/cTa./ 
 
 UBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 Chap Copyright JS'o 
 
 Shelf.L'2._3i5T'1' 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
TENT OF THE PLAINS 
 
 BY 
 
 SHANNON BIRCH 
 
 Or words of Poc/s, lomi grown old 
 In rvine of men's ri'iitrmhrances, 
 In vin'a<j<; of Hit; virlioiv years. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 E. R. HERRICK & COMPANY 
 
 70 Fifth Avenue 
 

 184?9 
 
 COPTEIGHT, 1898, 
 
 By E. R. IIEEKICK .^ CO. 
 New Yokk. 
 
 N0V4«18Sf< 
 
 Wo COPIES RECEIVED. 
 
 V3nJbHr\ (SifiJeMj.S'^ 
 

 I 
 
Storm of the poefs soul whence comes 
 The gentle rain of words. 
 
TENT OF THE PLAINS, 
 
 Sunsets. 
 
 Or sunsets made of dross and fire. 
 
 Clouds Rugged as an Orator. 
 
 Clouds rugged as an orator, 
 
 Or graced with many a poet's charm. 
 
 Skies. 
 
 Or sunn'd or dark or moon-ed skies. 
 
 Clouds, Their Mystical Moments. 
 
 Or clouds their mystical moments when 
 They're incense to the solitary moon. 
 
 Morning-Wealth. 
 
 When morning pours her dandelions 
 
 In the coffers of the wind. 
 
 And softly tells them o'er and o'er. 
 
4 tent of the plains. 
 
 The Evening Sun. 
 
 How oft the spider's gossamer 
 Its silvery pulses gently stir 
 Between the sun about to set 
 And gleaming sunflowers opposite, 
 As low upon the lea. 
 
 Last Sunbeams. 
 
 Last sunbeams when they silver most 
 The cloudy peaks, the winding coast 
 Of evening. 
 
 Hills of the Air. 
 
 Where ragged crows recruit their troop 
 And over hills and hollows swoop, 
 That never were except in air. 
 
 All Unrecorded Sounds. 
 
 All unrecorded sounds that stir 
 Where breaks the voice of pebbly rills. 
 
 The Seasons. 
 
 Or autumn's whistling skies, or summer's 
 calm. 
 
tent of the plains. 5 
 
 Break o' Day Skies. 
 
 Or break o' day skies, or autumn-tinted 
 earth. 
 
 To Fill the Store of Lusty Winter. 
 
 When north winds garner ripened leaves, 
 To fill the store of lusty winter. 
 
 Distant Woods. 
 
 Or wreaths of distant woods when turned 
 The dome of wide horizons round. 
 
 Earth and Sky. 
 
 Or earth that's leveled to the foot, 
 Or sky that's rounded to the eye. 
 
 The Summer Brook. 
 
 Or where the summer brook does lay 
 Against cool sands her dimpled cheeks. 
 
 Treasures of the Mold. 
 
 All the treasures of the mold. 
 All the mintage of the wold, 
 Coin-ed into dandelions. 
 
6 tent of the plains. 
 
 Spring. 
 
 Spring with blossoms in her hair 
 And fragrance in her sighs. 
 
 The Lark. 
 
 The tremor of the lark's song where he sings. 
 The flutter of his pinions where alights. 
 
 The Mole. 
 
 The winding galleries, the long, 
 Low dungeons of the mole. 
 
 When Evening Falls. 
 
 When evening falls before the stars, 
 And ebbing light does fill the moat 
 Of silent, battlemented night. 
 
 Who Shall Count the Yellow Gold? 
 
 Who shall count the yellow gold 
 Where the dandelions hold 
 Out their largess on the heather. 
 
tent of the plains. j 
 
 And There Was Such a Hush. 
 
 . . . And there was such 
 A hush and meaning in the sky as might 
 Have been when dim Judea's vales begot 
 A star. 
 
 A Wind. 
 
 Or wind that drives afar and nigh 
 
 The white-maned clouds throughout the sky, 
 
 The white-maned breakers through the sea. 
 
 Evening. 
 
 When attendant evening sets the casque of 
 
 night 
 So that the sun may die in equipage 
 And that he ruled see him that ruled look 
 
 through 
 His visor-bars and bidding 'dieu die in 
 Red leisure, like a god. 
 
 The Storm. 
 
 When low, black clouds, as iron-clads, 
 Shoot round blasts of white clouds amain, 
 With bursts of lightning, countless rain, 
 And all their weltering foment adds. 
 
5 TENT OF THE PLAINS. 
 
 Sooth. 
 
 A startled bell, the rasping swell 
 
 Of katydid o'er height and dell; 
 
 All leafy legions lapping up 
 
 The vital air, to hear them sup 
 
 Is sleepiness, to hear them cup 
 
 The drinky air is sooth to me; 
 
 Sooth all the blind-night's plaintive plea; 
 
 Sooth all its deep monotony. 
 
 The Morning Sun. 
 
 The morning sun when offering fire 
 Upon the summit of the clouds. 
 
 The Airy Cargo. 
 
 The airy cargo of a storm. 
 
 The Sun's Vast Head-Light. 
 
 The sun's vast head-light where it burns. 
 
 The Noon-Day Sun. 
 
 The sun stayed at the gates of noon. 
 
tent of the plains. 9 
 
 The Overflowing Sky. 
 
 Or when the sky o'erflows with cooHng 
 clouds. 
 
 The New Moon's Tide. 
 
 Or when the new moon's tide does flood 
 The passage of the milky-way. 
 
 Upon the Night's Dim Portico. 
 
 The new moon's lamp while burning low 
 Upon the night's dim portico. 
 
 The Poet, the Painter and the Sculptor. 
 
 A living word that paints a passing cloud, 
 A hand that nature's brightest moments 
 
 makes 
 Breathe out from canvas, or from marble 
 
 spring 
 Perennial. 
 
 Storm-Clouds. 
 
 When storm-clouds smite the wavering sky. 
 
 The Crown of Night. 
 
 The crown of night, the milky-way. 
 
10 tent of the plains. 
 
 Effulgence. 
 
 When some heroic cloud does bind 
 The glowing sun upon his brow. 
 
 When Drinks the Moon. 
 
 . . . Or when the moon does drink 
 At fountains of swift-running clouds. 
 
 Evening-Crown 
 
 . . . Or when red evening's barb'ric 
 
 crow^n 
 Does one pure jewel hold, the pearly moon. 
 
 Dusk. 
 
 When drown-ed evening's golden hair 
 Is floating to the shores of night. 
 
 The New^ Moon's Drinking Horn. 
 
 When high the new moon's drinking horn. 
 
 The Heavens. 
 
 . . . Or when the heavens move in 
 
 clouds. 
 When flying skies o'erfill the firmament. 
 
TENT OF THE PLAINS. II 
 
 The Chaff of Winnowed Rain. 
 
 Or clouds, the chaff of winnowed rain. 
 
 Crescent. 
 
 Or when 's half-op'd the moon that seems 
 A weary sleeper's lids. 
 
 Galileean Miracle. 
 
 . . Or Galileean miracle 
 That fills the milky-way with gleaming stars. 
 
 Phylacteries. 
 
 Or Jacob-like at evening the sun 
 Puts on the west a mantle girt around 
 With indescribable phylacteries. 
 
 Lances of the Rain. 
 
 Or serried lances of the rain. 
 
 The Rain's Low Fifes. 
 
 The rain's low fifes that follow fitfully 
 The shattering trumpets of the storm. 
 
 Morning Light. 
 
 Where interstitial clouds and morning Ught 
 Alternate rise. 
 
12 tent of the plains. 
 
 Stars. 
 
 And stars that all innumer'bly people the 
 Illimitable heavens' farthest strand 
 Their amaranthine ranks ascend unto. 
 
 In Fanes of Evening. 
 
 In fanes of ev'ning voices of the wind 
 Declaiming auguries. 
 
 Storm-Shorn. 
 
 Or yet December's icy trowel 
 
 That oft twangs in the wrenching wind. 
 
 That Follow the Rain. 
 
 And saffron, yellow, red and blue and pearl, 
 And gold and silver, mark the sunset sky; 
 And all the east its tearful brow a bow 
 Does span, a bow that in the air does hang 
 As some irradiating nimbus 'round 
 The brow of some yet supernatural One 
 'Mong saints devotional in pictures old. 
 
 Gray-Armored Clouds. 
 
 Gray-armored clouds caught on the shield 
 O' th' knightly moon. 
 
tent of the plains. i3 
 
 The Sower. 
 
 When spring with swinging pace sows leaf 
 and bloom. 
 
 Golden Censers. 
 
 Where daisies blow, each dandehon 
 Swings golden censers in the wind. 
 
 April. 
 
 Or skies of April, purple-crowned. 
 Or April-meadows robed in emerald. 
 
 The Rains. 
 
 . . . When rains bewray 
 The stirring of the vocal bush, 
 The leaping of the shotted pool. 
 
 The Countless Fetters of the Rain. 
 
 Or rolling storm clouds as they strain 
 The countless fetters of the rain. 
 
 The Sky and the Sun. 
 
 And when the sky's Sahara-Hke, and clouds 
 Upon it are but oases and in 
 Such oases, their vapory wells, the sun's 
 Face for a moment 's dipp'd. 
 
14 tent of the plains. 
 
 Robin Red-Breast. 
 
 And when the sky 's the color of his breast, 
 And when are clouds the color of his wings. 
 The robin chants his stately hymn. 
 
 Sun and Golden-Rod. 
 
 When evening sun and golden-rod 
 Get one dye from some larger source. 
 
 The Harvest of the Rain. 
 
 The lightning's sickle flashing through 
 Broad fields of ripened rain. 
 
 The Mirror of the Soul. 
 
 Or nature but a breath upon 
 The mirror of the soul. 
 
 Night Upon the Banks of Evening. 
 
 When night upon the bank does stand 
 Of evening's yellow waters. 
 
 Autumn. 
 
 When autumn from dim atmospheres 
 Draws forth the rich, the ruddy sun. 
 
tent of the plains. 1 5 
 
 Hours of Midnight. 
 
 Or dappled fields of moonlight where 
 The quiet hours of midnight lie. 
 
 Indian Summer Day. 
 
 The ofifspring of a pale sky lazily half 
 
 In forest, half in field, a day and in 
 
 Whose hair and down whose hem the painted 
 
 leaves 
 Of autumn wind. 
 
 September. 
 
 Songs of autumn in the breeze, 
 Veins of wild bees in the air. 
 
 Light. 
 
 Light, incubation of the moon; 
 Night frowning on the mellow 
 Sight; midnight; half-blind noon; 
 Height; black; white; flame, and yellow. 
 
l6 TENT OF THE PLAINS. 
 
 Migration. 
 
 And when some autumn cloud of blackbirds 
 
 bursts 
 And on in ebon freshet swiftly flows, 
 Down sheep-trod hills and through melo- 
 dious groves. 
 
 Unfathomed Deeps. 
 
 Or moon, the plummet of unfathomed deeps. 
 
 Day-God. 
 
 In purple trappings of the morn 
 flame. 
 
 The day-god strides and strokes his beard of 
 
 Cup-Bearers. 
 
 When clouds, cup-bearers of the weary sun, 
 Approach with him his resting place. 
 
 Depths. 
 
 Of purple hues, of golden dyes. 
 Depths within vSeptember skies. 
 
tent of the plains. i7 
 
 Day and Night. 
 
 When first by day the sun draws light 
 From out his sparkHng well, when night, 
 That day does follow, on has rolled 
 His inky floods and, weary, tolled 
 His last faint buoys that tongue the dark 
 Beside the channels that demark 
 The outward currents shadowy sleep 
 Conveys his specious barks on deep 
 Into the quiet caves of slumber. 
 
 Sounds of Morn. 
 
 When shrill the busy sounds of morn. 
 Their breezy tempest fills the air. 
 
 Clouds of Summer. 
 
 Aye, words to paint the sky with, let them be 
 As broke and yesty as the clouds of summer. 
 
 The Soul and the Eye. 
 
 All delightful things that lie 
 In the soul or on the eye. 
 
 Flotsam. 
 
 Slow-bubbling clouds that stars cast up. 
 
l8 TENT OF THE PLAINS. 
 
 The Sombre Canvas of the Skies. 
 
 . . . Or stars that moth-like pierce 
 The sombre canvas of the skies. 
 
 Wild Moon. 
 
 Wild moon that rides 
 Upon the tides 
 Of ounding clouds. 
 
 One Pale Star in the Sky. 
 
 The gleaming moon's share where it turns 
 Deep, fallow clouds upon that burns 
 One pale star in the sky. 
 
 The Sky's Warm Banks. 
 
 The sky's warm banks o'errun with stars. 
 
 The Day When Westward Walks. 
 
 . . . When day, 
 
 Empurpled clouds upon her, westward walks, 
 
 The sun, her symbol, in her hand. 
 
tent of the plains. i9 
 
 Ursa, Mighty Sloth. 
 
 . . . Or ursa, mighty sloth, 
 
 That creeps the circuit of the north around. 
 
 The Nether Shores of Night. 
 
 Stars, Hghts upon the nether shores of night. 
 
 Sun, Moon and Stars. 
 
 The moon at zenith, purple-rimm'd, 
 Red-crowned the level sun, or brimm'd 
 On heaven's swelling cup bright stars 
 That rise and sparkle there; that mars 
 These every darkling cloud. 
 
 The Peaceful Skies of Evening. 
 
 Or thunderbolts when beaten to 
 
 The golden shares that furrow through 
 
 The peaceful skies of evening. 
 
 Arrows of the Snow. 
 
 The wavering arrows of the snow. 
 
20 tent of the plains. 
 
 Fury. 
 
 Or when some furious storm and down 
 Whose beard doth run swift rain. 
 
 Night and Noon. 
 
 . . . Or when the moon's 
 Broad signet 's set upon the scroll of night. 
 Or noon's effulgent manual 's set upon 
 The mid-day sky's meridian. 
 
 A Gentle Shepherdess. 
 
 The moon, the gentle shepherdess that drives 
 Her countless stars asky. 
 
 The Wan Moon. 
 
 Or when the wan moon 's bent upon 
 The glowing beauty of the sun 
 Dispensing day to nether worlds. 
 
 Sheltering Clouds. 
 
 Or sheltering clouds of such behoof 
 That fiery sunbeams through such roof 
 Pierce not the earth. 
 
tent of the plains. 21 
 
 Bequest. 
 
 Or yet when dying day bequeaths 
 
 To evening gold, with diamond greaves 
 
 A gHttering mail to sable night. 
 
 The Young Moon, David-Like. 
 
 . . . Or when 
 
 Against some threatening cloud, Goliath- 
 strong, 
 
 The young, fair moon, all David-like doth 
 move 
 
 The livid circle of his whirling sling 
 
 Calmly within. 
 
 Mosaics. 
 
 And when inlaid with flashing star, the sky, 
 With glowing planet and with lucent moon. 
 
 Freedom. 
 
 When first the bright, the morning ray, 
 
 A golden key, unlocks the castles of 
 
 The night and does each blinded captive 
 
 there 
 Set free. 
 
22 tent of the plains. 
 
 Autumn Glades. 
 
 Or yet when autumn's rusty blade 
 In ragged windrows down some glade 
 Does summer grasses sweep, the while 
 The whistling autumn winds do pile 
 Them up in scattered heaps, to stay 
 The snow-bird on his twittering way, 
 The snow upon their blades that curl 
 Into a thousand cups and twirl 
 Upon a thousand stems. 
 
 Peace. 
 
 Stars yelloweth the sky, and the moon ^s 
 rimm'd 
 
 In yellow; frogs that never weary of 
 
 Their liquid flutes; low clouds that blackly 
 wash 
 
 The shoals of their white breakers; winds 
 that pause 
 
 Upon the brow and whisper to the ear 
 
 Of spring, and from the wasting soul blow- 
 wide 
 
 Its perturbation. 
 
tent of the plains. 23 
 
 The Sun When Last He Looks. 
 
 . . . Boabdil when he turned 
 To see the last time lov'd Granada there 
 From lofty Alpujarras' Range, so looks 
 From dim horizons long the sun the last 
 Time on some fair day that dominion wide 
 There absolute, save clouds, he wielded o'er. 
 
 Fields and Sky. 
 
 The living fields, the pictured sky. 
 
 Flocks. 
 
 Or clouds in summer flocks that roam, 
 Or ruminating, quiet lie. 
 
 Children That Ride at Play. 
 
 Children that ride at play in summer frocks, 
 See-saw-ing, no more bend the fibred pine 
 Than 's bent a narrow, cloudy shaft across 
 The sky; one end immerse the swelling 
 
 springs 
 Of sunrise, one the ripened times the sun 
 Does drop to mellow rest. 
 
24 tent of the plains. 
 
 Feet of the Rain. 
 
 The rain's feet answering the will 
 Of wild or of melodious winds. 
 
 Purple Night. 
 
 When purple night does rise and scorn 
 The red decrees of evening. 
 
 Far and Low. 
 
 Or when the west is yellower 
 Than worded beams of poesy. 
 Or when the sun does lower lie 
 Than poet's tape may ever stir. 
 
 Shadows. 
 
 Or shadows in one necromance, 
 
 One irresistible address, 
 
 Leagued with some poet's connivance 
 
 To bring the storm with lance, and dress 
 
 Of hurried black. 
 
 Shoreless Clouds. 
 
 All shoreless clouds that ever sailed. 
 
tent of the plains. 2$ 
 
 The World Come to Evening. 
 
 And the cloud-belted world come to the red 
 Outposts of evening with overfull 
 A gross and burly onwardness. 
 
 The Dying Sun. 
 
 The dying sun his feeble beams 
 That seek the changed and futile sky. 
 
 Premonition. 
 
 . . . And in 
 
 The west an ominous storm-hd overlies 
 The sun, and in the east the head of Thor, 
 Cloud-born, upzenith-ed, curl'd in black 
 
 winds; 
 And in the air the brood of absent suns, 
 And on the heart a chill commensurate, 
 That '11 soften in the morning rain of suns 
 And tuneful birds. 
 
 Slumber. 
 
 When night does soothe the poppied earth. 
 
 Day-Dreaming. 
 
 The moon, day-dreaming in the sky. 
 
26 tent of the plains. 
 
 The Golden Lands of Evening. 
 
 . . . Across the highway of 
 The winds, beyond the region of the clouds, 
 The golden lands of evening lie, their gates 
 Are to the mortal eye observant, and 
 More beautiful than aught beside the blooms 
 Within, that shed no lustre whilst the soul 
 Seeks nothing from eternity. 
 
 The Spreading Sky. 
 
 . . . Or where does lie 
 
 The deep pool of the spreading sky, 
 
 Translucent to its starry bed. 
 
 The Halls of Darkness. 
 
 . . . Or ever as 
 
 The low, dull moon unlighted through 
 The darkened caves of night into 
 The halls of darkness, dimly goes. 
 
 The Moon's Light. 
 
 The moon's light and the cloudy bight 
 This shines on, blue amid the lochs 
 Of mighty headlands mighty rocks 
 Whose gray foundations. 
 
tent of the plains. 2j 
 
 When Tales of Tender Choice are Told. 
 
 When day lifts high his sun-crowned head, 
 When night in mists its charioted, 
 When morn awakes or evening sleeps, 
 Each star appointed vigil keeps, 
 When snows enpierce or blossoms fold, 
 And every tale untold is told 
 Of tender choice. 
 
 The Alpine Sky. 
 
 When stars by night the Alpine sky 
 Climb, cloudy precipices nigh 
 Pass giddily, or cloudy vales 
 Traverse that quiet in the pales 
 Of deep cloud-gorges lie. 
 
 Mother of Dim-Shining Hours. 
 
 The moon, the mother of dim-shining hours. 
 
 Dewy Beads. 
 
 Dewy beads the morn hath run 
 Upon cobwebs finest spun. 
 
28 tent of the plains. 
 
 The Glowing Sun. 
 
 Or when the breast of morning in 
 The glowing sun first dimly stirs. 
 
 Unseen, Mighty Hosts. 
 
 When unseen, mighty hosts of night, each 
 
 one 
 Bears high a talismanic lamp that is 
 A star. 
 
 The Halls of Evening. 
 
 Or antique sunshine filling up 
 The stately halls of evening. 
 
 The Seasons Linked in Changeful Dance. 
 
 The seasons linked in changeful dance 
 Before the sombre year, the glance 
 The passing sun does downward bend 
 In beams, or yet does upward send 
 In mourning, tearful showers. 
 
 The Balmy Night. 
 
 Or tearful star of evening 
 
 When last does view the balmy night. 
 
tent of the plains. 29 
 
 The Pencil of the Moon. 
 
 The pencil of the moon when clouds 
 Bedeck the canvas of the skies. 
 
 Marriage of the Sea and Sky. 
 
 See in some tender floweret's eye 
 Marriage of the sea and sky. 
 
 Dim Autumn's Gold. 
 
 Dim autumn's gold in leafy crucibles. 
 
 Seen and Unseen. 
 
 Or peaks of clouds past the horizon borne, 
 Or clouds aloft in ponderous seeming. 
 
 With Careless Brush. 
 
 . . . The sun 
 
 The clouds that paints with ever careless 
 brush. 
 
 Afloat. 
 
 . . . Or moon 
 
 In cloudy archipelagoes afloat. 
 
30 TEXT OF THE PLAINS. 
 
 A Mother and Her Child. 
 
 Seem in the stilly atmosphere of night, 
 The balmy moon and planet nearest her 
 Some mother and her child in quiet paths 
 Of summer time. 
 
 Evening Clouds. 
 
 When westward-moving clouds at evening 
 
 drive 
 Their hot shares through long leagues of 
 
 yellow light. 
 
 The Young Moon Curled in Evening Clouds. 
 
 The young moon curled in evening clouds, 
 As mermaid in a hollow sea. 
 
 A Traveler. 
 
 Or when the sun in splendor goes 
 Across the heaven's blue plateaus. 
 
 A Threshing-Floor. 
 
 When night from all the west-sky winnows 
 
 light, 
 And in such threshing-floor leaves only stars. 
 
tent of the plains. 3i 
 
 Returned. 
 
 . . . And when the sun the gates 
 Of evening approaches, come forth clouds 
 To welcome him, in robes as white as worn 
 Among the throng that went forth bearing 
 
 palms 
 Upon a time far spent in Galilee. 
 
 Compasses. 
 
 Or compasses that circumscribe 
 Dim haloes for the moon. 
 
 In Bright Procession of the Stars, 
 
 Or when the midnight moon obscurely walks 
 In cloudy paths, or cloudless marches in 
 The bright procession of the stars. 
 
 Counter-Laws. 
 
 All counter-laws of sun and rain. 
 
 A Summer Calm. 
 
 Or sun and moon within one sky that lend 
 A summer calm to every path that winds 
 Upon the earth. 
 
^2 TENT OF THE PLAINS. 
 
 To Drink at Fountains of the Rain. 
 
 When clouds to drink at fountains of the rain 
 Pass by. 
 
 Victorious Night. 
 
 When night the sun has overthrown, 
 Torn day's bright banner from the sky, 
 And set each sleepless star on high, 
 Darkness and silence by his throne. 
 
 Captivity. 
 
 The chained moon's beaten path within 
 The circuit of a purple cloud. 
 
 Regality. 
 
 Or summer clouds in purple drest 
 By regal moons they wait upon. 
 
 All Light Disseminate. 
 
 At evening when in golden cataracts 
 Pours out into the sun's abyss all light 
 Disseminate before in mellow airs 
 Throughout the universe. 
 
tent of the plains. 33 
 
 Young Evening. 
 
 When calmly followed by his cloudy flocks 
 Recedes young evening, quiet shepherd, with 
 His crook, not changed from any crescent 
 
 that 
 Has been, upon his shoulder lightly swung. 
 
 Shorn. 
 
 . . . Shorn of its glow of moon and stars, 
 The sky blown in wide drifts of barren clouds. 
 
 Sunset-Isles. 
 
 The sunset's purple isles whose shores 
 In silver breakers flash. 
 
 Threads of Rain. 
 
 Clouds held by feeble threads of rain. 
 
 The Fairest Skies. 
 
 Clouds clothe themselves in beauty that the 
 
 sun 
 May look his last upon the fairest sky, 
 The fairest in the panoply of day. 
 
34 tent of the plains. 
 
 Bannered Clouds. 
 
 Or bannered clouds before the wind. 
 
 Autumn Suns. 
 
 When golden clouds sun autumn skies, 
 And yellow sun-flowers autumn glades.. 
 
 Messages of Night. 
 
 . . . At evening cloudy isles 
 Wherein is nothing, and does cross 
 Them but the evening wind that bears 
 The melancholy messages 
 Of night. 
 
 Chariots of the Storm. 
 
 When clouds are coursers drawing forth 
 The blinding chariots of the storm. 
 
 Silence. 
 
 Some quiet pool unfretted by a breeze, 
 Wherein the heavens coolly lie, wherein 
 The tree-tops never make the sound of leaves. 
 And stirring stir not. 
 
tent of the plains. 35 
 
 Praise. 
 
 Or leaves that praise the tuneful wind. 
 
 Fear. 
 
 When every hasty cloud does make 
 A mantle for the flying night. 
 
 The Place of the Snow. 
 
 Artificers of winter skies. 
 
 Each snowflake of immense design. 
 
 Benedictions. 
 
 Ascetic skies endowing earth 
 With benedictions of the snow. 
 
 All Powers of Light. 
 
 All powers of light that fall before 
 The lifting of the crown of night. 
 
 Impotence. 
 
 Moons impotent that, waning, drop 
 The swelling tempest's headlong rein. 
 
36 tent of the plains. 
 
 Anchoring Winds. 
 
 Wild storms that strain their anchoring 
 
 winds 
 To sweep the channels of the air. 
 
 Far in the Jungles of the Rain. 
 
 Or muttering thunder when 't is heard 
 Far in the jungles of the rain. 
 
 Morning. 
 
 When day's wide-searching eye looks first 
 abroad. 
 
 In Winter Trance, in Springtime Rivulet. 
 
 Or waters where they lie in winter trance. 
 Or sing in springtime rivulet. 
 
 Pillage. 
 
 When hordes of snow from out the north's 
 Sacked every sunniest atmosphere. 
 
 Adoration. 
 
 When morning first adores the sky. 
 Then blesses all the earth. 
 
tent of the plains. 2)7 
 
 God. 
 
 The Hand that sows stars every night 
 The selfsame way. 
 
 When First Looks Forth. 
 
 When first looks forth upon the morn 
 The sun, refreshed, from gates of night. 
 
 The Harvests of the Evening Sky. 
 
 Or gleaming crescent tempered to 
 The harvests of the evening sky. 
 
 Twilight. 
 
 Or ruddy bond, the last afBxed 
 'Tween sun and evening's gentle star. 
 
 The Wind's Pace. 
 
 The wind's pace gustily keeping the feet 
 O' th' rain. 
 
 Evening Star. 
 
 Or trembling star of dewy eve, 
 The last drop in the cup of day. 
 
38 tent of the plains. 
 
 The Winds of Night; the Winds of Morn. 
 
 Or winds when they go moaning through 
 The caves of night, or when they brew 
 Yet bhthe on meads the morning dew. 
 
 Shades of Night. 
 
 When swards of evening lengthen more 
 Than webs of grain that weavers throw. 
 
 The Sky. 
 
 . . . Or clouds of summer grots 
 And palaces, that lute and trumpet still 
 Would thread were they for sylvan lovers 
 
 buiU, 
 Or wrought for kings bred on the Euphrates. 
 
 Spring Winds. 
 
 The spring winds as they northward go 
 To lock the prisons of the snow. 
 
 Night-Fall. 
 
 The robin at his vocal task, 
 
 The thresher's song, the thresher's flail, 
 
 The thresher in his paUid mask. 
 
tent of the plains. 39 
 
 When Evening Calls. 
 
 When evening calls funereal night 
 To drape the halls of dying day. 
 
 Night's Shadowy Scythe. 
 
 . . . Night's shadowy scythe 
 That reaps the sunshine where it falls. 
 
 Storm and Calm. 
 
 . . . The sun in every cloudy scroll, 
 Commanding storm or calm to rule the hour. 
 
 When All the Gates of Darkness. 
 
 When all the gates of darkness fall 
 And morning's hosts first enter in. 
 
 Clouds Dropping Rain. 
 
 Or clouds fire-shod, or dropping rain. 
 
 Re-iteration. 
 
 The stars are but a single sheaf, 
 Their golden tropics have one way, 
 And every life has the same day 
 And every season the same leaf. 
 
40 tent of the plains. 
 
 Praise. 
 
 June-blown meads their melody, 
 Sweetest singers, oldest psalms. 
 Summer clouds do verily 
 Push their kind and skip as lambs. 
 
 Moons of Summer. 
 
 When moons of summer card each cloudy 
 
 fleece. 
 And lay them for the silent feet of morn. 
 
 The New Moon's Ark. 
 
 When first the new moon's ark is found 
 Beside the vallies of the night. 
 
 ''Unto the Sea How Long a Way." 
 
 'The day is born," do all birds sing, 
 
 Larks lead the lay. 
 
 "The day is dying," weep the rains, 
 
 The rains that say : 
 
 "Unto the sea how long a way." 
 
 Storm-Clouds. 
 
 Wild beckoners of rain, that snare upon 
 The shores of night the fleeting ray. 
 
tent of the plains. 4i 
 
 On Summer Days. 
 
 . . . Or when 
 
 On summer days do cloudy pilots steer 
 The winds the vast, bewildering sources of 
 The sky across. 
 
 Unnumbered Cables of the Rain. 
 
 When through unnumbered cables of the 
 
 rain 
 Flow peaceful messages of growth unto 
 The earth. 
 
 When Clouds O'ersweep. 
 
 When clouds o'ersweep the trackless scene 
 And slay the sun upon his heights 
 With multitudinous shafts of snow. 
 
 TtiE Poet. 
 
 . . . Take in the memory 
 Some giant scene, ajid fix upon 't 
 True signet of most mem'rable words. 
 
 Calm Night. 
 
 Calm night that only wavers in 
 The moving of eternal stars. 
 
42 tent of the plains. 
 
 Night. 
 
 . . . When speech is hushed and wishes 
 
 all 
 Unspoken, when the heart has a full sense 
 That something tender is in all the dim, 
 Somnolent worlds, that the full, open day 
 Is shorn of, something dreamed, half-wake- 
 ful to 
 The rain of life. 
 
 The Lightning's Fitful Flashes. 
 
 The lightning's fitful flashes on 
 The secret outposts of the night. 
 
 Skies That Smile. 
 
 Skies that smile and skies that weep, 
 Blooms that paint the summer fields. 
 
 A Morning Pageantry. 
 
 . . . And wdien 
 
 The morning sun and by a thousand clouds 
 Is drawn, they dappled palfreys every one. 
 With blazoned liveries of gold and girths 
 Of blue. 
 
tent of the plains. 43 
 
 Spectral Evening. 
 
 Or spectral evening while but haunts 
 The deep abysses of the night. 
 
 Disclosures. 
 
 The beautiful disclosures of the morn, 
 And all things hidden in the night, fair 
 
 moons. 
 And stars, and every living creature that 
 Takes of the delicate sustenance of life; 
 The earth itself till 't fall and be consumed 
 By th' torches of oblivion. 
 
 What Time the Good Star, Regulus. 
 
 . . . What time the good star, Regulus, 
 Sinks early in the west, with Jupiter, 
 Aswing upon night's foremast; fireflies spell 
 In lighter syllables a silence in 
 The marshes ; frogs subdue the throbbing air 
 With patient monotones; all sounds cease 
 
 'round 
 The midnight; silence steals within the gates 
 Of sleep shut out from torturing sense and 
 
 ills 
 Of hurrying suns. 
 
44 tent of the plains. 
 
 Moonlight. 
 
 When low the moon amid the poplars hangs. 
 An unreal fruit of neither light nor dark. 
 
 Or Many a Cloud. 
 
 . . . Or many a cloud 
 
 That does the reeking pleasure of the rain 
 
 That the to-morrow's sunshine may be 
 
 wrought 
 'Round cooler shades, and evening shadows 
 
 dim 
 May be attendants on the passing moon. 
 
 The Coasts of Morning. 
 
 Across the coasts of morning view 
 Fair Venus lead the glowing ray. 
 
 When Moves the Wind. 
 
 When moves the wind through sounding 
 
 pines 
 Or when does wail o'er heaving meadows. 
 
 Awake. 
 
 When morning from her vision sweeps. 
 The dusky potions of the night. 
 
tent of the plains. 45 
 
 *Where Mighty Heights. 
 
 Where mighty heights are sentineled 
 Aloft with many an ancient pine. 
 
 Peace. 
 
 Tumults precipitous be, be sheeting storm 
 Till wreckful arrogance shall swell to peace ; 
 Peace, truest order of the gods. 
 
 Repose. 
 
 When late the sun does seek repose 
 At every gateway of the night. 
 
 Love's Humid Mines. 
 
 Love's humid mines that yield the soothing 
 tear. 
 
 Venus. 
 
 When with no halo every star shines forth 
 But Venus whose source in deep, foamy 
 
 caves 
 Gives her first knowledge of the wooing rain, 
 Exhalent brow, and even luminous hems. 
 
46 tent of the plains. 
 
 Upon the Pinnacles of Darkness. 
 
 Upon the pinnacles of darkness stars 
 
 To guide the world into the ports of morn. 
 
 Fate and Chance. 
 
 Little leaf-springing things that click 
 
 The latch-ed air and feebly swing 
 
 Aside lest the unwarning sting 
 
 Of death by sharpened chance shall prick 
 
 The tender fabrics of their lives, 
 
 Lest some eventful crush shall wick 
 
 The firefly's little torch that strives 
 
 To light a bigger darkness thick 
 
 Beyond the presence of the moon. 
 
 Each little glitter hath its noon. 
 
 Each little insect hath its day. 
 
 Fate, chance, still wavering, have their way. 
 
 Flocks of Wild-Fowl. 
 
 . . . Where flocks of wild-fowl take in air 
 The shimmer of broad waters whence they 
 come. 
 
tent of the plains. 47 
 
 The Cares of Men. 
 
 They are as all the clouds that fill 
 A summer day, that passing leave 
 The sunshine unabated. 
 
 When Strikes the Hour. 
 
 Some lone bird answering its own plaint, 
 
 some 
 Unfruitful years, some tear-drenched cheek, 
 
 are all 
 Forgot when strikes the hour of mastery. 
 
 There Is No Death. 
 
 . . . There is no death; 
 
 Else clods would cease their alchemy, and 
 
 from 
 The poet's brow would blow th' enchantment 
 . that's 
 In excess of mortality. 
 
NOV 4 ma