s: Veil not thine eyes, nor close thy lips,


s: Strong in the strength that God supplies,


s: For Christless men, with reckless hands,


s: Strong men's hearts grew faint with terror,


s: Wrecked their homes and swept them downward,


s: The treacherous sands had caught our boat,


s: With anxious hearts, but failing strength,


s: Through battles gained and victories won.


s: She came from the East a fair, young bride,


s: She plied her hands to life's homely tasks,


s: While joy and grief, like bitter and sweet,


s: Nor music of birds, nor brooks, nor bees,


s: She toiled and waited through weary years


s: Eyes which once had glared with anguish,


s: "Cease your bloodshed," cried the hermit,


s: From that hour Rome, grown more thoughtful,


s: "Light! more light! for Death is weaving


s: Gracious Saviour, when life's day-dreams


s: From kindred and friends doomed to roam.


s: But hark! from our Southland are floating


s: When they entered the threshold of being


s: When ye plead for the wrecked and fallen,


s: For mothers who dwell 'neath the shadows


s: The crops which their fathers have sown.


s: Men grasped the prize, grew proud and strong,


s: And cursed the land with crime and wrong.


s: Four and thirty years--what change since


s: Has flashed the dawn of freedom's light.


s: Kneels and implores that her darling child


s: Shall not be torn from her bleeding heart,


s: The father may soothe his child to sleep,


s: Where freedom dwells as a welcome guest.


s: His walls may be bare of pictured grace,


s: But the wife and children sheltered there


s: Gives place to fanes of prayer and praise.


s: To-night we would bring our meed of praise


s: Whose face was as flint against our wrong.


s: And Phillips, the peerless, grand and brave,


s: A tower of strength to the outcast slave.


s: Our Douglass, too, with his massive brain,


s: Who plead our cause with his broken chain,


s: The curse that writhed and died at his feet.


s: Saw none he despised, though poor and black;


s: To-night with greenest laurels we'll crown


s: North Elba's grave where sleeps John Brown,


s: And showed how a brave old man could die.


s: Who returned to his God with chains he had rent.*


s: With all her passengers northward bound,


s: The train that ran till it ceased to pay,


s: Whose graves are thick whose ranks are thin.


s: Bring love for hate, and peace for strife;


s: To strengthen, crown and bless the land.


s: Than that which comes from a riven chain;


s: As dreams that are past, a tale all told,


s: Are the days when men were bought and sold;


s: Though the hands once pierced and bleeding


s: And saints were casting down their crowns


s: "The chimes! the chimes!" the old man cried,


s: Yes, peace had come with death's sweet calm,


s: Sheathes the sword and blunts the spear,


s: When men shall learn in the light of God


s: It is at my persuasion that these poems are now published.  The


s: earliest of them were read to me in London in 1896, when the


s: writer was seventeen; the later ones were sent to me from India


s: in 1904, when she was twenty-five; and they belong, I think,


s: almost wholly to those two periods.  As they seemed to me to have


s: published.  The writer hesitated.  "Your letter made me very


s: proud and very sad," she wrote.  "Is it possible that I have


s: written verses that are 'filled with beauty,' and is it possible


s: that you really think them worthy of being given to the world?


s: You know how high my ideal of Art is; and to me my poor casual


s: little poems seem to be less than beautiful--I mean with that


s: final enduring beauty that I desire."  And, in another letter,


s: she writes: "I am not a poet really.  I have the vision and the


s: desire, but not the voice.  If I could write just one poem full


s: of beauty and the spirit of greatness, I should be exultantly


s: silent for ever; but I sing just as the birds do, and my songs


s: are as ephemeral."  It is for this bird-like quality of song, it


s: seems to me, that they are to be valued.  They hint, in a sort of


s: language and under partly Western influences.  They do not


s: express the whole of that temperament; but they express, I think,


s: Sarojini Chattopadhyay was born at Hyderabad on February 13,


s: from the ancient family of Chattorajes of Bhramangram, who were


s: noted throughout Eastern Bengal as patrons of Sanskrit learning,


s: and for their practice of Yoga.  He took his degree of Doctor of


s: Science at the University of Edinburgh in 1877, and afterwards


s: studied brilliantly at Bonn.  On his return to India he founded


s: Sarojini was the eldest of a large family, all of whom were


s: taught English at an early age.  "I," she writes, "was stubborn


s: and refused to speak it.  So one day when I was nine years old my


s: shutting me in a room alone for a whole day.  I came out of it a


s: full-blown linguist.  I have never spoken any other language to


s: him, or to my mother, who always speaks to me in Hindustani.  I


s: don't think I had any special hankering to write poetry as a


s: little child, though I was of a very fanciful and dreamy nature.


s: My training under my father's eye was of a sternly scientific


s: "From that day my 'poetic career' began.  At thirteen I wrote a


s: long poem a la 'Lady of the Lake'--1300 lines in six days.  At


s: thirteen I wrote a drama of 2000 lines, a full-fledged passionate


s: touch a book.  My health broke down permanently about this time,


s: and my regular studies being stopped I read voraciously.  I


s: suppose the greater part of my reading was done between fourteen


s: and sixteen.  I wrote a novel, I wrote fat volumes of journals; I


s: Before she was fifteen the great struggle of her life began.  Dr.


s: honourable family, not a Brahmin.  The difference of caste roused


s: his; and in 1895 she was sent to England, against her will, with


s: a special scholarship from the Nizam.  She remained in England,


s: with an interval of travel in Italy, till 1898, studying first at


s: at Girton.  She returned to Hyderabad in September 1898, and in


s: the December of that year, to the scandal of all India, broke


s: through the bonds of caste, and married Dr. Naidu.  "Do you know


s: I have some very beautiful poems floating in the air," she wrote


s: to me in 1904; "and if the gods are kind I shall cast my soul


s: like a net and capture them, this year.  If the gods are


s: kind--and grant me a little measure of health.  It is all I need


s: to make my life perfect, for the very 'Spirit of Delight' that


s: Shelley wrote of dwells in my little home; it is full of the


s: music of birds in the garden and children in the long arched


s: verandah."  There are songs about the children in this book; they


s: "My ancestors for thousands of years," I find written in one of


s: her letters, "have been lovers of the forest and mountain caves,


s: great dreamers, great scholars, great ascetics.  My father is a


s: dreamer himself, a great dreamer, a great man whose life has been


s: there are many men more beloved.  He has a great white beard and


s: the profile of Homer, and a laugh that brings the roof down.  He


s: has wasted all his money on two great objects: to help others,


s: and on alchemy.  He holds huge courts every day in his garden of


s: all the learned men of all religions--Rajahs and beggars and


s: saints and downright villains all delightfully mixed up, and all


s: treated as one.  And then his alchemy!  Oh dear, night and day


s: the experiments are going on, and every man who brings a new


s: prescription is welcome as a brother.  But this alchemy is, you


s: know, only the material counterpart of a poet's craving for


s: Beauty, the eternal Beauty.  'The makers of gold and the makers


s: of verse,' they are the twin creators that sway the world's


s: secret desire for mystery; and what in my father is the genius of


s: the desire for beauty.  Do you remember Pater's phrase about


s: Leonardo da Vinci, 'curiosity and the desire of beauty'?"


s: It was the desire of beauty that made her a poet; her "nerves of


s: delight" were always quivering at the contact of beauty.  To


s: those who knew her in England, all the life of the tiny figure


s: seemed to concentrate itself in the eyes; they turned towards


s: beauty as the sunflower turns towards the sun, opening wider and


s: wider until one saw nothing but the eyes.


s: She was dressed always in clinging dresses of Eastern silk, and


s: as she was so small, and her long black hair hung straight down


s: her back, you might have taken her for a child.  She spoke


s: little, and in a low voice, like gentle music; and she seemed,


s: Through that soul I seemed to touch and take hold upon the East.


s: And first there was the wisdom of the East. I have never known


s: And along with this wisdom, as of age or of the age of a race,


s: there was what I can hardly call less than an agony of sensation.


s: pleasure might be held in a flower's cup or the imagined frown of


s: seemed things of importance.  At the age of twelve she passed the


s: pleased; such things did not appeal to me."  But here, in a


s: letter from Hyderabad, bidding one "share a March morning" with


s: her, there is, at the mere contact of the sun, this outburst:


s: "Come and share my exquisite March morning with me: this


s: sumptuous blaze of gold and sapphire sky; these scarlet lilies


s: that adorn the sunshine; the voluptuous scents of neem and


s: champak and serisha that beat upon the languid air with their


s: implacable sweetness; the thousand little gold and blue and


s: silver breasted birds bursting with the shrill ecstasy of life in


s: unashamed in its exulting and importunate desire for life and


s: love. And, do you know that the scarlet lilies are woven petal by


s: soul made incarnate music, these heavy perfumes are my emotions


s: dissolved into aerial essence, this flaming blue and gold sky is


s: the 'very me,' that part of me that incessantly and insolently,


s: yes, and a little deliberately, triumphs over that other part--a


s: thing of nerves and tissues that suffers and cries out, and that


s: must die to-morrow perhaps, or twenty years hence."


s: Then there was her humour, which was part of her strange wisdom,


s: and was always awake and on the watch.  In all her letters,


s: written in exquisite English prose, but with an ardent imagery


s: and a vehement sincerity of emotion which make them, like the


s: poems, indeed almost more directly, un-English, Oriental, there


s: was always this intellectual, critical sense of humour, which


s: could laugh at one's own enthusiasm as frankly as that enthusiasm


s: reserve of her manner, was a mask or a shelter.  "I have taught


s: myself," she writes to me from India, "to be commonplace and like


s: to-morrow we die.'  I have gone through so many yesterdays when I


s: Her desire, always, was to be "a wild free thing of the air like


s: the birds, with a song in my heart."  A spirit of too much fire


s: in too frail a body, it was rarely that her desire was fully


s: granted.  But in Italy she found what she could not find in


s: England, and from Italy her letters are radiant.  "This Italy is


s: made of gold," she writes from Florence, "the gold of dawn and


s: daylight, the gold of the stars, and, now dancing in weird


s: enchanting rhythms through this magic month of May, the gold of


s: fireflies in the perfumed darkness--'aerial gold.'  I long to


s: catch the subtle music of their fairy dances and make a poem with


s: movements.  Would it not be wonderful?  One black night I stood


s: in a garden with fireflies in my hair like darting restless stars


s: these little things move me so deeply?  It is because I have a


s: most 'unbalanced intellect,' I suppose."  Then, looking out on


s: Florence, she cries, "God! how beautiful it is, and how glad I am


s: in the beauty like wine, "wine, golden and scented, and shining,


s: fit for the gods; and the gods have drunk it, the dead gods of


s: Etruria, two thousand years ago.  Did I say dead?  No, for the


s: gods are immortal, and one might still find them loitering in


s: some solitary dell on the grey hillsides of Fiesole.  Have I seen


s: In Italy she watches the faces of the monks, and at one moment


s: one's blood, and sees the eager hurrying faces of men and women


s: deliberately renounce this coloured, unquiet, fiery human life of


s: frivolities and vanities and coquetries and caprices" are, to us,


s: amusement as they flutter about her, petting her as if she were a


s: herself sorrowfully:  "How utterly empty their lives must be of


s: She sat in our midst, and judged us, and few knew what was


s: passing behind that face "like an awakening soul," to use one of


s: her own epithets.  Her eyes were like deep pools, and you seemed


s: to fall through them into depths below depths.


s: She sways like a flower in the wind of our song;


s: She skims like a bird on the foam of a stream,


s: She floats like a laugh from the lips of a dream.


s: We bear her along like a pearl on a string.


s: She hangs like a star in the dew of our song;


s: She springs like a beam on the brow of the tide,


s: She falls like a tear from the eyes of a bride.


s: Lightly, O lightly we glide and we sing,


s: Where the voice of the wind calls our wandering feet,


s: Through echoing forest and echoing street,


s: With lutes in our hands ever-singing we roam,


s: All men are our kindred, the world is our home.


s: Our lays are of cities whose lustre is shed,


s: The laughter and beauty of women long dead;


s: The sword of old battles, the crown of old kings,


s: And happy and simple and sorrowful things.


s: What hope shall we gather, what dreams shall we sow?


s: Where the wind calls our wandering footsteps we go.


s: No love bids us tarry, no joy bids us wait:


s: The voice of the wind is the voice of our fate.


s: Why do you weave a garment so gay? . . .


s: Why do you weave a garment so bright? . . .


s: Like the plumes of a peacock, purple and green,


s: What do you weave in the moonlight chill? . . .


s: White as a feather and white as a cloud,


s: Rise, brothers, rise, the wakening skies pray


s: The wind lies asleep in the arms of the dawn


s: Come, let us gather our nets from the shore,


s: To capture the leaping wealth of the tide, for


s: No longer delay, let us hasten away in the


s: The sea is our mother, the cloud is our brother,


s: What though we toss at the fall of the sun


s: He who holds the storm by the hair, will hide


s: Sweet is the shade of the cocoanut glade, and


s: And sweet are the sands at the full o' the


s: moon with the sound of the voices we love.


s: But sweeter, O brothers, the kiss of the spray


s: Row, brothers, row to the blue of the verge,


s: Whither dost thou hide from the magic of my flute-call?


s: In what moonlight-tangled meshes of perfume,


s: Where the clustering keovas guard the squirrel's slumber,


s: Where the deep woods glimmer with the jasmine's bloom?


s: I'll feed thee, O beloved, on milk and wild red honey,


s: I'll bear thee in a basket of rushes, green and white,


s: To a palace-bower where golden-vested maidens


s: Thread with mellow laughter the petals of delight.


s: Whither dost thou loiter, by what murmuring hollows,


s: Where oleanders scatter their ambrosial fire?


s: Come, thou subtle bride of my mellifluous wooing,


s: Come, thou silver-breasted moonbeam of desire!


s: Honey, child, honey, child, whither are you going?


s: Would you leave the mother who on golden grain has fed you?


s: Would you grieve the lover who is riding forth to wed you?


s: Mother mine, to the wild forest I am going,


s: Where upon the champa boughs the champa buds are blowing;


s: To the koil-haunted river-isles where lotus lilies glisten,


s: The voices of the fairy folk are calling me: O listen!


s: Honey, child, honey, child, the world is full of pleasure,


s: Of bridal-songs and cradle-songs and sandal-scented leisure.


s: Your bridal robes are in the loom, silver and saffron glowing,


s: Your bridal cakes are on the hearth: O whither are you going?


s: The bridal-songs and cradle-songs have cadences of sorrow,


s: The laughter of the sun to-day, the wind of death to-morrow.


s: Grind them in mortars of amber and gold,


s: The fresh green leaves of the henna-tree.


s: The tilka's red for the brow of a bride,


s: And betel-nut's red for lips that are sweet;


s: Thine is the bounty that prospered our sowing,


s: Thine is the bounty that nurtured our corn.


s: We bring thee our songs and our garlands for tribute,


s: The gold of our fields and the gold of our fruit;


s: O giver of mellowing radiance, we hail thee,


s: We praise thee, O Surya, with cymbal and flute.


s: Lord of the rainbow, lord of the harvest,


s: Thine is the mercy that cherished our furrows,


s: Thine is the mercy that fostered our grain.


s: We bring thee our thanks and our garlands for tribute,


s: The wealth of our valleys, new-garnered and ripe;


s: O sender of rain and the dewfall, we hail thee,


s: We praise thee, Varuna, with cymbal and pipe.


s: Queen of the gourd-flower, queen of the harvest,


s: Thine is the plentiful bosom that feeds us,


s: Thine is the womb where our riches have birth.


s: We bring thee our love and our garlands for tribute,


s: With gifts of thy opulent giving we come;


s: O source of our manifold gladness, we hail thee,


s: We praise thee, O Prithvi, with cymbal and drum.


s: Lord of the Universe, Lord of our being,


s: Thou art the Seed and the Scythe of our harvests,


s: We bring thee our lives and our labours for tribute,


s: Grant us thy succour, thy counsel, thy care.


s: O Life of all life and all blessing, we hail thee,


s: We praise thee, O Bramha, with cymbal and prayer.


s: Like a serpent to the calling voice of flutes,


s: Glides my heart into thy fingers, O my Love!


s: Where the night-wind, like a lover, leans above


s: And on ripe boughs of many-coloured fruits


s: Bright parrots cluster like vermilion flowers.


s: Like the perfume in the petals of a rose,


s: Hides thy heart within my bosom, O my love!


s: Lie still, O love, until the morning sows


s: Hath blown thee out with their sudden breath;


s: Naught shall revive thy vanished spark . . .


s: Hath crushed thee down to thy hidden root;


s: Nought shall restore thy glory fled . . .


s: Shall the blossom live when the tree is dead?


s: Shall the flesh survive when the soul is gone?


s: Soul-deep in visions that poppy-like sprang;


s: And spirits of Truth were the birds that sang,


s: And spirits of Love were the stars that glowed,


s: And spirits of Peace were the streams that flowed


s: In that magical wood in the land of sleep.


s: Lone in the light of that magical grove,


s: Gather and gleam round my delicate youth,


s: And I heard the song of the spirits of Truth;


s: By the streams of the spirits of Peace that flow


s: You flaunt your beauty in the rose, your glory in the dawn,


s: Your sweetness in the nightingale, your whiteness in the swan.


s: You haunt my waking like a dream, my slumber like a moon,


s: Pervade me like a musky scent, possess me like a tune.


s: Yet, when I crave of you, my sweet, one tender moment's grace,


s: Shall any foolish veil divide my longing from my bliss?


s: Shall any fragile curtain hide your beauty from my kiss?


s: What war is this of THEE and ME? Give o'er the wanton strife,


s: You are the heart within my heart, the life within my life.


s: Of fair and frail and fluttering leaves,


s: For its dreams like the fluttering leaves have gone,


s: Is frail as a cassia-flower, is my heart,


s: With many a subtle and exquisite thought.


s: Like odours of cinnamon, sandal and clove,


s: Prince, where your radiant cities smile,


s: Your birds of peace white-pinioned float


s: To shield the truth and smite the wrong,


s: The serpents are asleep among the poppies,


s: The fireflies light the soundless panther's way


s: To tangled paths where shy gazelles are straying,


s: And parrot-plumes outshine the dying day.


s: Are stirring like sweet maidens when they dream.


s: A caste-mark on the azure brows of Heaven,


s: The golden moon burns sacred, solemn, bright


s: The winds are dancing in the forest-temple,


s: And make the gods their incense-offering.


s: Here, O my heart, let us burn the dear dreams that are dead,


s: Here in this wood let us fashion a funeral pyre


s: Of fallen white petals and leaves that are mellow and red,


s: Here let us burn them in noon's flaming torches of fire.


s: We are weary, my heart, we are weary, so long we have borne


s: The heavy loved burden of dreams that are dead, let us rest,


s: Let us scatter their ashes away, for a while let us mourn;


s: We will rest, O my heart, till the shadows are gray in the west.


s: But soon we must rise, O my heart, we must wander again


s: Into the war of the world and the strife of the throng;


s: Let us rise, O my heart, let us gather the dreams that remain,


s: We will conquer the sorrow of life with the  sorrow of song.


s: And so the past becomes a mountain-cell,


s: Where lone, apart, old hermit-memories dwell


s: Of the keen heart that hastens to forget


s: And now the Soul stands in a vague, intense


s: On the dim chamber-threshold . . . lo! he sees


s: Like a strange, fated bride as yet unknown,


s: Children, ye have not lived, to you it seems


s: About your hearts like billows on the deep


s: Children, ye have not lived, ye but exist


s: Till some resistless hour shall rise and move


s: Your hearts to wake and hunger after love,


s: And thirst with passionate longing for the things


s: That burn your brows with blood-red sufferings.


s: Till ye have battled with great grief and fears,


s: And borne the conflict of dream-shattering years,


s: Wounded with fierce desire and worn with strife,


s: Children, ye have not lived: for this is life.


s: In noon-tide hours, O Love, secure and strong,


s: I need thee not; mad dreams are mine to bind


s: The world to my desire, and hold the wind


s: A voiceless captive to my conquering song.


s: I need thee not, I am content with these:


s: Keep silence in thy soul, beyond the seas!


s: But in the desolate hour of midnight, when


s: On the still mountains and the soundless deeps,


s: And my soul hungers for thy voice, O then,


s: Let thy soul answer mine across the seas.


s: Long hast thou held me, pitiless god of Pain,


s: My tired breast girt with suffering, and my brows


s: Long have I borne thy service, through the stress


s: Of rigorous years, sad days and slumberless nights,


s: For thy dark altars, balm nor milk nor rice,


s: But mine own soul thou'st ta'en for sacrifice:


s: All the rich honey of my youth's desire,


s: And all the sweet oils from my crushed life drawn,


s: And all my flower-like dreams and gem-like  fire


s: Of hopes up-leaping like the light of dawn.


s: I have no more to give, all that was mine


s: Is laid, a wrested tribute, at thy shrine;


s: Let me depart, for my whole soul is wrung,


s: Let me depart, with faint limbs let me creep


s: To some dim shade and sink me down to sleep.


s: And from their pierced hearts, rich with pain,


s: Eyes ravished with rapture, celestially panting,


s: what passionate bosoms aflaming with fire


s: O wild and entrancing the strain of keen music


s: that cleaveth the stars like a wail of desire,


s: And beautiful dancers with houri-like faces


s: bewitch the voluptuous watches of night.


s: The scents of red roses and sandalwood flutter


s: and die in the maze of their gem-tangled hair,


s: And smiles are entwining like magical serpents


s: the poppies of lips that are opiate-sweet;


s: Their glittering garments of purple are burning


s: like tremulous dawns in the quivering air,


s: And exquisite, subtle and slow are the tinkle


s: and tread of their rhythmical, slumber-soft feet.


s: Now silent, now singing and swaying and swinging,


s: like blossoms that bend to the breezes or showers,


s: Now wantonly winding, they flash, now they


s: falter, and, lingering, languish in radiant


s: fingers enchant through melodious hours,


s: Eyes ravished with rapture, celestially panting,


s: what passionate bosoms aflaming with fire!


s: You died and I buried you deep under forests


s: And track me beyond the cerulean foam of the


s: Would you tear from my lintels these sacred


s: Would you touch and defile with dead fingers


s: Go back to your grave, O my Dream, under


s: Where a heart-riven child hid you once, seven


s: Who bade you arise from your darkness? I


s: Profane not the shrines I have raised in the


s: Shalt thou be vanquished, whose imperial feet


s: Have shattered armies and stamped empires dead?


s: Who shall unking thee, husband of a queen?


s: Earth's glories flee of human eyes unseen,


s: Earth's kingdoms fade to a remembered dream,


s: But thine henceforth shall be a power supreme,


s: The winds thy heralds and thy vassals all


s: Where'er the radiance of thy coming fall,


s: Shall dawn for thee her saffron footcloths spread,


s: In serried splendour, and the night unfold


s: Her velvet darkness wrought with starry gold


s: For kingly raiment, soft as cygnet-down.


s: My hair shall braid thy temples like a crown


s: Of sapphires, and my kiss upon thy brows


s: Till the sun yield thee homage of his light.


s: O king, thy kingdom who from thee can wrest?


s: What fate shall dare uncrown thee from this breast,


s: O god-born lover, whom my love doth gird


s: Of Hope's triumphant keen flame-carven sword?


s: Around her countless treasures were spread;


s: The tissues that veiled her delicate breast,


s: Glowed with the hues of a lapwing's crest;


s: But still she gazed in her mirror and sighed


s: "Is thy least desire unfulfilled, O Sweet?


s: "Let thy mouth speak and my life be spent


s: No savour or salt hath my dream or day."


s: Queen Gulnaar sighed like a murmuring rose:


s: Seven handmaids meet for the Persian Queen."


s: Seven new moon tides at the Vesper call,


s: A young queen eyed like the morning star:


s: "I bring thee a rival, O Queen Gulnaar."


s: But still she gazed in her mirror and sighed:


s: Like seven soft gems on a silken thread,


s: Like seven bright petals of Beauty's flower


s: Queen Gulnaar sighed like a murmuring rose


s: When spring winds wakened the mountain floods,


s: And kindled the flame of the tulip buds,


s: When bees grew loud and the days grew long,


s: And the peach groves thrilled to the oriole's song,


s: And still she gazed in her mirror and sighed:


s: Queen Gulnaar's daughter two spring times old,


s: In blue robes bordered with tassels of gold,


s: And plucked from her hand the mirror away.


s: Her mother's fillet with fringes of pearls;


s: Quickly she turned with a child's caprice


s: And pressed on the mirror a swift, glad kiss.


s: Queen Gulnaar laughed like a tremulous rose:


s: While yet my sweet life burgeons with its spring;


s: Fair is my youth, and rich the echoing boughs


s: With all my blossoming hopes unharvested,


s: My joys ungarnered, all my songs unsung,


s: Of love and grief, of earth and altering sky;


s: Till all my human hungers are fulfilled,


s: In tattered robes that hoard a glittering trace


s: Of bygone colours, broidered to the knee,


s: Behold her, daughter of a wandering race,


s: Tameless, with the bold falcon's agile grace,


s: With frugal skill her simple wants she tends,


s: She folds her tawny heifers and her sheep


s: On lonely meadows when the daylight ends,


s: Ere the quick night upon her flock descends


s: Like a black panther from the caves of sleep.


s: And drinks of life at Time's forgotten source.


s: O Youth, sweet comrade Youth, wouldst thou be gone?


s: Long have we dwelt together, thou and I;


s: And plucked the fruit of many an alien sky.


s: Ah, fickle friend, must I, who yesterday


s: Dreamed forwards to long, undimmed ecstasy,


s: Henceforward dream, because thou wilt not stay,


s: Backward to transient pleasure and to thee?


s: I give thee back thy false, ephemeral vow;


s: Kiss me who hold thine image in my heart.


s: See how the speckled sky burns like a pigeon's throat,


s: See the white river that flashes and scintillates,


s: Curved like a tusk from the mouth of the city-gates.


s: Hark, from the minaret, how the muezzin's call


s: Floats like a battle-flag over the city wall.


s: From trellised balconies, languid and luminous


s: Faces gleam, veiled in a splendour voluminous.


s: Leisurely elephants wind through the winding lanes,


s: Swinging their silver bells hung from their silver chains.


s: Round the high Char Minar sounds of gay cavalcades


s: Blend with the music of cymbals and serenades.


s: Over the city bridge Night comes majestical,


s: Borne like a queen to a sumptuous festival.


s: When dawn's first cymbals beat upon the sky,


s: Rousing the world to labour's various cry,


s: To tend the flock, to bind the mellowing grain,


s: From ardent toil to forge a little gain,


s: And fasting men go forth on hurrying feet,


s: BUY BREAD, BUY BREAD, rings down the eager street.


s: When the earth falters and the waters swoon


s: And in dim shelters koils hush their notes,


s: And the faint, thirsting blood in languid throats


s: Craves liquid succour from the cruel heat,


s: BUY FRUIT, BUY FRUIT, steals down the panting street.


s: When twilight twinkling o'er the gay bazaars,


s: When lutes are strung and fragrant torches lit


s: Drinking together of life's poignant sweet,


s: BUY FLOWERS, BUY FLOWERS, floats down the singing street.


s: O young through all thy immemorial years!


s: Rise, Mother, rise, regenerate from thy gloom,


s: And, like a bride high-mated with the spheres,


s: Beget new glories from thine ageless womb!


s: The nations that in fettered darkness weep


s: Crave thee to lead them where great mornings break . . . .


s: Mother, O Mother, wherefore dost thou sleep?


s: Arise and answer for thy children's sake!


s: Thy Future calls thee with a manifold sound


s: To crescent honours, splendours, victories vast;


s: Waken, O slumbering Mother and be crowned,


s: Who once wert empress of the sovereign Past.


s: Whose spacious darkness guards your dust;


s: Dream yields to dream, strife follows strife,


s: With faith that sinks and feet that tire;


s: Still lures us with its beckoning flight,


s: On Sunday morning, October seventh, 1849, Reuben A. Riley and his


s: second son.  They called him James Whitcomb.  This was in a shady


s: found a brother and a sister waiting to greet him--John Andrew


s: and Martha Celestia, and afterward came Elva May--Mrs. Henry


s: Eitel-- Alexander Humbolt and Mary Elizabeth, who, of all, alone


s: lives to see this collection of her brother's poems.


s: James Whitcomb was a slender lad, with corn-silk hair and wide


s: blue eyes.  He was shy and timid, not strong physically, dreading


s: playmates.  And yet he was full of the spirit of youth, a spirit


s: that manifested itself in the performance of many ingenious


s: pranks.  His every-day life was that of the average boy in the


s: average country town of that day, but his home influences were


s: exceptional.  His father, who became a captain of cavalry in the


s: Civil War, was a lawyer of ability and an orator of more than


s: local distinction.  His mother was a woman of rare strength of


s: character combined with deep sympathy and a clear understanding.


s: Together, they made home a place to remember with thankful heart.


s: When James was twenty years old, the death of his mother made a


s: profound impression on him, an impression that has influenced


s: much of his verse and has remained with him always.


s: At an early age he was sent to school and, "then sent back


s: again," to use his own words.  He was restive under what he


s: called the "iron discipline."  A number of years ago, he spoke


s: of these early educational beginnings in phrases so picturesque


s: and so characteristic that they are quoted in full:


s: "My first teacher was a little old woman, rosy and roly-poly, who


s: school in her little Dame-Trot kind of dwelling of three rooms,


s: with a porch in the rear, like a bracket on the wall, which was


s: part of the play-ground of her 'scholars,'--for in those days


s: pupils were called 'scholars' by their affectionate teachers.


s: Among the twelve or fifteen boys and girls who were there I


s: remember particularly a little lame boy, who always got the first


s: "This first teacher of mine was a mother to all her 'scholars,'


s: and in every way looked after their comfort, especially when


s: certain little ones grew drowsy.  I was often, with others,


s: carried to the sitting-room and left to slumber on a small made-


s: down pallet on the floor.  She would sometimes take three or four


s: admonished into silence, grew deeply interested in watching a


s: spare old man who sat at a window with its shade drawn down.


s: After a while we became accustomed to this odd sight and would


s: laugh, and talk in whispers and give imitations, as we sat in a


s: low sewing-chair, of the little old pendulating blind man at the


s: window.  Well, the old man was the gentle teacher's charge, and


s: for this reason, possibly, her life had become an heroic one,


s: caring for her helpless husband who, quietly content, waited


s: always at the window for his sight to come back to him.  And


s: doubtless it is to-day, as he sits at another casement and sees


s: not only his earthly friends, but all the friends of the Eternal


s: Home, with the smiling, loyal, loving little woman forever at his


s: "She was the kindliest of souls even when constrained to punish


s: us.  After a whipping she invariably took me into the little


s: kitchen and gave me two great white slabs of bread cemented


s: together with layers of butter and jam.  As she always whipped me


s: over every lick, you will have an idea how much punishment I


s: could stand.  When I was old enough to be lifted by the ears out


s: promised to 'whip sure, if he'd just wait till I got big enough.'


s: "There was but one book at school in which I found the slightest


s: interest:  McGuffey's old leather-bound Sixth Reader.  It was the


s: reader.'  When we were to read the death of 'Little Nell,' I


s: would run away, for I knew it would make me cry, that the other


s: boys would laugh at me, and the whole thing would become


s: ridiculous.  I couldn't bear that.  A later teacher, Captain Lee


s: O. Harris, came to understand me with thorough sympathy, took


s: compassion on my weaknesses and encouraged me to read the best


s: literature.  He understood that he couldn't get numbers into my


s: head.  You couldn't tamp them in!  History I also disliked as a


s: dry thing without juice, and dates melted out of my memory as


s: speedily as tin-foil on a red-hot stove.  But I always was ready


s: to declaim and took natively to anything dramatic or theatrical.


s: Captain Harris encouraged me in recitation and reading and had


s: ever the sweet spirit of a companion rather than the manner of an


s: But if there was "only one book at school in which he found the


s: slightest interest," he had before that time displayed an


s: affection for a book--simply as such and not for any printed word


s: love.  Speaking of this incident--and he liked to refer to it


s: as his "first literary recollection," he said:  "Long


s: before I was old enough to read I remember buying a book at an


s: old auctioneer's shop in Greenfield.  I can not imagine what


s: prophetic impulse took possession of me and made me forego the


s: ginger cakes and the candy that usually took every cent of my


s: youthful income.  The slender little volume must have cost all of


s: neat little affair about the size of a pocket Testament.  I


s: carried it around with me all day long, delighted with the very


s: " 'What have you got there, Bub?' some one would ask.  'A book,'


s: I would reply.  'What kind of a book?'  'Poetry-book.'  'Poetry!'


s: embarrassed, I'd shake my head and make my escape, but I held on


s: Every boy has an early determination--a first one--to follow some


s: being a policeman, or a performer on the high trapeze.  The poet


s: would not have been the "Peoples' Laureate," had his fairy god-


s: mother granted his boy-wish, but the Greenfield baker.  For to


s: his childish mind it "seemed the acme of delight," using again


s: his own happy expression, "to manufacture those snowy loaves of


s: bread, those delicious tarts, those toothsome bon-bons.  And then


s: guardedly exhibit.  The thought of getting money for them was


s: to me a sacrilege.  Sell them?  No indeed.  Eat 'em--eat 'em, by


s: tray loads and dray loads!  It was a great wonder to me why the


s: pale-faced baker in our town did not eat all his good things.


s: This I determined to do when I became owner of such a grand


s: establishment.  Yes, sir.  I would have a glorious feast.  Maybe


s: I'd have Tom and Harry and perhaps little Kate and Florry in to


s: help us once in a while.  The thought of these play-mates as


s: 'grown-up folks' didn't appeal to me.  I was but a child, with


s: wide-open eyes, a healthy appetite and a wondering mind.  That


s: was all.  But I have the same sweet tooth to-day, and every time


s: I pass a confectioner's shop, I think of the big baker of our


s: town, and Tom and Harry and the youngsters all."


s: As a child, he often went with his father to the court-house


s: where the lawyers and clerks playfully called him "judge Wick."


s: Here as a privileged character he met and mingled with the


s: country folk who came to sue and be sued, and thus early the


s: dialect, the native speech, the quaint expressions of his "own


s: people" were made familiar to him, and took firm root in the


s: fresh soil of his young memory.  At about this time, he made his


s: first poetic attempt in a valentine which he gave to his mother.


s: Not only did he write the verse, but he drew a sketch to


s: accompany it, greatly to his mother's delight, who, according to


s: the best authority, gave the young poet "three big cookies and


s: didn't spank me for two weeks.  This was my earliest literary


s: Shortly after his sixteenth birthday, young Riley turned his back


s: different fields of art, indulging a slender talent for painting


s: until he thought he was destined for the brush and palette, and


s: then making merry with various musical instruments, the banjo,


s: the guitar, the violin, until finally he appeared as bass drummer


s: into the more enviable position of snare drummer.  Then I wanted


s: to travel with a circus, and dangle my legs before admiring


s: thousands over the back seat of a Golden Chariot.  In a dearth of


s: myself, and the idea took possession of me that I might be a


s: clown, introduced as a character-song-man and the composer of my


s: "My father was thinking of something else, however, and one day I


s: an old frame house that drank paint by the bucketful, learning to


s: ornamental painter, and for two summers traveled about with a


s: small company of young fellows calling ourselves 'The Graphics,'


s: who covered all the barns and fences in the state with


s: At another time his, young man's fancy saw attractive


s: possibilities in the village print-shop, and later his


s: ambition was diverted to acting, encouraged by the good times he


s: had in the theatricals of the Adelphian Society of Greenfield.


s: "In my dreamy way," he afterward said, "I did a little of a


s: number of things fairly well--sang, played the guitar and violin,


s: encourage my verse-making for he thought it too visionary, and


s: being a visionary himself, he believed he understood the dangers


s: of following the promptings of the poetic temperament.  I doubted


s: me, nonplused, as the worst case he had ever had.  He wanted me


s: to do something practical, besides being ambitious for me to


s: follow in his footsteps, and at last persuaded me to settle down


s: and read law in his office.  This I really tried to do


s: conscientiously, but finding that political economy and


s: Blackstone did not rhyme and that the study of law was


s: unbearable, I slipped out of the office one summer afternoon,


s: when all out-doors called imperiously, shook the last dusty


s: "The immediate instigator of my flight was a traveling medicine


s: man who appealed to me for this reason:  My health was bad, very


s: bad,--as bad as I was.  Our doctor had advised me to travel, but


s: how could I travel without money?  The medicine man needed an


s: assistant and I plucked up courage to ask if I could join the


s: "I rode out of town with that glittering cavalcade without saying


s: doctor, as I found out, he was a man of excellent habits, and the


s: vagabonds like myself.  It was delightful to bowl over the


s: country in that way.  I laughed all the time.  Miles and miles of


s: sun shone and all the golden summer lay spread out before us, it


s: was glorious just to drift on through it like a wisp, of


s: thistle-down, careless of how, or when, or where the wind should


s: anchor us. 'There's a tang of gipsy blood in my veins that pants


s: "My duty proper was the manipulation of two blackboards, swung at


s: These boards were alternately embellished with colored drawings


s: illustrative of the manifold virtues of the nostrum vended.


s: Sometimes I assisted the musical olio with dialect recitations


s: and character sketches from the back step of the wagon.  These


s: selections in the main originated from incidents and experiences


s: along the route, and were composed on dull Sundays in lonesome


s: little towns where even the church bells seemed to bark at us."


s: On his return to Greenfield after this delightful but profitless


s: tour he became the local editor of his home paper and in a few


s: months "strangled the little thing into a change of ownership."


s: The new proprietor transferred him to the literary department and


s: him, filled it with verse.  But there was not room in his


s: department for all he produced, so he began, timidly, to offer


s: his poetic wares in foreign markets.  The editor of The


s: Indianapolis Mirror accepted two or three shorter verses but in


s: doing so suggested that in the future he try prose.  Being but an


s: editor made a further suggestion; this time that he try poetry


s: again.  The Danbury (Connecticut) News, then at the height of its


s: Mirror episode and Mr. McGeechy, its managing editor, wrote the


s: young poet a graceful note of congratulation.  Commenting on


s: these parlous times, Riley afterward wrote, "It is strange how


s: little a thing sometimes makes or unmakes a fellow.  In these


s: dark days I should have been content with the twinkle of the


s: tiniest star, but even this light was withheld from me.  Just


s: then came the letter from McGeechy; and about the same time,


s: arrived my first check, a payment from Hearth and Home for a


s: contribution called A Destiny (now A Dreamer in A Child World).


s: The letter was signed, 'Editor' and unless sent by an assistant


s: it must have come from Ik Marvel himself, God bless him!  I


s: thought my fortune made.  Almost immediately I sent off another


s: contribution, whereupon to my dismay came this reply:  'The


s: management has decided to discontinue the publication and hopes


s: that you will find a market for your worthy work elsewhere.'


s: Then followed dark days indeed, until finally, inspired by my old


s: poems to Longfellow, who replied in his kind and gentle manner


s: with the substantial encouragement for which I had long


s: In the year following, Riley formed a connection with The


s: Anderson (Indiana) Democrat and contributed verse and locals in


s: more than generous quantities.  He was happy in this work and had


s: fortune knocked at his door and, conspiring with circumstances


s: and a friend or two, induced the young poet to devise what


s: afterward seemed to him the gravest of mistakes,--the Poe-poem


s: hoax.  He was then writing for an audience of county papers and


s: never dreamed that this whimsical bit of fooling would be carried


s: He was inwardly distressed by the belief that his failure to get


s: the magazines to accept his verse was due to his obscurity, while


s: the rival paper who jeered daily at his poetical pretensions.


s: So, to prove that editors would praise from a known source what


s: they did not hesitate to condemn from one unknown, and to silence


s: Poe, concocting a story, to accompany the poem, setting forth how


s: view.  In a few words Mr. Riley related the incident and then


s: dismissed it.  "I studied Poe's methods.  He seemed to have a


s: theory, rather misty to be sure, about the use of 'm's' and 'n's'


s: verses were finished and ready for trial.


s: "A friend, the editor of The Kokomo Dispatch, undertook the


s: launching of the hoax in his paper; he did this with great


s: editorial gusto while, at the same time, I attacked the


s: authenticity of the poem in The Democrat.  That diverted all


s: possible suspicion from me.  The hoax succeeded far too well, for


s: nation-wide, and the necessary expose had to be made.  I was


s: appalled at the result.  The press assailed me furiously, and


s: even my own paper dismissed me because I had given the


s: Two dreary and disheartening years followed this tragic event,


s: years in which the young poet found no present help, nor future


s: hope.  But over in Indianapolis, twenty miles away, happier


s: circumstances were shaping themselves.  Judge E. B. Martindale,


s: editor and proprietor of The Indianapolis Journal, had been


s: attracted by certain poems in various papers over the state and


s: at the very time that the poet was ready to confess himself


s: beaten, the judge wrote:  "Come over to Indianapolis and we'll


s: give you, a place on The Journal."  Mr. Riley went.  That was the


s: the way easy, still from that time it was ever an ascending


s: journey.  As soon as he was comfortably settled in his new


s: position, the first of the Benj. F. Johnson poems made its


s: appearance.  These dialect verses were introduced with editorial


s: comment as coming from an old Boone county farmer, and their


s: reception was so cordial, so enthusiastic, indeed, that the


s: business manager of The Journal, Mr. George C. Hitt, privately


s: published them in pamphlet form and sold the first edition of one


s: counter.  This marked an epoch in the young poet's progress and


s: was the beginning of a friendship between him and Mr. Hitt that


s: has never known interruption.  This first edition of The Old


s: Swimmin' Hole and 'Leven More Poems has since become extremely


s: rare and now commands a high premium.  A second edition was


s: promptly issued by a local book dealer, whose successors, The


s: Bowen-Merrill Company--now The Bobbs-Merrill Company--have


s: continued, practically without interruption, to publish Riley's


s: The call to read from the public platform had by this time become


s: modesty and shyness fought the battle for privacy.  He told


s: briefly and in his own inimitable fashion of these trying


s: experiences.  "In boyhood I had been vividly impressed with


s: some day I might follow his example.  At first I read at Sunday-


s: school entertainments and later, on special occasions such as


s: Memorial Days and Fourth of Julys.  At last I mustered up


s: sufficient courage to read in a city theater, where, despite the


s: conspiracy of a rainy night and a circus, I got encouragement


s: enough to lead me to extend my efforts.  And so, my native state


s: and then the country at large were called upon to bear with me


s: and I think I visited every sequestered spot north or south


s: particularly distinguished for poor railroad connections.  At


s: different times, I shared the program with Mark Twain, Robert J.


s: Burdette and George Cable, and for a while my gentlest and


s: cheeriest of friends, Bill Nye, joined with me and made the dusty


s: practical jokes on each other or indulging in some mischievous


s: banter before the audience.  On one occasion, Mr. Nye, coming


s: before the foot-lights for a word of general introduction, said,


s: 'Ladies and gentlemen, the entertainment to-night is of a dual


s: nature.  Mr. Riley and I will speak alternately.  First I come


s: out and talk until I get tired, then Mr. Riley comes out and


s: talks until YOU get tired!'  And thus the trips went merrily


s: enough at times and besides I learned to know in Bill Nye a man


s: blessed with as noble and heroic a heart as ever beat.  But the


s: making of trains, which were all in conspiracy to outwit me,


s: schedule or no schedule, and the rush and tyrannical pressure of


s: inviolable engagements, some hundred to a season and from Boston


s: to San Francisco, were a distress to my soul.  I am glad that's


s: over with.  Imagine yourself on a crowded day-long excursion;


s: imagine that you had to ride all the way on the platform of the


s: car; then imagine that you had to ride all the way back on the


s: same platform; and lastly, try to imagine how you would feel if


s: you did that every day of your life, and you will then get a


s: glimmer--a faint glimmer--of how one feels after traveling about


s: "All this time I had been writing whenever there was any strength


s: more often using the rubber end of the pencil than the point.


s: "In my readings I had an opportunity to study and find out for


s: myself what the public wants, and afterward I would endeavor to


s: use the knowledge gained in my writing.  The public desires


s: nothing but what is absolutely natural, and so perfectly natural


s: as to be fairly artless.  It can not tolerate affectation, and it


s: simple sentiments that come direct from the heart.  While on the


s: lecture platform I watched the effect that my readings had on the


s: that my recitation was at fault and tried to find out why.  Once


s: a man and his wife made an exit while I was giving The Happy


s: Little Cripple--a recitation I had prepared with particular


s: enthusiasm and satisfaction.  It fulfilled, as few poems do, all


s: the requirements of length, climax and those many necessary


s: features for a recitation.  The subject was a theme of real


s: pathos, beautified by the cheer and optimism of the little


s: sufferer.  Consequently when this couple left the hall I was very


s: learned that they had a little hunch-back child of their own.


s: After this experience I never used that recitation again.  On the


s: the public would enjoy a poem which, because of some blind


s: impulse, I thought unsuitable.  Once a man said to me, 'Why don't


s: never occurred to me for I thought it 'wouldn't go.'  He


s: persuaded me to try it and it became one of my most favored


s: recitations.  Thus, I learned to judge and value my verses by


s: their effect upon the public.  Occasionally, at first, I had


s: presumed to write 'over the heads' of the audience, consoling


s: myself for the cool reception by thinking my auditors were not of


s: after a time it came home to me that I myself was at fault in


s: these failures, and then I disliked anything that did not appeal


s: to the public and learned to discriminate between that which did


s: not ring true to my hearers and that which won them by virtue of


s: its truthfulness and was simply heart high."


s: As a reader of his own poems, as a teller of humorous stories, as


s: beyond question.  In a lecture on the Humorous Story, Mark Twain,


s: different ways of telling it, once said:


s: "It takes only a minute and a half to tell it in its comic form;


s: and it isn't worth telling after all.  Put into the


s: humorous-story form, it takes ten minutes, and is about the


s: funniest thing I have ever listened to--as James Whitcomb Riley


s: "The simplicity and innocence and sincerity and unconsciousness


s: of Riley's old farmer are perfectly simulated, and the result is


s: a performance which is thoroughly charming and delicious.  This


s: is art--and fine and beautiful, and only a master can compass


s: It was in  that The Old Swimmin' Hole and 'Leven More


s: Poems first appeared in volume form.  Four years afterward, Riley


s: the program.  It is probably true that no one appearing at that


s: time was less known to the vast audience in Chickering Hall than


s: James Whitcomb Riley, but so great and so spontaneous was the


s: enthusiasm when he left the stage after his contribution to the


s: first day's program, that the management immediately announced a


s: place would be made for Mr. Riley on the second and last day's


s: program.  It was then that James Russell Lowell introduced him in


s: "Ladies and gentlemen:  I have very great pleasure in presenting


s: to you the next reader of this afternoon, Mr. James Whitcomb


s: Riley, of Indiana.  I confess, with no little chagrin and sense


s: of my own loss, that when yesterday afternoon, from this


s: platform, I presented him to a similar assemblage, I was almost


s: completely a stranger to his poems.  But since that time I have


s: been looking into the volumes that have come from his pen, and in


s: that I deeply regret I had not long before made acquaintance with


s: you of my own knowledge, that you are to have the pleasure of


s: Two years later a selection from his poems was published in


s: England under the title Old Fashioned Roses and his


s: international reputation was established.  In his own country the


s: scholastic recognition.  Yale made him an Honorary Master of Arts


s: Pennsylvania conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Letters,


s: and in 1907 Indiana University gave him his LL. D.  Still more


s: recently the Academy of Arts and Letters elected him to


s: membership, and in 1912 awarded him the gold medal for poetry.


s: About this time a yet dearer, more touching tribute came to him


s: from school children.  On October 7, 1911, the schools of Indiana


s: and one year later, the school children of practically every


s: section of the country had programs in his honor.


s: As these distinguished honors came they found him each time


s: surprised anew and, though proud that they who dwell in the high


s: places of learning should come in cap and gown to welcome him,


s: yet gently and sincerely protesting his own unworthiness.  And as


s: Mr. Riley made his home in Indianapolis from the time judge


s: Martindale invited him to join The Journal's forces, and no one


s: of her citizens was more devoted, nor was any so universally


s: loved and honored.  Everywhere he went the tribute of quick


s: recognition and cheery greeting was paid him, and his home was


s: the shrine of every visiting Hoosier.  High on a sward of velvet


s: grass stands a dignified middle-aged brick house.  A dwarfed


s: stone wall, broken by an iron gate, guards the front lawn, while


s: in the rear an old-fashioned garden revels in hollyhocks and wild


s: pilgrim must journey to Lockerbie Street, a miniature


s: thoroughfare half hidden between two more commanding avenues.  It


s: no longer than a five minutes' walk, but its fame is for all


s: "Such a dear little street it is, nestled away


s: From the noise of the city and heat of the day,


s: In cool shady coverts of whispering trees,


s: With their leaves lifted up to shake hands with the breeze


s: Which in all its wide wanderings never may meet


s: With a resting-place fairer than Lockerbie Street!"


s: Riley never married.  He lived with devoted, loyal and


s: understanding friends, a part of whose life he became many years


s: ago.  Kindly consideration, gentle affection, peace and order,--


s: all that go to make home home, were found here blooming with the


s: hollyhocks and the wild roses.  Every day some visitor knocked


s: for admittance and was not denied; every day saw the poet calling


s: city's shaded streets or far out into the country.


s: And so his life drew on to its last and most beautiful year.


s: Since his serious illness in 1910, the public had shown its love


s: for him more and more frequently.  On the occasion of his


s: birthday in 1912, Greenfield had welcomed him home through a host


s: when he first gained public recognition, had a Riley Day in 1913.


s: The Indiana State University entertained him the same year, as


s: did also the city of Cincinnati.  In 1915 there was a Riley Day


s: at Columbus, Indiana, and during all this time each birthday and


s: Christmas was marked by "poetry-showers," and by thousands of


s: letters of affectionate congratulation and by many tributes in


s: His last birthday, October 7, 1915, was the most notable of all.


s: Honorable Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, suggested


s: to the various school superintendents that one of Riley's poems


s: be read in each schoolhouse, with the result that Riley


s: celebrations were general among the children of the entire


s: country.  In a proclamation by Governor Ralston the State of


s: Indiana designated the anniversary as Riley Day in honor of its


s: "most beloved citizen."  Thousands of letters and gifts from the


s: poet's friends poured in--letters from schools and organizations


s: and Riley Clubs as well as from individuals--while flowers came


s: from every section of the country.  Among them all, perhaps the


s: poet was most pleased with a bunch of violets picked from the


s: banks of the Brandywine by the children of a Riley school.


s: It was on this last birthday that an afternoon festival of Riley


s: poems set to music and danced in pantomime took place at


s: Indianapolis.  This was followed at night by a dinner in his


s: honor at which Charles Warren Fairbanks presided, and the


s: speakers were Governor Ralston, Doctor John Finley, Colonel


s: his most wonderful smile, his dimpled boyish smile, and when he


s: rose to speak it was with a perceptible quaver in his voice that


s: he said:  "Everywhere the faces of friends, a beautiful throng of


s: The winter and spring following, Riley spent quietly at Miami,


s: Florida, where he had gone the two previous seasons to escape the


s: In April, he returned home, feeling at his best, and, as if by


s: premonition, sought out many of his friends, new and old, and


s: took them for last rides in his automobile.  A few days before


s: the end, he visited Greenfield to attend the funeral of a dear


s: boyhood chum, Almon Keefer, of whom he wrote in A Child-World.


s: All Riley's old friends who were still left in Greenfield were


s: gathered there and to them he spoke words of faith and good


s: cheer.  Almon Keefer had "just slipped out" quietly and


s: peacefully, he said, and "it was beautiful."


s: And as quietly and peacefully his own end came--as he had desired


s: suffering, nor confronting death.  This was Saturday night, July


s: under the dome of Indiana's capitol, while the people filed by,


s: thousands upon thousands.  Business men were there, and


s: schoolgirls, matrons carrying market baskets, mothers with little


s: workman in a blue jumper with his hat in his band, silent,


s: inarticulate, yet bidding his good-by, too.  On the following


s: day, with only his nearest and dearest about him, all that was


s: mortal of the people's poet was quietly and simply laid to rest.


s: My fancies--doubtless, for ventilation--


s: Slipped out in the street of "Auld Lang Syne."--


s: Were thronging the shadowy side of the street


s: The same old dreams of our boyhood's days


s: That never come true, from the vague sensation


s: Of walking asleep in the world's strange ways.


s: And there was the selfsame clock that ticked


s: From the close of dusk to the burst of morn,


s: When life-warm hands plucked the golden corn


s: And the "chany dog" on the mantel-shelf,


s: Looked just as at first, when I hugged myself


s: And down to the swing in the locust-tree,


s: Where the grass was worn from the trampled ground,


s: And where "Eck" Skinner, "Old" Carr, and three


s: "Doin' sky-scrapers," or "whirlin' round":


s: And again Bob climbed for the bluebird's nest,


s: Of Guymon's barn, where still, unguessed,


s: The old ghosts romp through the best days dead!


s: And again I gazed from the old schoolroom


s: With a wistful look, of a long June day,


s: It seemed, toward me.--And again I thought


s: Kept in after school--for a girl was caught


s: And down through the woods to the swimming-hole--


s: Where the big, white, hollow old sycamore grows,--


s: And we never cared when the water was cold,


s: Young Philiper Flash was a promising lad,


s: His intentions were good--but oh, how sad


s: And bloom of perfection may turn out bad.


s: And such a good mother had Philiper Flash;


s: Her voice was as soft as the creamy plash


s: That gushed through the holes of her patent churn-dash;--


s: And the excellent woman loved Philiper so,


s: She could cry sometimes when he stumped his toe,--


s: When the dear little angel learned to swear.


s: That his wife had "such a ridiculous way,--


s: And the excellent wife, with a martyr's look,


s: Unless when he spanked him for getting a fall!"


s: Young Philiper Flash, as time passed by,


s: The most promising youth.--"He's powerful sly,


s: "Every copper he gets he's sure to spend--


s: What a crop of wild oats the boy will grow!"


s: But his dear good mother knew Philiper's ways


s: So--well, she managed the money to raise;


s: (In the manner of speaking we have nowadays).


s: If he went without money he'd soon grow wild."


s: "Swung on to the reins," and went "slingin' the cash."


s: As old Flash himself, in his office one day,


s: And shaved the note on his life, they say.


s: And he had for his grave a magnificent tomb,


s: Though the venturous finger that pointed "Gone Home,"


s: As it feared that a popular lie was told.


s: Had clinked to the tune of his father's smile;


s: And he strewed his wealth with such lavish hand,


s: His rakish ways were the talk of the land,


s: (A certain foreboding of fresh surprise).


s: And wore "loud clothes" and a weak mustache,


s: With a very fast horse of "remarkable dash."


s: And Philiper Flash was his mother's joy,


s: With the thought that "she lived for her darling boy."


s: How her darling boy relished a "tare."--


s: Young Philiper Flash, on a winterish day,


s: His excellent mother, I think I was told,


s: Whacked his jugular open and went to smash.


s: That can buy one hour of the life you live


s: Or the trivial cause of your smiling face!


s: With all your harvest-store of olden joys,--


s: And drowsy dawns, and noons when golden grain


s: Too full of joy to rest, and dreams to play.


s: The same old Summer, with the same old smile


s: We knew in childhood!  Though a weary while


s: Since that far time, yet memories reconcile


s: The heart with odorous breaths of clover hay;


s: And again I hear the doves, and the sun streams through


s: The old barn door just as it used to do.


s: And so it seems like welcoming a friend--


s: An old, OLD friend, upon his coming home


s: From some far country--coming home to spend


s: Long, loitering days with me:  And I extend


s: My hand in rapturous glee:--And so you've come!--


s: Ho, I'm so glad!  Come in and take a chair:


s: Well, this is just like OLD times, I declare!


s: There wasn't two purtier farms in the state


s: Than the couple of which I'm about to relate;--


s: And jest at the edge of a flourishin' town.


s: That allus had handled a good 'eal o' land,


s: And was sharp as a tack in drivin' a trade--


s: For that's the way most of his money was made.


s: And all the grounds and the orchards about


s: And little dwarf trees not as thick as your wrist


s: With ripe apples on 'em as big as your fist:


s: And quinces--Well! ANY fruit ANY tree bears;


s: And th purtiest stream--jest a-swimmin' with fish,


s: The purtiest orch'rds--I wish you could see


s: How purty they was, fer I know it 'ud be


s: A regular treat!--but I'll go ahead with


s: And more money than he knowed what to do with,--


s: And HE says to Brown, in his offhand way--


s: Who was trainin' some newfangled vines round a bay-


s: What'll you take fer this property here?--


s: I'm talkin' o' leavin' the city this year,


s: And I'll BUY this place, if it ain't too dear!"--


s: "I don't like to part with the place," says Brown;


s: "That house yonder--bricks painted red--


s: Says Brown, as he winked at a hole in his shoe,


s: "But I'll tell you right here jest what I KIN do:--


s: If you'll pay the figgers I'll sell IT to you.,"


s: Smith went over and looked at the place--


s: Badgered with Brown, and argied the case--


s: Thought that Brown's figgers was rather too tall,


s: But, findin' that Brown wasn't goin' to fall,


s: Fer the farm and the fixtures--the live stock an' all.


s: And so Smith moved from the city as soon


s: As he possibly could--But "the man in the moon"


s: Knowed more'n Smith o' farmin' pursuits,


s: And jest to convince you, and have no disputes,


s: As he called it, o' raisin' "the best that growed,"


s: And squashes as lengthy as young alligators.


s: When he gits on a farm after leavin' a town!--


s: Expectin' to raise himself up to renown,


s: By growin' of squashes--WITHOUT ANY SHAME--


s: As useless and long as a technical name.


s: He plastered the ground with patent manure.


s: He had cultivators, and double-hoss plows,


s: And patent machines fer milkin' his cows;


s: And patent hay-forks--patent measures and weights,


s: And new patent back-action hinges fer gates,


s: And barn locks and latches, and such little dribs,


s: And patents to keep the rats out o' the cribs--


s: And horries;--and had patent rollers and scrapers,


s: So you can imagine how matters turned out:


s: But BROWN didn't have not a shadder o' doubt


s: That Smith didn't know what he was about


s: When he said that "the OLD way to farm was played out."


s: That the OLD way o' workin' was better instead


s: O' his "modern idees," he allus turned red,


s: INFERNALLY anxious to hear theirselves crow?


s: And guessed that he'd manage to hoe his own row.


s: Brown he come onc't and leant over the fence,


s: And told Smith that he couldn't see any sense


s: Fer the sake o' such no-account experiments


s: It'll come out the leetlest end of the horn!"


s: Says Brown, as he pulled off a big roastin'-ear


s: Smith's poor yaller shoots, and says he, "Looky here!


s: THIS corn was raised in the old-fashioned way,


s: And I rather imagine that THIS corn'll pay


s: Expenses fer RAISIN' it!--What do you say?"


s: Brown got him then to look over his crop.--


s: And let out a look o' the wildest surprise


s: When Brown showed him punkins as big as the lies


s: He was stuffin' him with--about offers he's had


s: Fer his farm:  "I don't want to sell very bad,"


s: Fer yourself how matters is standin' with me,


s: I UNDERSTAND FARMIN' and I'd better stay,


s: You know, on my farm;--I'm a-makin' it pay--


s: I oughtn't to grumble!--I reckon I'll clear


s: Away over four thousand dollars this year."


s: And that was the reason, he made it appear,


s: Why he didn't care about sellin' his farm,


s: And hinted at his havin' done himself harm


s: In sellin' the other, and wanted to know


s: If Smith wouldn't sell back ag'in to him.--So


s: Smith took the bait, and says he, "Mr. Brown,


s: I wouldn't SELL out but we might swap aroun'--


s: Over Smith!  Wasn't it?) Well, sir, this Brown


s: Played out his hand and brought Smithy down--


s: As slick as a whistle, an' that wasn't all,--


s: He managed to trade back ag'in the next fall,--


s: And the next--and the next--as long as Smith stayed


s: He reaped with his harvests an annual trade.--


s: Why, I reckon that Brown must 'a' easily made--


s: On an AVERAGE--nearly two thousand a year--


s: Together he made over seven thousand--clear.--


s: Till Mr. Smith found he was losin' his health


s: In as big a proportion, almost, as his wealth;


s: So at last he concluded to move back to town,


s: And sold back his farm to this same Mr. Brown


s: At very low figgers, by gittin' it down.


s: Than merely advisin' the Smiths fer to stay


s: In their grocery stores in flourishin' towns


s: And leave agriculture alone--and the Browns.


s: But she was sharper than an eastern wind.


s: Of a bright May morn and a marriage day?"


s: And she sighed in a listless way she had,--


s: Of my sweet guitar through its wanderings?"


s: And she sighed in the weary way she had,--


s: Will it please you, dear, that I now begin


s: And she spoke again in the following way,--


s: She kissed his pictured face sometimes, and said:


s: I would that you would tell me, if not dead,


s: The picture, smiling, stared her in the face


s: And, thus she grew to think of him as gay


s: Was she untrue?--She oftentimes was glad


s: Though its few years were hardly noted, when


s: With thorns--the roses swept away again,


s: And then--alas! ah THEN!--her lover came:


s: My Darling, for I know you are the same,


s: Through these long, long, long years, and now no more


s: She staggered back and, sinking to the floor,


s: "I have been false!" she moaned, "_I_ am not true--


s: And as she kneeled there, sobbing at his feet,


s: Betrayed his inward agony--"I count you meet


s: And raised her up forgiven, though untrue;


s: She sighed,--"SO HAPPY!"  And she never knew


s: With labored respiration, moves the wheat


s: From distant reaches, till the golden seas


s: Hides for a moment from the eyes of men;


s: Off through the haze that dances in the shine


s: At anchor from all storms of mental strain;


s: Beneath a wheat-blade, has forgotten quite


s: The twitter, sometimes, of a wayward bird


s: That checks the song abruptly at the sound,


s: And mildly, chiding echoes that have stirred,


s: Sink into silence, all the more profound.


s: And drowsily I hear the plaintive strain


s: Of some poor dove . . . Why, I can scarcely keep


s: A dark, tempestuous night; the stars shut in


s: With shrouds of fog; an inky, jet-black blot


s: The firmament; and where the moon has been


s: An hour agone seems like the darkest spot.


s: The weird wind--furious at its demon game--


s: Rattles one's fancy like a window-frame.


s: A care-worn face peers out into the dark,


s: And childish faces--frightened at the gloom--


s: Grow awed and vacant as they turn to mark


s: The father's as he passes through the room:


s: The gate latch clatters, and wee baby Bess


s: Whispers, "The doctor's tummin' now, I dess!"


s: The father turns; a sharp, swift flash of pain


s: Flits o'er his face: "Amanda, child! I said


s: There, Effie, Rose, and CLARA MUSTN'T CRY!"


s: "I tan't he'p it--I'm fyaid 'at mama'll die!"


s: What are his feelings, when this man alone


s: Sits in the silence, glaring in the grate


s: While muffled voices from the sick one's room


s: The door-latch jingles: in the doorway stands


s: The doctor, while the draft puffs in a breath--


s: The dead coals leap to life, and clap their hands,


s: The flames flash up.  A face as pale as death


s: Turns slowly--teeth tight clenched, and with a look


s: The doctor, through his specs, reads like a book.


s: "Come, brace up, Major!"--"Let me know the worst!"


s: "W'y you're the biggest fool I ever saw--


s: Here, Major--take a little brandy first--


s: There!  She's a BOY--I mean HE is--hurrah!"


s: "Wake up the other girls--and shout for joy--


s: It's a mystery to see me--a man o' fifty-four,


s: Who's lived a cross old bachelor fer thirty year' and more--


s: A-lookin' glad and smilin'!  And they's none o' you can say


s: That you can guess the reason why I feel so good to-day!


s: I must tell you all about it!  But I'll have to deviate


s: A little in beginnin', so's to set the matter straight


s: As to how it comes to happen that I never took a wife--


s: Kindo' "crawfish" from the Present to the Springtime of my life!


s: I was brought up in the country:  Of a family of five--


s: Three brothers and a sister--I'm the only one alive,--


s: Fer they all died little babies; and 'twas one o' Mother's ways,


s: You know, to want a daughter; so she took a girl to raise.


s: The sweetest little thing she was, with rosy cheeks, and fat--


s: We was little chunks o' shavers then about as high as that!


s: But someway we sort a' SUITED-like! and Mother she'd declare


s: She never laid her eyes on a more lovin' pair


s: Than WE was!  So we growed up side by side fer thirteen year',


s: And every hour of it she growed to me more dear!--


s: W'y, even Father's dyin', as he did, I do believe


s: Warn't more affectin' to me than it was to see her grieve!


s: I was then a lad o' twenty; and I felt a flash o' pride


s: In thinkin' all depended on ME now to pervide


s: Fer Mother and fer Mary; and I went about the place


s: With sleeves rolled up--and workin', with a mighty smilin'


s: Fer SOMEPIN' ELSE was workin'! but not a word I said


s: Of a certain sort o' notion that was runnin' through my head,--


s: "Some day I'd maybe marry, and a BROTHER'S love was one


s: Thing--a LOVER'S was another!" was the way the notion run!


s: I remember onc't in harvest, when the "cradle-in' " was done,


s: (When the harvest of my summers mounted up to twenty-one),


s: I was ridin' home with Mary at the closin' o' the day--


s: A-chawin' straws and thinkin', in a lover's lazy way!


s: And Mary's cheeks was burnin' like the sunset down the lane:


s: I noticed she was thinkin', too, and ast her to explain.


s: Well--when she turned and KISSED ME, WITH HER ARMS AROUND


s: I'd a bigger load o' Heaven than I had a load o' straw!


s: I don't p'tend to learnin', but I'll tell you what's a fac',


s: They's a mighty truthful sayin' somers in a' almanac--


s: Er SOMERS--'bout "puore happiness"--perhaps some folks'll laugh


s: At the idy--"only lastin' jest two seconds and a half."--


s: But it's jest as true as preachin'!--fer that was a SISTER'S


s: And a sister's lovin' confidence a-tellin' to me this:--


s: And my feelin's struck a pardnership with sunset and went down!


s: I don't know HOW I acted, and I don't know WHAT I said,--


s: Fer my heart seemed jest a-turnin' to an ice-cold lump o' lead;


s: And the hosses kind o'glimmered before me in the road,


s: And the lines fell from my fingers--And that was all I knowed--


s: Fer--well, I don't know HOW long--They's a dim rememberence


s: Of a sound o' snortin' horses, and a stake-and-ridered fence


s: A-whizzin' past, and wheat-sheaves a-dancin' in the air,


s: And Mary screamin' "Murder!" and a-runnin' up to where


s: _I_ was layin' by the roadside, and the wagon upside down


s: A-leanin' on the gate-post, with the wheels a-whirlin' roun'!


s: And I tried to raise and meet her, but I couldn't, with a vague


s: Sort o' notion comin' to me that I had a broken leg.


s: Well, the women nussed me through it; but many a time I'd sigh


s: As I'd keep a-gittin' better instid o' goin' to die,


s: And wonder what was left ME worth livin' fer below,


s: When the girl I loved was married to another, don't you know!


s: And my thoughts was as rebellious as the folks was good and kind


s: When Brown and Mary married--Railly must 'a' been my MIND


s: Was kind o' out o' kilter!--fer I hated Brown, you see,


s: Worse'n PIZEN--and the feller whittled crutches out fer ME--


s: And done a thousand little ac's o' kindness and respec'--


s: And me a-wishin' all the time that I could break his neck!


s: My relief was like a mourner's when the funeral is done


s: When they moved to Illinois in the Fall o' Forty-one.


s: Then I went to work in airnest--I had nothin' much in view


s: But to drownd out rickollections--and it kep' me busy, too!


s: But I slowly thrived and prospered, tel Mother used to say


s: She expected yit to see me a wealthy man some day.


s: Then I'd think how little MONEY was, compared to happiness--


s: And who'd be left to use it when I died I couldn't guess!


s: But I've still kep' speculatin' and a-gainin' year by year,


s: Tel I'm payin' half the taxes in the county, mighty near!


s: Well!--A year ago er better, a letter comes to hand


s: "The feller that had owned it," it went ahead to state,


s: "Had jest deceased, insolvent, leavin' chance to speculate,"--


s: And then it closed by sayin' that I'd "better come and see."--


s: I'd never been West, anyhow--a'most too wild fer ME,


s: I'd allus had a notion; but a lawyer here in town


s: Said I'd find myself mistakend when I come to look around.


s: So I bids good-by to Mother, and I jumps aboard the train,


s: A-thinkin' what I'd bring her when I come back home again--


s: And ef she'd had an idy what the present was to be,


s: I think it's more'n likely she'd 'a' went along with me!


s: Cars is awful tejus ridin', fer all they go so fast!


s: But finally they called out my stoppin'-place at last:


s: And that night, at the tavern, I dreamp' I was a train


s: O' cars, and SKEERED at somepin', runnin' down a country lane!


s: Well, in the morning airly--after huntin' up the man--


s: The lawyer who was wantin' to swap the piece o' land--


s: We started fer the country; and I ast the history


s: Of the farm--its former owner--and so forth, etcetery!


s: And--well--it was interESTin'--I su'prised him, I suppose,


s: By the loud and frequent manner in which I blowed my nose!--


s: But his su'prise was greater, and it made him wonder more,


s: When I kissed and hugged the widder when she met us at the


s: IT WAS MARY: . . . They's a feelin' a-hidin' down in here--


s: Of course I can't explain it, ner ever make it clear.--


s: It was with us in that meetin', I don't want you to fergit!


s: And it makes me kind o'nervous when I think about it yit!


s: I BOUGHT that farm, and DEEDED it, afore I left the town


s: With "title clear to mansions in the skies," to Mary Brown!


s: And fu'thermore, I took her and the CHILDERN--fer you see,


s: They'd never seed their Grandma--and I fetched 'em home with me.


s: So NOW you've got an idy why a man o' fifty-four,


s: Who's lived a cross old bachelor fer thirty year' and more


s: Is a-lookin' glad and smilin'!--And I've jest come into town


s: To git a pair o' license fer to MARRY Mary Brown.


s: But the King, sad sooth! in this grim decree


s: For King though he was, and beyond compare,


s: Then blamed the Queen that his only heir


s: The girl had grown, in the mother's care,


s: That drinks of the wine of the balmy air


s: And the fair pair paled at the King's decree;


s: While the grim King's heralds scoured the land


s: That he who shows him the strangest thing


s: And thousands flocked to the royal throne,


s: One brought a cluster of some strange date,


s: That seemed, as you tasted, to penetrate


s: And back you fell for a spell entranced,


s: And heard your brains, as they laughed and danced


s: One brought a bird that could whistle a tune


s: That tears would fall from the eyes of the moon


s: And the winds would sigh at the sweet refrain,


s: One brought a lute that was wrought of a shell


s: That sprayed at the Fancy's touch and fused,


s: Drunken through with the airs that oozed


s: But, at night--and the dazzled eyes would see


s: And each, as you read from the magic tome,


s: Till it seemed all marvels that ever were known


s: Were brought and displayed at the royal throne,


s: Till a graybeard monster came to the King--


s: And spread to his gaze this wondrous thing,--


s: And a maiden, sheened in this gauze attire--


s: Dazzled men's souls with a fierce desire


s: And the grim King swore by his royal beard


s: While the gray old monster blinked and leered


s: As the fainting form of the princess fell,


s: But her clouded face with a faint smile shone,


s: While a strange smile hovered about his eyes,


s: Then the fair youth, turning, caught the Queen


s: While his lithe form towered in lordly mien,


s: "My fair bride's mother is this; and, lo,


s: How, in the deuce, such a strange affair


s: And the glad release that the angel, Peace,


s: And traveled the track of the railway back


s: Of the tranquil bliss of a true love kiss;


s: Of the wedded life, and the patient wife,


s: And he stabbed his pen in the ink again,


s: "This is the end."  "And now, my friend,


s: Because of this world's goods he had great store;


s: But as I envied him, the rich man's will


s: That nothing fretted in the least degree--


s: I have been rich in dross of thought, and poor


s: You think you know when you don't, perhaps!


s: But I'm kind o' betwixt-and-between, you know,--


s: One o' these fellers 'at folks call "slow."


s: And I'll say jest here I'm kind o' queer


s: And I'm goin' to tell you 'bout a trade,--


s: I've hankered a heap fer the married state--


s: But some way o' 'nother the longer we wait


s: "You're a-huntin' a wife, and I want you to see


s: She hain't over forty--good-lookin' and spry,


s: And I'm a-goin' there Sund'y,--and now," says he,


s: And you marry HER, and," he says, "by 'shaw I


s: I studied a while, and says I, "Well, I'll


s: First have to see ef she suits my style;


s: (You wouldn't know me to see me dressed!--


s: But any one knows ef you got the clothes


s: You kin go in the crowd wher' the best of 'em goes!)


s: And I greeced my boots, and combed my hair


s: 'At would make an ANGEL'S appetite ACHE!--


s: "Take some o' THIS!' in her coaxin' way,


s: Tell ef I'd been a hoss I'd 'a' FOUNDERED, shore,


s: And jest dropped dead on her white-oak floor!


s: Well, the way I talked would 'a' done you good,


s: Ef you'd 'a' been there to 'a' understood;


s: The best thing fer you is to jest go slow!"


s: The bulk o' the talkin' the evening through.


s: And Marshall was still in a talkative gait


s: When he left, that evening--tolable late.


s: Well, ever sense then I've been ridin' a good


s: And I make it convenient sometimes to stop


s: And hitch a few minutes, and kind o' drop


s: In at the widder's, and talk o' the crop


s: And one thing o' 'nother.  And week afore last


s: I'd stop at the place and state my case--


s: I felt first-rate; so I hitched at the gate,


s: And went up to the house; and, strange to relate,


s: He says, says he!  Well--it SOUNDED QUEER:


s: Marshall got up and putt out o' the room--


s: And motioned his hand fer the WIDDER to come.


s: But thinks I to myse'f, "There's a dog in the well!"


s: Says I, "What's up?"  And she says, says she,


s: And I told him 'no,' jest as you come in."


s: Well, somepin' o' 'nother in that girl's voice


s: Says to me, "Joseph, here's your choice!"


s: And then I kissed her, and heerd a smack


s: Well, we all of us laughed, in our glad su'prise,


s: Tel the tears come A-STREAMIN' out of our eyes!


s: And when Marsh said "'Twas the squarest trade


s: We both shuck hands, 'y jucks! and swore


s: And old Squire Chipman tuck us the trip:


s: And wrapped in shrouds of drifting clouds,


s: Sweet little myth of the nursery story--


s: Be something tangible, bloom in thy glory


s: Hasten! appear to me, guileless and good--


s: Thou are so dear to me, Red Riding-Hood!


s: Sensitive nose, with a little smile under


s: Hah! little girl, it is desolate, lonely,


s: Out in this gloomy old forest of Life!--


s: Here are not pansies and buttercups only--


s: And a Heart, ravenous, trails in the wood


s: For the meal have he must,--Red Riding-Hood!


s: An old sweetheart of mine!--Is this her presence here with me,


s: Or but a vain creation of a lover's memory?


s: A fair, illusive vision that would vanish into air


s: Dared I even touch the silence with the whisper of a prayer?


s: Nay, let me then believe in all the blended false and true--


s: The semblance of the OLD love and the substance of the NEW,--


s: The THEN of changeless sunny days--the NOW of shower and shine--


s: But Love forever smiling--as that old sweetheart of mine.


s: This ever-restful sense of HOME, though shouts ring in the


s: The easy chair--the old book-shelves and prints along the wall;


s: The rare HABANAS in their box, or gaunt church-warden-stem


s: That often wags, above the jar, derisively at them.


s: As one who cons at evening o'er an album, all alone,


s: And muses on the faces of the friends that he has known,


s: So I turn the leaves of Fancy, till, in shadowy design,


s: I find the smiling features of an old sweetheart of mine.


s: The lamplight seems to glimmer with a flicker of surprise,


s: As I turn it low--to rest me of the dazzle in my eyes,


s: And light my pipe in silence, save a sigh that seems to yoke


s: Its fate with my tobacco and to vanish with the smoke.


s: 'Tis a FRAGRANT retrospection,--for the loving thoughts that


s: Into being are like perfume from the blossom of the heart;


s: And to dream the old dreams over is a luxury divine--


s: When my truant fancies wander with that old sweetheart of mine.


s: Though I hear beneath my study, like a fluttering of wings,


s: The voices of my children and the mother as she sings--


s: I feel no twinge of conscience to deny me any theme


s: When Care has cast her anchor in the harbor of a dream--


s: In fact, to speak in earnest, I believe it adds a charm


s: To spice the good a trifle with a little dust of harm,--


s: For I find an extra flavor in Memory's mellow wine


s: That makes me drink the deeper to that old sweetheart of mine.


s: O Childhood-days enchanted!  O the magic of the Spring!--


s: With all green boughs to blossom white, and all bluebirds to


s: When all the air, to toss and quaff, made life a jubilee


s: And changed the children's song and laugh to shrieks of ecstasy.


s: With eyes half closed in clouds that ooze from lips that taste,


s: The peppermint and cinnamon, I hear the old School bell,


s: And from "Recess" romp in again from "Black-man's" broken line,


s: To smile, behind my "lesson," at that old sweetheart of mine.


s: A face of lily-beauty, with a form of airy grace,


s: Floats out of my tobacco as the Genii from the vase;


s: And I thrill beneath the glances of a pair of azure eyes


s: As glowing as the summer and as tender as the skies.


s: I can see the pink sunbonnet and the little checkered dress


s: She wore when first I kissed her and she answered the caress


s: With the written declaration that, "as surely as the vine


s: Grew 'round the stump," she loved me--that old sweetheart of


s: Again I made her presents, in a really helpless way,--


s: The big "Rhode Island Greening"--I was hungry, too, that day!--


s: But I follow her from Spelling, with her hand behind her--so--


s: And I slip the apple in it--and the Teacher doesn't know!


s: I give my TREASURES to her--all,--my pencil--blue-and-red;--


s: And, if little girls played marbles, MINE should all be HERS,


s: But SHE gave me her PHOTOGRAPH, and printed "Ever Thine"


s: Across the back--in blue-and-red--that old sweet-heart of mine!


s: And again I feel the pressure of her slender little hand,


s: As we used to talk together of the future we had planned,--


s: When I should be a poet, and with nothing else to do


s: But write the tender verses that she set the music to . . .


s: When we should live together in a cozy little cot


s: Hid in a nest of roses, with a fairy garden-spot,


s: Where the vines were ever fruited, and the weather ever fine,


s: And the birds were ever singing for that old sweetheart of mine.


s: When I should be her lover forever and a day,


s: And she my faithful sweetheart till the golden hair was gray;


s: They would not smile in Heaven till the other's kiss had come.


s: But, ah! my dream is broken by a step upon the stair,


s: And the door is softly opened, and--my wife is standing there:


s: Yet with eagerness and rapture all my visions I resign,--


s: To greet the LIVING presence of that old sweetheart of mine.


s: Than talk myse'f--but I'll do my best:--


s: I've knowed that man to work one "hand"--


s: To miss the place where a toll-gate stood,


s: With a jag o' wood, and a sack o' wheat,


s: That wouldn't burn and you couldn't eat!


s: And the trades he'd make, 'll I jest de-clare,


s: Tel the lights in the toll-gate was blowed out,


s: That that's what wore his old wife out--


s: And year to year, through heat and cold,


s: And a-clingin', too, as the martyrs done,


s: And the thousand plans that she'd putt through;


s: And sing like a medder-lark all day long,


s: And drowned her cares in the joys o' song;


s: And LAUGH sometimes tel the farmer's "hand,"


s: And the furries seemed, in his dreamy eyes,


s: Right in the heart you'd leave unguessed,


s: That old Jeff laughed to hisse'f and said,


s: "He makes ME money and airns his bread!--


s: And smile and blush, and all sich stuff,


s: And pour his tale in the old man's ear--


s: Ner 'a' riled the old man's temper wuss!


s: And lunged and rared, and ripped and tore,


s: But the old man thought, in his se'fish way,


s: And THAT," thinks he, "is money fer ME--


s: So when, in the course of a month er so,


s: Comes to Jeff's, w'y, the folks, you know,


s: They missed the songs she used to sing--


s: They missed the smiles that used to play


s: And this was the ghost that they gazed on!


s: Fer _I_ WAS A FRIEND O' JOHN'S, you know;


s: And his trimblin' voice jest broke in two--


s: And it wasn't long tel his eyes had cleared


s: As blue as the skies, and the sun appeared


s: In the shape of a good old-fashioned smile


s: That I hadn't seen fer a long, long while.


s: And sunned ourselves in the open door,--


s: Come a-drivin' up, that I guess John KNOWED,--


s: Fer he winked and says, "I'll dessappear--


s: THEY'D smell a mice ef they saw ME here!"


s: And he thumbed his nose at the old gray mare,


s: Well.--The rig drove up: and I raised my head


s: That "him and his old friend there had come


s: . . . I told 'em "I was; and I AIMED to be


s: And then I laughed--and they laughed, too,--


s: Fer that was the object they had in view.


s: "Would I be on hands at eight that night?"


s: They ast; and 's-I, "You're mighty right,


s: And drove to'rds town in a cloud o' dust.


s: Laughed and LAUGHED, and jest LAUGHED on,


s: And she couldn't 'a' told, I'll bet my hat,


s: But all o' the fun o' the tale hain't done!--


s: The great big draps o' the rain come down,


s: And the thunder growled in a way to lend


s: The dull sky wore; and the lightnin' glanced


s: And tossed her head, and bugged her eyes


s: To about four times their natchurl size,


s: As the big black lips of the clouds 'ud drap


s: That chilled a feller clean to the bone!


s: To save myse'f.  And the house was jammed


s: With the women-folks, and the weddin'stuff:--


s: With big pound-cakes--and chops and steaks--


s: Of gigglin' girls, with corkscrew curls,


s: Brought old Jeff;-and brought--THE GROOM,--


s: And, someway, then, I thought of JOHN,--


s: Then looked towards PATIENCE. . . .  She was GONE!--


s: And that was all.  'Twas done that quick! . . .


s: I wisht you'd seen THE GROOM jest then--


s: And wring their hands; and heerd old Jeff


s: Rode off as though they'd break their necks.


s: And heerd a voice that whispered, "HUSH!--


s: ER THOUGHT about the STORM that blowed--


s: He says, "and now we're th'ough with YOU,--


s: That fringe the roadside; and with dreams my own,


s: Through summer tan of freckled shade and shine,


s: I take the path that leads me as it may--


s: Above the arching jimson-weeds flare twos


s: Like blooms of lorn primroses blowing loose


s: The trail dips--dwindles--broadens then, and lifts


s: And, from the fennel marge beyond it, drifts


s: And though it needs must lure me mile on mile


s: My thoughts, far in advance in Indian file,


s: At dusk to bring the cattle to the bars,


s: And was not found again, though Heaven lent


s: With which to seek him through that awful night


s: O years of nights as vain!--Stars never rise


s: But well might miss their glitter in the light


s: So--on, with quickened breaths, I follow still--


s: Thus am I led, and thus the path, at will,


s: A meadow's precincts, where my daring guide


s: Clambers the steps of an old-fashioned stile,


s: And stumbles down again, the other side,


s: I see it running, while the clover-stalks


s: Shake rosy fists at me, as though they said--


s: "And mutilate us with your walking-stick!--


s: And warn you at your peril,--for we'll sick


s: But I smile back, in airy nonchalance,--


s: The more determined on my wayward quest,


s: Enthused with lithe contortions of a song


s: In wild meanderings o'er pasture wealth--


s: Erratic wanderings through dead'ning lands,


s: Where sly old brambles, plucking me by stealth,


s: Or the path climbs a boulder--wades a slough--


s: Or, rollicking through buttercups and flags,


s: Or, at the creek, leads o'er a limpid pool


s: Upon a bridge the stream itself has made,


s: With some Spring-freshet for the mighty tool


s: With dreamy eyes, on my reflection, where


s: A boat-backed bug drifts on a helpless cruise,


s: As, dimly seen, the pirate of the brook--


s: The pike, whose jaunty hulk denotes his speed--


s: Till, filled with other thought, I turn again


s: Of lordly woodland, under sovereign reign


s: The almost whispered warble from the hedge,


s: And takes a locust's rasping voice and files


s: Strays like a misanthrope within a gloom


s: Of his own shadows--till the perfect day


s: And crowns a long, declining stretch of space,


s: Where King Corn's armies lie with flags unfurled,


s: And where the valley's dint in Nature's face


s: And lo! through mists that may not be dispelled,


s: I see an old farm homestead, as in dreams,


s: Where, like a gem in costly setting held,


s: Are pulseless now; and the scarf that clings


s: But the old guitar, with a lenient grace,


s: But the dainty fingers that danced o'er them--


s: That Fate weaves on, through a dull decay


s: As I clasp with eager, acquisitive spans


s: My glorious treasure of beautiful hands!


s: They can coax roses to bloom in the strands


s: Of your brown tresses; and ribbons will twine,


s: And fetter the heart under such a control


s: As only the strength of my love understands--


s: My passionate love for your beautiful hands.


s: Of those beautiful hands that I love so much,


s: I seem to thrill as I then was thrilled,


s: Kissing the glove that I found unfilled--


s: When I met your gaze, and the queenly bow,


s: As you said to me, laughingly, "Keep it now!" . . .


s: Kissing this ghost of your beautiful hand.


s: Pressed and caressed it and gave it a kiss


s: And said "I could die for a hand like this!"


s: And prayers were vain in their wild demands


s: For one warm touch of your beautiful hands.


s: Where you are lingering, and give me, to-night,


s: My heart were soothed, and my weary brain


s: For there is no solace the world commands


s: Like the caress of your beautiful hands.


s: I've known the least the greatest, too--


s: Deep, tender, firm and true, the Nation's heart


s: Throbs for her gallant heroes passed away,


s: Who in grim Battle's drama played their part,


s: Warm hearts that beat their lives out at the shrine


s: Of Freedom, while our country held its breath


s: As brave battalions wheeled themselves in line


s: When Freedom's Flag, its natal wounds scarce healed,


s: Was torn from peaceful winds and flung again


s: To shudder in the storm of battle-field--


s: When every star that glittered was a mark


s: For Treason's ball, and every rippling bar


s: Of red and white was sullied with the dark


s: When angry guns, like famished beasts of prey,


s: Were howling o'er their gory feast of lives,


s: The mother, kneeling in the empty night,


s: With pleading hands uplifted for the son


s: Who, even as she prayed, had fought the fight--


s: The wife, with trembling hand that wrote to say


s: The babe was waiting for the sire's caress--


s: The maiden, with her lips, in fancy, pressed


s: Against the brow once dewy with her breath,


s: Or wreathe with laurel-words the icy brows


s: That ache no longer with a dream of fame,


s: But, pillowed lowly in the narrow house,


s: The dewy tear-drops of the night may fall,


s: And tender morning with her shining hand


s: May brush them from the grasses green and tall


s: Yet song of Peace nor din of toil and thrift,


s: Nor chanted honors, with the flowers we heap,


s: Can yield us hope the Hero's head to lift


s: The dear old Flag, whose faintest flutter flies


s: A stirring echo through each patriot breast,


s: That watched it waver when the fight was hot,


s: And blazed with newer courage to its aid,


s: Regardless of the shower of shell and shot


s: And when, at last, they saw it plume its wings,


s: Of that dear boy who vanished from your sight,


s: And left you weeping o'er the vacant place


s: Who left you dazed, bewildered, on a day


s: That echoed wild huzzas, and roar of guns


s: That drowned the farewell words you tried to say


s: Be glad and proud you had the life to give--


s: Be comforted through all the years to come,--


s: O Widow, weeping o'er the orphaned child,


s: Who only lifts his questioning eyes to send


s: Before the fire of Treason's blazing gun,


s: That, dying, he might will the rich old land


s: And, Maiden, living on through lonely years


s: With strong faith gleaming through the tender tears


s: Look up! and own, in gratefulness of prayer,


s: Submission to the will of Heaven's High Host:--


s: I hear the trumpet sound the signal-blast--


s: Who gives command, and joins with tongue divine


s: And thus, in tribute to the forms that rest


s: In their last camping-ground, we strew the bloom


s: And fragrance of the flowers they loved the best,


s: With reverent hands we twine the Hero's wreath


s: That stands the sentinel for each beneath


s: While in the violet that greets the sun,


s: He laughed his loudest though his eyes were wet.--


s: The kiss he gave his mother's brow that day


s: And through the storm of grief around her tossed,


s: One ray of saddest comfort she may see,--


s: Four hundred thousand sons like hers were lost


s: And let the sunshine chase the clouds away


s: While prayers of perfume bless the atmosphere,


s: Where loyal souls of love and faith are found,