UC-NRLF 
 
 SB 27 fiDS 
 

 LOVE 
 
 POEM 
 
 ..By.. 
 
 A. P., CLARK 
 
 f'4 
 

 LOVE 
 
 POEM 
 
 . . By . . 
 A. P. CLARK 
 
 " SELF " PUBLISHING Co. 
 
 1229 Broadway, Oakland. Calif. 
 
 1900. 
 
A LOVE POEM 
 
 BY A. P. CLARK 
 
 ( AME a youth unto a maiden, and his step was swift ahcTlight, 
 
 Glowed his face with happy loving and his eyes with love were bright, 
 
 And with confidence, yet shyly; all impetuous, yet restrained, 
 
 Did he speak his heart's emotions, plead to know what he had gained. 
 
 Saying, " Dost thou love me, dear one? Such devotion do I feel 
 That to die for you were pleasure! Look upon me as I kneel, 
 
 Thou so dear and thou so lovely, thou so more than heavenly sweet, 
 Look upon me as I loving, longing, worship at your feet." 
 
 " I will smooth for you life's roughness, guard you, keep you, you shall 
 know 
 
 Never care and your desires shall need but voice, I love you so. 
 Look, my angel, in my eyes; say thou wilt be mine, all mine, 
 
 Give your radiant self unto me, though un worth such gift divine." 
 
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And the maidei* answered slowly, ' ' Kind your words, and soft your tone 
 
 >.. i \ ' I \ - * 
 
 A's 1 t>be ^wood; dove's to its mate low calling 'Come; I would not be 
 
 And your eyes strike flame from mine until in fear my lids droop down, 
 And you wear a golden halo, though your ringlets, dear, are brown." 
 
 "Touch me not, for I would call now on the fruit of quiet hours 
 Spent in earnest meditation in my silent woodland bowers, 
 
 When my chiefest thought was Give me light; though but a maiden frail, 
 Yet do I feel a strength of soul that should make lions quail. ' ' 
 
 " How can I use this strength to help the weaker ones of earth, 
 
 The weary ones, the struggling ones, the sinful, who, through dearth 
 
 Of succor, fall and fall again? ah, friend, I hear their cries ! 
 
 Now will I speak my heart's deep thought, your answer in it lies! " 
 
" Though I love love most dearly and you penetrate my heart, 
 Yet would I not love selfishly, forget in any part, 
 
 For love of one my love for all, and yours, though dear to me, 
 
 I ask, if you've expressed it true, friend; would it leave me free ?" 
 
 Then spoke the youth impulsively, his regnant pride inflamed, 
 
 And rose the blood to cheek and brow, "I were indeed ashamed 
 
 If self here entered, I abase myself, my queen, my goddess dear, 
 Be mine that I may be your slave, give over without fear." 
 
 " M-y admiration grows that you conceive these noble aims, 
 
 But leave them, sweet, to coarser hands; such succor sometimes 
 maims, 
 
 And I could not allow the weight be placed on her I love, 
 
 'Tis not a woman's place, I think; all such she is above ! " 
 
Then the maiden's eyes filled slowly with the scalding tears of pain 
 
 But her pale lips answered bravely " Though 'tis golden, 'tis a chain; 
 
 I'm no angel, queen, nor goddess, but a very human woman 
 
 To whom freedom is as life is, and who'd have a slave of no man ! " 
 
 So they parted, he in anger, she in sorrow yet believing 
 
 That her way lay part in giving and not wholly in receiving; 
 
 And she left her woodland bowers, put behind her dreaming days, 
 
 Sighed no sighs, but thought of others, led and helped through 
 tortuous ways. 
 
 Heart and brain and hands were busy while the sands of life ran swift, 
 And if in her spirit's chambers sad thoughts echoed, if a rift 
 
 In the lute her spirit breathed on left the tones not silver clear, 
 
 No one knew it and her presence carried hope and peace and cheer. 
 
Many lovers had she, men and women young and old, 
 
 And she gave and gathered, giving, love and peace an hundred fold. 
 So the years passed by and with them all the child, the maiden shy, 
 
 Leaving heart and life a woman's, making old tear channels dry. 
 
 But into her life of labor came again the love of old 
 
 And flame sprang forth from the ashes she had thought were dead 
 
 and cold, 
 And in eager earnest sought she, her eyes in question set, 
 
 If in fullness might her chosen love be granted yet. 
 
 Beautiful as young Adonis had her youthful lover been, 
 
 Years had added manhood's strength; now did his brows together 
 lean 
 
 With a shade of melancholy, touching to a woman's eyes, 
 
 And her deeper nature knew that love, enkindled, never dies. 
 
With bated breath and marble cheek, she listened while he spoke, 
 
 Steeled her will against her feelings, hid her weakness with a cloak 
 
 Of calmness that belied her trembling hand, her ashen lip 
 
 Pressed against love's cup unknowing whether life or death the sip. 
 
 ," he said, "my love, my dear one, I have learned through years 
 
 of pain, 
 
 'Mid the clamor of my passion, how unlimited its claim; 
 Yea, it asked your whole life, dear one, and subservience of your thought, 
 Though my youth knew not its nature, falsely named the place it 
 sought. 
 
 For it cried Give, give, unceasing, though it spoke the place of slave, 
 And denied, it turned to anger till I raved as mad men rave. 
 
 From this anger, as from sickness, slow I rose and in its place 
 Came remorse and better feelings the earlier to erase. 
 
All for self has altered, dear one, for whatever change or time, 
 
 To all for thee, thou noblest woman, all I have and am is thine; 
 
 All I love and all I live for, all life's meaning sums to me 
 
 In thy pure and perfect being and my future lies with thee." 
 
 " If the world's a field to you, love, then to me the world's a field, 
 For your sake, with valiant effort, I will all my forces yield 
 
 To its betterment, if with lowly lives you work, 
 
 Then, for your dear sake, I'll labor where'er sin and suffering lurk.' : 
 
 "Thou my guide, and thou my mentor, and I'll hope no dear surprise, 
 Though the conservation of all sweetness slumbers in your heavenly 
 eyes. 
 
 Take me, love, and use my powers as you will, so that you take; 
 I am humble, dear, in loving and I'll love all, for your sake." 
 
Slow the woman raised with effort her bowed head and looked him 
 through, 
 
 Yet saw not, as the portals of her spirit close she drew, 
 And another woman spoke, she thought, with painful words and brief, 
 
 "The heart of me is withered as the frost-touched forest leaf." 
 
 "I know not how to speak the words that flood me and yet come 
 So painfully between my lips my meaning still is dumb. 
 
 For every pang you suffer, there's another in my breast, 
 
 If your lone heart is weary, nothing, friend, have I of rest." 
 
 "Yet, how can I take your freedom and accept as my own meed 
 
 Any whit of that high effort, whether thought or whether deed, 
 
 Which should spring by love's impulsion toward all men when self is lost, 
 For no one's sake but for all's sake, freely given, without cost." 
 
"Too generous the impulse toward me and your sacrifice too great; 
 
 Nay, we cannot work together in such fashion. To create 
 Hearts at ease whose beatings measure time all wisely spent 
 
 Means no divorce from natural channels, but in chosen ways content." 
 
 "Still we touch not, friend, though longing, and I scarce have framed 
 you why 
 
 Only do I feel 'tis better neither you nor I 
 Should decline unto the other but our separate ways pursue 
 
 Till we touch unstrained and equal, you with me and I with you." 
 
 Again they parted but a new weight lay upon the lover's heart 
 
 Knowing now the loved one suffered, knowing that in every part 
 
 All his pain was matched by her pain, but his sacrifice outdone 
 From a broader motive and a higher power than he had won. 
 
All the growth of soul is subtle and we pass through many births 
 In a lifetime, waking to new heavens and new earths; 
 
 Yet never birth without the travail in this world of human kind 
 And the body knows no torture keen as travail of the mind. 
 
 Time passed and wrought its changes and once more came the man 
 To the woman, and he spoke thus saying " Dear, I am 
 
 All awonder, now while speaking, at the mask which veiled creation 
 From me so I saw myself not toward it in my true relation." 
 
 " I, all I, my wish, my will my poor horizon filled, 
 
 Later, you and I and our wish and the things we might have willed, 
 But your high denials led me, through the press of constant pain, 
 
 To see all my aims unworthy and my soul was born again." 
 
" Now do my thoughts lean out to all, and in love's name I'd give 
 The hand of help, the word of cheer and bid the fainting live 
 
 And feel my own heart helped: I come, dear, not to ask, 
 Not to offer service, but to share your noble task." 
 
 " First a soul and then a woman, now beholding thee I see, 
 
 And thy soul I touch with my soul, while my hand seeks clasp from 
 thee: 
 
 Yet I think we need each other, we will work to better end 
 
 Supplementing each the other, each the other courage lend." 
 
 Then he held his speech in wonder for from out the woman's face 
 Shone a radiant light of gladness and within the loving space 
 
 Of her arms she clasped him closely and they looked each other through, 
 Felt the peace of perfect love, the wondrous old, the wondrous new. 
 
BLASPHEMY 
 
 Blasphemy is impious language cast 
 
 'Gainst sacred things; and, as I think 
 
 All things are sacred, being made 
 
 By hand of God, then must I say 
 
 "Naught can I impiously speak against; 
 
 Not man, nor beast, nor plant, nor aught that lives, 
 
 Nor time, nor circumstance, which represent 
 
 Thoughts of the Creator; but must hold 
 
 Myself, another thought, in attitude 
 
 Of reverence and love toward everything." 
 
 And, language comes not from the mouth alone, 
 
 For every movement, every look, 
 
 And even the silent thought is language, sensed 
 
 Keenly as though the lips had uttered sound. 
 
 Then must I guard with gates of love 
 
 Remembering infinite relationships; 
 
 That I, a being in a world of such, 
 
 Look with that world to God for gift of life 
 
 The portals of my every mode of speech, 
 
 Lest I blaspheme. A. P. Clark. 
 
Photomount 
 
 Pamphlet 
 
 Binder 
 
 Gay lord Bros., Inc. 1 
 
 Makers 
 Stockton, Calif. 
 
 PAT. JAN. 21. 1908 
 
 YC 146: 
 
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 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY