s: Then not my love, but one long banished came,


s: Led by false Sleep, down secret stairs of dreams


s: And clasped me, unresisting in fond arms.


s: Oh, treacherous sleep--to sell me to such shame!


s: Good-bye to dreams; for me a life of art!


s: Beloved art!  Oh, realm serene and fair,


s: Above the mean and sordid world of care,


s: Above earth's small ambitions and desires!


s: Art! art! the very word my soul inspires!


s: Not what has been, but that which is to be


s: The bow is tensely drawn--the target set.


s: The night is dark and chill; the hour is late.


s: Thou dost deceive, not me, but thine own self.


s: My fate is not a wandering, vagrant elf.


s: My fate is here, within this throbbing heart


s: That beats alone for glory, and for art.


s: Pray, let me in; I am so faint and cold.


s: Methinks thou art not faint, however cold,


s: But rather too courageous, and most bold;


s: Surprisingly ill-mannered, sir, and rude,


s: They're always watching for me on the sly,


s: My heart has listened to a sweeter voice,


s: A clarion call that gives command--not choice.


s: And I have answered to that call, 'I come';


s: Art is my spouse, and I his willing wife.


s: His love with many another ill-fed bride.


s: I will not listen! for the dice is thrown


s: And art has won me.  On my brow some day


s: CUPID (sitting down and looking at MAID critically)


s: I think sweet orange blossoms under lace


s: That listens as one mind, absorbed, intense,


s: And with my genius I shall rouse its cheers,


s: Still it to silence, soften it to tears,


s: Or wake its laughter.  Oh, the play! the play!


s: The play's the thing!  My boy, THE PLAY!!


s: And one that always keeps the house awake -


s: And calls for pretty dressing.  Oh, it's great!


s: Well, well, what is it?  Wherefore make me wait?


s: How is it those lines run--oh, now I know;


s: You make a stately entrance--measured--slow--


s: To stirring music, then you kneel and say


s: For better and for worse--till death do part.


s: Be still, you foolish boy; that is not ART.


s: She needs great skill who takes the role of wife


s: So I once thought!  Oh, once my very soul


s: Was filled and thrilled with dreaming of that role.


s: Life seemed so wonderful; it held for me


s: Loving and loved.  My highest thought of fame


s: Was some day bearing my dear lover's name.


s: Or wrote it down, half timid, and all proud


s: As some small star might joy in growing dim


s: Forgetting the brief little life it knew


s: In space, might on the ocean's bosom fall


s: Now, THAT'S the talk--it's music to my ear


s: After that stuff on 'art' and a 'career.'


s: Shaped into changing pictures.  I would seem


s: Move down the aisle upon my wedding day;


s: With lighted lamp, and fragrant plants in bloom,


s: And books and sewing scattered all about,


s: Changed still again, and framed love's dearest hope -


s: With simple joys the dear home circle lent.


s: The pain of growing old lost all its sting,


s: For Love stood near--in Winter, as in Spring.


s: 'Twas but a dream!  I woke all suddenly.


s: The world had changed!  And now life means to me


s: My art--the stage--excitement and the crowd -


s: The glare of many foot-lights--and the loud


s: 'Give me the dagger!' or creep down the stage


s: In that sleep-walking scene.  Oh, art like mine


s: Will send the chills down every listener's spine!


s: And when I choose, salt tears shall freely flow


s: As in the moonlight I cry, 'Romeo!  Romeo!


s: The heart but once can dream a dream so fair,


s: And so henceforth love thoughts I do forswear;


s: Since faith in love has crumbled to the dust,


s: Here's one who will explain yourself to you


s: And make that old sweet dream of love come true.


s: Fix up your foolish quarrel; time is brief -


s: So waste no more of it in doubt or grief.


s: Warm lip to lip, and heart to beating heart,


s: Is this the way to greet thy loving spouse,


s: But now returned from scenes of blood and strife?


s: I pray thee raise thy veil and let me gaze


s: Upon that beauty which hath greater power


s: In thy regard, no more an honoured place


s: Thou wouldst degrade me in the people's sight!


s: I feel more pride than as the mighty king:


s: But only ONE such queen.  Come, raise thy veil!


s: Ay! only ONE such queen!  A queen is one


s: Who shares her husband's greatness and his throne.


s: Who struts and smirks before a royal court!


s: But I will loose my veil and loose my tongue!


s: Now listen, sire--my master and my king;


s: And let thy princes and the court give ear!


s: 'Tis time all heard how Vashti feels her shame.


s: Shame is no word to couple with thy name!


s: Shame and a spotless woman may not meet,


s: Even in a sentence.  Choose another word.


s: That can give voice to my ignoble state.


s: Yet held an outcast from thy heart and mind;


s: To hear my beauty praised but not my worth;


s: To come and go at Pleasure's beck and call,


s: While barred from Wisdom's conclaves!  Think ye THAT


s: Gaze now your fill!  Behold Queen Vashti's eyes!


s: How large they gleam beneath her inch of brow!


s: How like a great white star, her splendid face


s: Shines through the midnight forest of her hair!


s: And see the crushed pomegranate of her mouth!


s: Observe her arms, her throat, her gleaming breasts,


s: And note the crescent curving of her hips,


s: And lovely limbs suggested 'neath her robes!


s: Gaze, gaze, I say, for these have made her queen!


s: Now ye have seen what she was bid to show.


s: The queen hath played her part and begs to go.


s: Not only hast thou wronged thine own true lord,


s: And mocked and shamed me in the people's eyes,


s: But thou hast wronged all princes and all men


s: Queens act and subjects imitate.  So let


s: Queen Vashti weigh her conduct and her words,


s: There lies the crown that made me queen in name!


s: Here stands the woman--wife in name alone!


s: Now, no more queen--nor wife--but woman still -


s: So thou art Esther?  Esther! 'tis a name


s: Breathed into sound as softly as a sigh.


s: A woman's name should melt upon the lips


s: Like Love's first kisses, and thy countenance


s: Thou art most kind.  I would my name and face


s: As well as beauty, Esther.  Both are gems


s: Dost THOU possess the one great perfect gem -


s: Sire, in the heart of every woman dwells


s: And tell me what is LOVE!  I fain would know


s: Thy definition of that much-mouthed word,


s: By woman most employed--least understood.


s: That would instruct a warrior and a king?


s: I have but dreamed of love as maidens will


s: While thou hast known its fulness.  All the world


s: FEARS GREAT Ahasueras!  Kings, my child,


s: Love, as I see it in the court and camp,


s: Means seeking royal favour.  I would know


s: How love is fashioned in a maiden's dreams.


s: Sire, love seeks nothing that kings can bestow.


s: Love is the king of all kings here below;


s: Love makes the monarch but a bashful boy,


s: Love makes the peasant monarch in his joy;


s: Love seeks not place, all places are the same,


s: When lighted by the radiance of love's flame.


s: Who deems proud love could fawn to power and splendour


s: Hath known not love, but some base-born pretender.


s: If this be love, I would know more of it.


s: Speak on, fair Esther!  What is love beside?


s: Love is in all things, all things are in love.


s: Love is the earth, the sea, the skies above;


s: Love is the bird, the blossom, and the wind;


s: Love hath a million eyes, yet love is blind;


s: Love is the silence of a moon-lit night;


s: And he who hath not loved hath missed life's goal!


s: But tell me of thyself, of thine own dreams!


s: How wouldst thou love, and how be loved again?


s: Who most doth love thinks least of love's return;


s: Consumes each selfish purpose and desire.


s: 'Tis in the giving, love's best rapture lies,


s: Not in the counting of the things it buys.


s: Yet, is there not vast anguish and despair


s: In love that finds no answering word or smile?


s: To love completely is to part with pain,


s: Nor is there mortal who can love in vain.


s: Love is its own reward, it pays full measure,


s: And in love's sharpest grief lies subtlest pleasure.


s: Methinks, a mighty warrior, lord or king


s: Must in thy fancy play the lover's part;


s: None else could wake such reverential thought.


s: When woman loves one born of lowly state,


s: Her thought gives crown and sceptre to her mate;


s: Yet be he king, or chief of some great clan,


s: Monarch or peasant, 'tis the same, I wis


s: When once she gives him love's surrendering kiss.


s: What were thy thoughts, sweet Esther?  Something passed


s: Across thy face, that for a moment veiled


s: Thy soul from mine, and left me desolate.


s: I wondered, if in truth, thou wert content


s: With me--thy choice.  Was there no other one


s: Of all who passed before thee at thy court


s: Hadst thou come first, then all the added wealth


s: Of one long day of loving thee were mine -


s: A boundless fortune squandered.  Though I live


s: To three score years and ten, as I do hope,


s: In wedded love beside thee, that one day


s: Was filched from me and cannot be restored.


s: And then to think how frightened and abashed


s: I hung outside thy gates from early morn,


s: Not daring to go in and meet thine eyes,


s: Till pitying twilight clothed me in her veil,


s: And evening walked beside me to thy door.


s: So it was thou, fair thief, who stole that day,


s: Full eight, I think.  They seemed a hundred then,


s: And now time flies a hundred times too fast.


s: Then eight more kisses do I claim from thee,


s: This very hour--first tithes of many due.


s: I'll lock thee in the prison of my arms,


s: Like this--and take them so--and so--and so!


s: But kings must think of other things than love


s: Would please me better than to conquer earth


s: Without thee, Esther.  I have stood on heights


s: And heard the cheers of multitudes below;


s: Have known the loneliness of being great.


s: Now, let me live and love thee, like a man,


s: Content is not the pathway to great deeds.


s: As man, I hold thee higher than all kings;


s: As king, thou must stand higher than all men


s: 'She spoiled his greatness by her littleness;


s: And silenced war-cries on commanding lips -


s: With honeyed kisses; made her woman's arms


s: Preferred to armour, and her couch to tents,


s: Until the kingdom, with no guiding hand,


s: My heart is bursting with its love for thee!


s: Canst thou not feel its fervour?  But great men


s: Need wiser guidance than a woman's heart.


s: And I would have thee greater than thou art -


s: Ay, greater than all other men on earth -


s: Though forced long years to feed my hungry heart


s: Thou art most noble, Esther; thou art fit


s: And starved for love through all my manhood's years;


s: And now the mighty gods have seen it fit


s: To spread love's banquet and to name thee host,


s: May I not feast my fill?  O Esther, take


s: And give me wine to rouse the brute in me,


s: To make me thirst for blood instead of love!


s: Methinks good music is wine turned to sound.


s: Here comes thy minstrel with an offering


s: Pressed from the ripened fruit of my fond heart.


s: Than on thy lip would stay the taste of wine.


s: I will be from this hour for thy dear sake.


s: And said, 'To-morrow thou shalt find thy place:


s: Man's complement, the mother of the race -


s: All night she dreamed and wondered.  With the light


s: The purpose of her being.  Life was good


s: By all the questions of the world unvexed,


s: But God neglected, when He fashioned man,


s: To fuse the molten splendour of his mind


s: With that sixth sense He gave to womankind.


s: She asked so little, and so much she gave,


s: That man grew selfish:  and she soon became,


s: To God's great sorrow and the whole world's shame,


s: Yet in the nights (oh! nights so dark and long)


s: She clasped her little children to her breast


s: And one sad hour, she said unto her heart,


s: 'Since thou art cause of all my bitter pain,


s: I bid thee abdicate the throne:  let brain


s: She wept no more.  By new ambition stirred


s: Her ways led out, to regions strange and vast.


s: Men stood aside and watched, dismayed, aghast,


s: Still on and up, from sphere to widening sphere,


s: Till thorny paths bloomed with the rose of fame.


s: Who once demurred, now followed with acclaim:


s: She stood triumphant in that radiant hour,


s: But ah! the cost! from out the heart of her


s: I dreamed a Voice, of one God-authorised,


s: Cried loudly thro' the world, 'Disarm!  Disarm!'


s: And there was consternation in the camps;


s: And men who strutted under braid and lace


s: Beat on their medalled breasts, and wailed, 'Undone!'


s: The word was echoed from a thousand hills,


s: And shop and mill, and factory and forge,


s: Where throve the awful industries of death,


s: Hushed into silence.  Scrawled upon the doors,


s: The passer read, 'Peace bids her children starve.'


s: But foolish women clasped their little sons


s: And wept for joy, not reasoning like men.


s: Again the Voice commanded:  'Now go forth


s: And build a world for Progress and for Peace.


s: This work has waited since the earth was shaped;


s: But men were fighting, and they could not toil.


s: The needs of life outnumber needs of death.


s: Leave death with God.  Go forth, I say, and build.'


s: Shone in the eyes of men; and one who thought


s: 'Ay, come and build!  I challenge all to try.


s: And like a running flame on western wilds,


s: Ambition spread from mind to listening mind,


s: And all the earth resounded with men's toil.


s: Vast palaces of Science graced the world;


s: Their banquet tables spread with feasts of truth


s: For all who hungered.  Music kissed the air,


s: Once rent with boom of cannons.  Statues gleamed


s: From wooded ways, where ambushed armies hid


s: In times of old.  The sea and air were gay


s: With shining sails that soared from land to land.


s: But as a word marked 'obsolete,' like war.


s: The arts were kindled with celestial fire;


s: New poets sang so Homer's fame grew dim;


s: And brush and chisel gave the wondering race


s: Sublimer treasures than old Greece displayed.


s: Men differed still; fierce argument arose,


s: Might cry to all mankind, Disarm!  Disarm!


s: I dreamed I talked with God about my pain;


s: With sleepland courage, daring to complain


s: 'Lord, I have grovelled on my knees in prayer


s: Hour after hour,' I cried; 'yet all in vain;


s: No hand leads up to heights I would attain,


s: Then answered God:  'Three things I gave to thee -


s: Clear brain, brave will, and strength of mind and heart,


s: All implements divine, to shape the way.


s: With all his might, let no man DARE to pray.'


s: Two thousand years had passed since Christ was born,


s: They came from mountains, valleys, and from coasts,


s: And from all lands, all nations, and all ranks,


s: Speaking all languages, but thinking one.


s: And straightway was there silence on the earth,


s: Since Christ His new commandment gave to men,


s: LOVE ONE ANOTHER, full two thousand years


s: Have passed away, yet earth is red with blood.


s: The strong male rulers of the world proclaim


s: Their weakness, when we ask that war shall cease.


s: Now will the poor weak women of the world


s: Proclaim their strength, and say that war shall end.


s: Hear, then, our edict:  Never from this day


s: Mother a warrior.  We have sworn the oath


s: Rather than breed strong sons at war's behest,


s: Or bring fair daughters into life, to bear


s: The pains of travail, for no end but war.


s: Ay! let the race die out for lack of babes


s: Better a silent world than noise of guns


s: And oft you promised--but to fight again.


s: Then in our hearts flamed such a mad desire


s: For peace on earth, as lights the world at times


s: With some great conflagration; and it spread


s: From distant land to land, from sea to sea,


s: Until all women thought as with one mind


s: And spoke as with one voice; and now behold!


s: Filling all space with one supreme resolve.


s: Give us, O men, your word that war shall end:


s: Disarm the world, and we will give you sons -


s: Sons to construct, and daughters to adorn


s: A beautiful new earth, where there shall be


s: Until you promise peace no shrill birth-cry


s: And mine seem all its sorrows, and its fears.


s: That rose, which in each mother-heart is curled,


s: And, waking in the night, I lie and hark


s: To the lone sobbing, and the wild alarms,


s: Of my World-child, a wailing in the dark:


s: The child I fain would shelter in my arms.


s: A mother calls, what time she cannot go):


s: 'Sleep well, dear world; Love hides behind this gloom.


s: There is no need for wakefulness or woe,


s: The long, long night is almost past and gone,


s: The day is near.'  And yet the world weeps on.


s: With anxious eyes I see it trip and fall,


s: Childlike, unheeding warning word or call.


s: I see it grasp, and grasping, break the toys


s: It cried to own, then toss them on the floor


s: And, breathless, hurry after fancied joys


s: That cease to please, when added to its store.


s: Made by forbidden tools; but when it weeps,


s: And having been a child, the memory keeps.


s: Ah, my poor world, however wrong thy part,


s: I cried, 'Dear Angel, lead me to the heights,


s: And set thy house in order; make it fair


s: For absent ones who may be speeding there.


s: I put my house in order.  'Now lead on!'


s: By thorns and tares; go weed it, so all those


s: Who come to gaze may find the unvexed rose;


s: I weeded well my garden.  'All is done.'


s: 'Outside thy gates; till thou hast given heed


s: And soothed his sorrow, and supplied his need,


s: The beggar left me singing.  'Now at last -


s: Who seeks, like thee, the difficult highway.


s: He lacks thy courage; cheer him through the day


s: I helped my weaker brother.  'Now the heights;


s: With radiant face, said, 'Look, where are we now?'


s: And lo! we stood upon the mountain's brow -


s: Nor all the centuries, could hide your shame.


s: There is the little window where you came,


s: With eyes that woke the demon of desire,


s: And lips like rose leaves, fashioned out of fire;


s: And from the lava leaps the molten flame


s: Of your old sins.  The walls cry out your name -


s: Your face seems rising from the funeral pyre.


s: There must have dwelt, within your fated town,


s: Full many a virtuous dame, and noble wife


s: Who made your beauty seem as star to sun;


s: How strange the centuries have handed down


s: What is right living?  Just to do your best


s: When worst seems easier.  To bear the ills


s: Of hopeful things when doubt is in the air.


s: To count your blessings often, giving thanks,


s: The whole of life as one perfected plan,


s: To work, and love your work; to trust, to pray


s: For larger usefulness and clearer sight.


s: This is right living, pleasing in God's eyes,


s: Though favours fall on those whom none esteem,


s: And insult and indifference greet worth;


s: And riches spring where idle feet have trod,


s: And storms lay waste the patiently tilled soil -


s: Beyond the glare of day's obscuring light,


s: So Justice dwells, though mortal eyes in vain


s: But when, once freed, the illumined soul looks out.


s: Its cry will be, 'O God, how could I doubt!'


s: Time looked me in the eyes while passing by


s: The milestone of the year.  That piercing gaze


s: No speech was needed.  In a sorrowing look


s: More meaning lies than in complaining words,


s: Unstring a necklace, laughing at the sound


s: So have I laughed while precious moments rolled


s: While little joys and cares absorbed my strength.


s: And yet, dear Time, set to my credit this:


s: Be patient with me.  Though the sun slants west,


s: The day has not yet finished, and I feel


s: The earth's eternal need of earnest souls,


s: And the great hunger of the world for Love.


s: I know the goal to high achievement lies


s: Through the dull pathway of self-conquest first;


s: We climb to joys that stand thy test.  O Time,


s: Perchance, in passing by, thine eyes may smile.


s: Nay, since there lies a better and a worse,


s: He shaped Himself before He shaped one world:


s: Before the planets into space were hurled.


s: And when Creation's early work was done,


s: What crude beginnings out of chaos came -


s: What awful creatures at His touch found birth -


s: Those protoplasmic monsters of the earth,


s: That owned the world before He fashioned Man.


s: And now, behold the poor unfinished state


s: Of this, His latest masterpiece!  Then why,


s: Seeing the flaws in my own work, should I


s: Be troubled that no voice proclaims it great?


s: Before me lie the cycling rounds of years;


s: With this small earth will die the thing I do:


s: The thing I am, goes journeying onward through


s: A million lives, upon a million spheres.


s: Knowing, or good, or ill, that self must stay.


s: Its journey leads, and must perforce be made.


s: Likewise its choice, with things of shame and shade,


s: Or up the path of light, from star to star.


s: When all these solar systems shall disperse,


s: Perchance this labour, and this self-control,


s: Art thou alive?  Nay, not too soon reply,


s: Tho' hand, and foot, and lip, and ear, and eye,


s: Grim death has done his direst work with thee.


s: From active body and from beating heart.


s: That moves the mind to reason and aspire;


s: In mighty billows from the surging soul.


s: It is the light that grows from hour to hour,


s: And floods the brain with consciousness of power;


s: And reaching God with its imperious call,


s: It is the truth that sets the bondsman free,


s: With its unburied dead the earth is sad.


s: Art thou alive? proclaim it and be glad.


s: Perchance the dead may hear thee and arise,


s: Knowing they live, and HERE is Paradise.


s: Supreme with promise, imminent with power.


s: The strident whistle and the clanging bell,


s: The noise of gongs, the rush of motored things


s: Are but the prophet voices which foretell


s: A time when thought may use unfettered wings.


s: Remove the stone, and lo! the Christ within;


s: For He is there, and who so seeks shall find.


s: Once from the grind of endless toil released


s: Man will explore the kingdom of his soul.


s: And all this restless rush, this strain and strife,


s: This noise and glare is but the fanfarade


s: Where faith shall walk with science, unafraid.


s: I feel the strong vibrations of the earth,


s: And bless the star that watched above my birth


s: On this ladder of lives, to the Starting Place.


s: I shaped my ladder, and you shaped yours.


s: Whatever they are--they are what we made:


s: A ladder of light, or a ladder of shade,


s: A ladder of strength, or a wavering string.


s: We flung them away at the call of death,


s: We took them again with the next life breath.


s: For a keeper stands by the great birth gates;


s: Though mine be narrow, and yours be broad,


s: On your ladder alone can your feet ascend,


s: Is the fragile frame, you must make it good.


s: You must build it over and fashion it strong,


s: Though the task be hard as your life is long;


s: Shall be but illusion, and will not stay.


s: Rebuild your ladder, and climb and climb.


s: Who is a Christian in this Christian land


s: Not he who sits in soft upholstered pews


s: And looks devotion, while he thinks of gain.


s: Not he who sends petitions from the lips


s: That lie to-morrow in the street and mart.


s: And flings his unearned riches to the poor,


s: Or aids the heathen with a lessened wage,


s: And builds cathedrals with an increased rent.


s: Christ, with Thy great, sweet, simple creed of love,


s: How must Thou weary of Earth's 'Christian' clans,


s: Who preach salvation through Thy saving blood


s: While planning slaughter of their fellow men.


s: Who is a Christian?  It is one whose life


s: Is built on love, on kindness and on faith;


s: Who holds his brother as his other self;


s: Who toils for justice, equity and PEACE,


s: And hides no aim or purpose in his heart


s: That will not chord with universal good.


s: That man is Christian and beloved of Christ.


s: I asked the rock beside the road what joy existence lent.


s: It answered, 'For a million years my heart has been content.'


s: I asked the truffle-seeking swine, as rooting by he went,


s: 'What is the keynote of your life?'  He grunted out, 'Content.'


s: I asked a plutocrat of greed, on what his thoughts were bent.


s: I asked the mighty forest tree from whence its force was sent.


s: Its thousand branches spoke as one, and said, 'From discontent.'


s: I asked the message speeding on, by what great law was rent


s: I asked the marble, where the works of God and man were blent,


s: I asked an Angel, looking down on earth with gaze intent,


s: How man should rise to larger growth.  Quoth he, 'Through


s: Slowly the People waken; they have been,


s: Like weary soldiers, sleeping in their tents,


s: While traitors tiptoed through the silent camp


s: A careless movement of too bold a thief -


s: Starts one dull sleeper; then another stirs,


s: A third cries out a warning, and at last


s: With Justice for their motto, they reflect


s: And nothing stands before them.  Lusty Greed,


s: And smirking Cant (whose right hand robs and slays


s: So that the left may dower Church and School),


s: The Mother Earth, that Idleness might loll


s: And breed the Monster of Colossal Wealth -


s: All these must fall before the gathering Force


s: Which marks the progress of each century,


s: The war of Right with Might, is on once more,


s: And shame to him who does not take his stand.


s: This is the weightiest moment of all time,


s: A nation's honour and a country's peace,


s: A People's future, ay, a World's, depends.


s: Are solved and settled, and the spendthrift thieves


s: Are led from fashion's feasts to prison fare,


s: And taught the saving grace of honest work -


s: Till Labour claims the privilege of toil


s: And toil the proceeds of its labour shares -


s: Let no man sleep, let no man dare to sleep!


s: I heard a strange voice in the distance calling


s: As from a star an echo might be falling.


s: It spoke four syllables, concise and brief,


s: Charged with a God-sent message of relief:


s: Let go the cross!  Oh, you who cling to sorrow,


s: Hark to the new command and comfort borrow.


s: Forget your wrongs, your troubles and your losses,


s: For with the tools of thought we build our crosses.


s: Forget your griefs, all grudges and all fear


s: Heaven is a realm by loving souls created,


s: And hell was fashioned by the hearts that hated.


s: Love, hope and trust; believe all joys are yours,


s: Life pays the soul whose confidence endures,


s: The blows of adverse fate, by larger pleasures,


s: As after storms the soil yields fuller measures.


s: Let go the cross; roll self--the stone--away


s: Between the ringing of bells and the musical clang of chimes


s: I hear a sound like the breaking of chains, all through these


s: For the thought of the world is waking out of a slumber deep and


s: Fetters of superstitious fear have bound the race to creeds


s: But the pompous creed and the costly throne must yield to simpler


s: And cloth and crown no longer mean the 'vested power of God.'


s: The race no longer bends beneath the weight of Adam's sin,


s: But stands erect and knows itself the Maker's first of kin.


s: In the voice of One who spoke of old, 'The Truth shall make men


s: The Old Year stood, and looked out where the sun


s: Went wading down the West, through drifting clouds.


s: 'I, too, shall sink full soon to rest,' he sighed,


s: 'And follow where my children's feet have trod;


s: My lovely daughters, and my valiant sons,


s: All, all save one, have left me for that bourne


s: Men call the Past.  It seems but yesterday


s: I saw fair August, laughing with the Sea,


s: Snaring the Earth with her seductive wiles,


s: Yet has she gone, and left me here to mourn.'


s: 'Father, the night grows cold; come in and rest.


s: Sit with me here beside this glowing grate;


s: I have not left thee; thou art not alone;


s: My house is thine; all warm with love and light,


s: And bright with holly and with cedar sweet.


s: The feast is spread, I only wait for thee;


s: God smiles upon thy dead, smile thou on me.'


s: Then through the open door the Old Year passed


s: And darkness settled on the outer world.


s: Take not the self-appointed leader's part.


s: Thy path, though leading straight unto the goal


s: The goal is central; but from east, and west,


s: And north, and south, we set out on the quest;


s: From lofty mountains, and from valleys low:-


s: How could all find one common way to go?


s: Lord Buddha to the wilderness was brought.


s: Lord Jesus to the Cross.  And yet, think not


s: By solitude, or cross, thou canst achieve,


s: Lest in thine own true Self thou dost believe.


s: Know thou art One, with life's Almighty Source,


s: Then are thy feet set on the certain Course.


s: Nor does it matter if thou feast, or fast,


s: Or what thy creed--or where thy lot is cast;


s: In halls of pleasure or in crowded mart,


s: In city streets, or from all men apart -


s: Thy path leads to the Light; and peace and power


s: Shall be thy portion, growing hour by hour.


s: And no man lead.  But KNOW and go ahead.


s: What shall the leader be in that great day


s: When we who sleep and dream that we are slaves


s: Shall wake and know that Liberty is ours?


s: Mark well that word--not yours, not mine, but ours.


s: For through the mingling of the separate streams


s: The old traditions and conventions where


s: They may not rise, what shall the leader be?


s: No mighty warrior skilled in crafts of war,


s: Sowing earth's fertile furrows with dead men


s: And staining crimson God's cerulean sea,


s: To prove his prowess to a shuddering world.


s: Perched on an empty head, an in-bred heir


s: No ruler, purchased by the perjured votes


s: Of striving demagogues whose god is gold.


s: The weakness of the world cries out for strength.


s: The sorrow of the world cries out for hope.


s: Must then be strong and hopeful as the dawn


s: Above the blackness of the darkest night.


s: Oh, not in war shall his great prowess lie,


s: Nor shall he find his pleasure in the chase.


s: Too great for slaughter, friend of man and beast,


s: Touching the borders of the Unseen Realms


s: And bringing down to earth their mystic fires


s: To light our troubled pathways, wise and kind


s: Hear thou my prayer, great God of opulence;


s: Give me no blessings, save as recompense


s: If Wealth, by chance, should on my path appear,


s: Yet in this intricate great art of living


s: And show me how to spur the laggard soul


s: To strive alone once more to gain the goal.


s: Nor brand me with the 'Dollar Sign' above


s: If on the carrying winds my name be blown


s: Rather as one who missed the highest place


s: Pausing to cheer spent runners in the race.


s: The greater boon I ask, dear God, from Thee.


s: Thank God for life, in such an age as this,


s: Rich with the promises of better things.


s: Thank God for being part of this great nation's heart,


s: Whose strong pulsations are not ruled by kings.


s: Our thanks for fearless and protesting speech


s: When cloven hoofs show 'neath the robes of state.


s: For us no servile song of 'Kings can do no wrong.'


s: Not royal birth, but worth, makes rulers great.


s: Thank God for peace within our border lands,


s: And for the love of peace within each soul.


s: Who thinks on peace has wrought, mosaic-squares of thought


s: Our thanks for love, and knowledge of love's laws.


s: Love is a greater power than vested might.


s: Love is the central source of all enduring force.


s: Love is the law that sets the whole world right.


s: Our thanks for that increasing torch of light


s: The tireless hand of science holds abroad.


s: And may its growing blaze shine on all hidden ways


s: And your heart is afire with Youth's desire


s: But the hours run fast when noon has passed,


s: For the sorriest woe that a soul can know


s: 'On life's long mile there was nothing worth while


s: Shine with the radiance of continuous Mays.


s: To live, to breathe, to wonder and desire,


s: To feed with dreams the heart's perpetual fire;


s: To thrill with virtuous passions and to glow


s: With great ambitions--in one hour to know


s: The depths and heights of feeling--God! in truth


s: Life is a privilege.  Like some rare rose


s: The mysteries of the human mind unclose.


s: What marvels lie in earth and air and sea,


s: What stores of knowledge wait our opening key,


s: Beyond the realms of indolence and doubt,


s: And what large pleasures smile upon and bless


s: Life is a privilege.  Though noontide fades


s: And shadows fall along the winding glades;


s: Though joy-blooms wither in the autumn air,


s: Yet the sweet scent of sympathy is there.


s: Pale sorrow leads us closer to our kind,


s: And in the serious hours of life we find


s: Depths in the soul of men which lend new worth


s: And majesty to this brief span of earth.


s: Come in that reaching upward of the soul


s: To find the welcoming presence at the goal,


s: And in the knowledge that our feet have trod


s: Paths that lead from and must lead back to God.


s: There stood a dwarf, misshapen and uncouth.


s: His lifted eyes seemed asking:  'Why, in sooth,


s: Was I not fashioned like this mighty one?


s: Like earthly kings, and beggar without ruth


s: Why should two lives in such divergence run?'


s: Strange, as he gazed, that from a vanished past


s: That old Hun's spirit, in the dwarf re-cast,


s: Lived out the sequence of an earthly life.


s: God, what a world, if men in street and mart


s: Felt that same kinship of the human heart


s: Which makes them, in the face of flame and flood,


s: Rise to the meaning of true Brotherhood!


s: Of sexless beauty.  In his form and face


s: God's mighty purpose somehow had gone wrong.


s: Then on his loom, he wove a careful song,


s: Of sensuous threads; a wordy web of lace


s: And his own sins made wonder for the throng.


s: And gave the finished mesh a crimson blot -


s: The last consummate touch of studied art.


s: But those who knew strong passion and keen pain,


s: Looked through and through the pattern and found not


s: When God had formed the Universe, He thought


s: Of all the marvels therein to be wrought


s: And to His aid then Motherhood was brought.


s: She will go forth throughout all time,' quoth He,


s: 'And make My world what I would have it be.


s: Into that silence which but God may know.


s: 'Therefore I leave the rounding of My plan


s: 'She is the soil:  the human Mother Earth:


s: She is the sun, that calls the seed to earth.


s: She is the gardener, who knows its worth.


s: 'From Me, all seed, of any kind must spring.


s: Divine the growth such seed and soil will bring.


s: His glorious face upon His breast He bowed,


s: And sought repose behind a wall of cloud.


s: Come forth, O God! though great Thy thought and good,


s: Lord, speak again; she has not understood.


s: The centuries pass:  the cycles roll along -


s: The earth is peopled with a mighty throng,


s: Yet men are fighting and the world goes wrong.


s: Lord, speak again, ere yet it be too late,


s: Unloved, unwanted souls come through earth's gate:


s: The unborn child is given a dower of hate.


s: Thy world progresses in all ways save one.


s: Lord, Lord, behold how little has been done!


s: Children are spawned like fishes in the sand.


s: With ignorance and crime they fill the land.


s: Lord, speak again, till mothers understand.


s: Who plants the seed should help the shoot to grow.


s: Better a barren soil than weed and tare,


s: Or sickly plants that die for want of care


s: In poisonous jungles, void of sun and air.


s: Its holiest purpose and its highest need.


s: Lord, speak again, so woman shall be stirred


s: With the full meaning of that mighty word


s: True Motherhood.  She has not rightly heard.


s: Unhoused in deserts of accepted thought,


s: And lost in jungles of confusing creeds,


s: My soul strayed, homeless, finding its own needs


s: The pros and cons, the little ifs and ands,


s: The but and maybe, and the this and that,


s: On which the churches thicken and grow fat,


s: I found but structures built on shifting sands.


s: And all their heavens were strange and far away,


s: And all their hells were made of human hate;


s: And since for death I did not care to wait,


s: A heaven I fashioned for myself one day.


s: Of happy thoughts I built it stone by stone,


s: With joy of life I draped each spacious room,


s: With love's great light I drove away all gloom,


s: And this dear heaven I set within my heart,


s: Seemed alien to my thoughts and held no part.


s: Now as I take my heaven from place to place


s: I find new rooms by love's revealing light,


s: And death will give me but a larger sight


s: On a bleak, bald hill with a dull world under,


s: I have stood when the whole world seemed a blunder


s: With worry about me and want before me -


s: Yet deep in my soul was a rapture spring


s: That made me cry to the grey sky o'er me:


s: 'Oh, I know this life is a goodly thing!'


s: I have given sweet years to a thankless duty


s: While cold and starving, though clothed and fed,


s: For a young heart's hunger for joy and beauty


s: Is harder to bear than the need of bread.


s: I have watched the wane of a sodden season,


s: Which let hope wither, and made care thrive,


s: And through it all, without earthly reason,


s: I have thrilled with the glory of being alive.


s: And now I stand by the great sea's splendour,


s: Where love and beauty feed heart and eye.


s: The brilliant light of the sun grows tender


s: As it slants to the shore of the by and by.


s: I prize each hour as a golden treasure -


s: A pearl Time drops from a broken string:


s: And all my ways are the ways of pleasure,


s: And I know, too, that not in the seeing,


s: Or having, or doing the things we would,


s: Lies that deep rapture that comes from being


s: And not from Pleasure the heart may borrow


s: That rare contentment for which we strive,


s: Unless through trouble, and want, and sorrow


s: It has thrilled with the glory of being alive.


s: No purpose which you may not yet achieve,


s: Each seeming loss is but a step toward gain.


s: Between the mountain-tops lie vale and plain;


s: Let nothing make you question, doubt or grieve;


s: And as you welcome joy, so welcome pain.


s: That which you most desire awaits your word;


s: Throw wide the door and bid it enter in.


s: Speak, and the strong vibrations shall be stirred;


s: Speak, and above earth's loud, unmeaning din


s: Your silent declarations shall be heard.


s: All things are possible to God's own kin.


s: Talk not of strength, until your heart has known


s: And fought with weakness through long hours alone.


s: Talk not of virtue, till your conquering soul


s: Has met temptation and gained full control.


s: Boast not of garments, all unscorched by sin,


s: Till you have passed, unscathed, through fires within.


s: Oh, poor that pride the unscarred soldier shows,


s: Who safe in camp, has never faced his foes.


s: It welcomed the sunlight, yet loved the snow.


s: It grieved when the forest was forced to fall,


s: Yet joyed when steeples rose, white and tall,


s: In the valley below it, and thrilled to hear


s: The voice of the great town roaring near.


s: When the mountain stream from its idle play


s: Was caught by the mill wheel and borne away


s: And trained to labour, the grey rock mused


s: Friend of the mountain, and star, and plain,


s: Out of the mountain was wrenched the rock.


s: Bruised and battered and broken in heart,


s: 'Comrade of mountains, of stars the friend,


s: Gazed at the granite with thoughtful eye.


s: Then stirred with a purpose supremely grand


s: And lo! from the broken and shapeless mass


s: That grieved and doubted, it came to pass


s: That a glorious statue of priceless worth


s: 'Since Sinus crossed the Milky Way, sixty thousand years have


s: With heavens for faith and hells for doubt.


s: Was lent to earth, may dwell--who knows -


s: 'Twixt world and world, he may see souls


s: Grim spectral souls, that harboured hate


s: From which proceeds all Life, all Light.


s: Fashioned of polished wood, with gold ornate,


s: Ambition, hope, and sorrow, ay, and hate


s: Once battled there, above a childish head,


s: And there in vain, grief wept, and memory plead


s: It was so small! but Ah, dear God, how great


s: The part it played in one sad woman's fate.


s: How wide the gloom, that narrow object shed.


s: Of fleeting honours, and disordered fame,


s: Look in the eyes of trouble with a smile,


s: 'Tis but a friend who comes to masquerade.


s: And test your faith and courage for awhile.


s: Fly, and he follows fast with threat and jeer.


s: Shrink, and he deals hard blow on stinging blow,


s: But bid him welcome as a friend, and lo!


s: The jest is off--the masque will disappear.


s: Is the way hard and thorny, oh, my brother?


s: Do tempests beat, and adverse wild winds blow?


s: And are you spent, and broken, at each nightfall,


s: Yet with each morn you rise and onward go?


s: Is your heart mad with longing, oh, my sister?


s: Are all great passions in your breast aglow?


s: Does the white wonder of your own soul blind you,


s: And are you torn with rapture and with woe?


s: Is the road filled with snare and quicksand, pilgrim?


s: Do pitfalls lie where roses seem to grow?


s: And have you sometimes stumbled in the darkness,


s: And are you bruised and scarred by many a blow?


s: Do you send out rebellious cry and question,


s: As mocking hours pass silently and slow,


s: Does your insistent 'wherefore' bring no answer,


s: While stars wax pale with watching, and droop low?


s: To toil, to strive, to err, to cry, to grow,


s: TO LOVE THROUGH all--this is the way to KNOW.


s: My soul shall soar, before it goes to Thee,


s: Thou great Creator, give it power to know


s: And let me dwell a season still on earth


s: And understood by sorrowing beast and bird -


s: And with a spell to stay the hunter's hand


s: And stir his heart to know and understand;


s: To plant within the dull or thoughtless mind


s: To seek my loved ones in their paradise,


s: That lost child's face, so like a dream to me,


s: I would be given this intermediate role,


s: And bridge man's gulf of cruelty and sin


s: 'Twixt weary driver and the straining steed


s: On wings of mercy would my spirit speed.


s: And each should know, before his journey's end,


s: That in the other dwelt a loving friend.


s: From zoo and jungle, and from cage and stall,


s: I would translate each inarticulate call,


s: Each pleading look, each frenzied act and cry,


s: Pursue indifference to its couch of rest,


s: It woke and knew God's all-embracing law


s: Lord, let this mission to my lot befall.


s: Send forth your heart's desire, and work and wait;


s: To our own doors, not by capricious fate,


s: But by the strong compelling force of thought.


s: Of steam, and storage, and motored thing.


s: Though faith may slumber and art seem dead,


s: And all that is spoken has once been said,


s: And all that is written were best unread;


s: Though hearts are iron and thoughts are steel,


s: Yet marvellous truths shall the age reveal.


s: Ay, greater the marvels this age shall find


s: When faith was a bigot and art was blind.


s: Oh, sorry the search of the world for gods,


s: Through faith that slaughters and art that lauds,


s: While reason sits on its throne and nods.


s: But out of the leisure that men will know,


s: When the cruel things of the sad earth go,


s: A Faith that is Knowledge shall rise and grow.


s: In the throb and whir of each new machine


s: The visible earth and the worlds unseen.


s: And Art shall awaken and Love shall sing:


s: Oh, ho! for the age of the motored thing!


s: 'The night is cold, the hour is late, the world is bleak and


s: 'Your voice is strange; I know you not; in shadows dark I grope.


s: 'And mine is Failure; you but mock the life you seek to bless.


s: 'Nay, open wide the door; I am Success.'


s: 'But I am ill and spent with pain; too late has come your wealth.


s: 'Now, wide I fling my door.  Come in, and your fair statements


s: 'But you must open, too, your heart, for I am Love.'


s: We have outgrown the helmet and cuirass,


s: When men killed men to show their love of God,


s: And he who slaughtered most was greatest king.


s: Unite in this one thought, all war would end.


s: Disarm the world; and let all Nations meet


s: Like Men, not monsters, when disputes arise.


s: When crossed opinions tangle into snarls,


s: Let Courts untie them, and not armies cut.


s: When State discussions breed dissensions, let


s: Disarm the world! and bid destructive thought


s: Slip like a serpent from the mortal mind


s: Down through the marshes of oblivion.  Soon


s: A race of gods shall rise!  Disarm!  Disarm!


s: Soon Grief drew near, and paused to hear,


s: Oh, a great world, a fair world, a true world I find it;


s: On the darkest night, a star in the skies,


s: Oh, a good life, a sweet life, a large life I take it,


s: Oh, a far way, a high way, a sure way He leads us;


s: We must trudge ahead, with a trustful song,


s: Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play.


s: As truth will paint it and as bards will not;


s: Bring us in no capon's flesh, for that is often dear,


s: Nor bring us in no duck's flesh, for they slobber in the mere,


s: Bring us in good ale, and bring us in good ale;


s: For our blessed Lady sake bring us in good ale.


s: This work I warant both good and true.(4)


s: of William Purchas, who for murthering his Mother at Thaxted, was


s: We are justly proud of the Renaissance and of the glories of our


s: >From Hull, Halifax, and Hell, good Lord deliver us.


s: It's hard when fowks can't finnd their wark


s: I've walked at neet through Sheffield loans,(3)


s: I've seen grey fog creep ower Leeds Brig


s: I've watched snow float down Bradforth Beck


s: But now, when all wer childer's fligged,(5)


s: while th' east wind blew snell an' keen.


s: An' they toss their heeads an' flout me,


s: Wheer men grind their hearts to guineas,


s: that grub up muck by t' glent o' t' moon.


s: Once a week they're set spring-cleanin',


s: On many Yorkshire farms it was perhaps still is the


s: custom to tell the bees when a death had taken place in the


s: family. The hive had to be put into mourning, and when


s: the arval, or funeral feast, was held, after the return


s: from the grave, small portions of everything eaten or


s: drunk had to be given to the bees in a saucer. Failure


s: to do this meant either the death or departure of the bees.


s: Whisht! laatle bees, sad tidings I bear,


s: Cauld i' his grave ligs your maister dear,


s: Nea mair he'll ride to t' soond o' t' horn,


s: Nea mair he'll fettle his sickle for t' corn.


s: Nea mair he'll coom to your skep of a morn,


s: T' mourners are coom, an' t' arval is spread,


s: Cakes fresh frae t' yoon,(1) an' fine havver-bread.


s: But toom'(2) is t' seat at t' table-head,


s: Look, conny(3) bees, I's winndin' black crape,


s: Else you will sicken an' dwine(4) reet away,


s: Heart-brokken bees, now your maister is clay;


s: Or, mebbe, you'l leave us wi' t' dawn o' t' day,


s: Sitha! I bring you your share o' our feast,


s: Cakes an' yal(5) an' wine you mun taste,


s: Gie some to t' queen on her gowlden throne,


s: There's foison to feed both worker an' drone;


s: Oh! dean't let us fend for oursels alone;


s: But sin I gate that skelp(1) i' t' mine,


s: An' theer's yon stars all glestrin' breet,


s: Thrang as Throp's wife, I'll dout my lamps


s: I niver heerd its name; we call it just "Our beck."


s: Mebbe, there's bigger streams down Ripon way;


s: But if thou wants clean watter, by my neck!


s: Thou'll travel far for cleaner, ony day.


s: Clear watter! Why, when t' sun is up i' t' sky,


s: I've seen yon flickerin' shadows o' lile trout


s: Glidin' ower t' shingly boddom. Step thou nigh,


s: An' gloor at t' minnows dartin' in an' out.


s: Our beck flows straight frae slacks o' moorland peat,


s: An' gethers sweetness out o' t' ling an' gorse;


s: At first its voice sounds weantly(1) saft an' leet,


s: But graws i' strength wi' lowpin ower yon force.


s: Then thou sud see the birds alang its banks--


s: Grey heronsews, that coom to fish at dawn;


s: Dippers, that under t' watter play sike pranks,


s: An' lang-nebbed curlews, swaimish(2) as a fawn.


s: Soomtimes I've seen young otters leave their holes,


s: An' laik like kitlins ower the silver dew;


s: An' I've watched squirrels climmin' up the boles


s: O' beech trees, lowpin' leet frae beugh to beugh.


s: Fowers! Why, thou'd fill thy skep,(3) lass, in an hour,


s: Wi' gowlands, paigles, blobs,(4) an' sike-like things;


s: We've daffydills to deck a bridal bower,


s: Pansies, wheer lady-cows(5) can dry their wings.


s: Young childer often bathe, when t'weather's fine,


s: Up yonder, wheer t' owd miller's bigged his weir;


s: I like to see their lish,(6) nakt bodies shine,


s: An' watch 'em dive i' t' watter widoot fear.


s: Ay, yon's our brig, bent like an archer's bow,


s: It's t' meetin' place o' folk frae near an' far;


s: Young 'uns coom theer wi' lasses laughin' low,


s: Owd 'uns to talk o' politics an' t' war.


s: It's daft when chaps that sit i' Parliament


s: Weant tak advice frae lads that talk farm-twang;


s: If t' coontry goes to t' dogs, it's 'cause they've sent


s: Ower mony city folk to mend what's wrang.


s: They've taen our day-tale men(7) to feight for t' land,


s: Then tell us we mun keep our staggarths(8) full.


s: What's lasses, gauvies,(9) greybeards stark(10) i' t' hand,


s: To strip wer kye, an' ploo, an' tew wi' t' shool?(11)


s: But theer, I'll nurse my threapin' while it rains,


s: I mun step heamwards now, through t' yatts(12) an' lanes,


s: Wheer t' owd lass waits for me by t' fireside.


s: These verses were written soon after the Old Age Pensions Bill


s: Five shill'n a week for fuglin'(3) Death


s: I hope shoo's reight; I'll vote for George,


s: Class-war were t' faith that I Iived for,


s: When I'd lossen my job back i' t' eighties,


s: I could clem(2) wi' my barns an' my wife;


s: Shoo were ower thrang wi' buildin' up t' empire


s: When t' country were chuff,(3) an' boasted


s: When t' country drave by i' her carriage,


s: But when shoo were liggin' i' t' gutter,


s: "Hands off her!" I cried, "shoo's my mother:"


s: Feight for her, live for her, dee for her,


s: But I'll give her choose-what(5) shoo axes,


s: I'll hear once more them owd church bells


s: Gert, skelpin', chunterin' taistrils,(1)


s: What's that thou says? Thou's taen a wife


s: Ay, that's thy place, at top o' t' clod,


s: By t' Megs! he's well-nigh six inch lang,


s: Howd on! leave soom for t' mowdiwarps(2)


s: Of worrms, an' mawks,(3) an' bummel-clocks(4)


s: So now thou'll clear thy pipes an' sing:


s: Thou's plannin' marlocks(5) all the time,


s: I've seen thee feightin' theer on t' lawn,


s: Thy neb was reed wi' blooid, thou looked


s: While our lile Doad would clench his fists


s: "Their silver scales are glestrin' breet,


s: Wheer t' star-fish shine like twinklin' leets,


s: But t' sea-tang wreaths round a droon'd man's head


s: Thoo can look for my boat i' t' harbour,


s: If they're dimmer now, they're tend'rer,


s: Look, I've stecked(2) wer door and window


s: Thou wants my vote, young man wi' t' carpet-bags,


s: Weel, sit thee down, an' hark what I've to say.


s: It's noan so varry oft wer kitchen flags


s: Are mucked by real live lords down Yelland(1) way.


s: I've read thy speyks i' t' paper of a neet,


s: Thou lets a vast o' words flow off thy tongue;


s: Thou's gotten facts an' figures, plain as t' leet,


s: An' argiments to slocken(2) owd an' young.


s: But what are facts an' figures 'side o' truths


s: We've bowt wi' childer' tears an' brokken lives?


s: An' what are argiments o' cockered youths


s: To set agean yon groans o' caitiff(3) wives?


s: 'Twere "hungry forties" when I were a lad,


s: An' fowks were clemmed, an' weak i' t' airm an' brain;


s: We lived on demick'd(4) taties, bread gone sad,


s: An' wakkened up o' neets croodled(5) wi' pain.


s: When t' quartern loaf were raised to one and four,


s: We'd watter-brewis, swedes stown out o' t' field;


s: Farmers were t' landlords' jackals, an' us poor


s: I mind them times when lads marched down our street


s: Wi' penny loaves on pikes all steeped i' blooid;


s: "It's breead or blooid," they cried. "We've nowt to eat;


s: To Hell wi' all that taxes t' people's fooid."


s: There was a papist duke(6) that com aleng


s: Wi' curry powders, an' he telled our boss


s: That when fowk's bellies felt pination's teng,(7)


s: For breead, yon stinkin' powders they mun soss.(8)


s: I went to wark when I were eight yeer owd;


s: 'Twere warm i' t' pit, aboon 't were despert cowd,


s: An' clothes were nobbut spetches,(9) darns an' hoils.


s: Thro' six to eight I worked, then two mile walk


s: Across yon sumpy(10) fields to t' kitchen door.


s: I've often fainted, face as white as chalk,


s: Then fall'n lang-length upon wer cobble-floor.


s: Slavin' all t' day at Akeroyd's weyvin'-shed:


s: Fayther at t' grunstone wrowt, while he fell sick;


s: Steel filin's gate intul his lungs, he said.


s: I come thee then no thank for all thy speyks,


s: Thou might as weel have spared thisen thy pains;


s: I see no call to laik at ducks an' drakes


s: Wi' t' bitter truth that's burnt intul our brains.


s: "Corn laws be damned," said dad i' forty-eight;


s: "Corn laws be damned," say I i' nineteen-five.


s: Tariff reform, choose, how, will have to wait


s: If thou an' thine sud tax us workers' fooid,


s: May t' tears o' our deead childer thin thy blooid,


s: An' t' curse o' t' "hungry forties" leet on thee.


s: But now they are moaning, on ilka green loaning


s: The Flowers of the Forest are a' wede away.


s: O! day-time is weary, an' dark o' dusk dreary


s: For t' lasses i' t' mistal, or rakin' ower t' hay;


s: When t' kye coom for strippin', or t' yowes for their	clippin',


s: We think on our sowdiers now gone reet away.


s: The courtin'-gate's idle, nae lad flings his bridle


s: Ower t' yak-stoup,(1) an' sleely cooms seekin' his may;


s: The trod by the river is green as a sliver,(2)


s: For the Flowers o' the Forest have all stown away.


s: At Marti'mas hirin's, nae ribbins, nae tirin's,


s: When t' godspenny's(3) addled, an' t' time's coom for play;


s: Nae Cheap-Jacks, nae dancin', wi' t' teamster' clogs prancin ,


s: The Flowers o' the Forest are all flown a way.


s: When at neet church is lowsin', an' t' owd ullet is rousin'


s: Hissel i' our laithe,(4) wheer he's slummered all t' day,


s: Wae's t' heart! but we misses our lads' saftest kisses,


s: Now the Flowers o' the Forest are gone reet away.


s: Ploo-lads frae Pannal have crossed ower the Channel,


s: Shipperds frae Fewston have taen the King's pay,


s: Thackrays frae Dacre have sold ivery acre;


s: Thou'll finnd ne'er a delver(5) frae Haverah to Bray.


s: When t' north wind is howlin', an' t' west wind is yowlin',


s: It's for t' farm lads at sea that us lasses mun pray;


s: Tassey-Will o' t' new biggin, keepin' watch i' his riggin ,


s: Lile Jock i' his fo'c'sle, torpedoed i' t' bay.


s: Mony a lass now is weepin' for her marrow that's sleepin',


s: Wi' nae bield for his corp but the cowd Flanthers clay;


s: He'll ne'er lift his limmers,(6) he'll ne'er wean his gimmers(7):


s: Frae faave 'o t' morn while seven o' t' neet


s: Then bring' em oot, to fill their weeams,


s: Twix' thy father's hoose an' mine, love,


s: Though there's twee on her back astride;


s: Want to put me on their canvas, donned i' my farmer's rig,


s: I reckon I'm artist an' all, though I niver gave it a thowt;


s: Breeder o' stock is my trade, Mike Pullan o' t' Abbey Close.


s: What sud a farmer want wi' picturs that brass has bowt?


s: All his art is i' t' mistal, wheer t' heifers are ranged i' rows.


s: Look at yon pedigree bull, wi' an eye as breet as a star,


s: Three generations o' men have lived their lives for yon bull,


s: Anent the art that is Life, what's figures o' bronze or stone?


s: shoo's Breed, an' shoo's Life, an shoo's Art,


s: Bred frae a Westmorland statesman out o' a Craven lass;


s: Picturs is reight enough for fowks cluttered up i' Leeds,


s: An' t' finest gallery i' t' worrld is a Yorkshire cattle-show.


s: Pray wi' her, bensil(1) her, flout her?--


s: An' I laid all her cockaloft marlocks(3)


s: When I looked for her tears o' repentance,


s: Then I bensilled her hard in her cham'er,


s: If prayers willent teach thee, my dolly,


s: Happen whip-stock will mak thy tears start.


s: But she stood there as chuff as a mawmet,(5)


s: But she hoped that t' blooid o' t' martyrs


s: Then I thought, mebbe floutin' will mend her;


s: So I watched while she cam out o' t' mill,


s: She winced when she heeard all their girnin',


s: Then she whispered, a sob i' her throat:


s: Wheer t' foxglove bells ring through the dells,


s: Ay, I'm a ranter, so at least fowks say;


s: Happen they'd tell t' same tale o' t' postle Paul.


s: I've ranted fifty yeer, coom first o' May,


s: An' niver changed my gospil through 'em all.


s: There's nowt like t' Blooid o' t' Lamb an' t' Fire o' Hell


s: To bring a hardened taistril(1) to his knees;


s: If fowks want more nor that, then thou can tell


s: 'Em straight, I've got no cure for their disease.


s: That blends up Hell wi' Heaven, sinners wi' saints


s: For black was black when I turned Methody,


s: An' white was white, i' souls as weel as paints.


s: That's awlus t' warp an' t' weft o' my discourse,


s: If fowks won't harken tul it, then, of course,


s: They go to church and hear t' owd parson preach.


s: His sarmon's like his baccy, sweet an' mild;


s: Fowk's ommost hauf asleep at t' second word.


s: By t' Mass! they're wick as lops,(2) ay, man an' child,


s: When I stan' up an' wrastle wi' the Lord.


s: Nay, I'm not blamin' parson, I'll awant(3);


s: Preachin's his trade, same way as millin's mine.


s: I' trade you've got to gie fowks what they want,


s: An' that is mostly sawcum(4) meshed reet fine.


s: Tak squire theer; he don't want no talk o' Hell,


s: He likes to hark to t' parable o' t' teares ;


s: He reckons church is wheat that's gooid to sell,


s: But chapil's nobbut kexes,(5) thorns, an' brears.


s: Squire's lasses, they can't do wi' t' Blooid o' t' Lamb


s: They're all for t' blooid o' t' foxes, like our Bob.


s: The Lord Hissen will have to save or damn


s: Church fowks wid out me mellin' on(6) His job.


s: Or lads that cooms home druffen of a neet,


s: If I don't gie 'em t' glent o' t' Gospil leet.


s: I'll mak 'em sit on t' penitential stooils,


s: An' roar as loud as t' buzzer down at t' mill;


s: I'll mak 'em own that they've bin despert fooils,


s: Wi' all their pride o' life a bitter pill.


s: I've mony texts, but all to one point keep,


s: Same as all t' becks flow down to one saut sea:


s: Damnation an' salvation, goats an' sheep--


s: That's t' Bible gospil that thou'll get thro' me.


s: Meet me, greet me, at the courtin' gate.


s: Haud thee, faud thee, at the courtin' gate.


s: Frae t' breast o' t' fells, wheer t' cloud-rack sails,


s: Their banks are breet wi' moss an' broom,


s: You can hark to t' bees' saft, dreamy soom(1)


s: O! Swawdill's good for horses, an' Wensladill for cheese,


s: O Whardill, wheer I'll lig me down an' dee.


s: They threaped amang theirsels for t' lands,


s: And Eastward ho! is t' song o' t' dales,


s: An' t' rain that's fall'n when bould winds soughed


s: Fieldfares, bonny fieldfares, feedin' 'mang the bent,


s: Wheer the sun is shinin' through yon cloud's wide rent,


s: Welcoom back to Whardill,(1) now October's ommost spent.


s: Noisy, chackin' fieldfares, weel I ken your cry,


s: When i' flocks you're sweepin' ower the hills sae high:


s: An' I'm fain to see your coats as blue as t' summer sky.


s: Curlews, larks an' tewits,(2) all have gone frae t' moors,


s: Frost has nipped i' t' garden all my bonny floors;


s: Fade away, an' soon the leaves 'll clutter(3) doon i'	shoors.


s: Here i' bed I'm liggin', liggin' day by day


s: Hay-cart whemmled ower,(4) and underneath I lay;


s: Fower times have I seen you fieldfares coom an' flee away.


s: You'll be gone when t' swallow bigs his nest o' loam,


s: April winds 'll blaw you far ower t' saut sea foam;


s: Lang afore our gerse is mawn your mates 'll call you home.


s: Fieldfares, liltin'(5) fieldfares, you'll noan sing to me.


s: Why sud you bide silent while you've crossed the sea?


s: Leavin' far frae Yorkshire moors your nests i' t' tall fir tree?


s: Storm-cock sings at new-yeer, swingin' on yon esh,


s: Sings his loudest song when t' winds do beat an' lesh;


s: All the birds 'll chirm to see our woodlands green an' nesh.


s: Fieldfares, bonny fieldfares, I'll be gone 'fore you;


s: I'm sae weak an' dowly, hands are thin an' blue.


s: In her hand she held twelve sage-leaves,


s: Then should the knight of her father's choice


s: Then she watched the rooks that perched asleep


s: And her hand went swift to her maiden breast,


s: But naught could she see from her casement,


s: Through the aspen glade, by the river's side,


s: The lights went out in the maiden's eyes;


s: One swooning word she breathed to the skies:


s: And all its valleys, how surpassing fair!


s: The winding paths that lead up to the heights


s: Are polished by the footsteps of the great.


s: The mountain-peaks stand very near to God:


s: The chosen few whose feet have trod thereon


s: Have talked with Him, and with the angels walked.


s: Here are no sounds of discord--no profane


s: Or senseless gossip of unworthy things -


s: Of souls surcharged with music most divine.


s: For time is counted precious, and herein


s: That tears turn into rainbows, and enhance


s: The beauty of the land where all is fair.


s: Awed and afraid, I cross the border-land.


s: Where the great artists of the world have trod -


s: The genius-crowned aristocrats of Earth?


s: Just on the fair land's edge, to make my grave,


s: Than in the outer world of greed and gain


s: But the man worth while is the one who will smile


s: And the smile that is worth the praises of earth


s: And the life that is worth the honour on earth


s: The world's highway is cumbered to-day -


s: It is these that are worth the homage on earth,


s: All wondering, and eager-eyed, within her portico


s: I made my plea to Hostess Life, one morning long ago.


s: "Pray show me this great house of thine, nor close a single door;


s: For many rooms, and curious things, and treasures great and small


s: Then Hostess Life turned silently, her searching gaze on me,


s: And with no word, she reached her hand, and offered up the key.


s: It opened first the door of Hope, and long I lingered there,


s: Until I spied the room of Dreams, just higher by a stair.


s: And then a door whereon the one word "Happiness" was writ;


s: But when I tried the little key I could not make it fit.


s: It turned the lock of Pleasure's room, where first all seemed so


s: But after I had stayed awhile it somehow lost its light.


s: And wandering down a lonely hall, I came upon a room


s: Marked "Duty," and I entered it--to lose myself in gloom.


s: Along the shadowy halls I groped my weary way about,


s: And found that from dull Duty's room, a door of Toil led out.


s: It led out to another door, whereon a crimson stain


s: Made sullenly against the dark these words:  "The Room of Pain."


s: And when I came forth from that place, I tried the little key -


s: And lo! the door of Happiness swung open, wide and free.


s: I can laugh at the world and its sages -


s: Are you troubled and sad?  I beseech you


s: Though the green earth is fair and I love it,


s: And your life shall be glad with surprises


s: And your life shall be happy as mine is,


s: That "all things are controlled by laws."


s: Faith, that with angel's voice and touch


s: In the long run fame finds the deserving man.


s: But in good time true merit leads the van


s: And vain pretence, unnoticed, goes its way.


s: But Fortune smiles on those who work and wait,


s: There is no better thing than righteous pain,


s: The sleepless nights, the awful thorn-crowned days,


s: Bring sure reward to tortured soul and brain.


s: In the long run all hidden things are known,


s: The eye of truth will penetrate the night,


s: And good or ill, thy secret shall be known,


s: However well 'tis guarded from the light.


s: Are fathomed by the years and stand confess'd


s: In the long run all love is paid by love,


s: Though undervalued by the hosts of earth;


s: Keeps strict account and will redeem its worth.


s: Give thy love freely; do not count the cost;


s: Don't look for the flaws as you go through life;


s: It is wise and kind to be somewhat blind,


s: For the cloudiest night has a hint of light


s: Don't set your force 'gainst the river's course,


s: Don't butt at the storm with your puny form,


s: Some things must go wrong your whole life long,


s: That fills young hearts with mad desire,


s: Sent from his soul through breast and brain


s: Went trickling downward through each vein.


s: His smouldering heart flamed into fire -


s: That hour Triumphant should have been, in sooth,


s: And came back crowned with wealth and power.


s: Rose, bird-like, from some hidden place,


s: Their rich-hued leaves by Fall winds whirled -


s: How dull they were--how dull the world -


s: Than Vengeance takes in creed-taught minds,


s: This certain doom that blunts and blinds,


s: In the youth of the year, when the birds were building,


s: When the green was showing on tree and hedge,


s: And the tenderest light of all lights was gilding


s: The world from zenith to outermost edge,


s: I sighed for the season of sun and rose,


s: And I said, "In the Summer and that time only


s: Lies sweet contentment and blest repose."


s: With bee and bird for her maids of honour


s: And the King of day smiled down upon her


s: And wooed her, and won her, and made her queen.


s: Fruit of their union and true love's pledges,


s: And rambled in gardens and hid in hedges


s: And then, like a subject who harbours treason,


s: Grew full of rebellion and grey with gloom.


s: And I said, "I am sick of the summer's blisses,


s: That beauteous Fall-time holds in store!"


s: But now when the colours are almost blinding,


s: And the rarest fruits are mine for the finding,


s: My soul complains in the same old fashion;


s: Is the same old longing, the same old passion.


s: O where is the treasure which men call rest?


s: Of all the waltzes the great Strauss wrote,


s: Thrills me and fills me with vague unrest,


s: And all that is sweetest and saddest blends


s: It brings back that night in the dim arcade,


s: In love's sweet morning and life's best prime,


s: When the great brass orchestra played and played,


s: It brings back that Winter of mad delights,


s: And those languid moon-washed Summer nights


s: It brings back rapture and glee and glow,


s: It brings back passion and pain and strife,


s: For it is so full of the dear old time -


s: And under its rhythm, and lilt, and rhyme,


s: Dear friend, as that one at the church to-night.


s: Was one resplendent blaze of coloured light.


s: Up through broad aisles the stylish crowd was thronging,


s: Each richly robed like some king's bidden guest.


s: "Here will I bring my sorrow and my longing,"


s: I heard the heavenly organ's voice of thunder,


s: I wept.  Strange eyes looked on in well-bred wonder.


s: I dried my tears:  their gaze profaned my grief.


s: Wrapt in the costly furs, and silks, and laces,


s: Beat alien hearts, that had no part with me.


s: I could not read, in all those proud cold faces,


s: I watched them bowing and devoutly kneeling,


s: Heard their responses like sweet waters roll


s: But only the glorious organ's sacred pealing


s: Seemed gushing from a full and fervent soul.


s: He spoke of creeds, and hailed his own as best;


s: Of man's corruption and of Adam's-falling,


s: Nothing that helped me bear the daily grinding


s: Of soul with body, heart with heated brain;


s: Nothing to show the purpose of this blinding


s: And sometimes overwhelming sense of pain.


s: And then, dear friend, I thought of thee, so lowly,


s: And lo! a peace, a calm serene and holy,


s: Ah, friend, my friend! one true heart, fond and tender,


s: That understands our troubles and our needs,


s: Brings us more near to God than all the splendour


s: And pomp of seeming worship and vain creeds.


s: One glance of thy dear eyes so full of feeling,


s: Than all that throng of worldly people kneeling


s: When baby, sitting with his nurse at play,


s: Cried loud for "mamma," all his toys forsaking.


s: And signed to nurse to bear him from the room.


s: Then, sudden, rose and caught him to my breast,


s: And kissed the grieving mouth and cheeks of bloom.


s: For swift as lightning came the thought to me,


s: With pulsing heart-throes and a mist of tears,


s: If my fair darling grows to manhood's years;


s: Days when he will not call for "mamma," when


s: The world, with many a pleasure and bright joy,


s: Shall tempt him forth into the haunts of men


s: And I shall lose the first place with my boy;


s: When other homes and loves shall give delight,


s: When younger smiles and voices will seem best.


s: Forgetting all my need of peace and rest.


s: No darkness, no graves, and no grieving,


s: Are not blue, are not green, but are golden,


s: It was whispered to me that their waters


s: That were wept by the sons and the daughters


s: Here day is one splendour of sky-light -


s: Here night is not night, but is twilight,


s: Bright birds from all climes and all regions,


s: It is here that the four winds of heaven,


s: It is here they first came and were given


s: Their foreheads made white with the spray,


s: Of this kingdom, cloud-hidden from sight,


s: And their souls evermore are like fountains,


s: All dangers, all deaths, they defy them,


s: And are gladder than gods are, with glee.


s: We will be what we could be.  Do not say,


s: "It might have been, had not or that, or this."


s: No fate can keep us from the chosen way;


s: We will do what we could do.  Do not dream


s: Chance leaves a hero, all uncrowned to grieve.


s: I hold, all men are greatly what they seem;


s: We will climb where we could climb.  Tell me not


s: Of adverse storms that kept thee from the height.


s: What eagle ever missed the peak he sought?


s: I do not like the phrase, "It might have been!"


s: It lacks all force, and life's best truths perverts


s: For I believe we have, and reach, and win,


s: Oh, I have dreams.  I sometimes dream of Life


s: In the full meaning of that splendid word.


s: Its subtle music which few men have heard,


s: Though all may hear it, sounding through earth's strife.


s: Its mountain heights by mystic breezes kissed


s: Lifting their lovely peaks above the dust;


s: Its treasures which no touch of time can rust,


s: Its emerald seas, its dawns of amethyst,


s: Its usefulness, that finds no hour for woes,


s: Yes, I have dreams.  I ofttimes dream of Love


s: As changeless, too, as that fixed light afar


s: Which glorifies vast worlds of space above.


s: Strong as the tempest when it holds its breath,


s: As the unfathomed seas, where lost worlds sleep,


s: And sad as birth, and beautiful as death.


s: As fervent as the fondest soul could crave,


s: Yes, yes, I dream.  One oft-recurring dream


s: When that strange essence, author of all faith,


s: That subtle something, which cries for the light,


s: Like a lost child who wanders in the night,


s: Shall solve the mighty mystery of Death,


s: By artists builded and by genius planned,


s: Beyond the reach of the apprentice hand,


s: A chef d'auvre toiled over with great care,


s: Yet which the unseeing careless crowd goes by,


s: To please or hold aught save the special eye,


s: Worn threadbare in the seams, and out of date.


s: I have outgrown it.  Wherefore should I weep


s: And dwell up on its beauty, and its dyes


s: That I must needs discard it?  I can weave


s: Where sombre shades commingle, yet the gleam


s: Of golden warp shall shoot it through and through,


s: And starred with gems made out of crystalled tears,


s: My new robe shall be richer than the old.


s: That was a curious dream; I thought the three


s: Great planets that are drawing near the sun


s: They spoke of vast convulsions which would be


s: Throughout the solar system--the rare fun


s: Of watching haughty stars drop, one by one,


s: I thought I heard them comment on the earth -


s: That small dark object--doomed beyond a doubt.


s: They wondered if live creatures moved about


s: And then they laughed--'twas such a singing shout


s: That I awoke and joined too in their mirth.


s: Let mine not be that saddest fate of all


s: Stands stark and helpless while its green leaves fall.


s: Which all men dread, in my glad morning time,


s: And follow death ere I have reached my prime,


s: Or drunk the strengthening cordial of life's gall.


s: The lightning's stroke or the fierce tempest blast


s: Which fells the green tree to the earth to-day


s: Is kinder than the calm that lets it last,


s: "She lives, but all her usefulness is past."


s: There is no chance, no destiny, no fate,


s: Gifts count for nothing; will alone is great;


s: All things give way before it, soon or late.


s: Or cause the ascending orb of day to wait?


s: Each well-born soul must win what it deserves.


s: Let the fool prate of luck.  The fortunate


s: Is he whose earnest purpose never swerves,


s: Whose slightest action or inaction serve.


s: And waits an hour sometimes for such a will.


s: I heard the slow beat of the Winter rain -


s: Poor foolish drops, down-dripping all in vain;


s: The ice-bound Earth but mocked their puny might,


s: And uncomplaining snows--which make no sign,


s: But coldly smile, when pitying moonbeams shine -


s: Concealed its sorrow from all human sight.


s: Long, long ago, in blurred and burdened years,


s: I learned the uselessness of uttered woe.


s: Though sinewy Fate deals her most skilful blow,


s: I do not waste the gall now of my tears,


s: But feed my pride upon its bitter, while


s: I look straight in the world's bold eyes, and smile.


s: Life, like a romping schoolboy, full of glee,


s: Doth bear us on his shoulder for a time.


s: There is no path too steep for him to climb.


s: With strong, lithe limbs, as agile and as free,


s: As some young roe, he speeds by vale and sea,


s: By flowery mead, by mountain peak sublime,


s: And all the world seems motion set to rhyme,


s: Till, tired out, he cries, "Now carry me!"


s: In vain we murmur; "Come," Life says, "Fair play!"


s: He does not let us sit down all the day.


s: At each new step we feel the burden grow,


s: Till our bent backs seem breaking as we go,


s: Watching for Death to meet us on the way.


s: "Genius, a man's weapon, a woman's burden."--Lamartine.


s: Dear God! there is no sadder fate in life


s: To feel your brain wild and your bosom rife


s: With all the sea's commotion; to be fraught


s: With fires and frenzies which you have not sought,


s: And weighed down with the wild world's weary strife;


s: To lean and hear, half in affright, half shame,


s: A loud-voiced public boldly mouth your name;


s: To reap your hard-sown harvest in unrest,


s: And know, however great your meed of fame,


s: Let the dream go.  Are there not other dreams


s: In vastness of clouds hid from thy sight


s: That yet shall gild with beautiful gold gleams,


s: And shoot the shadows through and through with light?


s: What matters one lost vision of the night?


s: Let the hope set.  Are there not other hopes


s: That yet shall rise like new stars in thy sky?


s: Not long a soul in sullen darkness gropes


s: Before some light is lent it from on high;


s: Let the joy fade.  Are there not other joys,


s: Like frost-bound bulbs, that yet shall start and bloom?


s: The hardy roots locked in their silent tomb.


s: What cares the earth for her brief time of gloom


s: Let the love die.  Are there not other loves


s: Flying through space like snowy-pinioned doves?


s: They yet shall come and nestle in thy breast,


s: And thou shalt say of each, "Lo, this is best!"


s: Love breathed a secret to her listening heart,


s: And said "Be silent."  Though she guarded it,


s: Yet sun and star seemed by that secret lit.


s: And where she passed, each whispering wind ablow,


s: Called joyously to her, "We know, we know,


s: That when her fragile body and her brain


s: Then, after anguish, came the supreme bliss -


s: They brought the little baby, for her kiss!


s: There was a little pause between the dances;


s: Without, somewhere, a tinkling fountain played.


s: The dusky path was lit by ardent glances


s: As forth they fared, a lover and a maid.


s: He chose a nook, from curious eyes well hidden -


s: All redolent with sweet midsummer charm,


s: And by the great primeval instinct bidden,


s: The words that long deep in his heart had trembled


s: Found sudden utterance; she at first dissembled,


s: Refused her lips, and half withdrew her hand,


s: Then murmured "Yes," and yielded, woman fashion,


s: Her virgin mouth to young love's kiss of passion.


s: As fleecy clouds trail back across the skies,


s: Showing the sweet young moon in azure space,


s: The lifted veil revealed her shining face -


s: In that familiar beauty lurked surprise:


s: For now the wife stood in the maiden's place -


s: With conscious dignity, and woman's grace,


s: And love's large pride grown trebly fair and wise.


s: The universe was theirs, from sphere to sphere,


s: And life assumed new meaning, and new worth.


s: Love held no privilege they did not own,


s: And when they kissed each other without fear,


s: They understood why God had made the earth.


s: Sequestered in their calm domestic bower,


s: They sat together.  He in manhood's prime


s: The mantel clock gave forth a warning chime.


s: She put her work aside; his bright cigar


s: Grew pale, and crumbled in an ashen heap.


s: The lights went out, save one remaining star


s: That watched beside the children in their sleep.


s: She hummed a little song and nestled near,


s: As side by side they went to their repose.


s: His arm about her waist, he whispered "Dear,"


s: And pressed his lips upon her mouth's full rose -


s: The sacred sweetness of their wedded life


s: Breathed in that kiss of husband and of wife.


s: The young see heaven--but to the old who wait


s: The final call, the hills of youth arise


s: Bringing forgotten names and faces near;


s: While lost in mist, the present fades away.


s: The fragrant winds of tender memories blow


s: They smile into each other's eyes, and see


s: The bride and bridegroom of the long ago.


s: And tremulous lips, pressed close to faded cheek


s: Love's silent tale of deathless passion speak.


s: How strange seemed the ways of existence,


s: What dreams, what ambitions came thronging


s: But the hill-tops of pleasure and beauty


s: But a Voice from the Silence was pleading,


s: And the feet of my comrades grew bolder,


s: The morning's gold locks were unravelled,


s: Last night I saw Helena.  She whose praise


s: Of late all men have sounded.  She for whom


s: Rather than live without her all his days.


s: She is so ripe with dangers.  Yet meanwhile


s: Although I make her theme of this poor song.


s: "Her golden tresses?" yes, they may be fair,


s: Seems robbed of beauty and all lustreless -


s: Too many hands have stroked Helena's hair.


s: She will not let her one true lover's hands


s: In playful fondness touch her soft brown bands


s: "Her great dark eyes that flash like gems at night?


s: Large, long-lashed eyes and lustrous?" that may be,


s: Too many hearts have sunned in their delight.


s: So underneath white curtains, and so veiled


s: That I have sometimes plead for hours, and failed


s: "Her perfect mouth so liked a carved kiss?"


s: "Her honeyed-mouth, where hearts do, fly-like, drown?"


s: I would not taste its sweetness for a crown;


s: Too many lips have drank its nectared bliss.


s: (I know a mouth whose virgin dew, undried,


s: Lies like a young grape's bloom, untouched and sweet,


s: And though I plead in passion at her feet,


s: She would not let me brush it if I died.)


s: In vain, Helena! though wise men may vie


s: For thy rare smile, or die from loss of it,


s: Armoured by my sweet lady's trust, I sit,


s: And know thou are not worth her faintest sigh.


s: Their wisdom may have shamed our wisest sages,


s: Their glory may have been indeed sublime.


s: How weak do seem our strivings after power,


s: How poor the grandest efforts of our brains,


s: Even the mighty mountains leave their places,


s: And sink their haughty heads beneath strange seas


s: The great earth writhes in some convulsive spasms


s: And turns the proudest cities into plains.


s: The sad seas cease complaining and grow dry,


s: Rivers are drained and altered in their courses,


s: Great stars pass out and vanish from the sky.


s: Our rarest pleasures and our keenest pains


s: Are swept away with all we hate or cherish -


s: Nothing remains but the Eternal Nameless


s: So full of love it must create for ever,


s: It yet must bring forth angels, after men -


s: We were sick of the world, and put it away,


s: Our host, the Sun, in the blue, blue sky


s: In the burnished gold of this cup on high,


s: It helps us to love, and helps us to think,


s: And brings me so much that is bright and dear


s: But when I grow weary of mirth and glee,


s: And we walk together as two friends may,


s: Now, while thy rounded cheek is fresh and fair,


s: While beauty lingers, laughing, in thine eyes,


s: Ere thy young heart shall meet the stranger, "Care,"


s: Or thy blithe soul become the home of sighs,


s: Were it not kindness should I give thee rest


s: By plunging this sharp dagger in thy breast?


s: Dying so young, with all thy wealth of youth,


s: What part of life wouldst thou not claim, in sooth?


s: Now, in this sacred hour of supreme trust,


s: Ere change can come, as come it surely must,


s: With jarring doubts and discords, to destroy


s: Our far too perfect peace, I pray thee, Sweet,


s: Were it not best for both of us, and meet,


s: If I should bring swift death to seal our bliss?


s: Dying so full of joy, what could we miss?


s: How slight the action!  Just one well-aimed blow


s: Here, where I feel thy warm heart's pulsing beat,


s: Our perfect union would be made complete:


s: So, past all parting, I should claim thee mine.


s: Dead with our youth, and faith, and love divine,


s: Should we not keep the best of life that way?


s: What shall we gain by living day on day?


s: Like the harnessed wheel of a great machine,


s: Where Thought must follow the fashion of Thought,


s: Where Thought is rocked, on the sweet wind's breath


s: Where mind is King, and fashion is naught,


s: There shall the New World look for thought


s: For out of its broad and boundless store


s: For out of the West shall the Poets come.


s: They shall come with brows that are touched with fire


s: Like the gods with whom they have walked;


s: They shall come from the West in royal state,


s: The Singers and Thinkers for whom we wait.


s: For the way grew so lonely and troubled;


s: Then I joined the great rabble and throng


s: That frequents the moneyed world's mart;


s: But the greed, and the grasping and wrong,


s: For my soul and my spirit said straightway.


s: High in the heavens I saw the moon this morning,


s: Unto my soul it spoke, in voice of warning,


s: Let them march once more through Georgia


s: It will live in the heart of the nation,


s: We would bring out the treasured knapsack,


s: I have been across the bridges of the years.


s: Were the ties on which I trod, going back


s: To the valley where I left, 'neath skies of Truth,


s: As I went, I dropped my burdens, one and all -


s: All my sorrows, all my wrinkles, all my care,


s: I laid down, like some lone pilgrim's heavy pack,


s: As I neared the happy valley with light feet,


s: And my spirits gushed and bubbled like a fountain


s: On the border of that valley I found you,


s: And we wandered through the golden Summer-Land


s: And my pulses beat with rapture in the blisses


s: And we met there, in those green and verdant places,


s: And sweet laughter echoed upward from the dells


s: And the world was spilling over with the glory


s: It was but a dreamer's journey of the brain;


s: I have left the happy valley far behind;


s: Time stands waiting with his burdens in a pack


s: As he speeds me, like a rough, well-meaning friend,


s: Will I find again the lost ones loved so well?


s: But the dead know what the life will be to come -


s: As some dusk mother shields from all alarms


s: The tired child she gathers to her breast,


s: The brunette Night doth fold me in her arms,


s: And hushes me to perfect peace and rest.


s: Her eyes of stars shine on me, and I hear


s: Her voice of winds low crooning on my ear.


s: O Night, O Night, how beautiful thou art!


s: Come, fold me closer to thy pulsing heart.


s: The day is full of gladness, and the light


s: And only hear the great world's voice which rings.


s: The sweet Night draws me--whispers, "Look within!"


s: And looking, as one wakened from a dream,


s: I see what IS--no longer what doth seem.


s: The Night says, "Listen!" and upon my ear


s: Revealed, as are the visions to my sight,


s: The voices known as "Beautiful" come near


s: Great, blue-eyed Truth, her sister Purity,


s: Their brother Honour, all converse with me,


s: And kiss my brow, and say, "Be brave of heart!"


s: The Night says, "Child, sleep that thou may'st arise


s: Strong for to-morrow's struggle."  And I feel


s: Her shadowy fingers pressing on my eyes:


s: The Slumberland, made beautiful and bright


s: As death, by dreams of loved ones gone from sight,


s: O food for souls, sweet dreams of pure delight,


s: The world grows green on a thousand hills -


s: By a thousand willows the bees are humming,


s: And hearing a thrush and a blue-bird singing,


s: And all for me are the joys it is bringing.


s: Thrush and blue-bird came North together.


s: The wild Wind follows and plays the lover.


s: (I have read, and heard, and do not doubt it)


s: Has burned up a thousand worlds like this,


s: And help it to grow through golden hours.


s: And laugh, if you please, at my lack of reason,


s: Can read the hearts of the crimson roses.


s: The world grows glad in your smiling weather;


s: What a rest from strife and the burdens of life


s: What a way out of care, and worry and wear,


s: Should it lose its balance, and go with a leap


s: What a blest relief it would bring to the grief,


s: To be suddenly hurled from the solar world


s: We would go with a lunge and a mighty plunge


s: What a wild mad thrill our veins would fill


s: Should float through the air to God knows where,


s: No dark, damp tomb and no mourner's gloom,


s: But in one swift breath a painless death


s: What greater bliss could we ask than this,


s: Through leagues of space to a resting place,


s: Is it the world, or my eyes, that are sadder?


s: In the meadow-brook whose song was so glad, or


s: The brook runs slower--its song seems lower


s: And the tree I admired looks weary and tired


s: Of the changeless story of heat and cold.


s: When the sun goes up, and the stars go under,


s: In that supreme hour of the breaking day,


s: That finds less of the gold, and more of the gray


s: I see not the splendour, the tints so tender,


s: When the royal smile of that welcome comer


s: Beams on the meadow and burns in the sky,


s: Bring less of bloom than in days gone by?


s: The beauty that thrilled me, the rapture that filled me,


s: When the heart grows weary, all things seem dreary;


s: When the burden grows heavy, the way seems long.


s: Thank God for sending kind death as an ending,


s: Not they who know the awful gibbet's anguish,


s: Not they who, while sad years go by them, in


s: The sunless cells of lonely prisons languish,


s: 'Tis they who walk the highways unsuspected,


s: Yet with grim fear for ever at their side,


s: Who hug the corpse of some sin undetected,


s: A corpse no grave or coffin-lid can hide -


s: 'Tis they who are in their own chambers haunted


s: By thoughts that like unbidden guests intrude,


s: I feel the stirrings in me of great things.


s: New half-fledged thoughts rise up and beat their wings,


s: And tremble on the margin of their nest,


s: Then flutter back, and hide within my breast.


s: Beholding space, they doubt their untried strength.


s: Beholding men, they fear them.  But at length,


s: Grown all too great and active for the heart


s: That broods them with such tender mother art,


s: Forgetting fear, and men, and all, that hour,


s: Save the impelling consciousness of power


s: That stirs within them--they shall soar away


s: Oh, what exultant rapture thrills me through


s: When I contemplate all those thoughts may do;


s: Like snow-white eagles penetrating space,


s: They may explore full many an unknown place,


s: And build their nests on mountain heights unseen,


s: Whereon doth lie that dreamed-of rest serene.


s: Till my fond heart shall push thee from the nest


s: Anxious to see thee soar to heights divine -


s: Oh, beautiful but half-fledged thoughts of mine.


s: We wreathe our brides, we sheet our dead.


s: With heavenly eyes and tresses streaming,


s: "I've sought thee long!  I claim thee now -


s: I am the voice that says, 'Come higher,'


s: That leads and cheers thy farmer neighbour,


s: All shall pursue, but none shall claim me."


s: How they bow, how they bend, how they flutter,


s: How they glow, and what bon mots they utter!


s: But a strange thought has found me the while!


s: What a hush would come over the laughter!


s: As the night-wind sweeps over the earth!


s: Old friends of long standing and years -


s: That girl with Spring's freshness upon her,


s: Though the world is deceived and completely,


s: Alas!  I murmured, that the Year should borrow


s: Just then the sunlight fell with sudden flame:


s: A wondrous diamond sparkling in the light -


s: Upon my soul there fell such woeful loss,


s: Is grievous for a life as young as mine."


s: God's sunlight shone from His high Heavens down;


s: Gleamed in the place of what I thought a burden -


s: Of a thousand things that the Year snowed under -


s: How many will rise in the Spring, I wonder,


s: Will the rose-tree branches, so wholly hidden


s: At the sweet Spring's call come forth unbidden,


s: Will the fair green Earth, whose throbbing bosom


s: Is hid like a maid's in her gown at night,


s: Wake out of her sleep, and with blade and blossom


s: The loveliest buttercups bloomed and grew;


s: When the snow has gone that drifted them under,


s: Will they shoot up sunward, and bloom anew?


s: When wild winds blew, and a sleet-storm pelted,


s: If I walk that way when snows have melted,


s: Will the gem gleam up from the bare brown Earth?


s: For the year to bury and hide from sight;


s: But out of a trance will it waken, crying,


s: And push to my heart, like a leaf to the light?


s: Under the snow lie things so cherished -


s: Faces that vanished, and trusts that perished,


s: The Old Year greedily grasped his plunder,


s: Of the thousand things that he did, I wonder


s: O wise Young Year, with your hands held under


s: While faint--and yet more faint is heard


s: Were hearts more free from care than when


s: We wandered through those walks, we ten,


s: We'll pluck two leaves, dear friend, to-day.


s: So soon, so soon, the leaves can change!


s: This night-wind chills me, and I shiver;


s: There passes our window near the street,


s: And a cheek so round and a lip so sweet!


s: And her look is wholesome, and clean, and good.


s: And so we call her our "Little Blue Hood,"


s: For we know not the name of the dear little lass,


s: But we call to each other to see her pass,


s: And we watch from the window while she goes by,


s: She has such a bonny, smooth, white brow,


s: And a fearless look in her long-lashed eye!


s: She walks by the window with sweet, grave air,


s: We two are watching and thinking her fair;


s: Dear little Blue Hood, bright and sweet.


s: Are you glad we love you, or don't you care?


s: Up from the South come the birds that were banished,


s: Frightened away by the presence of frost.


s: Back to the vale comes the verdure that vanished,


s: Back to the forest the leaves that were lost.


s: Over the hillside the carpet of splendour,


s: Folded through Winter, Spring spreads down again;


s: Along the horizon, the tints that were tender,


s: Lost hues of Summer-time, burn bright as then.


s: Only the mountains' high summits are hoary,


s: To the ice-fettered river the sun gives a key.


s: Once more the gleaming shore lists to the story


s: All things revive that in Winter time perished,


s: The rose buds again in the light o' the sun,


s: All that was beautiful, all that was cherished,


s: Sweet things and dear things and all things--save one.


s: Late, when the year and the roses were lying


s: Down in the dust fell a love that was dying,


s: And the snow piled over it, and made it a tomb.


s: Lo! now the roses are budded for blossom -


s: Why dost thou bud not, O Love of my bosom?


s: Why dost thou rise not, and thrill me as then?


s: Life without love is a year without Summer,


s: Heart without love is a wood without song.


s: Rise then, revive then, thou indolent comer:


s: Why dost thou lie in the dark earth so long?


s: Rise! ah, thou can'st not! the rose-tree that sheddest


s: Its beautiful leaves, in the Springtime may bloom,


s: But of cold things the coldest, of dead things the deadest,


s: Love buried once, rises not from the tomb.


s: Green things may grow on the hillside and heather,


s: Birds seek the forest and build there and sing.


s: All things revive in the beautiful weather,


s: But unto a dead love there cometh no Spring.


s: After the May time, and after the June time,


s: Cometh the round world's royal noon time,


s: When the sun, like an eye that never closes,


s: And the winds are still, and the crimson roses


s: Like a great red ball in my bosom burning


s: With fires that nothing can quench or tame.


s: It glows till my heart itself seems turning


s: The hopes half shy, and the sighs all tender,


s: From the hills of doubt no winds are blowing,


s: From the isle of pain no breeze is sent.


s: For the Autumn must come with its mournful story,


s: And Love's midsummer will fade too soon.


s: Down low on the bush, where her sisters above


s: Nor hear all the whispers and murmurs of love.


s: They flaunt out their beautiful leaves in the sun,


s: With the wild bees who pass, and the gay butterflies.


s: That she's won a lover right under their eyes.


s: It reminded me, Kate, of a time--you know when!


s: Your dresses were short, and your feet were so small.


s: They BOTH set their caps for me, after that ball.


s: How the blue eyes and black eyes smiled up in my face!


s: Till that day when you opened the door in the hall,


s: And YOU seemed so tiny, and _I_ felt so tall.


s: Your sisters had sent you to keep me, my dear,


s: Then you were dismissed like a child in disgrace.


s: A thrill to my heart, and a flush to my face.


s: We always were meeting some way after that.


s: And got it again, when I finished my call.


s: Shall I ever forget how they tripped down the hall?


s: Shall I ever forget the first kiss by the door,


s: Or the rage and surprise of Maud-Belle?  Well-a-day,


s: That a BEE could have carried me so far away.


s: Which yet doth make my world more bright.


s: What though fate leads us separate ways,


s: While suns shall blaze, or stars shall gleam,


s: Life like a star shall climb the height,


s: One leaned on velvet cushions like a queen -


s: Whom men called great.  She bowed with languid mien,


s: And smiled, and blushed, and knew her beauty's power.


s: One trailed her tinselled garments through the street,


s: And thrust aside the crowd, and found a place


s: So near, the blooded courser's prancing feet


s: Cast sparks of fire upon her painted face.


s: One took the hot-house blossoms from her breast,


s: And tossed them down, as he went riding by,


s: And blushed rose-red to see them fondly pressed


s: To bearded lips, while eye spoke unto eye.


s: One, bold and hardened with her sinful life,


s: Yet shrank and shivered painfully, because


s: His cruel glance cut keener than a knife,


s: The glance of him who made her what she was.


s: One was observed, and lifted up to fame,


s: One who was shunned and hated, found her shame


s: In basking in the death-light of his smile.


s: And the days are short, and the nights are long;


s: It has lost its rhythm and lilting rhyme -


s: For the grace goes out of the day so soon,


s: And the tired head aches in the glare of noon,


s: And the way seems long to the hills that lie


s: Slipping away are the friends whose worth


s: Or we count them lost by the crueller death


s: Of a trust betrayed, or a murdered faith.


s: Bliss out of sorrow, and sun out of shade,


s: And out of the struggle and wearing strife,


s: From joys that diminish, and woes that increase,


s: We are slipping away to the shores of Peace.


s: It is done! in the fire's fitful flashes,


s: There were mad foolish vows in each letter,


s: It is well they have shrivelled and burned,


s: And the ring! oh, the ring was a fetter,


s: Have you burned up the heart that remembers,


s: Do you think in this swift reckless fashion