oems 
 
 ^Benjamin ^fisfier 
 
Class ^_„ J_ tSlJ_ 
 
 QmmwJAM 
 
 CfiFXKIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
POEMS 
 
 BY 
 
 BENJAMIN FISHER 
 
J9'^ 
 

 COPYRIGHT 1921 
 
 By CLARENCE A. FISHER 
 
 OCT 24 1921 
 
 •gC!.A624937 
 

CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH XI 
 
 INTRODUCTION 4 1 
 
 A BALLAD OF MAN 7 
 
 MORNING-GLORIES 9 
 
 THE POET 12 
 
 AUTUMN 16 
 
 ODE TO IDEALITY 19 
 
 MAYING 26 
 
 THE MINER 29 
 
 THE OHIO 36 
 
 SERENADE TO 38 
 
 MAN THE SPECTATOR OF GOD 40 
 
 FOUR LOVES 45 
 
 HOPE— SONNET— BRAVE HEART, Etc 47 
 
 THE ROBIN 48 
 
 DEDICATION OF TOMB OF McKINLEY 51 
 
 THE FIRST SNOW-FALL 56 
 
 THE MYSTERY OF MARS' 57 
 
 THE POET'S RHAPSODY 61 
 
 TO WINTER 63 
 
 HOAR FROST 66 
 
 THE COTTAGERS 69 
 
 THE PROPHECY OF MAN 73 
 
 THE SONG SPARROW 83 
 
 THE INDIAN 85 
 
 THE WOOD-THRUSH 97 
 
 SERENADE 100 
 
 THE HERMIT— SONNET 102 
 
 VII 
 
Page 
 WINTER BALLAD 103 
 
 THE POET'S WOOING 104 
 
 AMBITION— SONNET 106 
 
 THE THRONE 107 
 
 THE SNOWFLAKE 112 
 
 AUTUMN LEAVES 115 
 
 THE MEADOW LARK 119 
 
 ON EASTER MORN 122 
 
 THE HAIL 127 
 
 ASPIRATION— SONNET— INCESSANT SPIRIT, Etc 130 
 
 THE COMET ; 131 
 
 SUFFERING— SONNET 137 
 
 WANDERING 138 
 
 THE POET'S DEATH 147 
 
 THE STORM— SONNET 152 
 
 AUTUMN LANDSCAPE 153 
 
 THE POET'S HOPE 154 
 
 BIRD'S AT EVENING 155 
 
 HOPE— SONNET— THE HALTING MORN, Etc 157 
 
 ODE ON SYMPATHY 158 
 
 LOVE AND LONELINESS 161 
 
 HARMONIES I 167 
 
 HARMONIES II 169 
 
 HARMONIES III 171 
 
 HARMONIES IV 173 
 
 ASPIRATION— SONNET— PALE ART THOU, Etc 175 
 
 BILLY 176 
 
 MORNING— SONNET 179 
 
 NOON— SONNET 181 
 
 EVENING— SONNET 183 
 
 VIII 
 
Page 
 
 NIGHT— SONNET 184 
 
 ODE ON THE TRANQUILITY OF THE SOUL 18S 
 
 THE SUPREME GOOD— SONNET 194 
 
 THE PRAYER OF THE PHANTHEIST— SONNET 195 
 
 REVOLUTION— SONNET 196 
 
 THE LIGHT OF NEW YEAR 197 
 
 THE POWERS THAT BE 200 
 
 VISIONED LOVELINESS 204 
 
 CHRISTMAS THOUGHTS 208 
 
 ODE ON HUMILIATION 212 
 
 TO THE SERAPH— SOUL 216 
 
 THE SEASON'S IMPRESSIONS 218 
 
 FOUND AT DAWN 222 
 
 WITHOUT THEE 227 
 
 THE TEAR 230 
 
 YOUTH'S VISION 231 
 
 NATURE'S DIVINITY 233 
 
 DEJECTION 236 
 
 MELANCHOLY 239 
 
 LONELINESS 240 
 
 THE LAST DAWN 242 
 
 OCTOBER 248 
 
 THE LONELY SONGSTER 250 
 
 PRELUDE 253 
 
 INTERLUDE 254 
 
 POSTLUDE 255 
 
 REDEEMED 257 
 
 Foreword 259 
 
 Immortal Love 261 
 
 Redeemed — ^Poem 265 
 
 IX 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 of 
 
 THE AUTHOR 
 
 Benjamin Franklin Fisher was bom at 
 Steubenville, Ohio, on the 22nd day of Decem- 
 ber, 1873. His father was Dr. Benjamin H, 
 Fisher, a physician and surgeon who success- 
 fully practised his profession there for many 
 years. Dr. Fisher served as a surgeon in the 
 Civil War, and continued in his profession 
 until his death in November, 1906. He was 
 married in early life to Elizabeth Rittenhouse 
 who was born at Hopedale in Jefferson 
 County, Ohio. Benjamin was one of four 
 children, Bartley, Jennie, Benjamin and Clar- 
 ence, the first of whom died at the age of six 
 years, Jennie and Clarence still surviving. 
 
 Benjamin's early education was obtained in 
 the public schools of Steubenville, where he 
 was graduated from the High School in 1892. 
 He then went to Depauw University at Green- 
 castle, Indiana, and pursued collegiate studies 
 
there for about two years. His first literary 
 work was begun at this time in some brief 
 articles and poems which appeared in the col- 
 lege publications. Leaving college in 1895 he 
 made an extended tour of Europe, travelling 
 ahnost continuously for a year, giving much 
 attention to the study of foreign languages 
 and art. Eeturning home, he entered Ober- 
 lin College where he continued his studies, and 
 later in 1899 returned to Depauw University. 
 In all of his college work especial attention 
 and study was given to literature and the fine 
 arts. Somewhat later he made another tour 
 of Europe, contributing while abroad, and 
 after his return, articles to various American 
 magazines and newspapers. 
 
 It was following the last tour that he seri- 
 ously began his poetical work. Within a few 
 years' time, although engaged in business af- 
 fairs, he wrote a considerable number of 
 poems intending them for later book publica- 
 tion. The poems of this period were, how- 
 ever, laid aside by reason of the requirements 
 and time needed for business affairs, and only 
 a few of them found their way into the pub- 
 lished collection in 1914. 
 
In 1903 he made a tour into the far interior 
 of Mexico, and while there wrote several ar- 
 ticles for magazines and newspapers. His 
 father and mother, to whom he was greatly 
 attached, died in 1906. Shortly afterward he 
 became president of a manufacturing com- 
 pany and remained in active business until his 
 last illness. 
 
 During the latter years of his life almost 
 every moment possible was devoted to his 
 poetical works, and in the early Spring of 1914 
 his first collection of poems was published 
 under the title ^^Life Harmonies." 
 
 He immediately set out to complete other 
 works in which he had been interested for 
 years, and just prior to his death had com- 
 pleted for publication a number of poems and 
 prose works. In the midst of these labors he 
 was stricken down by a sudden illness, and un- 
 expectedly passed away on Thursday, the 26th 
 day of October, 1916, in a hospital at Canton, 
 Ohio, where he had been hurriedly taken when 
 he fell ill. On a beautiful autumn day, Sun- 
 day, the 29th of October, he was buried in the 
 little cemetery at Loudonville, Ohio. 
 
 The later years of his life were filled with 
 
little acts of kindness to those whom his 
 charity could reach. His success in business 
 was to him only the means to the accomplish- 
 ment of higher purposes in life. Expression 
 of this has been beautifully given in his sonnet 
 *' Aspiration," — 
 
 "Incessant Spirit like a tireless goad, 
 
 Compelling effort to unwonted trials. 
 Why dost thou urge me onward o'er the road 
 
 Of weary struggle through life's mazy wiles? 
 With failures scorned and pleasures all subdued, 
 
 I strive and strain to reach those higher goals 
 Where labor shall achieve some human good — 
 
 Some influence sweet, or love in humble souls. 
 So, shall thy force relentless keep her sway; 
 
 E'en though I lose the common joys of life, 
 My heart shall triumph in some golden day. 
 
 With lives made better through my pain and strife. 
 Thou gracious tyrant, wield thy chast'ning goad 
 And drive me upward o'er thy skyey road." 
 
 Yes, — he has in truth realized his great de- 
 sire,— he has left the world *'some influence 
 sweet and love in humble souls. '' 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XN bringing to the public this collec- 
 tion of the poems of Benjamin Fisher 
 there has been no attempt to exclude any 
 which had been completed at the time of 
 his death. Doubtless he would have 
 omitted some of those here presented, but 
 it is felt the collected edition should con- 
 tain all of his finished labors. Some of the 
 poems are republished from the volume 
 brought out by him in 1914 entitled **Life 
 Harmonies," but the greater number com- 
 prise those never before published. 
 
 There are imperfections, of course, as 
 there must be in a complete collection of a 
 poet's life work, and yet, taken all in all, 
 there is shown surprising evolution from 
 the poems of youth, as ^^Love and Loneli- 
 ness," to those of true poetic thought and 
 inspiration, like **The Poet's Death" and 
 his masterpiece — ^^Eedeemed." 
 In the composition of his poems great care 
 
 was always taken in the choice of meter 
 
 1 
 
and rhyme consistent witli the thought and 
 subject to be embodied; and this is true 
 throughout all his work, although the art 
 of it is carefully concealed as it always 
 should be. His poetical ideals were formed 
 from a constant companionship with the 
 masters of poesy; and it is impossible to 
 truly weigh the influence of any one poet 
 in the life work of another. His reading 
 and study of literature and especially of 
 poetry had been almost continuous from 
 boyhood, but perhaps it can be said, that 
 Dante, Milton, Aeschylus, Spencer, 
 Wordsworth, Byron, Keats and Shelley 
 are those whose influence was greatest in 
 his poetical life. 
 
 His was a deep abiding faith in Chris- 
 tianity, and yet strange as it may seem to 
 some, he was inspired and influenced to a 
 marked degree by Shelley. He felt the ul- 
 timate triumph of life to be the endless 
 glory of love, and this, after all, he found 
 in Shelley's *' Prometheus Unbound," 
 '* Adonais" and in the exquisite "Hymn to 
 Intellectual Beauty." Surely there is no 
 inconsistency in taking into one's being 
 
 2 
 
such conceptions linked as they were in 
 him with true Christian faith ; and so we 
 have the lines at the close of **Wander- 
 ing"- 
 
 ** And all the joys and woes of men 
 
 Poured o'er my heart to consecrate 
 My selfish passion's paltry pain 
 To UNIVEESAL LOVE again 
 For every living state." 
 
 And in **The Prayer of the Pantheist", — 
 **0h, loveliness divine, my soul allure 
 To triumph-skies and realms of ecstasy." 
 And again in the closing lines of *^The 
 Poet 's Death, "— 
 
 **Thy sky-lost songs of joy and pain, 
 Thy yearnings strange for perf ectness, 
 Thy sighs and tears, thy Love supreme, 
 Ee-echo here in Heaven's fane 
 And hymn Love's universal reign." 
 And finally in prose form in the Fore- 
 word to "Redeemed," — 
 
 "Here pride is debased, humility exalt- 
 ed, suffering recompensed and sacrifice 
 rewarded, in the vast harmony of that uni- 
 versal law — "The Infinite Love of God." 
 
 3 
 
The ^^ Essays on Francis Thompson," 
 published after his death, in 1917, and 
 modeled somewhat after Thompson's own 
 ** Essay on Shelley," give us some idea of 
 his ability to write in fine prose form. In 
 these we find the poet expressing his 
 thoughts, impressions, appreciation and 
 criticism of another of his kind. And in 
 the Thompson Essays we discover prose- 
 poetic work of no mean character, — 
 
 *^ Thompson's imagination was fine, deli- 
 cate, subtle. He did not reach the sublime 
 heights of Shelley, or formulate the grand 
 conceptions of Milton. He worked with 
 all possible elements, but he cherished 
 them for their individual beauty, nor com- 
 bined them into great structures of tower- 
 ing magnificence. Yet his faculty was 
 quick, rich, rarified — ^his fancies evanes- 
 cent, filmy, fragile. He knew the fleeting 
 phases of a rapturous moment; he saw 
 the vague appearance of Nature's strang- 
 est passions; he grasped the pallid won- 
 ders of Infinite seemings, and made them 
 stay and change into palpable beings for 
 our adoration. True, the high passions of 
 
the super-mind — the far, strange forces 
 of discovery and revelation, that, in the 
 absolute greatness of some souls, pierce 
 even to the supernal, were not his native 
 gift or cultivated acquirement. But his 
 power of minute perception and discern- 
 ment was delicate if not divine, deep if 
 not universal, intense if not exalted." 
 
 The spirit and beauty of nature are 
 ever present in all the poetic work of Ben- 
 jamin Fisher. His true companionship 
 with nature seemed to have kept him al- 
 ways close to God. Note especially the 
 closing stanza in *^ Autumn Leaves," — 
 ''Ah, could we mold our sordid fate 
 
 To Nature's sinless reign. 
 Our living were a happy state 
 
 And death a radiant wane. 
 O autumn leaves, our low desire 
 With thy rich lore of life inspire!" — 
 
 the entire poems — ''Nature's Divin- 
 ity" and "The Hermit," and the conclud- 
 ing stanza of "The Seasons' Impres- 
 
 sions" 
 
 "Oh, that the full import of Nature's 
 mood — 
 
 5 
 
The reign of rigorous Winter, or the 
 rare 
 Voluptuous kiss of Summer's plenti- 
 tude — 
 Might be to thee, my brother, as to me ! 
 Our souls relieved of rankling want and 
 care 
 Would thrill like harps with life's 
 divinity. 
 Would rise like Christ above life's vast 
 despair." 
 Strangely enough the end of the poet's 
 earthly life came soon after the completion 
 of the crowning effort of his career, *' Re- 
 deemed," — the story-poem of the redemp- 
 tion of man through sacrifice and love. 
 This had been the work of years and he 
 felt that in it he had achieved something 
 worthy. Here at last — ^*all conceptions 
 blend in human and divine affection, which 
 alone produces earthly happiness." 
 
 Clarence A. Fisher. 
 
 Canton, Ohio. 
 March, 1921. 
 
A BALLAD OP MAN. 
 
 There's a ballad of day 
 
 That I learned on my way 
 O'er the hills and the high lands alluring; 
 
 Thou hast seen how the morn 
 
 Scatters over night's bourn 
 Like a flood o'er a parched land pouring. 
 
 Hast thou seen it arise 
 
 Spreading vast o 'er the skies 
 With a flood-light e'er brighter and 
 higher, 
 
 Till it reaches a height 
 
 All a-gleam with white light 
 In the zenith of all noon's desire? 
 
 There's a song of the brook 
 As it starts from its nook 
 Purling down o'er some murmurous 
 shallow; 
 How it lingers or whirls, 
 In its calm pools or swirls, 
 Like a dark dream that daylight doth 
 mellow. ^ 
 
Hast thou seen how it flows 
 
 With a great strength that grows 
 To the mighty and broad-breasted river, 
 
 Till it sweeps far and free 
 
 Merged at last in the sea — 
 Calm in final, triumphant endeavor ? 
 
 There's a ballad of man 
 
 "Whispered through the dim plan 
 Of the forces and soul of creation; 
 
 When he rose from the night. 
 
 With the birth-gloom bedight, 
 But a weird hopei of life and elation. 
 
 Hast thou seen him through years 
 
 Struggle up with his fears 
 To a day-gleam from darks of abjection 1 
 
 Like the dawn's noontime glow, 
 
 Like the stream's ocean flow, 
 He shall merge in some far, strange per- 
 fection. 
 
MORNING-GLORIES. 
 
 Thou gracious gift from morning's gems, 
 Thou dow'r of beauty, fresh with dew, 
 No crowns of pearls or diadems 
 
 Of fabulous price can vie with thee. 
 The breath of night caressing you 
 Has made you burst with ecstasy 
 At day's first greeting, — lovely thing. 
 What wonder in thy blossoming ! 
 
 Does night or day or heav'n or earth 
 
 Hold all thy hues that blend so free? 
 Was e'er in dreams such beauteous birth, 
 Such generous boon of smiling cheer. 
 Adoring dawn beholds in thee "? 
 
 No gaudy blooms man's care can rear, 
 No visions rare his art can form 
 Compare with thee, sweet bride of morn. 
 
So lavish in thy glad array — 
 
 Can night conjure so rare a sight 
 As from her depths leaps forth with day 
 A myriad jewels rich and pure? 
 But thou must die before the light 
 Of noon beholds thy wealth mature, — 
 With tender morn's succeeding reign 
 To burst a thousand blooms again. 
 
 We need no wealth to have you near, 
 
 As free as rain and dew and air. 
 Thy blessings come with every year 
 As long as God's own sun endure. 
 All summer long thy blossoms fair 
 Bedeck the haunts of rich and poor. 
 And lowly homes where want is rife 
 Bless God for all thy cheerful life. 
 
 10 
 
With thy sweet worship of the sky — 
 
 Thy glory to earth's Lord and ours, 
 We raise our silent hymn on high 
 For all thy bounty rich and free. 
 Thanks for the grace of thy dear flow'rs, 
 Thanks for the thoughts they move in 
 me, — 
 All Nature's boundless store was given 
 For human joy, — as free as Heaven. 
 
 11 
 
THE POET. 
 
 A radiant love so fair and pure, 
 
 A soul astray from sky-kissed heights, 
 
 That veils of blighting grief obscure. 
 
 Had fainted on the midnight still, — 
 
 A breathing song, a pining flow'r, 
 
 A tremulous, mist-wildered star 
 
 That thro ' the gloaming once would thrill 
 
 The pulse of languored earth, and fill 
 
 Its mazy shrouds with rainbowed lights. 
 
 On scorning earth so dark and cold. 
 In hearts consumed with vulgar greed, 
 The spirit lost could find no fold 
 Save on some tender maiden's breast 
 Athrob with love, whose lips would press, 
 In tranced, dreamful joy, a kiss; — 
 But oh, to wake in wild unrest, 
 In dark despair from rapture blest. 
 And feel that soul-glow pale and dead! 
 
 12 
 
So pathless o'er life's rugged way, 
 Athrill with bliss or crushed in pain, 
 That soul companionless doth stray 
 In maze of tears ; yet e'er doth glow 
 With yearning love for human hearts. 
 That o'er its life-chords trembling starts 
 Some rhapsody of bliss and woe ; 
 Some soaring song that griefs o'erflow 
 And crush its flight to earth again. 
 
 It wanders through life's wildered flight: 
 No love can touch its stilled strings, 
 No passion flash its sombre night 
 Where sobful silence reigns alone. 
 No song doth thrill ; no tender gleam 
 Of bliss and love will wake its dream 
 Of sorrow. Yet it lists the moan 
 Of human grief whose swelling tone 
 Its i?armonies to Heaven sings. 
 
 13 
 
But thro' the night so cold and long 
 There burns a trembling, constant star; 
 And o'er the silence black, a song 
 Breathes tremulous in accents dear, 
 That stricken sorrows hush their pain 
 And hearken soothed to the strain: 
 Cold Desolation, palled in fear, 
 Did start from lifeless void to hear 
 Those quivering heart-strains from afar. 
 
 The black night wanes ; its direful glooms, 
 That hung in moveless, soundless pall. 
 Some fitful pallor soft illumes — 
 The first still flush of dawning light. 
 Soft hues and music thrill the haze. 
 And life stirs from the stupid maze 
 Of torture's trance. With heart-glows 
 
 bright. 
 Thy mystic sympathy's pure might. 
 Like day, o'erfloods my sorrow's thrall. 
 
 14 
 
Woe sinks to sleep; and desolate, 
 My tired heart fainting longs to see 
 Life's glory-noon; yet must it wait, 
 By thy heart constant lulled still : 
 And 'neath thy sleepless vigils blest 
 It sinks aswoon in moanless rest. 
 The grief -hushed strains thy heart-chords 
 
 thrill 
 Surge o'er my languished soul, and fill 
 With hovering dreams of ecstasy. 
 
 15 
 
AUTUMN. 
 
 Thou still, dearn forest, to thine arms, 
 Thine own soul-love, I come again, 
 So weary of earth's loveless strife. 
 So dreadful 'mid its vain alarms : 
 Here where thy love in spirit-life 
 Enfolds me, — ah, the mem'ry-pain — 
 As she upon her throbbing breast 
 In panting love, — and thou, in sorrowed 
 rest. 
 
 Thy lips are chill, — ^yet stamp my brow 
 With kisses till they warm again. 
 Thy breast that heaved with loveful joy 
 Is spiritless and saddened now: 
 Thou too, hast tasted life's aUoy. 
 Thy whispered breath in scentless bane. 
 And chilling might with sorrow fed, 
 Eepeats thy love ; 'tis I am cold and dead. 
 
 16 
 
AJi, spirit, once thy step was light, 
 Thy smile and song in rapture gay; 
 Thy maiden beauty Love, so bright, — 
 My soul in passion's fire did burn! 
 Thy beaming love glowed thro' life's day 
 We severed e'er to strive and yearn. 
 Ah, had I on thy pulsing breast. 
 Thine own, swooned in young love to 
 death, and rest ! 
 
 Thy love-gleams that with ardor glowed, 
 Too fervid in their fierce delight. 
 In their own flaming rage consimaed, 
 Mare feebly o'er thy charred abode. 
 Thy blushful glory pale-begloomed, 
 Waning and faded bodes the night. 
 Thy heart is scarred with seared bane, 
 As mine is riv'n with gleams of passion's 
 pain. 
 
Thy fires burn low. In wildered bliss 
 The tempest's passion-blights o'ersurge 
 Thy realm, lured by thy ravished light, 
 Thou passion- wearied ! Winter's kiss 
 Pants on thy brow o'erflushed in night. 
 Tho' sad thy zephyr-moaned dirge. 
 Thro' love's night creeping from its bourn 
 Hope lifts its fear-hushed voice with Joy 
 to mourn. 
 
 18 
 
ODE TO IDEALITY. 
 
 Great Spirit from some realm of Heaven, 
 
 Like the visitings of dreams, 
 That comest with strange pow'r Ood- given, 
 Like the lightning's glorious fire, 
 Lifting on thy winged gleams, 
 
 To far domains of visioned loveli- 
 ness 
 The tranced soul that in thy thrilled 
 caress 
 To thy dear heaven doth aspire, — 
 Oh, fill our minds with high desire 
 For perf ectness. 
 
 O, mighty Essence of Divineness, 
 
 Ever restless in thy flight. 
 To thy pure spheres, unknown, confineless, 
 Where the few brave souls and great 
 From earth's subjecting might. 
 
 Have dared thro' scorn and jeer 
 
 alone to rise 
 And dauntless cleave with thee the 
 kingless skies, — 
 Oh, visit with thy glorious state 
 The souls of men, that once elate 
 To Paradise, 
 
 19 
 
Their eyes enravished by the seeming 
 
 Of thy loveliness, dear Soul, 
 May e 'er behold thee thro ' life 's dreaming. 
 Lifting from earth-guilt and shame, 
 Guiding to the spirit's goal. 
 
 Oh, could our eyes behold thy 
 
 mystery 
 More blessed than conceived 
 felicity. 
 More lustrous than earth's brightest 
 
 gleam, 
 And sweeter than our fairest dream 
 Of ecstasy, 
 
 Our state, transformed with spirit-beauty. 
 
 Then would rise to Heaven's bourn. 
 Conceiving naught of want and duty 
 Save to love all human-kind. 
 Thou hast left us but to mourn 
 
 Alone amid earth 's j angling, mortal 
 
 strife. 
 To struggle comfortless thro' evils 
 rife. 
 Yet with thy image clear, refined. 
 E'er in our deathless souls enshrined,- 
 Our guide thro' life. 
 
 20 
 
O sourceless Majesty, whose splendor 
 Grieams thro' gloomed palls of life, 
 Whose thrilling power, tranquil, tender. 
 Flooding thro' earth's surging night, 
 Calms' the raging waves of strife 
 
 And lights, with glory purer than 
 
 the day. 
 The darkened solitudes of life's 
 lone way, — 
 Thou Beauty dearer than delight, 
 Thou Grace envisioned, — let thy 
 might 
 Assume its sway, 
 
 That o 'er the fettered gloom of sadness 
 
 Fostered by man's sin and hate. 
 May glow the gloried hues of gladness 
 Gleaming from a love divine : 
 That the mind's transformed estate. 
 Exalt above the spheres of vulgar 
 
 life 
 Where greed and crime and fear 
 are ever rife. 
 May, gazing on thy beauty, fine 
 The soul whom mortal fates consign 
 To warring strife. 
 
 21 
 
O thou pure Essence ever lovely, 
 
 Thou whose state is all unknown, 
 Thy realm I have beheld above me 
 Gloried with some splendor rare 
 That o'er our state a moment shone. 
 Then vanished like a vision of 
 
 delight 
 That glows in beauty o'er our 
 tranced sight. 
 Tho ' thou art gone and earth is drear 
 Yet shall thy image glowing fair 
 Gleam thro' our night, 
 
 To point our souls to realms supernal 
 
 From the gloom of carnal state ; 
 To free our lives in spheres eternal 
 From the death-bonds of despair — 
 Creature of our sin and hate : 
 
 That life may cleave of venal self 
 
 the pall. 
 And soaring with thee, burst the 
 bands that gall 
 With false deceivings ' empty glare 
 And mockeries of greed and care, — 
 A wretched thrall. 
 
 22 
 
Thou Might of Beauty whom the vision 
 
 Of the pure and great descries, 
 Who, in earth-scorn and derision, 
 Struggle on alone to gain 
 Heights that ever loftier rise. 
 
 As ever dauntless 'mid the strife 
 
 and jeer 
 Of grov'ling earth-desires whose 
 minions leer 
 With scoff and taunt upon their pain, 
 Inspired that sky-goal to attain. 
 So far, so dear, 
 
 Oh, still impel them with thy power 
 
 That their lives, on earth elate, 
 Might exalt from stations lower, 
 In our culture's slavery-creed. 
 Souls of men whom ruthless fate 
 
 Has doomed to drudgery, distress 
 
 and care — 
 The idols reared by Mammon's 
 progress fair; 
 And those ignobler still whose greed 
 Would serfdom grant for bravery's 
 meed, 
 For toil, — despair. 
 
 23 
 
Thou art that Firmless Substance reign- 
 ing 
 In thy viewless far domain, — 
 The active Stress of Soul, sustaining 
 Heavenward by thy constant might 
 Times and beings else inane 
 
 And spiritless as spheres swung 
 
 dead thro ' space. 
 Without whose life-transforming 
 spirt-grace 
 The human soul in fleshy blight. 
 That then could see no sky-ward height 
 Would sink apace, 
 
 To indolent content, declining 
 From a primal spirit-state. 
 To sentient life of flesh consigning 
 Beings of seraphic soul. 
 Formed to rise beyond earth-fate 
 
 And thrilled with infinite aspirings 
 
 pure 
 To climb, by thee impelled, to 
 heights secure 
 Where shrouds of paltry life unroll 
 And far perfection's lovely goal 
 Our souls aJluT'e. J^ 
 
 24 
 
Thou radiant Spirit of Endeavor, 
 
 Soul of Beauty, Hope Divine, 
 That thrills our hearts to seek thee ever 
 Par above life's sin-gloomed 
 sphere, — 
 God-created Might, incline 
 
 Thy form of empyrean Loveliness, 
 That, thrilled with radiant 
 Beauty's sweet excess, 
 Our souls with mighty love may rear 
 Thy glory-throne, thou Vision dear 
 Of Perf ectness. 
 
 25 
 
MAYING. 
 
 Oh, come my love, day's gates unfold, 
 
 And bounteous Apollo 
 Is melting floods of meUow gold 
 O'er forest, field and fallow. 
 We must not stay, 
 We must away 
 To greet the glorious suni 
 To revel with the radiant May 
 'Round Summer's golden throne. 
 
 The birds intone their gushing hymns 
 O 'er stream and grove and meadow. 
 The brooklets ripple silvery rhymes 
 To dancing glint ^nd shadow; 
 The flow 'rets rare 
 In scented air 
 Lift up their dew-lit eyes, 
 In wonder at the May-time fair 
 And all its sweet surprise. 
 
 26 
 
We'll join the eager, festive throng, 
 
 With bird and brook and flower, 
 In wild delight and happy song 
 In every teeming bower. 
 Oh, hurry, dear, 
 The wanton air 
 Is kissing all the blooms, 
 And drinking all the dew-drops rare 
 That hide in jewelled glooms. 
 
 We'll linger in the haunted wood 
 
 With thrushes' rapture thrilling, 
 Sweet spirit-tones of solitude 
 Our hearts with transport filling. 
 Or on some height 
 In haloed light 
 We'll stand in wonder so, 
 To see the earth in radiance bright 
 So pure and lovely glow. 
 
 27 
 
The throbbing silence rich with tone, 
 
 In flowered wood-dells hushing, 
 Shall breathe its solemn secret lone 
 With glow and glamour blushing. 
 The blissful day 
 Of rapturous May 
 We'll spend with elf and sprite. 
 Like children charmed by fairy play 
 In worlds of weird delight. 
 
 28 
 
THE MINER. 
 
 Wlien gentle, silvery-vested Dawn, 
 Afloat on radiant cloud-wreathes white, 
 Strews from her trooping splendors 
 fair 
 Light-spheres of flushing pallor wan 
 That faint upon the pall of night — 
 
 Like waking love that pales despair — 
 And shrine the dark- veiled earth in 
 light; 
 
 The miner from the lustrous earth, 
 The black gulf seeks where ghastful 
 night 
 Sinks dank in hideous murk that palls 
 The chilly ooze of mucid dearth. 
 In torpid streams of sensate might 
 His form the throbbing darkness 
 thralls. 
 Engulfing life in cheerless blight. 
 
 29 
 
No noonday splendors thrill his brain, 
 No evening clouds in irised light 
 Flame forth God's glory: e'en the 
 flow'rs 
 Their beauties blush for him in vain; 
 The streams flash back sky-glintings 
 bright, 
 And hues and hymns earth's fairest 
 bow'rs 
 In vain o'erflood with day's delight. 
 
 Down in the inky deeps he toils, 
 With tireless might, — the slave of doom 
 Whom wealth requites with pittance 
 mean, 
 Who serves the world, and ceaseless moils 
 Where lurking dangers dig his tomb, 
 Where danks' and chills' distresses 
 keen 
 Exhaust his pow'r in joyless gloom. 
 
 30 
 
His life, a waste to scorn and jeer 
 Of meaner souls that lounge in light, 
 Their pleasures, luxuries and dress 
 Supplies, rewarded by their sneer. 
 But thro' divine laws' changeless plight 
 
 The vital toil's creative stress, — 
 That action-force transformed to might 
 
 Of soul, — exalts the growing mind. 
 And deepens broad the sympathy, 
 Until his heart has mighty grown, 
 Whose word and deed in fire refined 
 Eeveals a life-nobility 
 That feels, from lowly, toil-built 
 throne. 
 The heart-throbs of humanity. 
 
 31 
 
Who suffers most shall deepest feel, 
 And farthest see with eyes keen grown 
 In trials severe of cruel strife : 
 No shrunken view of human weal 
 He holds whose mighty heart doth own 
 
 A tenderness for human life, 
 To wealth's soft-pampered sense un- 
 known. 
 
 And so, in black-sunk depths of night. 
 Of labor's world he feels the throes 
 Which toil has wrought before his 
 mind 
 To visions grand of life, whose light 
 Tho' dim, yet from God's glory flows. 
 Unconscious, still his heart is fined 
 With mighty truths that scorn life's 
 woes, — 
 
 32 
 
Revealings of some spirit-life 
 Beyond earth's hollow mockings vain. 
 The stolid sense of dueless Ease 
 By sloth close-shrunk in self-love rife. 
 Inert of heart and hand, ne'er gain 
 Such truths; nor shriveled visions 
 seize 
 These destinies of God and man. 
 
 Yet who so scorned and crushed as he, 
 Begrimed, fatigued with drudging 
 moil, — 
 The serf of wealth his hands create. 
 The sneer of fulsome luxury? 
 Ye blind ! How like a king, whose toil 
 Doth rule the world! How truly 
 great. 
 Who gives his life to earth, a spoil ! — 
 
 33 
 
A king; without whose sacrifice 
 Of day's rare charms and earth's 
 delight, 
 Of joys of leisure, friends and 
 home, — 
 Without whose pains and death, the cries 
 Of blustered progress' vaunting might, 
 In tawdry bombast would sink dumb. 
 Its glory pale aghast in night. 
 
 What foul besmutched infection wide 
 Exudes its venom 'd rankling stench 
 'er all our light ! What reeking 
 stain 
 Of heinous self -sin mocks our pride, 
 And taints with shame no pomp can 
 quench 
 Our lying culture's pageant vain 
 Prom whose defilement slaves would 
 blench. 
 
 34 
 
Amid man's frenzied tmnult dire 
 The uncloyed monster Lust doth breed 
 The horrid sprites of Hate and Strife, 
 That flames his slaves with mad desire 
 To glut on human hearts their greed. 
 Ye toiling brave, your wasting life 
 Shall fine your souls for Heaven's meed ! 
 
 35 
 
THE OHIO. 
 
 Flow raucous and roaring rash stream 
 ever gliding, 
 
 Thy wavelets all flashing and rainbowed 
 in light. 
 
 In gloaming or sunlight thy constant con- 
 fiding 
 
 Doth breathe a great calm of delight, wild 
 and wide. 
 
 As thy bosom where heaven is mirrored so 
 bright. 
 
 The shade of thy darksome hills ever 
 abiding 
 
 Doth merge in the sheen of thy rollicking 
 biUows. 
 
 The vapors of mazy morn hov'ring yet 
 hide, 
 
 In mantles of gray, thy wind- whiffled wil- 
 lows. 
 
 Thy bosom reflecting the sky's glory 
 golden. 
 
 Thy hills and thy forests, to lustre soft- 
 dyed. 
 
 Betoken that Dawn by life's myst'ries en- 
 folden. 
 
 36 
 
Plow dark in thy dernful, deep glades, 
 mighty River, 
 
 Ne'er fitful like joy and despair of life's 
 dream. 
 
 Still emblem that depthless soul-flood 
 lovely ever, 
 
 Resplendent as stars burning through thy 
 nigbt-air. 
 
 We know not the spirit of glooming and 
 gleam; 
 
 Nor bow Heaven's glories that flush as 
 they quiver, 
 
 Or wane 'neath the shade of the sallows 
 tbat mourn, 
 
 Reveal, to our vision so dimmed in life's 
 care. 
 
 Or Kstless in pleasure tbat leaves us for- 
 lorn, 
 
 With eloquence, husb, like the rainbow of 
 Heaven, 
 
 Tbat Perfectness imaged in vision su- 
 preme, — 
 
 Tbat Beauty divine, for our human souls 
 given. 
 
 37 
 
SEEENADE. 
 TO . 
 
 Hush ! My quivering heart, my own, 
 Throbs thro' tingling night a song. 
 Hueless dreams of happy love 
 O 'er its pulsed pinions throng. 
 Ah, the wand 'ring zephyrs kiss 
 Thrilling lips so pallid grown, 
 Charmed star-beams blushful rove 
 O 'er thy brow entranced in bliss. 
 
 Still I The fainting zephyrs yearn 
 Surging fast to feel the glow 
 Havened in thy flushful breast 
 Where my heart in love's sweet woe 
 Gasped athrill with wild delight. 
 Creeping glooms that ardent burn 
 Steal thy love-sigh, — sweet behest 
 Borne on dream- wings' sky-lost flight. 
 
 38 
 
Soft I The languored moon doth wane : 
 Plaintful nightingales are still. 
 E'en the river's sobful roar 
 Hushes, calmed in griefful chill. 
 Dearn the mournful winds' alarms 
 Moan thro' voiceful midnight's pain. 
 Dream ! Love sleeps, but rests no more. 
 Dream! Love swoons in Sorrow's arms. 
 
 39 
 
MAN THE SPECTATOR OF GOD. 
 
 Ah, couldst thou mount the reachless 
 throne of time, 
 
 And, with a view as broad as worlds and 
 deep 
 
 As heav'n, couldst pierce the mystery of 
 life. 
 
 Then shouldst thou learn that life and be- 
 ing keep. 
 
 Beneath appearance paltry or sublime. 
 
 One service constant 'mid earth-ragings 
 rife, — 
 
 One being's sphere, one soul-activity 
 
 Exalt beyond the mocks of joy and 
 crime, — 
 
 The Contemplation of Divinity. 
 
 'Mid ages fathomless and worlds un- 
 
 thought. 
 In Heav'n or Hell, in stars or bournless 
 
 space. 
 Existence finds no loftier, mightier throne. 
 
 40 
 
The Oreant Might, with unconceived 
 
 Grace, 
 Some atom of the godly essence wrought 
 Into the soul of man, that mind might own 
 The pow'r to gaze thro' worlds of death 
 
 and life 
 Pull on the awful form of God, whose lot 
 That soul may grasp and hold, that from 
 
 the strife 
 
 Of earth-desires, affections, hate and fear 
 
 Withdraws to secret realms of holy 
 thought. 
 
 There, freed from self, shalt thou inter- 
 pret God. 
 
 Go to the wilds where Nature, harrowed 
 not 
 
 By vulgar hands, unceasing doth revere 
 
 Its God; whose voiceful harmony doth 
 laud 
 
 That perf ectness it manifests above ; 
 
 Whose forms and tones and hues divinely 
 fair 
 
 Eeflect its worship constant, deep, of Love. 
 
 41 
 
Behold the adoration of the flow'r 
 
 That ever hues the glories of its Kliiig; 
 
 And hear the voiceful throng in forest- 
 fane 
 
 Intone the rhapsodies the seraphs sing. 
 
 Or lo, the softened splendor of the star 
 
 That flames its radiance hued to Heav'n 
 again, 
 
 Whose silence speaks its contemplation 
 pure. 
 
 E'er thus should life conform, 'neath Na- 
 ture's pow'r. 
 
 To laws divine that shall alone endure. 
 
 The soul, that atom of the essence divine, 
 Engulfed in earthly dross, is crushed, sub- 
 dued, 
 Entrammeled by the daily-forged bond 
 Of passion, want, despair and fear, — the 
 
 food 
 Of mocking vanities our lives confine 
 To serfdom of the Flesh on earth en- 
 throned. 
 And could we, in the spirit's purity, 
 
 42 
 
Unfettered worship God at Nature's 
 
 shrine, 
 Our human state would rise thro' ecstasy 
 
 To contemplate the Spectacle of God. 
 The shrouding palls of common, vulgar 
 
 strife — 
 That wreaths their blackened stains, be- 
 fouled with grime 
 Of mean, ignoble, sordid acts of life. 
 About our narrow view, — to them who trod 
 Humiliation's vale of fear, sublime. 
 Become, with visioning the Heaven's state, 
 Interpreting the Essence of all Good 
 And gazing on the unveiled Grace of Fate, 
 
 Transforming medimns to guide the sight 
 
 To search the clearer spheres of radiance 
 pure, 
 
 Whither the soul, of earth unfettered, 
 mere. 
 
 Aspires to soar, from strife and dross se- 
 cure. 
 
 Oh, lift thine eyes, and with the spirit's 
 might 
 
 The Spectacle of Heav'n behold, — revere; 
 
 43 
 
And with God's stars, His streams, His 
 
 flow'rs and sky 
 Assume the haloed glories of His light, 
 And rise, — Companion of Divinity. 
 
 44 
 
FOUR LOVES. 
 
 My passion-love soared in the skies 
 
 Of thrilling raptures, radiant bliss, 
 With throbbing heart and yearning eyes. 
 
 With wild caress and swooning kiss ; 
 A transport rare of burning joy, 
 
 A gushing vow of fierce desire, 
 With beauty soft and warm and coy. 
 
 And tingling glow of soul-pained fire. 
 
 My worship-love was high and rare. 
 
 In realms of glamoured mystery ; 
 An idol lovely, strangely fair 
 
 With charm of dark idolatry ; 
 A queen enthroned in magic thought, 
 
 A reachless image to adore. 
 Divine with dreams, devotion- wrought, 
 
 That fill my soul with vain implore. 
 
 45 
 
My own true love was pure and dear, 
 
 With thoughts too deep for passion's 
 vow; 
 With tender joys and gentle care, 
 
 And trust and faith that overflow 
 With floods of cheer my troubled life ; 
 
 A comfort sweet, companion kind, 
 In all the worry, woe and strife — 
 
 An angel-soul for earth designed. 
 
 My human love was great and broad 
 
 And spread o'er all the world of man. 
 Like angels' dreams or thoughts of God, 
 
 And far and wide as heaven's span. 
 It thrilled my life with high desire. 
 
 It filled my soul with radiant might ; 
 My heart was warm with joyous fire. 
 
 And earth aglow with golden light. 
 
 46 
 
HOPE.— Sonnet. 
 
 Brave heart, thy dauntless strain, the 
 stagnant air 
 With vapors fraught, .scarce upward 
 
 wafts, — athrill 
 With trustful promise tho' the world is 
 still 
 In faithless boding or becalmed despair — 
 Shall be my omen of life's dawning fair : 
 For thy sweet harmony with Nature's 
 will 
 Thy light-impassioned soul doth sudden fill 
 With impulse God's great goodness to de- 
 clare. 
 Pant forth thy rhapsodies: for lo, the 
 day 
 That tarried long is breaking thro' 
 gloom's thrall; 
 And I can see deep thro' the misting 
 gray 
 The azure glows that burst the wav'r- 
 ing pall ; 
 And mellow in the sun-flood's flashing 
 ray 
 The gloried clouds of grief day's 
 splendor swell. 
 
 47 
 
THE ROBIN. 
 
 Up and away ere the break of day, 
 
 Lustily hymning the dawn, 
 Waking the year to the spring's glad cheer. 
 
 Through garden and frost-covered 
 lawn; 
 Happy thy toil in the teeming soil — 
 Robin, dear Robin is here. 
 
 How our hearts bound at the startling 
 sound 
 Joyfully calling the sun. 
 Rousing all earth to its thrilling birth 
 
 When winter's rude thraldom is gone; 
 Charming the day from its night glooms 
 
 away, 
 Q-lad with thy tumult of mirth. 
 
 48 
 
Fresh art thou come from thy southern 
 home, 
 Pure as the cloud-tints of spring, 
 Modest and bright from thy airy flight — 
 
 What infinite blessings you bring ! — 
 Calling the blooms from their dark wintry 
 
 tombs 
 Up to the gladness and light. 
 
 Bidding the cold in the frosted wold 
 
 Yield to the cordial sun — 
 Tokens you bring, sweet messages sing 
 
 That buds on the south winds have 
 come ; 
 Angel of life in our spiritless strife. 
 Herald of heavenly spring. 
 
 49 
 
Lowly thou art and common thy part, 
 Dwelling near haunts of men, 
 
 Warbling thy cheer so the humble may 
 hear — 
 A pleasure in blessing or bane : 
 
 Generous bird, thy carols are heard 
 
 With joy through the changing year. 
 
 Gentle and pure, thy presence demure — 
 Boon of kind Nature's art — 
 
 Cheering our way with thy innocent lay, 
 Chastens our sinful heart ; 
 
 Bids us below all good to bestow, 
 
 And love in our common day. 
 
 50 
 
WRITTEN UPON THE OCCASION 
 
 OF THE DEDICATION OP THE 
 
 TOMB OP WILLIAM McKINLEY 
 
 AT CANTON, OHIO, SEPT. 30th, 
 
 1907. 
 
 How dark with fearful, life-depressing 
 
 gloom 
 That awful day when o'er the land there 
 
 spread, 
 Like early blight and death of all things 
 
 dear. 
 The knell of our great leader's threatened 
 
 doom! 
 Oh, how the sun dimmed all its sorrowed 
 
 cheer, — 
 The night, how still and black with shud- 
 
 d'ring dread! 
 What diunb despair and pleading anguish 
 
 told 
 The whispered fate of our great nation's 
 
 chief, 
 But yesterday exalted in the praise 
 Of all our mighty host I What dismal grief 
 
 51 
 
Was ours, — oh, how our hearts grew faint 
 
 and cold 
 With dread suspense and woe of infinite 
 
 days! 
 
 But didst thou deem in death his glory lost, 
 And dimmed in night the splendor of his 
 
 day. 
 And all his radiant fame, so slowly won 
 Through tireless, groping years with aw- 
 ful cost 
 Of sleepless labor, strife and pain, — all 
 
 gone 
 In that one moment of thy dark dismay? 
 Ah, faithless ones! Could you not see 
 
 through night 
 Of agony and loss death's evening sky 
 Aglow with splendor brighter than he 
 
 knew 
 While here on earth ? Could you not see 
 
 him lie 
 Darkly in death, yet robed in spirit- 
 
 light,- 
 AU helpless, yet enriched with power 
 
 anew? 
 
 52 
 
Behold that day has cornel Now shalt 
 
 thou see 
 A pageant grander than all triumph's 
 
 great 
 Of our dead chief's renowned and honored 
 
 life. 
 Behold his people gath'ring reverently 
 And nations laying down their varied 
 
 strife, 
 Fame's triumph over death to celebrate, — 
 Of earth the last and greatest victory won ! 
 Here, then, abides our chief's immortal 
 
 fame 
 In yonder beauteous and radiant tomb ; 
 Here Glory shall imprint his deathless 
 
 name 
 Deeper than on its gold or graven stone 
 Whose splendor white dispels sepulchral 
 
 gloom. 
 
 53 
 
And thou, majestic pile, sublime and pure, 
 
 Shielded with silvered cloud or domed 
 blue, — 
 
 No nobler shrine shall greet the whiten- 
 ing dawn, 
 
 Through time with brighter glory to en- 
 dure. 
 
 So mayst thou stand when years and states 
 are gone. 
 
 The tomb of him we loved, — the great and 
 true, 
 
 Erected by earth's youngest, mightiest 
 race 
 
 To make immortal that sweet memory. 
 
 Yet, if fell time might darken all thy light 
 
 And mar thy beauty, — if strange destiny 
 
 Could bring thee to decay, — leave not a 
 trace 
 
 Of all thy radiant majesty and might, — 
 
 54 
 
So may it pass : so may thy splendor wane 
 To dust and night. Then shall immortal 
 
 Fame, 
 Unharmed in thy material decay, 
 Arise to flourish in the hearts of men 
 While memory endures. So shall the day 
 Of glory brighter carve his deathless 
 
 name. 
 On time's abiding scroll. Yet we have 
 
 prayed 
 That fate may ever spare thy beauteous 
 
 state, 
 While peoples strange, as pilgrims, hither 
 
 move 
 To worship at this shrine we consecrate, — 
 A glorious tribute to our honored dead — 
 Last token of our Nation's deathless love. 
 
 55 
 
THE FIRST SNOW-PALL. 
 
 In what majestic silence, like a thing 
 Of mystery and pow'r, the snow-flakes 
 fall— 
 A spirit toiling secretly to bring 
 To dead, brown earth her beauteous 
 funeral pall! 
 Oh, radiant token of arising life 
 That once with other Springs shall come 
 to all. 
 When Winter's chill and melancholy 
 strife 
 Shall break with bursting Day's return- 
 ing thrall ! 
 Oh, joy to youth as fresh and white as 
 thou. 
 To see thee fill the air with crystal 
 show'r. 
 For Christmas cheer and happy giving 
 now 
 Will bless all loving hearts with thrill- 
 ing pow'r; 
 For, purer than these snow-gems from 
 
 above, 
 Christ gave to men the gift of Infinite 
 Love! 
 
 56 
 
THE MYSTERY OF MARS. 
 
 Among the countless host of constant stars 
 That fill our bounded universe of night, 
 The baffling mystery of changeful Mars 
 Evades our utmost pow'rs of spirit- 
 sight. 
 What destiny is thine, what being strange, 
 Amid the planet-spheres of mirrored 
 light, 
 That circle round thee in their wondering 
 range "I 
 
 The all-pervading view thou dost elude 
 Of bold imagination's farthest flight; 
 And science, thwarted with resources 
 crude. 
 Doth gaze and guess, and doubt the 
 startled sight. 
 Yet, were we gods to plan some noble fate 
 
 Of life ideal for our human plight, 
 We clearly should perceive thy lofty state. 
 
 57 
 
There was a time when men were great in 
 thought, 
 And rich in lack of wealth's debasing 
 dearth ; 
 When statesman, poet, artist dreamed and 
 wrought 
 For that ideal kinship of the earth. 
 When man in every clime and state should 
 be 
 United in the bonds of human worth. 
 Inspired with universal sympathy. 
 
 That vast conception we can learn from 
 thee — 
 The highest wish and greatest good to 
 man — 
 For o'er thy ruddy land and banded sea 
 One power rules — one all-embracing 
 plan 
 That stores thy wealth, create by sun and 
 rain. 
 In mighty works that all thy surface 
 span, 
 To bless thy happy race with plenty ^s 
 reign. 
 
 58 
 
The wondrous structures that thy realm 
 affords 
 Were built by creatures great in 
 strength and mind, 
 Where wisdom with necessity accords — 
 
 United aim to public need confined. 
 Thy people, wise beyond all mortal 
 thought. 
 By want and cold and ageless time re- 
 fined, 
 Have learned all lore relentless Nature 
 taught. 
 
 One purpose, one harmonious spirit 
 reigns. 
 
 To win for life all joy and common good ; 
 To hoard the sun's far energy that wanes. 
 
 And living waters in their melting fiood ; 
 To gain from Nature ample food and dress, 
 
 In one vast cheer of sacred brotherhood. 
 In glad employ and toiling happiness. 
 
 59 
 
No strife is there, no wars of kings and 
 pow'rs, 
 Nor famine reigns in all that realm of 
 peace ; 
 No plague infests, or killing blight devours 
 The cherished harvests in their full in- 
 crease : 
 For one law rules o 'er all that broad con- 
 fine, 
 Supplies all want and treasures all ex- 
 cess, 
 The highest good to all — the sole design. 
 
 Is this the lost Utopia, this the sphere 
 Where love is law, and service — ^happi- 
 ness? 
 Where beauty pure of art and nature rare, 
 With strifeless effort, doth all being 
 bless? 
 Earth yet may learn through ages of vast 
 pain, 
 Through war and famine, waste and 
 greed's excess. 
 Such glorious doom — the Brotherhood of 
 Man. 
 
 60 
 
THE POET'S EHAPSODY. 
 
 On the golden floods of noontide's glow 
 When the summer-glory flushed its 
 beams 
 And the fleecy cloud-ships floated slow 
 
 Asurge on the azure ocean-sky 
 Where their silvered sails dissolve in 
 
 ligtt- 
 On the wings of strange delight's love- 
 dreams 
 To the vaults of Heaven my soul's wild 
 flight 
 In frenzied bliss arose on high 
 With the whirling phantoms' wild 'ring 
 flow 
 Of dreams and visions pulsing nigh. 
 
 In its joyance fierce light-spheres among 
 Its impetuous pinions whirled and sped 
 
 While the bursting thrills lof love-fires 
 flung 
 Their bliss to Heaven's bournless height. 
 
 61 
 
On the golden, silvery glory-sea 
 By its phantom dreams inspirited 
 
 It was wafted wild in throbbing glee 
 To realms where angels' tranced flight 
 
 In their splendors gush. — Here thrilled it 
 hung, 
 Then hovering waned in fainting might. 
 
 From its wings the feathered light-spheres 
 fled 
 Prom the awesome Ecstasy divine 
 To whose throne its gushing bliss had sped 
 
 Of frenzied love, that, sky-lost, pales. 
 All its phantom-dreams of irised light 
 
 In the palling gloom to sad repine 
 Were enthralled ; and where the cloud- 
 ships white 
 Slow droop and fold their glooming 
 sails, 
 All aswoon on even's pallor dead, — 
 My soul-love sinks 'mid night's hushed 
 veils. 
 
 62 
 
TO WINTER. 
 
 The skies are gray, the earth is white 
 With blinding brilliance of thy light, 
 And all around the frost-chained ground 
 Eeveals the triumph of thy might. 
 What pow'r of death and dearth is thine, 
 Stern spell, to hold all nature bound 
 With robes of ice in firm confine ! 
 
 The sun's faint disc has turned awry 
 And northward struggles up the sky, 
 Forsaking all to thy rude thrall — 
 Deserting earth's fair blooms to die. 
 Oh, where rich summer's hued array, 
 The green of spring, the gold of fall ?- 
 All blanched and wan with ashen gray. 
 
Thy pigments are the frosted panes — 
 
 Cold traceries of crystal stains, 
 
 When heat and cold in contrast bold 
 
 Spin dainty films of silvery veins. 
 
 Thy blooms are heaps of storm-massed 
 
 snows 
 Of sparkling frost-stars' marvelous mold 
 Enthralling earth in wintry throes. 
 
 From gases rare thy vestments form, 
 Distilled in air, congealed in storm, 
 And cover all with solid pall — 
 A winding-sheet for summer's charm; 
 Her myriad leaves and plants and blooms, 
 Where burned the sun-gleam's swelt'ring 
 
 thrall, 
 All dead and whit'ning in their tombs. 
 
 64 
 
What pow'r can cause such violent change, 
 What law produce such mighty range 
 In nature's course — the mystic source 
 Of infinite mutations strange ? 
 Ah, could our feeble sense behold 
 The one supreme designing force 
 Of law minute and manifold ! 
 
 Oh, could we guess the spirit-powers 
 That change the mould of earth to flowers, 
 The mists of air to crystals rare — 
 Dissolved to spring's delicious showers! 
 Life's ordained mysteries unfurled — 
 How deep the secrets we should share, 
 How wonderful our common world ! 
 
 65 
 
HOAR FROST. 
 
 A waif of mystery am I, 
 
 A sprite of secrecy and night ; 
 
 I creep beneath the distant sky 
 While stars are glowing cold and bright 
 
 The winds must sleep in sky-caves deep, 
 
 And all the earth in stillness lie. 
 
 The autumn sun with balmy charms 
 Has upward drawn the misty pall, 
 
 Dissolved the clouds in her warm arms 
 Forsaking earth to night's cold thrall. 
 
 The pearly dew, that moon-beams hue 
 
 With hidden glints in mazy swarms. 
 
 Has gathered from the moveless night 
 And breathing verdure. In the cold 
 
 Of secret morn I spread my blight — 
 A bridal veil of silvery mould, 
 
 A frozen charm of many a form 
 
 Of crystal jewels rare and white. 
 
 66 
 
The dawn looks down with wondering 
 eyes, 
 
 For when the pale stars westering go,- 
 I tint their gleams with strange disguise 
 
 And form a million stars below ; 
 A dazzling fold of gems I mold — 
 A wonder all man's art defies. 
 
 Alas, my marvelous array, 
 
 My infinite creations fair 
 Must soon dissolve and fade away — 
 
 A formless mist in morning air : 
 And humankind to beauty blind 
 Plod on their sightless, care-gloomed way. 
 
 But where I hovered o'er the wood 
 With loving spell and charmed kiss. 
 
 It glows with blushes softly hued 
 With crimson pain and mellow bliss ; 
 
 And autumn noon in golden swoon 
 
 Strews dying flowers where I stood. 
 
 67 
 
A wondrous infinite array, 
 
 A glorious bane, like love and woe, 
 I blight the bloom with rare display 
 
 To leave it gorgeous at noon's glow. 
 A marvel rare divinely fair, 
 Unseen I vanish with the day. 
 
THE COTTAGEES. 
 To Mr. and Mrs. D. 
 
 High on the hill whose verdant brow 
 First meets the gold of waking sun 
 And mingles its green with heaven's glow, 
 There stands a white cot whose lattice low 
 Peeps modestly out at breaking dawn, — 
 Par o'er the city's raucous strife, 
 That fetters low its jangling life. 
 
 Tiny it stands thro' mists agleam. 
 
 Exalt above the murky pall, 
 
 Where whispering winds their murmurs 
 
 hymn. 
 And day's flitting beams thro' shadows 
 
 stream 
 That fitfully dance o'er garden and wall. 
 With luxury's fulsome wants unknown, 
 What sweet content their glad hearts own ! 
 
Down 'mid ttie city's tumult dire 
 The husband labors, faithful, true, 
 Till eve, when the sun's last gloried fire 
 With crimson doth light day's funeral- 
 pyre; 
 Then homeward he turns, 'mid gathering 
 
 dew. 
 To meet his anxious wife whose kiss 
 Soft thrills his throbbing heart with bliss. 
 
 Mighty of heart and strong of hand. 
 His power beseems a king uncrowned. 
 His fathomless spirit hath command 
 O'er destined worlds whose limits grand 
 He grasps in his soul's wide, viewless 
 
 bound; 
 For faith unmoved in God's great love 
 Exalts to reachless heights above. 
 
 TO 
 
Brave with a might the fondled sense 
 Of pride and wealth can never know, 
 And strong in a faith no ill's offence 
 Can move from its final haven ; thence 
 There floods o'er his soul a cahn love-glow 
 That shrines in constant peace his life, — 
 A giant soul 'mid human strife. 
 
 Yet, was he gentlest of the wise, 
 Whose loving word and smile would cheer 
 The heart with their tender sympathies : 
 While lighting his world like paradise. 
 The day-gleams of love spread broad and 
 
 clear. 
 Aglow with radiant glory shone 
 Her love whose life was all his own. 
 
 Beauty, perhaps, of form and face. 
 
 As in glad youth blushed not so bright; 
 
 But dearer than Nature's sweetest grace, 
 
 Those spirit-loves pure their image trace 
 
 On features aglow with soft soul-light. 
 
 Ah, who so fair of soul as she. 
 
 The child of love and purity! 
 
 71 
 
Spirits, methinks, from worlds unseen, 
 In tenderest pow'r their vigils keep, 
 And, flushing like dawn's soft-gloried 
 
 sheen, 
 Or harmony's flow, their hearts serene 
 Enwreathe with an essence sweet and deep. 
 Diffused, as hues and odors rare 
 And carols flood the summer air. 
 
 Happy is he who knows such love 
 As constant thrills yon modest home. 
 Earth's harrowing strife exalt above 
 No envying wealth its calm can move. 
 When loveless and cold I lonely roam. 
 Thro' night I see in trancing dreams 
 That love-throne wreathed in Heaven's 
 beams. 
 
THE PROPHECY OF MAN. 
 
 Deep in that secret age of primal doom 
 When black-robed Myst'ry from her cav- 
 
 erned throne, 
 Upreared of ebon night and palled in 
 
 gloom, 
 Her dusking flood surged dark o'er being's 
 
 plight 
 Formless and lifeless in the dim unknown 
 And wrapped in sable shrouds of moveless 
 
 night 
 Sluggish with sullen chaos' torpid reign, — 
 The shapeless mass of entity stretched 
 
 prone, — 
 The prime existence in the vast inane. 
 
 In the beginning, God, the Creant Might 
 From sourceless void the earth and heav'n 
 
 did rear, 
 When awful o 'er the reign of primal Night 
 There burst with spirit-thrilling pow'r the 
 
 word, 
 
 73 
 
Dread with the terror of distorting f eai 
 To hideous Night with ghastly horror 
 
 stirred, — 
 * *Let there be Light. ' ' Then o 'er the long 
 
 dismay 
 Of rolling earth slow moulding to its 
 
 sphere 
 There flashed the radiance white of mighty 
 
 day. 
 
 Prom sources by God's everlasting throne 
 The forces strange, inspired with pristine 
 
 might, 
 The glowing fire empyreal bore down 
 To fuse the shapeless earth-globe into 
 
 form, 
 And purge thro' rolling ages' rapid flight 
 Its fluid mass, and inert bulk transform 
 From crude existence to that wondrous 
 
 frame 
 Exalt amid the myriad spheres of light, 
 Thro ' worlds and times God's glory to pro- 
 claim. 
 
 74 
 
O'er gloried floods of crystal waves where 
 reigned 
 
 Mutation dark that formed with pow'r su- 
 blime 
 
 Those mighty evolutions God-ordained, 
 
 Moved forth, with splendor that outshone 
 the sun 
 
 With first effulgence flamed undimmed by 
 time. 
 
 The Creant Spirit; at whose sovereign 
 tone 
 
 The flooding waters that arose in might, 
 
 Inspired with awe, turned back their hast- 
 ing stream 
 
 Deep to their caverns gloomed in paling 
 light. 
 
 Then thro' the glinting waste of bournless 
 gray 
 
 The teeming land from its long prison- 
 sleep 
 
 Arose entranced to gaze upon the day. 
 
 And, from her exile where she crouched in 
 dread, 
 
 75 
 
He bade the Night come forth, with day to 
 
 keep 
 Divided reign; and o'er her black robes 
 
 shed 
 Those starry gems that with the silv'ry 
 
 moon, 
 
 Her attendant fair, should guard earth's 
 slumbers deep; 
 
 While o'er the day should reign the radi- 
 ant sun. 
 
 The winds and waves asurge with spirit- 
 might 
 Freed from their chasmy homes then roved 
 
 at will, 
 In everlasting labor, with delight 
 Guideless and wild save by the ceaseless 
 
 reign 
 Of bold Mutation fitful by whose thrill 
 The forces of the elements amain 
 Arose, inspired as with the creant stress, — 
 Vague worlds of airs and floods and fires, 
 
 —to fill 
 With action violent earth's distorted 
 space. 
 
 76 
 
The rocks in wondrous metamorphic state 
 Assumed their forms, dissolved and reared 
 
 again ; 
 And thro' their fissured mass the veins 
 
 create 
 Of fused gold and silver poured their 
 
 streams. 
 And where the mountains rose with might 
 
 amain 
 And raised their regal heads amid the 
 
 gleams 
 Of azurd heaven, lo, their fabrics strange, 
 Evolved in crystals bright of varied vein. 
 To marble pure and flinty granite change. 
 
 While Alteration vast thrilled with its 
 strife 
 
 The transformed world, the Creant Spirit 
 passed 
 
 O'er earth's bright face, and all its teem- 
 ing life 
 
 In full exuberance of early pow'r 
 
 Sprang up in copious wealth, — ^profusion 
 massed 
 
 77 
 
Of thick and shadowed growth of tree and 
 
 flow'r, 
 Of shrub and grass, that earth in wealth 
 
 arrayed, 
 'Mid whose luxuriance the myriads vast 
 Of beast and fowl and every creature 
 
 strayed. 
 
 But ever thro' Mutation's varied toil 
 And sleepless forces' mingled conflicts 
 
 drear 
 There rose and reigned throughout the 
 
 vast turmoil 
 A harmony divine. — No act or sound, 
 No thunder of the crashing mountain- 
 sphere. 
 No sough of wind, no ocean-surge pro- 
 found, 
 No leaping light, no force, no entity 
 That mingled not its enthean power mere 
 With one celestial, constant symphony. 
 
 The waters toiling ceaseless in the sands 
 With myriad voices joined the solemn 
 hymn. 
 
 78 
 
The living rocks, the surging ocean- 
 strands, 
 
 The rending hills, the fiery forges' toil 
 
 With flame and thunder, e'en the day- 
 light's gleam. 
 
 And constant moans of primal winds that 
 moil 
 
 Where frosts and floods their cavemed 
 homes devise, 
 
 With stilled whisp 'rings or with grand ac- 
 claim 
 
 Intone the awful secret to the skies. 
 
 AU being chanted glad the symphony. 
 The music of the springing grass, the tones 
 The forest-solitudes in majesty 
 Outbreathe, the songsters' warblings 
 
 thro' the glades, 
 The gorgeous-mantled insects' smnmer- 
 
 drones 
 Hummed thro' the wildered marshlands' 
 
 slumb'rous shades. 
 The growl that frights the forest's sanctity 
 All utter, spirit- voiced, to Heaven's 
 
 thrones 
 The ancient-hymned, the solemn augury. 
 
 79 
 
What song do those vast tones of Nature 
 
 raise ? — 
 The Prophecy, the harbinger of Man, — 
 He who, create to hymn his Maker's 
 
 praise, 
 In God's majestic image rose, a king, 
 A spirit, o'er the gloried earth to reign; 
 To whom all Nature should her homage 
 
 sing; 
 For whose delight yon mountain reared its 
 
 head 
 Sublime amid the irised clouds' domain, 
 And glinting streams their mirrored splen- 
 dors shed. 
 
 Those trees and flow'rs where landscapes 
 
 varied roll, — 
 Their slopes and hills arrayed in placid 
 
 grace, — 
 In beauty rose, responding to his soul ; 
 While myriad forms, with teeming life 
 
 inspired. 
 For his divine emotions, in their dress 
 Of perfect loveliness arose attired. 
 His soul was tuned to Nature's harmony, 
 
 80 
 
That all her pow'rs should his command 
 
 confess, 
 And join his soul to hymn God's majesty. 
 
 In his Creator's holy image formed, 
 Exalt almost to angels' realm divine, — 
 A spiritual existence, soul-conformed 
 To pure divinity, — to live above 
 All mortal strife of narrow earth's con- 
 fine, — 
 With stainless purity of mighty love 
 To rise, a king above the soulless dross 
 Of carnal flesh, with spirit to refine 
 The passing life to longed-for perfect- 
 ness — 
 
 God ! Are we, corrupt in sin and crime, 
 Debased in greed and self -desires vain — 
 In carnal being's vulgar drose and grime, 
 That Soul create by Thee to rule all life. 
 And with divine aspirings Heav'n to 
 
 gain ? — 
 Are we, the abject in our loveless strife. 
 
 81 
 
The Final Purpose of Thy first coimnands, 
 For whom all life and earth Thou didst 
 
 ordain, — 
 The Spirit perfect from Thy love-thrilled 
 
 hands? 
 
 It cannot be ! O man, deceived and vain 
 
 By whose self -exultation's vanity 
 
 We mock with haggish crime the Master's 
 
 reign, 
 The consummation of His wondrous plan. 
 On earth cursed with our vile iniquity, 
 A loftier fulfillment shall attain, — 
 An empyrean state where Love alone 
 Divine shall rule the soul-existence free. 
 And in our midst erect His deathless 
 
 throne. 
 
 82 
 
THE SONG SPAEROW. 
 
 In all the world of sound and sight, 
 Or realms of wondrous art, 
 
 In mem'ry^s sphere or fancy's might 
 In earth or heav'n or heart, 
 
 I know no song as sweet and dear 
 
 As thine, thou darling of the year. 
 
 In warmth or cold, in sun or rain, 
 Your constant spirit thrives ; 
 
 From dawn till dark your trustful strain 
 Thrills o'er our doubting lives. 
 
 In gloom, you know the sun will glow. 
 
 In cold, that zephyrs warm will blow ; 
 
 83 
 
And from the fence or lowlv bush, 
 
 With head uplifted high, 
 You trill your hymn with blissful gush 
 
 To God's most gracious sky. 
 Oh, prophet of a hope divine, 
 I would my faith were deep as thine!— 
 
 That I could see, through all the gloom 
 Of want and greed and pain. 
 
 The peace and joy on earth to come 
 In virtue's happy reign ! 
 
 Then could I sing with heavenly art, 
 
 And move to love the grateful heart. 
 
 84 
 
THE INDIAN. 
 
 Ye soughing winds, how sad ye waft and 
 slow 
 
 O 'er this lone height your sobf ul threnody ; 
 
 Here where the wild, dark wilderness of 
 woe 
 
 Its tangled glooms with thy love-sighs im- 
 bued, — 
 
 Where raucous strifes of earth thy mel- 
 ody. 
 
 With scathful, venomed bane, have not 
 defiled. 
 
 Nor shall the slaving sprite of mortals low 
 
 O'er thy long reign its mocking rage in- 
 trude. 
 
 Thou homeless, undoomed pow'r, thou 
 spirit wild, 
 
 Thou sacred voice of ancient solitude. 
 
 O'erflush the silence with thy doleful 
 
 waves 
 And chant thy breathed dirge to quiv'ring 
 
 leaves. 
 
 85 
 
And thou, lone songster, o'er my fathers' 
 
 graves. 
 Thy requiem hymn. — I only, from that 
 
 dim. 
 Vast, vanished throng, for whom thy spirit 
 
 grieves 
 With my own soul, O forest, mighty, calm. 
 That solemn guards the sleep of noble 
 
 braves, — 
 Am left, a wand'rer from a world sublime, 
 A ray whose setting star yet sheds its balm 
 Of stainless glory o'er the spheres of time. 
 
 And I have come to thee, beloved soul 
 
 Of tranquil Nature, from the world's 
 alarms, — 
 
 Once pure as were those streams that 
 placid roll 
 
 Reflecting now those sky-realms where 
 doth dwell 
 
 The Great, Good Spirit. — Thou in whose 
 dear arms 
 
 My heart and mind were nourished in His 
 care, — 
 
 O Mother of our Race, whose sweet con- 
 trol 
 
 86 ' 
 
The pure, the brave, the free didst e'er 
 impel, 
 
 I come from out the scorned world's de- 
 spair 
 
 And hated rage, to bid a last farewell. 
 
 Farewell to thee, thou barren, mist-robed 
 
 hills, 
 Blue in the gathering twilight's shadowed 
 
 charm, 
 Whose sides, once chasmy with their 
 
 bounding rills, 
 And forest-heights that pierced the 
 
 fringed sky- 
 Lie abject 'neath the coarse-exalted form 
 Of pompous *' culture" whose distorting 
 
 flood 
 Doth mock with strife the calm earth- 
 realm it fills. 
 Thou pure Ohio, flowing placid by, 
 Still dost thou mirror on thy breast the 
 
 cloud 
 And arching sallow bending verdant 
 
 nigh;-- 
 
 87 
 
To thee who scorns man's ruinous evil fell, 
 In whose pure calm I feel divinity, — 
 Thou who hast taught me peace and rest, 
 
 —farewell. 
 And ye, swift coursing streamlets, still un- 
 
 marred 
 By hands degenerate, whose waters free 
 Have quenched my thirst with more than 
 
 fluid-draught 
 When o'er my soul your purity did well, — 
 And thou, dark, solemn forest whose 
 
 storm-scarred 
 And mighty grandeur, with thy spirit- 
 craft, 
 Bestowed on me thy noblest, best re- 
 ward, — 
 
 Farewell, farewell! I shall not see thee 
 
 more 
 With mortal eyes, yet in my spirit's might 
 Thy calm, pure, noble grandeur, e'er be- 
 fore 
 My tranced sight, shall in its glory rise. 
 And guide my dreams from earth to 
 Heaven's light; 
 
And like the essence of a Love Divine 
 Inspirited in angel-forms, restore 
 My heart to sin-lost realms of paradise ; 
 And 'mid the crimeful strife of man, shall 
 
 fine, 
 With Love, my soul for the Great Spirit's 
 
 skies. 
 
 In those lost days which thon, dark forest- 
 fanes 
 Alone dost hymn in solemn harmony, 
 This circling land of hammocks, streams 
 
 and plains 
 Was all our own who roamed its bounds at 
 
 will. 
 To seek the savage bear that haunted free 
 This very forest, where, from rocky height 
 I look across the saddened stream where 
 
 reigns 
 Man's vaunted progress and its monstrous 
 
 iU; 
 And where yon crime-stained city mocks 
 
 the light. 
 And life with lust and selfishness doth 
 
 fill,— 
 
 89 
 
There on the fertile holm the tepees rude 
 Of my lost tribe once pointed to the sky ; 
 And there our prophets in the silent wood 
 Conununed with the Great Spirit whose 
 
 behest 
 We strove to follow: for His presence 
 
 nigh 
 All-seeing, would reward the souls of men 
 According as their deeds were bad or good. 
 And we were taught to love all men, and 
 
 rest 
 In peace, — ^yet bravely live beneath the 
 
 ken 
 Of Him who gave all fowl and fish and 
 
 beast. 
 
 Then with the waning moon the pale-face 
 came. 
 
 Our sacred groves, our ancient hunting- 
 grounds, 
 
 With wily craft and lies, their own did 
 claim. 
 
 And where their feet in desecration passed 
 
 A baneful blight and desolation frowns. 
 
 We strove their rankling greed to pacify, 
 
 90 
 
And live in peace, despite disgrace and 
 
 shame 
 Their presence brought, whose vice and 
 
 crimes o'ercast 
 Our virtues rude with their foul culture's 
 
 dye, 
 At whose iniquity we stood aghast. 
 
 They told us of the Christ, the white men 
 slew, 
 
 To save us from despair, from sin and 
 hate; 
 
 To teach us peace and meekness, — to sub- 
 due 
 
 In tolerance, our wills to destiny. 
 
 We trusted. But their greed insatiate 
 
 Despoiled our forest- wilds, our holms and 
 streams ; 
 
 Destroyed our peace, and taught us to pur- 
 sue 
 
 Their ways befouled with self's iniquity. 
 
 They lied, deceived, whose pledges false 
 and schemes 
 
 Our tribe impelled to desperate misery. 
 
 91 
 
Their armies swarmed about us. We were 
 slaves 
 
 In our own homes and lands, — possessions 
 fair 
 
 Where quenchless lust and cruelty our 
 graves 
 
 In ruthless fate prepared. O 'er God's do- 
 main 
 
 We wandered from the scene of life's de- 
 spair, — 
 
 Far from our loved abodes, our streams 
 and hills. 
 
 Our sacred solitudes, our forest-caves, 
 
 To distant hunting-grounds where naught 
 could stain. 
 
 With culture's greedful crimes and thou- 
 sand ills 
 
 Of Despot-Serfdom, Nature's hallowed 
 reign. 
 
 But like vindictive doom they followed 
 near. 
 
 Beneath the grasping might of glutton- 
 foes 
 
 92 
 
We saw our homes, our hopes and ail 
 
 things dear, 
 Our lives, our race ravaged in heinous 
 
 waste. 
 Then, with a mighty hate conceived of 
 
 woes, 
 Of broken faith, of hunger and despair. 
 Implacable as doom that knew no fear, 
 Our rage we sated by our slaughter vast : 
 Our fury gorged on blood no foe did spare. 
 We slew, we bled, we died, — ^but undis- 
 
 graeed. 
 
 Ah, was I dreaming thro' the evening 
 hour?— 
 
 O Spirit Great, how fallen are thy sons ! 
 
 How crushed, how vanished is their an- 
 cient pow'r, — 
 
 The mighty and the brave, the pure and 
 free, — 
 
 Their race as ancient as yon stream that 
 runs 
 
 And silvery gleams of melting day out- 
 flings, — 
 
Here primal born where Nature's spirit 
 
 pure 
 Attunes the soul to Heaven's harmony, — 
 Far nobler than the loftiest race of kings, 
 And braver than their mightiest progeny ! 
 
 Ye feeble slaves of these degenerate days, 
 Ye sordid serfs of mean age ye defile, 
 Whose false refinement ye, base fawners, 
 
 praise, 
 My soul whose hopes with my race ye have 
 
 slain — 
 The pure, the noble — scorns your venomed 
 
 guile. 
 Your selfishness, impurity and vice ! 
 It loathes your cultivation's vile disease 
 That teaches all the infected greed of gain ; 
 That sells your brothers' lives for avarice ; 
 That fouls your souls with myriad sins' 
 
 black stain; 
 
 That forces half your sons to drudge and 
 
 moil, 
 And give their lives of shame and misery, 
 
 94 
 
Degraded, pleasureless, for them to toil 
 Whose glutton-greed cloys on the lives 
 
 they enslave; 
 That mocks at merit, truth and bravery. 
 And scorns with shame's reward the pure 
 
 and good! 
 Arise, ye slaves ! The ground ye now defile 
 With hollow mockeries from Virtue's 
 
 grave, 
 With venal lusts' hypocrisy to God, 
 Was hallowed by the mighty, noble brave. 
 
 O Mother of the Brave, bewail with me 
 My vanished race, — the lost, forgotten 
 
 throng 
 Thy spirit sweet, in nurture pure and free, 
 Instructed deep in life's mysterious truth : 
 For here upon their graves thy solemn 
 
 song 
 Bemoans, in their dark fate, thy reign 
 
 o'erthrown 
 By mocking earth devote to vanity. 
 Yet in those realms above earth-hate and 
 
 ruth, 
 Those happy hunting-grounds — the 
 
 Spirit's throne — 
 
Their souls are wand 'ring in eternal 
 youth. 
 
 And I, — the last, the lonely, — at thy call, 
 Great, Good Spirit, by whose sovereign 
 
 pow'r 
 My race arose in majesty to fall 
 Before these hordes that scorn their wild 
 
 despair, 
 Shall leave this bright domain — ^my 
 
 mighty dow'r — 
 Unsung, unmourned by loveless hearts 
 
 and cold. 
 O Great Earth-Spirit, hear my last fare- 
 well! 
 Ye Solenm streams, ye hills and fallows 
 
 fair, 
 Ye gorges wild, ye noble forests old, 
 Farewell, farewell, — I ne'er shall see thee 
 
 more ! 
 
THE WOOD-THEUSH. 
 
 Thou tremulous voice of sacred solitude — 
 
 Thou soul of Nature's life, 
 How thrills thy rapturous song the 
 list'ning wood 
 And charms to wonder all my selfish 
 grief ! 
 No sound on earth as rich and pure as 
 thine, 
 As free from pain and strife ; 
 Some passion rare, some lofty theme 
 
 divine 
 Inspires thy tranquil soul with solemn 
 mood. 
 
 Oh, I could wish that angels' songs might 
 be 
 Ethereal as thine, 
 For in the secret of thy ecstasy 
 
 Throbs all the beauty of some God-like 
 pain — 
 Some myst'ry deep to blinded mortals dim, 
 
 But full of Heav'n's design, 
 In haunted woods enchanted by thy hymn, 
 So wonderful, so near divinity. 
 
 97 
 
The dewy dawn in mystic bow'rs of green 
 
 Scarce stirs the waiting air, 
 When o'er the pulse of morn thy tones 
 serene 
 Gush trembling like some heart's 
 emotion rare. 
 The tender Silence throbs through all its 
 soul 
 Thy rhapsody to hear, 
 And Echo wakes her richest chords to call 
 The woodland sprites to worship with thy 
 strain. 
 
 When Zephyr breathes his cool, caressing 
 spells 
 O'er bow'rs of paling light, 
 And charming Glamour day's commotion 
 stills 
 With fancies soft and whispers of the 
 night. 
 From secret depths of some melodious 
 wood 
 Thy vibrant music's flight. 
 In strains of magic minor soft-subdued. 
 The phantomed gloom with quiv'ring 
 transport thrills. 
 
Oh, fresh and tender as the morn of May 
 
 Enravished with thy song ; 
 Profound and mystic as the twilight gray 
 That lingers where thy thrilling 
 raptures throng ; 
 Tranquil as the trembling flow'rs aswoon 
 
 In silent sorcery hung! — 
 All nature hushes when thy liquid tune 
 Pours mellow floods of worship to the day. 
 
 Seraphic minstrel, messenger benign, 
 
 In secret realms apart, 
 An echo of some primal hymn divine, 
 A rare and haunting wraith of Nature's 
 heart, — 
 My spirit quiv'ring on the vibrant flow 
 
 Of thy celestial art. 
 Yearns with thee through life's forest 
 
 gloom and glow 
 To worlds where skies of fadeless beauty 
 shine. 
 
 99 
 
SERENADE. 
 
 Arise to her heart, sweet song, 
 Tender as night's holy passion: 
 Tremble and hover like cherubs above her. 
 Whisper all gently, *'I love her, I love 
 here- 
 in accents the angels might fashion. 
 Oh, breathe to my fair 
 My yearning despair — 
 Arise to her heart, sweet song. 
 
 Enfold all her sense, sweet dream, 
 Soft on the night-air a-thronging; 
 Quiver and linger, pale forms, while I sing 
 
 her 
 Ardent desires of the worship I bring 
 her — 
 Pure visions of infinite longing. 
 Oh, throng her charmed sleep 
 With thoughts pure and deep — 
 Enfold all her sense, sweet dream. 
 
 100 
 
Imbue all her soul, sweet love, 
 Charming with blissful emotion; 
 Sweeter and stiller than visions that thrill 
 
 her, 
 Deep with thy ravishing witchery fill 
 her — 
 Pair Goddess of mystic devotion. 
 Entice and inspire 
 With love's magic fire — 
 Imbue all her soul, sweet love. 
 
 101 
 
THE HERMIT.— Sonnet. 
 
 In olden times now dim with glamour's 
 charm, 
 The hermit, hidden in his lonely cell, 
 Renounced the world and all its sin and 
 harm 
 And lost his soul in Nature's healing 
 spell. 
 There, free from grief and hate and 
 strife's alarm. 
 The holy peace and contemplative zeal 
 His being to a blessed state transform. 
 And passion's blight in solitude doth 
 heal. 
 Thus might I dwell in Nature's own 
 caress, 
 Par from the crime and wrong of 
 modern life. 
 No more to silent mourn the poor's 
 distress, 
 Nor curse the greed of wealth and sordid 
 strife ; 
 Like tempted Christ, with Spirit-pow'r 
 
 renewed. 
 Should I return to point the world to good. 
 
 102 
 
WINTER BALLAD. 
 
 There is snow on the hills, 
 
 There is ice on the rills, 
 
 And the pine trees with frost-fringe are 
 
 hoary: 
 There is light in the sky 
 And the flood-glows on high 
 Strew the scene with a glistening glory. 
 
 There's a gleam on the rocks 
 Where the stream laves its locks 
 With dashes and spray-glints of bright- 
 ness: 
 There's a mantle soft-blown 
 O'er the fields and the town 
 That turns all the gloom-shades to white- 
 ness : 
 
 All my soul feels the balm 
 
 Of the white, moveless calm 
 
 As I gaze mute in wonder appealing ; 
 
 With the glories serene 
 
 Brooding far o'er the scene 
 
 To my heart a deep import revealing. 
 
 103 
 
THE POET'S WOOING. 
 
 Come, dearest, with me. 
 There's a bright reahn divine — 
 A heav'n of love where thy lone soul and 
 mine, 
 O'er the glad summer-sea 
 Of our dream-rhapsody 
 Are wafted in wavering joys, or recline 
 On delight's throbbing breast 
 In a wild, joyous rest. 
 
 Come, fairest, with me. 
 Par away we will fly 
 From earth's baneful glooms to yon 
 glorious sky, 
 Where the radiance rare 
 Of a spirit-light fair 
 In a rapturous flood pours a lustre on 
 high; 
 And its throbbing delight 
 Thrills our hearts with love's might. 
 
 104 
 
Come, sweetest, with me. 
 Let us haste soft away : 
 Our pinions of joy earthly fetters delay. 
 There in love pure and free 
 We shall roam joyously. 
 Softly glowing in endless delight blushful 
 May 
 Weaves of Beauty's sweet flow'rs 
 Our entrancing love-bow 'rs. 
 
 Come, darling, with me. 
 To our far world benign 
 All Loveliness, Beauty and Music Divine 
 Softly call us. We 'U flee 
 Wafted e'er on Love's sea 
 To yon kingless sphere where our lone 
 hearts entwine 
 In delight wild, supreme 
 Of our love's fadeless dream. 
 
 105 
 
AMBITION.— Sonnet. 
 The drowsy muses wake not with morn's 
 beams 
 Sullen with sated Smnmer 's languid sigh ; 
 The dawning 's splendor and noon's 
 dazzling sky 
 Have passed, like joy, into the poet's 
 
 dreams, 
 And Time with leaden shackles, gray- 
 gloomed, seems 
 To chain the winged soul to pine and die 
 'Mid drooping dreams of lost, wild 
 majesty 
 Where, glory-tinged, its sky-kissed man- 
 sion gleams. 
 Yet shalt thou pine, O h^art, in sorrow 
 dire?— 
 As yon hued star dispels the wreath- 
 ing blight, 
 The glowing ardor of inspired desire 
 Shall flame the glooms thy soul's pure 
 star benight ; 
 Shall rend its shrouds and fuse in fining 
 fire 
 The pall that surges round thy spirit's 
 flight. 
 
 106 
 
THE THRONE. 
 
 Once thro' love's noontide I was dreaming 
 
 Wlien the glowing spheres of gold, 
 Their mellow flush in splendor gleaming, 
 Steeped in rainbowed floods that fold 
 Their troopings warm as summer 
 
 dreams 
 About my tranced heart that seems 
 'Neath Heaven's stainless glory lulled 
 To passionate repose, where rolled 
 The mystic flows of sky-hued streams. 
 
 Par thro' the throngs of splendors teeming 
 
 O'er the marge of flooding day. 
 My wafted soul aswoon or dreaming 
 Heard some wondrous spirit-lay 
 That quivered thro' the irised light 
 Its thrills of strange soul-startling 
 might. 
 As joys some forlorn heart astray 
 Flush o'er when dawning 's pallor gray 
 Breaks thro' th^ pall of paling night. 
 
 107 
 
The orbed worlds of glory streaming 
 Merged their floods of fused glows, 
 And voiceful strains of radiance hymning 
 Pulsed their harmonies that rose 
 
 With tremblings thro ' the tranced air, 
 And flushing, thrilled its slumbers 
 fair; 
 As when some tide of bliss o'erflows 
 The deeps of peaceless life's repose 
 And frights the triumph of despair. 
 
 Amid the dulcet strains, soft theming 
 
 Raptured tremors of delight. 
 My soul, itself in Heaven deeming 
 Started at the mystic sight ; 
 For seraph-souls whose pinions shone 
 With liquid gold, a beauteous throne 
 Did rear ; while sphered glowings , 
 
 bright. 
 Flushed mellow with some tender might, 
 Soft floods of rhapsodies intone. 
 
 Each spirit, some earth-soul beseeming. 
 Erst uncrowned 'mid earthly scorn, 
 
 108 
 
Effulgent in sky-raptures gleaming, 
 Glory's radiant throne adorn. 
 The vassals of earth-pow'r and fame, 
 Of pompous wealth or honored name. 
 With that rapt throng on Heaven's 
 
 bourn 
 Could mingle not, whose souls did yearn 
 With lust and greed in rankling flame. 
 
 But o'er those blissful forms e'er stream- 
 ing 
 Mystic phantom-beings gush. 
 Like happy, fleeting visions teeming 
 In dream-magic's tender blush; 
 Transformed from earthly deed or 
 
 dream, 
 Their empyreal glory-gleam 
 Wreathed round those seraph-bands its 
 
 hush; 
 While guardian spirit-raptures flush 
 That lustre-fashioned throne 
 supreme. 
 
 109 
 
And some there were 'mid that throng 
 seeming 
 Lives I knew in earthly days, 
 Tho' lowly born, yet paltry deeming 
 Wealth and pow'r, desire and praise; 
 And many poor and meek unknown, 
 Whose soTils e'er heard the creature's 
 groan, 
 And yearnings vain to Heaven raise 
 For human wrongs and griefs that maze 
 The sin-darked earth in wail and 
 moan. 
 
 With tear-gems dark now lustrous beam- 
 ing, 
 Brighter than the sun-flamed dew; 
 With sighs of pain enraptured hymning 
 Strains that earth-forms would endue 
 With dreams divine ; with looks of 
 
 pain 
 The soul in anguish uttered vain. 
 That glories tint with fairest hue ; 
 With pure love-dreams and longings 
 true, 
 Those builders reared Love's holy 
 reign. 
 
 110 
 
And when the King, His sky-throne 
 gleaming, 
 Shrined in stainless radiance white, 
 Ascended in hned splendors streaming 
 Flaming wide o'er earth's tinged night, 
 I joined that seraph glory-train 
 Whose raptures thrilled the triumph- 
 strain 
 'Mid worlds attime with ravished 
 
 might : 
 '^ Great King of Glory, Pow'r and 
 
 Light, 
 Great God, thou Love Eternal, 
 reign." 
 
 ill 
 
THE SNOWFLAKE. 
 
 Oh, delicate creature 
 Of marvelous feature, 
 What mist-molding spirits 
 Have had thee in thrall ! 
 What wild pain and gladness, 
 What ravishing sadness. 
 What beautiful madness 
 Are told in thy fall ! 
 
 Oh, filmy and dainty, 
 Thy form carved so quaintly. 
 Thy mystic design from 
 
 The stars took its form. 
 The frost's biting kisses, 
 The wind's giddy blisses. 
 The storm's rude caresses 
 
 Have lent thee thy charm. 
 
 112 
 
Prom clouds dark and whirling, 
 In tempest wild swirling, 
 Like beauty from darkness, 
 Like Spring's radiant birth, 
 A scintillant flurry, 
 A crystal- white glory, 
 A mist- j ewel hoary, 
 
 Thou floatest to earth. 
 
 Oh, miracle dazing. 
 With marvel amazing, 
 No flow'r in the forest. 
 
 No gem in the mine. 
 In infinite wonder, 
 So fleeting and tender, 
 So subtle in splendor, 
 
 Is half so divine. 
 
 What forces have wrought thee. 
 What power hath brought thee. 
 Thou dazzling spear-cluster. 
 
 Thou flow'r-bride of air, 
 So silently flying, 
 So multiform lying. 
 So fugitive, dying. 
 
 In starry despair I 
 
 113 
 
Could knowledge discover 
 These forces that hover 
 In common existence 
 
 Of snowflake or flow'r, 
 Could science expound us 
 This spirit around us, 
 These laws that surround us, 
 
 Their purpose and pow'r! 
 
 But vain is our scheming. 
 And empty our dreaming; 
 Our strong reason faints 
 
 At celestial design. 
 Oh, beauty external, 
 Oh, vision supernal, 
 Eeveal the eternal. 
 
 And make us divine ! 
 
 114 
 
AUTUMN LEAVES. 
 
 So low and still among the grass 
 You lie in moveless death, 
 
 Scarce stirring when the breezes pass 
 With chill and hoary breath : 
 
 What cruel fate has laid you low, 
 
 All prostrate in your gorgeous woe ? 
 
 When Spring flushed all the wintry wold 
 
 With breath of scented air. 
 And spread her shining garments' gold 
 
 O'er earth-glooms dulled and bare. 
 You woke to life, so pure and fresh, 
 A-quiver with the dawning 's blush. 
 
 Oh, could this vital, ardent spring. 
 When thrilling sap gushed forth 
 
 Through all your tingling veins to sing 
 The wonder of your birth, 
 
 Still cherish you so sweet and rare, 
 
 So young and green and ever fair ! 
 
 115 
 
What joy was yours, what daylight cheer, 
 
 And stir of balmy night! 
 What happy songsters caroled clear 
 
 Their gnshings to the light ! 
 What zephyrs hush with lang'rous kiss 
 Would wanton o'er your trembling bliss! 
 
 In radiant, voluptuous June, 
 
 What lovers aimless led. 
 In luscious phrases soft commune 
 
 Beneath your envious shade ! 
 What teeming, soaring, humming life 
 You saw through lavish summer rife ! 
 
 I too, perhaps, when wand 'ring lone 
 Through solemn forest way. 
 
 Would listen to your rustling tone 
 Melodious breezes play. 
 
 And here, at last, with life outworn, 
 
 Your fallen grace I lowly mourn. 
 
 lie 
 
Yet, doomed to such a splendid death 
 Deep-hued in lustrous pain, 
 
 Sad Autumn tints with magic breath 
 Your pall of crimson wane. 
 
 Majestic in your fall sublime, 
 
 I love you more than in your prime. 
 
 O tender life, there was a day 
 When youth was ever mine ; 
 
 When throbbing gush of generous May 
 Breathed out its soul divine : 
 
 But summer came — the golden joy 
 
 And fullness of the noon's alloy. 
 
 And now life's Autiunn slowly comes 
 
 With mist^ upon the hill, 
 With blighting frosts and wintry dooms 
 
 That summer music still. 
 Oh, will the joy and love and strife 
 With mellow glory tinge my life ? 
 
 117 
 
Ah, could we mould our sordid fate 
 To Nature's sinless reign, 
 
 Our living were a happy state 
 And death a radiant wane. 
 
 O autumn leaves, our low desire 
 
 With thy rich lore of life inspire ! 
 
 118 
 
THE MEADOW LAEK. 
 
 Gray-robed dawn with fingers airy 
 Scarce has touched the misty hill, 
 
 Nor the sun with faint smiles cheery 
 Burst the shroud of wintry chill, 
 
 Till I hear thy carol high 
 
 Whistling to the March-gloomed sky. 
 Softly waking, sweetly breaking 
 Sleep of bud and frost of rill. 
 
 Through the cheerless shroud of morning. 
 Prom the dewy meadow still. 
 
 Sounds thy flute-like note of yearning 
 For the summer's generous thrill. 
 
 In your wavy, rolling song. 
 
 Like the hills you skim along, 
 
 Naught of sorrow for the morrow 
 Mars the Joy with taint of ill. 
 
 119 
 
All the warmth of balmy May-time, 
 All the bliss of flow'rs and nest, 
 
 Loves through all the summer daytime 
 Swell thy throat and thrill thy breast. 
 
 N'o regret for autumn grief, 
 
 Summers gone, or fallen leaf : 
 
 All thy singing, flowing, ringing. 
 Hymns the future's glad behest. 
 
 Tell me all that nature taught thee. 
 
 In thy tonef ul whistling bright ; 
 Man's vain care and strife have brought 
 me 
 Naught but bitterness and blight. 
 All his empty knowledge fails, 
 All his vaunted greatness pales 
 
 At thy singing, blithely winging, 
 Happy in the gloom or light. 
 
 120 
 
still pour out o 'er field and fallow 
 Silvery peals of guileless art, 
 
 Till our sodden senses hallow 
 All thy meaning in our heart. 
 
 Flood the world with song benign 
 
 Till our thoughts are pure as thine : 
 Nature's blessing, sweet expressing, 
 To our sordid souls impart. 
 
 121 
 
ON EASTER MOEN. 
 
 When the radiant streams of golden 
 splendor 
 Melted in flames o'er the dawning 's 
 
 And the sun-floods first lustres flooding 
 tender 
 Glistened from dew-gems afire with 
 day; 
 
 And the star-spheres, their pallid glint- 
 ings, beaming 
 Sky-realms with silver their gold adorn,- 
 All the tranced delights of God's worlds 
 gleaming 
 Fuse in the glory of Easter Morn. 
 
 In the sun-floods o'er sea and city 
 streaming 
 Thrilling the warm-flushing morn with 
 cheer, 
 Thro' the shimmering streets whose man- 
 sions, gleaming, 
 Mirrored the sun-flames in dazzlings 
 clear, 
 
 122 
 
In apparel all gorgeous, throngs were 
 wending, 
 
 Garish and flashing their proud display, 
 In luxuriant pageants costly blending 
 
 Sumptuous vanities' pomp with day. 
 
 In a flourish to church they flutter 
 proudly, 
 Flaunting their elegance hued in morn. 
 To exalt with their mocking praises 
 loudly 
 Jesus, the King of the World, they 
 scorn. 
 
 When they reach the great structure, 
 august, mighty, 
 Eeared with their fabulous wealth's 
 excess, — 
 By the stately bronze doors in day flashed 
 lightly, 
 Wrought in elaborate gracefulness 
 
 123 
 
With inspirited scenes from Jesus' 
 wanderings, 
 Lost in the darkness of life's grief -maze, 
 Whom the minions of Self in their meagre 
 pond 'rings 
 Serve as their church-god with deedless 
 praise, — 
 
 On the steps was a formless mass seen 
 crouching, 
 Mingling its gloom with the golden 
 glow; 
 And the faces of mother and babe seemed 
 watching 
 Pageants of splendor that mocked their 
 woe. 
 
 'Mid the sneers and rebukes of Christians 
 godless. 
 Moveless the culprits their scorn defied : 
 For grim Death glared from eye-balls 
 ghastly, bloodless, 
 Gloating his lusts o'er their lives 
 mocked with pride. 
 
 124 
 
What hollow farce of praise, O God, 
 To taint thy love with pride and state. 
 
 While Demon- Woes, at Wealth's chill nod. 
 Their orgies hold with Death and Fate ! 
 
 Dread Death ! Thou are the Sprite of 
 Hell 
 To hearts spoil-gorged from human 
 strife : 
 How hideous, thou life's horror fell 
 To lust of eyes and pride of life ! 
 
 But, ah, to grief -crushed souls thou art 
 God's Angel dear of Peace and Love, 
 
 So tender to the woe- worn heart 
 Thou leadest to thy King above. 
 
 Oft have I felt thy gentle arms 
 Around me, looked into thine eyes, 
 
 And, hid from mocking life's alarms, 
 I rested borne toward paradise. 
 
 125 
 
And thou didst love me, for thy face 
 Was wreathed in tender looks of woe; 
 
 And o'er my anguished heart thy grace 
 Flushed first the thrill of Heaven's 
 glow: 
 
 And, folded to thy panting breast, 
 I wooed thy smiles with fond implore, 
 
 And borne aswoon to realms of rest. 
 The Mystery of Life seemed o'er. 
 
 Thou Seraph of our destined years. 
 How gently dost thou lead us on 
 
 Prom woes to throned kingless spheres 
 Enwreathed in lights of Heaven's 
 Dawn, 
 
 Whose splendors stream from flooding 
 Morn 
 
 That burst thy prison-pall of night; 
 And Heaven's deathless glories throne 
 
 Our King enshrined in Love and Light ! 
 
 126 
 
THE HAIL. 
 
 While man on his earth, in plenty or 
 dearth 
 Is struggling all stolid and blind, 
 Lo, here in the sky I am forming on high 
 In cloud-storms and wind-wrath en- 
 twined. 
 
 The daemons of storm all the sky-robes 
 transform, 
 And the globules of fog and of cloud 
 All gather and swarm 'neath the wind's 
 chilly charm, 
 Till the rain-drops descend from the 
 shroud. 
 
 All downward "they plunge till in their 
 wild lunge 
 They reach the weird region of frost, 
 Where cold's mystic Sprite, with wand of 
 strange might 
 Congeals all their hurrying host. 
 
 127 
 
And thus I am made, in a dazzle arrayed, 
 And I crash through the thick rolling 
 mist; 
 But the wild winds amain rushing upward 
 again. 
 With a force that no earth-bonds re- 
 sist, 
 
 Hurl me swiftly on high through the 
 storm-darkened sky, 
 
 And the vaporous atoms of air 
 I grasp and I hold till the rigorous cold 
 
 Freezes all in my arms cold and bare. 
 
 Through the vortex I whirl, seething out 
 of the swirl, 
 Till I pour o'er the storm's raging 
 bound; 
 And the winds rushing by let me drop 
 from on high. 
 And I plunge and I pitch to the 
 ground. 
 
 128 
 
Through the tree-tops I crash, on the 
 house-roof I clash, 
 And I startle with rattle and roar 
 All that dwell on the earth, with my bois- 
 terous mirth, 
 When my frantic, mad journey is 
 
 o'er. 
 
 From my wild life on high here I silently 
 lie. 
 By a wonder of wind- wrath designed ; 
 While man on his earth, in plenty or 
 dearth, 
 Was struggling all stolid and blind. 
 
 129 
 
ASPIRATION.— Sonnet. 
 
 Incessant Spirit like a tireless goad, 
 
 Compelling effort to unwonted trials, 
 Why dost thou urge me onward o'er the 
 road 
 Of weary struggle through life's mazy 
 wiles ? 
 With failures scorned and pleasures all 
 subdued, 
 I strive and strain to reach those higher 
 goals 
 Where labor shall achieve some human 
 good- 
 Some influence sweet, or love in humble 
 souls. 
 So, shall thy force relentless keep her sway ; 
 E'en though I lose the common joys of 
 life. 
 My heart shall triumph in some golden 
 day. 
 With lives made better through my pain 
 and strife. 
 Thou gracious tyrant, wield thy 
 
 chast'ning goad 
 And drive me upward o'er thy skyey 
 road. 
 
 130 
 
THE COMET. 
 
 Mysterious wanderer through bournless 
 space, 
 Creation sourceless in thy wondered 
 flight, 
 Prodigious giant of the planet race, 
 My thoughts of thee are vast as thine 
 own night. 
 What mystic pow'r impels thy trackless 
 
 way 
 Through sun's and systems' infinite 
 array? 
 
 On boundless path with speed's amazing 
 might 
 Thou soarest past the circling planet- 
 spheres ; 
 Thy fiery train of fuming, seething light, 
 A monster huge, the depthless heaven 
 blears 
 With gassy dust repellent to the sun 
 That draws thee round her on thy sweep- 
 ing rim. 
 
 131 
 
Thy mass stupendous swings beyond the 
 bound 
 Of Neptune's farthest orbit black and 
 cold, 
 To where some undreamed spheres' 
 eternal round 
 Compels thy viewless flight to realms 
 untold; 
 While through thy million miles of reek- 
 ing form, 
 By nameless essence fired, thy atoms ' 
 swarm. 
 
 A thousand years on one relentless course. 
 
 Above the circuit of the rolling worlds, 
 
 Thou plungest on impelled by furious 
 
 force 
 
 That all thy fuming bulk forever hurls 
 
 Through wheeling orbs that float in grand 
 
 array 
 In widening arcs to bourns of sunless day. 
 
 132 
 
From distant realms thou glarest on the 
 swarm 
 Of whirling spheres. Thou sweepest 
 past the earth 
 In borrowed splendor pale ; the glowing 
 form 
 Of radiant Venus, and the ruddy girth 
 Of ancient Mars ; while farther 'neath thy 
 
 plane 
 Flames giant Jupiter with star-like train, 
 
 And fires with bursting rage the reeking 
 pall 
 Of struggling fumes that seethe in 
 frenzied ire. 
 Majestic Saturn sinks his rolling ball 
 In surging seas of glowing, vaporous 
 fire, 
 Where circling moons from banded clouds 
 
 arise 
 And strew their glory o'er the mirrored 
 skies. 
 
 133 
 
Oh, could we journey with thee 'round the 
 spheres 
 Of solar marvels scattered through the 
 sky 
 Ineffable, that vast creation rears, 
 
 Wonders on wonders, till our spirit's eye 
 Beheld the Might that made them roll and 
 
 shine— 
 Our feeble souls would rise to heights 
 divine I 
 
 Behind eternal worlds we should behold 
 One law, immutable, inflexible, 
 
 That rules the universe with reign as old 
 As prime Conception's plan inexorable : 
 
 One Force supreme — the Lord of space 
 and time, 
 
 The Sway of systems and of suns sublime. 
 
 134 
 
Debase Him not to share your vulgar 
 states, 
 In groveling greed and sin of life 
 profane ; 
 The God that universal Law creates 
 
 Is far above your trifling baubles vain. 
 Degrade Him not to all your paltry cares, 
 Nor make him servile to your vile affairs. 
 
 He gives all law for worlds as well as man, 
 Revealed in every pulse of Nature's life. 
 Conform your minds accordant to His 
 plan; 
 Look up, behold, and leave your sordid 
 strife ! 
 Consider all these wondrous works on 
 
 high, 
 And teach your souls to worship with the 
 sky. 
 
 135 
 
The creant laws that made the heavens 
 swarm 
 With coimtless, deathless majesties of 
 light, 
 Hold universal fates that ever form 
 
 All being's course in functions infinite: 
 To feel this harmony of Primal Plan 
 Alone is great, amid the shame of man. 
 
 13a 
 
SUFFERING.— Sonnet. 
 
 For whom the Lord doth love He chasten- 
 eth, 
 And scourgeth every one He doth 
 receive. 
 So e'en the depths of grief or pangs of 
 death 
 An exultation and a triumph give, 
 Higher and greater than despised pain 
 And scorned suffering of a little day. 
 Therefore, ye fates, with all your tortures 
 vain, 
 Torment my life, but give my soul her 
 sway: 
 With loss and toil and care my heart 
 oppress, 
 And crush me down in dark humility, 
 With scourging woes and chastening 
 wretchedness. 
 Yet shall my soul arise in majesty, 
 Glowing with glory of this charmed 
 distress. 
 To reachless heights of Heaven's 
 ecstasy. 
 
 137 
 
WANDERING. 
 
 'Twas eventide, and twilight gloomings 
 
 Pale as phantoms of delight, 
 Crept still o'er mellow day's illumings 
 
 Vermeil-hued and bright, 
 Whose floods with shades of evening bleod 
 
 To gold from noontide's splendor white. 
 The drooping leaves sweet blushing bend, 
 Toward where day's glories soft descend. 
 
 To kiss the sun good-night. 
 
 And where the purling streamlet glinted 
 
 Softer in its murmuring gush, 
 And whisp 'ring ripples golden tinted 
 
 Grlowed with day's wan blush, — 
 We lingered by the verdant wold 
 
 Sad-drooping twilight blooms o'erflush, 
 Where zephyr's fallen pinions fold 
 And solitude day's death condoled 
 
 In solemn, omened hush. 
 
 138 
 
My soul so weary with its striving 
 
 Sank in rest beside the stream, 
 Where Vesper, from her trance reviving 
 
 Threw her silver gleam 
 Fast bright 'ning in day's crimson wane ; 
 
 And when the thrush forgot his theme 
 And fluttered to yon leafy fane, 
 My fair love breathed a magic strain 
 
 Beguiling me to dream. 
 
 'Twas sweeter than a siren's chanting. 
 
 Wafting doomed souls to bliss ; 
 More tender than the zephyr panting 
 
 Fevered brows to kiss ; 
 Oh, gladder than the songs of Spring 
 
 That thrill the world with joyousness. 
 And dear as strains the angels sing, — 
 A song of love, enrapturing 
 
 With passion's holiness. 
 
 139 
 
My thrilled soul was soothed to dreaming 
 
 Dreams too deep for human sight, 
 'Mid raptured forms from Heaven seem- 
 
 Borne on pinions light 
 Of mortal love that breathed in song 
 
 Supernal with its passion's might. 
 My soul seemed with some angel-throng 
 The radiant, fleeting stars among 
 
 To take its flight. 
 
 But when the night, her black robes shed- 
 ding 
 
 O 'er the meadow, stream and hill, 
 Conjured her spell, a strange pow'r 
 spreading 
 
 O'er my slumbers still, 
 A phantom weird of sorrow passed 
 
 Among my dreams with love athrill 
 That, paled with terror, vanished fast; 
 And I awoke alone, aghast. 
 
 Forlorn in night's black chill. 
 
 140 
 
Alone! No visioned love forms thrilling 
 
 Quivered o'er my straining sight: 
 Alone ! No whispered love-tones stilling 
 
 Care in joy's delight I 
 No light from Heaven's dark domain 
 
 Shone o'er my anguished soul, a blight, 
 Heavy and thick with crushing pain. 
 Consumed my love-lorn heart aswoon 
 
 In sorrow's voiceless night. 
 
 Oh, where had fled those dreams supernal, 
 
 Vanished in love's eventide, — 
 That transient passion vowed eternal 
 
 I had deified'? 
 Ah, could it stray and leave my heart 
 
 To roam life's desert wild and wide, — 
 To wander aimless and apart, 
 A guideless love some Fury's dart 
 
 Has ruthless struck aside? 
 
 141 
 
Ah, for that joy I lost at even, 
 
 Where the surging shadows rise 
 I sought thro ' wreathed earth and Heaven, 
 
 Death and Paradise. 
 Thro' weird and starless realms above 
 
 Where lifeless airs dull-mocked my 
 sighs, 
 And where the struggling night-shrouds 
 
 strove 
 All wild and wan I sought my love 
 
 Among the blackened skies ; 
 
 On where the frighted cloud-ships floated, 
 
 Drooping wan their furling sails 
 Once white, but where the death-pall 
 gloated. 
 
 Stained with midnight's bales. 
 One fleeting instant shone a glow, — 
 
 A flush of passing joy that pales; 
 One soothing love-tone sweet and low 
 Breathed tranced o'er my startled woe 
 
 That plunged to earth's deep vales. 
 
 142 
 
And when I roused to living sorrow, 
 
 Thro' the forest dense and wild 
 I wandered striving toward the morrow 
 
 Where my lost joy smiled. 
 On thro' the tangled wildwood- waste 
 
 O'er cliffs and chasmy vales beguiled 
 In wild desire and frenzied haste, 
 As by some demon-anguish chased 
 
 With nameless fury thrilled, 
 
 I struggled on. Thro' bleak and trackless 
 
 Regions of eternal care, 
 Where veiled the midnight's phantomed 
 blackness 
 
 Haunts of mad despair. 
 Concealing in her sightless glooms 
 
 The sprites of Hell that frenzied bear 
 The woe-worn souls to searchless dooms. 
 Where thoughts' and dreams' and mem'- 
 ries' tombs 
 
 Yawned black, but passing fair ; 
 
 143 
 
And where adown that gorge abysmal, 
 
 Waste with wrecks of joy I crave, 
 'Mid ragged gulfs and whirlpools dismal 
 
 Faith and terror rave, — 
 My tortured soul with yearnings torn. 
 
 In fevered haste to find the grave 
 Of vanished love, still struggled lorn; 
 I sank, in fainting anguish borne. 
 
 In madness' seething wave. 
 
 Long thro' the soundless midnight's 
 surges 
 
 Phantom-throngs of ghastly care 
 Fast-trooping gasped their hollow dirges 
 
 O'er my dumb despair. 
 Long thro' the lifeless soul's weird trance 
 
 I felt the blackened ages fare 
 Dead o'er life's ruined, dark expanse 
 Once bright and fair, where beasts of 
 Chance 
 
 Their orgies vast prepare. 
 
 144 
 
But calm as flushes glowing Vesper 
 
 O'er the even's flood of gray, 
 There throbbed thro' night a thrilled 
 whisper 
 
 Soft as blush of day ; 
 And o'er my soul a presence dear, 
 
 Entrancing like a seraph's lay 
 Prom realms of bliss that hovered near, 
 And sweeter than some vision fair 
 
 From Heaven's dreams astray, 
 
 O'erflushed at life's sublime awaking. 
 
 Soft a thrilling hand clasped mine ; 
 And night's abysmal glooms forsaking. 
 
 Where veiled splendors shine — 
 The irised blush of some new morn — 
 
 Led ever by that hand divine, 
 Par from that dread abyss upborne 
 On wings that lowly earth-glooms scorn 
 
 I sought yon glory's shrine. 
 
 145 
 
And there I roused from life's weird 
 dreamings 
 
 On those heights at Heaven's bourn; 
 And gazed o'er all earth's hollow seemings 
 
 Dark and love-forlorn. 
 I saw my petty passion wane 
 
 And plunge in gloom its fire outworn ; 
 And love all seared with burning pain 
 Consumed its own desire with bane 
 
 Of bitterness and scorn. 
 
 My empty soul with hunger yearning. 
 
 Turned to life as broad and great 
 As mighty sweeps of God's discerning 
 
 O'er all human fate. 
 And all the joys and woes of men 
 
 Poured o'er my heart to consecrate 
 My selfish passion's paltry pain 
 To UNIVEESAL LOVE again 
 
 For every living state. 
 
 146 
 
THE POET'S DEATH. 
 
 The trooping, dreamless hours of night 
 Their sombre robes in silence fold, 
 Where feeble dawning 's pallid light 
 The sleeping mist creeps timid o'er. 
 The mazy shrouds flush dull and cold 
 To pall the sun's delightless might, 
 That vain his golden floods doth pour 
 O'er surgeless vapors chill and hoar. 
 
 All lonely sing, thou tender voice 
 Astray from some diviner world; 
 The throng hear not — their sordid choice 
 The jangling song of selfish toil: 
 Nor will they on those wings, unfurled. 
 Of light and love, with thee rejoice 
 To cleave of earth the shrouding veil 
 And float in dreams where sorrows fail. 
 
 147 
 
In realms where thy soul-harp, fine-strung 
 And fragile 'mid earth's ragings dire, 
 Would pant the magic strains that hung 
 Like breathing angels' raptured dreams. 
 But senses cloyed with low desire 
 Can hear thee not ; and thou hast sung 
 Forlorn in thy lone sky that teems 
 With Heaven's fairest forms and gleams. 
 
 The murky grime of senseless strife 
 Whose mortal pall enshrouds the soul 
 In loathful gyves, about thy life 
 Its surgings hurl ; and thou must flee 
 Par from the frenzied tumult's roll. 
 That grides its torment o'er thy grief, - 
 Deep in the wilds with rock and tree, 
 With stream and flow'r whose melody 
 
 148 
 
O 'erfloods and soars in wild delight 
 On noonday's golden-gloried wings, 
 That bear the yearning spirit's flight 
 Thro' cloud-land's gloam to spirit-skies, 
 Where voieeful Nature dreams and sings 
 Her raptures charmed to rainbowed light ; 
 And with her thrilling hymns shall rise 
 Thine own, imbreathed with paradise. 
 
 Here rest and dream; here sing and soar 
 Where shadowed solitudes intone 
 The tuneful airs with heav'nly lore 
 That pulse in music o'er thy pain. 
 No mortal ears shall list thy moan. 
 Where glinting streams their murmurs 
 
 pour 
 All hush ; — where songs and odors wane. 
 And faint upon thy sobf ul strain. 
 
 149 
 
Thy feeble song throbs faint and low 
 While zephyrs waft thy music's flight 
 To flowers kissed with love's soft glow, 
 To rustling leaves that float and sway 
 A-dream on floods of stilled delight. 
 No scorn of man, no blighting woe, 
 No love-pangs stifle thy breathed lay. 
 That, hushing, floods the waning day. 
 
 Sleep in the golden eventide 
 
 Where whisp 'rings lull the fretting leaves 
 
 And surgef ul murmurs softly chide 
 
 The glooms that throng the silv'ry stream. 
 
 The phantom-moon, cloud-havened, 
 
 weaves 
 Her veil of mist-gems glancing wide ; 
 And where the swooning odors teem 
 The flow'rs all pallid listless dream. 
 
 150 
 
Thy flushed brow grows pale and chill 
 In airs that pant their last warm kiss : 
 Thy spirit's plastic pulses thrill 
 With joys divine that waft thy flight 
 'Mid angel-forms of love and bliss 
 That in thy earth-dreams hovered still. 
 On yon bright, reachless glory-height 
 Thy havened soul its throne of light, 
 
 Envisioned in thy yearning dream. 
 Doth mount ; while mystic thrills of bliss, 
 From viewless choirs, thy soul o'erstream. 
 Thy sky-lost songs of joy and pain. 
 Thy yearnings strange for perfectness, 
 Thy sighs and tears, thy Love supreme. 
 Re-echo here in Heaven's fane 
 And hymn Love's universal reign. 
 
 151 
 
THE STORM.— Sonnet. 
 
 The heavens darken with the palling gloom 
 Wild, black and pathless save where 
 
 arrowed gleams 
 Of lightning cleave of day the death- 
 blight's streams 
 That from some hidden fount obscure as doom 
 O'erpour in inky shrouds the sun's veiled 
 tomb: 
 The sallows whiffle in the gusts where 
 
 teem 
 The wreathing vapors' whirling soughs 
 that seem 
 To bode the Fates that joy and hope consume. 
 With howl and roar the shocking thun- 
 der-blast 
 Grides thro' the gloom with horror- 
 gapings riv'n: 
 The lightning's flash 'mid furies hurled 
 aghast 
 Wild raging rives the grov'ling earth 
 andheav'n: 
 In shattered streams the rain-floods cold 
 and fast 
 Deluge the earth, in crashing frenzy 
 driv'n. 
 
 152 
 
AUTUMN LANDSCAPE.— Sonnet. 
 
 The rolling hills creep slowly toward the 
 
 sky, 
 
 Swelling with verdant mead and fallow 
 brown; 
 And fringing forests all the landscape nigh 
 With wondrous stains of hued apparel 
 crown. 
 Amid the sunlit foliage in the vale 
 
 The hamlet gathers by the winding way, 
 So still and moveless in the quiet dale, 
 So clean and white in autumn's rich ar- 
 ray. 
 The soft and misty air clings like a pall 
 Of lovely myst'ry o'er earth's waning 
 life. 
 And sad, sweet Glamour with her gracious 
 thrall, 
 In beauty hides all trace of human 
 
 strife. 
 Oh, that the world as pure and peaceful 
 
 were, 
 And life, a mystic dream as still and 
 fair! 
 
 153 
 
THE POET'S HOPE.— Sonnet. 
 
 Great wealth of waters, mystery of doom, 
 What f ountf ul sources brim thy heaving 
 
 breast 
 We know not, — strange as poet-soul 
 aghast 
 Imbreathing passive whisp 'rings from 
 
 life's gloom. 
 Emits, like odor from a dew-pearled bloom 
 A symphony sky-imaging and vast 
 As thy broad bosom wild and overcast 
 With morn's mere splendors life's 
 gloamed scenes illume. 
 So mirrored in the pure souPs omened 
 stream 
 No griefful darkness but the dawn- 
 ing 's light, 
 Rainbowed and shadowless as lover's 
 dream. 
 Forebodes the perfect day ungloomed in 
 night, 
 Whose glories thro' grief -shrouded ages 
 gleam 
 And fill my soul with hope in man's de- 
 light. 
 
 154 
 
BIRDS AT EVENING. 
 
 The scattered clouds are mellow stains 
 On gray-blue skies with sunset paling ; 
 
 The winds are hushed as daylight wanes, 
 Like gloried passion failing. 
 
 The mists are cooling o'er the stream 
 Where shadows melt to somber glooming 
 
 Man's toil is stilled 'neath one last gleam 
 Of dying sun's illuming. 
 
 How sad and lonely is the eve, 
 
 How strange the mystic twilight creep- 
 ing! 
 The earth's sweet spirits brood and grieve 
 
 For sunshine's death, — all weeping. 
 
 Among the leaves' dew-scented shades 
 Where zephyrs droop in secret slumber, 
 
 The birds hunt through the dark'ning 
 glades 
 For love-bow 'rs hidden under. 
 
 155 
 
How happy, with what shrill delight, 
 Like joyous children wildly playing, 
 
 Tumultuous in the gath'ring night 
 They flit through branches swaying I 
 
 How eagerly they call their mates 
 To dark retreats secure from danger, 
 
 Where happy, thoughtless rest awaits- 
 And peace — to me a stranger ! 
 
 The night to thee brings sweet content. 
 No past regret, no promised sorrow; 
 
 To me a dark and vain lament 
 And trouble for the morrow. 
 
 Could man like thee as sinless live. 
 As free from want and care and pas- 
 sion. 
 Earth's day and night such bliss could 
 give 
 As God himself might fashion. 
 
 156 
 
HOPE.— Sonnet. 
 
 The halting morn in sombre mists inveiled 
 Scarce stirs with torpid pallor thro' the 
 gloom; 
 And when the night's slow-creeping 
 
 shroud had paled 
 When Luna's bodeful glow with dawning 
 failed, 
 The humid pall dark with day's sullen 
 
 doom 
 Its chilly blight spread ruthless o'er 
 night's tomb. 
 My hopeful heart morn's triumph dark 
 bewailed 
 That sorrow's sluggish shades so dull 
 
 illume. 
 While rain-drops chant their dirge of 
 settled grief 
 And sighing winds creep thro' the 
 shiv'ring leaves, 
 An unknown songster with her carol brief 
 Their monody of sadness glad relieves ; 
 And with her omened lay a sweet belief, 
 Like bursting light, my list'ning heart 
 conceives. 
 
 157 
 
ODE ON SYMPATHY. 
 
 Ah, husli thy dreamful moans, sad heart. 
 For thro ' the dernf ul glooming thrill 
 Yet sweeter griefs whose flushes part 
 The dark pain-shrouds with gloried marge. 
 As Orphean harmonies did fill 
 Stern Pluto's sphere with love-thrills dear 
 So o'er my woe fast tremors start 
 Prom mystic source, with ebb and surge. 
 
 Thou Power ! What passion breathed in 
 
 vows, 
 Aflame that fierce consumes the soul, 
 What greed, what hate, what crushing 
 
 woes, 
 What mad despair can reach thy bourn, 
 Thy mystic world far as the goal 
 Of spirit-flight ? What forms of light 
 Surge round thy path ! What beauty glows 
 Divine as irised hues of morn ! 
 
 158 
 
Thou art the music of the spheres 
 That thrills and floods like summer's glow. 
 He who, in faint awe hushf ul, hears, 
 Soars, spirit-wild, upon thy flight 
 That bears him, tranced, far from woe. 
 Delights and fears, to Heav'nly spheres 
 Where, glory-throned, the Great Love rears 
 A world enshrined in fadeless light. 
 
 Like one who starts from wildered dreams 
 Of love and home, whose quiv'ring sight 
 'er prison-bars and darkness streams. 
 So wakes the soul on earth forlorn 
 Thy wings once bore 'mid Heaven's light: 
 How cold the mirth of mocking earth. 
 How false man's pompous progress seems 
 Whose chilly blight o'ershrouds love's morn! 
 
 Yet does thy spirit-music thrall ; 
 His soul thy lovely visions fill ; 
 And thro' life's mortal, cruel pall 
 A mighty faith and hope, sweet balm. 
 For trammeled man doth burst and thrill. 
 That love thy song doth hymn as strong 
 As light, and wide as worlds, doth lull 
 Despair and Grief to mighty calm. 
 
 159 
 
He feels the light athrob with love, 
 He lists the) strains of spirit-choirs 
 That o'er his pulsed heart-chords move 
 Above the rage of want and woe. 
 At peace in pain or passion's fires, 
 He loves all life, thro' whose mean strife 
 Attaining loftier heights above, 
 Exalts the state of man below. 
 
 That all might list that harmony 
 Envisioned in celestial Love, 
 Those joys of Beauty fadeless see, 
 Those love-thrills soul-transforming 
 
 know! 
 Sweet spirit-grace our lives would move, 
 And song and glow of peace o'erflow 
 Our crime-gloomed state, with ecstasy, 
 Till Heaven dwells on earth below. 
 
 160 
 
LOVE AND LONELINESS. 
 ToD. 
 
 How few the souls that feel thy thrall, 
 
 That in thy deep distress, 
 Engulfs my wearied mind and all 
 My being 'neath the darkened pall 
 
 Of love and loneliness I 
 
 Enshrouded in thy haunted spell, 
 
 By all doomed save desire, — 
 A dying slave beside a rill, 
 I sink to feel the torturing thrill 
 Thy passion-drops inspire : 
 
 Yet live : nor feel the mad delight 
 
 To quaff its crystal stream. 
 My soul seeks thro' the world of night 
 A heav'nly vision, lovely, bright, — 
 Spirit of thought and dream. 
 
 161 
 
I wander widly in the maze 
 
 Whose depths so few have known, 
 By Wisdom, then by Folly's craze 
 Impelled, deluded in the haze 
 
 Life's doubt has o'er me thrown. 
 
 The soul's light passes like a dream, — 
 
 Of vapors hov'ring light, 
 Dissolved in some pain-charmed gleam. 
 That vanishing, doth scarcely seem 
 
 To cool its mortal blight. 
 
 That soul-stream's depth of sympathy 
 
 For life can men perceive ? 
 Or know the great infinity 
 Of Love, — the sweet divinity 
 
 That gives but pow'r to grieve ? 
 
 For ravishing in soul-delight 
 
 Is sorrow's beauteous charm — 
 That fines the heart with purging blight. 
 And lifts it pure to Heaven's sight. 
 Above the world's alarm. 
 
 162 
 
As scent of rare and crnslied flow'rs 
 
 In dying doth suffuse 
 The fleeting air, and Nature's bow'rs 
 Are gladdened in the odorous show'rs, — 
 
 So sorrows deep diffuse 
 
 Their tones of gracious harmony 
 
 O'er all our heedless life, 
 And thrill the chords of sympathy, 
 Of love and beauteous charity 
 
 For suffering and strife. 
 
 Thou light 'mid shrouding gloom and 
 dark, 
 
 Thou sorrow-stricken flame. 
 Beam out, for God nurtures thy spark : 
 Tho' from the blinded world no mark 
 
 Thou gain of pow'r or fame : 
 
 Tho' listless still or raging loud 
 
 The vulgar throng may jeer, 
 A raptured few divine endowed 
 Stand mute, entranced, their souls low- 
 bowed 
 
 Thy rhapsody to hear. 
 
 163 
 
Tho' buried in the shrouding veil 
 
 Of crushing destiny, 
 Thy soul shall rise. Tho' glory fail 
 From earth, and lusterless and pale 
 
 Thy dreamed felicity, 
 
 The arrowed pain, the startling tear. 
 
 The joy in man's delight. 
 The anguish-strife of love and fear. 
 The throbbing pain in others' care 
 
 Touched by some spirit-light. 
 
 To angels' wings transformed divine. 
 
 Shall fold thy fainting soul : 
 While peaceful splendors o'er thee shine, 
 In ecstasy thou shalt resign 
 
 Thy strife, at Heaven's goal. 
 
 Thou Spirit-pow 'r ! Too often tho ', 
 
 Bound in thy torturing fire, 
 I feel my passion's soul aglow. 
 And all my being faint with woe, — 
 The birth of high desire. 
 
 164 
 
Ah, man is powerless. Love and joy, 
 
 Sweet dreams of harmonies, 
 Plow on unfelt. Life's sad alloy 
 Pervades our all. Fail and destroy, 
 And grieve are destinies. 
 
 Infinity is Love. The soul. 
 
 The limitless, is free ; 
 The uncreated, whose control 
 Is possibility, — the whole 
 Of man's divinity. 
 
 And in its yearnings toward some light 
 
 Alone 'tis unconfined. 
 All is reality's black night. 
 And feebly soars that passion-flight,— 
 
 A life in death enshrined. 
 
 Yet shalt thou be, O, soul, so lone ? — 
 
 Lo, love's forsaken shrine 
 Yet gleams with radiance unknown, 
 And human hearts shall yet enthrone 
 That Spirit all divine. 
 
 165 
 
Felicity would then be mine. 
 
 That infinite, unknown 
 Affection's pow'r should soft-entwine 
 My pulsing life, and joy divine 
 
 Of Passion be mine own. 
 
 O, radiant Ideality, 
 
 Inspire us with thy might, 
 And all this sordid lethargy 
 Of life will glow eternally 
 
 Divine with splendors bright. 
 
 Oh, spirit lovely, dwell with mine 
 
 In constant, sweet devotion ! 
 Ah, madly do I yearn and pine 
 That thou, dear Vision, might 'st enshrine 
 
 Thy soul in my emotion. 
 
 166 
 
HARMONIES. 
 I. 
 
 I wandered lonely as a dream 
 
 Afar 'mid forms of boundless night, 
 
 Where every sight and sound did seem 
 Descended from some height 
 
 So vast and still that my own soul 
 
 Could reach and grasp the mystic whole 
 Of huge creation's might. 
 
 In awe I heard the rolling world 
 
 With myriad voices breathe subdued, 
 
 Like soughing zephyrs softly furled 
 In swoons of evening wood ; 
 
 Like some great passion's whispered 
 charms 
 
 Of day still trembling in night's arms 
 With spirit-rest imbued. 
 
 167 
 
A distance deep of space and time 
 Encompassed all with mystic might — 
 
 A reign so gracious and sublime 
 That every voice of night 
 
 Was soothed and blent to one vast tone 
 
 Like choiring hosts in unison 
 All hushed in strange delight. 
 
 The stormy world was still in sleep ; 
 
 The blustering winds to peace were 
 lulled; 
 The stars seemed hung in hueless deep 
 
 In silent ardor held. 
 Oh, strange and vast that force sublime 
 That clasped all earth and space and time, 
 
 To strifeless poise compelled! 
 
 The sweet accord of law divine 
 
 With breathless wonder thrilled my 
 heart — 
 That rare, harmonious design 
 
 Night's deepest glooms impart. 
 I heard earth's solemn mystery 
 Eevealed in murmured symphony, 
 
 With weird and wondrous art. 
 
 168 
 
II. 
 
 I wandered through the boundless day, 
 When wide the gilded heavens shone 
 
 Aglow with grace of gushing May 
 When winter's grasp was gone. 
 
 All life was stirring with the birth 
 
 Of myriad forms in air and earth — 
 Pair summer's teeming zone. 
 
 There seemed to rise from every place 
 A tone of swarming motion vast. 
 
 The sprites of spring in copious grace 
 With warmth and wealth o'ercast 
 
 Profusion rich with reeking life, 
 
 Increasing, swelling, blooming rife, 
 O'er all the earth enmassed. 
 
 The stress of animation surged 
 And billowed o'er the seething land; 
 
 The resurrection vigor urged 
 The strain and struggle grand : 
 
 Yet, marvelous to human sense. 
 
 The bursting, throbbing toil intense 
 Seemed blent by God's command 
 
 169 
 
To one sweet goal of mighty life — 
 
 Of vast and vital luxury ; 
 For naught of violence and strife 
 
 In spring's great mystery. 
 Some wondrous wand or charm of day 
 Its sorc'ry breathed o'er mellow May, 
 
 With magic unity. 
 
 The rich-hued blooms blent with the green, 
 
 And through the scented, vibrant air 
 The dew flung back day's glory-sheen — 
 
 A trembling echo rare ; 
 And purling streams their murmurs 
 
 hushed 
 Where thrilling strains of song-birds 
 gushed 
 In concord strange and fair. 
 
 My soul was filled with law divine 
 
 Eevealed by day's sweet minstrelsy. 
 I saw through Nature's veiled design 
 Its lovely mystery 
 With spirit-stress all things imbue, 
 According every tone and hue 
 To perfect harmony. 
 
 170 
 
III. 
 
 I wandered through the sun-reahn's 
 course, 
 And saw the planet-orbs swing 'round, 
 Age after age, by viewless force 
 Kept in eternal bound. 
 The flame-sheathed sun and all his 
 
 swarm 
 Swept through black space and mar- 
 shalled form. 
 With mirrored brilliance crowned. 
 
 The reeking bulk of comet-mass 
 Plunged o'er the plane of circling 
 spheres, 
 Beyond the sunless bounds to pass 
 And surge a thousand years 
 In ebon night ; and wheel again 
 Through measured arc with seething 
 train 
 That frightened heaven blears. 
 
 171 
 
I saw the rolling systems fare 
 
 With mutual orb and satellite, 
 Great starry hosts in fiery glare 
 Eush on in furious flight. 
 And some were black, — great deadened 
 
 worlds 
 Forever hurled in midnight's swirls, 
 Once bulks of bursting light. 
 
 Stupendous magnitudes of gas, 
 
 In whirling spires of flaming fume, 
 Their million miles of monstrous mass 
 Rage through the seething gloom. 
 In fire of vapored fury spun. 
 The nebulous molds of star and sun 
 Arise from creant doom. 
 
 Oh, universe of majesties. 
 
 Oh, myriad worlds in vast array, 
 What might of mystic harmonies 
 Impels your mutual sway? 
 What infinite succession's plan, 
 What symmetry and poise maintain 
 The concord of your way? 
 
 172 
 
IV. 
 
 I wandered in the ways of man — 
 
 The last, the highest work sublime, 
 Supreme in vast creation's plan 
 O 'er world and space and time, 
 Endowed with soul and heart and 
 
 thought 
 Above all forms of matter, wrought 
 In life's eternal prime. 
 
 I heard the roar and raucous din 
 
 Of surging throngs in struggle vain — 
 The rush and rage, the hate and sin 
 In strife for wealth and gain. 
 And o'er the blinded human host 
 The sprites of envy, greed and lust 
 Spread forth their poisoned bane. 
 
 There was no peace or sweet content 
 
 In home or city, field or mart : 
 In industry and government 
 
 Strife ruled the hand and heart. 
 In discord harsh, in wrangling low, 
 With neighbor, rival, friend and foe. 
 Each sought his sordid part. 
 
 173 
 
Engorged with self the sodden sense 
 
 Degraded God's eternal plan, 
 And groveled in abasement dense 
 The vaunted soul of man : 
 Dull eyes that ne'er Grod's glory saw 
 In poise of worlds, in deathless law 
 Of concord's triumph-reign. 
 
 Distorted, lost, forgotten all 
 
 The wondrous night's superb display ! 
 Defiled and stained with evil's pall 
 
 The glory of the day ! 
 Oh, spirit-harmonies divine, 
 Attune our souls to thy design 
 
 That doth all being sway ! 
 
 174 
 
ASPIRATION.— Sonnet. 
 Pale art thou, Spirit, like a distant star 
 Silent and reachless in the void inane. 
 In ceaseless luster shrined without a 
 stain, 
 Save when earth's transient vapors rayless 
 
 mar 
 Thy majesty. When gates of night unbar 
 And flood the world in blackness ' dismal 
 
 reign 
 Then dost thou rive with arrowed 
 gleams the bane 
 And steep the world in light-floods from 
 afar. 
 Thus art thou, aspiration, steadfast, 
 pure, 
 Cheering sin-trammeled souls thro' 
 maze of grief ; 
 E'er brightest where the glooms of pain 
 endure, 
 And rainbow-haloed in the mists of strife 
 'Mid baleful, blighting cares thou dost al- 
 lure 
 Our feet to yon far glory-throne of 
 life. 
 
 175 
 
BILLY. 
 To C. 
 
 Somehow the summer air seems cold, 
 
 And noonday skies are dim, 
 And nature's charms grow dull and old 
 Whene'er I think of him. 
 And though the world may call me 
 silly— 
 Oh, how I miss you, Billy ! 
 
 The meadow where you ran and played 
 
 With bounding life and joy, — 
 
 It seems the grass and clover fade 
 
 With some strange, dead alloy. 
 
 The kindly sun grows sad and chilly, 
 For, oh, I miss you, Billy. 
 
 176 
 
The house is cheerless ; every room 
 
 Is empty, lone and bare. 
 It doesn't seem the same old home 
 With you no longer there. 
 But when night comes so dark and 
 stilly, 
 Oh, then I miss you, Billy. 
 
 My boat, deserted, seems to wait. 
 
 Your friends, the birds, are still. 
 The little isle is desolute 
 Your joyous barks did fill. 
 
 My life is lone and fares but illy, — 
 So much I miss you, Billy. 
 
 No more you sorrow when I go. 
 
 Or wait my sad return. 
 The gleesome hills are still with woe, 
 And fields in silence yearn. 
 
 The crying jays all mourn you shrilly, 
 And oh, I miss you Billy. 
 
 J77 
 
Only a dog ! Oh, could I keep 
 
 The love of such a friend I 
 Forever tender, pure and deep, 
 So faithful to the end I 
 Your soul was white as any lily, 
 And oh, I miss you, Billy. 
 
 And you loved her, and she loved you. 
 
 We all loved one another ; 
 And no companions were more true, — 
 So we two weep together. 
 And now life's road seems rough and 
 hilly- 
 For, oh, we miss you, Billy. 
 
 178 
 
MORNING.— Sonnet. 
 
 The fair Aurora with her dazzling train 
 Sweeps radiant o 'er the bourn of despot 
 
 Night 
 Who feels the tremor of her conq'ring 
 flight: 
 And when the stars, his sentries, pale and 
 
 wane, 
 He flees in sullen wrath his wide domain. 
 The world, subdued and voiceless 'neath 
 his might. 
 Arises, thrilled with dawn and robed in 
 
 light. 
 To hymn the radiant Morning's joyful 
 reign. 
 The dew-gems flam e with splendor ; and 
 the stream 
 That hushed beneath her shroud of 
 sombre gray, 
 Across her surging breast with tint and 
 gleam 
 Spreads fast her path-floods silvered 
 o'er with day; 
 
 179 
 
And songsters' thrilling strains and for- 
 est-hynm 
 Pant with my heart the bliss of wan- 
 ing May. 
 
 180 
 
NOON. — Sonnet. 
 
 To dazzling glory-floods the bursting sun 
 Melts all his gleaming gold ; the radiant 
 
 sky, 
 Transfused with hueless splendor, now 
 on high 
 Glows white where morn's far azure depth 
 
 had shone. 
 Save where, 'mid fringed marge of yon 
 high cone, 
 In captive bow'rs the deep'ning blue 
 
 doth lie. 
 The rhapsodies of some thrilled song- 
 ster nigh 
 With mazy bliss noon's vibrant lights in- 
 tone: 
 And while the floods of brilliance burst 
 and flow, 
 Eeflected on the dancing, rippled 
 stream 
 In glintings swift like flashing stars 
 aglow, — 
 The tonef ul airs that flush and thrill, 
 ateem 
 
 181 
 
With gladness, life and light Thou dost 
 bestow, 
 With Nature's voice Thy deathless 
 glories hymn. 
 
 182 
 
EVENING.— Sonnet. 
 
 The shadows fall. Above yon mist- 
 dimmed hill 
 The lurid sun flames o'er a vermeil sea 
 Where day, aswoon, to gloried 
 pageantry 
 Melts all her radiant hues. The flushful 
 thrill 
 Floods, tingeing like despair the hills 
 and sky, 
 As calm as mighty griefs some great soul fill. 
 An ebbing zephyr languid breathes its sigh, 
 And plaintfiil songsters pant their carols 
 stiU. 
 Across the surgeless stream's o'ershad- 
 
 owed breast 
 The mirrored trees recline in moveless 
 
 rest ; 
 And like the voicef ul silence of a dream. 
 The solitudes intone their twilight hymn 
 That, like my heart, pales with the 
 glooming west. 
 When Vesper greets the night with 
 one white gleam. 
 
 183 
 
NIGHT.— Sonnet. 
 
 From what hid depths of blackness, lethal 
 Night, 
 Abysmal as the source of ruthless doom, 
 Hast thou in ebon streams poured o'er 
 earth-gloom 
 Thy leaden pall amassed, yon star despite 
 That, sullied in the inky, mistf ul blight. 
 To bodeful, haloed glows thy veils illume ? 
 Thy sluggish shrouds, thick, sensate as 
 the tomb. 
 In swelling floods veil earth in sombre might. 
 Some pallid cloud-heaps surge their 
 broken wreathes 
 About the ghastly moon that hangs in 
 wane 
 Of omened gold the lurking mist en- 
 sheathes ; 
 And from the world asleep one mur- 
 murous strain 
 Pants where the ebbing zephyr fitful 
 breathes 
 To waft to Thee my solemn love's re- 
 frain. 
 
 184 
 
ODE ON THE TRANQUILITY OP 
 THE SOUL. 
 
 From what mysterious realms of spirit- 
 might 
 
 Thou art, 'mid whose unfathomed gloom, 
 O soul, 
 
 Thou with the One Eternal sourceless 
 dwelt. 
 
 Our fettered minds conceive not. To what 
 goal 
 
 Thy guideless course in swift, earth-tram- 
 meled flight 
 
 Doth strive, beyond life's wildered world 
 exalt. 
 
 We know not. Yet must thou deathless 
 and free 
 
 Flow back to thine exhaustless Fount of 
 Light, 
 
 Purged from the dross of vain mortality. 
 
 Thou firmless Essence of Divinity, 
 Thou fleeting portion of the Primal Soul, 
 What mocking, powerless ills of subject- 
 time 
 
 185 
 
Or mortal being's imaged spectres dull 
 Can reach thy spirit-realm's far sanctity. 
 'Mid earth-born forms thou from thy 
 
 throne sublime, 
 Exalt above our world of paltry life, 
 Its passion, chance, its joy and misery, 
 Dost dwell a moment 'mid our frenzied 
 strife. 
 
 And thou alone art life : our mortal state, — 
 A vanished moment, or a broken dream, 
 A body reared of finely-tempered clay. 
 Empyreal dust inwrought with Heaven's 
 
 gleam, — 
 Is but thy fane, thy dwelling consecrate ; 
 And from the world of evil and decay 
 Where Mammon goads to hate and lust 
 
 and fear, 
 With misery and crime his slaves to sate, 
 No mightless ill shall reach thy hallowed 
 
 sphere. 
 
 Save thro' our guidless will's supreme de- 
 sire: 
 
 186 
 
For fear, disaster, calumny and pain. 
 Despair and loss, that, — monsters haggish, 
 
 — seem 
 Their orgies foul with ruin's feasts to 
 
 stain, 
 Are naught but seemings pale or spectres 
 
 dire 
 That ghastly flitting thro' life's fitful 
 
 dream 
 Affright of craven man the dreadful sight. 
 For know ye not that all events transpire 
 By His own will who gave thy soul the 
 
 might 
 
 Exalt above appearance, visions vain 
 O'er whose strange course our wills have 
 
 no control; 
 And that from evil thou canst feel no 
 
 harm, 
 Whose fate secure rests with the Primal 
 
 Soul? 
 So shalt thou e'er content thee to remain 
 Where He has deemed thee fit, without 
 
 alarm. 
 
 187 
 
Thus ever harmless 'mid life's trooping 
 
 ills 
 Thy soul shall rest in peace, nor feel the 
 
 bane 
 Of agony that hearts more mortal fills. 
 
 Yet shouldst thou in that strife that death 
 destroys — 
 
 That tragic mask that hides 'neath hor- 
 ror's face 
 
 A form of wondrous beauty — lose thy 
 faith, 
 
 Thine honor, purity or truth debase, 
 
 Then hast thou suffered, for sin's base al- 
 loys 
 
 The radiance of thy soul have tinged with 
 death ; 
 
 For thou hast bowed, at Evil's slavery- 
 shrine. 
 
 The God within thee, where desire decoys 
 
 The soul to serfdom from its realm divine. 
 
 Thou sourceless, deathless Night, this is 
 thy sphere, — 
 
 188 
 
That good or evil thou dost e'er create 
 
 Thro' our own will, — aversion or desire: 
 
 And from ourselves all that is good and 
 great 
 
 Or vile and paltry by our choice appear. 
 
 Wouldst thou to greatness of the soul as- 
 pire, 
 
 Or wouldst thou feel a mighty noble- 
 ness? — 
 
 Then have it from thyself; — thy wish sin- 
 cere 
 
 Can nigh exalt thy life to perfectness. 
 
 He who attunes his soul to harmony, 
 Who with the hymning spheres can grand- 
 ly say, 
 **0 Universe, all that with thee accords 
 Shall harmonize with my own soul alway, " 
 Hath quaffed the nectar of Divinity: 
 E'en tribulation or distress affords 
 A peaceful gratitude, a calm supreme. 
 Whose mighty soul doth tone its symphony 
 To enthean strains the angels ceaseless 
 hymn. 
 
 189 
 
Wouldst thou be tranquil, weary, striving 
 
 soul?— 
 Then shalt thou with immortal faith but 
 
 learn 
 To wish that all may happen as it does ; 
 And tho' for heights unseen thou e'er shalt 
 
 yearn. 
 Yet He who hath all things in His control 
 In wisdom fathomless shall each dispose ; 
 For tho' thy finite mind shall not foresee 
 An atom of His plan's majestic whole. 
 All is and moves for His world's harmony. 
 
 Hast thou ne'er felt that with all earthly 
 things 
 
 A concord strange with Heav'nly states 
 doth reign ? — 
 
 A harmony divine whose mystic strains 
 
 Thou oft hast heard in yon still forest- 
 fane. 
 
 Where, 'mid the birds' wild, gladsome car- 
 ols, sings 
 
 The voiceful solitudes; and strange re- 
 frains 
 
 190 
 
Of murmuring winds and rustling leaves 
 
 intone 
 The airs with Nature's omened echoings 
 Of lights and sounds that thrill from 
 
 Heaven's throne. 
 
 And how, thro' mingled worlds of soul and 
 
 space, 
 Is this accord preserved, save by His hand 
 Who orders all aright ? Behold the flow 'r 
 That opes its folded leaves at His com- 
 mand; 
 And when He bids it bloom in sweetest 
 
 grace 
 Doth it not blossom tranquil 'neath His 
 
 Pow'r? 
 And when in peaceful rest of dewy night 
 He bids it droop its leaves ; and when the 
 
 face 
 Of Nature blushes in the Autumn's blight, 
 
 Doth it not yield its impulse pure to Him, 
 And sleep when night and winter's chill 
 encroach? — 
 
 191 
 
And how, when Luna full doth glow, or 
 wane, 
 
 Or at the sun's recession or approach 
 
 Do changes vast occur? — That God su- 
 preme 
 
 In harmony the universe shall reign. 
 
 Then know, O heart that yearnest for re- 
 pose, 
 
 That Nature's sacred concord may redeem 
 
 To tranquil rest thy human world of woes. 
 
 Her deep revealings seek. Learn to ac- 
 cord 
 To her appointed states thy life and soul ; 
 For this is truth : her G-od to contemplate, 
 She manifests in sovereign control. 
 Who lives in error is a slave abhorred 
 Whose soul he subjects to externals' 
 
 fate, — 
 To strife and greed, to passion and de- 
 spair ; 
 Who faith and love in vanity ignored 
 And feeds his life with vulgar, earthy fare. 
 
 Id2 
 
But who are kings of earth, whose spirits 
 
 see, 
 Beyond the veil of being, reahns divine, 
 And thro' the raging storm of paltry life 
 Their souls in tranquil blessedness en- 
 shine ? — 
 They who, attuned to Nature's harmony. 
 Their souls, amid man's loveless, frenzied 
 
 strife, 
 Enwreathe in peace thro' mighty love and 
 
 faith ; 
 Who, 'mid false spectres of reality 
 And semblances of mocking fate and death 
 
 Keep undeceived and unbetrayed by strife 
 Their souls inviolate, unstained by woes, 
 Untrameled in earth's mocking vanities, 
 But havened in sweet, halcyon repose ; 
 Who while they live to love all hmnan life, 
 Expect their Master's signal, to arise 
 Transformed to firmless soul in spheres 
 
 above, 
 In joy to do the bidding of their Chief, 
 Or tranquil rest with the one Primal Love. 
 
 193 
 
THE SUPREME GOOD.— Sonnet. 
 O 'er all the earth I blindly sought for love 
 And found it not through years of var- 
 ied strife. 
 Through luxury's realms and common 
 ways I strove, 
 Where men, lost in the vanities of life. 
 Seek happiness in vast possession's hoard, 
 And joy in gross excess of goods and 
 gold; 
 And some seek fame as their immortal 
 lord, 
 And some exult in pleasures manifold. 
 But one I saw whose sad and radiant face 
 Was like a soul transformed to human 
 grace; 
 Nor joy, nor wealth he knew — ^his one 
 desire 
 To cure life's ills and ease its common 
 woe; 
 And he alone seemed great and good and 
 
 fair. 
 Oh, was it Christ or man? — I do not 
 know. 
 
 194 
 
THE PRAYER OP THE 
 PANTHEIST.— Sonnet. 
 
 Ye spirit-glories of the air and sky, 
 Ye pow'rs of earth, ye angels of the 
 
 deep, 
 Whom God created Nature's watch to 
 keep 
 In all His worlds of sovereign majesty: — 
 Oh, guard and guide me from your thrones 
 on high. 
 Through secret thoughts and mystic 
 
 charms of sleep : 
 When ruin raves and evils crushing 
 sweep. 
 To favor, bless and aid, be ever nigh. 
 And ye, fond loves and tender beauties 
 pure, 
 Thrilling all life with vital mystery. 
 Inspire my being with celestial lore, 
 
 Attune my heart to heav'nly harmony; 
 Oh, loveliness divine, my soul allure 
 To triumph-skies and realms of ecstasy. 
 
 195 
 
REVOLUTION.— Sonnet. 
 Over the raging world a spirit passed — 
 A wraith of weird despair and conflict 
 vast, 
 And men arose, as slaves chained to the 
 
 soil, 
 From hunger's pangs, from grief and 
 fruitless toil ; 
 And fired to war with madd'ning woes 
 aghast. 
 Spread o'er the earth to conquer or de- 
 spoil ; 
 And all the wealth and pow'r through 
 ages massed 
 Were crushed to dust in hideous tur- 
 moil. 
 From depths of utter ruin slowly rose 
 A people strange burned white by fining 
 fire. 
 And from the night of desolation's woes 
 They reared a structure high as God's 
 desire ; 
 And in that beauteous realm where sor- 
 rows cease 
 They dwelt as one vast soul in love and 
 peace. 
 
 196 
 
THE LIGHT OP NEW YEAR. 
 
 Like stars that pale in dawning 's gleam, 
 Like mists dissolving in the light, 
 
 Like music waning in a dream, — 
 
 The Old Year faints and fails and dies 
 
 Consumed and lost in Time's fell flight. 
 Engulfed in glooms of oblivion vast, 
 Simk in soundless depths there lies 
 One year of life forever past 
 
 Laden with weight of woes it went 
 For millions plunged in want and care ; 
 
 And light with ease and soft content 
 For thousands lulled in Fortune's arms. 
 
 Oh, vanished year, and did you bear 
 One grace for me to God above. 
 Who turned from all thy selfish charms, 
 To dare the dream of Hmnan Love ? 
 
 197 
 
And now, oh vast and viewless realm 
 
 Of future time, I turn to thee. 
 And lofty hopes my doubts o'erwhelm. 
 
 Like mighty dawn that floods the night. 
 Before me sweeps a surging sea 
 Of gloried gold and rose, where day 
 Pours radiant streams of throbbing 
 light 
 
 That spread o'er heaven's boundless 
 way. 
 
 'Tis New Year's Morn. The glory-glow, 
 That sets the night-gloomed world 
 aflame, 
 Must fire the souls of men below 
 
 And thrill them with the Light of God. 
 No more the sin-cursed darks of shame 
 
 Shall stain the radiance of the soul 
 That rises from the sordid sod 
 And yearns afar to Heaven's goal. 
 
 198 
 
So let thy gleams, returning year, 
 
 Consume the dross and purge the grime 
 Of greed and self, of hate and fear 
 
 That chain the soul to groveling strife. 
 Our hearts burned white with fire su- 
 blime 
 Of holier griefs, shall purer be 
 For world-wide symi3athy of life — 
 The soul of Christ's Divinity. 
 
 Oh, glorious seraph- wings of splendor. 
 
 Bear to earth great floods of love 
 As broad and deep, as sweet and tender 
 As the light of this New Morn. 
 Ah, then our human griefs would prove 
 
 The source of soul-compassion free. 
 The crown of happiness pain-born, 
 The tear-lit fount of ecstasy. 
 
 199 
 
THE POWERS THAT BE. 
 
 Ye vanities of human pow 'r , 
 Ye earthly mights exalt o'er man, 
 In fortune, birth, in wealth or reign, 
 Do ye forget God's wondrous plan 
 Bestowed on thee thy paltry dow'r— 
 A trust thou one day shalt return. 
 Rewarded, or condemned ? How vain 
 Your blind desires and self -greeds burn ! 
 
 How shameful gloats that bigot-sight. 
 Torpid and bleared with fleshy rheum, — 
 That leers upon the world of life 
 Infected with thy self-love's doom — 
 That griasps God's heritage of light 
 A thing to barter, weigh and sell. 
 To turn to gain, to greed and strife 
 That cloy life's stream with crime-dregs 
 feU! 
 
 200 
 
And will ye have and hoard, nor know 
 That all your sated cravings coarse, 
 Your wanton revels, mirthful ease 
 And glutton pleasures' wasteful farce 
 Are sprites of death that pale your brow 
 With mocking flush of last desire 
 That joys divine alone appease 
 When death has purged earth-dross with 
 fire?— 
 
 Ah, pause in this vain strife with Death. 
 Thou canst not luxury-blear his eyes 
 Nor glut with gold his venom-greed. 
 Pow'r naught avails, but Love defies 
 His dreaded might; and holy faith 
 In human destiny of love 
 Alone thy storm-lost soul can lead 
 To fairer havens calm above. 
 
 Alone ; for all thy might and gold 
 Is not of pomp or sumptuous state, 
 But merged in tears, and reared of sighs, — 
 The orphan's moan, the soldier's fate, 
 The widow's pang of want and cold. 
 The dull fatigue of praiseless toil. 
 The thousand minions you despise 
 Who grovel for your ease, and moil 
 
 201 
 
In ceaseless hardship, pain and want, — 
 From them, thou blinded vain, thy lot 
 Is herited, of wealth or pow'r. 
 The sin-grimed glory thou hast sought 
 But taints thy soul; thy pomp and vaunt, 
 To whom much hath committed been, 
 Cry out against thee in that hour 
 When God shall try the souls of men. 
 
 Then seek not pow'r or wealth of earth 
 Whose canker eats the deathless soul. 
 There is a gem whose flood-gleams dear 
 O'er earth their tranced glories roll. 
 Prom some pure soul 'mid human dearth 
 It thriUs the earth : — holy Love, 
 That glows the flushing heavens o'er. 
 And wooes to earth God's reign above! 
 
 Ah, canst thou climb yon glory-height 
 Transcendent in the day enshrined? 
 Ah, canst thou leave the strife and grime. 
 And cast from thee what fetters bind, — 
 What rankling wealth, what mean delight, 
 What hate and fear, what base desire ? 
 Then, in the glow of love sublime 
 With vital faith for man, aspire 
 
 202 
 
Not yet to cleave the upper airs 
 
 Of exultation, — but, adown 
 
 That wild abyss of blackened night, 
 
 Where fell Destruction's demons crown 
 
 Humiliation with despairs, 
 
 Where torture drives thee on, descend. 
 
 And let thy rescued soul in might 
 
 Of some diviner anguish blend. 
 
 Now shalt thou rise ! Thy life elate 
 From fining depths of crushing woe 
 So purged from earth's vile dross and 
 
 blight 
 Aspires to sky-lit heights where flow 
 From soul-realms of the pure and great 
 Love's glory-floods, o'er man's abode, 
 That thrills the world with Heaven's 
 
 might 
 And yearnings infinite of God. 
 
 203 
 
VISIONED LOVELINESS. 
 
 Farewell, thou Spirit of the Light, 
 Thou unseen gleam of Loveliness, 
 I with mankind in grief must roam, 
 Thou rule in bliss, tho' loveliness. 
 Whence, havened in thy woeless home. 
 Thy gleams may pierce earth's sorrowed 
 
 night 
 And lead some godlike soul to rise. 
 And sing to man from thy pure skies. 
 
 Yet, can we part? — tho' for the gloom 
 I leave these brightest hills and vales 
 Where blushless Wealth in thy fierce 
 
 gleam, 
 Like night before the dawning, pales ; 
 And where the rayless ages seem 
 To pall in grief man's self-made doom; 
 Where Kings of craven Greed for thrones 
 Man's scorn shall have,— no more his 
 
 groans. 
 
 204 
 
For thou art Doom, Great Soul of Love ; 
 Thy spirit, glad in bodeful might, 
 Speaks thro' the voiceful, perfect day, 
 Sings in the dreamful, starry night. 
 These hills, rocks, trees, — all fade away, 
 Charred wastes the pathless stars shall 
 
 roll; 
 Yet, f ailless Spirit of the Spheres, 
 Thy beauty, rainbowed in the years. 
 
 Shall glow to light Man's cheerless way 
 To perfect love. But, rapture rare 
 Thy vision were to man's seared eyes. 
 Like gleams of some lost, wildered star 
 That chains him in thy mysteries. 
 Who thy unimaged form survey, 
 With love imbreathed, devote their life 
 To wage with woe thy endless strife. 
 
 Oh, could I with some godlike might 
 The fettered souls of men unbind, 
 That they might see thee throned afar 
 In hueless majesty, enshrined 
 In fire 'mid soulless darks, — a star 
 To rive the chilling blacks of night, — 
 Of woeful earth a rapturous state 
 In Beauty's stainless light create! 
 
 205 
 
But dastard Custom's carious grime, 
 Opinion, f asMon, habit vile. 
 Of ages form the rankling gyves 
 Seared fleshly on men's souls, — ^beguile 
 Their eyes with glamour, till their lives 
 Pracid with self, rot in their prime. 
 And godlike spirits formed for joy. 
 With self -soul-streams of rapture cloy. 
 
 Self -fouled, like senseful beasts we die, 
 Except thou, with thy irised light, 
 Wilt char these adamantine chains 
 And merge man's soul, begloomed in night. 
 In splendor. Then thy dreary fanes 
 Throngs love-adoring glorify. 
 And empyrean hymns shall rise 
 To mingle with thy radiant skies. — 
 
 Too wild, wild dream, thy rushing flow 
 Has left my soul a serfless sea 
 With joy becalmed and imageless, 
 Save where thy gleam of majesty — 
 A quenchless star, when beaconless 
 The ocean of the soul, with woe — 
 Tn constant glory bodes the doom 
 Of souls divine, 'mid shrouding gloom; 
 
 206 
 
Reveals the path where surge the throngs 
 To certain, nearing joy, — to thee, 
 Q-reat Spirit, that with waneless pow'r 
 Directs the world to ecstasy. 
 Unpall the sightless eyes ; the hour 
 Of life, scorned, visioned souls in songs 
 Invoke with voiceless moans inwove, 
 Fulfill, thou Majesty of Love. 
 
 207 
 
CHEISTMAS THOUGHTS. 
 
 To K. W. 
 
 Thou in whose life an angel-light, 
 Sweet like the star of Bethlehem, 
 Had hidden as some lovely gem. 
 Until its rays shone on my soul, 
 And, though enwreathed in blacks of night 
 A glory-bliss the death-glooms stole, — 
 Whose soul so like a flow 'r divine 
 Love's tender beam doth soft enroll — 
 Then, love's pure joy seem'd ever 
 mine — 
 
 Thou to whose soul mine own was bound 
 Inseparable as the sea 
 Prom its enclosing strands, to be 
 My angel-light, my guiding star, 
 My life, my pow'r whom I have crown 'd 
 My Vestal Queen, so pure, so dear, — 
 So holy that strange fears unknown, 
 Like shadows my life's radiance mar — 
 That you might leave me here alone 
 
 208 
 
And glide on spirit-wings away — 
 A flow'r, a gleam of light, a joy 
 Too lovely mid earth's harsh alloy. 
 Oh, though thou art so cold, so far, 
 I feel thee near ; I hear thee say: 
 
 *^ Peace, peace, sad heart. Doth not 
 
 the star 
 Of Hope, though darked in wreathing 
 clouds. 
 Somewhere beam thro' thy anguish 
 drear 
 And light thy Desolation's shrouds'?" 
 
 Ah, yes ! Despair with human heart 
 Dwell ne'er together linked in life: 
 One reigns, for death must crown their 
 strife, 
 If Hope ascend not to her throne. 
 The darks and mists of years may part 
 The struggling heart from love's own 
 
 home, 
 But e'en pain's fire and sorrow's 
 might, 
 Consumed in every pray 'r and moan. 
 Shall, burning fierce, give forth a 
 light 
 
 209 
 
Feebler and calmer as the star 
 Before the Dawn's great birth of love. 
 My, Own ! Oh wilt thou feel above 
 The anguished heart— the throes of 
 woe, 
 God's love and peace, oft unseen, far, 
 Still anguish-soothing, softly flow? — 
 
 This Christmas-Tide, so desolate 
 My low-bow 'd soul that griefs o'er- 
 flow, — . 
 How must I wait on God — Oh, wait I 
 
 May He who comes in Birthmorn-cheer, 
 In gloried light His Own to bless. 
 Take thy sweet heart, thy loveliness. 
 Thy angel-purity, thy face 
 So holy, radiant, so dear — 
 
 And tho' I feel not thy embrace. 
 Thy kiss of love's deep, pure delight. 
 Nor see thee, hold thee, — ^yet His Grace 
 Supports me, guides me thro' the 
 night. 
 
 210 
 
All see ! Dawn breaks. His star is flown, 
 But floods of glory's light burst thro' 
 The cloud-rolls, lusters soft imbue. 
 His day of Love gleams bright and 
 calm 
 He whispers : * ' Still ! thou woeful moan. 
 Be soothed, thou anguish 'd wounds, 
 
 with balm 
 Of Hope, of Faith, of Trust com- 
 plete." 
 Oh I Darling, list I Dost hear the psalm 
 The angel-choirs sing, at His feet*? 
 
 O, Thou whose love had bid me live, 
 Whose angel-life and angel-love 
 So pure, so fervent, from Above, 
 Fill'd life with Heav'n's felicity,— 
 Oh, know — that He doth chast'ning give 
 To His dear ones, with purity 
 That souls less deep have never 
 known. 
 Oh, hear ! He takes thy love from me 
 To give made Holy, O, My Own! 
 
 211 
 
ODE ON HUMILIATION. 
 
 Thou Pow'r unseen, thou nameless Might, 
 
 Thy majesty doth silent rear 
 An august reign of mystic night 
 
 Where those unfathomed souls of 
 men, — 
 The good, the great, shall feel no fear 
 Descending from some triumph height 
 And buried in thy dread domain. 
 There bitter loss and rankling pain 
 Shall train their kingly hearts to hear 
 Thy trancing words ' divine refrain : 
 
 Thou far Sublimity unknown 
 
 'Mid this low-thronging human dearth, 
 Where eyes with gloating blinded grown 
 With golden glitter vain, do leer 
 Their coarse desires o'er all the earth, — 
 Not they upon that tear-built throne 
 Of titled scorn and wealth austere 
 Whose praise they form from hu- 
 man sighs, 
 From pang and pain their cruel mirth 
 Shall mount to thy far spirit-skies. 
 
 212 
 
Thou reachless Depth, that soul alone 
 That shone with mighty love's pure 
 glow, 
 As high as thrills the magic tone 
 
 Of Heaven's harmonies, as wide 
 As floods the noon's swift, golden 
 flow: — 
 The love that lists each human moan. 
 As pure and sweet as swells the tide 
 Of God's own soul o'er human 
 grief,— 
 Alone may reach thy depths below 
 
 When he has trod the heights of life. 
 
 That soul that thro ' the haunted years 
 Of spectral joys and woes that move 
 O'er ragged paths 'twixt bliss and fears, 
 At last shall gain that lonely height. 
 O'er all the tribes of men, his love. 
 In one sweet flood of yearning tears, 
 
 Can pour its boundless streams of 
 might. 
 Ay, who those spirit ways has trod 
 Alone is great and mounts above 
 
 The deathful world, and with his 
 God, 
 
 213 
 
Alone may leave this glory-sphere, 
 
 And o'er sky- wastes of dreamless night, 
 Thro' worlds of pain and darks of care— 
 And days of heavenly despair, 
 May reach thy realms. No ray of light 
 Eeveals the soundless depths of fear 
 Where dauntless hearts alone must 
 dare 
 To enter. But the jagged way, 
 O 'er crag and cliff, thro ' cold and blight. 
 Winds thro' grief's demon- world 
 astray. 
 
 Thou deep, black gulf of living death, 
 Asurge with darks of ghostly night, 
 Thy sorrows' silent-heaving breath 
 
 Scarce stirs the pall-floods of despair 
 That die, and die, — ^yet strive to blight 
 In quenchless waves the calms of faith. 
 Those flushings pale of dreams once 
 fair, 
 Those sparks of memory, divine 
 That in the thraldom of thy might. 
 Thou Dreadless King, shall shine 
 and shine. 
 
 214 
 
Thou ordeal of the reignless soul, 
 
 Thou terror of the triumph curse, 
 Thou art my guide to yon sky-goal, 
 
 From whence in this dark, depthless 
 vale 
 Vast floods of woe the soul immerse, 
 Descending where night-surges roll ; 
 
 Down past the throng whose sightless 
 wail 
 Or mocking joy doth speak the 
 doom 
 Of self -sunk lives' inferior course 
 
 That sluggish taints earth's com- 
 mon gloom. 
 
 Now to yon height, brave heart, above! 
 
 For thou hast trod the reahn of pain ; 
 And rising spotless thou shalt move 
 A soul exalted thro' life's ills. 
 Nor pause till thou that sky- throne gain 
 Whose kingless majesty of love 
 
 Enshrined in stainless glory, thrills, 
 With beauteous light the earth for- 
 lorn. 
 And, with its splendor floods again 
 The flush of Love's awaking morn. 
 
 215 
 
To the 
 
 SERAPH-SOUL. 
 
 Thou mystic Beauty, phantomed Loveli- 
 ness, 
 Thou visioned grace of Seraph-Soul su- 
 preme. 
 Whose visitings are fleeting 
 As pale joy's wooed greeting. 
 Whose wildered flight is swifter than the 
 gleam 
 Of lightning's flash o'er midnight's face. 
 Whose form i^ fairer than the grace 
 Of passion's purest dream: 
 
 Thou Unknown Spirit, from thy realm 
 above. 
 With breathings that transfuse our hu- 
 man state. 
 Still silently incline us 
 To thy One Love's divineness 
 As broad as flows the soul-streams of the 
 Great, — 
 As soft as yearns the poet's love. 
 And fairer than his dreams that move 
 Like angels round his fate. 
 
 216 ' 
 
Thou holy Sympathy that broad and free 
 Wilt shed thy balm with life's far-lin- 
 g 'ring dawn, 
 Like Heaven's flood-lights glowing, 
 O'er midnight's glooming flowing, 
 O 'er this low sphere of mingled song and 
 moan, — 
 Oh, list my love-hymns ' ecstasy 
 That wooes thy mystic Majesty > 
 
 To rear thy Triumph-Throne. 
 
 217 
 
THE SEASONS' IMPRESSIONS. 
 
 Thou rustling wind among the withered 
 leaves, 
 A sorrowed dirge thou singest of the 
 year 
 Slow waning to its death. Rude frost be- 
 reaves 
 The autumn gold of splendor, and the 
 clouds 
 Somber with mocking light, proclaim 
 the drear 
 Dead spell that life in cruel triiunph 
 shrouds. 
 And wakes the heart to worship — or to 
 fear. 
 
 Bleak, cheerless Winter! All the Sum- 
 mer's song 
 Is hushed as if forever. Gone the flow- 
 ers, 
 
 The warmth, the color and the teeming 
 throng 
 
 218 
 
Of life in earth and air — lost in thy 
 gloom ; 
 And mem'ry of the summer's lavish 
 powers 
 Is mingled with the bitter sense of 
 doom — 
 The killing snows where once the living 
 showers. 
 
 And yet, there is a marvel in thy might, 
 
 A wonder in thy dazzling mystery, 
 A worship in thy solemn glory white 
 
 So pure that e'en the skies pale in its 
 glow. 
 Oh, I could love thee for thy majesty — 
 The spotless splendor of thy robe of 
 snow 
 Thy mountain ice-crown's gleaming chas- 
 tity, 
 
 219 
 
Thine is the pow'r of infinite repose — 
 
 The destiny of stern and moveless rest ; 
 And yet, immortal hopes our souls com- 
 pose 
 With dreams of Summer and her 
 flow'ry train. 
 Day follows night; and through Law's 
 edict blest, 
 Thy icy throne shall melt to Spring 
 again — 
 Strange omen of life's triumph manifest. 
 
 For him who lives in plenteous content, 
 Whom fortune blesses with abundant 
 store, 
 Sweet solace are these visions eloquent — 
 These paling dreams of God's recur- 
 ring law. 
 But how shall these vain thoughts or 
 empty lore 
 Of deathless life or Winter's magic 
 awe 
 Assuage the thousand cravings of the 
 poor? 
 
 220 ^ 
 
How shall the millions, whom chill Win- 
 ter rude 
 Condemns to want and hunger, cold and 
 pain, 
 Find warmth and plenty in the barren 
 food 
 Of beauty or religion ? — What to him 
 The robes of snow, the mountains ice- 
 bound chain, 
 The crystal brilliance, but a monster 
 grim — 
 To peace a mock'ry and to joy a bane ? 
 
 Oh, that the full import of Nature's 
 mood — 
 The reign of rigorous Winter, or the 
 rare 
 Voluptuous kiss of Summer's plentitude — 
 Might be to thee, my brother, as to 
 me! 
 Our souls relieved of rankling want and 
 care 
 Would thrill like harps with life's di- 
 vinity, 
 Would rise like Christ above life's vast de- 
 spair. 
 
 221 
 
FOUND AT DAWN. 
 To Mr. J. G. P. 
 
 Far in the autumn's twilight thrall 
 Where sombrous glooms their pinions 
 furled 
 O'er surging floods of languored 
 night, 
 The airless vapors wrap their pall 
 
 About the pining day whose flight 
 Stirs faint the dank gloam-floods that roll 
 O'er trembling earth their chilly blight 
 And still in pain the sullen world. 
 
 Deep in the gloom of mountain-wilds 
 The scragged rocks' grim giant-forms 
 Thrust black their massy, cragged 
 crowns 
 Where ghastly Demon-Night beguiles 
 The phantom-shades to pall their 
 frowns 
 In death. With murk the depthless vales 
 Night's sluggish bale-flood sightless 
 drowns. 
 And silence breathes in surgeless 
 storms. 
 
 222 
 
Dark in these pathless wilds my soul 
 All wildered in its maze of doom 
 
 Groped thro' the hushed blackness 
 lost 
 'Mid formless thoughts that mocking roll 
 Their demon-dreamings' frantic host. 
 A gleam that thro' the rock-clefts stole 
 Passed o'er my startled sense, — a 
 ghost 
 Devoured in Hope's unfathomed tomb. 
 
 The feverous glooms that sombre wreathed 
 Their flushes pale as love and joy, 
 Like dreams of hope, their shades en- 
 tomb 
 Where deep despair in anguish breathed. 
 The floods of blackness thick inhume 
 The fainting gleams where night-palls 
 seethed, — 
 Like hope and faith that in life's doom 
 The ebbing tides of fear destroy. 
 
 223 
 
In wild dismay I wandered lost. 
 But like the warmth of flushing dawn 
 That breathes o'er pallid, night- 
 chilled blooms, — 
 Or star, to seaman tempest-tossed, 
 
 That constant brightens thro' the 
 glooms, 
 A hushed strain subdued but vast 
 
 As mighty love intoned thro' dooms, 
 Throbbed o'er my moanless senses wan. 
 
 And, gloating thro' the shrouds of night, 
 My mid eyes, by that voice so dear 
 Allured, the sullen gloam descried 
 That ghastly shrouded yon dim height. 
 Thro' ragged wilds of rocks black- 
 dyed 
 My senseless feet thro' doubtful light 
 Toiled up where feeble glows flushed 
 wide 
 And paled the fainting night with fear. 
 
 224 
 
A hand with sorrowed love aglow 
 
 My strength sustained, and to that 
 height 
 Still led me on. That voice so dear 
 That angels listened to its flow 
 
 Breathed o'er my languid sense its 
 cheer 
 Like dew on dying flow'rs ; when, lo. 
 
 The timid Dawn her dream-gauze 
 mere 
 Cast off, and blushed in glowing light. 
 
 Her gloried path-floods glowed and shone 
 Thro' craggy clefts whose gold did 
 gleam 
 To melting margins where she trod 
 'Mid thronging spirit-forms o'erflown 
 With crimson splendor's dazzling 
 flood. 
 Amid that phantom-troop of dawn, 
 
 Whose wings with ecstasies of God 
 Soft flushed in radiance supreme. 
 
 225 
 
That joy transformed, my raptured eyes 
 Beheld, to Heaven's deathless light, 
 That in the night-floods of despair 
 I lost in that vast vale of sighs. 
 
 Here shrined in hues divinely fair, 
 It found its haven in the skies. 
 
 But hark ! That music of the air, 
 That swells its harmony's delight, 
 
 Throbs thro' the flood of splendor thrilled 
 To God's great Love-throne trembling 
 borne ; 
 And from its spirit-symphonies 
 A wondrous strain my sorrow filled ; 
 
 For there 'mid Heaven's rhapsodies 
 That love-hjonn once so sadly stilled 
 In woe, awoke its ecstasies 
 Divine in love's own glory-morn. 
 
 226 
 
WITHOUT THEE. 
 
 So far from thee, the depth of gloom 
 That fold on fold about me lies, 
 Seems blacker still with mingled light, 
 Like dreams of joy enshrined in doom: 
 For Mem'ry shows with flashings 
 
 bright 
 Those blisses vivid sunk in night, — 
 The darkened walls of life that rise — 
 
 My weird uncertain prison sad. 
 As sinks the trembling trav'ler lone, 
 Deep-buried in night's murky thrall, 
 'Neath raging storm with fury mad. 
 
 And sees the crashing trees downfall 
 And splintered rocks, and in the pall 
 Of lightning's flash, the ruin prone. 
 
 22rr 
 
And after-blackness feels more dread: 
 So flashing with eternal might, 
 These mem'ry-gleams of passion's 
 pain, 
 That mad, soul-thrilling dream now fled, 
 Flame through the night of woeful 
 
 bane 
 And east me in its depths again. 
 My grieving soul, to see the blight 
 
 Spread o'er those hov'ring dreams above. 
 Must burst! 'Tis vain, sad heart, to 
 yearn 
 And strive in wild, distracted dream 
 To clasp her form, to die in love. 
 
 Or faint, o'ercome with bliss supreme, 
 And dream that life and pain but 
 seem: 
 For she is gone, — ne'er to return. 
 
 228 
 
God gave thy love : but ah, the woe, 
 That night when strayed I wild and 
 lone. 
 That tore my anguished heart and 
 thine, 
 And life lay crushed in poisoned throe ! 
 Shall I at last to grief resign ? 
 Come, dearest, steep thy soul in 
 mine, — 
 Here rest in love. My Own, My Own! 
 
 229 
 
THE TEAR. 
 
 Soft as an angel's stolen breath, 
 
 Hush as a moanless dream of peace 
 To the fevered brain aswoon in death ; 
 Or the breathless dawn that blushes 
 
 still; 
 
 In the sobf ul gloam thy tear athrill 
 
 With sweet love-light that 'lumes thy 
 
 face, 
 
 The vibrant night o'erflushed until 
 
 It glowed with sorrow's tend 'rest grace. 
 
 Calm as the star-beam burns thro' night, 
 
 Swift as the dawning leaps on high. 
 As the hush of music's pulsing flight 
 O'er a tranced woe in dreams en- 
 thralled, 
 To my wildered heart in grief em- 
 palled, 
 So swift the light and tear-song fly ; 
 And quiv'ring o'er my soul-chords, 
 hold 
 My grief entranced in harmony. 
 
 230 
 
YOUTH'S VISION. 
 To D. 
 
 As bursts some scene of beauty bright, 
 
 Of autumn shades and hues, 
 Lit by the day's last gleam of light 
 Whose splendor softly blends with night 
 Where fall the early dews, — 
 
 Upon the wond'ring gaze of one 
 
 Who thoughtless oft had passed,- 
 Departing now when day was done. 
 He viewed the scene at setting sun. 
 Its glories fading fast, — 
 
 Or as a flower perfect, rare. 
 
 Apart unnoticed stood, 
 Divine in structure, wondrous fair. 
 Aglow with Heaven's flushes dear. 
 
 Charming the solitude, — 
 
 231 
 
When, fostered 'neath love's sunny dew, 
 
 Its odor-breathing bloom 
 Outrivaled all in blended hue, 
 The sweetest flow'r that ever grew 
 
 With cheer to light the gloom : 
 
 So she, a radiant vision sent, 
 
 A dream of rapture pure. 
 For moments lent of sweet content, 
 To grace the gloom, the day o'erspent, 
 
 And life to love allure. 
 
 Shone sudden on my startled sight, — 
 
 A creature from above. 
 Youth's evening glories' flushing light 
 Revealed a soul divinely bright 
 
 And won my silent love. 
 
 From eyes unf athomed the soul-might 
 
 Of passion pure outshines : 
 My tranced soul in dark delight 
 Lifes faint and still, in bonds the night 
 Of love's long grief entwines. 
 
 232 
 
NATURE'S DIVINITY. 
 I wandered to-day far from tumult and 
 sorrow 
 To Nature's deep shrine where the 
 strange solitude, 
 Like the ambient air, floated roimd me, 
 to borrow 
 That sympathy mystic, life's e'er- 
 failing food; 
 Where souls freed from earth-bonds to 
 
 Heaven can rise. 
 And men become gods spirit-throned in the 
 skies. 
 
 I sought a lone bower where dews of the 
 morning 
 Lay sparkling half -hidden in manifold 
 shade. 
 
 Where simlight scarce darted thro' ver- 
 dure, adorning 
 With orbed-gold lustre the green of the 
 glade ; 
 
 Where redolent airs breathe in soft, 
 voiceless might 
 
 And mingle with flow 'rets their vernal 
 delight. 
 
 283 
 
In dew-refreshed morn soft the silence 
 stole o'er me — 
 All soundless the world, save the mur- 
 muring brook, 
 Whose mild-gurgling echoes attractive 
 allure me, 
 Vain striving its secret to find in each 
 nook 
 Where it ripples in sunbeams or flows still 
 
 and darkling 
 Thro' shadowed rock-caverns with glint- 
 ing and sparkling. 
 
 Such silence is blessed. Its soul-fining 
 spirit, 
 Unknown to man, mingles, 'neath har- 
 mony's law, 
 
 With the few tranced minds who forever 
 endear it 
 With strange adoration the spirit doth 
 draw 
 
 From worlds of dull substance to realms 
 of mere joy 
 
 Where never man's thraldom and strife 
 the soul cloy. 
 
 284 
 
Oh, might divine ardor of Nature's pure 
 passion 
 Illume the souPs prison of dense, mucid 
 gloom. 
 
 Where man chained with self-love or 
 custom's oppression 
 Sits peaceful nor murmurs tho' Greed 
 speaks his doom 
 
 With a vile curse of misery, hunger, dis- 
 tress, 
 
 To trammels of toiling grief, groans, 
 wretchedness. 
 
 Oh, light the gloamed minds with thy 
 
 beauteous vision. 
 The void of man 's prison, O Spirit 
 
 illume. 
 Till Hope and Love roused, our yearnings 
 
 elysian 
 Shall rise to divineness of joy ; and life's 
 
 gloom, 
 In radiance pure of Desire's creant might 
 ShaU glow in joy's dawning with love's 
 
 stainless light. 
 
 235 
 
DEJECTION. 
 
 ToD. 
 
 So cold is life, so weird and dark, 
 To me a dream unending seems, — 
 A flash of light, a dying spark 
 That vividly upon the sight, 
 Like love, a fleeting moment gleams 
 Then vanishes and pales with fright; 
 But shows, with evanescent beams. 
 Of things the murky, thickened gloom. 
 Which have no being yet appear 
 As sounds and shapes in visions' flight. 
 And dim impress life's loftier doom 
 Upon the senses dulled in night 
 That e'er receive with awful fear 
 The dreaded spirit-sound or sight, — 
 Then lapse to sleep from lifeless strife 
 To be awaked at love's dark cheer. 
 To some in doomed, luckless plight, 
 So weird, it seemeth more like death, — 
 A rending strife 'twixt dark and light. 
 So dreaming, seeming, thro' our life 
 We pass along, and think and dream 
 
 286 
 
Of joy and grief,— a throned Strife, 
 
 That e'er against our senses dull. 
 
 Drawn from her skyey-hidden sheath 
 
 Doth hurl with sudden pow'r supreme 
 
 Some atom of the infinite plan 
 
 Evolved from the Almighty's breath: 
 
 We start up from our listless plight, — 
 
 But dreamy sink, while senses lull 
 
 The soul with sights and sounds, — the bane 
 
 Of spirit- joys that hopeless w£Cne. 
 
 In stormy passion's raging flight 
 
 The mem'ry-scorged soul would rove, — 
 
 A winged love that thro' the night 
 
 Exhausted beats its pinions vain 
 
 In gloaming tempest's hurling winds. 
 
 Its tireful, maddened throbbings cease 
 
 In senseless, endless strife, — ^no peace : 
 
 But fluttering ever in its pain 
 
 It seeks with storm to rise again. 
 
 So is the soul. Its spirit-love 
 
 No rest from wild 'ring passion finds. 
 
 But crushed in life's reality. 
 
 Earth-crazed, it seeks some reachless rest : 
 
 Like autumn leaves that in the swirl 
 
 Of swelling streamlets writhe and whirl ; 
 
 A helmless phanton-ship wild-tossed, 
 
 237 
 
Forsaken on ocean's raging breast; 
 Beaten and torn on the seething sea 
 Of wild 'ring, black mortality; 
 Wild-driv'n thro' the welt 'ring wave 
 By some sonl-strif e of darted love, — 
 Until the deep, Eternity 
 Receives it, welcome with its own, — 
 Our sightless doom, our viewless Throne. 
 
 238 
 
MELANCHOLY. 
 
 Thou deep, dark world of throbbing grief, 
 Thou Pow'r! Chained in thy dismal 
 
 thrall. 
 My human soul doth writhe and strain 
 To reach yon mocking beam of light. 
 Still struggle. Eend thyself in vain. 
 C\ that thy anguish crushed belief, — 
 Tiiy arrowed pain so dense in pall 
 Enwrapped thee, — so intense the blight 
 No human sense could feel life's bane! 
 
 Engulf me deeper in thy might, 
 Till mind, consumed in thy fierce bane. 
 Is freed from strife of life and death, 
 Of joy and grief. As when a cloud. 
 Blackened with night, whirls in the 
 
 breath 
 Of Tempest-king, in dark delight. 
 Till lightning's flash like writhing pain 
 Shivers and rives its sphered shroud, — 
 So rends my soul its fear and faith. 
 
 239 
 
LONELINESS. 
 
 To D, 
 
 Oh, that thy silence endless, sad 
 To my lone soul that else were glad, 
 Should break o'er realms of loneliness 
 So black and void whose cheerlessness 
 Is seen and felt, as harsh or faint 
 Some sight or sound or feeling taint 
 Of silence black the dismal reign, 
 Like fevered roarings of the brain. 
 And make the blackness more intense, — 
 A silence striking rude the sense ! 
 As Orphean music burst the pall 
 Of Night and Hell, enchanting thrall 
 Of gods and doom, so would thy voice 
 Make sadness, fate itself rejoice 
 And soulless Nature 'mid life 's gloom 
 Start up in welcome from joy's tomb. 
 As one benighted in the wilds 
 Who strives with fear till sleep beguiles 
 His straining eyes, when, awed in dreams 
 He starts up cheered in morn's broad 
 beams, — 
 
 240 
 
Or as the heavens cease their fast 
 And on parched verdure withering cast 
 Shed copious draughts of thermal pow'r 
 And save the marcid, languished flow'r, — 
 As tears, quick-flowing, hearts relieve 
 That suffered grief but could not grieve, 
 So burst the blackness thro' the years 
 Impalled with nameless spectral fears 
 That haunt the burdened creeping hours 
 Like doubt that hope and faith devours. 
 Oh, speak! Thy voice, tho' far, to me 
 Were as the harbor-bells at sea 
 To hopeless bark wild-tempest driv'n, 
 The doom of wrathful earth and Heav'n. 
 Oh, speak! Thou art as cold and far 
 As joy, or yon dim-quav'ring star 
 That 'mid earth-mists that palling low'r 
 Flames paly gleams night's shrouds 
 
 devour. — 
 So fade my visions in love's pall. 
 Save 'neath the gleam of mem'ry's thrall 
 That pain and sorrow vivify 
 And feed like wreathing darks that vie 
 About the soul's dim flames that shine 
 Thro' glooms that haunt my Dream 
 
 Divine. 
 
 241 
 
THE LAST DAWN. 
 
 Slow creeping from bemisted clouds 
 
 Dark shadows lowered from the pall 
 Of dying day whose settling shrouds 
 Entombed the forsaken east. 
 In moanful threnodies the gust 
 Drives hoarse the plashing rains that 
 fall 
 Thro' moveless vapors' torpid rest. 
 
 Amid the city's ragings dire 
 
 Whose rabid pulses teemed with men 
 Half -maddened by their fierce desire 
 
 And ruthless greed, there wandered 
 
 lone 
 A weary wight so heedless grown 
 Of rushing life, he felt no pain 
 Of spurning blows or taunting tone 
 
 242 
 
Of jeer and curse. His feet astray, 
 
 Infirm with years of struggling grief, 
 Scarce bore him thro' the jostling fray. 
 His darkened brain unconscious 
 
 teems 
 With ebb and surge, like fitful 
 dreams, 
 Till sense is lost in wild belief, — 
 Then starts in life's consuming 
 gleams. 
 
 So, lost in mystic worlds, he swerves 
 O'er scoflSng streets. The rankling 
 strife 
 Of chills that quiver o'er his nerves 
 Convulsive strikes his deadened 
 
 brain. 
 Long has he borne the anguished 
 bane, — 
 The slow disease of feverous life ; 
 Long felt gaunt Hunger's gnawing 
 pain, 
 
 243 
 
The tortures of earth's countless ills, 
 
 The palsied pangs of maddening cold, 
 That rived the writhing nerves with thrills 
 Of stupor strange the senses stirred. 
 No smile he knew, no tender word. 
 No love of wife or child enfold 
 His restless head. No song he heard 
 
 Of warmth and home. No tear was shed 
 
 For him amid the heartless throng; 
 And human sympathy was dead. 
 
 And himian smiles were stoned in 
 
 greed. 
 In night his forlorn heart would 
 bleed, — 
 To silence lisp his moanful song, 
 And desolation be his meed. 
 
 244 
 
Men puffed with fulsome luxury 
 
 And swollen blind with glutton-greed, 
 Him whom Jehovah made to be 
 
 A king on earth, ^'a beast" they style, 
 ^^Who fed on refuse, sweepings vile. 
 And lived in musty rags, whose bed 
 Was some ash-heap or garbage pile." 
 
 What mockery of human life ! 
 
 What shameless guilt of haggish crime ! 
 What feculence of human strife 
 
 That rots thy carious, fleshy feasts 
 With putrid self I The groveling 
 beasts 
 Could tutor man entoiled in grime 
 Of flesh the soul in fetters casts. 
 
 245 
 
The weird night passed. The torrent 
 streams 
 Poured cold and ruthless as the dawn, 
 Thro' haze gray-tinged with sulking 
 beams. 
 The whiffling winds in sobf ul chill 
 Moaned o'er a nerveless form and 
 still, 
 A love-lumed brow with suffering wan, 
 A throbless heart beyond life's ill. 
 
 No voice for him doth raise its wail. 
 
 No silent tear embittered fall; 
 And o'er that brow in slumber pale 
 
 Scorn's heedless minions breathe no 
 
 sigh. 
 The soughing winds shall moan and 
 die; 
 The surging mists shall form his pall, 
 And rain-drops chant their monody. 
 
 246 
 
No requiem hymn, ye mortal choirs : 
 Your mocking songs but breathe your 
 doom. 
 But hearken to those heav'nly lyres > 
 
 That waft to bliss the souls ye spurn. 
 Their pains of earth that skyward 
 yearn 
 And darks of grief, doth Heav'n illume 
 To radiant joys of waking morn. 
 
 Ye glutton-hordes. Oh, wail and weep, 
 
 For woe shall mock your pleasures rife. 
 The cankering gold ye gloating keep 
 
 Is forged to rankling gyves that burn 
 The writhing soul. mortals, 
 mourn, 
 And chant your dirge of human strife. 
 That surges souls to death's black 
 bourn I 
 
 247 
 
OCTOBER. 
 
 How drear gray Morn in misty clouds 
 Ascends her throne, like one who grieves 
 For some lost glory, and whose tears 
 Her lustrous eyes veil in dull shrouds 
 Of darkling grief ! How still the leaves, 
 Scarce quiv'ring in the sobful breath 
 Of fainting Summer whose love-fears 
 Have dulled her panting heart's still 
 
 bliss, — 
 Soft, lovely bride who swoons to death 
 'Neath Autumn's chilly marriage-kiss! 
 
 The day in deep-veiled sorrow frowns. 
 And Nature mourns her fairest 's death 
 In moanful voices love-subdued. 
 The poison-air no more resounds 
 With gleesome song ; his blighting breath 
 Has made of Summer's bridal dress 
 A shriveled mantle sombre-hued. 
 Where lonely, hollow winds bewail 
 The vanished light and loveliness, — 
 Like memory when passions fail. 
 
 248 
 
I too am mourning thro* the night 
 Of foregone joy, — of beauty lost. 
 My fevered heart, like Siunmer, wed 
 To wilder ed, pulsing love's delight, — 
 An eagle in storm-rage fierce-tossed 
 In lofty joyance, — felt no fear 
 Of after-calm, so drear and dead; 
 But strives in vain for visioned skies, 
 And pining at its doomed bier, 
 Kissed by love's Autiunn sorrow, — dies. 
 
 249 
 
THE LONELY SONGSTER 
 
 Lone creature of the silent forest-ways, 
 How sadly dost thou linger here forlorn ! 
 
 Summer is gone, and tuneful sunny days 
 Have spent their splendor— all their 
 joys outworn. 
 
 Thy mate has vanished to a warmer realm, 
 As mine has left me for some gayer 
 sphere, 
 Here where the autumn mists thy songs 
 o'erwhelm. 
 As mine are stifled with misfortunes 
 drear. 
 
 Thy plumage once so gorgeous in the fire 
 Of flashing sunbeams now is dulled and 
 gray, 
 Like youth that riseth thrilled with high 
 desire 
 And sinketh wan and weary with the 
 day. 
 
 250 
 
Thou shouldst not mope and droop in vain 
 despair — 
 Thou hast thy pinions ; and beyond the 
 cold 
 Of dismal winter, in some Eden fair 
 Of summer south-lands there is bliss 
 untold. 
 
 Oh, hasten thither; leave our bleak 
 domain, 
 As I must quit this vain and empty 
 strife ; 
 And when the next glad springtime comes 
 again 
 Return in robes renewed with gorgeous 
 life. 
 
 Sweet May will come once more with all 
 her blooms, 
 The sun will smile again with warmth 
 and cheer, 
 The sky will tint her clouds with hued 
 illumes. 
 And thou and I will bless the gracious 
 year. 
 
 251 
 
And thou shalt sing thy rapturous refrain, 
 With swelling heart a-quiver all with 
 
 joy, 
 That sunshine and the flow'rs have come 
 again, 
 With nests and food and love without 
 alloy. 
 
 I, too, will sing in some wild ecstasy 
 To soulful Beauty all my lonely strain, 
 
 That man shall yet as happy be as thee — 
 In Universal Love's triumphant reign. 
 
 E^ 252 
 
PRELUDE. 
 
 Go to my love and bid her arise 
 To worship with me in radiant skies : 
 With a whisper of passion, 
 
 A love-lorn refrain, 
 That fancy doth fashion 
 From rapture and pain. 
 
 Go to the world and bid it to hear 
 A sky-failing tone of music's despair 
 With a hymn to the duty 
 
 Of life and desire. 
 The strange spirit-beauty 
 My soul doth inspire. 
 
 258 
 
INTERLUDE. 
 
 Like daylight. sweet to wilder ed dream. 
 
 Like silence after melody, 
 Like solemn night that soothes the gleam 
 
 Of sun's too-dazzling brilliancy-— 
 So dost thou come, fair magic blest, 
 Enticing with some fleeting rest. 
 
 Like calm that follows mighty storm, 
 
 Like peace o'er passion's thrilling woes, 
 Like sleep that lulls, with tender charm. 
 
 The day's long joyance to repose- 
 So soothing spell, with tranquil art. 
 Enchant to rest my wearied heart. 
 
 254 
 
POSTLUDE. 
 
 A flash of light through clouds of night, 
 A voice from silence golden, 
 
 A waning scent from flowers spent 
 By dying airs enf olden : 
 
 A thought of joy in grief's alloy, 
 
 A radiant vision failing, 
 A triumph-strain low-hushed in pain 
 
 A dream of passion paling : 
 
 Oh, feeble hymn, oh, beauty dim. 
 Oh, tender strain love-sighing. 
 
 Inspire some heart with heav'nly art 
 To live whilst thou art dying. 
 
 255 
 
REDEEMED 
 
FOREWOED. 
 
 In the wonderful life of Jesus Christ, 
 with its vital grasp of all human states 
 and interests, the themes of eternal truth 
 in thought and action, are almost infinite. 
 The greatest of all is Love. Another is 
 self-sacrifice. A third is the false exulta- 
 tion of wealth; and a fourth, the final 
 blessedness of humility. 
 
 With such considerations this Story- 
 Poem deals ; but all conceptions ultimately 
 blend in human and divine affection, which 
 alone produces earthly happiness. 
 
 The salvation of the meek is thus the 
 dominant chord of our humble symphony. 
 This regeneration arises in lowly affec- 
 tion, proceeds through suffering and sac- 
 rifice, and reaches its perfection in uni- 
 versal love — broadened, exalted, glorified 
 by divine favor or miraculous reward. 
 
 The reader's indulgence must be 
 granted in permitting fanciful deviations 
 from the meagre historic narrative of 
 Christ's life. Our justification is that 
 
 259 
 
this poem does not consist of the facts 
 of human history, but of the illustrations 
 of divine truth. 
 
 That truth reveals the utter folly and 
 futility of the raging conflict now involv- 
 ing every human interest. The hopeless 
 opposition of contending classes is shown 
 to be a weak and absurd fallacy. The rich 
 need not revel in luxury, nor the poor 
 suffer in want — conditions equal in social 
 disaster. 
 
 We must bring these discordant ele- 
 ments to peace, unity, sympathy. Our 
 salvation from the consuming curse is pos- 
 sible only through the power of boundless 
 charity, that turns this baneful strife to 
 joyous brotherhood, with universal bless- 
 ing. 
 
 In that marvelous world of the Christ- 
 Love, all human contentions blend in one 
 ideal state of spirit-beauty. Here pride 
 is debased, humility exalted, suffering 
 recompensed and sacrifice rewarded, in 
 the vast harmony of that universal law — 
 *^The Infinite Love of God." 
 
 Benjamin F. Fisher. 
 
 260 
 
IMMORTAL LOVE. 
 
 Immortal Love, celestial birth, 
 God's richest gift to human life. 
 
 Enthrone thy triumph-reign on earth 
 Abandoned to its selfish strife. 
 
 Like sunlight-floods pour o'er our hearts 
 
 The thrill divine thy grace imparts. 
 
 Immortal Christ, thou soul of Love, 
 Thou slave divine of earthly poor. 
 
 Descend again from bliss above. 
 Commanding us to love once more. 
 
 Thy deathless spirit still inspire 
 
 Our hearts with passion's radiant fire! 
 
 261 
 
Immortal Beauty, whose design 
 
 From God's own being took its form 
 
 With secret pow'r our souls refine 
 To grasp the meaning of thy charm — 
 
 To find revealed in every mood 
 
 The essence both of Love, and God. 
 
 Immortal Spirit, thou whose grace 
 Has given world and law and life, 
 
 How dare we come before Thy face 
 With stains and wounds of mortal 
 strife ! 
 
 How shall we live below, above, 
 
 Without thee, wondrous Human Love? 
 
 262 
 
A new commandment 
 
 I give unt© you, 
 
 That ye love one another. 
 
REDEEMED 
 
 Dark wreathed the night of heathen 
 
 thought about 
 The struggling twilight of a holier morn ; 
 And mighty, yearning souls sought God 
 
 in vain, 
 With reason darkened in a maze of doubt. 
 Then rose a soul of heavenly essence born 
 The one revealing force of God to man, — 
 A flash of Light, a thrill of beauteous Pain 
 That trembled o 'er the heart of Love for- 
 lorn, 
 And bade it rise with radiance divine 
 In triumph o'er the universe to reign. 
 
 He wandered lonely as a poet's dream 
 'Mid wildered ways, 'mid smiles and tears 
 
 of man. 
 He sought in gloom the poor, the blind and 
 
 lone ; 
 In hovels dark where ne'er had shone the 
 
 gleam 
 Of love and joy. He raised the forehead 
 
 wan, 
 
 265 
 
The pale, drooped eyes He lit with hope^s 
 
 bright cheer. 
 Grief changed to joy, to song the wretch's 
 
 moan. 
 The humble pining low 'neath misery's 
 
 ban 
 He praised exalted ; wealth and pride aai- 
 
 stere 
 Condemned debased. Of Love He reared 
 
 His throne. 
 
 When evening's shadows cold and silent 
 
 creep, 
 Like phantoms weird, o'er gloried earth 
 
 and sky, 
 And black-veiled night with stains of 
 
 deep 'ning gloom 
 Doth mingle mystic charms of hush and 
 
 sleep, — 
 Lo, Jesus, listless of the darkness nigh. 
 Lingers alone, lost in some hidden maze 
 Of sorrowed love for man in his self -doom, 
 Nor feels the gath'ring night and chill. His 
 
 eye 
 
 266 
 
Cast pensive down, like one whose fixed 
 
 gaze 
 Strives vain to pierce the mystery of the 
 
 tomb. 
 
 The settling darkness roused His languid 
 
 sense : 
 Benighted, shelterless. He paused in 
 
 doubt. 
 Along the highway hedged with sombre 
 
 walls, 
 A mass of solid masonry immense 
 Shone gray 'mid darker verdure wreathed 
 
 about. 
 As if to shield secure from human sight 
 The wide domain and chambered palace- 
 halls 
 In foliage hid, whose domes and spires 
 
 reached out 
 Like dusking shades thrust skyward 
 
 through the night. 
 The taper's brilliance through the lattice 
 
 falls, 
 
 267 
 
And barred glim 'rings o'er the broad way 
 creep, 
 
 Soon lost among the hov'ring shades of 
 night. 
 
 A-chill with dank night dews, the wand'rer 
 worn. 
 
 Amazed stood, as one from some deep 
 sleep 
 
 Arouses dazed in bursting sun floods 
 bright. 
 
 His haloed face some strange soul-fires il- 
 lume. 
 
 Some passion radiant of love grief -born, 
 
 That floods the circling darks with spirit 
 light. 
 
 And blushes through the shrouds of strug- 
 gling gloom. 
 
 Thus Jesus stands, in wealth's delight for- 
 lorn. 
 
 ^^Here will I knock and shelter ask," said 
 
 He; 
 * ' The night is chill and dark, but what glad 
 
 cheer 
 Doth reign within where weary pilgrims 
 
 there 
 
 268 
 
May find a haven warm nor burden be 
 To one whom God hath blessed from year 
 
 to year." 
 So fell those words that soft as summer's 
 
 breath 
 Flushed tenderly along the quiv'ring air, 
 Like fainting dreams of spirit music near, 
 Or some soul-harmony, serene in death. 
 That skyward rises free from life's de- 
 spair. 
 
 He is despised and rejected of men; A man of 
 sorrows and acquainted with grief: and we 
 hid as it were our faces from Him. 
 
 A raucous voice harsh-pinched with 
 crabbed greed 
 
 The Pilgrim's wishes asked in tones se- 
 vere, 
 
 ^*Who gloats in wonder o'er my rich do- 
 mainT' 
 
 Christ, meek in holy grandeur, told his 
 need, 
 
 In words soft breathed that Nature 
 stooped to hear : 
 
 That Night, all tone and motion ceasing, 
 hushed, 
 
Dumb with despair and grief that rose 
 
 again 
 From Christ's heart wounded: in His eye 
 
 a tear 
 Of holy suffering stood, with glory flushed 
 From some diviner world of spirit-pain. 
 
 This kindness asked, the rich man cast his 
 
 leer, 
 Half turned in scorn, the wand 'ring God 
 
 to greet. 
 His piercing glance, like blight on autumn 
 
 flow'rs, 
 Or bane to happy love consumed with fear, 
 Scowls mocking from Christ's face to 
 
 weary feet : 
 And crafty in deceit he quick conceived 
 The vagrant to be wretched poor, and 
 
 low'rs 
 Upon his garments stained in dust and 
 
 heat 
 And rent with nameless works in tears 
 
 achieved 
 And mighty love, divine with God-lent 
 
 pow'rs. 
 
 270 
 
''Mj rooms are full of gold and treasure 
 
 vast: 
 I harbor not vile thieves among my store !" 
 His hoarse voice grated with the gate's 
 
 harsh grind 
 That scourged the writhing air with scath- 
 
 ful blast. 
 As passed he, smiling at its sullen roar, 
 The light-flood broad that through the por- 
 tal flowed 
 An instant lingered, like a surging wind 
 That in a summer-midnight flushes o'er, 
 With timid breath, the sleeping solitude, — 
 Then leaves the heavy night sunk dull and 
 blind. 
 
 With tender pity lofty as the skies. 
 
 The pilgrim started on His lightless way. 
 
 The vapored night breathed blight from 
 
 day's dark tomb, 
 So dense He scarce the black-hedged way 
 
 descries. 
 The hidden stones His shoeless feet astray 
 With every halting step bruised cruelly. 
 
 271 
 
His great soul-passion thrilled the doleful 
 gloom, 
 
 Who cared not save the Spirit to obey 
 
 That e'er impelled through ceaseless 
 agony 
 
 To death's great sorrow, — last and glori- 
 ous doom. 
 
 At length, a faint ray cleaves the darkness 
 
 cold, 
 And glimmers feebly through the wreath- 
 ing pall. 
 To guide Him fait 'ring to the hidden goal. 
 Yet can He not the shelter dark behold, 
 Now swallowed by the shades that darker 
 
 fall. 
 So sank His hope, while doubts and fears 
 
 arose 
 To thrall in waste despair the struggling 
 
 soul. 
 Yet, faint and worn. He still with fresh 
 
 avail 
 Fares onward where the taper tranquil 
 
 glows, 
 
 272 
 
A distant star where night-mists veiling 
 roll. 
 
 Abide with us: for it is towards evening, and 
 the day is far spent. And He went in to 
 tarry with them. 
 
 Scarce can He labor to the little door 
 Up-looming in the walls' more sombre 
 
 gray, 
 O'ershimmered by the flaring flame that 
 
 shone 
 And nightly through the lattice-chinks did 
 
 pour 
 Barred light-streams pale to guide the 
 
 wanderer's way. 
 It was a lowly cot of aged poor, 
 Where two for many years had dwelt 
 
 alone. 
 The dust-stained pilgrim, wearied with the 
 
 day, 
 Did ne'er in vain a shelter warm implore. 
 'Tis said they loved all life more than 
 
 their own. 
 
 273 
 
Ere He to knock His nerveless hand could 
 
 raise, 
 
 The door swung wide : outburst a flood of 
 cheer, 
 
 Of warmth and joy, alarming the dull 
 night 
 
 That fled encircling far, like misted maze 
 
 At early dawn, and wreathed about in fear. 
 
 Now glowed the realm with tender radi- 
 ance, 
 
 Where Christ aweary, dazzled in the light, 
 
 Stood speechless, while a love-rewarding 
 tear 
 
 Flushed that sweet face with soulful elo- 
 quence 
 
 That thrilled along the still-awed air of 
 night. 
 
 With voices love-subdued the aged pair 
 Poured forth a wealth of soul-breathed 
 
 welcome free : 
 *^The night is cold and dark; thy weary 
 
 feet 
 Can journey now no further; enter here. 
 And rest thy tired limbs, and solaced be. 
 
 274 
 
Our store, though slight, is all at thy com- 
 mand. 
 
 For God doth give our daily warmth and 
 meat, 
 
 And what He hath vouchsafed, we give to 
 thee." 
 
 Not waiting for reply, His fevered hand 
 
 They, leading, clasp, — their happiness 
 complete. 
 
 As one who, in the meshes of some dream, 
 Toils fainting, o'er a wild and pathless 
 
 way, 
 And feels fatigue's slow pang and cold de- 
 spair 
 Stifle with blighting pain the thought's 
 
 dull stream. 
 While hope and fear impel his feet astray 
 And drive him on o'er hills and wastes 
 
 forlorn, 
 O 'er rocks and streams and wretched des- 
 erts drear. 
 Till he, at last, resigned to dire dismay. 
 Starts, trembling in the calm of home and 
 morn,— 
 
 275 
 
So, Christ consoled, his grief reposed in 
 cheer. 
 
 For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: 
 I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a 
 stranger, and ye took me in. 
 
 The matron old, with anxious, willing 
 hand, 
 
 A plenty took from their scant fund and 
 poor 
 
 Of meal coarse-ground but fresh and sav- 
 ory sweet. 
 
 And mixed with water lucid, pure, ob- 
 tained 
 
 From welling spring the fathers built of 
 yore. 
 
 Prom stocks and branches dry, in waning 
 days 
 
 Slow gathered, 'neath the summer's burn- 
 ing heat, 
 
 All withered from the mountain's meagre 
 store. 
 
 She made a transient fire whose sparkling 
 blaze 
 
 Red-flared amid the dancing shadows fleet, 
 
 276 
 
Some locusts sweet with loaves of barley 
 
 meal, 
 Some wild figs dried, — the last of their 
 
 supply,— 
 With fish preserved in oil of olives sweet 
 Composed the fare. But no want could 
 
 dispel 
 The loveful joy that from some spirit-sky 
 Reflected in their faces' glorious light. 
 As when one travels lone with weary feet 
 Where passing siunmer with her sobful 
 
 sigh 
 Leads o'er the glowing earth the north 
 
 wind's blight 
 With sudden gusts of chilling rain and 
 
 sleet, — 
 
 When bursts, triumphant from the cloud- 
 bound sphere. 
 
 The sun, aglow with radiant smiles of love 
 
 More splendid in the scattering vapor's 
 flight, 
 
 And fills the wanderer with gracious 
 cheer, — 
 
 So shone Christ's brow with radiance from 
 
 277 
 
above. 
 As when the ardent, panting thought and 
 
 dream 
 Reach out soul-yearning for far love's de- 
 
 light 
 Which sudden thrills the heart, with fears 
 
 inwove, 
 Till life and joy and pain false visions 
 
 seem, 
 So seemed the transport of that raptured 
 
 night. 
 
 When all had taken of the glad repast. 
 And pale the Pilgrim leaned in ember's 
 
 glow,— 
 As in some maze of soul, too vast and deep 
 For human thought, He strayed entoiled 
 
 and lost, — 
 The happy pair, with eager words 
 
 breathed low. 
 Conspired to bless with cheer and sweet 
 
 content. 
 And when with viewless wings soft-flitting 
 
 Sleep 
 
 278 
 
'Mid lurking glooms and shadows dark- 
 
 'ning slow, 
 Doth charm to magic rest the spirits faint, 
 And soothing languors o'er the senses 
 
 creep, 
 
 They gently lead Him, 'mid remonstrance 
 vain 
 
 Soft-hushed in breathed words of sooth- 
 ing love. 
 
 To where, in deep'ning gloam, the lowly 
 cot 
 
 Gray-tinged stood in fire-light's pallid 
 wane : 
 
 Then creep, all noiseless, to the low alcove 
 
 Adjoining 'neath whose arches plastered 
 
 To scanty store of grain and fruit devote, 
 They lie upon the scattered straw, nor 
 
 move. 
 Nor sink in dull repose, but watch and 
 
 pray, 
 Perplexed in fevered maze of wild 'ring 
 
 thought. 
 
 279 
 
Day burst at length in stainless splendor 
 
 vast. 
 In such gold floods the sunlight ne'er has 
 
 flown, 
 Save at the dawn of Resurrection near 
 That through slow time its irised light now 
 
 cast 
 To greet a Glory brigther than its own. 
 In joy that memory cherished ever bright 
 The scant repast was eaten in love's cheer. 
 The Lord inspired with strength anew, 
 
 there shone 
 A glowing halo of strange spirit-light, 
 And crowned the brow that bloody thorns 
 
 should tear. 
 
 Still ling 'ring on the threshold ere they 
 
 part. 
 Like winged bliss that quivers o'er the 
 
 soul. 
 That voice that bade the thund'rous waves 
 
 be still 
 Now thrills with pulsing joy the list'ning 
 
 heart, — 
 And 'er all nature breathes a spirit-thrall. 
 
 280 
 
He softly bids His hosts but speak a 
 prayer, 
 
 Wbicli, ere the words be formed, He 
 should fulfill 
 
 Though they like gods should wish the 
 sun's control. 
 
 They knew not what to ask, their sole de- 
 sire 
 
 To feel of self-denial the raptured thrill. 
 
 And constant peace deep as the blue of 
 heav'n, — 
 
 A hidden stream that never wane had 
 known. 
 
 So great their meed of peace and happi- 
 ness 
 
 They knew no wish that heaven had not 
 giv'n. 
 
 But soft as glow of soul-desire there shone 
 
 A gleam of hope that flushed with early 
 
 Joy 
 The aged woman's brow: the wan distress 
 Of Pilgrims wretched wand 'ring cold and 
 
 lone 
 
 i 281 
 
Oft did with grief their loving hearts an- 
 noy 
 
 That house and store too scanty were to 
 bless. 
 
 Christ felt the wish and happy, went His 
 way. 
 
 With wild, delightful madness softly 
 seized 
 
 They sank into a strange, entrancing 
 dream. 
 
 Unseen and mighty gleamed the broade- 
 ning day. 
 
 How long they stood with joyous frenzy 
 dazed. 
 
 And what weird visions strange of bliss 
 and light 
 
 Delirious whirled them down wild fancy's 
 stream, 
 
 They knew not. Long they lingered all'- 
 amazed 
 
 With myriad thoughts and hopes and 
 mem'ries bright 
 
 Of long-forgotten years, where joys su- 
 preme 
 
 282 
 
In early love and youth's delight had 
 
 shone. 
 Again the warm life tingled in each vein ; 
 The dimmed eyes sparkled with a glory 
 
 mild, 
 Like autmnn's lustre faint when day has 
 
 flown. 
 The wrinkled brow with rapture flushed 
 
 again 
 As morn's sweet face when winter dark 
 
 has fled : 
 The languid form of age was soft beguiled 
 To grace and beauty. As with ne'er a 
 
 stain 
 O'er gilded clouds the dawning 's glories 
 
 spread, 
 Youth's new-born radiance glowed unde- 
 
 filed. 
 
 His flesh shall be fresher than a child's: he 
 shall return to the days of his youth. 
 
 As when in Autumn's sobful breath the 
 
 leaves, 
 In wild, fierce joyance rise in mazy whirls, 
 Wildered in frenzied glee, like spirits 
 
 freed 
 
 283 
 
From some far realm whence new bliss 
 aimless drives ; 
 
 Or as the lark, in panting transport, hurls 
 
 Through lure of startled dawn its pas- 
 sioned flight, 
 
 Whose gushing raptures ne'er the wild 
 winds heed, 
 
 Maddened with joy, be:wildered in the 
 swirls 
 
 Of misted sun-fire, — so, in weird delight 
 
 Of ravished sense, did age in glad youth 
 fade. 
 
 The mem'ry of the life just passed away 
 Was like some distant, half-forgotten 
 
 dream 
 Confused in waking thought. They knew 
 
 their guest 
 Had backward turned, with some Gl-od- 
 
 given sway, 
 The ebbing course of life's receding 
 
 stream. 
 They questioned not, but knew their youth 
 
 restored 
 To cheer the needy with their service blest ; 
 
 284 
 
To feed the hungry ; fill with hope supreme 
 The friendless, joyless souls whom Christ 
 
 adored, 
 And thrill earth's suffering life with love 
 
 and rest. 
 
 From mingled thoughts' and dreams' 
 strange ecstasy 
 
 They turned upon the threshold to their 
 cot, 
 
 And found it vanished, where there sud- 
 den rose, 
 
 Prom out a sphere of rainbowed radiancy, 
 
 A mansion such as man has never wrought. 
 
 Its august grandeur tow 'red in simple 
 state, 
 
 Where nauseous luxury's disgusting 
 shows 
 
 And coarse displays with pompous trum- 
 pery fraught. 
 
 Degraded not its matchless grace elate 
 
 With strength's supreme and infinite re- 
 pose. 
 
 285 
 
The walls, with casements op'ning high 
 
 and wide, 
 Of gray basalt green-tinged and polished 
 
 clear, 
 Were graced with pilasters of lustrous 
 
 white, 
 Of marble brought o'er the Aegean tide. 
 The gorgeous capitals from Corinth far 
 Upheld a jutting frieze whose flowing 
 
 stream 
 Of sculptured thought, whose very glooms 
 
 were bright. 
 Inspired the gazing soul with love and 
 
 cheer : 
 'Twas like an artist's wild, soul-fashioned 
 
 dream, — 
 A wondrous realm of beauty and delight. 
 
 And He built His sanctuary like high palaces, 
 like the earth which He hath established for- 
 ever. 
 
 Fair porticoes, God-wrought, of Grecian 
 
 mold 
 Their tap 'ring columns upreared to the 
 
 sky, 
 
 286 
 
Where morn's and even's sun on east and 
 
 west 
 Could pour in flushing floods its glorious 
 
 gold. 
 The shafts in massive strength that could 
 
 defy 
 Or awe in wonder the fell storms of time, 
 From far Aegina's blue-robed mounts 
 
 cloud-fleeced, 
 Of amber veined marble, tow 'ring high, 
 Their Doric capitals upheld sublime 
 Like clouds upon some ice-robed mountain 
 
 crest. 
 
 Their every fluting seemed a still delight 
 And every line a sweet, mute melody. 
 The pediments by spirit sculptors formed 
 Were throned aloft in glowing grace and 
 
 light. 
 Each living form of radiant majesty, 
 Or plastic carven scene of bliss and woe 
 Were chosen from His gloried life trans- 
 formed 
 
 287 
 
Who thrilled the world with new-born ec- 
 stasy. 
 
 In morning's blush pr twilight's tremu- 
 lous glow 
 
 Their splendor pure the dazzled vision 
 charmed. 
 
 The spacious rooms in simple majesty, 
 With some strange power of mighty love 
 
 athrill, 
 Were perfect realms of tender rest and 
 
 cheer. 
 The lights intone some deep soul harmony, 
 And all the air its raptured meanings fill 
 With mystic pow 'r ; they on the scroll of 
 
 life 
 Carve deep that Law of Love in import 
 
 clear 
 That he who heard could ne'er escape their 
 
 spell ; 
 In weal or woe, in happiness or grief, 
 That hymn of World-Wide Passion sound- 
 ed near. 
 
 288 
 
He will make her wilderness like Eden, and 
 her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy 
 and gladness shall be found therein, thanks- 
 giving and the voice of melody. 
 
 About the ample court in deep-cast shade, 
 
 Embow'red from summer's burning noon- 
 day heat, 
 
 In copious verdure 'mid the rich-hid 
 glooms, 
 
 The purple grape, where denser darks per- 
 vade, 
 
 Hung lush and cool, round-swool'n with 
 juicy sweet. 
 
 Here, 'neath the quiv'ring leaves serene 
 alcove, 
 
 Inclasping gloam and light in faint il- 
 lumes, 
 
 Eeposed the toiling wand'rer's glad re- 
 treat. 
 
 Fair bow'rs, soft-screened from dazzling 
 noon, inwove 
 
 Their mazy courses massed with fragrant 
 blooms. 
 
 Enthralling solitude and rest serene. 
 Fair gardens with the rainbow's hues 
 aglow, 
 
 289 
 
A-teem with deathless flowers' faint per- 
 fumes, 
 
 Suffused with radiant tints the sombrous 
 green. 
 
 Soft-wild 'ring paths 'neath still trees 
 arching low 
 
 Wound o'er the mossy knoll or tangled 
 dell, 
 
 Where spreading ferns obscure the peep- 
 ing blooms 
 
 Soft-blushing in the air's carressing flow; 
 
 Or through the gardens where hued glows 
 dispel 
 
 With magic power the lurking twilight 
 glooms, 
 
 Their labyrinths ran, disclosing e'er un- 
 seen 
 
 Delights that lure the mind from languor's 
 thrall. 
 
 In rocky dells deep-flowered and dark-en- 
 mossed 
 
 Soft-spraying founts their rippling glad 
 refrain 
 
 290 
 
In rock-nooks darkning sang to birds' low 
 
 call. 
 The fig tree wild, luxuriant hung its bell 
 Just tinged with sunlight, 'mid its leaves 
 
 embossed. 
 The orange, golden in its lustrous swell, 
 Its various hues in dark green doth im- 
 pale 
 Of waxed leaves with glancing sunlight 
 glossed. 
 
 The teeming olive's placid branches lie 
 Low-drooped with fracid fruit in violet 
 
 wane, 
 'Mid fields of grain and fallows cool and 
 
 hush 
 Where gushed and thrilled the lark's wild 
 
 rhapsody. 
 Such halcyon peace and joy on earth ne'er 
 
 reign, 
 As o'er this wide domain love-consecrate. 
 The sun-scorched pilgrim, at day's paling 
 
 blush, 
 
 291 
 
Hastened his eager steps the haven to 
 
 gain; 
 And here the outcast poor, in bliss elate, 
 Their souls in ever-f ountful love refresh. 
 
 No dearth was there, no want or rankling 
 
 care, 
 Save that still pain for mankind's deep 
 
 distress, 
 Dispelled with every glow of happiness 
 That flushed o'er some heart rescued from 
 
 despair,— 
 Such grief as saddened e'er Christ's glor- 
 ied face. 
 The fruitage full and harvests copious 
 
 grown 
 Now heaped the granaries vast with rich 
 
 excess. 
 Those bow'rs of amaranth, in sweetest 
 
 grace. 
 Bloomed ever fair ; and pure as youth and 
 
 dawn, 
 
 That fadeless Eden glowed with loveli- 
 ness. 
 
 292 
 
Your riches are corrupted. Your gold and 
 silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall 
 be a witness against you. 
 
 Morn's murky flood with night stains 
 tainted deep 
 
 Crept slowly o'er the rich man's palace 
 drear 
 
 And poured its sluggish streams o'er dome 
 and wall. 
 
 The miser rose dull-browed from tortur- 
 ing sleep, 
 
 Trembling with nameless, dream-imag- 
 ined fear ; 
 
 And when his gloating hands in wild em- 
 brace 
 
 Fondled his bags of golden treasure full. 
 
 The plaguing voices of that dreamed de- 
 spair 
 
 Yet grided o'er his heart their venomed 
 curse ; 
 
 *^The canker of your gold consumes your 
 soul." 
 
 Soon, with amaze that turned his vulgar 
 smile 
 
 293 
 
To lowering frowns, his startled neighbors 
 told, 
 
 In eager haste, how, wrapped in gloom of 
 morn, 
 
 The aged poor, their lands and hovel vile 
 
 Had vanished like a mist, where now the 
 wold, 
 
 Desert and wild, had changed to para- 
 dise, — 
 
 A glad domain whose vast extent adorn 
 
 Fair mansions grand of some strange god- 
 like mold, — 
 
 Abode sublime of two whose youthful 
 grace 
 
 Thrilled with delight the realm so long 
 forlorn. 
 
 With curt reproach and livid envy's 
 
 scowls 
 They further told 'twas noised about the 
 
 land 
 The self -same pilgrim he had spurned in 
 
 scorn, 
 With warmth and cheer and meat these 
 
 abject souls 
 
 294 
 
Had welcomed, and with eager, anxious 
 hand 
 
 Attended every want. In gratitude. 
 
 Departing when night's truant shades in 
 morn 
 
 Were barred with gray, he, with some 
 viewless wand 
 
 Of mystery and pow'r, their youth re- 
 newed 
 
 And their mean cot to mansions vast did 
 turn. 
 
 With scoffing mock'ry did the rich blas- 
 pheme, 
 
 Ajid ridicule with scorn the story wild. 
 
 But while he scowled with taunting jeer 
 and slur 
 
 Upon the hast'ning throng's excited 
 stream. 
 
 The wonder dawned upon his mind de- 
 filed 
 
 With cynic disbelief in any good 
 
 That unjust fortune brings the victimed 
 poor: 
 
 295 
 
Dawned, like the doom to captive soft-be- 
 guiled 
 With dreams of joy, until, awakened rude, 
 He feels the crushing prison-walls ob- 
 scure. 
 
 In palls of gloom his dreamed felicity. 
 The niggard started to behold the crowds 
 All thronging toward the west in morning 
 
 pale. 
 Doubt strove with fear, while sullen hope's 
 
 faint plea 
 Sought vain to wreathe the dawning truth 
 
 in shrouds 
 Of unbelief. The narrow forehead burned ; 
 The moveless heart throbs wild as fears 
 
 prevail. 
 He rushes out as though a thousand goads 
 Forth drove him, as his grasping senses 
 
 yearned 
 With that famed wealth his void soul to 
 
 regale. 
 
 His frightened steed he mounts in sense- 
 less haste, 
 
 296 
 
And mingles with the throng ; though not 
 
 as they, 
 Rejoicing in the blessing free-bestowed, 
 But with the bane of low remorse debased, 
 And morbid with the pangs of dull dismay. 
 With haughty, mocking mien he scowled 
 
 in ire 
 Upon the hope-exalted poor, subdued 
 In wonderment and awe, with every ray 
 That glinted from the sun's reflected fire, 
 And 'er the radiant mansion flamed and 
 
 glowed 
 
 Flushing with tranquil cloud-like splen- 
 dor rare. 
 
 But soon the constant-goaded steed had 
 passed 
 
 The fretted boscage of the garden's bourn. 
 
 And reached a gentle slope, where, con- 
 toured clear 
 
 Against the bright 'ning west, the mansion 
 vast 
 
 Arose and spread its still wings flecked 
 with white 
 
 297 
 
Far 'mid the haloed hues of hov'ring 
 
 morn. 
 There no dank walls of mucid stone o'er- 
 
 cast 
 Its flow'ry meadows, with their sombrous 
 
 blight. 
 The tranced eye, awe-charmed, might gaxe 
 
 and yearn. 
 
 As one demented sees some vision grand, 
 And gapes in mute and moveless awe, — 
 
 his soul. 
 With wonder dumb, a chaos void of strife, 
 So stares and gloats this man of wealth, 
 
 his mind 
 A senseless void where want and mock'ry 
 
 roll,— 
 Thoughtless as one lost in eternity. 
 Long did he gaze, like one bereft of life, 
 To sate his empty greed with gorgings full. 
 At length the pow'r of dark reality 
 O'er came his stolid mind with dull doubts 
 
 rife. 
 
 298 
 
As shimmers faint some distant, mist- 
 
 paled star 
 So hazed and dim it seems a flickering 
 
 charm 
 Cast o'er the quiv'ring eye, until it gleams 
 Through glory-parted clouds, lustrous and 
 
 far. 
 So, o'er his mind enthralled in dire alarm, 
 Shone silent those white splendors whose 
 
 pure light, 
 Burning across his soul its purging beams, 
 Disclosed his envious greed that, like a 
 
 swarm 
 Of vipers, grew and feasted on the sight 
 Of riches e'en unvisioned in his dreams. 
 
 Like one whom some fierce, strange desire 
 
 drives 
 To chase o'er earth a fleeting vision bright 
 That e'er eludes his grasp, so, eager fires 
 Of ruthless craving goad him, while he 
 
 strives 
 To vanish doubt that leaves its searing 
 
 blight 
 In face distorted, wild and straining eyes. 
 
 299 
 
His heedless sense a burning hope inspires 
 To overtake the pilgrim, and, despite 
 His heartless scorn of yesternight, obtain 
 A gift to fill his gluttonous desires. 
 
 The rash, blind folly of his quenchless 
 
 greed 
 Spurred on his frothing horse in headlong 
 
 haste. 
 His few friends marking the dilated eyes 
 And rashness, greet him, but he gives no 
 
 heed, 
 Save to the pilgrim his strained eyes e'er 
 
 traced 
 Far- wand 'ring, fancy-fashioned to a god. 
 Ever anew the stinging lash he plies ; 
 Ever his ravenous looks he frowning cast 
 Farther and farther o'er the whit'ning 
 
 road, 
 Nor to his shouted questions waits replies. 
 
 He that getteth riches, and not by right, shall 
 leave them in the midst of his days, and at 
 his end shall be a fool. 
 
 When noon's high glow fused white the 
 azure pale 
 
 300 
 
And flooded earth with trembling, hueless 
 gleams, 
 
 He found the wand'rer 'neath an olive- 
 tree 
 
 Whose drooping leaves cast o'er the hot- 
 breathed soil 
 
 Its waving shade checkered with orbed 
 beams. 
 
 Nor lingers, but with clutching hand, nigh 
 crazed, 
 
 And rash as if he grasped with jealous 
 glee 
 
 His sordid gold, he wakes from troubled 
 dreams 
 
 The wearied Christ. With honeyed words 
 o'erglozed 
 
 With lavish praise, his huge avidity 
 
 He strives to hide; and tells in rasping 
 tones. 
 
 With grieved look, how he e'er helped the 
 poor, 
 
 Supplied their wants and gave them shel- 
 ter free: 
 
 And how a pilgrim, in the night just flown, 
 
 301 
 
He had admitted to his bounty, sure 
 That God would bless the deed ; but ere the 
 
 morn, 
 With all his treasure stolen secretly, 
 Had fled : Christ did he sorrowful implore, 
 With cringing tears, to bless him, so for- 
 lorn. 
 That he might ever friend to friendless 
 be. 
 
 As when in storm the raucous thunder's 
 roar 
 
 Has died upon the frenzied blast, and fair 
 
 The bursting sunshine soft with mists in- 
 wove 
 
 The sky with gloried tints bright-arches 
 o'er, — 
 
 So died those griding tones; and on the 
 air, 
 
 Hush with the qui v 'ring thrill of near de- 
 light. 
 
 Like rhapsody soft-breathed by choirs 
 above. 
 
 The voice of Jesus hov'ring, grants the 
 pray'r, 
 
 302 
 
But warns the man that, all his power de- 
 spite, 
 Such monstrous craving only ill can prove. 
 
 So great was his soul-ravishing delight 
 He did not hear those words and warning 
 
 tone. 
 Nor aught did heed, save that wild imaged 
 
 dream 
 That swiftly thronged before his inward 
 
 sight. 
 Great heaps of gold, yellow as evening's 
 
 sun 
 As high and vast as Heav'n's infinity 
 He sees, 'mid which he reigns in joy su- 
 preme. 
 E'er grasping all about his regal throne 
 In one endless embrace, — felicity 
 To his joy-maddened soul dazed in the 
 gleam 
 
 Of fiery, wild desire. Without adieus. 
 He turns his wearied horse toward home 
 again, 
 
 303 
 
Confused with struggling hope and fear 
 
 lest fate 
 Should somehow rob him of his chance to 
 
 choose, 
 Before the pow'r God gave him to obtain 
 Whatever he asked, should sudden pass 
 
 away. 
 His mind e'er failed his glutton greed to 
 
 sate 
 With visions great and rich as heaven's 
 
 domain. 
 The specters of Suspense in fierce array 
 With faith in combat raged, — a horrid 
 
 state 
 
 In which his soul, fell-driven to dismay. 
 
 Raved wildly in the toils of sweet despair. 
 
 Then Hydra-headed Doubt, with demon- 
 bane. 
 
 That searched 'mid mocking tortures for 
 its prey, 
 
 Devoured apace his dreams of rapture 
 fair, 
 
 And laughed to taunting scorn his frantic 
 ire. 
 
 304 
 
Disputes and queries racked Ms striving 
 brain, 
 
 Until, with joy and hope, with fear and 
 care 
 
 And strife to glut the monster of desire, 
 
 His shrivelled mind was driven nigh in- 
 sane. 
 
 While in bewildered plight he hurried on, 
 Scarce knowing where his thwarted 
 
 thoughts would lead 
 That groped 'mid massy throngs of 
 
 wealth's delight, 
 A starving wight approached to cringe 
 
 and fawn 
 Beneath his horse's hoofs, — to gasp and 
 
 plead 
 For food and help, in tones of piteous 
 
 grief 
 
 That Nature trembled at the woeful sight. 
 
 His wife and child, poor victims of 
 wealth's greed, 
 
 Lay helpless 'neath fierce hunger's gnaw- 
 ing strife ; 
 
 And he alone, though fever's conqu'ring 
 blight 
 
 305 
 
Consumed his struggling pow'r, still 
 
 strove to save 
 His loved ones from the grasp of awful 
 
 doom. 
 Oh, could he yet withstand that groan and 
 
 tear, 
 To whom the Lord such wealth and power 
 
 gave ? — 
 Oh, could he see them borne to lowly 
 
 tomb, — 
 The helpless prey of hideous vulture- 
 lust, — 
 And not within his murderous heart some 
 
 fear 
 Of God's own judgment feel for crimes, 
 
 from Whom 
 His pompous might and wealth he held in 
 
 trust 
 To bless the poor with warmth and food 
 
 and cheer ? 
 
 Ah, yes! Though soulful Nature with 
 
 him wept. 
 Deaf, heartless wealth could only scowl 
 
 and sneer. 
 
 306 
 
The rich man's impulse was to whip his 
 
 steed 
 On past the prostrate form that grovling 
 
 crept 
 And grasped the stirrup in imploring fear. 
 But venomed guilt and dread in crushing 
 
 surge, 
 Lest Christ should curse to naught his 
 
 promised meed, 
 O 'ercame his sullen soul ; the dire despair 
 Of sobful tone and desperate clutch did 
 
 urge 
 His frantic sense the wretch's pray'r to 
 
 heed. 
 
 In angry haste a little coin he seized 
 And scoffing, threw it in the beggar's face : 
 Then turning, urged his steed with threat 
 
 and lash. 
 Nigh frenzied with desire he vain ap- 
 peased 
 With dreams that failed to fill his mean 
 
 embrace. 
 But sudden, 'mid his thought's distracted 
 course, 
 
 307 
 
A dark suspicion rose, — a trembling flash 
 Of doubt and dread. His dreams of golden 
 
 grace 
 In horror fled. He madly clutched his 
 
 purse, — 
 His money counted ; then with curses rash 
 
 Bewailed his fate: for ^4n his pity kind 
 And weak compassion he had thrown away 
 A precious piece of gold! grievous 
 
 fate, — 
 O weakness mean that moved his mercy 
 
 bUnd 
 To give to beggars!^' He reviled the day 
 That brought him thither ; and his ragings 
 
 dire, 
 Embittered in the violence of hate 
 'Gainst God and man, impelled him to be- 
 tray 
 His very life, for in his senseless ire 
 He cursed himself and all his luckless 
 state. 
 
 308 
 
Scarce had the bitter, poisoned words been 
 
 breathed 
 Than o'er his sense weird spells of mad- 
 ness reign. 
 As some fell pow'r of long-endured de- 
 spair, 
 With hope and faith in raving combat 
 
 wreathed, 
 Doth surge and ebb with venom in its bane 
 Or like impassioned love too sudden hurled 
 Where foul suspicion's subtle demons 
 
 fare 
 In blinded rage, until the anguished brain 
 Drifts helpless in a vast chaotic world 
 Of dismal joy, of dark and frantic care, — 
 
 So passed the tortured soul to that weird 
 
 realm, 
 Betrayed by self to vile greed dedicate. 
 And what strange visioned dreams and 
 
 phantom-shades, 
 And what revealing mysteries o'erwhelm 
 The spirit, can no hiunan art relate. 
 But when, like some dread charm, doth 
 
 pass that spell, 
 
 309 
 
Whose host of sprites and fleeting beings 
 fades, 
 
 His mind recovers feebly from that 
 state, — 
 
 His soul is rescued from that writhing 
 Hell, 
 
 And borne to life on wings fair sleep out- 
 spreads. 
 
 When he awoke, convulsed with doubt and 
 fear. 
 
 Dazed in the world of images and dreams. 
 
 He stared with startled wonder on the 
 scene, — 
 
 The strange reality devoid and drear 
 
 That mingled 'neath the daylight's glar- 
 ing gleams 
 
 With ghostly mem'ries of the fading past. 
 
 And as the sun burns through the haze of 
 dawn. 
 
 And pours o'er misted earth its golden 
 streams. 
 
 There swept with lucid, bright 'ning flow 
 at last, 
 
 The flood of truth swift o 'er his vague cha- 
 grin. 
 
 310 
 
4 desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a 
 land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth 
 any son of man pass thereby. 
 
 He gazed about dismayed. His horse was 
 
 gone: 
 Ah, see his garments rich now stained and 
 
 torn, 
 And in his eager grasp his empty purse ! 
 A thrill of pain flushed o'er his features 
 
 wan. 
 The blow had fallen o'er his hopes forlorn. 
 Of riches and possessions naught was left. 
 Fulfilled by God had been that awful curse 
 Which monstrous greed within his soul 
 
 had sworn. 
 And crushed with grief, of shattered pride 
 
 bereft, 
 His home he sought, tortured with wild 
 
 remorse. 
 
 And when his fait 'ring steps had reached 
 
 the spot 
 Where once his stately mansion with its 
 
 halls, 
 
 311 
 
Its domes and tow'rs, its gardens fair, did 
 rear 
 
 Its vain magnificence, existed naught 
 
 But sterile, stony slopes and chasmy walls, 
 
 And sun-burnt steeps, — a wilderness of 
 dread. 
 
 Where Death and Ruin kept their reign 
 severe 
 
 In wilds accursed, and wreathed their 
 haunted palls 
 
 'er waste and void ; while fiends of Hor- 
 ror fed 
 
 Hate's demons with the tortures of de- 
 spair. 
 
 The people gathered 'round in wond'ring 
 throng. 
 
 Awed with the mighty justice of their 
 King, 
 
 Could not but praise Him for that recom- 
 pense 
 
 To one so guilty judged of crime and 
 wrong. 
 
 And e'er that great commandment warn- 
 ing rang : 
 
 312 
 
^'For Thou Shalt Love!" Dimly, as in a 
 
 dream, 
 The giiilty saw and heard; and from the 
 
 glance 
 Of once-despised serfs, a trembling thing, 
 Crushed with remorse and choked with 
 
 burning shame, 
 He slunk abased in utter indigence. 
 
 Incline your ear and come unto me: hear, and 
 your soul shall live; and I will make an 
 everlasting covenant with you. 
 
 Unknown and scrip tless o'er the stony 
 
 road 
 He wandered, sighing in the bitterness 
 Of dire remorse and wrath against his 
 
 fate. 
 While ever nigh, conviction's burning 
 
 goad 
 Impelled his soul for moments to confess 
 His horrid guilt. Yet would he not repent, 
 Though ever o'er his mind's confused 
 
 state 
 That word, whose virtue he could not re- 
 press, 
 Whose meaning he had scorned without 
 lament, — 
 
 313 
 
''For thou shalt love," — pained like a tor- 
 ment sweet. 
 
 Thus on he aimless fared until the night 
 
 Her black and chilling blight spread ruth- 
 less o'er: 
 
 Nor did he rouse from that distracted state 
 
 Until the radiance o'er his startled sight 
 
 Burst forth in floods from out that haven 
 fair 
 
 Whose portals, opened wide upon the 
 gloom. 
 
 Wreathed out their haloed gladness con- 
 secrate 
 
 To lead the wand'rer welcome to its 
 cheer, — 
 
 That mansion blest where Heaven's joys 
 illume 
 
 The wondrous realm in God's own love 
 create. 
 
 Athrill in softened lustre's tender flow. 
 Those thronging, sculptured beauties, an- 
 gel-wrought. 
 That burned with tranquil glory through 
 the night, 
 
 314 
 
Engraved their meanings flushed in Heav- 
 en 's glow 
 
 Deep on his wond'ring soul, o'er whose 
 dark thought 
 
 Their silent pow'r a mighty impulse 
 thrilled. 
 
 Long years had passed since last his en- 
 vious sight 
 
 Had rested scowling on that scene, fresh- 
 fraught 
 
 With Heaven's love, yet time had scarce 
 fulfilled, 
 
 In human speech, a single day's swift 
 flight. 
 
 As one, by some resistless spirit led. 
 
 Wanders half -listless through the mystic 
 night. 
 
 Where mighty grief is hushed in wonder 
 still,— 
 
 His willing feet the threshold aimless 
 tread. 
 
 Those earth-born angels, beaming with de- 
 light 
 
 315 
 
And thrilled with love, warm-clasped his 
 
 nerveless hand, 
 In anxious welcome from the night and 
 
 chill; 
 And led him where soft cheer and peace 
 
 invite, 
 And languors sweet with rest-beguiling 
 
 wand 
 To dreamless sleep the weary sense be- 
 
 gile. 
 
 When morn at last forth-burst with radi- 
 ance vast. 
 And birds' and airs' and fountains' joy- 
 ous strain 
 Hymned ever ^^Love, O, mighty Love," 
 
 and thrill 
 And glow of angel-art about him cast 
 Deep on his heart its rapturous design, — 
 He, scarce partaking of the simple fare 
 Prepared by loving hands, with guideless 
 
 will 
 Now wanders on, while o 'er his dark dis- 
 dain 
 
 316 
 
Those spirit-tones throbbed through his 
 anguished care, — 
 
 Those love-strains dear that grief to si- 
 lence still. 
 
 Thus on he heedless strayed, dazed in the 
 
 blaze 
 Of glorious day, too bright for rankling 
 
 care 
 That sought its natural home in gloom and 
 
 night. 
 His mind bewildered, struggling through 
 
 the maze 
 Of hope and hate, of sorrow and despair. 
 For respite yearned from mute remorse 
 
 and pain, 
 Unconscious as a flower seeks the light : 
 But no invented charms, or wonders rare 
 Of false belief, no mocking shams profane. 
 Can save the soul from evil's deadly blight. 
 
 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to 
 love one another. God is love; and he that 
 dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God. 
 
 Hast thou once felt love's chastening of 
 soul, 
 
 317 
 
Or known the fining fire's relentless pain? 
 When thou the grief of myriad ills hast 
 
 borne, 
 Suffered the pangs of want, the loss of all 
 That dear doth seem, — endured the crush- 
 ing bane 
 Of heartless scorn, and known the bitter 
 
 woe, 
 The writhing anguish of a soul forlorn 
 Of trusting love by poisoned treach'ry 
 
 slain, 
 Then art thou fit to love and be and do, 
 Tranquil to face earth's night or Heaven's 
 morn. 
 
 And if, companionless, through night and 
 
 gloom 
 Thou toilest sad, the burning of a star, 
 Or Nature's spirit voice, the forms divine 
 Of loveliness about thee, o'er thy doom 
 Will cast a veiling charm, a magic fair 
 To dumb thy pain with beauty; while the 
 
 light 
 Of rescue through thy sorrowed night doth 
 
 shine, — 
 
 318 
 
A light from thine own passion, — till afar 
 Thy path of dread doth glow with glory 
 
 bright, — 
 The last, the triumph-ecstasy of pain. 
 
 So plods the pilgrim on through rainbowed 
 light 
 
 Of morn too joyous, while Love's holy 
 hymn 
 
 By Nature breathed, heard in yon rap- 
 tured fane, 
 
 Soft thrilled its tones o'er dark contri- 
 tion's might. 
 
 To one sin-cursed how woeful life doth 
 seem. 
 
 Who once the frenzied bliss of happy love. 
 
 Or tranced form of beauty in its reign 
 
 Of perfect grace has known: that reach- 
 less dream, 
 
 That hovers viewless in some realm above, 
 
 His soul enslaved can ne'er again attain. 
 
 Ah, dark and cold the long and weary 
 years, 
 
 319 
 
Adown whose pathway, rough with pain 
 
 and throe, 
 To reach that height he still must strug- 
 gle on. 
 Where visioned Love her throne of glory 
 
 rears ! 
 Ah, with what trying recompense of woe, 
 What secret suffering of redeeming pain, 
 What infinite atonement Heaven's plan 
 Doth purge that soul in abject evil low, 
 And purify of mammon's reeking stain 
 The self -exalted vanities of man ! 
 
 A weary wight despised he must crouch 
 
 Prom scorned poor, and beg his daily 
 bread 
 
 Prom door to door ; and when night 's ray- 
 less chiU 
 
 Crept o'er his quiv'ring nerves, a lowly 
 couch 
 
 He wretched sought in humble stall or 
 shed. 
 
 Alone, approachless in his mute despair. 
 
 He wandered far to learn the cold world's 
 
 ill, 
 
 320 
 
The agonies of hunger and the dread 
 Of sickness and disaster, toil and care ; 
 The pang of scorn and mock'ry's venom 
 feel. 
 
 A herdsman he became and fed the swine, 
 And oft in hunger's sheer distress he fain 
 Would have consumed the husks on which 
 
 they fed. 
 He labored in the fields till the decline 
 Of summer's sun, and reaped the golden 
 
 grain 
 With bruised, tender hands; the wine- 
 press drear 
 Till settling night his weary feet did tread ; 
 Or in the vineyard moiled his hire to gain, 
 And earn his scanty fare and slumber's 
 
 cheer : 
 The toiler's sleep became his only meed. 
 
 Blessed is the man whom Thou chasteneth, O 
 Lord, and teachest him out of Thy law; that 
 Thou mayest give him rest from the days of 
 adversity. 
 
 And when the sun to realms receding fair 
 Par in the golden south, the drooping leaf 
 
 321 
 
Kissed soft in mellow flush whose tender 
 
 wane 
 Glowed paler o 'er the olive 's tumid sphere, 
 By night and day he toiled in sighing grief, 
 With rude device to press the savory oil 
 The purpled olive's fracid orbs contain. 
 Thus passed the dreary seasons, — no re- 
 lief 
 With their mutation bringing to his soul 
 Which love could learn alone through an- 
 guished pain. 
 
 Yet as the years rolled on in silent wane, 
 
 In waking dreams and visions fair by 
 night, 
 
 Love's holy hymn he heard thrill o'er his 
 woes, 
 
 Beheld its glory glowing through his pain. 
 
 And 'twas with joy he saw that image 
 bright, 
 
 And heard those strains sweet as remem- 
 bered dream. 
 
 At last, unconscious as the dawn, arose 
 
 His soul, restored with suff 'ring infinite, 
 
 322 
 
To mighty, universal Love, that reigned 
 
 supreme, 
 An impulse sweet whose tender passion 
 
 glows 
 
 In every thought and act. ^^Oh, that my 
 pow'r, 
 
 A crimef ul sacrifice to self and greed, 
 
 Might be restored, that to the suff 'ring 
 poor 
 
 I all might dedicate, — their well-earned 
 dow'r!" 
 
 That mighty love became his only creed. 
 
 That great desire his only joy and pray'r. 
 
 And e'er amid his toil did he implore 
 
 Of God, the Sovereign Love, that single 
 meed 
 
 For whose delight death's pangs he glad 
 would bear. 
 
 Could Heaven e'er such mighty love ig- 
 nore? 
 
 The chills of winter passed, and glowing 
 spring 
 
 323 
 
O 'erflushed the teeming earth with wealth 
 supreme, 
 
 And summer's ample harvest, brimming 
 o'er 
 
 With golden grain and fruits, was mellow- 
 ing? 
 
 When o'er the land, as though on autumn's 
 
 gleam. 
 There spread the fame of One, a Naza- 
 
 rene, 
 Whose wondrous pow'r God-given could 
 
 restore 
 The sick to health, the maimed to strength, 
 
 redeem 
 The soul from death, and make whole all 
 
 unclean. 
 The people from the Galilean shore 
 
 In thousands followed, whom He healed 
 
 and blessed. 
 ^^The Son of God," "the Savior of the 
 
 Lost," 
 They called Him, ^^Best beloved and Sent 
 
 of God." 
 
 324 
 
With holy awe that thrilled with mighty 
 zest, 
 
 The poor wight heard the story of the 
 Christ ; 
 
 And ere the break of day his couch did 
 leave ; 
 
 In ardent haste the long, rough way he 
 trod. 
 
 Ne'er faltering, though hunger's pangs ex- 
 haust 
 
 His strength, till on Capernaum's strand 
 at eve 
 
 He stood in confidence before the Lord. 
 
 ''Thou Great Eedeemer, Holy One of 
 
 God," 
 He fervently implored, ''Oh, hear my 
 
 pray'r: 
 Oh, look upon the soul Thy Love doth 
 
 purge,— 
 The soul Thy Holy Passion hath imbued. 
 And to my life my lost estate restore. 
 That I might serve the victimed poor, and 
 
 share 
 
 325 
 
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