i PS THE HOUSE ON THE HILL PREDEBICK A.WRIGHT ^IMi Class jCii^B^ CCPMRIGHT DEPOSm THE HOUSE ON THE HILL and Other Poems BY FREDERICK A. WRIGHT BOSTON SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY 1916 ^ ^^^ Copyhight, 1916 Sherman, French &• Company OCT -2 1916 ©a.A438833 To M. G. W. Though thy rich worth transcends the art Of all my poetry, This book of verses from my heart I dedicate to thee. The earth below, the heaven above. Thy nature sweet and strong, I melt them in the fire of love And coin them into song. Though rough the die, yet fire is there; Then take these songs. They ring Of metal true, and lo! they bear The image of our King. For permission to reprint " Good Morning " thanks are due to the owners of the copyright of The Critic; " Jacob " and " The Miracles " are included in this volume through the kind courtesy of The Churchman, F. A. W. CONTENTS PAGE The House on the Hill 1 The Galley Slave 3 Winter at the Farm 4 On the Strange Echoes in Savonarola's Cell 5 At Sunset 6 The Emissaries 7 To the Daisy 8 Good Morning 9 Jacob 10 Alfred Tennyson 11 To Death 12 Aurora 13 Intuition 15 To Percy Bysshe Shelley 16 The Fairy Queen 17 Marjorie 18 The Lookout 19 The Answer 20 The Quest 21 The Cost 23 Secrets 24 His Name 25 A Journey in Winter 26 The Hunters 27 The Invisible Man 28 Orpheus and Eurydice 30 The Muse 31 A Little Child 32 All the World's a Stage 33 The Fair Portion 34 The Spirit of the Fields 35 Jack-in-the-Pulpit 36 The Northwest Wind 37 Reality 39 PAGE Wild Flowers 41 The Monk's Prayer 42 Song 44 Echo 45 The Boat 46 Earth and Heaven 47 A Dream of the South 48 The Miracles 49 Power and Love 50 To A Soul 51 The Reformed Pirate 52 The Rising of the Star 53 All that Thy Spirit Is to Me .... 54 The Poet 55 The Palisades 56 Dawn by the Sea 57 THE HOUSE ON THE HILL and Other Poems THE HOUSE ON THE HILL 'Mid the crowds in the city thronging The streets that are never still, I turn with a secret longing To a house on a lonely hill. Like a bird, it looks far over Field, farmhouse, pasture and pond, Tobacco and corn and clover. To the western mountains beyond. Here, the multitudes rise from their slumber To the anxious cares of the day, And hurrying feet without number Wear the stones of the street away. There, the morning awakens the meadow And the day dawns over the wood. As God made a world from a shadow, " And behold it was very good." The partridges hide in the bushes And the rabbits feed in the grass, And the robins and grosbeaks and thrushes Sing aloud, and the wild deer pass. In the pasture the sheep are browsing. And the white clouds browse in the sky, And the lazy kine are drowsing, While the summer day goes by. [1] And it's all so different yonder From the scenes where my work is done, That I sometimes think that I wander Through two worlds instead of one. We are slaves of duty and pity, And cannot go where we will; I stay in the house in the city, But I live in the house on the hill. [2] THE GALLEY SLAVE The winds are the songs of the ocean, And the clouds are the dreams of the sky, And the river thinks in shadows Forever intangibly. And the mists are the moods of the meadows, Where the dews of the morning lie, And the forest speaks its message, And the mountains prophesy. And the life of my heart, where the sunshine And shadows shimmer and flee, Belongs to the great World-Spirit That is timeless and strong and free ; A galley slave in the dream cloud That sails the uncharted sea. Obeying the forms and the voices That give their commands to me. [3] WINTER AT THE FARM When the ice is under the ruined mill, And the brown weeds hiss in the wintry gust, And the farmer forgets his summer skill, And the idle plowshare is rimmed with rust. Then heap on wood for the wind blows chill. When the willows are bare by the frozen rill. And the western sun is like gold on the snow, And the shadows lengthen and deepen until The stars shine white on the fields below. Then heap on wood for the wind blows chill. When the snow drifts deep on the storm-swept hill. And the branches toss, and the night comes on, And the nests of the birds are as cold and still As a poet's brain when the life has gone, Then heap on wood for the wind blows chill. When the garnered gifts of the summer fill The utmost bounds of the threshing floor. When the lights are lit and the rafters thrill With a friendly knock at a lonely door. Then heap on wood for the wind blows chill. [4] ON THE STRANGE ECHOES IN SAVONAROLA'S CELL Softly the gathering shades of evening fall On chair and desk and book and the bare floor; The deepening gloom of twilight settles o'er Bartolomeo's picture on the wall. Those prophet lips which Rome could not appall, (The torture was but half a conqueror), Are sealed in silence now forevermore ; A mightier potentate holds them in thrall. But the deep echoes in the inner Cell, In cavernous reverberating tones, Like some far voice across the ages, tell Of midnight prayers and secret sobs and groans And blood-bought vows, until the very stones Are vocal with a voice remembered well. [5] AT SUNSET The sun has sunk behind the hill, The misty fields are dim and still, And slumbrous purple shadows fill The hollows of the day. And even the little baby rill Is weary of its play. On many a world sinks many a sun, Where countless stars their courses run Ah ! when this happy world is gone, And all its joys are o'er, Grant us, dear Lord, as fair a one Out of thy boundless store. [6] THE EMISSARIES My days are like the flakes of snow Upon a windy night ; I cannot seize them as they go, Nor check their wayward flight ; E'en while I gaze, they hurry on Into the darkness, and are gone; Strange envoys from that mystery That mortal vision cannot see. My days are like the waves that run Upon the rocky steep; In long succession, one by one. They ebb into the deep. Voices from endless leagues of brine Beyond the far horizon line; The messages they bring to land I hear, but cannot understand. [7] TO THE DAISY Sweetest wild flower of the fields, Darling of the sunlit sky, Oh, the radiance that it yields To thine upward-gazing eye! Bending grasses, soft and sweet, Stately grasses, tall and fair. Wash with tears of dew thy feet. Wipe them with their waving hair. Secrets that the lark knows well In thy dainty form appear ; To the eye thy grace doth tell What his songs tell to the ear. Lest thou wither in the heat When the morning dews depart, Lest thy loveliness should fleet. See, I plant thee in my heart. There thy blossom never dies, Never droops the fadeless spring; There the dew forever lies. There the birds forever sing. [8] GOOD MORNING Good morning, my little boy blue ! The flush of the dawn's in the sky, The grass of the meadow is wet with the dew. And the robin is singing on high. The sun of ambition not yet Has come, with its pitiless rays. To bring you the panting, the pain, and the sweat. Of the noontide of passion ablaze. No sign of the cloud-rack appears. No hint of the wild afternoon. The lightning of loss and the tempest of tears. And the darkness that falleth too soon. I Then follows the bow of that peace Which paints the departing of light. When pleasures and labors and sorrows must cease In the infinite calm of the night. Good morning, then, little boy blue! The flush of the dawn's in the sky. The grass of the meadow is wet with the dew, And the robin is singing on high. [9] JACOB As on some stormy night, a giant tree Thrusts up its gaunt and brawny arms to find And wrestle with the angel of the wind, And gains a friend, mysterious, wild and free. Whose name it cannot learn, whose form it cannot see: So, in the darkness of eternity And night and chaos, stands the human mind. And reaches upward, buffetted and blind, To grope amid the sky of destiny. And wins the Soul unnamed, behind the mystery. [10] ALFRED TENNYSON Elijah-like, his spirit climbs the sky In blazing chariot terrible and fleet, Amid the falling stars, like sparks that fly Beneath his flaming charger's fiery feet. And he who sees his vanishing flight receives A portion of the spirit of his rhyme. And that prophetic mantle, which still cleaves A passage through the Jordan stream of time. [11] TO DEATH Ah, Death ! that givest us sweet reprieves, Like Autumn's afterglow. Ere she blows out the light of her flaming leaves And lies down on her pillow of snow. What secrets lie hidden of joy and Spring 'Neath the silent down of thy snow-white wing? [18] AURORA As the morning shines forth with a splendor beseeming Aurora, whose smile is the light of the day, So the soul of my love, o'er my destiny stream- ing, Through life's solemn sky shoots her opaline ray. And the fathomless gloom becomes fathomless gleaming And melts in the infinite azure away. All the roseate mists of the morning are bring- ing A tribute to her of the gems they possess. And the brook in the cool of its shadows is sing- ing In music the praise that no words can express, And the breath of the flowers tells the love that is clinging Deep hid in the heart of her womanliness. As the breezes are laden with gladness that waft her The joy of bird voices whose music she hears, As the mist hath a silvery radiance after The night dews are past and the sunlight appears, [13] So she thrills with a mirth that is lighter than laughter, And glows with a pity more tender than tears. 'Mid the glistening dews of Nepenthe I sought her, And wandered alone through the fields of the sky; From the blossom of asphodel meadows I brought her And with her the bloom of the day star on high, And to taste of her love is to drink of the water Of life from a spirit that never can die. [14] INTUITION How came this sense of boundless space and years To be thy burden, O my heart? Where hast Thou heard the name Eternity? Thy past Is fathomless. What starry host of tears, Half seen amid the twilight dawn, appears? What message comes to thee upon the blast, Chill from immeasurable gulfs and vast. Through which forever roll the mighty spheres ? Doth not the great World-Soul from spaces lit By star rays incarnation find in thee. To there enshrine a shadowy memory. That, with strange intimations, it may fit Thy spirit to stand, fearless, erect and free, Before the presence of the Infinite? [1,5] TO PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY The forbidden patter of little feet Disturbed the hush of my hour alone, But had my verse a cadence as sweet, It would beggar the music of Shelley's own. O Shelley, I've loved you passing well. And you've sung to me many happy times. But a footstep's poetry can tell What never was written in books of rhymes. [16] THE FAIRY QUEEN The Queen is gone from the forest ; gone From the mountain's enchanted place ! Dead with the winds and the dews of dawn, And the mists that the sunbeams chase 1 Clouds in the sky as the day wears on, And wrinkles upon the face. Goblin, brownie, and elf, and fay, From the meadows all have fled. Like the young whom the pangs of hunger slay When the mother bird is dead. Alas ! that the hunter found his prey ! Alas ! that the arrow sped ! Science hated and hunted all The gentle fairy brood; He drove the gnome from the waterfall And the peri out of the wood. And he made the populous forest hall A desolate solitude. Plenty of wisdom and knowledge and truth! And labor's weary stroke ! Ambition and pride and wealth, forsooth! And the harness and the yoke ! But oh I for the vanished vision of youth. The Queen of the fairy folk. [17] MARJORIE The sun shone bright On the golden summer hours, And the gentle air was laden With the perfume of the flowers Like the bees with their honey O'er the fragrant fields that rove, Like the days with their gladness, Like the heart with its love. When Marjorie and I, All the long, long day. Planned the life that lay before us, As the sweet fields lay. And we wandered off together. Like two idlers in a dream. O'er the grasses in the meadow. And the gentian by the stream. Till a gleaming cloud at sunset, Like some glorious hope on high, Withdrew our thoughts from fields of flowers And fixed them in the sky. [18] THE LOOKOUT With eye fixed on the future, and with mind Intent on truth, he takes the place assigned By the Almighty Captain of mankind. Alone he notes with anxious glances how The waves of fortune curl beneath the prow ; He feels the winds of ocean on his brow. The mighty engines beat and throb below, And weary workers hurry to and fro, And merry crowds who heed not where they go. The stars above him twinkle from the height Of heaven, like some intermittent light From islands in the ocean of the night. Before him, with weird cries a wandering Wild creature flaps her never resting wing, Like homeless love that hath not where to cling. He dreameth of the land that is to be Beyond the shifting shadows of the sea. Beyond the night of starry mystery, — The land where weary travellers find a rest. Where beckoning stars veer in the boundless west. Where homeless love at last shall build her nest. [19] THE ANSWER Is this the temple where the Lord doth dwell In hallowed walls on consecrated ground, While all the age-long noises of a hell Of grief and want and warfare rage around? And will He bid men's laggard voices swell The psalm with those who cry that all is well? No answer breaks the quiet of the sky ; The silence is like mist upon the sea Where ships go down ; till, as to make reply, The organ's voice bursts forth in harmon}^. With discords deftly interwined, and I Discern therein a message from on high Of heavenly motives, moved at the behest Of loftier ends than human spirits seek. Through discords on to harmony and rest. Supporting the faint spirits of the weak. Making them strong for thorny paths un- guessed. That shun the better, to attain the best. [20] THE QUEST Amid the shifting currents of The seas of human thought, I put my hope in God above, Where'er my barque be brought, And do not think my quest of love At last will come to naught. With pure, untarnished lustre my Ideal shines afar. And lures my gaze into the sky, Retreating like a star. And shows a wider world on high, Where the eternal are. Where jagged precipices frown 'Mid snowy cliffs and hoar. Or where a peaceful sea kneels down. With palm trees bending o'er. And gently lays its jewelled crown Of foam upon the shore; 'Mid northern cold or tropic heat. Through misty shapes of death, By day or night, in sun or sleet. Borne on the breeze's breath; — Unresting still, I sail to greet A form that beckoneth. [21] Conflicting are the currents of The seas of human thought, But I look up to heaven above, As every true man ought. And do not think my quest of love At last will come to naught. [22] THE COST Death is the price we pay for life ; The fairest hopes are matched with fears, And conquest ever hath its strife, And victory its tears. We buy the glory with the slain: It will not bring them back again. We work our own salvation out ; We purchase manhood with our youth. And found our faith on many a doubt, And agonize for truth, While science fair, for whom we sigh. Can only bid her lovers die. We know Christ died to save mankind From sin ; no mortal man may guess The cost to the Almighty Mind To save from nothingness A world. We see the world He made: We do not see the price He paid. And I would save our love sublime From the same void. Ah, God ! that we. Who cannot catch the skirts of Time, Would grasp eternity; That in our heart of flesh it lies To pay that cost and win that prize. [23] SECRETS The splendor-throned summer sun Is vassal of some other one Beyond the reach of thought. But what that other one may be Is never told to thee or me, Or how his will is wrought. Piloted by the autumn breeze, Yon cloud explores the sunset seas, But will not come again Across the harbor bar of light That bounds the ocean of the night, To tell its tale to man. The wintry polar light streams forth. And round the camp fires of the North A band of stars appears ; And there a martial song is sung. But it is not for mortal tongue. And not for human ears. [24] HIS NAME Love pierces the depths of the heart like the sun in the ocean ; Love rides on the heights of the soul like the clouds in the sky ; Love reigns in the tempests of death like the midnight's commotion ; Love gleams on the summits of life like the day- star on high. In the sea and the sky and the winds and the mountains I sought Him; In the sea and the sky and the earth He was ever the same ; The depths and the heights and the dying and living have brought Him, And now He dwells with me forever, and Love is His name. [25] A JOURNEY IN WINTER The evening shadows solemnly Enclosed the road we trod; Out of the night's dim mystery Our pathway, rod by rod, Unfolded, like futurity Out of the hand of God. The winds amid the forest drear Were wandering to and fro. Like wolves that lonely woodmen hear At night across the snow ; The brook stopped frozen, white with fear, And did not dare to flow. The eddies of the snow were white As whirlpools flecked with foam. Ah! sad it is, on such a night. For houseless folk to roam ; But hearts are light and eyes are bright When steps are turned toward home. [26] THE HUNTERS Life's poetry lies hid in common things, Which we dull hunters pass unheeding by, Until there comes a sudden flutter of wings That leaves us gazing at an empty sky. [27] THE INVISIBLE MAN We boys used to know a sprite of the air That no one could ever spy, And yet we knew when he was there, And could tell when he passed by. And once he spoke to us as we played, And every one of us ran ; And once he upset a boat that I made, — The old Invisible Man. He used to move the things that we hid. And he took our things away, And he always knew what we said and did, Wherever we were at play. We could hear that sprite in our rooms at night, As only the children can, And as we listened we shook with fright. And said, " The Invisible Man " ! But somehow this spirit passed away With childhood's pleasures and fears ; I suppose that maybe he went astray In the labyrinth of the years. Oh ! his robe was the trailing clouds of the dawn When the morning of life began ; He belongs with the times and the friends that are gone, — The old Invisible Man. [28] The things we get and the things we achieve Are things we can feel and see ; And it's easy to doubt, and it's hard to believe, And where is the mystery? We are grown-up folks, in a grown-up age, And we live on a grown-up plan. And there's many a worker and many a sage. But no Invisible Man. [29] ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE Orpheus of the heart ablaze, Sunshine of the sky above, Seeks the dawning of the days. Seeks Eurydice, his love ; In the shadow-land she strays. With the lyre of memory, In the land where that which seems Is the one reality, Orpheus walks with her in dreams Through a starlit melody. But its stars grow dim and wan. Fade — and so at length depart. Like those eyes that now have gone From the zenith of our heart Into the eternal dawn. Faces, cliff -like, cold and white, Summits inaccessible Which have pierced the snowy height Whence the morn is visible. Shine as with a heavenly light. Orpheus of the burning heart Rises from the land of sleep. Wakes to see his love depart. Fading down the azure steep Hushed the music, vain the art. [30] THE MUSE 'Mid broken hearts and death's advancing wrong, I note the paean tones the poets use. " Is life all youth and love ? " I ask the muse. " Surely thou dwellest on this note o'er long, Failing to match time's changes with thy song. Should noon or evening dream of morning dews ? Should bankrupts sing the praise of what they lose? The feeble chant the epic of the strong? " Forthwith the muse replied. " While mor- tals march Into the strife and anguish of the fray, And wild eyes peer amid the shadows wan, Mine eye above the gloom of earth looks on Into the infinite peace of heaven's arch. And sees the dawn of the eternal day." [31] A LITTLE CHILD The morning light is in thine eyes ; Child of the dawn thou art; Unsullied and untrodden lies The dew upon thy heart. Thy youth and love have learned no fear Of pain or death to be ; Such ignorance is almost peer Of immortality. I hear a bird when night is gone, Whose songs can never cloy ; His heavens are thine eyes of dawn, His nest thy heart of joy. [32] ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE I READ in Shakespeare's famous line That " All the world's a stage." The drama's human and divine, The setting suits the age ; And ladies fair and gallants fine, The villain and the page, 'Mid laughter glad, and song, and wine, Their various parts engage. Outside, the night is cold and wet, — Within are all things gay; We do not hear the wild winds fret. The little while we stay ; Our eyes upon the stage are set. Our minds upon the play — So easy is it to forget How wears the world away. But quickly finished is the show. And all at length prepare To take their leave; the lights burn low; There's many a vacant chair In many a blank, deserted row, Like sightless eyes that stare; But home at last the loiterers go. And rest their spirits the re. [3a] THE FAIR PORTION Oh, the petty ambitions that hold us thrall ! And the petty wars that we wage ! And the frets and worries that sting and gall ! And the strifes that our hearts engage ! When God's vast universe offers to all Its glorious heritage. Ripple of brooks on the mountain height, And the ageless wash of the sea. Songs of birds in the glad sunlight. And the wind in the maple tree, And the ceaseless sounds of the summer night, — Oh, give them, oh, give them to me ! My spirit flies with the birds that fl}^. And roams with the wolves that roam ; Buoyant as eagles that soar on high. And wild as their rocky home ; Free as the clouds in a windy sky. And fleet as the driven foam. Oh ! lovely, radiant, glorious Earth ! Behold, I flee unto you. Like the jaded days, for the second birth Of the baptism of the dew, And fill my dewdrop of finite worth With the infinite leagues of blue. [34] THE SPIRIT OF THE FIELDS I LOVE the time when all the maple trees Blush red beneath the kisses of the breeze, AVhen supple elms are feathered o'er with soft Green down, when purple lilac buds aloft Perfume the air ; and in the fields behind. The bloodroots, sweetest nurslings of the wind. And gentle violets, whose eyes of blue Are pure and chaste as star beams washed in dew, Beflower the pleasant carpet of the grass. And nod their pretty heads to all that pass. Sweet spirit of the fields, come to my heart, And there abide, and nevermore depart. [35] JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT I'm Jack-in-the-Pulpit ; The flowers are my congregation ; Whatever I tell them, they gulp it Without the least hesitation. They can't get away from my sermon; They have to stand still and receive it ; 'Tis for me the truth to determine, 'Tis for them to hear and believe it. [36] THE NORTHWEST WIND There is no wind like the great northwest wind ; The fogs and clouds before it flee, Like sins before a strong and righteous mind. It comes to set its people free. It rolls the thunder of its sudden wrath On many a startled summer hour ; The lightning in its strong right hand it hath, A fiery seraph sword of power. It walks the ocean in the morning light ; , The swift sunbeams before it dance. Its footsteps on the billows glisten white; No man may see its countenance. It knows the ranges of the mountain sheep; Its haunts are cliffs they cannot scale. On cloudy wings, o'er many a snowy steep, It soars where eagle pinions fail. The trees await it in the wintry sky ; Their tossing branches feel its spell ; Like Druid prophets of the days gone by. They utter forth its oracle. By lonely rivers, when the day is gone, The timid gray fox stops to hark, And knows the night wind's voice, and passes on Across the meadows in the dark. [37] Most stern and keen of all the Winter's powers Whose memory the Spring receives, Strong soldier soul behind the summer flowers, Pall bearer of the autumn leaves, There is no wind like the great northwest wind ; It is the spirit of the free ; The flight of its wild wing can no man bind. Nor circumscribe its destiny. [38] REALITY The skies are blue and Summer brings All happiness to earth; Upon the bough the robin sings, And crowds of bright and joyous things Flit by on gauzy, sunlit wings. Like careless hours of mirth. And ever sings the little rill A sweet and gentle tune. And all the sleepy winds are still ; The sunlight shines upon the hill ; The pleasant sounds of summer fill The golden afternoon. Yet all is but a pageant whirled Out from the orb of mind, — Cloud bulwarks girt with rainbow, hurled On empty space, and quickly furled, — And this is but the vapor world Of a sphere which rolls behind. And nothing lasting is but Love ; The inexorable stream Of time will all things else remove, And naught in earth, or heaven above. Be left the form or substance of The shadow of a dream. [39] And earth itself must fade anon, And quite forgotten be, Like some mirage that flickers on The mind's horizon and is gone, And soul be left to soul alone Throughout eternity. [40] WILD FLOWERS My feet are on a winding way, The pleasant fields among; The wind is on my face, a lay Of gladness on my tongue ; The morning shines with lavish ray Across the meadows flung. The mountains rise against the sky, And build their rocky towers ; The quiet woods are nearer by. With mossy nooks and bowers ; And where the sheltering shadows lie I find the hiding flowers. I cannot choose the road I take, Nor yet control the wind. Nor bid the happy valleys wake. Nor set the hills behind. Nor weave the mystery, nor make The living songs I find. [41] THE MONK'S PRAYER " I HAVE sought repentance day and night, Month after month, in my convent cell; But my sin is dragging my soul to hell. And I still love darkness rather than light. " For the lady I loved in the days of yore Came through the swamp to this awful place. And I heard her voice, and I saw her face. And I spurned her away from the convent door. " So I turned me again in hopeful mood Back to my prayers without a fear. But a cry still rang in the fleshly ear. And a face infested my solitude. " That cry neither praise nor prayer can drown ; The sound of that voice is the sound I love, And the sight of that face I prize above The golden gleam of a heavenly crown. " Devil or God that did'st send her to me, I hear her voice in the winds that blow ; Send her again through the swamps and the snow, God or Devil — I pray to thee." [42] A smile broke over his face of pain, And " Lady, a moment of this," said he, " Is worth the woe of eternity. And the sorrow that never will cease again." Oh! joy is fugitive as a breath. But the north wind freezes the ripples white And stiff on the face of the lake at night, And even a smile may be fixed in death. The monks looked down at the smile on his face, " And even the cloud of the flesh," said they, " Can glow with the gleams of celestial day ; LAUs DEO ! his soul hath at last found grace." [43] SONG When fields are bare, and Winter's angry breath Calls all the world to frost and storm and death. Sing me a song of the Summer With its slumbrous melodies, Distant notes of the song birds. And the drowsy hum of the bees, Plashing of reeds in the river, And sighing of winds in the trees. When shadows drape the earth, and night winds sigh Like ghosts of morning breezes in the sky. Sing me a song of the dawn time And the dew on the grass and the thorn, Hilltops ablaze with the glory. And the mists in the valley born Changed into golden sunshine In the crucible of the morn. Amid this life of fear and grief and wrath. When tempests rage and night besets the path, Sing me a song of my dear one And the infinite love in her e3^es ; Winter is turned into Summer, And peace on my spirit lies Like dew on the grass and the bramble When the dawn breaks over the skies. [44] ECHO I Her fillets are the storm-piled clouds on high ; She knows the haunts where eagles bring their plunder ; She renders shout for shout and cry for cry ; She pays a splendid usury to the thunder, Or wrapt in robes of silent majesty, Receives the homage of a loving wonder, — Like some sweet voice, now throned in a far sky, With ever widening years of silence under, — A voice which haunts the heart of memory Across the gulfs that sever souls asunder. [45] THE BOAT Ah, love ! I shall not soon forget How by this ocean we have met And watched the summer moon that set Across the darkling sands, e'er yet Time came for us to part ; But now at length the boat draws near. With lights and songs and sounds of cheer, The music strikes upon the ear. But dies upon the heart. So here for one brief hour we stand At love's sweet sufferance hand in hand Together on a moon-paved strand. And watch the waves upon the sand Beside a restless sea, — Till comes the vessel that must bear Me to a country fabled fair ; Ah, love f may I be happy there As on the beach with thee! [46] EARTH AND HEAVEN Her face is like the wealth of summer fields Where sunshine lingers o'er the dimpled grass ; To it this world its sweet luxuriance yields, But over it the ra^'s of heaven pass. Her mind is like those pure and gentle streams That hold the depth and starlight of the sk}^ ; Along its earthly course it glows and gleams With glimmerings of immortality. [47] A DREAM OF THE SOUTH Thick the snow drives in my face, and wild the tempest howls on high, And an endless, hurrying crowd of careworn faces pass me by, But I seek a fairer region underneath a tropic sky, Breathe the glorious ocean breezes, walk the shining sands once more. Watch the sunbeams in the water and the sea- gulls sailing o'er. And the white caps on the ocean and the foam flecks on the shore ; Shut the noisy, busy world out with the shell of memory At the listening ear of fancy, till my heart- beats seem to be Vocal with the lingering echoes of the far re- sounding sea. [48] THE MIRACLES Once, vexed with doubts, I did repine. And walked at night beside the sea. Puzzled that Jesus should confine His miracles to Galilee And not reveal His power to me, Nor make His hidden face to shine. Then dawn came o'er the darkling brine. With cloudy raiment streaming free. And spoke the word of power divine, And bade the winds obedient be, And walked the waves imponderably. And turned the water into wine. [49] POWER AND LOVE Through the uttermost parts of the sea though we rove, Or in hades below or in heaven above, Where'er we betake us, we cannot remove Our poor wandering selves from God's power and God's love. When the armies of Satan against us arrayed With their fierceness and mightiness make us afraid. Then the Lord sends His power and His love to our aid. And the battle is won and the conquest is made. Once when Israel's host with their enemy met, The sun went not down and the moon did not set; So God's power and God's love shine on high for us yet. And He never forsakes and He cannot forget. God's allies in God's cause with God's foes we contend ; Let us, then, on God's power and God's love still depend. For like space without limit, like time without end. Are the power and the love of my King and my Friend. [50] TO A SOUL I WOULD not seek to sound thy worth 'Mid peddlers of the things of earth Who vaunt their wares with strident voices loud, Nor drag thy virtues out among The standards of the staring throng, The money-chasing, honor-hunting crowd. Men laud not that they do not see ; They praise thy deeds, but I praise thee, And sing the hidden grace that in thee lies, — The airy fancies, fairy-taught, And mystic moods from elfland caught, And hopes that ask no gain and seek no prize. Transcending every weight which fails To gauge the power behind man's scales. Thou wilt, in God's aerial balance, show Like that unseen and silent force Which steers the planets in their course. And swings the stars of heaven to and fro. [51] THE REFORMED PIRATE From a tropic sun and a land uncouth, And the fierce desires of a glorious youth, I came to your northern city ; The hand that smote has learned to toil, And women and clerks divide the spoil ; My epic becomes a ditty. But on a shelf of my memory set, Like curios in a cabinet. Is many a valued trinket; Implements, weapons and specimens they From a foreign land and a vanished day, — A strange collection you think it. Useless and harmless, there they stand. Oh ! the weapon survives the warrior's hand, And life alone is senescent; The joys and the woes of the past have died, And, like coral amid the shifting tide. Have bequeathed their bones to the present. I hate the smell of a drawing-room age, Its tempered love and its petty rage; You are moderate, calm and steady. There is one whom you never will civilize; With flaming sword and with menacing eyes. The angel of death stands ready. [52] THE RISING OF THE STAR Once, when night was old and hoary, Rose a star to tell of day, And the earth took up the story And the shadows fled away, And the ocean caught the glory In the fingers of the spray. Not with art of clever dealing And the wealth that it commands, To the sordid crowd appealing When they shout and clap their hands, But with generous deed and feeling Dawned the hope of seas and lands. And they thought He was a stranger When He came unto His own, And they put Him in a manger Instead of on a throne. But the hour of shame and danger And the dying made Him known. [53] ALL THAT THY SPIRIT IS TO ME " I would not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments." All that thy spirit is to me, Ah I who can well divine, Unravelling eternity To sever thine from mine? As wind to wave, as flowers to Spring, As starlight to the dark. As sight to eye, as air to wing, As morning to the lark. As tune to tone, as warmth to light, As beauteous line to line. As all that changeless laws unite. So is thy soul to mine. [5*] THE POET No " maker " is the poet's heart, In spite of classic saying; The poet only leaves the mart And, through the meadows straying, Finds there the wild flower that appears Beside the path of duty. The bud that builds the storm of tears Into the bloom of beauty. That catches from the sky above In dim and faint reflection. The sunrise colors of that love That knows no imperfection. The humblest little bud that grows Is more than waxen flower That hath the colors of the rose, But not the vital power. [55] THE PALISADES There is a beetling rock which looketh down Across a river at a busy town. Bethink you how from thence we watched the world With Heaven's enfolding blue about it furled. So in the ampler compass of God's eyes Life lies horizon-rimmed with Paradise. [56] DAWN BY THE SEA The bright morning comes laughing and danc- ing and singing Across the expanse of the waters with glee, In her youth and her happiness heedlessly fling- ing Her jewels of light in the lap of the sea, From the fabulous mines of the Orient bring- ing The wealth of the gold of the sunshine to me. Far away o'er the main where the white caps are glowing And flocks of bright clouds glint and glimmer and flee, All the winds that spring up with the daylight are blowing; They come like fair ships that sail in from the sea, — Phantom ships where the fairies and elfs have been stowing The spices and perfumes of ocean for me. O light-spirited dawn I Incarnation of pleas- ure! O morning that cometh with dancing and glee! [57] How secured I thy favor that so without meas- ure Thou givest the wealth of the sunshine to me? And how came you to bring me your cargoes of treasure, O voyaging winds that sail in from the sea ? [58] LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 018 484 028 5^