s: The gentleman with the grey-and-black whiskers


s: Furiously, with red-hot anger, I thrust against him.


s: But my weapon slithered over his polished surface,


s: They sat in a circle with their coffee-cups.


s: Sipping blackness out of beautiful china,


s: And mildly protesting against my coarseness


s: And pinned them on their breasts for ornament;


s: They were ghouls battening on exhumed thoughts;


s: And I took a green liqueur from a servant


s: And give me the comfort of a living thing.


s: It shut behind me on the house of ghosts.


s: Stravinsky's Three Pieces "Grotesques", for String Quartet


s: And wooden shoes beating the round, grey stones


s: And a shaking and cracking of dancing bones;


s: And the nasal pipes squeal with their pigs' voices,


s: Coarse stuffs and hot flesh weaving together.


s: Pale violin music whiffs across the moon,


s: A pale smoke of violin music blows over the moon,


s: Splashed with cherry petals falling, falling,


s: Claws a grave for himself in the fresh earth


s: An organ growls in the heavy roof-groins of a church,


s: Snaking over the heads of the chanting priests.


s: The organ crashes out in a flaring chord,


s: And the priests hitch their chant up half a tone.


s: The little pear-shaped candle flames leap and flutter,


s: The swaying smoke drifts over the altar,


s: The shuffling priests sprinkle holy water,


s: And there is a stark stillness in the midst of them


s: Above the grey pillars the roof is in darkness.


s: Thompson's Lunch Room--Grand Central Station


s: The big room is coloured like the petals


s: Moves unglossily against the vaguely bright wall--


s: Dull chalk-white striking the retina like a blow


s: Through the wavering uncertainty of steam.


s: Vitreous-white of glasses with green reflections,


s: Grey-white placards:  "Oyster Stew, Cornbeef Hash, Frankfurters":


s: Dropping on the white counter like horn notes


s: The electric clock jerks every half-minute:


s: Bawled through a slide while the clock jerks heavily.


s: A man carries a china mug of coffee to a distant chair.


s: The unfulfilled chairs open to receive them.


s: Within the gold square of the proscenium arch,


s: A curtain of orange velvet hangs in stiff folds,


s: Shine out whenever a box door is opened.


s: And fly up above them in coloured sparkles.


s: The opera house is a treasure-box of gold.


s: Gold in a broad smear across the orchestra pit:


s: Rich as the fat, clapping hands in the boxes.


s: And bursts against the lips of a bank president


s: Cross-hatchings of rain against grey walls,


s: In front of the up and down, wet stone sides of buildings.


s: Slipping past each other with the smoothness of oil.


s: Lifting it in one piece as though it were a sheet of tin,


s: The cross-hatchings of rain cut the Tower obliquely,


s: Scratching lines of black wire across it,


s: Mutilating its perpendicular grey surface


s: The city is rigid with straight lines and angles,


s: A steamer in the basin blows its whistle,


s: And the sound shoots across the rain hatchings,


s: Superimpose themselves upon the fronts of buildings


s: But the lemon cubes are edged with angles


s: Streaks of green and yellow iridescence,


s: Blue shadows against silver-saffron water,


s: The threaded light prints through them on the pebbles


s: With crests laid horizontal on their backs.


s: An oblong pane of straw-coloured shimmer,


s: Sunshine playing between red and black flowers


s: In the midst of green, pearl, amethyst irradiations.


s: A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass    (already online)


s: Fir-Flower Tablets:  Poems Translated from the Chinese


s: (In collaboration with Florence Ayscough)


s: III    "Life Ever Seems as from Its Present Site"


s: VIII    "At Last, Beloved Nature! I Have Met"


s: XIII    "I Thank You, Kind and Best Beloved Friend"


s: Lines:  "I Stooped from Star-Bright Regions"


s: "The poet to the whole wide world belongs,


s: Where naught is heard save the vulture's scream,


s: But thou hast caused the grain to spring


s: And the dismal screech of the owl is heard


s: Was there, his tiny feet scarce bending down


s: To pour his love notes; and in russet coat,


s: Most homely, like true genius bursting forth


s: In spite of adverse fortune, a full choir


s: Within himself, the merry Mock Bird sate,


s: Filling the air with melody; and at times,


s: These lines, addressed to the poet by his father, have a pathetic


s: Thou'lt read it when the churchyard clay


s: They'll tell thee this terrestrial ball,


s: The vales where flowers innumerous blow,


s: His school-fellows remember him as silent and shy, full of quick


s: His college life at the University of Georgia was interrupted by


s: "The key to his social character was to be found in the feminine


s: into the ring, and try to bear down opposition by sheer vehemence


s: In the autumn of 1867 he was laid by his beloved child in Trinity


s: The one strong hand might win thy strains


s: Oh, who may touch the harp-strings since


s: prophet-like, he speaks in faith and hope and courage. His own


s: heart breaking, and life ebbing, he writes of Spring as the true


s: ... In the latter summer-tide of this same year (1867), I again


s: "Next to some pine whose antique roots just peeped


s: From out the crumbling bases of the sand."


s: "Hail, twilight! sovereign of one peaceful hour!


s: Not dull art thou as undiscerning night;


s: The dropping thorn makes white the grass, O! sweetest lass,


s: Come out and smell the ricks of hay adown the croft with me, O!"


s: They were the last verses I ever heard from the poet's lips.


s: "I hope soon to write you at length. Yours," etc.


s: Again on the 16th I heard from him, thus:--


s: "Yesterday I had a still more copious hemorrhage!...


s: A week and upwards passed on in silence. I received no more


s: Forty-eight hours before, Henry Timrod had expired!


s: "After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well."


s: "The mission of Genius on Earth!  To uplift,


s: Purify, and confirm, by its own gracious gift,


s: "All lovely things, and gentle--the sweet laugh


s: Of children, Girlhood's kiss, and Friendship's clasp,


s: The boy that sporteth with the old man's staff,


s: The baby, and the breast its fingers grasp--


s: All that exalts the grounds of happiness,


s: All griefs that hallow, and all joys that bless,


s: Love breathes its latest dreams, its earliest hints;


s: I turn life's tasteless waters into wine,


s: And flush them through and through with purple tints.


s: Wherever Earth is fair, and Heaven looks down,


s: "There is no unimpressive spot on earth,


s: Timrod's melancholy, the finest test of high poetic quality, when


s: "A shadowy land, where joy and sorrow kiss,


s: Each still to each corrective and relief,


s: Where dim delights are brightened into bliss,


s: "Ah, me!--not dies--no more than spirit dies;


s: But in a change like death is clothed with wings;


s: Looking to far off and celestial things."


s: His style, "like noble music unto noble words," is elaborate, yet


s: Is that vast gulf which lips our Southern strand,


s: And through the cold, untempered ocean pours


s: Its genial streams, that far off Arctic shores


s: May sometimes catch upon the softened breeze


s: Strange tropic warmth and hints of summer seas."


s: "No fairer land hath fired a poet's lays,


s: That grope their way through sunless caves,


s: These poems are written in the life-blood of the poet and his


s: But in a change like death was clothed with wings."


s: His faith in Timrod's genius never wavered, and but for his early


s: Spring, with that nameless pathos in the air


s: Spring, with her golden suns and silver rain,


s: Out in the lonely woods the jasmine burns


s: And there's a look about the leafless bowers


s: Yet still on every side we trace the hand


s: Save where the maple reddens on the lawn,


s: Or where, like those strange semblances we find


s: The elm puts on, as if in Nature's scorn,


s: As yet the turf is dark, although you know


s: A thousand germs are groping through the gloom,


s: Already, here and there, on frailest stems


s: And near the snowdrop's tender white and green,


s: But many gleams and shadows need must pass


s: And weeks go by, before the enamored South


s: Still there's a sense of blossoms yet unborn


s: At times a fragrant breeze comes floating by,


s: Some wondrous pageant; and you scarce would start,


s: A blue-eyed Dryad, stepping forth, should say,


s: Ah! who would couple thoughts of war and crime


s: Yet not more surely shall the Spring awake


s: Than she shall rouse, for all her tranquil charms,


s: There shall be deeper hues upon her plains


s: And calling, with the voice of all her rills,


s: To fall and crush the tyrants and the slaves


s: (By dusky fingers brought this morning here


s: Through which the soft white fibres peer,


s: Unite, like love, the sea-divided lands,


s: By whose frail help yon startled spider fled


s: Down the tall spear-grass from his swinging bed,


s: A veil seems lifted, and for miles and miles


s: As, in the little boll, there lurked a spell


s: Breaks down the narrow walls that hem us round,


s: In those blue tracts above the thunder, where


s: Doth hail its earliest daylight in the beams


s: And, broad as realms made up of many lands,


s: Behind the crimson hills and purple lawns


s: Of sunset, among plains which roll their streams


s: As Polar lands would flash beneath a tropic day!


s: The curious ointment of the Arabian tale--


s: Doth stretch my sight's horizon, and I see,


s: I stood in some great temple of the Sun,


s: Nor lack there pastures rich and fields all green


s: Through lands which look one sea of billowy gold


s: Vast mountains lift their plumed peaks cloud-crowned;


s: And, save where up their sides the ploughman creeps,


s: An unhewn forest girds them grandly round,


s: In whose dark shades a future navy sleeps!


s: Ye Stars, which, though unseen, yet with me gaze


s: Upon this loveliest fragment of the earth!


s: Thou Sun, that kindlest all thy gentlest rays


s: Above it, as to light a favorite hearth!


s: Ye Clouds, that in your temples in the West


s: See nothing brighter than its humblest flowers!


s: And you, ye Winds, that on the ocean's breast


s: Are kissed to coolness ere ye reach its bowers!


s: Bear witness with me in my song of praise,


s: And tell the world that, since the world began,


s: No fairer land hath fired a poet's lays,


s: But these are charms already widely blown!


s: Hath touched our very swamps with grace,


s: The flute's low breathing and the trumpet's tone,


s: Where sleeps the poet who shall fitly sing


s: To the mean channels of no selfish mart,


s: Of this broad earth, and throngs the sea with ships


s: That bear no thunders; hushes hungry lips


s: Joins with a delicate web remotest strands;


s: Or feed the cottage-smoke of English homes,


s: And only bounds its blessings by mankind!


s: In offices like these, thy mission lies,


s: As long as rain shall fall and Heaven bend


s: In blue above thee; though thy foes be hard


s: And cruel as their weapons, it shall guard


s: Thy hearth-stones as a bulwark; make thee great


s: With that large wisdom which the ages teach--


s: Revive the half-dead dream of universal peace!


s: Of Cornwall, hollowed out beneath the bed


s: Hear the dull booming of the world of brine


s: Of winds and waters, yet toil calmly on,


s: And split the rock, and pile the massive ore,


s: Or carve a niche, or shape the archëd roof;


s: Stirs with the bruit of battles, and each dawn


s: Wakes from its starry silence to the hum


s: Upon the Northern winds, the voice of woe


s: Not wholly drowned in triumph, though I know


s: The end must crown us, and a few brief years


s: That there is much even Victory must regret.


s: From the great burthen of our country's wrong


s: From stain of patriot or of hostile blood!


s: Oh, help us, Lord! to roll the crimson flood


s: Back on its course, and, while our banners wing


s: Northward, strike with us! till the Goth shall cling


s: To his own blasted altar-stones, and crave


s: Mercy; and we shall grant it, and dictate


s: There, where some rotting ships and crumbling quays


s: Shall one day mark the Port which ruled the Western seas.


s: It is time (it was time long ago) I should sever


s: This chain--why I wear it I know not--forever!


s: Yet I cling to the bond, e'en while sick of the mask


s: I must wear, as of one whom his commonplace task


s: And proof-armor of dullness have steeled to her charms!


s: Ah! how lovely she looked as she flung from her arms,


s: In heaps to this table (now starred with the stains


s: Of her booty yet wet with those yesterday rains),


s: These roses and lilies, and--what? let me see!


s: Then was off in a moment, but turned with a glee,


s: That lit her sweet face as with moonlight, to say,


s: As 't was almost too late for a lesson to-day,


s: She meant to usurp, for this morning at least,


s: My office of Tutor; and instead of a feast


s: Of such mouthfuls as 'poluphloisboio thalasses',


s: With which I fed her, I should study the grasses


s: (Love-grasses she called them), the buds, and the flowers


s: Of which I know nothing; and if "with MY powers",


s: I did not learn all she could teach in that time,


s: And thank her, perhaps, in a sweet English rhyme,


s: If I did not do this, and she flung back her hair,


s: And shook her bright head with a menacing air,


s: She'd be--oh! she'd be--a real Saracen Omar


s: To a certain much-valued edition of Homer!


s: But these flowers! I believe I could number as soon


s: The shadowy thoughts of a last summer's noon,


s: Or recall with their phases, each one after one,


s: The clouds that came down to the death of the Sun,


s: Cirrus, Stratus, or Nimbus, some evening last year,


s: As unravel the web of one genus!  Why, there,


s: As they lie by my desk in that glistering heap,


s: All tangled together like dreams in the sleep


s: Of a bliss-fevered heart, I might turn them and turn


s: Till night, in a puzzle of pleasure, and learn


s: Not a fact, not a secret I prize half so much,


s: As, how rough is this leaf when I think of her touch.


s: There's one now blown yonder! what can be its name?


s: A topaz wine-colored, the wine in a flame;


s: And another that's hued like the pulp of a melon,


s: But sprinkled all o'er as with seed-pearls of Ceylon;


s: And a third! its white petals just clouded with pink!


s: And a fourth, that blue star! and then this, too! I think


s: If one brought me this moment an amethyst cup,


s: From which, through a liquor of amber, looked up,


s: With a glow as of eyes in their elfin-like lustre,


s: Stones culled from all lands in a sunshiny cluster,


s: From the ruby that burns in the sands of Mysore


s: To the beryl of Daunia, with gems from the core


s: Of the mountains of Persia (I talk like a boy


s: In the flush of some new, and yet half-tasted joy);


s: Were placed by the side of this child of the weather


s: (This one which she touched with her mouth, and let slip


s: From her fingers by chance, as her exquisite lip,


s: With a music befitting the language divine,


s: Gave the roll of the Greek's multitudinous line),


s: I should take--not the gems--but enough! let me shut


s: In the blossom that woke it, my folly, and put


s: Both away in my bosom--there, in a heart-niche,


s: One shall outlive the other--is 't hard to tell which?


s: In the name of all starry and beautiful things,


s: What is it? the cross in the centre, these rings,


s: And the petals that shoot in an intricate maze,


s: From the disk which is lilac--or purple? like rays


s: When I sit by her side with my brows in a knot,


s: And praise her so calmly, or chide her perhaps,


s: If her voice falter once in its musical lapse,


s: As I've done, I confess, just to gaze at a flush


s: In the white of her throat, or to watch the quick rush


s: Of the tear she sheds smiling, as, drooping her curls


s: O'er that book I keep shrined like a casket of pearls,


s: She reads on in low tones of such tremulous sweetness,


s: That (in spite of some faults) I am forced, in discreetness,


s: To silence, lest mine, growing hoarse, should betray


s: What I must not reveal--will she guess now, I say,


s: How, for all his grave looks, the stern, passionless Tutor,


s: With more than the love of her youthfulest suitor,


s: Is hiding somewhere in the shroud of his vest,


s: By a heart that is beating wild wings in its nest,


s: This flower, thrown aside in the sport of a minute,


s: And which he holds dear as though folded within it


s: Lay the germ of the bliss that he dreams of!  Ah, me!


s: It is hard to love thus, yet to seem and to be


s: A thing for indifference, faint praise, or cold blame,


s: When you long (by the right of deep passion, the claim,


s: On the loved of the loving, at least to be heard)


s: To take the white hand, and with glance, touch, and word,


s: Burn your way to the heart!  That her step on the stair?


s: For your favorites, see! they are all of them, look!


s: On the spot where they fell, and--but here is your book!


s: Not to win thy favor, maiden, not to steal away thy heart,


s: Have I ever sought thy presence, ever stooped to any art;


s: So, I daily conned thee over, thinking it no dangerous task,


s: Peeping underneath thy lashes, peering underneath thy mask--


s: For thou wear'st one--no denial! there is much within thine eyes;


s: And thy virtues made thee dearer than my dearest hopes of fame;


s: All so blended, that in wishing one peculiar trait removed,


s: We indeed might make thee better, but less lovely and less loved.


s: With a fever on my forehead, and a throbbing in my brain,


s: In my soul delirious wishes, in my heart a lasting pain;


s: Yet so hopeless, yet so cureless--as in every great despair--


s: I was very calm and silent, and I never stooped to prayer,


s: Like a sick man unattended, reckless of the coming death,


s: Only for he knows it certain, and he feels no sister's breath.


s: All the while as by an Até, with no pity in her face,


s: I was haunted by thy spirit, I was troubled by thy gaze,


s: And the question which to answer I had taxed a subtle brain,


s: What thou art, and what thou wilt be, came again and yet again;


s: With its opposite deductions, it recurred a thousand times,


s: Like a coward's apprehensions, like a madman's favorite rhymes.


s: And thy fingers sweep the paper, and a light is in thine eyes,


s: Whilst I read thy secret fancies, whilst I hear thy secret sighs.


s: Is it wonder that my passion bursts at once from out its nest?


s: I have bent my knee before thee, and my love is all confessed;


s: Though I knew that name unwritten was another name than mine,


s: "What presumption, and what folly!" why, I only love a girl


s: With some very winning graces, with some very noble traits,


s: But no better than a thousand who have bent to humbler fates.


s: That I ask not; I have, maiden, just as haught a soul as thine;


s: Is a nobler gift than fortune, is a holier thing than birth,


s: I will claim the right to utter, to the high and to the low,


s: That I love them, or I hate them, that I am a friend or foe.


s: Nor shall any slight unman me; I have yet some little strength,


s: And perhaps when thou art leaning on some less devoted breast,


s: Caught, as I passed, a white hand's gleam--


s: Just where the heart beats; frail and slight,


s: May came, and on that arch, sweet mouth,


s: And, softening with the softening South,


s: Stirred softly) and the faintest start--


s: Through months that seemed all June and May,


s: Twelve blessed moons that seemed to glow


s: Thank God!--but you shall see her--wait.


s: And here's to--when thou find'st her--thine!


s: Where they have dozed and dreamed all day


s: And I shall stand--if years can make me so--


s: Yet, while the hours permit me, I would pause


s: Yet, from the starry regions of my youth,


s: Where dreams are happiness, and feeling truth,


s: Downward upon the wide and winding road,


s: Plays with the baubles and the gauds of earth--


s: Nor knows that in the twelvemonth after birth


s: Where the descent begins, through long defiles


s: And some are looking down with hopeful smiles,


s: While noble forms are moving o'er the scene,


s: Towers, temples, domes of perfect symmetry


s: With pinnacles among the clouds; ah, me!


s: None pierce the pure and lofty atmosphere


s: And the strong spirits that inhabit there,


s: Sick of the very treasure which they heap;


s: Sealed ever in a heaven-forgetting sleep,


s: Dear God! if that I may not keep through life


s: And that I must, in yonder endless strife,


s: If the same toil which indurates the hand


s: Oh! take me hence! I would no longer stay


s: Give me to chant one pure and deathless lay,


s: That I watch through the blinding brine!


s: I am sick to the soul of yon pallid sky,


s: When the waves are still, and the skies look fair,


s: But one blue morn that was fairest of all,


s: And they thought him alive while he walked


s: I am sick to the soul of that quiet sea,


s: Thou must woo, if thou wouldst wear her,


s: Love that feigns, and lips that flatter,


s: 'T will clasp the isle that holdeth thee.


s: Dear stream! some moons must wax and wane


s: I've been haunted all night, I've been haunted all day,


s: By the ghost of a song, by the shade of a lay,


s: That with meaningless words and profusion of rhyme,


s: To a dreamy and musical rhythm keeps time.


s: A simple, but still a most magical strain,


s: Its dim monotones have bewildered my brain


s: With a specious and cunning appearance of thought,


s: I seem to be catching but never have caught.


s: I know it embodies some very sweet things,


s: And can almost divine the low burden it sings;


s: But again, and again, and still ever again,


s: It has died on my ear at the touch of my pen.


s: And so it keeps courting and shunning my quest,


s: As a bird that has just been aroused from her nest,


s: Too fond to depart, and too frightened to stay,


s: Now circles about you, now flutters away.


s: Oh! give me fit words for that exquisite song,


s: And thou couldst not, proud beauty! be obdurate long;


s: It would come like the voice of a saint from above,


s: And win thee to kindness, and melt thee to love.


s: Not gilded with fancy, nor frigid with art,


s: But simple as feeling, and warm as the heart,


s: It would murmur my name with so charming a tone,


s: As would almost persuade thee to wish it thine own.


s: But when thou couldst not hear my sighs;


s: Whate'er they spoke, where'er they dwelt,


s: And love but half repressed its sighs,--


s: Now that for months, perhaps for years--


s: Such wild, mad language must bring down,


s: Doubtless thou know'st the Hebrew story--


s: The spell which drew him earthwards, riven--


s: It spreads its wings, unfolds its power,


s: Look, speak, as thou hadst read them not.


s: Where thoughts are sacred, you could find


s: Where, flushed with love's just dawning gleams,


s: Still there are moments, brief and bright,


s: For tears, for laughter, and for thought,


s: Which bore her from her childhood's home,


s: By some strange spell, my Katie brought,


s: From that green isle whose twilight skies


s: Now walk through rippling waves of wheat,


s: I hear--with cheeks that flush and pale--


s: Spelt out her prayers and lisped her praise,


s: The wish that lifts that passionate prayer?


s: Who cleanse a soul that loves its guilt?


s: 'T was yonder, with their "horrid" noise,


s: We'll cleave the sea with wings of steam;


s: Kind friends shall greet, with joy and pride,


s: Needs must I sing on these blue March days?


s: What will you say, when I tell you here,


s: That already, I think, for a little praise,


s: For, I know not why, when I tell my thought,


s: And the charm wherewith a fancy is fraught,


s: So my butterfly-dreams their golden wings


s: While the world, in its worldliness, does not miss


s: With rocks, and winds, and storms at truce,


s: The clouds that sometimes cross your face,


s: Still laughs at maids who have not youth,


s: And yet they touch some hearts like stings.


s: And choice, not fate, hath kept you maid--


s: Where, settling soft, that spark shall creep


s: The powers of soul, and sense, and mind,


s: That you have learned the truths which lie


s: The flowers of Peace, and Hope, and Trust.


s: The same strange sweetness which in years


s: Long vanished filled the eyes with tears,


s: With smiles the martyred daughter falls,


s: My heart through all these dreams endures,


s: Did the cloud with its trailing fringes float,


s: Whence, white as the down of an angel's plume,


s: And the ground had been rich for a thousand years


s: With the blood of heroes, and sages, and kings,


s: Where the rose that blooms in her exquisite cheek


s: On a land where the faces are fair, though pale


s: As a moonlit mist when the winds are still,


s: Her beauty, perhaps, were all too bright,


s: But about her there broods some delicate spell,


s: Whence the wondrous charm of the girl grows soft


s: On the starry scroll of her country's fame,


s: But has helped to shape her stately mien,


s: I sometimes forget, as she sweeps me a bow,


s: A poet who sang of her sea-throned isle,


s: There was something of Albion's mighty Bess


s: All the greatness of England about her there,


s: In the dim green shade of a trellised vine,


s: I whispered a hope that had somewhat to do


s: The Tudor had vanished, and, as I spoke,


s: 'T was herself looked out of her frank brown eye,


s: And an answer was burning upon her face,


s: What was it!  Nothing the world need know--


s: The stars saw our parting!  Enough, that then


s: I walked from the porch with the tread of a king,


s: Near that chaste heart they seemed to me


s: My single rose-bud in a crown of thorns!


s: My lamp that in that narrow hut of life,


s: Whence I looked forth upon a night of storm!


s: Burned with the lustre of the moon and stars!


s: Behold the bud is gone! the thorns remain!


s: My lamp hath fallen from its niche--ah, me!


s: Earth drinks the fragrant flame, and I am left


s: Where art thou now?  If somewhere in the sky


s: I challenge him to clasp thy tender form


s: With half the fervor of a mother's love!


s: Forgive me, Lord! forgive my reckless grief!


s: Forgive me that this rebel, selfish heart


s: Would almost make me jealous for my child,


s: Though thy own lap enthroned him.  Lord, thou hast


s: O yet once more, my babe, to hear thy cry!


s: O yet once more, my babe, to see thy smile!


s: O yet once more to feel against my breast


s: Those cool, soft hands, that warm, wet, eager mouth,


s: With the sweet sharpness of its budding pearls!


s: To mark the growing meaning in thine eyes,


s: To watch thy soul unfolding leaf by leaf,


s: Or catch, with ever fresh surprise and joy,


s: Three different shadows of thyself, my babe,


s: Change with each other while I weep.  The first,


s: The sweetest, yet the not least fraught with pain,


s: Clings like my living boy around my neck,


s: That comes the oftenest, darling!  In my dreams,


s: Or chilled beneath the moon.  Ah! what a couch


s: For that which I have shielded from a breath


s: That would not stir the violets on thy grave!


s: The third, my precious babe! the third, O Lord!


s: Yet sometimes not unsaddened by a glance


s: Turned earthward on a mother in her woe!


s: This is the vision, Lord, that I would keep


s: O touch my sight, or break the cloudy bars


s: That hide it, lest I madden where I kneel!


s: And brighter burned the Christmas flame,


s: For the mirth, which else had swelled as shrill


s: As a school let loose to its errant will,


s: The jest, the tale, the toast, the glee,


s: When the bells rang in the Christmas morn,


s: That they rang because that babe was born,


s: That wandering hand which seemed to reach


s: Which touched us, too, with vague alarms,


s: In the gloom of the chamber where he died,


s: And by that grave which, through our care,


s: We may weave at will for each other's ear,


s: Of that life, and that love, and that early doom,


s: But enough, alas! for the world is said,


s: Drawn in the crimson of a battle-plain--


s: From whose weird circle every loathsome thing


s: Are banished, while about it in the air,


s: And from the ground, and from the low-hung skies,


s: That lies about us, rainbow-tinted shapes


s: Would image what in this enchanted dome,


s: In which the armèd city draws its breath,


s: Within this charmëd fane, we ope the gates


s: Than rule the vulgar earth on which we stand,


s: Move the bright creatures of the realm of thought.


s: Shut for one happy evening from the flood


s: That roars around us, here you may behold--


s: Substantialized in breathing flesh and blood,


s: And yet have never donned this mortal clay.


s: Shall sometimes spread before you like the isle


s: Met the sweet stranger whom the father's art


s: Which, like a bud that waited for the light,


s: Love shall grow softer in each maiden's eyes


s: As Juliet leans her cheek upon her hand,


s: That challenge all the torments of the air,


s: And the pent feelings choke in one long sigh,


s: While, as the mimic thunder rolls, you hear


s: Reproach like things of life the ancient skies,


s: Lo! next a dim and silent chamber where,


s: Wrapt in glad dreams in which, perchance, the Moor


s: Unconscious of the loving murderer nigh.


s: And Hamlet enters with that thoughtful breath


s: Which is the trumpet to a countless host


s: Of reasons, but which wakes no deed from sleep;


s: And utter those wise saws that cut so deep


s: Moving through lowlier pathways, shall present


s: Or floats about a fashion-freighted hall,


s: Love, hate, grief, joy, gain, glory, shame, shall meet,


s: As in the round wherein our lives are pent;


s: While Goodness roves like Guilt about the street,


s: But all at last shall vindicate the right,


s: Crime shall be meted with its proper pain,


s: Motes shall be taken from the doubter's sight,


s: And Fortune's general justice rendered plain.


s: Of honest laughter there shall be no dearth,


s: Wit shall shake hands with humor grave and sweet,


s: Our wisdom shall not be too wise for mirth,


s: Nor kindred follies want a fool to greet.


s: As sometimes from the meanest spot of earth


s: So you shall find some germs of hidden worth


s: And now and then, when in those moods that turn


s: To the cold Muse that whips a fault with sneers,


s: You shall, perchance, be strangely touched to learn


s: But while we lead you thus from change to change,


s: Shall we not find within our ample range


s: Rise from thy sleep of ages, noble Tell!


s: And, with the Alpine thunders of thy voice,


s: Proclaim upon this trans-Atlantic strand


s: The deeds which, more than their own awful mien,


s: And say to those whose feeble souls would lean,


s: Not on themselves, but on some outstretched hand,


s: That once a single mind sufficed to quell


s: That each may crowd in every well-aimed blow,


s: Not the poor strength alone of arm and brand,


s: Bid Liberty rejoice!  Aye, though its day


s: Be far or near, these clouds shall yet be red


s: With the large promise of the coming ray.


s: Meanwhile, with that calm courage which can smile


s: Nor yet forget that on each hand and head


s: Rest the dear rights for which we fight and pray.


s: Ere sprites and fays had bade farewell to earth,


s: The stars that shone upon his lonely birth


s: Did seem to promise sovereignty and fame--


s: Yet no tradition hath preserved his name.


s: 'T is said that on the night when he was born,


s: A beauteous shape swept slowly through the room;


s: Its eyes broke on the infant like a morn,


s: And his cheek brightened like a rose in bloom;


s: But as it passed away there followed after


s: A sigh of pain, and sounds of elvish laughter.


s: And so his parents deemed him to be blest


s: Beyond the lot of mortals; they were poor


s: As the most timid bird that stored its nest


s: With the stray gleanings at their cottage-door:


s: Yet they contrived to rear their little dove,


s: And he repaid them with the tenderest love.


s: And as he waxed in years grew lovelier still;


s: Beamed, and the purest maidens, with a thrill,


s: Looked in his eyes, and from their heaven of blue


s: Saw thoughts like sinless Angels peering through.


s: Need there was none of censure or of praise


s: Yet there was ever something in his ways,


s: Which those about him could not understand;


s: Beside the father's love, the mother's kiss.


s: For oft, when he believed himself alone,


s: They caught brief snatches of mysterious rhymes,


s: Like a pleased bee's in summer; and at times


s: A strange far look would come into his eyes,


s: Had some deep meaning; sometimes by the door,


s: He lay and watched the clouds; and to his thought


s: Night with her stars but fitful slumbers brought.


s: In the long hours of twilight, when the breeze


s: Talked in low tones along the woodland rills,


s: Or the loud North its stormy minstrelsies


s: Blent with wild noises from the distant hills,


s: Curved like a sea-shell--hushed as some rapt seer,


s: Followed the sounds, and ever and again,


s: As the wind came and went, in storm or play,


s: He seemed to hearken as to some far strain


s: And they who watched him held their breath to trace


s: The still and fixed attention in his face.


s: Once, on a cold and loud-voiced winter night,


s: The three were seated by their cottage-fire--


s: The mother watching by its flickering light


s: The wakeful urchin, and the dozing sire;


s: There was a brief, quick motion like a bird's,


s: And the boy's thought thus rippled into words:


s: "O mother! thou hast taught me many things,


s: But none I think more beautiful than speech--


s: A nobler power than even those broad wings


s: I used to pray for, when I longed to reach


s: That distant peak which on our vale looks down,


s: And wears the star of evening for a crown.


s: "But, mother, while our human words are rife


s: To us with meaning, other sounds there be


s: Which seem, and are, the language of a life


s: Around, yet unlike ours:  winds talk; the sea


s: "By stream and spring, in glades and woodlands lone,


s: Beside our very cot I've gathered flowers


s: Inscribed with signs and characters unknown;


s: But the frail scrolls still baffle all my powers:


s: What is this language and where is the key


s: That opes its weird and wondrous mystery?


s: "The forests know it, and the mountains know,


s: And, but for sinful thoughts, I do not doubt


s: That we could spell the thrilling secret out.


s: "O mother! somewhere on this lovely earth


s: I lived, and understood that mystic tongue,


s: But, for some reason, to my second birth


s: Like that fair tree that even while blossoming


s: Keeps the dead berries of a former spring.


s: "Who shall put life in these?--my nightly dreams


s: Some teacher of supernal powers foretell;


s: A fair and stately shape appears, which seems


s: Bright with all truth; and once, in a dark dell


s: A voice that must be hers, which called my name."


s: Puzzled and frightened, wondering more and more,


s: The mother heard, but did not comprehend;


s: Oh, what will chance, and wherein will it end?


s: My child! my child!" she caught him to her breast,


s: "Oh, let me kiss these wildering thoughts to rest!


s: "They cannot come from God, who freely gives


s: All that we need to have, or ought to know;


s: Beware, my son! some evil influence strives


s: To grieve thy parents, and to work thee woe;


s: It could not be an angel fair and good."


s: And then, in low and tremulous tones, she told


s: The story of his birth-night; the boy's eyes,


s: As the wild tale went on, were bright and bold,


s: With a weird look that did not seem surprise:


s: "Perhaps," he said, "this lady and her elves


s: Will one day come, and take me to themselves."


s: "And wouldst thou leave us?"  "Dearest mother, no!


s: Hush! I will check these thoughts that give thee pain;


s: Or, if they flow, as they perchance must flow,


s: Hark! didst thou hear a voice like many streams?


s: Thenceforth, whatever impulse stirred below,


s: In the deep heart beneath that childish breast,


s: Those lips were sealed, and though the eye would glow,


s: Yet the brow wore an air of perfect rest;


s: Cheerful, content, with calm though strong control


s: And when too restlessly the mighty throng


s: Of fancies woke within his teeming mind,


s: All silently they formed in glorious song,


s: Perchance not lost--with many a voiceless prayer


s: They reached the sky, and found some record there.


s: The thoughtful boy has blossomed into youth,


s: And still no maiden would have feared his gaze,


s: And still his brow was noble with the truth:


s: Yet, though he masks the pain with pious art,


s: There burns a restless fever in his heart.


s: A childish dream is now a deathless need


s: Which drives him to far hills and distant wilds;


s: The solemn faith and fervor of his creed


s: Bold as a martyr's, simple as a child's;


s: The eagle knew him as she knew the blast,


s: And the deer did not flee him as he passed.


s: Always, and most, he loved the bluest weather,


s: Couched like a milder sunshine on the heather,


s: He communed with the winds, and with the birds,


s: As if they might have answered him in words.


s: He knew it, sought it, loved it as a book


s: Full of his own sweet thoughts and memories;


s: Dark oaks and fluted chestnuts gathering round,


s: Pillared and greenly domed a sloping mound.


s: Whereof--white, purple, azure, golden, red,


s: Confused like hues of sunset--the wild flowers


s: Wove a rich dais; through crosslights overhead


s: Glanced the clear sunshine, fell the fruitful showers,


s: And here the shyest bird would fold her wings;


s: Here fled the fairest and the gentlest things.


s: Thither, one night of mist and moonlight, came


s: The youth, with nothing deeper in his thoughts


s: New aspects of his fair and favorite spot;


s: A single ray attained the ground, and shed


s: Just light enough to guide the wanderer's tread.


s: And high and hushed arose the stately trees,


s: Yet shut within themselves, like dungeons, where


s: Lay fettered all the secrets of the breeze;


s: Silent, but not as slumbering, all things there


s: "Hath Heaven," the youth exclaimed, "a sweeter spot,


s: Or Earth another like it?--yet even here


s: The old mystery dwells! and though I read it not,


s: Here most I hope--it is, or seems so near;


s: I cannot grasp the shadows as they pass.


s: Catch, but just catch, I know not what faint sound,


s: And darkly guess that from yon silent sky


s: These ears are deaf, these human eyes are blind,


s: "Sometimes--could it be fancy?--I have felt


s: The presence of a spirit who might speak;


s: Its very breath hath kissed my burning cheek;


s: But I in vain have hushed my own to hear


s: Is not the breeze articulate?  Hark!  Oh, hark!


s: A distant murmur, like a voice of floods;


s: And onward sweeping slowly through the dark,


s: Bursts like a call the night-wind from the woods!


s: Low bow the flowers, the trees fling loose their dreams,


s: And through the waving roof a fresher moonlight streams.


s: "Mortal!"--the word crept slowly round the place


s: As if that wind had breathed it!  From no star


s: Streams that soft lustre on the dreamer's face.


s: Again a hushing calm! while faint and far


s: The breeze goes calling onward through the night.


s: Dear God! what vision chains that wide-strained sight?


s: Over the grass and flowers, and up the slope


s: Glides a white cloud of mist, self-moved and slow,


s: That, pausing at the hillock's moonlit cope,


s: Swayed like a flame of silver; from below


s: The breathless youth with beating heart beholds


s: Yet his young soul is bold, and hope grows warm,


s: As flashing through that cloud of shadowy crape,


s: With sweep of robes, and then a gleaming arm,


s: That cast a golden glamour on the night.


s: But for the glory round it it would seem


s: Unto whom love was yet an innocent dream,


s: Shivered and crimsoned with an unknown joy;


s: As to the young Spring bounds the passionate South,


s: He could have clasped and kissed her mouth to mouth.


s: Yet something checked, that was and was not dread,


s: Till in a low sweet voice the maiden spake;


s: She was the Fairy of his dreams, she said,


s: And loved him simply for his human sake;


s: And that in heaven, wherefrom she took her birth,


s: They called her Poesy, the angel of the earth.


s: When the glad morning-stars together sung,


s: My task hath been, beneath a mightier Power,


s: To keep the world forever fresh and young;


s: I give it not its fruitage and its green,


s: "I sow the germ which buds in human art,


s: With light the dark recesses of the heart,


s: And nerve the will, and teach the wish to soar;


s: I touch with grace the body's meanest clay,


s: While noble souls are nobler for my sway.


s: "Before my power the kings of earth have bowed;


s: I am the voice of Freedom, and the sword


s: Leaps from its scabbard when I call aloud;


s: "Where Passion stoops, or strays, is cold, or dead,


s: The tempest hushes at my 'Peace! be still!'


s: I know how far its tides should sink or swell,


s: "All lovely things, and gentle--the sweet laugh


s: Of children, Girlhood's kiss, and Friendship's clasp,


s: The boy that sporteth with the old man's staff,


s: The baby, and the breast its fingers grasp--


s: All that exalts the grounds of happiness,


s: All griefs that hallow, and all joys that bless,


s: Love breathes its latest dreams, its earliest hints;


s: I turn life's tasteless waters into wine,


s: And flush them through and through with purple tints.


s: Wherever Earth is fair, and Heaven looks down,


s: "I am the unseen spirit thou hast sought,


s: I woke those shadowy questionings that vex


s: Thy young mind, lost in its own cloud of thought,


s: And rouse the soul they trouble and perplex;


s: I filled thy days with visions, and thy nights


s: Blessed with all sweetest sounds and fairy sights.


s: "Not here, not in this world, may I disclose


s: The mysteries in which this life is hearsed;


s: Some doubts there be that, with some earthly woes,


s: By Death alone shall wholly be dispersed;


s: Yet on those very doubts from this low sod


s: Thy soul shall pass beyond the stars to God.


s: "And so to knowledge, climbing grade by grade,


s: Thou shalt translate unto thy brother man;


s: And men shall bless the power that flings a ray


s: "For, from thy lofty height, thy words shall fall


s: Upon their spirits like bright cataracts


s: That front a sunrise; thou shalt hear them call


s: "All this is in thy reach, but much depends


s: I give the genius, point the proper ends,


s: Take care thy lofty powers be wisely used.


s: Which, if he feel, he craves not to be heard


s: For the poor boon of praise, or place, nor yet


s: Does the mere joy of song, as with the bird


s: That cheers that gentle pilgrim on his way.


s: "Nor may he always sweep the passionate lyre,


s: Which is his heart, only for such relief


s: Lest, from the grave which hides a private grief,


s: The spells of song call up some pallid wraith


s: "Yet over his deep soul, with all its crowd


s: Of varying hopes and fears, he still must brood;


s: As from its azure height a tranquil cloud


s: Watches its own bright changes in the flood;


s: Self-reading, not self-loving--they are twain--


s: And sounding, while he mourns, the depths of pain.


s: "Thus shall his songs attain the common breast,


s: Dyed in his own life's blood, the sign and seal,


s: Even as the thorns which are the martyr's crest,


s: "Much yet remains unsaid--pure must he be;


s: Oh, blessëd are the pure! for they shall hear


s: Where others hear not, see where others see


s: With a dazed vision:  who have drawn most near


s: My shrine, have ever brought a spirit cased


s: "The Poet to the whole wide world belongs,


s: Even as the teacher is the child's--I said


s: No selfish aim should ever mar his songs,


s: "And therefore must the Poet watch, lest he,


s: In the dark struggle of this life, should take


s: Stains which he might not notice; he must flee


s: All for the Truth, assured that Truth alone


s: "And he must be as armëd warrior strong,


s: And he must front, and sometimes suffer wrong,


s: With brow unbent, and lip untaught to curl;


s: For wrath, and scorn, and pride, however just,


s: Fill the clear spirit's eyes with earthly dust."


s: The story came to me--it recks not whence--


s: In fragments.  Oh! if I could tell it all,


s: If human speech indeed could tell it all,


s: 'T were not a whit less wondrous, than if I


s: Should find, untouched in leaf and stem, and bright,


s: As when it bloomed three thousand years ago,


s: Scarce worth the hiving, one or two dead leaves


s: Are the sole harvest of a summer's toil.


s: There was a moment, ne'er to be recalled,


s: When to the Poet's hope within my heart,


s: They wore a tint like life's, but in my hand,


s: I know not why, they withered.  I have heard


s: Somewhere, of some dead monarch, from the tomb,


s: Brought forth, that when the coffin was laid bare,


s: Was fleshless, yet one feature still remained


s: Perfect, or perfect seemed at least; the eyes


s: Gleamed for a second on the startled crowd,


s: The story, when I drew it from the grave


s: Where it had lain so long, did seem, I thought,


s: Not wholly lifeless; but even while I gazed


s: To fix its features on my heart, and called


s: The world to wonder with me, lo! it proved


s: In that lone forest nook, how much was taught,


s: How much was only hinted, what the youth


s: Promised, if promise were required, to do


s: Or strive for, what the gifts he bore away--


s: Or added powers or blessings--how at last,


s: The vision ended and he sought his home,


s: How lived there, and how long, and when he passed


s: The tale hath perished from the earth; for here


s: The slender thread on which my song is strung


s: Breaks off, and many after years of life


s: We catch the end and opening, but forget


s: That which had joined them in the dreaming brain;


s: That shows his base, and far above, a peak


s: And read the only hints that yet remain.


s: It is not winter yet, but that sweet time


s: In autumn when the first cool days are past;


s: A week ago, the leaves were hoar with rime,


s: And some have dropped before the North wind's blast;


s: But the mild hours are back, and at mid-noon,


s: The day hath all the genial warmth of June.


s: What slender form lies stretched along the mound?


s: Can it be his, the Wanderer's, with that brow


s: Gray in its prime, those eyes that wander round


s: Listlessly, with a jaded glance that now


s: Seems to see nothing where it rests, and then


s: Pores on each trivial object in its ken?


s: See how a gentle maid's wan fingers clasp


s: The last fond love-notes of some faithless hand;


s: Thus, with a transient interest, his weak grasp


s: Holds a few leaves as when of old he scanned


s: The meaning in their gold and crimson streaks;


s: But the sweet dream has vanished! hush! he speaks!


s: "Once more, once more, after long pain and toil,


s: And yet not long, if I should count by years,


s: I breathe my native air, and tread the soil


s: I trod in childhood; if I shed no tears,


s: No happy tears, 't is that their fount is dry,


s: And joy that cannot weep must sigh, must sigh.


s: "These leaves, my boyish books in days of yore,


s: When, as the weeks sped by, I seemed to stand


s: These leaves shall make my bed, and--for the hand


s: Of God is on me, chilling brain and breath--


s: I shall not ask a softer couch in death.


s: "Here was it that I saw, or dreamed I saw,


s: I know not which, that shape of love and light.


s: Spirit of Song! have I not owned thy law?


s: Have I not taught, or striven to teach the right,


s: And kept my heart as clean, my life as sweet,


s: As mortals may, when mortals mortals meet?


s: "Thou know'st how I went forth, my youthful breast


s: On fire with thee, amid the paths of men;


s: Once in my wanderings, my lone footsteps pressed


s: Down which its thundrous boom a cataract flung,


s: A little bird, unheeded, built and sung.


s: "So fell my voice amid the whirl and rush


s: Sorrow hath sometimes owed a gentler gush,


s: Hath kindled at my songs its light divine,


s: I know it not; no ray came back to mine.


s: "Alone in crowds, once more I sought to make


s: Of senseless things my friends; the clouds that burn


s: Above the sunset, and the flowers that shake


s: Their odors in the wind--these would not turn


s: Forgot the scornful world that passed me by.


s: "Yet even the world's cold slights I might have borne,


s: Nor fled, though sorrowing; but I shrank at last


s: When one sweet face, too sweet, I thought, for scorn,


s: Looked scornfully upon me; then I passed


s: From all that youth had dreamed or manhood planned,


s: Into the self that none would understand.


s: By crowning it with praises not her own--


s: She was all earth's, and earth's, too, in that mood


s: When she brings forth her fairest; I atone


s: Now, in this fading brow and failing frame,


s: That such a soul such soul as mine could tame.


s: "Clay to its kindred clay!  I loved, in sooth,


s: With something more of lust and less of truth


s: She would have sunk all blushes on my breast;


s: And--but I must not blame her--in my ear


s: Death whispers! and the end, thank God! draws near!"


s: Hist! on the perfect silence of the place


s: Comes and dies off a sound like far-off rain


s: A shadow, where no shadow should have lain,


s: Falls the next moment:  nothing meets his sight,


s: Yet something moves betwixt him and the light.


s: And a voice murmurs, "Wonder not, but hear!


s: ME to behold again thou need'st not seek;


s: Yet by the dim-felt influence on the air,


s: Know, though thou mayst not touch with fleshly hands,


s: The genius of thy life beside thee stands!


s: Unto no fault of man's thou ow'st thy fate;


s: All human hearts that beat this earth upon,


s: All human thoughts and human passions wait


s: And help in their own way the Poet's song.


s: "How blame the world? for the world hast thou wrought?


s: Or wast thou but as one who aims to fling


s: Down like a burden? what from questioning


s: Too subtly thy own spirit, and to speech


s: But half subduing themes beyond the reach


s: "Of mortal reason; what from living much


s: In that dark world of shadows, where the soul


s: Wanders bewildered, striving still to clutch


s: Yet never clutching once, a shadowy goal,


s: Which always flies, and while it flies seems near,


s: Thy songs were riddles hard to mortal ear.


s: "This was the hidden selfishness that marred


s: Thy teachings ever; this the false key-note


s: That on such souls as might have loved thee jarred


s: Like an unearthly language; thou didst float


s: On a strange water; those who stood on land


s: Gazed, but they could not leave their beaten strand.


s: "Your elements were different, and apart--


s: The world's and thine--and even in those intense


s: And watchful broodings o'er thy inmost heart,


s: That thou didst seek; nor didst thou care to find


s: Aught that would bring thee nearer to thy kind.


s: "Not thus the Poet, who in blood and brain


s: Would represent his race and speak for all,


s: Weaves the bright woof of that impassioned strain


s: Which drapes, as if for some high festival


s: Of pure delights--whence few of human birth


s: May rightly be shut out--the common earth.


s: "As the same law that moulds a planet, rounds


s: A drop of dew, so the great Poet spheres


s: Worlds in himself; no selfish limit bounds


s: All ranks, all passions, and all life almost


s: In its wide circle.  Like some noble host,


s: "He spreads the riches of his soul, and bids


s: Partake who will.  Age has its saws of truth,


s: And love is for the maiden's drooping lids,


s: And words of passion for the earnest youth;


s: Wisdom for all; and when it seeks relief,


s: Tears, and their solace for the heart of grief.


s: "Nor less on him than thee the mysteries


s: The meanings in the stars, and in the breeze,


s: All the weird wonders of the common day,


s: Truths that the merest point removes from reach,


s: And thoughts that pause upon the brink of speech;


s: "But on the surface of his song these lie


s: Even though it breathe the secrets of the sky,


s: Thus some tall fir that whispers to the stars


s: Shields at its base a cotter's lattice-bars.


s: "Even such my Poet! for thou still art mine!


s: Thou mightst have been, and now have calmly died,


s: A priest, and not a victim at the shrine;


s: Alas! yet was it all thy fault?  I chide,


s: Perchance, myself within thee, and the fate


s: To which thy power was solely consecrate.


s: "Thy life hath not been wholly without use,


s: With this world's specious falsehoods, often thou


s: Hast uttered, through some all unworldly song,


s: Truths that for man might else have slumbered long.


s: "And these not always vainly on the crowd


s: Have fallen; some are cherished now, and some,


s: In mystic phrases wrapped as in a shroud,


s: Upon the breast of God--the gate of birth


s: Closed on a dreamless ignorance of earth.


s: "And therefore, though thy name shall pass away,


s: Even as a cloud that hath wept all its showers,


s: Yet as that cloud shall live again one day


s: In the glad grass, and in the happy flowers,


s: So in thy thoughts, though clothed in sweeter rhymes,


s: Thy life shall bear its flowers in future times."


s: To-day's most trivial act may hold the seed


s: Of future fruitfulness, or future dearth;


s: The simplest record of thyself hath worth.


s: If thou hast ever slighted one old thought,


s: Beware lest Grief enforce the truth at last;


s: The time must come wherein thou shalt be taught


s: "A voice behind thee," sounding to the strife;


s: Through which the stars peep, and the moon-beams glow;


s: We live and breathe, sustained in pain and woe.


s: A shadowy land, where joy and sorrow kiss,


s: Each still to each corrective and relief,


s: Where dim delights are brightened into bliss,


s: Ah, me!--not dies--no more than spirit dies;


s: But in a change like death is clothed with wings;


s: Looking to far-off and celestial things.


s: Who first said "false as dreams"?  Not one who saw


s: Into the wild and wondrous world they sway;


s: No thinker who hath read their mystic law;


s: No Poet who hath weaved them in his lay.


s: Else had he known that through the human breast


s: Cross and recross a thousand fleeting gleams,


s: That, passed unnoticed in the day's unrest,


s: Come out at night, like stars, in shining dreams;


s: The dim suggestion of the noisier hours,


s: By dreams in the deep silence of the dark,


s: Are roused at midnight with their folded powers.


s: Like that old fount beneath Dodona's oaks,


s: That, dry and voiceless in the garish noon,


s: When the calm night arose with modest looks,


s: Caught with full wave the sparkle of the moon.


s: If, now and then, a ghastly shape glide in,


s: And fright us with its horrid gloom or glee,


s: And that sweet face which only yesternight


s: Came to thy solace, dreamer (didst thou read


s: The blessing in its eyes of tearful light?),


s: Each has its lesson; for our dreams in sooth,


s: Come they in shape of demons, gods, or elves,


s: Are allegories with deep hearts of truth


s: That tell us solemn secrets of ourselves.


s: Shall I desist, twice baffled?  Once by land,


s: And once by sea, I fought and strove with storms,


s: All shades of danger, tides, and weary calms;


s: Head-currents, cold and famine, savage beasts,


s: And men more savage; all the while my face


s: Looked northward toward the pole; if mortal strength


s: Could have sustained me, I had never turned


s: Till I had seen the star which never sets


s: Freeze in the Arctic zenith.  That I failed


s: To solve the mysteries of the ice-bound world,


s: Was not because I faltered in the quest.


s: Witness those pathless forests which conceal


s: The bones of perished comrades, that long march,


s: Blood-tracked o'er flint and snow, and one dread night


s: Flowed to give life to others.  This, and worse,


s: I suffered--let it pass--it has not tamed


s: My spirit nor the faith which was my strength.


s: Despite of waning years, despite the world


s: Which doubts, the few who dare, I purpose now--


s: A purpose long and thoughtfully resolved,


s: Through all its grounds of reasonable hope--


s: To seek beyond the ice which guards the Pole,


s: Not without proofs, that such a sea exists,


s: And may be reached, though since this earth was made


s: No keel hath ploughed it, and to mortal ear


s: No wind hath told its secrets....  With this tide


s: Shall see my ship beyond the southern cape


s: Of Greenland, and far up the bay through which,


s: With diamond spire and gorgeous pinnacle,


s: The fleets of winter pass to warmer seas.


s: Whether, my hardy shipmates! we shall reach


s: Our bourne, and come with tales of wonder back,


s: Or whether we shall lose the precious time,


s: Locked in thick ice, or whether some strange fate


s: Shall end us all, I know not; but I know


s: Is its own crown, and never in this life


s: Is labor wholly fruitless.  In this faith


s: I shall not count the chances--sure that all


s: A prudent foresight asks we shall not want,


s: And all that bold and patient hearts can do


s: Ye will not leave undone.  The rest is God's!


s: Let the boy have his will!  I tell thee, brother,


s: We treat these little ones too much like flowers,


s: Training them, in blind selfishness, to deck


s: Sticks of our poor setting, when they might,


s: If left to clamber where themselves incline,


s: Find nobler props to cling to, fitter place,


s: And sweeter air to bloom in.  It is wrong--


s: Thou striv'st to sow with feelings all thine own,


s: With thoughts and hopes, anxieties and aims,


s: Born of thine own peculiar self, and fed


s: A soul as different and distinct from thine


s: As love of goodness is from love of glory,


s: I could forgive thee, if thou wast of them


s: Who do their fated parts in this world's business,


s: Scarce knowing how or why--for common minds


s: See not the difference 'twixt themselves and others--


s: But thou, thou, with the visions which thy youth did cherish


s: Shouldst boast a deeper insight.  We are born,


s: It is my faith, in miniature completeness,


s: And like each other only in our weakness.


s: Even with our mother's milk upon our lips,


s: Our smiles have different meanings, and our hands


s: Press with degrees of softness to her bosom.


s: That wears its semblance, we, in looking back,


s: Growth or development.  Yes! what is childhood


s: But after all a sort of golden daylight,


s: A beautiful and blessed wealth of sunshine,


s: Wherein the powers and passions of the soul


s: Sleep starlike but existent, till the night


s: Of gathering years shall call the slumbers forth,


s: And they rise up in glory?  Early grief,


s: For peace, and found it, secret, hushed, and cool,


s: A beautiful recess in neighboring woods.


s: Trees of the soberest hues, thick-leaved and tall,


s: Domelike and dim; though nowhere so enclosed


s: But that the gentlest breezes reach the spot


s: Unwearied and unweakened.  Sound is here


s: Whilst the high pines in one another's arms


s: Sleep, you may sometimes with unstartled ear


s: Catch the far fall of voices, how remote


s: You know not, and you do not care to know.


s: The turf is soft and green, but not a flower


s: Lights the recess, save one, star-shaped and bright--


s: I do not know its name--which here and there


s: With that half glimpse a dreamer loves so much,


s: The blue air and the blessing of the sky.


s: When griefs depressed, or joys disturbed my heart,


s: And found the calm I looked for, or returned


s: Strong with the quiet rapture in my soul.


s: One of those July days when winds have fled


s: One knows not whither, I, most sick in mind


s: With thoughts that shall be nameless, yet, no doubt,


s: Wrong, or at least unhealthful, since though dark


s: With gloom, and touched with discontent, they had


s: I, with these thoughts, and on this summer day,


s: Entered the accustomed haunt, and found for once


s: Stirred with the whispering welcome which I sought,


s: Hung lax and lifeless.  Something in the place,


s: And some more secret influence, I thought,


s: Weighed on the sense like sin.  Above I saw,


s: Though not a cloud was visible in heaven,


s: The pallid sky look through a glazëd mist


s: The weather, and the time explain it all:


s: Yet have I drawn a lesson from the spot,


s: And shrined it in these verses for my heart.


s: Thenceforth those tranquil precincts I have sought


s: Not less, and in all shades of various moods;


s: Or inconclusive sorrows.  Nature, though


s: Kissed the white brow of Eve, doth not refuse,


s: But for the pains, the fever, and the fret


s: She hath no solace; and who seeks her when


s: These be the troubles over which he moans,


s: Rebukes, that, to the guilty consciousness,


s: The day hath scarcely passed that saw thy birth,


s: Yet thy white wings are plumed to all their scope,


s: And hour by hour thine eyes have gathered light,


s: That my whole future life unfolds what seems,


s: A path that leads athwart some guiltless earth,


s: To which a star is dropping from the night!


s: But when these leafless beds were all aglow


s: Then, sick at heart, and angered by the book,


s: Which, in good sooth, was but the long-drawn sigh


s: Of some one who had quarreled with his kind,


s: Vexed at the very proofs which I had sought,


s: A plausible likeness of my own dark thought,


s: I cast me down beneath yon oak's wide boughs,


s: And, shielding with both hands my throbbing brows,


s: The feeble tide of peevishness went down,


s: And left a flat dull waste of dreary pain,


s: Which seemed to clog the blood in every vein;


s: The world, of course, put on its darkest frown--


s: Which did not wound or crush some restless head;


s: And hope, and will, and motive, all were dead.


s: To claim a kindred with the humblest flower;


s: Even that would bare its bosom to a shower,


s: While I henceforth would take no pains to live,


s: Nor place myself where I might feel or give


s: A single impulse whence a wish could grow.


s: There was a tulip scarce a gossamer's throw


s: Most dear to me, looked through the fence and smiled


s: A hint that I should pluck it for her sake.


s: Some low expostulating tones, but stirred


s: Not even a leaf's length, till the pretty fay,


s: Wondering, and half abashed at the wild feat,


s: Climbed the low pales, and laughed my gloom away.


s: And here again, but led by other powers,


s: These happy stars, and yonder setting moon,


s: Have seen me speed, unreckoned and untasked,


s: Oh! here, where in that summer noon I basked,


s: And strove, with logic frailer than the flowers,


s: A question dear as home or heaven was asked,


s: And without language answered.  I was blest!


s: Blest with those nameless boons too sweet to trust


s: Love to his own glad self is sometimes coy,


s: And even thus much doth seem to do him wrong;


s: While in the fears which chasten mortal joy,


s: Is one that shuts the lips, lest speech too free,


s: Since that long kiss which closed the morning's talk,


s: I have not strayed beyond this garden walk.


s: A sense of joy so wild 't is almost pain,


s: And like a trouble drives me to and fro,


s: And will not pause to count its own sweet gain.


s: To-morrow I will turn it round and round,


s: And seek to know its limits and its ground.


s: The duties which shall spring from such a seed,


s: And where it must be sown, and how be wrought.


s: But oh! this reckless bliss is bliss indeed!


s: And for one day I choose to seal the urn


s: Wherein is shrined Love's missal and his creed.


s: Like him who found the West when first he caught


s: The light that glittered from the world he sought,


s: And furled his sails till Dawn should show the land;


s: While in glad dreams he saw the ambient waves


s: Go rippling brightly up a golden strand.


s: Hath there not been a softer breath at play


s: In the long woodland aisles than often sweeps


s: At this rough season through their solemn deeps--


s: To greet the flower e'er it was fully blown,


s: And wherefore, save to grace a happy day,


s: Did the whole West at blushing sunset glow


s: With clouds that, floating up in bridal snow,


s: Passed with the festal eve, rose-crowned, away?


s: And now, if I may trust my straining sight,


s: The heavens appear with added stars to-night,


s: And deeper depths, and more celestial height,


s: Than hath been reached except in dreams or death.


s: Hush, sweetest South!  I love thy delicate breath;


s: But hush! methought I felt an angel's kiss!


s: Oh! all that lives is happy in my bliss.


s: As though it locked dark secrets in itself,


s: Whose wand shall send me soon a frolic troop


s: Of rainbow visions, and of moonlit dreams.


s: Can joy be weary, that my eyelids droop?


s: To-night I shall not seek my curtained nest,


s: Who whispered then?  And what are they that peep


s: Betwixt the foliage in the tree-top there?


s: Come, Fairy Shadows! for the morn is near,


s: When to your sombre pine ye all must creep;


s: Come, ye wild pilots of the darkness, ere


s: Even now it circles round and round the deep--


s: My hand hath crushed the tiniest flowers,


s: Oh! say you, friend, the creed is fraught


s: With sad, and even with painful thought,


s: My rhymes would flow with faltering art,


s: And earth is sick and wan, and pines with all her flowers.


s: Or sleeping on the ice amid an arctic noon?


s: There are no brighter gems in Raolconda's sands.


s: They flash the liquid pearls as flung from fairy sieves.


s: As that warm lap receives the largesse of the skies?


s: To a god's life infused through veins of velvet hills.


s: And bend a brighter brow beneath thy burning kiss.


s: Look! coral-leaved! and--mark these spots


s: So, they are dead!  Love! when they passed


s: Shall bloom through all my future springs.


s: Your lips shall press the sweetest song,


s: Oh, heart! could love but lend the power,


s: Thy wearied eyes, O saddest child of Time,


s: Eyes which have looked on every mortal crime,


s: And swept the piteous round of mortal woes?


s: Beneath the lowest deep, go, hide thy head;


s: Or earth thee where the blood that thou hast shed


s: May trickle on thee from thy countless graves!


s: And guilt, and all our griefs, save what the breast,


s: Without a wrong to some dear shadowy guest,


s: When, as the midnight bell doth toll thy fate,


s: And sits a monarch in thine ancient hall.


s: With a new hope like morning in their eyes;


s: Him the fair earth and him these radiant skies


s: Hail as their sovereign, welcome as their friend.


s: "O lead us from the shadow of the Past,"


s: In a long wail like this December blast,


s: They cry, and, crying, grow less desolate.


s: They ask not--for old doubts and fears will cling--


s: And yet they trust that, somehow, he will bring


s: A sweeter sunshine than thy mildest day.


s: They hope to see no meadow, vale, or hill


s: Stained with a deeper red than roses spill,


s: When some too boisterous zephyr sweeps the land.


s: Of law, love, labor, honest loss and gain--


s: These are the visions of the coming reign


s: Now floating to them on this wintry air.


s: As I stood blushing near in bridal snow,


s: I had not half her beauty and her grace.


s: Yet that fond mother praised, the world caressed,


s: And ONE adored me--how shall HE who soon


s: Shall wear my gentle flower upon his breast,


s: Prize to its utmost worth the priceless boon?


s: Shall he not gird her, guard her, make her rich,


s: (Not as the world is rich, in outward show,)


s: With all the love and watchful kindness which


s: Oh! I shall part from her with many tears,


s: My earthly treasure, pure and undefiled!


s: And not without a weight of anxious fears


s: And yet--for well I know that virgin heart--


s: Nor will her love neglect that woman's art


s: Which courts and keeps a love already won.


s: But with a thoughtful, prayerful heart that knows


s: And she will keep, with all her soul's deep truth,


s: The lightest pledge which binds her love and life;


s: And she will be--no less in age than youth


s: And he, her lover! husband! what of him?


s: Yes, he will shield, I think, my bud from blight!


s: Yet griefs will come--enough! my eyes are dim


s: With tears I must not shed--at least, to-night.


s: Bless thee, my daughter!--Oh! she is so fair!--


s: Heaven bend above thee with its starriest skies!


s: And make thee truly all thou dost appear


s: Thou gav'st that Refuge and that Shrine,


s: Thou wilt not spurn the orphan's praise.


s: Dear hearts to love--sweet ties to bind--


s: Art thou, grave bird! so wondrous wise indeed?


s: Speak freely, without fear of jest or gibe--


s: What is thy station?  What are thy pursuits?


s: Doubtless thou hast thy pleasures--what are THEY?


s: Or is 't thy wont to muse and mouse at once,


s: Entice thy prey with airs of meditation,


s: And with the unvarying habits of a dunce,


s: To dine in solemn depths of contemplation?


s: There may be much--the world at least says so--


s: Behind that ponderous brow and thoughtful gaze;


s: Yet such a great philosopher should know,


s: I hold thy stock of wit but paltry pelf--


s: Thou show'st that same grave aspect everywhere,


s: And wouldst look thoughtful, stuffed, upon a shelf.


s: I grieve to be so plain, renownëd Bird--


s: Thy fame 's a flam, and thou an empty fowl;


s: I'd say as much, wert thou Minerva's owl.


s: So doff th' imposture of those heavy brows;


s: They do not serve to hide thy instincts base--


s: And if thou must be sometimes munching MOUSE,


s: Munch it, O Owl! with less profound a face.


s: The love, the hope, the fear, the grief,


s: Which with that voice come back to me,--


s: Thou wouldst forgive the impassioned gaze


s: Than what a prescient hope could make,--


s: Whose was the hand that painted thee, O Death!


s: Despair and sorrow waiting on thy breath--


s: O gentle Power! who could have wronged thee so?


s: Thou rather shouldst be crowned with fadeless flowers,


s: But let the stars and sunlight sparkle through.


s: So, with these thoughts before us, we have fixed


s: And beautified, O Death! thy mansion here,


s: Where gloom and gladness--grave and garden--mixed,


s: Make it a place to love, and not to fear.


s: Heaven! shed thy most propitious dews around!


s: Ye holy stars! look down with tender eyes,


s: And gild and guard and consecrate the ground


s: Where we may rest, and whence we pray to rise.


s: Floats farther than the Christian's sigh.


s: That which we are and shall be is made up


s: Of what we have been.  On the autumn leaf


s: The crimson stains bear witness of its spring;


s: And, on its perfect nodes, the ocean shell


s: Notches the slow, strange changes of its growth.


s: Ourselves are our own records; if we looked


s: Within our bosoms, then there were no need


s: Hath, like the earth, its strata, and contains


s: Its past within its present.  Well for us,


s: And our most cherished secrets, that within


s: The round of being few there are who read


s: Beneath the surface.  Else our very forms,


s: The merest gesture of our hands, might tell


s: Much we would hide forever.  Know you not


s: Those eyes, in whose dark heaven I have gazed


s: More curiously than on my favorite stars,


s: Are deeper for such griefs as they have seen,


s: And brighter for the fancies they have shrined,


s: And sweeter for the loves which they have talked?


s: Oh! that I had the power to read their smiles,


s: Or sound the depth of all their glorious gloom.


s: So should I learn your history from its birth,


s: Through all its glad and grave experiences,


s: Better than if--(your journal in my hand,


s: A woman's shades and shapes of feeling, traced


s: As with the fine touch of a needle's point)--


s: I followed you from that bright hour when first


s: I saw you in the garden 'mid the flowers,


s: Made me all rich with the dear name of friend.


s: 'T was not in prayers to Heaven for ease,


s: Touched as with fire the pulse of pain,--


s: Than this world's tenderest pair of eyes!


s: Beat from our limbs these flowery chains


s: Sting our weak hearts with bitter shame,


s: My gentle friend! I hold no creed so false


s: As that which dares to teach that we are born


s: The soul, if it would burn with starlike power,


s: Must needs forsooth be kindled by the sparks


s: Struck from the shock of clashing human hearts.


s: There is a wisdom that grows up in strife,


s: And one--I like it best--that sits at home


s: And learns its lessons of a thoughtful ease.


s: So come! a lonely house awaits thee!--there


s: Nor praise, nor blame shall reach us, save what love


s: Of knowledge for itself shall wake at times


s: In our own bosoms; come! and we will build


s: A wall of quiet thought, and gentle books,


s: Betwixt us and the hard and bitter world.


s: Sometimes--for we need not be anchorites--


s: A distant friend shall cheer us through the Post,


s: Or some Gazette--of course no partisan--


s: Shall bring us pleasant news of pleasant things;


s: Each ancient joke shall blaze with genuine flame


s: To light our pipes and candles; but to wars,


s: Whether of words or weapons, we shall be


s: Deaf--so we twain shall pass away the time


s: With a clear night of stars above their heads,


s: Just hear, betwixt their kisses and their talk,


s: A chain of neighboring mountains; they awhile


s: The smile upon their faces, but, full soon,


s: Turn with a quick, glad impulse, and perhaps


s: A conscious wile that brings them closer yet,


s: To dally with their own fond hearts, and play


s: With the sweet flowers that blossom at their feet.


s: Rouse all thy strength and all thy skill,


s: And pour thee through the people's heart,


s: Shall bristle like thy palm with spears,


s: That grope their way through sunless caves,


s: Thy robe be pierced with sword and dart,


s: Front with thy ranks the threatening seas


s: Calm as that second summer which precedes


s: As yet, behind their ramparts stern and proud,


s: No Calpe frowns from lofty cliff or scar


s: But Moultrie holds in leash her dogs of war


s: And down the dunes a thousand guns lie couched,


s: Like tigers in some Orient jungle crouched


s: Meanwhile, through streets still echoing with trade,


s: Whose hands may one day wield the patriot's blade


s: And maidens, with such eyes as would grow dim


s: Seem each one to have caught the strength of him


s: Thus girt without and garrisoned at home,


s: Old Charleston looks from roof, and spire, and dome,


s: Ships, through a hundred foes, from Saxon lands


s: Bring Saxon steel and iron to her hands,


s: Creeps like a harmless mist above the brine,


s: Shall the Spring dawn, and she still clad in smiles,


s: Rest in the strong arms of her palm-crowned isles,


s: And, all untroubled in her faith, she waits


s: Fall where he won his fame beneath the sky


s: Bold scorner of the cant that has its birth


s: That builds its trophies upon human clay


s: I see him in the battle that shall shake,


s: And from their dreams of peaceful traffic wake


s: As calm as one would greet a pleasant guest,


s: He hurls his deadliest thunders with a jest,


s: Gay Chieftain! on the crimson rolls of Fame


s: But there are gentler thoughts which, with thy name,


s: Which looks, unsteeled, on murder's face;


s: Through what dark scenes of bloodshed hast thou passed,


s: So, when the bard depicts thee, thou shalt wield


s: Round which, inscribed with many a well-fought field,


s: Hath not the morning dawned with added light?


s: Out of the infinite regions of the night,


s: To mark this day in Heaven?  At last, we are


s: Shall soon behold in many a distant port


s: Now, come what may, whose favor need we court?


s: And, under God, whose thunder need we fear?


s: Takes part with us; and on our errands run


s: Do noiseless battle for us; and the Year,


s: And all the gentle daughters in her train,


s: March in our ranks, and in our service wield


s: June flings her azure banner to the wind,


s: Her sisters pass, and many an ample field


s: Grows white beneath their steps, till now, behold,


s: Rejoice! beneath those fleeces soft and warm


s: Whole leagues of Russian ice and Arctic storm!


s: And what if, mad with wrongs themselves have wrought,


s: Who long since in the limits of the North


s: Set up his evil throne, and warred with God--


s: What if, both mad and blinded in their rage,


s: Our foes should fling us down their mortal gage,


s: And with a hostile step profane our sod!


s: We shall not shrink, my brothers, but go forth


s: To meet them, marshaled by the Lord of Hosts,


s: Of Moultrie and of Eutaw--who shall foil


s: Auxiliars such as these?  Nor these alone,


s: And all the generous wealth it gives to toil,


s: And all for which we love our noble land,


s: Shall fight beside, and through us; sea and strand,


s: Tree, fruit, and flower, and every influence,


s: Shall seem to blow; to us the hills shall lend


s: And in our stiffened sinews we shall blend


s: What Christ and Paul refrained to preach;


s: And Charity that whets a poniard's edge;


s: Fair schemes that leave the neighboring poor


s: To starve and shiver at the schemer's door,


s: While in the world's most liberal ranks enrolled,


s: He turns some vast philanthropy to gold;


s: But that a pure and Christian faith makes warm,


s: Where not to vile fanatic passion urged,


s: And making laws to stay the laws of Heaven!


s: Unblemished honor, truth without a stain,


s: Faith, justice, reverence, charitable wealth,


s: And, for the poor and humble, laws which give,


s: Not the mean right to buy the right to live,


s: To doubt the end were want of trust in God,


s: Than that which rang to Miriam's holy glee,


s: But let our fears--if fears we have--be still,


s: And turn us to the future!  Could we climb


s: Some mighty Alp, and view the coming time,


s: Not only for the glories which the years


s: Shall bring us; not for lands from sea to sea,


s: And wealth, and power, and peace, though these shall be;


s: But for the distant peoples we shall bless,


s: And the hushed murmurs of a world's distress:


s: And save from want and crime the humblest door,


s: The hour perchance is not yet wholly ripe


s: Is that vast gulf which lips our Southern strand,


s: And through the cold, untempered ocean pours


s: Its genial streams, that far off Arctic shores


s: May sometimes catch upon the softened breeze


s: Strange tropic warmth and hints of summer seas.


s: And him, whose heart still weak from fear


s: Their threats were heard on every breeze;


s: They darkened half the neighboring seas;


s: And bloodshed stained the sheaves of life.


s: They fought as tyrants fight, or slaves;


s: The heavens with howls of vengeance rent?


s: Meantime the stream they strove to chain


s: Now drinks a thousand springs, and sweeps


s: With broadening breast, and mightier deeps,


s: Which thrills us in the church-yard ground,


s: The bell comes, muffled, through the shower.


s: Which strikes for freedom and for right.


s: What worlds of all this world's distress,


s: Their fate has brought to many a hearth.


s: Through twice a hundred fields has passed;


s: Stream, valley, hill, and mountain know,


s: Wives march beneath its glittering sign,


s: It nerves the son's, the husband's hand,


s: When Heaven shall blow the trump of peace,


s: Shall happy bells, from yonder ancient spire,


s: Send their glad greetings to each Christmas fire


s: That tongueless tower hath cleaved the Sabbath air,


s: Our psalms of worship with their impious drum,


s: Of the dead Yules which here beside the sea


s: They've ushered in with old-world, English glee,


s: With feast, and song, and dance, and antique sports,


s: And shout of happy children in the courts,


s: Where the old pastimes, with their lawful noise,


s: And all the merry round of Christmas joys,


s: Dread shapes of battles in the wassail cup,


s: Keeps his mute Christmas now beneath the snow,


s: Ah! let the thought that on this holy morn


s: The Prince of Peace--the Prince of Peace was born,


s: Hath left this tortured land, and haply now


s: Holds its white court on some far mountain's brow,


s: Call its sad votaries to the shrine of God,


s: And, with the cloister and the tented sod,


s: With the grave ritual brought from England's shore,


s: And with the simple faith which asks no more


s: Will watch that earth, where once, not all in vain,


s: He died to give us peace, may not disdain


s: The land, the peace of His vast love shall fall,


s: Oh, turn the rapturous thought in every way!


s: Made rankly fertile by the blood of men,


s: Peace in the woodland, and the lonely glen,


s: Peace in a thousand fields of waving grain,


s: Peace in the highway and the flowery lane,


s: Peace in our sheltered bays and ample streams,


s: Peace wheresoe'er our starry garland gleams,


s: Peace where the scholar thinks, the hunter roams,


s: Peace, God of Peace! peace, peace, in all our homes,


s: Small tributes! but your shades will smile


s: Thy unperturbing hopes, thou will not roam


s: Too far from thine own happy heart and home;


s: Cling to the lowly earth, and be content!


s: So shall thy name be dear to many a heart;


s: So shall the noblest truths by thee be taught;


s: The flower and fruit of wholesome human thought


s: Bless the sweet labors of thy gentle art.


s: The brightest stars are nearest to the earth,


s: And thou mayst draw from matters of the hearth


s: Truths wide as nations, and as deep as love.


s: Most men know love but as a part of life;


s: They hide it in some corner of the breast,


s: Even from themselves; and only when they rest


s: In the brief pauses of that daily strife,


s: Wherewith the world might else be not so rife,


s: They draw it forth (as one draws forth a toy


s: To soothe some ardent, kiss-exacting boy)


s: And hold it up to sister, child, or wife.


s: Ah me! why may not love and life be one?


s: Why walk we thus alone, when by our side,


s: Love, like a visible God, might be our guide?


s: How would the marts grow noble! and the street,


s: Worn like a dungeon-floor by weary feet,


s: Seem then a golden court-way of the Sun!


s: III    "Life Ever Seems as from Its Present Site"


s: Life ever seems as from its present site


s: It aimed to lure us.  Mountains of the past


s: It melts, with all their crags and caverns vast,


s: Which hides what is to be, it shoots a light


s: Not the near daisies, but yon distant height


s: Attracts us, lying on this emerald lawn.


s: And always, be the landscape what it may--


s: Blue, misty hill or sweep of glimmering plain--


s: The fine, faint limit of the bounding day.


s: God, haply, in this mystic mode, would fain


s: They dub thee idler, smiling sneeringly,


s: And why? because, forsooth, so many moons,


s: Here dwelling voiceless by the voiceful sea,


s: Thou hast not set thy thoughts to paltry tunes


s: In song or sonnet.  Them these golden noons


s: Oppress not with their beauty; they could prate,


s: Even while a prophet read the solemn runes


s: How know they, these good gossips, what to thee


s: The ocean and its wanderers may have brought?


s: With what far aim thy spirit may be fraught?


s: Some truths there be are better left unsaid;


s: Much is there that we may not speak unblamed.


s: On words, as wings, how many joys have fled!


s: The jealous fairies love not to be named.


s: There is an old-world tale of one whose bed


s: A genius graced, to all, save him, unknown;


s: One day the secret passed his lips, and sped


s: As secrets speed--thenceforth he slept alone.


s: Too much, oh! far too much is told in books;


s: Too broad a daylight wraps us all and each.


s: Ah! it is well that, deeper than our looks,


s: Some secrets lie beyond conjecture's reach.


s: Ah! it is well that in the soul are nooks


s: That will not open to the keys of speech.


s: That pent my life within a city's bounds,


s: And shut me from thy sweetest sights and sounds.


s: Perhaps I had not learned, if some lone cot


s: Had nursed a dreamy childhood, what the mart


s: Had missed full many a stern but wholesome truth.


s: Here, too, O Nature! in this haunt of Art,


s: Thy power is on me, and I own thy thrall.


s: And Day and Darkness visit every hearth.


s: Clouds do not scorn us:  yonder factory's smoke


s: Looked like a golden mist when morning broke.


s: Grief dies like joy; the tears upon my cheek


s: Will disappear like dew.  Dear God! I know


s: And thank thee for the law.  I am too weak


s: (Though to thy heaven there be no better guide),


s: How woe hath cleansed, how grief can deify,


s: So weak a thing it seems that grief should die,


s: And love and friendship with it, I could pray,


s: That if it might not gloom upon my brow,


s: VIII    "At Last, Beloved Nature! I Have Met"


s: Thee face to face upon thy breezy hills,


s: And boldly, where thy inmost bowers are set,


s: Gazed on thee naked in thy mountain rills.


s: When first I felt thy breath upon my brow,


s: Tears of strange ecstasy gushed out like rain,


s: I strove to clasp thee.  But, I know not how,


s: Always before me didst thou seem to glide;


s: Upon the next bright peak I saw thee kneel,


s: And heard thy voice upon the billowy blast;


s: But, climbing, only reached that shrine to feel


s: The shadow of a Presence which had passed.


s: Sad fancies have been flitting through my brain;


s: Dull waste of clouds above a wintry main;


s: And then, a banner, drooping in the rain,


s: Strolling at random with this shadowy woe


s: At heart, I chanced to wander hither!  Lo!


s: A league of desolate marsh-land, with its lush,


s: Hot grasses in a noisome, tide-left bed,


s: And faint, warm airs, that rustle in the hush,


s: Like whispers round the body of the dead!


s: (Written on a very small sheet of note-paper)


s: Were I the poet-laureate of the fairies,


s: Who in a rose-leaf finds too broad a page;


s: Or could I, like your beautiful canaries,


s: Sing with free heart and happy, in a cage;


s: Perhaps I might within this little space


s: (As in some Eastern tale, by magic power,


s: Have told you something with a poet's grace.


s: A world of freedom for a world of passion,


s: Would not be uttered in its stateliest fashion;


s: Yet, lady, when fit language shall have told it,


s: You'll find one little heart enough to hold it!


s: Which are the clouds, and which the mountains?  See,


s: They mix and melt together!  Yon blue hill


s: Looks fleeting as the vapors which distill


s: Their dews upon its summit, while the free


s: And far-off clouds, now solid, dark, and still,


s: Each seems the other, as our fancies will--


s: The cloud a mount, the mount a cloud, and we


s: Gaze doubtfully.  So everywhere on earth,


s: This foothold where we stand with slipping feet,


s: And we are fooled until made wise by Time.


s: Is not the obvious lesson something worth,


s: What gossamer lures thee now?  What hope, what name


s: Is on thy lips?  What dreams to fruit have grown?


s: Thou who hast turned ONE Poet-heart to stone,


s: Is thine yet burning with its seraph flame?


s: Let me give back a warning of thine own,


s: Of some young Sibyl shadowing her own woe.


s: The words are thine, and will not do thee wrong,


s: I only bind their solemn charge to song.


s: Thy tread is on a quicksand--oh! be wise!


s: Nor, in the passionate eagerness of youth,


s: XIII    "I Thank You, Kind and Best Beloved Friend"


s: I thank you, kind and best belovëd friend,


s: With the same thanks one murmurs to a sister,


s: When, for some gentle favor, he hath kissed her,


s: Less for the gifts than for the love you send,


s: Less for the flowers than what the flowers convey,


s: If I, indeed, divine their meaning truly,


s: Things which you neither meant nor wished to say,


s: Oh! tell me, is the hope then all misplaced?


s: But in your beauteous gift, methought I traced


s: Something above a short-lived predilection,


s: And which, for that I know no dearer name,


s: I designate as love, without love's flame.


s: Are these wild thoughts, thus fettered in my rhymes,


s: Indeed the product of my heart and brain?


s: How strange that on my ear the rhythmic strain


s: Falls like faint memories of far-off times!


s: When did I feel the sorrow, act the part,


s: Which I have striv'n to shadow forth in song?


s: In what dead century swept that mingled throng


s: Of mighty pains and pleasures through my heart?


s: Not in the yesterdays of that still life


s: Which I have passed so free and far from strife,


s: But somewhere in this weary world I know,


s: In some strange land, beneath some orient clime,


s: And felt a deeper grief than any later woe.


s: True Christian, tender husband, gentle Sire,


s: A stricken household mourns thee, but its loss


s: Is Heaven's gain and thine; upon the cross


s: God hangs the crown, the pinion, and the lyre:


s: And thou hast won them all.  Could we desire


s: To quench that diadem's celestial light,


s: To hush thy song and stay thy heavenward flight,


s: Because we miss thee by this autumn fire?


s: For we are better--thou art happier thus;


s: And haply from the splendor of thy throne,


s: Something may fall upon us, like the calm


s: To which thou shalt hereafter welcome us!


s: Song Composed for Washington's Birthday,


s: A bridal Rose, some snowy Orange flowers;


s: Place the bright Iris, darling of the showers;


s: Set gold Nasturtiums, Elder blooms between,


s: And Heart's-ease to the Orchis marry sweetly;


s: Then with red Pinks, and slips of Evergreen,


s: You will possess--all folded up discreetly--


s: In one bouquet, that none but you may know,


s: Lines:  "I Stooped from Star-Bright Regions"


s: I stooped from star-bright regions, where


s: And thought to light thy heart and hearth


s: I think, perchance, they touch thy cheek,


s: I saw, or dreamed I saw, her sitting lone,


s: Her neck bent like a swan's, her brown eyes thrown


s: On some sweet poem--his, I think, who sings


s: Flashed from the dainty fingers, which held back


s: Her beautiful blonde hair.  Ah! would these black


s: Locks of mine own were mingling with it now,


s: And these warm lips were pressed against her brow!


s: And, as she turned a page, methought I heard--


s: Hush! could it be?--a faintly murmured word,


s: Played on her brow and wreathed her lip the while


s: That my heart leaped to hear it, and a flame


s: Burned on my forehead--Sa'ra!--'t was my name.


s: With thy sweet name, they all are full of thee;


s: But "Julia"!--ah! that gentle name to me


s: Is something far too sacred for the throng


s: Of worldly listeners 'round me.  Yet ev'n now


s: I weave a chaplet for thy sinless brow;--


s: Wilt thou not wear it?  'T is a fashionable song,--


s: Have wreaked heart, mind, my love, my hopes of fame,


s: Than thy dear praise.  Ere many moons pass by,


s: When the lost gem is set, the crown complete,


s: And by its side placed an Orange flower,


s: Then with the Speedwell, blended the perfume


s: And thus, 't is one of the loveliest feats,


s: Is spelled a gentle lady's name in sweets.


s: In preparing this electronic text of Father Ryan's poems,


s: I was struck by the biased nature of the memoir included.


s: While I will not gainsay anyone's right to their beliefs,


s: I believe it is clearly evident from the poems themselves


s: that Father Ryan believed strongly in the Southern Cause,


s: and I do not believe his reaction was entirely emotional,


s: as seems to be implied.  The Memoir also makes mention of


s: Father Ryan's poem "Reunited", as evidence of his support


s: for the reunification of the States.  To be fair to Ryan,


s: "The Northern heart and the Southern heart


s: in `Sentinel Songs', are much more common in his poems.


s: I believe it important to notice this, as it demonstrates


s: that while Ryan loved Peace, he never forsook the Cause.


s: Regarding his possible dates of birth, I can do no better


s: than the Memoir included, but I can at least match places


s: with dates, to wit:  Hagerstown, Md., on 5 February 1838;


s: or Norfolk, Virginia, sometime in 1838 or 15 August 1839.


s: His full name was Abram Joseph Ryan, and he was the son


s: and he taught at Niagara, N.Y. and Cape Girardeau, Missouri,


s: before he became a chaplain in the Confederate Army in 1862.


s: He edited several publications, including the "Pacificator",


s: the Catholic weekly "The Star" (New Orleans),


s: He was the pastor of St. Mary's Church in Mobile, Alabama


s: from 1870 to 1883.  He died at a Franciscan Monastery


s: His most famous poem is "The Conquered Banner",


s: which had its measure inspired by a Gregorian hymn.


s: "All Rests with those who Read.  A work or thought


s: Is what each makes it to himself, and may


s: Be full of great dark meanings, like the sea,


s: With shoals of life rushing; or like the air,


s: Benighted with the wing of the wild dove,


s: Sweeping miles broad o'er the far southwestern woods


s: With mighty glimpses of the central light --


s: Or may be nothing -- bodiless, spiritless."


s: with little of study and less of art, and always in a hurry.


s: Hence they are incomplete in finish, as the author is;


s: that lead up to Parnassus and the Home of the Muses.


s: And souls were always more to him than songs.  But still,


s: Nocturne ["I sit to-night by the firelight,"]


s: Reverie ["We laugh when our souls are the saddest,"]


s: Nocturne ["Betimes, I seem to see in dreams"]


s: A Reverie ["Did I dream of a song? or sing in a dream?"]


s: Lines ["The world is sweet, and fair, and bright,"]


s: A Reverie ["Those hearts of ours -- how strange! how strange!"]


s: Lines ["The death of men is not the death"]


s: It is regretted that the materials at hand at this writing


s: cannot be passed over lightly, or dealt with sparingly,


s: and succeeding ages, since it is confidently believed that,


s: and a realizing sense of what is due to his memory,


s: and with an equal consciousness of his own want of ability


s: The exact date and place of Father Ryan's birth are not yet


s: whilst there is some ground to believe that in Limerick, Ireland,


s: Some claim to know that he was born in 1834, whilst others fix


s: From the most reliable information that can be obtained,


s: it is learned that Father Ryan went to St. Louis with his parents


s: of one day producing substantial and lasting results.


s: He evinced rare aptitude for knowledge, and made rapid progress


s: in order to protect and cherish so rare and precious a gift.


s: and the loved ones to whom he had bid so affectionate an adieu.


s: the effect of these sentiments upon the hearts of men in general,


s: in response to the call of the Master, "Follow thou Me,"


s: have abandoned all things for His sweet sake, that they may find


s: a home hereafter in heaven, after having spent themselves


s: in dispensing His riches and benefits to men.


s: Like nearly all great men, Father Ryan owed much to


s: the early training and example of his truly Christian mother.


s: Hence the deep affection he ever manifested towards her.


s: he had placed his poems upon her grave as a garland of affection.


s: This filial reverence and tender affection, could nothing more


s: be said in his favor, would speak volumes in his praise.


s: of the dear and venerated dead, Abram J. Ryan, priest and poet --


s: composed of thy own glorious deeds and achievements.


s: and served in that capacity up to the close of the civil war.


s: and continued about five years, when Father Ryan was obliged


s: to suspend its publication.  He then removed to Mobile, Ala.,


s: where he was appointed pastor of St. Mary's Church in 1870,


s: those immortal poems which have won their way to all hearts


s: and elicited widespread and unmeasured praise from critics


s: of the highest repute.  Like all true poets, Father Ryan touched


s: the tenderest chords of the human heart, and made them respond


s: to his own lofty feelings and sublime inspirations.


s: Of his priestly character but little need be said.  His superiors


s: and employed his talents to promote these ends, may we not hope


s: But it is not claimed that Father Ryan was without fault.


s: He needs no such fulsome or exaggerated praise.  He was a man,


s: though not cast in the common mould, and as such let us view him.


s: whither his chaste fancy led him.  He delighted to roam


s: which have their fountain source in God, and whose operations


s: are controlled by the exercise of His infinite power and love.


s: Father Ryan's was an open, manly character, in which there was


s: the motive power of his actions, and the mainspring of his life.


s: It was a sacred union formed between kindred spirits --


s: a chain of affection whose binding link was fidelity.


s: of all classes and denominations; for his sympathies


s: to make any concession to his victorious opponents of the North


s: which could be withheld from them.  Perhaps, upon reflection,


s: Non-residents, and aliens in sympathy and common interest,


s: were appointed to rule over them, if not to oppress them.


s: Is it to be wondered at if some refused to bow and kiss the hands


s: for having maintained in its integrity the dignity of the manhood


s: of all else that was dear and sacred to brave and honorable men!


s: of the whole North coming to the rescue of the afflicted South


s: with intense and sublime admiration.  He then saw for certain


s: the rainbow of peace span the heavens; and though his section


s: resplendent with the brightness and purity of love,


s: judicious criticism upon the various authors and their works --