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SONS OF THE SUN 



POEMS 



— BY — 



MARTHA VIRGINIA BURTON 

Author of 'Religions on the Midway, a Tale of the World's Fair' 

"Peer Gynt and the Ibsen Mystic Drama" 

{In Press.) 





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BESSETTE & SON 

CH IC AGO 

1907 



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LIBRARY of 00NaH.E3S| 
Two Copies Rwiei^sa 

NOV 29 1907 
CLASS CL aXc= (yu 



Copyrig-ht 1907 

BY MARTHA VIRGINIA BURTON 

All rig-hts reserved 



rESSETTE Ji SON. PRINXBRS 
OHIOAQO 



To every American, everywhere, who names his country 

with reverence. 

— The Author 
September 26, 1907, 



The poet does not wait for the hero and for the sag-e, but, as 
they act and think primarily, so he writes primarily what will 
and must be spoken. 

— Emerson 



CONTENTS 



PART FIRST: 

The Coming- Man 11 

The American Ideal 12 

Winning- of the West 12 

To American Women 13 

Making Good 14 



AMERICA 

Requiem (Mrs. McKinley)... 16 

The American Christ 17 

To American Young- Women 19 

Our Greek Voter 21 

The Sunday Newspaper 22 

Were I the Government 25 



PART SECOND: THE ALDER BOUGH 

Ballad of Prince Olaf 35 

The Waking of Baldur 36 

Henrik Ibsen 43 

Eduard Grieg 44 

EJe-Kings 45 



Where Are They? 46 

Men of Ur 47 

Alder Bloom 48 

To Carry With You 48 

Helgoland 49 



PART THIRD: MISCELLANEOUS 



Ballad of Babyland 57 

New Thought 58 

The Temple Voice 58 

The Persian Passion 59 

In the Studio 60 

In the Opera Box 61 

Earth in March 62 

The Golden Presence 63 

A Little Dedication 64 

Truth's Kingdoms 65 

The Building of Man 66 



Prayer 68 

Autumn 69 

The Flower of Germany 69 

This World's Gods 70 

To the Reformer 72 

What Have You Done With 

the Spirit? 72 

My Friend and 1 74 

The Future 75 

The Extra 76 

As Ego 77 

In the Libral 77 



PART THIRD: MISCELLANEOUS 

( Continued ) 



The Coyote's Call 78 

In the Toils 78 

Mystical Drama 80 

The Full of Faith 81 

Idealist and Editor 82 

Pain 84 

Alimoniac 85 

Blue and Gold 85 

The Trade Wind 86 

Wives and Men 88 

Under Gold Helmets 91 

How Is Man Free? 94 

The Golden Goth 96 

Courag-e 96 

Art and Start 97 

In Mystic Light 98 

Aspiration 100 

Living Truths 100 

Faith 101 



Art Thou So Poor ?..... 101 

The Erik's Requiem 104 

In the Park 104 

The Devil 106 

Hell 107 

Heaven 108 

The Triang-le 109 

In the Sig-n of the Great Bear.llO 

The Sentinel 115 

Possibility 115 

The Editor 116 

Best Times 116 

The Presence 117 

Nature 118 

The Artist's Faith 118 

Hail Poets ! Wake Poets ! 119 

The Actor Il6 

A Ballad of Mexico 120 

The Musician's Love Letter. 122 



SONS OF THE SUN 



PART FIRST 



AMERICA 



AMERiCA 



THE COMING MAN 



He must have in him the conscience 

That will teach him to see right ; 
He must have the courage, faith, and hardihood: 
He must be the living banner, 

He must be the better light ; 
The American must be man making good. 



He must know the rights of fellow, 

While he helpeth feilow-man : 
He must know that thought and growth are right for all; 
But above the noise of politics, 

Of party and of plan, 
The American must hear his country's call. 



12 SONS OF THE SUN 



THE AMERICAN IDEAL 



Only the sense of creation 

Gives a sense of power ; 
This is labor's elation 

Over the empty hour. 

One she builds her a bonnet, — 
And happy — the goddess — she ; 

Another the city or sonnet, — 

And the great world comes to be. 



THE WINNING OF THE WEST. 



Written on the occasion of President Roosevelt's visit to Keokuk, Iowa, 
October 1, 1907 

O, natural law has its sources, — 

They are stored far in the deep; 
They rise in the thunders' forces, 

They bless the land with sleep. 
They range in the wild life roaring. 

They dwell in the hills and the trees ; 
And in great rivers' pouring 

They promise times like these. 



SONS OF THE SUN 13 

O, the strenuous will, it has sources, — 

They are deep in the human breast ; 
But they leap like the thunderer's horses 

To pull man to his best. 
As the great sun pull they steady, 

As the great earth swing they true ; 
And our west they have made ready 

O, spirit of man, for you. 

O, the spirit of man has sources, — 

It lives when the hands have rest; 
But it pulls like the Greek white horses 

To give all men their best. 
It speaks for the grand ideal, 

When man shall the base o'ercome ; 
Till it fetches our great dreams real, 

For life, and the state, and home. 



TO AMERICAN WOMEN. 



AS MAN WOULD SPEAK. 

We are giving to women all praise and all due ; 

We are crowning you queens, and we all 
Mean honor and right and the noble and true. 

If you will but help us forestall 
The weak in ideal, the lower of tone, 

That reach us in luxury's name ; 
For the men, as you see, they cannot hold alone,- 

And the men, as you see, get the biamf. 



14 SONS OF THE SUN 



The thing that our womanhood seems to attain 

Is the holding in hand of the fate, 
Of morals, of honor, of money, the men, 

And the life or the death of the state. 
But the thing that we need at your white hand is due, 

Sweet courage in s^lf that can tight 
In moral the life, and in life can renew. 

All the old-fashioned notions of right. 

You give us of beauty, and well do you prove 

Us your tenderest care, but again, 
We would not you gave yourselves wholly to love, — 

Thar is the unmaking of men. 
So we pledge you in honor, faith, truth, and withal. 

In the homes that we need to keep true ; 
Sweet courage, hope, faith, understanding, — these all 

We need,- -and we need them in you. 



MAKING GOOD. 



The fall election's over and the country's saved once 

more ; 
And there may be men now happier or now mightier 

than before; 
But the man we honor mostly as a man of higher kind, 
Is the patient, plodding worker, lovingly at task and 

grind. 



SONS OF THE SUN 15 

He's the man that's making good, — 
He's the man that's making good ; 
He's an honor to his country, — 
Any man that's making good. 

There's one place for the president, — there's many a place 

for you ; 
There's many a place that's number one, and others 

number two ; 
There's the whole big country and its head, then there's 

the neighborhood, — 
And the power is in the people when the men there can 

make good. 

Are the men there making good ? 
Are the men there making good ? 

The power is in the people 
Where the men are making good. 



Is it hammer, bench or mallet.^ Is it steam or hew or 

saw ? 
Is it brush or pen or ballot.'^ Is it books or talk or hw? 
Be the worthy man or woman, — push for honest work 

and good ; 
Be the thing you name ideal, in your little neighborhood. 

Be the man that's making good ; 
For in every neighborhood 

There is some one will be greatest, 
For the simply making good. 



16 SONS OF THE SUN 



REQUIEM, 



ON THE DEATH OF MRS. McKINLEY. 

''O mother Ida, manj^-tountained Ida," 

That call'd my soul to, all these fair }^ears long ! 

I as from thy fields, sitting with hands folded, 
Heard all this song. 

This song called life, — 1 astral in far freeing ; 

And now, as back to earth, as freely come, 
To gaze with others at that still'd, lov'd being — 

My erstwhile home. 

Could they who pity know the law of graces. 
Which man alive full never can control ; 

That greater love, which calls from heavenly places, 
Calls out the soul ! 

Could they but know, who not as spirit seeing, 
Of what the psychic is ; its power to soar 

Into the far abysses of all being, — 
As perfumes pour ! 

That we, still'd light, are sometimes Ida's, glowing 
Only but dimly in our Greek eclipse ; 

To comprehend the spheres, in cosmic flowing. 
Without ellipse. 



SONS OF THE SUN 17 



THE AMERICAN CHRIST 



In the hours of the Christmas morning, — 

The fresh of the fair-to-see, — 
We leave the sheep-bell's warning 

Alone on the Christmas tree ; 
Which we do not strip of its southdown 

Wholly for baby's hands ; 
But so 'twill not burn the house down, 

As each one understands. 

For that baby do we remember, 

Born of the beauteous ray, 
On the twenty-fifth of December — 

Or some other mid-winter day ; 
Who in sweetness and grace and wisdom 

As we have not known since then, 
Grew and knew and suffered 

As the risen Lord of men. 

And we hold in this age that his reason 

Gave life to the world in the west ; 
So we deck his image in season 

And knit us the broidered vest. 
We name him in mints and in punches, — 

We pledge him in crimson wine; 
And in shops and in stuffs and in haunches. 

Our dear Lord we define. 



18 SONS OF THE SUN 

And we jewel and bangle and spangle 

The old and the young of heads ; 
We guage the milk and the mangel 

And we get up the lordly spreads. 
We wallop the turkey and button 

Him up in his coat of dough; 
And with sauce we curry the mutton, 

As the Lord would have it so. 

And we pluck and we gut and we pickle, 

And we scrape us the Christmas tripe ; 
And we fix up cushion to tickle 

With the gay of the Christmas stripe. 
And we ream in the tissue paper 

With holly and twine and wax, — 
Till baby-ribbon's a caper 

More than the Christmas tax. 

And we hang up the little stocking 

And into it cram some things, 
Of cotton and dope and docking 

And jingle and teething-rings. 
We get a toy gun for brother, 

And for sister some wonderful game ; 
And thus do we honor each other 

At the season of Christ's dear name. 



SONS OF THE SUN 19 



TO AMERICAN YOUNG WOMEN.* 



They say that in the Orient, as in the days of old, 

There's many a thing you cannot weigh that yet has 
worth in gold ; 

And one such was in ancient times, — and some they 
say, today. 

That the human soul could speak to soul in a clear 
and friendly way. 

And that if one say all his prayers and kneel full oft 
to Buhd', 

And eat him of the cabbage-leaf and call all people 
good. 

He's won the seventh principle of life, and therefore can 

Go forth and learn just what he will, as an astral- 
minded man. 

He silent all may walk the streets and, without word, 

find out 
What is the sad of one he meets, or what's his joy 

about. 
He looks as on the mind of man, and it smiles back 

and gives 
Its very soul's own truth to him ; and thus the astral 

lives. 



* It was lately — in the beginning' of the year 1906,— a matter for g-eneral 
newspaper discussion that beautiful and refined young women, in several of our 
large cities, met with annoying familiarity from strange men in the streets. 



20 SONS OF THE SUN 



All knowledge is, if thought be pure, and life is begun 
here 

That's to be lived in heavenly realms, and loftier at- 
mosphere. 

They say there is no end to good the mental will 
display 

To others, when they meet it thus, who walk this 
heavenly way. 

Now, if the ladies who do make the sadly, great flim- 
flam 

About the masher that they meet, would send him out 
some calm, 

Pure thoughts of heavenly principle, to meet his better 
mind, 

They'd quickly change his attitude, and the nobler man 
would find. 

This is the ohm of astral law : "God, good, and broth- 
erhood ! " 

This is the thought to clothe the will, in astral, to 
make good ; 

And neither man nor woman is misunderstood, who 
falls 

To speaking to his fellowmen, in these pure and sweet 
soul-calls. 



SONS OF THE SUN 21 



OUR GREEK VOTER 



I ask of my Grecian neighbor 

If the Christ in him hath slain 
All the world of the unworth, 

And satisfied domain 
Of all that his spirit called for 

In a land that is not Greek ; 
Since Greece hath not ideal 

And the modern dogmas speak ? 

He lifted his eyes to remember 

Of Athena's temples old, 
And he saw the sun regilding 

The earth as with flood of gold. 
And the answer came : "Our kingdom 

Has law as is king's say; 
One is not for a year called chosen, 

Then put, like a churl, away. 

'And I cannot make out how the Christian, 

In the place of the excellent plan. 
Can name for the fall election. 

As the best of the earth, a man ; 
Espouse and install and befriend him. 

And hand him the public gold. 
To turn next year and rend him. 

As the least to deserve its hold." 



22 SONS OF THE SUN 



THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER.* 



We're the Sunday big edition 

And it's up to us to say, 
We've neither fault nor failure, — 

There's nothing we don't play ; 
Read our advertising pages, — 

They will make your fortune yet ; 
And between them you can read the news 

For we're onto it, you bet ! 
The biggest proposition 

Ever made to mortal man, 
Is to tell your needs to people 

By our special ''want ad *' plan. 
We've today eight hundred pages 

And tomorrow will have more ; 
We've a million circulation; when 

You've got that you can soar. 
It is just before election, 

We're the biggest of our kind, — 
Our scarehead stories work all right, — 

We're not a step behind. 
Our redline is the hottest, — 

Our rival's is a blutf ; 
The man who backs this paper 

Is the last to call *' Knough ! " 



• WrilUMi and sei to the inusir of Atwater's "Press Club March," for tlie 
'Authors' Aiimial Eveniuy" of the Des Moines Press Club, November, VMH. 



SONS OF THE SUN 23 



riie latest from the Russians is 

I'hat Colonel Iki^ahoo 
Is thoroughly outj^eneraled by 

The man from "rimhuctoo. 
Dowie and the Japanese 

And a host of other thiny:s, 
Are rated by Professor Starr 

As prehistoric rin^rs. 
1'he election is a deadener 

To Wall street business ; 
The national committee 

Is reported in distress ; 
The rooters' season's over, 

The horse show is well on ; 
Alice Roosevelt's fj^ot herself 

A new imported gown. 
They say that Madame Calve 

Has a limited divorce; 
Grover Cleveland's youngest can 

Now ride a hobby-horse ; 
I'he King of Kngland's fleshiness 

Will some time make him fat; 
They're betting on the future of 

'I'he Dalai Llama's cat. 

Parker's found the rabbit's foot 
I'hat Billie Bryan hid ; 

15uster Brown's the merrier 
l'\)r I''oxy (irandpa did- 



24 SONS OF THE SUN 



N't do a thing to Little Willie, — 

Ezy Marks they are; 
Biddy's big policeman wears 

The Katzenjammers' star. 
Dooley says that atoms 

Are the riskiest of things ; 
Hypnotism's found to work 

In a case of wedding rings. 
The Iowa Idea is 

Reported on the gain ; 
Richard Mansfield's got a pug 

And he leads it on a chain. 
Here's the woman's column 

And it's on the Pike to stay ; 
Woman is our angel, — 

At least it looks that way. 
The whole world is her kingdom,- 

We've acknowledged it before,- 
Changing gown and bonnet 

Isn't all of it no more. 

Our readers are the merriest, 

The wisest and the best ; 
Space and time will not permit us 

To put in the rest; 
Our advertisers are the ones 

To tell you all about 
The facts; and if in trouble they'll 

Be pleased to help you out. 



SONS OF THE SUN 25 

Peruna tonic is the thing to 

Carry in your hand ; 
When Winslow's soothing syrup fails 

Uneeda takes a stand. 
Postum cereal coffee's good 

Enough for those whose food 
Is done in handy packages 

And the Installment Plan is good. 
So wit, philosophy and love 

Do through our pages pour, 
From north and south and east and west, 

And through the earth and o'er; 
World's Fair rates are cheaper grown, — 

The powers are getting wise ; 
Call us up by telephone 

When you want to advertise. 



WERE I THE GOVERNMENT. 



For all live by truth and stand in need of expression. * * * 
Homer's words are as costly and admirable to Homer as Au^a- 
memnon's victories are to Ag^amemnon, — Emerson* 

Were this an age when fault and hate 

Came as dark ravens home. 
And folk would turn to altar-rail 

To find some higher ohm ; 



26 SONS OF THE SUN 



Were this an age when anything 

Could be improved upon, 
And to suggest were to give light, — 

Peace to the farther on ; 

Sought this age an ideal and 

One for ideals spoke, 
Then speak would 1 with faith of Greek 

Or write with loving stroke. 
As for an age when men would learn 

Of seers as sun-ones sent ; — 
I'd rise to say how I would shine 

Were I the government. 

Then would 1, as in temple, ask 

Grace to be understood 
While wonder-word from altar-god 

Clear as Apollyon stood ; 
I'd say the one thing that we need 

Were not more money pent 
To push to wilder speed some thing, — 

Were I the government. 

I'd say, were I the government, 

And true were all my men. 
As in their truths 'twould name them right,- 

And honored I by them ; 
I'd say these people set in states. 

In cities and emprise, — 
These hearts and loves, as being thrives, 

Should all be sweet and wise. 



SONS OF THE SUN 27 



If 1 could help or I compel, 

Or I somehow secure 
Their best right, all while 'twas my day, 

Should have, and hold it sure. 
Fd take the past for what it was, — 

Worth of experiment ; 
And my own build free from its flaws, 

Were I the government. 

The stream of undigested, 

Wildly-leaping, happy life, 
Arun to sense, the sensuous. 

Gold-getting, passion, strife; 
To nobler will should be divert', 

Fetch'd chance of finer end ; 
Motived in learning, 'rich'd in faith, — 

Ideals that transcend. 

For after all the blaze of it 

And every light's put out, 
The ignorant alone lie down 

To death, in rage and flout. 
And after all, each man as man. 

Has only man's best show, 
When bidding's more than eat and vote. 

And there is holier glow. 

Whate'er one's native country had 

As its best racial gift, — 
Could do most well, and't came to us 

To be our country's lift; 



28 SONS OF THE SUN 

Never the press should name such one, 
Nor any, dastard, scum ; — 

They, seed of every ethnic field, 
For our future wondrous bloom. 

Were I the government I'd take 

Some cognizance of soul ; 
I'd exalt over sex the mind. 

As man's great truth and goal. 
Venus were not the only blaze 

Above in our blue sky; 
With Christian altar rose the flame 

Of love as destiny. 

Were I the government I'd look 

Were not solution here 
For womankind ; that her whole will 

Might, free from harsh grind, rear 
New temples of the human soul, — 

Strongest and chastest good ; 
That culture and knowledge be high word, 

To wife and motherhood. 

Philosophy, art, music, book. 

Thought, the patrician tone, — 
I'd trace, had I bestower's place. 

As woman's truest zone. 
I'd magnify, I'd glorify, 

Reward, set on in grace. 
All such sweet order, beauty's own, 

The fine sphere to the race. 



SONS OF THE SUN 29 

Morals are but one kind of glow, — 

The spirit life in act ; 
While lives in culture, music, art, 

Not less the godly pact. 
These more than praise of paving-brick 

Make for man's high intent ; 
As golden, heaven-connecting lines 

Toward a real self-government. 

Love is much — home-keeping's much. 

But wilHng love is more ; 
And asset of refined thought. 

Wise tenderness, is store 
Too much a need to every race 

To be left out the count, 
Of any fair ideal tower'd 

O'er any age's mount. 

And then our wealth, — our great estate, — 

Our country's treasure all ! 
I'd see it through God's given lens, 

As His good glories' fall 
To earth, that our age leisure should 

To stop, to think, to be; 
To find of self the royal whole,— 

The immortal entity. 

Whoso had wealth, then he should go 

All to the thoughtful life ; 
Become the teacher, wise, refined, 

To silence clash and strife : 



30 SONS OF THE SUN 

As one the gods had blest, that he, — 
And much should know to teach. 

With culture, to set mankind free ; — 
Leisure's true, golden reach ! 

As drama all the pattern holds 

For bravest life, they say ; — 
Buddha, the Christ, the Lily-One, 

Brave actors in brave play ; — 
Perhaps that fair Greece that we hold 

As civics' highest wrest, 
Was small white model working through 

That man might see the best. 




PART SECOND 



THE ALDER BOUGH 



THE ALDER BOUGH 



BALLAD OF PRINCE OLAF, 

(1907) 



Little Prince Olaf comes riding down, 
In cap and feather and broidered gown. 
Thou art the babe for the sweet renown, — 
O, great will be Prince Olaf ! 

Over thy cradle the fairy crew 
Prophecies wondrous of good life drew ; 
Baldur's dream, it should all come true, — 
Through thy fair hand. Prince Olaf. 

And golden the turrets of Breidablik, 
Shall rise for the lordling and build for the meek ; 
And men of all nations in love will speak, — 
Through thy word, good Prince Olaf. 



36 SONS OF THE SUN 

So here is the heart, the love, the hand, 
Of faith from this wonderful western land ; 
Where the old Norse princes set foot astrand, 
In thy Saga-days, Prince Olaf. 

And shining the spirits of dead come here. 
To kneel by a beautiful, empty bier ; 
And they say 'tis not I that shall die this year. 
For I sign fair life to Prince Olaf. 



THE WAKING OF BALDUR 



When the runes were writ 

For the Norden man 
By the old myth-gods 

Of mind, 
'Twas said that many a thing 

Had plan 
That the full of age 

Would find. 
And as Odin looked from his 

Mountain-height, 
All lit of Aurora's 

Glow,— 
So runneth the tale of that 

Vanquished night, 



SONS OF THE SUN 37 



In the runes of the 

Long ago ; — 
He, great god, saw, as had 

Baldur seen 
In his dream of a 

Future day, — 
That man from pHght must 

Himself redeem 
Ere the soul in him 

Could sway. 



For 'twas writ,— 

'Twas runed, 
And it had 

To be, — 
Fair life for 

The men 
Of the old 

North sea 1 



But Baldur, the Beautiful, 

Long lay dead 
Neath the dark myth 

Hela's rod ; 
And the old god-father. 

With bended head, 
Long wept for his 

Fair son-god. 
And hate it wholly harried 

The kings, 



38 SONS OF THE SUN 

And men made men 

To weep, 
While the Beautiful one, 

Of the kindlier wings, 
Lay clutched in that 

Awful sleep. 
So he plighted him faith with 

The moon and the sun, 
And he pledged him the red 

North ray, — 
And the sea it rose in its might 

To run 
In the great god's cause 

That day. 

But all these 

Things 
They were writ 

To be, 
In the golden 

Times 
Of the old 

North sea ! 

And Odin lighted him 

Millions of sparks. 
Which as thoughts to the waves 

He flung; 
And he launched them afree 

As freighted barks. 



SONS OF THE SUN 39 

As the olden runes 

Had rung. 
And as time and the tides 

Resistless were, 
So Odin great 

He swore 
By all of the chained ones 

Of power, 
To give his kingdom 

O'er; 
If the waves he'd freighted 

With fairer life 
And poured to the Scand 

Domain, 
Brought not to an end this march 

Of strife 
And peace to reign 

Again. 

But O, 'twas 

Writ, 
Much good 

Should be 
Through the life 

That ran 
In the old 

North sea ! 

The waves they bellowed. 
The waters tore : 



40 SONS OF TH E SUN 

They pieced them with flood 

And strain ; 
' Till stout ship mission 

Of war gave o'er, 
And put to home 

Again. 
And round and through 

The waters brought 
Till man, cut off by 

The sea. 
Was caught in the power 
Of the fireside thought. 
And home-love came 

To be. 
But O, he shrank him 

In deadly fear 
Of the gods of the north 

For they, 
Would sweep him down 
Who had shut him in. 
And mete him his life 
For aye ! 

But this was 
The way 
It had 

To be 
For the breed 
That fought 
By the old 
North sea ! 



SONS OF THE SUN 41 



He piled his armor and 

Spear ahigh 
To brood with the 

Ingle-norn; 
But new life came with that 

Prison'd sigh, 
For industry was born. 
And the spirit of Haldur's dream 

It came 
From the thrall of Hela 

1 hen ; 
With torch alight of the 

Ancient flame 
To light to truth these men. 
A.nd O, they saw as the sun 

Gave heat, 
And the dews and the thaw 

And the rain, — 
Visions of gardens and flocks 

And wheat 
And the gentler ways of gain. 

For this was 

T he gods' 
Great gift 

To be, 
As life 

To the men 
Of the old 

North sea ! 



42 SONS OF THE SUN 



And the golden dice were 

The corn's full ears, 
As the wonder of Baldur's 

Word ; 
While the soul of life for the 

Coming years 
That the fair god Hermod 

Heard, 
Was love of brother and kind 

And wife, 
And truth to the Ingleside ; 
Lights all to the laws of 

The finer life 
Which Baldur had descried. 
So the great flames leaped 

FVom the northern ray, 
And they lit the wide earth 

Then, 
And thus it arose, — that 

Better day. 
When the war-hand beck'd not men. 

So they sang. 

And they sing, 
By the old North 

Sea : 
''The laws of the 

Beautiful 
Set men 

Free." 



SONS OF THE SUN 43 



HENRIK IBSEN, 



May the gods of all descent 

Stand by me ; 
While I make the brave attempt 

Not to be 
All of earth's, yet all to earth ; 

While I see. 

Something beckons and I know, — 

Gleams a hand ; 
One hears " wait," another " go," 

Its command ; 
One hears, " Every age was so ; 

Understand." 

Science, thou hast dart of flame, — 

God is kind ; 
Goodness, thou hast all of fame ; 

Thus we bind. 
Shadows lengthen on the hill, — 
Deep shades hold words deeper still 

"God is mind." 



44 SONS OF THE SUN 



EDUARD GRIEG. 



Tonight will come thy faery knight, - 

Sou led in Norse myth, thoul't go 
To undertake the fairer fight ; — 

To cross the cooler snow 
That lendeth on to sweeter things, 

Which all the brave await ; 
The steed, the maiden, sweep of wings,- 

Wide swings thy Valhall's gate." 

Soft call the voices from the hills, — 

Deep, dusk, fjord-echoes call ; 
To mortal whom the let-life fills. 

Or shift of shadow fall 
No longer on his path, to cool 

The hot heats of his hold, 
To life and work and things that rule. 

In sphere of getting gold. 

So, sweet musician, came to thee 

That whispered, echoing shock ; 
The tragic note of mystery 

Poured from sky, wave and rock! 
O, ancient goodness, piled in air, — 

O, solemn law of rune. 
That none shall meet his vision fair 

Without earth's halting tune ! 



SONS OF THE SUN 45 



All nature's splendid lyre it fulled 

While thou, as fair Ash Tree 
Forever its sweet sighings lulled, 

Art claimed by Valkyrie ! 
O, gift of great, eternal art, — 

O, true and rich of soul, — 
Thou, of the honor and brave part. 

At last hast reached thy goal ! 

Cosmic the secret, — tragic swing 

Of forces calm, on high. 
Where gods and goddesses they sing 

What shall man's destiny ! 
They call our splendors, call our best. 

They call our great, sweet men, 
Who bravely bow at brave behest, — 

The maidens' own again. 



EE-KINGS 



We are the Ee-Kings, 
We are the Vi-Kings, 
We are the Sea-Kings ; 
Where are our sons ? 

Where live the arts and 
The world's beauty now ; 
Gathered they bloom, loves 
Of fair Alder Bough. 



46 SONS OF THE SUN 



WHERE ARE THEY? 



Where are all their voices now ? 
Do they speak through book and tone, 
Speaks the unknown to the known, — 
Speaks the known to the unknown, — 
Odin, Vili, Ve? 

Is the law of our today, — 
Our so great philosophies, 
Kindled upon banks like these? 
Priestly rites neath sweet, green trees,— 
Druid or Parsee ? 

Speaks the oracle as wise 
If the tryst be everywhere ? 
If the sprites of upper air 
Syllable to all their fare? 

So, fell low, Delphi. 

Speaks the oracle no more, — 
Or is tryst kept everywhere, — 
Sprites of earth as upper air? 
Is our whole age wise and fair 
As of old, Delphi ? 



SONS OF THE SUN 47 



MEN OF UR, 



Chald-Ur and Bald-Ur 

Were wonderful men ; 
They lay in their nests 

Till the hour struck; 
Then 
They hitched to them dro^mans 

Krom the sides of the earth, 
And drave them apart 

To their places of 
Birth. 

And in the wide split 

That was left to the Raze, 

Europa arose 
To the great of 
Amaze. 

Will Urof the Chaldees 

Meet ever again 
Ur of the Baltic, 

In fair Cult-ur-e's 
Reign ? 



48 SONS OF THE SUN 



ALDER BLOOM. 



O, white blossom, wing of Psyche, — 

O, fine fragrance, gift to man ; 
Given as the Lord gives graces, — 

Pearls ashowering through His plan ! 
Chaste and sweet, — transcendent message 

To the plains of Ida here; 
Light to life at peace and fireside ; 

Law to all life's finer sphere ! 

She of highest good the token, — 

Psyche, Isis, Mary, she; 
But the race, — ^how has it spoken 

For this golden one from Thee ? 
Have we known divine dominion 

Sets in all things great and whole, 
One, as she— a fair white pinion — 

Beating true, that strong thing's soul ? 



TO CARRY WITH YOU, 



I quote you a tune from the Saga days, — 
From the soft Icelandic tongue : 

Thought man upbuilds, but worry slays. 
Though he go all the world among. 



SONS OF THE SUN 49 



HELGOLAND 



By Huerta's temple shade, in sign of Leo, — 
And must thou die ? 

O, argent care, thou passing fair ! 
Through lens of thy fine spirit then write L 

Write I, as one beholding God in all things. 
All that be ; 

Set high in star, in avatar; 
Or deep life swelling through the abounding sea ! 

As liveth one who knoweth what the thunders, 
Bellowing greet ; 

Who heareth mind in sweep of wind. 
Or what the hour for avalanche retreat ! 

To whom the seasons chant or whisper stories ; 
Tell all their truths. 

Virgo comes on, the Crab is won ; 
Utter the green trees fair as Druid youths ! 

O, thou that ever was, and ever shall be ; 
Flame thou of flame ! 

The seas give up, — thy loving cup, — 
To pour libations — thy eternal fame ! 



50 SONS OF THE SUN 

O, spheres of circling life, uprising, dying. 
Spheres yet to come ! 

It shall pause now at alder bough, — 
Greeting there is to fair Norse temple bloom ! 

Strange were the gods thy logos strain defending. 
Leading it clear; — 

Of sign and token, in word unspoken ; 
Majestic leaning to God's shapen spear! 

Thou hadst from native hills thy natal blessing, 
Achilles-One ; 

Thy ethnic hoard the Sagas stored. 
And wondrous hast thou telling from the Sun ! 

Thine the wild bull-life, crush'd back, teeming, rending; 
Strong son of Ram ! 

Long age ago in tent of snow. 
One stood beside thee as thy great Elam ! 

Royal the will that wholly hears when finding. 
In Nature's book, 

The curious word the soul has heard, — 
And finding hears how as at first God spoke ! 

They tend him true, who faith was in all living, 
Fearless in death ; 

All they disclose, O, golden, opening rose ! 
O, wonder worlds of our immortal breath ! 



SONS OF THE SUN 51 

Things of the deep swim up to friendly looking 
In his fair eyes ; 

So in the law all nature's draw, — 
Love as the great, imperial God's emprise ! 

He clasped of tiger is as bound in royal 
Of love's great mood ; 

The anaconda, with joyous wonder. 
Fetches him greet of jungle brotherhood. 

The cold moon bends in love, and summer's passion 
Pours from the sun ; 

It theirs to fan the undying Pan ; 
Eternal pledge of an Eternal One ! 

The blue snake is his own ; the northeast crosses. 
And it is best ; 

O, wonder book from lizard nook ; 
Secreting all the soul's deep, leafy rest ! 

Marks he with entity along flat sand-dunes 
His prayer, his need ; 

They fetch to him, lo, symbols dim ; 
The law they of his ancient caste and rede ! 

Bends back the azure sky-god of the Northman, 
In his best love : 

"This was mine eld, could 1 but held 
My men and times the more atrue to Jove !" 



52 SONS OF THE SUN 



For him there run on every plain white coursers 
White broods on high, 

There to resist all mortal list ; — 
Mystic ancile to the sons of Frey ! 

What on the next hour cometh or what liveth 
In the next year, — 

Son of the Sun, O, flamed one ; — 
They tell thee, who are natural order here ! 

All tender they, the orchestra of spirit 
Alive in air, 

Assure thy soul 'tis not the whole, — 
And tend thee unto visions yet more fair ! 

Sons of Apollo, Iran, Ram, Thoth, are they, — 

Of Jupiter and Thor ; 

With Dragon, shield to 'fend the field. 

If any glimmer may be there of war ! 

And O, in all the silent night's white clearness, 
On high the great Leo ! 

There bend above thy couch in love. 
Sweet magian ones, their story to bestow ! 



PART THIRD 



MISCELLANEOUS 



MISCELLANEOUS 



BALLAD OF BABYLAND 



Three storks flew forth where the blossoms were, 
And they lapped the air with their wings awhirr; 
Each carried a bundle from by-low-land, 
From the beautiful mists that they understand. 

And one he paused where the fests were great 
And he landed his charge in the fair estate ; 
And he creased its brow with the molt of gold 
And he planed its power in the Midas fold. 

And one he tapped him a softly rune. 
And metered his charge to the heavenly tune ; 
He placed the babe of the genius ray 
Where light on the earth had need to play. 

And one he carried his downy load 
To the place of the white wings' soft abode; 
And many's the mother who knows the grace 
And the light and the Hne of that baby's face, 
For it comes to earth for the spirit's hour, 
That man may dwell in the heaven as power. 



58 SONS OF THE SUN 



THE NEW THOUGHT. 



A mental transcendence shines from afar; 
It is this I will take for my cymbal of war ! 
Of war not, but blast of imperial blue ; 
The glory of life has come true. 

In the far empyrean of heaven are rinp:s ; 
They are thrown off in ages, in aeons and things. 
And races and peoples and systems arise. 
They pass into wings and are lent to the skies. 

In the white realms of law it was meant to transcend, 
In the after of time, unto purer of trend. 
Unto earth again never, but far in the sky, 
Calls back the divine, " It is I ; it is I " ! 



THE TEMPLE VOICE. 



Say thy ohms, thy oms, thy aums, thou one, — 
Deal death a blow by saying "Thou art light." 

Let heaven through thy casement pour as sun ; 
So end what seems to thee a long, dark night. 

Thou hast the all of heaven to bestow, 

As floods of knowledge, health, wealth, every good 



SONS OF THE SUN 59 



God hast so stored thee thou unharmed canst go 
Through every place, hate, stress, or neighborhood. 

On one plane argument may set rifree, — 
Another, silence holds the power course ; 

But if occasion call, there dwells in thee 
Majestic wisdoms of the serpent's force. 

Man can't get past himself unless he rake 
Angry his brains out, or life wilful sell ; 

There stand his star, his jungle-one, his snake. 
His sea-horse; all to help him free from hell. 



THE PERSIAN PASSION 



I come from the Parsee desert, — 

1, the great Iranian mind ; 
That calleth no time present, 

But the all of God would find. 
I, truth in the natural forces 

That speak in the grey twilight ; 
That drive in the thunders' courses. 

That hush the world in night; 
That soothe in the voices crying, 

That gather to light in the sun ; 
That bear men's prayers on the sighing 

Of the winds, till God be won. 



60 SONS OF THE SUN 



IN THE STUDIO 



Dainty lady, O, so rare ! 
Hands off, please, and have a care 
Much too fine in frill and lace. 
Much too sweet of piquant face, 
Much too pretty e'er to be 
Match for sterner thing in me. 

Thou art picture, I am grace 
Of the things that serve the race. 
Get and gain must have a chance 
Else the world fell on its lance ; 
Pretty being, how I would 
Buy and frame you, if 1 could. 

I would buy you, set you where 
Grace should have its finer share. 
I would look on you to live, 
Of the heavenly dews I'd give ; 
In that sweeter atmosphere 
I would keep and love you, dear. 



SONS OF THE SUN 61 



IN THE OPERA BOX. 



As having only God, we have the promise ! " 

And thou art Rachel, — 
Poured from the rivers of thy Jewish blood ; 
O, race thine of th' undying heart ! 
All ecstasy hast won ; 
All sadness known ; 
And now thou sayest in undying Art ! 

My cold north light it comes to life in thee, — 

O, heat child thou ! 
Pent in thy south hot ray, no part of me, — 
And yet my soul, — it's in thy violin ! 
O, longing, longing mine, — 
O, maddened swine ! 
And I long taught of heaven what is sin. 

Long and how taught? O God, on cold stone kneeling; 

Stiff, white knees cold ! 
What was't, — what is't, — what could it, but man's dealing. 
While heart in agony it seeks its fold ? 
For O, somewhere, 
Were each not heir, 
Then 1, — bemeaned to covet as my hold ! 

O, dost most teach, or dost most thwart, repression ? 

Yet patience still, — 
Heart else would kill to tear from thee expression ! 



62 SONS OF THE SUN 

But bitter this at all the bitter cost, 

And so again I wait, — 

Else came to hate ; 
And spite of all, my dearest lesson were lost. 

So help, Gods we, and we too therefore promise, — 

Long conquering one ! 
Some other's mount, — some other's turn of star, — 
In every age's grave some captain sleeps ! 
And my gods shall. 
As thine had, all. 
E'en now rise they from their long silent deeps ! 



EARTH IN MARCH 



Black is the Christ that saveth me. 

With tinsel of frost put in ! 
Harsh is the gray of the sky, the day 

Is bitter with sleet and din. 
For the spheres are in travail. 

The stars swing low ; 
There is light, nor love, nor air 

Of the sweeter waft ; but the torture throe 
Of the greater rebirth's care. 
For over and over the law hath power : 

I must sleep ; I must dark ; I must heed. 
I groan with the young of the wolf and flower 

I am all of the cosmic need. 



SONS OF THE SUN 63 

But lo, — lo, Cometh 

The white bloom now ; 
Far down is its star-like gleam ; 

The young lambs' bleat and the green grass glow, — 
Just a little while to dream ! 



THE GOLDEN PRESENCE, 



Sits my God in some high place, 
All-concentrate, rounding in? 

Lives he not in act of grace, 

Season's hour and cataract's din ? 

Is my genius part of me. 

Or some beautiful, long dead ? 

Sits the sunlight on the tree 

Just to tell me, '' Lift thy head " ? 

That my heart beats, is it He? 

That fruit ripens, is it less ? 
That land holds apart from sea. 

Or that clime gives mental dress ? 

Is not God in all true things? 

Is that true which is law not? 
Rises one on crimsoned wings 

To the purest heights of thought ? 



64 SONS OF THE SUN 



What is perfect to obey? 

What is wholly true as God ? 
What cannot be rent away 

In the man, sky, air or clod ? 

Is my genius God to me ? 

Is the genius of the race 
Inner flower or nation's key. 

Keeping truth, God set in place ? 

Build I temple not to Jove, 
If I wear the god of war? 

Build I less, in lean on love, 
To the Venus-reeling hour? 

Is the great all-God in thought, — 
What you, I, they think, maybe? 

What the tiger knows untaught, — 
Is that will the ancient He? 



A LITTLE DEDICATION 



Where are you, dear ? I send you this thought 
From the white sea of words and ideas, cast up. 
If you read it with love and are happy and true 
And think as I think, it is something to you. 
Where are you, dear? 



SONS OF THE SUN 65 



TRUTH^S KINGDOMS 



The light of the east is adawn, 
The light of the west is atrue ; 

But the light of the world is the won 
Truth, from the vaults of the blue. 

The light of the east is the sun, 
The light of the west is a star ; 

But O, the soul, it has run 
Far into the sweeps of war ! 

But down from the heights they draw,- 
Or ever come in from the deep, 

Sweet paeans of natural law 

While the gods of this world sleep ! 

And the love of the light that is, 
Since God has walked as soul, 

Shall live in the harmonies. 
That the best of man control. 

The light of the east is a dawn. 
The light of the west is a truth ; 

And the light of the world was one. 
Since time knew its first youth ! 



66 SONS OF THE SUN 



THE BUILDING OF MAN< 



We rise to the light, 

We the grasses ; 
We free the green 

Pleasures of earth ; 
We hang down our heads,- 

The hour passes ; 
We turn with the brown 

Stem to birth 
Of the wheat or the rye, 

At the clod's law, — 
We freely give all 

At the mill ; 
The law this of all life 

Is God's law,^ — 
So measured man's great 

Law to fill. 

We ope to the light, 

We the blossoms ; 
We close to the fruit, — 

Fade and fall ; 
We come, — we are free, — 

We the apple, — 
We ripen, refresh. 

That is all. 



SONS OF THE SUN 67 



We free to contribute, 
To strengthen, 

To beautify, feed. 
To immure ; 

The forces of nature 

To lengthen 
That man may endure, — 

May endure. 

We bind in the hills, 

We the quarries ; 
Aripe in our hardness 

We go. 
To serve as the column 

Or stories, — 
Or wonderful things 

Of white glow. 
So worth, and so right. 

And so beauty, — 
We come in the order 

Of law, 
At the call of great Pan 

To our duty, — 
Serve grandly, as 

Grandly withdraw. 
As Saturn we file 

For Uranus; 
Or Venus to 

Jupiter's hour; 



68 SONS OF THE SUN 



As gods, yield we all 
That we gain us, 

That man may have all 
Of his power. 



PRAYER 



Give us this day, O heart of all things, — 
We name thee God ; in faith name we ! 

Give us this day, for great and small things 
Seem heaven-forgot in need of thee. 
We strive, we agonize, we pray 
For peace, for help ; give us this day. 

Give us this day. Yield thou to beauty; 

It is all thine, O love, O life ! 
We, finer forces, come to duty. 

To clear thy way from cloud and strife. 

We light on every hill ; we ray 

About thy sun ; give us this day. 



O mortal, know'st thou not the homing 
Of each one is, in far somewhere? 

O, one in agony, cease roaming; 

Thou cared for art in greater sphere ! 
Trust God ; trust order, beauty. Pray 
In full of faith ; give us thy day. 



SONS OF THE SUN 69 

AUTUMN. 



The cool may call from the hills anew, 
But the sweet of the summer's grace 

Hath gone for aye from the rose and dew, 
As the smiles from my lady's face. 

Tho white of the springtime bloom came back 

To bless for an hour today. 
Or traced me again the lily's track, — 

My lady hath gone away ! 

Or light of the moonbeam or pipe of Pan 
Told their sweet, old stories anew, — 

The stately waft of her fair white hand. 
Is far in the heavenly blue. 

Daphne the laurel aflame may keep 

Or the goldenrod its spell ; 
But my beautiful lady she lieth asleep 

In the white of the asphodel. 



THE FLOWER OF GERMANY. 



How can I find in life a throne. 
How can I name myself endure, 

How can I stand, if all my own 
Have one support unsure ? 



70 SONS OF THE SUN 

What tho the fair knights kneel them due, — 
Tho tint and tone and chisel strive ? 

Crafts are but idle, life untrue, 
Doth love for me not live ! 

When God's white hand-clasp closed on me, 
Sending me down the immortal ray. 

Came I to man as pure idea. 
Holding the perfect way. 



That which is not can not be; 

Thine the soul, thou Pure Idea ! 
Nation's answer it is one, 

With the truth of her each son ! 



Youth 



THIS WORLD'S GODS. 



What dost thou offer, O Maid, to man, — 
A bust, the couch, the stew, the pan 
Of broth ; the pudding, the onion-stench ? 
Child, thou makest thyself but wench. 

What dost thou offer, O Church, to man, — 
Worry of pew with the bungle and plan ; 
Thick of the ankle, with stick for the head ? 
Barren, intrepid, not always well-bred ! 



SONS OF THE SUN 71 



Politics, what do you offer to men ? 

The middleman's brilliance, the strut of the pen ; 

Philistinism, and all writ wise ; 

The paving-job's letting for high franchise ? 

What do you offer, O boasted Schools ? 

The patter of opulent smatter of rules ; 

The sedgy of fillings to badger the will, — 

With he thought and they thought and no thinking still ? 

What dost thou offer to youth, O Press ? 
Column of fury, detail and mess ; 
Wad of the sleuth and the slovenly wit, — 
Slime of the news from the plunderers' pit ? 

What hast thou stored, O Art, for men? 
Glories in galleries, — blessings from pen ; 
Soul's peace in music ; the loveliness, truth, 
That all institutions we think should give youth ! 

O, bitter see I the whole spirit of life. 
When passes one happy, with radiant wife ; 
Cheery the handgrasp he offers and she ; — 
Forgot's the dull, gluttonous times in their glee ! 



Age: 



O, my boy, tomorrow if they all lay dead. 

Were it not thy sorrow thou hadst for each said 

Harsh, mayhap deserving, criticising word ? 

Jove wore cap of patience when the great powers heard. 



72 SONS OF THE SUN 



TO THE REFORMER. 



Tail your serpents round the sun; 
Set your stings where they'll fall clear 
Be not let to any one 
Who from something else must steer. 

Tail your serpents in the sun ; 
Brace them so they'll stand, not run ; 
But should run be need, with grace 
Turn them, that they may give chase. 



WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE SPIRIT? 



Where are they that I gave you that you mig-ht become 
perfect in those rare qualities which alone can give to you endur- 
ing life ? - The Prophet's Vision* 

What have you done with the lady, — 

The creature of beautiful parts ? 
She of the soft eyes tender, 

The gentle and childlike arts ? 

What have you done with the lady ? 

I sent her, O men, to reclaim 
You from the harsher emotions, — 

Back to the beautiful aim ! 



SONS OF THE SUN 73 



What have you done with the lady, — 

Who bloomed, like a bud, on your breast ? 

Who clung as the glory of blossoms, 
Who was beauty and faith and rest ? 



She was all grace, — she the jewel, — 
She was the tender and true ; 

What have you done with the lady. 
That as heaven's own I sent you ? 



Why are the white hands folded, 
Areach for thy hand as wife ? 

The wistfully red lips frozen ? 
O, waste of the beautiful life ! 



What have you done with beauty, — 

That spirit all full refined, — 
Through the fires of the long-time burning. 

Till life it was divined? 

What have you done with the artist, 
O, man of the time and its mold ? 

Where is that one 1 sent you 
To knit you to finer fold ? 

What have you done with my glory 

That sprays through the whole, wide sphere ? 



74 SONS OF THE SUN 



How have you kept me promise, 
In the love of music here ? 

How have you wrought its cadence 
I gave that your Hfe be brought, 

Atrue unto some fair temple 

In ways of the sweeter thought ? 

How have you kept me, — the living, 
In the fair, in the white Christ-one? 

Where is the sweet immortal 
I sent you as my son? 

Immortal, — to reach through beauty ; 

To shine with a truth not dim ! 
For the tired world's fresh beginning, — 

What did you, man, with him? 



MY FRIEND AND I 



Thou art so softly touch'd, 

Bedded in down ; 
Gently thy ripples gleam, 

Tender the frown ; 
Thy work at even glows 

Molten, complete, 



SONS OF THE SUN 75 



Shaped in white syllables, 

Tender and sweet. 
Sometimes in agony, 

Heart's sweet, I cry, 
Why not that life for me ? 

Not for me, — why ? 

Lift I mine eyes to scan 

High rocks, abare ; 
Thou knowest beasts abide, 

Aravage there ! 
Shield'st thou thy man, thy race. 

From all that maw ; 
Look I God in the face, — 

What is their law ? 



THE FUTURE. 



Trust thou, man, of all things 
Always that waits thee. 

Which thou hast implaited 
In thine energy. 

Thy word, work and life hold 
What thou hast exprest ; 

Life, seed self-sown, ripens 
in the human breast. 



76 SONS OF THE SUN 

Know thou, man, in all things 
Law goes sternly on ; 

Walk with it, thou livest ; 
Cross it, thou art gone. 

Law is not of limit, — 
Law is freest zone ; 

God has spoken in it, — 
God speaks for his own. 



THE EXTRA 



" Extra ! " Has somebody fallen asleep so quickly, in death, that 

to weep, to weep. 
Is not for her, his, or my own true heart ; for something has 

happened, of life a part. 
So suddenly, bitterly, thoughtlessly so, that lines of type must 

come and go ! 

" Extra ! " Has joy come into the world ; ranks broken file ; the 
old flag furled ? 

Has somebody, somewhere, lived so true that the world has dis- 
covered and sings anew ? 

Has gold come where there was poverty? Has life come where 
it was thought to die ? 

Well, earth hath its souls, as heaven its kings ; but the extras do 
rarely announce such things ! 



SONS OF THE SUN 77 



AS EGO, 



What was I to any one 

Ere I came to be? 
Was 1 love, light, breath of Pan, 

Or a harmony ? 

I was I, I think alway, 

In every form maybe ; 
Whether breath of bloomy May 

Or hght on deep blue sea. 



IN THE LIBRAL. 



Over my cradle, in babyhood, 

Over the youth of me. 
Hung the hand of Fate with its gleaming state 
Of jeweled ecstacy. 
" Marvel not ! " called the south winds when 
They swept by the coiled gate, 
Where the roses grew and the cocks they crew, 
And the stars spun fair estate. 
" Marvel not ! " spoke the wide noon sky. 

In its white, still, silent power : 
" The world is on ; the time is won ; 
Cometh thy golden hour ! " 



78 SONS OF THE SUN 



THE COYOTE^S CALL, 



What Saul harps through thy sinews? What lost soul 
Rearing his man has so far lost his trail 

As to with strange laws bind, to procreate 
Rays, so sharp toothed, in atavistic wail ? 

Heart-breaking and heart-rending, little one. 
Son of the wild things, where is thy life run ? 

Latest addition I to nature's harp, 

Which is but lesser name for God's great heart ; 
Latest string, vibrant with the piteous call. 

As need was there for more of tenderness. 
Latest, as need had, harper I for Saul, 

Where something was that pity should redress. 
To me in spheres of sound, proclaiming need. 

The pitying respond. They hear me not. 
For in the desert fastness is my home; 

But in vibration it goes, the sense of ought. 
To men, — and pity ; this the coyote's ohm ! 



IN THE TOILS 



Mind: 

1 am man, human 1, — set in flesh, impulse, will ; 

I as others. Sweeps tempest, sweeps hope. They distill 

All the sweets of illusion. Swift follow I on, — 

The price to ambition ! sought — circled — and gone ! 



SONS OF THE SUN 79 



I am flesh, but not wholly, tho in flesh' control ; 
I were law to my circuit if I knew the whole 
Of the wonderful nature, life-given to me ! 
I strive and I master, — but not as 1 free. 

I am man, — I am ego : the cry of the man. 

Is it privilege, discipline, law or the can 

Of the gods, that God seems to be reachless and far 

In the din of the world — in the mind of the hour? 

I heap up much treasure, domain and estate ; 
I race with my kind, — but — the far ultimate ? 
Is power's ascent skyward in on-heave and throe? 
Am I God's love or prey ? Do I stay ? Do I go ? 
Am I fiUing a law? Am I accident, — plan? 
Can I trust as the stars, and yet swing as a man ? 

I cry unto God and I shriek in the night 

To prevail and to win ; but I moan in affright 

At the thought, or the whisper, of death-angel's call ! 

Is this end— must 1 go — must I die — is this all ? 

Where is science ; religion where ? No power to save ? 

Must I go? Is this all? Just lights out and — the grave? 

Spirit : 

I am soul. I am earth not. I look to the sky. 
The winds, hills and beauty ; the best in the mind, 
And I call to the outer, " Be gentle, and find 
We never were strangers, but misunderstood ; 
Thou fiber, 1 motif — the ultimate, good !" 



80 SONS OF THE SUN 

I am soul. I am thing that must traverse this sphere ; 
Why, I ask not. 'Tis law ; and the fact that I'm here 
Compels me to bravery, duty and breath ; 
Endeavor, behavior, — the brotherly mood, 
'Till 1 soar again free, through death's white altitude. 



MYSTICAL DRAMA. 



I needed Ibsen, Maeterlinck, and man 

Of such idea ; drama I, and speak 
For the great all of life, — in its full span. 

As Christ, the Jew, the sky-god, graces Greek 
As under skies where victory's chariots roll, 

Resplendent that another has gone down; 
Or in the temple where deep clangings toll 

The miserere, that death has claimed one. 

I needed Hauptmann, Sudermann, and those 

Of Goth descent ; for drama, I must speak 
For the great race's soul, as full-blown rose; 

But too much English thought had made me 
weak, 
In lines that were divine and kept man in 

Truth always, had he ne'er been written Sin. 
I, drama, and must tell you all of this : 

Art comes not to world plaything and amiss. 



SONS OF THE SUN 81 

1 needed mystic will to plough the mind, 

Ethics, amold to fit the whole of sphere ; 
I lesson, argument, to humankind, 

Its all of truth and vision to make clear. 
Interpretation at the will of Mars 

Is hour no more ; the soul calls for its law. 
Who revels in the panoply of stars 

Knows not the Art-will in its cosmic draw. 



THE FULL OF FAITH* 



" He" or "she and the babies" — say the morning papers,— 
' a suicide" ! 
And then they comment, or rail, or chide 
Until they obscure our philosophy, or clearer vision of ought 

to be, 
On "he" or "she and the babies." 

Shall we revile them ? Shall we decide if law, or faith in the 

crucified. 
Should govern the actions of others when we've harried and 

snubbed and beaten them. 
As " he" or "she and the babies" ? 

" Ah well, for us all some sweet hope lies !" the poem prates or 
the preacher sighs ; 



82 SONS OF THE SUN 

And I, as you, thou he or she, have often been tempted to go 

and see : 
Have often been tempted to go and seek that promised country 

which wise ones speak. 
When bluffed and harried, confused, thrust through by the things 

of this world, that have power to; 
Like " he" or she and the babies." 

So, gaping of type, confusion of cry, howl at the deed if you will. 
But I 

Hold fast to the promise of ancient pen and trust to the law of 
the life again ; 

That faith is the final that sometimes speaks in the act that un- 
covers, recovers and seeks ; 

That faith is the final that now has said, " I'll chance it with 
God — I am not afraid," 

In ''he" or "she and the babies." 



IDEALIST AND EDITOR 



Dear sir, I such words write as these, 

Not as the leaflets on the trees, — 

But springing from a torn heart's flood 

Of light, when it had understood 

Man is as he doth think, indeed ; 

So to think well of man, my creed ; 

To speak in courage, to give grace 

To life and thought. May such have space? 



SONS OF THE SUN 83 



Madame, for poetry and such, — 

The market-editor doth much 

Prefer some courtesy to hogs : 

Quotations, — this disease of dogs 

Is filling now, with interest, 

Much of our space. The woman drest, — 

That, too, we use ; 

A cooking story ne'er refuse ; 

Face washes, bust developers. 

All current thought as it appears. 

" Get up some old-line, stinking mess 
About the rich. You see, the press 
Is run on principles to please 
The general whole. Now, things like these," 
Touching my clean, trim pages white, — 
' A good tale on how drunkards fight 
Will interest far more ; or sport — 
The knockout blow, the rib retort. 
How Jiminy Got Through the Jail,' — 
We paid good money for that tale. 
'Old Bycroft by His Mistress Sued,' 
'Children at Ten Are Rated Lewd,' — 
People read such things. None too chaste 
The general, busy public taste : 
Our politics a dirty mess ; 
The public office in duress ; 
Honor and marriage — one to ten ; 
Women superior to men ; 



84 SONS OF THE SUN 



Welcome the treatment of these themes ! 
Your stuff is more like angels' dreams ! 

' Our bank account it must be thought 
Upon, in such things. Like as not 
You never heard about the pot 
That, always calling kettle black, 
Kept kettle always so. No lack 
Then ; kettles always came that way. 
To hear the ruck, and put up pay. 
The educator thus, in time. 
The pot became ; put this in rhyme. 
Dub all men bad, and keep it up ; 
They follow, as the chained pup. 
You and your audience are one ; 
They read, — and follow — while they run. 

Dear editor, — all thanks, but I, 
With faith in man, cannot so lie ! 
The same tho our philosophy. 
That "as man thinketh so is he." 



PAIN. 

O, human heart, thy gift of pain, 
It saveth man, it saveth mind 
From all the strange leer of the hind 

It saveth unto life again ! 



SONS OF THE SUN 85 



ALIMONIAC. 



O God, O gods ? and I married for love, — 
True, green truck that you are ! 
O, when a man can carry the law 
On his side, why bow to the heavenly flaw 
Of things that do choke and do cramp in his craw ? 
The man all ahuman! 
The virtuous woman ! 
An ethical system supposed from above, — 

A man born in hot heats of all lovers' star; 
I want you no more for the truths that you are ! 
Bah, woman, calm-templed ; 
Bah, thin, chastened bust ! 
Take your clothes and go home ; 
I man, progress, force, lust ! 

Thank you, my brother, not otherwise I ; 
But I lust for the spirit and things of the sky. 



BLUE AND GOLD, 



What is true at last will tell," in the mainstreams of our day ; 
They who serve the gods serve well ; other service is decay. 
They who served are by the gods, gods are they to earth reborn. 
Lend the spheres, the cosmos nods; blue the Lotus, gold the 
corn ! 



86 SONS OF THE SUN 



THE TRADE WIND 



Why love I my purse-poor neighbor? 

I don't ; that's the order of hate. 
I cannot endure the labor 

Of his lean hand on my gate. 
If I loved him I'd gather and stuff him 

With the rare things I enhance ; 
I'd tenderly hold and puff him, 

Till I robbed him of his chance. 

Why do I love my baby? 

The hate of the law compels. 
I otherwise had left it 

To the breeds high up on the fells ; 
To be of the great force tended, 

In the wisdoms of God to come 
To be lord of some new dimension, — 

The builder of some new Rome. 

Why love I that fair woman ? 

She's something that I am not ; 
I want to possess and to have her 

To add to my stuffs and lot ; 
So I get and I own and I wear her, 

I flim-flam her with my will ; 
I bully and pet and tear her, 

Till she, like an ass brought still. 



SONS OF THE SUN 87 

Weareth my purple harness, 

My jewel and oriflamme ; 
Sits where I let her, as sitter, 

And follows me, that am. 

Why love I creed and the preacher? 

They will give up all to me. 
They will take me on as their teacher, 

They will dandle the whores I free ; 
Where disease stalks tall and lordly 

While sin it is named by the hour. 
By dimmed men, stung, in the presence 

Of the great God's living power. 
I gather my truths and am master. 

The great snake hold I at length. 
Who knoweth fear, he is maudlin ; 

Who knoweth truth, he is strength. 

So bind I as love in the tankard 

From which the red rot runs. 
For love doth empurple the wisher. 

But it weaketh the wished ones. 
1 curry the manes of their horses, 

I plait for them lordly tales ; 
I sign them in rajas' courses 

Till for me their hammer flails. 
I drink their blood if they have it, 

And I drink their slush if not; 
I fill with their stomachs' tender. 

The famine, the fear and rot. 



88 SONS OF THE SUN 

Till they give me their all in meaning 

As wise fools, while they draw 
The sword to their own defeating; 

Such is love's primal law. 
O, hate hath its wonderful mission, — 

It the splendor of things come down 
It teaches the richest wisdom. 

How man may wear his crown 
On his own head, truly and greatly. 

If he have the fair hold there ; 
O, hate has its kingdoms stately 

In domain everywhere ! 



WIVES AND MEN, 



Nevertheless be it remarked that even a Russian steppe has 
tumuli and g-olden ornaments ; also that many a scene that looks 
desert and rockbound from the distance, will unfold itself, when 
visited, into rare valleys. — Ca.rlyte, 

To my own bosom came there one, his overmuch the lade 
Of many graces of the wealth of quality self-made ; 
A man he who could meet his bills, with keeping end in view. 
Who dabbled him in realty, and wore his coat askew. 

O, regular the beefsteaks are, with this good kind of man. 
But O, the gawkish, dual life it makes th' American ! 
I lean across his board, at last, to learn the bed's the thing, 
By which to catch th' approval of this great anointed king. 



SONS OF THE SUN 89 

So hapless, I beguile myself with foods and things that sate, 
Badger the poor, the ignorant and the unfortunate ; 
Badger the servant and the house, the purse, hug every waste, 
In short, of things I do not need, to cultivate the taste. 

A little fineness, aye, romance, some flower of culture will, — 
I make it faith, shall some day bloom on that, my sweet dunghill ; 
I make it patient grace to wait for blossoms, — no time, why ? 
O, business first, some score to beat, or flash a costlier rye. 

But shall I raise the laugh the while, and a new love's camp in- 
vade ; 
Attempt, with harlot's brew, to heal hurts of protected trade ? 
I look about, alike they all, unceasingly beknit 
In money-getting, dogs, cigars; in marriage much misfit. 

* * * 
So, daughter, fetch the slippers now, your father's at the door, 
While I some violets pin on ; O infinite, chaste bore ! 
The days they run, the years are gone, all well-to-do they go ; 
The fire aburning dully down comes to its red, deep glow. 

At last I flame me forth : O, this the all of it, I cry ; 

time, O death, — 'twill soon be up, and no immortal I ! 

1 call my mirror, call my maid — the children are at school — 
VVe readjust my looks, the work, lay out an art schedule. 

In almost fright I call to them, masters in finest paths. 
In law of paintings, music, books; 1 drop my Turkish baths. 
Forthwith, O thou who me hast made, and set me in such life, 
Let me to know the Hghts of it, — what shall the modern wife? 



90 SONS OF THE SUN 

I bear in patience, silent ways ; each day has something won. 
Four years go by and I emerge ; I greet the rising sun ! 

joy, O glory, that I learn, ere sulking back 1 go, 
Aholding to my crucifix, aweeping and awoe ! 

0, joy of earnest privilege ! At last, O logic strange, 
Modern American woman's life holds promise of true range ! 
My husband he has goods, his church ; peaceful knows land and 

hymn; 

1, finding beauty everywhere, at last am painting him ! 

Young I, and happier almost, than pretty daughters, who 
Look up to me as fine and wise ; no fleshy bugaboo. 
On canvas pour I visions fair; with music 'rich my mind. 
Or books ; and so comes royal day when ego, self, I find. 

And as I come to clearer view, and poise to know at last, 

1 thank the gods, 1 thank the man, for all that smeared, dull 

past. 
O, lordly moorings has the wife, heart-findings deep and whole, 
If she but make the best of it and pull by her own soul ! 

May it not law be of the soul, in its onrushing aim. 
That women, in this day, shall wholly light the culture flame? 
Shall wave it high and swing it far, fair priestess of new Greece, 
Till all the race shall lighted be by the soft rays of her peace ? 

May it not be, tho passing strange, some day we'll understand, 
That man nor woman can give self, tho giving help and hand ? 
May it not be that finer sweep of truth's loom, for this sphere. 
Was folded up, as music, in sounds once we could not hear ? 



SONS OF THE SUN 91 

That marriage it is happiness for us, when we discern 
The larger meanings of its reach, and with its bigness turn ? 
And may it not be coming truth to know the statement wild, 
That e'er two people can be one, save only in their child ? 

That she as woman, he as man, distinct and separate are ; 
As two they came, as two must go, to find immortal star? 
To sphere which is nor mate nor love, nor preference ; but sea, 
Which holds the soul of all the race, one immortality ? 



UNDER GOLD HELMETS.* 



Across the sun's strong days of all the past 

That echo back along the eternal hour, 
Swept strong, wise men, those beings beautiful, 

Who saw the reach of man as one of power. 

Great sons were they, when race leapt into moods, 
Cultures and teachers even as in our day, — 

Who come asearch for truth, discover it, 

And so hang new suns 'cross the human way. 

And the way human many such has had, — 

Drunk of them, scorned them, loved them, lived by them ; 
Found that rare fountains never gush by chance, 

But rather are the time's new garment hem. 



* Written in admiring- regard for those women who, in our day, have taug-ht 
transcendence as the power of the human will. 



92 SONS OF THE SUN 

New garment hem ! And always there are those 
So fine they hold the unearthly good, and all ; 

Who friendly, on its quality join hands, 

New faith to stand in, firm, its guarding wall. 

Its guarding wall first seedings to enclose. 
Or round the field to stand till logos-flower 

Rise to its fuller life, in new spoke things, — 
The life-dew golden for the racial hour ! 

Dower golden which, as ancient manna, falls 
When cosmic inspiration, men would fear, 

Is at an end and sad starved times have come; 
Which never come. Life rises sphere on sphere. 

In sphere on sphere, — the peoples, schools and cults 
Or cultures, we must next knit in, to move 

Forward in lion leaps, to destinies 
That are provide of universal love ! 

Love universal many such has let through. 
Since old of order, cast in mighty throe, 

Spoke through the clear-eyed Persian wanderings, 
Or shone in Sanscrit lily's wonder glow ! 

A wonder glow the Buddha syllable, — 

When far, bereft of home and child and wife. 

The young prince, in the desert, orderings 
Of nature learned, and all true law of life. 



SONS OF THE SUN 93 

Life's light it flamed again, another word, 

In soul of temper of the fair young Jew ; 
To follow whom brought all men low to kneel, 

Simple as children, as child, tender, true ! 

Childlike and trustful, — truth's way of all times ! 

It were mere dogma to claim such domain. 
And build not back to youth, the simple heart, 

And life lived real, in earnest, without pain. 

Pain free, — and this the golden, central prop 

In all these messages of splendid arch ! 
For this, who hath, hath also peace and health ; 

Wealth comes to him, and all good spans his march. 

Ancient the glory, long the story tells. 

That these fair women preach and fetch anew : 

Man part of God, man hath eternal state, 

Man shall not die ; this golden their love's brew ! 

Truths luminant, truths glorious, tender they, 

Along lines beautiful, from out the air, 
Touch of the heavens, the gods, the faiths, to men ; 

And so paths open to the eternal stair ! 

Stairs powered with golden law, life mighty, blent 

With possibility of reach supreme; 
As high and higher pulls the immortal word. 

Fetching the race to godhead of its stream! 



94 SONS OF THE SUN 

The stream's godhead ! O, if mankind but knew 
The grandeur of the self that these words prove, 

More as the immortal would he make his way 
And reach he nearer to the powers of Jove ! 

Drive would he golden chariots, panoplied 

In law, truth, love, health, the auroral casque ; 

And joyfully, as holding the divine. 

Fetch he the way to heaven a sweeter task ! 

Radha immortal ! Golden ones of Ram ! 

Strong sons of God : this is the word that she. 
Woman sweet, gentle, spiritual, fine, 

Doth first pronounce for man, since Calvary ! 



HOW IS MAN MAN FREE? 



Dost blame the state, its laws, thy love, 
Thy health, thy fortune, or above 
All else, the church, thy poverty, 
O man, who ragest to be free ? 

Whole nations sometimes laws can find. 
Or politics, to them less blind 
Than what they've had ; but being free ' 
That, each must stand alone to be. 



SONS OF THE SUN 95 



Alone, the individual thing 
*Twixt whom, and life or fate, there spring 
Rivulets sweeping. Man must see 
And choose alone his destiny. 

Tho office fall or state compel, 

Ideal lift not, nor yet well 

Motive at fair shrine seemingly ; 

Be thou not crushed, — they hold not thee. 

Tho cloister echo not sedate, 

The tread of priests, nor hymn, nor plate ; 

Tho worship no more purity ; 

Be thou not lost, — they hold not thee. 

The finer laws of being light 
Where moves afree the inner right. 
Set on thy soul, O man, and be, 
In beauty, courage, prayer, — be free. 

Tho death claim thine or life not move 
Along the currents thou would'st prove; 
That only, man, should engulf thee 
Which is thy fault ; then thou not free. 

Contention rarely brings content ; 
Triumph may win but coarse of bent; 
If claimed thy spirit by these things, 
Then shock or wreck can droop thy wings. 
Then thou not all that thou could'st be, 
Since it is thine, man, to be free. 



96 SONS OF THE SUN 



THE GOLDEN GOTH 



The Golden Goth in time of Thoth, 

He set him beaks to be. 

He trimmed the moth; he burned for both; 

The North it sets him free ! 

Flame of the Golden Goth: 

I light in mists no other seems to sunder, 

1 drift in spires, where lights so strangely roll ; 

1 reach to Earth, and then its life, O wonder, — 
All I control ! 

I, sky-god of the once Athenian story ; 

I, fjord-light, truer than the heavens here; 
I, lapped by France, in some past touch of glory 

I sigh thee, deva, near ! 

The Teuton lists not, but he bloweth tender, 
In calm reflection of our still, white snows; 

Which beckon, in the warm dawn, to surrender. 
The sun's gold glows ! 



COURAGE. 



What's born's born, out of law or in 
Make it thy care. So cures sin. 



SONS OF THE SUN 97 



ART AND START. 



O, the splendor of our feelings, when we want to be above 
The commonplace of doing, and we bow us down in love, 
To the masters great who carried from this working plane of ours, 
All the honors, money, credit, of some of its greatest hours ! 

We think we are the nothings and we think the others all, 
Till we fill the sphere professional with our own emotive gall ; 
O, empty are we left to it, and morning, noon and night 
Bow down to ask obsequiously, if we are doing right I 

Till all that fill the places of the market-stuffs of art. 

Do vibrate with the warm, red wines of our own true, bleeding 

heart ! 
Till all the book-stalls, all the streets, where things like ours are 

sold. 
Do fairly reek with attar of our rose's unwon gold ! 

But some day comes the man along, or else we come on him, 
Who finds the music that we hold the very kind to dim 
All poets, all composers, painters, writers, everyone, 
In short, who ever tried to do the things that we have done. 

And O, then 'tis an easy thing to make the spheres vibrate. 
For the whole big world is full of us, through worshiping the 

great ! 
Our hand it steadies gladly in the confident, strong one 
Of the publisher; and after that we simply pull the sun. 



98 SONS OF THE SUN 



IN MYSTIC LIGHT< 



The purpling, misty veil enfolds, — 
O summer sun, O air July! 

O verdure, 'cross my vision flung, — 
Is't thy great secret by and by ? 

Or is this hour, this mist, to be 

From out the orbs of intense power, 
As kindly hand, assuring me, 
" This is thy fateful hour "? 

Across the footlights, stretch'd in air 
Visions the drooping, silken fold 

Upon the fold, — a mournful grace 
In black and white ; the story's told ! 

Com'st thou, O messenger, to me. 
Or to the actor reading there, 

In rare, fine lines, his truths to reach. 
That art have finest care ? 

O life, O love, O art, O thread 
Of all endeavor; swing baton ! 

Thy Greek-like, last, majestic march, 
Though unto death, is on and on. 

Thy white hand, O director great, — 
O limner of art's finer grace. 



SONS OF THE SUN 99 

Hath borne the standard, to our time, 
Of truth and beauty in right place. 

Now banner, drooping in death's sign, 

Comes thy rich sweep to other hue ; 
Lo, the empurplish, psychic dawn ! 

Dear artist, soul it flames for you. 

The workers, doers of fine things, 

Or things that cross with heavier line, 

Do rarely know, alabor here, 
How life meets its divine. 

One spars the hill to split, to rend ; 

Another toils hard at the desk ; 
While o'er the harsh and din of things 

Floats life's white other, arabesque. 

They know not us, who aim and toil ; 

We know them not, white saints of light. 
Till death or deeper life and prayer 

Reveal what held us somehow right. 

Wife, love, home, riches, — these may draw 

As magnets great, life on its course ; 
But somewhere, spinners to the sun 

Attract in laws of heavenly force. 



100 SONS OF THE SUN 



ASPIRATION 



Let my steps in life be like 

As led of perfect day ; 
That I no more for life in me, 

Need ever pass this way ! 

Let my work be forward look, — 

Never backward, clear. 
Let me rise in columned lines 

As the truth sincere ! 

Let me lay the altar cloth, 

If work I do on earth. 
As at the fane of science in 

Its spiritual rebirth ! 

Every day's a wonder day, 

A revelation true 
Of splendor, in the sphere of man ; 

God grant we let it through ! 



LIVING TRUTHS. 



Each age its own true gospel has, each people its great seer ; 
Shakespeare has wrought the Englishman, effective, brave, sincere. 



SONS OF THE SUN 101 



FAITH. 



I bow me to an eastern savior, 
I greet, as coming king, the west ; 
I lift the loving palm to sunrise ; 
1 kneel, the sunset is my guest. 
I only know these larger ways ; 
I live in cultures, men and days. 
I wonders work for trade and shop ; 
I to philosophy a prop ; 
I store life while great changes roll; 
I pour again, the wealth of soul. 



ART THOU SO POOR? 



Think'st thou, brother, sister, little child, 
Thou hast the worst in having least ? 

It is thy opportunity, would 'st see 

Through the gray windows of the East. 

The East, whence came the prophets, saviors, law, 
The thought which said, " Man, thou art soul. 

Knowledge; thou right hast unto growth and good. 
It is thy true estate when thou art whole." 



102 SONS OF THE SUN 



Think'st thou, brother, sister, little child, 
That words, dropt dew-like, from the past, 

And held in tomes or temples or the church, 
Were other than the manna for you cast ? 

Cast from the far, far heavens of time's dawn. 
It almost seems, life 'neath those ancient skies ; 

But as compared with heats of this full age, 

' Twas sweet, fresh thinking at the race sunrise. 

It held the dewiness of cool sunrise, 

To order, freshen, cheer, uphold, recall, 

When in the noons or afternoons of time 

Man might, aburdened, even with honors, fall. 

Men might, too sorry, too worn out, to think, 
Foi-get they, too, were in some justice, gods ; 

Beloved, immortal and all luminant. 

Though seeming crushed, and heavily, like clods. 

Think'st thou, brother, sister, little child, 
Who seem as nne clay, beat to earth ; 

That all that is of great and splendor here, 
In such as thine and thee, had not their birth? 

In man, astript of all things, places, wealth, 

Who knew at last, now am I free 
To find the secret of the Universe, — 

God and the Spirit shall be all of me. 



SONS OF THE SUN 103 

Turn we to Christ, we must immortal make 

These sad ones ; for they seem to be 
Those who have given all birth promised them, 

To feed, create, renew, set others free. 

So think the many oftentimes ; and bear 

With modesty, their good and wealth; 
Feeling 'tis due to some fine consequence, — 

Some unknown law that is amove by stealth ; 

That sets, amove so, one in full of flesh. 

His ej^es shut, dimmed his sight ; 
Stripping yet others, that they have the chance. 

For their true spirit's fine and splendid flight. 

That rich and fat and glutton, for their hour. 
In chariots and in cumbering shawls aroU, 

It beats with buy and sell, for comfortings ; 
While the poor find their very law of soul. 
* * * 

Think'st thou, brother, sister, little child. 

Thou hast the worst in having least? 
There is a great law somewhere governing ! 

So thinks that East, — that wise and gray old East. 

So thinks the West, where men have learned to think, — 
That these like scattered, broken bits, and left. 

Have part important in the great sphere's life. 
As it renews, for perfecting, its weft. 



104 SONS OF THE SUN 



THE ELK'S REQUIEM. 



Over thy fair, firm white hand, that so oft has led us true, 
Do we chant this heavenly strand, that our love impels, to you. 

Into thy dear eyes we pour all devotion of all years ; 

It is life all ended, o'er ; now the deep, deep woe of tears ! 

Where thy footsteps lightly came, where thy proud head lifted 

tall, 
Where was all that wealth of fame, now the sad gray shadows 

call! 

Over thy white, stiffening band, that so oft has led us true, — 
Bend we, thy great spirit's band, thy soul somewhere to renew. 



IN THE PARK. 



Fair stretches, under deep green trees, 
Brooks trickle, babies play; 

Mothers in gewgaws. 

Nurses capped, 
White blooms are by the way. 

'Tis summer and the white clouds lift 
Ahigh along the blue, 

Their sweet enigma 

Of the drift 
Of all things, old or new. 



SONS OF THE SUN 105 



The ponds lie sparkling in the sun, 
Cool the breeze at noonday ; 

Blue skies bend kindly, 

White the roads, 
Has not life much sweet play ? 

Swift roll the chariots along, 
Glaziered automobile; 

While neat-limbed horses 

Neatly prance. 
Or fleetly spires the wheel. 

From landau, with its sweeping curves, 
Steps a fair lady down ; 

Aristocratic 

Are her lines, 
Flowing her grace of gown. 

A cigar's attar, manly step. 
Ah, 'tis a rendezvous ! 

A rosy blush, — 

A word, — a hush, — 
A gentleman in view. 

But lo, the parting of green boughs. 
Frightened, she gasps, pell-mell, — 

Much as if 

Good Lord Tennyson 
Had loosed his Lords of Hell. 



106 SONS OF THE SUN 

Pell-mell, she drops her handkerchief, 
Fair thing of softest lace. 

Clean to the grass ; 

But on they pass, — 
Pair they of choicest grace. 

All from the University, 
With tail between their legs ; 

They the whipped in, 

They free from sin, 
They are the culture pegs. 

Respectable they walk about. 
Respectable they swear ; 

They say "O my," 

Or else "O fie ! " 
And analyze the air. 



THE DEVIL 



What is he, the Devil, that men so fear? 

Well they may, well they may ; 

Squat at the ear 

Of every one living, of every one born, 

Is the cowardly scrimp of this 

Great unicorn ! 

Toadlike, indeed, comes he all men unto. 

To root from their lives High Ideal, their due. 



SONS OF THE SUN 



107 



HELL. 

Somewhere, they say, philosophy, 

It brooks it not, to hit 
Upon solution of idea. 

That truth it may have it ! 

They say the truth of things has been 
Dug up from its deep well. 

And this, the life that's here and now. 
This is the only Hell ! 

They say it fits the human mind, 
Which much of light hath got,— 

To so divide the space of it. 

And some such place has wrought. 

A place of courage, place of grace, 

If we can so endure. 
At least we own ourselves well in, 

And happy, through the lure 

We see in it to drop our skin 
Next plane to advance to, 

To work our way, to rise, to win, 
O, wonderful the view ! 

Then forward well we all may look. 
Just as the church has told. 



108 SONS OF THE SUN 



On outer spheres of being, wrought 
To fineness of fine gold. 

O, let us pray that this be true, 

For it is something fit, 
When one has the long way before. 

To know the worst of it. 



HEAVEN, 



And where is heaven? What heaven would'st thou have? 
To stand free, in the presence of the moral God ? 

Thou hast it here, wilt thou, this side the grave. 
Unconscious grace is life in flower and clod. 

Thou part of it, if from hates thou'It go free. 
O, Soul, thy possible is deity ! 

And what is heaven? How heaven wouldst thou know? 
Some glory rimmed by gold and purple glow ? 

Wouldst live in presence of diviner thing, 
Each hour brushed by some finer, lovelier wing 

Than thou hadst dreamed ? Then for thy soul's sake be 
Such glory in thyself ; — be Poetry. 

And how is heaven? If heaven thou wouldst be. 
Stand thou here in thy all. Philosophy ! 

Light comes as from celestial balustrades, 



SONS OF THE SUN 109 

Rayed by the good gods from the holy shades ; 

Thou' It walk in glory, heaven-feeling, free. 
In thought committing to Philosophy. 

And how dost heaven ? Wouldst thou be of it part. 
Doing its duty, throbbing as its heart ? 

As flame divine, as perfect love to spring 
Through all, in all ? Death must be met by thee 

Ere thou becom'st part of that chemistry. 
All other good, here canst thou, lovely one. 
But 'yond all Death and Life, thou'lt join the Sun. 



THE TRIANGLE. 



Man and woman, youth and age, cheer and gravity ; 
Strength, O, of all wisdoms, set in philosophy ! 

Light and courage, courage light. 

And now you know the whole, — 
Love it has no word for the final of this soul ! 

Masculine the splendor of this great, sweet part of me. 
Going, as one member, of my holy trinity ; 

Splendor never to be met 

On earth again ; as one — 
He crossed my life as shining being, gathered to the sun. 



110 SONS OF THE SUN 

One who knew the little hands, while yet of earth's sojourn, 
Reaching, needing, set in love ; they the hands to learn, 

Taught to tend the altar lights, 

Altars to bestow ; 
Brave he, and the hero ; he the sympathetic glow ! 

Neither man nor woman, and yet woman and man both ; 
Neither young nor old, and yet age as well as youth ; 

Neither happy nor yet grave. 

As grave and happy, too; 
Comes the great Upanishad of my True ! 



IN THE SIGN OF THE GREAT BEAR 



It was the calm of evening 
In the sign of the Great Bear, 

Who signs in many places. 
And the zodiacal lair. 

The lake it grayly stretched away, 
The deeper shades told tales ; 

All evident the phosphorus 
As right for finding grails. 

I lit my pipe for evidence. 

Just as Walt Whitman would ; 

Only it was the Pipe of Pan, 
As mostly fish folk should. 



SONS OF THE SUN HI 



The first gray wonder that arose 
From mesh of curling seine, 

Took on a shape triangular, 

And spoke its name, " Helene." 

Priestess thou, O temple-one I 

In ecstasies, I cried ; 
Abide with me, thou beautiful, 

And be my spirit guide. 

' I can't, I am not built that way, 
O, land of summer-chutes ! " 
At which she coiled ahigh her coif. 
In rings of llama-flutes. 

Her eyes grew black as raven's wings, 
And a hide of dark, soft hair, 

Thick, staunch, of woolly richfulness. 
Quick grew upon her there. 

Till I saw how Hindu mental domes 
Pass them to Russian clan ; 

That they may give their wills to us. 
In the signs American. 

But finally, as bear complete, 
With hearty growl and paw : 
" I've come to tell your fortune by 
The old Thibetan law." 



112 SONS OF THE SUN 

Then fetched I quick a weather-block, 

A tablet I could use ; 
A pencil that I knew had point, 

And work would not refuse. 

And wrote I in my dream-book all 
That 1 could sign, from Bear, 

Abeating, with its great big stick, 
In a truly Russian air. 

" O, little child, of poet stuff. 
Long hast thou," she began ; 

" Obedience to unwritten laws. 

Of Life and Thought and Man. 

" Long have we thee seen kneeling, while 
Thy star rose thwart the sky ; 
We watched as from our blue balloons, 
When you were asking why." 

If thou art Mr. Beecher, I, — 
More evidence, thou squirm ! 

Put forth it was, but more it looked 
Like a thousand-legged worm. 

" I am not Mr. Beecher, child. 
Nor any one from Funk's ; 
But look I for a lady here 

With markings like a skunk's." 



SONS OF THE SUN 113 



O, I am she, the mark's on me, 

The polecat hues I own ; 
In black and white 1 energize, — 

Book-print it is my zone. 

The Lake, the Star, the Princess sign, 

The Triangle and Hare, — 
They gleamed them in the moonlight then ; 

Tests they, known everywhere ! 

'* O, lady dear, I've much to tell, — 
Watch now, how I can dance ! 
I all this learned of Great Bear Scald, 
At a spiritualist se-ance. 

'' And hist ! and hark ! and energize ! 
Before 1 am gone down ; 
For come I from the llamas' land, 
To offer you a crown." 

O stuff, O jokes, dear Blavatsky, — 

Thou Russian-Bengalese ! 
Bloom I on presidential grounds, — 

Talk not of monarchies ! 

" Thy hour must come, as come all things 
Which own to law alift ; 
Thy sign, e'en now, is on the key ; 
In word there's giving gift. 



114 SONS OF THE SUN 

" Comes one of Earth's great poet-ones, 
A singer he of hymns 
Of tiger-cats and principles 
And lights and canon's dims ; 

" Who will, with all round word of mouth 
And pen and pencil, sweep 
The all of energy to you. 
Dear poet, it's your heap ! 

" Then shall your sons of gold break through ; 
Then shall your signs come on. 
Good-bye, thou Chant of Baby Bears, 
Till the Immortal Dawn ! " 

The shades grew deeper, — the sunrise ! 
* * * 

The summer winds away ; 
When lo, imperial surprise ! 

The Sunday papers say : 

"The Sons of Martha," they are it ! 
And Kipling, thou the man 
To sign the whole force of the earth, 
To a Norse- American ! 

You give me sons who oceans are, 
While I have sat and laughed ; 

You sign me millions, trades and mills, 
The ores and hills and craft ! 



SONS OF THE SUN 115 

Princely is this, Immortars gift, 

From wealth of scriptural spin ! 
I hie me to a printer's shop, 

My sons their works begin. 

THE SENTINEL. 



Who is, to me, a sentinel ? 

The man who names me soul ; 

Who calls me music, art, or late 

To come into the whole 

Of thing I'd be, if shining bay 

Had hung above my birth, to say 

With what wing I should cleave my way. 



POSSIBILITY. 



I saw a life to lift its own. 

By sweetness, grace and prayer ; 

It won its way, it held its sway, 
The law of God was there ! 

I saw a wreath of steam to push 

Its little weight in air; 
It won its way, it moved the day ; 

The laws of God were there! 

I saw this power alive in things, 
Earth, sea, or thought, or air ; 

O, 'tis the zone the spheres make known,- 
God's law is everywhere ! 



116 SONS OF THE SUN 



THE EDITOR. 



Thy ideas, — they are God -descended ; 

They bless the earth ; they knit health, life and gold 
They are since Eden was or Iran ended, 

Confucian, Trajan, Greek, the Christ. They hold 
Fair things to give us life, to lend us lustre, 

Which from all times pour forth ; 
They cast from the great ports whence forces muster. 

East, west, the south, the north ! 



BEST TIMES 



Were only old times good times ? 

Were courage, culture, art 
Or kindness, only of some past 

In which we have no part? 

O, quickly set about, friend. 

Lift thyself high, to see 
From clearer poise, our times and men. 

If mean or great they be ! 

Is work not now much for work's sake. 

With honor finest care ? 
Do God and good not now know true. 

Dear handclasp everywhere ? 



SONS OF THE SUN 117 

Where dwells not light of courtesy ? 

Where makes not virtue true ? 
Where does the earth not faithfully ? 

Where are the skies not blue? 

Where now is good not written 

In its greater lines, as God? 
Are any blind, save wilfully, 

To whither man has trod ? 

THE PRESENCE. 

(ROME) 

It floats as fine idea. 

It fills me till I know 
Myself no whole, but thy dear soul. 

And in all light I go ! 

With white, still'd hands, thou liest, 

A form and dust somewhere ; 
While I, thy spirit essence. 

Woo softly, from the air ! 

Thou whisperest in the silence, 

Thou namest all in me ; 
I lay my life down never. 

Till I have lived in thee. 

To truths of things of thinking. 

To help to solve the things 
Prophetic souls have spoken. 

Thou lendest richest wings. 



118 SONS OF THE SUN 



NATURE. 



And where is the end of natural law, — 
Where Will takes reign over Instinct's draw ? 

Some say it ends not, but that the Will, 
Tho law of the spirit, is nature's still. 

That to Mind from matter, to Will from clod, 
Are the steps up, up, of the Immanent God. 



THE ARTIST'S FAITH. 



That thou livest, my soul, I believe ; 

That thou hast love and right to it, my lance. 

That here thy sphere, thy genius ; thus I cleave, 
I dedicate, renew, I consecrate 
To thee, all I revere, each hour I live. 

Each hour I live I all thy graces own ; 
My prayer, to reach the uttermost of all 

Thy spirit, powers and beauties can make known. 
Each hour I dedicate, I consecrate. 
My truest service ; all would I intone. 



SONS OF THE SUN 119 



HAIL POETS! WAKE POETS! 



Hail poets, wake poets ! thine be the white, true hands 
To fetch from the lyre 
The diviner fire. 

That the world-soul understands ! 

Hail poets, wake poets ! doth life need the poet no more ? 
While the skies are blue 
Or the brooks run true, 

'Tis always the poet's hour. 

Hail poets, wake poets ! wind you your horns at the dawn ! 
With laugh and with song, 
And with heart's cheer along. 

And with all sweet love, come on ! 

Hail poets, wake poets ! O, the world for its weariness, — 
It is tired today ; 
O, the world needs play ; 

With your songs break its duress ! 



THE ACTOR. 



* * * 

Art lives if live the soul 

And the artist read great his part ; 

For the human race was idead in grace. 

And its beautiful help is art. 



120 SONS OF THE SUN 

Men live in the artist's work ; 
And men, when art is great, 
Are in the lead of the gods indeed,- 
Then brave and true the state ! 



A BALLAD OF MEXICO. 



On the beach, at old Tampico, where the moon was shining 

clear. 
Sat a fat Americano, with a little lady near. 

Bold, he had one arm around her, and he held her dainty hand, 
While he told her of his mortgages and stocks and bonds and 
land, 

That he had in some great country, lying off beyond the seas. 
Where the things of market value, they had mighty powers to 
please. 

And he told her of his prowess, how he played *most any game. 
Till he filled her head with nonsense, and with yarns he did the 
same. 

Fair explained he what were margins, and availability; 

That a climax was approaching it was more than plain to see. 

Little Mexicana, silent, lent him most attentive ear; 
Pleased she at his talk of money ; pleased she at the moonlight 
clear. 



SONS OF THE SUN 121 

And so ecstatic grew he that he almost squeezed her hand, 
When a great big water-spider stuck its head up through the 
sand. 

To his relatives he wigwagged, " Something doing on the shore" ! 
And there came, in half a minute, quite three hundred thousand 
more. 

Now the tourists at Tampico, where the water-spider dwells, 
Think that it is a tarantula, and they stay in their hotels. 

And they quake and fear and tremble, and most awful lies they 

swap. 
Of how they've done tarantulas, until they couldn't stop. 

But never at Tampico, — always under distant skies; 
So they quake and fear and tremble, and they put each other 
wise. 

And the fat Americano, tho o'ergreat at times his fears. 
Would risk much for little ladies, if they'd lend their pretty ears. 

So he kept on talking values, till he knew not where he was ; 
For lo, the beach all round him was full of tarantulas. 

Brave was Mexicana, silent, as she saw them closing round ; 
But she feared not water-spiders, — knew she old Tampico 
ground ; 

When this monstrous, long-legged fellow rose right up before 

them there. 
And the fat Americano leaped him, shrieking, high in air ! 



122 SONS OF THE SUN 

But on came the spiders, rushing, just as far as eye could see, 
And he leaped him, and he shrieked him, and he fell down in 
the sea ! 

And O, the spiders marveled then, the awful splash to hear. 
In the blue Tampico waters, where the moon was shining clear ! 

Quick they fetched them long lines, curling, fetched they tri- 
dent-hooks, at hand ; 

And they grappled and they reached him and they drew him 
safe to land. 

Some for warming-pans they ran them, shawls and hoods and 

rugs, amain. 
While Americano silent sat, and held to his watch-chain. 

Cups of pulque-drinks they gave him, and warm beans they fed 

him well ; 
Then, at Mexicana's orders, led him safe to his hotel. 

And the waters lapped the rumpled sands all smooth again, and 

white 
Lay the beach of old Tampico, calm and fair in the moonlight. 



THE MUSICIAN'S LOVE LETTER 



It is one thing to be master, 
And another, not to know 

How all radiant life leaps faster, 
At love's sympathetic glow. 



SONS OF THE SUN 123 



It is one thing to guard treasure 
Of the beautiful of truth ; 

Heap'd aglow, in score and measured- 
Breathings they of love and youth ; 

Swing baton to cool vibration, 

Beautiful my only good ; 
True, to pour, as grand libation, 

All the masters understood ; 

It is one thing, while I see thee. 

To escort these mists of sound ; 
And another, to set free the 

All of lessons masters found ! 
* * * 
It is one thing to be master, 

And another, quite, to call 
All this brood, without disaster, 

From the far depths of Valhall ! 

Dear romance, it must be ending ; 

I alabor here, must find 
As emotion all-transcending, 

Stern forbearance, will and mind. 

Will must I be, — home and honor; 

Thou, life's ecstasy, afar ; 
Never shall such woe dwell on her 

I have ta'en for household star. 

* * * 



124 SONS OF THE SUN 

It is one thing to be woman, 
And another, quite, to save 

All there is of best, in human. 

From the deep depths of its grave. 

All these little Hnes aflaming 

With that holier thought of thine. 

Do but free man from its claiming, 
As a draught of heavenly wine ! 



NOV 29 isy#