IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) M^. 4, ^^ 'W & m. 1.0 I.I .0 112.0 11:25 i 1.4 1.6 - 6' % <« i*- >> ^^0 o^ > ^ M 3 ^ r o;^<^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 87^-4SC3 M ^ iV ^ ^:\^< .>:1^ ^ %^.< ^ CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / instiiut c'jnadien de microreproductions historiques Technical and Btbiiographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiq ues The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Features of this copy which may be bibiiographically unique, which may alter any of the images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change the usual method of filming, are checked below. D D D D Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur I I Covers damaged/ Couverture endommagSe □ Covers restored and/or laminated/ Couverti re rustaurde et/ou pellicuide n Cover title missing/ Le titre de couverture manque I I Coloured maps/ Cartes g^oqraphiques en couleur □ Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or blackl/ Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) I I Coioured plates and/or illustrations/ □ Plar^ches et/ou illustrations en couleur Bound with other material/ Relie avec d'autres documents Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion along interior margin/ La reliure serree peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distortion le long de la marge intdrieure Bfank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ il se peut que certaines pages blanches ajout^es lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, mais, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces p :ges n'ont pas 6t6 film^es. Additional comments:/ Commentaires suppl^mentaires: L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire qu'll lui a 6x6 possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-dtre uniques du point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans la m^thode normale da film, je sont indiqui^s ci-dessous. I I Coloured pages/ Pages de couleur Pages damaged/ Pages endommag^es □ Pages restored and/or laminated/ Pages restaur6es et/oj pelliculees □ Pages discolouied, stained or foxed/ Pages d6color6es, tachet^es ou piqu^es I I Pages detached/ D Pages d6tach6es Showthroughy Transparence I I Showthrough/ I I Quality of print varies/ Quality in^gale de I'impresrJon Includes supplementary material/ Comprend du materiel supplementaire Only edition available/ Seule Edition disponible Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to ensure the best possible image/ Les pages totalement ou partiellement obsciircies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, etc., ont 6t6 filmdes 6 nouveau de faqon i obtenir la meilleure image possible. This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked beiow/ Ce document est filmd au taux de reduction indiqu6 ci-desso'is. lOX 14X 18X 22X / 12X 16X 20X 26X 30X 24X 28X ] 32X I tails i du odifier une rr.. je The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks to the generobity of: National Library of Canada The images appearing here are the best quality pofsible considering the condition and legibility of the original copy and in keeping with the filming cor'Tract specifications. Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed beginning with the front cover and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All other original copies are filmed beginning on the first page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impression. The last recorded frame on each microfiche sh3ll contain the symbol -— »- (meaning "CON- TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. L'exemplaire filmd fut .eproduit grdce § la gdn6rosit6 de: Bibliothdque nationale du Canada Les images suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et de la nettetd de l'exemplaire film6, et en conformity avec Iss conditions du contrat de filmage. Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en papier est imprim^e sont film^s en commenpant par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la dernidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'iliustration, soit par le second plat, selon le cas. Toms les autres exemplaires originaux sont film6s en commenpant par la premidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustradon et en terriiinant par la deinidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la dernidre image de ci^aque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole — *► signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbole V signifie "FIN". Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diapirams illustrate t(ie method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmds d deu taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour §tre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est filmd A partir de I'angie sup^rteur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. rrata o selure, 1 i J 32X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 THE ROMANCE OF SIR RICHARD SONNETS, AND OTHER POEMS. BY ARTHUR WEIR, B.A.Sc. AUTHOR OF " FLET!RS DE LYS AND OTHER POEMS ' ; LATE SECRETARY OF THE Society OF Canadian Literature, Montreal; Honorary Member of the same, and Member of the Haliburton society, Windsor, Nova Scotia. MONTREAL: WILLIAM DRYSDALE & CO., PUBLISHERS. 1890. Entered accortliiiij to Act of rarliamcnt of Canada, in tlie Office of the Minister of AjjriculUire, !)>■ AKTIIUR Whik, in llie year ibgj. "Witness" Printing House, Montreal. TO MISS LOUISE SKEAD. As, in old time, the tempest-scorners set Their ship's keen prow into the golden rain Of eve, and ventured o'er the nnkeeled main To under lands, and myriad dangers met From savage hordes and coasts the zvaves that fret ; That they might gold and sunborn gems obtain For their belovH Qneen, her smiles to gain, And her thanks won, their hardships did forget : So I have ventured over thought's vast seas Into the land of visions, deeming siveet Long hours of sunless toil, if I might reach. And bring, as my love-tribute, to thy feet, At last, the gold of thought and gems of speech, Paid by thy thanks. Imperial Louise. CONTENTS. Thk Romance of Sir Richard. PAGE Prologue .. .. , . _ , .J The Vigil ^ The Tournament - • ... . . . - Epilogue g Other Poems. The Sun Worshijjpers 1 1 On the Shore 1^ A Christmas Carol 20 A Snowshoe Song 22 Premises and Conclusion 24 Faded Violets - 27 A Christmas Lullaby .^I I^estiny ^4 The Valedictorian - - . . . . - ■ •?7 The Lilacs and the Star ^g Christmas .q The Flirt -q Love and a Sermon • . . ... . - C2 A Pair of Geese ce The Woodbird - - - . . . . - c8 VI CONTENTS. Tell Me, Dearest, Why ? Death Comes to Us All Little Miss Hlue Eyes • In Love's IJowers In I'^xile - - * Not Nature, but Man To Iler Lover • • The Flower Girl * To a Coquette A Song - • • Intimacy The Courier de Bois Iscaiiot Come Down to the Shade Love - . . . The Maiden's Song To Rose Mind and Body 6(> 62 63 64 66 68 70 7« 7a 73 74 n 76 77 7a 79 80 82 Sonnets. To Louise - Albani In the Morning I Had Been Like a Ship The Eternity of Life - The Pearl Bracelet • The Blind Street Fiddler 83 84 85 86 87 88 91 ■3I COXTLWTii. Vll How Shall I Paint Thee - Christ Was No Idler in Luxurious Night Thoughts To the Sea If You Should Die - Anticipation and Realization Fear Not to Do Right Why a Bride Weeps The Noblest Poem - My Lady . . . . . The True Immortals The Pantheist . . . . In the Canoe - - . . Sonnets at Niagara He Thine Own Image Builder • Heart Hunger . . . . Dante to Beatrice - Cupid and Psyche A Mother's Thought At the Recital - - . . Heine's 'i hree Kisses Epilogue • - . - . Halls 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 ICX) lOI 102 »o3 104 106 III 112 113 114 116 117 iiS 121 4 4 cl THE ROMANCH OF SIR RICHARD; SOXNKTS AND OTIIEk I'OKMS. THE ROMANCE OF SIR RICHARD. PROLOCJUK. By brake and bower, by fen and field, And lakes that t^emmed fair Nature's breast ; With shadowy lance and silver shield, Came ridinj,^ Nit^dit upon hij quest. The stars in countless myriads i,dowed, Like jewels, in his sombre helm, And earth grew silent as he rode Again through his reconquered realm. The Wind, bis unseen trumi)eter, Gave challenge to the recreant Day. There was no answer, save ^he stir Of leaves, that turned to see the fray. No answer ; and the wind was still, And all, the leafage fell asleep. While Night rode slowly up the hill Into the ruined Norman Keep. 2 THE liOMANCE OF SIR lUCHARD. O'er pointed arch and crumbling xyall, In tangled wiklncss swept the vine, And in the ernpcy banquet hall ^ In flower cups swam the dew, for wme. A moonbeam, like the torch of Fame That dissipates oblivion's gloom. Fell on a sculptured knight, whose name One still could read upon his tomb. What lover's fancy ruled our brains That we should seek the rumed hall, And listen for the minstrel strains, Were wont to cheer the vassals all ? Why, stealing from the lighted room, The merry laugh, the graceful dance, Sat we with Night beside the tomb To speak ofdaysofshield and lance? The only minstrel was the owl. The only vassal was the bat • The shadows, like gaunt monks m cowl Stood round the place wherein we sat , And while my shoulder propped thy head, Thy fair hand put the vines aside, And I, in quaint, old metre, read How brave Sir Richard hved and died. i h II THE IIOMAKCE OF SIR RICHARD. " He was a noble Christian knight," — So wrote the long-forgotten bard, — " A doughty champion of the right, His lady's smile his best reward. This earnest follower of the Cross At Hierusalem was slain : Erst Merrie England mourns his loss, Nor e'er shall see his like aixain." So fair the night, so deep our love, So sweet the joy of solitude, We stirred not hum the tomb, but \''Ove Sir Richard's romance as wc would. "The lady fair am I," saidst thou, " Sir Richard, dearest, shalt thou be , As well would Richard mine, I trow. As ne for liis love, fight for me." Then played we twain a mimic play, (And in the moonlighi deemed it real), Of bygone days of chivalry, Fair dames and knights in burnished steel. I told how lonely watch I kept One night — that same pale moon above — And thou at jousting how I swept The lists, and crowned thee Oucen of Love. I \ 1 1 - I ! i ^ j n h I if! 4 r^rjs: romance of sir ri chard. The Vigil. He Speaks. All day the courtyard teemed with men, All day the dnkling hammers rang, All day, from many a windy den, Skyward the ruddy forge fires sprang. The day it was before the tilt. And swarthy armourers showered their blows On lance and shield, on blade and hilt, From dawn till night-dews washed the rose. The king was come, with all his court. The tourney with his smile to grace ; Perchance to break a lance in sport. Or clothyard in the white to place. All England's noblest knights were the;-e, Each eager in the lists to prove His skill, and crown his lady fair The Queen of Beauty and of Love. Darkly the moated waters swept Around the castle's massive pile, The night when I m vigil kept Of knighthood in this gloomy aisle THE ROMANCE OF SIR RICHARD. The yew tree tapped the tinted panes, The sad owl hooted in the glade, And Philomel, in plaintive strains. Her secret to tlie ni";ht betraved. Midsummer lightnings, sweetly shy, Low in the far horizon burned. Like love-light in thine azure eye, When mine upon thy face is turned. And as amid the gloom I stood, With the dei)arted great, alone, A moonbeam throuijh the solitude Came creeping on from stone to stone. I pondered on the glorious dead, And on the greatness of my race ; And where the moonbeam lay I read How one chose death before discfrace. Then, as the light crept softly by, I conned the legends, one by one. And vowed that, unto death, would I Of noble sires prove worthy son. I thought upon the knight's estate I was to enter op. the morn, His love of truth, of wrong his hate, His pit}' for the feeble born. 'i^ 6 TEE ROMANCE OF SIR RICHARD. I thought how ready was his blade To set Oppression's victim free ; And then my fondest thoughts, sweet maid, As steel to loadstone, turned to thee. Companion of my boyhood hours, Thy memory cheered me in the gloom, As the rich scent of scattered flowers Of half its sorrow strips the tomb. Methought thou wast beside me there, Within the dimly-lighted aisle, Thy voice on the enamored air. The shadows routed by thy smile. Methought I heard thy bird voice say : " Hold fast to every noble thought. And as this night shall end in day, So shall thou unto God be brought." Methought thou gav'st me words of cheer, Methought I felt thy shy caress, And duty shone before me clear, While vanished sin and wretchedness. Then suddenly the risen Sun Stood radiant on the marble floor ; The night its shadowy course had run i At last, my lonely watch was o'er. THE ROMANCE OF Slli lilCIIARD. I left the precints of the dead, And to the dewy courtyard passed, Before the king to bow my head, And rise Sir Richard, knight at last. The Tournament. She Speaks. Throughout thy dreary watch-night, love, I sat within my turret room, And prayed the Heavenly Lord above To guard thee in the charnel gloom. I saw the moonbeam, as it crept To light the sculptured Icgendry, And envied it, because it kept A night-long vigil, dear, with thee. When laggard morning came at last, And thou, in glittering war array, Cam'st, summoned by the trumpet blast, To combat in the mimic fray. I went to see thee at the tilt, And, though I knew how strong thine arm. To check my warm blood played the jilt. For fear that thou shouldst suffer harm. 8 THE ROMANCE OF SIL HI C HARD. I saw the king the signal give, I saw thee spur against the knight, I shrieked : " They cannot meet and hve ! " And veiled mine eyes to hide the sight. But when uprose the vast concourse, One-minded in its praise and mirth, I peeped. Unharmed, upon thy horse Thou wast, thy foeman borne to earth. And ever, as the day wore on, Thou hadst, mcthought, a charmed life, For of the doughtiest knights was none Could overcome thee in the strife. Thou wast as moveless as a rock That, compassed by an angry sea, Undaunted meets its fiercest shock, And hurls it back confusedly. The day was drawing to its end. And Night was tilting with the Sun, When thou before the king didst bend And take the crown that thou hadst won. Adown the lists I saw thee ride ; One instant did our fond eyes meet, And then of England's knights the pride Laid the gold trophy at my feet. \ THE ROMANCE OF SIR RICHARD. Epilogue. ^' What said the king ? " I, laughing, cried. " Did he not take thee by the hand And say, if I was England's pride, Thou wast the fairest i i the land ? And, when uprose the smiling sun Upon my first of happiest da\-s. Did he not see us twain made one, And loud as any cry th)' praise ? " 'Twas thus Sir Richard's life we wove. And brought it to a happy end, For happy lovers ever love All other lovers to befriend. Then ere we from our id\'l turned, I, as befits a poet true, From what of knighthood we had learned A moral for the present drew. I said : " We still have knights as great As those who fought that tourney morn Who love the truth, hold wrong in hate, And pity show the feeble born. lO THE ROMAXCE OF SIR HI CHARD. Still lends the faithful knight his aid To set Oppression's victim free, And in his soul some lily maid Still whispers : " Seek nobility," We rose in silence from the tomb, Scarce needing speech our thoughts to share, And slowly from the castle gloom Passed out into the midnight air. Arm twined in arm, and souls linked fast. We sought the revellers again ; While Ni"ht kept vigil with the Past, Each happy in its own brief reign. IS THE SUN WORSHIPPK.IS. Not mindless they who kneel before the Sun, And build their temples on cloud-shaming hills-,. To catch its latest beam when day is done, Its earliest when the misty morning fills The air with melody, and babbling rills Among t!ie hillside groves begin to gleam, And every flower its odors sweet distils. Not mindless they who hold the Sun supreme,, But seekers after truth, who find it in a dream. Indeed, not mindless they the Sun who deem Giver of life to earth, and air, and sea, Though to the ignorant mind they mad may seem ; For, blinded by the Godhead's majesty, Before His noble work they bend the knee In worship, but one step from Him astray. Who knows if nearer other faiths may be. Whose followers to departed heroes pray, And look on God as but a mightier man than" they! 12 THE SUN WOIiSIHPPEIiS. Seaward no wandering streamlet sinp^s its way, No zephyr stirs the leafage, not a flower, Fanned by the humming-bird, blooms on its spray, But owes its birth and life to the Sun's power. No mushroom growth upsprings within the hour, No century-living oak mounts to the skies, No harmless lizard dallies in a bower. No wild beast lives, no bird, no insect flies But that the Sun strength for its daily life supplies. It is the Sun that lights the maiden's eyes. Beats in her veins, and rounds each glowing charm ; For every thought a sunbeam lives and dies ; It is the Sun that nerves the hero's arm, That peals the vesper bell and war's alarm. The sentinel, that through the rayless night Guards the beleaguered garrison from harm, Has drawn his power to watch from the Sun's might. Nay more, it is the Sun that taught his sword to bite. THE SUN WORSHIP VERfi. «s No act, no thought, no sorrow, no dch"Ljlit, No W^Qy no death, stability, nor change, No deed of wrong, no battle for the right But to the Sun we trace. Throughout the range Of time grown grey and time unborn, the strange Vicissitudes of earth are through the Sun. The fossil past has stored, as in a gi'ange, His beams to feed the ages yet to run Till earth grow cold in death, and time, at last,, is none. The warmth that glows within the grate was won Long aions since, ere man to breathe began. By graceful tree ferns from the powerful Sun. At the Sun's call the icefields over-ran The earth, and slew well nigh all life but man. The earth itself was born in the Sun's breast, And when in death it waxeth cold and wan Will turn again, and, like a child distressed, Upon that bosom fall, and find eternal rest. 14 THE sr\ woiisnii'j'Kus. Not mindless, then, arc they who have confessed The Sun their God, and on cloud-shaming hills Have built their temples that at eve the west, At morn the east with glorious radiance fills. Not mindless they whom the Sun's grandeur thrills With worship, though they knownot the Unknown Who rules the Sun, and earth through it instils With greatness : these fanatics not alone Worship for God the brilliance which obscures His throne. 15 ON THE SHORE. Robed in summer's ^mldcn splendorj'cwclled by the tinkli!t<^ w.ives, Many a crescent promontory takes the sea in its embrace. Starfish cluster on the sand-plains, crawfish lurk amon^ the caves, Where the seaweed's ripplin^r tresses interlace. Childlike, clings the shimmering sunlight to the bosom of the sea. Lulled to slumber by the crooning of the waves upon the shore ; And beyond the purpled islands, like a seagull winging (vce, Slips a yacht, and fades from sight for ever- more. With its shadowy hand a pine tree gathers sunbeams from the crround, Drops them, barkening to the wind's tale, then upgathers them anew ; L».i i6 ox THE SHORE. ! |( ■m M Dusty brown, the ripe grass whispers on a high sea-fronting mound, Flashing emerald when the sea wind wanders through. In and out among the gneisses, peering \■^ their chinks and caves, ' Strays a dawn-eyed child whose footsteps scarcely stir the mobile sard; While the sunbeams smile upon her, a;id the lithe, foa-Ti-c-rested waves, Doglike, fawn and leap to kiss her slender hand From the far sky's hollow portals glide vast billows to the shore, Bearing oft a briny treasure to begu.le the eairer maid ; Now a trailing vine that drooped once some lithe-limbed sea-maiden o'er. As she sat and combed her tresses m .ts shade ; Now a piece of sodden driftwood, of some unknown ship a part, ■ From the waste of beryl waters, trendmg landward many days ^ ON THE SHORE. n 1 a hicfh wanders ill their footsteps and the r slender T-lide vast icuile the nice some ses in its of some ;, trending With its tale of storm and shipwreck, making sad the maiden's heart, And her merry eyes grow thoughtful as they gaze. Questioning, she turns to ocean, which, with snowy breast laid bare To the amorous rocks, with kisses winds its arms about its love ; And she wonders that the heart which throbs bcneatii that bosom fair Should so cruel in its hour of anger prove. Questioning, she hears the love song chanted by the dallying breeze, As it wooes the graceful pine tree in the shadows o.i the hciHit, And she wonders how the voice that daily sings such songs as these Can to death lure helpless seamen in the night. Something rarer claims her fancy ; she forgets the wreck and wind As she looks on the reflection of her own young, happy face i m i8 ON THE SHORE. In a wave that, oversleeping on the beach, was left behind By its comrades, in a hollow rock's embrace. Then she wreathes the tiny sea shells in a many-tinted chain Round her neck, or, like a mermaid, inter- weaves them with her hair. Till she seems a child of Ocean, who shall sink from sight again With the foam wraiths that from sharp rocks rise in air. Oft she finds a pearl-lipped sea-shell, turns it in her slender hand. Drains its little ocean from it, setting its weird music free, Listens while it sings the songs with which the Ocean charms the strand, Till she tires, and throws it back into the sea. Then she stoops to gather pebbles, and around her shoulders fall. As a golden cloud at day-death veils the sun, her wayward locks ; ON TUB SHORE. 19 And her voice finds birth in laughter at the startled crabs that crawl From her pathway to their caverns in the rocks. Nature's book upon the sea-shore is for her a wondrous tome, And she reads its fairy stories witn an ever new delight, While Old Ocean turns the pages with his finger- tips of foam, And on silent wing the happy hours take flight 20 *li; W- Ml II A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Whither wend ye, wise kings three ; , Whither wend ye With your perfumes and your gems, Fit for princely diadems ; ^ Whither wend ye? Whither wend ye, wise kings three ? «* O'er hill and lea, Where yon star, that, bright and high, Through the azure of the sky Leads constantly." Seek ye what, O ! wise kings three ; For what seek ye ? Seek ye wealth, or seek ye power ? Sup ye here and rest an hour, Road-worn ye be. " Not for riches wander we. Nor sovereignty : Nor can wait to sup and rest : Of a king we are in quest, We wise kings three. m A CHRISTMAS CAROL. " For a mighty king seek we, Born lord to be Of all kingdoms of the earth. Canst thou tell us of his birth, Where dwelleth he ? " Yonder in a manger, see ! There lieth he ; For, the humble place above. Shines the star, and doth not move There must he be. " * Glory unto God,' sing we Glad wise kings three. Spice and jewels shall we bring To the cradle of the king. Our gifts to be. " ' Unto God all glory be,' Thus sing will we ; For, our weary journey done. We may rest and sup, each one, Joy'd wise kings three." 21 22 i A SNOWSHOE SONG. Hilloo, hilloo, hilloo, hilloo ; Gather, gather ye men in white ; The wind blows keenly, the moon is bright, The sparkling snow lies firm and white : Tic on the shoes, no time to lose, We must be over the hill to-night. Hilloo, hilloo, hilloo, hilloo ; Swiftly in single file we go, The city is soon left far below. Its countless lights like diamonds glow, And as we climb we hear the chime Of church bells stealing o'er the snow. Hilloo, hilloo, hilloo, hilloo ; Like winding sheet about the dead. O'er hill and dale the snow is spread, And silences our hurried tread. The pines bend low, and to and fro The maples toss their boughs o'erhead. Hilloo, hilloo, hilloo, hilloo ; We laugh to scorn the angry blast. The mountain top is gained and past. A SNO WSIIOE SONG. 23 Descent begins, 'tis ever fast, — A short quick run, and toil is done. We reach the welcome inn at last. Shake off, shake off the clinging snow. Unloose the shoe, the sash untie. Fling tuque and mittens lightly by. The chimney fire is blazing high, And, richly stored, the festive board Awaits the merry company. - Remcve the fragments of the feast ! The steaming coffee, waiter, bring. Now tell the tale, the chorus sing, And let the laughter loudly ring. Here's to our host, come drink the toast, Then up ! for time is on the wing. Hilloo, hilloo, hilloo, hilloo ; The moon is sinking out of sight, Across the sky dark clouds take flight, And dimly looms the mountain height. Tie on the shoes, no time to lose. We must be home again to-night. rl •I H premisp:s and conclusion. The breath of summer stirred her hair, And swept a tress athwart his cheek, And ap. his warm blood met it there He had it in his heart to speak ; For something in the shy caress Of that gold ringlet unconfined Filled him with longings to possess, And whispered that the maid was kind. An open book upon her knee With fluttering leaves her fingers fanned. It was no ornate poesy, No novel from a master hand. It taught of science' wondrous lore, And unto strange conclusions led, The volume they were bending o'er. That youth and maiden, head to head. She read : " Brute animals are mere Machines, devoid of consciousness ; They do not love, nor hate, nor fear. Experience pleasure nor distress : PREMISES AND CONCLUSION. 25 And man, no more than this is he, Let him not boast his intellect ; In thought, in act he is not free, — External forces him direct." She closed the book, and veiled her eyes. Soft lashes wooed each downy cheek. He gazed anci thought : " From Paradise Surely the sprites a truant seek." Then spake the maiden, dreamily. And asked ; " Can these stern words be true ; Are we automata, or free Or good or bad to know and do ? " Gently he answered (still the tress Against his cheek, they sat so near) : *' What mere brutes are we can but guess Yet with ourselves the truth is clear. The love for thee within my heart, The joy I know when thou art nigh, Are not a paltry, force-ruled part Of some complex machinery. ** The love of mother for her child, The creed of an eternal soul. Such traits cannot be reconciled With credence in mere force-control. li :S iii 26 PREMISES AND CONCLUSION. What force, external to the mind Can cause sublime self-sacrifice? Ah, no ! methinks that human kind Is not some well-made, dead device. " And yet," — the tress against his check Made his erst timid heart grow bold — " Even at this moment, as I speak. By beauty's force I am controlled : A mere automaton am I, Obedient to Dame Nature's laws, And if I kiss thee — thus — dear, why, Thou shouldst not blame me, but the cause.'* 27 * FADED VIOLETS. Do you remember these blossoms you tost mc-- Violets once, but now formless and grey — In those bright days when my heart was first lost mc — That's what the sight of your loveliness cost me— Do you remember them, pray? xNo? Now, that's strange; I was sure you'd remember. Dear, think again : 'twas a midsummer night. Red shone the moon through the trees, as an ember Glows through the grate bars in frosty December, Cheerily shedding its light. Over the arch of each lightly-clad shoulder Flowed your white wrap. You'd th^se flowers at your breast. Warm though the day was, the night had grown colder ; Zephyrs had wakened, and, in the dusk bolder, Softly your tresses caressed. 38 FADED VIOLETS. Then I said something. Absurd ? That's un- doubted, Grudi^inj^ the buds their unmerited bliss, — Love reifjns by starh"<^ht and caution is routed ; Lips smile at words that by day would have pouted ; Starlight was given for this. Nothing you answered, but jur.t as we parted, You in tlie doorway and I on the path, Shyly you tossed me the nosegay, and darted. Into the house, while I stood, happy-hearted, I who had feared for your wrath. Now you remember ! What, nothing whatever. Love! and you ask — with the buds lying here — How I remember? Forget will I never. Why? Well, a tale, though at tales I'm not clever, Best makes my morj.mg appear. Into the cleft of a cliff, thunder-riven. Where a stream gurgles o'er mosses and rocks. Chased by the sun, at day dawning are driven Out of the star-blossomed pastures of heaven, Night's silent, shadowy flocks. FADED VIOLETS. 29 Here, with the spray of the stream in its chaUcc, Dwelt a shy blossom aiid swayed in the breeze. Beetles and ants throufjh its pistilatc palace Wandered at will, and beslimed it in malice, While stole its nectar the bees. Ever the dun cliffs the daylight denied it ; Only by shadows it knew of the sun ; Moaning, the streamlet flowed darkly, beside it, With but its yearning for ocean to guide it ; — Joy in that cleft there was none. Once came a day in the life of the flower When slid the sun, like a bird, o'er the cleft, Flooded the blossom with light for an hour, Then passed away to his Occident bower, Leaving the poor plant bereft. Yet that short hour left remembrance behind it; Gaily the plant put forth blossoms anew. And, though the gap's jealous walls still con- fined it, No more the clustering shadows could blind it. For the sun seemed to shine through. PW 30 FADED VIOLETS. Phoebus, the day king, forgot, or knew never, ^ How glad he made a life bitterly drear, There, that's my tale. You can guess, if you're clever. Why in my bosom I carry forever Violets scentless and sere. Ijil;;! !i'l A CHRISTMAS LULLABY. The restless clock is ticking out The hours that go before the dawn, And icy moonbeams dart about The snow that shrouds the slumbering lawn - The lawn that Santa Claus must cross Ere he shall reach my baby's cot,— Ah ! who shall measure Bertie's loss Should Santa Claus come not ! Sleep, softly sleep, my pretty one ; I hear the neighing of the steeds,— Good Santa Claus has just begun His round of kindly deeds. What has the little man for thee, My precious babe who slum^'rest there? He brings, sweet one, a gift from me, A mother's love, a mother's care — t , I 32 A CHRISTMAS LULLABY. i>A\ '' m 'lii Ifli^: 1 :i!ihii I |i !li; ffliii A mother's care that shall not wane, While hands can toil or brain can think, Until that day shall come again When thou shalt cross life's brink. Sleep, softly sleep, my pretty one ; I hear the neighing of the steeds,- Good Santa Glaus has just begun His round of kindly deeds. He brings a cross, he brings a crown, x\nd places them on either hand. Upon the cross thou must not frown. For some day tho;j shalt understand, Shalt understand the preciousness That to the sombre cross pertains, And thou wilt hold the crown far less Than of the cross the pains. Sleep, softly sleep, my pretty one ; I hear the neighing of the steeds,- Good Santa Glaus has just begun His round of kindly deeds. He brings the greatest gift of all In bringing thee thi. Ghristmas Day. The deathless love it doth recall Of Him who took thy sins away \ A GimiSTMAS LULLABY. Z^ And when no more thy mother's care Can guide thy footsteps, Baby Mine, Thy steps shall be secured, eachvvhere,' By love of One divine. Sleep, sottly sleep, my pretty one ; I hear tne neighing of the steeds,— Good Santa Claus has just begun His round of kindly deeds. M ; 34 :!;i) w lil m »' 1 1 IB 'ilH! I if! DESTINY. A fledgeling swung within a wind-blown nest, Deep cradled in a modest hawthorn crest. To peer at it the curious leaves bent over, And crooned shy songs to lull it into rest. The mother bird sang to the sun above her, Till stirred the gold air, throbbing like her breast, With love expressed. Through summer days, the runningsands of years, Shadow and sunlight crossed protecting spears. Ebon and gold, above earth's tender guest. With eager lips the leafage drank the tears Of weeping clouds, lest it should be distressed, And mother love sang in its listening ears To soothe its fears. Frail as a crystal flake of breast-white snow, And fearful as the echo-fleeinsf doe, Weak as the wayward thistledown which veers DESTINY. 35 In winds that cannot bow the daisy low, Instinct with charms born of more heavenly spheres, The little nestling, in the summer glow, Swung to and fro. Thus, wind-nursed, passed its youth ; and then my love Found the shy nest within the hawthorn grove. And dowered the bird with all love could bestow. I heeded not the warning poised above In heaven's blue arch, nor fateward turned to know That the frail nestling would its pinions prove, And skyward rove. Days wing the soul and poise it for its flight ; Days give it strength to win life's azure height. With lapse of days the feeble fledgeling throve, And dreamed sweet dreams that thrilled it with delight. Then while, soul-sick, I watched, its young wings strove. Not vainly, to uplift it to the bright Portals of lifrht. MMkMMto*Ml>MMAUl 36 DESTINE. Sunlight and shade dwell in the swaying trees, Sunlight and shade and wind-sung melodies, Sunbeams and song ; but in my soul is night, And moanings of a grief time doth not ease. The empty nest is ever in my sight. And earthward faintly float sweet symphonies Upon the breeze. i I 37 THE VALEDICTORIAN. Coral lip and budding bosom, rippling locks and e\-cs' coy shade Whisper that behind her learning Cupid lies in ambuscade. Gowned and happy, capped and hooded, radiant with the glow of youth, Flute-voiced, like a bird full-throated, she upholds the cause of truth. By the beard she plucks the grcyheads, laughs to scorn the pride of man. " Woman free is woman victor, let him rival her who can ! " Crying : *' Woman shall have freedom ; " crying : "Ceaseless be her strife That, as unto man, be opened unto her the walks of life. 38 THE VALEDICTORIAN. " Under foot man treads the animal : dies the ape, the tiger dies ; Man climbs upwards, seeking knowledge, shouldering through the centuries. " Climbs the man and woman follows, yearning for the sunlit goal. Yet he needs must thrust her downwards, her with like immortal soul ; " Thrust her down with brutal utterance : ' This and that is not for thee. Keep thy kitchen, nurse thy children, leave the realm of thought to me.' " Buoyant through the infinite aether, swings the world around the sun, Blinded half by the other's shadow, else of dark- ness there were none. " Let not man his selfish shadow cast upon the sister soul ; All is silence and desolation when the midnight shrouds the pole. '* Comes a cry from utter darkness, out of silence comes a w^ail. Ignorance for light is pleading ; surely succour shall not fail 1 THE VALELICTOlilAN. 39 " Maiden-buds of woman-beauty, hot-housed by 1 father's love, See the soul of man before them onward to per- fection move. " See, afar, the h'ght of knowledge breaking on life's topmost height, And with opening hearts and yearning bend towards it through the night. " Wherefore bows the soul in worship, if there be no God to hear ; Why doth woman yearn for knowledge if her mind br not man's peer? "Freely woman plucks the blossoms in the shady dells that grow ; On the maid, as on the stripling, Nature doth her gifts bestow. "Sorrow's shafts nor winds of winter woman's beauty ever charms ; Death spares not his torturing kisses when he takes her to his arms. " Man hath many a mortal conflict, equal conflicts hath the maid. Shall she not in equal armour for life's warfare be arrayed ? I 40 THE VALEDICTORIAN. "Grant the maid the shield of knowledge, gird the maid with learning's sword ; Let her by man's side do battle with the powers that hate the Lord. " Evil shuns the open sunlight, Ignorance a tyrant rules. And the history of the future is determined in the schools." Maiden bachelor, well you reason ; all your burning words are true. And I see the chiefest reason man should heed your prayer — in you. You are eager, you are kindly, knowledge dwells upon your lips ; Natheless you arc yet a woman, feminine to your finger tips. ■I li I; I: t "Nay, but" — flash man's eyes indignant, — "would she call me Ichabod ? Would she drag mc from mine eminence, she, the afterthought of God ? THE VALEDlCTOlilAX. 41 "I am man ; 'tis mine to follow all the beckoning shapes of life ; She is woman, and her duties lie in household, mother and wife. '* Unto man belongs the forum, unto man the desk and field, Unto man the war with Nature to reveal the unrevealed, *' Massive head and stalwart shoulders, breast of bone and sinewy limb, These are man's ; shpll frailer woman dare to enter lists with him ! ''Shall the father bring forth children, shall they on his bosom lie While, before the judge, the mother wrangles lest the murderer die ? '' Mother ! must man ever live to utter in a care- less breath Mother, his first lisp in childhood ; mother, his last cry in death ? '' She that hacks the blackened body stolen from the kindlier tomb, She that learning's fruit holds dearer than the fruitage of her womb ; *;.:>' } 42 THE VALEDK'TOIilAN. " Leathcr-lungcd and brazen-visaged, she, the sacred liomc that wrecks On the reefs of vain ambition, shames her virtue, shames her sex. " When man holds the moon at mid-dav, Hke a cloud-wraith faint and white, Nobler than the silver splendour of the harvest moon at night, " Me will hold the unsexed woman of the forum and the mart Nobler than tne stately matron reigning in his home and heart. " Manhood is a storm-vext ocean, womanhood a rippling rill, Which with sweet and sunny waters doth the bitter sea-heart fill. ** Man life's warrior is and victor, ever was and ever shall be Woman's champion and provider ; and his crowning solace she." ': ^ THE VALEDICTORIAN. 43 Stern my master, well you reason ; these your stormy words are true ; Empress of the home is woman, warrior of the world are you. Love will tame that fiery maiden eager now ta rule the earth ; Love will whisper her true kingdom at her help- less firstling's birth. Youth is full of fire, and wisdom corses not instant with the hood ; Aye, and man is fiery also, and a tyrant in his blood. Wisdom is the fruit of knowledge, blossoming in the sun of years, Rounding in the noon of life and ripening in a rain of tears. Rare as golden sands is^woman dowered with wisdom at her birth. As Athena sprang full-statured, from the brain of Jove to earth. One there is, and only one, of all the women I have known, And she won me to a nature dimly mirroring her own. 44 THE VALEDICTORIAN. m " .1;!! ;,l-' ; Like a summer sunbeam gliding Sviftly through a tangled grove, Through the earthlier throng she wanders, and to see her is to love. Perfect woman of perfect woman, helpful daughter, gentle bride. Rules she all with unseen influence, as the fair moon rules the tide. Like the harp, whose soul of music wakes re- sponsive to the wind, Wakes her soul to thrid thought's labyrinth, comrade of the husband mind. Motherhood, nor cares of home her progress unto truth shall bar ; Knowledge comes to such as she as to the twilight comes a star. Genius soars on tireless pinions to the peaks of thought sublime, Talent creeps, and meets a thousand cruel barriers in its climb. Grant the woman-soul its wishes ; let the hosts of talent learn ; Maids will choose the better husband, maids the sensual fool shall spurn. THE VALEDICTORIAN. 45 Let them learn ; from perfect woman knowledge shall not banish love, And the cultured wife a helpmeet fitter for the man shall prove. Those whom God hath joined together act of man may sunder not, Fear to part the wife and husband by a barrier of thought ; Fear to have the woman only share the hus- band's lower life ; Fear to hide his soul's true grandeur from that kindred soul, his wife ! Nature hath no shameful secrets, let the maid her pages scan Fearlessly, though some, foolhardy, strive to wrest his sword from man. Woman may have need of woman ; purity endureth much ; From the rude sun shrinks the violet, yearning for the dewdrop's touch. Love rules not in every bosom ; let the maiden choose between ; Glimmering like the noonday moon and glowing like the midnight queen. -IX f .'W w 46 THE VALEDICTORIAN. Grant her choice, nor fear the issue ; man will wed no unsexed maid ; Childless shall she die, and with her shall her sterile learning fade. Man's heart in the breast of woman, what though such desert their trust, Let not man, that weeds may perish, tread the golden grain to dust. Fear no evil, all the beauties of the intellect and art In true women cannot still the yearnings of the mother heart. Open fling the doors of learning, all the wisdom maidens win Some day shall the child that nestles at the mother's breast drink in. ^ Woman learns and man discovers ; he is the pioneer of thought : Yet in vain he strives and conquers if his children follow not. Man is the promise of the present, woman of the years to be When to manhood grows the prattler learning now upon her knee. THE VALEDICTORIAN. 47 Woman stands at heaven's portals, at the gates of hell she stands ; Wraps her silken tresses round us, leads us as with iron bands. Priestess of our birth and burial, empress of our joy and pain. Grant her knowledge, lest she drag us backward to the ape again. » ll' : li; 48 111 ft 1 1 THE LILACS AND THE STAR. Through the dusk chambers of night, Paced by a sentinel star, Stealeth the soft-footed breeze, Bearing sweet scents in its flight Out of a park where there are Nodding-plumed lilac trees. Dimly the rays of the star. Glint in the whispering trees, Painting the blossoms with light. Softly I hear from afar, Waked by the kiss of the breeze, Ripple of waves, through the night. Sweet as the sweet-smelling trees, Filling the soul with delight, Love comes from such as you are. Banished by you, swiftly flees Grief from my life, as at night Shades flee the sentinel star. ill 49 CHRISTMAS. The church bells send their joyous chimes Across the snow-clad earth, In token that in bygone times This day our Lord had birth. The babe within a manger lay, And to it, from afar, Came wise men, who, by night and day. Were guided by a star. They knelt the humble cot beside, And costly presents made ; Then from the place in secret hied. Of Herod sore afraid. The angels sang on Christ's birth-night To shepherds in the plain. While all the sky was filled with light And echoed the refrain. " Be peace on earth, goodwill to man," Thus sang the angel throng, And since the reign of Christ began Earth echoes that sweet song. 'I 111 I II 50 THE FLIRT. If Time, the god of pleasure, If Time, the god of tears. My moments would remeasure And give me back ray years ; Life's cup I would brim over. And all old pleasures drain ; But the draught made me a lover I would not quaff again. Like birds in summer bowers That trill their melody, Hope sang, amid the hours. Its gladsome songs for me ; Till, with her heartless beauty. She snared my thoughtless feet, And love transcended duty. And life grew incomplete. The bee that sips the flowers, Leaves golden pollen there. And soon, in sunny hours, Ripe fruit the blossoms bear. THE F LIU T. From her soul might have fallen Love, my soul-bud upon, And borne fruit, like the pollen. Ere was youth's summer done. But, like the worm which settles Upon the white rose spray, And slimes its satin petals. And eats its heart away. She fastened on my weakness. And made my soul her prize, And filled my life with bleakness. And ate my heart with lies. She filled my life with sorrow. Then, laughing, flew away ; Mine was the woful morrow And hers the glad to-day. The soul within her keeping Beneath her feet she trod. Yet shall, some day, with weeping. Account for it to God. 51 I 52 LOVE AND A SERMON. I' t h '\]t She loosed her close-coiled tresses, And to her feet they fell, As over craggy nesses Streams plunge to ocean's swell. Like wraiths on cloud-swept mountains, That robe a pine in storm, Like mists on shapely fountains, So clung they to her form. The Loreley that haunted The wild Teutonic stream, And sweeter lyrics chaunted Than ever soul could dream, No lovelier locks was combing To lure men to their doom, Than those that, like a gloaming. Enwrapped the maid in gloom. They glowed with hidden lustre. Like diamonds at night, Or like a starry cluster That through the sky shines bright. LOVE AND A SERMON. They rippled o'er her shoulders And gleamed upon her breast, As oft one sunbeam smoulders, At twilight, in the west. Like any child, who lingers Some tempting spring beside To thrust his eager fingers Within the eddying tide, He stood beside the maiden. And toyed vvith each gold tress. His heart with yearnings laden That tongue could scarce express. Across his lips he drew them, And their soft shimmer kissed ; He added others to them, And bound them round his wrist ; He said : " As yearns the flower For dawn, I yearn for thee ; Thou hast me in thy power, What wilt thou do with me ? " She said : "If magic lurketh Within these locks of mine, And in thy bosom worketh While round thy wrist they twine ; 53 I PI i -IB**^ 54 LOVE AND A SUMMON. If in those heavy tresses, Across thy lips that lay, My soul its wish expresses, What is there need to say ? " Thy lips shall be, forever, Truth's champions at need. Thy hands their strength will never Shame by a ruthless deed ; The feet of all who stumble Thou shalt securely place. And make thy proud soul humble Before the Throne of Grace." 55 A PAIR OF GEESE. They're the veriest pair of geese I ever knew, Are these two, As they nestle in the sunshine, wing to wing. Queen and King Of an empire of delight, and of youth, Love and truth. Her trustful eyes his grey eyes looking through, Hers arc blue ; While their elders hiss as loud as they dare At the pair. • Notwithstanding he's a goose, not a bird Ever heard, Neither nightingale nor lark, no, nor thrush. Has so lush A love song as his own, nor so choice, When his voice For the sweet one at his side he doth raise In her praise — Such a dainty little goose that she is. This of his. 1 1 i 1 * i 56 A PAIR OF GEESE. Do the dullards honor him for his song? They are wrong ; Tis the goose and not the gander they should praise For the lays. He's the harp and she's the harpist, and she brings From the strings Strains that fill him with surprise that her art Should impart To so ill-attuned a lyre melodies Such as these. Yet this youthful pair of geese sometimes fight, Hiss and bite, Over trifles light as air — not a few Lovers do, •For the sake of making up, I suppose. No one knows — Yet woe to him who comes in between King and Queen, For they'll peck him nigh to death ere they cease. Will these geese. • ; • A PAIR OF GEESE. SI "" And this loving pair of geese, who are they — Tell me, pray? " Surely, Sweet, there is no need to tell who : One is you. And the other . . pardon me ? . . Do you not ? Why, I thought Love had shot your dear heart through . . You deny! So do I — And there is but one poor goose, and my tale? What avail ! :,8 A > THE WOODBIRD. A vvoodbird came to a maiden's cot, And chirped and cheeped and twittered and trilled, For he was well content with his lot. And all the grove with his soul voice filled. The bird was free as the fickle wind That lays its head in the violet's breast, Then, laughing, sprmgs fiom his couch to find Another bower in the aspen's crest ; Free as the '^jent of the dew-pearled rose. Free as the clouds that embrace the sky, Free as the sun on the sea chat glows. Free as the moonbeams, and not less shy. Yet to the maiden's lone cot he came. And trilled and chirped and twittered and cheeped. While she at nim through the vine-clad frame Of her bright sun-fronting lattice peeped. THE WOODBIRD. 59 Her bosom laces the maid withdrew, And made her heart to the sunhght bare. Into that nest the Httle one flew, And trilled and cheeped and was happy there. Flew in and sang, and the passer-by. Weary and sad in the lonely grove, Drew strength and joy from the melody, That oft-times broke with the weight of love. I, 6q TELL ME, DEAREST, WHY? She's a young thing-, an^- a sweet thing. Like a spray of Christmas holly ; She's a dear thing, and a neat thing, And I love her — is it folly ? Yet she fears me, and I tremble Like a leaf when she is nigh : Tell me, why does Love dissemble ; Tell me, dearest, why ? I''-, She's so merry and so kindly. And so gentle with all others ; Why will Love, then, act so blindly, Tell me why his fire he smothers ? Wherefore do I dwell in sorrow While joy hovers ever nigh ; Wherefore do I fear the morrow ; Tell me, dearest, why ? I'm unworthy, that's no answer. Else to all men she's forbidden ; Love's a very necromancer. Finding worth where most 'tis hidden. ..lii Mil TELL ME, DEAREST, WHY? 6 1 If she love me she will dower me With the worth the Fates deny ; Wherefore, then, should fear o'erpower me, Tell me, dearest, why ? I will hide my love no longer. All my heart I will discover, I will say my soul grew stronger From the day it learnt to love her ; Say my life is in her keeping, Say I wait for her reply ; Darling, you are laughing, weeping ; Tell me, dearest, why ? 62 Jii I, ' DEATH COMES TO US ALL. Death comes to us all : And bids man return Again to his God. We are leaves, and we fall And mix with the sod ; But our spirits that yearn For the unknown, and burn With vain hopes, naught can kill. Mankind, like a rill To ocean that flows Through woodland and plain, Makes his murmurings fill With a ceaseless refrain All the world as he goes, Till he finds his repose In the depths of the grave. 'Twas ocean that gave The streamlet to earth, In the cycle of years To return to its wave. God gave not for tears Us that soul, but for mirth; To teach us life's worth ; Then recalled it aeain. . lii, 'li; .'il 63 LITTLE MISS BLUE EYES. Little Miss Blue Eyes open the door, " Nobody's in," says she. Little Miss Blue Eyes has evermore Stolen my heart from me. Little Miss Blue Eyes stands at the door, " Will you come in ? " asks she, " Papa'll be back in an hour or more ;" Blue Eyes has seen through me. Little Miss Blue Eyes opes her heart's door, " Nobody's in," says she. (Would I might venture that threshold o'er Into its sanctity.) Little Miss Blue Eyes, if you are kind. Keep mc not at the door ; Into your love, from the cold and wind, Take me, dear, evermore. Little Miss Blue Eyes stands at the door. Archly smiling at me : " Papa'll be back in an hour or more, Come in and wait," says she. H I I 64 IN LOVE'S BOWERS. I am a bee in the bowers of love, Winging from red rose to lily. Since woman is false, why should I not rove ?- The love that is constant is silly. Who love only one. Of love may taste none ; He who will rove Is never undone. The sparkle that brightens the eye of Cerise, The folds of fair Alice's wimple. And Lucy's lithe figure, my roving heart please As well as Kate's mouth or Nell's dimple. Who loves only one, Of love may taste none ; j He who will rove Is never undone. IN LOVE'S BO WERS. 65 Who loves only one may win beauty, I know, And a soul that is \\ orth the possessing ; But if she's a blonde, why the brunettes must go. If brunette, the blondes lack his caressincr Who loves only one, Of love may taste none ; He who will rove Is never undone. It gives me no pang that my Alice in pain Sees Cerise have a share of my kisses, And Lucy may pout, and sweet Nell, in'disdain, Turn away when my worship she misses. Who loves only one. Of love may taste none ; He who will rove Is never undone. I care not a whit ; there are maids fair as they— I leave reconcilement to lovers The honey IVe sipped, so I wander away— Oh ! happy is life to the rovers. ' - Who loves only one, • ^- ■ Of love may taste none ; He who will rove ; _^ ^^ Is never undone. 66 I IN EXILE. Though friends and fortune smile, this is not home ; No dews of peace on me, constrained to roam, Drop these strange skies, my sad soul bending over, From their flame-fretted, silent, soulless dome ; No sun-throned days, warm as a maiden lover, Bring rest, though they be sweet as wild bees' comb, — This is not home. This is not home : my spirit in exile Faints for old scenes. Dear argent-girdled isle, Loved birthplace, rising, Venus-like, from foam, Like her, thou sl?v'st me with thy beauty's wile. In absence still the crags my feet have clomb, The mountain grove and ferny, cool defile My heart beguile. IX EXILE. 67 This is not home : Beside her cold liearthstone, Amid the glooms of age, one sits alone, Nor turns to welcome with a mother's smile The nestling from her bosom now far flown. Naught can her heart to its loss reconcile, And for the gentle nest it once had known,' My heart makes moan. This is not home : no longer at my side She stands, whom God hath promised for my bride. Her love-deep eyes upglancing to my own. No place is home where is my heart denied Her smile, in whose pure sunshine it has grown — Love, ere I thee forsook, to wander wide. Would I had died ! m MM NOT NATURE, BUT MAN. Not for me do the song birds lilt in the meadows, Or slide through the tree-tops ; Not for me do the sunshovvers harry their shadows With pattering raindrops. Not for me do the wheat fields dip to the breezes That over the wolds blow ; Not for me does the murmuring brook as it pleases Through slumberous vales flow. Not for me is the scream that breaks from the shingle Dragged down by the fierce sea ; Not for me docs the violet bloom in the dingle Beneath the gnarled oak tree. I know but the sights and strange sounds of the city, The stony-faced buildings, The unceasing tumult of feet, and the ditty The beggar for bread sings. NOT NATURE, BUT MAN. 69 On my car falls the clamor of trade, and the rattle Of carts in the roadway, The voices of innocent babes, as they prattle At this and at that play. The songs that I hear are the hymns of the nations. Not strains that the birds sing ; The wings I see flutter are man's aspirations That him nearer God brin^. o The groves that I dream in are street lamps that glitter Mist-veiled, through the night air, The ocean I look on is life's ocean, bitter With joys that float dead there. The wind that bows down the ripe heads in my mcado\\'s With sudden and chill breath. And harries the clouds in pursuit of their shadows By mortals is called Death. Not nature but man is best theme of the poet, And oft though my song breaks, ' I sing of man's soul, yet alas, who may know it, Save Him'who the soul makes? |. ., %'■: :1 70 TO HER LOVER. Sweet is your worship, dearest, to my heart, I love to know you mine, both soul and body, And hate the world that gladly would us part. Luring your love with flaunting joys, and gaudy. But do I lead you nearer unto God, My love, who say so ardently you love me ? Am I your highest aim — a pretty clod — Or does your spirit rise through mine, above me? ;i l!' : •/ III : Is pity quickened : is your soul at strife With wrong, and grown enamored of perfec- tion ? What new thoughts, hopes, sensations fill your life?— Thus would I try the gold of your affection. el Are you content, love, or do you aspire From arm-zoned joys of earth to joys supernal? For love is never love if its wings tire Short of the glorious throne of the Eternal. n THE FLOWER GIRL. She is a stately golden rod, Crowned with her sunny hair, And her eyes are like twin violets. Her lips like roses rare. The lily's bloom is on her cheeks, Sweeter her breath than thorn. And her voice is as the stir of buds That greet the wind of morn. The flowers she wreathes have odors rich, Their hues are soft and gay. But the graces of her maiden soul More dainty are than they. 72 fl '' TO A COQUETTE. I hate you for the power you wield Over my foolish heart. I hate you, .since you make me yield, A captive to your art. I hate your gloiiv;.us eye.s, that shine With jo)'' and virtue fraught. I hate your f;olden locks, that twine About my every thought. I hate you, for you make me love The very ground }'ou tread. I hate you — since I cannot move Your heart with mine to wed. i ,1 73 A SONG. Who would not brave the fiercest storm That ever shook a rafter, If but to know the sweetened charm Of the calm that follows after ! Who would not face the darkest night That ever followed even. If but to take renewed delight In the glowing noonday heaven ! Who would not quarrel with his love And brave the storm of sorrow, If only love's bright bliss to prove With kisses on the morrow ! 74 i ! .sir INTIMACY. Friend, each knows other to the very heart's core, Reads thoughts in eyes before the tongue can voice their,, Knows, as a singer knows his studied pan's score, The feeh'ngs' range, what grieves and doth rejoice them. Between us naught is new. Thou dost but find me An empty shell that tells the same tale ever ; Thou of a favorite poem dost remind me, Whose pages well I know, and need turn never. This is the woe of life, to reach the limit Of the soul's kingdom in the heart that rules us — The breath that shows the mirror glass doth dim it ; Tis what we wish, not what we have, that schools us. ill 11 75 J' ■' THE COURIER DE BOIS. My home is in the forest shade, yiy rifle is my bride, From whom not e'en the fairest maid Can lure me to her side. My bed is on the scented pines, My coverlet the sky, Yet not the King himself reclines On sweeter couch than I. Soundly we slumber, till the dawn Breaks in a flood of gold O'er forest dense and dewy lawn. The mountain and the wold. And then I rise, and with my bride Thread the awakening wood ; And woe the savage beast betide That breaks our solitude. " If -J 5) 76 V, 1; I; ISCARIOT. Hush thee ! liush ! he may be in heaven For au|jht \vc know. Did he not repent ; And is it not said who repents is forgiven? His pardon, then, there may naught prevent' He knew that Christ was, indeed, tlie Lord ! And what of that ; did not Jesus say 'Twas he should do that deed so abhorred, However could he escape fate, pra}^? Christ he betrayed, and he shortly went And told the priests their gold had a stain, And proflered it back, not a farthing spent Of that he had bartered his soul to i^ain. They would not take it : he let it lie, Blood-money cast at their guilty feet ; ' And wandered forth, in despair, to die, — Why say his repentance was incomplete ? I* 77 COME DOWN TO THE SPIADE. Come down to the shade, my beautiful maid, Come down to the shade of the wood ; The whip-poor-will calls on the edge of the glade, Frogs dreamily flute by the flood. The moon sailcth high through the warm starry • sky, A wheeling hawk screams in the night, A ribbon of silver, the stream eddies by, And rustles the reeds in its flight. ' i Sleep's finger is laid on the lips of the glade. Alone by the river I brood ; Come down to the shade, my beautiful maid, Com"^ down to the shade of the wood. •mtrm^r^ 78 LOVE. Love is the bitterest pleasure upon earth, The keenest purgatory of mankind. It kindles fires of hope on Lhe heart's hearth ; Only to quench them utterly, and blind To the youth-conjured dreams of bliss the mind, And Jealousy crowns king, who i lakcs tlie smile Of woman — by God to comfort man designed — To the crazed lover seem hell's deepest guile With which she lures all men into subjection vile. il And yet when once the words of love are spoken, Soul vows exchanged, and on red lips and warm Is pressed of love the burning seal and token, No longer heard is Jealousy's alarm, And earth revibrates to the new-found charm, Hope towers to heaven, Despair in death low lies; Heart beats on heart, and, trustful, fears no harm ; A brighter sun is shining in the skies, And earth seems earth no more, but rather Paradise. 79 THE MAIDEN'S SONG. A home in a far-off city, A room in that distant home, There singeth a maid a ditty .Of a lover, who doth not come. Her eyes, like the stars adorning The evening sky, flash bright, Then are veiled in mist, like Morning, That weeps at the tomb of xXight. " He will come to my arms to-morrow ; "- But to-morrow he doth not come. " Is it sweet to Thee, God, my sorrow ? " ^ Then the faltering lips are dumb. 8o ■I TO ROSE. The names are changed, dear Rose ; New France is now the Old : For here among the ice and snows Time's flood has scarcely rolled. Old France has lost the lays It loved in olden time ; But these sweet songs of other days Still linger in our clime. Still may we hear them sung By many a peasant maid, As with her heart upon her tongue. She wanders through the glade. We hear them still when glows The moon in flowery dells. And when, across the sparkling snows, Ring out the jingling bells. TO ROSE. Their simple notes we hear Around the blazing hearth. At will they summon up the tear, Or fill the heart with mirth. Nor shall we e'er repine That time has left us young, While by sweet lips as red as thine These antique songs are sung. 8i 82 r MIND AND BODY. Mind and body, warp and woof, With each other are entwined, — Body living, not aloof, Living not aioof the mind. Force and matter, what they are To each other, so are these. As its light is to a star, Organ to its melodies. Quench the steady-burning light, Vanishes the star we '^ce Into interstellar night; From existence, it may be. Still the organ, what remains. Save the metal and the wood ? Silent are the heavenly strains, Lost in empty solitude. Brother, rule the restless mind, That like starlight it may shine ; Rule the body, lest you find Hushed the melody divine. ^3 SONNETS. TO LOUISE. Louise, thy stately name sounds in my ear Like a sea wave, that, gathering, hill on hill, Upon the blue horizon, smooth and still Sweeps to the shore, and as it draws ancar Breaks silence, foaming thunders, clarion-clear Up the sloped strand, and with its voice doth The vaulted sky, that shakes with sudden thrill, While other sounds hold breath, the psalm to hear. In me thy name makes dumb all trivial things Dear maid with lily soul. Who would aspire ^ To enter thy heart's palace, even as friend, Must rise, like thee, upon angelic wings Ever to noblest thoughts and deeds, and bci.J His visi( 1 Godward with youth's passionate fire. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // £c '(/, % 1,0 !ffi^ IM I.I 1.25 1^ 'i£ US 1^ |M 1. UUU IIU 1.4 Jj6 ^= gs 6" y] ."^ -■^3 % «i:^ # y 07? Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 Wt T MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 qU V iV r\^ >* 84 SONJ^'ETS. i I: I!: liiS ALBANI. How many thoughts man hath speech cannot voice I Kovv many dim reflections of the sky There are, whose shapes elude our mortal eye! What spirit songs man hears ! what deep soul joys He knows, whose thrill his life's glad calm annoys For utterance in grand words that cannot die! Ah ! these reveal that souls shall death defy, And must for immortality make choice. Yet not so cruel is Heaven that it gives No language for these cravings of the soul. In melody the soul's soul speaks and lives, Ruling all hearts with its divine control ; And in thy song, Albani, utterance find The else dumb secrets of all human kind. Bi 1 SOKNETS. 8S IX THE MORNING. Sleep's bride, upon her spotless couch she lay, In one hand's dainty nest her cheek, dream- flushed, For spake by night thoughts that by day were hushed. Smiles round her mouth's ripe rose, like bees, did play, Or like, in the east, the first coy beams of day ; And in the tresses her pure brow that brushed Were yet the roses, faded now and crushed, Had crowned her in the hours of revelry. Gently her bosom heaved, and one nude arm. Whose goddess-grace no marble could excel, Fronted the rising Sun, whose glances warm Upon its unconcealed beauty fell ; And as the lord of day the pure flesh kissed. He touched with flame my love-gift on her wrist. .^jf^mmmmm 86 SONNJETS. I HAD BEEN LIKE A SHIP. I had been like a ship upon the sea, By flying gleams at midnight led astray, And following ever, found them melt away In utter void and bleak obscurity. A rush of waters well r.igh whelmed me, And I scarce dreamed to see another day; Yet labored on, hope lost and wild dismay Through rope and canvas shrilling in loud glee. Then, like the steadfast light upon the shore, Trimmed in the window by the waiting wife To guide the trawlers home, thee in the night I saw ; and suddenly the tempest's roar Was hushed, the waves grew calm, the clouds took flight. And all was peace upon my sea of life. SONNETS. 87 THE ETERNITY OF LIFE. Where, in an ancient temple of the East, Before rude carvings kneel idolators, Along the roof a cloud of incense pours From a huge fane ; and by i:he fire a priest Stands mummering on fresh faggots: nor has ceased, For years one numbers by the hundred scores Of those that once knelt on the foot-worn floors, The fire to burn in honor of some beast. Priestess of Life is Nature, and its fire Mysterious she feeds with flesh. Forms die. Yet Life dies never. Like the ruddy flames, Which burn forever on the pagan pyre, Life changes but its shape; what life have I Long cEons since quickened ancestral frames. rm,^. ^m m 4 ; ■ i ifi 88 SONNETS. I THE PEARL BRACELET. I. The Vision of Beauty. Love knew her beautiful ; and yet that night Truth limned her than my fancy's dreams more fair. Blithely, she moved towards me, up the stair, Vestured in opal, while the steadfast light Glowed on smooth arms and bosom lily-white. Like sun on gems. Before that vision rare Of loveliness I stood, my heart in snare. She proud, yet shamed to have so tranced my sight. Meseemed her soul had reached its angel flower. Though still she dwelt in this death-gated land. Soul-stricken by her radiant purity, I faltered words, forgotten to this hour, And bending low, with deep humility. Kissed the warrti whiteness of her ungloved hand. SON^'ETS. 8q IS r, ;1 II. The Bracelet. To deck her child, the richest of white roses Nature had culled. As Nature's vicar, I Wreathed them with fern, and while the maiden shy Stood smiling on me, pinned the happy posies In her soft gown, where, as the wave discloses The pearly sliells that on the shore-edee lie The lace foamed back ar.d showed the ivory Of that dear nest wherein arch Love reposes. She bound three rosebuds in her shimmerino- hair ; Then gloved her arms, and held them out to me. Eyes veiled. I clasped the bracelet on her wrist, Gold and five pearls, and bade her see it there. She looked and blushed, and, shyly, for my fee. Proffered her lips, whose rosiness I kissed. •-"»(»" 90 SONNETS. in. Her Promise. "Pearls, set with gold," she murmured; "once acrain Thou givest me pearls. See! in thy ring I wear Are pearls, like dew tangled in golden hair, I love them, being thine, yet now am fain To love them less, that these some love may gain Thou givest me now, thy newer gift and rare. Oh, what am I, that thou canst think me fair, And my weak soul on soul of thine sustain ! " Pearls ! dear they say that pearls betoken tears, — How old-folk fancies cling about us still ! Thou wilt not. Love, bring an\^ tears to me? Yet if thou shouldst, and Fate's cup-bearing vears Brimful of grief our mutual goblet fill, Whate'er thou drinkest I will drink with thee." i>o^'■^'ETs. 91 THE BLIND STREET FIDDLER. He sits amid the ceaseless ebb and flow Of human life, in multitudes alone, And listens to their ceaseless monotone. His sightless eyes see never to and fro The hurrying waves in divers eddies go; See not the shadows on that ocean thrown By cliff-like, mocking walls of voiceless stone Which shore the restless tides that sweep below. Among them, yet not one of them, sits he And sends his clear-toned music over all, Charming the waves to music as they roll. Even thus great thoughts sweep over life's vast sea, Along the shores of time, and the waves fall And rise in rhythm under their control. fa so A NETS. m' HOW SHALL I PAINT THEE? How shall I paint thee, my beloved one, Or feeble words of mine depict thy soul, Whose radiant beauty is my being's goal ! Thou art like some fair creature of the sun, Tissued of light. Fit word has language none To picture thee. Not Shelley's hyperbole, Nor even of Milton the sonorous roll Might justice to thy glorious charms have done. And though to paint thee there were fitting pen. No canvas might receive such tints sublime. Yet painted in true colors, Lou, thou art. Not by my hand, most humble among men, But with a diamond, for all future time. By Love, upon the adamant of my heart SONNETS. 93 CHRIST WAS NO IDLER IN LUXURIOUS HALLS. To laboring shepherds, watching by their sheep, The Angels first the glorious news revealed Of Jesus' birth. Their heavenly anthems pealed To gladden men who toiled while earth did sleep. A humble carpenter the child did keep Till manhood. Those who first by Jesus kneeled Were laborers. To labor in God's fii Id He chose the toilers of the land and deep. Christ was no idler in luxurious halls ; He shared the life and trials of the poor And gave them comfort. Wherefore on this day, That to all men His day of birth recalls, Should every toiler upon earth be gay. Thinking of Him who did their life endure. 94 SOXA'ETS. NIGHT THOUGHTS. How calm the summer night is ! In no tree Whispers a leaf. The stars that pace the skies, Night's picket-watch on Day, blink their bright eyes, As though they kee[) their watch but sleepily. The city sleeps and murmurs dreamily. And o'er the trees I see the moon arise, Full-orbed, and mark its glance of mild surprise That I should scorn Oblivion's clemency. Wherefore should I these hours of torment know ? All nature sleeps, and hath from thought surcease ; Yet my sad thoughts a weary vigil keep, Till, like the full-orbed moon, before me, lo 1 My radiant love appears to bring me peace ; And murmuring her dear name I sink to sleep. SONNETS. 95 it TO THE SEA. Awestruck, I stand on thv rcsoundincr shore, O deep, tumultuous, world-encircling Sea ! Meet symbol of God's vast eternity. Ere yet earth's vomb a living creature bore, As thou art now, thou wast, and thy hoarse roar Shook the void air. Nature dircctinir thee, Thou didst map ojt the continents to be, Make and unmake and build them up once morv2. Gigantic saurians sported in thy waves. Lived centuries out, and to oblivion sank ; Beside thee grew strange plants, that are forgot ; Earth-shaking beasts thy tributaries drank. And died, and lie in undiscovered graves : Yet thou hast ebbed and flowed, and altered not. 96 SONNETS. IF YOU SHOULD DIE. If you should die, who stole away my soul, And, nestling where it dwelt, its loss conceal, Whose virtue is the shrine at which I kneel, Whose praises are my labor's utmost goal ; If you should pass away, nor more control The thoughts I think, the joys and griefs I feel ; Then would the fountains of my life congeal ; Death be a friend whose kind touch makes me whole. 'Twas your eyes taught me sight ; your ears, to hear ; Your tongue, soft speech ; your grace and goodness, God ; Your trust, my weakness ; and if you should die, Then were I nothing but a soulless clod, Dumb, blind and deaf, barren of laugh and tear, Half doubting if there rules a God on hif^h. SoyXETS. 97 ANTICIPATION AND REALIZATION. The bud, wherein slumbers the perfect flower, The acorus, in whose cells the vast caks res't, The fledge h'ncTs, chirping in their secret nest' VVind-rocked, far up in some aerial bower The sun, new-born at day-dawn's purple hour The child, close-cuddled to its mother's breast Thrill the glad soul with hope; for they suggest Completeness Time shall give them yet for dower. Sweet are the joys anticipation brings ; Yet sweeter far the realization is. The man excels the child, the fledged bird sings er Th The blithest song, the flower hath dainti charms an any bud ; and all youth's dreams of bl iss Have been surpassed in one another's arms. 98 SONNETS. \ 1 FEAR NOT TO DO RIGHT. With thy pure heart thou hast scant need from me Of friendly council. Thou art like a flower That fronts the glowing sun, and. hour by hour, Follows its course, and even dreamily. In darkest night, turns that its face may be To earliest dawn. Thou hast been given the power To see the dawn of truth from thy soul's tower, While gropes the world in night's profundity. Yet, since thou wilt have counsel, having fear Of this bad world's derision of good deeds, Then, that no evil thou may'st ever rue, Let this brief sentence to thy heart lie near, To nerve it for thy life's extremest needs, Do ever that thou art afraid to do ! m 1 ! SONNETS. 99 WHY A BRIDE WEEPS. Well may, when wed, the love-crowncc bride shed tears, For she has said farewell to her old life To venture for love's sake into the strife Of worldly matters, nor in after years Again shall have her girlhood's lack of fears. With watching and sad cares the world is rife, And she has taken up Fate's burden as wife, Trusting in him whom love to her endears. How wonderful the spell of love must be That maids will bid farewell to what has been. And trust themselves to one for his love's sake. Confronting Death's stern visage fearlessly. Oh ! youth, thus dowered by love, pray God to make You worthy of the priceless soul you win. ■WV lOO SONNETS. ii. \n \ 1.1 THE NOBLEST POEM. Pride hath no shelter in a poet's breast, Though he may find his words on every tongue, For well he knows, though sweet the song he sung, Still is his heart's ideal unexpressed. A few stray gems he gathers from the best The treasures of his intellect among, Nor has done more, when his scant pearls are strung, Than dimly what his fancy grasped, suggest. The noblest thoughts expression cannot find In any tongue, for language flies too low To reach the mount which thought's first day-streak greets. There was a greater Shakespeare than we know, A grander Milton, a diviner Keats : The noblest poem is the poet's mind. i! SONNETS. lOI MY LADY. To see her in the world a man would think Her chaste and beautiful, yet call her cold, And turn for love to one of softer mould. Whose lips beg kisses, and whose glances drink Deep draughts of joy at passion's treacherous brink. Yet they misjudge, whose lips, thus overbold Cry that her thoughts nor love nor passion hold Because from their caress her soul doth shrink. I have seen love touch that calm face with flame. Set those proud lips to suing, ay, and melt Those haughty eyes to tenderness, that now So steadfast shine beneath that snowy brow ; And I have heard her murmur one dear name At morn, when at her orisons she knelt. 102 SONNETS. THE TRUE IMMORTALS. All men are heritors of noble thought, Co-workers in all acts that are divine. The visions of a Plato, they are thine ; With Newton thou the thoughts of God hast sought ; Thy blood the triumph of just strifes has bought ; Around thy brows the wreaths of Petrarch twine : Woven is the past with thy new life and mine. For noblest thoughts can never be forgot. Man is a shadow in time's sunlit way, A wild wood rose, that blossoms, fades and dies. Born with the dawn, at dusk he fades away. Actions and thoughts outlast the centuries And hold eternity itself at bay, — They only are life's true realities. H SONNETS. '03 THE PANTHEIST, He knows the name of every creeping thing, Of every plant in all the country round, And when and in what haunts it may be found. To name a bird he needs but hear it sine. He speculates how long it took a wing To evolve and lift an eagle from the ground ; And scorning miracles, doth priests astound, Saying ^Nature's laws admit no altering. He reads the mysiic story of the past In hill and vale and rock, and says all life Is one, and flees from form to form from death ; And man himself but part is of a vast And universal energy, a breath Of one great Am, with Nothingness at strife. ?*wp i 1 m 104 SONXETS. IN THE CANOE. ^ ^" I/' Dost thou recall that evening thou and I Together in our eggshell bark took flight Upon the noiseless lake? How dark that night ! Though many a star was glowing in the sky ! Under the leafage slept the shadows shy, Until the zephyrs stole, with footsteps light. Among them, and embraced them, lost to sight Of curious eyes beneath earth's canopy. I saw thee like a shadow in the prow ; I saw the flashing of thy hand, that trailed Half in the tide ; I watched thy night- veiled face, Whose thoughtful eyes, beneath thy tressy brow, Shone on my soul : and then the starlight paled, And mine eyes saw but thee in all that space. SONAETS. »05 II. In all that waste of waters we alone Were floating. Save that from the shore there gleamed A golden lamplight, all the great world seemed Afar from us. Methought that we had flown— Buoyed on the rether sea by power unknown— Up to the gates of heaven ; and then I dreamed Those were an angel's eyes that on me beamed With love that was but mirroring my own. Great thoughts, high aspirations thronged my mind, The nobleness of duty grew more clear. With thy pure soul my soul seemed inter- twined, Like two pure flames that mingle at one fane. Oh ! wherefore, love, when heaven to us was near. Did we two ever seek the earth again ? ff"p io6 SONNETS. SONNETS AT NIAGARA. I. First Feelings. Who can conceive the feelings of the first Fond hearts that, wandering hithervvard by- night, From uncongenial camp fires taking flight To Solitude, saw on their vision burst These wondrous falls in rolling mist-wrack hearsed. And felt the thunder of plunging waters smite Their ears and drown their murmurs of delight, — Ah ! who can dream what mutual thought they nursed ? Since then have fallen athwart the brink of Time Years multitudinous as the hurr} ing waves That leap Niagara's gulf, yet thou and I Here standing where the latest ripple laves The rock ere dashing to its death sublime, Of those first lovers know the ecstacy. SONuXETS. 107 II. Love's Changeahleness. How many heart-wed lovers here have stood, Like us, beside Niagara's folding brink, Watching the thirsty gorge the torrent drink I How many, like ourselves, in solitude, Have stood above the fierce, moon-smitten floods Through whose mist clouds a myriad star points twink, And felt the grandeur of the cataract sink Into their souls until was thought subdued ! Here many human hearts have throbbed with love, And dreamed their love would live beyond the grave, Strong as Niagara's rush, deep as its fall,. Only within a little space to prove Their love as changing as the tumbling wave Which breaks in mist that darkly shadows all. 1. 1 io8 SOA'NETS. III. Love's Blindness. Little we knew when by the thiind'rous tide We stood and looked into its depths profound. Where boiled the waters after their fierce bound Over the cliff that doth the streams divide, Upper from nether, what of Fate did hide The veil, or that the voice of Love should sound In our ears and earth's discordancy be drowned, And souls unite, leaping the wall of pride. Little thou thoughtst that love was in the air. Touching thy turbulent curls, thy flushing cheek, Blue eyes, dear heart, and slumbering on thy lips. Little I knew boy-love was buried there. And man's affection deathless, strong, yet meek, Woke at the calling of the water drips. SOKXETS. 109 IV. At tiik Sistkr Islands. We stand upon the bridge and look below Into the rush of waters, streaking white Along the sunken rocks, so swift their flight ; And while we look, it seems to us as though We move, and the quick tides have ceased to flow. So much the motion juggles with our sight, That we must lift, to see the truth aright, Our faces to the sky's unclouded glow. Thus man may stand on truth while error sweeps Beneath him to its misty overthrow Into the tumult of the nether deeps ; Yet, self deceived, often the soul will cry: " Error is truth, and truth is falsity," Until a God-ward glance the truth doth show. 1 lO SONNETS. V. The WHiRLrooL. After the leaps tumultuous of the tides That through the narrow, rocky canyon surge, With sudden sweeps over some ledge's verge That underneath the seething waters hides. With clash of snow -plumed billows on all sides, That like strong warriors ceaseless combat urge, Niagara's waves in one another merge. Where, calmly deep, the circling whirlpool glides. Thus is it with our love : the earliest sweep Of feeling was tumultuous, and the soul Of each was torn and tossed ; but now, at last, Of love the stormy rapids have been passed. And we are in the whirlpool, that will keep Our lives forever in its calm control. SOXXETS. 1 1 I BE THINE OWN IMAGE BUILDER. Be thine own I'mage builder, nor have fear To overthrow the idols of past days. Test all by thine own touchstone ; Truth displays Her beauty in the light of doubt most clear. To be a Man thy Maker sent thee here ; Then swerve not from thy truth, fall blame or praise On thee from fools who follow in the ways Of pilot minds. In all things be sincere. There is none other wholly like to thee ; Thou hast a task none other man may do, Nor canst thou do it if thou dost not wage Eternal strife with all thou think'st u.ntrue, Be faithful, to thyself, and of thine age Thou shalt become the grand epitome. IfT i 12 SONNJSTS. 1^ HEART HUNGER. Oh ! Love, to press thy bosom to my own, To lose my h'ps among the tress and tress That touch thy brow with many a soft caress, And reap a score where one love glance was sown. To stand before thy soul's iiiajestic throne, Nor find thee, as to others, pitiless ; That only for this draught of wretchedness, Fate-forced I drink in exile, can atone. Nor day nor night brings peace since we twain parted. By day I but lament my joyless plight ; And when I dream, and find thee at my side, And waking, seek thee, still my love is thwarted. For cruel darkness tears thee from my sight, And vainly grope my void arms for my bride. SOA'^NETS. 113 DAiNTE TO Br.ATRICE. I care not though I may not mate with thee, For, natheless, I have made thee all my own • And henceforth thou shalt evermore be known' And rescued from Oblivion's hungry sea, As one to whom a poet bent the knee. Let whom thou wilt reign with thee on Love's throne, In death I will sit there with thee alone And all the world shall speak of thee and me. What though thou givest him thy body and soul ! Thou canst not rob me of the soul I love ; It is but the creation of my mind. And cannot ever pass from my control. Save mine, all eyes to thy true soul are blind, And it shall share with me the life above. 114 SONNETS. im CUPID AND PSYCHE. I. Cupid to Psyche. I touch, yet cannot see thee, and mine eyes Draw their fringed veils athwart them, that they may Again, in fancy, see thy majesty. Thy wealth of tresses on my shoulder lies ; I feel thy bosom melting into sighs ; Coyly around my neck thy white arms stray, Drawing my face to thine, and I obey. Till lips meet lips and make their sweets a prize. We are far from earth and earthliness, we twain. And feed each on the other's rapid breath ; To heart-beat answers heart-beat, soul to soul. And, overmastered by my love, I strain Thee in r^iine arms. Would that the years might roll. Nor ever part us more in life or death. SONNETS. "5 11. Psyche to Cupid. In bondage sweet of love thy slave am I, And have no will, but to be loved by thee, My lips are parched for kisses, feed thou me. Surely these rubies yet one kiss can buy ? I am all thine, nor can thee aught deny ; A nd shouldst thou tire of me and set me free. Like bird released from long captivity, Cageward my heart would flutter back, or die. I have withheld nor body, nor my soul ; Thou hast awakened with thy passionate kiss The love that slumbered on my ignorant lips. Right, wrong, life, death, keen sorrow or deep bliss, I know not— care not— which may be my goal. For in thine arms all thought from my heart slips. ii6 SONNETS. A MOTHER'S THOUGHT. Once a frail toddler at her mc.iier's knee, Uplifting her blue eyes to that calm face, Sweet mirrors to reflect love's perfect grace ; Once a shy maid, all ideality. Dreaming the world as innocent as she ; Once blushing in her lover's fond embrace. And weeping farewell to her nesting-place To walk with him towards eternity : To-day within the palace of the wood, Whose roof is intricate with many a scroll Of shifting sun, with her own babe she strays. Tasting the joys of happy motherhood, Yet grave for thinking, even as she plays, Herself the mother of a deathless soul. SONNETS. 117 AT THE RECITAL. Midway we sate between the nave and door Between the worldly tumult of the street ' And the calm silence of God's pure retreat. We heard the lofty organ pipes outpour Their mighty waves of music. More and more 1 he melody encompassed us. The sweet Tones roused -y soul to know life incomplete A wave of music dashing on death's shore. Midway between the world and God we sate While through the church the Spirit of Music stole, And in its robes harmonic wrapped us twain. Of thy pure soul, from evil free a'ld hate. Then woke my heart to hear the grand refrain, And yearned to reach, like thee, life's noblest goal. ii8 SONXETS. i^i II? M lit 'lit HEINE'S THREE KISSES. r. The Greek Goddess. Through leafy boughs the summer moonbeams sift Upon a shattered column, wreathed with flowers, By which, like some bright vision of dream hours, A sculptured goddess lic^:, her bosom's drift, When curious winds the jealous blossoms lift. Glowing amid the grasses' dew-pearled bowers. Sleeping she seems, for night's kind genius dowers The marble with life's flush as his love gift. Beside the statue kneels a child, and bends To lay his lips upon the Parian cheek, And kiss the stately brow and pulseless breast, Which yield him, for the warmth his young cheek lends, Visions of beauty, which, in futile quest, He evermore throughout the world shall seek. SONNETS. 119 II. Red Sefchen. Youth and the sword blood-drunken, that hath drunk An hundred lives and is insatiate,— Youth and the sword, and Beauty, that doth wait The embrace ;-ripe lips, whose smiles would lure a monk ; Fair flesh, fire-flaming locks, like sun half sunk Glowmg in clouds, through evening's crimson gate, Tempt him to love. He challenges his fate Nor has she from his burning kisses shrunk. Meet was it that beneath the thirsting sword Himself into Red Sefchen's arms he flung, For Innocence then learned the love^'of guilt And passion's brand, above his head long swung, In his young soul was buried to the hilt Nor ever was a richer flood outpoured. ' ' ^ 120 SONNETS. [ y III. The Venus of Milo. The panting rabble of the Paris street Give him no heed, but round him surge and roar, A grief-aged man, a cynic at death's door, And drive him to the Louvre's calm retreat. There, as he stands bewildered, his eyes meet The Venus Victrix, and he falls before That radiant Beauty-vision, weeping sore, And prints a kiss upon her naked feet. Through years of grief and passion he had sung The praises of the vision of his youth, Till with his music all the world had rung, Only to find, at last, when death was near, That vision of soul beauty and sweet truth Still graspless in the marble form appear. soNxj'jrs. 121 id id as th ir. I':i'ILOGUK. I stood one cvcnitio- on a rocky coast, JJcncath my feet the jetsam of thc'sea, Amid the tide-smoothed sands, and over me I;rom burly-chested rocks, tlie salt spray tossed 1 hreatenm- the empire that tlie waves had lost ' And as I looked, quenched seemed the Sun' to be, Yet for a space there lin^TM-ed liappily One ray, the last of Day's majestic host.' Louise, thou standest on my fancy's shore, Amid the jetsam of thy lover's verse, The tide withdrawn, and evening closing down. The Sun has set, perchance to rise no more Yet still the skies one lingering sunbeam nurse. That smiles on thee in kindness ere 'tis flown.