ij Class. IP S_ 3 503 Book ^^ il ia^C3 Gofiyiight N° [ ic, I COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. ^ne OHS^hGDRHL HRD o^neR poems anti Otijer JPoems C(l)arlc0 jScribuer's; Bonsf CDGflDi Copyright, 1001, by Charles Schibner's Sons f a ^'^1 5 ^? THE LIBRARV OF COi^GRESS. Two Cofifca Received OCT. 30 1901 COPVBinHT 6NTHV (rtJr h 0-iqcl CLASS CU XXc. No. / ^ <^ ^ o COPY 3. The DeVinne Press. THE CATHEDRAL TO S. H. D What world-worn truths of satirists or sages, Upon our lust for hasty fame, engraft Such irony, as those sagacious ages With slow evolving miracles of craft ! CONTENTS The Cathedral The Spires . The Chimes The Cathedral . The Flying Buttress The Gargoyles . The Portal . The Nave . The High Altar . The Incense The Crucifix The Organ . The Tombs . The Confessional The Rosary The Shrines The Windows The Carvings The Trophies The Frescos The Choir . The Crypt . The Cloister Close Other Poems PAGE 3 4 5 8 9 10 11 13 14 15 17 19 21 23 24 26 27 29 30 34 36 38 A Triad A Warning , 43 44 CONTENTS PAGE Charm 45 Estranged 46 His Letter 47 Her AnsAver 48 Effroi d' Amour 49 A Troth 50 Thy Kiss 51 Misgiving 52 Assurance 53 Denial 54 In Dreams 65 Heaven 56 At Last 57 My Debt 59 An Earth-cry 60 At the Last 61 Triumph 62 Seed-time 63 Passion Week 64 Envy 65 Whom Death Divides 66 Afterward 67 Men and Women 68 Lost and Found 69 Beneath a Cowl 70 At Vespers 71 Her Eyes . . . . . . / . .72 For Love of Her 73 A Face 74 Waiting 75 A Fallacy . . . . , „ , . . 77 viii CONTENTS PADH Joy 78 To Music 79 The Band 80 Tristan and Isolde 81 Musician to Poet 82 A ta Voix 84 D6sir 85 To a Voice 86 The God of Song 87 A Soul to a Voice 88 A Love-song 89 The Voice of Israfel 90 To Pain 91 An Echo of the Orchestra 92 Climax 93 Inaction 94 The Watcher 95 Before the Battle 97 " The World Forgot " 98 A Last Appeal 99 The Vigil ' . . .100 The Doubter 101 A Cradle-song of Faith 102 Perversion 103 Judgment 104 A Prayer 105 Beware an Empty Heart 106 Life's School ....... 107 In his Image ...,»,.. 108 What the Gull Heard 109 Sounding 110 ix CONTENTS PAGE Restraint Ill The Inevitable 112 A Double Grief 113 The Night-watch 114 Wasted 115 The Cry of a Thought 116 The Poet 117 Inheritance 118 " Joy Cometh in the Morning " .... 119 " Things Unseen " 120 Cleared 121 Vale! 123 Zero 124 The Rain 125 The Marsh 127 Revolt 129 A Golden Day 130 An August Afternoon 131 Out of the North 132 Mysteries 133 Devonshire Poppies 135 The Song of the Camellia 136 Dawn at Venice 138 High Noon 139 Plighting 140 At Close of Day 141 Nightfall 142 January = . . 143 Dies Rosationis ........ 144 Midsummer ....<.... 146 THE CATHEDRAL THE SPIRES AFAR— the spires arise above the dome, xx As sure and glad foundations,— ramparts blest ! On which the blue floor of man's longer home, Youth's heaven, faith's conjecture, rest ! THE CHIMES VENITE dorno Domini ! Ne dormite peccato, In excelsis laus Deo ! Salus datur homini ! Venite dome Domini ! Nunc audita claugorem ! Ne repellite amorem, Verum lumen homini ! Venite domo Domini ! Exultate gaudio ! Adorate studio Christum, donum homini ! Venite domo Domini ! Ne dormite peccato, In excelsis laus Deo ! Salus datur homini ! THE CATHEDRAL 4 GAINST an evening sky of amethyst, ii. Dim veiled in contemplation reverent, With sole intent to magnify the Lord, The bride of heaven on the bridegroom waits. Supreme the symbol ! She doth wait, aware This too shall pass ;— with calm gaze turned upon The far horizon of the last elect, Where flaming truth triumphant shall unite The paling ages of fidelity In one vast pleasure of the infinite. Above the plain she towers as the past ; Before whose might the present is a babe ; Nor hath the din of armies, clash of arms, Crusading legions or invading hordes. Thirst, pestilence or famine, love or hate. Avail, to swerve the prophet from the dream. Blood and oppression, peace and brotherhood Have sought the potent shadow of her arm ; Within,— distracting wars of faith and doubt May rack her sore ;— smiting the bold exterior Fierce storms of lashing hail and scourging wind Harass the valiant parapets in vain ; While lightnings fork among the battled heights 5 THE CATHEDEAL Unheeded as the sunbeam's flattery, By her in whose stern gifting lies the crown. Despot of despots ! Tyrant of the cross ! Approved of the interminable stars ; Amid whose turret's spiral rhapsody — Those fragile alleluias carved in stone — The moonbeam's silver arabesque doth smile, And o'er whose mailed and militant facade Flow soft the crocus colors of the dawn. O torch flamboyant to the unknown God ! From out man's upward vision hither come, The spirit of a nation brought thee forth, Conceived by a bewildered love of Him ! A mountain fastness of the soul, — wrought out Of Nature's inexhaustible resource ; Girded in humble effort, stone on stone, By myriads of swarthy hands obscure ; Primeval forests did outstrip thy growth — For generations long delayed, — reared slow In contradiction, ignorance, and crime — Profaned by base protection arrogant, By desecrating mobs destroyed, restored — Preserved in imperfection, oft abused. Maligned, misunderstood, — yet never lost And never wholly wrenched from thy design ; Holding some semblance in thy mighty grace Unto the patience of Omnipotence. Blind superstition or clairvoyant faith — That pilgrim of the soul to the unseen Serenely walking barren ways, with eye Less fortified by outward cheer than hope — 6 THE CATHEDRAL By some conviction men have lived and died : Some fuel iu their ardent lineage Has kept the taper burning through the stress Of bestial pleasure, bigotry, and greed, That still the glorious sign iu stone prevails ! Mere structured marvel to the casual, A mediaeval relic obsolete : A vision to the seer, — unto the wise The landmark on a waste of history ; Refuge and worship unto the devout ; But to thyself, — what art thou to thyself, Thou rugged chant of universal praise ! As the Creator formed His wilderness. The sunsets of an arctic solitude, And misty miracles of tropic seas. To recompense an infinite delight- — Finite requirement full satisfied ; So man, in turu, reflecting Deity, Enamoured of creation's glad appeal. By toils colossal ventured to become Partaker in creative ecstasy, — Thrilled by affinities ineffable. His rocky bastion fling jjrecipitous From the abysmal depth of his estate, Sheer rising- to eternal consciousness ! THE FLYING BUTTRESS SO buoyant here, — tlie stony pinions free, One dreams that eagle wings shall be unfurled, To bear her o'er the bright gate of that world Elijah found, — the hope of prophecy ! THE GARGOYLES BEASTS from out the forest of the soul, What sport of human frailty makes ye grin ' Did cunning hands, grown weary of the throng Of angel hordes, yield for the nonce to sin — Give sacrilege her way and fashion je ? Flaunting your jest at holiness abroad, What media3val imps of man's revenge Are ye ! Exorcised in the name of God ! THE PORTAL O'ERHUNG with masoury, portentous massed "Whose warding vigilance doth not abate A chastened welcome unto all who wait Upon this treasury of ages past, Where once the hunted fugitive aghast Fled to God's wrath, escaping human hate — Above the listless beggar at the gate, fnvites the sanctuary's portal vast. Beyond the threshold of the open door, Art's wayward inspirations prisoned be, Gathered as pebbles on the shifting shore Of years, — outstretched unto infinity. Within, — the saints' communion shall restore The soul, and wearv sin find clemencv I 10 THK NAVE ODIM and holy heart, AVhereiii the Lord must take delight to dwell O vast and sacred heart, A near presentiment of love,— thy spell. "With clasped uplifted hands, An intercession ever unassuaged, The rhythmic outline stands ; Tho' far beneath, glad pageantry be staged On glowing doors, whose rare And full-veined marbles woo the knee ; Mosaics deep and fair Of agate warm and lapis lazuli ! Thy fragrant winding ways, Chapel and altar, transept and arcade. May be for festal days. For sacerdotal sacraments arrayed ; Thy clustered pillars blend With bannered ceremonial's (Uiree, Thy gracile arches lend Their every sinuous harmony ; The tinted porphyry From nvyriads of golden lapers bright, 11 THE NAVE With murky ebony And frosty Parian beguile the light. Still, gathered high aloft The usufruct of worship, lavished prayer, Praise and contrition soft, A lesser Eucharist, — abideth where Odors of sanctity Cling close beneath the sloping rafter space ; Vague haze of piety ; The outward seeming of an inward grace. O dim and holy heart, AVherein the Lord must take delight to dwell ! O vast and sacred heart, A near presentiment of love, — thy spell. 12 THE HIGH ALTAR A THRONE with King invisible, that stands For deathless dynasties not made with hands, Founded on certainty of things unseen, Whose law is perfect and whose fear is clean. Whose sovereign majesty doth condescend Unto the lowliest of them who bend Far down beneath upon the humblest stair. Submissive subjects of the altar's care. 13 THE INCENSE MUTE prayer too deeply hid to find the lip — Ascend, ascend that mine may follow thee ! Wraith of a soaring impulse heavenward, Exhale above all choral ecstasy ! As wordless breath of fragrant wonderment — Or risen vow in penitential shroud — Ascend, ascend in soft uplifted flight, To veil within thy floating cloud The radiance forbid to human gaze ; Till touched by gleaming wing of seraphim. Thou art refulgent glory unto God — The heart's incarnate cherubim ! 14 THE CEUCIFIX PALE in the trembling candle-light The wide arms of a crucifix invite ! Before whose passion lifted high, A prostrate j)eniteut asleep doth lie ; Assured his blessing, for the sake Of that compassion which doth ever wake, Whose peace denied the doubting seer The faithful animal may gather here. Pale in the trembling candle-light The wide arms of a crucifix invite ! Joy kneels to triumph over life ; Valor to victory o'er sin and strife ; Grief prays with heavy-laden breath Unto the power that hath worsted death ; While colder hearts must always see A man, — upheld by love, through agony. Pale in the trembling candle-light The wide arms of a crucifix invite ! The outcast dreads the golden beam That seeks and finds him, with accusing gleam 15 THE CRUCIFIX The tempted shudder, children fall Before the sacred emblem that holds all Life's legend in the blood-stained hands ; All that the faith inspires or law demands. Pale in the trembling candle-light The wide arms of a crucifix invite, While ceaseless adorations rise Unto the mystery of sacrifice ! 16 THE ORGAN HIGH priest to the hurt of the humau, Confessor of riteless lives, How weariness rests in thy solace — How thy tremblant mercy shrives ! To worship beyond mediation Rise the daring chords of bliss, In a rapture of exhalation Breathes the Spirit's holy kiss. And the woe of existence merges Her pang in the triumph flight, As the breast of the Unseen bending Embraces despair in light. Lone winds of the Mightiest whisper Through the soul's each hid recess, In a swoon of dreamy communion The languors of heaven bless. And the throb of the keys is passion, The swell of the pipes is pain, And the crash of the peal is pardon. And peace is the old refrain. 17 THE ORGAN How the lame leajj glad at the suminons, And the blind forget closed eyes, The doubter believes at the bidding, And ijeichauce, — the dead arise ! ]\Iore than wail of the Stabat Mater, Or cold Gregorian grim, Thy reverberant miserere Cries out of the deep and dim. Breaking thy heart through the misty awe Of the vaulted dusk above, As a shattered alabaster-box At the living feet of Love ! 18 THE TOMBS A LAS ! Among the tombs of conquerors to find jl\^ Alone the monumental permanence of death I Such footprints do but prove that they are gone — remind Of this supreme survivor of our mortal breath. How human and how sad ! In naked memory Far down the bloody brilliant vista of the past, Their conjured dust starts up in quick vitality — Only to shrivel here ; — cold sepulchred at last ! Beneath the carven crest of empire blazoned high, By some dark tryst imperious o'erlong detained — The kingly libertine, absolved and robed, doth lie ; And poets eternal rhythm find, in dreams unstained ; While sculptured knights, unquesting, sleep by idle swords ; And armored heroes in recumbent effigy. Within her sombre breast each mausoleum hoards A weight of fame, — a dumb and massive elegy. Lost ages gossip lightly in the marble line — So audibly the past seems musing in its sleep, Almost may one the dreamer from his dream divine — 19 THE TOMBS As toward oblivion lieuse the lieavy shadows creep Tc blur the passive legends by the daylight traced ; Those mortal seemings ; disinherited by night Inexorably as the living forms that graced This fair, dissolving panorama of the light ! 20 THE CONFESSIONAL DARK sea to wliicli iiiinnmbered rivers flow To lose their restless freight of woe And drift unclean ; Canst thou send forth again, dishonor-dyed, The crystal brook of niountaiu-side And lone raviue? O cold confessional, into whose ears The Borgia whispered blood, and fears Of penalty, Grudging thy cursed might with starting eyes And clench&d fist, — yet all too wise To braggart thee ! To thee betrayal sobs a wasted joy, And innocence a light alloy On timid knees ; Where malice, treason, tyranny defile The shriven silence with their guile Of centuries. 21 Til K (ON KKSHJON A I. The Clmrch with God Alniighty hid liath kei)1 Sin's secret, — brazen or long wept — Condoned, forgot ; lUil doth liei" expiation piove remiss, Or win her chiUlren lasting bliss? The dead si)eak not. 22 THE ROSARY QYMBOL of liopes and fears ; ^ Doubt stilled, strange tears Allayed ; the wonted sign Of pledge divine ! The toy of human needs These helpless beads — Told in the market-place With stolid face, Told when the shadows climb, At Ave chime, Told in the hush of night By sinners light, Chaplet on chaplet blest To bribe unrest ; Clasped oft in stark -dead hands In alien lands. A sacred heirloom, that at once shall be God's threat and promise of paternity ! 23 THE SHKINES ON each bent suppliant below, The waxen image smiles redress ; Whatever be the muttered woe, However hungry man's distress — Immovable it doth bestow The waxen smile to cheer and bless. Grimed laborers forsake the throng, Half numb with toil their bodies fling 'Mid youth unchallenged yet of wrong, And crones whose fingers stammering Scarce push the slipping beads along — And peasant girls with heart of Spring. Here mothers pray an amulet For children with wide lolling eyes, And brows with holy water wet ; Here for revenge the lover cries, — The courtesan doth half forget She hath no part in Paradise ! 24 THE SHRINES To move the Virgin's woman side To lenience by fond device, Lie red-lipped flowers, ribbon-tied — Cast at her feet to pay the price Of piety ; mayhap to hide Some sin too dear to sacrifice. Beneath the candles, banbles strown, And votive boats to still wild seas — Let him observe who would disown All virtue in such deities. Deep hollows in the floor of stone Worn by the flesh of pilgrim knees ! 25 H THE WINDOWS E ART- BEAT in colors ! Bacclianal of saints ! Archangel smileSj — when fasting nature faints Beneath the yoke of beauty-banned restraints ! O petals of the great rose uppermost, Wafted in opal o'er the lifted host As dazzling raiment of the Holy Ghost i O burning reds, — and blues of sun-kissed sea, Dipped off the very waves of Galilee — And regal purples rich in mystery ; O molten yellows splashed upon the ground As sunlight tracery, — a garland wound With threads of rainbow, — hath no Pope e'er frowned Upon these feasts of sensuous holiness ? Such wine of life to veins vowed passionless "? Dripping from joy's forbidden cup to bless The sense, and stain the calm white lives' close bud With glory glints from Virgin robes aflood, Or tragic crimson of the Saviour's blood ! 26 THE CARVINGS BURNISHED by Time's propitiating lustre, Postured in visions of enduring grace — Angels and druids, birds and fruitage cluster 'Mid waving leaves that lace and interlace. Pagan and Christian, — sanctified, united, Hallow their praise in art's glad sacrament ; Ancient and modern here their faith have plighted, The lotus with the passion-flower blent ! Christ and the twelve, in varied service bending, Pillars triumphant wreathed in scrolls of love ; Martyrs and saints, ascending and descending ; The crown and cross, the lily and the dove. Out of the olive and the ruddy cedar. Out of the sturdy heart of Flemish oak. The Church shows forth the symbols of her leader Through patient handiwork of simple folk. Musing the while on fabled forests wondrous, — Faint stirring palms by desert zephyr wooed — Hearing the din of trampling tempest, thundrous — The carver at his altar sang and hewed. 27 THE CARVINGS Lusty of life and sober of endeavor, Till evening drowned the day of toil and pride ; Haply the tree be deified forever — He sleeps forgotten ; — pale and pacified. 28 THE TROPHIES LIMP hang the wrested spoils of victory, i Dyed in the fading hne of passing days. Torn beaks of mouldy ships mute pseans raise ; Strange arms, rust-wrought, and wan embroidery, Condemned to fame by some spent enemy, To valor's prowess lift a thousand yeas. Imperious standards bowed in praise Of war, — war with its golden panoply ! But what of him who fronts a fiercer horde Within the walls of Self! Beneath what stars. Before what patron saint, arrayed and scored The trophies of his inner fray, — the scars Of perils past ? Shall they not hang restored As surely as the armature of Mars "? 29 THE FEESCOS ITALY, love-mastered Italy ! Out of the ruins of antiquity Art owes her resurrection unto thee ! Thine be the burning signals all the way From myth of Sun-god to the Hebrew tale, Through iridescent gleams of pagan day, To Sorrow gray, with folded pinions iDale. These walls, — where beauty-haunted hands portrayed Legends aerial to flash and fade, In colors of ascetic vision laid — Reflect in flowing contour, tint and tone, Faces and forms transfigured as best seemed From out the world that was the painter's own. Illumining the task whereof he dreamed. The story of redemption, page on page, Is spread, — as feast of sense, or counsel sage. The open bible of a darker age ; Before whose vivid revelation free. Oft read by eyes to learning all unused. The sons of ignorance and pedantry Are by a common sentiment sufTused. 30 THE FKESCOS Soft on the glooms augelic halos sbiiie, Where lustrous visitants of mystic sign Anuuueiate a Saviour's birth divine ; Or ft'owning Judgments sternly satirize— Distracted stare in admonition grim, Visage and vesture ill to canonize, Cleaving rent graves with gaunt extended limb. Adam's creation, and his shrinking Eves, Temptations lurking 'mid exotic leaves. The patriarchal fiible interweaves. Adoring Magi at the manger bed,— The Master walking careless o'er the sea— The money-changers from the Temple sped— The whole bleak path through lone Gethsemane Up to the white ascension glorified With virtues of Our Lady, here divide Immortal exaltation, side by side ; Where worldling and Dominican have wrought In rosy flesh their glowing heaven's Queen, Hard by transcendent spirits wonder-fraught— From Palmos of the Buonarroti seen ! Bright-wingSd hosts clash golden cymbals high. Round-limbed Sebastians on a Southern sky' With Gabriel's auroral graces vie ; Whose rathe dawn-charm of adolescent youth Leads meditation from herself astray. Till as some hooded penitent, the Truth, Before the sacred lust of such array. 31 THE FKESCOS Luminous creatures, bathed in atmosphere, Wreathed by prismatic aureolas clear — In an apocalypse of bliss appear. What necromantic spells doth art dispense ! Bacchus turned saint, in tame and chastened guise, And Venus, through religion's exigence, A calm madonna with meek lowered eyes. Thou, Leonardo, thou and thou alone Of thine inspired brotherhood, hast shown The dignity of God enhanced, and known The human Christ beyond all mastery ; Nor draped fictitious vapors fair about That upper chamber's bare reality — Whose fact confounds the falsity of doubt. Ceiling and chancel, apse and baptistry Appeal in helpless terms of infancy — Blazon their love-begotten victory ; Flaunt their vermilion canopies urbane. Poise phantom seraphs with a wakeful horn. Nor sliall art's apotheosis in vain Reiterate, interpret or adorn. O rapt creators of the long ago, Run ftist the world away — or linger slow — Flush the returning May, or drift the snow — Our later hearts shall fitly recompense With proud ascription, giatitude and fame. Your pigments hued with faith and eloquence, Your palettes stained with fervor and with flame ! 32 THE FRESCOS Blest be the eyes, whose smitten vision drew Such holy concourse from the upper blue ! No allegory theirs, but witness true Unto the presence of Divinity Amid the brief, familiar phase of earth. Celestial transports ever welcome ye, Through whose presumption hope still finds rebirth ! 33 THE CHOIR AS sunbeams solemnized by arches grave, xjL Flashed throngli the nave high triumph from the Choir ! Uplifting haughty crests of stone across The vague set boundaries of spirit- world, A chasm, overspanned with sound. O wonderful ! Within this sacred solitude of soul Allured by one lone voice escaped confine, Or wafted concord of a rapt "amen" — To wander on, as hesitant to fright Some shy and tuneful creature of the wood, Whose silver accents animate the dusk. Till through sonorous intervals of change — The living and the dead, near and remote, All past and present — peace and judgment, swing With symbol and reality, swept high In dizzy altitudes of far Beyond ! One surging wail of choristers, of priests And acolytes ; — one flaring flame of gold — Of sable vestments, — crimson, purple, white — In chorals threatening, assail and claim The glory or the pity of a God ! 34 THE CHOIR Their last cry tlirilling to the lofty vault As o'er the strings of some jEolian Harp, it smote upon the vibrant doors of Paradise ; then, downward dripping, passed Away, as wind among the mountain pines. For one bare instant leaving agony And joy, in tortured harmony so wed, As did forever seem to signify Heaven tormented by a thought of hell — And hell for heaven's nearness doubly liell ! Then by the low antiphonal subdued. Wave under wave, within the sacristy The spent recessional doth soft recede ; Where inmost gates of inner hush, upon The smallest saint be silent drawn — and shut. 35 THE CKYPT HER splendor by eternal truth upborne, Magnificent, infallible, secure — The fealty of the risen Church is sworn Unto the sunken crypt her walls immure ; Deep in the buried source of vital things, Where increase hoards her slow, persistent store, And growth to unperturbed fulfilment brings. Unlit of morning and unchilled of hoar. Within these mazy precincts taciturn, The persecuted found a hiding-place ; These chiselled labyrinths did oft inurn The smothered chanting of an exiled race. As some reclusive band of anchorites In strict performance of a penance just, The gloom-girt piers support the massy heights Above the moulding archives of the dust : Till pallid torches part the cumbrous shade To seek the mournful coffers side by side — Where, crusted o'er with glistening gems, are laid The sacred bones of the beatified — 36 THE CRYPT A trance of metal hues and malachite, Revealed in fitful gleams of ecstasy, While dirge and requiem their cadence plight Unto the cavern's solemn sanctity. Unshaken by the organ's dominant — Unsearched by wing of joy, or human cry — Endure the grim foundations, ministrant Upon the Lord of Hosts pavilioned high ! 37 THE CLOISTER CLOSE LOVELY the square of pious green, where silence i broods A gentle confidence in all the mystic past ! Eden of Dean's devotions, Canon's prayers 5 soft moods Of sanctified desire, — that vow and rile outlast. Beneath these arches meditation hovers low — A melancholy, as of ages long at rest, And pensive charm of world-forgetting hearts, bestow An ashen benediction on the dying AVcst. A serious beauty bathes the clambering rose Upon the cloister roof, o'er gray walls cut with names Once dear to daily brotherhood, — whose safe repose The transient i)ath of Nature, love and life proclaims. Here pace the placid friars ; youthful priests ; with ear Intent unto the lowly voice of conscience' laws. As wilder hearts outside the sheltered fold, to hear The scarlet bugle-call to conflict's clashing cause ! 38 THE CL0I8TER CLOSE Fit only for the passions tliat to-morrow die — Or foi- tlie cloister that hath no to-day, is man I The Summer bird that trills her duty to the sky From these unheeding eaves, rejoieeth for a span ! Drugged deep in sweet anointing of the spirit balm, With happiness secure for errant hopes resigned — Do feet that tread these ways of holiness and calm The vaunted "peace that passeth understand- ing" find? 39 OTHER POEMS A TRIAD PAIN — that doth steal her own fVoiii human arms, And bear them out beyond Love's boundary — Wlicre ilesh alone resists her demon claws, The spirit shrunk to narrow agony. Grief — at a shining stroke of wayward frost Wilting old i)leasure's garden of delight; Each hope become a haggard questioning — Mocked by the morning sun's familiar sight. And Sin — filling the white sails of desire With trembling kisses, turning swift to flame, To burn the sircn-liaunted wanderers Down to their blackened hulks of crime and shame. O Life, — what safety hath a heart in worlds Where such a triad mark a sure abyss ? What chance hath man's frail-founded happiness — His heaven-set face ? Nay, Love must answer this ! 43 A AVAKNING rpilE way to hapi)iiicss is Uu\)ugli Ihesc eyes! X — The path to misery l)eside it lies ; The road to J>re;unlaiul through this eriiusoii gate ! — Whose toll iu kisses [)aicl leads oil to hate. There will be neither light nor voiee to guide — Beware thy steps where destinies divide ! IVril anil paradise both beeUou thee, And no man's goal another may deeree ! 44 CHAKM rpALKING ol" tlii.s, — how could wc parU A The liquid glamour on the sea Kosc slcadily to Ihxxl llic heart In emerald mysteiy. Yet were we silent, — as of yore, Mescems 'Lwere slill a Summer day, Whose ebbing hours, with us implore The hastening sunset stay ! 46 ESTRANGED I LEFT the love-loeked harbor of thine heart — Not wrenched from weed-girt moorings by a sudden tide, But won l)y waves that wooed inconsequent the start Down deep-sea passions no small bark could ride. Life's current rocked me, — bore me, — swept me out of hail — An empty soul for cargo ; all unsteered ; to be An unguessed derelict 'mid craft that sail Erect to listed ports ; — a waif adrift from thee ! To wreck with all my colors flying at the mast, Nor sight again that haven of the past. 46 HIS LETTEE AS Nature wasting for the rain of Spring, xJL She waited for his letter — over seas, Long liills lay dusty for her travelling, The Summer days but bloom-girt travesties ! She waited by the moon, with sightless eyes, Unbearable her woman's industries, She waited brave or pensive, womanwise, For that uncoming voice across the seas. Weary the while, she lent her ear to catch The constant rhythm of a neighboring tune, That clung as bees about a rose-clad thatch, Piped 'neath her window noon by noon. Last night she oped the lattice of her heart And took it in ; — to-day, as if to shame Inconstancy unto the rover's faith, Across the silent seas his letter came ! 47 HER ANSWER WIT AT would it be to sliiue as one small star— Where day ebbs last aeross the bar or j^old liorizon rimf One small star seen Throu<;h apple blooms of white and green? With the May erescent moon to lie awake, Deekiiig I he sky for Jjove's own sake, Lest the short night tall dark o'er one dear head' That would be heaven, — the maiden said. 48 EFFliOI IVAMOUR T STIirr my eyes— so low Ww licavciis Jciiit ■ Above my l-icc in lii.s, llmX ncjiicr bent,,— All piisl, all fill lire swciviiij;' under me, Swill faiiilness oConeoming cerlainLy l^Jien one slow kiss ! My own liearl, knocking' :il my side, As did some nek less horseman lide 'I'o oiilslrip Miss ! 49 A TROTH I GIVE myself to thee. Do thou control Passions and j^owers ; mate my woman's sonl Unto thy breast ! Throughout eternity, if God so will — I give myself to thee, — and marvel still To be so blest. 50 THY KISS O INCE first I stood within the moonlight of thy ^ soul, Awe-struck, transfigured by thy vision white — To touch with wondering the cup of life From thy pure lips, uplifted in God's sight ; All present joy is shamed by that dear sacrament ! Before whose memory all passions pale, As at the brimming chalice of thy love Another Parsifal did find the Grail. 51 MISGIVING I WOULD not be the mountain outline bold, To bind the near horizon of your sight — Though early blossoms roam my rocky steei)S, With singing cataracts and stormy winds, And white clouds hover close above my heights ; Lest your raised eyes o'er intervening fields Should beat at last on Love's strong barrier And sigh for sake of roving prairie space ! Rather the heart of me shall be as light Upon the crest of endless days ; that still, Changeful yet constant as the circling sun, Shall range with thee in radiant liberty ; Whose wander-beams no limitation find — Aud in whose joy the wheeling seasons go ! 52 ASSURANCE APPROACHABLE horizons onward flee J^ Before a love like that of thine and mine, — Pent of no shelving shore or twilight line The country of our Song and Poesy ! On wing of dawn and midnight they divine Within themselves, stars that are worlds ; and free Emotions that are seas ; for such there be Infinite spaces — to be filled and shine By selfhood's inmost revelation proved ; Ascended passions shriven of all pain ; Infinite nearness, — oft to be removed. Sufficing dazzled senses to regain A sure conception of the soul beloved Beyond all earth or time or death domain ! 53 DENIAL HIDDEN from thee the trembling of desire, The woman's weakness, swooning 'neath thine eyes — If so be lit in thee an altar fire To some wide flaming dream of sacrifice ! Let passion be of such restraint forgot That 'twixt thy God and thee, my heart beat not. Beloved, — step without the holy place ; And I, as some cathedral dim wherein Thy vows were made, will smile upon thy face, And know the old ensnaring joys of sin Through my denial, colder, lesser grow ; Holding the flesh in thrall till slow is born, Of lonely agony and spirit throe, A soul — the mated miracle of morn ! 54 IN DREAMS IN dreams we lost all hindering mortal sway, Inviolate of dawn, — or fealty sworn by day — Faithless in dreams ! The loving silence left us side by side — Beyond the wakeful wastes of longing, — satisfied, Faithful in dreams ! Melting and mingling, vanishing and blest — I scarce remembei", — lay your head upon my breast ? Fearless in dreams ; Nor when we meet so otherwise, forget How in the formless sorcery of sleep, we yet Were wed in dreams. 55 1^ HEAVEN ONLY to find Forever, blest By thine eucircling arm ! Only to lie beyond unrest In passion's dreamy calm. Only to meet and never part, To sleep and never wake — Soul unto soul and heart to heart ; Dead for each other's sake ! 56 AT LAST HAD I but dreamed, — as seers of old, O Love ! Each waste of yellow sand that stayed my feet, The moors in whose wide solitude I roved, Far lights of towns through which my pleasure sped, And risk of savage waves, uuhomed, unnamed, All led to thee ! Had I not run and sailed, Nor slept, nor hailed light pastime of the way? How strange ! I dallied with the Springtide oft- Forsook the bypath for the song of men. Kegret? Nay, rather grace to squandered joy, But for such devious adventuring Perchance I had not wandered here at last ; Or failing weariness and alien loves, Had never known that thou imprisoned wert More dear than all my fellow-revellers ; Whose echoes call me still from thy barred doors - Those jealous portals of another's heart ! Nor shall my voice disturb thy longing wild, — Enough to stand within the same small strip 57 AT LAST ()r.sniili};ht, \y\uii; Mhwjirl llic pines :il dawn, "^riic s'.uuc moon shadow of llie WinUi dusk : Thy body and my sonl, a sraU^d cell l<\>r (Jod, onr jailer, lo scl IV<"e al will ! 68 MY 01:^1^ MY debt to Uicc is all of lilc made dear ; Service of day, vision of night Upliflcd to thine own far height. K'en inmiortalily throiigli thee grows clcai', Since lost in h)ve's workl with thee here I catch tlie meaning of that flight Of time, wlien lost in love's snprenu; (hlight I niiss noi' self, nor Ihee, in (iod's while feai'. 69 AN laRTlICRY nEAVEN must hold surpassing bliss If (Leie shall be no sea — How could lonji: leagues of joy for this (Compensate you and nic? Heaven must bournes unguessed contain If there shall be no night ; Would weary spiiits not disdain To win such bondage bright? If IK) dear heart beside us dwell In outworn love of sense, What mystic spirit parallel Could fully recompense'? Though Ihere shall be no tears to flow Nor ever parting be — And riod has promised to bestow Ilinisell", — eternally ! 60 AT THE LAST AH Love, with dear untruth deceive -tL Me not ! Nor loose the cord between thy heart and mine. Is the time come ? Do thou but cleave Me at one honest word ;— death has no anodyne ! 61 'IMMI'MPII VTWILKHI r :il Mm- inoniiii^'s Mood — A slini|)<'r shichiri" of I lie l)i<'alli - A slowiT ii\cr ill Ww I>1<>(mI - S«> I Ills so I his, is l>cal li. Now (Jo«l iil>o\c l»c jiisl ilit'«l ! And li\iiif;' Ijonc my wil iit'ss be, 'Pliiil I I riiiiiipliaiil l(-:i\'(- tliv siilc MUcI lo «lu- lor Hue ! A rii|tliir«(l \ isioii of lli\ face A lu'anu'ss cUvscr on lliy hrt-asl — A SluMiM wnKliiii;; of spuw — 'IMun I lir miiImoKcii \cs\. 09 MKia)'riMi<; rpilAT pitin w<- lii/.ily and through strife. Her toneh keeps that lone spirit true And hers the gill men [)arl with last. — their life! LOHT AND lOrNI) rpiFK OIK- vvlio losl liiin, — (oiiiid i An idol, — ;il whose shriiu- J^'rcsli wical lis were; cvvv wound ; Whnc- slic did low incline 'I'o swear old \'ows and pray old prayers. And she who won him, — losl. A j;'od for inoilaJ man ; Who all her lile lines <'rossed, Yd eiicled in his span Love's frnil, and (lower 'mid I he I arcs ! I<]aeli woman lu-ail snpremely hiesi, So salislie*! she loveiik' ;i(;('X'nl.s spell Thiit ''I myself :iin lieaveii or liell" ! Who in no (l(;aier' self lull h e'er diseeined A heaven transfigured, or a hell that burned ! 77 JOY HATT;! Hail Joy, 'V\w wild glad tenor of .Joy ! SJiaking the tense iindci-striiigs of the heart, Teiiriii^' the ninilms of sorrow ap;irl,, 8i)riiig's toi<'h wiiigi'd madrigal boy ! Hail Joy ! The reveller Joy ! Hail ! Hail Joy, Thy kisses are slinging and sweet ! Herald of hoveling sky-dreams above, l)rnid< of Ihy height as of wine or of love, Life reels 'ueath thy Inniinons feet! Hail Joy ! Delirions Joy ! Mail ! Hail Joy, Keen on the l)reast as a sword ! Smiting Ihe blood to a race with tliiue own, Till Ihe spirit shonis as a trumpet blown Al the pagan lips of a god — "Hail Joy ! Hosanna to Joy ! Hail lover of i)assions and pleasures! Of raptures and tremors and measures Hlusive, and shadow embraces ! llail ]>laymate of satyrs and sunbeams and graces ! Hail vagrant eeleslial ! Hail Joy ! " 78 TO MUSIC rpnOIJ moi-e llian love, that liiif^^ers but to die ; 1 Thou moi'c IJiaii lilc, tliat swill, is boin again ! Thou poppy witch whose brew leleaseth pain, Whose breath is sweeter tlian the hjtiis sigli ! Thou queen of gypsy heaits and laneies shy, Of loves untried and undreamed seas lojig lain At Hood of eeslasy, wheie thon dost reign A moon of passion in sujjremaey ! Thou Circe of men's buried souls, who leap To break their eeieinents cold at voice of thee, Bolder than spells of old magician sleep The glad illusion of thy wizard ly ! Vestal or lemptress, all Ihy slaves to keep. Angel or criminal thou makest me ! 79 TITK HAND riMIFi baud all ])ilil(.s.s s()iii;lil (»iil my licart — L T1h)Iij:;Ii pU'iisiirt" ran allamil ;inu»ii,n llic lioriis, A vibiaiil misciy dkl naked shiinU Hcnoalh her llcry foolslcp shod willi I horns. The steady drnni, as sonir old duly dulled iiaibaric ra[)lnrrs kindled in her hack; Jlowcver clauiorous the faulare soared, A wailiiij; under-ery did snah'h nie back To earth, — wliere passion sank to pain of nerves ICxcited to the quick ; tlie llesh undone Amid the tyrannous debiinch of sound, Tliose swooninjjj melodies lh;d kiss and stun ! As one ^vho buried comrades, —youth :uh1 joy, — And with hisjaded rej;iment did hear Tir aceuslonied (piickstep o'er the lomly j;ra\e, 'I'o check with nun-kery a nu)rtal tear, 1 follow on behintl the l)and ! ^'ow 'lis Within uiy breast, — the heart-beat of the drum ; Now 'lis the brass that strikes me down ; before \N'iu)se bloodless l)ayonets swift overcome, The deadened senses yiehl their last defence, And for escape I lift a ciaveu hand ; "Dear Ood ! forbid not hell's just waj^e of tlanie. But uuto me, a sinner, spare the band ! '' 80 TRISTAN AND ISOF.DE QWTFT lo ciicli ollu'i' llicy iiisli hliiidly on — ^ ^ Like Iwo I liimiphaiil, hrcMSlcd wiivcs, Ihiil sweep III glad green eurliiig iciguii Joy ii[)(ni The curl )les.s impulse of iiii niiknowii dec|», TTiilil llu-ir goiil I iiiiiull nous is won. Piissioicile l>re:ikers lli:il iiiiist run :ineriug — A hint of passion on the wing — A crimson tremor from the rose — Good night ! Good-by ! So dreaming- goes. 84 WERE I some little melody, I'd leave tlie keys And trembling boAv my head upon your knees ; Were I a song, no lips but j^ouisi My life should take ; Were I some mighty chord, I'd break From master hands to shock your heart awake ! Were I one high pure note with heaven for goal, I'd die ofjoy to rise within your soul. 85 TO A VOICE HEART, sang thou thyself to me, Or all mine inmost depths to thee ? Becalmed upon thy voice I lie, Who drown and listen, — thine for aye ! Yet there is more to sing, — oh more ! The fleetest frigate off sleep's shore. In thy most seaward-going dream, Shall bear thee less of Merlin gleam, Than mystery and charm and pain That wait thy call, — nor wait in vain — Where love doth wake in woman's eyes To greet thy passion's crimson skies ! O Love, thy waves leap over me — Far out upon their harmony. Becalmed upon thy voice I lie. Who drown and listen, — thine for aye ! 86 THE GOD OF SONG THE God of Song — of soug impassioned, tense and low and love-distilled — Of song supreme, aflame, heroic ; the God of Song desire-filled. Lifting his voice above the nncleared wilderness of ecstasy. Circled a heart with ambient fire ! E'en as Wotan, charmed he His own, — from all sweet sounds or tender, — pity or sobs or laughter — Murmurs of men or threat of thunder ; doomed it forever after To beat alone unto the rhythmed memory of his delight ; While as the guardians of his spell, flash Orphean echoes bright ! 87 A SOITL TO A VOICE OTIIOU divine intruder, Who thronj^li the life-blood stole To si)urn the heart's old highway, And haunt a ravished soul ! Thy wings part soft my breathing, And where thou seekest rest, No other e'er shall venture Till Death explore my breast. Within my inmost being, AVhere only (Tod may go — What bliss to trust thy spirit To tremble to and fro ! 88 A LOVE-SONG 1L0VE thee as a wild bird loves the sky — ller silent radiant licaven of flight ! Breaking her heart in song for thy deliglit, High o'er the world, to glad thee and reqnile Her silent radiant heaven of flight. I love thee as a wild bird loves the sky ! 1 lov^e thee as a wild biid Ioacs the sky ! 'Neath cottage eaves when swallows drop to rest — The roaming gidl on sea-girt crags may nest — The eagle deem hei' snllen eyrie best — 'Neath cottage eaves when swallows drop to lesl I love thee as a wild bird loves the sky ! I love thee as a wild bird loves tlie sky ! Far, far below — for her nor nest nor mate, Her wings will never droop, — in vain they wait — The sunset flies of dying day, her fate ; Far, far below — for her nor nest nor mate, I love thee as a wild bird loves the sky ! 89 TUK VOICE OF ISRAFEL ISRAFEL calls her from his upper white ! Swift torn the iiiosh that held her llutterinti- Forgot llie snare that lured her beating wing - Israfel calls her with his song of light ! Once nu>re her pinions cut her native air To bear tier as a spirit soaring, where Israfel calls her from his radiant height ! 90 TO PAIN DEAR hnman Harp, why must God's liancl atlune Thy passioned strings, celestial -keyed, to pain? Did the old marvels of the sun and moon, Of love and joy, smite on thy breast in vain? From anguish only is the ravishing Of strains unlicard, Keats vaunted sweetest far, And thou, the cliosen instrument to sing The lonely rapture of his spirit's star? No voice within thy chord, from discord wrung, Ilath Joy ; — submerged, forgot — her siren lute Borne by small Loves, with roses overhung 5 The slow vibrations of her heart are mute When high o'er blade of bliss thy notes arise Mid pain-taught nightingales of Paradise ! 91 AN ECHO OF THE ORCHESTRA THE footfall of the cellos 'cross my heart, The wood- wind as it listeth wauderiug — The zenith flight of vibrant violins That raise the eyes to Summers of delight ; The losing self on streams of harmony, Whose curving currents lap the senses round Till surging maelstroms seize them, — hold them strong Against a swift chromatic undertow ; While from the massing cloud of tone sustained Elusive lightnings shimmer from the harp — The horns deplore — the viols importune — O'er whose ascendant cadences prevails The chaos of the cymbals and the drum ! Not Love itself is so possessed of Spring, To overflow the sunken shore of life And lift a gleaming flood to nameless stars, As this Slavonic wooing of the brass, Or this enamoured mating of the strings ! 92 CLIMAX DEAD at the climax ! Music, color, love, Mounting in triple blazoned majesty ; Gift of the Gods all other gifts above, So fell the golden Greeks of tragedy ! Now, while the trumpets knock upon the gates ; Now, while the crash of brass intoxicates ! Dead at the climax ! This is victory ! His overturned chariot wins the race. As Death's voice sweeps the field where mortals flee, And hoarse with blood-stained triumph cries, "Give place !" Dead at the climax ! While with life elate, Dead at the climax ! O supremest fate ! 93 . INACTION UNTO the soldier uursed by murder's breath, More terrible than cannon roar or death — The bloodless waiting on a foeless field. Where Night and Peace lean low on double shield. 94 THE WATCHER ipROM towered battlement I sweep the plain, -L And smite the heights of hope with eager cry — Who wears the crown? Who lie among the slain 1 No harbinger as yet against the sky. The future sleeps in night's dark hostelry ; A watcher lone, I sound my bugle-call To speed the chance— whate'er the tidings be— With soul erect though coward strongholds fall. The echo wafts no signal from the breeze, Each wakeful star a sentry's challenge gleams ; Behind me are the silent certainties, Around me rise the silver mists of dreams. God of the plain, what bidding wilt Thou send ? Again in vain I scan the dim highway— Shall sword or sceptre mark the vigil's end ? God of the hills, art Thou for peace or fray? At last ! Across the ridge I see him leap And fly on wing of light unto my gate ; Hail, runner Day ! Well spurned the fields of sleep. Thou dauntless sun-clad servitor of fate ! 95 THE WATCHER Put off thy sandals, while, with bars flung wide, I meet thy weal or woe on bended knee. Hail, runner Day ! whatever may betide From out the regal hand of destiny. 96 BEFORE THE BATTLE WHEN as a hero he must meet grim hordes, Relentless nerve him on to victory ! Kindle the naked flash of hostile swords. Those blades that lust for such as he ! Speak not of pity or of coming peace, ISTor stay him up on strains of sympathy ; Admit no chance of unforeseen release, Nor soothe with balms of memory ; But sharper press the combat's exigence. Measure the certainty of overthrow. Bid him God -speed, each muscle strained and tense ; Trust him the more if desperate the foe ! 97 ''THE AVORLD FORGOT" NOT cloistered saints, tliat bid the world Remember tliey forget — its lure defy, Whose abnegating robes accost the glance Of lost humanity ; Not they whose moving lij)s attest Repeated prayer, to shame the throng or mart, Are Thy sM'ift followers alone, Sw^eet Christ ! Unveiled, untonsured, they there be Who hold their miry brothers to their heart, Even for love of Thee, Who didst remember to the end Thy w orld, though they had Thee forgot and fled — A hillside Calvary Thy holy lot. Mountain and sea Thy bed. A LAST APPEAL WHAT wilt Thou of me, Lord? Wlioin Thon hast made To dumbly sit beside the cottage door, Entered and passed by lusty traffickers Of work and joy, — even as I of yore. What wilt Thou of me. Lord? Too weak to toil, Too hoarse to sing, — with eyes that fail to greet Beyond the shadow of a sheltering wall. Life clotted thick against the heart's frail beat, Misshapen to the avarice of youth. And shattered by strange forms of suffering. Left fumbling at the latch of Thine intent, A contradiction of returning Spring. What wilt Thou, Lord, With this dull image of Thyself, — this mere obstruction in the i)ath? A symbol of long patience unto men. Or sign of wrath ? LofC. 99 THE VIGIL WHILE others slept, — a soul leaned o'er the wilderness of night ; Past faith in God, — aloof from human love ; with sight For one void instant bared unto the ice-lit North, to guess At man's design and some hid certainty possess. Eenouncing all save self, — from out that lone sublimity It gathered Godhood ; saw itself unmasked, to be A matchless entity ; for fear, and life and death to dread ! Then the clairvoyant solitude of terror sped. 100 THE DOUBTER WHY wilt thou haunt me thus, thought of God? Leave me my doubt unwakened by thy dawn ; Desire disowns thy love or chastening rod — Night is for revel, day for rest. Begone ! My heart seeks not forgiveness or to share Thy searing mysteries ; leave me to doubt. Art thou still near ? I feel thy presence dare My bravest mocking, — track my silence out. What if my truest doubt did but blaspheme ? God ! Were I saint, — or fiend to bid thee go ! That I believe, O Heaven, let me dream — Or from thy fear let doubt a respite know ! 101 A CRADLE-SONG OF FAITH SLEEP well, young Faitli, sleep well ! Doubt shall not raise o'er thee his ugly head, Doubt is forever dead To thee, — so rest thee well ! Sleep well, calm Faith, sleep well ! Witliin thy dreams the shepherds saw a star. Follow its pathway fai". So with thee all be well ! Sleep well, tried Faith, sleep well ! Rise brave begirt when Dawn shall call Her certain warriors ; thou shalt not fall. The night is shoit ; sleep well ! Sleep well, old Faith — Mis well With thee ! Old Faith shall young awake ; Love, Hope nor Destiny their promise break ! Sleep well, old Faith, sleep well 102 PERVERSION A SHIP that drowns, ingulfed by waves on whicli it sped ; A sword with rust upon the blade ; A brain where past creations hover o'er their dead ; A trustful heart through love betrayed. Let us die comrades, on the wave, Our swords drawn keen. Our brains alive the land to save. Our love still clean ! 103 JUDGMENT SIN crouching cried, O ''Behold a serpent with a flaming tongue, that doth deride Me at the gate that spans my pathway wide ! " "Ah, blessed eyes ! " Cried Purity, — " an angel at the door of Paradise ! Unto her lilies white my spirit flies ! " 104 A PRAYER FOR sin long ages since begun, From father's father unto sou, For pride inborn, and careless wrong, For lust of life when youth beat strong, Forgive, God — remorse is long ! For sin through bleak discouragement, For sin with better motives blent, For others' sake, in love's dear stress. But most for sin through loneliness, O God, forgive — forgive and bless ! 105 BEWAKE AN EMPTY HEART I DROVE out hot desire, I put my love away, I burned my gods in fire — What host shall I obey? I dare not brave delay, Lest old charms o'er me throng - An Orpheus swift, I pray ! To dull the siren's song. Bring sweeter airs for sweet ! Bring wider dawns for day ! Void hearts enticing beat To homeless lusts alway. 106 LIFE'S SCHOOL IN life's strange school I heard Pain call my name, And prayed to be excused ; — no answer came — A childish lesson just a moment long, A sigh, a tear, instead of my old song — Then sterner tasks were set me o'er and o'er ; At last I stood beside the open door, A master of the laws of grief ; proud borne As jewels by some stately order worn. Only one mighty test was left : to hear Another called, whose name, of all names dear, Left courage weary, strength of no avail. And smote rebellious blood to cheeks long pale ; The crncifixial hour bids me depart, And claims submission for a dearer heart ! 107 IN HIS IMAGE THE starry heavens brokenly reveal Their beanty when on tossing waves outspread ; As warring hearts the face of God conceal, That lies reflected on our tranquil dead ! 108 WHAT THE GULL HEARD THE FIRST BOAT OH to be out on the open sea ! Bride of the waves and veiled in their foam ! Rotted the beam and the sail will be — Anchoring here at home. THE SECOND BOAT Oh to be over the harbor bar ! Safe from the perils that crash and yawn ; Tattered in shroud and mangled in spar, — I shall go down ere dawn ! 109 SOUNDING AWHILE delayed the voyage ou life's high ■1^ sea — That hearts may gauge the drowned deeps below ; Slow days of sounding — unto which men owe The wreckage saved, and course of victory ! 110 RESTRAINT AS ocean, drawing back too restless tides J^ That would be wandering beyond worn boundaries, Feels in the tumult, as her turning flood subsides, The uncurbed longing of her chafing seas ; After a mighty moment, souls draw up their sheath Of swift reserve ; shrinking from conscious certainty Of that recurring impulse throbbing deep beneath — Resisting fierce all human mastery ! Ill THE INEVITABLE HE shrank and wondered, cup at lip, Since joy the brew he counled best ; Then half demurred. '' Nay, drink !" quoth Life— A cloud hid all the West. '^ The cup is deep, the potion strange — Nor was it meant for me ! " he cried. The darkness fell, but Life remained, Wliile fierce he strove and sighed. Thrice raised the cup, thrice let it fall — No vintage this of Nature's vine ! At last, compelled by Life's strong hand, He drained the bitter wine. One groan for boyhood's bubbling spring. Then, — '' If this cup be meant for me, My manhood at the brim !" he pledged — Alike the bead and lee. 112 A DOUBLE GRIEF rpHE heel of one supreme, confessed despair - A One sorrow, face to face without relief, No son of woman could disdain or bear. Lighter the burden of a double grief ! That he may shift from side to side, and dare A snatch of song in respite brief. 113 THE NIGHT-WATCH MARK you those kiudliiig eyes with love-light brave — The buoyant step and flash of laughter gay 1 Bright burn the bonfires of a human heart, To hold the wolves of memory at bay ! 114 WASTED TO speak, oft is to raise the lid Where lifelong treasuries are hid ; To break the glass of loving days Along the blasphemous highways ; To strip the sacred garlands fair And leave our highest altars bare, — Dishonoring the heart's high priest To spread a moment's idle feast For faithless eyes and careless ears, That desecrate the hoarded years ! 115 THE CRY OF A THOUGHT TOO lately risen from chaotic mind, With naked consciousness but dimly stirred - Transfiguration tremblingly divined, Touch me not yet by breath's defiling word ! Leave me a hidden infancy to haunt The twilight spaces of the unexpressed ; Nor wrest a gauzy shade to idly flaunt As misbegotten fancy of thy breast. My rainbows fade before thy holden eyes, My harpstrings break upon thy busy loom ; Speech ponderous plods where frail conception flies — Must unembodied thought the flesh assume ? 116 THE POET AT dead of uiglit he melts old joy, old truth, old Xa. paiu, Through his new soul, and runs new forms of light ; Till battered jewels, dull and marred, reset again, Keceive new lustre to enchant our sight. 117 INHERITANCE JUST as a lordly father might o'erwhelm A son with full possession of his realm, — Vineyards of fruitage fair and forests dim, Streams, friends and sov'reignty once dear to him,— So Time has toiled since light through chaos ran^ Despoiling each successive age of man To mass a proud inheritance for thee. Heir of the nineteenth century ! Art in her ermined pageantry, And Thought grown deeper than a lone high sea Lapping the tropic shoi'es of Poesy, And Music, mistress of the gods — all, all ! The regal subjects of thy listless call. The blue blood of the ages courses free Within thy veins ; the sphinx waits on for thee. Shall no new star respond to blue Chaldee, Whose shepherds scan the sky for prophecy ? For thee law, war and peace did giant strife Through love and martyrdom to crown thy life. Barbaric splendor lit the overthrow Of dynasties forgot, for thee ! Then go ! Tear the slow moss away that does but hide A roll of ancestry whose deathless pride Is thine ! Behold the tombs whose ashes wrought To earn the kingdoms lightly set at naught ! 118 ^JOY COMETH IN THE MORNING" EVENING, for weariness, draws in Unfinislied toil, half-hearted play, Life's armor worn exceeding thin By the rough conflict of the day. Evening leads home from hope's high steep Lone flocks of disappointments sad ; Unsatisfied we fall asleep. Nor even pray to waken glad. But in the morning there is light ! Love's heart against the world beats strong, Joy breathes across the glooms of night. And out of darkness lifteth Song ! Then with the dawn doth valor rise. To langh at all it vowed to bear, While writ in glory on the skies Is answer to the doubter's i^rayei*. 119 "THINGS UNSEEN" DAWNS with their dew and midnights burnt with stars — Eternal passions that from heaven lean — New goals that rise along thine inmost heart, Be unto thee a pledge of things unseen ! 120 CLEARED WHILE yet in sight, lie knew nor saw our faces straining seaward from the shore ; Hoarsely we hailed, but distance blurred our breath j signals were shown : we spoke no more. Framed dark against a stormy sky, his boat was mutely set for outward-bound ; Baffled by eyes that would not let him go, — until the trembling world seemed drowned, — As limitless the vacillant offing, all her shivering space outspread Between us and our fading mariner — voyaging impassive with the dead. Up, Love ! Across wide silences thy valiant pinions try ! Companion this pale wayfarer, who sleeps but cannot die. Thou and the sun shall lead him o'er the gold horizon line, Where crimsoning dreams crown dusty duties — red vintage of a weary vine. 121 CLEARED O Death ! AVe stood in sbiulow of thy great reality ; we could uot slay The eraviiiii; of dead hands, — too frail for this Avoi'hUs toil, untaught in that world's play ! A¥an captives of thy listless calm, — strangely disburdened of all mortal cares, That lay from Fate's cold talfrail dumb outstretched in listless longing, as faint prayers : Helpless as old-time tenderness — aloof on thy remote and wider way. That flows through incommunicable darkness to the coast of breaking day ! But wrapped in royal jiurple of majestic mystery — He heard, far out, the shoreless music of his soul's lone sea. His earthly neighboring complete, serene he drifted back ; To him the brotherhood of stars — for us the courage of his vanislied track ! 122 VALE! NOW let the frosty sentence pass ! For I have garnered asters in my sonl, To blnr with sentiment the slolid year Beyond the hirgess of their puri)le dole. And I liavewrnng llie life-blood from the honrs, Forgot old pain amid tlu* rnssel wold^ Steeped love in azure and immensity, And bui-ned regret in scarlet and in gold. Venlnrcd Ihe circle of the liazcl wilcli, And claimed of gusty winds bluif brotherhood — And buried in my heart a rain -wet path That led to sunset Iniid Ihiongh a wood. Amid gray embers one hot hope is lit — A torch unto a loyal memoiy, And through the l)ciiis<)n of dying leaves Blows my consent unto the chill decree. Now is all proi)hccy fnl filled ! Thy ruslling foolfall, Aulumn, bear thee soon Within the dim, unmeasured hills of Time, Led by the waning of the hnnter's moon ! 123 ZERO OITT from her lair of night The Winler day Draws her ooki, shining sides, To seek her prey. Peril attends her tread ; Her feet of snow l*nrsne the wanderer ; To life a foe. Her blow is silent sirnck, Frost is her breath — Her eyes Hash ieieles, Her trail is death. Slow to her eoverl dark 8he slinks away, Snnuner\s hot hnnlsmen still Holding at bay. 124 THE RAIN NO. joy for hei- in I owns — no blessing of the g]'onn(] Oi- gialcCiilncss of beiisl ! Tlie heedless traflic drowned Her voice, and towered walls destroyed hei- lu-ad- long fall ; She missed the sound of i-ivers rising lo her call, — The open fields, — in wandering the path of men, Fretted by paltiy bar and narrow hindrance. Then, Finding small welcome and no love to gieet her there. Cheated of joy, this wilful comrade of the air l<\nsook the iron-hearted town and lan to find 'I'lic sea — leaning aslant the lough arm of the wind. That tossed the ships to harboi\s of his whim, and tore The waves from their deep courses, (lii\ ing them offshore Till leagues of reeling fathoms gathered to their rout. High o'er the din of roaring breakers blew the shout 126 THE RAIN Of wilder hurricaues with black wings wide in flight ; Only the stars escaped the tumult of the night — While unrestrained in space she wreaked her stormy glee In tempest carnivals with frenzied wind and sea ! 126 THE MARSH SHE braids her hair of brown With ribbons of the sea, And all the lands lean down, Approach, on bended knee. Her cheek with dawn is flushed. Horizons tremble there ; Through years of nights deep hushed. The stars have found her fair. The sea-gull's brigand breast Is never false to her, The distant tide's unrest Her sunburnt mem'ries stir. Her soul is in midstream ; She listens — till she hears The waves brim o'er her dream. As jealous Ocean nears. She leads him through the maze Of all her waiting charms, Nor yields her wonder ways At once unto his arms ; 127 THE MARSH A lover wild the sea, A bride upon the shore - Salt winds for certainty, And ebb-tide as before ! 128 KEVOLT iS the sea to her rocks — that refuse her — J\- Cast her back on her desolate passion, Repel her besieging caress, her hours Of sinuous languor — my heart to thy Feet, unwavering coast-guard of silence ! Faint in the ebb — from the outermost reef How her surge lifts the threat of her thunder ! How she gathers her emerald powers Of ocean, to batter the breakwater, — That cuts her, and tears her, — her jewelled robe Frayed ; her green plumes betrayed of their glory, Hurled to the floor of her dungeon — then up ! And with vengeance unsated, back to her Cruel desire. Compelled by a craving Unslaked, — known of two in the universe, — Sea unto crag ; my heart to its pleasure ! In the sensuous lull of the moonlight, In the unyielding glare of the noontide, In her desperate calms, as in tempest, Stand her crags ; mute, and ever withholding ; All unmoved by her hoarse protestation ; Restraining her never to brim on their Bosom ; resisting her ever — and yet In her madness possessing her wholly — As my heart is beset of thee, only ! 129 A GOLDEN DAY A LL art, all music that dreams obey, -t\ Beckou me back to one golden day ; A golden day where memory swoons, Captive between two sentinel moons. A happier day I never knew — 'Tis mine as a prisoner in blue, A hostage to swift invading pain, A sunbeam lighting long nights of rain ; Like a brave prayer when I cannot pray My heart turns back to that golden day — When beauty exhaled a silent balm Plooding love's restless heart with calm. Your words and fancies, your voice and eyes, Were part of the liquid Summer skies, And every throb your life-blood told ' Was set in quivei-ing Autumn gold. I saw 'twas singing itself away — Wonderful, pitiless golden day ; I knew 'twas held by our bated breath, Smiling the radiant smile of death ; Yet mine is a regal fate, I say. Blind in the light of a golden day ! 130 AN AUGUST AFTERNOON SCARCE in her topmost branches Nature breathes ; Brooding quiescent mysteries, her spent Airs rii^ple leisurely through passive trees, Whose tremulous leaves, in fervent freshness green, Whisper their cool elusive subtleties, As in and out her counsels wind their flight Down bowered ways of sultry mist, on vague And serious concerns of forestry. Too languorous for smiles, — too faint for tears, — Drenched in an aromatic memory Of rainbow showers, passionate and past, A lyric silence lies upon the hour ; A wide white silence ; slumberous ; becalmed : As Earth's old step had faltered,— slowed to rest,— Then pausing, ceased ; hushed in her orbit's song. Now is the August- hearted wafted soft Within the drowsy grace of siren arms. Where, as to seaward sailors, swaying pines Stretch forth their plumy darkness unto him, And murmur of a grotto drowned in sleep — Beneath a cave whose tinted walls of shell And wave-hid door are flooded o'er with dreams ! 131 ^W! OUT OF THE NORTH BLOW, ye dread gales ! I beg thee, Winter, stay ! Hencefortli the chosen fellow of my sonl ! As vassals of my solitude, thy winds — These hardy Norsemen of thy hostelry. The dilly-dally Spring no kinsman more Of mine — since Time hath lost the secret of That seed, whose blossom was Love's miracle, Whose fragrance was a full-blown madness sweet. The traitor south wind blew it overseas Mayhap, on airs of fickle blandishing ; Rough foemen I may send, to gather back In wild tornado clans the scattered charm Of gladder days — but rather would I dwell Apart from all that once was passing dear ; Bleak voices of the sea my Summer bird ; The frozen moor by storm-wrack overcast. My flowery lea ; an ancient race of pines My feudalty. A knight, disarmed by Life ; Within a moated personality ! 132 MYSTERIES WHEN afternoon's each shadow cleft With golden liquor fills^ Is there a heartache in my breast Or on the wistful hills! Smitten with color as with death, Were I thus stricken faint Of Spring's desire and Fall's consent, Save they for thee made plaint ? Or wert thou with us yet, dear Love, With thy sweet spirit's stress Would russet Autumn tinge her charm ? Her poignancy be less ? Parted, each leaf-strewn stream dotli run To thee ! The day doth wait ; For thine own vivid sake become A love-mood animate. Green ways beyond their pasture -bars. Aglow with absence dyes. Appeal for haunting yesterdays As unto homesick eyes. 133 MYSTERIES When glories of I he afternoon Comj>el the bnining west, Is there a rapture on the hills Or only in my breast? When stars renew the faith of heaven And dreams lie far at sea, Art thou within the hush of night Or in the soul of me ? 134 DEVONSHIRE POPPIES HERE, one peers lonely through a gate Pink-coated huntsman, pack astray ; There, turbaned courtiers of state Are blurred in carnival array. As scarlet acrol)ats they run To vault the hedgerow's mystery, Leaping fantastic in the sun, A blaze of Nature's jugglery. Like Highland troopers others pass. With kilt of flame and tunic green — Their bonnets blowing in the grass, Their piper's skirl a lark unseen. Will-o'-the-wisp of Summer noons. They flit 'mid haymakers at rest. And up the path of harvest moons. Are lost o'er sunset's gleaming crest. 135 THE SONG OF THE CAMELLIA AH, pity lue — a flower dumb ! ±jL The lilac is of Quaker speech. The flushiug oleauder from Her foreign lips doth soft beseech ; The jasmine on the convent wall, The pale arbutus forest-hid, The novice lilies chaste and tall. In fragrance speak — to me foibid. The rose is love articulate, The rustic pink doth spicy woo ; With purple eloquence innate The violet doth each outdo. The symbol of a heartless pride, I lift my perfect waxen head. While humble blossoms by my side Their sweet allurements round me spread. I feel my beauty glow and fade, A matchless target for decay — Yet without power was I made To steal the heart away ! 136 THE SONG OF THE CAMELLIA 'Neiitli showy bloom and glossy leaves, Which arrogance so well become, An Asiatic exile grieves ; Ah, pity me — a flower dumb ! 137 DAWN AT VENICE ONE burnished cloud first turned a jagged prow — The waking water nestled deep among Her murky gondolas, that bow on bow Freighted with shadows at the molo swung. Soon palace and canal paled into sight, Fainting as watchers whose long vigil wanes ; Till Dawn's approach across the Avaves of night Flushed the rose blood in sleeping Venice' veins. Then up the dazzling slcps that lead to God, One radiant sunbeam and a lone white dove Santa Maria's holy threshold trod, A shrine of morning lit by Light and Love ! Loud warned the chime to mass o'er quay and home. Calling soft flocks of doves to greet the day 'Mid sculptured saints and angels round the dome- While market-women followed in to pray. 138 HIGH NOON HERE where the faint breeze droops u]wn the grass, Where Summer incense fills the air with pine, — ■ Upon the highest hillside, where the sun Lifts Nature to himself, — I raise my shrine To thee. High Noon ! In whose clear eyes, undimmed by doubt or tear No secret shadow of the soul is good ; Others may dread thy burning judgment white — For them be twilight altars in the wood ; To thee, High Noon, Bare-breasted as a pagan I would come ! Test thou my heart — that proven, I may dare Exult to shrive me in thy rileless peace. And sacramental faith eternal swear To thee. High Noon ! 139 PLIGHTING ACROSS the forced abyss of Time, fair Day and J\. waiting Night have met To stain their lij)s in sunset's loving-cup ; whose ravished sorcery Spilled down the sky Unheeded runs. Oh ageless lovers, athirst and amorous yet ! We transient-hearted read the glowing legend of thy constancy With jealous eye. 140 AT CLOSE OF DAY EARTH'S harmonies are blent in one, At peace with song the drowsy birds ; Labor has earned and mirth has spent, Nor longer graze the pastured herds. Day dreams at last — the sun has gone, Leaving the patient trees to stand As sentinels of her regret. Upon night's dusky border-land. One golden gleam awakes the pool. That startled lifts a blaze abroad — To sink, as breaks in ecstasy The high note of a closing chord. O comrade season of the soul. What sure repose thy silence hath ! Lull all the hollows, drown the heights In thy deep glooms of aftermath. 141 NIGHTFALL THE suu puts out his crimson light, A hawk ascends her stairway steep ; From the near jungle of the night I hear the padded tread of sleep ! 142 JANUARY WHEN Darkness spreads her sombre powers, The Winter moon smiles cold and slow ; O restless heart, gay Spring flowers, How wears the night beneath the snow? 143 DIES ROSATIONIS IS in Italian Summers, immemorial, ■A. The Roman roses by the Roman populace Were hailed, and eager bartered in the market-place, — Not for adornment of some pagan carnival, Nor yet the toga's flowing fold, or fiivorite's hair. Nor sweet debauchery of reckless flowering. But for the arid tomb's affectioned garlanding. Whose lapsing inmates thrill again to human care, — For one brief day, may we who love the rose, the last Remembering children of the goldenest age. Immortal longings of all vanished Junes assuage, And toss a crimson pall o'er Summers of the past ! Red as the life-blood of Caligula, long shed. For one bright feast of memory, their fra- grance be As homage to Augustan noontides oversea, Aurelian dawns — imperial sunsets, dead, 144 DIES ROSATIONIB Day of the rose ! Tiiy beauty-laden rites restore ! Lest ill iinbiidded yeai'S, wben my fond step is stayed, No cry of color shall escape the heavy shade To rouse the perfumed deeps of this young June once more ! 145 MIDSUMMER MIDSUIMMER weariness dotli cling to me — The year balli wronglit her dazzling pageantry And broodetli passive in satiety. Wide calms of increase stay her restless wing, As flight were but a pastime meet for days Before the idle joy of ripening, When stress of growth compelled the forest ways. O'erspent with torrid bloom the garden burns, Nor longer to the sun in trembling turns Her faint-hued hopes ; but in her glory spurns Him as a rival ! Well she hath forgot How once shy perfumes wooed each passing - glance And drooping blossoms prayed him tarry not — Then yielded smiling to his sultry trance ! 146 MIDSUMMER The meadowbrook hath lost her song ; uo more The lusty freshet brawls from shore to shore, Nor in strange elfin voices doth implore — Command, beseech, or warn of coming woe ; Or call her leaping comrades from afar, Or glad the thirsty cattle as they go, So parched and low her tinkling accents are. The grassy folk now lull the livelong night. Rocking the silence — haply to requite For choruses of birds too old to plight. I know not when the red-robed cardinal First 'mid the sedge and rank-grown rushes stood. Nor at what hushed and measured interval There fell an herby twilight through the wood ; Nor when upon the hills the flooding tide Of Summer broke, as up their purple side The hoary chestnuts, like surf flinging wide Against a foreign shore, did first appear ! But now the goldenrod's gay heraldry In stony pastures lifts a yellow cheer, And heavy walks the grain upon the lea. 147 MIDSUMMER Midsummer weariness doth cling to me — Beneath her fruitage brave the apple-tree Stoops with the burden other dignity ; Nor longer, as in days of budded bliss, Doth toss at pleasure of the vagrant wind. Or covet keen the raindrop's jewelled kiss. Or Springtide wonder in her nestlings find. Not yet, not yet the laggard gentian blue. That loveliest lingerer — ever true Unto her roadside tryst of hoar and dew ! Not yet the sobering of early eves ; The fireside joy, whose timely respite glows With spirit of the Autumn and her sheaves ; Not yet the dusky grape or aught of those Proclaiming harbingers ! The covert sign Of sap arrested, marks the solstice line ; The laugh of Summer now a smile benign. But nowhere warns the shadow of the Fall, Though nowhere bides the busy seed-time blithe — While imperceptible the omens crawl Between the distant sickle and the scythe. The gleaming corn, in valiant lines arrayed. Hath yet no rust upon the shining blade Drawn bright against the sun ; and deep in shade The green-voiced breath of soothing minstrelsy Doth ever coax and rustle, muse and sing — While underneath all musky flattery The tasselled ear doth hint of harvesting ! 148 MIDSUMMER The water-lily bares her fragrant breast ; Across the cloudless sky from east to west No mysteries are hid — no joy uuguessed. By day, like some bewildered Romany, The crescent moon seeks out her evening trail ; The roadside gypsy sells her augury, Nor does one looked-for token halt or fail. Yet all unmoved we speed the step of life — The tarnished pleasure and the loosened strife, The garnered wisdom grave, or folly rife ! Midsummer weariness doth cling to me ; Only our love shall never wax nor wane — Eternal pain, eternal ecstasy ! Earth's ebb and flow a mask of visions vain. Ah, dreams of bloom and fecund sleep, ye lead Beyond the pale of time ; ere mortals heed. Your beckoned beauties one by one recede ! Only our love shall all unchanging stand — One fixed star amid the circling spheres, Within the rainbow that hath ever spanned The heart of man and passing of the years. 149 mOV M I0O3 OCT 30 190/ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 015 799 583 2