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L - ij ''i " ' *- L?YRIG ANB OTHER poEns. BY S. J. MACKNIGHT. \ J ''m^^t ii/^ HALIFAX, N. S. . ^ Printed by James Bowes A Sons, 125 Hollis Street. 18 9 2. iAw»«*aJifcigi Entered according to Act of tlic Parliament of Canada, in the year 1892, By Samubl John Macknight, at the Department of Agriculture '•' ( .«i t i V .ri .« CONTENTS, .''Z: i Voluntary to thp: Sea, .... The Spirit of Poetry, . . The Prodigal Son.— A Scriptural Poem, Ode to the Sea, adapted from Byron, . The Queen of Sheba, .... EOYPT, Version of Twenty-third Psalm, Version of Psalm 76, .... Paraphrase of Ezekiel, Chaps. I. and II., Christ Baptized in Jordan, Pallas, ' To- Morrow, To iHE Sea, Ottawa, from the Chaudiere Falls Bridge, PAGE 5 6 10 12 14 16 18 19 20 24 25 26 27 28 ' J' POEffiS. VOLUNTARY TO THE SEA, Sing to me of the limpid sea A song that may a comfort he, . And let me hear the distant surge Croon from far points where hreakers merge And meet upon the ear, — A sound like falling bells to purge And drive away sad care ; And let me hear the ocean's bell Which tolls upon the sounding shore — A peal, a reminiscent knell Which vibrates for the days of yore. Meseems that I have heard before Those echoes on this sounding shore, That I have heard this ocean urge His waters in this boiling surge Upon the passive strand ; There seems upon the hoary sea Where meets the ancient land A threnody of days gone by A listening for the sounds that be Interpreted by the raging sea Of thoughts that over centuries fly. 6 THE SPIRIT OF POBTRY. THE SPIRIT OF POETRY. Parnassus, temple of those gods Who for their empire may choose song ; Lilies grow up from out the sods That to thy dewy sides belong. Colossal in thy arm of might Thou like. a person, rulest kings ; Or walkest vast in spectral night ; Or like a priest whose censor swings. O mountain I swept with wandering wings That err and wander in a dream ; Or come like comets, or in rings Of circuit vast, in concourse seem. Thou in thy skirts with patterned flowers Art drest and garnished like a rose ; And from about thy glorious bowers The savour of a sweet scent goes. In stiffly gorgeous robes bedecked, Sewn o'er with jewels to thy feet, Thou mong thy lictors walk'st erect ; Gay peacock plumes above thee meet. C "^ Weird in thy whistling, shrieking wind* Gray shapes of twilight seem to move. Or ghosts of whiteness, or black fiends. Or forms which vision cannot prove. THE SPIRIT OF POETRY. Or rather angels fraught with good, Or muses, ministers of art ; A company, or solitude, According to the pilgrim's heart. ■Q Abysmal smoke veils thy ascents, A column mounting higher and higher ; To speak ideally ; and through thy rente, (In figure) glares volcanic fire. And on thy high slopes there drive mists, Over thy woods, on summits wild ; And in the blue day there persists Or drifts a cloudland o'er thee piled. And in the blue day there come harps Twanging beneath the fleecy clouds Or twittering from the skyey scarps Or from the drifting heavenly shrouds. And in the sombre hours nocturne Lanterns of night o'erhang thy steeps ; They the same stars which elsewhere burn Glistening afar from stilly deeps. Askest thou of the clouds of fleece, Their harper where ? or where their flute ? They answer not, but aye decrease Moving like smoke, and still are mute. Dun and demure, a vacant hue, Vasty and hollow is the night. Sable and ebon, blackest blue Rueful its pensive hours of flight. '— ; ■ ' m j mp'irtrtmmmmi 8 THE SPIRIT OP POETRY. And yet resplendent with bright stars In clusters sewn upon its vest ; Or marshalling, mid flakes and bars, The white moon in the cloudy west. Or in thy southern land so fair Perhaps no clouds approach thy throne Thou livest in thy tranquil air And reignest in thy sphere alone. ■ , ■ ■ ^ ■ ■ , The eye that views thee from afar Sees the look reverend in thy seat, And traces thee by shade and scar An azure shape with grandeur meet. Upon the hoar head of thy dome Gleams forth a coronal of snows ; Also thy shoulders white their home ; From them the stream Castalia flows. • Thee, 'mid the tropic torrid heats The traveller through the desert sees ; They on their camels sail like fleets, But plod without a helping breeze. Seen through the hot air of the South Amid the twinkling hum of bees Thou figurest quiet through the drouth^ And picturesfc ancient sleeping Ease. Thou picturest with thy ambient air An azure monument of Peace, The fane — the sanctuary there Of Quiet, where all conflicts cease. <^^ The camels toiling through the sands Are like a progeny of time, Like patriarchs, pilgrims, pastoral bands^ Told in some story or some rhyme ; ^ THE SPIRIT OP POETRY. Or in some rhymeless song or book, A generation born of Eld, A people with some staff or crook, Felled like the forest trees are felled. Philosophy finds her desire Where stray the wild bees round thy feet. And brings her incense and her fiie, And from the foolish makes retreat. Silent through all thy sloping fane Thou nursest silence like a child. When lo — some rock is loosed in twain And rushes down with clangor wild. ' L'knvoi. Amid the thickets of the South Birds build their nests and flit between. i): ■r-.-::;:^ ->« r.r. ■ ■ ■?■.' 3 Bff' . r B 10 THE PRODIGAI, SON. THE PRODIGAL SON. i A SCRIPTURAL POEM. Here are my silent mansion towers Waiting the word of heavenly powers. ■'■•■■■ i Here in my field repose the flock ; The light of noon glares from the rock. The news of east, the tales of west Reach hither as they reach the rest. Regret and disappointment pace My mansion's vaulted rooms and place. Forgiveness also has its time For me ; I weary in this clime. Bring from the field the fattest calf And Kill it in my son's behalf. I hear the dripping of the fount ; All else is quiet on this ground. The parched grass entwines the pale Mossed from decay. My spirits fail. Bring forth a dress, a robe, a ring ; Shout in my palace, dance and sing. The richest garment and best dress Bring from the store before me. Yes. -^ THE PRODIGAL SON. 11 As creeps the hour on of the feast The calf's life from all lives has ceased. The jocund board resounds with mirth, And pictures forth the fruitful earth. The penitent shall sup this wine, Who fed upon the husks of swine. So sinners may return to God Who deserts aark and wastes have trod. In the far land arose his voice ; The swine around him heard his choice. Lo, at this gate he did arrive To-day, one from the dead alive. 1 ..■■,,;'^' ., ^f^ \' 12 ODE TO THE SEA. ODE TO THE SEA. ADAPTED fHOM BTRON. There is a pleasure in the woods, There is a rapture on the shore, There is a charm in interludes Of music, when the hreakei's roar ; From thence I reverence Nature more, From these wild interviews I feel Friendship not human. I adore And mingle with the scene with zeal. Roll, everlasting, onward roll ; The ships encompass thee in vain. Man fells the forests : his control Is landward ; on thy watery plain He leaves no traces that remain, No shadows — but the wrecks are thine He and his ships like drops of rain Sink bubbling in thy depths of brine. His steps are on thy paths — thy fields He traverses with merchandize ; Also a spoil thy bosom yields. But then in wrath thou dost arise And shaks't him from thee towards the skies, And sends't him quivering in thy spray Till on the earth again he lies Driven to some petty port or bay. >\ The armaments which dare the walls Of sea-port cities, and which break With flashes and with iron balls And caiise beleaguered souls to quake, M. \' • K-s ODE TO THE SEA. The wood leviathans which make Their builders to be lords of .var, These are thy toys, which thou dost shake Like foam which melting shows no more. Thy shores are empires, continents ; Subject to civil change are they ; The ancient tyrant forced relents, The suppliant ceases to obey ; Empires of Eld have passed away. Kingdoms have fallen to disgrace, But thy waves all unchanging play, Time writes no impress on thy face. Mirror where the Almighty's form Glasses itself in storms sublime, Also in peace as in the storm In arctic or in torrid clime. Image of endless space and time Thou hast a seryant in each zone. The monsters wallow in thy slime. Thou goest forth unmatched— alone. The poet loves thee ; and his joy. He says, was on thy breast to be, Borne like thy bubbles ; form a boy Borne as thy bubbles onward flee : He wantoned with the angry sea ; The terror was a pleasing fear ; He knew himself a child of thee— Trusted thy billows far and near. 13 14 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. ) THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. • O Queen of Sheba, uho could see, — So far off was thy land, — Thy realm, thy state, thy polity, The bound of thy command ? And the hoary ocean ceaselessly Thundered upon thy strand. O rich, O fortunate, endowed With ransoms and with spoils. Before whom trembling realms are cowed And craft caught in its coils, And before whom kneel a mighty crowd Of kindreds, peoples, soils. Ah ! from the South thy caravan Came through the desert heat. Nearing the land of Canaan I h ard thy camels' feet ; Thy long procession's line I scan Laden with odours sweet. '4 Thou sent'st thy fleets forth on thy seas In mission to far shores, And they returning home from these Bring tribute to thy stores, And landward plies the caravan As the ship the sea explores. Ah ! from the farthest Araby Thy people's loud acclaim Greets thee with pomp and sovereignty And shouts thy regal name, And thy vesture is a panoply Bright as a burning flame* Y- ] •••'..,\ I I ?\^N THE QUEEN OF .SHEHA. Thou didst the wand of pilgrimcXge Seize in thy firm right hand, And ledst thy councillors most sage Forth in a pilgrim band, A war 'gainst ignorance to wage, And see the far off land. Inquiry led thee to the north. Nor were thy schemes at fault, To where the Jordan issues forth Into the drear sea salt ; A retinue encompassed thee Wide as the heavenly vault. From out the darkness of the South Emergent to the day History records thee with her mouth Thy courage made its way Into the land of fame, where tongues Undying hold their sway. Then thou returnedst to thy home With all thy glorious train, Assured that in some storied tome After thy mortil pain Thou after mixing with the loam Of Earth wouldst live again. 15 l:^ 16 K(5YPT. 11 EGYPT. " (rebir, this land of Kgypt is a laud Of incantations ; demons rule tlieae waves/' — W. S. Landou. O Land of Egypt, sacred land Of frowning wizards, who command Dim apparitions, and who change The air— the winds— that onward range, Or upward, downward, outward, through Thy Tbreadth, thy fields, thy cities strange- Change them to shapes, to forms, to shows, Where the sweet stream of Nilus flows. O Land of Egypt, amber land Of yellow evening, filled with sand ; Long lie thy acres of expanse ; Sweet lies thy Nilus in its weeds ; The bird of Ibis also breeds, To hover and to sweep thy sky. Perhaps among the flocks that fly Like herds on heaven's pasture by. Or Ibis is not, having gone Too sacred to survive. At dawn Thou hast thy Memnon cut in stone Sitting severely in thy fields ; Thou hast thy Sphinx, whose base, sand-strewn Lies buried ; and whose massy head. Her riddle yet reluctant yields. While fate her from destruction shields. The air seems drowsy ; and the vale, The scoopy vale which holds the Nile Seems bounded by a distant pile Of hills and mountains, frowning rocks, ■■i. K(iYI»T. Which seem a pearly azure blue Cirand in their outline, soft in hue, A faintly seeming hue which mocks, While the vast valley still it locks. A sail, a stick, a camel's stride f see not ; yet my eyes are wide ; But only to the second view Of incantation's mystic force : My eye-lids I have formed anew ; I see the seasons in their course, The floods which whehn another Nile, Another Egypt— from their source. I see thy slowly-tapering tombs Of kings antique who met their dooms. Or doomed their peoples ; tombs that rise In lessening hugeuess to the skies A vast solidity of strength ; The times of Kid from them look down ; The Sphmx may smile ; the temples frown VVith portals dark and shadows brown. 11 X^-^ 18 TWENTY-THIRD I'HALM. VERSION OF THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM. My guiding shepherd is the Lord, I have no want nor care ; His pastures he doth me accord To walk by waters there. Still waters, pastures green, and he Restores my soul and guides Me in those righteous paths which are (.'aim like the river tides. So for his own name's sake ; and though In the gray vale of death Adown its darkening glooms I go I have no fear of scaith. HI In death's dark shadow's valley I Walk fearless through the midst, For thou art with me and thy rod Bringest and comfort bidst. Thy rod and staff a solacement Seem ; and among my foes, Where hostile forms their ire present Thy presence cures my woes. A table is before me spread E'en where the foeman stands ; With oil thou dost anoint my head, A cup putst in my hands. A brimming cup and mercy kind And goodness shall for aye Follow me, and within God's house I evermore shall stay. ' VKKSION OF I'HALM SKVENTY-SIX. 19 VERSION OF PSALM SEVENTY-SIX. In Judah is God known, His name in Israel great ; In Salem is His throne. On Zion's hill of state Stands the great dwelling-place where he ahides ; There did he hreak the arrows of the bow ; Marching to battle did confound the shield ; There did he break the sword and lay it low. The valorous men are spoiled, They cannot find their hands, Without a stroke are foiled Even at thy mere commands. At thy rebuke, O Jacob's mighty God The chariot and the horse have fain asleep. Thou to be dreaded art, and when in wrath. Who in thy sight a standing place could Keep. To judge thou didst arise. And judgment spakst from heaven To save the meek ; earth lies Still when thy best is given. Surely the wrath of man shall be made praise. God will restrain. V<»w to the Lord and pay ; Let all bring presents unto him in fear, Whom kings must fear— cuts princes from bis wav. Hi 20 PARAPHRASE OF EZKKIIM.. •^, ,. PARAPHRASE OF EZEKIEL, CHAPS. I. AND 11. Ezekiel, son of Buzi, priest, By the lone banks of tar Chebar', By the lone river of the East, In land of the Chaldeitns far. Seated among my kin who take The smartings of the exile's rod ; I saw the heavens above me break And in their opening, visions of God. The Lord's hand was upon me ; he • His word expressly sent ; the time Fixed and appointed ; unto me Looking, appeared this great sublime. Behold a whirlwind from the north, A great cloud, and a mighty fire, And from the folding flame came forth Bightness of Chasmal.t lower, higher. The likeness of four living things In the fierce brillian'^'e undissolved Human in aspect, wielding wings ('herubic, from the fire evolved. Each had four faces ; towards the East, North, South, and West, might view, nor pass ; Straight feet ; soles like the bovine beast, Which sparkled like to burnished brass. t Chnsmol, tlie Hebrew word translated in the English Bible '' amber," admittedly at random. I PARAPHRASE OF EZEKIEL. 21 Each had four wings ; beneath their wings Were human hands, and in their flight They did not turn ; the living things Went forward in the radiance bright. < Their wings were joined, and every face As follows — one was leonine, One human ; in the other place An ox, and the bird aquiline. Each of the living creatures showed The contradiction of four shapes Regarding head ; the human glowed ; Behind, the ox, the eagle gapes. Two wings joined upwards ; two the loins Hid of this human-aquiline ; And far above where wing-tip joins, I saw the face of Whom Divine. The creatures went straight forward, went Whither the spirit led them they ; And in their course turned not not bent, But winged themselves the spirit's way. Their likeness was like coals of fire, Like lamps ; the burning hiightness dashed Among the creacuies, lower, higher, And from the fire the lightning flashed. The creatures ran and then returned < Like the appearance of a flash Of lightning ; so this spectre burned With movement of this sudden dash. Now I beholding these four things Beheld one wheel upon the earth Beside the living forms with wings, A semblance of a lower birth. 22 PARAPHRASE OF EZKKIEL. Yea four wheels ; and their semblance was And work, as hue of chrysolite ; I saw their motion and their laws : The four were like ; turned not in flight. Their semblance was a wheel involved - Within a wheel ; and when they went They went on four sides, and thus solved Their motion, wheel within wheel blent. As for their felloes— mighty rings — Their height was dread, their look sublime ; When the iour living shapes with wings Went/, the wheels went, to ran, to climb. When the four creatures rise from earth The wheels rise with them : full of eyes The mighty rings through all their girth ; In unison they run, they rise. Whither the spirit bade they went ; And the wheels with them ran, stood, rose ; The spirit of the creatures blent Was in the wheels ; these followed those. Thus for the wheels. The vault on high Ov^er the living creatures' heads Was crystal hue to teri-ify, Was terrible, which o'er them spreads. ■I Under this dreadful firmament The living creatures' wings were straight One toward the other ; two wings went To meet two others, each his mate. I heard their winging when they rushed, Like noise of waters, like the voice Of the Almighty : the sound gushed Like speech, even like an army's noise. •»• V, '>■ \, " PARAPHRASE OF EZEKIEL. They stopped and stood with wings depressed, And from the upper firmament, They standing with their wings down dressed, A dread celestial voice forth went. Thus for the vault : and looking higher I saw the likeness of a throne Above the vault ; the eyes aspire ; Its likeness as a saphire-stone. And on this semblant regal seat I saw the likeness of a form As of a man : these visions meet Mine eye out of this whirling storm. ,■* I saw what hue of Chasmal seemed Within, around, and shape of fire ; From the loins upward, downward, beamed A fiery semblance—lower, higher. And brightness round about like bow In cloud in day of rain appeared Which hemmed around that radiant glow Of Chasmal, where the throne upreared. This was a glory quite divine, The dreadful visage of the Lord. I fell upon my face. This sign O'erwhelmed me. Prostrate I adored. I heard a voice of one that spake, And then he said unto me, Son Of man, stand upright; from me take My words ; I speak ; I have begun. The spirit entered when he spake Into me, and set me on my feet, So that I heard the words that brake From his dread lips with audience meet. 23 24 CHRIST BAPTIZED IN JORDAN. And then he said unto aie : Son Of man, I send thee to the stock Of rebel Israel, send thee one Against a nation who me mock. I send thee : and so thou shalt say Thus saith the Lord, and they shall know, Whether they heed, or say thee nay A prophet hath been sent them so. Be not afraid though thorns and briers Be with thee, nor of scorpions fear ; Fear not their words ; they and their sires Are rebel ; nor their looks ; yet hear. Hear what I say : be not like them Rebellious ; ope thy mouth and eat ; Be not like those who me contemn, He ceased. I saw a hand, a sheet. He spread the scroll before me, lo O'erwritten with its dread contents ; And thr^re was written in it u oe. And awful mournings and laments. CHRIST BAPTIZED IN JORDAN. O mighty stream ! O plenteous flood ! O mighty Jordan ! breathing peace, Descending with thy waters good, An i bearing on thy calm increase. O holy banks I O peaceful shores I O quiet fields ! O pebbly brink ! OVr fields, o'er stream the eye explores, And in the water turmoils sink. PALLAH. 25 \ . Messiah hastens ; speaks he "John, Baptize me ; " hiui the Baptist spake : *' Thou rather me." Messiah said *' Nay, 'tis ordained thou undertake." Him he baptized, and lo from heaven " Came floating downwards from above With outstretched wings, a symbol given, Upon Messiah's head, a dove. The dove flew oif. A voice was heard Which from the zenith spake and ceased, The voice of God *' This is my Son Beloved ; in him I am well pleased." i PALLAS. Genius of prudence and of war, Pallas looks westward towards the deep, Breathing the high abstracted air Of Athens, o'er her structured steep. Towering from the Acropolis, She thrills her marble self with thought. Gazing as far as Salamis — Wisdom is e'er unsold, unbought ; Wisdom of virtues is most meet ; Wisdom of graces is most sweet. The city's streets and roofs are given To avocations of man's life. Higher and nearer to the heaven And guardian of this toil and strife The goddess stands ; but does her mind Move with those things at all ? her heart A wisdom of its own may find, Not dealing with the street or mart, A wisdom to herself most meet, The wisdom in itself most sweet. 26 TO-MORROW. Genius of prudence and of war, Stands Pallas on the structured steep ; The wisdom of the near and far, The new and old doth she not keep ? And centres in her spear and shield A monumental wisdom's mip^ht ; All wisdom's puissance she doth wield, And wisdom's power ; and wisdom's sight Is hers ; and seem her marble eyes Full of the secrets of the wise. I TO-MORROW. To-morrow ye will walk and ye will play. On t^his old earth I leave with you till when ? Or soberly will wander through the day. And in the future we shall meet again. The works of life noise round about your ways ; Retirement finds you ; summer's light and heat '; The palpable wind whistles ; the earth stays ; — And me, I hear the echoes of your fee:t. To-morrow the same rose will bloom again That blooms to-day ; nor will its red abate ; With roses of this kind ye shall remain ; And you the bright sun dawning will await. Like memory does faith, in present gloom Bring a respondent climate from afar ; - And when through rains all visual objects loom. The mind thinks of the blue vault of the air. So ha^ e the lost a strong thought of the saved ; ; . has the slave a deep dream of the free ; Along this dust, this measured way and paved. Fleets the dim hope of immortality, TO THE SEA. - 27 TO THE SEA. Thou blowest soft, O sea, In even's mantle clad ; What vespers come from thee Faint wearily ^d fade. The headland scenteth night, And fadeth with thy main ; One early star his light Trails in thy vasty plain. Thou sendst thy waves from thee Trooping forth in the glooms ; Thou ripplest low, O sea. Like grasses grown near tombs. To be like thee ! O sea, Neath even's dusky cloud ; Untangled, calm, and free, Thou mild pacific flood. No chains thy waves defeat, Nor slings nor arrows thee ; Immeasurably great Thy deeps and billows be. 28 OTTAWA FROM THE ('HAUDIP:RK FALLS BRIDGE. OTTAWA FROM THE CHAUDIERE FALLS BRIDGE. This voice of waters leads thee on ; And this white sea, rock'd with iinrest, Tinged through with yellow — from the west Guides us to yonder house of stone. This yellow flood advancing east Dies into white, with flakes of foam ; These waves, like time transmuting, roam, And lo— their turbulence has ceased. A streak of calm beneath yon hill Leads up the eye in green retreat; Above, neavens with the verdure meet ; With palace towers serene and still. Methinks on yonder leafy mount Someone has built yon ordered house, And slightly gilded, like a mouse, With tips of brass its roofs high-crowned. ..'?■■ ' ' Perhaps beyond those tower-crowned shores, (If one may study the unseen, If one ignores what comes between) — The flood again boils on and roars. Roaring in thunders, sprayed in mist. Perhaps it glides in verdant bays Silently treading peaceful ways Which with this Sabbath calm consist. «