o^^.^^v:^.^^ ^v^o< :^^t'X'' ^^^^ .^- ^^^ 0^ v^ 9.. ^^^ '• ^^0^ At %.o^ /-\^'^., %:"'-' J A Q,. ^o:-; cS ^, ^1 ^z / c,^ <:. <^ /;^t2^>^^ •,# ^\^P.^,#^^' ^.>.-^%\r# 5 V ^G^ -^\.r.. %. cy V'- V ^^^ # ^^> .<^ ^- ^!. ^cP^v <- ^^.d< .\Am^;;/t '"^Ao^ ^«„ ,# •^n .A> ?'>ri'^V'"^^oo^^x;:vV°*:^^^^ •■ *'/\-xC'^ "= '^ (^ ^^o^ *-^ 9i."'T;^ s\^^' !^:^ .#^ .0, -^^ ^.>>\^ cS ^. cS ^^ ^» %^^^ .*>1 .#^^^ %^!P.o^-#-^^^ %^P-#--^ r ^^ ^. S^^O^ G^,- -^^0^ .' .f.^"^ ^-^ -4, [i/r V ■^\^ ^ ^' „ <> <^''-">%r:'.<^ . -p. J,r.n,.?A ,<^°^ '.W& •^^o^ 0" ,* /t>^ M AY-DAY ■^V. AND OTHER PIECES. RALPH WALDO EMERSON. BOSTON : TICKNOR^AND FIELDS. 1867. 4- 3 'K Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by RALPH WALDO EMERSON, [1 the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. JIM' 6 '907 University Press : Welch, Bigelow, & Co., Cambridge. CONTENTS. Page May-Day i The Adirondacs 41 Occasional and Miscellaneous Pieces. 7 Brahma 65 Nemesis 67 Fate 69 Freedom 70 Ode sung in the Town Hall, Concord, July 4, 1857 72 Boston Hymn . . . . . . . .75 Voluntaries 81 Love and Thought . . * 89 Lover's Petition 90 Una 92 Letters . 94 Rubies 95 Merlin's Song 96 The Test ......... 97 Solution '98 Nature and Life. Nature 105 The Romany Girl 109 IV CONTENTS. "Days in The Chartist's Complaint . . . . .112 My Garden 114 The Titmouse 119 Sea-Shore . 125 Song of Nature . . . , . . . 128 Two Rivers 134 Waldeinsamkeit 136 Terminus 140 The Past 143 The Last Farewell 145 In Memoriam 148 Elements. Experience 157 V Compensation 159 Politics 161 Heroism 163 Character 164 Culture 165 Friendship 166 Beauty 168 Manners . 170 Art . . . 172 Spiritual Laws 174 Unity 175 Worship 176 Quatrains 179 Translations 193 MAY-DAY. D MAY-DAY. AUGHTER of Heaven and Earth, coy Spring, With sudden passion languishing", Maketh all things softly smile, Painteth pictures mile on mile, Holds a cup with cowslip-wreaths, Whence a smokeless incense breathes. Girls are peeling the sweet willow, Poplar white, and Gilead-tree, And troops of boys Shouting with whoop and hilloa, And hip, hip, three times three. The air is full of whistlings bland ; What was that I heard MAY-DAT. Out of the hazy land ? Harp of the wind, or song of bird, Or clapping of shepherd's hands, Or vagrant booming of the air, Yoice of a meteor lost in day ? Such tidings of the starry sphere Can this elastic air convey. Or haply Hwas the cannonade Of the pent and darkened lake, Cooled by the pendent mountain's shade. Whose deeps, till beams of noonday break. Afflicted moan, and latest hold Even into May the iceberg cold. Was it a squirrel's pettish bark. Or clarionet of jay ? or hark, Where yon wedged line the Nestor leads. Steering north with raucous cry Through tracts and provinces of sky. Every night alighting down MAY-DAY. In new landscapes of romance, Where darkling feed the clamorous clans By lonely lakes to men unknown. Come the tumult whence it will, Voice of sport, or rush of wings. It is a sound, it is a token That the marble sleep is broken, And a change has passed on things. Beneath the calm, within the light, A hid unruly appetite Of swifter life, a surer hope, Strains every sense to larger scope, Impatient to anticipate The halting steps of aged Fate. Slow grows the palm, too slow the pearl : When Nature falters, fain would zeal Grasp the felloes of her wheel. And grasping give the orbs another whirl. MAY-DAY. Turn swiftlier round, tardy ball! And Bun this frozen side. Bring hither back the robin's call, Bring back the tulip's pride. Why chidest thou the tardy Spring ? The hardy bunting does not chide ; The blackbirds make the maples ring "With social cheer and jubilee ; The redwing flutes his o-ka-lee, . The robins know the melting snow ; The sparrow meek, prophetic-eyed, Her nest beside the snow-drift weaves, Secure the osier yet will hide Her callow brood in mantling leaves ; And thou, by science all undone. Why only must thy reason fail To see the southing of the sun ? MAY-DAY. As we thaw frozen flesh with snow, So Spring will not, foolish fond, Mix polar night with tropic glow, Nor cloy us with unshaded sun, Nor wanton skip with bacchic dance, But she has the temperance Of the gods, whereof she is one, — Masks her treasury of heat Under east-winds crossed with sleet. Plants and birds and humble creatures Well accept her rule austere ; Titan-born, to hardy natures Cold is genial and dear. As Southern wrath to Northern right Is but straw to anthracite ; As in the day of sacrifice. When heroes piled the pyre. The dismal Massachusetts ice Burned more than others^ fire, { MAY-DAY. So Spring guards with surface cold The garnered heat of ages old : Hers to sow the seed of bread, That man and all the kinds be fed ; And, when the sunlight fills the hours, Dissolves the crust, displays the flowers. The world rolls round, — mistrust it not,- Befalls again what once befell ; All things return, both sphere and mote, And I shall hear my bluebird's note. And dream the dream of Auburn dell. When late I walked, in earlier days. All was stiff and stark ; Knee-deep snows choked all the ways. In the sky no spark ; Firm-braced I sought my ancient woods. Struggling through the drifted roads ; MAY-DAY. The whited desert knew me not, Snow-ridges masked each darling spot ; The summer dells, by genius haunted, One arctic moon had disenchanted. All the sweet secrets therein hid By Fancy, ghastly spells undid. Eldest mason. Frost, had piled. With wicked ingenuity, Swift cathedrals in the wild ; The piny hosts were sheeted ghosts In the star-lit minster aisled. I found no joy : the icy wind Might rule the forest to his mind. Who would freeze in frozen brakes ? Back to books and sheltered home, And wood-fire flickering on the walls. To hear, when, 'mid our talk and games. Without the baffled north-wind calls. But soft ! a sultry morning breaks ; 10 MAY-DAY. The cowslips make the brown brook gay ; A happier hour, a longer day. Now the sun leads in the May, Now desire of action wakes, And the wish to roam. The caged linnet in the spring Hearkens for the choral glee. When his fellows on the wing Migrate from the Southern Sea ; When trellised grapes their flowers unmask, And the new-born tendrils twine, The old wine darkling in the cask Feels the bloom on the living vine, And bursts the hoops at hint of spring: And so, perchance, in Adam's race, Of Eden's bower some dream-like trace Survived the Flight, and swam the Flood, And wakes the wish in youngest blood MAY-DAY. ' 11 To tread the forfeit Paradise, And feed once more the exile's eyes ; And ever when the happy child In May beholds the blooming wild, And hears in heaven the bluebird sing, "Onward,'' he cries, ''your baskets bring, — In the next field is air more mild. And o'er yon hazy crest is Eden's balmier spring.'' Not for a regiment's parade, Nor evil laws or rulers made, Blue Walden rolls its cannonade. But for a lofty sign Which the Zodiac threw,, That the bondage-days are told. And waters free as winds shall flow. Lo ! how all the tribes combine To rout the flying foe. See, every patriot oak-leaf throws 12 MAY-DAY. His elfin length upon the snows. Not idle, since the leaf all day- Draws to the spot the solar ray, Ere sunset quarrying inches down, And half-way to the mosses brown ; While the grass beneath the rime Has hints of the propitious time. And upward pries and perforates Through the cold slab a thousand gates, Till green lances peering through Bend happy in the welkin blue. April cold with dropping rain Willows and lilacs brings again, The whistle of returning birds, And trumpet-lowing of the herds. The scarlet maple-keys betray What potent blood hath modest May ; What fiery force the earth renews. MAY-DAY. 13 The wealth of forms, the flush of hues ; Joy shed in rosy waves abroad Flows from the heart of Love, the Lord. Hither rolls the storm of heat ; I feel its finer billows beat Like a sea which me infolds ; Heat with viewless fingers moulds, Swells, and mellows, and matures, Paints, and flavors, and allures, Bird and brier inly warms. Still enriches and transforms. Gives the reed and lily length, Adds to oak and oxen strength, Boils the world in tepid lakes. Burns the world, yet burnt remakes ; Enveloping heat, enchanted robe. Wraps the daisy and the globe. Transforming what it doth infold. u Life out of death, new out of old, Painting fawns' and leopards' fells, Seethes the gulf-encrimsoning shells^ Fires gardens with a joyful blaze Of tulips, in the morning's rays. The dead log touched bursts into leaf. The wheat-blade whispers of the sheaf. What god is this imperial Heat, Earth's prime secret, sculpture's seat ? Doth it bear hidden in its heart Water-line patterns of all art. All figures, organs, hues, and graces ? Is it Daedalus ? is it Love ? Or walks in mask almighty Jove, And drops from Power's redundant horn All seeds of beauty to be born ? Where shall we keep the holiday. And duly greet the entering May ? MAY-DAY. 15 Too strait and low our cottage doors, And all unmeet our carpet floors ; Nor spacious court, nor monarch's hall, Suffice to hold the festival. Up and away! where haughty woods Front the liberated floods: We will climb the broad-backed hills, Hear the uproar of their joy ; "We will mark the leaps and gleams Of the new-delivered streams. And the murmuring rivers of sap Mount in the pipes of the trees, Giddy with day, to the topmost spire. Which for a spike of tender green Bartered its powdery cap ; And the colors of joy in the bird. And the love in its carol heard. Frog and lizard in holiday coats. And turtle brave in his golden spots ; 16 We will hear the tiny roar Of the insects evermore, While cheerful cries of crag and plain Eeply to the thunder of river and main As poured the flood of the ancient sea Spilling over mountain chains, Bending forests as bends the sedge, Faster flowing o'er the plains, — A world-wide wave with a foaming edge That rims the running silver sheet, — So pours the deluge of the heat Broad northward o'er the land, Painting artless paradises, Drugging herbs with Syrian spices. Fanning secret fires which glow In columbine and clover-blow. Climbing the northern zones. Where a thousand pallid towns 17 Lie like cockles by the main, Or tented armies on a plain. The million-handed sculptor moulds Quaintest bud and blossom folds, The million-handed painter pours Opal hues and purple dye ; Azaleas flush the island floors, And the tints of heaven reply. Wreaths for the May I for happy Spring To-day shall all her dowry bring. The love of kind, the joy, the grace. Hymen of element and race. Knowing well to celebrate With song and hue and star and state, With tender light and youthful cheer. The spousals of the new-born year. Lo Love's inundation poured Over space and race abroad I 18 MAY-DAY. Spring is strong and virtuous, Broad-sowing, cheerful, plenteous. Quickening underneath the mould G-rains beyond the price of gold. So deep and large her bounties are. That one broad, long midsummer day- Shall to the planet overpay The ravage of a year of war. Drug the cup, thou butler sweet, And send the nectar round ; The feet that slid so long on sleet Are glad to feel the ground. Fill and saturate each kind With good according to its mind. Fill each kind and saturate With good agreeing with its fate, Willow and violet, maiden and man. MAY-DAY. 19 The bitterrsweet, the haunting air Creepeth, bloweth everywhere ; It preys on all, all prey on it, Blooms in beauty, thinks in wit, Stings the strong with enterprise. Makes travellers long for Indian skies, And where it comes this courier fleet Fans in all hearts expectance sweet, As if to-morrow should redeem The vanished rose of evening's dream. By houses lies a fresher green, On men and maids a ruddier mien, As if time brought a new relay Of shining virgins every May, And Summer came to ripen maids To a beauty that not fades. The ground-pines wash their rusty green, The maple-tops their crimson tint, 20 On the soft path each track is seen, The girl's foot leaves its neater print. The pebble loosened from the frost Asks of the urchin to be tost. In flint and marble beats a heart, The kind Earth takes her children's part. The green lane is the school-boy's friend, » Low leaves his quarrel apprehend. The fresh ground loves his top and ball. The air rings jocund to his call, The brimming brook invites a leap. He dives the hollow, climbs the steep. The youth reads omens where he goes, And speaks all languages the rose. The wood-fly mocks with tiny noise The far halloo of human voice ; The perfumed berry on the spray Smacks of faint memories far away. A subtle chain of countless rings MAY-DAY. 21 The next unto the farthest brings, And, striving to be man, the worm Mounts through all the spires of form. I saw the bud-crowned Spring go forth, Stepping daily onward north To greet staid ancient cavaliers Filing single in stately train. And who, and who are the travellers ? They were Night and Day, and Day and Night, Pilgrims wight with step forthright, I saw the Days deformed and low. Short and bent by cold and snow ; The merry Spring threw wreaths on them, Flower-wreaths gay with bud and bell ; Many a flower and many a gem. They were refreshed by the smell, They shook the snow from hats and shoon. They put their April raiment on ; 22 And those eternal forms, Unhurt by a thousand storms, Shot up to the height of the sky again, And danced as merrily as young men. I saw them mask their awful glance Sidewise meek in gossamer lids ; And to speak my thought if none forbids, It was as if the eternal gods. Tired of their starry periods, Hid their majesty in cloth Woven of tulips and painted moth. On carpets green the maskers march Below May's well-appointed arch, Each star, each god, each grace amain. Every joy and virtue speed. Marching duly in her train. And fainting Nature at her need Is made whole again. MAY-DAY. 23 'Twas the vintage-day of field and wood, When magic wine for bards is brewed ; Every tree and stem and chink Gushed with syrup to the brink. The air stole into the streets of towns, And betrayed the fund of joy To the high-school and medalled boy : On from hall to chamber ran, From youth to maid, from boy to man, To babes, and to old eyes as well. 'Once more,' the old man cried, 'ye clouds, Airy turrets purple-piled, Which once my infancy beguiled. Beguile me with the wonted spell. I know ye skilful to convoy The total freight of hope and joy Into rude and homely nooks, Shed mocking lustres on shelf of books, On farmer's byre, on meadow-23ipes, 24 MAY-DAY. Or on a pool of dancing chips. I care not if the pomps you show Be what they soothfast appear, Or if yon realms in sunset glow Be bubbles of the atmosphere. And if it be to you allowed To fool me with a shining cloud, So only new griefs are consoled By new delights, as old by old, Frankly I will be your guest. Count your change and cheer the best. The world hath overmuch of pain, — If Nature give me joy again. Of such deceit 1 11 not complain.' Ah I well I mind the calendar. Faithful through a thousand years. Of the painted race of flowers. Exact to days, exact to hours, MAY-DAY. 25 Counted on the spacious dial Yon broidered zodiac girds. I know the pretty almanac Of the punctual coming-back, On their due days, of the birds. I marked them yestermorn, A flock of finches darting Beneath the crystal arch, Piping, as they flew, a march, — Belike the one they used in parting Last year from yon oak or larch ; Dusky spari;ows in a crowd, Diving, darting northward free, Suddenly betook them all. Every one to his hole in the wall. Or to his niche in the apple-tree. I greet with joy the choral trains Fresh from palms and Cuba's canes. Best gems of Nature's cabinet. 26 With dews of tropic morning wet, Beloved of children, bards, and Spring, birds, your perfect virtues bring, Your song, your forms, your rhythmic flight. Your manners for the heart's delight. Nestle in hedge, or barn, or roof. Here weave your chamber weather-proof. Forgive our harms, and condescend To man, as to a lubber friend, And, generous, teach his awkward race Courage, and probity, and grace ! Poets praise that hidden wine Hid in milk we drew At the barrier of Time, When our life was new. We had eaten fairy fruit. We were quick from head to foot. All the forms we looked on shone 27 As with diamond dews thereon. What cared we for costly joys, The Museum's far-fetched toys ? Gleam of sunshine on the wall Poured a deeper cheer than all The revels of the Carnival. We a pine-grove did prefer To a marble theatre, Could with gods on mallows dine, Nor cared for spices or for wine. Wreaths of mist and rainbow spanned, Arch on arch, the grimmest land ; Whistle of a woodland bird Made the pulses dance, Note of horn in valleys heard Filled the region with romance. None can tell how sweet, How virtuous, the morning air ; 28 MAY-DAY. Every accent vibrates well ; • Not alone the wood-bird's call, Or shouting boys that chase their ball, Pass the height of minstrel skill. But the ploughman's thoughtless cry, Lowing oxen, sheep that bleat, And the joiner's hammer-beat. Softened are above their will. All grating discords melt, No dissonant note is dealt, And though thy voice be shrill Like rasping file on steel. Such is the temper of the air, Echo waits with art and care. And will the faults of song repair. So by remote Superior Lake, And by resounding Mackinac, When northern storms the forest shake. 29 And billows on the long beach break, The artful Air doth separate Note by note all sounds that grate, Smothering in her ample breast All but godlike words, Eeporting to the happy ear Only purified accords. Strangely wrought from barking waves. Soft music daunts the Indian braves, — Convent-chanting which the child Hears pealing from the panther's cave And the impenetrable wild. One musician is sure, His wisdom will not fail, He has not tasted wine impure, Nor bent to passion frail. Age cannot cloud his memory, Nor grief untune his voice, 30 MAY-DAY. Eanging down the ruled scale From tone of joy to inward wail, * Tempering the pitch of all In his windy cave. He all the fables knows, And in their causes tells, — Knows Nature's rarest moods, Ever on her secret broods. The Muse of men is coy. Oft courted will not come ; In palaces and market squares Entreated, she is dumb ; But my minstrel knows and tells The counsel of the gods. Knows of Holy Book the spells. Knows the law of Night and Day, And the heart of girl and boy, The tragic and the gay, And what is writ on Table Eound 31 Of Arthur and his peers. What sea and land discoursing say In sidereal years. He renders all his lore In numbers wild as dreams, Modulating all extremes, — What the spangled meadow saith To the children who have faith ; Only to children children sing, Only to youth will spring be spring. Who is the Bard thus magnified ? When did he sing ? and where abide ? Chief of song where poets feast Is the wind-harp which thou seest In the casement at my side. iEolian harp. How strangely wise thy strain ! 32 Gay for youth, gay for youth, (Sweet is art, but sweeter truth,) In the hall at summer eve Fate and Beauty skilled to weave. From the eager opening strings Eung loud and bold the song. Who but loved the wind-harp's note ? How should not the poet doat On its mystic tongue, With its primeval memory, Eeporting what old minstrels said Of Merlin locked the harp within, — Merlin paying the pain of sin, Pent in a dungeon made of air, — And some attain his voice to hear, Words of pain and cries of fear. But pillowed all on melody, As fits the griefs of bards to be. And what if that all-echoing shell. MAY-DAY. 31 Which thus the buried Past can tell, Should rive the Future, and reveal What his dread folds would fain conceal ? It shares the secret of the earth, And of the kinds that owe her birth. Speaks not of self that mystic tone, But of the Overgods alone : It trembles to the cosmic breath, — As it heareth, so it saith ; Obeying meek the primal Cause, It is the tongue of mundane laws. And this, at least, I dare affirm. Since genius too has bound and term, There is no bard in all the choir, Not Homer's self, the poet sire. Wise Milton's odes of pensive pleasure, Or Shakspeare, whom no mind can measure, Nor Collins' verse of tender pain, Nor Byron's clarion of disdain, 2* c 34 MAY-DAY. Scott, the delight of generous boys, Or Wordsworth, Pan's recording voice, — Not one of all can put in verse. Or to this presence could rehearse, The sights and voices ravishing The boy knew on the hills in spring, When pacing through the oaks he heard Sharp queries of the sentry-bird. The heavy grouse's sudden whir, The rattle of the kingfisher ; Saw bonfires of the harlot flies In the lowland, when day dies ; Or marked, benighted and forlorn. The first far signal-fire of morn. These syllables that Nature spoke, And the thoughts that in him woke. Can adequately utter none Save to his ear the wind-harp lone. And best can teach its Delphian chord MAY-DAY. 35 How Nature to the soul is moored; If once again that silent string, As erst it wont, would thrill and ring. Not long ago, at eventide. It seemed, so listening, at my side A window rose, and, to say sooth, I looked forth on the fields of youth : I saw fair boys bestriding steeds, I knew their forms in fancy weeds. Long, long concealed by sundering fates, Mates of my youth, — yet not my mates. Stronger and bolder far than I, With grace, with genius, well attired. And then as now from far admired, Followed with love They knew not of. With passion cold and shy. joy, for what recoveries rare ! 36 MAY-DAY. Renewed, I breathe Elysian air, See youth's glad mates in earliest bloom, - Break not my dream, obtrusive tomb I Or teach thou. Spring ! the grand recoil Of life resurgent from the soil Wherein was dropped the mortal spoil. Soft on the south-wind sleeps the haze : So on thy broad mystic van Lie the opal-colored days. And waft the miracle to man. Soothsayer of the eldest gods. Repairer of what harms betide, Reveal er of the inmost powers Prometheus proffered, Jove denied ; Disclosing treasures more than true, Or in what far to-morrow due ; Speaking by the tongues of flowers, By the ten-tongued laurel speaking, 37 Singing by the oriole songs, Heart of bird the man's heart seeking ; Whispering hints of treasure hid Under Morn's unlifted lid, Islands looming just beyond The dim horizon's utmost bound ; — Who can, like thee, our rags upbraid, Or taunt us with our hope decayed ? Or who like thee persuade, Making the splendor of the air. The morn and sparkling dew, a snare ? Or who resent Thy genius, wiles, and blandishment ? There is no orator prevails To beckon or persuade Like thee the youth or maid : Thy birds, thy songs, thy brooks, thy gales, Thy blooms, thy kinds. 38 Thy echoes in the wilderness, Soothe pain, and age, and love's distress, Fire fainting will, and build heroic minds. For thou, Spring ! canst renovate All that high God did first create. Be still his arm and architect. Rebuild the ruin, mend defect ; Chemist to vamp old worlds with new. Coat sea and sky with heavenlier blue, New-tint the plumage of the birds. And slough decay from grazing herds. Sweep ruins from the scarped mountain, Cleanse the torrent at the fountain. Purge alpine air by towns defiled, . Bring to fair mother fairer child. Not less renew the heart and brain. Scatter the sloth, wash out the stain. Make the aged eye sun-clear. MAY-DAY. 39 To parting soul bring grandeur near. Under gentle types, my Spring Masks the might of Nature's king, An energy that searches thorough From Chaos to the dawning morrow ; Into all our human plight. The souFs pilgrimage and flight ; In city or in solitude. Step by step, lifts bad to good. Without halting, without rest, Lifting Better up to Best ; Planting seeds of knowledge pure. Through earth to ripen, through heaven endure. THE ADIRONDACS. A JOURNAL. DEDICATED TO MY FELLOW-TRAVELLERS IN AUGUST, 1 858. Wise and polite, — and if I drew Their several portraits, you would own Chaucer had no such worthy crew, Nor Boccace in Decameron. THE ADIRONDACS. WE crossed Champlain to Keeseville with our friends, Tbence, in strong country carts, rode up the forks Of the Ausable stream, intent to reach The Adirondac lakes. At Martin's Beach We chose our boats ; each man a boat and guide, — Ten men, ten guides, our company all told. Next morn, we swept with oars the Saranac, With skies of benediction, to Kound Lake, - Where all the sacred mountains drew around us, Tahdwus, Seaward, Maclntyre, Baldhead, And other Titans without muse or name. 44 THE ADIRONDACS. Pleased with these grand companions, we glide on, Instead of flowers, crowned with a wreath of hills, And made our distance wider, boat from boat, As each would hear the oracle alone. By the bright morn the gay flotilla slid Through files of flags that gleamed like bayonets. Through gold-moth-haunted beds of pickerel-flower. Through scented banks of lilies white and gold. Where the deer feeds at night, the teal by day. On through the Upper Saranac, and up Pere Raquette stream, to a small tortuous pass Winding through grassy shallows in and out, Two creeping miles of rushes, pads, and sponge, To Follansbee Water, and the Lake of Loons. Northward the length of Follansbee we rowed. Under low mountains, whose unbroken ridge Ponderous with beechen forest sloped the shore. A pause and council : then, where near the head THE ADIRONDACS. 45 On the east a bay makes inward to the land Between two rocky arms, we climb the bank, And in the twilight of the forest noon Wield the first axe these echoes ever heard. We cut young trees to make our poles and thwarts, Barked the white spruce to weatherfend the roof, Then struck a light, and kindled the camp-fire. The wood was sovran with centennial trees, — Oak, cedar, maple, poplar, beech and fir, Linden and spruce. In strict society Three conifers, white, pitch, and Norway pine, Five-leaved, three-leaved, and two-leaved, grew thereby. Our patron pine was fifteen feet in girth, The maple eight, beneath its shapely tower. * Welcome I ' the wood god murmured through the leaves, — 46 THE ADIRONDACS. ' Welcome, though late, unknowing, yet known to me/ Evening drew on ; stars peeped through maple- boughs, Which overhung, like a cloud, our camping fire. Decayed millennial trunks, like moonlight flecks, Lit with phosphoric crumbs the forest floor. Ten scholars, wonted to lie warm and soft In well-hung chambers daintily bestowed. Lie here on hemlock-boughs, like Sacs and Sioux, And greet unanimous the joyful change. So fast will Nature acclimate her sons, Though late returning to her pristine ways. Off soundings, seamen do not suffer cold ; And, in the forest, delicate clerks, unbrowned, Sleep on the fragrant brush, as on down-beds. Up with the dawn, they fancied the light air That circled freshly in their forest dress THE ADIRONDACS. 47 Made them to boys again. Happier that they Slipped off their pack of duties, leagues behind, At the first mounting of the giant stairs. No placard on these rocks warned to the polls, No door-bell heralded a visitor, No courier waits, no letter came or went, Nothing was ploughed, or reaped, or bought, or sold ; The frost might glitter, it would blight no crop, The falling rain will spoil no holiday. We were made freemen of the forest laws, All dressed, like Nature, fit for her own ends. Essaying nothing she cannot perform. In Adirondac lakes, At morn or noon, the guide rows bareheaded : Shoes, flannel shirt, and kersey trousers make His brief toilette : at night, or in the rain. He dons a surcoat which he doffs at morn : 48 THE ADIRONDACS. A paddle in the right hand, or an oar, And in the left, a gun, his needful arms. By turns we praised the stature of our guides. Their rival strength and suppleness, their skill To row, to swim, to shoot, to build a camp. To climb a lofty stem, clean without boughs Full fifty feet, and bring the eaglet down : Temper to face wolf, bear, or catamount, And wit to trap or take him in his lair. Sound, ruddy men, frolic and innocent. In winter, lumberers ; in summer, guides ; Their sinewy arms pull at the oar untired Three times ten thousand strokes, from morn to eve. Look to yourselves, ye polished gentlemen! No city airs or arts pass current here. Your rank is all reversed : let men of cloth Bow to the stalwart churls in overalls : THE ADIRONDACS. 49 They are the doctors of the wilderness, And we the low-prized laymen. In sooth, red flannel is a saucy test Which few can put on with impunity. What make you, master, fumbling at the oar? Will you catch crabs ? Truth tries pretension here. The sallow knows the basket-maker^s thumb ; The oar, the guide's. Dare you accept the tasks He shall impose, to find a spring, trap foxes. Tell the sun's time, determine the true north. Or stumbling on through vast self-similar woods To thread by night -the nearest way to camp ? Ask you, how went the hours ? All day we swept the lake, searched every cove, North from Camp Maple, south to Osprey Bay, Watching when the loud dogs should drive in deer, Or whipping its rough surface for a trout ; 50 THE ADIRONDACS-i Or bathers, diving from the rock at noon ; Challenging Echo by our guns and cries ; Or listening to the laughter of the loon ; Or, in the evening twilight's latest red, Beholding the procession of the pines ; Or, later yet, beneath a lighted jack, In the boat's bows, a silent night-hunter Stealing with paddle to the feeding-grounds Of the red deer, to aim at a square mist. Hark to that muffled roar ! a tree in the woods Is fallen : but hush ! it has not scared the buck Who stands astonished at the meteor light. Then turns to bound away, — is it too late ? Sometimes we tried our rifles at a mark, Six rods, sixteen, twenty, or forty-five ; Sometimes our wits at sally and retort, With laughter sudden as the crack of rifle ; Or parties scaled the near acclivities THE ADIRONDACS. 51 Competing seekers of a rumored lake, Whose unauthenticated waves we named Lake Probability, — our carbuncle, Long sought, not found. Two Doctors in the camp Dissected the slain deer, weighed the trout's brain, Captured the lizard, salamander, shrew. Crab, mice, snail, dragon-fly, minnow, and moth ; Insatiate skill in water or in air Waved the scoop-net, and nothing came amiss ; The while, one leaden pot of alcohol Gave an impartial tomb to all the kinds. Not less the ambitious botanist sought plants, Orchis and gentian, fern, and long whip-scirpus. Rosy polygonum, lake-margin's pride, Hypnum and hydnum, mushroom, sponge, and moss. Or harebell nodding in the gorge of falls. 52 THE ADIRONDACS. Above, the eagle flew, the osprey screamed, The raven croaked, owls hooted, the woodpecker Loud hammered, and the heron rose in the swamp. As water poured through hollows of the hills To feed this wealth of lakes and rivulets, So Nature shed all beauty lavishly From her redundant horn. Lords of this realm, Bounded by dawn and sunset, and the day Rounded by hours where each outdid the last In miracles of pomp, we must be proud. As if associates of the sylvan gods. We seemed the dwellers of the zodiac, So pure the Alpine element we breathed. So light, so lofty pictures came and went. We trode on air, contemned the distant town. Its timorous ways, big trifles, and we planned That we should build, hard-by, a spacious lodge. THE ADIRONDACS. 53 And how we should come hither with our sons, Hereafter, — willing they, and more adroit. Hard fare, hard bed, and comic misery, — The midge, the blue-fly, and the mosquito Painted our necks, hands, ankles, with red bands : But, on the second day, we heed them not, Nay, we saluted them Auxiliaries, Whom earlier we had chid with spiteful names. For who defends our leafy tabernacle From bold intrusion of the travelling crowd, — Who but the midge, mosquito, and the fly, Which past endurance sting the tender cit, But which we learn to scatter with a smudge, Or bafSe by a veil, or slight by scorn ? Our foaming ale we drunk from hunters' pans, Ale, and a sup of wine. Our steward gave Venison and trout, potatoes, beans, wheat-bread ; 54 THE ADIRONDACS. All ate like abbots, and, if any missed Their wonted convenance, cheerly hid the loss With hunters' appetite and peals of mirth. And Stillman, our guides' guide, and Commodore, Crusoe, Crusader, Pius ^neas, said aloud, " Chronic dyspepsia never came from eating Food indigestible " : — then murmured some, Others applauded him who spoke the truth. Nor doubt but visitings of graver thought Checked in these souls the turbulent heyday 'Mid all the hints and glories of the home. For who can tell what sudden privacies Were sought and found, amid the hue and cry Of scholars furloughed from their tasks, and let Into this Oreads' fended Paradise, As chapels in the city's thoroughfares, Whither gaunt Labor slips to wipe his brow, And meditate a moment on Heaven's rest. THE ADIRONDACS. 55 Judge with what sweet surprises Nature spoke To each apart, lifting her lovely shows To spiritual lessons pointed home. And as through dreams in watches of the night, So through all creatures in their form and ways Some mystic hint accosts the vigilant. Not clearly voiced, but waking a new sense Inviting to new knowledge, one with old. Hark to that petulant chirp ! what ails the war- bler ? Mark his capricious ways to draw the eye. Now soar again. What wilt thou, restless bird, Seeking in that chaste blue a bluer light. Thirsting in that pure for a purer sky ? And presently the sky is changed ; world ! What pictures and what harmonies are thine ! The clouds are rich and dark, the air serene, So like the soul of me, what if 't were me ? 56 THE ADIRONDACS. A melancholy better than all mirth. Comes the sweet sadness at the retrospect, Or at the foresight of obscurer years ? Like yon slow-sailing cloudy promontory, Whereon the purple iris dwells in beauty Superior to all its gaudy skirts. And, that no day of life may lack romance. The spiritual stars rise nightly, shedding down A private beam into each several heart. Daily the bending skies solicit man. The seasons chariot him from this exile, The rainbow hours bedeck his glowing chair. The storm-winds urge the heavy weeks along. Suns haste to set, that so remoter lights Beckon the wanderer to his vaster home. With a vermilion pencil mark the day When of our little fleet thr^e cruising skiffs Entering Big Tupper, bound for the foaming Falls THE ADIRONDACS. 57 Of loud Bog Kiver, suddenly confront Two of our mates returning with swift oars. One held a printed journal waving high Caught from a late-arriving traveller, Big with great news, and shouted the report For which the world had waited, now firm fact. Of the wire-cable laid beneath the sea. And landed on our coast, and pulsating With ductile fire. Loud, exulting cries From boat to boat, and to the echoes round. Greet the glad miracle. Thought's new-found path Shall supplement henceforth all trodden ways, Match God's equator with a zone of art, And lift man's public action to a height Worthy the enormous cloud of witnesses, When linked hemispheres attest his deed. We have few moments in the longest life Of such delight and wondsr as there grew, — Nor yet unsuited to that solitude : 58 THE ADIRONDACS. A burst of joy, as if we told the fact To ears intelligent ; as if gray rock And cedar grove and cliff and lake should know This feat of wit, this triumph of mankind ; As if we men were talking in a vein Of sympathy so large, that ours was theirs, And a prime end of the most subtle element Were fairly reached at last. Wake, echoing caves I Bend nearer, faint day-moon I Yon thundertops. Let them hear well! His theirs as much as ours. A spasm throbbing through the pedestals Of Alp and Andes, isle and continent, Urging astonished Chaos with a thrill To be a brain, or serve the brain of man. The lightning has run masterless too long ; He must to school, and learn his verb and noun. And teach his nimbleness to earn his wage, Spelling with guided tongue man's messages THE ADIRONDACS. 59 Shot through the weltering pit of the salt sea. And yet I marked, even in the manly joy Of our great-hearted Doctor in his boat, (Perchance I erred,) a shade of discontent ; Or was it for mankind a generous shame. As of a luck not quite legitimate. Since fortune snatched from wit the lion's part ? Was it a college pique of town and gown. As one within whose memory it burned That not academicians, but some lout. Found ten years since the Californian gold ? And now, again, a hungry company Of traders, led by corporate sons of trade. Perversely borrowing from the shop the tools Of science, not from the philosophers. Had won the brightest laurel of all time. 'Twas always thus, and will be ; hand and head Are ever rivals : but, though this be swift. The other slow, — this the Prometheus, 60 THE ADIRONDACS. And that the Jove, — yet, howsoever hid, It was from Jove the other stole his fire,. And, without Jove, the good had never been. It is not Iroquois or cannibals. But ever the free race with front sublime. And these instructed by their wisest too, Who do the feat, and lift humanity. Let not him mourn who best entitled was, Kay, mourn not one : let him exult. Yea, plant the tree that bears best apples, plant. And water it with wine, nor watch askance Whether thy sons or strangers eat the fruit : Enough that mankind eat, and are refreshed. We flee away from cities, but we bring The best of cities with us, these learned classifiers. Men knowing what they seek, armed eyes of experts. We praise the guide, we praise the forest life ; But will we sacrifice our dear-bought lore THE ADIRONDACS. 61 Of books and arts and trained experiment, Or count the Sioux a match for Agassiz ? no, not we! Witness the shout that shook Wild Tupper Lake ; witness the mute all-hail The joyful traveller gives, when on the verge Of craggy Indian wilderness he hears From a log-cabin stream Beethoven's notes On the piano, played with master's hand. ' Well done ! ' he cries ; ' the bear is kept at bay. The lynx, the rattlesnake, the flood, the fire ; All the fierce enemies, ague, hunger, cold, This thin spruce roof, this clayed log-wall. This wild plantation will suffice to chase. Now speed the gay celerities of art, What in the desart was impossible Within four walls is possible again, — Culture and libraries, mysteries of skill, Traditioned fame of masters, eager strife Of keen competing youths, joined or alone 62 THE ADIRONDACS. To outdo each other, and extort applause. Mind wakes a new-born giant from her sleep. Twirl the old wheels ! Time takes fresh start again, On for a thousand years of genius more/ The holidays were fruitful, but must end ; One August evening had a cooler breath ; Into each mind intruding duties crept ; Under the cinders burned the fires of home ; Nay, letters found us in our paradise ; So in the gladness of the new event We struck our camp, and left the happy hills. The fortunate star that rose on us sank not ; The prodigal sunshine rested on the land, The rivers gambolled onward to the sea, And Nature, the inscrutable and mute. Permitted on her infinite repose Almost a smile to steal to cheer her sons, As if one riddle of the Sphinx were guessed. OCCASIONAL AND MISCELLA- NEOUS PIECES. BRAHMA. XF the red slayer think he slays, -"- Or if the slain think he is slain, They know not well the subtle ways I keep, and pass, and turn again. Far or forgot to me is near ; Shadow and sunlight are the same ; The vanished gods to me appear ; And one to me are shame and fame. They reckon ill who leave me out ; When me they fly, I am the wings ; I am the doubter and the doubt. And I the hymn the Brahmin sings. 66 The strong gods pine for my abode, And pine in vain the sacred Seven ; But thou, meek lover of the good ! Find me, and turn thy back on heaven. NEMESIS. A LKEADY blushes in thy cheek The bosom-thought which thou must speak ; The bird, how far it haply roam By cloud or isle, is flying home ; The maiden fears, and fearing runs • Into the charmed snare she shuns ; And every man, in love or pride, Of his fate is never wide. Will a woman's fan the ocean smooth ? Or prayers the stony Parcss sooth. Or coax the thunder from its mark ? Or tapers light the chaos dark ? 68 NEMESIS. In spite of Virtue and the Muse, Nemesis will have her dues, And all our struggles and our toils Tighter wind the giant coils, j FATE. X^EEP in the man sits fast his fate To mould his fortunes mean or great: J Unknown to Cromwell as to me Was CromwelFs measure or degree ; Unknown to him, as to his horse, If he than his groom be better or worse. He works, plots, fights, in rude affairs. With squires, lords, kings, his craft compares. Till late he learned, through doubt and fear, Broad England harbored not his peer : Obeying Time, the last to own The Genius from its cloudy throne. For the prevision is allied Unto the thing so signified ; Or say, the foresight that awaits Is the same Genius that creates. FREEDOM. /^NCE I wished I might rehearse Freedom^s psean in my verse, That the slave who caught the strain Should throb until he snapped his chain. But the Spirit said, ' Not so ; Speak it not, or speak it low ; Name not lightly to be said. Gift too precious to be prayed. Passion not to be expressed But by heaving of the breast : Yet, — wouldst thou the mountain find Where this deity is shrined, Who gives to seas and sunset skies FREEDOM. 71 Their unspent beauty of surprise, And, when it lists him, waken can Brute or savage into man ; Or, if in thy heart he shine. Blends the starry fates with thine. Draws angels nigh to dwell with thee. And makes thy thoughts archangels be ; Freedom's secret wilt thou know ? — Counsel not with flesh and blood ; Loiter not for cloak or food; Eight thou feelest, rush to do.' ODE SUNG IN THE TOWN HALL, CONCORD, JULY 4, 1 857. r\ TENDERLY the haughty day Fills his blue urn with fire ; One morn is in the mighty heaven, And one in our desire. The cannon booms from town to town. Our pulses are not less, The joy-bells chime their tidings down. Which children's voices bless. For He that flung the broad blue fold O'er-mantling land and sea, One third part of the sky unrolled For the banner of the free. FOURTH OF JULY ODE. 73 The men are ripe of Saxon kind To build an equal state, — To take the statute from the mind, And make of duty fate. United States I' the ages plead, • — Present and Past in under-song, — Go put your creed into your deed, Nor speak with double tongue. For sea and land donH understand, Nor skies without a frown See rights for which the one hand fights By the other cloven down. Be just at home ; then write your scroll Of honor o'er the sea. And bid the broad Atlantic roll, A ferry of the free. 74 FOURTH OF JULY ODE. And, henceforth, there shall be no chain, Save underneath the sea The wires shall murmur through the main Sweet songs of Liberty. The conscious stars accord above. The waters wild below. And under, through the cable wove. Her fiery errands go. For He that worketh high and wise. Nor pauses in his plan. Will take the sun out of the skies Ere freedom out of man. BOSTON HYMN. READ IN MUSIC HALL, JANUARY I, 1 863. npHE word of the Lord by night To the watching Pilgrims came, As they sat by the seaside, And filled their hearts with flame. God said, I am tired of kings, I suffer them no more ; Up to my ear the morning brings The outrage of the poor. Think ye I made this ball A field of havoc and war. Where tyrants great and tyrants small Might harry the weak and poor? 76 BOSTON HYMN. My angel, — his name is Freedom, — Choose him to be your king ; He shall cut pathways east and west. And fend you with his wing. Lo ! I uncover the land Which I hid of old time in the West, As the sculptor uncovers the statue When he has wrought his best ; I show Columbia, of the rocks Which dip their foot in the seas, And soar to the air-borne flocks Of clouds, and the boreal fleece. I will divide my goods ; Call in the wretch and slave : None shall rule but the humble, And none but Toil shall have. BOSTON HYMN. 77 I will have never a noble, No lineage counted great ; Fishers and choppers and ploughmen Shall constitute a state. Go, cut down trees in the forest, And trim the straightest boughs ; Cut down trees in the forest, And build me a wooden house. Call the people together. The young men and the sires. The digger in the harvest field, Hireling, and him that hires ; And here in a pine state-house They shall choose men to rule In every needful faculty, In church, and state, and school. 78 BOSTON HYMN. Lo; now ! if these poor men Can govern the land and sea, And make just laws below the sun, As planets faithful be. And ye shall succor men ; 'T is nobleness to serve ; Help them who cannot help again : Beware from right to swerve. I break your bonds and masterships, And I unchain the slave : , Free be his heart and hand henceforth As wind and wandering wave. I cause from every creature His proper good to flow : As much as he is and doeth. So much he shall bestow. BOSTON HYMN. Id But, laying hands on another To coin his labor and sweat, He goes in pawn to his victim For eternal years in debt. f To-day unbind the captive, So only are ye unbound ; Lift up a people from the dust, Trump of their rescue, sound ! Pay ransom to the owner, And fill the- bag to the brim. Who is the owner? The slave is owner, And ever was. Pay him. North ! give him beauty for rags. And honor, South ! for his shame ; Nevada ! coin thy golden crags With Freedom's image and name. 80 BOSTON HYMN. Up ! and the dasky race That sat in darkness long, — Be swift their feet as antelopes, And as behemoth strong. f Come, East and West and North, By races, as snow-flakes. And carry my purpose forth. Which neither halts nor shakes. My will fulfilled shall be. For, in daylight or in dark. My thunderbolt has eyes to see His way home to the mark. VOLUNTARIES. 1" OW and mournful be the strain, Haughty thought be far from me; Tones of penitence and pain, Meanings of the tropic sea ; Low and tender in the cell Where a captive sits in chains, Crooning ditties treasured well From his Afric's torrid plains. Sole estate his sire bequeathed — Hapless sire to hapless son — Was the wailing song he breathed, And his chain when life was done. 4* V 82 VOLUNTARIES. What his fault, or what his crime ? Or what ill planet crossed his prime ? Heart too soft and will too weak To front the fate that crouches near, — Dove beneath the vulture's beak; — Will song dissuade the thirsty spear? Dragged from his mother's arms and breast, Displaced, disfurnished here, His wistful toil to do his best Chilled by a ribald jeer. Great men in the Senate sate, Sage and hero, side by side. Building for their sons the State, Which they shall rule with pride. They forbore to break the chain Which bound the dusky tribe. Checked by the owners' fierce disdain, Lured by "Union" as the bribe. Destiny sat by, and said, VOLUNTARIES. 83 ' Pang for pang your seed shall pay, Hide in false peace your coward head, I bring round the harvest-day/ II. Freedom all winged expands. Nor perches in a narrow place ; Her broad van seeks unplanted lands ; She loves a poor and virtuous race. Clinging to a colder zone Whose dark sky sheds the snow-flake down, The snow-flake is her banner's star, Her stripes the boreal streamers are. Long she loved the Northman well ; Now the iron age is done. She will not refuse to dwell With the ofl"spring of the Sun ; Foundling of the desert far, 84 VOLUNTARIES. Where palms plume, siroccos blaze, He roves unhurt the burning ways In climates of the summer star. He has avenues to God Hid from men of Northern brain, Far beholding, without cloud. What these with slowest steps attain. If once the generous chief arrive To lead him willing to be led. For freedom he will strike and strive, And drain his heart till he be dead. III. In an age of fops and toys. Wanting wisdom, void of right. Who shall nerve heroic boys To hazard all in Freedom's fight, — Break sharply off their jolly games. VOLUNTARIES. 85 Forsake their comrades gay, And quit proud homes and youthful dames, For famine, toil, and fray ? Yet on the nimble air benign Speed nimbler messages. That waft the breath of graces divine To hearts in sloth and ease. So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When Duty whispers low. Thou must, The youth replies, I can. IV. 0, WELL for the fortunate soul Which Music's wings infold, Stealing away the memory Of sorrows new and old ! Yet happier he whose inward sight. 86 VOLUNTAEIES. Stayed on his subtile thought, Shuts his sense on toys of time, To vacant bosoms brought. But best befriended of the God He who, in evil times, Warned by an inward voice. Heeds not the darkness and the dread. Biding by his rule and choice. Feeling only the fiery thread Leading over heroic ground, Walled with mortal terror round. To the aim which him allures, And the sweet heaven his deed secures. Stainless soldier on the walls. Knowing this, — and knows no more, — Whoever fights, whoever falls, Justice conquers evermore. Justice after as before, — VOLUNTARIES. 8*7 And he who battles on her side, God, though he were ten times slain, Crowns him victor glorified, Victor over death and pain ; Forever : but his erring foe, Self-assured that he prevails, Looks from his victim lying low. And sees aloft the red right arm Redress the eternal scales. He, the poor foe, whom angels foil. Blind with pride, and fooled by hate. Writhes within the dragon coil, Reserved to a speechless fate. Blooms the laurel which belongs To the valiant chief who fights ; I see the wreath, I hear the songs 88 VOLUNTARIES. Lauding the Eternal Rights, Victors over daily wrongs : Awful victors, they misguide Whom they will destroy. And their coming triumph hide In our downfall, or our joy : They reach no term, they never sleep, In equal strength through space abide ; Though, feigning dwarfs, they crouch and creep, The strong they slay, the swift outstride : Fate's grass grows rank in valley clods, And rankly on the castled steep, — Speak it firmlj^, these are gods, All are ghosts beside. LOVE AND THOUGHT. nnWO well-assorted travellers use The highway, Eros and the Muse. From the twins is nothing hidden, To the pair is naught forbidden ; Hand in hand the comrades go Every nook of nature through : Each for other they were born, Each can other best adorn ; They know one only mortal grief Past all balsam or relief, When, by false companions crossed, The pilgrims have each other lost. LOVER'S PETITION. /^ OOD Heart, that ownest all I I ask a modest boon and small : Not of lands and towns the gift, — Too large a load for me to lift, — But for one proper creature, Which geographic eye. Sweeping the map of Western earth. Or the Atlantic coast, from Maine To Powhatan's domain. Could not descry. Is't much to ask in all thy huge creation, So trivial a part, — A solitary heart ? LOVER'S PETITION. 91 Yet count me not of spirit mean, Or mine a mean demand, For 't is the concentration And worth of all the land. The sister of the sea, The daughter of the strand. Composed of air and light. And of the swart earth-might. So little to thy poet's prayer Thy large bounty well can spare. And yet I think, if she were gone, The world were better left alone. UNA. "DOVING, roving", as it seems, Una lights my clouded dreams ; Still for journeys she is dressed ; We wander far by east and west. In the homestead, homely thought ; At my work I ramble not ; If from home chance draw me wide, Half-seen Una sits beside. In my house and garden-plot, Though beloved, I miss her not ; But one I seek in foreign places. One face explore in foreign faces. UNA. 93 At home a deeper thought may light The inward sky with chrysolite, And I greet from far the ray, Aurora of a dearer day. But if upon the seas 1 sail, Or trundle on the glowing rail, I am but a thought of hers, Loveliest of travellers. So the gentle poet's name To foreign parts is blown by fame ; Seek him in his native town, He is hidden and unknown. LETTERS. TjlVERY day brings a ship, Every ship brings a word ; Well for those who have no fear, Looking seaward well assured That the word the vessel brings Is the word they wish to hear. RUBIES. r I iHE Y brought me rubies from the mine. And held them to the sun ; I said, they are drops of frozen wine From Eden's vats that run. I looked again, — I thought them hearts Of friends to friends unknown ; Tides that should warm each neighboring life Are locked in sparkling stone. But fire to thaw that ruddy snow, To break enchanted ice, And give love's scarlet tides to flow, — When shall that sun arise ? MERLIN'S SONG. /^F Merlin wise I learned a song, — Sing it low, or sing it loud, It is mightier than the strong, And punishes the proud. I sing it to the surging crowd, — Good men it will calm and cheer. Bad men it will chain and cage. In the heart of the music peals a strain Which only angels hear ; Whether it waken joy or rage. Hushed myriads hark in vain. Yet they who hear it shed their age. And take their youth again. THE TEST. (Musa loquitur.) T HUNG- my verses in the wind. Time and tide their faults may find. All were winnowed through and through, Five lines lasted sound and true ; Five were smelted in a pot Than the South more fierce and hot ; These the siroc could not melt, Fire their fiercer flaming felt, And the meaning was more white Than July's meridian light. Sunshine cannot bleach the snow. Nor time unmake what poets know. Have you eyes to find the five Which five hundred did survive ? 5 G SOLUTION. T AM the Muse wno sung alway By Jove, at dawn of the first day. Star-crowned, sole-sitting, long I wrought To fire the stagnant earth with thought : On spawning slime my song prevails, "Wolves shed their fangs, and dragons scales ; Flushed in the sky the sweet May-morn, Earth smiled with flowers, and man was born. Then Asia yeaned her shepherd race, And Nile substructs her granite base, — Tented Tartary, columned Nile, — And, under vines, on rocky isle, Or on wind-blown sea-marge bleak, Forward stepped the perfect Greek : SOLUTION. 99 That wit and joy might find a tongue, And earth grow civil, Homer sung. Flown to Italy from Greece, I brooded long, and held my peace. For I am wont to sing uncalled, And in days of evil plight Unlock doors of new delight ; And sometimes mankind I appalled With a bitter horoscope, With spasms of terror for balm of hope. Then by better thought I lead Bards to speak what nations need ; So I folded me in fears. And Dante searched the triple spheres. Moulding nature at his will, So shaped, so colored, swift or still. And, sculptor-like, his large design Etched on Alp and Apennine. 100 SOLUTION. Seethed in mists of Penmanmaur, Taught by Plinlimmon's Druid power, England's genius jfilled all measure Of heart and soul, of strength and pleasure, Gave to the mind its emperor, And life was larger than before : Nor sequent centuries could hit Orbit and sum of Shakspeare's wit. The men who lived with him became Poets, for the air was fame. Far in the North, where polar night Holds in check the frolic light. In trance upborne past mortal goal The Swede Emanuel leads the soul. Through snows above, mines underground, The inks of Erebus he found ; Kehearsed to men the damned wails On which the seraph music sails. SOLUTION. 101 In spirit-worlds he trod alone, But walked the earth unmarked, unknown. The near by-stander caught no sound, — Yet they who listened far aloof Heard rendings of the skyey roof. And felt, beneath, the quaking ground ; And his air-sown, unheeded words, In the next age, are flaming swords. In newer days of war and trade, Komance forgot, and faith decayed, When Science armed and guided war, And clerks the Janus-gates unbar. When France, where poet never grew. Halved and dealt the globe anew, Goethe, raised o'er joy and strife, Drew the firm lines of Fate and Life, And brought Olympian wisdom down To court and mart, to gown and town ; 102 SOLUTION. Stooping, his finger wrote in clay The open secret of to-day. So bloom the unfading petals five, And verses that all verse outlive. NATURE AND LIFE. NATURE. TTTINTERS know Easily to shed the snow, And the untaught Spring is wise In cowslips and anemonies. Nature, hating art and pains, Baulks and baffles plotting brains ; Casualty and Surprise Are the apples of her eyes ; But she dearly loves the poor, And, by marvel of her own, Strikes the loud pretender down. For Nature listens in the rose, And hearkens in the berry's bell, To help her friends, to plague her foes. 106 NATURE. And like wise God she judges well. Yet doth much her love excel To the souls that never fell. To swains that live in happiness, And "do well because they please, Who walk in ways that are unfamed. And feats achieve before they 're named. NATURE. II. C