Class _../?£y^^ ^ Book.. (jm0^" / f^ 3 COPyRIGHT DEPOSIT. m ESSAGE AND ELODY ^ ^ ^ Richard Burton's Books Message and Melody $i.oo, net Literary Likings A Book of Essays jS/.jo Memorial Day $1.00 Lyrics of Brotherhood $1.00 Dumb in June $0.75 Lothrop Publishing Company Boston jESSAGE AND A Book of Verse RICHARD BURTON LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY, ^ BOSTON THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, Two Copifts Received MAR 30 1903 Copyright Entry CLASS (X. XXc. No. COPY B, Copyright, 1903, By Lothrop Publishing Company. all rights reserved PUBLISHED MAR., 1903 I? CONTENTS PAGE Song of the Unsuccessful U The Old Santa Fe Trail J5 The Soul to the Body 17 Conquerors 19 Sidney Lanier 23 To Robert Louis Stevenson 24 A Ballad of Kinsmen 27 The Claim of Kindred 31 Strength in Weakness 34 The Morning Summons 35 The City of Laish 37 Vision 41 In Time of War 44 The Background Group 48 Exit Nightingale 51 Coronado 55 The Procession 60 When the Dream comes True 64 CONTENTS PAGE Poems of Music 67 An Old Song 69 Second Fiddle 72 Street Music 75 In a Tlieatre 77 At the Symphony 81 Violin and Viola 83 A Waltz Thought 84 A Catch 86 A Pianist 87 Dove Notes 88 SeaMood8 89 Sea Rhapsody 90 A Marsh Message 94 Lullabies 97 At First 99 At Last J02 Slipper Time J06 Nature Pieces J09 The Song of the Open JIJ Autumn Corn IJ3 Quail and Thrush 114 Early Winter JI5 CONTENTS PAGE The Fall of the Leaves 116 Autumn Song 118 The HUls of Home 119 The Pine Tree J20 The Valley 121 The Bugler from the Peaks 124 FaU Fields 125 Nature's Book 126 Indian Summer 127 The Broken Promise 128 On the Death of a Mother 130 Before a Shrine 132 The Deserted School 134 The World Asleep 137 The Unforgotten 139 "Words, "Words, Words" 141 A Forecast 142 Sound in Silence 144 Penelope's Lover 145 Wall Street 146 Peace out of Pain 148 Don't Dream, but Do ! 149 A Ryme for Christmas 152 CONTENTS PAGE Paia J54 City Streets 155 Memoriala 157 The Homing Bird 159 Then J60 Creed and Deed 161 The Unspoken J62 Prayer Tides J63 Sanctuary J65 Revery 167 The Young Man's Prayer J69 To a Child Crying J70 Symbok J7J Memories 172 The Reformer 173 Hymn for a Town J75 Our City of Aerial Light 179 Play-room Poems 181 Snow and Rain 183 The "Wind-Broom 185 Star Ships 186 ESSAGE AND ELODY ^ ^ ^ SONG OF THE UNSUCCESSFUL lE are the toilers from whom God barred The gifts that arc good to hold. We meant full well and we tried full hard, And our failures were manifold. And we are the clan of those whose kin Were a millstone dragging them down* Yea, we had to sweat for our brother's sin, And lose the victor's crown. II MESSAGE AND MELODY The seeming-abic, who all but scored. From their teemingf tribe we come : What was there wrong with us, O Lord, That oor lives were dark and dumb ? The men ten-talented, who still Strangely missed of the goal. Of them we are : it seems Thy will To harrow some in souL Wc Site the sinners, too, whose lust Conquered the higher claims ; We sat us prone in the common dust, And played at the devil's games. 12 MESSAGE AND MELODY Wc arc the har d-Iwck folk, who strove Zealously, but in vain : We lost and lost, while our comrades throve, And still we lost again* We are the doubles of those whose way- Was festal with fruits and flowers ; Body and brain we were sound as they, But the prizes were not ours. A mighty army our full ranks make. We shake the graves as we go ; The sudden stroke and the slow heartbreak. They both have brought us low. 13 MESSAGE AND MELODY And while we are laying life's sword aside. Spent and dishonored and sad. Our epitaph this, when once we have died : ** The weak lie here, and the bad/' We wonder if this can be really the close, Life's fever cooled by death's trance ; And we cry, though it seem to our dearest of foes, ** God, give us another chance ! " 14 MESSAGE AND MELODY THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL ^T wound through strange scarred hills, down canyons lone Where wild things screamed, with winds fof company ; Its milestones were the bones of pioneers. Bronzed, haggard men, often with thirst a-moan. Lashed on their beasts of burden toward the sea : An epic quest it was of elder years. For fabled gardens or for good, red gold The trail men strove in iron days of old. 15 MESSAGE AND MELODY To-day the steam-god thondefs through the vast, While dominant Saxons from the hurtling trains Smile at the aliens, Mexic, Indian, Who offer wares, keen-colored, like their past : Dread dramas of immitigable plains Rebuke the softness of the modern man ; No menace, now, the desert's mood of sand ; Still westward lies a green and golden land. For at the magic touch of water, blooms The wilderness, and where of yore the yoke Tortured the toilers into dateless tombs, Lo ! brightsome fruits to feed a mighty folk* i6 MESSAGE AND MELODY THE SOUL TO THE BODY ^LD maiCf who longf hast friended me ^ Through many a shift of rain and sun, Now that the journey's well-nigh done. The wear and tear of Time, I see, Threatens a breach 'twixt me and thee. For I am strong, as ne'er before, While thou art waxen spent, and weak; The touch of tears is on thy cheek. Thy gait is limp, thy locks are hoar. The latch is broken at thy door. 17 MESSAGE AND MELODY Yet burns full bright my lamp within ; When it is quenched, what wilt thou do ? Dear comrade of the dusk and dew, Thou fellow-wrestler against sin In conflicts that God helped us win* To say good-bye, I cannot bear ; By all the bonds of brotherhood, If I encounter any good Whither I go, 'tis thine to share, — Boon friends together, Here or There! So, till our parting shall take place, I hold this sacred hope the while. To light my sorrow with a smile : That, when I soar and sing in space, I may behold thee face to face ! i8 MESSAGE AND MELODY CONQUERORS ]LL times and climes may claim you, O conquerors, mystic ones : How may my poor tongue name you. Dreamers 'neath many suns ? Makers of stately story, Shapers of wood and stone ; Painters of colored glory. Lovers of rhythmic tone ; 19 MESSAGE AND MELODY Weavers of fabrics wondrous, To last through the changeful years ; Mages of harmonics thundrous, Masters of mirth and tears ; Moulders of various beauty To challenge all time, and rest Secure in a sense of Duty Done at an Art's behest ; Soldiers, who stood in battle Rocks in a righteous cause ; Statesmen, who shook the rabble Awake to the better laws ; 20 MESSAGE AND MELODY Men of inventingf vision Who grapple with clod of cloudy Till earth take a gleam elysian And matter must speak aloud ; Pleaders for stricken masses, Men of the speech that sings ; Prophets, whose light overpasses The thicket of sensate things, — All climes and times may claim you. But one is your dream, your star : Brothers-in-arms we name you. Builders of Good ye are. 21 MESSAGE AND MELODY O conquerors, courage, aspire, Dream on, while ye kiss the rod ; One in your great desire. And one in the thought of God* 22 MESSAGE AND MELODY SIDNEY LANIER For a memorial meeting ten years after the poet's death HE miffc hangs mute arotind a tomb, mildew blight that follows bloom ! O sad cessation of a song Flote-sweet and like a trumpet strong! What do I say ? The dark's ashine With soul-light that is surely thine* What do I say ? The silence breaks In music that thy spirit makes. 23 MESSAGE AND MELODY TO ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON t^^|JEAR ghost, — whose ruddy presence needs lll^^^l^ must fling; A ray of cheer among thy brother shades In yon pale land of Sleep, — thy legacy The years make richer* For the fellowship Of gallant sottls who move down stirring ways Of blithe adventure ; for the moods of dream That blossomed, at the conjuring call of Art, Into Life's festal flowers of Romance ; 24 MESSAGE AND MELODY Fof lyric interludes of Songf, whose sound Comes in pathetic cadences j for words Apt, rare, and full of wisdom, touching deeps On deeps of human passion : for such gifts Surely the guerdon is love's long renown. But most, O Qjmrade ours, we owe to thee For that brave gospel thou didst ever bring — Not pulpit- wise, but sweet as speech of birds : Courage and kindliness and joy-of-life Even in its motley and keen-edged with pain ; High spirit against evil, and the laugh Unbitter ; and that indomitable belief In brotherhood. 'Twould shame us, looking on Thy struggle and thy triumph, should we play The craven ; yea, thy present happy peace Heartens all laggards. 25 MESSAGE AND MELODY Therefore seems it meet To hail thee hero, fondly to recall Thy valiant days, thy victory over doom, — Child of delight and heir of loveliness, Great friend, whose followers woold fain be true. 26 MESSAGE AND MELODY A BALLAD OF KINSMEN PIA BAY wears a smooth, bright face When the tropic winds are low, But the harbor carve is a fearsome place When the great winds rise and blow. 'Tis perilous for barks to ride At anchor, when the surge Comes thundering in from the sea outside And foams on the rocky verge* 27 MESSAGE AND MELODY From the Western States three ships were there, And one from the English Isle; They came when the skies were bland and fair. And the ocean ways a-smile. But the fierce storms smote them, till they tossed Like chips, 'twixt sea and sky ; And two of the ships of the States were lost. And the other drifted nigh The coral reefs, to death ; but saw The sturdy English ship Out from the harbo/s seething maw Toward open water slip. 28 MESSAGE AND MELODY And sotc they yearned to follow hef Beyond the barrier foam, To swap their coral sepulchre For the sea-Ieagoes leading home ; But the ill-starred Trenton could not sail Nor steam ; with beams aburst, A helpless hulk before the §fale. She staggered toward the Worst. Yet, as the English, inch by inch. Away from the shallows drew. The boys of the States, they did not flinch. For they cheered the other crew. 29 MESSAGE AND MELODY Yca^ never a soul showed craven then, Though their fate was plain to see ; The doomed men waved to the luckier men And gave them three times three. Three times three, and the cheer rang high Above the wind and the wave, As the English ship strained safely by. And the other on to her grave ! Oh, blood will tell, they were kinsmen all ! Give the gallant lads a place On the good high-seats of the heroes' hall To kindle our common race ! 30 MESSAGE AND MELODY THE CLAIM OF KINDRED V^@|^/ AM not one, but many: murmuring ^]li4} throw 8:h My blood I seem to hear a blended cry, Ancestral-strong:, bidding me up and do A million deeds before I come to die. Some of the voices call like organ tones Upon my soul for service that is meet ; Others unman me with melodious moans Or evil invitations perilous-sweet. 31 MESSAGE AND MELODY Some tell of high endeavor on the seas, Some, bogle-clear, declare that war is best ; Some lull me to a dream of summer ease In far-away, fair places where is rest. Betwixt high heaven and hell the ample air Thrills with their pleadings, vibrates to their breath ; Deep in my heart I feel their vast despair. Their every hope, their game of life and death. It is as though a countless company Drew a great circle round me, and did press Their myriad claims nor would not let me be Until unto them all I answered. Yes, 32 MESSAGE AND MELODY I am not one, but many : all the past Houses within my breast and summons me ; And only God shall speak the word at last To quell the storm and ^ivc the mastery, Since thus, despite my cherished pride of will, The passions of my kindred clasp me still ! 33 MESSAGE AND MELODY STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS B OT in the morning vigor, Lord, am I Most sure of Thee, bat when the day goes by To evening and, all spent with work, my head Is bowed, my limbs are laid wpon my hed, Lo! in my weariness is faith at length. Even as children's weakness is their strength* 34 MESSAGE AND MELODY THE MORNING SUMMONS 'HEN the mist is on the river, and the haze is on the hills. And the promise of the springtime all the ample heaven fills ; When the shy things in the wood-haunts, and the hardy on the plains, Catch op heart and feel a leaping life through winter-sluggish veins : 35 MESSAGE AND MELODY Then the summons of the morning like a bugle moves the blood, Then the soul of man grows larger like a flower from the bud ; For the hope of high Endeavor is a cordial half divine, And the banner cry of Onward ! calls the lag- gards into line* There is glamour of the moonlight when the stars rain peace below, But the stir and smell of morning is a better thing to know ; While the night is hushed and holden and trans- pierced by dreamy song, Lo ! the dawn brings dew and fire and the rap- ture of the strong. 36 MESSAGE AND MELODY THE CITY OF LAISH " Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw the people that were therein, how they dwelt careless, . . . quiet, and secure, and had no business with any men." R^^^AVE you read of the Orient people of yiwHlKl] Laish in the olden time, In the days when to battle was good and to kill was held no crime ? How they dwelt at quiet, and had nor business nor bicker with man, Until they were smqie by the sword in the gftip of the chieftains of Dan ? 37 MESSAGE AND MELODY The people of Dan came down and smote with the edge of the sword And builded a city therein, being led thereto of the Lord ; And the name of the city was changed from Laish, as they called it of yore, To Dan of the Danites, who came and conquered her people in war* Since so it is written, we honor the host that the victors became, And righteously vanquished the foemen and wreathed their towers in flame ; Like a fiat of flame they descended, for so they were guided of God, And so was the future unfolded by sweeps of His terrible rod. 38 MESSAGE AND MELODY And yet in my heart there must harbor a feeling of pity and pain Because of the people so peaceful, who never might mingle again In streets of their love and their childhood, in Laish, their home-city, that lay As far from the worries of worldlings, as night time is far from the day. And it seems that the glory of battle, the gory red signs of the same. Are pitiful-poor when we set them hesidc the lost calm of that name All dwellers in cities must mention whenso they would speak of a spot Where men were at quiet and peaceful, and mur- mur of war there was not. 39 MESSAGE AND MELODY Will some day that is hope of the dreamer, some place never chanted in song". Show peace in its borders unbroken, where men are both gentle and strong ? Shall the Iamb e'er be couched with the lion? Men ask it and look to the sky ; Christ came and his presence declared it, so the dream may not utterly die. 40 MESSAGE AND MELODY VISION m ^Y the boom of a bright, great sea. Once, under a tropic sky, In a scented night that was all alight With stars a-throb on high. Unsealed were the eyes of me : For the earth beneath my tread Shrank, and was like a smoke. And the mighty deep and the skyey steep, To their vasty truth I woke. All the majesty overhead* 41 MESSAGE AND MELODY With the universe I whirled, Of its length and breadth aware, Man's petty hates and his passing fates Seemed less than empty air In the light of the larger world. I looked, as a living soul, Into the eyes of God, And I understood both bad and good In the scourging of His rod. And saw the uhimate goaL Across abysms flung I heard the ocean's speech And the pulsing stars explained the scars They suffered, each from each, When the universe was young. 42 MESSAGE AND MELODY Ohf the splendid sense of space ! And the selfhood vanished quite In a shoreless sphere where day and year^ Morningf and noon and night Are one before God's face ! Wrapt in that vision wide, I seemed to briefly know God's ancient plan for the weal of man ; Under Time's ebb and flow. Eternity's sure tide. 43 MESSAGE AND MELODY IN TIME OF WAR a OW who shall read the writing: That is writ upon the wall ? Shall the peoples cease from fight- ing? Shall the good days come at all ? For the proud of earth do levy Goldt that battles may be won. And a burden direful heavy Bends the father and the son* 44 MESSAGE AND MELODY Thougfh out own inviolate borders Widen out a myriad miles, Wc are hailed as dread marauders In the ultimate far isles* Though in Europe's mood of kindness Peace is mooted for a day, Lo ! there comes a mood of blindness, And red ravin has its way. Yet the earth's stern law is spoken In the march of centuries. That the weak for good are broken. That the strong must rule the seas. 45 MESSAGE AND MELODY We may conquci* in all gladness If the cause be pare and high ; We can beat the passing sadness For the blessing by and by. When, to spread the benefactions Of the world, the sword is swung, We may glimpse through storm-wrapt factions God^s own lights in heaven hung. Where, to lift a land's downtrodden. Bullets sing and cannons boom. There, though battle-fields be sodden. Shall God's flowers freshly bloom* 46 MESSAGE AND MELODY When the bfoad earth's blinded races Strive but for some heavenly stake. And the higher life replaces The brief hell that weapons make ; Then, with sound of exaltations Shall the better times begin, Then, ye captains of the nations. Shall the Prince of Peace come in. 47 MESSAGE AND MELODY THE BACKGROUND GROUP m HE crowd huzzas, the music madly plays; 'Tis meet, for, lo ! it is the day of days. The home-returning heroes come: a cry Of welcome should be lifted to the sky And flowers strew the people-trampled ways. 48 MESSAGE AND MELODY The droms teat martially ; with rhythmic beat The steps resound along the gaping street. Hark, what acclaims ! And how the folk do press To see, to touch, maybe, the very dress Of those who dared the death, when Life is sweet! But stay ! where joy is general, where the sound Of jubilant voices rends the air around, Why is yon group so silent in its place. With wa/s impassioned image face to face ? "Wherefore those eyes cast nunlike on the ground ? 49 MESSAGE AND MELODY Who are these hangfers-back, these dark-robed ones? They are the mothers who are reft of sons ; The wives whose dearest lie all tincaressed Afar, with vital stains on brow or breast ; The children orphaned at the mottths of guns. 50 MESSAGE AND MELODY EXIT NIGHTINGALE (Anton Nachtigallt xged 34> a shop foreman, shot himself dead yesterday. He was sick and discouraged.— Morning NeTVspaper,) iHASTLY contrast, God's grim joke I Here's a man who, on a morn. Very weary, hopeless, spoke : ** I am ot»t of work, and scorn. Want and ugliness are mine*'' So this creature, made divine (So they tell us) simply shot His weak brains out — there's your plot I 51 MESSAGE AND MELODY Nothing; in it, say you ? Stale ? True, 'tis but a common tale, But the story gives me pause For a moment's space, because This poor breaker of God's laws Bore the name of — Nightingale ! Somewhere in the years behind, When men's names were first assumed — Tinker Tom or John the Smith, Handier to travel with — Somebody was this assigned : Nightingale. . ♦ ♦ Belike there bloomed On his cheek the badge of health And he had, instead of wealth. Music for his gift, could sing. Play the fiddle, lead the folk Down the jolly dancing-ring; 52 MESSAGE AND MELODY Make them thus forget their jokCf In some village . • * long ago* Merry lad, who far and wide Up and down the countryside Piped before the people so ! Thus, the name bespoke the man* Latterly there came a change In this very pretty plan And a name meant naught at all* Taylors sat within the Hall, Kings in hovels — passing strange ! Time's inexorable jest Mocked the high and blurred the best. So with Nightingale, — he fell From his pristine grove and — well^ Found himself in songless hell* 53 MESSAGE AND MELODY Heigho, how the world is run I Morn of glory, night of shame, Worms that crawl from o«t a btid. Every day 'twixt s«n and sun Some poor devils singing name Is wiped out in city mud. 54 MESSAGE AND MELODY H CORONADO IN the beach at Coronado curves the shotc in crescent wise» And the blue of sky and water merge divinely to the eyes; Dim, fair islands lift like phantoms from the bright Pacific floor, And the breakers fall but blandly where the sea- gulls dip and soar. 55 MESSAGE AND MELODY There a spell of scented languoi* seems to still the pulse of pain, And perpetual springtide hovers over land and slumbrous main, There the blooms are lush and brilliant, there some great ship, wearing west. Seems to pause as loath at leaving all a haven holds of rest. And the idler, lapped in pleasance, charmed to dreams by sound and sight, As he watches dawn or sunset or the sweeping stars of night. Lets his mind go groping backward to the strenuous pioneers. When the red-gold fever took them in the far, untranquil years ; 56 MESSAGE AND MELODY To the Spaniards with their visions — quick to fancy were they then — Of some vast and hoarded treasures; Coronado and his men ; To the splendid quests and tumults^ to the tor- ments and defeats^ To the rovers by the rivers and the pirates in their fleets* But so fleckless are the heavens, and such peace is found below, In the sea-companioned gardens where the great blooms wax and blow, Such a slow and sweet siesta bring the magical warm noons, That all anguishes and ardors arc unreal as ancient runes. 57 MESSAGE AND MELODY So it is — until a storm-wind rolls the billows up the coast, And the nigfht is thick with portents, and the keen air's clamoring host Fills the vault — ah, then returning;, trooping; back refreshed and strong. Come the old-time, lost marauders, ruling men with sword and songf. And they cry with clangorous voices when they sight a timid sail. And their drinking-bouts are mighty as the hours to dawn go pale ; Royally do they foregather and their Presences resume All the potency of living, as they revel in the gloom. 58 MESSAGE AND MELODY But with day, behold the languoif and the beauty- all f estored. Once again the waters gentle, once again divine accord Twixt the earth and swooning heavens, while the sand in crescent wise Curves to meet the benediction of the Californian skies. 59 MESSAGE AND MELODY THE PROCESSION "■ ^OW let oor womankind tend hearth and house^ Obey and love, receive, in turn, dae love Of husbands, brothers, sons who battle for Their wants and welfare in the outer ways. And so fulfil the Law* This sums the whole/' Thus spake Sir Oracle. Meanwhile, meseemed Through mists of time I saw in rich array Pass by a white procession, one by one : 60 MESSAGE AND MELODY The swaft-browcd qaeen whose Eastern Sov- ereignty Was large, bat larger yet her passionate sway Over two men who made the "Western world, Caesar and Antony, both at her feet. And then, bright Helen, Menelaos' wife. And Paris' leman in a golden day ; So fair that poets e'er since have joyed to sing Her loveliness, which claimed its hecatombs Of victims, Greeks and Trojans battailows. Next, Magdalen, whose penitence is famed And precious, and the Mary men revere, Walking in sisterwise, with equal mien. Save that the Mother's brow was full-content. The Maiden's wistful. Then proud Joan of Arc, 6i MESSAGE AND MELODY A peasant yet a princess, with a light Fanatic yet divine within her eyes ; A martyr's eyes that look through flames to God ! The while the lips say : ** Patience^ 'tis for France*'* And Sappho, fillet-bound about the head, Chanting swift lyric lays beside the sea Aegean blue, — lays soft yet strong withal. Since still we hear, albeit brokenly* Hypatia, too, whose spirit was not quenched By mob-defiance nor untimely death. Strode gravely sweet and calm ; and Portia, she That donned a mannish habit for the nonce And plead with angel-tongue for Mercy's place Along with formal justice. Shyly there Came Sister Dorothea, half a Saint 62 MESSAGE AND MELODY Yet all a woman^ binding: wounds and sores; Her passing was a breath from the Command : ''Unto, the least of these my brethren/' — These, yea, and many more filed by, until The mist grew mythic and they faded out Into the common light of day : anon, Again I heard the little, piping voice Make deposition as to woman's worth* 63 MESSAGE AND MELODY WHEN THE DREAM COMES TRUE ^^^ SHALL sec far plainer than I do ^|K) Here and now, when what I dream is come: They that love me not, my slips shall rue, Those I love not, deeming dull and dumb, I shall wafce to find full fellowsome. When my dream comes true. 64 MESSAGE AND MELODY Lightest words that worked for me and you Barriers that clomb to mowntain heights ; Little deeds that into great wrongs grew, All for lack of flashing heaven-lights, Shall be smoothed and shapened all to rights, When my dream comes true* It may even be the love I woo Blindly now, my vision choked with tears, Then shall understand me, know how true Was the heart struck voiceless through its fears; Ah ! a moment shall make sweet the years, When my dream comes true ! 65 POEMS OF MUSIC MESSAGE AND MELODY I AN OLD SONG HERE'S a ballad of quaint love-Ionging That often I yearn to hear, Fot it sets the memories thronging And wakens a by-gone year. The words were but simple and pretty^ With a tender final fall, Yet I swear that this old-time ditty Still holds my heart in thrall* 69 MESSAGE AND MELODY It was sttngf by a girl whose fashion Can never grow stale nor old; But she and her young soul's passion Lie quiet in graveyard mould. It was not the music, I fancy, Nor the story — but just the way She sang, and the necromancy "Wrought by a dear, dead day. At times they will play it to me Now — but my heart sinks low ; It isn't the same that drew me There in the long ago* 70 MESSAGE AND MELODY I miss the meaning; *tis broken — The spell of singer and song ; I sigh for a vanished token, For a magic of yore I long ; For the place where the voice would waver And a sob rise up in the throat, For the little pathetic quaver That wasn't on any note! 71 MESSAGE AND MELODY SECOND FIDDLE UST behind the first fiddle he bends To his bow, as a slave to the rod ; All his soul to the music he lends, All his eyes to the leader, his god. His skill is not blaringf, btit swre ; Mark his bowingf, the rhythmic accord Of his motions, the sound, crystal-pure. That he lures from the violin's board* 72 MESSAGE AND MELODY The crowd never look at his face ; He is one of the sixty who try With wood-wind or brass to displace The world by a dream from the sky. Not his, like the master of strings, To step forth superbly alone And play a Cremona that sings With heavenliest tone upon tone. No soloist he, but a part In the mighty ensemble that soars In the regions divine of an art Where man but aspires and adores. 73 MESSAGE AND MELODY His joy is the gladness of those Who feel they are helping the whole ; Less fluent the harmony flows If an instrument flag^ if a soul Unfaithful should be to the beat Of the baton that bids him be true ; And the music is ofttimes so sweet, Small matter what makes it, of who* And haply — who knows ? — in the day "When the ultimate piece is rehearsed, Shall come his Great Moment to play. And the fiddle called second, be first. 74 MESSAGE AND MELODY m. STREET MUSIC 1^^ how the dancc-tane trips it through the l^^l^ street. Making steps rhythmic, blood the Iwstier beat! Throwing a thought of love and holiday Into the midst of Trade's most prosy way. 75 MESSAGE AND MELODY Look yonder : it is but an aged crone Crouched in a corner, wrinkled and alone, Half-dazed, who feebly grinds an organ small. Craving scant pence and sun — and that is all. As soon Fd think to hear a gargoyle sing, A death-mask speak a lyric word of spring. As yonder hag fill all the drowsy air With music making Life alert and fain ****** Yet hark, again the strain, the walt2-tune glad. The sudden rapture, the abandon mad. From a bleared woman, sick and old and sad ! 7^ MESSAGE AND MELODY IV. IN A THEATRE IDDLE-SOUNDS in a fo«I, pent place; Seaxns of sin on every face Uplooking there from the seats below, Fool-mouthed men and a shameless show* A young girl stepping upon the stage ; The singing of songs is half her wage, 71 MESSAGE AND MELODY Selling her soul the other half ; They greet her now with a jeering laugh. A face that somehow hints of good, Though stamped with all of the demonhood That comes to souls that God made white Given over to shame and night* And lo ! she sings. The song that broke Her lips had naught of jibe or joke. *Twas ** Annie Laurie/* and her face Lost, the while, its old disgrace, 78 MESSAGE AND MELODY Her voice gtew soft and sweet and clear ; She sang as thottgh the words were dear. Till the angel woke in every man. And memories stirred as memories can Though seeming dead for long, wrong years ; Memories stirred and so did tears. The reeking air turned meadow-sweet, And daisies danced beneath their feet. While each man walked with his love or bride In the morning-break on the mountain-side* 79 MESSAGE AND MELODY She ceased* No sound of plaudits came From the foul-mouthed men in the place of shame. But one man sobbed and the rest were still ; And the God above had worked his will. 80 MESSAGE AND MELODY AT THE SYMPHONY ^^^ SIT and listen and love ft all, ^M) Here by the orchestra. The violins, how they plead and call, Taking the voice of her ! The brasses brave have a martial tone. The cymbals clash in strife : The grave bassoons half muse, half moan. Chanting the deeps of life. 8i MESSAGE AND MELODY The 'cellos brood and the fltttes rise clear In a cry that soars and sings ; The rippling harps ensnare mine ear With a vibrant rash of wings* O sweet with words no lips may dare, This speech of the orchestra ! And yet — that burst from the wood- wind there ■ Was it weal or woe of her? 82 MESSAGE AND MELODY VIOLIN AND VIOLA T times, when, with an anguish all too keen, The violin doth tensely tcII of grief. Tugging at heart-strings till the tale, I ween. Is over-cruel, calls for some relief : I joy to hear, like cooings of lost doves. The grave viola plaining of old loves* 83 MESSAGE AND MELODY VIL A WALTZ THOUGHT (To Edoard Strauss) [HEN a man's ptime passion, for years on years, Is giving birth to bright waltz airs. That are quick with life and love that cheers, And sweet as the bloom that the springtide wears; *Tis a fancy sad and strange withal. To dream he must lie in a tomb some day And hear no longer the soft clear call Of music, once that he heard alway. 84 MESSAGE AND MELODY For I almost deem he would keep awake, And list to the song of the mountain stream, Would hark to the sound that the tf eetops make, Ot the voice that follows the lightning's gleam ; Would seize all melodies Nature knows, To fit the passion that haunts him still. Till out of them all a wild strain grows Graced and fashioned to suit his will ; Would down in his grave our pulses stir, — Fancy him there in the chilly vaults, Singing e'en in his sepulchre. Subtly shaping his witching waltz ! MESSAGE AND MELODY VHL A CATCH m m LONG comes Love In the semblance of a boy, And he rings a little bell, And he sings a little song : Lo, the change thereof ! Heaven after hell, Beauty healing wrong. And grief turned joy ! 86 MESSAGE AND MELODY IX. A PIANIST 1^^^' ^^ stormy hands went down the crashing jjg^ keys. Making a tumult wild of billowy sound ; Fear roused his head, dark Passion too was there. Twin mighty presences that shook the air. But sweet the resolution : wind-swept seas Sank magically, and up from Lifers profound Stole shining Peace that spread from shore to shore. Till heaven seemed nigh and Love was evermore. 87 MESSAGE AND MELODY DOVE NOTES n HE soft, strange note of the doves, to what may we liken the sound. As they flutter high at the eaves or flock for food to the ground ? Their murmurings shy, remote, like a lost year's memory seem. Like melody heard under water, or music dimmed by a dream* 88 MESSAGE AND MELODY SEA MOODS m HERE IS music free in the waves of the sea^ Rejoicingf by all his coasts: Bttt the salt thereof is his agfony O^er the wrecks and the buried hosts* 89 MESSAGE AND MELODY SEA RHAPSODY L Y day, the tfemble of the boat, As the engine throbs like a human heart ; The tang: of the untainted air, salt, free. Roaming long leagues of brine ; The tidal lift and the slow swing, now the craft buries her nose in the billows ; The sky of central blue, tapering down to misty opal at the sea line. And all around, the unsteady sapphire of the ocean* 90 MESSAGE AND MELODY 11. At night, snug in the cabin, cheerful with lamps, With food and drink and the talk of cronies : Hard by, the friendly lights of the ships ; Far above, aloof, the homeless flicker of stars In their high, impenetrable places. 91 MESSAGE AND MELODY IIL Then, sleep, midst the tock of the waves, To dfeam of deat ones distant on land. With a sense of lesion from all the ways of earth, A return to savage, sane realities : The tameless revels of strange, marine creatures ; The hoarse voices of winds and waters, The hidden treasures of the deep. Wide-scattered, inestimable, not to be named. The face of tan, the boy's heart. The lost yet inextinguishable gust of youth, ex- ultant once more* 92 MESSAGE AND MELODY IV. Old Earth, the mother, sends forth her sons To adventttte with the ancient, hoar, gammer sea; Ever hereafter, as they come back and walk The dusty, fevered streets, and bargain in the marts, And sicken with heat and the sight of men. Will they carry at heart a cool, quieting thought. And yearn betimes for the ocean's open roads. For the rigors and raptures of the sailor life. The footless trail, the horizon's lovely lure, the sting and lull Of elemental water wastes. Restless, that yet bring rest. 93 MESSAGE AND MELODY A MARSH MESSAGE In Memoriam : Olivia Susan Clemens HE melancholy matshes brood all their rich monotony : Beyond them, in a twilight mood, The more than melancholy sea* A seemly spot for news of death : The message comes, with tidal pain j The ancient f aring-forth of breath. The yowng laid low, the lovely slain. 94 MESSAGE AND MELODY Hef life was one that, river-sweet. O'er sonny uplands ran, — but then Inexorably plunged to meet The under waves that wait for men. The lethal waters, salt and still, Wherover mystery bides; the Vast Whose voice is mystic, and whose will Is stronger than our will at last. * * # * # The marsh is troubled in its dream By a faint, tremulous stir of air : Is it the passing of the stream, The young fresh soul that was so fair ? 95 LULLABIES MESSAGE AND MELODY I. AT FIRST ABY, the legends say Angfels are here. Keeping all harm away That would come near* There is a warmer thing Guarding thee, babyling. Than any angel- wing: It is my love so deep ; Then sleep, child, sleep. LofC. 99 MESSAGE AND MELODY Baby, I cannot tcII How strangely fair Are towcf and citadel That glisten there In the sleep-country wide; Wonders on every side Wait thee and there abide : Marvels by wood and stream: So dream, child, dream* 100 MESSAGE AND MELODY Baby, mttch-tr avelled one, When thoa hast seen Dawn, noon and set of s«n In sleep-lands green, Haply thou wilt be fain With all thy might and main Homeward to torn again. Is't so ? For home's sweet sake. Then wake, child, wake! lOI MESSAGE AND MELODY AT LAST m m WITHERED face with great brown eyes That grazed through unwept tears ; A smile on the mouth in motherwise. And tender, full of years. Stretched on the sand a man, not old, With features warped by sin, And bad, albeit now death-cold, All passion dead within» 1 02 MESSAGE AND MELODY But ever the mother sat above Her son and rocked and sang. As though deep stirred by baby-love, While thus her cracked voice rang : ** Sun-gold thy hair, darling. Sleep, thou art fair, darling. Shut down thy pretty eyes ; Father is on the sea. Nobody's by but me. Sleep, for the waters rise*'' So sang the fish-wife, bending o'er Her boy, just drowned and dead ; Crazed in her mind, the days of yore Kept revel in her head. 103 MESSAGE AND MELODY ** W"hen thoti art old, dar lingf. Grown brave and bold, darlingf. Then thou shalt have a wife j Now thou art only mine, Little and fair and fine, Helpless in all thy life.** The man lay still, and the sullen look Was ever on his face ; His deeds read dark in the judgment book ; His lot had been disgrace* But the mother hugged the body wet. Gray-haired, and dazed in brain. As I walked away she was singing yet, Over and o'er again : 104 MESSAGE AND MELODY ** *Tis time to wake, dar lingf, See! light will break, d&tlingp Yonder across the quay ; Come, wee one, kiss me now, Soft on my cheek and brow ; Wake for the love of me, My boy, my joy, — For the love of me, — for me ! ** 105 MESSAGE AND MELODY SLIPPER TIME IS a homely time of ease and rest^ When the day dies out in the tuddy west And the lamps ate lit and the hearth fire leaps, And the children go to their early sleeps ; When the dear ones talk of their doingfs small And a sense of peace is on them all. For the cool, calm nigfht must stretch between To-morrow's toil and to-day's flushed scene ; io6 MESSAGE AND MELODY When memories throng and the word of cheer Is sometimes nigh to the secret tear. For the soul at lounge will range full far. From the pit of shame to the highest star. The sound of music perhaps is heard, But the instrument ot the uttered word Alike are sweet, since love in both Is immanent and nothing loath. So the home folk feel, as the hours slip by. That Life is kind and that every sigh Is fellowed close by some pleasant thing. That laughter follows on suffering. 107 MESSAGE AND MELODY Tis a shade-tf cc set in a desert space ; In a discord harsh 'tis a note of grace ; 'Tis the harmony of the perfect rhyme, This homely, human slipper time. io8 NATURE PIECES MESSAGE AND MELODY L THE SONG OF THE OPEN LOVE a level reach of land, That winds have room to torn in ; I love in open fields to stand That hosts of flowers bum in. I love far-stretching paths of sea Of turbulence unended, And salty smells, that make in me A life that's new and splendid* III MESSAGE AND MELODY I love full well the naked sky, Wind-swept and hale and cheerful j For under her big voice can I Shake off my troubles tearful* And so I turn, when so I may. From toil and moil of daytime. To hurry to the field away. And dare to have a play-time ! Again returning, all my thought Is lightsomer and sweeter, And songs upspring, though all unsought. In love's forgotten metre. 112 MESSAGE AND MELODY IL AUTUMN CORN HE withered autumn shocks of com Are Indian braves, who stand a-row With wind-blown hair and look forlorn, And brood upon the long; agfo. Sere is their dress, and sere their mind, With tribe and totem far behind. 113 MESSAGE AND MELODY IIL QUAIL AND THRUSH m HE quail's staccato call from out the wood Comes clear unto mine ear ; But in the thrush's note is mistihood, — Meseems you hear His message only with the brooding mind, Blent in with memories, borne on last year's wind. 114 MESSAGE AND MELODY IV. EARLY WINTER ^^^ROWN gffass, picked out with red of bushes, tones Of silver on the fences ; russet, bronze. The leaves of oaks and beeches ; mystic black Where pools of water lie, and edgfed thereround The ghostly glamour of the shallow ice. Above, a gray-white monody of sky. And all between the heaven and earth a mist Of fine, fast-falling snow that makes a veil Wherethrough you see a mystery, a blend Of winter colors to a perfect whole That lifts the heart with beauty, doth atone For long-withholden loveliness of June* 115 MESSAGE AND MELODY THE FALL OF THE LEAVES lOWN they come by millions, Pied and aspen things. Dancing airy cotillons, Drifting on wind-swept wings. With a music delicate yet clear. Thick they fall, in their painted cheer, Down the alleys old of the outworn year* ii6 MESSAGE AND MELODY Gay-heart hopes and visions Mingled with their fall ; Memories of elysians Buoyed them one and all* Faded, meek, and still they lie Under foot, and the farer-by Treads them in nor sees them die* Peace ! they have done their duty. Now is the time for rest. Peace ! they have shown us beauty ; Now, on the mother-breast They repose : their day was bright. On the tremulous trees they had delight ; Now comes sleep and the soothe of night. 117 MESSAGE AND MELODY VI. AUTUMN SONG KEEN west wind from the hills away, A rwstle of curled brown leaves, A blazon of colors, — O Autumn day. How Memory subtly weaves Into your scents and leaf-lit fires Hopes and dreamings and dead desires. ii8 MESSAGE AND MELODY VIL THE HILLS OF HOME m jFTER the mighty levels of the "West, The far horizon and the open qoest, — Back to the land of mists and memories, Hooded with trees and topped by dappled skies. Back to the valleys, whence the sttn opclomb The hills of home ! Now let my dead youth have her way with me ; This is a dream-while ; I am glad to be Penned in by orchards, set about with pines. Lured down long vistas that the soul divines ; The West anon, — boylike to-day I roam The hills of home ! 119 MESSAGE AND MELODY THE PINE TREE ^^^HE sombre pine is a Norseman grave 1^^ Brooding some saga old, Calmly chanting a solemn stave. Scorning the winter's cold* There's a Norland so«l in this ancient tree. And he ne'er forgets his ancestry. 120 MESSAGE AND MELODY IX. THE VALLEY MHAVE seen a valley lyingf Underneath the yellow moon, When the winds had ceased their sigfhing:, And the trees were all a-swoon. And the soond of rivers rushing Filled the night, and made it seem Like to angel-gfarments brushing Through wide spaces in a dream* 121 MESSAGE AND MELODY Then my soul has filled with gladness. Shy, withal, bwt tender-deep ; And the daytime with its madness Seemed afar, and put to sleep : For the riddles past divining In the noontide press of men. All grew plainer in the shining Of the sky's fair citizen. Life turned easy, trust was stronger. Blossoms sprang from all my ills. As I lingered long and longer In the silence of the hills : 122 MESSAGE AND MELODY Till I loved the valley lyingf Underneath the yellow moon. Where the winds had ceased their sighing*. And the trees were all a-swoom 123 MESSAGE AND MELODY X. THE BUGLER FROM THE PEAKS (HAT is this cry that sudden seems to shake The keen^ still mountain aether wide awake. Until the vast and candid snows of night Sound vibrantly on every doming height ? Hark, how it swells ! The very stars do hear ! This upper fastness reads the message clear ; Her ancient language Mother-nature speaks : The bull-elk bugles midst the topmost peaks ! 124 MESSAGE AND MELODY XL FALL FIELDS v ^i ^ ' HE sobef-golden fields lie soaked in light, Sj^^ Like a great tug with patterns inter- plight Of tint and tone ; God's ancient place, the sky. Turns paler blue above such tapestry. 125 MESSAGE AND MELODY xn. NATURFS BOOK HE tender green of willows by a stream springftime, or the impressionable pools That duplicate the streaks of yellow sky At sunset, give me food for many a dream, Instruct mc more than cunning- of the schools, Bidding me kindly live, and calmly die. 126 MESSAGE AND MELODY xm. INDIAN SUMMER JECURE in full fftiition doth she rest, With mellow lights of golden afternoon Touching the placid joy of brow and breast ; Thus to behold her is to hark a tone Played chantwise, yet firm-founded upon peace, And glad of all the stormy year's release From passion's summer-world. So have I seen In tranced November come a day more rare Than any Spring could muster, ne'er to be Forgotten* How unfathomably fair Appears this tranquil creature unto me, This woman ample-natured, Autumn's queen! 127 MESSAGE AND MELODY XIV. THE BROKEN PROMISE m m FTER the crisp of fall. There is beautiful summer weather i In the air is a wondrous Call, And tied things strain at their tether, And creeping and flying things "Walk swift or essay their wings. Then, a cold Word comes in the night. Bringing a message of blight ; And the creeping things and the flying (Ah, the myriad lives effaced. And the pity of trust misplaced !) At morn, are all dead or dying. 128 MESSAGE AND MELODY Man, in his knowledge, hath understood : Bwt the humbler folk of the earth and air In their vast and vocal brotherhood (They only petition for living-room) Do fondly dream that the Spring has come. Till their very blood beats frolicsome ; But they misinterpret a Semblance fair. And a Broken Promise is their doom* 129 MESSAGE AND MELODY ON THE DEATH OF A MOTHER LITTLE maiden, her doll to her Was love and daughter and comforter ; Her eyes, far better than speaking could, Guessed and gossiped of motherhood. One day they put at her breast her boy, And she knew the splendid mother-joy. After the agony, ah, the bliss Summed in that sacred, birthright kiss ! 130 MESSAGE AND MELODY Now, the old mother who broods us all Folds her fast, and she heeds the call ; Earth to earth, but she knows no fear, — Mother to mother means dear to dear* 131 MESSAGE AND MELODY BEFORE A SHRINE HREE lilies grew in a gfarden That looked upon the sea ; These lilies white, they had a right To be beloved of me. I ask no man a pardon That, all within my garden, I loved those lilies three* Three men came in my garden, Three men from o'er the sea ; One black as night, one gold-bedight. And one that looked at me. And praised my growing garden : I ask my God for pardon, I loved him of the three. 132 MESSAGE AND MELODY Strangfe thing^s come out of the sea : I loved him well, ah me ! There came a wind that blights the kind Of flowers lilies be. Mary, Mother of charity. Now I pray for pardon : Here, within my garden, Sin came unto me ; Mother, I call to thee ; Right the rue that came unto The lily-blooms and me ! 133 MESSAGE AND MELODY THE DESERTED SCHOOL HERE broods a pathos of a time long past evety nook and every grass-g'rown way; The fences lean as tired out at last, That once pent in so many lads at play. The doors g:ape open, tot one harks in vain For human voices or for hurrying feet ; The rusty weather-cock creaks out that rain Or days uncloudy come, or snow and sleet. 134 MESSAGE AND MELODY The gables droop, the windows, staring-eyed, Do seem to mock one pitying the place; A thousand birds and flowers long have tried To put upon the scene a summer face* But spite of them, a silence wide and deep Clings round the corners, sits on every stone: It is a spot for lingering and sleep. For guessing other fortunes than your own. I people all the playground up and down With rushing forms and sound of laughter high ; I watch the light of evening like a crown Upon the walls, till pales the western sky* 135 MESSAGE AND MELODY I wonder how those sturdy limbs have fared That since have wandered far as east and west ; I wonder who from sorrows have been spared, I strive to read the hearts that have been blest ; And so my love wotild follow, one by one. The life of each, and all its changes know — Until the faces fade, as did the sun That lit the players in the long-ago. And I am left a solitary, all My youth gone from me, in a daze to take Mid-manhood^s burden up, until I fall Upon the beaten highway of Heartbreak. 136 MESSAGE AND MELODY THE WORLD ASLEEP [AKING by night, a great and tender thought Rolled in upon my soul; I seemed to see Millions of men of high and low degree, Women and children small, — all overwrought With labor, sin or weakness, or distraught Through passion's power, — in deep tranquillity, With placid breasts and breath that issued free, As if they lay at peace, regretting naught. 137 MESSAGE AND MELODY And O it was a wonderful mild sight. Those helpless forms of all God's creatures there, Worldlings and saints, alike as dove and dove, Resuming innocence and lost delight. All quieted and with sleep's magic fair. One in the Father's watch and ward of love. 138 MESSAGE AND MELODY THE UNFORGOTTEN [HENE'ER I see, hurrying through worldly ways, Those who forget the friends they once have known, Who seemed like very kinsmen of their own For fond affection : merged now in the haze That broods o*er the Eternal ; The old days Faint too and far, like fairy tales outflown From rooms of childhood, — I must inly moan That Time such numbing power upon us lays. 139 MESSAGE AND MELODY As if the Past were not a playground, where The tjnforgottcn mates slip to and fro In games whose dimness makes them doobly fair. The heart's best comradery, when all is said ; As if less lovely were the Long Ago, Or men could lose their dearness, being dead* 140 MESSAGE AND MELODY '^ WORDS, WORDS, WORDS'' ^S^IHE melancholy Prince did surely err : |J|^^ Each several word is as a vital sign That here some man has tasted Life's rich wine, Been thrall to ill, been Beauty's worshipper. Or mayhap felt the immemorial stir Of passion. Words are symbols that divine The more than mortal that is subtly thine ; They stand for all the dreams that ever were. They have their regal fortunes, and their falls Like Lucifer from heaven ; tragic days Are theirs, and love's soft interludes Of music lyric-sweet along the ways; At whiles, some nether hell their sound recalls ; Yet o'er supernal heights their meaning broods. 141 MESSAGE AND MELODY A FORECAST HROUGH all the wood the rain drops ceaselessly And every whiff of air shakes down on me Dank hints of storm, dark auguries of skies Unchanged and cheerless : so, in hopeless wise I trudge, until a gleam of light ahead Reveals the open, makes my soul less dead. Into the day I step, — thou foolish one. The rain has long been o'er, behold the sun ! The forest did but lie, the storm is done. 142 MESSAGE AND MELODY Love, it may be that in some sunlit land Beyond the present troublingf, now you stand And smile most tenderly, because I dream The rain is fallingf and, lead-hearted, deem No hope can pierce the limitless gray shore : Maybe, beyond 'tis shining evermore. And you await me with the old-time grace, The same dear eyes, the same divine dear face, One with the sun in making glad the place* 143 MESSAGE AND MELODY SOUND IN SILENCE [ALKING when all the ways seemed wondrous still, I suddenly was ware it was not so : The silence was a web of sound, below, Above, that did the earth and heavens fill. The wood-hid thrush, the field-sparrow's sliding^ trill. The dominant insistence of the crow. The shrill of crickets and the voiceful flow Where curve the river currents down the hill. The wind amidst the pines, the far-off calls Of boys at play, the hayers at their task "With creaking carts, the lowing cows — they all Were present, like the face behind the mask. The silence swarmed with noises, nay, was blent With many musics, for my solacement. 144 MESSAGE AND MELODY PENELOPE'S LOVER ^^j^ READ how once Ulysses, far from home, ^M) Daunting all dangers o'er the wine-dark sea, Came to the island where the Sirens be Who waft sweet song athwart the ocean's foam* And there, beneath the blue sky's ample dome, For fear those luring strains they might not flee, His comrades bound him to the mast, that he Might 'scape the enchantment fierce, nor islc- ward roam. And as I read, I wish the story ran. That in the hero's breast love beat so strong No Siren's voice, no sound of soothing song, Could tempt him, on his ship, to change his plan, And slack the oar that should, by sun or star. Dip towards Penelope and Ithaca* 145 MESSAGE AND MELODY WALL STREET ]TRAIT fiver, with its hoatse and fever- ous flood Of money-makets ; on that turbulent tide Hourly men sink, or bring their argosies To unhoped havens. On that tiny stage The drama of the dollar is played out In tragic throes that shake the land ; there gold Is God, the devotees are hollow-eyed, A touch brings London ; at a mystic word The tropics tremble ; while an upraised hand "Withers broad grain-fields lovely in the sun A thousand leagues away. 146 MESSAGE AND MELODY Meantime^ the spire Of Trinity, as set in satire there. Points with insistent fingfer to the skies Placid above this lust of loss-and-gain, And underneath, the aisles of peace and prayei* Await the worshippers who still would place Christ above Mammon, love before the world. 147 MESSAGE AND MELODY PEACE OUT OF PAIN ^^1^ S itom some f f oit, bittef in the beginning, |^T||y A rare, sweet draught is pressed, finds strange televise ; So, out of turmoil, pain and sorry sinning. All mystically issues peace. 148 MESSAGE AND MELODY DON'T DREAM, BUT DO! IS an easy thing, if you want to know How sweet the sttmrner is, just to go Down in the fields, or deep in the wood. Or fain toward the swash of the sea. For they all will teach you how heavenly good Such wholesome places be. If you seek the soul's warm summer, too, Don't dream, but do ! 149 MESSAGE AND MELODY Don*t sit at home with your brain-born book And balance questions and pry and look Askance at this, or wonder how That squares with some ancient doubt ; But get in touch with the throbbing Now, And let your heart go out To your fellow-men who are spent and blue* Don't dream, but do ! Work in the world for the folk thereof ; With every deed that is done in love Some criss-cross matter is smoothed for aye ; The spirit sees straight and clear ; And heaven draws close that was far away, As you whistle off each fear. Work, for the days are fleet and few. Don't dream, but do ! 150 MESSAGE AND MELODY You may worry over God's grinding Laws, You may probe and probe for the great First Cause ; But an hour of life with an honest thrill Of self-forgetting joy Will ease your mind of its moody ill And make you blithe as a boy. The plan is simple ; then see it through : Don't dream, but do ! 151 MESSAGE AND MELODY A RYME FOR CHRISTMAS mil RYME for Christmas, ye good folk all, A song for the time o^ year Make merry music in bower and hall, With hey for a day of cheer ! But season the jest with a kindly deed. And let love deepen the song* In the outer ways there are hearts that bleed And hands that labor long. 152 MESSAGE AND MELODY As the yole-log butns and the gifts go roundt As the indoor tomps are high, Oh, gentles, hark to the doleful sound Of the homeless 'neath the sky ! For how shall ye keep the Christmas-tide, Or cherish its Founder^s name, Unless that your hearts be open wide To His people's want and shame ? 153 MESSAGE AND MELODY PAIN j^^^ RIM-FACED fellow, silent g«est l^^w At Life's feast, what wiliest with me? With a great fear onexprest At my heart, I follow thee ; Leave the lights, the laughter gay, Heavy-hearted go away* At the last, I thank thee, friend : I am weaned from specious show Of delight, — the banquet-end Meant but surfeit : now I know Real from seeming, and am trussed For the May-be and the Must. 154 MESSAGE AND MELODY CITY STREETS MSAW a sad sight yesterday. A girl, whose look was pale And stillen-set, was led away To serve her term in jail ; And as she walked, betwixt two men Who vigilantly stepped, Her better self came back, — and then. Dear angels, how she wept ! 155 MESSAGE AND MELODY And yet, at eve I saw a sight Sadder an hundred fold : Within a place of glaring light A woman, flushed and bold. Lifted a glass of feigned cheer. And as the drink she quaffed She breathed a curse one would not hear, And looked to heaven — and laughed ! 156 MESSAGE AND MELODY MEMORIALS RESIDE the shining rivet's btim, By vital green of grasses spanned And circled by the hills, that rim The blue horizon's wonder-land, The ruins of a dwelling rise Pathetic to the evening skies. Mownds, where a hearth fire once was bright j And tumbled rails that girdled in A garden with its blooms alight And waving growths, their next-of-kint Above, a well sweep rising sheer Out of the wreck of many a year. 157 MESSAGE AND MELODY An eloquence of what is past Broods like a ghost aroond the place; The dreams that brick and stone outlast Sit peering in each other's face; Lo, every corner stone is ripe "With phantoms of forgotten life. Here love was potent, work and play- Lifted twin voices clear and strong ; There is no other sound to-day- Save music of the river's song j Across the crumbled years they call, The well-sweep and the ruined wall. 158 MESSAGE AND MELODY THE HOMING BIRD HE soul is like a homing bird that^s sure To wing its way to the beloved place ; Above the sea or land, through air more pure Than mortal breathes, it cleaves the tracts of space, Steered by a yearning wonderful, elate To reach the native loft, the lonesome mate. 159 MESSAGE AND MELODY THEN ^^SOU cannot understand, my little one, ^^^j Why tears of tenderness make blind my eyes, In looking: on yo«r face that, like the s«n. Sheds gladness, like a morn of sweet sunrise. Perplext, you touch me with a wondering hand ; Thank God, 'tis so, — for when long years are fled,— Then will you know, remember, understand, — Then, in the dream-like years when I am dead. 1 60 MESSAGE AND MELODY CREED AND DEED 1^1^ HE Rose, who teigns the qaeen of ^fl^^K flowers, Quoth to the Violet, ** One thing, come dear, come wof wl hours, I never can forget/* ** I prithee, make thy wisdom ours,** Quoth modest Violet* ** There*s naught that*s like a clear-cut creed,** The regal Rose replied ; " So pray your prayer, and bid your bead. And keep the law beside/* ** A goodly deed*s a goodly deed** The modest Violet sighed* i6i MESSAGE AND MELODY THE UNSPOKEN ^UR speech is but a surface foam ; below ^^^W: Broods the unspoken, and her caves are rife With turbulent powers and passions, to and fro- The veiled vitalities of under life* We meet and part, we say and straight unsay. Nor tell our mid-sea longings to our mates ; But all the while, deep down and put away, The unsaid sways our fortunes and our fates*. 162 MESSAGE AND MELODY PRAYER TIDES cMaiins ^i^lHE opal tints of dawn have come, |M^^ The winds opspting all frolicsome ; Ah, how may living lips be dttmb ? So, Lord, this orison to Thee ! 3(pnes The heat and burden of the day- Beats down, the dews have slipt away ; There is no heart that seems to pray ; Let mine as one more faithful be. 163 MESSAGE AND MELODY Vespers The nun-like gray of evening-tide Makes worshipful the heavens wide ; Anon comes night, the stilly-eyed ; The world's a-pause and prays with me. 164 MESSAGE AND MELODY SANCTUARY ( Vfitten for the Tenth Anniversary of the Library at Norfolk, Connecticut) ^^^ F old the hunted wtetch, if only he ^[^^|< Might tread the sacred steps and gain the shrine, Was safe from hurt ; the most high Gods would be His bulwark, by their presences divine* i6s MESSAGE AND MELODY Gasping, he threw himself against their knees And felt the grace of their unshaken calm : A seaman caught from Life's tumultuous seas, A wounded body healed by magic balm. ****** So, from the baffling storms, from hostile spears. From strife and struggle that enmesh our day, Behold the Sanctuary that the years Make but more precious, and shall make alway« A place of peace, an altar where the mind Finds strength in prayer, a home and haven dear Of souls, a senate-house of mortal kind Become Immortal — lo, the Gods are here ! 1 66 MESSAGE AND MELODY REVERY Evemnff ]IM grows the wood; the amber evening tints Merge into opal skies and stars just seen ; Down vistas gloomed and winding there are hints Of elves and gnomes along the mosses green. cMidnight A holy song the thrush has distant-sung ; The tree-tops murmur like some dreaming sea ; Hark! far away a silvern bell has rung Twelve strokes^ slow tolled, that faint and fade from me. 167 MESSAGE AND MELODY cMorning A shaft of gold upon my upturned face As fleeting and as shy as any fawn ; Sweet odors, stirring winds and forms of grace ; Now tell me, is this heaven, or is it dawn ? i68 MESSAGE AND MELODY THE YOUNG MAN'S PRAYER [HEN f«n of years, O God ! and reckoned sage, O)mpanioned by the memories that en- shrine The Past ; when Life has yellowed o*er the page Of Youths and, musing, I must needs repine The loss of friends, that bitter sign of age» White hairs, the silver sign : Oh, may the Long Ago loom soft and fair, Recalling, not the evil and the stress. But tranquil hours, and gentle faces there, Flashes of joy, and sacred tenderness ; A sense of peace along the evening air, — Visions that charm and bless ! 169 MESSAGE AND MELODY TO A CHILD CRYING I 1 HOU pretty one, why dost thou wail and m plain So piteously ? Thou hast but lived a day And surely thou and sorrow are not grown To fellowship, — and yet, poor, tiny child, Listening I seem to catch within thy cry A bitter protest 'gainst a host of wrongs ; Methinks thou weepest, not for thy wee self, But for mankind, untutored spokesman of The universal ill ; yea, presciently Dost, though a babe, foretell to shallow souls The depths, the tear-stained dramas of a world* 170 MESSAGE AND MELODY SYMBOLS ^^1^ SIMPLE, tintless flower ^ the lily ^^^ white; Bwt it symbols what is sweet and putc and fight, And it thrills to my very so«I with love and light. And a red b«sh, nothing more, is the Judas-tree; But whenever it flaunts its sanguine blooms, to me Comes a vision of Christ, and a dread of treachery. 171 MESSAGE AND MELODY MEMORIES 1 I S his yarn a seaman spins : With a twinkle in his eye, Weaving wonders from the past While his ship heaves o'er the brine ; So the memories that are mine Tell their tale beside the mast Of Life's bark, that bellies by O'er Time's sea of songs and sins. 172 MESSAGE AND MELODY THE REFORMER W^ H MAN once stood before a frowning wall Whereon was writ a lie since ancient days, And threw his heart's blood by the cwpful straight Against the legend, so to wipe it out, Tapping his veins of all their purple yield In his desire* At last he grew so weak That, tottering-limbed, he heaved glazed eyes to heaven. Sighed like a weary child, smiled once, and fell. 173 MESSAGE AND MELODY And when his dost was mingled with the mould That giveth birth to flowers, the people woke One morn, and looked «pon the wall, to see A clean erasure of the glozing words Had grieved the man so, he that calmly slept, Oblivious alike of loves and lies That make oor human story* Then there ran A whisper, soon a cry, across the land : ** God urged him to the act, and he was glad To spill his blood and make us clearer-eyed/' Whereat the very folk who carelessly Passed by that day he drained his throbbing strength And paled his flesh, upreared a cenotaph And deified his name to after-times. 174 MESSAGE AND MELODY HYMN FOR A TOWN (Sung at the 250tli Anniversary of the founding of MiddletowDt G>nn.) (HERE the fed man roved of yore By a stately water- lane, Lot was sown a seed that bore H«ndred-foId of goodly grain ; Which the hardy pioneers Harvested with blood and tears. 175 MESSAGE AND MELODY Homely times were those, and 8:i'im^ . By the green-rimmed r iver-side ; Oft with battle smoke were dim, Where the stanch forefathers died ; But, with sounds of prayer and praise, Came white peace and sweeter days* Ships were built of sturdy frame. And the marts with trade were rife ; Schools uprose in wisdom*s name. Churches hymned the higher life ; So the holdfast English race Set God^s seal upon the place. 176 MESSAGE AND MELODY "W"c have reaped what they have sown. Honoted, down the streets we tread, Carven clear in chang^eless stone. Be the memories of the dead ; For through them our town doth bide Beautiful her stream beside* Not to them alone, to Thee, God of elder years and ours. Be the laud, for Thou canst see In the root the pledge of flowers ; Though man's ways be passing strange, Yet Thy counsels do not change. 177 MESSAGE AND MELODY Gty of out love and life, Rivcf-town of spreading: trees. Peaceful, after early strife. Prospered by the centuries. Thou forever shalt endure. If thy faith be firm and pure. 178 MESSAGE AND MELODY OUR CITY OF AERIAL LIGHT (The Buffalo Fair) C^^T loomed, in summct*s morningf hours, ^1^ A clustered Otient of towers ; And in the splendid blaze of noon I gloried in its stately boon Of colors, wandered in a trance Past many a vision of romance. But when the dark was come, behold ! It grew a magic burg of gold, With soul released, above the night, Our city of aerial light ! 1/9 MESSAGE AND MELODY While marble-gifdied waters gleamed In mystic hues and tints undreamed^ A thousand thousand points of fire Blent in one heavenward, high desire. O land we love, take heart of grace. For thou hast wrought this wonder-place ! O land of lands, be thine the same Pure aspiration of the flame ! 1 80 PLAY-ROOM POEMS MESSAGE AND MELODY I. SNOW AND RAIN ^ f S^ ELL me (q«oth Lilian) what is the snow ? JM^^j ** Up in the very highest heaven Circle the great throne angels seven. Nearest to God, you know. While, inwoven their garments through. Are pearls, pure gems of a saintly hue ; And, as the wide wings beat the air, Away up there. They shake white pearls on the earth below ; And that is the snow/' 183 MESSAGE AND MELODY TcII me (quoth Lilian) what is the rain ? ** Up in the very highest heaven Circle the great throne angels seven, Nearest to God, again. While, inwoven their garments through, Glisten great diamonds glad of hue. And, as the wide wings rise and fall. They scatter them all Earthward, to catch on the way a stain ; And that is the rain/* 184 MESSAGE AND MELODY THE WIND-BROOM wind-bfoom sweeps so wondfous clean That when you hear it up on high Go swishingf by, go swishing by, You may be sure the sky-folk mean To make their homes all fair to see, Garnished, and gay as gay can be O' nights, for starry company* 185 MESSAGE AND MELODY m. STAR SHIPS ^I^^HE stars are ships on a blue^ cold sea^ U^^^ Gold ships^ that sail and sail ; They keep their course right steadily^ Unvexed by any gale* For God their helmsman is, I trow ; In sea-craft of the air So skilled, that all the winds that blow Seem favoring and fair* 1 86 MAR J^> J903