Class PvS Hnolr 'P^ COPnUGHT DEPOSin /A06 POEMS J2^^ POEMS MY COUNTRY WILD EDEN THE PLAYERS' ELEGY THE NORTH SHORE WATCH ODES AND . SONNETS BY GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 1903 ^il rights reserved THE li3Rax.-(V o;-j CONGRE7-S, I T$^^^ CLASS ^ XXo y^ o3 Copyright, 1883, 1890, 1893, By GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY. Copyright, 1899, 1900. i9°3. By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up, electrotyped, and published November, 1903. J. S. Gushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. PREFACE The author has here collected all of his published verse, except a fragment, " The Roamer," which he reserves in the hope of completing that poem ; and a considerable number of pieces, hitherto either uncol- lected or unpublished, are also included. The volume represents the passing of many years, and begins from days almost of boyhood. If the result is less than it should have been, there are here some gleanings of time from a life never so fortunate as to permit more than momentary and incidental cultivation of that art which is the chief grace of the intellectual life. The author can claim only that he has written no line except for itself alone. G. E. W. Beverly, Massachusetts, August 13, 1903. CONTENTS PAGE My Country and Other Poems: At Gibraltar • • 3 False Dawn e Love at the Door . .8 Taormina ......... lo " Italy, like a Dream "....... 13 Siena .......... 14 I. The Daisies ....... 14 II. Christ Scourged 15 III. The Resurrection 17 Forebodings ig " Be God's the Hope " 20 Love's Rosary ........ 21 At the Funeral of William E. Russell .... 22 On a Portrait of Columbus ...... 23 My Country ......... 24 America and England in Danger of War ... 42 " Will it be so? " 47 In the Square of St. Peter's 49 vii viii CONTENTS PAGE Near Baise 49 Man : Written at Ravenna 50 " Nay, Soul " 51 On the Hundredth Anniversary of the French Revolution 54 To the Roman Pontiff on the Discipline of Father McGlynn 55 Our First Century 56 To those who reproved the Author for too Sanguine Patriotism 57 Shelley's House 58 Wild Eden: He ate the Laurel and is Mad 63 Flower before the Leaf 68 Wild Eden 70 The Birth of Love 73 " When first I saw Her " 74 The Secret ^ . . 75 " O, Inexpressible as Sweet " . . . . . .76 The Sea-shell 77 The Rose of Stars 79 The Rose Bower 81 The Message 83 The Rose 84 The Lover 86 The Weather-spirit 88 Love's Castaway ........ 89 CONTENTS IX PAGE Divine Awe ^ • 9^ Wind and Wave 92 Farewell 93 The Wanderers 94 "Now Marble Apennines Shining" . . • • 95 " I see the Warm Sun Parting " 9^ Love Delayed 97 Love's Confessional 9° Going North . . - lOO Homeward Bound ^°^ The Homestead ^°S The Lindens »04 The Bat ^°5 The Humming-bird 199 The Child . 112 Love's Birthright ^^4 " From the Young Orchards " "5 " O, Struck beneath the Laurel " "7 The Dream Il8 The Death-rose "I The Mighty Mother 122 Autumn ^26 So Slow to Die "7 The Dirge 129 The Blood-red Blossom 13" Seaward. , • • • • '3^ X CONTENTS PAGE The Players' Elegy and Other Poems: The Players' Elegy on the Death of Edwin Booth : read at the Memorial Service in the Madison Square Con- cert Hall, New York, November 13, 1893 . . .145 Ode : read at the Emerson Centenary Service, Boston, May 24, 1903 156 Aubrey de Vere : obiit 1902 167 Wendell Phillips 167 Essex Regiment March : written for the Eighth Massa- chusetts United States Volunteer Infantry in the Spanish War 168 The Islands of the Sea 171 Children's Hymn 174 To a Student , ... 175 The Rose-giver 175 To Professor A. V. Williams Jackson . . . .176 To E. M. O. on her Golden Wedding . . . .181 Requiem: Thomas Randolph Price . • . .182 To 1903, Columbia 184 Exeter Ode : read at the Dedication of Alumni Hall, Phillips Exeter Academy, June 17, 1903 . . . 18S The North Shore Watch: C. L. D., obiit mdccclxxviii 195 Agathon 225 MY COUNTRY AND OTHER POEMS 0t (Sibraltar England, I stand on thy imperial ground, Not all a stranger ; as thy bugles blow, I feel within my blood old battles flow — The blood whose ancient founts in thee are found. Still surging dark against the Christian bound Wide Islam presses ; well its peoples know Thy heights that watch them wandering below ; I think how Lucknow heard their gathering sound. I turn, and meet the cruel, turbaned face. England, 'tis sweet to be so much thy son ! I feel the conqueror in my blood and race ; Last night Trafalgar awed me, and to-day Gibraltar wakened ; hark, thy evening gun Startles the desert over Africa ! AT GIBRALTAR ^t rcam** Italy, like a dream, Unfolds before my eyes ; But another fairer dream Behind me lies ; Could I turn from the dream that is To where that first light flies — Could I turn from the dream that was • In a dream life dies ! One masters the spirit of life Through love of life to be ; I am not master, O Love, — Thou slayest the will in me ! Give me the dream that is, — Earth like heaven to see ; Or grant the dream that was, — Love's immortality ! 14 SIENA I THE DAISIES Once I came to Siena, Travelling waywardly ; I sought not church nor palace; I did not care to see. In the little park at Siena, Her famous ways untrod, I laid me down in the springtime Upon the daisied sod. New, but not unfamiliar, Of my boyhood seemed the scene The hillsides of Judaea, And Turner's pines between ; And tenderly the rugged, Volcanic rock- lands bare. Warm in the April weather, Slept in the melting air. 'Twas April in the valleys ; 'Twas April in the sky ; SIENA 15 And from the tufted locusts The sweet scent wandered by ; But strange to me the sunshine, And strange the growing grass ; To the branch that cannot blossom How cold doth April pass ! As lovers, when love is over, Remembering seem men dead, Down on the warm bright daisies, Earth's lover, I laid my head ; And whence or why I know not. At the touch my eyes were dim. And I knew that these were the daisies That Keats felt grow o'er him. II CHRIST SCOURGED I SAW in Siena pictures, Wandering wearily ; I sought not the names of the masters Nor the works men care to see ; But once in a low-ceiled passage I came on a place of gloom, 1 6 SIENA Lit here and there with halos Like saints within the room. The pure, serene, mild colors The early artists used Had made my heart grow softer, And still on peace I mused. Sudden I saw the Sufferer, And my frame was clenched with pain ; Perchance no throe so noble Visits my soul again. Mine were the stripes of the scourging ; On my thorn-pierced brow blood ran ; In my breast the deep compassion Breaking the heart for man. I drooped with heavy eyelids. Till evil should have its will ; On my lips was silence gathered ; My waiting soul stood still. I gazed, nor knew I was gazing ; I trembled, and woke to know Him whom they worship in heaven Still walking on earth below. Once have I borne his sorrows Beneath the flail of fate ! SIENA 17 Once, in the woe of his passion, I felt the soul grow great ! I turned from my dead Leader ; I passed the silent door ; The gray-walled street received me ; On peace I mused no more. Ill THE RESURRECTION After days of waiting, Rambling still elsewhere, I took the narrow causeway, Climbed the broad stone stair ; Round the angle turning With unlifted gaze In the high piazza — O, the wasted days ! There the great cathedral Came upon my eyes ; Nevermore may marvel Bring to me surprise ! In the light of heaven Builded, heaven's delight, 1 8 SIENA Never sculptured beauty Hallowed so my sight ! On the silent curbstone Long I sat, and gazed, With the sainted vision Ever more amazed ; Rose, and past the curtain Trod the pictured floor, Read Siena's story, Saw her glory's store. In the high piazza Once again I turned ; Clear in heaven's sunlight Prophet and angel burned. Still, whene'er that vision Comes upon my eyes, I seem to see triumphant The Resurrection rise. LOVE'S ROSARY 21 Sweet names, the rosary of my evening prayer, Told on my lips like kisses of good night To friends who go a little from my sight, And some through distant years shine clear and fair ! So this dear burden that I daily bear Nightly God taketh, and doth loose me quite ; And soft I sink in slumbers pure and light With thoughts of human love and heavenly care. But when I mark how into shadow sHps My manhood's prime, and weep fast-passing friends, And heaven's riches making poor my Hps, And think how in the dust love's labor ends. Then, where the cluster of my hearthstone shone, " Bid me not live," I sigh, " till all be gone." 22 THE FUNERAL OF WILLIAM E. RUSSELL 0t t^t ifuncral of William CI;* Hu00ell Dead ! deaf forever to the people's call, The fallen leader ; sorrow clouds the state ; The greatest of the land about his pall Mourn for the dark reversal of his fate. But from our eyes, who cherished him o'er all, And in our boyhood with his heart did mate. What tears must for this son of Harvard fall Who kept our early faith inviolate ! Bear him, pale classmates, down the grief-hushed aisle Who once through shouting thousands, mile on mile. Rode with proud rein, erect, and happy smile ; Now bear him, flag-wrapped, down the black defile. Out at the door, where azure summer blows, To spaces where the light eternal glows, — There in the will of God shall he repose : We to the work through which the people grows. ON A PORTRAIT OF COLUMBUS 23 0n a :|portrait of Columbusf Was this his face, and these the finding eyes That plucked a new world from the rolling seas ? Who, serving Christ, whom most he sought to please, Willed the great vision till he saw arise Man's other home and earthly paradise — His early thought since first with stalwart knees He pushed the boat from his young olive trees, And sailed to wrest the secret of the skies ? He on the waters dared to set his feet. And through believing planted earth's last race. What faith in man must in our new world beat, Thinking how once he saw before his face The west and all the host of stars retreat Into the silent infinite of space ! 24 MY COUNTRY ^^ Country Who saith that song doth fail? Or thinks to bound Within a little plot of Grecian ground The sole of mortal things that can avail ? Olympus was but heaven's gate ; Not there the strong Light-bringer deigned to wait; But westward o'er the rosy height His cloud-sprung coursers trample light ; And ever westward leans the god above the joyful steeds ; The light in his eyes is prophecy; on his hps the words are deeds ; On whirls the burning Singer; earth wakens where he speeds. The singing keels that moored great Rome Silence o'ertakes ; but his Immortal Song, To which the world-wide fates belong, Still seeks the fleeing shore and for the gods a home, A new Ausonia sings, swells o'er a mightier foam. The citadels of Italy — O dear to him is Liberty ! — MY COUNTRY 25 Chained not to her marble mountains, Sealed not in her broken fountains, His bright fire ; Up the dark North it leapt, the masterless desire : Nor even the Imperial Isle, the Ocean-State, Who Time's great order leads, and fastens fate, Shall keep his speed across the shouting sea ; Destiny exceeds her scope ; The hope of man exceeds her hope ; The regions of the west unfold ; New ages on the god are rolled ; The throning years to be. Of earth's new men the praise. Rise on him where he stands and bends his dreaming gaze, And smiles to see the shore night vainly shrouds Through tracts of ruddy air and darkly gleaming clouds. Awake, O Land, and lesser fortunes scorn ! Amid the darkness, by the eastern strand, Bend down thy ear, and hearken with thy hand ; He comes who brings to thee eternal morn ! More radiant and fair Than ever thy mornings were. 26 MY COUNTRY Or any morn that ever broke from night Since the dear star of dawn began his earthly flight ! O, whisper to thy clustered isles, If any rosy promise round them smiles ; O, call to every seaward promontory, If one of them, perchance, is made the cape of glory ; O, bid the mountains answer thy inquire, If any peak be tipped with lonely fire, A shining name And station of the winged flame Above the time's desire ! Doubt not, O waiting Land ; for who hath power To bar the golden journey of the sun. Or on time's dial set back the destined hour ? Doubt not, but O, thy heart within prepare. And ripen praise upon thy lips with prayer. When the bright summons through thy frame shall run Of that great day begun ! Then heaven shall search thee with its shafts of light. And lay thy coverts and thy fastness bare. And drag the Serpent from its human lair. And on its scales the swords of God shall smite. Wielded aloft by spirits that know to fight. To find the heart with wounds and not to spare. MY COUNTRY 27 O wilderness untried, If thou dost cherish, Brought from the old earth's side, The beasts that perish, The things that eat the dust and darkly crawl, And in the heart of nations poison all — O, terrible that brightness will appall, World-justice hanging o'er thee, and shall fall ! Seize thy spear and grasp thy sword ; Speak the righteous word ; And his battle rolHng o'er thee, And his victory flashing round, Shall drive the cumbering brood before thee. Free forevermore thy ground ; Thy great ally. Leaning from the sky. Shall twine thy hair with morning and the olive's warless crown ! O Soil befriending men. Pluck from the Future's hand her iron pen ; While yet his coming lingers, O, stoop down, And write upon the threshold of thy earth The word that levels all men in their birth, And in thy love, and in their spirits' worth ! 28 MY COUNTRY Be that sign, engraved on thee, Thy omen and thy destiny ! Look forth, O Land, thy mountain tops Gutter ; look, the shadow drops ; On the warder summits hoary Bursts the splendor-voiced story ; Round the crags of watching rolled The purple vales of heaven unfold. And far-shining ridges hang in air — Northward beam, and to the south the promise bear ; Unto isle and headland sing it, O'er the misty Midland fling it, From a hundred glorious peaks, the Appalachian gold ! O'er the valley of the thousand rivers, O'er the sea-horizoned lakes. Through heaven's wide gulf the marvellous fire quivers, Myriad -winged, and every dwindling star o'ertakes ; On where earth's last ranges listen. Thunder-peaks that cloud the west With the flashing signal waken ; All the tameless Rockies own it — One great edge of sunrise glisten ; All the skied Sierras throne it ; MY COUNTRY 29 And lone Shasta, high uplifted O'er the snowy centuries drifted, Hears, and through his lands is splendor shaken From the morning's jewel in his crest ! O chosen Land, God's hand Doth touch thy spires. And lights on all thy hills his rousing fires ! O beacon of the nations, lift thy head ; Firm be thy bases under ; Now thy earth-might with heaven wed Beyond hell's hate to sunder ! O Land of Promise, whom all eyes Have strained through time to see, Since poets, cradled in the skies, Flashed prophecy on thee ! O great Atlantis, other world. That never voyager won. Though many a shining sail was furled. Lost in the setting sun ! Joy, joy, joy ! thy destiny hath found thee ! Now the oceans brighten round thee, To thy heaven-born fate ascending ; Thou, earth's darling ! thou, the yearning 30 MY COUNTRY Of the last hope in her burning, Who shall seal her womb forevermore ! Child, whose rosy breath is blending With the morning's, o'er thee bending, While the chorus, never ending. Swells from shore to shore — Triumph of the peoples, anthem never heard before ! Thou, the crowner of the ages, Now the eagle seeks thy hand ; Poets, statesmen, heroes, sages, In the long-drawn portals stand ! Well may mount to mount declare thee ; Ocean unto ocean sound thee ; To the skies loud hymns upbear thee ; Earth embrace, and heaven bound thee ; God hath found thee ! Through the world the tidings pour, And fill it o'er and o'er, As the wave of morning fills the long Atlantic shore ; Fills, and brims — O speed the story ! — The emerald cup of thy great river-gods ; Brims, and through the west down golden sods To the Pacific rolls ; flood unto flood speaks glory ! MY COUNTRY 31 O Fair Land, do thy eyes Dream paradise? Or mortal fields are these, or fallen skies? Dost thou not hear Him singing in the gold The lofty paean thy long years unfold, And joy divine that shines in man's just praise, Though yet awhile delays The hour full-orbed, and his unclouded blaze? Of holy hymns and famous deeds He casts before the deathless seeds ; He wooes thy dust with rosy rain ; Of thy sweet months is he so fain ; O, lovelier than the poets told, Unwreathes his brow to light thy dying mould ! And from their morning bower and from their sunny lair. Scatters the bloom that springs On heavenly pastures fair And o'er thy bosom flings The fragrance of his own immortal air ! Nor flowers alone are his, but every fruit That takes the breath of heaven fed from a darkened root; Joy to thy virgin soil that spring shall thrill and shoot ! 32 MY COUNTRY Like Love, its coming sweet, With motions of auroral winds that fleet, Shadow and music, o'er the new green wheat ; Thy summer lights the land, thy autumn loads the sea; And still a lovelier year returns to thee ; Or where the glowing South is white like wool ; Or where the sun-spanned ocean of the maize Broods in the brilliant calm, and lightly sways ; Or where by inland seas, forever full, The golden reservoirs of summer days, Towers of abundance stand in all thy ways ; Or further on, where bud and fruit together. Immortal orchards, star the fadeless weather. O generous fertility, Like Love, to all men free ! And ever rolls an ampler year, and heaven grows ripe in thee ! For nobler yields than these, O favored Land, Are whispering with thy breeze — The tillage of God's hand ; And though it seem thy own, this fair estate (Or fief or freehold, ask of Day and Night), MY COUNTRY 53 The Eternal only sows the field of fate, And o'er thy will doth exercise His right. Thou canst not groove the soil nor turn the sod But thou shalt drop therein the seeds of time ; Thy labor brings to light the will of God ; Fair must the harvest be, and stand sublime ; And when the mellowing year is made complete, And for the world thou reapest time's increase. He thrusts His sickle in the heavy wheat, And in thy bursting granaries garners Peace. O humbly bow thee down, Blessed o'er all thou art ; Earth's plenty in thy crown, God's Peace within thy heart ! Again, O mighty hymn, begin ! O mount, Virgilian song ! Let be the suffering and the sin ; Thy years to Love belong ! No Janus-stables on thy soil, nor hoof of Mars's steeds ; No ruin smokes ; no war-bolt strikes ; no scar of battle bleeds ; But fair as once Athene's height thy marble hill shall rise. Where Justice reconciles thy earth, Virtue disarms thy skies ! 34 MY COUNTRY As splendors of the dawn Make earthly tapers wan, Less than a candle's beam The world's first hope shall gleam When o'er thy vales and soothed seas the truce of time shall stream ! Come ! come ! O light divine ! O come, Saturnian morn ! O Land of Peace on whom recline Ten thousand hopes unborn — O Beautiful, stand forth, nor sword, nor lance, Silent wielder of the fates ! War-tamer, striking with thy glance The thunder from imperial states ! So hard, surpassing war, doth Peace assail ; So far, exceeding hate, doth Love avail ; Now, married to thy sphere, Blessed between the nodding poles shall wheel the earth's Great Year. O destined Land, unto thy citadel, What founding fates even now doth peace compel. That through the world thy name is sweet to tell ! O throned Freedom, unto thee is brought MY COUNTRY 35 Empire ; nor falsehood nor blood-payment asked ; Who never through deceit thy ends hast sought, Nor toiling millions for ambition tasked; Unlike the fools who build the throne On fraud, and wrong, and woe ; For man at last will take his own, Nor count the overthrow ; But far from these is set thy continent. Nor fears the Revolution in man's rise ; On laws that with the weal of all consent. And saving truths that make the people wise : For thou art founded in the eternal fact That every man doth greaten with the act Of freedom ; and doth strengthen with the weight Of duty ; and diviner moulds his fate, By sharp experience taught the thing he lacked, God's pupil ; thy large maxim framed, though late, Who masters best himself best serves the State. This wisdom is thy Corner : next the stone Of Bounty ; thou hast given all ; thy store, Free as the air, and broadcast as the light, Thou flingest ; and the fair and gracious sight, More rich, doth teach thy sons this happy lore : That no man lives who takes not priceless gifts 36 MY COUNTRY Both of thy substance and thy laws, whereto He may not plead desert, but holds of thee A childhood title, shared with all who grew, His brethren of the hearth ; whence no man lifts Above the common right his claim ; nor dares To fence his pastures of the common good ; For common are thy fields ; common the toil ; Common the charter of prosperity. That gives to each that all may blessed be. This is the very counsel of thy soil. Therefore if any thrive, mean-souled he spares The alms he took ; let him not think subdued The State's first law, that civic rights are strong But while the fruits of all to all belong ; Although he heir the fortune of the earth. Let him not hoard, nor spend it for his mirth. But match his private means with public worth. That man in whom the people's riches lie Is the great citizen, in his country's eye. Justice, the third great base, that shall secure To each his earnings, howsoever poor. From each his duties, howsoever great. She bids the future for the past atone. Behold her symbols on the hoary stone — MY COUNTRY 37 The awful scales and that war-hammered beam Which whoso thinks to break doth fondly dream, Or Czars who tyrannize or mobs that rage ; These are her charge, and heaven's eternal law. She from old fountains doth new judgment draw, Till, word by word, the ancient order swerves To the true course more nigh ; in every age A little she creates, but more preserves. Hope stands the last, a mighty prop of fate. These thy foundations are, O firm-set State ! And strength is unto thee More than this masonry Of common thought ; Beyond the stars, from the Far City brought. Pillar and tower Declare the shaping power, Massive, severe, sublime, Of the stern, righteous time. From sire to son bequeathed, thy eldest dower. Large-limbed they were, the pioneers, Cast in the iron mould that fate reveres ; They could not help but frame the fabric well, Who squared the stones for heaven's eye to tell ; Who knew from eld and taught posterity. 38 MY COUNTRY That the true workman's only he Who builds of God's necessity. Nor yet hath failed the seed of righteousness ; Still doth the work the awe divine confess, Conscience within, duty without, express. Well may thy sons rejoice thee, O proud Land ; No weakling race of mighty loins is thine. No spendthrifts of the fathers ; lo, the Arch, The loyal keystone glorying o'er the march Of millioned peoples freed ! on every hand Grows the vast work, and boundless the design. So in thy children shall thy empire stand. As in her Caesars fell Rome's majesty, Q Desolation, be it far from thee ! Forgetting sires and sons to whom were given The seals of glory and the keys of fate From Him, whom well they knew the Rock of State, Thy centre ; and on thy doorposts blazed His name Whose plaudit is the substance of all fame, The sweetness of all hope — forbid it, Heaven ! Shrink not, O Land, beneath that holy fear ! Thou art not mocked of God ; MY COUNTRY 39 His kingdom is thy conquering sphere, His will thy ruling rod ! O Harbor of the sea-tossed fates, The last great mortal Bound ; Cybele, with a hundred States, A hundred turrets, crowned ; Mother, whose heart divinely holds Earth's poor within her breast ; World-Shelterer, in whose open folds The wandering races rest ; Advance, the hour supreme arrives ; O'er Ocean's edge the chariot drives ; The past is done ; Thy orb begun ; Upon the forehead of the world to blaze, Lighting all times to be with thy own golden days. O Land beloved! My Country, dear, my own ! May the young heart that moved For the weak words atone ; The mighty lyre not mine, nor the full breath of song ! To happier sons shall these belong. 40 MY COUNTRY Yet doth the first and lonely voice Of the dark dawn the heart rejoice, While still the loud choir sleeps upon the bough ; And never greater love salutes thy brow Than his, who seeks thee now. Alien the sea and salt the foam Where'er it bears him from his home ; And when he leaps to land, A lover treads the strand ; Precious is every stone ; No little inch of all the broad domain But he would stoop to kiss, and end his pain, Feeling thy lips make merry with his own ; But O, his trembling reed too frail To bear thee Time's All- Hail ! Faint is my heart, and ebbing with the passion of thy praise ! The poets come who cannot fail ; Happy are they who sing thy perfect days ! Happy am I who see the long night ended, In the shadows of the age that bore me. All the hopes of mankind blending, Earth awaking, heaven descending, While the new day steadfastly MY COUNTRY 41 Domes the blue deeps over thee ! Happy am I who see the Vision splendid In the glowing of the dawn before me, All the grace of heaven blending, Man arising, Christ descending, While God's hand in secrecy Builds thy bright eternity. 42 AMERICA AND ENGLAND America anD CnglanD m SDangcr of Mar I Hast thou forgot the breasts that gave us suck, And whence our likeness to our fathers came, Though from our arms twice stooping with the same Great blow that Runnymede and Naseby struck ? Out of thy heart the imperial spark we pluck Which in our blood is breaking into flame ; O, of one honor make not double shame ; Give not the English race to fortune's luck ! Thy reef of war across our seaboard thrown. Fortress and arsenal against us stored — Trust not in them ! the awful summons blown, High o'er our long sea-blaze and battle poured Through all the marches of the open North, On arms uplifted thy First-born rides forth. AMERICA AND ENGLAND 43 America and CBngland in SDangcr of ^ar II Mother of nations, of them eldest we, Well is it found, and happy for the state. When that which makes men proud first makes them great, And such our fortune is who sprang from thee. And brought to this new land from over sea The faith that can with every household mate, And freedom whereof law is magistrate, And thoughts that make men brave, and leave them free. O Mother of our faith, our law, our lore, What shall we answer thee if thou shouldst ask How this fair birthright doth in us increase? There is no home but Christ is at the door ; Freely our toiling millions choose Hfe's task; Justice we love, and next to justice peace. 44 AMERICA AND ENGLAND America anu CBnglanD in SDanger of III What is the strength of England, and her pride Among the nations, when she makes her boast ? Has the East heard it, where her far-flung host Hangs like a javelin in India's side ? Does the sea know it, where her navies ride, Like towers of stars, about the silver coast, Or from the great Capes to the uttermost Parts of the North like ocean meteors glide? Answer, O South, if yet where Gordon sank, Spent arrow of the far and lone Soudan, There comes a whisper out of wasted death ! O every ocean, every land, that drank The blood of England, answer, if ye can. What is it that giveth her immortal breath? AMERICA AND ENGLAND 45 jamerica anD Cnglanu in 2Panger of Mar IV Then the West answered : " Is the sword's keen edge Like to the mind for sharpness? Doth the flame Devour like thought? Many with chariots came, Squadron and phalanx, legion, square, and wedge ; They mounted up ; they wound from ledge to ledge Of battle-glory dark with battle-shame ; But God hath hurled them from the heights of fame Who from the soul took no eternal pledge. Because above her people and her throne She hath erected reason's sovereignty ; Because wherever human speech is known The touch of English breath doth make thought free ; Therefore forever is her glory blown About the hills, and flashed beneath the sea." 46 AMERICA AND ENGLAND America anti CDnglanu in 2[>anger of WiRX V First of mankind bid we our eagles pause Before the pure tribunal of the mind, Where swordless justice shall the sentence find, And righteous reason arbitrate the cause ! First of mankind, whom yet no power o'erawes, One kin let us confederate and bind ; Let the great instrument be made and signed, The mould and pattern of earth's mightier laws ! Crown with this act the thousand years of thought, O English Race, and wheresoever roams Thy sea- flown brood, and bulwarked states has wrought Far as the loneliest wave of ocean foams, Thy children's love with veneration brought Shall warm thy hearthstone from their million homes. "WILL IT BE SO?" 47 ♦♦ mm it be 00 ? '* While I remember Dost thou forget, Where by the home-ember I see thee yet? Or dost thou miss only The friend from thy side, While I am lonely Life-long for my bride ? When we met, when we parted, Was it mine, not thy hand, That trembled and started At love's demand ? Mine only the rapture Unshared, and the pain Till thought could recapture Thy presence again? Was it all heart's delusion When each warm breath. 48 "WILL IT BE SO?" Caught with confusion, Told life, told death ? Though choked was my story, Though scattered my power, Wert thou blind to the glory Of love's one hour ? Wert thou not maiden To feel the soul- touch Of the spirit love-laden That loved too much ? If late thou shouldst waken, If late thou shouldst know, Forgotten, forsaken — Will it be so ? NEAR BALE 49 3In tl)e Square of ^u l^tttfa How brave with heaven St. Peter's fountain copes, And sheds the rainbow round, and silvers all ! Man's heart is such a fountain ; so his hopes The rainbow shed, and through the rainbow fall. O, tender are the gods, and deep their scorn. Who write their wisdom on the child's new heart ! The temple that saluted them at morn, Ruined and bare, silent they let depart. 50 MAN: WRITTEN AT RAVENNA ^an : Written at Mabcnna A STRANGER to earth's lands, A suppliant to her years, He claps his childish hands, He drops his boyish tears. At last life's hope appears ; For gold he sifts the sands. For truth he charts the spheres. Earth takes his shrivelled hands. Shuts eyes too old for tears ; Earth, weary in all her lands And dumb through all her years. "NAY, SOUL" SI Nay, Soul, so travel-worn. Begging from door to door, Forever beggared more And sickening with self-scorn. Art thou so poor, thou born Of all the times before ? Who heeds thy dumb demands? Thy passion or thy fears? Though thou hast wet with tears Beloved and alien hands. Thy want who understands ? Thy misery who reveres ? Nay, Soul, thy shame forbear ! Between the earth and sky Was never man could buy The bread of Hfe with prayer, Not though his brother there Saw him with hunger die. 52 "NAY, SOUL" His life a man may give ; But not for deepest ruth Beauty, nor love, nor truth, Whereby himself doth live. Come home, poor fugitive ! Art thou so poor, forsooth? One justice has been done To all who draw life's breath ; Thee heaven encompasseth, And the impartial sun Now as in Babylon Lights up the way to death. Is not the world thy own, Whole as in Plato's mind ? Know surely thou must find Therein thyself alone The archetype unknown, Or be forever blind. Thy past — there may thy eyes, As Dante's, well in well, Travel the slopes of hell; "NAY, SOUL" 53 There see thy angels rise Where, choir in choir, they dwell Round God, like folded skies. Thy heart — look thou aright ! Fear not the wild untrod, Nor birth, nor burial sod 1 Look, and in native light, Bare as to Christ's own sight, Living shalt thou see God. Nay, Soul, what mockery this, To have so vainly striven, Knocking at earth and heaven For largess of the bliss That in thy being is, And with thy birth was given. In thy own self ascend ; Cast staff and scrip away ; Leave to the dead decay, The living to their end ; Leave poet, priest, and friend ; Thou shalt find peace to-day. 54 THE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY