PS 3503 
 .E54 L3 
 1903 
 Copy 1 
 
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 Selected Poems from my Manuscript 
 
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 I BENIGNUS. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 ight, 
 
 190?, 
 
 by William Benignus. 
 
 
 
 
 
THE LIBRARY OF 
 CONGRESS, 
 
 Two Copies Received 
 
 MAR 23 1903 
 
 Copyright Entry 
 
 CLASS Oy XXc. No. 
 
 COPY B. 
 
 ® V ii [] c It b 
 
 meincm treucn (vveitnbe 
 
 Otto '^XCttCt, ^^^a)^ana, 
 
 iieluibmet. 
 
 i H) e I m 58 e it t g n u § 
 
 9Ulu ?)ort Gttt;, C[tent 1903. 
 
For Framing-.— Portrait of Edwin Markhain griveii by kind permission of 
 Messrs. McClure. Phillips & Co.. from their copykiohtko edition. 
 
 EDWIN MARKHAM. 
 
 '''It is the hour af innn: new Purposes, 
 
 Broad-shoultered, press against the world's slow gate; 
 And voices from the vast eternities 
 
 Still preach the soul's austere apostolete. 
 
 There is a new Sphynx watching by the road! 
 
 Its name is Labor, and the 7i<orld must hear anJ answer its dread Question . 
 
 All that we glory in was once a dream; 
 
 The IVorld- Wit I m^xchQS onward, gleam by gleam. 
 
 Only the Vision is real. 
 
 "The Man with the Hoe and other Poems," 'Lincoln and othei- Poeins." by 
 Edwin Markham; Publishers: Messrs. McCIun-, Phillips and Comi>any, New ^ ..rk 
 City, U. S. A.: price ot each book $1. 
 
 Supplement to ''Harmony and lenity", with covipiiments to the reader . 
 bv WILLIAM BEXIGNUS. 
 
aboPfofGommoiilqood! 
 
 "'V^, 
 
 Selected Poems from my Manuscript 
 
 u 
 
 gp>ffi@FiYiyRibY" 
 
 WILLIAM BENIQNUS. 
 
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 Copyriiilit, HW;!, by William Beniunu: 
 

 THE SONG. 
 
 I heard a Song ! Lo ! — its mate-chord rang 
 
 and sang in my inmost heart ! 
 It sang and sprang Hke a heaven-flame 
 
 to the Earth's remotest part I 
 The stone-hearts melted, became like clay 
 
 which the skillful sculptor kneads, 
 From Song as strong as the great (iod's Lcn'e 
 
 which Soul into Matter breathes. 
 The Fiends of Darkness, they hid themselves 
 
 in abysses of the Night ; 
 The Heavens opened and Angels came 
 
 to help me to bring the IJgJit. 
 
Thought* 
 
 Vvoxn the shore to the distance a pebble thrown stirs up the mirror 
 
 Of the slumbering lake, — circles rise and expand. 
 The Omnipotent stirs, the Centre, — momently circles 
 
 Bound up ringing, expand, sweep on in wave upon wave ; 
 And Eternity sings the echoing Songs of the Vastness, 
 
 Till, — so vast is its lake — , pulsing and pulsing along, 
 Old stars forming to new ones, the dimness changing to brightness. 
 
 All into quietness melts — Thought finding end in the Source. 
 ♦ ■ ■•■ ■ ♦ 
 
 Idea, 
 
 Bowed the head by the forceful, but flitting, evading reflection 
 Of a wandering thought, Man walks, tries to seize it in clearness. 
 Bending his Will to control, when lo! his mind's moving picture 
 Steps into life and takes soul. His eyes, upbrightening, are flashing 
 Forth the Power that builds and creates new things in reaction. 
 So the etherial tides, onwaving from orbit to orbit. 
 Rush with a surge and sigh to their strand,— the counteract flings 
 Back to their ocean them, birthlings, to pulse new force in the ebbing. 
 
 Niagara Falls* 
 
 Harmonies, so soft and strong, 
 Organ-peals and thunder-voices, 
 Capturmg, rapturing, mighty noises, — 
 Blending all things in one song-. 
 ^Harmonies, mellow and bright. 
 Of celestial modulation. 
 In their color-revelation, — 
 Blending all things in one light. 
 Lethargic, but sleeping not. 
 From the leap, the water slippeth, 
 Swingeth smoothly, hurrieth, sweepeth 
 Near two miles with ropes of froth. 
 Then, as from gun-barrel shot. 
 Rapids rage, the Whirlpool wrathed, 
 Till the water, smoothly bedded, 
 Oently flows to Sea, its God. 
 
 =i: * * 
 
 If we look at t/ic physical Universe <is one great magnet 
 wherein the laws of electricity are valid : "Parallel currents attract 
 each other, opposite currents repel each other, " we must find the 
 analogy in the spiritual Universe where the powers or energies 
 of the mind are converted into good and evil, and where in the 
 "world of thought", wherein the idea moves in waves, streams and 
 tides, the laws must control: "Parallel thought-currents attract 
 each other, opposite thought-currents repel each other*"'. 
 
 a 
 
Co-operation* 
 
 To the memory of Friedrich Riickert, author of the hymn "The Light" 
 
 „^cbcr )ei miv ncjcanct, "lilessed be each 
 
 ^cv brcnnt, Uiofur idj bvcunc, Who burns for what I burn, 
 
 ^ebcv, bev tnir liec^ecptct, IMessed whom I meet 
 
 ■^lut bcr 93Qt)n, mo idj rcnnc; The way, on which I run; 
 
 Scber fci miv aefcfliict, Each one be blessed, 
 
 %n bvt)d)t a\x\ anbevcr -tciiue, Thrasher on his own floor, 
 
 ^cber, bcv iiie mir licoicrtnet, Each whom I never met, 
 
 ^cn id) ticb' unb nid)t fennc." Whom I love and don't know." 
 
 At the same time a fraternal greeting to Mr. John Trei'or 
 London, the author of "My Quest for God", who says truly: 
 "The world is new every morning I" 
 
 L/^/if of Lights and Might of Mights, 
 
 Inexhaustible in powers 
 Like electric fluid that glides 
 
 Round etherial world-suns' showers, 
 How can I, with light so small, 
 Whilst I err and, stumbling, fall 
 Often yet, my eyes be raising 
 And your blinding rays be facing ? 
 
 Dare ? I dare ! The purified 
 
 "Jesus", "Healer of the sick", 
 "Comforter", "One with the Light", 
 
 "Friend of Men", to Men did speak: 
 "Henceforth do I call you friends 
 And not servants, for my ends; 
 What / heard from Father's kindness 
 You shall know, cured from your blindness." 
 
 The Omniscient Eye but sees. 
 
 X-ray like, thru globes' rough matter. 
 
 Gathers fluid facts like bees 
 
 (father sweets in summer- weather ; 
 
 Earth to Him a crystal-ball. 
 
 And the Universes all 
 
 His transparent "Laws of Beauty", 
 
 Made for all His Children's study. 
 
 Godward! Wrestle and evolve ! 
 
 Clear the way up, fighters brave. 
 And the beckoning riddles solve. 
 
 No more self's and flesh's slave! 
 Him, that is athirst, let come I 
 Spirit and the Bride say : "Come !" 
 IVe are inarching, fyif^g, going, 
 Where ''Life's Stream of Light'' is fioiving ! 
 
 4 
 
The Glorious Country » 
 
 Andrew Jackson on the H/h/r: 
 "That book is the rock on which our Kepubhc rests." 
 
 1. 
 ON THE HUDSON.* 
 
 "Those who see but one in all the changing manifoldness of 
 this universe, unto them belongs eternal truth, unto none else, unto 
 none else." — A message from the Ganges. 
 
 "All matter, organic and inorganic, is subject to conditions of 
 life and death."— Dr. Jagadis Chunder Bose, Professor of Science 
 at the University of Calcutta. 
 
 I ofttimes have stood on the banks of the fair 
 
 Swift Hudson and watched it flow on, 
 Watched changing of tides and the turbulence where 
 
 The washes from steamers outrun. 
 
 So vast was its bosom, so deep was its breast; 
 
 The shads and the herrings in shoals 
 Onjourneyed ; a sturgeon jumped, sudden-behest, 
 
 Flashed, sank where the deep water rolls. 
 The insects hummed softly ; the flower's sweet soul 
 
 Attracted a butterfly-guest ; 
 A kingfisher perched on a telegraph-pole. 
 
 Then circled and flew to its nest. 
 
 Up hill-meadows ; maples and butternut trees 
 And great elms were shadowing the road ; 
 
 Poor rock-land where, busily swarming, the bees 
 Collected the sumach-growth's good. 
 
 The stone-fence ran on where the wood with the oak 
 
 And hickory o'ershadowed the edge 
 Of converging farmlands that held in a nook 
 
 A wonderful strawberry-patch. 
 
 The mayflowers bloomed near the huck(le)berry-bush ; 
 
 The hon(ey)suckles greeted, so kind; 
 The springs under rocks in the peaceful noon's hush 
 
 (kished forth, thru the cresses to wind. 
 
 The wood-road up, orchards thru ; squirrels jumped up, 
 Scared ravens crowed, songbirds flew by, 
 
 Till, up the rock-shore, its high, cedar-crowned top 
 Gave sweep to the gratified eye. 
 
 ^) On the Hudson near Milton, suuth, 67 niile^ north ot New York Cit} 
 
The lake-broad expanse where the river onrills 
 Was shimmering, mirrorlike, far down ; 
 
 The blueing, east-bordering Connecticut Hills 
 
 Held, south-east, Mount Beacon's laked crown. 
 
 't was Nature reposing, yet Nature alive ; 
 
 't was still, yet full sounds moving by; 
 't was peaceful all over, yet all over strife 
 
 And over it all a blue sky. 
 
 Oh, tell me, which soul of the music, which chord 
 Pours, conquering, such harmony forth, 
 
 Moves Nature complex ? Oh, the magical word I — 
 "// moves by one Law of t/ie Lord!'' 
 
 \\. 
 THE EMBLEM. 
 
 One Law ! The All-Father, the Nea7'en/v Love 
 Sang out, — and the Universe trembled — , 
 
 "Speed, chosen one!" And from the light-shapes above 
 That are 'round His altar assembled 
 
 The Spirit of Freedom, an angel, a thought. 
 
 Swung out for its flight to the Earth from his God. 
 
 The stars whirled with more joy their garlanding rings 
 When this flyer, conquering, soared by them, 
 
 Hummed gladder their songs when the strokes of his wings 
 Their atmospheres stirred ; with a bright hem 
 
 These glowed and vibrated like rainbows in span. 
 
 Flashed thru by a "red, white and blue" stream of dawn. 
 
 The "Red, White and Blue!" With this melody sweet 
 
 The glad Earth spun on in its racing 
 When, dream-softly stepping, the Angel, so fleet. 
 
 The Earth-souls with greeting was gracing 
 And with a New T/toiight stirred Columbus' breast, 
 With thought-message sent by the God of Unrest. 
 
 A message which burned like a flame in his soul, 
 
 An eagle-soul, strong in its longing. 
 Not steadier turns to invisible pole 
 
 The needle magnetic, no thronging 
 Of restless sea-waves seeks so surely the strand 
 As he, the great battler, sook, found the New Luind. 
 
He opened your portals, my "Land of the Free!" 
 — My harp, strike a chord to him, pleasing-! — 
 
 He opened your portals ! From over the sea 
 Humanity's vast stream, unceasing, 
 
 Flowed in thru the gates of the promising West 
 
 To dream-land, to hope-land well harboring each guest. 
 
 And Freedom was with them ! It beckoned, it called, 
 
 The Giants of Mankind onleading. 
 When England, oppressing, its progress had walled, 
 
 (ireat Was/imoion answered its greeting. 
 And Limolii, the lion-heart, lifted the weight 
 Of slavery's chains with his strength splendid, great. 
 
 My Muse, to the martyr one low, but sweet round, 
 
 Onebbing and nevermore dying! 
 Appo))iatox came where the brave Lee hath found 
 
 His conquerer in Grant, colors flying. 
 "Oh, let us have peace!" A fair flower from the ground, 
 So brother-blood soaked, bloomed up with this sound. 
 
 Hard price this, for Freedom ! May ne'er it be bought, 
 
 — Nay, ne'er it shall be bought like it — , 
 With such a great price 1 What those fighters have sought 
 
 And IV on, no far foe shall down strike it. 
 "The Right of the Free", they have won it for you; 
 They gave you the Fmd/e/n, 
 The ''Red, IV/i/fe and Blue'\ 
 
 HI. 
 THE MISSION. 
 
 ''Old Glory \ fair light-banner of the morning 
 
 Outlifted on a field of fluid gold 
 Where the new rising Sun, in vigor burning. 
 
 The Earth enwraps in splendors manifold. 
 Wave on, wave on o'er blessed streams and valleys, 
 
 O'er forests, mountain-ranges, inland-seas, 
 Wave on wherever the holy "Freedom " allies. 
 
 Wherever man in man his brother sees. 
 
 Blessed is the Land where with the mighty marching 
 
 Of its live race, e'er strengthened by new floods 
 Of fresh young blood, strong Labor s arm is arching 
 
 The bridge to span the gulf, for common good. 
 This is the Land where "Labor", with true claiming 
 
 P'or man's material, intellectual right. 
 To the whole world the only throjie is naming 
 
 Where "Just he, Loi'e and Knowledge" rule, abide. 
 
Then only when the szaord of Justice, flaming. 
 
 Strikes down vile Greed, tvill no more sla7>es be sold, — 
 White slaves, doivn-trodden, our Republic shaming; 
 
 Then no more will the poor sink, rot and mould. 
 But not with swords shall this great fight be waged, 
 
 — Blood-war enough ! (jod, ware the world this wrong, 
 This dripping horror, in its blood-thirst aged! — 
 
 It shall be waged with temperance, thinking, song! 
 
 Most beautiful Muse of the "American Singers", 
 
 Where is a heart, not thrilling with your joy ? 
 You woke so many of your splendid wingers 
 
 Ikinging from stars pure gold without alloy. 
 Pure songs ! Gold-songs ! ]5ut not of gold that withers ; 
 
 Oh no ! but gold-songs breaking chains of Earth ; 
 But songs, but loves that loosen clanking fetters, 
 
 Unshackle men, lift up, give birth, give worth ! 
 
 Fair songs, floating 'round men like good, kind breezes, 
 
 You gave to perfect poet, Wallace Bruce; 
 Strong songs, like thunder which the dark sky eases, 
 
 Sings Edwin Markham, favorite of the Muse ; 
 And swinging, spinning with Earth's wondrous beauties, 
 
 Softly, but with velocities of stars. 
 Soar over men our William Vaughn Moody s 
 
 Spherial songs far o'er the heavenly bars. 
 
 With sounds like windharps, notes like robin's gleeing. 
 
 With songs as strong as grasp of brotherhand. 
 One singer of the "German" tongue's good being 
 
 Strikes harp-chords sweet, our Alfred Hildebr a ndt. 
 Blending in One Tune of symphonic sweetness 
 
 All Earth's great singers, raying in One Light, 
 Speed, winged Muse, speed on with spirit's fleetness 
 
 And bring to Men the Peace, the Lo7'e, the Right. 
 
 Sing on, ye poets ! Yet the Golden Ages 
 
 Shall come to Earth smiling in joy thru tears. 
 Wherever the fight with W^rong a singer wages. 
 
 This "Glorious Country's Mission" heals, upbears. 
 O fairest Future ! — fair as poet's vision : 
 
 When men true brothers are, true brothers, then 
 Will come to pass fulfillment of this Mission, 
 This sacred Mission — 
 ^^BROTHERHOOD OE MEN". 
 
 ^^tsxg^^^. 
 
In this great "Stream of Love" drip, — drops that disappear- 
 Words of denial, doiibt and of blasphemy, jeer. 
 
 Victor Marie Hugo to Louis B. 
 
015 799 482 
 
 NOTE: — "Realities ani ^ ., , i /iiNuiES and 
 
 P^ACTs", I published on my own account. "Harmony and 
 Unity" I hope to see published complete. These three works 
 shall be published as a whole, illustrated, under one title : 
 
 POEMS OF LIGHT. 
 
 Dedicated to the Americaji People 
 and thru them to the world. 
 
 Publishers in New York City being averse to risk the printing 
 of my poems, I decided to publish on my own account "Harmony 
 and Unity" (40 book-pages, 10 beautiful illustrations, partly 
 from photographs taken in the field, partly from paintings by 
 Scheffer, Corregio, Guido Reni), but could only print a small part 
 of my manuscript for the following reasons : 
 
 THERE IS NO MONEY IN IT! 
 
 I turned to many a one in this great land: 
 "My human brothers, sisters, lend a hand 
 To bring true light; help me to do my work !" 
 They all turned cold as ice ; they all did shirk. 
 
 Hearts dollar-stamped ! Unfeeling wood-blocks, stone ! 
 They ridiculed, they grinned, left me alone. 
 "Poems! Oh, w'hat a nonsense! Off with that! 
 There is no money in such workV — they said. 
 
 WILLIAM BENIGNUS. 
 
 New York City, March, 1903. 
 
 Press of John Oehler, Steam Printer, 
 
 87 Frankfort Street, 
 
 New York City, N. Y.