LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. Class 7112, LATER LYRICS BY THE SAME AUTHOR Poems Lyrics Child Verse Later Lyrics by John B. Tabb John Lane at The Bodley Head London 5? New York M CM II Acknowledgment is due to the following periodicals for permission to republish : The Atlantic, The Century , Harper s, ScribneS s, Lipplncotf s, The Cosmo politan, The Era, Th& Bookman, Youth s Companion, and Sunday School Times COPYRIGHT, 1902 By JOHN LANE PRESS OF PUBLISHERS PRINTING CO. NEW YORK, U. 8. A. To MY SISTER and In Memory of MRS. ARMISTEAD G. TAYLOR Who was to her a Sister in Affection unto Death CONTENTS TO A SONGSTER PAGE I ASPIRATION OUTLINES WAITING 4 A HEART-CRY FROST THE SHELL MY CAPTIVE ECHO SOOTHSAYERS IDEALS TRIBUTARIES AN INTERPRETER 1 3 CONSUMMATION 1 4 DESERT-ORBS SLEEPLESSNESS ECLIPSE LIFE S RAMAH BEREFT ISOLATION 2O TO SILENCE 2I LIFE S REPETEND FOILED STRANGERS 2 4 WOOD-GRAIN DAY AND NIGHT 2 6 BARGAINS A HIDING-PLACE A SLEEPING-PLACE 2 9 vii TO A STAR PAGE 30 THE COCK 3! THE WIND 32 THE MIST CLOUDS 34 THE RAINBOW 35 SHEET-LIGHTNING 36 THE BUBBLE 37 THE TRUANT 38 THE RAIN-POOL 39 THE TURNS OF THE WATER-COURSE 40 THE RIVER 4I MOUNT EVEREST 42 DARIEN 43 IN THE MOUNTAINS OF VIRGINIA 44 DUST TO DUST 45 FUGITIVES 46 BETRAYAL 47 DAYBREAK 48 THE DAWN-BURST 49 BRINK-SONG 50 MATIN-SONG 51 MOON-SONG 52 SOIL-SONG MEADOW FROGS 54 A SUNSET 55 THE ARCTIC 56 THE LISTENER 57 TO THE ROSE-TREE FROM OMAR S GRAVE, PLANTED AT FITZGERALD S 58 viii TO VIOLET B. ON HER WEDDING-DAY PAGE 59 TO AN AMATEUR 60 THE WANDERER 6l INFLUENCE 62 THE FAGOT 63 THE CONQUEROR 64 IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW 65 " CHANTICLEER " 66 TO HER FIRST-BORN THE LATEST-BORN CONSECRATION 69 THE BIRTH OF A WORLD 70 INSPIRATION 71 SPECTATORS 72 ADIEU 73 THE ACORN 74 AUTUMN 75 AUTUMN WIND 76 WINTER TREES 77 ICE 78 DECEMBER SNOW 79 A QUERY 80 RAIMENT 8l COME TRUE 82 THE YELLOW CROCUS 83 MOON-FLOWERS 84 REFLECTION 85 WILD FLOWERS 86 PERIWINKLE A BLACKBERRY BUSH ix BARTIMEUS TO THE BIRD PAGE 89 IN THE NEST OF THE LARK 90 THE DOVE 91 TWO SPARROWS 92 A PAIR OF SWALLOWS 93 ROBIN REDBREAST 94 THE WHIP-POOR-WILL 95 PRECURSORS 96 OVERFLOW 97 IN THE NEST 98 LAUGHTER 99 FAITH 100 CONSCIENCE 101 A HAIRBREADTH IO2 MY OFFERING 103 THE HOUSEHOLDERS 1 04 AT SEA 105 ALL IN ALL Io6 LEAF AND SOUL IO7 BETHEL IO8 CHRISTMAS EVE 109 THE EXPECTED OF NATIONS I IO A CHRISTMAS CRADLE III THE CHRIST-CHILD TO THE CHRISTMAS LAMB 112 THE ARGONAUTS 113 THE BURTHEN OF THE ASS 114 THE VIGIL OF GOOD FRIDAY 115 RECOGNITION Il6 STABAT 117 HOLY SATURDAY Il8 EASTER LAMBS PAGK 1 19 THE ASSUMPTION I2O THE GOOD SEED 1 21-122 THE BOY BISHOP I 2 3 ST. MARY OF EGYPT 124-125 ST. AFRA TO THE FLAMES 126 TWILIGHT 127 POTTER S FIELD 128 THE OLD PASTOR 129 EPIGRAMS NOTICE! I3 1 DECORATORS J 3 2 DAVID AND GOLIATH 133 THE SHADOW 134 THE FIRST EDITION 135 IN THE AUTHOR S LIBRARY 136 POE S CRITICS 137 THE DIFFERENCE 13^ TO A SONGSTER LITTLE bird, I d be A Poet like to thee, Singing my native song Brief to the ear, but long To Love and Memory. ASPIRATION T ENVY not the sun -*- His lavish light ; But O to be the one Pale orb of night, In silence and alone Communing with mine own ! I envy not the rain That freshens all The parching hill and plain ; But O the small Night-dewdrop now to be, My noonday flower, for thee! OUTLINES O FRAME me in thy love, as I The landscape in the branches low; That none beneath the bending sky Our sylvan secret know. For tis of Life the mystery That, whereso er its fibres run, In time or in eternity, The many shape the one. WAITING I BIDE mine hour, when thou, Beloved, far away, As unto sleep shalt bow Submissive to my sway. The clouds that, floating, seem Unpiloted and free, Obedient to the stream, Move onward to the sea ; And under Love s control, Despite the opposing tide, The current of thy soul Is setting to my side. A HEART-CRY COME back to me! but not as now ye are, O friends afar! For it were pain, More keen than parting, so to meet again, With all the change that Time, perchance, hath wrought In form and thought, To make us strangers in each other s eyes, Save for long-cloistered sympathies. FROST T LEFT my window wide, for Love A To enter while I slept: The moon his homeward path above, Her midnight vigil kept. But suddenly, as o er a glass, A clouding vapour spread; The heavens were cold: and Love, alas, Before the dawn was dead. THE SHELL OILENCE a deeper sea ^Now sunders thee Save from the primal tone Thy mother s moan. Within her waves, hadst thou No voice as now; A life of exile long Hath taught thee song. I MY CAPTIVE BROUGHT a Blossom home with me Beneath my roof to stay; But timorous and frail was she, And died before the day: She missed the measureless expanse Of heaven, and heaven her countenance. ECHO AH, whither hath it flown ? Alas, the strain To Memory alone Shall live again! Silence, wherever be Its place of rest, Keep thou for Love and me A neighbouring nest. SOOTHSAYERS THE winds that, gipsy-wise, foretold The fortune of to-day, At twilight, with the gathered gold Of sunset, stole away: And of their cloud accomplices That prophesied the rain, Upon the night-forsaken skies No vestiges remain. 10 IDEALS Day demand a gift of Night, Night the boon bestow, T would be that heaven of star-delight Where Dreams departed go. Could Night the gift demand, and Day The benefit confer, T would be, upon his twilight way A lengthened hour with her. ii TRIBUTARIES / T > HE little streams that onward flow -- To mingle ere they meet the sea, Know not that Heaven hath willed it so Till one their waters be. And, from their fountain heads apart, The lives that love hath led to me, Till heart was wedded unto heart, Knew not their destiny. 12 AN INTERPRETER WHAT, O Eternity, Is Time to thee ? What to the boundless All My portion small ? Lift up thine eyes, my soul! Against the tidal roll Stands many a stone, Whereon the breakers thrown Are dashed to spray Else were the Ocean dumb. So, in the way Of tides eternal, thou Abidest now ; And God himself doth come A suppliant to thee, Love s prisoned thought to free. CONSUMMATION THE interval We both recall, To each was all A moment s space That time nor place Can e er efface. Tis all our own A secret known To us alone: My life to thee, As thine to me, Eternity. DESERT-ORBS T^HE world, they tell us, dwindles, i- When matched with other spheres ; And yet in all their amplitudes No place for human tears. How sterile is the sunshine, How masculine the blue, That breeds no shadow, nor betrays A memory of dew ! SLEEPLESSNESS Sleep quiets all but me, A desert isle unsolaced by the sea A Tantalus denied The draught wherewith all thirst is satisfied. 16 ECLIPSE FEAR not: the planet that bedims The moon s distorted face, Itself through cloudless ether swims The Sea of Space ; And earthward many a distant wing Of spirits in the light A salutary shade may fling To mark its flight. LIFE S RAMAH DAY after day, The Herod Morn Of Dreams doth slay The latest-born; And Love, like Rachel o er her dead, Will not again be comforted. 18 BEREFT AS when her calf is taken, far and near The restless mother roves, So now my heart lows, wandering everywhere, To wake the voice it loves. O Distance, are the echoes backward thrown In mockery of pain ? Or doth remembered anguish of thine own Bring them to birth again ? 9 ISOLATION FAR off a solitary Peak The restless Waves behold. Thou hast attained the heaven we seek; O teach us, self-controlled, Thy constancy! " Alas, how bleak The mountain top and cold! 20 TO SILENCE T\ ^HY the warning finger-tip VV Pressed forever on thy lip ? " To remind the pilgrim Sound That it moves on holy ground, In a breathing-space to be Hushed for all eternity." 21 LIFE S REPETEND DO ye forget the blossom-time ? Or tint for tint, as rhyme for rhyme. Would ye, O leaves, supply; To prove, as echo to the ear, That Near is Far, and Far is Near, In circling home to die ? 22 FOILED AH, Death, thou art a lover, And with thy rival Life, For proud possession of her Didst wage perpetual strife, Till Fate adjudged thee victory; But Life s eternal spoil is she. STRANGERS "V7E hills that sloping westward, see JL Alone the evening sky, I come to you for sympathy. " Alas! " they made reply, " Your tears are for the morning bright That never here hath been. We lie in shadow when the light Upon her face is seen. 24 WOOD-GRAIN THIS is the way that the sap-river ran From the root to the top of the tree Silent and dark, Under the bark, Working a wonderful plan That the leaves never know, And the branches that grow On the brink of the tide never see. DAY AND NIGHT WHEN Day goes down to meet the Night, She welcomes him with many a light; When Night comes up to meet the Day, He drives her trooping stars away. 26 BARGAINS " "\T THAT have you in your basket ? " VV I questioned Mother Sleep. " Ah, many a golden casket Of jewel-dreams I keep At pastime prices for the friend Who s half-an-hour or more to spend." 27 A HIDING-PLACE TITHERE lies the lidded Sleep * Throughout the waking hours ? Beelike, in the honeyed deep Of her favourite flowers, Where the drowsy drops distil Dreams, the coming night to fill, Or, to soothe the weary brain, Sweet forgetfulness of pain. 28 A SLEEPING-PLACE WHEN into the Rose A ladybird goes And o er her couch the petals close, Was ever bed So canopied For lids in maiden slumber wed ? 29 TO A STAR AM I the only child awake Beneath thy midnight beams ? If so, for gentle Slumber s sake, The brighter be their dreams ! But shouldst thou, travelling the deep, The silent angel see That puts the little ones to sleep, Bright star, remember me. THE COCK BEFORE a clock was in the tower, Or e er a watch was worn, I knew of night the passing hour, And prophesied the morn; To man of every age and clime, The oldest chronicler of Time. THE WIND AT OW, in his joy, *A whistling Boy; Now, sombre and defiant, His every breath A threat of death, A blind, demented Giant. THE MIST EUR YD ICE eludes the dark To follow Orpheus, the Lark That leads her to the dawn With rhapsodies of star delight, Till, looking backward in his flight, He finds that she is gone. 33 CLOUDS BORN of the waters are we, Clean of original stain; Fresh from the salt of the sea, Pure from the marsh and the plain. Borne of the Breezes above, Whithersoever they go, Made in a mystical love, Mothers of Rain and of Snow. 34 THE RAINBOW WHAT fruit of all thy blossom shea Remaineth unto me ? " A dream, whereon thy Fancy fed, Shall spin anon her golden thread, And then, of fetters free, Arise with radiant pinions spread, To heights of Poesy." 35 SHEET-LIGHTNING A GLANCE of love or jealousy, It flashes to and fro A swift sultanic majesty, Through Night s seraglio ; Where many a starry favourite, In reverence profound, Awaits, with palpitating light, A step without a sound. THE BUBBLE A MOMENTARY miracle, Wherein Eternal Light, A child among His children still, Forgets the Infinite, Among His toys to multiply The larger bubble of the sky. THE TRUANT T ISTEN! tis the Rain J Coming home again; Not as when he went away, Silent, but in tears to say He is sorry to have gone With the Mist that lured him on; And he promises anew Nevermore the like to do. Alas! no sooner shines the sun Than the selfsame deed is done. THE RAIN-POOL I AM too small for winds to mar My surface; but I hold a Star That teaches me, though low my lot. That highest Heaven forgets me not. 39 THE TURNS OF THE WATER-COURSE IT falls from heaven upon the hill, And hurries down to turn the mill And grind the ripened grain; Then, duty done, it turns away, And like a spirit, turned to spray, It turns to heaven again. 40 THE RIVER HOW far soe er thy restless waters roll, Thou hast attained the sea. So haply, now the current of the soul Hath touched eternity. For backward to the fountainhead there flows A breath of tides to be Of life beyond, wherein the present knows E en now its destiny. MOUNT EVEREST A S in the furnace fared the holy feet, -T^Unblemished by the sevenfold fervour, so, Nearest the sun, cold-whitening in heat, Is thine eternal chastity of snow. 42 DARIEN THOU partest sea from restless lover-sea That, yearning, dream and wait The wedding of their waters, soon to be, When Science opes the gate. 43 IN THE MOUNTAINS OF VIRGINIA TVTURTURED upon my mother s knee, * ^ From this her mountain-breast apart, Here nearer heaven I seem to be, And closer to her heart. 44 DUST TO DUST " In the centre of each snow-crystal or drop of rain is found a minute particle of dust. " EARTH wedded, life atwain In heaven, were endless pain. Uplifted from the plain To realms of snow or rain, Of dust each lonely grain To dust will come again. 45 FUGITIVES TO-NIGHT, far inland from the sea, The winds, or flighted Legion, flee With wailings of distress ; While Cataracts from many a steep Plunge, headlong, foaming to the deep, To drown their restlessness. Anon, where each has passed away, The shaken reed, the scattered spray. 46 BETRAYAL " TT 7HOM I shall kiss," I heard a Sunbeam say, VV Take him and lead away !" Then, with the Traitor s salutation, " Hail! " He kissed the Dawn-Star pale. 47 DAYBREAK ^pHOU hast not looked on Yesterday, -*- Nor shalt To-morrow see ; Upon thy solitary way Is none to pilot thee: Thou comest to thine own A stranger and alone. And yet, alas, thy countenance To us familiar seems ; The wonder of thy wakening glance, The vanishing of dreams, Is like an old refrain From silence come again. THE DAWN-BURST LO, now the dead volcano Night In silence cold Throbs; and the prisoned lava, long controlled, Bursts forth in molten gold A torrent mightier far than rolled From ^Etna or Vesuvius of old, Or ever prophet, on the sacred height Of song, foretold. 49 BRINK-SONG A NOTE so near the dawn Too timid was to stay Till shadows all were gone, But, dreamlike, sped away While paled the hesitating sky For Day to bloom or Night to die, MATIN-SONG ARISE! Arise! Dawns not the day without thy wakening eyes; The mist that on them lies Delays the blossom of the eastern skies. Tis at their light alone the darkness flies, And Night, despairing, dies; Behold thine altar free for sacrifice ! Arise ! Arise ! MOON-SONG AVE! Tis the maiden moon To the westward wending, There to sink, alas, too soon With her star attending. Doth he linger o er her dreams While her silvern taper teems ? Sleep their dusk-divided beams One in beauty blending ? Vale ! She hath drunken deep Of a draught forbidden ! More than memory can weep Hath the darkness chidden. Sleepless Sorrow from the night Drives her forth, a phantom white, Withering beneath the blight Of a wound heart-hidden. SOIL-SONG I GIVE what ne er was mine To every seed the power Of stem and leaf and flower, Of fruit or fragrance fine; And take what others loathe Of death the foulest forms, Wherewith to feed my worms, And thus the world reclothe. 53 MEADOW FROGS ERE yet the earliest warbler wakes Of coming spring to tell, From every marsh a chorus breaks A choir invisible As though the blossoms underground A breath of utterance had found. Whence comes the liquid melody ? The summer clouds can bring No fresher music from the sky Than here the marshes sing. Methinks the mists about to rise Are chanting their rain prophecies. 54 A SUNSET WHAT means it, Lord? No Daniel In Nature s banquet-hall Appears, thy messenger, to spell The writing on the wall. Is it the Babylonian doom, A kingdom passed away, A midnight monarch to assume The majesty of Day ? 55 THE ARCTIC IS it a shroud or bridal veil That hides it from our sight, The lonely sepulchre of Day, Or banquet-hall of Night ? Are those the lights of revelry That glimmer o er the deep, Or flashes of a funeral pyre Above the corpse of Sleep ? Beyond those peaks impregnable Of everlasting snow, One star a steadfast beacon burns To guard the coast below. Whence come the ghostly galleons The pirate Sun to brave, And furl the shadowy flag of Death Above a warmer grave ? THE LISTENER (In a volume of Shelley} OF worship, far away, The Cloud unconscious lay; Nor stooped the Lark to hear His song s interpreter : O Shelley, heedest thou Thy lover listening now ? 57 TO THE ROSE-TREE FROM OMAR S GRAVE, PLANTED AT FITZGERALD S A LIKE from alien lips one music flows -TA-To flush the Orient Rose, Far-sundered spirits finding each in her His dream s interpreter. TO VIOLET B. ON HER WEDDING-DAY " OWEET it is for Love to live," ^Thus a Blossom whispered me, " But for Love a life to give (Tell my sister Violet For a blossom, too, is she) Sweeter yet." 59 TO AN AMATEUR T OVE thy Violin! J- Let thy soul therein Learn the Unity Of the mystic Three, When the string and bow- Parted lovers meet, And in music know Life in Love complete. 60 THE WANDERER T^OR one astray, behold ^ The Master leaves the ninety and the nine, Nor rest till, love-controlled, The Discord moves in Harmony divine. VN OFTHE ^ UNIVERSITY or 61 INFLUENCE TTE cannot as he came depart JLlThe Wind that woos the Rose; Her fragrance whispers in his heart Wherever hence he goes. 62 THE FAGOT IF thou art fit to feed A dying flame, Supply the present need; Be this thine aim, And God, when sinks the light, Will give thy soul good-night. THE CONQUEROR HE cloistered here a virgin Thought His vow of Chastity, Whereto from year to year he brought First-fruit of victory. And here, his latest battle won Beneath her panoply, In death returns the champion Within her walls to lie. IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW ist Spirit T AM this moment freed from earth. 2d Spirit And I a captive bound to birth. Who art thou ? ist Spirit Flesh and blood to be Cleave not closer unto thee. 2d Spirit My father ? ist Spirit Yea. A mingling breath They drew. Then rival Life and Death, As if rebuking Love s delay, Drove each his fate-determined way. "CHANTICLEER" A CROWING, cuddling little Babe was he, A child for little children far or near. When he stood and crowed upon his mother s knee, The morning echoed, "Welcome, Chanticleer!" He was a crowing, cuddling little Babe! When his mother wore, alas, her life away, He was wonder wide to see the children weep, But he crowed, and cuddled close enough to lay His head upon her heart, and went to sleep: He was a cuddling, crowing little Babe! God Himself was tender to him ; for, behold, An Angel in a dream (the children said) Came and kissed him till his little cheek was cold; So he never saw the tears the Twilight shed. He was a crowing, cuddling little Babe! 66 TO HER FIRST-BORN LONG I waited, wondering How, so near my heart, Love another life could bring, Made of mine a part, Nor let me, save in fancy, gaze Soul-centred, on the cloistered face! But now, the mystery removed, Thou liest on my breast, A form so fervently beloved, So tenderly caressed, That as my spirit compassed thine, Thy soul the limit seems of mine. So, life that vanishes anon, Perchance about us lies, Too near for Love to look upon With unanointed eyes, Till, past the interval of pain, We clasp the living form again. THE LATEST-BORN nPHE world had waited till thy soul -*- From nothingness was needed here, To make upon the mystic scroll Of Life the context clear. 68 CONSECRATION THE Twilight to my Star, Her hoary head A Hope receding far, To Life re-led. Apart and poor I lay; My fevered frame Slow withering away, When soft she came, From comfort, to my care; And Pity sweet Subdued her, kneeling there, To kiss my feet. A Magdalen adored Her God in Thee: A greater love, O Lord, Anointed me. 69 THE BIRTH OF A WORLD A HIDDEN World, -"*- Unwombing, hurled From dark to light. And to the skies Its wondering eyes The livelong night Doth Science turn, with sighs When shadows take their flight. Another birth A soul to earth But newly come! Its destiny Eternity. With wonder dumb, The heavens look down to see Our faces turned therefrom. 70 INSPIRATION NO hint upon the hill-top shows The flush of climbing feet ; But where the heaven above it glows Triumphal glances meet, Anon to vanish in the plain, And leave the hill its heaven again. No sign celestial hath the soul Its coming dreams to tell ^ Unheralded the tidal roll Returns a rhythmic swell, Anon with silence, as with sand, To strew the surf-forsaken strand. SPECTATORS A ROUND us, wheresoever we tread, -^JL-The while our shadows pass them by, As in Bethsaida s porch the dead With upturned faces lie, Dreading, perchance, the vanished light, And Life s subsided fever-breath, As we the charnel-house of Night Beyond the Vale of Death. 72 ADIEU " T^AREWELL! " the parting Day, A Re-echoes, " Fare thee well! I go the darkened way Whence none returns to tell Of those that thither stray, What fate befell." 73 THE ACORN I AM the heir the Acorn small, To whom as tributaries all, The root, the stem, the branches tall, Do homage round my castle wall. And yet, obedient to the call Of Earth, through Death s opposing thrall- Of wealth a seeming prodigal To Life s dominion must I fall. 74 AUTUMN NOW at the aged Year s decline, Behold the messenger divine With Love s celestial counter-sign The sacrament of bread and wine. 75 AUTUMN WIND IT sings, and every flower and weed Bestows a tributary seed Of life again to live. I listen, but a sterile tear, Alas ! no recompense to bear ! Is all I have to give. WINTER TREES T IKE champions of old, J Their garments at their feet, Defiant of the cold, The wrestling winds they meet: Anon, if victors found, With vernal trophies crowned. 77 ICE I ONCE was water, and again My former self shall be; No keep of Cold May captive hold A spirit of the Sea. Beyond this prison wall of Pain, So echoless and chill, Despite his guardsmen Frost and Snow, Anon through Dimple-gate I go, To wander where I will. DECEMBER SNOW n^HIS is the mystic scroll -*- Whereon a parting soul- The aged Year His testament and will Records: a secret till The Spring appear. 79 A QUERY WAS it the Dawn that waked the bird With yonder spark ? Or had the sleeping darkness stirred Before the Lark ? For either rival to declare The Winds are loth; And Blossoms, nodding everywhere, Affirm for both. 80 RAIMENT " TJOW beautiful yavr feathers be! " -l-l-The Redbird sang to the Tulip-tree, New garbed in autumn gold. " Alas! " the bending branches sighed, " They cannot like your leaves abide To keep us from the cold ! 81 COME TRUE OD morrow! " breathed the Blossom. Good morrow!" flushed the Dawn. " Where were you, dear, before the light ? For I was dreaming all the night That we should meet anon, To drink a dewdrop here to-day, And then together pass away." 82 THE YELLOW CROCUS WERE you, little Monarch, crowned, Under ground ? Or did the Daylight make you king Of the Spring? Ere your blossom-retinue Come to you, I, before your Majesty, Bow the knee. MOON-FLOWERS THE Summer Night remembers The Morning Glories slain, And from the twilight embers Recalls their ghosts again. REFLECTION WHERE closing water-lilies are Pve sometimes seen the Evening Star, A-blossom just below, And I have wondered if there be No pools in heaven where souls may see How water-lilies grow. WILD FLOWERS WE grow where none but God, Life s Gardener, Upon the sterile sod Bestows His care. Our morn and evening dew The sacrament That maketh all things new From heaven is sent; And thither, ne er in vain, We look for aid, To find the punctual rain Or sun or shade, Appointed hour by hour To every need, Alike of parent flower Or nursling seed; Till, blossom-duty done, With parting smile, We vanish, one by one, To sleep awhile. 86 PERIWINKLE PERIWINKLE Magdalen, A Ever near the tomb, Weeps her hidden Lord again Mid the twilight gloom; Till the wonder of surprise Clears her overclouded eyes, And the Resurrection lies In each chalice-bloom. A BLACKBERRY BUSH BEHOLD, above the hidden root, How white the bloom, how black the fruit! Of Time, forever out of sight, How bright the day, how dark the night ! 88 BARTIMEUS TO THE BIRD HAD I no revelation but thy voice No word but thine Still would my soul in certitude rejoice That love divine Thy heart, his hidden instrument, employs, To waken mine. 89 IN THE NEST OF THE LARK HERE the silentest of things Lowliest lies; Where with palpitating wings, Swift to rise, Wakes the soul that sweetest sings, And the loftiest anthem brings From the skies. 90 THE DOVE OBIRD that seem st in solitude O er tearful memories to brood, What sorrow hast thou known ? Or is thy voice an oracle Interpreting the souls that tell No vision of their own ? Thy life, alas! is loneliness Wherein, with shadowy caress, Soft preludings of pain Tell that some captive of the heart Is preening, ready to depart, And ne er to come again. 9 1 TWO SPARROWS nHO creatures upon earth, -1 Our price one farthing worth: To everlasting Love, All price above. 92 A PAIR OF SWALLOWS ^OGETHER first they plan a nest, A And where and how to build it best, Ere she begins from day to day To count the eggs she has to lay. Then he must help her sit and watch Until the little household hatch, And then provide the fitting food To satisfy the hungry brood. Soon they are bold enough to wing Short flights with endless twittering; And then, on pinions strong, prepare Long voyages in upper air. For Southward, swifter than the Snow From Ghostland speeding, must they go. 93 ROBIN REDBREAST WHEN Christ was taken from the rood, One thorn upon the ground, Still moistened with the Precious Blood, An early Robin found. And wove it crosswise in his nest, Where, lo, it reddened all his breast! 94 THE WHIP-POOR-WILL FROM yonder wooded hill I hear the Whip-poor-will, Whose mate or wandering echo answers him Athwart the lowlands dim. He calls not through the day; But when the shadows gray Across the sunset draw their lengthening veil, He tells his twilight tale. What unforgotten wrong Haunts the ill-omened song ? What scourge of Fate has left its loathed mark Upon the cringing dark ? Whip! Whip-poor-will!" O sobbing voice, be still! Tell not again, O melancholy bird, The legend thou hast heard! 95 PRECURSORS ^pHE little birds that hither bring -- The earliest messages of Spring, Seem, fountain-like, to overflow With music melted from the snow. So sweet the tidings that they tell, The hidden buds begin to swell, Till suddenly, with lifted ears, The leafy multitude appears. 96 OVERFLOW HUSH! With sudden gush As from a fountain, sings in yonder bush The Hermit Thrush. Hark! Did ever Lark With swifter scintillations fling the spark That fires the dark ? Again, Like April rain Of mist and sunshine mingled, moves the strain O er hill and plain. Strong As love, O Song, In flame or torrent sweep through Life along, O er grief and wrong. 97 IN THE NEST O WORLD beneath the mother s wing, Secure from harm, The heart so near the sheltered thing To keep it warm! No longer needed now the light Of heaven above The very darkness breathes a plight Of deeper love. LAUGHTER "Et ride bit in die novissimo" WHEN wrought of Joy and Innocence, Tis unto God it goes, A fragrance of the olive whence His "oil of gladness" flows. 99 FAITH IN every seed to breathe the flower, In every drop of dew To reverence a cloistered star Within the distant blue; To wait the promise of the bow, Despite the cloud between, Is Faith the fervid evidence Of loveliness unseen. IOO CONSCIENCE I AM that Tamerlane, The Scourge of God; With me alone remain The sword and rod Wherewith in wrath throughout His world-domain, Doth Love, avenging, reign. I am that Joseph bound And sold in vain; From dungeon darkness found To rise again, At God s right hand, whate er of good redound, His sole vice-gerent crowned. 101 A HAIRBREADTH "HP IS in the twinkle of escape -*- That all our safety lies. Of danger whatsoe er the shape The nearness naught implies: This side is life; that side, a breath Of deviation, instant death. T is in the present I am free The mental die to cast; The future yet of mastery Is palsied as the past; Between, the breathless balance still Awaits the hesitating will. 102 MY OFFERING HE asked me bread the bread whereby alone The beggar Love could live: I gave a stone. He asked me fish, and I, a Passion s slave (All that I had to give), A serpent gave. Then came his benediction: " Lo, in Me, A Stone retributive, A Serpent, see ! 103 THE HOUSEHOLDERS ONE plucked the grape, and trod the wine, And headlong rushed the sotted swine To perish in the sea. One blessed the cup, and poured the blood, And lo ! about His banquet stood The brides of Chastity. 104 AT SEA THY beauty fills each bubble-dome Upon the waters wide: So may it in Thy lowliest home My bosom Lord, abide. 105 ALL IN ALL WE know Thee, each in part- A portion small; But love thee, as thou art The All in all: For Reason and the rays thereof Are starlight to the noon of Love, 106 LEAF AND SOUL Leaf LET go the Limb ? My life in him Alone is found. Come night, come day, Tis here I stay Above the sapless ground. Soul Let go the warm Life -kindled form, And upward fly .^ Come joy, come pain, I here remain Despite the yearning sky. A sudden frost, and, lo ! Both Leaf and Soul let go! 107 BETHEL A RUGGED stone, -<~* For centuries neglected and alone, Its destiny unknown. The tides of Light Sped o er it, and the breakers of the night, -In alternating flight. And it was wet With twilight dew the sacramental sweat That mystic dreams beget. Here Jacob lay, And saw the midnight vision drift away Before the darker day. Upon the sod A pillow; then, by countless angels trod, A stepping-stone to God. 108 CHRISTMAS EVE: SUNSET ONCE more upon the western skies The "flaming sword" appears, And Eve again from Paradise Departs in twilight tears. A backward look, a memory O ershadowing afar A promise, of her progeny The sole remaining star; And dreams that waken in the gloom The glory of a morn When, mothered in a Maiden s womb, The Son of God is born. 109 THE EXPECTED OF NATIONS WHILE Shepherd Stars their nightly vigils keep Above the clouds of sleep, Long prophesied, behold the manchild, Morn, Again is born. A CHRISTMAS CRADLE LET my heart the cradle be Of Thy bleak Nativity! Tossed by wintry tempests wild, If it rock Thee, Holy Child, Then, as grows the outer din, Greater peace shall reign within. in THE CHRIST CHILD TO THE CHRIST MAS LAMB LITTLE lamb, ehold I am So weak and small That even thou Canst pity now The God of all. 112 THE ARGONAUTS TO Bethlehem, to Bethlehem, The Magi move, and we with them, Along the selfsame road ; Still following the Star of Peace, To find at last the Golden Fleece The spotless Lamb of God. THE BURTHEN OF THE ASS ON Christmas night at Bethlehem When Shepherds came, I watched with them The Mother and the Child, Who, warned from Herod s wrath to flee, Were into Egypt borne by me, Beyond the desert wild. And back again, at Herod s death, I brought them home to Nazareth ; And when unto His own, With loud Hosannas to His Name As King the Son of David came, My shoulders were His throne. 114 THE VIGIL OF GOOD FRIDAY WHAT of the Night? Tis dark, The fatal word Awakes the warning bird, For hark (O Christ, is Faith forgot?) " I know Him Not ! " What of the night ? T is cold; But throngs accurst Deep-gorge their crimson thirst. O Christ, again forsworn, Is Hope forlorn ? What of the night ? T is dead ! The darker day Approaching, terror-gray She fled. O Christ! its perjury Love weeps for Thee. RECOGNITION WHEN Christ went up to Calvary, His crown upon His head, Each tree unto its fellow-tree In awful silence said: " Behold the Gardener is He Of Eden and Gethsemane ! 116 STABAT WHY, O my God, hast Thou forsaken me ? Not so my Mother; for behold and see, She steadfast stands! O Father, shall it be That she abides, when Thou forsakest me ? 117 HOLY SATURDAY I CAME, O DEATH, to conquer thee, And overcome the Grave; But thou wast tenderer to me Than those I sought to save. Henceforth in benediction be, And teach mankind thy charity. 118 EASTER LAMBS OURS is the echoed cry Of helpless Innocents about to die. Remembering them In Ramah, for the Lamb of Bethlehem Untimely slain, We, when the paschal sacrifice is nigh, Lament again. 119 THE ASSUMPTION BEHOLD ! the mother bird The Fledgeling s voice hath heard ! He calls anew, " It was thy breast That warmed the nest From whence I flew. Upon a loftier tree Of life I wait for thee; Rise, mother-dove, and come, Thy Fledgeling calls thee home! " 120 THE GOOD SEED ^PHE Magi came to Bethlehem, -- The House of Bread, and following them, As they the Star, I too am led To Christ, the living House of Bread. A pilgrim from the hour of birth, The night-cold bosom of the earth I traversed, heavenward journeying, A hidden prophecy of Spring My only guide, a lifted blade My only weapon, till the Shade, The latest to withstand me, lay Death-smitten at the door of Day. O Light! O heavenly Warmth! to you My cup-bearers, I quaffed the dew, The pledge and sacramental sign Of Life that mingling first with mine A sap-like inspiration ran. To mingle with the life of man. 121 As leaped the Infant in the womb, At Mary s voice, e en so to bloom And ripeness, while the reapers sang, My soul their songs inspiring sprang To meet the scythe, the flail, the stone Of sacrifice, whereby alone, Through waves of palpitating flame, The Bread upon the altar came. And here, O mystery of Love ! Behold, from highest heaven above, Through Me, the Son of God again, A victim for the sons of men ! 122 THE BOY BISHOP "A GAME, Marcellus!" "Well, what shall it A be? Let s play we re Christians." And with one accord The Children grouped around their mimic lord, Marcellus, throned as Sovereign Pontiff. He The part so often played in mockery, With solemn rite enacted word for word Repeating as on each in turn he poured The waters of a new Nativity. Then burst the thunders of an edict. Rome Trembled, and her gods offended frowned Foreshadowing the hurricane to be. Men faltered ; but among the faithful found The yeanlings of the flock with martyrdom Marcellus and his neophytes were crowned. 123 ST. MARY OF EGYPT OTRONG to suffer, strong to sin, ^Loving much, and much forgiven, In the desert realm a queen, Penance crowned, to cope with Heaven; Solitude alone could be Room enough for God and thee. Long the vigil, stern the fast; Morn with night s anointing, chill; Noon with passion overcast; Night with phantoms fouler still; Prayer and penitential tears Battling with the lust of years. Low upon the parching sand, Shrivelled in the blight of day, As beneath a throbbing brand Prone thy ghastly shadow lay, Till the manacles of hell From thy fevered spirit fell. 124 Then, O Queen of Solitude ! Silence led thee as a bride, Clothed anew in maidenhood, To an altar purified, Lit with holy fire, to prove Self the sacrifice of Love. 125 ST. AFRA TO THE FLAMES HERE, on the prey of passion, famished Flames Feed here! Spare not your victim. Torture tames The wanton flesh rebellious. Let the heat Of these your fierce caresses free the feet And loose the fettered pinions of desire. Delay not! Leap the barriers and fire The citadel, the heart. A flame is there To which your kiss is coldness. Clothe me fair, O Christ, with purple penance. Crown me queen Of agonies that cleave all mists between My God and me! Life s vintage drop by drop Fast fills the destined measure of my cup. Quaff, Lord, my potion ! Pledge me, and thy breath Shall sweeten all the bitterness of death. 126 TWILIGHT LIKE Ruth, she follows when the reaper Day Lets fall the slender shadows in her way; Then winnowing the darkness home again, She counts her golden grain. 127 POTTER S FIELD >r pWAS purchased with His blood, this holy -- ground, This place of refuge for the homeless dead; While He, alas ! whereon to lay His head, In all the world no spot secluded found. 128 THE OLD PASTOR HOW long, O Lord to wait Beside this open gate ? My sheep with many a lamb Have entered, and I am Alone, and it is late. 129 (Epigrams NOTICE! THE people read it as they pass: " On Penalty, keep off the Grass!" But from their graves, how long, alas, Will Memory keep off the grass ? DECORATORS y^LZ/ men the painter Youth engage ; And some, the famous sculptor, Age. 132 DAVID AND GOLIATH ONE word of well-directed wit A pebble-jest, has often hit A boastful evil and prevailed Where many a nobler weapon failed, 133 THE SHADOW AT sunrise he s a giant tall: At noon he s withered, lean, and small. At sunset he regains his height, And covers all the land at night. 34 THE FIRST EDITION SIGHED the Book, " I am bound to be read, But tho on the shelf others put me Till they know what the critics have said, My friends are the first that will cut me." 135 IN THE AUTHOR S LIBRARY TO see, when he is dead, The many books he read: And then again to note The many books he wrote How some got in and some got out, Tis very strange to think about. 36 POE S CRITICS A CERTAIN tyrant to disgrace The more a rebel s resting-place, Compelled the people every one To hurl, in passing there, a stone; Which done, the rugged pile became A sepulchre to keep the name. And thus it is with Edgar Poe; Each passing critic has his throw, Nor sees, defeating his intent, How lofty grows the monument. 137 THE DIFFERENCE UNC SI, de Holy Bible say, In speakin of de jus , Dat he do fall seben times a day; Now, how s de sinner wuss ? " Well, chile, de slip may come to all, But den de diff ence foller; For, ef you watch him when he fall, De jus man do not waller" 138 DAY AND To""Jto 50 ON EN T T M S N THE FOURTH OVERDUE. E SEV ENTH DAY Later Lyri UNIVE lIMHItmiltttlMHIHttilitlMtlimt I