s: Half god, half brute, within the self-same shell,


s: Changers with every hour from dawn till even,


s: Who dream with angels in the gate of heaven,


s: And skirt with curious eyes the brinks of hell,


s: Children of Pan, whom some, the few, love well,


s: But most draw back, and know not what to say,


s: Poor shining angels, whom the hoofs betray,


s: Whose pinions frighten with their goatish smell.


s: Half brutish, half divine, but all of earth,


s: Half-way 'twixt hell and heaven, near to man,


s: The whole world's tangle gathered in one span,


s: Full of this human torture and this mirth:


s: Life with its hope and error, toil and bliss,


s: Earth-born, earth-reared, ye know it as it is.


s: Friend, though thy soul should burn thee, yet be still.


s: Thoughts were not meant for strife, nor tongues for swords.


s: He that sees clear is gentlest of his words,


s: And that's not truth that hath the heart to kill.


s: The whole world's thought shall not one truth fulfil.


s: Dull in our age, and passionate in youth,


s: No mind of man hath found the perfect truth,


s: Nor shalt thou find it; therefore, friend, be still.


s: Watch and be still, nor hearken to the fool,


s: Changes his thoughts for better day by day:


s: To-morrow some new light will shine, be sure,


s: And thou shalt see thy thought another way.


s: Oh ye, who found in men's brief ways no sign


s: Of strength or help, so cast them forth, and threw


s: Your whole souls up to one ye deemed most true,


s: Nor failed nor doubted but held fast your line,


s: Seeing before you that divine face shine;


s: Shall we not mourn, when yours are now so few,


s: Those sterner days, when all men yearned to you,


s: White souls whose beauty made their world divine:


s: Yet still across life's tangled storms we see,


s: Following the cross, your pale procession led,


s: One hope, one end, all others sacrificed,


s: Your faces shining toward the bended head,


s: The wounded hands and patient feet of Christ.


s: Oh city, whom grey stormy hands have sown


s: With restless drift, scarce broken now of any,


s: Out of the dark thy windows dim and many


s: Gleam red across the storm. Sound is there none,


s: Save evermore the fierce wind's sweep and moan,


s: From whose grey hands the keen white snow is shaken


s: In desperate gusts, that fitfully lull and waken,


s: Dense as night's darkness round thy towers of stone.


s: Darkling and strange art thou thus vexed and chidden;


s: City of storm, in whose grey heart are hidden


s: What stormier woes, what lives that groan and beat,


s: Stern and thin-cheeked, against time's heavier sleet,


s: Rude fates, hard hearts, and prisoning poverty.


s: The darkness brings no quiet here, the light


s: The flare of lights, the rush, and cry, and strain,


s: The engines' scream, the hiss and thunder smite:


s: I see the hurrying crowds, the clasp, the flight,


s: Faces that touch, eyes that are dim with pain:


s: I see the hoarse wheels turn, and the great train


s: Move labouring out into the bourneless night.


s: Mine eyes that watch grow fixed with dreams and guesses;


s: What threads of life, what hidden histories,


s: What sweet or passionate dreams and dark distresses,


s: What unknown thoughts, what various agonies!


s: What days await this woman, whose strange feet


s: Breathe spells, whose presence makes men dream like wine,


s: Tall, free and slender as the forest pine,


s: Whose form is moulded music, through whose sweet


s: Frank eyes I feel the very heart's least beat,


s: Keen, passionate, full of dreams and fire:


s: How in the end, and to what man's desire


s: Shall all this yield, whose lips shall these lips meet?


s: One thing I know: if he be great and pure,


s: This love, this fire, this beauty shall endure;


s: Triumph and hope shall lead him by the palm:


s: But if not this, some differing thing he be,


s: That dream shall break in terror; he shall see


s: The whirlwind ripen, where he sowed the calm.


s: The hills and leafless forests slowly yield


s: To the thick-driving snow. A little while


s: And night shall darken down. In shouting file


s: The woodmen's carts go by me homeward-wheeled,


s: Past the thin fading stubbles, half concealed,


s: Now golden-grey, sowed softly through with snow,


s: Where the last ploughman follows still his row,


s: Turning black furrows through the whitening field.


s: Far off the village lamps begin to gleam,


s: Fast drives the snow, and no man comes this way;


s: The hills grow wintery white, and bleak winds moan


s: Am neither sad, nor shelterless, nor grey,


s: Wrapped round with thought, content to watch and dream.


s: Beyond the dusky corn-fields, toward the west,


s: Dotted with farms, beyond the shallow stream,


s: Through drifts of elm with quiet peep and gleam,


s: Curved white and slender as a lady's wrist,


s: Faint and far off out of the autumn mist,


s: Toward dayset, where the journeying sun grown old


s: Hangs lowly westward darker now than gold,


s: With the soft sun-touch of the yellowing hours


s: Made lovelier, I see with dreaming eyes,


s: The bell-tongued city with its glorious towers.


s: Quiet-breathèd night whose brooding hours are seven,


s: To whom the voices of all rest are given,


s: And those few stars whose scattered names are told,


s: Far off beyond the westward hills outrolled,


s: Darker than thou, more still, more dreamy even,


s: The golden moon leans in the dusky heaven,


s: And under her one star--a point of gold:


s: And all go slowly lingering toward the west,


s: Weary of daytime, tired of noise and light:


s: Ah, it was time that thou should'st come; for we


s: Were sore athirst, and had great need of thee,


s: Thou sweet physician, balmy-bosomed night.


s: Once ye were happy, once by many a shore,


s: Wherever Glooscap's gentle feet might stray,


s: Lulled by his presence like a dream, ye lay


s: Floating at rest; but that was long of yore.


s: He was too good for earthly men; he bore


s: Their bitter deeds for many a patient day,


s: And then at last he took his unseen way.


s: He was your friend, and ye might rest no more:


s: And now, though many hundred altering years


s: Have passed, among the desolate northern meres


s: Still must ye search and wander querulously,


s: Crying for Glooscap, still bemoan the light


s: With awful laughter pierce the lonely night.


s: Over the dripping roofs and sunk snow-barrows


s: The bells are ringing loud and strangely near,


s: The shout of children dins upon mine ear


s: Shrilly, and like a flight of silvery arrows


s: Showers the sweet gossip of the British sparrows,


s: Over the days long tale of joys and sorrows;


s: Talk before bed-time of bold deeds together


s: Of thefts and fights, of hard-times and the weather,


s: Till sleep disarm them, to each little brain


s: Bringing tucked wings and many a blissful dream,


s: Visions of wind and sun, of field and stream,


s: And busy barn-yards with their scattered grain.


s: How still it is here in the woods. The trees


s: Stand motionless, as if they did not dare


s: To stir, lest it should break the spell. The air


s: Hangs quiet as spaces in a marble frieze.


s: Even this little brook, that runs at ease,


s: Whispering and gurgling in its knotted bed,


s: Seems but to deepen with its curling thread


s: Of sound the shadowy sun-pierced silences.


s: Sometimes a hawk screams or a woodpecker


s: Startles the stillness from its fixèd mood


s: With his loud careless tap. Sometimes I hear


s: The dreamy white-throat from some far off tree


s: His five pure notes succeeding pensively.


s: The thoughts of all the maples who shall name,


s: When the sad landscape turns to cold and grey?


s: Yet some for very ruth and sheer dismay,


s: Hearing the northwind pipe the winter's name,


s: Have fired the hills with beaconing clouds of flame;


s: And some with softer woe that day by day,


s: So sweet and brief, should go the westward way,


s: Have yearned upon the sunset with such shame,


s: That all their cheeks have turned to tremulous rose;


s: Others for wrath have turned a rusty red,


s: And some that knew not either grief or dread,


s: Ere the old year should find its iron close,


s: Have gathered down the sun's last smiles acold,


s: Deep, deep, into their luminous hearts of gold.


s: "Grotesque!" we said, the moment we espied him,


s: For there he stood, supreme in his conceit,


s: With short ears close together and queer feet


s: With jokes, but they were lost; we then defied him


s: With bantering questions and loose criticism:


s: He did not like, I'm sure, our catechism,


s: But whisked and snuffed a little as we eyed him.


s: Then flung we balls, and out and clear away,


s: Up the white slope, across the crusted snow,


s: To where a broken fence stands in the way,


s: Against the sky-line, a mere row of pegs,


s: Quicker than thought we saw him flash and go,


s: A straight mad scuttling of four crooked legs.


s: First published by McClelland & Stewart, Limited, Toronto, 1922.


s: Flotsam of those glories that were ships!


s: Through all to-morrows you are yesterday.


s: Up and up to the clouds which are its kindred!


s: My thoughts, like flocking birds, would follow


s: Those winged thoughts of mine pursuing--


s: That kindly Death was struck with pity--


s: And ghosts of hyacinths that died too soon;


s: In waving spiral, making sweet the moon!


s: Take voice in whisperings that rise and pass;


s: Breathes like a startled spirit o'er the grass.


s: Beneath this haunted moon! Have you forgot?


s: THE moan of Rose Dolores, she made her plaint to me,


s: "My hair is lifted by the wind that sweeps in from the sea;


s: I taste its salt upon my lips--O jailer, set me free!"


s: "Content thee, Rose Dolores; content thee, child of care!


s: There's satin shoon upon thy feet and emeralds in thy hair,


s: And one there is who hungers for thy step upon the stair."


s: The moan of Rose Dolores, "O jailer, set me free!


s: These satin shoon and green-lit gems are terrible to me;


s: I hear a murmur on the wind, the murmur of the sea!"


s: "Bethink thee, Rose Dolores, bethink thee, ere too late!


s: Thou wert a fisher's child, alack, born to a fisher's fate;


s: The moan of Rose Dolores "Kind jailer, let me go!


s: There's one who is a fisher--ah! my heart beats cold and slow


s: Lest he should doubt I love him--I! who love not heaven so!"


s: "Alas, sweet Rose Dolores, why beat against the bars?


s: Thy fisher lover drifteth where the sea is full of stars;


s: The moan of Rose Dolores (she prayed me patiently)


s: "O jailer, now I know who called from out the calling sea,


s: I know whose kiss was in the wind--O jailer, set me free!"


s: My heart, a hooded pilgrim, turns with tears--


s: There still may burn a taper lit for me,


s: 'Twould be a star in starless heaven, to show


s: Bent with the weight of all that I desired


s: My heart roams, mendicant, forlorn and tired,


s: No more thy knight, thy champion no more--


s: SPRING will come to help me: she'll be back again,


s: Back with the soft sun, the sun I knew before.


s: She will wear her green gown, the emerald gown she wore


s: When the white-faced windflowers blew along the lane.


s: Spring will come to help me: When her waking sigh


s: Drifts across my sore heart all the pain will go.


s: How shall hearts be aching when larks are flying low,


s: Low across the fields of camas bluer than the sky?


s: I've a tryst with Spring here--maybe they'll be few


s: Now the world grows older--and shall I delay


s: Just because a Winter has stolen joy away?


s: What cares Spring for old joys, all her joys are new.


s: Maybe there'll be singing in my sorrow yet--


s: I have heard of such things--but, if there be not,


s: Still there'll be the green pool in the pasture lot,


s: All a-trail with willow fingers, delicate and wet.


s: Winter is a passing thing and Spring is always gay;


s: If she, too, be passing she does not weep to know it.


s: Time she takes to quicken seed but never time to grow it--


s: Naught she cares for harvest that lies so far away.


s: THE tiny thing of painted gauze that flutters in the sun


s: And sinks upon the breast of night with all its living done;


s: The unconsidered seed that from the garden blows away,


s: Blooming its little time to bloom in one short summer day;


s: The leaf the idle wind shakes down in autumn from the tree,


s: The grasshopper who for an hour makes gayest minstrelsy--


s: And I said, "It is the tears of the brown rain


s: And I said, "The summer breeze has sighed before,


s: Yet from the place I fled, nor came again,


s: For I knew 'twas not the breeze nor the brown rain


s: Who had not dreamed that Joy, my Joy, could die.


s: Who dared to dream that Joy, my Joy, could die!


s: Upon the whiteness of her robe the dew distilled, and on her veil


s: "O SISTER, sister, from the casement leaning,


s: What sees thy tranced eye, what is the meaning


s: Of the strange rapture that thy features know?"


s: "I see," she said, "the sunset's crimson glow."


s: "O sister, sister, from the casement turning,


s: What saw'st thou there save sunset's sullen burning?


s: --Thy hand is ice, and fever lights thine eye!"


s: "I saw," she said, "the twilight drifting by."


s: "O sister, oft the sun hath set and often


s: Have we beheld the twilight fold and soften


s: The edge of day-- In this no mystery lies!"


s: "I saw," she said, "the crescent moon arise."


s: "O sister, speak! I fear when on me falleth


s: Thine empty glance which some wild spell enthralleth!


s: --How chill the air blows through the open door!"


s: "I saw," she said, "I saw"--and spake no more.


s: WIND-SWEPT and fire-swept and swept with bitter rain,


s: This was the world I came to when I came across the sea--


s: Sun-drenched and panting, a pregnant, waiting plain


s: Calling out to humankind, calling out to me!


s: Leafy lanes and gentle skies and little fields all green,


s: This was the world I came from when I fared across the sea--


s: The mansion and the village and the farmhouse in between,


s: Never any room for more, never room for me!


s: I've fought the wind and braved it; I cringe to it no more!


s: I've fought the creeping fire back and cheered to see it die.


s: I've shut the bitter rain outside and, safe within my door,


s: Laughed to think I feared a thing not so strong as I!


s: I mind the long, white road that ran between the hedgerows neat,


s: In that little, strange old world I left behind me long ago,


s: I mind the air so full of bells at evening, far and sweet--


s: All and all for someone else--I had leave to go!


s: It cost a tear to leave it--but here across the sea


s: With miles and miles of unused sky, and miles of unturned loam,


s: And miles of room for someone else, and miles of room for me


s: I've found a bigger meaning for the little word called "Home."


s: IT is the English in me that loves the soft, wet weather--


s: The cloud upon the mountain, the mist upon the sea,


s: The sea-gull flying low and near with rain upon each feather,


s: A world all hot with sunshine, with a hot, white sky above it--


s: Oh then I feel an alien in a land I'd call my own;


s: The rain is like a friend's caress, I lean to it and love it,


s: 'Tis like a finger on a nerve that thrills for it alone!


s: Is it the secret kinship which each new life is given


s: To link it by an age-long chain to those whose lives are through,


s: The home-star rises in his heart to keep the compass true?


s: Ah, 'tis the English in me that loves the soft, gray weather--


s: The little mists that trail along like bits of wind-flung foam,


s: The primrose and the violet--all wet and sweet together,


s: And the sound of water calling, as it used to call at home.


s: SO has she lain for centuries unguessed,


s: Her waiting face to waiting heaven turned,


s: While winds have wooed and ardent suns have burned


s: And stars have died to sentinel her rest.


s: Only the snow can reach her as she lies,


s: Far and serene, and with cold finger-tips


s: And lightly veil the shadows of her eyes.


s: Man has no part--his little, noisy years


s: There are no echoes in that vast content,


s: No doubts, no dreams, no laughter and no tears!


s: * A formation of mountain peaks above Vancouver Harbor,


s: outlining the profile and form of a sleeping maiden.


s: DOWN at the docks--when the smoke clouds lie,


s: Coal-dumps and derricks and piled-up bales,


s: (Yesterday's breath on the things that are)


s: I love every blessed smell that's there--


s: Down at the docks--where the ships come in,


s: And the endless trails of the sea begin,


s: Where the shining wake of a steamer's track


s: Is barred by the tow of the tugboats black,


s: Where slim yachts dip to the singing spray


s: And a gay wind whistles the world away--


s: Here sad ships lie which will sail no more,


s: And always the breath of the wind and tide


s: Down at the docks--when the morning's new


s: And the air is gold and the distance blue,


s: There's a pull at the heart! But best of all


s: Is to see the sun shrink, red and small,


s: While the fog steals in (more surely fleet


s: Than the smacks that run from her white-shod feet)


s: From bewildered ships that have lost their eyes;


s: The fog horn bellows its deep-mouthed shout,


s: To you He turns, O lake of hidden wells!


s: The stars which crown your lifted peaks at even


s: And nightly launch their shining argosies.


s: From shore to dim-lit shore a ripple slips,


s: The happy sigh of faintly stirring night


s: Where safe she sleeps upon this virgin height


s: Captive of dream and smiling with white lips.


s: Earth's fretting voices here should muted fall,


s: These towering rock-walls, buttressed high--


s: His great heart torn with pride and pain,


s: This infant world, this strange New France


s: Threatened yet safe! Through storm and stress


s: And red war slipped the shuttle through,


s: Then, that the gods might hear their voice


s: They sought the tossing, pine-clad slope


s: With deep-mouthed shout they hurtled down


s: The girders shrieked, the cables strained


s: Yet, when the winds had passed, the bridge


s: The morning scents, the morning sun, a morning sky so blue


s: The distance melts to meet it till both are lost to view


s: In a little line of glory where the new day beckons through--


s: And out of the glow, the children: a whoop and a calling gay,


s: A clink of lunch-pails swinging as they clash in mimic fray,


s: A shout and a shouting echo from a world as young as they!


s: The prairie school! The well-tramped earth, so ugly and so dear,


s: The piney steps where teacher stands, a saucy gopher near,


s: A legacy to those who come from those who come no more.


s: DAZZLED by sun and drugged by space they wait,


s: These homeless peoples, at our prairie gate;


s: Breathless, upon the threshold of a world!


s: From near-horizoned, little lands they come,


s: From barren country-side and deathly slum,


s: From bleakest wastes, from lands of aching drouth,


s: From grape-hung valleys of the smiling South,


s: From chains and prisons, ay, from horrid fear,


s: (Mark you the furtive eye, the listening ear!)


s: And all amazed and silent, scared and shy--


s: See--on that bench beside the busy door--


s: There sleeps a Roman born: upon the floor


s: His wife, dark-haired and handsome, takes her rest,


s: Their black-eyed baby tugging at her breast.


s: Her hands lie still. Her brooding glances roam


s: Above the pushing crowd to her far home,


s: And slow she smiles to think how fine 'twill be


s: Yonder, with stolid face and tragic eye,


s: He neither stirs nor looks; his inner gaze


s: Sees not the future fair, but, troubled, strays


s: To the dark land he left but can't forget,


s: Whose bonds, though broken, hold him prisoner yet.


s: Here is a Pole--a worker; though so slim


s: His muscle is of steel--no fear for him;


s: He is the breed which conquers; he is nerved


s: To fight and fight again. Too long he served,


s: Man of a subject race! His fierce, blue eye


s: Life has no higher bliss than to be free.


s: And tweed cap perched awry on close-trimmed hair--


s: Has come from Home to seek a promised land--


s: He feels himself aggrieved, for no one said


s: That things would be so big and so--outspread!


s: He thinks of London with a pang of grief;


s: His wife is sobbing in her handkerchief.


s: But all his children stare with eager eyes.


s: This is their land. Already they surmise


s: Their heritage, their chance to live and grow,


s: Won for them by their fathers, long ago!


s: Whose longing for the hills is ne'er forgot,


s: Shall rear a son whose eye will never be


s: Dim with a craving for that distant sea,


s: Those barren rocks, that heather's purple glow--


s: The ache, the burn that only exiles know!


s: This Irishman, who, when he sees the Green,


s: Turns that his shaking lips may not be seen,


s: He, too, shall bear a son who, blythe and gay,


s: Sings the old songs but in a cheerier way!


s: Who has the love, without the anguish sharp,


s: All these and many others, patient, wait


s: And, filing through with laughter or with tears,


s: Take what their hands can glean of fruitful years.


s: Here some find home who knew not home before;


s: Here some seek peace and some wage glorious war.


s: Here some who lived in night see morning dawn


s: And some drop out and let the rest go on.


s: And of them all the years take toll; they pass


s: As shadows flit above the prairie grass.


s: From every land they come to know but one--


s: The kindly earth that hides them from the sun--


s: But, in their places, children live, and they


s: Of every land, they too, but one land claim--


s: The land that gives them place and hope and name--


s: Canadians, they, and proud and glad to be


s: What if within their hearts deep memories hide


s: Of lands their fathers grieved for, till they died?


s: New understanding and new hopes are bred,


s: With wider vision which may show the world


s: --Dreams? We may dream indeed, with heart elate,


s: Till that bright speck which is your sail


s: Brave Heart, Sweet Singer! Speed you well


s: O WHETHER by the lonesome road that lies across the lea


s: Or whether by the hill that stoops, rock-shadowed, to the sea,


s: Or by a sail that blows from far, my love returns to me!


s: No fear is hidden in my heart to make my face less fair,


s: No tear is hidden in my eye to dim the brightness there--


s: I wear upon my cheek the rose a happy bride should wear.


s: For should he come not by the road, and come not by the hill


s: And come not by the far seaway, yet come he surely will--


s: Close all the roads of all the world, love's road is open still!


s: My heart is light with singing (though they pity me my fate


s: And drop their merry voices as they pass the garden gate)


s: For love that finds a way to come, can find a way to wait!


s: Save that somewhere it meets the end of day.


s: Who, pausing, beckons one of us--and lo!


s: Quickly he goes, nor stays to tell us why.


s: One day I shall look up and see him there


s: I, too, shall take the road--I wonder where?


s: Seemed she so beautiful! The tired lines


s: Etch her white face with look so wholly pure


s: I tremble--dare I speak to her of aught?--


s: She is so wrapt in silence. Yet her lips


s: Part on a word whose honey she doth taste


s: I know the word; its meaning is plain writ


s: In the wide eyes she turns upon the Child.


s: I dare not speak. No word of mine could find


s: Its way into a soul close sealed with God


s: Ungentle hands are mine but, trained by love,


s: She might conceive them gentle--yet, I pause--


s: Far-famed and wise, who came to see the Child?


s: Their gifts lie by forgotten, though the Babe


s: Smiled on the shining treasure in his hands.


s: (Those tiny hands like crumpled bits of gauze)


s: As one who knew; and it is true they knelt


s: As to a King. The thing disturbs me much!


s: Plain men, blank-eyed with awe, in broken speech


s: Stumbling some strange, glad tale of midnight sky


s: A-shine with angel wings! And at their word


s: Again the mother smiled, as one who sees


s: No wonder but what well might happen since


s: And are they prone to dream the careless earth


s: Which answers me--yet leaves me wondering still,


s: Caught up a breathless second into Heaven?


s: She turns deep eyes upon me, and she smiles,


s: Always she smiles! Ah, Mary! could I know


s: The source of that glad smile--what would I know?


s: Is not yet given . . . one day I may know!


s: Far and still far--through years yet dim


s: While love still holds what love must yield


s: THERE lived a man who raised his hand and said,


s: And through a long, long life he bravely knocked


s: A son he left who, like his sire, strove


s: Worn out, he died and, dying, left no trace


s: Bore the fair letters of a deathless fame


s: "Behold a genius, filled with fire divine!"


s: Not knowing that to make him what he was


s: ONE comes with foot insistent to my door,


s: Nor voice nor footstep have I heard before,


s: Yet clear the calling sounds and o'er and o'er--


s: It seems the sunlight burns along the floor


s: "'Tis vain to call with morning on the wing,


s: With Life a dancer in the masque of Spring


s: And Youth new wedded with a golden ring--


s: When falls the night and birds have ceased to sing


s: "'Tis vain to pause. Pass, friend, upon your way!


s: Too swift the hours; too sweet, too brief the day:


s: Only one life, one spring, one perfect May--


s: I crush each moment, with its sweets to stay


s: The Wind's a tell-tale and will bear your sigh


s: Or kill the spring's first violets that lie


s: "If you must call, call low! My heart grows still,


s: Still as your smile, O Ancient One! A chill


s: Strikes through the sun upon the window-sill--


s: I know you now--I follow where you will,


s: I GIVE you Life, O child, a garden fair;


s: I give you Love, a rose that blossoms there--


s: I give you Death, O child--a boon more great--


s: That, when your Rose has withered and 'tis late,


s: You may pass out and, smiling, close the gate!


s: THE top of the world and an empty morning,


s: The door of day just a little bit open--


s: The wind's great laugh as he flings it wide!


s: O wind, here's one who would travel with you


s: There would I seek what some one is hiding,


s: There would I find where my longings go!


s: To some deep calm would I drift and nestle


s: Close to the heart of the Great Surprise.


s: Which common people seek, yet cannot bear,


s: Fed his high soul and kindled in his eye


s: "Look up!" he said. They looked but could not see.


s: "Help us!" they cried. He strove, but uselessly--


s: The very clouds which veiled the heaven they sought


s: Hid from his eyes the hearts of them he taught!


s: If, on the morrow, you shall say "forget"!


s: One golden day when dawn shall blush to noon


s: And noon incline to dark, and, oversoon,


s: My joy lie buried 'neath a rounded moon.


s: Only a day--it's worth you scarce could tell


s: From other days; but in my life 'twill dwell


s: THE long road and the low shore, a sail against the sky,


s: The ache in my heart's core, and hope so hard to die--


s: Ah me, but the day's long--and all the sails go by!


s: The long road and the dark shore, pools with stars aflame,


s: The ache in my heart's core, the hope I dare not name--


s: Ah, me, but the night's long--and every night the same!


s: A pack on his back and a staff at his knee.


s: He whistled a tune which he called his own,


s: "It's a fine new tune, that tune!" said he.


s: In his pack he carried a crust of bread,


s: And he drank from his hands at a brook hard by;


s: "Spring water is wonderful cool," he said,


s: He looked to the hill which his steps had passed,


s: He looked to the slope where a brooklet purled,


s: And "Ah," cried he, "what a fine, wide world!"


s: The youth passed on down the winding track


s: And though he carried but staff and pack,


s: The world and its giving belonged to him.


s: "Friend," sighed he, "you come too late,


s: Some sweet bourne your haste confesses--


s: With groping, mist-white hands outspread


s: I LOVE my love for she is like a garden in the dawn,


s: Pale, yet pink-flushed, with softly waking eyes,


s: And primrose hair that brightens to gold skies,


s: I love my love for she is like the mirror of the moon,


s: (A sweet, small moon but newly come to birth)


s: So full of heaven is she, so close to earth,


s: I love my love. O words that be too feeble and too few!


s: Brings back earth's morning with each daffodil,


s: So she within my heart makes all things new.


s: Strange how all these voices called us!--


s: DO you hear the bell? 'Tis a silver chime


s: But it ringeth not in the bourne of time.


s: With the wind it swells, with the wind 'twill sink,


s: When the moon's at full and the long tide creeps


s: It rings o'er the town that the deep sea keeps--


s: Cursed God's good bells for the noise they made,


s: For that sin of pride and that pride of sin,


s: It sucked through the stone, it stole through the street,


s: Soundless it swept through the market-place


s: The bells they had cursed tolled requiem.


s: Do you hear the bell? When the full moon rides


s: It rings o'er the town that the deep sea hides!


s: YEARS are the seedlings which we careless sow


s: In Time's bare garden. Dead they seem to be--


s: Dead years! We sigh and cover them with mould,


s: But though the vagrant wind blow hot, blow cold,


s: No hint of life beneath the dust we see;


s: Then comes the magic hour when we are old,


s: And lo! they stir and blossom wondrously.


s: Strange spectral blooms in spectral plots aglow!


s: Here a great rose and here a ragged tare;


s: And here pale, scentless blossoms without name,


s: Robbed to enrich this poppy formed of flame;


s: Here springs some hearts'ease, scattered unaware;


s: Here, hawthorn-bloom to show the way Love came;


s: Here, asphodel, to image Love's despair!


s: My feet will turn aside from common ways,


s: Where common flowers mark the common days,


s: To one green plot; and there I know will be


s: Fairest of all (O perfect beyond praise!)


s: The year you gave, beloved, your rosemary.


s: HOW shall I know? Shall I hear Love pass


s: In the wind that sighs through the poplar tree?


s: Shall I follow his passing over the grass


s: By the prisoned scents which his footsteps free?


s: And meet with Spring in a crowded street?


s: Shall I open a door and, looking through,


s: Find, on a sudden, the world more sweet?


s: With naught in my heart save a wild dismay


s: And a fear that whispered, "Love is come!"


s: Knowing the brightness of some far to-morrow


s: I MAY not lift him in my arms. His face I may not see--


s: Are angel hands more tender than a mother's hands may be?


s: And does he smile to hear the song an angel stole from me?


s: The wise King said, "He cannot come but I will go to him!"


s: O David! did you seek with words to make the grave less grim?


s: And did you think to cheat, with words, the jealous seraphim?


s: So! he will learn of heaven--he, who scarcely knew the earth.


s: All fullness waits the baby eyes that never looked on dearth--


s: The mystery of death usurps the mystery of birth!


s: O, we are both bereft, bereft--the mother and the child!


s: With trees and skies to shine through them,


s: And though the nights might weep outside


s: Till night's soft finger blurred them out,


s: Where sails my love that sails not here?


s: OUT upon the bleak hillside, the bleak hillside, he lay--


s: Her lips were red, and red the stream that slipped his life away.


s: The troubled sky seemed bending low, bending low to hide


s: The soft, south-wind came creeping up, creeping stealthily


s: To breathe upon his clay-cold face--but all too cold was he,


s: Sweet morning peeped above the hill, above the hill to find


s: The shattered, useless, godlike thing the night had left behind--


s: HOW hushed they were in Heaven that night,


s: "O Rose," I begged, "what charm will wake


s: "Tell me," I cried, "what draws the stars


s: And sweet from where the land lies green;


s: That runs so straight and white between--


s: Through the haze and through the silence


s: When you break the spell that holds you,


s: From times's grim heap of dust and bones;


s: Where the clouds hang soft on the world's dim brink,


s: Where the red suns rise and the blue stars sink,


s: The feet of the wind through the leaves,


s: Or the sigh of the waking night as it stirred.


s: Or the shimmering skirts of the sea-slipping tide


s: (Would I wake my soul for a night bird's cry?)


s: I heard the winds of the worlds sweep by


s: The vibrating note of a half spoken word--


s: Of his pipings we know not one magical strain,


s: They have fled down the years of a world that was young


s: Till my mad blood raced with my racing feet


s: THE highways and the byways, the kind sky folding all,


s: And never a care to drag me back and never a voice to call;


s: Only the call of the long, white road to the far horizon's wall.


s: The glad seas and the mad seas, the seas on a night in June,


s: The Voice which spake and said "Live on!"


s: These heights, these depths, these flaming worlds,


s: THE breeze blows out from the land and it seeks the sea,


s: O and O! that my sail were set and away--


s: Fast and free on its wings would my sailing be


s: To the west: to the Tir Nan Og, where the blessed stay!


s: The darkness stirs, it awakes, it outspreads its arms,


s: O and O! and the birds in their nests are still,


s: The red-browed hill bleats low with the lamb's alarms,


s: And a sound of singing comes from the slipping rill.


s: My soul is awake alone, all alone in the earth,


s: O and O! and around is the lonely night.


s: As with the sun, would my soul go forth to its birth--


s: O'er the darkling sea, to the west--to the light, to the light!


s: Do they say, "Be content with the land of the Innis Fail,


s: O and O! there is friendship here, there is song."


s: But they smile to your face, when you turn they stammer and rail


s: And the song of the singer has tears and is over long!


s: A call comes out of the west and it calls a name,


s: O and O! it is soft, it is far, it is low--


s: Sweet, so sweet that it touches my soul with a flame


s: That burns the heart from my breast with the wish to go!


s: * In the bad chance of a meeting with the "Little People" the


s: The dead to free and the quick to bind--


s: (Close fast the shutter and draw the blind!)


s: 'Tis but the wind in the elm tree near--


s: Her eyes were deep, aye, deep and gray--


s: (A sweet, child-look--it witched him well!)


s: "Witch, Witch!" they cried and hissed their hate--


s: "Confess," they cried, "the blasting spell


s: "Good sirs," she said, "he loved me well."


s: They matched her shining hair with flame--


s: SHE was my love and the pulse of my heart;


s: Lovely she was as the flowers that start


s: Straight to the sun from the earth's tender breast,


s: Sweet as the wind blowing out of the west--


s: Elana, Elana, my strong one, my white one,


s: Soft be the wind blowing over your rest!


s: Naught do they care that they call me apart


s: From the warmth and the light and the love of your heart.


s: White grew her face as the thorn's tender bloom,


s: White as the mist from the valley of doom!


s: Swift was her going--her head on my breast


s: Drooped like a flower that winter has pressed--


s: Elana, Elana! My strong one, my white one!


s: Empty the arms that your beauty had blessed.


s: MY father lived his three-score years; my son lived twenty-two;


s: One looked long back on work well done, and one had all to do--


s: Yet which the better served his world, I know not, nor do you!


s: Life taught my father all her lore till he grew wise and gray,


s: She did but whisper to my son before she turned away--


s: Yet which her deepest secret held only they two might say.


s: Who shall declare which gift conveyed the greater heritage?


s: SPRING came in with a red-wing's feather


s: And yellow clumps of the wild marshmallow--


s: In distant France they have April weather?


s: And little pools that are sunny and shallow?


s: My soul is awake and my pulse is racing--


s: My heart is aware that the birds are mating--


s: Oh, my heart's like a cloud that the wind is chasing


s: O'er the earth's green blur with its silver tracing


s: To that sad France where there's someone waiting!


s: O Spring! begone with your too-sweet clover


s: Come, dear Spring, when you bring my lover!


s: Yet come no more, should he tarry . . . tarry!


s: OH, to be in Canada now that Spring is merry,


s: Happy apple blossoms gay against the smiling green;


s: Here the lilac's purple plume and here the pink of cherry,


s: Hillsides just a drift of bloom with clover in between!


s: Oh, to be in Canada! there's a road that rambles


s: Through a leafing maple-wood and up a windy hill,


s: Fringing round a sky-filled pool where cattle drink their fill.


s: Oh, to be in Canada! there's a farmhouse hidden


s: Not a cherry on a tree but all the robins know!


s: Oh, to be in Canada, now that Spring is calling


s: Sweet, so sweet it breaks the heart to let its sweetness through,


s: Waking all the meadow-larks to carol in the blue!


s: Smile upon us, Canada! None shall fail who love you


s: While they hold a memory of your fields where flowers are--


s: High the task to keep unstained the skies that bend above you,


s: Proud the life that shields you from the flaming wind of war!


s: In the unfamiliar quiet of silenced guns.


s: "I don't know that it's anyone's business


s: Still, for your weeping, I will leave you something.


s: A muddied drop, from some forgotten vial of ancestry,


s: Brought them a child whose mind was dark;


s: Who lived--and never called them by their names . . .


s: They wandered out into the other country . . . .


s: And there was no one to answer questions,


s: (As a wind blows or a swallow flies against the sun)


s: "Who are you?" they entreated, trembling . . . .


s: I thought--but thought itself in ruin lies


s: Since, yesterday, you passed with lowered eyes!


s: (For the unknown soldier buried in Westminster Abbey.)


s: Lie where they fell from hands content--


s: With green that tears have brightened on.


s: The flowers and the beasts in the meadow


s: "We are born, we are reared, and we linger


s: "Thou art born as the flowers, and wilt linger


s: With gold light that cleaves and quivers,


s: The channels run, the bare earth steams,


s: The nut-hatch runs, and nods, and clings;


s: There is singing of birds in the deep wet woods,


s: In the heart of the listening solitudes,


s: Pewees, and thrushes, and sparrows, not few,


s: And all the notes of their throats are true.


s: The thrush from the innermost ash takes on


s: A tender dream of the treasured and gone;


s: But the sparrow singeth with pride and cheer


s: Of the might and light of the present and here.


s: There is shining of flowers in the deep wet woods,


s: In the heart of the sensitive solitudes,


s: The roseate bell and the lily are there,


s: Careless and bold, without dream of woe,


s: But the pale wood-daffodil covers her face,


s: Agloom with the doom of a sorrowful race.


s: Had left this earth, by stream and forest glade,


s: Where the first plough upturned the clinging sods,


s: There came at noonday or beneath the stars


s: A sound, he knew not whence, so sweet and clear,


s: Fallen asunder from his soul took flight,


s: Like mist or darkness yielding to the press


s: That rent the cloud with golden gleam apart,--


s: Lay like a limitless dream remote and strange,


s: The joy, the strife, the triumph and the mirth,


s: Till faith had traversed her appointed span,


s: And murmured as he pressed the sacred ground:


s: For Pan is gone--Ah yet, the infinite dream


s: Regains its pensive youth, and a soft breath


s: And amorous influence over marsh and mere


s: Wandering like children with untroubled eyes,


s: Far from the noise of cities and the strife,


s: From every watery waste; and in that hour


s: The same strange spell, the same unnamed delight,


s: The warmth and glow of an immortal balm,


s: The mood-touch of the gods, the endless dream,


s: And, listening to the magic cry they say:


s: Of hostile hymns and conquering faiths grew keen,


s: And the old gods from their deserted fanes,


s: Cut him new reeds, and in a sore distress


s: Of fount or sinuous stream or grassy marge,


s: Cool earth the frogs came up, and with a smile


s: He took them in his hairy hands, and set


s: And ever from that hour the frogs repeat


s: By knowledge in some god-like touch conveyed,


s: Here when the cloudless April days begin,


s: And the quaint crows flock thicker day by day,


s: Filling the forests with a pleasant din,


s: And the soiled snow creeps secretly away,


s: Comes the small busy sparrow, primed with glee,


s: From every fence and every leafless tree.


s: Now with soft slight and viewless artifice


s: Winter's iron work is wondrously undone;


s: In all the little hollows cored with ice


s: The clear brown pools stand simmering in the sun,


s: Frail lucid worlds, upon whose tremulous floors


s: All day the wandering water-bugs at will,


s: Shy mariners whose oars are never still,


s: Voyage and dream about the heightening shores.


s: The bluebird, peeping from the gnarlèd thorn,


s: Prattles upon his frolic flute, or flings,


s: In bounding flight across the golden morn,


s: An azure gleam from off his splendid wings.


s: Here the slim-pinioned swallows sweep and pass


s: Down to the far-off river; the black crow


s: Settles and stalks about the withered grass.


s: Here, when the murmurous May-day is half gone,


s: The watchful lark before my feet takes flight,


s: And wheeling to some lonelier field far on,


s: Drops with obstreperous cry; and here at night,


s: When the first star precedes the great red moon,


s: The shore-lark tinkles from the darkening field,


s: Somewhere, we know not, in the dusk concealed,


s: His little creakling and continuous tune.


s: Hunt the waste grass for forage, or prolong


s: From every quarter of these fields the bold,


s: Blithe phrases of their never-finished song.


s: The white-throat's distant descant with slow stress


s: With his own mood of piercing pensiveness.


s: Mine eyes have seen the forest break in bloom,


s: The rose-red maple and the golden birch,


s: Of the tall poplar hung with tasseled black;


s: Ah, I have watched, till eye and ear and brain


s: Grew full of dreams as they, the moted plain,


s: The sun-steeped wood, the marsh-land at its back,


s: The valley where the river wheels and fills,


s: Yon city glimmering in its smoky shroud,


s: Blue and far off and mounded like a cloud,


s: And here the noisy rutted road that goes


s: Down the slope yonder, flanked on either side


s: With the smooth-furrowed fields flung black and wide,


s: Patched with pale water sleeping in the rows.


s: So as I watched the crowded leaves expand,


s: The bloom break sheath, the summer's strength uprear,


s: In earth's great mother's heart already planned


s: The heaped and burgeoned plenty of the year,


s: And day by day as the spring's bounty grew,


s: Its conquering joy possessed me like a spell.


s: I sought these upland fields and walked apart,


s: Musing on Nature, till my thought did seem


s: I stored the themes of many a future song,


s: Whose substance should be Nature's, clear and strong,


s: Brave bud-like plans that never reached the fruit,


s: Like hers our mother's who with every hour,


s: Easily replenished from the sleepless root,


s: Covers her bosom with fresh bud and flower;


s: Who in the season of their passion's birth


s: Deem that they have their utmost worship's worth,


s: If love be near them, just to hear and see.


s: The roads far off are towered with dust;


s: The cherry-blooms are swept and thinned;


s: Through the doors and the great high windows


s: Of the old, and the sick, and the lonely,


s: In the depth and the bloom of the meadows


s: O doubts, dull passions, and base fears,


s: Here with the earth, the night, the stars,


s: Long, long ago, it seems, this summer morn


s: That pale-browed April passed with pensive tread


s: Through the frore woods, and from its frost-bound bed


s: The flower-crowned month, the merry laughing May,


s: Leaving the woods and all cool gardens gay


s: Gone are the wind-flower and the adder-tongue


s: And the sad drooping bellwort, and no more


s: The snowy trilliums crowd the forest's floor;


s: The purpling grasses are no longer young,


s: O'er the thronged hills and the broad panting earth


s: Haytime, and harvest, and the after mirth,


s: The slow soft rain, the rushing thunder plume.


s: The humid air is burdened with the rose;


s: In moss-deep woods the creamy orchid blows;


s: And now the vesper-sparrows' pealing hymn


s: The daisies in great meadows swing and shine;


s: Roars in the maples and the topmost pine.


s: Tunes magically his music of fine dreams,


s: In briary dells, by boulder-broken streams;


s: And wide and far on nebulous fields aflush


s: The orange cone-flowers purple-bossed are there,


s: And slender hawkweed tall and softly fair,


s: And rosy tops of fleabane veiled with dew.


s: So with thronged voices and unhasting flight


s: The fervid hours with long return go by;


s: The far-heard hylas piping shrill and high


s: Tell the slow moments of the solemn night


s: Lustrous and large out of the gathering drouth


s: Trails his dim fires along the droused south;


s: The silent world-incrusted round moves on.


s: And all the dim night long the moon's white beams


s: Nestle deep down in every brooding tree,


s: And sleeping birds, touched with a silly glee,


s: Waken at midnight from their blissful dreams,


s: Scare the light slumber from men's busy eyes,


s: And parted lovers on their restless beds


s: Toss and yearn out, and cannot sleep for sighs.


s: Oft have I striven, sweet month, to figure thee,


s: As dreamers of old time were wont to feign,


s: In living form of flesh, and striven in vain;


s: Thy shape hath flashed upon me like no dream,


s: Wandering with scented curls that heaped the breeze,


s: And even as I glimpsed thee thou wert gone,


s: A dream for mortal eyes too proudly coy,


s: Yet in thy place for subtle thought's employ


s: The golden magic clung, a light that shone


s: Before me like a mist that streamed and fell


s: All names and shapes of antique beauty passed


s: Of flutes between the beechen stems; and last,


s: I saw the Arcadian valley, the loved wood,


s: Alpheus stream divine, the sighing shore,


s: And through the cool green glades, awake once more,


s: Psyche, the white-limbed goddess, still pursued,


s: The noonday ringing with her frighted peals,


s: Down the bright sward and through the reeds she ran,


s: Urged by the mountain echoes, at her heels


s: The hot-blown cheeks and trampling feet of Pan.


s: And the hither field is green and still;


s: And soon the hill, and the valley and all,


s: Of another world and another lovelier mood,


s: And all the world was flecked and strewn


s: There's a break in their infinite shrouds,


s: Strange creatures that, with silver wings,


s: Scarce touched the ocean's thronging floor,


s: When the great world was hale and young;


s: Sad queens, whose names are like soft moans,


s: What would'st thou have for easement after grief,


s: When the rude world hath used thee with despite,


s: And care sits at thine elbow day and night,


s: Filching thy pleasures like a subtle thief?


s: To me, when life besets me in such wise,


s: 'Tis sweetest to break forth, to drop the chain,


s: And grasp the freedom of this pleasant earth,


s: Through summer airs and summer lands, and drain


s: The comfort of wide fields unto tired eyes.


s: By hills and waters, farms and solitudes,


s: Through fielded valleys wide with yellowing wheat;


s: Along gray roads that run between deep woods,


s: Murmurous and cool; through hallowed slopes of pine,


s: Where the long daylight dreams, unpierced, unstirred,


s: And only the rich-throated thrush is heard;


s: By lonely forest brooks that froth and shine


s: In bouldered crannies buried in the hills;


s: By broken beeches tangled with wild vine,


s: And log-strewn rivers murmurous with mills.


s: In upland pastures, sown with gold, and sweet


s: With the keen perfume of the ripening grass,


s: Where wings of birds and filmy shadows pass,


s: Spread thick as stars with shining marguerite;


s: To haunt old fences overgrown with brier,


s: Muffled in vines, and hawthorns, and wild cherries,


s: Rank poisonous ivies, red-bunched elderberries,


s: And pièd blossoms to the heart's desire,


s: Gray mullein towering into yellow bloom,


s: Pink-tasseled milkweed, breathing dense perfume,


s: And swarthy vervain, tipped with violet fire.


s: To hear at eve the bleating of far flocks,


s: The mud-hen's whistle from the marsh at morn;


s: To skirt with deafened ears and brain o'erborne


s: Some foam-filled rapid charging down its rocks


s: Across wide-reeded meres, pensive with noon,


s: To hear the querulous outcry of the loon;


s: To lie among deep rocks, and watch all day


s: On liquid heights the snowy clouds melt by;


s: Or hear from wood-capped mountain-brows the jay


s: Pierce the bright morning with his jibing cry.


s: To feast on summer sounds; the jolted wains,


s: The thrasher humming from the farm near by,


s: The prattling cricket's intermittent cry,


s: The locust's rattle from the sultry lanes;


s: To watch, as through a mist of light and dreams,


s: The far-off hay-fields, where the dusty teams


s: Drive round and round the lessening squares of hay,


s: And hear upon the wind, now loud, now low,


s: With drowsy cadence half a summer's day,


s: Far violet hills, horizons filmed with showers,


s: The murmur of cool streams, the forest's gloom,


s: The voices of the breathing grass, the hum


s: Of ancient gardens overbanked with flowers:


s: Thus, with a smile as golden as the dawn,


s: The mighty mother brings us in her hand,


s: For all tired eyes and foreheads pinched and wan,


s: Her restful cup, her beaker of bright wine:


s: Drink, and be filled, and ye shall understand!


s: With dripping brows, and the parched sod


s: The champ of wheels, the crash of steam,


s: Half pants, half whistles, in her draught;


s: Where the long currents swing and shift,


s: With changing chant, now hoarse, now shrill,


s: With logs, and dust, and wrack bestrewn,


s: Faint films of smoke that curl and wreathe,


s: The vast gray church that seems to breathe


s: And there the last blue boundaries rise,


s: And still my thought goes on, and yields


s: Now hath the summer reached her golden close,


s: And, lost amid her corn-fields, bright of soul,


s: Scarcely perceives from her divine repose


s: How near, how swift, the inevitable goal:


s: Still, still, she smiles, though from her careless feet


s: The bounty and the fruitful strength are gone,


s: And through the soft long wondering days goes on


s: The silent sere decadence sad and sweet.


s: The kingbird and the pensive thrush are fled,


s: Children of light, too fearful of the gloom;


s: The sun falls low, the secret word is said,


s: The mouldering woods grow silent as the tomb;


s: Even the fields have lost their sovereign grace,


s: The cone-flower and the marguerite; and no more,


s: Across the river's shadow-haunted floor,


s: The paths of skimming swallows interlace.


s: In clamorous gangs the gathering woodmen press


s: Northward, and the stern winter's toil begins.


s: Around the long low shanties, whose rough lines


s: Break the sealed dreams of many an unnamed lake,


s: The crash and thunder of the falling pines.


s: Where the tilled earth, with all its fields set free,


s: The hum and tumult of the thrashers rise;


s: There the tanned farmers labor without slack,


s: Till twilight deepens round the spouting mill,


s: Feeding the loosened sheaves, or with fierce will,


s: Pitching waist-deep upon the dusty stack.


s: Still a brief while, ere the old year quite pass,


s: Our wandering steps and wistful eyes shall greet


s: Still from these haunts and this accustomed seat


s: I see the wood-wrapt city, swept with light,


s: The blue long-shadowed distance, and, between,


s: The dotted farm-lands with their parcelled green,


s: The dark pine forest and the watchful height.


s: I see the broad rough meadow stretched away


s: Into the crystal sunshine, wastes of sod,


s: And yonder, toward the sunlit summit, strewn


s: With shadowy boulders, crowned and swathed with weed,


s: Stand ranks of silken thistles, blown to seed,


s: Long silver fleeces shining like the noon.


s: In far-off russet corn-fields, where the dry


s: Gray shocks stand peaked and withering, half concealed


s: In the rough earth, the orange pumpkins lie,


s: Full-ribbed; and in the windless pasture-field


s: The sleek red horses o'er the sun-warmed ground


s: While all around them from the motionless trees


s: The long clean shadows sleep without a sound.


s: Under cool elm-trees floats the distant stream,


s: Moveless as air; and o'er the vast warm earth


s: The fathomless daylight seems to stand and dream,


s: Bound with faint haze, a frail transparency,


s: Whose lucid purple barely veils and fills


s: The utmost valleys and the thin last hills,


s: Nor mars one whit their perfect clarity.


s: Thus without grief the golden days go by,


s: So soft we scarcely notice how they wend,


s: And soon, too soon, around the cumbered eaves


s: Sly frosts shall take the creepers by surprise,


s: And through the wind-touched reddening woods shall rise


s: Think not, oh master of the well-tilled field,


s: This earth is only thine; for after thee,


s: When all is sown and gathered and put by,


s: And from these silent acres and clean plots,


s: Bids with his wand the fancied after-yield,


s: The crop of images and curious thoughts.


s: No wind there is that either pipes or moans;


s: Whispers and dimples round its quiet gray stones.


s: Along the chill green slope that dips and heaves


s: Pale greenish stems half hid in dry gray leaves.


s: Stroked white with birch; and near at hand,


s: Hang multitudes of thin and withering sedge.


s: Rings and re-echoes with his furious cries.


s: Sometimes the lowing of a cow, long-drawn,


s: Comes from far off; and crows in strings


s: Rustle among the birch-cones and are gone.


s: This day the season seems like one that heeds,


s: The utmost inward sense of all her deeds.


s: Was scattered with black stumps and briers,


s: Surprised them at their compline prayer,


s: By some stern, some necessitous thought:


s: Flashing through their long-leaved hordes


s: There, too, the frost-like arrow-flowers


s: Or thoughts, far-glimpsed, half-followed, these


s: The stars have sunk from the celestial bowers,


s: And in the garden have been turned to flowers.


s: Now the book is finished, so far as I shall finish it. There is,


s: my friend, but this one page to write. And, more than probably,


s: this is the page of all the book that I shall never wish to blot.


s: pages of this volume. But when I look upon your name I hear a


s: troop of memories, and in their singing is my happiness.


s: When you receive this book, presuming that the Russian Censor


s: does not shield you from it, I have some idea what you will do.


s: The string, of course, must not be cut, and you will seriously


s: set about the disentangling of it. One hand assists by holding


s: up, now near the nose now farther off, your glasses; the other


s: hand pecks at the string. After, say, twenty minutes there will


s: enter the admirable Miss Fox--oh! the tea she used to make for us


s: professor, standing now not far from Russia's helm, would always


s: drive ahead of us and say, with princely gesture, that if we


s: suffered from the dust it was advisable that he should be the one


s: scent: Miss Fox, that woman of resource, will cut the string. And


s: while your other secretary is discoursing music, mournful Russian


s: "The Serbonian Bog," says Miss Fox, repeating the last lines of


s: Your face is held sideways with what is called, I believe, a


s: "Morocco," says she, "viewed from the banks of the Seine, is


s: becoming more and more like the Serbonian Bog." Then she waits,


s: discreet as always, while you think. Miss Fox, his thoughts are


s: There his boat, eleven years ago, was sailing underneath a net of


s: joined at first by common suffering,--and how shall mortals find


s: a stronger link? On board that boat there was an elderly


s: American, the widow of a senator's brother-in-law, whose mission


s: was, she took it, to convert those two. What specially attracted


s: her to them was not, perhaps, that they excelled the other


s: passengers in luridness, but that they had the privilege of


s: understanding, more or less, her language.


s: "Feci quod potui," said Dr. Dillon, "faciant meliora potentes."


s: another object of her ministrations, had addressed her as "Your


s: honour, the foreign devil." And this caused her to discuss the


s: details of our final journey--in the meantime we have taken many


s: others of a more delightful sort--and she assured us that we


s: extremely little hope for any of them, and Abu'l-Ala, the Syrian


s: poet, whom Dr. Dillon had been putting into English prose,--


s: Abu'l-Ala she steadily refused to read. Nor did the prospect of


s: beholding him in English verse evoke a sign of joy upon her


s: countenance. "Oh," she exclaimed, "what good is it?" And there is


s: The object of the Editors of this series is a very definite one.


s: They desire above all things that, in their humble way, these


s: books shall be the ambassadors of good-will and understanding


s: between East and West--the old world of Thought and the new of


s: Action. In this endeavour, and in their own sphere, they are but


s: followers of the highest example in the land. They are confident


s: that a deeper knowledge of the great ideals and lofty philosophy


s: of Oriental thought may help to a revival of that true spirit of


s: Charity which neither despises nor fears the nations of another


s: creed and colour. Finally, in thanking press and public for the


s: very cordial reception given to the "Wisdom of the East" Series,


s: they wish to state that no pains have been spared to secure the


s: best specialists for the treatment of the various subjects at


s: God help him who has no nails wherewith to scratch himself.


s: An effort has been made to render in this book some of the poems


s: of Abu'l-Ala the Syrian, who was born 973 years after Jesus


s: Christ and some forty-four before Omar Khayyam. But the life of


s: such a man--his triumph over circumstance, the wisdom he


s: achieved, his unconventionality, his opposition to revealed


s: religion, the sincerity of his religion, his interesting friends


s: at Baghdad and Ma'arri, the multitude of his disciples, his


s: kindliness and cynic pessimism and the reverence which he


s: enjoyed, the glory of his meditations, the renown of his


s: prodigious memory, the fair renown of bending to the toil of


s: public life, not to the laureateship they pressed upon him, but


s: the post of being spokesman at Aleppo for the troubles of his


s: native villagers,--the life of such a one could not be told


s: within the space at our command; it will, with other of his


s: poems, form the subject of a separate volume. What appears


s: advisable is that we should devote this introduction to a


s: commentary on the poems here translated; which we call a "diwan,"


s: commentary on the writings of a modern poet is supposed to be


s: superfluous, but in the days of Abu'l-Ala of Ma'arri you were


s: held to pay the highest compliment if, and you were yourself a


s: poet, you composed a commentary on some other poet's work.


s: Likewise you were held to be a thoughtful person if you gave the


s: world a commentary on your own productions; and Abu'l-Ala did not


s: Tinder") and his _Lozum ma la Yalzam_ ("The Necessity of what is


s: Unnecessary"), out of which our diwan has been chiefly made. But


s: his elucidations have been lost. And we--this nobody will


s: contradict--have lost the old facility. For instance, Hasan ibn


s: Malik ibn Abi Obaidah was one day attending on Mansur the


s: Chamberlain, and he displayed a collection of proverbs which Ibn


s: Sirri had made for the Caliph's delectation. "It is very fine,"


s: quoth Mansur, "but it wants a commentary." And Hasan in a week


s: returned with a commentary, very well written, of three hundred


s: couplets. One other observation: we shall not be able to present


s: upon these pages a connected narrative, a dark companion of the


s: poem, which is to the poem as a shadow to the bird. A mediæval


s: Arab would have no desire to see this theory of connection put in


s: admiration, would be as a company of stars much more than as a


s: flying bird. Suppose that he produced a poem of a hundred lines,


s: he would perchance make fifty leaps across the universe. But if


s: we frown on such discursiveness, he proudly shows us that the


s: hundred lines are all in rhyme. This Arab and ourselves--we


s: differ so profoundly. "Yet," says he, "if there existed no


s: diversity of sight then would inferior merchandise be left


s: unsold." And when we put his poem into English, we are careless


s: of the hundred rhymes; we paraphrase--"Behold the townsmen," so


s: cried one of the Bedawi, "they have for the desert but a single


s: word, we have a dozen!"--and we reject, as I have done, the


s: quantitative metre, thinking it far preferable if the metre sings


s: the poet wants to give; and we oppose ourselves, however


s: unsuccessfully, to his discursiveness by making alterations in


s: the order of the poem. But in this commentary we shall be obliged


s: With regard to prayer (_quatrain_ 1), the Moslem is indifferent


s: as to whether he perform this function in his chamber or the


s: street, considering that every spot is equally pure for the


s: service of God. And yet the Prophet thought that public worship


s: was to be encouraged; it was not a vague opinion, because he knew


s: prayer. It is related of al-Muzani that when he missed being


s: present in the mosque he repeated his prayers twenty-five times.


s: "He was a diver for subtle ideas," said the biographer Ibn


s: Khallikan. And although our poet, quoting the Carmathians, here


s: deprecates the common worship, he remarks in one of his letters


s: that he would have gone to mosque on Fridays if he had not fallen


s: animals in Mecca and elsewhere, at various stones which were


s: regarded as idols or as altars of the gods. Sometimes they


s: killed a human being, such as the four hundred captive nuns of


s: whom we read that they were sacrificed by al-Mundhir to the


s: goddess Aphrodite. Sheep are offered up to-day in Palestine: for


s: instance, if the first wife of a man is barren and the second


s: wife has children, then the former vows that in return for a son


s: she will give a lamb. Apparently when it was thought desirable to


s: of with the Persians, Indians, and more western people. White was


s: thought that a black lamb must be dedicated to the water sprite


s: before he would teach any one to play the harp. As for the


s: subsequent fate of the victim, Burton tells us that the Moslems


s: do not look with favour on its being eaten. Unlike them, Siberian


s: on a scaffold for the gods, and chant a song and then consume the


s: arrak and toddy and rice, which they have previously offered to


s: The words of Abu'l-Ala concerning day and night (_quatrain_ 2)


s: may be compared with what he says elsewhere:


s: "Generation goeth and generation cometh," says Ecclesiastes,


s: "while for ever the earth abideth. The sun riseth also and the


s: sun goeth down and cometh panting back to his place where he


s: riseth." . . . The early dawn, the time of scarlet eyes, was also


s: rising sun is worshipped by the Bedawi, despite the prohibition


s: of Mahomet and despite the Moslem dictum that the sun rises


s: between the devil's horns. Now the divinity of the stars


s: (_quatrain_ 4) had been affirmed by Plato and Aristotle; it was


s: said that in the heavenly bodies dwelt a ruling intelligence


s: superior to man's, and more lasting. And in Islam, whose holy


s: house, the Kaaba, had traditionally been a temple of Saturn, we


s: notice that the rationalists invariably connect their faith with


s: the worship of Venus and other heavenly bodies. We are told by


s: ash-Shahrastani, in his _Book of Religious and Philosophical


s: Sects_, that the Indians hold Saturn for the greatest luck, on


s: account of his height and the size of his body. But such was not


s: Abu'l-Ala's opinion. "As numb as Saturn," he writes in one of his


s: If dark the night, old Saturn is a flash


s: Of eyes which threaten from a face of ash.


s: And the worship of Saturn, with other deities, is about a hundred


s: poet, cling about the wretched even as a coat of mail (_quatrain_


s: sudden evil any person who recites them frequently. When this


s: evil is complete, with rings strongly riven, it passes away while


s: this quatrain of a winding-sheet, and that could be of linen or


s: of damask. The Caliph Solaiman was so fond of damask that every


s: one, even the cook, was forced to wear it in his presence, and it


s: book. The expression that a man's destiny is written on his


s: forehead, had its origin without a doubt, says Goldziher, in


s: India. We have remarked upon the Indian ideas which had been


s: gathered by Abu'l-Ala at Baghdad. There it was that he enjoyed


s: the opportunity of seeing ships (_quatrain_ 11). He spent a


s: portion of his youth beside the sea, at Tripoli. But in the


s: capital were many boats whose fascination he would not resist,--


s: the Chinese junks laboriously dragged up from Bassora, and dainty


s: in this place and in others, very frequently, in fact, Abu'l-Ala


s: makes mention of the sea, his fondness of it was, one thinks, for


s: is to hear about a friend who purposes to risk himself upon the


s: sea, and he recalls a certain verse: "Surely it is better to


s: drink among the sand-heaps foul water mixed with pure than to


s: venture on the sea." From Baghdad also he would carry home the


s: Zoroastrian view (_quatrain_ 14) that night was primordial and


s: the light created. As a contrast with these foreign importations,


s: finest of Arabian instruments. They said themselves that it was


s: invented by a man who flourished in the year 500 B.C. and added


s: an eighth string to the lyre. Certainly the Arab lute was popular


s: Menander. It was carried to the rest of Europe by crusaders at


s: the beginning of the twelfth century, about which time it first


s: appears in paintings, and its form persisted till about a hundred


s: twenty-seventh letter of Abu'l-Ala, "I observe," says he, "that


s: you find fault with travelling. Why so? Ought not a man to be


s: satisfied with following the precedent set by Moses, who, when he


s: (Koran 28, 21). Should a man be satisfied with what he hears from


s: philosopher has laid it down that, "Verily there is nothing


s: constant in this world of coming and going (_quatrain_ 24), in


s: which we may be deprived at any moment of what we love. Only in


s: the world of reason is stability to be found. If then we desire


s: to see our wishes fulfilled and would not be robbed of what is


s: dear to us, we must turn to the eternal blessings of reason, to


s: the fear of God, to science and to good works. But if we follow


s: merely after material possessions in the belief that we can


s: retain them, we are pursuing an object which does not really


s: exist." . . . And this idea of transitoriness prevails so


s: generally among the Arabs that the salad-seller recommends his


s: transitory wares to pious folk by calling, "God is that which


s: does not pass away!" So, too, the Arab pictures as a bird, a


s: thing of transience, the human soul. In Syria the dove is often


s: carved upon their ancient tombstones. And the Longobards among


s: their graves erected poles in memory of kinsfolk who had died


s: abroad or had been slain in battle; on the summit of the pole was


s: (_quatrain_ 26), the soul may metaphorically be imagined as a


s: bird, but for the European's ancestor it was a thing of sober


s: earnest, as it is to-day to many peoples. Thus the soul of


s: Aristeas was seen to issue from his mouth in the shape of a


s: raven. In Southern Celebes they think that a bridegroom's soul


s: is apt to fly away at marriage, wherefore coloured rice is


s: scattered over him to induce it to remain. And, as a rule, at


s: festivals in South Celebes rice is strewed on the head of the


s: person in whose honour the festival is held, with the object of


s: detaining his soul, which at such times is in especial danger of


s: being lured away by envious demons. . . . This metaphor was


s: used by Abu'l-Ala in the letter which he wrote on the death of


s: his mother: "I say to my soul, 'This is not your nest, fly


s: away.'" And elsewhere (_quatrain_ 34) Death is represented as a


s: The goodly grain and the sun-flushed sleeper


s: It is interesting to find Death also called a sower, who


s: disseminates weeds among men: "Dô der Tôt sînen Sâmen under si


s: It was an ancient custom of the Arabs when they took an oath of


s: special significance to plunge their hands into a bowl of perfume


s: the perfumes, musk (_quatrain_ 38) was one which they affected


s: most. Brought commonly from Turkistan, it was, with certain


s: quantities of sandalwood and ambra, made into a perfume. And "the


s: Mahomet, "shall on the Day of Judgment be resplendent with


s: vermilion and odorous as musk." This was repeated by Ibnol


s: Faradhi, who in the Kaaba entreated God for martyrdom and, when


s: this prayer was heard, repented having asked. . . . This quatrain


s: There is in the third book of a work on cookery (so rare a thing,


s: century editor to the effect that it is a vulgar error to suppose


s: beating; the long poles and stones which are used by boys and


s: others to get the fruit down, for the trees are very high, are


s: used rather out of kindness to themselves than with any regard to


s: ascribed to Cœlius Apicius; its science, learning, and


s: discipline were extremely condemned, and even abhorred by Seneca


s: and the Stoics. . . . Aloes-wood does not emit a perfume until it


s: They who bear up, in spite of wrecks and wracks,


s: Were season'd by celestial hail of thwacks.


s: Thus the All-Wise doth make a flail a staff,


s: And separates his heavenly corn from chaff.


s: Reward may follow on such absolute obedience (_quatrain_ 40). We


s: remember what is said by Fra Giovanni in the prison of


s: Viterbo: "Endurez, souffrez, acceptez, veuillez ce que Dieu


s: veut, et votre volonté sera faite sur la terre comme au ciel."


s: And perhaps the dawn for you may be your camel's dawn (_quatrain_


s: I will not have to go on foot." The camel was tied with its head


s: towards its hind legs, a saddle-cloth was wrapped about its neck,


s: divided from the body by Azrael, the angel of death. Afterwards


s: the body is commanded to sit upright in the grave, there to be


s: examined by the two black angels, Monkar and Nakyr (_quatrain_


s: of Mahomet. If the answers be correct, the body stays in peace


s: and is refreshed by the air of paradise; if incorrect, these


s: angels beat the corpse upon his temples with iron maces, until he


s: in these two angels; he reminds one of St. Catherine of Sienna, a


s: one afternoon to be a hermit. She was careful to provide herself


s: with bread and water, fearing that the angels would forget to


s: bring her food, and at nightfall she ran home again because she


s: was afraid her parents would be anxious. With regard to the angel


s: escapes with much trouble from the snares of earth (_quatrain_


s: We think of the goddess Rân with her net. Death is imagined


s: (_quatrain_ 44) as a fowler or fisher of men, thus: "Dô kam der


s: Tôt als ein diep, und stal dem reinen wîbe daz leben ûz ir


s: On account of its brilliance a weapon's edge (_quatrain_ 46) has


s: been compared in Arab poetry with sunlit glass, with the torch of


s: would an Arab turn to picturesque comparisons in poetry alone.


s: Speaking of a certain letter, Abu'l-Ala assures the man who wrote


s: holds the reins of prose and verse" (_quatrain_ 50). Now with


s: regard to glass, it was a very ancient industry among the Arabs.


s: In the second century of the Hegira it was so far advanced that


s: they could make enamelled glass and unite in one glass different


s: colours. A certain skilled chemist of the period was not only


s: expert in these processes (_quatrain_ 52), but even tried to make


s: Death, from being a silent messenger who punctually fulfilled his


s: Psalms (xci. 3-6) he comes as a hunter with snares and arrows.


s: Also "der Tôt wil mit mir ringen." In ancient times Death was


s: not a being that slew, but simply one that fetched away to the


s: underworld, a messenger. So was the soul of the beggar fetched


s: away by angels and carried into Abraham's bosom. An older view


s: was the death-goddess, who receives the dead men in her house and


s: gloomy journey, provided with various things. "Chacun remonte


s: à son tour le calvaire des siècles. Chacun retrouve les peines,


s: chacun retrouve l'espoir désespéré et la folie des siècles.


s: Chacun remet ses pas dans les pas de ceux qui furent, de ceux qui


s: morts" (_quatrain_ 57). It is the same for men and trees


s: (_quatrain_ 59). This vision of Abu'l-Ala's is to be compared


s: with Milton's "men as trees walking," a kind of second sight, a


s: blind man's pageant. In reference to haughty folk, an Arab


s: proverb says that "There is not a poplar which has reached its


s: Lord." But on the other hand, "There are some virtues which dig


s: their own graves," and with regard to excessive polishing of


s: swords (_quatrain_ 60) we have the story of the poet Abu Tammam,


s: related by Ibn Khallikan. He tells us how the poet once recited


s: verses in the presence of some people, and how one of them was a


s: philosopher who said, "This man will not live long, for I have


s: seen in him a sharpness of wit and penetration and intelligence.


s: From this I know that the mind will consume the body, even as a


s: sword of Indian steel eats through its scabbard." Still, in


s: Arabia, where swords were so generally used that a priest would


s: strap one to his belt before he went into the pulpit, there was


s: no unanimous opinion as to the polishing,--which, by the way, was


s: rarely polished, according as he wished to emphasise the large


s: amount of work accomplished or the excellence of the polishing.


s: Imru'al-Kais says that his sword does not recall the day when it


s: was polished. Another poet says his sword is polished every day


s: and "with a fresh tooth bites off the people's heads." This


s: vigour of expression was not only used for concrete subjects.


s: There exists a poem, dating from a little time before Mahomet,


s: which says that cares (_quatrain_ 62) are like the camels,


s: roaming in the daytime on the distant pastures and at night


s: returning to the camp. They would collect as warriors round the


s: flag. It was the custom for each family to have a flag


s: (_quatrain_ 65), a cloth fastened to a lance, round which it


s: gathered. Mahomet's big standard was called the Eagle,--and, by


s: the bye, his seven swords had names, such as "possessor of the


s: With _quatrain_ 68 we may compare the verses of a Christian poet,


s: And where is now the lord of Hadr, he that built it and laid


s: A house of marble he established, whereof the covering was


s: made of plaster; in the galbes were nests of birds.


s: He feared no sorry fate. See, the dominion of him has departed.


s: "Consider how you treat the poor," said Dshafer ben Mahomet, who


s: pilgrimaged from Mecca to Baghdad between fifty and sixty times;


s: "they are the treasures of this world, the keys of the other."


s: Take care lest it befall you as the prince (_quatrain_ 69) within


s: successful," says Machiavelli, "it is requisite that he should


s: have a spirit capable of turns and variations, in accordance with


s: than the praying of a rich man through a thousand years." And in


s: connection with this quatrain we may quote Blunt's rendering of


s: I have learned that he who giveth nothing, deaf to his


s: loosed shall be to the world's tooth-strokes: fools'


s: As for the power of the weak, we have some instances from


s: Abbaside history. One of the caliphs wanted to do deeds of


s: violence in Baghdad. Scornfully he asked of his opponents if they


s: the arrows of the night." And he desisted from his plans.


s: Prayers, complaints, and execrations which the guiltless,


s: fighting his oppressor, sends up to heaven are called the arrows


s: of the night and are, the Arabs tell us, invariably successful.


s: This belief may solace you for the foundation of suffering


s: (_quatrain_ 71), which, by the way, is also in the philosophic


s: system of Zeno the Stoic. Taking the four elements of Empedocles,


s: while only fire is active, and that not wholly. It was Zeno's


s: opinion that everything must be active or must suffer. . . . An


s: explanation for our suffering is given by Soame Jenyns, who


s: flourished in the days when, as his editor could write, referring


s: received by gentlemen with the profoundest gratitude." Soame's


s: thesis is his "Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil,"


s: that human sufferings are compensated by the enjoyment possibly


s: experienced by some higher order of beings which inflict them, is


s: To enjoy the state allotted them by Heav'n.


s: And (_quatrain_ 75) we may profitably turn to Coleridge:


s: Oh, what a wonder seems the fear of death!


s: Night following night, for threescore years and ten.


s: We should be reconciled, says Abu'l-Ala (_quatrain_ 76), even to


s: the Christian kings of Ghassan, in the Hauran. These were the


s: hereditary enemies of the kings of Hirah. On behalf of the Greek


s: emperors of Constantinople they controlled the Syrian Arabs. But


s: they disappeared before the triumphant Moslems, the last of their


s: capital was Bosra, on the road between the Persian Gulf and the


s: Mediterranean. Nowadays the district is chiefly occupied by


s: nomads; to the Hebrews it was known as Bashan, famous for its


s: flocks and oak plantations. We can still discern the traces of


s: troglodyte dwellings of this epoch. The afore-mentioned Jabalah


s: was a convert to Islam, but, being insulted by a Mahometan, he


s: returned to Christianity and betook himself to Constantinople,


s: where he died. But in the time of Abu'l-Ala, the Ghassanites were


s: Ghassan," says Abu'l-Ala, "who followed the course of the dead;


s: each of them is now but a tale that is told, and God knows who is


s: the greatest liar. But in this case Abu'l-Ala in prose was not so


s: Ghassanites were still a power. The poet, for our consolation,


s: has a simile (_quatrain_ 77) that may be put against a passage of


s: And thick bestrown, lies Ceres' sacred floor,


s: When round and round, with never-weary'd pain


s: The trampling steers beat out th' unnumber'd grain:


s: So the fierce coursers, as the chariot rolls,


s: Tread down whole ranks, and crush out heroes' souls.


s: For everything there is decay, and (_quatrain_ 78) for the


s: striped garment of a long cut which now we are unable to


s: We read in the Wisdom of Solomon: "As when an arrow is shot at a


s: mark, it parteth the air which immediately cometh together again,


s: (_quatrain_ 84), if the weapon's road of air is not in vain it


s: will discover justice in the sky. How much the Arabs were averse


s: from frigid justice is to be observed in the matter of recompense


s: dates--but they looked askance upon the person who was willing to


s: accept a gift as satisfaction and at the same time to escape


s: reproach, he shot an arrow into the air. Should it come down


s: unspotted, he was able to accept the gift; if it was bloody, then


s: like other joys of life. The players had ten arrows, which they


s: shot into the air; seven of them bestowed a right to the portion


s: of a camel, the other three did not. Abu'l-Ala was fond of using


s: arrows metaphorically. "And if one child," he writes to a


s: distinguished sheikh, "were to ask another in the dead of night


s: in a discussion: 'Who is rewarded for staying at home many times


s: what he would be rewarded for going on either pilgrimage?' and


s: the second lad answered: 'Mahomet, son of Sa'id,' his arrow would


s: (_quatrain_ 86) is a greater duty than either pilgrimage." And


s: our poet calls to mind some benefits attached to slavery


s: (_quatrain_ 88): for an offence against morals a slave could


s: receive fifty blows, whereas the punishment of a freeman was


s: double. A married person who did not discharge his vows was


s: liable to be stoned to death, whereas a slave in similar


s: circumstances was merely struck a certain number of blows. It was


s: himself in very trifling matters. The sympathy Abu'l-Ala displays


s: (_quatrain_ 92) he wanted for himself. And these necessaries of


s: Abu'l-Ala, the ascetic, must appeal to us as more sincerely felt


s: than those of Ibn at-Ta'awizi, who was of opinion that when seven


s: reasonable to stay away. The list is as follows: a melon, honey,


s: roast meat, a young girl, wax lights, a singer, and wine. But Ibn


s: inclined to celebrate the wilderness. He has portrayed


s: (_quatrain_ 93) a journey in the desert where a caravan, in order


s: spy, who scours the country from the summit of a hill or rock.


s: Should he perceive a sign of danger, he will wave his hand in


s: warning. From Lebid's picture of another journey--which the


s: pre-Islamic poet undertook to the coast lands of Hajar on the


s: Persian Gulf--we learn that when they entered a village he and


s: his party were greeted by the crowing of cocks and the shaking of


s: Churches are substituted for bells. . . . And the mediæval


s: leper, in his grey gown, was obliged to hold a similar object,


s: waving it about and crying as he went: "Unclean! unclean!"


s: An ambitious man desired, regardless of expense, to hand down his


s: mind to have a crown," said Epictetus, "take a crown of roses,


s: for it is more beautiful." In the words of Heredia:


s: Déjà le Temps brandit l'arme fatale. As-tu


s: L'espoir d'éterniser le bruit de ta vertu?


s: Un vil lierre suffit à disjoindre un trophée;


s: Et seul, aux blocs épars des marbres triomphaux


s: Où ta gloire en ruine est par l'herbe étouffée,


s: Quelque faucheur Samnite ébréchera sa faulx.


s: Would we write our names so that they endure for ever? There was


s: in certain Arab circles a heresy which held that the letters of


s: the alphabet (_quatrain_ 101) are metamorphoses of men. And


s: Magaira, who founded a sect, maintained that the letters of the


s: alphabet are like limbs of God. According to him, when God wished


s: men, both the good and the bad; but, at sight of the sins which


s: men were going to commit, He entered into such a fury that He


s: sweated, and from His sweat two seas were formed, the one of salt


s: infidels were formed, and from the second the Shi'ites. But to


s: this view of the everlasting question you may possibly prefer


s: what is advanced (_quatrains_ 103-7) and paraphrased as an


s: episode: Whatever be the wisdom of the worms, we bow before the


s: silence of the rose. As for Abu'l-Ala, we leave him now


s: prostrated (_quatrain_ 108) before the silence of the rolling


s: world. It is a splendour that was seen by Alfred de Vigny:


s: Je roule avec dédain, sans voir et sans entendre,


s: Je ne distingue pas leur terrier de leur cendre.


s: J'ignore en les portant les noms des nations.


s: On me dit une mère et je suis une tombe.


s: Mon hiver prend vos morts comme son hécatombe,


s: Mon printemps n'entend pas vos adorations.


s: Avant vous j'étais belle et toujours parfumée,


s: J'abandonnais au vent mes cheveux tout entiers. . . .


s: Of course I use Professor Margoliouth's superb edition of the


s: _Cf_. Thielmann, _Streifzüge im Kaukasus, etc_.


s: Quoted by Grimm, _Teutonic Mythology_, vol. 2, p. 845.


s: _Cf_. in Scandinavia the death-goddess Hel.


s: Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm Schwarzlose, _Die Waffen der alten


s: Araber, aus ihren Dichtern dargestellt_.


s: Abandon worship in the mosque and shrink


s: From idle prayer, from sacrificial sheep,


s: For Destiny will bring the bowl of sleep


s: Or bowl of tribulation--you shall drink.


s: By Night, who growls along the narrow lane;


s: But as they crash upon our world the twain


s: Devour us and are strengthened for the feud.


s: Vain are your dreams of marvellous emprise,


s: Vainly seek harbour in this world of faces


s: Behold, my friends, there is reserved for me


s: The splendour of our traffic with the sky:


s: Along this darkling, labyrinthine street--


s: Have men with torches at your head and feet


s: If you would pass the dangers of the road.


s: That so shall you be girdled of mischance


s: Till you be folded in the winding-sheet.


s: Have conversation with the wind that goes


s: And the last, sacred whisper of the rose


s: And underneath her glories build a tomb?


s: Think with unloosened hurricanes to fight?


s: Or shall I that was ravished from the night


s: That manuscript whereon our lives are traced,


s: Recall the stream which carols thro' the waste


s: And in the dark is rich with alien gold.


s: Whereat wave after wave did rise and curl;


s: And as they fell, they fell--I saw them hurl


s: A message far more eloquent than speech:


s: _We that with song our pilgrimage beguile,


s: With purple islands which a sunset bore,


s: I would not have you keep nor idly flaunt


s: What may be gathered from the gracious land,


s: But I would have you sow with sleepless hand


s: The virtues that will balance your account.


s: The days are dressing all of us in white,


s: But for the sun there is no death. I know


s: Are as the music singing thro' the years


s: Against the lute whereoutof it was wrought.


s: Long have I tarried where the waters roll


s: And I have searched, and I have searched in vain,


s: Where I could drown the sorrows of my soul.


s: If I have harboured love within my breast,


s: Who with me watched the loitering stars at play,


s: For once the witcheries a maiden flung--


s: Then afterwards I knew she was the bride


s: Of Death; and as he came, so tender-eyed,


s: Yet if all things that vanish in their noon


s: Are but the part of some eternal scheme,


s: Of what the nightingale may chance to dream


s: Aye, when the torch is low and we prepare


s: Old Silence will keep watch upon the grass,


s: Build with the twilight for an architect.


s: Dark leans to dark! the passions of a man


s: Death leans to death! nor shall your vigilance


s: Prevent him from whate'er he would possess,


s: Nor, brother, shall unfilial peevishness


s: Farewell, my soul!--bird in the narrow jail


s: Who cannot sing. The door is opened! Fly!


s: Ah, soon you stop, and looking down you cry


s: The saddest song of all, poor nightingale.


s: Shall then our seamanship have aught of praise


s: If the great anchor drags behind the boat?


s: And, if you will, refuse the mourner's reed,


s: And, if you will, plant cypress in the way.


s: As little shall it serve you in the fight


s: If you remonstrate with the storming seas,


s: Steed of my soul! when you and I were young


s: We lived to cleave as arrows thro' the night,--


s: Now there is ta'en from me the last of light,


s: Man has been thought superior to the swarm


s: Who, crouching when the voice of thunder rolls,


s: Have peeped beyond the curtain and excel


s: Before the sickle sings the songs of peace.


s: And many guides, and which of them is lord?


s: And he may have the truth--perhaps! _perhaps!_


s: Because men dare not live with men alone,


s: But over this poor threshold will not pass,


s: Required to rise triumphant from defeat;


s: And so the musk, which as the more you beat,


s: So may you gather from the fields of night


s: That harvest of diviner thought, the stars.


s: Across the waves of your tempestuous heart;


s: Let every wish save Allah's wish depart,


s: Of living shall be--hush, poor heart!--withdrawn,


s: If there should be some truth in what they teach


s: Before whose throne all buried men appear--


s: Then give me to the vultures, I beseech.


s: Some yellow sand all hunger shall assuage


s: And for my thirst no cloud have need to roll,


s: And ah! the drooping bird which is my soul


s: No longer shall be prisoned in the cage.


s: Life is a flame that flickers in the wind,


s: A bird that crouches in the fowler's net--


s: That hour the dreams of youth were unconfined.


s: There was a time when I was fain to guess


s: The riddles of our life, when I would soar


s: One who will tear these tanglements away--


s: Leaps out, as leapeth laughter, from the knife.


s: If you will do some deed before you die,


s: But have belief that every little breath


s: Astrologers!--give ear to what they say!


s: "The stars be words; they float on heaven's breath


s: And faithfully reveal the days of death,


s: And surely will reveal that longer day."


s: I shook the trees of knowledge. Ah! the fruit


s: Was fair upon the bleakness of the soil.


s: I filled a hundred vessels with my spoil,


s: And then I rested from the grand pursuit.


s: Of prose and of the neat, the cunning rhyme,


s: Upon our broken glass with blue-red fire,


s: As one might lift a pale thing from the tomb.


s: Whose wizardry would make the children cry--


s: Am broken by the chariot-wheels of Doom.


s: The chariot-wheels of Doom! Now, hear them roll


s: Across the silent places of your heart--


s: Smile on the driver you will not cajole.


s: But I must think of those who lived before


s: And gave their quantities of sweat and gore,


s: And went and will not travel back again.


s: Where shepherds meditate among their cattle,


s: Those are the direst of the fields of battle,


s: For in the victor's train there is no tent.


s: Where are the doctors who were nobly fired


s: And loved their toil because we ventured not,


s: Who spent their lives in searching for the spot


s: "Great is your soul,"--these are the words they preach,--


s: "It passes from your framework to the frame


s: Turns purer and more pure."--Oh, let them teach!


s: Romantic lines of black, and are at home


s: Do not o'erload yourself with righteousness.


s: Who will devour it. As the warriors ride


s: Come, let us laugh into the merry flame.


s: But for the grandest flame our God prepares


s: The breast of man, which is the grandest urn;


s: Those butterflies, the swarm of little cares.


s: Who teaches what is truth--ah, then you find


s: The lord of men, the guardian of the wind,


s: See that procession passing down the street,


s: The black and white procession of the days--


s: Far better dance along and bawl your praise


s: What is the flag. Oh, comrade, fall aside


s: Of yonder sun, think of the twilight's net.


s: The songs we fashion from our new delight


s: Are echoes. When the first of men sang out,


s: He shuddered, hearing not alone the shout


s: Of hills but of the peoples in the night.


s: And all the marvels that our eyes behold


s: Are pictures. There has happened some event


s: For each of them, and this they represent--


s: Our lives are like a tale that has been told.


s: And where love whispered of a thousand years


s: And where the Prince commanded, now the shriek


s: Of wind is flying through the court of state:


s: "Here," it proclaims, "there dwelt a potentate


s: Who could not hear the sobbing of the weak."


s: We suffer--that we know, and that is all


s: Our knowledge. If we recklessly should strain


s: Then would the domes of love and courage fall.


s: But there is one who trembles at the touch


s: I think our world is not a place of rest,


s: But where a man may take his little ease,


s: Say that you come to life as 'twere a feast,


s: Of death or tears or--surely, friend, you will


s: Not shrink at death, which is among the least?


s: Rise up against your troubles, cast away


s: What is too great for mortal man to bear.


s: But seize no foolish arms against the share


s: Which you the piteous mortal have to pay.


s: Be gracious to the King. You cannot feign


s: Before these Ghassanites began to reign.


s: You cultivate the ranks of golden grain,


s: And your battalions will be staunch again.


s: Below the flood of custom, or they float


s: Or have you not, poor huntsman, understood


s: More than a slave can shake aside the chain?


s: "There is no God save Allah!"--that is true,


s: Of man who wanders through the dark to find


s: The poet, headstrong and supremely strong,


s: That he brought justice down from--ah, so high!


s: The man who shot his arrow from the west


s: Made empty roads of air; yet have I thought


s: This cold one of the skies to rule the nest.


s: Whose laughter is the laughing waterfall;


s: Run! call to her--but if no maiden call,


s: 'Tis something to have loved the flying shade.


s: And curse, O fool, the threshold you forsake.


s: How man is made! He staggers at the voice,


s: The little voice that leads you to the land


s: Behold the cup whereon your slave has trod;


s: Your slave--remember that he lives by you,


s: Who knows not where each day to make his bed,


s: Which is the tyrant? say you. Well, 'tis he


s: That has the vine-leaf strewn among his hair


s: Your days: the lion, a fight-thirsty fool,


s: The fox who wears the robe of men that rule--


s: Our wilderness will be the laughing land,


s: Where nuts are hung for us, where nodding peas


s: Are wild enough to press about our knees,


s: Am as the travellers through the Syrian sand,


s: Of one who breasted up the rock, their spy.


s: Where is the valiance of the folk who sing


s: These valiant stories of the world to come?


s: Which they describe, forsooth! as if it swum


s: In air and anchored with a yard of string.


s: Two merchantmen decided they would battle,


s: To prove at last who sold the finest wares;


s: And while Mahomet shrieked his call to prayers,


s: The true Messiah waved his wooden rattle.


s: Perchance the world is nothing, is a dream,


s: And every noise the dreamland people say


s: May be the shadows flung by what we seem.


s: Which is the flight of things. Oh, meditate


s: Heigho! the splendid air is full of wings,


s: And they will take us to the--friend, be wise


s: You too may reach the subterranean kings.


s: Now fear the rose! You travel to the gloom


s: Of which the roses sing and sing so fair,


s: And, but for them, you'd have a certain share


s: In life: your name be read upon the tomb.


s: There is a tower of silence, and the bell


s: But you, when fails your song do fail as well.


s: No sword will summon Death, and he will stay


s: For neither helm nor shield his falling rod.


s: How strange that we, perambulating dust,


s: Should be within our fading bodies thrust.


s: There was a fattened worm. He looked around,


s: It seems to me this world is very good_.


s: _A most unlovely world, said brother worm,


s: And if, declared the first, your thought is true,


s: _So well that I shall weave a song of praise


s: And thankfulness because the world was wrought


s: For us and with such providential care--


s: My brother, I will shame you into singing_.


s: _Then, cried the second, I shall raise a voice


s: And so they sang, these two, for many days,


s: And while they sang the rose was beautiful_.


s: _But this affected not the songful ones,


s: And when the worms were old and wiser too,


s: A night of silence! 'Twas the swinging sea


s: And this our world of darkness. And the twain


s: Rolled on below the stars; they flung a chain


s: The shadows come, and they will come to bless


s: Their brother and his dwelling and his fame,


s: When I shall soil no more with any blame


s: Arab names have always been a stumbling-block, and centuries ago


s: there was a treatise written which was called "The Tearing of the


s: patronymic (Abu Bakr--father of Bakr), the personal name (Ahmad),


s: names if they were poets (such as Ssorrdorr, the sack of pearls,


s: who died in the year 1072), names connoting kindred, habitation


s: (such as Ahmad al-Maidani, the great collector of proverbs, who


s: lived near the Maidan, the race-course of Naisapur), faith or


s: trade or personal defects (such as a caliph who was called the


s: father of flies, since on account of his offensive breath no fly


s: would rest upon his lip), and finally they gave each other names


s: of honour (such as sword of the empire, helper of the empire,


s: etc.). Then the caliph gave, as a distinction, double titles and,


s: Arabs: "O Queen," says Das, a king of Indian folk-song, "O Queen,


s: of excellence, or Abu'l-Feda, father of redemption). At times


s: this manufactured patronymic was a thing of mockery, more or less


s: and was entitled "father of the cat"). The prevalence among the


s: Arabs of the patronymic is immediately noticed, (a camel is the


s: father of Job; a strongly built person is the father of the


s: locust; a licentious person is the father of the night; and there


s: surnames, it was not the custom always for them to denote that


s: so-and-so was the son of his father's family. "Who is your


s: father?" says an Arab to the mule, and he replies, "The horse is


s: my maternal uncle." So there are some people who, for shame,


s: prefer that we should think of them as members of their mother's