s: Than such who swell this bladder of a Court?


s: Now plague on those who show a Court in wax!


s: It ought to bring all courtiers on their backs:


s: Such painted puppets! such a varnished race


s: Such waxen noses, stately staring things--


s: No wonder some folks bow, and think them kings.


s: See! where the British youth, engaged no more


s: At Fig's, at White's, with felons, or a bore,


s: Pay their last duty to the Court and come


s: All fresh and fragrant, to the drawing-room;


s: As the fair fields they sold to look so fine.


s: "That's velvet for a king!" the flatterer swears


s: 'Tis true, for ten days hence 'twill be King Lear's.


s: Our Court may justly to our stage give rules,


s: That helps it both to fools-coats and to fools.


s: And why not players strut in courtiers' clothes?


s: For these are actors too, as well as those:


s: Wants reach all states; they beg but better drest,


s: Painted for sight, and essenced for the smell,


s: Like frigates fraught with spice and cochinel,


s: Sail in the ladies: how each pirate eyes


s: Top-gallant he, and she in all her trim,


s: He boarding her, she striking sail to him:


s: "Dear Countess! you have charms all hearts to hit!"


s: And "Sweet Sir Fopling! you have so much wit!"


s: Such wits and beauties are not praised for nought,


s: For both the beauty and the wit are bought.


s: 'Twould burst even Heraclitus with the spleen


s: To see those antics, Fopling and Courtin:


s: The presence seems, with things so richly odd,


s: The mosque of Mahound, or some queer Pagod.


s: See them survey their limbs by Durer's rules,


s: Of all beau-kind the best proportioned fools!


s: Adjust their clothes, and to confession draw


s: But oh! what terrors must distract the soul


s: Or should one pound of powder less bespread


s: Those monkey tails that wag behind their head.


s: They march, to prate their hour before the fair.


s: So first to preach a white-gloved chaplain goes,


s: With band of lily, and with cheek of rose,


s: Sweeter than Sharon, in immaculate trim,


s: Let but the ladies smile, and they are blest:


s: Prodigious! how the things protest, protest:


s: Peace, fools, or Gonson will for Papists seize you,


s: If once he catch you at your Jesu! Jesu!


s: Nature made every fop to plague his brother,


s: But here's the captain that will plague them both,


s: Whose air cries Arm! whose very look's an oath:


s: The captain's honest, Sirs, and that's enough,


s: Though his soul's bullet, and his body buff.


s: He spits fore-right; his haughty chest before,


s: Like battering rams, beats open every door:


s: Scarecrow to boys, the breeding woman's curse,


s: Has yet a strange ambition to look worse;


s: Confounds the civil, keeps the rude in awe,


s: Jests like a licensed fool, commands like law.


s: Frighted, I quit the room, but leave it so


s: For hung with deadly sins I see the wall,


s: And lined with giants deadlier than 'em all:


s: Each man an Askapart, of strength to toss


s: For quoits, both Temple Bar and Charing Cross.


s: Scared at the grizzly forms, I sweat, I fly,


s: And shake all o'er, like a discovered spy.


s: Courts are too much for wits so weak as mine:


s: Charge them with Heaven's artillery, bold divine!


s: From such alone the great rebukes endure


s: Whose satire's sacred, and whose rage secure:


s: 'Tis mine to wash a few light stains, but theirs


s: To deluge sin, and drown a Court in tears.


s: In time to come, may pass for holy writ.


s: Fr. Not twice a twelvemonth you appear in print,


s: And when it comes, the Court see nothing in't.


s: You grow correct, that once with rapture writ,


s: Decay of parts, alas! we all must feel--


s: Why now, this moment, don't I see you steal?


s: 'Tis all from Horace; Horace long before ye


s: Said, "Tories called him Whig, and Whigs a Tory;"


s: And taught his Romans, in much better metre,


s: "To laugh at fools who put their trust in Peter."


s: But Horace, sir, was delicate, was nice;


s: Bubo observes, he lashed no sort of vice;


s: Horace would say, Sir Billy served the crown,


s: Blunt could do business, H-ggins knew the town;


s: In Sappho touch the failings of the sex,


s: In reverend bishops note some small neglects,


s: And own, the Spaniard did a waggish thing,


s: Who cropped our ears, and sent them to the king.


s: Could please at Court, and make Augustus smile:


s: His friend and shame, and was a kind of screen.


s: But 'faith, your friends will soon be sore;


s: Patriots there are, who wish you'd jest no more--


s: And where's the glory? 'twill be only thought


s: The Great Man never offered you a groat.


s: Go, see Sir Robert--P. See Sir Robert!--hum--


s: And never laugh--for all my life to come?


s: Seen him I have, but in his happier hour


s: Of social pleasure, ill-exchanged for power;


s: Seen him, unencumbered with the venal tribe,


s: Smile without art, and win without a bribe.


s: He does not think me what he thinks mankind.


s: Come, come, at all I laugh he laughs, no doubt;


s: The only difference is I dare laugh out.


s: F. Why, yes: with Scripture still you may be free;


s: A horse-laugh, if you please, at honesty:


s: Who never changed his principle, or wig:


s: Whom all Lord Chamberlains allow the stage:


s: These nothing hurts; they keep their fashion still,


s: And wear their strange old virtue, as they will.


s: His prince, that writes in verse, and has his ear?"


s: The worthy youth shall ne'er be in a rage;


s: But were his verses vile, his whisper base,


s: You'd quickly find him in Lord Fanny's case.


s: Sejanus, Wolsey, hurt not honest Fleury,


s: But well may put some statesmen in a fury.


s: Laugh, then, at any, but at fools or foes;


s: These you but anger, and you mend not those.


s: Laugh at your friends, and, if your friends are sore,


s: So much the better, you may laugh the more.


s: Sets half the world, God knows, against the rest;


s: Judicious wits spread wide the ridicule,


s: P. Dear sir, forgive the prejudice of youth;


s: Adieu distinction, satire, warmth, and truth!


s: Come, harmless characters, that no one hit;


s: The honey dropping from Favonio's tongue,


s: The flowers of Bubo, and the flow of Y--ng!


s: And all the well-whipped cream of courtly sense,


s: That first was H--vy's, F---'s next, and then


s: The S--te's, and then H--vy's once again.


s: As, though the pride of Middleton and Bland,


s: All boys may read, and girls may understand!


s: Then might I sing, without the least offence,


s: And all I sung should be the nation's sense;


s: And hail her passage to the realms of rest,


s: All parts performed, and all her children blessed!


s: And let, a' God's name, every fool and knave


s: Be graced through life, and flattered in his grave.


s: F. Why so? if satire knows its time and place


s: You still may lash the greatest--in disgrace:


s: For merit will by turns forsake them all;


s: Would you know when? exactly when they fall.


s: Silent and soft, as saints remove to heaven,


s: All ties dissolved and every sin forgiven,


s: Receive, and place for ever near a king!


s: There, where no passion, pride, or shame transport,


s: Lulled with the sweet nepenthe of a Court;


s: There, where no father's, brother's, friend's disgrace


s: Once break their rest, or stir them from their place:


s: All tears are wiped for ever from all eyes;


s: No cheek is known to blush, no heart to throb,


s: Save when they lose a question, or a job.


s: P. Good Heaven forbid, that I should blast their glory,


s: Who know how like Whig ministers to Tory,


s: And, when three sovereigns died, could scarce be vexed,


s: Considering what a gracious prince was next.


s: Have I, in silent wonder, seen such things


s: As pride in slaves, and avarice in kings;


s: And at a peer, or peeress, shall I fret,


s: Who starves a sister, or forswears a debt?


s: Ye gods! shall Cibber's son, without rebuke,


s: Swear like a lord, or rich out-rake a duke?


s: A favourite's porter with his master vie,


s: Shall Ward draw contracts with a statesman's skill?


s: To pay their debts, or keep their faith, like kings?


s: If Blount despatched himself, he played the man,


s: And so may'st thou, illustrious Passeran!


s: Learn, from their books, to hang himself and wife?


s: This, this, my friend, I cannot, must not bear;


s: Vice thus abused, demands a nation's care;


s: This calls the Church to deprecate our sin,


s: And hurls the thunder of the laws on gin.


s: Outdo Llandaff in doctrine--yea in life:


s: Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame,


s: Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.


s: Virtue may choose the high or low degree,


s: She's still the same, beloved, contented thing.


s: Vice is undone, if she forgets her birth,


s: And stoops from angels to the dregs of earth:


s: But 'tis the Fall degrades her to a w***e;


s: Let greatness own her, and she's mean no more;


s: Her birth, her beauty, crowds and courts confess;


s: Chaste matrons praise her, and grave bishops bless;


s: In golden chains the willing world she draws,


s: And hers the Gospel is, and hers the laws,


s: Mounts the tribunal, lifts her scarlet head,


s: And sees pale Virtue carted in her stead.


s: Old England's genius, rough with many a scar,


s: Dragged in the dust! his arms hang idly round,


s: His flag inverted trails along the ground!


s: Our youth, all liveried o'er with foreign gold,


s: Before her dance: behind her crawl the old!


s: See thronging millions to the Pagod run,


s: And offer country, parent, wife, or son;


s: Hear her black trumpet through the land proclaim


s: In soldier, Churchman, patriot, man in power,


s: See, all our nobles begging to be slaves!


s: See, all our fools aspiring to be knaves!


s: The wit of cheats, the courage of a w***e,


s: At crimes that 'scape, or triumph o'er the law;


s: While truth, worth, wisdom, daily they decry--


s: Yet may this verse (if such a verse remain)


s: Show there was one who held it in disdain.


s: Fr. 'Tis all a libel--Paxton (sir) will say. }


s: P. Not yet, my friend! to-morrow 'faith it may }


s: And for that very cause I print to-day. }


s: In reverence to the sins of thirty-nine!


s: Vice with such giant strides comes on amain,


s: Feign what I will, and paint it e'er so strong,


s: F. Yet none but you by name the guilty lash;


s: Even Guthry saves half Newgate by a dash.


s: Spare, then, the person, and expose the vice.


s: P. How, sir? not damn the sharper, but the dice?


s: Come on, then, satire! general, unconfined,


s: Spread thy broad wing, and souse on all the kind.


s: Ye statesmen, priests, of one religion all!


s: Ye tradesmen vile, in army, court, or hall,


s: P. Why that's the thing you bid me not to do.


s: Who starved a sister, who forswore a debt,


s: I never named; the town's inquiring yet.


s: P. See, now I keep the secret, and not you!


s: P. I fain would please you, if I knew with what;


s: Tell me, which knave is lawful game, which not?


s: Must great offenders, once escaped the Crown,


s: Like royal harts, be never more run down?


s: Admit your law to spare the knight requires,


s: As beasts of nature may we hunt the squires?


s: Suppose I censure--you know what I mean--


s: F. A dean, sir? no: his fortune is not made;


s: You hurt a man that's rising in the trade.


s: P. If not the tradesman who set up to-day,


s: Much less the 'prentice who to-morrow may.


s: Down, down, proud satire! though a realm be spoiled,


s: Arraign no mightier thief than wretched Wild;


s: Go drench a pickpocket, and join the mob.


s: But, sir, I beg you (for the love of vice!)


s: The matter's weighty, pray consider twice;


s: The poor and friendless villain, than the great?


s: Scarce hurts the lawyer, but undoes the scribe.


s: To tax directors, who (thank God!) have plums;


s: Still better, ministers; or, if the thing


s: May pinch even there--why lay it on a king.


s: P. Must satire, then, nor rise nor fall?


s: Speak out, and bid me blame no rogues at all.


s: F. Yes, strike that Wild, I'll justify the blow.


s: P. Strike? why the man was hanged ten year ago:


s: F. What? always Peter? Peter thinks you mad;


s: You make men desperate if they once are bad:


s: Else might he take to virtue some years hence--


s: P. As S---k, if he lives, will love the prince.


s: God knows, I praise a courtier where I can.


s: When I confess, there is who feels for fame,


s: And melts to goodness, need I Scarb'row name?


s: Please let me own, in Esher's peaceful grove


s: (Where Kent and Nature vie for Pelham's love),


s: The scene, the master, opening to my view,


s: Manners with candour are to Benson given,


s: That instant, I declare, he has my love:


s: I shun his zenith, court his mild decline;


s: Thus Somers once, and Halifax, were mine.


s: Oft, in the clear, still mirror of retreat,


s: I studied Shrewsbury, the wise and great:


s: Carleton's calm sense, and Stanhope's noble flame,


s: Compared, and knew their generous end the same;


s: How shined the soul, unconquered in the tower!


s: How can I Pulteney, Chesterfield forget,


s: While Roman spirit charms, and attic wit:


s: Argyll, the state's whole thunder born to wield,


s: And shake alike the senate and the field:


s: Or Wyndham, just to freedom and the throne,


s: The master of our passions, and his own?


s: Names, which I long have loved, nor loved in vain,


s: Ranked with their friends, not numbered with their train;


s: And if yet higher the proud list should end,


s: Still let me say: No follower, but a friend.


s: Yet think not, friendship only prompts my lays;


s: I follow Virtue: where she shines, I praise:


s: Point she to priest or elder, Whig or Tory,


s: Or round a Quaker's beaver cast a glory.


s: Dined with the Man of Ross, or my Lord Mayor.


s: Some in their choice of friends (nay, look not grave)


s: And love him, court him, praise him, in or out.


s: Find you the virtue, and I'll find the verse.


s: But random praise--the task can ne'er be done;


s: For him she weeps, and him she weds again.


s: Praise cannot stoop, like satire, to the ground;


s: The number may be hanged, but not be crowned.


s: Enough for half the greatest of these days


s: To 'scape my censure, not expect my praise.


s: And they not rich? what more can they pretend?


s: Dare they to hope a poet for their friend?


s: What Richelieu wanted, Louis scarce could gain,


s: And what young Ammon wished, but wished in vain.


s: No power the muse's friendship can command;


s: No power when virtue claims it, can withstand:


s: O let my country's friends illumine mine!


s: I think your friends are out, and would be in.


s: P. If merely to come in, sir, they go out,


s: The way they take is strangely round about.


s: F. They too may be corrupted, you'll allow?


s: P. I only call those knaves who are so now.


s: Is that too little?  Come, then, I'll comply--


s: But let me add, Sir Robert's mighty dull,


s: Has never made a friend in private life,


s: But pray, when others praise him, do I blame?


s: Why rail they, then, if but a wreath of mine,


s: Oh, all-accomplished St. John! deck thy shrine?


s: What? shall each spur-galled hackney of the day,


s: When Paxton gives him double pots and pay,


s: Or each new-pensioned sycophant, pretend


s: To break my windows, if I treat a friend?


s: Then wisely plead, to me they meant no hurt,


s: But 'twas my guest at whom they threw the dirt?


s: Of honour bind me, not to maul his tools;


s: Some, if they cannot cut, it may be said


s: His saws are toothless, and his hatchet's lead.


s: To see a footman kicked that took his pay:


s: But when he heard the affront the fellow gave,


s: The prudent general turned it to a jest,


s: And begged, he'd take the pains to kick the rest:


s: Which not at present having time to do--


s: F. Hold, sir! for God's sake where's the affront to you?


s: Against your worship when had S---k writ?


s: Or P--ge poured forth the torrent of his wit?


s: Or grant the bard whose distich all commend


s: (In power a servant, out of power a friend)


s: What's that to you who ne'er was out nor in?


s: The priest whose flattery be-dropt the Crown,


s: How hurt he you? he only stained the gown.


s: And how did, pray, the florid youth offend,


s: Whose speech you took, and gave it to a friend?


s: P. 'Faith, it imports not much from whom it came; }


s: Whoever borrowed, could not be to blame, }


s: Since the whole house did afterwards the same. }


s: If one, through Nature's bounty, or his Lord's,


s: Has what the frugal, dirty soil affords,


s: From him the next receives it, thick or thin,


s: The blessed benefit, not there confined,


s: Drops to the third, who nuzzles close behind;


s: From tail to mouth, they feed and they carouse:


s: The last full fairly gives it to the House.


s: F. This filthy simile, this beastly line,


s: And all your courtly civet-cats can vent,


s: Writ not, and Chartres scarce could write or read,


s: In all the courts of Pindus guiltless quite;


s: But pens can forge, my friend, that cannot write;


s: Because the deed he forged was not my own?


s: Must never patriot, then, declaim at gin,


s: Unless, good man! he has been fairly in?


s: No zealous pastor blame a failing spouse


s: And each blasphemer quite escape the rod


s: Because the insult's not on man, but God?


s: When truth or virtue an affront endures,


s: The affront is mine, my friend, and should be yours.


s: Mine, as a foe professed to false pretence,


s: Who think a coxcomb's honour like his sense;


s: And mine as man, who feel for all mankind.


s: So odd, my country's ruin makes me grave. }


s: Safe from the Bar, the Pulpit, and the Throne,


s: Yet touched and shamed by ridicule alone.


s: O, sacred weapon left for truth's defence,


s: Sole dread of folly, vice, and insolence!


s: The muse may give thee, but the gods must guide:


s: Reverent I touch thee! but with honest zeal,


s: To rouse the watchmen of the public weal;


s: And goad the prelate slumbering in his stall.


s: Ye tinsel insects whom a Court maintains


s: That counts your beauties only by your stains,


s: Spin all your cobwebs o'er the eye of day!


s: The muse's wing shall brush you all away;


s: All his Grace preaches, all his Lordship sings,


s: All that makes saints of queens, and gods of kings.


s: All, all but truth, drops dead-born from the press,


s: Like the last gazette or the last address.


s: When black ambition stains a public cause,


s: A monarch's sword when mad vain-glory draws,


s: Not Waller's wreath can hide the nation's scar


s: Touched with the flame that breaks from Virtue's shrine,


s: Her priestless muse forbids the good to die,


s: There other trophies deck the truly brave,


s: Than such as Anstis casts into the grave;


s: And may descend to Mordington from Stair:


s: (Such as on Hough's unsullied mitre shine,


s: Or beam, good Digby, from a heart like thine).


s: Let envy howl, while heaven's whole chorus sings,


s: And bark at honour not conferred by kings:


s: Let flattery sickening see the incense rise


s: Sweet to the world, and grateful to the skies:


s: Truth guards the poet, sanctifies the line,


s: And makes immortal, verse as mean as mine.


s: Yes, the last pen for freedom let me draw,


s: When truth stands trembling on the edge of law;


s: Here, last of Britons! let your names be read;


s: Are none, none living? let me praise the dead,


s: And for that cause which made your fathers shine


s: Fall by the votes of their degenerate line.


s: Fr.  Alas! alas! pray end what you began,


s: And write next winter more essays on man.


s: The candlelight sweeps softly through the room,


s: Filling dim surfaces with golden laughter,


s: Touching with mystery each high hung rafter,


s: Cutting a path of promise through the gloom.


s: Slim little elves dance gently on each taper,


s: Wistful, small ghosts steal out of shrouded


s: And, like a line of vague enchanted mourners,


s: Great shadows sway like wind-blown sheets of paper.


s: Gently as fingers drawn across your hair,


s: Roads stretch like arms across the world outside,


s: Roads reach to strife, to happiness, to fame--


s: Here, in the candlelight, I speak your name,


s: Here we are at life's cross way, side by side!


s: The woods lay dreaming in a topaz dream,


s: And we, who silently roamed hand in hand,


s: Were pilgrims in a strange, enchanted land,


s: Where life was love, and love was all a-gleam.


s: And old remembered songs came back to greet


s: Our ears, from other worlds of long ago,


s: The worlds that we of earth may seldom know--


s: And to those songs we timed our vagrant feet.


s: We did not speak, we did not need to say


s: The thought that lay so buried in our hearts--


s: The thoughts as sweet as springtime rain, that


s: We did not need to speak, we could not speak,


s: The wonder words that we in silence knew--


s: Who feel, but cannot tell, the thing they seek.


s: Her pillowed head upon her lover's breast,


s: Her kisses swift as birds that come and go!


s: We knew the sleeping beauty lay in state,


s: The prince whose kiss would raise her to a throne.


s: Perhaps a witch with single flaming eye,


s: Was watching from beneath the hemlock tree;


s: And fairies that our gaze might never see,


s: Laughed at us as we, hand in hand, crept by.


s: Laughed at us? No, I somehow think they knew


s: That you and I were kin to them that day!


s: I think they knew that we were years away


s: From everything but make-believe, come true.


s: I think they knew that, singing through the air,


s: There thrilled a vague, insistent, harp-like call--


s: And that, where woodbine blazed against the wall,


s: You held me close and kissed my wind-tossed hair!


s: I took th' horses to th' brook--to water 'em you know,


s: Th' air was cold with just a touch o' frost;


s: And as we went a-joggin' down I couldn't help but


s: O' city folk an' all the things they lost.


s: O' cause they have their lighted streets--their Great


s: O' course they have their buildings large an' tall;


s: But, my! they never know th' joy o' ridin' ter th'


s: Perhaps I'd like it--for awhile--to hear th' songs an'


s: I'd feel th' country callin' me; I'd long again fer


s: An' fer God's mountains, blue against the sky.


s: An' as we went a-joggin' down I couldn't help but


s: I live! And the scarlet sunrise is climbing the


s: I live... And below, in the caverns, the rest


s: But I--I am here, and chanting, I could slay a


s: And I thrill as the mist of the morning creeps up


s: I live, I have strength for fighting--and courage to


s: I live! And my eyes are lifting to gaze at the new-


s: And I pause, on the way to my hewn-out cave,


s: My mate, with her eyes on the scarlet dawn, and the


s: I live--and the joy of living leaps up in my searching


s: I live, and my soul starts forward, to challenge the


s: Far down are the torrents roaring, far up are the


s: And I stand on the cliff, exultant, akin to the waking


s: The mists are gone, and an eagle sweeps down from


s: And I wish that my arms were feathered and strong,


s: I live! I am one with the morning! Ah, I am a


s: And I shout aloud, and the scarlet dawn shouts back,


s: And one great cloud that swirls on high,


s: Or mean or small, can touch my heart....


s: Down in the vale the smoke-wreaths start,


s: It stands neglected, silent, far from the ways of men,


s: A lonely little cottage beside a lonely glen;


s: And, dreaming there, I saw it when sunset's golden


s: Had touched it with the glory of other, sweeter days.


s: They say the house is haunted, and--well, it is, I


s: For every empty window just aches with loneliness;


s: With loneliness that tortures and memory that flays;


s: Ah, yes, the house is haunted with ghosts of other


s: The ghost of childish laughter rings on the narrow


s: And, from a silent corner, the murmur of a prayer


s: Steals out, and then a love song, and then a bugle


s: And steps that do not falter along the quiet hall.


s: The story of the old house that stands beside the


s: That story is forgotten by every one; but when


s: The house is touched and softened by sunset's golden


s: I know that ghosts must haunt it, the ghosts of


s: I have struggled up through the lightning's glare,


s: I have walked where the cliffs fell sheer


s: To a gorge below, but I breathed a prayer,


s: What though the way was steep and bleak,


s: A storm may sweep through the world below,


s: But here on the crest of the world I know


s: Where th' mountains smile down, friendly--


s: Where the sumac grows in a crimson thatch,


s: The ghosts that sit at the well-scarred seats,


s: When the moon is dark, and the gray sky meets


s: With the dawn time light, and a chill wind blows?


s: Ghosts--well not ghosts, perhaps, but dreams--


s: To call them back where the morning gleams--


s: With the lesson books on the dusty rack,


s: Of the joyous years that will not come back--


s: That are drowned in the tears we have learned to


s: As a plant that grows in a desert place,


s: Where the sumac grows in a flaming wall,


s: Answering, still, the bell's shrill call,


s: Just as we came, with their songs unsung,


s: And their hopes all new, and their dreams dew


s: "You are white and tall and swaying," sang the river


s: "And your leaves are touched with silver--but you


s: For your branches murmur love songs to the sun-


s: And you seem so far above me that I always hurry


s: "You are laughing in your shallows, you are somber


s: And below your shining surface there's a heart that


s: But all day you pass me, dancing, and at evening


s: And I didn't think you liked me," sang the birch-


s: So they got a bit acquainted on a glowing summer


s: And they found they liked each other (which is often


s: And the river got so friendly, and it ran so very slow,


s: That the birch-tree shone reflected in the water down


s: Let's go down the road together, you and I,


s: Let's go down the road together when the red leaves


s: Let's go down the road together, you and I.


s: Let's go hunting for adventure, you and I,


s: For the romance that has always passed us by.


s: Let's go hunting for adventure, you and I.


s: Let's go down the road together, you and I--


s: As we take the road together when the red leaves fly.


s: Down the autumn road that calls us, you and I!


s: I walked down Fifth Avenue the other day


s: (In the languid summertime everybody strolls down


s: And I passed women, dainty in their filmy frocks,


s: And great green busses lumbered past me,


s: And impressive limousines, and brisk little 'lectrics.


s: I walked down Fifth Avenue the other day,


s: And something, deep in my heart, burst into song.


s: A woman with painted lips and rouge-touched


s: And I saw a flame leap out of her eyes to meet them


s: (Greedy eyes they were, and cold, like too-perfect


s: A thin little girl looking into a florist's shop


s: At a fragrant mass of violets, dew-purple and fresh.


s: "I guess somebody's hat'll be late today!"


s: And the thin little girl flushed and hurried on,


s: But not before I had seen the tenderness in her eyes--


s: When they look at vast rolling hills, or flowers, or


s: I walked down Fifth Avenue the other day.


s: (All the world walks, leisurely, down Fifth Avenue


s: Hangs dense and gray at the close of day--


s: For somewhere, dear, there's a magic land


s: And there is a boat with turquoise sails--


s: A boat that is whirling through the spray,


s: Somewhere, dear, there's a singing breeze


s: To the wide-flung boughs of a blue-black tree--


s: And the touch of it is as soft and light


s: Where the sky seems close and the drifting clouds


s: And there is a ship with turquoise sails,


s: Ah, the ship is bringing us dreams come true,


s: It is bringing us days that are all aglow


s: Through a world that is wrapped in mist.


s: But our hearts are gay at the close of day,


s: With heavy feet through the blinding heat,


s: I saw you in a shop to-day where lonesomely you


s: Upon a velvet cushion that was colored gold and


s: Between a bowl of goldfish, and a sleeping wooden


s: I wonder what you thought about as stolidly you sat


s: A grin of faint derision on your pudgy porcelain


s: I wonder if you dreamed about some cherry blossom


s: And if the goldfish bored you in their painted


s: I wonder if you dreamed about the laughter of the


s: As languidly they danced across the shining


s: I wonder if your thoughts were with a purple clump


s: That bloomed, all through the summer, by the


s: I wonder if you hated us who passed, you by unheeding,


s: You who had known the temples of another, older


s: And, oh, I wonder if you knew when I had paused


s: To pat you, porcelain puppy dog, that I could


s: I love the startled rose of the sun at dawning,


s: And the blazing orange of it at twilight.


s: I love the drowsy blue of the fringed gentian,


s: Yer eyes are bright, t' me, as any star,


s: An' that yer eyes is sorter wan an' pale,


s: An' that yer lil' body looks, well, frail....


s: Ter keep a baby fat an' strong an' pink!


s: An' when I seen yer face, deep down inside


s: My heart I felt--well, sorter broke an' tore,


s: 'Cause when yer came ter me I like ter died,


s: An' I had lost my job, there at th' store.


s: I looked at you, an' oh, it wasn't pride


s: An' then yer gropin' fingers touched my hand,


s: Yer didn't know, yer couldn't understand,


s: ('Cause yer was new t' this cold-hearted land),


s: Somehow, right there, I didn't stop ter think


s: That yer was white an' thin--instead o' pink,


s: An' that yer lips, an' not yer eyes, was blue...


s: I got t' thinkin' how, when work was through


s: I'd sing t' yer, an' rock yer off t' rest.


s: I got t' thinkin' that I had been blessed,


s: More than th' richest girl I'd ever knew!


s: An' oh, I held yer tight against my breast,


s: An', lookin' far ahead, I dreamed an' planned


s: That I would work th' fingers off my hand


s: An' mother-love swept on me like a tide,


s: They say yer eyes is sorter pale an' weak,


s: It's jus' because yer never been well fed,


s: That, through th' darkest night can smile an'


s: Was filled with the science of economics


s: And looked out over the veiled, mysterious lights


s: They think that we're just animals, almost,


s: She looked at me, an' I could hear her say,


s: "My, what a life! I s'pose his only boast


s: When some great blazin' mass is tamed an' turned


s: Into an engine wheel. Our hands get burned,


s: An' sometimes half our hair is scorched away--


s: Who did hard work he loved, an' called it play?


s: Know what I mean? Well, that's the way we feel,


s: She held her skirts right dainty in her hand,


s: An' as she passed me by, I heard her say,


s: "I wonder what he THINKS--or if his head


s: "Is just a piece o' metal, too!" She said


s: She couldn't know that we have dreams as grand,


s: An' if th' engine wheels we turn, will go


s: Through tropic heat, or if they'll plow through snow;


s: As j'ew'ls! An' every bit is, well, a part


s: Thanks God that I've a man-sized job to do!


s: "Violins made," read the sign. It swings


s: Their right to laugh for a chance to live.


s: Stare from the eyes that light his face.


s: But he never sighs and his slender hand,


s: Thrill with sorrow, and throb with death?


s: "Violins made," reads the sign. It swings


s: (Side by side and silent--eagerly they stand--


s: Souls look out of tired eyes, hands are clasped


s: Through the thrilling softness of the late spring


s: All a city slum is out to listen to the band.)


s: Young love and Maytime, hear the joyous strain,


s: You will recognize the song--you who care must


s: Fear that blends with happiness, joy that touches


s: Rabbi with the grizzled beard hear adventure's story!


s: Hear the tale the music tells, thrilling with ro-


s: Hear the clatter of a sword, hear a broken lance


s: Falling from some hero's hand, red with blood-


s: (Tenements on either side, light-flecked in the gloam-


s: Tenements on either side, stark and tall and gray--


s: Ah, the folk who line your halls wander far away,


s: Woman with the brooding gaze, hear the lilting


s: Of the children that you loved, feel their soft-


s: Think of all the little joys that a hard world


s: What though bitter loneliness always follows after?


s: Gangster with the shifty eyes, listen to the sighing


s: Of the hymn tune that you heard at your mother's


s: Listen to the restless ghost of the used-to-be,


s: Listen to a wistful ghost's empty-hearted crying.


s: (Tenements on either side--menacing they stand--


s: Light-flecked in the softness of the late spring


s: But young love and broken life are standing close


s: And all a city slum is out to listen to the band.)


s: He's very old, his music box is old and rusty, too,


s: And half the notes of it are harsh, and half of


s: One wonders if the coat he wears could ever have


s: And if the tune he plays was quite forgotten long


s: He finds a sunny place to stand, and lifts his bleary


s: And smiles a bit--a toothless smile half touched,


s: And though he cannot see them he is looking at the


s: As if he prays, but silently, for hope and faith


s: The foreign women pass him by, their tarnished coins


s: They toss their heads and will not hear his music's


s: But through each alley way and street, like moths


s: With eager eyes and laughing lips the little chil-


s: He plays his ancient, shaky song, his mouth moves to


s: He does not know the tune of it is old and out of


s: For, through his eyes, a soul stares out that wanders


s: In some fair land of youth and love--some land


s: The little children cluster close, bareheaded, bare of


s: They hold their ragged frocks and dance, they do


s: That they are like a garden place, a fragrant dream


s: Or that the tune he plays was quite forgotten long


s: Said, "Live, for Youth, too soon, will die!"


s: Sometimes my heart seems battle-scarred,


s: The words when first I learned to pray....


s: I breathed my little childhood prayer....


s: A voice spoke through the fragrant dark.


s: Here, alone in my room tonight, it is all that matters,


s: Out through my window, vaguely hushed, the city


s: Sighing ever its song of death and birth,


s: Swept with tears and the bitter weight of pain.


s: Here in my room I kneel, alone, to pray,


s: But there seems very little, dear, to say


s: I think dim thoughts, and dream long dreams instead.


s: Wide-eyed I kneel and watch the candle flame,


s: Making swift shadows on the wall; your name


s: Throbs in my heart, and makes my pulse to thrill--


s: Wide-eyed I kneel, with soul a-light, until


s: Somewhere a clock starts chiming.... It is


s: Out through the dark wan tenderness and hate


s: Press pale kisses upon the city's lips--


s: Dawn comes creeping, the weary nighttime slips


s: Furtively by, like some hurt thief with plunder....


s: Dear, I cross to my window, and I wonder


s: Sleepless beneath the smoke-hung purple sky....


s: Down in the streets the tired city vaguely clatters,


s: Here alone in my room I stand, and nothing matters,


s: Is telling a Juliet with dyed hair and tired,


s: That love--real love--is the only thing in the world.


s: A slim little girl in a shiny serge frock,


s: And as they listen, breathlessly, to the studied voice


s: A dusty, musty little shop set in a dingy street,


s: A doorsill old and scarred and worn by many tired


s: A row of cases, vaguely glassed, a safe against the


s: And, oh, the ache of many hearts--the fabric of it


s: A violin with broken strings that fingers have


s: A diamond-set betrothal ring that lover's lips have


s: A high shell comb, a spangled fan, a filmy bit of lace,


s: A heart-shaped locket, ribbon-tied, that frames a


s: A pair of blankets folded up, an overcoat, a shawl,


s: A tall old clock that might have chimed in some


s: And in the farthest corner, where the purple shadows


s: The echo of a woman's sob, the phantom of a sigh.


s: Ah, wedding-rings--a score of them--not many of


s: A grim revolver laid beside a baby's tiny shoe,


s: A satin coat, a ragged gown, a gold-clasped book of


s: A necklace of bedraggled pearls, an empty silver


s: A dreary weary little shop set in a sunless place.


s: A little shop where love has met with sorrow and


s: A row of cases, double-locked, a safe against the wall;


s: And, oh, the ache of countless hearts that lies


s: And so, as all the world, grew softly dark--


s: And hungrily, with out-flung arms, I came


s: There's a li'l empty closet in a li'l empty room,


s: Where th' shadows lie like dust upon th' floor;


s: It uster be HIS closet not s' very long ago--


s: Every li'l hook is empty, 'ceptin' one, an' from it


s: In a heart that's near ter breakin' with it's agony o'


s: An empty flannel nightie piped with blue.


s: Jus' a li'l flannel nightie that was shrunken in th'


s: In spots th' blue has ran inter th' white;


s: But I've seen him in it, sleepy, when I tucked th'


s: An' kissed him, soft, an took away th' light.


s: Jus' a li'l flannel nightie, hangin' empty on a hook,


s: Jus' a li'l flannel nightie an' it ain't no use no more,


s: But I couldn't bear t' take it from its place!


s: Jus' a li'l empty closet in a li'l empty room,


s: Where th' shadows lie like dust upon th' floor--


s: It uster be his closet, where I'd put his clothes away,


s: That's why I hate ter go there any more.


s: But I've left his li'l nightie hangin' on a single hook,


s: I sorter had ter leave it there, I guess;


s: Ah, that li'l empty closet in that li'l empty room


s: Oh, little child whose face I cannot see,


s: I feel the warmth of you creep close to me...


s: The grey moths drift across the candlelight,


s: Like wistful elves who do a fairy dance;


s: And rain is beating, like a silver lance,


s: Against the tightly curtained window pane.


s: The loneliness, the twilight, and the rain,


s: Have brought your dearness very close to me.


s: And though I rock with empty arms, I sing


s: About the star sheep and the shepherd moon!


s: Sleep, little tired eyes, close to the heart of me,


s: Sleep while the sun trembles low in the west;


s: You who are dream of my dreams, and a part of


s: Sleep with your head lying warm on my breast.


s: Dear, there's a land that is filled with red flowers,


s: Poppies, they call them, that sway in the breeze;


s: Sometimes their petals, in soft scarlet showers,


s: Fall in warm drifts that are high as your


s: Dear, in your dreams you will laugh as you roll


s: Gently they nod as the wind sings its soul through


s: Dear, in this land there's a sky like a feather,


s: Blue in some places, or white as a star;


s: And there's a fragrance--a plant that's called heather


s: Grows in the spot where the butterflies are.


s: Dear, there are pastures as gay as glad laughter,


s: Dotted with hundreds of woolly white sheep,


s: Dear, you can pat them, for they'll follow after


s: Dream, little tired eyes, close to the breast of me,


s: Wander in fields where red flowers are gloaming;


s: All of my heart wanders with you, the rest of me


s: I dreamed your face, one night, when Heaven seemed


s: Against the troubled fever of the earth;


s: I dreamed that vivid throated birds were nesting,


s: In trees that shook with elfin-hearted mirth.


s: I dreamed that star-like purple flowers were springing


s: A-throb with perfume all about the place,


s: And that there was a far-off sound of singing--


s: I dreamed your face, and then I waked from


s: (The creeping dawn seemed very cold and bare!)


s: The rising sun seemed pallid in its beaming,


s: Because its coming did not find you there!


s: And I--I rose despondent in the morning,


s: As one whose burning thirst has not been slaked;


s: I dreamed your face, a wonder world adorning,


s: A quest that led through many bitter years;


s: I journeyed far with strands of love to bind you,


s: And found, not you, but bitterness and tears--


s: So I returned, discouraged, through the gloaming,


s: My shoulders bowed with weariness unguessed;


s: I came back, unsuccessful, from my roaming--


s: It helped me dream, again, my dream of you--


s: It was a joyous place of colors blended--


s: A place where pansies and Sweet William grew.


s: And one bright day I hummed as I was planting


s: And raised my eyes to see pale sunlight slanting


s: You cannot make me think by fast set rule,


s: You cannot laugh beliefs like mine away,


s: And yet.... The golden sun shines every day,


s: And stars at night lend magic to the sky,


s: You cannot make me pause to question why


s: For we who dare to dream have learned to know!


s: THE WORLD IS RIGHT! There is a friendly One


s: Who smiles when we have tried to do our part--


s: I will not flinch, my journey's just begun....


s: God made the rivers, the hills, and the seas,


s: God made the flowers, the grass, and the trees;


s: God made the clouds, and the waves, silver-crested,


s: Then God made the hands of a baby--and rested!


s: How did He make them? Well, nobody knows--


s: Some say He dreamed of the bud of a rose,


s: Night in the dancing pink promise of day.


s: Maybe He thought of the light of a star,


s: (That's why He made them as soft as they are!)


s: Maybe He walked in a garden, dew-kissed,


s: That's why He made them as frail as the mist--


s: Then as He leaned from His heaven above,


s: God made them strong as His greatest gift--LOVE!


s: God made the mountains--we wonder at these--


s: God made the splendor of sunsets and trees;


s: God made vast mines where a world's wealth is piled,


s: Then God made the hands of a baby--and smiled!


s: All along the broad highway the little dreams were


s: White as hope, and red as life, and bluer than the


s: All along the broad highway I felt their petals


s: Like a storm of fragrant snow across the lips of


s: So I danced with joyous heart, and bent above them


s: So I skipped along the road and smiled into the


s: All along the broad highway I danced and sang unheeding,


s: Till One came with haughty step and traveled by


s: Traveled first beside my path then, suddenly, was


s: One who drew me after him and murmured, "I AM


s: All along the broad highway I hurried, ever faster,


s: Faster through the purple dust that blinded like


s: Blinded me until I felt that only Pride was master,


s: (And I saw the little dreams through clouds of


s: All along the broad highway I toiled, no longer


s: All along the broad highway, my feet no longer


s: Followed I the steps of Pride, and felt the thick


s: In the tired eyes of me... the eyes too sad for


s: Still I struggled--struggled on until quite


s: All the strength that kept me up seemed drowsy,


s: And I paused with drooping head and lo, Pride


s: All along the broad highway the silent dusk was


s: Quite alone I stood and stared about me in the


s: And the voice of me was still, and my heart was


s: Like a weary pilgrim soul in an attic room.


s: And I stretched my empty hands to where the ghostly


s: Showed a crumpled mist of blue, a heap of white


s: There along the broad highway like armies after


s: All the gallant little dreams were lying gaunt and


s: My mother's kinder chubby--she's fat, th' fellers


s: My mother's kinder chubby, but I like her that a-way!


s: 'Cause she's awful sorter jolly, an' she makes th'


s: An' she laughs when I'm a-jokin' 'till th' tears are in


s: An' she pats me on th' shoulder when I'm feelin'


s: An' whispers, "Little feller, yer mother's proud o'


s: She don't wear silks 'at rustle, like Tommie's mother


s: But I like her gingham better 'cause it's--well, just


s: An' she don't look young an' girl-like, an' her hands


s: But, my, they're awful gentle when she tucks you


s: She hasn't got a di'mond like th' lady crost th' street,


s: But she's got two great big dimples, an' her smile is


s: My mother's sorter chubby--but say, her step is


s: She's never cross 'r tired--not even when it's night!


s: An' her shoulders JUST as comfy when yer heart is


s: When you wish you was a baby--an' not a boy no


s: Oh, her arms are cushion tender at th' twilight time


s: Yes--my mother's sorter chubby--But I like her that


s: In a strange and sudden burst of confidence;


s: And why you can never see beauty and mirth


s: In the sweep of wind over a wheat field,


s: That somewhere behind you, in the shadows,


s: I had not meant to love again--all that was lost to


s: For I had felt love's fear and pain, as well as ecstasy;


s: I closed my heart, and locked the door, and tossed


s: All through the winter-time I sat before my flaming


s: And listened to the sleigh-bells chime, and watched


s: To grasp at shadows, sombre-hued, with fiendish, red


s: And then mad April came again--I felt the breezes


s: And I forgot the fear, the pain.... I only knew


s: In shady nook and garden spot, pale hyacinths were


s: And when across the perfumed lea (for nothing could


s: My vagrant love crept back to me... I did not


s: But April opened up my heart, and, oh, I ran to


s: The camel tracks led whitely across the desert sand,


s: And one came riding after with furtive mystery;


s: Ah, one came swiftly riding, a dagger in his hand,


s: And he was bent on plunder--a nomad thief was he!


s: He did not heed the starshine that glimmered from


s: For laden beasts had traveled along the lonely way.


s: He did not see the glory that swept the Eastern sky,


s: For he had far to journey before the dawn of day.


s: He followed through the desert, and then at last he


s: An inn upon the outskirts of some small village place;


s: And there were camels resting before the stable


s: He left his horse, crept nearer, with greed upon his


s: And peering o'er the threshold, he saw that gold was


s: With precious stones and incense, before a little


s: A thief he was by calling, who to the stable came,


s: A thief whose youthful fingers had learned to steal


s: A thief he was who valued his heritage of shame,


s: A thief he was, but--watching,--he saw a Baby face,


s: And, bending near, a Mother, whose joy was undefiled;


s: And for one breathless moment across the stable


s: The Baby's eyes gazed at him--AND THEN THE BABY


s: A thief he was by calling, but there beside the door


s: He saw a Holy Vision--he knelt and tried to pray--


s: And something, thrilling, whispered of love forever-


s: And then he rose, half weeping--and it was Christmas Day!


s: A thief he was by calling, who felt the Father's plan,


s: But back across the desert there silent rode a man!


s: The years are met as milestones upon a winding road,


s: And some slip by like shadows, and some are fair


s: And some seem dreary, hopeless--a leaden chain of


s: And some are like a heart-throb, and some a heavy


s: The thief, a thief no longer, a lonely figure strode


s: Heart-weary down life's pathway, through tempest


s: But always prayed that somewhere among sweet-


s: A Baby's smile might show him where happiness


s: For he was often hungry--a thief, reformed, must


s: And there were folk who shunned him, and turned


s: And there were those who scourged him from out


s: (They were the ones who told him to earn his bread


s: Yet ever he walked onward, and dreamed of some


s: When he would find the Christ-Child with love upon


s: Where work lay for the asking it seemed that men


s: But prejudice was rampant in every shop and field;


s: And, "What if you ARE trying, MY scythe you may


s: Men told the thief, who answered--"Indeed, I will


s: And carpenters and builders turned from him with


s: And farmers hurried by him to house the harvest's


s: And so he took his dagger, all rusted, and his shield,


s: And sought again the highway where thieves and


s: And yet the spark of manhood still flamed within his


s: And still he saw the Baby, beyond the stable door;


s: And oftentimes at even, as crimson daytime died,


s: He knelt, a sorry figure, from all of life apart.


s: And, "Oh, if I could see Him--and feel His love


s: "If I could see Him smiling, I would not steal!" he


s: It was a glowing ruby that caused the thief to fall,


s: But--he was very hungry, and lonely, too, and cold;


s: And youth lay all behind him, a tattered funeral


s: For he was very tired, and he was growing old.


s: It was a glowing ruby that lay upon the breast


s: Of one who had not earned it, who wore it with a


s: The thief was very weary, he only longed for rest;


s: He was too wan for caring, he was too numb for fear!


s: It was a glowing ruby--he held it in his hand--


s: His hand was thin and withered, it shook beneath


s: He took the vivid ruby, the ransom of a land,


s: And tied it firmly, tightly, within his garment's hem;


s: And then he shuffled forward, but like a thorn


s: His soul he bore the torment of bitterness and sin!


s: They caught him when the morning had tinged the


s: The gem was found upon him, as red as guilty blood;


s: He stood, his head sunk forward, with listless, shal-


s: And hopelessness submerged him like some unholy


s: A Thief he was by calling.  The law?  The law


s: What chance had he for pity?  His fate was sealed


s: He was unclean, an outcast, a menace to the state;


s: A thing to be avoided, a stain against the sun!


s: They led him to his hearing, the hall was still and


s: A judge was seated higher, who passed him with a


s: And suddenly, forgetting his weariness and fright,


s: The thief cried, leaping forward, "I did not have a


s: The judgment hall was spacious, and coldly white


s: And coldly came the sentence--"He shall be crucified!"


s: They nailed him, God's creation, upon a cross of


s: They nailed him up with laughter, they heeded not


s: And people looking at him were moved to soulless


s: And agony was on him--a searing, breathless flame!


s: And then, as he hung sobbing, a sudden feeling came


s: Of peace that, reaching toward him across the sound


s: Was like a burst of music that one more feels than


s: For, from somewhere beside him, a Voice had


s: Ah, he was weak with anguish, and yet he turned his


s: And saw a cross beside him, and on the cross a Form;


s: And he forgot the tumult, the horror and the storm--


s: And someone, down below him, said, "Look, the thief


s: But, safe from fear and torture beyond their scornful cries,


s: The thief had gazed at Heaven in Christ's triumphant


s: For he was hers--and she was there to love Him!


s: His hands, as pinkly tinted as a flower,


s: Seemed all too small to carve His deathless story--


s: What though a star gleamed glorious to guide


s: She snatched Him to her breast as if to hide Him


s: From harm, and fear, and even--yes, from glory.


s: And when the wise men came to give their treasure,


s: She smiled at them as proud as any queen;


s: The gold that gleamed; her gaze was far, serene,


s: Upon the hills where shepherds watched, alone.


s: She did not think of crosses or of dying,


s: Wrapped in her love--A baby--all her own!


s: A little song of love and hope and home,


s: And though I bowed beneath the load I bore,


s: I found that, when I sang, the way was bright,


s: And that my footsteps swifter grew, and light;


s: And all my life seemed fairer than before.


s: God has a song that fits in every heart,


s: And though that song may seem a tiny thing,


s: It is your task--so forge ahead, and SING--


s: And you will find that you have done your part!


s: And we began to talk, as young folk will,


s: Half carelessly, and half in awe, of God.


s: It was the springtime, and the night was still


s: And overhead a crescent moon shone bright.


s: And, "God," he said, "Has built the world on laws,


s: "Like some great watch, and every breathing space


s: "Is measured; and the system has no flaws,


s: "And nothing moves from its appointed place.


s: His voice was bold and had a ring of truth--


s: But God seemed ponderous, and far away....


s: And then a gentle breeze danced overhead,


s: And caused the timid, new-born leaves to sway,


s: And we began to talk of love, and youth.


s: And then, I sent him home, and went upstairs,


s: To my still room, and flung the windows wide;


s: And as I knelt to say my evening prayers


s: I saw the stars, far smiling, in the sky.


s: I worshipped God... knew why He had sent


s: His son to save the world from sin and shame;


s: And, suddenly, like some sweet, healing tide,


s: And, through the dark, my groping soul could see


s: The Christ Who loved us, and was crucified.


s: And, as I knelt and watched the star's faint shine,


s: I felt God's hand, a moment, touching mine!


s: You took the lilt from my heart of hearts,


s: And the mind of me that had once been free


s: I walked in a daze down well-worn paths--


s: I thought your thoughts and I spoke your tongue,


s: And the dreams that had been a part of me,


s: And I smiled with my lips--my eyes were numb--


s: You took the lilt from my carefree life,


s: But there came a day when the world grew gray,


s: So I tore you out of your soul-bound shrine--


s: "In robe and crown the king stepped down,"


s: "In robe and crown the king stepped down,


s: And watch the stars--my little sisters, they,


s: To plunge my body in some mountain stream--


s: This rope of pearls, this ring, these silken shoon?


s: Was like a hand that beckoned me to stray,


s: And as my feet--swift feet, they were, and light--


s: Carried me through the wonder of the night,


s: I never thought of kings, or kingly power--


s: My life was all one splendid, singing hour!


s: I love my king--He raised me from the dust,


s: And looked at me with wonder, and with trust;


s: My hair hung, tangled, to the waist of me,


s: He brushed it from my eyes, that he might see


s: He never knew my name, or asked my creed,


s: I love my king, I love him well, but, oh--


s: And once I wore, for all the world to see


s: A gown of rags.  (Now, velvets stifle me!)


s: And once my hands (how soft they are!) were strong


s: While I must sit in state above the land--


s: I love my king... But does he understand?


s: And, now that I am queen, my being longs


s: To hear, once more, the little slumber songs


s: Of night birds nesting in some forest tree--


s: I want to climb the crest of some great hill,


s: And watch the sunset clouds, again, and thrill


s: Before the color of them!  I would stand


s: Alone, once more, and see the wistful land


s: Rare pearls, the treasure of a sighing sea,


s: And opals like the wistful winds that blow


s: Wild forest flowers, twined about my head--


s: And I would dance, barefooted, on the sod,


s: Am I a queen?  What is this crown I wear?


s: I tear it from my smoothly plaited hair--


s: I lay my ring, my rope of pearls, aside;


s: I pull them off, the glowing gems, the ring....


s: I love my king, I love him well--but, oh,


s: And I did not know that they had been forgotten.


s: I wonder if you know, up there in heaven,


s: That I have kept your roses, crumpled now.


s: I wonder if you guess that still I treasure


s: A faded ribbon that once touched your brow.


s: I wonder if you dream, as dusk is falling,


s: I wonder if you think, up there in heaven,


s: I wonder if you smile up there in heaven,


s: And pass by, lightly, in your robes of white;


s: Or if you sometimes think of me a little.


s: I wonder if that last shy kiss I gave you


s: Can make you lonely, just a bit, for me.


s: I wonder if you long, up there in heaven,


s: For all the golden plans that used to be.


s: Do they have valentines up there in heaven?


s: The little way from earth to where you wait me,


s: Although it be beyond the stars' faint glow.


s: I want you dear; my tired heart is calling;


s: My eyes are searching, though they may not see;


s: I wonder if you're lonely, there in heaven,


s: For all the golden dreams that used to be.


s: And the way seemed fair in the dawn's first glow,


s: From the road that stretched like a ribbon white,


s: And love fell back in the garden--dead--


s: And I did not pause for regret or sigh....


s: Led up to heights I had dreamed and prayed


s: Grew hard to climb, and the laughing rills


s: Were torrents peopled with sodden forms;


s: The sky grew black with the threat of storms,


s: And rocks leaped out and they bruised my feet,


s: My back was bent, and my heart was sore,


s: And the cloak of pride that I grandly wore


s: Was rent and patched and not fair to see--


s: Ambition, talent, seemed naught to me....


s: But I struggled on 'till I reached the top,


s: And the earth looked sordid and dull and brown,


s: And the only spot that was bright to see


s: Was a patch of green that had bloomed for me


s: Where a garden lived in a spring long fled,


s: Your room is still the dainty little place,


s: That used to seem so much a part of you--


s: Still hold a shadow of their former grace.


s: The windows still are hung with frosty lace,


s: And sometimes, when the moonlight glimmers


s: See once again, reflected there, your face!


s: And yet, the little room seems much too neat,


s: It seems quite colorless, and very bare,


s: Because the filmy things you used to wear


s: Are laid away.  Because the perfume sweet


s: That clung about you has been swept aside....


s: Your room is there--but, oh, its soul has died!


s: I wonder if you ever dream of other days,


s: Because, sometimes, at twilight when the sunset


s: Half wistfully across the polished oaken floor,


s: I see you smiling--standing in your place once more.


s: (Do you remember little things we used to say?


s: They wouldn't mean so very much to us to-day....


s: Do you remember how I wore a gown of blue,


s: Because it brought the haze of autumn clouds to you?


s: Do you remember how I said you didn't care--


s: And how you laughed at me and rumpled up my


s: Do you remember how the tears stood in my eyes


s: At your good-by when darkness overhung the skies?)


s: I wonder if you ever dream of other days?


s: Because, sometimes at twilight when the sunset plays


s: Half wistfully across your empty cozy-chair,


s: I turn and half expect to see you smiling there!


s: When the day was done, and the misty night


s: And you took my hands, and you held them tight,


s: And you didn't speak, but, dear, I KNEW--


s: And my heart and my soul were part of you.


s: And I looked in your eyes and, glowing there,


s: And I knew, at last, that I didn't care,


s: Through the candlelight--when the world was grey--


s: And dreams of Heaven seemed strangely new....


s: There are such weary little lines about the mouth of


s: Such tragic little mirthless lines--they mock at


s: And twist your lips when you would smile, until all


s: And I, who want to laugh with you, am fain to


s: There are such dreary little lines about the mouth of


s: They make me want to whisper that summer sky is


s: And that the rain is like a lance of silver through


s: And that the flowers in the lane are growing tall


s: There are such tired little lines about the mouth of


s: As if you thought that life was cold and loving


s: They are such lonely little lines I think that I, some


s: Will creep close to you in the dusk, and kiss them


s: The flowers spring from the broken heart,


s: The birds sweep up to the wind-blown plain,


s: I felt a breeze, as soft as kisses, blow;


s: And, dear, I saw one golden sunbeam creep


s: From Heaven, lighting all the world below,


s: Like love that wakens, dewy-eyed, from sleep!


s: We who have wondered know the answer, now;


s: For Spring stands, joyous, on the purple brow


s: Of the far hill; and doubt is swept away,


s: And all the mirth-mad world makes holiday!


s: We who have wandered long, and half afraid,


s: Find answer in each dreaming woodland glade;


s: Now that the day is done I am ready to greet you,


s: Smiling, the way that I know you would have me


s: I will open the door, and will run down the walk


s: As if I had missed you, dear, for a weary while!


s: I will listen, breathless, the while you tell of your


s: All day long in the dust and the city's heat;


s: And, dear, you will never know that my blood is


s: Back of the smile that is calm and tenderly sweet.


s: You will never know that the soul of me, dear, is


s: Out where the seagull dips in the ocean's foam;


s: You will never know that something of me is dying,


s: Every night as I smile and welcome you home.


s: You will never know that my heart is soaring above


s: You will be content with my mask of a smile--


s: Lay aside the book that you are reading from--


s: What if Leander did swim the Hellespont?


s: Lay aside the book that you are reading from,


s: All day long I waited--waited with soul aflame--


s: And then through the still of evening, humming a


s: Came with a jest on your smiling lips, and eyes that


s: And the light died out of my waiting heart with the


s: We laughed through the star-flecked twilight--what


s: You, who were there beside me, laughed with a mirth


s: And at last when I bade you leave me you went, and


s: That with soul aflame I had waited, all through the


s: Dear, you are like the summer dusk to me,


s: The summer dusk when all the world seems still;


s: When purple shadows creep along the hill,


s: And birds are softly crooning in each tree.


s: Of twilight hours.  Sometime I think you will


s: You turn to star-shine, silvering the sea.


s: Dear, even when your head is on my breast,


s: You seem no nearer than a moonbeam thrown


s: Across my heart.  Your fingers have caressed


s: My hair so lightly that I scarce have known


s: Their pressure.  You are like that time when rest


s: Steals up so softly that one feels alone!


s: That our eyes have smiled and our hands have met?


s: That our souls have known and our hearts have cried,


s: But my eyes were dim as I watched you go!


s: You may wander far, you may come no more,


s: And our eyes have smiled, and I CAN'T FORGET!


s: I know that Love will come to me, some day,


s: Though I have never loved, or looked on Love;


s: I know that Love will wait beside the way


s: And smile at me.  The tender skies above


s: Will be alight with all the joy of spring,


s: And flowers will life their heads above the earth,


s: And some far bird will stay its flight and sing,


s: And fill the land with silver throated mirth.


s: I know that Love, at last, with smiling eyes,


s: Will pause beside my half-swung cottage door,


s: And I will lift my gaze, without surprise,


s: To see his shadow dance across the floor.


s: When springtime blossoms, shyly, into May!


s: Should fall in love with, for your eyes are blind


s: To all the things that make my world the kind


s: At some vague beauty that has caught my eye,


s: You laugh!  You cannot dream the dreams I find,


s: In forest places where dim pathways wind


s: I know that I should never learn to care,


s: And yet, sometimes the blueness of your eyes


s: Can make me half forget the smiling skies....


s: And, when I see the sunlight on your hair,


s: My heart throbs faster, and I know--I know!


s: You close beside me, and outside, the rain,


s: Which, stealing through the darkness of the night,


s: Seems tapping out with fingers softly light,


s: That throbs in suffering.  You hold me tight,


s: Your eyes, that search my own, are warmly bright,


s: Your lips touch mine again, and yet again!


s: Ah, what though years must pass, though you and I


s: May live our lives, quite silently, apart?


s: Whenever rain comes, when the day is through,


s: And, tapping on my casement, seems to sigh,


s: A dream will blossom, fragrant, in my heart,


s: That love was more than moonlight from above,


s: And sang of arms and lips and tender eyes;


s: I wrote of love--who did not understand--


s: And hoped that folk would think me very wise!


s: I sit, instead, and watch the sunlight stray


s: If God, who lights a million stars each night,


s: Laughed at the groping words I tried to write!


s: We watched the moon together, on some night


s: When stars hung very near, and softly bright?


s: Against your breast?  And if you seemed to know


s: (As you know now) the dreams that, like a light,


s: Shone in my soul?  For, dear, it seems so right--


s: So very right that you should hold me so!


s: Here, in the moonlight, there is nothing new,


s: The very arms that crush me to your heart,


s: Of some vague yesterday that has come true--


s: I feel tonight as if I, dear, might start


s: A journey back, across the years, with you!


s: You left me when the weary weight of sorrow


s: Lay, like a stone, upon my bursting heart;


s: Could dry the tears that you had caused to start.


s: You left me, never telling why you wandered--


s: Left me with but the love that I had squandered,


s: The husks of love and a vast loneliness.


s: And yet if you came back with arms stretched toward


s: Came back to-night, with carefree, smiling eyes,


s: And said: "My journeying has somehow bored me,


s: And love, though broken, never, never dies!"


s: I would forget the wounded heart you gave me,


s: My old-time gods would rise again to save me,


s: My dreams would grow supremely new and whole.


s: What though youth lay, a tattered garment, o'er you?


s: If you came back, with arms stretched out before


s: Sometimes a mist of sunlight across a stranger's hair,


s: Sometimes the vague expression upon a stranger's


s: Can make me feel your presence--can fill a lonely


s: With dreams of life half realized.  Faint music


s: Can make me hear your foot-fall, again, upon the


s: Sometimes a dancer moving with quite unconscious


s: Can make my pulse beat faster; and for a breathless


s: Can make me turn, expecting to find you standing


s: You have not gone!  The passing of every empty


s: Has only brought you nearer.  Those things that


s: Of all we planned together are bits of you that stay,


s: To bruise my soul as sharply as any flame-tipped


s: Ah, time may hold its healing--but years that pass


s: Cannot erase the writing you traced upon my


s: Love of my life, the time has come for parting--


s: For, dearest, I must leave you while we care!


s: Leave you while tears of vain regret are starting,


s: While I can look at you and find you fair.


s: Could we endure a morn of bitter waking,


s: Could we accept a love that would seem less?


s: Dear, I must go the while my heart is breaking--


s: Go while my world is filled with happiness.


s: Love of my soul, our dream has been so flaming,


s: That, if we waited, it might smoulder down--


s: We will have memories as sweet as flowers,


s: We who have left, untouched, Fate's cup of woe;


s: Kiss me once more to bridge life's aching hours--


s: Love of my heart--the time has come to go!


s: When I am old and drenched in worlds of sadness,


s: When, looking past the future's singing gladness,


s: I linger, wistful, in the years long dead.


s: When I am old, and young folk all about me,


s: Speak softly of religion, WHEN THEY SPEAK,


s: When parties are a grand success without me;


s: And when my laugh is fluttering and weak--


s: Will I then be content to raise my glances,


s: And will I be content to watch at dances,


s: Without a heartbreak, as the hours pass by?


s: Or when I see young lovers' fingers twine,


s: Our steps rang out as we crossed the sill,


s: And even our hearts seemed strangely still,


s: While our searching hands clasped tight.


s: We waited there while the wind moaned past


s: For we heard a song in the driving rain,


s: And the tempest rang with a mad refrain,


s: We have wandered far from the road of dreams,


s: And the scorching sun of the noonday gleams


s: But once, ah, once--in that dusky place,


s: When the lightning flashed through the air,


s: We have strayed away--we have strayed away--


s: How long the days may seem, how long each night,


s: (And yet, how short the evenings used to be!)


s: Warm pictures in the hearth that glows so bright.


s: We used to watch the laughing firelight,


s: And build dream castles in it--Ah, but we


s: Built castles everywhere!  And now the sea


s: Is swept between us.  You have gone to fight.


s: And try to smile, to dance and laugh and sing;


s: But just the thrilling roughness of your tone,


s: The light that lights your eyes, your lips that


s: And love--the flame of love that we have known!


s: Knowing, dear, that my whole heart lies at rest


s: Deep in the heart of you, I may sing a song


s: Telling the tale of bitterness and wrong....


s: Knowing, dear, that my head lay on your breast


s: Only last night, I may sing of dreams that died,


s: And hopes that never were born, and faith betrayed,


s: Of weary feet that have left the road and strayed


s: Out of the narrow way, to pastures wide.


s: Dear, when my songs were gay, I did not know


s: Whether you cared.  And so I had to sing


s: Gladly, to mask grim fear--I had to bring


s: Sunlight to point the path that I must go!


s: Now that the clouds are silver sweet above,


s: I may sing songs of sadness.  I am blessed


s: Knowing, dear, that my whole heart lies at rest,


s: Knowing, dear, that I have your love--your love!


s: War came, one day, and drew us close together,


s: The love that lay as lightly as a feather,


s: Now rests, a precious weight, upon my heart.


s: And all the dreams I dreamed for just the dreaming,


s: And somehow all the lonely world is seeming,


s: Because you were so much a part of living,


s: Like sunshine and the freshness of the air,


s: The priceless gift of faith that you were giving


s: Seemed small to me.  Scarce knowing you were


s: I took your heart-strings in my careless fingers,


s: And played a song as light as summer dew,


s: And yet, today, its wistful echo lingers


s: And fills an empty world with thoughts of you.


s: I did not think that I would ever miss you,


s: I did not dream the time would come to be


s: When I would long to touch your hand, to kiss you--


s: To hear your voice say tender words to me.


s: I did not know that I would wonder whether


s: My head would rest, once more, against your


s: War came, my dear, and drew us close together,


s: I stood in the rain and watched you pass,


s: And I thought of a fragrant summer night,


s: When the room was glowing with candlelight,


s: I thought of your arms that held me tight,


s: And your eyes that were near and warmly bright;


s: I thought of--all, as I watched you pass,


s: "Tramp, tramp, tramp!" rang your column's tread.


s: "Tramp, tramp, tramp!" through the street.


s: (Ah, dear, it was summer once, and there


s: Honeysuckle and mignonette, poignantly, sadly


s: "Tramp, tramp, tramp!" rang your column's tread,


s: And my eyes were dim as I bowed my head;


s: And my heart seemed broken and old and dead,


s: I stood in the rain and watched you pass--


s: And I thought, my dear, of the night when you


s: Had kissed me first.  (Ah, your eyes were blue,


s: (There, through the rain, I watched you pass!)


s: Like some gold-hearted bird with pinions strong;


s: He went with courage, with a snatch of song,


s: In all his splendid youth!  And God on high


s: Looked down with love to watch him dip and fly,


s: Then lifted him to where the brave belong.


s: He went to right a bleeding nation's wrong,


s: And proved that he was not afraid to die!


s: So we, who stare across the lonely hours,


s: Must only think of that great gift he gave;


s: Must think of other lives that his will save;


s: And know that, when the tender, healing showers


s: Have fallen in a stranger-land, the flowers


s: Will bloom, like prayers, upon a hero's grave!


s: Somewhere, Out There, he is--just a boy, that's all--


s: (Laughter sparkled in his eyes--he was always


s: Just a boy who answered when he heard his country's


s: (Somewhere, Out There, he is--how my thoughts go


s: Idle my wheel, to-day, hushed is it's spinning--


s: (Ah, but his eyes were blue--blue as the sea--)


s: Somewhere, Out There, he is... Losing--or winning!


s: (Boy with the carefree heart, come back to me!)


s: Jean found himself remembering HER hair;


s: To net men's soul in!  She had bade him go,


s: Sobbing, "Je t'aime"--which means, "I love you so!"


s: Red as a sunset cloud when daytime slips


s: That blooms upon the earth for just an hour;


s: A poppy flower, fragile, soft....  HER LIPS


s: Red as the heart-blood of a man, that drips


s: He felt the strength, the faith, the stubborn will,


s: Drop from him like worn garments, till he lay


s: Half-frightened in the burning light of day.


s: He wondered would it make, for her, the loss


s: His bearded lips once more upon her cheek,


s: Peter from Delancey Street, laughed with white-


s: "Dyin' side o' HIM!" he coughed.  "Ain't it rotten


s: "Poor guy, they got him, though--got him same as


s: Peter, from Delancey Street, stopped talking suddenly.


s: On the busy, smelly corner of a crowded city


s: Plastered tight to her little shell-like ears.


s: The night he told her that he'd left his place,


s: Had roughened up against his khaki sleeve,


s: A city slum, a girl with plastered hair,


s: But, oh, I sorter couldn't seem ter help


s: A soldier's dog don't have much time ter whine


s: A soldier's dog is bound ter learn, right soon,


s: You bet they do!  Jim-dog, he had ter go


s: He seemed ter sense it when there was a fight


s: A-brewin'.  Oh, I guess he knew, all right!)


s: Why, on th' march I'd pause an' call--"Hey, Jim!"


s: An' he'd be there, his head tipped on one side,


s: His tail a-waggin', an' his ears raised high....


s: He was a friend ter folks; he didn't bite;


s: He never snapped at no one in th' night;


s: An' yet... a spark o' light, a dartin' flame


s: They say there ain't no heaven-land for him,


s: 'Cause dogs is dogs, an' haven't any right;


s: But let me tell yer this; without my Jim


s: Th' very shinin' streets would seem less bright!


s: Could come at that last stirrin' bugle call


s: Where God stands smilin' welcome to us all,


s: An' I said, "Father, here's my dog... here's


s: They'd find some corner, touched with love, fer him!


s: Somehow I never thought that you would go,


s: Not even when red war swept through the land--


s: I somehow thought, because I loved you so,


s: That you would stay.  I did not understand


s: That something stronger than my love could come,


s: To draw you, half-reluctant, from my heart;


s: I never thought the call of fife and drum


s: Would rend our cloak of happiness apart!


s: And yet, you went... And I--I did not weep--


s: I smiled, instead, and brushed the tears aside.


s: And yet, when night-time comes, I cannot sleep


s: But silent lie, while longing fights with pride--


s: I wonder if you dream, across the night,


s: When watchfires cut the vivid dark in twain,


s: Of long dim rooms, and yellow candlelight,


s: And gardens drenched in vaguely perfumed rain?


s: I wonder if you think, when shot and shell


s: And molten fire are singing songs of hate,


s: Of that last throbbing moment of farewell


s: When, in your arms, I promised you to wait!


s: I wonder, should grim death reach out his hand,


s: And speak, above the strife, of peace and rest;


s: If you, alone in that dark stranger land,


s: Would feel again my head upon your breast?


s: And if, as light and love and living slips,


s: Your prayer would be my kiss upon your lips....


s: Back through the streets that echo at your tread--


s: My soul will thrill to hear the throbbing drum,


s: And yet, perhaps, I'll sit with drooping head,


s: Not caring, quite, to meet your steady gaze,


s: Not daring, quite, to look into your eyes;


s: Each one a million years, between us lies.


s: My heart--my heart is ever yours to hold,


s: And yet, while I have waited here for you,


s: You have seen faith betrayed, and brave youth sold,


s: You have seen meadows drenched in bloody dew--


s: It may have changed you, and your eyes may be


s: Sometimes I dream that you are back with me,


s: And that with hands together clasped we go


s: Like little children, young and glad and free,


s: Sometimes I dream your eyes upon my face,


s: And feel your fingers softly touch my hair....


s: And when I wake from dreaming all the place,


s: Seems lonelier because you are not there.


s: What is a dream?  Not very much, they say,


s: Well, maybe they are right....  And yet, today,


s: When all the warring world was swept with pain,


s: Because I dreamed that you were back with me!


s: Now, when I stand in some great crowded place,


s: Out of their eyes--And I can glimpse the care


s: And worry that has banished light and grace


s: I see the mark of tears, the hint of prayer


s: That, one short year ago, had not been there--


s: Before you left, I did not notice eyes--


s: Because I knew that I might touch your hand,


s: I did not dream the dread that swept our land...


s: Ah, dear, the months have made me very wise!


s: And heart meets heart and I can sympathize.


s: And youth returns, triumphant, to our land--


s: And dear-heart, you'll be coming back to me,


s: With eager lips, and tender outstretched hand!


s: At evening time, with laughter lilting gay;


s: Glad of the little things that life may hold--


s: And I will meet you in the self same way....


s: And I will feel that you are come, before


s: And, in the darkness there, my pulse will leap,


s: Reviving dreams that long have lain asleep!


s: "I wonder what they're doin' home tonight?"


s: Some of us missin' buddies who was dead--


s: "I wonder what they're doin' home ternight?"


s: An' some of us felt, well--as if we'd like


s: An' some of us tried hard-like not ter choke,


s: A little house that means just all ter me


s: Their thoughts was goin' on th' self-same track--


s: Home--HOME--No wonder that we all was still--


s: With pine trees on it black against th' moon--


s: Ter some one who had gone back home too soon


s: To that real home that is beyond the sky.


s: We just sat still an' wondered when there'd be


s: We sat an' watched th' dancin' fire fling


s: An' then Jim coughed as if his throat was sore,


s: I am coming back with a singing soul through the


s: Coming back to the land called home, and the love


s: I am coming back through a flash of spray, through


s: I am coming back, I am coming back....  But,


s: I have heard the shriek of the great shells speak to


s: And a growling gun when the fight was won, and the


s: I have seen men die with their chins raised high, and


s: I have fought alone when a comrade's groan was


s: I have tramped a road when a burning load was


s: Through miles of mud that was streaked with blood,


s: I have cried aloud to a heedless crowd of a God that


s: And have knelt at night when the way was bright


s: I am going home through the whirling foam--home


s: I am going back to the beaten track and the sheltered


s: With gasping breath I have sneered at death, and


s: And safe again, through the years of pain, I am


s: For I have killed, and my heart has thrilled to the


s: I am coming back to the used-to-be--But, God, do I


s: "Say," he shouts, "ain't this SOME place?


s: God, bring them back just as they went away;


s: Take up the lives that war has disarranged.


s: Let them renew the youth they laid aside


s: To fight their battles in the world of men,


s: God, bring to life their little dreams that died,


s: And build their altars new again, and then--


s: Give them the vivid youth that they have sought for


s: Through bloody mists on bloody fields of strife;


s: Show them the gallant truth that they have fought


s: Show them, anew, the better things of life.


s: God of the hosts, blot out the months of pain--


s: And let them have their boyhood back again.


s: The city thrills once more to joyous singing;


s: Glad laughter sounds again upon the street,


s: And music throbs again, until young feet


s: Trip merrily upon their way; the ringing


s: Of hour chimes are gallant voices, flinging


s: Their challenges through each crowded space, to


s: Old friends who linger where they used to meet


s: With other friends long gone....  The summer,


s: The light of peace, has seemed to fill the city,


s: In sounds of joy; there seems no room for sorrow--


s: Yet, like a minor chord submersed in pity,


s: There steals above the music of tomorrow,


s: The weary footsteps of the ones who died.


s: And glowing bits of emerald, and diamonds like


s: But, Paris, can you quite forget the bodies lying


s: Beneath the snow on Flanders fields--your lost


s: The windows of each little shop are gay with gem-


s: With rings to fit milady's hand, and drops to deck


s: (But, Paris, can you quite forget Verdun, and Ypres,


s: And, far beneath the sounds of mirth, one


s: The little shopgirls who are still, so many, dressed


s: (But, oh, the saddened hearts of them no doubt are


s: Some sandy stretch along the Marne, where grim


s: The windows gleam enticingly, and eyes light up to


s: For Paris thrills to loveliness, as Paris always


s: (Oh, God of beauty, touch the lives that war has


s: From broken dreams, an empty faith, and hopes


s: Violets and mignonette, crowded close together,


s: Crowded close together on the corner of each street,


s: Through the chilling dampness of the misty weather,


s: Violets and mignonette--ah, so close together--


s: Making all the Paris day colorful and sweet!


s: Roses faintly touched with pink; see, a soldier


s: Close beside the flower-stand, dreaming of the day


s: When she broke a single bud with her slender fingers,


s: Pressed it to her wistful mouth--see, a soldier lingers


s: Lilacs white and pure and new, fragrant as the


s: One pale widow, passing by, pauses for a space,


s: Thinking of the lilac tree that once grew, adorning


s: All a little cottage home, in life's fragrant morning;


s: Of a lilac tree that grew in a garden place.


s: Pansies for a thought of love, lilies for love's sorrow,


s: Bay leaves green as hopes that live, berries red


s: Flowers vivid for a day, gone upon the morrow,


s: Flowers that are sweet as faith, that are sad as


s: Flowers for the weary souls of a weary town.


s: Violets and mignonette, crowded close together,


s: Crowded close together on the corner of each


s: Singing of the summertime, through the misty


s: Violets and mignonette--ah, so close together--


s: Making all the Paris day colorful and sweet!


s: (Marie Antoinette walked down the steps of a certain


s: They say a queen once walked along the marble steps


s: To meet grim death by guillotine--a smile was on


s: A smile of scorn that lifted her above the howling


s: A smile that mocked at pallid fear--a smile serene


s: Yes, it was Marie Antoinette--she walked with


s: She sauntered down the marble steps with proudly


s: And there were those among the crowd who watched


s: To see a queen walk out with smiles to keep a tryst


s: I stood beside those marble steps just yesterday, and


s: A bride upon a soldier's arm--a poilu brave who


s: A Croix de Guerre upon his breast--and oh, they


s: The busy throng that hurried by, unconscious of their


s: And though, across the mist of years, I glimpsed a


s: A face that smiled, but scornfully, above her land's


s: I will remember, on those steps, the little new-made


s: Who came, her eyes all filled with trust, to keep


s: And clouds of gray mist curl and twist and twine


s: The streets are wet with rain, and suddenly


s: New rain falls in a straight, relentless line--


s: And silver drops, like needles, slim and fine,


s: Drip from the branches of each gaunt-limbed tree.


s: Look down into the center of your heart,


s: That has been bruised by war, and torn apart--


s: The once glad heart that has been taught to sigh?


s: The sun is like your smile that flutters by


s: Like some lost dream, before the tear-drops start.


s: They were the brave ones, the gallant ones, the


s: Who were the very first to go--to heed their coun-


s: They were the joyous ones, the carefree ones, the


s: Who were the first to meet the foe, who were the


s: Artists and poets, they; the talented and youthful


s: All the world before their feet, their feet that loved


s: We have heard about their lives; stories crude, and


s: Of the carefree lives they lived, in the yesterday.


s: Ah, the Latin Quarter now; boarded up, the most


s: Studios are bare, this year, and little models sigh,


s: For the ones who died for France, died and are the


s: Died as they had always lived, with their heads


s: But a spark of it remains, in forgotten places,


s: For I saw a blinded boy strumming a guitar,


s: Playing with his face a-smile, with the arts and


s: Of a troubadour of old.  He had wandered far.


s: Through the flaming hell of war--wandered far and


s: To the corner that he loved when his eyes could


s: And he played a jolly tune, he who may not roam


s: Played it on an old guitar--played it smilingly.


s: In a dingy eating house; he had laughed and


s: Sketches on the ragged cloth, boasting he was able


s: Still to draw as well as most--with two fingers


s: Through colored glass, on burnished walls,


s: Rise like a hand stretched toward the sky


s: That makes them falter, holds them still--


s: Bronzed boys, who shrugged and laughed at death,


s: Through mellow glass, on hallowed walls,


s: Seem like a hand stretched toward the sky


s: The streets are silent, and the church bells ring


s: When war was all undreamed.  They seem to say,


s: "Come back, come back, across the years of strife


s: "A Hand that brings your dead again to life!"


s: A little white-haired woman hurries past,


s: A tiny prayer-book in one wrinkled hand;


s: Her eyes are calm, as one who knows at last


s: That, as a rainbow creeps across the rain,


s: Summer sweeps, like sad laughter, over France,


s: Touching the fields with flower-tinted mirth;


s: Bringing its wistful gladness to an earth


s: That has been stabbed with sorrow's bitter lance;


s: Paying again the price that youth was worth--


s: Where there were shell holes summer sends, un-


s: Blossoms to deck the broken country side;


s: Where, in another season, heroes, bleeding,


s: Fell for the cause of righteousness, and died,


s: Green creeper twines its vivid arms, half-pleading,


s: But there are scars that summer cannot hide!


s: They could not take the living God away,


s: Although they left His altar blank and bare;


s: Their ruthless hands could never rend and tear


s: More than the walls, they could not hope to sway


s: The utter faith that is the nation's heart;


s: They could not bring a real destruction where


s: Hymn music had been softly wont to play!


s: They smothered beauty, and tore hope apart;


s: The marks they left will now be sanctified;


s: The broken walls, when war is but a dream,


s: And every shell-torn scar will stand for One


s: Whose hands were scarred, the Christ men crucified!


s: Will slant more gently through the broken tower--


s: And, in good season, that some tender flower


s: Will bloom beside the ruined threshold, where


s: Folk paused before they entered in to prayer....


s: Child faces saddened, older than they should be,


s: And wiser than a lived-out span of years;


s: One wonders what those self same faces would be,


s: If they had never looked on pain--if tears


s: Had never been their portion; if the morrow,


s: Had never held the pallid ghost of care--


s: Child faces, graven deep with worlds of sorrow,


s: Until the light of childhood is not there!


s: Child faces, once agleam with carefree laughter,


s: Wide eyes, where smiles like baby rainbows grew;


s: They are the dreams that never will come true.


s: They are the words of fate that have been spoken,


s: They will remind a world that hearts were broken,


s: For, in their souls, France goes to meet her dawn!


s: Just a little wisp of song played softly in the twilight,


s: Such a happy little song--and oh, the dusk is gray!


s: Such a joyous little song, and oh, the night is


s: Coming with the bitter chill that marks the death


s: Almost like a dance it is, it holds no hint of sorrow,


s: Almost like a waltz it is, to set the pulse a-thrill;


s: Not a hint of tears in it--and oh, the night is


s: Coming like a purple shroud across the purple hill!


s: Sad the little farmhouse is, the doors swing on their


s: All the windows look like wounds, pitiful and bare,


s: And a shell has torn a gash in the broken roof of it,


s: But the music lilts along like a happy prayer.


s: Do pale ghostly fingers play on a ghostly violin?


s: (War has swept the countryside of the songs it


s: Merry is the little tune--not a wistful questioning--


s: Merry with a rosy thrill of a dream come true.


s: The fairy folk are coming back to France;


s: They push their way through tangled grass and


s: To find the ring where once they used to dance.


s: They come half-wistfully, the little people,


s: Through broken town, and battered market place,


s: They come past shell-torn church with shattered


s: They come as smiles come to a tear-stained face.


s: They come with packs of dreams, with love and


s: They come with songs rolled snugly up in sacks;


s: Tied neatly into bundles on their backs!


s: They bring the seeds of magic so that flowers,


s: May bloom, once more, in sweet enchanted bowers,


s: Above the heart-ache of a tortured earth.


s: Now that the angry powder smoke has vanished,


s: The fairy folk that hate and war had banished...


s: They pause beside a loosely swinging door,


s: To set it right on hinges that were breaking,


s: They lift an old rag doll with tender care,


s: And hurry on--because their hearts are aching,


s: For one-time childish faces that were there.


s: They cross forgotten meadows in the gloaming,


s: Through forest aisles at even-time they creep;


s: Where trenches were, their little feet are roaming,


s: And where the heroes of the conflict sleep,


s: They stop, a moment, wistful--and their singing


s: Dies down into the semblance of a prayer;


s: And tiny bells in far-off elf land ringing,


s: Sound, like a silver promise, on the air.


s: The ruined wheat fields lying in the sun


s: Will smile again, e'er many seasons pass;


s: The crooning breeze will sway the golden grass,


s: Mowed down the meadow poppies in red heaps;


s: And homes will stand where one-time gardens grew,


s: And, in dim forests where an army sleeps,


s: The little birds will sing their evening songs,


s: The way they did before a blasting rain,


s: Of shrapnel cut their tiny nests in twain;


s: For France will rise, triumphant, from her wrongs--


s: Yes, France will rise once more in faith, and pave


s: Her roads anew with shattered stones of life,


s: Her songs will rise, once more, above the strife--


s: But what about the hearts that gave--and gave!


s: Dear God, they will not come again, those lads of


s: Who went to fight with honor's foe across the sea--


s: Who died with eyes set straight ahead, amid the


s: Of shrapnel, as they cleared a path to victory,


s: They will not come again...  And it is Easter


s: And all the world is waking to the call of life,


s: But they lie sleeping, Over There, our lads, together,


s: Who died before their hearts could know the end


s: Who left this land so gallantly to do their best--


s: And so I ask that You will send gay springtime


s: To deck each shell-torn meadow where their bodies


s: I ask that You will let them hear the joyous singing,


s: Of some deep-throated bird whose heart tones


s: God, let them feel the thrill that Easter time is


s: That death is only life asleep--and all is well!


s: Over the mists of a century they come, and their


s: Are light as the dust on the broad highway, or the


s: Out of the haze of the years between their shadowy


s: To welcome the heroes home again who have fought


s: They went to battle at Concord Bridge, and they fell


s: The odds were great, but they struggled on with a


s: They lay in the fields at Lexington when the sun in


s: And the next year's violets grew on the spot where


s: But they won in the end--with their broken guns


s: Won at the end of a bitter war, by means that they


s: And some of them wandered back to their plows, and


s: And slept the sleep of the fearless heart that has


s: Fought for their homes, at home, they did--but these


s: Fought for the homes of stranger folk three thousand


s: In a muddy trench, in a foreign land, and under a


s: They fought on the Marne, at Belleau Wood; they


s: Chateau-Thierry was theirs to take; they took it and


s: And now that the fight they fought is won, though


s: Their souls come back to the land they loved--the


s: And so, through the damp of the sorry sea, through


s: They are coming back to homes they loved--they


s: And light as the wind that sways in the wheat, or


s: They march to their rendezvous with the ones who


s: You come to me at twilight, when the others,


s: Are laughing in the fullness of their joy;


s: When glad-eyed women folk, when wives and mothers,


s: Are welcoming some other bronze-cheeked boy.


s: You come to me, all silent, in the gloaming,


s: And, dear, I somehow feel that you are roaming


s: Between two shadow worlds--the Here and There.


s: They ask me, do those others, why I wander


s: They do not know my heart's a shadow--yonder...


s: They do not know that part of me has died.


s: They do not know that your dear presence stands


s: Just out of reach with misty, wide-flung hands!


s: Only we two, dear... and the candlelight,


s: Country and city, vivid dream lands, war--


s: Dear, they are very far from us to-night!


s: Woven of promise from life's golden loom,


s: Pale threads of light have bound us heart to heart;


s: Laughter and sorrow--they are things apart--


s: Outside the branches sway, and winter weather


s: Sweeps, with a cry of triumph, through the land


s: Dear, it is springtime, when you touch my hand--


s: Drove Nymph and Satyr from the prosperous woods,


s: Sceptre, and mantle, clasp'd with dewy gem,


s: From rushes green, and brakes, and cowslip'd lawns,


s: His golden throne, bent warm on amorous theft:


s: On this side of Jove's clouds, to escape the sight


s: For somewhere in that sacred island dwelt


s: A nymph, to whom all hoofed Satyrs knelt;


s: At whose white feet the languid Tritons poured


s: Pearls, while on land they wither'd and adored.


s: Fast by the springs where she to bathe was wont,


s: And in those meads where sometime she might haunt,


s: Were strewn rich gifts, unknown to any Muse,


s: Though Fancy's casket were unlock'd to choose.


s: Ah, what a world of love was at her feet!


s: Burnt from his winged heels to either ear,


s: That from a whiteness, as the lily clear,


s: Blush'd into roses 'mid his golden hair,


s: Fallen in jealous curls about his shoulders bare.


s: From vale to vale, from wood to wood, he flew,


s: Breathing upon the flowers his passion new,


s: And wound with many a river to its head,


s: To find where this sweet nymph prepar'd her secret bed:


s: In vain; the sweet nymph might nowhere be found,


s: Of the Wood-Gods, and even the very trees.


s: There as he stood, he heard a mournful voice,


s: Such as once heard, in gentle heart, destroys


s: All pain but pity: thus the lone voice spake:


s: "When from this wreathed tomb shall I awake!


s: And love, and pleasure, and the ruddy strife


s: Round bush and tree, soft-brushing, in his speed,


s: The taller grasses and full-flowering weed,


s: Bright, and cirque-couchant in a dusky brake.


s: She was a gordian shape of dazzling hue,


s: Vermilion-spotted, golden, green, and blue;


s: Striped like a zebra, freckled like a pard,


s: Eyed like a peacock, and all crimson barr'd;


s: And full of silver moons, that, as she breathed,


s: Dissolv'd, or brighter shone, or interwreathed


s: Their lustres with the gloomier tapestries--


s: So rainbow-sided, touch'd with miseries,


s: She seem'd, at once, some penanced lady elf,


s: Some demon's mistress, or the demon's self.


s: Sprinkled with stars, like Ariadne's tiar:


s: Her head was serpent, but ah, bitter-sweet!


s: She had a woman's mouth with all its pearls complete:


s: And for her eyes: what could such eyes do there


s: But weep, and weep, that they were born so fair?


s: As Proserpine still weeps for her Sicilian air.


s: Her throat was serpent, but the words she spake


s: Came, as through bubbling honey, for Love's sake,


s: And thus; while Hermes on his pinions lay,


s: Like a stoop'd falcon ere he takes his prey.


s: "Fair Hermes, crown'd with feathers, fluttering light,


s: I had a splendid dream of thee last night:


s: I saw thee sitting, on a throne of gold,


s: The only sad one; for thou didst not hear


s: The soft, lute-finger'd Muses chaunting clear,


s: Deaf to his throbbing throat's long, long melodious moan.


s: I dreamt I saw thee, robed in purple flakes,


s: Break amorous through the clouds, as morning breaks,


s: Strike for the Cretan isle; and here thou art!


s: Too gentle Hermes, hast thou found the maid?"


s: "Thou smooth-lipp'd serpent, surely high inspired!


s: Thou beauteous wreath, with melancholy eyes,


s: Possess whatever bliss thou canst devise,


s: Telling me only where my nymph is fled,--


s: Where she doth breathe!" "Bright planet, thou hast said,"


s: Return'd the snake, "but seal with oaths, fair God!"


s: "I swear," said Hermes, "by my serpent rod,


s: And by thine eyes, and by thy starry crown!"


s: Light flew his earnest words, among the blossoms blown.


s: Then thus again the brilliance feminine:


s: "Too frail of heart! for this lost nymph of thine,


s: About these thornless wilds; her pleasant days


s: She tastes unseen; unseen her nimble feet


s: Leave traces in the grass and flowers sweet;


s: From weary tendrils, and bow'd branches green,


s: She plucks the fruit unseen, she bathes unseen:


s: Of Satyrs, Fauns, and blear'd Silenus' sighs.


s: I took compassion on her, bade her steep


s: Her hair in weird syrops, that would keep


s: Thou shalt behold her, Hermes, thou alone,


s: If thou wilt, as thou swearest, grant my boon!"


s: An oath, and through the serpent's ears it ran


s: Blush'd a live damask, and swift-lisping said,


s: A woman's shape, and charming as before.


s: Give me my woman's form, and place me where he is.


s: Stoop, Hermes, let me breathe upon thy brow,


s: And thou shalt see thy sweet nymph even now."