s: Form'd by digestion, and in glands refined,


s: Gave by their just excitement of the sense


s: knowledge in Geology during the present century, owing to the


s: greater attention of philosophers to the situations of the


s: different materials, which compose the strata of the earth,


s: as well as to their chemical properties, it seems clearly to


s: appear, that the nucleus of the globe beneath the ocean


s: consisted of granite; and that on this the great beds of


s: limestone were formed from the shells of marine animals


s: during the innumerable primeval ages of the world; and that


s: whatever strata lie on these beds of limestone, or on the


s: granite, where the limestone does not cover it, were formed


s: after the elevation of islands and continents above the


s: surface of the sea by the recrements of vegetables and of


s: terrestrial animals; see on this subject Botanic Garden, Vol.


s: "Thus the tall mountains, that emboss the lands,


s: Huge isles of rock, and continents of sands,


s: Whose dim extent eludes the inquiring sight,


s: Shout round the globe, how Reproduction strives


s: With vanquish'd Death,--and Happiness survives;


s: How Life increasing peoples every clime,


s: And young renascent Nature conquers Time;


s: The immense munificence of NATURE'S LORD!--


s: referred to a few pages on this subject in Phytologia, Sect.


s: more at large; but it is probable that the most certain way


s: to estimate the happiness and misery of organic beings; as it


s: depends on the actions of the organs of sense, which


s: constitute ideas; or of the muscular fibres which perform


s: locomotion; would be to consider those actions, as they are


s: produced or excited by the four sensorial powers of


s: irritation, sensation, volition, and association. A small


s: volume on this subject by some ingenious writer, might not


s: only amuse, as an object of curiosity; but by showing the


s: world the immediate sources of their pains and pleasures


s: might teach the means to avoid the one, and to procure the


s: other, and thus contribute both ways to increase the sum


s: calcareous provinces, which form so great a part of the


s: terraqueous globe, and also whatever rests upon them, as


s: clay, marl, sand, and coal, were formed from the fluid


s: elements of heat, oxygen, azote, and hydrogen along with


s: carbon, phosphorus, and perhaps a few other substances, which


s: the science of chemistry has not yet decomposed; and gave the


s: pleasure of life to the animals and vegetables, which formed


s: them; and thus constitute monuments of the past happiness of


s: those organized beings. But as those remains of former life


s: are not again totally decomposed, or converted into their


s: original elements, they supply more copious food to the


s: succession of new animal or vegetable beings on their


s: surface; which consists of materials convertible into


s: nutriment with less labour or activity of the digestive


s: powers; and hence the quantity or number of organized bodies,


s: and their improvement in size, as well as their happiness,


s: has been continually increasing, along with the solid parts


s: of the globe; and will probably continue to increase, till


s: the whole terraqueous sphere, and all that inhabit it shall


s: dissolve by a general conflagration, and be again reduced to


s: Thus all the suns, and the planets, which circle round them,


s: may again sink into one central chaos; and may again by


s: explosions produce a new world; which in process of time may


s: resemble the present one, and at length again undergo the


s: same catastrophe! these great events may be the result of the


s: immutable laws impressed on matter by the Great Cause of


s: "He gives and guides the sun's attractive force,


s: And steers the planets in their silver course;


s: With heat and light revives the golden day,


s: And breathes his spirit on organic clay;


s: With hand unseen directs the general cause


s: Charm'd with her words the Muse astonish'd stands,


s: The Nymphs enraptured clasp their velvet hands;


s: Applausive thunder from the fane recoils,


s: O'er NATURE'S shrine celestial lustres glow,


s: And lambent glories circle round her brow.


s: Onward she steps, her fair associates calls


s: From leaf-wove avenues, and vaulted halls.


s: Fair virgin trains in bright procession move,


s: Trail their long robes, and whiten all the grove;


s: Pair after pair to Nature's temple sweep,


s: Thread the broad arch, ascend the winding steep;


s: Through brazen gates along susurrant ailes


s: Stream round their GODDESS the successive files;


s: Curve above curve to golden seats retire,


s: And star with beauty the refulgent quire.


s: AND first to HEAVEN the consecrated throng


s: With chant alternate pour the adoring song,


s: Swell the full hymn, now high, and now profound,


s: With sweet responsive symphony of sound.


s: Seen through their wiry harps, below, above,


s: Nods the fair brow, the twinkling fingers move;


s: Soft-warbling flutes the ruby lip commands,


s: And cymbals ring with high uplifted hands.


s: How suns exploded from the kindling mass,


s: Waved o'er the vast inane their tresses bright,


s: And charm'd young Nature's opening eyes with light.


s: Next from each sun how spheres reluctant burst,


s: And second planets issued from the first.


s: And then to EARTH descends the moral strain,


s: How isles, emerging from the shoreless main,


s: With sparkling streams and fruitful groves began,


s: Namque canebat uti magnum per inane coacta


s: Semina terrarumque, animæque, marisque fuissent;


s: Et liquidi simul ignis; ut his exordia primis


s: Omnia, et ipse tener mundi concreverit orbis.


s: And high rewards in brighter climes above;


s: How Virtue's beams with mental charm engage


s: Youth's raptured eye, and warm the frost of age,


s: Gild with soft lustre Death's tremendous gloom,


s: And light the dreary chambers of the tomb.


s: How fell Remorse shall strike with venom'd dart,


s: Though mail'd in adamant, the guilty heart;


s: Fierce furies drag to pains and realms unknown


s: The blood-stain'd tyrant from his tottering throne.


s: By hands unseen are struck aerial wires,


s: And Angel-tongues are heard amid the quires;


s: From aile to aile the trembling concord floats,


s: And the wide roof returns the mingled notes,


s: Through each fine nerve the keen vibrations dart,


s: Pierce the charm'd ear, and thrill the echoing heart.--


s: MUTE the sweet voice, and still the quivering strings,


s: Her graceful march, the sacred steps ascends,


s: High in the midst with blazing censer stands,


s: And scatters incense with illumined hands:


s: Thrice to the GODDESS bows with solemn pause,


s: With trembling awe the mystic veil withdraws,


s: And, meekly kneeling on the gorgeous shrine,


s: Lifts her ecstatic eyes to TRUTH DIVINE!


s: Hence without parent by spontaneous birth


s: Rise the first specks of animated earth.


s: A third prejudice against the existence of spontaneous vital


s: productions has been the supposed want of analogy; this has also


s: arisen from the expectation, that the larger or more complicated


s: weighed and nicely investigated before distinct credence is given


s: tulips, and the autumnal progeny of the aphis. See Phytologia.


s: larger and stronger in the second year than the first, and thus


s: according to the warmth of the season, in the infusions of all


s: replete with animalcules in three or four days.


s: These microscopic animals are believed to possess a power of


s: viviparous, and produce at intervals a numerous progeny: animals


s: vegetable or animal matter, which is the mucor or mouldiness; the


s: difficult to conceive how the seeds of this mucor can float so


s: produced by this process of digestion; in which circumstance this


s: In vegetable nutrition the organic matter of dead animals, or


s: contact with it; in which this also differs from common chemical


s: beneath the surface of the earth. Thus the particles, which form


s: caoutchouc, and some fossile bitumens, when drawn out to a great


s: bodies, are not yet understood; as the laws of the attraction of


s: putrefaction which will contract when extended, seems almost as


s: vorticella or wheel animal, which is found in rain water that has


s: degree of vitality, since this is done by more complicate animal


s: organs in the instances above mentioned.


s: The hydra of Linnæus, which dwells in the rivers of Europe under


s: There is therefore no absurdity in believing that the most simple


s: The green vegetable matter of Dr. Priestley, which is universally


s: decompositions of organic matter, whether vegetable or animal, in


s: complicate animalcules by repeated reproductions. See Note VIII.


s: produced by the stagnation and incipient decomposition of those


s: produced in it can easily be observed by applying a drop to a


s: Next the long nerves unite their silver train,


s: And young Sensation permeates the brain.


s: possess a power of contraction. The circumstances attending the


s: associability; in their active state they are termed as above


s: irritation, sensation, volition, association.


s: Irritation is an exertion or change of some extreme part of the


s: Sensation is an exertion or change of the central parts of the


s: Volition is an exertion or change of the central parts of the


s: Association is an exertion or change of some extreme part of the


s: Next when imprison'd fires in central caves


s: Burst the firm earth, and drank the headlong waves.


s: The great and repeated explosions of volcanoes are shown by Mr.


s: If the moon be supposed to have been thus thrown out of the great


s: So from deep lakes the dread musquito springs,


s: Drinks the soft breeze, and dries his tender wings.


s: It may be driven away by smoke, especially by that from inula


s: The gnats of this country are produced in greater numbers in some


s: With twofold lungs the sea and air imbibe.


s: In this circumstance of their possessing a one-celled heart, and


s: The leech, hirudo, and the remora, echeneis, adhere strongly to


s: So the glory, or halo, round the head is a part of the universal


s: class, order, genus, and species, with a description also of some


s: Wilkins's grand design of an universal language, which might


s: excitability, which, though at first increased, is afterwards


s: Many of the motions of the organic system, which are necessary to


s: generally caused by the stimulus of blood in the lungs, or by the


s: quantity of moisture to prevent rigidity: nothing seems so well


s: adapted to both these purposes as the use of the warm bath; and


s: It may be here observed in favour of bathing, that some fish are


s: render the system less excitable for a time till the quantity of


s: Hence it may be concluded, that the variations of the quantity of


s: patients than is met with in this country, as the lungs cannot be


s: produced by volition, sensation, or irritation; because they soon


s: But if a stimulus be repeated at uniform intervals of time, the


s: On this circumstance depends the easy motions of the fingers in


s: On the contrary, many animal motions by perpetual repetition are


s: energy, occasions them at length to become feeble, or to cease


s: The effects of surprise and novelty must now be considered by the


s: examine by the voluntary efforts of intuitive analogy; or by


s: reasoning, which we attend to; and compare it with the usual


s: Now by frequent repetition the surprise, incongruity, or novelty


s: sensation of pain or pleasure; and thus the sensorial power of


s: length cease; whence the debilities of age, and consequent death.


s: New life rekindles, ere the first expires.


s: Many microscopic animals, and some larger ones, as the hydra or


s: polypus, are propagated by splitting or dividing; and some still


s: potatoes; which is further treated of in Phytologia, Sect. VII.


s: combinations, whether for the purpose of nutrition or for


s: A similar mode of reproduction by the secretion of two kinds of


s: organic particles from the blood, and by depositing them either


s: The first mode of sexual reproduction seems to have been by the


s: Afterwards the sexes seem to have been formed in vegetables as in


s: perfect, and at length produce a sexual progeny.


s: observation of M. Poupart, who thinks, that the number of


s: mentioned in Zoonomia, Sect. XXXIX. 6. 2.


s: And, lastly, the most perfect orders of animals are propagated by


s: The great Linneus having perceived the changes produced in the


s: structure, but with frequent additional improvements; which the


s: And Heaven-born STORGE weaves the social chain.


s: The Greek word Storge is used for the affection of parents to


s: These as well as many other animal facts, which are difficult to


s: placenta; and if a dead offspring occurs, I am told, that also is


s: length of time; whence by association a similar pleasure may be


s: Form'd a new sex, the mother of mankind.


s: The feeble births acquired diseases chase,


s: Till Death extinguish the degenerate race.


s: importance to detect the causes of these mutations.


s: diseases; but hereditary diseases are believed more to affect the


s: In respect to the sexual progeny of vegetables it has long been


s: sea-scurvy and occasional hæmorrhages evince the defect of venous


s: Then mark how two electric streams conspire


s: fluid; which at first projected the planets from the sun, and I


s: suppose prevents their return to it; and which occasionally


s: The ethereal fluids, which constitute peculiar repulsions and


s: Thus the peculiar attractions and repulsions of the particles of


s: bodies, and the general ones of the masses of matter, perpetually


s: carbonic ones; but will not permeate those, which are termed


s: nonconductors, as air, glass, silk, resin, sulphur.


s: together when in contact; and occupy less space when united, than


s: gymnotus, and of Galvanism. Thus after having discharged a coated


s: communicating the accumulated electricity to the atmosphere.


s: consequently without friction; and thus the cork revolves in the


s: towards the point in one case, and from it in the other.


s: So the electric fly, as it turns horizontally, recedes from the


s: The electric ethers may be separately accumulated by contact of


s: accumulation of vitreous ether on one side of the glass is not so


s: previously had a communication with the earth, it will possess an


s: chemical explosions both light and heat are set at liberty, and


s: decompositions, as in other explosions: add to this that the same


s: unrestrainable ethereal fluid yet unobserved, given out from this


s: inflammable substances, and fuses metals, or dissipates them in a


s: conducting body, to run into that vacuum by its attraction or


s: atmospheres; and which exists in different proportions round them


s: Where these spontaneous atmospheres of diffused electricity


s: surrounding two conducting bodies, as two pieces of silver, are


s: In this experiment the electric atmospheres, which are nearly of


s: through them. Whence some conducting bodies admit the junction of


s: experiments discovered by Galvani, which have thence the name of


s: Hence those atmospheres of either kind of electric matter, which


s: accumulations of electricity seem to require the best of all


s: conductors, as animal nerves, to facilitate their passage.


s: Hence it must appear, that the longer the Galvanic pile, or the


s: traced, when they are immersed in water in the vicinity of each


s: other, as when the copper sheathing of ships was held on by iron


s: nails. And hence another great operation of nature is probably


s: intervening cloths or papers are moistened with pure alcali, as a


s: tarnishes those of silver. Whence it would appear, that as by the


s: It seems probable, that it is not the magnetic ether itself which


s: without emitting any other fluids previously combined with them.


s: Thirdly, The wonderful property of the magnetic ethers, when


s: separately accumulated on the ends of a needle, endeavouring to


s: chemical affinity when they approach, the one exploding, and then


s: But when an acid is mixed with a pure alcali a combination is


s: principally emitted, but an aerial one or gas; which may probably


s: sudden, bursts the vessels, or otherwise it passes slowly through


s: But where ethers only are concerned in an explosion, as the two


s: degree of putridity, and some living insects probably by their


s: respiration in transparent lungs, which is a kind of combustion.


s: But the two electric ethers are condensed by being brought into


s: matters, without either of them being combined with any other


s: resembles in every other circumstance, but in the manner of the


s: observed respecting the decomposition of other bodies; when their


s: operations may act in a similar manner; as the attractive and


s: attractions and repulsions, which so visibly exist in atmospheres


s: From the facts and observations above mentioned electricity and


s: magnetism consist each of them of two ethers, as the vitreous and


s: accompanying all these ethers permeate bodies of all kinds; it


s: different proportions in No. IX. of this note.


s: appears in the lighting of gunpowder, as well as in all other


s: combustion, the spark of fire applied dissolves the sulphur, and


s: primary ones are drawn by them into each other's vicinity by the


s: masculine, or both with their feminine ethers, repel each other


s: reason why bodies have been supposed to repel at one distance and


s: distant from each other, as of the sun and planets, as I before


s: endeavoured to take one step further back into the mysteries of


s: Fond Fancy's eye recalls the form divine,


s: And Taste sits smiling upon Beauty's shrine.


s: perception above mentioned; the first is derived from a degree of


s: The source, from which is derived the pleasure of novelty, is a


s: metaphysical inquiry of great curiosity, and will on that account


s: In its less degree surprise is generally agreeable, as it simply


s: degree of surprise; and by further experience the sentiment of


s: It should here be observed, that as the pleasure of novelty is


s: The repeated excitement of the same or similar ideas with certain


s: The repetitions of motions may be at first produced either by


s: volition, or by sensation, or by irritation, but they soon become


s: But besides these little circles of musical time, there are the


s: greater returning periods, and the still more distinct choruses;


s: which, like the rhimes at the end of verses, owe their beauty to


s: association and irritation, than by the latter singly.


s: This kind of pleasure arising from repetition, that is from the


s: facility and distinctness with which we perceive and understand


s: Where these repetitions of form, and reiterations of colour, are


s: produced in a picture or a natural landscape, in an agreeable


s: There is nevertheless, an excess of the repetition of the same or


s: A third source of pleasure arising from the inspection of visible


s: fibres of the retina into stronger action; on this account some


s: colours are seen more distinctly, and consequently more agreeably


s: From this curious coincidence, it has been proposed to produce a


s: agreeable ideas with them, must arise from our hearing some


s: proportions of sounds after others more easily, distinctly, or


s: This source of pleasure received from the melodious succession of


s: Hence where colours are required to be distinct, those which are


s: perception, which consists in our previous association of some


s: language, may be traced to similar sources.


s: colours; and that our idea of the solidity of the bodies, which


s: agreeably affected; next its sense of smell is delighted with the


s: softness and smoothness of the milky fountain, the source of such


s: Next to each thought associate sound accords,


s: Ideas consist of synchronous motions or configurations of the


s: knowledge of it by developing another analogy of its constituent


s: The first class of words consists of those, which suggest but one


s: termination in the Greek and Latin languages suggest many other


s: This class of words includes the NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE, or names of


s: Thus the word Domino, in the dative case, to the Lord, suggests


s: The accusative case, or Dominum, besides the primary idea implies


s: The vocative case of the Latin language, or Domine, besides the


s: The ablative case in the Latin language, as Domino, suggests a


s: prepositions in our language; which, as it suggests somewhat


s: Hence in the Latin language, besides the original or primary idea


s: latter of which has also four or five varieties. These nouns


s: Adjectives seem originally to have been derived from nouns


s: substantive, of which they express a quality, as a musky rose, a


s: beautiful lady, a stormy day. Some of them are formed from the


s: frequently only necessary to put a hyphen between two nouns


s: substantive for the purpose of converting the former one into an


s: In the Latin and Greek languages these adjectives possess a great


s: primary ideas of quality, and of their appertaining to some other


s: Mr. Locke observes, that languages consist principally of general


s: She let Concealment like a worm i' th' bud


s: Difficile emergunt, quorum virtutibus obstat


s: existence, but not a third idea of time; and in this respect


s: Nor do they resemble adjectives only in their suggesting but two


s: variations of termination, as in the active voice of it.


s: This kind of adjective suggests two primary ideas, like the


s: Verbs are therefore nouns, or names of intire ideas, with the


s: additional ideas of their mode of existence and of time; but the


s: construction; so the infinitive mood may be said to resemble the


s: substantive, and it is often used as a nominative case to another


s: In the Latin language the verb in its simplest form, except the


s: languages, or transplanted from ancient ones; but that this has


s: Thus there may appear some difficulty in analyzing from what noun


s: abstracted idea of existence its real state, or actual resting,


s: participles alone, as I have eaten; or it is accompanied with the


s: participle of another verb, as I have been eating.


s: There is another word _will_ used in the same irregular manner to


s: The theory of the progressive production of language in the early


s: commencement of Society the names of the ideas of entire things,


s: As many of these nouns soon became general terms, as bird, beast,


s: Next to these names of the ideas of entire things, the words most


s: frequently used as an additional word, as wiser or more wise.


s: former kind are applied to substantives, and express a partial


s: similitude, these are applied to verbs and express a general


s: The perpetual chain of causes and effects, which constitute the


s: motions, or changing configurations, of the universe, are so


s: conveniently divided into active and passive, for expressing the


s: exertions or purposes of common life, that it became particularly


s: Besides the perpetual allusions to the active or passive state of


s: unnumbered wings to every limb of the God of Eloquence.


s: The tongue, the lips articulate; the throat


s: SH is a simple sound, and wants a new character.


s: J French exists in our words confu_si_on, and conclusion, judge,


s: GL is dl, as Glove is pronounced by polite people dlove.


s: CL is tl, as Cloe is pronounced by polite speakers Tloe.


s: These sounds would all be nearly similar except in their being an


s: enunciation of the letters b, and d, and ga; or during the


s: pronunciation of the semivocal letters, v. z. j. and others in


s: sounding the liquid letters r and l; these sounds we shall term


s: consists of vibrations quicker than those formed by the larynx.


s: As all sound consists in the vibrations of the air, it may not be


s: Hence when a vacuum is formed in the atmosphere, the sides of the


s: Hence when a quick current of air is suddenly broken by any


s: intervening body, a vacuum is produced by the momentum of the


s: When a stream of air is blown on the edge of the aperture of an


s: vibrations of certain apertures of the mouth and nose, and are so


s: velocity; and lastly the very high notes made by the quickest


s: _Mute and antesonant Consonants, and nasal Liquids._


s: B. If in the above situation of the lips a sound is previously


s: T. If the point of the tongue be applied to the forepart of the


s: previously produced in the mouth, the semisonant consonant D is


s: formed, which may begin or terminate a syllable.


s: N. If in the above situation of the tongue and palate a sound be


s: Ga. If in the above situation of the tongue and palate a sound be


s: NG. If in the above situation of the tongue and palate a sound be


s: narisonance, and have been called liquids by grammarians.


s: character as thus M.[TN: Upside down W.]


s: S. If the point of the tongue be appressed to the forepart of the


s: Z. If in the above situation of the tongue and palate a sound be


s: H. If the back part of the tongue be appressed to the pendulous


s: The sibilant and sonisibilant letters may be elongated in


s: R. If the point of the tongue be appressed to the forepart of the


s: I pronounced like e in keel. If the point of the tongue by


s: O pronounced like oo, as in the word fool. If the lips by


s: approximation to each other, as in forming the letters P, B, M, W


s: O pronounced as in the word cold. If the aperture above described


s: Six sibilants, W German, F, Th, S, Sh, H.


s: Six sonisibilants, W, V, Th, Z, J French, Ch Spanish.


s: Eight vowels, Aw, ah, a, e, i, y, oo, o.


s: To these thirty-one characters might perhaps be added one for the


s: F alone, or with a mark for sonisibilance, V.


s: Th alone, or with a mark for sonisibilance, Th.


s: forming the vowels, which were in the habit of being exerted in


s: accuracy, but not so as perfectly to satisfy myself.


s: subject for the purpose of improving shorthand; at that time I


s: harpsichord or forte piano, and perform the song as well as the


s: facilitate the acquisition of modern languages; which as science


s: looked for only in the simplest organic beings; supposed want of


s: beings; which are gradually enlarged and improved by it. III.


s: The larva lives chiefly in water; it may be driven away by smoke;


s: historical events; astrology an early superstition; universal


s: hermaphrodites. II. Sexual. III. Inferior vegetables and animals


s: Mosaic history of Paradise supposed by some to be an allegory;


s: Ideas; words the names or symbols of ideas. I. Conjunctions and


s: _"But what," you may ask, "is the object of nonsense verse?" Most


s: And moonbeams filled the earth with light,


s: And laughed until he sneezed and sneezed;


s: And the bank-note boat was just in range;


s: He groaned, and shrieked and tore his fur


s: And seized the mole, just like a packet.


s: But the loving mole went blind with rage


s: And whittle a stick and look at the hosses,


s: Look at the pigs and admire the chickens,


s: Just think of the butter and eggs and things;


s: So wash off the buggy and hitch up the mare,


s: And we'll all go out to the county fair.


s: It looks like a fight at a city election.


s: Shrieks to his child as the horse draws closer


s: With all his might and the horse's mane,


s: And cries "Well, what do you think of that?"


s: O, the circus parade! O, the circus parade!


s: It lays all the politics back in the shade,


s: And the merchants forget that they've got any trade,


s: While many remember they've never been paid


s: As they rushed out to look at the circus parade;


s: And preachers who used to be terribly staid


s: Yell just like boys at the circus parade.


s: Every one's there, both the mistress and maid,


s: And out at the grounds, when you've seen the parade,


s: How delicious it is to drink pink lemonade;


s: And look at the elephant twirling his trunk,


s: And laugh at the capers cut by the monk;


s: Watch the old clown who is acting a dunce,


s: And try hard to see three rings going at once;


s: Gaze at the ringmaster cracking his whip,


s: (Written in collaboration with R. B. Hamilton.)


s: Prompts you to break your friendship's vow."


s: That you are wrong; dis ain't your tree."


s: "Well, Great Scott, man, don't talk all day,


s: "You will? All right then--eight o'clock;


s: All right, old man (Ting-ling), so long."


s: Wake for the sun, that scatters into flight,


s: The poker players who have stayed all night;


s: Drives husbands home with reeling steps, and then--


s: Gives to the sleepy "cops" an awful fright.


s: I sometimes think that never blows so red


s: The nose, as when the spirits strike the head;


s: Makes him wish strongly he were home in bed.


s: The moving finger writes, but having "pull",


s: You think that you can settle things in full,


s: But when you interview the Police Judge,


s: You find that you have made an awful bull.


s: Some nonsense verses underneath the bough,


s: A little "booze", a time to loaf, and thou--


s: Have you ever mused in silence upon a summer's day


s: And let your thoughts run riot and your feelings have full sway,


s: As you sprawled full length upon the grass in some secluded dell


s: And breathed the balmy country air, and smelt the country smell?


s: There was little Willie Browning, the worst of all the boys


s: Who had a sure-nuff cannon that made all kinds of noise;


s: And when the cannon wouldn't go he blew into the muzzle,


s: But what became of Willie's teeth has always been a puzzle.


s: When the red-hot July sun began to wink the clouds away,


s: We were out with whoops and shoutings to celebrate the day.


s: With piece of punk in one hand and crackers in the other,


s: We would troop home later in the day for linseed oil and mother.


s: And as you lie and ponder, the thought comes home to you


s: That your youngest boy now celebrates the way you used to do;


s: There was once a young man quite erratic


s: But his friends thought it fine and dramatic.


s: Fell in love with a rich girl named Anna,


s: Where the Germans kicked up such a fracas;


s: And he always wears the "cutest" gloves.


s: And his handkerchiefs are trimmed with lace;


s: A funny thing once happened to a German from Berlin,


s: For once he got too gay and seized a swordfish by the fin,


s: This made the big fish angry, and he sawed the German's chin.


s: "Just Tell Them That I Saw You" said the swordfish with a grin.


s: And why? Because the snow must go; the time has came to part.


s: The man who says he don't regret its passing also lies.


s: When a great daub of snow fell from a nearby housetop


s: And when I ventured--poor foolish mortal that I was--to look,


s: It is but a proof of thine affection to cling around our necks,


s: But still we swear--we cannot help it, Snow.


s: O a fat turkey gobbler once sat on a limb


s: And he sighed at the wind, and the wind sighed at him.


s: But the grief of the gobbler one could not diminish,


s: For it was Thanksgiving and he saw his finish.


s: So the heart of the gobbler was heavy as lead


s: And he muttered the words of the poet who said:


s: "Backward, turn backward, O Time in thy flight,


s: Make me a boy again, just for to-night!"


s: Who tells of the work he might have done;


s: You can wager when things do come around,


s: 'Twas on the f-f-f-first of April D-D-Day,


s: W-w-w-when Nature s-s-smiled and all w-w-was gay,


s: 'C-c-cause I w-w-was w-w-walking w-w-with my g-g-girl.


s: We w-w-wandered through a leafless w-w-wood


s: W-w-where many giant oak-t-t-trees s-s-stood,


s: And p-p-paused beside a d-d-dark g-g-green pool


s: T-t-then out I s-s-spoke in accents b-b-bold,


s: And all m-m-my l-love for her I t-t-told.


s: She answered w-w-with a sweet, s-s-hy g-g-glance


s: That pierced m-m-my h-h-heart like C-C-Cupid's l-lance.


s: And s-s-showered k-k-kisses on her f-f-face,


s: And t-t-told her that I'd g-g-give my l-life


s: "Please k-k-keep your l-l-life," the m-m-maid replied


s: "F-f-for I w-w-will gladly b-b-be your b-b-bride,


s: And y-y-you" she s-s-said, in t-t-tones quite c-c-cool,


s: "W-w-why you c-c-can b-b-be my April F-F-Fool."


s: But the home folks never noticed it at all.


s: But you couldn't hardly notice it at all.


s: That a glance at his face made you heated.


s: And--his children are still wearing crepe.


s: And you should come to my cold desk and choke,


s: And say, "Old man I'm actually dead broke."


s: And you should come in deepest grief and woe


s: And say, "Oh Lordy let me have the dough,"


s: And lecture you upon the curse of drink.


s: And you should come to my hotel and reel,


s: Clasping my beer to quench the thirst you feel,


s: And you should come in trembling and in fear


s: And even hint about licking up that beer,


s: I guess I'd have to order one more bier.


s: (Man's Inhumanity to Hogs Makes Countless Thousands Squeal.)


s: (A Response to Judge Mulligan's Famous Toast.)


s: The way was dark within the gloomy church-yard,


s: As I wandered through the woodland near the stream,


s: When suddenly I heard a dreadful scream.


s: My heart gave frantic leap, as when the roebuck


s: 'Twas in the ghostly month of grim December,


s: The frozen winds were bitter in their cry


s: "'Tis a somber month to live in or to die."


s: Came a voice of some foul fiend from Hell:


s: And let the falling snow-flakes sound the knell."


s: Perched upon a tombstone sat the creature


s: Grewsome as an unquenched, burning lust.


s: A stare that seemed the mocking of the just.


s: And in my thoughts the dreadful thing is sitting--


s: Sitting there with eyelids red and blear,


s: And the earth-clods roll and rumble on my bier.


s: (Mrs. Jefferson Davis, widow of the President of the Southern


s: The list is long, the stories read the same;


s: Strong mortal man is but a flesh-hued toy;


s: Some have their ending in a life of shame;


s: Others drink deeply from the glass of joy;


s: Some see the cup dashed dripping from their lip


s: Or drinking, find the wine has turned to gall,


s: While others taste the sweets they fain would sip


s: And then Death comes--the sequel to it all.


s: When dogs could talk, and pigs could sing,


s: They stole their bread, they stole their meat,


s: They stuffed themselves with good fresh meal,


s: They slapped their long tails in the butter


s: They scampered home with all their might.


s: "March on!" he cried. And, hot and thick,


s: The mice hurrahed, the rats they squealed,


s: With all the good things they had stolen


s: And slaughtered rats bestrewed the ground


s: The mouse-king's face turned red with passion


s: But nought could quell the mouse-king's fury--


s: He pierced the rat right through the ear.


s: Written by the author's father, the late George W. Ranck. It


s: first appeared in St. Nicholas and is reprinted by permission of


s: To drink the sweetness of some wild rose,


s: Above the scarred cliff's iron brow  . . . . . . . .


s: Across the hills the cattle call . . . . . . . . . .


s: After the winds there is surcease  . . . . . . . . .


s: All day an ashen light serene  . . . . . . . . . . .


s: A quiet breath distils in calm . . . . . . . . . . .


s: As on a hill-top near the sun  . . . . . . . . . . .


s: As turns my heart its crimson leaves . . . . . . . .


s: Break into flower, O garden fair . . . . . . . . . .


s: Calm soul, unkindled by the sight  . . . . . . . . .


s: Celestial sweetness swift outstrips  . . . . . . . .


s: Doubt flies before the truth that's quired . . . . .


s: Fair as the light on fire-tipt hills . . . . . . . .


s: Far off and veiled it seems to me  . . . . . . . . .


s: Far up the brook, beyond the lin . . . . . . . . . .


s: Filled oft with portents, oft withdrawn  . . . . . .


s: Frail Lucia of a mutual love . . . . . . . . . . . .


s: Fresh sprig of greenest southernwood . . . . . . . .


s: Green tracery of fern to rust  . . . . . . . . . . .


s: Hail, Mary, honored of the race  . . . . . . . . . .


s: Her steps fall sweet as summer rain  . . . . . . . .


s: Hope's clear blue eye is open wide . . . . . . . . .


s: How swift soft-feathered Time sails on . . . . . . .


s: I dreamed I drew my parting breath . . . . . . . . .


s: I feel the season's dreamy call  . . . . . . . . . .


s: If mighty angels fair and tall . . . . . . . . . . .


s: I keep one picture in my heart . . . . . . . . . . .


s: Impressions vast and vague flow in . . . . . . . . .


s: I see that power is not in art . . . . . . . . . . .


s: I would enshrine in silvern song . . . . . . . . . .


s: Like oxeye daisies of the field  . . . . . . . . . .


s: Look now!  The crested waters sleep  . . . . . . . .


s: Love bows herself in holy prayer . . . . . . . . . .


s: Love's inspirations of the lyre  . . . . . . . . . .


s: Man's highest word, as God's above . . . . . . . . .


s: Men plow and sow while moves the sun . . . . . . . .


s: My quickened sense can only plod . . . . . . . . . .


s: Never before has my ear heard  . . . . . . . . . . .


s: O glorious light!  Thy limpid wave . . . . . . . . .


s: O June has lit her splendid lamp . . . . . . . . . .


s: O soul that art essential change . . . . . . . . . .


s: Over the brow of lofty scar  . . . . . . . . . . . .


s: Philosophy doth dig and draw . . . . . . . . . . . .


s: Pure lily, open on the breast  . . . . . . . . . . .


s: Revolving without rest and goal  . . . . . . . . . .


s: Says one who with the sad condoles . . . . . . . . .


s: Spirit of song, life's golden ray  . . . . . . . . .


s: Sunshine, O soul, is not a mood  . . . . . . . . . .


s: Superbest power with sweetness wed . . . . . . . . .


s: Sure in this realm of Sense and Time . . . . . . . .


s: Sweetheart, I dedicate to thee . . . . . . . . . . .


s: The bird of needle beak, and breast  . . . . . . . .


s: The flecks of gold that glorify  . . . . . . . . . .


s: The full ripe year, these maple hills  . . . . . . .


s: The infinite in grand repose . . . . . . . . . . . .


s: The mirrored silence of this pool  . . . . . . . . .


s: The scarlet arch of evening fills  . . . . . . . . .


s: The sovereign law of human life  . . . . . . . . . .


s: The spirit firm and swelling soul  . . . . . . . . .


s: The sweep, O heart, of Love's account  . . . . . . .


s: The sword and spear and savage knife . . . . . . . .


s: The "trees of God," the prophet said . . . . . . . .


s: The world's a train at speeding rate . . . . . . . .   8l


s: There are no solitudes to view . . . . . . . . . . .


s: There ever wakes an evil wraith  . . . . . . . . . .


s: This golden-browed September land  . . . . . . . . .


s: This tiny life, with exquisite wings . . . . . . . .


s: Thus wrought the Seen-Unseen the spell . . . . . . .


s: 'Tis fit the bloodroot in white hood . . . . . . . .


s: Two lives made one, the man and wife . . . . . . . .


s: Unnumbered traits shine in thy face  . . . . . . . .


s: Unveiled as kinsman, Love did seek . . . . . . . . .


s: Vast promise is the sea, and vast  . . . . . . . . .


s: We talked of bird and flower and tree  . . . . . . .


s: What nature mirrors and reveals  . . . . . . . . . .


s: What though the sea-shell cheats the ear . . . . . .


s: Who loveth not the elm tree fair . . . . . . . . . .


s: With lathe of viewless hyaline . . . . . . . . . . .


s: We felt the pulsings of nature's throng;


s: Or wimpling fogs toyed with the mountain,


s: When hovering stars, poised in the blue,


s: Glimmered the pearls of the moonlit dew.


s: The years are wise though days be foolish,


s: These Song-Waves from life's voiceful sea.


s: Bearing rich freight, and perhaps debris.


s: So take them, dear, as thine own, I pray.


s: Lightning of thought and gust of passion,


s: Why shouldst thou cease to move forever,


s: To quench the flickering light and play;


s: Whose light shines clear as a star apart,--


s: I'll more and more their import cherish,


s: Their deeps on deeps to my shelving shoals.


s: Taste thou the wine of shoreless oceans,


s: And feed on food that was meant for thee!


s: Should brave the parting winter's mood,--


s: Come, thou, pale violet, streaked, sweet-scented,


s: Thou art not dead?  Nay, when death crept


s: And slept as seed!  Thou hast overslept.


s: "Yea, when thou cleav'st the pillared tree,


s: Ope thine heart's eyes, and, lo, My Star


s: Burns 'neath Time's vesture, true Shekinah,


s: Centre and Soul of the things that are."


s: Of time and place, but the soul's estate.


s: The printless beach, all combed and shining,


s: Each neighing loud to its neighbour steed.


s: And flash in light as the heavenly floors.


s: Filled oft with portents, oft withdrawn,


s: To this full hour, have borne their witness


s: Till lurid sky with the Rainbow's spanned.


s: Whose tremulous spray cools the faint meadow,


s: Where redbreast knows the white moon's ray;


s: Ofttimes they've heard "Seedtime and harvest


s: Are sure"--the word of the Sovereign One.


s: That's quaffed by strenuous souls and fine,


s: Doubt flies before the truth that's quired


s: As ghosts before the daystar's rising,--


s: The springing grass, and have rest and peace!


s: Fixed in the unseen thy life breathes upward


s: A heavenly essence from out earth's mould.


s: Now comes the chill and dusk of night,--


s: From leaf to bloom and from bloom to whole.


s: And timeless months of transcendent Junes!


s: Where loves the brook in loops to loiter,


s: Whose splendor now all the meadow fills!


s: All heavened beneath the eye of morning,


s: That breathed so soft its shining waters


s: And smites the cliff in its ancient way!


s: To fell the rock and to whelm the fleet.


s: That stings my heart and rends my breast,--


s: The sorrows wild of the world's opprest?)


s: Ah, suns burn bright in eyes of panther,


s: And lightnings leap in the eagle's wings!


s: Thou'lt dread the fires of day of judgment


s: When roll the skies as a parchment slight.


s: Do witness swift, like fires of vengeance,


s: As wheel the systems to Love's sweet call,


s: That's thundered forth from the mountain wall.


s: But joy to fields in their tan and brown!


s: Great trees, with sap, and laurelled head;


s: Ay, trees of God! all strength, all beauty,


s: These arms of brawn, outstretched in power


s: To brave the storms that would test their pith!


s: While seas and suns chant their rolling psalms.


s: On trees of God, in their crowns on high.


s: To soothe the fields to a sweet content.


s: By which the life to its height is brought.


s: While sailing life's surprising ocean,--


s: Strike sail to fear and the bark is lost.


s: To him who plows this heaven-domed main!


s: Its voice the voice of the brooding dove.


s: That breath of Eden which all hearts wait.


s: All hearts may glow, as sea to sky light,


s: Till earth shall never its heaven forget.


s: And yearning cries: Let come Thy kingdom,


s: Doth come and go with thy heart's throbbing,--


s: Safe, safe art thou from his talons keen!


s: The echoing thunder that rolled o'er all.


s: Lies by the rock where the stream is rolled!


s: The kine bells drowse the distant pasture,--


s: Fresh from the mint of God, and taintless,


s: Are flung her guineas of gold, like sand.


s: Here where the road winds round the hill,


s: Kingdom of Heaven by the roadside, free!


s: The rayless eyes are touched to healing!


s: How this poor heart to His own was knit.


s: Mine, mine, while moons the waters move!


s: Mine, while Heaven lasts, and Love is Love!


s: That I might find it--my treasure-trove.


s: Of life and thought, whose tone and color


s: A crown of crowns of the summer's green.


s: See the black shadows climb the mountain


s: And banners wave from the woodbine's bud.


s: Fingers the stops of her melting flutes.


s: Whene'er thou stirr'st in thy greening tent.


s: Half heard, that thrills with its string my heart.


s: And strike thy fires, my heart would quail


s: O'er sleeping farms and the winking rills.


s: The silvered leaves smile in their sleep;


s: The glimmering ships the moonglade furrow--


s: The path where beauty fore-walks the deep.


s: Soft, dreaming child! 'tis her silver blown.


s: Dropping unseen her pearls of moonlight,


s: And domes the world with her sapphire skies.


s: And lull to dream the thoughts of pain,--


s: She stoops to kiss the rose to crimson--


s: And fills each grape of the swelling vine.


s: And steady glows through her eyes and lips.


s: She holds fair forms of ferns and seeds,


s: Splendors of flame on the leaves and weeds.


s: That lights His brow, and that crowns and girds.


s: O Christ, Thou bright Heaven's Morning Star,


s: With brilliant samite robes that flutter


s: Something beneath that my spirit thrills.


s: From this o'ermastering light and splendor,


s: Is tinct with gold of our wedding rings.


s: Great God, Thou'rt One, and we Thy offspring


s: Can see some angles of Thy wide thought.


s: To hills of God, which the sunlight steeps.


s: Far 'neath the ship when the tempest blows.


s: It soothes and rests my fevered spirit--


s: Still move the clouds, still wheel the skies,


s: Fair thoughts of God, full-clothed in Heaven,


s: Glassed in the light of Heaven's repose,


s: Through all the murmuring hours of night,


s: While angels lean from their place of fame.


s: Bright fall Love's shadows on you and me.


s: Mere pools that hint of a shoreless yon!


s: While steady rolls the round of seasons,--


s: From spiritual heights beyond the spheres,


s: My spirit burns with lightning splendor,


s: And plectrum sweeps all the forest strings;


s: That chastens sore ere He soothes and heals,--


s: (As moon and stars are heavenly pictured


s: I know His fire lives within their girth.


s: From great High Priest's own breast-plate splendid,--


s: E'en deathless life out of death's assault.


s: What, though the sea-shell cheats the ear,


s: I brood all space, the past, the present,


s: The rose-lipt thing has lost its pearl,--


s: Through shadows passed to His crown of light.


s: "Alone!  Alone!" are the words it saith.


s: That saves by fear ere the course be run.


s: The world shall seem, but a heavenly mask!


s: Earth's veins so full of glowing crimson


s: The luminous skies grow close and tender,


s: While woven hands held me close beneath.


s: And flood of light through an open door.


s: And, lo, at stern and prow there stands,


s: Close-veiled, an angel winged!--the sands


s: "Pray!" says the soul, and God, and Christ--and


s: And holds of this, and all worlds, the key.


s: Are light as day with the song she sings.


s: The strength of life is the health of heart.


s: The Christ, unveiled, would be here in sooth.


s: And deathless fruits in a deathless creed.


s: Unweave not Love's rich beauteous dower,


s: Beneath His ceaseless and golden shower.


s: Circling a towered and a heavenly place.


s: And doth for life of death's cup partake.


s: Hope of the race! since from Home's throne


s: Thou'st fluttered down from thy far dovecote,


s: Awhile to nestle in earth's sweet grove.


s: Would it were sweeter, child, for thee--


s: Looks in the Father's face and prayeth--


s: "For earth's sake spare her," he softly saith.


s: He gave him choice!--Hark! how he thunders!


s: Through human strife--nor is deaf nor mute!


s: Wherewith the world is dowered of strife,


s: Shall grind to dust these lethal spirits


s: And chant in triumph their sounding dirge.


s: Wherein they lay, and so deep, concealed.


s: All-sweet star-buds unroll their glories


s: Lifts up its face for Thy promise given.


s: Wealth for the soul, and mind, and body,


s: And fellowship with the race, close-knit.


s: "Peace and goodwill on the earth are rife!"


s: Long hast thou known the Gardener's care;


s: The rain and dew from heaven have fallen,


s: From swelling seed and life's keen throes!


s: In Heaven's own beauty, e'en as the rose!


s: Thorn-crowned, and crowned with deathless youth!


s: Source of pure faith and of right-reason,


s: Now willowy reeds tune their silver flutes


s: Silent, with hands crost meekly on his breast,


s: Long time, with keen and meditative eye,


s: A canvas, whose sign manual him confest.


s: His head droopt low, his eye ceased from its quest,


s: As tears filled full the fountains long since dry;


s: And from his lips there broke the haunting cry:


s: "May God forgive me--I did not my best!"


s: "Time in advance behind him hides his wings."--YOUNG.


s: That with unwavering wing, breast on the view,


s: Cleaves slow the lucid air beneath the blue,


s: And seems scarce other than a figure graven--


s: Ha! now the sweeping pinions flash as levin,


s: And all their silken cordage whistles loud!--


s: Lo, the departing flight, like fleck of cloud,


s: Is swallowed quick by the awaiting heaven!


s: So lag and tarry, to the youth, the years


s: In their oncoming from the brooding sky,


s: Till bursts at middle life their rushing speed


s: All breathless with the world of hopes and fears;


s: Winks them to moments in His endless brede!


s: Like the tides and the stars and the rose,--


s: The stars to their bournes prest forward,


s: No matter how we had combined our flowers,


s: You would have worn them--being ours. . . .


s: THIS volume is the first compilation of the recent experiments in


s: poem is to be regarded as a prism, upon which the colorless white


s: beautiful, and intelligible hues. In its second sense, the term


s: Spectric relates to the reflex vibrations of physical sight, and


s: suggests the luminous appearance which is seen after exposure of


s: the eye to intense light, and, by analogy, the after-colors of


s: the poet's initial vision. In its third sense, Spectric connotes


s: the reader. The rays which the poet has dissociated into colorful


s: ultimate fact the reader's sense of the immediate theme.


s: If the Spectrist wishes to describe a landscape, he will not


s: attempt a map, but will put down those winged emotions, those


s: individual. By this weapon, man helps defend his intuition of the


s: The Spectric method is as yet in its infancy; and the poems that


s: Emanuel Morgan, with whom the Spectric theory originated, has


s: found the best expression of his genius in regular metrical forms


s: verse. We wish to make it clear that the Spectric manner does


s: Although the members of our group would by no means attempt to


s: establish a claim as actual inventors of the Spectric method,


s: yet we can justifiably say that we have for the first time


s: used the method consciously and consistently, and formulated


s: its possibilities by means of elaborate experiment. Among


s: recent poets in English, we have noted few who can be regarded


s: The sun is now setting, and the phoenix looks


s: I think I must have been born in such a forest,


s: Through the tangled evening of heavy flower-scents


s: With sun-red light your feet were shod . . .


s: And round you stood a ring of feathered men


s: With a beaded fern you waved away a gnat . . .


s: And maidens, hung with vivid beads of green,


s: One of them bearing in her arms an orange cat,


s: And locking trees became the clouds of you,


s: Till you emerged, the moon upon your shoulder, and the night


s: I shall have to follow my roof into the war.


s: And the hose lies rotting by the garden-wall.


s: But for the golden motes dancing in sunbeams.


s: Tax-assessors frequently overlook valuables.


s: BEYOND her lips in the dark are a man's feet


s: In the light between her lips is a moving tongue-rip sweet,


s: With the stone of a volcano O show that you know me,


s: Pound till the true blood pricks through the paint!


s: Twitch of the dead man's feet if he remembers


s: A bunch of grapes and a ripped-open gown.--


s: And the live man's eyes are night after embers,


s: Two black spots on a white-faced down  . . .


s: And in the dawn, lava . . . rolling down . . .


s: Down-rolling lava on an up-pointing town.


s: Under that blue enameled sky, white domes, white domes;


s: Thank God this tea comes from the green grocer,


s: Like cliffs my foothold in the skies . . .


s: Today there was a wonder in the sunrise.


s: I knew that there were glories in the sky


s: And new branches of willow on the earth.


s: THREE little creatures gloomed across the floor


s: Faith looked for what it could not find,


s: (Love looked and looked but Love was blind),


s: Torture me; and in the amethystine shadows


s: Of snow, and in the mauve of curving clouds


s: Fawn-tinged embroideries from looms of Bagdad,


s: The green of ancient bronze, cinereous tinge


s: These, and the saffron of old cerements,


s: For the mother of man and the son of the maid


s: When his beard was not yet grown--and, afraid,


s: Before I die, I will hold one last revel!


s: I will have golden cups and poppy curtains!--


s: The black table shall spread far down before me


s: Throw back my midnight robe and suddenly stand


s: Naked, the sole white flame of the world.


s: With all the power of the bulk of a pyramid.


s: With all the push of an upturned Andean peak.


s: The thrust of the iron of a silent land.


s: The cheerless sun majestic in a jagged slit.


s: A heaven-touching temple-roof down a mountain-slide.


s: The million-splintering scream of death . . .


s: The sword of separation before our love is done;


s: Throwing seven souls on the sea-wet cape;


s: The full tornado from the seven-forked south;


s: The scattering upheaval of the seven cold seas!


s: And this is as near as lovers ever come,


s: This is as near as they have ever kissed,


s: They sit in rows in the bare school-room


s: And oh the tortoise-shell cat with the can tied on!


s: A plank breaks, and the roof falls . . .


s: The wife of another has married a fat man;


s: The night is deeper still with snow . . .


s: Out of the blankness, out of the silence


s: And the long smooth iron bore for a neck,


s: And bullets for hands. . . . And the root runs in,


s: From the breasts of the grinding crash of sin,


s: Discs of the sun on a bayonet-stack . . .


s: And out of her breast the bloody bubbling milk-red breath


s: But from you they depart as sudden butterflies


s: Inspected the purple entrails of victims.


s: GIVER of bribes in the brightness of  morning,


s: Cities have wavered and rocked and gone down . . .


s: But the lamps of the altars hang round you, adorning


s: The niche of your neck and the drift of your gown.


s: O bribe-giver, marked with purple metal--


s: Cut in your naked contentment there shows


s: On the curve of your breast one carven petal


s: The high triangular door of the world . . .


s: Till the walls and the roofs and the curious keystone,


s: The carven rose with its petals uncurled,


s: Are swayed in the swathe of the uppermost ether,


s: Where stars are the columns upholding a dome,


s: And the edifice rolls on a corner of ocean,


s: We stand on the rose, we are images golden,


s: We move interchanging, attaining one crest:


s: One chin and one mouth and one nose and one forehead,


s: One mouth and one chin and one neck and one breast . . .


s: I pull you apart from me, struggle to bind you,


s: I free you, I rend you in seven great rays . . .


s: And we cling to them all . . . but we lose them, and slowly--


s: We slip with the rainbow down the blue bays.


s: I shall have to smile at it across the table.


s: It sleeps without a sign of life; it is as good as dead.


s: I will not consort with reformed corpses,


s: I will not acknowledge kinship with death.


s: White graves or black, linen or porphyry,


s: Or would at least it were with cries and lust


s: But these old corpses of alien creatures! . . .


s: Why does he not call back into their hen-house


s: Shall I pick up the lightning in my hand?


s: Words take you from me, bring you back again,


s: Dance in our presence, cover your proud face


s: It is impossible that he would merely yawn and rub


s: And little leaves flute-noted across the moon.


s: All the fragrances of dew, O angel, are there,


s: Even the palm and the fingers of a hand burnt bare


s: The moon came through the window to our bed.


s: Shall have ever a lover to sway with me.


s: And the earth moulds in my nostrils, shall there not be


s: Till lovers go blind and sway with me?--


s: I had put out my willow-roots and leaves


s: Your panes with an effulgence never new.


s: THEY enter with long trailing of shadowy cloth,


s: And each with one hand praying in the air,


s: And the softness of their garments is the grayness of a moth--


s: The lost and broken night-moth of despair.


s: More desolate than they are Isadora stands,


s: The stars of a willow are in both her hands,


s: With the dark she wrestles, daring alone,


s: Her body wreathes and brightens, never thrown,


s: She thought she resembled the Mona Lisa.


s: This demonstrates the futility of thinking.


s: WHEN frogs' legs on a plate are brought to me


s: These people's thoughts and gestures and concerns


s: Move like a Russian ballet made of eggs;


s: A bright-smirched canvas heaven heaves and burns


s: Society hops this way and that, well-taught;


s: I feel as God would feel if he were brought


s: That the storms of contempt that sweep over us,


s: To keep his earnestness from coming close!


s: "HE'S the remnant of a suit that has been drowned;


s: Lest, looking up in love, I see no eyes or lids


s: What can I do but dive again, again--again--


s: Of the tomb where you have slept forever


s: And with the dreams of my importunate hands


s: Yet the ends of my fingers cling to your porous surface.


s: There is every reason to believe that many more such await the


s: quasi-literary, or pseudo-literary types into the current of oral


s: Owen--all lying in Central and Eastern Kentucky.


s: Michigan, and another of The Pretty Mohee, page 12, was sent from


s: Under each of these eighteen main divisions the treatment of the


s: The miller was hung upon Fish-gate, Bosodown,


s: LORD LOVELY, 4a3b4c3b, 9: A variant of Lord Lovel, Child, No. 75.


s: He put the sheepskin to his wife's back, Dandoo;


s: He put the sheepskin to his wife's back,


s: And he made the old switch go whickity-whack,


s: There was a ship sailed for the North Amerikee,


s: From down in the lonesome Lowlands low--


s: And she went by the name of the Green Willow Tree,


s: Our captain fell in love with a lady like a dove,


s: And they called her by name Pretty Peggy, O.


s: THE APPRENTICE BOY, iii, 4abcb, 12ca: Like Keats's Isabella, the


s: THE GOLDEN GLOVE, ii, 4aabb, 9: A mariner's daughter, about to be


s: I called for a quart to drive gladness away


s: To stifle the dust--it had rained the whole day.


s: There's news from Mordart came yestreen,


s: _The songs of this group are connected more or less closely with


s: MOLLY, 6aabb, 4: An Irish lad comes to America, courts Molly, but


s: THE GUERRILLA MAN, 3a3b4c3b, 5: A Southern soldier goes to Shelby


s: MURFREESBORO, 4a3b4c3b, 7: A Union soldier lies dying on the


s: Old Zollicoffer's dead, and the last word he said


s: Was, "I'm going back South; they're a-gaining."


s: If he wants to save his soul, he had better keep his hole,


s: Or we'll land him in the happy land of Canaan.


s: _The songs of this group relate to the days of pioneer migration


s: CALIFORNIA JOE, 3abcb, 17: A prospector during the California


s: JESSE JAMES, 2aa3b2cc3b and 2aa3b2cc3b, 4: A lyric concerning the


s: _The songs of this group are of the "good-night" type, being the


s: I heard my mother talking; I took it all for fun.


s: assassinations, feudal battles, and disasters._


s: FLOYD FRAZIER, 3abcb, 16: A recital of Frazier's murder of Ellen


s: I'll tune up my fiddle, I'll rosin my bow,


s: _The songs of this group are of partisan or sectional character._


s: JAMES A. GARFIELD: A fragment, as follows:


s: BARNEY AND KATE, 4abab, 6: Barney, maudlin with drink, comes one


s: While the birds they were singing in the morning,


s: And the ivy and the myrtle were in bloom,


s: LONESOME DOVE, 4aabb, 8: The singing of a dove bereft of its mate


s: WAIT FOR THE WAGON, 3abcbdefe and 4a(_ter_), 4: A lover's call to


s: I USED TO LOVE, 4abcb and 4abcb, 4: A maiden voices her complaint


s: THE BUTCHER'S BOY, iii, 4aabb, 8ca: A maiden voices her complaint


s: THE PALE AMARANTHUS, 4aabb, 5: A maiden's complaint against her


s: faithless lover, whom she vows to forget.


s: A second version contains only an elaboration of this last motif.


s: respectively, question and reply of lover and sweetheart, who is


s: "sixteen next Sunday" and has to "ask her mammy."


s: lawyer's daughter and pledges his troth to Kate.


s: POOR OLD MAID, metre as below, 5: She laments her virginity:


s: I WISH I WAS SINGLE AGAIN, metre as below, 5: A married man's


s: I married me another, the Devil's grandmother,


s: LITTLE MAUDIA, 4abcb, 6: A dying girl's farewell to her mother.


s: OLD CHURCH-YARD, 4abcb, 7: A forlorn orphan's meditation upon her


s: Yonder goes the bluebird through the window


s: THE RAILROAD, ii: To be characterized as the above, yet totally


s: LONG SUMMER DAY, ii: In general form and function like the above,


s: FOL DOL SOL, 4a3b4c3b, 2ca: One quatrain is:


s: GREEN GROWS THE WILLOW, 4aaaa, 4ca: One quatrain is:


s: THE JOLLY MILLER, iii, metre as follows, 2:


s: Jolly is the miller that lives by the mill,


s: The wheel goes round with a right good will,


s: One hand in the hopper and the other in the sack--


s: The boys step forward and the girls step back.


s: The night we sat under the juniper tree,


s: Green gravel, green gravel, the grass is so green;


s: You're the prettiest maiden that ever was seen.


s: GO IN AND OUT AT THE WINDOW: An endless, rimeless improvisation


s: _Tho' storm and summer shine for long have shed


s: Tho' loneliness and longing cry thee dead--


s: Thou art not dead, belovèd. Still with me


s: And dreams of dear delights that may not be.


s: Asleep--adream perchance, dost thou forget


s: The sometime sorrow and the fevered fret,


s: Sting of salt tears and long unbreathed regret?


s: Liest thou here thro' long sunshiny hours,


s: Holding sweet converse with the springing flowers,


s: Harking the singing of the warm sweet showers


s: That fall like happy tears ... dost hear


s: The birds that unafraid assail thine ear--


s: And yet art silent when I whisper? Dear,


s: In long, still smiling tranced for aye--alas!


s: Thou dost not harken when my footsteps pass.


s: If haply I some tender thing should tell


s: Thee of the springtime flowers thou once loved well--


s: Should steal from Nature some enchanted lay,


s: Some bird-song lilted where green branches sway--


s: Heart-music that could stir thy heart alway;


s: Should call thee by the old fond name again,


s: Should tell thee all a heart's enduring pain


s: And long rememb'ring, would'st thou mute remain?


s: Alas! nor sigh nor song can thrill the ear


s: Where things to thee erst dear no more are dear.


s: Out of the poignant glare, the shadeless heat


s: The cool, green glooms, the grottoed deep retreat,


s: Of yon old wood; down aisles of lichened trees--


s: Of clinging vine--to cloistered sylvan glens,


s: Where Nature weaves her fairest mysteries.


s: Here let us rest a little--find surcease


s: For feet grown weary of the thridded street


s: Of human tread;--a brief while know the ease


s: Of dreamful rest, to slumb'rous languors stilled


s: In nooks where blossom, purple, white and red,


s: The flowers Summer's lavish hands have spilled.


s: Wild woodland creatures near us unafraid,


s: Some strange enchantment doth the forest hold--


s: Old oaks and beeches open wide their doors


s: Walk with still feet the forest's russet floors.


s: Lo, here are fairies hid in flower-bells,


s: There wood-nymphs fleeing from pursuing fauns,


s: And naiads fleshed with hues of rosy dawns


s: Lie dreaming by white streams in dusky dells;


s: We tread dim paths untrod by foot of man


s: And hark the horn of Dian ringing clear;


s: While faint, elusive, thin--now far, now near,


s: And while o'erhead the plaining wood-dove grieves,


s: The cardinal--a wingèd, scarlet flower--


s: Sprays all the air with song, a golden shower


s: Of flutes-notes sifting downward thro' the leaves.


s: Ah, sweet enchantment doth the forest hold,


s: For Nature's self doth haunt these woodland ways,


s: My fevered brow on her cool breast she lays


s: And care slips from me as a garment old.


s: I hurl my challenging gauntlet full in the face of Fate!


s: Fate may make wreck of a future--how can she alter the past?


s: Upon the meads where we were wont to stray,


s: 'Guiling with springtime hopes the winter hours,


s: The Spring has smiled; yon slope that late gloomed gray


s: And sternly sad, 'neath April's tender showers


s: Grows green and glad again. The rippled grass,


s: A soundless sea o'er which white cloud-sails pass,


s: Breaks at my feet in billows foamed with flowers;


s: And blue-eyed myrtle blooms with lashes wet


s: Smile to me thro' their tears. The skies are blue,


s: And life is sweet to-day and hope seems true;


s: The willow wears a wistful green. A dream


s: Of Summer warmth the wine-sweet breezes hold,


s: Fair wildings blow--bright buttercups agleam


s: Like shining sequins scattered on the wold,


s: The building birds their coming bliss presage


s: With lilt and lyric brimming o'er the page


s: Of Nature's volume bound in green and gold.


s: Here 'mid the birds and blossoms 'neath the blue--


s: My heart unburthened of the old regret--


s: For life is sweet to-day and hope seems true--


s: Mute was the mighty organ. None might break


s: The silence that had thralled it since was stilled


s: The master-hand beneath whose touch it thrilled


s: To music such as choiring seraphs make--


s: That lay imprisoned in the cold white keys


s: Methought my soul's most perfect melodies


s: A silent harp whose potence none might prove--


s: But, lo! one came who swept its chords and woke


s: Gay was her garden as some gorgeous fabric


s: Star-set upon the sward quaint, old-time blossoms


s: Verbenas, dahlias, asters, scarlet cannas


s: (Methought the fair, old face, enframed in silver,


s: And one rare rose she watched each year with hoping


s: But ere a single blossom burst in beauty


s: Yet when the Spring next woke the earth to laughter


s: Starred was the rose with white, unearthly flowers--


s: And so, meseems, the buds we woo most fondly


s: And Love's gold-hearted rose and Hope's star-flower


s: Great hearted brother to the wilderness,


s: Of nomad Nature! Ere the quick'ning stir


s: Of Spring-sap thrills the wood from sullen stress


s: Of Winter's spell--away from throngèd press


s: Tracking the steps of some white Northern star


s: Whose rays are beacon to thy restlessness.


s: Weird mystic of the Northland's mystery,


s: Thou 'front'st the Unseen Shadow, nor dost fear


s: To meet the Scarlet Hunter on the trail;


s: Pagan as Pan; to all things sylvan dear,


s: Nature's own vagrant, buoyant, driftless, free--


s: All winds and woods and waters cry thee hail!


s: Steeped in the love-lore of song and story,


s: I said, "My Love shall be wondrous fair."


s: I said, "Her hands shall be filled with flowers,


s: (My heart shall tell me when Love draws nigh!)


s: She shall steal sweet boon from the graceless hours,


s: Her eyes shall be blue as the cerule sky.


s: "Her hair shall be bright as the stars' gold gleaming,


s: Her lips shall be red with her heart's rich wine,


s: Her face shall be fair as my fondest dreaming,


s: Each pulse of my being shall call her mine!"


s: Then long for the voice of my heart I harkened,


s: Tranced in love's hoping--all hope else forgot--


s: The twilight deepened--but love came not.


s: Then One passed by in the dusking shadows,


s: The night's dusk shadows slept on her hair--


s: She passed like a gleam o'er the dew-drenched meadows,


s: And my heart throbbed fast--but she was not fair.


s: Her face was pale and her dark eyes pleading,


s: Her smile was wistful and gravely sweet;


s: She passed me by where I stood unheeding,


s: She went her way o'er the silent meadows,


s: (Ah, traitorous heart that you tricked me so!)


s: Since we must sleep the endless Sleep at last,


s: Since Life's grim juggernaut 'neath ruthless wheels


s: Crushes the heart; since Age like Winter steals


s: On Youth's fair-flowered fields with blighting blast--


s: Then to the gods our doubts and fears be cast!


s: Gather the roses! Spurn th' envenomed rue.


s: Fling to the waiting winds the pallid past.


s: Steep thee in mellow moods and dear desires;


s: Pluck Love's flame-hearted flower ere it dies;


s: Cull nectared kisses sweet as morning's breath,


s: Warm Chastity at Passion's purple fires;


s: Nepenthe quaff--till drained the chalice lies.


s: After ... the shrouded sleep, the dreamless dark of Death.


s: If, after life, but death and dark remain--


s: Then it were well to make the moment thine,


s: Bacchante-steeping soul and sense in wine,


s: That heat the heart with fierce, unhallowed fires--


s: Till Pleasure, Circe-like, transform us into swine.


s: But if some subtler spirit thrill our clay,


s: Some God-like flame illume this fleeting dust--


s: Promethean fire snatched from the Olympian height--


s: Then must we choose the nobler, higher Way,


s: The ultimate crowned triumph of the Right!


s: The phalanxes of corn stand grim and serried,


s: The violets that smiled with Spring are buried


s: Along the land the Winter's doom is creeping


s: And she who made my heart's sweet Spring is sleeping


s: This strange scarlet flower of the South.


s: If words were wingèd arrows tipped with flame,


s: Far-flying thro' the vast of time and space,


s: If Erato should lend me some rare grace,


s: Then might I dare to breathe in song your name.


s: Acclaim and praise that wait upon your name,


s: You pluck a laurel from the wreath of fame,


s: Then, careless of the guerdon, cast it down.


s: And still Life's flowers beneath his blighting breath


s: What were the worth of hard-won power or praise?


s: Awaits us all the grave-cell dark and deep,


s: The greedy grave-worm's maw, the awful sleep


s: When Death his cold hand on our pulses lays.


s: What then the end of action or of strife?


s: Nature's unsolved enigma, who may prove?


s: Life's Passion Play all blindly men rehearse....


s: But yet our recompense for birth, for life,


s: For death itself, meseems, is deathless Love!


s: Starred with strange crystals wrought from frozen spar,


s: Sprent with pearl frost-flowers; girt with diamond brede,


s: Rubied with berries red as drops of blood,


s: Broidered with lace weft of an elfin brood--


s: Sheer slanting down the sky an opal light


s: Pierces the snow-blur's veil of wannish gray,


s: In iridescent sheen, tingeing the dazzling white


s: Along the West the transient sunset gleam--


s: An ardor brief!   Crimson on crimson grows


s: Glows like blown petals of a shattered rose.


s: A swift thought flashed to my mind that day


s: How some woman's heart must admit your sway,


s: Some woman's soul to your soul be thrall;


s: (And though not for me were the rapture to prove you,


s: I thrilled as I thought how a woman might love you!)


s: Then--strange that our eyes for a moment should meet


s: That a light as of dawn should leap into your face,


s: That the lips that were stern should an instant grow sweet--


s: Ere you turned, at a word, with a courtier's grace.


s: (And I knew that tho' many a woman had loved you,


s: Till that moment, the glance of no woman had moved you!)


s: Then you stood at my side and one murmured your name,


s: The proud old name that you worthily wore,


s: And I drank the soul-chalice Fate's mandate upbore


s: To my lips, as the fire of your glance leapt to flame;


s: What need were of words? heart speaks heart evermore--


s: (And I knew that were mine but the rapture to prove you,


s: How deeply, how dearly one woman might love you!)


s: Who thinks, as she spins, of a princekin gay


s: On a prancing steed, who shall come her way


s: To woo her and win her and bear her away


s: Thro' the vasty depths of the forest shade


s: Is it like that he with his princely pride--


s: Shall stoop with Cophetua's kingly grace


s: Can the world afford him no worthier bride--


s: When maids were loving and men were bold,


s: And good King Arthur held knightly sway!


s: But a horseman rides to the wicket gate--


s: My knight who has parted the waves of the sea,


s: Who has cleft the wide world in his searching for me....


s: Fond, foolish, dreaming!--for surely Fate


s: And the chestnut mare he is wont to ride


s: 'Cross moor and mead when the day is fine,


s: 'Gainst the arm of _her_ lord--and _mine!_


s: Ah, silver and gold of the glad June morning--


s: Are love and the rose-time a theme for scorning?


s: The brook with its maddening, gladdening rune!


s: And my lover's kiss still thrills and lingers,


s: Lingers and burns on my tremulous fingers!


s: He loves me--loves me! My heart is singing.--


s: (Heart, oh heart of my heart is it true?)


s: A passion of bliss to the breezes flinging,


s: To be his wife! Calm all my soul is filling,


s: A calm too deep for smiles--or even tears;


s: A perfect trust to slumber subtly stilling


s: Each little common thing to me seems rarer,


s: My life each day becomes more dear to me;


s: Love, am I fair? Ah, fain would I be fairer--


s: Like to a priestess some loved shrine adorning,


s: I deck the charms but poorly prized, till late,


s: The beauty once I held too slight for scorning--


s: As if some god of old had stooped to love me--


s: Some star had pierced my darkness with its ray--


s: I worship thee--an idol throned above me--


s: Rejoicing in the gift that God has given,


s: Lest I shall e'en forget to sigh for Heaven--


s: Tho' his heart to its depths was stirred--


s: I had matched pride with love--and lost!


s: "_Love, my love_"--these the words I read--


s: "_The vision and dream of a life have died.


s: Hurt to the heart by the words you said,_


s: Mad with the thought that your love was dead--


s: I have wedded a loveless, unloved bride--


s: Awake, alive to pain! The first steel gleam of morn


s: Stabs deep the heart I thought had shrunk to dust,


s: The love I prayed might die to loveless scorn


s: Awakes and cries ... Ah, God, how is it just


s: A fault so slight such meed of pain should pay,


s: That one mad word in pride and anger spoken


s: Should leave two lives forever crushed and broken,


s: Should plait a scourge to lash my soul for aye?


s: How can a just God see men suffer thus?--


s: Unmoved by all the pangs that torture us,


s: Knowing our prayers and tears alike are vain--


s: Like to a wanton boy who feels no thrill


s: Of pity for the weak his strength holds thrall,


s: Who pins a helpless butterfly against a wall,


s: Watching the bright wings flutter and grow still.


s: We are the sport of some malignant Power


s: Who nails us to our crosses, hard and fast,


s: Struggle and suffer ... and grow still at last;


s: Who hears untouched the ceaseless, cosmic groan


s: Wrung from his creatures' tortured lips alway;


s: He will not hear or heed! What need to pray?


s: There is no hand to help. We stand alone.


s: Frenzied, tortured, torn on the rack of pain;


s: Teach these pain-writhen lips once more to pray--


s: He has brought her home--God lend me grace!


s: To-night in the throng I shall see his face--


s: I have lived and laughed and sung--the while


s: Strange that our eyes as of yore should meet


s: That the dawn-light of old should illumine his face,


s: That the lips that were stern should an instant grow sweet,


s: But his eyes were haggard and old with pain


s: They told me the struggle was vain--all vain!


s: Cannot crush the love that is stronger than he,


s: Thrall to a love that is stronger than he,


s: Stabbing and wounding his soul each day,


s: By a thousand petty barbs of venom and spite.


s: (Ah, how should a heart that has loved forget?)


s: Locks in his heart the heart's disgrace,


s: He had deemed it a cowardly thing to fly


s: While the village prated anent his shame,


s: The beat of the mare's hoofs thundering past,


s: Of a direful thing that may chance at last;


s: Last night as I stood in the gloaming's gray,


s: His face in the dusk showed stern and set,


s: A rose that blooms 'mid the rue for me--


s: He bent and touched with his lips the hand


s: Something ... my senses will scarce recall ...


s: The horror they came in the night to tell ...


s: Blown and bleeding and flecked with foam,


s: And they found him there by the sunken wall,


s: Hurt to the death by the desperate fall.


s: Ere the merciful numbness stole his brain;


s: How the chestnut rose to the leap and fell....


s: Then his senses closed on the shocks of pain.


s: He spoke, they told me, but once again--


s: To whisper my name with his struggling breath--


s: (Thank God, he suffered so brief a while)


s: Then peacefully sank on the breast of Death,


s: With that carven smile on his marble face.


s: How can I pray that his heart should thrill


s: With the old, sweet smile on his quiet face,


s: Dead to the sting of a heart's disgrace....


s: Yet how can the heart that is reft divine


s: Not severed by long leagues of lonely land,


s: Nor sundered by wide wastes of sounding sea;


s: His brow is like a god's--a brow of power,


s: Lips soft with human sweetness--ere the day


s: He first beheld man's life-blood mixed with clay.


s: Felt rise within him bestial strange desires


s: That battened on men's blood; burned with unhallowed fires


s: A hired butcher of his fellow men, he stands


s: Or some fierce gladiator on the blood-stained sands,--


s: He stands, with massive throat and thews of steel,


s: While loud acclaims the listening heavens fill,


s: And Roman women smile. He does not know; or feel


s: A moment's joy or one triumphant thrill.


s: He heeds them not. He sees as in a dream


s: A youth again, beside some purling stream,


s: With gladsome heart and joyous pipe he roves.


s: Who knew no harsher sound than plaining flute,


s: In the arena stand--Rome's sport and toy--


s: A bestial, blood-stained hireling brute....


s: Then swift thro' every throbbing, pulsing vein


s: The fierce unconquered spirit of old Sparta ran.


s: Rome's fiercest gladiator is to-day again


s: After the waiting and the anguished weeping


s: How should we mourn him tranced in peaceful sleeping,


s: The Right's Excalibur his strong arm wielded


s: The victor in life's sometime strife has yielded


s: Late--all too late--our loyal tribute giving


s: He whom we honored late--so late--while living,


s: Yet this the solace of these long sad hours


s: We breathe an answering message in our flowers


s: To him whom soon the deep, cold earth must cover,


s: Left to our hearts a message bridging over


s: To have known Heaven and then to walk in Hell!


s: Is it not hell to know his face no more,


s: Supplanted, spurned and thrust without his door.


s: Sheltered within the tents of wedded love


s: While I must roam the desert of Despair?


s: Folding its white wings on my tortured breast.


s: With hunger torn, with thirst's consuming wild,


s: Strike us, oh God, into Thy deep dark Rest!


s: Lo! I have sinned. I kneel and kiss the rod,


s: But she, the wife, who cast us forth to die ...


s: I curse her not! Judge Thou between us, God,


s: Which in Thy sight is guiltier, she or I?


s: Raying the dusk with slumbrous silver light--


s: Eidolons of lost moons erst mirrored there.


s: Like little yellow stars that, fallen down,


s: Hang pendulous, enmeshed among the boughs,


s: Mild golden radiances they gem the crown


s: Fair Summer sets upon her beauteous brows.


s: All Orient odors, spikenard, balm and myrrh,


s: Sweet incense from the chaliced heart of her


s: To olive-crowned Italia, th' enchantress dwells--


s: A woman set about with dreams and spells,


s: Most strangely pale and strangely fair is she--


s: Yet deadlier than the hemlock draught her smile,


s: Darker than Stygian glooms her subtle guile....


s: Drawn by her deep eyes' spell, across the sea


s: The Argive galleys wing, till beached they lie


s: Upon the fatal strand. The Greeks beguile


s: Within her halls.... Eftsoon strange sorcery


s: The Circe weaves. They who were men erewhile


s: Now grovel at her feet, transformed to swine.


s: 'Neath myriad mellow tapers' golden glow


s: A woman stands, proud, insolent and fair;


s: A single gem meshed in the dusk-dyed hair


s: Burns like the evening star descending low


s: Of her full-blossomed breast deep rubies lie.


s: Her fragrant presence breathes sweet sorcery;


s: The shimmering saffron satin's flexile flow


s: Outlines each sinuous curve; a sensuous smile,


s: A touch that fires to flame each pulsant vein--


s: One draught of eyes more deep than depths of wine


s: The senses steal, the soul and brain beguile


s: Till all seem merged in feeling ... and again


s: A Circe's spells transform men into swine.


s: She is so shy, this little love of mine,


s: So pale and pure, almost I fear to speak


s: The love that thrills my every pulse like wine


s: Yet brings no answering flush to her fair cheek.


s: She is so calm that Passion's stirring strain


s: The while her longing lover sighs in vain


s: For one soft love-glance from her down-dropped eyes.


s: Lifts to far sapphire skies its radiant head,


s: Unheedful of the base weeds at its feet.


s: And draw the lily's close-shut leaves apart,


s: Perchance those waxen petals might reveal


s: Enshrined within, a glowing golden heart.


s: As some poor starveling at a palace gate


s: Sees curtained gleams from banquet-litten halls,


s: Hears song out-ringing from the festal walls,


s: Scents viands that shall princely palates sate,


s: Crouched in the cold, thrice-thankful for some least


s: Mean morsel flung him from the plenteous feast--


s: Poor bondman to the ball and chain of Fate!


s: And glimpse the brightness and the bliss within,


s: Where love-lit smiles transmute the dark to day--


s: Long, wistfully, I gaze--then void of hand


s: What can it profit a man tho' he have the soul of a god


s: Sunk in the form of a beast, with a senseless simian face--


s: What can the world perceive of the subtler inward grace


s: Breathing upon the dust of the coarse clay clod?


s: What knows the world of me--the Me that is prisoned within--


s: Seeing only the self that sickens its sensitive eyes--


s: What can I hope to win? Which of the gifts men prize?


s: What can I have or hold of the bounteous boon I crave--


s: I, with the coarse stubbed hands, the dull and narrow eyes,


s: The low-browed leer of the brutal, base-born slave?


s: What can I know of Love? I, with my ape-like face,


s: Frighting the tender trust of the timorous, shrinking maid,


s: Yet must the soul of fire chained to this cursed clay,


s: Galled by its fetters of flesh, seared with a thousand scars,


s: Shriek and struggle and beat its breast on its prison bars


s: Till the Soul, breathed on by an unseen, unknown Grace,


s: Stripped of its bonds of flesh, stand face to face with its God!


s: Beneath thy Midas touch life's sullen grays


s: Are thrilled to sudden gold; as some far gleam


s: Irradiates for thee earth's darksome ways.


s: Wild woodland voices ripple thro' thy lays;


s: Sweet silvern murmurs from some deep-delled spring,


s: Brook, tree and flower and each insensate thing,


s: The throstle's call, the calm of sun-steeped days,


s: A glint of sunshine on the swallow's wing,


s: Made drunk with draughts of purple wild-grape wine;


s: And all thy days and dreams companioning


s: Walks Nature with her hand close-clasped in thine.


s: Strange that across the vast of varied years,


s: Fraught with life's wonted alloy--mingled joy and pain--


s: Sun-kissed with smiles or gloomed with mists of tears,


s: Songs sung by voices silent now for aye,


s: Like hosts of speechless spectres thronging come


s: Dim formless wraiths of each dear vanished day.


s: Strange that a fragment of a life replete,


s: A chapter in life's book, closed now--yet vaguely sweet


s: As odor-laden zephyrs from some far-off clime--


s: Should drift across my heart while joysome memories rise


s: Of Lotus-land where pleasure dreamful lies,


s: Of kindred souls responsive each to each,


s: Of thoughts half hidden by deep-tinted eyes--


s: (Sweet traitors telling that denied to speech!)


s: A sun-gleam 'mid existence's sombre grays,


s: Eyes, hands and hearts that for one moment meet


s: In strange, sweet yearning ... then--divided ways.


s: Goes whistling schoolward, blithe and glad;


s: She calls, "Good-bye! God bless you, dear."


s: Dear lips that smile thro' all life's pain,


s: Goes toil-ward, fain to strive and bear;


s: Her trembling voice, as ling'ring still,


s: By faith made strong to strive and bear.


s: The old fond prayer, "God bless you, dear."


s: "Where leaves the Rose of Yesterday?"--Rubàiyat.


s: One fluting on sad wolds Pan's flight left drear,


s: One crying down the wayward wind of Chance,


s: One piping unto feet that will not dance


s: And mourning unto ears that will not hear.


s: Cold craft and avarice look from out his eyes,


s: His face with evil passion marred and seamed,


s: Looks frowningly upon a Christian world.


s: To urge the narrow soul to darksome deeds


s: Of violence and greed, of hate and ruth.


s: A Juggernaut, a hard unsentient power,--


s: But yet less potent than the yellow gold


s: Those crooked talons clutch, and for the which


s: The miser Shylock fain would sell his soul.


s: Of muffled drum or viol's raucous groan--


s: A silver trumpet's tongue that stirs the soul


s: To feel the theme, and the harmonious whole


s: So, high above earth's murmurous stir and strife,


s: Riseth thy voice in clear enringing song--


s: No minor plaint of dull despairing pain,


s: But one true note of hope that bids us long


s: For higher things; and all the din of life


s: Seems to subserve the sweetness of thy strain.


s: The poet wrought a song of sadness, fraught


s: With all the pain the world's sad heart hath proved;


s: He sang of doubt, and dreams that end in naught ...


s: Then, smiling, turned and kissed the lips he loved.


s: The poet wrought a song of joyance, thrilled


s: With all the peace the world's glad heart hath kept;


s: He sang of hope and happy dreams fulfilled ...


s: Then bent his face upon his hands and wept.


s: The old house totters 'neath its weight of years,


s: Bowed, like the form of him who shelters there,


s: Old, friendless, lone--save for the wanton, Care,


s: Who flouts him, mocks his grief with gibes and jeers


s: And laughs to see his piteous hopes grow fears.


s: Not his the joy of placid, sun-crowned age--


s: His dim eyes falter as he scans the page


s: Of Life's worn album, blotted with his tears.


s: He sees in dreams the wife he loved--long dead;


s: The son--once proud to bear his father's name--


s: Who mixed his honest blood with dire disgrace;


s: The wayward girl who wrought her father shame ...


s: He sits alone with Care; the day has fled


s: And twilight falls, upon the furrowed face.


s: A Soul went searching for its spirit mate,


s: Thro' star-stained space, o'er wind-swept deep, afloat,


s: Goes forth thro' voiceless void to seek its mate;


s: Eftsoon they meet, these twain, strike hands ... and part!


s: Beside the stream that silverly steals on


s: To swell the song of that far-sounding sea


s: Which breaks upon the utmost shore of Thought,


s: They who have drunk at Song's immortal spring


s: Walk with glad feet the upland path of dreams


s: That whitely winds thro' long low-lying lands--


s: By one, yclept the Way of Fools--a plain


s: Of dust and ashes and of Dead Sea fruit;


s: That leads far up the slope of heart's desire;--


s: And haply both speak truth--for oft the way


s: Is set with stones that tear the climbing feet,


s: And oft for singing there is idle scorn,


s: And sneers full oft for smiles. Yet well we know


s: The upland Path of Dreams that whitely winds


s: Beside the silent stream whose soundless tide


s: They who have drunk of Slumber's poppied draught


s: Walk with unsandalled feet the path of dreams


s: That winds thro' gray, low-lying fields of sleep


s: To dim dream shores girt with dim spectre-trees,


s: Swayed ever by the sweep of unseen wings,


s: Slow-stirring palms and arabesques of ferns


s: And fields of sombre bloom and scentless flowers


s: Not of their wonted hue, but dimly gray,


s: Where songless birds like shades of shadows flit,


s: And silent winds from poppied meadows blow--


s: By sterner Day, approach to cry us hail;


s: A little know the bliss of Hope fulfilled,


s: And dreams that seem as true as very Truth ...


s: Yet well we know that with the stir of dawn,


s: Waking, we must return from Sleep's far fields!


s: Beside the Lethean stream whose soundless tide


s: That breaks upon the farthest unknown shore--


s: They who have quaffed dark Asrael's mystic draught


s: Walk with still feet the viewless Path of Dreams


s: That winds thro' long, low-lying fields of Sleep


s: By sterner Life shall come to cry us hail,--


s: Bright radiances from realms of light eterne,


s: Or shadows from the shades of awful Dis--


s: But whether here we taste of Hope fulfilled,


s: Or find our dreams are but as drifted dust--


s: From dark of Dis or realms of Light eterne,


s: Full well we know we shall return no more!


s: But the singer sits with his grief alone


s: Thro' ermined pomp and pageantry of kings,


s: Thro' regal mien and beauty's witcheries


s: The poor, weak, shrivelled soul that crouches hid


s: Within the body's hold! Thrice-cursed is he


s: Whose soul sees souls of others face to face,


s: Who strips the outer man like vestments off


s: And views the naked heart in all its shame


s: And poverty; who still must rend the veil


s: And futile pretense! God! to walk this world


s: Doomed still to see what others fain would hide,


s: Reading men's thoughts as scholars read the page


s: Of some old language dead to all save them;


s: The woman-grace, the pleading woman-eyes,


s: The eyeless sockets and the grinning jaw;


s: Reading for aye the sneer beneath the smile,


s: The lie that lurks behind the seeming truth;


s: To know that such, or haply worse, am I,


s: Clothed on with shimmering robes of fallacy


s: And vain deceit! Ah God, where is the truth?


s: Are all men false or lies the fault in me


s: Who, vulture-like, seize only on the taint,


s: That pierces thought. Give back the old fond faith,


s: Hide from my view the canker in the rose,


s: The taint in truth, the blight upon the bloom.


s: Far better 'twere to drink the hemlock draught


s: The drop of gall within the nectared cup.


s: Than doubt confirmed! Ah, Thou all-seeing God


s: Who art the Truth, make me to see the truth;


s: Lift from my soul the shadow; in the room


s: Of doubt, send trust. Let me believe again;


s: Like to a little child, whose straying feet,


s: Tracking the fox-fire's guiling glint and gleam,


s: Have wandered far afield by marsh and stream


s: While just before the wavering glimmers fleet


s: On and still on where sky and meadow meet,


s: Till, spent and fearful in the gathering gloom,


s: At last he sees the guiding light of home,


s: Where love awaits and mother-kisses sweet.


s: So was it mine through fens of doubt to stray


s: Or fleeting gleam, or shimmering fallacy,


s: Till through the deepening dusk a beacon shone


s: Set by the hand of Love to light the way


s: In a painted "Forest of Arden," in the glare of the garish light,


s: To you 'tis a vain dissembling--a part of the work of the day,


s: Little you care for the woman you woo, save as a foil designed.


s: To prove your skill as a lover--yet--"_I am your Rosalind!_"


s: I merge in the player, the woman! The actress good at her art


s: Before whose feet a knight his cloak cast down--


s: Love's roses 'twine for thee, Elizabeth.


s: Ah, maiden sweeter than morn's nectared breath,


s: Last night they laid me in my winding sheet,


s: Decked me with wan white blossoms faint and sweet,


s: And told each other softly, "She is dead."


s: Pulseless and pale; yet thro' the dreadful dark


s: The morning came. One who had loved me bent


s: Above my face with tears and bated breath;


s: Laid on my heart the roses _he_ had sent--


s: (Transcribed from "The Choir Invisible.")


s: Above the valleys, peopled, fair and warm,


s: Rise the bleak, silent uplands where abide


s: Wraiths of lost loves, love's recompense denied,


s: Cold, silent heights, engirt with zones of storm,


s: The broad, sweet downward vistas of the flesh


s: Stretch fair and far; the calm white spirit-height


s: Is lone and chill; there dimly shines the light


s: Of sun and star that burns and beacons bright


s: Where Sin spreads still her guiling, glitt'ring mesh.


s: Ah, warm the valley! Lone and chill the height!


s: Yet he who wins the height's sublimity--


s: The silent height where loves unlived abide,


s: Shall glimpse that land, to grosser view denied,


s: Where love and longing infinite shall be


s: Bound ever to a great grey rock of Doom,


s: Striving with futile hands to rive the chain


s: Of woven fear, distrust and subtle pain,


s: While gaunt wolf-waves that leap from out the gloom


s: Of doubt's cold sea are snarling at my feet,


s: Foul with dank horrors of his caverned lair,


s: And like a clock of doom the dark tides beat....


s: Thought's empyrean and the vast of dreams


s: One star-browed, Jove-like, human-orbed; meseems


s: His feet are winged with music, shod with song;


s: Ah, Perseus, should'st thou, pitying, leave the sky


s: To loose my bonds--then all the fear were gone,


s: Soul touching soul, trust from distrust were won,


s: Like god and goddess 'fronted, thou and I;


s: Despair were slain, closed the unequal strife,


s: Thy great soul's strength should make weak purpose strong,


s: Thy hand should lead me up the slopes of Song,


s: Thy winged feet guide me to the peaks of Life!


s: What tho' you loved me once? Man's love at best


s: You held all faith and truth a theme for jest,


s: Love's recompense, a smile. You knew your power.


s: What tho' you loved me then? You went away


s: And now--your best years spent, your idols clay--


s: What tho' you love me still? What tho' you say


s: The current of your life toward mine is set,


s: As vagrant stars obey the planets' sway,


s: What tho' I once loved you? See in yon West


s: Day's fires have burned to ashes cold and gray;


s: By its own flame consumed, is dead for aye.


s: When fades the light along the western sky,


s: When dies the last dim rose to subtlest gray,


s: When darkling mere and mead enshadowed lie,


s: And Night's wide arms enfold the wearied Day;


s: When tired lilies ring their vesper bells


s: And dusking leaves speak whispered orison,


s: When cassocked Twilight breathing benison


s: His rosary of flashing fireflies tells--


s: Then ends the day-long struggle. Strong no more


s: Setting full sail for that forbidden shore


s: When fades the light from out my dying eyes,


s: And soul and sense seem slipping soft away,


s: When Death's swift shallop launched on Lethe lies


s: When things of time and thought grow strangely dim,


s: And the pent spirit strains to loose its bands


s: Till from the fettered feet and helpless hands


s: Shall fall life's shackles pitiless and grim--


s: Then shall the conflict cease. Enchained no more


s: My soul shall sail the silent unknown sea


s: Bright marigolds, nasturtiums, zinnias gay--


s: They breast the breeze or, lightly poising, cling


s: The long gray twilight falls and deeper glooms


s: Close round the graying wood that dimmer grows


s: As dies the Day's last yearning tint of rose,


s: And Dusk spins shadows on her eldritch looms.


s: The black bat flits, the eerie white moth flies--


s: Wan ghost of yesterday's bright butterfly--


s: Like graveless dead men's staring, sightless eyes.


s: But lo! the faeries light their firefly lamps,


s: Elusive foxfire flames from marish damps;


s: Hastes to the morris-dance an elfin brood;


s: A far bell chimes, the cricket cheerly shrills,


s: The droning beetle sounds his hoarse bassoon


s: And hylas trill; eftsoon the rising moon


s: The ambient air to molten silver thrills.


s: Then all the lyric night is set to song!


s: The cuckoo calls, the plaining whippoorwill


s: Cries faint and far away; more distant still


s: The hoopoe, hid his marshy haunts among,


s: Wails with the cry of some lost soul in pain;


s: The nightingale engilds the pulsant dark


s: The night-jar's discord mars the perfect strain.


s: The night wears on, black shadows throng apace,


s: The wood is still, the moon grows wan and old,


s: White marsh-mists wreathe like clammy arms, death-cold,


s: And moth-wings like dead fingers sweep my face;


s: The bittern wailing leaves the sombre pool,


s: Voicing the world-old pain that never dies;


s: The owl with ghoulish laughter outward flies


s: Like some weird Vivien shrieking, "Fool!" and "Fool!"


s: What though she lieth mute on yonder hill?


s: Have held in tender fold through many a year


s: Her quiet grave, I fear her--fear her still.


s: He loved her once. Ay, though he hold me fast


s: And sear my lips with kisses burning-sweet,


s: No touch of mine can make his life replete


s: For man's first love is oftentimes his last.


s: A still face glimmers through my dreams for aye.


s: E'en when I strain him close with feverish grasp


s: Wan grave-cold fingers loose the clinging clasp,


s: And grave-cold lips my fervid kisses stay.


s: She lives incarnate in each flower fair,


s: The golden-rod that lights the Autumn land


s: Seems but the scattered star-dust of her hair.


s: Love's perfect flower may never bloom for me--


s: For me his wife. For ah! I fear her still


s: He loved her once. Would God that I were she!


s: A biographical sketch by Edna Worthley Underwood