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 COPYRIGHT DEPOSff. 
 
COSMOS 
 
 By ERNEST McGAFFEY 
 
 The Philosopher Press 
 Wausau Wisconsin 
 
LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
 Two Copies Received 
 
 DEC 26 1903 
 
 Copyiight Entty 
 
 CLASS Q- X'xc. No. 
 
 / COPY^S t 
 
 
<^ 
 
 Copyrighted 1903 
 By ERNEST McGAFFEY 
 
DEDICATED TO 
 
 CARTER H. HARRISON 
 
 OF CHICAGO 
 
COSMOS 
 
 ONE 
 
 I 
 Go search the aeons an you will 
 Where withered leaves of Doubt are whirled, 
 And who hath solved this riddle, Life, 
 Or Death — that moves with sails unfurled, 
 Beyond the straining eyes of man 
 Marooned upon an unknown world. 
 
 11 
 Nor tongue hath told, nor vision caught 
 That paradox. Primeval Cause; 
 Each age has had some parable 
 Each age succeeding marked the flaws; 
 While shifted, with the calendar. 
 What men have termed generic laws. 
 
 in 
 Creed after creed behold them now 
 Like Etna on Vesuvius piled; 
 Till, scaled to earth by drifting sands 
 They lie in later days reviled. 
 And pushed aside by Time's rough hand 
 As toys are, by a peevish child. 
 
IV 
 
 For Priest-made dodrine reads grotesque. 
 And earthly worship is but dross; 
 Whether it be your Brahm of Ind 
 Or squat and hideous Chinese Joss; 
 Or Jove, aloft on cloud-capped throne 
 Or the pale Christ upon his cross. 
 
 V 
 
 Why que^ion ^ill the blindfold graves 
 
 Or pluck the veil of Isis dread? 
 
 Over Death's icy my^ery 
 
 A pall immutable is spread; 
 
 And never tear-wrung agony 
 
 Shall move the lips we loved — once dead. 
 
 VI 
 
 Why grope in labyrinthian mcize? 
 Why palter thus with doubt and fear? 
 The Pa^ is but the mollusc print 
 The Future looms, a barrier sheer; 
 The Present centers in To-day 
 The hope for men is Now, and Here. 
 
 VII 
 
 Believe no scientific cant 
 That man descended from the ape; 
 Gorilla-like once beat his brea^ 
 And grew at la^ to human shape, 
 To watch the flocks, and till the fields, 
 Harry the seas and bruise the grape. 
 
For though enrobed in savage skins 
 And though his forehead backward ran, 
 The brute was not all-dominant 
 Some spark revealed a Primal plan; 
 His brain was coupled with his will 
 The hairy mammal ^ill was man. 
 
 IX 
 
 And ever as the cycles waned 
 He came and went, he rose and fell, 
 At times transformed, as butterflies 
 That rise from chrysalis in the cell; 
 And oft through hate and ignorance 
 Sunk downward deep as fabled Hell. 
 
 X 
 
 But through it all, and with it all 
 How-e'er the upward trending veers. 
 He fought his fight again^ great odds 
 He peopled ice-bound hemispheres. 
 Endured the sweltering Torrid Zones 
 And damped his impress on the years. 
 
TWO 
 
 I 
 What romance ha^ thy childhood known 
 Of God-made world in seven days? 
 Of woven sands and swaying grass 
 And bird and beast in forest ways, 
 Of panoramas vast unrolled 
 Before a stem Creator's gaze? 
 
 n 
 Of rivers ribboning the vales; 
 Of plains that stretched in smoothness down, 
 And unborn seasons yet to be 
 Spring's violet banks, and Autumn's brown; 
 Bright Summer, mistress of the sun. 
 And grey-beard Winter's boreal crown. 
 
 ni 
 And when at length the scheme complete 
 Unfolded to the Maker's sight. 
 How He, Almighty and divine 
 Said in his power, "Let there be light!" 
 Gave sun and moon, and sowed the stars 
 Along the furrows of the night! 
 
IV 
 
 Lo! every nation has its tale 
 And every people, how they be; 
 Whether where Southern zephyrs loose 
 The blooms from off the tamarind tree, 
 Or where the six-month seasons bide 
 Around the cloi^ered Polar sea. 
 
 v 
 And Science with unyielding scales 
 Weighs each and all of varied ^yles; 
 And like a Goddess molds decrees 
 Oblivious both to tears or smiles; 
 Points out the error, reads the rule 
 And God with Nature reconciles. 
 
 VI 
 
 But who shall sift the false and true? 
 
 What Oracle the rule enforce? 
 
 Not man-made creed, nor man-learned law 
 
 Is wise to fathom Nature's course; 
 
 No sea is deeper than its bed 
 
 No ^ream is higher than its source. 
 
 VII 
 
 Vain hope to solve the Infinite! 
 Mere words to babble, when they say 
 "Thus Science teaches," — "thus our God"- 
 Thus this or that — what of it, pray? 
 The marvel overlapping all — 
 Go ask the Sphynx of Ye^erday. 
 
vra 
 We know the All, and nothing know; 
 The great we ken as well as lea^; 
 But sum it all when we have said 
 That man is different from the bea^; 
 And spite of all Theology 
 The Pagan's equal to the Prie^. 
 
 IX 
 
 And globes will lapse, and suns expire; 
 As ^ars have fallen, worlds can change; 
 Forever shall the centuries roll 
 And roving planets tireless range; 
 And Life be masked in secrecy 
 With Death, as ever, passing Grange. 
 
 X 
 
 And trow not. Mortal, in thy pride 
 That where yon beetling column ^ands 
 Rests Permanence; 'twill disappear 
 To sink in marsh or barren lands. 
 Where bitterns boom, or sunlight ^ares 
 Across the immemorial sands. 
 
THREE 
 I 
 
 Of old when man to being came 
 He fashioned Gods of brittle bone; 
 Bowed down to wooden fetiches 
 Or worshipped idols carved from stone; 
 And, locked in Super^ition's grasp 
 For sacrifice made lives atone. 
 
 II 
 And Fear was then the Higher Law 
 And fleshly joys the aftermath; 
 He knew no screed of Righteousness 
 And trod no ^raight and narrow path; 
 His Deity a terror was 
 A Demon winged with might and wrath. 
 
 Ill 
 And then where- Nilus dipped his feet 
 By Egypt sands, rose temples tall 
 To Isis and Osiris — Ptah — 
 And many a God foredoomed to fall; 
 Where sank the shades of Pharaoh's reign? 
 Whence have they vanished, one and all? 
 
IV 
 
 But whiles to other years advanced 
 
 And now by cosmic marvels won, 
 
 Men sought remote Pelagian shores 
 
 Where breeze and spray their tape^ry spun, 
 
 To wait the coming of the day 
 
 And there adore the rising sun. 
 
 V 
 
 This passed; the Gods of Greece and Rome 
 In splendor thronged the earth and skies; 
 Jove, with the thunders in his hand 
 Apollo of the ^ar-lit eyes, 
 Aurora, Prie^ess of the Dawn 
 And Pan of haunting melodies, — 
 
 VI 
 
 And countless more; their temples fair 
 Where reverent Pagans curved the knee, 
 Mid sweet, perpetual summer ^ood 
 While murmured as the murmuring bee, 
 The lulling sweep of li^less brine 
 Beside the green ^gean sea. 
 
 VII 
 
 And merged in island-wooded calms 
 By towering groves of ancient oak. 
 Where Triton's charging cavalry 
 Again^ the cliffs of Britain broke. 
 With horrid rite of human blood 
 The Celtic Druids moved and spoke. 
 
vra 
 Still wheeled the cycles; ^ill did men 
 With new religions make them wise; 
 Mahomet rose magnificent 
 As rainbow in the ea^em skies; 
 With Seven Heavens of Koran taught 
 And Houris with the sloe-black eyes. 
 
 IX 
 
 Brahm, Baal, Dagon, Moloch, Thor, 
 And legions more had long sufficed; 
 Heavens in turn with bliss diverse 
 And Hells with ebon glaciers iced; 
 And late^ on cele^ial scrolls 
 The prophets wrote the name of Christ. 
 
 X 
 
 We need them not; No! each and all 
 
 Will load Tradition's dusty shelf; 
 
 As shattered Idols, put away 
 
 To lie forgot like broken delf; 
 
 Humanity is over all! 
 
 And Man's redemption in himself. 
 
FOUR 
 
 I 
 The morning stars together sang 
 So runs the story, in that time, 
 When groves were loud with melody 
 And ripples danced to liquid rhyme; 
 Far in the embryonic spheres 
 Before the earth was in her prime. 
 
 II 
 Then first the feline-padded gales 
 Unleashed and prowling journeyed free, 
 To purr amid the cowering grass 
 Or roar in stormy jubilee. 
 Or, joining in with Ocean, growl 
 A hoarse duet of wind and sea. 
 
 m 
 And where by meadowy rushes dank 
 The yellow sunbeams thick were sown. 
 And brooks flowed down through April ways 
 O'er pebbled bar and shingly stone. 
 There first welled up in gurgling strain 
 The lisping current's monotone. 
 
 10 
 
IV 
 
 And oft was heard, in forest aisles 
 
 Where rocking trees of leaves were thinned, 
 
 And drear November wandered lorn 
 
 With wild wide eyes and hair unpinned, 
 
 A wailing harp of minor chords 
 
 Struck by the strong hands of the wind. 
 
 V 
 
 And Man, through imitative art, 
 With clumsy tool and method crude. 
 Copied these echoes as he might 
 To soothe him in his solitude; 
 And when that other sound was dumb 
 His reed-notes quavered music rude. 
 
 VI 
 
 And as the gentler graces came 
 To vivify barbaric night. 
 So Poesy, with singing Lyre, 
 Descended from Parnassian height, 
 With constellations aureoled 
 Her raiment wove of flowing light. 
 
 VII 
 
 And in Man's heart a thrill leaped up; 
 His eye was lit by prophet gleams; 
 He sought the truth of When and How 
 He voiced the lyrics of the streams; 
 His beard was tossed, his locks were gray 
 His soul beneath the spell of dreams. 
 
 u 
 
VIII 
 
 Thus numbers came; and Poets lived 
 To chant the glories of the Race; 
 Their rhyme on limp papyrus roll 
 Or etched on crumbling pillar's base, 
 Has long outlived the Kings they sung 
 And conquered even Time and Space. 
 
 IX 
 
 Aye! vain the vaunt of Heroes; vain 
 
 The deeds that once were thought sublime; 
 
 And vain your Monarchs, briefly staged 
 
 In tinselled royal pantomime; 
 
 Their House was builded on the sands 
 
 And they unworth a random rhyme. 
 
 X 
 
 Vain are the works of man; most vain 
 His bubbled Glory, Aye! or Fame; 
 More fragile than a last-year's leaf 
 Unnoticed of the sunset's flame; 
 And naught endures unless it stands 
 Linked with a deathless Poet's name. 
 
 12 
 
FIVE 
 
 I 
 How flourished then the lesser arts 
 As man to manhood slowly grew? 
 With blackened ^ick from ruddy fires 
 That on his cave refledtions threw, 
 He scrawled the rock which sheltered him 
 And thus the fir^ rude pidure drew. 
 
 II 
 And catching hints from Nature's lore 
 He squeezed his colors from the clay; 
 Steeped leaf and bark, and dyed the skins 
 That round about his dwelling lay; 
 And, urged by vanity, his cheeks 
 Were daubed with dash of pigments gay. 
 
 Ill 
 So, ever as the seasons died 
 His mind expanded with his will; 
 He saw the dry leaves touched with gold 
 And grass grow tawny on the hill; 
 Found etchings on the ruffled breams 
 And marked the sunset's hedic thrill. 
 
 13 
 
IV 
 
 And dreaming thus, with defter skill 
 He fa^ employed his nights and days, 
 Spun magic webs of chequered lights 
 And limned Odober's purple haze; 
 While women's faces from his brush 
 Fired, like wine, the se*er's gaze. 
 
 V 
 
 Until at la^ was handed down 
 Beyond the treasure-trove of Greece, 
 Beyond the ^rain that Sappho sung 
 And reveries of the Golden Fleece, 
 The art of Titian, Rubens, Thai, 
 And Tintoretto's ma^erpiece. 
 
 VI 
 
 Thus, too, as man with curious eye 
 Had noted outline, curve, and form. 
 In toppling surge or lofty crag 
 In woman's bosom beating warm. 
 In cloudy shapes revealed on high 
 Intaglios of the wind and ^orm, — 
 
 VII 
 
 He modelled from the pla^ic loam; 
 On shell and boulder graved a sign; 
 Chiselled the lately obelisks 
 With hieroglyphics, line on line; 
 Colossal wrought his haughty Kings 
 Or metal-traced the clambering vine. 
 
 14 
 
vm 
 And many an image was his work 
 And many a ^atuette and bu^; 
 Some that remain, but mo^ that lie 
 As shards to outer darkness thru^; 
 These buried under coral sands 
 Those cloaked beneath forgotten du^. 
 
 DC 
 
 Upon the lonely wa^es that Wretch 
 
 Where the Egyptian rivers croon, 
 
 And floats above the Pyramids 
 
 On tropic nights the lifeless moon, 
 
 The mightier waits, — the brooding Sphynx- 
 
 Half-lion and half Daemon hewn. 
 
 X 
 
 So Sculpture, pierced in mountain sides 
 Or dragged from Mythologic seas. 
 Still holds a sway; and worlds will bow 
 In homage yet to such as these — 
 The noble bronze by Phidias wrought, 
 The marbles of Praxiteles. 
 
 15 
 
SIX 
 
 I 
 To those who for their country bleed 
 To those who die for freedom's sake, 
 All Hail! for them the Immortal dawns 
 In waves of lilied silver break; 
 For them in dusky-templed night 
 The eternal ^ars a halo make. 
 
 II 
 In Hi^ory's tome their chronicle 
 An ever-living page shall be; 
 The souls who flashed like sabers drawn 
 The men who died to make men free; 
 Their flag in every land has flown 
 Their sails have whitened every sea. 
 
 Ill 
 On gallows high they met their doom 
 Or breamed ^raight the serried spears 
 Of Tyranny; in dungeons damp 
 Scarred on the ^ones their name appears; 
 For them the flower of Memory 
 Shall blossom, watered by our tears. 
 
 16 
 
IV 
 
 But Conquer, Glory, transient Fame, 
 What baubles these to druggie for, 
 When draped in sulphurous films uprise 
 The cannon-throated fiends of War! 
 What childish trumpery cheap as this — 
 The trophies of a Conqueror? 
 
 V 
 
 How many an army marches forth 
 With bugle-note or battle-hymn, 
 To drench the soil in human gore 
 And multiply Golgothas grim; 
 And all for what? a Ruler's pique 
 Religion's call, or Harlot's whim. 
 
 VI 
 
 And gha^lie^ far among them all 
 Where torn and Gained the thirty sod 
 With carnage reeks — where ^andards fly, 
 And horses gallop, iron-shod, 
 Are those remorseless mockeries 
 The wars they wage in name of God. 
 
 VII 
 
 Vague, dim and vague, and noiselessly. 
 The Warrior's triumphs fade like haze; 
 And building winds have heaped the sands 
 O'er monuments of martial days; 
 While Legend throws a flickering gleam 
 Where the tall Trojan towers blaze. 
 
 17 
 
vm 
 Yea! whether sought for Woman's face 
 Or, Conque^-seeking, seaward poured, 
 Or at the beck of Holy Church 
 War ^ill shall be the thing abhorred; 
 And they who by the sword would live 
 Shall surely perish by the sword. 
 
 IX 
 
 Yet whether at Thermopylae 
 Where battled the intrepid Greek, 
 Or Waterloo— their quarry ^ill 
 The red-eyed ravening vultures seek; 
 Where prowl the jackal and the fox 
 And the swart raven whets his beak. 
 
 X 
 
 And somewhere, though by Alien seas 
 The tide of Hate unceasing frets; 
 For dawn to dusk, and dusk to dawn 
 The red sun rises, no, nor sets. 
 Save where the wraith of War is seen 
 Above her glittering bayonets. 
 
 18 
 
SEVEN 
 
 I 
 How fared the body when the soul 
 In olden days had taken flight? 
 Had passed as through a shutter slips 
 A trembling shaft of summer light! 
 And all that once was Life's warm glow 
 Had sudden changed to dreadful night! 
 
 II 
 How fared the mourners; how the Prie^; 
 How spoken his funereal theme? 
 What dirges for the Heroic dead 
 What flowers to soften death's extreme? 
 Was Life to them a wayside Inn 
 Death the beginning of a dream? 
 
 Ill 
 We cannot know; except by tales 
 Caught in the traveller's flying loom, 
 Or carven granite friezes found 
 Or parchment penned in convent gloom; 
 Or here and there, defying Time 
 Some long-dead Emperor's giant tomb. 
 
 19 
 
IV 
 
 Where tower the ^eep Egyptian cones 
 By couriers of the ^orm bedrid, 
 Wrapped in his blackening cerements 
 Sahura lies in shadow hid, 
 While billowy sand-curves rise and dash 
 Like surf, again^ his Pyramid. 
 
 V 
 
 And on the bald Norweyan shores 
 When Odin for the Viking came, 
 A ship was launched, and on it placed 
 With solemn ^ate, the Hero's frame; 
 The torch applied, and sent to sea, 
 A double burial, — wave and flame. 
 
 VI 
 
 And when the Hindu Prince lay prone- 
 In final consecration dire 
 His Hindu Princess followed on 
 And climbed the blazing funeral pyre, 
 To ^and in living sacrifice 
 Transfigured in her robes of fire. 
 
 VII 
 
 Where the red Indian of the Plains 
 To the Great Spirit bowed his head, 
 On pole-built scaffold. Eagle-plumed, 
 The painted warrior laid his dead; 
 Beneath, the favorite charger slain 
 And by the Chief his weapons spread. 
 
 20 
 
We clothe our dead in modish dress 
 Du^ unto du^ the Preacher saith, 
 The church-bells toll, the organ peals, 
 And mourners wait with ebbing breath; 
 Oh! grave, this is thy mockery. 
 The weird farce-comedy of Death. 
 
 IX 
 
 Nay! bum the shell with simple^ rites; 
 
 Scatter its ashes to the skies; 
 
 And on the fairways of the clouds 
 
 In winding spirals let it rise; 
 
 What needs the soul of mortal garb 
 
 Whether in Hell or Paradise? 
 
 X 
 
 Aye! lost and gone; what cares the corse 
 When Death unfolds his sable wings, 
 Whether it re^ in wind-swept tree 
 Or where the deep-sea echo rings? 
 Be laid to sleep in Potter's Field 
 Or lone lona's cairn of Kings? 
 
 21 
 
EIGHT 
 
 I 
 
 Above unsightly city roofs 
 Where smoky serpents trail the sky, 
 Broods Commerce; in her fadories 
 A million clacking shuttles fly; 
 Where, choked with lint, in sickly air 
 The little children droop and die. 
 
 II 
 The rattling clash of jarring wheels 
 Against the windows echoing beats; 
 And when the pallid gas-jets flare 
 Where sombre night with twilight meets, 
 Like flotsam on the stream of Fate 
 The toiler's myriads crowd the streets. 
 
 Ill 
 With hiving tumult to and fro 
 Trade's devotees, a hurrying mass. 
 Through the long corridor of years 
 In due procession rise and pass; 
 To earn their wage, to seek their goal 
 And melt, like dew-drops on the grass. 
 
 22 
 
 .LofC. 
 
IV 
 
 And here, within the age of Gain 
 Our fore^-ma^ed harbors shine 
 With shimmering fleets; and we go on 
 To climes afar of palm and vine, 
 And in the warp of Traffic weave 
 A sini^er and base design, 
 
 v 
 Of mild and hapless Islanders 
 Who fall before our soldiers' aim; 
 Of broken faith — of sophi^ries — 
 Of sin, of blood-shed, and of shame; 
 Oh! Commerce, Commerce, who shall tell 
 The crimes committed in thy name. 
 
 VI 
 
 Turn, turn my Fancy, inland borne 
 Where Nature's solace shall not fail 
 To ease the heart; view skyey seas 
 Where cloud armadas, sail on sail, 
 Manned by the winds go warping down 
 Below the far horizon's trail. 
 
 VII 
 
 And as the budding willows blow 
 
 When March comes whirling pa^ the lanes, 
 
 With bird-note wild, and fifing winds 
 
 And undertone of sibilant rains. 
 
 On slopes where Winter's garment melts 
 
 Blue as the sea are violet ^ains. 
 
 23 
 
vm 
 Where cattle seek the shaded pools 
 And silence folds the sun-burned lands, 
 Her auburn tresses backward flung 
 Mid-Summer, like to Ceres stands. 
 Beside the fields of waving grain 
 With harvest-apples in her hands. 
 
 IX 
 
 And stealthily through winnowing dusk 
 I see the curling smoke ascend, 
 Where lie the farms; and evermore 
 Where hope, and health, and manhood blend; 
 While stubble shorn and pastures bare 
 Proclaim the waning season's end. 
 
 X 
 
 And as beyond the naked hills 
 The chill November sunset dies, 
 And cloudward now a phalanx swims 
 Where guttural honking fills the skies, 
 Black-sculptured on approaching night 
 And southward bound, the wild-goose flies. 
 
 24 
 
NINE 
 
 I 
 Behold the kindred human types 
 Tribe, Sept, and class. Race, Ca^e, and Clan; 
 Red, Black and Yellow; White and Brown; 
 Processions of Primordial Man 
 That wax apace, and ^ream across 
 In one unending caravan. 
 
 n 
 The Fisher-People with their shells 
 And dwellers of the Age of Stone; 
 The Kirghiz of the We^em Steppes 
 The Greek, the Turk, the Mongol shown, 
 The Goth, the Frank, — I see them pass 
 Like flash-lights by a mirror thrown. 
 
 m 
 So, too, the Arab, bumoose clad 
 Who braves the rifling Simoon dry, 
 Adrift upon Saharan tides 
 His awkward camels lurching high. 
 Long, lank, uncouth, but launch as Death, 
 Ships of the Desert, sailing by. 
 
 25 
 
IV 
 
 Note the Caucasian in his pride 
 Who prates of moldy pedigrees; 
 A mushroom he, compared in Eld 
 To the impassive, sly Chinese; 
 Their records co-extant with Time 
 And swarming by the sundown seas. 
 
 V 
 
 Each comes and goes; as came and went 
 Rameses* millions; in their day 
 What boa^ was made of Egypt's Kings 
 How God-like seemed their valorous play; 
 But cynic years dispersed their line 
 Swift hurried with the winds away. 
 
 VI 
 
 Aye! even as motes they had their grace 
 For a brief moment, son and sire; 
 Then passed; as foam that sinks at sea 
 Or chords which flee the Min^rel's lyre; 
 Where rot the walls by Sidon raised? 
 And where the long-lo^ hulls of Tyre? 
 
 VII 
 
 And all men li^en in their turn 
 
 To the same Sirens; greed of Gain — 
 
 Love— Hate— Revenge— the lu^ of Power- 
 
 And craze o*er fellow-man to reign — 
 
 Ambition's lure — these intertwine 
 
 Like links that form an endless chain. 
 
 26 
 
VIII 
 
 Since Power is but the infant's clutch 
 And naught so trivial as a Name, 
 What crucial proof shall fix men's worth 
 On lasting tablets write their claim; 
 So that their memories may fill 
 A niche within the walls of Fame? 
 
 IX 
 
 The te^ is not of Birth nor Race 
 Since each is worthy of his hire; 
 It re^s in what men do for men 
 Uplifted by the soul's desire, 
 To tread Life's fiery furnaces 
 And save their brothers from the fire. 
 
 X 
 
 And ranging far and searching deep 
 However though the annals be, 
 We find but one nigh faultless man 
 There was none other such as He; 
 The Jew who taught and practiced Love 
 The man who walked by Galilee. 
 
 27 
 
TEN 
 
 I 
 Enough my Muse; thy message ca^ 
 As ^one from out a sling is hurled, 
 Let drop to night; or re-appear 
 Where morning's gathering grey is pearled, 
 And the bent sun, like Sisyphus, 
 Toils laboring up the underworld. 
 
 II 
 Let be; thy wisdom knoweth well 
 The ju^ degrees of right and wrong; 
 Although mayhap unmarked by men 
 Shall fall the echoes of thy song; 
 Unheeded by the pilgrim years 
 Unrecked of, by the heedless throng. 
 
 Ill 
 And yet before the highways part 
 And thou and I in darkness dwell. 
 Do thou thy swifted Herald send 
 And this as final warning tell; 
 ' Banish all hope of gilded Heaven 
 And laugh to scorn the fires of Hell ' . 
 
 28 
 
IV 
 
 Phantasmal dance those dual sprites 
 
 Mere witch-craft mummeries of the brain; 
 
 The lying sorcery of the Prices 
 
 A worldly influence to retain; 
 
 Where shalt thou go? What que^ is thine? 
 
 Where falls the single drop of rain? 
 
 V 
 
 But Courage, Faith, and Con^ancy, 
 The cardinal virtues as I deem. 
 May well be worshipped, as indeed 
 The lilies of the soul they seem; 
 Undying in their fragrance rare 
 And glassed upon a sacred ^ream. 
 
 VI 
 
 Know thou, the Ideal Harmony 
 That fills all space, below, above. 
 Is not in Creed, nor Form, nor Rite 
 Nor in those things thou dreamed of; 
 But holds within its breadth and scope 
 The sole and only note of Love. 
 
 vn 
 Rejed all Creeds; and yet in each 
 Seek such material as thou can, 
 With here a tenet, there a thought 
 Whether it sprang from Chri^ or Pan; 
 And make the key-^one of thy arch 
 The common brotherhood of Man. 
 
 29 
 
vm ^ 
 And driving thus, a happier creed 
 In time to come shall bur^ its bud, 
 The pure air cleared of battle-smoke 
 And war no more by field and flood; 
 Where men can lift up guiltless hands 
 Uncrimsoned by a brother's blood. 
 
 IX 
 
 When nevermore in calm or ^orm 
 Shall hawk-like hover on the seas. 
 The canvas of opposing ships 
 Their pennants floating to the breeze; 
 And golden hopes will supersede 
 The apples of Hesperides. 
 
 X 
 
 When man-emancipated man 
 Through loftier purpose wins control; 
 With Ju^ice as his only God 
 To reign supreme o'er heart and soul; 
 And Love, sun-like, illuminates 
 The one, the true, the perfed whole. 
 
 30 
 
NOTES TO COSMOS 
 
Notes to Cosmos 
 
 Certain Lanzas once intended for the 
 original are here given. They are set down 
 according to the chapters in which they were 
 to have appeared. 
 
 Chapter Two 
 
 Of trees that birred in early Spring 
 The slow sap moving in their veins; 
 Of flowers that dyed the woodland slopes 
 The primrose pale, and daisy-chains; 
 Sun-kissed betimes, or overmoumed 
 By shimmery tears of sobbing rains. 
 
 Chapter Four 
 
 And all night long the re^less sea 
 Agai^ its barriers rose and fell. 
 Till grey-eyed Dawn, by lonely sands 
 Saw flash and fade the la^ broad swell, 
 Before her there the ebb-tide*s gleam 
 And at her feet a murmuring shell. 
 
And then were heard the Elder Bards 
 In full, Prophetic tone sublime, 
 Their eyes ablaze with ec^acy 
 And on their lips the living rhyme; 
 King-honored in an age of Kings 
 And on their beards the fro^s of Time. 
 
 Chapter Eight 
 
 And when a-down the bare brown lanes 
 Pattered the swift, white feet of Spring, 
 I saw the velvet-golden flash 
 That marked the yellow-hammer's wing 
 A-curve on high; and later heard 
 The robin, and the blue-bird sing. 
 
 Far seaward on unnumbered isles 
 Mid scent of spice and drowsy balm, 
 The lotos-eating Islanders 
 Lay soothed to sleep by utter calm; 
 Low at their feet the pulsing tides 
 And o'er their heads the tufted palm. 
 
 Chapter Nine 
 
 Stark warriors of the Age of Stone 
 With pri^ine valor all elate. 
 Who sought and slew the great Cave Bear 
 And robbed the tigress of her mate; 
 And, weaponed with the ax and spear, 
 Defied the towering mammoth's hate. 
 
And slant-eyed Mongols, yellow-skinned, 
 Who traversed We^em Steppes afar. 
 Drank mare's milk, and observed their flocks 
 White-clu^ered 'neath the Morning Star; 
 Or, sallying forth with lance and bow 
 Engaged in fierce Nomadic war. 
 
 On vine-clad hills was found the Gaul; 
 Above him gli^ened Alpine snows: 
 And lower down where valleys lay 
 Loved of the lily and the rose, 
 By moon-light tranced, the nightingale 
 Sang silvery-sweet adagios. 
 
DEC 26 1903 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 015 762 723 5 #