i DUST and LIGHT John Hall WheelocJc Pass T S 3 S ^ f . Boolc.jililL^___ GDHQRIGHT DEPOSIT. / / DUST AND LIGHT DUST AND LIGHT BY JOHN HALL WHEELOCK AUTHOR OP THE HUMAN FANTASY," "THE BELOVED ADVENTURE, "LOVE AND liberation" — they are still immortal Who, through birth's orient portal And death's dark chasm hurrying to and fro. Clothe their unceasing flight In the brief dust and light Gathered around their chariots as they go — — Shelley. NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1919 Copyright, 1919, by Charles Scribner's Sons Published September, 1919 ^^!> .e'^V .^'Ia . iJ ^"c-?t SfcP 20 :9!9 Id. A5 2 8 9 08 I TO HARRIET ANNE WEINERT IN GRATITUDE FOR HER HELP IN THE PREPARATION OP THESE PAGES FOR THE PRESS Thanks are due to the editors of Scribner's Magazine, The Centuryy Harper's Monthly, The American Magazine, The Forum, The Smart Set, The Bellman, The Bookman, The Dial, Poetry, The International, The Poetry Journal, Reedy's Mirror, McClure's Magazine, Contemporary Verse, The Lyric, The Poetry Review, Youth, The Art World, The Yale Review, etc., for their courteous per^lission to reprint many of the following poems. CONTENTS 7. Glimmering Earth CLOUDLESS MOONRISE ^^--EARTH SEPTEMBER BY THE SEA THE LONELY POET j^ STORM AND SUN THANKS FROM EARTH TO HEAVEN MIDNIGHT ,^ THE MOONLIGHT SONATA DAWN ON MID-OCEAN DEAR EARTH ^GOLDEN NOON /"^ MOONLIT EARTH ^ SUMMER DAWN • DEPARTURE 3 5 9 11 13 18 21 22 31 32 33 36 37 38 IX CONTENTS II. April Lightning PAGE 39 ///. The Awakening Dust THY KINGDOM COME I FROM A TRANSPORT t THE FAR LAND i^ LITANY EAGLES OF DEMOCRACY THE WORLD-SORROW HYMN OF MAN, 1917 85 89 90 93 94 96 97 IV. The Source OASIS REVELATION CHALLENGE REVERENCE woman: BIRTH AND THE RETURN THROUGH LOVE ADORATION / ALL THE MORE 101 103 106 107 109 112 113 CONTENTS V, Earth Puts Forth Her Dream THE OPENING BARS OF WAGNEr's **RING" 117 ERNEST DOWSON 118 swinburne 119 Shakespeare's juliet: in the vault of THE CAPULETS 120 the seventh symphony 121 LILITH 122 rossetti ■ 123 beethoven 124 TOLSTOI 125 t- VI. Be Born Again! 127 VII. Song of the Moth THE SELF WINE OF THE WORLD ZENITH THE PRESENCE THE MAN TO HIS DEAD POET xi 157 158 160 161 163 CONTENTS PAGE 170 / RETURN AFTER DEATH 171 . THE DEAD POET 174 /- EXILE FROM GOD 175 r. VANISHED 176 THE GREAT SURRENDER 177 TOWARD THE BRIGHT DOOM 178 A HOLY LIGHT 187 I GLIMMERING EARTH Now fade the conflicts and the clamourings Of the loud day ; a steadier hand and higher Across the broad bosom of Creation's strings Draws the most holy bow of deep desire. CLOUDLESS MOONRISE BRANCHES, drenched with dew. Through the moonHght loom, Drifted moonhght Hes Deep across the room. Through the ghmmering aisles And wild country ways Drifts the fragrant mist. Like a cloud that strays. Far, and far around The grasshoppers' shrill Shimmers, and a lone Cricket from the hill Cries "I love, I love." Heaven's holy bound Overflows with calm Radiance all around. Heaven is like a room Bared, immense and bright. 3 CLOUDLESS MOONRISE Earth, each bush and tree. Drinks the solemn light. On her parted lips. Lost in slumber, lies The unuttered word Out of Paradise. EARTH GRASSHOPPER, your fairy song And my poem alike belong To the dark and silent earth From which all poetry has birth; All we say and all we sing Is but as the murmuring Of that drowsy heart of hers When from her deep dream she stirs: If we sorrow, or rejoice, You and I are but her voice. Deftly does the dust express In mind her hidden loveliness, And from her cool silence stream The cricket's cry and Dante's dream; For the earth that breeds the trees Breeds cities too, and symphonies. Equally her beauty flows Into a savior, or a rose — Looks down in dream, and from above Smiles at herself in Jesus' love. Christ's love and Homer's art 5 EARTH Are but the workings of her heart; Through Leonardo's hand she seeks Herself, and through Beethoven speaks In holy thunderings around The awful message of the ground. The serene and humble mold Does in herself all selves enfold — Kingdoms, destinies, and creeds, Great dreams, and dauntless deeds, Science that metes the firmament. The high, inflexible intent Of one for many sacrificed — Plato's brain, the heart of Christ; All love, all legend, and all lore Are in the dust foreVermore. Even as the growing grass Up from the soil religions pass. And the field that bears the rye Bears parables and prophecy. Out of the earth the poem grows Like the lily, or the rose; And all man is, or yet may be. Is but herself in agony 6 EARTH Toiling up the steep ascent Toward the complete accomplishment When all dust shall be, the whole Universe, one conscious soul. Yea, the quiet and cool sod Bears in her breast the dream of God. If you would know what earth is, scan The intricate, proud heart of man. Which is the earth articulate. And learn how holy and how great, How limitless and how profound Is the nature of the ground — How without terror or demur We may entrust ourselves to her When we are wearied out, and lay Our faces in the common clay. For she is pity, she is love, All wisdom, she, all thoughts that move About her everlasting breast Till she gathers them to rest: All tenderness of all the ages, Seraphic secrets of the sages, 7 EARTH Vision and hope of all the seers. All prayer, all anguish, and all tears Are but the dust, that from her dream Awakes, and knows herself supreme — Are but earth, when she reveals All that her secret heart conceals Down in the dark and silent loam. Which is ourselves, asleep, at home. Yea, and this, my poem, too. Is part of her as dust and dew. Wherein herself she doth declare Through my lips, and say her prayer. SEPTEMBER BY THE SEA THE morning makes a light upon the sea, Curving before me, Hke a crescent moon, With slender violet waves that gradually Kindle into the fiery fields of noon. Line upon line, out to the farthest rim They reach immeasurably, pale as the breast Of a sick child, and tremulous and dim. Save where the wind has kissed them out of rest So hard it leaves a mark all foam and white. O delicate, violet, autumnal sea. Like a wide field made for the sheer delight Of the cold wind to walk on, and be free, Like a clear harp made for the eager hands Of the September wind, chilly and pale ! There is a wistfulness about the lands When summer ebbs and all the flowers fail. Therefore I come to you that guard and keep, O changeless one, the memories of all things, 9 SEPTEMBER BY THE SEA The dreams of all the world in the vast sleep Of the pale waters, drowsy with murmurings. Here deep Eternity has conquered Time, No trace of ruthless autumn lingers here; But on the shore the roses cease to climb, And fading wings ebb with the tidal year. Love leaves the body, as summer leaves the lands. But the waves, like the heart, remembering moan; Therefore I sit beside you on the sands That I may mix my memories with your own: And the wide, level fields of the flat sea. Always the same, reach to the farthest bound, With waves lifting and lapsing wearily — And the eternal heavens all around. 10 THE LONELY POET NOW, while the loom of evening spins Her veil, the parable begins. And God with weariless delight Repeats anew the poem of night. Softly, softly flows along The rhythm of the eternal song — In tremor of light and shade is heard The lonely Poet's laboring word. Against the music of the shrill Grasshopper, and the starry trill Of the cicadas' cry, the lone Cricket's harp makes drowsy drone. And one pale star upon the breast Of lingering twilight in the west Trembles, far over in profound Rapture of light the stars are drowned. The cup of beauty to the brim Is filled with cloudy song and dim 11 THE LONELY POET Shadow of moonlight, everywhere From earth to heaven ascends the prayer. O Master, is it not enough ! But no, the insatiate heart of Love, The Poet's heart, for sheer excess Heaps loveHness on loveHness. Hark — from the leafy hill near by The owlet wakes, and pours his cry Into the poem of night ! Now grows Beauty too great. Heaven overflows. 12 STORM AND SUN OLOVE, now the herded billows over the holy plain Of the trampled sea move thunderously, and cast Their wrath on the dark shore — let us set out again, Let us make seaward, and be gone at last Into the choiring, clashing, wild waste of waters strown Around us, — forward — forward — , and leave behind The little frets and the fevers, just we two alone, Heart-free, as once in days long out of mind ! Forget the city and all its troubles, leave forever Our dusty ways! The Eternal 'round us rolled Shall wash us white of the little sins and fears that sever. Lave us, and leave us lovers as of old — Lovers as once in golden days gone by, till sorrow Fall from us like a robe, the martyrdom Of life on the daily rack: there shall be no Tomorrow, Nor Yesterday, but heaven and ocean. — Sweetheart, come 13 STORM AND SUN And on the swelling pillow of the Unbounded lean Your cheek, all fiery now — O let us press Forward, the changeful furrows of the flashing foam be- tween, Our glowing bodies into the Loveliness ! The waves shatter, the billows break us, the sullen wrath Of the surf beats down our foreheads. Line on line Rises the majesty of the sea to oppose our path With tingling bodies through the stinging brine; But in our jubilant breasts the embattled life at bay Exults fiercely for joy, the waves cry out And shout in answering joy, the salt and savage spray Showers our shoulders in the exuberant bout, Where we press forward, laughing for lusty love, and the hollows Receive us and rise, the foam of the breaker's crest Unfolds like a flower and dies of its kiss, and subsides, and follows, Laughing and loving, where our limbs have pressed: Till in the lustrous shadow of the last wave before us We bow, and from the rolling billow's might 14 STORM AND SUN Lift glimmering eyelids up, while hearts and lips in chorus Mingle with winds and waters their delight. Far — far — where the sea-bird sinks weary wings at last Before the wrath of the wings of the wind, the sea Makes moan, the inconsolable, pale waters are aghast. And shudder with dread of their own immensity. They murmur with one another, the voice of their vast prayer Sinks down in supplication, and the sleep Of the Supreme is stirred to whispers everywhere — The dark and divine sorrows of the Deep. Where the heads of the sea were holy and lifted in wrath divine Now broods the silence, heaven holds its breath, — Where the feet of the winds made music far out to the lone sea-line, — The rapture and awe and silence as of death! Hark — how the lonely sea-bird screams above the surges And inland reaches ! Now, far out, we roam The desert and dumb vast of the dread sea that urges Our fitful course far out beyond the foam, 15 STORMANDSUN } Toward the most pallid rim of cloudy noonday steering ! Steadily, while the fluent glooms and grave | Lap us and lift, repulse, and pause — the wild and veering ] Will of the loving and reluctant wave. | The sombre and immense breast of the huge sea ] \ Lifts in long lines of beauty, the supreme Bosom with its vast love rises resistlessly, ■ And lapses in long lines into its dream. ] Lone to the last marge — lone — lone — lone — < And void to where the huddled waters crowd : The brim — along the floor of heaven's darkened throne i Moves, like a ghost, the shadow of a cloud. \ Shadow and light pass over shifting, shine and shade ■ Vanish and veer, upon the chilly rim ; Kindle like crowns the cloud-crests along the east arrayed \ And swords of flame, like swords of the seraphim. \ The floors of the sea catch fire, the eye of the world's light j Dilates, and into a glory of glittering gold j Break the pale greens and purples; the sun in heaven's height j Unveils himself for all men to behold :\ 1 And all the world is a-riot, behind us and before, With fire and color — the heavens roll back their gloom, j 16 : STORM AND SUN From zone to zone, from the zenith to the everlasting floor, Reaches one resonant and radiant room — Light ! — Light ! The astounded, far fields of ocean shine Sheer gold and shimmering amber: where we take The lips of the wave with laughter your eyes are turned to mine. Sweetheart, your eyes that burn for beauty's sake. They tremble with happy tears and little words unspoken Trouble your lips; dumbly, dumbly we know ./Something starry and strange, that the world's wheel has ^^^ broken. Come back to us out of the long-ago. Put out your hand. O cleave the clasp of the close wave, turning Its fire to flowers ! Put out your hand, and move Forward into the radiant far reaches 'round us burning. Darling, as once in the old days of love. Our hearts drink the wrath and the wonder, the breath of the boundless spaces Hallows our foreheads, the exceeding might Of moving waters around us is music, and on our faces The glory of God is shed. His holy light ! 17 THANKS FROM EARTH TO HEAVEN GOD pours for me His draught divine, — Moonlight, which is the poet's wine. He has made this perfect night For my wonder and dehght. What is it He would declare In this beauty everywhere — 'What dearest thought of His is heard In the moonlight's secret word? To the human, the Supreme Poet speaks in wind and stream, Tenderly He does express His meaning in each loveliness. Simply does He speak and clear. As man to man. His message dear — Aye — and well enough He knows Who shall understand His rose! 18 THANKS FROM EARTH TO HEAVEN Night is but His parable Secretly where He would tell. As to an intimate of His, The mystery of all that is; Nor humblest, nor most exquisite Detail or phrase does He omit From His great poem, confident It shall be noted what He meant. And cunningly doth still devise New Aprils for His poet's eyes For whose joy all things were wrought. That without him were as nought. Holy Poet, I have heard Thy lost music, Thy least word; Not Thy beauty's tiniest part Has escaped this loving heart ! While the great world goes its way I watch in wonder all the day. All the night my spirit sings For the loveliness of things. 19 THANKS FROM EARTH TO HEAVEN But for lonely men like me It were wasted utterly All this beauty, vainly spent, — Unavailing lavishment. Little cricket, never fear, There is one who waits to hear — Nor is there loveliness so shy It shall escape a poet's eye. For the world enough it were To have a useful earth and bare. But for poets it is made All in loveliness arrayed. For his eye the little moth Wears her coat of colored cloth. And to please his ear the deep Ocean murmurs in her sleep. Rustle gently in the breeze For his delight the poplar trees, And in the song within his head The thanks from earth to heaven is said. 20 MIDNIGHT \ TOW in the still ^ ^ Shadow and glamour of the departed sun Beauty's immortal ritual is done. The divine word and will. Now, lost in lone Worship and breathless adoration, lies The loving at the beloved breast and cries His prayer up to her throne. Now thrills the dim Heart of compassionate and conquering love With solemn pride, and from her throne above Listens, and leans to him. No sound is here. Mysteriously the many are made one. — O peace, now the eternal will is done. And God's own heart how near ! 21 THE MOONLIGHT SONATA /^^LIMMERING meadows miles aroundy \ ^^ Drenched with dew and drowsy sound., i Drink the moonlight and the dream. Veiled in mists the lowlands seerriy ] Through wild ways and fragrant aisles ! Of the country y miles on miles, ] Drifting cloudlike without vnll, '\ And soft mist is on the hill. \ Everywhere earth's shrill delight Shakes and shimmers through the nighty Silver tides of music flow 'Round the world; the cricket's low Harp, the starry ecstasy Of the keen cicadas' cry With "/ lovcy I love, I love,* To the cloudless moon above Lifts the oldy the endless song. And the firefly among The low boughs and heavy leaves THE MOONLIGHT SONATA His hushed flight in silence weaves: Deeper than the love they sing. The unutterable thing. The sheer pang wherewith he glows. Burns his body as he goes. Now earth draws the trembling veil From her bosom cloudy pale, And the bridegroom of the night Flows to her in solemn light — Memories of the absent sun Dreaming of his lovely one. From that fiery embrace Wearied out, with lifted face. Tangled hair, and dewy eyes. Drowsed and murmurous she lies In the bride-sleep, the deep bliss After some exalted kiss, Swooning through the darkness dim; Still with memories of him Her hushed breath comes fierce and low. And the love that thrilled her so Speaks in slumber, from her lips The deep word of longing slips, 23 THE MOONLIGHT SONATA Fragrant is thy flowery hair, O beloved, everywhere Thy faint odour on the air, From dread arches of thy grace Wafted, what dark, secret place Of dusk tresses in the wild Midnight of thy locks beguiled. Beckoning vistas of thy sheer Maddening loveliness, the dear Curves of thy bright beauty, all Lure me to wild love: — the call Of past lives is in my breast, Premonitions, dimly guessed, Of seraphic, solemn things. Mingled lips and murmurings On cool nights that gave me birth. Yet, O mother, awful earth ! What stark mystery no less Breaks the bosom that I press Close against thy carelessness. Where the holy poem of night In veiled music and moonlight, Shimmering cries and stars and dreams. Onward in soft rhythm streams, 24 THE MOONLIGHT SONATA With reluctant pulse and pause To its lovely ending draws Thy long passion, when unroll The starred heavens, like a scroll. The old parable and story, Some transcendent allegory — Mother, mother, yet I know Of cool nights that whispered so When I was not, long ago ! When thy beauty, murmuring low. With abandon, like a bride. Throws her glimmering veils aside. The dread love I dare not say Turns my trembling lips away, Somethmg deeper, something more Than I ever guessed before, A new homesickness at heart Hungering for the home thou art; As the rivers to the one Sea with solemn longing run, So my being to thy breast. So my sorrow to thy rest. Thou art mother, thou art bride, By what dearer name beside 25 THE MOONLIGHT SONATA Must I name thee, must I call. Who art dearer far than all? On thy heart I lay my head — O what is it thou hast said ! — Secret, beautiful and dread — Lovely moment drawing near — Thought, most terrible and dear: To be one with thy complete Dark, sweet loveliness, my sweet. One with thy wild will again — To descend in rushing rain To thy ravished breast, to pour Through the veins that I adore, — Drink deep draughts of thee, and grow. Through long love and longing, so Into the beloved, flow In thy deepest pulse, at home In the dark and silent loam Drenched with thee, and tremble up In the lily's lifted cup — Odours, clouds, and starry haze, Breath of the wet country ways On cool, moon-clear, fragrant nights; Or where thy supreme delight's THE MOONLIGHT SONATA Radiant passion draws aghast Sobs of thunder through the Vast — Shuddering breath and murmur of Thy fierce wrath of sullen love — Laughter of thy mingling heart — In thy lifted lightnings dart Through awed heaven's glimmering bound, With bright laughter all around, With dark tears into the ground Glide, and slake with loving rain The parched caverns of thy pain! Rapturous bridal ! O wild heart ! To be part of thee, a part Of this holy beauty here — Sacred sorrow drawing near ! Sweet surrender — O my sweet. Longingly my pulses beat — Dazzling thought and fearful of The dear fury of thy love — Even now that draws me down. My faint body to thine own. Near and nearer yet, till I Tangled in thy being lie. Close and close, for sheer excess 27 THE MOONLIGHT SONATA Wearied out with loveliness: All this little self, this me. Soothed into the self of thee. Rendered up in ecstasy! Almost now thou seem'st to steal From my breast the self. I feel How my being everywhere, As in dream, upon the air Widens 'round me, till I grow All I look on, overflow — ; And into the life adored All the life of me is poured. Through warm portals of thy heart Drifting gently where thou art, Who art all things, in the breeze Stirring all the tangled trees To low whispers, how I pass Through each tiny blade of grass, Tremble in moonlight, and rise Looking out of other eyes — Mystery of mysteries ! Pang of self, and tragical Birth into the enlightened All — O dark rapture — to flow, press, 28 THE MOONLIGHT SONATA Cease into thy loveliness. With exalted weariness Render up myself, and be, Selfless, the dear self of thee, In divine oblivion One with the beloved one ! Where I press my burning face Weeds and grasses interlace: Sweetheart^ are these dewy, soft Tears for me, who must so oft Perish of thee to be thine f Deep I drink of you, divine Dizzy draught, bewildering wine I In the grass my head is bowed. The vague moon is in a cloud. From my breast I feel it streamy All I loved sOy like a dream — . Ahy I cannot understandy But the wind is like a hand On my forehead in caress. And the earth is tendernessy — Holy, grave, and very wise — The deep tears are in her eyes; 29 THE MOONLIGHT SONATA While around her sleeplessly Shrills the restless will-to-be. Passion for eternity Shakes in sound, and floats in light Through the darkness. Through the night Clouds f and dreams, and fireflies. And my songs of her arise. DAWN ON MID-OCEAN VEILED are the heavens, veiled the throne, The sacred spaces of the vast And virgin sea make sullen moan Into the Void whence God has passed. With His right hand He wakened it. The sorrowing Deep, to sweet dismay, — And sighed; with His left hand He lit The stars in heaven, and took His way. Leaving this loveliness behind: The inconsolable Vacancy Bears witness in the veiled night and blind To some depa'rted Mystery. Disconsolate for One withdrawn. Moan the vague mouths. One cold and clear Star, like a lamp, in the pale dawn Trembles for passion : God was here ! SI DEAR EARTH i DEAR Earth, thy soft and murmurous voice I hear, ' Thy drowsy cry of inarticulate love ' Drawing me downward to thy breast, above Thy drowsy breast I bend in joy and fear. i Fragrant and dewy are thy locks, dread bliss Breathes from thy body's arches. Sweet, I kneel, \ And all the senses from my spirit steal. ] Upon thy breasts I lay my reverent kiss. < But look — the hand of moonlight for a fleet Moment the dim and cloudy veil divides — Glimmers thy holy body like a bride's — My beautiful, — my dark-eyed love, — my sweet ! Darling, deep of thy dewy tears I drink, — Too fain of thee, alas, too full of thee. Faints of thyself my being utterly — Sweetheart, into thine arms in death I sink. GOLDEN NOON NOW part the heavens in cloudless glory, And the wide eye of the world's light Reopens, like a flower dilating. And floods the world with golden might. Rose of the heaven ! Heavy flower In the clean meadows of the sky ! Shed forth the odour of thy splendour. Thy dazzled perfume from on high. The massive thunder of thy music Makes holy harmonies afar, The starry mouths are mute before thee, O sumptuous and sovereign star ! Great chords of light, gigantic, shaken With heavy vibrance and immense — The gorgeous trumpets of thy zenith And noon of thy magnificence ! Though soundless to the sensual hearing. With sonant light thrilled through and through- 33 GOLDEN NOON Thine awful and august desire On horns of gold blown down the Blue ! Priest of the world, in radiance folded And veils of blue Immensity ! Shed thy triumphant light before us And trail thy robes across the sea. Shadows and star-beams fly before thee. The level floors of the blue Vast With lapse of trampling waves adore thee. And the soft twilight thrills aghast. Like phantoms, or like ghosts, dividing Before thy forehead's flame, they flee — Darkness and dreams in shifting hollows. And shadow-clouds across the sea. When on the wave of morning steering Breaks 'round the world thy steady prow; In rosy foam of light unfolding Heaven's billowing deeps dissolve. But now The mellow fields lie hushed and helpless Beneath thy most enormous might, 34 GOLDEN NOON And the crushed earth bleeds oozy color And golden drippings of thy light Beneath that steady weight and wonder. Thy ponderous glory over all. What solemn silence goes before thee Where all the woods were musical ! O Father ! Though I may not see thee, Nor save through tears to thy blurred face Lift up mine eyes, O blurred and golden ! Hear now my prayer, and grant me grace. Pour through my heart thy cleansing fire, That only is unknown of thee — Make broad my breast as the horizon, And spacious as the sunlit sea; Till all my life is searched and riven With eager ardor of thine own: Till from horizon to horizon And blazing zone to blazing zone The trumpets of thy light are sounded, And the wide heavens clear of gloom. Clean-swept, are blinded and bedazzled. And bared for thee one radiant room ! 35 MOONLIT EARTH THE quiet earth in cool felicity, With listless lips that all day long implored Rest of the sun, her lover and her lord. Sleeps in the moonlight of his memory: Though far from her, though vanished utterly Down fiery spaces, still his love is poured Backward in dream upon the most adored. With holy moonlight haunting land and sea. Still to that heart of darling love he yearns Homeward in light, while from lost yesterday Upon her face his lonely kisses fall; Remembering, remembering, he returns To the dear place, and sheds from far away The moonlight of his memory over all. 36 SUMMER DAWN HERE, in the pallid chamber, where I lie, Out of the hungry hollows of the night There comes a sombre and an ancient cry — Dawn flowers up along the windy sky. Immense and white. Laughable sadness fills me silently: Ever unto my spirit, whip-poor-will, You are the wail of days that used to be, The voice of my lost childhood calling me Beyond the hill. sr DEPARTURE ONE last look, and then — farewell to you forever, Room that I have loved, dearest place of all ! Softly through the window pours the lonely moonlight Slumbers on the bed, slumbers on the wall. Faint in glimmering fields the grasshoppers are shrilling As on nights of old, and a cricket, too. Bravely his one note drones solemnly and slowly, — Branches in the light droop all drenched with dew. Here is the low table where we laughed together. Chairs, where we have sat, huddle side by side: In the quiet night-time the old house is musing Deep on vanished days, and old dreams that died. Where my youth has sorrowed now lies only moonlight, — Moonlight on the bed — moonlight on the floor — , And across the pillow where your head lay dreaming, O my lost beloved, — moonlight evermore — . 38 II APRIL LIGHTNING j 1 In the harsh world of effort and of pain And many a buffet rude, the lands of death And fierce survival, see, — in the little room Sits the one kind, the one consoling thing — • Where your beloved with brave beauty dear. Frail body swaying, and laughing lips of love^ Lures your sad heart to the most fugitive joy. APRIL LIGHTNING A PRIL was in the air, ^~*^ Your sweet lips whispered, *'Take ! Bravely you bade love's will Be done for love's own sake. The Spring was full of kindness. And the heaven in your eyes, — Bravely you bowed and accepted Spring's loveliest sacrifice. And all your life in flower. Dear, to my very own. As the meadows to the Springtime, Lay graciously overthrown. 41 APRIL LIGHTNING II MY sweet is a thief; all life, all love, all song, From the loved breast into her own she steals- Life hastens unto the breast where life belongs, As a faint moth that toward a flower reels. Her body's vehement loveliness and light All joy, ail love, all hope, all song, all power. To be wasted across the chalice of her life. Lures with soft beauty, like an unfolding flower. Love is her beauty's slave that she compels To be wasted upon her sweetness night and day — , O Loveliness lures Love to die for her. Beauty lures Love to give himself away ! 42 APRIL LIGHTNING III THRILL to the core of my pulses, Dear, with your very own ! Let me drink in around me No self but yours alone, — o Feel you, and breathe you, and live you, Till the penetrant loveUness Even to the deep core Pervade me and possess ! Till quickened and drenched with your spirit. Saturate through and through, I tremble into your being. Myself no more, — but you I 43 APRIL LIGHTNING IV TOVELY night that drawest near, -L-' Thou art terrible and dear, — With the thought of thee at noon, Sweet and dread, my senses swoon. With the thought of the dear might. Her bared beauty in the night. That fierce sweetness unsubdued. Her wild ways in wayward mood. O my own, what must be done For thy sake, beloved one. Ere the morning, to fulfill The young ardors of thy will ! My blood trembles, my heart's beat Shakes, the life of me, my sweet, To thy life lies overthrown. That must give thee all his own. Idly the long hours stray. The long twilight of the day 44 APRIL LIGHTNING Faints, and dies for sheer excess Of the evening's loveHness!, In the self beloved he gives All his self away — and lives: Nearer is the hour sped, The dear beauty, dark and dread. So my spirit utterly Faints for thee, and dies of thee. That must be, ere morning shine. One with thee, and wholly thine. 45 APRIL LIGHTNING V IN that moment, Before at your heart I surrendered myself completely, Long, long did I look On the dear and the inexorable face; And as one about to die Might salute the conqueror, so I kissed it, Bowing my head, and heard The voice of Life from your breast calling, calling To the bright doom. 46 APRIL LIGHTNING VI OYOU are wise in many things, Between your languid breath and breath Heaves with a thousand murmurings The tidal pulse of life and death. All my desire, how vain it is. And all desire — ah, how vain You know, yourself have felt the kiss. The barren pleasure, and the pain; And smilingly, as from a height. You look upon me far below — And half in pity, half in fright. Lean down your lips, and touch me, so. 47 APRIL LIGHTNING VII SWEET, why will you still refuse. Still refrain, and still delay ! Bow — and let the old kindness, dear. Be done in the old way. Bow your head, and let the brave Miracle of the insistent Spring Pass, and be done between our lips. Here at our hearts that cling. 48 APRIL LIGHTNING VIII NOW, the stars of twilight One by one depart- Still your heart in slumber Trembles at my heart. O the darling beauty. Helpless as in death ! Love, for reverent rapture, Hardly dares draw breath Lest his breathing wake you Into grief again — , Lovely is the burden. Lovely is the pain. Nightlong will I bear it. Sleepless, at my breast. Not to stir your slumber — , Not to break your rest. APRIL LIGHTNING IX EVEN as the rose her beauty, flower by flower, i So Life sheds love with rapture, breath by breath; ! Blossoming deathward, we give ourselves away ) At the dear breast: Love is the path to Death. But the sweet Springtime body lures and lures; Even as the flowers, our very youth of May ■ We render up at the beloved breast, I At the dear breast that steals it all away. .1 50 APRIL LIGHTNING IF, reborn, you return To the earth as a boy. As a girl will I come To renew the old joy. O the eager boy-face — The dear eyes not unknown — The sweet, opposite strength That makes war on my own ! What grace will I give you. What bounteousness. And all the kind joy And the love I possess — In the Spring, in the Spring, When the hawthorne is white. In the midsummer night. In the silence of night, As you give me them now — , Though the lips be above, 51 APRIL LIGHTNING Or the lips be below. They shall greet you with love ! But if as a girl You return to the earth. As a boy will I pass Through the portals of birth; Still ever to be Through all cycles of breath. Through the soft revolutions Of life and of death. Your opposite ever, Your fate and dear foe — , Though the lips be above. Or the lips be below. 52 APRIL LIGHTNING XI WHEN your eyes are closed in love Softlier than soft lids in death Sealed forever, when your bosom Heaves with the resistless breath, — Ah, when beauty is overthrown, The breast shudders, the heart sighs. Bending over them I behold, Closed as in death, your love-closed eyes ! 53 APRIL LIGHTNING XII WITH what fierce and holy longing. With what ecstasy of pain, Toward each other that we need so, Sweet, we rush, we haste again ! From the fountain-heads of beauty. From the well-springs of delight With fierce rapture rearisen. Each on each, as day and night For the opposite dear other Thirsting, with immortal pain Slakes the loneliness of being In the self beloved again. 54 APRIL LIGHTNING XIII SO utterly did I adore thee That darhng night in dear embrace, Out of myself my longing bore me To the lost home, the longed-for place: And I became thee, my soul wore thee As her own body, for a space ! 55 ! 'J APRIL LIGHTNING XIV I DREAMED I passed a doorway Where, for a sign of death, White ribbons one was binding About a flowery wreath. What drew me so I know not. But drawing near I said, "Kind sir, and can you tell me Who is it here lies dead?" Said he, "Your most beloved Died here this very day. That had known twenty Aprils, Had she but Hved till May." Astonished I made answer, " Good sir, how say you so ! Here have I no beloved, This house I do not know." Quoth he, **^Vho from the world's end Was destined unto thee 56 APRIL LIGHTNING Here lies, thy true beloved, Whom thou shalt never see." I dreamed I passed a doorway Where, for a sign of death, White ribbons one was binding About a flowery wreath. 57 APRIL LIGHTNING XV TOVE, for the world your pity, or the gay L/ Moods of your careless and abundant grace, The language of the laughter of your face And lips of luring all the livelong day. But, sweet, for me in the lost night and lone The sacred frenzy of your breast of love Where the inexorable ardors move. And lips, all quivering, salt against my own ! 58 APRIL LIGHTNING XVI ET me here at your heart weep out my woe, All the wild shame, dear, and the nameless grief. Till the long sigh that brings the soul relief Sink back, and sorrow into silence flow. Where should I turn to, if not here, for rest — Or sorrow save at the source of sorrow bare? But O the gulf 'twixt spirit and spirit there — Alone at your heart I lie, alone at your breast, While the lost love droops dead between ! Too well / I know there is no loathlier hell than this, Than the cold touch of the first loveless kiss; But the tears fail us at the heart of hell. O only once, 'mid all the thirst of the years. To glut grief at the bosom that might make His heaven yet, and the whole heart to slake Once only with the wanton waste of tears ! 59 APRIL LIGHTNING XVII T HE weary joy and the familiar peace Wherewith we close, after long leagues of strife, Is older and more sorrowful than life. Up the sharp scale of beauty passion runs, And sinks, after the rapture and the pain, Into the grave and general doom again. 60 APRIL LIGHTNING XVIII T DO not love to see your beauty fire * The light of eager love in every eye, Nor the unconscious ardor of desire Mantle a cheek when you are passing by; When in the loud world's giddy thoroughfare Your holy loveliness is noised about — Lips that my love has prayed to — the gold hair Where I have babbled all my secrets out — O then I would I had you in my arms. Desolate, lonely, broken, and forlorn, Stripped of your splendor, spoiled of all your charms; So that my love might prove her haughty scorn — So I might catch you to my heart, and prove 'Tis not your beauty only that I love ! 61 APRIL LIGHTNING XIX I THOUGHT of you when in the pallid dawn Glimmered day's loveliest and loneliest star, Infinitely in the pale blue withdrawn, Touching my heart with beauty from afar; Where bending with her blossoms the white spray. After the passing of a sudden shower. Trembled all dewy in the wind of May — I thought of your white loveliness in flower. And once in the deep wonder of a dream You came to me, and your clear face was bowed Over my face, like light on a dark stream. And your soft hair fell 'round me like a cloud; And then I woke — but still, when you were gone. Like music in my heart you lingered on. 62 APRIL LIGHTNING XX TIS not your darling loveliness alone That draws me, the proud splendor of your face, Beautiful as a conqueror's on his throne. Or a swift runner's in an eager race; Not that carved throat, that chalice of sweet sound. Nor eyes that are the heavens of my prayer, Pale, perfect brows from many a conquest crowned Victorious, nor the halo of your hair. These the dull crowd gape after, little they Guess the still lovelier being hid from view, The pilgrim in this prison-house of clay, TVTiich is yourself, the very soul of you — Whose banner Love here flings to heaven unfurled. And bares his shining sword to all the world ! 63 APRIL LIGHTNING XXI LIFE let me squander and lavish -' Recklessly, without rest, And waste myself forever At the beloved breast — As Night at the heart of Morning, To become her, gives up breath- Faint, as at Song's heart Silence, Lost, as at Life's heart Death ! 64 APRIL LIGHTNING XXII FROM my own lips I drink your tears; Their taste is bitterer than gall. Is this the end, the end of all? Is this the summit of your beauty. Your beauty's beauty have I had? O sweet, and yet I am not glad ! 65 APRIL LIGHTNING XXIII i AH, never in all my life | Have I ever fled away | From the loneliness that follows i My spirit night and day. ] Though I fly to the dearest face, j It follows without rest — To the kind heart of love \ j And the beloved breast. \ ! Though I walk among the crowd, i Still I walk apart: / i Alone, alone I lie ' ; Even at the loved one's heart ! : 66 ] \ APRIL LIGHTNING XXIV WHEN the old evening was slowly growing gray My restless heart would leave me in peace no more, And I arose and wandered far, far away, As I had done a thousand times before. And when I had wandered far, far away, I lifted up my hands in loneliness once more, And prayed with all my heart, until I could not pray. As I had done a thousand times before. I prayed with all my heart, until I could not pray, /< For what I knew could be never, never more, And rose up in bitterness, and slowly came away — As I had done a thousand times before. 67 APRIL LIGHTNING XXV AGAIN the weary longing -i» Cries out in me for rest. That dreads, and yet desires The obHvion of your breast. Alas, too well he knows it — There is no other way — Again he must die to love you. As darkness dies of day. For pity's sake be cruel — Lean down your lips again. And give him the kind death, dear, That puts an end to pain I APRIL LIGHTNING j i 'i i \ XXVI I i THE shivering and shining waters move Under a low moon in the windy sky. The stars hang pale and breathless far abov O to be killed here by the things I love, To mix with all this beauty, and to die ! 69 APRIL LIGHTNING XXVII GIVE me your pitiful, soft hand, and lay Your cheek against my shoulder — let your head Rest heavily, and your loose hair be shed Where the heart breaks with what it cannot say: Springtime is in the air, the winds of May Rustle the silken curtains, and are fled — Give me your hand — ah, let no word be said — Let the great will of silence have its way ! You do not love me. And at last I know How far lies the lost land for which I pine; But in the lonely passion of my mood I feel your pulses toward my pulses flow. And the dear blood that through your hand to mine Whispers her pity in the solitude. 70 w APRIL LIGHTNING XXVIII HY wilt thou bow thine heart to mine, and shed Wild tears for me, as for one already dead? — Alas — and am I already dead to thee — \ O sweet, at thine heart, here at thy living breast, Am I already only one with the rest, A ghost, a memory ! 71 APRIL LIGHTNING XXIX YOU were the instrument on which I played, Such heavenly music from your heart I wrung And echo, where on the strings my fingers strayed. Of a new song that never yet was sung ! Now you have left me, dear, how shall I bear. When lesser hands over the chords are moved Of that most exquisite instrument, to hear All harsh and jangled the great song I loved? 72 APRIL LIGHTNING XXX UNDER your window, deep in the heart of the night, Something is crying under the starry sky, Between the going night and the growing Hght, It is I, it is I. Under your window cries without quiet or rest, ■ Something that cries, with the hurrying winds that cry, For the you that sleeps deep in the heart of your breast; It is I, it is I. 73 APRIL LIGHTNING XXXI WHEN I had need of you, you would not hear; Now that amid the anguish and the smart You turn to me, to the last crack of doom I will not fail, — O dear and careless heart ! 74 APRIL LIGHTNING XXXII ONLY yesterday these eyes Drank your loveliness that here Breathed and trembled — now it lies All in dust, that beauty dear: In the darkness of the grave Broken, broken, spoiled, and spent, — Like an unavailing wave. On death's shore in discontent ! No farewell you made, nor said Aught in leaving us, but bright, Careless, and disdainful, fled Back into the lonely night. Like a flash of lightning fleet, Blinding the soft sky of Spring, Was your beauty — O so sweet. And so swiftly vanishing ! 75 A APRIL LIGHTNING XXXIII THE thought of you is woven through the Springtime Like a sad minor in the psean of Joy; I cannot see the Spring and quite forget, Nor is the Springtime anymore the same. You were the tenderness of her wide hills, The patient longing and the wistfulness Of all her tremulous blossoms on the air Gently unfolded for the first, sweet time, — Her trustful loveliness in mute appeal. Each year repeats my sorrow but anew: When autumn darkens o'er the solemn lands. To me it is as if again I see Upon the face the most beloved on earth. The rapture and Springtime once of all my life, The first, sad lines of shame and sorrow there, Stealing its whole brave loveliness away. 76 APRIL LIGHTNING XXXIV SUCH flowers as I brought to you in life I bring you now to lay upon your grave. Now all your dear defiances are dust, And all your beauty broken, like a spent wave. O swift and sweet and most untameable. What pity should I bring you now to grieve you ! Ah, though from love you hid away your face Deep in the dark, yet love will never leave you. Now is all memory of you wiped away Out of all men forevermore, and yet, O foolish heart and most adorable, Though none remember, I will not forget! 77 APRIL LIGHTNING XXXV NOT your heart's kingdom did I abdicate i Where royally in splendor I had reigned, Nor base admittance, nor consignment deigned ; When the usurper hammered at the gate; \ But heavily and to the hand of Fate j Love bowed his head, to this extreme constrained — \ While deeplier his dying life-blood stained ^ The regal purple of the robes of state. Then through the outer court there ran a word, And from the throng a mighty murmuring Broke on his soul, in pangs of death deferred And anguish of supremest suffering. And far away a fading voice he heard, Crying "The King is dead. Long live the King !" 78 APRIL LIGHTNING XXXVI IN dreams you come to mock me. In deep night. When dark is all the earth and slumber-still. Save for the streaming of the pale starlight And far-off wailing of the whip-poor-will. Then through the room that held you once you move With the old carelessness and dear disdain, And lift your hands up in the way I love — And the old ritual we repeat again. Still from your lips that secret I entreat — The riddle still unanswered evermore — And to your lips your finger-tip in sweet Command you lift and silence, as before; And in the pallor of the waning night, Laughing, but silently, you fade away: And morning glimmers, and the feeble light Widens into the common blaze of day. 79 APRIL LIGHTNING XXXVII STELLA we called you, you whose young joy shed Light, starry bright, on these dark ways below; Now that her fire lies quenched among the dead, "Stella," we think, "bright star set long ago." 80 APRIL LIGHTNING XXXVIII YOUR loveliness was like a wave, The sudden stroke of her delight Flooded my heart's adoring cave: The shock of the beloved might Startled the gloom to starry light, That gave it back, and drank, and gave. But broken, broken is her strength. That vehement glory loved before, The sweet rage of her radiant length Shattered and shed forevermore: The adorable ardor, the dear might, Hurled itself deathward with delight,- And sank upon the sounding shore. 81 Ill THE AWAKENING DUST God is all things everywherey In Mind He wakes from slumber deep — Man is His eternal prayer. And the dust is God asleep. THY KINGDOM COME! NOW in the east the morning dies, The full light of the splendid sun Strikes downward on our lifted eyes And the long journey is begun: Across the shattered walls A voice prophetic calls. With tumult and with laughter We rise and follow after. The modern world, immense and wide, Awaits us, huger than before. With new stars swimming in the Void, And Science broadening evermore The sweep of the limitless Vast, The Past is dead and past; Yet through it all forever One voice is silent never. 'Mid iron wheels and planets whirled. The clanging city, in the street, — ^The machinery of the modern world — His lips cry loudly and entreat, 85 THY KINGDOM COME! Like one that lifts his head For a second time from the dead, — Out of the Ages' prison The new Christ re-arisen! O holy spirit — O heart of man ! Will you not listen, turn, and bow To that clear voice, since time began Loud in your ears, and louder now ! Mankind, the Christ, retried — Recrowned, recrucified; No god for a gift God gave us. Mankind alone must save us. Will you not hear hira — reach your hand !- From factory, tenement and slum His voice pleads vainly in the land, Ah, heart of man, the time has come ! The voice of Cain that wailed Grew sorrowful and failed. But a new voice rings deeper, "You are your brother's keeper." O world, grown pitiless and grim ! O world of men, had you but known 86 THY KINGDOM COME! Your brother is your Christ, through him You must be saved and him alone ! Love for his sorrows — love Alone can lift you above The pain of your misgiving, The doom and the horror of living. Within ourselves we must find the light And in ourselves our gods to-be, Not throned beyond the stars of night; Here, in America, we must see The love of man for man, The new world republican, — A heaven, not superhuman, Reborn in man and woman. Forward — ! Truth glorifies, not kills The ancient marvel of the soul, Each new progression but fulfills That wonder, — the wheels of the world that roll Thundering, but proclaim God with a louder name; Science, revealing, rehearses But vaster universes. 87 THY KINGDOM COME! Though the dark veil of dusk and doom You strip from off the Soul of things, Though with new torches through the gloom You hunt Him on untiring wings. And in the starry space. You shall not find His face; A voice comes following after Out of the dust with laughter. The Vision— the Ideal— the God- Not anything ever may destroy. Then let us follow, winged and shod With love, with courage and with joy; Herein alone is the truth, The glory and fire of youth. Herein all high endeavor. Forever and forever ! 88 FROM A TRANSPORT LAND calls to land, and on the huddled hills -^ Of field and city many a sound is heard Of horn and whistle, motor and gong afar; But we must follow down the trackless path Of the unfurrowed and abundant sea. Over the mute road of unending waves, — The desert of the Deep, divine and sad. Where between daylight and dim starlight blows Immensity, which is the breath of God, Between earth's warring nations ringed around. 89 THE FAR LAND WE are sighing for you, far land — We are praying for you, far land, All our life long, working, waiting, night and day: But as waves that die to reach the farther shore Break our hearts that die to reach you evermore — All our hearts are breaking, breaking toward that shore, O far land, so near and far away ! At the lips of the beloved. At the breast of the beloved, Like waves that seek the land, and sink forlorn — O to reach it we have died, but to that beach Where the beloved is love may not reach ! Our children's children even shall not reach The far land where all of us were born. Through the terror of the ages We have sought it, till the ages Have stamped our lifted faces with our love: But long though we have wandered, where we are The far land is not. O that land is far ! 90 THE FAR LAND Beyond the night, beyond the morning-star The far land grows further as we move. In music and in story. In song and sacred story We yearned to it, in color and in sound: But swifter than the soul the secret flies. The vision pales — beyond, beyond it lies. Beyond all songs, beyond all harmonies, The far land that we have never found. In the sweat of daily labor. In the anguish of our labor We strove to bind it fast in steel and stone: But lo — the walls were dust, the work was naught. And O it was not what the heart had sought ! 'Twas something dearer that our blood had bought — The far land that we have never known. Beyond long sea-horizons. Beyond sad sea-horizons Our furrowing keels have wandered in that quest; Beyond the sunset, tremulous and dear, Glimmered that land, but as our prows drew near 91 THE FAR LAND Faded the dream, the far land is not here, | The far land, the home-land of the breast. So we built ourselves a heaven, Our God we set in heaven. With prayer and praise we wrought them to our will: But they could not fill the measure of our love For the far land — O they were not great enough ! There is nothing, there is nothing great enough ! The far land is something greater still. We are sighing for you, far land — We are dying for you, far land. In the trenches, in the bloody ruck and blind. We are coming, we are coming, every breath Is a wave that bears us nearer to you, death Seals our cry. O might our children find ere death The far land that we have died to find ! 92 LITANY FAINT as the murmuring of a widowed crone That mourns one memory forevermore, (Now that she sees it all— O now at last !) Hark — in the church the thin voice of the World, Repeating sad, repentant words, and slow, For the old murder of her patient Christ. O now she sorrows for Him — hark — how soft . . . Who loved her in her youth, when all her breast Was strong and cruel as a laughing girl's. 93 EAGLES OF DEMOCRACY CHAPMAN gone, and Lufbery flown his last brave flight to the farthest place ! — Bow your head for the dauntless dead — in grief and glory lift up your face — Raise a shout to the winds about, to voice the triumph of all the Race ! Yes, for still what the human will may dare to dream of the strange and new. Still we find the hand and the mind to dare the devil, and see it through — The hand and the brain to dare the pain, till doubt be slain and the dream come true. Csesar's pride may debar and divide men's hearts from men with the spears of war. These are brothers that make all others brothers and lovers from shore to shore — Man, not men, one s,pirit again in the struggle Godward forevermore. EAGLES OF DEMOCRACY Each in the Race, not each in his place, the king and the beggar, the sage and the clod. Lives or dies, must sink or rise; on the road of the ages that Man has trod All together v/e brave the weather— the upward march of the soul toward God. Though to the earth, whence we all have birth, their bodies sank when the worst was done. Not with these down the baffled breeze their souls sank, soaring beyond and on. Upward ever, and on forever, till all the glory of all be won. Hail, all hail, in the beating gale still battling onward against the blast ! The motors hum and the stars cry "Come — ." Hail! All hail ! And farewell at last — Song would follow, but sinks back hollow and worn with winging the windy Vast. 95 THE WORLD-SORROW IN dreams I found Her, by the crimson tide Of the world's tumult throned, — awful and still: Her sloping breast was like a slumbrous hill. Or mighty forest where all winds have died. There was no pity in Her face, nor pride, But flawless grief, and the unflinching will Of sorrow, voiceless and supreme, did thrill My reckless heart to reverence long denied. And to that dreadful and oblivious breast My songless lips and dreamless heart I pressed. And felt, in the large calm of Her embrace, The perfect and inexorable Truth Humble with hallowing hands my grieving youth Into the shoreless grief of all the race. HYMN OF MAN, 1917 ONOW to Thee, who art our God, We Hft our voices crying, "For the long path that must be trod Give us a faith undying ! " The years and ages roll, Still steadfast stands the soul: Strong love and flawless faith. Triumphant over death. Not anything shall conquer. Give us the victory, O Lord, Not beggarlike we cower — Man's will is his own holy sword, Within us is the power. The sad and sacred doom That bears us to the tomb Makes humble not our hves. More undefeated strives The God within us Godward. No less than what we will, we can — The ages shall fulfill it— 97 HYMN OF MAN, 1917 , ! Man is the highest hope of Man, I If he but only will it: j Though prophecy be dumb, i Yet shall Thy kingdom come ■ And not in heaven above, — On earth the reign of love 'Twixt man and man shall bring it. The centuries and the cycles groan : Before Thy vast desire, \ And all the starry heavens sown ; With everlasting fire; . Lo — Thou art everywhere, . In earth and sea and air, j The spirit and the clod — . In Man, too, dwells the God, i And who shall crush, or kill it ! \ 98 IV THE SOURCE Bewildered — rapturous — faint — Aghast, Life leans upon the breast of Love, At the most holy and triumphant bosom. In the revealing moment. With what pain, With what deep longing on the magnificent Breast, Beneficent, and eternal, and supreme. She leans her temporal beauty's sad, sweet weightl Ah, with what starriest longing all in vain Lies fugitive beauty against immortal Beauty — The life that dies at the breast of the Life eternal! OASIS VAINLY for what I longed for I searched from east to west, But ere my Hps had spoken The beloved heart had guessed. Under the tree of Life She lured my heart aside, — Ere my lips had spoken Silently she replied. I leaned to her body's beauty. The radiant loveliness — , Ere my lips had spoken Her beauty whispered yes. With graciousness of pity Abundantly she shared The bounty of her being. Her loveliness unbared, — 101 OASIS The never-failing arms And the sacrificial breast, For a refuge in the desert Of death from east to west. 102 REVELATION FROM the bright form now ghdes the veil, Leaving your slender beauty bare — Your loveliness, extreme and frail, Unfolds before me like a prayer In tender silence, the supreme Message of life, the wistful dream. The source whither all being yearns Glimmers revealed; the sacred source. Toward which all life forever turns, With secret and with subtle force Lures me and draws me, sounds her clear Challenge and invitation dear. All for which love so blindly longs Speaks in this presence; here is heard The hymn of hymns, the song of songs, Beauty's unutterable word Beseeching the proud heart of Pain, "Be born again, be born again !" 103 REVELATION All joy, all wonder, all delight Of beauty in herself, is bared Here at this breast, with exquisite Cunning for love's delight prepared. To weary life's rebellious cry The sovereign and serene reply — Deftly with darling prescience wrought To pleasure the beloved one, A spur upon the tired thought Of life seeking oblivion. For the old hope's sake ceaselessly Compelling him again to be. And I, that foolishly to Death So lately prayed that he might come. The sweet and the persuasive breath Of very Life, calling me home. Through all my recreant pulses feel- Tlie fragile splendor's mute appeal. Ancient, inexorable, and wise, Through countless ages still the same, To me the Eternal Kindness cries Out of this form, and puts to shame 104 REVELATION My traitorous heart: all unexpressed Passion sinks awed within the breast. And can it be, this flawless flower, This frame of all dear bounties must With every breath, with every hour Press toward the darkness? Shall the dust Such awful tribute ask? Ah, no — Eternal Pity, say not so. Yet so it is. Then am I proud That I the fate of all things fair And brave, that in the dust have bowed Their darling heads in death, may share; For the first time since I drew breath I know the holy pride of death. O Life, so insatiable, so dear — Sorrow resistless — for your sake At the bright breast of being here Again I bow, again I take With solemn tears the lips of pain, Here die to be reborn again ! 105 CHALLENGE NEVER the woman's heart was all subdued, Nor the last secret of it quite possessed; Lovely and tireless, and a challenge still. Laughingly, out of the weary arms of love Virgin it rearises ever again — Wayward, elusive, inviolable and fleet, A tantalus and a fierce loveliness beyond. 106 REVERENCE WHERE thy bosom draws profound The deep mystery of breath The dark churchyard all around Slumbers in the dream of death. In the heavings of thy breast. With resistless ebb and flow Lifting, lapsing, without rest The sweet wave comes to and fro. Where the inmost Awe sustains The dear being that thou art, Where the sovereign Rhythm reigns In the palace of thy heart. There I hear forevermore — Holy, tragic, and alone — How life's sea with sullen roar Ebbs in awe to the Unknown. 107 REVERENCE And I bow to thee, supreme Sumptuous splendor, flame that flies; I adore thee, fragile dream — The deep tears are in my eyes. 108 WOMAN: BIRTH AND THE RETURN THROUGH LOVE BEAUTY, you are the flame the breath Of windy and unwilling Death Quivers to quench, the battle-gage Flung in his face with whom you wage For us the immemorial strife Of love, our champion of Life — 'Mid the dark terrors and profound That girdle and curing us 'round, O Loveliness, your flag unfurled Is Life's lone banner in the world ! Your sweetness the proud heart of Pain Beseeches to be born again With promise of your loveliness That lures him lifeward still, to press Forward, nor faint, but for your sake The ancient yoke and burden take Renewed, the lonely and forlorn Adventure; till, from you reborn, Antares-like touching the earth 109 WOMAN: BIRTH AND And holy well-head of our birth, We, with the child's heart, reassume — And lips of laughter through the gloom — Our painful pilgrimage anew Back to the mother-land of you. Your pity falls like healing rain On Life that brings to you again. Still urgent evermore to be. His prayer for immortality. Ah, well enough you know the quest That leads him backward to your breast- Hearth of the Race, whereon the light Of the world's fire is kept bright Perpetually ! Sacred spring. From which we all are wandering. Whither we all return at last And, the long exile overpassed, From mother to beloved run Love's orbit, till all love be done ! Our varying and veering will Deserts you and desires still — We are the wanderers, you, the home Toward which we ever range and roam — 110 THE RETURN THROUGH LOVE i All we are wanderers, roam and range The hills of chance, you know not change. Keeping perpetually pure i The dream whereby we all endure. 1 O sacred well-head ! Fountain-sun. ! O far land, wooed, yet never won. And still beyond us ! Steady light, [ That leads us wandering in the night ! \ Still we seek backward, still return — The blind eyes brighten — yield and yearn j Our hungering hearts — from alien shores j The lost wave of the spirit pours | Homeward in passionate penitence J To the dear breast of Being, whence ' Our children's children rearise ; And seek you with the self-same eyes. : 111 ADORATION 'yHOUGH Death and Time shall break you, -■' There is a triumph here In mortal things and human. In tragic things and dear. — The shapely, stately splendour Of arms and breasts and hips. And the defeated body. And the defiant lips— ! The patience of your passion. The grave and the gracious doom- Are holier than all gladness, And lovelier for the tomb. O Beauty, holy Beauty, On whom the Eternal wars ! My choral adorations Shall echo to the stars. 112 ALL THE MORE ALAS, dear love, how humbled sinks your head -*»- Before the beauty of the starry choir — How suddenly is all your beauty fled Before the morning and the radiant Fire ! Pitiful are you, to the dusty doom Condemned, and to the sorrowful embrace Your body hastens mournfully, the tomb Shall swallow up the sadness of your face; And in the thought of the seraphic Wonder The thought of you sinks tired wings and tam( The height and depth of beauty, over and under. Derides and puts your loveliness to shame. The breathless awe of heaven, the white sleep Of star on star, makes you ridiculous. Our love before the Love that thrills the Deep Fades, and the fiery wheels roll over us, The holy, implacable wheels of all things moving Mercilessly forever. All the more, 113 ALL THE MORE Dearly beloved, sorrowful and loving, I seek your bosom, with the world at war. O sad and mortal ! O most dear Desire, Holy and human, with the doom at strife ! Beneath the beauty of the starry choir I bow before you, at the throne of Life. 114 V EARTH PUTS FORTH HER DREAM Behold the tormented and the fallen angel. Wandering disconsolate the world along. That seeks to atone with inconsolable anguish For some old grievance, some remembered wrong, — To storm heaven's iron gates with angry longing. And beat bach homeward in a shower of Song I THE OPENING BARS OF WAGNER'S '^RING" STEADILY Love begins to breathe and blow Into mute law sonorous life and strong; The first breath of the giant labours slow To lift on his broad bosom all that song. 117 ERNEST DOWSON /^^ BROTHER, what is there to say to you, ^^ Now that your feet have passed beyond the sun ! Now is the twihght waned, the dark begun. And the consoHng memories fall like dew. Alas, what has your dreaming brought you to ! O brother — ^what is this that you have done ! But peace, these are no things to think upon, — And evening brings the immortal stars to view. As one might lay his palm upon your breast And feel the pleading of your heart's demand. While yet it throbbed for life, though fain to weep; Now, when the stars have gathered you to rest, O inconsolable friend, I lay my hand Upon this page, and hear it, though you sleep. 118 SWINBURNE NOT in some twilit temple of lights dying And meditative thought, in no far place Was he sequestered, whose exultant face Was lifted in the broad daylight, defying, Like his own ocean's thunder-throated crying, The lost, gone stars in the sun-circled space: A spirit girded up for a swift race, And sent upon his purpose with no sighing. Not throned amid the silence of some star Deep in the lonely coldness of the night, But woven through the meadows near and far — A spirit laughing at his own delight. That veils his splendors in the sunset's light, And moves like music through all things that are! 119 SHAKESPEARE'S JULIET: IN THE VAULT OF THE CAPULETS ALAS, what is this maiden-flower, full-blown, And wasted on the mournful marge of death — This Beauty, white with sleep, and out of breath, That hurries toward the destiny unknown ! In the hushed tomb Love makes no humble moan, Triumphant over the silent face beneath Leaning, with tremulous lips and soul that saith Forever, gloriously, one word alone. O Juliet, your sorrow makes me glad, Seeing how Love and clamorous desire Through their own doom show grave and holiest, — And Youth, unconquerable and never sad. Although it sink beneath the starry choir Silent, with all the music in its breast ! 120 THE SEVENTH SYMPHONY WHEN on the mind's wide-echoed wildernesses High music fades, and ever fainter roll, Down endless sweeps and distant, dim abysses Receding, the storm- voices of the soul. The spirit swoons out of the longing face. O hungering face turned on an empty goal, The vision is but vanished for a space. We are but banished for a little hour. And set within this wild, unwilling place By God, inexplicable, and God's power ! But the vague voices grow more full and vast, — ^The voice once dimly heard in field and bower; Encompassing the long-lost arms at last, The old world-agonies fade down the Past. 121 LILITH SHE loiters in low vallies lily-grown That open toward the ocean, and the tree, Wind-blown, whereon she leans in reverie. Trembles to feel soft arms twined with its own. Her smile is like a sigh — ah, were it known Wliat stirred that smile so deep, so passionately, Dead sunsets, or the everlasting sea, Or pale wistaria on the breezes blown ! And still she dreams, and still her pallid feet Crush the white lilies to the tender sod — And still her heart with wild, attentive beat Throbs back the pleading passion of the sea. Regardless how along heaven's boundary Flashes the thunder of an outraged God. im ROSSETTI OMASTERLIEST sweet Heart, whose tight-tuned lyre Snaps at the one word, love, — and all along The vibrant chords a myriad memories throng, Sudden with long-felt want and dumb desire ! Even to the utmost straining of each wire The numerous notes sound solemnly and strong; Deeper than this no modulate tones belong. And than this note no notes reverberate higher. Lay your hand on its pause, and let it pass — One thing too mastering for its heaviest strings And holiest. Deeper in the deep heart sings, Tremulous as a weak wind on bowed grass, The innermost marvel of the soul of things, And for it all no words — alas — alas ! 123 BEETHOVEN ENG ages ere the human dream began, From the dim dust, through flow*ret, leaf and stone, With slow persistance and laborious groan. While the evolving stars their cycles ran. Through monster and through beast reptilian. And the dumb brute with inarticulate moan, This spirit has moved upward to its throne For a brief space, which was the body of Man. And dwelling there, restless and discontent, 'Prisoned a term in the repressive clod. Shed itself in a shower of shining sound; So Beethoven the last progression went. Unto that high Supreme from this Profound — , From Man, through Music, to concordant God. 124 TOLSTOI TOOK on this face, and ponder on him well -L-/ Who was the first to cleave the unknown seas !— Upon this brow broke the new thought of the world Whose waves we wander now with furrowing keel. 125 VI BE BORN AGAIN! Who shall lay bare love's inmost meaning, who Reveal the sovereign splendor on its throne. Or utter forth in language the unJcnownl — Old is all language, but all love is new. How may I tell you of this love that to Your bosom draws me from my very own. And wakes me to one need, and one alone, — love, the need to be reborn from you! There is no word whereby love may declare His holy will ; but in the breathless deed Of adoration, in the primal prayer At the beloved breast, he tells his need To the one kind and conquering heart, and she In the great silence answers silently. BE BORN AGAIN ! MY Love of you, like an angel. Entered in my door, To make his silent dwelling Beside me evermore. His eyes are deep and solemn, His eyes are pure and grave — Sacred to reprove. And vigilant to save. Across my singing of you He leans a golden head, Nightly, when I sleep. He sits beside the bed. He has your very lips, Your forehead and your hair. If I should awake. Still I find him there. 129 BE BORN AGAIN ! II OLOVE, now my life to yours in the moment of its greatest need Turns for the supreme compassion, and all my senses pray To your triumphant loveliness — O be great indeed And gracious, as befits a conqueror — turn not my love away ! But in the holy midnight of your tresses hide My hunted soul from the arrows of your face. O let me lie Close, close at your breast, and against the solemn pride Of your victorious heart hold close this heart that at your own must die ! It faints for the land of your far beauty — O let it break On the implacable silence of your bosom here ! Have pity on your lover — lay your arms about me for dear pity's sake, — Yet have no pity, pain itself from you is dear. 130 BE BORN AGAIN ! Hold me — O hold me close, that in the great moment I may know Your reassuring lips and breast that in the divine pas- sion move: Be merciful as a victor to the vanquished in the hour of his overthrow, Merciful as death, and inexorable as love ! 131 BE BORN AGAIN ! Ill I CANNOT look on the face I love, for the many tears, Nor at the heart I love sing of the heart I love; All the songs I had dreamed, where are they vanished away ? All for the aching joy something sobs in the throat. 132 BE BORN AGAIN ! IV FOR pity and compassion's sake Your holy beauty deigned to slake My bitter need of you, the pain That cried to you, and cried again. To my prayer your loveliness Whispered yes and whispered yeSy — To my need it made reply Silently, silently. And bravely still you lifted up To my lips the brimming cup Of your beauty, hushed and still, And bade my longing have its will. There was pity in your eyes At my pleasure, sweet surprise And friendly wonder, when you knew First my utter love of you. As one that barely understands, But pities much, I felt your hands Clinging, and around me thrown Your kind arms, like a mother's own. 133 BE BORN AGAIN! SOUL of all souls, like waves in the wild sea And ocean of all being, toward the shore And massive limits of death's boundary Moving in trampled lapse forevermore — Merge in my wrath, and let our mingled height, One instant foaming, catch with kindled crest Life's glory; — and with sullen wrath of might Thunder in music on death's golden breast ! 134 BE BORN AGAIN ! VI i ] WHAT is this memory, this homesickness, ! That draws me to yourself resistlessly, i As to some far place where I long tc be — \ This exile's hungering for loveliness ! Here in the night the face that I caress Lies like a moonlit land beyond the sea, A kingdom lost, toward which the heart of me, i Shipwrecked and worn, beats backward in distress. Have I been here before? How long ago. And on what pilgrimage and journey far Was lost this land remembered? By what star i Did I steer homeward? Only this I know. That all my being from my breast would go j To the dear home and heaven where you are. i 135 BE BORN AGAIN ! VII BEND over me, as if all heaven Leaned down to love me, let your hair j Fall 'round me, while, like stars at even', | Your eyes shine in the twilight there — I For a kind moment's happy space | Crowd the whole world out with your face. Now, looking up, I see above me, j Through fluttering lashes golden-grave, Your eyes, that almost seem to love me, j Open in that sweet way they have j Like flowers, your faint lips half-apart | Make feverish music in my heart. ; What sorrow can get in between us ; Here where your tresses shut away Longing and loneliness, and screen us j From all less beautiful than they »' Shut out, shut in with you alone Here, in this heaven all your own ! | Not the whole world with all its treasure , Has anything to give that is 136 \ BE BORN AGAIN ! So dear, so darling beyond measure, So marvellous and strange as this, When, bending over me, you do Make me forget all else but you. And now to my blurred eyes come stealing Such happy tears, as to confess Shames no man, from the founts of feeling Confused by so much loveliness — My blood trembles — my spirit cries In wonder, and worships at your eyes! 'Tis passed. A moment — and around me Rolls the harsh world again; but love With one white memory has crowned me — Not death itself can rob me of That moment, when I saw you there Bend down above me through your hair. 137 BE BORN AGAIN ! VIII THERE was a time when Love had built apart An altar for lone worship in your breast, From the world's rage a refuge and a rest, And drowned her myriad hearts out with one heart. "Be not as all the others " all his cry, — With terror of oblivion stung, the soul Around one loveliest head life's aureole Flings, 'mid the piteous hosts that hurry by. But now, to that dear selfhood humbler grown, — The woman's heart, so fugitive, frail, and vain — Love takes with tears the accustomed lips again. And the world-arms steal 'round him with your own. 138 BE BORN AGAIN! IX THE long, the autumn rain Bows down across the earth, The flowers die again At the breast that gave them birth. They die at the breast they love. They faint and fall away At the immortal bosom In the twilight of the day. So fain I, too, would die, At the last breath to feel The arms I love the most Around my sorrow steal. O come with silent feet, Come where I lie at rest, Stoop to me with your lips, — Cover me with your breast ! And death shall seem familiar. Dear, with your heart above, — So often have I died there, So oft, in the hour of love. 139 BE BORN AGAIN ! A PRECIOUS burden did my bosom bear, And still in desperation for the one, That from this breast of dark oblivion Might rescue it, I hunted everywhere; With that far lovelier breast of life to share The sacred secret that with me alone Had perished in the outer night. But none Echoed my cry, nor answered to my prayer. Then through the desert of this life I came To the last loneliest marge, and to the sky Lifted my hands in anguish and in shame. And ventured once again the eternal cry. Calling on the beloved without name, "Where art thou?'* And a voice answered "It is I !" 140 BE BORN AGAIN! XI STORM and black night without— but in this place, This little lamplit room, what peace I found. Dear, where the quiet kingdom of your face Reigns 'mid the lonely terrors ringed around! 141 BE BORN AGAIN ! XII SWEET, so insistent, so inexorably i You cleave and cling to me 1 Here in this long caress — • Humbling my wayward self to your wild loveliness; , Little you guess, 1 O dumb, insatiable eagerness, | Little you understand All that you ask for, all that you demand Of this worn heart that dies | Here at your own ! Sweet life that craves and sighs, \ Thirsty beauty and blind — ' O loveliness, so tender and so kind, 5 Compassionate lips and dear, ; Can it be you, can it be you that here, Ceaselessly clamoring, \ Demand of love this most extravagant thing : In dread abandonment ! ■ Will you not be content — j Would you have all, all, ] Body and heart and spirit for your thrall Inextricably one — ? i 142 I BE BORNAGAIN! Nay, is it not enough that I am none But yours, yours through and through Even to the inmost thought And throne of all my being, is it not Enough that I am yours, must I be you ? Then, Heart, to be possessed Recklessly hasten! At that lovelier breast Give up, — give over! — Take The death of selfhood, and for beauty's sake The immortal venture make ! Heart, let us dare. See — is it not sweet, is it not fair And worthy of your pain? Heart — die again — Die now, and for one shuddering moment live In the dear being, be You herself utterly — So from this breast you shall be born again—: Heart — give, give ! 143 BE BORN AGAIN ! XIII T ISTEN, dear love, now in this solemn light *— / The Eternal Silence speaks. What tremulous. Sweet, radiant word troubles the moonlit night — What is it God is trying to say to us? 144 BE BORN AGAIN! XIV SO royally you dealt with me, so great Your queenly ways of love were ! When with me You shared your being's bounty, recklessly I felt your life, triumphant and elate, Beat at my own that stormed the outer gate; When all my love prayed to you brokenly. With what inexorable ecstasy Lift to my lips the cup compassionate ! But when deep sleep had summoned you, and when I felt the life that late such largess dealt, Deep in your breast at battle, play its part In the lone fight with stealthy death, ah, then Dazed at your side all night I kneeled, and felt The tragic beating of one human heart. / i 145 BE BORN AGAIN ! XV GREATLY, undauntedly, you did endure With brave abandon and supreme consent To render up, in the accomphshment Of life, your holy body and being pure: Great in surrender, in your giving sure And weariless, still with magnificent Ardor of love, when love's desire was spent. Laughed in your eyes the everlasting lure. And all that loveliness, the loud world's pride. Mine in that moment, and how dear I know ! Yet dearer was an hour, when at my side You clung with eyes all blinded, and cheeks of snow. And beauty broken, — and quivering lips that cried Against my lips their piteous human woe. 146 BE BORN AGAIN! XVI n^IIE shoreless and the starless sea of night A With solemn tide of radiant moonlight flows. And gently through the window-lattice throws Upon your bosom chequered shade and light: Like a cathedral, bathed in gloom and bright With sumptuous splendor, now your body shows- In the stern marble of serene repose, Where reigned the sovereign and supreme delight. Hushed is your bosom's choir, and deep rest Broods on the altar, empty is the throne And silent is the answer in your breast That but so lately echoed to my own — Where are you fled from me, on what far quest In bright disdain, leaving me here alone ? 147 M' BE BORN AGAIN ! XVII ITCH had we learned of love, both you and I, His large exuberance and great-hearted days> Passionate grief and exquisite delays, Kinship and mirth beneath the open sky, — A refuge from the ancient mystery, Love that atones for death in many ways — The love that to the most beloved prays — Which is the prayer for immortality. Yet was the deepest secret still concealed, (Tenderly the great Being uttereth His truths most awful) till, with eyelids sealed In rapture's dread extreme, and breathless breath, Your countenance was known; and dawn revealed The face of love which is the face of death. 148 BE BORN AGAIN ! XVIII 'T'HE large days of the everlasting earth A Draw to sublime conclusion; in the mood Of ancient autumn, awful and subdued, She waits the death that is the door to birth — With bounty bowed against the days of dearth. Holy and steadfast — but drear leaves are strewed Over the tomb between her breasts, and rude Wail the huge winds that mock at April's mirth. Lay your frail arms about my weariness. Bare me that pale and patient breast again. Gather me to you in one deep caress ! For all my heart is breaking, and the pain Of life is on me, and the loneliness, — And death is dark, and love itself is vain. 149 BE BORN AGAIN ! XIX MOONLIGHT is memory; now the sun His radiant race in heaven has run. Backward he sheds from far away The hght of our lost yesterday. On the pillow where your head Lay dreaming, on the empty bed Falls the moonlight, on the walls The lonely light of memory falls. Where it rested your pale hair Has left its print in moonlight, where Your perfect loveliness did press Lingers a vanished loveliness. Gaunt in the moonlight the road lies That took you from my longing eyes. And one wide window, drenched with light, Stares out into the marble night. . . . 150 BE BORN AGAIN! XX ACROSS the west the star of evening glides, ^ Toward her, from the under skies that are, A sister hght moves upward in her car, With the slow pace of beauty that abides. The face of heaven is breathless like a bride's. But in the solemn vacancies afar Light answers light, star toward beloved star In sleepless love through the void heaven rides. So I to You across the world of things, 'Mid shining orbs and vapours uncreate. Through the wide waste with changeless motion climb ; So I to You across the Deep that rings, 'Mid glittering wheels and the fixed stars of Fate, Answer forever across the womb of Time. 151 BE BORN AGAIN! XXI OYOU, to whom across the universe I move along the orbits of my Song, Listen to me, and rise above the throng Of dissonant dischords, the primeval curse ! Not dreams alone are mirrored in this verse, But the great truth that makes Creation strong, That the heavens ring 'round with like an iron gong. And the innumerable stars rehearse. Through harmony, which is necessity Embraced with love, the very stars are free, And hang in heaven thereby, a sacred sign; And I, through you, shall be caught up above Myself, and you, beyond yourself, through love Console our passion to the laws divine. 152 BE BORN AGAIN! XXII 1HAVE seen a wondrous vision — stars I have seen, Sunset and moonrise — eyes that laugh and weep- MiUions of faces — and the one face I have seen: The vision falters, and I sleep. 153 VII SONG OF THE MOTH Night into the universe Frees us from the walls of day. And Death, into the starry All, When ourselves have passed away. THE SELF WHO reigns within my breast, the sovereign lord, How many a day this body that he wrought On many a dusty road has homeward brought, Or through the ringing surf that 'round me roared — Or through my lips the prayer to Beauty poured, Or wove the intricate, frail web of thought Wherein the flying dream of God is caught — , Or glowed against the breast of the adored ! How marvellous and strange is he that keeps The righteous rather than the evil way. And in my sleeping bosom never sleeps. But holds the ancient enemy at bay; And comprehends the firmament, and weeps Over the fallen dream of yesterday. 157 WINE OF THE WORLD CLOSE at the lips of Life I lay And drank fresh ardors all the day From the beloved eyes and dear That glowed against me calm and clear. And reckless still and with unrest Closer the silent lips I pressed, But the dark eyes no answer gave, Burning against me deep and grave. Day faltered, night drew 'round about. The heart within me was wearied out; Then first beyond the dear head I saw Shadows and swords of the ancient Awe. And closer I clung, and closer drew To drink and drain the sweet life through The lips beloved, but through my fears Their taste was bitter, as with tears. 158 WINE OF THE WORLD hoiy draught, and eyes that weep ! Deeper I drank, and deep, and deep: The wine of the world is on my lips. And they are closed in sleep. 159 ZENITH NOW in my breast the sole and sovereign Power Puts forth his strength, and through a miUion veins I feel the tidal stream of life that strains Toward the dark sea, that doth all streams devour: This is the noontide of my spirit's hour, Through all my frame the imperious rhythm reigns — And the one self, that deep in me sustains His being, stands fulfilled in fullest flower. Now through my brain the blood's rich purple roars. Washing her cells with wine of song and dream, And in my breast the embattled Splendor wars On the dark foe, and rages for extreme Wrath and delight; and all my being pours Through Love and Song toward the escape supreme. 160 THE PRESENCE TREMBLING on the utmost brink Of thy being, deep I drink: Swift the opiate moment nears. I behold thee through my tears. I behold thy quiet smile, Bending over me the while, The dear lips that into mine Laugh for tenderness divine. Ah, too deep, ah, fain to pause ! Shuddering, my spirit draws, Shuddering, I drink and drain Deep of thee, bewildering pain — Draught too poignant; in dismay Fiercely from my lips away I would press thee, dizzy cup. Closer thou dost hold it up. And closer still and closer, dear. Nearer yet, more near, more near — ; 161 THE PRESENCE Till I faint of thee, until, Full of thee, I drink thee still. Laughing thou dost lift it up To my lips, that satiate cup: Thou wouldst have me drink of thee Deeply, darkly, utterly. 162 THE MAN TO HIS DEAD POET IN the small bare room brimmed up with twilight Hours long in silence I had sat By the bed on which my youth lay dying And the poet that I once had been. Many and many a day he had been failing, And I knew the end must come at last — The poor fellow — I had loved him dearly, It was hard for me to see him go. He was both my rapture and my sorrow — O how Love unto its sorrow clings ! — Many a bitter hour had he brought me, Loneliness, and shipwreck of the heart. And I loved him. But my mind was weary Almost as the twilight of the day, And my soul was sullen, and a little Tired of his everlasting talk. Still from side to side his eyes went roaming, As in fever earnestly he moaned 163 THE MAN TO HIS DEAD POET | Old forgotten ecstasies and splendors, ■ Ebbed from out my heart forevermore. < His poor fingers aimlessly and awkward j Fumbled with the covers, and a look ^ On his features, fatuous and fervent. Foolish seemed and laughable enough. Softly stirred the curtains. From the river Came a sound of whistles. In the street ! Flared the first few lamps. A barrel-organ i Rasped a mournful measure. Night was here. j ! "Ah, the cities," cried he, "and the faces, ^ Like an endless river rolling on — j From what unknown deeps of being risen i All those myriads, to what shadowy coast \ "Of huge doom in sullen grandeur moving. The vast waters of the human soul ! Can you see it still — as in an ocean Every sea-drop sparkles of the sea, "Foams, and perishes — , so for a moment From each living face the dauntless, dear 164 THE MAN TO HIS DEAD POET Eyes of Life look out at us to greet us, Shine — and hurry by into the night ? "Is it beautiful,'* he cried, "my brother?" With such fiery question burned his glance, That to quiet him in haste I answered, "All that you have said is doubtless so; "But, pray, calm yourself, my dear, good fellow, Let it be, and let it go at that." And I drew the covers 'round him closer, Smoothed his pillow for him. He began: "Do you 'mind that night beside the beaches When the whole world in one brimming cup. Earth and sky, the sea, clouds, dews, and starlight, To our lips wa5 lifted, and we drank, ** Dizzy with dread joy and sacrificial Rapture of self -loss and sorrow dear. Deep of Beauty's draught, divine nirvana. The bewildering wine of all the world ? " "I remember certain lonely beaches," Wearily I answered, "nothing more. 165 THE MAN TO HIS DEAD POET Starlight is a usual occurrence Any pleasant night beside the sea." For my heart was sick and sore within me, — The poor fellow, every word he spoke Shamed me, there was something in his gesture Almost comic that I could not bear. Yet I feared this time that I had hurt him Such offended silence long he kept: On his hand I laid my hand in pity. Penitent, — and softly he began, "Ah, that night in May, do you remember? Nightingales are singing from the wood — And the moonlight through the lattice streaming — Silence — and deep midnight — and one face, "Like a moonlit land, desire's kingdom, Luring from the breast the homesick self ! Can you see it still" he cried, "my brother?" Then in anger broke my wounded heart. "Streets I see" I said, "and squalid alleys Where one lamp flares foully in the night, 166 THE MAN TO HIS DEAD POET Darkened windows full of empty faces — The sad jest and tragedy of Man ! " "This," he cried aloud, "this, too, is holy — O dear Beauty, in what beggar's guise You may hide your splendor, yet I know you; Though the ears be deaf, the eyes be blind, "Glorious are all things, and forever Beautiful and holy is the Real !" Now I could not answer him, most strangely Touched me those old words I knew so well And I felt the night between us deepen. Heard the clock that ticked upon the shelf. The great silence closing in around us, And his hand that he withdrew from mine. Suddenly he struggled upward laughing, Tears of joy were streaming down his face: In my breast the pang of some departure Seized me, and I wept, I know not why. From a gully of the jaded city Drunken laughter filtered through the night 167 THE MAN TO HIS DEAD POET Where I knelt, and toward the open window Reached my hands before me as in prayer. "Yes,'* I whispered it, "this, too, is holy. Even this is holy and divine. Though to poets known and lovers only The dear face that looks from meanest things "And the majesty that moves about us, The bright splendor in what common guise. dear Beauty, though forever banished, Your lost angel by the outer gate, "Though no more I see, no more may sound it, The bright truth that was my very soul; Let me, baffled still, yet still believing. In the darkness loyal to the light, "Deep within this exiled bosom bear it Silent, the great faith forevermore: Beautiful are all things, and forever Holy, holy, holy is the Real ! '* From the proud, pale east the patient morning Glimmered sadly on a million rooves. 168 THE MAN TO HIS DEAD POET 'Round me the old sorrow was awaking, And the breaking of some mighty Heart. On his breast his hands in peace I folded Decently, and closed the staring eyes. He and I had known such days together — And I loved him better than myself. 169 ESCAPE INTO bright forms the formless Being flows, Seeking therein its rapture and repose — But still the forms subside, and rearise New forms: body is born and body dies. Then in my body*s cage I murmured, "How Shall I escape from this destruction now. This travail all in vain?" Answered my love, "Escape through love to me Who am the road to immortality- — " And answered holy Art, "Build thee a deathless form where thou apart In lonely immortality shalt reign. Hasten, and from this fading form depart." 170 RETURN AFTER DEATH TO the old home, 1 Through the wild country ways and meadows damp, Lo — I am come: Drawn are the blinds, quenched is the lonely lamp And dark the door. The crickets chirp and the cicadas sing. But nevermore Comes the quick step, the dear voice answering. Long though I knock. Never the eager answer comes, they will Never unlock — So hushed the night, so deep and starry-still. Ah fain, how fain — From the dark terror and the loneliness. Anguish insane And dreadful secret that you may not guess — The starry Vast, Inexorable, of everlasting law, 171 RETURN AFTER DEATH Tomb of the Past, And endless reaches of the ancient Awe, With horrors rife — Star upon star forever strewn abroad. The thrones of life In the dark universe dethroned of God — With what desire, Ah, with what longing that you cannot know ! To the warm fire. The cosy hearth and faces all aglow, — Dear eyes that burn, The old, familiar jokes and questions dear, — We, lost, return, Calling with voices that you cannot hear ! Night, deep and still: Empty into the dark the windows stare — A whip-poor-will Cries like the Past upon the patient air — ; But where it lies. The thing I was, the shell of me, they kneel 172 RETURN AFTER DEATH With burning eyes, And in mute prayer to the Unknown appeal. Here on the shore And coast of the inimitable night Forevermore Lies the lost shell and home of my delight. Where passion reigned. Where ecstasy drew hushed and hurried breath. Where Love disdained To stain her triumph with the thought of death. O pang too sheer Of all that has been and may never be ! Anguish austere. And wild regret of all eternity ! 173 THE DEAD POET NEW mornings flood the world, starred nights wheel over; But he is mute. Defeated in the war That virgin Beauty wages on her lover, He takes his rest, nor heeds them anymore. 174 EXILE FROM GOD I DO not fear to lay my body down In death, to share The Hfe of the dark earth and lose my own, If God is there. I have so loved all sense of Him, sweet might Of color and sound, — His tangible loveliness and living light That robes me *round. If to His heart in the hushed grave and dim We sink more near, It shall be well — living we rest in Him. Only I fear Lest from my God in lonely death I lapse, And the dumb clod Lose Him; for God is life, and death perhaps Exile from God. 175 VANISHED HE is not here, your most beloved one: With everlasting gesture he has cast His garments from him, and in splendor passed Out of the sign and circle of the sun. He is not with us, he has dared and done The great adventure — , and this frame at last Lies, like a shell outworn, here on the vast Margin and shore of all oblivion. There is not any motion in the breast Where the quick wave of being came and went- The bosom thrills not now to be caressed, Nor will the cold lips deign to give consent. See — he is vanished — and the careless guest Has left his mansion to the element. 176 THE GREAT SURRENDER A^ S at the breast beloved, For rapture of sheer excess, We render up ourselves, And are lost in loveliness; So in a moment supremer. More beauty-drunken still, To the starry choir of All, The fires innumerable Of the universe around us, — Radiant, pure and vast. Faint with immortal rapture. To the greater Love at last Our single, separate selves, Freely, beyond recall, We render up triumphant. And sink into the All. 177 TOWARD THE BRIGHT DOOM "Darest thou now, O soul — !" IT was the night when my adventurous soul Beat at her bars, and toward some ancient goal Strained through the darkness and emprisoning gloom. Already 'round me all the little room Seemed to a vast immensity to spread. And on the shore and margin of the dread Kingdom of death, sublime and desolate, Tiptoe my spirit trembled and elate With expectation of far things to be. There was no terror now, no agony; Only with mute and sorrowful surprise I felt within my breast the fall and rise Where the old sovereign still held stubborn sway, And in my veins the embattled life at bay Through all the echoing porches of my frame Reluctantly relinquishing his claim — The patient pleading of the passionate heart. And now all this was as a thing apart; But in the faint night voices, in the breeze 178 TOWARD THE BRIGHT DOOM Over the fields, the rustHng of the trees, J The owlet's cry that quavered for delight | And poured itself into the poem of night, \ A new and an intelligible word \ Spoke to my senses, and my spirit heard j In the lone cricket's droning and the shrill j Cicadas' shimmering from vale and hill The cry of Life, that still in myriad ways ^ Beseechingly to the beloved prays, ! Seeking therein its immortality — J And Time imploring of Eternity — [ The ancient prayer from earth to heaven ascend, ] Rapture and ritual without an end, — i And the far surf that broke upon the shore Broke on my heart in dream forevermore. Wider and wider did the windows grow, 1 Toward the soft dark in mute and mournful row j Opening like eyes in everlasting stare, I And wider all the room — till I was 'ware ! Of a vague shape that toward the bedside moved '\ And had the gait and gesture of one loved, — My mother's, so I dreamed, that now had come ' To see me safe abed in the old home, | But more like the beloved's was the face, 179 '\ TOWARD THE BRIGHT DOOM And all my being hungered for its grace Darkly and dumbly: till with sudden awe Those solemn and those searching eyes I saw, Kind without pity, patient without scorn, — loved and lost before this soul was born ! Out of my breast the very self they stole That trembled toward that presence, and the whole Weight of all years, all anguish unexpressed, 1 poured out at the patience of that breast. All griefs, all fears, all hopes uncomforted. And "O and are you come at last" — I said. "O take me with you, hasten, let us fly To the one topmost star of all the sky. The utmost quivering loveliness afar. Out of this sorrow of all things that are ! Come — let us haste — let us be fled, and find Some refuge somewhere surely from this blind Ruin and wreck of sheer mortality ! " And the roof parted, and in silence we Through the cool air of quiet evening rose. I saw the earth beneath me in repose Glimmering darkly, fields once loved so well. The little lonely house, and the worn shell Of my old body on the bed, and one 180 TOWARD THE BRIGHT DOOM That knelt beside it with bowed head alone — Not without grief — ah, not without regret Was made that mighty sundering ! And yet Over my head the immemorial ways Of heaven lured me on, the trackless maze And wilderness of God, sublime and wild; Then to me turned that face, "O foohsh child, Where would you seek to? To what loveliness And dimmest throne of heaven though you press, What sanctuary of remotest flame. You shall but find a world of dust, the same World of old griefs, whither your spirit flow, But the same world of sorrows left below ! And in what reaches of the farthest Awe Shall you escape the regnance of the law, Or on what planet the old face of death. Or face of love ? No light that quivereth In heaven's holiest in serene disdain But is a world of passion and of pain Even as ours, and still the sacred Christ On every star anew is sacrificed For the old doom, from age to endless age Making His everlasting pilgrimage 181 TOWARD THE BRIGHT DOOM In lonely splendor down the starry way. Then whither would you ? " And I answered, "Nay, But somewhere surely God has His abode. Then to that star which is the throne of God, His very seat, O thither let us first Stream in fierce love and longing, for I thirst. Deeply I thirst with deep desire of God ! '* And an unbroken silence reigned abroad Where died those words, where silently was turned That face toward mine beseeching it, and burned Deep in those eyes, compassionate and supreme. Inexorable truth. "Child, child, what dream, What hopeless hope is here ? Where shall you find This phantom and chimaera of the mind Reared for your refuge, you, that for your rest, Have built up God, and given Him a breast For pain to lean on, and a heart for love ! Though from heaven's deeps to heaven's heights above You seek Him, though through all eternity You send your soul out in one loneliest cry, No voice shall answer, nor no tongue declare The Presence that is all things everywhere — The flying Dream." Then on my spirit fell 182 TOWARD THE BRIGHT DOOM I That bolt of truth hke hghtning terrible, — ] Nor might I speak, nor might I think, that felt \ Out of my soul that thought supremest melt, That hope the dearest; but from all heaven there waned Some Light that through the universe had reigned \ In holiest beauty: and I whispered low, "Even as you will, do with me even so." * Midway in heaven we paused, was lifted up Now to my faltering lips a drowsy cup Upon whose cold, clear brim, as on the brink I Of nothingness, shuddered my lips, and "Drink" \ Cried a low voice, "deep of this draught divine, — Oblivion, the world's consoling wine — Wine of all tears and sorrows and dark sleep, Nirvana, great and blessed — deep, deep \ Drink, and in holy love triumphantly ^ Render your self up to the All, and be i In other selves your immortality ! '\ Amen. Amen." What mastery forsook ' This soul, unkingdomed then! What terror shook This throne of being to its shrillest cry, "This weary self, this bitter self, this I, i i This weak and foolish, this inglorious one, j This self, this self, and not oblivion, 183 TOWARD THE BRIGHT DOOM This only, this forever, this alone, This and no other — !" So my being's wave Broke on fate's shore in agony. But grave Were the calm eyes that searched me, and austere The awful voice that answered, "Shall you fear To render up what all have loved and lost? Would you through timeless Time, a lonely ghost. In solitary selfishness apart Wander the heavens, from the eternal heart Of Life an exile? Shall you dread to move Into the blood and breast of all you love In gracious self-surrender, shrink to take The cup, supreme and bitter, for the sake Of all dear life, nor generously give Your self up in the self of all that live — This broken and bruised spirit bravely yield To be ploughed under, furrowed and rent, a field Harrowed and cleft, in glorious martyrdom. For holier harvests on far days to come, Beings more lovely in some worthier shape? Nay, would you the one common doom escape Of all those silent millions that did bear Their part in death and suffered it, nor share 184 TOWARD THE BRIGHT DOOM The general lot of all men born to be, And the great sacrament universal? See, On all these myriad thrones of Life there shall No life escape the destiny tragical And doom triumphant ! See, the summer's rose, That to the sunlight did herself unclose. Gently into the dust her head inclines — The swallow fleet, that in sweet heaven shines A flickering flame, ceaselessly hurries by Into the great repose, nor questions why In its brief heart, and in the ringing wood All songs most musical are soon subdued To the great peace; while all things gay and dear. Springtime and April of the flowering year, In generous self-abandonment consent To the sublime and dark accomplishment Of life's divine renewals: Loveliness On death's divide in a supreme caress Shatters her beauty, like a moonlit wave! Yea, the one body dear and bounty brave. The lips of life, full of all sweet replies, That had the breath of Springtime in their sighs. That held the immortal boon, the very breast, Framed for all joys and born to be caressed, In stately splendor through the gathering gloom 185 TOWARD THE BRIGHT DOOM Moves without murmur, and accepts the doom — Yea, even this, the most beloved, too ! Now in this thought perish the thought of you, And in the wonder and the dream thereof Cease, and be one at last with all you love." Then toward those eyes, pleading I turned, and saw Pity inexorable, eternal awe. And on the starry All that 'round me moved I looked, and on the universe I loved. And to the dregs that cup of hopes and fears I drained with fiery laughter and wild tears ! 186 HOLY LIGHT LIFE, where your lone candle burns -' In the darkness of the night. Mothlike my lost spirit yearns Nearer in its circling flight. Luringly your beauty draws Onward with each shuddering breath. Till I flutter,— till I pause In the radiance of death. I am flaming, I am fled — All around you reigns the night; But my agony has fed You a moment, holy light ! 187 m 'issvx»t>>t'