diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 19:56:36 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 19:56:36 -0700 |
| commit | 4a6796fd3a128e1eb29da7212d91858d291c3557 (patch) | |
| tree | 3781e3486ea70a8aea1943f16208b39f2a54bded | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 31877-8.txt | 4018 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 31877-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 50328 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 31877-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 57169 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 31877-h/31877-h.htm | 4281 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 31877.txt | 4018 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 31877.zip | bin | 0 -> 50297 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
9 files changed, 12333 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/31877-8.txt b/31877-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f6c2a15 --- /dev/null +++ b/31877-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4018 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sea Poems, by Cale Young Rice + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Sea Poems + +Author: Cale Young Rice + +Release Date: April 4, 2010 [EBook #31877] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEA POEMS *** + + + + +Produced by David Garcia, Josephine Paolucci and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Kentuckiana Digital Library.) + + + + + + + +SEA POEMS + +BY + +CALE YOUNG RICE + +AUTHOR OF + +"WRAITHS AND REALITIES," "TRAILS SUNWARD," "COLLECTED POEMS," ETC. + +NEW YORK +THE CENTURY CO. +1921 + + +Copyright, 1921, by +The Century Co. + + +TO +HARRISON S. MORRIS +A HATER OF SHAM AND PRETENSE, +A LOVER OF BEAUTY AND TRUTH, +A FIRM FRIEND. + + + + +FOREWORD + + +The poems of this volume, gathered here after many requests, are, with a +few exceptions, from my previous lyrical publications. They are also in +a real sense an intimate record. For the sea has often enough seemed to +me almost as a vast external subconsciousness in which the forces of my +being--as well as the world's--were at play. + +Cale Young Rice. + +Louisville, Ky., August, 1921. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + +Sea-Hoardings 3 + +The Shore's Song to the Sea 5 + +To a Firefly by the Sea 9 + +Invocation 11 + +I Know Your Heart, O Sea! 11 + +A Sea-Ghost 13 + +Finitude 15 + +The Colonel's Story 16 + +Cosmism 21 + +Off the Irish Coast 22 + +The Fairies of God 23 + +The Song of the Homesick Gael 24 + +Pageants of the Sea 26 + +A Song of the Old Venetians 29 + +Basking 30 + +Sappho's Death Song 32 + +The Wind's Word 33 + +Submarine Mountains 34 + +The Song of the Storm-Spirits 36 + +The Great Seducer 37 + +K'u-Kiang 38 + +Typhoon 39 + +Penang 41 + +Nights on the Indian Ocean 42 + +Sighting Arabia 44 + +"All's Well" 45 + +Somnambulism 47 + +Chartings 48 + +The Trail from the Sea 50 + +Haunted Seas 54 + +Sea Lure 54 + +Songs to A. H. R. + + I Minglings 56 + II Love and Infinity 56 + III Recompense 57 + IV At the Ebb-Hour 58 + V In a Dark Hour 59 + VI Via Amorosa 59 + VII Transfusion 61 + +Need of Storm 62 + +A Florida Interlude 63 + +A Florida Boating Song 65 + +Dawn Bliss 66 + +Atavism 68 + +Re-reckoning 69 + +To the Afternoon Moon, At Sea 70 + +Paths 71 + +From a Northern Beach 73 + +Passage 74 + +Aleen 75 + +To a Solitary Sea-Gull 76 + +Ineffable Things 77 + +The Song of a Sea-Farer 78 + +Waves 79 + +In a Storm 80 + +After Their Parting 80 + +A Word's Magic 82 + +Sea Rhapsody 83 + +In an Oriental Harbour 84 + +Under the Sky 85 + +A Song for Healing 86 + +A Singhalese Love Lament 87 + +The City 89 + +Full Tide 89 + +The Herding 91 + +On the Maine Coast 92 + +Séance 93 + +A Sidmouth Lad 93 + +Widowed 94 + +To the Sea 95 + +Sea-Mad 97 + +The Atheist 98 + +At the Helm 99 + +Imperturbable 100 + +Waste 100 + +Resurgence 101 + +Life's Answer 103 + +As the Tide Comes In 103 + +Sense-Sweetness 104 + +Tidals 105 + +A Sailor's Wife 105 + +To Sea! 106 + +Give Over, O Sea! 107 + +The Nun 109 + +Last Sight of Land 110 + + + + +SEA POEMS + +BY CALE YOUNG RICE + + + + +SEA-HOARDINGS + + + My heart is open again and sea flows in, + It shall fill with a summer of mists and winds and clouds and waves breaking, + Of gull-wings over the green tide, of the surf's drenching din, + Of sudden horizon-sails that come and vanish, phantom-thin, + Of arching sapphire skies, deep and unaching. + + I shall lie on the rocks just over the weeds that drape + The clear sea-pools, where birth and death in sunny ooze are teeming. + Where the crab in quest of booty sidles about, a sullen shape, + Where the snail creeps and the mussel sleeps with wary valves agape, + Where life is too grotesque to be but seeming. + + And the swallow shall weave my dreams with threads of flight, + A shuttle with silver breast across the warp of the waves gliding; + And an isle far out shall be a beam in the loom of my delight, + And the pattern of every dream shall be a rapture bathed in light-- + Its evanescence a beauty most abiding. + + And the sunsets shall give sadness all its due, + They shall stain the sands and trouble the tides with all the ache of sorrow. + They shall bleed and die with a beauty of meaning old yet ever new, + They shall burn with all the hunger for things that hearts have failed to do, + They shall whisper of a gold that none can borrow. + + And the stars shall come and build a bridge of fire + For the moon to cross the boundless sea, with never a fear of sinking. + They shall teach me of the magic things of life never to tire, + And how to renew, when it is low, the lamp of my desire-- + And how to hope, in the darkest deeps of thinking. + + + + +THE SHORE'S SONG TO THE SEA + + + Out on the rocks primeval, + The grey Maine rocks that slant and break to the sea, + With the bay and juniper round them, + And the leagues on leagues before them, + And the terns and gulls wheeling and crying, wheeling and crying over, + I sat heart-still and listened. + + And first I could only hear the wind in my ears, + And the foam trying to fill the high rock-shallows. + And then, over the wind, over the whitely blossoming foam, + Low, low, like a lover's song beginning, + I heard the nuptial pleading of the old shore, + A pleading ever occultly growing louder:-- + + _O sea, glad bride of me! + Born of the bright ether and given to wed me, + Given to glance, ever, for me, and gleam and dance in the sun-- + Come to my arms, come to my reaching arms, + That seem so still and unavailing to take you, and hold you, + Yet never forget, + Never by day or night, + The hymeneal delights of your embracings._ + + _Come, for the moon, my rival, shall not have you; + No, for tho twice daily afar he beckons and you go, + You, my bride, a little way back to meet him, + As if he once had been your lover, he too, and again enspelled you, + Soon, soon, I know it is only feigning! + For turning, playfully turning, tidally turning, + You rush foamingly, swiftly back to my arms!_ + + _And so would I have you rush; so rush now! + Come from the sands where you have stayed too long, + Come from the reefs where you have wandered silent, + For ebbings are good, the restful ebbings of love, + But, oh, the bridal flowings of it are better! + And now I would have you loose again my tresses, + My locks rough and weedy, rough and brown and brinily tangled, + But, oh, again as a bridegroom's, when your tide, whispering in, + Lifts them up, pulsingly up with kisses!_ + + _Come with your veil thrown back, breaking to spray! + And oh, with plangent passion! + Come with your naked sweetness, salt and wholesome, to my bosom; + Let not a cave or crevice of me miss you, or cranny, + For, oh, the nuptial joy you float into me, + The cooling ambient clasp of you, I have waited over-long, + And I need to know again its marriage meaning!_ + + _For I think it is not alone to bring forth life, that I mate you; + More than life is the beauty of life with love! + Plentiful are the children that you bear to me, the blossoms, + The fruits and all the creatures at your breast dewily fed, + But mating is troubled with a far higher meaning-- + A hint of a consummation for all things. + Come utterly then, + Utterly to me come, + And let us surge together, clasped close, in infinite union, + Until we reach a transcendence of all birth, and all dying, + An ecstasy holding the universe blended-- + Such ecstasy as is its ultimate Aim!_ + + So sang the shore, the long bay-scented shore, + Broken by many an isle, many an inlet bird-embosomed, + And the sea gave answer, bridally, tidally turning, + And leapt, radiant, into his rocky arms! + + + + +TO A FIREFLY BY THE SEA + + + Little torch-bearer, alone with me in the night, + You cannot light the sea, nor I illumine life. + They are too vast for us, they are too deep for us. + We glow with all our strength, but back the shadows sweep: + And after a while will come--unshadowed Sleep. + + Here on the rocks that take the turning tide; + Here by the wide lone waves and lonelier wastes of sky, + We keep our poet-watch, as patient poets should, + Questioning earth's commingled ill and good to us. + Yet little of them, or naught, have truly understood. + + Bright are the stars, and constellated thick. + To you, so quick to flit along your flickering course, + They seem perhaps as glowing mates in other fields. + And all the knowledge I have gathered yields to me + Scarce more of the great mystery their wonder wields. + + For the moon we are waiting--and behold + Her ardent gold drifts up, her sail has caught the breeze + That blows all being thro the Universe always. + So now, little light-keeper, you no more need nurse + Your gleam, for lo! she mounts, and sullen clouds disperse. + + And I with aching thought may cease to burn, + And humbly turn to rest--knowing no glow of mine + Can ever be so beauteous as have been to me + Your soft beams here beside the sea's elusive din: + For grief too oft has kindled me, and pain, and the world's sin. + + + + +INVOCATION + +(_From a High Cliff_) + + + Sweep unrest + Out of my blood, + Winds of the sea! Sweep the fog + Out of my brain + For I am one + Who has told Life he will be free. + Who will not doubt of work that's done, + Who will not fear the work to do, + Who will hold peaks Promethean + Better than all Jove's honey-dew. + Who when the Vulture tears his breast + Will smile into the Terror's Eyes. + Who for the World has this Bequest-- + Hope, that eternally is wise. + + + + +I KNOW YOUR HEART, O SEA! + + + I know your heart, O Sea! + You are tossed with cold desire to flood earth utterly; + You run at the cliffs, you fling wild billows at beaches, + You reach at islands with fingers of foam to crumble them; + Yes, even at mountain tops you shout your purpose + Of making the earth a shoreless circle of waters! + + I know your surging heart! + Tides mighty and all-contemptuous rise within it, + Tides spurred by the wind to champ and charge and thunder-- + Tho the sun and moon rein them-- + At the troubling land, the breeding-place of mortals, + Of men who are ever transmuting life to spirit, + And ever taking your salt to savor their tears. + + I know your tides, I know them! + "Down," they rage, "with the questing of men, and crying! + With their continents--cradles of grief and despair! + Better entombing waters for them, better our deeps unfathomed, + Where birth is soulless, life goalless, death toll-less for all, + And where dark ooze enshrouds past resurrection!" + + Ah, yes, I know your heart! + I have heard it raving at coast-lights set to reveal you, + I have watched it foam at ships that sought to defy you, + I have seen it straining at cables that cross you, bearing whispers hid to you, + Or heaving at waves of the air that tell your hurricanes. + + I know, I know your heart! + Men you will sink, and shores will sink; but a shore shall be man's forever, + From whence his lighthouse soul shall signal the Infinite, + Whose fleets go by, star after star, bearing their unknown burden + To a Port which only eternity shall determine! + + + + +A SEA-GHOST + + + Oh, fisher-fleet, go in from the sea + And furl your wings. + The bay is gray with the twilit spray + And the loud surf springs. + + The chill buoy-bell is rung by the hands + Of all the drowned, + Who know the woe of the wind and tow + Of the tides around. + + Go in, go in! Oh, haste from the sea, + And let them rest-- + The throng who long for the air--still long, + But are still unblest. + + Aye, even as I, whose hands at the bell + Now labour most. + The tomb has gloom, but oh, the doom + Of the drear sea-ghost! + + He evermore must wander the ooze + Beneath the wave, + Forlorn--to warn of the tempest born, + And to save--to save! + + Then go, go in! and leave us the sea, + For only so + Can peace release us and give us ease + Of our salty woe. + + + + +FINITUDE + + +I + + One ruby, amid a diamond spray of stars, + The coast light flashes; + The tide plashes, + Across a mile of bay-sweet land the moon + Comes soon: + She has lost half of her lustre and looks old. + + A cricket, finitude's incarnate cry, + And the infinite waters with their hushless sigh + Are the two sounds + The night has: + Each in eternal wistfulness abounds. + + +II + + I have wakened out of my sleep because I too + Am wistful, + Tristeful; + Because I know that half of _me_ is gone, + And that all frailty cries in the cricket's tone. + + I have wakened out of my sleep to watch and listen. + For what? + To see for a moment universes glisten; + To wonder and want--and go to sleep again, + And die, + And be forgot. + + + + +THE COLONEL'S STORY + + + No, no, my friend; there is an agony + Not to be exorcised out of the world + By any voice of hope.--But, I will tell you. + + The _Sonia_ was sailing without lights-- + Bearing three hundred souls--and without bells; + For she had reached the "Zone," where the Hun sharks + With their torpedo tongues could spit death at us + Out of the inky sea-hells where they hid. + On the main deck we stood, in a wind-shelter,-- + My wife, and by us a pale girl whose eyes + Had all disaster in them. And my thought was, + "I hope to God the moon is shut so deep + In cloud-murk there in the East that hurricanes + Can't blow her out of it." For in the Zone + The moon had come to mean only betrayal, + And now, if ever, was her wanton chance. + + The slipping water soaked with soulless dark + Fell under and around us shudderingly, + Yet somehow brought an anxious hopefulness. + "We're making twenty knots," I said; and felt + Our bow cut thro the tangle of the waves + As if the No Man's _Sea_ ahead of us + Would soon be crossed; and I, out to rejoin + My regiment, could set my wife safe somewhere, + And help again to stab that curst amphibian, + Autocracy--whose spawn in the sea gave it + A terror greater than infinitude's. + For God knows, with the woman that one loves + Aboard a ship, and only a cloud perhaps + Between the Hun's shark eyes and sure escape + From the black icy fathoms that would choke her, + There's little left within a man but nerves. + So when I drew her closer into the shelter, + Out of the sheering wind, the life belt + She wore seemed like a coffin in that sepulchre + Of night and sea. And when the other, there, + With the disaster eyes and pallid face, + Turned half toward us, I was shaken as if + The moon had suddenly walked out of her shroud + With phosphorescent purpose to reveal us. + + But on we plunged and tumbled, till at last + The blank monotonous sink and swell lulled me + To faith. And I was only thinking softly + Of her--my wife's--first kiss on a summer night + Under the moonlit laurels of our home, + When came a cry from the wan girl gazing + Frozenly on the sea--where the moon now + Indeed was pointing at us pallidly + A death-path. And my throat was gripped by it, + That clutching cry, as if the glacial depths + Down under us already had risen up. + So starting toward the slipping rail I called, + "What is it? where?" For, tense as a clairvoyant, + With eyes that seemed to feel under the tide + The stealthy peril stalking us, she stood there. + + After a moment's gazing, I too saw-- + What she foresensed--destruction seething toward us. + "The boats!" I cried, "the rafts!" And stumbled back + Over the streaming deck to her I loved. + Then the shock came, as if the sea's wild heart + Had broken under us, and ripped the entrails, + The human hundreds, out of our vessel's hold, + To strew the foam with mania and despair, + With shrieks strangled by wind and wave and terror. + And thro that floating, mangled, blind confusion, + Where hands reached at the infinite then sank, + Where faces clung to wreckage as to eternity, + I sought for her who shared my life's voyage, + Who had been my heart's pilot; and who now, + Wrecked with me, swirled, too, in the torn waters.... + And soon I saw her, still by that wan girl, + Tossed on a watery omnipotence. + + Blind with brine I swam for her--as the moon, + Her treachery done, again got to a cloud. + Flung back by every wave, I fought; beating + Against them as against God. And soon, somehow, + Had reached to a limp body on the surge, + Limp and strange--but living ... and not drowned! + Then seeing a raft near, I struggled onward, + Gulping the sea and being gulped by it, + But finding arms at last that drew my burden + And me from horror to half-swooning safety. + + I could have died, I think, of the relief. + But the moon came again, nakedly out, + As if to see what she had done. Then I, + Bending over the form that I had fought for, + And chafing it, saw ... not her I loved! + Infinite Cruelty, not her I loved!... + But that pale girl, with the eyes of all disaster. + + Oh, yes, I raved, and said God was a Hun, + A Kaiser of a Universe that loathed him. + And back, too, would have leapt, into the waves, + But the same hands that saved were ready to hold me. + + + + +COSMISM + + + The sea asleep like a dreamer sighs; + The salt rock-pools lie still in the sun, + Except for the sidling crab that creeps + Thro the moveless mosses green and dun. + The small gray snail clings everywhere, + For the tide is out; and the sea-weed dries + Its tangled tresses in the warm air, + That seems to ooze from the far blue skies, + Where not a white gull on white wing flies. + + The mollusc gleams like a gem amid + The scurf and the clustered green sea-grapes, + Whose trellis is but the rock's bare side, + Whose husbandman but the tide that drapes. + The little sandpiper tilts and picks + His food, on the wet sea-marges hid, + Till sudden a wave comes in and flicks + Him off, then flashes away to bid + Another frighten him--as it did. + + O sweet is the world of living things, + And sweet are the mingled sea and shore! + It seems as if I never again + Shall find life ill--as oft before. + As if my days should come as the clouds + Come yonder--and vanish without wings; + As if all sorrow that ever shrouds + My soul and darkly about it clings + Had lost forever its ravenings. + + As if I knew with a deeper sense + That good alone is ultimate; + That never an evil wrought of God + Or man came truly out of hate. + That Better springs from the heart of Worse, + As calm from the heaving elements; + That all things born to the Universe + May suffer and perish utterly hence, + But never refute its Innocence. + + + + +OFF THE IRISH COAST + + + Gulls on the wind, + Crying! crying! + Are you the ghosts + Of Erin's dead? + Of the forlorn + Whose days went sighing + Ever for Beauty + That ever fled? + + Ever for Light + That never kindled? + Ever for Song + No lips have sung? + Ever for Joy + That ever dwindled? + Ever for Love that stung? + + + + +THE FAIRIES OF GOD + + + Last night I slipt from the banks of dream + And swam in the currents of God, + On a tide where His fairies were at play, + Catching salt tears in their little white hands, + For human hearts; + And dancing, dancing, in gala bands, + On the currents of God; + And singing, singing:-- + + _There is no wind blows here or spray-- + Wind upon us! + Only the waters ripple away + Under our feet as we gather tears. + God has made mortals for the years, + Us for alway! + God has made mortals full of fears, + Fears for the night and fears for the day. + If they would free them of grief that sears, + If they would keep what love endears, + If they would lay no more lilies on biers-- + Let them say! + For we are swift to enchant and tire + Time's will! + Our feet are wiser than all desire, + Our song is better than faith or fame; + To whom it is given no ill e'er came, + Who has it not grows chill! + Who has it not grows laggard and lame, + Nor knows that the world is a Minstrel's lyre, + Smitten and never still!..._ + + Last night on the currents of God. + + + + +THE SONG OF THE HOMESICK GAEL + +(_In the characteristic minor of a recent literary movement_) + + + I long to see the solan-goose + Wing over Ailsa crag + At dusk again--or Girvan gulls at dawn; + To see the osprey grayly glide + The winds of Kamasaig: + For grayness now my heart is set upon. + + The grayness of sea-spaces where + There's loneliness alone, + Save for the wings that sweep it with unrest, + Save for the hunger-cries that sound + And die into a moan, + Save for the moaning hunger in my breast. + + For grayness is the hue of all + In life that is not lies. + A thousand years of tears are in my heart; + And only in their mystery + Can I be truly wise: + From light and laughter follies only start. + + I long to see the mists again + Above the tumbling tide + Of Ailsa, at the coming of the night. + There's weariness and emptiness + And soul unsatisfied + Forever in the places of delight. + + + + +PAGEANTS OF THE SEA + + + What memories have I of it, + The sea, continent-clasping, + The sea whose spirit is a sorcery, + The sea whose magic foaming is immortal! + What memories have I of it thro the years! + + What memories of its shores!... + Of shadowy headlands doomed to stay the storm; + And red cliffs clawing ever into the tides; + Of misty moors whose royal heather purples; + Of channeled marshes, village-nesting hills; + Of crags wind-eaten, homes of hungry gulls; + Of bays-- + Where sails float furled, resting softly at harbour, + Until, winging again, they sweep away. + + What memories have I, too, + Of faring out at dawn upon tameless waters, + Upon the infinite wasted yearning of them, + While winds, the mystic harp-strings of the world, + Were sounding sweet farewells; + While coast and lighthouse tower were fading fast, + And from me all the world slipped like a garment. + + What memories of mid-deeps!... + Of heaving on thro haunted vasts of foam, + Thro swaying terrors of tormented tides; + While the wind, no more singing, took to raving, + In rhythmic infinite words, + A chantey ancient and immeasurable + Concerning man and God. + + What memories of fog-spaces-- + Wide leaden deserts of dim wavelessness, + Smooth porpoise-broken glass + As gray as a dream upon despair's horizon; + What sailing soft till lo the shroud was lifted + And suddenly there came, as a great joy, + The blue sublimity of summer skies, + The azure mystery of happy heavens, + The passionate sweet parley of the breeze, + And dancing waves--that lured us on and on + Past islands above whose verdant mountain-heads + Enchanted clouds were hanging, + And whence wild spices wandered; + Past iridescent reefs and vessels bound + For ports unknown: + O far, far past, until the sun, in fire, + An impotent and shrunken orb lay dying, + On heaving twilight purple gathered round. + + And then, what nights!... + The phantom moon in misty resurrection + Arising from her sepulchre in the East + And sparkling the dark waters-- + The unremembering moon! + And covenants of star to faithful star, + Dewy, like tears of God, across the sky; + And under the moon's fair ring Orion running + Forever in great war adown the West. + What far, infinite nights! + With cloud-horizons where the lightning slumbered + Or wakened once and again with startled watch, + Again to fall asleep + And leave the moon-path free for all my thoughts + To wander peacefully + Away and still away + Until the stars sighed out in dawn's great pallor, + Just as the lands of my desire appeared. + + What memories ... have I of it! + + + + +A SONG OF THE OLD VENETIANS + + + The seven fleets of Venice + Set sail across the sea + For Cyprus and for Trebizond + Ayoub and Araby. + Their gonfalons are floating far, + St. Mark's has heard the mass, + And to the noon the salt lagoon + Lies white, like burning glass. + + The seven fleets of Venice-- + And each its way to go, + Led by a Falier or Tron, + Zorzi or Dandalo. + The Patriarch has blessed them all, + The Doge has waved the word, + And in their wings the murmurings + Of waiting winds are heard. + + The seven fleets of Venice-- + And what shall be their fate? + One shall return with porphyry + And pearl and fair agàte. + One shall return with spice and spoil + And silk of Samarcand. + But nevermore shall _one_ win o'er + The sea, to any land. + + _Oh, they shall bring the East back, + And they shall bring the West, + The seven fleets our Venice sets + A-sail upon her quest. + But some shall bring despair back + And some shall leave their keels + Deeper than wind or wave frets, + Or sun ever steals._ + + + + +BASKING + + + Give me a spot in the sun, + With a lizard basking by me, + In Sicily, over the sea, + Where Winter is sweet as Spring, + Where Etna lifts his plume + Of curling smoke to try me, + But all in vain for I will not climb + His height so ravishing. + + Give me a spot in the sun, + So high on a cliff that, under, + Far down, the flecking sails + Like white moths flit the blue; + That over me on a crag + There hangs, O aëry wonder, + A white town drowsing in its nest + That cypress-tops peep thro. + + Give me a spot in the sun, + With contadini singing, + And a goat-boy at his pipes + And donkey bells heard round + Upon steep mountain paths + Where a peasant cart comes swinging + Mid joyous hot invectives--that + So blameless here abound. + + Give me a spot in the sun, + In a land whose speech is flowers, + Whose breath is Hybla-sweet, + Whose soul is still a faun's, + Whose limbs the sea enlaps, + Thro long delicious hours, + With liquid tenderness and light + Sweet as Elysian dawns. + + Give me a spot in the sun + With a view past vale and villa, + Past grottoed isle and sea + To Italy and the Cape + Around whose turning lies + Old heathen-hearted Scylla, + Whom may an ancient sailor prayed + The gods he might escape. + + Give me a spot in the sun: + With sly old Pan as lazy + As I, ever to tempt me + To disbelief and doubt + Of all gods else, from Jove + To Bacchus born wine-crazy. + Give me, I say, a spot in the sun, + And Realms I'll do without! + + + + +SAPPHO'S DEATH SONG + +(_On her sea-cliff in Leucady_) + + + What have I gathered the years did not take from me? + (Swallows, hear, as you fly from the cold!) + Whom have I bound to me never to break from me? + (Whom, O wind of the wold?) + Whom, O wind! O hunter of spirits! + (Pierce his spirit whose spear is in mine!) + Then let Oblivion loose this ache from me, Proserpine! + + Lyre and the laurel the Muses gave to me, + (Why comes summer when winter is nigh!) + Spent am I now and pain-voices rave to me. + (O sea and its cry!) + O the sea that has suffered all sorrow! + (Sea of the Delphian tongue ever shrill!) + Nought from the wreck of love can now save to me + Any thrill! + + Life that we live passes pale or amorous. + (Tread, O vintagers, grapes in the press!) + Mine's but a prey to Erinñyes clamorous. + (O for wine that will bless!) + Wine that foams, but is free of all madness + (Free, O Cypris, of fury's breath!) + Free as I now shall be, O glamorous + Queen of Death! + + + + +THE WIND'S WORD + + + A star that I love, + The sea, and I, + Spake together across the night. + "Have peace," said the star, + "Have power," said the sea; + "Yea!" I answered, "and Fame's delight!" + The wind on his way + To Araby + Paused and listened and sighed and said, + "I passed on the sands + A Pharaoh's tomb: + All these did he have--and he is dead." + + + + +SUBMARINE MOUNTAINS + + + Under the sea, which is their sky, they rise + To watery altitudes as vast as those + Of far Himàlayan peaks impent in snows + And veils of cloud and sacred deep repose. + Under the sea, their flowing firmament, + More dark than any ray of sun can pierce, + The earthquake thrust them up with mighty tierce + And left them to be seen but by the eyes + Of awed imagination inward bent. + + Their vegetation is the viscid ooze, + Whose mysteries are past belief or thought. + Creation seems around them devil-wrought, + Or by some cosmic urgence gone distraught. + Adown their precipices chill and dense + With the dank midnight creep or crawl or climb + Such tentacled and eyeless things of slime, + Such monster shapes as tempt us to accuse + Life of a miscreative impotence. + + About their peaks the shark, their eagle, floats, + In the thick azure far beneath the air, + Or downward sweeps upon what prey may dare + Set forth from any silent weedy lair. + But one desire on all their slopes is found, + Desire of food, the awful hunger strife, + Yet here, it may be, was begun our life + Here all the dreams on which our vision dotes + In unevolved obscurity were bound. + + Too strange it is, too terrible! And yet + It matters not how we were wrought or whence + Life came to us with all its throb intense + If in it is a Godly Immanence. + It matters not,--if haply we are more + Than creatures half-conceived by a blind force + That sweeps the universe in a chance course: + For only in Unmeaning Might is met + The intolerable thought none can ignore. + + + + +THE SONG OF THE STORM-SPIRITS + + + Come over the tide, + Come over the foam, + Dance on the hurricane, leap its waves, + Dream not of the calm sea-caves + Nor of content in them and home. + For that is the reason the hearts of men + Are ever weary--they would abide + Somewhere out of the spumy stride + Of the world's spindrift--a want denied. + That is the reason: tho they know + That the restive years have no true home, + But only a Whence, Whither, and When-- + Whence and Whither, for hearts to roam. + So who would tarry and rest the while, + Not dance as we, and sing on the wind, + Against the whole flow of the world has sinned, + And soon is weary and cannot smile. + Dance then, dance, on the fleeting spray! + None can gather eternity + Into his heart and bid it stay, + Swiftly again it slips away. + Dance, and know that the will of Life + Is the wind's will and the will of the tide, + And who finds not a home in its strife + Shall find no home on any side! + + + + +THE GREAT SEDUCER + + + Who looks too long from his window + At the gray, wide, cold sea, + Where breakers scour the beaches + With fingers of sharp foam; + Who looks too long thro the gray pane + At the mad, wild, bold sea, + Shall sell his hearth to a stranger + And turn his back on home. + + Who looks too long from his window-- + Tho his wife waits by the fireside-- + At a ship's wings in the offing, + At a gull's wings on air, + Shall latch his gate behind him, + Tho his cattle call from the byre-side, + And kiss his wife--and leave her-- + And wander everywhere. + + Who looks too long in the twilight, + Or the dawn-light, or the noon-light, + Who sees an anchor lifted + And hungers past content, + Shall pack his chest for the world's end, + For alien sun--or moonlight, + And follow the wind, sateless, + To Disillusionment! + + + + +K'U-KIANG + + + Because the sun like a Chinese lantern + Set in a temple of clouds tonight, + I was back in K'u-Kiang! + + Because in a temple of dragon clouds, + As if with incense misty red, + It hung there over the rim of the sea, + I was back in a narrow street, + Where amber faces pass all day, + Going to pay, going to pray, + Going the same old human way + They have gone for a thousand years, men say, + In K'u-Kiang. + + And I heard the coolie cry for his fare, + I heard the merchant praise his ware + Of bronze and porcelain set to snare, + In K'u-Kiang! + I saw strange streaming signs in black + With gold and crimson on their back-- + Opiate signs in an opiate street; + Where the slip and patter of felt-shod feet + Is old as the sun; + And the temple door + As cool and dark as the night. + + And where dim lanterns, swinging there, + As a lure to human grief and care, + Half reveal and half conceal + The ancestral gloom of the gods. + + I saw all this with sudden pang, + As if by hashish swept or bhang, + Because the sun, like a Chinese lantern, + Set in a temple of clouds! + + + + +TYPHOON + +(_At Hong-kong_) + + + I was weary and slept on the Peak; + The air clung close like a shroud, + And ever the blue-fly at my ear + Buzzed haunting, hot and loud; + I awoke and the sky was dun + With awe and a dread that soon + Went shuddering thro my heart, for I knew + That it meant typhoon! typhoon! + + In the harbour below, far down, + The junks like fowl in a flock + Were tossing in wingless terror, or fled + Fluttering in from the shock. + The city, a breathless bend + Of roofs, by the water strewn, + Lay silent and waiting, yet there was none + Within it but said typhoon! + + Then it came, like a million winds + Gone mad immeasurably, + A torrid and tortuous tempest stung + By rape of the fair South Sea. + And it swept like a scud escaped + From crater of sun or moon, + And struck as no power of Heaven could, + Or of Hell--typhoon! typhoon! + + And the junks were smitten and torn, + The drowning struggled and cried, + Or, dashed on the granite walls of the sea, + In succourless hundreds died. + Till I shut the sight from my eyes + And prayed for my soul to swoon: + If ever I see God's face, let it + Be guiltless of that typhoon! + + + + +PENANG + + + I want to go back to Singapore + And ship along the Straits, + To a bungalow I know beside Penang; + Where cocoanut palms along the shore + Are waving, and the gates + Of Peace shut Sorrow out forevermore. + I want to go back and hear the surf + Come beating in at night, + Like the washing of eternity over the dead. + I want to see dawn fare up and day + Go down in golden light; + I want to go back to Penang! I want to go back! + + I want to go back to Singapore + And up along the Straits + To the bungalow that waits me by the tide. + Where the Tamil and Malay tell their lore + At evening--and the fates + Have set no soothless canker at life's core. + I want to go back and mend my heart + Beneath the tropic moon, + While the tamarind-tree is whispering thoughts of sleep. + I want to believe that Earth again + With Heaven is in tune. + I want to go back to Penang! I want to go back! + + I want to go back to Singapore + And ship along the Straits + To the bungalow I left upon the strand. + Where the foam of the world grows faint before + It enters, and abates + In meaning as I hear the palm-wind pour. + I want to go back and end my days + Some evening when the Cross + On the southern sky hangs heavily far and sad. + I want to remember when I die + That life elsewhere was loss. + I want to go back to Penang! I want to go back! + + + + +NIGHTS ON THE INDIAN OCEAN + + + Nights on the Indian Ocean, + Long nights of moon and foam, + When silvery Venus low in the sky + Follows the sun home. + Long nights when the mild monsoon + Is breaking south-by-west, + And when soft clouds and the singing shrouds + Make all that is seem best. + + Nights on the Indian Ocean, + Long nights of space and dream, + When silent Sirius round the Pole + Swings on, with steady gleam; + When oft the pushing prow + Seems pressing where before + No prow has ever pressed--or shall + From hence forevermore. + + Nights on the Indian Ocean, + Long nights--with land at last, + Dim land, dissolving the long sea-spell + Into a sudden past-- + That seems as far away + As this our life shall seem + When under the shadow of death's shore + We drop its ended dream. + + + + +SIGHTING ARABIA + + + My heart, that is Arabia, O see! + That talismanic sweep of sunset coast, + Which lies like richly wrought enchantment's ghost + Before us, bringing back youth's witchery! + + "Arabian Nights!" At last to us one comes, + The crescent moon upon its purple brow. + Will not Haroun and Bagdad rise up now + There on the shore, to beating of his drums? + + Is not that gull a roc? That sail Sindbad's? + That rocky pinnacle a minaret? + Does the wind call to prayer from it? O yet + I hear the fancy, fervid as a lad's! + + "Allah il Allah," rings it; O my heart, + Fall prostrate, for to Mecca we are near, + That flashing light is but a sign sent clear + From her, your houri, as her curtains part! + + Soon she will lean out from her lattice, soon, + And bid you climb up to your Paradise, + Which is her panting lips and passion eyes + Under the drunken sweetness of the moon! + + O heart, my heart, drink deeply ere they die, + The sunset dome, the minaret, the dreams + Flashing afar from youth's returnless streams: + For we, my heart, must grow old, you and I! + + + + +"ALL'S WELL" + + + I + + The illimitable leaping of the sea, + The mouthing of its madness to the moon, + The seething of its endless sorcery, + Its prophecy no power can attune, + Swept over me as, on the sounding prow + Of a great ship that steered into the stars, + I stood and felt the awe upon my brow + Of death and destiny and all that mars. + + + II + + The wind that blew from Cassiopeia cast + Wanly upon my ear a rune that rung; + The sailor in his eyrie on the mast + Sang an "All's well," that to the spirit clung + Like a lost voice from some aërial realm + Where ships sail on forever to no shore, + Where Time gives Immortality the helm, + And fades like a far phantom from life's door. + + + III + + "And is all well, O Thou Unweariable, + Who launchest worlds upon bewildered space," + Rose in me, "All? or did thy hand grow dull + Building this world that bears a piteous race? + O was it launched too soon or launched too late? + Or can it be a derelict that drifts + Beyond thy ken toward some reef of Fate + On which Oblivion's sand forever shifts?" + + + IV + + The sea grew softer as I questioned--calm + With mystery that like an answer moved, + And from infinity there fell a balm, + The old peace that God _is_, tho all unproved. + The old faith that tho gulfs sidereal stun + The soul, and knowledge drown within their deep, + There is no world that wanders, no not one + Of all the millions, that He does not keep. + + + + +SOMNAMBULISM + + + I + + Night is above me, + And Night is above the night. + The sea is beside me soughing, or is still. + The earth as a somnambulist moves on + In a strange sleep ... + A sea-bird cries. + And the cry wakes in me + Dim, dead sea-folk, my sires-- + Who more than myself are me. + Who sat on their beach long nights ago and saw + The sea in its silence; + And cursed it or implored; + Or with the Cross defied; + Then on the morrow in their boats went down. + + + II + + Night is above me ... + And Night is above the night. + Rocks are about me, and, beyond, the sand ... + And the low reluctant tide, + That rushes back to ebb a last farewell + To the flotsam borne so long upon its breast. + Rocks ... But the tide is out, + And the slime lies naked, like a thing ashamed + That has no hiding-place. + And the sea-bird hushes-- + The bird and all far cries within my blood-- + And earth as a somnambulist moves on. + + + + +CHARTINGS + + + There is no moon, only the sea and stars; + There is no land, only the vessel's bow + On which I stand alone and wonder how + Men ever dream of ports beyond the bars + Of Finitude that fix the Here and Now. + A meteor falls, and foam beneath me breaks; + Dim phosphor fires within it faintly die. + So soft the sea is that it seems a sky + On which eternity to life awakes. + + The universe is spread before my face, + Worlds where perchance a million seas like this + Are flowing and where tides of pain and bliss + Find, as on earth, so prevalent a place + That nothing of their wont we there should miss. + The Universe, that man has dared to say + Is but one Being--ah, courageous thought! + Which is so vast that hope itself is fraught + With shame, while saying it, and shrinks away. + + Shrinks, even as now! For clouds sweep up the skies + And darken the wide waters circling round, + From out whose deep arises the old sound + Of Terror unto which no tongue replies + But Faith--that nothing ever shall confound. + Not only pagan Perseus but the Cross + Is shrouded--with wild wind and wilder rain, + That on me beat until my soul again + Sings unsurrendering to fears of Loss. + + For this I know,--yea, tho all else lie hid + Uncharted on the waters of our fate, + All lands of Whence or Whither, whose estate + In vain imagination seeks to thrid, + Yet cannot, for the fog within Death's gate,-- + This thing I know, that life, whatever its Source + Or Destiny, comes with an upward urge, + And that we cannot thwart its mighty surge, + But with a joy in strife must keep the course. + + + + +THE TRAIL FROM THE SEA + + + I took the trail to the wooded canyon, + The trail from the sea: + For I heard a calling in me, + A landward calling irresistible in me:-- + + _Have done with things of the sea--things of the soul; + Have done with waters that slip away from under you. + Have done with things faithless, things unfathomable and vain; + With the vast deeps of Time and the Hereafter._ + + _Have done with the fog-breather, the fog-beguiler; + With the foam of the never-resting. + Have done with tides and passions, tides and mysteries for a season. + Have done with infinite yearnings cast adrift on infinite vagueness-- + With never a certain sail, never a rudder sure for guidance, + With never a compass-needle free of desire._ + + _For the ways of earth are good, as well as sea-ways, + The peaks of it as well as ports unknown. + Not only perils matter, stormy perils, over the pathless, + Not only the shoals that sink your ship of dreams. + Not only the phantom lure of far horizons, + Not only the windy guess at the goals of God._ + + _But morning matters, and dew upon the rose, + And noon, shadowless noon, and simple sheep on the pastures straying. + And toil matters, amid the accustomed corn, + And peace matters, the valley-spirit of peace, unprone to wander, + Unprone to pierce to the world's end--and past it. + And zephyrs matter, that never lift up a sail, + Save that of the thistle voyaging over the meadow._ + + _And the lark--oh--the sunny lark--as well as the songless petrel, + Who cries the foamy length of a thousand leagues. + And silence matters, silence free of all surging, + Silence, the spirit of happiness and home._ + + _And oh how much the laugh of a child matters: + More than the green of an island suddenly lit by sun at dawn. + And friends, the greetings of friends, how they matter: + More than ships that meet and fling a wild ahoy and pass, + On any alien tides however enchanted. + And the face of love, the evening face of love, at a window waiting, + Shall ever a kindled Light on any long-unlifting shore, + Shall ever a Harbor Light like that light matter?_ + + _Ah no! so enough of the sea and the soul for a season. + Too long followed they leave life as a dream, + Reality as a mirage when port is made. + "Ever in sight of the human," is the helm-word of the wisest, + For earth is not earth to one upon the flood of infinity; + To the eye, then, it is but an atom-star, adrift, and oh, + No longer warm with the beating of countless hearts._ + + _No longer warm with the human throb--the simple breath of today, + With yester-hours or the near dreams of to-morrow. + No longer rich with the little innumerous blooms of brief delights, + Nor all divinely drenched with sympathy. + No longer green with the humble grass of duties that must grow, + To clothe it against desert aridity. + No longer zoned with the air of hope, no longer large with faith-- + No longer heaven enough--if Heaven fails us!_ + + + + +HAUNTED SEAS + + + A gleaming glassy ocean, + Under a sky of gray; + A tide that dreams of motion, + Or moves, as the dead may; + A bird that dips and wavers + Over lone waters round, + Then with a cry that quavers + Is gone--a spectral sound. + + The brown sad sea-weed drifting + Far from the land, and lost. + The faint warm fog unlifting, + The derelict long-tossed, + But now at rest--tho haunted + By the death-scenting shark, + Whose prey no more undaunted + Slips from it, spent and stark. + + + + +SEA LURE + +(_The Maine Coast_) + + + It is so, O sea! wild roses + Bloom here in the scent of your brine. + And the juniper round them closes, + And the bays amid them twine, + To guard and to praise their beauty; + And the gulls above them cry, + And the stern rocks stand on duty, + Where the surf beats white and high. + + It is so, O sea! wild roses, + With the day-long fog bedrenched, + Have come from their inland closes + With a thirst for you unquenched. + And over your cliffs they clamber, + And over your vast they gaze; + For the tides of you can enamour + Even them with their woodland ways. + + Yea, the passion of you and the power + And the largeness are a lure + To even the heart of a flower, + O sea, with a heart unsure! + For love is a thing unsated, + Nor ever in any breast + Has it dwelt, all want abated, + At rest. + + + + +SONGS TO A. H. R. + + +I + +MINGLINGS + + It is the old old vision, + The moonlit sea--and you. + I cannot make disseverance + Between the two. + For all the world's wide beauty + To me you seem, + All that I love in shadow + Or glow or gleam. + + It is the old old murmur, + The sea's sound and your voice. + God in his Bliss between them + Could make no choice. + For all the world's deep music + In you I hear: + Nor shall I ask death, ever, + For aught more dear. + + +II + +LOVE AND INFINITY + + Across the kindling twilight moon + A late gull wings to rest. + The sea is murmuring underneath + Its vast eternal quest. + The coast-light flashes over the tide + A red and warning eye, + And oh the world is very wide, + But you are nigh! + + The stars come out from zone to zone, + The wind knows every one + And blows their message to my heart, + As it has ever done. + "They are all God's," it tells me, "all, + However huge or high." + But ah I could not trust its call-- + Were you not by! + + +III + +RECOMPENSE + + Not if I chose from a world of days + Could I find a day like this. + The sky is a wreath of azure haze + And the sea an azure bliss. + The surf runs racing the young salt wind, + Shouting without a fear + Over reef, bar, cliff and scaur, + Where you and I lie near. + + O you and I who have watched the sky + And sea from many a shore! + You, love, and I who will live and die-- + And watch the sea no more! + O joy of the world! Joy of love, + Joy that can say to death, + "Tho you end all with your wanton pall, + We two have had this breath!" + + +IV + +AT THE EBB-HOUR + + As I hear, thro the midnight sighing, + The low ebb-tide withdrawn, + And gulls on the dark cliff crying + For far discernless dawn, + It seems that all life is lying + Within your every breath, + Yet I can not believe in dying, + Or death. + + As I hear, from the gray church tower, + The bell's unfailing sound + Peal forth hour after hour + To night's lone reaches round, + It seems as if Time's wan power + Would sear all things apace-- + All, save in my heart one flower, + Your face. + + +V + +IN A DARK HOUR + + You are not with me--only the moon, + The sea and the gulls' cry, out of tune; + The myriad cry of the gulls still strewn + On the sands where the tide will enter soon. + + You are not with me, only the breath + Of the wind--and then the wind's death. + A shrouding silence then that saith, + "Even as wind love vanisheth." + + You are not with me--only fear, + As old as earth's first frenzied bier + That severed two whose hearts were near, + And left one with all Life unclear. + + +VI + +VIA AMOROSA + + When we two walk, my love, on the path + The moon makes over the sea, + To the end of the world where sorrow hath + An end that is ecstasy, + Should we not think of the other road + Of wearying dust and stone + Our feet would fare did each but care + To follow the way alone? + + When we two slip at night to the skies + And find one star that we keep + As a trysting-place to which our eyes + May lead our souls ere sleep, + Should we not pause for a little space + And think how many must sigh + Because they gaze over starry ways + With no heart-comrade by? + + When we two then lie down to our dreams + That deepen still the delight + Of our wandering where stars and streams + Stray in immortal light, + Should we not grieve with the myriads + From East of earth to West + Who lay them down at night but to drown + A longing for some loved breast? + + Ah, yes, for life has a thousand gifts, + But love it is gives life. + Who walks thro his world in loneness lifts + A soul that is sorrow-rife. + But they to whom it is given to tread + The moon-path and not sink + Can ever say the unhappiest way + Earth has is fair, to the brink. + + +VII + +TRANSFUSION + + A shoal-light flashes east, + And livid lightning west, + The silvery dark night-sea between, + On which we ride at rest, + And gaze far, far away + Into the fretless skies, + World-sadness in our thought--but ah, + Content within our eyes. + + The ship's bell strikes--the sound + Floats shrouded to our ears, + Then suddenly, as at a touch, + The universe appears + A Presence Infinite + That penetrates our love + And makes us one with night and sea + And all the stars above. + + + + +NEED OF STORM + +(_Naples-on-the-Gulf_) + + + On the green floor of the Gulf the wind is walking, + Printing it with invisible feet; + The tide is talking. + + Purple and grey the horizon walls them round + With purpler clouds. + They wander in it like guests gently astray + In a house deep mystery shrouds. + + I do not know the speech of the tide, + For too articulate have become my years: + Beauty brings only words, not breathless tears. + + So the young heron fishing there in the foam + On the sand's edge, + Would once have taken my spirit far, far home + To the infinite, when he vanished thro the gloam. + + But now I am left behind on the beach--a shell + That no more knows the wonder of the sea's swell, + Or more than the empty echo of its knell. + + To sea then, Life, wildly to sea with a storm + Sweep me again, + From the smooth dull beach of custom where I lie, + That I may feel once more + The swaying surge of passion thro me swarm! + + + + +A FLORIDA INTERLUDE + +(_Naples-on-the-Gulf_) + + + I + + Behind me lie the Everglades, + The mystic grassy Everglades, + Where the moccasin and the Seminole glide + In secret silent Indian ways. + Before me lies the Gulf, + The cup of blue bright tropic waters, + Held to the parched lips of the South + To cool and quench its thirst. + + Behind me lie the Everglades, + Before me lies the Gulf, + Which the sunset soon shall change to wine, + A Eucharist for the longing soul. + Its rim of land shall be transformed + To Mexic opal and chrysoprase, + And then shall come the moon + As calm as a thought of Christ. + + As calm as a thought of Christ-- + Over the cup's sand-rim enchased + With palm and pine, Floridian friends, + Saying their twilight litanies; + While homeward flies the heron + To his island cypress in the swamp, + Which Spanish mosses drape and the moon + Silverly soothes to peace. + + + II + + Behind me lie the Everglades, + Where the bittern wails to the moon's face. + Peace is gone as I wake + And memory in me wails + From the primal swamp, Heredity, + Whence I have come with all the desires + Of creeping, walking, flying things, + To creep or walk or fly. + + With all the desires of the earth-creatures; + Yet with a want transcendent, + A want that comes with the glimmer of stars + And pierces to my heart. + A want of the life I have not known, + Of the life unknowable, + In the Everglades of the Universe + Where the Great Spirit glides. + + + + +A FLORIDA BOATING SONG + + + Down thro Florida keys, + From island, to island! + Down thro Florida keys, + Where mangrove roots dip in the seas! + A myriad tangled roots + From each palmetto byland, + Oyster-encrusted roots mid which + The heron wades in the shallow shades! + + Down thro Florida keys, + Around them, between them, + Thro low green Florida keys, + So low they scarce seem born of the seas! + Where pouchy pelicans roost + On cypresses that lean them + Out over the idle lap of the tide + That comes and goes with balmy flows! + + Down thro Florida keys, + Thro mazes on mazes + Of ripple-encircled keys, + Where sun and wind play as they please! + Where the eaglet, high in air, + Or the wild white ibis, dazes + Eyes that follow them up the blue, + As the heart would do, the heart too! + + Down thro Florida keys + I'm going, I'm going! + Thro low green Florida keys + And greener glades of Florida seas! + And this is all I know, + That all in the world worth knowing + Is joy like that of the tarpon's leap + In air divine with the warm sunshine! + + + + +DAWN-BLISS + +(_Naples-on-the-Gulf_) + + + I went out at dawn, + Pelicans were fishing, + Big-beaked, grey and brown; + Little waves were swishing. + Clouds creamed the sky, + As shells creamed the shore; + Wild aery hues of beauty + Round seemed to pour! + + I went out at dawn, + Pelicans were floating, + Big beaks on their breasts; + Up the sun came boating. + "Ship ahoy!" I cried, + To his golden sail. + Bliss-winds of beauty in me + Broke--to a gale! + + I went out at dawn, + Pelicans were winging. + Palms waved passion plumes, + Beach sands were singing. + Stripped, save of strength, + I plunged into the sea + And swam, till the bliss of beauty + Died away in me. + + + + +ATAVISM + + + I leant out over a ledging cliff and looked down into the sea, + Where weed and kelp and dulse swayed, in green translucency; + Where the abalone clung to the rock and the star-fish lay about, + Purpling the sands that slid away under the silver trout. + + And the sea-urchin too was there, and the sea-anemone. + It was a world of watery shapes and hues and wizardry. + And I felt old stirrings wake in me, under the tides of time, + Sea-hauntings I had brought with me out of the ancient slime. + + And now, as I muse, I cannot rid my senses of the spell + That in a tidal trance all things around me drift and swell + Under the sea of the Universe, down into which strange eyes + Keep peering at me, as I peered, with wonder and surmise. + + + + +RE-RECKONING + + + Two years have gone, and again I stand + On the bow of a mighty ship + That pushes her way 'twixt sea and stars + With soft and dreamy dip. + Two years of labouring, heart and hand, + Of waging spirit-wars, + Of wondering ever what life is-- + And if death heals its scars. + + Two years; and again the mast-bell sounds + Above me--with a low voice, + As ghostly as the white phosphor-foam + That breaks with the old noise + Of waters that have washed all bounds + Of earth, that is man's home-- + His ark--on the wide ether flung, + Unrestingly to roam. + + For, even as we, is this our earth + An endless wanderer + Far down a universe with vast + Strange voyagings astir; + And where time ever brings to birth + A craving, never past, + To fare from where we are, to where + No anchor ever was cast. + + A craving--in the mote, the man, + The mollusc and the star; + A yearning on--O life! O life! + How far leads it, how far? + All unbelievably began + Our voyage, mid a strange strife-- + That, meaningless, yet seems to mean + It is with Wisdom rife. + + But if it is not, shall we say, + "Let man scuttle his ship, + And drown in universal death + The griefs that at him grip?" + No; for no surety rests therein + To certain end of breath. + He can but let hope set the course + His soul foretokeneth. + + + + +TO THE AFTERNOON MOON, AT SEA + + + Take care, O wisp of a moon, + Vague on the sunny blue above the sea, + Or the gull flying across you + Will pierce your veil-thin shape with a sharp wing! + + Take care, or the wind will wilt you, + As he does the clouds snowily drifting by you, + And diffuse you over the sky, a silvery mist, + To give more cool to the day! + + Take care, so near the horizon, + Or a phantom skipper, one who has long been drowned, + Will reach above it and seize you + And make you his sail to circle the world forever! + + Take care, take care! for frailty + Is the prey of the strong, and you, a wraith of it, + Have yet a long while to go before nightfall + Brings you to sure effulgence! + + + + +PATHS + + + Crushing in my hand + The bay as I pass, + Drinking in its fragrance + With the sea's scent, + While gull-wings write + Poems white and fast + On the blue sky + That is soft with content; + Crushing in my hand + The bay and the juniper, + While I record + Each line the gulls write, + I go by sea paths + Down to the sea's edge, + I go by heart paths + Deep into delight. + + Simple is my joy + As the little sandpiper's, + Who follows beside me + With silvery song; + Blither than the breeze, + That skims great billows + Nor knows how deep + Is their flow--or strong. + Simple is my joy, + A sunny sense-sweetness, + Full of bird-bliss, + Bay-warmth, spray-leap. + Mysteries there are + And miseries beneath it, + But sunk, like wrecks, + Far down in the deep. + + + + +FROM A NORTHERN BEACH + + + Is it because for a million years + The tide has entered here + From cold north seas + Where ice-floes freeze + That ever unto my ear + Primordial loneness in its voice + Comes telling of that time + When life was not, upon the earth, + But only glacier-rime? + + Is it because these granite rocks + I share with weed and scurf + Were held so long + By the ice-throng + That now they take the surf + So selflessly and soullessly, + As if God's Immanence + Had been pressed from them, never more + To enter, with sweet sense? + + And is it because I, too, evolved + From ice and sea and shore, + Can understand + How life has spanned + The lifeless ages o'er, + That as I sit here, suddenly + The tide again seems stilled + And earth beneath a great white pall + Again lies changed and chilled? + + So it must be--ah, so; for soft + Within my muted brain + The heritage + Of age on age + Reverberates again. + Wherefore when glacial Silence comes + With Death shall I emerge + From that as from the frozen Past, + Under Life's endless urge? + + + + +PASSAGE + + + A dark sail, + Like a wild-goose wing, + Where the sunset was. + The moon soon will silver its sinewy flight + Thro the night watches, + And the far flight + Of those immortal migrants, + The ever-returning stars. + + + + +ALEEN + + + The long line of the foaming coast + Is muffled by the fog's gray ghost. + I cross the league of sea between + And lift the latch and kiss Aleen. + + She throws a log upon the fire. + I draw her to me, nigh and nigher. + She does not know what a brief time + Ago it was my arms held--crime. + + The surf is beating on the shore. + We hear our own heart-beatings more. + She speaks of _him_ and my reply + Is silence: does she wonder why? + + "I do not love him: have no fear," + Her whisper is, against my ear. + At last, "I have no fear," say I. + She starts, as at a wild-beast's cry. + + And then she sees red on my coat. + A still-born cry throbs in her throat. + The fog sweeps by the window pane. + Her sight is fixed on one dull stain. + + I rise and light my pipe and go, + Leaving her standing, staring so. + The wind means storm, I think, to-night: + But more than that will make her white. + + And yet had it been yesterday + She said those words, I still could pray. + There would be still a God above-- + For two, now overwhelmed, to love! + + + + +TO A SOLITARY SEA-GULL + + + Lone white gull with sickle wings, + You reap for the heart inscrutable things: + Sorrow of mists and surf of the shore, + Winds that sigh of the nevermore; + Fret of foam and flurry of rain, + Swept far over the troubled tide; + Maths of mystery and grey pain + The sea's voice ever yields, beside. + Lone white gull, you reap for the heart + Life's most sad and inscrutable part. + + + + +INEFFABLE THINGS + + + The little song-sparrow is gone + And the summer is nearly ended, + The rill of his song was a happy rift + In the surging sound of the sea. + The swallow is lingering on, + And the silvery swift sandpiper, + And I--tho I know my saddened heart + Has lost an ineffable thing, + That summer no more can bring. + + With the first bay-leaves that flung + Their scent to me by the billows, + I twined some faith, some trust, + As glad as the sparrow's song. + And the terns that darted among + The tides seemed weaving for me + Impalpable wings of peace and hope-- + That now have taken flight + Beyond the day and the night. + + Ah, Life, you have known my plea + For sun and the tide of fortune, + For winds to waken my sail and bear + Me joyously over the world. + Know too how much of your fog + And storm and rain I will suffer, + If only you do not sweep from me + The dear ineffable things, + To which your fragrance clings. + + + + +THE SONG OF A SEA-FARER + + + Many are on the sea to-day + With all sails set. + The tide rolls in a restive gray, + The wind blows wet. + The gull is weary of his wings, + And I am weary of all things. + + Heavy upon me longing lies, + My sad eyes gaze + Across sad leagues that sink and rise + And sink always. + My life has sunk and risen so, + I'd have it cease awhile to flow. + + + + +WAVES + + + The evening sails come home + With twilight in their wings. + The harbour-light across the gloam + Springs; + The wind sings. + + The waves begin to tell + The sea's night-sorrow o'er, + Weaving within their ancient spell + More + Than earth's lore. + + The rising moon wafts strange + Low lures across the tide, + On which my dim thoughts seem to range, + Stride + Upon stride, + + Until, with flooding thrill, + They seem at last to blend + With waves that from the Eternal Will + Wend, + Without end. + + + + +IN A STORM + +(_To a Petrel_) + + + All day long in the spindrift swinging, + Bird of the sea! bird of the sea! + How I would that I had thy winging-- + How I envy thee! + + How I would that I had thy spirit, + So to careen, joyous to cry, + Over the storm and never fear it! + Into the night that hovers near it! + Calm on a reeling sky! + + All day long, and the night, unresting! + Ah! I believe thy every breath + Means that life's best comes ever breasting + Peril and pain and death! + + + + +AFTER THEIR PARTING + +(_A Woman Speaks_) + + + You know that rock on a rocky coast, + Where the moon came up, a ruined ghost, + Distorted until her shape almost + Seemed breaking? + Came up like a phantom silently + And dropped her shroud on the red night sea, + Then walked, a spectral mystery, + Unwaking? + + You know how, sudden, there came a change, + When she had left the sea's low range, + Its lurid crimson, stark and strange, + Behind her? + How, sudden, her silver self shone thro, + Tranquilly free of the earth's stained hue, + And found a way where the clouds were few + To bind her? + + You know this? Then go back some day, + When I have gone the moonless way, + To that dark rock whereon we lay + And waited; + And when the moon has arisen free, + Your soiling doubt shall fall from me, + And eased of unrest your heart shall be, + And sated. + + + + +A WORD'S MAGIC + + + Do you remember Etajima, + And how, upon a moon-fogged sea, + As ghostly as ever a tide shall be, + We passed an island silently? + + And how a low voice in the gloom + Of the temple pine-trees leaning there + Said _sayonara_ to one somewhere + Unseen in the shadow-haunted air? + + Just _sayonara_: but it seemed + The soul of all farewells that night, + The sigh of all withdrawn delight, + The sound of love's last rapture-rite. + + And now, after long years, it comes + Again from isles of memory + To bring once more to birth in me + The breath of all lost witchery. + + Yes, one low word of parting, now + Echoing, thro the fog of years, + Has touched my heart with beauty's tears, + And youth thro all things reappears. + + + + +SEA RHAPSODY + +(_Out of Hong-kong_) + + + Never again, never again + Did I hope to breathe such joy! + The sea is blue and the winds halloo + Up to the sun "Ahoy!" + "Ahoy!" they shout and the mists they rout + From the mountain-tops go streaming + In happy play where the gulls sway, + And a million waves are gleaming! + + And every wave, billowing brave, + Is tipped with a wild delight. + A garden of isles around me smiles, + Bathed in the blue noon light, + The rude brown bunk of the fishing junk + Seems fair as a sea-king's palace: + O wine of the sky the gods have spilt + Out of its crystal chalice! + + For wine is the wind, wine the sea, + Wine for the sinking spirit, + To lift it up from the cling of clay + Into high Bliss--or near it! + So let me drink till I cease to think, + And know with a sting of rapture + That joy is yet as wide as the world + For men, at last, to capture! + + + + +IN AN ORIENTAL HARBOUR + + + All the ships of the world come here, + Rest a little, then set to sea; + Some ride up to the waiting pier, + Some drop anchor beyond the quay. + Some have funnels of blue and black, + (Some come once but come not back!) + Some have funnels of red and yellow, + Some--O war!--have funnels of gray. + + All the ships of the world come here, + Ships from every billow's foam; + Fruiter and oiler, pirateer, + Liner and lugger and tramp a-roam. + Some are scented of palm and pine, + (Some are fain for the Pole's far clime). + Some are scented of soy and senna, + Some--ah me!--are scented of home. + + All the ships of the world come here, + Day and night there is sound of bells, + Seeking the port they calmly steer, + Clearing the port they ring farewells. + Under the sun or under the stars + (Under the light of swaying spars), + Under the moon or under morning + Do they swing, as the tide swells. + + All the ships of the world come here, + Rest a little and then are gone, + Over the crystal planet-sphere + Swept, thro every season, on. + Swept to every cape and isle + (Every coast of cloud or smile), + Swept till over them sweeps the sorrow + Of their last sea-dawn. + + + + +UNDER THE SKY + + + Far out to sea go the fishing junks, + With all sails set, + The tide swings gray and the clouds sway, + The wind blows wet; + Blows wet from the long coast lying dim + As if mist-born. + Far out they sail, as the stars pale, + The stars of morn. + + Far out to sea go the fishing junks, + And I who pass + Upon a deck that is vaster reck + No more, alas, + Of all their life, or they of mine, + Than comes to this,-- + That under the sky we live and die, + Like all that is. + + + + +A SONG FOR HEALING + +(_On the South Seas_) + + + When I return to the world again, + The world of fret and fight, + To grapple with godless things and men, + In battle, wrong or right, + I will remember this--the sea, + And the white stars hanging high, + And the vessel's bow + Where calmly now + I gaze to the boundless sky. + + When I am deaf with the din of strife, + And blind amid despair, + When I am choked with the dust of life + And long for free soul-air, + I will recall this sound--the sea's, + And the wide horizon's hope, + And the wind that blows + And the phosphor snows + That fall as the cleft waves ope. + + When I am beaten--when I fall + On the bed of black defeat, + When I have hungered, and in gall + Have got but shame to eat, + I will remember this--the sea, + And its tide as soft as sleep, + And the clear night sky + That heals for aye + All who will trust its Deep. + + + + +A SINGHALESE LOVE LAMENT + + + As the cocoanut-palm + That pines, my love, + Away from the sound + Of the planter's voice, + Am I, for I hear + No more resound + Your song by the pearl-strewn sea! + The sun may come + And the moon wax round, + And in its beam + My mates may rejoice, + But I feast not + And my heart is dumb, + As I long, O long, for thee! + + In the jungle-deeps, + Where the cobra creeps, + The leopard lies + In wait for me, + But O, my love, + When the daylight dies + There is more to my dread than he! + Harsh lonely tears + That assail my eyes + Are worse to bear,-- + For the misery + That makes them well + Is the long, long years + That I moan away from thee! + + O again, again, + In my katamaran + A-keel would I push + To your palmy door! + Again would I hear + The heave and hush + Of your song by the plantain-tree. + But far away + Do I toil and crush + The hopes that arise + At my sick heart's core. + For never near + Does it come, the day + That draws me again to thee! + + + + +THE CITY + + + Soft and fair by the Desert's edge, + And on the dim blue edge of the sea, + Where white gulls wing all day and fledge + Their young on the high cliff's sandy ledge, + There is a city I have beheld, + Sometime or where, by day or dream, + I know not which, for it seems enspelled + As I am by its memory. + + Pale minarets of the Prophet pierce + Above it into the white of the skies, + And sails enchanted a thousand years + Flit at its feet while fancy steers. + No face of all its faces to me + Is known--no passion of it or pain. + It is but a city by the sea, + Enshrined forever beyond my eyes! + + + + +FULL TIDE + + + Sea-scents, wild-rose scents, + Bay and barberry too, + Drench the wind, the Maine wind, + That gulls are dipping thro, + With soft hints, sweet hints, + With lull, lure and desire; + With memory-wafts and mysteries, + And all the ineffable histories + Made when the sea and land meet, + And the sun lends nuptial fire. + + Sea-foam, and dream-foam, + And which is which, who knows, + When all day long the heart goes out + To every wave that blows, + That blossoms on the bright tide, + Then sheds a shimmering crest + And yields its tossing place to one + Whose blooming is as quickly done-- + For beauty is ever swift--begot + Of rapture and unrest. + + Sea-deeps, and soul-deeps, + And where shall faith be found + If not within the heart's beat + Or in the surging sound + Of the sea, which is the earth's heart, + Beating with tireless might; + Beating--tho but a tragedy + Life seems on every land and sea; + Beating to bring all breath, somehow, + Out of despair's blight. + + + + +THE HERDING + + + Quietly, quietly in from the fields + Of the grey Atlantic the billows come, + Like sheep to the fold. + Shorn by the rocks of fleecy foam, + They sink on the brown seaweed at home; + And a bell, like that of a bellwether, + Is scarcely heard from the buoy-- + Save when they suddenly stumble together, + In herded hurrying joy, + Upon its guidance: then soft music + From it is tolled. + + Far out in the murk that follows them in + Is heard the call of the fog-horn's voice, + Like a shepherd's--low. + And the strays as if waiting it seem to pause + And lift their heads and listen--because + It is sweet from wandering ways to be driven, + When we have fearless breasts, + When all that we strayed for has been given, + When no want molests + Us more--no need of the tide's ebbing + And tide's flow. + + + + +ON THE MAINE COAST + + + The rocks, lean fingers of the land, + Reach out into the sea + And cool themselves, all day long, + In the tide drippingly. + They catch the seaweed in them + And the starfish on their tips, + And gulls that light + And the swift flight + Of swallows skimming grey and white-- + And spars of broken ships. + + The moon, God's perfect silver, + With which He pays the world + For toil and quest and day's unrest, + Is washed on them and swirled. + And avidly they seize it, + Then let it slip away, + Only again + And yet again + To grasp at it--as eager men + At joy no hand can stay. + + + + +SEANCE + + + Hovering wings of terns + Over the rock-pools flutter, + For the tide, ebbed far out, + Seems to stumble and stutter; + Seems like a spirit lost, + Unable to come again + Back to the wonted ways and days + Of ever-wanting men. + + And the moon, a medium + Trance-pale, is laying her light + Over its surge--till, lo, + It turns from the deep and night. + And the spirit-word it brings + Is the message of all time, + That doubt is only the ebb of faith, + Which ever reflows sublime! + + + + +A SIDMOUTH LAD + + + Salcombe Hill and four hills more + Lie to leftward of this shore. + On the right Peak Hill arises + Ever rises, sickening, o'er. + + Two score rotting years I've seen + Sidmouth sit those hills between: + Only Sidmouth--and twice over + Must I bide it, as I've been. + + Then a churchyard hole for me, + By the dull voice of the sea. + Rotting, still in Sidmouth rotting, + Rotting to eternity. + + + + +WIDOWED + + + One wild gull on a wilder storm, + Winging to keep her lone heart warm. + One wild gull by the surf--and I, + Beaten by wind and rain and sky. + + One wild gull in the offing lost, + Wilder heart in my bosom tost. + One wild gull--O why but one! + Two, dear God, should there be--or none! + + + + +TO THE SEA + + + Are you enraged, O sea, with the blue peace + Of heaven, so to uplift your armied waves, + Your billowy rebellion against its ease, + And with Tartarean mutter from cold caves, + From shuddering profundities where shapes + Of awe glide thro entangled leagues of ooze, + To hoot your watery omens evermore, + And evermore your moanings interfuse + With seething necromancy and mad lore? + + Or do you labour with the drifting bones + Of countless dead, O mighty Alchemist, + Within whose stormy crucible the stones + Of sunk primordial shores, granite and schist, + Are crumbled by your all-abrasive beat? + With immemorial chanting to the moon, + And cosmic incantation, do you crave + Rest to be found not till your wilds are strewn + Frigid and desert over earth's last grave? + + You seem drunk with immensity, mad, blind-- + With raving deaf, with wandering forlorn, + Parent of Demogorgon whose dire mind + Is night and earthquake, shapeless shame and scorn + Of the o'ermounting birth of Harmony. + Bound in your briny bed and gnawing earth + With foamy writhing and fierce-panted tides, + You are as Fate in torment of a dearth + Of black disaster and destruction's strides. + + And how you shatter silence from the world, + Incarnate Motion of all mystery! + Whose waves are fury-wings, whose winds are hurled + Whither your Ghost tempestuous can see + A desolate apocalypse of death. + Yea, how you shatter silence from the world, + With emerald overflowing, waste on waste + Of flashing susurration, dashed and swirled + On isles and continents that shrink abased! + + And yet, O veering veil of the Unknown, + Gathered from primal mist and firmament; + O surging shape of Life's unfathomed moan, + Whelming humanity with fears unmeant; + Yet do I love you, far above all fear, + And loving you unconquerably trust + The runes that from your ageless surfing start + Would read, were they revealed, gust upon gust, + That Immortality is might of heart! + + + + +SEA-MAD + +(_A Breton Maid_) + + + Three waves of the sea came up on the wind to me! + One said: + "Away! he is dead! + Upon my foam I have flung his head! + Go back to your cote, you never shall wed!-- + (Nor he!)" + + Three waves of the sea came up on the wind to me. + Two brake. + The third with a quake + Cried loud, "O maid, I'll find for thy sake + His dead lost body: prepare his wake!" + (And back it plunged to the sea!) + + Three waves of the sea came up on the wind to me. + One bore-- + And swept on the shore-- + His pale, pale face I shall kiss no more! + Ah, woe to women death passes o'er! + (Woe's me!) + + + + +THE ATHEIST + + + Over a scurf of rocks the tide + Wanders inward far and wide, + Lifting the sea-weed's sloven hair, + Filling the pools and foaming there, + Sighing, sighing everywhere. + + Merged are the marshes, merged the sands, + Save the dunes with pine-tree hands + Stretching upward toward the sky, + Where the sun, their god, moves high: + Would I too had a god--yea, I! + + For, the sea is to me but sea, + And the sky but infinity. + Tides and times are but some chance + Born of a primal atom-dance. + All is a mesh of Circumstance. + + In it there is no Heart--no Soul-- + No illimitable Goal-- + Only wild happenings, by wont + Made into laws no might can shunt + From the deep grooves in which they hunt. + + Wings of the gull I watch or claws + Of the cold crab whose strangeness awes: + Faces of men that feel the force + Of a hid thing they call life's course: + It is their hoping or remorse. + + Yet it may be that I have missed + Something that only they who tryst, + Not with the sequence of events + But with their viewless Immanence, + Find and acclaim with spirit-sense. + + + + +AT THE HELM + +(_Nova Scotia_) + + + Fog, and a wind that blows the sea + Blindly into my eyes. + And I know not if my soul shall be + When the day dies. + + But if it be not and I lose + All that men live to gain-- + I who have known but heaving hues + Of wind and rain-- + + Still I shall envy no man's lot, + For I have held this great, + Never in whines to have forgot + That Fate is Fate. + + + + +IMPERTURBABLE + + + Three times the fog rolled in today, a silent shroud, + From which the breakers ran like ghosts, moaning and tumbling. + Three times a startled sea-bird cried aloud, + On the wind stumbling. + + But I cast my net with never a fear, tho wraiths in me + And birds of wild unrest were stirring and starting and crying. + For I knew that under the sway of every sea + There is calm lying. + + + + +WASTE + + + I flung a wild rose into the sea, + I know not why. + For swinging there on a rathe rose-tree, + By the scented bay and barberry, + Its petals gave all their sweet to me, + As I passed by. + + And yet I flung it into the tide, + And went my way. + I climbed the gray rocks, far and wide, + And many a cove of peace I tried, + With none of them all to be satisfied, + The whole long day. + + For I had wasted a beautiful thing, + Which might have won + Each passing heart to pause and sing, + On the sea-path there, of its blossoming. + And who wastes beauty shall feel want's sting, + As I had done. + + + + +RESURGENCE + + + I was content, O Sea, to be free for a space from striving, + Content as the brown weed is, at rest on rocks in the sun, + When the salt tide is out, and the surf no more is riving + At its roots, or swirling and bidding it sway where the white waves run. + + I was content--with life, and love, and a little over; + A little achieved of the much that is given to men to do. + But now with your tidal strife do you come again, vain rover, + And tell of vastitudes, to be sailed, or sounded, anew. + + Now again do you surge. And the fathomless tides of thinking, + Of wanting, waiting, despairing--or daring--with you come; + The inner tides of the soul, that had ebbed with slumberous shrinking, + But now are bursting again, thro the caves of it long numb. + + So vainly I lie on the cliff with the blissful Blue above me + And listless sated gulls afloat below on the swells, + For I am soothless, sateless, because of desires that shove me + Out and away with the winds, on quests no distance quells! + + + + +LIFE'S ANSWER + + + A stroke of lightning stabbed the storm-black sea, + As if it sought the heart of Life thereunder, + And meant to put an end to it utterly;-- + Then came thunder-- + Wildly applauding thunder. + + Riven with fear the foam-crests ran before it, + Hissed by the rain and beaten down to darkness. + A gull rose out of the murk with wings that tore it-- + Life's answer to the storm's terrible starkness. + + + + +AS THE TIDE COMES IN + + + The quivering terns dart wild and dive, + As the tide comes tumbling in. + The calm rock-pools grow all alive, + With the tide tumbling in. + The crab who under the brown weed creeps, + And the snail who lies in his house and sleeps, + Awake and stir, as the plunging sweeps + Of the tide come tumbling in. + + Gray driftwood swishes along the sand, + As the tide comes tumbling in. + With wreck and wrack from many a land, + On the tide, tumbling in. + About the beach are a broken spar, + A pale anemone's torn sea-star + And scattered scum of the waves' old war, + As the tide tumbles in. + + And, oh, there is a stir at the heart of me, + As the tide comes tumbling in. + All life once more is a part of me, + As the tide tumbles in. + New hopes awaken beneath despair + And thoughts slip free of the sloth of care, + While beauty and love are everywhere-- + As the tide comes tumbling in. + + + + +SENSE-SWEETNESS + + + Flowers are dancing, waves playing, pines swaying, gulls are a-swarm; + Sea and heather, sunning together, glad of the weather, with God are warm. + + Flowers are dancing, clouds winging, larks singing, summer abrew-- + Summer the old ecstatic passion of Life to fashion the world anew. + + + + +TIDALS + + + Low along the sea, low along the sea, + The gray gulls are flying, and one sail swings; + The tide is foaming in; the soft wind sighing; + The brown kelp is stretching, to the surf, harp-strings. + + Low along the sea, low along the sea, + The gray gulls are flying, and one sail fades; + The tide is foaming out; the soft wind dying; + And white stars are peeping from the night's pale shades. + + + + +A SAILOR'S WIFE + + + Into port when the sun was setting + Rode the ship that bore my love, + Over the breakers wildly fretting, + Under the skies above. + + Down to the beach I ran to meet him; + He would come as he had said: + And he came--in a sailor's coffin, + Dead! . . . . . . + + O the ships of the sea! the lovers + Torn by them apart!... + The tide has nothing now to tell me, + The breakers break my heart! + + + + +TO SEA! + + + Give me the tiller; up with the sail! + Now let her swing to the breeze. + Out to sea with a dripping rail, + To sea, with a heart at ease! + + Out of the Harbour! out of the Bay! + Out by the valiant Light, + Out by rocks where the young gulls lay-- + And glad winds teach them flight! + + Out of the Harbour! out of the Bay! + Out to the open sea! + O there's not in the world a way + To feel so wildly free! + + So, let her quiver! So, let her leap! + So, let her dance the foam! + All life else is a narrow keep, + The sea alone is home! + + + + +GIVE OVER, O SEA! + + + Give over, O sea! You never shall reach Nirvana! + Your tides, like the tidal generations, ever shall rise and fall, + And your infinite waves find birth, rebirth, and billowy dissolution. + + The years of your existence are unending. + The years of your unresting are forever. + The sun, who is desire, ever begets in you his passion, + And the moon is ever drawing you, with silvery soft alluring, + To surge and sway, to wander and fret, to waste yourself in foam. + So Buddha-calm shall never descend upon you. + + And tho it may often seem you have found the Way, + Your tempest-sins return and quicken to wild reincarnations, + And again great life, pulsing and perilous, + Omnipotent life, that ever resurges thro the universe, + Lashes you back to striving, back to yearning, back to speech. + To utterance on all shores of the world + Of things unutterable. + + Give over then, you never shall reach Nirvana! + Nor I, who am your acolyte for a moment; + Who swing a censer of fragrant words before your priestly feet, + That tread these altar-rocks, bedraped with weeds gently afloat, + And with the wild flutter of gulls wildly mysterious. + + Give over and call your winds again to join you! + O chanter of deep enchantments, of uncharted litanies, + Call them and bid them say with you that life transcends retreat, + And that, in the temple of its Immanence, + There is no peace that does not spring daily from peacelessness, + And no Nirvana save in the lee of storm. + + + + +THE NUN + + + A lone palm leans in the moonlight, + Over a convent wall. + The sea below is waking and breaking + With a calm heave and fall. + A young nun sits at a window; + For Heaven she is too fair; + Yet even the dove of God might nest + In her bosom beating there. + + A lone ship sails from the harbour: + Whom does it bear away? + Her lover who, sin-hearted, has parted + And left her but to pray? + She has no lover, nor ever + Has heard afar love's sigh. + Only the Convent's vesper vow + Has ever dimmed her eye. + + For naught knows she of her beauty, + More than the palm of its peace: + And none shall cross her portal, to mortal + Desires to bend her knees. + The ways of the world have flowers, + And any who will pluck those; + But in His hand, against all harm, + God still will keep some rose. + + + + +LAST SIGHT OF LAND + + + The clouds in woe hang far and dim; + I look again, and lo, + Only a faint and shadow line + Of shore--I watch it go. + + The gulls have left the ship and wheel + Back to the cliff's gray wraith. + Will it be so of all our thoughts + When we set sail on Death? + + And what will the last sight be of life + As lone we fare and fast? + Grief and a face we love in mist-- + Then night and awe too vast? + + Or the dear light of Hope--like that, + Oh, see, from the lost shore + Kindling and calling "Onward, you + Shall reach the Evermore!" + + +THE END + + + On this and following pages are listed other books by Cale + Young Rice. They are all published by The Century Co., 353 + Fourth Avenue, New York City. + + +SHADOWY THRESHOLDS + +By CALE YOUNG RICE + +"Cale Young Rice is far too great a pout to be acclaimed in some +partisan circles.... He is intensely American ... as authentic an artist +as Shelley or Keats.... He has the magic of Poe without that poet's +morbidity.... He is America's living master-poet."--_D. F. Hannigan (The +Rochester Post-Express)._ + +"This volume maintains Mr. Rice's usual high level and proves anew his +right to one of the high places among modern poets."--_Edward J. Wheeler +(Current Opinion)._ + +"Mr. Rice is modern in the broadest sense of that term. Many of his +poems are without rhyme and have irregular metres, but they never offend +thereby.... His place in contemporary first class company is +secure.--_The Springfield Republican._ + +"A volume possessing range and variety, together with a lyric quality +which distinguishes this poet, who ranks among the foremost American +writers."--_The Post-Intelligencer (Seattle)._ + +"Mr. Rice in his dramas is an enchanter, and to cast a spell is better +than to have uttered the most lovely lyrics--but he has done both."--_E. +A. Jonas (The Louisville Herald)._ + +"A new volume showing again the power and beauty of Mr. Rice's +genius."--_The Boston Globe._ + +"What a pleasure to take up a new book by Cale Young Rice. Here we have +variety, if ever.... If one can only own one of his books this is a good +volume to choose."--_The Galveston News._ + +"Cale Young Rice is a poet capable of sounding the deep imaginative +strain not only with melody, but with vigor and power of thought. This +volume will add another shining stone to his reputation."--_The San +Francisco Chronicle._ + +"Once more a book of the same high order as all Mr. Rice's work."--_The +Rochester Democrat-Chronicle._ + +"Shadowy Thresholds has as great a variety of poetic forms as any volume +of late years.... Mr. Rice illumines many phases of life, uniting in his +work the finish and romance of the older poetry with the directness that +constitutes the best merit of the new."--_The Louisville Evening Post._ + +_12mo. 179 pages. Price $1.50_ + + +WRAITHS AND REALITIES + +By CALE YOUNG RICE + +"In the writing of lyrics Mr. Rice is unequalled by any modern poet.... +One must go outside of contemporary life to find anything of similar +excellence."--_Gordon Ray Young (The Los Angeles Times)._ + +"A new book by Mr. Rice is always an event in American +letters...."--_The New York Tribune._ + +"Here, for all to read, is poetic genius spurred and wrought upon ... by +a rare and wondrous poetic inspiration.... It is like great chimes +sounding--jangled at times or overborne--but always great."--_The +Philadelphia North American._ + +"Mr. Rice in his narratives can tell such tales as the old ballad-makers +would have gloated over, and can make them contemporary and convincing. +He can create life tragedies or comedies in a few lines and leave the +reader with a sense of having been given a full meal of circumstance.... +He is original without striving to be so, and one can never be +embarrassed by the affirmation that he has come to hold a high place +among poets of America."--_The Chicago Tribune._ + +"Cale Young Rice has been credited with some of the finest poetry, and +regarded as a distinguished master of lyric utterance, and this latest +volume is warrant for such approval."--_The Brooklyn Eagle._ + +"We find in Mr. Rice the large and elemental vision a poet must have to +serve his people when overwhelmed by elemental sorrows and passions. His +poetry is a spiritual force interpreting life in the various phases of +intellect and emotion, with a beauty of finish and sense of form that +are unerring."--_The Louisville Post._ + +"All that has been said of Cale Young Rice, and that is much indeed, is +justified in this latest volume."--_The San Francisco Chronicle._ + +"Cale Young Rice is a real poet of genuine and sincere inspiration, +never reminiscent or imitative or obvious, but singing from a full heart +his keen, meditative songs."--_The New York Times._ + +_12mo. 187 pages. Price $1.50_ + + +COLLECTED PLAYS AND POEMS + +By CALE YOUNG RICE + +"The great quality of Cale Young Rice's work is that, amid all +distractions and changes in contemporary taste, it remains true to the +central drift of great poetry. His interests are very wide ... and his +books open up a most varied world of emotion and romance."--_Gilbert +Murray._ + +"The quality of Mr. Rice's work is high. It is seen at its best in his +poetic dramas, which maintain an astonishing elevation and intensity of +passion ... but his visionary and philosophical poems are nearly as +fine. He has a thorough mastery of form, yet notwithstanding the ease of +his verse it is never slipshod or mechanical."--_The Spectator +(London)._ + +"With variations of phrase Cale Young Rice has been described by critics +here and in America as "the most distinguished master of lyric utterance +in the New World." ... He has dramatic genius ... and is a born maker of +songs.... His later volumes confirm the judgment of those who have named +him the first and most distinctive of modern American lyrists, and one +of the world's true poets."--_F. Heath (The London Bookman)._ + +"Mr. Rice is an American poet whose reputation is deserved.... He has +achieved a high position as poet and dramatist, a great fertility and +variety of outlook being marked features of his work."--_The London +Times._ + +"Foremost among writers who have brought America into prominence in the +realm of modern thought is Mr. Cale Young Rice.... 'Collected Plays and +Poems' is one of the best offerings of verse we have had for long. +Indeed, it has real brilliance.... Mr. Rice's plays are +masterful."--_The Book Monthly (London)._ + +"Cale Young Rice is highly esteemed by readers wherever English is the +native speech."--_The Manchester Guardian._ + +"In Mr. Rice we have a voice such as America has rarely known +before."--_The Rochester (N. Y.) Post-Express._ + +"Mr. Rice of today is the poet who sang to us yesterday of the big, +vital things of life.... With real genius he brings to the soul a sense +of things many of us have but dimly sensed in all our years."--_The +Philadelphia Record._ + +"These volumes are an anthology wrought by a master hand and endowed +with perennial vitality.... This writer is the most distinguished master +of lyric utterance in the new world ... and he has contributed much to +the scanty stock of American literary fame. Fashions in poetry come and +go, and minor lights twinkle fitfully as they pass in tumultuous review. +But these volumes are of the things that are eternal in poetic +expression.... They embody the hopes and impulses of universal +humanity."--_The Philadelphia North-American._ + +"Mr. Rice has been hailed by too many critics as the poet of his +country, if not of his generation, not to create a demand for a full +edition of his works."--_The Hartford (Conn.) Courant._ + +"This gathering of his forces stamps Mr. Rice as one of the world's true +poets, remarkable alike for strength, versatility and beauty of +expression."--_The Chicago Herald (Ethel M. Colton)._ + +"It is with no undue repetition that we speak of the very great range +and very great variety of Mr. Rice's subject, inspiration, and mode of +expression.... The passage of his spirit is truly from deep to +deep."--_Margaret S. Anderson (The Louisville Evening Post)._ + +"It is good to find such sincere and beautiful work as is in these two +volumes.... Here is a writer with no wish to purchase fame at the price +of eccentricity of either form or subject."--_The Independent._ + +"Mr. Rice's style is that of the masters.... Yet it is one that +is distinctively American.... He will live with our great +poets."--_Louisville Herald (J. J. Cole)._ + +"Mr. Rice is an American by birth, but he is not merely an American +poet. Over existence and the whole world his vision extends. He is a +poet of human life and his range is uncircumscribed."--_The Baltimore +Evening News._ + +"Viewing Mr. Rice's plays as a whole, I should say that his prime virtue +is fecundity or affluence, the power to conceive and combine events +resourcefully, and an abundance of pointed phrases which recalls and +half restores the great Elisabethans. His aptitude for structure is +great."--_The Nation (O. W. Firkins)._ + +"Mr. Rice has fairly won his singing robes and has a right to be ranked +with the first of living poets. One must read the volumes to get an idea +of their cosmopolitan breadth and fresh abiding charm.... The dramas, +taken as a whole, represent the most important work of the kind that has +been done by any living writer.... This work belongs to that great world +where the mightiest spiritual and intellectual forces are forever +contending; to that deeper life which calls for the rarest gifts of +poetic expression."--_The Book News Monthly (Albert S. Henry)._ + +_12mo. 2 vols. Price $4.00_ + + + The following volumes are now included in the author's + "Collected Plays and Poems," and are not obtainable + elsewhere: + + +At the World's Heart + +"This book justifies the more than transatlantic reputation of its +author."--_The Sheffield (England) Daily Telegraph._ + + +Porzia: A Play + +"It matters little that we hesitate between ranking Mr. Rice highest as +dramatist or lyrist; what matters is that he has the faculty divine +beyond any living poet of America; his inspiration is true, and his +poetry is the real thing."--_The London Bookman._ + + +Far Quests + +"It shows a wide range of thought and sympathy, and real skill in +workmanship, while occasionally it rises to heights of simplicity and +truth, that suggest such inspiration as should mean lasting fame."--_The +Daily Telegraph (London)._ + + +The Immortal Lure: Four Plays + +"It is great art--with great vitality."--_James Lane Allen._ + +"Different from Paola and Francesca, but excelling it--or any of Stephen +Phillips's work--in a vivid presentment of a supreme moment in the lives +of the characters."--_The New York Times._ + + +Many Gods + +"These poems are flashingly, glowingly full of the East.... What I am +sure of in Mr. Rice is that here we have an American poet whom we may +claim as ours."--_William Dean Howells, in The North American Review._ + + +Nirvana Days + +"Mr. Rice has the technical cunning that makes up almost the entire +equipment of many poets nowadays, but human nature is more to him always +... and he has the feeling and imaginative sympathy without which all +poetry is but an empty and vain thing."--_The London Bookman._ + + +A Night in Avignon: A Play + +"It is as vivid as a page from Browning. Mr. Rice has the dramatic +pulse."--_James Huneker._ + + +Yolanda of Cyprus: A Play + +"It has real life and drama, not merely beautiful words, and so differs +from the great mass of poetic plays."--_Prof. Gilbert Murray._ + + +David: A Play + +"It is safe to say that were Mr. Rice an Englishman or a Frenchman, his +reputation as his country's most distinguished poetic dramatist would +have been assured by a more universal sign of recognition."--_The +Baltimore News._ + + +Charles Di Tocca: A Play + +"It is the most powerful, vital, and truly tragical drama written by an +American for some years. There is genuine pathos, mighty yet never +repellent passion, great sincerity and penetration, and great elevation +and beauty of language."--_The Chicago Post._ + + +Song-Surf + +"Mr. Rice's work betrays wide sympathies with nature and life, and a +welcome originality of sentiment and metrical harmony."--_Sydney Lee._ + + +TRAILS SUNWARD + +By CALE YOUNG RICE + +"Cale Young Rice has written some of the finest poetry of the last +decade, and is the author of the very best poetic dramas ever written by +an American.... He is one of the few supreme lyrists ... and one of the +few remaining lovers of beauty ... who write it. One of the very few +writers of _vers libre_ who know just what they are doing."--_The Los +Angles Times._ + +"Another book by Cale Young Rice ... one of the few poetic geniuses this +country has produced.... In its sixty or more poems may be found the +hall mark of individuality that denotes preeminence and signalizes +independence."--_The Philadelphia North American._ + +"Mr. Rice attempts and succeeds in deepening the note of his singing ... +keeping its brilliant technique, its intricate verse formation, but +seeking all the while for words to interpret the profound things of +life. The music of his lines is more perfect than ever, his rhythms +fresh and varied."--_Littell's Living Age._ + +"Cale Young Rice's work is always simple and sincere ... but that does +not prevent him from voicing his song with passion and virility. Nearly +all his poems have elevation of thought and feeling, with beauty of +imagery and music."--_The New York Times._ + +"Whether the forms of this book are lyrical, narrative, or dramatic, +there is an excellence of workmanship that denotes the master hand.... +And while the range of ideas is broad, the treatment of each is +distinguished by a strength and beauty remarkably fine."--_The Continent +(Chicago)._ + +"Mr. Rice proves the fine argument of his preface ... for this book has +in it form and beauty and a full reflection of the externals as well as +the soul of the America he loves."--_The Philadelphia Public Ledger._ + +"The work of this poet always demands and receives unstinted +admiration.... His is not the poetic fashion of the moment, but of all +poetic time."--_The Chicago Herald._ + +"In 'Trails Sunward,' Mr. Rice demonstrates as heretofore the +possibility of attaining poetic growth and originality even in the +Twentieth Century, without extremism.... Sanity linked with vitality and +breadth in art make for permanence, and one can but feel that Mr. Rice +builds for more than a day."--_The Louisville Courier Journal._ + +"I rarely use the term 'sublimity,' yet in touches of 'The Foreseers,' +particularly in its cavern-set opening, I should say that Mr. Rice had +scaled that eminence."--_O. W. Firkins (The Nation)._ + +_12mo. 150 pages. Price $1.50_ + + +EARTH AND NEW EARTH + +By CALE YOUNG RICE + +"America has today no poet who answers so well the multiplex tests of +poetry as does Cale Young Rice."--_New York Sun._ + +"Glancing through the reviews quoted at the end of 'Earth and New Earth' +we note that we have said some very enthusiastic things in praise of the +poetry of Cale Young Rice, and yet there is not an adjective we would +withdraw. On the contrary each new volume only confirms the expectation +of the better work this writer was to produce."--_The San Francisco +Chronicle._ + +"This is a volume of verse rich in dramatic quality and beauty of +conception.... Every poem is quotable and the collection must appeal to +all who can appreciate the highest forms of modern verse."--_The +Bookseller (New York)._ + +"Any one familiar with 'Cloister Lays,' 'The Mystic,' etc., does not +need to be told that they rank with the very best poetry. And Mr. Rice's +dramas are not equaled by any other American author's.... And when those +who are loyal to poetic traditions cherished through the whole history +of our language contemplate the anemia and artificiality of +contemporaries, they can but assert that Mr. Rice has the grasp and +sweep, the rhythm, imagery and pulsating sympathy, which in wondering +admiration are ascribed to genius."--_The Los Angeles Times._ + +"This latest collection shows no diminution in Mr. Rice's versatility or +power of expression. Its poems are serious, keen, distinctively free and +vitally spiritual in thought."--_The Continent (Chicago)._ + +"Mr. Rice is concerned with thoughts that are more than timely; they +represent a large vision of the world events now transpiring ... and his +affirmation of the spiritual in such an hour establishes him in the +immemorial office of the poet-prophet.... The volume is a worthy +addition to the large amount of his work."--_Anna L. Hopper in The +Louisville Courier-Journal._ + +"Cale Young Rice is the greatest living American poet."--_D. F. +Hannigan, Lit. Ed. The Rochester Post-Express._ + +"The indefinable spirit of swift imaginative suggestion is never +lacking. The problems of fate are still big with mystery and propounded +with tense elemental dramatism."--_The Philadelphia North-American._ + +"The work of Cale Young Rice emerges clearly as the most distinguished +offering of this country to the combined arts of poetry and the drama. +'Earth and New Earth' strikes a ringing new note of the earth which +shall be after the War."--_The Memphis Commercial-Appeal._ + +_12mo. 158 pages. $1.50_ + + +TURN ABOUT TALES + +(PROSE) + +By CALE YOUNG RICE and ALICE HEGAN RICE + +"This volume of stories should hold its own with any collection likely +to be published this year."--_New York Post (The Literary Review)._ + +"American writers have been distinctive as narrators of the short story, +but few, if any, volumes of such stories have recently been published in +this country equal to 'Turn About Tales.'"--_D. F. Hannigan (The +Rochester Post-Express)._ + +"The gamut of the volume runs from spiritualism to the depths. It +contains something of almost anything one happens to want. Better yet, +it contains something new."--_The Boston Transcript._ + +"Mr. Rice has written well--so well as to justify prediction that he +will, if he elect to do so, achieve greater distinction as a short story +writer than as a poet. His 'Lowry,' 'Francella' and 'Aaron Harwood,' to +cite a few of the stories, meet the test of artistic stories.... Each +leaves an impression that will impel re-reading."--_Galveston News._ + +"Both writers portray, in their best vein, a consummate though +distinctive skill in analyzing and delineating human emotions and +experience."--_Buffalo Commercial._ + +"Those who have read Mr. Rice's poetry will find his dramatic genius +manifest in these stories."--_The Watchman, N. Y._ + +"Mrs. Rice's humor and pathos combine well with Mr. Rice's mastery of +diction and deep human understanding."--_Milwaukee Journal._ + +"Each story is notable for beauty of technique ... each has its definite +appeal."--_Louisville Evening Post (Margaret S. Anderson)._ + +"Each of the stories is of such finished workmanship as to make reading +of it an unadulterated pleasure."--_Baltimore Sun._ + +"The book is one of the best of the kind in this year's American +fiction."--_The Spectator (Portland, Ore.)_ + +"Mr. Rice has grappled with the constructive problems of his time, so +one finds them without surprise in this newly adopted vehicle.... Three +of his stories have a realism as relentless as Chekov's ... and it goes +without saying that his stories are technically admirable."--_Louisville +Courier-Journal._ + +"Mr. Rice so lives through his characters that, as Whitman says, he 'Is +that man' of whom he writes."--_Pittsburg Sun._ + +"The same dramatic power and beauty that mark Mr. Rice's lyrics will be +found in these prose stories."--_Cincinnati Times-Star._ + +"One seldom finds a book of short stories so satisfying +throughout."--_Minneapolis Journal._ + +_Price $1.90_ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sea Poems, by Cale Young Rice + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEA POEMS *** + +***** This file should be named 31877-8.txt or 31877-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/8/7/31877/ + +Produced by David Garcia, Josephine Paolucci and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Kentuckiana Digital Library.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/31877-8.zip b/31877-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6df4647 --- /dev/null +++ b/31877-8.zip diff --git a/31877-h.zip b/31877-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..af59c38 --- /dev/null +++ b/31877-h.zip diff --git a/31877-h/31877-h.htm b/31877-h/31877-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6d68bdb --- /dev/null +++ b/31877-h/31877-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4281 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Sea Poems, by Cale Young Rice. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .tocnum {position: absolute; top: auto; right: 20%;} + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .right {text-align: right;} + + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i1 {display: block; margin-left: .5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i6 {display: block; margin-left: 3em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i7 {display: block; margin-left: 3em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i8 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i9 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i10 {display: block; margin-left: 5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sea Poems, by Cale Young Rice + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Sea Poems + +Author: Cale Young Rice + +Release Date: April 4, 2010 [EBook #31877] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEA POEMS *** + + + + +Produced by David Garcia, Josephine Paolucci and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Kentuckiana Digital Library.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1>SEA POEMS</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>CALE YOUNG RICE</h2> + +<h4>AUTHOR OF</h4> + +<h3>"WRAITHS AND REALITIES," "TRAILS SUNWARD," "COLLECTED POEMS," ETC.</h3> + +<p class="center"> +NEW YORK<br /> +THE CENTURY CO.<br /> +1921<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Copyright, 1921, by<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Century Co.</span><br /> +</p> + + +<p class="center"> +TO<br /> +HARRISON S. MORRIS<br /> +A HATER OF SHAM AND PRETENSE,<br /> +A LOVER OF BEAUTY AND TRUTH,<br /> +A FIRM FRIEND.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>FOREWORD</h2> + + +<p>The poems of this volume, gathered here after many requests, are, with a +few exceptions, from my previous lyrical publications. They are also in +a real sense an intimate record. For the sea has often enough seemed to +me almost as a vast external subconsciousness in which the forces of my +being—as well as the world's—were at play.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Cale Young Rice.</span><br /> +<br /> +Louisville, Ky., August, 1921.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span></p> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<p> +<span class="tocnum">PAGE</span><br /> +<br /> +Sea-Hoardings <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_3'>3</a></span><br /> +<br /> +The Shore's Song to the Sea <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_5'>5</a></span><br /> +<br /> +To a Firefly by the Sea <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_9'>9</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Invocation <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_11'>11</a></span><br /> +<br /> +I Know Your Heart, O Sea! <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_11'>11</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Sea-Ghost <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_13'>13</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Finitude <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_15'>15</a></span><br /> +<br /> +The Colonel's Story <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_16'>16</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Cosmism <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_21'>21</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Off the Irish Coast <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_22'>22</a></span><br /> +<br /> +The Fairies of God <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_23'>23</a></span><br /> +<br /> +The Song of the Homesick Gael <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_24'>24</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Pageants of the Sea <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_26'>26</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Song of the Old Venetians <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_29'>29</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Basking <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_30'>30</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Sappho's Death Song <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_32'>32</a></span><br /> +<br /> +The Wind's Word <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_33'>33</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Submarine Mountains <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_34'>34</a></span><br /> +<br /> +The Song of the Storm-Spirits <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_36'>36</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span>The Great Seducer <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_37'>37</a></span><br /> +<br /> +K'u-Kiang <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_38'>38</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Typhoon <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_39'>39</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Penang <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_41'>41</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Nights on the Indian Ocean <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_42'>42</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Sighting Arabia <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_44'>44</a></span><br /> +<br /> +"All's Well" <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_45'>45</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Somnambulism <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_47'>47</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Chartings <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_48'>48</a></span><br /> +<br /> +The Trail from the Sea <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_50'>50</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Haunted Seas <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_54'>54</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Sea Lure <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_54'>54</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Songs to A. H. R.<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I Minglings <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_56'>56</a></span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">II Love and Infinity <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_56'>56</a></span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">III Recompense <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_57'>57</a></span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">IV At the Ebb-Hour <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_58'>58</a></span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">V In a Dark Hour <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_59'>59</a></span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">VI Via Amorosa <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_59'>59</a></span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">VII Transfusion <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_61'>61</a></span></span><br /> +<br /> +Need of Storm <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_62'>62</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Florida Interlude <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_63'>63</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Florida Boating Song <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_65'>65</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Dawn Bliss <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_66'>66</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Atavism <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_68'>68</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Re-reckoning <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_69'>69</a></span><br /> +<br /> +To the Afternoon Moon, At Sea <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_70'>70</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span>Paths <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_71'>71</a></span><br /> +<br /> +From a Northern Beach <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_73'>73</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Passage <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_74'>74</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Aleen <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_75'>75</a></span><br /> +<br /> +To a Solitary Sea-Gull <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_76'>76</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Ineffable Things <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_77'>77</a></span><br /> +<br /> +The Song of a Sea-Farer <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_78'>78</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Waves <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_79'>79</a></span><br /> +<br /> +In a Storm <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_80'>80</a></span><br /> +<br /> +After Their Parting <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_80'>80</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Word's Magic <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_82'>82</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Sea Rhapsody <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_83'>83</a></span><br /> +<br /> +In an Oriental Harbour <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_84'>84</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Under the Sky <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_85'>85</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Song for Healing <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_86'>86</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Singhalese Love Lament <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_87'>87</a></span><br /> +<br /> +The City <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_89'>89</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Full Tide <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_89'>89</a></span><br /> +<br /> +The Herding <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_91'>91</a></span><br /> +<br /> +On the Maine Coast <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_92'>92</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Séance <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_93'>93</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Sidmouth Lad <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_93'>93</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Widowed <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_94'>94</a></span><br /> +<br /> +To the Sea <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_95'>95</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Sea-Mad <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_97'>97</a></span><br /> +<br /> +The Atheist <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_98'>98</a></span><br /> +<br /> +At the Helm <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_99'>99</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span>Imperturbable <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_100'>100</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Waste <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_100'>100</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Resurgence <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_101'>101</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Life's Answer <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_103'>103</a></span><br /> +<br /> +As the Tide Comes In <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_103'>103</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Sense-Sweetness <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_104'>104</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Tidals <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_105'>105</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Sailor's Wife <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_105'>105</a></span><br /> +<br /> +To Sea! <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_106'>106</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Give Over, O Sea! <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_107'>107</a></span><br /> +<br /> +The Nun <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_109'>109</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Last Sight of Land <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_110'>110</a></span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> +<h2>SEA POEMS</h2> + +<h3>BY CALE YOUNG RICE</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>SEA-HOARDINGS</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My heart is open again and sea flows in,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It shall fill with a summer of mists and winds and clouds and waves breaking,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of gull-wings over the green tide, of the surf's drenching din,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of sudden horizon-sails that come and vanish, phantom-thin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of arching sapphire skies, deep and unaching.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I shall lie on the rocks just over the weeds that drape<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The clear sea-pools, where birth and death in sunny ooze are teeming.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the crab in quest of booty sidles about, a sullen shape,<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Where the snail creeps and the mussel sleeps with wary valves agape,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where life is too grotesque to be but seeming.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And the swallow shall weave my dreams with threads of flight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A shuttle with silver breast across the warp of the waves gliding;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And an isle far out shall be a beam in the loom of my delight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the pattern of every dream shall be a rapture bathed in light—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its evanescence a beauty most abiding.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And the sunsets shall give sadness all its due,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They shall stain the sands and trouble the tides with all the ache of sorrow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They shall bleed and die with a beauty of meaning old yet ever new,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They shall burn with all the hunger for things that hearts have failed to do,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They shall whisper of a gold that none can borrow.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And the stars shall come and build a bridge of fire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the moon to cross the boundless sea, with never a fear of sinking.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> +<span class="i0">They shall teach me of the magic things of life never to tire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And how to renew, when it is low, the lamp of my desire—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And how to hope, in the darkest deeps of thinking.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE SHORE'S SONG TO THE SEA</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Out on the rocks primeval,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The grey Maine rocks that slant and break to the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the bay and juniper round them,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the leagues on leagues before them,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the terns and gulls wheeling and crying, wheeling and crying over,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I sat heart-still and listened.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And first I could only hear the wind in my ears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the foam trying to fill the high rock-shallows.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then, over the wind, over the whitely blossoming foam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Low, low, like a lover's song beginning,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I heard the nuptial pleading of the old shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A pleading ever occultly growing louder:—<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>O sea, glad bride of me!</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Born of the bright ether and given to wed me,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Given to glance, ever, for me, and gleam and dance in the sun—</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Come to my arms, come to my reaching arms,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>That seem so still and unavailing to take you, and hold you,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Yet never forget,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Never by day or night,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>The hymeneal delights of your embracings.</i><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Come, for the moon, my rival, shall not have you;</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>No, for tho twice daily afar he beckons and you go,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>You, my bride, a little way back to meet him,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>As if he once had been your lover, he too, and again enspelled you,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Soon, soon, I know it is only feigning!</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>For turning, playfully turning, tidally turning,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>You rush foamingly, swiftly back to my arms!</i><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>And so would I have you rush; so rush now!</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Come from the sands where you have stayed too long,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Come from the reefs where you have wandered silent,</i><br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +<span class="i0"><i>For ebbings are good, the restful ebbings of love,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>But, oh, the bridal flowings of it are better!</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And now I would have you loose again my tresses,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>My locks rough and weedy, rough and brown and brinily tangled,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>But, oh, again as a bridegroom's, when your tide, whispering in,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Lifts them up, pulsingly up with kisses!</i><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Come with your veil thrown back, breaking to spray!</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And oh, with plangent passion!</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Come with your naked sweetness, salt and wholesome, to my bosom;</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Let not a cave or crevice of me miss you, or cranny,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>For, oh, the nuptial joy you float into me,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>The cooling ambient clasp of you, I have waited over-long,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And I need to know again its marriage meaning!</i><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>For I think it is not alone to bring forth life, that I mate you;</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>More than life is the beauty of life with love!</i><br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Plentiful are the children that you bear to me, the blossoms,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>The fruits and all the creatures at your breast dewily fed,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>But mating is troubled with a far higher meaning—</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>A hint of a consummation for all things.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Come utterly then,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Utterly to me come,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And let us surge together, clasped close, in infinite union,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Until we reach a transcendence of all birth, and all dying,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>An ecstasy holding the universe blended—</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Such ecstasy as is its ultimate Aim!</i><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So sang the shore, the long bay-scented shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Broken by many an isle, many an inlet bird-embosomed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the sea gave answer, bridally, tidally turning,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And leapt, radiant, into his rocky arms!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> +<h2>TO A FIREFLY BY THE SEA</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Little torch-bearer, alone with me in the night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You cannot light the sea, nor I illumine life.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They are too vast for us, they are too deep for us.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We glow with all our strength, but back the shadows sweep:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And after a while will come—unshadowed Sleep.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Here on the rocks that take the turning tide;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here by the wide lone waves and lonelier wastes of sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We keep our poet-watch, as patient poets should,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Questioning earth's commingled ill and good to us.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet little of them, or naught, have truly understood.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Bright are the stars, and constellated thick.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To you, so quick to flit along your flickering course,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They seem perhaps as glowing mates in other fields.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +<span class="i0">And all the knowledge I have gathered yields to me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scarce more of the great mystery their wonder wields.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For the moon we are waiting—and behold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her ardent gold drifts up, her sail has caught the breeze<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That blows all being thro the Universe always.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So now, little light-keeper, you no more need nurse<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your gleam, for lo! she mounts, and sullen clouds disperse.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And I with aching thought may cease to burn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And humbly turn to rest—knowing no glow of mine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Can ever be so beauteous as have been to me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your soft beams here beside the sea's elusive din:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For grief too oft has kindled me, and pain, and the world's sin.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> +<h2>INVOCATION</h2> + +<h3>(<i>From a High Cliff</i>)</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sweep unrest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out of my blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Winds of the sea! Sweep the fog<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out of my brain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For I am one<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who has told Life he will be free.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who will not doubt of work that's done,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who will not fear the work to do,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who will hold peaks Promethean<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Better than all Jove's honey-dew.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who when the Vulture tears his breast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will smile into the Terror's Eyes.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who for the World has this Bequest—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hope, that eternally is wise.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>I KNOW YOUR HEART, O SEA!</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I know your heart, O Sea!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You are tossed with cold desire to flood earth utterly;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You run at the cliffs, you fling wild billows at beaches,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You reach at islands with fingers of foam to crumble them;<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Yes, even at mountain tops you shout your purpose<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of making the earth a shoreless circle of waters!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I know your surging heart!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tides mighty and all-contemptuous rise within it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tides spurred by the wind to champ and charge and thunder—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tho the sun and moon rein them—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At the troubling land, the breeding-place of mortals,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of men who are ever transmuting life to spirit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ever taking your salt to savor their tears.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I know your tides, I know them!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Down," they rage, "with the questing of men, and crying!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With their continents—cradles of grief and despair!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Better entombing waters for them, better our deeps unfathomed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where birth is soulless, life goalless, death toll-less for all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And where dark ooze enshrouds past resurrection!"<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah, yes, I know your heart!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have heard it raving at coast-lights set to reveal you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have watched it foam at ships that sought to defy you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have seen it straining at cables that cross you, bearing whispers hid to you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or heaving at waves of the air that tell your hurricanes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I know, I know your heart!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Men you will sink, and shores will sink; but a shore shall be man's forever,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From whence his lighthouse soul shall signal the Infinite,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose fleets go by, star after star, bearing their unknown burden<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To a Port which only eternity shall determine!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>A SEA-GHOST</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh, fisher-fleet, go in from the sea<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And furl your wings.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bay is gray with the twilit spray<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the loud surf springs.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The chill buoy-bell is rung by the hands<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of all the drowned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who know the woe of the wind and tow<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of the tides around.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Go in, go in! Oh, haste from the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And let them rest—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The throng who long for the air—still long,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But are still unblest.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Aye, even as I, whose hands at the bell<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Now labour most.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tomb has gloom, but oh, the doom<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of the drear sea-ghost!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He evermore must wander the ooze<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beneath the wave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forlorn—to warn of the tempest born,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And to save—to save!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then go, go in! and leave us the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For only so<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Can peace release us and give us ease<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of our salty woe.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> +<h2>FINITUDE</h2> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">One ruby, amid a diamond spray of stars,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The coast light flashes;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The tide plashes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Across a mile of bay-sweet land the moon<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Comes soon:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She has lost half of her lustre and looks old.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A cricket, finitude's incarnate cry,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the infinite waters with their hushless sigh<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Are the two sounds<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The night has:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each in eternal wistfulness abounds.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have wakened out of my sleep because I too<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Am wistful,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Tristeful;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because I know that half of <i>me</i> is gone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that all frailty cries in the cricket's tone.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have wakened out of my sleep to watch and listen.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">For what?<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +<span class="i0">To see for a moment universes glisten;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To wonder and want—and go to sleep again,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">And die,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And be forgot.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE COLONEL'S STORY</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No, no, my friend; there is an agony<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not to be exorcised out of the world<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By any voice of hope.—But, I will tell you.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The <i>Sonia</i> was sailing without lights—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bearing three hundred souls—and without bells;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For she had reached the "Zone," where the Hun sharks<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With their torpedo tongues could spit death at us<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out of the inky sea-hells where they hid.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the main deck we stood, in a wind-shelter,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My wife, and by us a pale girl whose eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had all disaster in them. And my thought was,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"I hope to God the moon is shut so deep<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +<span class="i0">In cloud-murk there in the East that hurricanes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Can't blow her out of it." For in the Zone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The moon had come to mean only betrayal,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now, if ever, was her wanton chance.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The slipping water soaked with soulless dark<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fell under and around us shudderingly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet somehow brought an anxious hopefulness.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"We're making twenty knots," I said; and felt<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our bow cut thro the tangle of the waves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if the No Man's <i>Sea</i> ahead of us<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would soon be crossed; and I, out to rejoin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My regiment, could set my wife safe somewhere,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And help again to stab that curst amphibian,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Autocracy—whose spawn in the sea gave it<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A terror greater than infinitude's.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For God knows, with the woman that one loves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aboard a ship, and only a cloud perhaps<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Between the Hun's shark eyes and sure escape<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the black icy fathoms that would choke her,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There's little left within a man but nerves.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So when I drew her closer into the shelter,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out of the sheering wind, the life belt<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +<span class="i0">She wore seemed like a coffin in that sepulchre<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of night and sea. And when the other, there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the disaster eyes and pallid face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Turned half toward us, I was shaken as if<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The moon had suddenly walked out of her shroud<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With phosphorescent purpose to reveal us.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But on we plunged and tumbled, till at last<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The blank monotonous sink and swell lulled me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To faith. And I was only thinking softly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of her—my wife's—first kiss on a summer night<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Under the moonlit laurels of our home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When came a cry from the wan girl gazing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Frozenly on the sea—where the moon now<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Indeed was pointing at us pallidly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A death-path. And my throat was gripped by it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That clutching cry, as if the glacial depths<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Down under us already had risen up.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So starting toward the slipping rail I called,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"What is it? where?" For, tense as a clairvoyant,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With eyes that seemed to feel under the tide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The stealthy peril stalking us, she stood there.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">After a moment's gazing, I too saw—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What she foresensed—destruction seething toward us.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"The boats!" I cried, "the rafts!" And stumbled back<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over the streaming deck to her I loved.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then the shock came, as if the sea's wild heart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had broken under us, and ripped the entrails,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The human hundreds, out of our vessel's hold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To strew the foam with mania and despair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With shrieks strangled by wind and wave and terror.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thro that floating, mangled, blind confusion,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where hands reached at the infinite then sank,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where faces clung to wreckage as to eternity,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I sought for her who shared my life's voyage,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who had been my heart's pilot; and who now,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wrecked with me, swirled, too, in the torn waters....<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And soon I saw her, still by that wan girl,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tossed on a watery omnipotence.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Blind with brine I swam for her—as the moon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her treachery done, again got to a cloud.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flung back by every wave, I fought; beating<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Against them as against God. And soon, somehow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had reached to a limp body on the surge,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Limp and strange—but living ... and not drowned!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then seeing a raft near, I struggled onward,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gulping the sea and being gulped by it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But finding arms at last that drew my burden<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And me from horror to half-swooning safety.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I could have died, I think, of the relief.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the moon came again, nakedly out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if to see what she had done. Then I,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bending over the form that I had fought for,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And chafing it, saw ... not her I loved!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Infinite Cruelty, not her I loved!...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But that pale girl, with the eyes of all disaster.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh, yes, I raved, and said God was a Hun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A Kaiser of a Universe that loathed him.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And back, too, would have leapt, into the waves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the same hands that saved were ready to hold me.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> +<h2>COSMISM</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The sea asleep like a dreamer sighs;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The salt rock-pools lie still in the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Except for the sidling crab that creeps<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thro the moveless mosses green and dun.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The small gray snail clings everywhere,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For the tide is out; and the sea-weed dries<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its tangled tresses in the warm air,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That seems to ooze from the far blue skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where not a white gull on white wing flies.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The mollusc gleams like a gem amid<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The scurf and the clustered green sea-grapes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose trellis is but the rock's bare side,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whose husbandman but the tide that drapes.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The little sandpiper tilts and picks<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His food, on the wet sea-marges hid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till sudden a wave comes in and flicks<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Him off, then flashes away to bid<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Another frighten him—as it did.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O sweet is the world of living things,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And sweet are the mingled sea and shore!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It seems as if I never again<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall find life ill—as oft before.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +<span class="i0">As if my days should come as the clouds<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Come yonder—and vanish without wings;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if all sorrow that ever shrouds<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My soul and darkly about it clings<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Had lost forever its ravenings.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As if I knew with a deeper sense<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That good alone is ultimate;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That never an evil wrought of God<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or man came truly out of hate.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Better springs from the heart of Worse,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As calm from the heaving elements;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That all things born to the Universe<br /></span> +<span class="i2">May suffer and perish utterly hence,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But never refute its Innocence.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>OFF THE IRISH COAST</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Gulls on the wind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Crying! crying!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are you the ghosts<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Erin's dead?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the forlorn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose days went sighing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ever for Beauty<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That ever fled?<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ever for Light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That never kindled?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ever for Song<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No lips have sung?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ever for Joy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That ever dwindled?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ever for Love that stung?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE FAIRIES OF GOD</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Last night I slipt from the banks of dream<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And swam in the currents of God,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On a tide where His fairies were at play,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Catching salt tears in their little white hands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For human hearts;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dancing, dancing, in gala bands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the currents of God;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And singing, singing:—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>There is no wind blows here or spray—</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Wind upon us!</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Only the waters ripple away</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Under our feet as we gather tears.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>God has made mortals for the years,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Us for alway!</i><br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +<span class="i0"><i>God has made mortals full of fears,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Fears for the night and fears for the day.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>If they would free them of grief that sears,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>If they would keep what love endears,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>If they would lay no more lilies on biers—</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Let them say!</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>For we are swift to enchant and tire</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Time's will!</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Our feet are wiser than all desire,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Our song is better than faith or fame;</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>To whom it is given no ill e'er came,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Who has it not grows chill!</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Who has it not grows laggard and lame,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Nor knows that the world is a Minstrel's lyre,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Smitten and never still!...</i><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Last night on the currents of God.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE SONG OF THE HOMESICK GAEL</h2> + +<h3>(<i>In the characteristic minor of a recent literary movement</i>)</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I long to see the solan-goose<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wing over Ailsa crag<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At dusk again—or Girvan gulls at dawn;<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +<span class="i0">To see the osprey grayly glide<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The winds of Kamasaig:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For grayness now my heart is set upon.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The grayness of sea-spaces where<br /></span> +<span class="i2">There's loneliness alone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save for the wings that sweep it with unrest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save for the hunger-cries that sound<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And die into a moan,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save for the moaning hunger in my breast.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For grayness is the hue of all<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In life that is not lies.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A thousand years of tears are in my heart;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And only in their mystery<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Can I be truly wise:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From light and laughter follies only start.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I long to see the mists again<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Above the tumbling tide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Ailsa, at the coming of the night.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There's weariness and emptiness<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And soul unsatisfied<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forever in the places of delight.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p> +<h2>PAGEANTS OF THE SEA</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What memories have I of it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sea, continent-clasping,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sea whose spirit is a sorcery,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sea whose magic foaming is immortal!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What memories have I of it thro the years!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What memories of its shores!...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of shadowy headlands doomed to stay the storm;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And red cliffs clawing ever into the tides;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of misty moors whose royal heather purples;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of channeled marshes, village-nesting hills;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of crags wind-eaten, homes of hungry gulls;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of bays—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where sails float furled, resting softly at harbour,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until, winging again, they sweep away.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What memories have I, too,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of faring out at dawn upon tameless waters,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the infinite wasted yearning of them,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While winds, the mystic harp-strings of the world,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were sounding sweet farewells;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While coast and lighthouse tower were fading fast,<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +<span class="i0">And from me all the world slipped like a garment.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What memories of mid-deeps!...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of heaving on thro haunted vasts of foam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thro swaying terrors of tormented tides;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While the wind, no more singing, took to raving,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In rhythmic infinite words,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A chantey ancient and immeasurable<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Concerning man and God.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What memories of fog-spaces—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wide leaden deserts of dim wavelessness,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Smooth porpoise-broken glass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As gray as a dream upon despair's horizon;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What sailing soft till lo the shroud was lifted<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And suddenly there came, as a great joy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The blue sublimity of summer skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The azure mystery of happy heavens,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The passionate sweet parley of the breeze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dancing waves—that lured us on and on<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Past islands above whose verdant mountain-heads<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Enchanted clouds were hanging,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whence wild spices wandered;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Past iridescent reefs and vessels bound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For ports unknown:<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +<span class="i0">O far, far past, until the sun, in fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An impotent and shrunken orb lay dying,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On heaving twilight purple gathered round.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And then, what nights!...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The phantom moon in misty resurrection<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Arising from her sepulchre in the East<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sparkling the dark waters—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The unremembering moon!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And covenants of star to faithful star,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dewy, like tears of God, across the sky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And under the moon's fair ring Orion running<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forever in great war adown the West.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What far, infinite nights!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With cloud-horizons where the lightning slumbered<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or wakened once and again with startled watch,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Again to fall asleep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And leave the moon-path free for all my thoughts<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To wander peacefully<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Away and still away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until the stars sighed out in dawn's great pallor,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Just as the lands of my desire appeared.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What memories ... have I of it!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p> +<h2>A SONG OF THE OLD VENETIANS</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The seven fleets of Venice<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set sail across the sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Cyprus and for Trebizond<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ayoub and Araby.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their gonfalons are floating far,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">St. Mark's has heard the mass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to the noon the salt lagoon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lies white, like burning glass.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The seven fleets of Venice—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And each its way to go,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Led by a Falier or Tron,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Zorzi or Dandalo.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Patriarch has blessed them all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Doge has waved the word,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in their wings the murmurings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of waiting winds are heard.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The seven fleets of Venice—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And what shall be their fate?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One shall return with porphyry<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pearl and fair agàte.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One shall return with spice and spoil<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And silk of Samarcand.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But nevermore shall <i>one</i> win o'er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sea, to any land.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Oh, they shall bring the East back,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And they shall bring the West,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>The seven fleets our Venice sets</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>A-sail upon her quest.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>But some shall bring despair back</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And some shall leave their keels</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Deeper than wind or wave frets,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Or sun ever steals.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>BASKING</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Give me a spot in the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With a lizard basking by me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In Sicily, over the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where Winter is sweet as Spring,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where Etna lifts his plume<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of curling smoke to try me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But all in vain for I will not climb<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His height so ravishing.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Give me a spot in the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So high on a cliff that, under,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far down, the flecking sails<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Like white moths flit the blue;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That over me on a crag<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +<span class="i2">There hangs, O aëry wonder,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A white town drowsing in its nest<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That cypress-tops peep thro.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Give me a spot in the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With contadini singing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a goat-boy at his pipes<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And donkey bells heard round<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon steep mountain paths<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where a peasant cart comes swinging<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mid joyous hot invectives—that<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So blameless here abound.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Give me a spot in the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In a land whose speech is flowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose breath is Hybla-sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whose soul is still a faun's,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose limbs the sea enlaps,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thro long delicious hours,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With liquid tenderness and light<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sweet as Elysian dawns.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Give me a spot in the sun<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With a view past vale and villa,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Past grottoed isle and sea<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To Italy and the Cape<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Around whose turning lies<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +<span class="i2">Old heathen-hearted Scylla,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom may an ancient sailor prayed<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The gods he might escape.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Give me a spot in the sun:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With sly old Pan as lazy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As I, ever to tempt me<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To disbelief and doubt<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all gods else, from Jove<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To Bacchus born wine-crazy.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Give me, I say, a spot in the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And Realms I'll do without!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>SAPPHO'S DEATH SONG</h2> + +<h3>(<i>On her sea-cliff in Leucady</i>)</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What have I gathered the years did not take from me?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(Swallows, hear, as you fly from the cold!)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom have I bound to me never to break from me?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(Whom, O wind of the wold?)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom, O wind! O hunter of spirits!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(Pierce his spirit whose spear is in mine!)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then let Oblivion loose this ache from me, Proserpine!<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lyre and the laurel the Muses gave to me,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(Why comes summer when winter is nigh!)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spent am I now and pain-voices rave to me.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(O sea and its cry!)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O the sea that has suffered all sorrow!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(Sea of the Delphian tongue ever shrill!)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nought from the wreck of love can now save to me<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Any thrill!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Life that we live passes pale or amorous.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(Tread, O vintagers, grapes in the press!)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mine's but a prey to Erinñyes clamorous.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(O for wine that will bless!)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wine that foams, but is free of all madness<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(Free, O Cypris, of fury's breath!)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Free as I now shall be, O glamorous<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Queen of Death!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE WIND'S WORD</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A star that I love,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The sea, and I,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spake together across the night.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">"Have peace," said the star,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">"Have power," said the sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Yea!" I answered, "and Fame's delight!"<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +<span class="i2">The wind on his way<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To Araby<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Paused and listened and sighed and said,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">"I passed on the sands<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A Pharaoh's tomb:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All these did he have—and he is dead."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>SUBMARINE MOUNTAINS</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Under the sea, which is their sky, they rise<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To watery altitudes as vast as those<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of far Himàlayan peaks impent in snows<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And veils of cloud and sacred deep repose.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Under the sea, their flowing firmament,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">More dark than any ray of sun can pierce,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The earthquake thrust them up with mighty tierce<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And left them to be seen but by the eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of awed imagination inward bent.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Their vegetation is the viscid ooze,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whose mysteries are past belief or thought.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Creation seems around them devil-wrought,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or by some cosmic urgence gone distraught.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Adown their precipices chill and dense<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +<span class="i2">With the dank midnight creep or crawl or climb<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Such tentacled and eyeless things of slime,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such monster shapes as tempt us to accuse<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Life of a miscreative impotence.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">About their peaks the shark, their eagle, floats,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In the thick azure far beneath the air,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or downward sweeps upon what prey may dare<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Set forth from any silent weedy lair.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But one desire on all their slopes is found,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Desire of food, the awful hunger strife,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Yet here, it may be, was begun our life<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here all the dreams on which our vision dotes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In unevolved obscurity were bound.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Too strange it is, too terrible! And yet<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It matters not how we were wrought or whence<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Life came to us with all its throb intense<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If in it is a Godly Immanence.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It matters not,—if haply we are more<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Than creatures half-conceived by a blind force<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That sweeps the universe in a chance course:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For only in Unmeaning Might is met<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The intolerable thought none can ignore.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE SONG OF THE STORM-SPIRITS</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Come over the tide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come over the foam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dance on the hurricane, leap its waves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dream not of the calm sea-caves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor of content in them and home.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For that is the reason the hearts of men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are ever weary—they would abide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Somewhere out of the spumy stride<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the world's spindrift—a want denied.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That is the reason: tho they know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That the restive years have no true home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But only a Whence, Whither, and When—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whence and Whither, for hearts to roam.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So who would tarry and rest the while,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not dance as we, and sing on the wind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against the whole flow of the world has sinned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And soon is weary and cannot smile.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dance then, dance, on the fleeting spray!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">None can gather eternity<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Into his heart and bid it stay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swiftly again it slips away.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dance, and know that the will of Life<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is the wind's will and the will of the tide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And who finds not a home in its strife<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall find no home on any side!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE GREAT SEDUCER</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Who looks too long from his window<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At the gray, wide, cold sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where breakers scour the beaches<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With fingers of sharp foam;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who looks too long thro the gray pane<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At the mad, wild, bold sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall sell his hearth to a stranger<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And turn his back on home.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Who looks too long from his window—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tho his wife waits by the fireside—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At a ship's wings in the offing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At a gull's wings on air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall latch his gate behind him,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tho his cattle call from the byre-side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And kiss his wife—and leave her—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wander everywhere.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Who looks too long in the twilight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or the dawn-light, or the noon-light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who sees an anchor lifted<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hungers past content,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall pack his chest for the world's end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For alien sun—or moonlight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And follow the wind, sateless,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Disillusionment!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> +<h2>K'U-KIANG</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Because the sun like a Chinese lantern<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set in a temple of clouds tonight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I was back in K'u-Kiang!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Because in a temple of dragon clouds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if with incense misty red,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It hung there over the rim of the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I was back in a narrow street,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where amber faces pass all day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Going to pay, going to pray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Going the same old human way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They have gone for a thousand years, men say,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In K'u-Kiang.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And I heard the coolie cry for his fare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I heard the merchant praise his ware<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of bronze and porcelain set to snare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In K'u-Kiang!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I saw strange streaming signs in black<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With gold and crimson on their back—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Opiate signs in an opiate street;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the slip and patter of felt-shod feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is old as the sun;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the temple door<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As cool and dark as the night.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And where dim lanterns, swinging there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a lure to human grief and care,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Half reveal and half conceal<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ancestral gloom of the gods.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I saw all this with sudden pang,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if by hashish swept or bhang,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because the sun, like a Chinese lantern,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set in a temple of clouds!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>TYPHOON</h2> + +<h3>(<i>At Hong-kong</i>)</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I was weary and slept on the Peak;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The air clung close like a shroud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ever the blue-fly at my ear<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Buzzed haunting, hot and loud;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I awoke and the sky was dun<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With awe and a dread that soon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Went shuddering thro my heart, for I knew<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That it meant typhoon! typhoon!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In the harbour below, far down,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The junks like fowl in a flock<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were tossing in wingless terror, or fled<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Fluttering in from the shock.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +<span class="i0">The city, a breathless bend<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of roofs, by the water strewn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lay silent and waiting, yet there was none<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Within it but said typhoon!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then it came, like a million winds<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Gone mad immeasurably,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A torrid and tortuous tempest stung<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By rape of the fair South Sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And it swept like a scud escaped<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From crater of sun or moon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And struck as no power of Heaven could,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or of Hell—typhoon! typhoon!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And the junks were smitten and torn,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The drowning struggled and cried,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or, dashed on the granite walls of the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In succourless hundreds died.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till I shut the sight from my eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And prayed for my soul to swoon:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If ever I see God's face, let it<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Be guiltless of that typhoon!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> +<h2>PENANG</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I want to go back to Singapore<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And ship along the Straits,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To a bungalow I know beside Penang;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where cocoanut palms along the shore<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Are waving, and the gates<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Peace shut Sorrow out forevermore.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I want to go back and hear the surf<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Come beating in at night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like the washing of eternity over the dead.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I want to see dawn fare up and day<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Go down in golden light;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I want to go back to Penang! I want to go back!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I want to go back to Singapore<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And up along the Straits<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the bungalow that waits me by the tide.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where the Tamil and Malay tell their lore<br /></span> +<span class="i4">At evening—and the fates<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have set no soothless canker at life's core.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I want to go back and mend my heart<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Beneath the tropic moon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While the tamarind-tree is whispering thoughts of sleep.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +<span class="i2">I want to believe that Earth again<br /></span> +<span class="i4">With Heaven is in tune.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I want to go back to Penang! I want to go back!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I want to go back to Singapore<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And ship along the Straits<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the bungalow I left upon the strand.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where the foam of the world grows faint before<br /></span> +<span class="i4">It enters, and abates<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In meaning as I hear the palm-wind pour.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I want to go back and end my days<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Some evening when the Cross<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the southern sky hangs heavily far and sad.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I want to remember when I die<br /></span> +<span class="i4">That life elsewhere was loss.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I want to go back to Penang! I want to go back!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>NIGHTS ON THE INDIAN OCEAN</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nights on the Indian Ocean,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Long nights of moon and foam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When silvery Venus low in the sky<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Follows the sun home.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Long nights when the mild monsoon<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is breaking south-by-west,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when soft clouds and the singing shrouds<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Make all that is seem best.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nights on the Indian Ocean,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Long nights of space and dream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When silent Sirius round the Pole<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Swings on, with steady gleam;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When oft the pushing prow<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Seems pressing where before<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No prow has ever pressed—or shall<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From hence forevermore.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nights on the Indian Ocean,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Long nights—with land at last,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dim land, dissolving the long sea-spell<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Into a sudden past—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That seems as far away<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As this our life shall seem<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When under the shadow of death's shore<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We drop its ended dream.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> +<h2>SIGHTING ARABIA</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My heart, that is Arabia, O see!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That talismanic sweep of sunset coast,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Which lies like richly wrought enchantment's ghost<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before us, bringing back youth's witchery!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Arabian Nights!" At last to us one comes,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The crescent moon upon its purple brow.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Will not Haroun and Bagdad rise up now<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There on the shore, to beating of his drums?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Is not that gull a roc? That sail Sindbad's?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That rocky pinnacle a minaret?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Does the wind call to prayer from it? O yet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I hear the fancy, fervid as a lad's!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Allah il Allah," rings it; O my heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Fall prostrate, for to Mecca we are near,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That flashing light is but a sign sent clear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From her, your houri, as her curtains part!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Soon she will lean out from her lattice, soon,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And bid you climb up to your Paradise,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Which is her panting lips and passion eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Under the drunken sweetness of the moon!<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O heart, my heart, drink deeply ere they die,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The sunset dome, the minaret, the dreams<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Flashing afar from youth's returnless streams:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For we, my heart, must grow old, you and I!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>"ALL'S WELL"</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">I<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The illimitable leaping of the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mouthing of its madness to the moon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The seething of its endless sorcery,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its prophecy no power can attune,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swept over me as, on the sounding prow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of a great ship that steered into the stars,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I stood and felt the awe upon my brow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of death and destiny and all that mars.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="i10">II<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The wind that blew from Cassiopeia cast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wanly upon my ear a rune that rung;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sailor in his eyrie on the mast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sang an "All's well," that to the spirit clung<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like a lost voice from some aërial realm<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Where ships sail on forever to no shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where Time gives Immortality the helm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fades like a far phantom from life's door.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="i10">III<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And is all well, O Thou Unweariable,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who launchest worlds upon bewildered space,"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rose in me, "All? or did thy hand grow dull<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Building this world that bears a piteous race?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O was it launched too soon or launched too late?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or can it be a derelict that drifts<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beyond thy ken toward some reef of Fate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On which Oblivion's sand forever shifts?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="i10">IV<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The sea grew softer as I questioned—calm<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With mystery that like an answer moved,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from infinity there fell a balm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The old peace that God <i>is</i>, tho all unproved.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The old faith that tho gulfs sidereal stun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The soul, and knowledge drown within their deep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is no world that wanders, no not one<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all the millions, that He does not keep.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p> +<h2>SOMNAMBULISM</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">I<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Night is above me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Night is above the night.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sea is beside me soughing, or is still.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The earth as a somnambulist moves on<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In a strange sleep ...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A sea-bird cries.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the cry wakes in me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dim, dead sea-folk, my sires—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who more than myself are me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who sat on their beach long nights ago and saw<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sea in its silence;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cursed it or implored;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or with the Cross defied;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then on the morrow in their boats went down.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="i10">II<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Night is above me ...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Night is above the night.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rocks are about me, and, beyond, the sand ...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the low reluctant tide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That rushes back to ebb a last farewell<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +<span class="i0">To the flotsam borne so long upon its breast.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rocks ... But the tide is out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the slime lies naked, like a thing ashamed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That has no hiding-place.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the sea-bird hushes—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bird and all far cries within my blood—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And earth as a somnambulist moves on.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHARTINGS</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There is no moon, only the sea and stars;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">There is no land, only the vessel's bow<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On which I stand alone and wonder how<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Men ever dream of ports beyond the bars<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of Finitude that fix the Here and Now.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A meteor falls, and foam beneath me breaks;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Dim phosphor fires within it faintly die.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So soft the sea is that it seems a sky<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On which eternity to life awakes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The universe is spread before my face,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Worlds where perchance a million seas like this<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Are flowing and where tides of pain and bliss<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Find, as on earth, so prevalent a place<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That nothing of their wont we there should miss.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Universe, that man has dared to say<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is but one Being—ah, courageous thought!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Which is so vast that hope itself is fraught<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With shame, while saying it, and shrinks away.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Shrinks, even as now! For clouds sweep up the skies<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And darken the wide waters circling round,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From out whose deep arises the old sound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Terror unto which no tongue replies<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But Faith—that nothing ever shall confound.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not only pagan Perseus but the Cross<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is shrouded—with wild wind and wilder rain,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That on me beat until my soul again<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sings unsurrendering to fears of Loss.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For this I know,—yea, tho all else lie hid<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Uncharted on the waters of our fate,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All lands of Whence or Whither, whose estate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In vain imagination seeks to thrid,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Yet cannot, for the fog within Death's gate,—<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +<span class="i0">This thing I know, that life, whatever its Source<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or Destiny, comes with an upward urge,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And that we cannot thwart its mighty surge,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But with a joy in strife must keep the course.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE TRAIL FROM THE SEA</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I took the trail to the wooded canyon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The trail from the sea:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For I heard a calling in me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A landward calling irresistible in me:—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Have done with things of the sea—things of the soul;</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Have done with waters that slip away from under you.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Have done with things faithless, things unfathomable and vain;</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>With the vast deeps of Time and the Hereafter.</i><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Have done with the fog-breather, the fog-beguiler;</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>With the foam of the never-resting.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Have done with tides and passions, tides and mysteries for a season.</i><br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Have done with infinite yearnings cast adrift on infinite vagueness—</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>With never a certain sail, never a rudder sure for guidance,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>With never a compass-needle free of desire.</i><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>For the ways of earth are good, as well as sea-ways,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>The peaks of it as well as ports unknown.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Not only perils matter, stormy perils, over the pathless,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Not only the shoals that sink your ship of dreams.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Not only the phantom lure of far horizons,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Not only the windy guess at the goals of God.</i><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>But morning matters, and dew upon the rose,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And noon, shadowless noon, and simple sheep on the pastures straying.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And toil matters, amid the accustomed corn,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And peace matters, the valley-spirit of peace, unprone to wander,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Unprone to pierce to the world's end—and past it.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And zephyrs matter, that never lift up a sail,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Save that of the thistle voyaging over the meadow.</i><br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>And the lark—oh—the sunny lark—as well as the songless petrel,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Who cries the foamy length of a thousand leagues.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And silence matters, silence free of all surging,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Silence, the spirit of happiness and home.</i><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>And oh how much the laugh of a child matters:</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>More than the green of an island suddenly lit by sun at dawn.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And friends, the greetings of friends, how they matter:</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>More than ships that meet and fling a wild ahoy and pass,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>On any alien tides however enchanted.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And the face of love, the evening face of love, at a window waiting,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Shall ever a kindled Light on any long-unlifting shore,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Shall ever a Harbor Light like that light matter?</i><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Ah no! so enough of the sea and the soul for a season.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Too long followed they leave life as a dream,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Reality as a mirage when port is made.</i><br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +<span class="i0"><i>"Ever in sight of the human," is the helm-word of the wisest,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>For earth is not earth to one upon the flood of infinity;</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>To the eye, then, it is but an atom-star, adrift, and oh,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>No longer warm with the beating of countless hearts.</i><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>No longer warm with the human throb—the simple breath of today,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>With yester-hours or the near dreams of to-morrow.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>No longer rich with the little innumerous blooms of brief delights,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Nor all divinely drenched with sympathy.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>No longer green with the humble grass of duties that must grow,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>To clothe it against desert aridity.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>No longer zoned with the air of hope, no longer large with faith—</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>No longer heaven enough—if Heaven fails us!</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> +<h2>HAUNTED SEAS</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A gleaming glassy ocean,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Under a sky of gray;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A tide that dreams of motion,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or moves, as the dead may;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A bird that dips and wavers<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Over lone waters round,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then with a cry that quavers<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is gone—a spectral sound.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The brown sad sea-weed drifting<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Far from the land, and lost.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The faint warm fog unlifting,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The derelict long-tossed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now at rest—tho haunted<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By the death-scenting shark,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose prey no more undaunted<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Slips from it, spent and stark.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>SEA LURE</h2> + +<h3>(<i>The Maine Coast</i>)</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It is so, O sea! wild roses<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bloom here in the scent of your brine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the juniper round them closes,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the bays amid them twine,<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +<span class="i0">To guard and to praise their beauty;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the gulls above them cry,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the stern rocks stand on duty,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where the surf beats white and high.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It is so, O sea! wild roses,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With the day-long fog bedrenched,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have come from their inland closes<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With a thirst for you unquenched.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And over your cliffs they clamber,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And over your vast they gaze;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the tides of you can enamour<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Even them with their woodland ways.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yea, the passion of you and the power<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the largeness are a lure<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To even the heart of a flower,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O sea, with a heart unsure!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For love is a thing unsated,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor ever in any breast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Has it dwelt, all want abated,<br /></span> +<span class="i7">At rest.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p> +<h2>SONGS TO A. H. R.</h2> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<h4>MINGLINGS</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It is the old old vision,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The moonlit sea—and you.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I cannot make disseverance<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Between the two.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all the world's wide beauty<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To me you seem,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All that I love in shadow<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or glow or gleam.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It is the old old murmur,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The sea's sound and your voice.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God in his Bliss between them<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Could make no choice.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all the world's deep music<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In you I hear:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor shall I ask death, ever,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For aught more dear.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<h4>LOVE AND INFINITY</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Across the kindling twilight moon<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A late gull wings to rest.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +<span class="i0">The sea is murmuring underneath<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Its vast eternal quest.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The coast-light flashes over the tide<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A red and warning eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And oh the world is very wide,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But you are nigh!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The stars come out from zone to zone,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The wind knows every one<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And blows their message to my heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As it has ever done.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"They are all God's," it tells me, "all,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">However huge or high."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But ah I could not trust its call—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Were you not by!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<h4>RECOMPENSE</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Not if I chose from a world of days<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Could I find a day like this.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sky is a wreath of azure haze<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the sea an azure bliss.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The surf runs racing the young salt wind,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shouting without a fear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over reef, bar, cliff and scaur,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where you and I lie near.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O you and I who have watched the sky<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And sea from many a shore!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You, love, and I who will live and die—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And watch the sea no more!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O joy of the world! Joy of love,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Joy that can say to death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Tho you end all with your wanton pall,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We two have had this breath!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<h4>AT THE EBB-HOUR</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As I hear, thro the midnight sighing,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The low ebb-tide withdrawn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gulls on the dark cliff crying<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For far discernless dawn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It seems that all life is lying<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Within your every breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet I can not believe in dying,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Or death.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As I hear, from the gray church tower,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The bell's unfailing sound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Peal forth hour after hour<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To night's lone reaches round,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It seems as if Time's wan power<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Would sear all things apace—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All, save in my heart one flower,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Your face.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></div></div> + + +<h3>V</h3> + +<h4>IN A DARK HOUR</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You are not with me—only the moon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sea and the gulls' cry, out of tune;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The myriad cry of the gulls still strewn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the sands where the tide will enter soon.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You are not with me, only the breath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the wind—and then the wind's death.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A shrouding silence then that saith,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Even as wind love vanisheth."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You are not with me—only fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As old as earth's first frenzied bier<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That severed two whose hearts were near,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And left one with all Life unclear.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h3>VI</h3> + +<h4>VIA AMOROSA</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When we two walk, my love, on the path<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The moon makes over the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the end of the world where sorrow hath<br /></span> +<span class="i2">An end that is ecstasy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should we not think of the other road<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of wearying dust and stone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our feet would fare did each but care<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To follow the way alone?<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When we two slip at night to the skies<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And find one star that we keep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a trysting-place to which our eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i2">May lead our souls ere sleep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should we not pause for a little space<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And think how many must sigh<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because they gaze over starry ways<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With no heart-comrade by?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When we two then lie down to our dreams<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That deepen still the delight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of our wandering where stars and streams<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Stray in immortal light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should we not grieve with the myriads<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From East of earth to West<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who lay them down at night but to drown<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A longing for some loved breast?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah, yes, for life has a thousand gifts,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But love it is gives life.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who walks thro his world in loneness lifts<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A soul that is sorrow-rife.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But they to whom it is given to tread<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The moon-path and not sink<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Can ever say the unhappiest way<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Earth has is fair, to the brink.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></div></div> + + +<h3>VII</h3> + +<h4>TRANSFUSION</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A shoal-light flashes east,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And livid lightning west,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The silvery dark night-sea between,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On which we ride at rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gaze far, far away<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Into the fretless skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">World-sadness in our thought—but ah,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Content within our eyes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The ship's bell strikes—the sound<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Floats shrouded to our ears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then suddenly, as at a touch,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The universe appears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A Presence Infinite<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That penetrates our love<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And makes us one with night and sea<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And all the stars above.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p> +<h2>NEED OF STORM</h2> + +<h3>(<i>Naples-on-the-Gulf</i>)</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">On the green floor of the Gulf the wind is walking,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Printing it with invisible feet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tide is talking.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Purple and grey the horizon walls them round<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With purpler clouds.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They wander in it like guests gently astray<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In a house deep mystery shrouds.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I do not know the speech of the tide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For too articulate have become my years:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beauty brings only words, not breathless tears.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So the young heron fishing there in the foam<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the sand's edge,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would once have taken my spirit far, far home<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the infinite, when he vanished thro the gloam.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now I am left behind on the beach—a shell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That no more knows the wonder of the sea's swell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or more than the empty echo of its knell.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To sea then, Life, wildly to sea with a storm<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweep me again,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the smooth dull beach of custom where I lie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I may feel once more<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The swaying surge of passion thro me swarm!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>A FLORIDA INTERLUDE</h2> + +<h3>(<i>Naples-on-the-Gulf</i>)</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">I<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Behind me lie the Everglades,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mystic grassy Everglades,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the moccasin and the Seminole glide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In secret silent Indian ways.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before me lies the Gulf,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The cup of blue bright tropic waters,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Held to the parched lips of the South<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To cool and quench its thirst.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Behind me lie the Everglades,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before me lies the Gulf,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which the sunset soon shall change to wine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A Eucharist for the longing soul.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its rim of land shall be transformed<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +<span class="i0">To Mexic opal and chrysoprase,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then shall come the moon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As calm as a thought of Christ.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As calm as a thought of Christ—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over the cup's sand-rim enchased<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With palm and pine, Floridian friends,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saying their twilight litanies;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While homeward flies the heron<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To his island cypress in the swamp,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which Spanish mosses drape and the moon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Silverly soothes to peace.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="i10">II<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Behind me lie the Everglades,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the bittern wails to the moon's face.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Peace is gone as I wake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And memory in me wails<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the primal swamp, Heredity,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whence I have come with all the desires<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of creeping, walking, flying things,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To creep or walk or fly.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">With all the desires of the earth-creatures;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet with a want transcendent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A want that comes with the glimmer of stars<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +<span class="i0">And pierces to my heart.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A want of the life I have not known,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the life unknowable,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the Everglades of the Universe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the Great Spirit glides.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>A FLORIDA BOATING SONG</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Down thro Florida keys,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From island, to island!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Down thro Florida keys,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where mangrove roots dip in the seas!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A myriad tangled roots<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From each palmetto byland,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oyster-encrusted roots mid which<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The heron wades in the shallow shades!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Down thro Florida keys,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Around them, between them,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thro low green Florida keys,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So low they scarce seem born of the seas!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where pouchy pelicans roost<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On cypresses that lean them<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out over the idle lap of the tide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That comes and goes with balmy flows!<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Down thro Florida keys,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thro mazes on mazes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of ripple-encircled keys,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where sun and wind play as they please!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the eaglet, high in air,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or the wild white ibis, dazes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Eyes that follow them up the blue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the heart would do, the heart too!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Down thro Florida keys<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I'm going, I'm going!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thro low green Florida keys<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And greener glades of Florida seas!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And this is all I know,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That all in the world worth knowing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is joy like that of the tarpon's leap<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In air divine with the warm sunshine!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>DAWN-BLISS</h2> + +<h3>(<i>Naples-on-the-Gulf</i>)</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I went out at dawn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pelicans were fishing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Big-beaked, grey and brown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Little waves were swishing.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Clouds creamed the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As shells creamed the shore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wild aery hues of beauty<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Round seemed to pour!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I went out at dawn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pelicans were floating,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Big beaks on their breasts;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Up the sun came boating.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Ship ahoy!" I cried,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To his golden sail.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bliss-winds of beauty in me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Broke—to a gale!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I went out at dawn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pelicans were winging.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Palms waved passion plumes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beach sands were singing.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stripped, save of strength,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I plunged into the sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And swam, till the bliss of beauty<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Died away in me.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p> +<h2>ATAVISM</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I leant out over a ledging cliff and looked down into the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where weed and kelp and dulse swayed, in green translucency;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the abalone clung to the rock and the star-fish lay about,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Purpling the sands that slid away under the silver trout.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And the sea-urchin too was there, and the sea-anemone.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It was a world of watery shapes and hues and wizardry.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I felt old stirrings wake in me, under the tides of time,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sea-hauntings I had brought with me out of the ancient slime.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now, as I muse, I cannot rid my senses of the spell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That in a tidal trance all things around me drift and swell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Under the sea of the Universe, down into which strange eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Keep peering at me, as I peered, with wonder and surmise.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> +<h2>RE-RECKONING</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Two years have gone, and again I stand<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On the bow of a mighty ship<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That pushes her way 'twixt sea and stars<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With soft and dreamy dip.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Two years of labouring, heart and hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of waging spirit-wars,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of wondering ever what life is—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And if death heals its scars.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Two years; and again the mast-bell sounds<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Above me—with a low voice,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As ghostly as the white phosphor-foam<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That breaks with the old noise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of waters that have washed all bounds<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of earth, that is man's home—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His ark—on the wide ether flung,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Unrestingly to roam.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For, even as we, is this our earth<br /></span> +<span class="i2">An endless wanderer<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far down a universe with vast<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Strange voyagings astir;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And where time ever brings to birth<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A craving, never past,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To fare from where we are, to where<br /></span> +<span class="i2">No anchor ever was cast.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A craving—in the mote, the man,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The mollusc and the star;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A yearning on—O life! O life!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">How far leads it, how far?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All unbelievably began<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Our voyage, mid a strange strife—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That, meaningless, yet seems to mean<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It is with Wisdom rife.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But if it is not, shall we say,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">"Let man scuttle his ship,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And drown in universal death<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The griefs that at him grip?"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No; for no surety rests therein<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To certain end of breath.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He can but let hope set the course<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His soul foretokeneth.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>TO THE AFTERNOON MOON, AT SEA</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Take care, O wisp of a moon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Vague on the sunny blue above the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or the gull flying across you<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will pierce your veil-thin shape with a sharp wing!<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Take care, or the wind will wilt you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As he does the clouds snowily drifting by you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And diffuse you over the sky, a silvery mist,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To give more cool to the day!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Take care, so near the horizon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or a phantom skipper, one who has long been drowned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will reach above it and seize you<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And make you his sail to circle the world forever!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Take care, take care! for frailty<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is the prey of the strong, and you, a wraith of it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have yet a long while to go before nightfall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Brings you to sure effulgence!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>PATHS</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Crushing in my hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bay as I pass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drinking in its fragrance<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the sea's scent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While gull-wings write<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Poems white and fast<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +<span class="i0">On the blue sky<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That is soft with content;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Crushing in my hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bay and the juniper,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While I record<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each line the gulls write,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I go by sea paths<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Down to the sea's edge,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I go by heart paths<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep into delight.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Simple is my joy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the little sandpiper's,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who follows beside me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With silvery song;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blither than the breeze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That skims great billows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor knows how deep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is their flow—or strong.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Simple is my joy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A sunny sense-sweetness,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full of bird-bliss,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bay-warmth, spray-leap.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mysteries there are<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And miseries beneath it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But sunk, like wrecks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far down in the deep.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> +<h2>FROM A NORTHERN BEACH</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Is it because for a million years<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The tide has entered here<br /></span> +<span class="i4">From cold north seas<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Where ice-floes freeze<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That ever unto my ear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Primordial loneness in its voice<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Comes telling of that time<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When life was not, upon the earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But only glacier-rime?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Is it because these granite rocks<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I share with weed and scurf<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Were held so long<br /></span> +<span class="i4">By the ice-throng<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That now they take the surf<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So selflessly and soullessly,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As if God's Immanence<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had been pressed from them, never more<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To enter, with sweet sense?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And is it because I, too, evolved<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From ice and sea and shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Can understand<br /></span> +<span class="i4">How life has spanned<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lifeless ages o'er,<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +<span class="i0">That as I sit here, suddenly<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The tide again seems stilled<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And earth beneath a great white pall<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Again lies changed and chilled?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So it must be—ah, so; for soft<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Within my muted brain<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The heritage<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Of age on age<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Reverberates again.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherefore when glacial Silence comes<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With Death shall I emerge<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From that as from the frozen Past,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Under Life's endless urge?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>PASSAGE</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A dark sail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like a wild-goose wing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the sunset was.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The moon soon will silver its sinewy flight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thro the night watches,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the far flight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of those immortal migrants,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ever-returning stars.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> +<h2>ALEEN</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The long line of the foaming coast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is muffled by the fog's gray ghost.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I cross the league of sea between<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lift the latch and kiss Aleen.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She throws a log upon the fire.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I draw her to me, nigh and nigher.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She does not know what a brief time<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ago it was my arms held—crime.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The surf is beating on the shore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We hear our own heart-beatings more.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She speaks of <i>him</i> and my reply<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is silence: does she wonder why?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I do not love him: have no fear,"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her whisper is, against my ear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At last, "I have no fear," say I.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She starts, as at a wild-beast's cry.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And then she sees red on my coat.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A still-born cry throbs in her throat.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fog sweeps by the window pane.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her sight is fixed on one dull stain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I rise and light my pipe and go,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leaving her standing, staring so.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +<span class="i0">The wind means storm, I think, to-night:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But more than that will make her white.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And yet had it been yesterday<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She said those words, I still could pray.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There would be still a God above—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For two, now overwhelmed, to love!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>TO A SOLITARY SEA-GULL</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lone white gull with sickle wings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You reap for the heart inscrutable things:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sorrow of mists and surf of the shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Winds that sigh of the nevermore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fret of foam and flurry of rain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swept far over the troubled tide;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Maths of mystery and grey pain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sea's voice ever yields, beside.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lone white gull, you reap for the heart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Life's most sad and inscrutable part.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> +<h2>INEFFABLE THINGS</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The little song-sparrow is gone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the summer is nearly ended,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rill of his song was a happy rift<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the surging sound of the sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The swallow is lingering on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the silvery swift sandpiper,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I—tho I know my saddened heart<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Has lost an ineffable thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That summer no more can bring.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">With the first bay-leaves that flung<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their scent to me by the billows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I twined some faith, some trust,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As glad as the sparrow's song.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the terns that darted among<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tides seemed weaving for me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Impalpable wings of peace and hope—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That now have taken flight<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beyond the day and the night.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah, Life, you have known my plea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For sun and the tide of fortune,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For winds to waken my sail and bear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Me joyously over the world.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Know too how much of your fog<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +<span class="i0">And storm and rain I will suffer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If only you do not sweep from me<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The dear ineffable things,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To which your fragrance clings.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE SONG OF A SEA-FARER</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Many are on the sea to-day<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With all sails set.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tide rolls in a restive gray,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The wind blows wet.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The gull is weary of his wings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I am weary of all things.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Heavy upon me longing lies,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My sad eyes gaze<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Across sad leagues that sink and rise<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And sink always.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My life has sunk and risen so,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'd have it cease awhile to flow.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> +<h2>WAVES</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The evening sails come home<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With twilight in their wings.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The harbour-light across the gloam<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Springs;<br /></span> +<span class="i6">The wind sings.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The waves begin to tell<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The sea's night-sorrow o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Weaving within their ancient spell<br /></span> +<span class="i8">More<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Than earth's lore.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The rising moon wafts strange<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Low lures across the tide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On which my dim thoughts seem to range,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Stride<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Upon stride,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Until, with flooding thrill,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">They seem at last to blend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With waves that from the Eternal Will<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Wend,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Without end.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p> +<h2>IN A STORM</h2> + +<h3>(<i>To a Petrel</i>)</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All day long in the spindrift swinging,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bird of the sea! bird of the sea!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How I would that I had thy winging—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How I envy thee!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How I would that I had thy spirit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So to careen, joyous to cry,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over the storm and never fear it!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Into the night that hovers near it!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Calm on a reeling sky!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All day long, and the night, unresting!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah! I believe thy every breath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Means that life's best comes ever breasting<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Peril and pain and death!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>AFTER THEIR PARTING</h2> + +<h3>(<i>A Woman Speaks</i>)</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You know that rock on a rocky coast,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where the moon came up, a ruined ghost,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Distorted until her shape almost<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Seemed breaking?<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Came up like a phantom silently<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dropped her shroud on the red night sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then walked, a spectral mystery,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Unwaking?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You know how, sudden, there came a change,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When she had left the sea's low range,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its lurid crimson, stark and strange,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Behind her?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How, sudden, her silver self shone thro,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tranquilly free of the earth's stained hue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And found a way where the clouds were few<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To bind her?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You know this? Then go back some day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When I have gone the moonless way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To that dark rock whereon we lay<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And waited;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when the moon has arisen free,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your soiling doubt shall fall from me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And eased of unrest your heart shall be,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And sated.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p> +<h2>A WORD'S MAGIC</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Do you remember Etajima,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And how, upon a moon-fogged sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As ghostly as ever a tide shall be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We passed an island silently?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And how a low voice in the gloom<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the temple pine-trees leaning there<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Said <i>sayonara</i> to one somewhere<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unseen in the shadow-haunted air?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Just <i>sayonara</i>: but it seemed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The soul of all farewells that night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sigh of all withdrawn delight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sound of love's last rapture-rite.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now, after long years, it comes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Again from isles of memory<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To bring once more to birth in me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The breath of all lost witchery.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yes, one low word of parting, now<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Echoing, thro the fog of years,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Has touched my heart with beauty's tears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And youth thro all things reappears.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p> +<h2>SEA RHAPSODY</h2> + +<h3>(<i>Out of Hong-kong</i>)</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Never again, never again<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Did I hope to breathe such joy!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sea is blue and the winds halloo<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Up to the sun "Ahoy!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Ahoy!" they shout and the mists they rout<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From the mountain-tops go streaming<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In happy play where the gulls sway,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And a million waves are gleaming!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And every wave, billowing brave,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is tipped with a wild delight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A garden of isles around me smiles,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bathed in the blue noon light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rude brown bunk of the fishing junk<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Seems fair as a sea-king's palace:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O wine of the sky the gods have spilt<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Out of its crystal chalice!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For wine is the wind, wine the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wine for the sinking spirit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To lift it up from the cling of clay<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Into high Bliss—or near it!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So let me drink till I cease to think,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And know with a sting of rapture<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That joy is yet as wide as the world<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For men, at last, to capture!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> +<h2>IN AN ORIENTAL HARBOUR</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All the ships of the world come here,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Rest a little, then set to sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some ride up to the waiting pier,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Some drop anchor beyond the quay.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some have funnels of blue and black,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">(Some come once but come not back!)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some have funnels of red and yellow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Some—O war!—have funnels of gray.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All the ships of the world come here,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ships from every billow's foam;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fruiter and oiler, pirateer,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Liner and lugger and tramp a-roam.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some are scented of palm and pine,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">(Some are fain for the Pole's far clime).<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some are scented of soy and senna,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Some—ah me!—are scented of home.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All the ships of the world come here,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Day and night there is sound of bells,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seeking the port they calmly steer,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Clearing the port they ring farewells.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Under the sun or under the stars<br /></span> +<span class="i2">(Under the light of swaying spars),<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Under the moon or under morning<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Do they swing, as the tide swells.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All the ships of the world come here,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Rest a little and then are gone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over the crystal planet-sphere<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Swept, thro every season, on.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swept to every cape and isle<br /></span> +<span class="i2">(Every coast of cloud or smile),<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swept till over them sweeps the sorrow<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of their last sea-dawn.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>UNDER THE SKY</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Far out to sea go the fishing junks,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With all sails set,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tide swings gray and the clouds sway,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The wind blows wet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blows wet from the long coast lying dim<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As if mist-born.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far out they sail, as the stars pale,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The stars of morn.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Far out to sea go the fishing junks,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And I who pass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon a deck that is vaster reck<br /></span> +<span class="i2">No more, alas,<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Of all their life, or they of mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Than comes to this,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That under the sky we live and die,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Like all that is.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>A SONG FOR HEALING</h2> + +<h3>(<i>On the South Seas</i>)</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When I return to the world again,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The world of fret and fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To grapple with godless things and men,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In battle, wrong or right,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will remember this—the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the white stars hanging high,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And the vessel's bow<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Where calmly now<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I gaze to the boundless sky.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When I am deaf with the din of strife,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And blind amid despair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When I am choked with the dust of life<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And long for free soul-air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will recall this sound—the sea's,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the wide horizon's hope,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And the wind that blows<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And the phosphor snows<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That fall as the cleft waves ope.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When I am beaten—when I fall<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On the bed of black defeat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When I have hungered, and in gall<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Have got but shame to eat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will remember this—the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And its tide as soft as sleep,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And the clear night sky<br /></span> +<span class="i4">That heals for aye<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All who will trust its Deep.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>A SINGHALESE LOVE LAMENT</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">As the cocoanut-palm<br /></span> +<span class="i4">That pines, my love,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Away from the sound<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Of the planter's voice,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Am I, for I hear<br /></span> +<span class="i4">No more resound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your song by the pearl-strewn sea!<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The sun may come<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And the moon wax round,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And in its beam<br /></span> +<span class="i4">My mates may rejoice,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But I feast not<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And my heart is dumb,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As I long, O long, for thee!<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">In the jungle-deeps,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Where the cobra creeps,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The leopard lies<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In wait for me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But O, my love,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">When the daylight dies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is more to my dread than he!<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Harsh lonely tears<br /></span> +<span class="i4">That assail my eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Are worse to bear,—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">For the misery<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That makes them well<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Is the long, long years<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I moan away from thee!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">O again, again,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In my katamaran<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A-keel would I push<br /></span> +<span class="i4">To your palmy door!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Again would I hear<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The heave and hush<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of your song by the plantain-tree.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">But far away<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Do I toil and crush<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The hopes that arise<br /></span> +<span class="i4">At my sick heart's core.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For never near<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Does it come, the day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That draws me again to thee!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE CITY</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Soft and fair by the Desert's edge,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And on the dim blue edge of the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where white gulls wing all day and fledge<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their young on the high cliff's sandy ledge,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is a city I have beheld,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sometime or where, by day or dream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I know not which, for it seems enspelled<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As I am by its memory.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Pale minarets of the Prophet pierce<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Above it into the white of the skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sails enchanted a thousand years<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flit at its feet while fancy steers.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No face of all its faces to me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is known—no passion of it or pain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It is but a city by the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Enshrined forever beyond my eyes!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>FULL TIDE</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sea-scents, wild-rose scents,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bay and barberry too,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drench the wind, the Maine wind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That gulls are dipping thro,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With soft hints, sweet hints,<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +<span class="i0">With lull, lure and desire;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With memory-wafts and mysteries,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the ineffable histories<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made when the sea and land meet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the sun lends nuptial fire.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sea-foam, and dream-foam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And which is which, who knows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When all day long the heart goes out<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To every wave that blows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That blossoms on the bright tide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then sheds a shimmering crest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yields its tossing place to one<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose blooming is as quickly done—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For beauty is ever swift—begot<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of rapture and unrest.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sea-deeps, and soul-deeps,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And where shall faith be found<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If not within the heart's beat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or in the surging sound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the sea, which is the earth's heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beating with tireless might;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beating—tho but a tragedy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Life seems on every land and sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beating to bring all breath, somehow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out of despair's blight.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE HERDING</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Quietly, quietly in from the fields<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the grey Atlantic the billows come,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Like sheep to the fold.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shorn by the rocks of fleecy foam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They sink on the brown seaweed at home;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a bell, like that of a bellwether,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is scarcely heard from the buoy—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save when they suddenly stumble together,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In herded hurrying joy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon its guidance: then soft music<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From it is tolled.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Far out in the murk that follows them in<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is heard the call of the fog-horn's voice,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Like a shepherd's—low.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the strays as if waiting it seem to pause<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lift their heads and listen—because<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It is sweet from wandering ways to be driven,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When we have fearless breasts,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When all that we strayed for has been given,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When no want molests<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Us more—no need of the tide's ebbing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And tide's flow.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> +<h2>ON THE MAINE COAST</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The rocks, lean fingers of the land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Reach out into the sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cool themselves, all day long,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the tide drippingly.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They catch the seaweed in them<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the starfish on their tips,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gulls that light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the swift flight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of swallows skimming grey and white—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And spars of broken ships.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The moon, God's perfect silver,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With which He pays the world<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For toil and quest and day's unrest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is washed on them and swirled.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And avidly they seize it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then let it slip away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Only again<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yet again<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To grasp at it—as eager men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At joy no hand can stay.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p> +<h2>SEANCE</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hovering wings of terns<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over the rock-pools flutter,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the tide, ebbed far out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seems to stumble and stutter;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seems like a spirit lost,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unable to come again<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Back to the wonted ways and days<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of ever-wanting men.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And the moon, a medium<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Trance-pale, is laying her light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over its surge—till, lo,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It turns from the deep and night.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the spirit-word it brings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is the message of all time,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That doubt is only the ebb of faith,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which ever reflows sublime!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>A SIDMOUTH LAD</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Salcombe Hill and four hills more<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lie to leftward of this shore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the right Peak Hill arises<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ever rises, sickening, o'er.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Two score rotting years I've seen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sidmouth sit those hills between:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Only Sidmouth—and twice over<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must I bide it, as I've been.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then a churchyard hole for me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the dull voice of the sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rotting, still in Sidmouth rotting,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rotting to eternity.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>WIDOWED</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">One wild gull on a wilder storm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Winging to keep her lone heart warm.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One wild gull by the surf—and I,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beaten by wind and rain and sky.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">One wild gull in the offing lost,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wilder heart in my bosom tost.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One wild gull—O why but one!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Two, dear God, should there be—or none!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p> +<h2>TO THE SEA</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Are you enraged, O sea, with the blue peace<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of heaven, so to uplift your armied waves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your billowy rebellion against its ease,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with Tartarean mutter from cold caves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From shuddering profundities where shapes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of awe glide thro entangled leagues of ooze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To hoot your watery omens evermore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And evermore your moanings interfuse<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With seething necromancy and mad lore?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Or do you labour with the drifting bones<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of countless dead, O mighty Alchemist,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Within whose stormy crucible the stones<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of sunk primordial shores, granite and schist,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are crumbled by your all-abrasive beat?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With immemorial chanting to the moon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cosmic incantation, do you crave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rest to be found not till your wilds are strewn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Frigid and desert over earth's last grave?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You seem drunk with immensity, mad, blind—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With raving deaf, with wandering forlorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Parent of Demogorgon whose dire mind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is night and earthquake, shapeless shame and scorn<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Of the o'ermounting birth of Harmony.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bound in your briny bed and gnawing earth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With foamy writhing and fierce-panted tides,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You are as Fate in torment of a dearth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of black disaster and destruction's strides.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And how you shatter silence from the world,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Incarnate Motion of all mystery!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose waves are fury-wings, whose winds are hurled<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whither your Ghost tempestuous can see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A desolate apocalypse of death.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, how you shatter silence from the world,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With emerald overflowing, waste on waste<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of flashing susurration, dashed and swirled<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On isles and continents that shrink abased!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And yet, O veering veil of the Unknown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gathered from primal mist and firmament;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O surging shape of Life's unfathomed moan,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whelming humanity with fears unmeant;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet do I love you, far above all fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And loving you unconquerably trust<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The runes that from your ageless surfing start<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would read, were they revealed, gust upon gust,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Immortality is might of heart!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> +<h2>SEA-MAD</h2> + +<h3>(<i>A Breton Maid</i>)</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Three waves of the sea came up on the wind to me!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One said:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Away! he is dead!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon my foam I have flung his head!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Go back to your cote, you never shall wed!—<br /></span> +<span class="i9">(Nor he!)"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Three waves of the sea came up on the wind to me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Two brake.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The third with a quake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cried loud, "O maid, I'll find for thy sake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His dead lost body: prepare his wake!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(And back it plunged to the sea!)<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Three waves of the sea came up on the wind to me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One bore—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And swept on the shore—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His pale, pale face I shall kiss no more!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, woe to women death passes o'er!<br /></span> +<span class="i9">(Woe's me!)<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE ATHEIST</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Over a scurf of rocks the tide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wanders inward far and wide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lifting the sea-weed's sloven hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Filling the pools and foaming there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sighing, sighing everywhere.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Merged are the marshes, merged the sands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save the dunes with pine-tree hands<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stretching upward toward the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the sun, their god, moves high:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would I too had a god—yea, I!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For, the sea is to me but sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the sky but infinity.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tides and times are but some chance<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Born of a primal atom-dance.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All is a mesh of Circumstance.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In it there is no Heart—no Soul—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No illimitable Goal—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Only wild happenings, by wont<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made into laws no might can shunt<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the deep grooves in which they hunt.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Wings of the gull I watch or claws<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the cold crab whose strangeness awes:<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Faces of men that feel the force<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of a hid thing they call life's course:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It is their hoping or remorse.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet it may be that I have missed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Something that only they who tryst,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not with the sequence of events<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But with their viewless Immanence,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Find and acclaim with spirit-sense.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>AT THE HELM</h2> + +<h3>(<i>Nova Scotia</i>)</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fog, and a wind that blows the sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blindly into my eyes.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I know not if my soul shall be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the day dies.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But if it be not and I lose<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All that men live to gain—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I who have known but heaving hues<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of wind and rain—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Still I shall envy no man's lot,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For I have held this great,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Never in whines to have forgot<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Fate is Fate.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p> +<h2>IMPERTURBABLE</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Three times the fog rolled in today, a silent shroud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From which the breakers ran like ghosts, moaning and tumbling.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Three times a startled sea-bird cried aloud,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On the wind stumbling.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But I cast my net with never a fear, tho wraiths in me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And birds of wild unrest were stirring and starting and crying.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For I knew that under the sway of every sea<br /></span> +<span class="i2">There is calm lying.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>WASTE</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I flung a wild rose into the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I know not why.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For swinging there on a rathe rose-tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the scented bay and barberry,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its petals gave all their sweet to me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As I passed by.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And yet I flung it into the tide,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And went my way.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I climbed the gray rocks, far and wide,<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +<span class="i0">And many a cove of peace I tried,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With none of them all to be satisfied,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The whole long day.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For I had wasted a beautiful thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Which might have won<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each passing heart to pause and sing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the sea-path there, of its blossoming.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And who wastes beauty shall feel want's sting,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As I had done.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>RESURGENCE</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I was content, O Sea, to be free for a space from striving,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Content as the brown weed is, at rest on rocks in the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the salt tide is out, and the surf no more is riving<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At its roots, or swirling and bidding it sway where the white waves run.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I was content—with life, and love, and a little over;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A little achieved of the much that is given to men to do.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +<span class="i0">But now with your tidal strife do you come again, vain rover,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And tell of vastitudes, to be sailed, or sounded, anew.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now again do you surge. And the fathomless tides of thinking,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of wanting, waiting, despairing—or daring—with you come;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The inner tides of the soul, that had ebbed with slumberous shrinking,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now are bursting again, thro the caves of it long numb.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So vainly I lie on the cliff with the blissful Blue above me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And listless sated gulls afloat below on the swells,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For I am soothless, sateless, because of desires that shove me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out and away with the winds, on quests no distance quells!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p> +<h2>LIFE'S ANSWER</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A stroke of lightning stabbed the storm-black sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if it sought the heart of Life thereunder,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And meant to put an end to it utterly;—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Then came thunder—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wildly applauding thunder.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Riven with fear the foam-crests ran before it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hissed by the rain and beaten down to darkness.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A gull rose out of the murk with wings that tore it—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Life's answer to the storm's terrible starkness.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>AS THE TIDE COMES IN</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The quivering terns dart wild and dive,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As the tide comes tumbling in.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The calm rock-pools grow all alive,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With the tide tumbling in.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The crab who under the brown weed creeps,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the snail who lies in his house and sleeps,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Awake and stir, as the plunging sweeps<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of the tide come tumbling in.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Gray driftwood swishes along the sand,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As the tide comes tumbling in.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With wreck and wrack from many a land,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On the tide, tumbling in.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About the beach are a broken spar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A pale anemone's torn sea-star<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And scattered scum of the waves' old war,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As the tide tumbles in.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And, oh, there is a stir at the heart of me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As the tide comes tumbling in.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All life once more is a part of me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As the tide tumbles in.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">New hopes awaken beneath despair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thoughts slip free of the sloth of care,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While beauty and love are everywhere—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As the tide comes tumbling in.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>SENSE-SWEETNESS</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Flowers are dancing, waves playing, pines swaying, gulls are a-swarm;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sea and heather, sunning together, glad of the weather, with God are warm.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Flowers are dancing, clouds winging, larks singing, summer abrew—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Summer the old ecstatic passion of Life to fashion the world anew.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> +<h2>TIDALS</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Low along the sea, low along the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The gray gulls are flying, and one sail swings;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tide is foaming in; the soft wind sighing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The brown kelp is stretching, to the surf, harp-strings.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Low along the sea, low along the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The gray gulls are flying, and one sail fades;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tide is foaming out; the soft wind dying;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And white stars are peeping from the night's pale shades.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>A SAILOR'S WIFE</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Into port when the sun was setting<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Rode the ship that bore my love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over the breakers wildly fretting,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Under the skies above.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Down to the beach I ran to meet him;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He would come as he had said:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he came—in a sailor's coffin,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Dead! . . . . . .<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O the ships of the sea! the lovers<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Torn by them apart!...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tide has nothing now to tell me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The breakers break my heart!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>TO SEA!</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Give me the tiller; up with the sail!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Now let her swing to the breeze.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out to sea with a dripping rail,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To sea, with a heart at ease!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Out of the Harbour! out of the Bay!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Out by the valiant Light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out by rocks where the young gulls lay—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And glad winds teach them flight!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Out of the Harbour! out of the Bay!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Out to the open sea!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O there's not in the world a way<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To feel so wildly free!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So, let her quiver! So, let her leap!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So, let her dance the foam!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All life else is a narrow keep,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The sea alone is home!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p> +<h2>GIVE OVER, O SEA!</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Give over, O sea! You never shall reach Nirvana!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your tides, like the tidal generations, ever shall rise and fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And your infinite waves find birth, rebirth, and billowy dissolution.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The years of your existence are unending.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The years of your unresting are forever.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sun, who is desire, ever begets in you his passion,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the moon is ever drawing you, with silvery soft alluring,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To surge and sway, to wander and fret, to waste yourself in foam.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So Buddha-calm shall never descend upon you.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And tho it may often seem you have found the Way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your tempest-sins return and quicken to wild reincarnations,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And again great life, pulsing and perilous,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Omnipotent life, that ever resurges thro the universe,<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Lashes you back to striving, back to yearning, back to speech.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To utterance on all shores of the world<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of things unutterable.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Give over then, you never shall reach Nirvana!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor I, who am your acolyte for a moment;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who swing a censer of fragrant words before your priestly feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That tread these altar-rocks, bedraped with weeds gently afloat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with the wild flutter of gulls wildly mysterious.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Give over and call your winds again to join you!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O chanter of deep enchantments, of uncharted litanies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Call them and bid them say with you that life transcends retreat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that, in the temple of its Immanence,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is no peace that does not spring daily from peacelessness,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And no Nirvana save in the lee of storm.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE NUN</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A lone palm leans in the moonlight,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Over a convent wall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sea below is waking and breaking<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With a calm heave and fall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A young nun sits at a window;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For Heaven she is too fair;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet even the dove of God might nest<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In her bosom beating there.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A lone ship sails from the harbour:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whom does it bear away?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her lover who, sin-hearted, has parted<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And left her but to pray?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She has no lover, nor ever<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Has heard afar love's sigh.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Only the Convent's vesper vow<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Has ever dimmed her eye.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For naught knows she of her beauty,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">More than the palm of its peace:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And none shall cross her portal, to mortal<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Desires to bend her knees.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ways of the world have flowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And any who will pluck those;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But in His hand, against all harm,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">God still will keep some rose.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p> +<h2>LAST SIGHT OF LAND</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The clouds in woe hang far and dim;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I look again, and lo,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Only a faint and shadow line<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of shore—I watch it go.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The gulls have left the ship and wheel<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Back to the cliff's gray wraith.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will it be so of all our thoughts<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When we set sail on Death?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And what will the last sight be of life<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As lone we fare and fast?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grief and a face we love in mist—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Then night and awe too vast?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Or the dear light of Hope—like that,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Oh, see, from the lost shore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kindling and calling "Onward, you<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall reach the Evermore!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>THE END</h4> + + +<h2>On this and following pages are listed other books by Cale +Young Rice. They are all published by The Century Co., 353 +Fourth Avenue, New York City.</h2> + + +<h2>SHADOWY THRESHOLDS</h2> + +<h3>By CALE YOUNG RICE</h3> + +<p>"Cale Young Rice is far too great a pout to be acclaimed in some +partisan circles.... He is intensely American ... as authentic an artist +as Shelley or Keats.... He has the magic of Poe without that poet's +morbidity.... He is America's living master-poet."—<i>D. F. Hannigan (The +Rochester Post-Express).</i></p> + +<p>"This volume maintains Mr. Rice's usual high level and proves anew his +right to one of the high places among modern poets."—<i>Edward J. Wheeler +(Current Opinion).</i></p> + +<p>"Mr. Rice is modern in the broadest sense of that term. Many of his +poems are without rhyme and have irregular metres, but they never offend +thereby.... His place in contemporary first class company is +secure.—<i>The Springfield Republican.</i></p> + +<p>"A volume possessing range and variety, together with a lyric quality +which distinguishes this poet, who ranks among the foremost American +writers."—<i>The Post-Intelligencer (Seattle).</i></p> + +<p>"Mr. Rice in his dramas is an enchanter, and to cast a spell is better +than to have uttered the most lovely lyrics—but he has done both."—<i>E. +A. Jonas (The Louisville Herald).</i></p> + +<p>"A new volume showing again the power and beauty of Mr. Rice's +genius."—<i>The Boston Globe.</i></p> + +<p>"What a pleasure to take up a new book by Cale Young Rice. Here we have +variety, if ever.... If one can only own one of his books this is a good +volume to choose."—<i>The Galveston News.</i></p> + +<p>"Cale Young Rice is a poet capable of sounding the deep imaginative +strain not only with melody, but with vigor and power of thought. This +volume will add another shining stone to his reputation."—<i>The San +Francisco Chronicle.</i></p> + +<p>"Once more a book of the same high order as all Mr. Rice's work."—<i>The +Rochester Democrat-Chronicle.</i></p> + +<p>"Shadowy Thresholds has as great a variety of poetic forms as any volume +of late years.... Mr. Rice illumines many phases of life, uniting in his +work the finish and romance of the older poetry with the directness that +constitutes the best merit of the new."—<i>The Louisville Evening Post.</i></p> + +<p><i>12mo. 179 pages. Price $1.50</i></p> + + +<h2>WRAITHS AND REALITIES</h2> + +<h3>By CALE YOUNG RICE</h3> + +<p>"In the writing of lyrics Mr. Rice is unequalled by any modern poet.... +One must go outside of contemporary life to find anything of similar +excellence."—<i>Gordon Ray Young (The Los Angeles Times).</i></p> + +<p>"A new book by Mr. Rice is always an event in American +letters...."—<i>The New York Tribune.</i></p> + +<p>"Here, for all to read, is poetic genius spurred and wrought upon ... by +a rare and wondrous poetic inspiration.... It is like great chimes +sounding—jangled at times or overborne—but always great."—<i>The +Philadelphia North American.</i></p> + +<p>"Mr. Rice in his narratives can tell such tales as the old ballad-makers +would have gloated over, and can make them contemporary and convincing. +He can create life tragedies or comedies in a few lines and leave the +reader with a sense of having been given a full meal of circumstance.... +He is original without striving to be so, and one can never be +embarrassed by the affirmation that he has come to hold a high place +among poets of America."—<i>The Chicago Tribune.</i></p> + +<p>"Cale Young Rice has been credited with some of the finest poetry, and +regarded as a distinguished master of lyric utterance, and this latest +volume is warrant for such approval."—<i>The Brooklyn Eagle.</i></p> + +<p>"We find in Mr. Rice the large and elemental vision a poet must have to +serve his people when overwhelmed by elemental sorrows and passions. His +poetry is a spiritual force interpreting life in the various phases of +intellect and emotion, with a beauty of finish and sense of form that +are unerring."—<i>The Louisville Post.</i></p> + +<p>"All that has been said of Cale Young Rice, and that is much indeed, is +justified in this latest volume."—<i>The San Francisco Chronicle.</i></p> + +<p>"Cale Young Rice is a real poet of genuine and sincere inspiration, +never reminiscent or imitative or obvious, but singing from a full heart +his keen, meditative songs."—<i>The New York Times.</i></p> + +<p><i>12mo. 187 pages. Price $1.50</i></p> + + +<h2>COLLECTED PLAYS AND POEMS</h2> + +<h3>By CALE YOUNG RICE</h3> + +<p>"The great quality of Cale Young Rice's work is that, amid all +distractions and changes in contemporary taste, it remains true to the +central drift of great poetry. His interests are very wide ... and his +books open up a most varied world of emotion and romance."—<i>Gilbert +Murray.</i></p> + +<p>"The quality of Mr. Rice's work is high. It is seen at its best in his +poetic dramas, which maintain an astonishing elevation and intensity of +passion ... but his visionary and philosophical poems are nearly as +fine. He has a thorough mastery of form, yet notwithstanding the ease of +his verse it is never slipshod or mechanical."—<i>The Spectator +(London).</i></p> + +<p>"With variations of phrase Cale Young Rice has been described by critics +here and in America as "the most distinguished master of lyric utterance +in the New World." ... He has dramatic genius ... and is a born maker of +songs.... His later volumes confirm the judgment of those who have named +him the first and most distinctive of modern American lyrists, and one +of the world's true poets."—<i>F. Heath (The London Bookman).</i></p> + +<p>"Mr. Rice is an American poet whose reputation is deserved.... He has +achieved a high position as poet and dramatist, a great fertility and +variety of outlook being marked features of his work."—<i>The London +Times.</i></p> + +<p>"Foremost among writers who have brought America into prominence in the +realm of modern thought is Mr. Cale Young Rice.... 'Collected Plays and +Poems' is one of the best offerings of verse we have had for long. +Indeed, it has real brilliance.... Mr. Rice's plays are +masterful."—<i>The Book Monthly (London).</i></p> + +<p>"Cale Young Rice is highly esteemed by readers wherever English is the +native speech."—<i>The Manchester Guardian.</i></p> + +<p>"In Mr. Rice we have a voice such as America has rarely known +before."—<i>The Rochester (N. Y.) Post-Express.</i></p> + +<p>"Mr. Rice of today is the poet who sang to us yesterday of the big, +vital things of life.... With real genius he brings to the soul a sense +of things many of us have but dimly sensed in all our years."—<i>The +Philadelphia Record.</i></p> + +<p>"These volumes are an anthology wrought by a master hand and endowed +with perennial vitality.... This writer is the most distinguished master +of lyric utterance in the new world ... and he has contributed much to +the scanty stock of American literary fame. Fashions in poetry come and +go, and minor lights twinkle fitfully as they pass in tumultuous review. +But these volumes are of the things that are eternal in poetic +expression.... They embody the hopes and impulses of universal +humanity."—<i>The Philadelphia North-American.</i></p> + +<p>"Mr. Rice has been hailed by too many critics as the poet of his +country, if not of his generation, not to create a demand for a full +edition of his works."—<i>The Hartford (Conn.) Courant.</i></p> + +<p>"This gathering of his forces stamps Mr. Rice as one of the world's true +poets, remarkable alike for strength, versatility and beauty of +expression."—<i>The Chicago Herald (Ethel M. Colton).</i></p> + +<p>"It is with no undue repetition that we speak of the very great range +and very great variety of Mr. Rice's subject, inspiration, and mode of +expression.... The passage of his spirit is truly from deep to +deep."—<i>Margaret S. Anderson (The Louisville Evening Post).</i></p> + +<p>"It is good to find such sincere and beautiful work as is in these two +volumes.... Here is a writer with no wish to purchase fame at the price +of eccentricity of either form or subject."—<i>The Independent.</i></p> + +<p>"Mr. Rice's style is that of the masters.... Yet it is one that is +distinctively American.... He will live with our great +poets."—<i>Louisville Herald (J. J. Cole).</i></p> + +<p>"Mr. Rice is an American by birth, but he is not merely an American +poet. Over existence and the whole world his vision extends. He is a +poet of human life and his range is uncircumscribed."—<i>The Baltimore +Evening News.</i></p> + +<p>"Viewing Mr. Rice's plays as a whole, I should say that his prime virtue +is fecundity or affluence, the power to conceive and combine events +resourcefully, and an abundance of pointed phrases which recalls and +half restores the great Elisabethans. His aptitude for structure is +great."—<i>The Nation (O. W. Firkins).</i></p> + +<p>"Mr. Rice has fairly won his singing robes and has a right to be ranked +with the first of living poets. One must read the volumes to get an idea +of their cosmopolitan breadth and fresh abiding charm.... The dramas, +taken as a whole, represent the most important work of the kind that has +been done by any living writer.... This work belongs to that great world +where the mightiest spiritual and intellectual forces are forever +contending; to that deeper life which calls for the rarest gifts of +poetic expression."—<i>The Book News Monthly (Albert S. Henry).</i></p> + +<p><i>12mo. 2 vols. Price $4.00</i></p> + + +<h2>The following volumes are now included in the author's +"Collected Plays and Poems," and are not obtainable +elsewhere:</h2> + + +<h4>At the World's Heart</h4> + +<p>"This book justifies the more than transatlantic reputation of its +author."—<i>The Sheffield (England) Daily Telegraph.</i></p> + + +<h4>Porzia: A Play</h4> + +<p>"It matters little that we hesitate between ranking Mr. Rice highest as +dramatist or lyrist; what matters is that he has the faculty divine +beyond any living poet of America; his inspiration is true, and his +poetry is the real thing."—<i>The London Bookman.</i></p> + + +<h4>Far Quests</h4> + +<p>"It shows a wide range of thought and sympathy, and real skill in +workmanship, while occasionally it rises to heights of simplicity and +truth, that suggest such inspiration as should mean lasting fame."—<i>The +Daily Telegraph (London).</i></p> + + +<h4>The Immortal Lure: Four Plays</h4> + +<p>"It is great art—with great vitality."—<i>James Lane Allen.</i></p> + +<p>"Different from Paola and Francesca, but excelling it—or any of Stephen +Phillips's work—in a vivid presentment of a supreme moment in the lives +of the characters."—<i>The New York Times.</i></p> + + +<h4>Many Gods</h4> + +<p>"These poems are flashingly, glowingly full of the East.... What I am +sure of in Mr. Rice is that here we have an American poet whom we may +claim as ours."—<i>William Dean Howells, in The North American Review.</i></p> + + +<h4>Nirvana Days</h4> + +<p>"Mr. Rice has the technical cunning that makes up almost the entire +equipment of many poets nowadays, but human nature is more to him always +... and he has the feeling and imaginative sympathy without which all +poetry is but an empty and vain thing."—<i>The London Bookman.</i></p> + + +<h4>A Night in Avignon: A Play</h4> + +<p>"It is as vivid as a page from Browning. Mr. Rice has the dramatic +pulse."—<i>James Huneker.</i></p> + + +<h4>Yolanda of Cyprus: A Play</h4> + +<p>"It has real life and drama, not merely beautiful words, and so differs +from the great mass of poetic plays."—<i>Prof. Gilbert Murray.</i></p> + + +<h4>David: A Play</h4> + +<p>"It is safe to say that were Mr. Rice an Englishman or a Frenchman, his +reputation as his country's most distinguished poetic dramatist would +have been assured by a more universal sign of recognition."—<i>The +Baltimore News.</i></p> + + +<h4>Charles Di Tocca: A Play</h4> + +<p>"It is the most powerful, vital, and truly tragical drama written by an +American for some years. There is genuine pathos, mighty yet never +repellent passion, great sincerity and penetration, and great elevation +and beauty of language."—<i>The Chicago Post.</i></p> + + +<h4>Song-Surf</h4> + +<p>"Mr. Rice's work betrays wide sympathies with nature and life, and a +welcome originality of sentiment and metrical harmony."—<i>Sydney Lee.</i></p> + + +<h2>TRAILS SUNWARD</h2> + +<h3>By CALE YOUNG RICE</h3> + +<p>"Cale Young Rice has written some of the finest poetry of the last +decade, and is the author of the very best poetic dramas ever written by +an American.... He is one of the few supreme lyrists ... and one of the +few remaining lovers of beauty ... who write it. One of the very few +writers of <i>vers libre</i> who know just what they are doing."—<i>The Los +Angles Times.</i></p> + +<p>"Another book by Cale Young Rice ... one of the few poetic geniuses this +country has produced.... In its sixty or more poems may be found the +hall mark of individuality that denotes preeminence and signalizes +independence."—<i>The Philadelphia North American.</i></p> + +<p>"Mr. Rice attempts and succeeds in deepening the note of his singing ... +keeping its brilliant technique, its intricate verse formation, but +seeking all the while for words to interpret the profound things of +life. The music of his lines is more perfect than ever, his rhythms +fresh and varied."—<i>Littell's Living Age.</i></p> + +<p>"Cale Young Rice's work is always simple and sincere ... but that does +not prevent him from voicing his song with passion and virility. Nearly +all his poems have elevation of thought and feeling, with beauty of +imagery and music."—<i>The New York Times.</i></p> + +<p>"Whether the forms of this book are lyrical, narrative, or dramatic, +there is an excellence of workmanship that denotes the master hand.... +And while the range of ideas is broad, the treatment of each is +distinguished by a strength and beauty remarkably fine."—<i>The Continent +(Chicago).</i></p> + +<p>"Mr. Rice proves the fine argument of his preface ... for this book has +in it form and beauty and a full reflection of the externals as well as +the soul of the America he loves."—<i>The Philadelphia Public Ledger.</i></p> + +<p>"The work of this poet always demands and receives unstinted +admiration.... His is not the poetic fashion of the moment, but of all +poetic time."—<i>The Chicago Herald.</i></p> + +<p>"In 'Trails Sunward,' Mr. Rice demonstrates as heretofore the +possibility of attaining poetic growth and originality even in the +Twentieth Century, without extremism.... Sanity linked with vitality and +breadth in art make for permanence, and one can but feel that Mr. Rice +builds for more than a day."—<i>The Louisville Courier Journal.</i></p> + +<p>"I rarely use the term 'sublimity,' yet in touches of 'The Foreseers,' +particularly in its cavern-set opening, I should say that Mr. Rice had +scaled that eminence."—<i>O. W. Firkins (The Nation).</i></p> + +<p><i>12mo. 150 pages. Price $1.50</i></p> + + +<h2>EARTH AND NEW EARTH</h2> + +<h3>By CALE YOUNG RICE</h3> + +<p>"America has today no poet who answers so well the multiplex tests of +poetry as does Cale Young Rice."—<i>New York Sun.</i></p> + +<p>"Glancing through the reviews quoted at the end of 'Earth and New Earth' +we note that we have said some very enthusiastic things in praise of the +poetry of Cale Young Rice, and yet there is not an adjective we would +withdraw. On the contrary each new volume only confirms the expectation +of the better work this writer was to produce."—<i>The San Francisco +Chronicle.</i></p> + +<p>"This is a volume of verse rich in dramatic quality and beauty of +conception.... Every poem is quotable and the collection must appeal to +all who can appreciate the highest forms of modern verse."—<i>The +Bookseller (New York).</i></p> + +<p>"Any one familiar with 'Cloister Lays,' 'The Mystic,' etc., does not +need to be told that they rank with the very best poetry. And Mr. Rice's +dramas are not equaled by any other American author's.... And when those +who are loyal to poetic traditions cherished through the whole history +of our language contemplate the anemia and artificiality of +contemporaries, they can but assert that Mr. Rice has the grasp and +sweep, the rhythm, imagery and pulsating sympathy, which in wondering +admiration are ascribed to genius."—<i>The Los Angeles Times.</i></p> + +<p>"This latest collection shows no diminution in Mr. Rice's versatility or +power of expression. Its poems are serious, keen, distinctively free and +vitally spiritual in thought."—<i>The Continent (Chicago).</i></p> + +<p>"Mr. Rice is concerned with thoughts that are more than timely; they +represent a large vision of the world events now transpiring ... and his +affirmation of the spiritual in such an hour establishes him in the +immemorial office of the poet-prophet.... The volume is a worthy +addition to the large amount of his work."—<i>Anna L. Hopper in The +Louisville Courier-Journal.</i></p> + +<p>"Cale Young Rice is the greatest living American poet."—<i>D. F. +Hannigan, Lit. Ed. The Rochester Post-Express.</i></p> + +<p>"The indefinable spirit of swift imaginative suggestion is never +lacking. The problems of fate are still big with mystery and propounded +with tense elemental dramatism."—<i>The Philadelphia North-American.</i></p> + +<p>"The work of Cale Young Rice emerges clearly as the most distinguished +offering of this country to the combined arts of poetry and the drama. +'Earth and New Earth' strikes a ringing new note of the earth which +shall be after the War."—<i>The Memphis Commercial-Appeal.</i></p> + +<p><i>12mo. 158 pages. $1.50</i></p> + + +<h2>TURN ABOUT TALES</h2> + +<h3>(PROSE)</h3> + +<h4>By CALE YOUNG RICE and ALICE HEGAN RICE</h4> + +<p>"This volume of stories should hold its own with any collection likely +to be published this year."—<i>New York Post (The Literary Review).</i></p> + +<p>"American writers have been distinctive as narrators of the short story, +but few, if any, volumes of such stories have recently been published in +this country equal to 'Turn About Tales.'"—<i>D. F. Hannigan (The +Rochester Post-Express).</i></p> + +<p>"The gamut of the volume runs from spiritualism to the depths. It +contains something of almost anything one happens to want. Better yet, +it contains something new."—<i>The Boston Transcript.</i></p> + +<p>"Mr. Rice has written well—so well as to justify prediction that he +will, if he elect to do so, achieve greater distinction as a short story +writer than as a poet. His 'Lowry,' 'Francella' and 'Aaron Harwood,' to +cite a few of the stories, meet the test of artistic stories.... Each +leaves an impression that will impel re-reading."—<i>Galveston News.</i></p> + +<p>"Both writers portray, in their best vein, a consummate though +distinctive skill in analyzing and delineating human emotions and +experience."—<i>Buffalo Commercial.</i></p> + +<p>"Those who have read Mr. Rice's poetry will find his dramatic genius +manifest in these stories."—<i>The Watchman, N. Y.</i></p> + +<p>"Mrs. Rice's humor and pathos combine well with Mr. Rice's mastery of +diction and deep human understanding."—<i>Milwaukee Journal.</i></p> + +<p>"Each story is notable for beauty of technique ... each has its definite +appeal."—<i>Louisville Evening Post (Margaret S. Anderson).</i></p> + +<p>"Each of the stories is of such finished workmanship as to make reading +of it an unadulterated pleasure."—<i>Baltimore Sun.</i></p> + +<p>"The book is one of the best of the kind in this year's American +fiction."—<i>The Spectator (Portland, Ore.)</i></p> + +<p>"Mr. Rice has grappled with the constructive problems of his time, so +one finds them without surprise in this newly adopted vehicle.... Three +of his stories have a realism as relentless as Chekov's ... and it goes +without saying that his stories are technically admirable."—<i>Louisville +Courier-Journal.</i></p> + +<p>"Mr. Rice so lives through his characters that, as Whitman says, he 'Is +that man' of whom he writes."—<i>Pittsburg Sun.</i></p> + +<p>"The same dramatic power and beauty that mark Mr. Rice's lyrics will be +found in these prose stories."—<i>Cincinnati Times-Star.</i></p> + +<p>"One seldom finds a book of short stories so satisfying +throughout."—<i>Minneapolis Journal.</i></p> + +<p><i>Price $1.90</i></p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sea Poems, by Cale Young Rice + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEA POEMS *** + +***** This file should be named 31877-h.htm or 31877-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/8/7/31877/ + +Produced by David Garcia, Josephine Paolucci and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Kentuckiana Digital Library.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/31877.txt b/31877.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5d3083e --- /dev/null +++ b/31877.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4018 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sea Poems, by Cale Young Rice + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Sea Poems + +Author: Cale Young Rice + +Release Date: April 4, 2010 [EBook #31877] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEA POEMS *** + + + + +Produced by David Garcia, Josephine Paolucci and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Kentuckiana Digital Library.) + + + + + + + +SEA POEMS + +BY + +CALE YOUNG RICE + +AUTHOR OF + +"WRAITHS AND REALITIES," "TRAILS SUNWARD," "COLLECTED POEMS," ETC. + +NEW YORK +THE CENTURY CO. +1921 + + +Copyright, 1921, by +The Century Co. + + +TO +HARRISON S. MORRIS +A HATER OF SHAM AND PRETENSE, +A LOVER OF BEAUTY AND TRUTH, +A FIRM FRIEND. + + + + +FOREWORD + + +The poems of this volume, gathered here after many requests, are, with a +few exceptions, from my previous lyrical publications. They are also in +a real sense an intimate record. For the sea has often enough seemed to +me almost as a vast external subconsciousness in which the forces of my +being--as well as the world's--were at play. + +Cale Young Rice. + +Louisville, Ky., August, 1921. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + +Sea-Hoardings 3 + +The Shore's Song to the Sea 5 + +To a Firefly by the Sea 9 + +Invocation 11 + +I Know Your Heart, O Sea! 11 + +A Sea-Ghost 13 + +Finitude 15 + +The Colonel's Story 16 + +Cosmism 21 + +Off the Irish Coast 22 + +The Fairies of God 23 + +The Song of the Homesick Gael 24 + +Pageants of the Sea 26 + +A Song of the Old Venetians 29 + +Basking 30 + +Sappho's Death Song 32 + +The Wind's Word 33 + +Submarine Mountains 34 + +The Song of the Storm-Spirits 36 + +The Great Seducer 37 + +K'u-Kiang 38 + +Typhoon 39 + +Penang 41 + +Nights on the Indian Ocean 42 + +Sighting Arabia 44 + +"All's Well" 45 + +Somnambulism 47 + +Chartings 48 + +The Trail from the Sea 50 + +Haunted Seas 54 + +Sea Lure 54 + +Songs to A. H. R. + + I Minglings 56 + II Love and Infinity 56 + III Recompense 57 + IV At the Ebb-Hour 58 + V In a Dark Hour 59 + VI Via Amorosa 59 + VII Transfusion 61 + +Need of Storm 62 + +A Florida Interlude 63 + +A Florida Boating Song 65 + +Dawn Bliss 66 + +Atavism 68 + +Re-reckoning 69 + +To the Afternoon Moon, At Sea 70 + +Paths 71 + +From a Northern Beach 73 + +Passage 74 + +Aleen 75 + +To a Solitary Sea-Gull 76 + +Ineffable Things 77 + +The Song of a Sea-Farer 78 + +Waves 79 + +In a Storm 80 + +After Their Parting 80 + +A Word's Magic 82 + +Sea Rhapsody 83 + +In an Oriental Harbour 84 + +Under the Sky 85 + +A Song for Healing 86 + +A Singhalese Love Lament 87 + +The City 89 + +Full Tide 89 + +The Herding 91 + +On the Maine Coast 92 + +Seance 93 + +A Sidmouth Lad 93 + +Widowed 94 + +To the Sea 95 + +Sea-Mad 97 + +The Atheist 98 + +At the Helm 99 + +Imperturbable 100 + +Waste 100 + +Resurgence 101 + +Life's Answer 103 + +As the Tide Comes In 103 + +Sense-Sweetness 104 + +Tidals 105 + +A Sailor's Wife 105 + +To Sea! 106 + +Give Over, O Sea! 107 + +The Nun 109 + +Last Sight of Land 110 + + + + +SEA POEMS + +BY CALE YOUNG RICE + + + + +SEA-HOARDINGS + + + My heart is open again and sea flows in, + It shall fill with a summer of mists and winds and clouds and waves breaking, + Of gull-wings over the green tide, of the surf's drenching din, + Of sudden horizon-sails that come and vanish, phantom-thin, + Of arching sapphire skies, deep and unaching. + + I shall lie on the rocks just over the weeds that drape + The clear sea-pools, where birth and death in sunny ooze are teeming. + Where the crab in quest of booty sidles about, a sullen shape, + Where the snail creeps and the mussel sleeps with wary valves agape, + Where life is too grotesque to be but seeming. + + And the swallow shall weave my dreams with threads of flight, + A shuttle with silver breast across the warp of the waves gliding; + And an isle far out shall be a beam in the loom of my delight, + And the pattern of every dream shall be a rapture bathed in light-- + Its evanescence a beauty most abiding. + + And the sunsets shall give sadness all its due, + They shall stain the sands and trouble the tides with all the ache of sorrow. + They shall bleed and die with a beauty of meaning old yet ever new, + They shall burn with all the hunger for things that hearts have failed to do, + They shall whisper of a gold that none can borrow. + + And the stars shall come and build a bridge of fire + For the moon to cross the boundless sea, with never a fear of sinking. + They shall teach me of the magic things of life never to tire, + And how to renew, when it is low, the lamp of my desire-- + And how to hope, in the darkest deeps of thinking. + + + + +THE SHORE'S SONG TO THE SEA + + + Out on the rocks primeval, + The grey Maine rocks that slant and break to the sea, + With the bay and juniper round them, + And the leagues on leagues before them, + And the terns and gulls wheeling and crying, wheeling and crying over, + I sat heart-still and listened. + + And first I could only hear the wind in my ears, + And the foam trying to fill the high rock-shallows. + And then, over the wind, over the whitely blossoming foam, + Low, low, like a lover's song beginning, + I heard the nuptial pleading of the old shore, + A pleading ever occultly growing louder:-- + + _O sea, glad bride of me! + Born of the bright ether and given to wed me, + Given to glance, ever, for me, and gleam and dance in the sun-- + Come to my arms, come to my reaching arms, + That seem so still and unavailing to take you, and hold you, + Yet never forget, + Never by day or night, + The hymeneal delights of your embracings._ + + _Come, for the moon, my rival, shall not have you; + No, for tho twice daily afar he beckons and you go, + You, my bride, a little way back to meet him, + As if he once had been your lover, he too, and again enspelled you, + Soon, soon, I know it is only feigning! + For turning, playfully turning, tidally turning, + You rush foamingly, swiftly back to my arms!_ + + _And so would I have you rush; so rush now! + Come from the sands where you have stayed too long, + Come from the reefs where you have wandered silent, + For ebbings are good, the restful ebbings of love, + But, oh, the bridal flowings of it are better! + And now I would have you loose again my tresses, + My locks rough and weedy, rough and brown and brinily tangled, + But, oh, again as a bridegroom's, when your tide, whispering in, + Lifts them up, pulsingly up with kisses!_ + + _Come with your veil thrown back, breaking to spray! + And oh, with plangent passion! + Come with your naked sweetness, salt and wholesome, to my bosom; + Let not a cave or crevice of me miss you, or cranny, + For, oh, the nuptial joy you float into me, + The cooling ambient clasp of you, I have waited over-long, + And I need to know again its marriage meaning!_ + + _For I think it is not alone to bring forth life, that I mate you; + More than life is the beauty of life with love! + Plentiful are the children that you bear to me, the blossoms, + The fruits and all the creatures at your breast dewily fed, + But mating is troubled with a far higher meaning-- + A hint of a consummation for all things. + Come utterly then, + Utterly to me come, + And let us surge together, clasped close, in infinite union, + Until we reach a transcendence of all birth, and all dying, + An ecstasy holding the universe blended-- + Such ecstasy as is its ultimate Aim!_ + + So sang the shore, the long bay-scented shore, + Broken by many an isle, many an inlet bird-embosomed, + And the sea gave answer, bridally, tidally turning, + And leapt, radiant, into his rocky arms! + + + + +TO A FIREFLY BY THE SEA + + + Little torch-bearer, alone with me in the night, + You cannot light the sea, nor I illumine life. + They are too vast for us, they are too deep for us. + We glow with all our strength, but back the shadows sweep: + And after a while will come--unshadowed Sleep. + + Here on the rocks that take the turning tide; + Here by the wide lone waves and lonelier wastes of sky, + We keep our poet-watch, as patient poets should, + Questioning earth's commingled ill and good to us. + Yet little of them, or naught, have truly understood. + + Bright are the stars, and constellated thick. + To you, so quick to flit along your flickering course, + They seem perhaps as glowing mates in other fields. + And all the knowledge I have gathered yields to me + Scarce more of the great mystery their wonder wields. + + For the moon we are waiting--and behold + Her ardent gold drifts up, her sail has caught the breeze + That blows all being thro the Universe always. + So now, little light-keeper, you no more need nurse + Your gleam, for lo! she mounts, and sullen clouds disperse. + + And I with aching thought may cease to burn, + And humbly turn to rest--knowing no glow of mine + Can ever be so beauteous as have been to me + Your soft beams here beside the sea's elusive din: + For grief too oft has kindled me, and pain, and the world's sin. + + + + +INVOCATION + +(_From a High Cliff_) + + + Sweep unrest + Out of my blood, + Winds of the sea! Sweep the fog + Out of my brain + For I am one + Who has told Life he will be free. + Who will not doubt of work that's done, + Who will not fear the work to do, + Who will hold peaks Promethean + Better than all Jove's honey-dew. + Who when the Vulture tears his breast + Will smile into the Terror's Eyes. + Who for the World has this Bequest-- + Hope, that eternally is wise. + + + + +I KNOW YOUR HEART, O SEA! + + + I know your heart, O Sea! + You are tossed with cold desire to flood earth utterly; + You run at the cliffs, you fling wild billows at beaches, + You reach at islands with fingers of foam to crumble them; + Yes, even at mountain tops you shout your purpose + Of making the earth a shoreless circle of waters! + + I know your surging heart! + Tides mighty and all-contemptuous rise within it, + Tides spurred by the wind to champ and charge and thunder-- + Tho the sun and moon rein them-- + At the troubling land, the breeding-place of mortals, + Of men who are ever transmuting life to spirit, + And ever taking your salt to savor their tears. + + I know your tides, I know them! + "Down," they rage, "with the questing of men, and crying! + With their continents--cradles of grief and despair! + Better entombing waters for them, better our deeps unfathomed, + Where birth is soulless, life goalless, death toll-less for all, + And where dark ooze enshrouds past resurrection!" + + Ah, yes, I know your heart! + I have heard it raving at coast-lights set to reveal you, + I have watched it foam at ships that sought to defy you, + I have seen it straining at cables that cross you, bearing whispers hid to you, + Or heaving at waves of the air that tell your hurricanes. + + I know, I know your heart! + Men you will sink, and shores will sink; but a shore shall be man's forever, + From whence his lighthouse soul shall signal the Infinite, + Whose fleets go by, star after star, bearing their unknown burden + To a Port which only eternity shall determine! + + + + +A SEA-GHOST + + + Oh, fisher-fleet, go in from the sea + And furl your wings. + The bay is gray with the twilit spray + And the loud surf springs. + + The chill buoy-bell is rung by the hands + Of all the drowned, + Who know the woe of the wind and tow + Of the tides around. + + Go in, go in! Oh, haste from the sea, + And let them rest-- + The throng who long for the air--still long, + But are still unblest. + + Aye, even as I, whose hands at the bell + Now labour most. + The tomb has gloom, but oh, the doom + Of the drear sea-ghost! + + He evermore must wander the ooze + Beneath the wave, + Forlorn--to warn of the tempest born, + And to save--to save! + + Then go, go in! and leave us the sea, + For only so + Can peace release us and give us ease + Of our salty woe. + + + + +FINITUDE + + +I + + One ruby, amid a diamond spray of stars, + The coast light flashes; + The tide plashes, + Across a mile of bay-sweet land the moon + Comes soon: + She has lost half of her lustre and looks old. + + A cricket, finitude's incarnate cry, + And the infinite waters with their hushless sigh + Are the two sounds + The night has: + Each in eternal wistfulness abounds. + + +II + + I have wakened out of my sleep because I too + Am wistful, + Tristeful; + Because I know that half of _me_ is gone, + And that all frailty cries in the cricket's tone. + + I have wakened out of my sleep to watch and listen. + For what? + To see for a moment universes glisten; + To wonder and want--and go to sleep again, + And die, + And be forgot. + + + + +THE COLONEL'S STORY + + + No, no, my friend; there is an agony + Not to be exorcised out of the world + By any voice of hope.--But, I will tell you. + + The _Sonia_ was sailing without lights-- + Bearing three hundred souls--and without bells; + For she had reached the "Zone," where the Hun sharks + With their torpedo tongues could spit death at us + Out of the inky sea-hells where they hid. + On the main deck we stood, in a wind-shelter,-- + My wife, and by us a pale girl whose eyes + Had all disaster in them. And my thought was, + "I hope to God the moon is shut so deep + In cloud-murk there in the East that hurricanes + Can't blow her out of it." For in the Zone + The moon had come to mean only betrayal, + And now, if ever, was her wanton chance. + + The slipping water soaked with soulless dark + Fell under and around us shudderingly, + Yet somehow brought an anxious hopefulness. + "We're making twenty knots," I said; and felt + Our bow cut thro the tangle of the waves + As if the No Man's _Sea_ ahead of us + Would soon be crossed; and I, out to rejoin + My regiment, could set my wife safe somewhere, + And help again to stab that curst amphibian, + Autocracy--whose spawn in the sea gave it + A terror greater than infinitude's. + For God knows, with the woman that one loves + Aboard a ship, and only a cloud perhaps + Between the Hun's shark eyes and sure escape + From the black icy fathoms that would choke her, + There's little left within a man but nerves. + So when I drew her closer into the shelter, + Out of the sheering wind, the life belt + She wore seemed like a coffin in that sepulchre + Of night and sea. And when the other, there, + With the disaster eyes and pallid face, + Turned half toward us, I was shaken as if + The moon had suddenly walked out of her shroud + With phosphorescent purpose to reveal us. + + But on we plunged and tumbled, till at last + The blank monotonous sink and swell lulled me + To faith. And I was only thinking softly + Of her--my wife's--first kiss on a summer night + Under the moonlit laurels of our home, + When came a cry from the wan girl gazing + Frozenly on the sea--where the moon now + Indeed was pointing at us pallidly + A death-path. And my throat was gripped by it, + That clutching cry, as if the glacial depths + Down under us already had risen up. + So starting toward the slipping rail I called, + "What is it? where?" For, tense as a clairvoyant, + With eyes that seemed to feel under the tide + The stealthy peril stalking us, she stood there. + + After a moment's gazing, I too saw-- + What she foresensed--destruction seething toward us. + "The boats!" I cried, "the rafts!" And stumbled back + Over the streaming deck to her I loved. + Then the shock came, as if the sea's wild heart + Had broken under us, and ripped the entrails, + The human hundreds, out of our vessel's hold, + To strew the foam with mania and despair, + With shrieks strangled by wind and wave and terror. + And thro that floating, mangled, blind confusion, + Where hands reached at the infinite then sank, + Where faces clung to wreckage as to eternity, + I sought for her who shared my life's voyage, + Who had been my heart's pilot; and who now, + Wrecked with me, swirled, too, in the torn waters.... + And soon I saw her, still by that wan girl, + Tossed on a watery omnipotence. + + Blind with brine I swam for her--as the moon, + Her treachery done, again got to a cloud. + Flung back by every wave, I fought; beating + Against them as against God. And soon, somehow, + Had reached to a limp body on the surge, + Limp and strange--but living ... and not drowned! + Then seeing a raft near, I struggled onward, + Gulping the sea and being gulped by it, + But finding arms at last that drew my burden + And me from horror to half-swooning safety. + + I could have died, I think, of the relief. + But the moon came again, nakedly out, + As if to see what she had done. Then I, + Bending over the form that I had fought for, + And chafing it, saw ... not her I loved! + Infinite Cruelty, not her I loved!... + But that pale girl, with the eyes of all disaster. + + Oh, yes, I raved, and said God was a Hun, + A Kaiser of a Universe that loathed him. + And back, too, would have leapt, into the waves, + But the same hands that saved were ready to hold me. + + + + +COSMISM + + + The sea asleep like a dreamer sighs; + The salt rock-pools lie still in the sun, + Except for the sidling crab that creeps + Thro the moveless mosses green and dun. + The small gray snail clings everywhere, + For the tide is out; and the sea-weed dries + Its tangled tresses in the warm air, + That seems to ooze from the far blue skies, + Where not a white gull on white wing flies. + + The mollusc gleams like a gem amid + The scurf and the clustered green sea-grapes, + Whose trellis is but the rock's bare side, + Whose husbandman but the tide that drapes. + The little sandpiper tilts and picks + His food, on the wet sea-marges hid, + Till sudden a wave comes in and flicks + Him off, then flashes away to bid + Another frighten him--as it did. + + O sweet is the world of living things, + And sweet are the mingled sea and shore! + It seems as if I never again + Shall find life ill--as oft before. + As if my days should come as the clouds + Come yonder--and vanish without wings; + As if all sorrow that ever shrouds + My soul and darkly about it clings + Had lost forever its ravenings. + + As if I knew with a deeper sense + That good alone is ultimate; + That never an evil wrought of God + Or man came truly out of hate. + That Better springs from the heart of Worse, + As calm from the heaving elements; + That all things born to the Universe + May suffer and perish utterly hence, + But never refute its Innocence. + + + + +OFF THE IRISH COAST + + + Gulls on the wind, + Crying! crying! + Are you the ghosts + Of Erin's dead? + Of the forlorn + Whose days went sighing + Ever for Beauty + That ever fled? + + Ever for Light + That never kindled? + Ever for Song + No lips have sung? + Ever for Joy + That ever dwindled? + Ever for Love that stung? + + + + +THE FAIRIES OF GOD + + + Last night I slipt from the banks of dream + And swam in the currents of God, + On a tide where His fairies were at play, + Catching salt tears in their little white hands, + For human hearts; + And dancing, dancing, in gala bands, + On the currents of God; + And singing, singing:-- + + _There is no wind blows here or spray-- + Wind upon us! + Only the waters ripple away + Under our feet as we gather tears. + God has made mortals for the years, + Us for alway! + God has made mortals full of fears, + Fears for the night and fears for the day. + If they would free them of grief that sears, + If they would keep what love endears, + If they would lay no more lilies on biers-- + Let them say! + For we are swift to enchant and tire + Time's will! + Our feet are wiser than all desire, + Our song is better than faith or fame; + To whom it is given no ill e'er came, + Who has it not grows chill! + Who has it not grows laggard and lame, + Nor knows that the world is a Minstrel's lyre, + Smitten and never still!..._ + + Last night on the currents of God. + + + + +THE SONG OF THE HOMESICK GAEL + +(_In the characteristic minor of a recent literary movement_) + + + I long to see the solan-goose + Wing over Ailsa crag + At dusk again--or Girvan gulls at dawn; + To see the osprey grayly glide + The winds of Kamasaig: + For grayness now my heart is set upon. + + The grayness of sea-spaces where + There's loneliness alone, + Save for the wings that sweep it with unrest, + Save for the hunger-cries that sound + And die into a moan, + Save for the moaning hunger in my breast. + + For grayness is the hue of all + In life that is not lies. + A thousand years of tears are in my heart; + And only in their mystery + Can I be truly wise: + From light and laughter follies only start. + + I long to see the mists again + Above the tumbling tide + Of Ailsa, at the coming of the night. + There's weariness and emptiness + And soul unsatisfied + Forever in the places of delight. + + + + +PAGEANTS OF THE SEA + + + What memories have I of it, + The sea, continent-clasping, + The sea whose spirit is a sorcery, + The sea whose magic foaming is immortal! + What memories have I of it thro the years! + + What memories of its shores!... + Of shadowy headlands doomed to stay the storm; + And red cliffs clawing ever into the tides; + Of misty moors whose royal heather purples; + Of channeled marshes, village-nesting hills; + Of crags wind-eaten, homes of hungry gulls; + Of bays-- + Where sails float furled, resting softly at harbour, + Until, winging again, they sweep away. + + What memories have I, too, + Of faring out at dawn upon tameless waters, + Upon the infinite wasted yearning of them, + While winds, the mystic harp-strings of the world, + Were sounding sweet farewells; + While coast and lighthouse tower were fading fast, + And from me all the world slipped like a garment. + + What memories of mid-deeps!... + Of heaving on thro haunted vasts of foam, + Thro swaying terrors of tormented tides; + While the wind, no more singing, took to raving, + In rhythmic infinite words, + A chantey ancient and immeasurable + Concerning man and God. + + What memories of fog-spaces-- + Wide leaden deserts of dim wavelessness, + Smooth porpoise-broken glass + As gray as a dream upon despair's horizon; + What sailing soft till lo the shroud was lifted + And suddenly there came, as a great joy, + The blue sublimity of summer skies, + The azure mystery of happy heavens, + The passionate sweet parley of the breeze, + And dancing waves--that lured us on and on + Past islands above whose verdant mountain-heads + Enchanted clouds were hanging, + And whence wild spices wandered; + Past iridescent reefs and vessels bound + For ports unknown: + O far, far past, until the sun, in fire, + An impotent and shrunken orb lay dying, + On heaving twilight purple gathered round. + + And then, what nights!... + The phantom moon in misty resurrection + Arising from her sepulchre in the East + And sparkling the dark waters-- + The unremembering moon! + And covenants of star to faithful star, + Dewy, like tears of God, across the sky; + And under the moon's fair ring Orion running + Forever in great war adown the West. + What far, infinite nights! + With cloud-horizons where the lightning slumbered + Or wakened once and again with startled watch, + Again to fall asleep + And leave the moon-path free for all my thoughts + To wander peacefully + Away and still away + Until the stars sighed out in dawn's great pallor, + Just as the lands of my desire appeared. + + What memories ... have I of it! + + + + +A SONG OF THE OLD VENETIANS + + + The seven fleets of Venice + Set sail across the sea + For Cyprus and for Trebizond + Ayoub and Araby. + Their gonfalons are floating far, + St. Mark's has heard the mass, + And to the noon the salt lagoon + Lies white, like burning glass. + + The seven fleets of Venice-- + And each its way to go, + Led by a Falier or Tron, + Zorzi or Dandalo. + The Patriarch has blessed them all, + The Doge has waved the word, + And in their wings the murmurings + Of waiting winds are heard. + + The seven fleets of Venice-- + And what shall be their fate? + One shall return with porphyry + And pearl and fair agate. + One shall return with spice and spoil + And silk of Samarcand. + But nevermore shall _one_ win o'er + The sea, to any land. + + _Oh, they shall bring the East back, + And they shall bring the West, + The seven fleets our Venice sets + A-sail upon her quest. + But some shall bring despair back + And some shall leave their keels + Deeper than wind or wave frets, + Or sun ever steals._ + + + + +BASKING + + + Give me a spot in the sun, + With a lizard basking by me, + In Sicily, over the sea, + Where Winter is sweet as Spring, + Where Etna lifts his plume + Of curling smoke to try me, + But all in vain for I will not climb + His height so ravishing. + + Give me a spot in the sun, + So high on a cliff that, under, + Far down, the flecking sails + Like white moths flit the blue; + That over me on a crag + There hangs, O aery wonder, + A white town drowsing in its nest + That cypress-tops peep thro. + + Give me a spot in the sun, + With contadini singing, + And a goat-boy at his pipes + And donkey bells heard round + Upon steep mountain paths + Where a peasant cart comes swinging + Mid joyous hot invectives--that + So blameless here abound. + + Give me a spot in the sun, + In a land whose speech is flowers, + Whose breath is Hybla-sweet, + Whose soul is still a faun's, + Whose limbs the sea enlaps, + Thro long delicious hours, + With liquid tenderness and light + Sweet as Elysian dawns. + + Give me a spot in the sun + With a view past vale and villa, + Past grottoed isle and sea + To Italy and the Cape + Around whose turning lies + Old heathen-hearted Scylla, + Whom may an ancient sailor prayed + The gods he might escape. + + Give me a spot in the sun: + With sly old Pan as lazy + As I, ever to tempt me + To disbelief and doubt + Of all gods else, from Jove + To Bacchus born wine-crazy. + Give me, I say, a spot in the sun, + And Realms I'll do without! + + + + +SAPPHO'S DEATH SONG + +(_On her sea-cliff in Leucady_) + + + What have I gathered the years did not take from me? + (Swallows, hear, as you fly from the cold!) + Whom have I bound to me never to break from me? + (Whom, O wind of the wold?) + Whom, O wind! O hunter of spirits! + (Pierce his spirit whose spear is in mine!) + Then let Oblivion loose this ache from me, Proserpine! + + Lyre and the laurel the Muses gave to me, + (Why comes summer when winter is nigh!) + Spent am I now and pain-voices rave to me. + (O sea and its cry!) + O the sea that has suffered all sorrow! + (Sea of the Delphian tongue ever shrill!) + Nought from the wreck of love can now save to me + Any thrill! + + Life that we live passes pale or amorous. + (Tread, O vintagers, grapes in the press!) + Mine's but a prey to Erinnyes clamorous. + (O for wine that will bless!) + Wine that foams, but is free of all madness + (Free, O Cypris, of fury's breath!) + Free as I now shall be, O glamorous + Queen of Death! + + + + +THE WIND'S WORD + + + A star that I love, + The sea, and I, + Spake together across the night. + "Have peace," said the star, + "Have power," said the sea; + "Yea!" I answered, "and Fame's delight!" + The wind on his way + To Araby + Paused and listened and sighed and said, + "I passed on the sands + A Pharaoh's tomb: + All these did he have--and he is dead." + + + + +SUBMARINE MOUNTAINS + + + Under the sea, which is their sky, they rise + To watery altitudes as vast as those + Of far Himalayan peaks impent in snows + And veils of cloud and sacred deep repose. + Under the sea, their flowing firmament, + More dark than any ray of sun can pierce, + The earthquake thrust them up with mighty tierce + And left them to be seen but by the eyes + Of awed imagination inward bent. + + Their vegetation is the viscid ooze, + Whose mysteries are past belief or thought. + Creation seems around them devil-wrought, + Or by some cosmic urgence gone distraught. + Adown their precipices chill and dense + With the dank midnight creep or crawl or climb + Such tentacled and eyeless things of slime, + Such monster shapes as tempt us to accuse + Life of a miscreative impotence. + + About their peaks the shark, their eagle, floats, + In the thick azure far beneath the air, + Or downward sweeps upon what prey may dare + Set forth from any silent weedy lair. + But one desire on all their slopes is found, + Desire of food, the awful hunger strife, + Yet here, it may be, was begun our life + Here all the dreams on which our vision dotes + In unevolved obscurity were bound. + + Too strange it is, too terrible! And yet + It matters not how we were wrought or whence + Life came to us with all its throb intense + If in it is a Godly Immanence. + It matters not,--if haply we are more + Than creatures half-conceived by a blind force + That sweeps the universe in a chance course: + For only in Unmeaning Might is met + The intolerable thought none can ignore. + + + + +THE SONG OF THE STORM-SPIRITS + + + Come over the tide, + Come over the foam, + Dance on the hurricane, leap its waves, + Dream not of the calm sea-caves + Nor of content in them and home. + For that is the reason the hearts of men + Are ever weary--they would abide + Somewhere out of the spumy stride + Of the world's spindrift--a want denied. + That is the reason: tho they know + That the restive years have no true home, + But only a Whence, Whither, and When-- + Whence and Whither, for hearts to roam. + So who would tarry and rest the while, + Not dance as we, and sing on the wind, + Against the whole flow of the world has sinned, + And soon is weary and cannot smile. + Dance then, dance, on the fleeting spray! + None can gather eternity + Into his heart and bid it stay, + Swiftly again it slips away. + Dance, and know that the will of Life + Is the wind's will and the will of the tide, + And who finds not a home in its strife + Shall find no home on any side! + + + + +THE GREAT SEDUCER + + + Who looks too long from his window + At the gray, wide, cold sea, + Where breakers scour the beaches + With fingers of sharp foam; + Who looks too long thro the gray pane + At the mad, wild, bold sea, + Shall sell his hearth to a stranger + And turn his back on home. + + Who looks too long from his window-- + Tho his wife waits by the fireside-- + At a ship's wings in the offing, + At a gull's wings on air, + Shall latch his gate behind him, + Tho his cattle call from the byre-side, + And kiss his wife--and leave her-- + And wander everywhere. + + Who looks too long in the twilight, + Or the dawn-light, or the noon-light, + Who sees an anchor lifted + And hungers past content, + Shall pack his chest for the world's end, + For alien sun--or moonlight, + And follow the wind, sateless, + To Disillusionment! + + + + +K'U-KIANG + + + Because the sun like a Chinese lantern + Set in a temple of clouds tonight, + I was back in K'u-Kiang! + + Because in a temple of dragon clouds, + As if with incense misty red, + It hung there over the rim of the sea, + I was back in a narrow street, + Where amber faces pass all day, + Going to pay, going to pray, + Going the same old human way + They have gone for a thousand years, men say, + In K'u-Kiang. + + And I heard the coolie cry for his fare, + I heard the merchant praise his ware + Of bronze and porcelain set to snare, + In K'u-Kiang! + I saw strange streaming signs in black + With gold and crimson on their back-- + Opiate signs in an opiate street; + Where the slip and patter of felt-shod feet + Is old as the sun; + And the temple door + As cool and dark as the night. + + And where dim lanterns, swinging there, + As a lure to human grief and care, + Half reveal and half conceal + The ancestral gloom of the gods. + + I saw all this with sudden pang, + As if by hashish swept or bhang, + Because the sun, like a Chinese lantern, + Set in a temple of clouds! + + + + +TYPHOON + +(_At Hong-kong_) + + + I was weary and slept on the Peak; + The air clung close like a shroud, + And ever the blue-fly at my ear + Buzzed haunting, hot and loud; + I awoke and the sky was dun + With awe and a dread that soon + Went shuddering thro my heart, for I knew + That it meant typhoon! typhoon! + + In the harbour below, far down, + The junks like fowl in a flock + Were tossing in wingless terror, or fled + Fluttering in from the shock. + The city, a breathless bend + Of roofs, by the water strewn, + Lay silent and waiting, yet there was none + Within it but said typhoon! + + Then it came, like a million winds + Gone mad immeasurably, + A torrid and tortuous tempest stung + By rape of the fair South Sea. + And it swept like a scud escaped + From crater of sun or moon, + And struck as no power of Heaven could, + Or of Hell--typhoon! typhoon! + + And the junks were smitten and torn, + The drowning struggled and cried, + Or, dashed on the granite walls of the sea, + In succourless hundreds died. + Till I shut the sight from my eyes + And prayed for my soul to swoon: + If ever I see God's face, let it + Be guiltless of that typhoon! + + + + +PENANG + + + I want to go back to Singapore + And ship along the Straits, + To a bungalow I know beside Penang; + Where cocoanut palms along the shore + Are waving, and the gates + Of Peace shut Sorrow out forevermore. + I want to go back and hear the surf + Come beating in at night, + Like the washing of eternity over the dead. + I want to see dawn fare up and day + Go down in golden light; + I want to go back to Penang! I want to go back! + + I want to go back to Singapore + And up along the Straits + To the bungalow that waits me by the tide. + Where the Tamil and Malay tell their lore + At evening--and the fates + Have set no soothless canker at life's core. + I want to go back and mend my heart + Beneath the tropic moon, + While the tamarind-tree is whispering thoughts of sleep. + I want to believe that Earth again + With Heaven is in tune. + I want to go back to Penang! I want to go back! + + I want to go back to Singapore + And ship along the Straits + To the bungalow I left upon the strand. + Where the foam of the world grows faint before + It enters, and abates + In meaning as I hear the palm-wind pour. + I want to go back and end my days + Some evening when the Cross + On the southern sky hangs heavily far and sad. + I want to remember when I die + That life elsewhere was loss. + I want to go back to Penang! I want to go back! + + + + +NIGHTS ON THE INDIAN OCEAN + + + Nights on the Indian Ocean, + Long nights of moon and foam, + When silvery Venus low in the sky + Follows the sun home. + Long nights when the mild monsoon + Is breaking south-by-west, + And when soft clouds and the singing shrouds + Make all that is seem best. + + Nights on the Indian Ocean, + Long nights of space and dream, + When silent Sirius round the Pole + Swings on, with steady gleam; + When oft the pushing prow + Seems pressing where before + No prow has ever pressed--or shall + From hence forevermore. + + Nights on the Indian Ocean, + Long nights--with land at last, + Dim land, dissolving the long sea-spell + Into a sudden past-- + That seems as far away + As this our life shall seem + When under the shadow of death's shore + We drop its ended dream. + + + + +SIGHTING ARABIA + + + My heart, that is Arabia, O see! + That talismanic sweep of sunset coast, + Which lies like richly wrought enchantment's ghost + Before us, bringing back youth's witchery! + + "Arabian Nights!" At last to us one comes, + The crescent moon upon its purple brow. + Will not Haroun and Bagdad rise up now + There on the shore, to beating of his drums? + + Is not that gull a roc? That sail Sindbad's? + That rocky pinnacle a minaret? + Does the wind call to prayer from it? O yet + I hear the fancy, fervid as a lad's! + + "Allah il Allah," rings it; O my heart, + Fall prostrate, for to Mecca we are near, + That flashing light is but a sign sent clear + From her, your houri, as her curtains part! + + Soon she will lean out from her lattice, soon, + And bid you climb up to your Paradise, + Which is her panting lips and passion eyes + Under the drunken sweetness of the moon! + + O heart, my heart, drink deeply ere they die, + The sunset dome, the minaret, the dreams + Flashing afar from youth's returnless streams: + For we, my heart, must grow old, you and I! + + + + +"ALL'S WELL" + + + I + + The illimitable leaping of the sea, + The mouthing of its madness to the moon, + The seething of its endless sorcery, + Its prophecy no power can attune, + Swept over me as, on the sounding prow + Of a great ship that steered into the stars, + I stood and felt the awe upon my brow + Of death and destiny and all that mars. + + + II + + The wind that blew from Cassiopeia cast + Wanly upon my ear a rune that rung; + The sailor in his eyrie on the mast + Sang an "All's well," that to the spirit clung + Like a lost voice from some aerial realm + Where ships sail on forever to no shore, + Where Time gives Immortality the helm, + And fades like a far phantom from life's door. + + + III + + "And is all well, O Thou Unweariable, + Who launchest worlds upon bewildered space," + Rose in me, "All? or did thy hand grow dull + Building this world that bears a piteous race? + O was it launched too soon or launched too late? + Or can it be a derelict that drifts + Beyond thy ken toward some reef of Fate + On which Oblivion's sand forever shifts?" + + + IV + + The sea grew softer as I questioned--calm + With mystery that like an answer moved, + And from infinity there fell a balm, + The old peace that God _is_, tho all unproved. + The old faith that tho gulfs sidereal stun + The soul, and knowledge drown within their deep, + There is no world that wanders, no not one + Of all the millions, that He does not keep. + + + + +SOMNAMBULISM + + + I + + Night is above me, + And Night is above the night. + The sea is beside me soughing, or is still. + The earth as a somnambulist moves on + In a strange sleep ... + A sea-bird cries. + And the cry wakes in me + Dim, dead sea-folk, my sires-- + Who more than myself are me. + Who sat on their beach long nights ago and saw + The sea in its silence; + And cursed it or implored; + Or with the Cross defied; + Then on the morrow in their boats went down. + + + II + + Night is above me ... + And Night is above the night. + Rocks are about me, and, beyond, the sand ... + And the low reluctant tide, + That rushes back to ebb a last farewell + To the flotsam borne so long upon its breast. + Rocks ... But the tide is out, + And the slime lies naked, like a thing ashamed + That has no hiding-place. + And the sea-bird hushes-- + The bird and all far cries within my blood-- + And earth as a somnambulist moves on. + + + + +CHARTINGS + + + There is no moon, only the sea and stars; + There is no land, only the vessel's bow + On which I stand alone and wonder how + Men ever dream of ports beyond the bars + Of Finitude that fix the Here and Now. + A meteor falls, and foam beneath me breaks; + Dim phosphor fires within it faintly die. + So soft the sea is that it seems a sky + On which eternity to life awakes. + + The universe is spread before my face, + Worlds where perchance a million seas like this + Are flowing and where tides of pain and bliss + Find, as on earth, so prevalent a place + That nothing of their wont we there should miss. + The Universe, that man has dared to say + Is but one Being--ah, courageous thought! + Which is so vast that hope itself is fraught + With shame, while saying it, and shrinks away. + + Shrinks, even as now! For clouds sweep up the skies + And darken the wide waters circling round, + From out whose deep arises the old sound + Of Terror unto which no tongue replies + But Faith--that nothing ever shall confound. + Not only pagan Perseus but the Cross + Is shrouded--with wild wind and wilder rain, + That on me beat until my soul again + Sings unsurrendering to fears of Loss. + + For this I know,--yea, tho all else lie hid + Uncharted on the waters of our fate, + All lands of Whence or Whither, whose estate + In vain imagination seeks to thrid, + Yet cannot, for the fog within Death's gate,-- + This thing I know, that life, whatever its Source + Or Destiny, comes with an upward urge, + And that we cannot thwart its mighty surge, + But with a joy in strife must keep the course. + + + + +THE TRAIL FROM THE SEA + + + I took the trail to the wooded canyon, + The trail from the sea: + For I heard a calling in me, + A landward calling irresistible in me:-- + + _Have done with things of the sea--things of the soul; + Have done with waters that slip away from under you. + Have done with things faithless, things unfathomable and vain; + With the vast deeps of Time and the Hereafter._ + + _Have done with the fog-breather, the fog-beguiler; + With the foam of the never-resting. + Have done with tides and passions, tides and mysteries for a season. + Have done with infinite yearnings cast adrift on infinite vagueness-- + With never a certain sail, never a rudder sure for guidance, + With never a compass-needle free of desire._ + + _For the ways of earth are good, as well as sea-ways, + The peaks of it as well as ports unknown. + Not only perils matter, stormy perils, over the pathless, + Not only the shoals that sink your ship of dreams. + Not only the phantom lure of far horizons, + Not only the windy guess at the goals of God._ + + _But morning matters, and dew upon the rose, + And noon, shadowless noon, and simple sheep on the pastures straying. + And toil matters, amid the accustomed corn, + And peace matters, the valley-spirit of peace, unprone to wander, + Unprone to pierce to the world's end--and past it. + And zephyrs matter, that never lift up a sail, + Save that of the thistle voyaging over the meadow._ + + _And the lark--oh--the sunny lark--as well as the songless petrel, + Who cries the foamy length of a thousand leagues. + And silence matters, silence free of all surging, + Silence, the spirit of happiness and home._ + + _And oh how much the laugh of a child matters: + More than the green of an island suddenly lit by sun at dawn. + And friends, the greetings of friends, how they matter: + More than ships that meet and fling a wild ahoy and pass, + On any alien tides however enchanted. + And the face of love, the evening face of love, at a window waiting, + Shall ever a kindled Light on any long-unlifting shore, + Shall ever a Harbor Light like that light matter?_ + + _Ah no! so enough of the sea and the soul for a season. + Too long followed they leave life as a dream, + Reality as a mirage when port is made. + "Ever in sight of the human," is the helm-word of the wisest, + For earth is not earth to one upon the flood of infinity; + To the eye, then, it is but an atom-star, adrift, and oh, + No longer warm with the beating of countless hearts._ + + _No longer warm with the human throb--the simple breath of today, + With yester-hours or the near dreams of to-morrow. + No longer rich with the little innumerous blooms of brief delights, + Nor all divinely drenched with sympathy. + No longer green with the humble grass of duties that must grow, + To clothe it against desert aridity. + No longer zoned with the air of hope, no longer large with faith-- + No longer heaven enough--if Heaven fails us!_ + + + + +HAUNTED SEAS + + + A gleaming glassy ocean, + Under a sky of gray; + A tide that dreams of motion, + Or moves, as the dead may; + A bird that dips and wavers + Over lone waters round, + Then with a cry that quavers + Is gone--a spectral sound. + + The brown sad sea-weed drifting + Far from the land, and lost. + The faint warm fog unlifting, + The derelict long-tossed, + But now at rest--tho haunted + By the death-scenting shark, + Whose prey no more undaunted + Slips from it, spent and stark. + + + + +SEA LURE + +(_The Maine Coast_) + + + It is so, O sea! wild roses + Bloom here in the scent of your brine. + And the juniper round them closes, + And the bays amid them twine, + To guard and to praise their beauty; + And the gulls above them cry, + And the stern rocks stand on duty, + Where the surf beats white and high. + + It is so, O sea! wild roses, + With the day-long fog bedrenched, + Have come from their inland closes + With a thirst for you unquenched. + And over your cliffs they clamber, + And over your vast they gaze; + For the tides of you can enamour + Even them with their woodland ways. + + Yea, the passion of you and the power + And the largeness are a lure + To even the heart of a flower, + O sea, with a heart unsure! + For love is a thing unsated, + Nor ever in any breast + Has it dwelt, all want abated, + At rest. + + + + +SONGS TO A. H. R. + + +I + +MINGLINGS + + It is the old old vision, + The moonlit sea--and you. + I cannot make disseverance + Between the two. + For all the world's wide beauty + To me you seem, + All that I love in shadow + Or glow or gleam. + + It is the old old murmur, + The sea's sound and your voice. + God in his Bliss between them + Could make no choice. + For all the world's deep music + In you I hear: + Nor shall I ask death, ever, + For aught more dear. + + +II + +LOVE AND INFINITY + + Across the kindling twilight moon + A late gull wings to rest. + The sea is murmuring underneath + Its vast eternal quest. + The coast-light flashes over the tide + A red and warning eye, + And oh the world is very wide, + But you are nigh! + + The stars come out from zone to zone, + The wind knows every one + And blows their message to my heart, + As it has ever done. + "They are all God's," it tells me, "all, + However huge or high." + But ah I could not trust its call-- + Were you not by! + + +III + +RECOMPENSE + + Not if I chose from a world of days + Could I find a day like this. + The sky is a wreath of azure haze + And the sea an azure bliss. + The surf runs racing the young salt wind, + Shouting without a fear + Over reef, bar, cliff and scaur, + Where you and I lie near. + + O you and I who have watched the sky + And sea from many a shore! + You, love, and I who will live and die-- + And watch the sea no more! + O joy of the world! Joy of love, + Joy that can say to death, + "Tho you end all with your wanton pall, + We two have had this breath!" + + +IV + +AT THE EBB-HOUR + + As I hear, thro the midnight sighing, + The low ebb-tide withdrawn, + And gulls on the dark cliff crying + For far discernless dawn, + It seems that all life is lying + Within your every breath, + Yet I can not believe in dying, + Or death. + + As I hear, from the gray church tower, + The bell's unfailing sound + Peal forth hour after hour + To night's lone reaches round, + It seems as if Time's wan power + Would sear all things apace-- + All, save in my heart one flower, + Your face. + + +V + +IN A DARK HOUR + + You are not with me--only the moon, + The sea and the gulls' cry, out of tune; + The myriad cry of the gulls still strewn + On the sands where the tide will enter soon. + + You are not with me, only the breath + Of the wind--and then the wind's death. + A shrouding silence then that saith, + "Even as wind love vanisheth." + + You are not with me--only fear, + As old as earth's first frenzied bier + That severed two whose hearts were near, + And left one with all Life unclear. + + +VI + +VIA AMOROSA + + When we two walk, my love, on the path + The moon makes over the sea, + To the end of the world where sorrow hath + An end that is ecstasy, + Should we not think of the other road + Of wearying dust and stone + Our feet would fare did each but care + To follow the way alone? + + When we two slip at night to the skies + And find one star that we keep + As a trysting-place to which our eyes + May lead our souls ere sleep, + Should we not pause for a little space + And think how many must sigh + Because they gaze over starry ways + With no heart-comrade by? + + When we two then lie down to our dreams + That deepen still the delight + Of our wandering where stars and streams + Stray in immortal light, + Should we not grieve with the myriads + From East of earth to West + Who lay them down at night but to drown + A longing for some loved breast? + + Ah, yes, for life has a thousand gifts, + But love it is gives life. + Who walks thro his world in loneness lifts + A soul that is sorrow-rife. + But they to whom it is given to tread + The moon-path and not sink + Can ever say the unhappiest way + Earth has is fair, to the brink. + + +VII + +TRANSFUSION + + A shoal-light flashes east, + And livid lightning west, + The silvery dark night-sea between, + On which we ride at rest, + And gaze far, far away + Into the fretless skies, + World-sadness in our thought--but ah, + Content within our eyes. + + The ship's bell strikes--the sound + Floats shrouded to our ears, + Then suddenly, as at a touch, + The universe appears + A Presence Infinite + That penetrates our love + And makes us one with night and sea + And all the stars above. + + + + +NEED OF STORM + +(_Naples-on-the-Gulf_) + + + On the green floor of the Gulf the wind is walking, + Printing it with invisible feet; + The tide is talking. + + Purple and grey the horizon walls them round + With purpler clouds. + They wander in it like guests gently astray + In a house deep mystery shrouds. + + I do not know the speech of the tide, + For too articulate have become my years: + Beauty brings only words, not breathless tears. + + So the young heron fishing there in the foam + On the sand's edge, + Would once have taken my spirit far, far home + To the infinite, when he vanished thro the gloam. + + But now I am left behind on the beach--a shell + That no more knows the wonder of the sea's swell, + Or more than the empty echo of its knell. + + To sea then, Life, wildly to sea with a storm + Sweep me again, + From the smooth dull beach of custom where I lie, + That I may feel once more + The swaying surge of passion thro me swarm! + + + + +A FLORIDA INTERLUDE + +(_Naples-on-the-Gulf_) + + + I + + Behind me lie the Everglades, + The mystic grassy Everglades, + Where the moccasin and the Seminole glide + In secret silent Indian ways. + Before me lies the Gulf, + The cup of blue bright tropic waters, + Held to the parched lips of the South + To cool and quench its thirst. + + Behind me lie the Everglades, + Before me lies the Gulf, + Which the sunset soon shall change to wine, + A Eucharist for the longing soul. + Its rim of land shall be transformed + To Mexic opal and chrysoprase, + And then shall come the moon + As calm as a thought of Christ. + + As calm as a thought of Christ-- + Over the cup's sand-rim enchased + With palm and pine, Floridian friends, + Saying their twilight litanies; + While homeward flies the heron + To his island cypress in the swamp, + Which Spanish mosses drape and the moon + Silverly soothes to peace. + + + II + + Behind me lie the Everglades, + Where the bittern wails to the moon's face. + Peace is gone as I wake + And memory in me wails + From the primal swamp, Heredity, + Whence I have come with all the desires + Of creeping, walking, flying things, + To creep or walk or fly. + + With all the desires of the earth-creatures; + Yet with a want transcendent, + A want that comes with the glimmer of stars + And pierces to my heart. + A want of the life I have not known, + Of the life unknowable, + In the Everglades of the Universe + Where the Great Spirit glides. + + + + +A FLORIDA BOATING SONG + + + Down thro Florida keys, + From island, to island! + Down thro Florida keys, + Where mangrove roots dip in the seas! + A myriad tangled roots + From each palmetto byland, + Oyster-encrusted roots mid which + The heron wades in the shallow shades! + + Down thro Florida keys, + Around them, between them, + Thro low green Florida keys, + So low they scarce seem born of the seas! + Where pouchy pelicans roost + On cypresses that lean them + Out over the idle lap of the tide + That comes and goes with balmy flows! + + Down thro Florida keys, + Thro mazes on mazes + Of ripple-encircled keys, + Where sun and wind play as they please! + Where the eaglet, high in air, + Or the wild white ibis, dazes + Eyes that follow them up the blue, + As the heart would do, the heart too! + + Down thro Florida keys + I'm going, I'm going! + Thro low green Florida keys + And greener glades of Florida seas! + And this is all I know, + That all in the world worth knowing + Is joy like that of the tarpon's leap + In air divine with the warm sunshine! + + + + +DAWN-BLISS + +(_Naples-on-the-Gulf_) + + + I went out at dawn, + Pelicans were fishing, + Big-beaked, grey and brown; + Little waves were swishing. + Clouds creamed the sky, + As shells creamed the shore; + Wild aery hues of beauty + Round seemed to pour! + + I went out at dawn, + Pelicans were floating, + Big beaks on their breasts; + Up the sun came boating. + "Ship ahoy!" I cried, + To his golden sail. + Bliss-winds of beauty in me + Broke--to a gale! + + I went out at dawn, + Pelicans were winging. + Palms waved passion plumes, + Beach sands were singing. + Stripped, save of strength, + I plunged into the sea + And swam, till the bliss of beauty + Died away in me. + + + + +ATAVISM + + + I leant out over a ledging cliff and looked down into the sea, + Where weed and kelp and dulse swayed, in green translucency; + Where the abalone clung to the rock and the star-fish lay about, + Purpling the sands that slid away under the silver trout. + + And the sea-urchin too was there, and the sea-anemone. + It was a world of watery shapes and hues and wizardry. + And I felt old stirrings wake in me, under the tides of time, + Sea-hauntings I had brought with me out of the ancient slime. + + And now, as I muse, I cannot rid my senses of the spell + That in a tidal trance all things around me drift and swell + Under the sea of the Universe, down into which strange eyes + Keep peering at me, as I peered, with wonder and surmise. + + + + +RE-RECKONING + + + Two years have gone, and again I stand + On the bow of a mighty ship + That pushes her way 'twixt sea and stars + With soft and dreamy dip. + Two years of labouring, heart and hand, + Of waging spirit-wars, + Of wondering ever what life is-- + And if death heals its scars. + + Two years; and again the mast-bell sounds + Above me--with a low voice, + As ghostly as the white phosphor-foam + That breaks with the old noise + Of waters that have washed all bounds + Of earth, that is man's home-- + His ark--on the wide ether flung, + Unrestingly to roam. + + For, even as we, is this our earth + An endless wanderer + Far down a universe with vast + Strange voyagings astir; + And where time ever brings to birth + A craving, never past, + To fare from where we are, to where + No anchor ever was cast. + + A craving--in the mote, the man, + The mollusc and the star; + A yearning on--O life! O life! + How far leads it, how far? + All unbelievably began + Our voyage, mid a strange strife-- + That, meaningless, yet seems to mean + It is with Wisdom rife. + + But if it is not, shall we say, + "Let man scuttle his ship, + And drown in universal death + The griefs that at him grip?" + No; for no surety rests therein + To certain end of breath. + He can but let hope set the course + His soul foretokeneth. + + + + +TO THE AFTERNOON MOON, AT SEA + + + Take care, O wisp of a moon, + Vague on the sunny blue above the sea, + Or the gull flying across you + Will pierce your veil-thin shape with a sharp wing! + + Take care, or the wind will wilt you, + As he does the clouds snowily drifting by you, + And diffuse you over the sky, a silvery mist, + To give more cool to the day! + + Take care, so near the horizon, + Or a phantom skipper, one who has long been drowned, + Will reach above it and seize you + And make you his sail to circle the world forever! + + Take care, take care! for frailty + Is the prey of the strong, and you, a wraith of it, + Have yet a long while to go before nightfall + Brings you to sure effulgence! + + + + +PATHS + + + Crushing in my hand + The bay as I pass, + Drinking in its fragrance + With the sea's scent, + While gull-wings write + Poems white and fast + On the blue sky + That is soft with content; + Crushing in my hand + The bay and the juniper, + While I record + Each line the gulls write, + I go by sea paths + Down to the sea's edge, + I go by heart paths + Deep into delight. + + Simple is my joy + As the little sandpiper's, + Who follows beside me + With silvery song; + Blither than the breeze, + That skims great billows + Nor knows how deep + Is their flow--or strong. + Simple is my joy, + A sunny sense-sweetness, + Full of bird-bliss, + Bay-warmth, spray-leap. + Mysteries there are + And miseries beneath it, + But sunk, like wrecks, + Far down in the deep. + + + + +FROM A NORTHERN BEACH + + + Is it because for a million years + The tide has entered here + From cold north seas + Where ice-floes freeze + That ever unto my ear + Primordial loneness in its voice + Comes telling of that time + When life was not, upon the earth, + But only glacier-rime? + + Is it because these granite rocks + I share with weed and scurf + Were held so long + By the ice-throng + That now they take the surf + So selflessly and soullessly, + As if God's Immanence + Had been pressed from them, never more + To enter, with sweet sense? + + And is it because I, too, evolved + From ice and sea and shore, + Can understand + How life has spanned + The lifeless ages o'er, + That as I sit here, suddenly + The tide again seems stilled + And earth beneath a great white pall + Again lies changed and chilled? + + So it must be--ah, so; for soft + Within my muted brain + The heritage + Of age on age + Reverberates again. + Wherefore when glacial Silence comes + With Death shall I emerge + From that as from the frozen Past, + Under Life's endless urge? + + + + +PASSAGE + + + A dark sail, + Like a wild-goose wing, + Where the sunset was. + The moon soon will silver its sinewy flight + Thro the night watches, + And the far flight + Of those immortal migrants, + The ever-returning stars. + + + + +ALEEN + + + The long line of the foaming coast + Is muffled by the fog's gray ghost. + I cross the league of sea between + And lift the latch and kiss Aleen. + + She throws a log upon the fire. + I draw her to me, nigh and nigher. + She does not know what a brief time + Ago it was my arms held--crime. + + The surf is beating on the shore. + We hear our own heart-beatings more. + She speaks of _him_ and my reply + Is silence: does she wonder why? + + "I do not love him: have no fear," + Her whisper is, against my ear. + At last, "I have no fear," say I. + She starts, as at a wild-beast's cry. + + And then she sees red on my coat. + A still-born cry throbs in her throat. + The fog sweeps by the window pane. + Her sight is fixed on one dull stain. + + I rise and light my pipe and go, + Leaving her standing, staring so. + The wind means storm, I think, to-night: + But more than that will make her white. + + And yet had it been yesterday + She said those words, I still could pray. + There would be still a God above-- + For two, now overwhelmed, to love! + + + + +TO A SOLITARY SEA-GULL + + + Lone white gull with sickle wings, + You reap for the heart inscrutable things: + Sorrow of mists and surf of the shore, + Winds that sigh of the nevermore; + Fret of foam and flurry of rain, + Swept far over the troubled tide; + Maths of mystery and grey pain + The sea's voice ever yields, beside. + Lone white gull, you reap for the heart + Life's most sad and inscrutable part. + + + + +INEFFABLE THINGS + + + The little song-sparrow is gone + And the summer is nearly ended, + The rill of his song was a happy rift + In the surging sound of the sea. + The swallow is lingering on, + And the silvery swift sandpiper, + And I--tho I know my saddened heart + Has lost an ineffable thing, + That summer no more can bring. + + With the first bay-leaves that flung + Their scent to me by the billows, + I twined some faith, some trust, + As glad as the sparrow's song. + And the terns that darted among + The tides seemed weaving for me + Impalpable wings of peace and hope-- + That now have taken flight + Beyond the day and the night. + + Ah, Life, you have known my plea + For sun and the tide of fortune, + For winds to waken my sail and bear + Me joyously over the world. + Know too how much of your fog + And storm and rain I will suffer, + If only you do not sweep from me + The dear ineffable things, + To which your fragrance clings. + + + + +THE SONG OF A SEA-FARER + + + Many are on the sea to-day + With all sails set. + The tide rolls in a restive gray, + The wind blows wet. + The gull is weary of his wings, + And I am weary of all things. + + Heavy upon me longing lies, + My sad eyes gaze + Across sad leagues that sink and rise + And sink always. + My life has sunk and risen so, + I'd have it cease awhile to flow. + + + + +WAVES + + + The evening sails come home + With twilight in their wings. + The harbour-light across the gloam + Springs; + The wind sings. + + The waves begin to tell + The sea's night-sorrow o'er, + Weaving within their ancient spell + More + Than earth's lore. + + The rising moon wafts strange + Low lures across the tide, + On which my dim thoughts seem to range, + Stride + Upon stride, + + Until, with flooding thrill, + They seem at last to blend + With waves that from the Eternal Will + Wend, + Without end. + + + + +IN A STORM + +(_To a Petrel_) + + + All day long in the spindrift swinging, + Bird of the sea! bird of the sea! + How I would that I had thy winging-- + How I envy thee! + + How I would that I had thy spirit, + So to careen, joyous to cry, + Over the storm and never fear it! + Into the night that hovers near it! + Calm on a reeling sky! + + All day long, and the night, unresting! + Ah! I believe thy every breath + Means that life's best comes ever breasting + Peril and pain and death! + + + + +AFTER THEIR PARTING + +(_A Woman Speaks_) + + + You know that rock on a rocky coast, + Where the moon came up, a ruined ghost, + Distorted until her shape almost + Seemed breaking? + Came up like a phantom silently + And dropped her shroud on the red night sea, + Then walked, a spectral mystery, + Unwaking? + + You know how, sudden, there came a change, + When she had left the sea's low range, + Its lurid crimson, stark and strange, + Behind her? + How, sudden, her silver self shone thro, + Tranquilly free of the earth's stained hue, + And found a way where the clouds were few + To bind her? + + You know this? Then go back some day, + When I have gone the moonless way, + To that dark rock whereon we lay + And waited; + And when the moon has arisen free, + Your soiling doubt shall fall from me, + And eased of unrest your heart shall be, + And sated. + + + + +A WORD'S MAGIC + + + Do you remember Etajima, + And how, upon a moon-fogged sea, + As ghostly as ever a tide shall be, + We passed an island silently? + + And how a low voice in the gloom + Of the temple pine-trees leaning there + Said _sayonara_ to one somewhere + Unseen in the shadow-haunted air? + + Just _sayonara_: but it seemed + The soul of all farewells that night, + The sigh of all withdrawn delight, + The sound of love's last rapture-rite. + + And now, after long years, it comes + Again from isles of memory + To bring once more to birth in me + The breath of all lost witchery. + + Yes, one low word of parting, now + Echoing, thro the fog of years, + Has touched my heart with beauty's tears, + And youth thro all things reappears. + + + + +SEA RHAPSODY + +(_Out of Hong-kong_) + + + Never again, never again + Did I hope to breathe such joy! + The sea is blue and the winds halloo + Up to the sun "Ahoy!" + "Ahoy!" they shout and the mists they rout + From the mountain-tops go streaming + In happy play where the gulls sway, + And a million waves are gleaming! + + And every wave, billowing brave, + Is tipped with a wild delight. + A garden of isles around me smiles, + Bathed in the blue noon light, + The rude brown bunk of the fishing junk + Seems fair as a sea-king's palace: + O wine of the sky the gods have spilt + Out of its crystal chalice! + + For wine is the wind, wine the sea, + Wine for the sinking spirit, + To lift it up from the cling of clay + Into high Bliss--or near it! + So let me drink till I cease to think, + And know with a sting of rapture + That joy is yet as wide as the world + For men, at last, to capture! + + + + +IN AN ORIENTAL HARBOUR + + + All the ships of the world come here, + Rest a little, then set to sea; + Some ride up to the waiting pier, + Some drop anchor beyond the quay. + Some have funnels of blue and black, + (Some come once but come not back!) + Some have funnels of red and yellow, + Some--O war!--have funnels of gray. + + All the ships of the world come here, + Ships from every billow's foam; + Fruiter and oiler, pirateer, + Liner and lugger and tramp a-roam. + Some are scented of palm and pine, + (Some are fain for the Pole's far clime). + Some are scented of soy and senna, + Some--ah me!--are scented of home. + + All the ships of the world come here, + Day and night there is sound of bells, + Seeking the port they calmly steer, + Clearing the port they ring farewells. + Under the sun or under the stars + (Under the light of swaying spars), + Under the moon or under morning + Do they swing, as the tide swells. + + All the ships of the world come here, + Rest a little and then are gone, + Over the crystal planet-sphere + Swept, thro every season, on. + Swept to every cape and isle + (Every coast of cloud or smile), + Swept till over them sweeps the sorrow + Of their last sea-dawn. + + + + +UNDER THE SKY + + + Far out to sea go the fishing junks, + With all sails set, + The tide swings gray and the clouds sway, + The wind blows wet; + Blows wet from the long coast lying dim + As if mist-born. + Far out they sail, as the stars pale, + The stars of morn. + + Far out to sea go the fishing junks, + And I who pass + Upon a deck that is vaster reck + No more, alas, + Of all their life, or they of mine, + Than comes to this,-- + That under the sky we live and die, + Like all that is. + + + + +A SONG FOR HEALING + +(_On the South Seas_) + + + When I return to the world again, + The world of fret and fight, + To grapple with godless things and men, + In battle, wrong or right, + I will remember this--the sea, + And the white stars hanging high, + And the vessel's bow + Where calmly now + I gaze to the boundless sky. + + When I am deaf with the din of strife, + And blind amid despair, + When I am choked with the dust of life + And long for free soul-air, + I will recall this sound--the sea's, + And the wide horizon's hope, + And the wind that blows + And the phosphor snows + That fall as the cleft waves ope. + + When I am beaten--when I fall + On the bed of black defeat, + When I have hungered, and in gall + Have got but shame to eat, + I will remember this--the sea, + And its tide as soft as sleep, + And the clear night sky + That heals for aye + All who will trust its Deep. + + + + +A SINGHALESE LOVE LAMENT + + + As the cocoanut-palm + That pines, my love, + Away from the sound + Of the planter's voice, + Am I, for I hear + No more resound + Your song by the pearl-strewn sea! + The sun may come + And the moon wax round, + And in its beam + My mates may rejoice, + But I feast not + And my heart is dumb, + As I long, O long, for thee! + + In the jungle-deeps, + Where the cobra creeps, + The leopard lies + In wait for me, + But O, my love, + When the daylight dies + There is more to my dread than he! + Harsh lonely tears + That assail my eyes + Are worse to bear,-- + For the misery + That makes them well + Is the long, long years + That I moan away from thee! + + O again, again, + In my katamaran + A-keel would I push + To your palmy door! + Again would I hear + The heave and hush + Of your song by the plantain-tree. + But far away + Do I toil and crush + The hopes that arise + At my sick heart's core. + For never near + Does it come, the day + That draws me again to thee! + + + + +THE CITY + + + Soft and fair by the Desert's edge, + And on the dim blue edge of the sea, + Where white gulls wing all day and fledge + Their young on the high cliff's sandy ledge, + There is a city I have beheld, + Sometime or where, by day or dream, + I know not which, for it seems enspelled + As I am by its memory. + + Pale minarets of the Prophet pierce + Above it into the white of the skies, + And sails enchanted a thousand years + Flit at its feet while fancy steers. + No face of all its faces to me + Is known--no passion of it or pain. + It is but a city by the sea, + Enshrined forever beyond my eyes! + + + + +FULL TIDE + + + Sea-scents, wild-rose scents, + Bay and barberry too, + Drench the wind, the Maine wind, + That gulls are dipping thro, + With soft hints, sweet hints, + With lull, lure and desire; + With memory-wafts and mysteries, + And all the ineffable histories + Made when the sea and land meet, + And the sun lends nuptial fire. + + Sea-foam, and dream-foam, + And which is which, who knows, + When all day long the heart goes out + To every wave that blows, + That blossoms on the bright tide, + Then sheds a shimmering crest + And yields its tossing place to one + Whose blooming is as quickly done-- + For beauty is ever swift--begot + Of rapture and unrest. + + Sea-deeps, and soul-deeps, + And where shall faith be found + If not within the heart's beat + Or in the surging sound + Of the sea, which is the earth's heart, + Beating with tireless might; + Beating--tho but a tragedy + Life seems on every land and sea; + Beating to bring all breath, somehow, + Out of despair's blight. + + + + +THE HERDING + + + Quietly, quietly in from the fields + Of the grey Atlantic the billows come, + Like sheep to the fold. + Shorn by the rocks of fleecy foam, + They sink on the brown seaweed at home; + And a bell, like that of a bellwether, + Is scarcely heard from the buoy-- + Save when they suddenly stumble together, + In herded hurrying joy, + Upon its guidance: then soft music + From it is tolled. + + Far out in the murk that follows them in + Is heard the call of the fog-horn's voice, + Like a shepherd's--low. + And the strays as if waiting it seem to pause + And lift their heads and listen--because + It is sweet from wandering ways to be driven, + When we have fearless breasts, + When all that we strayed for has been given, + When no want molests + Us more--no need of the tide's ebbing + And tide's flow. + + + + +ON THE MAINE COAST + + + The rocks, lean fingers of the land, + Reach out into the sea + And cool themselves, all day long, + In the tide drippingly. + They catch the seaweed in them + And the starfish on their tips, + And gulls that light + And the swift flight + Of swallows skimming grey and white-- + And spars of broken ships. + + The moon, God's perfect silver, + With which He pays the world + For toil and quest and day's unrest, + Is washed on them and swirled. + And avidly they seize it, + Then let it slip away, + Only again + And yet again + To grasp at it--as eager men + At joy no hand can stay. + + + + +SEANCE + + + Hovering wings of terns + Over the rock-pools flutter, + For the tide, ebbed far out, + Seems to stumble and stutter; + Seems like a spirit lost, + Unable to come again + Back to the wonted ways and days + Of ever-wanting men. + + And the moon, a medium + Trance-pale, is laying her light + Over its surge--till, lo, + It turns from the deep and night. + And the spirit-word it brings + Is the message of all time, + That doubt is only the ebb of faith, + Which ever reflows sublime! + + + + +A SIDMOUTH LAD + + + Salcombe Hill and four hills more + Lie to leftward of this shore. + On the right Peak Hill arises + Ever rises, sickening, o'er. + + Two score rotting years I've seen + Sidmouth sit those hills between: + Only Sidmouth--and twice over + Must I bide it, as I've been. + + Then a churchyard hole for me, + By the dull voice of the sea. + Rotting, still in Sidmouth rotting, + Rotting to eternity. + + + + +WIDOWED + + + One wild gull on a wilder storm, + Winging to keep her lone heart warm. + One wild gull by the surf--and I, + Beaten by wind and rain and sky. + + One wild gull in the offing lost, + Wilder heart in my bosom tost. + One wild gull--O why but one! + Two, dear God, should there be--or none! + + + + +TO THE SEA + + + Are you enraged, O sea, with the blue peace + Of heaven, so to uplift your armied waves, + Your billowy rebellion against its ease, + And with Tartarean mutter from cold caves, + From shuddering profundities where shapes + Of awe glide thro entangled leagues of ooze, + To hoot your watery omens evermore, + And evermore your moanings interfuse + With seething necromancy and mad lore? + + Or do you labour with the drifting bones + Of countless dead, O mighty Alchemist, + Within whose stormy crucible the stones + Of sunk primordial shores, granite and schist, + Are crumbled by your all-abrasive beat? + With immemorial chanting to the moon, + And cosmic incantation, do you crave + Rest to be found not till your wilds are strewn + Frigid and desert over earth's last grave? + + You seem drunk with immensity, mad, blind-- + With raving deaf, with wandering forlorn, + Parent of Demogorgon whose dire mind + Is night and earthquake, shapeless shame and scorn + Of the o'ermounting birth of Harmony. + Bound in your briny bed and gnawing earth + With foamy writhing and fierce-panted tides, + You are as Fate in torment of a dearth + Of black disaster and destruction's strides. + + And how you shatter silence from the world, + Incarnate Motion of all mystery! + Whose waves are fury-wings, whose winds are hurled + Whither your Ghost tempestuous can see + A desolate apocalypse of death. + Yea, how you shatter silence from the world, + With emerald overflowing, waste on waste + Of flashing susurration, dashed and swirled + On isles and continents that shrink abased! + + And yet, O veering veil of the Unknown, + Gathered from primal mist and firmament; + O surging shape of Life's unfathomed moan, + Whelming humanity with fears unmeant; + Yet do I love you, far above all fear, + And loving you unconquerably trust + The runes that from your ageless surfing start + Would read, were they revealed, gust upon gust, + That Immortality is might of heart! + + + + +SEA-MAD + +(_A Breton Maid_) + + + Three waves of the sea came up on the wind to me! + One said: + "Away! he is dead! + Upon my foam I have flung his head! + Go back to your cote, you never shall wed!-- + (Nor he!)" + + Three waves of the sea came up on the wind to me. + Two brake. + The third with a quake + Cried loud, "O maid, I'll find for thy sake + His dead lost body: prepare his wake!" + (And back it plunged to the sea!) + + Three waves of the sea came up on the wind to me. + One bore-- + And swept on the shore-- + His pale, pale face I shall kiss no more! + Ah, woe to women death passes o'er! + (Woe's me!) + + + + +THE ATHEIST + + + Over a scurf of rocks the tide + Wanders inward far and wide, + Lifting the sea-weed's sloven hair, + Filling the pools and foaming there, + Sighing, sighing everywhere. + + Merged are the marshes, merged the sands, + Save the dunes with pine-tree hands + Stretching upward toward the sky, + Where the sun, their god, moves high: + Would I too had a god--yea, I! + + For, the sea is to me but sea, + And the sky but infinity. + Tides and times are but some chance + Born of a primal atom-dance. + All is a mesh of Circumstance. + + In it there is no Heart--no Soul-- + No illimitable Goal-- + Only wild happenings, by wont + Made into laws no might can shunt + From the deep grooves in which they hunt. + + Wings of the gull I watch or claws + Of the cold crab whose strangeness awes: + Faces of men that feel the force + Of a hid thing they call life's course: + It is their hoping or remorse. + + Yet it may be that I have missed + Something that only they who tryst, + Not with the sequence of events + But with their viewless Immanence, + Find and acclaim with spirit-sense. + + + + +AT THE HELM + +(_Nova Scotia_) + + + Fog, and a wind that blows the sea + Blindly into my eyes. + And I know not if my soul shall be + When the day dies. + + But if it be not and I lose + All that men live to gain-- + I who have known but heaving hues + Of wind and rain-- + + Still I shall envy no man's lot, + For I have held this great, + Never in whines to have forgot + That Fate is Fate. + + + + +IMPERTURBABLE + + + Three times the fog rolled in today, a silent shroud, + From which the breakers ran like ghosts, moaning and tumbling. + Three times a startled sea-bird cried aloud, + On the wind stumbling. + + But I cast my net with never a fear, tho wraiths in me + And birds of wild unrest were stirring and starting and crying. + For I knew that under the sway of every sea + There is calm lying. + + + + +WASTE + + + I flung a wild rose into the sea, + I know not why. + For swinging there on a rathe rose-tree, + By the scented bay and barberry, + Its petals gave all their sweet to me, + As I passed by. + + And yet I flung it into the tide, + And went my way. + I climbed the gray rocks, far and wide, + And many a cove of peace I tried, + With none of them all to be satisfied, + The whole long day. + + For I had wasted a beautiful thing, + Which might have won + Each passing heart to pause and sing, + On the sea-path there, of its blossoming. + And who wastes beauty shall feel want's sting, + As I had done. + + + + +RESURGENCE + + + I was content, O Sea, to be free for a space from striving, + Content as the brown weed is, at rest on rocks in the sun, + When the salt tide is out, and the surf no more is riving + At its roots, or swirling and bidding it sway where the white waves run. + + I was content--with life, and love, and a little over; + A little achieved of the much that is given to men to do. + But now with your tidal strife do you come again, vain rover, + And tell of vastitudes, to be sailed, or sounded, anew. + + Now again do you surge. And the fathomless tides of thinking, + Of wanting, waiting, despairing--or daring--with you come; + The inner tides of the soul, that had ebbed with slumberous shrinking, + But now are bursting again, thro the caves of it long numb. + + So vainly I lie on the cliff with the blissful Blue above me + And listless sated gulls afloat below on the swells, + For I am soothless, sateless, because of desires that shove me + Out and away with the winds, on quests no distance quells! + + + + +LIFE'S ANSWER + + + A stroke of lightning stabbed the storm-black sea, + As if it sought the heart of Life thereunder, + And meant to put an end to it utterly;-- + Then came thunder-- + Wildly applauding thunder. + + Riven with fear the foam-crests ran before it, + Hissed by the rain and beaten down to darkness. + A gull rose out of the murk with wings that tore it-- + Life's answer to the storm's terrible starkness. + + + + +AS THE TIDE COMES IN + + + The quivering terns dart wild and dive, + As the tide comes tumbling in. + The calm rock-pools grow all alive, + With the tide tumbling in. + The crab who under the brown weed creeps, + And the snail who lies in his house and sleeps, + Awake and stir, as the plunging sweeps + Of the tide come tumbling in. + + Gray driftwood swishes along the sand, + As the tide comes tumbling in. + With wreck and wrack from many a land, + On the tide, tumbling in. + About the beach are a broken spar, + A pale anemone's torn sea-star + And scattered scum of the waves' old war, + As the tide tumbles in. + + And, oh, there is a stir at the heart of me, + As the tide comes tumbling in. + All life once more is a part of me, + As the tide tumbles in. + New hopes awaken beneath despair + And thoughts slip free of the sloth of care, + While beauty and love are everywhere-- + As the tide comes tumbling in. + + + + +SENSE-SWEETNESS + + + Flowers are dancing, waves playing, pines swaying, gulls are a-swarm; + Sea and heather, sunning together, glad of the weather, with God are warm. + + Flowers are dancing, clouds winging, larks singing, summer abrew-- + Summer the old ecstatic passion of Life to fashion the world anew. + + + + +TIDALS + + + Low along the sea, low along the sea, + The gray gulls are flying, and one sail swings; + The tide is foaming in; the soft wind sighing; + The brown kelp is stretching, to the surf, harp-strings. + + Low along the sea, low along the sea, + The gray gulls are flying, and one sail fades; + The tide is foaming out; the soft wind dying; + And white stars are peeping from the night's pale shades. + + + + +A SAILOR'S WIFE + + + Into port when the sun was setting + Rode the ship that bore my love, + Over the breakers wildly fretting, + Under the skies above. + + Down to the beach I ran to meet him; + He would come as he had said: + And he came--in a sailor's coffin, + Dead! . . . . . . + + O the ships of the sea! the lovers + Torn by them apart!... + The tide has nothing now to tell me, + The breakers break my heart! + + + + +TO SEA! + + + Give me the tiller; up with the sail! + Now let her swing to the breeze. + Out to sea with a dripping rail, + To sea, with a heart at ease! + + Out of the Harbour! out of the Bay! + Out by the valiant Light, + Out by rocks where the young gulls lay-- + And glad winds teach them flight! + + Out of the Harbour! out of the Bay! + Out to the open sea! + O there's not in the world a way + To feel so wildly free! + + So, let her quiver! So, let her leap! + So, let her dance the foam! + All life else is a narrow keep, + The sea alone is home! + + + + +GIVE OVER, O SEA! + + + Give over, O sea! You never shall reach Nirvana! + Your tides, like the tidal generations, ever shall rise and fall, + And your infinite waves find birth, rebirth, and billowy dissolution. + + The years of your existence are unending. + The years of your unresting are forever. + The sun, who is desire, ever begets in you his passion, + And the moon is ever drawing you, with silvery soft alluring, + To surge and sway, to wander and fret, to waste yourself in foam. + So Buddha-calm shall never descend upon you. + + And tho it may often seem you have found the Way, + Your tempest-sins return and quicken to wild reincarnations, + And again great life, pulsing and perilous, + Omnipotent life, that ever resurges thro the universe, + Lashes you back to striving, back to yearning, back to speech. + To utterance on all shores of the world + Of things unutterable. + + Give over then, you never shall reach Nirvana! + Nor I, who am your acolyte for a moment; + Who swing a censer of fragrant words before your priestly feet, + That tread these altar-rocks, bedraped with weeds gently afloat, + And with the wild flutter of gulls wildly mysterious. + + Give over and call your winds again to join you! + O chanter of deep enchantments, of uncharted litanies, + Call them and bid them say with you that life transcends retreat, + And that, in the temple of its Immanence, + There is no peace that does not spring daily from peacelessness, + And no Nirvana save in the lee of storm. + + + + +THE NUN + + + A lone palm leans in the moonlight, + Over a convent wall. + The sea below is waking and breaking + With a calm heave and fall. + A young nun sits at a window; + For Heaven she is too fair; + Yet even the dove of God might nest + In her bosom beating there. + + A lone ship sails from the harbour: + Whom does it bear away? + Her lover who, sin-hearted, has parted + And left her but to pray? + She has no lover, nor ever + Has heard afar love's sigh. + Only the Convent's vesper vow + Has ever dimmed her eye. + + For naught knows she of her beauty, + More than the palm of its peace: + And none shall cross her portal, to mortal + Desires to bend her knees. + The ways of the world have flowers, + And any who will pluck those; + But in His hand, against all harm, + God still will keep some rose. + + + + +LAST SIGHT OF LAND + + + The clouds in woe hang far and dim; + I look again, and lo, + Only a faint and shadow line + Of shore--I watch it go. + + The gulls have left the ship and wheel + Back to the cliff's gray wraith. + Will it be so of all our thoughts + When we set sail on Death? + + And what will the last sight be of life + As lone we fare and fast? + Grief and a face we love in mist-- + Then night and awe too vast? + + Or the dear light of Hope--like that, + Oh, see, from the lost shore + Kindling and calling "Onward, you + Shall reach the Evermore!" + + +THE END + + + On this and following pages are listed other books by Cale + Young Rice. They are all published by The Century Co., 353 + Fourth Avenue, New York City. + + +SHADOWY THRESHOLDS + +By CALE YOUNG RICE + +"Cale Young Rice is far too great a pout to be acclaimed in some +partisan circles.... He is intensely American ... as authentic an artist +as Shelley or Keats.... He has the magic of Poe without that poet's +morbidity.... He is America's living master-poet."--_D. F. Hannigan (The +Rochester Post-Express)._ + +"This volume maintains Mr. Rice's usual high level and proves anew his +right to one of the high places among modern poets."--_Edward J. Wheeler +(Current Opinion)._ + +"Mr. Rice is modern in the broadest sense of that term. Many of his +poems are without rhyme and have irregular metres, but they never offend +thereby.... His place in contemporary first class company is +secure.--_The Springfield Republican._ + +"A volume possessing range and variety, together with a lyric quality +which distinguishes this poet, who ranks among the foremost American +writers."--_The Post-Intelligencer (Seattle)._ + +"Mr. Rice in his dramas is an enchanter, and to cast a spell is better +than to have uttered the most lovely lyrics--but he has done both."--_E. +A. Jonas (The Louisville Herald)._ + +"A new volume showing again the power and beauty of Mr. Rice's +genius."--_The Boston Globe._ + +"What a pleasure to take up a new book by Cale Young Rice. Here we have +variety, if ever.... If one can only own one of his books this is a good +volume to choose."--_The Galveston News._ + +"Cale Young Rice is a poet capable of sounding the deep imaginative +strain not only with melody, but with vigor and power of thought. This +volume will add another shining stone to his reputation."--_The San +Francisco Chronicle._ + +"Once more a book of the same high order as all Mr. Rice's work."--_The +Rochester Democrat-Chronicle._ + +"Shadowy Thresholds has as great a variety of poetic forms as any volume +of late years.... Mr. Rice illumines many phases of life, uniting in his +work the finish and romance of the older poetry with the directness that +constitutes the best merit of the new."--_The Louisville Evening Post._ + +_12mo. 179 pages. Price $1.50_ + + +WRAITHS AND REALITIES + +By CALE YOUNG RICE + +"In the writing of lyrics Mr. Rice is unequalled by any modern poet.... +One must go outside of contemporary life to find anything of similar +excellence."--_Gordon Ray Young (The Los Angeles Times)._ + +"A new book by Mr. Rice is always an event in American +letters...."--_The New York Tribune._ + +"Here, for all to read, is poetic genius spurred and wrought upon ... by +a rare and wondrous poetic inspiration.... It is like great chimes +sounding--jangled at times or overborne--but always great."--_The +Philadelphia North American._ + +"Mr. Rice in his narratives can tell such tales as the old ballad-makers +would have gloated over, and can make them contemporary and convincing. +He can create life tragedies or comedies in a few lines and leave the +reader with a sense of having been given a full meal of circumstance.... +He is original without striving to be so, and one can never be +embarrassed by the affirmation that he has come to hold a high place +among poets of America."--_The Chicago Tribune._ + +"Cale Young Rice has been credited with some of the finest poetry, and +regarded as a distinguished master of lyric utterance, and this latest +volume is warrant for such approval."--_The Brooklyn Eagle._ + +"We find in Mr. Rice the large and elemental vision a poet must have to +serve his people when overwhelmed by elemental sorrows and passions. His +poetry is a spiritual force interpreting life in the various phases of +intellect and emotion, with a beauty of finish and sense of form that +are unerring."--_The Louisville Post._ + +"All that has been said of Cale Young Rice, and that is much indeed, is +justified in this latest volume."--_The San Francisco Chronicle._ + +"Cale Young Rice is a real poet of genuine and sincere inspiration, +never reminiscent or imitative or obvious, but singing from a full heart +his keen, meditative songs."--_The New York Times._ + +_12mo. 187 pages. Price $1.50_ + + +COLLECTED PLAYS AND POEMS + +By CALE YOUNG RICE + +"The great quality of Cale Young Rice's work is that, amid all +distractions and changes in contemporary taste, it remains true to the +central drift of great poetry. His interests are very wide ... and his +books open up a most varied world of emotion and romance."--_Gilbert +Murray._ + +"The quality of Mr. Rice's work is high. It is seen at its best in his +poetic dramas, which maintain an astonishing elevation and intensity of +passion ... but his visionary and philosophical poems are nearly as +fine. He has a thorough mastery of form, yet notwithstanding the ease of +his verse it is never slipshod or mechanical."--_The Spectator +(London)._ + +"With variations of phrase Cale Young Rice has been described by critics +here and in America as "the most distinguished master of lyric utterance +in the New World." ... He has dramatic genius ... and is a born maker of +songs.... His later volumes confirm the judgment of those who have named +him the first and most distinctive of modern American lyrists, and one +of the world's true poets."--_F. Heath (The London Bookman)._ + +"Mr. Rice is an American poet whose reputation is deserved.... He has +achieved a high position as poet and dramatist, a great fertility and +variety of outlook being marked features of his work."--_The London +Times._ + +"Foremost among writers who have brought America into prominence in the +realm of modern thought is Mr. Cale Young Rice.... 'Collected Plays and +Poems' is one of the best offerings of verse we have had for long. +Indeed, it has real brilliance.... Mr. Rice's plays are +masterful."--_The Book Monthly (London)._ + +"Cale Young Rice is highly esteemed by readers wherever English is the +native speech."--_The Manchester Guardian._ + +"In Mr. Rice we have a voice such as America has rarely known +before."--_The Rochester (N. Y.) Post-Express._ + +"Mr. Rice of today is the poet who sang to us yesterday of the big, +vital things of life.... With real genius he brings to the soul a sense +of things many of us have but dimly sensed in all our years."--_The +Philadelphia Record._ + +"These volumes are an anthology wrought by a master hand and endowed +with perennial vitality.... This writer is the most distinguished master +of lyric utterance in the new world ... and he has contributed much to +the scanty stock of American literary fame. Fashions in poetry come and +go, and minor lights twinkle fitfully as they pass in tumultuous review. +But these volumes are of the things that are eternal in poetic +expression.... They embody the hopes and impulses of universal +humanity."--_The Philadelphia North-American._ + +"Mr. Rice has been hailed by too many critics as the poet of his +country, if not of his generation, not to create a demand for a full +edition of his works."--_The Hartford (Conn.) Courant._ + +"This gathering of his forces stamps Mr. Rice as one of the world's true +poets, remarkable alike for strength, versatility and beauty of +expression."--_The Chicago Herald (Ethel M. Colton)._ + +"It is with no undue repetition that we speak of the very great range +and very great variety of Mr. Rice's subject, inspiration, and mode of +expression.... The passage of his spirit is truly from deep to +deep."--_Margaret S. Anderson (The Louisville Evening Post)._ + +"It is good to find such sincere and beautiful work as is in these two +volumes.... Here is a writer with no wish to purchase fame at the price +of eccentricity of either form or subject."--_The Independent._ + +"Mr. Rice's style is that of the masters.... Yet it is one that +is distinctively American.... He will live with our great +poets."--_Louisville Herald (J. J. Cole)._ + +"Mr. Rice is an American by birth, but he is not merely an American +poet. Over existence and the whole world his vision extends. He is a +poet of human life and his range is uncircumscribed."--_The Baltimore +Evening News._ + +"Viewing Mr. Rice's plays as a whole, I should say that his prime virtue +is fecundity or affluence, the power to conceive and combine events +resourcefully, and an abundance of pointed phrases which recalls and +half restores the great Elisabethans. His aptitude for structure is +great."--_The Nation (O. W. Firkins)._ + +"Mr. Rice has fairly won his singing robes and has a right to be ranked +with the first of living poets. One must read the volumes to get an idea +of their cosmopolitan breadth and fresh abiding charm.... The dramas, +taken as a whole, represent the most important work of the kind that has +been done by any living writer.... This work belongs to that great world +where the mightiest spiritual and intellectual forces are forever +contending; to that deeper life which calls for the rarest gifts of +poetic expression."--_The Book News Monthly (Albert S. Henry)._ + +_12mo. 2 vols. Price $4.00_ + + + The following volumes are now included in the author's + "Collected Plays and Poems," and are not obtainable + elsewhere: + + +At the World's Heart + +"This book justifies the more than transatlantic reputation of its +author."--_The Sheffield (England) Daily Telegraph._ + + +Porzia: A Play + +"It matters little that we hesitate between ranking Mr. Rice highest as +dramatist or lyrist; what matters is that he has the faculty divine +beyond any living poet of America; his inspiration is true, and his +poetry is the real thing."--_The London Bookman._ + + +Far Quests + +"It shows a wide range of thought and sympathy, and real skill in +workmanship, while occasionally it rises to heights of simplicity and +truth, that suggest such inspiration as should mean lasting fame."--_The +Daily Telegraph (London)._ + + +The Immortal Lure: Four Plays + +"It is great art--with great vitality."--_James Lane Allen._ + +"Different from Paola and Francesca, but excelling it--or any of Stephen +Phillips's work--in a vivid presentment of a supreme moment in the lives +of the characters."--_The New York Times._ + + +Many Gods + +"These poems are flashingly, glowingly full of the East.... What I am +sure of in Mr. Rice is that here we have an American poet whom we may +claim as ours."--_William Dean Howells, in The North American Review._ + + +Nirvana Days + +"Mr. Rice has the technical cunning that makes up almost the entire +equipment of many poets nowadays, but human nature is more to him always +... and he has the feeling and imaginative sympathy without which all +poetry is but an empty and vain thing."--_The London Bookman._ + + +A Night in Avignon: A Play + +"It is as vivid as a page from Browning. Mr. Rice has the dramatic +pulse."--_James Huneker._ + + +Yolanda of Cyprus: A Play + +"It has real life and drama, not merely beautiful words, and so differs +from the great mass of poetic plays."--_Prof. Gilbert Murray._ + + +David: A Play + +"It is safe to say that were Mr. Rice an Englishman or a Frenchman, his +reputation as his country's most distinguished poetic dramatist would +have been assured by a more universal sign of recognition."--_The +Baltimore News._ + + +Charles Di Tocca: A Play + +"It is the most powerful, vital, and truly tragical drama written by an +American for some years. There is genuine pathos, mighty yet never +repellent passion, great sincerity and penetration, and great elevation +and beauty of language."--_The Chicago Post._ + + +Song-Surf + +"Mr. Rice's work betrays wide sympathies with nature and life, and a +welcome originality of sentiment and metrical harmony."--_Sydney Lee._ + + +TRAILS SUNWARD + +By CALE YOUNG RICE + +"Cale Young Rice has written some of the finest poetry of the last +decade, and is the author of the very best poetic dramas ever written by +an American.... He is one of the few supreme lyrists ... and one of the +few remaining lovers of beauty ... who write it. One of the very few +writers of _vers libre_ who know just what they are doing."--_The Los +Angles Times._ + +"Another book by Cale Young Rice ... one of the few poetic geniuses this +country has produced.... In its sixty or more poems may be found the +hall mark of individuality that denotes preeminence and signalizes +independence."--_The Philadelphia North American._ + +"Mr. Rice attempts and succeeds in deepening the note of his singing ... +keeping its brilliant technique, its intricate verse formation, but +seeking all the while for words to interpret the profound things of +life. The music of his lines is more perfect than ever, his rhythms +fresh and varied."--_Littell's Living Age._ + +"Cale Young Rice's work is always simple and sincere ... but that does +not prevent him from voicing his song with passion and virility. Nearly +all his poems have elevation of thought and feeling, with beauty of +imagery and music."--_The New York Times._ + +"Whether the forms of this book are lyrical, narrative, or dramatic, +there is an excellence of workmanship that denotes the master hand.... +And while the range of ideas is broad, the treatment of each is +distinguished by a strength and beauty remarkably fine."--_The Continent +(Chicago)._ + +"Mr. Rice proves the fine argument of his preface ... for this book has +in it form and beauty and a full reflection of the externals as well as +the soul of the America he loves."--_The Philadelphia Public Ledger._ + +"The work of this poet always demands and receives unstinted +admiration.... His is not the poetic fashion of the moment, but of all +poetic time."--_The Chicago Herald._ + +"In 'Trails Sunward,' Mr. Rice demonstrates as heretofore the +possibility of attaining poetic growth and originality even in the +Twentieth Century, without extremism.... Sanity linked with vitality and +breadth in art make for permanence, and one can but feel that Mr. Rice +builds for more than a day."--_The Louisville Courier Journal._ + +"I rarely use the term 'sublimity,' yet in touches of 'The Foreseers,' +particularly in its cavern-set opening, I should say that Mr. Rice had +scaled that eminence."--_O. W. Firkins (The Nation)._ + +_12mo. 150 pages. Price $1.50_ + + +EARTH AND NEW EARTH + +By CALE YOUNG RICE + +"America has today no poet who answers so well the multiplex tests of +poetry as does Cale Young Rice."--_New York Sun._ + +"Glancing through the reviews quoted at the end of 'Earth and New Earth' +we note that we have said some very enthusiastic things in praise of the +poetry of Cale Young Rice, and yet there is not an adjective we would +withdraw. On the contrary each new volume only confirms the expectation +of the better work this writer was to produce."--_The San Francisco +Chronicle._ + +"This is a volume of verse rich in dramatic quality and beauty of +conception.... Every poem is quotable and the collection must appeal to +all who can appreciate the highest forms of modern verse."--_The +Bookseller (New York)._ + +"Any one familiar with 'Cloister Lays,' 'The Mystic,' etc., does not +need to be told that they rank with the very best poetry. And Mr. Rice's +dramas are not equaled by any other American author's.... And when those +who are loyal to poetic traditions cherished through the whole history +of our language contemplate the anemia and artificiality of +contemporaries, they can but assert that Mr. Rice has the grasp and +sweep, the rhythm, imagery and pulsating sympathy, which in wondering +admiration are ascribed to genius."--_The Los Angeles Times._ + +"This latest collection shows no diminution in Mr. Rice's versatility or +power of expression. Its poems are serious, keen, distinctively free and +vitally spiritual in thought."--_The Continent (Chicago)._ + +"Mr. Rice is concerned with thoughts that are more than timely; they +represent a large vision of the world events now transpiring ... and his +affirmation of the spiritual in such an hour establishes him in the +immemorial office of the poet-prophet.... The volume is a worthy +addition to the large amount of his work."--_Anna L. Hopper in The +Louisville Courier-Journal._ + +"Cale Young Rice is the greatest living American poet."--_D. F. +Hannigan, Lit. Ed. The Rochester Post-Express._ + +"The indefinable spirit of swift imaginative suggestion is never +lacking. The problems of fate are still big with mystery and propounded +with tense elemental dramatism."--_The Philadelphia North-American._ + +"The work of Cale Young Rice emerges clearly as the most distinguished +offering of this country to the combined arts of poetry and the drama. +'Earth and New Earth' strikes a ringing new note of the earth which +shall be after the War."--_The Memphis Commercial-Appeal._ + +_12mo. 158 pages. $1.50_ + + +TURN ABOUT TALES + +(PROSE) + +By CALE YOUNG RICE and ALICE HEGAN RICE + +"This volume of stories should hold its own with any collection likely +to be published this year."--_New York Post (The Literary Review)._ + +"American writers have been distinctive as narrators of the short story, +but few, if any, volumes of such stories have recently been published in +this country equal to 'Turn About Tales.'"--_D. F. Hannigan (The +Rochester Post-Express)._ + +"The gamut of the volume runs from spiritualism to the depths. It +contains something of almost anything one happens to want. Better yet, +it contains something new."--_The Boston Transcript._ + +"Mr. Rice has written well--so well as to justify prediction that he +will, if he elect to do so, achieve greater distinction as a short story +writer than as a poet. His 'Lowry,' 'Francella' and 'Aaron Harwood,' to +cite a few of the stories, meet the test of artistic stories.... Each +leaves an impression that will impel re-reading."--_Galveston News._ + +"Both writers portray, in their best vein, a consummate though +distinctive skill in analyzing and delineating human emotions and +experience."--_Buffalo Commercial._ + +"Those who have read Mr. Rice's poetry will find his dramatic genius +manifest in these stories."--_The Watchman, N. Y._ + +"Mrs. Rice's humor and pathos combine well with Mr. Rice's mastery of +diction and deep human understanding."--_Milwaukee Journal._ + +"Each story is notable for beauty of technique ... each has its definite +appeal."--_Louisville Evening Post (Margaret S. Anderson)._ + +"Each of the stories is of such finished workmanship as to make reading +of it an unadulterated pleasure."--_Baltimore Sun._ + +"The book is one of the best of the kind in this year's American +fiction."--_The Spectator (Portland, Ore.)_ + +"Mr. Rice has grappled with the constructive problems of his time, so +one finds them without surprise in this newly adopted vehicle.... Three +of his stories have a realism as relentless as Chekov's ... and it goes +without saying that his stories are technically admirable."--_Louisville +Courier-Journal._ + +"Mr. Rice so lives through his characters that, as Whitman says, he 'Is +that man' of whom he writes."--_Pittsburg Sun._ + +"The same dramatic power and beauty that mark Mr. Rice's lyrics will be +found in these prose stories."--_Cincinnati Times-Star._ + +"One seldom finds a book of short stories so satisfying +throughout."--_Minneapolis Journal._ + +_Price $1.90_ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sea Poems, by Cale Young Rice + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEA POEMS *** + +***** This file should be named 31877.txt or 31877.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/8/7/31877/ + +Produced by David Garcia, Josephine Paolucci and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Kentuckiana Digital Library.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/31877.zip b/31877.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e417b23 --- /dev/null +++ b/31877.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ff58c94 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #31877 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31877) |