centuries


s: And lift his warm lips to the frozen Grail.


s: Others endure Man's rule:  he therefore deems


s: I shall endure it -- I, the unconquered Air!


s: Imagines this triumphant strength may bear


s: His paltry sway! yea, ignorantly dreams,


s: Because proud Rhea now his vassal seems,


s: That he a more sublime assault may dare,


s: Where blown by tempest wild the vulture screams!


s: Presumptuous, he mounts:  I toss his bones


s: Back from the height supernal he has braved:


s: Ay, as his vessel nears my perilous zones,


s: And give him to the Sea he has enslaved.


s: He founders in its depths; and then I laugh!


s: Against intrusion.  Who can measure Man?


s: How should I guess his mortal will outran


s: For its own sake? -- that he would all endure,


s: Ah, tameless courage! -- dominating power


s: That, all attempting, in a deathless hour


s: Made earth-born Titans godlike, in revolt! --


s: Fear is the fire that melts Icarian wings:


s: Who fears nor Fate, nor Time, nor what Time brings,


s: May drive Apollo's steeds, or wield the thunderbolt!


s: Conspicuous, splendid, conscious, sweet,


s: Snatching her gifts with both her hands.


s: The bright, self-conscious eyes that stare


s: Charming and charmed, flippant, arrayed,


s: Fluttered and foolish, proud, displayed,


s: Oh, the starved nights she gave for that,


s: That are the prettiest things she knows.


s: Close, close to yours.  Ah, that is right.


s: What shape so furtive steals along the dim


s: Bleak street, barren of throngs, this day of June;


s: This day of rest, when all the roses swoon


s: In Attic vales where dryads wait for him?


s: What sylvan this, and what the stranger whim


s: That lured him here this golden afternoon;


s: In the deep canyon, torrentless and grim?


s: Great Pan is far, O mad estray, and these


s: Bare walls that leap to heaven and hide the skies


s: Far to the east the haunted woodland lies,


s: And cloudless still, from cyclad-dotted seas,


s: When, "Hark!" you said, -- "Was that a bell


s: When most with lesser things my brain is wrought,


s: As in some nimble interchange of thought


s: The silence enters, and the talkers stare.


s: And all my thinking trembles into nought


s: And I a dim church at the thought of thee;


s: Brief be the moment, but the mass is said,


s: Is on my spirit, and shuddering through me


s: Strange love, which, more than all, is great --


s: Wild love -- which, as God knows, is sweet --


s: The hours I spent with thee, dear heart,


s: I tell each bead unto the end -- and there


s: I kiss each bead, and strive at last to learn


s: And drew into my lips her living smile, --


s: And her hand hovers on my shaking limbs.


s: Hammering midnight on the doors of fate.


s: Love knocks at the Door.  [John Hall Wheelock]


s: I knocked at the door of her living heart,


s: They opened the door of her living heart,


s: They opened the core of her living heart --


s: Thy hands are like cool herbs that bring


s: For they are old, those eyes . . .  They gleam


s: And that great queen with spice and myrrh


s: "Whence came that stain about your mouth


s: "I stamped a neighbor's hearth-flame out,


s: De Massa ob de Sheepfol'.  [Sarah Pratt McLean Greene]


s: From their folded mates they wander far,


s: Yet haply they sought but a wider range,


s: And little recked of the country strange


s: Midst the cruel rocks, where the deep pitfall


s: They're sick at heart for the homely ways


s: And oft at night, when the plains fall dark


s: For the Shepherd's voice they mutely hark,


s: Meanwhile, "Black sheep!  Black sheep!" we cry,


s: Let me no more a Mendicant.  [Arthur Colton]


s: The sentinels change and challenge in the tower,


s: Now slant the shadows eastward hour by hour.


s: Linger from dayspring till the night is late,


s: All homeless stars to loiter in the sky,


s: And beggared midnight winds to wander by.


s: Greatening and darkening as it hurried on,


s: She left the Heaven of Heroes and came down


s: She took the tried clay of the common road --


s: Clay warm yet with the genial heat of Earth,


s: Dashed through it all a strain of prophecy;


s: Tempered the heap with thrill of human tears;


s: Then mixed a laughter with the serious stuff.


s: Into the shape she breathed a flame to light


s: That tender, tragic, ever-changing face.


s: Here was a man to hold against the world,


s: A man to match the mountains and the sea.


s: The color of the ground was in him, the red earth;


s: The rectitude and patience of the cliff;


s: The good-will of the rain that loves all leaves;


s: The friendly welcome of the wayside well;


s: The courage of the bird that dares the sea;


s: The gladness of the wind that shakes the corn;


s: The pity of the snow that hides all scars;


s: The secrecy of streams that make their way


s: Beneath the mountain to the rifted rock;


s: That gives as freely to the shrinking flower


s: As to the great oak flaring to the wind --


s: To the grave's low hill as to the Matterhorn


s: The strength of virgin forests braced his mind,


s: The hush of spacious prairies stilled his soul.


s: One fire was on his spirit, one resolve --


s: To send the keen ax to the root of wrong,


s: Clearing a free way for the feet of God.


s: With the fine stroke and gesture of a king:


s: He built the rail-pile as he built the State,


s: Pouring his splendid strength through every blow,


s: The conscience of him testing every stroke,


s: So came the Captain with the mighty heart;


s: And when the judgment thunders split the house,


s: Wrenching the rafters from their ancient rest,


s: He held the ridgepole up, and spiked again


s: The rafters of the Home.  He held his place --


s: Held the long purpose like a growing tree --


s: Held on through blame and faltered not at praise.


s: And when he fell in whirlwind, he went down


s: As when a lordly cedar, green with boughs,


s: Goes down with a great shout upon the hills,


s: And leaves a lonesome place against the sky.


s: The calm, the smouldering, and the flame


s: Let not our town be large -- remembering


s: That Oxford rules the heart of London still,


s: That Florence gave the Renaissance to Rome.


s: Record it for the grandson of your son --


s: Our little town cannot complete her soul


s: Now let each child be joined as to a church


s: To her perpetual hopes, each man ordained;


s: Let every street be made a reverent aisle


s: Where music grows, and beauty is unchained.


s: Be slaves of her, and make her all in all --


s: Building against our blatant restless time


s: Let Christ, the beggar, teach divinity --


s: Let no man rule who holds his money dear.


s: We should build parks that students from afar


s: Would choose to starve in, rather than go home --


s: Fair little squares, with Phidian ornament --


s: Food for the spirit, milk and honeycomb.


s: Songs shall be sung by us in that good day --


s: Songs we have written -- blood within the rhyme


s: Beating, as when old England still was glad,


s: By faith shall rise redeemed -- by faith shall rise


s: Bearing the western glory in her heart --


s: The secret hidden in each grain of corn --


s: At night when sons of Life and Love are born --


s: Born but to struggle, squalid and alone,


s: Broken and wandering in their early years.


s: When will they make our dusty streets their goal,


s: Within our attics hide their sacred tears?


s: When will they start our vulgar blood athrill


s: With living language -- words that set us free?


s: When will they make a path of beauty clear


s: We must have many Lincoln-hearted men --


s: And they must do their work, and come and go


s: The dactyl phrase of the green-rowed maize


s: And the hills that were lean it fleshed with green --


s: But dreamers are fed by the living and dead --


s: Plotted and fought and suffered and wrought --


s: The harlot's strife and the faith of the wife


s: And the poet's song shall live for the long,


s: For a triune Bride walked close at his side --


s: And the lean flame grew till it fretted through


s: Enriched with the tears of a thousand years,


s: And Homer shall sing once more in a swing


s: And who was your clown for a day, O Town,


s: Perhaps they laughed at Dante in his youth,


s: In the great masterpieces of the dead: --


s: Perhaps he listened and but bowed his head


s: Held natal tidings, -- that a new life is the part


s: Should have gold halls to wander through


s: As in the Midst of Battle there is Room.  [George Santayana]


s: For thoughts of love, and in foul sin for mirth;


s: Spied by the death-bed's flickering candle-gloom;


s: The sweet herbs flourish on a little earth:


s: For morning, with a ray of tenderest joy


s: Gilding the iron heaven, hides the truth,


s: Our grief in idle catches.  Such is youth;


s: Till from that summer's trance we wake, to find


s: Fast fading words adown my shadowy page,


s: At Arqua, with his books around him, sped


s: The word to Petrarch; and with noble head


s: Bowed gently o'er his volume that sweet sage


s: To Silence paid his willing seigniorage.


s: And they who found him whispered, "He is dead!"


s: Thus timely from old comradeships would I


s: To Silence also rise.  Let there be night,


s: Stillness, and only these staid watchers by,


s: And no light shine save my low study light --


s: When I have gone Weird Ways.  [John G. Neihardt]


s: And gone weird ways to seek another load,


s: Oh, friends, regret me not, nor weep for me,


s: To say with lying writ:  "Here in the gloom


s: He who loved bigness takes a narrow room,


s: Eager and strong and swift, like my desire,


s: And sweep the bitter ashes from the hearth,


s: Fling back the dust I borrowed from the earth


s: Into the chemic broil of death and birth,


s: And thus, O little house that sheltered me,


s: And, Oh, how oft with new life shalt thou lift


s: His faith was tried and proved commensurate


s: With life and death.  The stone-blind eyes of Fate


s: He brought his soul, expectant and elate,


s: And challenged, like a champion at the Gate,


s: And thus, full-armed in all that Truth reprieves


s: Of daybreak flush his thought's exalted ways,


s: While, like Dodona's sad, prophetic leaves,


s: Round him the scant, supreme, momentous days


s: Trembled and murmured in the wind of Death.


s: There moved a Presence always by his side,


s: With eyes of pleasure and passion and wild tears,


s: And on her lips the murmur of many years,


s: And in her hair the chaplets of a bride;


s: And with him, hour by hour, came one beside,


s: Scatheless of Time and Time's vicissitude,


s: Whose lips, perforce of endless solitude,


s: Were silent and whose eyes were blind and wide.


s: But when he died came One who wore a wreath


s: Of star-light, and with fingers calm and bland


s: Smoothed from his brows the trace of mortal pain;


s: And of the two who stood on either hand,


s: "This one is Life," he said, "And this is Death,


s: And I am Love and Lord over these twain!"


s: Where are the friends that I knew in my Maying,


s: In the days of my youth, in the first of my roaming?


s: We were dear; we were leal; O, far we went straying;


s: Now never a heart to my heart comes homing! --


s: Who taught me bare-back, stirrup and reins?


s: I loved him; he loved me; my beautiful, tender


s: Where is he now whose eyes swam brighter,


s: Softer than love, in his turbulent charms;


s: Who taught me to strike, and to fall, dear fighter,


s: Taught me the rifle, and with me went riding,


s: Where is he now, for whom my heart's biding,


s: Who that hath felt it shall ever forget,


s: When the breath of life with a throb turns human,


s: And a lad's heart is to a lad's heart set?


s: They shall cling, nor each from other shall part


s: Till the reign of the stars in the heavens be over,


s: And life is dust in each faithful heart!


s: They are dead, the American grasses under;


s: There is no one now who presses my side;


s: By the African chotts I am riding asunder,


s: And with great joy ride I the last great ride.


s: Thousands of miles there is no one near;


s: And my heart -- all the night it is crying, crying


s: In the bosoms of dead lads darling-dear.


s: Hearts of my music -- them dark earth covers;


s: Comrades to die, and to die for, were they;


s: In the width of the world there were no such rovers --


s: Back to back, breast to breast, it was ours to stay;


s: And the highest on earth was the vow that we cherished,


s: To spur forth from the crowd and come back never more,


s: And to ride in the track of great souls perished


s: Till the nests of the lark shall roof us o'er.


s: Yet lingers a horseman on Altai highlands,


s: Who hath joy of me, riding the Tartar glissade;


s: Whose blood yet glints with my blade's accolade;


s: North, west, east, I fling you my last hallooing,


s: Last love to the breasts where my own has bled;


s: Through the reach of the desert my soul leaps pursuing


s: My star where it rises a Star of the Dead.


s: To say where their light lives are gone,


s: Singing of vision hid from human sight, --


s: For whose blind seed was brought the illuming spark,


s: Are you not gathered, now his day is done,


s: Beside the brink of that relentless dark --


s: The dark where your dear singer's ghost is gone?


s: Your forms with beauty! -- questing, unconfined,


s: The mind conceived you, though the quenched mind


s: Goes down in dark where you in dawn ascend.


s: The ultimate silence:  yet could song aspire


s: And wake a Sibyl's voice or Seraph's lyre --


s: How should it tell the dearness of a friend?


s: The heart of music still evades the Muse,


s: And arts of men the heart of man suffuse,


s: And saddest things are made of silence still.


s: And I, in vain, to speak for him my grief


s: Whose spirit of fire invokes my waiting will.


s: To him the best of friendship needs must be


s: I obey the strong compulsion which this verse


s: Lays on my lips with strange austerity --


s: Now that his voice is silent -- to rehearse


s: Not by your gradual sands, elusive Time,


s: We measure your gray sea, that never rests;


s: The bleeding hour-glasses in our breasts


s: Mete with quick pangs the ebbing of our prime,


s: In March, that melts to runnels from a pane


s: The south breathes on -- oblivion of sublime


s: Of glittering stars, that scarce had range to climb.


s: Darkling those constellations of his soul


s: Glimmered, while racks of stellar lightning shot


s: Through that last night, where -- clad in cloudy stole --


s: Of life-blood, stood Saint Paul, blazing a theme


s: Across his stretched vision as in dream --


s: When Death, with blind dark, blotted out the whole.


s: Are waned; still, touched by them, the memory


s: Gives afterglow; and now that comes again


s: Our eyes last met, his kindling currents run


s: Quickening within me gladness and new ken


s: Of life, that I have shared his prime with one


s: Who wrought large-minded for the love of men.


s: But not alone to share that large estate


s: Of work and interchange of communings --


s: The little human paths to heavenly things


s: With laughter and quick tears -- the dusty noon


s: Our plodding minds with courage, and attune


s: The fellowship that bites its thumb at fate.


s: Where art thou now, mine host Guffanti? -- where


s: That snuggled elbows for an extra chair,


s: While still our glowing Uriel greets the rest


s: The kindly keen -- who sings of `Calverly's'.


s: Because he never wore his sentient heart


s: For crows and jays to peck, ofttimes to such


s: Held from the general gossip-ground apart,


s: How should they guess what eagle tore, within,


s: His quick of sympathy for humblest smart


s: Of human wretchedness, or probed his spleen


s: That wrath of sympathy:  One windy night


s: We watched through squalid panes, forlornly white, --


s: Of overlabored girls and children, bowed


s: Above their slavish toil:  "O God! --  A bomb,


s: A bomb!" he cried, "and with one fiery cloud


s: Expunge the horrible Caesars of this slum!"


s: Another night dreams on the Cornish hills:


s: Trembling within the low moon's pallid fires,


s: The tall corn-tassels lift their fragrant spires;


s: From filmy spheres, a liquid starlight fills --


s: The rhythmic, intermittent silence thrills,


s: Like song, the valleys. --  "Hark!" he murmurs, "Thus


s: May bards from crickets learn their canticles!"


s: Now Morning, not less lavish of her sweets,


s: Leads us along the woodpaths -- in whose hush


s: The quivering alchemy of the pure thrush


s: Cools from above the balsam-dripping heats --


s: 'Mid men of clay, the great, quick-hearted man


s: Whose subtle art our human age secretes,


s: Or him whose brush, tinct with cerulean,


s: Blooms with soft castle-towers and cloud-capped fleets.


s: In frilled crimson flaunt the hollyhocks,


s: Where, lithely poised along the garden walks,


s: His little maid enamoured blithe outvies


s: In motion -- ah, in grace how grown the while,


s: His knightly court, or touch with flitting smile


s: Her father's heart by his true flatteries!


s: But summer's golden pastures boast no trail


s: So splendid as our fretted snowshoes blaze


s: Where, sharp across the amethystine ways,


s: Mute, in our homebound snow-tracks, we exhale


s: The silvery cold, and soon -- where bright logs flare --


s: Talk the long indoor hours, till embers fail.


s: Ah, with the smoke what smouldering desires


s: Waft to the starlight up the swirling flue! --


s: Thoughts that may never, as the swallows do,


s: Nest circling homeward to their native fires!


s: The extinct stars drink with the dreamer's breath;


s: Grows dim with Adam; close at the ear of death


s: Relentless angels tune our earthly lyres!


s: And live with beauty though it be not long,


s: Godhead of life, than to reject the plea


s: Of passionate beauty:  loveliness is all,


s: Like those faint stars, the first to glow


s: The angel raised his hand and looked and said,


s: Shall we make wing to?"  The still solitude


s: Became a harp whereon his voice and mood


s: Made spheral music round his haloed head.


s: I spake -- for then I had not long been dead --


s: "Let me look round upon the vasts, and brood


s: A moment on these orbs ere I decide . . .


s: What is yon lower star that beauteous shines


s: And with soft splendour now incarnadines


s: Our wings? --  THERE would I go and there abide."


s: Then he as one who some child's thought divines:


s: "That is the world where yesternight you died."


s: I so loved once, when Death came by I hid


s: And all my sweetheart's tresses she undid


s: The dread shade passed me thus unheeding; and


s: To calm my love -- kiss down her shielding hand


s: And lo! she answered not:  and she did sit


s: With her fair face and the sweet smile of it,


s: A Rhyme of Death's Inn.  [Lizette Woodworth Reese]


s: Life said:  "My house is thine with all its store:


s: Go from me if thou wilt, to come no more;


s: But all thy pain is mine, thy flesh of me;


s: And must I hear thee, faint and woefully,


s: Call on me from the darkness and implore?"


s: But oftentimes thy voice is sharp to hear,


s: Thy trailing fragrance heavy on the breath;


s: And on my face a pleasant wind and clear


s: Blows straitly from the narrow gate of Death.


s: Whither, with blue and pleading eyes, --


s: Whither, with cheeks that held the light


s: We needs must be divided in the Tomb.  [George Santayana]


s: For I would die among the hills of Spain,


s: But thou -- O pitiful! -- wilt find scant room


s: The hemlocks' shadow, or the pines' perfume.


s: Let gallants lie beside their ladies' dust


s: In one cold grave, with mortal love inurned;


s: The souls fled thence which love immortal burned,


s: For they were wedded without bond of lust,


s: And nothing of our heart to earth returned.


s: She left her house to the wind's carouse,


s: But fled like a sunbeam, white and frail,


s: To the sea, to the air, somewhere, somewhere --


s: The taper's flame, by envious current blown,


s: Crouched low, and eddied round, as in affright,


s: So challenged by the vast and hostile night,


s: Then down I held the taper; -- swift and fain


s: Up climbed the lovely flower of light again!


s: Thou Kindler of the spark of life divine,


s: That, though the flame beloved thou dost depress,


s: Thou wilt not speed it into nothingness;


s: And homeward lift the keen empyreal fire!


s: Night's Mardi Gras.  [Edward J. Wheeler]


s: Like some great monarch with his train has passed,


s: The stars troop forth along the Milky Way,


s: On heaven's broad boulevard in pageants vast,


s: And things of earth, the hunted and outcast,


s: Come from their haunts and hiding-places; yea,


s: Even from the nooks and crannies of the mind


s: Visions uncouth and vagrant fancies start,


s: And specters of dead joy, that shun the light,


s: Each one, in form grotesque, playing its part


s: The tenuous rim where the Seen grows dim


s: "Ride! ride! for you must, to the end of Dust!"


s: From the vaults of death like a chilling breath


s: I would I might forget that I am I.  [George Santayana]


s: And break the heavy chain that binds me fast,


s: Whose links about myself my deeds have cast.


s: Is boundless; 't is the spirit of the sky,


s: Lord of the future, guardian of the past,


s: And soon must forth, to know his own at last.


s: In his large life to live, I fain would die.


s: Wretched the mortal, pondering his mood,


s: And doomed to know his aching heart alone.


s: Spring wraps its transient scarf of green,


s: Its heathery robe, round slope and scar;


s: Their gleams, their glooms, their mysteries,


s: Their eldritch lures, their druid wiles,


s: Still thrall your spirit -- that it bides


s: He had been singing -- but I had not heard his voice;


s: He had been weaving lovely dreams of song,


s: But does the skylark, singing sweet and clear,


s: Rather he sings for very rapture of singing,


s: At dawn, or in the blue, mild Summer noon,


s: His wealth of beauty, and his high notes, ringing


s: Above the earth, will make some heart rejoice.


s: But one day, from a friend far overseas,


s: There came the teeming wonder of his words --


s: Their breaking hearts on mine, and swiftly bringing


s: Hills, hills of song, Springs of eternal bloom,


s: Winters of pain, roses with awful thorns,


s: Yet wondrous faith in God's dew-drenched morns --


s: And then I knew that, though I had not heard


s: Had made my own more sweet; had made it more


s: Lovely, in one of God's miraculous ways.


s: Had seemed to me more perfect when the Spring


s: For somewhere in the world his voice was raised,


s: And somewhere in the world his heart was breaking;


s: And never a flower but knew it, sweetly taking


s: Beauty more high and noble for his sake,


s: As a whole wood grows lovelier for the wail


s: Seemed wonderful before I heard his voice,


s: Now that his songs are mine while Life shall last.


s: New floods of vision open suddenly . . .


s: That you have heard the Quiet Singer's voice!


s: Grew lean while he assailed the seasons;


s: When swords were bright and steeds were prancing;


s: And dreamed, and rested from his labors;


s: Miniver thought, and thought, and thought,


s: Scratched his head and kept on thinking;


s: But the palm is naught to the dauntless,


s: God has said:  "Ye shall fail and perish;


s: Checking the field-lark's rippling notes --


s: I ride on the hills, I forgive, I forget


s: Here the world's heaped gold is a pile of sand.


s: Let them weary and work in their narrow walls:


s: My body's a bough in the wind, my heart a bird!


s: In the middle of August when the southwest wind


s: Blows after sunset through the leisuring air,


s: Leads down the sullen dog star to his lair,


s: When the loud pageant of the year's high noon


s: Passed up the ways of time to sing and part,


s: From out the lovers and the leaves of June,


s: I knew his heart was very Love's own heart.


s: Deep within dreams he led me out of doors


s: As from the upper vault the night outpours,


s: And when I saw that to him all the skies


s: Yearned as a sea asleep yearns to its shores,


s: He took a little clay and touched my eyes.


s: Multitudes, multitudes, under the moon they stirred!


s: The weaker brothers of our earthly breed;


s: Watchmen of whom our safety takes no heed;


s: Swift helpers of the wind that sowed the seed


s: Before the first field was or any fruit;


s: Warriors against the bivouac of the weed;


s: Earth's earliest ploughmen for the tender root,


s: With starry eyes not even raised to plead;


s: Bewildered, driven, hiding, fluttering, mute!


s: Pass and become as nothing in the night.


s: Clothed on with red they were who once were white;


s: Drooping, who once led armies to the sun,


s: Of whom the lowly grass now topped the flight:


s: In scarlet faint, who once were brave in brown;


s: Climbers and builders of the silent town,


s: Creepers and burrowers all in crimson dye,


s: Winged mysteries of song that from the sky


s: O who would take away music from the earth?


s: Have we so much?  Or love upon the hearth?


s: The great trees bending between birth and birth


s: Sighed for them, and the night wind's hoarse rebuff


s: Shouted the shame of which I was persuaded.


s: Shall Nature's only pausing be by men invaded?


s: Soon will the mirroring woodland pools begin to con her,


s: And her sad immemorial passion come upon her;


s: Shall not the Spring be answer to her prayer?


s: Weeping, look down on tears and still behold


s: Die, and the leaves go mourning to the mould


s: Of folk who in next summer's meadows shall not meet?


s: Who has not seen in the high gulf of light


s: Shouts once and brings him from his high employ.


s: Where he from glory sprang and burned aloud,


s: The one last wrong arose from out the flame,


s: The ravening hate that hated not was hurled


s: Bidding the radiant love once more beware,


s: Bringing one more loneliness on the world,


s: And one more blindness in the unseen air.


s: Nor may the smooth regret, the pitying oath


s: Only the pleading flowers that knew them both


s: Hold all their bloody petals up to heaven.


s: Winds of the fall that all year to and fro


s: Lest unborn others of us see this thing.


s: Bring our sleek, comfortable reason low:


s: Recount how souls grown tremulous as a bell


s: Came forth each other and the day to greet


s: And crept upstream, through wood or field or brake,


s: What crumbs that from the Master's table fell.


s: Cry with what thronging thunders they were met,


s: And hide not how the least leaf was made wet.


s: Cry till no watcher says that all is well


s: With raucous discord through the leaning spheres.


s: Who on these dawns are fire, at dusk are clay.


s: No less than those who lived in singing guise,


s: Whose choric hearts lit each wild green arcade.


s: Forced to suspect behind each reed or rose


s: Whose piteous casements now all unafraid


s: Peer out to that far verge where evermore,


s: By you, shy folk who cease thus heart by heart?


s: You for whose fate such fate forever hovers?


s: If you would still have nests beneath the sun


s: Gather your broods about you and depart,


s: The solemn and compassionate desert places.


s: Give unto men no more the strong delight


s: To know that underneath the frozen ground


s: Dwells the warm life and all the quick, pure lore.


s: Take from our eyes the glory of great flight.


s: People untroubled by a Fate's veiled eyes,


s: Leave us upon an earth of faith forlorn.


s: No more wild tidings from the sweet far skies


s: Of love's long utmost heavenward endeavor.


s: The streaming arrows of unutterable scorn.


s: Stains, stains, upon the lintels of our doors


s: Shall there be mutterings at the seasons' yield?


s: Has eye of man seen bared the granary floors?


s: Are the fields wasted?  Spilled the oil and wine?


s: Does ever the fig tree languish or the vine?


s: Who has beheld the harvest promise fade?


s: No, not these things, but grosser things than these


s: Ancestral urges out of old caves blowing,


s: When Fear watched at our coming and our going


s: The horror of the chattering face of Whim.


s: Hates, cruelties new fallen from the trees


s: Whereto we clung with impulse sad for love,


s: Shames we have had all time to rid us of,


s: Unmeaning quarrels, blood-compelling lust,


s: And snarling woes from our old home, the dust.


s: Yet even of these one saving shape may rise;


s: For know you not what curse of blight would fall


s: Who day and night keep ward and seneschal


s: Upon the treasury of the planted spaces?


s: The unfed stones rot in the listless mill,


s: No yearning gold would whisper to the scythe,


s: Hunger at last would prove us of one blood,


s: The shores of dream be drowned in tides of need,


s: Horribly would the whole earth be at peace.


s: Weigh down the green corn and the tender bud,


s: And the shrill nit would batten in the heat.


s: But you, O poor of deeds and rich of breath,


s: Whose eyes have made our eyes a hue abhorred,


s: If on the flinted marge about your souls


s: In vain the heaving tide of mourning rolls,


s: If from your trails unto the crimson goals


s: If lust of blood come on you like a fiery dart


s: Then forth with rocking laughter of the horn


s: All timorous, lesser sippers of the dew,


s: Seek out some burly guardian of the hills


s: And set your urgent thew against his thew.


s: Then shall the hidden wisdoms and the wills


s: Strive, and bear witness to the trees and clods


s: Then shall the lagging righteousness ensue,


s: The powers at last be equal in the scales,


s: And the man's club and the beast's claw be flails


s: Then on the earth, in the sky and the heavenly court


s: Then those who go forth greatly, seeking sport,


s: There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood --


s: With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time.


s: The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry


s: To see the frosty asters like a smoke upon the hills.


s: She calls and calls each vagabond by name.


s: And the crystal eye of a lone, one star . . .


s: And, "Child, take the shears and cut what you will,


s: Frost to-night -- so clear and dead-still."


s: Then, I sally forth, half sad, half proud,


s: And I come to the velvet, imperial crowd,


s: The wine-red, the gold, the crimson, the pied, --


s: The dahlias that reign by the garden-side.


s: The dahlias I might not touch till to-night!


s: A gleam of the shears in the fading light,


s: And I gathered them all, -- the splendid throng,


s: And in one great sheaf I bore them along.


s: In my garden of Life with its all-late flowers


s: "Frost to-night -- so clear and dead-still" . . .


s: Their scrips, and speeds them on their ways,


s: The hill-stream whirls with foaming words.


s: Whose mantles stream, whose sandals drag,


s: The woods' dim dreams, and come in touch


s: Down the great earth's glimmering chancel


s: Where the nights and days have ending, --


s: I know it must be winter (though I sleep) --


s: I dip my bare feet in the running stream,


s: And flowers are many, and the grass grows deep.


s: I know I must be old (how age deceives!)


s: My heart grows young, as autumn fields grow green,


s: When late rains patter on the falling sheaves.


s: I know I must be tired (and tired souls err) --


s: To deeds of daring beats a glad, faint roll,


s: I know I must be dying (Death draws near) --


s: Life -- life, strong life, and think not of the grave,


s: And turf-bound silence, in the frosty year.


s: Mute stand the kings of power and place,


s: "Thanks. --  So fine a time!  Good night."


s: and contributed to various periodicals and syndicates.


s: and in poetry, "The Frozen Grail, and Other Poems", 1910;


s: Born at Boston, December 6, 1878.  Educated in the public schools


s: Mr. Braithwaite edited three excellent anthologies:


s: having founded and edited "The Poetry Journal of Boston",


s: Born at Hempstead House, New London, Connecticut.  Graduated from


s: by an American writer.  This drama, "Children of Earth",


s: as to give her a distinct place among American poets.


s: which position he still holds, although the scholastic year


s: is broken annually by a lecture tour through the East.


s: and "A Midsummer Memory", an elegy upon the untimely death


s: to the writing of poetry and poetic drama.  His first volume,


s: "An Ode to Harvard, and Other Poems", was published in 1907.


s: This has been followed by the poetic dramas, "Tiger", 1913,


s: then emanating from the "Decadent School" in England.


s: Among the finest of Mr. Carman's volumes, aside from his work


s: Born at Philadelphia and educated at private schools in that city


s: "Poems", Collected Edition, in two volumes, 1916.


s: Born at Washington, May 22, 1868.  Received the degree of A.B.


s: the Normal College of New York City in 1876.  She has been


s: the "Philadelphia Record", and is now the general manager of


s: but one volume of verse:  "Poems", 1903.


s: by sensitive poetic feeling and delicate artistry.


s: Born at Simsbury, Connecticut, July 3, 1856 and educated at


s: or from knight-errantry, as in "The Wild Ride", "The Kings",


s: "The Vigil-at-Arms", "The Knight Errant", "Memorial Day", etc.


s: shown so exquisitely in her "Irish Peasant Song", and one has


s: and the University of Berlin and served as instructor in English


s: at Harvard from 1909 to 1911.  Mr. Hagedorn is the author of


s: He received his early education at Dartmouth College,


s: which he afterward celebrated in several of his best-known poems.


s: projected in the cycle and a fragment of the next to be issued,


s: a poet of rare endowment and his early death was a distinct loss


s: of five hundred dollars, for a poem entitled "Second Avenue",


s: Cornell University in 1904.  He was on the dramatic staff


s: of the "New York Times", from 1904 to 1907, and associate editor


s: of "The Pathfinder", in 1911.  His published volumes are:


s: His volumes of poetry are:  "A Summer of Love", 1911,


s: Born at Lawrence, Massachusetts, September 8, 1869, and graduated


s: He was connected for a short time with the editorial department


s: with Dana Estes and Company where he remained until his death


s: Born at Liverpool, England, January 20, 1866.  He was already


s: has achieved conspicuous success and it would be difficult to say


s: He took up the study of art and studied at the Art Institute,


s: For a time after his technical study, he lectured upon art


s: in lyric and dramatic poetry has been gathered into two volumes:


s: "Poems and Dramas", 1911.  He died at Boston in 1909.


s: Born at Boston, February 9, 1874.  Educated at private schools.


s: in their order are:  "A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass", 1912;


s: all of which contain a group of her own poems.


s: in herding sheep and riding the ranges after the cattle.


s: early experiences, that his genius took the social bent


s: of several schools until 1899, when he sprang suddenly into fame


s: by the publication in the "San Francisco Examiner" of his poem


s: "The Man With the Hoe".  This poem, crystallizing as it did


s: His chief work in poetry has been in the sonnet form,


s: This drama is one of a trilogy of which it is the first member,


s: and only fragments of it have been published.  This trilogy,


s: profound in its spiritual meaning and artistic in execution,


s: would alone be sufficient to place Moody among the major poets


s: had he not left us a body of lyric poetry of equal distinction.


s: "The Harvest Moon", 1916.  Miss Peabody, as her volumes show,


s: is a poet of varied gifts and her work is always distinguished


s: in West High School of Baltimore.  Her volumes of verse are:


s: Born at Dixon, Kentucky, December 7, 1872.  Graduated from


s: and probably no poet came as near to the heart of the people.


s: the University of New Brunswick.  After a period of teaching,


s: His volumes of verse are:  "Orion, and Other Poems", 1880;


s: His poems are usually studies of types and he has given us


s: A Yiddish poet who came to America in his early youth.


s: Born at Geneva, Switzerland, June 20, 1874.  After a youth


s: New York City College.  Mr. Towne has been an active journalist,


s: the best known are:  "The Quiet Singer, and Other Poems", 1908;


s: Dramatic critic of the "Evening Telegram" of New York City.


s: He has not yet published a collection of poetry, but has appeared


s: Chicago University and other American colleges and afterwards


s: She is the author of several novels, of which the best known are:


s: and "The Silent Door"; and also of one or two volumes of plays;


s: but her most representative work is found in her poetry,


s: of which she has written two volumes:  "The Far Country", 1906,


s: Born at Beverly, Massachusetts, May 12, 1855.  Graduated with


s: the most representative are:  "The North Shore Watch", 1890;


s: A Selection from the work of contemporaneous American poets


s: Louise Imogen Guiney, Lizette Woodworth Reese, and many others


s: whose work has enriched both periods, was fully represented also


s: Even with these necessary eliminations in the interest of space


s: While I have not hesitated, where a poet's earlier work seemed


s: from poetry published since 1913, the date of my first anthology.


s: Abraham Lincoln walks at Midnight.  [Vachel Lindsay]


s: The Day before April.  [Mary Carolyn Davies]


s: Earth's Easter.  [Robert Haven Schauffler]


s: General William Booth Enters into Heaven.  [Vachel Lindsay]


s: How much of Godhood.  [Louis Untermeyer]


s: Hrolf's Thrall, His Song.  [Willard Wattles]


s: The Idol-Maker prays.  [Arthur Guiterman]


s: "If you should tire of loving me".  [Margaret Widdemer]


s: The Kings are passing Deathward.  [David Morton]


s: The Lover envies an Old Man.  [Shaemas O Sheel]


s: A Note from the Pipes.  [Leonora Speyer]


s: The Path that leads to Nowhere.  [Corinne Roosevelt Robinson]


s: Prayer during Battle.  [Hermann Hagedorn]


s: Smith, of the Third Oregon, dies.  [Mary Carolyn Davies]


s: "There will come Soft Rain".  [Sara Teasdale]


s: Voyage a l'Infini.  [Walter Conrad Arensberg]


s: When the Year grows Old.  [Edna St. Vincent Millay]


s: At the first hour, it was as if one said, "Arise."


s: At the second hour, it was as if one said, "Go forth."


s: And the winter constellations that are like patient ox-eyes


s: Sank below the white horizon at the north.


s: At the third hour, it was as if one said, "I thirst";


s: At the fourth hour, all the earth was still:


s: Then the clouds suddenly swung over, stooped, and burst;


s: And the rain flooded valley, plain and hill.


s: At the fifth hour, darkness took the throne;


s: At the sixth hour, the earth shook and the wind cried;


s: At the seventh hour, the hidden seed was sown;


s: At the eighth hour, it gave up the ghost and died.


s: At the ninth hour, they sealed up the tomb;


s: And the earth was then silent for the space of three hours.


s: But at the twelfth hour, a single lily from the gloom


s: Shot forth, and was followed by a whole host of flowers.


s: "There will come Soft Rain".  [Sara Teasdale]


s: There will come soft rain and the smell of the ground,


s: And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;


s: And frogs in the pools singing at night,


s: Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire.


s: And not one will know of the war, not one


s: Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,


s: And Spring herself when she woke at dawn,


s: The Day before April.  [Mary Carolyn Davies]


s: But at East Schaghticoke I saw an ivory birch


s: Lifting a filmy red mantle of knotted buds


s: Above the rain-washed whiteness of her arms.


s: But at Hoosick Falls I saw a robin strutting,


s: Not like the puffed, complacent ball of feathers


s: That dawdles over the cidery Autumn loam.


s: Some springy shrub, a scarlet gash on the grayness,


s: Climbs, flaming, over the melting snows.


s: But at Williamstown the willows are young and golden,


s: Their tall tips flinging the sun's rays back at him;


s: And as the sun drags over the Berkshire crests,


s: The willows glow, the scarlet bushes burn,


s: The high hill birches shine like purple plumes,


s: A royal headdress for the brow of Spring.


s: It is the doubtful, unquiet end of Winter,


s: And Spring is pulsing out of the wakening soil.


s: For so much youth and joy -- this to have had


s: When in my veins the tide of living fire


s: Burns on the hills, and Spring's sweet choristers again


s: Chant from each tree and every bush aflame


s: With all the valleys turning into green --


s: Once to have known what every wakened bird


s: Once to have entered into that great harmony


s: To sing aloud the endless Song of Spring!


s: For this alone has Song been granted me.


s: Upon my heart, because my lips did press


s: In youth's glad Spring the Cup of Loveliness!


s: Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;


s: The first faint dawn was flushing up the skies


s: When, dreamland still bewildering mine eyes,


s: I looked out to the oak that, winter-long,


s: -- a winter wild with war and woe and wrong --


s: Beyond my casement had been void of song.


s: And lo! with golden buds the twigs were set,


s: Those tiny voices, clear as drops of dew,


s: Those flying daffodils that fleck the blue,


s: Those sparkling visitants from myrtle isles,


s: Wee pilgrims of the sun, that measure miles


s: With wings of shining inches.  Flakes of glee,


s: They filled that dark old oak with jubilee,


s: Their dainty courtships on the dipping sprays,


s: How they should fashion nests, mate helping mate,


s: Listening to those blithe notes, I slipped once more


s: From lyric dawn through dreamland's open door,


s: And there was God, Eternal Life that sings,


s: Eternal joy, brooding all mortal things,


s: A nest of stars, beneath untroubled wings.


s: The eyes like wells, where sun lies too,


s: But she was frail.  Who would might note


s: Oh, frail, so frail! I could have wept, --


s: There's nothing very beautiful and nothing very gay


s: About the rush of faces in the town by day,


s: But a light tan cow in a pale green mead,


s: That is very beautiful, beautiful indeed . . .


s: And the soft March wind and the low March mist


s: Are better than kisses in a dark street kissed . . .


s: The fragrance of the forest when it wakes at dawn,


s: The fragrance of a trim green village lawn,


s: The hearing of the murmur of the rain at play --


s: These things are beautiful, beautiful as day!


s: And I shan't stand waiting for love or scorn


s: When the feast is laid for a day new-born . . .


s: Oh, better let the little things I loved when little


s: Return when the heart finds the great things brittle;


s: And better is a temple made of bark and thong


s: Than a tall stone temple that may stand too long.


s: Is there no voice in the world to come crying,


s: All of them, all, would I give for a new one.


s: Nor would I ask if the new were a true one:


s: And the best heart with death is at tourney,


s: Will there no voice, then, come -- or a vision --


s: Out of the lands that are called Elysian?


s: No clearer bubble, clear as delight, inflate me --


s: Since the stars shed their light, since the moon


s: But now the Dream has come again, the world is as of old.


s: Once more I feel about my breast the heartening splendors fold.


s: Now I am back in that good place from which my footsteps came,


s: And I am hushed of any grief and have laid by my shame.


s: I know not by what road I came -- oh wonderful and fair!


s: Only I know I ailed for thee and that thou wert not there.


s: Then suddenly Time's stalwart wall before thee did divide,


s: Its solid bastions dreamed and swayed and there was I inside.


s: It is thy nearness makes thee seem so wonderful and far.


s: In that deep sky thou art obscured as in the noon, a star.


s: But when the darkness of my grief swings up the mid-day sky,


s: My need begets a shining world.  Lo, in thy light am I.


s: All that I used to be is there and all I yet shall be.


s: My laughter deepens in the air, my quiet in the tree.


s: My utter tremblings of delight are manna from the sky,


s: And shining flower-like in the grass my innocencies lie.


s: And here I run and sleep and laugh and have no name at all.


s: Only if God should speak to me then I would heed the call.


s: And I forget the curious ways, the alien looks of men,


s: For even as it was of old, so is it now again.


s: Still every angel looks the same and all the folks are there


s: That are so bounteous and mild and have not any care.


s: But kindest to me is the one I would most choose to be.


s: She is so beautiful and sheds such loving looks on me.


s: She is so beautiful -- and lays her cheek against my own.


s: Though I be scarred with grief, I keep her kiss upon my brow.


s: All day, sweet land, I fight for thee outside the goodly wall,


s: And 'twixt my breathless wounds I have no sight of thee at all!


s: And sometimes I forget thy looks and what thy ways may be!


s: I have denied thou wert at all -- yet still I fight for thee.


s: How may one hold these days of wonderment


s: And bind them into stillness with a thong,


s: Into the waste of lovely things forspent;


s: How may one keep what the Great Powers have sent,


s: The prayers fulfilled more beautiful and strong


s: Than any thought could fashion into song


s: There is an Altar where they may be laid


s: And sealed in Faith within Its sacred care, --


s: For these are of the things that never fade,


s: Brought from the City that is built four-square,


s: The gifts of Him who is the Perfect Friend.


s: The first glad token of the Spring is here


s: That bears each time one miracle the more,


s: And in that promise all clouds disappear


s: And youth itself comes back as once before,


s: For only dreams are real in April's store


s: When buds are bursting and the skies are clear.


s: Fair Season! at your touch the sleeping land


s: The deepest meaning of your lovely name --


s: How it will be in that perpetual Spring!


s: Whose wings flame out upon the swinging spheres,


s: There is a Voice that speaks the numbered years


s: Until that Day when all comes back to Him;


s: Whose smiles of love are seen through broken tears,


s: There is a Face that every creature fears,


s: Your voices sound so near, the little wall


s: Can scarcely hide the trees that bend and nod;


s: Unbar the gate, for you have waited long


s: To show the Garden that was made for all, --


s: Where all is safe beneath the Smile of God.


s: Down through the spheres that chant the Name of One


s: He came, and as He came the waiting Night


s: And as He came, He said:  Thy Will Be Done


s: On Earth; and all His vibrant Words were white


s: And glistering with silver, and their might


s: Unto the Stars sang out His Living Words


s: White and with silver, and their rhythmic sound


s: And back from out the Stars like homing birds


s: They fell in love upon the sleeping ground


s: That the wind sways above a ruined shrine.


s: Vainer his voice in whom no longer dwells


s: Hunger that craves immortal Bread and Wine.


s: Light songs we breathe that perish with our breath


s: Out of our lips that have not kissed the rod.


s: They shall not live who have not tasted death.


s: Because on the branch that is tapping my pane


s: Is bursting its rusty brown sheathing in twain,


s: Because through the sky-patch whose azure and white


s: A yellow-bird dips for an instant of flight,


s: Because even here in this Mansion of Woe


s: Where creep the dull hours, leaden-shod,


s: Compassion and Tenderness aid me, I know


s: The Idol-Maker prays.  [Arthur Guiterman]


s: Great god whom I shall carve from this gray stone


s: Grant thou that when my art hath made thee known


s: And others bow, I shall not worship thee.


s: But, as I pray thee now, then let me pray


s: Some greater god, -- like thee to be conceived


s: Within my soul, -- for strength to turn away


s: From his new altar, when, that task achieved,


s: He, too, stands manifest.  Yea, let me yearn


s: From dream to grander dream!  Let me not rest


s: Content at any goal!  Still bid me spurn


s: Each transient triumph on the Eternal Quest,


s: Abjuring godlings whom my hand hath made


s: And wakes us from a dream that we had shaped;


s: Summoned by a supreme and confident power


s: That wakes our sleeping courage like a blow,


s: We rise, half-shaken, to the challenging hour,


s: (But oh, that vine-clad head, those limbs of morn!


s: Those proud young shoulders I myself made straight!


s: How shall ye wear the yoke that must be worn?)


s: Look thou, my son, what wisdom comes to thee!


s: (But oh, that singing mouth, those radiant eyes!


s: Those dancing feet -- that I myself made free!


s: How shall I sadden them to make them wise?)


s: Nay then, thou shalt!  Resist not, have a care!


s: (Yea, I must work my plans who sovereign sit!


s: Yet do not tremble so!  I cannot bear --


s: Though I am God -- to see thee so submit!)


s: I flung my soul to the air like a falcon flying.


s: I said, "Wait on, wait on, while I ride below!


s: A strange white heron rising with silver on its wings,


s: The secret of the stars, of the world's heart-strings,


s: Then stoop thou upon him, and grip and hold him so!"


s: My wild soul waited on as falcons hover.


s: I beat the reedy fens as I trampled past.


s: And then -- with feathery thunder -- the bird of my desire


s: High up among the stars I saw his pinions spire.


s: As my falcon stoopt upon him, and gript and held him fast.


s: My soul dropt through the air -- with heavenly plunder? --


s: Gripping the dazzling bird my dreaming knew?


s: Despoiled of silver plumage, its voice forever stilled, --


s: Its guise with glory.  Oh, bird that I have killed,


s: Across my rapturous vision when first I dreamed of you!


s: Yet I fling my soul on high with new endeavor,


s: And I ride the world below with a joyful mind.


s: A wondrous silver heron its inner darkness fledges!~


s: The pledge is still the same -- for all disastrous pledges,


s: My soul still flies above me for the quarry it shall find.


s: The man Flammonde, from God knows where,


s: They made life awkward for their friends,


s: "How, how," he said.  "Friend Chang," I said,


s: Your big clock speaks with a deadly sound,


s: With a tick and a wail till dawn comes round.


s: While the monster shadows glower and creep,


s: "I will tell you a secret," Chang replied;


s: And I see green trees and fluttering wings,


s: And my deathless bird from Shanghai sings."


s: Then he lit five fire-crackers in a pan.


s: "Pop, pop," said the fire-crackers, "cra-cra-crack."


s: Then the proud gray joss in the corner stirred;


s: On his wrist appeared a gray small bird,


s: And this was the song of the gray small bird:


s: Who made Chang first of the kings of men?"


s: And the joss in the corner stirred again;


s: And the carved dog, curled in his arms, awoke,


s: Barked forth a smoke-cloud that whirled and broke.


s: It piled in a maze round the ironing-place,


s: With a scornful, witching, tea-rose face . . .


s: With a childlike smile for Chang and for me.


s: While Chang, with a countenance carved of stone,


s: And thus she sang to the busy man Chang:


s: I was your sweetheart, there on the sand --


s: Built on the edge of the sea-sands brown --


s: Built on the edge of the sea-sands brown . . .


s: And all the world had swords and clubs of stone,


s: We drank our tea in China beneath the sacred spice-trees,


s: And heard the curled waves of the harbor moan.


s: And this gray bird, in Love's first spring,


s: With a bright-bronze breast and a bronze-brown wing,


s: You were the heir of the yellow throne --


s: The world was the field of the Chinese man


s: And we were the pride of the Sons of Han?


s: We copied deep books and we carved in jade,


s: And wove blue silks in the mulberry shade . . ."


s: My heart was filled with marvel and dream,


s: Though I saw the western street-lamps gleam,


s: Though dawn was bringing the western day,


s: Though Chang was a laundryman ironing away . . .


s: Mingled there with the streets and alleys,


s: The railroad-yard and the clock-tower bright,


s: Stretched her hand toward Chang, and said:


s: Confucius later said were lived aright . . .


s: And this gray bird, on that day of spring,


s: With a bright-bronze breast, and a bronze-brown wing,


s: And then the bronze bird sang for you and me.


s: We walked alone.  Our hearts were high and free.


s: I had a silvery name, I had a silvery name,


s: The name you cried beside the tumbling sea?"


s: But she was arch, and knowing and glowing,


s: And the bird on his shoulder spoke for him.


s: "Darling . . . darling . . . darling . . . darling . . ."


s: Rakish and shrewd, with his collar awry,


s: Drowning with his bellowing the nightingale's cry:


s: Red fire-crackers, and green fire-crackers,


s: And dragons, dragons, Chinese dragons.'"


s: When we stood in our mist-hung velvet lawn,


s: And worked a spell this great joss taught


s: Till a God of the Dragons was charmed and caught?


s: A king of beauty and tempest and thunder


s: With thoughts of desire that were noble and grave.


s: We swam down the shore to the dragon-mountains,


s: We whirled to the peaks and the fiery fountains.


s: To our secret ivory house we were borne.


s: We looked down the wonderful wing-filled regions


s: Where the dragons darted in glimmering legions.


s: Right by my breast the nightingale sang;


s: When my hands and my hair and my feet you kissed,


s: When you cried for your heart's new pain,


s: And now the joss broke in with his song:


s: In vessels mountain-high and red and brown,


s: Moon-ships that climbed the storms and cut the skies.


s: On their prows were painted terrible bright eyes.


s: But I was then a wizard and a scholar and a priest;


s: And sunk their vessels with my wizard eyes,


s: And the stately lacquer-gate made safe again.


s: Deep, deep below the bay, the sea-weed and the spray,


s: "Bird, do you dream of our home-coming day


s: From the dragon-peak to our palace-door,


s: And we drove the steed in your singing path --


s: The ramping dragon of laughter and wrath:


s: And knighted this joss that decked it so?


s: There were golden fishes in the purple river


s: There were golden junks in the laughing river,


s: There were golden lilies by the bay and river,


s: And tinkling wind-bells in the gardens of the town


s: And his crown of pearl . . . and . . . jade,


s: And his nightingale reigning in the mulberry shade,


s: And sailors and soldiers on the sea-sands brown,


s: And priests who bowed them down to your song --


s: By the city called Han, the peacock town,


s: By the city called Han, the nightingale town,


s: Fluttering, fluttering, ghostly and gray,


s: Troubles more than the heart could hold,


s: Nests in the top of the almond tree . . .


s: The evergreen tree . . . and the mulberry tree . . .


s: Years on years I but half-remember . . .


s: There were ghostly veils and laces . . .


s: Caught in the web of the years that pass,


s: Will be as the gray stones in the grass.


s: Let it be forgotten as a flower is forgotten,


s: Forgotten as a fire that once was singing gold,


s: Time is a kind friend, he will make us old.


s: As a flower, as a fire, as a hushed footfall


s: I cried, "You know not for you are free!"


s: "That is my home-light, there in the vale,


s: But let me lie first mid the unfeeling fern.


s: "For there is a flame that has blown too near,


s: And there is a name that has grown too dear,


s: And to the still hills and cool earth and far sky I made moan,


s: "O would I were free as the wind on wing;


s: It was here a moonrise crept over the timberline.


s: It was here we turned the coffee cups upside down.


s: And your eyes and the moon swept the valley.


s: I will see you again in a million years.


s: These are three sumach-red dogs I run with.


s: I have the moon, the timberline, and you.


s: All three are gone -- and I keep all three.


s: White were your brow and breast, O Love!


s: By the woods and waters of Carmel the lark is glad in the sun.


s: Wild and sad are the thoughts you bring.


s: In the beautiful woods of Carmel an iris bends to the wind.


s: On the emerald hills of Carmel the spring and winter have met.


s: Heart once light as the floating feather


s: On the rocks and beaches of Carmel the surf is mighty to-day.


s: Time-that-is, with the hands that sever,


s: Music I heard with you was more than music,


s: And bread I broke with you was more than bread;


s: Now that I am without you, all is desolate;


s: Your hands once touched this table and this silver,


s: And I have seen your fingers hold this glass.


s: These things do not remember you, beloved, --


s: And yet your touch upon them will not pass.


s: For it was in my heart you moved among them,


s: And blessed them with your hands and with your eyes;


s: And in my heart they will remember always, --


s: They knew you once, O beautiful and wise.


s: The sea, the sunset, and the darkening blue;


s: Within their shelter is no space for fear,


s: Only the wonder that such things are true.


s: The thought of you is like the dusk at sea --


s: Space and wide freedom and old shores left far,


s: Sealed by the sunset and the evening star.


s: A weightless cargo in the musty hold, --


s: Of bright lagoons and prow-caressing lips,


s: Of stormy midnights, -- and a tale untold.


s: They have remembered islands in the dawn,


s: And windy capes that tried their slender spars,


s: And tortuous channels where their keels have gone,


s: And calm blue nights of stillness and the stars.


s: Ah, never think that ships forget a shore,


s: Or bitter seas, or winds that made them wise;


s: There is a dream upon them, evermore; --


s: And there be some who say that sunk ships rise


s: Blowing in mists, their spectral sails like light.


s: The gulls are swinging round their spars;


s: All the men of Harbury go down to the sea in ships,


s: The wind upon their faces, the salt upon their lips.


s: The little boys of Harbury when they are laid to sleep,


s: Dream of masts and cabins and the wonders of the deep.


s: The women-folk of Harbury have eyes like the sea,


s: Wide with watching wonder, deep with mystery.


s: I met a woman:  "Beyond the bar," she said,


s: "Beyond the shallow water where the green lines spread,


s: "Out beyond the sand-bar and the white spray,


s: My three sons wait for the Judgment Day."


s: I saw an old man who goes to sea no more,


s: Watch from morn till evening down on the shore.


s: "The sea's a hard mistress," the old man said;


s: "The sea is always hungry and never full fed.


s: "The sea had my father and took my son from me --


s: Sometimes I think I see them, walking on the sea!


s: "I'd like to be in Harbury on the Judgment Day,


s: When the word is spoken and the sea is wiped away,


s: "And all the drowned fisher boys, with sea-weed in their hair,


s: Rise and walk to Harbury to greet the women there.


s: "I'd like to be in Harbury to see the souls arise,


s: Son and mother hand in hand, lovers with glad eyes.


s: "I think there would be many who would turn and look with me,


s: Hoping for another glimpse of the cruel sea!


s: "They tell me that in Paradise the fields are green and still,


s: With pleasant flowers everywhere that all may take who will,


s: "And four great rivers flowing from out the Throne of God


s: That no one ever drowns in and souls may cross dry-shod.


s: "I think among those wonders there will be men like me,


s: Who miss the old salt danger of the singing sea.


s: "For in my heart, like some old shell, inland, safe and dry,


s: Any one who harks will still hear the sea cry."


s: He was straight and strong, and his eyes were blue


s: Than flushed his cheek when he married me.


s: We passed the porch where the swallows breed,


s: And I leaned on his arm, though I had no need,


s: It grips my throat when I try to pray --


s: That hung on the churchyard wall that day.


s: He would have taken a long, long grave --


s: A long, long grave, for he stood so tall . . .


s: And the smell of the nets on the churchyard wall!


s: Roof-tops, roof-tops, what do you cover?


s: Sad folk, bad folk, and many a glowing lover;


s: Wise people, simple people, children of despair --


s: Roof-tops, roof-tops, hiding pain and care.


s: Roof-tops, roof-tops, O what sin you're knowing,


s: While above you in the sky the white clouds are blowing;


s: While beneath you, agony and dolor and grim strife


s: Fight the olden battle, the olden war of Life.


s: Roof-tops, roof-tops, cover up their shame --


s: Wretched souls, prisoned souls too piteous to name;


s: Man himself hath built you all to hide away the stars --


s: Roof-tops, roof-tops, you hide ten million scars.


s: Roof-tops, roof-tops, well I know you cover


s: Many solemn tragedies and many a lonely lover;


s: But ah, you hide the good that lives in the throbbing city --


s: Patient wives, and tenderness, forgiveness, faith, and pity.


s: Roof-tops, roof-tops, this is what I wonder:


s: You are thick as poisonous plants, thick the people under;


s: Yet roofless, and homeless, and shelterless they roam,


s: The driftwood of the town who have no roof-top and no home!


s: By dancing water, there he stayed awhile


s: Singing, and three men with him, listeners,


s: All tramps, all homeless reapers of the wind,


s: Motionless now and while the song went on


s: Transfigured into mages thronged with visions;


s: There with the late light of the sunset on them


s: And on clear water spinning from a spring


s: Through little cones of sand dancing and fading,


s: Close beside pine woods where a hermit thrush


s: Cast, when love dazzled him, shadows of music


s: That lengthened, fluting, through the singer's pauses


s: While the sure earth rolled eastward bringing stars


s: Over the singer and the men that listened


s: There by the roadside, understanding all.


s: A train went by but nothing seemed to be changed.


s: Some eye at a car window must have flashed


s: From the plush world inside the glassy Pullman,


s: Carelessly bearing off the scene forever,


s: With idle wonder what the men were doing,


s: Seeing they were so strangely fixed and seeing


s: Torn papers from their smeary dreary meal


s: Spread on the ground with old tomato cans


s: Neglected while they listened to the song.


s: And while he sang the singer's face was lifted,


s: And the sky shook down a soft light upon him


s: Out of its branches where like fruits there were


s: Many beautiful stars and planets moving,


s: With lands upon them, rising from their seas,


s: Glorious lands with glittering sands upon them,


s: With soils of gold and magic mould for seeding,


s: The shining loam of lands afoam with gardens


s: On mightier stars with giant rains and suns


s: There in the heavens; but on none of all


s: Was there ground better than he stood upon:


s: There was no world there in the sky above him


s: Deeper in promise than the earth beneath him


s: Whose dust had flowered up in him the singer


s: I will sing, I will go, and never ask me "Why?"


s: And the snow came up and the fire it flew


s: And we couldn't find the warming room for two.


s: One had to suffer, so I left him the fire


s: And I went to the weather from my heart's desire.


s: It was night on the line, it was no more fire,


s: But the zero whistle through the icy wire.


s: Something like a shadow came moving slow.


s: Something flew above it like a kind of bird.


s: A light went round me but I kept my place.


s: My heart went open like an apple sliced;


s: But it takes a gentle Saviour to give a gentle look.


s: I looked in his eyes and I read the news;


s: His heart was having the railroad blues.


s: Oh, the railroad blues will cost you dear,


s: Keeps you moving on for something that you don't see here.


s: We stood and whispered in a kind of moon;


s: I found he was a roamer and a journey man


s: Looking for a lodging since the night began.


s: He went to the doors but he didn't have the pay.


s: He went to the windows, then he went away.


s: Says, "We'll walk together and we'll both be fed."


s: Says, "I will give you the `other' bread."


s: Oh, the bread he gave and without money!


s: It went all through me like a shining storm:


s: I heard the stars sing low like mothers.


s: He said:  "Now look, and help feed others."


s: They reached out, there was darkness only;


s: They could not see us, they were lonely.


s: I saw the hearts that deaths took hold of,


s: With the wounds bare that were not told of;


s: Hearts with things in them making gashes;


s: Hearts that were choked with their dreams' ashes;


s: Looking at their breasts and nothing there;


s: Hurt lads shivering with the fare-thee-wells.


s: I stood there but my heart went round them.


s: I begged him not to let me see them wasted.


s: Says, "Tell them then what you have tasted."


s: Told him I was lost. --  Says:  "Lean on me."


s: Something happened then I could not tell,


s: But I knew I had the water for every hell.


s: They needed what the stars were singing,


s: What the whole sky sang like waves of light,


s: The tune that it danced to, day and night.


s: Oh, I listened to the sky for the tune to come;


s: The stars could feel me reaching through them


s: They let down light and drew me to them.


s: Drinking in the word that all things say


s: Where the worlds hang growing in clustered shapes


s: Dripping the music like wine from grapes.


s: With "Love, Love, Love," above the pain,


s: -- The vine-like song with its wine-like rain.


s: Through heaven under heaven the song takes root


s: Of the turning, burning, deathless fruit.


s: I came to the earth and the pain so near me,


s: I tried that song but they couldn't hear me.


s: A seed for a song that would make men know.


s: Deep in the ground from my human grieving,


s: Oh, he took earth's pain to be his bride,


s: While the heart of life sang in his side.


s: Then sudden through the earth I found life springing;


s: The roots of beauty went round my bones.


s: I stirred, I rose like a flame, like a river,


s: I stood on the line, I could sing forever.


s: Love had pierced into my human sheathing,


s: Song came out of me simple as breathing.


s: A freight came by, the line grew colder,


s: Says, "Don't stay on the line such nights,"


s: And led me by the hand to the station lights.


s: I asked him in front of the station-house wall


s: If he had lodging.  Says, "None at all."


s: I pointed to my heart and looked in his face. --


s: "Here, -- if you haven't got a better place."


s: He looked and he said:  "Oh, we still must roam


s: But if you'll keep it open, well, I'll call it `home'."


s: The thrush now slept whose pillow was his wing.


s: Still in the faint starshine that silvered them,


s: While the low sound went on of broken water


s: Out of the spring and through the darkness flowing


s: Whether the men spoke after could not be told,


s: A mist from the ground so veiled them, but they waited


s: Then on the gilded track leading to the mountains,


s: Against the moon they faded in common gold


s: And earth bore East with all toward the new morning.


s: And God's name written there -- `John Doe'.


s: General William Booth Enters into Heaven.  [Vachel Lindsay]


s: Booth led boldly with his big bass drum --


s: (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)


s: The Saints smiled gravely and they said:  "He's come."


s: Drabs from the alleyways and drug fiends pale --


s: Minds still passion-ridden, soul-powers frail: --


s: Unwashed legions with the ways of Death --


s: The round world over.  (Booth had groaned for more.)


s: Bloomed with glory and transcendent dyes.


s: Big-voiced lasses made their banjos bang,


s: Tranced, fanatical, they shrieked and sang: --


s: "Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?"


s: Bull-necked convicts with that land make free.


s: Loons with trumpets blowed a blare, blare, blare,


s: Booth died blind and still by Faith he trod,


s: Booth led boldly, and he looked the chief,


s: Jesus came from out the court-house door,


s: Stretched his hands above the passing poor.


s: Booth saw not, but led his queer ones there


s: Round and round the mighty court-house square.


s: Marched on spotless, clad in raiment new.


s: The lame were straightened, withered limbs uncurled


s: And blind eyes opened on a new, sweet world.


s: Gone was the weasel-head, the snout, the jowl!


s: Sages and sibyls now, and athletes clean,


s: (Grand chorus of all instruments.  Tambourines to the foreground)


s: The hosts were sandalled, and their wings were fire!


s: (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)


s: But their noise played havoc with the angel-choir


s: Jing-jing-jingled in the hands of Queens.


s: And when Booth halted by the curb for prayer


s: He saw his Master thro' the flag-filled air.


s: Christ came gently with a robe and crown


s: For Booth the soldier, while the throng knelt down.


s: He saw King Jesus.  They were face to face,


s: And he knelt a-weeping in that holy place.


s: Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?


s: I walked the cold black pools without a star;


s: I dreamed of sun, fruit-tree, and virgin's kiss;


s: I woke alone with midnight near and far,


s: Though name be naught, and lips forever weak,


s: And with no blush, no tremor on the cheek,


s: I do claim consort with the great and strong


s: Who suffered ill and had the gift to speak.


s: But when the night comes black and cold,


s: And I know, when the world is clear of sound,


s: A white little rose, and a red little rose,


s: They thought him naught but the shepherd-boy.


s: The trees were feathered like birds, birds;


s: By the rosy cliffs of Devon, on a green hill's crest,


s: I would build me a house as a swallow builds its nest;


s: I would curtain it with roses, and the wind should breathe to me


s: The sweetness of the roses and the saltness of the sea.


s: Where the Tuscan olives whiten in the hot blue day,


s: I would hide me from the heat in a little hut of gray,


s: While the singing of the husbandman should scale my lattice green


s: Narrow is the street, Dear, and dingy are the walls


s: Wherein I wait your coming as the twilight falls.


s: All day with dreams I gild the grime till at your step I start --


s: The Lover envies an Old Man.  [Shaemas O Sheel]


s: Only dozing my days till my days be done,


s: "If you should tire of loving me".  [Margaret Widdemer]


s: Where the Flower of Mending yields the wax


s: When the rose of Morn through the Dawn was breaking,


s: And white on the hearth was last night's flame,


s: Thither to me 'twixt sleeping and waking,


s: And grey as the mists on the spectre meadows


s: And her hair's red splendor through the shadows


s: Like to the marsh-fire gleamed and played.


s: And she sang of the wondrous far-off places


s: The death-still, odorous, starlit spaces


s: And there till the day had its crest uplifted,


s: She stood with her still face bent on me,


s: Then forth with the Dawn departing drifted


s: And now my heart is the heart of a swallow


s: And forevermore in my ears are ringing --


s: Twain sole words of that May morn's singing,


s: From flower-bright fields to the wild lake-sedges


s: Till dim and small down the Night's pale edges


s: And light as the thought of a love forgotten,


s: The hours skim past, while before me flies


s: I am in love with high far-seeing places


s: That look on plains half-sunlight and half-storm, --


s: In love with hours when from the circling faces


s: Veils pass, and laughing fellowship glows warm.


s: You who look on me with grave eyes where rapture


s: And April love of living burn confessed, --


s: The Gods are good!  The world lies free to capture!


s: Life has no walls.  O take me to your breast!


s: Take me, -- be with me for a moment's span! --


s: While youth is ours, turn toward me for a space


s: The marvel of your rapture-lighted face!


s: Forever and forever and forever unconfessed


s: And I, I have a wreath to wear -- ah, never rue nor thorn!


s: I sometimes think that bitter wreath could be more sweetly worn!


s: For mine is made of ghostly bloom, of what I can't forget --


s: The fallen leaves of other crowns -- rose, laurel, violet!


s: Why should we argue with the falling dust


s: Our hearts are music-makers in the clouds,


s: Our feet are running on the heavenly ways.


s: She'll lead us to the forest where she hides


s: The yellow wine that keeps the angels young --


s: For whom alone the golden comb was hung.


s: Beneath the white clouds marshalled close


s: And spreading yew trees, old, unchanging


s: Sun on the dewy grasslands where late the frost hath shone,


s: And lo, what elfin cities are these we come upon!


s: What pigmy domes and thatches, what Arab caravan,


s: What downy-roofed pagodas that have known no touch of man!


s: Yet do these dawn-encampments bring the lurking memories


s: The Path that leads to Nowhere.  [Corinne Roosevelt Robinson]


s: Your space for room in the jostled street


s: Your fountains take and sweet bird calls


s: A Note from the Pipes.  [Leonora Speyer]


s: Your fern, your pool, your dream, your tree!


s: I heard you play, caught your swift eye,


s: "Hail, Pan!"  And sought to pass you by.


s: I'll come -- I'll be your bird, your star,


s: Your wood, your nymph, your kiss, your rhyme,


s: Lift their soft boughs like the arms of a dancer;


s: They beckon and call me, "Come out in the sun!"


s: With the silver-green of her garments blowing.


s: Mine eyes are filled today with old amaze


s: At mountains, and at meadows deftly strewn


s: And of her splendid vesture; and, agaze,


s: I stand where Spring her bright brocade of days


s: Embroidered o'er, and listen to the flow


s: Of sudden runlets -- the faint blasts they blow,


s: Low, on their stony bugles, in still ways.


s: For wonders are at one, confederate yet:


s: Yea, where the wearied year came to a close,


s: Voyage a l'Infini.  [Walter Conrad Arensberg]


s: Across the lake to the shadow of the willows,


s: Upon the solitary water -- breast to breast


s: O visionary wedding!  O stateliness of the procession!


s: It is accompanied by the image of itself


s: At evening when the slanted radiance fills


s: Their hollows, and the great winds let them be,


s: Oh, then I see the patience in their eyes


s: Out of the centuries that made them wise.


s: Their thoughts of granite and their whims of fern,


s: Though every tree be slain:  and how the pure,


s: Though for the quest a life is not too long.


s: When the blue hills grow tender, when they pull


s: The twilight close with gesture beautiful,


s: And shadows are their garments, and the air


s: Deepens, and the wild veery is at prayer, --


s: Their arms are strong around me; and I know


s: To the still land beyond the evening star,


s: Where everlasting hills and valleys are:


s: And terror shall be past, and grief, and war.


s: It is morning, Senlin says, and in the morning


s: When the light drips through the shutters like the dew,


s: And do the things my fathers learned to do.


s: Stars in the purple dusk above the rooftops


s: And I myself on a swiftly tilting planet


s: While waves far off in a pale rose twilight


s: The green earth tilts through a sphere of air


s: There are houses hanging above the stars


s: Should I not pause in the light to remember God?


s: Upright and firm I stand on a star unstable,


s: I will dedicate this moment before my mirror


s: To him alone, for him I will comb my hair.


s: Accept these humble offerings, cloud of silence!


s: I will think of you as I descend the stair.


s: Dew-drops flash from the chinaberry tree


s: It is morning, I awake from a bed of silence,


s: Shining I rise from the starless waters of sleep.


s: The walls are about me still as in the evening,


s: I am the same, and the same name still I keep.


s: The earth revolves with me, yet makes no motion,


s: In a whistling void I stand before my mirror,


s: There are horses neighing on far-off hills


s: And mountains flash in the rose-white dusk,


s: . . . It is morning, Senlin says, I ascend from darkness


s: And depart on the winds of space for I know not where,


s: My watch is wound, a key is in my pocket,


s: And the sky is darkened as I descend the stair.


s: There are shadows across the windows, clouds in heaven,


s: And a god among the stars; and I will go


s: Thinking of him as I might think of daybreak


s: To-day I have grown taller from walking with the trees,


s: The seven sister-poplars who go softly in a line;


s: And I think my heart is whiter for its parley with a star


s: That trembled out at nightfall and hung above the pine.


s: The call-note of a redbird from the cedars in the dusk


s: Woke his happy mate within me to an answer free and fine;


s: And a sudden angel beckoned from a column of blue smoke --


s: I never knew the earth had so much gold --


s: The fields run over with it, and this hill,


s: Is young with buoyant blooms that flame and thrill.


s: Such golden fires, such yellow -- lo, how good


s: This spendthrift world, and what a lavish God --


s: You too, beloved, are changed.  Again I see


s: Your face grow mystical, as on that night


s: And all the trembling world -- and you -- were white.


s: The fields absorb you, color you entire . . .


s: When I see birches bend to left and right


s: Across the lines of straighter darker trees,


s: I like to think some boy's been swinging them.


s: But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay.


s: Ice-storms do that.  Often you must have seen them


s: After a rain.  They click upon themselves


s: As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored


s: As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.


s: Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells,


s: Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust --


s: Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away


s: You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.


s: They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,


s: And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed


s: So low for long, they never right themselves:


s: You may see their trunks arching in the woods


s: Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground


s: Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair


s: Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.


s: But I was going to say when Truth broke in


s: With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm


s: I should prefer to have some boy bend them


s: As he went out and in to fetch the cows --


s: Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,


s: Whose only play was what he found himself,


s: One by one he subdued his father's trees


s: Until he took the stiffness out of them,


s: And not one but hung limp, not one was left


s: For him to conquer.  He learned all there was


s: To learn about not launching out too soon


s: Clear to the ground.  He always kept his poise


s: With the same pains you use to fill a cup


s: Up to the brim, and even above the brim.


s: Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,


s: Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.


s: So was I once myself a swinger of birches.


s: And life is too much like a pathless wood


s: Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs


s: Broken across it, and one eye is weeping


s: From a twig's having lashed across it open.


s: And then come back to it and begin over.


s: And half grant what I wish and snatch me away


s: Not to return.  Earth's the right place for love:


s: I don't know where it's likely to go better.


s: I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,


s: And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk


s: TOWARD heaven, till the tree could bear no more,


s: But dipped its top and set me down again.


s: That would be good both going and coming back.


s: One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.


s: Wind on my mouth and the taste of the rain,


s: Where the great hills circled and swept around me


s: And the torrents leapt to the mist-drenched plain;


s: To fallow fields when the Spring is new,


s: And the small pale folk who go up and down.


s: And all the while that I thought me wise


s: But I hushed my heart when it cried out aloud.


s: Fifty years spent, and what do they bring me?


s: Where is the heart of the boy to sing thee?


s: Where is the life for thy living to fill?


s: I passed a girl when my heart cried loud!


s: When, sick of all the sorrow and distress


s: That flourished in the City like foul weeds,


s: I sought blue rivers and green, opulent meads,


s: Whereon no foot of man had seemed to press,


s: I did not know how great had been my needs,


s: How wise the woodland's gospels and her creeds,


s: How good her faith to one long comfortless.


s: It would not cease though far my heart might roam.


s: It called me in the sunrise and the dew,


s: The jealous City, whispering always -- "Home!"


s: Space, and the twelve clean winds of heaven,


s: This is Tai Shan, the beautiful, the most holy.


s: Below my feet the foot-hills nestle, brown with flecks of green;


s: And one black bird circles above the void.


s: Space, and the twelve clean winds are here;


s: But I shall go down from this airy place, this swift white peace,


s: And time will close about me, and my soul stir to the rhythm


s: In the white windy presence of eternity.


s: But I have toiled through a million years


s: I have flooded the sands and washed them down,


s: High mountain-buttes I have chiselled, to shade


s: With the wind's aid, and the cloud's aid,


s: By moons and stars I have measured my task --


s: Its age and birth, through an awful girth


s: Little brown surf-bather of the mountains!


s: Tall, white limbed Yosemite, leaping down, down over the cliff?


s: Is it not enough to lean on the blue air of mountains?


s: Must you plunge for life and death through the foam?


s: She hurries through the night to a far lover.


s: While waves, remote in a pale blue starlight,


s: There are houses hanging above the stars,


s: And a wind from the long blue vault of time


s: Conceiving a god in the eye of the sun, --


s: It is I whose flesh is grey with the stones


s: There are roses to kiss:  and mouths to kiss;


s: And the star I laugh on tilts through heaven;


s: And the heavens are dark and steep . . .


s: In came the moon and covered me with wonder,


s: Touched me and was near me and made me very still.


s: In came a rush of song, like rain after thunder,


s: I lowered my head, I hid it, I would not see nor hear,


s: The birdsong had stricken me, had brought the moon too near.


s: But when I dared to lift my head, night began to fill


s: With singing in the darkness.  And then the thrush grew still.


s: And the moon came in, and silence, on my window-sill.


s: But there is only the oak tree rustling in the wind.


s: On your scissors and thimble just put down,


s: Standing under a spire of pale blue larkspur,


s: I think the Canterbury bells are playing little tunes.


s: You tell me that the peonies need spraying,


s: That the columbines have overrun all bounds,


s: Burning beneath the blue steeples of the larkspur.


s: And I long to kneel instantly at your feet,


s: Ye morning-glories, ring in the gale your bells,


s: And with dew water the walk's dust for the burden-bearing ants:


s: Ye swinging spears of the larkspur, open your wells of gold


s: And pay your honey-tax to the hummingbird . . .


s: And the bright travel of sun-drunk insects,


s: Where goes eaten grass and thrush-snapped dragonfly?


s: Creation eats itself, to spawn in swarming sun-rays . . .


s: Bull and cricket go to it:  life lives on life . . .


s: But O, ye flame-daubed irises, and ye hosts of gnats,


s: Like a well of light moving in morning's light,


s: Behind his mouth and his eyes are other mouth and eyes . . .


s: And in the actual morning, out of longing, shapes on the hills


s: Ye are the many mothers of this invisible god,


s: Calling to you, ye swinging spears of the larkspur.


s: Are blowing, and the bright blue squills.


s: Tripping by in high-heeled, ribboned shoes.


s: And one small flower has dropped upon my bosom.


s: Is the softness of a woman bathing in a marble basin,


s: So thick, she cannot see her lover hiding,


s: I should like to see it lying in a heap upon the ground.


s: All the pink and silver crumpled up on the ground.


s: I would be the pink and silver as I ran along the paths,


s: I should see the sun flashing from his sword-hilt and the buckles


s: To lead him in a maze along the patterned paths,


s: A bright and laughing maze for my heavy-booted lover,


s: With the shadows of the leaves and the sundrops,


s: It was brought to me this morning by a rider from the Duke.


s: "Madam, we regret to inform you that Lord Hartwell


s: As I read it in the white, morning sunlight,


s: "See that the messenger takes some refreshment.


s: The blue and yellow flowers stood up proudly in the sun,


s: In a month he would have been my husband.


s: And I answered, "It shall be as you have said."


s: Will give place to pillared roses, and to asters, and to snow.


s: And the softness of my body will be guarded from embrace


s: For the man who should loose me is dead,


s: We people on the pavement looked at him:


s: But still he fluttered pulses when he said,


s: "Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.


s: And he was rich, -- yes, richer than a king, --


s: In fine, we thought that he was everything


s: To make us wish that we were in his place.


s: So on we worked, and waited for the light,


s: And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;


s: And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,


s: Went home and put a bullet through his head.


s: His songs half written, his work half done,


s: Who knows what paths his bruised feet trod,


s: And said, "Poor truant, passionate fool!


s: We have to grant they're rather drear, --


s: Blake saw a treeful of angels at Peckham Rye,


s: And his hands could lay hold on the tiger's terrible heart.


s: Blake knew how deep is Hell, and Heaven how high,


s: And could build the universe from one tiny part.


s: Blake heard the asides of God, as with furrowed brow


s: He sifts the star-streams between the Then and the Now,


s: In vast infant sagacity brooding, an infant's grace


s: Shining serene on his simple, benignant face.


s: Blake was mad, they say, -- and Space's Pandora-box


s: Loosed its wonders upon him -- devils, but angels indeed.


s: I, they say, am sane, but no key of mine unlocks


s: One lock of one gate wherethrough Heaven's glory is freed.


s: And I stand and I hold my breath, daylong, yearlong,


s: Out of comfort and easy dreaming evermore starting awake, --


s: Yearning beyond all sanity for some echo of that Song


s: Of Songs that was sung to the soul of the madman, Blake!


s: My father got me strong and straight and slim,


s: My mother bore me glad and sound and sweet, --


s: But now, with me, their generation fails,


s: To cast through me the ancient mould again,


s: I have no son, whose life of flesh and fire


s: No daughter for whose soul my mother's flesh


s: "Even the sunbeams falter, flicker and bend --


s: Care when the birds come round the house


s: Always -- I tell you this they learned --


s: And preferring the out- to the in-door night,


s: They learned to leave the house-door wide


s: Made the great tree seem as a little bird


s: My love it should be silent, being deep --


s: And being very peaceful should be still --


s: Still as the utmost depths of ocean keep --


s: Yet is my love so great it needs must fill


s: The roof tree, bare of leaves, stands high,


s: My land was the west land; my home was on the hill,


s: I never think of my land but it makes my heart to thrill;


s: I never smell the west wind that blows the golden skies,


s: But old desire is in my feet and dreams are in my eyes.


s: My home crowned the high land; it had a stately grace.


s: I never think of my land but I see my mother's face;


s: I never smell the west wind that blows the silver ships


s: But old delight is in my heart and mirth is on my lips.


s: My land was a high land; my home was near the skies.


s: I never think of my land but a light is in my eyes;


s: I never smell the west wind that blows the summer rain --


s: But I am at my mother's knee, a little lad again.


s: First one, then two, by the paths of sleep


s: First eight, then nine, by the paths of sleep


s: And they pass through the sheepfold door;


s: First one, then two, by the paths of sleep,


s: These are fine children as all the world knows,


s: But into my arms in my dreams every night


s: Deborah shines like a star in the night;


s: Michael's round eyes are as blue as the sea,


s: And nothing on earth could be dearer to me.


s: But where is the baby with Faith can compare?


s: Who can make Christopher clear to my sight,


s: Or show me the eyes of my daughter Delight?


s: When people inquire I always just state:


s: "I have four nice children and hope to have eight.


s: Though the first four are pretty and certain to please,


s: Who knows but the rest may be nicer than these?"


s: I shall say, "Yes, the doors are locked,


s: I shall say, "There was nothing I did. --


s: Like a little white bear, -- and shall laugh,


s: ~Are there more?  Are there more, -- out there? --


s: O clinging hands, and eyes where sleep has set


s: Her seal of peace, go not from me so soon.


s: O little feet, take not the pathway yet,


s: The dust of other feet with tears is wet,


s: And sorrow wanders there with slow regret;


s: O eager feet, take not the path so soon.


s: Take it not yet, for death is at the end,


s: And kingly death will wait until you come.


s: Full soon the feet of youth will turn the bend,


s: The eyes will see where followed footsteps wend.


s: Go not so soon, though death be found a friend;


s: For kingly death will wait until you come.


s: How much of Godhood.  [Louis Untermeyer]


s: Ere I could see Her, touched with tears,


s: From thy young breast my groping lips were taken,


s: Their hunger stilled, so soon again to waken,


s: Ah! nevermore! for all the child might crave!


s: Ah! nevermore! through years unkind and dreary!


s: (Poor wordless mouth that could not speak thy name!


s: The viands that no memory can sweeten, --


s: Then fell a shadow first on thee and me,


s: And tendrils broke that held us two how dearly!


s: Once infinitely thine, then hourly, yearly,


s: Less thine, as less the worthy thine to be.


s: (O mouth that yet should kiss the mouth of Sin!


s: Were lies so sweet, now bitter to remember?


s: Slow sinks the flame unfaithful to an ember;


s: New beauty fades and passion's wine is thin.)


s: And all the love I had not from another!


s: Peace to thine unforgetting heart, O Mother,


s: Who gav'st the dear and unremembered food!


s: All things that shine through thee appear


s: Where have I seen thee?" --  And he said,


s: "When we are dancing 'round God's throne,


s: (Her Matins)    Her brothers and her sisters small


s: She woke, and washed and dressed each one.


s: (Prime)         Singing above her broom she stood


s: (Tierce)        Across the field and down the lane,


s: (Sexts)         To sit through half the afternoon


s: (Nones)         And lakes of shadow on the hill,