>* A CT V,,^ I. \\J>.Lt LLOYD MIFFLIN BOOKS BY LLOYD MIFFLIN The Hills Page 8x10. With eight reproductions from pen drawings by Thos. Moran, N. A. Privately printed, 1896 At the Gates of Song Illustrated with teu reproductions in halftone after drawings by Thos. Moran, N.A. First and second editions Esles & Lauriat, Boston, 1897 Third edition revised and printed from new plates, with portrait, Henry Frowde, London, 1901 The Slopes of Helicon and other Poems With eight illustrations by Thos. Moran, N.A. , and with two bv the author Estes & Lauriat, Boston, 1898 Echoes of Greek Idyls Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1899 The Fields of Dawn and Later Sonnets Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1900 An Ode on Memorial Day Written and delivered at the request of Post 118, G. A. R.. 1878 Out of Print Ode on the Semi-Centennial of Franklin and Marshall College, 1903 Fifty copies only, printed on Japan Vellum, signed by the author Castalian Days Ten autograph copies on Japan Vellum ; twenty -four autograph copies on hand-made paper Henry Frowde, N. Y. and London, 1903 IN PREPARATION COLLECTED SONNETS— CCCL CASTALIAN DAYS LLOYD MIFFLIN LONDON HENRY FROWDE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AMEN CORNER ; NEW YORK, 91 AND 93 FIFTH AVENUE MDCCCCIII All Rights Reserved COPYRIGHT, 1903 BY LLOYD MIFFLIN THE HOFFER PRESS U. 8. A. PREFATORY The author has here sought to bring together some of his later sonnets. Most of these poems were writte^t at inter- vals during this and the preceding year. Norwood, Y Tlf August 1902. • 267780 The throbbing ache from unaccomplished Art, The ceaseless pang of ineffectual Song. — Sonnet. NSCRIBED TO BRIZO Contents PAGE From the Promontory I The Rest at Noon 2 The First Awakening . 3 From the Foot of Olympus 4 " Love and Life" 5 The Fading Ship 6 The Wind-God 7 In Memoriam " By Conowingo Waters 9 Marpessa to Apollo lo The Victim ii On the Upland 12 Unavailing Grief ^3 The Madonna ^4 "Youth at the Prow" ^5 The Young Embalmer i^ Margin of Swatara ^7 Wings of the Morning l8 The Lily of Dawn • • • 19 The End of All 20 Reading from Milton 21 From the Acro-Corinthus 22 On the Twilight Headland 23 The Conqueror 24 On the Bluffs 25 October Days by Octoraro 26 The Gift • 27 The Sonnet's Music 28 CONTENTS PAGE Praxiteles to Phryne 29 Beside the River Banks 30 The Spectre 31 The Passing of the Queen 32 To the New Century 33 Antony in Egypt 34 The Benefactor . 35 A Tuscan Pastoral 3^ For a Statue 37 Hidden Wounds 3^ Sicilian Idyl 39 The Lurid Castle 4° With a Greek Herdsman 4^ "The Throne of Death" 42 Sunset in Hellas 43 The Spirit 44 After Severance 45 The Dawn of Science 4^ The Pupil of Philetas 47 Relent, Atropos 4^ The Temple of Apollo 49 The Ultimate Day 5° CASTALIAN DAYS FROM THE PROMONTORY I WATCHED for daybreak ... To the templed height The wind-borne murmur of the ^gean sea Surged in full anthem. The sublimity Of the profound unfathomable Night Waned, as the regal planets took their flight On fading wings. Full softly, floating by, Low vapors lifted and revealed the sky Pallid with dreams of the auroral lieht. A tremulous opalescence lit the gloom Wherein the dim and folded flower of day, Like some sweet rose reluctant still to bloom, Paled at the thought of opening. Darkness ceased, And spectral rifts of faint refulgent gray Lilied the airy meadows of the East. THE REST AT NOON A PAINTING BY GEORGE MORLAND There is no sound nor rustle of a breeze Above the bank wherefrom the hawthorn dips ; As the gray horse, plow-weary, gently sips, The brook-rings widen by the bending trees. Low voices of the tired laborers cease. While slumber, with hushed finger on her lips, Touches their eyes, and by that sweet eclipse Leads them through valleys of unending ease. I pass within a picture, noiselessly, Down the green lanes of Devon, where they rest ; Their lids are heavy ; sultry is the day, And in their dreams, at least, they may be blest ; Breathe not a whisper — hush ! and steal away, — As Morland saw them, still so let them be. THE FIRST AWAKENING Far off I saw the seraph wings upraised In flame ; with fulgence more than Hght the air Burned, and the glory showed that God was there Ineffable. Slowly mine eyes undazed, As one, bearing a lily, unamazed Called me by name ; and I was then aware That love within me grew a flower of prayer — My spirit began to know her as I gazed : She led me by still waters, even those Foretold, and I was filled with peace and knew My troublous soul was entering Paradise : Then memory bloomed, a slowly-opening rose, And while I asked if Heaven indeed were true, Her look of love answered from long-lost eyes ! FROM THE FOOT OF OLYMPUS Still doth Alpheus murmur as he flows By myrtled banks, where floats the rich perfume: Of orange-blossoms clustered in the gloom Of hidden glens. Lonely the traveler goes Girt with cloud-shadows. By the mountain close Flocks nip the sward the Judas-trees illume With bending branches of purpureal bloom, And scarlet in the gullies flames the rose. No sound of Satyr nor Bacchante here, Pandean pipe nor purl of reedy oat. Nor, as of old, the clanging cymbal's cheer. While the mute herdsman, on the steep, remote, Lagging behind the slowly-browsing goat. Seems but a shadow on the upland drear. "LOVE AND LIFE" A PAINTING BY G. F. WATTS, R.A. Suffering and weak, what ill has come to thee O piteous Life? Up what bloom-barren slope Cam' St thou, so desolately fair, to grope Thy perilous way in unvoiced agony? Behold, Love pleads ! Oh, listen to his plea ! Be lifted where thy spirit doth aspire. For thou hast reached the rose of thy desire — Love leading Life from Infelicity. O innocent One, masking thy grievous wound In touching silence ! who shall dare to tell The yearning pain — the bitterness profound Of tremulous hope that looks through longing eyes Made sadder by that smile ineffable And pathos of thine inarticulate cries? THE FADING SHIP Far on the faint horizon's shadowy rim, A moving vision o'er the evening sea, How beautiful she seems — so earthly free — With spectral sail and fading pennon dim ! Is she a Ship of Dreams? or does she swim Of Beauty the eidolon ? or is she The sweet embodiment of mystery Blendino- with twilight on the ocean's brim? . . . Some Spirit whose faintly-glimmering, vapory wings Fade in the far-off realms of halcyon air? At last unfettered, as she outward springs, Is she the Soul of Peace fleeing from Care, Leaving behind the sad terrestrial things — Seeking nepenthe in the distance fair ? THE WIND-GOD Thou dark-winged demon of Cimmerian lands, Who com' St from caverns of the unfooted vast, The raging tempest and the roaring blast Thou holdest in the hollow of thy hands ! Typhoon, the dreaded, raves at thy commands. Leaving the mariner helpless and aghast ; Thou strewest many a ship and shattered mast- Thy cenotaphs unnumbered, on the sands ! Lo, o'er the surging Ocean, even now Speed the swift javelins of thy phrensied might O charioteer infuriate ! it is thou Who, in thy mad ungovernable glee. Across the blackness of the gathering night, Lashest the wild-maned Horses of the Sea! IN MEMORIAM MAURICE THOMPSON A DEEPER hush is on the prairie's plain ; Far in the dark savanna's plashy meads The heron, lonelier, stands among her weeds, And e'en our woodlands have a touch of pain. Gone is the singer of the sylvan strain Whose note the indifferent world but little heeds ; Put by the syrinx of the seven reeds, Our minstrel now will never pipe again ! He who along the dewy forest streams Fluted at dawn full many a silver hymn Lies not within yon churchyard's lone retreat ; But in some region beyond telling sweet In immaterial valleys, strange and dim. He lingers, lapped in never-ending dreams. BY CONOWINGO WATERS As Evening came, sedate in hooded gray, A wondrous quiet on the valley fell ; Across the fields a distant-tolling bell Made a sweet threnode for departing day. The mavis on the topmost wildwood spray Ceased the low fluting of his late farewell, And in dark fiocks, above the bosky dell, The crows winged slowly where the woodlands lay. The twilight deepened. Pale ethereal seas Of lilac 'mid the branches slowly grew Star-studded depths unutterably blue ; While in the upper boughs a delicate breeze Sent soft Druidic murmurs rippling through The faint and tremulant lyre of the trees. MARPESSA TO APOLLO Had I but chosen thee, immortal One, Instead of him I clave too, then for me Had been supernal joys with hope to be Uplifted by communion with the Sun : Thy winged pair, in time, I might have won And held the reins of Dawn, — triumphantly Flushed the gray doors, and flamed the dusky sea With flakes from crimsoned hoofs when day was done, — Have felt the heart of godhead stir my breast. And spirit lips ethereal breathe on mine From deeps of Being beyond mortal dream . . . Ah, yet, each evening, when along the West Thou goest in splendor with thy radiant team, Behold these Earth-dimmed eyes that yearn to thine ! 10 THE VICTIM The River, turning red, began to rise ; Dark thousands thronged the marge with sail and oar, As priests of dread Osiris slowly bore • The Maiden, bound, — a votive sacrifice. Lashed to the stake — death's horror in her eyes — They left her naked by the river shore, But ere the sunset, lo, a deepening roar Of rising waters drowned the people's cries. The Nilus lapped her feet, then from their ships The swart crowd gloated at the river's might As round her writhing form the current poured ; Touching her neck — it reached her piteous lips, Then wildly rushing, whelmed her down from sight, While calm, above, the sacred Ibis soared. 11 ON THE UPLAND "There lies great Argos ! " said our mountain guide, Pointing due eastward toward the Cyclades : Around our feet the honey-laden bees Hummed in the blooming thyme. Here, far and wide, The cistus seemed a rose, while sunset-dyed Blossomed the diff, where, drowsing at his ease A eoatherd, near the fallen marble frieze. Dreamed of his flock along Cyllene's side. The evening deepened and we caught the breeze From meads of roseate oleander fair, On dusky banks of Inachus abloom ; The nightingales were mute, but everywhere The myriad tettix, from the twilight trees Filled, with insistent chirp, the classic gloom. 12 UNAVAILING GRIEF PARAPHRASE FROM THEOCRITUS O WHAT avails that thou shouldst weep for her Until thine eyes with grief should flow away? Youth is a rose which blooms but for a day And on the morrow finds a sepulchre. The will of Zeus what prayer of man can stir? Against the Fates futile doth he inveigh. She cannot hear thee now — thy Bloom of May- And back from Hades comes no messenger. ihe beauteous maid, — the slim and rosy girl 1 hat round thy neck hung as a precious pearl, C;h, what will grief subserve or bitterest tears Since death his wolfish jaws has closed, and left ihrough ail thy desolate and defloured years .\ot even her ashes unto thee, bereft! 13 THE MADONNA WITH THE CHRIST CHILD AND JOHN THE BAPTIST — AN OLD PAINTING By premonitions, Mary, art thou stirred. While the young Babe looks upward to thy face? For thou so fondly pensive, seem'st to trace An unknown grief impending, yet deferred . . . Thy mouth is sweet with silence. — not a word Parts the pure lips ; that calm brow doth erase All look of suffering by its saintly grace, And yet — some voice prophetic thou hast heard ! Doth a dim prescience of the invading years Cause thee, with such solicitude, to bend Above the innocent pair about thy knee? Dost thou divine the anguish deep — the tears — For these two little ones the pitiful end — The shadow of Herod and of Calvary? 14 ''YOUTH AT THE PROW" THE SUSQUEHANNA As Evening, aureoled with her amber hair, Walked o'er the mountain, robed in faded blue, Sandaled with silence in the glowing air. How sweet it was to drift alone with you ! 'T was ours to watch the heron as he flew To purpling pools within his reedy lair ; Leaving the glimmering land, we bade adieu To all the dwellers in the tents of Care, We drifted noiseless o'er the deepening glow Trailing our hands in miles of liquid gold. Then moored in shallows where the lilies rest ; The somnolent River scarcely seemed to flow, While o'er the hills, afar, beean to fold The crimsoned poppies of the fading West. 15 THE YOUNG EMBALMER The crypt was still, vine-shaded from the heat ; On the black marble lay the Maiden, dead, Naked and brown, a lotus at her head, The pale embalmer trembling at her feet. He washed her heart in palm-wine, as was meet. And in the empty body deftly spread Arabian nards, that heavy fragrance shed. With myrrhy spices and the mystic wheat. He laid the vitals in Canopian jars ; Touching her brow and holding back his tears, He nerved his soul, and took her beauteous eyes Each from its hollow — dull lack-lustre stars Once brieht with love — and 'mid low stined sii-hs. Placed in their sockets the obsidian spheres. 16 MARGIN OF SWATARA I How silvery through the meadows parched and sere, The Hmpid brook ran purHng on its way ! On either side we walked, — the runnel clear Kept our hands parted on that heavenly day. You warbled as we strolled a careless lay As bhthesome as the bird, that risino- near. Trilled his rapt carol in the blue of May, — Ah ! Love it was that made him warble, Dear ! Ah, me ! once more across the years I seem — Once more with you to tread the Summer air, Watching the sunlight kiss your lustrous hair : O Time ! give back again that golden dream — My Sweetheart, lost, long lost, who with me there Rambled for lilies by the Indian stream ! 17 WINGS OF THE MORNING II Yea, I will build a tower on every crest Where we two stood together in love's pride, So that the River, flowing grandly wide, May still remember where your feet have pressed These peaks shall not forget you, but attest Your beauty on the mountains, and the tide — Where the bent currents through the boulders glide- Murmur of you when crimsoned by the West. The wild swans, flying south, shall swerve more low And by these landmarks reach the reedy sea ; The eagle near shall poise in azure air ; Men now unborn, and maidens yet to be, Seeing your memory coronated so, Shall feel your loveliness — and my despair ! 18 THE LILY OF DAWN III Where are you now — for years have o'er us flown- Since last I touched the flower of your hand? To what kixurlous creature have you grown ? Who bow before you in that foreign land? Steeped in the languor of an orient strand, Lulled by the odor of spice-laden breeze, The dusky turbans move at your command By palmy reaches of Ceylonian seas : But when the crimson-arrowed evening falls On minaret and many a gilded dome Touching with splendor the white palace walls, O pine you not for those enraptured days, Yearning to walk again the blissful ways Made dear by Love before you left your home ? 19 THE END OF ALL Midnight was on the summits, and the lake — Livid with lig-htninQf. In the cavernous cloud The demons of the thunder roared aloud And made the everlasting mountains quake. Then of the spirits, hovering in the gloom, I asked the end of Man — of Man, that proud Imperious master with high front unbowed — "What, at the last, on earth shall be his doom?" They answered, stern, "Not by submerging seas Of ice, nor flame from crater nor from sky, Shall Nations perish, but — from utter dearth ; Like wastes of withering grasses shall they lie, Famine shall mow their trillions of increase Leaving one ghastly swarth around the earth ! " 20 READING FROM MILTON Leave the dim casement, where the twilight gloom, Strange with great stars, holds us in charmed spell ; Light the soft lamp, as in some hermit cell. And stir the back-log that it may illume The brow of Pallas with a roseate bloom ; Then let the Poet sound his classic shell Attuned to murmur the Pierian spell. And flood with melody the quiet room : Turn the rich page, and while the embers glow, Through arched groves Etrurian slowly tread, Reading the thunderous numbers, doubly dear ; Full let the organ-tones of Comus flow. Nor fail to render that "melodious tear" — The Dorian threnody for Lycid, dead. 21 FROM THE ACRO-CORINTHUS The Rock of Corinth ! here at last I stand, The sought-for goal of many traveled days, — An eagle's view afar through purple haze. — Of dreamy capes and cloudy rims of land O'er faint y^tolia's dim-discovered strand ; Arcadian coasts, dimpled with azure bays, And southward o'er the sea, a beauteous maze Of island clusters girt with yellow sand ! Breathing of perished gods, peopled anew, Parnassus and the stately Salamis Rise like a dream. Full many a warrior-town Flashes snow-white, perched on her cliff of blue, And far away, like an imperial crown, The immortal splendor of the Acropolis ! 22 ON THE TWILIGHT HEADLAND THESEUS AND ARIADNE Dear Love, lean nearer — let your finger-tips Reach till they touch the rose within my palm. Through the hushed dusk I feel the fragrant balm Of your faint breathing as the tired breast dips And rises, drowsful as a bee that sips Honey too avid from the numbing flower. ... Close the sad eyes, and for one little hour Let slumber soothe the farewell-taking lips. Ah, sweet ! were it not better for each heart Before the bitter years their wine distill — For us, who must irrevocably part, To pass the lintel of the door of Death Lip touching lip, I breathing faintly still The poignant sweetness of your fading breath ? 23 THE CONQUEROR Behind him, burning cities, and the roar Of cannon in the night. The road he fled Lined on each side with stiffening corpses dread. His ruthless steps reek with the sickening gore — He who made earth a human abattoir. He dies. . . . The nether mountains, furnace-red, Asunder part — with such the fires are fed — And on him closes the Infernal Door. This monster, in his life, men gave a crown. In death a mausoleum, which shall tell How Infamy begat a river of tears. God must be Justice, so the Fiend looks down On hopeless eyes that through a million years Glare horror in the flaming gulphs of Hell. 24 ON THE BLUFFS The headlands here are in a sunset glow ; I read your letter, but I fail to find The old sweet by-paths of a kindred mind Down which your thoughts made music, long ago. Ah, love ! a worlding of the world you grow ! But I seek nobler heights, and so am blind To words that still can wound, so let the wind Whirl these torn scraps of pathos far below ! I am as one who, in a waking dream, StrolHng at eve picks up an Indian dart, — Dulled by long pain, indifferent to discern How once it pierced some innocent victim's heart, - Yet, with a half-regretful unconcern, Skims it beyond the cliff, sheer to mid-stream. 25 OCTOBER DAYS BY OCTORARO *T IS sweet to roam within the tinted woods, To tread the crimson carpet of its floor ; To hear the song, and let the silence pour Within the soul entrancing interludes ; To wade through plumy ferns in listless moods, And find the wild grape on the sycamore In bloomy clusters ; sweeter still to explore Brown paths that tend to umber solitudes ; To see the scarlet quinquefolia crawl O'er rock and tree, shedding her splendor round Dreamful to he on banks of mosses browned Listening the partridge pipe her liquid call ; To watch the goldfinch on the thistle-ball, And hear, on hill-tops dim, the baying hound. 26 THE GIFT INSCRIBED TO THE REV. CANON WILTON, M.A. Sacred and sylvan Poet ! when I hold Your book of Verse, which o'er the winter sea You send — a later flower of songr — to me, I scent the Yorkshire hawthorn. On the wold, Or where the billows of heather-bloom are rolled Up breezy slopes ; by many a storied lea ; By Yarrow and lona, pensively, Lured by your lines I stroll where you have strolled But when, with eloquent words of ardent love, Bent on that City of Immortal Light, Your faith uplifts you to intemporal things, I follow — faltering — to that realm above, Fain would I equal your celestial flight And mount, like you, on such triumphal wings ! 27 THE SONNET'S MUSIC Still hearken for the Sonnet's hidden chime As on the shore we hst the sea-voiced shells ; The veiled music of the sonnet-swells Should, in our song's cathedral nave sublime, Roll down those rich reverberating halls In soft antiphonies of recurrent rhyme. Such tones were his who yet the ear enthralls — Sonorous Singer of the Italian prime. So Echo to Narcissus calls and calls Among the grottos of Arcadian fells ; At evening so, o'er cloud-built castle walls, Faint — from far towers of airy citadels Through deeps of twilight — rises, floats and falls The sweet re-echo of ethereal bells. 28 PRAXITELES TO PHRYNE "A WOMAN? . . . You a woman? Shame, be still! Fold your rich chiton round you and depart. Beauteous, yet with your despicable heart, What can you know of woman-kind but ill ? Bring not your sumptuous evil o'er my sill. You dare to speak of love — to me apart — You ! — with your lily whiteness turned to swart — Oh, no, such arch-dissembling fails to thrill ! You who were sweeter than the buds of May, Not so obtuse you've grown, but just too base To feel the degradation of disgrace ! Flattered and rich, take my adieus to-day — You who are 'neath my scorn! ... So from the vase Of golden life we pitch an old bouquet." 29 BESIDE THE RIVER BANKS A STUDY FOR A PAINTING In August noons, along the River green, Faint lay the mountains in the sultry haze ; The sky was colorless ; a hot white blaze Made the dim islands dimmer in its sheen. The further hills were hardly to be seen Until some cloud-thrown shadow gloomed the grays Of wooded ridges, shutting out the day's Insufferable elare with softened screen. Listless I dozed and looked across the oars To where the silver fish, with sudden spring Sent the small circle widening, ring on ring ; While in the pebbly shoals that lined the shores Under the umbrage of the sycamores, Silent the heron stood and preened his wing. 30 THE SPECTRE As TO some clock upon the dusky floor Standing within the hall 'mid carven chairs, Where, stately moving down the sumptuous stairs^ Funeral and bridal-train trooped by of yore A stranger comes at night ; opens its door And stops the pendulum and even dares To mar the works, then through the darkness glares And listens for the beating made before : So. on some midnight when the house is still, A Spectre, gliding with his furtive tread, — When I in slumber lie and fear no ill, — Shall stop this heart, and leaning down his head Shall Hsten o'er my breast, and pause, until No sound ensuing, he shall leave me — dead. 31 THE PASSING OF THE QUEEN 1901 What is the requiem heard upon the breeze From the dark forests of Laurentian lands ? What note of mourning from the golden sands Where Indus winds along the templed leas ? , . . The Queen is dead ! — her people's threnodies Sound o'er the grieving world. Columbia stands In heart-felt sorrow as she joins her hands With those who mourn by far Australian seas. Peace to the Queen ! Oh, new-born, may She meet With long-lost faces through the endless days — Find youth again, and life with love replete In amaranthine meadows where she strays And hears celestial music, strangely sweet, By the still waters and the lilied ways ! 32 TO THE NEW CENTURY The accursed rage for wealth, devoid of ruth, Fumes in the breast of peoples and of kings : Is this the guerdon that the Century brings — Insatiate avarice with relentless tooth? Where is the promise of the Nation's youth, — The dreams icarian — the auroral wings? That earlier quest of immaterial things, — High principle, religion, honor, truth? What shall relume our spiritual night While brazen Progress, cloaking banal greed. Crushes the soul 'neath her Mammonian car? What dayspring rises for the Spirit's need ? — What of the Soul's inviolable star? Torch of the Years ! is this thy vaunted Light ? 33 ANTONY IN EGYPT No — no, not death ! my rapturous Queen, not death ! 'T is nature's error when two lovers die ; As thy great heart in one wild ecstasy Wells through these lips unto my soul, my breath Burns with dark passion as it uttereth, " Enough, Love's promised immortality ! Heaven is in mine arms, not in the sky, O royal mate, when thou art there !" it saith. Not death to-night ! Ah, Egypt, no — not so ! More life — more love ! not death — more love instead ! Till we shall feel Love's burning flame impart To plighted lips his full impassioned glow, — Yet, on the instant, should Love strike thee dead. That instant would the dagger find my heart ! 34 THE BENEFACTOR — TO THE DISCOVERER OF ANESTHESIA — Thou, like to ^sculapius' shining sire, That golden-tressed god — the Delphian — Hast slain the serpent, and freed suffering man From slow immitigable tortures dire. No longer now, on Agony's dreaded pyre Men writhe, since from our soil American Thou cam'st, thou later Good Samaritan, Whose legacy the days unborn shall choir f So once that wise magician — robbed by him The injurious king of proud Parthenope — From his demense drove torment with his wand ; So once the Son — diviner paradigm — Spake softly his miraculous command And drave the demons down into the sea ! 35 A TUSCAN PASTORAL A PAINTING BY CLAUDE The russet levels of Italian leas Reach far away to where the mountain clips The quiet vale. Anear, the streamlet dips Purling beside us. Vine-enwreathed trees Rise, till their tops might hail the midland seas ; And now a kid within their shadow skips Near the recumbent goat that slowly nips The thymy pasture as it lies at ease. The brooklet falls in foam ; a rippling breeze Calls to the kine to quit the scorching noon And plash in shallows where the leader sips ; The dreamy goatherd, stretching sun-browned knees, Leans from the bank and listens to the tune The sliding syrinx wakes along his lips. 36 FOR A STATUE PARAPHRASE FROM THEOCRITUS Thou Traveler, here beneath the cypress stay And view the statue of this bard of old, — Archilochus the Poet, virile, bold, The maker of the strong iambic lay. His fame hath blown from portals of the day Clear to the far Hesperian gates of gold; The themes he glorified were manifold, And over mortals held he marvelous sway. The Muses heard and after loved him long, For wondrous were his winged words of fire, And Hellas, listening, gave the singer cheer; Such genius had he in creating Song That when he chanted to his stirring lyre Apollo ceased,— those golden strains to hear! 37 HIDDEN WOUNDS The Heart Knoiveth His Own Bitterness Ah, who shall tell of that disguised dispair Hid from the world in bitterest disdain ! The ardor damped ; the new-born hope, new slain,- Joy's bud unfolding but a rose of care ! The frailty and impermanence that dare Mask as true love, while proving such love vain ! These daily poniards of recurrent pain — T/iese may be borne as we have learned to bear ;- But Oh ! the life with deeper anguish fraught : Veiled lacerations of the poet-heart — That inward bleeding at the Triumph of Wrong ! The wounds from non-reciprocated thought — The throbbing ache from unaccomplished Art And ceaseless pang of ineffectual Song ! 38 SICILIAN IDYL PARAPHRASE FROM THEOCRITUS Thou liest, Daphnis, by leaf-hidden streams, Soft-breathjing in thy poppied slumber deep ; Thou dost not hear the tinkling of thy sheep As far thou wanderest in the dale of dreams. But wake, O shepherd ! for it surely seems Pan and Priapus, goat-eared twain, now leap With satyr strides adown the rocky steep To catch thee drowsing where thy grotto gleams. The one with bronzed ivy-leaves is crowned About his jocund head and caprine ears, And both upon thy track are rushing straight ; O rouse thee, shepherd ! for with froHc bound They come, and one beside thy cavern peers, — Arise and flee before it is too late ! 39 THE LURID CASTLE Perched on the perilous crag, the Castle vast Rose o'er the abysmal gulph — a fearsome sight ! Against the ebon of the starless night The turrets glowed vermilion, over-cast By some unearthly flame. A bugle blast Blared from the bannered walls. Through casements bright Were seen the moving revelers, gay bedight, As to the towers I turned mine eyes aghast : For lo ! the Castle wavered, as a shock Trembled along the undulating floor Where Knights and Ladies passed in brilliant show, Then, Hke a maniac from his dizzy rock, The lurid horror, swaying to and fro, Plunged headlong down the abysm with deafening roar ! 40 WITH A GREEK HERDSMAN Still doth the shepherd on the mountain-chain Follow his flock along the thymy hills Of Arachova, where the foamy rills Carol their music to the Delphian plain. As from some jutting bluff where he hath lain Prone with his herd among the daffodils, Seaward he stares, the nightingale's rich trills Greet him with rapture of a wild refrain. Behind him stand the twin Phsedriades That in the blue of Hellas shadowy soar ; Sleeps to the south the far Corinthian bay, And dimly looms, adown the western way, The Acarnanian and y^tolian shore Past capes of Elis to the Ionian seas. 41 -THE THRONE OF DEATH" A PAINTING BY G. F. WATTS, R.A. Sovereign and beggar come, and each alone, Trophy or burthen bringing to Death's feet. The mailed warrior, proudly, as is meet, Yields his unconquered blade. The glittering crown That power imperial wears, a king lays down Submissively. The Child,— the Mother sweet,— And Age forlorn, bend to the winding-sheet Which draws the World to that mysterious Throne. The Judgment Book hes open but unread. For who would gaze upon those cryptic things? The Angel Death, inscrutable above, Broods awesomely beneficent, — his wings Over himself and all the region spread Darkness, not unilluminate by Love. 42 SUNSET IN HELLAS How many an eve, on yonder peak at rest, I watched the shadowy pageant of the sky, — The fading hosts in plume and panoply Pass, on the cloudy ramparts of the West ! Huge Titans, hurling towers from the crest Of serried bastions that embattled lie ; And phantom galleons, slowly drifting by 'Mid amber seas, to havens of the blest! Islands of desolate gold ; cities august Empinnacled on the verge of scarlet deeps — Dim, rose-flushed heights, crowned with aularian fanes, Slow crumbling into wastes of ruby dust ; And plunging slowly down the crimson steeps. The Horses of the Sun, with flaring manes ! 43 THE SPIRIT Thridding the outer bulwarks in a light Less lucent than mid-Heaven's refulgent glow, I marked a Spirit coming, whom to know Baffled recall. It seemed as if some blight Of earthly memory had not left him quite — As if vague recollection still did throw A shadow o'er his bliss, who, moving slow Through airy regions, neared my curious sight : Compassion locked my lips, nor asked the cause Of his paled happiness, and he withdrew To leave me wondering what dim Spirit it was I felt, ' Not blest is he as Angels are ' ; Then I recalled, on feet and hands, the scar, — Riemembered Christ's last promise, — and I knew. 44 AFTER SEVERANCE So all the vows of friendship which we swore Are broke, and we estranged, at distance stand. Across the chasm is stretched no beckoning hand Of reconciliation. Now, no more We hold sweet talk of books and poet's lore ; The current of a discord, cold, austere, Widens between us, year by bitter year, And each drifts further from the other's door. Thus some wide summer river that of yore Floated the lover to his mistress dear Across the sunset waters, now with snows Engorged, rough-packed with jagged ice-wastes drear. Barriers the way, nor intercourse allows From incommunicable shore to shore. 45 THE DAWN OF SCIENCE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Hark, on the peak, the Hosts of Morning choir ! Fame's clarion blares, and Youth of stout emprize With light of learning in undaunted eyes Leaps to the front and nears his heart's desire ! For new vibrations of the great World-lyre Man listens — ear to earth, and laboring buys Success with Science ; yet how far off lies The height to which his glorious steps aspire ! As Humboldt heard, on Oronoko's shore, The rocks at morning make melodious sound Filling with strangeness all the blue profound. So, as the Century lifts her sunrise wings, A vibrant music from the Harp of Things Peals through the World — a strain unheard before 46 THE PUPIL OF PHILETAS In Cea's isle, fragrant with new-pressed wine, Philetas, all attenuate by thought, Sat 'neath the ilex and his pupil taught The guarded secret of the sacred Nine. Then the boy wandered to the upland pine And piped above the sea. Soon Slumber wrought Her poppied spell, and from his hushed lip caught The fallinor flute that waked the strain divine. In sunset dreams he saw himself, erelong, Honored of Crowns ; as winged hours flew, Laurels en-wreathed him, and the listening Muse Enthroned his name among the stars of Song. . . . Waking, he smiled and touched his pipe, — nor knew The vengeful fate that lurked at Syracuse. 47 RELENT, O ATROPOS ! O Thou who fill'st the caverns of the dead ; Whose icy heart stagnates with pallid blood ; Whose orbs, implacable, beneath thy hood Glare past the outposts of this World, and shed Indifference worse than hate — Destroyer dread, At last relent ! In pity look thou down Where Love — dear Love — a-tremble at thy frown. Fears the swift severance of the golden thread ! Others we yield thee, thou insatiate soul ! — Passion and Wealth ; Beauty, or even Hope, These take from us, whose steps grow faint with years. — But Love — sweet Love ! — Oh, on life's darkening slope Leave hwi our desolation to console — A child is he and in his eyes are tears ! 48 THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO AT DELPHI NEAR PARNASSUS Two eagles, from the utmost East and West, Freed by great Zeus, met here in times of old And marked Earth's centre, where, in shapes of gold, Men reared a semblance of them to attest The spot whereon the Oracle should rest ; — Desolate now ! — statue and tripod rolled To blank oblivion, — lips that once controlled The World, vanished beyond all human quest ! Yet from thy ruined Fane, thy sacred springs — Castalia and her sister — as of yore. Gush forth to-day potent with Delphian dreams : God of the lyre ! as we have lost our wings Draw thou again anear us — Oh, once more Lead us to these inviolable streams ! 49 THE ULTIMATE DAY For a Wind, Pa^seth Over It, and It is Gone Mountains shall wear away, from base to sky Shall crumble, and by Rivers carried on. Glut, through the aeons, the unfathomed yawn Of deepest seas. The Sea itself shall dry, — Shriveled, the illimitable land shall lie A waste, within whose blank dominion No hand may pluck the rose ; the paling sun Shall rise and set, nor beam on mortal eye : Then, as some dreaded whirlwind in the night Swirls through the air embers of dying fires. So shall the Breath of God, foretold of yore, Sweep star and sun and system, and their light Shall be as sparks from smouldering funeral pyres Darkened and dead, and Time shall be no more. 50 Notes Page 2. — A water-color painting by Morland in the writer's possession. Page 5. — This painting, shown at the World's Fair in Chicago, subse- quently adorned the walls of the Executive Mansion in Washington. Through a certain influence, on account of its alleged inappropriateness, it was after- wards removed. At President Koosevelt's request it was replaced in the White Plouse, January, 1903. The poem was written in approbation of the President's action. Acknowledgment is made to the New York Mail and Express for per- mission to republish this sonnet and also that upon page 27. Pages 8-43. — Acknowledgment is here made to the New York Independent and to Everybody's Magazine for permission to reprint. Page 10. — The writer here ventures beyond the Umit of the myth and im- agines that Marpessa, weary of her union with Idras, yearns for the return of her immortal lover. Pages 12-41-49. — The un traveled reader, curious as to modern Hellas, will find great pleasure in the perusal of Prof. J. P. IMahafly's Rambles in Greece. Page 13. — Epigram \I. Page 14. — An old ItaUan painting in the writer's home. Page 15. — "Youth on the Prow." — Or ay. Pages 15-17-21. — Conowingo, Swatara and Odoraro — three beautiful creeks in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, confluents of the Susquehanna, each bearing an Indian name. Pages 17-18-19. — Three sonnets forming a part of an unpubUshed Sequence of sixty, entitled, Wings of the Morning. Page 25. — A precipice on the Susquehanna near Columbia, Pennsylva- nia, named Chicquesalunga. In this picturesque region, in the valley field or upon the rocky headland, the stroller may still occasionally find a stone tomahawk or flint arrow-head. Page 27. — As these pages are going through the press the death is an- nounced of Canon Wilton. In him England loses a sweet and gentle poet. He was her later and more finished Herbert. The writer of these lines was honored at different times, by receiving a copy of each of Canon Wilton's books of Verse, and by personal letters wliich Cowper might have envied. Page 28. — An attempt has here been made, for a purpose, to interweave the rhyme sounds of the octave and tlie sestet; so, also, for a diflerent reason, on page 36. Page 35. — In America the discovery of ether as an anaesthetic is, with authority, attributed to Dr. Horace Wells, October, 1845. NOTES Page 36. — A Study of Trees by Claude Lorraine, in the National Gallery,, London. Page 37.— Epigram XIX. Page 39. — Epigram III. Page 40. — The germ of this sonnet may be found in one of the late P. G. Hammerton's essays. Page 45. — Line 12. — Though the onomatopoea is here intentional, its roughness is such that it would seem to demand a palliative word. Page 47. — Cea, one of the ancient names of the island of Cos, in the -^gean. The author has made use of the supposition — founded on Ovid's very inconclusive statement — that Theocritus was strangled by order of Hiero II, of Syracuse. Page 48. — For the exquisite statue of Love and Atropos by G. Dore. Page 49. — Line 10. — Castalia and her sister, i. e. the stream, Cossotis. A LIST OF MR. LLOYD MIFFLIN'S BOOKS WITH CONTENTS OF EACH VOLUME AT THE GATES OF SONG THIRD EDITION. REVISED. PRINTED FROM NEW PLATES 1901. SMALL 4T0. WITH PORTRAIT, $1.25 NET. HENRY FROWDE, LONDON : AND 91 AND 93 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK. CONTENTS A Passing Ship A Picture of my Mother A Poet's Grave A Tuscan Lachrymatory An August Shower . An Elegy . An Idyl . An Invitation . An Old Anchor on the Coast ' ' About the Hour ' Above the Abysm Across the Years Adonis to Apollo Africa After Reading Shakespeare's Sonnets "All, Tell Me Not" Antony to Cleopatra At the Point of Death Awaiting Summons . Beloved Dales . Build Thou Thy Temples Burke By the River at Sunset By Willowy Shores . Dear Are These Fields December . Delay O Light Disillusioned Eros . Evening . Eventide . Eurydice . Edwin Booth Fame Far from the Crowd Feeding the Pigeons Fiat Lux . Forgetfulness From the Peak . Golden Days I . Golden Days II He ]Made the Stars Also If Thou Wouldst Come In After Days . In a Vineyard of Asti Indian-Summer . In Memoriam In Italy Page 47 32 67 7 114 135 102 113 85 105 11 132 126 63 28 13 57 46 106 148 17 60 144 108 131 141 99 10 18 125 20 14 68 127 27 124 35 33 77 103 104 86 12 42 121 119 74 138 CONTENTS . In Quiet Fields "foi Insufficiency HI ^* I Stand upon the Bastions" 87 Ladro 43 Ija Primavera I34 La Sorella Mia 143 Lethe 90 like Bells UntoUed 24 Lost Isles 30 Marsyas 84 Milton 38 Mors Victrix 79 My Castle 6 My Native Stream I33 Night 75 Nilus . . . . , 19 November 123 Now Like a Red Leaf ' 37 On London Bridge ........... 31 On Writing Some Sonnets 69 Prodigals 39 Prometheus Chained 48 Psapho 73 Itembrandt Van Rhyn 70 Scorn for Myself I Feel 41 »Sesostris 23 Socrates' Death 76 Some Peak of High Achieve 120 Storm-Swept 45 St Paul's Sliipwreck 89 Still Thou the Tempest 29 Submission . 146 Sunrise on the Marsh HO The Apostate Saint 55 The Bouquet 66 The Builder 98 The Close of Day 142 The Country Burial 129 The Daybreak 91 The Doors ..... 3 The Dusk '.'.'.'.'.'.'. 147 The Empty House 62 The End of Erebus 59 The Evening Breeze 140 The Evening Comes I37 The Evening Hosts 95 The Evening Voice 54 The Fading Light ' " 107 The First Hoar-Frost 116 Tlie Flight .' .' 49 The Frontier 109 Tlie Gloaming . 150 The Grasshopper to Aurora 26 The Heights 93 The Journey • . , . . 83 The Last Song of Orpheus 16 CONTENTS The Noontide Gone . The Nyniph The Obelisk in New York The Ocean Isle The Pale Eider The Poet . The Psalm The Question The Sea . The Sea-GuU The Ship . The Silence after Orpheus' Death The Silent Guest The Sonnet The Sovereigns . The Stormy Petrel The Susquehanna from the Cliff The Syrinx The Threshing Floor The Thrush The Vision The Voiceless The AVedding Morn . There Was a Time Theseus and Ariadne These Things I Saw . These Waste the Spirit They Come at Evening Tithonus to Aurora . Transmutation . To a Maple Seed To an Old Venetian Wine Glass To Brizo To Byron . To the ]\Iilkweed To the Poppy To the Sculptor of Ladro Unsolaced . Upon the Hearth Up with the Drawbridge Why Do We Sing Will These Fade Too AVinter Woods . Withdraw, O World . With Folded Wings . Within the Gates Pajre- 80 115 9 56 72 130 8 21 22 97 71 15 92 118 2 5 117 45 34 112 53 64 128 94 50 51 58 4 25 36 40 52 78 82 1 65 44 149 136 61 139 88 122 100 81 96 THE SLOPES OF HELICON AND OTHER POEMS WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS BY T. MORAN. N.A. AND WITH TWO BY THE AUTHOR. 1898. ESTES & LAURIAT, BOSTON. 16 MO. PRICE $1.25 NET CONTENTS I. THE SLOPES OF HELICON The Slopes of Helicon Ariadne in Naxos The Dethroned . From Moschus . Polyphemus to Ulysses With Winged Steps Calliope . In Clover Blooms The Hills To a Farmer — Poor and The Cardinal-Bird In tlie Fields Epigeea . In the Peacli Orchard Birds and the Poet The Locust-Trees Before Dawn Farewell, Ye Fields Mandragora Winter's Here Indeed From the Battlements Twilight from the Lawn The Trio November Summer's Sounds Tlie Procession . A Cattle Picture by The A^ictor Opening of the Urns The Storm-Clouds April the Twenty-third Looking at the West The Seasons And They Shall See His Dawn in Arqua . Homeward Bound Old Cuyp In the Cypress Swamp A Winter Twihght Yolande . Caliban . "The Bivouac The Dead Queen's Lover The Land of Nevermore Avenged Face PASTOKALS III. SONNETS IV. BENEATH THE KAVEN'S WING Page 1 19 21 24 25 26 27 31 32 35 36 37 39 40 41 43 44 45 47 48 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 71 72 73 77 80 81 83 85 Oh, Not on the Field . The Captive Her Roses Lovers in the Lane Sirens The Moon-Ship . Betrayed In Pall-Mali The Lunch Al Fresco A Friend no More The Light Witlain My Source of Light Take Back Your Words By the Frozen River Far from the Dawn From Dawn Till Dusk . Where Have They Gone In Drear Novem]>er Go on with the Play The Crescent CONTENTS ARROWS OF EROS VI. MINOR CHORDS Blight . Above the Trees Hollyhocks The Knight, the Maid, and the The Singer Longfellow Tlie Watcher To a Baby A Winter Dirge . Roland to the Nun Beyond the Hills Beneath the Palm The Road They Bring Their Flowers My Father at Eighty . A Poet's Bookcase The Anniversary My Lady Fair . O What is Song . The Bride of the Sea . The Wing of Death O Earth . Ode to the Memory of Keats The Idealists Mariners Across the Years Footfalls on the Stairs . Minstrel Page 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 111 112 113 116 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 132 133 134 135 137 138 141 142 143 148 150 152 153 THE FIELDS OF DAWN AND LATER SONNETS HOUGHTON. MIFFLIN & CO., BOSTON, 1900. 12M0. PRICE Sl.ffi NET CONTENTS ONE HUNDEED SONNETS THE FIELDS OF DAAVN— A SEQUEL OF FORTY-FIVE SONNETS: LATER SONNETS— FIFTY-FIVE LATER SONNETS The Singer . To an Old Anchor . Inadequacy . The Annunciation . Longings To an Aged Poet The Onset . Bereft In Memoriam The Cataract Longfellow . The Monarch ' ' Blame not the Poet ' ' The Fan Bellona The Travelers The A'oj^agers To Richard Henry Stoddard The Battle-field An East Rain on the Island of Cyprus The Black Portals . A Colored Servant Unable to Read In Bondage . To a Young Maid . The Bard To a General of the Revolution The Home-land A Landscape by Rembrandt Fettered The Beast . A Voice from the Border-land The Commonplace . The Queen of the Tides To an Old Laborer . On a Painting He Built the City of Enoch The Spirit of Poesy The Fields of Quiet Nicaragua The Dying Day . '. Looking Seaward In the Valley of Dreams . Samson In Leaf-drifted Aisles Isolation Page 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 CONTENTS In the Metropolis . On Presenting a Sonnet A Flight Downward In Memory of Alfred, Lord Tennyson Enstranged . Arrival of the "Welcome" A Winter Flight. I . A Winter Flight. II Invocation. I Invocation. II Page 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 ECHOES OF GREEK IDYLS HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., BOSTON, 1899. 12M0. PRICE $1.25 NET CONTENTS SIXTY SONNETS BION Idyl — The Lament of Adonis Idyl — The Husbandman, the Fowler, and Love Idyl — The Tutor of Love . Idyl — Love and the Muses Fragments : Vanity of Vanities To the Evening Star To Cjrpris . MOSCHUS Idyl — Love, the Absconder Idyl — Europa and the Bull Idyl — The Lament for Bion Idyl — Megara's Lament Idyl — By the Gray Sea Idyl — The Power of Love . BACCHYLIDES From Ode on Victory of Hiero: Hiero's Horse Race The Eagle .... Pherenicus — A Hippopsean From Ode on Theseus: Song for Two Voices From Ode on Victory at Nemea: The Discus Thrower From Fragment op Ode on the Trojan War; Before the Battle . The Conflict From Ode on Hiero's Chariot Victory: In Praise of Virtue From Fr.'v.gment of the Ode Antenorid^: Menelaus to the Trojans . Fragment : Peace .... Page 5 15 16 17 18 19 20 25 26 41 53 54 55 61 62 63 64 68 69 70 71 72 73 ODE ON THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL OF FRANKLIN AND MARSHALL COLLEGE, 1903 FIFTY COPIES ON JAPAN VELLUM. PRIVATELY PRINTED. EACH COPY BEARING THE AUTOGRAPH OF THE AUTHOR THE HILLS PAGE 8x10, WITH EIGHT REPRODUCTIONS FROM PEN DRAWINGS BY THOS. MORAN. N. A. PRIVATELY PRINTED, 1896 ODE ON MEMORIAL DAY, 1878 WRITTEN AND DELIVERED AT REQUEST OF POST 118. G. A. R. OUT OF PRINT UNIVERSITY OP CALIF'ORNIA LIBRARY Due two weeks after date. 30m-7,'12 r 267780 UNIVERSITY OF CAIvlFORNIA LIBRARY