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TELEMACHUS 
 
 AND 
 
 OTHER 
 POEMS 
 
 l3 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY F. THURSTON 
 
I "^M^- iJPRAnY OF 
 
 I"- "f> COPIbtS RtCK(VED 
 
 •-^"^^ 9 1S02 
 
 OOPVBIOHT FNTRV 
 
 C».ASS Ct^XXo. No. 
 
 Z/. £, ^ (b ^ 
 
 .H?7T4- 
 
 Copyright 1902 
 By Henry Franklin Thurston. 
 
 WINNETKA, ILLINOIS. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Telemachus i 
 
 At the Amazon-Equator 14 
 
 The Changing Year 16 
 
 StarHght at Sea 18 
 
 The Sovereignty of God 20 
 
 A Lodge in the Wilderness 23 
 
 Kemeny the Knight 28 
 
 The Storm-Sun 33 
 
 The Martyrs of Lexington 36 
 
 The Uprising 40 
 
 The Lord of the Seas 43 
 
 The Cup-Coral 46 
 
 The Man with the Marvelous Light 48 
 
 The Armies of the Asters 50 
 
 The Bard 52 
 
 Rain on the Sea 55 
 
 Beni Khaibei 57 
 
 A Winter Forest 60 
 
 The Hill-Bound Stream 62 
 
 The Old Men in Books 64 
 
 Battle of Manila Ba> 66 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Cervera 69 
 
 Sea Caves 72 
 
 The Patriarch Sequoia 74 
 
 Belshazzar's Feast Tj 
 
 The Mighty Deep 81 
 
 The Eskimo's Inferno 83 
 
 The Eskimo's Elysium 85 
 
 The Plow of the Lord 87 
 
 The Farm and the State 89 
 
 The First Christmas 91 
 
 The Earth-Star 93 
 
 A Sunset Scene 95 
 
 The Universal Tragedy 98 
 
 The Lighthouse loi 
 
 Art is Long 102 
 
 A Dream of Science 104 
 
 The Divine in Man 108 
 
 The Golden Rivers 1 10 
 
 The Sea-Beach 112 
 
 Lovely Camden 115 
 
 En Voyage ii7 
 
 Eternal Change 118 
 
 The Stars 120 
 
 Mental Picture Galleries 121 
 
Telemachus. 
 
 (Te-lem'-a-kus.) 
 Telemachus was the monk who, by the 
 sacrifice of his life, brought to an end the 
 gladiatorial games in the arena at Rome. 
 This tragedy occurred in the year 404 of 
 the Christian era. Previous to that time these 
 bloody exhibitions were a feature of Roman 
 festivity, as the bull-fights are to-day in 
 Spain a feature of Spanish festivity. In the 
 days of Telemachus Rome had been nom- 
 inally Christian for nearly a hundred years, 
 but the old barbarity still clung to Roman 
 life. Public sentiment, however, had been 
 gradually growing in the direction of the 
 abolition of the gladiatorial contests. Some- 
 thing was needed to bring this sentiment to 
 the surface. This the death of Telemachus 
 did. Public opinion became at once hostile 
 to a continuance of the bloody pastime, and 
 it was abandoned forever. 
 
 1 
 
Telemachus. 
 
 Amid the solitudes of Africa, 
 
 Where pathless wastes and gloomy forests 
 
 are, 
 There dwelt a hermit in the days of old, 
 Whose heart was not on earthly goods nor 
 
 gold. 
 
 Why fled he thither, seeking undismayed 
 A lonely dwelling in the forest shade? 
 I know not ; but he may have been of those 
 Whose lives are clouded by unnumbered 
 
 woes, 
 Whom Heaven ever seems to hedge around 
 With mountains lofty, and with gulfs pro- 
 found. 
 Whose paths with snares and rolling stones 
 are filled; 
 
 2 
 
TELEMACHUS. 3 
 
 Whose youthful days the bow of promise 
 
 thrilled, 
 But winds of March and April's rushing 
 
 showers, 
 Have promised ever, but ne'er brought, May 
 
 flowers ; 
 Of such as coming to a streamlet's side, 
 Behold it changed into a river wide, 
 And, where before them others vaulted o'er, 
 These struggle painfully from shore to 
 
 shore : 
 For such ones oft, despairing at their plight. 
 Throw down their weapons and give o'er 
 
 the fight. 
 Or else perchance, he may have lived at 
 
 ease 
 In some one of the great metropoles, 
 And, with a heart susceptible to pain, 
 Not for himself so much as other men, 
 Mourned at beholding the great world o'er- 
 
 flow 
 With ceaseless suflfering and endless woe: 
 Until the cries forever seemed to ring 
 From hut of peasant, and from hall of king, 
 
4 TELEMACHUS. 
 
 And haunt his dreams by night, his 
 
 thoughts by day, 
 Until he hasted from their voice away. 
 But good Telemachus, I doubt not, was 
 Urged to seckision by a nobler cause ; 
 That in his heart an unsubdued desire 
 Was burning always like enduring fire, 
 That ever gave him deepest discontent, 
 When contemplating his environment ; 
 That oft he felt his thoughts from Heaven 
 
 drawn 
 To things he rather would not think upon; 
 And often wished that he had angels' 
 
 wings, 
 To rise to regions of diviner things. 
 Where he might roam, forever fetterless, 
 Through all the blessed fields of righteous- 
 ness; 
 Until he wandered from his home, and 
 
 found 
 A haven, far from human thought and 
 sound. 
 
 And there he wept and prayed and sought 
 to draw 
 
TELEMACHUS. 5 
 
 Near to the Giver of both love and law. 
 And, meditating on "The Word," he knew 
 That ever nearer to his Lord he drew, 
 But felt his heart more sad and deeper 
 
 pained, 
 The nearer he unto his Lord attained ; 
 For, as he searched his heart's vast garden 
 
 o'er, 
 He found out sins he never knew before. 
 So, when illumined by the Light divine 
 Whose rays effulgent through our being 
 
 shine, 
 We find faults many, and, if seeking more, 
 Where one was looked for, we have found a 
 
 score ; 
 But when the soul is dark, and gloom and 
 
 shade 
 Each hall and chamber of the heart pervade, 
 Then all unseen are frightful forms and 
 
 stains, 
 Where light is wanting and blank darkness 
 
 reigns. 
 
6 TELEMACHUS. 
 
 So this meek servant, growing every day 
 More like his Lord in every thought and 
 
 way, 
 Roamed through the wilds and saw in 
 
 everything 
 A sign or image of creation's King : 
 At noontime resting 'neath a rock, he cried, 
 "Oh, thou art so much like the 'Crucified,' 
 Thou shelt'rest him who to thy bosom flees 
 From scorching heat and from unwelcome 
 
 breeze" ; 
 And when he saw a gushing torrent flow 
 From moss-grown ledges to the vale below, 
 He thought it ever like the Son of God, 
 Who sends His Spirit like a stream abroad ; 
 Each tree became the ''Tree of Life" to him. 
 And every follower of Christ, a limb, — 
 Until he saw in earth, and moon, and sun. 
 The glowing symbols of the Holy One. 
 
 From lands afar came sailor, bard, and 
 
 sage. 
 For prayer or counsel to his hermitage. 
 And some there were from that historic 
 
 shore, 
 
TELEMACHUS. 7 
 
 Men called Lavinia in days of yore, 
 Where, from long wandering, the weary 
 
 feet 
 Of Trojans rested in a safe retreat. 
 Where hills are crowned with turret, shaft, 
 
 and dome. 
 Within the shadow of the walls of Rome. 
 
 Strange tales they told of the inhuman play, 
 The crowning triumph of each gala-day. 
 Where friends or brothers were brought 
 
 hand to hand 
 In mortal combat on the bloody sand ; 
 While round the vast arena in a ring 
 Sat maid, and merchant, warrior, priest, and 
 
 king, 
 And laughed with glee to see the sword 
 
 flash through 
 The tender flesh and cleave the heart in two, 
 Or shouted loud in wild applause to see 
 A dying mortal writhe in agony. 
 How throbbed the hermit's faithful heart to 
 
 know 
 That poor humanity had sunk so low, 
 
8 TELEMACHUS. 
 
 That all its highest pleasure should be 
 
 found 
 In mortal sorrow, and in grief profound. 
 
 By night, in dreams, a fearful sight he saw 
 Of beasts and men that waged eternal war 
 And tore each other, while great crowds 
 
 looked on, 
 Fiercely acclaiming at the murder done. 
 By day he fancied that the shadows long 
 Swayed with the measure of a mournful 
 
 song, 
 A dirge lamenting o'er the fallen state 
 Of god-like beings, made divinely great. 
 
 So, long he fasted, long he wept and prayed, 
 While o'er his soul forever hung the shade. 
 But all in vain, the more he wept the more 
 The frightful vision hung his spirit o'er. 
 
 "It is my duty," so he said, "to go 
 
 To distant Rome, and, whether threat'ning 
 
 foe 
 Or seeming friend oppose me, fearlessly 
 Upon the sands of slaughter stand and cry 
 
TELEMACHUS. 9 
 
 Against the murder, and in holy name 
 Rebuke such revelry of sin and shame. 
 What though I fall ! the servant is not more 
 To be regarded than his Lord before : 
 He died for men ; and if He will it so, 
 I'll drain with joy the cup of mortal woe; 
 If all must die, 'twere better furthering 
 The fair dominion of our Holy King/' 
 
 From Libyan forests far he took his way, 
 In weary journey ings by night and day, 
 Bowed down by heat, or on the mighty seas 
 Refreshed and gladdened by the cooling 
 breeze. 
 
 Then westward sailed he, till from out the 
 
 sea 
 Before him rose the land of Italy, 
 With distant hills the blue haze hanging 
 
 o'er. 
 And spreading fields, and undulating shore, 
 And whitened cities that each bay beside 
 Saw their own faces in the peaceful tide. 
 Thence did he journey to that city famed, 
 "Eternal City'' by the nations named, 
 
10 TELEMACHUS. 
 
 That ruled in undisputed might, and saw 
 A trembHng world obey her iron law. 
 
 Again in Rome has come a holiday ; 
 And, like a princess in her robings gay, 
 The "Ancient City" sits in pomp and pride, 
 Through all her borders decked and glori- 
 fied, 
 And wreathed with laurel, to commemorate 
 The great achievements of the Roman 
 State. 
 
 Through all the streets the mighty multi- 
 tude 
 Flows hither, thither, like a curbless flood, 
 Or waits impatient till the sun shall throw 
 A certain ray upon the dial low, 
 That shall to all the opening proclaim 
 Of the great Circus, for the bloody game. 
 
 Now speed the hours upon rapid wings. 
 And each to Rome a greater tumult brings ; 
 As slaves and princes throng the spacious 
 
 place, 
 That she has builded for her pleasure base. 
 
TELEMACHUS. ii 
 
 High sits the monarch, and around him 
 
 stand 
 The lesser rulers of the boastful land, 
 And mail-clad warriors looking grim and 
 
 gray, 
 War-worn and scarred from some terrific 
 
 fray. 
 And half the beauty of the land is there : 
 The Alban maid, the Latin matron fair, 
 The rustic virgin, who might better hold 
 The pendant distaff, or, by field and fold, 
 Amid fair nature's verdant loveliness. 
 Lead forth her sheep, a gentle shepherdess. 
 Still tens of thousands swarm through arch 
 
 and hall, 
 By pondrous pillar, and by massive wall, 
 And throng the ancient rock-hewn seats, or 
 
 stand 
 In the great circle round the central sand. 
 
 As after storms the ocean waves subside, 
 So dies the tumult upon every side, 
 And quiet reigns; while all the host below 
 Watch the arena for the coming show. 
 
12 TELEMACHUS. 
 
 Now, from their cells the gladiators come, 
 And face the throne, and pause a moment 
 
 dumb, 
 Then both together lift their weapons high, 
 And, "morituri te salutant," cry. 
 
 But ere the warriors in mad onset close. 
 What human being dares to interpose ? 
 'Tis he, Telemachus, who through the 
 
 throng, 
 With daring purpose unrestrained and 
 
 strong. 
 Has forced his way and throws himself be- 
 tween 
 The brutal foemen and their weapons keen. 
 And, in the name of his beloved Lord, 
 Forbids the combat, and restrains each 
 sword. 
 
 A moment pause the gladiators dazed ; 
 A moment, speechless sits the king, amazed ; 
 A moment superstitious fears arise, 
 And awful silence on the people lies. 
 Then follows the indignant overflow 
 Of pent-up anger, and the crowds below 
 
TELEMACHUS. 13 
 
 The royal gallery in fury cry, 
 That he who stops the Roman game must 
 die. 
 
 The hermit fell ; the thund'ring shout of 
 
 Rome, 
 Resounding, rose through the aerial dome. 
 But rest, thou hermit, for thy death has 
 
 more 
 Accomplished for thee than all things 
 
 before, 
 And in thy dying thou hast overthrown 
 The game barbaric, and thy blood is sown 
 Like salt upon the Coliseum sand, 
 Where never more shall gladiator stand. 
 
 The years have passed, but never from that 
 
 day. 
 Did Rome's great theatre behold such play. 
 Where now the sunlight and the moonlight 
 
 fall 
 On sand deserted, and on broken wall. 
 
At the Amazon-Equator. 
 
 Here, amid these forests tangled, 
 
 Where Hana twines 
 Till the mighty trees are strangled 
 
 By the coiling vines. 
 Shines a day that changes never 
 
 As the ages run. 
 But outspreads one scene forever 
 
 Underneath the sun. 
 
 Here, since first the earth was vernal, 
 
 Day has followed day 
 In a summer-time eternal, 
 
 In an endless May, 
 In a round of sun and showers, — 
 
 Here the fertile mold 
 Feeds its ofif-springs with the flowers 
 
 Of the cycles old. 
 
 14 
 
AT THE AMAZON-EQUATOR. 15 
 
 Seasons come not : growth unceasing 
 
 Minds not months and years ; 
 Never in the trees' increasing 
 
 Node or ring appears ; 
 Nature's pulses throb and quiver 
 
 With the ceaseless strain, 
 Till the forests throng the river 
 
 And the humid plain. 
 
 Every span of soil is fought-for, 
 
 Where a shoot may spring ; 
 Every narrow sunbeam sought-for, 
 
 Where a bird may wing ; 
 Till the sunlight glimmers dimly, 
 
 And the shadows lie 
 Where the stifled fern-brakes slimly 
 
 Struggle toward the sky. 
 
 Here are wonders than no greater 
 
 Falls the daylight on, 
 Where, along the world's equator 
 
 Flows the Amazon, 
 Where a day that changes never 
 
 As the ages run 
 Has outspread one scene forever 
 
 Underneath the sun. 
 
The Changing Year. 
 
 Sing who will of changeless seasons 
 
 Under tropic skies. 
 Better is the moody northland 
 
 Where each season dies, 
 And the year outpours her bounties 
 
 Bright with many a prize. 
 
 Green the mantle of the springtime, 
 Bright her scarf of flowers ; 
 
 Sweet the scented breath of summer, 
 Dear her restful hours ; 
 
 Rich as Ceres sits the autumn 
 Mid her flaming bowers. 
 
 In a holy whiteness reigning, 
 Winter spreads his snow, 
 
 16 
 
THE CHANGING YEAR. i^ 
 
 With his germless breath and icy 
 
 Sets the blood a-flow, 
 Till we thrill with joy that only 
 
 Perfect health can know. 
 
 Never comes a season joyless, 
 
 Blessings shadow pain ; 
 He who will be may be happy 
 
 Under sun or rain ; 
 For the summer heart ensummers 
 
 Winter's frozen plain. 
 
starlight at Sea. 
 
 Not the breath of a breeze 
 
 In that tropical night 
 Fanned the sails of our ship, 
 
 Not a ray of moonlight 
 Dimmed the light of the stars, 
 
 As they shone, where asleep 
 Lay the waves, on the breast 
 
 Of the far-spreading deep. 
 
 There was silence. Our ship 
 
 On the watery plain 
 Seemed to hang 'tween the stars 
 
 Of the sky and the main : — 
 With her canvas outspread. 
 
 She was hovering there 
 Like a black and white bird 
 
 Equipoised in the air. 
 
 18 
 
STARLIGHT AT SEA. 19 
 
 Scarce a word did we speak, 
 
 As we stood by the rail, 
 But we drank in the Hght 
 
 That was glimmering pale 
 From the dome of the sky 
 
 And the dome of the deep, 
 While the wind and the waves 
 
 And our wills were asleep. 
 
 Through the void of the air 
 
 And of space, to where runs 
 A new process of life 
 
 In those far away suns, 
 Flew the birds of our thoughts ; 
 
 And the vessel and we 
 Floated light on the breast 
 
 Of the star-lighted sea. 
 
The Sovereignty of God. 
 
 We move in Him, the universe 
 Doth but one Master know ; 
 
 All things subserving one vast plan 
 Do as a river flow. 
 
 He wills it light : the stars shine forth, 
 The bright moon doth arise, 
 
 The sun doth send his ardent beams 
 Along the dazzled skies. 
 
 He wills it dark : the stars go out, 
 
 The moon in sable shroud 
 Doth hide herself ; the earth and sky 
 
 Are wrapped in mist and cloud ; 
 
 But ever He appointeth all, 
 If good or evil be, 
 
 20 
 
THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD. 21 
 
 No power exists or can exist, 
 Above his sovereignty. 
 
 The stars in countless millions roll 
 Through the illumined space; 
 
 In their eternal orbits each 
 Keeps its appointed place ; 
 
 Each planet sweeps in graceful curves 
 
 Around its central sun, 
 And each its predetermined course 
 
 The works of nature run. 
 
 The ages come, the ages go, 
 
 The nations fall and rise, 
 The wicked sin, the just do good. 
 
 And all before His eyes ; 
 
 But ever he appointeth all, 
 
 If good or evil be ; 
 No power exists or can exist 
 
 Above his sovereignty. 
 
 Think not that man can fight with God, 
 Or devils thwart his will. 
 
22 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD. 
 
 For these are but the instruments 
 His purpose to fulfill; 
 
 For night must be — this evil night 
 That fills the world with sin — 
 
 That out of darkness light may shine 
 And God himself be seen. 
 
 So shall his attributes be known, 
 And we shall see his face, 
 
 When all of evil flees away 
 Before His strength and grace ; 
 
 For ever he appointeth all, 
 
 If good or evil be ; 
 No power exists or can exist 
 
 Above his sovereignty. 
 
A Lodge in the Wilderness. 
 
 'Mid glooms and glades, 
 
 Where sylvan shades 
 Bedim the wild grapes' flowing braids 
 
 And spreading hands, 
 
 A dwelling stands 
 With windows wide toward wonderlands. 
 
 In solitude 
 
 The mountains brood, 
 A silent, watching multitude, 
 
 With sleepless eyes, 
 
 Whose helmets rise 
 Snow-plumed against the azure skies. 
 
 As tears that fall 
 From giants tall, 
 Adown the mountain's sombre wall 
 
 23 
 
24 A LODGE iN THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 From melting snows 
 A bright stream flows, 
 As silver in the sunlight glows. 
 
 On distant height 
 
 A thread of light 
 At first, then grows upon the sight 
 
 In broader gleams 
 
 Through ragged seams 
 A torrent of commingling streams. 
 
 Rude channels past. 
 
 It flows at last 
 In valleys far from mountain blast, 
 
 And broad expands 
 
 O'er shining sands, 
 The mirror of the flower-lands. 
 
 A wilderness 
 
 Of roses press 
 Upon the brink in shining dress ; 
 
 In robes of white, 
 
 A fairer sight, 
 The water-lilies cluster bright. 
 
A LODGE IN THE WILDERNESS. 25 
 
 So glides awhile 
 
 In nature's smile 
 This stream by mimic cape and isle, 
 
 Then headlong- springs 
 
 On airy wings 
 Away from earth-enticing things. 
 
 Out-leaping o'er 
 
 The ocean's shore, 
 It swells the billows' ceaseless roar, 
 
 Where surge and wave 
 
 In fury rave 
 On stubborn rock and sounding cave. 
 
 The great, great sea 
 
 Unchained and free, 
 Upheaving in immensity, 
 
 With mellow sighs, 
 
 Far-spreading lies 
 Till distance weds it with the skies. 
 
 When cares oppress, 
 When fears distress, 
 Then flee I to this wilderness, 
 
26 A LODGE IN THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 In thought, and dwell 
 Where all is well 
 Beneath the forest's peaceful spell. 
 
 Here rest, sweet rest, 
 
 Pervades the breast, 
 Where fears no more our dreams infest, 
 
 The world forgot, 
 
 Here cares are naught, 
 And freely soars the restless thought. 
 
 From feathered throats 
 
 Soft cadence floats 
 In dreamy, mellow, thrilling notes. 
 
 Of birds that swing 
 
 On leafy ring 
 O'er limpid pool or crystal spring. 
 
 By day how fly 
 
 The moments by. 
 By night how sweet the lullaby 
 
 That ocean sings 
 
 When living things 
 Have slaked their thirst in Lethe's springs. 
 
A LODGE IN THE WILDERNESS. 2^ 
 
 Here let the years 
 
 Undimmed by tears 
 Bring swift oblivion to our fears, 
 
 Bring joy and ease, 
 
 And birds and trees, 
 And gentle winds and summer seas. 
 
Kemeny the Knight. 
 
 (Ke-me'-ny.) 
 During the reign of Sigismund, in Hun- 
 gary, during the fifteenth century, the Turks 
 invaded that country in great force, and, in- 
 deed, threatened to overrun all Europe. The 
 most renowned general of Hungary, Hun- 
 yadi, took the field to hold the Turks in 
 check. On his ability hung the fate of Eu- 
 rope. He defeated the Turks in several 
 battles. His greatest and most decisive vic- 
 tory was on the field of St. Imre. Previous 
 to that battle the Turkish commander had 
 selected chosen knights to seek out Hunyadi 
 in battle and kill him. A spy carried the 
 news of this plot to the allied Austrians and 
 Huns. Hunyadi on all battle fields where 
 he had commanded had been easily distin- 
 guished by his white plume and brilliant 
 armor. Kemeny, a Hungarian knight, of- 
 fered to wear the armor of his chief in the 
 coming battle, and thus save Hunyadi to his 
 country. This brave deed cost the knight 
 his life, but Hunyadi in turn routed the 
 
 Turks. 
 
 28 
 
Kemeny the Knight. 
 
 It was night in the camp 
 Of the Turk, and the damp 
 
 Of the fogs that were blown from the 
 river, 
 With invisible stroke 
 Through each cuirass and cloak, 
 
 Made the warriors of Ottoman shiver. 
 
 In the depth of the gloom 
 In black armor and plume, 
 
 Emblazoned with crescent and comet, 
 Were the noblest in name 
 Of the "faithful" who came 
 
 To swear by the beard of Mahomet. 
 
 And the oath was as dread 
 As the curse of the dead, 
 
 To break it were infinite sorrow ; 
 
 29 
 
30 KEMENY THE KNIGHT. 
 
 For they banded to slay 
 In the battle afifray 
 
 Hunyadi their foe, on the morrow. 
 
 Through the darkest of glades 
 Ever courting the shades 
 
 Of the trees, for the moon had arisen, 
 Something glided alone. 
 Like a mist that is blown, 
 
 Or a felon that flees from his prison. 
 
 To the camp far away. 
 Where the Magyar array 
 
 With their shields for their pillows were 
 
 lying, 
 
 Came the spy, and he told 
 
 What was done in the fold 
 
 Of the Turks and the plot they were ply- 
 ing. 
 
 Then rose up in his might 
 Brave Kemeny the knight, 
 
 And he spoke in the pride of his power : 
 "I will wear the white plume. 
 And the armor assume, 
 
 Of our chief in that dangerous hour." 
 
KEMENY THE KNIGHT. 31 
 
 It was mom, and the field 
 Of Saint Imre revealed 
 
 The Huns and the Austrians dreaded, 
 In their closing array, 
 As they moved to the fray 
 
 With their steeds to the enemy headed. 
 
 But the fairest of all 
 
 *Neath his plume white and tall, 
 
 Kemeny, with knightly attendant. 
 Like a white morning star, 
 That is seen from afar, 
 
 Shone forth in his armor resplendent. 
 
 Then a terrible roar, 
 Like the sound of a shore 
 
 Where the tempest-mad billows are beat- 
 ing, 
 Was borne up from the plain, 
 Where the spearmen again 
 
 In onset terrific were meeting. 
 
 But alas for the knight 
 In the front of the fight 
 Who fought in his harness imposing, 
 
32 KEMENY THE KNIGHT. 
 
 When the oath-banded foe 
 Did their champions throw 
 
 Around him in death-meshes closing; 
 
 For he fell, and the cry 
 Of the Turks to the sky 
 
 In clamor triumphant resounded, 
 Till they heard, through the rack 
 Of the battle, flung back 
 
 The name of Hunyadi, astounded. 
 
 And at eve, when the sun 
 Had his vespers begun, 
 
 Ere the night, like a ghost sable-sheeted 
 Should disturb his repose, 
 All the Mussulman foes 
 
 Of the glorious cross were defeated. 
 
 Then they builded a fane 
 On the battle-scarred plain, 
 
 Where the knightly Kemeny had per- 
 ished ; 
 And nobly and long 
 In the annals of song. 
 
 Was the fame of the champion cherished. 
 
The Storm-Sun. 
 
 Darkness, tempest, rayless night, 
 
 On a maddened ocean 
 Roared and reveled. In their might 
 
 Was the seas' commotion. 
 Thrice the dayHght dawned and dimmed 
 
 In its misty pall, 
 Thrice the dreadful night fast bound us 
 
 In its ebon wall ; 
 Salty seas 
 Toward our lees 
 
 Foamed and thundered past ; 
 Sodden sails 
 Rent by gales 
 
 Fluttered from the mast ; 
 
 33 
 
34 THE STORM-SUN. 
 
 Whitened, 
 Frightened 
 By the tumult, 
 
 Looked each human face, 
 When, unspoken, 
 Grand, unbroken, 
 
 From his cloudy place, 
 Burst the storm-sun. 
 Blazed the storm-sun. 
 
 All our world a mighty cave 
 
 In cloud mountains hollowed ! 
 Flying mist and driving wave 
 
 Each the other followed. 
 Beady waters 
 
 Glittered whitely 
 
 Where the whirling spray 
 Crossed the long lance of the sunlight 
 
 On the watery way ; 
 Rifted, black, 
 Drove the rack 
 
 Of the firmament ; 
 In the shrouds 
 Of the clouds 
 
 Light and shade were blent ; 
 
THE STORM-SUN. 35 
 
 Yellow, 
 Mellow, 
 
 Misty fingers 
 Drifted into sight, 
 When in streaming 
 Splendor beaming 
 
 Through our cavern's night, 
 Shone the storm-sun, 
 Blazed the storm-sun. 
 
The Martyrs of Lexington. 
 
 There was gallop of horses and hurry of 
 men, 
 There was answer of gun to the far min- 
 ute gun, 
 There was pealing of bells till the country 
 and town 
 Were awake and in arms, ere the rise of 
 the sun ; 
 
 For the red-coated troops of the king were 
 afoot 
 In their martial array on the Lexington 
 road. 
 And the host of the forty-score regulars 
 looked 
 Like a blossom-strewn river that gleamed 
 as it flowed. 
 
 36 
 
THE MARTYRS OF LEXINGTON. 37 
 
 When the scarlet-flecked stream into Lex- 
 ington ran, 
 In the mists of the morning the sun ghm- 
 mered red ; 
 On the soft April sod lay the dew of the 
 eve; 
 On the trees waked the buds, by the sap- 
 fountains fed. 
 
 On the green, in thin lines, with their 
 muskets at dress. 
 Stood the three-scorc-and-ten in whose 
 hearts was the fate 
 Of the half of a world, who would lay on 
 that day, 
 In their blood, the first stone of a glori- 
 ous state. 
 
 Not as warriors that flame with the frenzy 
 of fight 
 And with confident bosoms encounter the 
 foe, 
 They were there, but as martyrs that stand 
 for a faith 
 And with breasts all unshielded inviting 
 the blow ; 
 
38 THE MARTYRS OF LEXINGTON. 
 
 For they said, *'Let us fall by the guns of 
 the king, 
 Let the tempest burst here, if it ever 
 must be, 
 Let our blood tell abroad through the wak- 
 ening land 
 What a tyrant has done on the soil of the 
 free." 
 
 To the left and the right, in a terrible calm, 
 Swung the battle-drawn line of the stern 
 grenadiers. 
 And, as grimly and slowly they loaded with 
 ball, 
 Fell a hush, ere began that fierce drama 
 of years. 
 
 To the front rode Pitcairn, to the patriot 
 band 
 Rang the words of his warning, "Disarm 
 and disperse," 
 But they stood like the rocks of their ter- 
 rorless hills, 
 Never melted by blessing nor frightened 
 by curse. 
 
THE MARTYRS OF LEXINGTON. 39 
 
 Then the Hne of the regulars burst into 
 flame, 
 And the war-crying drums beat the step 
 of the charge ; 
 And the blood of the martyrs of Lexington 
 lay 
 Like red rain on the green of the battle- 
 field's marge. 
 
 But the roar of that volley still sounds in 
 the world, 
 And the blood of those martyrs has 
 dripped on the thrones 
 Till their pillars are dust in the lands of the 
 West, 
 And their glories are paled in the orient 
 zones. 
 
The Uprising. 
 
 Abroad, with the breath of the morning, 
 Through the land went a clamor and cry, 
 
 That leaped from the shore to the forest. 
 That the hills echoed back to the sky, 
 
 A call for a people's uprising, 
 
 And a shout where the foemen were nigh. 
 
 With blood had the people been sprinkled. 
 And the cheer of the foe had been loud. 
 
 When ranked on the Lexington common 
 They had blazoned a victory proud ; 
 
 For dead lay a handful before them. 
 
 And they deemed that the land had been 
 cowed. 
 
 Then fast flew the steeds of the freemen 
 Past the towns and the hamlets and 
 farms, 
 
 40 
 
THE UPRISING. 41 
 
 And fast, at the cry of their riders, 
 Did the patriots gather in arms ; 
 
 And ever new messengers mounted 
 When they heard from afar the alarms. 
 
 By sunHght, by starhght, they galloped, 
 They aroused the coast cities of Maine, 
 
 Their words kindled flame by the Hudson, 
 They were heard on the Maryland plain ; 
 
 Till men by the southern palmetto 
 
 Rose in arms when they heard of the 
 slain. 
 
 The plow was left fast in the furrow, 
 
 For the plowman went forth in his might ; 
 
 The herd wandered free in the highway. 
 For the herdsman had girded for fight ; 
 
 The woodsman came out of the forest, 
 And the hunter came down from the 
 height. 
 
 The sons, by the hands of their mothers 
 
 Were adorned to encounter the foe, 
 No cowardly matron among them 
 
42 THE UPRISING. 
 
 As they pressed back the tears and said 
 "Go," 
 Their faces were brave to their warriors, 
 But their hearts held an infinite woe. 
 
 Like leaves that blow out of the forest 
 With the frost-laden breath of the Fall, 
 
 There came from the northland and south- 
 land 
 In their valor the great and the small. 
 
 All girded for battle triumphant 
 Or to perish at Liberty's call. 
 
 Oh ! splendid, heroic uprising 
 
 When our liberties hung in the scale! 
 
 It moulded the will of our nation, 
 For it taught us to die or prevail ; 
 
 And long as its ardent flame warms us 
 Will the stars of our flag never fail. 
 
The Lord of the Seas. 
 
 Alone on the breast of the main, 
 
 We had sailed with the sun and the 
 breeze, 
 Till our hearts felt the greatness of God, 
 
 And we worshipped the Lord of the seas. 
 
 Away to the right and the left 
 
 Were the waves, to the edge of the world, 
 And behind, in the rack of our path 
 
 Was a tempest of water inwhirled. 
 
 Before us a prairie qf sea 
 
 Was abloom with its flowers of foam. 
 Till it mingled its uttermost surge 
 
 With the liJue of the down-reaching 
 dome. 
 
 43 
 
44 THE LORD OF THE SEAS. 
 
 Like a king, 'mid his armies of cloud, 
 In the realm of the sky was the sun. 
 
 Purple-robed as he sank in the west, 
 When his journay diurnal was done. 
 
 And there, twixt the night and the day, 
 We rejoiced at the glories, and these 
 
 Filled our hearts with delight and with 
 praise, 
 And we worshipped the Lord of the seas. 
 
 At first, in the rim of the sky 
 
 That was dark o'er the waves of the east, 
 Like the dust of the diamonds, the stars 
 
 Hardly glimmered, then shone, then in- 
 creased. 
 
 Till rank after rank was aflame, 
 Till the west as the east was aglow ; 
 
 And we looked from the splendors above 
 To the orbs in the waters below. 
 
 Then slow rose the disk of the Moon 
 
 From the waves of the east, and the night 
 
 Fled away at the sight of her face, 
 And the ocean was flooded with light. 
 
THE LORD OF THE SEAS. 45 
 
 And soft were our hearts as we looked ; 
 
 And we talked of the Maker of these; 
 Ai^nd we sang him a song in the night ; 
 
 And we worshipped the Lord of the seas. 
 
The Cup-Coral. 
 
 A careless hand the soil had turned, 
 A mind untaught the trophy spurned, 
 
 That bound to-day 
 
 With far-away, 
 Time-veiled, mysterious yesterday, — 
 
 A yesterday 
 Beyond a night 
 
 Whose confines lay 
 In infinite 
 Unnumbered multitudes of years, 
 The graves of sorrows and of tears. 
 
 Within this coral once there grew 
 A polyp (when the world was new) 
 That waved its hands 
 'Mid seas and sands 
 That girded the Devonian lands, 
 And drew its prey 
 From briny field 
 Of green and gray. 
 
 Where rocked and reeled 
 
 46 
 
THE CUP-CORAL. 47 
 
 Aquatic forests branching wide 
 Adown the prehistoric tide. 
 
 But over all the surging tide 
 Of time upheaved, in cycles wide 
 
 The years were poured 
 
 Like whelming flood, 
 And lands arose where waters stood. 
 
 Each coral steep, 
 Each trophy old, 
 
 Was buried deep 
 In sand and mould, 
 Save where some river rushed in force 
 Along its gravel-bordered course. 
 
 Now Cometh man, of recent birth. 
 To roam the sea and rule the earth, 
 
 To boldly climb 
 
 The heights sublime 
 Overlooking all-departed time, 
 
 And read the book 
 That opens wide 
 
 By mount, "and brook. 
 And ocean-side, 
 And learn to sing a song in praise 
 Of the Creator's wondrous ways. 
 
The Man with the Marvelous Light. 
 
 In the days when the glory of Judah 
 
 From the land of the promise had fled. 
 When the hopes of the saints had departed, 
 
 And the joy of the prophets was dead, 
 When the hosts of the day, which were 
 many, 
 
 Had become but the few of the night, 
 There appeared mid the tombs and the 
 shadows, 
 
 A Man with a marvelous light. 
 
 Like a torch in the darkness uplifted, 
 It illumined the land and the sea ; 
 
 It awakened the shores of the Jordan, 
 And it blazed over wide Galilee ; 
 
 Till the kings and the captains were trou- 
 bled, 
 
 48 
 
MAN WITH THE MARVELOUS LIGHT 49 
 
 Till the nations were pale with afright, 
 Till the priests of the idols were scattered 
 By the Man with the marvelous light. 
 
 There's a rift in the clouds of the nations, 
 
 There's a glory that shines from the East. 
 'T is a light that forever increases, 
 
 As the truth has forever increased ; 
 And we know that the day is approaching, 
 
 And that few are the hours of night, 
 That the sun of the spirit is rising — 
 
 The Man with the marvelous light. 
 
The Armies of the Asters. 
 
 The silent armies of the asters came 
 
 And pitched by hill and plain : 
 They dressed their lines, and set their ban- 
 ners free 
 From main to main, 
 From forest glade to far-stretched mountain 
 chain. 
 
 They stole upon us in the summer night ; 
 
 They passed our sentries by ; 
 Their dew-tipped spears in myriad millions 
 faced 
 
 The morning sky, 
 
 And star-plumed guards held all the prairie 
 
 nigh. 
 
 so 
 
THE ARMIES OF THE ASTERS. 51 
 
 Though white and blue and purple, all their 
 crests 
 The jealous west- wind tossed ; 
 The August drouth assailed by hill and 
 stream, 
 But none were lost ; 
 Then came the Autumn's rains and gales 
 and frost. 
 
 Still stand their hosts entrenched in every 
 wood. 
 
 In every valley wild, 
 To hold the land where the Autumnal sun 
 
 Has looked and smiled, 
 Redeeming all the waste by beauty mild. 
 
The Bard. 
 
 He touched the lyre, 
 A hidden fire 
 
 Upsprang ; 
 With heaving breast 
 And strange unrest 
 
 He sang. 
 
 Beyond the ken 
 Of mortal men 
 
 He saw 
 And roused again 
 Each peaceful swain 
 
 To war. 
 
 In fitful burst 
 
 The notes at first 
 
 Arose, 
 
 Then swept along 
 
 As river strong 
 
 Onflows. 
 52 
 
THE BARD. 53 
 
 Of triumph sure 
 And peace secure 
 
 He told, 
 And fired the throng 
 With spirit strong 
 
 And bold. 
 
 The bugles blew, 
 The clansmen flew 
 
 To arms ; 
 When from the night 
 A fearful sight 
 
 Alarms : 
 
 With serried ranks 
 A dread phalanx 
 
 Appears, 
 With Saxon hordes, 
 And Saxon swords 
 
 And spears. 
 
 With battle cries 
 They rend the skies 
 
 And close ; 
 The claymores clang, 
 And loudly twang 
 
 The bows ; 
 
54 THE BARD. 
 
 The Scottish hopes 
 Are rent like ropes 
 
 Of sand, 
 And gloom and blight 
 Enshroud like night 
 
 The land. 
 
 Alas for Scot; 
 The bard saw not 
 
 The end ! 
 For sounding lyre, 
 Let blazing pyre 
 
 Ascend. 
 
 The field is red, 
 The hosts are fled, 
 
 The rill 
 Alone doth string 
 Its harp to sing 
 
 With will ; 
 
 The stars behold 
 The faces cold 
 
 And scarred, 
 And, lying red 
 Among the dead, 
 
 The bard. 
 
Rain on the Sea. 
 
 Swiftly falling, 
 Loudly calling, 
 
 Like the voice of teraphim 
 Calling in imaginations 
 To the ears of heathen nations 
 
 In the distant past and dim, 
 Came the rain, the driving rain, 
 On the bosom of the main. 
 
 Crystal hammers ! 
 Liquid clamors ! 
 
 Wat'ry caverns open wide ! 
 As, by ancient bard asserted, 
 Once a king with spear inverted 
 
 Smote a mountain's hollow side, 
 And did free to roam the sea 
 All his proud captivity. 
 
 55 
 
56 RAIN ON THE SEA. 
 
 From each briny 
 Cavern tiny 
 
 Springs a bright aquatic elf,* . 
 Dancing 'round as in the fancies 
 Of our dreams Gambrinus dances, 
 
 Or as Bacchus would himself, 
 And they greet us with the beat 
 Of a million dancing feet. 
 
 And in motion 
 On the ocean 
 
 From the million dancing kings 
 Mimic waves are outward flowing, 
 On their devious journeys going, 
 
 With the intertwining rings. 
 While the deep, the gloomy deep, 
 Gathers all — its prey to keep. 
 
 Thus the falling 
 Rain was calling 
 
 As I heard it long ago, 
 When in monotone unceasing. 
 Strangely sad, but sadly pleasing, 
 
 When the summer wind did blow, 
 Came the rain, the driving rain, 
 On the bosom of the main. 
 
Beni Khaiber.* 
 
 We've kept thy words, Joanadab, we've 
 
 neither tree nor vine, 
 We own no houses, have no lands, we never 
 taste of wine, 
 We roam afar wherever green 
 
 The pastures roll before. 
 For we are strangers in the land 
 And will be evermore. 
 
 We've seen a hundred kingdoms fall, great 
 
 races pass away, 
 And stone-built cities, moated, walled, have 
 
 crumbled into clay, 
 
 *The Beni Khaiber are a tribe of Arabian 
 Nomads who claim to be the ancient 
 Rechabites. 
 
 57 
 
58 BENI KHAIBER. 
 
 And where were granite palaces 
 
 And gardens of the vine, 
 Are now the richest woodlands where 
 
 Our flocks at noonday dine. 
 
 Our tents have stood the storms of four- 
 
 and-twenty hundred years, 
 And plague and war have dealt with us 
 severest through our fears. 
 When famine wasted other lands 
 Our fields have still been green, 
 And tempest-riven skies have been 
 To us but skies serene. 
 
 It happened long, ah, long ago, we count by 
 
 centuries, 
 That to a city far we fled, urged by necessi- 
 ties. 
 To shun the host of Syria 
 And the Chadean king, 
 We hasted westward like a flock 
 Of birds upon the wing. 
 
 And in that city far away, a man of mien 
 divine 
 
BENI KHAIBER. 59 
 
 Enticed us to a temple fair, and tempted us 
 with wine, 
 And from the law our father made 
 
 His sons did not depart, 
 But kept the precepts, for his words 
 Are written on the heart. 
 
 Then spoke the man of God to us, with 
 
 holy ardor fired, 
 And in our ears a message poured, prophetic 
 and inspired, 
 "Because the Rechabites have kept 
 
 Joanadab's command, 
 Their children ever more shall dwell 
 Before me in the land." 
 
 Fast roll the years that woven thick with 
 
 changes come and go. 
 And all is altered save the word of God to 
 man below. 
 For, like a rock that from the sea 
 
 Rears its triumphant form, 
 The promise of the Lord remains 
 Unmoved by time or storm. 
 
A Winter Forest. 
 
 The snow lies deep in the woodland, 
 'Tis the holiday garb of the year— 
 'Tis the white ermine robe of the year — 
 
 And it holds in its silence and beauty 
 The leaves that are fallen and sere. 
 
 There's a burden of snow on the branches, 
 And the fir trees are shaggy with plumes — 
 They are white with immaculate plumes — 
 
 And the sun glitters whitely and dazzles 
 In the home of the summer-day glooms. 
 
 On the side of each tree is a mirror, 
 'Tis of water transmuted to glass, — 
 Where the rain has been changed into 
 glass — 
 
 And it shines for the winter-wood creatures, 
 On the crystalline highways that pass. 
 
 60 
 
A WINTER FOREST. 6i 
 
 There are trees that are leafless and bearded 
 With the pendants thatcHng to the moss — 
 With the ice-covered threads of the 
 moss — 
 
 And they droop, in a world that is Gothic, 
 With the low-hanging arch and the cross. 
 
 It is coldness and whiteness and glitter 
 And a beauty that freezes the heart — 
 It chills the red warmth of the heart — 
 
 But it pleases the winter-wood creatures 
 That dwell in the forest apart. 
 
The Hill-Bound Stream, 
 
 It lies alone by the hills, 
 And the fountains feed it ; 
 
 It flows afar, afar, 
 
 Through the vales that need it. 
 
 It breaks the gloom of the trees 
 That it glimmers under, 
 
 And it rends the mighty host 
 Of the wood asunder. 
 
 It calls to the breath of May, 
 
 But the zephyr flees it, 
 And seldom the sun or the moon 
 
 Or the dim star sees it. 
 
 For the pendant banners of green 
 
 In the still air shade it ; 
 And only the bees and the birds 
 
 And their like invade it. 
 
 62 
 
THE HILL-BOUND STREAM. 63 
 
 But softly it comes at last 
 
 To the bloom-bright meadows, 
 
 And the sun looks into the depths 
 That were dense with shadows. 
 
 Its face breaks into a smile, 
 
 For the breeze has kissed it, 
 And it thinks no more of the while 
 
 That the zephyrs missed it. 
 
 So flows the life of man 
 
 Through the deep and shadow, 
 
 But ever it comes at last 
 To the sun-bright meadow. 
 
The Old Men In Books. 
 
 What a wonder it is that a man can walk 
 With the great and the wise of old, 
 
 Who have looked in the face of an infant 
 race 
 In the mythical age of gold. 
 
 They have talked with the ones that our 
 hearts revere, 
 They have dined with the olden kings, 
 They have drank at the streams of forgotten 
 lores 
 As they flowed from their primal springs. 
 
 They have spanned the wide flood of the 
 years for us, 
 
 They have come from the far-away, 
 As they sat at the boards in the days of old, 
 
 They will sit at our boards to-day. 
 
 64 
 
THE OLD MEN IN BOOKS. 65 
 
 They will tell all the tales that the stars 
 have told, 
 
 All the secrets the waves have known, 
 All the ways of beasts, and the ways of men, 
 
 Since the heavenly lights have shone. 
 
 Let us walk with the wise that our hearts 
 may learn 
 Of the truths that the years unfold, 
 Till we stand in the strength of the men 
 who lived 
 In the mythical age of gold. 
 
Battle of Manila Bay. 
 
 Out of Mirs Bay 
 Speeded our vessels 
 
 Stripped to their keels for the fight, 
 While overhead 
 
 Floated our banners 
 
 Fair in the tropical light. 
 
 Blue was the sea, 
 
 Blue were the heavens, 
 
 Light were the hearts that we bore, 
 Phoebus and Mars 
 
 Lighting our sea-way. 
 
 Full to the Philippine shore. 
 
 There on a night 
 
 Armed we for battle, 
 
 Close by the hold of the foe ; 
 
 66 
 
BATTLE OF MANILA BAY. 67 
 
 Silent each man 
 
 Stood by his cannon, 
 Waiting the word for the blow. 
 
 High in the east 
 
 Glimmered the night-queen, 
 Rough in the rags of the mist ; 
 Hard on our bows 
 Battered the billows 
 
 Hurled from the sea-monarch's fist. 
 
 Softly we slipped 
 Into the channel 
 
 Over the terrors that lay 
 Under the deep, 
 
 While the foe's thunder 
 Impotent startled the bay. 
 
 Morn and the foe 
 Found we together ; 
 
 Marshalled for battle was Spain ; 
 All of our men 
 
 Leaped to their duty 
 
 And we remembered the Maine. 
 
68 BATTLE OF MANILA BAY. 
 
 Thunder and flame 
 Burst into being; 
 
 Mad were the waves at each peal ; 
 Rent was the air 
 
 Pierced by the screeching 
 Cyclones of conical steel. 
 
 Ploughed were the famed 
 Ships of the Spanish, 
 
 Till they were wrecks on the sea, 
 Filled with the slain, 
 Burning and sinking, 
 
 Crushed by the wrath of the free. 
 
 Into the deep 
 
 Fluttered their banner. 
 
 Low as the wreck of the Maine ; 
 There shall it lie 
 Long as the annals 
 
 Tell us of treacherous Spain. 
 
Cervera. 
 
 Came the order to Cervera, "Put to sea," 
 And the signals from the Spanish flag- 
 ship fluttered ; 
 Decks were cleared and all the heavy guns 
 cast free, 
 While no word of plaint the noble foe- 
 man uttered. 
 
 Sailing to annihilation 
 
 On Cervera came, 
 For the glory of his nation 
 
 And the wreath of fame. 
 
 Then our roar 
 
 Shook the shore, 
 
 And each Spanish keel 
 
 In that main 
 Felt the strain 
 
 Of our bolts of steel. 
 §9 
 
70 CERVERA. 
 
 Wrapped were all our ships in battle flame 
 and smoke ; 
 Stunned were all our ears by the incessant 
 thunder ; 
 Forward, like swift fox-hounds of the sea 
 we broke, 
 While the hunted Spanish foxes fled in 
 wonder. 
 
 But amid the awful rattle 
 
 Of that steely rain, 
 Strong Cervera watched the battle 
 
 Mid his mounds of slain, 
 
 Till his crew 
 Faint and few, 
 
 Melted as the snow 
 Of the hills, 
 When the rills 
 
 Of the springtime flow. 
 
 Wrecked and burned were all his proud and 
 stately ships. 
 Riven by our shot and opened to the 
 billow. 
 
CERVERA. 71 
 
 Every hulk a wine-cup at the ocean's Hps, 
 Every broken gun a seaman's gory pillow. 
 
 So, in one all-fateful hour 
 
 That should famous be, 
 He beheld the Spanish power 
 
 Smitten from that sea 
 
 Where of old 
 Waved the bold 
 
 Lion-head of Spain, 
 Which shall roar 
 Nevermore 
 
 O'er the ^'Spanish main." 
 
Sea-Caves. 
 
 Caves of the sea I have seen, 
 
 Ragged, on coasts that are lonely, 
 
 Rank with the sea-dulses green. 
 Red with the rock-algae only, 
 
 Piled with old driftwood like bones 
 Left for the breezes to whiten, 
 
 Relics from all of the zones. 
 Potent not even to frighten; 
 
 Plumed by choke-berry and rose 
 Flung from the wilds as a token ; 
 
 Visited only by crows 
 
 Hunting the mussels half-broken. 
 
 However brightens the day, 
 All of the light is from under. 
 
 All of the rain is sea-spray, 
 All of the voices wave-thunder. 
 
 72 
 
SEA-CAVES. n 
 
 Yet, by these noisy sea-caves 
 
 Spirits of silence are dwelling, 
 God rules the bleakness, his waves 
 
 Speak with his voice in their swelling. 
 
 Like are the caves of our thought, 
 Filled with our errors and lonely, 
 
 Far on a coast never sought, 
 Where we are travelers only, 
 
 Walking amid the debris, 
 
 Silent, yet rapt in emotion. 
 Knowing that God is, and He 
 
 Watches the toil of his ocean. 
 
The Patriarch Sequoia. 
 
 Where the summer winds are blowing 
 
 From Pacific's sunny sea, 
 Stands the patriarch sequoia 
 
 Walled by mountains vast as free, — 
 Ancient, calling from past ages 
 
 To the ages that will be. 
 
 When blind Homer swept his lyre 
 Till it voiced his matchless song, 
 
 When young David sang of heaven 
 To the heaven's starry throng, 
 
 In a valley that was nameless 
 Grew this seedling young and strong. 
 
 Slow the cycles waxed and wasted. 
 
 Lordly grew the tree and tall, 
 And the very sun that kissed it 
 
 74 
 
THE PATRIARCH SEQUOIA. 75 
 
 Saw the Greeks at Tyre's wall, 
 Saw the hosts of Alexander 
 Push all Asia to her fall. 
 
 Mightier it was when Caesar 
 Led Old Rome's embattled host 
 
 Roughly o'er the northern nations 
 To an island's savage coast, 
 
 Beating into dust the armies 
 
 That were Gaul's and Britain's boast. 
 
 When its summit towered lofty, 
 
 Christ was teaching Galilee, 
 Rome had spread her law-leagued power 
 
 Over every land and sea. 
 Lands that now are bright with learning, 
 
 Then knew naught but savager\\ 
 
 Realms were born, grew old and perished, 
 
 Till the telling but remained, 
 Time, with its relentless seasons. 
 
 Turned to dust the trophies gained, 
 But this green tree mid its mountains 
 
 Waned not with the years that waned. 
 
76 THE PATRIARCH SEQUOIA. 
 
 When shall fail the life within it ? 
 
 Men a thousand years from now 
 May enraptured gaze upon it 
 
 Towering still with lofty brow, 
 Mindful that our boastful nations 
 
 Withered ere its weakest bough. 
 
 ''Viva, viva," calls the zephyr 
 
 From Pacific's sunny sea, 
 "Stand forever, grand sequoia, 
 
 Walled by mountains vast as free, 
 Living witness of past ages 
 
 To the ages that will be." 
 
Belshazzar's Feast. 
 
 Belshazzar, the king, a wonderful feast 
 
 Spread for a thousand lords, 
 And drank his wine from the Jewish cups, 
 
 And lauded the heathen gods. 
 
 And his nobles laughed and with shout pro- 
 fane 
 
 Were praising their monarch's state, 
 And nothing they cared for the allied foe 
 
 That hammered in vain at the gate. 
 
 They sang in jest of the baffled Medes, 
 And the Persians laughed to scorn. 
 
 For never a foe, they cried, could break 
 Through the walls of Babylon. 
 
 For two long years had the northern hordes 
 The citv encircled round ; 
 
78 BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST. 
 
 But though they patiently fought and 
 watched, 
 Yet never a bregich was found. 
 
 And the city was stored with a mighty 
 weight 
 
 Of food for a score of years, 
 And the citizen soldiers were ever alert 
 
 To baffle the foe with their spears. 
 
 So they deemed them safe in their mortal 
 might 
 
 And worshipped their gods of stone, 
 And hardly less did they flatter and praise 
 
 The monarch upon his throne. 
 
 But a horrible dread filled every heart 
 
 When beyond the candles tall, 
 A ghostly finger and hand appeared, 
 
 And wrote on the plastered wall. 
 
 Then the maidens cried, and the warriors 
 quailed, 
 
 And the princes stood aghast, 
 And the haughty king of the Chaldees shook 
 
 Like a reed before the blast. 
 
BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST. 79 
 
 For the words were words no man could 
 read, 
 
 Nor magian understand, 
 Though messengers in haste called in 
 
 The wizards of the land, 
 
 Till the word of the king to Daniel came, 
 And the youth was summoned in, 
 
 And read, with the fire of prophecy. 
 Their doom for the Chaldees' sin. 
 
 The warriors sprang from the banquet hall, 
 
 And a dread was everywhere. 
 For the shout and the clang of battle burst 
 
 Like a whirlwind on the air ; 
 
 And like a whirlwind's awful sweep 
 
 Came the hosts of Cyrus on, 
 And the spears of the Medes and Persians 
 flashed 
 
 Through the streets of Babylon ; 
 
 While the darkness fled from the torches' 
 glare. 
 And the furious rage of war 
 
So BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST. 
 
 Swelled to the royal gate and court, 
 And rolled to the walls afar ; 
 
 And the tumult grew, and the mighty domes 
 
 Shook with the battle-peals, 
 And the myriad spears and great-swords 
 rang 
 
 Against the warding shields. 
 
 When the night was done and the morning 
 came 
 With soft and perfumed breath, 
 Through the length and breadth of the city 
 lay 
 The ghastly forms of death, 
 
 And, reft of his crown and his gorgeous 
 robes, 
 
 Belshazzar the monarch there 
 Lay 'mid the dead with his face upturned 
 
 With a frown to the morning air. 
 
 For another king sat on the shining throne, 
 
 Darius, the mighty Mede, 
 And the crown of the "golden monarchy" 
 
 Had passed from Belshazzar's seed. 
 
The Mighty Deep. 
 
 Forth upon the main we go, 
 
 SaiHng far, 
 Where the ceaseless currents flow, 
 
 And where are 
 All the wonders of the ocean 
 
 In the vales by plummet sounded, 
 All the tumult and commotion 
 
 Of the seas that man has rounded. 
 And we bow our hearts and say, 
 "Here is God's great deep," but nay, 
 
 This is not the deep, 
 
 Not the mighty deep. 
 
 Forth into the night we go, 
 
 And our eyes 
 Search the starry sands that glow 
 
 In the skies , 
 
 81 
 
82 THE MIGHTY DEEP. 
 
 And with sunlight for a plummet 
 
 All the wide abysses measure, — 
 Lowest void and highest summit 
 
 Yield their worlds like hidden treasure ; 
 And with hearts illumed we say, 
 "Here at last the deep," but nay, 
 
 This is not the deep, 
 
 Not the mighty deep. 
 
 Then we go not forth to see. 
 But our thought 
 Reaches Godward, whence are we 
 
 Who were not. 
 We would know the Mind of ages, 
 
 Vaster, deeper than creation. 
 All the riches of all sages 
 
 To the sky's remotest nation, — 
 Treasures of the Deep are they. 
 And He holds them all for aye : 
 
 He alone is deep, 
 
 God, the Mighty Deep. 
 
The Eskimo's Inferno. 
 
 If he has plundered the poor, 
 Or has forsaken the weak; 
 
 If he has stolen kayaks, 
 
 Or failed his provision to seek ; 
 
 Then when he dies he will go 
 Up to the north of the skies, 
 
 Where a great mountain of sea 
 Frozen eternally, lies. 
 
 There he will wander for aye. 
 Freezing, unspeakably cold, 
 
 Starving forever, no seal 
 Nor fish will he ever behold ; 
 
 Only the sea-lion's skull. 
 Naught but unedible bone. 
 
 And, with his hunger and cold. 
 Will he incessantly groan. 
 
 83 
 
84 THE ESKIMO'S INFERNO. 
 
 There all those sorrowful souls 
 Play ball with skulls, and we see 
 
 The light of their gambols at night 
 Moving, like waves of the sea. 
 
 So let the people beware, 
 
 Shunning this region of woes — 
 
 Never the good will go there, 
 Onlv the bad Eskimos. 
 
The Eskimo's Elysium. 
 
 Happy are they 
 Who have done evil to none, 
 
 Passing away, 
 They go to a land that is known- 
 
 Into the earth — 
 Far from the cold and the snow, 
 
 Deep, very deep 
 Is the space whither they go. 
 
 Under the world, 
 Which many pillars sustain. 
 
 Is that bright land 
 Whence none returneth again. 
 
 There never blow 
 Winds that are angry and cold ; 
 
 There liveth youth 
 Rejuvenating the old. 
 
 85 
 
86 THE ESKIMO'S ELYSIUM. 
 
 There in a sea 
 Beating but lightly the land, 
 
 Fishes and seals 
 Numerous are as the sand. 
 
 So peace and rest, 
 Plenty and happiness are 
 
 Given to all 
 Whether from near or from far, 
 
 Where in delights 
 Dwell, ever free from their woes. 
 
 Never the bad, 
 Only the good Eskimos. 
 
The Plow of the Lord. 
 
 The frost comes down from the Northland, 
 'Tis the terrible plow of the Lord ; 
 
 It mellows the soil of the nations ; 
 It finds out a path for the sod ; 
 
 That Earth may be decked with her mantle 
 When the new Summer marches abroad. 
 
 It plows on the plain and the mountain, 
 It shatters the clod of the vale, 
 
 It breaks through the crust of the prairie 
 That is hard with the sun and the gale ; 
 
 It runs through the mold of the meadow 
 As it lies in its coating of mail. 
 
 It toils at the root of the lichen. 
 
 Nor cares that it plows for the small ; 
 
 87 
 
88 THE PLOW OF THE LORD. 
 
 It sends its white shares through the forest ; 
 
 Nor is proud that it works for the tall ; 
 It waits not the words of a master, 
 
 But freely it labors for all. 
 
 And what are the horses that draw it ? 
 
 They are winds from the boreal zone, 
 That are harnessed ere whitens the winter, 
 
 Ere the wilds are with snow overblown ; 
 And their passing we hear as they trample 
 
 In the fields that the winter has sown. 
 
 We plow, 'tis the plowing of children ; 
 
 We sow and rejoice for the sod; 
 We reap the thick sheaves, for the Mighty 
 
 Has smitten the earth with his rod. 
 And far through the land has run deeply 
 
 The terrible plow of the Lord. 
 
The Farm and the State. 
 
 We are bound to the plowman, 
 
 His fate is our fate, 
 If he falter, we falter, 
 
 Be he great, we are great ; 
 For the thrift of the farmer 
 
 Is the thrift of the State. 
 
 If he toil and his children 
 
 Inherit the land. 
 If in school and in college 
 
 They strive and expand. 
 Then great be our glory 
 
 And mighty our hand. 
 
 If he fail, and the alien 
 
 Inherit instead. 
 With his wife and his daughters 
 
 Field-working for bread, 
 
 89 
 
90 THE FARM AND THE STATE. 
 
 Then fast the RepubHc 
 Will drift to the dead. 
 
 When the Godliest science 
 
 Has passed to decay, 
 Then the corner-stone quivers 
 
 And crumbles away, 
 And the temple of Freedom 
 
 Sinks into the clay. 
 
 So we cry to the farmer, 
 
 "Be valiant, be great, 
 Your hand holds the future 
 
 And measures our fate ; 
 Your farm is a pillar 
 
 Upholding the State." 
 
The First Christmas. 
 
 No bells were rung, 
 No merry shouts 
 
 Announced that Christ was bom, 
 Not one of all 
 The people knew 
 
 That this was Christmas morn. 
 
 No feasts were spread, 
 No gifts were sent 
 
 In memory of one 
 By man received — 
 The kingly gift 
 
 Of sonship in a Son. 
 
 Yet this was first 
 Of holy days, 
 
 The marvel of an age, 
 
 91 
 
92 THE FIRST CHRISTMAS. 
 
 A day that should 
 Remembered be 
 
 By monarch, priest and sage. 
 
 So does God work 
 In silent ways, 
 
 And often, if our eyes 
 Could pierce the cloud, 
 We would behold 
 
 A hidden wonder rise. 
 
 Now bells are rung-. 
 Now merry shouts 
 
 Announce that Christ is born. 
 Now one and all 
 The people know 
 
 When comes the Christmas morn. 
 
 The seed was small, 
 The plant was great, 
 
 The day of God expands 
 And bears its fruit 
 Of love and law 
 
 In earth's remotest lands. 
 
The Earth Star. 
 
 Brightly shining in the heavens 
 
 Of some other world 
 Is the planet we inhabit, 
 
 Gloriously impearled. 
 
 All the things that here are common 
 
 In the solar light, 
 Flash their rays to make the splendor 
 
 Of our star at night. 
 
 May-be on the other planets 
 
 Watchers lift their eyes, 
 Longing for a future dwelling 
 
 In the starry skies ; 
 
 Lift their eyes and see us rising 
 
 In the purple haze, 
 Doubting not that here are endless 
 
 Peace and perfect days ; 
 
 Dreaming not that warrior nations 
 Battle, and alarms 
 
 93 
 
94 THE EARTH-STAR. 
 
 Scatter panics mid the war-camps 
 Of a world in arms. 
 
 In the sky of Mars the brightest 
 
 Orb of night are we, 
 Star of morning, star of evening, 
 
 Lighting land and sea, 
 
 Flashing through a thousand forests 
 
 Where the breezes blow, 
 Quivering on a thousand wave-crests 
 
 Where the waters flow, 
 
 Leading all the train celestial, 
 
 Cheering by its grace 
 All the harvest eves and festals 
 
 Of the Martian race. 
 
 Mercury, the sun's attendant, 
 
 Jupiter the great, 
 Venus, brightest to our vision, 
 
 On our rising wait. 
 
 When the morning stars together 
 
 Sang their day of birth, 
 Brightly, 'mong its glorious fellows, 
 
 Shone the astral earth. 
 
A Sunset Scene. 
 
 Tranquil waters 
 Far outspreading, 
 Bounded only 
 
 By the sky ! 
 Not a zephyr 
 Breaks the stillness, 
 While the twilight 
 
 Draweth nigh. 
 
 On the distant 
 Ocean mirror, 
 Like white fingers 
 
 Of the sea, 
 Idle vessels 
 Wait the coming 
 Of the land breeze 
 
 Patiently. 
 
 95 
 
96 A SUNSET SCENE. 
 
 Here a long buoy 
 Swims the waters, 
 Warning seamen 
 
 To beware 
 Of the hidden 
 Danger lurking 
 Where the prospect 
 
 Seems most fair. 
 
 Yonder, flying, 
 Are the sea-gulls. 
 Closely fanning 
 
 With their wings 
 The gray ocean, 
 In whose bosom 
 Swim in legions 
 
 Living things. 
 
 In the heavens 
 Hang the hazy 
 Moveless garments 
 
 Of a cloud ; 
 Yellow tinted, 
 Crowned with fire, 
 And with many 
 
 Hues endowed. 
 
A SUNSET SCENE. 97 
 
 Now the red sun, 
 Lower sinking, 
 Rests its great disc 
 
 On the brim 
 Of the far off 
 Crimson water, 
 Whence an image 
 
 Rises dim; 
 
 Till descending. 
 The bright servant 
 Of Jehovah, 
 
 With his light, 
 Passes from us. 
 And another 
 From the east comes — 
 
 Lo, the night! 
 
The Universal Tragedy. 
 
 From the hand of the Master 
 The world rolled out into space, 
 
 And He said, *'It shall be 
 The burial ground of a race : 
 
 Fierce warriors 
 
 Alone shall rise up on its face." 
 
 The words were said truly ; 
 
 The world is a battlefield all; 
 All life is in arms 
 
 And responds to the terrible call ; 
 Each atom 
 
 Like a hero, must conquer or fall. 
 
 From man to the microbe 
 
 We live by a war upon life ; 
 The weak must go down, 
 
 98 
 
THE UNIVERSAL TRAGEDY. 
 
 And the aged must yield in the strife ;- 
 A moment 
 
 Each one may be lord of the knife. 
 
 The very diseases 
 
 Are legions of life to be fed, 
 They only can live 
 
 If others go down to the dead ; 
 Their armies 
 
 Like ours, are fighting for bread. 
 
 At dawn of the ages 
 
 The pitiless battle began ; 
 It will last while the world 
 
 Gives birth to a mote or a man, 
 Till the sun-star 
 
 Has shrunk to its ultimate span. 
 
 Then Earth, like Neptune, 
 
 Will drift into silence for aye ; 
 
 The seas will be ice, 
 
 And the land will be frozen alway ; 
 
 The storm-winds 
 
 Will blow not by night nor by day. 
 
 LcfC.^ 
 
 99 
 
100 THE UNIVERSAL TRAGEDY. 
 
 And the victor and vanquished, 
 
 Together forever as one, 
 Will grieve not nor boast 
 
 At the valorous deeds that were done 
 By the living 
 
 In the days of the reign of the sun. 
 
The Lighthouse. 
 
 'Neath a canopy of night, 
 
 Girt by foamy seas, 
 Stands the Hghthouse, spectral, white. 
 
 Firm to every breeze. 
 
 Be the weather foul or fair, 
 
 Far its beacons show, 
 To the world-rim billows where 
 
 Freighted sea-ships go. 
 
 And the pilots heed and sail 
 
 By its far-off gleam, 
 As it glitters, small and pale. 
 
 Like a star abeam. 
 
 So the Union towers white, 
 
 So its beacons shine. 
 So its stars illume the night 
 
 With a gleam benign. 
 
 And the stately nations all 
 
 Sailing fast and far. 
 See beyond the sea-mists tall 
 
 Freedom's guiding star. 
 
 101 
 
«• 
 
 Art Is Long. 
 
 Art is long ; 
 
 So the poet sings his song 
 
 With an aching heart ; 
 For he knows 
 Myriad forms where beauty glows, 
 
 That, unseen, depart. 
 
 Time has wings, 
 
 So the raptured singer sings 
 
 Of his little day; 
 For his tongue 
 Leaves a million songs unsung 
 
 That are on his way. 
 
 Art is long. 
 
 And the painter weeps the throng 
 Of unpainted things ; 
 
 102 
 
ART IS LONG. 103 
 
 When shall he 
 
 Paint the earth and sky and sea 
 That each season brings? 
 
 All too far 
 
 Lies the heaven's farthest star 
 
 For our span of night ; 
 All too deep 
 Are the wonder truths that sleep, 
 
 For uncertain sight. 
 
 Art is long, 
 
 So will we rejoice, my song, 
 
 At the faultless plan ; 
 For we know 
 To the farthest end must go 
 
 God's great scholar — Man. 
 
A Dream of Science. 
 
 Lift the veil from the ages, 
 Let the dreams of the sages 
 Be outspread 
 On the records 
 Of Hght ; 
 Let our hearts feast in knowing 
 The fair things that are going 
 To be done 
 
 For our children's 
 Delight. 
 
 As the aeons grow longer 
 Shall our science grow stronger, 
 Until man 
 
 Becomes master 
 Of all ; 
 In the skies that surround him 
 There shall nothing confound him, 
 And the stars 
 
 Shall come nearer 
 At call. 
 
 104 
 
A DREAM OF SCIENCE. 105 
 
 He shall multiply millions 
 Of diameters, billions 
 In their size 
 
 Shall his objects 
 Expand, 
 By his multiple glasses, 
 Till our thoughts he surpasses 
 With the thing 
 He has fashioned 
 By hand. 
 
 All the fauna and flora 
 Of the orbs of aurora, 
 All the life 
 Upon Venus 
 And Mars, 
 Will be classified, sifted, 
 By the learned and gifted 
 In the lore 
 
 Of the reading 
 Of stars. 
 
 We will find us new causes 
 For debates and applauses ; 
 For each bug 
 
io6 A DREAM OF SCIENCE. 
 
 And each beetle 
 And bee 
 Of the new lands arising 
 Will demand analyzing 
 In the code 
 Of the science 
 To be. 
 
 We will thrill with emotions 
 When we look on the oceans 
 That are spread 
 On the planets 
 At night, 
 Or behold through the mazes 
 Of the driving sea-hazes 
 The red fleets 
 Of the Martians 
 In fight. 
 
 We will tell in our ditties 
 Of the heavenly cities 
 On the shores 
 Of the rivers 
 And seas, 
 Where the folks are much queerer 
 
A DREAM OF SCIENCE. 107 
 
 Than the folks that are nearer, 
 And our dreams 
 Will be peopled 
 With these. 
 
 We will quiet our yearning 
 With the curious learning 
 Of the men 
 
 That are thronging 
 The sky, 
 Though we know not a token, 
 Nor a word that is spoken 
 By the wise 
 
 In their councils 
 On high. 
 
 We will roam in their goodlands 
 With our eyes, and their woodlands 
 Shall their shades 
 And their blossoms 
 Lay bare, 
 Till we find El Dorado 
 In the purple-mist shadow 
 Of the stars 
 
 And the kingdoms 
 Of air. 
 
The Divine in Man. 
 
 The beast beyond his comfort has no long- 
 ing, 
 He takes of Nature's joys nor questions 
 why; 
 He sports the milHon forms to her belong- 
 ing,— 
 His dream is all to live and not to die. 
 
 The kindly King has veiled his mind from 
 seeing 
 The black-robed guard of man — the angel 
 Death, 
 So lies he down contented with his being, 
 Nor mourns because his life-span is a 
 breath. 
 
 But God has destined man to higher sta- 
 tions 
 
 108 
 
THE DIVINE IN MAN. 109 
 
 Than eye has seen or thinking mind con- 
 ceived ; 
 And so has troubled him with aspirations 
 That drive him faithward as he has be- 
 heved. 
 
 The night of death looms vast and sure be- 
 fore him, 
 A void of blackness without rift or sign, 
 But this he knows because the Presence 
 o'er him 
 Has planted in him life that is divine ; 
 
 And restless, restless, restless is his spirit, — 
 It searches mind and matter, earth and 
 air, 
 
 It searches for some good it may inherit. 
 It searches out the God of everywhere ; 
 
 It is a magnet, living, moving, turning 
 
 To find its great Affinity afar, 
 And only will it satisfy its yearning 
 
 When it has touched its own celestial 
 star. 
 
The Golden Rivers. 
 
 Broadly flow the streams and deep, 
 
 All the sands are golden. 
 Where, in mines exhaustless, sleep 
 
 Treasures priceless, olden — 
 Through the land of Truth sublimely, 
 
 Under cloud and sun, 
 Worthy of the fair immortals, 
 
 Knowledge rivers run.- 
 
 Savants sift these sands that shine 
 
 With a light supernal; 
 For the gold is all divine 
 
 Of the Mind eternal ; 
 He has wondrous secrets hidden 
 
 In the land of Truth — 
 Such they be that their unveiler 
 
 Finds immortal youth. 
 
 110 
 
THE GOLDEN RIVERS. in 
 
 Only here are nations strong, 
 
 Only here unshaken, 
 Only here through ages long 
 
 Stand their walls untaken, 
 Builded by the mystic rivers. 
 
 Massively and high, 
 Reared in knowledge, truth and wisdom, 
 
 'Neath a changeless sky. 
 
 Better are these streams that flow 
 
 Than the fairest waters 
 That the realms of fancy know ; 
 
 Fairer than the daughters 
 Of the Nile green-spread and fertile 
 
 Under Egypt's sun : 
 For these golden streams are daughters 
 
 Of a mightier One. 
 
The Sea-Beach. 
 
 Speak, O silent witnesses 
 Of primeval mysteries, 
 Rocks, that ocean rounded tell 
 Of unmeasured interval. 
 
 Here upon this seamless sand 
 Strewn with sea-wrought stones I stand, 
 Striving if I may but shake 
 Off th' unreal and awake ; 
 
 For we live we know not why, 
 In unreal mystery, 
 And at times we almost seem 
 Just awaking from a dream. 
 
 Look, these stones, which seem to say, 
 *'We were born but yesterday," 
 
 112 
 
THE SEA-BEACH. 113 
 
 Have for ages heard the roar 
 Of the seas upon this shore. 
 
 Strange that anything should be 
 Half as old as this gray sea 
 Of which none may comprehend 
 The beginning or the end ! 
 
 Now the sunlight falling fair 
 On the beach, the laggard air, 
 Hardly moving stops to lave 
 Its dry pinions in the wave ; 
 
 And the tide, which comes as slow 
 As the summer zephyrs blow, 
 Like sweet music filleth me 
 With a tongueless ecstasy. 
 
 Then at eve, when one degree 
 Hangs the moon above the sea, 
 When above the darkened trees 
 Shine the twinkling Pleiades, 
 
 Softly, thinly rolls a song 
 From the seas that glide along 
 
114 THE SEA-BEACH. 
 
 O'er the sands, the shells, the old 
 Stones with histories untold ; 
 
 And we listen, though we know 
 It is but the water's flow, 
 But a thousand sounds that run 
 Indistinguished into one. 
 
Lovely Camden. 
 
 Lovely Camden ! towering high, 
 
 In ruae lines, 
 Are thy mountains ; flitting by 
 
 Oaks and pines. 
 Is a devious winding brook, — 
 In thy shade, Megunticook. 
 
 Lovely Camden ! many a lake 
 
 Sparkling lies. 
 Rimmed with fern, and brier, and brake. 
 
 Where the skies. 
 As in mighty mirrors, look, — 
 Near ^o thee, Megunticook. 
 
 Lovely Camden ! Ocean comes, 
 
 And to thee 
 Brings his beaches, where he thrums 
 
 With his sea ; 
 
 U5 
 
ii6 LOVELY CAMDEN. 
 
 But at thy all-conquering look, 
 He is curbed, Megunticook. 
 
 So with mountains, lakes, and seas. 
 
 Beautified, 
 With the songs of surf and breeze, 
 
 Floating wide, 
 Loved for nature's trinity, 
 Camden nestles by the sea. 
 
En Voyage. 
 
 We embarked in a beautiful ship, 
 
 In our voyage to the Ultimate Isle, 
 And we steered by the heart and the lip 
 In the days when the sun was a smile ; 
 For she, the sweet charmer, was there, 
 With the flowers of May in her hair, 
 She was love, and to me she was fair 
 As pur hope in the Ultimate Isle. 
 
 We sailed all alone, all alone, 
 
 And the world — it was she, it was I, 
 
 For we sailed by the tropical zone, 
 And we shunned the antropical sky ; 
 
 For what was there common forsooth 
 
 To the ice-fields and fervescent youth ; 
 
 And love was the reason in truth 
 
 That we shunned the antropical sky. 
 
 117 
 
ii8 EN VOYAGE. 
 
 By the mist of the world overblown, 
 
 I have made me a league with the air, 
 That however it blow for its own, 
 
 It will blow only fair for my fair ; 
 And the lode-needle never more dips 
 When it pilots the beautiful ships 
 To the isle where the honey-dew drips,- 
 The Ultimate Isle of the fair. 
 
 ^ »»- 
 
 Eternal Change. 
 
 O Time, O Space, show me some shore 
 Where changeless things forever are, 
 
 Where never blow the winds, nor roar 
 The restless waves gale-blown from far; 
 
 There might the nation, camped for aye, 
 
 A loved monotony retain. 
 With all the forms of yesterday 
 
 Supreme within its frozen brain. 
 
ETERNAL CHANGE. iig 
 
 But nowhere in the moving Hnes 
 
 Of world-girt suns that shore is found ; 
 
 Eternal change has set its signs 
 On all within the stellar bound. 
 
 So camps the nation with the night, 
 So wakes the nation with the sun 
 
 And draws anew its line of fight 
 On fielas untried, in lands unwon. 
 
 We face new problems with new day, 
 Our duty path grows ocean-wide ; 
 
 We cannot turn aside, nor stay 
 
 The winds that fan the nation's pride. 
 
 We rush to deeds unplanned, unthought, 
 We yield to all-pervading Change, 
 
 For every age has blindly wrought 
 
 The forms that to the Past were strange. 
 
The Stars. 
 
 Look, in the midst of the night, 
 
 Blazing on high, 
 Numberless jewels of light 
 
 Spangle the sky, 
 Making the firmament bright, 
 
 Where splendors lie. 
 
 Part of our world do they seem. 
 
 Fires aglow. 
 Kindled, forever to gleam 
 
 On all below. 
 Known by the world as in dream 
 
 Only we know. 
 
 What they are not they appear, 
 
 Not what they are. 
 Each an unthinkable sphere 
 
 RolHng afar, 
 
 120 
 
THE STARS. 121 
 
 Dragging the worlds that are near 
 After its car. 
 
 Through the immeasurable space 
 
 Ever they roll, 
 Leaving behind them no trace, 
 
 Seeking no goal ; 
 Endless the line of their race 
 
 As of the soul. 
 
 Mental Picture Galleries. 
 
 In the midst of the house of the soul is a 
 
 room 
 Where the walls are of light and the air a 
 
 perfume, 
 Where are painted the scenes that our 
 
 memories hold 
 As the chiefest the world to our sight has 
 
 unrolled. 
 
 When we journey afar or anear, to our 
 eyes 
 There appear the new glories of nature 
 and art, 
 
122 MENTAL PICTURE GALLERIES. 
 
 And we bear them away, be we foolish or 
 wise, 
 To the hmitless room in the house of the 
 heart. 
 
 It is not when the steps of the journey are 
 done 
 That the journey itself is accomplished 
 
 for aye, 
 For the soul travels often the memoried 
 way 
 That our feet in the past have so happily 
 run. 
 
 In my gallery here 
 
 There are scenes that are dear, 
 
 There are some that are beautiful, some 
 that are grand, 
 There are paintings of trees 
 And of flowery leas 
 
 And of furious billows engulfing the 
 land 
 
 Here's a port by the sea, 
 With its harbor and ships. 
 
MENTAL PICTURE GALLERIES. 123 
 
 With the waters beyond 
 
 Where the western sun dips, 
 And with beaches that hold 
 
 The salt seas to their lips ; 
 
 There are children at play, 
 
 There's a house that was ''home", 
 
 Where the windows were wet 
 With the breath of the foam, 
 
 When the thundering gale 
 From the ocean had come. 
 
 Here's a picture of plains 
 
 In the West, where the rains 
 
 Seldom fall, where the loneliness weighs 
 on the soul, 
 And we see not a thing 
 But the glittering wing 
 
 Of a bird in its flight to some far-away 
 goal. 
 
 Here's a coast where the hurricane bellows 
 and roars. 
 Where the rain sweeps along like a tor- 
 rent in air, 
 
124 MENTAL PICTURE GALLERIES. 
 
 'T is an isle in the edge of an ocean, and 
 there 
 Stands a man all alone by the quivering 
 shores. 
 
 Here's a picture of peace ; 't is a river that 
 flows 
 At the feet of the Catskills, and seen on 
 its breast 
 Are the varying tints of the lily and rose 
 And the shades that are caught from 
 each towering crest. 
 
 Thus we paint in our hearts all the beauties 
 
 of earth, 
 Thus we take to ourselves all the joys that 
 
 have birth, 
 And we make them immortal, a part of the 
 
 room 
 Where the walls are of light and the air a 
 
 perfume. 
 
 M19 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
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