s: And thou shalt be the Holy Bridegroom's bride.'


s: "Her novice days went on; much sickness fell


s: A murmur from her lips.  She oft would smile


s: A sunny, playful smile, that she might hide


s: Her sufferings from us all.  When she was well


s: She was the first to meet the hour of prayer --


s: The last to leave it -- and they named her well:


s: The `Angel of the Cloister'.  Once I heard


s: The Father of our souls say when she passed


s: She wears the white robe of her innocence.'


s: And we -- we believed it.  There are sisters here


s: Of three-score years of service who would say:


s: That hid so saintly and so pure a heart.'


s: And we -- we felt it, and we loved her so,


s: She seemed to have rapt moments -- then she grew


s: Absent-minded, and would come and ask me


s: Beneath the trees.  She had a voice divine;


s: And when she sang for us, in truth it seemed


s: The very heart of song was breaking on her lips.


s: Was of the richest, and she mastered art


s: By instinct more than study.  Her weak hands


s: She came to me and told me she had dreamt


s: A dream; then asked me would I let her paint


s: Her dream.  I gave permission.  Weeks and weeks


s: Went by, and ev'ry spare hour of the day


s: She kept her cell all busy with her work.


s: At last 'twas finished, and she brought it forth --


s: A picture my poor words may not portray.


s: But you must gaze on it with your own eyes,


s: And drink its magic and its meanings in;


s: I'll show it thee, kind sir, before you go.


s: "In every May for two whole days she kept


s: Her cell.  We humored her in that; but when


s: The days had passed, and she came forth again,


s: With God's smile on it; and for days and days


s: Thereafter, she would scarcely ope her lips


s: Save when in prayer, and then her every look


s: Was rapt, as if her soul did hold with God


s: Strange converse.  And, who knows? mayhap she did.


s: You see that wondrous crucifix; one year


s: She spent on it, and begged to put beneath


s: That most mysterious word -- `Ullainee'.


s: "At last the cloister's angel disappeared;


s: Her face was missed at choir, her voice was missed --


s: Her words were missed where every day we met


s: In recreation's hour.  And those who passed


s: The angel's cell would lightly tread, and breathe


s: A prayer that death might pass the angel by


s: And let her longer stay, for she lay ill --


s: Her frail, pure life was ebbing fast away.


s: From all our hearts that God might spare her still;


s: Our hands were lifted, and strong pleadings went


s: To heaven for her; we did love her so --


s: Perhaps too much we loved her, and perhaps


s: Our love was far too human.  Slow and slow


s: She faded like a flower.  And slow and slow


s: Her pale cheeks whitened more.  And slow and slow


s: Her large, brown, wondering eyes sank deep and dim.


s: Hope died on all our faces; but on her's


s: And from her wasted lips sweet prayers arose


s: That made her watchers weep.  Fast came the end.


s: Never such silence o'er the cloister hung --


s: We walked more softly, and, whene'er we spoke,


s: Our voices fell to whispers, lest a sound


s: Might jar upon her ear.  The sisters watched


s: In turns beside her couch; to each she gave


s: A gentle word, a smile, a thankful look.


s: At times her mind did wander; no wild words


s: Escaped her lips -- she seemed to float away


s: To far-gone days, and live again in scenes


s: Whose hours were bright and happy.  In her sleep


s: She ofttimes spoke low, gentle, holy words


s: About her mother; and sometimes she sang


s: The fragments of sweet olden songs -- and when


s: If she had spoken in her sleep, and what


s: She said, as if, indeed, her heart did fear


s: That sleep might open there some long-closed gate


s: She would keep locked.  And softly as a cloud,


s: Floats from the heart of land out o'er the sea,


s: So her sweet life was passing.  One bright eve,


s: The fourteenth day of August, when the sun


s: Was wrapping, like a king, a purple cloud


s: Around him on descending day's bright throne,


s: She sent for me and bade me come in haste.


s: I went into her cell.  There was a light


s: I sat beside her couch, and took her hand


s: In mine -- a fair, frail hand that scarcely seem'd


s: Of flesh -- so wasted, white and wan it was.


s: Her great, brown, wond'ring eyes had sunk away


s: Deep in their sockets -- and their light shone dim


s: But ere it leaves this shore to cross the deep


s: A few last words -- and, Mother, I would ask


s: One favor more, which thou wilt not refuse.


s: Thou gav'st her heart a home, her love a vase,


s: Her weariness a rest, her sacrifice a shrine --


s: And thou didst love me, Mother, as she loved


s: Whom I shall meet to-morrow, far away --


s: But no, it is not far -- that other heaven


s: Touches this, Mother; I have felt its touch,


s: To-morrow, Mother.  Yes, I dreamt it all.


s: My soul passed upwards thro' the golden clouds


s: Thou'lt listen, Mother sweet, to my last words,


s: Which, like all last words, tell whate'er was first


s: Sent by a spirit that had touched my own


s: As wings of angels touch -- to fly apart


s: Upon their missions -- till they meet again


s: In heaven, heart to heart, wing to wing.


s: The "Angel of the Cloister" you called me --


s: Unworthy sure of such a beauteous name --


s: My mission's over -- and your angel goes


s: To-morrow home.  This earthly part which stays


s: You'll lay away within a simple grave --


s: But, Mother, on its slab thou'lt grave this name,


s: "Ullainee!" (she spelt the letters out),


s: Nor ask me why -- tho' if thou wilt I'll tell;


s: By one who found it in some Eastern book,


s: Or dreamt it in a dream, and gave it me --


s: And, Mother, should he ever come and read


s: That name upon my grave, and come to thee


s: Thou'lt tell him all -- and watch him if he weeps,


s: Show him the crucifix my poor hands carved --


s: Show him the picture in the chapel choir --


s: There are three humble scrolls in yonder drawer;'


s: `Some words of mine and words of his are there.


s: And keep these simple scrolls until he comes,


s: And put them in his hands; and, Mother, watch --


s: Watch him if he weeps; and tell him this:


s: I kissed my cross a thousand times a day,


s: I lived on it -- I loved it to the last.'  And then


s: A low, soft sigh crept thro' the virgin's cell;


s: I looked upon her face, and death was there."


s: There was a pause -- and in the pause one wave


s: Of shining tears swept thro' the Mother's eyes.


s: "And thus," she said, "our angel passed away.


s: And I -- (for she asked me one day thus,


s: The day she hung her picture in the choir) --


s: I planted o'er her grave a white rose tree.


s: The graven name -- and still we sometimes cull


s: Her sweet, white roses, and we place them on


s: A long, vast hall, then up a flight of stairs


s: Unto an oaken door, which turned upon its hinge


s: On gospel side of which there was a gate


s: From ceiling down to floor, and back of that


s: A long and narrow choir, with many stalls,


s: Brown-oaken; all along the walls were hung


s: Saint-pictures, whose sweet faces looked upon


s: The faces of the Sisters in their prayers.


s: The picture of the "Angel of the Choir".


s: He sees it now thro' vista of the years,


s: Which stretch between him and that long-gone day,


s: That fell upon his spirit thro' his eyes,


s: And made him dream of God's own holy heart.


s: The shadow of the picture, in weak words,


s: Was this, or something very like to this:


s: Above it low, gray skies drooped sadly down,


s: As if they fain would weep, and all was bare


s: As bleakness' own bleak self; a mountain stood


s: That flashed from out the heavens, and a cross


s: With such a pale Christ hanging in its arms


s: Did crown the mount; and either side the cross


s: There were two crosses lying on the rocks --


s: And one of reddest roses -- Merlin's name


s: Below the cross and crosses and the mount


s: The earth-place lay so dark and bleak and drear;


s: Like God's own benediction o'er the names.


s: But words as weak as mine can never paint


s: "Some day -- some far-off day -- when I am dead,


s: You have the simple rhymings of two hearts,


s: And if you think it best, the world may know


s: A love-tale crowned by purest SACRIFICE."


s: "Children, come!" the words were cruel --


s: You will hear that feast's bells ringing


s: Lines ["The death of men is not the death"]


s: A hopeless cry o'er her heart-hope's death!


s: Can words catch the chords of the winds that wail,


s: When love's last lily lies dead in the vale!


s: Ah! song! you may echo the sound of pain,


s: The pang of the heart that breaks in twain.


s: Wind-driven waves with no hearts that ache,


s: No lips that speak -- have ye souls that sob?


s: We carry the cross -- ye wear the crest,


s: For storm-rocked waves ye break evermore,


s: In the whitest foam of the saddest tears,


s: O waves! sad waves! how you flowed between


s: The crownless Prince and the exiled Queen!


s: Her hopes are withered, her heart is crushed,


s: For the love of her love is cold and dead,


s: A starless and pitiless night hath rushed


s: On the light of her life -- and far away


s: Lies the heart of her heart -- let her alone


s: Care for the prince or his mother's tears?


s: She had nothing to give him but her love.


s: Father Keeler died February 28, 1880, in Mobile, Ala.


s: "Sweet Christ! let him live, ah! we need his life,


s: Oh! his life is beautiful, sweet, and fair,


s: Like a holy hymn, and the stillest prayer;


s: 'Twas the cry of thousands who loved him so,


s: He was passing away -- and none might save


s: The virgin priest from a spotless grave.


s: "O God! spare his life, we plead and pray,


s: So, so much -- his life is so sweet and fair --


s: A still, still song -- and a holy prayer;


s: 'Twas the wail of thousands who loved him so,


s: But the Angel of Death murmured low:  "No, no;"


s: And the voice of his angel from far away,


s: Sang to Christ in heav'n:  "He must not stay."


s: "O Mary! kneel at the great white throne,


s: Our hearts need his heart -- 'tis sweet and fair,


s: Like the sound of hymns and the breath of prayer,


s: 'Twas the cry of the souls who loved him so --


s: But the Angel of Death sang:  "Children, no!"


s: And a voice like Christ's from the far away,


s: Sounded sweet and low:  "He may not stay."


s: From his sister's heart swept the wildest moan:


s: I need him the most -- oh! me! how lone,


s: Let him live for me, else my heart will break."


s: But the Angel of Death wept:  "Poor child! no,"


s: And Christ sang:  "Child, I will soothe thy woe."


s: "O Christ! let his sister's prayer be heard,


s: Ah! that prayer was a wail -- without a word --


s: 'Tween the dying eyes and the eyes that wept.


s: He was dying fast, and the hours went by,


s: And one who loved him (at dead of night),


s: The Angel of Death said:  "No! Priest! No!


s: You must suffer and live, but he must go."


s: And a voice like Christ's sang far away:


s: "He will come to me, but you must stay."


s: Told our stricken hearts he was out of pain,


s: And the city was stirred, and thousands cried


s: On the heart of his father -- he is mild


s: And they brought him home to the home he blest,


s: He blessed it more in his deathly rest --


s: He drifted back -- and they placed him where


s: His Father in God thought over the years


s: Who will watch o'er the dead young priest,


s: The doors were closed -- he was still and fair,


s: The dead priests come with soundless prayer,


s: And this was the soundless hymn they sung:


s: Your life was beautiful, fair, and young,


s: With the virgin priests whom Christ has blest."


s: O'er the sweet young priest in his vestment shroud


s: They are dead and gone, and the Requiem Mass


s: There was sorrow on almost ev'ry face --


s: "Give the white rose priest a flower and crown,


s: And we wept our tears and left him there.


s: A heavenly hymn -- a sweet, still prayer,


s: The hearts that will guard thy place of rest,


s: The lays and legends which the bards unfurled


s: Fragments and fancies writ on many a page


s: And names, and deeds that all along each age,


s: And pictures erstwhile framed in sun or shade


s: And life's great poems that can never fade


s: And acts and facts that must forever ring


s: That sound or seem to sound where angels sing


s: And scenes where smiles are strangely touching tears,


s: Strange Mystics! in the meeting of the years


s: All these, and more; ye make us smile and sigh,


s: When New Year kneels low in the star-aisled sky


s: To bless us all with love, and life, and light,


s: Each other in their arms, ye stir the sight,


s: The past is passing, and the present seems


s: The Old Year marches through your ranks, away


s: The while the pageant moves, it scarcely seems


s: The Old Year dies -- and heaven crowns with gleams


s: And you -- you crown yourselves with heaven's grace


s: A prayer -- ascending from an orphan face,


s: May meet you in the years that are to be


s: Is blest in heaven, and is blest on earth,


s: Beyond the Old Year's death and New Year's birth,


s: For each of you, ye Mystics! everywhere.


s: My feet are wearied, and my hands are tired,


s: And I desire, what I have long desired --


s: 'Tis hard to toil -- when toil is almost vain,


s: 'Tis hard to sow -- and never garner grain,


s: And I have prayed -- but vain has been my prayer


s: 'Tis hard to plant in Spring and never reap


s: 'Tis hard to till, and 'tis tilled to weep


s: My way has wound across the desert years,


s: My path, and through the flowing of hot tears,


s: 'Twas always so; when but a child I laid


s: My wearied little head; e'en then I prayed


s: And I am restless still; 'twill soon be o'er;


s: Life's sun is setting, and I see the shore


s: Bear thou this cross thro' pain and loss,


s: In pastures green His steps were seen --


s: The flowers were fair; I lingered there;


s: I'll bear Thy cross thro' pain and loss,


s: Lines addressed to the daughter of Richard Dalton Williams.


s: Child of the heart of a child of sweetest song!


s: The poet's blood flows through thy fresh pure veins;


s: Thy days and dreams of thy dead father's strains?


s: The strange sweet cadences of thy father's rhymes?


s: Child of a child of art, which Heaven doth give


s: His songs are wandering o'er the world, but live


s: In his child's heart, in some place lone and dim;


s: Thou keepest watch above thy father's lays.


s: Child of a dreamer of dreams all unfulfilled --


s: (And thou art, child, a living dream of him) --


s: Dost ever feel thy spirit all enthrilled


s: With his lost dreams when summer days wane dim?


s: O'er the brow that paled before it won the crown?


s: Child of the patriot!  Oh, how he loved his land!


s: And how he moaned o'er Erin's ev'ry wrong!


s: Child of the singer! he swept with purest hand


s: The octaves of all agonies, until his song


s: Like a shadow song from some Gethsemane.


s: Child of the wanderer! and his heart the shrine


s: Where three loves blended into only one --


s: His God's, thy mother's, and his country's; and 'tis thine


s: To be the living ray of such a glorious sun.


s: Child of thy father, I have read his songs --


s: Thou art the sweetest song he ever sung --


s: Peaceful as Psalms, but when his country's wrongs


s: Swept o'er his heart he stormed.  And he was young;


s: His songs are letters in a book -- thou art their ray.


s: The priests stood waiting in the holy place,


s: When sudden up the aisle there came a face


s: Simeon looked on, and bowed his aged head --


s: Low were the words of Joachim.  He spake


s: Or as if his heart were just about to break,


s: While Anna wept the while -- he, sobbing, said:


s: "Priests of the holy temple, will you take


s: And Simeon, listening, prayed, and strangely smiled.


s: Till Simeon spake:  "Child, hast thou heaven's call?"


s: They looked from the curtain to the little child --


s: Simeon seemed to pray, and strangely smiled.


s: "Yes; heaven sent me here.  Priests, let me in!"


s: A voice did call me from this world of sin --


s: `Leave father, mother,' said the voice, `and win';


s: I am three summers old -- a little child."


s: And Simeon seemed to pray the while he smiled.


s: "Yes, holy priests, our father's God is great,


s: He said to me:  `Three years your God will wait


s: The priests, in awe, came closer to the child --


s: She wore an angel's look -- and Simeon smiled.


s: The sun had set, and it was growing dark;


s: "Unto me, priests, and all ye Levites, hark!


s: In holy praise."  They gazed upon the child


s: In wonderment -- and Simeon prayed and smiled.


s: The priests and Levites lingered still to pray;


s: The night is passing 'fore the coming day


s: Of our redemption" -- and some way the child


s: Won all their hearts.  Simeon prayed and smiled.


s: That night the temple's child knelt down to pray


s: Why did the temple's mystic curtain sway?


s: Had come at last; and 'neath the night-stars' gleam


s: And in his sleep he murmured prayer -- and smiled.


s: And twelve years after, up the very aisle


s: And Simeon took the Infant from her breast,


s: Of faith, and hope, and everlasting rest.


s: For Christ's sweet grace thy heart had won


s: Where angels' hymns thy prayer shall greet,


s: Kneeling with us 'neath Christmas night.


s: When the world's sweet Child of Bethlehem


s: When the ~Gloria~ of the first great feast


s: While countless priests did onward pass.


s: The Mass bell rang with its sound so sweet,


s: While from shrine to shrine, with tireless power,


s: And heaven's love, walked the nailed feet.


s: "I brought the hours for ~Angelus~ bells,


s: They wound their sweet and blessed spell


s: With better gifts than the old year gave;


s: If you place on his fingers the holy ring


s: 'Thwart shadows that fall dim and dimmer


s: Was I sleeping?  Is sleep but the closing,


s: In the night, of our eyes from the light?


s: When the earth-wearied frame is reposing,


s: Is the vision then veiled the less bright?


s: When the earth from our sight hath been taken,


s: Let them work on their ways as they will,


s: And their workings, I trow, have their worth.


s: Are building, with faith without falter,


s: Was I sleeping?  I know not -- or waking?


s: With the toils of the day that had gone;


s: When sudden there came the bright breaking


s: As shines thro' the summer morn's portal


s: As white as the flakes -- ah, no! whiter;


s: When they flash o'er the brow of some woe


s: From its home in some glory-crowned star,


s: 'Tis a truth that is more than a seeming --


s: Springing forth in Thy loving decreeings,


s: Ah! think you 'tween Here and that Yonder


s: There is naught but the silence of death?


s: There's naught of love's wish or life's wonder,


s: Can He rest when His love sways His will?


s: Strange darknesses creep o'er my rhymes,


s: "Call me Zeila," the bright spirit said,


s: A heart that can feel for another's woe,


s: All men as brothers, is better than gold.


s: Though toiling for bread in an humble sphere,


s: Untried by the lusts and cares of wealth,


s: Of the sons of toil when the labors close;


s: Better than gold is the poor man's sleep,


s: And the balm that drops on his slumbers deep.


s: Bring sleeping draughts on the downy bed,


s: And live with the great and good of yore.


s: The world's great dream will thus unfold


s: Or tried with sorrow by heaven's decree,


s: The blessings that never were bought or sold,


s: With the vesper light upon its breast, flew home


s: Unto the Evening went the white-winged bird --


s: And far away the tempest's tramp was heard.


s: Nay! nay! lone bird! I watched thy wings of white


s: Past the evening and swift into the night,


s: And thou didst teach me, bird of the sea,


s: Only men's hearts -- tho' God shows each its way


s: Unlike the wild sea-birds, somehow go astray,


s: Of this strange world's tempest-trampled main


s: A resting place -- but they seek in vain.


s: And dream its peaceful dreams where wild winds sweep.


s: The birds a rest place on the restless sea --


s: But this, my heart, is not His way with thee.


s: Over the world, ah! passion's tempests roll,


s: Whitens the place where sank some sin-wrecked soul


s: Ah! the tranquil shore of God's sweet, calm grace,


s: Strange Sea! why is it that you never rest?


s: Thou art like one so sad and sin-oppressed --


s: (And the waves are the tears you weep) --


s: And thou didst never sin -- what ails the sinless deep?


s: To-night I hear you crying on the beach,


s: Like a weary child on its mother's breast --


s: A cry with an infinite and lonesome reach


s: And thou didst never sin -- why art thou so distressed?


s: But, ah, sad Sea! the mother's breast is warm,


s: Where crieth the lone and the wearied child;


s: And soft the arms that shield her own from harm;


s: But to-night, O Sea! thy cry is wild, so wild!


s: What ails thee, Sea?  The midnight stars are bright --


s: How safe they lean on heaven's sinless breast!


s: O Sea! is the beach too hard, tho' e'er so white,


s: (And to-night the winds are a-coming from the West).


s: Where the shadows moan o'er the day's life done,


s: And the darkness is waiting for the light,


s: Ah, me! how the shadows ever seek and shun


s: The sacred, radiant faces of the bright --


s: (And the stars are the vestal virgins of the night);


s: Thro' which the sounds and silences float in


s: In reflex of the spirit's calm or troublous din?


s: Save only this -- and that is mystery --


s: Like the sea, my spirit hath its ebb and flow


s: Ever reflect the ceaseless tides of thoughts in me.


s: Waves, are ye priests in surplices of gray,


s: Fringed by the fingers of the breeze with white?


s: Is the beach your altar where ye come to pray,


s: With the sea's ritual, every day and night?


s: And the suns and stars your only altar light?


s: (And the winds are a-coming from the West),


s: Like thy waves, moveth uncertainly along;


s: And my thoughts, like thy tide with a snow-white crest,


s: Flow and ebb, ebb and flow with thy own unrest.


s: And the sun, thro' the clouds of the East,


s: With the brightest and fairest of flashes,


s: Fringed the surplice of white for the Feast.


s: While the earth and the heavens were waiting


s: The prayer that ascends with "Our Father",


s: And keeps hearts and the heavens so near.


s: And all the day long -- can you blame me?


s: And I think that the Christ and His Mother


s: And I think that the great, bright Archangel


s: That soared thro' the skies like a song,


s: From the hearts of the true and the faithful,


s: Who kissed in their faith and their fervor


s: Pray the same as I prayed, and the angel,


s: And the same as the Christ of our love --


s: Winging just the same sweet flight above.


s: Passed the morning, the noon:  came the even --


s: With the halo of lights on three altars,


s: Shone the symbolic stars.  Was their gleam,


s: And the flowerets that fragranced her altar,


s: That the Mother had rights in the temple


s: Was it wronging her Christ-Son, I wonder,


s: Ought her statue pass out of His temple?


s: Methinks that the flowers that were fading --


s: If they could, they would pray with the priest;


s: And would murmur "Our Father", "Hail Mary",


s: Till they drooped on the altar in death,


s: Through the poet's heart's sweetest of strings;


s: Moved the minutes from Masses to Masses --


s: Rustling over the aisles and the altars?


s: And wherever they knelt, they were gazing


s: Where the statue looked smiling and sweet.


s: "Our Fathers", "Hail Marys" were blended


s: Did they wrong the great name of her Son.


s: How He heard our "Hail Marys" that night?


s: Were the words to Him sweet as the music


s: Of the words of the great, high Archangel


s: If 'tis wrong, my Christ! punish but me.


s: When she taught me to love the pure name.


s: Down the aisles -- did the starred statue stir?


s: Felt the touch of the hand of the priest --


s: Thro' the stars -- did the sweet statue smile?


s: When her hands, and hers only, held Him,


s: Who had strayed in a love that seemed wayward


s: Did she dream of the straw of the manger


s: When she gazed on the altar's pure white?


s: In the little Host, helpless, that night?


s: The Divine has still faith in the human --


s: Swept triumph-toned all through the temple --


s: O'er the low-bended brows of the people.


s: And our hearts would grope blindly on through it,


s: For our love would have lost all its light.


s: Blessed priest! strange thou art His jailor!


s: That locks in His prison love's Captive,


s: And to-night faith and love cannot help it,


s: I must still pray the same -- still the same.


s: of the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination."


s: Fifty years agone thrilled thy young heart,


s: In the fresh, glowing grace of thy priesthood,


s: While the Feast of Christ's Transfiguration


s: 'Twas Calvary thy young feet were climbing,


s: And old -- thou art still standing there.


s: To guard Him three hours -- what a glory!


s: Three hours -- and He died on His Calvary --


s: "Half a century," cries out thy crucifix,


s: In thy heart the warm splendors of Thabor


s: Ah, 'tis Life in this death-darkened land!


s: Thy young hands were touched with its unction,


s: Till the story of grace shall have ceased.


s: O'er thy camps, and thy battles, and triumphs!


s: To the day when thou kissed thy first altar


s: From the day when we meet and we greet thee,


s: O'er his glories flings vestments of shadows,


s: And, sinking, leaves stars to the night.


s: Thou hast written sweet stanzas for men;


s: Were thine -- high deserved in the world:


s: Dawned a day with a grace in its flashing


s: O'er thy heart from a standard unfurled,


s: Whose name is a spell of their strength,


s: The light of the folds of whose standard


s: While God, for thy fifty years' priesthood,


s: How long shall the Celt chant the sad song of hope,


s: That a sunrise may break on the long starless night of our past?


s: How long shall we wander and wait on the desolate slope


s: Of Thabors that promise our Transfiguration at last?


s: How long shall our sunburst reflect but the sunset of Right,


s: When gloaming still lights the dim immemorial years?


s: How long shall our banner, the brightest that ever did flame


s: In battle with wrong, droop furled like a flag o'er a grave?


s: How long shall we be but a nation with only a name,


s: Whose history clanks with the sounds of the chains that enslave?


s: How long shall our isle be a Golgotha, out in the sea,


s: With a cross in the dark?  Oh, when shall our Good Friday close?


s: How long shall thy sea that beats round thee bring only to thee


s: The wailings, O Erin! that float down the waves of thy woes?


s: How long shall the cry of the wronged, O Freedom! for thee


s: Ascend all in vain from the valleys of sorrow below?


s: How long ere the dawn of the day in the ages to be,


s: Whence came the voice?  Around me gray silence fall;


s: And without in the gloom not a sound is astir 'neath the sky;


s: And who is the singer?  Or hear I a singer at all?


s: Or, hush!  Is't my heart athrill with some deathless old cry?


s: Ah! blood forgets not in its flowing its forefathers' wrongs --


s: They are the heart's trust, from which we may ne'er be released;


s: Blood keeps in its throbs the echoes of all the old songs


s: Am I not in my blood as old as the race whence I sprung?


s: In the cells of my heart feel I not all its ebb and its flow?


s: And old as our race is, is it not still forever as young,


s: As the youngest of Celts in whose breast Erin's love is aglow?


s: The blood of a race that is wronged beats the longest of all,


s: For long as the wrong lasts, each drop of it quivers with wrath;


s: And sure as the race lives, no matter what fates may befall,


s: There's a Voice with a Song that forever is haunting its path.


s: Aye, this very hand that trembles thro' this very line,


s: Lay hid, ages gone, in the hand of some forefather Celt,


s: With a sword in its grasp, if stronger, not truer than mine,


s: And I feel, with my pen, what the old hero's sworded hand felt --


s: The heat of the hate that flashed into flames against wrong,


s: The thrill of the hope that rushed like a storm on the foe;


s: And the sheen of that sword is hid in the sheath of the song


s: As sure as I feel thro' my veins the pure Celtic blood flow.


s: The ties of our blood have been strained o'er thousands of years,


s: The chalice of time o'erflows with the streams of our tears,


s: The Faith of our fathers, our hopes, and the love of our isle


s: Our dead are not dead who have gone, long ago, to their rest;


s: They are living in us whose glorious race will not die --


s: Their brave buried hearts are still beating on in each breast


s: Of the child of each Celt in each clime 'neath the infinite sky.


s: Many days yet to come may be dark as the days that are past,


s: Many voices may hush while the great years sweep patiently by;


s: But the voice of our race shall live sounding down to the last,


s: And our blood is the bard of the song that never shall die.


s: Came fringing the trees with bud and leaf,


s: Were given glad promise of golden sheaf;


s: Strange, tall trees rose as if they fain


s: Would wear as crowns the clouds of skies;


s: Through branches breathing softest sighs;


s: Folding the flowers that else might fade,


s: They flung their laughter o'er the place;


s: Farewell, sweet place!  I came as guest;


s: The long bright yesterday of life's first years,


s: Its days are dead -- cold ashes in an urn.


s: Some held for you a chalice for your tears,


s: And other days strewed flowers upon your way.


s: I know them not, so that your first gone times


s: To me unknown, lie far beyond my rhymes.


s: But I can bless your soul and aims to-day,


s: With any cross, you are too weak to bear.


s: Its virtues and its beauties, fore'er and fore'er.


s: I breathe this blessing, and I pray this prayer.


s: In the eclipses of your soul, and when you cry


s: "O God! give more of rest and less of night,"


s: My words may rest you; and mayhap a light


s: Shall flash from them bright o'er thy spirit's sky;


s: A few brief hours -- a golden August day,


s: We met, we spake -- I pass fore'er away.


s: To brighten thy eclipses; and then wilt pray


s: That he who passes thee shall meet thee yet


s: In the "Beyond" where souls may ne'er forget.


s: Just for a little while and let me sleep,


s: Down on the shores of this strange Below?


s: They will not listen to the saddest tears


s: The Poet is the loneliest man that lives;


s: He sings his songs -- but yet he only gives


s: Only his ~shallowest~ thoughts touch the shore


s: The foam that crests the wave is pure and white;


s: The wave is not the sea -- ~it rolls~ forever on;


s: Thy heart throbs fast and sometimes may grow low;


s: 'Tis fame enough for thee to bear his name --


s: He waiteth on the bright and golden shore;


s: ~Not~ as of one whom multitudes ~admire~,


s: They throng to hear him with a strange desire;


s: Of some strange, inner temple, where the fire


s: In praiseful words:  "'Tis beautiful and grand."


s: Is strewn with many flowers, sweet and fair;


s: And all the while he stands far out the crowd,


s: Is it a Stole he wears? -- or mayhap a shroud --


s: No matter which, his spirit maketh moan;


s: And all the while a lonely, lonesome sense


s: Creeps thro' his days -- all fame's incense


s: Hath not the fragrance of his altar; and


s: He seemeth rather to kneel in lowly prayer


s: Than lift his head aloft amid the Grand:


s: If all the world would kneel down at his feet


s: The breath of fame is sweet -- but far more sweet


s: Is the breath of Him who lives within my heart;


s: God's breath, which e'en, despite of me, will creep


s: It cometh from some far-off hidden Deep,


s: For earthly praises, not as of such think thou of me,


s: And in the nights and days -- I'll meet with thee


s: In Prayers -- and thou shalt meet with me.


s: It brings to brows of Poets crowns of Pride;


s: Give me, instead, a simple little Prayer.


s: To scatter tales that harm our neighbors.


s: An' keep this home from gettin' tearful.


s: Here, where the wood fire brightly blazes,


s: You'll hear from us our neighbor's praises.


s: Here, that they'll never grow to doubt us,


s: An' here, though storms outside may pelter


s: An' checks our tongues when they'd go trailin'


s: Flaws aren't so big when folks are near you;


s: You don't talk mean when they can hear you.


s: Because from friends we're never parted.


s: In the corner she's left the mechanical toy,


s: The things that I thought she would really enjoy


s: There's the flaxen-haired doll that is lovely to see


s: Left alone, all uncared for, and strange though it be,


s: Oh, the money we spent and the plans that we laid


s: And the wonderful things that we bought!


s: There are toys that are cunningly, skillfully made,


s: But she seems not to give them a thought.


s: She was pleased when she woke and discovered them there,


s: That it isn't the splendor that makes a gift rare--


s: There's the flaxen-haired doll, with the real human hair,


s: There's the automobile at the foot of the stair,


s: We thought they were fine, but a little child's eyes


s: And now she's in bed, and the rag dolly lies


s: The first tall spires, with bloom aflame,


s: The mind's bright chambers, life unlocks


s: The bright spots in my life are when the servant quits the place,


s: The week between the old girl's' reign and entry of the new


s: I like the home, I like the meals, when Nellie's on the job.


s: There's something in a servant's ways, however fine they be,


s: That has a cold and distant touch and frets the soul of me.


s: The old home never looks so well, as in that week or two


s: That we are servantless and Nell has all the work to do.


s: There is a sense of comfort then that makes my pulses throb


s: And home is as it ought to be when Nellie's on the job.


s: Think not that I'd deny her help or grudge the servant's pay;


s: When one departs we try to get another right away;


s: I merely state the simple fact that no such joys I've known


s: As in those few brief days at home when we've been left alone.


s: There is a gentleness that seems to soothe this selfish elf


s: And, Oh, I like to eat those meals that Nellie gets herself!


s: You cannot buy the gentle touch that mother gives the place;


s: No servant girl can do the work with just the proper grace.


s: So, though the maid has quit again, and she is moved to sob,


s: The old home's at its finest now, for Nellie's on the job.


s: We understand a lot of things we never did before,


s: And it seems that to each other Ma and I are meaning more.


s: I don't know how to say it, but since little Jessie died


s: We have learned that to be happy we must travel side by side.


s: You can share your joys and pleasures, but you never come to know


s: We're past the hurt of fretting--we can talk about it now:


s: She slipped away so gently and the fever left her brow


s: So softly that we didn't know we'd lost her, but, instead,


s: We thought her only sleeping as we watched beside her bed.


s: Then the doctor, I remember, raised his head, as if to say


s: What his eyes had told already, and Ma fainted dead away.


s: Up to then I thought that money was the thing I ought to get;


s: And I fancied, once I had it, I should never have to fret.


s: But I saw that I had wasted precious hours in seeking wealth;


s: I had made a tidy fortune, but I couldn't buy her health.


s: And I saw this truth much clearer than I'd ever seen before:


s: We're not half so keen for money as one time we used to be;


s: I am thinking more of mother and she's thinking more of me.


s: Now we spend more time together, and I know we're meaning more


s: To each other on life's journey, than we ever meant before.


s: It was hard to understand it! Oh, the dreary nights we've cried!


s: Your life ain't sadder than your neighbor's


s: You take his whole life, through an' through,


s: Who'll raise his right hand up an' swear


s: "Wool gathering, were you?" oft she said


s: Their little minds with plans are filled


s: While she was having the "bestest play."


s: "Oh, you must be careful, my little one,


s: You mustn't get hurt while your daddy's gone,


s: Leaves another bruise on your daddy's heart."


s: The fresh little cuts on her arm or knee;


s: The little hurts that have marred her play,


s: With care and trouble and things that fret.


s: Far greater hurts than these you'll know;


s: But come to your daddy with them at night


s: And he'll do his best to make all things right.


s: Adown the lanes of memory bloom all the flowers of yesteryear,


s: The gentle mother by the door caresses still her lilac blooms,


s: But living things grow old and fade; the dead in memory remain,


s: Is still a little babe to-day, and I am glad that this is so.


s: And we can see it blooming there, if anything more lovely grown.


s: Adown the lanes of memory bloom all the joys of yesteryear,


s: And God has given you and me the power to make them reappear;


s: For we can settle back at night and live again the joys we knew


s: That a man can see in this world of ours


s: Ain't the works of art on the gallery wall,


s: Or the red an' white o' the fust spring flowers,


s: Or a hoard o' gold from the yellow mines;


s: But the' sight that'll make ye want t' yell


s: Is t' catch a glimpse o' the fust pink signs


s: In yer baby's cheek, that she's gittin' well.


s: When ye see the pink jes' a-creepin' back


s: T' the pale, drawn cheek, an' ye note a smile,


s: Then th' cords o' yer heart that were tight, grow slack


s: An' ye found that th' pink still blossomed there.


s: Ye've watched fer that smile an' that bit o' bloom


s: When ye glimpse th' pink 'in yer baby's cheeks.


s: An' out o' yer breast flies a weight o' care,


s: An' ye're lifted up by some magic spell,


s: An' yer heart jes' naturally beats a prayer


s: O' joy to the Lord 'cause she's gittin' well.


s: I've' felt some little thrills of pride, I've inwardly rejoiced


s: Along the pleasant lanes of life to hear my praises voiced;


s: No great distinction have I claimed, but in a humble way


s: Some satisfactions sweet have come to brighten many a day;


s: But of the joyous thrills of life the finest that could be


s: Was mine upon that day when first a stranger "mistered" me.


s: I had my first long trousers on, and wore a derby too,


s: But I was still a little boy to everyone I knew.


s: I dressed in manly fashion, and I tried to act the part,


s: But I felt that I was awkward and lacked the manly art.


s: And then that kindly stranger spoke my name and set me free;


s: I was sure I'd come to manhood on the day he "mistered" me.


s: I never shall forget the joy that suddenly was mine,


s: The sweetness of the thrill that seemed to dance along my spine,


s: The pride that swelled within me, as he shook my youthful hand


s: And treated me as big enough with grown up men to stand.


s: I felt my body straighten and a stiffening at each knee,


s: And was gloriously happy, just because he'd "mistered" me.


s: I cannot now recall his name, I only wish I could.


s: I've often wondered if that day he really understood


s: How much it meant unto a boy, still wearing boyhood's tan,


s: To find that others noticed that he'd grown to be a man.


s: Now I try to treat as equal every growing boy I see


s: In memory of that kindly man--the first to "mister" me.


s: But now the lilacs bloom again and give us their perfume again,


s: And now the roses smile at us and nod along the way;


s: And it is good to see again the blossoms on each tree again,


s: And feel that nature hasn't changed the way we have to-day.


s: God grant me strength to keep this creed!


s: It makes me smile to hear 'em tell each other nowadays


s: The burdens they are bearing, with a child or two to raise.


s: Of course the cost of living has gone soaring to the sky


s: And our kids are wearing garments that my parents couldn't buy.


s: Now my father wasn't wealthy, but I never heard him squeal


s: Because eight of us were sitting at the table every meal.


s: People fancy they are martyrs if their children number three,


s: And four or five they reckon makes a large-sized family.


s: A dozen hungry youngsters at a table I have seen


s: Would like the job of buying little shoes for seven or eight.


s: We were eight around the table in those happy days back them,


s: That shall prove what you're able to do;


s: The things on a shelf that I'd like for myself


s: I can go through the town passing store after store


s: Showing things it would please me to own,


s: With never a trace of despair on my face,


s: I can throttle the love of fine raiment to death


s: But I do know the joy that is born of a toy,


s: I can reckon the value of money at times,


s: But I fall for a toy for my girl or my boy


s: My courage is stout when the doing without


s: Curse the shackles of thrift when I gaze at the toys


s: And I'd buy everything that they wish for, by Jing!


s: There isn't much fun spending coin on myself


s: But there's pleasure tenfold, in the silver and gold


s: But to thrift I am lost; I won't reckon the cost


s: The mother on the sidewalk as the troops are marching by


s: Is the mother of Old Glory that is waving in the sky.


s: For the brave and loyal mother of the boy who goes away.


s: And has placed upon the altar of the nation's need, her best.


s: And no man shall ever suffer in the turmoil of the fray


s: The anguish of the mother of the boy who goes away.


s: The stick-together families are happier by far


s: Than the brothers and the sisters who take separate highways are.


s: A circle at the fireside that no power but death can break.


s: And the finest of conventions ever held beneath the sun


s: Are the little family gatherings when the busy day is done.


s: Each goes searching after pleasure in his own selected way,


s: For the children that are wisest are the stick-together kind.


s: But the gladdest sort of people, when the busy day is done,


s: Are the brothers and the sisters who together share their fun.


s: It's the stick-together family that wins the joys of earth,


s: That hears the sweetest music and that finds the finest mirth;


s: Come you back unto the fireside and be comrade with your kin.


s: Yet lacks one charm that there should be,


s: That for the home they've built to share


s: Laughter and tears as we tread on our way;


s: Hearts that are heavy, then hearts that are light,


s: Eyes that are misty and eyes that are bright;


s: Losses and gains in the heat of the strife,


s: Each in proportion to round out his life.


s: Into the crucible, stirred by the years,


s: Go all our hopes and misgivings and fears;


s: Glad days and sad days, our pleasures and pains,


s: Worries and comforts, our losses and gains.


s: Out of the crucible shall there not come


s: Joy undefiled when we pour off the scum?


s: Out of the failure that tries us to-day,


s: Have you a doubt that contentment will come


s: When you've purified life and discarded the scum?


s: Tinctured with sorrow and flavored with sighs,


s: Moistened with tears that have flowed from your eyes;


s: Perfumed with sweetness of loves that have died,


s: Leavened with failures, with grief sanctified,


s: Sacred and sweet is the joy that must come


s: From the furnace of life when you've poured off the scum.


s: And guards her from all thoughtless jeers;


s: Has judged His creatures by their deeds,


s: Who spoke in different tongues and creeds.


s: Laughter sort o' settles breakfast better than digestive pills;


s: Found it, somehow in my travels, cure for every sort of ills;


s: But they'll buckle to the traces when they hear a glad giddap,


s: Just as though they like to labor for a cheerful kind o' chap.


s: Never knew a smilin' feller but was busy as could be.


s: Sometimes sit an' think about it, ponderin' on the ways of life,


s: Wonderin' why mortals gladly face the toil an care an' strife,


s: Then I come to this conclusion--take it now for what it's worth


s: Spillin' mash upon his keeper--men are hungry for a laugh.


s: If I had lived in Franklin's time I'm most afraid that I,


s: Beholding him out in the rain, a kite about to fly,


s: And noticing upon its tail the barn door's rusty key,


s: Would, with the scoffers on the street, have chortled in my glee;


s: "His belfry must be full of bats. He's raving, boys, again!"


s: I'm glad I didn't live on earth when Fulton had his dream,


s: That couldn't see how paddle-wheels could shove a boat along.


s: At "Fulton's Folly" I'd have sneered, as thousands did back then,


s: Yet Franklin gave us wonders great and Fulton did the same,


s: And many "boobs" have left behind an everlasting fame.


s: And dead are all their scoffers now and all their sneers forgot


s: And scarce a nickel's worth of good was brought here by the lot.


s: I shudder when I stop to think, had I been living then,


s: I might have been a scoffer, too, and jeered at Bob and Ben.


s: I am afraid to-day to sneer at any fellow's dream.


s: Time was I thought men couldn't fly or sail beneath the stream.


s: I never call a man a boob who toils throughout the night


s: On visions that I cannot see, because he may be right.


s: The pathway of the living is our ever-present care.


s: Let us do our best to smooth it and to make it bright and fair;


s: Let us travel it with kindness, let's be careful as we tread,


s: And give unto the living what we'd offer to the dead.


s: The pathway of the living we can beautify and grace;


s: We can line it deep with roses and make earth a happier place.


s: The pathway of the living all our strength and courage needs,


s: And sometimes, just to catch the breeze,


s: In the service of their country and to keep the flag on high;


s: I am thinking of a hero that was never known to fame,


s: Just a manly little fellow with a very common name;


s: He was freckle-faced and ruddy, but his head was nobly shaped,


s: And he one day took the whipping that his comrades all escaped.


s: And he never made a murmur, never whimpered in reply;


s: He would rather take the censure than to stand and tell a lie.


s: And I'm thinking of another that had courage that was fine,


s: When they wanted him to join them in a deed that wasn't fair.


s: He stood alone, undaunted, with his little head erect;


s: He would rather take the jeering than to lose his self-respect.


s: And I know a lot of others that have grown to manhood now,


s: Who have yet to wear the laurel that adorns the victor's brow.


s: They have plodded on in honor through the dusty, dreary ways,


s: They have hungered for life's comforts and the joys of easy days,


s: When I was a boy, and it chanced to rain,


s: And this was the question I used to hear,


s: "Tell me, my boy, if your feet are wet."


s: And her words in my ears are ringing yet:


s: A week's growth of whiskers, I'm thinking,


s: And I'm yearning to don those old trousers


s: You can brag all you like of your fashions,


s: You can boast of your tailor-made raiment,


s: And the collar that strangles your throat;


s: And grandpa laughs and says: "That's true,


s: Like horns and drums and tops with strings,


s: The train of cars that Santa brought is out of kilter now;


s: While pa was showing how they went he broke the spring somehow.


s: They used to run around a track--at least they did when he


s: Would let me take them in my hands an' wind 'em with a key.


s: I could 'a' had some fun with 'em, if only they would go,


s: But, gee! I never had a chance, for pa enjoyed em so.


s: The automobile that I got that ran around the floor


s: Was lots of fun when it was new, but it won't go no more.


s: Pa wound it up for Uncle Jim to show him how it went,


s: And when those two got through with it the runnin' gear was bent,


s: 'Cause while it was in shape to run my pa enjoyed it so.


s: I've got my blocks as good as new, my mitts are perfect yet;


s: Although the snow is on the ground I haven't got em wet.


s: I've taken care of everything that Santa brought to me,


s: Except the toys that run about when wound up with a key.


s: But next year you can bet I won't make any such mistake;


s: I'm going to ask for toys an' things that my pa cannot break.


s: When the brother you're snubbing may measure


s: They have missed the acquirement of riches,


s: But they're fighting their battles unaided,


s: There are failures to-day in high places


s: There are rich men with scorn in their faces


s: Though in Bradstreet's he hasn't a rating,


s: She said she was sorry the weather was bad


s: And she really appeared inexpressibly sad


s: She was sorry to hear that my wife had a cold,


s: And how sorry she was, she most feelingly told,


s: She was sorry she hadn't asked others to come,


s: She said she was downcast and terribly glum


s: She apologized then for the home she was in,


s: For the state of the rugs and the chairs,


s: For the children who made such a horrible din,


s: When the dinner began she apologized twice


s: For the olives, because they were small;


s: She was certain the celery, too, wasn't nice,


s: She was sorry she couldn't get whitefish instead


s: But she hoped that we'd manage somehow to be fed,


s: Though her dinner was not what she meant.


s: She spoke her regrets for the salad, and then


s: And begged both our pardons again and again


s: She was sorry for this and sorry for that,


s: Though there really was nothing to blame.


s: But I thought to myself as I put on my hat,


s: "To-day there's something wrong with me,


s: The little old man with the curve in his back


s: And the eyes that are dim and the skin that is slack,


s: So slack that it wrinkles and rolls on his cheeks,


s: With a thin little voice that goes "crack!" when he speaks,


s: Never goes to the store but that right at his feet


s: Are all of the youngsters who live on the street.


s: And the little old man in the suit that was black,


s: And once might have perfectly fitted his back,


s: Has a boy's chubby fist in his own wrinkled hand,


s: And together they trudge off to Light-Hearted Land;


s: Some splendid excursions he gives every day


s: To the boys and the girls in his funny old way.


s: The little old man is as queer as can be;


s: He'd spend all his time with a child on his knee;


s: And the stories he tells I could never repeat,


s: But they're always of good boys and little girls sweet;


s: And the children come home at the end of the day


s: To tell what the little old man had to say.


s: Once the little old man didn't trudge to the store,


s: And the tap of his cane wasn't heard any more;


s: The children looked eagerly for him each day


s: And wondered why he didn't come out to play


s: Till some of them saw Doctor Brown ring his bell,


s: And they wept when they heard that he might not get well.


s: But after awhile he got out with his cane,


s: And called all the children around him again;


s: And I think as I see him go trudging along


s: In the center, once more, of his light-hearted throng,


s: That earth has no glory that's greater than this:


s: The little old man whom the children would miss.


s: Last night I got to thinkin' of the pleasant long ago,


s: When I still had on knee breeches, an' I wore a flowing bow,


s: An' my Sunday suit was velvet. Ma an' Pa thought it was fine,


s: But I know I didn't like it--either velvet or design;


s: It was far too girlish for me, for I wanted something rough


s: Ma answered all my protests in her sweet an kindly way;


s: She said it didn't matter what I wore to run an' play,


s: But on Sundays when all people went to church an wore their best,


s: So she dressed me up in velvet, an' she tied the flowing bow,


s: An' then I chuckled softly to myself while dreaming there


s: An' I saw her standing o'er me combing out my tangled hair.


s: I could feel again the tugging, an' I heard the yell I gave


s: Shouldn't whimper at a little bit of pain the way you do."


s: Oh, I wouldn't mind the tugging at my scalp lock, and I know


s: That I'd gladly wear to please her that old flowing girlish bow;


s: And I think I'd even try to don once more that velvet suit,


s: And blush the same old blushes, as the women called me cute,


s: Could the dear old mother only take me by the hand again,


s: And be as proud of me right now as she was always then.


s: Ho, Santa Claus is coming, there is Christmas in the air,


s: And little girls and little boys are good now everywhere.


s: Ho, it's just as plain as can be that old Santa's on his way,


s: For there are no little children that are really bad to-day.


s: It's wonderful, the goodness of the little tots to-day,


s: When they know that good old Santa has begun to pack his sleigh.


s: There never was a family without its homely man,


s: With legs a little longer than the ordinary plan,


s: The one with freckled features and a nose that looks as though


s: That fairly oozes kindness like a rosebush dripping rain.


s: His face is never much to see, but back of it there lies


s: A heap of love and tenderness and judgment, sound and wise.


s: And so I sing the homely man that's sittin' in his chair,


s: And pray that every family will always have him there.


s: The family needs him, Oh, so much; more, maybe, than they know;


s: Folks seldom guess a man's real worth until he has to go,


s: But they will miss a heap of love an' tenderness the day


s: God beckons to their homely man, an' he must go away.


s: He's found in every family, it doesn't matter where


s: They live or be they rich or poor, the homely man is there.


s: You'll find him sitting quiet-like and sort of drawn apart,


s: As though he felt he shouldn't be where folks are fine an' smart.


s: An' seldom takes a leading part when any game's begun.


s: But when there's any task to do, like need for extra chairs,


s: I've noticed it's the homely man that always climbs the stairs.


s: And always it's the homely man that happens in to mend


s: And sends the worn-out sorrowers and broken hearts to bed.


s: The family wouldn't be complete without him night or day,


s: To smooth the little troubles out and drive the cares away.


s: And your after-opera dinner you may think superbly fine,


s: When my business, or my pleasure, has detained me until late,


s: And it's midnight, say, or after, when I reach my own estate,


s: Though I'm weary with my toiling I don't hustle up to bed,


s: For the inner man is hungry and he's anxious to be fed;


s: Then I feel a thrill of glory from my head down to my feet


s: As I prowl around the pantry after something good to eat.


s: Oft I hear a call above me: "Goodness gracious, come to bed!"


s: And I know that I've disturbed her by my overeager tread,


s: But I've found a glass of jelly and some bread and butter, too,


s: And a bit of cold fried chicken and I answer: "When I'm through!"


s: Than the pantry in our kitchen when I get home late at night.


s: You may boast your shining silver, and the linen and the flowers,


s: But it doesn't charm yours truly when I'm on my homeward way;


s: For a greater joy awaits me, as I hunger for a bite--


s: Just the joy of pantry-prowling in the middle of the night.


s: "The world is against me," he said with a sigh.


s: "Somebody stops every scheme that I try.


s: The world has me down and it's keeping me there;


s: I don't get a chance. Oh, the world is unfair!


s: When a fellow is poor then he can't get a show;


s: The world is determined to keep him down low."


s: "What of Abe Lincoln?" I asked. "Would you say


s: That he was much richer than you are to-day?


s: He hadn't your chance of making his mark,


s: And his outlook was often exceedingly dark;


s: Yet he clung to his purpose with courage most grim


s: And he got to the top. Was the world against him?"


s: "What of Ben Franklin? I've oft heard it said


s: He started with nothing but courage to climb,


s: But patiently struggled and waited his time.


s: He dangled awhile from real poverty's limb,


s: Yet he got to the top. Was the world against him?


s: "I could name you a dozen, yes, hundreds, I guess,


s: Of poor boys who've patiently climbed to success;


s: All boys who were down and who struggled alone,


s: Who'd have thought themselves rich if your fortune they'd known;


s: Yet they rose in the world you're so quick to condemn,


s: And I'm asking you now, was the world against them?"


s: The world is filled with bustle and with selfishness and greed,


s: It is filled with restless people that are dreaming of a deed.


s: You can read it in their faces; they are dreaming of the day


s: They will never find contentment save they seek for it at home.


s: I watch them as they hurry through the surging lines of men,


s: For the peace that is the sweetest isn't born of minted gold,


s: It is not the end of toiling, or the rainbow of our sighs.


s: It' is every day within us--all the rest is hippodrome--


s: And the soul that is the gladdest is the soul that builds a home.


s: They shall sicken and shall wither and shall never peace attain


s: Who believe that real contentment only men victorious gain.


s: For the only happy toilers under earth's majestic dome


s: Would you sell your boy for a stack of gold?


s: Would you miss that hand that is yours to hold?


s: The man, in a few brief years, he'll be?


s: Suppose that his body were racked with pain,


s: How much would you pay for his health again?


s: Is there money enough in the world to-day


s: How much would you take, if you had the choice,


s: Never to hear, in this world, his voice?


s: How much would you take in exchange for all


s: The joy that is wrapped in that youngster small?


s: Are there diamonds enough in the mines of earth


s: To equal your dreams of that youngster's worth?


s: Would you give up the hours that he's on your knee


s: You may prate of gold, but your fortune lies,


s: And you know it well, in your boy's bright eyes.


s: And there's nothing that money can buy or do


s: Well, which does the most of your time employ,


s: The chase for gold--or that splendid boy?


s: You may brag about your breakfast foods you eat at break of day,


s: Or rave about a sawdust mash, an epicurean dream.


s: But none of these appeals to me, though all of them I've tried--


s: The breakfast that I liked the best was sausage mother fried.


s: Old country sausage was its name; the kind, of course, you know,


s: The little links that seemed to be almost as white as snow,


s: But turned unto a ruddy brown, while sizzling in the pan;


s: Oh, they were made both to appease and charm the inner man.


s: All these new-fangled dishes make me blush and turn aside,


s: When I think about the sausage that for breakfast mother fried.


s: When they roused me from my slumbers and I left to do the chores,


s: That seemed to grip my spirit, and to thrill my body through,


s: For the spice of hunger tingled, and 'twas then I plainly knew


s: That the gnawing at my stomach would be quickly satisfied


s: By a plate of country sausage that my dear old mother fried.


s: There upon the kitchen table, with its cloth of turkey red,


s: Was a platter heaped with sausage and a plate of home-made bread,


s: That can scarcely hold a mouthful, but a cup of greater class;


s: And I fell to eating largely, for I could not be denied--


s: Oh, I'm sure a king would relish the sausage mother fried.


s: All my thoughts go back to boyhood, to the days of long ago,


s: For a plate of steaming sausage like the kind my mother fried.


s: In some respects the old days were perhaps ahead of these,


s: Before we got to wanting wealth and costly luxuries;


s: Perhaps the world was happier then, I'm not the one to say,


s: But when it's zero weather I am glad I live to-day.


s: Old-fashioned winters I recall--the winters of my youth--


s: I have no great desire for them to-day, I say in truth;


s: The frost upon the window panes was beautiful to see,


s: But the chill upon that bedroom floor was not a joy to me.


s: I do not now recall that it was fun in those days when


s: I woke to learn the water pipes were frozen tight "again."


s: To win once more the old-time joys, I don't believe I'd care


s: To have to sleep, for comfort's sake, dressed in my underwear.


s: Old-fashioned winters had their charms, a fact I can't deny,


s: But after all I'm really glad that they have wandered by;


s: We used to tumble out of bed, like firemen, I declare,


s: Yes, brag about those days of old, boast of them as you will,


s: I sing the modern methods that have robbed them of their chill;


s: I sing the cheery steam pipe and the upstairs snug and warm


s: And a spine that's free from shivers as I robe my manly form.


s: Some day the world will need a man of courage in a time of doubt,


s: And yet the purpose of it all, the fleeting pleasure and the woe,


s: And it is possible that he may be your little boy or mine.


s: And he no better can become than what my daily teachings are;


s: I like 'em, in the winter when their cheeks are slightly pale,


s: I like 'em in the spring time when the March winds blow a gale;


s: Oh, it's then I think the children look and are their very best.


s: We've got to know the winter and we've got to know the spring,


s: But for children, could I do it, unto summer I would cling;


s: For I'm happiest when I see 'em, as a wild and merry band


s: Of healthy, lusty youngsters that the summer sun has tanned.


s: Days are gettin' shorter an' the air a keener snap;


s: Apples now are droppin' into Mother Nature's lap;


s: The mist at dusk is risin' over valley, marsh an' fen


s: An' it's just as plain as sunshine, winter's comin' on again.


s: The turkeys now are struttin' round the old farmhouse once more;


s: But the air is mighty peaceful an' the scene is good to see,


s: An' there's somethin' in October that stirs deep inside o' me;


s: An' I just can't help believin' in a God above us, when


s: Everything is ripe for harvest an the frost is back again.


s: Can you quit a thing that you like a lot?


s: You may talk of pluck; it's an easy word,


s: You may stand to trouble and keep your grin,


s: And then, when tempted and sorely swayed,


s: Don't boast of your grit till you've tried it out,


s: In the face of a fight there's a chance to win,


s: But the sort of grit that is good to own


s: Is the stuff you need when you're all alone.


s: Can you turn from joys that you like a lot?


s: Just pick out a joy that you like, and quit.


s: It will keep you busy both day and night;


s: For the toughest kind of a game you'll find


s: And you never will know what is meant by grit


s: Unless there's something you've tried to quit.


s: Nobody stops at the rich man's door to pass the time of day.


s: Nobody shouts a "hello!" to him in the good old-fashioned way.


s: Nobody comes to his porch at night and sits in that extra chair


s: Nobody just happens in to call on the long, cold winter nights.


s: Whose road seems always lined with flowers?


s: For the fire builds all of my youth anew.


s: The joy of life is living it, or so it seems to me;


s: Then toiling till the vision is as real as moving streams.


s: The happiest mortal on the earth is he who ends his day


s: By leaving better than he found to bloom along the way.


s: Were all things perfect here there would be naught for man to do;


s: The only happy time of rest is that which follows strife


s: And sees some contribution made unto the joy of life.


s: And he who has oppression felt and conquered it is he


s: Who really knows the happiness and peace of being free.


s: The miseries of earth are here and with them all must cope.


s: To really know the joy of health a man must first be ill.


s: The wrongs are here for man to right, and happiness is had


s: By striving to supplant with good the evil and the bad.


s: The joy of life is living it and doing things of worth,


s: In making bright and fruitful all the barren spots of earth.


s: In facing odds and mastering them and rising from defeat,


s: And making true what once was false, and what was bitter, sweet.


s: For only he knows perfect joy whose little bit of soil


s: Is richer ground than what it was when he began to toil.


s: To find that you're her sweetheart still.


s: Who is it lives to the full every minute,


s: Gets all the joy and the fun that is in it?


s: Tough as they make 'em, and ready to race,


s: Heedless of buttons on blouses and pants,


s: Gladdest, it seems, when he wallows in mud,


s: Who is the rascal? I'll tell you, it's Bud!


s: Who is it wakes with a shout of delight,


s: And comes to our room with a smile that is bright?


s: And thinks it is queer that his dad wants to sleep?


s: Who answers his growling with laughter and tries


s: His patience by lifting the lids of his eyes?


s: Who jumps in the air and then lands with a thud


s: On his poor daddy's stomach? I'll tell you, it's Bud!


s: Who is it thinks life is but laughter and play


s: And doesn't know care is a part of the day?


s: Who is reckless of stockings and heedless of shoes?


s: Who laughs at a tumble and grins at a bruise?


s: Who climbs over fences and clambers up trees,


s: And scrapes all the skin off his shins and his knees?


s: Who sometimes comes home all bespattered with blood


s: That was drawn by a fall? It's that rascal called Bud.


s: Yet, who is it makes all our toiling worth while?


s: Who can cure every ache that we know, by his smile?


s: Who is prince to his mother and king to his dad


s: And makes us forget that we ever were sad?


s: Who is center of all that we dream of and plan,


s: It's that tough little, rough little tyke in the mud,


s: That tousled-haired, fun-loving rascal called Bud!


s: When I was but a little lad I always liked to ride,


s: No matter what the rig we had, right by the driver's side.


s: The front seat was the honor place in bob-sleigh, coach or hack,


s: And I maneuvered to avoid the cushions in the back.


s: We children used to scramble then to share the driver's seat,


s: And long the pout I wore when I was not allowed that treat.


s: Though times have changed and I am old I still confess I race


s: With other grown-ups now and then to get my favorite place.


s: The auto with its cushions fine and big and easy springs


s: Has altered in our daily lives innumerable things,


s: But hearts of men are still the same as what they used to be,


s: When surreys were the stylish rigs, or so they seem to me,


s: For every grown-up girl to-day and every grown-up boy


s: Still hungers for the seat in front and scrambles for its joy,


s: And riding by the driver's side still holds the charm it did


s: In those glad, youthful days gone by when I was just a kid.


s: I hurry, as I used to do, to claim that favorite place,


s: And when a tonneau seat is mine I wear a solemn face.


s: I try to hide the pout I feel, and do my best to smile,


s: But envy of the man in front gnaws at me all the while.


s: I want to be where I can see the road that lies ahead,


s: To watch the trees go flying by and see the country spread


s: Before me as we spin along, for there I miss the fear


s: That seems to grip the soul of me while riding in the rear.


s: And I am not alone in this. To-day I drive a car


s: Maneuver in their artful ways to sit in front with me;


s: Though all the cushions in the world were piled up in the rear,


s: The child in all of us still longs to watch the engineer.


s: And happier hearts we seem to own when we're allowed to ride,


s: No matter what the car may be, close by the driver's side.


s: He builds with wood most wondrous things:


s: And 'midst his paints and tools he smiles,


s: The old days, the old days, how oft the poets sing,


s: The days of hope at dewy morn, the days of early spring,


s: The days when every mead was fair, and every heart was true,


s: And every maiden wore a smile, and every sky was blue


s: The days when dreams were golden and every night brought rest,


s: The old, old days of youth and love, the days they say were best


s: But I--I sing the new days, the days that lie before,


s: The days of hope and fancy, the days that I adore.


s: The new days, the new days, the selfsame days they are;


s: The selfsame sunshine heralds them, the selfsame evening star


s: Shines out to light them on their way unto the Bygone Land,


s: And with the selfsame arch of blue the world to-day is spanned.


s: The new days, the new days, when friends are just as true,


s: And maidens smile upon us all, the way they used to do,


s: Dreams we know are golden dreams, hope springs in every breast;


s: It cheers us in the dewy morn and soothes us when we rest.


s: The new days, the new days, of them I want to sing,


s: The new days with the fancies and the golden dreams they bring;


s: The old days had their pleasures, but likewise have the new


s: The gardens with their roses and the meadows bright with dew;


s: We love to-day the selfsame way they loved in days of old;


s: The world is bathed in beauty and it isn't growing cold;


s: There's joy for us a-plenty, there are tasks for us to do,


s: And life is worth the living, for the friends we know are true.


s: The little church of Long Ago, where as a boy I sat


s: With mother in the family pew and fumbled with my hat--


s: How I would like to see it now the way I saw it then,


s: The straight-backed pews, the pulpit high, the women and the men


s: Dressed stiffly in their Sunday clothes and solemnly devout,


s: But even as a little boy it meant a lot to me.


s: The choir loft where father sang comes back to me again;


s: I hear his tenor voice once more the way I heard it when


s: The deacons used to pass the plate, and once again I see


s: The people fumbling for their coins, as glad as they could be


s: To drop their quarters on the plate, and I'm a boy once more


s: With my two pennies in my fist that mother gave before


s: We left the house, and once again I'm reaching out to try


s: To drop them on the plate before the deacon passes by.


s: It seems to me I'm sitting in that high-backed pew, the while


s: The minister is preaching in that good old-fashioned style;


s: And though I couldn't understand it all somehow I know


s: The Bible was the text book in that church of Long Ago;


s: He didn't preach on politics, but used the word of God,


s: And even now I seem to see the people gravely nod,


s: As though agreeing thoroughly with all he had to say,


s: And then I see them thanking him before they go away.


s: The little church of Long Ago was not a structure huge,


s: It had no hired singers or no other subterfuge


s: To get the people to attend, 'twas just a simple place


s: Where every Sunday we were told about God's saving grace;


s: No men of wealth were gathered there to help it with a gift;


s: The only worldly thing it had--a mortgage hard to lift.


s: And somehow, dreaming here to-day, I wish that I could know


s: The joy of once more sitting in that church of Long Ago.


s: That marks the change that's taken place;


s: Where on chocolate drops are the children fed,


s: Where puppy dogs romp at the children's feet,


s: And little tin soldiers guard the street


s: This land is reached by a wonderful ship


s: Oh, you board the ship when the sun goes down,


s: And there, till the sun comes over the hill,


s: And of candy and cake you eat your fill,


s: It may be I am getting old and like too much to dwell


s: Upon the days of bygone years, the days I loved so well;


s: But thinking of them now I wish somehow that I could know


s: A simple old Thanksgiving Day, like those of long ago,


s: When all the family gathered round a table richly spread,


s: With little Jamie at the foot and grandpa at the head,


s: The youngest of us all to greet the oldest with a smile,


s: With mother running in and out and laughing all the while.


s: It may be I'm old-fashioned, but it seems to me to-day


s: We're too much bent on having fun to take the time to pray;


s: Each little family grows up with fashions of its own;


s: It lives within a world itself and wants to be alone.


s: It has its special pleasures, its circle, too, of friends;


s: There are no get-together days; each one his journey wends,


s: Pursuing what he likes the best in his particular way,


s: Letting the others do the same upon Thanksgiving Day.


s: I like the olden way the best, when relatives were glad


s: To meet the way they used to do when I was but a lad;


s: The old home was a rendezvous for all our kith and kin,


s: And whether living far or near they all came trooping in


s: With shouts of "Hello, daddy!" as they fairly stormed the place


s: And made a rush for mother, who would stop to wipe her face


s: Upon her gingham apron before she kissed them all,


s: Hugging them proudly to her breast, the grownups and the small.


s: All afternoon we chatted, telling what we hoped to do,


s: The struggles we were making and the hardships we'd gone through;


s: It seemed before we'd settled down 'twas time to say good-bye.


s: Those were the glad Thanksgivings, the old-time families knew


s: When relatives could still be friends and every heart was true.


s: 'Tis a little old house with a squeak in the stairs,


s: And a porch that seems made for just two easy chairs;


s: In the yard is a group of geraniums red,


s: Petunias and pansies and larkspurs are there


s: Proclaiming their love for the old-fashioned pair.


s: Oh, it's hard now to picture the peace of the place!


s: Never lovelier smile lit a fair woman's face


s: Than the smile of the little old lady who sits


s: On the porch through the bright days of summer and knits.


s: And a courtlier manner no prince ever had


s: Than the little old man that she speaks of as "dad."


s: In that little old house there is nothing of hate;


s: There are old-fashioned things by an old-fashioned grate;


s: On the walls there are pictures of fine looking men


s: And beautiful ladies to look at, and then


s: Time has placed on the mantel to comfort them there


s: The pictures of grandchildren, radiantly fair.


s: Every part of the house seems to whisper of joy,


s: Save the trinkets that speak of a lost little boy.


s: Yet Time has long since soothed the hurt and the pain,


s: The laughter of children the old walls have known,


s: And the joy of it stays, though the babies have flown.


s: I am fond of that house and that old-fashioned pair


s: And the glorious calm that is hovering there.


s: The riches of life are not silver and gold


s: But fine sons and daughters when we are grown old,


s: And I pray when the years shall have silvered our hair


s: We shall know the delights of that old-fashioned pair.


s: We have romped through orchards blazing,


s: Drive their teams, and stopped to get us


s: We just stretched our souls and let them


s: A man is at his finest towards the finish of the year;


s: He is almost what he should be when the Christmas season's here;


s: He is less a selfish creature than at any other time;


s: When it's Christmas man is bigger and is better in his part;


s: He is keener for the service that is prompted by the heart.


s: All the petty thoughts and narrow seem to vanish for awhile


s: And the true reward he's seeking is the glory of a smile.


s: Then for others he is toiling and somehow it seems to me


s: That at Christmas he is almost what God wanted him to be.


s: If I had to paint a picture of a man I think I'd wait


s: Till he'd fought his selfish battles and had put aside his hate.


s: Man is ever in a struggle and he's oft misunderstood;


s: There are days the worst that's in him is the master of the good,


s: And his petty hates are vanquished and his heart is opened wide.


s: Oh, I don't know how to say it, but somehow it seems to me


s: That at Christmas man is almost what God sent him here to be.


s: Oh, youth, thought I, you're bound to climb


s: Then why this dreadful thought of sorrow


s: And gives his life to serve life's need.


s: There's a little cheek that's tear-stained


s: An' eatin' an' laughin' with folks of your choice;


s: An' kissin' the girls an' declarin' that they


s: Are growin more beautiful day after day;


s: Chattin' an' braggin' a bit with the men,


s: Livin' the wholesome an' old-fashioned cheer,


s: Greetings fly fast as we crowd through the door


s: And under the old roof we gather once more


s: Just as we did when the youngsters were small;


s: Mother's a little bit grayer, that's all.


s: Bowed are our heads for a moment in prayer;


s: Oh, but we're grateful an' glad to be there.


s: Home from the east land an' home from the west,


s: Home with the folks that are dearest an' best.


s: We've come for a time to be just what we are.


s: Here we can talk of ourselves an' be frank,


s: Forgettin' position an' station an' rank.


s: When most of the plannin' an' toilin' is done;


s: Bring all the wanderers home to the nest,


s: Let me sit down with the ones I love best,


s: Hear the old voices still ringin' with song,


s: See the old table with all of its chairs


s: An I'll put soul in my Thanksgivin' prayers.


s: Where cheeks are tanned and hearts are bold


s: And though the world should bid me roam,


s: Curly locks, what do you know of the world,


s: Do you know of the sorrow and pain that lie


s: Have you even guessed of the great unrest


s: Curly locks, what do you know of the world


s: When you solemnly stare at the world out there


s: What wonderful thoughts are you thinking now?


s: That beyond your youth there are joy and ruth,


s: I turned in my chair in a half-grouchy way,


s: And I thought, "It is somebody wanting to know


s: In a tone that was gruff I shouted "Hello,"


s: "What is it?" I asked in a terrible way.


s: I have seen a man jump when the horse that he


s: backed finished first in a well-driven race.


s: I have heard the man cheer, as a matter of fact,


s: and I've seen the blood rush to his face;


s: I've been on the spot when good news has come


s: in and I've witnessed expressions of glee


s: That range from a yell to a tilt of the chin; and


s: That have thrilled me with joy from my toes to


s: Have I jumped with delight as I did when she


s: I have answered the telephone thousands of times


s: I've received the reports of most horrible crimes,


s: I've been telephoned this and been telephoned


s: I've been called to the phone for the idlest of chat,


s: But never before have I realized quite the thrill


s: Till over the wire came these words that I write,


s: Foes think the bad in him they've guessed


s: Over the hills of time to the valley of endless years;


s: Over the roads of woe to the land that is free from tears


s: Up from the haunts of men to the place where the angels are,


s: This is the march of mortality to a wonderful goal afar.


s: Troopers we are in life, warring at times with wrong,


s: But promised ever unbroken rest at last in a land of song;


s: And whether we serve or rule, and whether we fall or rise,


s: Back of the strife for gain, and under the toil for fame,


s: This is the march of mortality, whatever man's race or creed,


s: Where cheeks are flushed with haste and hot


s: But they're the roads where lovers stray,


s: When hearts were light and cheeks were red,


s: And days were not with burdens freighted.


s: Come the bees to gather honey, all the lazy afternoon;


s: Month of love and month of sunshine, month of happiness and song,


s: Spreading out a velvet carpet, green and yellow, for his feet,


s: And affording for his rest hours many a cool and sweet retreat.


s: Am I working with gray threads of gloom?


s: And the bright strands of luminous gold?


s: I saw him in the distance, as the train went speeding by,


s: A shivery little fellow standing in the sun to dry.


s: And a little pile of clothing very near him I could see:


s: He was owner of a gladness that had once belonged to me.


s: I have shivered as he shivered, I have dried the way he dried,


s: I've stood naked in God's sunshine with my garments at my side;


s: And I thought as I beheld him, of the many weary men


s: Who would like to go in swimming as a little boy again.


s: I saw him scarce a moment, yet I knew his lips were blue


s: I could tell how much he envied all the boys that never chill;


s: And throughout that lonesome journey, I kept living o'er and o'er


s: I was with that little fellow, standing chattering in the sun;


s: I was sharing in his shivers and a partner of his fun.


s: Back to me there came the pictures that I never shall forget


s: When I dared not travel homewards if my shock of hair was wet,


s: When I did my brief undressing under fine and friendly trees


s: In the days before convention rigged us up in b.v.d's.


s: And I dived for stones and metal on the mill pond's muddy floor,


s: There is too much of sighing, and weaving


s: There is too much of wailing and grieving,


s: There is too much of tremble-lip telling


s: Which accounts for the frowning and fretting,


s: Let's get back to the work we are doing;


s: Let us pause while our tasks we're reviewing,


s: Let us care more for serving than winning,


s: But I'm humming a song, as I wander along,


s: And I smile at the roses that nod by the way.


s: Just dripping with honey and perfume and cheer;


s: The joy and the comfort you bring to us here.


s: Just tramping along o'er the highway of life,


s: Knowing not what's ahead but still doing my best;


s: And I sing as I go, for my soul seems to know


s: In the end I shall come to the valley of rest.


s: The roads that I travel, what have I to fear?


s: The roses of hope and the sunshine of cheer.


s: Whose feet are set in splendid spheres of flame,


s: Whose heads are where the gods are, and whose sides


s: Of strength are belted round with all the zones


s: Of all the world, I dedicate these songs.


s: And if, within the compass of this book,


s: There lives and glows _one_ verse in which there beats


s: The pulse of wind and torrent--if _one_ line


s: Is here that like a running water sounds,


s: And seems an echo from the lands of leaf,


s: Be sure that line is thine.  Here, in this home,


s: Away from men and books and all the schools,


s: I take thee for my Teacher.  In thy voice


s: God's grand authentic Gospel!  Year by year,


s: Strikes through my spirit--fills it with a life


s: Of startling beauty!  Thou my Bible art,


s: With holy leaves of rock, and flower, and tree,


s: And moss, and shining runnel.  From each page


s: Have learned a noble lesson.  In the psalm


s: Of singing waters, lo! my soul has heard


s: The higher worship; and from thee, indeed,


s: Were gathered in; and thou hast lifted up


s: Of forest sunshine, I have paused like one


s: With all the life transfigured; and a flood


s: As felt the grand old prophets caught away


s: Are far too splendid for poor human lips.


s: But thou, to whom I turn with reverent eyes--


s: Shines far above the zone of wind and cloud,


s: Thou hast the Song complete of which my songs


s: May have the sob of upland torrents--these,


s: And only these, may touch the great World's heart;


s: For, lo! they are the issues of that grief


s: Which makes a man more human, and his life


s: More like that frank, exalted life of thine.


s: But in these pages there are other tones


s: In which thy large, superior voice is not--


s: Through which no beauty that resembles thine


s: Has ever shone.  _These_ are the broken words


s: Of blind occasions, when the World has come


s: Between me and my Dream.  No song is here


s: I've worn in stolen moments.  All my days


s: And ever on my struggling soul has burned


s: The fierce heat of this hurried sphere.  But thou,


s: My book of rhymes--thou hast the perfect rest


s: Which makes the heaven of the highest gods!


s: Are far, faint whispers; and, from age to age,


s: Thou standest!  Round thy lordly capes the sea


s: For ever; in thy deep, green, gracious glens


s: The silver fountains sing for ever.  Far


s: Above dim ghosts of waters in the caves,


s: Are cloud, and thunder, and the face sublime


s: Where evermore, through all the days and years,


s: There rolls the grand hymn of the deathless wave.


s: Path beside the silver waters, flashing in October's sun--


s: Twenty white-haired Junes have left us--


s: Morning comes--the blessed morning! and the slow song of the sea,


s: Noonday flames and evening follows; and the lordly mountains rest


s: Ah! when autumn dells are dewy, and the wave is very still,


s: And the splendid rose of heaven sees a sister in the stream--


s: Often do I watch the waters gleaming in a starry bay,


s: Thinking of a bygone beauty, and a season far away;


s: Musing on the grace that left us in a time of singing rain,


s: On the lady who will never walk amongst these heaths again.


s: Four there were, but two were taken; and this darling we deplore,


s: In the daytime and the dewtime comes the phantom of her face:


s: None will ever sit where she did--none will ever fill her place.


s: With the passing of our Mary, like a sunset out of sight,


s: Of the fine, fresh, morning feeling vanished twenty years ago.


s: Shining are our thoughts about you--of the blossoms past recall,


s: You are still the rose of lustre--still the fairest of them all;


s: Shining in a holy silence, what was as a flame in me?


s: Ah, my darling! no one saw it.  Purer than untrodden dew


s: Was that first unhappy passion buried in the grave with you.


s: Bird and leaf will keep the secret--wind and wood will never tell


s: "_They are off--they are off!_" is the roar,


s: With the "yellow and black" to the fore,


s: Where the running-ground home again wheels,


s: With a feather-weight hard at his heels.


s: And the "field" scattered over the course!


s: From the back of the field to the straight


s: Like a tradesman, right through to the front.


s: There was something to look at and learn,


s: For his friends to applaud on the stands,


s: And the Sappho colt entered the straight


s: Till the warm-blooded life in him reels.


s: Down in the South, by the waste without sail on it,


s: Far from the zone of the blossom and tree,


s: Lieth, with winter and whirlwind and wail on it,


s: Weird is the mist from the summit to base of it;


s: Phantom of life is the light on the face of it--


s: Here is the shore without flower or bird on it;


s: Here is no litany sweet of the springs--


s: Only the haughty, harsh thunder is heard on it,


s: Only the storm, with the roar in its wings!


s: Shadow of moon is the moon in the sky of it--


s: Never there shines from the firmament high of it


s: All the year round, in the place of white days on it--


s: All the year round where there never is night--


s: Lies a great sinister, bitter, blind haze on it:


s: Growth that is neither of darkness nor light!


s: Wild is the cry of the sea in the caves by it--


s: Sea that is smitten by spears of the snow;


s: Desolate songs are the songs of the waves by it--


s: Down in the south, where the ships never go.


s: Storm from the Pole is the singer that sings to it


s: Hymns of the land at the planet's grey verge.


s: Thunder discloses dark, wonderful things to it--


s: Thunder and rain, and the dolorous surge.


s: Hills with no hope of a wing or a leaf on them,


s: Scarred with the chronicles written by flame,


s: Stare, through the gloom of inscrutable grief on them,


s: Down on the horns of the gulfs without name.


s: Cliffs, with the records of fierce flying fires on them--


s: Alps, with anathema stamped in the spires on them--


s: Out by the wave with a curse on its lips.


s: Never is sign of soft, beautiful green on it--


s: Neither the fountain nor river is seen on it,


s: Naked its crags are, and barren its snows!


s: Blue as the face of the drowned is the shore of it--


s: Shore, with the capes of indefinite cave.


s: Strange is the voice of its wind, and the roar of it


s: Startles the mountain and hushes the wave.


s: Out to the south and away to the north of it,


s: All the year round a great cry goeth forth of it--


s: No man hath stood, all its bleak, bitter years on it--


s: Fall of a foot on its wastes is unknown:


s: Only the sound of the hurricane's spears on it


s: Breaks with the shout from the uttermost zone.


s: Blind are its bays with the shadow of bale on them;


s: Storms of the nadir their rocks have uphurled;


s: Earthquake hath registered deeply its tale on them--


s: Tale of distress from the dawn of the world!


s: _There_ are the gaps, with the surges that seethe in them--


s: Gaps in whose jaws is a menace that glares!


s: _There_ the wan reefs, with the merciless teeth in them,


s: Gleam on a chaos that startles and scares!


s: Back in the dawn of this beautiful sphere, on it--


s: Beamed the blue day; and the bountiful year on it


s: Fostered the leaf and the blossom of grace.


s: Grand were the lights of its midsummer noon on it--


s: Glitter of star and the glory of moon on it


s: Fell, in the march of the musical breeze.


s: Valleys and hills, with the whisper of wing in them,


s: Dells of the daffodil--spaces impearled,


s: Flowered and flashed with the splendour of Spring in them--


s: Back in the morn of this wonderful world.


s: Soft were the words that the thunder then said to it--


s: Sun brought the yellow, the green, and the red to it--


s: Sweet were the songs of its silvery rain.


s: Voices of water and wind in the bays of it


s: Lingered, and lulled like the psalm of a dream.


s: Fair were the nights and effulgent the days of it--


s: Moon was in shadow and shade in the beam.


s: Summer's chief throne was the marvellous coast of it,


s: Home of the Spring was its luminous lea:


s: Garden of glitter!  But only the ghost of it


s: Moans in the south by the ghost of a sea.


s: They _might_ have praised your lips, your eyes,


s: But let them pass!  To right your wrong,


s: That sing their loves in faultless clothes:


s: And, _sans_ the feast and marriage ring,


s: But then, your draper's bills are light--


s: And though I've laughed at your expense,


s: "Daughter," said the ancient father, pausing by the evening sea,


s: Turned her eyes towards the sea-line--saw beyond the fiery crest,


s: All the calmness and the colour--all the splendour and repose,


s: Flowing where the sunset flowered, like a silver-hearted rose!


s: There indeed was singing Eden, where the great gold river runs


s: And an angel that we know not led her to the lands unknown.


s: Never since hath eye beheld it--never since hath mortal, dazed


s: By its strange, unearthly splendour, on the floating Eden gazed!


s: Only once by quiet waters, under still, resplendent skies,


s: Did the sister of the seraphs kneel in sight of Paradise!


s: She, the pure, the perfect woman, sanctified by patient prayer,


s: Had the eyes of saints of Heaven, all their glory in her hair:


s: Therefore God the Father whispered to a radiant spirit near--


s: But beyond the halls of sunset, but within the wondrous west,


s: On the rose-red seas of evening, sails the Garden of the Blest.


s: We can never find Hy-Brasil, never see its hills again;


s: Never look on bays of crystal, never bend the reverent knee


s: In the sight of Eden floating--floating on the sapphire sea!


s: Is hardly just now in the requisite trim


s: Besides, he is bluntly informed by the Muse


s: That Jim is a subject no singer should choose;


s: But being full up of the myths that are Greek--


s: Of the classic, and noble, and nude, and antique,


s: This poet intends to give Daphne the slip,


s: For the sake of a hero in moleskin and kip,


s: He is modern right up from the toe to the pipe;


s: But, knowing the beggar so well, I'm inclined


s: The rascal who skulked under shadow of curse,


s: Is more in his line than the happiest verse


s: You mustn't, however, adjudge him in haste,


s: Because a red robber is more to his taste


s: You see, he was bred in a bangalow wood,


s: And bangalow pith was the principal food


s: His knowledge is this--he can tell in the dark


s: What timber will split by the feel of the bark;


s: His wits to the fore he can readily bring


s: In girthing a tree that he sells in the round,


s: He assumes, as a rule, that the body is sound,


s: He may be a ninny, but still the old dog


s: Can plug to perfection the pipe of a log


s: He splits a fair shingle, but holds to the rule


s: Of his father's, and, haply, his grandfather's school;


s: Which means that he never has blundered,


s: When tying his shingles, by slinging in more


s: Than the recognized number of ninety and four


s: When asked by the market for ironbark red,


s: In forests where never the ironbark grew,


s: When Jim is at work, it would flabbergast you


s: He can stick to the saddle, can Wollombi Jim,


s: And when a buckjumper dispenses with him,


s: He can travel with twelve on the breadth of a quill


s: He shines at his best at the tiller of saw,


s: On the top of the pit, where his whisper is law


s: When the pair of them pause in a circle of dust,


s: Like a monarch he poses--exalted, august--


s: There's nothing this planet can show him!


s: For a man is a _man_ who can sharpen and set,


s: And _he_ is the only thing masculine yet


s: And nothing will tempt me to differ from him,


s: But, being full up, we'll allow him to rip,


s: Along with his lingo, his saw, and his whip--


s: And, after a night in his humpy, you see,


s: To tot him right up from the heel to the head,


s: He isn't the Grecian of whom we have read--


s: The nymph in green valleys of Thessaly dim


s: Would never "jack up" her old lover for him,


s: So much for our hero!  A statuesque foot


s: Would suffer by wearing that heavy-nailed boot--


s: However, he's happy!  He cuts a great "fig"


s: In the land where a coat is no part of the rig--


s: Hears, where stamp of storm with stress is,


s: Touched the skirts of Christ, nor trembled


s: Lords of song, and these are many, never yet have raised the lay


s: For the white, wind-beaten seaman of a wild, forgotten day.


s: Harp of shining son of Godhead still is as a voice august;


s: But the man who first saw Britain sleeps beneath unnoticed dust.


s: Lurid limits, loud with thunder and the roar of flaming cone,


s: Ghastly tracts of ice and whirlwind lying in a dim, blind zone,


s: Bitter belts of naked region, girt about by cliffs of fear,


s: Where the Spirit of the Darkness dwells in heaven half the year.


s: Thule, lying like a nightmare on the borders of the Pole:


s: Neither land, nor air, nor water, but a mixture of the whole!


s: Where the winds cry out for ever, and the wave is always loud.


s: Here the lord of many waters, in the great exalted years,


s: To the sweet green fields of England with the sunshine overhead.


s: In the day when pallid Persia fled before the Thracian steel,


s: By the land that now is London passed the strange Hellenic keel.


s: Up the bends of quiet river, hard by banks of grove and flower,


s: Sailed the father through a silence in the old majestic hour.


s: Not a sound of fin or feather, not a note of wave or breeze,


s: When the elder from Massilia over English waters stood.


s: All was new, and hushed, and holy--all was pure untrodden space,


s: When the lord of many oceans turned to it a reverent face.


s: Man who knew resplendent Athens, set and framed in silver sea,


s: Did not dream a dream of England--England of the years to be!


s: Spirit filled with Grecian music, songs that charm the dark away,


s: In a grave that no man thinks of--back from far-forgotten bays--


s: Sleeps the grey, wind-beaten sailor of the old exalted days.


s: He that coasted Wales and Dover, he that first saw Sussex plains,


s: In a space by hand untended, by a fen of vapours blind,


s: Lies the king of many waters--out of sight and out of mind!


s: But the winds are low and holy, and the songs of sweetness flow,


s: Where he fell asleep for ever, twenty centuries ago.


s: The leaders of millions, the lords of the lands,


s: And shake the great globe with the strength of their hands,


s: The elders of science who measure the spheres


s: Who see the grand lights beyond aeons of years,


s: The singers that sweeten all time with their song--


s: By thunders of battle and nations uphurled,


s: The helmsmen who stand at the wheel of the world


s: What trouble has Bill for the ruin of lands,


s: So long as the whip that he holds in his hands


s: And the team that he drives are his own?


s: As straight and as sound as a slab without crack,


s: Though he camps by the side of a shingle track,


s: He carries his darlings wherever he goes,


s: The joy of a bard when he happens to write


s: In the pluck and the strength of his team.


s: For the kings of the earth, for the faces august


s: To Bill, as he lumbers along in the dust,


s: His four-footed friends are the friends of his choice--


s: But the cattle that turn at the sound of his voice


s: Have the sweetest of features and names.


s: A father's chief joy is a favourite son,


s: But the pride of Bill's heart is the hairy-legged one


s: His dray is no living, responsible thing,


s: And, seeing his fancy is free in the wing,


s: He thrives like an Arab.  Between the two wheels


s: He thinks for himself, like a sultan, and feels


s: For, even though cattle, like subjects, will break


s: Bill knows how to act when his rule is at stake,


s: Of course he must dream; but be sure that his dreams,


s: Fat bullocks at feed by improbable streams,


s: No poet is Bill, for the visions of night


s: And the pipe that in sleep he endeavours to light


s: To the mighty, magnificent temples of God,


s: Bill's eyes are as blind as the fire-blackened clod


s: Through beautiful, bountiful forests that screen


s: Whose lights are the mellow and golden and green--


s: The manifold splendours of mountain and wood


s: He loves the black myrtle because it is good


s: And thus through the world, with a swing in his tread,