PS 3527 ,184 S65 1914 Copy 1 »»..«-»..eM«i.«M«t.«..«..«M«t.»~t.^«t«.»»«»#»t«t.»«»«»«»«»«n«"«"»"»"«»««««^"»'l Soul So ngs ^y David C, cNjmmo (••<>MC»*»*~«t>C»*i>«»»>*««*"*»«<**»««CM9««MCa<«>«i «M«»c»«»«»«~««CMa»Bi ? Copyrighted 1914 By David C. Nimmo Times Printing Co., Detroit, Mich. prffat^ N putting forth a fourth hook of verse that cannot find a publisher, a reader or a friend, I hardly know what to say. Per- haps the plain hlunt truth is best. In the opinion of publishers, the persons to whom i presented copies of the work, and to my nar- rower circle of acquaintances, my poetry, to put it in the expression of the street, is "not worth a salted damn." I have sometimes agreed in the judgment and wished it were all in oblivion. Again when read- ing I have felt a quickening of spirit and been re- stored to faith. Perhaps it is but another of the in- finite deceptions that selfishness plays upon the self. It is certainly a hard time for poetry. A communi- cation concerning a book of verse is sometimes not even answered; some publishers will not look at such a manuscript and one declares there is but one chance in a thousand for such a venture. Why is this? Poetry has long been considered the very heart of literature and "the breath and fine spirit of all knowl- edge." No doubt a complexity of causes causes the present state of public opinion, but cannot one of the chief reasons be found in the poor quality of much of the present day verse. It seems to have everything of poetry but a head and heart. It does not say much and lacks the vitality that is the soul and creates a body of beauty and music. It lacks the great char- acteristics of life — passion, spontaneity, freshness, penetration and delight. Give us the real genuine lyrical virtue, something that has the man, the lover, the patriot, the child, the philosopher, the sinner and the saint in it — give us the poetry written in the Campus by one of the great actors of life and it will wake up the poet asleep in every man to greet it with ejeculations of pleasure. Whether my own verse has any of this esisential quality, I leave to the judgment of the few readers it may chance to find. A book of 'Soul Songs' would be my highest con- ception of a volume of poetry. It would contain in befitting form the realest utterances of the soul of man. It would be a translation out of the great heart of Life when at the summit of her passion and power. It would be a biologic document written by the uni- versal spirit and as such be the greatest page in the vast book of nature. Such books are rare. They are the ideal. Few, few in the whole history of the world can write them and just a little larger few can read them when produced. With such a view I hesitate to put the contents of this book under this title. The first and last and a few between songs are properly in place. Other songs scattered through three other books and some yet unpublished I would like to bring under this head if I had the time to revise them and the means to re- print. The object of the present publication is not proper classification but the preservation of a few manuscripts that would go into the waste if anything happened. A number of these are properly. Civic Songs, which I have here inserted with the faint hope of getting the former book to some attention. These Songs, from one of the nameless, numberless, rebellious slaves at the wheels of labor, I send forth and trust it will receive from a few the judgment that renders the ripeness and integrity of the mind. D. C. N. September 1, 1913. . Contents Page A World Sigh 7 The Two Travelers 22 The Mocking Bird 22 A Murmur 28 Let the Thinker Think .' 29 The Idol Breaker 30 All We Learn : 32 The Muses 32 Large and Small 32 Man 33 The Center of Gravity, . . • • , . , 33 The Golden Age , 35 Blindness 39 The Machinist's Song 40 The Song of the Suffragette 41 A Boston City Song 42 A Denver City Song 43 A New York State Song 44 A Massachusetts State Song 45 A Minnesota State Song 47 An Illinois State Song 48 Science 49 The Sweetest of the Sweet 52 Electric Lights 54 The Undeclining 56 The Man With the Punch 57 The Price of Bread 58 Sleep and Dream 59 Rebellion ; 59 The Battle of Brooklyn 60 Old Glory 71 Queen of the Ages 73 The Citizen's Song 74 The Socialistic Slogan 76 March Song for Socialists 78 The Handwriting 79 Washington 81 Lincoln 83 Grant 85 Wilson 88 Emerson 90 To Astronomy 92 The Constellations 95 Art and Oblivion 98 Let the Thinker Think. 99 Source and End 100 A Flower 100 A Premonition .101 Rejected 102 Mama's Answer 103 Nature Helps 106 Nature's Bouquet 106 The Dandelion 107 The Ideals 112 My Piece of Life 115 Go, My Songs of Soul 130 A WORLD SIGH. What is written lias been writ And he that reads can read; But until the heart is bit To bleed and bleed and bleed Without God or man to fit A balsam on its need Thou wilt never find the wit That doth the spirit feed. ' Oh Love, thou art the spirit most divine Of all existing being. Thy presence fills The universe, and is the heart that wills All life. The green and golden globes that shine And lamp the void are fed with living wine From thy celestial breast and glance. Such motions, majesty and lance Of brightest splendors as forever kills The undevout and prides that stream In man, Oh who could ever dream Such beauty, power and harmony divine Could be and be sustained by any heart but thine! But in this world — Oh is it here alone Of all the million multiplied spheres that hail Thy gifts? — thy name and nature are in veil. As if a solid starless night was thrown Across the summer sun, and earth was blown A coarse of wintry selfishness. The elemental natures that dress Her living soul with ocean, sky and vale. And scarce the scars upon her heart Conceal with all their magic art. Bear witness with their murmuring looks and lips Thy heart and countenance, Oh Love! are in eclipse. Thus veiled from thee the unguardianed earth doth sweep Her path among the constellated spheres As a dishonor among the kingly peers Of heaven's host. To them she is a heap Of most chaotic ruins. Within her deep What titanic elements of life Are locked in their convulsive strife! What tempest wrath and lightning bolt appears! What earthquake, volcano and cyclone Her bosom oft has rent and thrown! What sweeping flood, frost, drought and hungry flame The green-embosomed earth destroy or lasting maim! Some withering blast is on the herbless field; Some unseen ill eats at the forest's core; Some spirit wars in beasts and birds for gore; Some poisons too the fountains have unsealed; All beasts and things announce the unrepealed Curse on the earth. From nature's heart Without the touch and time of art No flower or fruit reach use or beauty's door. Why should the beasts and powers of life Have no high end but warring strife? Earth from her heart to the splintered mountain In polyphonic voice a rasping measure speaks. Antagoniisms fierce to the ideal Dwells in the heart of nature and her powers. All chemical and biologic dowers Are driven like a blind mechanic's wheel, Without an end, a virtue or a seal. An infinite prolific force Upon a blinded, blinded course. Old Nature in her blindness fierce devours The evolutions that might cope Against the curse and give her hope. Blind in her eyes, strife swelling through her heart, But savages and wilds are all that she can bart. Dowered thus she swings along her course And through the void utters her solemn dirge; For all she is, has been and would be, surge Her heart and frame with deep, voluminous force And echoes far away. These thunders hoarse Doth strike her sister wedded spheres. Doth fall on their harmonious ears As earth discords in heaven's song emerge. With silent awe, uncertain fears, Each listens whence the sound appears. Oh what a drawn-out diapason curse To echo from our sphere throughout the universe! 8 The long courses of her sons so mortal Whose destiny is but to find a birth And faitli and fellowship above the earth, Then quick to pass beyond the shadowed portal To join the hosts forever more immortal; With glancing eye of heart or mind Beholds that line and is not blind With grief, as when death falls on lover's mirth! To see the loved and best created With sense and self and shadows mated, To see life's line exceeds a wise belief. Astounds angelic ranks and burdens them with grief. Our human nature is disorganized From all that doth environ. It is antithetic To humanity, to the rich prophetic Skies, to nature's fabric, to its God devised Constitution and the idealized Virtues the Divine inspires To wake and feed our best desires. The conscience is dethroned and heretic Sense's dark impulsive power Is rebel to the spirit's dower. All gifts have some lack, fullness or alloy As failures certain make, embitter and destroy. Yes, yes! In the far ancestral founts of life Some mystery dark was introduced that lives From sire to son, and a field for ruin gives God's workmanship with potencies most rife. This strange mephitic element with strife Has poisoned every heart and brain, And often God's last blessing, pain. Our quintessential essence, the motives, From uncreated virtues bent. And fell in that same steep descent As the primal godlike purities that fell From heaven's right hand thrones to the fire-locked gulfs of hell. Some spirit of that dark, infernal region Seems still at work, and pours satanic power On this descent by which they swift devour The heritage of hope. Diverse and legion The inspiration which she doth endower, So each from his high destined end And from his brother's good doth bend. All reasonless by blind infatuation The human bands and brotherhoods Are severed and new multitudes 9 Of deadly strifes spring up each day to birth, With power and hate and death to all of right and worth. The world and man and life and all their powers Are tangled up and set against each other, And in the heart of the prolific mother Is the eternal hunger that devours Till man stands up, and in defiance towers Above all nature's endless greed. He stands at bay, but see him breed Strife in the world and with himself and brother. Strife, strife, eternal strife With passion drives the heart of l:'fe; Contention and Resistence ever fight And ever rise afresh from each victorious might. Centered in the eternal strife is soul. Though to all eyes and oft to self unknown, Two worlds of life and death have there been thrown For mastery. There in the darkness roll The mighty powers that guard each moral pole Of this dynamic universe. Heaven and blessing, hell and curse Contend there oft and claim him as their own; But most the self and gifts of power Contend or suffer or devour. Sense and soul, might and right, real and ideal Sweep the heart with changing woe but never lasting weal. Oft, oft the world doth o'er him sudden sweep, And in the strife he's plunged and far immersed; Another soul doth in him sudden burst And mighty powers no human power can keep Through heart and brain with lightning passions leap. A blinded elemental force He sweeps along a murdering course And only death can feed the burning thirst. The swelling passions of his ire Feeds to each heart contagious fire And frenzied war and all she brings to birth Sweeps on her murderous course across anarchic earth. Oh war, war, war! Oh outward and embodied state Of man's own nature! The unregenerate man Has all the elements of war's infernal ban In his vile heart. His selfishness and hate Sleep not nor feed till they annihilate Obstructs of pride and power and greed. Defenceless weak, unarmored need Are gloated o'er with eyes of murderous scan. 10 The armies and the navies often seem, And often seem to be no dream As giant men wliom trifles disengage And elemental furies within and round them rage. What histories hast thou written on the earth Of fiery force and vengeance, blood and lust! Oh what destroy from grandeur unto dust Of most men are and all they hold of worth! Which of the long generations whose birth Was not eclipsed by thee and thine? Which of the years that long untwine Was not with stain, deep, crimson stain out thrust? What nations never pained and bowed When thee and thine together crowd? What nations never loud, jubilant and free When thou in chains were thrust as hell's hound ought to be? Oh inhuman war! Oh infernal birth! Thou transformest earth to hell and revels Man as drunken, mad and thrice damned devils In blood and death, in rapine, fire and lust. The earth Could bear the cost and count it more than worth If thou couldst riieet an equal mate And each the foe annihilate. All know beneath life's sun-kissed highland levels Wars have their source and leave their stain On the lust of pride and power and gain. Oh war, as thou the throat of death has crammed Thy spirit, works and lore forever deep be damned! Still thou Shalt be, for today the nations groan Beneath deep marshaled ranks and armaments That public fear alone from broil prevents. These hounds of hell if this frail leash be thrown — Oh restrain! Restrain! Too well the truth is known! Not yet the crimson spear and sword Shall trim the vine and turn the sward. Thy presence we must bear till omnipotence All hostile powers from power disown And change man's heart and love enthrone. Oh deliverance shalt thou ever come Since faith is often slain and hope is stricken dumb! And other fields then the mangled scattered dead Their victims claim of thousand thousands slain. Trade and industries, all know they must remain For human need, but what heart has never bled For boys and girls on hours of labor fed? The city's heart each morn doth bleed 11 To see them forced by forcing need, And early bound by slavery's iron chain. The home and school, forest and field Should in and round them be unsealed. What a sacrifice for a worthless heap of gold Do the heavens above and the earth beneafh behold? From their short youth until their ripest years A hopeless labor is the law of life; .For labor without hope is but a strife Of selfishness and death, while heaven's spheres Of life and love grow blind and disappears. The law is: "ToH! Toil! Toil, oh slave!" And with no end but for the grave. If one rebels then hunger's ragged knife Doth tear a gash straight to the heart, Which men will see and cold depart. No other passion like the curse of gold Can change the warming heart to polar icy cold. In this intense and concentrated age Of selfishness, the workmanship divine Though deep defaced, bearing the workman's sign, Is cheaper in the mart then what would gage The value of a beast. Horses and kine Command a larger care than men. Machines are under constant ken And often dogs are tended by a page. Oh human life is more than cheap! Oft hunted, murdered to the deep. Trade's vast machine turns swifter round and round With nought or light regard for thousands ground and ground. Oh what a sorrow sight before the wise . As they behold at the city's restless heart Ten thousand thousand whose life is but a mart For profitless exchange! Why do men's eyes See not the throned and azure isplendored skies! To buy and sell, to get and gain Is more than all the gifts of pain, Or all the dreams that on her visions dart. Men sell themselves, the god in them, His jewels their birth which diadem. Faith, love and truth, ideals and more are sold By hosts of human kind for worthless heaps of gold. Wealth now is god and life's supremest art Is but to worship her. A golden image Is enthroned on an .exalted stage; Her dazzling continental splendors dart 12 From sea to sea. Oh each remotest part ; Of this vast nation's host of men, ' ; Beheld! Does not thy prophet ken . j Behold the choicest spirits of the age I Hearing that sound low prostrate fall i To worship her their all in all? ] The few that scorn the god that hosts desire I Are instant thrust again into a sevenfold fire. ; Another class akin to these exchange * ] All gifts for public place; their all for power \ And honors bright that fade within an hour. : And many more, to wisdom still more strange, i Barter all high kingdoms if they can range '. Where fashion, wealth and pride aglow, ': Eat, drink, drive and clothe and show. i Most near to these who forfeit equal dower Another class hear pleasure's call ; And haste to drink her honeyed gall. < How many in that swift seducing round Deem trifles but the hour and foolishness there found? A very few like travelers in a desert land ^ | Do seek the fountains that have ever burst ' ,| To slake the mind and its consuming thirst ] For knowledge, and the right to understand v What idealists in their high k'ngdoms planned. ^ Some fewer still who seem insane j With some wild fancies of the brain j Do ever seek their finite bands to burst j And in the Uncreated find j A purity for heart and mind. ■' These last, the wisdom, salt and light of earth, i Though scorned and trodden down, but find the ends of birth. ^ But, Oh this vast mass! This helpless seething mass ] Of unconscious, blind and lost humanity; \ Without life or hope of being's destiny, | What are they and who cares for them? They pass j As mighty herds o'er life's scant pastured grass. j No beauty on their eyeballs blind; i No kingly thoughts within the mind; i No impassioned pulse of eternity; ' No love divine within the heart; No God doth on their conscience start; .; Their souls in rounds of labor, grief and greed, j Are dead to all high powers that life alone can feed. ] And Life, the ancient mother of the earth j Doth breed them with inhuman inhumanity, 1 13 1 Are they not flung- with brutal sense-insanity Out of the void into this mortal birth? And when Thought stands upon the azure girth Is she not stricken, pale, aghast, To see the poor so crowding past In want and grief, in blindness and profanity? This mighty mass, without an end^ Without a God, a home or friend. Harnessed like beasts they draw the world along: And underneath all sound is their vast dirge of song. Far, far from these, how very few of millions Out of the mass as the morning stars do rise With undimmed splendor I And what a glad surprise To find in the eternal sphere pavilions New firmamental lights! What postilions Upon fire! What imperial power In their right arm! What lightning dower Of spirit blaze from their unconquered eyes I For each who gain a throne and crown What battling hosts must they tread down! But Oh how oft when on the summit's height Life's gain is found as dross and noon is turned to night! Around the golden portal of our birth Congregate young strengths and joys and hopes, Whose passions scorn the rough ascending slopes Of life, for knowledge of rebellious earth Can never pierce the consciousness of mirth. But Oh how soon, how very soon Beneath the height and heat of noon The strongest faints and blind in darkness gropes! Oh must this life forever slay us? ■ First a cosmos, then a chaos, First ideals, fiery heart and lightning mind, Then failure, nor the good, within, before, behind. Our desecrated and dethroned ideals. Religious faiths and joys and sacred sorrows Unsheltered roam time's unhospitable morrows. As celestial foreigners in earthly fields, Though with ancestral grace and royal seals, They seek in vain some mortal heart Wherein to dwell and free impart What e'en the first archangel gladly borrows. Oh what a wilderness for them! Oh with what judgments they condemn! High heaven's hosts come forth at birth to crown. At sunset they are fled or on us darkly frown. 14 Yea worse! Love travailing in her bondage \ Bost inspire the poet's soaring mind. 1 These splendors of her new creation are signed | In imperishable imagery, and now gage i Man's deep descent and his unhallowed rage, j These images the most divine, j Whose music, power and light shall shine I Though ages like the past shall be untwined, j These natures pure which recreate ,; Who love an*J live and contemplate, ' These kingdoms which the smile of God doth crown I By hosts and hosts and hosts are scorned and trampled down. j The sons of genius, the celestial powers, The gifts divine, the hierarchs of worth, t The splendors rare that should enlight the earth 1 And guide her course to those immortal hours ■ They see and feel in their high spirit dowers: i Who weeps not sorrow's sacred tear i Upon the dark and ruined bier ] Of this divorce from such prophetic birth 1 ;l Their sunlike gifts, their sunl'ke light | Serves but to read life's line aright. ; Unbalanced, driven, ruined, ashamed and cursed, i None, none but them can know how life is strange reversed. J Why is this life so lean? Why failure, J Disappointment, loss, despondency, remorse? 1 The spirt's high endowments and the force I Of immortality doubtless should insure \ Men high careers of progress, and should cure. -; The sad disorders of our state. j Vast potencies divine and great . And prophecies that through all storms endure ■ Are felt in will and heart and brain, t And kindle 'neath life's stress and strain. i Led on by dreams no dream should e'er deceive , Ideal worlds pass by and us behind them leave. ( Why should the individual and the race Be such fiascoes? What infinite ideal ,; Can justify the earth's dark history, and repeal i The waste of human life, the gifts and grace ' Of billioned souls whom chaos doth embrace? ,] One, only one of all our line j We dream has reached the goal divine. '; His few redeemed were found where ruin reels : Helpless to the abysmal deep. j All else is failure. Oh the reap I Of death! Oh the harvests vast of sin and hell! ' Oh the loss and bitterness, God, God alone can tell! I 15 ^ Oh Love! two long millenniums have rolled around Since thy high priest with sacrifice divine Burst with effulgent brightness on the line Of selfishness. With a swift tremendous bound Some sinful hearts leaped to his sight and sound. The promise long has been delayed; Hate, greed and strife are still unstayed. And stronger grow as each with others twine. Still evil ye4^, doth reign supreme; - All clearly see in the lights that stream The world is unredeemed. The Chr'st who died And his creeds of life and love each day is crucified. The great institution of the church doth shame Her proud pretentions. She is a disgrace To God and a glory to herself. Power, place, Numbers and wealth, pomp, form and fashion's fame Are more than Christ and the Spirit's glowing fiame. Without a splendor full unfurled. Within a white-washed wrinkled world, A scorn of m*in whose p'ercing visions trace One life in strange extremest forms. A church that ne'er disturbs or storms Whatever stands in Love's obstructed way. Is the worst restraining power of her divinest day. The hgh enthroned, purple and crowned transgressors Of position, power, wealth and intelligence. O'er the wide hosts of helpless ignorance Become still more the strong and proud oppressors. The union and new acts of these possessors Upon the new horizon's bound Cast most portentous sight and sound. What dark chaotic dreams will issue hence From want and hunger's outraged sleep If once their tempest passions leap? The strife of life intensifies each day; The weak are beasts of burden, the strong are beasts of prey. The religious instincts and the deep Intuitional sense of the divine Seem in a strange decay. The darkest sign Of all our time is that such hosts can sleep With no more God than horses, kine or sheep. No thanksgiving song or prayer for Help or confessions upward soar. In most no moral nature seems to shine; The fundamental pieties Of nature, state and families, That virtue lent to a less enligthened day Seem dying in the strife and slowly pass away. 16 A new zeit-geist has risen to control The courses of this latter generation. Gay Pleasure and her mad infatuation Has risen to the throne of life to pole The thoughtless world unto another goal. As long as thought so long is hope; The thinker can stand up and cope With nature and all ancient degredation; But when the thoughtless rule the world Humanity is blindly whirled. Gay pleasure doth life's darkest histories write And smites with blasphemy the powers of truth and right. Atheism, profanity and ignorance, Pride, pleasure, falsehood and dishonesty, Drunken -^ss and foulest sensuality. Material power and lordly competence, All, all dark ghouls of selfishness and sense Shout: "The earth, the earth is all our own, Nor God nor heaven can us dethrone. This is our royal day of power and we Will blast or bless who bind or free Our reign with more intensity. God, heaven and angels high are overthrown. Bulwarked by ages long the earth is all our own." Oh Love, all things are calling out for thee! The voice of earth and all her generations With thunder song of mountain intonations Is gathering round thy throne of victory In intercession for the liberty From this bondage of corruption Into the glory of the children Of God. Through time's strife and agitations. Though bound with adamantine chain, Though crucified and often slain, All things oft sing with wider echoing tones For thy millennial earth, millennial sons and thrones. To men or office dare we longer grope? Since at the height of civilization The history of her leading men has been A curse and loudest blasphemies against the hope The azure skies upon our spirits ope. Our politics are but a crime, A pestilential bed of slime. Sowing on life abortive births of sin. Can honest men? Can men of God? Can men of conscience, truth or laud With any wing hold office, place or power When justice is dethroned and bribery rules the hour? 17 All things now call and call alone for thee. Time like an aged sire, wrinkled and white. But with his rich experiences doth slight And scorn all panaceas that would free The social heart from its long leprosy. He has seen every generation With some sure cure its courses run Then leave the world with still more deadly blight. No age has diagnosis sure And if it had, Oh could it cure? No mortal power regenerates the heart And all things without this but more disease impart. The very time's developments of power, Knowledge and conquest over nature debate The enfranchisement of man from this weight Of centenarian ill. Is this endower For selfish ends? Does it not invite the hour Of disestablishment to throne Thee over all supreme alone. In honor, majesty and sovereign state? The gifts and powers of heaven above Are only safe in hands of love; In other hands a curse they must untwine. But with thee they are safe and grow still more divine. The discords of our unredeemed humanity That strike despair upon all mortal ears Ascend on high; reaching celestial spheres There is a change, and a minor harmony Of life's unlanguaged pain is heard by thee. Man's passion-blind and erring play Are not to thee just what they say. When thou translatest earthly hopes and fears A prayer is oft in guilty deed. We know thine eyes with sorrows bleed. And thou can'st hear by sorrow's mystic art The world's travailing pain as prayers unto thy heart. Around the iron-guarded gate of death Soon gather those that crowd the portal birth. Torn,^ broken, sick and robbed of strength and mirth. They come to yield up sorrow's burdened breath. Each generation there this prayer hath solemn saith: "Oh not for me! Oh not for me! High kingdom of eternity! By all I wished but found not here on earth, By life and ruin, loss and pain, By my immortal nature slain. By all thou art and will be in thy day For coming generations. Oh haste. Oh haste, I pray!" 18 The church which thine own Christ has full redeemed. The church which incarnates his personality, ; Thoughts, passions, principles, immortality. And the ripe fulness which the Father streamed Into his empty form, that church has dreamed With joy sublime of that far age - Which promise, power and grace engage \ To build on earth for lost humanity; ; That church doth groan. Oh deeply groan! '| Oh is it not thy spirit's moan! i Can these deep sighs which issue from thy breast i Be lost in vanity nor ever find their rest? i Thy first descended sons of pure inspire j Whom thou hast sent from thy celestial clime To hold the faith, and with glad song to chime i The golden age feel thy prophetic fire Within their hearts. Each gathers the desire : So scattered wide in man and thing ; And unto thee their sorrows sing. Sing on. Oh poet-priests! Oh be not dumb Unto this age of strife and gold ! Though they hear not nor ye behold. ; With triumphant joy and deathless faith sum i Up the world's travailing cry: "Come, come. Oh kingdom, come!" | "Come, come. Oh long delayed and golden age! ^ Age of the world's unlanguaged deep desire, [ Her travailing hope and visions that inspire i Her high, victorious hours! Age that will gage j Itself by the awful curse and darkest page j Of earth's yet unregenerate heart! j Age of the poet's song! Age that art j The embodiment of all the higher ^ Visioned dreams which the celestial spheres \ Have rained on pain and love and tears! ■] Age of divine purpose, fulness and employ, ! From heaven, Oh descend and build on time's destroy!" ' ■. "Oh age, bend down and lay thy passioned heart j Upon the nurseless spirit of the earth! . "; Her long and wintry courses since her birth ) Have frozen her forbidding the impart \ That glorifies with thy celestial art. ] Come! Kiss thy infant and caress, ] And with thy warmth her spirit bless! j Thou crimson life! Thou pure maternal birth! | Thou warm divine self-sacrifice! Oh bid the earth's dead soul arise! : Then through her dense, diseased material frame ] Thy all renewing life will burst forth like a flame." j 19 ] "Touch thou the earth's unemancipated king, And with the contact of thy immortal heart Oh disenthrall his spirit from the mart Of selfishness! Oh let his manhood spring From time's long travailing agonies, and wing Unto the infinite ideal Thou dost upon his eyes unseal! Dethroned, plundered, profaned, enslaved, a part Of groaning nature, unconscious, And trampled down by beasts and sense, His hour of soul enfranchisement be now. And thy investiture upon the morning's brow!" "Thou hast the full resources for this life; Thou canst destroy the hoary iniquities Bequeathed to us by the antiquities Of crime. Some few leaders of this strife, Some chiefs, some towers of self, thy lightning knife Must blast and hurl into the dust To stay time's swift, contagious lust. O'er the wide host thy soft benignities And arching grace from heaven above, As o'er the sick a mother's love, Can smother down time's heritage of ill And nurse out of the earth a race that thou dost fill." "Thou canst destroy the infernal dogs of war, And the politics of hell by which their Course is constant driven. Panic with her bare And hunger-bitten hordes will fly before. And poverty be exiled from thy shore. The brute, the brothel and saloon Will break for good their long commune And sink with curse to each infernal lair. Greed, strife, crime, sorrow and decay, Ignorance, diseases and dismay, All, all of sin, of selfishness and blight Shall fly before thy face as darkness from the light." "Come thou on earth with thy exhaustless heart! Thou hast celestial and supremest powers. Thou hast the azure and immortal dowers Of sun-giving heaven. Thou hast and art The spirit pure that in each angel flowers To splendor, joy and purity. The nature of divinity Doth dwell in thee and tTiou canst it impart. Sow, sow thy potencies of life. And from the very heart of strife Another world with beauty and delight Shall forth from chaos rise toward heaven's golden height." 20 "Cornel Bring t"he royal institutes of state! ] The h'gh, supreme, majestic, honored laws; i And kin to these those reverential awes 1 Thy youth and age delight to contemplate | As we behold the statues of the great. Virtue, justice, truth and righteousness j Thy nations shall with splendor dress. j Faith, love, hope, joy, magnanimousness, applause > Shall be the ornaments of gold- ^ Each brow and heart shall then unfold. ; Come, come, Oh state! What business, rule and home ■ Thy bases shall support, enkindle shall thy dome!" "As thy institutions are above the past Bring thou the man tuat is enthroned on them; The man who is his throne and diadem, And in whom the Infinite has glassed ■ His nature's passions. Oh bring him on the blast \ And wreckage of this mortal kind! ; Oh immortal heart and mind! ■. Spirit divine! The world's pinnacle! The gem j Of all creation! Oh mate | Of seraphim! Oh incarnate ; Son of God! The hosts of eternity i Are bending from their thrones to look with joy on thee." i "Oh man divine, who would not long for thee! Thou crowning all art with devotion crowned; And from devotion's heart riches supreme abound , As blessings from the azure purity. Thy passions with the white intensity ; Of love fills every welcome b:'rth l Of thy uncrowded crowded earth. ^ Oh how the new created heavens resound With universal harmony! One redeemed humanity! I One human brotherhood! One family race! i One many passioned heart that one heart does embrace!" j "Come, come, Oh long delayed and golden age! i Age of all passions, purities and powers! Age of all ideals and sublimest hours i Of execution! Oh age that will gage i The heightless height and boundless reach that cage ] Themselves in frail humanity! 1 Oh age of immortality ^ Which the fountains of the infinite assuage! < Come! Oh rise on time's foundation stones < The splendors of thy everlasting thrones! i Come thou upon the morning's golden pinions 1 And round the feet of God build thou thy last dominions!" j 21 • i THE TWO TRAVErLERS. I met two travelers most unlike, Young joy and aged sorrow. How their extremes us mortals strike, Who oft from each must borrow. Again T met the two at night, The two so distant parted. But sorrow was like morning bright And joy was broken hearted, And then I found that they were not two But each part of the other, A double soul we mortals view As far from one another. Life's sorrow is the birth of joy And joy the child of sorrow; They both each other build and buoy And gives what each must borrow. THE MOCKING BIRD. Mocking Bird, Oh Mocking Bird! The mention of thy name Deep desire within has stirred And from the north I came To hear the magic song that gives thy spirit fame. I harken now for thee; Sing, sing to me a strain! Thy music full unfree Into my heart and brain! I'm kindred unto thee and listening as in pain. Hark! Hark! Is that the measure Now bursting on my ear? Too high for sense of pleasure, . Too deep for doubt or fear. Quick'ning soul that reaches out with hunger vast to hear. 22 Forth leaps the strain of life; j Out shoots the stream of fire; I It pierces like a knife; ■ It quickens like inspire; • i Waking-, waking, waking soul with infinite desire. i I cannot think or dream, i I can only hark and hear, j All powers that in me stream ,\ Are straining at my ear; j To lose a single note is growing pain and fear. ; On flows the thrilling sound; ' On sweep the flood of song; ,: Life riseth with a bound Of passion swelling strong, ' Enchanted, chained and held though sweeping swift along. ^ New fountains in me burst; i Life mounteth up the steep; j Soul has drunk away her thirst ] And can walk and run and leap; i Something strange, divine and swift doth through her being sweep. ■ Oh Music, the divinest Of all the muses fine! Oh spirit that enshrinest The songs for which we pine, ,, Ever still the Queen of life, supremest and benign! : Out, out thou now art flinging The fullness of thy heart, To earth and heaven singing The lyrics of an art ' That feedest full the passion of a life's immortal part! , Far, far thou now art throwing A thousand notes of fire! ] As the soul the song is glowing, j Thou art lost in thy inspire, ] Crimson life is sweeping through thy heart so like a lyre. ■ Forth, forth, thou now art pouring \ The spirit-quick'ning strains! ■ All drinketh and go soaring j Forgetful of their pains, j After every vital draug-ht more thirsty still remains. ; 23 • i 'Tis a glowing, glowing passion. Pure, flaming, swift and bright. The music take the fashion Of the spirit burning white. Every note intense and round and piercing with delight. 'Tis a wild ecstatic measure, A swift delirious strain. The youngest, youngest pleasure With a drunken heart and brain. That never knew a sorrow and never dreamed a pain. 'Tis a lyric, lyric rapture Of a lyric spirit glad, With the lyrics that doth capture The soul of sorrow sad, ' Restoring it the happiness no dreams have ever had. Here Nature sits and nurses Her children gathered round. She feedeth them the verses That in her bosom bound. And to her youngest singing soul has taught this glorious sound. Here beauties, dreams and visions Are crowding hill and dale; Loud laughing with derisions Or intense and still and pale; Spirit lifted up on high and swept on like a gale. Here song and joy and story Are list'ning as in trance; There is a flash of glory, Of splendor and romance Every time the wild caprice sweeps the ecstatic dance. Here poets of all orders Come running from afar. Thy song has crossed the borders And swings the gates ajar, The past and future singers around thy presence are. They forward lean and listen All straining and intense. Some eyes with sorrows glisten. Some swell with power immense, Some white and glowing glow and all are free from sense. 24 Between the breathing pauses Each smothers down his lyre, But the pulsing pulsing causes A bursting out of fire; One by one they sing to thee a snatch of their desire. "I have heard the lyric chorus Of the early dewy morn When before and round and o'er us As the sun again was born, Every winged singing soul with gladness new was torn. As I listened to that singing Up I mounted to the height; There were dreams before me winging That did capture my delight. Till forgotten was the song in the images so bright. But the song that now is sweeping Flings enchantment on the ear, With the high crescendoes leaping I am climbing up the sphere. But abounding with the passion that is binding me to hear. As I circle round the pleasures Of the forest, sea and sky, I will never hear such measures As this wild ecstatic cry; But the echoes, Oh the echoes, they will never, never die." "1 have heard the strings of life And the fingers full of fire; Though entangled in the strife Did answer the inspire Leaping with a life divine and panting with desire. But this passion more Intense, More intense and pure and white, Delivers from all sense And spirit doth bedight. En singing singing robes that bear me with delight Where priests and prophets sing Their visions, dreams and lays, And flaming echoes fling Down the enchanted ways Where Life and Love and Truth the scepter swings and sways. 25 As I go upon my way I will listen to the lyre, But my hand will often stay Its throbbing strings of fire, Dreaming of this soul of song that captures my desire." "I have felt the hungry tooth Of the dragon of remorse Bite, bite unbitten youth With the fury of its force, Driving blinded and insane the mortal on its course. The spirit of the morn In rainbow beauty dressed Was torn as clouds are torn Before the storm's unrest, Pitching down the ruined night from heaven's highest crest. Life now has clean forgot The poison of the pain; The spirit so besot Is rising without stain, Binding tight the glorious song upon its heart ar.d brain. As I go upon my course I will sing as sorrow sings. As sorrow is the source Of song that sweetest rings I will mingle it with this in the fountain head of springs." "I have heard the systems swinging. Sing the echoes of the spheres. I have heard the ages winging, Ring the choruses of years. And these broken-hearted mortals in the tragedy of tears. But the high eonic measures Of the universal score Are forgotten in the pleasures Of the strains that on me pour, In the panting panting rapture of this lyric lyric lore. Sublime in their sublimity They go upon their way. Divine in thy divinity The raptures of thy lay Createth new the worlds of life and sweep them down the day. 26 When I sweep along the ages, When I soar above the spheres. When the battle fiercest rages. There will ring within my ears This passioned, passioned measure that is laughing at all fears." "I have heard the poet's lark Soar singing to the sun; All the world doth pause and hark As the stream adown doth run, Lost, lost and found in dreams when it is but begun. The beauty, bird and strain Doth lift Life out of earth. It pierces heart and brain Till dreams come unto birth. Singing, singing, singing songs delirious in mirth. Now far across the sea I bend a listening ear. And now I turn to thee Deep thrilling as I hear, Yielding here the palm of song, perhaps because so near. Those poets and their lark, These and their mocking bird. To each other bend and hark. By each other vast are stirred, More impassioned passioned praise was never never heard." "Unto the golden spheres From whence we came we turn. Not one of our compeers Thy song would dare unlearn. For through the future's lyre thy soul and song shall burn." Mocking Bird, Oh Mocking Bird! Oh Music wild and free! Though images and word Are pleasures unto me. Vaster, vaster is the joy of listening unto thee. 27 A MURMUR. Spirit rich, nature divinest Of all earth and heaven above, Thou for whom forever pinest Youth and hope and joy and love. Life a murmur from me raises With thy high eternal praises. Thou hast in my being planted Love to thee as fierce as fire. I was strung to be enchanted With the soundings of thy lyre. Thine own life with mine was mingled And my heart from thine was kindled. Just a sound, the faintest sounding, From old nature, man or art And my soul goes bounding bounding With a storm in brain and heart; Thou a sun-bright angel gleaming Leadst the visions of my dreaming. Forth from thee a strain of thunder — Suns and new created spheres Roll around, above and under Guided by the mighty peers That thy measure ever marches Through the morning's golden ai ches. Do I hear a bugle calling? I am lost to life and time. Up the fiercest, front rank hauling Man's one banner most sublime, Freedom's struggles passes through me As thy spirit doth endue me. Yet Oh Music, I must tell thee. None to me have ever said: "Let me play and freely sell thee What to thee is more than bread." Hungry for thy strains divinest Famished, lean and pale I pinest. 28 Why was I so high impassioned With the measures of thy lyre? Why was I so from thee fashioned By old strife and labor dire? Why was I by thee inventioned, So untaught and never mentioned To the end so plain intentioned? LET THE THINKER THINK. The nurse of life is custom bound; What has been still must be. The infant birth she leads around As others think to see. But oft the soul within the soul Wakes up the slumbering gink And trumpets through the spirit roll: "Oh let the thinker think!" "Thou art within a universe Of birth and death and strife. The world was made and planned to nurse A thinker out of life. Thinkers are nature's royal born; Thought is man's meat and drink. Art thou a man? Stand in the morn And let the thinker think!" "When plunged like most in loss and tears And heart is plowed by pain. When will is beaten by the years And hope and faith are slain; Amid the mangled corpses stand Nor from the prospect shrink; No time and place were better planned To make the thinker think." "There is no hope in heaven nor earth When heart and mind are dead. The thoughtless is a beastly birth Without a breast or head. But thou wilt rise above thy fears. Rise, rise and never sink, If thou wilt pause along the years And let the thinker think." 29 "The infinite, eternal life Doth round and round us roll. Great fountains still more kind and rife \vould burst into the soul. The "thinker" and the selfish "me" Doth separate or link; 'Tis life and life and life more free To let the thinker think." "Oh let the sun this message run Above the throne at noon: Oh let the night this scripture write Above the stars and moon: Oh let old Life and Time and Strife As crov^d we to the brink Write on our ways with lightning blaze: 'Oh let the thinker think!' " THE IDOL BREAKER. An ancient king who idols bro"ke Stormed o'er the city wall, And rushed into the temple door To tear them from the hall.- His faithful hands had never spared An idol to this hour; But here was one whose name was great With fame and memory's dower. The pale-browed priests beneath his feet With tears implored to spare; To save their idol from his hands Their treasures they laid bare. He paused a moment, for the wealth Would meet his army's greed; Within, a battle fierce did rage 'Twixt truth and sorest need. Truth overcame; he raised his sword; The idol fell in twain; A thousand thousand times their wealth The temple fioors did stain. 30 So every man whose sduI moves on, Meets idols one by one; Then meets the idol of himself, Debates what shall be done. Most pleasing voices fill the ear; His heart friends weep in prayer; Ambition, hope and youth and love, All cry aloud: "Oh spare!" Oh smite it! Smite it! Smite it! Oh cast it full at length! Grasp truth's keen blade! Look up in prayer, And smite with thy strength! Oh smite it! Smite it! Smite it! Nor hesitate nor quake! Thy destined hour has come to thee To unmake or to make. It will cost a pang of anguish. The bitterest here below; 'Twill bring a life of blessedness The best that man may know. Within the idol of thyself Is wealth surpassing gold. Which never can be seen or found Till thou dost break the mould. With this temple idol broken. Thy spirit then is free; All longed for wealth is round thee spread Of mountain, plain and sea. Life, love and rest, peace, hope and power. Forever more are thine; Thou dost inherit wealth untold. Infinity divine. 31 ALL WE LEARN. This selfish life is full of strife And blinded greeds are we. All daily burn but all we learn Is "I" and "mine" and "me." Through tears and sighs we grow more wise And far beyond earth see. The splendor beams that clothe our dreams Is "thou"' and "thine and "thee." Oh Spirit of all love and light Unseal your godlike powers! Teach to the heart high heaven's art Of "them" and "theirs" and "ours!" But oh how swift the years unturn! And oh how swift we die! All life we burn but only learn This "I" and "me" and "my." THE MUSES. Romance stands in the morning And welcomes us to life. Comedy with bright adorning Conceals the forenoon strife. Great epics and her heroes The height of day delight. Then tragedy's great Neroes Of fear oppress us. Night. LARGE AND SMALL. "When young and swept along We front the ancient curse. The struggles with the strong Our spirit measures nurse. Life sings to us a song And in us doth unpurse A sense that swells the soul as large As is the universe. 32 The world and life and time Doth shear young Samson's head; We wake up in our prime To find our prime has fled. Death sings to us a rhyme Of the oblivious dead Till soul shrinks to the measures small Of our last narrow bed. -MAN. The sons of morning prime Mount up the golden thrones Clad in the robes sublime That Life unto them loans. Then, then a sudden fall And Death all bonds doth sever; And in the midnight pall, Lost, lost. Oh lost, forever. THE CENTER OF GRAVITY. When we are young and fed from nature's fountains. Life's foaming streams burst into us so strong. We feel the swift momentum of the mountains And gathering tides of seaward sweeping song. On, on we drive; no floods can leap along Like youth's desire and ardors swift and bright. The rush and surge and madness of life's throng We leave behind, and bounding passions white Outstrip the world's contagious fear and wrong. We're sandled, loined and breasted with delight; Crowned, crowned with crimson life and fed with purple might. The sense and strength of new born consciousness, A pressure seems that now and then doth burst. The powers of life that being strain and stress Are not enough to feed the burning thirst. We outgrow earth and rising unimmersed By the dread strife and selflsh murdering stains The highlands climb with hope divinest pursed And hear and sing great paeon flinging strains. We crown the world; we king it though it nursed. Colossal pride looks down upon the plains; Ambition with delight views empire's vast domains. 33 Right down our feet, straight up through heart and The axis go that swing the mighty world. brain Cities and states, man, beast and all life's train Around this self are daily circling whirled. We stand up straight, with sword and flag unfurled, The elements are fronted with defy. Upon all things are final judgements hurled, And round this self ages and empires fly. The universal center, all is swirled Of life and time, of earth and sea and sky Around the orbits cast by youth's gigantic "I." Youth is Life's transcendental egotist. There is an infinite, unquestioned weight Of emphasis on "me." An optimist Of "My and Mine," he fronts resistless fate And scorns her powers so calm and strong and great. Godlike and tall, balanced and plumbed and strong. He stands in life the center of all state And all her powers and persons round him throng - With homage, praise and honors that elate. He rules the world. To him the thrones belong. He crowns himself a king and listens to the song. But as we age and philosophic years Doth climb and measure this vast universe, All blinded pride dethrone they off the spheres, And nature's truths unto us stern disburse. What are we then? TTie large immortals that unpurse Significance to these transcendent spheres? The mighty souls that ride upon the curse And sun-clad rise out of this vale of fears? Are we the kings of glorious deeds and verse To match and mate the geniuses and peers That crown high heaven's height and ride the eternal years? We are the last of biologic forms; Kindred to beasts; with reason lightly graced; As valueless as the ephemeral swarms That fog and fen a moment's course has traced. Great nature has so little on us placed. That prophets high, man, beast and bird and worms Into the deep are driven, hurled or paced Without a thought to reason, truth or terms. One ruthless law all being has embraced. Thought stands aghast. Destruction loud affirms In neither man or beast are worth preserving germs. 34 The universe doth round us ever roll; Unto the astronomic globes and years We are the same as to some sun like soul The insectivorous breed that disappears. Time's brief ephemeramorphs — the spacial mere's Prolific animalculae — the low Protozoa — the smallest psychic spheres, And infusoria no microscopes can know — Are we not such to the eternal peers That center must this vast processional show, And watch the constellations rise, splendor, fade and go? Are not the wide, impassioned, high and deep Oft lifted up by life's dynamic soul That fills the universe? When in the sweep Of those vast cosmic energies that pole This mortal with the spirit of the whole. What then is man? How frail and swift and brief? How mentionless upon the solar scroll? Merely a speck, a flash, a sound, a leaf Among the spheres and aeons long that roll; A puff of wind, a breath of guilt and grief, A bubble that doth burst, and gone, gone beyond belief. The mighty worlds swing on their evolutions, And like great emery wheels of swiftest flight. Their elements in endless revolutions Throw off as brilliant, bickering sparks of light. Off, off, they go with passions heated white. But swifter far than thought can ever think. Far deeper than the deepest darkest night. As silent as the gulfs beneath the brink, And lost. Oh, lost as death blots out of sight, Life's flaming sparks of pleasure, strife and swink Down, down the darkened void, glow, flicker, die and sink. THE GOLDEN AGE. Oh golden age! Oh golden age! Oh dream Of poets, priests, great, gifted free and wise! Vision divine, that doth forever gleam Upon the grief, loss, bitterness and sighs Of all pure spirits! Oh hope that doth arise Out of man's deepest deep unto the height Of that desire that in his anguish cries! Great moral recreation from the blight- ing strife and curse that on this mortal lies, Man's spirit and his bleeding, blinded sight. Both past and future scan to catch thy glorious light. 35 Thou art the state for which humanity From her far birth has ever sighed and moaned. Blind, lost and torn in courses of profanity That mighty soul has in her anguish groaned Or battled with the curse upon her throned. Her disappointments, struggles and despair Have lent the dreams, the best that Life has loaned And led her up great vision's golden stair. Upon her grief some respite thou has toned In songs and dreams thy prophets ever bear For every travailing soul and every weight of care. Oh distant age of promised recreation "When earth and all are pure regenerated, And high ideals of heaven's inspiration In man and social forms are incarnated! When life and law, love, sense and soul are mated, When this old globe swings with a glorious verse. When man by God is born and dominated. When all Life's powers a higher genius nurse And all her souls are thrice rejuvenated, Who has not longed, would not the course coerse. When Man and Life and Love shall climb the universe? Thou art the dream all call the most divine, That finds and feels man's never-fed desire. This travailing soul that doth forever pine Beholdeth thee and her rebellious ire Is sudden calmed by thy serenest fire. Thou dost breathe an infinite eternal hope Into her heart. The dreams that thou dost sire, Renew her strength and bear her up the slope That beckons her with most divine inspire, Down to earth's base, up to high heaven's cope. Mankind doth stately march with glorious trains of trope. But Oh, the question rises up so oft! Shall this ideal, man, state and law sublime. Rise from the earth that has the ideal scoffed? Shall Wisdom's wisest visions ever chime Her glorious dreams out of this base of crime? Shall these vast hopes e'er find an incarnation Out of this strife, disease and death and slime That makes the world a blind and lost creation? Shall this humanity ever, ever climb Time's towering steep and mount unto the station That guides the onward globes to some high consummation? 36 It grieves my heart, it robs my brain of life, It bows me down in darkness, pain and tears, It pierces soul as by a murderer's knife. To turn from dream and barken to the years. The soul that soars beyond the noonday spheres And dreams and dreams of Life's rejuvenation From there is hurled down, down a night of fears That gives young Dream the truth of old Duration. Tear off the mask from all that false appears! Pluck forth the heart that drives this vast creation! Forever hold the truth, though truth seems ruination! I cannot see the younger dreams of life; My eyes have been relighted by their tears. Another dream is born out of the strife, And sterner powers rule the eternal years. I cannot see the golden splendored spheres Of hope and dream rise from prolific earth, Or new humanity of kingly peers Come into view with transcendental worth. The kind, the laws, the wisdom, reverence, fears, That might perchance father this glorious birth. Oil where can these be found from center to the girth? I have gone up unto the mountain peaks And scanned the far horizon. What is that blaze Of splendor that forever to us speaks? 'Tis but man's wish projected on the ways Of time. Age after age it fitful plays Before our grief and the multitude deceives. Wise science eyes scanning the distant days Can see no more in the autumnal sheaves Than Spring's quick hand into the furrow lays. What will time give? No more than time receives. What goeth in comes out. What life is such it leaves. I oft have gone down to the Campus square And questioned straight old Greed and Time and Life. They scarce would pause or give a moment's care As to a dream of some old silly wife. When I stood firm and buckled up for strife They smiled and infinite contempt uncurled Upon Me. "A golden age! 'Tis the rif- Est dream of madness! Thy state appearled In splendor is straw unto the lightning's knife. The ages all in strife are born and hurled By old dynamics fierce that drive the blinded world." 37 . r have gone down, down, down into . Of human hearts. These deeps alone can nurse The hope that man shall ever climb the steep Of time. Does life a virtuous germ unpurse That shall purge out and full destroy the curse That makes her lean, foul festering and deplored? Does man's unexplored and soundless deep immerse Renewing powers and secret virtues hoard To burst and bring the ages of his verse? Is the golden age within man's bosom stored? The ages he has dreamed can out of him be poured. Eonic times have swept across the globe. Man is two hundred thousand years of age. Earth's travailing soul has often rent her robe Yet only brought the strifes that round us wage And some few dreams that hope and song engage. So many years and yet the senses lead. Greed fiercer grows and writes Life's blotted page So many years and yet this blinded breed Scorn Reason's dreams in their insanest rage! Behold the world! The evolutions read! When will the golden age upon us be unfreed? Life is the wisest of the wisest wise. She speaks to all with solemnizing awe. "What e'er will be within the present lies. It is the past that gives the future law. No gods intervene. There's only nature's raw ' Raw dynamics. Her blind immoral forces Treat man as if the maggots of a maw. She swings along circle and spiral courses. Mounts up and then — plumb down the gulf doth draw. All circle round and sometimes to their sources. And so it seems the worlds, and faith from hope divorces." And can we see new man and institutions In this great hope so hailed as scientific? Great Science lacks redemption and solutions For time's disease, and prophesies terrific Social struggles throughout the earth prolific. Regenerate with reason, love and life This lost humanity and visions beatific Could scarcely dream how Man would shove old strife Out of the world. The golden ages civic Would follow him with glories rich and rife; But Dream, Oh Dream divine. Life hacks thee with her knife! 38 I can see naught but the old, old evolutions, ; The endless change, the ceaseless transformations, • Constructions and eternal dissolutions, • Successions and continuous incarnations. In these kaleidoscopic transmutations I 1 cannot see an elemental power ; That recreates the human inclinations, : And throne them on the passions that devour. ; I cannot see the glorious consummations i When humanity shall blossom like a fiov^er And make the social state the dreams divine endow^er. i Essentials live. Man is the soul of sense. Humanity is but a God-forsaken strife Of selfishness v^ith passions most intense, ; AH loaded up vv^ith blind dynamic life. l With infinite eternal struggles rife, i Old earth plows on through darkness, blood and tears, . And man in man still plunges deep the knife. i Though Science wise doth recreate the spheres, \ Can Nature old, a brothel breeding wife, Bring forth the race of heaven's kingly peers i To mount the throne of life and guide the golden years? i i I BLINDNESS. When we are young with fountains full Of passions white that glow, Hope draws us on and up doth pull With Dream's great picturs show. We are so swift and straight and free, Draw such immortal breath. So blinded that we cannont see The world devouring Death. When we are old and hopes depart. Time's struggles on us crowd. The heavy weight that years doth bart Have broken, torn and bowed. Night Cometh fast, we onward flee Driven by greed and strife; So by it blind we cannot see The sunlike soul of Life. 39 THE MACHINIST'S SONG. Life was once a beast of burden. Who her freed and made immortal? A machinist did ungirden. Bade her front the morning portal. He invented iron horses, Brazen hands and arms of steel; Engines, dynamos and forces Harnessed at her chariot wheel. Then march, macliinists march! There are golden days before; Though the poets paint life's arch, 'Tis the iron base of yore. Time and life are onward speeding. Great machinists ever leading. Steaming o'er the stormy ocean, Climbing up the rocky mountains. Sailing past the clouds in motion, Diving deep to nature's fountains, Life in our machines is living. Magic powers are in her hand. We have given, still are giving Over nature wise command. Then march, machinists march! etc*. I delight to answer Science Calling larger work and better. With the future strike alliance, Her mechanic age doth fetter. I'm in my delight and glory Working out a fine machine. Romances of mechanic story Feed me life and keep me green Then march, machinists march! etc. Earth and these vast systems solar Are the frames for nature's flying. Machinists are the spirits polar Whose assistance she is crying. Golden scientific ages Fill the great inventor's brain. Epics with machanic pages Life is bringing in her train. Then march, machinists march! etc. 40 Nurse, Oh nurse the new creations! Harness up great nature's forces! Let old Life and Time and Nations Royal ride along their courses! We can yoke with power organics What invention dares to wed. Was there ever such mechanics As a fine machinist's head? Then march, machinists march! There are golden days before; Though the poets paint life's arch, 'Tis the iron base of yore. Life and time are onward speeding Great machinists ever leading. THE SONG OF THE SUPFRAGETTE. Loud, loud from the splendors of vision A silver and trumpet-like throat Sings through great applause and derision: "Give, give to the woman a vote. The equal, the giver, partaker. With man of the day and the state. She serves and should rise and be maker Of law and the courses of fate. The law we will make and pay taxes; The same right for woman as man; Our rights, give our rights, or on-waxes The war that Great Right has begun." "Man battled and battled ere taxes He would pay unless he made laws. The very same battle he waxes 'Gainst woman whose taxes he draws. Each payer of tax should be maker Of law and the courses of state. We'll fight the old battle and shake her, Shake, shake the old earth to think straight. The law we will make and pay taxes, etc.'* "All uplift of nature's impulsion Has struggled with laughter and scorn. To be laughed at and laugh with convulsion World ruling ideas are born. From the deep of old nature's ripe passion Our cause springs immortal and prime; Hail, hail to the world and its fashion, The swords and sarcasms of time! The law we will make and pay taxes, etc." 41 "Great science and virtue and splendor Call loud on the human to rise. In rising the stronger must tender What selfishness holds as a prize. Injustice all power must surrender; Dishonor from strength must unrobe; Rise woman, as woman's defender. And rock the strong man and his globe! xne law we will make and pay taxes. The same right for woman as man! Our rights, give our rights or on-waxes The war that Great Right has began!" A BOSTON CITY SONG. Oh hail to the great! Oh hail to the great! What's the greatest gift in earth? The spirit of life in city or state That brings the immortal birth. Thou hast power divine and hast ever bred Heroes, deeds and dreams of men. All honor to thee who hast brought and fed The race of the poet's pen! Oh Boston, the mother of men! The old heroic breed. Sword, scepter or miter or pen, Aught, aught that the world can need. Thou bringest, great mother of men. Were thy pilgrim sires not the bravest race And of modern days the best? The untravelled seas and new world's face Their strength with new armor dressed. Their life to the wild, like the sower's seeds. The wild that was fog and fen. Was most freely cast and immortal breeds Have come from both but and ben. Oh Boston, the mother of men! etc. When the tyrants rose and their iron feet Would plant upon man's breast Then thy men of peace with a welding heat To the very soul undressed. Sky, forest and sea rocked the new born earth. And the beasts roared in their den. Thou hast ever brought the heroic birth When the times call loud for men. Oh Boston, the mother of men! etc. . 42 Thy high born spirits, the very first line Of the world forever lead. For the cause of man and the powers divine Do they love, think, toil and bleed. When the last great song of the world doth rise O'er city, sea, plain and glen There will be some notes in the glorious cries Of Boston, the mother of men. Oh Boston, the mother of men! The old, heroic breed. Sword, scepter or miter or pen. Aught, aught that the world can need, Thou bringest, great mother of men. A DENVER CITY SONG. Oh deep and dear maternal nurse, My heart to thee is singing! I often hear a civic verse Unto and round thee springing. Of all the queens that giveth grace Unto the states and nation There's only one that I can place Upon life's crowning station. For thou. Oh Denver, Mother Art! We're parts of one another. As thou dost fold me in thy heart I call thee: "Mother! Mother!" And passion, powers and pleasures start To thee as to no other. Around thee is an atmosphere We drink with hungry passion; And drinking faith without a fear Grow straight in stalwart fashion. The virtue of thy free born breast Doth feed the strength of mountains. Through thee we feel the full unseal Of nature's bursting fountains For thou. Oh Denver, Mother art. etc. When thou wert young upon thee sprung Wigwams and shanties slanted. Life walked in pride and far descried These granite bases planted. 43 Now all men know that thou shalt grow Unto life's larger story. Grow like a Queen in golden sheen To virtue, grace and glory. For thou, Oh Denver. Mother art. etc. Where e'er I roam thou art my home. My heart for thee is yearning. Each holiday bears me away, I'm homeward homeward turning. My heart new beats. I tread the streets Where born and had my breeding. Something doth flow. I feel the glow Thy heart to mine is feeding. For thou, Oh Denver, Mother art! We're parts of one another. As thou dost fold me in thy heart I call thee: "Mother! Mother!" And passions, powers and pleasures start To thee as to no other. A NEW YORK STATE SONG. Dominion and empire doth march to the west. Old worlds were decaying, the new unpossessed. Life crossed the wide ocean; here paused and looked round, With mightiest visions her spirit was bound. New York with resources and peoples most rife Arose on her sight as a dream upon strife; Planned, founded and built, sealed and chosen by fate. The dwelling of Life in her highest estate. New York is a state of dominion and power. Upon her sits empire, a crown of endower. A splendor and majesty gowneth her worth, The pride of the Union, the reverence of the earth. Possessor, redressor, progressor most great. New York leads the line in the courses of state. Around our wide borders of waters and land. On central dominions his:h pillared and spanned. On mothers and sires and their progeny trains The spirit of state in his:h majesty reigns. What valorous front and arboreal height And atmospheres fine round the fighters that fight. Old nature beholdeth with gladness most rife And feedeth New York with the passions of life. New York is a state of dominion and power, etc. 44 From chaos a coBmos has risen divine; The highlands of life with thy cities bright shine. Intelligence, virtue, law, freedom and right Coramandeth thy people and gird them with might. Thy multitudes go in processional march Through pillars of gold and fhe future's bright arch; When splendor attired for a holiday time Earth rocks with thy marches and singing sublime. New York is the state of dominion and power; Up, up the great Hudson, around the great lakes, Around the south border a mighty song breaks; New Yorkers arise; their allegiance they sing And round her defenses immortal they fling. The spirit of Life in her highest estate Stands up to her height with her passions elate; Around her the mothers, sons, daughters and sires Are giving and taking the life that inspires. New York is a state of dominion and power, etc. Another great singing. Oh hearken and hear! Thy sisters in song are now shaking the sphere. "New York, Oh New York! Thou wert chosen by fate And sealed for all time as the leader of state. In council or action far, far to the fore, On the fiercest front line in the battles of war. Thy sisters. Oh guide! We are shaping from thee The^,e commonwealths great as the dreams of the free.' New York is the state of dominon and power; Upon her sits empire, a crown of endower. A splendor and majesty gowneth her worth. The pride of the Union, the reverence of earth. Possessor, redressor, progressor most great. New York leads the line in the courses of state. A MASSACHUSETTS STATE SONG. Massachusetts! Massachusetts! In this new world of the free. Thou the first born child of promise, Joy and hope of Liberty. All her life in thee is flowing Like the fountains of the sea. Tall, erect and virtue throwing, Who can match and march with Thee? Massachusetts! Massachusetts! Sing her praises like the sea! ; 45 Never was a state or nation Like the state that mothered me! Massachusetts! Massachusetts! We will live and die for thee. Where Life's hopes rush to the battle, Massachusetts rushes there. Is it death to beard the tyrants? Thou didst beard them in their lair. Ever burning, ever flaming Is the passion rich and rare. Lambs when peace and virtue reigneth. Lions when dishonors dare. Massachusetts! Massachusetts! etc. Liberty, the life of nations. Mothers up a noble state. Where among the sceptered stations Is a kingdom that can mate? Prophets, thinkers, poets, soldiers; Masses lighted, strong and straight, Is not Massachusetts towering Like the high immortals great? Massachusetts! Massachusetts! etc. Glorious in thy glorious passion Thou hast freed the hemisphere; Every state of this great nation Feels and claims the kinship dear. Free for self and free for others. Growing nobler year by year; Massachusetts onward marcheth Like a standard bearing peer. Massachusetts! Massachusetts! etc. Massachusetts! Massachusetts! Hear that singing like the sea! All thy sisters loud are chanting Hymns to Life and Liberty. Thy great name is in the chorus; Hark! It echoes unto thee! "Massachusetts still is with us. We shall be forever free!" Massachusetts! Massachusetts! Sing her praises like the sea! Never was a state or nation Like the state that mothered me! Massachusetts! Massachusetts! We will live and die for thee. 46 A MINNESOTA STATE SONG. Minnesota of the North Like old Nature standeth forth Safe and able for the furies of the storm. There is strength and virtue blest, Vast resources, poise and rest, And volcanic force beneath her bosom warm. Like the nation's strong defence. With her knotted passions tense. She is standing like an elemental form. Minnesota! Minnesota! Minnesota marches forth With the summer smile of nature And the virtues of the North. Thou art rich in lakes and plains, Forests, rivers, mines and grains, And all elements by which the nations live. Daughters, mothers, sons and sires Have the forces and the fires That is death to hold and life to freely give. Man and Nature rich and rife Write a prophecy of life .Like an oracle of high superlative. Minnesota! Minnesota! etc. In the revolution days On the nation's records blaze: "Minnesota sent a quarter of her men." When our Uncle Samuel needs Strength and old heroic breeds They are present here and will be there again. He alone of all the earth Binds allegiance to his worth He is looking here and holds us in his ken. Minnesota! Minnesota! etc. Let us face the golden morn Where our state ideal was born When old Life out-struck her best and boldest plan. Let us dream the fathers' dreams. Make the state and all her schemes Tlie creator of a higher type of man. And in building the ideal Every man will set his seal On a commonwealth the others eager scan. Minnesota! Minnesota! etc. 47 Minnesota guards the North 'Gainst the polar biizzara swarth, A magnificence of massiveness and might. Minnesota marches forth With the bearing of the North Through the portais where the future doth invite. She is tall and straight and strong Like a brother sisters throng, An immortal that the nation doth delight. Minnesota! Minnesota I Minnesota marches forth With the summer smile of nature And the virtues of the North. AN ILLINOIS STATE SONG. When great Nature made the earth Illinois was then designed. She would bring a state to birth With few equals of her kind. Prairie lands of richest wealth, More for man than for the mart; Life and passions full of health Pumped she from her crimson heart. Illinois! Great Illinois! Splendor, passion, power and poise; Center of a quarter sphere, Tall, erect and void of fear; Vast resources, fire and force For a high, ascensive course. Greatness, honor, blessing, joys; Illinois! Great Illinois! Village, orchard, farm and home. Forest, river, field and lake. Nature's sons that never roam More than loyal measures make. Allegiance, honor, praise and pride O'er our Illinois doth sweep. And we Illinoians ride Singing with the passion deep: Illinois! Great Illinois! etc. Great Chicago's work and wealth, Springfield's prestige, pride and power. Stop ambition, strife and pelf In the song's contagious hour. 48 Swept as rising feeling sweeps, Filled as feeling fills the strong. All the state doth sudden leap In the fervors of the song. Illinois! Great Illinois! etc. *Tis a great and glorious state; All our songs together run; Nature, Man and Life elate Melt and mould us into one. Like a paean of the morn, Like the trumpets of the sea, Like a thunder sudden born Set the lUinoians free: Illionis! Great Illinois! Splendor, passion, power and poise; Center of a quarter sphere. Tall, erect and void of fear; Vast resources, fire and force For a high, ascensive course. Greatness, honor, blessing, joys; Illinois! Great Illinois! SCIENCE. Spirit of Science! Wise altitudinal soul! Great nature's life in latest incarnation! Gut of the deep where strifes eternal roll Thou hast ascended time's supremest station To rule the globe and guide its congregation. Of all the spirits earth did ever pole. Of all the powers that ruled with domination. Of all the lives that virtue forth did roll, Of all the seers that saw the far creation And drew the veil and did reveal the goal, Thou art the last and best, a rich transcendent soul. All, all the past were long convulsive pains And travailing throes to set the spirit free. The blind old evolution's blinded trains All culminate and find their end in thee, For to them all thou art a throned divinity Of intelligence. Thou art a piercing power Sheer to the heart of this infinity. Thou knowest not the person, place or hour In thy eternal passion to unfree The living fact. Life thou dost double dower With reason, truth and hope and build her like a tower. 49 Thou art a majesty and countenance of light. The wisest soul of this vast universe Looks through thine eyes into this mortal night. The infinite intelligence doth unpurse In thee its fulness. Thy atmosphere doth nurse The sense of life, conception and creation. When face to face thy being doth immerse In mighty dreams of quick'ning inspiration That spirit lifts above the ancient curse. Nature's bondage, contempt and degradation Is flung from off the soul rising to domination. Thy mighty mind doth pierce all time and space, And as the lightning through the clouds of night. Thy solar thoughts these lightning far out-race And gainst the long resistances of might Dofh penetrate and clothe them with thy light. A thousand vforlds that once lay dark concealed Around us shine with splendors glowing white. Power and resource that nature would not yield - Thou hast laid bare, a wonder to all sight. In man himself thou hast a man revealed. And to all coming times another trumpet pealed. Thou liftest up the powers of old tradition And o'er the anvil doth fling them to the earth. Thou destroyest all ignorant superstition That maketh mind a midnight blasted dearth. Thou bringest forth unto a glorious birth A progeny to guide the recreations Of all man's worlds fronl center to their girth. Even the gods that crown high heaven's stations Thou testest for reality and worth. Only the truth of thy calm demonstrations Can claim the heart and mind and rule the generations. All, all that shrink or hesitate or hate The searching of thy fierce interrogations Are false in heart and must decay in state Though they now hold the ancient dominations. Wise spirit of resistless penetrations. That seeketh facts, the base reality. The living "is", its nature and relations Stripped of the self's conceptions and partiality, Why should ought living shrink? All real creations Are stamped with nature's own finality. And Thou aft double stamped to test the world's reality. 50 Thou hast anew made this chaotic earth, She is transformed into a kingly sphere. Unto Old Time she is a magic birth Such majesty and splendors bright appear. Before mankind is spread a new career That strong impels unto a spirit's course. New life and light, new powers and visions clear Fly from thy soul with elemental 'force. In thee are hopes the world may well revere As sprung direct from the eternal source And should not Life love Truth and who would them divorce? From hence the great subjective worlds of mind, Man's images of this vast universe. Shall more and more become a counter-kind As thou to man the cosmos shall unpurse. The image and reality shall nurse Each other, and in each other find Deliverance from the ignorance and curse That both divide and make both lost and blind. Nature and man beneath thy hand and verse Shall then become a single cast and kind A.ud all her mighty powers through him be re-combined. Even now thou dost endower beyond all dream. Thou givest as the sun doth give his light. Unto thine own both lore and power supreme Thou feedest till the mortal is bedight. As poets clothe the gods on heaven's height. Courage, enterprise, conquest and creation And mighty works to front the morning bright And mightier dreams are in thy inspiration. New worlds and men thou makest in our sight. Lfife almost reels with this intoxication But thy hand on her head gives wisdom domination. The future doth belong to thee. All empire And dominion are coming to thy feet. The highest powers the parent-past can sire Are disendowered and from thee far retreat. All civics, laws and literature doth greet Thy dynasty. The brave old sword now lies Upon the wall. The prophet's lyre doth meet Thee with a glorious song. The hammer flies With strength and stroke that from thy passions beat. Life from her base unto the azure skies Thy spirit penetrates and lifteth with surprise. 51 If but another such as thou couldst rise. As good in heart as thou art great in mind, And for the ends for which the world-soul sighs Their beings join as marriage spirits bind. If such a glorious union could but find An entrance to the heart of this profanity. Oh what a change? Oh what a god-like kind Would spring out of this greed and sense insanity? Could ye the dreams, the dreams our youth enshrined, Enter and fill Life's aching aching vanity, No poet dreams could paint the future of humanity. Spirit of Life that fills the universe! Great Being of these infinite incarnations! If Science thus thou didst so free unpurse. Couldst thou not send one for our adorations? Thou moral Nature from heaven's highest stations Come down, come down! With Science be united! Enter mankind! Mother the generations! Inspire all life! Let man be plumbed and righted! And who could dream the glorious consummations?* These humans then so burdened, bowed and blighted. Would swift arise divine, erect and strong and lighted. THE SWEETEST OF THE SWEET. A song. My Dear, fell on my heart Too pure and rich to die. So it to you I now impart, To others by and by. The snows of three score happy years Were lying on his head But his high heart and twin soul spheres With glowing fire was fed. About him round were freely strown The blessings of this life, Were lands and gold and on a throne Above them all a wife, A wife that filled his growing heart With life's immortal love, 52 With love fhat never can depart ; But lifteth all above. All, ail his heart was given her. j Love never can withhold; ■ When giving sen he did confer ; The trifles of his gold. ■ It was his joy to give his gifts, And as to us the sun 4 Sends golden splendors through the rifts, -i His blessings down did run. ! And once a check to money street He wrote out proud and bold: Pay to "The Sweetest of the Sweet A hundred coins in gold." In at the banker's window there ; She passed it, and surprise ■': Fell on the banker in his care 1 And wonder on his eyes. | "Why, this is strange! Unusual name! i 'The Sweetest of the Sweet!' \ The gentleman has here a claim - i But who are you we greet?" ' *'0h! I'm the 'Sweetest of the Sweet/ And he's the best of men. i You need not fear for he will meet The order of his pen." ] "Well, sign your name here on the back. J I never go on trust, '] But in this case I'll leave the track ■ And trust you, for I must." i She took the pen and wrote her name i The name of Susan B. , j And handed in with happy frame J The lines so plain to see. { He counted out the proper sum ■ And drew the check inside. ; He stood a moment as if dumb ; And then instinctive cried: ; "Oh this won't do! We cannot pay A cent to Susan B.. We only pay our gold today Unto the name we see." . i So once again she took the pen \ And signed it as was meet \ And wrote down there for every ken, \ "The Sweetest of the Sweet." > So then he counted out the gold '\ Without a shade of doubt 53 ^ And with a smile that volumes told She slowly passed on out. The banker dreamed of his old love He lost so long ago, Whose angel spirit winged above And left him dark below. In all his clerks it kindled dreams T|ie purest of all life. And maiden forms in radiant beams '.■- Came as bethrothed and wife. They voted all that such a name Was never in a bank, It should be hung up in a frame As of the highest rank. So it was framed and on the wall It hangs above their heads And mid the frenzied finance thrall A saving magic spreads. And I'm that old man's son, My Dear, And you whom now I greet. Her one successor and her peer "The Sweetest of the Sweet." ELECTRIC LIGHTS. Light, Oh Light, Oh most divinest That has risen from the deep! Thou unto these mortals shinest Like a god from heaven's steep. Life and hope thou dost enkindle With a fire that knows no dwindle. Nature's lights were round my morning; I have stood and calm beheld Sun and moon and star adorning Till my passions swelled and swelled As I watched the solemn splendors And their glorious train attenders. Now within a city crowded Sun, nor moon nor star I see. Morn and evening lamps are shrouded By these towers and strife in me. But another vision shinest After which I hungry pinest. 54 These electric lights of science Fascinate me, feed and fill. Light and life strike new alliance As a therapeutic skill Loss restores and starts a-streaming Passion, pleasure, thought and dreaming. Through the city when its lighted 'Tis a joy to roam around. Spirit, business-bowed and blighted, Visions on it bound and bound! Up they come and in the brightness Dance and revel with delightness. Lights are flaring up to heaven; Lights are flaming down the ways; Bursting as the sudden levin; Shining as the stars that blaze. Everywhere the light is streaming As if night were lost in dreaming. Here a thousand bulbs are blazing, I'm enchanted like a child, In the windows wonder-gazing, On and on and on beguiled. Captured, captured by the magic, Out of life so sad and tragic. There the light is flowing, flowing, Like a rainbow colored stream; Rainbow figures bright and glowing . Dance as in a poet's dream. Poetry has sprung from science And the harp strike new alliance. Now a sign is sudden blazing. Should not living spirit heed? Out it goes before my gazing; In again that I may read; All the magic lights of fancy Pale before this necromancy. Towers and domes and walls and arches Are a blaze of blinding light. - Life in conquest onward marches. As on day so on the night; Over darkness all victorious Light creating, grand and glorious. 55 On I walk mid splendors courtal. Kingly walk as with a crown. What is yon? It is a portal; On it falls the darkness down. Now the lights so brilliant glowing One by one blank out are going. THE UNDECblNING. Music, music, soul divinest I have ever heard or knowii. Seen or felt or dream designest On imagination's throne. Of all souls thou art the finest And my heart thy heart enshinest. Beauty is a form the fairest; Strangest magics from her fly; Oft, Oh oft, her bosom barest To my glad ecstatic cry! But, Oh Music, spirit rarest, Beauty's form and life thou sharest. Love is like an angel brightest; I have stood and long beheld; Could I be with such unitest. Dreams have in me welled and welled. But, Oh Music, Love the whitest. With thy heart is best delightest. Power is like a here strongest; I have watched his mighty deeds; Giant dreams around him throngest, Full and glad each being feeds. But, Oh Music, Power belongest To the heart that nursed and songest. Truth is like a god enthronest O'er the globe of mine and me. Solemn powers his praises moanest As the chantings of the sea. But, Oh Music, thou still loanest All the songs the gods entonest. Beauty fades, the splendor diest; Truth is slain amid the strife; Love grows old, for youth she criest; Power casts off its glory life; But, Oh Music, spirit highest. Thou sustainest and suppliest, That for which my spirit sighest. 56 THE MAN WITH THE' PUNCH. The world is crying loud for men; The times do suffer need; Life looks abroad with anxious ken And calls the ancient breed. The earth is fat and full of things; Shake, shake the sleeping bunch! Spit on and kick him till upsprings The man that has the punch. The present prophesies an age Of might and man and deed; Great ,L.ife unto the daily page A hero's dreams doth feed. The giants are in battle bound. The knotted passions crunch. The strong old fighter must be found. The man that has the punch. The preacher, editor and scribe. Mechanic, farmer, lord. Whoever leads this modern tribe Must bear the oldest sword. Earth is a chaos rich and rife, Nature is on the hunch; And he alone can stand the strife. The man that has the punch! A man can always stand up straight. Can face the world and fight. On cowards life doth send the weight Of avalanchic night. Forego the court and choose the camp; Feed on the hardest lunch, Oh covet nature's finest stamp. The man that has the punch. Feed heart and brain with dynamite; Sard double up your fist; Gods, angels, men and devils fight. Though scorned and howled and hissed. When man to man they dare to fight The dust the cowards munch. But he is still the lord of life. The man that has the punch. 57 THE PRICE OF BREAD. My meat and drink! How small my need. For I was born at life's low base. Hard labor's lot in me did breed Contempt for tables dainties grace. My riper years still more embrace The simple meal that always feeds The strongest, noblest of the race. I want but nature's barest needs; Bread, water, rags and roof is all for which life pleads. And just for this. Oh what a price I pay that mouth be merely fed! The angels in yon paradise Will never dream man's cost of bread. Great thinkers wise whom life hath bled Will never bleed enough to think What some in other courses led Have paid for just their meat and drink. As in the round of slaves they sullen, silent sink. I've paid my youth, my morning youth. High heaven's best unto the years, A gift to Life like Love to Truth Or morning dawning on dark fears. The hope and dream that ever rears An ideal world in rainbow light, Joy and her songs untouched by tears. Drunk as the future doth invite, I've paid it, what a price! for just my little bite. I've paid ambitions soaring high, Desire, the best that life has known. To be a prophet of the sky With lightning thoughts none dare disown. Ideals and dreams and tales that tone The man divine but yet unfreed, The thinker when romance has flown. The high philosophies we need, I've paid it in the toil by which this frame I feed. I've paid the passion of my powers. Nature's dynamic life and fire. The earthquake and volcanic hours Whose tempests seized me with desire And heart and brain-storms did inspire; The raptured passions that create And dreams and songs and actions sire That image life in high estate, I've paid it for the bread that doth my hunger sate. 58 What matters it? Millions like thee, And some more great and greater far, Have paid thy price to nothing be, And more shall pay than have or are. Nature a baboon and a star Debateth which is best to breed; With grim sardonic smiles that jar The mother doth the baboon feed; The star goes down the night and nature doth not heed. SLEEP AND DREAM. Night, silence, and deep slumber Upon my being slept Vast agus v.'ithout number Across my bosom swept. But never dream or token Upon my senses crept Of life that man has broken And tears his grief has wept. One shook me then with roughness i^nd woke me up to life. She shoved with brutal gruffness Into the deadly strife. Such fierce unreasoned madness Of elements so rife Seems but a dream of sadness Death endeth with her knife. Soon the eternal darkness Shall gird me round and round. Night, infinite with silence Be on my bosom bound. Soon everlasting slumbers With peace the most profound Unbroken by time's numbers Shall rest upon my mound. REBELLION. 'Oh World and Life and Time That rule this course and clime! Thou sure hast been a blind infernal brute, An insane fool and vast gigantic crime Unto this mortal shoot. 59 Yet unto some I see Thou hast been kind to me. Compared to some I've had a feather bed, And from thy wine, as salt as salt could be, My spirit strength has fed. But what of this vast mass That to oblivion pass? A.nd what of those who stand beneath thy curse When heaven and hell, nature and man alas! Their vials of wrath unpurse? Thus oft is stirred the storm Of fierce rebellions warm; When losing self in those that round me rhyme Blaspheming thoughts into my being swarm. Oh World and Life and Time! THE BATTLE OF BROOKLYN. Oh Liberty! Oh Liberty! We turn With pleasure and impassioned exaltation Unto thee whenever thou dost rise and spurn Thy bitterness and bondage-degradation To battle for thy right and domination. Oh spirit great, most glorious and divine Of all the earth, thou art an inspiration In thy struggles and mighty passion twine Into men like powers of new creation. With tension tight the old, old fighter fine Comes up and with a rush jumps to the fighting line. I love the sounds of battle. I delight To see thy presence on the field. I leap To life and drink the recreating might Of glorious strife. I pant. I snort. I sweep Into the conflict and plunge into its deep. Is it a choice 'twixt Liberty and war? Let it be war, war, war unto the steep Of heaven, and war, war, war down to the floor Of hell, and all between a mountain heap Of dead and oceans vast of living gore; 'Tis Liberty or death for ever, ever more! And thou, my Country! Liberty's best home! Great Republic upon the rights of man! If thus the passions rise and swell and foam At all old tales of Freedom and her clan, 60 Should not I rise and in the distance scan Thy battles with Europe's old oppression That did abhor the New World's higher plan? The fathers called for justice and redression; Great Life was glad and did the passions fan; Together they discussed the great transgression; Sudden, erect and proud, they rose with new possess:' on. These colonists along the fierce Atlantic Turned from the war with Nature, rough and wild, To face another. The tempest storms gigantic Swept o'er the land and darkness round them piled. They saw, a moment shrank, then, reconciled The settler donned the soldier's uniform, Which was old Freedom's glowing soul that smiled, And calm defied the mighty fears that swarm. The frontier men came forth; the towns outfiled In strength; and thirteen states against the storm Guarded each fort and hill amid the lightnings warm. Scorning her raw, raw colonists so raw, At Bunker Hill the great delusion broke. And England with a sudden, fearful awe Staggered and fell 'mid thunder, fire and smoke. This sphere to new life-consciousness awoke And with a strength that prophesied the years Back on them flung the tyrant's cursed yoke And drove them blind with madness, shame and fears. As they reviewed a curse they did invoke, And measuring more the manhood of these spheres Gathered a larger force and planned to fight their peers. New York was then, as now and long must be The center of all hope and firm resistance. Within her streams far Washington did see The coming foe and Brooklyn sent assistance. Soon, soon they came. Far in the distance A mighty fleet came on to awe the shores, To find a base and threaten the existence Of young life. The fortress from her scanty stores The center and the shore guards with insistence, But leaves far east a path with open doors; So scanty were her men and large her spreading floors. Putnam the fort and wooded southern height For action dressed and half to each he broke. Each half again was stationed left and right To shore and center path to meet the stroke That Tyranny on Liberty did invoke: Ten thousand twice Howe landed on the shores Against our ten fierce rebels to his yoke. 1 61 ' The Hessians kept the center-south and stores; Grant led the west with Highlanders of oak; Clinton, Percy and Cornwallis far explores; Hears of Jamaica's path and its unguarded doors. The plans were sealed. On a deceptive night Lean strategy struck for Jamaica's road In unseen, silent, secret, subtle flight The lengthy mass softly and slowly strode, Dragging the forty cannons of their load. When morning broke the veterans gathered rank And officers and men with spirit glowed. On an unconscious foe they had the flank And vict'ry thus almost in full bestowed. With confidence the victory they drank And moved upon the lines along the wooded bank. Twice, twice the force moved up to the attack, Spreading the net along the west and east Round Sullivan who kept the Bedford track And now too late awakes. The victors feast To see success so brilliantly increased. They draw the net. They still reserve their fires. Now is the time. Upon them they released The heavy charge advantage always sires. The Hessians strong, a shamble boughten beast. Signed from the north charged with the fierce desires That certain victory and long delay inspires. Disordered quick, their hopes sunk to despair. Some fierce discharged their fire. The deadly walls Close round them without mercy. Death was there And many in the hopeless struggle falls. Ere annihilation Sullivan calls A swift retreat, but too late to avail. Some few broke off into the forest halls; The center held still fiercer fires assail; Some swear a curse on tyrants and their thralls, Then on the lines whose bayonets did them hail They rushed the heavy south to die or to prevail. The strength that dared this new untraveled world, Faced savages and felled the forests old, Seized their musket barrels and nature hurled Them fiercely on. Down on the Hessians rolled A desperate few, despising bayonets cold, Down, down they came and many instant fell. But some stood up and brute destructions sold Around. The elemental passions swell And mighty axe-like strokes with swingings bold Sunk on that line. The super-human spell That falls on Freedom's sons when driven to rebel, 62 Rose up in them and drove them on like fire. Down sweeping with momentum from the height They plunged sheer in, and like Samson blind in ire Smote left and right. The passions glowing white Instant, desperate and remorselessi smite The resistances that clog and close the path. But strengthened, numbered and interlocked with might The veterans stand. New life is in the bath Of blood when hope gulps down the sweet delight Of victory. The force that battered nature hath Rose up within the foe and wrath encountered wrath. Still fighting on they pushed that center back And taught again these colon -sts could fight. Now they themselves returned upon their track, Then forward plunged and swayed both left and right. As like a swollen river at its height, A gathering wave strikes plumb the curbing tall, When suddenly with passions foaming white The piled up stream sweeps down and does appal; So then that revolutionary might Broke through the strength that did around them wall; A remnant mere escapes and many prisoners fall. Meanwhile brave Sterling kept the path near shore And fed his men the wrongs that did them bite. 'Twas the first time that Liberty e'er bore The organized Americans to fight; 'Twas the first battle for the state, for the right Of independence and hopes that on her wait. With cruelest kindness, assurance and delight She took the chance and scorned the loud debate. For such a strength a new world did invite. Against the men earth's strongest men can mate She set them up in line and on them la-d her fate. The sun had started toward the hour of seven When the great fleet that lay along the shore Let loose her fiercest cannonades of levin And on the fields sent forth a thunder roar. Why? To hold all minds from that far eastern door. Then Grant and his strong highlanders did break The tension tight and 'neath strategic lore Opened fierce fire. The outposts answer make And summons help against advances sore. They fought and fought and fell back to the stake As greater numbers pressed and their positions shake. The posts their last position but gave way When Sterling with two thousand untried men Supported them and held the foe at bay; 63 And more than held, for down on them unpen The resistances America till then Did never need, and never forth did call; But now against the strength of rock and glen Came up and stood a bulwarked breasted wall Of patriots that dared the fiercest ken Of veteran lines, resources, arms and all . That raw, raw soldiers green with reason might appal. They stood their ground 'gainst more than double force. And if some sank beneath the heavy fire A charge they sent upon such deadly course As Death himself the blast did sight and sire. They stopped advance; cooled quick the hot desire. Gave passion pause, taught them another lore And drank the breath the battle doth inspire. The minute-men with musketry of yore Mark never missed but sent destructions dire; The loss they gave and added to the score As confidence and hope did new their bosoms store. Once fire baptized upon the battl-e front They seemed to rise to higher strength and height For every man would bear the burdened brunt And on the first and fiercest line would fight. Oft, often, did the swift, impetuous might Sweep out of rank and in the enemy's face Amid the shot on its uncertain flight Cast on their flag the crimson of disgrace. Those highlanders, great England's war delight, Found they were up against the ancient race, Against another man old nature's passions lace. Now on the west, then on the farthest east, And more than once against the center line, They would mount up. The veterans more increased With numbers and With ordered valor fine Would drink the hope of victory like wine. But place and race and fire swift answering fire Did beat them down, down from that famed incline. Again disgrace and valor high aspire. Again they dare to mount with dark design, And once again a smaller host retire. And once again a shout that rises high and higher. The sun had climbed to eight, to nine, to ten. For four long hours the enemy they stay And drove them back, although the veteran men At every point did battle to make way. 64 Numbers, resource, ambition, desperate play i Were stopped and stayed, were bumbled, bent and bowed :' My life's green hopes on that uncertain day. 1 Nor was it strange the victors shout' ng loud 1 Derision rolled and did the veterans bay. \ The strength of war, far famed, boasted and proud j Went up against the stop, were stopped and stayed and cowed. i But hark, Oh hark! What is that distant sound? ' i What strange report upon the patriots' flank? i Along the height it sends an awe profound i And stills the shouts along the victors' rank. 1, All look behind. On them it casts a blank \ Astonishment and instant seems to slay i The victor hopes that did that summit prank. Again there was confusion and dismay . ; And their high hopes below the plummet sank, ' It was the sound of doom upon the day; ] The victors in their rear upon them sudden play. \ Cornwallis from his victory did run '\ To strike the foes upon the shore and height. i On Sterling brave as on brave Sullivan j Was strategy and swift, resistless might. ■; It were insane to stand up to the fight, j And death to yield unto the prisoner's fate? \ It were a loss to Liberty, black night 'i Unto the cause, on the new state a weight, j And deep disgrace on Life's divinest right; ' Worst, worst of all, it were a murderous hate j On his young soldiers true to pause or hesitate. . Then was a brief and burning half an hour; i A passion, sacrifice and glory to behold; ■] A scene of action, of valor, feat and power I That Life and Time and poets rare have told. i To save men to annihilation sold Sterling commands the mxost part to retreat, While he himself and kindred spirits bold. ] Cover their course o'er streams with marshy feet. j They took their stand 'gainst odds most manifold, < A cuosen band in a position meet; ' 'Twas crimson, crimson life and passion white with heat. i Action was quick. The British poured in fire. There was a rush, an elemental shock; ; Old England and America in ire ; Shook to the deep, in deadly conflict lock. = The globes of man down to the granite rock - Rose up and fought. Shame, anger, fear and might ; That chosen few most ruthless did unfrock. ! 65 1 Fierce poured the shot; swords struck the living sight; But there they stood and did all progress block. Many were slain, the living fiercer fight As their companions crossed the stream with blood bedight. For twenty minutes the fugitives passed o'er; For twenty minutes the English on them dash; For twenty minutes the handful 'gainst them bore; For twenty minutes shot fell and bayonets slash. Though shot and hewn with many a fearful gash They fought and fought upon the piling dead. Into the teeth that did upon them gnash These heroes struck with passions fierce and red And kept the stream through which their comrades splash. Though some sank down into the watery bed Most crossed the marshy creek and to the fortress sped. Again, again, again, and once again They did repulse Cornwallis from the way. Though every time a higher toll of men Upon the field as dead and dying lay. But every time they instant did obey And fewer few rushed to defend the place And dare the guns the British on them play. Time and again they dared the veterans face And on their own the slaughter fierce did stay. Even the foes admired the hero race Of that vicarious fight and sacrificial grace. Of that fierce, final, pathway-blocking strife Oh give the honors where they most belong! Maryland, with a regiment of life Round Sterling stood against the victors strong. Her fresh, green hopes, a generous youthful throng. Stood up with him as seasoned soldiers fight. Took the large odds and dared the mighty wi'ong Though fiercest fires and bayonets on them light. But though from them there rose a glorious song Of battle front, of valor, fame and might. It could not save the day from dark defeat and blight. Defeat! Defeat! Cruel, cruel, Oh cruel defeat! The first stand-up for independent state. For the great "Declaration" and life replete With Liberty, and a decree of fate That strength and hope almost annihilate! Defeat! Defeat! The first high passions white With mighty dreams of glorious estate And victories that doth the eye delight, Before the strength of tyranny and hate Driven and stormed from off the double height And victors and their dreams plunged into darkest night! 66 Defeat! Defeat! Cruel, cruel, Oh cruel defeat! Life's bosom bare, bleeding and pierced and torn. And to her dying lips with dregs replete A cup that death hath from her presence sworn. And falleth back upon her bed of thorn! Defeat, defeat, defeat and brutal plunder Fed on thy life and tramped ye down in scorn, While darkness black and lightning flash and thunder Broke on the cause as storms upon the morn! Oh Time and Life! How is it ye can sunder Virtue from its desert and plunge both down and under? Defeat! Defeat! Cruel, cruel, Oh cruel defeat! Oh Liberty, there's no defeat like thine! There is no cause that makes man more complete, Sets us on fire and feeds celestial wine. And then to drink the dregs and dross of brine! Defeat! Defeat! Thrice happy are the brave Death wrappeth in a soldier's glory fine And flowers immortal plants upon his grave! How infinite the patriot's rest divine And memory blest when man is but a slave And Libert:) and Life his mortal pathways pave. 'Tis not in man, in demons or in gods To breast the force and win against the fates; But when for Liberty they take the odds Impassioned song their memory celebrates. 'Tis not victory alone that satiates Life's hungry heart on its immortal quest. But virtue high that fierce annihilates All tyranny, and in the bosom blest Great Liberty eternal consecrates; For Life in such is ever self-possessed And without such insane however highly dressed. And such were ye on that disastrous day! The spirit of thy life was high and free, A prophecy and splendor on ye lay; But all abroad, all down the earth we see Life ever slain by Time's tyrannic "Me." Veterans, numbers, resources, arms and skill Are ruling powers where nature's battles be. Though purer fires the nobler spirits fill Great nature knows no virtue and no plea. The patriot's, prophet's, martyr's blood doth spill; The beasts and foes of life possess and crown the hill. But there ar© worlds within the worlds of man And life is oft the opposite it seems. 67 A vict'ry and a victor's larger plan Gft with a curse and vast destruct'on teems. Out of defeat, out of her torturing dreams Another man, another virtue springs , Moulding the soul to far diviner schemes. The blinded world that blind forever swings Is full of contradiction and extremes. That which we wish is always that which stings, That which we most lament that which the sweetest sings. Death and defeat, shame, bitterness and scorn, Ye were the seed that mighty Time did fling Into the furrow. The harvest to be born Was mightier than poets dared to sing When dream and song soar on archangel wing; For out of ye sprung Liberty immortal, A state where man is greater than a king, A greatness, magnificence and courtal Majesty of life, a glorious ring Unto the generations o'er the portal, And high, prophetic hopes above the dreams of mortal. Ye were the sacrifice by which we live; Thy blood was shed man's right to full redeem; Thy hate and love unto us thou didst give And now it flows in this strange mingled stream. The memory and the ancient virtue seems At times run out, but there are other times A spirit wakes and with sublimest dreams High high above the world in passion climbs, Full full of rich and ripe prophetic schemes — - It is yourselves still mounting to your primes Where Liberty and Life eternal music chimes. Now Liberty and Life are throned sublime In this new sphere and their enchanting song Is ringing to the list'ning hosts of time. And in the strain are notes so passioned strong They fire the, soul and bear it swift along Till man is lost an^. |inds himself in line When ye around great Liberty did throng And poured for her life's consecratest wine. Immortal mortals! Godlike and free from wrong! Ye are the men Life loves to call "divine." Forever more your forms upon her eyes shall shine. Ye fought and fell. Now this great nation, This dominating power for coming age&, This courage, conflict, conquest and creation, Though spell-bound as the future high engages, 68 Whene'er they pause and read the golden pages Of the nation your history so inspires Thy glorious strife i within the bosom rages And honors that all heaven stili desires Are hung on ye unto the endless ages. We are the sons of most immortal sires And in our bosom yet the fathers' glowing fires. Ye Stars and Stripes! Redemption of the night! Defense and hope to all the bondaged world! Though vastly changed unto the outward sight 'Twas here your folds were first with joy unfurled. Here planted firm; here fiercely on thee hurled The foes; here the raw colonists despised Around thee fought and with the battle swirled; Here was the hour that thy fresh folds baptized In blood and death; here thou wast blindly whirled From off the field and with defeat surprised; So crown, Oh crown these heights so grand memorialized! And you, ye spirits of these thirteen states Stand up again in your colonial gu'se! Though all is changed by that which new creates Ye still survive and higher still must rise! Behold the rich wide hemisphere that lies Beneath the skies ye made forever free, And this new race of vast gigantic size Wage other wars with strife and tyranny! Look forth, look forth ! Stretch your expanding eyes To north and south and far unto the sea. Had ye such dreams of state as now before ye flee? Ye later soldiers! Ye hosts that shake the globe! Ye moderns whose machines unmake as man! Whose monster guns and science powers disrobe The world's high civilizations as we scan, Behold these soldiers of nature's oldest plan! One round of shot; a forward rush; then hand To hand the great old struggle they began. Against the wall of being the outnumbered band Would plant themselvoB before oppression's clan: "Come on! Come on! We'll take the odds and stand." Such soldiers here have fought. Show us a better brand! Oh city vast! Beneath thy very feet they fought, But time and change obliterate all trace. First defenders though hero-like they wrought Scarce memory leaves to their succeeding race. Pause on thy course! With memory now repace Thy hist'ry from thy farthest pioneers! 69 Is it strange? Surprised? What crimsons so thy face? That yonder? A battle! It plows the spheres Of man! Into it! Thy fathers there embrace The tyrants that have ruled the ancient years. Break out, Oh city, break, and shake the earth with cheers! Great Uncle Sam doth on the Eagle rde And each alike for freedom ever strives. At every shrine though change and progress hide They open up the lore that memory hives. Upon these heights and shores a something rives The present from the past. The glorious strife Is lived again. The remembering Eagle drives Against the foe with elemental life. And Uncle Sam tears off the oppressor's gyves From his young soul. A flame and lightning kn:fe Lead on the fiercest line against oppressions rife. And ye, ye cosmopolitans of power That master, march and rule the course of time, Moulding the globe w'th scientific dower. Like and unlike the world-soul's dreams sublime, Ye far extremes to this is man's scale and clime Come face to face! Ye are the son and sire. His world is past and is to thee a mime; Thy world is here and vast with vast inspire, Put under all is na,tnre's manhood prime. Art thou a man? Respond unto the fire That planted, fed and fanned thy best divine desire! And thou, thou age and coming age of splendor. Of wealth and knowledge, magnificence and power! Exalted Life with glorious train attender No dreamer dreamed when dream looked from her tower! Forget thou not the first immortal hour When they fierce fought to set the whole world free. Slew old chaotic monsters that devour, Striking this plan better than sight could see. Forget thou not! Great virtues' high endowers Is still the best of all thy works and thee. And let a brighter flame unto their memory be! Cpon my eyes there streams a cloud of vision; It sweeps across all majesty and splendor. The mighty world feels something of derision As the vast mass swings round her as attender, Allegiance swear and blind throng as defender. 'Tis Liberty, great Liberty divine! And round are guards that never knew surrender. The real "Old Guard," high types of heaven's design. Some of these guards when these young states did tender She accepted. Now forever on her line The fighters, founders, fathers with her own glorious shine. Oh City, State, great Nation and the World, There still is hope where e'er such virtues be. Though man and life by tyrants new are whirled The future high doth beckon unto thee. Stand up! Stand up! "Be strong but be more free! Freedom alone life's larger doors can ope. What now we are, whatever great we see Is but the fruit of Freedom's deadly cope. Feed thou the flame! Pledge life to Liberty! Line with the few! Stand up on plain and slope! Fight, fight for Liberty and give the future hope! OLD GLORY. Behold! Behold! The fathers there Shake out another banner. The elder nations start and stare And scorn and cursing scan her. But Liberty, the chosen Queen Of this new world did plan her. And new world spirits swift and keen With vital breath did fan her. Old Glory is a living thing; The life of life is flowing Within the bosom that we fling Unto the winds so blowing. The mother, sons and daughters sing And march with crimson glowing. Up, up the infant's rugged years This banner led the nation; Moulding the young chaotic spheres Unto a new creation. Vast, vast resources east and west; New peoples, times and stations; Old Glory led us far abreast And marched for dominations. Old Glory is a living thing, Soul of contagious fire, Riding the skies with eagle wing, Inspiring son and sire. Marching the ages as they sing Unto a nobler lyre, 71 Who up the evolution climbs With man and nature clashes. The young republic faced the times And dared the sword that flashes. ' Thou, thou the foremost in the fray Wert torn with mighty gashes; But shot nor shell nor sword could stay Thy fierce and forward dashes. Old Glory is a living thing; Pe.ace, peace her breast engages, But if the tyrants on us spring The ancient spirit rages- And just a call from her would bring The soldier of the ages. All round the vast unguided globe Old Glory is a glory. - All thrones and empires she could robe And lend them strain and story. No majesties and grandeurs prime Or splendors high and hoary To Liberty seems more sublime Than this Republic's glory. Old Glory is a living thing; Lfife in her breast is flowing; Who can her rhyme mounts to his prime With crimson ,joy and glowing. Oh let her swing! Her praises sing! The world grows with her growing. By city, forest, field and mead, On mountain, plain and ocean, To tower and mast. Oh nail her fast And stir the winds in motion! All citizens and soldier lines With music of devotion Shall lift her up and pledge the wines ,- Of Life's divinest potion. Old Glory is a living thing; Old Earth her life is feeding; The world-soul shakes her with a fling; "Cease, cease your gold and greeding! Who with this soul can mount and sing, They are the men I'm breeding." 72 QUEEN OF THE AGES. Arise, Arise! The glorious Fourth Another dawn is bringing. The East and West, the South and North Are up and foreward springing. For whom, for whom so splendor gowned The golden gates are swinging?' It is the Queen and foreward bound All hearts to her in singing. Oh sing the songs she taught to thee In thy historic pages. For Liberty must ever be The Queen of all the ages! The fathers, on this natal day Surprised the elder nations. They broke the yoke and flung away Old tyrant degradations. They gave new doctrines to the earth, Dreamed higher state creations, And this Republic brought to birth For world wide dominations. For better than the wise could scan They struck the plan of sages; For Liberty the world will van. The Queen of all the ages! The patriots' and the prophets' blood As in old time is leaping; The crimson, glowing, surging flood The swollen veins are sweeping; Great memories of the early strife Spring weaponed from their sleeping; The dreams that crown the brow of life The .future heights are keeping. Oh swell the patriotic strain! Their passictti still engages. Let Liberty forever reign The Queen of all the ages! Shall then the children of such sires. The births of such a mother, Rekindle not the altar fires That time and strife would smother? Electric passions burn and glow From each unto the other, Nor North nor South, nor friend nor foe, Each free born man is brother. 73 Oh feed the spirit of the sires! Oh feed it till it rages! For Liberty the free man fires The Queen of all the ages! Then ring the bells, the whistles blow. Start, start the cannon sounding! Musicians march and soldiers go To martial strains abounding. Old Glory take and swing her out Above the crowd surrounding! To heaven and earth a mighty shout All other praise is drownding! Oh shout it out! The free man's song Is through the earth contagious; Our Liberty, forever strong, Shall Queen the endless ages. THE CITIZEN'S SONG. In the city's heart I was cradled first And the modern mother's soul With impulsions vast in my being burst As the ocean tides that roll. I am filled with life, with a rush and sweep To run as the mother gives; For the elements rife in my being leap To live as the mother lives. I can rest alone in the city's heart; Her pulse has a vigorous beat; I am blind and lost when from her I part But alive where her humans meet. There the floods of life like the surging sea Burst into my mortal breast; And the climbing song of the free and strong Feeds dreams of immortal zest. I delight to stand on the Campus square With the works of man around; Then I back myself 'gainst the structures there And enlarge my . spirit's bound. I am vaster far than the steel-girt towers Or gods of the strife and gain. Like a master there all the place and powers I hold in my hand and brain. 74 There's a pleasure keen in the thronging mass; There's a joy where the many meet; Each electric soul doth a current pass With an incandescent heat. From the central heart are the batteries charged; With both are my spirits wired; Every contact there has the man enlarged And ambition fed and fired. As around I walk, what an atmosphere That the gods of old might quaff! 'Tis the wine of life. With a boundless cheer I uplift it, drink and laugh. Strong, erect and prcud, wearing armor plate That was forged in the heart and brain, I can stand alone, I can stand up straight, And march in the victors' train. There's a quickening strife where the millions mart; There's a crimson, crimson glow; The spirit of life like the lightnings dart And drives with resistless "go.' There are lines and lines of electric life. There the voltage often shocks; But the man is found and the rending strife Plants firm on the iron rocks. There are always men on the crowded street. The men who can stand and fight For the wife and chiW^ for their drink and meat. For man and the cause of right. They are battle scarred, they are trained and tougli. King-men for the court and camp. The globe in her breast has no better stuff Than men of the city's stamp. I can feel myself in the city's heart, 'Tis war to the knife, I trow. But the soldiers there in their struggles bart Dreams none but the greatest know. Therejs always life in the midst of strife; There's strength where the battles rage; There's a glorious glow both in friend and foe And rush where the strong engage. Both the loss and gain and the joy and pain I drink with an equal zest. 75 "Be the lord of life in the peace and strife!" Is law to my iron breast. I am not the saint that the preachers paint Nor sinner the high priests damn; Just the common type with a heavier stripe Of the good and bad I am. Oh many a time on the Campus square When I walked in pomp and pride, A remorseless strength did a punch impart Till the count was more than cried. As the great are bowed, as the strong are thrashed, I was taught as they teach the wise; But another rose and was gowned and sashed As the man that bears the prize. She's a brutal brute; she's a shameless bawd; She has spit and tramped me down; She has kissed my feet with a loud applaud When I tore from her renown. There is praise and scorn for her daily born; She is little as strong and great; ^^e doth ruthless bleed; she doth wisdom feed And my every mood can mate. From my mother's heart I can never part; I'm cogged in the vast machine; The increasing sv^irl to my spirits hurl Lrife's spice and her relish keen. Take the peace and balm of the country calm But give me the crowded mart; Let my spirits run where they first begun And course through the city's heart. THE SOCIALISTIC SLOGAN. "Each for all; all for the each!" Oh what a golden, golden speech! The best philosophy that time Has dreamed or thought or sung in rhyme; The thrice distilled extracted truth That Life has poured out of her rath; Archangel dream, celestial lore, For ages high a basic score; Oh what a godlike, godlike speech! "Each for the all; all for the each;" 76 "All for the each; each for the all;" The new age trumpets' herald call; The prophet and poetic throng Swell up the surges of the song. Old earth that in her travailing cries, High heaven that in sorrow sighs, Sore wounded Life, Time, Man and Hope, Leap up anew on plain and slope; Hark, hark. Oh hark! What is that call? "All for the each; each for the all." ''Each for the all; all for the each." Look on the past! Now foreward reach! What deadly strife! Inhuman greed On human life doth feed and feed. Red cannibals most rank and raw Upon each other feed their maw. Before now comes upon our s'ght, A glorious race girded with might, For thought and action sing the speech, "Each for the all; all for the each." "All for the each; each for the all." Old Greed, and Strife thou dost appall. The anarchs of the olden reign Shall slay before they shall be slain. Branded, defamed, defiled, and torn, Thou like thy kind must suffer scorn. Truth crucified is most divine And sways the ages that untwine. Supreme art thou. To thee we fall. "All for the each; each for the all." "Each for the all; all for the each." The noblest song that Life can teach. In every land, all tongue and tone Will throne thee on the spirit's throne. The sphere thou wilt anew create, The man reform and with thee mate; These vast mechanics, lores and laws, Poetic lyres and prophet awes Must bend unto the golden speech "Each for the all; all for the each." "All for the each; each for the all." The banners blaze, the trumpets call; To marching music wed the creed That solves all want and strife and greed. On morning's pillars carve it bright; 77 Blaze it upon the dcme of night; Deep burn it on the heart and brain, And hurl it on the gods of gain. Life, Man, and Hope, it doth enthrall. "All for the each; each for the all." "Each for the all; all for the each;" The poet dies but lives !he speech. A song can break the customs old And cast all life in nobler mould. Behold there! Through the gates of morn Now comes a line no eye can scorn. These humans are a glorious race And life is now a godlike grace. For all now live the golden speech: "Each for the all; all for the each." MARCH SONG FOR SOCIALISTS. Arise, ye socialists, arise! The skies that now are arching Are echoing with the trumpet cries That calls for "up and marching." Line up with life! O shake the earth! Think for the thoughtless nation! Another dream has come to birth, Has come to crown creation. March on, great Socialism, march! Thou dream of all the ages! Oh give her place!! She giveth grace To life in all her stages. And only they can king the race This dream of life engages, "Each for himself. To hell with all!" What shout to bloody battle! The doctrine doth high heaven appal, These humans treats as cattle. March on and trample down the creed That makes a hell and devils. Oh hail the new born brother breed Upon life's highland levels! March on, great Socialism, march! etc. "Each for the all; all for the each" Oh what a theme for singing! The world-soul hears the golden speech And hopes anew are springing. 78 The future barkens to the song; Such music sets her burning; The tides of life with passion strong Unto the dream are turning. March on, great Socialism, march! etc The people should themselves possess, The earth and her resources; Why should old Greed the race oppress And map these human courses? March on. Oh Dream, divine and best Of all the state creations! The future race with thee is blest And greets thee with elations. March on, great Socialism, march! etc. March on, Oh Dream! Thy soldiers march! The future is inviting; But twixt you and yon golden arch Are ranks drawn up for fighting. Since none are men who cannot fight, Since good fights are a glory. For mankind, friends and social right Oh fight like those of story! March on, great Socialism, march! Thou dream of all the ages! Oh give her place! ! She giveth grace To life in all her stages. And only they can king the race This dream of life engages. THE HANDWRITING. ' Wealth, honor and station, '. Pride, pomp and elation, i Power, fashion and fame and all forms of high mould, ] Neath domes of high splendor, i With trumpet attender j Were gathered to feast like the nobles of old. They boasted their glories, Their exploits were stories, ! The rulers they were and would reign to all time. ] Birth had them appointed, \ God had them anointed. ■ Life had them enthroned and the world did them chime. i '79 .'i Each swore new alliance And voted defiance Unto the vast masses, poor, hungry and cold. Out, out they were bolted, Down, down they were jolted. And scorned as the feast and the feasters grew bold. When revels were highest Alarm sudden criest For there wrote an arm with a sword glowing white. The lightning-like flashes And deep spirit gashes The feasters to fear and to frenzy did fright. Belshazzar did sicken, His nobles were stricken. As conscience did point to the masses they sold. "God angels and heaven, Replevin, replevin. And read us the word that is shining untold!" Financiers with millions, Insane for the billions Rushed in to behold the great line that was wrote. They swore at the danger. Defied the great stranger. And pledged all their wealth to more solidly vote. The senate assembled. With ague they trembled, Perspiring in fear, growing burning or cold. "Oh find a magician, Some scholar, linguisian. To read us the truth that these symbols doth hold." The supreme court usurpers, The peoples' extirpers. Fought over the word with the lesralist lore. They were equal divided, But all were one sided, Twas "unconstitutional" whatever it bore. }r^^ All wrangled and jangled, Were tangled and strangled With shame, wrath and fear at the truth it might fold "All honor and station, A throne in the nation, To him who delivers the message here scrolled." 80 An old congress verger Sought out Victor Berger: "Oh find us, oh find us the prophet called Debs! Big Belshazzar shaketh, His counselors quaketh, Before but a line from the arm of the plebs." Like Daniel the older, But straighter and bolder, He marched to the front of their pomp, pride and gold Again the arm flashes. Again the sword gashes The line written oft as the ages have rolled. "Your days they are finished, Your powers are diminished, For man now ariseth and mounteth your thrones. The purple transgressors. Crowned, crimson oppressors. The Spirit of Life hence forever disowns." WASHINGTON. High honored and immortal spirit pure! We love to stand and contemplate thy soul; For such a man the furnaces endure And such a dream a nation great can pole What stormy times or evolutions roll. Wert thou not one the mighty mother lent When the latest resurrection shook the whole Created frame and democracy was sent Into the world? To wrest Life's high control From tyranny thou wert chosen, formed and bent A.nd led the fierce rebellions old ancient empires rent. Thou wert a man. Old Nature stamped thee great And wrote it on thy course and countenance. Life needed men. There was the galling weight Of tyrants, a continent hung in suspense And generations were slaves or freemen hence. No wonder Liberty took hold on thee And armed thee strong for all the world's defense. Fronting the great, the sword they made thy plea. Small was the sphere, the issues most immense. The Union lived, and thou must ever be An ideal patriot and freeman of the free. 81 Thou hast cutscared the limits of thy kind. Thrice purged above the blemishes of crime Thou art enthroned, replenished and divined With virtues and immortal passions prime. Exalted where we mortals cannot climb There is a mythologic largeness vast Up'on thy spirit, and atmospheres sublime That lifteth soul from the repressive past. ¥/e cannot dream thee back in struggling time ^nd with our great thou canst no more be classed. Tne high immortal peers are through thy spirit glassed. To just a few is given the glorious right, To be revered, lifted and throned divine. Purged and renewed of every mortal blight And clothed with grace that like the sun doth shine; To just a few, time, place and virtue line That nations choose and throne as their ideal, And Lfife delights to fill them as a shrine And heaven stamps on them her highest seal; To just a few the Fates are so benign As gods they rise, the best of life reveal And still grow more divine as on the ages wheel. And such w'ert thou. The nation at her birth V/ith that instinct that never knows untruth Chose thee the type of all she dreamed of worth Or she could wish to guide her growing youth. Though she was >oung, strong, native and uncouth. And we have marched to undreamed civilizations, Been torn by strife and taught by bitter ruth Thou still doth guide the Union's aspirations. The world outgrows all but eternal truth. Our dreams, inventions, powers and wealth and stations Stand still and think and bow to thy soul's dominations. In other days the heroes of mankind Were throned and pictured on the midnight skies, That thus exploit and character might bind The generations unto a larger prize. As their ideal was sketched before the eyes On such gigantic scales as did command The larger soul within them to arise, So thou are spread on this Republic grand A great ideal no mortal dare despise For widening hosts by thee are taught to stand. Feel fire within the heart and strength in each right hand. 82 We see thee walking up and down the nation, Tlie great presiding genius of all life, Moulding the form of each new generation. Still moulding men out of destroying strife. Great national type with elements as rife As is our growth to cosmopolitan scope. Oft time is cut as by a lightning knife And face to face we meet thee up the slope. Life's passions rise as to the soldier's fife; New girded, armed and kindled with new hope Thy spirit in us burns to meet the foes that cope. Above and throned upon this mighty nation, That grew from it and feeds it life's inspire, There is a gathering, glorious congregation, Immortals that this mortal sphere doth sire. Genius, Valor, Honor and Strength and Fire Are gathered there and feed the lofty mind. The music, dreams and memories of desire. Thou standest there amid thy kindred-kind, As thou stoodst here amid the strife and ire, A spirit tall whose character doth bind The souls of largest men these growing states can find. And yet we build our towering monuments. Marble and bronze unto the azure skies. Tin they become formality and offense Ulito the soul and blindness to the eyes. But let it pass. Spirit to spirit cries. Thou art enthroned within the civic heart. Thy image on imagination flies Till sense and strife and selfishness depart And soul within doth unto thee arise. Life sees the lines of her prophetic chart In splendor bursting forth and blinding sense and mart. LINCOLN. Oh nature p.reat! Oh virtue of the nation! Oh spirit high, enthroned upon the height! A type supreme of higher soul creation That grows divine unto our mortal blight! Thou feedest to our far-uplifted sight <« The greatest need of life and time and nations, For thou wert one the powers of truth and right Sent into lite, and up our hard gradations Train thee for strife against the storms of night. Victorious soul! Spirit of inspirations! One of the dreams of man! One of God's high creations! 83 Nature was cruel and yet most kind to thee When thou wert cast down at the base of life For at the base great things and men must be. Thy towering strength, ungainly gaunt, was rife With jest and many a sarcastic knife Cut into thee. The kind old rugged nurse Bound up thy wounds and with a Spartan fife Bade thee to stand and face the powers that curse. She put thee against the growing strife And with thy growth did stir the elements worse, Until at last alone, strong as the universe. Oft, often locked in many a mortal strife. The vanquished spared or flung off bruised or dead, Thou, rising up with fountains of new life. Didst front the men whoi shook earth with their tread Into the pass where hosts in vain had bled The mother thrust and knew that thou wouldst van The world, for thy humanity was red Por generous life and for all men did plan. Strong was the arm, high, high the lighted head,' Wise, wise the eye that did the nation scan When thy organic strength took up the cause of man. There was a day when Liberty's young nation Desired a man to save the institutions. "Arise, arise!" she cried in desperation, "Against the storms, traitors and executions ■ That threaten death to time's best evolutions!" Thou camest forth. The nation saw. Great Right Sprang up and spurned her abject prostitutions. Ready for war but shrinking from the fight, Forth to the strife, defying soft solutions. Into the black and lightning flashing night To victory they went with thy contagious might. Through those four years, blood-stained and stormed and What heavy weights and crimson, crimson tears [plowed Thy spirit shed and often body bowed! The stress of war eclipsed the world with fears. But thou wert found, one of creation's peers, A grand old type that man forever hails And stations high to crown these mortal spheres. Great leader strong, gath'ring the line that fails. A hero true the battle front reveres, Courage and faith that o'er assault prevails, A master man of men no time or greatness pales. 84 High, generous and most magnanimous soul! ^ F'ne quality, the rarest in the earth! ■ Part of the Infinite whose virtues roll ■ And now and then find being from the dearth! i Man's moulds were broke; time's standards of all worth I Destroyed; ideals old dethroned, and new j Conceptual forms rose to immortal birth. • i Plain, simple, honest, common and warm and true, ■ Thy rich, magnanimous soul of saving mirth '■ Leads hence the mind to the highest heights we view, | And man and life and time in form divine renew. J .i Leader, martyr, prophet and president, - i Where the great cosmopolitan councils meet, Those spirits vast unanimous in consent ] Invite thee up to their presiding seat. Great congregation, where the ages greet Each other, and time's mightiest souls unite i To rain on earth the life that is our meat, : Out of your hosts of genius, lore and might, i Courage and faith, self-sacrifice and feat, j Have ye but one that measures to his height? \ A higher type of man to rule you as his right? i i Though far aloft and growing more divine, \ Wider the years and intervening space, : Rare magic powers out of thy spirit twine \ And bind thee close, still closer to our race. | The ripe humanity upon thy face, i Thy warm hand-clasp and eyes inviting kind j Draw into life out of our hearts' embrace, ; "Father," "Brother," "Prophet," and names that bind The hearts of men across all time and place. i Oh spirit great! Though thee ourselves we find; Thou feedest us with life; through thee we are divined. j GRANT. Men like a fighter. The elemental life That surges up, driving the universe Forever with convulsive strain and strife Leaps into soul and doth forever nurse Yearnings for him no battles can coerce. Men like the man who fronts these grinding spheres. Defying Fate and all she can-unpurse. That armored stands gainst darkness, death and fears And from the deep calls the eternal curse. When such a soul upon the globe appears Men stand in pause and feed the hunger of their years. 85 And such wert thou, a true heroic soul, A noble type though in deceptive mould, So blinded Life that should our spirits pole Neglected thee. Thy mighty powers unrolled Were all penned up, and in that narrow hold Were battles fierce that rent thy globe with strife. Great spirit-gifts that find no end unfold Within the heart hell's elemental life. Who, who could dream thy spirit long unpoled Fought not dark fi'ends with fierce distempers r;'fe And learned to wield a sword swift as the lightning's knife? When thou didst hear great Liberty's last call To free the world and ages of all slaves That mighty Soul thy spirit did enthrall And gave the sword but prophesied the graves; Such was the prize, but such as thou but craves The fiercest fields for glorious Liberty. Erect and poised, calm, wise and strong, the waves Of strife dashed on tempestuous as the sea; But like a rock round which the tempest raves Thou didst out-think, out-wear, out-fight and be The genius of the strife and hope of victory. From Donalson to Appomattox close Thou foughtest on resistless as is Fate. Through bloody fields and earthquake rending throes Where Death all troops did fiercest mutilate Thou pressest on nor dreamed to hesitate. Life stood aghast. The world cried out in fear. Thy erstwhile friends curses did imprecate. Real war is hell. To some thou didst appear A demon mad but blood could satiate. Yet through it all Mercy divine and dear Sat on thy fighting soul to guide the world's career. Thy iron strength was wed to granite truth. Thy reverence for the laws was most sublime. Simplicity dwelt in thy heart with ruth And honor there with sovereign power did rhyme. Magnanimousness, the seal on spirits prime, Was stamped on thee by heaven's highest hand; Yet all of these passed through the fires like crime Till at the last thy spirit forth did stand One of the hierarchal souls of time That Life and Man forever shall command. First, first in ruthless war! First, first in Mercy's band! 86 If ever man stood on the adamantine Bases of his manhood and could dispense With all the paraphernalias chat win The world, thou wert that man. Pride and pretense Are guilded twins and were to thee offense. Thy royal greatness despised life's little shows And stood before the world in that defense That character and fiercest fight bestows. We cannot dream round thee the ornaments Of kings, and placed in royal lineage rows Thou towerest over them as Conqueror over foes. Pew, few, but few of all the soldier line Could cross full swords or stand up straight with thee. A Washington or Cromwell spirit fine. Fighting to set life's highest spirit free. Thy equals are, the most but butchers be. Great soldier chief, thou art a man's delight! Glory and power shall never from thee flee! Who clears himself where g;'ant spirits fight Draws giant men with swift resistless plea. In every man a, soldier stands upright And meeting thee salutes with passions glowing white. When thou didst go life's last and lonely march Thy name and deeds were clothed with immortality. Musicians, troops, banners, applauso and arch Conducted thee unto the high courtality Of fame. With the hosts of this mortality, The eternal great did welcome thee on high. Bright splendor did adorn the wide portality And round it hosts of geniuses did cry: "Welcome, thrice welcome, thou grand reality Of life! Great Liberty is Queen within this sky; Be thou her right hand strength and stand forever nigh." "For thou are one of the eternal great. High elements were poured in thee at birth. Thoug-h almost snuffed by blind remorseless Fate Thou foughtest through the darkness, strife and dearth Unto these thrones of everlasting worth. Now this immortal Fellow^ship sublime That doth sustain and recreate the earth, Commissions thee unto an office prime: 'Upon thy kind from center to its girth, Rain thou thy life, and from repressive time Lead this young nation up to our celestial clime.' " 87 WILSON. Hail, hail to thee, chief officer of state! Prime leader of this forward marching nation! The pillared strength anl fighter against fate And crown upon the earth s supremest station! Hail, hail again, we sing with admiration, For man in thee outweighs the office great And thou art what doth give us domination! Manhood outswings all offices in weight And thrones and crowns are things of small creation. Hail, hail again! The office thou canst mate And greater both will be and lend each other state. Devoid of all spectaculars and noise. Rich gifted with the powers that rule the spheres. Thou art a fullness and splendidly in poise. All ruddy ripe and fronting straight the years. Thou art a Saul among the time's compeers; Upon thy brow "Unsaleable" is wrote; Thy feet tread down the coward's hopes and fears; A clarion voice give Life another note And on thine eyes are visions of the seers; These visions high that Life and Love have smote Then hailest with delight and all to them devote. A few great dreams have flashed out of thy mind. Births of the mind and nurslings of the heart, Great plans and hopes for this lost human kind. To lift, restore, regenerate, impart An impulse to the spirit's godlike chart. Thou dreamest not the dreams of place and power. Nor any blinded selfishness doth bart, But those that Life doth ever disendower And those that Love doth into being start. The greatest of this time destroying hour Are dreamers and the dreams that on high heaven tower. Thou wert the very first that could dispense With friendships and alliances of gold, Rending afar with infinite offense The money power that politics controlled. Erect and strong as any knight of old Down thou didst fling the gauntlet to the kings While vast surprise the world did silent hold And prostrate Right sprang up with boundless springs. It was a sight high heaven on us rolled When thy first chief fought rank corruption's things And drove the dragons back where darkness broods and clings. 88 As once one drove with fiercest indignation Vile traffickers out of the house of prayer And lifted high for love and contemplation ■ Ideals Life upon her heart should bear, So didst thou drive with passion rich and rare The lobbyist that wrote and forced the law. Who can wonder that common men should dare To spurn to hell judges and courts so raw With blasphemies gainst Justice? Who could share Life moral sense and not the lightning draw And like a sword it wield and Life restore to awe? Thou sure are sealed with a magnanimous stamp; The nation's noblest life doth dwell in thee; When others would have struck a soldier's camp And on torn Mexico have marched with glee Thy message was a trumpet like the sea. Did not great Liberty rejoice to hear? Can nations prime continue more to be The plunderers of warring factions near? Shall not the future echo forth thy plea? 5hall not the "case" sustain a peaceful sphere? Shall honor, right and strength not mount on their career? The only great immortals of mankind Are those that stand gainst time's eternal drift. Who sacrifice themselves and virtue find To stem the *flood and strong resistance lift Against chaotic endless move and shift. Defy the strength of selfishness and craft! Scorn to the deep corruption's guilded gift! Draw full the sword on this eternal graft And front the curse with lightning sure and swift! From such the world a cup of life has quaffed And built her highest hopes around the godlike shaft. Time's promises take on prophetic port. The dreams of life are kindling with new hope. Some are ordained and Destiny doth sort To lead the state still higher up the slope. . Art thou so born? There will be deadly cope For still the cosmos and the chaos fight. Who leads these hosts that blind and bleeding grope. Stands for the cause of all men's highest right. Reveres the dreams, speaks as the visions ope, He oft is struck, struck with the lightning white. But out of death is life and out of darkness light. .89 Great Letter's great Republic hopes in thee. The family pride is swelling in each breast. We stand up straight and walk right on to see A scholar on the nation's highest crest, But wisdom soon the pride has dispossessed. Some drop the harp and take the soldier's sword; Some leave the book and mount the rostrum blest; Some lift the pen and golden truth unhoard And through the night some with the angel wrest. Two great Republics upon thee hope have stored And they have faith that time shall never thee unlord. EMERSON. Oh the wise of heart! Oh the wise of mind! Oh the soul and lips most wise! For the wise all through with a wisdom true Is the soul of the world-soul's sighs. An infinite need, an eternal greed Calls the wise man forth that alone can feed. Though the dreamers' dreams gleam in rainbow liglit And bards sing the songs we hail. Though the heroes' deeds are before our sight And prophets the gods unveil, Through it all Life cries for an utterance wise And without it scorns all the high disguise. The eternal past with its prayer-like dirge. The "to be" that forever cries To the travailing earth and the endless urge: "Oh send us a soul most wise!" Both called unto thee and earth, air and sea From her great soul stuff set thy spirit free. Old nature, the nurse, nursed thy heart and mind; Thou wert sevenfold chosen seed; Prophets, books and schools unto thee were kind And the sciences new did feed. The great cosmic soul through thy heart did roll To the thinking man that is being's goal. Thou wert stamped and sealed with a royal seal, Thou couldst see and think and write; The eternal real that the wise reveal Shines forth from thy page of light. 'Tis the royalist sign of a genius fine To utter the thoughts from the spheres divine. 90 Not the poet's song nor the prophet's rage Were the gifts of grace to thee, But the piercing eyes and an utterance wise From the heart of reality. With a solar sight and a cosmic right Thou didst pierce all forms to the spirit white. There is depth of life, there is moral thought, There is quick'ning crystal truth, A rich golden lore that old age can store And words that are life to youth; Thy thoughts could be gehfs in the diadems Of the circling years and their scepter stems. Words with nature's force, thoughts with heaven's power And lines like the thunder bolts, Thou hast wrung like Life from the age and hour And armed with the old earth volts. With resources rife, with dynamic life Doth thy sentence cut like a razor knife. At the portal door of the temple life As a priest of old art thou. With divinest truth that impassioned youth Might bind on his burning brow. Thou dost lift thy cries: "Oh be wise, be wise! It is only thought that can mount the skies!" By the gate of time thou dost sit sublime As one of the wisest few That command the spheres of our solar years When our dreams are found untrue. He is sure a sage that can man engage Who has sounded life and has made her page. In the palace vast of the thoughtful mind Thou sittest in simple state. But the master powers that can rule the hours Oft around thee congregate. Then to hear thee read, with a hungry greed All are reaching forth and their passions feed. Who can read thy best and apprise thy worth He is one of the world's first born. There's a heart and mind of a royal kind That all books and schools can scorn. It is only the great that with thee can mate And thy company keep on the high estate. 91 Tnou dost give the thought and the impulse quick That the mental passions feed. We outgrow thy hour and the spirit's dower Doth reject the page we read. Thou dost sometimes write and the line in sight Is but empty words with a show of light. But thy sifted lore is as chosen wheat, Soul wheat for the future earth; It is scattered wide on the time and tide And lives in each higher b.rth. On the new age brow is a light which thou Didst restore to earth though it disavow. Though the most neglect, there are some elect That delight thy page to read; They are just a few, but erect and true They march to the thinkers' creed; And the thinker's breed is the chosen seed That mounteth the spheres and her courses lead. When the libraries vast have been melted down And one book alone shall be. But a word or line from the most will shine But a page shall be there from thee; For the truth shall stay when the night and day And the worlds of strife shall have passed away. Again I can hear the eternal cries Of the past and great "to be:" "Oh send us the soul of the noblest wise From the heart of eternity! Life doth ever wait at her mortal gate For the man whose thoughts are the laws of state." TO ASTRONOMY. Oh Astronomy! Astronomy! Thou art the Queen of sciences. The universe Is thy boundless empire, and eternity Tliy throne of majesty where thou dost unpurse An infinity of fullness and disburse Thy blessings unto the wide creation. The worlds thou liftest from chaotic curse And round thy everlasting station Spirit-like they congregate. They glorious verse Thy presence, splendor and exaltation Which round the heavens casts sublimest fascination. 92 Thou art the mother of intellectual Being. Thou bringest forth the passioned hour Of intensities in man and time's usurping spell Destroyest in his heart. Thou art the power Whose expansion recreates with vast endower These faculties, and communicates to soul The transcendental elements that tower On high. The mighty amplitudes that roll Through thy uncircled spirit becomes our Temperamental quality, and to the whole Created universe thou dost our spirits pole. Oh mother of this heaven soaring mind! Oh mother of this godlike breasted heart! Oh parent of divine begotten kind Which thee and thine within our beings start! What creations to a shining chart Sublimer than the worlds! What intensities Of passion which thy spirits free impart! What expansion beyond the cumberous densities Of earth! and what idealisms dart Upon us changing time's propensities, As we are race to face with thee and thy immensities! Oh imperial passioned mother of the great! What mean these strange experiences of time? Why are we led to bound this incommensurate Creation? Why are we forced to the prime Battle of being and with elements sublime Contend until the mastery "we gain? Why thus impelled these awful heights to climb? And inspired to understand the strain Thy systems round forever on us chime? Why conflict, conquest, triumph and a plane Where these mechanics vast go circling in the brain? What means this most memorial sacrament To life's intelligence and the significance Of this baptism into the element- Al powers of being? What means this inductance To the vast estates that base the super-sense Abilities? and this domestication Of a child of time in the wide immens- ities of uncircumscribed creation? What means this capacity of immanence And transcendency o'er matter and mutation By the earth-born, mortal, and prisoner to his station? 93 Does it not mean there is a living breath And being shaped upon the Infinite? Something unkindred to space and time and death. And in its element upon the summit Of creation, drinking in most passionate The splendors of intelligence and power And life and beauty that forever flit Across its bosom. Is not the glorious hour Out of the deep and from the heights of spirit? Does it not prophet-like announce our Certain immortality as fruit foretells the flower? Can this being of intensest consciousness? Of length and breadth and height and depth and sweep Beyond all limits that upon us press, Return again into its native deep Of nothingness? Can this heart and mind that keep The universe within its compass drink Annihilaticn"? Will it not rather leap When it dolh come to nature's awful brink. To freedom, power and glory on the steep Of heaven? How impossible to think Creation's crown of life in death can ever sink! Oh Nature, Night and Astronomic Soul! Oh infinite and most eternal power That through mankind and all creations roll The fullness that thy being doth endower! Is this not where ye bring the narrow hour Of our mortality to deep baptize It in eternity whose spirit doth devour The bondage sense that on this mortal lies? Another consciousness comes up to tower Commandingly upon the azure skies. And round the starry spans casts her imperial eyes. Oh Night! Oh Night! Oh most beloved Night! Mother and nurse of being's powers divine! Oh cast thy spells of starry magic might Upon our minds and still more make them thine! Under thy constellations, Oh pour the wine Of living thought upon this thirsty mortal And fellowship our low, unworthy line! Oh lead us through each starry flaming portal And lift us to the height of thy design! Oh clothe us with thy character so courtal And like thy splendors bright, Oh march us on immortal! 94 THE CONSTELLATIONS. Oh Night, Oh Night! Oh glorious, glorious night! Though born and bred and destined for the day Man's spirit leaps with infinite delight When he is caught by thy resistless sway And walks with thee along thy starry way. Mother and queen and goddess most div'ne! A matchless grace doth round thy presence play And atmospheres we mortals drink as wine. Tliou liftest soul and girdest up this clay To stand and think as Time's hand doth untwine The universes vast that round these portals shine. Oh what a sight for lofty contemplation, For intellectual strength, archangel thought. Silence, passion, wonder, admiration, And all the powers of being overfraught! What boundless elements are here together brought To mind destroy and nobler recreate To something like the Infinite! All nought And insignificant is man's estate Of genius ripe conception when he is caught Into the starry heavens to contemplate The vast establishments that round him roll in state. Oh what a sight for admiration's eyes Is high enthroned on everlasting stations! What white intensities within the skies Here radiate their lightning scintillations! What majesties of light! Illuminations Of magnificence! Effulgencies of bright- Est splendor and flashing coruscations Athwart the answering canopy of n'ght! What immensities and vast creations Of solar brightness and incandescence white Are flaming round the dome on all created sight! Spirit of night, I see thy glorious Constellations, thy constellations bright And so supremely poised on their victorious Stations like thrones in prominential sight Upon creation's lofty heightless height. Thy constellations, like world divinities, Are with such striking majesty bedight They rise among the vast infinities That crown the universe with an effulgent light. These spirits seem clothed with sublime sublimities That more than equipoise all mortal magnanimities. 95 These high celestial pageantries, the marches Of these splendors and bright majestic dowers O'er the else unpictorial walls and arches Are like creation dreams marching amid the hours. The procession of these congregated powers Crossing the expanse in their nocturnal Courses, these circles round ther annuar bowers Where all burst forth in bright hibernal Brilliancy or pale as summer heat devours. These mxarches of processional pomp supernal, Tis but the universe along its path eternal. Spirit of Night, I see thy glorious Constellations, a noble consanguinity And ancient fellowship in victorious Exaltation circling the vast infinity Of being. These in their high sublimity Flash recognition to all the kingly race; Or the esemplastic spirit of affinity Flaming through all the hemispheral space Answers each or some enthroned divinity. What incandescent eyes and lightning grace Each has and flaming throws upon each others face? Behold, Behold! Here is the most supremest Reach of beauty in nature's plastic arts, A perfect vision of the life that streamest Within the deep of her deep heart of hearts. The spirit of sublimest beauty starts Into virtue here, and round each presence high Nature casts a fashion that imparts Rich overflowing glories on the sky. The beautifuls on these celestial charts Enchant the strength of Life's poetic eye, Sustain her passioned heart as they poise and swing and fly? Spirit of Night, I love thy glorious Constellations, established on the height Of time and forever more victorious Above the gulf. Ye are a vast delight And what mysterious transcendencies of might Sustain ye on the blank and hungry void As the world's best stability! Thy bright Illuminations could seem to be destroyed By breath but this emblazonry of night, So blessed, so beatific and enjoyed Is more than is the world by firm foundations buoyed. 96 What high and pure sublimities shine here, ', Of mystery, of wonder and of awe, i And of those breathless contemplations dear . j Where time's creations unto their highest draw! . ^ What majesty and sovereignty of law! ) What incarnations of almighty power! I What transformation from the rude raw ' Elements of chaos into this bower ■'. Of firmamental brightness! Life saw 1 The garnished heavens and humbled in that hour Loves more thy solemn dome than noonday's golden tower. ] Spirit of Night, I love thy glorious ] Constellations in that ideal state -i Designed for them ere their victorious j Emergence from the dark contentious gate j Of chaos. Supernity is like a weight i Of glory on them and the immortal i Is burning in their exaltations great. j In the else black concave they make a courtal | Majesty and magnificent estate. j What strength conceives a more emblazoned portal I Around this travailing earth, around her courses mortal? Yonder the Great Bear prowls around the pole; ; There Cassiopeia and her family reign; i Here Taurus with his brilliant clusters roll; Near Orion's belted strength is a plain Triangle of three glorious stars. The strain Of the Harp and Aquila's boundless flight Hear and behold! See! Sagittarius has lain His arrow to the Serpent's heart and white Arcturus lights the maid without a slain. The classic symbols dwindle left and right. The poles are scant of stars, the center crowded bright. j i i ! ' Right through these constellations high, the moon. An earth-born child adopted by the night, Swift circles like a princess of the noon Though with some veil upon her face of light. That soul of splendor across the bright Concave is to the world a warm desire And forevermore a passion and delight. Oh Virgin Soul of pure and palest fire, Sail on thy course and on earth's lifted sight Thy smile still rain the magic of inspire _ And every wax and wane shall make thy presence nigher 97 As long as I shall tread this mortal sphere Oh let me rise unto some tower or hill! Divorce my heart from toil and strife and fear To gaze upon the constellations till This finite void that infinite doth fill. Let the great dreams of my departed prime, The cosmic passions that once with awe did thrill. The ripest thoughts Astronomy can chime, All mingle and upon my spirit spill The contemplations of majesties sublime Eternity hath spread around these doors of time. Oh Night! Oh Night! Oh most beloved Night! Mother and nurse and prophet of the child Designed to rise to being's awful height Upon this base thou hast so glorious piled! Oh Magnanimous! Majestic! Undefiled! This solitude and silence is delight In thy society, and man so day-beguiled Becomes with thee the true cosmopolite In the universe that has upon him smiled. Few, few are dearer than thou unto our sight, Oh most beloved Night! Oh most beloved Night! ART AND OBLIVION. "An artist thou must be Or to oblivion go. A famed futurity None but the artists know. Art maketh life divine And from all death doth free. The art and artists shine To all eternity." "All artists and all art Are going down the deep. Noon's splendors swift depart, Stars fall from heaven's steep. All artists, arts and fame Into oblivion go. The night from whence all came Engulfs them swift or slow.' 98 OH LET THE THINKER THINK. The hour of birth is only when The thinker does awake; When spirit slumb'ring in its den Feels nature's mighty shake. On youth's half-opened, blinded eyes Oh spill some fiery ink! Till on his spirit written lies: "Oh let the thinker think." The world is old and we are young, Time tough and we are weak. Since none return the way they sprung, What then but victory seek? When up against it striking hard The tangled, knotted kink. Sit down, sit down, my fellow pard, And let the thinker think. The world was but a dragon den For old, primeval man. Behold it now! Lift up thy ken! The thinker did it plan. Thy problems soon will be a song. Soul rise and foes will sink If thou wilt join the wiser throng Who let the thinker think. Ideal worlds are infinite And brighter than the morn. They wait upon some mortal wit To bring them to be born. Born they will be though millions blind Their sun-like glories blink; But those reveal them to their kind Who let the thinker think. Oh write it down with golden beams Across the azure height! Oh write it down with silver gleams Across the starry night! Oh write it on the heart and mind. O'er being's birth and brink! Write, write it till the spell doth bind: Oh let the thinker think! 99 SOURCE AND END. Oh, it is wonderful The things that come to hirth Out of this blunderful Chaotic blinded earth! Though pleasure is the end Of senses in the dung, Yet something doth befriend And higher things are sprung. Behold the chaos strife! Far worser worlds might be From elements so rife And stormy as the sea. But self unto the self Is brought by strife and wrong, Prom loss he findeth wealth And from his sorrow song. Out of the body, soul; Out of the senses, love; Out of the strife a pole To guide us far above. This being like a flower Doth burst with glory bright. Doth burst with heaven's dower And climbeth up the height. Far, far above the skies. On, on they pass from hence! How godlike do they rise Who spring out of the sense? Oh, it is wonderful The things that come to birth Out of this blunderful Chaotic blinded earth! A FLOWER. A blossom burst at dewy morn And died before the night. A beast that did all beauty scorn Fierce trampled out its light. But not before a passerby Did on its beauty feed The passion of a poet's eye, The hunger of his greed. 100 He turned the passioned rainbow light And beauty most divine To words and images as bright As love could see or sign. Then, then he flung them to the wind, To wind and earth and sky; Now up and down before mankinl They live and cannot die. A PREMONITION. Good-bye! My Dear. Good-bye! The words they must be said. Though burdened with a sign And fears as from the dead. A month must separate, But Oh what life and death, Sad change and direful fate Oft Cometh in a breath! Wide lands between us are, Between us rolls the sea, But something wider far Divides my soul from thee. A something, something dark Doth hover round my mind; A something bears my bark Where all is black and blind. It is a sad farewell That tears us now apart; These words sound like a knell. And break, they break my heart. Life's iron courses run. The hot tears scald my eye; Shall thou greet my return? Good-bye! My Dear. Good-bye! 101 REJECTED. "Wilt thou be mine. Oh maiden heart! Be mine and mate with me! I've vast estates and all will part In dowry unto thee. Behold the ocean's purple deep! It whispers, sings and smiles; For me and mine it secret keeps Ten thousand golden isles. These flying ships with purple wings Unto us 'Welcome' hail. Across the sea a message rings For me and mine to sail. There mountains, rivers, cities, plains, Have palaces like snow; All portals ope with singing strains For me and mine to go. There nobles Of an ancient race. Princesses pure and sweet, And mighty peoples virtue grace Both me and mine will greet. There silver, golden, purple gowns. Bright jewels rich and rare, And flower-like jewels as of crowns Both I and mine shall wear. From this far seeing mountain peak Behold a king's estate! All, all I give; Oh, maiden speak! Be mine and with me mate!" *'0h poet, king, soldier and priest, I've dreamed and dreamed of thee; Bui in the dream another dream Is dearer far to me. Hadst thou ten thousand times the wealth Of kings the most divine, And gavest less than all thyself I'd be no mate of thine." 102 MAMA'S ANSWER. "Oh Mama! Where is Papa? I've called and called again; But echo answers: "ha ha!" And mocks my eager ken. Down in the cellar shaded I've hunted and upstair, And round the lawn embraidcd \ With flowers, and everywhere. i Mid garden things the greenest j And mid the vines so sweet, j In places best and meanest, - 1 But Papa cannot greet. ' In and out and all around — Mama! Why do you smile? j You know where Papa can be found, I And knew it all the while.' I 1 "Where is your Papa, Dearest? ' You fancy I must know. i What in my face appearest ; To whisper secrets so? i I know where is your Papa; ; He never was more near. j Though echo answers "ha ha!" i Your voice is in his ear, I He's present here and smiling ' And warm and sweet and glad, , Although perhaps beguiling, ] Your Mama seems so bad. \ His soul aloud is singing ; With music^s soft repeat, Its happy waves are springing ; Against thy soul to beat. ! His eyes with joy beholden j His best of earthly things, j His arms wait to enfolden ] Whene'er she toward him springs. \ He's close beside and glowing ; To give and take thy bliss, j Toward thee his all is flowing j And waiting for thy kiss." \ "Why Mama! Are you dreaming ' ; To talk in such a style? I never heard such streaming ; Or saw you so beguile. \ 103 You say my Papa's near me And listens to my cry; He ne'er before did hear me And did not quick reply. Were Papa's eyes soft flashing And arms extended wide How soon I would be dashing To in his bosom hide. But Mama! Tell your story! I see it in your eyes; I see some shining glory Is dancing with surprise." "Where is your Papa, Dearest? If you would wish such lore Come to my heart the nearest The mother heart has bore. Oh arms, Oh arms enf olden! Enfold, enfold her tight! A treasure more than golden Oh clasp her with thy might! Oh cradle arms parental! The giant strength ye loan With passion strong but gentle. Oh hold her as your own! Still dearer, love, and dearer, The distance must be less! Still nearer, child, and nearer Still closer on me press! Still on my bosom deeper! Still farther farther in! Still more. Oh draw and keep her Than she before has been! Oh body break between us! Oh flesh, dissolve away! Oh mortal veils that screen us, Divide, divide I pray! Open, Oh spirits' portal! Oh hearts together flow! Oh essence most immortal. Grow, grow together, grow! Oh life's divinest passion, Oh love with thy desire. This maid in heaven's fashion Draw nigher, nigher, nigher! 104 My being now is burning Wtih fervors like the sun, This, this is all my yearning. One, one, forever one! And now from these embraces, Come, tell me what you've found! 'Liove,' and 'in love,' are places Where royal truths abound." "Oh Mama! What a beating Was in that deep embrace. Repeating and repeating Upon my heart and face! Something in your breast divine Struck like a hammer stroke, Right here upon this heart of mine It seemed it almost broke. Like music with its measure I felt it come and go, I felt it with a pleasure And held its rich bestow. Joy, hope and thine own yearning Seemed then to flood my soul; Now through my being burning I feel life onward roll. Oh Mama! I am guessing The story thou canst part; Thy eyes, they are confessing That Papa is thy heart." "Yes! That is your Papa, Dearest. He entered in my heart, ^nd this which there appearest Is all his rich impart. His thinking and his feeling. His life and love and might Are in me and unsealing A sweetness past delight. The passion and the pleasure. The fiery, fervent glow, The joy and vital treasure Of heaven's best bestow. Are in his soul enshrinest, And he within my heart, And in them both divinest, Oh beloved child thou art!" 10'5 NATURE HELPS. The Wind saw Strength and Beauty fair And laughed in wildest glee. "I'll wed them one, true one I swear." And on them bounded free. Though firm he stood he muttered hard: "It blows a perfect gale. I fear for you, my gentle pard; You carry too much sail." "Oh don't mind me! I have no fear; The sail clings to the mast. Your arm so swift and strong and near Will hold me safe and fast." And now a ship is on the sea With noble mast and sail, And precious cargos with them be As drives the gentle gale. NATURE'S BOUQUET. Old Nature smiled and sent to me A rare bouquet of flowers. She knew I loved the beautiful, But bound in courses dutiful. Still loved her though so sootyful I battled with the hours. When I came in and saw the sight I stood in blank surprise. Something within the deep in me, A higher soul asleep in me With sudden start did leap in me Like visions on the eyes. Quick down I sat with hungry greed Before the banquet feast. I drank the most divine in life; It seemed the very vine of life Was crunching out the wine of life Unto a poet priest. The green was gladdest, growing green, The white was heaven's white, The red, purple and golden hues. Pinks, lavenders and olden blues, All vital with unfolden dews Did quicken with delight. 106 The fragile, fair and fondest forms Seemed summer elfins nigh; And soon the fairies dancing gay, With backward, sideward prancing gay, And singing, smiling, glancing gay, Waltzed right across my eye. But Oh, the fragrance, fragrance sweet! It seemed the breath of life. I passed beyond the portal dreams, Beheld the high, immortal dreams, Lived in majestic, courtal dreams With passions rich and rife. With magic soon the flowers divine Took on a rarer grace. The dream of all the dreams of life Eclipsed all rainbow gleams of life With smiles that were the creams of life Stood with me face to face. And then I gathered up the flowers That had my spirit blest; And with a smile, a touch, a bliss. No lover thinks too much amiss. And crimsoned with just such a kiss I pinned them on her breast. THE DANDELION. In spring, there rises up A spirit green and glad. Nature giveth him to sup The wines that cure the sad, The foaming, sparkling, brimming cup That sends him on as mad. On, on along the way Where buds and blossoms burst, Where vital perfumes play And flowers for beauty thirst, I go dancing, dancing and as gay As song with music versed. Then the Mother says to me: "There is the dandelion. Could you picture what I see. Put in form the grace divine, 107 Tlie passion feel and free With images that shine, A royal poet thou wouldst be, A joy to me and mine." Dandelion, Oh Dandelion That doth from earth awake! Warming airs are like a wine And doth thy trances break. The breath of spring is life divine That life doth drunken make. It yet is early spring. The vines are scarcely green, The blossoms hardly wing, The gardens yet are lean. But if the sun his life should run Then thou art sudden seen. Thou springest out of earth As by a magic feat; A golden, golden birth That Nature loves to greet; Both heaven and earth with drunken mirth Into thy bosom beat. Soon thou art everywhere In field and street and lawn. Drinking deep the vital air That fills the dewy dawn. And op'ning bare the sun to snare And closing if withdrawn. A host of circles bright, More yellow than our gold, Op'ning in our very sight A soul that doth unfold Joy, beauty, pleasure and delight To natures young and old. Ten thousand seem to shine Wherever we may go. We forget the earthy tine And when sight is leveled low A sheet of golden light divine Upon the grass ye throw. 108 Thy sire was sure the sun; Could such a golden round, Such spirits golden run, Such golden lances bound, Unless in him they first begun Before they burst the ground? Thy mother is the ea^^th; Thou art of her a part; Her springtime mother mirth Is flowing in thy heart; She more' rejoices in thy birth Than in our mine and mart. Thy sisters are the flowers That grace the tangled wild Violets in their sheltered bowers, Rich pansies sun-beguiled, Brigxi-L buttercup on slender stalks And daffodillies mild. Thy playmates are the winds, The birds and honey bee, The butterfly that finds Her drunken way to thee. Bright buzzing flies and winged kinds Of creatures young and free. Oh Spring, divinest Spring! Life panteth with desire! The fountains thou dost fling Are mounting high and higher And dreaming as upon the wing Where fed with purest fire. Dandelion, Oh Dandelion, Her life within thee streams! Earth is drunken with a wine. Her passion glowing gleams; How could around ye fail to shine The images of . dreams? Old Nature in her sport Went down the way of kings; All the tinsel gold of court All the purple plush of things, 'Twas just a royal wort And out her hands she flings. Ye, ye are jewels of the sort That to her breast she brings. 109 The little martinet, Oh. see him in parade! Your golden buttons set The man out of his grade His fringy epaulette And heavy corded braid Are only seen when we forget How ye are first arrayed. The peacocks of the town. They met a simple lass; She wore a flow'ry crown And robe spun out of grass Buttoned round and up and down She did them all surpass. The fashioned peacocks of renown With envy cried! "Alas!" Life's little fairy elves That are untouched by sin, With sly thoughts to themselves Hold ye beneath the chin, If butter patties shine, then delves The yellow metal in. The elder children blest With happy fancies roam, Adorn the head and breast Like kings and queens at home; So po\iring dust upon the lust Of every golden Nome. Young Strength and Beauty fair ..ent down thy bordered lane Golden was the pavement there ' Before them and in train, They were a royal, royal pair With riches and domain. Oh common wayside weed! Oh birth that many scorn! The Mother and her breed. See magic in ye born, And from thy hearts doth something start That giveth grace to morn. 110 Down, down into thy heart Soul sinketh out of time; Lost, lost, unto the mart And found in life sublime That from the center soul doth start Forever to its prime. Down, down out of the world From loss and strife and stain, Out of the madness hurled By selfishness insane. Into the dreams divine and pearled That Love builds for her reign. Down, down in thee I sink And give myself to dreams; The thinker free can think Life other than it seems And for a moment drink divine The vision pure that streams. Down, down into thy life! Down, down into thy soul! Thy spirits rich and rife Doth through and through me roll And for an hour I round the course To being's starry goal. But Oh how soon, how soon Decay doth on ye grow! Your golden robes of noon Are changed to white as snow And lighter than a gauze festoon And winged hence ye go. Then just a puff of wind. Without a fear or sigh. The earth ye leave behind And sail the azure sky. Unto your course and end resigned. Unlike to us who die. Sail, sail the azure deep! Wing, wing ye through the sky! On, onward ever sweep! High, higher still on high! Your stainless courses onward keep, Unlike to us who die. Ill THE IDEALS. Ideals, dreams and hopes and visions, Spirits of divinest passions, Sunlike forms that pour derisions On the world and all its fashions! ♦ From our youth and fires immortal Into being ever springing; Through the spirit's open portal Up to heaven ye go singing. There within the azure splendors, Soaring, circling, poised and glowing, With most glorious train attenders. On celestial courses going; Ye outshine the globes so solar; Ye are clothed in pure delightness; Like the gods and spirits polar Shining in eternal brightness. Dowered, sceptered, throned, immortal. Leading genius on its courses. Kingly, noble, honored, courtal. Feeding fire and fiaming forces; Dwelling on the steep of heaven. What a beauty on your faces! Scatheless by the stormy levin, Ye are godlike in your graces. Light and truth and power and passion Ye are ever on us flinging; Life is clothed in rainbow fashion And to heaven goes winging, winging. As the soundings of thy measure Fall upon the dreamer panting, Swift upon the wings of pleasure Soul goes soaring, chanting, chanting. But Oh, dreams divine and glorious In thy being, form and features, Signed by Fate to be victorious O'er the earth and all its creatures, Ye like all are frail and mortal; Naught escapes the ancient blighting; Ye and all things high and courtal Fall before this deadly fighting. 112 This vast universe so heightless Is eternal down descending. Curse almighty, sure and sightless All things down are ever bending. For an "uplift" all are crying; O'er a "fall" each heart is weeping; Few, how few are upward trying! What a host are downward sweeping! Earth and man and ideals purest. All are in one awful tangle. Strife alone the strife endurest. All each other slay and mangle. Being with impassioned forces Is forever downward drifting; There the starry, sunlike courses, Where the powers for upward lifting? Sense doth mother all the nations; Sex corrupteth every creature; Time and Life in all their stations Stamps it dark on every feature. Nature's ripest, red dynamic With a nether fire is glowing, And the torrent flood organic. Blasting hears in all its flowing. Want is like a power supremest Breeding greed and strife eternal. Earth and all mankind oft seemest Like a war of brutes infernal. "Here is earth, it is for plunder. Tear the life out of the masses!" This the creed. Oh who can wonder At the wars among the classes? And ye dreams, ideals and visions How could ye endure the battle When the curse pours such derision On ye as on worthless cattle? Time is but blaspheming revels Gainst the ideals in their passions. Life lets loose her insane devils Gainst the dreams in godlike fashions. 113 Out of earth's old heart of motions Comes the driving and impulses. What are poets, dreams, devotions To the strife that life convulses? Dreams the greatest, gods the highest Down the night are hurled and driven. Life is lost. The human sighest Through the night so lightning riven. Gifted souls w^hich ye created, Priests and poets famed in magic, For a moment high are mated. Then lament divorce so tragic. When Life's vision has departed Friends and toil can hardly strengthen. Soul and song are broken hearted When these shadov^s round us lengthen. Gainst this flesh and blood entailment, Gainst time's false seducing sirens. Gainst all struggle, toil and ailment. Gainst the death that life environs, Hov^ could ye but fade and vanish, Swift depart or slowly perish? Strange, Oh strange that we should banish Those whom life should love and cherish! First a stain from touch contagious; Then a shadow on the glory; Then a weight like heavy ages; Then the "fall" so famed in story; Then the brutal, blinded scorning; Then the trampling on your being; Then the beauty and adorning Out of life forever fleeing. On the old world goes on swinging. Tangled in the ancient curses; Other races come on singing With small change the older verses. Ideals, dreams and hopes and visions, Out of youth the morning urges; But old Life and Time's derisions Change the strain to endless dirges 114 MY PIECE OF LIFE. Oh Parent of this populated earth! Oh Parent of these mighty generations That clothe the globe and this exalted birth That climbs and crowns with majesty the stations! Oh Parent of those noble recreations Of supreme delight that Virtue prophesies Out of the mind and glorious exaltations That in the breast of poet souls arise! Oh Parent of divinest inspirations That oft beholds the ideal in the skies Far, far beyond the earth and all her songs and sighs. Parental Life! Wide, wide maternal Heart! Great Mother of this fire and flaming soul, Before from hence this phantom shall depart Why should I not with honesty out-roll The living thoughts man pays to thee in toll? Great Spirit that creates and uncreates. And evermore doth blind or wisely pole Revolving worlds and men unto their fates, The spirit thinks, the passions have no goal, All powers within jo:n being's vast debates And living thought and truth eternal silence hates. Stand up Oh Life! Pause on thy rapid course! Gather thyself and arm thee for debate! Thou broughtest forth from some mysterious source, Gave gifts divine, passions that palpitate, And sighted soul unto its ideal state. I've not been great; a common shoot and root Of life that seems the object of thy hate, Till thou dost seem a blind infernal brute; So stand thee up as I to thee relate The case. I challenge, I dare thee to refute, To hear and answer right and view the worthless fruit. Why are we born? Why are we ever born? What justifying purpose bids man rise? The long unanswering silences have torn Both heart and mind with most unlanguaged sighs. We question and strong pinioned thought oft flies Plumb up and down the noon and deep of night And scans the far horizons for replies, But never caught a word to ear or sight. Why are we born? What i,s it that denies A confirmation of this god-like height, A vision that would guide the wanderer to the light? 115 Why is this life, this glowing fire and force, Creating mind and heaven soaring soul Brought from the deep and flung along a course As blinded as the sensual floods that roll? God-like and yet thrice-blinded fate doth pole Us' on as blind as any beast of earth. How many a mighty spirit pays the toll Of bleeding thought, and in its sad unmirth Cries for a God, a providence and goal! Why is the soul, the best that comes to birth, The very thing that seems the least of care and worth? "Thou wert born for an immortality. The earth is but thy cradle and thy school. In creation spirit is reality And matter though like sun-bright worlds the tool. Life is thy nurse, and time is but the footstool To eternity. These constellations Are scepterless waiting the souls to rule And guide the spirit of their recreations. Stand up and think! Sight often doth befool! High heaven and her golden inspirations Have prophesied for man eternal destinations." 'Thou wert born for an immortality. Some infinite, eternal sparks are guests Within thee. The earth is thy portality To the wide universe that forever breasts Thee round. These dark and rough unfeathered nests Where thou wert hatched, and sharper thorns to bleed Thee on the path of sense and self's behests. Are not all these my efforts kind to breed A race divine for heaven's highest crests? The infinite, eternal and all need Of this vast universe for the immortals plead." "Thou wert born for an immortality. Canst thou deem that that which wills and thinks, That that which glows with glorious reality Before eternity and all earth shrinks To nothingness as man's vast spirit drinks The sense of his own being, canst thou deem That such a nature down forever sinks When flesh is plunged in death's cold icy stream? Can this transcendency of life that links Thee unto God be locked up in a dream? In that great hour shall death stand up supreme And the great soul of man descend the gulf extreme?" 116 Thou preachest a high philosophy, Oh Life! But no philosophy without the fact Can stay the questions which the endless strife Cuts into man's quick spirit. When we are backed Against the wall of being and are cracked In manhood's strength, then anguish maketh right The utterance thy velvet hours have lacked. When compassed round, beaten by stormy night And soul itself is most insanely hacked Oh tear away restraint and let the sprite In straight, unvarnished truth unvarnished life recite! Why are men "born just like the lower kind? Perhaps we all, all but the barest few, Are pleasure born, and by the senses blind. Just like the brutes, plain, common brutes come through The gates of life. No virtue high and true, No purpose kind, redemption or foresight, Motives, prayers, desires, or passions that renew Man's offspring from the old, ancestral blight Comes to the hour the better to endue. Just nature, and nature's undivinest right Draws soul out of the deep and flings it to the light. How could the elements of such a birth Be other than the most unbalanced kind? The old, old evolutions of the earth Were sensuous born and deaf and dumb and blind. From such a source how can we dream to find The round ideal? Do not impulsions strong Drive unto death the spirit flesh entwined? Behold the earth! But contemplate the throng! Is not man driven, torn, tortured, undivined? Is he not wronged far more than he does wrong, And keyed unto a dirge instead of climbing song? Thus was I born; unbalanced as a boy; Object of powers that lifted, swept and thrilled; Oft drunken with the crimson life and joy With which my frame was cloyed and overfilled. I can remember; my spirit oft was stilled By nature with her lightning, winds and thunder; And often dreams whose magic powers o'er spilled Did wake surprise, joy, strength and awe and wonder. Drunken, insane, delirious and unwilled As any birth above or round or under I played at nature's door amid the strife and plunder. 117 Scon, soon to toil my spirit swift was borne To teach my hand to feed my mouth with bread. I was yoked up, of liberty full shorn, And harness-bound to labor's load of lead. But youth is blind; the sightless seeing head Is blinded by its passions of delight. I scorned the load. My spirit's wings oft shed The customs, necessity and blight And from far founts my flaming fervors fed. Need mapped my course. There was no wise foresight. The least resisting way seemed heaven's chosen right. Had nature then been of the wiser kind And at my birth but consecrated me A priest within the temple of the mind, The books and lore of man's maturity Had waked and fed and set my spirit free. Alas! Alas! The world's divmest thing, A book of life, dreams, lore and liberty With vital powers to set the soul on wing Ne'er mothers those mothered in poverty. Did then some intellectual parent bring High spirit fires to mine how instant did I spring? Thus up I grew, and when at length a man I woke. Spirit was born. Thoughts as lightning bright Flashed through me. Soul with a vast surprise did scan All souls and worlds and gods and day and night. Volcanic passions and incandescent white My being heaved and plowed down to the base. Earthquake battles of contentious wrong and right Hurled man and globe out of their former place And others brought of vaster scope and might. I heard a voice from out of time and space; "Stand up, stand up. Oh Soul, and this creation face!" When to myself, the world, and God I woke I felt the th'rst of knowledge. A vast desire To think and know into my being broke. The door was closed. A providence did sire The way to school and sent me with inspire. When others leave I hastened there to learn And feel the touch of that contagious fire All thinking souls into each other burn. The first three years were drudgeries that tire. And often did I spit upon and spurn The languages and lore that from the living turn. 118 But at the university was change. The living spirit there was fully born. Some mighty soul, o'er shadowing and strange, Reached down in me, and like a giant unshorn Jerked up to life the "thinker." I was torn By the growing consciousness and glorious might Of living thought, and life was like the morn As mind rose up the dewy splenlored height. I loved to read; books were delight and scorn; To think was joy; dreams flashed upon my sight; And splendors like the sun clothed all the world in light. Oh bright, poetic and most memorial days When I had time and friendship for great books! Ye come across my now toil weary ways As o'er dead fields the crystal singing brooks. 'Twas there I learned to know and love the looks Of genius, for his eternity of thought Sank into me life's sharpest grappling hooks And bound as one who had each other sought. The world of man from those sequestered nooks Invited, smiled, transfigured, armed and taught The young cosmopolite for whom all things are wrought. 'Twas there my young philosophies were formed. Man was the birth and heir of immortality. The golden sun and stars that round him swarmed Gave splendor to the earth portality. Inviting him to the high courtality Of the universe. A Father re:'gned Supreme, and made this frail mortality A celestial birth ages and worlds refrained. The powers and laws that penetrate reality Were servants mere, held, impulsed or restrained As morals justified and spirit-ends were gained. 'Twas there, but not from there, I was immersed Into the moral, life's elemental life. The poles that swing the universe unpursed Their essence in me, and the colossal- strife Was like a chaos with vast destructions rife. At times I was wrapped round with solid night, Then split in twain by heaven's lightning knife. The thunders with omnipotential might Their curses rolled and damned me as the very fief Of hell. The infinite, eternal blight Athwart creation's face did wrap my being tight. 119 Few, few of all the world have dreamed the dreams Of that conviction, the ruthless penetrations Of that law, the reactions of those extremes, The effulgencies that burst, and annihilations Of all hopes before those thrice pure visitations. Oh the grief, the river-floods of crimson tears, Unlanguaged grief and insane desperations Before the slaughterings and black gigantic fears That fall on pride while mounting up the stations! The majesties of youth's ambitious spheres And my ambitious soul went plunging down the years. 'Twas then and there the man designed to be, "Which Reason struck as her most glorious plan. In conflict joined with battle to be free From ths dark yoked and brute engendered man Of the evolutions' first primeval clan. There then began the struggles of that strife That swelled the soul with most expansive span And filled the spheres with elements so rife, A spirit wise who did the conflict scan Could copy down the epic songs of life, ThQ epics born and bred on suffering's keenest knife. Eternity and this va^st universe Were born within and round this finite mind, The passions, thoughts and conflicts great did nurse The spirit to the summit of its kind. The infinites of hope and fear did wind Their mighty powers on my unbalanced sprite And drove me fast, impulsive, fierce and blind. The man within that answers to the right. Entangled, struck, defeated, plundered, twined In this old curse resistless in its might. Battled its blinded way through life's chaotic night. Oft, oft I sat and wept youth's salted tears And often thought till thought and brain did ache And often scanned the high celestial spheres For some kind God who through the hour would break And my great need upon his glory take. I prayed in tears; I pleaded with a fast; My meat and drink most gladly did forsake; With vast desire upon the earth was cast; Prayers, pains and groans forth from my soul did break; All hopes and dreams were struck by blight and blast And only strength could face the foes around me massed. 120 1 lived, but life was just a living death, And torn and torn with deadly spirit wounds, A Hamlet blind with low blaspheming breath, I traveled round and round and round the rounds Of uncongenial toil. My thoughts were hounds, Like famished brutes of furious desire Leaping on me with mad ferocious bounds And tearing with the blindness of their ire. I cursed all things in low blaspheming sounds; I felt some strange and pure infernal fire That tortured heart and mind and mocked them when they tire. I lived, but life was just a living death As one by one life's great ambitions died While I watched o'er their last convulsive breath. The books for which my back was oft denied Were all nailed up and tne hungry scholar cried As if his heart was pierced with a knife. The orator of passion, power and pride Was trampled down by the eternal strife. The thinker bold, poet and dreamer wide Gave up their hopes, the mighty hopes of life And sunk forever down with tears and anguish rife. I lived, but life was just a living death. My two great dreams were torn out of my soul. A queenly bride that drew high heaven's breath And like an incarnation of the goal That lifteth man and doth his spirit pole — My heart! My heart! It pierces like a pain As memories pure of her upon me roll! The prophet high, the king of life's domain, The spirit pure that doth the earth repole And maps thB course for her far sweeping train, What anguish tore my soul when we were torn in twain! In slow, hard grind I rounded out tne years And often then to ease the endless pain, Led by some singer of the sceptered spheres I would translate the workings of my brain Into a song and bind the infant strain Upon my heart as a medicinal leaf; As sweet as is the soft and summer rain, As deep as is the rest of solaced grief. As glad as is the hope the guilty gain, As rich as is the gathered harvest sheaf, So music lent my life a little respite brief. 125 Time passed. At length I felt a sudden shock And stood aghast, pale, fixed and terrified. For there great Death, dismantled of his frock. Had come unseen and drew up to my side. He handed me his message. I was tied A moment with paralysis. He bowed And went. I read the word. I was denied Much longer days. Soon aches and pains did crowd Into my frame and on my strength did ride. The solemn truth, deep through my spirit plowed: "A few more days of life and then the midnight shroud. I gathered up the songs that life had wrung Out of my heart and give them to the press. But back on me as scorn and offal flung They came, yet though in unpcssessing dress Some of those scngs my spirit still can bless. Two other bcoks I sent into the v/orld. But one, not one did welcome them. The stress And strain cf life the singer round has hurled And feed the heart sad disappointment's mess 1 turned me from great Letters' doors impearled. * Sang from and to myself the songs that in me swirled. Fragments! Fragments! Mere fragmentary verse! Just lines and words, mere syllables and sounds Of life and time entangled in the curse, And of myself, strangest of all compounds, Is all that I can write. Great power surrounds My spirit and repressive circumstance Strangles and blinds the song that often bounds Unto the height where solar splendors dance. I see and feel. Some spirit life expounds. I follow on as drunken with entrance. But poverty beholds and pricks back with her lance. Oh Poverty, Oh Poverty! Thou drudge To Life, and great brute mother to the earth! Unto the most thou dost a supper grudge While wanton Life dies rioting in mirth. Oh many and many a high celestial birth Strangled hast thou! If thou dost spare the cries And nourishest a transcendental worth Thou art too blind to see the shining eyes. Give me some time! Across this blighted dearth A mighty train of flaming splendor flies, For just a mouth of bread the vision pales and dies. 126 Thus am I driven round and round and round, Just like a blind and heartless old mill horse. The iron nurse has in her harness bound And with necessity, her whip, doth force Around and round the endless, endless course. Unto my heart and mind the seasons feed An anguish like the anguish of remorse. Fierce rebellions of my spirit daily bleed The little life and leave nie like a corse. All that I am, can dream of man and deed Is bartered for the price of my small human need. There's scores of songs within me yet^ linsung. Do they not come and to my spirit sing? Why is my harp so broken and unstrung To man's great songs of mighty sweep and swing When his great soul soars on archangel wing? I have not time. The mighty brain storm dies Before the strains the muses to me sing Can be translated, and sighs and sighs and sighs Upon the loss like tears and flowers I fling. But what are songs? What are our travailing cries? Life mocks the broken heart and scorns the bleeding eyes. I'm now a piece of the eternal drift; I've no theologies, philosophies or dreams; A worthless wreck the tides a moment lift As sweeping down Niagara's roaring streams; I've no ideals whose flaming splendor gleams And doth redeem to nobleness the hours; No passions, hopes, delights or loves or themes To feed their life unto my hungry powers; No god or heaven or providence now seems Around man's life that Life with greed devours; I merely watch the world from observation's towers. There's nothing now before me but the "If,' The great "Perhaps," the vast interrogation, The pause, silence and emphasis on the cliff Of being as the spirit's contemplation Stands up to scan this infinite creation. The earth and man and all that live and die, The splendors of night's flaming congregation, The golden sun and solar passions high, Eternity and blank annihilation. Now write upon the dark'ning western sky A vast interrogation of "what?" and "where?" and "why?" 127 The universe is now a vast machine Of infinite, eternal, unknown power; Gigantic, resistless, merciless and lean It giveth all a rich prophetic dower And at their best doth turn and them devour. She pledges vast but secretly doth bind Worlds, man and beast within the iron hour. I hear the wheels; the belts around me wind And draw me down the hopper from my tower; I'm caught and crushed, crushed by the monster blind. But dying murmuring cry: "Grind on, damn, damn you, grind r' The worlds and all that fills the spacious girth No more inspires and no more disappoints. High heaven's gods of transcendental worth. Experience, not thoug'ht, now disanoints. Soul from all ends the mighty strife disjoints And shoves her up against resistless fate. My frame is worn; my eyes, life's chief est joyance. Are failing fast, and on me is the weight No faith can stay by lending hope and buoyance. I'm broken down, but dare to stand up straight - And front the deadly facts, unblind of scorn or hate. And now. Oh Life! A silence would me seal If such a course had been to me alone. Unto thy fame the trumpets I would peal If to my kind a better course were known; But I have heard the everlasting moan Of this mankind that doth thy name impeach; Great multitudes are into being thrown And fill the world with my upbraiding speech. Oh mighty Life! Why is it thou hast shown To the world's hope these hopes of vastest reach, And at the last him wreck on this soul wrecking beach? Oh Life, Oh Life, Oh most prolific Life! ' Why dost thou bring such numbers from the deep? Why is the world an everlasting strife And this humanity flung with a sweep And seeming curse as scrap unto the heap? Why is there such a prophecy on birth And such a blast upon the course we keep? Such hopes of immortality to earth And such an end as all the ages weep? The generations, faith, hope and strength and mirth, The World, and Time and Thee from center blast to girth. 128 I see him there in yon far distant wild Like Jacob locked and wrestling with a foe That mocks his elemental strength and smiles In scorn on mortal's most impassioned glow. Planted, twisted, torn, tugging and bending low And straining to the point where nature breaks, * His spirit strains in streams of sweat did flow And every bone and nerve in being aches. Blinded he fights; reserves of strength all go; Night on him falls; the victor off him shakes; A faint unconscious mass, a moment's rest he takes. 'Twas well, for hope I was a priest ordained In heart and mind to preach the glorious creed That out of this humanity profaned The sons of God for heaven's height can breed. Ambition high as life did ever feed My spirit fired to be a prophet real And out of earth, out of this murderous greed, To be and bring the man and his ideal. The prophet is the summit of life's need; Unselfishness is heaven's highest seal; And man and life and time to the divine should kneel. When forth I went I went as thrice insane. Religion was like a fervor of inspire; Like it the strength of my ambitious brain Though in disguise of heaven's rich attire; Beneath them both the fundamental fire Of sense, with fierce and passionate desire. Heaven, earth and hell, in quarters tight Fed into me the essence of their ire. Within the three for life and death did fight Until the frame the conflict did out-tire. And oft I felt the slumbers of the night Were dearer to my heart than morning strength and light. To give to strength, to promise, grace and hope But one more chance I went into the west. Oh sure, most sure salvation's doors would ope And some redemption from high heaven's crest Would nature break and give deliverance blest. If not: "I'll leave the ministry and find A piece of land and there my failures rest As I till it like a spirit lost and blind." I wandered far, but changes more oppressed. I preached and thought. New tensions did me wmd. Two elements in strife my narrow breast did bind. 121 I see myself as when I then did preach. Some universal spirit took possession, Stood me aside and a river rolling speech Came as a storm, a rainbow or procession Upon the guilt, the calling or confession. Exalted passion, elemental thought And eloquence presided o'er the session. Till all my powers were with contagion caught And hoped and hoped for some divine redression Prom those high thrones the resurrection bought And promised free to man if with repentance sought. Vain, vain. Oh vain! Vain was the vast desire To recreate nature's corrupted heart. To purge or pen the nether kindled fire The ages long to soul and body bart! Vain, vain were all the elemental part- ings of an elemental soul to find The thrones divine on life's prophetic chart! High heaven's gods were deaf and dumb and blind, And prayer was scorned as love is by the mart . Deep cried to deep, the kindred to its kind, But on old nature swept and life was curse entwined. *I sought the west in hope or else to farin; What providence, what chance or tragic fate, Or what malignant spirit did me charm Again unto the city, unto a state Where lawlessness threw wide an open gate? Environment must tell. Noctious atmospheres Will poison life and death regenerate. My higher powers battled like kingly peers; All forces low sprang up new and elate; Darkness, temptation, Gethsemane and fears. And the hell-born brutal strife of the eternal years! Broken and bowed, driven and swept and torn. Bleeding and bare unto my spirit's core. The lightning thoughts that from soul-strife are born My high theologies in madness tore And turned to facts, asking the dreams of yore; "What is this life? Does any really care? Is there a 'Father' in the storms that roar? Does providence o'er fate the sceptre bear? Is man worth aught? Is this celestial lore On great imagination but a snare?" The vast debates of strife pierced life unto her lair. 122 Then the splendors of firmamental brightness Inviting soul forth to the universe Were swift eclipsed, and black, primeval nightness Rose up to heaven and hung there like a curse. Noble ideals eternity did nurse Fell from on high like meteors dying bright Into the gulf that doth forever merse. Fears, gigantic fears, black, ebony forms of night, Gathered around and threatened worse and worse. Lost, blind, alone, a beaten, branded sprite, I struggled bleeding on cursing the growing blight. Oh Life, Oh Life, why hast thou such a scale Beyond the bounds our boldest spirit dreams? Great visions dark the granite breasted quail And torture forth the elemental screams As down we go to thy far, far extremes. Thou forest forth the powers that did restrain, Unsealed the storms, the night and lightning streams And God-forsaken did torture heart and brain On those machines with which thy passion teems. Oh infinite, most infinite the pain When moral intellect, fear, sense and ruin reign! How near, how near was I to suicide! I tremble now whene'er on it I think. Despair, remorse, my spirit then did ride And drove me on the edges of that brink From which few plunge but all at last must sink. Blinded most blind, impelled, resolved, restrained, For courage failed, or cowardice did shrink And backward turned. The curse my soul detained To drain the dregs that few have strength to drink. Night fiercer grew; storms, floods and lightning rained; Fear, shame, strife and remorse after me raving trained. Oft came the fear, the worst birth of old sin, The foulest of abortion breeds, insanity! My passions vast, like nature's fires within, Would drive and drive like demons of profanity Until I feared the last curse of humanity; I feared the curse would reason sudden hurl And sweep me as a rag and scrap of vanity Through chaos and the storms that in her whirl. My head within my hands would often be: "My brain! My brain! It's in a tempest swirl! I'm going sure insane, her ravings round me twirl." 123 I tasted then the bitterness of life, For I was plunged into the hell of hell. My powers augmented and in contentions rife Tore, tore and tore like demons in their spell. My passions like the mighty seas that swell Upon the rocks my being dashed and dashed. My spangled thoughts, sharp-toothed with poison fell, Upon me turned and gnashed and gnashed and gnashed. My conscience like a fury naught could quell With scorpion whip my spirit lashed and lashed, And every biting stroke the mortal gashed and gashed. When I was thus distempered by depression An old ambition came as a gentle friend; The violin rose on the dark possession And gave my powers a faint objective end. I knew my iron hands could never bend To such a skill, but desperate, desperate need Caught at the hope, the last that life would lend. I tried to play. The occupation freed Me somewhat from the powers that did me rend. If I survived the dark assassin breed Upon thy magic wand I lay my grateful meed. I lived, but life was just a living death, For thou, Oh Life, took on infernal forms. Frenzied and blind, this frame of mortal breath Thou flungest on the enginery that warms The spirit of all strife and blasting storms. Naked as death, an unmaternal brute Thou didst appear, and after thee came swarms Of thine own kind that forth from hell did shoot. All parentage of beast and bird and worms Superiored thine, and bore a nobler fruit Than thou that tearest thine, crown, breast and loin and root. I lived, but life was just a living death. No hope, ambition, interest or inspire. Only a worthless, burdened, cursing breath And many a prayer to with the hour expire. A chaos world full of volcanic fire. Great cosmic powers shot through and through with blight, Impulsions with omnipotent desire And mighty dreams clothed like the morning bright. And then — ^convulsions with earthquake blast and iro Would sweep my world swift as the lightning's flight Around another course through more tempestuous night. 124 In all the wide immensities of space. In all the long eternity of time, In all the reach of passion's wide embrace, Is there a dream more crowning and sublime Than man's ideal that doth forever climb The universe? Can splendor flaming suns And greenest globes that round them ever rhyme Produce a type whose virtue higher runs? Give him the ages, empires and spirits prime, The mighty conflicts that manhood never shuns. And all the gods in heaven his grace and aspect stuns. And yet this man, the only thing on earth That can redeem, that often doth arise To fellowship the transcendental worth That lives and rides upon the azure skies, This dream, thy promise, virtue, crown and prize. How vain, how vain, unutterably vain. And down the void that hungry ever cries Tliey swift descend as an ephemeral train! Born from the dung; they live in sensuous lies; Down, out and snuffed; trampled or worn or slain. Unnumbered millions go as shadows o'er the plain! How vain, how vain, how vain is all our life! How empty, windy, cloud-like, vapory, puff! A little round that gathers grief and strife And then the hour that doth our taper snuff. We are but dreams and made of dreamlike stuff. And just a breath, a little breath of wind. Though built of iron, granite and strong and tough. No searcher here can memory of us find. E'ven while here we often cry: "Enough!, I've had enough of life and time unkind! I would lie down to sleep and rest around me bind!" Oh where and what and why is this mankind? What brought them forth from the eternal nought To hurl them on so deaf and dumb and blind? What purposes of first supremest thought Have reared the world and then so endless brought The generations for such a worthless end As all the earth and ages vain have sought? Man slayeth man. He never knows a friend. Birth, life and death with vanity is fraught. Oh World and Time and Life, defend, defend The insane, worthless course of your eternal trend! 129 Now oft I stand upon the dawn of morn, Or contemplate night's flaming constellations. Life's rounded globe, man's majesty unshorn. Millions of suns and billioned congregations Seem but the flight of phantom generations. The mighty thoughts that sweep across my brain And feed me with the cosmic impulsations Before me pass as a meteoric train And shape themselves to vast interrogations. Through, through them all I hear the question plain: "Is life a dream, a dream of grief and gain, A vast reality, or vanity most vain?" GO, MY SONGS OF SOUL. Go, my Songs of Soul! To neglect and scorn As your older kin ye were certain born. But one in the world has a tithe of faith And what is a hope in the lightning's scathe. Not a friend have ye in the wide wide world. Can ye stem the floods where the gods are hurled? If from nature born ye will find your own Though the rending globes are against ye thrown. Thou art finding me; I am finding thee; Both finding the worlds that around us be. Let us find ourselves. If we find the self We can stand up straight and' forego all pelf. Who findeth the self that is most himself Finds a world of life and the springs of health; He findeth the self that is not himself And the vast round globe and her stores of wealth. To ourselves alone let us faithful be! Let us sing our songs wise, beautiful, free. They sing to the world and the forward years Who sing to themselves and the upper spheres. Let us find ourselves! Let us stand up straight, Front the world of strife and the strength of fate! In a world of wealth 'tis the crowning wealth But to stand up straight in the higher self. 130