:>S?SS:«SSS^'S»>5«;S««S^^ 
 
River, Bird and Star 
 
 (SECOND EDITION) 
 
 BY 
 
 AELLA GREENE, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 '' JoH\ Peters, " Gathered from Life," Etc. 
 
 -« - - '» 
 
 ^■w.x 
 
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 PUBLISHED IN i8q6. 
 
,(l-^n 
 
 
 Copyright, i8g6, 
 
 BY 
 
 AELLA GREENE. 
 
 PRESS OF 
 
 THE BRYANT PRINTING COMPANY, 
 
 FLORENCE, MASS. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I . 
 
 BEYOND : 
 
 " WHERE THE NOBLE HAVE THEIR COUNTRY 
 
 THE JOY OF DOING 
 
 BURDEN BEARERS 
 
 A HEAVEN 
 
 SIC ITUR AD ASTRA 
 
 FORECASTING 
 
 II. 
 
 HERE AND NOW : 
 
 THE EQUAL LOT 
 
 AMONG THE TREES 
 
 THE LESSON OF THE LILIES 
 
 THE SINGING OF THE BROOKS 
 
 MESSAGES OF THE WATERS 
 
 PETITION 
 
 DAY-BREAK 
 
 BLESSINGS FOR THE HELPFUL 
 
 ' O BEAUTIFUL VISION" 
 
 III. 
 CONTRAST : 
 
 CLARE 
 
 INTERLUDE 
 
 LILLIAN 
 
 IV. 
 
 IDYLS OF FREEDOn : 
 
 THE GREAT SACRIFICE 
 
 AMERICA 
 
 IN OTHER LANDS 
 
 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA 
 
 VISION AND PROPHECY 
 
 A WARNING TO COLUMBIA 
 
 ORDEAL AND OUTCOME 
 
 A PILGRIMAGE OF CZARS 
 
 BY KOSCIUSKO'S DUST 
 
 WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS 
 
BEYOND 
 
 I. 
 
"WHERE THE NOBLE HAVE THEIR 
 COUNTRY." 
 
 A BOVE the grandeur of the sunsets 
 Which delight this earthly clime, 
 And the splendors of the dawnings 
 
 Breaking o'er the hills of time 
 Is the richness of the radiance 
 Of the land beyond the sun, 
 Where the noble have their country 
 When the work of life is done ! 
 
 Speech cannot describe their heaven, 
 
 Nor hath earth such brightness known, 
 For that heaven is the country 
 
 Of the Mighty and His Throne ! 
 Man's brief furlongs cannot bound it. 
 
 Nor his reason comprehend; 
 God alone counts all its headlands, 
 
 And like Him it hath no end I 
 
8 " WHERE THE NOBLE HAVE THEIR COUNTRY 
 
 Power almighty flows forever 
 
 Round the wondrous land above, 
 In its flood and ebbing constant 
 
 To the everlasting love; 
 Chanting with the matchless cadence 
 
 Of a deep and boundless sea, 
 To the continent of heaven, 
 
 Anthems of eternitv ! 
 
 Welcome to those glories given 
 
 From angelic harps of gold, 
 Shall full often be repeated, 
 
 Yet it never shall grow old; 
 Music grander than earth's noblest, 
 
 Than all eloquence of words 
 And the sweetest of the carols 
 
 Of the gladdest of the birds. 
 
 And those glories shall the problem 
 Of this earthly life explain, 
 
 All its bitter turn to sweetness, 
 All its losses turn to gain. 
 
'' WHERE THE NOBLE HAVE THEIR COUNTRY " 9 
 
 And the rapture of the new life 
 Shall exceed the griefs of this; 
 
 And amid those scenes of grandeur 
 Even labor shall be bliss ! 
 
 Welcome there, and there forever 
 
 Free from artifice of earth, 
 Shall the noble of that country, 
 
 In its things of real worth, 
 Read the wisdom of the Father, 
 
 From whose all-creating hand 
 Are the beauties, and the glories, 
 
 And the people of that land. 
 
 There they learn what mean the visions 
 
 Of the ancient seers that tell 
 Of the wonderful possessions 
 
 Where the glorified shall dwell, 
 Of a better heaven than cities. 
 
 Though of gold and jasper made, 
 Of a soul delighting country 
 
 Blessed with hillside, brook and shade. 
 
10 "where the noble have their country 
 
 There, magnificent with forests, 
 
 Is that country of the skies, 
 Far excelling in its bird-songs 
 
 All the earthly minstrelsies. 
 And that country hath its mountains 
 
 And is resonant with stream,s 
 That are sweeter in their music 
 
 Than the rivers of our dreams ! 
 
 Blooms of finest form and lustre, 
 
 Fragrant on the eternal hills, 
 With their odors bless the zephyrs, 
 
 That, harmonious with the rills, 
 Sing, to give the angels pleasure 
 
 And to welcome there, on high, 
 The immortals, from their struggles, 
 
 To the glories of the sky ! 
 
 Yet a higher theme than heaven 
 And beyond its vasmessfar, 
 
 Lovelier than its fairest valleys, 
 Grander than its mountains are, 
 
" WHERE THE NOBLE HAVE THEIR COUNTRY" i i 
 
 Shall the noble have to study; 
 
 For the One of matchless worth, 
 For the Savior of the sorrowing 
 
 And the sinful of the earth, 
 
 With His mission here completed, 
 
 Shall abide with them above, 
 Far outshining all the wonders 
 
 Of the country of His love. 
 There He giveth them an er trance 
 
 And that higher work to do 
 That shall keep them ever growing 
 
 And the charm of living, new ! 
 
 And His name, throughout the ages, 
 
 As the aeons circle by, 
 To the trend and to the cadence 
 
 Of their own cLernity, 
 Shall be theme and inspiration 
 
 In the land beyond the sun, 
 Where the noble have their country 
 
 When the work of life is done ! 
 
THE JOY OF DOING. 
 
 " I ^HERE is heaven in grand endeavor; 
 
 Even here it bringeth joy. 
 O ! the ecstasy of action 
 
 And the bliss of high employ 
 Where the powers are all untrammeled 
 
 And the soul can breathe the air 
 Of the country of the spirit — 
 
 O the joy of action there ! 
 
 There, however great the longing, 
 
 Still the heaven shall be more ! 
 Longs the soul for wide exploring? 
 
 There'll be vastness to explore ! 
 Is there wish for sweetest music ? 
 
 There'll be harmonies on high 
 Far beyond imagination 
 
 Of the people of the sky ! 
 
 With the wish and eye for beauty 
 Shall be rarest tints to see. 
 
BURDEN BEARERS 13 
 
 Grouped in combinations painted 
 
 Only in eternity, 
 Where the limners live to study 
 
 And for centuries have given 
 Their ambitions to be perfect 
 
 In the tracery of heaven ! 
 
 BURDEN BEARERS. 
 
 /^OURAGE ! O ye burden bearers, 
 ^^ Fating upward to the skies ! 
 By the very weights ye carry 
 
 To that country ye shall rise. 
 Fare ye bravely, burden bearers. 
 
 Fare ye bravely every day; 
 Angels of that better country, 
 
 Hither winging, guard the way 
 From marauding spirits vexing 
 
 Pilgrims on the heavenward road; 
 And if burdens are too heavy. 
 
 Angels aid to bear the load, 
 
14 
 
 A HEAVEN 
 
 And delight with their description 
 Of the land beyond the skies. 
 
 Courage ! O ye burden bearers, 
 To that country ye shall rise ! 
 
 A HEAVEN. 
 
 Tl WHEREVER bloom the happy isles 
 ^ ^ In lasting verdure drest, 
 Whereon perpetual morning smiles 
 High welcome to the blest, 
 
 No gilded barques bear any there; 
 
 Nor, borne o'er summer seas, 
 Do any find the orchards fair 
 
 Of the Hesperides. 
 
 Wherever the elysium is, 
 In what good land afar, 
 
A HEAVEN 15 
 
 And gained by what high ministries 
 Of what benignant star, 
 
 It is not reached along the way 
 Where sirens charm the sea; 
 
 But seek, the warning angels say, 
 Through Christ of Calvary, 
 
 The kingdom of conditions high. 
 Where quality hath rate, 
 
 Where fitness, and not heraldry, 
 Gives entrance through the gate. 
 
 For what man is, not where he is. 
 
 His heaven is, or hell; 
 His heaven the heavenly qualities 
 
 That prompt his doing well. 
 
 His heaven that high ennoblement 
 That gives to whom 'tis given, 
 
l6 SIC ITUR AD ASTRA 
 
 The blessing of a heart content 
 To win his way to heaven. 
 
 SIC ITUR AD ASTRA. 
 
 ■^ I " HOU selfish one who seekest heaven 
 
 Through fear of final fire, 
 And never had for heaven itself 
 The first sincere desire. 
 
 Supreme unselfishness alone 
 Can for the skies prepare, 
 
 And he alone may hope for heaven 
 Who loveth what is there. 
 
 Thou asking God to grant the boon 
 Thou hast not tried to win, 
 
 Beseeching His forgiving grace 
 Yet never hating sin. 
 
SIC ITUR AD ASTRA 17 
 
 And ever whining for the heaven 
 Where only brave souls are — 
 
 Wherever in the realms of space 
 Revolves that happy star, 
 
 The object of the good man's hope 
 
 And goal of all his quest. 
 Bright sphere of life, and growth, and joy, 
 
 And work that giveth rest — 
 
 That place of earth is nearest heaven 
 Where the unselfish dwell. 
 
 And where there is but selfishness 
 There needs no other hell ! 
 
 And thou who deemest 'tis decreed, 
 
 By mandate of thy God, 
 That thou be favored in His sight 
 
 And spared the fateful rod, 
 
 Which thou dost think is wholly right 
 For those despised by thee. 
 
SIC ITUR AD ASTRA 
 
 And therefore doomed by Him to wrath 
 To all eternity, — 
 
 It was a fratricide declared 
 His brother not his care, 
 
 And he alone is sure of heaven 
 Who leads another there ! 
 
 Go thou, like Christ, and strive to save 
 
 Another than thyself ; 
 For hoarding up salvation is 
 
 As base as hoarding pelf ! 
 
 And when, like His, thy life shall bless 
 
 Thy suffering fellowmen. 
 Then thou, for heaven canst hope, thyself, 
 
 But art condemned till then ! 
 
FORECASTING. 
 
 /^ THOU who bravely up the path 
 
 ^-^ Which frequent thorn of trouble hath, 
 
 Steadfast didst try, 
 If upward still thy courage climb 
 Thy patience shall attain in time 
 The summit of the height sublime 
 
 From which thine eye, 
 
 Unhindered by dense airs that blow 
 To cloud morass of doubt below, 
 
 Shall see fair ground 
 Beyond the waters flowing cold, 
 A country which doth richness hold 
 Excelling that the men of old 
 
 At Eshcol found. 
 
 Some time in exultation spent 
 Shall intervene ere thy descent 
 
 At beck of sprite 
 Whose barge shall bear thee o'er the tide 
 
20 FORECASTING 
 
 To land thy vision hatii descried — 
 Nor shall thou always there abidi, 
 Nor wish thou might. 
 
 For, far from false and with the true, 
 Thy youth renewed and vision new, 
 
 Thou soon shalt be, 
 To learn from features of that shore 
 That they but prophesy of more 
 And bid thine enterprise explore 
 
 With ecstasy 
 
 New continent, and seas, and isles, 
 Whereon such radiant solstice smile 
 
 To cheer thy gaze 
 That thou shalt think the brightest beams 
 The former gave, but faded gleams 
 Of sunshine of forgotten dreams 
 
 Of other days ! 
 
 That land attained, thy study there 
 Shall thee for further quest prepare, 
 That shall allure ; 
 
FORECASTING 21 
 
 And faring on, what thou shalt find 
 Thy broadened and still growing mind 
 Shall solve, assimilate and bind, 
 And make secure. 
 
 And it shall rare nutrition be, 
 And spur, and stimulant, for thee. 
 
 To aid thy will, 
 That shall increase with thy desire. 
 To this new good thou mayst aspire 
 And mayst attain, to find yet higher. 
 
 To beckon still ! 
 
 Inspiring faith that paints the scene- 
 A heaven of hills and valleys green, 
 
 With songsters bright 
 That sing responses to the call 
 Of mellow murmuring waterfall ; 
 And blue, benignant over all, 
 
 A sky of light. 
 
 Whose language is not only peace, 
 But that which teaches an increase 
 Of all that's heaven. 
 
22 FORECASTING 
 
 In such gradaiions evermore 
 As thou shalt inward from thai shore 
 The country of the blest explore, 
 With blessing given. 
 
 And, scanning copse and forest belt 
 
 That through the years of heaven have felt 
 
 The zephyrs' joy 
 That sweeps the flower-scented plains 
 Of that good land whose bliss explains 
 Thine earthly lot, thou'lt hear the strains 
 
 The birds employ 
 
 And songs the airs and rivers sing, 
 To make the elysian valleys ring 
 
 The ages through. 
 And angels of the loftiest lyre, 
 In joy that thou shouldst so aspire, 
 Shall wake the strings to noblest fire 
 
 They ever knew. 
 
 O ! grandeur of the land that lies 
 Away somewhere beyond the skies! 
 Beyond earth's dream — 
 
FORECASTING 2$ 
 
 How far beyond the visible 
 Imagination cannot tell, 
 Howe'er intensely it may dwell 
 Upon the theme ! 
 
 Thou shalt have sail for broadest seas 
 And time to solve all mysteries 
 
 Thy search hath spied. 
 Whatever thine ambition be, 
 Thou shalt no limitation see ; 
 Thy time is all eternity, 
 
 Thy scope as wide ! 
 
HERE AND NOW 
 
w 
 
 THE EQUAL LOT. 
 
 ITH equal hand, impartial Heaven 
 Bestows on all, the blessings given 
 To cheer the earth. 
 
 If birds that bless the morns of sprino: 
 Alone at regal courts would sing, 
 We might complain. 
 
 But everywhere, from hill to shore, 
 The joyous warblers artless pour 
 Their songs for all. 
 
 As grateful thine anemones 
 And all the perfumed potencies 
 Thy rose exhales 
 
 As odors they of kingly kind, 
 Empurpled in a palace, find 
 Hie flowers to yield 
 
28 THE EQUAL LOT 
 
 That grow by royal gardener dressed, 
 And bloom with smiles of princess blessed, 
 On sacred days. 
 
 Nor sweeter sound than you or I, 
 Hears king or Croesus, walking by 
 The purling brook ; 
 
 Nor, navied in their gilded boats, 
 Than we embarked in common floats, 
 More restful plash 
 
 Of wave ; nor surer they to ride 
 In safety to the haven side 
 Of waters sailed. 
 
 Nor king than we has sweeter hymn 
 Of Zephyr ; nor doth Sunset limn 
 Diviner west 
 
AMO^'G THE TREES 29 
 
 For king, with hues from heavenly fount ; 
 Nor nearer is the royal count 
 Of stars than thine 
 
 To His who outlined nature's plan 
 And reared the astral arch, to span 
 The universe ! 
 
 w 
 
 AMONG THE TREES. 
 
 ^rHEKE nature reigns distinctions fade 
 That pride may bring to grove and 
 
 glade, 
 To flciunt them there. 
 
 Rank has no sway at nature's court, 
 And fame is there of small import, 
 And pelf is scorned. 
 
30 AMONG THE TREES 
 
 Impartially, when vernal breath 
 Proclaims the winter's reign of death 
 Is at its end, 
 
 The maple buds portend the June, 
 Whose leaves shall cool the torrid noon 
 Of summer time. 
 
 To thee as kindly welcome wave 
 The elms as unto prince they gave 
 Who fared that way. 
 
 And wild and tender harmony 
 The pensive pines address to thee 
 As unto ail. 
 
 And breathe balsamic airs of health. 
 Uncaring for their rank and wealth 
 Who seek the boon. 
 
AMONG THE TREES 3 1 
 
 The quiet beauty of the beech 
 To ihee as unto all will teach 
 if thou wilt learn, 
 
 The loveliness of real worth, 
 Whatever station in the earth 
 The worthy have. 
 
 To thee as ^^rand the oaks that hold 
 Discourse with crags of mountain bold, 
 Anent the storms. 
 
 As unto royalty they seem ; 
 And for thine eyes as brightly gleam 
 The autumn woods 
 
 As for the monarch who desires 
 To imitate their gorgeous fires 
 On robes he wears, 
 
AMONG THE TRELS 
 
 But finds that futile is the sleight 
 Of kino;s to deck themselves as bright 
 As nature shines ! 
 
 Contrasting with the snowy lands, 
 As sombre-hued the hemlock stands 
 To symbolize 
 
 Thy grief, as tl.ough the dark cold green, 
 Sighing, bemoaned with northland queen, 
 Her consort dead. 
 
 And when, again, the trees in bloom 
 Dispel the thoughts of death and doom, 
 And hope inspire, 
 
 Thou canst the s^raceful tasselina^ 
 That decks the birchen boughs of spring 
 As well enjoy 
 
THK LESSON OF THE LILIES ^^ 
 
 Uncrowned, untitled and unknown, 
 As though instated on a throne 
 Of kingly power. 
 
 THE LESSON OF THE LILIES. 
 
 1VTATURE rebukes presumptuous men, 
 And yet invites the constant ken 
 Of reverent souls. 
 
 And still the words the Master saith, 
 Who came of old from Nazareth, 
 Nature repeats : 
 
 Consider thou the lilies well, 
 O man, who thinkest thou canst tell 
 Their coloring, 
 
34 'i'HE LESSON OF THE LILIES 
 
 And canst the processes divine 
 Wherein the primal hues combine 
 That beauty give, 
 
 And tell the fragrances that meet 
 To make those rarest odors sweet 
 That lilies shed. 
 
 Consider thou the lilies well, 
 O man, who thinkest thou can tell 
 What lilies are — 
 
 Perfection of the alchemies 
 Wherein the chemists of the skies 
 Have wrought their best I 
 
 And lilies not alone meant He 
 Who taught, on nills of Galilee, 
 Their loveliness. 
 
THE LESSON OF THE LILIES 35 
 
 But all the flowers that decked the field 
 For Him did sweetest pleasures yield, 
 And theme for thought. 
 
 And, eloquent above thy speech, 
 The flowers will still their ethics teach, 
 O man of earth, 
 
 As when, to prove His doctrine true, 
 In Palestine, the Teacher drew 
 From nature's store. 
 
 And, mortal, thou canst ever find. 
 If well instructed is thy mind 
 By heavenly power, 
 
 Such high renewal of thy might, 
 Such mspiration and delight. 
 And rest, and peace. 
 
36 THE SINGING OF THE BROOKS 
 
 In thinking- on the works of God. 
 From tiny twig and velvet sod 
 To mountain peak, 
 
 As thou in thine ambitious schemes 
 Fulfilled unto thy brightest dreams, 
 Canst never find ! 
 
 THE SINGING OF THE BROOKS. 
 
 " I ^ HE sweetest songsters carol 
 
 ^ Among the Berkshire hills, 
 
 In harmony with music 
 
 Arising from the rills 
 That flow with silvery murmur, 
 
 In melody along 
 And charm as if in heaven 
 
 They learned the art of song, 
 ./W^^wers tyHim empowered 
 
 Who formed the starry spheres 
 
THE SINGING OF THE BROOKS 37 
 
 And guides their rhythmic motion 
 Throug-h all the circling years. 
 
 Bright brooks ! they came from heaven, 
 
 To teach the tuneful art, 
 And woo men from their sorrows 
 
 And from their cares apart ; 
 To teach them high behavior. 
 
 And gentle ways and true, 
 Inspiring them with courage 
 
 To fight life's battles through ; 
 The while, through all the harshness 
 
 That gives to earth its ban, 
 They live attuned for living 
 
 Where harmony began. 
 
 There other brooks, in chorus 
 With other birds, shall sing, 
 
 To tell the power and goodness 
 Of the Eternal King ; 
 
 And welcome home the singers 
 From the dissonance of time 
 
38 MESSAGES OF THE WATERS 
 
 To the melodies of heaven 
 And the zephyrs of the clime 
 
 With song far, far exceeding 
 The music of the rills 
 
 That carol with the songsters 
 Among these restful hills. 
 
 MESSAGES OF THE WATERS. 
 
 nPHY valleys how lovely, thy mountains 
 
 ^ how strong, 
 
 O Northland, how charming thy rivers of 
 
 song ! 
 No finer through storied lands singeth the 
 
 tide 
 Of Tiber, or Danube, or Severn, or Clyde ; 
 No brighter to Scotchmen the burns which 
 
 they know 
 That sweet to Loch Katrine through heather 
 
 bloom flow ; 
 
MESSAGES OF THE WATERS 39 
 
 No gladder to Lomond whirl joyous away 
 The streamlets through dingles with hazel 
 
 bloom gay, 
 Nor sweeter to Switzeis sing brooks to 
 
 Lucerne 
 Than waters whose music New Englanders 
 
 learn. 
 No sweeter the far wave than waters that sing 
 Where Greylock of hilltops is grandly the 
 
 king, 
 Ihan whirl from Wahconah the waters away, 
 That bright over gravel of gold and of gray, 
 Through Dalton dales dimple, and sparkle, 
 
 and play, 
 Than brooks from Katahdin, than others that 
 
 flow 
 Where airs from Monadnock inspire them to 
 
 go— 
 Than sing the bright thousands of brooklets 
 
 along 
 Entrancing the whole of New England with 
 
 song ! 
 
 Or, if streamlet is sought of sorrow to tell, 
 
4o MESSAGES OF THE WATERS 
 
 What brook is more plaintive in old country 
 
 dell 
 Than waters from Monument Mountain that 
 
 purl, 
 Lamenting the fate of the Indian girl 
 Who loved where she might not, and thought 
 
 she must die, 
 And plunged in despair from a precipice 
 
 high. 
 But sorrow chimes not with the note of your 
 
 voice, 
 O waters of No'thland, that ever rejoice, 
 And even when warning that danger is near 
 Intone the monitions to cadence of cheer. 
 
 Ye brooks of New England that carol like this, 
 O warble forever to Northland your bliss ! 
 And ye who admire them, O leave them to run. 
 And wimple, and sparkle, and sing in the sun. 
 Unchained to carved channels that dullards 
 
 have made 
 In worship of Use and the tyrant of Trade ! 
 O leave them that faring unfettered along, 
 They babble their beautiful blessing of song ! 
 
MESSAGES OF THE WATERS 4I 
 
 But more than the music or glance of the wave 
 O'er which every lover of beauty may rave, 
 While men of each land of their home rivers 
 
 boast 
 O'er waters enchanting the foreigner's coast 
 'Tis the truth of their numbers that giveth 
 
 the worth 
 To musical waters that gladden the earth. 
 
 Go, zephyrs of heaven and fleet ye afar 
 By light of morn lustre and gleaming of star, 
 And tell in the city, and desert, and dell. 
 To all who in cot or in palace may dwell, 
 Or tent on the plains, or anywhere live, 
 What calm and what rapture the river songs 
 
 give— 
 The strength for brave doing, the power to 
 
 endure. 
 The vision to see and the faith to secure 
 The blessings that nature delights to confer 
 On those who in loyalty seek them of her. 
 And mortal, whatever the cadences be 
 Of rivulet, lake wave, or surge of the sea, 
 
42 MESSAGES OF THE WATERS 
 
 'Tis the spirit of God speaks through them 
 
 to thee. 
 Who often discovers that man is untrue, 
 May think that the waves will be false to 
 
 him, too. 
 Yet faithful forever the voice of the tide ! 
 And, chant they to warn thee, or hearten, or 
 
 guide, 
 Believe in the waters — a brook never lied ! 
 
 Or purling as soft as the peace of the sky. 
 Or singing as grand as the harpers on high, 
 It giveth forever the essence of truth 
 That solaces age and sanctifies youth, 
 And, warbled in valley or prattled in glen. 
 Is simple as childhood yet equal to men — 
 Truth sweet as the roses that blossom in 
 
 heaven. 
 Truth hither for mortals to rivulets given, 
 And sung in the sun time and star time, to 
 
 give 
 High hint and good helping: sublimely to live ! 
 What rashness of pride that ventures to spurn. 
 
MESSAGES OF THE WATERS 43 
 
 What wisdom of reverence that listens to 
 
 learn, 
 The truth to be heard in the song of the burn. 
 Sweet pleading with Power to be true and be 
 
 mild 
 As brook is, or bird is, or Christ, or a child, 
 It telleth the way to the destinies grand 
 As fancy can paint or wish to command. 
 
 Whatever thy talent, what work doth engage, 
 And living wherever, in whatever age. 
 And however many thy years on the earth. 
 The rivulet's voice will still have its worth. 
 And when shall appear the swift coming day 
 When thou from this province must journey 
 
 away 
 To country, wherever that country may be. 
 Reached over what mountain and over what 
 
 sea. 
 Where thou shall find much that is strange 
 
 unto thee. 
 How sweet, when departing, to look on the 
 
 wave 
 
44 MESSAGES OF THE WATERS 
 
 That joy to the days of thine earthly life gave! 
 And O ! what a rapture 'twill add to thy 
 
 heaven 
 If there, in that country, like music be given, 
 If there, to enchant thee, shall carol and 
 
 gleam 
 The waters with sparkle and song like the 
 
 Stream 
 Enhancing the days of thy sojourning here 
 With song that is wisdom and song that is 
 
 cheer ! 
 
 Thy valleys how lovely, thy mountains how 
 
 strong ! 
 O Northland ! how charming thy rivers of 
 
 song ! 
 Bright waters, that winding from Windsor 
 
 away, 
 Swift purling o'er gravel of gold and of gray. 
 Through Dalton dales dimple, and wimple, 
 
 and play. 
 As waters in elfinland singing to fay. 
 The fairies entrancing as rivulets may, 
 
MESSAGES OF THE WATERS 45 
 
 And rivulets will, so the fairy folks say, 
 With witcheries weird of the gambolings gay, 
 And cadences fine and melodies sweet. 
 And fit where elite of the fairy folk meet, 
 With honors the princes of elfland to greet— 
 Ye waves from Wahconah through thickets 
 
 that flow, 
 And charm to their sweetness the wild 
 
 flowers that grow — 
 What numbers, bright waters, your music 
 
 can tell, 
 
 Thus witching through wildness and dulcet 
 in dell ! 
 
 Sweet waters ! bright waters, that charmingly 
 sing 
 
 Of Dahon, the jewel of Berkshire the king ! 
 
 Ye waters, that winding from Windsor away, 
 Through Dalton dales dimple, and wimple 
 
 and say 
 As, bright over gravel of gold and of gray. 
 Ye chant in high music while charmingly gay, 
 "Thou listening entranced o'er the musical 
 
 wave. 
 
46 MESSAGES OF THE WATERS 
 
 To honor the music, O mortal, be brave ; 
 
 Be more than the mood that comes of mere 
 
 charm ; 
 The trancement of sweetness is cause for 
 
 alarm — " 
 Ye waters inspiring the valiant until, 
 Grown godlike from heeding the song of a rill, 
 They honor in action the truth of the song 
 That sparkles and warbles their life ways 
 
 along — 
 What seer hath the vision, ye waves, to divine 
 The wealth of your wisdom, ye waters benign! 
 
 Ye brooks from Katahdin and streamlets that 
 
 flow 
 Where airs from Monadnock inspire them to 
 
 go; 
 
 Ye waters that sing in Otsego and shine 
 Reflecting the love of the spirit benign ; 
 Ye brooks to Itasca that sing through the 
 
 plains, 
 Entrancing the vastness with charm of your 
 
 strains ; 
 
MESSAGES OF THE WATERS 47 
 
 Ye waters the depths of wild canyons that 
 
 dare, 
 And calmly the truth to the mountains 
 
 declare — 
 Wherever all over the Northland ye sing, 
 From heaven, bright waters, your music ye 
 
 bring ! 
 
 Ye waters of Northland, that carol like this, 
 O warble forever to Northland your bliss ! 
 And waft ye, fleet zephyrs, to every strand 
 This music of gladness, this joy of our land ! 
 And, say, O ye zephyrs, who chant with the 
 
 tide 
 Of Tiber, or Danube, or Severn, or Clyde, 
 And waves of the musical waters that pour 
 Enchantment to every inland and shore. 
 And thus have been singing through all of 
 
 the years, 
 Enhancement of gladness and comfort of 
 
 tears — 
 Say, zephyrs, wherever your courses ye wing, 
 If brighter than waters in Northland that 
 
 sing, 
 
48 MESSAGES OF THE WATERS 
 
 If brighter ye find a wave in the world, 
 If lovelier the waters in Eden that purled ! 
 
 II. 
 
 Tl THERE Mountain Monadnock, majestic 
 ^ in might 
 
 And infinite leisure, rose grand in his height, 
 
 And angels came heralds from heaven to bring 
 
 The best of May mornings to gladden the 
 spring. 
 
 And waters from beechen grove sparkled 
 whose wave 
 
 That charm to the hours of the bright morn- 
 ing gave 
 
 Which wakens the birds to their cheeriest 
 tune 
 
 And Mayfields to green to the brightness of 
 June — 
 
 There, forth from the home of her humble 
 life sweet, 
 
 A maiden went singing the morning to greet. 
 
 And, tranced by the resonant waters that sang 
 
MKSSAGbS OF THE WATERS 49 
 
 Till echoing distances joyfully rang, 
 She waited in wonder and awe at the song 
 The waters were warbling that sparkled along, 
 While Mountain Monadnock, rejoicing in 
 
 might, 
 From foot hills to summit beamed forth his 
 
 delight. 
 
 And rapt o'er ihe scene of that morning of May 
 The maiden entranced heard the waters to say: 
 " Thy motto be duty, thy jewel be truth ; 
 And wisdom prize ever as prizing in youth ; 
 And love, which to many but sorrow doth 
 
 bring, 
 Shall be thy good angel to cheer thee to sing 
 Beyond the high music of joyfulest stream 
 That ever charmed poet to tunefulest theme. 
 
 " Go ask of thy mother what message I said 
 When hither her thoughtfulest saunteringled. 
 And breathing the hope of a treasure to be. 
 She went and months later came speaking of 
 thee. 
 
50 MESSAGES OF THE WATERS 
 
 With joy and the graces of motherhood came, 
 Discoursing of thee and telling thy name. 
 Bright seasons have blossomed and blossomed 
 
 again, 
 And Cometh the maiden where matron came 
 
 then. 
 That message, well heeded by matron, I read 
 In traits of the maiden, who surely will heed 
 The counsel, when matron shall tenderly tell 
 The message and ask her to honor it well." 
 
 The summers that came and the summers 
 
 that went 
 To girlhood the graces of womanhood lent ; 
 And, lovingly loitering there by the stream. 
 Entranced o'er the ripple, and dimple, and 
 
 gleam, 
 Two whispered the message the matron had 
 
 told, 
 The words that she heard of the river of old. 
 And, each ripple a song and each dimple a 
 
 gem, 
 The waters repeated the message to them — 
 
MESSAGES OF THE WATERS 5 1 
 
 That kindness of each to the other would give 
 To offspring best traits of each other and live 
 In habitudes high of childhood, to tell 
 Their wooing was wisdom, their mating was 
 
 well. 
 Prenatal inclining to goodness, thus given ! 
 Bestowing, ere breath, the impulse for heaven! 
 
 And later with infancy smiling they came ; 
 And followed another who listened to name 
 The father and mother breathed forth in their 
 
 joy 
 
 And raised, at their bidding, to brow of 
 
 the boy 
 Bright drops of the rivulet's musical wave, 
 To honor the message those waters once 
 
 gave. 
 Then, looking in faith to the blue of the sky, 
 Each reverently prayed to the Gracious on 
 
 high ; 
 And the birds and the zephyrs united in song 
 With voice of the waters that caroled along — 
 A song that was prayer for and thanks for 
 
 the joy 
 
52 MESSAGES OF THE WATERS. 
 
 Prefigured in crystal drops, there, for the boy. 
 And Mountain Monadnock, beholding the 
 
 rite. 
 In sweetness and majesty glowed with delight. 
 
 III. 
 
 Tl THERE singing to mountains its reson- 
 ^ * ant song 
 
 A brook from a beechen grove caroled 
 along, 
 
 In chime with the robins, reflecting their 
 bowers, 
 
 Inspiringthe sunbeams to sweeten the flowers, 
 
 And rippling in time of the march of the 
 hours 
 
 Of a morning the best that the skies could 
 attune 
 
 And send from Elysium to gladden a June — 
 
 There fresh from the meads where the butter- 
 cups grew. 
 
 There free as the birds from the bloom fields 
 that flew. 
 
MESSAGES OF THE WATERS 53 
 
 There joyously singing child songs that he 
 
 knew, 
 There charming as nature, and artless and 
 
 true. 
 There bright on the morn of that June day 
 
 of joy, 
 There, blithe with the breath of his blisses, a 
 
 boy, 
 Impelled by the pulses prophetic of man, 
 In step with the waves of the rivulet ran. 
 Then, halting in rapture, delighted to scan 
 The waves of the beautiful streamlet that 
 
 sang 
 Until with the carol the distances rang, 
 He tarried, entranced and held in high 
 
 mood. 
 To muse on the song of the musical flood ! 
 
 And this was the song that the rivulet sung 
 
 With its liquid lip and its silver tongue : 
 
 " In the freedom of childhood, O childhood, 
 
 rejoice ; 
 Here's health to thy being and charm to thy 
 
 voice ! 
 
54 MESSAGES OF THE WATERS 
 
 The simple things l©ve thou, as loving them 
 
 now ; 
 The angels love these, and ever love thou. 
 Wouldst be like the eagle ? the rather the 
 
 dove be ; 
 The lilies, the robins, the blue sky above thee, 
 Love these and be like them and angels will 
 
 love thee, 
 While birds and the zephyrs shall make it 
 
 their choice 
 To copy in carols the charm of thy voice. 
 
 "If wisdom be thine and if virtue attend 
 
 thee 
 The blessings of heaven the Gracious shall 
 
 send thee, 
 Commanding the best of His host to defend 
 
 thee. 
 Bright songsters entrancing their high songs 
 
 to sing thee, 
 Swift argosies gems from the far isles to 
 
 bring thee, 
 And airs the rare odors of east clime to wing 
 
 thee. 
 
MESSAGES OF THE WATERS 5$ 
 
 O pure as the breath of the flowers of the 
 wildwood, 
 
 Forever be true to the dreams of thy child- 
 hood ! 
 
 And angels and good men shall ever rejoice 
 
 In the health of thy being and charm of thy 
 voice." 
 
 And this was the song that the rivulet sung 
 With its liquid lip and its silver tongue. 
 And mountains responsive the cadences gave 
 To zephyrs that, charmed with the song of 
 
 the wave, 
 The melodies far through the distances told 
 To angels who came with their tunefulest 
 
 gold, 
 The angels who listen attentive in heaven 
 For singing to mortals by rivulets given. 
 And catching the numbers they hasten where 
 
 gleam 
 The resonant waves of the musical stream. 
 And study its music to heighten the worth 
 Of songs they have learned in the land of 
 
 their birth. 
 
56 MESSAGES OF THE WATERS 
 
 And, trying the measures in chime with the 
 
 lay 
 The robins are singing in praise of the day, 
 They chant the blent music for cheer unto men 
 And soar a^ay singing to heaven again. 
 
 Of excellent birth was the boy by the wave 
 That joy to the hours of the June morning 
 
 gave. 
 Again there he listened, and this was the 
 
 song 
 The waters were chanting that sparkled 
 
 along : 
 " Who love thee will tell thee of words that I 
 
 said 
 When hither good angels their sauntering led, 
 And tell thee, bright one of the fortunate 
 
 birth. 
 What greatly shall heighten thy joy and thy 
 
 worth 
 And make thy good fortune a blessing to 
 
 earth — 
 A story they learned from pages they read 
 Till deep of its meaning their spirits had fed, 
 
MESSAGES OF THE WA'JEKS 57 
 
 His Story whose sacrifice charms away fears, 
 And brightens the glory of all of the years ! " 
 
 '' That story, ye waters, my father has told 
 And bade me to prize it more precious than 
 
 gold — 
 The sheep and the shepherds at night on the 
 
 plains. 
 The angels high chanting their heavenly 
 
 strains, 
 The child in the manger, the men from afar, 
 And that beautiful, beautiful, wonderful 
 
 star!" 
 
 " O pure as the breath of the flowers of the 
 wildwood, 
 
 Love ever the idyl that came to thy child- 
 hood ! 
 
 And cherish the dreaming it gave unto thee. 
 
 For fancies of childhood, though fancies they 
 be, 
 
 Have truth from that country away over sea. 
 
 Bright dreams of pure childhood, ideals from 
 heaven! 
 
58 MESSAGES OF THE WATERS 
 
 The brightest of blessings that morials are 
 
 given ! 
 O pure as the breath of the flowers of the 
 
 wildwood, 
 Keep sacred the idyl that came to thy child- 
 hood. 
 High born as thou art, thine heritage prize, 
 As steward of blessings bestowed from the 
 
 skies. 
 O given from heaven that excellent worth 
 The instincts and temper of fortunate birth, 
 Not vain of thy goodness, help those who 
 
 have less, 
 And be thine ambition to live but to bless. 
 Lift up the downfallen and lead to that One 
 Who knoweth how sadly some lives are begun, 
 Who pities their erring and knoweth each 
 
 frame 
 And points from their woes to the power of 
 
 His name." 
 
 The words of the brook to the boy by the 
 
 wave 
 Awake to the wisdom its resonance gave 
 
PETITION 59 
 
 Were heard and remembered by angels on 
 
 high 
 And chanted to sweeten the songs of the sky ! 
 There, greeting the glad one whose June day 
 
 of joy 
 Was bright with the hope and the bliss of a 
 
 boy, 
 There, sweet in the dawn of some June day 
 
 of heaven, 
 Shall angels enchant him with canticles given 
 Where singing to mountains its resonant song 
 A brook from a beechen grove caroled along ! 
 
 PETITION. 
 
 /^ GOD, the griefs I cannot tell 
 ^-^ Give me the grace to bear, 
 
 And grant, O Lord, the faith to feel 
 1 have a Father's care ; 
 
6o PETITION 
 
 The faith of patience that can wait 
 
 Till providences prove 
 That things which seemed unkindest fate 
 
 Were evidence of love ; 
 
 The faith to see Thy gracious hand 
 In each untoward event. 
 
 And all 'tis hard to understand 
 Believe in mercy sent ; 
 
 The faith to see through storms arise 
 A waving wealth of grain, 
 
 Which, ripened by benignant skies, 
 Shall all the storms explain. 
 
 O God, the griefs I may not tell 
 Help me in silence bear. 
 
 And grant, Lord, the laith to feel 
 1 have a Father's care. 
 
DAY-BREAK. 
 
 A T last along the eastern sky 
 ^ The glimmerings of morn, 
 
 To end in radiance of joy 
 
 A night of doubt and scorn ! 
 
 Diead night — it was a winter long ! 
 
 And cold with winds of fate, 
 That still, through all their fiendish song, 
 
 Were hot with ire of hate 
 
 And live with imps, whose interludes 
 Chimed with the airs, to tell 
 
 The rancor of infernal feuds — 
 Fit minstrelsy of hell ! 
 
 But now the birds with carols high 
 
 Charm all Doubt's fiends away, 
 
 And crimsons now the eastern sky, 
 To hint a coming day 
 
62 BLESSINGS FOR THE HELPFUL 
 
 That shall through all its hours remain 
 Unvexed by doubt and scorn, 
 
 And in the full of noon retain 
 
 The newness of the morn ! 
 
 A day whose evening shall proclaim 
 That brighter dawning waits. 
 
 Fulfillment of the sunset flame, 
 At the celestial gates ! 
 
 BLESSINGS FOR THE HELPFUL. 
 
 f^^ GOD friend, if every one observed 
 ^^ The mandate to be kind, 
 If all were courteous as thyself, 
 
 And helpfully inclined, 
 How bright a scene this earth would be, 
 
 How light life's burdens prove ; 
 How blithe, along life's rugged road, 
 
 Would pilgrims singing move ! 
 
" O BEAUTIFUL VISION " 6^ 
 
 The joyousness of sparkling streams 
 
 Would bless life's desert drear ; 
 And birds would sing, and flowers and fruit 
 
 With fragrance fill the air ! 
 There is no overestimate 
 
 Of kindness to our kind, 
 And brightest stars will bless the man 
 
 To helpful ways inclined ! 
 
 "O BEAUTIFUL VISION." 
 
 r^ BEAUTIFUL vision! that Harmony 
 ^^ came 
 
 And sang until Hatred and Anger grew tame, 
 Forgetting forever their longing for blood, 
 And learning of Gentleness how to be good ! 
 And Sloth was converted and longed for 
 
 employ, 
 While Envy and Slander forgot to annoy, 
 And toilers, contented and singing for joy, 
 Were glad of the hardness ihey had to endure. 
 That fitted for triumph and made it secure ! 
 
64 '' O BEAUIIFUI. vision" 
 
 And angels were consiann from heaven to 
 
 earth 
 With garlands for Labor and jewels for 
 
 Worth. 
 Proud Science, grown humble, endeavored to 
 
 learn 
 Mechanics from insects and music frum burn, 
 And artisans spurning their much boasted 
 
 skill, 
 Saw structure in cobwebs and might in a 
 
 rill ! 
 Then Greed grew repentant and gave up his 
 
 pelf, 
 The warrior, learning to conquer himself, 
 Rejoiced in the thought that at last he was 
 
 brave. 
 And despots relented and ceased to enslave; 
 While all of the cruel, forsaking their trade. 
 And honest in tears for the havoc they made. 
 Sought only to better the world they had rent, 
 And proved by right living their wish to 
 
 repent. 
 
 Yet, angel of vision, nor Harmony can. 
 Nor any high excellence native with man, 
 
"O BEAUTIFUL VISION" 65 
 
 Ennoble mankind to the goodness like this 
 That breathes in thy song of the splendors of 
 
 bliss ! 
 Go heighten thy numbers and sing unto 
 
 earth 
 The charm of His being, the glow of His 
 
 worth, 
 Whose sacrifice only can give unto men 
 The fact of the fancy entrancing thy ken ! 
 
 Thou wonderful One by the prophets 
 
 foretold, 
 Thou Christ of the sages and singers of old, 
 O hasten the dawn of the time without tears, 
 The blessed, the golden, the beautiful years, 
 When Doubt shall be banished and all of his 
 
 fears. 
 When Love from his exile shall come to his 
 
 throne. 
 And Peace shall be regnant and warring 
 
 unknown; 
 When men shall thirst only for waters of 
 
 truth 
 
66 " O BEAUTIFUL VISION " 
 
 And, drinking, discover the fountain of youth, 
 And even those destined to sin from their 
 
 birth 
 Shall wake unto goodness and sing in the 
 
 earth. 
 Where deserts, rejoicing, shall blossom and 
 
 yield 
 Abundance to equal the long cultured field ! 
 O hasten, Thou Gracious, the time without 
 
 tears, 
 The blessed, the golden, the beautiful years, 
 When every one gladly shall copy Thy worth 
 And the splendors of bliss shall dawn on the 
 
 earth! 
 
CONTRAST 
 
 111. 
 
CLARE. 
 
 A RAVEN folds his wings 
 Where wild the river sings 
 A deep, unceasing dirge ; 
 And, chiming with the surge, 
 And sadder than the song, 
 The bird, the whole day long, 
 Cries forth from pines that sigh 
 Beneath November's sky ! 
 Yet vain the chant, how vain 
 The whole commingled strain, 
 To give a full relief, 
 Or even lessen grief, 
 When over loved ones slain. 
 Bereaved hearts complain 
 That woman false should prove 
 To constancy of love. 
 In vain the pine trees sigh. 
 And bird and river try 
 To tell their blessings fled 
 Who mourn their Roderick dead. 
 For he such joy had given, 
 To them he seemed from heaven. 
 
70 
 
 CLARE 
 
 But came a fateful day 
 To sweep their hopes away ! 
 Protecting angels ! spare 
 The earth from more like Clare, 
 Who lit, to quench, the fires 
 Of love's supreme desires. 
 Joyed o'er the fading glow. 
 Laid then the altar low. 
 And gloried in the guilt 
 To wreck the temple built 
 Of peace, by hope, above 
 The silver shrine of love. 
 And these in ruin say 
 How sad that fateful day. 
 Betrothed from her own choice. 
 To make his heart rejoice 
 Who faithfully and well 
 Had loved, by message fell 
 Clare put his joy to rout 
 And ruthless blotted out 
 The star that makes men glad 
 And, failing, drives them mad. 
 
 At middle of the night, 
 
 When hope had borne such blight 
 
CLARE 
 
 71 
 
 'Twere midnight were it noon, 
 
 November were it June ! 
 
 Doubt's night, when 'gainst despair, 
 
 Worst fiend of all that are, 
 
 The lover long had striven, 
 
 At midnight, demon-driven — 
 
 He knew not what he did ! 
 
 Blame him ? O Heaven forbid ! 
 
 And Heaven their hearts sustain 
 
 Who mourn their Roderick slain. 
 
 And yet they bravely keep 
 
 Life's course while still they weep. 
 
 And braver than to live, 
 
 The sorrowing ones forgive 
 
 The cruelty of art 
 
 That broke a lover's heart 
 
 And drove him to the deed 
 
 For which their hearts must bleed 
 
 Throughout the desert years, 
 
 And they shed bitter tears 
 
 O'er one with sweetest worth 
 
 That ever perfumed earth, 
 
 O'er one whom traitor gave 
 
 To an untimely grave. 
 
CLARE 
 
 So of this sadness voiceful surge 
 
 Of river sang, and so the dirge 
 
 Of pines, and all the winds that blew, 
 
 Told what no yeoman was but knew, 
 
 No dullest vision but could see 
 
 Was useless here more witchery. 
 
 Yet here, where seem the rocks in tears 
 
 And giant oaks to thrill with fears, 
 
 The artful Clare dissembles pain 
 
 Of grieving love o'er lover slain, 
 
 Till some repenting scorn they gave, 
 
 Of feigning Clare her pardon crave. 
 
 And speak in tones that fall like rain 
 
 On thirsty herbs of fevered plain ! 
 
 The hint of wish to fare away 
 
 They gently chide, and press to stay, 
 
 And beg a frequent friendly word 
 
 By postman fleet or carrier bird. 
 
 Then, flushing fine from their caress 
 
 Who pray celestial graciousness 
 
 The grief-rent heart of Clare to bless, 
 
 The^queen of arts that did not fail 
 
 Goes forth to quest in other vale ! 
 
 How many there her arts reward 
 The song were weighted to record. 
 
CLARE 
 
 73 
 
 Yet many 'twas, and there, of all 
 Entranced, but one too brave to fall. 
 This Donald was, blithe, wise and strong, 
 From land of heather and of song — 
 So gallant, unobtrusive, good, 
 'Twere naught to read the noble blood 
 Descended from some hardy clan 
 Whose valor back to Wallace ran, 
 And blended, in the days of eld. 
 With might the glorious Bruces held. 
 Discerning Scot, as Scots are born. 
 With inner sight to ken and warn, 
 He read her arts and read to scorn, 
 Aud tossed a calm, derisive " nay," 
 And said, as needless 'twere to say, 
 " Fair one, withhold the huntsman's horn, 
 Nor urge thy steed the chase forlorn. 
 Although thine arrows oft have slain, 
 To speed them here again were vain. 
 Till easier game thine eyes shall see 
 Before thee, queen of archery ! " 
 
 Defeated once, but hopeful still, 
 The artful is victorious till. 
 
74 CLARE 
 
 Returning where her course begun, 
 Art wins sgain where erst it won. 
 Inbreathing, from the airs that fleet 
 And from the souls her arts defeat, 
 New qualities of woman's power 
 To add to her abundant dower. 
 Audacious grows the conquering Clare, 
 Till, daring sacred precincts where 
 The ashes loved of Roderick sleep. 
 And bowed bereavement comes to weep, 
 She startles from affection's prayer 
 The kin and comrades faithful there — 
 Yet artful so they near believe 
 Her artfulness, that would deceive 
 Almost the angels of the skies, 
 So saintly seem her sophistries ! 
 Assuming role of mourner, too, 
 Who sorrows more than others do. 
 She comes in tears and tearful goes, 
 Returns in tears and plants a rose, 
 And tarries oft in practice there, 
 To learn the art to feign a prayer ? 
 
 Thus once from dawn to evening star, 
 When stranger fared who came from far. 
 
CLARE 
 
 75 
 
 From England's coast, in quest of fame, 
 From England's coast, with Albion's 
 
 name. 
 Though great his English consequence 
 And all sufficient for defence 
 Against most pleasures aimed to try 
 To swerve from his endeavors high, 
 It was not proof against the Clare 
 Discovered thus by Albion there, 
 A lovely grief alone at prayer ! 
 
 If power there be in woman's smiles. 
 How thrice bewitching are the wiles 
 Of woman tremulous with fears. 
 Of woman grieving unto tears. 
 And charming if the grief sincere, 
 Her sorrow feigned more cause for fear, 
 When greater than the true appear 
 The acted sigh, and look, and tear. 
 
 Tell not the story, though 'tis brief, 
 Of Albion won by woman's grief, 
 
76 CLARE 
 
 So fully won that those who warned 
 
 He heeded not till charmer scorned. 
 
 Tell not the tale, though briefly said, 
 
 Of Albion loving, Albion dead, 
 
 Self-slain because refused by Clare, 
 
 The charming grief he found at prayer.. 
 
 How great the woes of woman due 
 
 At Roderick's grave and Albion's, too ! 
 
 At hint of day she weeps by one, 
 
 By other with the setting sun ! 
 
 But yonder, poised on buoyant wings. 
 
 An angel messenger, who sings : 
 
 " Fair one and false, inconstant Clare, 
 
 'Twere ill for one fromi upper air 
 
 For once a woman's mind to taint 
 
 With words that any vices paint 
 
 To which her cruelties have driven 
 
 Good men whose virtues, sweet to heaven, 
 
 Bloomed fragrant on the airs of earth 
 
 With odors of celestial worth ! 
 
 And who shall tell the griefs that crazed 
 
 Till calmest minds erratic blazed, 
 
 Then sank forever in the night 
 
 Of deepest hopelessness of blight ! 
 
 Or who describe ihe crimson tide 
 
 Where love, defeated, rashly died ! 
 
CLARE 77 
 
 Although the busy following years 
 Of triumphs won through causing tears, 
 May for the moment thrust aside 
 Remembrance of the first who died 
 To whom, in plighting troth, she lied, 
 Not long doth Clare forget, I ween. 
 The color of the tragic scene 
 When he went out a darkened way. 
 Not even Clare forgets that day — 
 Not even Clare, where'er she stray. 
 Not even Clare doth long forget 
 The sadness of the sun that set 
 When first a victim of her slight 
 Rushed, wild despairing, into night ! 
 
 *' But that dark night shall have a morn, 
 
 O Clare, who didst his pleading scorn, 
 
 A morn when thou from night shall see 
 
 His spirit in felicity, 
 
 High mated in that country where 
 
 No one like thee shall ever dare, 
 
 O fair, inconstant, cruel Clare ! 
 
 *' Forgiven by his gracious kin 
 Thy keenest cruelty of sin, 
 
78 CLARE 
 
 Straight from his death, all unoppressed, 
 
 Thou faredst forth on other quest, 
 
 To win again, again to prove 
 
 Thy sure inconstancy of love. 
 
 And now, although in pride arrayed 
 
 And flushing from achievements made, 
 
 Thou comest to dissemble here 
 
 The power to shed a truthful tear. 
 
 And try the feat of feigning, Clare, 
 
 The awe and agony, of prayer, 
 
 To aid thee sorrowing love to feign, 
 
 That should another lover gain 
 
 For thee to crush, to see his pain ! 
 
 Then thou wouldst drink his being up 
 
 And toss aside the broken cup 
 
 That was a faithful lover's self, 
 
 As but the pence of beggar's pelf, 
 
 And forth to other conquest fare, 
 
 Inconstant and insatiate Clare ! 
 
 Responsive to thy nature's call, 
 
 Here Albion gave to thee his all. 
 
 Drank thou his soul to thy delight, 
 
 And all his power, to give thee might. 
 
 Drank thou with that high ecstasy 
 
 That speaks a woman's liberty ; 
 
 And then, the consummation done, 
 
CLARE 79 
 
 Thou, cruel, fair, inconstant one, 
 With might he gave didst giver slay, 
 And say to all his pleadings nay — 
 Thy victor soul to steel didst turn 
 And Albion from thy presence spurn ; 
 And alternated back to prayer, 
 Still other souls to charm and snare ! 
 Nor wouldst thou rest until thine arts 
 Had snared and drunk a thousand hearts, 
 That each increased the art of Clare 
 By thousand fold of power to snare, 
 And all the kingliest of the earth. 
 Mistaking artfulness for worth. 
 Should rave in eloquence of praise 
 Of thine enrapturing ways, 
 Or cringe, meek suppliants for thy smiles, 
 And, for them rivals by thy wiles. 
 Should die: in duels for thine hand 
 Till rashness reddened every land ! 
 With airs to sigh a deep refrain 
 And stars in tears above the slain 
 That cumbered every plain 
 From northmost to Antarctic main, 
 And mighty angels trembling o'er 
 The prodigality of gore 
 From Orient to western shore, 
 
8o CLARE 
 
 And saints, forgetting bliss on high, 
 To shudder with the peaceful sky — 
 This, this, O Clare, were unto thee 
 The acme of felicity ! 
 
 " But thou shalt never capture more, 
 
 Thy day of conquest now is o'er ! 
 
 'Tis mine, fair one, the word to speak 
 
 That, spoken, must life's tenure break. 
 
 To some that word is but a boon ; 
 
 Yet unto most it comes too soon. 
 
 But seem it soon, or seem it late, 
 
 Or mean it boon, or mean it fate. 
 
 Or seem it just, or seem it fell. 
 
 When missioned here, that word I tell ; 
 
 For I, fair one, am Azrael. 
 
 And here that word as dart I send 
 
 Thine artful cruelty to end ! " 
 
 The listener speechless, quivering stood. 
 Then, reeling, staggered toward the flood. 
 The spurning waves soon cast ashore. 
 And fishers, finding, pitying bore 
 
CLARE 5t 
 
 To lonely glen and buried there, 
 
 Where meagre marble reads of Clare ! 
 
 There weird the pensive pine trees sigh 
 
 Beneath the gray November sky, 
 
 And raven comes on sombre wings 
 
 And gruesome to the river sings, 
 
 That, chanting sad and ceaseless strain^ 
 
 Bears burden to the distant main 
 
 Of love that perfidy hath slain. 
 
 And, mournful whispering with the dirge, 
 
 Distinct above the river's surge. 
 
 And sigh of pine and note of bird, 
 
 The spirit of a voice is heard : 
 
 " O maiden fair ^ do thou be true, 
 Or thou shalt long thy falseness rue I 
 O woman false, beware, beware ! 
 Repent thy ways, give heed to Clare ! " 
 
 O who shall tell the damning guilt 
 Of her who wrecks ideal built — 
 By her desired, by her inspired — 
 By lover by her wishes fired. 
 Than this there is no greater crime 
 In all the round? of troubled time, 
 Beneath the wide-beholding sun — 
 Who murders love, hath murder done \ 
 
INTERLUDE. 
 
 O ye compelled to be 
 
 Acquaint with perfidy 
 
 Till ye might think that Clare 
 
 Was type of all the fair, 
 
 Come where the roses rare, 
 
 And clover blooming there, 
 
 Shed forth upon the air 
 
 The story of a love 
 
 Whose fragrance cheers above 
 
 The breath of sweetest June 
 
 Of Summer's boon ! 
 
 LILLIAN. 
 
 Where sweet a shining river 
 
 Flows singing to the sea 
 
 And purls with charming cadence 
 
 Where smiling landscapes be, 
 
 Gemmed bright with pleasant mansions, 
 That in perspective seem 
 
LILLIAN S^ 
 
 The counterpart of castles 
 
 That fill youth's brightest dream- 
 There, sweet within the valley, 
 
 In other days a scene 
 That fills with choicest fragrance 
 
 The years that intervene ! 
 
 And for that scene the valley 
 
 A finer verdure spreads 
 When, cheering after winter, 
 
 The May sun radiance sheds. 
 And brighter flame and crimson 
 
 And lovelier dun and gold 
 The hardy mountain beeches 
 
 And valley maples hold. 
 When frost and autumn sunshine 
 
 Their chemistry have done, 
 In glorious completion 
 
 Of work the spring begun. 
 
 Dear vale of Metawampe ! 
 
 Sweet by the sunrise shore 
 
84 LILLIAN 
 
 Of thy majestic river, 
 
 Delightful evermore, 
 An arbor was where Lillian, 
 
 Who Leon promise made 
 But later wrecked the plighting, 
 
 By unwise kindred swayed, 
 Returned, at last, repentant, 
 
 To bid his hope relive, 
 And there so bravely humble. 
 
 Knelt asking him forgive. 
 
 And quick above the sadness 
 
 That darkened weary years 
 And weighted him with sorrow 
 
 Exceeding words and tears, 
 There broke serenest radiance 
 
 That ever augured day, 
 Or woke a heart to courage, 
 
 Or lit a wanderer's way. 
 
 With gentle hand. 
 In fairyland, 
 To thoughts sublime she led him'; 
 
LILLIAN 85 
 
 With grandest views, 
 
 And nectar dews, 
 And heavenly fruitage, fed him ; 
 
 From field and sky 
 
 And mountain high, 
 Inspiring lessons read him ; 
 
 With tender art, 
 
 From her true heart, 
 A sincere promise said him, 
 
 Naming a day, 
 
 A month away, 
 A happy day to wed him. 
 
 That good day came 
 With sweetest fiame 
 
 The Orient ever lighted, 
 To signalize 
 The golden ties 
 
 Of loving hearts united ! 
 Day sweet with airs 
 That banished cares 
 
 And to high thoughts incited ; 
 Day spanned with blue, 
 The whole day through ! 
 
86 LILLIAN 
 
 As if all wrongs were righted 
 And sang the larlc 
 Till all birds dark 
 
 Had flown from earth affrighted ! 
 
 The honeymoon 
 Could not end soon 
 
 Of two so nobly mated, 
 
 But still would shine 
 Were skies benign, 
 
 Or if to grief storms fated. 
 
 Their love kept new, 
 For each soul grew ; 
 
 And each the other aided 
 
 Right things to know 
 To help each grow. 
 
 And love's rose never faded ! 
 
 Sweet vale of Metawampe ! 
 
 Therein, since that dear day, 
 
LILLIAN 87 
 
 Auspicious time for trysting 
 
 The silver nights of May. 
 
 For, then, from favoring Heaven, 
 Swift where the lovers wait. 
 
 Thrilled with the thoughts surpassing 
 All else however great, 
 
 Fly ministrants commissioned 
 
 To utter words that save 
 From cowardice the lover 
 
 And make the maiden brave. 
 And when the pledge is spoken 
 
 To crown love's high emprise, 
 They soar from Metawampe, 
 
 To tell the waiting skies ! 
 
IDYLS OF FREEDOM 
 
 IV. 
 
THE GREAT SACRIFICE, 
 
 O STARS, what history 
 It has been yours to see 
 Enacted here, -since m^n, 
 Crown of creation's plan, 
 His wanderings began — 
 Since to his pristine joy 
 He added an alloy 
 That forth a rover sent 
 Him, fired with discontent. 
 Say since, with Eden lost. 
 The fateful bounds he crossed, 
 How dear his straying cost ! 
 Still, while in wretched plight, 
 He was not hopeless quite. 
 Nor rayless was his night. 
 
 Stars that have kindly shone 
 On paths his feet have gone- 
 Than downward, let us hope. 
 Onward more, and up — 
 
THE GREAT SACRIFICE 
 
 Aid Still his wish and quest 
 For truth, and peace and rest. 
 Still from the blue above 
 Shine where he wars to prove 
 His patriotic love, 
 And, dying, asks you tell 
 The ages that he fell 
 To foil the tyrant's hand 
 And bless his native land. 
 And tell, as tell ye must, 
 O stars, for stars are just, 
 Prom what great sacrifice 
 -AH others do arise. 
 Tell what, foreseen, inspired. 
 And what, accomplished, fired, 
 The patriotic heart to live 
 Por liberty and give 
 His life to make men free. 
 And aid, O stars, to see 
 That highest liberty. 
 •Oives equal weight of care, 
 Gives unto each his share 
 Of burdens all must bear ; 
 That liberty, if boon, 
 Used wrongly, cometh soon 
 To license, that is not 
 
THE GREAT SACRIFICE 93^ 
 
 True liberty, but blot 
 On the historic page, 
 A hindrance to the age. 
 
 This life, this sacrifice, 
 O stars, from which arise 
 The heavenly blessings given 
 And hope of more in heaven — 
 This life of hope for man, 
 Ye saw as it began. 
 Ye saw its teeming day, 
 O stars, and sunset ray. 
 And deathly chill of night, 
 And hint at last of light. 
 Ye saw the glorious morn 
 Of grace and peace adorn 
 The mountain heights of time 
 And shine to every clime, 
 To make all life sublime ! 
 A star 'twas guided them 
 Who fared to Bethlehem ; 
 And at cerulean poise 
 It sentineled their joys. 
 As o'er the Savior born, 
 
«>94 THE GREAT SACRIFICE 
 
 Rejoicing till the morn, 
 They mused on what should be 
 His wondrous history. 
 Stars gave the warning dream 
 Of Herod's hellish scheme 
 And guided, then, the flight 
 To Egypt through the night. 
 And o'er the child returned 
 The stars in gladness burned. 
 
 The stars rejoiced the boy 
 And study gave and joy, 
 As through the years he grew 
 "To all the ages knew — 
 Till wondering sages gazed 
 -Adoring and amazed. 
 Stars cheered the Christ who prayed 
 In lonely mountain glade. 
 And sang their joy to see 
 The helpful ministry 
 •Of Him of Galilee. 
 And when his followers slept 
 Ye stars in pity wept ; 
 -And, weeping, wondered ye 
 
THE GREAT SACRIFICE 95 
 
 At the sublimity 
 Of sad Gethsemane ! 
 And when at Calvary 
 The sun refused to shine, 
 Your stellar beams were sign 
 That Christ, the slain, should rise, 
 Completed sacrifice. 
 Triumphant to the skies ! 
 
 Ye stars that wondering saw 
 His answer to the law 
 Who for the sinful died 
 And poured the precious tide 
 Of His great life, to give 
 The sinful chance to live — 
 Ye stars who heard the word 
 Sublimest ever heard, 
 That Jesus at His death 
 Spoke with His dying breath, 
 To say the work was done, 
 The victory was won— 
 From that sublimity, 
 That matchless agony. 
 All greatness doth proceed. 
 
96 AMERICA 
 
 Thence every noble deed, 
 Thence all unselfishness, 
 Thence every pulse to bless 
 That helps the patriot die, 
 Without the question why, 
 For home and liberty. 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 /^^N days and deeds sublime 
 
 ^-^ Tl at gem this western clime^ 
 
 O stars of Freedom, shine, 
 
 And shed your beams benign 
 
 Where Concord bridge was won, 
 
 And rustic Lexington — 
 
 And Bunker Hill declared. 
 
 And Bennington, how fared 
 
 The foes of liberty 
 
 Who warred against the free. 
 
 Shine where the great and good 
 With high solicitude, 
 
AMERICA 97 
 
 In meekness knelt to pray 
 To Heaven to drive away 
 The foreign foes and give 
 The country chance to live. 
 How humble and how^ great, 
 How fit to found a state, 
 Was he who knelt that day, 
 At Valley Forge, to pray ! 
 And may his .land remain 
 The place of all good gain 
 And Freedom's own domain, 
 The home and resting place 
 Of bravery and of grace, 
 Of greatness and all worth — 
 The paradise of earth ! 
 
 Though truth the charm will break. 
 Still best the truth to speak. 
 Here, where 'twas general boast 
 That this was Freedom's coast. 
 Were human beings chained, 
 While Selfishness explained 
 That slavery was right. 
 And those who saw the plight 
 That Liberty was in, 
 
98 AMERICA 
 
 By league with such a sin, 
 And dared rebuke the wrong, 
 That still was growing strong, 
 While grew the nation weak 
 To danger that 'twould break, 
 Were stigmatized as fools 
 Beyond discretion's rules. 
 But in these later days, 
 The scoffers dare the praise 
 That radicals were wise 
 And fit to canonize 
 For the sublimest skies ! 
 
 How cursed this sin the land 
 We came to understand 
 When Donelson was need 
 And Fredericksburg, and greed 
 Of rough hewn havoc made 
 On Sherman's master raid 
 Of horse and infantry 
 From inland to the sea ! 
 And need to prove our liege 
 To liberty was siege 
 Of Vicksburg and the shock 
 Of " Chickamauga's Rock," 
 
AMERICA 99 
 
 Grim Thomas of the build 
 To name for Caesar's guild. 
 So Grierson's reckless dash, 
 Discreel in that 'twas rash ; 
 And Farragut in the shrouds, 
 And Hooker in the clouds, 
 And Ellsworth first to die, 
 And gallant Lyon — why 
 So early sent to heaven ! 
 And why McPherson given, 
 And thousands, thousands more ! 
 How runneth up the score, 
 Through scenes ot din and gore, 
 To Gettysburg, sublime 
 Through all the years of time ! 
 
 What tongue can tell, what pen, 
 
 The fate of prisoned men 
 
 Who, doomed to the ill 
 
 Of Andersonville, 
 
 Learned the tortures that spell 
 
 A new name for hell ! 
 
 And who can count their tears 
 
 And warring hopes and fears, 
 
 Who mourned their loved ones there. 
 
lOO AMERICA 
 
 Or slain in conflict, where, 
 Though glorious thus to fall 
 For country and for all 
 That's dear, and true, and high, 
 'Twas fearful, still, to die ! 
 And hard was it to know 
 That with the slaughter, slow 
 Moved the cause of right 
 And darkened down the night 
 Of doubt, with scarce a ray 
 To hint of coming day. 
 But rose a lustrous star 
 When he led on the war 
 Whose calm, courageous way 
 Of hero in affray. 
 Assured, at once, a morn. 
 And was the sign to warn 
 The foemen of defeat 
 Their cause was sure to meet. 
 
 Now once and three times three. 
 
 At Appomattox tree. 
 
 Give every one to all 
 
 Who heeded Freedom's call 
 
 And marched with Grant, to hew 
 
AMERICA lOI 
 
 The hard-fought journey through 
 The Wilderness, to see 
 The dawn of victory. 
 
 But who shall sing to tell 
 
 Their deeds who fought and fell 
 
 In all the hard canipaigns, 
 
 Who equal epic strains 
 
 For those whose crimson stains 
 
 Full thrice a hundred plains, 
 
 -And reddens bloody years, 
 
 Which make them high compeers 
 
 Of all the brave that Time 
 
 Hath brought to wreath and rhyme! 
 
 Let gratitude be given 
 In joyful song to Heaven ; 
 Aye, shout and sing again, 
 Good citizens, that when 
 The nation was in dole 
 A man of prophet soul 
 Was sent to meet our need. 
 
I02 AMERICA 
 
 A man inspired to read 
 The meaning ot the times 
 The country for its crimes 
 Was going through, — this man, 
 With genius fit to plan 
 And brave enough to act. 
 Made thus his vision fact, 
 Wielding the nation's might 
 For mercy and the right. 
 And breaking, at a stroke, 
 The bondman's galling yoke. 
 
 Good stars, your radiance shed 
 
 On paths where Lincoln led 
 
 Through all those years of strife 
 
 Up to the higher life 
 
 Of Freedom and of peace 
 
 And all the good increase 
 
 That makes these states combined 
 
 The envy of mankind ! 
 
IN OTHER LANDS. 
 
 /^^ OOD stars, what prophet ken 
 ^-^ Had Aztec Juarez, when 
 For liberty he fought 
 Against the foe who sought 
 To bind with Spanish chain 
 The Mexican in train 
 Of papal Rome, to slave 
 Subservient where the brave 
 Descendants of the sun 
 Their long career had run. 
 Free as the airs that fanned 
 Their lovely native land. 
 Well ye rejoiced, to see 
 Where foreign tyranny 
 Had reigned, superior rise. 
 To crown the high emprise 
 Of Juarez with success 
 And so mankind to bless, 
 The fair republic bright 
 With promise for the right 
 Of patriots everywhere. 
 For each hath right to share 
 Each country of the free. 
 Wherever dwelleth he. 
 
I04 IN OTHER LANDS 
 
 Still Juarez only did 
 
 As high examples bid — 
 
 Through thirty years of blood, 
 
 When that brave Swede withstood 
 
 1 he papal powers combined, 
 
 Who sought on all mankind 
 
 To place the Latin yoke — 
 
 Gustavus brave, who broke 
 
 The bondage long and sore 
 
 For northmen evermore. 
 
 He drove the power of Rome 
 
 From church, and court, and home, 
 
 Wherein the people sing. 
 
 To crown Gustavus king ! 
 
 And cadence of the song 
 
 The southland doth prolong. 
 
 Where well Emmanuel strove 
 
 And Garibaldi's love 
 
 Was given for Italy, 
 
 Mankind and liberty. 
 
 And Magyars, whose Kossuth 
 For country and for truth 
 Was sacrifice, may raise 
 To favoring Heaven their praise 
 
IN OTHER LANDS IO5 
 
 For his grand life, and twine 
 The wreath and pray the Nine 
 To sing to full import 
 That high in Austrian court 
 The Magyars reign, whom erst 
 The tyrant Austrians cursed ! 
 
 How bright the stars that look 
 On Scotland's famous brook 
 And bid the ages learn 
 That Bruce of Bannockburn 
 Was Caledonia's pride ! 
 Shine where her sons defied, 
 At Flodden field, the foe 
 That laid her banner low. 
 Yet in defeat were strong 
 To height of grandest song. 
 Beam kind on every glen 
 Known to his foot and ken. 
 That kingliest of men, 
 The Wallace of the Eld, 
 Whom, then, ye stars beheld 
 And sang him worthy praise 
 Of all the future days. 
 
Io6 IN OIHER LANDS 
 
 Shine, stars, with beams benign 
 On scene of deeds divine, 
 Where Winkelried the brave. 
 His Switzerland to save. 
 Threw on the Austrian steel 
 His mighty rage of zeal 
 And struck in death the blow 
 To break the serried foe. 
 His followers, raining blows 
 Where grand his courage rose, 
 Thus turned the tide and day 
 Against the cruel fray 
 Of those who sought t' enslave 
 The Switzer patriots brave, 
 Whom God's own mountains gave 
 That love of liberty 
 That fits men to be free. 
 
 And evermore shall ye, 
 Bright stars of liberty, 
 Rejoice to shine upon 
 
 The field where Cromwell won. 
 
 At Marston Moor, the day 
 
 And stemmed the tyrant's sway. 
 
IN OTHER LANDS I07 
 
 Till full at Naseby, then, 
 Where royal Charles again 
 Marshaled his hosts, the band 
 Of patriots dared withstand 
 The legions of the king ; 
 And all the years shall sing, 
 To let ihe future know. 
 They routed him to show 
 That foreign he, and foe. 
 Though native born — for he 
 Loved not true liberty. 
 
 The truth alone gives rate, 
 
 The citizen's estate, 
 
 A country and a place, 
 
 Fraternity and race. 
 
 Alien to truth, a man 
 
 Nor country hath, nor clan, 
 
 Though castled well and crowned 
 
 With choicest treasures found 
 
 In late or olden times. 
 
 Through west or Orient climes. 
 
 Aye, foreign he, and poor, 
 
 And sick, though mount and moor 
 
Io8 IN OTHER LANDS 
 
 Afford their gold for wealth 
 And myrrhs to bless his health. 
 Not loving truth, then he 
 Shall poor and homeless be, 
 Though heraldry declare 
 That ancient lineage rare 
 Makes him the rightful heir 
 To every land and throne, 
 And though the people own 
 The purple of his power, 
 Rejoicing in his dower 
 And seeking bards to sing 
 Him bishop, lord and king ! 
 But rhyme they ne'er so well, 
 The bards who seek to tell 
 An untruth in a song 
 And sing success of wrong — 
 Some Croesus toast for wealth 
 That came alone by stealth, 
 And hymn the tyrant's might 
 As given by heavenly right — 
 Will sing but meagre praise. 
 And, faltering in the lays 
 Whose labored lines confess 
 They sing from selfishness. 
 
IN OTHER LANDS 
 
 109 
 
 They'll rave to furious stress 
 Of prayer to Power to bless, 
 When Truth alone gives theme 
 Befitting poet's dream. 
 
 Yet strange contrasts arise, 
 
 Some royal mysteries — 
 
 A king to virtue known, 
 
 Yet who could make his throne. 
 
 By tricks that must belong 
 
 The hellish arts among. 
 
 The anchor of a wrong 
 
 That should have scourge of'song. 
 
 The very rage of rhyme, 
 
 To blast to future time ! 
 
 The Charles whom Cromwell fought. 
 
 True to his home, was naught 
 
 But false to native land 
 
 Though promising, his hand 
 
 Withheld the needed good 
 
 He pledged to those who stood 
 
 For liberty and right. 
 
 For these did Cromwell fight ; 
 
 For these he overthrew 
 
no IN OTHER LANDS 
 
 The Stuart king and slew 
 The false one of the throne. 
 And by the act was shown 
 In England evermore — 
 A truth the wide world o'er, 
 And as the sunlight plain — 
 The right of kings to reign, 
 Original in heaven. 
 Is to the governed given, 
 By them to be transferred. 
 In their installing word. 
 To those their love shall say 
 The kingly traits display. 
 Would Cromwell had remained, 
 Preventing crime thai stained 
 Bright Albion's sovran name. 
 By other Charles who came. 
 The Charles who ever wrought 
 Injustice and who thought 
 Of self alone, and sought 
 Delight in splendid sin 
 And seemed possessed to win. 
 By elegance of shame, 
 An ever florid fame 
 Unto his royal name ! 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 T F ill the theme befits 
 
 To sirg of Austerlitz, 
 If vain to weep a while 
 By lone Helena's isle, 
 If cold, to some, such theme 
 For patriotic dream. 
 In that the Corsican 
 Fought not for fellow-man. 
 But strove alone for fame 
 For his imperial name — 
 O would some one as rod 
 Of an avenging God, 
 Arise, who, sent by wrath 
 Of Heaven, should cleave a path 
 Through Tyranny's domains 
 To far Siberia's plains. 
 And break the prison bars 
 Of victims of the czars ! 
 
 The cause demands a man 
 Serener, grander than 
 
TI2 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA 
 
 The dreaded Corsican ? 
 
 May one with like strong hand 
 
 And genius to command, 
 
 Arise — some leader born 
 
 Under the star of morn, 
 
 Some one whose shining worth 
 
 Shall win the best of earth 
 
 To highest hope and prayer 
 
 For Heaven's especial care, 
 
 i\nd win good gallant men 
 
 To join his flag, whose ken 
 
 At once, from far, can see 
 
 The day of victory — 
 
 The men with might to win 
 
 The boon their faith hath seen. 
 
 O, chieftain of the skies ! 
 And Freedom's cause, arise, 
 And, panoplied for wars. 
 Go guided by the stars 
 That favoring shone 
 Above Napoleon, 
 In that sublime advance 
 From his admiring France 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA' II3 
 
 That made the Russias quake 
 And all the kingdoms shake ! 
 Stars, they, to aid to see 
 The way to victory ; 
 Stars that would lustrous burn, 
 To light the grand return 
 Of victors from the fray 
 Where justice won the day. 
 
 Not so the march when Ney 
 
 Fared on the frozen way, 
 
 To cheer his leader back 
 
 Along the winter track. 
 
 With remnant of his host, 
 
 To mourn the prize they lost, 
 
 A city burned to ban 
 
 The mighty Corsican. 
 
 Him Russia dared not fight. 
 
 But put to sorry plight 
 
 By burning roof and bread 
 
 That should have housed and fed 
 
 The host, who froze or starved 
 
 By thousands ere they carved. 
 
 With Bonaparte and Ney 
 
114 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA 
 
 To France their pilgrim way. 
 But those engaged 
 In warring waged 
 To break the dungeon bars 
 Of prisoned worth, ye stars 
 Would good birds send to feed, 
 Unto their fullest need. 
 With manna of the Heaven 
 That bread hath ever given 
 To those who well have striven, 
 Through hard or favored fight. 
 In furtherance of right. 
 
 If Moscow burned again 
 'Twould light the prisoned men 
 From durance hard to flee 
 To hope and liberty, 
 The men whose dungeon bars 
 Are legacy of czars, 
 Kings whose oppression is 
 Acme of tyrannies ! 
 Commanding those away 
 In bondage sore to stay, 
 Whose glances have told. 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA II5 
 
 Or a breath over bold, 
 
 That the fancies they hold 
 
 Slight hindrances are 
 
 To the wish of a czar ! 
 
 Dooming banishment 
 
 For the mildest intent 
 
 Of the patriot heart ! 
 
 O tyrant ! what art 
 
 Of what spirit malign 
 
 Of the demons is thine ! 
 
 How strange that czars should ban 
 
 Those whom but easy plan 
 
 Of right would lead to own 
 
 Allegiance to the throne 
 
 And give their life to prove 
 
 Their loyalty of love 
 
 And interest in the fame 
 
 Of Alexander's name ! 
 
 But heeding not the cries 
 
 That move the pitying skies 
 
 And make the nations weep, 
 
 These Tartar tyrants keep 
 
 Their hand of tyranny 
 
 Against all liberty. 
 
 O, when Sarmatia's brave 
 With Kosciusko gave 
 
H6 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA 
 
 Most valorous blows to save 
 Their country from the grave 
 That fierce tyrannic might 
 Had dug for Truth and Right, 
 Say, Heaven of justice, say, 
 Why did Thy vengeance stay 
 From smiting down her foes ! 
 O! when to Thee arose 
 Their patriotic cry, 
 Why, Heaven of pity, why 
 Should fail thy mighty arm 
 To shield their land from harm ! 
 
 And fell Sarmatia, then ! 
 
 And her heroic men, 
 
 Whose patriotic worth 
 
 Had brightened all the earth. 
 
 Were graced with exiles' chains 
 
 And scourged across the plains 
 
 Afar to foreign strand. 
 
 And there were given brand 
 
 Befitting felon band ; 
 
 Aye. there were given rate 
 
 Meaner than murderer's fate, 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA I I? 
 
 Whose hands the blood had spilt 
 Of parricidal guilt ! 
 Yet, there, the scorn of slaves, 
 Do these Sarmatian braves 
 Display, despite the gloom 
 Of their Siberian doom, 
 The rare sweet quality 
 Of fitness to be free ! 
 
 Stay, Angel of the Book 
 
 Of Record, stay, and look ! 
 
 For this is far from all 
 
 Of Poland's direful thrall 
 
 From Russia's might, whose whole 
 
 Of tyrant dirt and dole 
 
 Hath hue of Herod's crime, 
 
 And seems of Nero's time ! 
 
 Fair women sent to pine 
 
 In dark and noisome mine ! 
 
 Or sent with felon's chain 
 
 To walk the weary plain 
 
 Where mercy hath no rate. 
 
 Where hunger hath no sate 
 
Il8 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA 
 
 But cup and crust of hate ! 
 Or hath she darker fate 
 That is so worse than death 
 It is not given breath ! 
 
 Nor is this all, for there, 
 
 Condemned to exile's fare, 
 
 The patriot's children know 
 
 Maturity of woe ! 
 
 O angel ! and ye stars ! 
 
 Enduring still the czars ! 
 
 What Herod edict this ! 
 
 Ukase to blot the bliss 
 
 From childhood's heart of joy, 
 
 That never knew alloy 
 
 Of ill, nor thought to stray 
 
 In sin's forbidden way, 
 
 And so most rightfully 
 
 The heir of liberty, 
 
 Entitled to be free 
 
 As nature's minstrelsy 
 
 Of zephyrs, birds, and rills 
 
 That sing to freedom's hills ! 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA I I9 
 
 Read not the story through, 
 Read not of Finn or Jew, 
 Read not, though each have felt 
 The blows the tyrants dealt 
 To emphasize ttieir hate 
 Of freedom's good estate. 
 Enough the monster crime 
 That chilled Sarmatia's clime, 
 Enough what Poland braved 
 Ere Russian hate enslaved, 
 Enough the robber rout 
 That blotted Poland out ! 
 Enough is one page 
 Of Tyranny's rage ! 
 Enough is the brief 
 Of exiles in grief ! 
 
 O ye who are given, 
 As natives of heaven, 
 The quality high 
 Of grace of the sky, 
 That maketh secure 
 Where none could endure 
 Devoid of the dower 
 Of heavenly power, 
 
I20 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA 
 
 Could even the might 
 Of sons of the light 
 Fit an angel to bear, 
 If, gifted so rare. 
 An angel should dare, 
 To con the dread score 
 Of pillage and gore 
 That causes the wail 
 From Vistula's vale ! 
 Or ponder the woes 
 The banished one knows 
 In Tyranny's chains 
 On far away plains ! 
 
 O ! the desolate strand 
 Where Hate turns the land 
 Into barrenest sand ! 
 While Doubt freezes there 
 Till even the air 
 Is chill with despair 
 And dread as the breath 
 Of the spectre of death ! 
 
 In spite of the chill 
 That freezes to kill. 
 There facile ones fly 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA 121 
 
 From nethermost sky, 
 
 Who, artful in eye 
 
 And skillful to lie, 
 
 From seeming at first 
 
 On mission accurst 
 
 From regions the worst, 
 
 Soon look to repent 
 
 Of evil intent, 
 
 And, merciful bent. 
 
 From sinister gleams 
 
 Quick vary to beams 
 
 Of a tv^inkling that seems 
 
 The hopefulest ray 
 
 Of the splendors of day ! 
 
 And the lustre that glints 
 
 Deceives as the hints 
 
 That rosiest morn 
 
 The waste shall adorn. 
 
 Where no morning can come 
 
 To the castaway's gloom ! 
 
 There swift from below, 
 
 There joyful at woe. 
 
 There charmed with a moan, 
 
T22 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA 
 
 There rapt o'er a groan, 
 There others have flown, 
 Who missioned of Night, 
 Who buoyant at blight, 
 Who sportive at chains 
 Harsh clanking o'er plains 
 Where Tyranny reigns, 
 Sing gleeful at cries 
 Of anguish that rise 
 From the victims of hate 
 In the bondage of fate. 
 Begirt with their dead 
 And trembling with dread 
 Of still deeper gloom 
 To darken their doom ! 
 But have harpers of hell 
 The numbers to tell 
 The gloom of a cell 
 Of Saghalien, where dwell 
 The good and the brave 
 Whom tyrants enslave. 
 Or the murk of the mines 
 Where hope never shines. 
 No, never, through years 
 Of the saltest of tears ! 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA I23 
 
 Read not the story through ; 
 One page alone will do ! 
 One page alone of dread, 
 One page with terror red, 
 One page of hot tears shed, 
 One page of that despair 
 Which fades the eye and hair 
 Saps e'en the power to cry. 
 Gives a hot thirst to die. 
 Kills the smile on the face, 
 Blots the last look of grace, 
 Blots the last mental trace, 
 Stills the hand from device, 
 Chills the blood into ice, 
 And the nerves into bone. 
 And the heart into stone ! 
 
 O what chieftain would dare 
 In the lists with despair, 
 Though grandly he fare 
 From tournaments where 
 The giants, aflame 
 With the passion for fame, 
 Contend in the fray 
 Of chivalry's day ! 
 Aye, came he away 
 
124 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA 
 
 Unhewn and complete 
 
 And longing to meet 
 
 Far fiercer than those 
 
 He found to oppose, 
 
 What victor would dare 
 
 To cope with despair ? 
 
 How dead the heart, how dead, 
 
 With hope forever fled ! 
 
 And yet 'tis so quick 
 
 That it trembles at tick 
 
 Of the seconds of time 
 
 And the pulsing of rhyme 
 
 Of the song that keeps tune 
 
 With the cadence of June ! 
 
 Though despairing till dead. 
 
 Yet it trembles with dread 
 
 At the tenderest song 
 
 That is wafted along 
 
 Over clover and corn 
 
 On the breath of the morn ! 
 
 And it quivers and quakes 
 
 At a zephyr that shakes 
 
 But as gently as jar 
 
 Of the beams of a star 
 
 That in rose-scented hours, 
 
 Bright glancing in bowers. 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA 125 
 
 Responds to the flowers 
 That smile, to invite 
 The cheer of the light 
 Of the beauty of heaven, 
 In stellar beams given. 
 
 Aye, there's never a heart 
 That's alive to all art 
 And is beating in chime 
 With nature's sweet rhyme 
 But if conquered by fear 
 Would shudder to hear 
 Even music of waves 
 Of the streamlet that laves 
 The myrtle banks sweet 
 Where fairy ones meet, 
 In elfin land grove, 
 To warble of love ! 
 Aye, held by despair, 
 No victim could bear 
 Breath from elfin land, where 
 But a breath of the air 
 
 Of the earth would displace 
 The planets that trace 
 
126 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA 
 
 Round the fairy land sun 
 The courses they run. 
 What then is the fate 
 Of the victims of hate 
 Of the despot who reigns 
 O'er the Russian domains, 
 And his victims doth cast 
 To the pitiless blast 
 Of northland, or wills 
 That in Caucasus hills 
 They shall dig till they die, 
 And dishonored shall lie 
 In a far away grave 
 Too mean for a slave ! 
 
 O Heaven ! whose lurid star 
 Maddens to might and war, 
 When thou shalt undertake 
 The Russian yoke to break, 
 Say, Heaven of justice, say. 
 What blood can ever pay 
 The wrong to Poland done 
 By those whose ravage won 
 By Vistula's fair tide, 
 That, often crimson-dyed 
 From noblest patriot slain. 
 Goes moaning to the main ! 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA I 27 
 
 Ye thrice ten thousand dead, 
 Whose blood the Cossacks shed 
 Tn homes of Prap^a fair, 
 How eloquent your prayer — 
 A plea to Heaven to aid 
 A land in ruin laid ! 
 And emphasis of gore 
 Hath this from thousands more 
 Where Warsaw's reddened plains, 
 That Freedom's ichor stains, 
 And Cracow's crimsoned sod, 
 Still wail their plaints to God ! 
 Fair Wanda's mountain moans, 
 Responsive to the groans, 
 And Dnieper makes her cry. 
 For Dniester to reply ; 
 And from the Don to San, 
 Rebuking Russian ban. 
 Blood red the waters gleam 
 Of each Sarmatian stream ! 
 Whichever way it track. 
 To Baltic or the Black, 
 Sad, sad each river flows, 
 A requiem of woes, 
 From Poland to the seas, 
 That chant her miseries ! 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY. 
 
 /^~^N Ural hils it came, 
 
 ^-^ A tongue of prophet flame, 
 A burning thither sent 
 From out the firmament 
 Of justice, love and truth, 
 And everlasting youth. 
 And thus the fervid voice : 
 " O tyrant ! have thy choice 
 To turn to righteousness 
 And teach thy hands to bless — 
 Repent the despot's crime, 
 Worst cruelty of time, 
 Or take the doom that falls 
 Thereon — the mighty walls 
 Of tyranny thrown down, 
 The dimmed and wrested crown 
 Of monarchs in defeat. 
 With conscience to repeat 
 To all the winds that fleet — 
 ' The tyrant's fate is meet ! ' " 
 Thus, while the bright night heard, 
 Swift flew the warning word 
 And sought by westward star 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY 129 
 
 The palace of the czar. 
 There, round the festive board, 
 His nobles and their lord 
 Glowed o'er their ruddy wine, 
 In toast of new design 
 To make the exiles weep 
 And keep the world asleep. 
 
 But. stay, why trembles he? 
 What vision doth he see ? 
 No ghost in festive hall, 
 No hand upon the wall, 
 To make his pleasures pall. 
 No fiend his eyes detect ; 
 No peasant to suspect. 
 Tried ministers attend, 
 Full foot and horse defend 
 The throne and citadel 
 Where czar and kindred dwell. 
 And, cordonned round the land, 
 Grim guarding legions stand ! 
 Yet pales the czar with dread ! 
 He thinks assassins tread. 
 
130 VISION AND PROPHECY 
 
 With blade athirst and blast, 
 To drink his blood and cast, 
 In atoms to the sky, 
 The halls of tyranny ! 
 
 The voice from Ural hills 
 
 Flamed forth hath gone in thrills 
 
 Of swiftest breezes blown 
 
 Along the northern zone, 
 
 And many leagues afar 
 
 In palace of the czar 
 
 With trembling terror fills. 
 
 To consternation chills, 
 
 The ruler of the land. 
 
 And not invention planned 
 
 To keep supreme at home 
 
 His reign, if foes should come, — 
 
 And not ambitious schemes 
 
 That give him pleasant dreams 
 
 Of other lands to gain. 
 
 Of widening domain 
 
 To great increase of dower. 
 
 To boundlessness of power — 
 
 Not one of these, nor all. 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY I31 
 
 Can break the chilling thrall, 
 And drive the fiends away 
 That on his spirit prey ! 
 
 And evermore shall cling 
 
 Those fiends, and tear and sting, 
 
 And for new vigor drink 
 
 The ichor, black as ink, 
 
 Of veins of tyranny 
 
 That fed on liberty 
 
 Through many, many years, 
 
 Drank river floods of tears 
 
 And jeered a thousand sneers 
 
 At patriotic sighs 
 
 Drawn by a czar's emprise ! 
 
 After the burning spoke 
 And round the echoes woke, 
 Responsive to the doom 
 The flame announced to come,- 
 Soft blazed the voice of truth. 
 In tones of tender ruth 
 Of love's sweet firmament, 
 A message eastward sent 
 
132 VISION AND PROPHECY 
 
 By one appearing there 
 From out the upper air, 
 Who seemed to high emprise 
 Commissioned by the skies, 
 He wore that loveliness 
 That doth high worth express 
 In angel or in men 
 Of angel mien and ken. 
 
 Away on zephyrs borne, 
 He came at tinge of morn 
 To bleak Siberian strand. 
 The northern demonland! 
 Tliere imps abound in air 
 Who give their constant care 
 That when the tyrants die 
 Some sprite of ill shall fly 
 To convoy them to hell, 
 Reporting there how well 
 They have performed the work 
 The monarch of the murk 
 Assigns, and thus, how far 
 They have obeyed the czar. 
 From spirit of the sky 
 '1 he imps affrighted fly. 
 
VISION AND PROPHECV' I33 
 
 And well escaped his might, 
 They pause them in their flight 
 And hiss, in powerless ire, 
 Their breath of spiteful fire, 
 That freezes on the air. 
 And now they backward fare. 
 To see if stranger sprite 
 Shall think him to alight. 
 And soon he turns to fly, 
 That bright one of the sky. 
 His plumage to begrime, 
 Down through the jagged rime 
 Of rock where guardsmen pace, 
 To keep the exile race. 
 And this the word of cheer 
 The toilers, listening hear : 
 "Good patience, still, ye braves 
 Condemned to fate of slaves ! 
 Against Oppression's throne. 
 The Mighty makes His own 
 The cause of those who, long 
 In suffering, still are strong." 
 Glad on his herald tongue 
 The delvers hopeful hung. 
 Yet scarce could angel's cheer 
 Dispel an exile's fear. 
 
134 VISION AND PROPHECY 
 
 Forth then the voice of flame ; 
 
 And soon a lovelier came — 
 
 An angel with this word : 
 
 " The message ye have heard 
 
 Was told to me in heaven, 
 
 Whence all good gifts are given. 
 
 So strange 'twas thought 'twould seem^ 
 
 So fanciful the dream, 
 
 Another one was sent 
 
 Attesting the intent 
 
 Of powers above to bless 
 
 With buoyance in duress 
 
 And exodus from chains 
 
 To Freedom's own domains." 
 
 The angel ceased and drew 
 
 A stylus forth of hue 
 
 Of the cerulean blue 
 
 And ruby stone and white, 
 
 And straight began to write 
 
 Upon the prison mine 
 
 With deep cut lustrous sign. 
 
 No words the delving said. 
 
 But breathless watched and read 
 
 And forth the angel fled. 
 
VISION AND PR(TPHECY 135 
 
 Came then a third to say : 
 " Toilers, ye have seen to-day 
 Two of the seven prized most 
 Of the selectest host 
 Of all the armies bright 
 Bannered in realms of light. 
 Aflame with brightest star, 
 That host ten thousand are, 
 With place of honor given 
 The thousand best of heaven, 
 They who the most have blessed, 
 As heaven's accounts attest, 
 1 he sorrowing ones of earth, 
 And honored most true worth. 
 And those a hundred best 
 Have placed before the rest. 
 The hundred giving seven 
 Most pleasing unto Heaven 
 The highest, foremost place 
 Of all the angel race. 
 " And, of this number, one 
 Is Uriel of the sun. 
 And Raphael gracious is 
 And given to ministries, 
 And most sublimities 
 
136 VISION AND PROPHECY 
 
 Hath missioned been to see, 
 And most of misery. 
 The first your boon to tell 
 Was flaming Uriel, 
 And Raphael who came 
 To witness Uriel's flame 
 And cheer with face benign 
 The delvers in this mine. 
 
 ** Led Israfil the throng 
 
 In that first Christmas song 
 
 That told the waiting earth 
 
 Of a Redeemer's birth. 
 
 And two of the seven 
 
 From out the weeping heaven 
 
 Flown sad, in sympathy 
 
 And wondering tears, to see 
 
 The dread sublimity 
 
 Of rugged Calvary, 
 
 Stayed sentinels and kept 
 
 The tomb where Jesus slept — 
 
 The loveliest of the sky, 
 
 Who gave himself to die. 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY 137 
 
 And their rejoicing eyes 
 Beheld the Savior rise 
 And saw the earliest ray 
 Of that first Easter day ! 
 
 '* As, in God's economies, 
 
 What once is true, forever is. 
 
 And truth for angels holds for men, 
 
 So, evermore, as when 
 
 To watching spirits came 
 
 The primal Easter flame. 
 
 The best of honors given 
 
 To man, before his heaven. 
 
 He wins who faithful waits 
 
 With Right through cruel fates. 
 
 Who bides with Worth through shame 
 
 Shall have a lustrous fame ; 
 
 With Christ through night of scorn, 
 
 The joy of Easter morn ! " 
 
 Know this, ye troubled, know 
 That in the hour of woe, 
 
138 VISION AND PROPHECY 
 
 Some angel waits above 
 Commissioned by the Love 
 Supreme, to fly and prove 
 . With blessings from the skies, 
 That He is kind and wise 
 And doth permit the stress, 
 To give Him chance to bless 
 And those who suffer, place 
 To struggle into grace 
 Of goodness and the dower 
 Of perfectness of power. 
 Whoso behaveth right. 
 Whatever be his plight ; 
 Whoever thinketh bright, 
 Important, happy thing 
 To say, or paint, or sing. 
 Hath influence from the sky. 
 And voice to ask him try 
 To make both fine and strong 
 The word, the tint, the song. 
 Who heeds the first, gains more 
 Of the celestial store 
 That gives uplift from trite 
 To new, from slough to height, 
 From weakness unto might. 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY 139; 
 
 From dryness, deadness, blight, 
 To bud, and leaf, and bloom, 
 That hint of Junes to come. 
 O gracious boundlessness 
 Of Heaven's power to bless ! 
 
 Seen or invisible. 
 
 As seemeth to ihem well, 
 
 The spirits come to tell 
 
 The words of wrath or love 
 
 That emanate above. 
 
 And, though alert to sounds 
 
 And sights that vexed their rounds, 
 
 The guardsmen of the mines. 
 
 Sworn to the czar's designs, 
 
 Saw not those whose emprise 
 
 Was threatening from the skies. 
 
 Though came they bright as stars 
 
 To speak the doom of czars. 
 
 But read the guards in mine 
 
 The deeply-written sign, 
 
 And sent a message far 
 
 To citadel of czar. 
 
 And he to frenzy flew, 
 
 That quick to fury grew. 
 
140 VISION AND PROPHECY 
 
 Imperial mandate ^iven, 
 The royjil guards had striven 
 The writing^ to erase. 
 But none could yet efface 
 Indictment graven there 
 By one of upper air. 
 And livid in that mine 
 Fierce glistened still each line 
 *' Unless the czars repent 
 Before the firmament 
 And ris^ht the wrong 
 
 Their hate hath done so long^ 
 For Poland's cup of gall 
 
 The Russian throne must fall ! " 
 
 The czar a chemist sent, 
 Who with fierce caustics went, 
 To eat the message out 
 That so had put to rout 
 The pleasure of the czar, 
 And toiled from dawn to star 
 With fiery rust and bar. 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY I4I 
 
 Homeward the chemist flew, 
 And this the message true : 
 " No science can begin, 
 Nor skill, the race to win — 
 The words are burning in ! " 
 Some straying peasant heard 
 The courier's fateful word 
 Reported to the lord 
 Chief courtier of the king ; 
 And all the people sing, 
 And children join the din, 
 " The words are burning in / " 
 
 Again the man with bar 
 And rust to please the czar. 
 And tear the message out, 
 Of which the people shout. 
 And with his mission o'er. 
 Reports he as before : 
 " A span, a foot, a rod — 
 Swift science doth but plod. 
 The words do inward fly 
 As missioned from the sky ! 
 
1^42 VISION AND PROPHECY 
 
 In rage the monarch flew, 
 The alchemist he slew, 
 And sent another, still, 
 With threat to chain and kill. 
 Did he not burn or tear 
 That message of despair. 
 And w^ith him fared a guard 
 That no one should retard. 
 Nor scientist should flee, 
 If unsuccessful he. 
 Returned, he trembling said. 
 As forth the guardsmen led 
 Him, strongly held and bound. 
 To slay if faithless found ; 
 '' A foot, an ell, a rod — 
 The message writ of God 
 About a nation's sin 
 Is further burning i?i ! " 
 The guardsmen aim to fire ! 
 The monarch cries, '' Retire 
 With him in heavy chains 
 To wildest northern plains ! 
 The recreant's mocking breath 
 JMust not the ease of death ! " 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY 143 
 
 Fruitless the despot's plan 
 
 Of banishing the man. 
 
 Borne by the ready airs, 
 
 His message onward fares, 
 
 Through scenes of joy and dearth, 
 
 Around the peopled earth ! 
 
 Hill tells it unto fen, 
 
 The wilds to homes of men, 
 
 The mountain to the moor, 
 
 The robin at the door 
 
 Of cottage and of hall — 
 
 That broken soon the thrall 
 
 Of Russian slaves will be. 
 
 And joy of Liberty ! 
 
 And chant the brooks and birds 
 
 "The angel-written words 
 
 About a nation's sin 
 
 Are ever bur?iing in ! " 
 
 And other birds are singing 
 
 In every morn of winging, 
 
 In every moon of flying 
 
 For food for birdlings crying, 
 
 And eve of homeward hieing 
 
144 VISION AND PROPHECY 
 
 To nest, and rest, and love, 
 
 A message from above 
 
 Befitting lark or dove 
 
 To sing in all the earth : 
 
 " Man's greatest wealth, his worth, 
 
 His unearned plenty, dearth ; 
 
 His best of liberty. 
 
 Deserving to be free." 
 
 Still other birds that fly 
 And sing, they know not why, 
 Thus cheer, inspire and warn 
 At eve and happy morn ; 
 " Whatever first success, 
 What flatterers address. 
 How fondly love caress. 
 How praiseth selfishness 
 That hopes return, to bless, 
 Whatever is the stress 
 Of noyance that doth press. 
 War waged for wrong is wrong. 
 And weak and never strong. 
 And weak is war for might ; 
 But ever finds true knight 
 
A WARNING TO COLUMBIA 145 
 
 That stronp^ is war for right, 
 
 For God is in the fight ! 
 
 Though right should lose the fray, 
 
 And victory delay, 
 
 Yet surely comes the day 
 
 Of victory, to stay. 
 
 And show that right hath might ; 
 
 For God is in the fight ! " 
 
 A WARNING TO COLUMBIA, 
 
 T)UT briefly where it sung 
 
 The sentient glowing hung. 
 Then over seas it came, 
 The fearless warning flame, 
 And o'er Potomac's tide 
 In indignation cried. 
 As, eyeing halls of state, 
 Mid-air the burning sate, 
 Self-poised in conscious truth 
 And sense of lasting youth : 
 '* For shame, Columbia, shame ! 
 Bedimming thy bright name 
 
146 A WARNING TO COLUMBIA 
 
 By leaguing with the power 
 That claims by heavenly dower 
 Each individual soul 
 Of realm in his control, 
 With right to dominate, 
 Unto severest fate 
 Those bending not the knee 
 At nod of Tyranny ! 
 
 ^* Why dost thou promise, why, 
 That when to thee shall fly 
 Those fortunate to break 
 Their bondage and to take 
 Across the seas their way. 
 West guided by the ray 
 Of freedom, to thy land. 
 They shall be held for hand 
 Of czar, whose wrath they flee 
 To f]y in hope to thee ? 
 These sent to despot back, 
 To dungeon and to rack, 
 For holding but the thought 
 That ill the monarchs wrought 
 Who joyed to curse 
 With an oppression worse 
 
ORDEAL AND OUTCOME I47 
 
 Than the tyrannic crimes 
 Of old barbaric times ! 
 In league, Columbia, why. 
 With Russian tyranny ? " 
 
 In silence, then, the flame, 
 To hear if answer came 
 From out Columbian hall. 
 And, saying " Deaf to all. 
 And to thy past untrue ! " 
 1 he lustre, sighing, flew 
 To welcome of the blue, 
 That bent, sad questioning. 
 And bade the birds to sing, 
 And brooks — " Columbia, why 
 In league with tyranny ?" 
 
 ORDEAL AND OUTCOME. 
 
 r^ PATRIOTS, pure and strong, 
 
 ^^^ And waiting now so long, 
 
 And patiently, to see 
 
 The morn of liberty. 
 
 Wait on, for God doth wait ! 
 
148 ORDEAL AND OUTCOME 
 
 For Christ, when in the fate 
 O'er which all nature wept 
 And Heaven sad vigils kept, 
 His slayers could forgive, 
 And died that they might live. 
 He shed in death the tears 
 That permeate the years, 
 And ever plead with man 
 The beauty of the plan 
 Of giving bread for blows, 
 For thorn, the thornless rose 
 Of love, that sweeter grows 
 Through trials oft and sore. 
 That, wounded, o'er and o'er, 
 Doth from its fragrant store 
 The balm of good disburse, 
 And blessings breathe for curse. 
 
 To keep this code of heaven. 
 Ye patriots have forgiven, 
 In hope that kindness win 
 Who seventy times should sin. 
 But seven times that have striven 
 These foes of man and Heaven, 
 
ORDEAL AND OUTCOME 149 
 
 And by ten thousand times 
 Have multiplied their crimes. 
 And ye forgive and wait, 
 Enduring still your fate. 
 And Heaven impatient grows, 
 And, noting long the woes 
 Of Poland and of all 
 Within the Russian's thrall, 
 Will surely send a hand, 
 To write where tyrant band, 
 In revel o'er their wine, 
 Shall read and know the sign 
 Grim glistening on the wall. 
 That tyranny must fall ! 
 Aye, patience, may endure ; 
 But wrath deferred is sure. 
 And soon the man shall rise 
 To hear and heed the cries 
 Of victims of the czars. 
 And then, O waiting stars. 
 How will ye shout and sing 
 And call the birds to wing . 
 In swiftest flight, to tell 
 Wherever patriots dwell, 
 
ISO 
 
 ORDEAL AND OUTCOME 
 
 His name who conquered Tyranny 
 And set the exiles free, 
 And Poland's flag unfurled 
 To honor in the world. 
 
 Aye, God will heed the cries 
 
 Of Poland's agonies. 
 
 For, though His name is Love, 
 
 And His the carrier dove. 
 
 Yet His the eagle is, 
 
 And all the majesties 
 
 Of all the life of earth, 
 
 Since far creation's birth ! 
 
 He gave the tiger power, 
 
 And ocean monsters dower, 
 
 To lash the seas to rage 
 
 And mighty ships engage, 
 
 He taught the earth to quake, 
 
 And made the mountains shake. 
 
 'Twas He created light 
 
 And piled the Alpine height. 
 
 He set the rhythmic spheres 
 
 To cadence of the years 
 
 Of the eternity 
 
 He gave the right to be ! 
 
ORDEAL AND OUTCOME 151 
 
 His Christ of Olivet 
 And Galilee used, yet, 
 A scourge ; His Moses saw 
 The lightnings of the law 
 From Sinai blaze, to tell 
 That with Jehovah dwell 
 All powers, and it is well 
 With those alone who fear 
 Him, and in truth sincere. 
 Hold all His statutes dear. 
 Who live for righteousness, 
 And never to oppress. 
 And He, if stubborn prove 
 The czars to pleas of love, 
 Will call some iron man 
 To execute His plan, 
 To thunder forth His wrath 
 And plow with war a path 
 Through tyranny's domains 
 And break the exiles' chains, 
 And lead each patriot band 
 To home and native land. 
 
 And yet, protesting rhyme 
 Against the Russian crime, 
 
152 ORDEAL AND OUl COME 
 
 Fail not his worth to sing, 
 
 Who, once in Russia king. 
 
 Had righted much of wrong. 
 
 Had not the furious throng 
 
 Smote Alexander down 
 
 And set the Russian crown 
 
 Against the Polish cause 
 
 Of Liberty's good laws. 
 
 And Polish patriots see 
 
 A crime in anarchy. 
 
 No vengeance on their foes 
 
 Would they ; but thornless rose 
 
 And white, and every flower 
 
 Of Peace for those whose power 
 
 Hath been so long the ban 
 
 Of Poland and of raan ! 
 
 Unselfish in their grief, 
 
 These patriots seek relief 
 
 For all who feel 
 
 The tyrant's iron heel. 
 
 To people of the realm 
 
 They seek to give the helm 
 
 Of Russian power. 
 
 As rightful dower. 
 
 Nor charge they the rod 
 
 Of tyranny to God. 
 
A PILGRIMAGE OF CZARS 153 
 
 And spurn they the extremes 
 -Of the ill-visioned dreams 
 Of those anarchic fools 
 Whom wild unwisdom rules, 
 They of that base alloy 
 Which nerves men to destroy. 
 
 A PILGRIMAGE OF CZARS. 
 
 \\TlLh tyrants turn who make 
 ^^ Their chief delight to break 
 The patriotic heart, 
 And name their crime an art ! 
 Yet grant imagination scope, 
 And patience chance to hope 
 That czars be won to sense 
 Of need of penitence, 
 Or scourged until they see 
 How wrong the cruelty 
 That gives to Poland tears 
 And damns a thousand years ! 
 Should miracle be done, 
 The greatest under sun 
 
154 A PILGRIMAGE OF CZARS . 
 
 The visioned stars have seen, 
 And czars repentance mean — 
 Go, czars, by conscience sent, 
 " Go, honored to repent, 
 Go, with your burden bent, 
 Go any way ye must, 
 Go, if through thorns and dust ; 
 Go, if with heavy chains 
 Like exiles o'er the plains ! 
 Go, grateful that you may ; 
 Go, seek fit place to pray. 
 Go where the zephyrs say 
 That sigh from heaven's way ! 
 Go, foes of liberty. 
 And fall on suppliant knee 
 Where dust of Kracut is 
 'Mid Cracow's mysteries, 
 The first of Polish kings 
 The muse of history sings, 
 The Slavic chief of time 
 Ere czars had cursed his clime. 
 There, pleading not the claim 
 Of royalty or fame. 
 But only His good name 
 Who gave the one relief 
 That owned himself a thief — 
 
BY Kosciusko's dust 155 
 
 There tell the skies your sin, 
 Aware, as ye begin, 
 That Christ, the ever^kind, 
 With justice mild, consigned 
 To millstone and the sea 
 The unwept tyranny 
 Of Pharisees of old, 
 To whom ye likeness hold ! 
 Kneel, then, in Cracow,"where 
 The soul of Wanda fair 
 Doth frequent still the air 
 Above the hill that claims 
 Sweetest of Polish names. 
 And ask you there of Heaven 
 If czars can be forgiven ! 
 
 BY KOSCIUSKO'S DUST. 
 
 'T^HEN, with this pleading done, 
 
 If beams benignant sun. 
 Or if for you there shine 
 One ray of star benign. 
 Then seek another grave, 
 His place whom Heaven gave. 
 
156 BY Kosciusko's dust 
 
 To show to czars and earth 
 
 A Polish patriot's worth, 
 
 And sent to aid, in youth, 
 
 Columbia's cause of truth. 
 
 There, by this hero's rest. 
 
 See, if, with prayer addressed 
 
 The Heaven of Liberty, 
 
 Czars can forgiven be 
 
 Of Heaven and of the free ! 
 
 There hear from far the cry 
 
 Of those who hope, or try 
 
 To hope, before they die. 
 
 To see once more the home 
 
 From which dear memories come. 
 
 O ! memories that burn, 
 
 And into torments turn ! 
 
 How must the exiles yearn 
 
 For once to grasp the hand 
 
 •Of kindred in the land 
 
 Of their great leader's birth. 
 
 The dearest land of earth ! 
 
 O, cruel tyranny ! 
 
 That freemen may not see 
 
 For once the 'boyhood farm. 
 
 Sweet with the pet brook's charm ; 
 
BY KOSCIUSKO S DUST 157 
 
 For once the childhood cot, 
 For once the play-place grot, 
 For once the daisied mead. 
 For once two paths to lead, 
 As once, to trysting place 
 Of bravery and of grace ! 
 For once the grassy mound 
 That love's fair roses crowned ! 
 There's Linka's ashes lie. 
 Who had the choice to die 
 Or tell's the tyrant's spy, 
 When by His Highness bid, 
 Of patriot Pavel hid ! 
 
 And there's the outlook hill. 
 And there the near-by rill, 
 And there the other stream, 
 Whose unforgotten gleam 
 Inspired the boyhood dream 
 Of busy, stirring life. 
 Of joy in hardest strife, 
 Of earning high success 
 And coming home to bless. 
 With nobly won largess. 
 
158 BY Kosciusko's dust 
 
 The village where in joy 
 Erstwhile dwelt the boy ! 
 Instead, condemned to pine, 
 Imprisoned in a mine, 
 For that high quality 
 That fits men to be free ! 
 
 There, where the good man lies, 
 Best of the sanctities 
 Of the Sarmatian land, 
 There, tyrants, stand, 
 There, tyrants, kneel. 
 And well the honor feel ! 
 There, ye who give a slave 
 The right to choose his grave, 
 The felon, who atones, 
 With hempen halter, groans 
 He caused, the right to say 
 Where ye his bones shall lay — 
 There, by Kosciusko's dust. 
 Be honest once, and just ! 
 There, talk, repentant czars. 
 With conscience and the stars. 
 The eyeing stars, that see 
 What is sincerity, 
 
BY KOSCIUSKO S DUST 159 
 
 And will no fleeting mood 
 Of tears for years of blood ! 
 Tell stars and conscience why 
 In vain do freemen cry 
 To you for boon of serf, 
 For one green stretch of turf, 
 Where, from foreign strand 
 Sent back to native land — 
 Where, if not given breath 
 At home, they may at death 
 _Be sent to final rest. 
 To slumber unoppressed ! 
 
 Cannot endure the stars ? 
 Why, there's a place, ye czars, 
 Where stars do never shine, 
 And whence no royal line 
 Or peasant cometh back 
 By straight or devious track — 
 But onward still must fare 
 Whoever goeth there ! 
 And there's another, too, 
 IVhere stars are never due, 
 But lurid lightnings glare, 
 And demons rule the air ; 
 
l6o WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS 
 
 And hither none shall fare 
 That ever enter there ! 
 And there's another, still, 
 Of flowery plain and hill 
 Of Sion, blest abode 
 Of angels and of God ! 
 And of the saints who rise 
 F'rom earth's hard agonies 
 To freedom of the skies ! 
 But, untransformed by grace 
 To fitness for the place, 
 In heaven no tyrants live ; 
 For heavenly blisses give 
 Such influence that 'twere hell 
 For tyrants there to dwell. 
 
 WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS. 
 
 f\ VAIN, presuming stars, 
 ^-^ Why contradict the czars ! 
 For they have lived to see 
 Too much of history 
 To deign to a reply 
 When even Russians lie ! 
 
WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS l6l 
 
 Boast not your hosts in arms, 
 That give the world alarms. 
 For steel-clad giants are 
 But pigmies to a star. 
 Stars laugh at all your power 
 And point to Shinar's tower, 
 That wa<:, and Babylon, 
 That boasted to the sun 
 Of her Chaldean might ! 
 And held the world in fright, 
 And perished in a night ! 
 And but her ruins tell 
 Of Babylon that fell ! 
 
 And point the stars to king 
 Of whom but furies sing. 
 The Herod throned of yore. 
 But cursed forever more 
 In street and cloister lore. 
 
 From scanning these 
 Look back to Rameses, 
 
l62 WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS 
 
 Who and whose like gave tears 
 
 For twice two hundred years 
 
 To chosen sons of God. 
 
 And these condemned to plod, 
 
 Scourged by oppression's rod 
 
 That grew by gore, 
 
 These, through their bondage sore. 
 
 Upon God's promise fed, 
 
 Till, brave enough, they fled, 
 
 By visioned shepherd led. 
 
 And now the sea before 
 Withholds from freedom's shore, 
 And prisoning mountains stand, 
 To hold for Pharoah's hand. 
 But look ! the flood divides. 
 Heaven holds apart the tides ! 
 The fugitives pass through ; 
 Menephtah's hosts pursue. 
 But fierce returning waves 
 Whelm in their watery graves 
 Ruler, horsemen, all — 
 A wreck that hints the fall 
 Of the Egyptian throne, 
 O'er which, in warning moan, 
 
WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS 163 
 
 The ages sweep, to say 
 That tyrants pass away ! 
 
 Man's title to be free 
 
 Is writ in history. 
 
 And nature, too, decries 
 
 The despot's tyrannies. 
 
 In waking life of spring. 
 
 When glad the robins sing ; 
 
 In the persuasive breath 
 
 Of June from flowery heath ; 
 
 In airs that sweeten shade 
 
 Of pleasant wooded glade 
 
 And move the fairy ferns 
 
 To dance by merry burns ; 
 
 In storms around the peaks 
 
 Where fierce the thunder speaks ; 
 
 In chill November's gale 
 
 That sweeps the frosted vale ; 
 
 In Ocean's sullen roar 
 
 On Winter's icy shore — 
 
 In all her ministries. 
 
 The voice of nature is 
 
 Rebuke of tyrannies. 
 
164 WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS 
 
 In tender tones and mild 
 As plaintive voice of child, 
 In clarion peal, and strong 
 As burst of lyric song ; 
 Commanding, deep and slow 
 As centuries that flow 
 Through history 
 Toward eternity — 
 The olden warning word, 
 Repeated, now is heard 
 In all the upward trend 
 To Consummation's end ; 
 The word in every wind, 
 The word in every mind. 
 But yours, audacious czars. 
 Who contradict the stars — 
 Let ye my people go ! 
 Let ye the exiles go ! 
 

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