LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Class THE HOUSE OF FALLING LEAVES In Memonam Frederic Lawrence Knowles obiit Sept. 19, 1905 Books by Mr. Braithwaite The House of Falling Leaves Lyrics of Life and Love The Book of Elizabethan Verse The Book of Georgian Verse In Press for 1908 William Dean Howells : A Study and Appreciation THE HOUSE OF FALLING LEAVES With Other Poems By WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE Author of " Lyrics of Life and Love " BOSTON JOHN W. LUCE AND COMPANY 1908 Copyright, 1908, by WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE Published, May, 1908 Colonial ftress Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. Boston, U. S. A. > 3 To the Memory of FREDERIC LAWRENCE KNOWLES Wot MAI courteous permsson to reprnt certan poems in this collection, acknowledgment is due which I hereby gratefully render, to the Editors of the following magazines : The Century, Book News Monthly, The Christian Endeavor World, The Voice, The New England Magazine, The American Magazine, and The New York Times Saturday Review of Books. .1 92621 OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CONTENTS PAGE THE HOUSE OF FALLING LEAVES . / . . 13 MY THOUGHTS Go MARCHING LIKE AN ARMED HOST . . . i? MATER TRIUMPHALIS . . . .. ". . 18 MESSENGERS OF DREAMS . ... * . 21 A WHITE ROAD . . . . . . . . 22 To ARTHUR UPSON . . ... . . 23 ON THE DEATH OF THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH . 25 GOLDEN MOONRISE . . . . . , 27 MADAME OF DREAMS . ., . . . . 28 To FIONA .":"-". . . . . . - - 30 To FIONA . . . . . . . . . , 3 1 OFF THE NEW ENGLAND COAST . . . . 33 OCTOBER XXIX, 1795 . . . . . * 40 SONG OF A SYRIAN LACE SELLER . . . . 41 NYMPHOLEPSY . . , . . . . . 43 To DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI . . . . 45 APRILIAN RHAPSODY . . . .... 47 A SONG OF LIVING . . ... . .48 [ix] AVE AND VALE * . 51 Hoc ERAT IN VOTIS 52 IN THE PUBLIC GARDEN . . * * . 54 RAIN IN SUMMER 55 THE ETERNAL SELF . . . . . . . 56 THE HOUSE OF DEATH . . . . . 58 AT NEWPORT . . ... . . . 59 Sic VITA . ... . ... . 61 A SONG OF THE SIXTH MONTH . . . . 62 FROM THE CROWD .. , . . . . . 63 LOVE LEADS HOME .... . . . 64 THE FULL HOPE . . .... . 65 A LITTLE WHILE BEFORE FAREWELL ... 66 To BEAUTY . . . . . t . . . 68 SONG : To - DAY AND To - MORROW . . , . 70 LATE AUGUST .... . / . . 72 MALAGUENA ... . . < / . . 73 SONG: As A NEW-MADE BRIDE ... . 75 UNDER THE STARS . . . . . . . 76 TEARS . . . ....... . 78 SONG . . . . . . . . 79 A VISIT TO OAK LODGE ...... 80 SONG: THE TRAIL OF STARS ... . . 81 THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON . . . . 82 WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS . . . . . 83 THE SHEPHERD OF THE FLOCK OF DREAMS . 85 THE FIRST BORN 86 W LA BELLE DE DEMERARA 87 THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE VIRGIN ". -. * 89 GOLDEN HAIR . . , . ; . . . . . 90 GRAY DAWN . . . . . . . . . 91 IN THE ATHENAEUM . . . . . . . 92 As SILENT THROUGH THE WORLD SHE GOES . 94 ENIGMAS , . . . . . .... 95 SIR WALTER RALEIGH . . ... . 96 ON BLAKE S " SONGS OF INNOCENCE " . . . 97 THE BOOK OF LOVE . . . ... . 98 To LAURENCE HOPE . . . . . . . 99 THIS is MY LIFE . . . . . , . I Q I KINGDOMS AND HEIRS ,.102 To ROY ROLFE GILSON . . . j . . . 103 WHITE MAGIC: AN ODE. . . . . . 104 ON REVISITING NEWPORT BEACH . 108 OFF SHORE . . . . . . ... 109 L ENVOI in [xi] THE HOUSE OF FALLING LEAVES I OFF our New England coast the sea to-night Is moaning the full sorrow of its heart : There is no will to comfort it apart Since moon and stars are hidden from its sight. And out beyond the furthest harbor-light There runs a tide that marks not any chart Wherewith man knows the ending and the start Of that long voyage in the infinite. If change and fate and hapless circumstance May baffle and perplex the moaning sea, And day and night in alternate advance Still hold the primal Reasoning in fee, Cannot my Grief be strong enough to chance My voice across the tide I cannot see ? [13] II We go from house to house, from town to town, And fill the distance full of smiles and words; We take all pleasure that our strength affords And care not if the sun be up or down. The way of it no man has ever known But suddenly there is a snap of chords Within the heart that sounds like hollow boards, We question every shadow that is thrown. O to be near when the last word is said! And see the last reflection in the eye For when the word is brought our friend is dead, How bitter is the tear that will not dry, Because so far away our steps are led When Love should draw us close to say Good-bye ! [14] Ill Four seasons are there to the circling year: Four houses where the dreams of men abide The stark and naked Winter without pride, The Spring like a young maiden soft and fair; The Summer like a bride about to bear The issue of the love she deified; And lastly, Autumn, on the turning tide That ebbs the voice of nature to its bier. Four houses with two spacious chambers each, Named Birth and Death, wherein Time joys and grieves. Is there no Fate so wise enough to teach Into which door Life enters and retrieves ? What matter since his voice is out of reach, And Sorrow fills My House of Falling Leaves! [15] IV The House of Falling Leaves we entered in He and I we entered in and found it fair; At midnight some one called him up the stair, And closed him in the Room I could not win. Now must I go alone out in the din Of hurrying days : for forth he cannot fare ; I must go on with Time, and leave him there In Autumn s house where dreams will soon grow thin. When Time shall close the door unto the house And opens that of Winter s soon to be, And dreams go moving through the ruined boughs He who went in comes out a Memory. From his deep sleep no sound may e er arouse, The moaning rain, nor wind-embattled sea. [16 MY THOUGHTS GO MARCHING LIKE AN ARMED HOST MY thoughts go marching like an arm&d host Out of the city of silence, guns and cars ; Troop after troop across my dreams they post To the invasion of the winds and stars. O brave array of youth s untamed desire ! With thy bold, dauntless captain Hope to lead His raw recruits to Fate s opposing fire, And up the walls of Circumstance to bleed. How fares the expedition in the end ? When this, my heart, shall have old age for king And to the wars no further troop can send, What final message will the arm stice bring ? The host gone forth in youth the world to meet, In age returns in victory or defeat ? [17] F MATER TRIUMPHALIS To Louise Imogen Guiney ORESEEN in Eve s desire, Foreborne in Adam s bliss, The whim of a dream on fire Has brought the world to this: Foregone was the break of order, Ere the Will was disobeyed And the Angel at Eden s border Stood with a flaming blade. This was at the beginning What shall it be at the end! For the first child borne in sinning Will God or Nature befriend ? Eve s desire is yet burning Fair women in country and town, And Adam s bliss is turning Empires and kingdoms down. [18] Is this the worth of a story, Is this the dream of a song A fabled blare of glory, This battle of right and wrong? O sweet, fair body of woman, O strong, brave will of man Co-equal in the human, Unequal in the plan! The deeds of warriors vanish, The words of martyrs die, But never the heart can banish The drift of Helen s sigh. Jerusalem is forsaken, Gomorrah is a lure Eve, once from her sleep awaken, And Adam s kiss is sure. [19] But God is yet the Master, The dramatist of the play; If He wove an act of disaster, He wove an act to allay. Deep in the dream s forebeing The Artist was greater than life Who smiled at His own foreseeing The Virgin mother and wife. [20] MESSENGERS OF DREAMS MY heart can tell them, every one, The messengers of dreams that run Above the tree-tops in the sun. Whether of great or little worth They carry the heart s desires forth East and west and south and north. I know the night will close them in And they will meet the tempest s din Ere they come to that far-off inn. The inn that stands on the bourne of hope, Where Fear and Delight together cope For victory on a little slope. My heart can tell them, every one, The returning messengers that run Above the tree-tops in the sun. [21] A WHITE ROAD A WHITE road between sea and land, Night and silence on either hand Pointing to some unknown gate A white forefinger of fate. I follow, I follow I ll wend My way on this road to the end; Silence may keep to the sea, On land no light shines free. Bend low impenetrable sky Through your shades my road runs high: It needs no stars to guide No measuring sea-tide. I breathe the imperishable breath, I trespass the bounds of death - For my heart knows all the way To the eternal day. [22] TO ARTHUR UPSON HOW placidly this silent river rolls Under the midnight stars before our feet, While we chaunt music of dead poets* souls The treasury of Time has made so sweet. This is my Charles, O Friend ! the loving nurse Of a boy s heart who dreamed life would be worse Than death, if he gave not in future years Some few more songs to those this river bears. Ah, here W T C sit, the boy s heart grown to man s Westward from Cambridge, hid among the hills, Breaks forth its source no wider than your hands; How like our own experience it fills Here at this point its widening banks, as we Grow out to fill our duties, to the sea! [23] Here all the night is on us with its stars; The pregnant silence tapers to a sound; The river s crossed with pulsing silver bars The distant lights reflect; upon this mound We sit through this eternal hour of time And read the book our souls have writ in rhyme : Youth s golden chapters done in poetry But where this river here runs on to sea By muddy flats, stone walls, and wharves that close The glad impulsive welcome of its home, So henceforth shall Time write our acts in prose; Yea, and when God adds Finis to the tome, This Dedicatory night our souls will blend, To show, though life, true Friendship cannot end. [24] ON THE DEATH OF THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH (March 19, 1907) I WHAT sudden bird will bring us any cheer Whose song in the chill dawn gives hope of Spring; Can we be glad to give it welcoming Though April in its music be so near ? Not while the burden of our memories bear The weight of silence that we know will cling About the lips that nevermore will sing The heart of him with visions voiced so clear. There is a pause in meeting before speech Between men who have fed their souls with song; The strangeness of an echo beyond reach Cleaves silence deep for speech to pass along. There are no words to tell the loss, but each Of our hearts feels the sorrow deep and strong. [25] II The Wondersmith in vocables is dead! The Builder of the palaces of rhyme Shall build no more his music out of Time. In the deep, breathless peace to which he fled He sits with Landor s hands upon his head Watching our suns and stars that sink and climb Between him and our tears continuous chime Sorrowing for his presence vanished. Aldrich is dead ! but the glory of his life Is in his song, and this will keep his name Safe above change and the assaults of strife. Poet, whose artistry, his constant aim Kept true above defections that were rife, Death taking him, still leaves his deathless fame. March 20, 21, 1907. [26] GOLDEN MOONRISE WHEN your eyes gaze seaward Piercing through the dim Slow descending nightfall, On the outer rim Where the deep blue silence Touches sky and sea, Hast thou seen the golden Moon, rise silently ? Seen the great battalions Of the stars grow pale Melting in the magic Of her silver veil ? I have seen the wonder, I have felt the balm Of the golden moonrise Turn to silver calm. [27 I MADAME OF DREAMS To John Russell Hayes KNOW a household made of pure delight, That sits within a garden of quietness: A welcomed visitor by day or night, I win a refuge from life s storm and stress. Ah, here no footfalls cease and then resume, Nor sounds of closing doors nor creaking beams ; And throned within her favorite gold room Amid the roses perfume and the gloom, I greet my smiling hostess, Madame of Dreams. I know not how I won so dear a friend, I know not of her family or her race; Her voice is a sweet music without end Unfolding the wistful beauty of her face. She has known all the world s great tragedies Was at the ruins of Troy and Actium; And her deep heart holds many memories That are the ghosts of countless aching sighs Dead lovers uttered ere their lips grew dumb. [28] She seems so old from her experience With Egypt s queen she sailed along the Nile She heard Demosthenes great eloquence Saw Camelot melt neath Arthur s golden smile. But Time has dealt with her as with the sea, Whereon it leaves not any scars nor seams; And like a bud that breaks at last to be A faultless rose June s dews and suns decree Beauty and Youth have crowned Madame of Dreams. [29] TO FIONA DEAR little child, whose very speech Gives me joy beyond my heart s measure, However far my years may reach, Life can offer no greater treasure. Loveliest flower in my garden of dreams! Mine have been sweet like fairy stories But of all that have come true, it seems Your babyhood brought the greatest glories. All my life long I have tried to make Dreams in a perfect song go winging; I knew the wonder when you spake, And your life went a lyric singing. [30] TO FIONA Nineteen Months Old NOW my songs shall grow Sweeter, year by year, Just because I know You shall read them, dear, When your little hands, And your little eyes, ( Babyhood expands Into grown-up wise. You will ask me then, Reading what I write Of my youth and then Song of you took flight. Darling, I shall say Just because I knew In some future day You would hold them true: [31 " Father wrote these songs When I was a child ; Now to me belongs All his dreams exiled. " Mine is all the joy, Mine are all the tears In the heart of boy And the man of years? This, my little one, Is what you will say, When my songs are done, And my hair is grey. But my songs I know, Sweeter, year by year, From my heart will flow For your soul to hear When your little hands, And your little eyes, Babyhood expands Into grown-up wise. [32] OFF THE NEW ENGLAND COAST To John Daniel HE earth is our Mother, but thou, thou art T Father of us and of Time, For all things now were not, when thou wast strong in thy prime. There was silence first and then darkness, and under the garment of these Was the body of thee in thy might with its infinite mysteries. And God alone was aware of thy presence and power and form: And out of His knowledge foresaw His will in thy calm and storm; Answering unto His will he gave thee lordship and crown, And bade the kingdoms of man to worship thee and bow down. For earth He made out of dust for change and defeat in the blast But thee He made eternal, through aeons and aeons to last [33] Unmarked by sun or wind, supreme where thy waves are tost Not an inch of thy Beauty to perish, nor an ounce of thy Might to be lost. [34] II Between the morning-star and the sea The black night hangs disconsolately; Winds from the gates of the east arise And crack the silence to the skies Through which the long grey dawn can flee Between the morning-star and the sea. Between closed eyelids and the sea An echo floats continuously; The spirit wavers ere tis won, As the east pauses ere the sun Lights the whole world up, radiantly, Between closed eyelids and the sea. Between the sunlight and the sea Time hoists her sails, pulls anchor free; The ship of Life moves on its keel Humanity commands the wheel And steers for one more Hope to be Between the sunlight and the sea. [35] Ill The night being done And the day begun With the reappearance of the lordly sun, To labor and cope The earth gives scope, And to every man the strength of hope. With each new morn There is reborn Some effort which yesterday left forlorn; For a little rest, And a will to test, Is the road that runs from worst to best. No man is poor Who can endure The will to forget what is past and sure, Of the change and fate That participate In defeats that passed him through last night s gate: [36] Instead he is rich, Who can forward pitch His breast to the front of To-day to which The recompense Must yield defence, And Time surrender the consequence [37] IV Over the world hangs the splendor of noonday, The winds fold their echoes away in the offing; Up the long coast comes a murmur of laughing Where the little foam-waves and the sand-dunes play. Here far away from man s hating and scoffing, Time leads the sun home to the house of his dreams. This is the way of the world in a vision Hope that s alluring, and desires that follow: Tears that are eloquent, laughter that s hollow: Beauty forever pursuing her mission. But I care not for these, when the seas call low Time leads the sun home to the house of his dreams. [38] Greyness of dawn cannot dull the noon s bright ness, Shadows of even cannot mask it and darken; Men of the world may pass through it, nor hearken Beat of its pulses that make the stars sightless. Triumphing out of the pause that is flightless Time leads the sun home to the house of his dreams. This is the joy of man s heart in its dreaming: The midmost heaven of all his desire Farther than noon lo ! the sun mounts no higher, And Love in man s life is his noon-sun a-beaming. Clouds full of silence, and sky full of fire, Time leads the sun home to the house of his dreams. [39] OCTOBER XXIX, 1795 Keats Birth Jay sitting on the throne of Memory 1 Bade all her subject Days, the past had known, Arise and say what thing gave them renown Unforgetable. * Rising from the sea, I gave the Genoese his dream to be; I saw the Corsican s Guards swept down ; Colonies I made free from a tyrant s crown ; So each Day told its immortality. And with these blazing triumphs spoke one voice Whose wistful speech no vaunting did employ: I know not if twere by Fate s chance or choice I hold the lowly birth of an English boy; I only know he made man s heart rejoice Because he played with Beauty for a toy/ [40] SONG OF A SYRIAN LACE SELLER To Edward F. Burns ON the sidewalk by the busy flow Of peoples passing to and fro Where the wan winter sunlight falls Across the grey gates of St. Paul s, A woman of an alien race Stands with a tray of fancy lace. Swarthy of skin with raven hair, A daughter of the Orient there, Wearing her native costume yet Of woven shawl and long head net And the long Syrian sunrise Looking out from her curtained eyes. The curious, intricate designs Of every lace in faultless lines Of ancient symbols she has made, Turning her country s lore to trade: The Orient s mystic sorcery, In this far land across the sea. [41] Out of the Common sharp and fleet The cold winds blow across the street; And their shrill voices seem to say: Symbols and dreams have passed away And our wise western world decries All their lost hidden mysteries. [42] NYMPHOLEPSY To Burton Kline THE slanting gleam upon the wing Of a swift-darting lark that flies; A sudden shadow lengthening Up the hill-side till it dies Melted by the burning sun; A star that shoots across the night, The dews dissolving on the rose Ah, to see perfection won, Beauty unfolded to the sight, And lose it, lose it, when it goes. I know that half our hopes are vain, Our finite ears pretend to catch Beyond the stars a spheral strain; Our Sentinel-souls forever watch For that dim Spy they never stop; We make our bodies clean and pure, We fill our minds with lore and creed, - Yet long before the curtains drop The tired flesh cannot endure And much of knowledge do we need. [43] Out of the twofold heavenly plan, The mystical, creative will Wrought forth the fine achievement Man Perfect, and yet imperfect still; The dust beaten into shape Is flesh artistic, hue and line Splendid, superb Masterpiece; And closed therein from escape As the sap within the vine, The Soul that gives the dust increase. Now which one shall I strive to turn To life s best usage while I stay Where suns and winds may touch and burn Flesh and faith and creed o erlay The soul ? Must they be separate In a world that nourishes both To perfection s destined end ? Must my soul carry a dead weight And stunt my flesh s imperial growth, And thwart the Inspirations trend? [44] TO DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI GREETINGS, Master, take from me Where thou art, beyond, above Imminent touch of earth and sea. May thy spirit there approve This oblation of my love Unto thee, Sent from where I be and move. How can death divide and keep Though it conquers sight and sound Silences so wide and deep Neither Life nor Death can bound ? In a circle winding round Wake and sleep, Souls that search "and sweep are found. [45] I salute thee, and rejoice, Master, whom our hearts now own Thine, as the one faultless voice In the praise of Beauty blown Since Keats lips were turned to stone, Ears from noise Of a world whose choice is known. Unto Beauty thou didst wed Music, pure and absolute, Till men s hearts agreed and said Thou didst master Shelley s lute Time no longer can dispute, Laurelled head, Thy long memoried repute. Subtle shapen melodies, Thou, my Master, bidst arise, Colored as the autumn trees, Tremulous with sudden sighs, How God s magic underlies Earth and seas Secret sounds like these comprise. [46] APRILIAN RHAPSODY QTRAIGHT in the heart of the April meadows, k3 Straight in the dream in the heart of you; Deep in the glory of gleams and shadows, Flame and gossamer, green and blue Out of the nowhere east from yonder, Out of the presences felt and seen, Filled with the first unremember d wonder, Radiant with the memory of last year s green Straight in the heart of the April meadows, Straight in the dream in the heart of you Spring in the glory of gleams and shadows, Flame and gossamer, green and blue ! [47] A SONG OF LIVING To Dr. Marcus F. Wheatland IT is so good to be alive: To have deep dreams: to greatly strive Through the day s work : to dance and sing Between the times of sorrowing To have a clear faith in the end That death is life s best, trustful friend. To be alive: to hear and see This wonderful, strange pageantry Of earth, in which each hour s session Brings forth a new unknown procession Of joys : stars, flowers, seas and grass In ever new guise before me pass. To have deep dreams : ah me, ah me ! To bring far things close by to see; To have my voyaging soul explore Beyond my body s ponderous door. To make my love from a thousand graces, Seen in a thousand women s faces. [48] To greatly strive: perform my share Of work : for the world grows more fair To him who measures Time and Fate By what his laboring days create For work is the voice that lifts to God The adoration of the sod. To dance and sing: my body s praise For being fair in many ways. It hath no other voice than this To thank God for a moment s bliss When art and heaven together trust Joy to the perfection of the dust. Times of sorrowing: yea, to weep: To wash my soul with tears, and keep It clean from earth s too constant gain, Even as a flower needs the rain To cool the passion of the sun, And takes a fresh new glory on. [49] To have clear faith: through good or ill We but perform some conscious will Higher than man s. The world at best In all things doth but manifest That God has set his eternal seal Upon the unsubstantial real. [50 AVE AND VALE OH far away across the beach The mist is in the sunset, And dreams lie low In the silence of the foam; Beyond the dim horizon Where the creeping darkness pauses I hear the grey winds calling And they lead desire home. O Ave to the evening star, And Vale to the setting sun; And a deep, deep sea across the bar Where the grey winds call and run. [51 Oh far across the hope of speech A doubt is on desire, And Love lies low In the pauses of my heart; My speech and silence hovers On the verge of phantom futures, While I watch the morrows dawning And the yesterdays depart. O Ave to the evening star, And Vale to the setting sun; And a deep, deep sea across the bar Where the grey winds call and run. [52] HOC ERAT IN VOTIS I LL leap to your desire With a flight more swift than light, Though your soul should be a fire, And mine, a moth in the night. I ll leap to your desire As the lark does to the sun, Though it can fly no higher Than the topmost clouds may run. I ll leap to your desire And I pray God night and day, To set your soul on fire And burn my dreams away. [53] T IN THE PUBLIC GARDEN August, 1904 HE illumined fountain flashed in the pond, It was purple, and green, and white, You and I in the crowd, and beyond, The shining stars and night. Beyond were the shining stars and the night, And near was the fountain at play. But ah, the dreams that have taken flight, And never come home to stay. [54] RAIN IN SUMMER THE afternoon grew darkening from the west; A hush fell on the air, and in the trees; The huddled birds pronounced their prophecies; The flowers bent their heads as if to rest Now that the tide of the sun s golden seas In one long wave swept off the earth s wide breast. Up sprung deft shadowy patterns by degrees, And nature s face her soul made manifest. Lo, in the instant, slant, like a hanging string Of silver glass beads, pendant from the clouds The rain descends ! Leaves sing, and wavering The tall lithe grasses dance in separate crowds. I stand and let my soul commune, it knows The mystery that calls it from its close. [55] THE ETERNAL SELF To Vere Goldthwaite THIS earth is but a semblance and a form - An apparition poised in boundless space; This life we live so sensible and warm, Is but a dreaming in a sleep that stays About us from the cradle to the grave. Things seen are as inconstant as a wave That must obey the impulse of the wind; So in this strange communicable being There is a higher consciousness confined But separate and divine, and foreseeing. Our bodies are but garments made of clay That is a smothering weight upon the soul But as the sun, conquering a cloudy day, Our spirits penetrate to Source and Goal. That intimate and hidden quickening Bestowing sense and color with the Spring, Is felt and known and seen in the design By unsubstantial Self within the portal Of this household of flesh, that doth confine Part of the universally immortal. [56] Beyond the prison of our hopes and fears, Beyond the undertow of passion s sea And stronger than the strength earth holds in years, Lives man s subconscious personality. world withheld ! seen through the hazy drift Of this twilight of flesh, when sleep shall lift 1 shall go forth my own true self at last, And glory in the triumph of my winning The road that joins the Future and the Past, Where I can reach the Ending and Beginning! [57] THE HOUSE OF DEATH LO, a house untenanted Stands beside the road of Time; They who lived there once, have fled To some other house and clime. Towers pointing to the sky With long shadows on the ground, Never shade a passerby, Never echo back a sound. [58] AT NEWPORT Sunrise: Batemans Point HERE S the land s end, just discerned By the sheer fall, where the sea below Runs less wild since the tide has turned, And daybreak lingers weird and low. Between the dawn and hovering night, On the grey sea-roof of the earth, A crimson circle lifts in sight And Time gives day eternal birth. [59] Sunset: On the Beach I hear across the murmuring sea The sunset cannon s sullen boom, Whose distant dying echoes flee Before the silence of the gloom. The long pale shadows creep along The dunes and over the water s verge; A dusky sea-mist rises up Above whose veil the ships emerge. I know full soon the night will come, And one shall find me waiting near: Our hands will touch, our lips grow dumb, And dreams steal on us unaware. [60] SIC VITA HEART free, hand free, Blue above, brown under, All the world to me Is a place of wonder. Sun shine, moon shine, Stars, and winds a-blowing, All into this heart of mine Flowing, flowing, flowing! Mind free, step free, Days to follow after, Joys of life sold to me For the price of laughter. Girl s love, man s love, Love of work and duty, Just a will of God s to prove Beauty, beauty, beauty! [61] A SONG OF THE SIXTH MONTH GLAD, mad, and a bit sad too Face o the rose in the eye of the sun; God has dreamed and his work is done June s on the world, heigh-ho! See how the greenish shadow raises Patterns on the sun s flood of golden blazes Round a pink, slim girl knee-deep in daisies. What is this slow full sense of Time ! This great armada of chirp and song, That are as a host of sails that throng Across June s tidal sea of rhyme. Buttercups and daisies, sing low, sing high Age is a fable, death is a lie And June s too good to tell us why! [62] FROM THE CROWD I WAS captive to a dream And only vague forms went by; And the tumult was the sigh Of the sea at the end of a stream. The clangor of cars in the street, Darkness and clouds overhead, And out of the lights that spread The crowds that part and meet. As the foam of a wave will mark The night with a shining track, A girl s pale face turned back Crossing the street in the dark. It was only a second s glance, But my soul leaped out to her: I felt my shaken memories stir The dreams of an ancient trance. [63] LOVE LEADS HOME NOW that all the twilight glimmers through the lane, As of old, wandering, dreaming let us go; Living so, tenderly, youth and love again, Bringing back the past, dear, known unto us twain Tasting the happiness that we used to know. Youth went from us long ago, fading like the foam That a ship passing leaves trailing on the sea; Seemingly youth may die, hopes may stray and roam : Faithful hearts kept true and young will Love lead home Home to his first dwelling-place in the heart of thee. [64] THE FULL HOPE LORD of my life before whose will I yield Lo ! I withdraw the barriers of my pride; Let my heart swell a windless evening tide Till all the marshland of my past s concealed; Let stillness in my ecstasy be sealed Deep as the swelling sea is deep and wide; Lord of my life, where all my dreams abide, Take me into thy dwelling who am healed. Ah, Love ! we shall dwell here for ever more In this great dwelling of our Hope fulfilled; Ever the past behind us, and before The golden future. What the gods have willed Of good or bad to enter at the door, We shall dwell here until our hearts are stilled. [65 A LITTLE WHILE BEFORE FAREWELL little while before farewell" WILLIAM MORRIS A LITTLE while before farewell What shall time say our lives befel Between the summons and the hour ? Shall it be like a red rose-flower Whose perfume is remembered bliss: While thus in silence our souls kiss, With no sad words to break the spell ! With no sad words to break the spell A little while before farewell ! Only the longing in your eyes To comfort me in Paradise. And there behind the silences I know the world s forgetfulness Can change not, eyes that speak so well. [66] Can change not, eyes that speak so well Where my love lives imperishable. And passionate words can say no more: Nor tears show grief is oversore : But just your sad eyes O how strange The loneliness ! the sudden change ! A little while before farewell! A little while before farewell: How quick Time runs to strike the knell. When the dim curtain covering me Comes down from great Eternity O then, my love, let there be heard One never-ending sigh and word The low-breathed, whispered, long farewell! [67] TO BEAUTY O MISTRESS of the world! Heaven s own dear child ! Priestess of Joy, and things that holy are; Under thy smile men s hearts are reconciled, And after thy light, they follow, as a star Follows the moon across the tide A constant wooer at its side. And I will follow, follow thee so far Across the tide of life, and will adore And worship thee in visions evermore. O Maiden of shy innocence I say Thou art too fair to live in widowhood; Since Keats, thy lover, sleeps in Roman clay, For thee to be forsaken were not good. I fain would be thy wooer, Thou canst not find one truer, For I will love thee in whatever mood Thy sensitive and most delicate soul Doth on my spirit work its sweet control. [68] And it shall nevermore be truly said The glory of the world hath passed away; Ah, no! the heart of dreams shall raise its head And Poesy again will hold her sway. Oh, give me power to teach The wonder of thy speech, And give thy heavenly message to our day: For the barren hearts of men have need Of the humane influence of thy creed. [69] SONG: TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW HPO-DAY and to-morrow, and the days that I come after, Springtime and summer and two seasons more; The night full of tears and the day full of laughter, And dreams that come in and go out of the door. O Time that is fleeting too fast for our capture, While the heart of our dreams beholds it pass by- The yearning and burning, the desire and the rapture, Till we home to the earth and we home to the sky. [70] O harvest of dreams ! when the sowing is over And fulfilment of growth gives over all plying Ah, down the long sunset of life the heart-rover Turns twilight to weeping and darkness to sighing. We gather the harvest of dreams and we store them Deep down in our hearts for the hunger that craves When springtime and summer, the laughter that bore them, Sails away like a ship that we watch on the waves. [71] LATE AUGUST of heart in the dreams I bear V^x Green leaf turns to brown; The second half of the month is here, The days are closing down. Love so swift to up and follow The season s fugitive, If thou must, make rapture hollow, But leave me dreams to live. Change of heart! O season s end! Time and tide and sorrow! I care not what the Fates may send, Here s to ye, goodmorrow! [72] MALAGUENA To Isabel Ward Carter I HAVE named you Malaguena, Malaguena, Malaguena Though your eyes have never burned me, Nor your lips have spoke, and turned me In a whirl of mad delight. But the many stars that whisper In the night, And the vagrant winds that lisper Through the day, In the music of my dreams have learned to play, Malaguena, Malaguena ! All things name you, Malaguena, Malaguena, Malaguena Birds that sing in rangeless rapture, And the glory that we capture From the coronated rose: All the passion in the ocean s Ebbs and flows; Ah, they fill me with emotions Naught can tame, When I seek you in the shadow of a name, Malaguena, Malaguena ! [73] ^ OF THE UNIVERSITY When I meet you, Malaguena, Malaguena, Malaguena Shall we stop and gaze in wonder ? Nay, like winds that meet in thunder We will close in tight embrace, And my kisses flash like lightning On your face; Then our souls will feel the tightning Each to each, Till remoulded into one they break in speech, Malaguena, Malaguena! [74] SONG: AS A NEW-MADE BRIDE AS a new-made bride at the altar-stair, I have given my life for good or ill, To Song, my bridegroom: a mated pair The bride shall do the bridegroom s will. And we ll keep house as never before Was household kept on the hill of dreams, Where Beauty will be a sign on the door From which Joy gleams. [75] UNDER THE STARS 1TAKE my soul in my hand, I give it, a bounding ball (Over Love s sea and land), For you to toss and let fall At command. Dear, as we sit here together Silence and alternate speech, Dreams that are loose from the tether, Stars in an infinite reach Of dark ether: Over and under and through Silence and stars and the dreams, How my emotions pursue, With a still passion that teems Full of you. O what can the stars desire, And what can the night fulfil, Of a thousand thoughts on fire That burns on my soul s high hill Like a pyre. [76] Does the flame leap upward, where God feels and heat makes human, Pity, in His heart a snare To win worship for a woman Unaware ? If He made all Time for this, O beloved, shall we not dare To crown His dream with a kiss, While each new-born star makes fair Night s abyss ? [77] TEARS 1SAW the picture of your face woven in the rain; All day long the rain fell, fell into my soul ; I knew your heart last night was like music full of pain, And from your wistful eyes I saw the sad tears roll. Oh, silent are the heavy clouds, and silent is the heart, And silence clothes the dreams that hold the future years; But musical are raindrops, and eyes that droop apart To let the music of your soul come flowing through your tears. [78] SONG T^AILURE is a crown of sorrow, 1 Success a crown of fears From the Book of Life we borrow Leaves to turn the years. Art is but a joy divine, God says yea or nay Love alone is worth the time, Live it as we may. [79] A VISIT TO OAK - LODGE To Nixon Waterman THE Heights of Arlington were wrapped in snow; And over all the carmine sunset flush, Gave nature s face a woman s love-lit blush, As if her heart dreamed of the spring below; So high your house, dear friend, I seemed to grow Up to the evening star, where in the hush Of twilight, I did feel the pulses brush My soul, rising from the city that we know. At last I reached your door you welcomed me With your warm genial smile and close hand shake, And gave me greetings to your company Your friends, whom you made mine for friend ship s sake. And there before your blazing logs did we Soon hear the voice of dreams upon us break. [80] SONG: THE TRAIL OF STARS WHEN mortals tread the trail of stars, High is the heart, O high: For all things else are of the earth, But Love is of the sky. The trail they tread is a path of dreams, Where Love a-journeying goes To a garden beyond the gates of night Where blooms a flower Love knows. [81 THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON For His Eighty-third Birthday BENEATH the bare-boughed Cambridge elms to-day Time takes no flight in his unwintered heart; Where fourscore years and three came to depart, The vision shines that cannot burn away. In perils of change his voice is still our stay, Who kept the true direction from the start. He knew no deed born from his thought apart And held his pen Truth s summons to obey. O reverend head, take this our crown of praise, On this, thy Birthday, hallowed by our love; A soldier s honor and a poet s bays; In public heed thy virtues held to prove Though long, we wish thee longer, length of days, To lead us up the heights where we would move. [82] WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS For His Seventieth Birthday years! The magic of youth vJ Wrought in the stern old age of Truth. Seventy years has Howells grown Through the infinite seen to the finite known. Shed in his wonder of things commonplace A mind of wisdom, a heart of grace; Building life on the faith he had That the world was neither too good nor bad. Years has he reached of the liberal span Vouchsafed the journey of mortal man : And keeping good trust of soul and heart The Master built him a palace of Art. [83] " Open my heart and you shall see Gravd inside of it, Italy. " Open his heart and read inside, " America " writ with a passionate pride. And this one symbol of hope and strife Wove to his vision the magic of life. At the end of a journey of seventy years The painter who drew its joys and fears, Its shape of body, its essence of soul, The ways it travels to reach its goal Stands to-day in the glories they shed, The laurel of greatness on his head. The Master at Seventy! He it is knows The way of perfection hid deep in a rose! [84] THE SHEPHERD OF THE FLOCK OF DREAMS HE calls them out with a musical shout From the folds that are lying nowhere; And up they climb to the meadows of Time Through the seasons of the slow year. With bleat, bleat, bleat, on the road they beat, On the great highways of vision, Where I hear them knock, the long white flock, With a rhythmical precision. He follows them forth who values their worth For the clothing of man s desire; And he makes no claim for pelf or fame, For he s far too rich to aspire. His kingdom lies in the long sunrise Of life, where the nations arose, And he gathers his sheep from the fields of sleep Where the hopes of the world repose. [85] THE FIRST BORN MY little babe was two hours old ! I came in from the wind and rain The summons gave me joy and pain More wonder than my heart could hold. The winter afternoon was dim A faint light shone across the bed; My wife with one dear arm outspread Was holding the little life of him. There on the threshold where I stood I had no wish to speak or move: For there God s presence did approve This Mary of the Sisterhood. [86 LA BELLE DE DEMERARA HER face was a fair olive hue; Eyes like a tropic night when dew Makes the air heavy to the sea s rim; Figure like a willow, subtle, slim, That had the grace of a young queen; Hair, as the Empress Josephine Fashioned, when Paris bowed to her: La belle de Demerara. I see it all as in a dream: Georgetown s seawall, where the stream Of Quality flows; among them moves She, whom the city s pride approves, What beauty gave and virtue crowned When music charmed their lips to sound This name their hearts bestowed on her, La belle de Demerara. [87] Sir Francis Hincks, at Government House On a gala night before her bows; Out from England on duty sent The Colonel of the regiment Glides with her in the stately dance; And in her soft vivacious glance Chief-Justice Beaumont bends to her: La belle de Demerara. Poet who sang of Dorothy Q. ; 1 have a Great-Grandmother too, Born in a British colonial place, Sent to learn Parisian grace; Who won all hearts in her demesne By the Caribbean s warm blue sheen: And large is the debt I owe to her, La belle de Demerara. [88] THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE VIRGIN AS one who hath been dreaming all night long Some blissful, sweet, but dim foreboding dream, Wherein the soul hath kissed some joy supreme But knows not whence nor whither, sight or song- Mary awoke midst her lone chamber s throng Of chanting silences. Her soul did seem Aware as earth is at the dawn s first gleam Of strange primordial moods it gropes among. With the day s full-blown rose of light she knew Her dreams had been her marriage-bed with God; Her soul now trembled in its nakedness Before the Bridegroom: while her heart lived through The consecrating, tender period Till she should hold her Child with a caress. [89] GOLDEN HAIR ONCE I made a little poem out of golden hair, I put it in a dream and sent it to a rose; And in the early dawn when I walked the garden fair, I saw you, dear, before you went as every shadow goes. O golden is the web o the sun, golden is the sea, And golden is the rose s heart that makes the garden fair All golden is the shadow that s in the heart of me, And golden is the buried dream shrouded in golden hair. [90] GREY DAWN THE grey dawn creeps on a shadowed sea, And the morning-star is a ghostly beam; And or ever the sun lifts silently Love ! was it a dream ? I felt you come like the light at dawn, 1 opened my soul to envelop the gleam; Ah, the Memory stays, though the day is gone - O Love ! was it a dream ? [91] IN THE ATHENAEUM LOOKING OUT ON THE GRANARY BURY ING GROUND ON A RAINY DAY IN NOVEMBER HERE in this ancient, dusty room Filled with the rain-washed chill and gloom, The wistful books stand round in hosts Familiar friends of forgotten ghosts Who sleep in their narrow beds below When daylight walks, and by them go The unremembering city throng. Here where dust and silence belong I feel their presence in each nook As if they too would stand and look With me, out where the motley city lies, With timid, unrecollecting eyes. [92] I feel the damp creep round my heart Because my thoughts have grown a part Of the infinite, ancient sense of pain Echoing voices in the rain. How long its unassuaging cry Has filled man s memory with a sigh When wind and rain among bare trees Has made even joy feel ill at ease! Joy ! where that tortuous winding coil Of slaves to duty, sweat and toil Does joy dwell there ? this monotone Of rain is far more dumb of groan. How old the world is yet I think No man has yet had his full drink Of joy, while life flowed in his veins Or disillusion racked his brains. How like a picture shadow-bound That street is cross the burial ground ! And from this room those forms out there Are not so real as ghosts in here. [93] AS SILENT THROUGH THE WORLD SHE GOES AS silent through the world she goes Companioned by a withered rose, Where nothing is, but all things seem The heavy will of a ghostly dream: Even so she knows not life from death, Nor words from music s golden breath; The wind s moan is the sea-moan s heart, And Love from Grief dwells not apart. [94] ENIGMAS THE joy of the world is in a man s strength, The sorrow of the world in a woman s tears; Beauty lives and dies in a second s length, And Time rolls on the years. The battles of the world are in a man s dream, The altars of the world in a woman s eyes; Out of Eden follows one long far gleam Till the last slow sunset dies. f95] SIR WALTER RALEIGH HE heard the four winds and the seven seas, And voices inland under alien stars, And drove ambition like auroral cars Striking the hill-tops when the darkness flees. Vain in his dreams, but brave in his vanities; No carpet-knight yet versed in parlor wars; And half a rogue when honesty debars The desire to take the prize his fancy sees. And yet he knew the silences of speech The leaf-heard utterance of April rains; The echoes in the twilight out of reach Beyond the dim horizon where it wanes. And like the distant sea-wash on the beach He sang a few sad tender lyric strains. [96] ON BLAKE S " SONGS OF INNOCENCE " IF thou hast ever heard on a May morn Within a leafy wood the wild birds sing, And felt thy soul take joy in marvelling How in such little creatures could be born That pure melodious concert of the dawn Then thou dost know the ecstasies that wing From pulse and passion when a dewy thorn Is breaking from a rose-bud blossoming. Such joy gave he, who sang the innocence Of childhood Blake, who was more child than man In that grave wonder of his reverence Unto which God revealed the visional plan Of His Eternal Life : the evidence Smote him as Moses rod and music ran. [97] THE BOOK OF LOVE I HOLD the book of life in my hands When I hold your face, and press your lips To my lips in a kiss, and touch all lands In a thousand dreams that sail as ships, Out of my soul across your soul To the ends of the world you keep, Between each shadowy golden goal Of your eyes, where the kingdoms sleep. Shall I ever read the history through, And learn the dates of wars and kings How nations fell and rose and grew? Ah, life s too short for smaller things When your face is mine the world itself, Of past and future and present in one; A book God wrote for my heart s own shelf, And bound in the bindery of the sun. [98] TO LAURENCE HOPE ALL the world of deep desire loves your song, Touched of joy by starlight when the moon hangs low; Filled with all the odors that arise and throng All the secret memories delight can know. Like your bulbuls singing when the dusk s in bloom How your music stirs us till our joys make pain Pain the flower of passion s most tender doom, Sum of all that life may lose and death may gain. For the dreams you gave to music, sure and strong, All the world of deep desire loves your song. [99] First in you the poetess, throned high and crowned In the soul of us who mate a dream to rhyme; We who wander strangely in the lure you ve wound Flowerful round the passions you have made sublime. Was there ever poetess since Sappho sang Who could match the fever of your pulsing blood ? Love that drew from the harp of life joy and pang, How your playing rose and filled our hearts to flood; We, your singing brothers, now chaunted and found First in you the poetess, throned high and crowned. [100 THIS IS MY LIFE T^O feed my soul with beauty till I die; 1 To give my hands a pleasant task to do; To keep my heart forever filled anew With dreams and wonders which the days supply; To love all conscious living, and thereby Respect the brute who renders up its due, And know the world as planned is good and true And thus because there chanced to be an 77 This is my life since things are as they are: One half akin to flowers and the grass: The rest a law unto the changeless star. And I believe when I shall come to pass Within the Door His hand shall hold ajar I ll leave no echoing whisper of Alas! [101] KINGDOMS AND HEIRS UNDER the round blue sky, Over the wide green sea, Where the sun-robed hours fly, The starred silences flee: Where birth comes down in song, And death goes up in tears Are the kingdoms that belong To dreams uncrowned heirs. [102] TO ROY ROLFE GILSON YOU asked me out to spend the day with you: How quick it passed across the face of heaven And yet it does not pass from out our hearts; But in the valley of our memories Stands as a twilight in a valley stands Between the day and night a moveless joy. [103] w WHITE MAGIC: AN ODE Read at the Centenary Celebration of the Birth of John Greenleaf Whittier at Faneuil Hall, Dec. 17, 1907 HITE magic of the silences of snow! Over the Northern fields and hills, the moon Spreads her veil o er the wizardry below; Amongst the ruined tree-tops is a croon Of the long vanished populace of Spring; There is a glory here Where the lone farmhouse windows, glimmering Across the snow-fields, warm the chilly air. Peace is upon the valley like a dream By Merrimac s swift stream, Where his pure presence made the earth so fair. [104] Time cannot tarnish the glory of the hills: Tides cannot wear the immaterial winds To outworn voids where no loud echo fills The long beach-comber which the sea unbinds; The moon shall light the sun ere these things be; But sooner our glad hearts Know not darkness from sunlight on the sea Ere from the lips of Memory departs Thought or speech unpraiseful of Whittier s life, White magic of song and strife Strife for the right Song for a sake not art s. In the rough farmhouse of his lowly birth The spirit of poetry fired his youthful years; No palace was more radiant on earth, Than the rude home where simple joys and tears Filled the boy s soul with the human chronicle Of lives that touched the soil. He heard about him voices and he fell To dreams, of the dim past, midst his daily toil; Romance and legend claimed his Muses voice Till the heroic choice Of duty led him to the battle s broil. [105] Song then became a trumpet-blast; he smote The arrogance of evil in the State; The indignation of his music wrote A flaming wrath in councils of debate. Twas passion for the justice of God s word Man s common heritage Fulfilled in the high name of Brotherhood. The oracle and prophet of his age, He led men doubtful between wrong and right Through Song to see the light, And smite the evil power with their rage. He helped to seal the doom. His hope was peace With the great end attained. Beyond his will Fate shaped his aims to awful destinies Of vengeful justice; now valley and hill Groaned with the roar of onset; near and far The terrible, sad cries Of slaughtered men pierced into sun and star; Beyond his will the violence but the prize Of Freedom, blood had purchased, won to God His praise that all men trod Erect, and clothed in Freedom, neath the skies. 106] Let thanks be ours for this great passion in him; And praise be our remembrance of his trust; Blessings that no compromise could win him, Like Ichabod, to soil his glory in the dust. Let ours be, too, his spirit of forgiving: We can but master fate By the sure knowledge of our brothers living Won by matching his virtues, not his hate. Let the white radiance of his Inward Light Be to us, step and sight Up the steep road of life to Heaven s gate. [107] ON REVISITING NEWPORT BEACH February 29, 1908 ONCE more I stand upon these sands, and gaze Across the open sea. Five winters suns Divide that other presence of me here, When up the windy crescent of this beach I walked in rapt communion of farewell. I leave the world behind me now forget My late and feverish intercourse with life And its mixed motives of the city street : Circumstance like a garment I ve cast off And bring my naked soul for your apparel, O sands and waves and unconfined winds ! O sands ! whose separate grains vast worlds con dense; O winds ! whose wings do beat the discs of suns ; mutable and everlasting sea ! Thou whose being wast mother of time and man 1 stand before you naked for your dreams To clothe my soul with Hope and Strength and Light. [108] OFF SHORE LOOK out across the blue-green sea, Look thither where the blue glooms lie Beyond the bourne of mystery, Between the sea-rim and the sky. Oh look and look across the deep Sundering, indivisible flood Secretive as the doom of sleep That falls on man s ancestral blood: Look out and gaze from vanished eyes That longed for home from Tyrian ships; Look out from ruined destinies That burn behind the blood s eclipse; Look from the stare when Adam saw God spread Creation at his feet; As Moses, when the Stones of Law God gave him where the whirlwinds meet : [109] Look out across the blue-green sea, Look thither where the blue glooms lie There still is Canute s mystery, And mocking Plato s inner eye. Oh look with Shakespeare s teeming brain, And look with Voltaire s biting scorn Behold the sudden rush of rain The miracle s unborn ! [110] LORD of the mystic star-blown gleams Whose sweet compassion lifts my dreams Lord of life in the lips of the rose That kiss desire , whence Beauty grows; Lord of the power inviolate That keeps immune thy seas from fate; Lord of the indestructible dew Fresh, as the night the first rose drew Its moisture to her heart and won Ease from the first day s burning sun; Lord of the pomp a crown endows And peoples hail on kingly brows ; Lord of the beggar s tattered coat, A derelict on life s sea a-float; Lord of thy blinded children, they Who see no sunlight in the day, Nor star-shine in the night but be Dreamless toilers on land and sea; Lord, Very God of these works of thine, Hear me, I beseech thee, most divine! Lord I praise thee, and adore thee For thy great works laid before me. My prayer-book is thine open air Where nature prints thy Laws so clear; [ in i My altar is the human strife Where I take sacraments of life; My proof in immortality Speaks loud in every blossoming tree. Lord, Very God, now lift I my voice Thanking thee for that which I rejoice Thy gift of life, be it short or long, And with it the great gift of song! OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE. FEB 18 1935 DEC 5 KA-3PM - i> H. f. LD 21-100m-8, 34