s: (Vespers)       Over a little trembling mouse


s: (Evensong)      At last, too tired, beside her bed


s: She fell asleep -- her prayers half said.


s: Smoulder the fallen roses of out-lived minutes,


s: (This happy little ghost of my dead Youth!)


s: She has no part in Time's relentless strife


s: She keeps her old simplicity and truth --


s: This deathless Child that stays with me --


s: My House of Life is weather-stained with years --


s: Its windows are bedimmed with rain of tears,


s: The walls have lost their rose, its thatch is gray.


s: For jealous Age, whose face I would forget,


s: Pulls the bright flowers you bring me from my hair


s: And powders it with snow; and yet -- and yet


s: I love your dancing feet and jocund air.


s: O Child in Me, leave not my House of Clay


s: Until we pass together through the Door,


s: When lights are out, and Life has gone away


s: And smiling, pass together through the Door!


s: I've seen her pass with eyes upon the road --


s: An old bent woman in a bronze-black shawl,


s: With skin as dried and wrinkled as a mummy's,


s: Like the low vibrant strings of a guitar.


s: What she was at their age, what they will be


s: When they are old as she.  But now she sits


s: And smokes away each night till dawn comes round,


s: Thinking, beside the pinyons' flame, of days


s: Long past and gone, when she was young -- content


s: And it's good at the last to know it's through,


s: To have some time you can call your own.


s: And travel the paths that you traveled blind,


s: It's pleasanter now in the way we've come;


s: And none to call till the last long end.


s: Though one have sons and friends of one's own,


s: And a woman's thoughts may be wild and high;


s: But when she is young she must curb her pride,


s: And her heart is tamed for the child at her side.


s: And night is the time to think and dream,


s: And not to get up with the dawn's first gleam;


s: And when dawn comes it is time to sleep . . .


s: When it's all over and there's none to care,


s: And smoke away the nights, and see the sun


s: Far off, a shrivelled orange in a sky gone black,


s: Through eyes that open inward and look back.


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


s: Clean cup of sweet wine from goat's hide,


s: And through dark night one to lie beside.


s: Hearth-fire, white cheese, own roof-tree,


s: Hack, sword, hack for straw-thatch home;


s: Guard, buckler, guard both beast and human --


s: In the very early morning when the light was low


s: She got all together and she went like snow,


s: Like snow in the springtime on a sunny hill,


s: And we were only frightened and can't think still.


s: We can't think quite that the katydids and frogs


s: And the little crying chickens and the little grunting hogs,


s: And the other living things that she spoke for to us


s: Have nothing more to tell her since it happened thus.


s: She never is around for any one to touch,


s: But of ecstasy and longing she too knew much,


s: And always when any one has time to call his own


s: She will come and be beside him as quiet as a stone.


s: No fiddlers three were called or needed;


s: He seemed the more to court their candor;


s: That's good.  The sun will soon be rising."


s: The father of many children, born of a noble mother,


s: In the great mansion-house, at the edge of town.


s: I sent all the boys to Ann Arbor, all of the girls to Rockford,


s: The while my life went on, getting more riches and honors --


s: I gave the boys money to start in business.


s: They were strong children, promising as apples


s: Mary became a recluse at home for love of a man --


s: All were gone, or broken-winged or devoured by life --


s: My mate, the mother of them, was taken --


s: O maternal Earth, which rocks the fallen leaf to sleep!


s: Drifting down like a spark in Spoon River,


s: Burnt out with the fire of drink, and broken,


s: The paramour of a woman I took in self-contempt,


s: To be judged and loathed by a village of little minds --


s: Sunk here to the dust of the justice court,


s: A picker of rags in the rubbage of spites and wrongs, --


s: I, whom fortune smiled on!  I in a village,


s: Spouting to gaping yokels pages of verse,


s: Or raising a laugh with a flash of filthy wit


s: When they brought the drinks to kindle my dying mind.


s: With her cold white bosom, treasonous, pure and hard,


s: Relentless to the last, when the touch of her hand


s: At any time, might have cured me of the typhus,


s: Caught in the jungle of life where many are lost.


s: And only to think that my soul could not react,


s: As Byron's did, in song, in something noble,


s: But turned on itself like a tortured snake --


s: Reading in Ovid the sorrowful story of Itys,


s: Son of the love of Tereus and Procne, slain


s: For the guilty passion of Tereus for Philomela,


s: The flesh of him served to Tereus by Procne,


s: And the wrath of Tereus, the murderess pursuing


s: Till the gods made Philomela a nightingale,


s: Lute of the rising moon, and Procne a swallow!


s: Oh livers and artists of Hellas centuries gone,


s: Sealing in little thuribles dreams and wisdom,


s: Incense beyond all price, forever fragrant,


s: A breath whereof makes clear the eyes of the soul!


s: How I inhaled its sweetness here in Spoon River!


s: The thurible opening when I had lived and learned


s: How all of us kill the children of love, and all of us,


s: Knowing not what we do, devour their flesh;


s: And all of us change to singers, although it be


s: But once in our lives, or change -- alas -- to swallows,


s: To twitter amid cold winds and falling leaves!


s: In youth my wings were strong and tireless,


s: But my weary wings could not follow my vision --


s: When giant hands from the womb of the world


s: That mystical pathos of drooped eyelids,


s: Where the third generation lives, and the strong men


s: From a far-off farm-house, seen near the hills


s: And the strong women are gone and forgotten.


s: And these grand-children and great grand-children


s: Truly did my camera record their faces, too,


s: Which labors and loves and suffers and sings


s: Perched on the bluff, overlooking miles of valley,


s: My days of labor closed, sitting out life's decline,


s: As one who gazes in an enchantress' crystal globe,


s: As if in a pageant glassed by a shining dream,


s: Move through the incredible sphere of time.


s: And I saw a man arise from the soil like a fabled giant


s: And throw himself over a deathless destiny,


s: Master of great armies, head of the republic,


s: Bringing together into a dithyramb of recreative song


s: At the same time Vulcan of sovereign fires,


s: Where imperishable shields and swords were beaten out


s: Look in the crystal!  See how he hastens on


s: To the place where his path comes up to the path


s: O Lincoln, actor indeed, playing well your part,


s: And Booth, who strode in a mimic play within the play,


s: As the cawing crows winged their way to the wood


s: "With malice toward none, with charity for all."


s: Out of me the forgiveness of millions toward millions,


s: I am Anne Rutledge who sleep beneath these weeds,


s: Which lifts its head above the mournful sandhills;


s: And patiently, through dull years of bitter silence,


s: Untended and uncared for, starts to grow.


s: The wind of the north has twisted and gnarled its branches;


s: Hold everyone safe there, watching aloof in silence;


s: Until at last one mad stray bolt from the zenith


s: Shall strike it in an instant down to earth.


s: There was a darkness in this man; an immense and hollow darkness,


s: The red sap to carry upwards to the sun.


s: Only to serve and pass on, to endure to the end through service;


s: Shall be cut down on the day to come and cast into the fire.


s: There is a silence abroad in the land to-day,


s: And in the hearts of men, a deep and anxious silence;


s: And, because we are still at last, those bronze lips slowly open,


s: But there were also many things which I left behind.


s: One, of a mother, whose brief light went out in the darkness,


s: One, of a loved one, the snow on whose grave is long falling,


s: "Have you forgot your graves?  Go, question them in anguish,


s: Over the million intricate threads of life wavering and crossing,


s: Blue forget-me-nots from the north, and the bright pink arbutus


s: From the east, and from the west rich orange blossom,


s: And from the heart of the land take the passion-flower;


s: Bitter for remembrance of the healing which has passed.


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


s: That here at midnight, in our little town


s: A mourning figure walks, and will not rest,


s: Near the old court-house pacing up and down,


s: Or by his homestead, or in shadowed yards


s: He lingers where his children used to play,


s: Or through the market, on the well-worn stones


s: He stalks until the dawn-stars burn away.


s: A bronzed, lank man!  His suit of ancient black,


s: A famous high top-hat and plain worn shawl


s: Make him the quaint great figure that men love,


s: Breathe deep, and start, to see him pass the door.


s: His head is bowed.  He thinks on men and kings.


s: Yea, when the sick world cries, how can he sleep?


s: Too many peasants fight, they know not why,


s: Too many homesteads in black terror weep.


s: The sins of all the war-lords burn his heart.


s: He sees the dreadnaughts scouring every main.


s: He carries on his shawl-wrapped shoulders now


s: Shall come; -- the shining hope of Europe free:


s: The league of sober folk, the Workers' Earth,


s: Bringing long peace to Cornland, Alp and Sea.


s: It breaks his heart that kings must murder still,


s: That all his hours of travail here for men


s: Seem yet in vain.  And who will bring white peace


s: Prayer during Battle.  [Hermann Hagedorn]


s: (They scourged Thy back and smote Thy cheek).


s: (From Thy pierced palm red rivers come).


s: For a moment I thought that I saw the smock


s: Straight at a mark no bullet could fail;


s: For the seeker was tall and his robe was bright;


s: No pain now was mine, but a wish that I spoke, --


s: Who had ventured through hell my doom to revoke,


s: I begged him to tell me how best I might aid him,


s: Shot through the hands that were clasped in prayer!


s: All horrors that ever these war-drenched lands


s: Had known or would know till the mad world's end.


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


s: And green, with little singings in the grass,


s: There are strange birds like blots against a sky


s: Beyond the river where the hills are blurred


s: Of the too-silent sky, stirs, and there stand


s: And puts a fever like Spring's in the cheek


s: And ears that listened to her strange birds speak.


s: Those hills again, a blur of blue and rain


s: Across the old Willamette.  I'll not stir


s: Above my head, an indolent, trusting thing.


s: When all this silly dream is finished here,


s: The fellows will go home to where there fall


s: But I shall never watch those hedges drip


s: In our old harbor. --  They say that I am dying,


s: Perhaps that's why it all comes back again:


s: Autumn in Oregon and pheasants flying --


s: There were not many at that lonely place,


s: Where two scourged hills met in a little plain.


s: The wind cried loud in gusts, then low again.


s: Three pines strained darkly, runners in a race


s: Unseen by any.  Toward the further woods


s: A dim harsh noise of voices rose and ceased.


s: -- We were most silent in those solitudes --


s: Then, sudden as a flame, the black-robed priest,


s: The clotted earth piled roughly up about


s: The hacked red oblong of the new-made thing,


s: Short words in swordlike Latin -- and a rout


s: Then, like a blind door shut on a carouse,


s: The terrible bareness of the soul's last house.


s: I have a Rendezvous with Death.  [Alan Seeger]


s: When Spring comes back with rustling shade


s: When Spring brings back blue days and fair.


s: And close my eyes and quench my breath --


s: Where Love throbs out in blissful sleep,


s: Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,


s: When Spring trips north again this year,


s: Yet covered with earth ten metres thick.


s: And stopped his flight at the dugout stair,


s: In the soil of the land they fought to free


s: And perhaps their brave young spirits hear


s: Slumber well where the shell screamed and fell.


s: Let your rifles rest on the muddy floor,


s: St. Michael's sword darts through the air


s: Your souls shall be where the heroes are


s: And your memory shine like the morning-star.


s: And holding all her frightened buds against her heart:


s: Groping her way among the graves of men.


s: The green of earth is differently green,


s: A dreadful knowledge trembles in the grass,


s: And little wide-eyed flowers die too soon:


s: And birds sit close for comfort upon the boughs


s: Thy valiant hills and woods and eager brooks,


s: Across those scars that once were joyous sod,


s: Those stepping-stones from life to life.


s: Death is an interruption between two heart-beats,


s: Across the passion of those fearful fields.


s: She passes with her perfect countersign,


s: Spreading her lovely grief upon the graves of man.


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


s: The spear is twisted in the tortured side;


s: The thorny crown still works its cruelty.


s: Hark! while the victim suffers on the tree,


s: There sound through starry spaces, far and wide,


s: Such words as in the last despair are cried:


s: "My God! my God! Thou hast forsaken me!"


s: But when earth's members from the cross are drawn,


s: This hope shall be a spark within the gloom:


s: That, in the glow of some stupendous dawn,


s: We may go forth to find, where lilies bloom,


s: What though Death claim the ones I prize


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


s: The Kings are passing deathward in the dark


s: Of days that had been splendid where they went;


s: Their crowns are captive and their courts are stark


s: Of purples that are ruinous, now, and rent.


s: For all that they have seen disastrous things:


s: The shattered pomp, the split and shaken throne,


s: They cannot quite forget the way of Kings:


s: With thunder on their brows, their faces set


s: Toward the eternal night of restless shapes,


s: Wearing their crimes like rich and kingly capes . . .


s: Curse them or taunt, they will not hear or see;


s: The Kings are passing deathward:  let them be.


s: And Jeanne that smile with which she woos


s: (It's `deux-cinquante', but Jeanne's desire);


s: Till the rain fell that would not cease.


s: Through one long alley how they raced! --


s: Though the cab crawled it sped too fast.


s: The convent walls, the glimpsed tree-tops;


s: Book-stalls, old men like dwarfs in plays;


s: May -- Robinson's, the chestnut trees --


s: Will pay him! --  "Let's play millionaire


s: Where stiff silk roses range their bloom.


s: We ask that Love shall rise to the divine,


s: Our hearts would drain the crimson of his wine,


s: Our souls despise him if he prove untrue!


s: Poor Love!  I hardly see what you can do!


s: We know all human things are weak and frail,


s: Then, inconsistent, blame you if you fail.


s: When you would soar, 't is we who clip your wings,


s: Although we weep because you faint and fall.


s: That no dear love could ever grant them all!


s: Which shall we choose, the human or divine,


s: The crystal stream, or yet the crimson wine?


s: Each plodding wayfarer looks up to gaze,


s: Before my feet the dusty, rough-paved way


s: Around me is the sound of steepled bells,


s: And it's no use to beckon or say, "So long" --


s: I never knew any more beautiful than you:


s: Be patient, Life, when Love is at the gate,


s: Think of the roads that he has had to roam.


s: Think of the years that he has had to wait.


s: Another has come first -- there is no room.


s: And I am thoughtful of the endless loom --


s: And give thy dreamy hair that Love may spin.


s: ~But Love himself is idle with his song.


s: Let Love come last, and then may Love last long.~


s: Be patient, Life, for Love is not the last.


s: Be patient now with Death, for Love has passed.


s: The Spring will come when the year turns,


s: I think my heart broke; but I have forgot


s: But the mountain men of Harlan, you may tell them all the while,


s: When they pass through our village, for they ride in single file.


s: O the mountain men of Harlan, when they come down to the plain,


s: With dangling stirrup, jangling spur, and loosely hanging rein,


s: But silently and solemnly, in long and straggling line,


s: As you may see them in the hills, beyond Big Black and Pine.


s: For, in that far strange country, where the men of Harlan dwell,


s: Picking his way as best he may, with careful steps and slow,


s: The clinging branches meet midway to bar the passage through, --


s: O'er many a steep and stony ridge, o'er many a high divide,


s: And so it is the Harlan men thus one by one do ride.


s: "Here come the men of Harlan, men of Harlan, riding by."


s: Have you an eye for the trails, the trails,


s: What scurried here, what loitered there,


s: But it's barbed wire fence, and section line,


s: My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree


s: Beside it, and there may be two or three


s: Essence of winter sleep is on the night,


s: The scent of apples:  I am drowsing off.


s: I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight


s: I got from looking through a pane of glass


s: I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough


s: And held against the world of hoary grass.


s: What form my dreaming was about to take.


s: And every fleck of russet showing clear.


s: It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.


s: I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.


s: There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,


s: Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.


s: No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,


s: This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.


s: The woodchuck could say whether it's like his


s: Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,


s: With even the weeds carefully pulled away


s: From the crooked, red bricks that made the walk,


s: Autumn and dead leaves burning in the sharp air;


s: And winter comforts coming in like a pageant.


s: Great jars laden with the raw green of pickles,


s: Standing in a solemn row across the back of the porch,


s: You, tending the great catsup kettle of gleaming copper


s: Where fat, red tomatoes bobbed up and down


s: Only to be crushed by the heavy, wooden stompers.


s: And enamelled crab-apples that tricked with their fragrance


s: And there were spicy plums and ill-shaped quinces,


s: And long string beans floating in pans of clear water


s: Salted, silver herring from the city . . .


s: I like to think of you in your years of power --


s: I cried over beautiful things knowing no beautiful thing lasts.


s: The northwest wind comes and the yellow is torn full of holes,


s: O world, I cannot hold thee close enough!


s: Thy woods this autumn day, that ache and sag


s: And all but cry with colour!  That gaunt crag


s: To crush!  To lift the lean of that black bluff!


s: World, World, I cannot get thee close enough!


s: As stretcheth me apart, -- Lord, I do fear


s: Thou'st made the world too beautiful this year;


s: My soul is all but out of me, -- let fall


s: No burning leaf; prithee, let no bird call.


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


s: Cold is the wind to-night, and rough the sea,


s: Too rough for even the daring Dane to find


s: The blast sweeps round the chapel from behind,


s: While I must kneel and pray with troubled mind.


s: Patrick and Brigid, I have prayed to ye!


s: To Colum.  Though God's own dwelling shelter me,


s: Swift tongues of dusk that spoil the sun


s: Like a young child who to his mother's door


s: And finds the door shut, and with troubled face


s: Calls and through sobbing calls, and o'er and o'er


s: Calling, storms at the panel -- so before


s: A door that will not open, sick and numb,


s: And know, at last, I may not enter more.


s: Silence!  And through the silence and the dark


s: By that closed door, the distant sob of tears


s: The spectral sea; and through the sobbing -- hark!


s: Down the fair-chambered corridor of years,


s: The quiet shutting, one by one, of doors.


s: Where love once was, let there be no hate:


s: Though they that went as one by night and day


s: Where love once was, let there be no hate.


s: And our hearts are as bins brimming with the golden plenty:


s: Into our loneliness we carry granaries of old love . . .


s: Let us go separate ways with a blessing each for each,


s: Well, if the thing is over, better it is for me,


s: The lad was ever a rover, loving and laughing free,


s: Far too clever a lover not to be having still


s: Ay, if the thing is ending, now I'll be getting rest,


s: Saying my prayers and bending down to be stilled and blest,


s: Never the days are sending hope till my heart is sore


s: For a laugh on the path and a voice by the gate and a step


s: Sure if it's done forever, better for me that's wise,


s: Never the hurt, and never tears in my aching eyes,


s: No more the trouble ever to hide from my asking folk


s: Sleep on -- I lie at heaven's high oriels,


s: Like the sweet, silver singing of thin bells


s: Vanished, or music fading faint and low.


s: One glance and I had lost her in the riot


s: She trod the clamor with a cloistral quiet


s: As though she heard the muted music only


s: Among dim mountain summits and on lonely


s: There is some broken song her heart remembers


s: Some love lies buried deep, some passion's embers


s: Far voices of a joy that sought and missed her


s: And this has given the deep eyes of God's sister


s: I have known the silence of the stars and of the sea,


s: And the silence of the city when it pauses,


s: And we are voiceless in the presence of realities --


s: And the old soldier is struck with silence,


s: Because he cannot concentrate it on Gettysburg.


s: And the boy wonders, while the old soldier


s: The flashes of guns, the thunder of cannon,


s: But if he were an artist there would be deeper wounds


s: And the silence of an embittered friendship.


s: There is the silence of a spiritual crisis,


s: Through which your soul, exquisitely tortured,


s: There is the silence of those unjustly punished;


s: There is the silence between father and son,


s: When the father cannot explain his life,


s: There is the silence that comes between husband and wife.


s: There is the silence of those who have failed;


s: Saying amid the flames, "Blessed Jesus" --


s: Revealing in two words all sorrows, all hope.


s: Too full of wisdom for the tongue to utter it


s: In words intelligible to those who have not lived


s: My arms shall welcome you when other arms are tired;


s: I stand to wait for you, patient in the darkness,


s: Offering forgetfulness of all that you desired.


s: I ask no merriment, no pretense of gladness,


s: I can love heavy lids and lips without their rose;


s: Though you are sorrowful you will not weary me;


s: I will not go from you when all the tired world goes.


s: I promise faithfulness no other lips may keep;


s: Safe in my bridal place, comforted by darkness,


s: You shall lie happily, smiling in your sleep.


s: (After completing a book for one now dead)


s: (~O Earth-and-Autumn of the Setting Sun,


s: She is not by, to know my task is done.~)


s: In the brown grasses slanting with the wind,


s: Lone as a lad whose dog's no longer near,


s: Lone as a mother whose only child has sinned,


s: Lone on the loved hill . . . and below me here


s: The thistle-down in tremulous atmosphere


s: Along red clusters of the sumach streams;


s: The shrivelled stalks of golden-rod are sere,


s: And crisp and white their flashing old racemes.


s: This is the season of our lonely dreams.


s: She is not by, to know my task is done!~)


s: The corn-shocks westward on the stubble plain


s: Show like an Indian village of dead days;


s: The long smoke trails behind the crawling train,


s: And floats atop the distant woods ablaze


s: With orange, crimson, purple.  The low haze


s: Dims the scarped bluffs above the inland sea,


s: Whose wide and slaty waters in cold glaze


s: These are the solemn horizons of man's ways,


s: These are the horizons of solemn thought to me.


s: (~O Earth-and-Autumn of the Setting Sun,


s: And this the hill she visited, as friend;


s: And this the hill she lingered on, as bride --


s: They laid her . . . in no evening autumn tide . . .


s: Under fresh flowers of that May morn, beside


s: The queens and cave-women of ancient earth . . .


s: This is the hill . . . and over my city's towers,


s: Across the world from sunset, yonder in air,


s: Shines, through its scaffoldings, a civic dome


s: To give, completed, to our children there . . .


s: And yonder far roof of my abandoned home


s: Shall house new laughter . . .  Yet I tried . . . I tried


s: I built her many a fire for love . . . for mirth . . .


s: (When snows were falling on our oaks outside,


s: Dear, many a winter fire upon the hearth) . . .


s: We dare not think too long on those who died,


s: While still so many yet must come to birth.


s: Death is like moonlight in a lofty wood,


s: That pours pale magic through the shadowy leaves;


s: 'T is like the web that some old perfume weaves


s: In a dim, lonely room where memories brood;


s: Like snow-chilled wine it steals into the blood,


s: Spurring the pulse its coolness half reprieves;


s: As April winds unsheathe an opening bud.


s: Death is like all sweet, sense-enfolding things,


s: That lift us in a dream-delicious trance


s: Beyond the flickering good and ill of chance;


s: But most is Death like Music's buoyant wings,


s: By the fond name that was his own and mine,


s: The last upon his lips that strove with doom,


s: And knew the voices, erstwhile through the gloom,


s: That whispered and forbade me to repine.


s: And with farewell, a shaft of splendor sank


s: And down the night, on clouds of glory, came


s: The battle seraphs halting rank on rank;


s: He passed and left me hope beyond surcease.


s: With all the fairest angels nearest God,


s: The ineffable true of heart around the throne,


s: There shall I find you waiting when the flown


s: Dream leaves my heart insentient as the clod;


s: And when the grief-retracing ways I trod


s: My weary feet, that seemed to drag as stone,


s: Shall once again, with wings of fleetness shod,


s: Fare on, beloved, to find you!  Just beyond


s: The seraph throng await me, standing near


s: Be there, near God's own fairest, with the fond


s: Sweet smile that was your own, and let me hear


s: Your voice again and clasp you to my heart.


s: There was a day when death to me meant tears,


s: And tearful takings-leave that had to be,


s: With the fixed forces when a tired man dies;


s: That death is only answerings and replies,


s: The chiming of a bell which no one hears,


s: The casual slanting of a half-spent sun,


s: The coveted something time nor age can spoil;


s: Between the stars and dark; to seize and keep,


s: Ye mourners, weave for the sleeping hair


s: Still dusk . . . as strange, as still . . .


s: The life of the dark earth and lose my own,


s: I have so loved all sense of Him, sweet might


s: His tangible loveliness and living light


s: If to His heart in the hushed grave and dim


s: It shall be well -- living we rest in Him.


s: Lest from my God in lonely death I lapse,


s: Lose him; for God is life, and death perhaps


s: The stranger in my gates -- lo! that am I,


s: And what my land of birth I do not know,


s: But know himself he shall not, nor his woe,


s: Nor to what sea the tears of wisdom flow;


s: And though he bide, his soul is wanderer,


s: Scanning the shadows with a sense of haste --


s: Where fade the tracks of all who went before:


s: On ways that end in evening and the waste.


s: (O who will kill the great Time-Moth that eats holes in my soul


s: and that burrows in and through my secretest veils!)


s: (But O who will shatter the Change-Moth that leaves me in rags --


s: Born at Savannah, Ga., Aug. 5, 1889.  Received the degree of A.B.


s: Born at Humansville, Mo., Oct. 30, 1886.  Educated at home and at


s: whither her family had preceded her, and in 1907 was married


s: to Thomas Ellis Baker, of Nacogdoches, which is her present home.


s: where she was professor and head of the English Department.


s: Miss Bates spent four years in foreign travel and study


s: and published numerous books in the field of education.


s: to become typographical designer and supervisor of printing


s: at the Yale University Press, where he remained until 1917,


s: when America entered the World War.  He then became connected


s: In poetry, he is the author of "Garlands and Wayfarings", 1917;


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


s: in the `Century Magazine' for December, 1898, and was followed


s: soon after by the publication of Miss Branch's first volume,


s: both marked by imagination and beauty of a high order.


s: has published successively the following books of verse:


s: After two years of teaching at Princeton University,


s: Mr. Burt took up the life of a rancher at Jackson Hole, Wyo.,


s: though he usually returns to Princeton for the winter months.


s: In 1913 he married Katharine Newlin, a writer of fiction.


s: written to celebrate peace after the World War, was given in


s: Mr. Bynner perpetrated the clever literary hoax of "Spectra",


s: but divested of its extravagant features.


s: In 1905 she married Roscoe Platt Conkling at San Antonio, Texas,


s: and spent her early married life in Mexico, which inspired


s: some of her most charming lyrics.  Since 1914, Mrs. Conkling


s: has been teaching in the English Department of Smith College.


s: Born in St. Louis, of Southern parentage.  Educated at


s: the University of Chicago.  Since its founding in 1912,


s: Mrs. Henderson has been associate editor, with Harriet Monroe,


s: Her two volumes of verse, "A Hosting of Heroes", 1911,


s: Born in Brooklyn, Sept. 9, 1878.  Her young girlhood was spent


s: in Rochester, N.Y., where her father, Algernon S. Crapsey,


s: but in 1913 was obliged to resign because of renewed illness


s: and died on the 8th of October, 1914.  After her death,


s: and in hospital service.  The strain proved too great and induced


s: she revealed gifts of a high order.  Her dramatic volumes are:


s: several one-act plays, one of which, "The Slave with Two Faces",


s: by unusually sensitive feeling and delicate artistry.


s: Born in Philadelphia in 1873, of old Spanish and American stock


s: and educated in the public schools of Philadelphia.


s: and served for ten years on the paper in every capacity


s: working successively on the `Sun', the `Herald', and the `Times'.


s: translated into French by Remy de Gourmont.


s: Born at Little Rock, Ark., Jan. 3, 1886.  He was educated


s: several poems of his appeared in "Some Imagist Poets",


s: Born in the Adirondack Mountains in the town of Johnsburg, N.Y.,


s: with this life, however, she went to Boston, took special courses


s: and began writing for the press.  Married Matlock Foster


s: and came to New York in 1911 where she became associated with


s: the `Review of Reviews' as literary editor, holding this position


s: Born in San Francisco, March 26, 1875 [sic].  Studied at


s: Dartmouth College and Harvard University from 1892 to 1899.


s: and with his wife and four young children went to England


s: of delightful and fruitful life in England, where he had enjoyed


s: In the way of form, Mr. Frost has also been a path-finder,


s: containing some beautiful lyric as well as narrative work.


s: very conspicuously abroad during the World War, as an army nurse,


s: Born Memphis, Mo., Feb. 15, 1876.  Educated in public schools.


s: has had an active career in the newspaper profession, having been


s: a large newspaper syndicate, 1912-16; since then associate editor


s: Born, of American parentage, at Vienna, Austria, Nov. 20, 1871.


s: before doing those which contain his representative work:


s: the current of the poetic movement then shaping itself under


s: sharply carved poems, purely Greek in their chastity and mood,


s: of which the first group appeared in `Poetry' for Jan., 1913,


s: under the name of "H. D. -- Imagist".  Among the London poets


s: interested in experiments with new forms was Richard Aldington,


s: For the finest and most comprehensive study of "H. D.'s" work


s: is the author of "The Silver Blade, a Play in Verse", 1907;


s: Edited "Fifes and Drums", a collection of war poetry, 1917.


s: of "The Lyric Year" and afterwards published in that volume.


s: Since then Mr. Johns has written "Asphalt", 1917, which contains


s: "The Voice in the Silence" to this series.  Mr. Jones is a poet


s: of rare delicacy and fineness whose work has gathered to itself


s: via California.  Coming East again, he prepared for college


s: at Mt. Hermon school, N.J., and entered the University of Kansas,


s: He has the true lyric quality, as shown in his two volumes,


s: Born Norfolk, Va.  Daughter of the poet Ada Foster Murray.


s: which contains some of the sincerest and most moving lyric poetry


s: to the leading magazines and published several collections,


s: an audience greatly enhanced by the poet's personal contacts.


s: His kindly and whimsical humor, his charm of personality,


s: his enthusiasm and sympathy, won for him a large group of friends


s: Upon America's entry into the World War, Joyce Kilmer enlisted,


s: and after a short period of training was sent to France


s: with the 165th Infantry, formerly the "Fighting 69th",


s: a regiment of Irish blood and of the Catholic religion,


s: that it was said of him by the chaplain of the regiment


s: that he "had a romantic passion for death in battle."


s: He was promoted to the Intelligence Department of the service


s: and an excellent memoir written by his friend, Robert Holliday,


s: have been published and will do much to perpetuate the memory


s: several brief poetic plays which he presents as "Poem-Mimes",


s: After receiving these various degrees, Mr. Leonard began his work


s: on classic subjects, in addition to his work in poetry,


s: under the personal instruction of Wm. Chase and Robert Henri.


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


s: in the shape of "The Village Magazine", divided about equally


s: unlike the more elaborate technique of his later work,


s: had a Blake-like simplicity.  Soon after the publication of


s: which he has recorded in "A Handy Guide for Beggars", also 1916.


s: but he was at his best in poems of more imaginative beauty,


s: in `Poetry; A Magazine of Verse'.  As previously stated,


s: the trend of poetry for the years immediately succeeding.


s: of The Macmillan Company.  Mr. Middleton is the author of


s: Born at Camden, Maine, and educated at Vassar College.


s: of "The Lyric Year", a poem showing a remarkable imagination


s: appeared in its pages and it was the first to print the work


s: during the current year, and in 1920 he was awarded a $500 prize


s: for one of three book manuscripts considered the best submitted


s: Mr. Morton is one of the finest sonneteers of this period


s: having spent some time among the Omaha Indians.  His work has


s: great virility and sweep and he has a fine gift of narrative.


s: His first volume, "A Bundle of Myrrh", 1908, showed unmistakably


s: that a new poet had appeared in the West.  This was followed


s: to the writing of a trilogy of narrative poems, each devoted


s: "The Best Short Stories" of the current season.


s: are acknowledged to be among the finest in English literature.


s: Mr. O'Hara's other volumes comprise:  "Songs of the Open", 1909;


s: and "The Light Feet of Goats", 1915.  Mr. O Sheel is a true poet,


s: of New York, June, 1905.  Was teacher and acting superintendent


s: when he left to engage entirely in literary work.  Mr. Oppenheim


s: is a well-known short-story writer and novelist as well as poet,


s: but we will confine ourselves to listing his work in poetry,


s: which has in itself been voluminous.  Since his first collection,


s: below its surface; his work, however, is beset technically


s: at the Century Theater, having a successful run, and was revived


s: The next year he spent abroad, and the following entered


s: Harvard Law School, where he took the degree of LL.B.


s: He is now in the active practice of law in Greenville, Miss.


s: His first book of poems, "Sappho in Levkas and Other Poems",


s: was published in 1915, and his second, "In April Once", in 1920.


s: During the World War, Mr. Percy had active service in France,


s: in his two volumes of "Collected Plays and Poems", 1915.


s: Born in New York City in 1861.  Educated by private teachers,


s: and at Miss Comstock's School in New York, supplemented by


s: and "Service and Sacrifice", 1919.  All show the fine ideals


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


s: a remarkable series of portraits.  He is recognized


s: as one of the finest and most distinguished poets of our time.


s: His successive volumes are:  "Children of the Night", 1897;


s: upon the `Chicago Daily News'.  He first came into prominence


s: by a poem on "Chicago" published in `Poetry', of that city,


s: and was awarded the Levinson Prize for this poem, in 1914.


s: The following year he published a collection of his verse


s: under the title of "Chicago Poems", and in 1918 appeared


s: using the `vers-libre' forms.  He is a writer of rugged power,


s: interested in the social aspects of modern life, but a poet


s: "The Musical Amateur", and in his delightful account


s: of his musical experiences in the Army, "Fiddler's Luck", 1920.


s: with the vision of the poet.  This poem furnished the title


s: to Mr. Schauffler's collection of verse, published in 1912.


s: Born in New York City, June 22, 1888.  He spent his childhood


s: upon Staten Island, where he was constantly in sight of


s: he was sent to the Horace Mann School, but while still a lad,


s: the family removed to Mexico where the most impressionable years


s: He enlisted at once and was enrolled in the Foreign Legion


s: the willingness, almost eagerness, with which he offered himself.


s: Miss Shanafelt has, as yet, published no collection of poetry,


s: He is the author of "A Lonely Flute", 1917.


s: she is most widely known for her poem, "Sometime", written in


s: to her native country, has since that time made for herself


s: a place among the newer group and is doing excellent work


s: and he has a style admirably suited to their portrayal.


s: He is the author of "The Testimony of the Suns", 1903;


s: to do research work in the universities of England and Germany,


s: where he spent several years.  In 1908 he married Elisabeth,


s: daughter of Franz von Pausinger, artist, of Salzburg, Austria,


s: a great deal of translating from the Swedish and German,


s: having made admirable renderings of Gustaf Froding, 1916,


s: as well as many other Swedish poets, whose work he published


s: in an "Anthology of Swedish Lyrics", 1917.  He has since made


s: a translation of "Selected Poems of Verner Von Heidenstam",


s: A second collection of his own verse will soon appear.


s: the Astor and Lenox Libraries in New York City from 1897 to 1903.


s: He is a poet of vision, one of the truest voices of our day,


s: Despite his journalistic work he has found time to write


s: Born at Zanesville, Ohio, in 1886.  Educated in private schools


s: of New York City and in special courses at Columbia University.


s: Married Louis Untermeyer, the poet, 1907.  Mrs. Untermeyer


s: the "Poems of Heinrich Heine", 1917, and has edited


s: a school anthology of "Modern American Poetry", 1919.


s: "Lanterns in Gethsemane", 1917, a volume of poems pertaining to


s: Born at Far Rockaway, N.Y., in 1886.  He took the degree of A.B.


s: from Harvard University in 1908 and spent the next two years


s: at the University of Berlin.  Since his return to America


s: Born at Doylestown, Pa.  Educated by private teachers and at


s: Chicago University and other American colleges and afterwards at


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


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


s: but her best work is found in her poetry of which she has written


s: with a supplementary anthology, 1919; and "Bluestone",


s: the first prize of $250 by the Newark Committee of One Hundred,


s: Mildred M. Cummer, of Buffalo, N.Y., who is also a writer.


s: `General William Booth Enters into Heaven', reprinted from


s: `Interlude' & `Romance', reprinted from "The New Day", 1919.


s: `Patterns', reprinted from "Men, Women and Ghosts", 1916.


s: `Ballad of a Child', reprinted from "The Quest", 1916.


s: `Mater Dolorosa', reprinted from "The Story of Eleusis", 1916.


s: `Spoon River Anthology' (selections from), reprinted from


s: `Silence', reprinted from "Songs and Satires", 1915.


s: `Smith, of the Third Oregon, Dies', reprinted from


s: `Doors', reprinted from "Poems and Ballads", 1913.


s: In some cases, e.g. "Love Songs" and "Spoon River Anthology",


s: My heart shall be thy garden.  Come, my own,


s: Among my fairest thoughts, my tallest flowers,


s: From root to crowning petal, thine alone.


s: Thine is the place from where the seeds are sown


s: Up to the sky enclosed, with all its showers.


s: But ah, the birds, the birds!  Who shall build bowers


s: To keep these thine?  O friend, the birds have flown.


s: For as these come and go, and quit our pine


s: To follow the sweet season, or, new-comers,


s: Sing one song only from our alder-trees.


s: My heart has thoughts, which, though thine eyes hold mine,


s: Flit to the silent world and other summers,


s: With wings that dip beyond the silver seas.


s: Upon those hills of life, dim and immense:


s: The good we love, and sleep--our innocence.


s: O hills of life, high hills!  And higher than they,


s: Our guardian spirits meet at prayer and play.


s: Beyond pain, joy, and hope, and long suspense,


s: Above the summits of our souls, far hence,


s: Or thou of me, these always love and live.


s: My angel falls not short.  They greet each other.


s: Who knows, they may exchange the kiss we give,


s: All the earth's wild creatures fly thee,


s: Nought will fear thee, humbled creature.


s: Full, full is thought in endless spaces.


s: Lies round all shores with long embraces.


s: Though wild words part my soul from thee.


s: _Rorate Coeli desuper, et nubes pluant Justum_.


s: _Aperiatur Terra, et germinet Salvatorem_.


s: The earth, the rain, received the trust,


s: Beloved, thou art like a tune that idle fingers


s: The time is there, the form of music lingers;


s: Where is thy soul?  Thou liest i' the wind and rain.


s: For his own soul is full of it, so, my Fair,


s: And all this lonely soul is full of thee.


s: Thou song of songs!--not music as before


s: I fail for thee, thou art too sweet, too dear.


s: Thou silent song, thou ever voiceless rhyme,


s: At windy dawn, with a wild heart beating time,


s: O music stifled from the ears that love thee?


s: Oh, for a strain of thee from outer air!


s: Of thee, thee, thee, I am mournfully aware,


s: Who wert in tune and time to every wind.


s: Poor grave, poor lost beloved! but I burn


s: As he that played that secret tune may turn


s: I wait some future, all a lyre for thee.


s: Your own fair youth, you care so little for it,


s: Smiling towards Heaven, you would not stay the advances


s: Of time and change upon your happiest fancies.


s: I keep your golden hour, and will restore it.


s: If ever, in time to come, you would explore it--


s: Your old self whose thoughts went like last year's pansies,


s: Look unto me; no mirror keeps its glances;


s: To keep all joys of yours from Time's estranging,


s: I shall be then a treasury where your gay,


s: I shall be then a garden charmed from changing,


s: In which your June has never passed away.


s: Their scent of death is weary and sweet.


s: The low winds moan for dead sweet years;


s: The clamouring birds i' the copse I hear,


s: For all your kisses when Spring was new.


s: Listen, and when thy hand this paper presses,


s: O time-worn woman, think of her who blesses


s: What thy thin fingers touch, with her caresses.


s: O mother, for the weight of years that break thee!


s: O daughter, for slow time must yet awake thee,


s: And from the changes of my heart must make thee.


s: O fainting traveller, morn is grey in heaven.


s: Dost thou remember how the clouds were driven?


s: And are they calm about the fall of even?


s: Pause near the ending of thy long migration,


s: Suffer, O silent one, that I remind thee


s: Of the great hills that stormed the sky behind thee,


s: Of the wild winds of power that have resigned thee.


s: Know that the mournful plain where thou must wander


s: Is but a grey and silent world, but ponder


s: The misty mountains of the morning yonder.


s: Listen:- the mountain winds with rain were fretting,


s: And sudden gleams the mountain-tops besetting.


s: I cannot let thee fade to death, forgetting.


s: What part of this wild heart of mine I know not


s: Will follow with thee where the great winds blow not,


s: And where the young flowers of the mountain grow not.


s: Yet let my letter with thy lost thoughts in it


s: Tell what the way was when thou didst begin it,


s: And win with thee the goal when thou shalt win it.


s: Oh, in some hour of thine my thoughts shall guide thee.


s: Suddenly, though time, darkness, silence hide thee,


s: This wind from thy lost country flits beside thee,--


s: Telling thee: all thy memories moved the maiden,


s: With thy regrets was morning over-shaden,


s: With sorrow thou hast left, her life was laden.


s: But whither shall my thoughts turn to pursue thee


s: Life changes, and the years and days renew thee.


s: Oh, Nature brings my straying heart unto thee.


s: Her winds will join us, with their constant kisses


s: Upon the evening as the morning tresses,


s: Her summers breathe the same unchanging blisses.


s: And we, so altered in our shifting phases,


s: By the eternal child-breath of the daisies.


s: A triumph of thy mute and strange declining.


s: Only one youth, and the bright life was shrouded.


s: Only one morning, and the day was clouded.


s: And one old age with all regrets is crowded.


s: Oh, hush; oh, hush!  Thy tears my words are steeping.


s: Oh, hush, hush, hush!  So full, the fount of weeping?


s: Poor eyes, so quickly moved, so near to sleeping?


s: Pardon the girl; such strange desires beset her.


s: Poor woman, lay aside the mournful letter


s: That breaks thy heart; the one who wrote, forget her.


s: The one who now thy faded features guesses,


s: With filial fingers thy grey hair caresses,


s: With morning tears thy mournful twilight blesses.


s: Wide shining strand, and floods the caves,


s: Your love comes filling with happy waves


s: We build with strength the deep tower-wall


s: And crown with weeds our pride of towers,


s: And break our pavements through with flowers,


s: The stars that 'twixt the rise and fall,


s: And where they wrought, these lives of ours,


s: Thou, Time-to-come, shalt make it clear,


s: Undoing our work; we are children chidden


s: Our flowers with fruits, our seeds with flowers,


s: With the shrill children's play, and sweets


s: I touched the heart that loved me as a player


s: Touches a lyre; content with my poor skill


s: No touch save mine knew my beloved (and still


s: I thought at times: Is there no sweet lost air


s: Old loves could wake in him, I cannot share?).


s: My thoughts in sound to the measure of my will.


s: He is gone, and silence takes me unaware.


s: The songs I knew not he resumes, set free


s: His part in our tune goes with him; my part


s: Is locked in me for ever; I stand as mute


s: As one with full strong music in his heart


s: Whose fingers stray upon a shattered lute.


s: From dawn to dusk, and from dusk to dawn,


s: The twilight comes with thy shadowy feet.


s: Are thought here 'mid the blown sea-flowers,


s: Oh, linger, linger!  They would not part;


s: Sleep draws near to his dreamless brother.


s: Peace nestles close to her mournful mother,


s: Of this wind of words, this storm of cries,


s: Strong, for all your perfect conquering,


s: And your feet are vanished like the snow.


s: All his thoughts go out to places that he knew,


s: O Spring, I know thee!  Seek for sweet surprise


s: But I have learnt the years, and know the yet


s: Mine ear, awake to silence, can foretell


s: A year's procession of the flowers doth pass


s: And all you sweet birds silent yet, I know


s: Your songs yet half devised in the dim dear


s: In these young days you meditate your part;


s: I know the secrets of the seeds of flowers


s: And how, in kindling Spring, the cuckoo shall


s: O dear brown birds, compose your old song-phrases


s: His purpose in his heart.  I watched, a space,


s: There was the secret, fled from earth and skies,


s: My heart and all the Summer wait his choice,


s: Who shall foretell his songs, and who aspire


s: Sweet earth, we know thy dimmest mysteries,


s: My friend of friends, whom I shall miss.


s: But who shall change the years, and part


s: As, when the seaward ebbing tide doth pour


s: The parting waves slip back to clasp the shore


s: Waves of my thoughts and memories turn to thee


s: Waving of hands; dreams, when the day forgets;


s: I would the day might come, so waited for,


s: When I, returning, should fill up once more


s: Shall I content thee, O thou broken heart,


s: And brims the little sea-shore lakes, and sets


s: Rich meanings of the prophet-Spring adorn,


s: Unseen, this colourless sky of folded showers,


s: And folded winds; no blossom in the bowers.


s: Now in the midst of the old world forlorn


s: A mystic child is set in these still hours.


s: I keep this time, even before the flowers,


s: To all the miles and miles of unsprung wheat,


s: And to the Spring waiting beyond the portal,


s: And, among all these things, to you, my sweet,


s: My friend, to your calm face and the immortal


s: Child tarrying all your life-time in your heart.


s: I filled his wallet and kissed his beads,


s: Dreams are we, shadows, visions strange;


s: Like him who met his own eyes in the river,


s: That meets him through the changing nights and days


s: From out great Nature; all her waters quiver


s: With his fair image facing him for ever;


s: His own heart to his ears; by trackless ways


s: His wild thoughts tend to him in long endeavour.


s: His dreams are far among the silent hills;


s: His vague voice calls him from the darkened plain


s: With winds at night; strange recognition thrills


s: His lonely heart with piercing love and pain;


s: He knows his sweet mirth in the mountain rills,


s: His weary tears that touch him with the rain.


s: When golden to the winds this world of ours


s: Sung in some past when wildernesses were,--


s: Yet in the ages long where lurkest thou,


s: Wert thou not given to sweeten every wind


s: That bore thee through the young world, and that tongue


s: Was not the holy choir the endless dome,


s: Did not the warm gale clasp thee to his breast.


s: And is the June air laden with thee now,


s: To rock on daybreak winds dost thou rejoice,


s: Whose radiant morning soul did give thee birth,


s: Or did each bird win one dear note of thee


s: Art thou the secret of the small field-flowers


s: --Blown by the happy winds from hill to hill,


s: Or wert thou rapt awhile to other spheres


s: Doth music's soul contain thee, precious air,


s: Until a time shall come for thee to start


s: Then wilt thou as the clouds of ages roll,


s: Oh, wilt thou ever tire of thy long rest


s: And wilt thou leave thy rainbow showers, to bear


s: --Forsake thy boundless silence to make choice


s: --Forsake thy stars, thy suns, thy moons, thy skies


s: I have no secrets from thee, lyre sublime,


s: I sing one way like the west wind through thee,


s: With my whole heart, and hear thy sweet strings chime.


s: But thou, who soundest in my tune and rhyme,


s: Hast tones I wake not, in thy land and sea,


s: And as, the west wind passed, the south wind alters


s: His intimate sweet things, his hues of noon,


s: The voices of his waves, sound of his pine,


s: The meanings of his lost heart,--this thought falters


s: In my short song--'Another bard shall tune


s: Thee, my one Lyre, to other songs than mine.'


s: In my thought I see you stand with a path on either hand,


s: --Hills that look into the sun, and there a river'd meadow-land.


s: 'If it prove a life of pain, greater have I judged the gain.


s: With a singing soul for music's sake, I climb and meet the rain,


s: And I choose, whilst I am calm, my thought and labouring to be


s: But how dared you use me so?  For you bring my ripe years low


s: 'To the mountain leads my way.  If the plains are green to-day,


s: Do you know, who are so bold, how in sooth the rule will hold,


s: Settled by a wayward child's ideal at some ten years old?


s: But your sunny silence there, solitude so light to bear,


s: And the little mournful lonelinesses in the little hills


s: And if e'er you should come down to the village or the town,


s: It is memory that shrinks.  You were all too brave, methinks,


s: Climbing solitudes of flowering cistus and the thin wild pinks,


s: Musing, setting to a haunting air in one vague reverie


s: With a smile do I complain in the safety of the pain,


s: Knowing that my feet can never quit their solitudes again;


s: I rebel _not_, child gone by, but obey you wonderingly,


s: Like a west wind across the world I move,


s: Sweeping my harp of floods mine own wild ways.


s: The countries change, but not the west-wind days


s: Which are my songs.  My soft skies shine above,


s: And on all fields a flash of silver greys.


s: And sweet monotonous meanings.  In your ears


s: I change not ever, bearing, for my part,


s: One thought that is the treasure of my years,


s: A small cloud full of rain upon my heart


s: And in mine arms, clasped, like a child in tears.


s: Who knows what days I answer for to-day:


s: Giving the bud I give the flower.  I bow


s: Bending these knees and feeble knees, I pray.


s: Thoughts yet unripe in me I bend one way,


s: One leaven to joy that comes, I guess not how.


s: I dedicate my fields when Spring is grey.


s: Oh, rash! (I smile) to pledge my hidden wheat.


s: Hands trembling with what toils?  In their retreat


s: And lay the crucifix on this silent heart.


s: O'er the Campagna it is dim warm weather;


s: The Spring comes with a full heart silently,


s: And many thoughts; a faint flash of the sea


s: Divides two mists; straight falls the falling feather.


s: With wild Spring meanings hill and plain together


s: Grow pale, or just flush with a dust of flowers.


s: Rome in the ages, dimmed with all her towers,


s: Floats in the midst, a little cloud at tether.


s: I fain would put my hands about thy face,


s: Thou with thy thoughts, who art another Spring,


s: And draw thee to me like a mournful child.


s: I touch not this day's secret, nor the thing


s: That in the silence makes thy sweet eyes wild.


s: Slight as thou art, thou art enough to hide,


s: Like all created things, secrets from me,


s: And I, how can I praise thee well and wide?


s: From where I dwell--upon the hither side?


s: When shall I penetrate all things and thee,


s: And then look back?  For this I must abide,


s: Till thou shalt grow and fold and be unfurled


s: Then I shall drink from in beneath a spring,


s: And from a poet's side shall read his book.


s: From God's side even of such a simple thing?


s: Who looked for thee, thou little song of mine?


s: Is suddenly sweet with thee, but what thou art,


s: Mid-winter flower, I would I could divine.


s: Art thou a last one, orphan of thy line?


s: Did the dead summer's last warmth foster thee?


s: And stirring out of sight,--and thou the sign?


s: Where shall I look--backwards or to the morrow


s: For others of thy fragrance, secret child?


s: Who knows if last things or if first things claim thee?


s: --Whether thou be the last smile of my sorrow,


s: Or else a joy too sweet, a joy too wild?


s: How, my December violet, shall I name thee?


s: Singers to come, what thoughts will start


s: Through man's soul, and with earth be blent?


s: And crown these towers in circling flight


s: Who look on hills, and trees, and flowers,


s: Shine, Earth loves thee!  And then shine


s: If I should quit thee, sacrifice, forswear,


s: To what, my art, shall I give thee in keeping?


s: To the long winds of heaven?  Shall these come sweeping


s: My songs forgone against my face and hair?


s: Or shall the mountain streams my lost joys bear,


s: My past poetic pain in the rain be weeping?


s: No, I shall live a poet waking, sleeping,


s: From me, my art, thou canst not pass away;


s: Shall own thee without joy in thee or woe.


s: Through my indifferent words of every day,


s: Scattered and all unlinked the rhymes shall ring


s: Down, through long links of death and birth,


s: Awoke my breath i' the young world's air.


s: Through seed and flower and seed and flower.


s: My own fresh songs; my thoughts are blessed


s: The sweet streams throng into my breast.


s: Farewell has long been said; I have forgone thee;


s: But how shall I learn virtues and yet shun thee?


s: That heavenward meditations pause upon thee.


s: Thou dost beset the path to every shrine;


s: Thy goodness in the good for which I pine;


s: Since all my growth tends to thee night and day--


s: Swift are the currents setting all one way;


s: They draw my life, my life, out of my heart.


s: I must not think of thee; and, tired yet strong,


s: I shun the thought that lurks in all delight--


s: The thought of thee--and in the blue Heaven's height,


s: Oh, just beyond the fairest thoughts that throng


s: This breast, the thought of thee waits, hidden yet bright;


s: I must stop short of thee the whole day long.


s: But when sleep comes to close each difficult day,


s: When night gives pause to the long watch I keep,


s: And all my bonds I needs must loose apart,


s: Must doff my will as raiment laid away,--


s: With the first dream that comes with the first sleep


s: I run, I run, I am gathered to thy heart.


s: So humble things Thou hast borne for us, O God,


s: Left'st Thou a path of lowliness untrod?


s: Yes, one, till now; another Olive-Garden.


s: For we endure the tender pain of pardon,--


s: One with another we forbear.  Give heed,


s: Look at the mournful world Thou hast decreed.


s: The time has come.  At last we hapless men


s: Know all our haplessness all through.  Come, then,


s: Endure undreamed humility: Lord of Heaven,


s: Come to our ignorant hearts and be forgiven.


s: Italicized stanzas are enclosed by tildes (~).


s: Lines longer than 78 characters are broken and the continuation


s: The Editor has endeavoured to make this selection representative


s: of the best short poems written by Australians or inspired by


s: as nearly as possible chronological; and the appendix contains


s: The Editor thanks Messrs. H. H. Champion, Henry Gyles Turner,


s: and J. Le Gay Brereton (Sydney), for their generous help.


s: Mr. Douglas Sladen's anthologies, Messrs. Turner and Sutherland's


s: "Austral Edition of the collected Works of Marcus Clarke"


s: "The Fairest of the Angels, and other Verse"


s: "Rio Grande's Last Race, and other Verses"


s: "In the Days when the World was Wide, and other Verses"


s: "Rhymes from the Mines, and other Lines"


s: As the literature of a country is, in certain respects,


s: including that of New Zealand, is a little under five millions,


s: or about the same as that of London; it is chiefly scattered


s: The absence of those broad, outward signs of the changing seasons


s: a greater disadvantage than we are apt to suspect.  Here, too,


s: of the primitive industries.  Their strenuous pioneering days


s: We have not yet had time to settle down and form any decided


s: racial characteristics; nor has any great crisis occurred


s: to fuse our common sympathies and create a national sentiment.


s: have been so coloured by the strange conditions of a new country,


s: the Prologue is stated to be written by "A Gentleman",


s: The first poem of any importance by an Australian is


s: in `The Sydney Gazette', the first Australian newspaper.


s: In 1826 there was printed at the Albion Press, Sydney,


s: by Dr. John Dunmore Lang, called "Aurora Australis".


s: Both Lang and Wentworth afterwards conducted newspapers


s: At Hobart Town in 1827 appeared "The Van Diemen's Land Warriors,


s: It was not until 1845 that the first genuine, though crude,


s: He passed his best years in the lonely bush, and wrote largely


s: under the influence of Wordsworth and Shelley.  He had some


s: imagination and poetic faculty of the contemplative order,


s: but the disadvantages of his life were many.  Harpur's best work


s: With the discovery of gold a new era began for Australia.


s: That event induced the flow of a large stream of immigration,


s: and gave an enormous impetus to the development of the colonies.


s: found work in his office, and Michael, discerning his promise,


s: encouraged him to write.  Most of the boy's earliest verses


s: were sent from Michael's office to Parkes, who printed them


s: in his paper `The Empire'.  When Kendall left Grafton,


s: Michael gave him a letter of introduction to Stenhouse,


s: and wrote a pathetic letter to the Editor, which was printed


s: the first favourable pronouncement upon Australian poetry


s: and the carping criticisms of some of the magnates here,


s: `The Australasian' was established in 1854, and soon became


s: but a collection of his ballads -- "Sea Spray and Smoke Drift" --


s: which was for the time the literary centre of Australia.


s: Horne corresponded with Kendall, and contributed to a paper


s: edited by Deniehy in Sydney -- `The Southern Cross' (1859-60).


s: He was the presiding genius of the literary gatherings


s: at Dwight's book-shop in Melbourne, and no doubt exercised


s: a beneficial influence upon the writers around him.


s: "How a man should uphold the sports of his land


s: And strike his best with a strong right hand


s: There are few Australians who do not know some of his poems,


s: gained high praise from competent critics, and gave the author


s: an academic reputation.  A little book of humorous verses


s: issued in Melbourne in 1873 almost immediately became popular,


s: established him as one of our chief singers.


s: and many readers who have been affected by his musical verse


s: hold the ill-fated singer in more tender regard than any other.


s: and were too fully occupied with things of the market-place


s: to concern themselves much about literature.


s: Several attempts have been made to maintain magazines and reviews


s: has been that of `The Bulletin', started in Sydney in 1880.


s: Australia has now come of age, and is becoming conscious


s: Whose inspirations shed their sacred light,


s: Endear not less than Phoebus' brighter beam, --


s: And on some mountain-summit take thy stand;


s: Thence issuing soon a purer font be seen


s: Than charmed Castalia or famed Hippocrene;


s: And tho', bright goddess, on the far blue hills,


s: That pour their thousand swift pellucid rills


s: Where Warragamba's rage has rent in twain


s: Opposing mountains, thundering to the plain,


s: No child of song has yet invoked thy aid


s: 'Neath their primeval solitary shade, --


s: Still, gracious Pow'r, some kindling soul inspire,


s: To wake to life my country's unknown lyre,


s: That from creation's date has slumbering lain,


s: Or only breathed some savage uncouth strain;


s: And grant that yet an Austral Milton's song


s: Pactolus-like flow deep and rich along, --


s: An Austral Shakespeare rise, whose living page


s: To nature true may charm in ev'ry age; --


s: Where not the Theban eagle reach'd before.


s: And, O Britannia! shouldst thou cease to ride


s: Despotic Empress of old Ocean's tide; --


s: Should thy tamed Lion -- spent his former might, --


s: No longer roar the terror of the fight; --


s: Should e'er arrive that dark disastrous hour,


s: When bow'd by luxury, thou yield'st to pow'r; --


s: When thou, no longer freest of the free,


s: To some proud victor bend'st the vanquish'd knee; --


s: Relume, and shine more brightly still than here;


s: May this, thy last-born infant, then arise,


s: To glad thy heart and greet thy parent eyes;


s: And Australasia float, with flag unfurl'd,


s: She loves me!  From her own bliss-breathing lips


s: The live confession came, like rich perfume


s: From crimson petals bursting into bloom!


s: And still my heart at the remembrance skips


s: Like a young lion, and my tongue, too, trips


s: As drunk with joy! while every object seen


s: In life's diurnal round wears in its mien


s: A clear assurance that no doubts eclipse.


s: Are like old faces flushed with new delight,


s: Much more the consciousness of that rich vow


s: Deepens the beauteous, and refines the bright,


s: While throned I seem on love's divinest height


s: 'Mid all the glories glowing round its brow.


s: High 'mid the shelves of a grey cliff, that yet


s: In a benched cleft, as in the mouldered chair


s: Of grey-beard Time himself, I sit alone,


s: And gaze with a keen wondering happiness


s: Out o'er the sea.  Unto the circling bend


s: That verges Heaven, a vast luminous plain


s: It stretches, changeful as a lover's dream --


s: Into great spaces mapped by light and shade


s: In constant interchange -- either 'neath clouds


s: The billows darken, or they shimmer bright


s: Calm, or but gently heaving; -- yet, O God!


s: What a blind fate-like mightiness lies coiled


s: In slumber, under that wide-shining face!


s: While o'er the watery gleam -- there where its edge


s: Banks the dim vacancy, the topmost sails


s: Of some tall ship, whose hull is yet unseen,


s: Hang as if clinging to a cloud that still


s: Comes rising with them from the void beyond,


s: Like to a heavenly net, drawn from the deep


s: And we pledged our troth to a brimming oath


s: But still the red wine warms, and the rosy goblets glow;


s: Wine waxes in power in that desolate hour


s: And then the light that lasts consoles our darkening way.


s: 'Tis wine that remains to kindle the veins


s: And ripens with the suns and mellows with the spheres.


s: Through pleasant paths, through dainty ways,


s: And sings, and smiles, and laughs and plays,


s: Cloth'd with enchantment, robed in white,


s: But when love warms the heart grows bold;


s: "Death is to us change, not consummation."


s: These shrinking nerves, this feeble frame,


s: Yet still, where-e'er -- what-e'er I be,


s: When all the worlds have ceased to roll,


s: When the long light has ceased to quiver


s: Standing before God's throne in praise, --


s: And brightsome flowers with dew-filled bells,


s: When Spring flowers peep from flossy cells,


s: O the Night, the Night, the solemn Night,


s: When Earth is bound with her silent zone,


s: And the spangled sky seems a temple wide,


s: Where the star-tribes kneel at the Godhead's throne;


s: O the Night, the Night, the wizard Night,


s: And the myriad barques of the dream-elves come


s: In a brightsome fleet from Slumber's shore!


s: Go the zephyr-hounds on their airy chase;


s: And the air is sweet as a bride's embrace!


s: O the Night, the Night, the charming Night!


s: From the fountain side in the myrtle shade,


s: While bright eyes shine 'mid the lattice-vines,


s: And white arms droop o'er the sculptured sills,


s: Like the babblings soft of mountain rills.


s: Love in the heave of each lily-bright bosom;


s: O the silent Night, when the student dreams


s: And the mother's eyes o'er the cradle rain


s: O the peaceful Night, when stilled and o'er


s: Is the charger's tramp on the battle plain,


s: And the bugle's sound and the sabre's flash,


s: While the moon looks sad over heaps of slain;


s: And round her throng fair forms long fled,


s: And eyes with the light of summer skies,


s: "The corn is changed, come forth, come forth,


s: Last year she smiled upon the flowers --


s: High and dry upon the shingle lies the fisher's boat to-night;


s: From his roof-beam dankly drooping, raying phosphorescent light,


s: Wearily across his shoulder flingeth he the ashen oar,


s: And upon the beach descending finds a skiff beside the shore.


s: 'Tis not his, but he must enter -- rocking on the waters dim,


s: Awful in their hidden presence, who are they that wait for him?


s: Who are they that sit so silent, as he pulleth from the land --


s: On a pebbled strand it grateth, ghastly cliffs around it loom,


s: Thin and melancholy voices faintly murmur through the gloom;


s: Voices only, lipless voices, and the fisherman turns pale,


s: As the mother greets her children, sisters landing brothers hail.


s: Lightened of its unseen burden, cork-like rides the rocking bark,


s: He bore unblench'd Detraction's worst, --


s: Paid blow for blow, and scorn for scorn.


s: Nor struggling upward, once look'd back.


s: She is beautiful yet, with her wondrous hair


s: And eyes that are stormy with fitful light,


s: Are unmarred all, rose-clear and bright;


s: The crouching bloodhounds, Remorse, Decay.


s: There is no fear in her great dark eyes --


s: Her laugh has a sadness tears never reach.


s: Whom should she fear on earth?  Can Fate


s: To her few little years of glitter and gloom


s: When the spectres of Loneliness, Want and Pain


s: Shall arise one night with Death in their train?


s: While the yeoman, gazing at children and wife,


s: Thanks God for the pride and joy of his life.


s: Whose conscience is heavy with this dark guilt?


s: And despair -- despair -- beyond the tomb?


s: They are rhymes rudely strung with intent less


s: In lands where bright blossoms are scentless,


s: Where, with fire and fierce drought on her tresses,


s: Where in dreariest days, when all dews end,


s: Wild Winter's large flood-gates are loosen'd,


s: Dry deserts with long pent up passion --


s: Here rhyme was first framed without fashion --


s: Whence gather'd? --  The locust's glad chirrup


s: That chimes through the pauses and hushes


s: In the deep'ning of dawn, when it dapples


s: With streaks like the redd'ning of apples,


s: Dim stars and dull planets, that muster,


s: In the gathering of night gloom o'erhead, in


s: All fire-flush'd when forest trees redden


s: When the gnarl'd, knotted trunks Eucalyptian


s: With curious device, quaint inscription,


s: In the Spring, when the wattle gold trembles


s: When each dew-laden air draught resembles


s: When the sky-line's blue burnish'd resistance


s: Some song in all hearts hath existence, --


s: Through the flowers those hills adorning --


s: There are tears in the night-dews wetting --


s: Hold hard, Ned!  Lift me down once more, and lay me in the shade.


s: Both horses, and to hold me in the saddle when I swayed,


s: All through the hot, slow, sleepy, silent ride.


s: The dawn at "Moorabinda" was a mist rack dull and dense,


s: The sun-rise was a sullen, sluggish lamp;


s: I was dozing in the gateway at Arbuthnot's bound'ry fence,


s: I was dreaming on the Limestone cattle camp.


s: To southward lay "Katawa", with the sand peaks all ablaze,


s: And the flushed fields of Glen Lomond lay to north.


s: Now westward winds the bridle-path that leads to Lindisfarm,


s: And yonder looms the double-headed Bluff;


s: Five miles we used to call it from our homestead to the place


s: Where the big tree spans the roadway like an arch;


s: 'Twas here we ran the dingo down that gave us such a chase


s: Eight years ago -- or was it nine? -- last March.


s: 'Twas merry in the glowing morn among the gleaming grass,


s: To wander as we've wandered many a mile,


s: 'Twas merry 'mid the blackwoods, when we spied the station roofs,


s: With a running fire of stock whips and a fiery run of hoofs;


s: Oh! the hardest day was never then too hard!


s: Aye! we had a glorious gallop after "Starlight" and his gang,


s: When they bolted from Sylvester's on the flat;


s: Hard behind them in the timber, harder still across the heath,


s: Close beside them through the tea-tree scrub we dash'd;


s: And the golden-tinted fern leaves, how they rustled underneath;


s: And the honeysuckle osiers, how they crash'd!


s: We led the hunt throughout, Ned, on the chestnut and the grey,


s: And the troopers were three hundred yards behind,


s: While we emptied our six-shooters on the bushrangers at bay,


s: In the creek with stunted box-trees for a blind!


s: He blazed away and missed you in that shallow water-course --


s: A narrow shave -- his powder singed your beard!


s: Even the yarns Jack Hall invented, and the songs Jem Roper sung;


s: And where are now Jem Roper and Jack Hall?


s: Ay! nearly all our comrades of the old colonial school,


s: Our ancient boon companions, Ned, are gone;


s: Hard livers for the most part, somewhat reckless as a rule,


s: But a steer ripp'd up Macpherson in the Cooraminta yards,


s: And Sullivan was drown'd at Sink-or-swim;


s: And Mostyn -- poor Frank Mostyn -- died at last, a fearful wreck,


s: And Carisbrooke, the rider, at the Horsefall broke his neck;


s: Faith! the wonder was he saved his neck so long!


s: Elsie's tallest girl seems taller than your little Elsie then;


s: I've had my share of pastime, and I've done my share of toil,


s: And life is short -- the longest life a span;


s: I care not now to tarry for the corn or for the oil,


s: Or for wine that maketh glad the heart of man.


s: For good undone, and gifts misspent, and resolutions vain,


s: 'Tis somewhat late to trouble.  This I know --


s: I should live the same life over, if I had to live again;


s: And the chances are I go where most men go.


s: The deep blue skies wax dusky, and the tall green trees grow dim,


s: And sickly, smoky shadows through the sleepy sunlight swim,


s: And on the very sun's face weave their pall.


s: Let me slumber in the hollow where the wattle blossoms wave,


s: With never stone or rail to fence my bed;


s: I don't suppose I shall though, for I feel like sleeping sound,


s: That sleep, they say, is doubtful.  True; but yet


s: At least it makes no difference to the dead man underground


s: Enigmas that perplex us in the world's unequal strife,


s: Yet some, as weak as water, Ned, to make the best of life,


s: Have been to face the worst as true as steel.


s: I purposed once to take my pen and write,


s: Not songs, like some, tormented and awry


s: Of words and music caught from glen and height,


s: And lucid colours born of woodland light


s: And shining places where the sea-streams lie.


s: But this was when the heat of youth glowed white,


s: And since I've put the faded purpose by.


s: Who read this book; but certain syllables


s: And secret hollows dear to noontide dew;


s: And these at least, though far between and few,


s: May catch the sense like subtle forest spells.


s: So take these kindly, even though there be


s: Some notes that unto other lyres belong,


s: Stray echoes from the elder sons of song;


s: And think how from its neighbouring native sea


s: By filching fair words from the shining throng


s: Whose music haunts me as the wind a tree!


s: Lo, when a stranger in soft Syrian glooms


s: Shot through with sunset treads the cedar dells,


s: And hears the breezy ring of elfin bells


s: Far down by where the white-haired cataract booms,


s: He, faint with sweetness caught from forest smells,


s: Bears thence, unwitting, plunder of perfumes.


s: Grey Winter hath gone, like a wearisome guest,


s: September comes in with the wind of the West


s: The ways of the frost have been filled of the flowers,


s: Wild wings, with the halo of hyaline hours,


s: September, the maid with the swift, silver feet!


s: The valleys of coolness, the slopes of the heat,


s: Sweet month, with a mouth that is made of a rose,


s: In spots where the harp of the evening glows,


s: The stream from its home in the hollow hill slips


s: And the day goeth down with a song on its lips


s: Far out in the fierce, bitter front of the sea


s: Dead things that were brothers and sisters of thee,


s: The West, when it blows at the fall of the noon


s: Is filled with a tender and tremulous tune


s: The stories of Youth, of the burden of Time,


s: Come back with the wind, and are themes of the rhyme


s: One word for her beauty, and one for the grace


s: And then we may kiss her, and suffer her face


s: Oh, season of changes -- of shadow and shine --


s: My song hath no music to mingle with thine,


s: But thou, being born of the winds and the sun,


s: Mayst lighten and listen, and loiter and run,


s: What though her voice rings clearly through


s: Heart fountains that have ceased to leap.


s: Have vext your peace with word of blame,


s: The phrase is dead -- the lips are mute.


s: God help such love!  To touch your hand,


s: You marvellous girl, my soul would stand


s: Above me in the loftier light -- to thee,


s: Whose feet are set in splendid spheres of flame,


s: Whose heads are where the gods are, and whose sides


s: Of strength are belted round with all the zones


s: Of all the world, I dedicate these songs.


s: And if, within the compass of this book,


s: There lives and glows ONE verse in which there beats


s: The pulse of wind and torrent -- if ONE line


s: Is here that like a running water sounds,


s: And seems an echo from the lands of leaf,


s: Be sure that line is thine.  Here, in this home,


s: Away from men and books and all the schools,


s: I take thee for my Teacher.  In thy voice


s: God's grand authentic Gospel!  Year by year,


s: Strikes through my spirit -- fills it with a life


s: With holy leaves of rock, and flower, and tree,


s: And moss, and shining runnel.  From each page


s: Have learned a noble lesson.  In the psalm


s: Of singing waters, lo! my soul has heard


s: The higher worship; and from thee, indeed,


s: Were gathered in; and thou hast lifted up


s: Of forest sunshine, I have paused like one


s: With all the life transfigured:  and a flood


s: As felt the grand old prophets caught away


s: Are far too splendid for poor human lips!


s: But thou, to whom I turn with reverent eyes --


s: Shines far above the zone of wind and cloud,


s: Where high dominion of the morning is --


s: Thou hast the Song complete of which my songs


s: May have the sob of upland torrents -- these,


s: And only these, may touch the great World's heart;


s: For, lo! they are the issues of that grief


s: Which makes a man more human, and his life


s: More like that frank exalted life of thine.


s: But in these pages there are other tones


s: In which thy large, superior voice is not --


s: Through which no beauty that resembles thine


s: Has ever shone.  THESE are the broken words


s: Of blind occasions, when the World has come


s: Between me and my Dream.  No song is here


s: I've worn in stolen moments.  All my days


s: And ever on my struggling soul has burned


s: The fierce heat of this hurried sphere.  But thou,


s: My book of rhymes -- thou hast the perfect rest


s: Which makes the heaven of the highest gods!


s: Are far, faint whispers; and, from age to age,


s: Thou standest!  Round thy lordly capes the sea


s: For ever; in thy deep, green, gracious glens


s: The silver fountains sing for ever.  Far


s: Above dim ghosts of waters in the caves,


s: Are cloud, and thunder, and the face sublime


s: Where evermore, through all the days and years,


s: There rolls the grand hymn of the deathless wave.


s: Take this rose, and very gently place it on the tender, deep


s: Mosses where our little darling, Araluen, lies asleep.


s: And the flowers we have fostered will be left to other hands.


s: But, beyond the wild, wide waters, we will tread another shore --


s: Other children may be given; but this rose beyond recall,


s: But this garland of your girlhood, will be dearest of them all.


s: None will ever, Araluen, nestle where you used to be,


s: In my heart of hearts, you darling, when the world was new to me;


s: You that sit and sob beside me -- you, upon whose golden head


s: Many rains of many sorrows have from day to day been shed;


s: Who, because your love was noble, faced with me the lot austere


s: Ever pressing with its hardship on the man of letters here --


s: Let me feel that you are near me, lay your hand within mine own;


s: You are all I have to live for, now that we are left alone.


s: The falls of flower, and flower-like floss --


s: That gleamed between the wet, green walls,


s: "Daughter," said the ancient father, pausing by the evening sea,


s: All the calmness and the colour -- all the splendour and repose,


s: Flowing where the sunset flowered, like a silver-hearted rose!


s: There indeed was singing Eden, where the great gold river runs


s: And an angel that we know not led her to the lands unknown.


s: Never since hath eye beheld it -- never since hath mortal, dazed


s: By its strange, unearthly splendour, on the floating Eden gazed!


s: Only once by quiet waters, under still, resplendent skies,


s: Did the sister of the seraphs kneel in sight of Paradise!


s: She, the pure, the perfect woman, sanctified by patient prayer,


s: Had the eyes of saints of Heaven, all their glory in her hair:


s: Therefore God the Father whispered to a radiant spirit near --


s: But beyond the halls of sunset, but within the wondrous West,


s: On the rose-red seas of evening, sails the Garden of the Blest.


s: We can never find Hy-Brasil, never see its hills again!


s: Never look on bays of crystal, never bend the reverent knee


s: In the sight of Eden floating -- floating on the sapphire sea!


s: Have sought -- with tears have sought --


s: She, with her dark-eyed maidens at her side,


s: While balmy breathes the starry southern night,


s: While languid heaves the lazy southern tide;


s: The rising tide, O Sina, and the setting moon!


s: Heaves like the sea, when the pale moon has gone,


s: Heaves like the passionate sea, Sina, left by the moon alone!


s: Silver on silver sands, the rippling waters meet --


s: The rippling waters kiss her delicate feet,


s: The rippling waters, lisping low and sweet,


s: Through the mellow dusk thy proas glide,


s: The rising tide, my Sina, and the setting moon!


s: The rising tide, my Sina, beneath the setting moon!


s: The rising tide, Sina, beneath the setting moon!


s: Sina, for whom the warriors decked their shining hair,


s: Wreathing with pearls their bosoms brown and bare,


s: Mats crimson with the feathers of the parrakeet.


s: Ho, Samoans! rouse your warriors full soon,


s: Far upon the rising tide, Sina, beneath the setting moon.


s: Piercing the evening with thy star-lit spires,


s: Thou wert a witness when I kissed the mouth


s: Of her whose eyes outblazed the skyey fires.


s: I saw the parallels of thy long streets,


s: With lamps like angels shining all a-row,


s: The Pleiades with rarer fires were tipt,


s: The belted giant's triple stars were dipt


s: On high to bless, the Southern Cross did shine,


s: Like that which blazed o'er conquering Constantine.


s: Well! if Truth be all welcomed with hardy reliance,


s: All the lovely unfoldings of luminous Science,


s: All that Logic can prove or disprove be avowed:


s: Is there room for no faith -- though such Evil intrude --


s: In the dominance still of a Spirit of Good?


s: Is there room for no hope -- such a handbreadth we scan --


s: In the permanence yet of the Spirit of Man? --


s: May we bless the far seeker, nor blame the fine dreamer?


s: Leave Reason her radiance -- Doubt her due cloud;


s: From our Life of realities -- hard -- shallow-hearted,


s: Has Romance -- has all glory idyllic departed --


s: From the workaday World all the wonderment flown?


s: Well, but what if there gleamed, in an Age cold as this,


s: Yea, an Eden could lurk in this Empire of ours,


s: With the loneliest love in the loveliest bowers? --


s: In an era so rapid with railway and steamer,


s: And with Pan and the Dryads like Raphael gone --


s: O my friends, never deaf to the charms of Denial,


s: Were its comfortless comforting worth a life-trial --


s: Discontented content with a chilling despair? --


s: Better ask as we float down a song-flood unchecked,


s: If our Sky with no Iris be glory-bedecked?


s: Through the gloom of eclipse as we wistfully steal


s: That the Future is haply not utterly cheerless:


s: While the Present has joy and adventure as rare


s: And if weary of mists you will roam undisdaining


s: To a land where the fanciful fountains are raining


s: Swift brilliants of boiling and beautiful spray


s: In the violet splendour of skies that illume


s: Such a wealth of green ferns and rare crimson tree-bloom;


s: Where a people primeval is vanishing fast,


s: With its faiths and its fables and ways of the past:


s: O with reason and fancy unfettered and fearless,


s: Come plunge with us deep into regions of Day --


s: "Alas, and well-a-day! they are talking of me still:


s: By the tingling of my nostril, I fear they are talking ill;


s: Poor hapless I -- poor little I -- so many mouths to fill --


s: And all for this strange feeling -- O, this sad, sweet pain!


s: "O! senseless heart -- O simple! to yearn so, and to pine


s: For one so far above me, confest o'er all to shine,


s: For one a hundred dote upon, who never can be mine!


s: O, 'tis a foolish feeling -- all this fond, sweet pain!


s: "When I was quite a child -- not so many moons ago --


s: A happy little maiden -- O, then it was not so;


s: Like a sunny-dancing wavelet then I sparkled to and fro;


s: And I never had this feeling -- O, this sad, sweet pain!


s: "I think it must be owing to the idle life I lead


s: In the dreamy house for ever that this new bosom-weed


s: Has sprouted up and spread its shoots till it troubles me indeed


s: With a restless, weary feeling -- such a sad, sweet pain!


s: "So in this pleasant islet, O, no longer will I stay --


s: And the shadowy summer dwelling I will leave this very day;


s: On Arapa I'll launch my skiff, and soon be borne away


s: From all that feeds this feeling -- O, this fond, sweet pain!


s: "I'll go and see dear Rima -- she'll welcome me, I know,


s: To charm away this feeling -- O, this sad, sweet pain!


s: "Two feathers I will borrow, and so gracefully I'll wear


s: Two feathers soft and snowy, for my long, black, lustrous hair.


s: And I shall blush with happy pride to hear them, I daresay,


s: And quite forget this feeling -- O, this sad, sweet pain!"


s: Hears in the voiceful tremors of the sky


s: Auroral heralds whispering, "She is nigh."


s: With urgent sense strained onward to descry


s: Her distant tokens, starts to find Her nigh.


s: Not yet her day.  How long "not yet"? . . .


s: Prelusive baptism! -- ere the natal hour


s: Named with the name and prophecy of power.


s: In heights unscaled, in deeps unstirred,


s: Already, like divining-rods, men's souls


s: Bend down to where the unseen river rolls; --


s: Beneath these lands a river waits to bless


s: (So men divine) our utmost wilderness, --


s: Rolls dark, but yet shall know our skies,


s: Till round our lessening wastes there glows


s: Till all our land, Australia Felix called,


s: Till, all our sundering lines with love o'ergrown,


s: Our bounds shall be the girdling seas alone.


s: There is an orb that mocked the lore of sages


s: Long time with mystery of strange unrest;


s: The steadfast law that rounds the starry ages


s: But they who knew the ways of God unchanging,


s: Some kindred sphere through viewless ethers ranging,


s: Whose strong persuasions spanned the void between.


s: And knowing it alone through perturbation


s: They named it, till the day of revelation,


s: "The Dark Companion" -- darkly guessed afar.


s: But when, through new perfection of appliance,


s: Faith merged at length in undisputed sight,


s: The mystic mover was revealed to science,


s: No Dark Companion, but -- a speck of light.


s: No fell disturber, but a bright compeer;


s: The shining complement that crowned the story;


s: The golden link that made the meaning clear.


s: Oh, Dark Companion, journeying ever by us,


s: Oh, grim Perturber of our works and ways --


s: Oh, potent Dread, unseen, yet ever nigh us,


s: Disquieting all the tenor of our days --


s: Oh, Dark Companion, Death, whose wide embraces


s: O'ertake remotest change of clime and skies --


s: Oh, Dark Companion, Death, whose grievous traces


s: Are scattered shreds of riven enterprise --


s: Thou, too, in this wise, when, our eyes unsealing,


s: The clearer day shall change our faith to sight,


s: Shalt show thyself, in that supreme revealing,


s: No Dark Companion, but a thing of light.


s: No ruthless wrecker of harmonious order;


s: A beckoning light upon the Blissful Border;


s: So, too, our strange unrest in this our dwelling,


s: The trembling that thou joinest with our mirth,


s: Are but thy magnet-communings compelling


s: Our spirits farther from the scope of earth.


s: So, doubtless, when beneath thy potence swerving,


s: 'Tis that thou lead'st us by a path unknown,


s: The perfect orbit round the central throne.


s: The night wind moans.  The Austral wilds are round me.


s: The loved who live -- ah, God! how few they are!


s: I looked above; and heaven in mercy found me


s: And be thy rere-ward Aurora, pursuing the skirts of To-day!


s: Hark how the tremulous night-wind is passing in joy-laden sighs;


s: Luminous streams of delight in the silent immensity flowing,


s: Journeying surgelessly on through impalpable ethers of peace.


s: How can I think of myself when infinitude o'er me is glowing,


s: Music scarce audible, echo-less harmony joyously dying,


s: Dying in faint suspirations o'er meadow, and forest, and hill!


s: Our paths grow wider as the seasons creep


s: Along the years; we marvel and we wonder


s: Why life is life, and then we fall asleep


s: Not understood, we gather false impressions


s: Till virtues often seem to us transgressions;


s: And thus men rise and fall, and live and die


s: Not understood!  Poor souls with stunted vision


s: Oft measure giants with their narrow gauge;


s: The poisoned shafts of falsehood and derision


s: Are oft impelled 'gainst those who mould the age,


s: Not understood!  The secret springs of action


s: Which lie beneath the surface and the show,


s: We judge our neighbours, and they often go


s: Not understood!  How trifles often change us!


s: The thoughtless sentence and the fancied slight


s: Destroy long years of friendship, and estrange us,


s: And on our souls there falls a freezing blight;


s: Not understood!  How many breasts are aching


s: How many cheerless, lonely hearts are breaking!


s: O God! that men would see a little clearer,


s: Or judge less harshly where they cannot see!


s: O God! that men would draw a little nearer


s: To one another, -- they'd be nearer Thee,


s: Where is thy dwelling-place?  Echo of sweetness,


s: Seraph of tenderness, where is thy home?


s: Angel of happiness, herald of fleetness,


s: Thou hast the key of the star-blazon'd dome.


s: And our fond heart-wishes lovingly throng,


s: Teacher of heaven's tongue -- Spirit of Song!


s: Euphony, born in the realms of the tearless,


s: Mingling thy notes with the voices of Earth;


s: Wanting thee, all would be dreary and cheerless,


s: Soothing the weak and inspiring the strong,


s: Oh! thou art dear to us, Spirit of Song!


s: Oft in the springtime, sweet words of affection


s: Are whispered by thee in thy tenderest tone,


s: And in the winter dark clouds of dejection


s: By thee are dispelled till all sorrow has flown.


s: And with the feathered choir all the year long;


s: Charming our senses, sweet Spirit of Song!


s: Good-bye! -- 'tis like a churchyard bell -- good-bye!


s: Poor weeping eyes!  Poor head, bowed down with woe!


s: Kiss me again, dear love, before you go.


s: Ah, me, how fast the precious moments fly!


s: We are like mourners when they stand and cry


s: Yes, it is death.  But you shall rise again --


s: This parting anguish with another friend.


s: Your heart is broken now, but it will mend.


s: Though it is death, yet still you will not die.


s: Dear heart! dear eyes! dear tongue, that cannot lie!


s: Your love is true, your grief is deep and sore;


s: But love will pass -- then you will grieve no more.


s: New love will come.  Your tears will soon be dry.


s: Every wild she-bird has nest and mate in the warm April weather,


s: But a captive woman, made for love -- no mate, no nest has she.


s: Of a breathing new-born body to my yearning bosom prest,


s: Of the rapture of a little soft mouth drinking at my breast.


s: Time, that heals so many sorrows, keeps mine ever freshly aching;


s: O my children that I might have had! my children, lost for ever!


s: O the goodly years that might have been -- now desolate and bare!


s: Me let the world disparage and despise --


s: As one unfettered with its gilded chains,


s: Let Justice, blind and halt and maimed, chastise


s: And make me hideous in my neighbours' eyes.


s: By poor deceit or selfish greed debased.


s: Let me be clean from secret stain and shame,


s: Know myself true, though false as hell I seem --


s: Know myself worthy, howsoe'er disgraced --


s: Know myself right, though every tongue should blame.


s: No chart, no compass, and no anchor stay!


s: In all-surrounding darkness, void and clear.


s: Drifting, I spread vain hands, and vainly peer


s: And vainly call for pilot, -- weep and pray;


s: Beyond these limits not the faintest ray


s: Shows distant coast whereto the lost may steer.


s: As wind-blown sparks hold momentary fire?


s: What are these gifts without the larger boon?


s: Who scarce have time to know what we desire?


s: O what is love, if we must part so soon?


s: And is the great cause lost beyond recall?


s: Have all the hopes of ages come to naught?


s: Is life no more with noble meaning fraught?


s: Is life but death, and love its funeral pall?


s: Maybe.  And still on bended knees I fall,


s: Filled with a faith no preacher ever taught.


s: O God -- MY God -- by no false prophet wrought --


s: Let go the myths and creeds of groping men.


s: This clay knows naught -- the Potter understands.


s: And still can leave me in His shaping hands.


s: Forgive the anguish of the turning wheel!


s: All my life's short years had been stern and sterile --


s: I stood like one whom the blasts blow back --


s: As with shipmen whirled through the straits of Peril,


s: But I steeled my soul to a strong endeavour,


s: I bared my brow as the sharp strokes fell,


s: And I said to my heart -- "Hope on!  Hope ever:


s: Have Courage -- Courage, and all is well."


s: Then, bright as the blood in my heart's rich chalice,


s: O Blossom, Blossom! -- you came from far;


s: And life rang joy, till the World's loud malice


s: Shrilled to the edge of our utmost star.


s: And I said:  "On me let the rough storms hurtle,


s: The great clouds gather and shroud my sun --


s: But you shall be Queen where the rose and myrtle


s: Laugh with the year till the year is done."


s: So my Dream fell dead; and the fluctuant passion --


s: The stress and strain of the past re-grew,


s: The world laughed on in its heedless fashion,


s: But Earth whirled worthless, because of you!


s: In that Lake of Tears which my grief discovered,


s: I laid dead Love with a passionate kiss,


s: And over those soundless depths has hovered


s: The sweet, sad wraith of my vanished bliss.


s: Heart clings to Heart -- let the strange years sever


s: The fates of two who had met -- to part;


s: Love's strength survives, and the harsh world never


s: Shall crush the passion of heart for heart;


s: For I know my life, though it droop and dwindle,


s: Shall leave me Love till I fade and die,


s: In the warm flushed heart of the rose-red west,


s: When the great sun quivered and died to-day,


s: You pulsed, O star, by yon pine-clad crest --


s: And throbbed till the bright eve ashened grey --


s: Where the grey gum dips to the western plain,


s: To the mystic spheres where your kinsmen reign.


s: O star, did you see her?  My queen of dreams!


s: Was it you that glimmered the night we strayed


s: Half-checked by the litter the musk-buds made?


s: (Though the world should fail and the soft stars wane!)


s: To the mystic spheres where your kinsmen reign!


s: The horses were ready, the rails were down,


s: Then they mounted, one with a granted prayer,


s: "We are going," they said, as they rode away --


s: They had told us of pastures wide and green,


s: And thirst and hunger were banished words


s: No drought they dreaded, no flood they feared,


s: The creek at the ford was but fetlock deep


s: The rains have replenished it thrice since then,


s: But the waters of Hope have flowed and fled,


s: Come back -- by the sun and the sands devoured --


s: Eight hundred miles -- but the fortnight's rest


s: Made him fresh as a youngster, the sturdy bay!


s: Where the creeks lay cool 'neath the gidya's shade


s: The stock-horses clustered, travel-spent.


s: In the bright spring morning we left them all --


s: Camp, and cattle, and white, and black --


s: Where the dingo's trail was the only track.


s: Slow through the clay-pans, wet to the knee,


s: Swift o'er the plains with never a tree;


s: We toiled, ere we reached Bindanna's verge


s: And saw -- as one sees a far-off shore --


s: The blue hills bounding the forest surge.


s: An ocean of trees, by the west wind stirred,


s: Rolled, ever rolled, to the great cliff's base;


s: And its sound like the noise of waves was heard


s: 'Mid the rocks and the caves of that lonely place.


s: We recked not of wealth in stream or soil