/ ; Y. 
 
 ** - ." - . * 

 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Thomas Q. Lemper tz
 
 SONNETS
 
 SONNETS 
 
 BY 
 
 FANNY PURDY PALMER 
 
 PAUL ELDER #> COMPANY 
 PUBLISHERS SAN FRANCISCO
 
 Copyright, 1909 
 by Paul Elder and Company
 
 PS 
 
 TO MY DAUGHTER 
 HENRIETTA 
 
 I INSCRIBE THESE RECORDS OF 
 
 SCENES IN WHICH WE HAVE BEEN TOGETHER, 
 
 AND OF THOUGHTS AND FANCIES 
 
 WHICH WE HAVE SO OFTEN 
 
 DISCUSSED IN LOVING 
 
 SYMPATHY 
 
 8808
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PART I SONNETS OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 f * 5 
 
 CALIFORNIA^ II 6 
 
 I III 7 
 
 THE MEADOW-LARK 8 
 
 A SEA-GULL 9 
 
 MY GARDEN BY THE SEA 10 
 
 MONTEREY CYPRESS 11 
 
 WHEN THE OVERLAND STARTS EAST 12 
 
 LA JOLLA 13 
 
 IN A CANYON 14 
 
 THE CARMEL VALLEY FROM THE RIVER'S MOUTH .... 15 
 
 ROSES 16 
 
 SEA FOG 17 
 
 NEW YEAR'S EVE 18 
 
 PART II POST MERIDIEM 
 
 COMPENSATION 25 
 
 QUENCH NOT THE FIRES 26 
 
 TEMPERAMENT 27 
 
 CHOOSING 28 
 
 NEGLECT 29 
 
 IN THE MAKING 30 
 
 JUDGED BY THE SPHINX 31 
 
 GEORGE MEREDITH 32 
 
 OUT OF THE EAST 33 
 
 VIKINGS 34 
 
 MY BOOKS 35 
 
 GREEK ART 36 
 
 PENALTY 37 
 
 SPECULATION. . . ... 38
 
 SONNETS OF CALIFORNIA
 
 'Regions Caesar Never Knew."
 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 i. 
 
 DISTINCTIVELY adorned, with joy 
 caressed 
 By sun and wind, for Her exalted seat 
 The rocks are gold-inlaid, and at Her feet 
 An Ocean brings its argosies to rest. 
 Pensive Her mien, for close within her breast 
 Forest and stream and shining sands secrete 
 The stories of adventurous lives replete 
 With daring hopes staked on some baffled Quest. 
 Thro' meadows green She muses on her past 
 When Mission bells ring out their call to prayer; 
 Or, rapt in Self, surveys Her heavens that brood 
 O'er lofty Peaks with lonely Valleys vast 
 The bees drone heavy in the honeyed air, 
 The Mourning Dove laments in solitude.
 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 ii. 
 
 stolid Indian's tread had crossed this 
 
 land, 
 Crossed and recrossed and left but scanty 
 
 trace, 
 
 When, from afar, men of a bolder race 
 Sighted its shores, set foot upon its sand 
 With praise to God ; In haste, as rovers, planned 
 Return: An interval and then gold lace, 
 Doubloons, fandangoes, senoritas' grace ! 
 But, steadily, by plain and pass, a band 
 Of Fortune's soldiers armored for the age 
 With wit and vigor ; for the Wilds endowed 
 With prescient resource, strength of stubborn wills, 
 Came pressing on to this their heritage, 
 Seeing in dreams its future cities proud 
 Of palaces made worthy of their hills.
 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 in. 
 
 COMPOSITE, unassimilable, crude 
 As Her unsmelted ores, the social state 
 Where differing races struggle to create 
 Their planes of life anew. Needs must 
 
 intrude 
 
 Fallacious dreams, false reasonings which delude 
 Th' unpracticed mind ; But, She'll in time be great 
 Enough to find, amid the turns of fate, 
 The Way to shun the Way to be pursued. 
 Purples and gold in groves and orchards glow, 
 And, housed in pearl, the Abalones cling 
 To the wet rocks : Mid fairest scenes at home 
 Her people dwell, and tides of travel flow 
 From ends of earth; Such various folk they bring 
 As once they brought up to the Caesars' Rome.
 
 THE MEADOW-LARK 
 
 Sweet Master of Strange Dialects of Tune. 
 
 'LERT his eye, half hushed his liquid note 
 When twilight gathers where the barley 
 
 green 
 For his rough nest provides a doubtful 
 
 screen; 
 
 But bold and high bursts from his swelling throat 
 In praise of the brown mate not far remote 
 His morning lay, a loud rejoicing paean 
 Wherein the joy of living well has been 
 Resolved anew. Later, at times he'll quote 
 Some jargon, with a muffled trill to add 
 Confidingly, " I'm one of you^ Not bad' 
 Ripe cherries, eh ! " Then, settled for a stay, 
 He brings his friends, melodiously gay, 
 To revel with him while the world 's in tune 
 And play the Bacchant 'mong the grapes at noon. 
 
 8
 
 A SEA-GULL 
 
 nE WAS not born a safe and happy bird 
 To pledge his mate in April evenings how 
 Sweet fruits would hang at length from 
 yon slim bough 
 
 To feed their callow brood. Too soon he heard 
 From an imperilled nest the fateful word 
 That calls each to its own: 'Twas his to know 
 The driving gale, the spent ship's battered prow, 
 The wild tide-vigil ; and so, undeterred 
 He gave the waves his wings ! His frightened heart 
 Of all those thundering breakers felt the start ! 
 No shelter but the cliff for his white breast 
 Where, panting, mid the cold salt spray 'tis pressed: 
 And last a wave-washed beach and wreck-strewn 
 
 shore 
 And beaten bird whose stormy life is o'er.
 
 MY GARDEN BY THE SEA 
 
 I MADE a garden by th' unmindful Sea 
 So close, the breakers tossed among the 
 flowers 
 Their flecks of foam ! Yet, in serener hours 
 Profuse and brilliant, wonderful to see, 
 My flowers outvied the waves' temerity : 
 Lamarques and Banksias flung their bloom in 
 
 showers; 
 From the Old World with legends for their 
 
 dowers 
 
 Iris and Cinerarias: Glad to be 
 The gayest of them all Geraniums red 
 As Cardinals' hats their dazzling clusters spread, 
 And Chinese Lilies stood in rows so white 
 You saw them even in the darkest night. 
 All was most fair! and then th' unmindful Sea 
 With its grey Breath effaced my flowers and me ! 
 
 10
 
 MONTEREY CYPRESS 
 
 SENTINELS old, posted along the way 
 Beyond my garden's bounds a rugged 
 
 Band 
 Of Natives staunch, born to the salt sea 
 
 sand, 
 
 The fog's embrace, the Winter wind's rough play ! 
 In sombre garb they greet their Captain grey 
 When south winds lash his tides to loud command ! 
 The tokens of his rage they understand 
 And shuddering at their posts his Will obey. 
 Nothing to them is nfan's intrusive care, 
 For lives apart they lead beside the sea 
 Rooted in creviced cliffs, where breakers dare 
 Stretch wind-curled arms to clasp the twisted tree 
 That, yielding, harkens to the roar and moan 
 Of the wild ocean when it calls its own ! 
 
 11
 
 WHEN THE OVERLAND STARTS 
 EAST 
 
 'OOD-BYES all spoken: One last restless 
 
 light 
 
 Still flashing on the gear till word shall tell 
 The moment come when, with slow 
 
 clanging bell, 
 
 And like some living creature stretched for flight, 
 The long train moves beyond our straining sight. 
 The night wind 's in our faces. " Is it well," 
 It cries, " to part thus ? Fear ye not Farewell ? " 
 'Tis true we fear it. Few things can requite 
 Th' attachments we abandon. Speeds the train! 
 Grappling with mountains, plunged in snow-sheds 
 
 grim, 
 
 Skimming the desolate Lake, across the plain 
 Hastening to city brisk and village trim : 
 Ocean to Ocean traversed! We again 
 Turn to the mountain Wall, the sunset's Rim. 
 
 12
 
 LA JOLLA 
 
 BARB, brown coast that curves to meet 
 the Sea, 
 
 With caves and clifis where gulls and cur 
 lews dwell, 
 
 And riven rocks whose wave-worn tables tell 
 The Past's long story unforgetfully. 
 High tides that hold their daily Jubilee 
 With flying foam and .roar, that leap and swell 
 Till the swift Ebb drowning its own wild knell 
 Bears all the billows back regretfully ; 
 The sky is blue above, the sea below, 
 If care or sorrow ever crossed thy lot 
 Rest here and drink of sea and sky thy fill, 
 Learn Ocean's Secrets when the tides are low, 
 And hear the lark sing ! while in yonder spot 
 The Silent Sunrise crowns the lonely hill. 
 
 13
 
 IN A CANYON 
 
 way leads out? Where was the 
 
 entrance to 
 This strange domain? No answer but the 
 
 sound 
 
 Of your own footfall in the narrow bound 
 Whose lofty walls close round you to the blue: 
 Here, in the shade a Shape looks down on you; 
 A Giant Warrior crouched against a mound, 
 His narrow brow with one tall Yucca crowned 
 He waits, till ancient foes their feuds renew. 
 There, in the sun up arid heights afar 
 Clambers the lonely desert's "bearded brood," 
 While thick along your way the Shooting Star 
 With its pale grace and scent of solitude, 
 A Spirit more than blossom flowers alone 
 Within the Canyon's jealous heart, unknown. 
 
 14
 
 THE CARMEL VALLEY FROM THE 
 RIVER'S MOUTH 
 
 HIND me new feelings, Heart ! New vision, 
 Eyes! 
 For words befitting beauty that I've 
 brought 
 
 From other scenes, for this avail me naught. 
 Beyond these dunes, where wooded Mountains rise, 
 The sense beholds the Earth in Heaven's disguise 
 And, stirred, recalls thro' vernal meadows fraught 
 With broideries of flowers in symbols wrought 
 The mediaeval dream of Paradise! 
 Mantled in Manzanita lies the way 
 Toward the Vale: the light of golden rose 
 That after sunset serves the day's delay 
 Is over all: the shadowy river flows 
 Bearing, along the silvery sands it laves, 
 The Willows' message to the Ocean's waves. 
 
 15
 
 ROSES 
 
 'AFRANOS for the young and fortunate 
 Who, with the roses, squander on an hour 
 The bloom that comes but once to heart 
 
 or flower: 
 
 And fair Arguello's rose for those who wait 
 Like her for love's return importunate. 
 The lavish Banksias for the dreamer's bower, 
 And Brides significant their gifts to shower 
 On maids who lead processionals of fate. 
 With flaring petals wide the Cherokee 
 Takes to its heart the moonlight's mystery ; 
 And there 's a rose dear to fastidious eyes, 
 In whose complex repose perfection lies 
 Beauty's excuse for being to convey 
 'Tis called the Madam Abel Chatenay. 
 
 16
 
 SEA FQG 
 
 IMMERGED are all the mountain tops in 
 grey 
 Of mists that cling to sloping pastures 
 green, 
 
 And on the crests, the lifting rifts between, 
 The shrouded pines appear, to fade away 
 Like Phantoms clad in Penitent's array. 
 The sky is lost, the fortress'd point, and e'en 
 The sated sea. In sight of reefs unseen 
 A ghostly ship to windward shuns the Bay. 
 The moisture gathers in the muffled Wood 
 Where ferns refreshed their plumy branches spread, 
 And Lilacs bud, as if they understood 
 This medium of Dreams wherein we tread 
 Beset by sparkling chains the spiders spin, 
 While from th' unsated sea the fog rolls in. 
 
 17
 
 NEW YEAR'S EVE 
 
 darkening day that ends the dying Year 
 Broods upon dusky wings within my room, 
 And at the open door, where roses bloom, 
 Wan, wavering Forms, with faltering 
 
 steps, appear 
 
 From far and travel worn, to find me Here ! 
 They are the vanished Years, which reassume 
 The guise they wore, peopling the twilight gloom 
 With Memories more than heavy heart can bear : 
 Yet stay, poor Wanderers, till the New Year's born 
 While waning Moon sinks in the placid Sea, 
 And the first promise of a laggard morn 
 Brings to dejected mood its remedy. 
 But, ere the light, back back to whence you sped! 
 For the Old Years, pale ghosts, are dead are dead. 
 
 18
 
 POST MERIDIEM
 
 'A Sonnet is a coin ; its face reveals 
 The soul."
 
 COMPENSATION 
 
 passionate Heart, resenting in thy Day 
 Of lordly hopes and limitless despair 
 Life's lost illusions, let me lead you where 
 Sweet Nature hides her waste; in careless 
 
 way 
 
 Her waste* and losses Hides : In time of May 
 'Round nests forsook in shivering orchards bare 
 She flings her wreaths abloom, and, blithe of air, 
 Our trust entreats for what the Orioles say ! 
 Comes Autumn brown and lo ! a cheat supreme 
 Where blossom's pledge was false to blighted fruit ! 
 Yet, ah ! the rosy transport of the Dream 
 Before the petals fell or song was mute, 
 The faith elate, th' apocalyptic Day, 
 Compensate for the life lived after May ! 
 
 25
 
 QUENCH NOT THE FIRES 
 
 QUENCH not the fires that burn within the 
 soul 
 E'en though the world smiles chill upon 
 their glow: 
 
 But feed those lonely fires which flicker low 
 With all that 's best out of thy fortune's dole : 
 Thine ease consume, content, and proud control, 
 And love dear love ! Some hearts must bear to 
 
 know 
 
 This last bereavement love consumed if so 
 They feed the fires which burn within the soul 
 Its utmost to inspire. The flames may blind, 
 To ashes turn the toys thou did'st adore ; 
 But trust the light that shines. Fear not to mind 
 The inner impulse urging thee from shore 
 On stormy ventures. Quicken thy desires 
 For ports beyond thy sight. Quench not the fires ! 
 
 26
 
 TEMPERAMENT 
 
 'TRONG souls, who seek through rending 
 
 tumult name 
 
 For their emotions eagle-beaked brood 
 Create 'twixt^hope and fear some symbol 
 
 rude 
 
 Of that conceived within. For love and fame 
 Careless of shallow praise or shallower blame 
 They shape the visioned forms which still elude 
 The comprehension of the multitude, 
 And serve, devout, the Offspring which they claim. 
 These are the souls who seek the Absolute 
 In high conceits : entreat their verity 
 Of human lives, of stars, and mountains mute ; 
 Limners elect high priests of ecstasy 
 They mold, with reverent hand and ardent heart, 
 Truth's bold reflection fair, the mask is Art. 
 
 27
 
 CHOOSING 
 
 "When Italf-goda go, the goda arrive." 
 
 QOT to the cricket shrill through lonesome 
 eve 
 Nor to the crimson bough above the pool 
 Mere incidents of Summer's passing rule 
 Who with it pass nor know to hope or grieve; 
 To man alone 'tis given to perceive 
 That, after all, Fate is no poor misrule, 
 But rather an inexorable school 
 Wherein he learns to endure and to achieve. 
 Yet some there are who learn the first alone, 
 Supinely learn to bear without complaint : 
 Better that riskier wisdom gods condone, 
 Some part to act as sinner or as saint 
 Winning maybe, or, failing, to retreat 
 Still armed and upright before full defeat. 
 
 28
 
 NEGLECT 
 
 "Lofty still loftier than the world suspects." 
 
 ERE was a Book that bore a message 
 kind 
 
 From a full heart to an expected friend, 
 But no such reader chanced this Book to 
 
 find 
 
 And such as read there failed to comprehend : 
 The title's tarnished now, the leaves are loose, 
 This clever book has fallen to decay; 
 Wantonly slighted, warped from long abuse, 
 None saw the light that on its pages lay. 
 Yet was its message worthy to be heard 
 Ere careless touch had blurred what insight penned, 
 For some faint hint of an inspired word 
 Clung to the faded pages to the end, 
 The aura of some high-born task well done, 
 What matters all the rest, neglected One? 
 
 29
 
 IN THE MAKING 
 
 "The purpose of life ia not happiness but development." 
 
 ONE glimpse of beauty ere the clouds o'er- 
 cast 
 The rose of dawn ! One moment when we 
 lean 
 
 Toward love triumphant till doubts intervene 
 And in their shadow Love and Dawn go past. 
 One little glimpse! and then while life may last 
 With lowered eyes we plod a toilsome mean, 
 That which we would and must stand faint between, 
 Or see our strength by others' strength surpassed. 
 Yet is there solace for his hampered lot 
 Whose hurts are laid 'neath patient Nature's spell ; 
 Feast of the eye, thrill of the heart are not 
 Her purpose set. Sufficient 'tis and well 
 When pain and joy have borne their fruitage ripe, 
 She finds within her world some nobler type. 
 
 30
 
 JUDGED BY THE SPHINX 
 
 HE Theban Sphinx who watched the road 
 
 along, 
 With brooding eyes upon the moving 
 
 mass, 
 
 Cried, "Halt! and Guess my Riddle ere you pass 
 Why is Truth's quest the Right all else the 
 
 Wrong?" 
 
 In state advanced the leader of the throng 
 An autocrat whom none in pomp surpass 
 Flatterers and slaves he hears, but not, alas ! 
 The still, small voice which makes the spirit strong. 
 He cannot answer what the Sphinx demands, 
 No time has he to judge 'twixt false and true ! 
 " The world needs only him who understands 
 This difference," quoth the questioner. She grew 
 Colossal, cried : " Thus, sightless soul, atone ! " 
 And crushed a despot 'gainst her breast of stone. 
 
 31
 
 GEORGE MEREDITH 
 
 ITH sovran strength he plied his lofty art, 
 Touched the world's pulse and felt its tell 
 tale beat, 
 Yet nowise judged Success, nor yet Defeat. 
 Anon to us he spake ; anon, apart ; 
 And balanced held the speculative dart 
 His genius winged through ancient Forms effete, 
 Through Pedant, Egoist, and Splendid Cheat, 
 To sink and quiver in the Modern Heart. 
 He 's gone ! But what he wrought's forever Real ! 
 Think of his Child of light condemned to pay 
 The costs of Love ; of Adriatic's breeze 
 And Otley's sullen waves wherein we feel 
 The Tragedy of type that lives for aye 
 In Mad Commander and his French Marquise ! 
 
 32
 
 OUT OF THE EAST , 
 
 On the defeat of Italian troops in Abyssinia by Menelek, March 23, 1896. 
 
 OUT of the East like Baal of the past 
 A thing of fear a creature of the night, 
 A Power of Darkness threatening Europe's 
 light, 
 
 Has risen like a huge Iconoclast! 
 But noble land there is of resource vast, 
 And noble race elect to stay this blight : 
 Already art thou girding for the fight, 
 O English land ! Thy whole heroic past 
 And crucial present bid thee draw the sword 
 This battle royal for the world to gain, 
 And all thy Kinsmen pledge thee Time's reward 
 For standards bravely borne with cost and pain 
 Where English valor, conquering, strikes the spark 
 That lightens all the dull barbaric Dark! 
 
 33
 
 VIKINGS 
 
 SROM stormy shores, red-bearded Norseman 
 bold, 
 From stormy shores over an unknown sea 
 Thou cam'st, yet left not to futurity 
 Record of conflict fierce for power or gold; 
 No lands despoiled, no captives sought to hold. 
 Soul-stirred with novel joy ! elate with free 
 Dream of illimitable liberty, 
 
 Thou cam'st, and went, thy story strange untold. 
 Yet still while poets sing they 11 celebrate 
 The fair-haired crew who roamed Rhode Island's 
 
 shore; 
 
 Still with their haunting presence consecrate 
 Wild Vinland and bleak coast : and, evermore, 
 On reckless bark which to the gale puts forth, 
 See phantom Vikings steering for the North. 
 
 34
 
 MY BOOKS 
 
 I LOVE you well, beloved ! Companions 
 dear, 
 There was a time when other friends were 
 few, 
 
 Dull days, dark years through which I found in you 
 The bread to strengthen and the wine to cheer. 
 Lewes! 'twas through thy subtle insight clear 
 I first divined the dispensation new : 
 Then, Laureate, burst thy vision on my view 
 Of "statelier Edens" seen from poet's sphere. 
 Pale Bronte, and thou stronger woman-soul, 
 Your patient strength has lightened all my load; 
 Spencer ! thy mighty grasp will ere control 
 My toiling thought along truth's arduous road. 
 Each page meets eyes of mine with charmed looks, 
 My heart is yours, O little band of books ! 
 
 35
 
 GREEK ART 
 
 'MBODIED Beauty with indwelling Soul 
 Survives in what it wrought ; but goddess 
 
 fair 
 
 And columned Temple move us to despair 
 Of emulation : From beyond the goal 
 At which we pause, Greek Art surveyed the Whole 
 Of Life ; espoused its Scheme ; untrammeled dare 
 Attempt the heavenly Heights, where blows an air, 
 Native to those the Muses Nine enroll. 
 Reverent not craven toward the Unknown 
 
 Power 
 
 It found and feared not ; with serenity 
 Trusting itself to Growth, as any flower 
 Unfolds out of an inmost symmetry, 
 The Art of Greece untouched by primal ban 
 "Pursue Perfection!" cries to downcast Man. 
 
 36
 
 PENALTY 
 
 "Pleads for itself the fact 
 As Nature, unrepentant, leaves her every act." 
 
 O GREAT grey Waves that clamor to the 
 shore 
 And leap against the cliffs with loud assault 
 Of gathered thunders from that mystic 
 
 vault 
 
 Whose limits ending still stretch on before ; 
 O lion waves with mad heroic roar 
 Deafening to meaner sounds 'gainst black basalt 
 Of frowning cliff! I count it as the fault 
 Of partial comprehension to deplore 
 That law which drives unerring to their bounds 
 Life's mighty forces love where love belongs, 
 Failures, successes in the unending rounds 
 Where Nemesis rebukes ancestral wrongs 
 With penalties, wherefrom no power to save 
 Between the iron cliff and breaking wave ! 
 
 37
 
 SPECULATION 
 
 "Sans me plaindre ou m'effrayer, 
 Je vais ou va toute chose, 
 Ou va la feu We de rose 
 Et la feuille de laurier." 
 
 'ND is death then a victory or defeat, 
 Transition unremembered, or the end 
 Of conscious being, point where Self shall 
 
 blend 
 
 With Other, Real and Apparent meet 
 In that which gives, and takes, and is complete? 
 Or is this true as oft you tell me, friend 
 What 's here amiss by death at last we '11 mend ; 
 Through finite pain progression infinite? 
 Dear Soul ! thou saiTst amain but never yet 
 A resting-place has found for stretched wing ! 
 Faint sounds thy call of hope, thy cry of threat, 
 To other soul that goes not voyaging 
 But learns, attent, the laws of limits set, 
 And bends to daily stint, as bow to string. 
 
 38
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 Form L9-40m-7,'56(C790s4)444 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 UCLA-Young Research Library 
 
 PS2519 .P181S 
 
 yr 
 
 L 009 577 432 9 
 
 PS 
 
 2519 
 
 PlBls 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 AA 001217534 5