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THE AGE OF IVORY 
 
The Age of Ivory 
 
 Henry Harmon Chamberlin 
 
 Boston: RicharcTCj. B^dgef' 
 The Gorham Press 
 
 1904 
 
 » » , ■ , • ' . - 
 
Copyright 1903 by Henry Harmon Chamberlin. 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
 THE LIBRARY QT 
 
 CONGRESS, 
 Two GoHdB Received 
 
 NOV 23 !9»8 
 DLM3€iXfat:o. 
 
 
 Printed by 
 The G or ham Press 
 Boston, U. S. A. 
 
TO E. W. W. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 
 Proem ...... 
 
 5 
 
 The Last Fight of Sir OHphant 
 
 7 
 
 The Covenant of Labor . 
 
 12 
 
 The Elephant's Nightmare 
 
 16 
 
 To My Lady When She Snores 
 
 28 
 
 The Bridal 
 
 30 
 
 The Burial 
 
 33 
 
 The Fruition 
 
 38 
 

 41 Vien dietro a me, e lascia dire le genti ; 
 Sta come torre, fermo, che non crolla 
 Giammai la cima per soffiar de' venti." 
 
 Pur gator io, V. 33-35. 
 
PROEM 
 
 A world I sing, unvexed of barbarous races, 
 A world where elephants o'er plains and seas 
 
 Rule undisturbed nor heed the brisk grimaces 
 And frantic babblement of chimpanzees, 
 
 Baboons and gibbons. These for all their blatter 
 
 Beguile not Evolution with their chatter 
 
 But play their pranks amid the tops of trees. 
 
 The wisdom of the tusked domination 
 
 Holds up to shame the apery of mankind, 
 
 The malice and deceit and tribulation, 
 
 The tongue that wags and clacks, the vacant 
 mind. 
 
 Spirit occult ! what ailment can have moved thee 
 
 To give a race malign, that feared nor loved thee, 
 Thy power on earth to loosen or to bind ? 
 
 Irremeable hour of mammoth tears 
 
 When elephants were turned out to browse 
 
 The prey to their inferiors' darts and spears ! 
 Yet I the drowsing centuries can arouse, 
 
 Revoke the past and view the calm, drab legions. 
 
 Victors of aeons, who tread broad, fruitful regions 
 Of tasselled grass 'twixt house and lofty house. 
 
 O gracious rule that never yet hath been 
 And never is and never more shall be ! 
 
 O blameless race with noses serpentine, 
 And thy front teeth, twin swords of ivory ! 
 
 Thine empire down a vista of clear rhyme 
 
 Beyond fortuities of space and time 
 It is the poet's privilege to see. 
 
THE LAST FIGHT OF SIR OLIPHANT 
 
 Sir Oliphant paced the grassy lea 
 
 With ears yspread toward westering sun ; 
 With twirling trunk and small, mild ee, 
 
 He mused o'er battles his tusks had won : 
 
 u There's no more need for trump nor drum ; 
 
 Banners and pennons can eke be furled ; 
 Bound is the Dinotherium, 
 
 The last of all the giant world ! 
 
 " We fought the fight and conquered peace ; 
 
 No living creature braves our word ; 
 Rapine and carnage all shall cease 
 
 For the tusked tribe is overlord ! 
 
 64 Tigers and apes by myriads slain 
 
 Who vainly tried our march to bar . . . 
 
 But O for the whelming charge again ! 
 The crimson joy of the jungle war ! " 
 
 Sir Oliphant moved upon the lea ; 
 
 To and fro his bulk did sway ; 
 He chewed a leaf of plantain tree 
 
 And watched the dying of the day ; 
 
 And as he chewed the plantain leaf, 
 Out of the woods a laborer came ; 
 
 And on his brow sat shame and grief, 
 
 And from his lips hung grief and shame. 
 
 " Now fast and far this carle hath come, 
 So tell thy tale and waste no word." 
 
 4< O the great, black Dinotherium ! 
 
 Sair news ! sair news ! my warrior lord ! 
 
" His roar is the roar of an angry sea, 
 
 Enormous tusks grow out of his chin ! 
 
 He razed my barn and granary ; 
 
 He threshed my corn and broke my bin ! " 
 
 Out of the woods another ran ; 
 
 All one side was clottered blood. 
 " Now stay ! now stay, my gentleman ! 
 
 We '11 wash thy wounds and do thee good ! " 
 
 u Avenge, avenge me my abuse ! 
 
 The Dinotherium ramps nearby ! 
 At the cliff baths he broke out loose 
 
 Where blithe we bathed, my friend and I ! 
 
 " His trunk was like an iron flail ! 
 
 It churned the water to foam and froth ! 
 The marks I bear from ear to tail ! 
 
 My friend bides still within the bath ! " 
 
 " Now stay thy step and still thy moans. 
 
 Sir Oliphant thy tale hath heard ..." 
 Out of the woods came cries and groans ; 
 
 Out of the woods there ran a third. 
 
 u What ho, fair stripling, like the spring 
 With tender trunk and budding tusk ! " 
 
 u O curse the hour of love-making ! 
 Bitter the fruit and hard the husk. 
 
 " O curse the hour that tempted me 
 To meet my love in yonder grove ; 
 
 And there beneath the tamarisk tree 
 The Dinotherium reft my love ! " 
 
 The cries and groans grew nigher and nigher, 
 Then faded faint on the evening gale. 
 
Sir Oliphant, he called his squire 
 
 All for his arms and coat of mail. 
 
 He donned no visored morion 
 
 Because his nose was all too long ; 
 
 No fiery steed he mounted on, 
 
 No back to bear him was sae strong. 
 
 The burnished bronze encased his heart, 
 It cased his cunning trunk three ply ; 
 
 His trunk enwound a bamboo dart, 
 
 And he chased the far receding cry. 
 
 The trees of the wood or palm or bay, 
 They crashed before him to and fro ; 
 
 And down the wake of the open way 
 
 His armor gleamed in the afterglow. 
 
 And all night long the foe he followed 
 
 O'er stump and bramble and marsh and mire, 
 
 Lit by the trees that age had hollowed 
 Or else by fitful marish fire. 
 
 But as the cries and groans he traced 
 
 Through darkly whispering forests far, 
 
 'Mid wind-swept branches interlaced 
 
 Once and again there gleamed a star ; 
 
 And still the cries and sobs grew loud ; 
 
 And louder waxed voracious roars 
 Like minatory thunder cloud 
 
 Or waves on imminent, unseen shores. 
 
 The darkness had begun to lift ; 
 
 The sobs died down and then they ceased ; 
 The dawn peered dim through many a rift, 
 
 And still, and still the roars increased. 
 
So to the ghostly forest edge 
 
 Sir Oliphant came at early morn ; 
 
 And there beneath a beetling ledge 
 
 The Dinotherium wound his horn. 
 
 And there, with frantic, pleading trunk 
 
 A light-gray maiden all forlorn 
 Upon the barren earth down sunk. . . 
 
 And the Dinotherium wound his horn. 
 
 He blew no bugle nor trump of brass 
 
 Nor clarion shrill nor big trombone ; 
 
 But the noise his nose and throat did pass 
 Would terrorize a heart of stone. 
 
 Swifter than greyhound or antelope, 
 
 Or gray goose arrow from tough, yew bow, 
 
 Sir Oliphant unto the maid did lope, 
 To stand between her and the foe. 
 
 Uprose the Dinotherium 
 
 As men might view a mountain rise ; 
 His trunk was tipped with a monstrous thumb 
 
 And the fire of Hell shone out of his eyes. 
 
 With heavy, flat foot and double-spiked jowl 
 
 He weened to whelm and pierce the knight. 
 
 Beneath his chin, cowl upon cowl, 
 
 Rounded his throat sae wide and white. 
 
 And where the throat vein was most wide 
 And the skin was soft to every smart 
 
 Sir Oliphant, swerving swift aside, 
 
 With nervy trunk drove home a dart. 
 
 The black blood gurgled and spurted there ; 
 
 The roar stopped short with gasp and choke ; 
 
 10 
 
The chin tusks clawed the empty air ; 
 
 The great bulk keeled like a stricken oak. 
 
 But woe betide the dew-drenched rock 
 Sir Oliphant's foot must slip along ; 
 
 And O the fearful fall and shock ! 
 
 No back to bear it was sae strong. 
 
 On the barren ground they made one heap, 
 Both he who lost and he who won ; 
 
 The last, long vigil there to keep 
 
 For the morning sun to shine upon. 
 
 The light-gray maid full sore did weep ; 
 
 Sir Oliphant oped a glazing ee : 
 " O dig the grave both wide and deep 
 
 For me and for mine enemy ! 
 
 " There's no more need of trump nor drum ; 
 
 Banners and pennons can eke be furled. 
 Gone is the Dinotherium, 
 
 The last of all the giant world ! 
 
 u We fought the fight and conquered peace ; 
 
 No living creature braves our word. 
 Wars and rumors of wars shall cease 
 
 For the tusked tribe is overlord ! 
 
 " Glory at morn . . . the foe lies slain . . . 
 
 My soul is ebbing fast and far . . . 
 The crimson joy is mine again 
 
 And deep, dim peace from strife and war." 
 
 11 
 
THE COVENANT OF LABOR 
 
 THE LEADER 
 
 Ye tusked lords of all the earth and lords of mam- 
 moth peace, 
 
 I bless you at your bulky mirth ; I bid your tribe 
 increase. 
 
 And yet bethink you, life is more than grass and 
 grain to eat, 
 
 Than daisied meads to gambol o'er and trample 
 with your feet. 
 
 Be worthy of your empery ; no longer careless 
 browse. 
 
 Work, work for your posterity and cease to dream 
 and drowse. 
 
 THE TUSKERS 
 
 Master beloved, we 're roused and moved to live 
 
 laborious days ; 
 Thine to contrive and ours to strive our children 
 
 to upraise. 
 
 THE LEADER 
 
 O ye to whom the woodland fruits and every 
 
 cereal sown, 
 To whom the tart and tonic roots and luscious 
 
 leaves are known ! 
 Put forth your trunks to cultivate all prairies and 
 
 plateaux 
 In plots that each an hundred-weight of grass and 
 
 grain shall grow ; 
 And on broad meads alluvial whereby sweet 
 
 waters run 
 Set amaranth and asphodel to ripen in the sun. 
 
 12 
 
THE TUSKERS 
 
 O the good brown earth shall flourish forth in 
 
 comely fruits and flowers. 
 Drab hides with sweat shall glisten wet thro' all 
 
 the daylight hours. 
 Each ductile nose a garden hose, a trowel and a 
 
 flail, 
 At dewy eve the task we leave, weary from trunk 
 
 to tail. 
 
 THE LEADER 
 
 O ye that roam the mountains 'round while crags 
 
 and boulders crack, 
 Whose footfalls make the caves resound and groan 
 
 their echoes back ! 
 Seek in those hills where veins of ore and quarries 
 
 do abound 
 And multifarious treasure store upheave from 
 
 underground. 
 Then join the slabs with builders' art and weld the 
 
 metals rare, 
 And pillared manors, miles apart, shall make the 
 
 earth more fair. 
 
 THE TUSKERS 
 
 'T was all absurd for herd on herd to browse o'er 
 
 plain on plain. 
 Their greed and haste left waste on waste, not 
 
 arable again. 
 More thrift and care when mated pair shall own 
 
 each wide demesne, 
 And houses stand o'er all the land with bosky 
 
 woods between. 
 
 13 
 
THE LEADER 
 
 O ye the woods who penetrate prehensile apes 
 to chase, 
 
 The gibbon to annihilate, the bluenose to deface, 
 
 Build ye the ways like adamant and smooth as 
 alabaster ; 
 
 The goods of earth they ne'er shall want who trans- 
 portation master ; 
 
 And friend with friend shall joy partake right 
 readily, I ween, 
 
 Though miles on miles of cane and brake and 
 pampas intervene. 
 
 THE TUSKERS 
 
 So, firm and flat in layer and mat of gravel, dirt 
 and shard 
 
 We '11 build the ways and spend our days in mak- 
 ing of them hard. 
 
 Our feet shall pound each layer of ground compact 
 as any wall ; 
 
 To grade the whole we '11 ponderous roll our tor- 
 soes over all. 
 
 THE LEADER 
 
 My people, ye have answered me, sagacious tusked 
 
 lords ! 
 Colossal aim I here proclaim and trumpet forth 
 
 your words ; 
 And work shall be your high estate, and daily toil 
 
 and stress, 
 Whereby the womb of Time grows great with 
 
 others' happiness. 
 
 14 
 
Slaves of the hours ye will to be and provident of 
 
 soul, 
 Ye make your children glad and free and destiny 
 
 control. 
 
 THE TUSKERS 
 
 Master, vile ease we leave behind, content to fol- 
 low you ; 
 
 The words from your proboscis wind so beautiful 
 and true. 
 
 To set our sons preeminent, we '11 delve in every 
 soil 
 
 Though trunks be stiff and backs be bent and 
 knees be gnarled with toil ; 
 
 Like fragrant myrrh and cassia balm, the labor of 
 our days 
 
 Whereby our children bear the palm, the paeon 
 and the praise. 
 
 15 
 
THE ELEPHANT'S NIGHTMARE 
 
 Sir Gormand dwelt in days before 
 
 The tusked lords decreed 
 No living creature e'er might serve 
 
 Them for their belly need ; 
 But all must plow the furrowed ground 
 
 Or forage for their feed. 
 
 Wherefore he dined, one August eve, 
 On cheer glad gods might eat ; 
 
 On pheasant wings, gorilla chops, 
 On eggs of condor fleet, 
 
 On tongues of birds of paradise, 
 Turtles and tapirs' feet. 
 
 Flagons of musty peanut ale 
 
 With zest he did absorb ; 
 With nectarine and apricot 
 
 He stretched his ventral orb ; 
 Then laid him on his teakwood couch 
 
 With pendant carved and corb. 
 
 A proper place, that lofty couch 
 
 For tusked lords' repose ! 
 Ten times beneath an April sun 
 
 Melted the winter snows 
 While the deft artist wrought it out 
 
 With patient, mobile nose. 
 
 Four Bengal tigers propped the bulk, 
 
 With ivory claws unfurled, 
 Their forefeet braced against the floor, 
 
 Their hinder legs upcurled, 
 With mouths of porphyry, eyes of beryl, 
 
 And whiskers stiff impearled. 
 
 16 
 
Between, in carven curvature, 
 
 Four monkey bridges hung. 
 With chattering teeth and rumpled fur 
 
 In the air they swarmed and swung ; 
 And curly toes and tendril tails 
 
 Reached out and clutched and clung. 
 
 Benignant from the headboard gazed 
 
 An elephantine head, 
 With tabular, capacious ears 
 
 Like angel wings outspread, 
 Whence lotus 'broidered olive silk 
 
 Draped down about the bed. 
 
 Portent of calm and happy dreams ; 
 
 But o'er the foot malign 
 Crouched a baboon, a mandril huge ; 
 
 Beneath his brows did shine 
 Twin carbuncles, a dread to all 
 
 Incontinent who dine. 
 
 With poppy and mandragora 
 
 That couch was wreathed and wound, 
 The frail, white flowers of Sleep and Death 
 
 That blossom underground 
 In the valley of dreams, by Lethe brink, 
 
 With drowsy memories crowned. 
 
 But poppy nor mandragora, 
 
 Nor the lotus flower that grows 
 
 In far off isles and maketh men 
 Forget their cares and woes 
 
 Could give Sir Gormand pleasant dreams, 
 * Nor dreamless, deep repose. 
 
 17 
 
 I 
 
He sate within a palm forest, 
 
 Close watched by tigers four. 
 
 Beneath two banyans shone the moon 
 As through an open door ; 
 
 The dreary, uneasy breezes teemed 
 With stifled, wild uproar. 
 
 And round about from tree to tree 
 The monkey bridges hung ; 
 
 And 'gainst the rondure of the moon 
 Swart cocoanuts were flung ; 
 
 And howlers made unholy glee 
 The feathery leaves among. 
 
 The spider monkeys leapt and whirled 
 
 And tendril tails enlaced ; 
 With somersault and Catherine wheel 
 
 Their carnival they graced, 
 And sooty mangabes thumbed the nose 
 
 And menaced and grimaced. 
 
 The pard and libbard howled their dread 
 Through bayou and lagoon, 
 
 While tens of thousands came and came 
 And gibbered 'neath the moon 
 
 And weaved between the banyan trunks 
 In agitate festoon. 
 
 Those trees of unimagined eld 
 
 Groaned with their loathly fruit 
 
 Whose lively clusters overgrew 
 Their every leaf and shoot, 
 
 Screening the sky between their trunks 
 From summit unto root. 
 
 18 
 
So darkness came upon the knight, 
 
 Darkness and mortal fear. 
 Over him crawled stealthy feet 
 
 And clenched his neck bone near ; 
 The mandril glared with eyes of flame 
 
 And breathed upon his ear. 
 
 Sir Gormand quivered in the wrath 
 That nightmare frequent brings ; 
 
 But his limbs w r ere as the unthawed earth 
 On frosty morrowings ; 
 
 And the mandril wrung his tender ears 
 With nails like hornet's stings. 
 
 Then silence ; then the dark was rent 
 With screech and whoop and yell 
 
 Full of fierce triumph, wild despair, 
 Like laughter deep in Hell ; 
 
 And back to either banyan tree 
 The unravelling curtain fell. 
 
 The moon was gone and ebon space, 
 
 Intolerably near, 
 Teemed with dim sights he could not see, 
 
 Dim sounds he could not hear, 
 Grim woes and desolations dire . . . 
 
 And the mandril tweaked his ear. 
 
 He saw an horde of curtail apes 
 
 Forsake a grove of trees ; 
 They roamed o'er opal mountain peaks, 
 
 They roamed by wine-dark seas ; 
 Their hair grew sparse, their pelts grew pink, 
 
 And straight their crooked knees. 
 
 19 
 
Alack, though changed to outward view, 
 No fairer waxed each part ; 
 
 Fain would they clothe deformity, 
 But vain was all their art 
 
 Who could not hide the monkey mind 
 Nor hide the monkey heart. 
 
 Another tweak . . . The tigers four 
 Growled as with crash and jar 
 
 Of apish armies flamed the night 
 Incarnadine afar ; 
 
 The blood-red flower of agony 
 When Anarchy and War 
 
 Triumph volcanic . . . He who slept 
 Once more was put to pain . . . 
 
 Beneath the sapphire dome of noon 
 Girt 'round with ripening grain 
 
 And murmuring streams, a little town 
 Embosomed on a plain 
 
 Dozed ; and the conic, earthern huts 
 
 Baked in the torrid sun. 
 From squalid door to squalid door 
 
 The baby apes did run. 
 Their breed had never a tail to pull ; 
 
 Yet found they other fun 
 
 Viewing the abasement of their sires ; 
 
 For on a plaited mat, 
 Beneath a blown catalpa tree 
 
 A big gorilla sat, 
 On the white milk of cocoanuts 
 
 And idleness grown fat. 
 
 20 
 
Prone on the paunch before him lay 
 
 The sires, all skin and bones ; 
 They brought him mead and wine and oil, 
 
 And plumes and polished stones, 
 And prayed to kiss his regal toes 
 
 In whining monotones. 
 
 He rose from off the plaited mat, 
 
 Shapeless and swart and slow. 
 He spurned the sires and trampled them 
 
 Down in the dust below ; 
 And the baby apes played peek-a-boo, 
 
 Unmindful of that woe. 
 
 Then the heavens were sealed with clouds of 
 perse, 
 
 And Horror set his seal 
 On master and slave ; in mockery 
 
 Crashed thunder, peal on peal. 
 A quick and livid flame the tree 
 
 Where bondsmen wont to kneel 
 
 Struck ; blasted black the waxen flowers 
 And stripped the white stem bare 
 
 And seared the mat of plaited grass ; 
 The big gorilla there 
 
 Dropped with the rest and grovelling lay 
 Dowered with the gift of prayer. 
 
 Then from the peeled wood they made 
 
 An image stark and high, 
 Gorilla-faced ; and all bowed down 
 
 Before that effigy, 
 Fearing the heavy wrath of God 
 
 Who thunders in the sky. 
 
 21 
 
While thick and fast they swarmed and swarmed 
 
 About their simian god, 
 The big gorilla slowly uprose ; 
 
 With callous feet he trod ; 
 Nor longer feared the thing they feared. 
 
 He lordly stalked abroad 
 
 Over the prostrate multitude 
 
 With seasoned club on high ; 
 And right and left he struck, and stern 
 
 He watched the stricken die, 
 His people and his servitors ; 
 
 And when he drew anigh 
 
 The idol, both his palms he raised 
 
 And from his lips outwent 
 These words : " My power on earth is given 
 
 By Thee, Omnipotent, 
 To be a terror to my folk 
 
 And for their government.' 1 
 
 Before the carven block he swayed 
 
 As one deep drunk with wine : 
 u God of the storm, all praise to Thee ! 
 
 Thy power on earth is mine ! 
 Thine be the blood of sacrifice, 
 
 Since by thy will divine 
 
 "I rule ! " and they in the dust groaned back : 
 " He rules ! " and there and then 
 
 Hypocrisy, whose paths are dark 
 Beyond archangels' ken, 
 
 Crept into every mind and heart ; 
 
 And the apes were turned to men. 
 
 22 
 
Upstarted many a starved baboon 
 'Mid the transformed crowd. 
 
 44 Lies ! lies ! w their gaunt and grisly jaws 
 Vociferated loud, 
 
 44 Down with the liar who smites and slays, 
 The pitiless and proud ! " 
 
 Then hundreds rallied round their chief, 
 
 Heavy and stout like him. 
 Hibernian-lipped, they gripped and tore 
 
 Dismembering limb from limb. 
 Vermilion grew the sacred ground 
 
 Before the idol grim ; 
 
 And red with gore grew each clenched first, 
 
 And red with rage each eye. 
 They crashed in charge and counter charge, 
 
 With call and counter cry. 
 44 For God and king ! for God and law ! " 
 
 44 For life and liberty!" 
 
 Ages on ages, fanged with steel 
 
 Passed onward from that fight. 
 
 Unending legions wheeled and charged 
 In armour shining bright. 
 
 Like phosphor on the ravening waves 
 They crumbled 'gainst the night. 
 
 And the great aeon sunk in blood 
 
 O'er Time's unresting sea 
 Whose waves were faces, tempest-tossed 
 
 In hope and agony ; 
 Whose salt was the salt of human tears ; 
 
 Whose depths were mystery. . . 
 
 23 
 
The waves were dashed to white, white foam 
 Before Sir Gormand's eyes. . . 
 
 Again the mandril tweaked his ear. . . 
 Again the dreams did rise 
 
 By other shores, on other plains, 
 And under other skies. 
 
 The tigers yawned with snarling jaws 
 And crouched and took their ease. 
 
 The time was come whereof 'tis writ 
 Wars and their rumors cease ; 
 
 He saw the great millenium 
 Of Industry and Peace, 
 
 A land of millwheels ; round and round 
 They whirled the livelong day. 
 
 Slow, sullen rivers, serpentine, 
 The refuse bore away. 
 
 Tall chimneys vented smoke and fire 
 Against dull skies of gray. 
 
 That land with apes diminutive 
 
 Was peopled and possessed. 
 The big gorilla and all his brood 
 
 Had gone to lasting rest, 
 And sooty mangabes bore the rule 
 
 Who brotherhood professed 
 
 Unto briaerian multitudes. 
 
 The welfare of the state 
 Concerned them not ; they, practical, 
 
 In place and power elate 
 Strutted their hour and cocked an eye 
 
 And thumbed the nose at Fate. 
 
 24 
 
With variegated trick and wile 
 They got their gear and pelf ; 
 
 And what they could not eat and drink 
 They laid upon the shelf 
 
 Or gave away in charity 
 
 For love of God and self. 
 
 Their cups were crowned with ruby wine 
 And hours of pampered pleasure. 
 
 The feet of the night were jocund fleet 
 In bacchanalian measure ; 
 
 And Duty called them at the dawn 
 To get more earthly treasure. 
 
 Hungering millions, day and night, 
 
 Danced to a wilder strain, 
 Footed it still for pence and bread, 
 
 Capered and hopped in vain, 
 Each against all, with narrow brows, 
 
 Scarred with the mark of Cain. 
 
 O great Millenium ! Monkey Peace ! 
 
 Worse than the crash and jar 
 Of foughten field ! O trebly worse 
 
 Than all the ruin of war 
 When Greed sits in the counting-house, 
 
 Not in the battle car ! 
 
 Then all those millions stayed their feet 
 And glared Sir Gormand o'er 
 
 With canine grin intolerable ; 
 And lofty palms once more 
 
 O'ershadowed him, and murmuring swelled 
 To endless, wild uproar, 
 
 25 
 
Lauding that age o'er ages past, 
 
 Since electricity 
 And steam could take their idlest thoughts 
 
 And them from sea to sea 
 Fleeter than dreams to gain their goal, 
 
 Perfected apery. . . 
 
 The mandril smote Sir Gormand's brow 
 And smote and smote again, 
 
 And gave a yell demoniac 
 
 More hateful than the pain, 
 
 Like wolves that howl on wintry dawns 
 Over the newly slain. 
 
 The dreamer's limbs played puppetwise 
 
 Like palsied oaks ; his head 
 Shook and the dril careened away 
 
 And crouched above the bed 
 Carbuncle-eyed . . . and he raised his trunk 
 
 Aloft and trumpeted. . . 
 
 Through pomp of marble architrave 
 That trumpeting was borne 
 
 As when, behind the rock of dole, 
 Sounded Orlando's horn. 
 
 Sir Gormand oped a troubled eye 
 In the glimmer of early morn. 
 
 His ears were taut and bellied out 
 Like sails in a hurricane ; 
 
 His bosom heaved like seismic hills, 
 The sweat poured down like rain, 
 
 For the shadow of a figment woe 
 Afflicted heart and brain : 
 
 26 
 
As music lingereth plaintively 
 After the song hath died. 
 
 He rose and near a lattice leaned ; 
 The genial harvest tide 
 
 He viewed 'mid parian tracery 
 Acanthine ; far and wide 
 
 They trolled the song of the rising sun, 
 A youthful, tusked band, 
 
 And swayed in rhythmic majesty, 
 Those tillers of the land ; 
 
 Nor want nor violence nor greed 
 Did any understand. 
 
 'Mid the ripe grain for shade at noon 
 
 Rustled a grove of trees. 
 'Gainst the pale sky a chattering ape 
 
 Swung blithe from one of these, 
 Innocuous impertinence 
 
 Upon the morning breeze. 
 
 27 
 
TO MY LADY WHEN SHE SNORES 
 
 A SERENADE 
 
 Rest thee well, my lady fair, 
 
 For thy trunk attunes thy slumbers, 
 For the bulbul notes thy numbers, 
 
 Silent on the lattice there ; 
 
 And a single passion flower 
 
 Blooms upon the night senescent ; 
 And the moon, a candid crescent, 
 
 Shines upon thy jasper tower. 
 
 O the music of thy nose ! 
 
 Low reverberations, twining 
 From the soft and tender lining 
 
 Pinky tipped like budding rose, 
 
 Breathing repetendoes o'er 
 
 While the wooly bats are dancing, 
 Now retreating now advancing, 
 
 To thy modulated snore. 
 
 O beloved, unaware 
 
 Of the tusk of sharp love longing ! 
 
 Loud the sounds of sleep are thronging 
 Elephantine on the air. 
 Deep would grow thy blush of gray 
 
 If a dream within thy bosom 
 
 Opening like an orange blossom, 
 Told thee all I dare not say ! 
 
 28 
 
Lo ! thy nose, an elfin horn 
 
 Wakeneth echoes o'er the mountains, 
 
 Wakeneth rainbows on the fountains 
 At the opal birth of morn. 
 Lo ! upon the passion flower 
 
 All the dews of love are gleaming. 
 
 Only thou art still a-dreaming, 
 Dreaming in thy jasper tower. 
 
 29 
 
THE BRIDAL 
 
 Over the orient hills went he and she 
 Adown a road of marble by the sea, 
 
 Her light gray bulk against his darker gray. 
 On glimmering shores a golden fane afar 
 Under the trembling matutinal star 
 
 Wooed them to wed upon the break of day. 
 
 Their brows and tusks the myrtle did entwine, 
 And orange flowers and twisted eglantine 
 
 And either heart was ringed with living flame ; 
 Their vows they breathed as brave and pure and free 
 As wayward winds upon a sunlit sea 
 
 Who knew not wanton wile nor maiden shame. 
 
 Down cypress aisles they wandered, undismayed ; 
 The roadway changed to porphyry and jade, 
 
 Darkling beneath dim skies of promised morn. 
 'Mid tameless carolings of birds, apeep 
 To wake Aurora, clear and loud and deep 
 
 They heard the winding of an aureate horn. 
 
 They won the open ; there the golden fane 
 Dashed back the coming sunbeams o'er the main ; 
 
 They stayed their steps ; bright eyes bespoke 
 their bliss. 
 With spiral trunks upcurled, with lip to lip 
 Throbbing triangular, did either sip 
 
 The fervor of the last prenuptial kiss. 
 
 Like God's own head above that sacred shore, 
 Above the breakers' foam and crash and roar, 
 
 The sun uprose ; then from the temple nigh 
 Was trumpeted o'er crag and promontory 
 The matin hymn to hymeneal glory 
 
 'Neath the pavilion of the morning sky. 
 
 30 
 
Between the temple and the cypress grove 
 
 They stood one moment, hushed, alone with Love ; 
 
 Then passed the portico ; within the closes 
 Ten priests, mild-eyed, white as the driven snow 
 In violet vestment edged with gold below, 
 
 Swayed to the solemn anthem of their noses. 
 
 Forth came the great high priest before them all 
 In consecrated robes purpureal ; 
 
 His ears adorned with amaranth and moly. 
 Biped he stood and cygnet in its grace 
 Uparched the frontal arm upon his face, 
 
 While he pronounced his benediction holy. 
 
 " O youth and maiden, fresh with morning dew ! 
 Like earth and air your love shall be to you, 
 
 Irised with hope, forever to abide." 
 There was no need of troth and wedding ring, 
 Question, reply and ritual bargaining, 
 
 As these the crystal altar stood beside. 
 
 The choric trumpets sounded joy to them ; 
 The brows of both with emerald anadem 
 
 Were quick begirt ; then did the high priest 
 reach 
 Forward with supple trunk and readily 
 Knotted their noses tight as tight could be, 
 
 In true love mesh close coiled each on each. 
 
 With clear, swift fire not eagle's eye could bear 
 The crystal altar was effulgent there, 
 
 A million burning hues ; and there above 
 'Mid showering clouds of odorous nard and myrrh 
 With vibrant voice the god's high minister 
 
 Told unto youth and maid the lore of Love. 
 
 31 
 
The lore of Love ! to you, the simian born, 
 A scandal and a byword and a scorn, 
 
 Filed with your precepts, O insatiate ! 
 To these within the temple by the sea 
 A prayer, a glory and an ecstasy, 
 
 Sane with a nobler hope, a happier fate. 
 
 Then from the splendor of those mysteries 
 The twain went forth into the morning breeze, 
 
 While in their ears the anthem did resound 
 And insects joyous piped in winged bands. 
 Their feet made impress on the brown sea sands ; 
 
 Their trunks fell free, but still their hearts were 
 bound. 
 
 Thus by the radiant ocean did they go 
 Till the far music, rapturously low 
 
 Lulled to a rest ; anear a basalt cave 
 They halted like twin hills, where seaweed hung 
 Deep carmine from cool rocks and slowly swung, 
 
 And o'er the threshold broke each crested wave. 
 
 And there . . . but these their transports who can 
 
 tell 
 To men, that with their sin familiar dwell, 
 
 Where Aspiration is an appetite? 
 Men who create their image from the dust 
 Even as a deed of shame, in stealth and lust 
 
 Cloaked with the decency of eyeless night? 
 
 These did no sin nor stood on modesty, 
 That mammoth pair ; beneath no shamed sky 
 
 Between the rising and the falling tide, 
 Distinct unto the candor of the day, 
 Rapt in the joy that cannot pass away, 
 
 Their final innocence they sanctified. 
 
 32 
 
THE BURIAL 
 
 PRELUDE 
 
 Three days before had Death come unto him 
 Fleet-footed on the noon, when diamond light 
 Danced on the waters . . . but his hundred years 
 All, all extinguished, and the light of life 
 No more shone in his eyes, only the gleam 
 Upon his tusk of ivory. Then the wife 
 Embalmed his limbs in cassia and in myrrh 
 Mingled with wakeful tears. Then the four sons 
 Out from the couch and chamber carried him 
 To the Temple of Death, far hidden in deep vales 
 Where sunbeams came like vagrant guests. Him 
 
 there 
 They laid beneath an alabaster dome 
 On catafalque of agate opaline, 
 Where all the hues of the world waxed dim and 
 
 faint, 
 Translucent like the dawn over still seas. 
 And at the appointed hour on the third day, 
 White-hooded mourners gathered in the vale 
 And 'mid their gentle weeping, strewed they 
 The azure flowers of flax upon the bier, 
 Mourning his beauty and his bravery 
 And the unpremeditated words and deeds 
 Of kindliness o'er past and long ago 
 Forgot till grief restored the memory. 
 
 So, silent, passed they to their homes and fields; 
 But lone beside the bier the wife outpoured 
 Her love for him, vanished forevermore ; 
 Love that survived in yearning and in pain ; 
 Love that must live when all most loved was gone. 
 
THRENODY 
 
 Gone, gone forever, lord of all my life ! 
 
 Dust to the dust, thou gentle and benign ! 
 O what is left for me, thy wedded wife? 
 
 O weariness of days to weep and pine ! 
 O weariness of night to wake uncertain, 
 Hearing the wind still whisper through the curtain, 
 
 For my lone grief there is no anodyne ! 
 
 O like unto the mountain and the plain, 
 
 Decorous and immutable as they ! 
 Upon thy tusk the spiral gold was fain 
 
 Seven times the decade of thy wedding day 
 To show ; nor that the mutual love was sterile 
 The seven lucent stones of fruitful beryl 
 
 That diadem wise upon thy forehead lay. 
 
 Without thee and within thee all was true 
 Like to the rooted virtue of the palm. 
 
 No agony to meet and to subdue, 
 
 No evil passion for the heart's alarm ! 
 
 O now thy mammoth soul is overpast, 
 
 Strong as the redwood tree against the blast, 
 More sweet than alpine breath of meliot balm ! 
 
 Now is the soul of all things gone from me 
 
 With thy departure ! Now the cries and tears, 
 
 The bitterness of weeping ! Nov/ shall be 
 Death to the soul through all the dying years ! 
 
 The symbols of the happiness we borrow 
 
 To light the dawning of a distant morrow 
 Each but as nothing is not but appears. 
 
 Now nevermore for me, ah, nevermore 
 The trembling music of thy lover's sigh ! 
 
 The gleaned pasture we would linger o'er 
 Together, trunk to trunk and eye to eye, 
 34 
 
The sweet intoxication of existence 
 Banished to irremediable distance, 
 
 Since even the holiest love must pass and die . 
 
 Noblest and holiest die and pass away : 
 The rainbow glimmer over violet seas 
 
 Doth pale into the pitiless light of day ; 
 And then comes night eternal over these, 
 
 Night, universal mother sempeternal 
 
 Of all the blossomed hopes that still be vernal, 
 Heartaches, disasters and vain hours of ease ! 
 
 There is no life beyond the open grave, 
 
 Flowered and grassed forever for us twain. 
 
 From blind and icy Death we vainly crave 
 Always to live as on the earth again. 
 
 Yet still I know thou hast been and the sight 
 
 Of thee once made my life more fair and bright 
 Than summer roses after summer rain. 
 
 I look upon this earth with other eyes 
 
 Now that I know thy love was once for me. 
 
 Foreboding like a scourged demon flies 
 And lifts the veil of Night's immensity ; 
 
 And down the abyss of ever-present sorrow 
 
 A livelier hope shall come with every morrow 
 Than when in maidenhood I knew not thee. 
 
 Because the loves and watchful agonies 
 Moulded the apprehension of my soul, 
 
 Because an aspiration never dies, 
 
 Because in death thy love shall be my goal, 
 
 Because the domed skies and billowed ocean 
 
 And changeful stars all with a holier motion 
 About me evermore shall turn and roll ; 
 
 35 
 
Because at fragrant eve, on marble stairs 
 
 Where bloom the umbrageous aloe and almond 
 tree 
 Through arabesque of lattice unawares 
 
 A whisper of thy love shall come to me ; 
 Because thy spirit stirs my inmost being 
 And blinds mine eyes with tears that give me see- 
 ing 
 And turns my heart to truth continually ; 
 
 Because our passed vows are consecrate 
 An hope foregone hath come again to me ; 
 
 Come to dispel the bitterness of Fate 
 
 With fragrance of a happy memory . . . 
 
 My heart beguiles me that thou art immortal ; 
 
 Thy soul a greater splendor at Day's portal, 
 Thy voice a deeper music on the sea . . . 
 
 A splendor and a music I shall join 
 
 To thee espoused as here upon this earth ; 
 
 Though all unconscious that we thus combine 
 Nor mindful of the past at second birth ; 
 
 But each to each fulfilment and a joy 
 
 Even as long years ago when, girl and boy, 
 My heart encountered thine in childish mirth. 
 
 The pagent of eternity and time 
 
 Unto our mammoth hearts but half unrolled ; 
 The mystery of the ages half sublime 
 
 And half demoniac and all untold ; 
 What we both are and what we cannot know, 
 Now, now \feel like to the morning glow 
 
 That doth the frosty flowers touch and unfold. 
 
 36 
 
I dwell within the shadow of thy death ; 
 
 I live my life in doubt, but patiently 
 Though weary are the days of mortal breath 
 
 Sundered forever from the sight of thee. 
 Sundered and yet united, I abide 
 Till the long splendor of the morningtide 
 
 When all is lost in Love's immensity. 
 
 37 
 
THE FRUITION 
 
 That solemn conclave where the tusked lords 
 With signet and with seal, the bliss affirmed 
 For future generations, elephant, 
 Aid me to tell, O mammoth muse ! Thou erst 
 Of human rhyme disdainful ! Thou who dwelst 
 Afar with fulgent tusks of ivory 
 Sweeping the strings of a tremendous lyre 
 On peaks exalt beyond the sun, by streams 
 Cadent in sheer cascade, who drinks whereof 
 Scorns Helicon. Turn thou thy lotus eye 
 On these my labors, and the song is done, 
 High deeds commemorate and turned to song. 
 
 The hall was basalt with wide vaulted roof 
 Whence chrysolites the sunbeams from above 
 Transmuted to dim grandeur, and whose walls 
 Shone sombre as within a secret room 
 On moonless nights a mirror doth diffuse 
 The light of stars unnumbered and eterne. 
 On silver thrones unburnished sate the lords 
 Colossal, like to Memnon who awaits 
 Egyptian dawn, where 'mid the throng of gray 
 Out spoke the Priest of Love, with snow-white 
 
 brow 
 Domed abode of Wisdom and of Zeal : 
 
 44 Ye regnant powers of Earth! five hundred 
 
 vears 
 
 •i 
 
 Are vanished since from mother's womb I woke 
 
 Unto the rainbow's promise and the cries 
 
 Of creatures love subdued ; and I have seen 
 
 Changes innumerable as patterned leaves 
 
 In immemorial forests ; mortal wars 
 
 With monster hordes of ravage and revenge, 
 
 88 
 
Mimosa sheltered meadows, desecrate 
 As with an avalanche, things frail and fair 
 Ravished and crushed, hyenas' festival. 
 Then from a crimson ruin shone Victory 
 And Peace, effulgent with an inner light 
 Like far-off mountains 'neath a northern sky. 
 Wherefore to Thee, O Lord of stellar hosts, 
 I pray for benediction, Love supreme ! 
 Thy tusk shall rend the impious and thy nose 
 Upraiseth Justice like a beacon flame ; 
 Thou send'st the worlds a-whirling as a youth 
 Dallies with crystal spheres, his trained trunk 
 In joyance rotate ; Thee supernal wise 
 Not doubting, yet I pray." He bowed his head ; 
 And all the assembly nodded from their thrones 
 Exultant homage, venerable trunks 
 Sweeping the pavement, while the rooms without 
 Resounded glad with cymbals and with shawms ; 
 Music to God most high. Olympian calm 
 Succeeded, undulant with whispering, 
 As when the cedars of proud Lebanon 
 Brood o'er the passing zephyrs with the thrill 
 Of movement half allayed, and marmosets 
 With elvish eyes quick peering through the leaves, 
 Alone affront the silence. Solemn, slow, 
 Like monolith that brawny multitudes 
 Upraise at Karnak or by Ganges stream, 
 Enormous towered the Prince of Harvestry, 
 In roseate vestment with the bearded grain 
 'Broidered in gold, and words in wholesome store 
 Dropped from imperial lips : "Peers elephant ! 
 Your mammoth hearts are burst with thankfulness 
 Even as our garners ; wide alluvial fields 
 Gird the horizon which the brackish sea 
 Doth keep forever green, distilled to dew. 
 
 39 
 
We cannot gather all we grow from vales 
 
 Thrice rich with aged mold, from fragrant closes 
 
 Where flowers flaunt in variant arabesque 
 
 Hyperion's pomp, nor yet from wilder woods 
 
 Where prowl pied jaguars who the simian hordes 
 
 Drive to the topmost boughs ; and the broad Earth 
 
 Teems ; as the mother of a child new-born 
 
 Feeleth the breast grow heavy with the milk 
 
 And yearns to nourish and to be beloved. 
 
 'Tis told long erst how Famine walked the world, 
 
 Famine voracious, like a starved ape 
 
 Beat by the winter winds ; he set his seal 
 
 On every apish brow ; the idle dolts 
 
 Wailed in his dungeons while the thrifty wise 
 
 Hoarded from Destitution careful store. 
 
 Then Pestilence and Death, anointed kings, 
 
 Revelled and tyrannized on golden thrones, 
 
 Blaspheming Reason ! In another world, 
 
 Some vermin spawn may blunder to their woe 
 
 As hogs in Transylvanian wilderness 
 
 Root for the bitter acorn, emulous 
 
 Each for the largest nut Another world ! 
 
 To the utmost generation ours being free 
 From bitter bale. I, joyful, bring my sheaf 
 To lay before you, worthier than I 
 To count the why and wherefore of the seed ; 
 Secure whatever deliberation brings, 
 Abundance is a truth." He sat him down 
 Amid punctilious applause ; for none 
 Even in gorgonian visions e'er could dream 
 The tribulation and the toil of Man, 
 Lost Eden and an Abel and a Cain. 
 
 Then Phidian with mild eyes like tourmalines, 
 Lord of the arts acclaimed : u How fond ! how 
 vain ! 
 
 40 
 
Your gravest words our bliss to justify ! 
 
 Mine feebler yet ; for you have conquered Fate 
 
 Whilst I but marked the issue, dreaming still, 
 
 Dreaming away the summer afternoons 
 
 'Neath jasmine bowers and lush magnolias 
 
 By shady pools, unvexed with vagrant winds ; 
 
 About me sun-burned youths and maidens quaff 
 
 Empurpled wassail cooled with mountain snows ; 
 
 They polish jasper and calcedony, 
 
 Or carve in sworl and spiral intricate 
 
 The blunted tusks of elders, work outworn. 
 
 Shapers of aspirations, what are we 
 
 Without your aid who gave the wine and oil ? 
 
 We grace achievement with a coronal 
 
 Nor deem the partial tribute wholly vain. 
 
 I therefore, though a loiterer in your ways 
 
 Bring counsel unabashed. Of old we cleared 
 
 A mountain peak of adamantine snows, 
 
 And hewed a symbol from the living stone. 
 
 Over Hesperian meads of asphodel 
 
 Lofty it looms, with trunk to zenith raised, 
 
 Poised on exultant pinions. Underneath 
 
 A dreadful shape the massy feet crush down, 
 
 Leonine clawed but impotent to tear 
 
 From breast and throat the pillared heels away . . . 
 
 In face a woman, queenly beautiful, 
 
 Save for the eyes in terror concentrate, 
 
 The riddle of immortal agonies, 
 
 Indomitable pride and lies obscene, 
 
 Self-pity and self-scorn. The elephant 
 
 Stands fast against the skyline and the coast, 
 
 Aerial immensity. To him 
 
 The busy breezes of the all-fruitful sea 
 
 Bring breath of spice from laden argosies, 
 
 41 
 
With music, tender as a requiem lay, 
 
 Fraught with deep joy, with no false yearning 
 
 marred. 
 Him wanderers, pausing at their evensong 
 Acclaim Equality the Conqueror ! 
 
 O Tuskers, free and self omnipotent, 
 Yet erring still anomalies among, 
 Barbaric title, bravery long outworn, 
 Tabled in laws, graven on mildewed bronze, 
 Ages before the primal builders oped 
 The caverned wombs of hills to conjure forth 
 The topless towers of marble harmonies. 
 Then warlords urged the elephantine race 
 'Gainst Saurian foes deform ; and when those wars 
 Dissolved in seas of blood like wintry suns, 
 And Life was vernal with activities, 
 Clear, gifted souls by carle and thane elect 
 Over the laborers bore stringent rule, 
 Whilst Hope and Aspiration led the way 
 Unto their children in the aftertime. 
 Unto an heritage of joy and peace 
 From envy and care secure, the ashen fruit 
 Of sordid strife from others' dearth to gain, 
 Dark with no sensual dreams nor chance desires, 
 No Friendship feigned that seeks as in a glass 
 The likeness of the seeker in the friend, 
 No tainted loves, unsavory to the hours, 
 No Duty, mordant parasite of Lust 
 And Force and Fraud, the Cerberus of the World ! 
 A flaming heritage of joy and peace, 
 Surge upon surge, canorous to the skies, 
 Not to be borne by self-entrammeled souls, 
 Quenchless, intense, and not to be consumed ! 
 O bounteous carnival of peace and joy, 
 
 42 
 
Blameless and beautiful in brotherhood ! 
 
 Why should we bow a customary knee 
 
 Unfit for bending ? Nobleman and thane 
 
 Distinct by birth, not breeding, claim would lay 
 
 Unto a prouder title, elephant. 
 
 What matters now if one, his forebears dwelled 
 
 In woodman's hasty bunk and charcoal burned, 
 
 Whilst the other mustered cohorts in the field? 
 
 And how should ye, my lords, your power put forth 
 
 No laggards to coerce nor knaves, but those 
 
 Who by a generous instinct know themselves, 
 
 Nor fret nor fume competitive, but find 
 
 Their proper intuitions undisturbed? 
 
 Authority is now an empty husk, 
 
 That grates and rattles in the idle wind 
 
 As when a gorgeous poppy bursts the bud 
 
 Letting the calyx wither on the stem ! 
 
 Princes and potentates on silver seats, 
 
 Vacant your laws and high prerogatives, 
 
 Phantoms at best, and their originals 
 
 But phantoms too, nor hold validity. 
 
 Symbols of ancient suffering, long foredone, 
 
 Be they abolished now forevermore ! " 
 
 In silence, tanse as when a multitude 
 Look forward to an issue or event 
 Big with the fate of empery, and still 
 Patiently wait a sign the gods may show, 
 Flash of forked lightning or the flight of birds, 
 And still await in vain, decrepit rose 
 The Lord of Wisdom ; o'er him rolled the years 
 More slow than centuries to lesser brains. 
 Each month had left its mark on cheek and brow, 
 And dulled the gleam of eyes once bright and keen 
 As burnished steel, thrice tempered at the forge. 
 
 43 
 
Though not in years, in learning venerable, 
 He doubtful stood, revolving thoughts profound ; 
 And when he spoke, his voice was like the sea, 
 Muffled and hoarse, on ultimate, dim shores. 
 
 64 Brethren, despite our titles and our laws, 
 My heart in cloistral absence turns to you, 
 Even as I ponder neath the cresset's glare 
 On tomes of oriental charactry, 
 Their long forgotten lore to saffron turned, 
 Or blurred or half erased by careless Time. 
 And memories of your friendships glad my heart 
 What time, from azure dais, I wistful view 
 Gray youths untusked and olive garlanded, 
 For stern and sacred Science set apart, 
 Eager to tread her labyrinthine ways 
 That lead to Truth and Mystery. For me 
 Austerity my portion, also mine 
 The hope of nobler thoughts and nobler deeds 
 Outsoaring all at present done or known, 
 Wafted on intuitions of clear skies. 
 
 Thus to your words I lift wide ears of joy ; 
 Afresh the ichor pulses through my veins, 
 
 compeers strong and brave ! Your eyes minute 
 Are quick with forward hopes, and yet, and yet, 
 
 1 fear that gleam may dazzle and beguile 
 To prehistoric chaos ! This I fear. 
 Bear with my foreign sadness, aged fears, 
 Autumnal, sombre, chill as frost at dawn. 
 I patience urge, alleviating balm 
 
 That calms the wise and nerves to mighty deeds ; 
 Your high prerogatives are empty husks ; 
 So let them rot upon the parent stem 
 Until a natural breeze shall waft away 
 The poor, weak figment ; whoso premature 
 Would pluck, might tear the integument and draw 
 
 L.ef C. 
 
The vital sap. Yet why do I extol 
 Anomalies who seek the Truth of Truth ? 
 Because the Truth I seek, but never find ; 
 Naught I deciphered on that faded scroll 
 Save we must bow to universal laws 
 We know not of ; for Nature blindly bends 
 Unto her will our every fond design. 
 
 Yet from her secret store we Happiness 
 Have reft, and Pain is dead, the anarch Pain. 
 Only when nerves are jangled out of tune 
 Under the play of ecstasy too fierce 
 To make the hours seem normal, tremulous 
 We rail at inequality and law. 
 Yet these attritions save us from ourselves 
 And stir to goals else unattainable. 
 Woe to the race that feels them not at all, 
 Lapped in lethean languor, heavy eyed. 
 Nay, even now amid the noblest youths 
 Of our academy, methinks I see 
 A perilous relaxation ; circlewise 
 They sit upon the plots of careful turf 
 And study for perfection, and they grow 
 More subtle but less valiant ; they most quick 
 To feel and suffer and achieve are fain 
 To wallow in a mire of base repose ; 
 And all the brighter colorings of their dreams 
 Wax dim like misty moors at eventide. 
 Triflers at study and at exercise, 
 The generations pass whilst work and play 
 In idleness die down and tepid flows 
 The blood through languid veins ; or all too hot 
 In indolence of bursting health, perforce 
 More fiery frets in channels backward turned. 
 O then the Fear and Famine, from broad fields 
 
 45 
 
Neglected, and from orchards of rare fruit 
 
 With brambles choked ! O then the grosser minds 
 
 Try each to keep a little for his own 
 
 In selfish garners, internecine war 
 
 Where all is lost save a sad strength to bear 
 
 And battle and subdue and find inane ! 
 
 Where all the noble difference of clear spirits 
 
 Is rubbed away like heap on heap of stones 
 
 Alike, that make the refuse of the tide 
 
 On some bleak isle, alone, mid wasting seas ! 
 
 Then Pain, long dead, comes royal to his own 
 
 In dreadful resurrection, and the race 
 
 Bow done before him vanquished and fore done ; 
 
 While Happiness of old that steadfast shone 
 
 Prismatic mid the race, illuming each 
 
 Unto perfection, 'neath that dynasty 
 
 In some poor dwelling still an exile bides 
 
 Pallid and wan by slowly dying fires ; 
 
 But O ho w changed ! the furrowed cheek and brow, 
 
 The hollow temples gaunt, the bloodless lips 
 
 Curved in a patient smile that makes the heart 
 
 Catch and the blood run cold ! This fear I still. 
 
 And any bar to this processional 
 
 I would retain, however slight and frail. 
 
 Our laws and titles, now though empty grown, 
 
 Keep them I pray, O potentates and peers 
 
 If ye would keep our happiness supreme ! " 
 
 So the voice ceased and silence took its place, 
 Silence discordant, anger and regret 
 Striving with courtesy ; for each great lord 
 Baulked in dilemma, whether he should rise 
 In passionate harangue or hold his peace 
 Until debate should refutation bring 
 Circuitous, mid the maze of many minds, 
 
 46 
 
All hesitant save one ; the warlord, he 
 Who ne'er had tested tusk in ravening war ; 
 Peaceful, he drilled young athletes in the games 
 That give to youth its glory ; he alone 
 Sprang to his feet momentous ; fierce he stood, 
 Storm swollen, like a massy thunder peak 
 Against the welkin ; neath his gorget wide 
 Insistent throbbed his throat, each separate vein 
 Pulsing as valves a mighty engine stir 
 With vicious hissing steam ; loud rumbled he 
 With darkling frown ancestral for he felt 
 The sacred rage of warriors and of kings. 
 The laurel chaplet on his lofty brow 
 Quivered ; the bulky breast 'neath polished mail 
 Enamelled with the exploits of his race, 
 Heaved like a quick volcano ; thrice he raised 
 His trunk in rapid spiral ; thrice pealed forth 
 The national alarum, for many a year, 
 Unsounded, the alarum to mortal war 
 Evil engendered hordes to overcome. 
 The basalt walls reechoed at the sound 
 Tremendous, while each fretted silver throne 
 Shook to its base and every heart enorme 
 Thrilled at the tumult, thrilled and thrilled again; 
 As when old brazen bells, unused to toll 
 Grow ware of noise resillient that the wind 
 Bears to their lonely tower from battle fields 
 Or some far distant city that proclaims 
 Ovation to a monarch ; they though mute 
 With tongue inert, are tingling thread on thread, 
 Reverberant with a thousand memories. 
 So the great powers gave ear unto his words 
 That rang like iron mace on iron shield : 
 
 u The venerable sage is blind with lore ; 
 
 47 
 
His brain locked fast within itself, the key 
 Lost, and the wards worn down and rusty turned ! 
 Is this the royal robe of learning? this, 
 Beneath whose folds and draperies, hid to view 
 Delusion cowers, fond Error's fearful dream ? 
 Let him awake and walk within the fields, ■ 
 What time the jocund youths their matin song 
 Upraise and brooding forests and old hills 
 Glad echo back the strain ; he only views 
 Their stricter meditations, when the blood 
 Is quiet and concentric and the limbs 
 Passive and stilled, mute vassals to the brain. 
 But when December winds blow icy cold 
 And snow doth blanch the ground and murky clouds 
 The sun doth rift as with auroral swords, 
 While maids from cedar shelves and sandalwood 
 Fine linen take and velvet, broidered quaint 
 Through years and years of toil when not one hour 
 Was wasted on the whims of ugliness, 
 But every garment is a paragon, 
 Then to the North, these youths in troop on troop, 
 Further than flesh could formerly endure, 
 Through skeleton woods, o'er mountains, and o'er 
 
 plains 
 Onward and onward ever toward the pole ; 
 By lonely crags abrupt where eagles nest 
 And circle, screaming at a rock-bound world ; 
 Where sable spruces brave the breath of Night 
 And wolverines whine and hoots the great horned 
 
 owl 
 And all the air is dead and far at sea 
 An ice floe moves, pale emerald 'neath the moon ! 
 Still north with numbed trunks and thews that feel 
 The burning hoar frost, while the weary eyes 
 
 48 
 
Unvanquished gleam ; at last within a land 
 Where half the year is twilight and the sun 
 Skirts blear horizons, haply they give o'er 
 The march near some crevasse that rives the base 
 Of mountain on whose flank precipitate, 
 Glacial imbedded, glares in fixed death 
 That crested worm corrupts not nor fell Time, 
 A form thick shagged, ten oxen could not stir, 
 The mammoth, frozen in unlooked-for snows 
 Primaeval. These the perils they entertain. 
 Our sires, returned victorious from their wars, 
 Would blench at , and Sir Wisdom thinks and fears, 
 A craven in his twilight corridors. 
 Knowledge and Fear are equals in his brain, 
 Who teacheth Knowledge is the death of Fear. 
 I would not flaunt him ; but his fear is born 
 Of too much knowledge of vain subtilities, 
 And not enough where heart goes out to heart ; 
 There is no fear where excellence is known." 
 
 Ending, he strode to where the middle floor, 
 Cut in a bold intaglio, told the tale 
 Of budding love twixt maid and bachelor, 
 The first sweet dream. Here, static, he upraised 
 His trunk in jubilation, and the cry 
 Of victory resounded, like the strains 
 Of dulcet symphonies, where horns and viols 
 Thunderous accord maintain till choric din 
 Purged of its grosser elements, is borne 
 Upward in clarion call, like seraph joy 
 In Heaven engendered at the birth of suns. 
 And all the lords in awful unison 
 Responded till the rooms and corridors 
 Were vibrant with that ecstasy and wrath 
 In plaintive diminution fled apace 
 
 4!) 
 
Like driven scud adown Autumnal gales. 
 
 And when that harmony was hushed, uprose 
 The Priest of Love and all the air gave pause. 
 The lamps of chrysolite with comelier glow 
 Shone down while from an opposite recess 
 Two neophytes paced forth ; no milkwhite fawn 
 More lovely fair ; one, playful bore aloft 
 A crystal thurible that slowly swung 
 Whence every hue that Nature doth illume 
 Irradiant gleamed ; his mate a censer bore, 
 Fragrant with nard and myrrh and frankincense 
 In costly flame , they glad in infancy 
 Walked eager-eyed until the great high priest 
 His station took between them, all the three 
 Above the sculptured pavement, while their robes 
 Shimmered and scintillated like the wings 
 Of myriad mayflies on a summer noon. 
 Then, so the story goes, full oft retold 
 By aged grandsires, neath the echoing vault 
 A presence, poised on wings of living flame 
 Soared like an eagle, while the priestly voice 
 Fell through the stillness, sweet as honeydew. 
 
 " Both first and last, I hail the power of Love ; 
 It is our comfort and our recompense, 
 The ardor of the strife, the dust and sweat, 
 The goal attained, the prize and laurel crown. 
 All else is but a dream and emptiness, 
 Dispelled in its bright beams ; 'tis Love informs 
 The mind and heart to crafty labor trained ; 
 And every self, refined and beautiful, 
 The centre of a web of many dyes, 
 Is but the filament that Love doth spin, 
 Transient as cobwebs on the tasseled grass, 
 What time the morning sun drinks up their dews, 
 
 50 
 
Each drop an elfin rainbow; Love, the sun. 
 
 Therefore I charge you, fear not anything 
 
 Of passage and departure, or fell change ; 
 
 Whilst Love abides between our altar fires, 
 
 Still shall endure our temple consecrate, 
 
 Whose walls are as of jasper and pure gold, 
 
 Turrets of gold and every gate a pearl. 
 
 We may not backward wend to darker ways, 
 
 While this illumes to nobler thoughts and deeds; 
 
 Quiet content may never perfect be, 
 
 For still a larger perfect doth allure, 
 
 Joy upon joy a ladder to the skies 
 
 Even as our love grows larger with the use. 
 
 Then let us banish care and doubt and fear 
 
 And with these retardations, all the forms 
 
 Of differing dignity and futile codes, 
 
 Needless where none doth ill forevermore. 
 
 And if in distant ages, dire eclipse 
 Or cataclysm of the universe 
 Shall whelm the blameless race in glacial storm 
 Or scoriae upheaval, let it come ! 
 Come what may come, this ardor shall not fail 
 Amid the worlds that dom£d Night adorn 
 With infinite million hopes, to mortal eyes 
 Twinkling far off, yet each a mighty sun." 
 
 The incense gave its fragrance to the air 
 While the high priest his lofty seat resumed. 
 Loud from the outer courts all instruments 
 Throbbed in orchestral triumph, while the lords 
 Gravely their code made null and all their laws 
 And chartered titles ; whence alone should come 
 Unto the race true order uncontrolled. 
 Then from a hundred gates of aged bronze 
 On strident hinges, issued fleet of foot 
 
 51 
 
A thousand heralds, trumpeting afar 
 The tidings glad to Ocean's farthest bourne. 
 And all the tusked children of the Earth 
 Rejoiced that government had passed away 
 Leaving the rule to Virtue and to Love, 
 Man's butt and scorn, their glory without end. 
 
 52 
 
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