s: Gottsdonnerkreuzschockschwerenoth,(Ger.) - Another variety of big


s: Gott's-doonder,(Ger. Gott's donner) - God's thunder.  See also


s: Gott's tausend, a thundering sort of oath, but never preceded


s: by lightning, for it is only used as a kind of expletive to


s: express great surprise, or to give great emphasis to words


s: which, without it, would seem to be capable of none.


s: Gottstausend,(Ger.) - An abbreviation of Gott's tausend


s: donnerwetter (God's thousand thunders), and therefore the


s: comparative of Gott's doonder; with most of those who use it a


s: Guestfriendlich, gastfreundlich - Hospitable.


s: Gutemberg - The inventor of the art of printing.


s: Guve - Southern slang for give.  Guv, for give, is also


s: Hans Michel - A popular but not complimentary name for Germany.


s: Hans Wurst - Merry Andrew; Zani; Jack Pudding - the latter word


s: being a literal translation of the German Hans Wurst; the


s: pudding in either case referring to the sausages, or the


s: pretended sausage, which the Merry Andrew always appeared to


s: be swallowing by the yard or fathom.  See Blackley's "Word


s: Herr Je,(Ger.) - An abbreviation of Herr Jesus (O


s: Lord!); generally only used by those who are fond of


s: Her-re-liche, herrliche - Superb, grand, noble.


s: Himmlisch' hoellisch' qual,(Ger.) - Heavenly-hellish pain.


s: Honey fooglin', Honeyfuggle - Is believed to be English


s: slang.  In America it means blarneying, deceiving.


s: Hoockle perry, persimmoned - "A huckle-berry over my


s: Hoof-irons,(Huf-eisen in Ger.) - Horse-shoe.


s: Hundsfott,(Ger. Vulg.) - Mean scoundrel, hound.


s: I Gili romaneskro - This song is written in the German gipsy


s: dialect.  Eh! in third line of second verse, is the


s: German word ehe, "ere," or before.  Kuribente


s: ("in war,") is in the Slavonic and gipsy local case,


s: or as Pott calls it (Die Zigeuner in Europa und Asien)


s: Il diavolo in carnato,(Ital.) - The devil incarnate or in


s: In Sang und Klang dein Leben lang,(Ger.) - In music and song all


s: Jeff - A game played by throwing up types, generally for


s: Kitin, a kitin - Flying or running rapidly.


s: Knasterbart,(Ger.) - Literally, tobacco-beard; perhaps denoting a


s: Knock dem out de shpots - Knock the spots out of them; astonish


s: Kreutzer - Frederick Creutzer, distinguished professor in the


s: University of Heidelberg, author of a great work on "Symbolik."


s: Kummel, kimmel,(Ger.) - Schnapps, dram.  Hans, in his tipsy


s: enthusiasm, ejaculates, "Oh, mein Gott in Kimmel!" instead of


s: "im Himmel" (heaven), becoming guilty of an unconscious


s: alliteration, and confessing, according to the proverb in


s: vino veritas, where his God really abides; "whose God is


s: into the American cities by the Germans, and now much in vogue


s: Larmen - The French word larmes, tears, made into a German verb.


s: Lavergne - A place between Nashville and Murfreesboro', in the


s: Libby - The notorious Confederate prison at Richmond, Va.


s: Liddle Pills - Little bills, Legislative enactments.


s: Liederlich,(Ger.) - Loose, reckless, dissolute.


s: Loafer,(Amer.) - A term which, considered as the German


s: pronunciation of lover, is a close translation of


s: rom, since this latter means both a gipsy and a


s: Los, los gehen,(Ger.) - To go at a thing, at somebody.


s: Loudet,(Lauten in Ger.) - To make sound.


s: Lumpenglocke - An abusive term applied to bells, especially to


s: those which are rung to give notice that the beer-houses must


s: Markgraefler - A pleasant light wine grown in the Grand Duchy


s: Maskenzug,(Ger.) - Procession of masked persons.


s: Massenversammlung,(Ger.) - Mass meeting.


s: Mijn lief gesellen,(Flem.) - My dear comrades.


s: Minnesinger - Poet of love.  A name given to German lyric poets,


s: who flourished from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries.


s: Mohr, ein schwarzer,(Ger.) - A blackamoor.


s: Moleschott - Author of a celebrated work on physiology.


s: Morgan - John Morgan, a notorious Confederate guerilla during the


s: labour-despising Southern gentry to the labouring classes as


s: Naturalizationisds - The officers, &c., who give the rights of


s: Nibelungen Lied - The lay of the Nibelungen; the great German


s: Nieuw Jarsie - New Jersey, in America, famous inter alia for its


s: Nirwana - The Brahminical absorption into God.


s: No sardine - Not a narrow-minded, small-hearted fellow.


s: Ochsen,(Ger.) - Oxen; stupid fellows.  As a verb it also is used


s: Odenwald - A thickly-wooded district in South Germany.


s: Oltra tramontane; ultra tramontane - Applied to the non-Italian


s: On-belongs - Literal translation of Zugehort.


s: On-did to on-do - Literal translation of the German


s: Oonshpeakbarly,(Ger. unaussprechbarlich) - Inexpressibly.


s: Oop-gecleared,(Ger. Aufgeklaert) - Enlightened.


s: Oopright-hood,(Ger. Aufrichtigkeit) - Uprightness.


s: Opple-yack - Apple-jack.  Spirit distilled from cider.


s: Out-signed,(Ger. ausgezeichnete) - Distinguished, signal.


s: Peeps - People.  "Hard on the American peeps" - a phrase for


s: Pelznickel, Nick, Nickel - St. Nicolas, muffled in fur, is one of


s: George and St. Martin, he oftener rides a donkey than a horse,


s: more especially in that part of the German land which can boast


s: of having given birth to the illustrious Hans.  St. Nicolas is


s: supposed, on the night preceding his name-day, the sixth of


s: December, to pass over the house-tops on his long-eared steed,


s: and having baskets suspended on either side filled with sweets


s: and playthings, and to drop down through the chimneys presents


s: for those children who have been good during the year, but


s: birch-rods for those who have been naughty, would not go to bed


s: early, or objected to being washed, &c.  In the expectation of


s: his coming, the children put, on the eve of St. Nicolas' day,


s: either a shoe, or a stocking, or a little basket, into the


s: chimney-piece of their parents' bedroom.  We may remark, by the


s: way, that St. Nicolas is the Christian successor of the heathen


s: Pfaelzer - A man from the Rhenish Palatinate.


s: Plug-muss - Fight for a fire-plug.  American fireman's language.


s: Poker - A favourite game of cards among Western gamblers.


s: Pop-slets - Bob-sleds.  A very rough kind of sledge.


s: Potztausend!  Was ist das? - Zounds!  What is that?


s: Pretzel,(Ger.) - A kind of fancy bread, twist or the like.


s: Protocollirt, protocolliren - To register, record.


s: Pully, i.e., Bully - An Americanism, adjective.  Fine,


s: capital.  A slang word, used in the same manner as the


s: English used the word crack; as, "a bully


s: Red cock - Or make de red cock crow.  Einem den rothen


s: Hahn aufs Dach setzen.  A German proverb signifying to set


s: Red-Waelsch, Roth-Waelsch,(Ger.) - Thieves' language.


s: Rheingraf,(Ger.) - Count of the Rhine districts.


s: Rheinweinbechers Klang - The Rhine wine goblet's sound.


s: Richter,(Jean Paul Fr.) - A distinguished German author.


s: Roland - One of the paladins of Charlemagne.


s: Rollin' locks - Rolling logs, mutually aiding (used only in


s: Sass, Sassy, Sassin' - Sauce, saucy, &c.


s: Schenket ein,(Ger.) - Pour in (fill the glasses).


s: Schlesierwein,(Ger.) - Wine grown in Silesia, proverbially sour.


s: Schlog him ober de kop - Knocked him on the head.


s: Schnitz - Pennsylvania German word for cut and dried fruit.


s: Schnitz, schnitzen,(Ger.) - To chop, chip, snip.


s: Schonheitsideal,(Ger.) - The ideal of beauty.


s: Schopenhauer - A celebrated German "philosophical physiologist."


s: Schoppen,(Ger.) - A liquid measure, chopin, pint.


s: Schwig, Swig, verb. - To drink by large draughts.


s: Selbstanschauungsvermogen,(Ger.) - Capacity for self-inspection.


s: Shanty - A board cabin.  Slang, for house.


s: Shapel - Chapel is an old word for a printing-office.


s: Shpicket - Spigot; a pin or peg to stop a small hole in a cask of


s: Shlide - Slide.  "Let it slide," vulgar for "let it go."


s: Shlop over - Go too far and upset or spill.  Applied to men who


s: Shmysed,(Ger. Schmissen, from Schmeissen) -


s: Shnow-wice,(Ger. Schnee-weis) - Snow-white.


s: Shooting-stick - A shooting-stick is used for closing up the form


s: make disappear.  Thus, a deserter "skyugled," and sometimes he


s: Slasher gaffs - Spurs for cocks, with cutting edges.


s: Slumgoozlin' - Slum or sham guzzling, humbug.


s: Slumgullion - A Mississippi term for a legislator.


s: Sound upon the goose - Bartlett, in his Dictionary of


s: Americanisms, states that this phrase originated in the


s: Kansas troubles, and signified true to the cause


s: of slavery.  But this is erroneous, as the phrase


s: was common during the native American campaign,


s: and originated at Harrisburg, as described by Mr. Leland.


s: Souse und Brouse,(Ger. Saus und Braus) - Revelry and rioting.


s: Straight flush - In poker, all the cards of one suit.


s: Strauss - Name of the celebrated Viennese valse player and


s: Stunden,(Ger.) - Leagues.  About four and a half English miles.


s: Sweynheim and Pannartz - The first printers at Rome.


s: Takes - Allotments of copy to each printer.


s: Taugenix, Taugenichts - Good-for-nothing fellow.


s: Thusnelda - The wife of Arminius,(Hermann,) the Duke of the


s: Tiger - An American term for a gambling table.


s: Tixey - "I wish I was in Dixie."  The origin of this song


s: is rather curious.  Although now thoroughly adopted as a


s: Southern song, and "Dixie's Land" understood to mean the


s: Southern States of America, it was, about a century ago,


s: the estate of one Dixie, on Manhattan Island, who treated


s: his slaves well; and it was their lament, on being deported


s: south, that is now known as "I wish I was in Dixie."


s: Tortled - To tortle, to move off.  From turtle.


s: Throw him with ecks - Pelt him with eggs.


s: Turchin - Colonel Turchin's men ravaged the town of Huntsville


s: Tyfelfest - From Teufel, here in the sense of "best" or "worst."


s: Tyfel-shnake, Teufelsschnaken - Devilries.


s: Tyfel-strikes, Teufels-streiche - Devil-strokes.


s: Uber Stein and Schwein,(Ger.) - Over stone and swine.


s: Ueberschwengliche,(Ger.) - Transcendental, elevated.


s: Uhr,(Ger.) - Clock, watch, hour, time.  Used for "hour" in the


s: Uliverus - Oliver, another of the twelve Paladins of Charlemagne,


s: Und lauter guter Ding,(Ger.) - And of thoroughly good cheer.


s: Un-windoong,(Ger. Entwicklung?) - Unravelling.


s: Unvolkommene technik - Unfinished style or method.


s: Urbummeleid,(Ger. vulg.) - Arch-loafer's song.


s: Dutch ducats; or "Magna molimur parvi.")


s: Varus - The Roman commander in Germany, conquered by Arminius.


s: Versteh, Verstehen,(Ger.) - To understand.


s: Villiam - William Street at New York, inhabited by many Germans.


s: Vivat! - The same as vive! in French.  Hurrah!


s: Voonderly,(Ger. Wunderlich) - Wondrous, curious.


s: Wahlverwandtschaft,(Ger.) - Elective affinity, sympathy of souls.


s: Wappenshield(Waffenschild) - Coat of arms.


s: Ward all zu Steine,(Ger.) - Became all stone.


s: Wechselbalg,(Ger.) - (formerly a popular superstitious belief), a


s: Weingarts, weingarten,(Ger.) - Vineyards.


s: Weingeist,(Ger.) - Vinous, ardent spirit.


s: Wein-handle,(Ger. Weinhandel or Weinhandlung) -


s: Weinnachtstraum - Lit. Winenight's dream, for "Weihnacht,"


s: Wellen und Wogen,(Ger.) - Waves and billows.


s: Werden, das Werden - The becoming to be.


s: We'uns, you'ns - We and you.  A common vulgarism


s: Wie gehts,(Ger.) - How goes it? How are you?


s: Wie Milch und Blut - Like milk and blood.


s: Wild und Weh,(Ger.) - Wild and woebegone.


s: Windsbraut,(Ger. poet) - Storm, hurricane, gust of wind.


s: Wised,(Ger. Wusste, from wissen) - Knew.


s: Woe-moody,(Ger. Wehmuthig) - Moanful, doleful.


s: Wohlauf,(Ger.) - Well, come on, cheer up.


s: Wunderscheen(Wunderschoen) - Very beautiful.


s: Wurst - A German student word for indifference.


s: Yartausend, Jahrtausend - A thousand years.


s: "I lost a maiden in that hour." - Byron.


s: This, with the other verses, may be found in the German Student's


s: shown in the fact that an American German editor, in his


s: ignorance of English, actually believed that the word stinging,


s: as here given, meant stinking, and was accordingly


s: indignant.  It is needless to say that no such idea was intended


s: Schone Wittwe." It appeared about 1856, and "went the round


s: of the papers," accumulating as it went several additions


s: or rejoinders, one of which was that by Hans Breitmann.


s: Wackernagel's Lesebuch and Das klein Heldenbuch.


s: century, in German drinking songs. "Gling, glang, glorian, Die


s: Sau hat ein Panzer an." - Tractatus de Ebrietate Vitanda.


s: "Wer . sein . Stiefel . nit . trinken . kan .


s: Der . ist . furwahr . kein . Teutscher . man."


s: There is an allusion to this boot-cup in Longfellow's "Golden


s: Legend," where mention is made of a jolly companion


s: And ask with a laugh, when that was done,


s: If they could not give him the other one."


s: foreign and remote regions, "Is there any good fellow from


s: jolly old friend after long absence - "Uns kommt der alte


s: to signify indiffer ence.  When a sausage is on the table, and


s: one is asked with mock courtesy which part he prefers, he


s: naturally replies - "Why, it is all sausage to me."  I have heard


s: all turkey."  There are, of course, divers ancient and


s: quaint puns in Pennsylvania, on such a word as wurst. Thus


s: it is said that a northern pedlar, in being served with some


s: sausage of an inferior quality, was asked again if he would have


s: some of the wurst.  Not understanding the word, and


s: construing it as a slight, he replied to his hostess - "No, thank


s: this line, which is borrowed from Scheffel's poem of Perkeo, is


s: spoke, about as intelligently and clearly as Herr Breitmann, of a


s: entitled "Three Thousand Miles in a Railroad Car," and also in


s: letters written by Mr. J. G. Hazzard for the New York


s: state by means of bribery.  In Pennsylvania, as in many other


s: states, bills which have "nothing in them" - i.e. no money


s: General Jackson in a letter spelt all correct "oll


s: korrekt," and this I believe to be the real origin of


s: further, and applied it to sardines, as "small fishes," all of an


s: from the light of day.  A man who has never travelled, and has


s: during all his life been packed tightly among those who were his


s: equals in ignorance and inexperience, is therefore a "sardine."


s: as having occurred to a well-known politician, who bore the


s: sobriquet of "With all due deference," from his habit of


s: beginning all his speeches with these words.


s: schvearin, boot ash inderesdin Norse or Sherman idioms.  Goot


s: many refiewers vot refiewsed to admire soosh derms in de earlier


s: editions ish politelich requestet to braise dem in future nodices


s: requisition, which Breitmann had heard during the War of


s: Emancipation.  I once heard this cant term used in a droll


s: manner, about the end of the war, by a little girl, six years


s: old, the daughter of a quarter-master.  She had "confiscated," or


s: clamorously demanding its return.  "I cannot let you have the


s: whip," said she gravely, "as I need it for military purposes; but


s: an order on the United States Government." - C. G. L.


s: in America, they use the Spanish word vamos to express


s: every person in every sense of the verb to go.  Pronounced


s: der Herr Breitmann gehappenet to hafe von on." - FRITZ


s: Sur ces temps primitifs le doux progres a lui,


s: Et chacque jour le Rhin vers Cologne charrie


s: De nombreux Farinas, tous 'seul, 'tous 'Jean Marie.'"


s: - Le Maout,"Le Parfumeur," cited by Eugene Rimmel


s: view, not only the American artist BIERSTADT, but also the great


s: city of Munich, specially famous for its manufacture of beer.


s: droll mixture of incidents or details.  It is derived from an


s: extraordinary story of twelve rats, with one (their king) in the


s: centre, which were found in a nest with their tails grown


s: together, firmly as the ligament which connects the Siamese


s: matches, and one still used by many people.


s: song, "Viginti Jesuiti nuper convenere."


s: Rhenish wine." "If I could see a glass of whisky," said an


s: American, "I'd throw myself outside of it mighty quick."  Since


s: writing the above, I have seen the expression thus given in a


s: copy of La Belle Sauvage. - Bill of the Play, London, June 27,


s: during a past winter.  It was as follows:- "Perche Eva mangio il


s: pomo Iddio per riscattarci si fece uomo, Ed ora il Nono Pio Per


s: many of these ballads were addressed in letters.


s: Dimmed lights adrift from nobler dreams,


s: Still have I loved and laughed and fought;


s: And drink dream-deep life's heady wine--


s: I AM mine own priest, and I shrive myself


s: Of all my wasted yesterdays.  Though sin


s: And sloth and foolishness, and all ill weeds


s: That error, sin, and sloth and foolishness.


s: God knows that yesterday I played the fool;


s: God knows that yesterday I played the knave;


s: But shall I therefore cloud this new dawn o'er


s: With fog of futile sighs and vain regrets?


s: This is another day!  And flushed Hope walks


s: Adown the sunward slopes with golden shoon.


s: This is another day; and its young strength


s: Leaps up and grasps its light, and laughs, as leapt


s: Prometheus up and wrenched the fire from Zeus.


s: This is another day--are its eyes blurred


s: A thousand thousand failures shall not daunt!


s: Let dust clasp dust; death, death--I am alive!


s: And out of all the dust and death of mine


s: Old selves I dare to lift a singing heart


s: And living faith; my spirit dares drink deep


s: Of the red mirth mantling in the cup of morn.


s: WHERE the singers of Saturn find tongue,


s: We are whirled, we are swirled, we are flung;


s: Dry hearts drink the gleams and are young;--


s: Yearn to us through the vapors that bar:


s: Canst think of that, soul, and be base?--


s: It drifts and darkles, gleams and glows;


s: Through changing shapes, through devious


s: By noon or night, through cloud or flame,


s: My heart hath known, and thrilled to know,


s: So quickened under Mary's heart it wrought


s: Swayed tremulous before one lordlier orb


s: Flooding the firmament with mystic light,


s: THE soul of the Spring through its body of earth


s: And the crocuses come in a rainbow riot of mirth....


s: They flutter, they burn, they take wing, they


s: Flower, woman and laughter, and all these the


s: She is light and first love and the youth of the


s: She is sandaled with joy ... she is lifted and


s: She is flung, she is swirled, she is driven along


s: By the carnival winds that have torn her away


s: From the coronal bloom on the brow of the


s: She is youth, she is foam, she is flame, she is


s: REACH over, my Undine, and clutch me a reed--


s: Nymph of mine idleness, notch me a pipe--


s: For I am fulfilled of the silence, and long


s: For to utter the sense of the silence in song.


s: Down-stream all the rapids are troubled with pebbles


s: That fetter and fret what the water would utter,


s: And it rushes and splashes in tremulous trebles;


s: It makes haste through the shallows, its soul is


s: But here all the sound is serene and outspread


s: In the murmurous moods of a slow-swirling pool;


s: Here all the sounds are unhurried and cool;


s: Every silence is kith to a sound; they are wed,


s: They are mated, are mingled, are tangled, are


s: Every hush is in love with a sound, every sound


s: By the law of its life to some silence is bound.


s: Then here will we hide; idle here and abide,


s: In the covert here, close by the waterside--


s: Here, where the slim flattered reeds are aquiver


s: With the exquisite hints of the reticent river,


s: Here, where the lips of this pool are the lips


s: Of all pools, let us listen and question and wait;


s: Let us hark to the whispers of love and of death,


s: Let us hark to the lispings of life and of fate--


s: In this place where pale silences flower into sound


s: Let us strive for some secret of all the profound


s: Deep and calm Silence that meshes men 'round!


s: There's as much of God hinted in one ripple's


s: There's as much Purpose gleams where yonder


s: As in--any book else!--could we read things


s: Then nymph of mine indolence, here let us hide,


s: Learn, listen, and question; idle here and abide


s: Where the rushes and lilies lean low to the tide.


s: "Vain was the chief's, the sage's pride!


s: Flashed fire for fire and pride for pride;


s: That loll where fellow leopards fawn ...


s: Their loves, that shook the world, are wan!


s: They built with bronze and gold and brawn,


s: SHE is hot to the sea that crouches beside,


s: Human and hot to the cool stars peering down,


s: And her dark blood, tide upon purple tide,


s: With leaping rhythms and vast, is swirled


s: Through the shaken lengths of her veined streets...


s: I have thrilled with her ecstasy, agony, woe--


s: The winds of her music tumultuous have seized


s: Her passions have torn me and tossed me and


s: Drunken and tranced and dazzled with visions


s: I have searched to the souls of her hunted beasts


s: I have soared on the wings of her flashing dreams;


s: I have sweat with her travails and cursed with


s: I have raged through a thick red mist at one


s: O beautiful half-god city of visions and love!


s: O wholly human and baffled and passionate town!


s: The throes of thy burgeoning, stress of thy fight,


s: Thy bitter, blind struggle to gain for thy body a


s: I have known, I have felt, and been shaken


s: For I hear in thy thunders terrific that throb


s: Like clouds withdrawn, like driven sands,


s: What though worlds stagger, and the suns


s: What though great kingdoms fall on death


s: Man's dream which conquered brute and clod


s: His soul-sight pierced the earthly shells


s: Of earth's full tides that storm the verge


s: Wars with the heart that dares and sings;--


s: _But Truth_ (you say) _makes tyrants quail--


s: Words are not guns.  Words are not ships.


s: Great creeds grow thews, or else they die.


s: What are thy gods?  Thy gods brought love?


s: ABOVE, the baffled twilight fails; beneath, the


s: Beside us glides the charnel shark, our pilot


s: And, lurking where low headlands shield from


s: We bide the signal through the gloom that bids


s: All watchful, mute, the crouching guns that guard


s: Watchful and hawklike, plumed with hate, the


s: And still as death and swift as fate, above the


s: The spying Wireless sows the night with troops


s: While hushed through all her huddled streets the


s: The drumming thunders that announce brute


s: Southward a hundred windy leagues, through


s: Our cheated cruisers search the waves, our captains


s: But here the port of peril is; the foeman's


s: Sullen and black against the moon, upon a sullen


s: And only we to launch ourselves against their


s: To guide uncertain lightnings through these


s: And now a wheeling searchlight paints a signal on


s: And now the bellowing guns are loud with the


s: And now, her flanks of steel apulse with all the


s: Forth from the darkness leaps in pride a hateful


s: The flagship of their Admiral--and now God help


s: We challenge Death at Death's own game; we


s: Ah, steady now--and one good blow--one straight


s: Ah, good!--the thrust went home!--she founders--


s: Full speed ahead!--those damned quick-firing guns


s: What's that--the dynamos?--they've got us, men!


s: HE speaks as straight as his rifles shot,


s: Waiting the deed that shall trouble the truce


s: "You have dared the wrath of a dozen states,"


s: "We can die but once!" said the grim old King


s: "For I paid in blood for the town I took,


s: Stern old King of the stark, black hills,


s: Your speech rings true as your good sword rings--


s: During the six months that they lay in the cave which they


s: had hacked in the ice, waiting for spring to come, they read


s: this volume through again and again."--_From a newspaper


s: They heard the loud wings of despair ...


s: And light and laughter filled the room....


s: Not ghosts, but friends that lived and moved ...


s: Where Thames rolls down his slothful tide


s: Through roaring London's battered streets


s: By all light shed through all dark years


s: When hope grows sick and courage quails,


s: We dreamed a Prophet, flushed with faith,


s: We dreamed ... we dreamed ...  Youth dreamed


s: Yourself, one moment, and dreamed, too--


s: Struck three or four good blows ... and then


s: Praise ... praise ... was ever man so filled,


s: THE great guns slay from a league away, the death-bolts


s: And bellowing hill replies to hill, machine to brute


s: But still in the end when the long lines bend and


s: They take to the steel in the same old way that


s: It is man to man and breast to breast and eye


s: And the reach and twist of the thrusting wrist, as


s: Along the shaken hills the guns their drumming


s: But the keen blades thrill with the lust to kill


s: For hand and heart and living steel, one pulse of


s: Is your clan afraid of the naked blade?  Does it


s: Perish your dreams of conquest then, your swollen


s: For empire dwells with the stabbing blade, as it


s: Of laughter breaks in shrieks somewhere--


s: A GHOST is the freak of a sick man's brain?


s: That's the sob and drip of a leaky drain?


s: But it sounds like another noise we know!


s: Do ye hear them still?--it was long ago!--


s: Mine passed in a whorl of wrath and dole;


s: And the hour that your choking breath shall cease


s: I would drag ye whining from Hell's own gate:


s: The dead they are dead, they are out of the way?


s: And a ghost is the whim of an ailing mind?


s: When ye heard a voice in the calling wind?


s: At the creeping mists when the hour grew late?


s: Ye would see my face were ye stricken blind!


s: But the boast rings false and the jest is thin--


s: In the hour that I meet ye ghost to ghost,


s: Stripped of the flesh that ye skulk within,


s: Stripped to the coward soul 'ware of its sin,


s: Ye shall learn, ye shall learn, whether dead men


s: (While the twitching body mocked the sun)


s: (And men whose work compelled them there,


s: I know your grief; the whole world's woe


s: (While the quivering corpse swayed in the wind)--


s: LAZY and slow, through the snags and trees


s: Move the sluggish currents, half asleep;


s: Like black, slow snakes the dark tides creep--


s: How deep is the bayou beneath the trees?


s: Croaks the big bullfrog of Reelfoot Lake


s: From his hiding-place in the draggled brake.


s: That makes them to shake and to shiver so,


s: And the scared flags quiver from plume to foot?--


s: The hoarse frog croaks and the stark owl hoots


s: Of a mystery moored in the cypress roots.


s: Was it love turned hate?  Was it friend turned foe?


s: For the white moon shrouded her face in a mist


s: At the spurt of a pistol, red and bright--


s: At the sound of a shriek that stabbed the night--


s: And the little reeds were frightened and whist;


s: But always the eddies whimper and choke,


s: And the frogs would tell if they could, for they


s: And the dark tide slides and glisters and glides


s: YE are dead, they say, but ye swore, ye swore,


s: From out of the sea and the night, ye cried,


s: Nor the crawling weed nor the dragging tide


s: Three spells I have laid on the rising sun


s: Are ye held in the bonds of the night or the day


s: Ye must loosen your bonds and away, away!


s: Three times I have cast my words to the wind,


s: If ye drift or dream with the clouds or foam


s: Ye must drift again home, ye must drift again


s: Are the coasts of death so fair, so fair?


s: It is I that ye hear in the calling wind--


s: I have stared through the dark till my soul is blind!


s: _Oh, why do they hunt so hard, so hard, who have


s: Do they hunt for sport, do they hunt for hate, do


s: If I were a god I would get me a spear, I would


s: And merrily, merrily I would ride through covert


s: With hound and horn and laughter loud, over the


s: For there is no sport like that of a god with a


s: Ho! but the morning is fresh and fair, and oh!


s: And yonder the quarry breaks from the brush and


s: A minute's law for the harried thing--then follow


s: With the bellow of dogs and the beat of hoofs


s: _Hillo!  Halloo! they have marked a man! there is


s: And a clamor swells from the heart of the wood that


s: And scattered sunlight flecks the gloom,


s: What is the thought that holds her thrall,


s: She dreams 'tis not the winds which pass


s: Wherefore should love not feign him fair?


s: Moaned like some stricken thing hid there


s: Ah, Christ!--had she not laughed just when


s: That fancy came! ... for then ... and then ...


s: A dripping mist that smelt like blood ...


s: It choked my throat, it burnt my brain ...


s: And through it rang one shriek of pain ...


s: Are come strange shapes to mock at me ...


s: Laid the sudden strength of his red wrath


s: And plucked the red blade from her breast


s: Long since we learned to mock ourselves;


s: (Of mirth ... drink, fools!--nor let it flag


s: Reads, while he flouts his heart's desire,


s: Whose shout aye loudest rings, and whose


s: But the world, with its cruelty and clamor,


s: So he passed; he was worn, he was weary,


s: These gods that make perfect and blight?)--


s: Some loose-tongued prophet's meddling word;--


s: She looked--with eyne wherein were blent


s: While the wild pipes of witchcraft played


s: Of her dusk hair drowned soul and sense--


s: "Archaeologists have discovered a love-letter among the ruins


s: _The world hath just one tale to tell, and it is very old,


s: A little tale--a simple tale--a tale that's easy told:


s: "There was a youth in Babylon who greatly loved a


s: The world hath just one song to sing, but sings it


s: A little song--a foolish song--the only song it hath:


s: "There was a youth in Ascalon who loved a girl in


s: Homer clanged it, Omar twanged it, Greece and


s: Nimrod's reivers, Hiram's weavers, Hindu, Kurd,


s: Crowning Tyre, Troy afire, they have dreamed


s: Tiber-side and Nilus-tide brightened with the


s: Oh, the suing, sighing, wooing, sad and merry


s: Blisses tasted, kisses wasted, building Babel's


s: Hearts were aching, hearts were breaking, lashes


s: When the ships touched the lips of islands Sappho


s: Yearning breasts and burning breasts, cold at last,


s: Amid the glooms of carven tombs in Khufu's


s: Though the sages, down the ages, smile their cynic


s: Man and maid, unafraid, put the schools to rout;


s: Seek to chain love and retain love in the bonds of


s: Vow to hold love, bind and fold love even unto


s: _The dust of forty centuries has buried Babylon,


s: And out of all her lovers dead rises only one;


s: Rises with a song to sing and laughter in his eyes,


s: The old song--the only song--for all the rest are lies!_


s: _For, oh, the world has just one dream, and it is very


s: 'Tis youth's dream--a silly dream--but it is flushed


s: PEARL-SLASHED and purple and crimson and


s: The pennons of morning advance to the music of


s: A floor-cloth of orchard bloom down for the flashing,


s: To the road, gipsy-heart, thou and I!  'Tis the


s: 'Tis the pulse of his piping that throbs through


s: Full-blossomed, deep-bosomed, fain woman,


s: We have drunk of the wine of this Wanderer's song;


s: Like raveled red girdles flung down by some


s: The tangled roads reach from rim unto utter-most


s: We will weave of these strands a strong net, we


s: will snare the bright wings of delight,--


s: We will make of these strings a sweet lute that


s: The clamor of tongues and the clangor of trades


s: The arrogant, jangling Nothings, with iterant,


s: The clattering, senseless endeavor with dross of


s: These have sickened the senses and wearied the


s: "Come forth and be cleansed of the folly of strife


s: Come forth and gain life and grasp God by foregoing


s: It was thus spake the wizard wildwood, low-voiced


s: It was thus sang the jovial hills, and the harper


s: O woman, whose blood as my blood with the fire


s: We did well, when the red roads called, that we


s: Came forth to the sweet wise silence where soul


s: Vine-wreathed and vagabond Love, with the goal


s: What planet-crowned Dusk that wanders the


s: Hath gems that may match with the dew-opals


s: What wind-witch that skims the curled billows


s: Hath sandals so wing'd as thine art with a


s: And dare we not dream this is heaven?--to wander


s: Through the hush-heavy valleys of space, up the


s: For none that seeks rest shall find rest till he


s: And the gain of the quest is the joy of the road


s: And then ... read through a blur of tears


s: For that brief wire that said, _Too late!_--


s: Lift up their heads and laugh with pride,


s: THE Hours passed by, a fleet, confused crowd;


s: With wafture of blown garments bright as fire,


s: Light, light of foot and laughing, morning-browed,


s: And where they trod the jonquil and the briar


s: Thrilled into jocund life, the dreaming dells


s: Waked to a morrice chime of jostled bells;--


s: They danced! they danced! to piping such as


s: One paused and shouted to my questionings:


s: The Hours passed by; they paced, great lords and


s: Crowned on with sunlight, robed in rich attire;


s: Before their conquering word the brute deed


s: And Ariel fancies served their large desire;


s: They spake, and roused the mused soul that dwells


s: In dust, or, smiling, shaped new heavens and


s: Dethroned old gods and made blind beggars kings:


s: "And what art thou," I cried to one, "that brings


s: His mistress, for a brooch, the Galaxy?"--


s: "I am the plumed Thought that soars and sings:


s: The Hours passed by, with veiled eyes endowed


s: Of dream, and parted lips that scarce suspire,


s: To breathing dusk and arrowy moonlight vowed,


s: South wind and shadowy grove and murmuring


s: Swaying they moved, as drows'd of wizard spells


s: Or tranc'd with sight of recent miracles,


s: And yet they trembled, down their folded wings


s: Quivered the hint of sweet withholden things,


s: The Hours passed by, through huddled cities loud


s: With witless hate and stale with stinking mire:


s: So cowled monks might march with bier and shroud


s: Down streets plague-spotted toward some cleansing pyre;--


s: Yet, lo! strange lilies bloomed in lightless cells,


s: And passionate spirits burst their clayey shells


s: And sang the stricken hope that bleeds and clings:


s: Earth's bruised heart beat in the throbbing strings,


s: And joy still struggled through the threnody!


s: The Hours passed by, the stumbling hours and


s: Uncertain, prone to tears and childish ire,--


s: The wavering hours that drift like any cloud


s: At whim of winds or fortunate or dire,--


s: The feeble shapes that any chance expells;


s: Their wisdom useless, lacking the blood that swells


s: The tensed vein: the hot, swift tide that stings


s: With life.  Ah, wise! but naked to the slings


s: Of fate, and plagued of youthful memory!


s: Ah, Youth! we dallied by the babbling wells


s: Where April all her lyric secret tells;--


s: As far as yon red planet's triple rings;--


s: O Life!  O Love!  I followed, followed thee!


s: There waits one word to end my journeyings:


s: Some forebear's passion leaps from death


s: _What are these things we call our "selves"? ...


s: Where Greece rolled back the Persian tide?_


s: They call ... across strange seas they call,


s: Strange seas, and haunted coasts of time....


s: To which the Sphinx hath known the rhyme.


s: Our hearts swell big with dead men's hates,


s: Our eyes sting hot with dead men's tears;


s: Born heirs, but serfs, to all the years!


s: _I rode with Nimrod ... strove at Troy ...


s: Shall they start at the sound of his reed-fashioned


s: And the gods of the North,--are they dead or


s: Are they drunk, or grown weary of worship and


s: And into what night have the Orient dieties


s: Swart gods of the Nile, in dusk splendors arrayed,


s: Brief lords of the changing soul, they pass


s: Or a blossom of summer blown shallop-like over


s: Sink to silence the psalms and the paeans


s: And the temples that challenged the aeons


s: Swoon to silence the cymbals and psalters,


s: The worships grow senseless and strange,


s: And the mockers ask, _"Where be thy altars?"_


s: Crying, _"Nothing is changeless--but Change!"_


s: Yes, nothing seems changeless, but Change.


s: And yet, through the creed-wrecking years,


s: Yet its essence, through endless mutations,


s: _Shall Death reign the lord of the soul,


s: I will storm the black bastions of Night!


s: As the forehead of Man grows broader, so do


s: And his gods they are shaped in his image, and


s: And he clothes them with thunders and beauty,


s: Seeing not, as he bows by their altars, that he


s: And mixed with his trust there is terror, and


s: And every man grovels in error, yet every man


s: For all of the creeds are false, and all of the creeds


s: And low at the shrines where my brothers bow,


s: I will bow me down where my brothers bow,


s: There throbs through all the worlds that are


s: This beast uncouth with the jaw of an ape


s: Did he stand, the world's first thinker,


s: THE creeds he wrought of dream and thought


s: Falls backward, baffled, from the height;


s: Fashioned the first crude, childish creed,--


s: They're lovelier flowers, they're kindlier creeds.


s: THE steam, the reek, the fume, of prayer


s: And gods we've hoped for, from those hopes


s: Is vexed and troubled, stirs and shakes,


s: CHRIST was of virgin birth, and, being slain,


s: The creedists say, He rose from death again.


s: Oh, futile age-long talk of death and birth!--


s: His life, that is the one thing wonder-worth;


s: Not how He came, but how He lived on earth.


s: For if gods stoop, and with quaint jugglery


s: Mock nature's laws, how shall that profit thee?--


s: Grow godlike through this baffled front of man!


s: EACH race has died and lived and fought for the


s: Unconsciously, divinest thought of each race


s: And every race that lives and dies shall make itself


s: Shall build, with mingled truth and lies, new icons


s: Through all the tangled creeds and dreams and


s: The false-and-true, inwoven, gleams: a matted


s: Prove, then, thy gods in thine own soul; all others'


s: Nor swerved be, struggling for the goal, by bribe


s: As skulls grow broader, so do faiths; as old tongues


s: And only ghosts of gods and wraiths may meet


s: Where, where the faiths of yesterday?  Ah,


s: Say, what Apollos drive to-day adown the flaming


s: Oh, does the blank past hide from view forgotten


s: The future tremble where some new Messiah-Memnon


s: Of all the worlds, say any earth, like dust


s: Shall give the next Prometheus birth; but say--at


s: How should I know what dawn may gleam beyond


s: Which god of all the gods men dream?  Why


s: Whichever over all hath place hath shaped and


s: Hath made me strong to front his face, to dare


s: Perhaps to cringe and cower and bring a shrine


s: Is far more futile than to fling your laughter in


s: For writhe or whirl in dervish rout, they are not


s: Or sham belief to hide a doubt--no gods are mine


s: Nor gods that beg belief on earth with portents


s: Is life itself not wonder-worth that we must cry


s: Is it not strange enough we breathe?  Does every-


s: Or must we ever weave and wreathe some creed


s: Some creed of which its prophets cry it holds


s: Some creed which ever bye and bye doth crumble,


s: Say any dream of all the dreams that drift and


s: Holds most of truth within its gleams; but say


s: Oh, say the soul, from star to star, with victory


s: And scale the bastioned nights that bar the secret's


s: Or say it ever roam dim glades where pallid


s: Flit like blown feathers through the shades, borne


s: Say any tide of any time, of all the tides that ebb


s: Shall buoy us on toward any clime; but say--at


s: There is nard, there is myrrh, in En Gedi,


s: Drift freighted and scented and cedarn--


s: But thy mouth is more precious than spices!


s: Touchstone and Triboulet--all of the tribe.--


s: Dancer and jester and singer and scribe.


s: Ten thousand Hamlets have fumbled his skull!)--


s: But where is the Hamlet to weep o'er the biers


s: And where is the poet solicits our tears


s: They have passed from the world and left never


s: And few of us now have the courage to sing


s: That their whimsies made life a more livable


s: Let us drink to the jesters--in gooseberry wine!


s: And driving the dreary old seers into rages--


s: Of Folly are Death--toast the Fools of all ages!


s: They have ridden like froth down the whirlpools


s: They have jingled their caps in the councils of


s: They have snared half the wisdom of life in a


s: And tripped into nothingness grinning at fate--


s: Brim up the glasses with gooseberry wine!


s: Let them spare us the rod and remit us the


s: That will silence at last the most impudent lip!


s: Is the world but a bubble, a bauble, a joke?


s: Heigho, Brother Fools, now your bubble is broke,


s: Do you ask for a tear?--or is it worth while?


s: Here's a sigh for you, then--but it ends in a smile!


s: We would laugh at you, too--if you spared us the


s: Where the great bridge soars like a song


s: Bayards, to the saddle!--the clangorous trumpets,


s: Hoarse with their ecstasy, call to the mellay.


s: Paladins, Paladins, Rolands flame-hearted,


s: Girt with the glory and glamor of power,


s: Error sits throned in the high place of justice;


s: Paladins, Paladins, youth noble-hearted,


s: Saddle and spear, for the battle-flags beckon!


s: Thrust the keen steel through the throat of the liar.


s: Star (or San Grael) that illumines thy pathway,


s: Thine not the guerdon to gain it or grasp it;


s: Soul of thee, passing, ascendeth unto it,


s: Augmenting its brightness for them that come


s: Heed then the call of the trumpets, the trumpets,


s: Hoarse with the fervor, the frenzy of battle,--


s: Bide not, abide not, God's bugles are calling!--


s: Thrust the sharp sword through the heart of the


s: _Fool's gold?_--thy dullness proves them all


s: Still, still will satyr, nymph, and faun


s: Clutched and shook us, spine and knees;--


s: Shy brides' pearls, flushed and delicate,


s: (When Spring came tip-toe down the slopes,


s: "The Swallow's back, and claims the eaves


s: And Red-wings spies the Thrush and pipes:


s: "Up, blooms! and storm the wooded slopes,


s: _"Chide not the flowers!  You little know


s: _"Oh, chide the white frost, if you choose,


s: The thought would fit her more, to feign


s: That earth holds aught of grief or stain,


s: Death enters not, nor strife nor pain;--


s: She was borne out through earth's portals


s: Have they made less one earth-borne pain?


s: As towers that front lost seas are set;--


s: Might say: _"Lo, here my feet have trod!"_--


s: Nor are they skilled in sleights of speech,


s: WITH half-hearted levies of frost that make foray,


s: Ambiguous bugles that blow and that falter to


s: With banners of mist that still waver above them,


s: The hosts of the Autumn still hide in the hills,


s: But anon, with a barbaric splendor to dazzle the


s: And regal in raiment of purple and umber and


s: And girt with the glamor of conquest and scarved


s: From the hills in their might and their mirth on


s: To make sport and make spoil of the Summer,


s: Still tented in opulent ease in the camps of her


s: TIME steals from Love all but Love's wings;


s: YOUR rondeau's tale must still be light--


s: And wing'd with whim, it gleams in flight


s: THEY haunt me, they tease me with hinted


s: They lead me, they flatter, they woo me.


s: Shapes shadows and shapes, and the murmur


s: And are gone 'twixt a breath and a breath;--


s: And are gone ere they break into foam on the rocks


s: With a glimmer of light on their pinions,


s: Leaving me stirred with a dream of the ultimate


s: THESE logs with drama and with dream are rife,


s: For all their golden Summers and green Springs


s: Through leaf and root they sucked the forest's life,


s: Drank in its secret, deep, essential things,


s: Its breathing hushes stirred of faery wings,


s: We hear again the chant the cricket flings


s: Across the hawthorn-scented dusks of May.


s: WE are deceived by the shadow, we see not the


s: For the hills are less solid than thought; and


s: Is a mist thrown off and resumed by the soul, as


s: Back of the transient appearance dwells in


s: The utter reality, ultimate truth; this seems and


s: I have been groping through a deep gorge;


s: Far above, the lips of it were rimmed with moonlight,


s: And here and there the light lay on the dripping


s: So that it seemed they dripped with moonlight,


s: So deep it was, that narrow gash among the hills,


s: That those great pines which fringed its edge


s: Seemed to me no larger than upthrust fingers


s: And reached but part way down the sides;


s: I walked through darkness, and the valley's edge


s: The stars that were like fireflies in the little trees.


s: And I could not remember their beginnings;


s: Thirsty, with the sound of mocking waters in


s: Splashed in ironic beauty on the rocks above.


s: _"Could I but grasp my life as sculptors grasp the clay


s: And knead and thrust it into shape again!--


s: If all the scorn of Heaven were but thrown


s: Into the focus of some creature I could clutch!--


s: If something tangible were but vouchsafed me


s: If they but sent a Reason for the failure of my life


s: If they but sent a Fiend, I'd conquer it!--_


s: I rage, and the brute rock echoes my words in


s: How can one fight the sliding moonlight on the cliffs?


s: You who set snares with roses and with passion,


s: You who make flesh beautiful and damn men through


s: You who plump the purple grape and then put poison


s: You who gave me delight of my senses and broke me


s: You who have put into my blood the impulses for


s: You who permitted my brain the doubts wherefore


s: Behold, I doubt you, gods, no longer, but defy!--


s: You who have wrapped me in the scorn of your silence,


s: The divinity in this same dust you flout_


s: Come, face to face, and slay me if you will,


s: Speak forth a Reason, and I will answer it,


s: Come garmented in flesh and I will fight with you,


s: Yes, in your faces will I smite you, gods;


s: Coward gods and tricksters that set traps


s: Far gods that hedge yourselves about with silence


s: That mock men from the unscalable escarpments of


s: I had no sooner finished speaking than I felt


s: The darkness fluttered by approaching feet,


s: And the silence was burned through by trembling


s: And I was 'ware that Something stood by me.


s: And with a shout I leapt and grasped that Being,


s: Hand seeking throat, and crook'd knee seeking


s: And spread toes grasping the uneven ground;


s: The strained breast muscles cracked and creaked,


s: The plagued breath sobbed and whistled through


s: I tasted blood, and strangled, but still struggled


s: The stars above me danced in swarms like yellow


s: The shaken moonlight writhed upon the rocks;--


s: But at the last I felt his breathing weaker grow,


s: And with a bursting cry I bent his head right


s: I flung him to the earth and knelt upon his breast


s: And listened till the fluttering pulse was stilled.


s: Man, god, or devil, I had wrenched the life from


s: Between the rifted rocks the great Sun struck


s: A finger down the cliff, and that red beam


s: Lay sharp across the face of him that I had slain;


s: And in that light I read the answer of the silent


s: BETTER a pauper, penniless, asleep on the kindly


s: Better a gipsy, houseless, but near to the heart


s: That beats for ears not dulled by the clanking


s: Better starvation and freedom, hope and the good


s: Than death to the Something in him that was


s: That was kin to the idle lilies and the ripples of


s: For out of the dreams of childhood, that careless


s: The boy gains strength, unknowing, that the Man


s: But these fools with their lies and their dollars,


s: Who make a god of a wheel, who worship their


s: They are flinging the life of a people, raw, to the


s: Dull-eyed, weary, and old--old in his early teens--


s: Stunted and stupid and twisted, marred in the


s: Can your factories fashion a Man of this thing--


s: Wasters of body and brain, what race will the


s: What of the nation's nerve whenas swift crises


s: What of the brawn that should heave the guns on


s: Thieves of body and soul, who can neither think


s: Swine-eyed priests of little false gods of gold and


s: Bow to your obscene altars, worship your loud


s: Feed to Moloch and Baal the brawn and brains


s: But silent and watchful and hidden forever over


s: The masters brood of those Mills that "grind


s: And it needs no occult art nor magic to foreshow


s: That a people who sow defeat they will reap the


s: Ye are drunk with the sound of your braggart


s: Where your war steeds stamp with their ringing hoofs


s: The tread of your cohorts shakes the hills--


s: Ye are whirling gnats, ye are swirling bees,


s: _But lo! in the midst of a million stars


s: Are troubled and vexed ... and a thousand worlds


s: Born of his greatly daring to assist the gods


s: And planting life and order in these stars?--


s: Her eyes are bright with visions and with dreams


s: Her plumed thought, wing for wing, is mate with


s: And 'neath the vast impersonal revenges of its


s: Lie dead amid the dust they prophesied--


s: Through painful centuries the slow beast fought,


s: Blinded and baffled, fought to gain his soul;--


s: Wild, hairy, shag, and feared of shadows,


s: Made him strange signals that he puzzled o'er;--


s: And yet the winds harped to him, and the sea


s: And yet the stars said something to him, and the


s: The battling, battling, and the steep ascent,


s: But looking backward toward the dim beginnings,


s: What coward looks forward and foresees defeat?


s: Who stained the slopes with bloody feet, or stood


s: Beside him on some hard-won eminence of hope


s: Flesh of his flesh, and of his soul the soul,


s: Hath she not fought, hath she not climbed?


s: 'Twas we that made her so, who called her queen


s: Hath she not courage for the years to come?


s: Hath she not courage who descends alone--


s: Where man's thought even falters that would


s: (Through vast and murmurous caverns dark with


s: Hath she too long dwelt dream-bound in the world


s: The more austere, impersonal, wide faith,


s: The urge that drives Christs to the cross


s: Wakes and demands a share in all man's bolder


s: The high, audacious ventures of the soul


s: That thinks to scale the bastioned slopes


s: Not meanly let us stand nor shaken with low


s: For there beyond the verge and margin of gray cloud


s: And the skies are tremulous with golden light;--


s: Our gods from our desires we fashion....


s: But when we're done with mirth and weeping,


s: Shall Death take Life into his keeping? ...


s: _What heart hath not, through twilight places,


s: To gild with love their pallid faces? ...


s: Still mounts the Dream on shining pinion ...


s: Note: In "The Parting," page 161, line 4, I have changed "they


s: face" to "thy face"; in "The Struggle," page 173, line 4, I have


s: XL.  AN END OF TRAVEL—Let now your soul in this substantial


s: XLI.  We uncommiserate pass into the night


s: XLII.  Sing me a song of a lad that is gone


s: XLIII.  TO S. R. CROCKETT—Blows the wind to-day, and the sun


s: XLIV.  EVENSONG—The embers of the day are red


s: To the heart of youth the world is a highwayside.


s: Passing for ever, he fares; and on either hand,


s: Deep in the gardens golden pavilions hide,


s: Nestle in orchard bloom, and far on the level land


s: Call him with lighted lamp in the eventide.


s: Thick as the stars at night when the moon is down,


s: Pleasures assail him.  He to his nobler fate


s: Fares; and but waves a hand as he passes on,


s: Cries but a wayside word to her at the garden gate,


s: Sings but a boyish stave and his face is gone.


s: No more the morning glow, no more the grace,


s: Cold beats the light of time upon your face


s: He came and went.  Perchance you wept a while


s: Ah me! but he that left you with a smile


s: Those brimming, lustrous beauties turned,


s: Let Beauty awake in the morn from beautiful dreams,


s: In the hour when the birds awake in the brake


s: Let Beauty awake in the eve from the slumber of day,


s: Let her wake to the kiss of a tender friend


s: I will make you brooches and toys for your delight


s: Of bird-song at morning and star-shine at night.


s: Of green days in forests and blue days at sea.


s: I will make my kitchen, and you shall keep your room,


s: Where white flows the river and bright blows the broom,


s: And you shall wash your linen and keep your body white


s: In rainfall at morning and dewfall at night.


s: And this shall be for music when no one else is near,


s: The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear!


s: That only I remember, that only you admire,


s: Of the broad road that stretches and the roadside fire.


s: Softly swam the boat that bore our love.


s: How the glory died through golden hours,


s: How the boat drew homeward filled with flowers!


s: Son of my woman’s body, you go, to the drum and fife,


s: To taste the colour of love and the other side of life—


s: The ten fingers and toes, and the shell-like nail on each,


s: The eyes blind as gems and the tongue attempting speech;


s: Impotent hands in my bosom, and yet they shall wield the sword!


s: Drugged with slumber and milk, you wait the day of the Lord.


s: Infant bridegroom, uncrowned king, unanointed priest,


s: Soldier, lover, explorer, I see you nuzzle the breast.


s: You that grope in my bosom shall load the ladies with rings,


s: You, that came forth through the doors, shall burst the doors of


s: In the highlands, in the country places,


s: Where the old plain men have rosy faces,


s: Where essential silence cheers and blesses,


s: Where the old red hills are bird-enchanted,


s: And the night has come, and planets glinted,


s: There, and with delight to take and render,


s: Lo! for there, among the flowers and grasses,


s: Only the mightier movement sounds and passes;


s: Home no more home to me, whither must I wander?


s: Cold blows the winter wind over hill and heather;


s: Thick drives the rain, and my roof is in the dust.


s: Loved of wise men was the shade of my roof-tree.


s: The true word of welcome was spoken in the door—


s: Dear days of old, with the faces in the firelight,


s: Kind folks of old, you come again no more.


s: Home was home then, my dear, full of kindly faces,


s: Home was home then, my dear, happy for the child.


s: Fire and the windows bright glittered on the moorland;


s: Song, tuneful song, built a palace in the wild.


s: Now, when day dawns on the brow of the moorland,


s: Lone stands the house, and the chimney-stone is cold.


s: Lone let it stand, now the friends are all departed,


s: The kind hearts, the true hearts, that loved the place of old.


s: Spring shall come, come again, calling up the moorfowl,


s: Spring shall bring the sun and rain, bring the bees and flowers;


s: Red shall the heather bloom over hill and valley,


s: Soft flow the stream through the even-flowing hours;


s: Fair the day shine as it shone on my childhood—


s: Fair shine the day on the house with open door;


s: Birds come and cry there and twitter in the chimney—


s: But I go for ever and come again no more.


s: In rigorous hours, when down the iron lane


s: When snipes are silent in the frozen bogs,


s: And all the garden garth is whelmed in mire,


s: Lo, by the hearth, the laughter of the logs—


s: More fair than roses, lo, the flowers of fire!


s: Loud wails the wind and beats the driving rain,


s: ‘Blow, blow,’ I cry, ‘you burst your cheeks in vain!


s: Blow, blow,’ I cry, ‘my love is home again!’


s: Yon ship you chase perchance but yesternight


s: Bore still the precious freight of my delight,


s: ‘Blow, blow,’ I cry, ‘in vain you rouse the sea,


s: My rescued sailor shares the fire with me!’


s: In the pure dew, under the breaking grey,


s: One bird, ere yet the woodland quires awake,


s: With brief réveillé summons all the brake:


s: _Chirp_, _chirp_, it goes; nor waits an answer long;


s: And that small signal fills the grove with song.


s: Thus on my pipe I breathed a strain or two;


s: It scarce was music, but ’twas all I knew.


s: Yet what but frozen music filled my heart?


s: _Chirp_, _chirp_, I went, nor hoped a nobler strain;


s: But Heaven decreed I should not pipe in vain,


s: For, lo! not far from there, in secret dale,


s: My sparrow notes he heard; thereat awoke;


s: And with a tide of song his silence broke.


s: I knew thee strong and quiet like the hills;


s: I knew thee apt to pity, brave to endure,


s: And just I knew thee, like the fabled kings


s: Who by the loud sea-shore gave judgment forth,


s: From dawn to eve, bearded and few of words.


s: What, what, was I to honour thee?  A child;


s: A youth in ardour but a child in strength,


s: Who after virtue’s golden chariot-wheels


s: Runs ever panting, nor attains the goal.


s: So thought I, and was sorrowful at heart.


s: Since then my steps have visited that flood


s: Along whose shore the numerous footfalls cease,


s: The voices and the tears of life expire.


s: Thither the prints go down, the hero’s way


s: Trod large upon the sand, the trembling maid’s:


s: Nimrod that wound his trumpet in the wood,


s: And the poor, dreaming child, hunter of flowers,


s: That here his hunting closes with the great:


s: So one and all go down, nor aught returns.


s: For thee, for us, the sacred river waits,


s: For me, the unworthy, thee, the perfect friend;


s: There Blame desists, there his unfaltering dogs


s: He from the chase recalls, and homeward rides;


s: Yet Praise and Love pass over and go in.


s: My more than mortal weakness, and with thee


s: Through that still land unfearing I advance:


s: Thou shalt rejoice to find me altered—I,


s: O Felix, to behold thee still unchanged.


s: Thrills unforgotten yet; the morning dew


s: Lies yet undried along my field of noon.


s: And count the bell, and tremble lest I hear


s: (My work untrimmed) the sunset gun too soon.


s: I have trod the upward and the downward slope;


s: I have longed for all, and bid farewell to hope;


s: And I have lived and loved, and closed the door.


s: He hears with gladdened heart the thunder


s: The clay-born here, with westward sight,


s: And the brutes, the work of thine hands,


s: With joy, and joy to endure and be withstood,


s: And still to battle and perish for a dream of good:


s: Run through and transpierce and transpire,


s: And a secret purpose of glory in every part,


s: And the answering glory of battle fill my heart;


s: To go on for ever and fail and go on again,


s: And contend for the shade of a word and a thing not seen with the


s: With the half of a broken hope for a pillow at night


s: And the smooth shall bloom from the rough:


s: Snatched out of blindness, rubbed my eyes,


s: And late at night, in the woods of fruit,


s: The Silver Ship, my King—that was her name


s: In the bright islands whence your fathers came {45}—


s: The Silver Ship, at rest from winds and tides,


s: Below your palace in your harbour rides:


s: And the seafarers, sitting safe on shore,


s: Like eager merchants count their treasures o’er.


s: One gift they find, one strange and lovely thing,


s: Now doubly precious since it pleased a king.


s: The right, my liege, is ancient as the lyre


s: For bards to give to kings what kings admire.


s: And since the gift is fitting, yours to take.


s: To golden hands the golden pearl I bring:


s: The innocent sufferer smiling at the rod—


s: He sees, he shrinks.  But if he gaze again,


s: Lo, beauty springing from the breast of pain!


s: He marks the sisters on the mournful shores;


s: I knew a silver head was bright beyond compare,


s: I knew a queen of toil with a crown of silver hair.


s: Garland of valour and sorrow, of beauty and renown,


s: Life, that honours the brave, crowned her himself with the crown.


s: Life, that delights in the brave, gave it himself for a gage.


s: Fair was the crown to behold, and beauty its poorest part—


s: At once the scar of the wound and the order pinned on the heart.


s: The beauties of man are frail, and the silver lies in the dust,


s: Shines in the eye of the mind the crown of the silver hair.


s: Green forest frame the entry of the lane—


s: The wild lane with the bramble and the brier,


s: The year-old cart-tracks perfect in the mire,


s: The wayside smoke, perchance, the dwarfish huts,


s: And ramblers’ donkey drinking from the ruts:—


s: Long ere you trace how deviously it leads,


s: Back from man’s chimneys and the bleating meads


s: To the woodland shadow, to the sylvan hush,


s: When but the brooklet chuckles in the brush—


s: Back from the sun and bustle of the vale


s: To where the great voice of the nightingale


s: Fills all the forest like a single room,


s: And all the banks smell of the golden broom;


s: And back returning to your firelit friends,


s: You see the rosy sun, despoiled of light,


s: Hung, caught in thickets, like a schoolboy’s kite.


s: Here from the sea the unfruitful sun shall rise,


s: Bathe the bare deck and blind the unshielded eyes;


s: The allotted hours aloft shall wheel in vain


s: And in the unpregnant ocean plunge again.


s: Assault of squalls that mock the watchful guard,


s: And pluck the bursting canvas from the yard,


s: And senseless clamour of the calm, at night


s: Must mar your slumbers.  By the plunging light,


s: Of the wild-swerving cabin, hour by hour . . .


s: How, in the coiled-perplexities of youth,


s: In our wild climate, in our scowling town,


s: We gloomed and shivered, sorrowed, sobbed and feared?


s: The belching winter wind, the missile rain,


s: The rare and welcome silence of the snows,


s: The laggard morn, the haggard day, the night,


s: As when the fevered sick that all night long


s: Listed the wind intone, and hear at last


s: Sing in the bitter hour before the dawn,—


s: With sudden ardour, these desire the day:


s: So sang in the gloom of youth the bird of hope;


s: How sweet to hear!—the music swelled and fell,


s: And through the breach of the revolving doors


s: What dreams of splendour blinded us and fled!


s: I have since then contended and rejoiced;


s: Profoundly entered, and the shrine beheld:


s: Shall dwindle and recede, the voice of love


s: What sound shall come but the old cry of the wind


s: But the image of the emptiness of youth,


s: Filled with the sound of footsteps and that voice


s: So, as in darkness, from the magic lamp,


s: And perish, and the night resurges—these


s: From Halkerside, from topmost Allermuir,


s: Or steep Caerketton, dreaming gaze again.


s: Far set in fields and woods, the town I see


s: Spring gallant from the shallows of her smoke,


s: Cragged, spired, and turreted, her virgin fort


s: Beflagged.  About, on seaward-drooping hills,


s: New folds of city glitter.  Last, the Forth


s: Wheels ample waters set with sacred isles,


s: And populous Fife smokes with a score of towns.


s: Hard by the house of kings, repose the dead,


s: My dead, the ready and the strong of word.


s: Their works, the salt-encrusted, still survive;


s: The sea bombards their founded towers; the night


s: Thrills pierced with their strong lamps.  The artificers,


s: One after one, here in this grated cell,


s: Where the rain erases, and the rust consumes,


s: Environs and confines their wandering child


s: My numerous footsteps nimbly to retrace,


s: Throb far away all night.  I heard the wind


s: Fly crying and convulse tumultuous palms.


s: I rose and strolled.  The isle was all bright sand,


s: And flailing fans and shadows of the palm;


s: The heaven all moon and wind and the blind vault;


s: The keenest planet slain, for Venus slept.


s: The king, my neighbour, with his host of wives,


s: Where single, in the wind, under the moon,


s: Among the slumbering cabins, blazed a fire,


s: To other lands and nights my fancy turned—


s: To London first, and chiefly to your house,


s: There yearning fancy lighted; there again


s: In the upper room I lay, and heard far off


s: The unsleeping city murmur like a shell;


s: Lamps vainly brighten the dispeopled street;


s: The awaking traffic, the bestirring birds,


s: A passing charm of beauty.  Most of all,


s: For your light foot I wearied, and your knock


s: Lo, now, when to your task in the great house


s: At morning through the portico you pass,


s: One moment glance, where by the pillared wall


s: Far-voyaging island gods, begrimed with smoke,


s: The priest, the victim, and the songful crowd,


s: The blaze of the blue noon, and that huge voice,


s: Incessant, of the breakers on the shore.


s: As far as these from their ancestral shrine,


s: So far, so foreign, your divided friends


s: exaggerated; the lady herein referred to as the author’s muse has


s: _Let us_, _who part like brothers_, _part like bards_;


s: _And you in your tongue and measure_, _I in mine_,


s: _Unlike the strains_, _and yet the theme is one_:


s: _The strains unlike_, _and how unlike their fate_!


s: _You to the blinding palace-yard shall call_


s: _The prefect of the singers_, _and to him_,


s: _Listening devout_, _your valedictory verse_


s: _Deliver_; _he_, _his attribute fulfilled_,


s: _To the island chorus hand your measures on_,


s: _Wed now with harmony_: _so them_, _at last_,


s: _Night after night_, _in the open hall of dance_,


s: _Shall thirty matted men_, _to the clapped hand_,


s: _Intone and bray and bark_.  _Unfortunate_!


s: _Paper and print alone shall honour mine_.


s: And toss the bosky ringlets from his brows,


s: My muse relates and praises his descent.


s: Bride of the shark, her valour first I sing


s: Who on the lone seas quickened of a King.


s: She, from the shore and puny homes of men,


s: Beyond the climber’s sea-discerning ken,


s: Beheld her monstrous paramour draw near.


s: She gazed; all round her to the heavenly pale,


s: The simple sea was void of isle or sail—


s: Sole overhead the unsparing sun was reared—


s: When the deep bubbled and the brute appeared.


s: Made strong her bosom and received the mate,


s: And, men declare, from that marine embrace


s: Conceived the virtues of a stronger race.


s: In the hall of tongues who ruled the throng;


s: Still light of step, still bright of look,


s: Best lay the rhyme, best lead the dance,


s: Where thrones and fortunes rise and reel,


s: Him may the breeze across the palace court


s: Trees mounted, and trees drooped, and trees


s: All still in the wood’s stillness stood,


s: Nodded and brooded, bloomed and dreamed,


s: Than clutch the earth and seek the blue.


s: And seeds enriched the place, should bear


s: Captured and scratched the rooting hand.


s: And straight my eyes were touched with sight.


s: There the green murderer throve and spread,


s: Two chartered wrestlers strain and cling;


s: And the whole earth, thy threshing-floor!


s: That these might live, what thousands died!


s: Donned her long gauntlets, caught the spud,


s: As the single pang of the blow, when the metal is mingled well,


s: Rings and lives and resounds in all the bounds of the bell,


s: So the thunder above spoke with a single tongue,


s: Sudden the thunder was drowned—quenched was the levin light—


s: And the angel-spirit of rain laughed out loud in the night.


s: Loud as the maddened river raves in the cloven glen,


s: Angel of rain! you laughed and leaped on the roofs of men;


s: And methought that beauty and terror are only one, not two;


s: And the world has room for love, and death, and thunder, and dew;


s: And the face of God is a rock, but the face of the rock is fair.


s: Beneficent streams of tears flow at the finger of pain;


s: And out of the cloud that smites, beneficent rivers of rain.


s: Let now your soul in this substantial world


s: Some anchor strike.  Be here the body moored;—


s: The picture in your eye; and when time strikes,


s: And the green scene goes on the instant blind—


s: The ultimate helpers, where your horse to-day


s: Conveyed you dreaming, bear your body dead.


s: From the loud banquet, and departing leave


s: A tremor in men’s memories, faint and sweet


s: And frail as music.  Features of our face,


s: The tones of the voice, the touch of the loved hand,


s: Perish and vanish, one by one, from earth:


s: Meanwhile, in the hall of song, the multitude


s: Applauds the new performer.  One, perchance,


s: And smiles, and to his ancient heart recalls


s: The long forgotten.  Ere the morrow die,


s: He too, returning, through the curtain comes,


s: Blows the wind to-day, and the sun and the rain are flying,


s: Blows the wind on the moors to-day and now,


s: Where about the graves of the martyrs the whaups are crying,


s: Grey recumbent tombs of the dead in desert places,


s: Standing stones on the vacant wine-red moor,


s: Hills of sheep, and the howes of the silent vanished races,


s: Be it granted me to behold you again in dying,


s: Hills of home! and to hear again the call;


s: Hear about the graves of the martyrs the peewees crying,


s: So far I have followed, Lord, and wondered still.


s: Comes.  I will eat and sleep and will not question more.


s: {44}  This is the same Princess Moë whose charms of person and


s: And his tongue shall be filled with praise.


s: For they know when their Shepherd is nigh.


s: And I  am black, but oh my soul is white!


s: But I am black, as if bereaved of light.


s: And, sitting down before the heat of day,


s: "Look on the rising sun: there God does live,


s: And gives His light, and gives His heat away,


s: And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive


s: "And we are put on earth a little space,


s: That we may learn to bear the beams of love


s: And these black bodies and this sunburnt face


s: "For when our souls have learn'd the heat to bear,


s: The cloud will vanish, we shall hear His voice,


s: Saying, 'Come out from the grove, my love and care


s: And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice',"


s: When I from black and he from white cloud free,


s: And round the tent of God like lambs we joy


s: I'll shade him from the heat till he can bear


s: And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair,


s: And be like him, and he will then love me.


s: And my father sold me while yet my tongue


s: Could scarcely cry "Weep! weep! weep! weep!"


s: So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.


s: There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,


s: That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved; so I said,


s: "Hush, Tom! never mind it, for, when your head's bare,


s: You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair."


s: And so he was quiet, and that very night,


s: As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight!--


s: Were all of them locked up in coffins of black.


s: And by came an angel, who had a bright key,


s: And he opened the coffins, and let them all free;


s: Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing, they run,


s: And wash in a river, and shine in the sun.


s: Then naked and white, all their bags left behind,


s: They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind;


s: And the Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,


s: He'd have God for his father, and never want joy.


s: And so Tom awoke, and we rose in the dark,


s: And got with our bags and our brushes to work.


s: Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm:


s: So, if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.


s: Speak, father, speak to your little boy,


s: The night was dark, no father was there,


s: The mire was deep, and the child did weep,


s: He kissed the child, and by the hand led,


s: Who in sorrow pale, through the lonely dale,


s: When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy,


s: And the dimpling stream runs laughing by;


s: When the air does laugh with our merry wit,


s: And the green hill laughs with the noise of it;


s: when the meadows laugh with lively green,


s: And the grasshopper laughs in the merry scene,


s: With their sweet round mouths sing "Ha, ha he!"


s: When the painted birds laugh in the shade,


s: Where our table with cherries and nuts is spread:


s: Come live, and be merry, and join with me,


s: To sing the sweet chorus of "Ha, ha, he!"


s: 'Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean,


s: Came children walking two and two, in read, and blue, and green:


s: Grey-headed beadles walked before, with wands as white as snow,


s: Till into the high dome of Paul's they like Thames waters flow.


s: Oh what a multitude they seemed, these flowers of London town!


s: Seated in companies they sit, with radiance all their own.


s: The hum of multitudes was there, but multitudes of lambs,


s: Thousands of little boys and girls raising their innocent hands.


s: Now like a mighty wild they raise to heaven the voice of song,


s: Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of heaven among:


s: Beneath them sit the aged man, wise guardians of the poor.


s: Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.


s: Merrily merrily, to welcome in the year.


s: Merrily, merrily, to welcome in the year.


s: When the voices of children are heard on the green,


s: "Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down,


s: Come, come, leave off play, and let us away,


s: "No, no, let us play, for it is yet day,


s: Besides, in the sky the little birds fly,


s: And the hills are all covered with sheep."


s: "Well, well, go and play till the light fades away,


s: The little ones leaped, and shouted, and laughed,


s: And her locks covered with grey despair.


s: "Where are thy father and mother? Say!"--


s: "They are both gone up to the church to pray.


s: They clothed me in the clothes of death,


s: "And because I am happy and dance and sing,


s: And are gone to praise God and his priest and king,


s: When voices of children are heard on the green,


s: The days of my youth rise fresh in my mind,


s: Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down,


s: Your spring and your day are wasted in play,


s: While the Lily white shall in love delight,


s: Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright.


s: To the thistles and thorns of the waste;


s: And they told me how they were beguiled,


s: Driven out, and compelled to the chaste.


s: And "Thou shalt not," writ over the door;


s: And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,


s: And binding with briars my joys and desires.


s: Dear mother, dear mother, the Church is cold;


s: But the Alehouse is healthy, and pleasant, and warm.


s: Besides, I can tell where I am used well;


s: The poor parsons with wind like a blown bladder swell.


s: But, if at the Church they would give us some ale,


s: And a pleasant fire our souls to regale,


s: We'd sing and we'd pray all the livelong day,


s: Nor ever once wish from the Church to stray.


s: Then the Parson might preach, and drink, and sing,


s: And we'd be as happy as birds in the spring;


s: And modest Dame Lurch, who is always at church,


s: Would not have bandy children, nor fasting, nor birch.


s: And God, like a father, rejoicing to see


s: His children as pleasant and happy as he,


s: Would have no more quarrel with the Devil or the barrel,


s: But kiss him, and give him both drink and apparel.


s: I wandered through each chartered street,


s: Near where the chartered Thames does flow,


s: But most, through midnight streets I hear


s: And blights with plagues the marriage-hearse.


s: Sought through nature to find this tree,


s: Had just removed the curtains of the night.


s: That shakes the blossoms of my hoary hair!"


s: Oh father and mother, if buds are nipped,


s: Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy,


s: Didst close my tongue in senseless clay,


s: They stumble all night over bones of the dead;


s: And wish to lead others, when they should be led.


s: NOTE:  Though written and engraved by Blake, "A DIVINE IMAGE" was


s: The daughters of Mne Seraphim led round their sunny flocks,


s: All but the youngest: she in paleness sought the secret air.


s: To fade away like morning beauty from her mortal day:


s: Down by the river of Adona her soft voice is heard;


s: And thus her gentle lamentation falls like morning dew.


s: O life of this our spring!  why fades the lotus of the water?


s: Why fade these children of the spring? born but to smile & fall.


s: Ah! Thel is like a watry bow, and like a parting cloud,


s: Like a reflection in a glass: like shadows in the water


s: Like dreams of infants, like a smile upon an infants face.


s: Like the doves voice, like transient day, like music in the air:


s: Ah! gentle may I lay me down and gentle rest my head.


s: And gentle sleep the sleep of death, and gently hear the voice


s: Of him that walketh in the garden in the evening time.


s: The Lilly of the valley breathing in the humble grass


s: Answerd the lovely maid and said: I am a watry weed,


s: And I am very small and love to dwell in lowly vales:


s: So weak the gilded butterfly scarce perches on my head


s: Yet I am visited from heaven and he that smiles on all


s: Walks in the valley, and each morn over me spreads his hand


s: Saying, rejoice thou humble grass, thou new-born lily flower.


s: Thou gentle maid of silent valleys and of modest brooks:


s: For thou shall be clothed in light, and fed with morning manna:


s: Till summers heat melts thee beside the fountains and the springs


s: Why should the mistress of the vales of Har, utter a sigh.


s: She ceasd & smild in tears, then sat down in her silver shrine.


s: Thel answerd, O thou little virgin of the peaceful valley.


s: Giving to those that cannot crave, the voiceless, the o'er tired


s: Wiping his mild and meekin mouth from all contagious taints.


s: Thy wine doth purify the golden honey; thy perfume.


s: But Thel is like a faint cloud kindled at the rising sun:


s: I vanish from my pearly throne, and who shall find my place.


s: Queen of the vales the Lily answered, ask the tender cloud,


s: And it shall tell thee why it glitters in the morning sky.


s: And why it scatters its bright beauty thro the humid air.


s: Descend O little cloud & hover before the eyes of Thel.


s: The Cloud descended and the Lily bowd her modest head:


s: And went to mind her numerous charge among the verdant grass.


s: O little Cloud the virgin said, I charge thee to tell me


s: Why thou complainest now when in one hour thou fade away:


s: Then we shall seek thee but not find: ah Thel is like to thee.


s: I pass away, yet I complain, and no one hears my voice.


s: The Cloud then shewd his golden head & his bright form emerg'd.


s: Hovering and glittering on the air before the face of Thel.


s: O virgin know'st thou not our steeds drink of the golden springs


s: Where Luvah doth renew his horses: lookst thou on my youth.


s: And fearest thou because I vanish and am seen no more.


s: Nothing remains; O maid I tell thee, when I pass away.


s: It is to tenfold life, to love, to peace, and raptures holy:


s: Unseen descending, weigh my light wings upon balmy flowers:


s: And court the fair eyed dew, to take me to her shining tent


s: The weeping virgin, trembling kneels before the risen sun.


s: Till we arise link'd in a golden band and never part:


s: But walk united bearing food to all our tender flowers.


s: Dost thou O little cloud?  I fear that I am not like thee:


s: But I feed not the warbling birds, they fly and seek their food:


s: But Thel delights in these no more because I fade away


s: And all shall say, without a use this shining women liv'd,


s: Or did she only live to be at death the food of worms.


s: The Cloud reclind upon his airy throne and answerd thus.


s: Then if thou art the food of worms, O virgin of the skies,


s: The weak worm from its lowly bed, and thou shalt hear its voice.


s: Come forth worm and the silent valley, to thy pensive queen.


s: The helpless worm arose and sat upon the Lillys leaf,


s: And the bright Cloud saild on, to find his partner in the vale.


s: Then Thel astonish'd view'd the Worm upon its dewy bed.


s: Art thou a Worm?  image of weakness,  art thou but a Worm?


s: I see thee like an infant wrapped in the Lillys leaf;


s: And none to answer, none to cherish thee with mothers smiles.


s: The Clod of Clay heard the Worms voice & rais'd her pitying head:


s: In milky fondness, then on Thel she fix'd her humble eyes;


s: O beauty of the vales of Har, we live not for ourselves,


s: Thou seest me the meanest thing, and so I am indeed:


s: My bosom of itself is cold, and of itself is dark,


s: But he that loves the lowly, pours his oil upon my head


s: And kisses me, and binds his nuptial bands around my breast.


s: And says; Thou mother of my children, I have loved thee


s: And I have given thee a crown that none can take away.


s: But how this is sweet maid, I know not, and I cannot know


s: I ponder, and I cannot ponder; yet I live and love.


s: That God would love a Worm I knew, and punish the evil foot


s: That wilful bruis'd its helpless form: but that he cherish'd it


s: With milk and oil I never knew, and therefore did I weep,


s: And I complaind in the mild air, because I fade away.


s: And lay me down in thy cold bed, and leave my shining lot.


s: Queen of the vales, the matron Clay answered: I heard thy sighs.


s: And all thy moans flew o'er my roof, but I have call'd them down:


s: And to return: fear nothing, enter with thy virgin feet.


s: The eternal gates terrific porter lifted the northern bar:


s: Thel enter'd in & saw the secrets of the land unknown;


s: She saw the couches of the dead, & where the fibrous roots


s: Of every heart on earth infixes deep its restless twists:


s: A land of sorrows & of tears where never smile was seen.


s: She wandered in the land of clouds thro' valleys dark, listning


s: Dolors & lamentations: waiting oft beside the dewy grave


s: She stood in silence, listning to the voices of the ground,


s: Till to her own grave plot she came, & there she sat down.


s: And heard this voice of sorrow breathed from the hollow pit.


s: Why cannot the Ear be closed to its own destruction?


s: Or the glistening Eye to the poison of a smile!


s: Why are Eyelids stord with arrows ready drawn,


s: Where a thousand fighting men in ambush lie!


s: Or an Eye of gifts & graces showring fruits & coined gold!


s: Why a Tongue impress'd with honey from every wind?


s: Why an Ear, a whirlpool fierce to draw creations in?


s: Why a Nostril wide inhaling terror trembling & affright


s: Why a tender curb upon the youthful burning boy?


s: Why a little curtain of flesh on the bed of our desire?


s: The Virgin started from her seat, & with a shriek,


s: Fled back unhinderd till she came into the vales of Har.


s: if the italics were used for emphasis, or put in quotation marks,


s: an italicized and indented paragraph has been indented 10 spaces


s: to set it apart.  Lines longer than 78 characters are broken,


s: and the continuation is indented two spaces.]


s: But thine eye is faith and thy wing is love."


s: On Violet's Wafers, Sent Me When I Was Ill.


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


s: held a similar position in the court of Charles II.  A portrait


s: of the elder Nicholas Lanier, by his friend Van Dyck, was sold,


s: with other pictures belonging to Charles I., after his execution.


s: were among the few incorporators, one of them, John Lanier,


s: rather alarmed than pleased his friends, and while it was here


s: that he first discovered that he possessed decided genius,


s: he for some time shared the early notion of his parents,


s: and that proceeded from Professor James Woodrow, who was then


s: one of Sidney's teachers, and who has since been connected with


s: During the last weeks of his life Mr. Lanier stated


s: As I have said, his genius he first fully discovered in music.


s: with reference to me; or what my inclinations are, as preliminary


s: for God gave it me, I have an extraordinary musical talent,


s: Similar aspirations he felt at this early age, probably eighteen,


s: with the Macon Volunteers of the Second Georgia Battalion,


s: the first military organization which left Georgia for Virginia.


s: Drewry's Bluffs, and the seven days' fighting about Richmond,


s: for a short period at Petersburg, where he had the advantage


s: and how its shades are damp and its odors unhealthy;


s: and what a fine specimen was grown the other day in North America


s: forever and ever, no matter in whose granary they are cherished!"


s: and was first encamped near Norfolk, where the gardens,


s: with the Northern market hopelessly cut off, were given freely


s: In February, 1865, he was released from Point Lookout


s: and undertook the weary return on foot to his home in Georgia,


s: made his first visit to New York on the business of publishing


s: To the years before Mr. Lanier's marriage belong a dozen poems


s: In January, 1868, the next month after his marriage,


s: returning in October greatly improved and strong in hope;


s: "Were it not for some circumstances which make such a proposition


s: The very inner spirit and essence of all wind-songs, bird-songs,


s: and settle down with him in business and share his income,


s: but that would have been the suicide of every duty and ambition.


s: So he wrote from Baltimore to his father, November 29, 1873:


s: have given me an almost equal encouragement to work with my pen.


s: (Of course I protest against the necessity which makes me write


s: such things about myself.  I only do so because I so appreciate


s: the love and tenderness which prompt you to desire me with you


s: that I will make the fullest explanation possible of my course,


s: What could his father do but yield?  And what could he do


s: that was necessary to give his household a humble support


s: and I find within myself such entire, yet humble, confidence


s: to the taste of those who buy verse.  It was to comfort his wife,


s: in launching in the sea of literature, that he wrote again


s: "I will make to thee a little confession of faith, telling thee,


s: "Now this is written because I sit here in my room daily,


s: "Have then . . . no fears nor anxieties in my behalf;


s: of English literature, making himself a master of Anglo-Saxon


s: for he had that large compass which sees and seeks truths


s: But from this time the struggle against his fatal disease


s: was conscious and constant.  In May, 1874, he visited Florida


s: No one of these was of so much value to him as Bayard Taylor,


s: at whose suggestion he was chosen to write the cantata


s: for the opening of the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia,


s: "I could never describe to you what a mere drought and famine


s: The selection of Mr. Lanier to write the Centennial Cantata


s: first brought his name into general notice; but its publication,


s: in advance of the music by Dudley Buck, was the occasion


s: and was not to be judged without its orchestral accompaniment.


s: "My experience in the varying judgments given about poetry . . .


s: has all converged upon one solitary principle, and the experience


s: the very best and highest that is within him, utterly regardless


s: Since first coming to the North in September, 1873,


s: Following this disappointment a new cold was incurred,


s: and his health became so much impaired that in November


s: a final move was ventured in October to Baltimore as home.


s: Here he resumed his old place in the Peabody orchestra,


s: and continued to play there for three winters.


s: given in a private parlor to a class of thirty ladies.


s: of his appointment, with a salary attached (it may be mentioned),


s: The last two years had been more fruitful in verse than any


s: "In this little song [`Special Pleading'] I have begun to dare


s: "The Marshes of Glynn", his most ambitious poem thus far,


s: The summer of 1879 was spent at Rockingham Springs, Va.,


s: and here, in six weeks, was begun and finished his volume,


s: about January 1st, he was in continuous rehearsals and concerts


s: at the Peabody, and besides miscellaneous writings and studies,


s: were introductory to, "The Science of English Verse".


s: The final consuming fever opened in May, 1880.  In July he went


s: with Mrs. Lanier and her father to West Chester, Pa.,


s: His improvement ceased on that first day of exposure.


s: Nevertheless, by April he had gone through the twelve lectures


s: (there were to have been twenty), which were later published


s: and sitting during his lecture, his strength was so exhausted


s: that the struggle for breath in the carriage on his return


s: seemed each time to threaten the end.  Those who heard him


s: listened with a sort of fascinated terror, as in doubt


s: whether the hoarded breath would suffice to the end of the hour.


s: that he pencilled his last and greatest poem, "Sunrise",


s: one of his projected series of the "Hymns of the Marshes".


s: At the end of April, 1881, he made his last visit to New York,


s: to complete arrangements with Charles Scribner's Sons


s: for the publication of other books of the King Arthur series.


s: By what seemed a hopeful coincidence he was tendered a commission


s: kept him from dictating, often from all speech for hours,


s: brought no improvement to the sufferer he started, August 4th,


s: on a carriage journey across the mountains with his wife,


s: "We are left alone" (August 29th) "with one another.


s: until the forenoon of September 7th, and then falls the frost,


s: and that unfaltering will renders its supreme submission


s: So the tragedy ended, the manly struggle carried on


s: with indomitable resolution against illness and want and care.


s: Just when he seemed to have conquered success enough


s: to assure him a little leisure to write his poems,


s: then his feeble but resolute hold upon earth was exhausted.


s: What he left behind him was written with his life-blood.


s: He had more than Milton's love for music.  He sung like a bard


s: to the accompaniment of a harp.  He lived in sweet sounds:


s: forever conscious of a ceaseless flow of melody which,


s: so that they mutually absorbed and expressed each other.


s: to all the rules and shifts of mere technical scholarship.


s: His art was not only the art of art, but an art above art.


s: "I will never forget the impression he made on me when he played


s: In the one novel which he wrote at the age of twenty-five,


s: "To make a HOME out of a household, given the raw materials --


s: to wit, wife, children, a friend or two, and a house --


s: The theoretical relation between music and poetry would hardly


s: have attracted his study had it not been that his mind


s: was as truly philosophically and scientifically accurate,


s: as it was poetically sensuous and imaginative.  In a letter


s: to Mr. E. C. Stedman he complained that "in all directions


s: Although the work was irksome to him, he could not go on


s: having their regular time and their regular number of notes,


s: three equal "eighth notes", of which the first is accented,


s: or in iambic metre (which has the same "triple" time),


s: Under the designation of "tone-color" he treats very suggestively


s: showing how the recurrence of euphonic vowels and consonants


s: of trochees and anapaests, and discusses the forms of poetry


s: Illustrations of these technical beauties of musical rhythm,


s: and vowel and consonant distribution, abound in Lanier's poetry.


s: Such is the "Song of the Chattahoochee", which deserves a place


s: beside Tennyson's "Brook".  It strikes a higher key,


s: and is scarcely less musical.  Such passages are numerous


s: in his "Sunrise on the Marshes", as in the lines beginning,


s: the progressive opening or closing of the organs of articulation,


s: a student of things, truths, and men.  His own studies were wide


s: and his scholarship accurate.  He did not believe that art comes


s: than his countrymen are wont to do:  "The trouble with Poe was,


s: this beauty of holiness.  Lanier was saturated with it.


s: "Let any sculptor hew us out the most ravishing combination


s: of tender curves and spheric softness that ever stood for woman;


s: yet if the lip have a certain fulness that hints of the flesh,


s: if the brow be insincere, if in the minutest particular


s: the physical beauty suggests a moral ugliness, that sculptor --


s: unless he be portraying a moral ugliness for a moral purpose --


s: may as well give over his marble for paving-stones.


s: how artistic beauty and moral beauty are convergent lines


s: with your beautiful creation, go forward in the clear conviction


s: that unless you are suffused -- soul and body, one might say --


s: Thus was it true, as was said of his work by his associate,


s: and his never ceasing endeavors to kindle an enthusiasm


s: a solemn, worshipful element, dominating it everywhere,


s: "My democrat, the democrat whom I contemplate with pleasure,


s: the democrat who is to write or to read the poetry of the future,


s: and albeit his stature may be no more than a boy's,


s: he shall still be taller than the great redwoods of California;


s: his height shall be the height of great resolution,


s: This standard he could not forget in his judgments of artists.


s: "He invited me to eat; the service was silver and gold,


s: but no food therein save pepper and salt."


s: "He caught a crystal cupful of the yellow light of sunset,


s: Though not what would be called a religious writer,


s: "Liberty, patriotism, and civilization are on their knees


s: How naturally his large faith in God finds expression


s: in his "Marshes of Glynn"; or his reverent discipleship


s: "I fled in tears from the men's ungodly quarrel about God.


s: I fled in tears to the woods, and laid me down on the earth.


s: `I know that thou art the word of my God, dear Violet:


s: And Oh, the ladder is not long that to my heaven leads.


s: Measure what space a violet stands above the ground;


s: the less sturdily built poets of his day, and which puts him


s: in sharpest contrast with the school led by Swinburne --


s: with Rossetti and Morris as his followers hard after him --


s: than they know.  Its face is toward the world's future;


s: He lives in to-day and to-morrow, not in yesterday.


s: Milton was one of the world's great poets, but he was


s: the most cultured and scholarly and statesmanlike man of his day.


s: the prism steals from a star.  The old he has and all the new.


s: All this a man of Lanier's breadth understood fully,


s: for he had a large capacity and he sought a full equipment.


s: But how short was his day, and how slender his opportunity!


s: Much very dear, and sweet, and most sympathetic helpfulness


s: he met in the city of his adoption, and from friends elsewhere,


s: but he could not command the time and leisure which might have


s: in the garnering of the poetic art of our country.


s: Mr. Lanier's published works, previous to the present volume,


s: and exclusive of poems and essays published in literary journals,


s: The Science of English Verse.  Crown 8vo, pp. xv, 315.


s: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1880.


s: The Boy's Percy.  Being Old Ballads of War, Adventure, and Love,


s: from Bishop Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.


s: In my sleep I was fain of their fellowship, fain


s: Of the live-oak, the marsh, and the main.


s: The little green leaves would not let me alone in my sleep;


s: Up-breathed from the marshes, a message of range and of sweep,


s: Interwoven with waftures of wild sea-liberties, drifting,


s: Came through the lapped leaves sifting, sifting,


s: Then my thoughts, in the dark of the dungeon-keep


s: Upstarted, by twos and by threes assembling:


s: Like as the lips of a lady that forth falter `Yes,'


s: I have waked, I have come, my beloved!  I might not abide:


s: I have come ere the dawn, O beloved, my live-oaks, to hide


s: As a lover in heaven, the marsh my marsh and the sea my sea.


s: Tell me, sweet burly-bark'd, man-bodied Tree


s: That mine arms in the dark are embracing, dost know


s: From what fount are these tears at thy feet which flow?


s: They rise not from reason, but deeper inconsequent deeps.


s: Betwixt dear over-beautiful trees and the rain of the eyes?


s: O cunning green leaves, little masters! like as ye gloss


s: All the dull-tissued dark with your luminous darks that emboss


s: The vague blackness of night into pattern and plan,


s: (But would I could know, but would I could know,)


s: While his cry to the dead for some knowledge is under the ban,


s: Designs on the night of our knowledge, -- yea, ye have taught me,


s: That haply we know somewhat more than we know.


s: Ye lispers, whisperers, singers in storms,


s: Ye consciences murmuring faiths under forms,


s: Ye ministers meet for each passion that grieves,


s: Oh, rain me down from your darks that contain me


s: Wisdoms ye winnow from winds that pain me, --


s: That advise me of more than they bring, -- repeat


s: Me the woods-smell that swiftly but now brought breath


s: From the heaven-side bank of the river of death, --


s: Teach me the terms of silence, -- preach me


s: The passion of patience, -- sift me, -- impeach me, --


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


s: That out of the leaves of the low-hanging bough,


s: Reverend Marsh, low-couched along the sea,


s: That which our father-age had died to know --


s: The menstruum that dissolves all matter -- thou


s: Hast found it:  for this silence, filling now


s: This solves us all:  man, matter, doubt, disgrace,


s: Must in yon silence' clear solution lie.


s: Too clear!  That crystal nothing who'll peruse?


s: The blackest night could bring us brighter news.


s: Oh, if thy soul's at latter gasp for space,


s: With trying to breathe no bigger than thy race


s: Just to be fellow'd, when that thou hast found


s: No man with room, or grace enough of bound