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SONGS OVERSEAS
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PICTURES AND MEMORIES IN VERSE
OF A VACATION VOYAGE
TO
GREAT BRITAIN AND SWITZERLAND
|N THE SPRING AND SUMMER OF 19 || 3
BY
J. WILLIAM LLOYD
PRICE, 25 CENTS
Jº
THE LLOYD PUBLISHING GROUP
BOX 3 || ||
WESTFIELD, NEW JERSEY
COPYRIGHTED, 1914
J. WILLIAM LLOYD
LITTLE SONGS OF OVERSEA
O little songs of oversea,
You bubbled out from the heart
of me,
Simple as wreaths of foam
That drift away on the rocking
Sea,
The wonderful, secret, solemn
Seal,
That calls our hearts to roam.
You held my record's trust for
II] e,
Better than labored tonne,
Of parent lands where History
Began and Romance lived her
poetry,
And all life suckles Memory,
And so I brought you home.
SUNSET ON THE I, OWER
DELAVARE
Athwart the west a drape of
sable cloud:
And, just below, the sun, dropt
from that shroud,
Illumes a golden vail, while on
the Wave
Is laid a bridge of light, of dan-
cing fire
A causeway-wickerwork, woven,
with ropes of gold,
Into a waving lane, of water, air
and flame,
Whoreon the gods might stop
and gesture their delight.
And now, across the bright, a
trail of boats, low, black,
With plume of dusky smoke and,
left and right,
The tender greens of Spring and
purples of low mists
Along the level shores, where
soon shall be the night.
Written on the “Merion,” out-
ward bound, April 26th, 1913.
6
"THE STAIRWAY OF THE SUN
The sun came down the gleam-
ing, leaning
hillside of the sea,
Upon the great, long, sway-
ing steps that flashed
with glass and fire
And laps of dazzling
light.
And all my soul went up that
swinging stair to meet
the Suri,
And all my soul, intoxicate,
swung One
With that wide, shining
sunway on the sea.
On the “Merion,” April 27th,
I 01:8.
O WIDE, SALT ACRES
O wide, salt acres
of the immeasurable sea,
Plowed by the winds
and harrowed by the storm—
How many human hearts
are sown into thy furrows,
How many breathless lips
have bubbled to thy foam-
Is it because of this
that living hearts so feel thy
passion, -
And breathing lips
inspire to chant thy charm 2
On the “Merion,” April 27th,
1913.
"THUNDER STORM IN THE
GULF-STREAM
Ah, wonderful the dove-like
colors of the sea,
So gray, so gray, and melting
into gray,
With flowers of foam-in-green,
And lightning-snakes that fall,
And dimples, pimples, nipples of
the rain upon the wave.
On the “Merton,” April 28th,
1913.
"I'IIE PIRAIRIES OF THE SEA
O wide gray prairies of the deep,
I love your swaying pastures,
The secrets that you keep
Of herds of finny cattle—
Buffalo of whales,
And shark and swordfish pan-
thers.
Wind-swept, with rolling ridges,
You take me back to Ikansas
days,
Texas and Oklahoma,
The sweet, wide ways
And free, far reaches of the
Plains.
I know your sudden canyons
Your foaming crests of flowers,
And, as we leap,
I seem again in saddle
And lºndw the world as one—
Herdsman and helmsman,
Wave-mane and horse-mane,
Mountain and valley,
Deep-sea, and desert.
On the “Merion,” April 28th,
1918.
10
"I"HE OCEAN POEM
I stand to read thee, Ocean, poem
divine,
Written by the swinging hand of
God, line
After line, in long, free rhythms,
that combine
The wind’s wild words with those
stern meanings, deep
Ljnder deep, thy surges hold, thy
caverns keep
On those dim floors where eyes
of dead men sleep.
I thrill to read thee, Ocean, and
my soul
Bends to thy stanzas, that
sublimely roll
Their thunderous music under
__ that control
Which sets the stars their circles.
Strangely sweet
To scan, those awful measures,
beat on beat,
"That fall forever till the World-
Song is complete.
April 29th–May 1st, 1913.
| |
FROM THE PORT-HOLE
WINDOW.
“Kaiser Wilhelm II” passing
the “Merion” at 11:30 P. M.,
Thursday, May 1st, 1913.
Black sea, frothing with foam;
Dim night, sprinkled with stars;
Against the sea, and night n ship
of fire—
Hung in eternity,
Touched by time,
Flaming upon the dark,
Iliaden with human Souls,
Wafted from world to world,
Passing into the night.
A. SAILOR'S SONG
"I'o roam o'er the foam of ocean
blue,
To countries afar,
To lands that are new—
Ah, that is the life desired by
IIlê-
To float in a boat on the untamed
Sea.'
Then it's ho! to sail on the open
Sea,
With the winds that swing,
The ropes that sing,
And the toss of a leaping billow !
To fly 'neath the sky on the
breath of the Storm—
To climes that are cold,
To worlds that are warm—
Ah, that is the life desired by me,
To dip in a ship to the dancing
Seal.
Then it’s ho! to sail on the open
Sea,
With the winds that swing
Thru ropes that sing,
And the toss of a leaping billow !
|3
Then fast, at last, to come home
o'er the wave,
To the girl I love,
To the heart I crave—
Ah, that is the port desired by
In e
The life 'with a wife away from
the Sea.
A home in a cot away from the
Sea,
Where the roses swing,
And the wood-birds sing,
And I sleep on a quiet pillow.
On the “Merion,” May 5th, 1913.
THE SII,VIERY-FOOTED RAIN
In Memory of an Ocean Shower,
May 6th, 1913.
The silvery-footed rain ran
O'er the sea,
And trailed with lacy robes,
diaphonous, upon the deep,
As to the thunder's dull, rever-
berating drums
The giant waves, aspiring to
the sky,
Went down before the dancing,
tender steps.
It came, the rain,
A gauzy, mystic thing,
Pattering with nearls and strung
with ſlame;
Swinging its argent-'broidered
vails before, upon
The swaying lift
Of dark, foam-spattered hills.
It went, it went,
Enmeshed us in its cool, moist-
threaded webs
And fled,
Under the rainbow's curve,
Away.
|5
And rosy with a ſire that glowed
behind.
Amid the mountain-heads of sul-
len clouds,'
The Sun sank low within the
restless tide
In wrath and peaco and love.
Written after return to West-
field, N. J., September 20th, 1913.
COLEEN KII, I, AIRNEY
Thru Dunloo Gap we walked that
aly, º
While the fierce heights reeked
With steam,
And the white cascades came
rushing down
IFrom the cold snow's cruel
gleam.
Thru mud and splash we faced
the force
Of a wind that was lilxo a flail,
And a drenching scud that camo
and went
On the wings of a whirling gale.
But the redbreast sang in the
drea rest pass,
And the black-faced shoop said
“Bah-fl-flh!”
And we laughed where the black
tarns lapt the rocks,
And the grandeur of all we saw.
In Serpent Lake, we paced us by,
St. Patrick flung the snalce,
Which still stings on in usquo-
ball gh,
I’at's second serpent lake.
17
Black Valley yawned upon our
right,
The Isles were on our left,
As We came down the winding
1981
From out that savage cleft.
Peat fires glowed on cotter’s
hearths,
Barefooted beggars plead,
Carantual, all wrapped in gloom,
Upheld his frowning head.
Our long oars flashed as swift we
Spe
Bewildering beauties by,
While from the crags of Shaggy
shores
Came down the wild goat’s cry.
In glint of sun or black of storm
The vast brown mountains stood,
Sublime above the waters dark
On Which our boatmen rowed.
|8
Wild was the wave on wide
Lough Leane,
And wild the Celtic crew.
And wild the wind that lashed
the mere,
Before whose blast we ſlew.
Our boat leapt up and our boat
went down
In the whirlwind-squall's mad
play,
But a glorious rainbow spanned
the world
And our hearts were glad and
gåy.
Coleen Rillarney, on that day,
For our delight displayed
The gamut of her moods and
charms -
Like a swate, wild Irish maid.
Written at Killarney, May 10th,
1913.
19
"THE SRYI, AIRR OF KILMESSEN
Thou fluttering angel in Kilmes-
sen skies,
Viewing the Halls of Tara with
ecstatic eyes,
Lifting above the nest, the
hedge, the field,
The crystal brook, the rath, the
world revealed;
Mounting by flying steps into the
blue,
Whilst all the morning lies out-
stretched in dew,
Climbing in visioned bliss the
upward stair
To heavenward heights, to purer
allr,
Yet drawn, resistless, from those
dreams above,
Rack to the earth by tender
pangs of love—
O bird of ecstacy, aspiring high,
I,inking annbition with the lover's
Sign :
Thy song, incessant, ever noured
{l I) e.V."
Tn breathless passion from that
heart so true—
20
I came from overseas to hear
thee sing,
To note thy thrilling throat, thy
quivering wing,
And now I swear life hath no
soft delight
Sweeter than this, 'mid dew, to
worship thee in flight.
Dublin, May 15th, 1913.
21
TO THE WORDSWORTH I,AND
Mainly composed and written
in the “wee sma' hours” of May
29th, 1913, at the old Swan Inn,
Grasmere.
Thou lovely land of Wordsworth,
made for him
(That simplest, shyest voice in
England's song),
How thou dost thrill me with thy
cozy lakes;
Thy pensive shadows and un-
earthly lights
Dropped from the heavenly slrirts
of skies -
That lift and fall and trail about
thy fells,
Stecn scars and gloomy glens. O
savage land,
O tender land, dripping with gen-
tle rain,
IPink with the hawthorn, blue
with fragrant bells;
Forever in my thought of theo
the blackbird sings,
The cuckoo calls, the ring-dove
plains,
22
Whito-bosomed swallows paddle
in thy streets,
And one small river, murmurous,
ripples over stones.
Doar vale, I found thee faircr,
sweeter than I thought—
Tarewell! I bless thee and thy
blessing take.
23
"I"IHE NIGHTING ALIE OF MID-
HURST
Dark line of firs against a pale
sky, far,
And shining thru their tops the
gleam of one clear star;
A crescent moon, above, set in a
golden ring,
Shining faint light below, where
one doth sing
Thru all the bosky shades—un-
earthly strain
Of sweet, wild calls and whistles,
joy and pain,
And pride; emotions, moods, too
strange to tell,
Which hubble up and overſlowing
We
As some deep spring head breaks
an outward way
Thru earth and rock, that it may
freely play
Escaping streams. Strange voice.
thy shoutings seem
To sob and pray, to murmur and
to dream—
An on an eerie whistle, piercing
thru the night,
24
And then a love-thought, breath-
ing soft delight.
Fierce, bold, shy, sad and tender
bird, the heat
The hanging wood, the lonely
lane beneath,
Thrill to thy pipe; and I shall not
forget g
When, in yon world, night whis-
pers and the dews are wet.
Midhurst, Sussex, June 8th,
{º} tº
25
CHEERY CHAFFINCH
Cheery chaffinch, England’s com-
ort,
Britain's coat of arms should
bear you;
Everywhere your gladness meets
III e-
Albion, Erin, Wales or Scotia–
Moor or forest, home or street-
Way—
Dainty-shaped and pretty-color-
eCl,
There you flit and there you
Stanmer
Out your bursting song of wel-
COIII C- -
“To-to-to be glad I wish you!”
Till one seems to hear the kind-
11 eSS
Of º great and generous peo-
p €.
Busy chaffinch, England's cheer-
er,
Capped with blue and ruddy-
vested,
I.et a stranger say a blessing,
Give his gratitude thus briefly;
Wore you driven from this coun-
try,
26
Silence everywhere would mourn
yOu ;
For you fill all empty spaces,
And you let no inelancholy
Gather in neglected corners:
“T-t-t-t-to laugh I wish you!”
“Spink! Spink!” rings the voice
incessant.
Midhurst, June 13th, 1913.
27
A JERSEY SUNSET;
I saw the sun go down behind
old Jersey's hills
As it might be New Jersey's hills
at home.
But here the air was salt; tho
ruddy after-glow
Foll on St. Aubin's Bay; the boats
of harbor men
Were black upon the stain; the
wharves were glad
With quiet work of those who in
the duslº
Loaded the ships; a steamer slid
into her berth;
Tho full moon rose and gently
Iſlid her Silvern road
Across the roclcs and still pools
like a pond;
The swell lapt on the shore with
gentle Swish;
While, on the sea-wall, couples
strolled and loved the moon.
A Southern softness in the night
air lulled my sense,
And all the scene meseemed a
picture drawn
And painted on the curtain of the
Old World night.
St. Helier, Jersey, June 17th,
1913
29
TO SEA
Composed between Jersey and
Guernsey, on the steamer “Roe-
buck,” June 19th, 1913.
The old gray sky, the old gray
Sežl
A. silver light upon the marge,
A bark before the wind-gusts,
free,
With all the world to roam at
large.
NOW dº. she liſts fund down she
pS,
Andºu the air the Spindrift
€S.
The salt of ocean on one’s lips,
The light of distance in one's
OyeS.
IElate with one's brave boat to
SWay,
In all the courage of youth and
pr1de;
For life is a conquest, fiercely
§ {ly,
Of a fragile boat on a deadly
tide.
30
And the wind is joy that makes
One fly,
Salt the ocean one has to
fight—
The old, old sea, the old, old sky,
And there—in the distance—
space and light.
3|
GULLS
Written on the “Roebuck,” be-
tween Jersey and Guernsey,
June 19th, 1913.
The sea-gulls soar behind our
ship,
FIung like kites on a stretch-
ing string,
The wake below a suds of foam,
Marked with their shadows,
wing and wing.
With trailing feet they snatch
the prize,
Dropping with graceful wings
up thrown;
Screaming and fighting with wild
eyes,
But mated and flocking for
love alone.
The wind is high, the Sea, is
green,
We fly in the Sunshine from
above.
And there, on our wake, the sea-
birds scream,
The old, old battle for food
and love.
32
STONEHENGE
Gray ancient stones, encircled on
the plain,
ell us your hidden inistory. If
One knew?
In silence stern you hold your
timeless Secret.
For empires fall and centuries
recede
But still your dolmens stand,
mysterious rings.
What awful rites were held 2
What god-like men
Ruled here and pondered—bow-
ing low in prayer
Before the sun ? What blood
flowed on these altars?
So we ask and ask, but only
know that here
Sometime, some human souls,
with giant hands,
Worked out their dream in
power, that to them
God and the living universe
We're OIle
And rocks and hoary trees su-
bline in beauty.
Dumb rocks, you are the symbols
of the voiceless Past,
33
And I, who write my thoughts of
you, lºnow well
That all my life-time may not
take a sand's grain
From your sides or add to you a
moss-stain's color.
June 29th, 1913.
Written at Clovelly in memory
of Stonehenge.
34
IIANGING CLOVEI, I.Y
Dear little Clovelly,
Hanging on your hill,
I would love to live here and get
of you my fill.
You are just a staircase, with
rooms at the side,
Just a human cascade, stopt in
its slide,
Hill—woods about you and ocean
at your feet—
Just a perfect picture,
Clovelly, sweet.
Clovelly. North Devon, June
29th, 1913.
35
IDAS MATTERHORN
Matterhorn, thou god of moun-
nS,
Why did not ancient man drop
OW n
And worship thee, thine awful
purity—
Terrible and cold against the
tle,
White, austere, lonely, with the
dead things at thy feet,
Presumptuous ones who dared
intrude on thee!
When piece by plece thy clinging
mantle left thee,
In answer to my centered, soul-
drawn prayer,
On that great morning which I
ne'er forget,
I s"; awestricken, thrilled, the
O
Ook
Of one for whom high heaven
Opene
And nameless Godhood sat upon
its throne,
Flye-dazzling, stainless, dread-
ful, but revealed.
Written at Out-of-the-Way, in
memory of Switzerland, Septem-
her 5th, 1913, 36
SUNSET A"I" SEA
I saw the sun go down at sea,
Red fire behind a cloud-hill
Calve;
The great ship bow majestically,
The winds and waters wild with
glee,
And one dark sea-bird, lonely-
ree,
Flap low along the wave.
August 20th, 1913.
37
SEA MOONRISE
The wind was cold,
The Waves' black Alps Snow-
topped with foam,
The west rose-stained with glow
of after fires;
But in the east investing Night
Spent royally one great out-
shining coin of gold --
Upon . blackness of on-coming
Ilê e CI.
August 20th, 1913.
38
()TIT-OF-TIII.--WAY ONCE
MORE
Back again to the Jersey morn-
ing,
My beautiful, dawn and its
dappled sky,
The black-winged crow and his
musical warning,
The blue-jay's ungreased
wheelbarrow cry.
The cat-bird's mew, from the
wild hedge calling,
The maple leaf's nod to the
zephyr's touch,
The sweetness of all on my
senses falling,
These quaint home-touches
that mean SO much.
Backward I see the gray waves
leaping,
Ireland's gorse and the cots of
fl.11,
South Down’s chalk and the
Welsh hills' heaping, -
Thatch and tower and loſtrbi-
Călle
39.
But I am home in the land of
Sunrise,
Warmth and color and cloud-
forms clear,
Content thee, Soul, adventurer
unwise,
In Out-of-the-Way, its peace
and cheer.
Westfield, New Jersey. Septem-
ber, 1913.