s: Employment, and he was a lookin' as hum-


s: And when he had filled hisself and the floor


s: Brown looked at him sharp and riz and swore


s: That, "whether men's land was rich or poor


s: Thar was more in the MAN than thar was in the LAND."


s: That air same Jones, which lived in Jones,


s: He'd swear with a hundred sighs and groans,


s: Thus spouted Jones (whar folks could hear,


s: "More corn! more corn! MUST plant less ground,


s: Next year they'll do it:  reasonin's sound:


s: (And, cotton will fetch 'bout a dollar a pound),


s: You, Dinah!  Come and set me whar de ribber-roads does meet.


s: De Lord, HE made dese black-jack roots to twis' into a seat.


s: It 'pear to me dis mornin' I kin smell de fust o' June.


s: I 'clar', I b'lieve dat mockin'-bird could play de fiddle soon!


s: Dem yonder town-bells sounds like dey was ringin' in de moon.


s: I know my front ones IS stopped up, and things is sort o' dim,


s: But den, th'u' DEM, temptation's rain won't leak in on ole Jim!


s: De back ones show me earth enough, aldo' dey's mons'ous slim.


s: And as for Hebben, -- bless de Lord, and praise His holy name --


s: DAT shines in all de co'ners of dis cabin jes' de same


s: As ef dat cabin hadn't nar' a plank upon de frame!


s: Who CALL me?  Listen down de ribber, Dinah!  Don't you hyar


s: Somebody holl'in' "Hoo, Jim, hoo?"  My Sarah died las' y'ar;


s: IS dat black angel done come back to call ole Jim f'om hyar?


s: My stars, dat cain't be Sarah, shuh!  Jes' listen, Dinah, NOW!


s: What KIN be comin' up dat bend, a-makin' sich a row?


s: Fus' bellerin' like a pawin' bull, den squealin' like a sow?


s: A-splashin' up de water wid his tail and wid his hoof!


s: I'se pow'ful skeered; but neversomeless I ain't gwine run away:


s: I'm gwine to stand stiff-legged for de Lord dis blessed day.


s: YOU screech, and swish de water, Satan!  I'se a gwine to pray.


s: O hebbenly Marster, what thou willest, dat mus' be jes' so,


s: Den, Lord, please take ole Jim, and lef young Dinah hyar below!


s: 'Scuse Dinah, 'scuse her, Marster; for she's sich a little chile,


s: But dis ole traveller's feet been tired dis many a many a mile.


s: I'se wufless as de rotten pole of las' year's fodder-stack.


s: De rheumatiz done bit my bones; you hear 'em crack and crack?


s: I cain'st sit down 'dout gruntin' like 'twas breakin' o' my back.


s: But, Dinah!  Shuh dat gal jes' like dis little hick'ry tree,


s: De sap's jes' risin in her; she do grow owdaciouslee --


s: Lord, ef you's clarin' de underbrush, don't cut her down, cut me!


s: I would not proud persume -- but I'll boldly make reques';


s: Sence Jacob had dat wrastlin'-match, I, too, gwine do my bes';


s: When Jacob got all underholt, de Lord he answered Yes!


s: And what for waste de vittles, now, and th'ow away de bread,


s: Stop; -- ef I don't believe de Debble's gone on up de stream!


s: O glory hallelujah to de Lord dat reigns on high!


s: De Debble's fai'ly skeered to def, he done gone flyin' by;


s: I know'd he couldn' stand dat pra'r, I felt my Marster nigh!


s: You, Dinah; ain't you 'shamed, now, dat you didn' trust to grace?


s: You fool, you think de Debble couldn't beat YOU in a race?


s: I tell you, Dinah, jes' as shuh as you is standin' dar,


s: When folks starts prayin', answer-angels drops down th'u' de a'r.


s: they present in addition a wealth of dear associations.


s: no other hand can be authorized to make.


s: Once on a time, a Dawn, all red and bright


s: Leapt on the conquered ramparts of the Night,


s: And flamed, one brilliant instant, on the world,


s: Then back into the historic moat was hurled


s: And Night was King again, for many years.


s: -- Once on a time the Rose of Spring blushed out


s: Into his rough new-bursten husk, and shut


s: The stern husk-leaves, and hid it many years.


s: -- Once Famine tricked himself with ears of corn,


s: And Hate strung flowers on his spiked belt,


s: And glum Revenge in silver lilies pranked him,


s: And Lust put violets on his shameless front,


s: And all minced forth o' the street like holiday folk


s: -- Once certain hounds that knew of many a chase,


s: And bare great wounds of antler and of tusk


s: That they had ta'en to give a lord some sport,


s: -- Good hounds, that would have died to give lords sport --


s: Were so bewrayed and kicked by these same lords


s: That all the pack turned tooth o' the knights and bit


s: As knights had been no better things than boars,


s: Unhoundlike, sudden, hot i' the chops, and sweet.


s: Seeming to doze, with wrinkled eye-lid drawn,


s: But dreaming hard of hoods and slaveries


s: And of dim hungers in his heart and wings.


s: Then, while the mistress gazed above for game,


s: And hooked his horn-claws in her lily throat


s: And drove his beak into her lips and eyes


s: In fierce and hawkish kissing that did scar


s: -- And once while Chivalry stood tall and lithe


s: And flashed his sword above the stricken eyes


s: Of all the simple peasant-folk of France:


s: While Thought was keen and hot and quick,


s: And did not play, as in these later days,


s: Like summer-lightning flickering in the west


s: -- As little dreadful as if glow-worms lay


s: In the cool and watery clouds and glimmered weak --


s: But gleamed and struck at once or oak or man,


s: And left not space for Time to wave his wing


s: Betwixt the instantaneous flash and stroke:


s: While yet the needs of life were brave and fierce


s: And did not hide their deeds behind their words,


s: And logic came not 'twixt desire and act,


s: And Want-and-Take was the whole Form of life:


s: While Love had fires a-burning in his veins,


s: And hidden Hate could flash into revenge:


s: Ere yet young Trade was 'ware of his big thews


s: And drag him to the highest height of fame


s: And plunge him thence in the sea of still Romance


s: Gleaming through quiet ripples of soft songs


s: And sheens of old traditionary tales; --


s: From out that blue Sea that between five lands


s: Lies like a violet midst of five large leaves,


s: And stirred the spirits of the woods of France


s: And smoothed the brows of moody Auvergne hills,


s: And wrought warm sea-tints into maidens' eyes,


s: And calmed the wordy air of market-towns


s: With faint suggestions blown from distant buds,


s: Until the land seemed a mere dream of land,


s: And, in this dream-field Life sat like a dove


s: And cooed across unto her dove-mate Death,


s: Oh, sharper tangs pierced through this perfumed May.


s: Strange aches sailed by with odors on the wind


s: As when we kneel in flowers that grow on graves


s: Of friends who died unworthy of our love.


s: King John of France was proving such an ache


s: In English prisons wide and fair and grand,


s: Whose long expanses of green park and chace


s: Down from the oaks of Hertford Castle park,


s: Double with warm rose-breaths of southern Spring


s: Came rumors, as if odors too had thorns,


s: Sharp rumors, how the three Estates of France,


s: Their rightful Regent, snarled in his great face,


s: Snapped jagged teeth in inch-breadth of his throat,


s: And blown such hot and savage breath upon him,


s: That he had tossed great sops of royalty


s: Unto the clamorous, three-mawed baying beast.


s: And had but changed a snarl into a growl:


s: How Arnold de Cervolles had ta'en the track


s: That war had burned along the unhappy land,


s: Shouting, `since France is then too poor to pay


s: The soldiers that have bloody devoir done,


s: And since needs must, pardie! a man must eat,


s: Arm, gentlemen! swords slice as well as knives!'


s: And so had tempted stout men from the ranks,


s: And now was adding robbers' waste to war's,


s: Stealing the leavings of remorseless battle,


s: And making gaunter the gaunt bones of want:


s: How this Cervolles (called "Arch-priest" by the mass)


s: Through warm Provence had marched and menace made


s: And how the Pope nor ate nor drank nor slept,


s: Through godly fear concerning his red wines.


s: For if these knaves should sack his holy house


s: And all the blessed casks be knocked o' the head,


s: HORRENDUM! all his Holiness' drink to be


s: Profanely guzzled down the reeking throats


s: Of scoundrels, and inflame them on to seize


s: And steal, mayhap, the carven silver shrine


s: And had sent forth a legate to Cervolles,


s: And treated with him, and made compromise,


s: And, last, had bidden all the Arch-priest's troop


s: To come and banquet with him in his house,


s: Where they did wassail high by night and day


s: And Father Pope sat at the board and carved


s: And priest and soldier trolled good songs for mass,


s: And all the prayers the Priests made were, `pray, drink,'


s: And all the oaths the Soldiers swore were, `drink!'


s: With piquant spur, past chapel and past cross:


s: How Charles, King of Navarre, in long duress


s: By mandate of King John within the walls


s: Of Crevacoeur and then of strong Alleres,


s: In faithful ward of Sir Tristan du Bois,


s: Was now escaped, had supped with Guy Kyrec,


s: Had turned the people's love upon himself


s: By smooth harangues, and now was bold to claim


s: But, By our Lady, his, by right and worth,


s: And so was plotting treason in the State,


s: And laughing at weak Charles of Normandy.


s: Nay, these had been like good news to the King,


s: The King what [bitter] sayings men had made


s: And hawked augmenting up and down the land


s: Against the barons and great lords of France


s: That fled from English arrows at Poictiers.


s: POICTIERS, POICTIERS:  this grain i' the eye of France


s: Had swelled it to a big and bloodshot ball


s: That looked with rage upon a world askew.


s: Poictiers' disgrace was now but two years old,


s: Yet so outrageous rank and full was grown


s: That France was wholly overspread with shade,


s: And bitter fruits lay on the untilled ground


s: That stank and bred so foul contagious smells


s: That not a nose in France but stood awry,


s: Nor boor that cried not FAUGH! upon the air.


s: And poised it high above the steady eyes


s: Of a great crowd that thronged the market-place


s: Midst of the crowd old Gris Grillon, the maimed,


s: -- A wretched wreck that fate had floated out


s: From the drear storm of battle at Poictiers.


s: Was dead and buried on the battle-field --


s: A grisly trunk, without or arms or legs,


s: And scarred with hoof-cuts over cheek and brow,


s: Quoth he, "My son, I would behold this priest


s: That is not fat, and loves not wine, and fasts,


s: And stills the folk with waving of his hand,


s: And threats the knights and thunders at the Pope.


s: Make way for Gris, ye who are whole of limb!


s: Set me on yonder ledge, that I may see."


s: Forthwith a dozen horny hands reached out


s: Whereon he lay and overlooked the crowd,


s: And from the gray-grown hedges of his brows


s: Shot forth a glance against the friar's eye


s: Love-songs of Provence in a mild day-dream:


s: "And when he broke the second seal, I heard


s: To take the peace of earth away, and set


s: And pointed round the circle of sad eyes.


s: But showeth print of the hard hoof of war.


s: Ah, yonder leaneth limbless Gris Grillon.


s: -- Thou felon, War, I do arraign thee now


s: Of mayhem of the four main limbs of France!


s: Thou old red criminal, stand forth; I charge


s: My work to-day, is still more grievous.  Hear!


s: The stains that war hath wrought upon the land


s: Show but as faint white flecks, if seen o' the side


s: Of those blood-covered images that stalk


s: Through yon cold chambers of the future, as


s: The prophet-mood, now stealing on my soul,


s: Reveals them, marching, marching, marching.  See!


s: There go the kings of France, in piteous file.


s: The deadly diamonds shining in their crowns


s: Do wound the foreheads of their Majesties


s: And glitter through a setting of blood-gouts


s: As if they smiled to think how men are slain


s: By the sharp facets of the gem of power,


s: And how the kings of men are slaves of stones.


s: But look!  The long procession of the kings


s: Wavers and stops; the world is full of noise,


s: They rave, they laugh, they thirst, they lap the stream


s: That trickles from the regal vestments down,


s: And, lapping, smack their heated chaps for more,


s: And ply their daggers for it, till the kings


s: All die and lie in a crooked sprawl of death,


s: 'Tis true, that when these things have come to pass


s: Then never a king shall rule again in France,


s: For every villein shall be king in France:


s: And who hath lordship in him, whether born


s: In hedge or silken bed, shall be a lord:


s: And queens shall be as thick i' the land as wives,


s: And all the maids shall maids of honor be:


s: And high and low shall commune solemnly:


s: And stars and stones shall have free interview.


s: That ere this gracious time shall visit France,


s: Your graves, Beloved, shall be some centuries old,


s: And so your children's, and their children's graves


s: Shall grieve, and ye shall grieve, and ye shall grieve.


s: Your Life shall bend and o'er his shuttle toil,


s: Your Life shall sweat 'twixt anvil and hot forge,


s: An armorer working at the sword of grief.


s: Your Life shall moil i' the ground, and plant his seed,


s: A farmer foisoning a huge crop of grief.


s: Your Life shall chaffer in the market-place,


s: A merchant trading in the goods of grief.


s: Your Life shall go to battle with his bow,


s: Tall Grief shall stand, the helmsman of the ship.


s: By every wain that jolts along the roads,


s: Stout Grief shall walk, the driver of the team.


s: Midst every herd of cattle on the hills,


s: Dull Grief shall lie, the herdsman of the drove.


s: Oh Grief shall grind your bread and play your lutes


s: Who's here in France, can win her people's faith


s: And stand in front and lead the people on?


s: Not, mark, by robust swelling of the thews,


s: But puffed and flabby large with gross increase


s: Thou that shouldst be the Father of the world


s: And Regent of it whilst our God is gone;


s: Thou that shouldst blaze with conferred majesty


s: And smite old Lust-o'-the-Flesh so as by flame;


s: Thou that canst turn thy key and lock Grief up


s: Or turn thy key and unlock Heaven's Gate,


s: Thou that shouldst be the veritable hand


s: That Christ down-stretcheth out of heaven yet


s: To draw up him that fainteth to His heart,


s: Thou that shouldst bear thy fruit, yet virgin live,


s: Thou that shouldst challenge the most special eyes


s: Of Heaven and Earth and Hell to mark thee, since


s: Thou shouldst be Heaven's best captain, Earth's best friend,


s: And Hell's best enemy -- false Pope, false Pope,


s: The world, thy child, is sick and like to die,


s: But thou art dinner-drowsy and cannot come:


s: And Life is sore beset and crieth `help!'


s: But thou brook'st not disturbance at thy wine:


s: And France is wild for one to lead her souls;


s: But thou art huge and fat and laggest back


s: Thou'rt not God's Pope, thou art the Devil's Pope.


s: Thou art first Squire to that most puissant knight,


s: Lord Satan, who thy faithful squireship long


s: So faint with work ye love not, so thin-worn


s: With miseries ye wrought not, so outraged


s: By strokes of ill that pass th' ill-doers' heads


s: And cleave the innocent, so desperate tired


s: Ye cannot call toward the Church for help.


s: The Church already is o'erworked with care


s: Born of a dream, as yonder cloud is born


s: I saw the moonlight lying large and calm


s: Upon the unthrobbing bosom of the earth,


s: As a great diamond glittering on a shroud.


s: A sense of breathlessness stilled all the world.


s: Motion stood dreaming he was changed to Rest,


s: A quick small shadow spotted the white world;


s: Then instantly 'twas huge, and huger grew


s: By instants till it did o'ergloom all space.


s: I lifted up mine eyes -- O thou just God!


s: Come frantic downward through the universe,


s: And all the mouths of it were uttering cries,


s: The cries were much like laughs:  as if Pain laughed.


s: Its myriad lips were blue, and sometimes they


s: Closed fast and only moaned dim sounds that shaped


s: Themselves to one word, `Homeless', and the stars


s: Did utter back the moan, and the great hills


s: Did bellow it, and then the stars and hills


s: Bandied the grief o' the ghost 'twixt heaven and earth.


s: And brooded, level, close upon the earth,


s: I glanced in all the eyes and marked that some


s: And some were soft and false as feigning love,


s: And some were overfilmed by sense, and some


s: Blazed with ambition's wild, unsteady fire,


s: And some were burnt i' the sockets black, and some


s: Were dead as embers when the fire is out.


s: A curious zone circled the Spectre's waist,


s: Which seemed with strange device to symbol Time.


s: This zone seemed ever to contract and all


s: In the strangling traction which did never cease.


s: I cried unto the spectre, `Time hath bound


s: Then rose a multitude of mocking sounds,


s: And some mouths spat at me and cried `thou fool',


s: And some, `thou liest', and some, `he dreams':  and then


s: Some hands uplifted certain bowls they bore


s: To lips that writhed but drank with eagerness.


s: And some played curious viols, shaped like hearts


s: And stringed with loves, to light and ribald tunes,


s: And other hands slit throats with knives,


s: And others patted all the painted cheeks


s: In reach, and others stole what others had


s: Unseen, or boldly snatched at alien rights,


s: And some o' the heads did vie in a foolish game


s: Of mist, and breathed it upward and about,


s: And waved and wound it softly round the world,


s: And meshed my dream i' the vague and endless folds,


s: And a light wind arose and blew these off,


s: -- Now if the priesthood put such shame upon


s: Your cry for leadership, can better help


s: Unclose thine eyes, unclose thine eyes, here, see,


s: Here stand a herd of knaves that laugh to scorn


s: That stings the coward knights of lost Poictiers!


s: I would --" but now a murmur rose i' the crowd


s: From where he stood to preach and pressed a path


s: Betwixt the mass that way the voices came.


s: Lord Raoul was riding castleward from field.


s: His fool whom he loved better; and his bird,


s: His fine ger-falcon best beloved of all,


s: Sat hooded on his wrist and gently swayed


s: Guest-knights and huntsmen and a noisy train


s: Of loyal-stomached flatterers and their squires


s: Clattered in retinue, and aped his pace,


s: And timed their talk by his, and worked their eyes


s: "'Twas a brave flight, my lord, that last one! brave.


s: Didst note the heron once did turn about,


s: And make as if he almost dared, not quite,


s: To strike the falcon, ere the falcon him?


s: Yon heron!  What?  Shall herons grapple hawks?


s: God made the herons for the hawks to strike,


s: And hawk and heron made he for lords' sport."


s: "What then, my honey-tongued Fool, that knowest


s: God's purposes, what made he fools for?"


s: To counsel lords, my lord.  Wilt hear me prove


s: Fools' counsel better than wise men's advice?"


s: "Aye, prove it.  If thy logic fail, wise fool,


s: I'll cause two wise men whip thee soundly."


s: `Wise men are prudent:  prudent men have care


s: For their own proper interest; therefore they


s: Advise their own advantage, not another's.


s: But fools are careless:  careless men care not


s: Advise their friend's advantage, not their own.'


s: This fool, unselfish, counsels thee, his lord,


s: Go not through yonder square, where, as thou see'st


s: Yon herd of villeins, crick-necked all with strain


s: Of gazing upward, stand, and gaze, and take


s: With open mouth and eye and ear, the quips


s: Lord Raoul half turned him in his saddle round,


s: And looked upon his fool and vouchsafed him


s: A generous nobleness could deign to give


s: Where languor and surprise both showed themselves,


s: Be kind and tell me -- tell me quickly, too, --


s: Nay, tell me but some shadow of some cause,


s: Nay, hint me but a thin ghost's dream of cause,


s: (So will I thee absolve from being whipped)


s: Why I, Lord Raoul, should turn my horse aside


s: From riding by yon pitiful villein gang,


s: Or ay, by God, from riding o'er their heads


s: If so my humor serve, or through their bodies,


s: Or miring fetlocks in their nasty brains,


s: Or doing aught else I will in my Clermont?


s: An thou dost ride through this same gang of boors,


s: 'Tis my fool's-prophecy, some ill shall fall.


s: Lord Raoul, yon mass of various flesh is fused


s: And melted quite in one by white-hot words


s: The friar speaks.  Sir, sawest thou ne'er, sometimes,


s: Thine armorer spit on iron when 'twas hot,


s: Hissing?  So this contempt now in thine eye,


s: If it shall fall on yonder heated surface


s: May bounce back upward.  Well:  and then?  What then?


s: Why, if thou cause thy folk to crop some villein's ears,


s: So, evil falls, and a fool foretells the truth.


s: Or if some erring crossbow-bolt should break


s: Thine unarmed head, shot from behind a house,


s: So, evil falls, and a fool foretells the truth."


s: "Well," quoth Lord Raoul, with languid utterance,


s: "'Tis very well -- and thou'rt a foolish fool,


s: Nay, thou art Folly's perfect witless man,


s: Yet Silliness doth love thee best of all,


s: And while they quarrel, snatcheth thee to her


s: And saith `Ah! 'tis my sweetest No-brains:  mine!'


s: -- And 'tis my mood to-day some ill shall fall."


s: And there right suddenly Lord Raoul gave rein


s: And galloped straightway to the crowded square,


s: -- What time a strange light flickered in the eyes


s: Of the calm fool, that was not folly's gleam,


s: But more like wisdom's smile at plan well laid


s: And end well compassed.  In the noise of hoofs


s: Secure, the fool low-muttered:  "`Folly's love!'


s: So:  `Silliness' sweetheart:  no-brains:'  quoth my Lord.


s: Whom Silliness' sweetheart drives so, by the ear!


s: Thou languid, lordly, most heart-breaking Nought!


s: Nothing's right issue failing!  Thou mere `pooh'


s: That Life hath uttered in some moment's pet,


s: And then forgot she uttered thee!  Thou gap


s: In time, thou little notch in circumstance!"


s: Lord Raoul drew rein with all his company,


s: And urged his horse i' the crowd, to gain fair view


s: Of him that spoke, and stopped at last, and sat


s: Still, underneath where Gris Grillon was laid,


s: And heard, somewhile, with languid scornful gaze,


s: The friar putting blame on priest and knight.


s: Hadst had less legs and bigger brows, my Lord!"


s: Then all the flatterers and their squires cried out


s: Old Rogue," or "Shall I brain him, my good Lord?"


s: Or, "So, let me but chuck him from his perch,"


s: Or, "Slice his tongue to piece his leg withal,"


s: Or, "Send his eyes to look for his missing arms."


s: But my Lord Raoul was in the mood, to-day,


s: Which craves suggestions simply with a view


s: To flout them in the face, and so waved hand


s: Backward, and stayed the on-pressing sycophants


s: Eager to buy rich praise with bravery cheap.


s: "I would know why," -- he said -- "thou wishedst me


s: Learn then," cried Gris Grillon and stirred himself,


s: In a great spasm of passion mixed with pain;


s: "An thou hadst had more courage and less speed,


s: Then, ah my God! then could not I have been


s: That piteous gibe of a man thou see'st I am.


s: -- But, feeling the brave bound and energy


s: Of daring health that leaps along the veins --


s: -- Sir, wild with the urgings and hot strenuous beats


s: Of manhood's heart in this full-sinewed breast


s: Which thou may'st even now discern is mine,


s: -- Sir, full aware, each instant in each day,


s: Of motions of great muscles, once were mine,


s: And thrill of tense thew-knots, and stinging sense


s: -- Sir, visited each hour by passions great


s: Passion of love -- that hath no arm to curve;


s: Passion of speed -- that hath no limb to stretch;


s: Simply to turn me from this side to that,


s: (Which brooded on, into wild passion grows


s: -- Sir, moved and thrilled like any perfect man,


s: O, trebly moved and thrilled, since poor desires


s: Become mere hopeless Heavens or actual Hells,


s: -- Sir, strengthened so with manhood's seasoned soul,


s: I lie in this damned cradle day and night,


s: Still, still, so still, my Lord:  less than a babe


s: In powers but more than any man in needs;


s: Dreaming, with open eye, of days when men


s: Have fallen cloven through steel and bone and flesh


s: At single strokes of this -- of that big arm


s: Once wielded aught a mortal arm might wield,


s: That wills to conquer my defenceless brow


s: And sit thereon in triumph; hounded ever


s: Which, since I cannot compass them alone,


s: And yelping round me that I have no feet:


s: So that my heart is stretched by tiny ills


s: In bygone days how trifling small they were:


s: -- Dungeoned in wicker, strong as 'twere in stone;


s: -- Fast chained with nothing, firmer than with steel;


s: -- Captive in limb, yet free in eye and ear,


s: Sole tenant of this puny Hell in Heaven:


s: -- And this -- all this -- because I was a man!


s: For, in the battle -- ha, thou know'st, pale-face!


s: When that the four great English horsemen bore


s: To front of thee -- of thee -- and fought four blades,


s: Thinking to win thee time to snatch thy breath,


s: And, by a rearing fore-hoof stricken down,


s: Mine eyes, through blood, my brain, through pain,


s: -- Midst of a dim hot uproar fainting down --


s: Were 'ware of thee, far rearward, fleeing!  Hound!"


s: Then, as the passion of old Gris Grillon


s: A wave swift swelling, grew to highest height


s: And snapped a foaming consummation forth


s: With salty hissing, came the friar through


s: The mass.  A stillness of white faces wrought


s: A transient death on all the hands and breasts


s: Of all the crowd, and men and women stood,


s: One instant, fixed, as they had died upright.


s: Then suddenly Lord Raoul rose up in selle


s: And thrust his dagger straight upon the breast


s: Of Gris Grillon, to pin him to the wall;


s: But ere steel-point met flesh, tall Jacques Grillon


s: Had leapt straight upward from the earth, and in


s: The self-same act had whirled his bow by end


s: With mighty whirr about his head, and struck


s: The dagger with so featly stroke and full


s: That blade flew up and hilt flew down, and left


s: The fool cried shrilly, "Shall a knight of France


s: Go stabbing his own cattle?"  And Lord Raoul,


s: Calm with a changing mood, sat still and called:


s: "Here, huntsmen, 'tis my will ye seize the hind


s: That broke my dagger, bind him to this tree


s: And slice both ears to hair-breadth of his head,


s: As catching villainous breath of strolling priests


s: That mouth at knighthood and defile the Church."


s: The knife  .   .   .   .   .  [Rest of line lost.]


s: To place the edge  .   .   .  [Rest of line lost.]


s: Scorning to come at call of blade so base.


s: Sathanas!  He that cuts the ear has left


s: The blade sticking at midway, for to turn


s: Thus far with nice precision," and the Duke


s: Leans down to see, and cries, "'tis marvellous nice,


s: Shaved as thou wert ear-barber by profession!"


s: Whereat one witling cries, "'tis monstrous fit,


s: In sooth, a shaven-pated priest should have


s: "Give thanks, thou Jacques, to this most gracious Duke


s: That rids thee of the life-long dread of loss


s: Of thy two ears, by cropping them at once;


s: And now henceforth full safely thou may'st dare


s: The powerfullest Lord in France to touch


s: An ear of thine;" and now the knave o' the knife


s: Seizes the handle to commence again, and saws


s: And . . ha!  Lift up thine head, O Henry!  Friend!


s: 'Tis Marie, walking midway of the street,


s: As she had just stepped forth from out the gate


s: Still glittering with the God-shine on her!  Look!


s: And there right suddenly the fool looked up


s: God's first remark when he hath died into


s: God's sudden presence, saw the cropping knave


s: A-pause with knife in hand, the wondering folk


s: All straining forward with round-ringed eyes,


s: And Gris Grillon calm smiling while he prayed


s: Betwixt the hedging bodies of the crowd,


s: Of springy clouds, and bore straight on toward


s: The Duke.  On him her eyes burned steadily


s: With such gray fires of heaven-hot command


s: As Dawn burns Night away with, and she held


s: At greatest arm's-length of her dainty arm,


s: That come from lips unseen, in sunlit room.


s: So with the spell of all the Powers of Sense


s: That e'er have swayed the savagery of hot blood


s: She held the eyes and wills of all the crowd.


s: Then from the numbed hand of him that cut,


s: The knife dropped down, and the quick fool stole in


s: And snatched and deftly severed all the withes


s: Unseen, and Jacques burst forth into the crowd,


s: And then the mass completed the long breath


s: They had forgot to draw, and surged upon


s: The centre where the maiden stood with sound


s: Of multitudes of blessings, and Lord Raoul


s: Rode homeward, silent and most pale and strange,


s: Deep-wrapt in moody fits of hot and cold.


s: Mere violet still?  Who knows? who knows?


s: The hound was cuffed, the hound was kicked,


s: O' the ears was cropped, o' the tail was nicked,


s: He seized the bone, he crunched, he bit.


s: Ah, YOU to our childhood the legend told,


s: "At the end of the rainbow lies the gold,"


s: Gold crushed from the quartz of a crystal life,


s: Gold hammered with blows of human strife,


s: Since, heart to heart like rhyme to rhyme,


s: For the kingly heads that bowed not down


s: Dear hearts, still white in spite of care;


s: Dear eyes, still black and bright and fair


s: "Two Hearts, that wrought with smiles through tears


s: That gleamed in the world's first dawn, did you


s: Through seas of dreams and seas of phantasies,


s: Through seas of solitudes and vacancies,


s: And through my Self, the deepest of the seas,


s: Upbore me out of depths to heights intense,


s: By waves swept on, I learned to ride the waves.


s: I served my masters till I made them slaves.


s: I baffled Death by hiding in his graves,


s: And once I clomb a mountain's stony crown


s: And stood, and smiled no smile and frowned no frown,


s: Nor ate, nor drank, nor slept, nor faltered down,


s: Sunrise and noon and sunset and strange night


s: And shadow of large clouds and faint starlight


s: And lonesome Terror stalking round the height,


s: The silence ground my soul keen like a spear.


s: My bare thought, whetted as a sword, cut sheer


s: Through time and life and flesh and death, to clear


s: That stirred long race-wars betwixt States and States.


s: I stood and scorned these foolish dead debates,


s: I thrust through antique blood and riches vast,


s: And all big claims of the pretentious Past


s: Then all fair types, of form and sound and hue,


s: Up-floated round my sense and charmed anew.


s: -- I waved them back into the void blue:


s: Excess and Blasphemy and squinting Crime


s: High on the topmost thrilling of the surge


s: He kissed her lip, she kissed his battle-scar.


s: They quarrelled soon, and went two ways, afar.


s: And never a king but had some king above,


s: And never a law to right the wrongs of Love,


s: But I, with kingship over kings, am free.


s: I love not, hate not:  right and wrong agree:


s: And fangs of snakes and lures of doves to me


s: By thoughts that need no speech nor oath nor song,


s: O Time besprent with seven-hued circumstance,


s: And Governor-Spirits, all, I rise, I rise,


s: The storms of Self below me rage and die.


s: Our hearths are gone out and our hearts are broken,


s: And but the ghosts of homes to us remain,


s: And ghastly eyes and hollow sighs give token


s: From friend to friend of an unspoken pain.


s: O Raven days, dark Raven days of sorrow,


s: Some sign out of the far land of To-morrow,


s: Some strip of sea-green dawn, some orange streaks.


s: Ye float in dusky files, forever croaking.


s: Ye chill our manhood with your dreary shade.


s: We lie in chains, too weak to be afraid.


s: Will ever the lit mountains of To-morrow


s: Begin to gleam athwart the mournful plain?


s: Yon hills are your large breasts, and often I


s: Have climbed to their top-nipples, fain and dry


s: To drink my mother's-milk so near the sky.


s: The blood that made you has all bled for us,


s: The hearts that paid you are all dead for us,


s: The trees that shade you groan with lead, for us!


s: And weep your springs in tearful memories


s: Of days that stained your robes with stains like these!


s: The stainers have decreed the stains shall stay.


s: They chain the hands might wash the stains away.


s: They wait with cold hearts till we "rue the day".


s: -- Like hills, Men, lift calm heads through any woe,


s: And weep, but bow not an inch, for any foe!


s: Thou hast no hell-deep chasm save Disgrace.


s: To stoop, will fling us down its fouled space:


s: Stand proud!  The Dawn will meet us, face to face,


s: For down steep hills the Dawn loves best to race!


s: In the South lies a lonesome, hungry Land;


s: He huddles his rags with a cripple's hand;


s: The winds have brought him a strange sound


s: Ah, God!  Back to the cold earth's breast!


s: The tyrants forget how fresh is the pall


s: One arm stretched backward round his head,


s: Heaven-lights, I know, are beaming through


s: I vow that my heart, when death is nigh,


s: God, let our dead friend live once more!"


s: "God, lift us o'er the Last Day's smoke,


s: Let's take the grave-cloth from her face


s: And fall in the grave, and kiss, and die!


s: She shines and smiles, and waves a palm --


s: Light rain-drops fall and wrinkle the sea,


s: Were't not for the wrinkles in life's face.


s: White-hot of soul, white-chaste of mien,


s: O, Moors are as fierce to kill as to wed!


s: Before my yearning eyes, oh! dream of mine


s: Wherein I dreamed that time was like a vine,


s: A creeping rose, that clomb a height of dread


s: Out of the sea of Birth, all filled with dead,


s: Up to the brilliant cloud of Death o'erhead.


s: This vine bore many blossoms, which were years.


s: Their petals, red with joy, or bleached by tears,


s: Waved to and fro i' the winds of hopes and fears.


s: Here all men clung, each hanging by his spray.


s: Anon, one dropped; his neighbor 'gan to pray;


s: And so they clung and dropped and prayed, alway.


s: That wrapped me in a cloud of dainty gloom.


s: And rose -- an odor by a spirit haunted --


s: And drew me upward with a speed enchanted,


s: Swift floating, by wild sea or sky undaunted,


s: Straight through the cloud of death, where men are free.


s: I gained a height, and stayed and bent my knee.


s: Then glowed my cloud, and broke and unveiled thee.


s: "O flower-born and flower-souled!" I said,


s: "Be the year-bloom that breathed thee ever red,


s: Nor wither, yellow, down among the dead.


s: "May all that cling to sprays of time, like me,


s: By rose-breaths shrining maidens like to thee!"


s: Came twilight, like a lover late from war,


s: With soft winds fluting to his evening star.


s: And the shy stars grew bold and scattered gold,


s: And chanting voices ancient secrets told,


s: And an acclaim of angels earthward rolled.


s: Sometimes in morning sunlights by the river


s: Where in the early fall long grasses wave,


s: Light winds from over the moorland sink and shiver


s: And sigh as if just blown across a grave.


s: And then I pause and listen to this sighing.


s: I look with strange eyes on the well-known stream.


s: I hear wild birth-cries uttered by the dying.


s: The still vast face of all the life I know,


s: Changed now, and full of wonders and surprises,


s: With fire in eyes that once were glazed with snow.


s: Fair now the brows old Pain had erewhile wrinkled,


s: And peace and strength about the calm mouth dwell.


s: Clean of the ashes that Repentance sprinkled,


s: The meek head poises like a flower-bell.


s: All the old scars of wanton wars are vanished;


s: And what blue bruises grappling Sense had left


s: And sad remains of redder stains are banished,


s: And the dim blotch of heart-committed theft.


s: O still vast vision of transfigured features


s: Remain, remain amid these water-creatures,


s: Stand, shine among yon water-lily blooms.


s: For eighteen centuries ripple down the river,


s: And windy times the stalks of empires wave,


s: -- Let the winds come from the moor and sigh and shiver,


s: Fain, fain am I, O Christ, to pass the grave.


s: And I said, if Life's a dream, and Death


s: And Love and all are dreams -- I'll dream.


s: The mist was white and the dream was grey


s: And it filled both mist and dream with pain,


s: Then my dream did waver and break and lift --


s: Through it, O Love, shone thy face, afar.


s: That broods till Love's exquisite truth,


s: The star of a morn-clear manhood, beams.


s: Come groomsman Grief and bridesmaid Pain


s: My Bridegroom Death is come o'er the meres


s: In the far North stands a Pine-tree, lone,


s: Float on the Spring-winds e'en to my home:


s: Bright shone the lists, blue bent the skies,


s: To the tournament under the ladies' eyes,


s: Where the jousters were Heart and Brain.


s: Flourished the trumpets:  entered Heart,


s: But Brain sat still, with never a sound,


s: While Brain wore a plumeless casque; not he


s: But Brain gazed straight ahead his lance


s: They charged, they struck; both fell, both bled.


s: With yonder Heart-knight prone o' the plain.


s: And the ladies' eyes, through rains of fate,


s: A knight leapt down i' the lists; none knew


s: Cried Love, unarmed, yet dauntless there,


s: Sans sword, sans shield; yet, Hate, beware!"


s: Spurred furious Hate; he foamed at mouth,


s: His breath scorched souls, as a dry drought


s: Withers green trees and burns them bare.


s: God! -- gleams, true-point, on Love's bare breast!


s: Love's grey eyes glow with a heaven-heat,


s: Love lifts his hand in a saintly prayer;


s: And the dead knight, Heart, sprang on his steed.


s: Then Love cried, "Break me his lance, each knight!


s: Ye shall fight for blood-athirst Fame no more!"


s: And the knights all doffed their mailed might


s: And the great sea opened and swallowed Pain,


s: And out of this water-grave floated Rest!


s: "Order A. P. Hill to prepare for battle."


s: "Tell Major Hawks to advance the Commissary train."


s: "Let us cross the river and rest in the shade."


s: The stars of Night contain the glittering Day


s: And rain his glory down with sweeter grace


s: Upon the dark World's grand, enchanted face --


s: And so the Day, about to yield his breath,


s: Utters the stars unto the listening Night,


s: To stand for burning fare-thee-wells of light


s: O hero-words that glittered like the stars


s: And stood and shone above the gloomy wars


s: I' the fitful vision of his dying eyes --


s: Yet even in battle-dreams, he sends supplies


s: His couriers fly:  all's done:  now God decide!


s: -- And not till then saw he the Other Side


s: Thou Land whose sun is gone, thy stars remain!


s: Still shine the words that miniature his deeds.


s: O thrice-beloved, where'er thy great heart bleeds,


s: A white face, drooping, on a bending neck:


s: A tube-rose that with heavy petal curves


s: Her stem:  a foam-bell on a wave that swerves


s: From out the whitest cloud of summer steals


s: The wildest lightning:  from this face of thine


s: Thy soul, a fire-of-heaven, warm and fine,


s: In marvellous flashes its fair self reveals.


s: On some far gossamer cloud, with straining eye,


s: So, floating, wandering Cloud-Soul, I watch thee.


s: In the world's strange-sounding harmony,


s: Thy weak white arm his blows may thwart,


s: The huge waves wash, the high waves roll,


s: Fair is the wedded reign of Night and Day.


s: Each rules a half of earth with different sway,


s: Exchanging kingdoms, East and West, alway.


s: The sun half sinks i' the brimming, rosy brine:


s: The wild Night drinks all up:  how her eyes shine!


s: Now the swift sail of straining life is furled,


s: And through the stillness of my soul is whirled


s: The throbbing of the hearts of half the world.


s: I hear the cries that follow Birth and Death.


s: I hear huge Pestilence draw his vaporous breath:


s: "Beware, prepare, or else ye die," he saith.


s: I hear men begging Heaven to let them die:


s: And, drowning all, a wild-eyed woman's cry.


s: So Night takes toll of Wisdom as of Sin.


s: The student's and the drunkard's cheek is thin:


s: But flesh is not the prize we strive to win.


s: Now airy swarms of fluttering dreams descend


s: On souls, like birds on trees, and have no end.


s: O God, from vulture-dreams my soul defend!


s: Let fall on Her a rose-leaf rain of dreams,


s: All passionate-sweet, as are the loving beams


s: Of starlight on the glimmering woods and streams.


s: "So pulse, and pulse, thou rhythmic-hearted Noon


s: That liest, large-limbed, curved along the hills,


s: With ardors and sun-loves and subtle thrills;


s: "Throb, Beautiful! while the fervent hours exhale


s: As kisses faint-blown from thy finger-tips


s: Up to the sun, that turn him passion-pale


s: "O tender Darkness, when June-day hath ceased,


s: -- Faint Odor from the day-flower's crushing born,


s: -- Dim, visible Sigh out of the mournful East


s: That cannot see her lord again till morn:


s: "And many leaves, broad-palmed towards the sky


s: To catch the sacred raining of star-light:


s: And pallid petals, fain, all fain to die,


s: Soul-stung by too keen passion of the night:


s: "And short-breath'd winds, under yon gracious moon


s: Or carrying sighs from the red lips of June


s: "And stars, ringed glittering in whorls and bells,


s: Or bent along the sky in looped star-sprays,


s: Or vine-wound, with bright grapes in panicles,


s: About the great white Lotus of the moon,


s: Or blown and drifted, as if winds should shake


s: Star blossoms down from silver stems too soon,


s: "Or budding thick about full open stars,


s: Or trampled pale in the red path of Mars,


s: Or trim-set in quaint gardener's fantasies:


s: "And long June night-sounds crooned among the leaves,


s: And whispered confidence of dark and green,


s: And murmurs in old moss about old eaves,


s: And tinklings floating over water-sheen!"


s: Then he that wrote laid down his pen and sighed;


s: And straightway came old Scorn and Bitterness,


s: Like Hunnish kings out of the barbarous land,


s: That he had dreamed to blossom in his soul.


s: "I'll date this dream," he said; "so:  `Given, these,


s: On this, the coldest night in all the year,


s: From this, the meanest garret in the world,


s: To you, the richest folk this side of death,


s: By one, the hungriest poet under heaven,


s: -- Writ while his candle sputtered in the gust,


s: And while his last, last ember died of cold,


s: And while the mortal ice i' the air made free


s: Of all his bones and bit and shrunk his heart,


s: And while soft Luxury made show to strike


s: Trode wheels that lifted Avarice to power,


s: -- And while, moreover, -- O thou God, thou God --


s: His worshipful sweet wife sat still, afar,


s: Within the village whence she sent him forth


s: Into the town to make his name and fame,


s: Waiting, all confident and proud and calm,


s: Till he should make for her his name and fame,


s: Waiting -- O Christ, how keen this cuts! -- large-eyed,


s: For her and him a poet's name and fame.'


s: -- Read me," he cried, and rose, and stamped his foot


s: (Putting th' inquiry full in the face of God)


s: But cannot dream us bread?  Why, now, can I


s: Make, aye, create this fervid throbbing June


s: Out of the chill, chill matter of my soul,


s: Out of this same chill matter, no, not one


s: For Mary though she starved upon my breast?"


s: And then he fell upon his couch, and sobbed,


s: And, late, just when his heart leaned o'er


s: The very edge of breaking, fain to fall,


s: Read, scratched his curly pate, smiled, winked, fell on


s: Quick folded, thrust in envelope, addressed


s: To him, the critic-god, that sitteth grim


s: Him, by due mail, the little Dream of June


s: So that he smiled, -- then shook his head upon 't


s: -- Then growled, then smiled again, till at the last,


s: As one that deadly sinned against his will,


s: Did turn the fleeting song to very bread,


s: From twentieth reading of her poet's news


s: Quick-sent, "O sweet my Sweet, to dream is power,


s: And I can dream thee bread and dream thee wine,


s: And I will dream thee robes and gems, dear Love,


s: And I will dream thee here to live by me,


s: Thee and my little man thou hold'st at breast,


s: -- Come, Name, come, Fame, and kiss my Sweetheart's feet!"


s: `Sunrise', Mr. Lanier's latest completed poem, was written


s: while his sun of life seemed fairly at the setting,


s: and the hand which first pencilled its lines had not strength


s: The three `Hymns of the Marshes' which open this collection


s: are the only written portions of a series of six `Marsh Hymns'


s: that were designed by the author to form a separate volume.


s: The salt marshes of Glynn County, Georgia, immediately around


s: `Clover' is placed as the initial poem of a volume which was left


s: " . . . yon trim Shakespeare on the tree"


s: leads back, almost twenty years from its writing,


s: to the poet's college note-book where we find the boy reflecting:


s: `Corn' will hold a distinct interest for those who study


s: of all blessed circumstances for man's life need not be sought."


s: require a certain trim smugness and clean-shaven propriety


s: in the face and dress of a poem, and I must win a hearing


s: by conforming in some degree to these tyrannies, with a view


s: `A Song of Love', like `Betrayal', belongs to the early plan


s: This sonnet was originally written in the German and published


s: in a German daily of Baltimore, while the author's translation


s: appeared at the same time in the Baltimore `Gazette'.


s: That earlier loosed the knot great Newton tied,"


s: `A Ballad of Trees and the Master' was conceived as an interlude


s: As ye hang with your myriad palms upturned in the air,


s: In Mr. Lanier's final copy the `Ballad' is omitted.


s: It was one of several interludes which he at first designed,


s: but, for some reason, afterwards abandoned.


s: A class in English Literature, composed of young girls


s: Hard by stood its mate, apparently somewhat younger.


s: faithful-hearted "to their master and to him who sang of them."


s: The incidents recorded of this storm are matter of history


s: The local expression "under the hack" is kindly explained


s: I have often heard described as `under the hack':  `She's got him


s: "Thar's more in the Man than thar is in the Land".


s: "Jones" designates Jones County, Ga., one of the counties


s: adjoining Bibb County, in which Macon is located.


s: Although `The Jacquerie' remained a fragment for thirteen years


s: the story of that savage insurrection of the French peasantry,


s: The era of verse-writing with Mr. Lanier reopens in this dream


s: of the Virginia bay where poet's reveries and war's awakenings


s: Mayflower, Mayflower, slowly hither flying,


s: Trembling westward o'er yon balking sea,


s: Hearts within `Farewell dear England' sighing,


s: Winds without `But dear in vain' replying,


s: Gray-lipp'd waves about thee shouted, crying


s: Vengeance cries, `Your graves shall stay!'


s: but worked up with greater fury, to the climax of the shout


s: Framed like Faiths or clothed like Kings


s: Tongued with lithe and poisoned swords --


s: `Yea' like an arrow shot true to his mark,


s: Darts through the tyrannous heart of Denial.


s: Patience and Labor and solemn-souled Trial,


s: Toil through the stertorous death of the Night,


s: Toil when wild brother-wars new-dark the Light,


s: Toil, and forgive, and kiss o'er, and replight.


s: introduces a tone of doubt:  it then sinks to `pianissimo'.>


s: "Long as thine Art shall love true love,


s: Thy name shall shine, thy fame shall glow!"


s: O Music, from this height of time my Word unfold:


s: In thy large signals all men's hearts Man's heart behold:


s: Mid-heaven unroll thy chords as friendly flags unfurled,


s: And wave the world's best lover's welcome to the world.


s: under Thomas' direction. . . .  I've written the enclosed.


s: as a melody of Beethoven's:  at the same time expressing


s: the largest ideas possible, and expressing them in such a way


s: in one line each, the philosophies of Art, of Science, of Power,


s: a measured, sober, and meditative movement of the mind;


s: and because, too, they are not the genius of our language.


s: which you set a-rolling so recently. . . .


s: Italicized words or phrases are marked by tildes (~).


s: Lines longer than 78 characters are broken according to metre,


s: Author of "Rivers to the Sea", "Love Songs", etc.


s: Wound me, that I, through endless sleep,


s: What do I care, in the dreams and the languor of spring,


s: For they are a fragrance, and I am a flint and a fire,


s: But what do I care, for love will be over so soon,


s: Let my heart have its say and my mind stand idly by,


s: For my mind is proud and strong enough to be silent,


s: It is my heart that makes my songs, not I.


s: Under dripping boughs of bright new green,


s: I take the low path to hear the meadowlarks


s: Alone and high-hearted as if I were a queen.


s: Who have known three things:  the kiss in the night,


s: The white flying joy when a song is born,


s: And meadowlarks whistling in silver light.


s: And the great look of love, long hidden,


s: I have loved much and been loved deeply--


s: Leave me the darkness and the stillness,


s: The sun was gone, and the moon was coming


s: The west was rosy, the east was flushed,


s: This way and that, with changeful wills.


s: I heard them twitter and watched them dart


s: Were black and stately and full of rest,


s: While the hills were darkened, fold on fold


s: To a deeper blue than a flower could hold.


s: For night-scents, heady, and damp and cool


s: Places I love come back to me like music,


s: Hush me and heal me when I am very tired;


s: In a flare of crimson by the frost newly fired;


s: And I am thirsty for the spring in the valley


s: I know a bright world of snowy hills at Boonton,


s: A blue and white dazzling light on everything one sees,


s: The ice-covered branches of the hemlocks sparkle


s: Bending low and tinkling in the sharp thin breeze,


s: And iridescent crystals fall and crackle on the snow-crust


s: With the winter sun drawing cold blue shadows from the trees.


s: The hills across from Cromwell grow dreamy and far;


s: In the heart of the hollow where the dark pools are;


s: The primrose has opened her pale yellow flowers


s: Places I love come back to me like music--


s: Mid-ocean, midnight, the waves buzz drowsily;


s: In the ship's deep churning the eerie phosphorescence


s: Is like the souls of people who were drowned at sea,


s: And I can hear a man's voice, speaking, hushed, insistent,


s: At midnight, in mid-ocean, hour on hour to me.


s: As the waves of perfume, heliotrope, rose,


s: Come to us, go from us, whence no one knows;


s: Like fragrance borne on the hush of the wind.


s: Like petals of light fallen from the moon,


s: Children I played with when I was a child,


s: Louise comes back with her brown hair braided,


s: What may have come to them, who can know?


s: And the doll-house stood at the turn of the stair.


s: The years had not sharpened their smooth round faces,


s: Hushed in the smoky haze of summer sunset,


s: When I came home again from far-off places,


s: Then for an hour the water wore a mantle


s: Of tawny gold and mauve and misted turquoise


s: Under the tall and darkened arches bearing


s: Against the sunset, water-towers and steeples


s: Flickered with fire up the slope to westward,


s: And old warehouses poured their purple shadows


s: High over them the black train swept with thunder,


s: Cleaving the city, leaving far beneath it


s: Wharf-boats moored beside the old side-wheelers


s: And drank the wine and played the happy guest,


s: The heart belongs to him who knew it best.


s: How will hungry Time put by the hours till then?--


s: But why does it anger my heart to long so


s: And build my life lightly and still as a dream--


s: Are not my thoughts clearer than your thoughts


s: And colored like stones in a running stream?


s: The stars are ready, the night is here--


s: Lift their soft boughs like the arms of a dancer,


s: They beckon and call me, "Come out in the sun!"


s: With the silver-green of her garments blowing.


s: As rain beats down the bright, proud sea,


s: Their changing customs and their creeds,--


s: Will it always be like this until I am dead,


s: With the first red haze of the budding maple boughs,


s: Where the flooded water breaks with a low call--


s: Like a rock that knows the cry of the waters


s: Their gray thoughts, their strange thoughts


s: In the gray hour if the fruit has fallen,


s: The days remember and the nights remember


s: The kingly hours that once you made so great,


s: Deep in my heart they lie, hidden in their splendor,


s: Buried like sovereigns in their robes of state.


s: Let them not wake again, better to lie there,


s: Many a ghostly king has waked from death-sleep


s: And found his crown stolen and his throne decayed.


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


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


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


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


s: Since there is no escape, since at the end


s: This hand I love as I have loved a friend,


s: This body I tended, wept with and enjoyed;


s: Who love life with a love too sharp to bear:


s: The scent of orchards in the rain, the sea


s: And hours alone too still and sure for prayer--


s: Since darkness waits for me, then all the more


s: Let me go down as waves sweep to the shore


s: In pride; and let me sing with my last breath;


s: In these few hours of light I lift my head;


s: Life is my lover--I shall leave the dead


s: The dreams of my heart and my mind pass,


s: With things whose tunes are played out and forgotten


s: In song with the bright frailty of foam,


s: Back to the nothingness that is their home.


s: Heaped with bending asters and dahlias heavy and dark,


s: In the hazy sunshine, the garden remembers April,


s: The drench of rains and a snow-drop quick and clear as a spark;


s: Daffodils blowing in the cold wind of morning,


s: And golden tulips, goblets holding the rain--


s: The garden will be hushed with snow, forgotten soon, forgotten--


s: After the stillness, will spring come again?


s: The bright poinsettia shakes in the wind,


s: From the great black vulture circling the sky.


s: Time will fly past us like leaves flying,


s: When that is learned, then all is learned;


s: There is nothing left to be done or said,


s: There is nothing to hope for, I am tired,


s: The bells of the mission down in the valley


s: The first star pricks as sharp as steel--


s: There is no place over the crowded world


s: With earth and heaven a dark, blue flower,


s: And a thin white moon in the pepper tree.


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


s: And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;


s: And frogs in the pools singing at night,


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


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


s: Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree


s: And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,


s: The world is resting without sound or motion,


s: Painting with fire the spires and the windows


s: Beyond the calm Connecticut the hills lie


s: Silvered with haze as fruits still fresh with bloom,


s: The swallows weave in flight across the zenith


s: Into the garden peace comes back with twilight,


s: Peace that since noon had left the purple phlox,


s: For at high-noon I heard from this same garden


s: Up from the village surged the blind and beating


s: And the hysterical sharp fife that shattered


s: Across the calm Connecticut the hills change


s: Earth takes her children's many sorrows calmly


s: Bowed as an elm under the weight of its beauty,


s: So earth is bowed, under her weight of splendor,


s: Molten sea, richness of leaves and the burnished


s: Clefts in the cliff shelter the purple sand-peas


s: And chicory flowers bluer than the ocean


s: Flinging its foam high, white fire in sunshine,


s: Joyous thunder of blown waves on the ledges,


s: Make me forget war and the dark war-sorrow--


s: Against the sky a sentry paces the sea-cliff


s: Seemed to have drenched my spirit's wings--


s: Years go, dreams go, and youth goes too,


s: The world's heart breaks beneath its wars,


s: All things are changed, save in the east


s: Out of the noise of tired people working,


s: Harried with thoughts of war and lists of dead,


s: His beauty met me like a fresh wind blowing,


s: Eyes that told secrets, lips that would not tell them,


s: Fearless and shy the young unwearied eyes--


s: Men die by millions now, because God blunders,


s: Yet to have made this boy he must be wise.


s: Sun-swept beaches with a light wind blowing


s: From the immense blue circle of the sea,


s: And the soft thunder where long waves whiten--


s: These were the same for Sappho as for me.


s: Two thousand years--much has gone by forever,


s: Change takes the gods and ships and speech of men--


s: But here on the beaches that time passes over


s: Deep voice of the ocean that talks to the ground?


s: I thought of you and how you love this beauty,


s: I heard the waves breaking in measured thunder


s: Around me were the echoing dunes, beyond me


s: The cold and sparkling silver of the sea--


s: We two will pass through death and ages lengthen


s: Before you hear that sound again with me.


s: If there is any life when death is over,


s: These tawny beaches will know much of me,


s: I shall come back, as constant and as changeful


s: If life was small, if it has made me scornful,


s: Forgive me; I shall straighten like a flame


s: In the great calm of death, and if you want me


s: Stand on the sea-ward dunes and call my name.


s: Perhaps if Death is kind, and there can be returning,


s: We will come back to earth some fragrant night,


s: And take these lanes to find the sea, and bending


s: Breathe the same honeysuckle, low and white.


s: We will come down at night to these resounding beaches


s: Here for a single hour in the wide starlight


s: We shall be happy, for the dead are free.


s: Over the ocean of roofs and the tall towers


s: Where the window-lights, myriads and myriads,


s: Bloom from the walls like climbing flowers.


s: I could look even at God with grave forgiving eyes.


s: In the pull of the wind I stand, lonely,


s: Wild night around me, wild water under me,


s: Whipped by the storm, screaming and calling.


s: With fear an unhealing wound in my breast.


s: When I went to look at what had long been hidden,


s: I trembled, for I thought to see its dark deep fire--


s: But only a pinch of dust blew up in my face.


s: I almost gave my life long ago for a thing


s: That has gone to dust now, stinging my eyes--


s: It is strange how often a heart must be broken


s: I must have passed the crest a while ago


s: Strange to have crossed the crest and not to know,


s: But the brambles were always catching the hem of my gown.


s: All the morning I thought how proud I should be


s: Wrapped in the wind and the sun with the world under me--


s: But the air was dull, there was little I could have seen.


s: It was nearly level along the beaten track


s: But it's no use now to think of turning back,


s: The rest of the way will be only going down.


s: As the trembling stars of the summer night.


s: If you have forgotten water lilies floating


s: On a dark lake among mountains in the afternoon shade,


s: If you have forgotten their wet, sleepy fragrance,


s: But if you remember, then turn away forever


s: To the plains and the prairies where pools are far apart,


s: There you will not come at dusk on closing water lilies,


s: And the shadow of mountains will not fall on your heart.


s: Did you never know, long ago, how much you loved me--


s: That your love would never lessen and never go?


s: You were young then, proud and fresh-hearted,


s: Fate is a wind, and red leaves fly before it


s: Far apart, far away in the gusty time of year--


s: Seldom we meet now, but when I hear you speaking,


s: Of the rushing, pouring sound of the sea


s: One thought in my mind went over and over


s: While the darkness shook and the leaves were thinned--


s: I thought it was you who had come to find me,


s: Now at last I have come to see what life is,


s: Nothing is ever ended, everything only begun,


s: And the brave victories that seem so splendid


s: Even love that I built my spirit's house for,


s: Comes like a brooding and a baffled guest,


s: And music and men's praise and even laughter


s: On the highest peak of the tired gray world,


s: Can I hide the gleam on the willow-bough,


s: Italicized stanzas are indented 5 spaces.  Some errors have been


s: corrected.  Lines longer than 78 characters are broken according


s: to metre, and the continuation is indented two spaces.]


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


s: Your big clock speaks with a deadly sound,


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


s: While the monster shadows glower and creep,


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


s: And I see green trees and fluttering wings,


s: And my deathless bird from Shanghai sings."


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


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


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


s: On his wrist appeared a gray small bird,


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


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


s: And the joss in the corner stirred again;


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


s: The world was the field of the Chinese man


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


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


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


s: My heart was filled with marvel and dream,


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


s: Though dawn was bringing the western day,


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


s: Mingled there with the streets and alleys,


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


s: Stretched her hand toward Chang, and said:


s: Confucius later said were lived aright....


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


s: Rakish and shrewd, with his collar awry,


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


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


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


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


s: And worked a spell this great joss taught


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


s: A king of beauty and tempest and thunder


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


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


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


s: To our secret ivory house we were bourne.


s: We looked down the wonderful wing-filled regions


s: Where the dragons darted in glimmering legions.


s: Right by my breast the nightingale sang;


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


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


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


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


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


s: On their prows were painted terrible bright eyes.


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


s: And sunk their vessels with my wizard eyes,


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


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


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


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


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


s: The ramping dragon of laughter and wrath:


s: And knighted this joss that decked it so?


s: There were golden fishes in the purple river


s: There were golden junks in the laughing river,


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


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


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


s: And his nightingale reigning in the mulberry shade,


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


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


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


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


s: Fluttering, fluttering, ghostly and gray,


s: Troubles more than the heart could hold,


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


s: Who can surrender to Christ, dividing his best with the stranger,


s: All for the enemy, MAN?  Who can surrender till death


s: His words and his works, his house and his lands,


s: Who can surrender to Christ?  Many have yearned toward it daily.


s: Yet they surrender to passion, wildly or grimly or gaily;


s: Yet they surrender to pride, counting her precious and queenly;


s: Who can surrender to Christ?  Where is the man so transcendent,


s: (Written with the hope that the socialists might yet


s: Here's to the mice that scare the lions,


s: Hidden in the hay-pile while the elephant thunder rages.


s: Here's to the midnight scamps that gnaw,


s: The small dogs bark.  The children laugh


s: The wheat, the forests, and the flowers.


s: Who make world-brotherhood their choice.


s: Two Poems, written on the Sinking of the Lusitania.


s: Lady of Light, and our best woman, and queen,


s: Stand now for peace, (though anger breaks your heart),


s: Though naught but smoke and flame and drowning is seen.


s: Lady of Light, speak, though you speak alone,


s: Though your voice may seem as a dove's in this howling flood,


s: It is heard to-night by every senate and throne.


s: Though the widening battle of millions and millions of men


s: Threatens to-night to sweep the whole of the earth,


s: Back of the smoke is the promise of kindness again.


s: Tolstoi is plowing yet.  When the smoke-clouds break,


s: High in the sky shines a field as wide as the world.


s: There he toils for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake.


s: Ah, he is taller than clouds of the little earth.


s: Only the congress of planets is over him,


s: And the arching path where new sweet stars have birth.


s: Wearing his peasant dress, his head bent low,


s: Tolstoi, that angel of Peace, is plowing yet;


s: Forward, across the field, his horses go.


s: of the struggle for peace.  It shows how the dream of peace


s: In the forest-age when I first knelt down


s: While giant white parrots sail past in their pride.


s: The roofs now are clouds and storms that they ride.


s: And there with the huntsmen of mound-builder days


s: And the Tiger Tree leaf is falling around


s: Like a monstrous tiger-skin, stretched on the ground,


s: The wind swirls it down from the leperous boughs.


s: With the gleam of great bubbles of blood,


s: I feast on the stem of the Leaf as I march.


s: Then we crowned you, the prophetess wise:


s: You sent forth your magical parrots to call


s: He sprawled to your grassy throne, drunk on The Leaf,


s: The drug that was cunning and splendor and grief.


s: While his councillors snarled in delight,


s: From this whisperer, fragile and white?"


s: Nor spared your white parrots who walked by their paws


s: You chanted of "Peace to the wonderful world."


s: They dreamed that like fleet young ponies they feasted


s: Proud and sagacious he marshalled his court:


s: (You had sent him your parrots of state.)


s: Huge elephants trumpeted there by his side,


s: You harnessed their fever, you conquered their ire,


s: Their hearts turned to flowers through holy desire,


s: For their darling and star you were crowned,


s: You rode on the back of the yellow-streaked king,


s: His loose neck was wreathed with a mistletoe ring.


s: Primordial elephants loomed by your side,


s: And our clay-painted children danced by your path,


s: Chanting the death of the kingdoms of wrath.


s: Then slipped to their lairs, song-chained.


s: "Immortal is the inner peace, free to beasts and men.


s: Beginning in the darkness, the mystery will conquer,


s: And now it comforts every heart that seeks for love again.


s: We send each tiger bound in love and glory to his den,


s: Bound in love ... and wisdom ... and glory, ... to his den."


s: Came the howl from the northward that night.


s: If we held not beside them it boded us ill.


s: And the apes in the trees came the whine:


s: Came the roar from the southward that night.


s: From the heights of the forest the watchers could see


s: The tiger-cats crunching the Leaf of the Tree


s: Lashing themselves, and scattering foam,


s: The chiefs of the mammoths our mastery spurned,


s: And eastward restlessly fumed and burned.


s: The peacocks squalled out the news of their drilling


s: And told how they trampled, maneuvered, and turned.


s: Whirling down from the north, like a flood!


s: Our child-queen was mourning, her magic was dead,


s: The roots of the Tiger Tree reeking with red.


s: The dawn-winds prophesied battles untold.


s: While the Tiger Trees roared of the glories of old,


s: "We are tigers, are tigers," they yowled.


s: Then charged with our sabres and spears.


s: With the cry that the battle was won....


s: (For the great who had borne them were slain)


s: But we laughed while our blades swept wide,


s: While the dawn-rays stabbed through the gloom.


s: The fangs of the devil-cats closed on the world,


s: "Immortal is the inner peace, free to beasts and men.


s: Beginning in the darkness, the mystery will conquer,


s: And now it comforts every heart that seeks for love again.


s: We send each tiger bound in love and glory to his den,


s: Bound in love ... and wisdom ... and glory, ... to his den."


s: Though giant white parrots sail past, giving voice,


s: Though I walk with Peace-of-the-Heart and rejoice.


s: Each desperate burning brain you soothe,


s: (Note:--Pocahontas is buried at Gravesend, England.)


s: And through her blood the lightning ran.


s: Because, through drowsy Springfield sped


s: This red-skin queen, with feathered head,


s: With winds and stars, that pay her court


s: And leaping beasts, that make her sport;


s: Would that the lying rulers of the world


s: Were brought to block for tyrannies abhorred.


s: Would that the sword of Cromwell and the Lord,


s: Hewed hip and thigh the hosts of Midian.


s: God send that ironside ere tomorrow's sun;


s: If you lay for Iago at the stage door with a brick


s: He will have a midnight supper with Othello and his wife.


s: But the things Iago stands for must go down into the dust:


s: Lying and suspicion and conspiracy and lust.


s: And I cannot hate the Kaiser (I hope you understand.)


s: Yet I chase the thing he stands for with a brickbat in my hand.


s: Are stores with garnets, sapphires, pearls,


s: By night where white and red lights blink,


s: When Yankee soldiers reach the barricade


s: Then Joan of Arc gives each the accolade.


s: All the young poets of the wide world say.


s: Which of our freemen did she greet the first,


s: Seeing him come against the fires accurst?


s: Mark Twain, our Chief, with neither smile nor jest,


s: Leading to war our youngest and our best.


s: The Yankee to King Arthur's court returns.


s: The sacred flag of Joan above him burns.


s: For she has called his soul from out the tomb.


s: And where she stands, there he will stand till doom.


s: At bloodshed caused by angels, saints, and men.


s: I opened the ink-well and smoke filled the room.


s: The smoke formed the giant frog-cat of my doom.


s: His web feet left dreadful slime tracks on the floor.


s: He had hammer and nails that he laid by the door.


s: He sprawled on the table, claw-hands in my hair.


s: He looked through my heart to the mud that was there.


s: Like a black-mailer hating his victim he spoke:


s: "When I see all your squirming I laugh till I choke


s: Soothing a handful with saccharine prattle.


s: All the millions of earth have voted for fight.


s: You are voting for talk, with hands lily white."


s: He leaped to the floor, then grew seven feet high,


s: With beard of bright silver and garments of gold.


s: Will you stand by the book-case, be nailed to the wood?"


s: I stretched out my arms.  He drove the nails deep,


s: Silently, coolly.  The house was asleep,


s: I hung for three years, forbidden to die.


s: I seemed but a shadow the servants passed by.


s: At the end of the time with hot irons he returned.


s: "The Quitter Sublime" on my bosom he burned.


s: As he seared me he hissed:  "You are wearing away.


s: The good angels tell me you leave them today.


s: You want to come down from the nails in the door.


s: The victor must hang there three hundred years more.


s: If any prig-saint would outvote all mankind


s: He must use an immortally resolute mind.


s: Think what the saints of Benares endure,


s: Through infinite birthpangs their courage is sure.


s: Self-tortured, self-ruled, they build their powers high,


s: Until they are gods, overmaster the sky."


s: Then he pulled out the nails.  He shouted "Come in."


s: To heal me there stepped in a lady of sin.


s: Her hand was in mine.  We walked in the sun.


s: She said:  "Now forget them, the Saxon and Hun.


s: You are dreary and aged and silly and weak.


s: Let us smell the sweet groves.  Let the summertime speak."


s: We walked to the river.  We swam there in state.


s: I forgot in the marsh, as I tumbled about,


s: That trial in my room, where I did not hold out.


s: Since I was a serpent, my mate seemed to me


s: As a mermaiden seems to a fisher at sea,


s: Or a whisky soaked girl to a whisky soaked king.


s: I woke.  She had turned to a ravening thing


s: On the table--a buzzard with leperous head.


s: She tore up my rhymes and my drawings.  She said:


s: Will you die for the nations, making them whole?


s: We joy in the swamp and here we are gay.


s: When you leave your faction in the once-loved hall,


s: Like a true American tongue-lash them all,


s: Stand then on the corner under starry skies


s: And get you a gang of the worn and the wise.


s: The soldiers of the Lord may be squeaky when they rally,


s: The soldiers of the Lord are a queer little army,


s: But the soldiers of the Lord, before the year is through,


s: Will gather the whole nation, recruit all creation,


s: To smite the hosts abhorred, and all the heavens renew--


s: Enforcing with the bayonet the thing the ages teach--


s: Down with the Prussians, and all their works.


s: Down with every army that fights against the soap-box,


s: The Pericles, Socrates, Diogenes soap-box,


s: The old Elijah, Jeremiah, John-the-Baptist soap-box,


s: The Rousseau, Mirabeau, Danton soap-box,


s: The Karl Marx, Henry George, Woodrow Wilson soap-box.


s: We will make the wide earth safe for the soap-box,


s: The everlasting foe of beastliness and tyranny,


s: Platform of liberty:--  Magna Charta liberty,


s: Andrew Jackson liberty, bleeding Kansas liberty,


s: The Russian Revolution is the world revolution.


s: Death at the bedstead of every Kaiser knocks.


s: The Hohenzollern army shall be felled like the ox.


s: The fatal hour is striking in all the doomsday clocks.


s: Ring every sleigh-bell, ring every church bell,


s: Blow the clear trumpet, and listen for the answer:--


s: The blast from the sky of the Gabriel horn.


s: Hail the Russian picture around the little box:--


s: And holy maiden soldiers who have cut away their locks.


s: All the peoples and the nations in processions mad and great,


s: Are rolling through the Russian Soul as through a city gate:--


s: As though it were a street of stars that paves the shadowy deep.


s: And mighty Tolstoi leads the van along the stairway steep.


s: Prophet of the world-wide intolerable hope,


s: There on the soap-box, seasoned, dauntless,


s: There amid the Russian celestial kaleidoscope,


s: Comrade Kerensky the thunderstorm and rainbow!


s: An old actor at the Player's Club told me that Edwin Booth


s: first impersonated Hamlet when a barnstormer in California.


s: There were few theatres, but the hotels were provided


s: with crude assembly rooms for strolling players.


s: The rafters gleamed with glories strange.


s: Forgot were pranks well-planned to sting.


s: The camp-drab's tears could not but flow.


s: Then Romance lived and breathed and burned.


s: And moaned, his proud words hurt her so.


s: They cheered their prince with stamping feet.


s: A pasteboard throne, a pasteboard crown,


s: In which he is remembered in similitude, by reference to Yorick,


s: Yorick is dead.  Boy Hamlet walks forlorn


s: And do his bauble-bells beyond the clouds


s: Ring out, and shake with mirth the planets bright?


s: No doubt he brings the blessed dead good cheer,


s: That little elf, Ophelia, eight years old,


s: Upon her battered doll's staunch bosom weeps.


s: ("O best of men, that wove glad fairy-tales.")


s: With tear-burned face, at last the darling sleeps.


s: Hamlet himself could not give cheer or help,


s: Though firm and brave, with his boy-face controlled.


s: The times are out of joint!  O cursed spite!


s: And Hamlet hides his tears in boyish pride


s: From which man carved the sphinx austere.


s: Let the dust speak:  "Her pride was high,


s: One of them muttered, one of them stuttered,


s: One of them stuttered, one of them muttered.


s: Each of them thought far more than he uttered.


s: "Why does a bee have a sword to his fiddle?


s: Why does a bee have a sword to his fiddle?"


s: Just then a bee flew close to their rail:--


s: "Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz    zzzzzzzzzz    zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz    ZZZZZZZ."


s: "Yes," said the sister with the little pinched face,


s: The busy little sister with the funny little tract:--


s: "This is the climax, the grand fifth act.


s: There rides the proud, at the finish of his race.


s: There goes the hearse, the mourners cry,


s: The wife of the dead has money in her purse,


s: The children are in health, so it might have been worse.


s: That fellow in the coffin led a life most foul.


s: A fierce defender of the red bar-tender,


s: He planted every deviltry to see it grow.


s: He wasted half his income on the lewd and the low.


s: He would trade engender for the red bar-tender,


s: He would homage render to the red bar-tender,


s: And in ultimate surrender to the red bar-tender,


s: And his friends were glad, when the end came soon.


s: And now, good friends, since you see how it ends,


s: Let each nation-mender flay the red bar-tender,--


s: Force him into business where his work does good.


s: Let him learn how to plough, let him learn to chop wood,


s: Let him learn how to plough, let him learn to chop wood.


s: "You are right, little sister," I said to myself,


s: The whole world on a raft!  A King is here,


s: Is it his deacon-beard, or old bald pate


s: That makes the band upon his whims to wait?


s: Loot and mud-honey have his soul defiled.


s: Quack, pig, and priest, he drives camp-meetings wild


s: Until they shower their pennies like spring rain


s: That he may preach upon the Spanish main.


s: What landlord, lawyer, voodoo-man has yet


s: A better native right to make men sweat?


s: The whole world on a raft!  A Duke is here


s: At sight of whose lank jaw the muses leer.


s: Journeyman-printer, lamb with ferret eyes,


s: In life's skullduggery he takes the prize--


s: Yet stands at twilight wrapped in Hamlet dreams.


s: The sandbar sings in moonlit veils of foam.


s: A candle shines from one lone cabin home.


s: The waves reflect it like a drunken star.


s: The Duke's blue castle with its steamer-bells.


s: The floor is running water, and the roof


s: The stars' brocade with cloudy warp and woof.


s: And on past sorghum fields the current swings.


s: This prankish wave-swept barque has won its place,


s: But do you laugh when Jim bows down forlorn


s: And do you laugh, when Jim, from Huck apart


s: Gropes through the rain and night with breaking heart?


s: But now that imp is here and we can smile,


s: Jim's child and guardian this long-drawn while.


s: With knife and heavy gun, a hunter keen,


s: He stops for squirrel-meat in islands green.


s: The eternal gamin, sleeping half the day,


s: Then stripped and sleek, a river-fish at play.


s: And then well-dressed, ashore, he sees life spilt.


s: Of patch-work dream, of wrath more red than lust,


s: Where long-haired feudist Hotspurs bite the dust ...


s: New childhood of the world, that blunders on


s: And wonders at the darkness and the dawn,


s: The poor damned human race, still unimpressed


s: With its damnation, all its gamin breast


s: Then plotting for their fall, with jestings grim.


s: Who steers the raft, or ambles up and down,


s: Or throws his gown aside, and there in white


s: Stands gleaming like a pillar of the night?


s: The lion of high courts, with hoary mane,


s: Fierce jester that this boyish court will gain--


s: He takes his turn as watchman with the rest,


s: With secret transports to the stars addressed,


s: With nightlong broodings upon cosmic law,


s: With daylong laughter at this world so raw.


s: The best they have to say, their sons forget.


s: But who can dodge this genius of the stream,


s: The Mississippi Valley's laughing dream?


s: In this the land of slaves, and boys still free.


s: Sail on his breast, and to each other call.


s: Knock the stuffed gods from their shelves,


s: Last night at black midnight I woke with a cry,


s: The windows were shaking, there was thunder on high,


s: The floor was a-tremble, the door was a-jar,


s: White fires, crimson fires, shone from afar.


s: I rushed to the door yard.  The city was gone.


s: My home was a hut without orchard or lawn.


s: It was mud-smear and logs near a whispering stream,


s: Nothing else built by man could I see in my dream ...


s: Ghost-kings came headlong, row upon row,


s: They mounted the bear and the elk and the deer,


s: They rode long-horn cattle, they cried "A-la-la."


s: They lifted the knife, the bow, and the spear,


s: They lifted ghost-torches from dead fires below,


s: The midnight made grand with the cry "A-la-la."


s: The midnight made grand with a red-god charge,


s: With bodies like bronze, and terrible eyes


s: Came the rank and the file, with catamount cries,


s: Gibbering, yipping, with hollow-skull clacks,


s: Riding white bronchos with skeleton backs,


s: Scalp-hunters, beaded and spangled and bad,


s: Blood-thirst and pomp amid darkness reborn,


s: While the winds and the snows and the great rains pass.


s: They crossed the gray river, thousands abreast,


s: They rode in infinite lines to the west,


s: Tide upon tide of strange fury and foam,


s: Spirits and wraiths, the blue was their home,


s: The sky was their goal where the star-flags are furled,


s: And on past those far golden splendors they whirled.


s: They burned to dim meteors, lost in the deep.


s: And I turned in dazed wonder, thinking of sleep.


s: Snuffing the lightning that crashed from on high


s: The lords of the prairie came galloping by.


s: And I cried in my heart "A-la-la, a-la-la,


s: Buffaloes, buffaloes, thousands abreast,


s: A scourge and amazement, they swept to the west.


s: With black bobbing noses, with red rolling tongues,


s: Coughing forth steam from their leather-wrapped lungs,


s: Cows with their calves, bulls big and vain,


s: Stamping flint feet, flashing moon eyes,


s: Like sea-cliffs and caves resounded their ranks


s: With shoulders like waves, and undulant flanks.


s: Tide upon tide of strange fury and foam,


s: Spirits and wraiths, the blue was their home,


s: The sky was their goal where the star-flags are furled,


s: And on past those far golden splendors they whirled.


s: They burned to dim meteors, lost in the deep,


s: And I turned in dazed wonder, thinking of sleep.


s: And a pan that hung by his shoulder rang,


s: Life is the west-going dream-storm's breath,


s: The breath of the stars, that nod on their pillows


s: With their golden hair mussed over their eyes."


s: I heard a cricket say:  "Good-night, good-night,


s: A little colt--broncho, loaned to the farm


s: To be broken in time without fury or harm,


s: Yet black crows flew past you, shouting alarm,


s: Calling "Beware," with lugubrious singing ...


s: The butterflies there in the bush were romancing,


s: The smell of the grass caught your soul in a trance,


s: So why be a-fearing the spurs and the traces,


s: O broncho that would not be broken of dancing?


s: You were born with the pride of the lords great and olden


s: Who danced, through the ages, in corridors golden.


s: In all the wide farm-place the person most human.


s: You spoke out so plainly with squealing and capering,


s: With whinnying, snorting, contorting and prancing,


s: As you dodged your pursuers, looking askance,


s: With Greek-footed figures, and Parthenon paces,


s: O broncho that would not be broken of dancing.


s: The grasshoppers cheered.  "Keep whirling," they said.


s: The insolent sparrows called from the shed


s: "If men will not laugh, make them wish they were dead."


s: But arch were your thoughts, all malice displacing,


s: Though the horse-killers came, with snake-whips advancing.


s: You bantered and cantered away your last chance.


s: And they scourged you, with Hell in their speech and their faces,


s: "Nobody cares for you," rattled the crows,


s: As you dragged the whole reaper, next day, down the rows.


s: The three mules held back, yet you danced on your toes.


s: You pulled like a racer, and kept the mules chasing.


s: You tangled the harness with bright eyes side-glancing,


s: While the drunk driver bled you--a pole for a lance--


s: And the giant mules bit at you--keeping their places.


s: In that last afternoon your boyish heart broke.


s: The hot wind came down like a sledge-hammer stroke.


s: The blood-sucking flies to a rare feast awoke.


s: And they searched out your wounds, your death-warrant tracing.


s: And the merciful men, their religion enhancing,


s: Stopped the red reaper, to give you a chance.


s: Then you died on the prairie, and scorned all disgraces,


s: O broncho that would not be broken of dancing.


s: (To Edgar Lee Masters, with great respect.)


s: (To Eudora, after I had had certain dire adventures.)


s: Where the Flower of Mending yields the wax


s: And hair of gold, and body like the snow.


s: Here in the wind I dream her unbound hair


s: Is blowing round me, that desire's sweet glow


s: Has touched her pale keen face, and willful mien.


s: And though she steps as one in manner born


s: Dark memory's wood she chooses to adorn.


s: Here with bowed head, bashful with half-desire


s: She glides into my yesterday's deep dream,


s: Beside the far forbidden thundering stream.


s: Within my dream I shake with the old flood.


s: I fear its going, ere the spring days go.


s: Yet pray the glory may have deathless years,


s: And kiss her hair, and sweet throat like the snow.


s: And lips whose thread of scarlet prophesies


s: God and the angels, and the gleaming saints


s: Had journeyed out into the stars to die.


s: They had gone forth to win far citizens,


s: Bought at great price, bring happiness for all:


s: And put new life within old Zion's wall.


s: Each chose a far-off planet for his home,


s: Speaking of love and mercy, truth and right,


s: Envied and cursed, thorn-crowned and scourged in time,


s: Each tasted death on his appointed night.


s: Then resurrection day from sphere to sphere


s: Sped on, with all the POWERS arisen again,


s: While with them came in clouds recruited hosts


s: Of sun-born strangers and of earth-born men.


s: And on that day gray prophet saints went down


s: Till every warrior of old Hell flew free


s: And all the torture fires were laid asleep.


s: Clear-eyed, with plumes of white, the demons bold


s: Climbed with the angels now on Jacob's stair,


s: A lifetime long, and loved each untrimmed vine:


s: The rotted harps, the swords of rusted gold,


s: The jungles of all Heaven then were mine.


s: Oh mesas and throne-mountains that I found!


s: Oh strange and shaking thoughts that touched me there,


s: That came to spoil my secret, silent lair!


s: In the summer of 1916 in the parlor of Mrs. William Vaughn Moody;


s: In the Congo volume, as is indicated in the margins,


s: the meaning of a few of the verses is aided by chanting.


s: In the Poem Games the English word is still first in importance,


s: The author of this book is now against instrumental music


s: in this type of work.  It blurs the English.


s: combined.  Likewise the rhythms and the other elements.


s: Miss Dougherty is particularly illustrative in her pantomime,


s: but there were many verses she looked over and rejected because


s: they could not be rendered without blurring the original intent.


s: most successful in games, where the tone color is so close to the


s: With no dancing evolutions, the author of this book


s: has chanted John Brown and King Solomon for the last two years


s: for many audiences.  It took but a minute to teach the people the


s: and found each audience perfectly willing to be the oxen, the


s: sweethearts, the swans, the sons, the shepherds, etc.


s: A year ago the writer had the honor of chanting for the Florence


s: Miss Dougherty and the writer divided the stage between them,


s: They drink and drink.  A frail pretense!


s: They live on what they steal.  Their wings


s: Their loves are light.  They have no house.


s: His cotton-fields were the best to be seen.


s: He had strong horses and opulent cattle,


s: And bloodhounds bold, with chains that would rattle.


s: And rabbits' feet on long twine strings.


s: Legree he sported a brass-buttoned coat,


s: A snake-skin necktie, a blood-red shirt.


s: And a thick hairy neck, and eyes like dirt.


s: His puffed-out cheeks were fish-belly white,


s: He had great long teeth, and an appetite.


s: And rolled his eyes till the cat would squeal.


s: He wore hip-boots, and would wade all day


s: To capture his slaves that had fled away.


s: Who prayed for Legree with his last breath.


s: And cracked his heels, and ground his teeth:


s: He crossed the yard in the storm and gloom;


s: He said, "I killed him, and I don't care."


s: His lamp blew out, but his eyes burned bright.


s: He saw the Devil on a wide green throne,


s: And there they sit and gnash their teeth,


s: They are matching pennies and shooting craps,


s: "And when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, ...


s: she came to prove him with hard questions."


s: and approaching a position that gives her half of the stage.>


s: Men's Leader:    The Queen of Sheba came to see King Solomon.


s: Both Leaders:    We will be king and queen,


s: Both Leaders:    King Solomon he had four hundred oxen.


s: Both Leaders:    You shall feel goads no more.


s: Congregation:    We were the sweethearts.


s: Both Leaders:    You shall dance round again,


s: Both Leaders:    And every sweetheart had four hundred swans.


s: Both Leaders:    You shall spread wings again,


s: whenever it is needed to enable the women's leader to get to


s: her starting point.  All the refrains may be likewise used.>


s: Women's Leader:  The Queen of Sheba asked him like a lady,


s: Men's Leader:    King Solomon made answer to the lady,


s: "They bloom forever thinking of your beauty,


s: Your step so queenly and your eyes so lovely.


s: Both Leaders:    King Solomon he had four hundred sons.


s: Both Leaders:    Crowned by the throngs again,


s: Both Leaders:    He gave each son four hundred prancing ponies.


s: Both Leaders:    You shall eat hay again,


s: Men's Leader:    King Solomon he asked the Queen of Sheba,


s: Women's Leader:  The Queen of Sheba answered like a lady,


s: "It blooms forever thinking of your wisdom,


s: Your brave heart and the way you rule your kingdom.


s: Both Leaders:    The Queen of Sheba had four hundred sailors.


s: Both Leaders:    You shall bring spice and ore


s: but taking cognizance, the King wooing with ornate gestures


s: "My love for you is like the stormy ocean--


s: Both Leaders:    King Solomon he had four hundred chieftains.


s: Congregation:    We were the chieftains.


s: Both Leaders:    You shall be proud again,


s: Both Leaders:    You shall have torches bright,


s: and gives the same gesture as she answers.>


s: "They're singing of your kingdom to the angels,


s: They guide your chariot with their lamps and candles,


s: Both Leaders:    King Solomon he kept the Sabbath holy.


s: And spoke with tongues in prophet words so mighty


s: Both Leaders:    You shall be wild and gay,


s: maintaining a certain intention of benediction.>


s: She drove him out when he would not drink.


s: ("It is midnight," said the big town clock.)


s: The air was black, like the smoke of a dragon.


s: He sweated up to the top of the mountain.


s: He threw down the gates with a noise like judgment.


s: And the quails all ran with the big arousement.


s: But he wept--"I must not love tough queens,


s: Oh Lord look down from your chariot side.


s: The gorgeous stallions whinnied and flew.


s: Like a steed, he pawed the gates with his hoof.


s: He rattled the gates like rocks on the roof,


s: Like a wheel of the chariot of the Lord.


s: | The following pages contain advertisements |


s: | of other books by the same author          |


s: | which appeared in the 1918 copy.           |


s: "The Tree of Laughing Bells", "The Heroes of Time", etc.


s: He recited them in exchange for food and lodging.  He left copies


s: Mr. Lindsay walked from Springfield, Illinois, west to Colorado,


s: and into New Mexico.  He was much more experienced in the road.


s: to read the three works in the order named.  Further particulars


s: In the readings which Vachel Lindsay has given for colleges,


s: This book contains among other verses:  "On Reading Omar Khayyam


s: during an Anti-Saloon Campaign in Illinois"; "The Wizard Wind";


s: "This poem, at once so glorious, so touching and poignant


s: "One could hardly overpraise 'General Booth'."--'New York Times'.


s: "Something new in verse, spontaneous, passionate, unmindful of


s: conventions in form and theme."--'The Living Age'.


s: Vachel Lindsay took a walk from his home in Springfield, Ill.,


s: He tells about his walks and the people he met in a little book,


s: For the conditions of his tramps were that he should keep away


s: An effort to apply the Gospel of Beauty to a new art.


s: The first section has an outline which is proposed as a basis


s: For Late Reviews of Mr. Lindsay and his contemporaries read:


s: 'The Dial':  Unsigned article by Lucien Carey, October 16, 1914,


s: Good will and peace, peace and good will


s: "Whew! Mother Moulton, what are you doing?"


s: Meanwhile, Joe Devins had ears for all the sounds that penetrated


s: "Why didn't you tell me before, Joe? but now it is too late."


s: "Bless my heart!" she exclaimed, hurrying back over the stones.


s: "What's the matter with your heart?" questioned Joe.


s: "Nothing. I was thinking of Uncle John's money," she answered.


s: "Then the soldiers will carry it off," she said.


s: "'Cause she asked me to, and couldn't do it alone," returned Joe,


s: As she fastened back her gown and hurried away the signs of the


s: "Good morning, Mother," said Major Pitcairn, raising his hat.


s: reasoning powers in her own shapely head.


s: "Stand aside, old man, and we'll hold you harmless."


s: "He seems to know remarkably well," exclaimed an officer.


s: "A remnant of witchcraft!" remarked a soldier within hearing.


s: During this time the cold, frosty morning spent itself into the


s: Forgetting the dignified part she intended to play, forgetting


s: "The town-house is on fire!" she cried, laying her hand upon the


s: She turned and glanced up at the court-house. Already flames were


s: Down in her heart, and as the very outcome of lip and brain she


s: She made haste to meet him, basket in hand.


s: In time to intercept his return she was at the wood-pile.


s: Slipping off his shoes, heavy with spring-mud, he proceeded to


s: "House afire? No! The confounded red-coats up and put it out."


s: "I wish you a pleasant journey back to Boston, sir."


s: "Will you not shake hands with me before I go?"


s: "And yet I put out the fire for you," he said.


s: Joe climbed down the well and rescued the blue stocking, with its


s: Sweep, sweep, sweep!  Up all this dirt and dust,


s: For Mamma is busy today and help her I surely must.


s: Everything now is spick and span; away to my play I will run.


s: It will be such a 'sprise to Mamma to find all this work is done.


s: There reigned a king in the land of Persia, mighty and