A- FEW- POEMS- A FEW POEMS PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR SAN FRANCISCO BACON d- COMPANY TO G. E. W. 567474 CONTENTS. PAGE With a Bunch of Roses 7 A Winter Song 9 With a Deer s Head 12 Two Spring Days 15 Love and Sleep 18 Coward Death 19 On a Piece of Music 22 To the Bride 23 Genius Dead 26 On the Eve of a Voyage . .... . . 28 The Absent Sailor 29 In the Grave 3 2 Wagner 34 Ballad of the North-Wind 38 WITH A BUNCH OF ROSES. Lady, accept to mark this day A poor admirer s poor bouquet : A bunch of roses all I send, Yet something fits them for my friend Better than costly gift of gold ; For if her praise be truly told, Her s is the pride, mid love of pelf, To rise above low thoughts of self, And in a world where self rules all To hold her self in others thrall. Oh, then, behold ! the Queen of flowers The Rose that reigns in all earth s bowers- WITH A BUNCH OF ROSES. Heedless of her queenly station, Sinking self in abnegation, The humblest subject now would be, Flower of women, here to thee ! A WINTER SONG. A WINTER SONG. Red-berried laurel, let me sing A little song to thee, For hearts with happy thoughts upspring Beside thy gayety. England shall praise her holly bough, Its glossy green and red ; But I, who know the holly, vow More praises on thy head. Bright as the flame amid dark pines That marks the camp-fire s blaze, So bright thy ruddy cluster shines Amid dark winter days. A WINTER SONG. Red as the blood for country s sake That stains the soldier s side, So red thy cheerful berries take Their death for Christmas-tide. That shapely Redskin of the wood, The lithe, smooth-limbed madrone, Where once, outflushing Youth, it stood, Is somewhat pallid grown. But thou wait st not for Summer-time Among the flowers to please : As man seeks fame mid polar rime And scorns soft tropic seas So dauntlessly, when many a tree Bows down its crownless head, Thy face is raised for earth to see All nature is not dead. A WINTER SONG. Keep green thy boughs, O cheery tree ! O cheery tree, keep green ! In darkest days may I, like thee, Be ever cheery seen ! WITH A DEER S HEAD. WITH A DEER S HEAD. Take with good will Here from a friend, Though it but ill Suits me to send, This souvenir Of the wild lake Where the shy deer Stir every brake. Their s the delight, Where nothing bars, Roaming at night Under the stars. WITH A DEER S HEAD. Meeting the day, Ghost-like they tread : Softly as they, Move not the dead. Till on. their ears Baying of hounds Falls and with fears Spurs them to bounds. Swifter than fire, Heedless of brush, Hills cannot tire, Onward they rush. Bang ! But the speed Laughs in man s face. Bang! Shall man s greed Mar such a pace ? ll ITff A DEER S HEAD. Sale away ! Bang! Death in that shot : Never more sprang Buck from that spot. What was the gain Grace so to mar ? (Victory vain !) Horns ! Here they are. TWO SPRING DA YS. 15 TWO SPRING DAYS. The West-wind is blowing, Winter is going ; Kites in the air Fly everywhere ; The linnet s Spring ditty Sounds sweet in the city ; Every garden is seen Now bedecked with new green ; And the hills smiling down On the toil of the town, All in sunlight and shade, Look as soft as the round dimpled cheek of a maid. 1 6 Tiro SPRING DA VS. Hark ! the fair days are past And the strengthening blast Of the West-wind s commotion Resounds from the ocean ! With clangor terrific, Across the Pacific, Driving sea-mists before, How he leaps to the shore ! Taking clutch as he lands Of the granulous sands, Which he sows without pity Through fogs on the city, While the sky every day Is made dismal with gray, And the stars every night Are all blurred out of sight, And the dust-eddies whirl Through the streets with a mouth, nose, and eye-filling swirl. TWO SPRING DA VS. 17 Oh, let skies, as they list, Change from sunshine to mist ! Tis no hue of the sky Paints the world to my eye, But the warm heart of one Never dimmed like the sun On my path casts the shine Of a sunlight divine. What to me though a doom Be in store for Spring s bloom, Or though never a note Come from Summer s dry throat ? In the year that I know, There is no ebb and flow, For (all seasons above) I walk in the warmth and the light of thy love. LOVE AND SLEEP. LOVE AND SLEEP. Love heaves the blood like a tide of the ocean And sends it in surges to break on the heart : Sleep spreads a calm o er the spirit s emotion And rocks it to rest only Sleep can impart. So Sleep hateth Love and will never go nigh to him, However Love longingly Sleep would delay : All the night long Love may wearily sigh to him, Sleep will not hearken, but hastens away. COWARD DEATH. 19 COWARD DEATH. Death, how long you were afraid ! Eager though you were to smite, Coward, how you slunk from sight ! All around him though your blade Cut its swath, it never made Move to hurt him, though its might Darkened many another s light. Oh, what tireless joy of living through his limbs with rapture played ! But beside him everywhere, By the hearth and in the heather, Summer-time and wintry weather, Like his shadow, you were there ! COWARD DEATH. Viewless as the empty air, Noiseless as a falling feather, (Thirty years you two together !) Watching for a chance to strike him, Coward, could you dare. But you quailed ; for not alone, Guardless, on his way he went : Two defenders Fate had sent Trustier not on man bestown Youth and Strength, whose shields were thrown Ever toward the least intent Barbed with pain or detriment. And you quailed at their bright prowess and recoiled with baffled moan. O the sight beyond compare Youth and Strength and he together, COWARD DEATH. Marching through the Highland heather, In the Hebridean air ! Manhood never shone more fair : In the sunny Summer weather, Not a heart but (as a feather) Fluttered to behold him blithe and fearless everywhere. Till, at last, Love joined the band, Love that Fate would not assuage : Youth grew thoughtful, then, as Age ; And from Strength s enfeebled hand Fell the shield. Behold him stand Stripped and helpless to engage Even with a coward s rage ! Then, O Death, your base invasion cut in two life s slender strand ! ON A PIECE OF MUSIC. ON A PIECE OF MUSIC COMPOSED FOR A FRIEND S WEDDING. O bridegroom, Music takes her lyre And sings her sweetest air, That all the joy in all our hearts May find an echo there. For Music, mistress of men s souls, Has been your mistress too ; And as your joy was honoring her, So she would honor you. TO THE BRIDE. TO THE BRIDE. Had a stranger demanded, "What have you to show Of women whose fairness shall not fall below The fame that belongs to your fruit, flowers, and gold ? " Then proudly by me had that stranger been told : "You should see Isabelle !" Had he said," Yes, for beauty. But how about brains ? You gold-diggers give yourselves infinite pains To fill up your pockets ; but filling the head Is there any true culture ? " Again I had said : " Wait and see Isabelle ! " Had he doubted of manners, I d pointed to one The peer of all courtesy under the sun, TO THE BRIDE. Whose speech never otherwise lets her be seen Than cordial, yet dignified, truly a queen. " And her name ? " " Isabelle ! " And if he had scoffed, " These are well in their way : AVit, beauty, and manners they make their display. But before they a charm unto life can impart, You must show me besides them a true woman s heart :" My reply," Isabelle !" Yes, thus had I answered and thus truly thought, Till the stranger to shame for his doubting was brought ; But a stranger, too canny to parley or doubt, Came along and his own eyes spied Isabelle out, And he won Isabelle ; And she leaves us, she leaves ah, the land of her birth, For a home at the uttermost parts of the earth, A land every day that s as bright as a flower, TO THE BRIDE. 25. For one with the darkness of mists for its dower : We have lost Isabelle ! There are warm hearts in Scotland, God knows how they ve bled : For Prince Charles, for Queen Mary what heart s blood was shed ! May an equal devotion be thine to the end- Is the prayer of one always and truly thy friend ! Fare thee well, Isabelle ! GENIUS DEAD. GENIUS DEAD. " O grave > where is thy victory ? " Out of darkness into day, A little while with men to stay, Loving friends were his alway: Now he lies ah, there ! Like a meteor sped from sight, Like a lost love s past delight, Like his laughter yester-night He is gone ah, where ? But his work remains behind, Deathless offspring of his mind, Humanizing all mankind By the light it gives. GENIUS DEAD. Oh, then, mourners, dry your tears ! Conquered are the coming years ; See how paltry Death appears : He is dead, yet lives ! ON THE EVE OF A VOYAGE. ON THE EVE OF A VOYAGE. O thou who for two years hast filled my mind More than the thought of all the world beside, Making the days no longer to divide In measurements which science has divined Since it is sunrise when I see thee first,, And sunset when at last thou say st Good Night, Or when thy windows cease to flash the light Which for thy presence partly stills my thirst : Dear heart of hearts, one kiss and then farewell ! I give my body to the rolling sea ; But will not still a thousand omens tell, My soul meets nightly in this wood with thee ? THE ABSENT SAILOR. THE ABSENT SAILOR. EXCERPTS FRDM A NARRATIVE POEM, I, Bedirnmed with long, vain scanning of the sea, Her eyes take lustre as her musings roam To Cornwall, his high, sea-lashed, thunderous home: O Cornwall, rocky Cornwall ! Thy men are stout and brave, They take life s buffets like thy cliffs That front the western wave. O Cornwall, sunny Cornwall ! Where Spring comes early and fair, There are no lovelier maids than thine In England anywhere. THE ABSENT SAILOR. O Cornwall, royal Cornwall ! Mother of maids and men, There Tristram died for Iseult s sake : Ah, sorely love smote then ! O Cornwall, happy Cornwall ! Let my love live for me, And let me live to see his child Sit smiling on my knee ! II. Then on the sands she poured this wailing forth To whom ? if not, lost lord of her heart, to thee,- Strong son of Cornwall, somewhere on the sea: Where art thou now r , my Cornish heart? No sail is on the sky, The sea spreads trackless out of sight, The wind goes speechless by. THE ABSENT SAILOR. I ve watched a hundred ships come in, A hundred ships go out ; But watching only breaks my heart, It cannot, quell my doubt. Perhaps the wave that s at my feet Has felt thy vessel s keel : Oh, give me, God, the power to guess One word it could reveal ! Perhaps yon star that lights the pole Shines where thou, too, canst see : Oh, might our glances meet therein And tell me, love, of thee ! Where art thou now, my Cornish heart? Till this be answered true, For me there is not peace nor sleep Nor anything but rue. 32 IN THE GRA VE. IN THE GRAVE. They bid me join them at the dance, They bid me with them riding go, They chide me for my mirthless glance And say, " He was not always so." But oh, what now can give me mirth ? My love is dead, she lies in earth. They never knew her heart was mine, Without a sigh they called her dead ; But oh, I would that Death s design Had laid me in the same cold bed. Away, away, and have your mirth : My love is dead, she lies in earth. IN THE GRA VE. 33 That dear, true heart beneath the sod Oh, might I, like the rest, believe She sleeps but till we meet in God : Then lightly could I cease to grieve ! But nothing now can bring back mirth : My love is dead, she lies in earth. 34 WAGNER. WAGNER: A MEMORIAL ODE. i. Dead, say they ? Deathless one, Live as the living sun, Life-giver, world-waker, Soul-smiting cloud-breaker, Quickening with fiery might Hearts faint with worldly blight, Warming cold seeds of thought Which else had sprung to nought, Waking to second birth Beings long laid in earth, First, in all human ken, Master of souls of men, So long as lives the sun, Livest thou, deathless one ! WAGNER. 35 Ah, but thou speak st no more, thy last word s said This power alone has dull Death on thy head, Voiceless to be, in voice so like a God ; Wordless, whose words leapt as with lightning shod. To see thee mute ah, Fate, what is the gain That lips like his should motionless remain ? Is it for love you let Death smite him so Love that would fain his peerless voice forego, If him unwearied it might thereby save From yelping critics harrying to the grave ? Or is it envy of that generous heart Who royally fulfilled his royal part, And once more hallowed the cheap name of king By lifting above strife, serene to sing, Him, of all sons his native country bore, Greatest of men since Goethe spoke no more ? 36 WAGNER. Or was it fear, O Fate, that let Death smite ? Fear lest your sway should suffer in earth s sight, If men too long unhindered might rejoice, Mindless of you, to follow his sole voice ? Sweet as the peace of two hearts love makes one, Joyous as sunshine, glad as Easter sun, Strong as sea surges, weak as clinging vines, Harsh as the tramp of wind through mountain pines, Tender as blossoms, soft as maiden lip, Fierce as foam leaping on a foundering ship, Radiant as smiles upon an infant s face, Keen as the bent bow springing back to place, Stern as the law of life, mild as the dove, Pale as dawn starlight, red as flaming love. Ah, me ! that voice is mute, those cold lips sealed : How much is left unsaid will never be revealed. WAGNER. Ah, but Death has not won, Shall not win, deathless one, Thee to his shadow-land. And though his pallid hand Freeze thy lips fiery word, Still shall thy voice be heard Loud on the lips of those Who at thy will arose, Scatheless of Death s design, Quickened by breath of thine. They hold the soul of thee Now for eternity, Life-giver, world-waker, Soul-smiting cloud-breaker, So long as lives the sun, Livest thou, deathless one ! 38 BALLAD OF THE NORTH-WIND. BALLAD OF THE NORTH-WIND . Hark ! on the lake the North-wind hunts And drives his wintry pack, A thousand foaming hounds before, The North-wind at their back. His brother Frost rides by his side, Armed with arrows frore : Was ever baying heard till now Voiced like the ocean s roar? Whence come they ? From high Shasta s snow, Far in the unseen North, Bent on their winter s ravening, The twain fared keenly forth. BALLAD OF THE NORTH-WIND. 39 With a bound they leapt from Shasta s side, And wild the pace they rode, And many a mountain barrier Their galloping bestrode. And through the land as on they passed, A furrow, like a frown, Marked where the thick-set mountain pines Were trod and trampled down. Until at last Elk Mountain rose. Then with a fierce delight, Quicker than powder springs to flame They reached its topmost height. There in a whirlwind they stood still. Poised in the cloudless air, Like eagles, moveless, they beheld The goal that lured them there. BALLAD OF THE NORTH-WIND. Konockti s lake rimmed round with hills Gleamed in the wintry sun : As stars fall, with one headlong swoop The water s marge was won. Lo ! at the touch the North-wind s hounds, - That sleep beneath the lake, Loosened their tongues in such a note As the last trump shall make. Hark ! though the sun long set should bid The huntsman s speed" grow slack Hark ! on the lake the North-wind hunts And drives his wintry pack. The stiff trees bend as the hunt goes by, The trees blanched bare like bones ; Thicker than once last year with leaves Their boughs are filled with moans. BALLAD OF THE NORTH-WIND. The wild fowl fly before the blast Like fluttering Autumn leaves ; With beak and claw and steadying wings, The owl to the pine-top cleaves. Clangor of hard swords clashed in fight, Clangor of human wail, Wrung from a city that s wrapped in fire, Before this clangor pale. Ah, but the dawn ! Its earliest gleam Beheld the still lake hushed. Back to his jagged Shasta clefts The wild North-wind had rushed. But lo ! still here, his brother Frost, A-weary with the chase, On high Konockti s summit sits And rests him for a space. 42 BALLAD OF THE NORTH-WIND. Gladder than lovers eyes he grew On that aerial stand, As his wide-circling glance surveyed Glory of lake and land. Joy at his heart he felt exhale Like perfume out of flowers, Till thought was dimmed of that far home Where gathering thunder lowers. But then uprose the swift red sun And aimed his fieriest ray : As deer start at the fateful note When hounds strike scent and bay Frost vanished ; and on Shasta s side, Safe from the withering sun, The rent rocks marked the bound he made The winter s chase was done. YC 14735 567474- UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY