Baxley •>.< •i:^^-:*> 'i*-'''*; ■■•'.•■■■":.■ ■■ ■■^"^it '*^. mmmk LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. -p S ro^^ eipii. - ©tquin#T?n.- Shelf .)2)..8PT ISSS IMTED STATES OF AMERICA. y'e^i S::.. /^ i-^ 551 "^^^-^^V' ^ .^^^fm^M 4 ^ •■f? "J^^: i •iM ^? ^ >tt ■^Svi s ^i^^ The Prophet AND OTHER POEMS BY / ISAAC R. BAXLEY AUTHOR OF THE TEMPLE OF ALANTHUR NEW YORK AND LONDON G. p. PUTNAM'S SONS 1888 r- . 0^.^ ?p COPYRIGHT BY ISAAC R. BAXLEY 1888 Press of G. P. Putnam's Sons New York CONTENTS PAGE The Prophet i The Sowers 6 Love is a Gem 7 The Manikin 8 Time 19 Beyond 20 Outlook 21 Justine 22 Sunset 26 Unchanged 28 Absence 30 Never 31 Eros 32 Plato 34 Distant 35 The Last Songs 36 Rush on, Rush on with Hasty Feet ... 42 Comparison 43 Waiting 44 Desire 45 Achievement 46 The Journey 47 Redeemed 48 Return 50 iii IV CONTENTS. The Women 51 Revival 52 Belief 53 Slavery 54 Predestination 56 The Kiss 57 Question 58 Attainment 60 Apparition 62 Application 63 Transfer 64 Acquisition 65 Contact 66 Assemblage 67 Realization 68 Expression 69 Futurity 70 Speech 71 Release 73 The Voice 74 THE PROPHET. 'X'HE prophecy must be beyond the ears — * If otherwise, wherein attain we growth ? There are forerunners : the aftercomers know A-verity their message : jostling proclaim With brazen tongues the truth arrived from far. But how the Prophet and his shaking heads, Wherewith shall solace his negation wide ? The harmony which comes by death to him Is useless as a balsam : — if on high Ring out his sudden words because enforced By the tumultuous beating of his powers, When back their echoes drift to him again, He, broken in the throng, silently yields Their reputation to the weird, rude winds — The airs men breathe not — fitted for night and waste. *T is the dark curse of vision cast afar To fail thro' noisome vapors rising near. Prophet and man live side by side in time : Where Reason reaches raises the head of man — The proud, rude Prophet, driven on the wings Of blasts impalpable, utters the cries, I 2 THE PROrnET. That screaming come from some unreasoned source — Himself a hearer in his own discourse. He with the stricken stands in awe, untaught The distant course or slow unrolling way — The time or yet exact fulfilment of His deprecation or the blind reward. Two powers upon his soul the Prophet bows The mightier in submission, daring fronts Thick whirling darts held in the hands of men — Staying aloft a sword he only sees. It is not what we know needs to be told — When the new cry comes to us we stand a-stop — Yet he who cries, in ferment of the need, Desperate outstretches to a halting throng. Deep in enigma are prophetic lines — Far from the day, leading the learner up — 'T is unexpected they should be scanned at once. But in the fever he who calls, athrob With the great impulse of another Law, Feels failure in delay and discontent. Time — time, reward, defeat, and want, Progress and guessing, death, glory, and crime, Draw into one the Prophet and the crowd. All is not bitterness : — some rise enrobed With hues of happiness and joyful themes — Some prophesy the Gift and some the Law. Hoary with song, or bursting youth afresh, Each is a Prophet and does wisely plot A long distinction mixed in his destined speech. Ye, the great movers in the rainbow cloud, Who sail the dappled currents of delight THE PROPHET. 3 Over abysmal plainness of the hours — Whirled in your gilded visions far away From hideous nearness of material things — With palette dyed in day's essential spells — And ye who purify the changeless limbs Of beauty from the sweet unblushing stone — Who sit await with the flush dawn to break At Eastern gates, and let the glory in Upon your faces with the waiting light — What are ye but our Prophets ? Never all Wide-eyed, astound, and wild, but having some That blink o' the vision which produces Brighter things. To dwell upon the future sinks to-day's Material, worldly things into the past. But men in journey, weary with the loads They gather, bend their laden shoulders down. Lo, the poor Prophet, gazing up and on, Slippeth the things desirable away — Unconscious of their loss and his despoil. Who looks afar stumbles betimes at home — The nudge and titter greet a careless use — The banterer and the despoiler wait On Inspiration and her erring child With crafty purpose and a sure success. Where are they — where their gains hideously won ? Blind in the brightness of his consuming rays The plundered Prophet perishes in pain. All they divide except his soul — alone By that the comers after judge and cherish. Humanity, in light appeasement for Its blood of martyrs, adventitiously 4 THE PROPHET, Writes in the catalogue all pain and woe For things regrettable, but not of sum And substance in posterity's account. Perchance, — perchance the horrid friction of Despair and agony should be to them But as the burnisher to virtues fine : But have a care that we run as the oil — A polish where some harsher worked before. Who be our Prophets ? Are they daintily Set on the summit of some fashion fine ? Does the world run long-grooved in a success ? Up from the opposing side of each conceit Rises the Prophet, weird, sad-eyed, alone. In the gay train some prophesy and cry : " He is a devil — wild and maniac — We are the guides did bring the people on ! " O single-handed, stern and doomed to death — O falling heart and arms upraised in air — O messenger with message much too great — 'T is but the echo shall achieve the work ! " Give us a Teacher flowing in the robes Of use and custom — clad in elegance Of daily profit — and deliver us Axioms constructed to the things that are ! " O outcast, needless, powerless, strange, unknown- Foredoomed to failure and the bitter lip — Hurled in the invisible hands of Force Divine Against the seen and dreadful front of men ! How long mortality shall last, how long THE PROPHET, 5 Serve visual as the targe of ridicule, How long the trumpet serve the Sounding Voice, He who enduring cries dares not enquire. Struck from the essential Sun of things, is housed A spark, controlling in the Prophet's breast : Feeding within — consuming all the frail Opposing faculties the flame grows fierce. Like minions to its power, speech, purpose, yield Intent, time, action, loss, neglect, disdain. All make in him a destined course and end. Roll on, O tide, swift with thy numerous prows, The wind of custom blows on steady sails ; He who, returning from onward far the stream. Hails, as an avalanche, the fleeting freight Must perish, but his voice blows down the gale. The long-gone, dead, and proven Prophets rise Figures of envy, and the world does sigh For chance to fast as they did — and forego. Tongues of the world are changed, lo, other cries Come from her Prophets now and go unheard. There is a time the world shall cry aloud : There is a time the light shall enter in : There is a time for comprehension and Fulfilment of the action unto faith : The time shall be, as Prophets spread afar, Men stand upon the pinnacles to catch Sounds of the unseen Voice, accredited With judgment for the works and ways of men. Hear ye — train to the murmurs indistinct From the far sounds starting in other airs ! THE SOWERS. \ 171-10 knows ? The world is wide and God did ^ ^ sow Blessings and sorrows. With daily suns the Sowers Come a-scattering : over all the dust Is sifted, and turmoil, the struggle and The stamp of agony tear up the ground. Fine from the winnowing hands some blossoms fall As seedlings which the wind bears wide and long. To me the Sowers came and lightly swept Adown the hills their stores with open hand : Singing the Sowers went — and O the day ! To me the Sowers came, and heavy-eyed Wept as they humbly passed, and halting threw. With shadowy hands, such seeds — so soon — so soon. Pass and repass — O Sowers, come again ! I till the earth in shadow, storm, or sun, Upon the hills my sowing falls, and I Walk blindly ui)ward — Sowers come again ! 6 LOVE IS A GEM. LOVE is a gem ; the world is night around — Gloom, shadow, darkness, curtain the changing fires. Doubt hangs askance, and Fear her mantle trails Averted, wayward, blinding the light with dust. Obscurely in the clouds Love gathers light ; Thickly and thin the vapors drift and go ; Love glittering dies — revives, and sweetly shines — Love is a gem benighted in the world. Day rides apace, cleaving the clouds and air ; Darkness rolls wide his broadening trail beyond ; Day looks ahead — his flaming eyes discern Love in the darkness, burning weak and low ; Day rides apace, searching the feeble gem ; Love looks and glitters — the Day bends down to take Love onward ; — Day pursues, and far in flight Attains delight — Love gathers fire and flame. Love in the darkness shines — shines weak and low ; Love in the light gathers the flame and fire : Love is a gem benighted in the world ; Love is the gem flaming the first in light. 7 «: THE MANIKIN. AN ELFIN, DRUMMING UPON A ROSE-LEAF. T AP — tap — tap, The tale is beginning With some one gone sinning, Rap — rap — rap. A SEXLESS IMP, IN SALTATIONS AND SINGING. To sin is good, for sin is change. And change can cheat satiety : Sameness all pleasure doth estrange, Sin brings some sweet variety. Nor man nor maid am I, and pine For sin and sorrow as a prize : Nor man nor maid my arms confine — With neither do I sate mine eyes. No passion lures me in a maid, No heat is ravished in desire ; No virtue have I to degrade, No fuel fills my phantom fire. 8 THE MANIKIN. g Sexless am I : — sin if ye may, Be quick in sin — envious I fly — Spoiler of pleasures and of play Exempted from such souls as I. ELFIN. Ho, ho, my Imp, my jealous chum, The sight of pleasure maddens thee ? T rattle fast my rosy drum. Concordant to such ecstasy. No flower grows in the garden row Too pure to deck a bed of joy : We Elves with moonlit lanterns go A constant fortnight in employ — Searching the gardens, searching dells For downy petals, rare perfumes. Wherewith to brew the fragrant spells We chant for fruit of maiden wombs. We pray for maids, but older sin We laugh and tease with ceaseless care ; Ha ! ha ! a se'nnight did we spin Round the lean ankles of a pair — Hoary and eld, catching at chance Of pleasure with a prospect vain ; Ho ! ho ! delighted did we dance And skip the feathered counterpane ! AN AGED WITCH, WITH FAGGOTS. Scat ! ye vermin, age defying. Age contemning, rabble brood ; 10 THE MANIKIN. Think ye there 's no pleasure lying But below the creamy-hued Mixing of milk and youngish blood ? Nay, little ones, I tell you surely Of youth no pleasure *s understood. Young sinners do repent demurely, With us no sorrow spoils the good : We gloat on joy as coming — thoroughly Ease our souls of all regret : Yes we, the hoary, know most truly How to enjoy all we get. [She piles some stones under a caldron, and, placing the faggots, fires them.] SEXLESS IMP. Young or old 't is never changing, No morrow's mine of hope nor play, No Cupid 's in the stars arranging With ecstasy the peeping day. No garland has the sun, and dread Uprises as myself I see. The piercing spirits overhead Watch me, forlorn, exultingly. I cannot love as men do love. Nor am exempted — spirit wise ; Desire walks with me where I move, No virtue from me, dangerous, flies. O steep me thickly in thy smoke Of caldron ; let the gloomy blaze Wrap me obscurely in its cloak — Forgetfulness my debt defrays. THE MANIKIN, II WITCH. Begone, begone, another grows ; My art and I our pleasure slake ; Behold his blooming limbs disclose ; Witness his white and marvellous shape : Fairer than dawn, more fair is night With thee companion, and the spell Distilled to tickle thy delight — To fill with love Life's hidden cell. [A youth of great beauty in form slowly discloses from the smoke, standing blindfold. The Witch leads him by the hand into a wood, and they disappear.] ELFIN. So— SO — merry and sinning. Round is the world, and roundly it goes ; Even the lover the lovely is winning. Beauty is blessing, misshapen are woes. So — so — greatly desiring The eyes of the old ones follow the young ; Money that 's hoarded is spent in acquiring Dainties that truly not thither belong. So — so — deep Melancholy Hobbles with Age, but ever anew Springs on the byways every folly Youth can devise, invent and pursue. [Morning in the wood : a Maiden pursuing a watercourse therein.] 12 THE MANIKm. MAIDEN. Flower and zephyr, meadow mild, Lightest air, and lightest eye In fancy hither are beguiled, Drifting about deliciously : For oh, the essence and the air Are mixing in such company No sense may sift them to declare A separate identity. Mayhap my eyes are overkind, Or that some beauty lieth hid. Surely the sweetly freighted wind Draws gently down a slumbrous lid. Is sleep so near, always beside The far-ofif fountains of the sky, Dripping the potion of his tide As their blue courses downward fly? Sleep, sleep the flowers ; betimes must Love, The watchful darling, drowsily O'erlook a maid, for here I rove Exempt, unbound, in liberty. [She suddenly comes upon the Witch and her beautiful Com- panion asleep. The Maiden sees not the dark body of the Witch upon the ground ; her attention is fixed upon the blind- fold Youth, whom she awakens by her voice, while the Aged One sleeps on.] YOUTH. Sleeping I feel and waking hear Nearness of Beauty and her tone ; These are the seconds ; O let appear The eyes of Beauty on my own ! THE MANIKIN. n Subservient all sweetness is, All lesser — finite — incomplete, Incomparable is every bliss To Beauty's glances darting fleet. Why, other, should I hold desire For ever tenant to my heart ? Love hath some emblem floating higher On summits where I bear no part. for the pity, deed of grace. Unsealing sightless eyes that turn For ever, ever, out in space. Where never light and brightness burn ! MAIDEN, STARTLED. 'T is Love himself, the dear blind god, Convicts my plaining, and appears : 1 witless walked, nor understood. Passing the path his footprint bears. Am I a maid, and shall I dare Unloosen eyes so full of fire ? Does wisdom lay the lightning bare, Or courage scourge a tempest higher ? Already leaping in my veins The malady, oft sung, doth run ; Unbound he looks — me he disdains — Refusing where he but begun. YOUTH. Nay linger not — nay, nay, Nor ponder, nor delay ; 14 THE MANIKIN. Every shadow hath a sun, I know my darkness waiteth one : My heart is up, my blood is new, As flax and fire so darting thro' My anxious eyes the sun shall wear Singly the aspect thou dost bear. MAIDEN. Nay, I dare not, Love, unbind Knots I ne'er again could wind : Nay, I dare not. Love, undo Those cloudy curtains from the blue : Nay, I dare not. Love, display This trembling countenance to day. YOUTH. Swear then, by Darkness thou wilt be Constant to mine obscurity. MAIDEN. Constant to thee as fire and flame ; Constant as waves to windy seas ; Constant as daily suns remain Heirs to their desert boundaries : More constant than to drowsy theme Are summer bees, and more than dips The constant swallow in the stream — More than the honey to thy lips. YOUTH. There is no night then ; never say A night was night till dawn of day. THE MANIKIN. 1 5 Nor ways are dark if constantly Unvarying shades keep company. We know not better from the best : We speak and tell but what we know : No sonnet rings that keeps compressed More sweetness than blind ways I go. WITCH, AWAKENING. O untrusty ! O ye hateful ! Ever filching from the old : Deeds of youth are ever fateful ; Death rewards the overbold. Creature to creator yieldeth, Enemy is overcome : Ne'er to purpose Terror pleadeth ; Mercy here is little done. Rage and Pleasure brew the potion I distil for guerdon thine. Do ruby hearts keep all emotion ? Nay, a stronger faith is mine. [The Youth and the Maiden stand immovable in terror, while the Aged One, suddenly surrounded by a company of Imps and Wry-Devils, gives direction to the band.] WITCH. Seize the loving ! seize the daring ! Would ye an old grandam whet ? Must the aged go a-sharing Pleasures their old toils beget ? Must the aged, ever ready, Laboring draw their feet aside That the rapid, sweet, unsteady Dance of youth may onward glide ? 1 6 THE MANIKIN, Nay, my loving, nay, my daring, Age is nurse to many a mood ; Passion's, long itself outwearing. Color lingers in the blood. Heady youth makes hasty ending ; Fast the maid with brambles wind : Hasten, minions, to my sending; His over anxious eyes unbind ! Imp and devil madly hale him To my bony, open arms ! O tender, thorny maid, bewail him. Sufferer in my aged charms ! Quick, ye vermin, something stirs me. Really passion leaps anew ; See ! the glorious martyr nears me. Bubbles boil my fancy thro' ! VOICES OF INTERPOSING SPIRITS UPON THE WIND. Something not in mortal vision Weighs the forces of the world ; Good and evil, in division. Circling unevenly are whirled : Builders to the better faster Find the rampart and the stone : He who plotteth dark disaster Must with heavier toil atone. He who formeth perfect creature Other guardian gives his child Thou lusty, lewd, unhallowed feature. With the parent blood defiled. She the milky limbs disclosed Of an aimless, happy Youth, THE MANIKIN. 17 We, Good Spirits, interposed By the stronger laws of Truth ! We adjust in sweet arrangement Works another power began. Final issues are estrangement From the promise of their plan. Happy chance and happy meeting Intangible shall not be made ; Joy is lasting, sorrow 's fleeting. Futures with gladness are arrayed. Out to weary habitations Drive the Witch and ghostly crew ; Sweetly sound our invitations — Them to Youth and Maid renew. Sing of Beauty to Perfection Linked, adapted, silver-chained, Travelling Fortune's sweet direction, By no evil shade detained. Sing of happy goal and issue — Termination unforeseen — Sing the broken, idle tissue, Impotent, of Witch's spleen. MAIDEN. Tho' I did not. Love, undo Those fleecy burdens from the blue ; Tho' I did not. Love, unbind The lashes of thine eyelids blind ; Tho' I dared not. Love, display My helpless heart to thee and day ; Yet I journey by thy side — The morn a Maid — to-night a Bride. THE MANIKIN, SPIRITS UPON THE WIND. Passed and passing, still remaineth Goodly Powers and Voices clear Little waxeth less or waneth Light for happy atmosphere : Seldom broken or disabled Hang the wings of Angels good : Ever rising goes the fabled Echo of some beatitude : Utmost ether constant lighting, Flashing rays continuing speed ; Betimes by farthest spaces fighting Champions procure a daily need. TIME. T^HE old, old Torturer shakes his beard, and •'■ strains With sinewy hands his instruments of pain : No darkness and no sleep of shadowy night Hang on the orbit of his terrible gaze : In all the earth but one unlidded eye Survives in sun and silence, and sustains. With every morn his scavengers of night Thrust on his rack the quivering limbs of babes : With every year the martyrs file anew In outcry, fury — in phrensy and in fear. The old, old Torturer shakes his beard and turns Insatiate every link with sinewy hands : Down goes the chain, and the old Torturer shakes His beard in sorrow — some ghosts arise and flee : Out goes the year, and some depart, no more Returning in their phrensy and their fear. 19 BEYOND. 'T'HERE is a land. Its speech I know not, and * My eyes faintly discern its colors and Its clouds. What rolls between is sea or space Unknown. Yet over this daily I cast My vision, and delight uprises quick As distantly the forms of fettered hills To breaking seas disclose, return, and fade. Aside the hills of earth, its hollows and Its waves depart — roll o'er the paving clouds : I rest forgotten — strangely intent afar. There was a day I stood. Safely my feet Settled at ease : the far-off summits shone With radiance akin to grasping — I, Of old onlooking, felt abashed and near. A mystery with liberal permit grew Apparent : flaring the lights of certainty Discovered swiftly among bursting clouds. So standing came another. Not turning, we In silence, with our gaze unremoved From the clear hills, drew comfort — till desire Newly claimed hope. Long looking outward they Traced faintly and did fall : the seas dispelled : We turned together and remembered them. There is a land. We saw : our lips refuse Interpretation, but our eyes return With inward lids — walking unnoticed paths. OUTLOOK. INSTINCT with Immortality the Soul— ^ Dashed from the revolving planet suddenly — Far from this spinning top of Time abroad — Trailing Imagination's endless waste — Sets on its journey to immenser spheres. Absolutely from the whirling Earth afar With rapider motion we depart at will. Beacons catch fire, blazing with knowledge new, Out thro' the fabulous mists as on we float, Like new created to creations come — Intent on purposes terribly far — Invaders out of date in other worlds. Diffused thro' desperate space on frightful wings, We follow essence, and Discovery Runs like a Spirit thro' occasional ways. This is escape. The World grown old and cold — Indisputably dead within its sphere — Draws to its awful grave that staggering life That on the great globe whirled its circle wild. Who travel hence fly doom and fly decay : There is a Promise, the Promise has its Plan — For this the Soul prepares its widespread eyes : Outward and outward, far — immensely far — For Life the Spirit bursts its frightened way — Shuddering because the World grows old and cold. 21 JUSTINE. TT seems to me that I have seen your face ^ Earlier than now : have you been here before ? Are you mixed in the fantasy of the crime — Wholesome admixture of a little good With that tremendous sea of insolent Uprising volume of debauchery — Or are you come as secondary, now Printing the shore after the ravaging storm ? So pick me up as some most curious thing, Hurled on the margin of tremendous strife. Come from a ghastly conflict you cannot Possibly enter — but must watch results. This is most likely : in this white hospital You somewhat are at ease — but do you think You would adventure out to that supply Of torment, terror, and foul misery Whence come these relics you do prize so much ? Each on her shelf — a curiosity — Labelled with youth and age — virtue or sin : — These wreckers salvaged — but on yonder sea Thousands go down who do not strew the shore ! I have bethought me in this idle time — This season of suspense — half intellect — 22 JUSTINE. 23 Have looked, perhaps, with an immortal eye On very much, and oftentimes on such As you — for now I can remember better You are accustomed in your coming. What In recompense have you for this pursuit ? Have you searched out the very devil who Forsook his hell to cast my body here ? I do not believe you 've found him, and will not So much as hope he ever will be found. Certainly you could not an instant come So closely in the circuit of such sin As gaze on him who ravished God and me — God only, and the lowest, deal with such. At any rate, what am I ? One somehow Most unaccountably has held so far Out from the filthy vortex of her life : One whose feet passed wonderfully o'er The home-paths of a gluttonous morass. At last she 's felled — or fell. Alack — they say — It is the foreign flowing blood that will Go wrong. Justine — Justine — savors something Askance for trepidation and dismay. Do you agree in this ? In that earthquake Of horror and dismembered agony I would have split the very world awide With one great cry — and not so very much As one still sound issued in protest forth From the complete unnaturalness of one. Do I talk well ? I passed some little time. At midnight, learning books would do me good. Why should I think of how the sun went down — Why should I reckon up my steps to where The precipice was and I lost consciousness } 24 JUSTINE. O yes, the world is very full of birds — Dismembered, torn, I still am beautiful — Beautiful with the beauty of the world. Need mine have been a great, a terrible wrong, To call th' acquaintance of formality To an hypothesis of innocent shame — Make judgment falter, and, if possible. Lay some light burdens on such hearts as yours ? Lift you that burden somewhat — tell me now What I should do. Go warlike with the world. Bearing the gall of deathless enmity — Cast out of all its beauty and delight — Held for a menace in unclean disguise — And this because I was unfortunate ? Should I forgive ? A single, impotent thing — Imperceptible almost in the world's great eye — Scarce lisping in the Babel of its tongues — Set on and crushed by its aggressive feet For the resistance soft of being so — The yielding pleasure to voluptuous press — The blood that oiled its giant, lecherous arms ! You shudder at such talk — so far away Seems Hell and all its miseries red From your white life — you are secure ? Look on- See sitting on your knee some few years hence Is she who shall, in change of circumstance. Pay just my debt of cursed agony Into th' infernal compound of this world. It cannot be ? You are too pure ? No blood Comes from the wine-press as yours is, but sets Only from age and conservation forth, With that delightful essence flavored out So sweet itself demands protection ! JUSTINE. 25 Look you — the dark, red-handed, riotous Villain who '11 speak in Hell's own tongue to her, Stammers to-day over the name of Christ — Prattles that word as any other task — 'T will serve for any purpose by-and-by. I weary with this talk, but you will sit : You do not further me — you do not say Wherein shall open out the refuge wide When I shall gather this debauched thing, My body, back in all its loathsome strength That will not die. You falter, cannot still With all your thinking, coming, find the way. I tell you that this question 's all too much For such as sit and watch us in our sleep — Thinking they bring us easier rest and dreams. It is the day, the broad and glaring day, That you should temper to your hurt and sore. For we can sleep — too happily asleep — In separation slight of vacancy. You cannot tell me — cannot profit me ? Cannot this moment give me sound advice ? I am the tutor then — learn you of me : Go walk as I must in the drifting night — See if there 's really danger in the world : May be when I am strong I '11 come to sit About you with such questions as you bring. SUNSET. /^VER the deep, the shade, and the gloom, ^-^ An island sits on a yellow sea ; r stand on the hill, and watch the doom Of souls as they pass to eternity. The chasm is wide and the island far ; The feet are feeble — the hills are high ; The rocks that jut on the ocean are Barriers the traveller passeth by. The eye is upward, but never a sound Sweeps from the isle on the yellow sea ; The souls pass on — stillness profound Beats to the tread of their long journey. golden isle ! O glittering sea ! So sweet to look on, — so far away, Why Cometh never the minstrelsy Of the ringing chords that surely play ? 1 see the deep and purple dye, The sheen of riches, the golden ways ; I see the banners depending high — No echo one sweet sound betrays. I seem to go : — the thousands sweep In steady movement — footfall long — 26 SUNSET. Your beauty, yellow isle, you keep, But O for the comfort of your song ! Angels fly out to gild and dress The wide pure heaven in glorious way, Never, by chance, their lips express The rhythm of one celestial lay. I stand aside — the thousands go ; I look and listen — surely on high All ministrant orchestral flow Their marches and their melody. Not so, not so ; I stand and hear Myself who calls, and one who is, Like me, a listener for the clear. Sweet echo of your symphonies. We stand, and slowly, by degrees, Our brothers pass, and silence leaps Onward as they their steps decrease — Along yon shores the darkness creeps. We wait no longer ; we renew Our journey as the thousands go, Down — down — the deep, deep chasm thro' We plunge to gain the seas which flow So far in yellow glory round Your shores that calmly lie at ease. With long, long, stretching, sloping ground, Flooded in beauty — distance — peace. 27 UNCHANGED. T^HERE was a hill ; down in the heart was fire. ^ Fierce ran the mountain's blood and broke in fury Out : hot hail and dreadful rush of flame Tore the tall monster's face and shook his form. Long streams of blinding rage, sorrow, and shame Ran from the summit sinking to his feet — The mountain stood in fury — lashed and wild. Time went and agony ran out at last ; Smoke and the sullen clouds of rancor blew Slowly aside — his face and form were changed. Long lines of sorrow, floods of the bitter past, Drew channels, seamed with their altering lines himself. Suns of the summer came, and wandering winds Begot a verdure, but the outline was What terrible storm had left it : — so it is. When the great blazonry of shaking trump Shall rattle in the hearts of hills, this one 28 UNCHANGED, 29 Will give an echo from its hollow self As fiery hands, shaping his breast, did form. Lightning and tempest — lips and a tongue of flame — Did give him speech — with unforgotten words. Long in the caverns rang his cries — so long His changeless ears are closed to other sounds — High o'er the world he hears not other tones. ABSENCE. /^NE stands upon the wayward sands, ^-^ His hollow footing sways and shifts, Seaward his eyes — the world expands And settles as the sea-cloud drifts : Shaken, unstable, sad, profound, The seas and shore do swaying spread ; Drifting and lifting — ahead, aground, Falls the white spray — wild — whirling — dead. Stand thou in Memory's changing shades To yearn and anguish ; clear and high Rings out a voice — and sinks, evades An answer — unpitying passes by : Look out thine eyes — thy hands upraised — The drift comes in. O sway and turn ; Sick in the whirling, deceived and crazed For rest — for sight — yearn thou and yearn. 30 NEVER. SOMETIMES the Soul, misused and ill, Stands like a vulture o'er the plain, Marking the files from vale and hill, Watching the dying in their train : With eyes and heart for death alone, The cold destroyer unfurls and flings Expectant, as his victims groan, The shadow of his deadly wings. Ask of the dying who decline In anguish underneath their shade. Whether his sweeping circles fine Are lines the stars did use and made : Ask of the Soul, torn and defiled By fury, agony, and fear, With what sweet promises beguiled Wild eyes shall see cessation near. 31 EROS. OIN keeps not the World nor Wisdom, ^ Love and Beauty bear the burden : If I sing them as I see them — If I listen to their voices, As they journey, and repeating Tell of what they say together — If I listen, and repeating Only answer as I hear it, If I answer them in chorus — Some from Wisdom's ranks arising, From the simple, virtuous either, Outstarting calls my word a crime ! Love begets all that 's begotten — Beauty is : — whatsoever lacketh Is her absence : always, always. Looks she farther on, and farther Love is striding, her attendant. Sin keeps not the World, nor Wisdom One is heavy, one is feeble, Young is Love and Beauty winning ; 32 EROS. 33 Thus I see them : when I say it, One from Wisdom's ranks arising, From the sinful, virtuous either, Thinking Pleasure drives the day-god- Believing Wisdom lights the stars — Upstarting calls my word a crime ! PLATO. OOME great Star, in the ages gone, grew and *^ Redeemed a mighty void with light and life Disuse and death, from greater spaces come. Fell on the world — its light and life were dumb. Still to my eyes the ardor of its glory Comes : where 's none the world I wheeling see. Long dead, O Plato, star, O generous sun ! Eastward, in ages gone, you rose and shed Beneficence and fulness : in the West I stand to-day, and over level plains See shining come your light and strong renown. 34 DISTANT. AFAR— afar— Love trims his boat and lights his star ; Clouds fly 'twixt me and Love's sweet home, Thro' these dear Love prepares to come. Trim brightly, Love, thy burning star, Dip deeply, Love, thy bending oar. Uncanny clouds and grewsome shade Have long thy gilded bark delayed. Old age ties with its locks of gray Cables to keep thy boat away ; Hate and malice, ugly spleen Dig deep the whirlpools us between. Cast off and sail, O bravely sail ! Float down the evening's amorous gale ; Come now, come now, before midnight Sets in for me, Love, steer aright. 35 THE LAST SONGS. J FILCHED from Fate and her embedded eyes * A brazen key, therewith unlocked the years — Saw on the pages of my folded scroll Many long lines with sadness interwrit : Glory of action — the swift wings of power — Fame of my deeds — tfie throbs of victory — All these had vanished ; in their stead I saw Solemn regrets crossing the devious ways With shadows — light from the darkness sifted. Then I upgathered every scented page Whereon bright names were signified and set ; Bound them with golden buckles and updid Most jealously the least illumined line — Sped with my volume back to dreadful Fate, Absorbing to herself the looks of men : " Behold ! wide scattered thro' my ways of grief Were blown these pages of unmeasured joy ; What wrong to thee that I have thinly bound These precious leaves inside of studded clasps, And left the others to thy will's control ? " " For that the Gods have fashioned for thy ken These images of distant, wayward thought, 36 THE LAST SONGS. 37 And Mercy's self with constant hand has sown Some broadcast flowers — go, gather as thou wilt ; Sing then these songs — they shall be echoless." Folding the precious volume, I outran A thousand birds on wings of emerald, Dashed from the flowers low, clinging scents of morn. And moist with heavy dew, sought shaded courts. Beside a pool, quiet and comforting, I stretched the volume on my knees and read These transcripts from the shining tales of truth. What if yon large, peculiar Planet were Our home to be ? Regret, sorrow, and keen Dismay toll in our ears the passing of Our days — but hope, sweet impulse, and belief Rebuild their roadways for departing feet, And populate some aspect with ourselves. From this bright ball, rolling its seasons thro' We go : what hinders our elusive souls ? Ghostlike they pass — untenable depart — Floating ethereal in ethereal ways — Gone and received, perchance, in actual — Now unknown — conduct of palpable guides. Yon world of wonder — greater than ours — may be Such as would sweeten all the pain of this. Conceive, outlined in light — with fire-tipped wings — Voices grown hardy with incessant song — Ourselves ; — like birds high in a crystal sky — Unfettered arching — alighting — flashing — free. 38 THE LAST SONGS. With folded wings — idle in easy paths — Think of the converse new, drawn aptly from Discovered maxims of The Great Design. Beyond, above, high, and absorbing all Is Love — the prize delayed in this low world. There, unashamed, shall high-pitched voices call Her language — with its purified, sweet tongue — In yonder lustrous World — our home may be. ***** -)t There is a power in immaterial things : — Kingdoms arise upon chimeras ; dawn Insensibly before the day displayed And widening-trees torn in a sightless wind — Are symbols ; but more unembodied still Sweep current in the World impalpably The feuds and forces of The Great Design. Strange, strange and sweet, to sit at eventide, When floods of light, receding from our shores. Ebb outward, flowing o'er the horizon's rim ; To sit with circumambient soft spell And influence of the absent in the air. Clearly th' accustomed way — doubt or reward — Of lips well known stand in their accent by, And others, of a speech unusual. Do supplement, as the poised World revolves In silence, an undertone — concurring low. Drawn from the combination gentle deeds Outline their figures to our wayward eyes ; Glory seems possible, and to renounce Our footing for the flight of wings — but true. * * * * * * There is a Voice. — Who believes unbounded space Is vacant ? — Sounding without, striking on ears THE LAST SONGS. 39 Fitted to hear, pulsating constant goes The crying of a Mighty Tongue, and we Shake sensitive sometimes in its refrain ; It cries, and we would follow ; who has not Stood still occasional with lifted eyes, And ears intent ? Crying in concert rings The echo of ourselves swift vibrating Within, trembling on verge of outburst near, Breaking abroad with rattle, and return. When The Great Tongue shall speak, we, diligent, Shall hasten out, fulfilling its commands. O listen : bend ye long, attentive ears, Catching and striving for forerunning tones ! Seek thro' the woods and hills of lengthened years, For echoes gathered in the bygone times. That ye may know the speaking of The Tongue ! When on the stillness comes its startling call. Fly to the mandate and return no more — Watchers and waiters for its Sound as now. There always will be some, oblivious, who Disuse the common current of the world, And sweep, or stay, as necessary seems To purpose higher and unusual use ; Indifferent in the stream such harbored are Likely miscalled — or, heading onward, as Thoughtless acquire the customary curse. Contemn : the many going at a pace Discern at once : what needs another eye ? Where none will listen, and where none look out. Stand ye. No page is blank ; from every hill Knowledge is stretched ; unsentinelled are peaks — 40 THE LAST SONGS. Untenanted the quiet com})ass of Delightful shores where learning lies afresh. Interpreters, go singly out : forgive — excuse Contention and the active raillery Awaiting on the struggle and the loss. Nearing to distant things shall such arrive Acquainted — on swift revolutions of More rapid worlds their steps are used and true. * * * * * -;^- Beauty is bait for Desolation — lo Darkness treads on with cloven feet, the fields Gloriously outlaid : Fire and the forms of Death Settle with roaring over all that 's fair. Destruction reigns : hills that arose as swell Breasts of the beautiful, are aspects more Immediate, only, of a vast despair — Forsaken lies the land — none walk therein. Love is a-chill : the long, unsettled plain Wails with its winds ; Love garbs herself and goes — Sorrow, arising in her tearful eyes, Runs with its misty rivers o'er the land : With little knowledge Love looks out, but pours Constant her tenderness over decay : Athirst — athirst — the plain revives, and spring Life and remembrance mingled in fine return. ****** We separate are sent — sped flying out : The World lies at our vantage : we return With evidence upon our tongues and speak. Few hear, and none believe : we saw awrong. THE LAST SONGS. 4 1 Deep on the impress of our earnest souls Still shine the visions — again we see and speak. Like to a light, shining afar at sea — Fitfully anxious in the distance vast — In the dark world rises an answering gleam, Love's timorous, low beacon ; and Renown, Idly afloat, sails to the wakeful star. Then Glory and her wide, exultant train Effulgent gather, as the morning breaks. But we, with watching thro' the lonesome night. Cannot forget the way Love looks and shines, 'k ^ ^ ^ H: % These things I read with others. The sweet book, Blotting my tears, was ended, and I read Ever again, while light there was, the tales. Night coming, Fate outstretched her hand and took My volume back ; I followed with my voice — ^' For me too late — O Love I know thy ways ! " RUSH ON, RUSH ON WITH HASTY FEET. OUSH on, rush on with hasty feet Ye merry hours ; Delay not till my love I meet, And then go slow, and long, and sweet, Let happy flowers Entice your steps, delay, delay. Then go not from my heart, O day Delay. O happy sun I see her by Stand still for me ; O keep your glow upon the grass. And let the shade neglect to pass, While wondering why The owl holds fast upon his tree, Thou golden day so wait for me. Delay. 42 COMPARISON. A BLAZE within the forest — the wild beast at '**' its bone — The anger of the rushing waves twirling a heavy stone — A tempest in the sidelong spars — mid-day burning the plain — This is the love within my heart — within my life the pain. Sweet islands set on gilded seas — the Pleiads in the sky — The mountain mists from pines and firs dimming the daylight's eye — At eve the bells of straggling herds — Fairies laugh- ing on a lake — This is the love would come with her — I dream of for her sake. 43 v^f WAITING. JV A Y lips are singing — my soul is sad : ^ '^ *■ Sing on — sing on — my lips shall cease The far, far future's voices glad Are anthems of such souls at peace. O long, so long, my hours and life — I know but Time as mortals know — They say 't is soon — they say the strife Should shorten years — O heart is 't so ? They say my steps are hard because The hills I climb look out so far ; O Lord of Heaven, they say Thy laws To us, untaught, stupendous are. soul and life — O distance, death — To-day is keen — to-morrow never : 1 call and call — they say my breath Shall pass — the meed remain forever. I know but time as mortals know ; Alas, I know such pain and fear ; Joy is the promise, the payment woe. Yonder the guerdon — the price is here. The hills I climb look out so far — O Lord of Heaven look down and sign ; If these, my ways, so perilous are. Give me the sight and sound of Thine ! 44 .y^ DESIRE. A PAIN — a vacancy — a want — ■**■ A need that rises up to dare — A heart that wails, and lips that pant — A soul that listens to despair ; Eyes that look long and never see — Ears that desire and soundless wait— A hope that turns from things to be — A rebel — scaffolded by Fate. An Angel waits, and far — so far — Glory begirts her raiment's hem ; Blindly between flash brands of war — If I shall go it is thro' them : Desire — desire — so great, so strong, I must — I will — stand at her side ; I seek no guides in right or wrong — My shackles open — torn — defied ! Before — before — I leap and flee ; Ahead — ahead 's the only fray, Aside your swords I never see. Their danger 's lost — I 'm far away ! Desire — desire — so wild, so new — O action — battle — struggle — storm — If Hope is lost the conflict thro' Beside stalks Glory's giant form. 45 ACHIEVEMENT. "CAR off is death, and far the living after : ■'' Ourselves do fail — wearied does judgment wait Unspoken : we likewise cease — silently stand. Impossible to vanquish run anew The fiery goads of purpose and desire : Past vision, apprehension, indistinct. Ethereal, but obstinate of life. Resume and vanish aspect — achievement — plan. Far off is death, and far the living after : Failure forgetting stirs in our hearts intent : Mortality and time timid demand Succor from some : with anxious eyes we search Another's secret, and — gathering impulse — go. 'T is one : the doer, he who stays, are one : Desire and impulse rest a-swing the deed : What holds the action knows the balance sways Even betwixt the wisher and the way. 46 THE JOURNEY. O PEED ! Speed ! The wheels fly fast, and far ^ Run various ways — The guides depart and dash : Fly hence — sweet tho' these waters are Yonder, afar, gold breakers rise arrd flash : Gently these hills decline — beyond in amethyst blue Lie the long slopes of verdure, tangled, fine : Thickly these stars of heaven The Giver threw — Yonder, O yonder, runs new work — a new design. Speed ! Speed ! arise and half-way meet The day undone, bear back the golden flood : Pour, largely pour, the spoils of his defeat Over assemblies where thou dar'st intrude. Onward and onward speed ! the hurrying airs Divide and tremble with the wings and eyes Of Spirit — each Spirit strives, and wears Over his face the fight — upon his face the prize. Fly — fly — delay, nor dally not, nor furl The wings of action, neither decline nor stay. Rush out — rush out — desire, hope, conquest whirl Outward and onward — rise up — away ! away ! 47 REDEEMED. T ISTEN : in every circuit sails ^ Some planet of superior path ; Glory on glory's lord entails Magnificence the ruler hath : — Far into darkness — high — remote — Swings out a central sun, and he Unscathed thro' mystery will float On the wild wings of bravery. Black are the spaces — dread — unswept- But that this king of suns did pass ; Round idler lights disuse had crept, On weaker flames the shadows mass ; The fearful fade and fail, but he, Conscious and daring, flies afar. Breasting with power uncertainty — Thro' nothingness a searching star. Listen : Strange spirit may redeem An errant sun from waywardness ; The ample chords of Heavenly theme Unusual melodies express : 48 REDEEMED. 49 High in the circuit of desire Runs intricate reward and ill — The widening circle's bounds require Movements adapted to their will. We, as we sweep, ascending high, Resolving pinnacles descried Shall be the steps we journey by For outlook upon circles wide — We, as we heighten distantly, Dissuade the grosser doom and meed, Redeemed from simpler monarchy Conception's sceptre reigns instead. RETURN. QAY not I give — say not my Soul, ^ Ambassador of Eastern ways, Confers — that grandly journeys roll, And caravans enriched, ablaze, Continue from my citadel ; And storehouse coffers, to descend The sweet paths trodden long and well, In home of thine having an end. O upward, upward, from thyself Rises a rhyme so delicate. It charms the trains of loaded wealth, And anxious steeds disdain to wait. Their emissaries fast undo The halters of their homeward stay ; Swiftly descends each happy crew Adown Love's nimble-footed way. Bounding, departing, eager, free. Rush gladly out the squires and steeds. Lightly the charger goes — than he More lightly still the one who leads ; No burden bends, no cruel freight Hampers with hardship's penalty. These served a lord of high estate — But seek a sovereign still more free. 50 THE WOMEN. \1 7HY one, openly with a shining gem, ' ' Walks with the other, searching for a loss, A hopeless loss and old, with thieves a-near. Trading responsibility and crime, — Why one should vainly go, I watching, asked. She with the jewxl — for the other's eyes Continually searching, wavering fell, Looked with much answer and a low reply : '' My brother took the jewel from her breast." 51 REVIVAL. 'X'HRO' Chaos and her dark, rebellious crimes ^ Goes Memory a-stir — with eyes awake : Low in her hands wavers a trembling flame Left by the Ravisher, and flickering since. Thro' the wild crimson tide of love revived She journeys to that distant, fabulous day. Love wore no cloak of passion, and herself Stood purer than her garments — undisguised. Warm in her breath the flame revives and springs As nearer Memory comes to that long time. Some wandering farther, and with heart aglow She shall return — guiding a glorious light. High in her hands over the wondering world Shall that white flame in marvellous beauty burn, Till all the red reflections of desire — The taint of crime — rapine of deadly eyes — The desperate glut of passion and her wants — Shall from departing Night habiliments Of secrecy obtain and with her go. Fierce in the fury of a passionate dawn The dark morass shines like a summer sea ; But in high noon lie all uncovered things ; — So in the spreading circuit of that light Shall souls emerge — walking allotted ways — Its thin, discorporate fusion of delight Bears up the footing of their noiseless feet. 52 BELIEF. O ASHFULLY came the Damsel of the Night, ^ Blushing, because upon the Day too soon She tripped ; shaking her midnight locks low down — Modestly veiling so her starry eyes. Trailing her shadowy robes she shunned approach, But passing onward from the twilight shade, Another, with majestic, even feet. Walked solitary. Great, unveiled, discreet. Sublime in mouth, with curious, destined eyes — Whose look was increase, but whose color none Could see, because some far-off things drew out So much of light — earnest, refined, noting Not me, she passed. Longing arose within : Because she surely went I believed beyond Was something wonderful. I turned — but Night Coyly threw out her robe — its border swept My forehead daintily — and soon I slept. 53 SLAVERY. A ND for her terrible eyes were set so wise — ^*- Such spread of passion on her steadfast face- So much immovable her needless lips In telling aught unto her bondsman — me — And for in that I had been heretofore Myself omnipotent, I served the more. It is a desperate thing to be enslaved In public ignominy ; walk and wait Mesmeric to contemptuous idleness Of ordering ; but my impotent feet set out — Throughout the scandal and the hissing tongues- The gibes of knots, and single sidelong eyes — On any purport invented in her heart. If I had been transferred to some new sphere — Been taken in the helplessness of death — And so submitted in an unknown realm Under the abject dominion of a thing Beautiful, novel, passionate, and powerful — Without the possibility of revolt — One lone one of my kind in all that sphere — I could have served her no more totally. It would have been relief to be a slave 'Lone in some other world — the only one — 'T would be th' excuse of curiosity, And I be pardoned an unusual thing. But here, with other men, aged and young, 54 SLA VER V. 55 With other women in wide-eyed surprise, With all th' accustomed, terrible by-words, Was like the horror of acquainted ghosts. If I did sleep it was because her eyes Drew scornful off and I was chilled to sleep : My dreams were torture, for I feared to be Absent her beckoning, and waked as one Who hurries on unstable footing forth Over the toilsome journey brought him down. To die was uninviting, for my Soul It was that served her — that would, itself, return : — My body was a shield between my Soul And her. If it were cast away my Soul Would writhe in open, endless agony. Nor did I think of any sort release — She was so beautiful : sometimes myself Rung with delighted laughter, for I was So much her own I could not be put off. I served and serve : I do not justly know Whether she is the same to-day, because I have not for these many years dared look Into her face. What she desires I do, Nor ever need encounter those fierce eyes. It may be I am changed, but if it be There are no means for me to know^ it, for I will not look on other face than hers — And that is all impossible for years. PREDESTINATION. /^N prosperous instant came a Messenger — ^^ Who was an Influence, or Thought, or Sight- To draw the veil of hampering consequence And serious uncertainties of form Aside, bidding existence far removed Display its possibilities and shape, And force the circumstance wherein we sat Vacate its action of reality. Into the case of being hastily Arose myself in part improbable, Joined with like issues in another. Which, As I was in fervid expectancy — Was molten in the outlook for delight — Worked in the crucible of curious years And therefore fitted for the stamp of Fate — Wears everlasting current in my mind. 56 Q^ THE KISS. O HALL I at parting touch thy lips — shall we ^ Consider Time as vacant and decoy From the slow, inconsiderate afterwards Its heedless ecstasy and ripe delay ? No words are contrary, but shadows move With unkind semblances between ourselves. Which in the light will fail : and shall we now Burn up the gloom with fury counterpart ? Lo ! yonder is the light but never flame — And we are fearful ; and so further on And on Love travels with her lips untouched. 57 QUESTION. r^OWN the long avenues — thro' sightless ways- -"-^ Lost in a distance indescribable — Circuits where swing the rampant stars and spheres- Beyond belief — gazing impossibly On things remote — wide, weird, and wonderful, I look — whirled on a darkened ball. Why stand my feet on ruin overgrown With evil slime, and why poured out abroad Rolls from the underworld her massed despair ? Thither in scattered glory, stretched so far. Eternity shall travel without stop ; Speed the white worlds in radiant roundelay Of motion musical and purpose mild. Grinding repulsive o'er her granite way Goes Earth, laborious round her far-set Sun ; Her terrible revolutions of dismay Earning with agony, enclosed in clouds. The populace of that tremendous plain I scan. Each white, desirable sphere Of those that are widespread in hollow space — Patching the gloomiest horizon out Where worlds and millions people airs unknown- Is as a star — bright to the blotted Earth. Lonely, adverse, sullen, unpolished, rude, Standing a fragment, jarring the wheels of Fate, 5« QUESTION, 59 Housed in a home of doubt and far delay, O'er those expecting globes my vision goes. The ready worlds remain and I go whither ? Some on those massy spheres shall rise to meet My entering Soul, speaking in kindred tongue. Saying securely — Thou hast come with us ! ATTAINMENT. OUT all the world is wearied with unrest : ■^ Her tortured men arise and walk abroad The troubled Earth — with messages, but silent. Silence and speech incomprehensibly Are devastation and terrible hurt Of failure as they struggle and they go. In the sad interchange occasional Arrests befall unhappy wanderers ; And some in one way cease, some in another. I was a vexed and sad, disrupted Soul, Incessantly and ever in detail Of horrid search and stubborn agony. Traversing avenues and tangled ways. Weary with the wide circuits of despair I sifted all determinations out, But one refused — Love and its soul of Life. Before this Phantom I sat down to die — For it remained in deadly enmity. And I forgot all others in its issue. There are unnumbered phalanxes and forms Of agony, and every kind dismay, And danger, and a wantonness of hurt, And blasphemy most singular of woe. And an exhausted patience all unknown, 60 ATTAINMENT. 6 1 Serve as temptations and as ministers To such as I — before this Phantom fixed. But every other energy and shape Had vanished as I wished, and this alone Remained because of answer on her lips — Which I, seeing within, sat down before. Men thought me dead, but still I staid as stone — Which has, itself, but one attraction. No active agony in time beset My vacancy, because so evident The desperate forgetfulness of things Was on my heart ; and in my eyes alone The only image was impossible Life — For soul and body are the same in Love. When I had passed sensation and could know Love's thoughts as words and words as nothingness, And neither for the least essential thing, She spake the first time in forgotten years : " Thou art passed out except this great desire ; Therefore naught hinders thee to join with me — Seize thou desire and find itself alive." APPARITION. O O in my exultation I forgot ^ Unnecessary forms, and looking back Felt that most fearful Apparition ever Was instinct with habiliments and sight. The Soul of Life and Its Appearance was To me a possible thing — not creed nor belief. Myself and all that moved I saw anew : Evil was passive, and the grandeur moved Of certain acquisition to the good Like a strong light, breaking between defiles. My fellow-man was dreadful nevermore In form nor action, but appeared as one Standing unnecessarily in sight — Because of custom — which would vanish soon. Myself was an identity unhoused From obscuration of an idle use Grown formal, and in governance of laws More absolute because uncharactered. Which was a dreadful absolution — all : Having the trade of knowledge for belief : — Binding myself in the unspeakable course Of universal action and advance. But in the liberation awe was saved From a destruction too omnipotent Because I did become part of another — Which broke the dreadful disembodiment : But Life hereafter was an endless thing. 62 APPLICATION. A ND by a Light so awful interchange ■**• All ordinary things and usual deeds : The long, unstinted end of every thing Comes into view, passing the daily turns. In haste and hurry roll on thronging years, And we, with speedier consequence, alight Over the utmost century and see Action and form merge into a desire — Which clothes itself as such desires appear. 63 TRANSFER. T IKEWISE — guests in an adequate circum- ^ stance — Embodied in sufficient harmony Of knowledge and of custom — operate In their own usual spheres the dead of Earth — Safely related to surrounding needs. But as they go, we, yearning in dismay That their accomplished courses circle out. Seek also for the journey as each one, With an unspoken intent, sets abroad. They also in their distant memories. Or some immediate impulse governing, Send back reflections for us : we between Their sweet desires and our ascendencies Transfer in gradual change ourselves — and go. 64 ACQUISITION. RAPID in action— of enlightened force — A palpitating summons of delight — Virtuous with energy and feeling will — Most wonderfully real and exact Is apprehension — acquisition — the Attainment of informal spectacles. Gently distended from inception of This knowledge, with irradiation soft, Goes the adjustment of all blending things. Form may not conquer Spirit, but is made Daily unequal as the strife goes on : Still Doubt feeds Time in silence — public — stern- And Increase goes unmeasured and unknown. ^^^^^^^<^^df^^^^^ 65 «Ij5*^2;^1 ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^Bl CONTACT. T^H' accumulated stores of deed decay : * Actions and forms, select accomplices Of an Occult Design, grow indistinct. To see material things and thence to draw Expression, is a passionate delight, For Beauty strikes into the Soul like fire : But we are nearer, and diviner come With an immediate instinct on Design. Such is creation in us ; whence we give Bounty more subtle to the things we see Than in them grows — repeat them and say more. Down to the heart goes Love and draws thereout An unshaped Fancy of perpetual joy : Not time, nor limitation, nor real Apparentness of any daily thing Expresses it ; but all the indistinct Glorious and fruitful haze of hope and belief Whirl in a combination most redeemed From mortal fear and interruption of Possible failure or disastrous end. There is no form to light — itself becomes What it is hampered by : so Love expands In all the beauty of an endless thing — Outstretching from the heart unformed — unnamed Impossible of loss, for contact is Consolidation, and opposing Shape Has vanished— for no needless thing remains. 66 ASSEMBLAGE. T^HERE is a unity in Love : because ^ Such was the advent when the Soul was set Outward in apparentness as such, Knowing that this was its identity. Soul 's indivisible, but Shape becomes Simply in service to perpetual chance : Which terrible issue was when Evil took Its passionate advantage to destroy Sweet, gentle Love's unknown accompaniment. Long revolutions of harsh servitude That captive went, and is returning back. Into a thousand desperate Forms compelled Love forgets all — returning single-eyed. Back thro' corporeal vicissitudes Of agony and fury — shape and crime — Assembling come our Souls ; and Love ahead, In glorious leadership, exulting sings The possibility of an exact And perfect rendering into herself. All the old formal things of Crime depart ; Desire, and dark pollution, and sorrows Of Shape sink down — fall from th' unmixed Soul. Led by the lost Instructress of the Heart Reality advances and becomes A thing of influence and subtle state. Not any more demanding time and sight. 67 REALIZATION. TN all the outspread plains of afterwards ■■■ Love is a gainer, and his day of Time, However sweet, fades in a flying dawn. For Man is Space and Woman Light ; and they, In adaptation of simplicity. Newly revealed do possibly combine. Which formless glory sheds upon to-day's Eager advance beatitude and flight. Sweet Influence, securely intrenched With power to work her deeds, looks out and sees Nearly th' approaching end : calling aloud All sidelong avenues she presses on — In gazing over sees not things beside. 68 EXPRESSION. "\1 /E sometimes see : we feel and blindly hid ' ^ Lie in ourselves the evidence and proof. Tho' sullen in their utterance, yet to us Such are sufficient ; but there comes demand For guarantee, and we attempt display. Transmission, interchange, and mighty things In rude translation issue out, but still It is impossible to speak as see — And as we speak the vision disappears. Sounds of the tongue disturb, and vacant ears Are not the same as open, credulous eyes. Yet into speech pure beauty is distilled And we in silence turn — acquiring more. 69 FUTURITY. "Xl 70MAN came after man and for a cause : ' ' He is passivity — recipient — And citadel to her incoming Soul Gently in guidance, seeking to enhance Its adequate brightness into Shape and Form. His is the Form — seeing herself a Soul Is safety to her essence, and delight Of feature is forgotten as he looks. Startled, upon her Spirit entering in. The Light is its own guide whither to go : Shape cannot seize it — but it lightens Shape : And she is as a flame — burning apart Only in air — unless she enters in : Set in her mastery, and being there Inherited entering another Shape. Woman is Light — seeing herself as she Appears in Man — without him all the void Of unshapen darkness swallows up herself. Entered there 's never dissolution, nor Dismemberment, nor ever breakage more. Nor any other than a single thing Surviving from the summit's stop of Time That goes into another reckoning. 70 SPEECH. T T E sees — his brother not : for this descends ^ ''■ Into his hands the fearful weight of Speech. Crushed by the burden thro* some harrowing days Goes heavily his Soul — cloaking the weight. Implacable the Powers pile on their gifts Of knowledge — vision — prophecy and use. Bent and disfigured thro' the jeering crowd Treads the o'erladen, incapable of ease. Despair bursts from his tongue, with arms outspread More to the Powers than unto men he calls Such words as the long burden made him know. How is the issue — how th' affrighted cry ? Cold Failure with her leaden eyes, and hands Moist with the breath of those she chills, attends. Into her face needs go a passionate cry — Before her visage needs a kindling fire — Drowning her monotone tremendous tongues Must ring in daring and in agony. To these she yields — muffling her sunken head The mantle of defeat she draws and goes. Of burden light, gently, O wearied tongue Speak to the waters of a sinking sea : 71 ^2 SPEECH. Lightly the winds, chained to accustomed ways, Bear out the Singer's sombre, evening words. Within himself, passing in bright review. Go the battalions of a wondrous fray — Beauty and power — joy, grandeur, and delight Reward his eyes, and with his words at will Abroad the world he sends their journeying songs. Not all — still rooted in unyielding, dumb Impossible speech lie things of care and grief. RELEASE. I SAW by daily suns a giant Bird Stand on a minaret by the vacant sea. On every eastern sky his brooding form, Defined in darkness, rose against the light. Day grew in heat, and, turning with the sun, Th' unlidded eyes gathered unconscious fire. Eve fell : — red in the sun's retreat, unclosed. His glaring orbs gazed o'er the weltering seas. I marvelled : — what mighty chains hung on his wings — High o'er the wondering world what power unknown Detained his flight ? In fierce, uncovered day He stood, and lonely in the night, excelled With patience all the heavenly lamps and stars. Time passed — he stood. I marvelled not — forgot His going possible — myself grew old. I, too, gazed on the going sun and dreamed Of entering some evening sweet with him The ready gates that stood so welcome — wide. So looking from the air commotion fell — Unusual a shade o'erspread, and as The sun touched on the Ocean's rim, this Bird Displayed his mighty sails and journey took — Left vacant more the seas and minaret. 73 THE VOICE. HTHERE is a dreadful distance can be dreamed ^ Remote in awe — glorious in court and spire, With messengers of beauty, and details Of harmony to this far world unknown. Served by the countless syndicate of light There is a Ruler — housed with power immense, Whose speech is Influence — whose works are Laws. Sped from the fashion of His forming hands Rolled down th' abysmal plain a glittering sphere — And planets swinging. Pulsating in the globe For ages rests an answering desire Returning to the fashion of His hands. Over the dreadful distance flies a-wing Creation with her creatures — circling swift, All on the darting planets throb betimes To the long tension of an ancient day The mighty Word blew far this starry cloud. Whirled in an undismayed return we go In light and darkness nearer, while a-stir Runs the revival thro' a World's desire. Spirit and Space, Material and Soul Quiver with waiting — but silent still afar Is hushed the dreadful welcome of The Voice. Between the long remoteness of designs We stand unknowing, but our ears incline Perchance, affrighted to the Voice that comes. 74 W^ .-^<. ^l3i?2s; .Tfvv WJ-' ^:. m^m^^mj^ ^:. 5'", ^_;J:_''*.'!;J :.:.^-^:-^^>'j. ■' ">• -"i'-'^'.jv: •:a:'?' cr.'j' ••/•':■ . ■ V . .. - ^^^'^^'••:>mHI ■«^^ ''v'vflli r'".^ '.V?/.^ '■ ^' ^ ■**■*■ m^ •v^*-;*; -'■(.V..\.,.'.t;,,>'---