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 I 
 
 THE WRECK OF THE MYRTLE, 
 AND Other Verses. A collection of 
 Ballads, Odes and Lyrics. Printed and 
 bound uniformly with this volume ; 
 128 pages, izmo. $1.25 net; $1.31 
 postpaid. 
 
 THE PALACE OF VISION, a Poem ; 
 $1.50 net, postpaid. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE ACORN PRESS. 
 
THE PALACE OF VISION 
 
" Thy mind 
 Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms. 
 Thy memory be as a dwelling-place 
 For all sweet sounds and harmonies." 
 
 Tintern Abbey, — WORDSWORTH. 
 
rhe 
 
 PALACE 
 
 O F 
 
 V I S I 
 
 N 
 
 A 
 
 P O E 
 
 M 
 
 
 By 
 
 
 WILBUR MORRIS 
 
 STINE 
 
 
 ^g^ 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 
 THE 
 
 ACORN PRESS 
 
 s w 
 
 A R T H M O 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA 
 1904 
 
 R E 
 
THE PALACE OF VISION 
 
 LIBRAITY of CONGRESS 
 
 1\vo Oopies ReMived 
 
 AUG 26 1904 
 
 ©ooyrtjrht Enfry 
 
 CLASS Cl xXo. Na 
 
 Cj ^ Z S 
 COPY B 
 
 l iTUMI I I I I II I 
 
 copyright, 1904, 
 By Wilbur Morris Stine 
 All rights r e s e r <v e d 
 
 
 THE ACORN PRESS 
 
 Electrotyped by 
 
 Westcott and Thomson 
 
 Philadelphia 
 

 THE CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. FANCY 
 
 To the calm and noble chambers of a refuge 
 
 Fancy knows .... 9 
 
 II. DEVOTION 
 
 Led by charm transcendent move the eyes the 
 
 painted scenes amid ... 29 
 
 III. NOBILITY 
 
 Far along the lengthening passage y on its spa- 
 cious, spreading vault ... 47 
 
 IV. NATURE 
 Past the symbols on the panels, that attest the 
 
 worth of soul .... 57 
 5 
 
6 ^be Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 V. AFFLICTION 
 
 Passing scenes of sylvan fancies that a vivid 
 
 art has won .... 67 
 
 VI. INCARNATION 
 
 O/?, athwart the passage gleams a burst of 
 
 mellowed light . . , . 85 
 
 VII. WISDOM 
 
 In the charm of mellowed sunlight y gleams the 
 
 lucent marble low ... 99 
 
 VIII. TENDERNESS 
 As it fell in revelation that might guide the 
 
 grosser sight . . , . 115 
 
 IX. HUMANITY 
 
 Just a touch of human pathos falls upon the 
 
 marbles rare . . . . 131 
 
 COMMENTARIA .... 147 
 
I. FANCY 
 
The Palace of Vision 
 
 I. FANCY 
 
 'TpO the calm and noble chambers of a 
 
 refuge Fancy knows, 
 Where the wealth of dreams we cherish, it 
 with lavish hand bestows. 
 
 Turns the spirit overwearied, longing for their 
 far retreat 
 
 From the goad of care incessant, pressing bur- 
 den and the heat 
 
 Life full lays in measure common of the 
 
 round of alien things, 
 Which, the heart and task divorcing, bind to 
 
 earth the spirit's wings ; — 
 9 
 
10 XTbe palace ot IDision 
 
 Turns the soul in stress of anguish under sore 
 
 bereavement bowed, 
 For the respite life denied it, and the balm it 
 
 disallowed. 
 
 There the heart confused with turmoil, bends 
 
 to seek its calm and peace ; 
 And the hot and restless fever of its days finds 
 
 sweet surcease. 
 
 CL In the chambers of soul-vision, wonderful 
 and haunting fair. 
 
 Sacred hid from cold intrusion, laid in far, en- 
 chanted air, — 
 
 There our loves abide in spirit and intrude not 
 
 carnally, 
 While the warm breath of their rapture grows 
 
 more tender mystery ; 
 
 There the pain of joy that saddens, and the 
 
 lingering pangs that bless. 
 Fall in minor strains of music, echoing with 
 
 tenderness ; 
 
3fanci2 1 1 
 
 There the laughter of the day-world rises like 
 
 a gladsome song; 
 And the mirthful eyes bewitching, beauty's 
 
 spell in dreams prolong. 
 
 ft In its airy realm enchanting, evening shad- 
 ows fall more soft ; 
 
 While there faintly sound the distant, lingering 
 tones of bells, aloft 
 
 From some belfry high and elfin, ringing cho- 
 rals to the night, 
 
 Through whose measured melodies there 
 thrills an exquisite delight. 
 
 €t In the realm of the soul's possessions, 
 stretching outward in its pride, 
 
 Till earth's poverty of riches in its bounds is 
 satisfied, — 
 
 There, repression of the fancy, as it rose in 
 
 fierce desire, 
 Yields to bounteous wealth supernal for the 
 
 hearts, who may aspire, 
 
12 ^be ipalace ot IDision 
 
 That the lavish hand of Fancy gathers to re- 
 pay the loss, 
 
 Life inflicts in fate unkindly : pure the store is, 
 free from dross; 
 
 Nobler than the precious jewels, finer than the 
 hoarded gold ; 
 
 While it gathers more of splendor, as its treas- 
 ures more unfold. 
 
 Wealth it has, no lack of riches, this far realm 
 
 of magic air ; 
 And no splendor thought can fashion, fails of 
 
 perfect glory there. 
 
 Ct For the potent realm of vision holds in 
 
 store, surpassing earth. 
 Growing how we lavish spend it, ours by right 
 
 of time and birth, — 
 
 Worth of soul innate with greatness, glorious 
 
 heights that it would win ; 
 Treasures of the thought, and rapture that it 
 
 jealous guards within ; 
 
 n 
 
fanes 1 3 
 
 Passing glories of the spirit, with uncloying 
 
 splendors bright; 
 Strains unsung of cadenced music, ravishing 
 
 with fine delight ; — 
 
 Sacred treasures, what is whispered low in awe 
 to the spirit^s ear 
 
 Of a fire divine inspiring, and the glow of ge- 
 nius clear ; — 
 
 Here are owned in full confession, and neglect 
 
 and envious scorn 
 Cloud them not with shame belittling, nor 
 
 may power their worth suborn. 
 
 Ct In the realm with dreams we people, 
 
 stands the palace of the soul : 
 Nobly walled, high-towered and lofty ; framed 
 
 with zeal to glorious whole ; 
 
 Reared through the years, we build unceasing, 
 striving how our hands are weak, 
 
 Building how the heart may fail us, — while 
 in nobler air we seek. 
 
14 XLbc palace ct Dision 
 
 For the earth of disappointment, commonplace 
 
 and barren-grey, 
 Realm of glowing fancy splendid with the 
 
 light of rarer day. 
 
 High of wall and higher vaulted, groined with 
 
 arch of airy span. 
 Holds the palace spacious chambers fashioned 
 
 into noble plan ; 
 
 Vast in grandeur, they have largeness that 
 
 transcends the meagre space. 
 Circumstance on man imposes for his carnal 
 
 dwelling-place. 
 
 d. In the chambers of a palace battlemented, 
 
 grand and bold, 
 Standing on some cliff of fancy, bathed in 
 
 flood of sunlight gold ; 
 
 Verdure-crowned and wistful with romance 
 
 denied in earthly love. 
 Stands it regal in its seeming, lifting high its 
 
 walls above. 
 
3fancs 1 5 
 
 Nobly crowned with towers imposing, bast- 
 
 ioned with defying strength, 
 Line on line in grandeur rising till they fret 
 
 the sky at length ; — 
 
 Here the soul finds its whole freedom, how it 
 
 moves in servile round 
 Bound by birth and chance of station, and by 
 
 custom crueler bound ; 
 
 And held fast by task and duty, that would 
 
 mock its longings high, 
 Lest through them its slave should falter. And 
 
 how Fortune may deny, 
 
 Steadfast in the worth of being and the spirit's 
 
 true acclaim. 
 There the soul wins exaltation nobler than 
 
 the gift of fame ; 
 
 Though its life may pass unheeded by the 
 
 throngs who eager press, 
 Like a herd of cattle, after fools who lead 
 
 their eagerness 
 
16 XTbc palace ot IDision 
 
 By deceit and fair delusions, — following them 
 for fatuous gain, 
 
 That attained is naught in holding, and ac- 
 quired is but in vain. 
 
 C. Through the pleasant, spacious chambers 
 
 Fancy spreads her rarest rays, 
 Bathing them in warmth of color ; through the 
 
 window's stain there plays 
 
 Mellowed light and tone, as softened waves of 
 
 brilliant sunsets' gleam 
 Mingling fell upon their pavement, wavering 
 
 like a dancing stream : 
 
 Till the light of pleasing fancies and the tints 
 of prismal glow. 
 
 Rest in moving, tender brightness with a radi- 
 ance softened, low. 
 
 Upon walls of stately bearing and on ceilings 
 
 arching high ; 
 While the air is thrilled with secrets that on 
 
 dawn and sunset lie. 
 
3Panci2 1 7 
 
 d. In the light lies wonder mystic, soft as in 
 
 cathedral nave, 
 When the rays from pictured windows fall in 
 
 tender, mingled wave, 
 
 And the columned space is gleaming with 
 
 ethereal fires of light 
 That, in mist-like radiance falling from a 
 
 hushed and solemn height, 
 
 Are the gold of the noon's high sun-tide, that 
 
 a secret power transforms 
 Into memories of the sunset and the irised 
 
 bow of storms. 
 
 And the sheen breaks into music of a choral 
 
 glow of fire. 
 Sung in myriad waves of color, sweet attuned 
 
 in radiant choir. 
 
 €t Past the chambers mellow lighted from 
 
 the window's pictured fret. 
 In entrancing, dreamy vistas halls palatial, 
 
 opening yet 
 
 B 
 
18 ^be palace of IDfsion 
 
 Into softer, mellowed distance, more inviting 
 
 lead the view, 
 Where the charms in memory sleeping their 
 
 enchantments old renew ; 
 
 And the art of ancient masters, that in mem- 
 ory more enthralls 
 
 By ennobling touch of fancy, lays its splendon 
 on the walls. 
 
 And across the distant vision, fair creations of 
 
 the thought 
 Won to form from laughing eyes and hints 
 
 with lingering transports fraught, — 
 
 There, are seen in lovely being, that supernal 
 
 charms reveals 
 In the gleam of form enrapturing : scarce the 
 
 veil of mist conceals 
 
 Eyes that light with fascination of a spell that 
 
 binds the heart; 
 And the mould of curves diviner, than from 
 
 storied marbles start. 
 
3fanci2 1 9 
 
 C Far, along the deepening vista, fall the 
 wavering lights below 
 
 Upon pavements rich in fashion, where mo- 
 saics polished glow, 
 
 Mingling jeweled stone with whitest marble 
 
 in their rare design. 
 Soft the distant splendor kindles, while the 
 
 crystal flames far shine 
 
 In the gleaming ; and their fires with flush of 
 
 fainter lights are blent, 
 As, to fading glow of sunset, silver faint the 
 
 star is lent. 
 
 C Bordered are the halls palatial, leading far 
 
 with transept crossed. 
 By array of noble columns, that contemn the 
 
 gauge of cost. 
 
 Rising from a base of emerald, porphyry, or 
 
 marble veined, 
 With their fluted, polished shafts enwreathed 
 
 with circling ivy trained 
 
20 XTbe palace of msion 
 
 Into poise of living spirals that, like Nature's 
 twining green, 
 
 Mount the stone, their gilded splendor blend- 
 ing with the granite's sheen. 
 
 Chaste Corinthian capitals with clustered oaken 
 
 leaves and scroll, 
 Wrought from lucent marble, crown them to 
 
 majestic whole, 
 
 That, aspiring high and noble, from mosaics 
 
 patterned rare 
 Bear upon the lofty grandeur arch and vault in 
 
 higher air. 
 
 Ct There we, lords of our possessions, stand 
 
 on threshold of the halls, 
 And the eyes in charm and wonder, as on nave 
 
 and pillar falls 
 
 Light ethereal touched with mystery, — kindle 
 
 on from scene to scene — 
 Each new splendor more enchanting, each far 
 
 glow more radiant seen ; — 
 
fmct 21 
 
 While the heart is thrilled with glories of the 
 
 treasured dreams it knew, 
 And half fears to cast beyond it, lest some 
 
 spell dissolve the view, — 
 
 Fears, and scarce believes before it lies in a 
 
 burst of splendor high. 
 What in round of life is pain and longing that 
 
 must end in sigh. 
 
 For the splendor seems for life too golden and 
 
 too lightly won ; 
 And, by disenchanting care, it must as lightly 
 
 be undone. 
 
 Here, to inner sense of soul, unfolds the wealth 
 
 it secret hides. 
 Won from inspiration, that divinely on its life 
 
 abides ; 
 
 And it sees in glorious being hues, whose col- 
 ors write in fire 
 
 All the glow and passion in them and their 
 depths of sweet desire. 
 
22 ^be iPalacc of vision 
 
 €L Here, before it grandly passes ancient 
 
 pomp and stately show 
 Of processions dim, majestic, that, through 
 ages, passing slow, 
 
 Laud the deeds of noble daring ; or, in vast 
 
 cathedral dim, 
 Move in splendid worship reverently to low, 
 
 impassioned hymn, 
 
 On whose melodies are laid the burden and 
 
 the pang of prayer, 
 Till the choral thrilled with pleading trembles 
 
 on the awe-hushed air : 
 
 And the worship, half-barbaric, lifts the dark- 
 ened souls above. 
 
 Till the yearnings of the spirit, mystic, tender, 
 melt in love. 
 
 CL From the fancied pomp of stately show, 
 
 and worship of the sense ; 
 From the columned nave, and charming vista, 
 
 turns the vision thence. 
 
Toward the vault that lifts on airy arch its 
 
 broad, encircling space, 
 And beholds there new enchantment wrought 
 
 in high, ennobling grace. 
 
 On the soffit and the ceiling, like the Sistine*s 
 
 storied vault. 
 Loom in seried splendor, that the skill of art 
 
 can not exalt, 
 
 Frescos fine as hand of Raphael might have 
 
 traced in eager stress 
 Of his perfect art and vision : filled with grace 
 
 and tenderness, 
 
 That, upon his art inspiring, like a touch im- 
 pelling, came. 
 
 Till the fire divine had kindled into glow of 
 deathless flame ; 
 
 And the pain of his high vision had been 
 
 wrought in living art. 
 That forever stays in being, while, forever, 
 
 there upstart 
 
24 XLbc ipalace of Dision 
 
 From it pulse and thrill of life in truth of pas- 
 sion and its glow, — 
 
 Smile of saint and frown of demon, as they 
 mingling come and go. 
 
 Ct Here delightful scenes from Nature smile, 
 
 that Art can truer speak, 
 Following the semblance, where the mind to 
 
 know her depths is weak, 
 
 Than the fine descriptive phrase : and, owning 
 
 life inanimate 
 Lacks the crowning charm, it lays the human 
 
 touch to elevate 
 
 Nature's truth with truth more spiritual : and 
 
 draws in form half-veiled 
 Fleeting grace of nymph and phantom, as in 
 
 glee they laughed, and hailed 
 
 Him, who wrought them into joyous being in 
 
 the woodland cool. 
 And they call where leaves are swaying, where 
 
 the deeply mirroring pool 
 
3fancs 25 
 
 Flings back grace of their abandon ; and their 
 
 voices rise like song, 
 Sweet as their own charms supernal, seen but 
 
 in Arcadian throng. 
 
II. DEVOTION 
 
II. DEVOTION 
 
 T ED by charm transcendent move the eyes 
 ^"^ the painted scenes amid, 
 Till they rest on depths of woodland, whose 
 dim secrets still are hid 
 
 From the ken and song of poets, how they oft 
 
 have raised the theme. 
 Here, the living air seems holy ; through its 
 
 calm a tinkling stream. 
 
 In the wavering murmur of its liquid notes, is 
 
 distant heard ; 
 Lowly sounds of insect life the quiet scarce 
 
 disturb ; a bird 
 
 29 
 
30 ^bc palace of \Dieion 
 
 Sudden thrills the air with song, whose wild, 
 
 untutored forest note 
 Sweeter is than trill of flute : it pours from its 
 
 heart through a golden throat 
 
 Perfect strain of gladness, that is pure abandon 
 
 to its lays, 
 With no fear of harm, or terror ; and the song 
 
 is Nature's praise 
 
 Welling from a heart, that music melts to 
 
 golden notes of air 
 Flung upon a dreaming woodland, like a 
 
 burst of perfect prayer. 
 
 C Softly, there, the leaves are swaying, danc- 
 ing light in breeze of noon. 
 
 Filled with pulse of tender verdure, that no 
 breath of frost may soon 
 
 Stay in its full tide of being ; and, upon the air 
 
 they lay 
 Murmured strains of glad contentment; while 
 
 the wandering breezes play 
 
Devotion 3 1 
 
 Soft upon them, like a viol ; winning from 
 
 them harmonies 
 Blending with the stream's bright treble into 
 
 hymns of brooks and trees. 
 
 €L, By the wistful stress of music ; by the deep, 
 
 cool woodland charm ; 
 Past the haunting forms of dryads — beauty 
 
 free from taint and harm : — 
 
 In the depths of the heart there awaken dim 
 
 Devotion's deeper chords ; 
 Thrilling low, yet grand, exalted past all joy 
 
 that song affords. 
 
 Sing they like some harp, that, ages long, has 
 
 sounded mystery 
 Deeper than the ken of Reason ; hymning an 
 
 eternity 
 
 That, with light of golden wonder, sudden 
 
 gleams on the path of life : 
 There to waken in us longings ; there to urge 
 
 a quest and strife 
 
32 llbc palace of IDision 
 
 For a grail sublimer, holier, than Arcadian val- 
 leys hide, — 
 
 Heaven descended, spirit-splendor borne upon 
 celestial tide. 
 
 CL Just beyond the woodland fancy lies a 
 
 scene, whose meaning deep 
 Yields the heart in full expression, what its 
 
 truer moments keep 
 
 Hid from day, and light intrusion. As the art 
 
 of classic age, 
 Whose high genius wrought in sacred themes 
 
 its lasting heritage, 
 
 Here had lent its inspiration, with its olden 
 
 power supreme. 
 To a hand, that later sought to gain the all of 
 
 art's high dream 
 
 In the present age of commerce, wholly bound 
 
 to Mammon's shrine, — 
 Reaching upward from its baseness to a vision 
 
 more divine : 
 
Devotion 3 3 
 
 Here, has genius wrought its inspiration, till 
 
 the dream became 
 Symbol of Devotion, laid in theme that Pearce 
 
 has given to fame. 
 
 Noble in simplicity, the vision in its pathos, 
 
 there, 
 Pleads the longing of all ages, and the cry of 
 
 world-old prayer. 
 
 €L Lone, upon a wooded hillside, with a faith 
 
 unquestioning. 
 Human hands have reared an altar, without 
 
 tool and fashioning. 
 
 Stones by Nature seamed and carven, here are 
 
 laid by simple art; 
 Upright, two ; a third them crowning bears 
 
 the fire, whose flames upstart 
 
 And consume the offered token, whose sweet 
 
 savor is the sign, 
 Mystic wrapped in earthly symbols, of the 
 
 dim, unknown Divine ! 
 
 c 
 
34 ZDc palace ot IDiston 
 
 C Trees about rise high, majestic ; like some 
 
 noble spirits fair, 
 Lay they hush on face of Nature, holiness and 
 
 awe of prayer ; — 
 
 Hush they noise of wing and insect, bid the 
 
 song of birds be mute 
 While the high noon's minstrel utters his wild 
 
 strain of woodland flute. 
 
 That but lays upon the silence passing hint of 
 
 life's deep thrill. 
 Melting longing into worship and the heart to 
 
 spirit's will. 
 
 On the breeze the hill wide roaming, lay they 
 hush of evening hour. 
 
 While the flame's low murmur rises till, in ar- 
 dent spirit power. 
 
 It leaps forth, a gleaming token that the sacri- 
 fice is owned 
 
 By the Power, whose fatherhood within the 
 human heart is throned. 
 
Devotion 3 5 
 
 Ct Then the breeze, like chanting minstrel, 
 lays its skill on trembling leaves. 
 
 And they wake to murmuring chorus that a 
 tender anthem weaves, — 
 
 Chorused low, like organ sounding and, anon, 
 
 like *cello strain : 
 And the passion of all holy sweetness sings in 
 
 its refrain. 
 
 Low, till lost in echoes, falls the anthem ; then 
 
 from distant solitude 
 Swell the murmurs, till in perfect song the 
 
 choral is renewed. 
 
 And in strength of strains victorious, some far 
 
 hope the song declares, — 
 Joy to thrill of joyance, while the sylvan scene 
 
 the gladness shares : 
 
 How this life may press with sorrows ; how its 
 
 burden bears with pain ; 
 How to dust its frame returneth : yet the soul 
 
 shall live again ! 
 
36 ^be IPalace of IDision 
 
 €L, In the hush of Nature's temple, broken 
 
 but by wind-blown hymn ; 
 By the altar holy, mystic, crowned by viewless 
 
 seraphim, 
 
 Side by side in mutual yearning kneel here 
 
 two with low-bowed head. 
 One is man, some far ancestor, who upon the 
 
 hill has led 
 
 Sportive dance, mayhap, or followed some far 
 
 cry of heated chase ; 
 But whose heart is speaking, and he bends a 
 
 reverent face. 
 
 While the sacred fire consumes the savory 
 meat his prowess sought. 
 
 That he offers in his weakness to a Power be- 
 yond his thought. 
 
 Ct Mute of words, no voice he utters; but, 
 
 upon his lips is laid. 
 All the longing that the heart knows, — as a 
 
 dim, sweet mystery played 
 
Devotion 3 7 
 
 Veiled before his ardent fancy, nameless in its 
 
 ecstasy. 
 Swift it passes. Through his heart there 
 
 moves the voiceless agony 
 
 Laid by death, as love departed and its prayer 
 
 was all in vain ; 
 Through it pours the sorrow and the pang of 
 
 life, its goad of pain ; 
 
 Lingering void of disappointment, and remorse 
 
 from sting of sin ; 
 Whispered yearnings moist with tears ; and all 
 
 its cries repressed within. 
 
 Low he bows with voiceless burden of his 
 
 prayer, while on his heart 
 Pours the flood of mingled agony the pains of 
 
 life impart ; — 
 
 All the cry of prayer that mankind lift forever 
 
 to the skies 
 Echoes in his mute petition, rises from his 
 
 sacrifice ! 
 
3 8 tibe palace of Diston 
 
 CL Soft the melody and sweetness of the for- 
 est-murmured hymn 
 
 Steals upon his heart and being with a burden 
 vast and dim. 
 
 Kneels he there, a far ancestor, bowed in wor- 
 ship for a race : 
 
 Pleading for all time and ages, that, with slow 
 and wearied pace, 
 
 Wounded sore and mad with anguish, victims 
 
 of relentless Foe, 
 Press the strife of life and yield them, lifting 
 
 cry of helpless woe. 
 
 Bent with agony unuttered, mute with prayer 
 
 ineffable. 
 Bows he there his soul in worship of the 
 
 Power Invisible; 
 
 Mingling with his pangs the mystery, thrill of 
 
 wonder and the awe 
 Of a world past all his knowing, past his ken 
 
 of rule and law. 
 
2)evotion 39 
 
 C. Man for mankind, bowed he worships, — 
 striver with its strife oppressed, — 
 
 Type of human invocation, seeking love in 
 yearning quest ; 
 
 Seeking peace past all disturbing, longing for 
 
 a harmony 
 Sweeter far than earth-breathed music, nobler 
 
 than its melody. 
 
 Through his silent agony his heart the bene- 
 diction pleads, 
 
 Which shall reconcile with good his preying 
 griefs and sateless needs. 
 
 And shall be the real for earnest longings, that 
 
 he knows are true : 
 Laying on his life a beauty deeper than the 
 
 passing hue. 
 
 €t By his side, of form diviner, — mystery 
 
 high and sweet as prayer, — 
 Fairer than her human comrade, creature more 
 
 of spirit air, — 
 
40 ^be palace of IDisfon 
 
 Kneels a woman in devotion, hallowing the 
 
 pastoral scene ; 
 Some far type of visioned beauty worshiping 
 
 in lovely mien 
 
 Part of earth, yet more of heaven, whom some 
 
 rarer graces fold 
 In their constant care protecting, than the man 
 
 of coarser mould, — 
 
 Kneels she in the noon's high shadow, lost in 
 
 visions, rapt in dreams, 
 Touched by glory beatific, — half an ecstasy 
 
 she seems ! 
 
 C Flowing over shoulders rounded, parted 
 
 from a forehead fine, 
 Modeled noble as the artist dreams of woman 
 
 more divine, — 
 
 Folds of Titian hair loose falling in abandon 
 
 naught confines, 
 Waving like the rippling water, — her sweet 
 
 presence half enshrines. 
 
Devotion 4 1 
 
 Through the parted leaves a sunbeam wander- 
 ing falls upon her hair, 
 
 Touching it with golden sunlight that soft 
 glows, caressing, there. 
 
 Till it shines half-lucent with the fire of ruddy 
 
 gold within, 
 Purpled deep to softened lustre with the ruby's 
 
 glow akin. 
 
 Soft it lies upon her tresses and, with radiance 
 
 subdued. 
 Tinges neck and cheek with crimson mingling 
 
 with the flush of blood, 
 
 That, concealed or faint revealed, suffuses her 
 
 fair features low. 
 Token sweet of tides of rapture that within 
 
 her being glow. 
 
 Ct Gentler fall on her the sorrows, voiceless 
 
 longings and distress. 
 That, upon her comrade kneeling, flood his 
 
 heart with bitterness. 
 
42 Zbc palace of \Di0ion 
 
 Low she bends her eyes in worship, while tri- 
 umphant in her face, 
 
 Where a smile half lingers softened, breaks a 
 light of heavenly grace. 
 
 C Veiled within her heart a Spirit breathes a 
 
 promise distant cast 
 Of redemption through her granted, that shall 
 
 come to man, at last. 
 
 On her rests the joy prophetic : that, from 
 
 woman shall be born, 
 Christ the Son of God, anointed to be balm 
 
 for those who mourn. 
 
 Herald of a brighter dawning that shall grow 
 
 to perfect day ; 
 And the Comforter, who, dying, bands upon 
 
 the Grave shall lay. 
 
 Conquer Death in Resurrection, rise victorious 
 
 from the tomb, — 
 Winning steadfast hope that, dying, man meets 
 
 not a final doom. 
 
Devotion 43 
 
 Ct Past the vision moves prophetic, fades the 
 
 dream for history ; 
 Leaves it some dim sense of music and of 
 
 spirit minstrelsy. 
 
 Over her, the woman kneeling, steals a new 
 
 beatitude, 
 Light of some annunciation on her softly 
 
 seems to brood : 
 
 Touch it is of all the wistful, tender love of 
 womankind. 
 
 All the grace of her devotion, her sure spirit- 
 sense of mind, 
 
 Wealth of pure affection and her ministry of 
 
 tenderness 
 Falling on life's strident harshness, calming it 
 
 to loveliness. 
 
 Ct Charms the artist means by halo, having 
 
 else no skill to paint. 
 Fall upon her past the pale self-righteousness 
 
 of fancied saint : — 
 
44 XLbc palace of Dtsfon 
 
 Burden of angelic mission, sweet as chorals 
 
 from their choirs. 
 Laying love in spirit meaning on the gross of 
 
 man's desires; 
 
 Earnest of eternal beauty that, like music, 
 haunts the earth. 
 
 Incarnation of the mystery, sense of far, celes- 
 tial birth 
 
 That in flowers and bird-song greet us, that in 
 
 passing cloud is seen ; 
 Spirit of the evening purple, passion of the 
 
 noon's hot sheen ; 
 
 Sweetness of the wind-blown murmurs, ravish- 
 ment of form and grace : — 
 
 All the wealth of spirit meaning that in earthly 
 mould we trace. 
 
 Rests upon the Woman kneeling, soft in halo 
 
 lingers there. 
 As she lifts her heart in worship, bowed in 
 
 holiness of prayer ! 
 
III. NOBILITY 
 
III. NOBILITY 
 
 IJAR along the lengthening passage, on its 
 **• spacious, spreading vault, 
 
 Art has laid its fair creations, blemished by no 
 lack nor fault. 
 
 Now a fresco pure as Raphael's throws the 
 
 softened light in glow; 
 Yonder scene of strength and grandeur speaks 
 
 the art of Angelo. 
 
 Clear are limned majestic fancies, which the 
 
 heart had vaguely held. 
 And had treasured through the years ; and 
 
 how their hidden charms compelled, 
 
 47 
 
48 ^be palace ot IDieion 
 
 Yet not power nor skill awoke to make their 
 
 grandeur outward known. 
 €L Deep within the heart, how life is cold, 
 
 there pleads in undertone 
 
 Passion to create the beautiful that every age 
 extols. 
 
 What through years the passion bears in tute- 
 lage of master souls, 
 
 Here is laid with skill of chastened art : in 
 beauty there unfold 
 
 Mists of thought and gleams of fancy ; mem- 
 ories of centuries old ; 
 
 Pageantry and glorious visions, that, in sombre 
 
 evening light 
 When the press of the day is waning, picture 
 
 forth their quaint delight : 
 
 While the ancient knights and warriors move 
 in vast procession slow, 
 
 And through kindly hand of memory in height- 
 ened splendors go, — 
 
moblUtlS 49 
 
 Glittering in jeweled armor, flying banners 
 
 gold-entwined, 
 Heralded by martial trumpets that high thrill 
 
 the passing wind. 
 
 d. Through the distance break in misty gleam 
 
 of ravishment, — 
 That with warmth of life seems glowing, such 
 
 as Courtois's hand had lent, — 
 
 Forms that grace some fragrant woodland, 
 
 lovely shapes that flee the sun, 
 Gleaming white in sylvan shadows, coyly 
 
 sweet and hardly won. 
 
 Through the glorious painted vista moves the 
 
 eye in kindling mood 
 All the varied scenes among, the tireless hand 
 
 of Art has wooed 
 
 From the vague and passing fancy, and has 
 brought to imagery 
 
 Incarnate in splendid being, bright with haunt- 
 ing witchery. 
 D 
 
50 ^be palace of IDtsion 
 
 C Far adown the spacious passage till it ends 
 
 in sunlit court, 
 Columns border it, majestic, and with grace 
 
 the vault support : 
 
 Lofty rising mark they portals spanned by arch 
 
 and arabesque 
 Opening on court and fountain, cool, inviting, 
 
 picturesque ; 
 
 Or, anon, on chambers noble, vast, where va- 
 ried riches are 
 
 Treasured for the soul's possession, won by 
 toil from fields afar. 
 
 C^ Low dividing from the passage, mark the 
 
 columns paneled walls. 
 While above them mellowed sunlight gleams 
 
 on vault and capitals. 
 
 Varied scenes adorn the panels, or they bear on 
 azure field 
 
 Golden wreaths the blue entwining ; fair de- 
 sign of noble shield 
 
IRobilitis 5 1 
 
 Wrought with symbols sphitual to show the 
 
 soul in highest worth, 
 Won by toil and earnest strivings, not by 
 
 chance and favoring birth. 
 
 C. If to show the Spirit noble, kindred to 
 
 some glorious line, 
 That nor boasts the blood of battle nor great 
 
 riches from rapine ; 
 
 But some line yet more illustrious than the 
 
 titled birth bestows : 
 That, by grace of God's endowments and by 
 
 toil and strife, sure grows 
 
 From the base and mean of earthliness to 
 
 heights of air serene ; 
 Gains the summit hard in winning, where all 
 
 truth more clear is seen ; — 
 
 Ancestry of priest and prophet, poets of the 
 
 deathless strain ; 
 Race of martyrs, saints, reformers, — those 
 
 who served at Truth's high fane, 
 
52 XTbe palace of IDision 
 
 Who some righteous word have spoken, heard 
 
 undying in all time, 
 Who have stood an Age opposing for a truth 
 
 they held sublime; — 
 
 Line of dreamer who in vision won the soul of 
 
 Beauty's spell. 
 Limned it forth in living colors, wrought the 
 
 marble cold to tell 
 
 Of the fire and deathless passion that forever 
 
 urges on, 
 Urges, still, each generation, till the Beautiful 
 
 be won ! 
 
 d. If to show the spirit noble, kindred to the 
 
 great of soul. 
 Lordly by God's gifts and sanction, stately and 
 
 possessing, whole. 
 
 Rank exalted, high and worthy, full as deeds 
 
 have won estate ; — 
 If to prove the worth of being, honoring the 
 
 heart elate : 
 
inobilitis 53 
 
 On the walls are crests armorial, blazoned 
 
 some on emerald field, 
 Gleaming some from depths of purple rich as 
 
 Tyrian dyes might yield. 
 
 Bear the walls heraldic symbols of the spirit's 
 proudest quest : 
 
 Golden-wreathed and jeweled from the emer- 
 ald glows the spirit's crest ; 
 
 Gleams it golden from the purple, with a clear, 
 
 inspiring ray, 
 Sacred with the light of empire higher than 
 
 proud sceptres sway. 
 
 €t Here the soul achieves all station, finds the 
 courtliness it seeks ; 
 
 Weaves a crest for its ambitions, that in splen- 
 did guise bespeaks 
 
 Lordliness in its possessor, all the regal state of 
 
 man. 
 Who within his heart a king is, ruling not on 
 
 tribe or clan, 
 
54 tTbe palace of lUieion 
 
 Race or nation ; but his kingdom is the realm 
 
 his spirit knows, 
 Broad as his own thought can measure, wide 
 
 as his own spirit goes. 
 
 On his crest there rests not symboled weapon 
 
 boasting war and blood, 
 Unicorn nor lion rampant, sword nor shield of 
 
 fatal feud, — 
 
 Childish signs of ruder peoples, signs of lord, 
 
 and serf oppressed ; 
 Tokens of the robber's prowess, knavery in 
 
 splendor dressed. 
 
 Here are traced in deepest tinctures, the spirit's 
 
 highest heraldry. 
 Azure, gold and crimson symbols, blent in 
 
 splendid imagery. 
 
IV. NATURE 
 
IV. NATURE 
 
 1) AST the symbols on the panels that attest 
 '■' the worth of soul, 
 
 That confirm its state and grandeur and its 
 lineage extol, 
 
 Other panels grace the passage : rich, adorned 
 
 by master's hand. 
 Blend they with the round above them, art 
 
 with art in meaning grand. 
 
 Spread in lavish treasure, onward till the splen- 
 dor thrills the space 
 
 Vast as some cathedral glooming, soft with all 
 of visioned grace. 
 
 57 
 
58 ^bc iPalacc of IDieion 
 
 Colors deep with life and feeling gleam where 
 
 mellowed sunlight falls, 
 Till the real of pictured seeming vivid wakes 
 
 upon the walls. 
 
 CL Varied scenes adorn the panels, wrought 
 
 by hand of varied art 
 That has laid, with skill consummate, bare the 
 
 beauty of the heart. 
 
 Part they are of visions pictured, that with 
 misty longing break 
 
 Into sigh, where some deep woodland trem- 
 bling cool in mirroring lake 
 
 Yields the swift and fleeting fancy, shows 
 
 some vale in laughing air, 
 Beautiful beyond earth's being, and than 
 
 Tempe yet more fair. 
 
 Part they are of blended image wrought from 
 
 pleasing memories 
 That possess the spirit dreaming, mingling in 
 
 its reveries. 
 
mature 5 9 
 
 Ct Fair outspreads a quiet valley distant 
 walled by gentle hills 
 
 Lying in caressing sunshine, dimmed by mel- 
 lowing haze that fills 
 
 Wide the space with golden shimmer, airy- 
 thin and softening 
 
 Till the landscape lies in splendor more of 
 dream than paints the spring. 
 
 Peaceful winds a narrow river on whose banks 
 
 great willows grow, 
 Leaf and branch enchanting pictured, — mists 
 
 of trees as once Corot 
 
 Painted in idyllic landscapes, — strong of trunk 
 
 and graceful limbed, 
 Crowned with foliage tender, wistful, all its 
 
 harshness softly dimmed. 
 
 More of dreams than earth the landscape, like 
 
 some perfect chord and low. 
 Passing human utterance sweet and sweeter 
 
 than the breezes blow : 
 
60 ^be iPalacc of Diston 
 
 Scene of some Arcadian region, where the pow- 
 ers of Nature lie 
 
 But to bless with growth and nurture, and to 
 grace with friendly sky ; 
 
 Region where the perfect seeming grows into 
 
 reality 
 Showing thought of God in beauty, deep as 
 
 His eternity. 
 
 €L Opposite, the mellowed radiance lights a 
 
 scene of sylvan theme : 
 Not of earth the forest glimmers with a faintly 
 
 struggling gleam ; 
 
 For the sun scarce breaks the fastness warded 
 
 deep with sturdy trunk 
 Arched with limb thick spread with foliage, 
 
 that of kindly showers has drunk ; 
 
 Growing depths of thick-wove leafage pierced 
 
 with stray and wandering rifts, 
 Where there falls a shaft of sunlight that in 
 
 gleaming splendor drifts. 
 
Ulatute 6 1 
 
 On the sward of grass and mosses bright is set 
 
 the woodland flower 
 Bearing bloom of blue and purple ; tokens coy 
 
 of secret bower 
 
 That the sun in passion enters, bloom here 
 
 flowers of burning red, 
 Flames, that from the green upspringing, 
 
 through the dusk mild radiance shed. 
 
 Star-like shine they in the glooming, sparkling 
 
 like some magian gems 
 Hung by sportive elf or fairy on the floweret's 
 
 nodding stems. 
 
 C Purpled are the trunks and branches with 
 the woodland glooms that fell, 
 
 From the lights the thick boughs passing, into 
 weird and solemn spell ; 
 
 Green are leaf and grass with livid tints like 
 
 emerald glistening, 
 As through them was wildly coursing wine 
 
 of an unfading spring. 
 
62 XTbc palace of msion 
 
 CL Stately seems the forest olden, bower where 
 
 noble spirits pass, 
 Moving through the air with music, scarcely 
 
 touching flower and grass ; 
 
 Wood it is of visioned seeming, filled with no 
 
 annoy nor harm, 
 Where the wistful peace of shadows trembles 
 
 but at its own charm. 
 
 C Here in noontide's fervid splendor gleams 
 
 the sunset's radiant chord. 
 Tints that thrill like anthem sounding, tones 
 
 of light in full accord. 
 
 Here, in light of glorious seeming, lies the 
 
 heart's deep loveliness, 
 Set in forest grand and storied, purpled depths 
 
 of wilderness 
 
 Such as hand of Diaz painted, drawing clear 
 
 his vision fine, 
 Spite of jeer, as his own spirit caught the 
 
 passing dream divine ; — 
 
Ulatuce 63 
 
 Painted depths of woodland sombre, shot with 
 
 some fierce gilded ray 
 That, from rift in storm-cloud falling lurid on 
 
 the darkened day, 
 
 Marks the moment when on Nature, solemn, 
 
 grand, an awful pause 
 Dark forebodes the tempest's fury and the burst 
 
 of its wild laws : — 
 
 Painted woodland more of seeming than the 
 
 depths of forest shade, 
 More of dreams and sombre fancy than is seen 
 
 through wildest glade ; 
 
 Sombre dreams, yet deeply thrilling with the 
 
 pain of some far hope ; 
 Fairer they than storied Arden, or the charms 
 
 of fabled slope. 
 
V. AFFLICTION 
 
V. AFFLICTION 
 
 Passing scenes of sylvan fancies, that a 
 ■^ vivid art has won, 
 
 Where the heart of man with Nature beats in 
 tranquil unison, — 
 
 Wide a panel spreads a picture feigning hour 
 
 of light subdued, 
 When the evening softness gathers, and the 
 
 shadows lightly brood. 
 
 Blue the sky of this far landscape, azure pass- 
 ing into gray 
 
 On a level, dim horizon, that in distance fades 
 away, 
 
 67 
 
68 Zbc ipalace ot Dision 
 
 Blending earth and sky together in a shimmer- 
 ing veil of haze. 
 
 Wide the landscape stretches bleakly, desert 
 waste of sands that blaze 
 
 Lurid fierce in glow of noontide, where no 
 
 tree nor flush of green ; 
 Fronded palm nor spread of verdure pleasant 
 
 to the eye is seen : 
 
 Naught but desert vast is pictured, where the 
 
 step of humankind 
 Falls but in some distant memory, like an echo 
 
 to remind 
 
 Each spent year of seasons olden, when the 
 
 waste a garden spread 
 Fair as Eden, green and blooming, and with 
 
 living waters fed. 
 
 Ct On the scene of desolation Memory lays 
 
 enkindling breath, 
 And there lives its past with all the joyous 
 
 charm it lost in death. 
 
Bmiction 69 
 
 Soft reposing in the shadows lingering cool 
 
 where noble trees 
 Lifted frond and branch toward heaven, toying 
 
 with the languorous breeze, — 
 
 Temples stood amid the verdure, roof and tree 
 blent in relief; 
 
 Peak with crown of branches mingling, weath- 
 ered bronze with green of leaf. 
 
 €L, Through the rifts of verdure gleaming 
 with the charm of quick surprise. 
 
 Marble white the temples glisten, high their 
 noble columns rise, 
 
 Carven with a woodland garland, lilies clasped 
 with trembling vine. 
 
 Airy reeds and iris flowering, held with wind- 
 ing columbine. 
 
 Graceful as the shafts of palm trees that a 
 passing wind might sway, 
 
 Bowing them as trees are bended, lift the tem- 
 ples, light as they. 
 
70 tTbe palace of Dision 
 
 Sculptured shafts, that through the branches 
 seem with clustering trees a part, — 
 
 Part with woodland beauty fashioned, Nature 
 blent with human art. 
 
 Shrines are here before whose altars low the 
 
 soul in worship bows, 
 And in awe of the Eternal breathes its ardent, 
 
 trembling vows. 
 
 Here it lifts its aspiration, pleading it may 
 
 realize 
 All the sweet, exalted longing that it brings for 
 
 sacrifice ; 
 
 That, how dim and vague their leading, and 
 
 how high their earnest dwells, 
 Are the creed of youth's devotion. Here the 
 
 pleaded yearning swells, 
 
 Breath of incense soft aspiring toward the 
 
 Holy, Beautiful; 
 And the soul thrilled with its craving, in its 
 
 worship dutiful. 
 
Bmiction 71 
 
 Yields its God, in spirit unction through its 
 
 softened, mystic mood, 
 Through its tender, nameless strivings, through 
 
 a Self dim understood, — 
 
 Imaged beauty of His spirit, attribute of His 
 
 own soul 
 That He breathes into His creatures. His own 
 
 likeness to extol ! 
 
 C Soft the groves are with a Presence, and 
 
 one temple leads the rest ; 
 Shrine it is the heart in homage seeks in pained, 
 
 impassioned quest. 
 
 Very birds that wing the branches garlanding 
 
 the sacred fane. 
 Sing in sweet, melodious measure, pouring out 
 
 their hearts in strain 
 
 Soft and melting as the bulbul lays upon the 
 
 moonlit air 
 Heavy with the dews of fragrance. Softer 
 
 green the leaves are there ; 
 
72 ^be ipalace ot melon 
 
 Sweeter blow the wandering breezes breaking 
 
 into melodies, 
 Like a harp aeolian singing, breathing joy 
 
 among the trees. 
 
 He who worships here knows longing, pain 
 
 that sweeter is than joy ; 
 Fevers of unrest consume him, burn the heart 
 
 yet not destroy ; 
 
 Fancies flit across the shadows, tender yet with 
 
 anguish filled ; 
 While from joy the heart quick turning, with 
 
 an unknown dread is thrilled. 
 
 €t Fane of anguish is the temple, yet a shrine 
 of ecstasy, 
 
 Where despair and bliss may mingle in enrap- 
 tured litany. 
 
 Here a Presence fair and lovely passes through 
 the air serene. 
 
 And the trees break into singing as her come- 
 liness is seen : 
 
^miction 73 
 
 Fills it all the columned temple till the mar- 
 bles softly glow ; 
 
 Thrills it through the verdant shadows till they 
 waver to and fro, 
 
 As in dance of joy they circled ; and the air 
 grows mist of gold 
 
 Melting into lambent treasure, while the flow- 
 ers more gay unfold. 
 
 Nature owns the shrine and homage, whole 
 
 partakes its joy and bliss, 
 Rapture and the thrilling passion which the 
 
 later years dismiss : 
 
 For the Soul of Love is passing and the earth 
 breaks into May ; 
 
 Hers the temple is and worship, and the fra- 
 grant, golden day ! 
 
 He who worships in the temple, spellbound in 
 the mystic grove, 
 
 Seeks the haunting form of rapture that pos- 
 sesses him with love ; 
 
74 ^be iPalace of IDision 
 
 Seeks the One, who through the twilight bends 
 
 on him bewitching eyes, 
 Showing veiled a form that kindles dreams and 
 
 longings into sighs ; 
 
 Seeks the soul his own completing, who with 
 
 guardian love may bless 
 Strife of his endeavor, and his quest for truth 
 
 and perfectness. 
 
 C Here the soul had dreamed enduring green 
 would wave the fronded plain ; 
 
 Dreamed the gleaming of the temple and the 
 worship at the fane, 
 
 With the rapture and the beauty, would the 
 
 years of life abide. 
 As the world were meant for dreaming till all 
 
 hope be satisfied. 
 
 C Swift upon a scene so lovely, demon-like, 
 
 Destruction came ; 
 Gave it to the sword and whirlwind, wrapped 
 
 its temples in the flame ; 
 
^miction 75 
 
 Gave its pleasant groves an offering to the 
 
 Fire's insatiate lust : — 
 On the verdant plain simooms fell withering 
 
 flowers and grass to dust ; 
 
 Cast on them from desert places swirling 
 
 sands, that buried deep 
 Ruined fane and corse who worshiped, laid in 
 
 Time's unbroken sleep ! 
 
 €L. Slowly through the years there drifted yel- 
 low sands that bleaching lay, 
 
 Hiding death, themselves sepulchral with the 
 dust of perished clay ; 
 
 Slowly through the years that gathered, every 
 
 trace of Love's demesne, — 
 Murmuring fountains, shrines and temples, 
 
 fronded groves and meadows green, — 
 
 Passed from sight into oblivion and became 
 
 sad memories, 
 Burden of some far-spent rapture, dirge that 
 
 sounds in passing breeze ; 
 
76 ^be palace of IDieion 
 
 Pain that in the moonlight's silver, sweet ca- 
 ressing sheen is laid, 
 
 Bodings of some distant sorrow that the fairest 
 scenes invade; — 
 
 Passed into the strange, sad meanings, passed 
 
 into the mystery 
 God in wisdom lays upon us, deep as His 
 
 eternity ! 
 
 C Choked are now the pleasant fountains, 
 dried the sparkling streams that fed 
 
 Grove and meadow in their verdure ; and the 
 land is one where dead. 
 
 Buried deep, a Past lies sleeping, and the bar- 
 ren sands drift on, 
 
 And Remorse is mute for vanished loveliness 
 and splendors gone ! 
 
 C^ Blue the sky of this far landscape broods, 
 
 now, barren over death ; 
 From its level, far horizon blows no more a 
 
 cooling breath, 
 
Bmtctlon 77 
 
 Wafts no breeze from fragrant meadows ; 
 sweeps now but the heated blast 
 
 Of simoom and blinding whirlwind ; Desola- 
 tion great and vast 
 
 Rests upon the desert prospect ; Loneliness 
 
 and Silence keep, 
 Brooding sad, their watch unending ; for the 
 
 thrill of life so deep 
 
 It could last but few bright seasons, weary- 
 years must Sorrow rest 
 
 Silent in the desert places, once with joyous 
 verdure dressed. 
 
 Ct In the power of quickened vision, in the 
 
 revery of grief 
 For the lost, exalted joyance fleeting as the 
 
 day and brief. 
 
 Lays the soul upon the panel limned with 
 
 waste of desert sky 
 Bending blue on desolation, — ruined space of 
 
 joys gone by, — 
 
78 XTbe palace of IDision 
 
 Wide the picture of its sadness, symbol of its 
 
 history, 
 Image of the love and sorrow sacred held in 
 
 memory. 
 
 Far the landscape stretches dreary, now a soli- 
 tude as vast 
 
 As the sands on Theban ruins burying a storied 
 past; 
 
 Where, from wreck of columned temple, one 
 
 scathed shaft yet rises high, 
 As it held the watch of empire for a Kingdom 
 
 long passed by. 
 
 Monuments they stand of conquest, of a glory 
 
 lost afar. 
 Of the love and hope of nations perished in 
 
 the greed of war. 
 
 €L, Sadly as in Th^San desert, but not here 
 
 for pomp and pride, 
 Wealth and power of ancient peoples buried 
 
 by forgotten tide, 
 
Btmctton 7 9 
 
 For the hate and greed and envy overthrown 
 
 some long ago, — 
 Lifts the mute, stark sign of sorrow, desolation 
 
 and of woe ! 
 
 Here, a lonely shaft that rises, marks the treas- 
 ured temple's seat. 
 
 That once held life's sweetest dreaming and 
 with rapture was replete : 
 
 Here, a Presence passed with music; breeze 
 
 and birds hailed it with song ; 
 While the heart pledged pure devotion, that 
 
 should last enduring strong. 
 
 Yet the Presence seems to linger, an ethereal 
 
 wraith of light. 
 Resting sadly sweet above it ; lovely passing 
 
 human sight. 
 
 Fair beyond earth's ruder dreaming is her spirit 
 
 form of grace, 
 Grown diviner through the sorrow that befell 
 
 her templed place ! 
 
80 ^l>c palace of \t)i6ion 
 
 CL From the bliss that turned to anguish, from 
 
 the rapture lost in death, 
 God has sent a finer Essence, moulded it and 
 
 given it breath. 
 
 Till a Soul of spirit beauty lingers where its 
 
 worship rose, 
 And, in sweetest benediction, its devotion still 
 
 bestows. 
 
 €t Lives it, there, a soul supernal, loveliness 
 
 more beautified. 
 Wistful with a charm unfading, constant 
 
 through life's varying tide : 
 
 Lovelier than in carnal being, still the spirit 
 
 form of love 
 Draws the heart with power eternal ; beautiful, 
 
 it lives above 
 
 All the gross and crude of earth-life, all the 
 
 vain that veils the truth, 
 All the mists that dimmed its morning; and 
 
 abides in charm of youth : 
 
Bmiction 81 
 
 In a realm of full perfection, grows it fairer 
 
 with the years, 
 Grows it sweeter with the seasons, pure, 
 
 diviner through our tears ! 
 
VI. INCARNATION 
 
VI. INCARNATION 
 
 /^N, athwart the passage gleams a burst of 
 
 mellowed light, 
 Finer than the mingled glow the pavement 
 flings on chrysolite 
 
 Bearing firm the carven shafts of portals, that 
 
 imposing stand 
 Guarding with a silent splendor chambers 
 
 opening vast and grand. 
 
 Glows the light with some far meaning, some 
 
 strange semblance in its rays, 
 Casting wide a mystic token, where a finer 
 
 essence plays, 
 
 85 
 
86 Zbc ipalace ot Dtsion 
 
 Thrilling deep with expectation that invites 
 
 exalted mood ; 
 Calling to some noble vision that with mystery 
 
 seems to brood. 
 
 C. Through a columned portal falls athwart 
 
 a nave the radiance bright, 
 That, a splendor soft diffusing, floods the 
 
 chamber's noble height. 
 
 Strains it through high arching windows, where 
 the fretted, opal glass 
 
 Mingles fervid light of noontide with the ten- 
 der sheen from grass, 
 
 And the golden green of shadows lit through 
 
 lucent films of leaves. 
 Lays the crystal fret on sunlight, Nature's 
 
 prismal art that weaves, 
 
 Touching soft like passing fancy, spell of flow- 
 ers and sward and tree. 
 
 Charm of flashing wing and plumage, myriad 
 beauties lavished free. — 
 
Incarnation 8 7 
 
 Veiled within the mingling radiance, in the 
 
 shadows dim disguised, 
 Wavers past the vision some vague Beautiful 
 
 unrealized. 
 
 Ct Reverently upon the portal of the chamber 
 
 stays the soul. 
 As it stood upon the threshold of a temple, 
 
 where unroll, 
 
 Clear before the eyes enraptured, that high 
 
 vision which the heart 
 Strives to grasp through mist and shadow, with 
 
 the feeble strife of art : 
 
 Secret of the truth and beauty, it dim sees on 
 Nature lie ; 
 
 Wonder and the mystery blending of a mean- 
 ing vast and high 
 
 Wrapped in ecstasy of human form, that 
 
 moulds the plastic clay. 
 Till from dust a perfect beauty clothes the 
 
 soul in fair array 
 
88 ^be iPalace ot IDision 
 
 More divine than thought can fashion, that in 
 
 passing wraith conceals 
 Very image of its Maker, yet Himself in part 
 
 reveals. — 
 
 Where unroll in carnal symbols all the mean- 
 ing faltering told. 
 
 All the holiness of beauty, He has stamped on 
 human mould. 
 
 C For the chamber is a temple dedicate to 
 
 thought divine 
 God has stamped on human fashion, breathed 
 
 in every mobile line, 
 
 Changing curve and facile feature, which in- 
 carnate to admire 
 
 Is but worship, who may scorn them for the 
 gross of low desire, 
 
 Praising life austere and formal ; as the crea- 
 ture were more wise. 
 
 Holier, purer than his Maker, whom he 
 blindly so denies. 
 
Uncarnation 89 
 
 Ct Spacious is the noble chamber, while upon 
 
 its paneled walls, 
 On the dome of vaulted ceiling and the frieze, 
 
 the light that falls 
 
 Shows no treasures Art has fashioned ; but the 
 
 chastened hue and tone, 
 Tint and color that adorn it, blend in softly 
 
 glowing zone. 
 
 That enfolds a noble vision art and toil have 
 glorious wrought, — 
 
 Splendor held in softened gleaming, of the ut- 
 most reach of thought. 
 
 C Fair reveals the light its burden, as some 
 
 chords majestic, low, 
 Sound their tones in concord blending, that in 
 
 measured cadence flow, 
 
 Laying on the air sonorous wave on wave of 
 
 harmony, 
 Like the bass of organ sounding ; while there 
 
 burst in melody, 
 
90 XLbc palace of melon 
 
 Rising clear in treble measures, phrase on 
 
 phrase, until the theme 
 Utters all the charm and meaning of the sweet 
 
 melodic dream. 
 
 "CI, On the walls, which from the passage low 
 
 divide the chambered space, 
 Tapestries of tone accordant hang with draping 
 
 folds of grace. 
 
 Forming two recesses which the lengthening 
 
 shadows faintly mould 
 Into deeper rounded seeming, softening each 
 
 olive fold. 
 
 Pedestals of emerald marble veined as Nature 
 
 mingles tone, 
 Blending colored wave with stream of opal 
 
 into treasured stone. 
 
 Stand within each shadowed recess ; while 
 upon the polished sheen 
 
 Wreathes of mossy gold are fashioned, blend- 
 ing with the marble's green. 
 
Incarnation 9 1 
 
 Here, in flood of mellowed radiance, rising on 
 
 the scene supreme 
 From their pedestals of emerald, breaks the 
 
 light on forms that seem 
 
 Beings sprung from birth supernal, to the soul 
 in quick surprise 
 
 At the beautiful creations human in their per- 
 fect guise. 
 
 €L Like some fleeting strains of fancy, haunt- 
 ing, echoing dreamily, 
 
 Sweet with melody unsymboled, singing in 
 some airy key, 
 
 When the theme of their high sounding clear 
 
 is heard in perfect song. 
 Sing their cadence in its measures and their 
 
 strains the theme prolong ; 
 
 Like a thought that, hasting, passes veiling 
 
 half some beauty rare. 
 Lovelier for its misty semblance hinting it 
 
 beyond compare. 
 
92 Zbc palace of IPlsfon 
 
 Finds its being in the numbers that a poet 
 
 frames in stress 
 Of the song his own heart utters burdened 
 
 with its loveliness : 
 
 Gleaming white the marble statues nobly rise 
 
 upon the eyes, 
 That behold in burst of vision beings which 
 
 immortalize 
 
 Beauty's passing wraith supernal ; and the eyes 
 enraptured see 
 
 Symbols of Art's high creation wrought to no- 
 blest majesty, 
 
 Regal beyond earthly crowning ; that, endur- 
 ing for all time, 
 
 Speak in poise of life's full seeming all the 
 thought we hold sublime, 
 
 Lift the faltering human fashion into forms of 
 
 living grace, 
 And, the Beautiful exalted, yield, at last, the 
 
 perfect race. 
 
Incarnation 93 
 
 CL Full incarnate in the marbles, bodied forth 
 
 by art's trained hand 
 From the vision genius kindles, sees the soul 
 
 before it stand, 
 
 Here revealed in high perfection simple in 
 
 its sacredness. 
 Touch and hint of fair proportions Nature lays 
 
 in sweet caress 
 
 On the human form she fashions : yet, as were 
 
 the task too fine. 
 Or her bounty too high treasure, mingles with 
 
 the thought divine 
 
 Cruder mould and harsher pattern, leaving ever 
 
 incomplete 
 Her fair promise, that transports us from the 
 
 hint to shape replete 
 
 With all comeliness and beauty, — lacking 
 
 naught, in nothing gross. 
 Every touch in justest measure, pure, refined 
 
 from taint of dross. 
 
94 tTbe palace of IDiaion 
 
 C, By the master's task and toiling, stands the 
 
 dream in form expressed, 
 Which in glow of some far passion slowly 
 
 dawned in guise and dressed 
 
 Rapture of its sweet conception in the carnal 
 
 mould that reigns 
 Type supreme in world of beauty, and some 
 
 high creation feigns. 
 
 C Forms they are that whole embody — mo- 
 tionless in eloquence 
 
 Of the flush and tide of being — from the hint 
 of grosser sense, 
 
 What the spirit's finer vision sees transcend the 
 earthly mask, 
 
 Seeking for the real of symbols through un- 
 daunted, baffled task. 
 
 Here the perfect form incarnate passes glimpse 
 
 of round and curve 
 Seen in thousand fleeting shadows, that, in 
 
 broken image serve, 
 
Incarnation 9 5 
 
 But to point the glorious radiance of a perfect 
 
 loveliness. 
 Fleeting hints from thousand faltering forms 
 
 that dimly, vague express 
 
 Truth of some diviner beauties that, unstaying 
 
 as they passed, 
 Promised through their misty image dawn of 
 
 the ideal, at last, — 
 
 Here, are shaped in curve and moulding, line 
 and fashion, till the stone. 
 
 In the pause of perfect being, makes the ut- 
 most beauty known. 
 
 G, And the vision falls like music ; through 
 
 its measures weaves the song 
 Whose fair theme of haunting sweetness, its 
 
 own harmonies prolong : 
 
 And, like some fair revery or image of forgot- 
 ten days. 
 
 That once smote the chords of heart to sing 
 Love's roundelays, 
 
96 Zhc iPalace of \Df6ion 
 
 Through the vision breaks the real of dreams 
 and veiled, enchanting thought, 
 
 As it wakes from misty seeming, the ideal the 
 soul had sought. 
 
 €t Sundered far by tide and nation are the 
 
 forms that memory 
 Here has garnered, fitly mating beings, who, in 
 
 majesty, 
 
 Grace and beauty far surpassing shapes of 
 
 halting, cruder mould. 
 Are the primal man and woman, as they 
 
 moved through Eden old. 
 
VII. WISDOM 
 
VII. WISDOM 
 
 TN the charm of mellowed sunlight, gleams 
 
 the lucent marble low 
 With the sembled flush of life diffused, as by 
 some crimsoned flow ; 
 
 Through the spell of gleam and shadow, soft 
 is borne upon the view 
 
 Presence of a form transcendent, that, in sym- 
 bol carven true. 
 
 Shows the perfect man and fashion of the im- 
 age God has wrought 
 
 Out of dust, and called to being in the splen- 
 dor of his thought. 
 99 
 
100 ^be IPalace ot IDision 
 
 C Noble is the brow, commanding ; high the 
 
 forehead rises pure, 
 Lofty, wide, the fitting symbol of the Mind it 
 
 shelters sure, 
 
 That, through instrument bewildering in its 
 
 mazes intricate. 
 Baffling human lore and searching, — matter 
 
 shaped for soul's estate, — 
 
 Works upon the world what Spirit wills from 
 
 its unknown domain ; 
 Half creator at its pleasure, half in bond to 
 
 sense and pain. 
 
 €t Finely carven are the features, mobile to 
 
 the secret mood. 
 That faint plays upon the spirit : they are 
 
 guise to habitude, 
 
 Passing thought and kindled fancy ; like a mir- 
 ror they present 
 
 In the flash of quick expression, undistorted, 
 that intent 
 
mtsDom 1 1 
 
 Which the soul toward those beholding longs 
 to break in message plain, 
 
 From the depths of being image, and in meas- 
 ure full attain ; 
 
 Till the fancy, thought, emotion, which in 
 
 vivid power it feels. 
 Full is seen in living image that the real in 
 
 whole reveals. 
 
 C Under spell of lovely shape, that Melos 
 
 yielded from her past. 
 Carved, perchance, by hand of lover, whose 
 
 deep passion overcast 
 
 Earthly mould of fault and blemish with the 
 
 glamour love supplies. 
 Knowing not his rapture fashioned form that 
 
 should immortalize 
 
 That high dream of noble Woman, which the 
 
 ardent heart of man 
 Beating ever to the vision, since the spell of 
 
 love began, 
 
102 ^be palace ot IDieion 
 
 Dreams anew in each rapt lover ; knowing not 
 
 his art bestowed 
 Union of a perfect body with the purest soul 
 
 endowed ; — 
 
 €t Under spell of Phidian marbles, that in 
 
 glorious numbers rose 
 Through their round of full perfection, ever 
 
 nobler to disclose 
 
 Depths of mystic human beauty, Nature shows 
 
 to eyes endued 
 To behold her charms supernal, which the 
 
 grosser sight elude. 
 
 That, for gain of present praising, an abiding 
 art eschews 
 
 For some warped and passing fancy that no vi- 
 tal breath imbues; — 
 
 Ct Under charm of classic sculpture from the 
 
 golden art of Greece, 
 Type and pattern for all ages, as it symboled 
 
 fruitful peace 
 
TWlis&om 103 
 
 And the splendor of her victories in the winged 
 
 Nike poised, 
 Like a regnant spirit calm above the tumult 
 
 wildly noised ; — 
 
 €L In the glow of that far glory, Greece had 
 
 wrought upon the frieze 
 Crowning her famed Parthenon with galaxy of 
 
 deities 
 
 And her fabled heroes ; carven by the art she 
 
 fostered, till 
 It attained an ideal beauty, calm, impressive, 
 
 lingering still 
 
 All-compelling as its conquest fell upon that 
 
 vanished race ; — 
 Ct In the toils of that enchantment, enervating 
 
 in embrace ; 
 
 Whose sad, ruined splendors hold their renais- 
 sance in flush of youth. 
 
 Cherished by an erring zeal which backward 
 reads the ages' truth : — 
 
104 Zbc palace of Vision 
 
 Was this form immortal wrought and carved 
 
 in later age by hand 
 Moved by genius high as Nature granted to 
 
 that favored land, 
 
 Deifying sense and passion ; but whose art 
 
 lacked power to mate 
 Body with the soul in full expression, for its 
 
 ultimate. 
 
 d. Held by classic beauty in its spell, Thor- 
 
 valdsen carved the dream. 
 Which, in chambers of the vision, Memory 
 
 clothes with subtle gleam. 
 
 That endows the classic roundness with the 
 
 life, whose glorious whole, 
 Lifts the noble human fashion into temple for 
 
 the soul. 
 
 Ct Not the stature of the giant, does the mar- 
 ble celebrate ; 
 
 Brute with other brutes contending, who sur- 
 vives to dominate 
 
•QfiltsDom 105 
 
 Land and sea with foes insidious, which a 
 
 ceaseless conflict wage, 
 Like the strife of savage creatures in some 
 
 dark, remoter age : 
 
 Nor the bulk of gladiator; for the boaster 
 
 panoplied 
 For the battle with his fellows, is forgotten 
 
 with his deed. 
 
 d Here is man, not statue carven to entice 
 
 the passing throng. 
 Who from base ideals flutter admiration for 
 
 the strong : 
 
 Here, man shares not with the ox the strength 
 
 of dumb, obedient toil ; 
 As the beast were shape divine for world of 
 
 slavish brawn and moil ! 
 
 C. Let the strength of man be boasted, Nature 
 
 mocks it with her powers : 
 Puny is his best endeavor ; and his works a 
 
 year devours. 
 
106 XTbe palace Of iDlBion 
 
 Nature owns man lord and master, not by 
 
 pitting force with force ; 
 Nor, by might of brute endeavor, does she 
 
 yield established course. 
 
 C, Nature like a queenly lover, deep enam- 
 oured of the man. 
 
 Longs to yield herself unto him : to dissolve 
 the brutal ban. 
 
 Lifts she him to regal station ; and, that he 
 
 may be her lord, 
 Crowns him with the mind immortal, godlike 
 
 in divine accord. 
 
 Regal, now, she yields her being, ardent meets 
 
 his eagerness, 
 As he woos her secret treasures with a lover's 
 
 fond address. 
 
 €t He, who strength to force opposes, must 
 
 be slave to constant toil ; 
 Like he gives for like begrudging, — like for 
 
 like in endless coil. 
 
•QCligDom 107 
 
 By his thought man wields a sceptre, mighty 
 
 as his crown of mind ; 
 Guides he force by intellect, and powers by 
 
 mightier are confined. 
 
 Clothed with intellect, he plies the subtle 
 
 lightning for his need ; 
 Learns the bounds of every force that may 
 
 work out his will to deed ; 
 
 Spans the stream with graceful arch, or plants, 
 
 affronting hill and sky. 
 Geometric web with filaments of steel, which 
 
 bears on high. 
 
 Far above the cafion's foaming depths, an epic 
 
 of his thought, 
 Which but lacks the human touch to be divine 
 
 as Homer wrought. 
 
 Ct Fashioned like a god, the statue symboling 
 
 Apollo's form, 
 Graceful stands with noble presence, type of 
 
 beauty, and the norm 
 
108 KTbc ipalace ot \Di6ion 
 
 Which attests the man impressive, — height 
 
 and mien in unity 
 Full conforming, where reposes conscious 
 
 power and majesty. 
 
 On its form a play of shadows breathes in 
 
 classic round the tide. 
 Flush and thrill of life's real being ; rests there 
 
 touch of conscious pride, 
 
 Nature gives with health and vigor; there to 
 
 show her meaning high. 
 Limbs and body are full moulded till the 
 
 sleeping muscles lie 
 
 Faint revealed ; yet eloquent with latent power 
 
 and energy, 
 That, on instant, may awaken swift to work 
 
 with certainty 
 
 Strong behests of thought commanding, and 
 
 with nice precision press 
 To obey the instant call of sense alert with 
 
 consciousness. 
 
TimtsDom 109 
 
 Ct Nature here has wrought the shaping full 
 
 and free to her design, 
 Which eschews the coarse and beastly for a 
 
 moulding more divine. 
 
 Clothes she tendon, bone and sinew with abid- 
 ing touch of grace ; 
 
 Fashioning its rugged harshness, moulds she 
 every part to trace 
 
 Clear the thought of utmost beauty, which 
 
 pervades her varied guise ; 
 While she makes her chief creation with all 
 
 being harmonize. 
 
 d. Trunk and limb are not contorted with the 
 
 knotted muscle tense, 
 Hard with strenuous labor; as, by strength 
 
 and violence, 
 
 Man had won his regal station : for the 
 
 warped, distorted frame, 
 Deeply seamed by coarse endeavor, speaks not 
 
 majesty, nor fame 
 
1 1 Zbc palace of melon 
 
 Of achievement high and noble from devel- 
 oped powers innate ; 
 
 But proclaims, that brute dominion prostitutes 
 man's high estate, 
 
 Making man machine for labor, or an engine 
 framed for strife ; 
 
 Losing so in toil and conflict what should no- 
 bly crown his life. 
 
 Ct Vain is art that begs expression for the 
 
 thought it holds of strength ! 
 For its mould of form mistaken lays a high 
 
 ideal, at length. 
 
 In the dust of base conceptions, and exalts 
 
 deformity 
 For the mask of powers diviner and man's 
 
 nobler sovereignty. 
 
 C On the form beheld in vision, rests the 
 
 the touch the Infinite 
 Lays upon his earthly image, making man in 
 
 sovereign right 
 
MtsDom 1 1 1 
 
 Lord of earth and all its fullness ; master of 
 
 the powers that hide 
 Deep in its mysterious fashion ; ruler of an 
 
 empire wide, 
 
 Where he holds exalted station, not by right 
 
 of arm alone, 
 But by Intellect and Spirit which have made 
 
 all things his own. 
 
VIII. TENDERNESS 
 
VIII. TENDERNESS 
 
 A S it fell in revelation, that might guide the 
 grosser sight 
 To behold the finer meaning laid in form so 
 exquisite : 
 
 Softer dwells the mellowed radiance, as it 
 
 joyed to linger there. 
 Captive held in sweet enchantment, owning 
 
 this beyond compare ; 
 
 Softer lies the play of shadows, as it would by 
 
 fond caress. 
 Lead the vision to attest the being's perfect 
 
 loveliness. 
 
 115 
 
116 Zbc ipalacc ot IDision 
 
 CL Art here offers pledge and witness of the 
 
 skill and mastery 
 Won in present age, that loudly boasts its high 
 
 supremacy 
 
 Over mind and matter. In this age, — when 
 
 great achievements gained 
 Prompt more daring enterprise, and every 
 
 power is utmost strained ; 
 
 When, in conquest scarcely won, there springs 
 a new-discovered need, 
 
 That, inciting fresh endeavor, spurs a still insa- 
 tiate greed : — 
 
 Art has seen the finer meanings, that in some 
 
 dim sense pervade 
 All the restless search and striving, which, 
 
 conceived for gain and trade. 
 
 Cradled in its selfishness, is yet with latent 
 
 good innate. 
 Ever guiding all endeavor toward a glorious 
 
 ultimate. 
 
^cnDcrnes5 117 
 
 Art has felt the viewless presence of a spirit in 
 
 the age, 
 Leading man more surely into glory of the 
 
 heritage, 
 
 Nature waits to full possess him : when he 
 
 yields the canons wrought 
 From the mists of his conceptions, which, in 
 
 narrowness of thought. 
 
 Vainly seek to circumscribe the beautiful in 
 
 every guise ; 
 And accepts in fullest measure Nature's 
 
 beauty, as it lies 
 
 Sweet revealed in all her being ; and shall seek 
 
 for ideal pure 
 From the thought divine, she partial shows in 
 
 her investiture. 
 
 d. Art here owns, the wistful beauty Greece 
 achieved with noble grace. 
 
 Binding with its fair enchantments each suc- 
 cessive age and race, 
 
118 Zbc IPalace ot Dision 
 
 Is but partial glimpse supernal and attainment 
 
 won in youth 
 Of endeavor, that would gain in its own 
 
 strength the perfect truth. 
 
 d. Sweetly stands revealed a nobler form, by 
 
 art of Ruckstuhl won. 
 Owning Nature's moulded loveliness. From 
 
 faltering shapes begun, — 
 
 Where, in broken line and wavering curve, 
 
 there yet enchantment lies, 
 Symboling the perfect beauty Nature still in 
 
 most denies, — 
 
 It reveals the utmost comeliness. In every 
 
 feature speaks 
 Vision realized, which from the partial form 
 
 untiring seeks 
 
 Perfect fashion : and a splendor of the beauti- 
 ful soft falls 
 
 Deep with harmony and filled with rapture, 
 that the heart enthralls. 
 
Zcnt>cxnc6e 1 1 9 
 
 Owning Nature ultimate ; that naught beyond 
 
 her elements 
 Knows the human vision ; naught beyond her 
 
 glorious, high intents, 
 
 Can the thought devise from its own nothing- 
 ness : these charms proclaim, 
 
 That, which God hath formed, is lovelier than 
 the human thought can frame. 
 
 €L Very queen of womankind, — in stature 
 
 that the more commands 
 Regal homage, — in her uncrowned majesty, 
 
 the statue stands 
 
 Rapt in mood of contemplation, that the close 
 
 of passing day 
 Brings with mystic hour of evening. Far the 
 
 kindled fancies stray 
 
 From the world of wearied knowledge, seeking 
 
 realm, where wistful lies 
 Utmost tenderness and sweetest love, the 
 
 harsher day denies : 
 
12 vTbe palace of melon 
 
 And the vision grown more spiritual, as things 
 
 of sense depart, 
 Sees beyond the world denying aspirations of 
 
 the heart, 
 
 Very realm the longings craved : where love in 
 
 sweetest measure dwells, — 
 Passing slow fulfillment of its treasured 
 
 dawn, — and bright expels 
 
 Pain of bald attainment ; where in kindled 
 
 light the hopes repressed, 
 Overcast with dust of earthliness, arise in 
 
 splendor dressed, — 
 
 Grown more radiant fair for half-relinquish- 
 
 ment, — until they seem 
 Strong with conquering strength to win the 
 
 recompense of treasured dream. 
 
 d. Nor upon the semblance rests the sicklied 
 
 light repression gives : 
 Seeking from all sense relinquished and 
 
 despised, the state that lives 
 
^cnoemesa 1 2 1 
 
 Feebly in the body ; that it, haply, gain what 
 
 it believes 
 Holier is and purer, than the life accepting 
 
 flesh achieves. 
 
 But there dwells upon it — passing halo of the 
 
 saint — the clear, 
 Calm, majestic glory of humanity : which 
 
 pleads no fear. 
 
 That the Spirit may not wing its utmost flight 
 
 for clog of flesh ; 
 As the carnal raiment sorely pinioned soul in 
 
 earthly mesh ! 
 
 From it falls the nobler radiance : for the 
 
 body's balanced play, — 
 Sense and soul in full fruition, seeking joyous 
 
 to obey 
 
 Every prompting call of Nature, God has laid 
 
 in mystic plan. 
 Glorifying life despised of beast by crowning it 
 
 in man, — 
 
1 2 2 ^be {palace of IDision 
 
 Yields the perfect human being : where the 
 
 carnal strains but blend 
 Full and sweet with tones of spirit; and the 
 
 mingled chords transcend, 
 
 Thrilled with deepened harmonies, the feebler 
 notes they separate raise. — 
 
 Soul and sense in fullest utterance is the no- 
 blest hymn of praise ! 
 
 Through the strains of Nature's gladness, sings 
 it sweet of gracious plan, 
 
 Murmured low from humblest being into per- 
 fect theme in man. 
 
 €L To the vision, as it lingers, what was mar- 
 ble but before, 
 
 Cold as deep Carrara's seams, where once it 
 lay in precious store. 
 
 Glows now with the flush of life ; a genial 
 
 tide seems mantling there, 
 Tinging marble with its hidden stream ; and 
 
 all the being fair 
 
TTenDeniess 123 
 
 Seems but stayed in some rapt moment, — held 
 in sweet suspense, which glows 
 
 With the gladness that the tide of an abound- 
 ing life bestows. 
 
 d. On the features dwells the touch indelible 
 
 of soul, which holds 
 Body wrought in such perfection instrument 
 
 that part enfolds 
 
 Its own essence, — binding that, which knows 
 nor time nor narrowing bounds. 
 
 With habiliments of law and matter to fulfill 
 the rounds, 
 
 Hasting years impose within that confined 
 
 space, insensate earth 
 Lays for heritage in realm of law that gave the 
 
 body birth; — 
 
 While unthralled its spirit dwells in native 
 
 freedom, and is fain 
 Through the thought to range in instant sweep 
 
 throughout the wide domain. 
 
124 ^be palace ot Vision 
 
 Fancy knows in far, expansive bounds. Upon 
 
 the face is seal, 
 Which a destiny sublime has set in attributes, 
 
 that clear reveal 
 
 What is noble, high and pure : in earthliness 
 
 the better part. 
 Time nor chance may take away ; that shall 
 
 instill within the heart 
 
 Fortitude to mould unhappy fate to some fine, 
 
 noble ends ; 
 Laying soft upon the charms of beauty, spirit 
 
 that its charms transcends. 
 
 Symboling life the statue seems but some fair 
 
 breath in lovely pause ; 
 As a spell of soft enchantment in abeyance 
 
 held the laws, 
 
 Prone to break the charms with disallusion 
 
 swift. In poise it stands 
 Shaped to human symmetry so exquisite by 
 
 loving hands. 
 
n:enDernes5 12 5 
 
 That the vision falters, if the fair creation, 
 feigning stone, 
 
 Be some faultless woman to similitude of mar- 
 ble grown, 
 
 Held in trance of her own loveliness : or it be 
 
 work of art. 
 Where the hands, committed to the rapture 
 
 which possessed the heart. 
 
 Chiseled nobly fine, until the glow of its own 
 vision breathed 
 
 Life upon the task of hands ; and, while creat- 
 ing form, bequeathed 
 
 Soul and spirit : till, infused, the marble took 
 
 on warmth of flesh, 
 d. As suffused with conscious pride of perfect 
 
 form, the statue fresh. 
 
 Calmly sweet, as risen from healthy slumbers, 
 
 stays in winning poise 
 Eloquent of supple, matchless grace ; and 
 
 owns the blushing joys 
 
126 XTbe palace of IDision 
 
 Perfect comeliness instills. The charm of 
 
 neck fine moulded seems 
 But in greater loveliness of shoulders veiled : 
 
 where chastely gleams 
 
 Touch of curve, that instant thralls the heart 
 
 with rapture far, 
 Held beyond our ken and sweeter than our 
 
 fancies are ; 
 
 Which awakes such form enchanting, where 
 so high perfections rise, 
 
 The insatiate thirst for beauty, its sweet rapt- 
 ure satisfies. 
 
 d. As the artist far had searched through clas- 
 sic shapes and visions fair 
 
 For the utmost loveliness ; and from his barren 
 toil's despair 
 
 Had in Nature sought, and found, at last, an 
 
 incarnation pure : 
 Lovely in its simple human guise, the bosom's 
 
 mould mature, — 
 
Zcn^cxncsB 12 7 
 
 Art not more can beautify how it exalts its 
 
 feebler line, — 
 Shows just Nature's fashion exquisite and 
 
 touch surpassing fine ; 
 
 As the very grace and spirit of the Beautiful 
 
 had wrought 
 To reveal, here, sweetest beauty, in a world 
 
 with beauty fraught. 
 
 For where Nature carves and sculptures charms 
 
 with rapture so replete. 
 Art in high endeavor can but own her work 
 
 for ideal sweet, 
 
 Tender, pure and lovely ; and forsake its can- 
 ons manifold 
 
 To embody in perfection, the divine in human 
 mould. 
 
IX. HUMANITY 
 
IX. HUMANITY 
 
 T UST a touch of human pathos falls upon 
 ^ the marbles rare : 
 
 Shadow of the pain and suffering, sorrow and 
 the slow despair, 
 
 That becloud the charms and sweetness, till 
 
 fast fades the lovely guise ; 
 As harsh Nature wrought to perfect being, but 
 
 to agonize 
 
 With decay her promised full fruition and 
 alluring hope ; 
 
 And she framed all beauty with insidious, con- 
 stant foes to cope. 
 
 131 
 
13 2 ^be ipalace of Vision 
 
 Ct Like a harp some master's skill had tireless 
 
 wrought for perfect tone, 
 Loving shaped, and spanned with golden 
 
 strings, should yet his toil disown, 
 
 And, within its tuneful being, must some fal- 
 tering discord bear ; 
 
 Lest its song, too fine and sweet for earth, 
 perfection should declare : 
 
 In the finer human moulding framed for vigor, 
 wrought for health. 
 
 Full attuned in mystic functions, some malig- 
 nant power by stealth 
 
 Still must work to its undoing ; lest a life 
 
 without alloy, 
 Lived as God had planned its being, were for 
 
 earth too perfect joy. 
 
 €t Marble carved, disclosing full the splendor 
 
 of the charming guise ; 
 Miracle of beauty and surpassing shape, which 
 
 deifies 
 
Mumanfti^ 1 3 3 
 
 All the gross of earthliness : the marble is 
 
 sweet woman still ; 
 How its crystal gleaming coldly speaks her 
 
 fairer charms, that thrill 
 
 Soft as petaled white of lilies. In its colder 
 
 gleam there lies 
 Touch of wonder, that in warmth of facile 
 
 colors meets the eyes : 
 
 When in wooded dell remote, on bank of lin- 
 gering stream, is seen 
 
 Nymph of loveliness, — as Henner draws 
 within a landscape green. 
 
 Gleaming white in sweet surprise, — a spirit 
 
 touch in sylvan space, 
 Crowning Nature's mystic beauty with a 
 
 woman's wistful grace. 
 
 CL Could but thrill and flush of life the per- 
 fect form with glow endue; 
 
 Could within the fair habiliments some art a 
 soul imbue, 
 
134 TTbe palace ot Dision 
 
 Mating beauty spiritual with earthly loveliness, 
 for one 
 
 Brief, enchanted hour : the real of poet's no- 
 blest dreams were won. 
 
 €t Fair is woman ; as the birds and flowers, 
 
 the sky and moon, are fair ! 
 Fair is soul of woman ; some celestial influence 
 
 lingers there, 
 
 Which transcends all raptures of the world of 
 
 sense ; an essence fine 
 Sweet reposes in her spirit : she was formed a 
 
 sacred shrine, 
 
 Where the purest fires of love might burn 
 
 with heaven's light on earth, 
 Where the worship of the heart might rise ; 
 
 and miracle of birth, 
 
 Passing life from life, should win the higher 
 
 miracle of soul. 
 €t Fair beyond the grasp of reason, how its 
 
 utmost bounds unroll 
 
IKumanitis 135 
 
 With a beauty high above all human need, is 
 
 womankind : 
 How the spiritual in earthly beauty is denied 
 
 by mind, 
 
 Meanly set to find in Nature naught but mat- 
 ter's grosser laws ; 
 
 Naught of soul in love beyond affinity, which 
 draws 
 
 Form to form appropriate to gender but the 
 
 stronger brute, 
 Who shall pass the gift of life to vigor still 
 
 more resolute. 
 
 d. Base is bald Materialism, and base the in- 
 tellect, that sees 
 
 Naught of soul unsearchable in all the complex 
 mysteries, 
 
 Nature part reveals. And vain is boast that 
 
 mocks a God unseen. 
 Holding matter and its laws for Him ; that 
 
 makes of linked machine 
 
13 6 Zbc iPalace ot Vision 
 
 Cause and Power which framed its members : 
 for the mind that pHes content, 
 
 But in round of matter, makes that essence 
 which was symbol meant ! 
 
 d. Depths unsounded of the spirit with a 
 
 mystic meaning hide 
 In the eyes of woman : quick in moment 
 
 gleam, the wistful tide 
 
 Rises with enchantment rare and thrills the 
 
 heart to own its spell. 
 Half appeal it seems, as though the soul 
 
 would speak, and soft impel 
 
 Other souls to own its sweet divinity : half 
 questioning. 
 
 Through their depths serene the tender long- 
 ings of the soul upspring, 
 
 Which in kindred love would seek the wonder 
 
 and the meaning high 
 Laid upon the soul ; elusive, still, how love 
 
 would fain reply. 
 
THumanlti3 13 7 
 
 d. Fair is owned the break of summer morn- 
 ing filled with life intense, 
 
 Song of bird and myriad voices blent in strife 
 of eloquence, 
 
 Full to utter rapture of the welling life the 
 
 hour instills. 
 Fair with an ethereal splendor own we moon 
 
 full-orbed, which fills 
 
 Night with soft, transcendent sweetness, that is 
 
 radiant memory 
 Of the regnant sun of day ; and wistful fair 
 
 are flower and tree. 
 
 Yet half-veiled is Nature's beauty with the 
 cloy of frequent round ; 
 
 Harsh may grow her varied symphony of oft- 
 repeated sound ; 
 
 Hid by dust of commonplace the finer sense 
 
 we stolid pass, 
 That suffuses petaled grace, and lingers in the 
 
 wayside grass. 
 
138 Ubc palace of ItJisicn 
 
 d. Is it custom lulls the spirit's tide to calm 
 
 of lethargy ? 
 Is it use that veils in earth the deeper, finer 
 
 mystery ? 
 
 Do the ears grow dull to melodies, if they are 
 
 sung again; 
 May not joy grow sweet in keeping, as the 
 
 keener grows our pain ? 
 
 Why do common things and homeliness per- 
 sist with vigorous breath, 
 
 Whilst there lurks in ecstasy of spirit-fair but 
 speedy death? 
 
 Grows Earth weary framing beauty to its high, 
 
 impassioned state, 
 That she hides within its rapture seeds of an 
 
 untimely fate? 
 
 d. Olden is the cry and question, from of old 
 
 the answer fails ; 
 Silent else to the heart's entreaty, while its 
 
 pleading naught avails. 
 
Mumanit^j 1 3 9 
 
 Nature speaks an oracle, and veils its meaning 
 
 through all time 
 To the hearts aspiring ever toward the ultimate 
 
 sublime : 
 
 Life that falls in pleasant places with delights 
 
 a burden grows ; 
 Lives the soul in strife of growth, but languishes 
 
 in calm repose ! 
 
 Ct On the fair and sun-bathed landscape sud- 
 den falls the angry cloud ; 
 
 Livid glare the lightning's fires, the air is mad 
 with thunders loud ; 
 
 Wild the tempest lashes through the trees and 
 sweeps with demon powers ; 
 
 Ruthlessly the hail beats down upon the ten- 
 der stock and flowers : 
 
 All the land seems given to devastation wide 
 
 and terrors vast ! 
 Falls the tempest, distant roll the thunders ; 
 
 and the storm is past. 
 
140 Ubc palace of melon 
 
 From a rift in leaden clouds white, gleaming 
 
 piles resplendent rise 
 Towering into higher air, the sun in undimmed 
 
 splendor vivifies ; 
 
 Soon, their snows in very glory of the dazzling 
 
 height dissolve ; 
 Through the rifts the depths of calm are seen ; 
 
 the angry clouds resolve 
 
 Into softening masses, and on wings of gentlest 
 
 breeze afloat, 
 Radiant, now, with kindly light they slowly 
 
 pass to skies remote. 
 
 C. Deep the azure seems, as eye could pierce 
 
 to depths of distant star ; 
 Calm and clear, as some celestial rapture 
 
 thrilled it from afar. 
 
 Gone is haze that veiled the distant mountain, 
 
 on its face the pines 
 Sudden greet the eye ; and, startling clear, a 
 
 blasted tree reclines, 
 
IKumanttis 141 
 
 Where forgotten storm had laid it low : the 
 very air is filled 
 
 With a subtle essence from the sparkling sun- 
 light fine distilled. 
 
 On the grass and leaves resurging life has laid 
 
 a deeper green ; 
 Brighter glow the colors of the flowers with 
 
 lucent flush and sheen ; 
 
 All the air is filled with song and myriad utter- 
 ance of joy ; 
 
 And the earth seems new-created, freed from 
 dross of its alloy. 
 
 Gone is passion of the storm, and its wild ter- 
 ror dies in calm ; 
 
 And, for anger of the tempest, softened breezes 
 lift a psalm. 
 
 Ct Pain of human passion passed, and passed 
 
 its strong, compelling mood ; 
 When its sway imperial wavers into calm of 
 
 lassitude : 
 
142 XTbc palace of IDision 
 
 Soft there rises in the heart the reign of in- 
 fluence tender, mild, 
 
 Balmy, as some heavenly air dispelled the 
 body's fury wild. 
 
 Melodies sing sweetly low with flush of shame 
 
 in undertone 
 Penitential — for repentance may be passion 
 
 weary grown. 
 
 €1, On the sense so quickened to the utmost 
 
 pulse of fullest life, 
 Gently does the soul descend ; it makes of 
 
 body passion-rife, 
 
 Roused from apathy of commonplace, an in- 
 strument attuned. 
 
 Full responsive in accordant mood, to soul 
 that importuned 
 
 Torpor of the life habitual in vain. Its climax 
 
 wrought. 
 Passion wanes while spirit's power sublime 
 
 ascends : and calmer thought 
 
TKumantts 143 
 
 Through its quickened mood of sense alert, 
 beholds a supersense 
 
 Using earthliness for symbol of divine intelli- 
 gence ; 
 
 Sees transcendent beauties where it erst had 
 
 found mere comeliness, 
 Which, beyond the earthly need, the Beautiful 
 
 alone express. 
 
 Ct Light of some diviner meaning breaks upon 
 
 the human form 
 Tender in its sweet appealing, when has passed 
 
 the passion's storm : 
 
 Fair beyond mere earthly moulding are en- 
 chanting curve and line, 
 
 Charm of soft, white gleaming ; where the 
 wavering veins entwine 
 
 Traceries so exquisite, as hidden faint in mar- 
 ble shone 
 
 Blue of sapphires, which in jeweled streams 
 had once infused the stone. 
 
144 ^be palace of IDlsion 
 
 And the fairness seems more message of a 
 
 spirit-word to men, 
 Moving them with finest rapture to exalted 
 
 vision's ken 
 
 Of the meaning high and holy, God has laid 
 
 on Nature's ways, 
 Wrought in myriad hints of beauty for his 
 
 own exalted praise. 
 
 SWARTHMORE, 1902. 
 
COMMENTARIA 
 
COMMENTARIA 
 
 The classification of a poetical work is a pleasing 
 aid toward its appreciation and acceptance. If the 
 attitude of the author toward his work has been a 
 serious one, the classification of this verse among 
 the various poetical forms will relieve much of the 
 confusion of a first reading and increase the pleasure 
 of its perusal. 
 
 While the personal sensibilities of the author may 
 lead him to hesitate to apply the rigid methods of 
 classification and analysis, which the critic is free to 
 employ toward a work wholly objective to him ; 
 should the author decide to play the part of the an- 
 alyst, he is, perhaps, better qualified to reveal the 
 inner and essential construction of his work. This 
 is not a plea that the author may, in a preeminent 
 degree, be the critic of his own verse. If this verse 
 
 147 
 
148 ^bc palace ot meion 
 
 were constructed and indited purely by intellectual 
 processes, this conclusion would be warranted ; but, 
 when the writer is possessed of a truly poetical en- 
 dowment, whatever he may otherwise be intellectu- 
 ally, the construction of his verse will have emanated 
 from the deeper spiritual, rather than the intellectual 
 domain ; and his results will have been obtained 
 through the subtleties of inspiration, and not by the 
 merely logical processes. 
 
 C The preceding poem is allegorical in a definite 
 and relevant sense. The great exemplar of poetical 
 allegory is Spenser's Faerie ^ueene, and it is the 
 commonly accepted criterion for verse of its class. 
 While the present allegory may show some similar- 
 ity with this criterion, it must be distinguished from 
 it. Its appeal is more directly to the subjective 
 vision, and the deeper emotional and spiritual sense. 
 It clothes itself in a material environment only to 
 frame and embody a spiritual significance. It seeks 
 a noble abode which imagination rears in its own 
 realm. If such a literary appeal should need some 
 vindication beyond itself, there may be instanced 
 Thomson's Castle of Indolence, and Tennyson's 
 Palace of Art. 
 
 Permitting the deeper significance of the poem to 
 indicate its classification, it will be found to belong 
 
Commentatia 149 
 
 to a middle class between the lyric and epic forms. 
 While in its movement the poem is lyrical, it is 
 concerned with an expression of the noblest spirit- 
 ual phases in he life of the individual ; and it is 
 occupied with certain dominant and universal emo- 
 tions, aspirations and reflections which belong to 
 the deeper history of life. 
 
 C A comparative reading of modern verse is con- 
 vincing that poetry is growing more complex in its 
 mood and structure. There is an increasing diffi- 
 culty in its classification among the accepted and 
 classical forms. This is, perhaps, equivalent to an 
 acknowledgment that our poetry is becoming more 
 subjective, while it is more faithfully voicing our 
 intricate and varied civilization. This tendency, if 
 the characterization is allowed, is the chief hope ot 
 our literature. The older and over-cultivated fields 
 are closing to the modern writer, but there is open- 
 ing before him a vista of almost infinite breadth 
 and extent. 
 
 What subject - matter may be appropriate for 
 poetry, is ultimately to be decided by discriminating 
 taste and poetical intuition. The more ardent and 
 readily expressed emotions have supplied the usual 
 themes for verse, and have commonly been its 
 
150 tlbe IPalace Of Dision 
 
 inspiration ; and this has occurred to the extent that 
 these subjects have dominated and characterized the 
 great body of our verse. So tacitly is it assumed 
 that a writer shall conform his subject-matter to 
 these conventional moods, that one, w^ho does not 
 so conform, is placed under the necessity to justify 
 and defend his selection, and make a plea for his 
 motives. 
 
 However, upon closer analysis, this insisted-upon 
 conformity is really a demand upon the writer, that 
 he play the part of the artisan and write y^r his pub- 
 lic, rather than he may be true to his art as he 
 apprehends it. 
 
 A melodious movement in a musical composition 
 makes both a direct and a popular appeal. This 
 rhythmical cadence and succession of sonorous 
 phrases is in so close accord with the inherent spir- 
 itual tendencies of the musically appreciative hearer, 
 that he easily resigns himself to the sway of the 
 melody. Yet melody is not the highest attainment 
 in the musical art : this is found chiefly in the so- 
 nata, and the more highly developed symphony ; 
 and in these forms musical inspiration and art reach 
 their ultimate expression. 
 
 In contrast with the overbearing swing of the 
 melody, they offer the simplicity of a noble theme 
 
Commcntaria 151 
 
 developed and wrought with a divine skill into a 
 creation which is the noblest spiritual conception of 
 harmony. From its very nature the symphony is 
 less popular, since it is less readily comprehended, 
 and demands for its appreciation a rich spiritual 
 experience. 
 
 The analogues of the melodic and symphonic 
 musical forms are found in the kindred art of poetry. 
 The song or lyric — quiet or impassioned, — the 
 drama and like poetical forms, are essentially me- 
 lodic when not baldly narrative ; and these lie close 
 to the popular experience and prevalent emotional 
 states ; and their appeal is immediate. Beyond 
 these experiences and states there are spiritual 
 heights, where thought, reflection and aspiration 
 may strive for something nobler and sublimer, 
 seeking for the ultimate in human expression. 
 
 Poetical inspiration is readily granted to the me- 
 lodic forms of verse ; but the critic and reader, alike, 
 may pause and hesitate to allow this quality to that 
 verse, which is analogous to the symphonic musical 
 form. The cry of passion, the passing song, and 
 the elegy of sorrow, do not compass the utmost of 
 human spiritual possibilities ; there are noble re- 
 flections which may be sublimer, and aspirations 
 which may approach nearer the ultimate of human 
 
152 ^be ipalace ot Dision 
 
 possibility. Noble and elevated in themselves, they 
 are more abiding than the sentiments of immediate 
 human response. 
 
 It is to be conceded that poetical efforts of this 
 character are beset with especial difficulties. Reflec- 
 tion may easily fall into the beaten routine of phil- 
 osophy, and become mere logic, or duller ethics ; its 
 proper mode of expression, then, is assuredly direct 
 and plain prose. Reflection, too, is apt to descend 
 into conventional moralities, or trite formulas ; and 
 didactic poetry is rarely otherwise than tedious. 
 
 The limitations of this elevated class of verse are 
 exceptionally severe ; and its slightest deviations 
 readily become positive defects. Among English 
 classics Paradise Lost is analogous with the sym- 
 phonic form in music. Yet in the eighth Book the 
 reader unpleasantly realizes that there is no inherent 
 unity between the superb verse-movement and the 
 highly wrought recitation of systems of astronomy 
 and natural philosophy. The incongruity and arti- 
 ficiality of these lines prove how dangerous is the 
 ground where the most exalted genius is led aside. 
 CE. A final test of exalted poetry is that it shall pre- 
 serve its inspiration while keeping close to realities 
 which are capable of poetical expression. Such 
 poetry, to be acceptable, must not endeavor to bring 
 
Commentaria 153 
 
 the mind into intimacy and conviction with subjects 
 which transcend the accepted and usual experience ; 
 or it must not reach after the unusual and fantastic. 
 Poetry is at its best office when it voices and elevates 
 the noblest in thought and emotion ; and it must do 
 this by a process of reasoning proper for verse. This 
 propriety is reasoning by the grouping and associa- 
 tion of poetical images, and the poetical intuition 
 must be allowed to transcend the more formal and 
 logical processes. 
 
 C. It is the pleasant privilege of an author to take 
 his readers into his confidence, and frankly recite the 
 sources from which he has written. The Palace of 
 Vision was suggested by a ripple of song which came 
 unconsciously to the author, and is given, slightly 
 modified, in the opening lines. The plan — for it 
 can not be called a plot — grew from this suggestion 
 by the natural processes of expansion. 
 
 Probably the debt of suggestion may be large to 
 one of Hawthorne's tales,"^ which has an abiding 
 charm for the writer. An author can not estimate 
 clearly the influence of subtle suggestions from the 
 memories of his reading, however anxious and con- 
 scientious he may be to separate what is his own 
 
 *" A Select Party ;" Mosses from an Old Manse. 
 
154 Ebe palace Of Dision 
 
 from the unconscious blending with the work of an- 
 other. By the happy alchemy of environment and 
 association one grows into the heritage of his own 
 times from the classical past. Yet he most gener- 
 ously repays his debt, who enlarges his patrimony 
 and bends his literary efforts to increase and enrich 
 the traditional literature of his own language. 
 
 From the intimacy with which much of the re- 
 flection in this present poem is associated with certain 
 paintings and sculptures, apparently the author must 
 attribute some influence to the Palace of Art. This 
 would be frankly acknowledged had the poem in any 
 conscious manner determined the present work. 
 C The metrical form was determined by the note 
 of the song itself ; and, as this was suitable for the 
 developing plan of the poem, it was adopted. So far 
 as influence can be attributed in such cases, the 
 meter was suggested by the lines, 
 
 " Like a strain of wondrous music rising up 
 
 in cloister dim, 
 Through my life's unwritten measures thou 
 
 dost steal, a glorious hymn ! " * 
 
 This lyrical strain was a favorite with Whittier, 
 
 *E. D. Proctor, in the Atlantic Monthly y vol. i. 
 page 566. 
 
Commcntaria 15 5 
 
 among our own poets ; and is, perhaps, recalled to 
 the general reader more familiarly from its use in 
 Locksley Hall. 
 
 Such a metrical form is difficult to maintain 
 throughout a lengthy poem. Its exceptionally strong 
 beat is apt to grow monotonous ; and, if the caesura 
 at the end of the fourth cadence "^ ( foot ) is rigor- 
 ously placed with mathematical exactness, the verse 
 will become circumscribed by this restriction and 
 lose in virility and variety. Such precision, too, 
 may react upon the sentiment, until it becomes 
 artificial and the thought trite and commonplace. 
 
 The rhyme of the couplets is scarcely less evident 
 than their beat. To prevent this from being too 
 insistent in a succession of couplets having both em- 
 phatic beat and rhyme, the run-on line may be 
 frequently used ; and this, too, will relieve the mo- 
 notonous suspense of the ear for the final sound. 
 Additional variety in the movement of the lines may 
 be obtained legitimately by shifting the caesura. 
 But too much virtue may be laid to the run-on line. 
 If it is properly introduced in the natural flow of 
 elevated expression, it is an added grace to the verse ; 
 
 * An interesting nomenclature of metrical structure 
 is given in the Memoranda to the Poems of Tennysouy 
 edited by Dr. Henry Van Dyke, page cxiii. 
 
1 5 6 Zhc palace of msion 
 
 but the device used artificially takes away from what 
 is really prose its very semblance of verse. 
 
 A trochaic measure so emphatic apparently de- 
 mands the rigorous adherence to the initial accent 
 in each line. In shorter trochaic measures an iam- 
 bic, or inflected stress, may occasionally be used 
 with pleasing effect ; but this same license does not 
 prove appropriate for the stately lines of the longer 
 measure. Nor does this measure permit the use of 
 the anapestic stress, except in rare cases where the 
 lyrical movement or the grammatical continuity 
 requires it. The easy, careless flow of the anapest 
 proves rather inimical to the stately seriousness of 
 this meter. Whether naturally, or by consent, this 
 stately meter has become accepted for sententious 
 expression ; and any variation from its strictly ca- 
 nonical form must be employed with caution and 
 discretion. 
 
 C These observations have been followed by the 
 author so far as it seemed advisable. In rapid 
 lyrical movements run-on lines have been used 
 naturally ; and in less emotional passages, when the 
 movement of the thought permitted. The caesura 
 has been purposely shifted to relieve the monotony 
 of the verse and adjust the meter to the inward 
 movement of the passage. Again, in those sections 
 
Commentaria 1 5 7 
 
 which were descriptive or purely reflective, the 
 position of the pause was varied with broad license ; 
 or it was omitted altogether, though this practice is 
 an innovation. The sustained stress, or the classical 
 spondee, is a legitimate variation which at times 
 becomes singularly appropriate ; and this device has 
 been employed in a number of passages. 
 C The various sections, or cantos of the poem, 
 severally bear a title-word expressing the dominant 
 sentiment, and which may serve to fix the passage 
 in memory. The author acknowledges his obliga- 
 tions for the suggestion of the use of such descriptive 
 titles to his friend, Professor John Russell Hayes. 
 
 C. In many musical works having the form of the 
 sonata, or the symphony, a characteristic method of 
 composition is employed which is singularly beau- 
 tiful and appropriate to this mode of art. The 
 theme is not immediately pronounced broadly and 
 with power. The introductory chords create for it 
 an atmosphere of suggestion ; the theme is presently 
 hinted and sounds vaguely amid noble phrases. The 
 suggestion being the while supported by appropriate 
 harmonies, the composer repeats the hint of the 
 theme, perhaps modified and more distinct ; until, 
 finally, with all the resources of his art the developed 
 
158 ^bc palace Of IDision 
 
 theme is pronounced simply, nobly, and with all the 
 persuasion and eloquence of its melody. 
 
 This method of composition which admittedly is 
 an excellence in the musical art, is not infrequently 
 misunderstood when attempted in a literary mode. 
 But the reasons are not more apparent for its censure 
 in writings, than its approbation in music. 
 
 The reader of this poem is introduced to the 
 theme of the first canto by this same device of com- 
 position. While the theme, which presented to the 
 imagination at once in its full demand, might appear 
 fantastic, by creating for itself an appropriate atmos- 
 phere of suggestion it may make its own appeal to a 
 memory of similar fancies and reflections, which 
 many persons are wont to create and cherish. 
 
 Fancy, pages 16-17 
 
 While the air is thrilled with secrets that on 
 dawn and sunset lie. 
 
 This line is a suggestion of the conception which 
 is developed in the succeeding verses. The secrets 
 are the melody and harmony of the play of light, and 
 we can only surmise these from their physical anal- 
 ogy with musical sounds both in their blending and 
 shading. Expression is given to this poetical fancy 
 
Commcntaria 15 9 
 
 in several portions of this poem, but more clearly in 
 the verses found on page 17, and especially in these 
 lines. 
 
 And the sheen breaks into music of a choral 
 glow of fire 
 
 Sung in myriad waves of color, sweet at- 
 tuned in radiant choir. 
 
 This thought has been expressed by the author in 
 the Hymn to the Intellect, and its significance pointed 
 out in an explanatory note to this poem.* In these 
 lines the appeal is both natural and logical, and not 
 merely rhetorical. With persons of a lively and 
 sensitive appreciation blended colors may suggest 
 musical sounds ; and musical harmonies, in turn, 
 may resolve themselves into a perception of colors. 
 Persons so endowed have, it may be, a subtle sense, 
 which the more evident sensations of sight and hear- 
 ing ultimately excite. Aside from these obscure 
 distinctions, there is a physical reality for the con- 
 ception of a blending of colors as a * radiant choir.' 
 The witchery and charm of sweet sounds in full 
 accord linger in a surpassing and exquisite degree in 
 the play of blending lights. Singularly too, many 
 
 * The Wreck of the Myrtle, page 89 ; the explanatory 
 Notes, page 123. 
 
160 ^be palace of \Di6ion 
 
 expressions descriptive of sounds are borrowed from 
 the phraseology of color. 
 
 Devotion, page 29 
 
 It may be objected that the conception of Devo- 
 tion which is presented in this canto, is not adequate 
 and universal ; that it wavers between the pagan 
 worship of the beautiful in Nature and the essentials 
 of the formulated faiths. A reply to this must be 
 the poem itself. In it nothing is intended beyond 
 the free and untrammeled expression of the emotion 
 of devotion ; its plea is the universal freedom of Art 
 from the restrictions of Convention and Belief. It 
 does not propose to be practical and ethical, but 
 rather deals with that intuitive emotion from which 
 these aspects of faith have grown. The description 
 in the opening lines of the canto is not taken from 
 concrete works of art ; it is drawn from Nature and 
 is an expression of personal reflections and passing 
 impressions. 
 
 Devotion, page 33 
 
 Lone upon a wooded hillside y with a faith 
 unquestioning. 
 
 Human hands have reared an altar, with- 
 out tool and fashioning. 
 
Commentaria 1 6 1 
 
 In the north hall of the Congressional Library is 
 a series of small panels which were painted by- 
 Charles Sprague Pearce. The theme of the first 
 panel is Religion : before a rude stone altar there 
 kneel two worshipers ; while the smoke of the sac- 
 rifice ascends one, the man, kneels with head bowed 
 in his hands, and the other, a young woman, bends 
 her head in reverence. From this painting was 
 received the suggestion for the theme of the canto. 
 On an occasion, an artist analyzed the picture so 
 intelligently and vividly for the author, that from the 
 impressions then received there presently developed 
 the theme and detail of this passage. 
 
 In the poem Pearce's conception has been ideal- 
 ized for the purposes of the writing, and possibly the 
 verse elaborates the artist's conception beyond his 
 intention. Yet in the apparently descriptive lines 
 no effort was made to narrate formally the features 
 of the painting, but its scene was modified to the 
 requirements of the verse. 
 
 An artist usually regards with disfavor a literary 
 interpretation of his work; and generally there is 
 ground for his prejudice, as most writers do not 
 competently estimate and interpret the technical 
 handling of his theme. In this instance, however, 
 no attempt has been made to interpret a painting in 
 
162 ^be ipalace ot Dfsion 
 
 a literary sense, and any approach to this is casual ; 
 the design of the one simply was suggestive of a 
 plan for the other. 
 
 Nobility, page 49 
 
 Through the radiant distance break in misty 
 
 gleam of ravishment y 
 That with warmth of life seems glowing, 
 
 •jt * * * * 
 
 Forms that grace some fragrant woodland. 
 
 A remarkable painting by Courtois, A la Source, 
 and some kindred works by Le Febvre, were the 
 inspiration for these lines and similar passages of this 
 work. 
 
 Nature, page 59 
 
 It is not singular that the works of Corot should 
 inspire literary expression ; his idealized landscapes 
 are themselves lyrics of Nature. The scene which 
 opens with these lines. 
 
 Fair outspreads a quiet valley distant walled 
 
 by gentle hills 
 Lying in caressing sunshine, dimmed by 
 
 mellowing haze, — 
 
Commentacla 163 
 
 owes its suggestion to an exquisite landscape now in 
 the Wilstach collection in the galleries at Fairmount 
 Park, Philadelphia. 
 
 Nature, pages 60-63 
 
 Not of earth the forest glimmers with a 
 faintly struggling gleam. 
 
 What is included in these pages is in part an 
 interpretation and, perhaps in some degree, an ideal- 
 ization of certain woodland scenes by Diaz which 
 portray his favorite theme, the forest of Fontaine- 
 bleau. The works of Diaz more especially referred 
 to in this section, are the Forest of Fontainebleau, at 
 the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and 
 the Coming Storm, in the Gibson collection of the 
 Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia. 
 
 Affliction, page 78 
 
 Where, from wreck of columned temple, one 
 
 scathed shaft yet rises high. 
 As it held the watch of empire for a King- 
 passed by. 
 
 In this canto the universal experience of sorrow 
 has been voiced. It opens with a scene of desert 
 
164 G;be palace Of Dlsion 
 
 prospect, where are still to be seen some reminders 
 of a more happy past. But sorrow is retrospective, 
 and on its present unhappy prospect it seeks to 
 revive the memories of its past pleasures. What 
 imagery has been employed in this canto, was de- 
 vised from such illustrations as one commonly sees 
 depicting the ruined temples of Karnak and Luxor 
 at Thebes. Familiar to all readers, these decayed 
 and deserted ruins seem to mourn the loss of their 
 former magnificence and grandeur. 
 
 On its unhappy prospect Sorrow restores the 
 verdure and life of the cherished past. Among the 
 shrines where the devotions of a happier life were 
 offered, the Temple of Love was the altar favored 
 with its ardor ; in the shadow of this charmed fane 
 life was song, and the guardian Presence of the tem- 
 ple was adored as a gentle deity. When shrine and 
 templed grove, fountains and pleasant prospect, alike 
 had shared in the inevitable desolation and common 
 ruin, above the scene of its woe the Presence still 
 lingers, transfigured from earthliness into an abiding 
 spiritual reality. In some mysterious fashion Nat- 
 ure is the type, or the shadow, for the spiritual life 
 of mankind, and, in those external changes which it 
 slowly undergoes, pictures enduringly the swiftly 
 passing experiences of human life. 
 
Commentarta 165 
 
 Incarnation, page 96 
 
 Sundered far by tide and nation are the 
 
 forms that memory 
 Here has garnered. 
 
 These marbles are the statues of Adonis by Thor- 
 valdsen, and the no less poetical Evening by Ruck- 
 stuhl. The beautiful Adonis stands in the center of 
 the hall of modern art in the Glyptothek, Munich ; 
 and the statue. Evening, which is incomparable for 
 its fidelity and natural beauty, as well as its superb 
 modeling, is in the collection of marbles at the 
 Metropolitan Museum of Art. On pages 104 and 
 118, these works are suggested more explicitly. 
 
 Wisdom, page 10 i 
 
 Under spell of lovely shape, that Melos 
 
 yielded from her past. 
 Carved, perchance, by hand of lover. 
 
 The Venus of Milo is a preeminent subject in art, 
 which appears invested by an enduring charm and 
 romantic interest. Though the attempts at the res- 
 toration of the physical statue have been numerous 
 and various, the kindred art of literature has sought 
 in its own way to restore this being to her former 
 
1 6 6 ^be ipalace ot IPiaion 
 
 tender and exquisite loveliness. One of the most 
 beautiful and interesting of these efforts is the poem. 
 The Venus of Milo* by Edward Rowland Sill. 
 
 Wisdom, page 104 
 
 Not the stature of the giant, does the mar- 
 ble celebrate ; 
 Brute with other brutes contending. 
 
 Thorvaldsen's more spiritual conception is here 
 contrasted with the emphatic and exaggerated lines 
 in the modeling of Michelangelo. Criticism is not 
 so much implied, as a protest is uttered against the 
 popularly mistaken conception of the attribute of 
 strength in art. 
 
 Wisdom, page 107 
 
 Fashioned like a god, the statue symboling 
 Apollo^ s form. 
 
 In this passage poetical license has been taken 
 with the fact, in order to emphasize the meaning ; 
 the verse clothes the formal statue of Adonis with 
 the nobler attributes of Apollo. 
 
 * Poems y by Edward Rowland Sill ; Houghton, 
 Mifflin and Company, 1887 ; page i. 
 
Commentacta 167 
 
 Tenderness, page 126 
 
 As the artist far had searched through classic 
 shapes and visions fair 
 
 For the utmost loveliness ; and from his bar- 
 ren toiPs despair 
 
 Had in Nature sought, and found y at last, 
 an incarnation pure. 
 
 No effort has been directly made, in this and sim- 
 ilar passages, to contrast the methods of realism 
 with other supposed methods. An appeal is made 
 simply and frankly to the incarnation of the elements 
 of beauty and loveliness in Nature. Instead of 
 insisting upon tedious argument over an exhausted 
 theme, these lines and passages convey a conviction 
 of one who accepts Nature rationally and, where 
 the vision fails, ultimately; but who is persuaded 
 that he perceives something of unity between many 
 material and spiritual manifestations. 
 
THE FIRST PRINTING 
 
 CL This book is composed in Caslon types, 
 and printed on " Old Downshire " wove 
 paper, made by the Mittineague mills. 
 
 C Five hundred copies have been primed 
 for this edition. 
 
 f 2» ■* 
 

 
 <. 
 
 
 
 
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