Whimsical 
 
 UC-NRLF 
 
 EDE 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 CALIFORNIA 
 SANTA CRUZ 
 
 SANTA CRUZ 
 

 PS 
 
 3505 
 06*5 
 
made 
 
 LELAND S ^COPELANP 
 
 Santa Barbara, California 
 
 SEPTF.MBER 
 
Copyrighted 1921 
 
 BY 
 
 LELAND S. COPELAND 
 
 The 
 
 Schauer Printing Studio 
 Santa Barbara, Calif. 
 
 /I / $/. 
 
FORE 
 
 "GOOD VERSE RIMES," 
 
 BOSS MATTHEWS THOUGHT. 
 "FREE LINES FETTER 
 
 CHARM," HE TAUGHT. 
 
 "TABLOID WORK 
 
 IS MUCH PREFERRED," 
 MAC ALARNEY. 
 
 "WRITE A WORD." 
 
DREAMS 
 
 BEYOND the dark and ruffled sea, 
 
 Which breezes crest with foam ; 
 Beyond the rising tidal stream, 
 Where sails and circling seagulls gleam, 
 
 All dim gray-blue, it shoulders through 
 The Island of my Dream. 
 
 Out there at dawn a purple veil 
 Slips down the mountain slope, 
 
 To tint a nook where poppies teem, 
 
 And in that paradise I seem 
 To see her w^ait, caressed by Fate 
 
 The Lovegirl of my Dream. 
 
Yet all the years sweep sadly by. 
 
 I cannot cross the sea, 
 
 But on the cliff that braves the stream 
 I stay perplexed, nor catch a beam 
 
 Of faith to take and will to make 
 The Future of my Dream. 
 
ALONE 
 
 I OFTEX think how lonely the Lord of Life must be, 
 Who made the pneumococcus and poured the starry sea ; 
 Who built a brontosaurus and locked its bones in earth 
 Ere anthropoid or human had Cenozoic birth. 
 
 How lonely, how forsaken, the God of Suns must be, 
 With neither wife nor comrade to share Eternity ! 
 His home quintillions measure, but every else too small, 
 For suns themselves are motes that dust the Empty All. 
 
 I sometimes think how sated the King of Kings must be, 
 Whose microscopic vision records Infinity 
 The toils and wars of trillions, while hunger, love and hope 
 Unreel the old, old dramas through which the midges grope. 
 
STARS 
 
 OUT through space my spirit leaps, 
 
 Swifter far than light; 
 Up to the lunar craters, 
 
 Gilded, banked with night; 
 Over the channeled, ruddy Mars, 
 
 Up through Saturn's rings; 
 Parting the hair of comets, 
 
 On my spirit wings; 
 Out where vast and awful voids 
 
 Space the Milky Way 
 Room for earths by hundreds 
 
 To spin the night and day ; 
 Straight through stuff of orbs unborn, 
 
 Mammoth nebulae; 
 
Lost where stars by thousands 
 
 Light the Ether Sea; 
 Far in timeless, bournless space 
 
 Till systems cease to roll; 
 Ever vainly seeking 
 
 Hope and the Supersoul. 
 Millions die who never knew 
 
 Half I see and ken 
 While I circle madly 
 
 Through the stars. And then- 
 Back to earth my spirit falls, 
 
 Tired of cosmic dust; 
 Needing a human being, 
 
 Human love and trust; 
 Gliding down on fancy's wings 
 
 Deep among the hills, 
 Where the elms and maples 
 
 Arch the flowered rills; 
 Back to dark-haired Mirabel 
 
 All my being flies; 
 Back to a wide-arm welcome 
 
 And the cosmos of her eyes. 
 
CONSOLATRIX 
 
 TAKE me, dear Death, in your arms. 
 
 I have tried so hard in vain, 
 But the hopes of my heart life cannot impart- 
 
 You must smooth away this pain; 
 You must lock me fast where hope is passed, 
 
 Released from my own disdain. 
 
 Fold me, kind Death, in your calm. 
 
 I am tired of toil and play, 
 And I long to rest, like a child, on your breast 
 
 In the dusk of a tangled day. 
 Yes, I long to sleep in a slumber deep, 
 
 Untroubled forever and aye. 
 
REBIRTH 
 
 IT WAS here that your ashes were laid, my dear; 
 
 That we scattered your dust in the dew, 
 Where we planted the rose that enchantingly grows 
 
 To fashion your graces anew. 
 
 Your glories still gladden the earth, my child ; 
 
 Your smile is a quaint perfume ; 
 These velvety tips were the gentlest of lips, 
 
 And your cheeks engendered this bloom. 
 
 Again your appear, but are many, my child, 
 
 And at last one brightens for me, 
 Who loved you so long, with a loyalty strong, 
 
 And hoped for what never could be. 
 
 11 
 
DREAM -STUFF 
 
 "A girl in whom a man is interested is more 
 of a dream than a real person." 
 
 THE girl you see oh no, not she, 
 
 But the girl astir in your heart 
 Is the woman you love and exalt above 
 
 The stir of street and mart. 
 For the really so in lass or beau 
 
 Is hardly half that seems 
 When a strange control upwings the soul 
 
 To days that are webbed in dreams. 
 
 12 
 
For buried deep in the mental keep 
 
 Is the love of a million years 
 The pulse and mark of dawn and dark 
 
 With a myriad smiles and tears. 
 And a hundred tales of hills and dales 
 
 That were or might have been, 
 The dreams of art, have molded part 
 
 Of the Love that lurks within. 
 
 13 
 
SUPERSTAR 
 
 ALPHA of Orion, mammoth of the sky, 
 
 Dropping gold at evening, sparkling red and high; 
 
 Blinking light at billions, 
 
 Vast as suns by millions; 
 
 Far among the stars and rich in latent worth 
 Greetings from a solar atom, wrinkled little earth! 
 
 Airy in your substance, hardly there at all, 
 You are moving madly heed some secret call. 
 
 Woven in your glories, 
 
 Doze uncounted stories. 
 
 Life and hope and death, with love and loss and tears, 
 Sleep within your vapors, wait the throbbing years. 
 
 14 
 
AD VENTU RE 
 
 OUR LIFE is strife, a brief and rude adventure, 
 A war of will and clash of hearts, 
 
 And hope is half our bliss a dream of joy 
 That Time so grudgingly imparts. 
 
 The game is old, for years have gone by millions 
 Since living things first yearned and vied ; 
 
 Since dots of hunger jostled round the food 
 That floated through the Algonkian tide. 
 
 Our restless globe has raced its circled journey 
 
 For eons since the ape-like men 
 Within a Java jungle snapped and clawed 
 
 For Beauty, fruit, or leafy den. 
 
 15 
 
Three myriad years ago contending cavemen 
 Struck death from flakes of ragged stone. 
 
 The lake-hut peoples warred. Assyrian kings 
 On rivals' corpses raised a throne. 
 
 Xerxes' and Alexander's deadly marches, 
 The Caesars' sword and Omar's flame, 
 
 A Corsican, a Kaiser all were part 
 Of earth's kaleidoscopic game. 
 
 Millions of years! yet men and nations grapple. 
 
 So sad to lose, yet grand to win! 
 A glint of gain to fight for thrills the world, 
 
 Which drowsy, dreary else had been. 
 
 16 
 
REST 
 
 I LIKE the sea, but I long to be 
 
 Where ruddy wild strawberries grow; 
 Where fragrant forget-me-nots border the rills, 
 And maples and clover blooms nod in the hills, 
 In quiet green hills that I know. 
 
 For it seems to me 'twould be lulling to be 
 
 Where the dead found a rest long ago ; 
 Where memories sleep in the stones o'er each bed, 
 And lilies look tenderly down at the dead, 
 In quiet green hills that I know. 
 
 17 
 
DAWN AND HOPE 
 
 LIGHT, light, the morning light 
 Many a ray leading the day 
 Into all parts. 
 
 Hope, hope, recurrent hope 
 Bringing us cheer, conquering fear, 
 Raising our hearts. 
 
 18 
 
SHADOWS 
 
 Overtones of "Take Me Back to Babyland, 
 F. J. Tannehill, Jr. 
 
 TAKE me back where Elsa smiles 
 
 And let me linger there ; 
 Cheer me with the pensive charm 
 
 Of shadow' eyes and hair ; 
 Let her sing again or be 
 
 Sweet with whimsies fanned- 
 Take me back beside the hearth, 
 
 Deep in Memory land. 
 
FUTURE 
 
 AFTER the dreams and yearning, 
 
 Beyond the storm-cloud too, 
 What for me will be future be, 
 
 And what for you? 
 
 Where will Florene be singing, 
 And who will arrest her smile? 
 
 Whose joy will last when mine has passed, 
 After a while? 
 
 Who will charm her forever? 
 
 Ah, would that I knew how! 
 Man of the earth, esteem her worth 
 
 As I do now. 
 
 20 
 
PARTING 
 
 FAREWELL, for the shadowed hours incline, 
 
 And day's delights so soon are gone. 
 I leave you, dear ; your love resign. 
 
 Farewell till a brighter day shall dawn. 
 
 21 
 
THESE THINGS MUST BE 
 
 I CANNOT help that snows are white, 
 
 That skies of June are blue, 
 Nor yet that stars shine all night long 
 
 No more can you, no more can you. 
 
 The Bengal tiger's teeth are sharp, 
 
 And ships do down at sea ; 
 No footfall cheers the lonely moon 
 
 These things must be, these things must be. 
 
 22 
 
THUS PASSES GLORY 
 
 MY MASTER has rendered a message of fate 
 
 In words that gloom like a knell, 
 And my way winds out through the mountain gate 
 
 To droop where the lost souls dwell. 
 For the fairy-formed hours are all at end, 
 And hope so shattered no magic can mend 
 
 Too soon I must bid you farewell. 
 
 Through fair paths we wandered ; no more we shall roam, 
 
 For Fate is supreme from appeal. 
 I must leave you serene in your mountain-locked home, 
 
 To wait for the ill and the weal. 
 For my way lengthens on under rain-laden skies 
 And no more will run where your mountains arise 
 
 I have lost you forever, Camille. 
 
W A N H O P E 
 
 THROUGH all the long, dim ages 
 
 That were or ever shall be, 
 The bliss that we seek we saw not 
 
 And never forever shall see. 
 
 Fair dreams we have dreamed, dear comrades, 
 But our rose-girt hopes have fled ; 
 
 Oh, many an early promise 
 
 That wakened our wills is dead. 
 
 The good we labored to gather, 
 
 The joy that was almost won, 
 Lie out of our life forever, 
 
 And our clouded day is done. 
 
 24 
 
We were whims of a myriad chances, 
 Th"e entangled strands of cause, 
 
 Which gave us a full, deep yearning 
 And broke us with pitiless laws. 
 
 But who can forbid us to fancy 
 We yet shall stand in the light 
 
 That shines for the favored of Nature ? 
 Hope on till the fall of night ! 
 
 Let us dream till Dark, the consoler, 
 Comes gently to lull us to rest; 
 
 To wrap us up snug for eons 
 In a care-free slumber nest. 
 
 25 
 
REMORSE 
 
 IN THE ember glow I sit alone 
 
 At the twilight hour of life, 
 And muse of a day ere I stole away 
 
 To dwell in a world of strife. 
 I think of a hope forever gone, 
 
 Of joy that died in the din, 
 And dream of the love that once I loved 
 
 And the glory that might have been. 
 
 I stand anew on a grassy knoll 
 In the Springland of Romance, 
 
And my soul is stirred by a love-fraught word 
 And the power of a tender glance. 
 
 The distant dell, where soft clouds drift, 
 And the future seem akin, 
 
 As again we plan for the years to come 
 For the glory that never has been. 
 
SUNDERED 
 
 I HAVE missed you, dearest being, 
 In the winding ways of earth. 
 
 At each turning, dimly yearning, 
 I have found but void and dearth ; 
 
 Never learning or discerning 
 
 Where you linger, Soul of Worth. 
 
 When I brood o'er past and future, 
 Soon to you my thoughts incline. 
 
 In my dreaming, lost in seeming, 
 I am sure your hopes entwine 
 
 28 
 
One still deeming love is streaming 
 From your heart to comfort mine. 
 
 Though I know that all my journey 
 
 Fortune's blight will darken through, 
 
 I am trying, vainly spying, 
 For the face I never knew. 
 
 And in dying, death defying, 
 All my heart will go to you. 
 
 29 
 
VANITY 
 
 ROSES lose their pink and white, 
 
 Clinging vines too soon untwine; 
 
 Day's dear light goes out in night. 
 Stars at last refuse to shine. 
 
 Is there, then, no faithful wight? 
 
 Yes, a creature sweetly true; 
 Woman bright as dawning light, 
 
 Constant-during . . . like the dew\ 
 
 30 
 
HELPMEET 
 
 PRETTY eyes and tresses 
 Capture easy men. 
 
 Dupes that wed for beauty 
 Seldom smile again. 
 
 Woman takes the ducats, 
 Woman grips the sous ; 
 
 Finery and comforts 
 
 Why should she refuse? 
 
 31 
 
Much she helps her husband. 
 
 Here the rule discern 
 Giving, giving, giving, 
 
 Asking no return. 
 
 Judges grant him respite ; 
 
 Still there's gold to pay 
 Alimony driblets 
 
 Till the Judgment Day. 
 
 32 
 
THOUGHTS AND WISHES 
 
 WHEN the sky is blue, I think of you, 
 
 Of a woman gowned in gentle blue. 
 
 Through the sunset pink, of you I think, 
 
 Of a girl enrobed in darling pink. 
 
 When the moon shines fair on night like your hair, 
 
 I wish you were here no, I'm glad you are there! 
 
 33 
 
MELODY IN M 
 
 Music of her voice, 
 Magic of her eye, 
 
 Mystery of her presence 
 
 Make me sad and why? 
 
 Much though I adore, 
 More than she can see, 
 
 Merry-minded maiden 
 Merely mocks at me. 
 
 34 
 
ENVY 
 
 IF I were Miss Florena's muff, 
 
 I'd be exceeding bold, 
 For e'en by day, on every way, 
 
 Two precious hands I'd hold. 
 
 If I might be Florena's muff, 
 Though other joys depart, 
 
 Enough for me that I could be 
 So very near her heart. 
 
 If I were just Florena's muff, 
 
 She'd like me much she would ; 
 
 Each soft caress, would then address 
 To me ah, if she could ! 
 
 35 
 
ELFIN LAMENT 
 
 SWEET lady with the dark brown eyes, 
 With hair w r here night in slumber lies, 
 With ready smile and witching ways 
 That web the hearts of men and fays ; 
 The shadows' pride, whom sunshine grew, 
 Enchantress, yet a kindness too 
 Oh why, oh why, do you dart away 
 From hedge and lawn where the fairies play? 
 
 Sometimes at dusk your footfall light 
 Bestirs the pulse of bearded spright 
 And thrills the heart of this elfin king 
 My heart leaps like a wounded thing. 
 Then forth I spring with happy cry 
 To welcome one who scurries by. 
 Aye, fast and faster follow you ; 
 Distressed and breathless, call, "Halloo! 
 
 36 
 
O lassie, come with fairies play 
 
 And frolic o'er the lawn till day." 
 
 But heedless (Sweet, you do not know), 
 
 With flying feet clear home you go; 
 
 You slam the door on hoary beard 
 
 And leave me with thei dark you feared. 
 
 Then up to your window straight I leap 
 And flat my nose on the pane and peep. 
 A hopeless darkness rules awhile ; 
 The light comes on, I see you smile. 
 You smile with a smile not meant for me 
 Oh, would that dark brown eyes could see 
 The sad little heart that loves you so, 
 With changeless love that fairies show. 
 
 So, faint and grieved, I drop to earth 
 And slow wend back to sport and mirth 
 To mirth I joy in ne'er again 
 Till, Queen of Fays, you crown my train. 
 
 37 
 
TO LIVE IS TO SIN 
 
 BY SPITFIRE, KITTEN 
 
 I LICKED my paws 
 
 And sharped my claws ; 
 Then purred, "Beware, my tasteful mouse," 
 
 Ere I danced away 
 
 In the failing day 
 Through a spacious printing house. 
 
 And as I went 
 
 With greedy bent, 
 I stilled my heart as good men do. 
 
 " 'Tis not unkind 
 
 For me to find 
 A mellow mouse or two. 
 
u 'Cause not for self 
 
 Or dainty pelf 
 I soon shall lick my velvet jaws; 
 
 To help poor man 
 
 The best I can, 
 I munch on mousy paws." 
 
 So round the base 
 
 Of many a case 
 Where printers toiled my bright eyes went. 
 
 With purpose ripe 
 
 Past linotype 
 I dashed and found the scent. 
 
 Then through the door 
 
 And over the floor 
 Of the editorial room I flew. 
 
 In that hall of fame 
 
 I clawed my game 
 While the scribes roared, " 'Rah for you!" 
 
The girl-cub cried 
 
 When this she spied, 
 "O naughty Spitfire, come not here 
 
 With angry mind 
 
 And all unkind 
 You shall not hurt the dear!'' 
 
 That mouse was scared, 
 
 So ill he fared. 
 "Let's arbitrate," he gently whined. 
 
 I took my fill. 
 
 "I gladly will, 
 But wait till I have dined." 
 
EUGENICS? WHY NOT? 
 
 "If the afflicted member of your direct ancestral line was 
 as far removed as a great-grandparent, and if you have at least 
 three brothers and sisters, all normally resistant, you may 
 assume that the taint has been eradicated." 
 
 my daughter? Never, sir! 
 Parent love will shelter her." 
 Father thundered till he shook. 
 Scattering ice along his look. 
 
 Vanished all the suitor's bliss. 
 "What, ne'er taste your weedy kiss? 
 Tell me, man, what crime I've done 
 That I cannot be your son." 
 
 41 
 
"Ancestors is your offense, 
 
 All of whom had taint immense!" 
 
 Fiercely Dolly's dad replied, 
 
 "For once at least they all have died! 
 
 "Dare you seek a sweet girl's hand? 
 Worse remains; I understand, 
 Scion tinctured through and through, 
 Some had cholera morbus, too." 
 
 Grief prolonged the suitor's face. 
 "Nature marked me for disgrace . . . 
 Break my heart ... I shall be missed 
 I go to death and calm unkissed." 
 
DIVIDED DUTY 
 
 "Mother, I have torn my trousers 
 Ripped them on a naughty nail. 
 
 Will you patch them while I slumber? 
 
 Please, please, mend them without fail." 
 
 "Sonny, mother cannot help you; 
 
 Wait until to-morrow night. 
 Mrs. Mancurst all this evening 
 
 Talks on 'Feebleness of Might.' " 
 
 "Wife, my six suspender buttons, 
 One by one, have slipped away ; 
 
 How shall I sustain my garments? 
 Surely you will sew to-day." 
 
 43 
 
''Husband, I am grieved to tell you 
 You must use a safety pin ; 
 
 Dear, the canvass keeps me busy 
 Woman's pet reforms must win. 
 
 "When I shall have done my duty, 
 Gladly I will sew and sweep ; 
 
 Yes, and while the contest wavers, 
 O'er your troubles I will weep." 
 
 44 
 
OLD MAN SNOW 
 
 WINTER, you have lingered long; 
 
 Well we know your icy art. 
 Though your hold on time is strong, 
 
 May it please you to depart. 
 
 You supplant the airy spring, 
 Waiting to awake and grow. 
 
 Let the birds return and sing; 
 Winter, Winter, melt and go. 
 
 45 
 
DRIFTWOOD 
 
 Column for St. Valentine's Day 
 
 HERE'S to the little God of Love, 
 Who plays us tricks we know not of, 
 And sends us with an easy shove 
 To toil through life for just a dove. 
 
 Little heart, Cupid's dart 
 Set you wildly throbbing. 
 
 Much the pain, all in vain ; 
 Soon you fell a-sobbing. 
 
 46 
 
Luckless wight, what a spite! 
 Life was meant for smiling. 
 
 Cupid's naughty, Venus haughty- 
 Futile all reviling. 
 
 The youth was based upon his knees; 
 
 His upbent quaking arms implored, 
 While vibrant voice enhanced his pleas 
 
 To one through many months adored. 
 
 "Oh wilt thou be my loving spouse? 
 
 One word can flood my heart with light." 
 The answer fell from upper house 
 
 " 'Tis half past ten; bid John good night." 
 
 "Though your father hate me, 
 Though your mother rate me, 
 
 What care I 
 
 For angry eye, 
 If my Susan mate me?" 
 
 47 
 
"William, you're a queer one; 
 
 Would I could say 'dear one'. 
 What were I 
 Were Dad not by, 
 
 Coinfully to cheer one?" 
 
 "How I like you," William sighed. 
 "Make it love," the lass replied. 
 "I must then put out an T." 
 "Love is blind, no ill to spy." 
 "Where shall 'k' go? tell me, Miss." 
 "Let me take it in a kiss." 
 
LULLABY 
 
 (Songs like this will be sung in the 
 nurseries of 2000 A. D.) 
 
 HUSH, little nebula, 
 Don't you cry; 
 
 You'll be a blue star 
 By and by. 
 
 Color will alter 
 
 Gold, red, and black, 
 One after other, 
 
 Will garnish your back. 
 
 49 
 
Kiddies called planets 
 
 Will spring from your side. 
 Curling and whirling, 
 
 World-stuff will ride 
 
 Round a vast circle, 
 
 Performing a year ; 
 Heat must go etherward, 
 
 Cool lands appear. 
 
 Life soon will follow 
 
 Amoeba and worm ; 
 Dinosaur, mammoth, 
 
 And Brain for a term. 
 
 Warring and slaying, 
 
 Fighting for mates, 
 Brain must live stories 
 
 Of loves and of hates. 
 
 50 
 
Wisdom will triumph, 
 War lords must die, 
 
 Happiness triple, 
 
 For Brain can go high. 
 
 Planet on planet 
 
 Will crash but don't sigh 
 Again you'll be nebula 
 
 By and by. 
 
 51 
 
TOO MUCH HISTORY 
 
 May, 1915 
 
 HAVE done with the rattle and rumble of war ! 
 
 Away with hate of the foe ! 
 Let your childish racial dreams dissolve, 
 
 Entente and alliance go. 
 Bid the brotherhood of nations rise 
 And world-wide concord grow. 
 O Teuton, Celt, and Slav, obey the higher call ; 
 Forsake the long-drawn trenches and let the standards fall 
 For the Lord still loves the nations, one Powder upholds 
 them all. 
 
 52 
 
Let the Crescent light the Eastern sky, 
 
 And the Cross make bright the West ; 
 Bid the sword of the Prophet rage no more, 
 
 And the steel of the Christian rest; 
 Let the long crusade forever end, 
 
 For only love is best. 
 
 () blinded Turk and Frank, obey the higher call ; 
 Forsake the hateful turmoil and let the ensigns fall, 
 For Allah loves the races, one Power sustains them all. 
 
 53 
 
GAME 
 
 I CELEBRATE the hollow skull, 
 
 For years the home of What's-His-Name? 
 To this small house great joys repaired 
 
 And cutting sorrows came. 
 
 I cannot praise the rugged cheeks 
 
 Or gloomy nooks where eyes have been, 
 
 But must commend the mouth that still 
 Is brave enough to grin. 
 
 54 
 
LIONHEART 
 
 AT HARBOR EASE my ship bode long:, 
 
 Lapped in a mirror bay, 
 Where sunshine fell on mast and desk 
 
 And lured my soul to stay. 
 
 But I bade the peaceful port farewell, 
 To steer my ship toward gain ; 
 
 I fixed my hope on golden goals 
 That lie beyond the main. 
 
 55 
 
And now a storm uphurls the sea ; 
 
 Waves roar against my bark, 
 The wild winds madly flap the sails, 
 
 And night leads on the dark. 
 
 Yet hero blood shall fill these veins, 
 
 A lionheart control ; 
 No churlish fear can master me 
 
 While purpose steels my soul. 
 
 So on I go through calm or storm, 
 Whiche'er the world may don ; 
 
 As long as sails can hold the wind, 
 I will make the ship speed on ! 
 
 56 
 
"COULD we forsake 
 
 Our gods and take 
 
 The Christ as more 
 
 Than Tiw or Thor?" 
 
 King Edwin's word 
 
 His councilors heard. 
 
 While elders sighed, 
 
 Thus thane replied: 
 
 "Out of the darkness, out of the storm, 
 
 To cross a feast hall, cheery and warm, 
 
 A sparrow wings; revives in the light, 
 
 And then flies back into snow and night. 
 
 Oh such, dear liege, is the life of man ; 
 
 He joys and strives but a little span ; 
 
 From gloom to gloom moves like a bird. 
 
 If Christ mean more, accept His Word." 
 
 As Faith increased, 
 
 A gray high priest 
 
 Denounced the gods 
 
 As dream-born rods; 
 
 Tho' called insane, 
 
 Rode steed to fane, 
 
 Cast lance at wall, 
 
 Placed torch to all. 
 
 While Woden flamed, 
 
 A seer proclaimed : 
 
 "O'er lea and land 
 
 A Cross shall stand, 
 
 Shall light and lead 
 
 Northumberland !" 
 
 57 
 
LAST SONG 
 
 SUNLIGHT dances down the trail 
 
 Gently bending toward to-morrow 
 Luring me to leave the twilight 
 
 Locked in hills of sorrow. 
 Home at last beyond the mountains! 
 
 Were you missed of yore? 
 I shall miss you so again 
 
 Never, never more. 
 
 58 
 
Love denied, your charms are dust 
 
 Laughing eyes with fringe of night, 
 Lips that curve to sink in dimples, 
 
 Cheeks of rosy white, 
 Shadow hair with furls to fetter 
 
 Were you prized of yore? 
 I shall love you so again 
 
 Never, never more. 
 
ETERNITY 
 
 ALONE among the stars I sit and dream 
 Of those vast reaches of Infinity 
 
 That conquer thought, where universes gleam 
 Like golden islands in the Ether Sea. 
 
 My spirit gropes within an awful night 
 
 Through which no traveled starbeam ever runs 
 
 A nebula that now drinks heat and light ; 
 
 That yet will shine and burgeon into suns. 
 
 60 
 
I watch a primal fire-mist knot and burn 
 To form the great Arcturus, or behold 
 
 Two dark orbs, blindly clashing, flame and turn 
 To stellar dust whence newer orbs unfold. 
 
 Oh what are humankind and this our life 
 
 Compared with those star clouds beyond our sky ? 
 
 What mean success, defeat, the patient strife 
 To make a better world ? And what am I ? 
 
 One germ among a billion and a half 
 That haunt a microscopic land and sea 
 
 Within the radiance of a puny sun, 
 Lost in the mazes of Eternity. 
 
 61 
 
FINALE 
 
 So THIS is the end. The hour so long postponed 
 
 Has come, and Death is calling at my door. 
 Perhaps my Dark Friend wills that I should go 
 To save me from some lurking future woe. 
 But if for well or if for ill, 
 'Tis useless to implore, 
 For I must bid the World and Time 
 Good-bye for evermore. 
 
 A moment, Death. But give me pause to think. 
 
 This ever-flowered dale that I adore ; 
 The blue that nestles in the Evening's arms 
 Far up the hills, secure from human harms; 
 
 62 
 
The sunlit curving bay, the peaks 
 That rim the dimming shore 
 
 To all that I have seen and loved, 
 Good-bye for evermore. 
 
 Quite ready, Death. How many you have called ! 
 
 Above Fame's Book no longer I can pore 
 Or watch the ages' giants put to test 
 Columbus and Magellan daring west, 
 Old Galileo's starry tour 
 
 Or Darwin delving lore. 
 And now to storied, gloried Earth 
 Good-bye for evermore! 
 
 63 
 
DATE DUE 
 
PS3505.0645W5 
 
 3 2106 00209 7134 
 
 3T8RED AT NRLF