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+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.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #63289 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63289)
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-The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Ring of Amethyst, by Alice Wellington
-Rollins
-
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-
-Title: The Ring of Amethyst
-
-
-Author: Alice Wellington Rollins
-
-
-
-Release Date: September 25, 2020 [eBook #63289]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-
-***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RING OF AMETHYST***
-
-
-E-text prepared by Charlene Taylor, Charlie Howard, and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
-generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org)
-
-
-
-Note: Images of the original pages are available through
- Internet Archive. See
- https://archive.org/details/ringofamethyst00rollrich
-
-
-Transcriber’s Note
-
- Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
-
-
-
-
-
-THE RING OF AMETHYST.
-
-by
-
-ALICE WELLINGTON ROLLINS
-
-
- “He but only kissed
- The fingers of this hand wherewith I write.
- A ring of Amethyst
- I could not wear here plainer to my sight
- Than that first kiss.”
-
- --_Mrs. Browning._
-
-
-
-
-
-
-New York
-G. P. Putnam’s Sons
-182 Fifth Avenue
-1878
-
-Copyright by
-Alice Wellington Rollins
-1878
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS.
-
-
- PAGE
- THE RING AND THE BOOK:
-
- THE RING:--TO GEORGE ELIOT v
- THE BOOK:--TO D.M.R. vi
- TO THE CRITIC vii
- NARCISSUS viii
- PROEM ix
-
- JOY 1
-
- PAIN 3
-
- A STUDY 5
-
- “MANY THINGS THOU HAST GIVEN ME, DEAR HEART” 7
-
- BRUTUS AT PHILIPPI 8
-
- “VINO SANTO” TO H. H. 9
-
- CHARM 12
-
- A FACE 14
-
- LOVE WILL FIND OUT A WAY 17
-
- SUMNER 18
-
- SIGHT 29
-
- PURITY 30
-
- A ROSE 32
-
- RUE WITH A DIFFERENCE 33
-
- TO MAY H. R----. 34
-
- CYCLES 35
-
- EXPERIENCE 37
-
- A TRUST IN GOD 38
-
- FORESIGHT 41
-
- TO FRANK S. R----. WITH A VIOLIN 42
-
- “THE EAGER SUN COMES GLADLY FROM THE SEA” 43
-
- RESERVE 44
-
- A SONG OF SUMMER 47
-
- THOUGHT 50
-
- A CHANCE ACQUAINTANCE 51
-
- A REMEMBERED CRITIC. TO J. R. D. 52
-
- DAWN 53
-
- WITH AN ANTIQUE 55
-
- DOUBT 56
-
- “I KNOW MYSELF THE BEST BELOVED OF ALL” 58
-
- OCTOBER 59
-
- SERENITY 61
-
- “A YEAR AGO TO-DAY, LOVE” 62
-
- STEADFAST 63
-
- WITH A CRYSTAL LION. FOR L. R. W. 64
-
- ABSENT-MINDED 66
-
- ANSWERED PRAYER 68
-
- EXPRESSION 69
-
- FULFILLMENT 71
-
- “THERE WILL BE SILENCE HERE, LOVE” 73
-
- FAITH IN WORKS 74
-
- “NO. 33--A PORTRAIT.” FOR R. H. L. 75
-
- LONGING 76
-
- THE NEW DAY 78
-
- CONFESSION 79
-
- “AMONG THOSE JOYS FOR WHICH WE UTTER PRAISE.” 82
-
- BECAUSE 83
-
- IVY 85
-
- INFLUENCE 86
-
- MIRACLE 88
-
- “SHE CAME AND WENT” 89
-
- DREAMERS 91
-
- ANDROMEDA 93
-
- LOVE SONG 97
-
- CLOSED 98
-
- BABY-HOOD. M. W. R. 100
-
- “IF I COULD KNOW, LOVE.” 102
-
- THE DIFFERENCE 103
-
- INDIAN SUMMER 104
-
- LAST--AN AMETHYST 108
-
-
-
-
-“THE RING AND THE BOOK.”
-
-
-THE RING.----TO GEORGE ELIOT.
-
- As she, thy Dorothea, loved of thee,
- Refused to wear in careless ornament
- The amethysts and emeralds that lent
- Their charm to other women;--even as she,
- Turning one day by chance the golden key
- Of their close casket, started as they sent
- Swift, glowing rays to greet her, and then bent
- To lift them in her white hands lovingly;--
-
- * * * * *
-
- O great of heart, so calmly dost thou stand
- In the proud splendor of thy fame, and bring
- Thy glorious gifts to all the listening land,--
- Thou canst not greatly care what I may sing!
- Yet since I hold to thee my amethyst ring,
- Take it one little moment in thy hand!
-
-
-THE BOOK.----To D. M. R.
-
- Dear, if this little book of thine and mine
- Could bring me fame as glorious and rare
- As that whose splendid laurels shine so fair
- For Dorothea,----it were less divine
- A gift than this most priceless love of thine.
- Since, then, that came to me, why now despair
- Of laurel? though I may not hope to wear
- Laurel or myrtle as the precious sign
- Of any proud desert. Yet if I might
- Not find that love could keep its holy tryst
- With fame, how quickly would I yield the bright
- New dream, to keep my ring of amethyst:
- The memory of that day when love first kissed
- The fingers of this hand wherewith I write!
-
-
-Ἀμέθυστος
-
-TO THE CRITIC.
-
- I know full well I cannot pour for you
- The nectar of the gods;--no epic wine
- Is this I bring, to tempt you with its fine
- Poetic flavor, as of grapes that grew
- In the young vineyards when the world was new,
- And only poets wrote;--a slender vine
- You scarce will care for, bore these grapes of mine,
- From which frail hands have crushed the purple dew.
- Yet if from what I bring you, there is missed
- The lyric loveliness of some who write,
- The passionate fervor and the keen delight
- Of eloquent fire in some to whom you list,--
- Think it may be, not that the gift is slight,
- But that my cup is rimmed with amethyst!
-
-
-NARCISSUS.
-
-TO THE READER.
-
- If haply in these pages you should read
- Aught that seems true to human nature, true
- To heavenly instincts;--if they speak to you
- Of love, of sorrow, faith without a creed,
- Of doubt, of hope, of longing,--or indeed
- Of any pain or joy the poet knew
- A heart could feel,--think not to find a clue
- To his own heart--its gladness or its need.
- From a deep spring with tangled weeds o’ergrown
- The poet parts the leaves; if they who pass,
- Bending to look down through the tall wild grass,
- By winds of heaven faintly overblown,
- Should start to see there, dimly in a glass,
- Some face,----’tis not the poet’s, but their own!
-
-
-PROEM.
-
- I wonder, little book, if after all
- I greatly care whether with praise or blame
- Men turn your leaves. Once, the fair hope of fame
- Had made me wonder what fate should befall
- My first faint singing; now I cannot call
- The singing mine; I gave it him who came
- To place my joy where no harsh touch can maim
- Its safe, secure, bright beauty. Like a wall
- Of strong defence to me this blessedness:
- That of his love I am so proudly sure,
- Though the whole world should bend to my success,
- I think he could not love me any more!
- And though the whole world say my book is poor,
- I know he will not love me any less!
-
-
-
-
-JOY.
-
-
- My heart was like a flower once,
- That from its jewel-tinted cup
- The generous fragrance of its joy
- To all the world sent floating up.
- But now ’tis like a humming-bird,
- That in the cup his bright wing dips,
- And with most dainty selfishness
- Himself the choicest honey sips,
- With eager, thirsty, longing lips!
-
- And once my heart was like a gem,
- Set in a fair betrothal ring;
- Content to light the happy darks
- That shield love’s shy self-wondering.
- But now I think my heart is like
- The lady fair who wears the ring;
- Pressed closely to her lips at night
- With love’s mysterious wondering
- That hers should be the precious thing!
-
- And once my heart was like a nest,
- Where singing-birds have made their home;
- Set where the apple-boughs in bloom
- Fleck the blue air with flower-foam.
- But now it is itself a bird;
- And if it does not always sing,
- The Heavenly Father knows what thoughts,--
- Too strangely sweet for uttering,--
- Stir faintly underneath its wing!
-
-
-
-
-PAIN.
-
-
- My heart was once a folded flower,
- Within whose jewel-tinted cup,--
- Still hidden even from itself,--
- A wealth of joy is treasured up.
- But now my heart is like a flower
- From which a dainty humming-bird
- Has rifled all the choicest sweets,
- And left without one last fond word
- The flower-soul so deeply stirred.
-
- And once my heart was like a gem,
- Set in a rich betrothal ring;
- Unconscious in its darkened case
- How fair it lies there glittering.
- But now I think my heart is like
- The lady who has worn the ring,
- And draws it from her finger slight
- With love’s bewildered wondering
- That love should be a poor bruised thing.
-
- And once my heart was like a nest,
- High in the apple branches hung;
- Where in the early April dew
- No happy birds have ever sung.
- Now ’tis itself a wounded bird;
- And though sometimes you hear it sing,
- The Heavenly Father knows what pain
- It tries to hide by uttering
- The same sweet notes it used to sing.
-
-
-
-
-A STUDY.
-
-
- I think, indeed, ’twas only this that made
- Her seem peculiar: namely, she had no
- Peculiarity. The world to-day
- Is disappointed if we are not odd,
- And hold decided views on some one point,
- Or else unsettled views on all. But she
- Was living simply what she wished to live:
- A lovely life of rounded womanhood;
- With no sharp, salient points for eye or ear
- To seize and pass quick judgment on. Not quite
- Content was she to let the golden days
- Slip from her fingers like the well-worn beads
- Of some long rosary, told o’er and o’er
- Each night with dull, mechanical routine;
- But yet she had no central purpose; no
- Absorbing aim to which all else must yield;
- And so the very sweetness of her life,
- Its exquisite simplicity and calm,
- Musical in its silence, smote the ear
- More sharply than the discords of the rest.
- So do we grow accustomed far at sea
- To jar and clang of harsh machinery,
- And sleep profoundly in our narrow berths
- Amid the turmoil; but if suddenly
- The noisy whirr is silent, and the deep
- Low murmur of the moonlit sea is all
- That stirs the air, we waken with a start,
- And ask in terror what has happened! Then
- Sink back again upon the pillows; strange,
- That silence should have wakened us!
- Alas!
- The world has grown so feverishly hot
- With restless aims and poor ambitious dreams,
- That lives which have the cool and temperate flow
- Of healthful purpose in their veins, will seem
- Peculiar!
-
-
-
-
-“MANY THINGS THOU HAST GIVEN ME, DEAR HEART.”
-
-
- Many things thou hast given me, dear heart;
- But one thing thou hast taken: that high dream
- Of heaven as of a country that should seem
- Beyond all glory that divinest art
- Has pictured:--with this I have had to part
- Since knowing thee;--how long, love, will the gleam
- Of each day’s sunlight on my pathway stream,
- Richer than what seemed richest at the start?
- Make my days happy, love; yet I entreat
- Make not each happier than the last for me;
- Lest heaven itself should dawn to me, complete
- In joy, not the surprise I dreamed ’twould be,
- But simply as the natural and sweet
- Continuance of days spent here with thee.
-
-
-
-
-BRUTUS AT PHILIPPI.
-
-
- Rome, for whose haughtier sake proud Cæsar made
- His legions hers, to win her victories,
- Denied him when her gods let Casca’s blade
- Pierce him who learned to make her legions his.
- Still he is mighty; with unchanging dread
- Her people murmur for great Cæsar slain;
- Nor value, at the price of Cæsar dead,
- Their greater cause lost on Philippi’s plain.
- If haply there are fields, as some pretend,
- Beyond the silent Styx, where vaguely grim
- Souls of dead heroes, shadowy and dim,
- Awake,--I may find entrance at life’s end,
- Not as a hero who freed Rome from him,
- But as a man who once was Cæsar’s friend!
-
-
-
-
-“VINO SANTO.”
-
-TO H. H.
-
-
- I taste the cup of sacred wine,
- Nor count with you the cost too great
- For those who steadfastly can wait;
- Though grapes of fragrance so divine
- Should ripen to their vintage late.
-
- Gathered when only richest suns
- Pour down a wealth of golden fire;
- Pressed while the holy heart’s desire
- Breathes grateful for these perfect ones,
- And solemn prayer floats high and higher;--
-
- Type of a love that lets no stain
- Of doubt or dullness mar its creed;
- But patient through its own great need
- Of loving, wins its sure domain,--
- Such love, such wine, is pure indeed.
-
- Yet as I turn to pour for you,--
- Vivid and sparkling at your gaze,--
- My own heart’s vintage,--let me praise
- This glowing wine as holy, too;
- Since love may come in many ways.
-
- And mine came to me as a star
- Shines suddenly from worlds apart;
- And suddenly my lifted heart
- Caught the rare brightness from afar
- And mirrored its swift counterpart.
-
- Love born of instant trust and need,
- Each heart of each; a love that knew
- No test of time to prove it true,
- No fostering care; without a seed
- It seemed as if the flower grew!
-
- And you whose tender love was nursed
- In strong sweet patience, till the wine
- Of joy became for you divine,
- Ripened in sunlight from the first,--
- Will not refuse to this of mine
-
- A sacredness; remembering,--
- By miracle changed instantly,--
- The holy wine of Galilee;--
- Even so the wine of joy I bring
- For you to taste, was changed for me!
-
-
-
-
-CHARM.
-
-
- One day in June a crimson-breasted bird
- Flitted from Heaven through the golden air,
- And lit upon an apple-bough, that stirred
- With rapture of delight to hold her there;
- And finding at the same time on its breast
- A wealth of flowers, rose-red lined with snow,
- Believed in joy its graceful little guest
- Had brought them with her, and so murmured low
- In greeting,--“Little bird, a poor old tree
- Scarce can breathe worthily its thanks to thee,
- For these sweet flowers thou hast brought to me!”
-
- And then the pretty bird whose restless feet
- Danced in and out among the blossoms there,
- For very joyousness sent rippling sweet
- A carol of bright laughter through the air.
- Flushing with joy, the blooming sprays swung high,
- Responsive to the quiver of her wings;
- As light of heart beneath the summer sky
- Her voice ceased suddenly its twitterings,
- To murmur back, “Thou foolish, dear old tree,
- It is not I who bring the flowers to thee,
- But thy most tempting flowers that bring me!”
-
-
-
-
-A FACE.
-
-
- We have known
- Of many a man whose features were not carved
- By his own soul to their high nobleness,
- But handed down by some far ancestor.
- Strange, that a man a generation long
- Should do good deeds that mould his generous lips
- To noble curves, and then should die and leave
- His son the curves without the nobleness.
- We’ve known of many a woman, many a man,
- Whose own soul leaped in passionate high flames;
- But locked behind the fatal prison bars
- Of cold ancestral dignity of face,
- No glimmer of the light and warmth within
- Creeps to the surface.
-
- But this face of hers
- Is not a face like those we’ve analyzed;
- True to its wearer, it is justly proud
- With her own pride and not her ancestors.
- Were you to chide her gently for some fault,
- Or promise that whatever grand mistakes
- Her woman’s impulses might lead her to,
- You would judge all with Christian charity,
- Tis not impossible that she would say,
- “Sir, I make no mistakes; I have no faults;
- I thank you, but I need no charity!”
- Well, what of that? I would that there were more
- Of us, who, bidden to confess our sins,
- Could say Job’s litany: “May God forbid
- That you be justified! my righteousness
- Will I hold fast and will not let it go;
- My heart shall not reproach me while I live!”
- Humility’s a grace at thirty-nine,
- But scarce a virtue in the very young,
- Who bend to us from fear, not reverence.
- Nor truly humble is the violet
- That keeps its face quite upturned to the sun
- And would grow higher if it could; it cannot.
- Better for our young friend the haughtiness
- Of strong white lilies that refuse to bloom
- Near the dark earth they rose from; eagerly
- They push aside the lazy weeds that hide
- The upper air; and keeping in their breasts
- The fair white secret of their blossoming,
- Rise to the heaven they worship. Suddenly,
- Awed at the vast immensity of light
- That wraps the earth as with a garment; awed
- By the deep silence of that upper air,
- They bend their stately heads, to breathe to earth
- A murmured penitence for olden pride.
- The fair white bells they kept so jealously
- Lifted to heaven, now they overturn,
- And let the cherished fragrance of their souls
- Swing censer-like upon the general air.
-
- You’ll look at it again?
- No, I have put it back; it’s not a face
- I like to argue over with a friend.
- It is a woman’s face; and what is more,
- A face I care for!
-
-
-
-
-“LOVE WILL FIND OUT A WAY.”
-
-
- That Love should find a way through iron bars
- And close-drawn bolts--this does not seem so strange;--
- More strange I count it that with wider range,
- With naught to mark its course beneath the stars,
- Love finds its sure, swift way. That day when we
- First parted, Love, how dangerously near
- The chance we never met again! though clear
- In the broad daylight, unrestrained and free
- As breeze from heaven, naught between us lay
- But the wide, shining, trackless fields of air
- That gave no sign; the lonely vastness, where
- Love saw no clue to guide it, or to stay
- Its course;--well might the lover in despair
- Yield up his search;--and yet Love found a way!
-
-
-
-
-SUMNER.
-
-
-I.
-
- Dead!
- But not where the flashing guns
- Bring in a moment’s glittering space
- Death,--and heaven--and deathless fame--
- To Victory’s sons.
- Dead!
- But not where the crimson flame,
- Leaping fierce in a cruel grace,
- From the earthly clod
- Burns away all pitiful dross
- Till a martyr’s soul on fiery cross
- Ascends to God.
- Whose life was martyrdom
- Shall be spared a martyr’s death
- In winning a martyr’s crown.
- No struggle for restless breath;--
- A life laid calmly down;--
- Eloquent lips grown dumb;--
- Only for us the pain,
- And the agony of loss;
- Only for us the test;
- For him, the wonderful gain,
- For him, a longed-for rest.
-
-
-II.
-
- Dead!
- And the mother state,
- Mother of noble sons,
- Reaches her yearning arms.
- Give him back to her now!
- Cold is the kingly brow,
- Noblest of noble ones!
- He cannot serve you now;
- Unheeding earthly things,
- The royal soul, so great
- To shield from threatening harms,
- Has passed through a silent gate
- That never outward swings.
- Living, the world had need
- Of him and his deathless name;--
- Living, the world had need
- Of him and his stainless fame;--
- Living, we knew her need
- Of him, and confessed her claim;--
- Dead, he is only ours!
- Cover his bier with flowers;
- Give him back to us now!
-
-
-III.
-
- Nay!
- Let Massachusetts wait!
- In the capitol of the great
- Let the statesman lie in state.
- Let the house be draped in woe;
- Let the sentinel below
- Pace solemnly to and fro.
- All night let the tireless street
- Echo the sad, slow feet
- Of those who come and go.
- All day let the voiceless street
- In silence then repeat
- The name we honor so.
- Let the Senate chamber ring
- Once more with his eloquence,
- The eloquence of his death!
- Let choicest flowers bring,
- Delicate and intense,
- Tribute of fragrant breath.
- For ever the gentlest thing
- With strongest love will cling
- To one so grandly great.
- Let Massachusetts wait!
- Honored by every land,
- Around him there shall stand
- The noblest of each state!
- And a nation’s tears be shed
- For our Massachusetts’ dead!
-
-
-IV.
-
- Living, there was none so poor
- That he need to hesitate
- Loftiest aid from him to claim;--
- Dead, there is not one so great,
- Standing now at his right hand,
- But may tremble so to stand;
- Lest the touchstone of that pure
- Stainless soul and deathless fame
- Prove all poor who seem so great!
-
-
-V.
-
- Now,
- To his mother where she stands,
- Envied by the childless lands,
- Bring him back with reverent hands.
- Lonely mother, it is well
- That your sorrowing lips should tell
- Once again repentant woe
- For the wound of long ago,
- For rebuke that hurt him so!
- No reproof could alienate
- Patriot soul from patriot state;--
- Grandly patient, he could wait,
- Cancelling reproachful past,
- Words that almost came too late!
- “You were right and we were wrong!”
- Strong and clear they came at last;
- And his sovereign spirit, great
- In forgiveness for the long
- Silent strain so gently borne,
- Hearing Massachusetts mourn
- For the wrong that she had done
- Turned to her, her reverent son.
- Ere her last word met his ear,
- He had answered--he is here!
-
-
-VI.
-
- Here!
- At the city gates!
- And the long procession waits
- To bear him to his bier.
- No sound of muffled drums
- Tells that a hero comes;
- No volleying cannon roll
- The loss of a leader’s soul;
- Not with the aid of these
- Had he won his victories;
- He never loved such voice;--
- Let not these be our choice
- To give this pain relief;
- For the people’s hearts are mute
- With the passion of their grief.
- Break not upon his peace
- With Massachusetts guns!
- Only a tolling bell
- To the sorrowing state shall tell
- That the noblest of her sons,--
- Highest in the world’s repute,
- Lowliest in the toil he gave,--
- Given of God this swift release,
- Comes at last from her to crave
- For the service that he gave
- The guerdon of a grave!
-
-
-VII.
-
- Dark
- Over all,
- Falls the twilight like a pall.
- Kindle not the restless flare
- Of the midnight torches’ glare;
- Let the restful stars look down,
- Silent through the clear, cold air,
- High and pure as his renown!
- Pale against the evening sky
- Burns the banner that ye drape
- With the heavy folds of crape;
- And ye have no need to tie
- All its fluttering crimson back
- With those heavy folds of black;--
- For the very winds to-day
- Droop with sadness, nor would care
- With their crimson toy to play!
-
-
-VIII.
-
- He is here!
- Massachusetts called him back,
- And he answered--he is here!
- Let the walls be hung with black,
- Yet let roses richly red
- On the casket of the dead
- Be in bright profusion spread;
- And all night with solemn tread
- Let the dusky sentinel,
- Guarding what he loved so well,
- Guarding what he held so dear,
- Pace beside the quiet bier!
-
-
-IX.
-
- O beautiful sad day!
- All of earthly must we lay
- In the silent grave away.
- And the very Winter, pale
- At the sight of so much grief,
- From her harshness will relent;
- Stoop to brush away the snow
- From the frozen earth below
- Where the noble dead shall lie.
- Let no glorious dome less high
- Than the over-arching sky
- Bend above that royal grave;
- And for living monument,
- Over it shall rise and wave
- Living flower and living leaf.
- Lay your costly roses down,
- Civic wreath and cross and crown;
- These are frail!
- Spring shall be your sentinel;
- Guarding now untiring here
- All of what we held so dear,
- All of what we loved so well!
- Lay your costly roses down,
- Civic wreath and crown and cross;
- Turn away with hearts made great
- By the greatness of your loss!
- Spring shall wait;--
- To her sacred care entrust
- All of what is left us here:--
- Dust to dust!
- Lay your costly roses down,
- Civic wreath and cross and crown;
- These are frail!
- In the dim, unwonted shade,
- These will fade!
- But when next ye come this way,
- Ye shall find the Spring still here;
- And a grave with violets set;
- Purple, living violet,
- With the tears of heaven wet.
-
-
-
-
-SIGHT.
-
- I try to make the baby on my knee
- Look at the sunset; pointing where it glows
- Beyond the window-pane in tints of rose
- And violet and gold; when suddenly
- He dimples with responsive baby-glee,
- I think how wonderfully well he knows
- Its beauty; till the changing child-face shows
- He had not seen the sky, but laughed to see
- The sparkle of my rings;--O baby dear,
- This world of lovely gems and sunsets, bright
- With children’s faces,--is perhaps the near
- Though lesser glory, dazzling our poor sight,
- Until we cannot see, for very light,
- The heaven that shines for us, revealed and clear.
-
-
-
-
-PURITY.
-
-
- Some souls are white
- With perfectness, like stars full-orbed in heaven,
- Silently moving through the stainless blue;
- Seeming naught of their nature to have drawn
- From contact with the earth; and some are white
- With innocence, like daisies that too near
- The ground their fair leaves fearlessly unfold.
- This woman’s soul
- Is white with purity; the snowy bloom
- Of a camelia, that feels no disdain
- In drawing from this common earth of ours
- The sources of its beauty and its life;
- Yet with a wise and lofty self-control,
- Refuses long to blossom to the sun;
- Spreading its glossy leaves to light and air;
- Winning a deep, sure knowledge of the world;
- Rising with quiet dignity and grace
- Into a higher air; and when at last
- Its stately petals open to the day,
- Not with the daisy’s foolish trustfulness,
- But with the confidence of slow-won strength,
- To the world’s gaze it silently unfolds
- The perfect flower of a royal soul,
- Not innocent, and yet forever pure.
-
-
-
-
-A ROSE.
-
-
- Last night a little rose of love was laid
- Softly in this poor hand, by one who knew
- Not what most gracious breeze from heaven blew
- The blossom in his path; but since, he said,
- All loveliest things he summoned to his aid
- To win me,--let the fragrant flower that grew
- Surely in Paradise to help him woo
- And gain his wish,--be mine; then half afraid,
- Here on my breast I laid it, where it glows
- With such rich sudden beauty, that my eyes,
- Quickened by some new instinct, recognize
- What is indeed my own; for the fair rose,--
- The rose of love bewilderingly sweet--
- From my own heart had fallen at his feet!
-
-
-
-
-RUE WITH A DIFFERENCE.
-
-
- It is said
- That women are more curious than men;--
- I should not put it so: they are more frank.
- A woman who would like to know if this
- Or that be so or so, makes no disguise,
- But lifts her clear eyes candidly to yours
- And asks directly, “_Is this true?_” a man,
- More wise and quite as curious, simply states
- A fact: “_This is so_;” knowing well indeed
- That if it is not, no true woman needs
- A sharper challenge instantly to arm
- Her soul with weapons to defend herself,
- Her country, or her friends; and so he gains
- The knowledge that he wished, and yet has shown
- No idle curiosity!
-
-
-
-
-TO MAY H. R----.
-
-
- Many a lovely dream a poet might
- Weave into fancies round thy lovely name,
- Sweetheart; yet I, who surely have no claim
- To be a poet,--(save the holy right
- Love gives me to write poems at the sight
- Of a young face whose eager brightness came
- As part of life’s best gift to me,--) can frame
- No fitter reason why in such delight
- I hold the one sweet syllable, than this:
- Not for its visions of the field or wood,
- But for its wealth of possibilities;
- Its hint of undefined, ideal good,
- Suggesting all thy soul can scarcely miss,
- That _May_ one day crown thy rich womanhood.
-
-
-
-
-CYCLES.
-
-
- Sing cheerily, O bluebird from on high!
- Earth will be blue with violets by-and-by,
- More blue than those you came from in the sky.
-
- Haste, butterflies! for radiant Summer brings
- A crimson rose to match your sunlit wings,
- Brighter than violets the blue-bird sings.
-
- Croon, happy insects; violet and rose
- Have faded; yet the autumn corn-field glows
- Where in the golden grain the poppy grows.
-
- Hush, eager voices! for in dreamless sleep,
- Wrapped in cool snow, the restless earth would keep
- Forevermore serenity so deep.
-
- Forevermore? nay, tired earth, not so;
- Sweet as the violets of long ago
- The pink arbutus rises from the snow.
-
- Gathered too eagerly, it fades too soon;
- Then large white lilies open wide in June
- Their golden hearts up to the golden noon.
-
- And when the perfect lily in the gleam
- Of too much sunlight, fades like a fair dream,
- The crimson cardinals fringe the brightening stream.
-
- Then once again the softly falling snow;
- While bright above the ivy green below
- The scarlet berries of the holly glow.
-
-
-
-
-EXPERIENCE.
-
-
- A child laid in the grave ere it had known
- Earth held delight beyond its mother’s kiss;--
- A fair girl passing from a world like this
- Into God’s vast eternity, alone;--
- A brave man’s soul in one brief instant thrown
- To deepest agony from highest bliss;--
- A woman steeling her young heart to miss
- All joys in life, one dear one having flown;--
- These have I seen; yet happier these, I said,
- Than one who by experience made strong,
- Learning to live without the precious dead,
- Survive despair, outlive remorse and wrong,
- Can say when new grief comes, with unbowed head,
- “Let me not mourn! I shall forget ere long!”
-
-
-
-
-A TRUST IN GOD.
-
-
- She knew
- She was not wise; was conscious in herself
- Of eager impulses that would have wrecked
- Her whole heart’s happiness a thousand times,
- Had not some Power from without herself
- Shut down the sudden gates, and with its stern
- “_Thou shalt not!_” left her, stunned perhaps, but saved.
- For she was but a woman, and her will
- Hung poised upon her heart, and swayed with each
- Quick-passing impulse, like a humming-bird
- Lit tremulous on some rich-tinted flower.
- Rich-tinted, truly; no forget-me-not,
- Placid with blue serenity; nor yet
- That regal flower, stately in its calm
- Fair dignity, that hoards its loveliness
- From common gaze, with instinct to discern
- The presence of unworthy worshippers.
- Not till the twilight shadows have shut out
- The common crowd that would have rifled all
- Its queenly beauty,--does it condescend
- For him who with a patient reverence
- Has waited, to unfold with lovely grace
- The royal petals; and it droops and dies
- Before the garish day has ushered in
- Again the curious crowd.
- This woman’s soul
- Was not so snowy in its purity,
- And not so keen in its fine instincts; nay,
- But tinted with all splendid hues, intense
- With high enthusiasms, and yet indeed
- Not passionate, but pure as lilies are.
- Transparent flames are surely just as pure
- As icicles; and something of the rich
- And brilliant glow of her own nature fell
- On everyone about her, till they stood
- Transfigured in her eyes, with glory caught
- From her own loveliness. She was not keen
- To judge of human nature; she believed
- All men were noble; and a thousand times
- The poor heart would have offered up its all
- On some unworthy shrine, had not the fates
- Kindly removed the shrine. How could she help
- Believe that God had stooped from highest heaven,
- To save her from herself?
-
-
-
-
-FORESIGHT.
-
-
- Unbar, O heavy clouds, the gated West!
- That this most weary day, beholding so
- Her goal, may hasten her sad steps; I know
- She comes without fair gifts; upon her breast
- Close-clasped, the pale cold hands together pressed
- Hold nothing;--then let some red sunset glow
- Tempt her to seek the unknown world below
- The far horizon where she hopes for rest!
-
- At last the day, like some poor toil-worn slave,
- Passes, and leaves in sooth no gift for me;--
- Yet I, who thought my heart could be so brave
- To bear what I had wisdom to foresee,
- Sob in despair, as this poor day that gave
- Me nothing, sinks behind the western sea!
-
-
-
-
-TO FRANK S. R----.
-
-WITH A VIOLIN.
-
-
- The stately trees that in the forest grow
- Are not all destined for the same high thing;
- Some burn to useless cinders in the glow
- Of the hearth-fire; while some are meant to sing
-
- For centuries the never-dying song
- Once caught from wandering breeze or lingering bird
- So clearly and so surely, that the strong
- Firm wood was quickly seized by one who heard,
-
- To fashion his dear violin;--even so
- Our human souls are fashioned; some will fade
- Away to useless ashes, others grow
- Immortal through the sweetness they have made.
-
-
-
-
-“THE EAGER SUN COMES GLADLY FROM THE SEA.”
-
-
- The eager sun comes gladly from the sea;
- Remembering that one short year ago
- He rose from unknown worlds of light below
- Those same far waves, to shine on you and me
- Standing together on the shore;--but we
- Are strangely far apart to-day; and so
- The saddened sun with lingering step and slow
- Climbs the horizon, wondering not to see
- Your face beside mine; nor can understand
- As we do, dear, that you and I to-day,--
- Though million miles of ocean or of land
- And centuries of time between us lay,--
- Are nearer to each other than when hand
- Touched hand, before we gave our hearts away!
-
-
-
-
-RESERVE.
-
-
- I hear you praise
- What you are pleased to call unsounded depths
- Of character; a nature that the world
- Would call reserved; tempting you while it hides--
- Or you suspect it hides--a richer wealth
- Deep in some far recesses of the soul.
- As if, indeed, you should approve the host
- Who with most admirable courtesy
- Should throw wide open to your curious gaze
- His drawing-room, his green-house and his hall;
- Yet should not hesitate to let you see
- Certain close-bolted doors of hardest oak,
- Upon whose thresholds he informed you, “Here,
- Alas! I cannot let you enter.”
- You
- At once are filled with curiosity
- To listen at the keyhole.
- So am I;
- Yet much I doubt if after all those deep
- Recesses of the soul are filled with aught
- But emptiness. Too thick the cobwebs hang;
- The master of the house can scarce himself
- Feel tempted to draw back such heavy bolts;
- Although he take an honorable pride,
- Leaning at ease in comfortable chair,
- To know there are some chambers in his soul
- Unentered even by himself.
- But him
- I call reserved, whose clear eyes seem a well
- Of frank sincerity; whose smiling lips,
- Curving with hospitable gayety,
- Bid you most welcome to his house and home;
- Throwing wide open to your curious gaze
- Each nook and corner; leaving you at ease
- To wander where you will; and if at times
- You half suspect some hidden sweet retreat
- Where hyacinths are blossoming unseen,
- ’Tis not because cold iron-bolted doors
- Whisper of secrets you would fain explore;
- But that the tapestries upon the wall
- So lightly hang, that swaying to and fro,
- They half betray a fragrance from within.
- You never once suspect that secret doors
- Are sliding in the panels underneath;
- But when you go, the master of the house
- Lifts easily the soft and shining silk,
- To find there sacred silence from you all.
- ’Tis easier
- To read the secrets of a dark, deep pool
- That coldly says, “You cannot fathom me,”
- With unstirred face turned blankly to the sky,
- Than catch the meaning of a silver spring,
- Though crystal-clear, above whose bright full heart
- Delicate vine-leaves flutter in the sun.
-
-
-
-
-A SONG OF SUMMER.
-
-
- Laden with gifts of your giving,
- O summer of June!
- With the rapturous idyl of living
- In perfect attune;
- With the sweetness of eve when it closes
- A day of delight;
- With the tremulous breath of the roses
- Entrancing the night;
- With the glow of your cardinal flowers
- On lips that had paled;
- And the coolness of silvery showers
- For hands that had failed;
- With geraniums vivid with fire
- To wear on my breast,
- Where the lilies had paled with desire
- To bring to me rest;
- With the joy that was born of your brightness
- Still thrilling my soul,
- And a heart whose bewildering lightness
- I cannot control;
- Ah! now that your idyl of living
- Is over too soon,
- What gifts can compare with your giving,
- O summer of June?
-
- Then a wraith of the winter said gently,
- “I will not deceive;
- Of the brightness you prize so intently
- No trace shall I leave.
- The glow of the cardinal flowers
- Shall pass from the field,
- And the softness of silvery showers
- To ice be congealed;
- The geraniums vivid with fire
- Shall curl at the heart;
- And the lily forget the desire
- Its peace to impart;
- Pale as the rose that is dying,
- Your whitening cheek;
- Faint as its tremulous sighing,
- Words you would speak;
- For a joy that was born of their brightness
- I tremble with you,
- When the gleam and the glory and lightness
- Shall pass with the dew.
- Ah! now that your idyl of living
- Is over so soon,
- What gifts will be left of your giving,
- O summer of June?”
-
-
-
-
-THOUGHT.
-
-
- A palace richly furnished is the mind,
- In whose fair chambers we may walk at will;
- And in its cloistered calm, serene and still,
- Continual delight and comfort find.
- Not only fretful cares we leave behind,
- But restless happiness, and hopes that fill
- The eager soul with too much light, until
- Eyes dazzled see less wisely than the blind.
- So perfect is the joy we find therein,
- No pleasures of the outer world compare
- With the divine repose so gladly sought;
- When from the wearying world we turn to win
- High mental solitude, and cherish there
- Silent companionship with lofty thought.
-
-
-
-
-A CHANCE ACQUAINTANCE.
-
-
- I thought to hold thy memory as the sea
- Holds in its heart a pale reflected moon,
- Lost when the sunny radiance of noon
- Dissolves the moonlight’s tender mystery.
-
- Lo! thou art not her semblance in the seas,
- But the fair moon herself, that near or far,
- Orbed high in heaven as a shining star
- Or hid from sight at love’s antipodes;--
-
- Still sways the waters with love’s restless tides;
- Not by her own will; no coquette is she,--
- The lovely moon to whom I liken thee;--
- For high above our earthly air she glides,
-
- Unconscious as the waves that rise to greet
- Her coming, of the mystery of God’s law
- Compelling her those far-off waves to draw
- Forever towards her whom they never meet.
-
-
-
-
-A REMEMBERED CRITIC.
-
-TO J. R. D.
-
-
- Kind words, that greater kindness still implied
- From one unused to praise, for one unknown
- To him and to the world where he had grown
- Less wont to cheer the artist than to chide;
- And always in my heart I thought with pride
- Some day to know him, and for him alone
- Bring the fair finished work, that he might own--
- “O friend, behold my full faith justified!”
- Now he is dead! a man severe, they said
- Who knew the critic; but around the spot
- We call his grave, by some sweet memory led
- Of kindred sweetness, violets have not
- Refused to bloom; and one he had forgot
- Wept suddenly to hear that he was dead.
-
-
-
-
-DAWN.
-
-
- Wake, happy heart, O awake!
- For the mists are flitting away;
- And the hawthorn boughs for thy sake
- Are eager and longing to break
- Into garlands of blossoming spray.
- Sing, sing it, O gay little linnet!
- And hasten, O glad lark, to bring it,
- The beautiful Day!
-
- O Dawn, I am hungry with yearning
- For gifts thou canst give;--
- The proud soul within me is burning
- With new life to live.
- I am strong with the strength of long sleeping;
- Fill full now each vein
- With rich crimson wine thou art keeping
- For glad hearts to drain!
- O hush! for the clouds break asunder;
- Her delicate feet
- Touch the hills with a reverent wonder
- If earth will be sweet.
- And the heart that within me was breaking
- With longing for her,
- Breaks utterly, now that awaking
- I hear her low stir.
- So frail and so dainty and tender;
- What heart could foresee
- That the goddess it longed for, a slender
- Young fairy would be?
- Empty-handed, she dreads my displeasure,
- And turns half away;
- ’Tis for me then to give of my treasure,
- O beautiful Day!
- Appealing, she waits till I greet her,
- With no gifts for me;
- Dear Day, after all it is sweeter
- For me to crown thee!
- If I am not a happier maiden
- Because of thy stay,
- Thou shalt be with bright gifts from me laden,
- A happier Day!
-
-
-
-
-WITH AN ANTIQUE.
-
-
- The old, old story men would call our love;
- One cannot think of any time so old
- That some “I love you” was not gladly told
- To some one listening gladly; each remove
- Of the long lingering centuries does but prove
- Its deathlessness;--and we to-day who hold
- Each other dear as if young Love had sold
- To us alone his birthright from above,--
- Love’s secret ours alone,--turn back to seek
- In the rich types of Roman art or Greek
- Some fitting gift wherewith to fitly speak
- A love that each heart to the other drew;--
- An old, old story it may seem to you;
- To us, each year more beautiful, more new.
-
-
-
-
-DOUBT.
-
-
- Tell me, my friend;
- Across your faith (which, pardon me, I know
- To be sincere and honest; else, indeed,
- I had not spent this hour with you here;)
- Across your faith, then, does there never creep
- A haunting doubt it may not all be true?
- For me, although my life were spanned above
- With faith as honest as your own, if once
- On the horizon there had dawned a doubt
- No bigger than a pigmy’s little hand,
- Then heaven would be always overcast
- With possible untruth, and I should think
- The stars I saw were but poor will-o’-the-wisps
- Created in my brain, beyond which rolled
- The eternal darkness of a blank despair.
- Whereas now, living underneath a sky
- Continually clouded,--when a rift
- Shows me a tender heavenly blue beyond,
- I fancy then the darkness overhead
- May be a gathered mist of my poor brain,
- Beyond which rolls, immortal and unstained,
- The glory of the everlasting Truth!
-
-
-
-
-“I KNOW MYSELF THE BEST-BELOVED OF ALL.”
-
-
- I know myself the best-beloved of all
- The many dear to him; yet not indeed
- Because of his swift thought for every need
- Of my love’s craving; I could scarcely call
- My very own the power to enthrall
- Such chivalry as his, that turns to heed
- Each slightest claim, nor thinks to ask the meed
- Of love returned where love’s sweet offerings fall.
- Not then because of all he is to me;
- But by this surer token; when he earns
- The right to his own happiness, or yearns
- For some sweet, sudden, answering sympathy,
- Ah me! with what quick-beating heart I see
- For his own joy it is to me he turns!
-
-
-
-
-OCTOBER.
-
-
- The very air
- Has grown heroic; a few crimson leaves
- Have fallen here; yet not to yield their breath
- In pitiful sighing at so sad a fate,
- But royally, as with spilt blood of kings.
- The full life throbs exultant in my veins,
- Till half ashamed to wear so high a mood,
- Not for some splendid triumph of the soul,
- But simply in response to light and air,
- Slowly I let it fall.
- And later, steal
- Down the broad garden-walk, where cool and clear
- The sharp-defined white moonlight marks the path.
- Not the young moon that shy and wavering down
- Trembled through leafy tracery of the boughs
- In happy nights of June; the peace that wraps
- Me here is not the warm and golden peace
- Of summer afternoons that lull the soul
- To dreamy indolence; but strong white peace,
- Peace that is conscious power in repose.
- No fragrance floats on the autumnal air;
- The white chrysanthemums and asters star
- The frosty silence, but their leaves exhale
- No passion of remembrance or regret.
- The perfect calmness and the perfect strength
- My senses wrap in an enchanted robe
- Woven of frost and fire; while in my soul
- Blend the same mingled sovereignty and rest;
- As if indeed my spirit had drained deep
- Some delicate elixir of rich wine,
- Ripened beneath the haughtiest of suns,
- Then cooled with flakes of snow.
-
-
-
-
-SERENITY.
-
-
- Her days are as a silver-flowing stream;--
- Above, the rippling sunbeams flash and gleam;
- Beneath, strong currents noiseless as a dream.
-
- Her heart is like the lilies that bloom wide
- In restful beauty on the restless tide,
- Asking not where the eager waters glide.
-
- Her thoughts are white-winged birds, that from below
- To the high heavens soar and vanish so--
- Alas! mine cannot follow where they go.
-
- Her joys are bright-winged birds that from on high
- Come singing down, and tempt the stream to try
- And sing with them as they flit singing by.
-
- Her sorrows--she has none her heart will own;
- The air is silent when the birds have flown;
- But the poor stream still sings the song, alone.
-
-
-
-
-“A YEAR AGO TO-DAY, LOVE.”
-
-
- A year ago to-day, love, for the space
- Of a brief sudden moment, richly fraught
- With deeper meaning than our light hearts thought,
- You held my hand and looked into the face
- Which, poor in gifts, has since by God’s good grace
- Grown dear to you;--and the full year has brought
- Friendship--and love--and marriage; yet has taught
- My heart to call you in its sacred place
- Still by the earliest name; for you who are
- My lover and my husband, and who bring
- Heaven close around me, will not let me cling
- To that near heaven; but tempt my soul afar
- By your ideals for me; till life end,
- My calm, dispassionate, sincerest _friend_.
-
-
-
-
-STEADFAST.
-
-
- Not like the stars that high in heaven
- Shine so serenely with unchanging rays
- That marveling at their calmness, you believe
- Of their “firm-fixed and lasting quality”
- There is no type upon the earth beneath.
- A few weeks hence look up, and you shall find
- Each steadfast planet steadfastly has moved
- Across the midnight azure of the sky
- With silent rays still tranquil and serene.
- Not steadfast like the stars is she I love,
- But as this gem I wear upon my breast;
- Whose rich rays wander from me through the room,
- Sparkling and fading with capricious gleam
- Of light and color, like the varying moods
- Of my beloved one; those who turn to praise
- The beauty of the gem, admire most
- The changefulness of its most restless rays;
- Yet I feel no uneasiness or doubt;
- Knowing full well whenever I look down
- Upon my breast, the jewel will be there.
-
-
-
-
-WITH A CRYSTAL LION.
-
-For L. R. W.
-
-
- Keep watch and ward,
- In stately guard,
- Around my Una’s wayward feet;
- Not lest she tread
- False ways instead
- Of higher paths, serenely sweet;--
-
- But lest in care
- For all who share
- Her tender ministry, too late
- Her frail strength yield;--
- Be thou her shield;
- They also serve who sometimes wait!
-
- Of crystal, clear
- As in its sphere
- Her lofty spirit moves alway;--
- Of massive strength
- As all at length
- Will find who make her soul their stay;--
-
- With flowers and buds
- Whose sweetness floods
- The air even when we cannot see;--
- This gift I send
- My earliest friend;--
- Dear type of all she is to me!
-
-
-
-
-ABSENT-MINDED.
-
-
- You chide me that with self-absorbed, rapt eyes
- I seem to walk apart, nor care to clasp
- Familiar hands once dear; like one whose house
- Filled with the guests of her own choosing, rings
- With sounds of gladness, yet who steals away
- Up to some silent chamber of her own,
- Forgetful of the duties of a host.
- But is not she
- The truest and most hospitable friend
- Who, noting suddenly among her guests
- An unexpected comer, one to whom
- She fain would show high honor and respect,
- Hastens away with busy feet awhile
- To throw wide open to the sun and air
- Some long-untenanted fair chamber, rich
- With storied heirlooms of her ancestors,
- Bright with long windows looking towards the sun,
- Waiting but for an occupant?
- Even so
- Have I but stolen quietly away,
- Within the happy silence of my heart
- A lovely, sunny chamber to prepare
- For a new-comer.
-
-
-
-
-ANSWERED PRAYER.
-
-
- Father, whose tenderness has wrapped me round
- In a great need,--to what shall I compare
- Strength thou hast sent in answer to my prayer?
- Not to the help some falling vine has found,
- That trailing listless on the frozen ground
- Clings suddenly to some high trellis there,
- Lifting itself once more into the air
- With timid tendrils on the lattice wound.
- Rather to help the drooping plant has won,
- That weary with the beating of the rains
- Feels quickening in its own responsive veins
- The sudden shining of a distant sun.
- When from within the strength and gladness are,
- My soul knows that its help comes from afar.
-
-
-
-
-EXPRESSION.
-
-
- A wave
- Throbs restless in the darkness on the sea.
- Glorious in heaven shines a strong white star,
- Sending long slender lines of level light
- Serenely through the stillness; and the wave
- Takes to its heart the beautiful bright thing,
- Unconscious that it now stands self-revealed
- In its own palpitating restlessness.
- “How very strange,” it murmurs to itself,
- “That a great radiant star should tremble so,
- Even as I do; and more strange it seems,
- That it should be so willing to betray
- Itself by shining.”
- And meanwhile in heaven
- The star, with eyes fixed only upon God,
- Sweeps through the stately circles of the skies
- In motion grand as silence; undisturbed
- And self-contained; not dreaming that below,
- A little wave whose tremulous young heart
- Has caught a little of its brightness, thinks
- To read and to interpret for itself
- The heavenly mysteries.
- Even so I hear
- Men call it strange that poets should reveal
- The sacred secrets of their inmost souls
- To every idlest reader.
-
-
-
-
-FULFILLMENT.
-
-
- Burn bright, O sunset sky, with tints like wine!
- From all the west let the glad tidings shine,
- So beautiful a joy is to be mine.
-
- O little lily, lean into the gloom!
- Pour from thy deep cup all its rare perfume,
- Sweeter will be my joy when it shall bloom.
-
- Sing gayly, that the richer world with me
- May so rejoice in joy that is to be,
- O little birds upon the Maple tree!
-
- O happy heart, send up to eyes and cheek
- The gladness that I have no words to speak;
- The fairest ones too powerless and weak.
-
- Nay, burning sky, hide thy too brilliant glow!
- I would not that the curious world should know
- The sacred joy that now has blessed me so.
-
- O little lily, leaning from the gloom,
- Hold thy too fragrant breath, that there be room
- In the deep stillness for my heart to bloom.
-
- Hush, little birds upon the Maple tree!
- I cannot hear, ye sing so noisily,
- The sweeter song my soul would sing to me.
-
- O happy lids, droop over happy eyes,
- Lest all the marvel of their dear surprise
- Escape once more to the far Paradise,
-
- From which joy came so gently to my breast,
- Forevermore to be its cherished guest;
- Not seeking there, but bringing, heavenly rest.
-
-
-
-
-“THERE WILL BE SILENCE HERE, LOVE.”
-
-
- There will be silence here, love, in the slow
- Long summer months when there are none to break
- The stillness with the laugh of those who wake
- New-born each day to joy; and yet I know
- The stillness cannot be so still, or grow
- So deeply soundless, but that for my sake
- The memory-haunted, lonely rooms will take
- Some echo of my vanished voice;--even so,
- Amid the scenes to which I have no choice
- But go without thee, dearest, there will be
- No gayety so gay, no glad light glee
- Wherein with others I, too, must rejoice,
- But through it all my heart will make for me
- Silence, wherein I shall but hear thy voice.
-
-
-
-
-FAITH IN WORKS.
-
-
- My faith begins where your religion ends:
- In service to mankind. This single thread
- Is given to guide us through the maze of life.
- You start at one end, I the other;--you,
- With eyes fixed only upon God, begin
- With lofty faith, and seeking but to know
- And do His will who guides the universe,
- You find the slender and mysterious thread
- Leads down to earth, with God’s divine command
- To help your fellow-men; but this to me
- Is something strangely vague; I see alone
- The fellow-men, the suffering fellow-men.
- Yet with a cup of water in my hand
- For all who thirst, who knows but I one day,
- Following faithfully the slender thread,
- May reach its other end, and kneel at last
- With you in heaven at the feet of God?
-
-
-
-
-“No. 33--A PORTRAIT.”
-
-FOR R. H. L.
-
-
- With careless step I wander through the hall
- Scarce heeding many a work of lovely art;
- Till with a sudden thrill my listless heart
- Leaps up to greet upon a stranger’s wall
- Those dear remembered eyes;--her face, with all
- The dreamy charm that made so sweet a part
- Of my life once;--and tender memories start
- To meet her at her unexpected call.
- True portrait of the unforgotten face,
- How do I thank thee, that dost give me here
- Tidings from her, so distant yet still dear
- To me;--for as I bid the painting tell
- If all be well with her, its pictured grace
- Answers beyond all doubting, “_It is well!_”
-
-
-
-
-LONGING.
-
-
- Not high above us with the pitiless stars,
- Nor deep below us in the soundless sea,
- Nor far away to east or westward, lie
- The little things we long for.
- Here they are;
- Close to our hands, the eager, restless hands
- That fain would grasp them; and no fetters bind
- The wistful fingers; no relentless fate
- Tells us we must not; we are wholly free
- To take them if we choose.
- And yet--and yet--
- We dare not! lest the soul should wake some day,
- Years hence, perhaps, to sense of other needs.
- God save us ever from those sudden moods
- When all life narrows to a single point,
- And when the poor heart seizes its desire.
- Only to wake to deeper restlessness.
- But after all, what matter? would it be
- Harder to wake years hence to sense of thirst
- Than to stand thirsty now? for sunny wine
- Sparkles before us, and a precious pearl,
- Eager to lose its life upon our lips,
- Waits but our instant grasping to dissolve
- Its costly beauty in the nectar.
- Nay!
- We have no right to the white lovely pearl.
- God give us strength not to stretch out our hands!
- See! they are slipping slowly from our reach--
- Fading into the darkness--
- They are gone--
- The little things we longed for!
-
-
-
-
-THE NEW DAY.
-
-
- Supreme through all the hours of the day
- I hold one sweetest: not the day or hour,
- Dear, when you came to me; nor yet the flower
- Of perfect days, though that is sweet alway,
- When your love came to me; I cannot say
- Why these are not divinest in their power;
- Yet as each new day comes, it brings for dower
- One moment whose rich gladness will outweigh
- All others: that first moment when the night
- Yields to the daylight’s clear and vivid blue;
- And waking to things real from things that seem,
- My eager eyes unclose to the fair light,
- Still undeceived; to find their visions true,
- And that your love for me was not my dream.
-
-
-
-
-CONFESSION.
-
-
- The eager year
- Is passing, with its triumphs and defeats.
- Alike earth rests from labor and from joy;
- Hushing each tiniest insect, wearing now
- No careless ornament of flower or leaf;
- Reaching her pleading arms up to the sky
- In longing for its silent chrism of snow
- In benediction; like a weary heart,
- That worn with spent emotion, sinks at last
- Into exhaustion that almost seems rest.
- Not brooding over her lost violets,
- High in her hands upon the leafless trees
- She holds the woodbine, swaying in the wind,
- A crimson rosary of remembered sins.
-
- How shall we keep this solemn festival,
- Thou, O my heart, and I? have we no sins
- It would be well, confessing here to-night,
- To know forgiven? Not to some gentle friend
- Whose tenderness ere half the tale were told
- Would silence it with kisses; but before
- A more severe tribunal in my own
- Exacting soul, that could endure no blot
- Upon the scutcheon of its spotless truth.
- Not without hope of pardon; for the soul
- Is sponsor to the heart; if she can tell
- Of purest purpose loftily upheld,
- We need not be so sad, my heart and I,
- To wear a little while upon our breast
- The crimson rosary.
- And when the soul
- Shall speak at last the full “_Absolvo te_,”
- Then will we lay forevermore aside
- These memories of fault. Earth does not wear
- Her scarlet woodbine all the year, to pain
- Her beating heart with constant self-reproach.
- Content with frank and full confession once,
- The trembling vine, with sighing of the wind,
- Drops slowly, one by one, its deep red leaves.
- So having won forgiveness from myself,
- Listening I hear the far-off harmonies
- Of solemn chant in heaven: “_Though thy sins
- Had been as scarlet, they shall be like wool._”
- God’s benediction calms my troubled heart,
- Pained with its consciousness of frailty,
- Even as upon the fading crimson leaves
- Fall tenderly the first white flakes of snow.
-
-
-
-
-“AMONG THOSE JOYS FOR WHICH WE UTTER PRAISE.”
-
-
- Among those joys for which we utter praise
- That were not in our lives, one year ago;--
- (No need to name them, dearest; for you know
- Each one that came, our ignorant hearts to raise
- To love’s high level;) let us count the days
- Before we knew each other; days when no
- Sweet premonition of love’s full rich glow
- Gleamed on the darkness of our separate ways.
- All preludes should be simple; that no dream
- Or hint of this new beauty came to fill
- The unconscious hours with meaning, does but seem
- Fit introduction to the joys that thrill
- Our glad souls now, from love that knew no still
- Awaking,--but dawned instantly supreme.
-
-
-
-
-BECAUSE.
-
-
- Not because you are gentle of speech,
- O brave knight of mine!
- Nor because in the chivalrous list
- With the brightest you shine;
- Nor because when you pass on the street
- All the world turn to praise
- The wonderful charm of your look
- And grace of your ways;
- Nor because in your presence I know
- I have but to command,
- And the coveted treasures at once
- Will fall from your hand;
- Nor because by the glance of your eyes
- That so tenderly drew
- My whole heart unto yours, I may know
- I am perfect to you;
-
- But because in your presence, dear, _I_
- Grow gentle of speech;
- The haughty young maiden who once
- Was so wilful to teach;
- And because when I pass on the street
- All the world turn to praise
- A certain new charm in _my_ look
- And grace in _my_ ways;
- And because in your presence I lose
- The proud wish to command;
- Contented, nay eager, dear love,
- To be led by your hand;
- And because your eyes full of reproach
- At some things that I do,
- Still show the belief I shall grow
- To be worthy of you;--
- Do I love you? ’twere idle indeed
- To refuse now to yield;
- Quite useless for lips to deny
- What the eyes have revealed;
- Yet not, (let me say it, for fear
- That too vain you should be--)
- Not so much for what you are yourself,
- As for what you make me!
-
-
-
-
-IVY.
-
-
- Threading its noiseless way among fair things
- Love-chosen to make beautiful my room,
- The ivy spreads its tender living gloom,
- Darkening and brightening the wall; now clings
- Closely around some picture, and now swings
- Some airy shoot of tremulous young bloom
- Into the freer sunlight; till the doom
- Of their slow silent fate together brings
- At last the branches that for long years went
- Their single, separate ways. Did no swift thrill
- Of subtle recognition flash, and fill
- Their veins? Oh Ivy, still must we lament
- Thou canst not with our joy in thee have part,
- And thyself know how fair a thing thou art!
-
-
-
-
-INFLUENCE.
-
-
- Hearts that are glad
- Beat quicker for the smiling of her lips;
- Even as the summer air that seems o’ercharged
- With fragrance, will grow even sweeter still
- At sudden blossoming of one more rose.
- But the rose, too,
- Has her own secret. From the heavenly blue,
- Regnant upon his throne of light, the sun
- Sends her his glances; till the timid rose
- Slowly, leaf after leaf, unveils to him
- Her beauty; and the summer air at once
- Takes to itself the soft and fragrant sigh,
- Nor dreams she offered to a distant sun
- The incense of her soul.
- Even so I hear
- You praise a sudden sweetness in her ways,
- Grown strangely kind and tender to us all;
- For me, I recognize the o’erfull heart,
- Trembling and faint with effort to express
- Surcharge of beauty that her soul has drawn
- From one who stood above her.
-
-
-
-
-MIRACLE.
-
-
- If love had found me in cold cheerless ways
- And led me forth into the light;--if bloom
- Of sweet and sudden flowers, instead of gloom
- In the long nights and unillumined days,
- Thy love had brought me;--then at love’s high praise
- I had not so much wondered;--if the doom
- Of pitiless destiny had given room
- To thy bright presence,--then in swift amaze
- I were less awed than now. No life could be
- More sweet than that past life of mine, I thought;
- And when the changing years in fulness brought
- Another life enriched by love and thee,
- That all my beautiful past should seem as naught,--
- This is the miracle Love wrought for me!
-
-
-
-
-“SHE CAME AND WENT.”
-
-
- As a shy bird that startled from her nest
- Wings her far way into the highest blue,
- Nor dreams that she has left us any clue
- To find which elm tree had been loved the best;
-
- Though all the while its light boughs, fluttering
- In the deep noonday silence, softly beat
- Their soundless echoes to her flying feet
- Now swiftly in the blue air vanishing:--
-
- So haply you would keep a secret, dear,
- Your unseen presence in my little room,
- That glorified into unwonted bloom
- Betrays to me what fair guest has been here.
-
- Who else, dear, in my absence would have thought
- To close the favorite book, left open here
- Where a disputed passage was made clear
- By a few words with tedious patience sought;--
-
- Then with a sudden and repentant grace
- That all the mischief of its fault bereft,
- Have found the very page again, and left
- A rose in the shut book to mark the place.
-
-
-
-
-DREAMERS.
-
-
-I.
-
- I saw her, though with earnest eyes bent low,
- Unheedful of the violets at her feet,
- That clustering in purple fragrance sweet
- Touched her white dress; absorbed in revery so,
- She knew not that the morning sunshine’s glow
- Was for her sake; and robins, fain to greet
- So fair a lady with a love-song meet,
- No recognition won from her below.
- O dreamer of a dream thy heart shall see
- Crowned with fulfillment when the dawn of day
- Has deepened into noontide’s richer gleam,--
- Lest I too rudely should awaken thee,
- With hushed and reverent step I steal away,
- Praying God bless the dreamer and the dream!
-
-
-II.
-
- I saw her with her tearful eyes raised high,
- Unheedful of the whirling flakes of snow,
- That flitting through the sad air to and fro
- Flecked her dark dress; cold from the leaden sky,
- The autumn winds came sobbing restless by,
- Wailing to find it still so cold below;
- While faded violets of a year ago,
- Pressed to her lips, hushed her own rising cry.
- O lonely dreamer of a dream long flown,
- I come to waken thee! for dying day
- In purple twilight shrouds the noontide gleam;
- And when the lovely visions that have grown
- So fair and dear flit vanishing away,
- God blesses dreamers who no longer dream.
-
-
-
-
-ANDROMEDA.
-
-
- Loosen my arms! leave me one poor hand free,
- That I may shut one moment from my sight
- The dreadful heaving of the shuddering sea!
- For as it creeps back slowly from my feet,
- Rise from its inky depths swift-coming waves
- Big with the terrible and nameless thing
- That soon along the shrinking sands will crawl
- To wrap me in its hideous embrace.
- I will not struggle! leave me but one hand
- To shield the poor eyes that refuse to close;
- For stretched and wide the fascinated lids
- Deny their office, and I needs must look!
- What have I done, that these fair limbs of mine,
- (Nay, nay; I meant not fair; the gods forbid
- That I should boast!) but young and piteous
- And tender with soft flesh--O mother, take
- Your proud words back! O nymphs, be pitiful!
- The green waves part, and poisonous is the air!
- Red the fangs glitter! save me, O ye gods!
-
- Nay, what is this that wraps my shuddering limbs
- With sudden coolness?--Can it be that now
- The merciless tall cliff which all day long
- Refused its wonted shadow to protect
- My burning body from the dazzling sun,
- Relents, and spreads its gentle shade around
- To calm my reeling senses? Nay, for more
- It seems to me like white o’ershadowing wings,
- Circling above my head. Alas! so dim
- My poor eyes are with tears, I cannot see
- What this may be so near me; yet it seems
- Like some young, gallant knight. Alack, good sir,
- If thou art come to free my quivering limbs,
- Know that against the gods contend in vain
- The bravest knights. And yet how like a god
- Himself he stands! See how he spurns the ground,
- Poised with sustaining wings upon the air,
- And deals the monster a sharp, sudden blow
- That sends him reeling from the trembling shore!
- Shattered, I hear the chains fall to my feet;
- Yet much I fear another gentler fate
- Fetters my heart anew. O valiant knight,
- If in thy sight this tearful face was fair,--
- (Fair dare I call it now; since thou art near
- To shield me ever from the envious hate
- Of those less fair!) if worth it seemed to thee
- The dreadful daring of the doubtful fight,
- Surely that best should be thy dear reward
- Which prompted thee to struggle; all is thine!
- The dim eyes, dull with weeping bitter tears,
- Shall brighten at the sound of thy strong voice;
- The frail hands, red with struggling to be free,
- Once more shall turn to lilies in thy clasp;
- Rose-red for thee shall flush with happiness
- The poor, pale cheeks, still white with sickening fear;
- The tired feet sustained and strong shall grow,
- Walking beside thee; nay, dear love, not yet;
- For still they tremble, still I seem to need
- Thy firm supporting arm around me thrown.
- Fold me then, dearest, in thy close embrace;
- Bear me across the treacherous, yielding sands,
- To that far country which must needs be fair,
- Since thou hast followed from its chivalry,
- Where I may now forget all else but thee.
-
-
-
-
-LOVE SONG.
-
-
- Dreaming of love and fame, sweetheart,
- I dreamed that a sunbeam shone
- For a wavering instant, and where it played
- A hundred flowers had grown.
- The sunshine flitting so soon away
- Was a smile thou hadst given me;
- And the flowers that bloomed in the world for aye,
- Were the songs I wrote for thee.
-
- Waking to love and life, sweetheart,
- I saw fair flowers fade;
- While still from the measureless heavens above
- The flickering sunshine played.
- The flowers fading from all men’s sight
- Were the songs they had heard from me;
- And the light that illumined the world to them,
- Was a single smile from thee!
-
-
-
-
-CLOSED.
-
-
- Within her soul there is a sacred place,
- Forever set apart to holy thought;
- There once a miracle divine was wrought,
- And common things grew fair with heavenly grace.
- Think not to know the secret of that room;--
- Closed is the door, even to herself; no more
- She lingers there, though well our hearts are sure
- It is no spot of shadowy, haunted gloom.
- The violets that blossom there unseen
- Were never gathered, and so never fade;
- Breathing serenely through the gentle shade
- Their memories of all that once had been.
- When in the thoughtful twilight we, her friends,
- Walk with her, and in spirit dimly feel
- A strange, rare fragrance o’er the senses steal,
- Let us speak softly of a Past that sends
- Through the closed crevice of its silent door,
- No bitterness in those remembered hours;
- But in the delicate breath of such fair flowers
- Only the sweetness of the days of yore.
-
-
-
-
-BABY-HOOD.
-
-M. W. R.
-
-
- Dear bird of mine, with strong and untried wing,
- Ignorant yet of restless fluttering,
- How long will you be so content to sing
-
- For me alone? when will the world be stirred
- By notes that even I have scarcely heard,
- Since you are still only a mocking-bird?
-
- My little Clytie with the constant eyes
- Turned to me ever, though the true sunrise
- Burns far above me in God’s holy skies,--
-
- How can you know, my sweet unconscious one,
- In the bright days for you but just begun,
- That I am worthy to be held your sun?
-
- My little loyal worshipper, the bloom
- Of whose fair face makes bright the midnight gloom,
- Turned ever steadily to my near room,
-
- Knowing so well, with instinct fine and true,
- The one glad door through which I come to you,
- Caring for naught but what that hides from view,--
-
- How long, dear one, how many precious years,
- Will this fair chamber where I hush your tears
- Be the one Mecca for your hopes and fears?
-
- Not long, alas! not long; the mother heart
- Knows well how quickly she will have to part
- With all this wonder;--she who tries each art
-
- To lure him on; the first to coax and praise
- Each added grace; then first in sore amaze
- To mourn that he has lost his baby ways!
-
-
-
-
-“IF I COULD KNOW, LOVE.”
-
-
- If I could know, love, that some single prayer
- From my full heart’s supreme desires for thee,
- With rich fulfillment would be granted me
- By Him who gave us to each other,--where
- Could I find truer wish than this: “O spare
- My life to him!” For surely love should be
- Love’s best interpreter; an argosy
- Freighted with all earth’s joy, wert thou not there,--
- Beside me always--how could I be glad
- In aught of this? my own great speechless need,
- Not only of the love I once have had,
- But of thy presence, teaches me to read
- The deep, unspoken prayer thy heart would add
- To mine, if highest heaven could lean to heed!
-
-
-
-
-THE DIFFERENCE.
-
-
- One day I heard a little lady say,
- “O morning-glory, would that I were you!
- Twining around the porch that lovely way,
- Where you will see my dear one coming through.
- So fair you are, he’ll surely notice you,
- And wait perhaps a moment, just to praise
- The clinging prettiness of all your ways,
- And tender tint of melting white and blue.
- O morning-glory, would that I were you!”
-
- I heard the little lady’s lover say,
- “O rose-white daisy, dying in the dew,
- Breathing your half-crushed, fainting life away
- Under her footstep,--would that I were you!
- For when how cruelly she wounded you,
- She turns to see in pitying distress,
- With murmured words of sorrowing tenderness
- Close to her lips your bruised leaves she will press;--
- O drooping daisy, would that I were you!”
-
-
-
-
-INDIAN SUMMER.
-
-
- Linger, O Day!
- Let not thy purple haze
- Fade utterly away!
- The Indian Summer lays
- Her tender touch upon the emerald hills;
- Exquisite thrills
- Of delicate gladness fill the blue-veined air.
- More restful even than rest,
- The passionate sweetness that is everywhere.
- Soft splendors in the west
- Touch with the charm of coming changefulness
- The yielding hills.
- O linger, Day!
- Let not the dear
- Delicious languor of thy dreamfulness
- Vanish away!
- Serene and clear,
- The brooding stillness of the delicate air,
- Dreamier than the dreamiest depths of sleep,
- Falls softly everywhere.
- Still let me keep
- One little hour longer tryst with thee,
- O Day of days!
- Lean down to me,
- In tender beauty of thy amethyst haze!
- Upon the vine
- Rich, clinging clusters of the ripening grape
- Hang silent in the sun;
- But in each one
- Beats with full throb the quickening purple wine
- Whose pulse shall round the perfect fruit to shape.
- Too dreamy even to dream,
- I hear the murmuring bee and gliding stream;
- The singing silence of the afternoon
- Lulling my drowsy senses till they swoon
- Into still deeper rest;
- While soul released from sense,
- Passionate and intense,
- With quick, exultant quiver in its wings,
- Prophetic longing for diviner things,
- Escapes the unthinking breast;--
- Pierces rejoicing through the shining mist,
- But shrinks before the keen, cold ether, kissed
- By burning stars: delirious foretaste
- Of joys the soul--(too eager in its haste
- To grasp ere won by the diviner right
- Of birth through death)--is far too weak to bear!
- Bathed in earth’s lesser light,
- Slipping down slowly through the shining air,
- Once more it steals into the dreaming breast,
- Praying again to be its patient guest;
- And as my senses wake,
- The beautiful glad soul again to take,
- The twilight falls;--
- A lonely wood-thrush calls
- The Day away.
- Thou needst not linger, Day!
- My soul and I
- Would hold high converse of diviner things
- Than blossom underneath thy tender sky.
- Unfold thy wings!
- Wrap softly round thyself thy delicate haze,
- And gliding down the slowly darkening ways,
- Vanish away!
-
-
-
-
-“LAST--AN AMETHYST.”
-
-
- O thou in whom, not knowing, I believe,
- If in these uttered phrases there is naught
- Of that supreme, deep language of Thy thought
- Men call religion--yet wilt Thou receive
- The finished task; though I have dared to leave
- Unseen, but not unfelt, though best unsought,
- As Thou thyself to my own heart hast taught,
- The solemn truths that so will strongest cleave
- Unto men’s souls. My hand would fain forget
- Its eager cunning, ere the fingers kissed
- By one whose love Thou gavest me, should yet
- Yield all to joy, uncaring if they list,--
- Thy angels--from the heavenly parapet
- Of precious stones: “the twelfth, an amethyst!”
-
-
-
-
- * * * * * *
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber’s note
-
-Hyphenation in the Table of Contents was made consistent with
-hyphenation in the titles of the poems.
-
-
-
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-<body>
-<h1 class="pgx" title="">The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Ring of Amethyst, by Alice Wellington
-Rollins</h1>
-<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
-and most other parts of the world 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 <a
-href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you are not
-located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the
-country where you are located before using this ebook.</p>
-<p>Title: The Ring of Amethyst</p>
-<p>Author: Alice Wellington Rollins</p>
-<p>Release Date: September 25, 2020 [eBook #63289]</p>
-<p>Language: English</p>
-<p>Character set encoding: UTF-8</p>
-<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RING OF AMETHYST***</p>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<h4 class="pgx" title="">E-text prepared by Charlene Taylor, Charlie Howard,<br />
- and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
- (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br />
- from page images generously made available by<br />
- Internet Archive<br />
- (<a href="https://archive.org">https://archive.org</a>)</h4>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10">
- <tr>
- <td valign="top">
- Note:
- </td>
- <td>
- Images of the original pages are available through
- Internet Archive. See
- <a href="https://archive.org/details/ringofamethyst00rollrich">
- https://archive.org/details/ringofamethyst00rollrich</a>
- </td>
- </tr>
-</table>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr class="pgx" />
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter cover" style="max-width: 35em;">
- <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="2554" height="3362" alt="cover" />
-</div>
-
-<h1>THE RING OF AMETHYST.</h1>
-
-<p class="p2 center vspace wspace">BY<br />
-<span class="larger">ALICE WELLINGTON ROLLINS</span></p>
-
-<hr class="narrow" />
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent18">“He but only kissed</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The fingers of this hand wherewith I write.</div>
- <div class="verse indent18">A ring of Amethyst</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I could not wear here plainer to my sight</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Than that first kiss.”</div>
- </div>
- <div class="attrib">—<i>Mrs. Browning.</i></div>
-</div>
-</div>
-<hr class="narrow" />
-
-<p class="p2 center vspace wspace">
-NEW YORK<br />
-<span class="larger gesperrt">G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS</span><br />
-<span class="smaller">182 FIFTH AVENUE</span><br />
-1878
-</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p class="newpage p4 center smaller wspace">
-<span class="smcap">Copyright by</span><br />
-ALICE WELLINGTON ROLLINS<br />
-1878
-</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_1" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_i"></a>i</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<table id="toc" summary="Contents">
-<tr class="smaller">
- <td class="tdr" colspan="2">PAGE</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">THE RING AND THE BOOK:</td>
-</tr>
-<tr class="in4">
- <td class="tdl">THE RING:—TO GEORGE ELIOT</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_2">v</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr class="in4">
- <td class="tdl">THE BOOK:—TO D.M.R.</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_3">vi</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr class="in4">
- <td class="tdl">TO THE CRITIC</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_4">vii</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr class="in4">
- <td class="tdl">NARCISSUS</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_5">viii</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr class="in4 last">
- <td class="tdl">PROEM</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_6">ix</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">JOY</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_7">1</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">PAIN</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_8">3</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">A STUDY</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_9">5</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">“MANY THINGS THOU HAST GIVEN ME, DEAR HEART”</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_10">7</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">BRUTUS AT PHILIPPI</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_11">8</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">“VINO SANTO” TO H. H.</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_12">9</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">CHARM</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_13">12</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">A FACE</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_14">14</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">LOVE WILL FIND OUT A WAY</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_15">17</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">SUMNER</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_16">18</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">SIGHT</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_17">29</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">PURITY</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_18">30</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">A ROSE</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_19">32</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">RUE WITH A DIFFERENCE</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_20">33</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_ii"></a>ii</span></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">TO MAY H. R——.</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_21">34</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">CYCLES</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_22">35</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">EXPERIENCE</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_23">37</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">A TRUST IN GOD</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_24">38</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">FORESIGHT</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_25">41</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">TO FRANK S. R——. WITH A VIOLIN</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_26">42</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">“THE EAGER SUN COMES GLADLY FROM THE SEA”</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_27">43</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">RESERVE</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_28">44</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">A SONG OF SUMMER</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_29">47</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">THOUGHT</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_30">50</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">A CHANCE ACQUAINTANCE</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_31">51</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">A REMEMBERED CRITIC. TO J. R. D.</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_32">52</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">DAWN</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_33">53</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">WITH AN ANTIQUE</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_34">55</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">DOUBT</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_35">56</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">“I KNOW MYSELF THE BEST BELOVED OF ALL”</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_36">58</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">OCTOBER</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_37">59</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">SERENITY</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_38">61</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">“A YEAR AGO TO-DAY, LOVE”</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_39">62</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">STEADFAST</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_40">63</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">WITH A CRYSTAL LION. FOR L. R. W.</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_41">64</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">ABSENT-MINDED</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_42">66</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">ANSWERED PRAYER</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_43">68</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">EXPRESSION</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_44">69</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">FULFILLMENT</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_45">71</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_iii"></a>iii</span></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">“THERE WILL BE SILENCE HERE, LOVE”</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_46">73</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">FAITH IN WORKS</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_47">74</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">“NO. 33—A PORTRAIT.” FOR R. H. L.</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_48">75</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">LONGING</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_49">76</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">THE NEW DAY</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_50">78</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">CONFESSION</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_51">79</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">“AMONG THOSE JOYS FOR WHICH WE UTTER PRAISE.”</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_52">82</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">BECAUSE</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_53">83</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">IVY</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_54">85</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">INFLUENCE</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_55">86</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">MIRACLE</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_56">88</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">“SHE CAME AND WENT”</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_57">89</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">DREAMERS</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_58">91</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">ANDROMEDA</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_59">93</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">LOVE SONG</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_60">97</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">CLOSED</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_61">98</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">BABY-HOOD. M. W. R.</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_62">100</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">“IF I COULD KNOW, LOVE.”</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_63">102</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">THE DIFFERENCE</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_64">103</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">INDIAN SUMMER</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_65">104</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="tdl">LAST—AN AMETHYST</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#chap_66">108</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_v"></a>v</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_RING_AND_THE_BOOK">“THE RING AND THE BOOK.”</h2>
-</div>
-
-<h3 id="chap_2">THE RING.——TO GEORGE ELIOT.</h3>
-
-<hr class="narrow" />
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">As she, thy Dorothea, loved of thee,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Refused to wear in careless ornament</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">The amethysts and emeralds that lent</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Their charm to other women;—even as she,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Turning one day by chance the golden key</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Of their close casket, started as they sent</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Swift, glowing rays to greet her, and then bent</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To lift them in her white hands lovingly;—</div>
- </div>
-
- <div class="tb">* * * * *</div>
-
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">O great of heart, so calmly dost thou stand</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">In the proud splendor of thy fame, and bring</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Thy glorious gifts to all the listening land,—</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Thou canst not greatly care what I may sing!</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Yet since I hold to thee my amethyst ring,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Take it one little moment in thy hand!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_vi"></a>vi</span></p>
-
-<h3 id="chap_3" class="newpage">THE BOOK.——To D. M. R.</h3>
-
-<hr class="narrow" />
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Dear, if this little book of thine and mine</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Could bring me fame as glorious and rare</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">As that whose splendid laurels shine so fair</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For Dorothea,——it were less divine</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">A gift than this most priceless love of thine.</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Since, then, that came to me, why now despair</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Of laurel? though I may not hope to wear</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Laurel or myrtle as the precious sign</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of any proud desert. Yet if I might</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Not find that love could keep its holy tryst</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With fame, how quickly would I yield the bright</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">New dream, to keep my ring of amethyst:</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">The memory of that day when love first kissed</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The fingers of this hand wherewith I write!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_vii"></a>vii</span></p>
-
-<h3 id="chap_4" class="newpage">Ἀμέθυστος<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">TO THE CRITIC.</span></h3>
-
-<hr class="narrow" />
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">I know full well I cannot pour for you</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">The nectar of the gods;—no epic wine</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Is this I bring, to tempt you with its fine</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Poetic flavor, as of grapes that grew</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In the young vineyards when the world was new,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And only poets wrote;—a slender vine</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">You scarce will care for, bore these grapes of mine,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">From which frail hands have crushed the purple dew.</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Yet if from what I bring you, there is missed</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">The lyric loveliness of some who write,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">The passionate fervor and the keen delight</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of eloquent fire in some to whom you list,—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Think it may be, not that the gift is slight,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But that my cup is rimmed with amethyst!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_viii"></a>viii</span></p>
-
-<h3 id="chap_5" class="newpage">NARCISSUS.<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">TO THE READER.</span></h3>
-
-<hr class="narrow" />
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">If haply in these pages you should read</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Aught that seems true to human nature, true</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">To heavenly instincts;—if they speak to you</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of love, of sorrow, faith without a creed,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of doubt, of hope, of longing,—or indeed</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Of any pain or joy the poet knew</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">A heart could feel,—think not to find a clue</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To his own heart—its gladness or its need.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">From a deep spring with tangled weeds o’ergrown</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">The poet parts the leaves; if they who pass,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Bending to look down through the tall wild grass,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">By winds of heaven faintly overblown,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Should start to see there, dimly in a glass,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Some face,——’tis not the poet’s, but their own!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_ix"></a>ix</span></p>
-
-<h3 id="chap_6" class="newpage">PROEM.</h3>
-
-<hr class="narrow" />
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">I wonder, little book, if after all</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">I greatly care whether with praise or blame</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Men turn your leaves. Once, the fair hope of fame</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Had made me wonder what fate should befall</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">My first faint singing; now I cannot call</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">The singing mine; I gave it him who came</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">To place my joy where no harsh touch can maim</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Its safe, secure, bright beauty. Like a wall</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Of strong defence to me this blessedness:</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That of his love I am so proudly sure,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Though the whole world should bend to my success,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I think he could not love me any more!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And though the whole world say my book is poor,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">I know he will not love me any less!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_7" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_1"></a>1</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="JOY">JOY.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_m.png" width="156" height="156" alt="M" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad2 indent0"><span class="firstword">My</span> heart was like a flower once,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">That from its jewel-tinted cup</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The generous fragrance of its joy</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">To all the world sent floating up.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But now ’tis like a humming-bird,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">That in the cup his bright wing dips,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And with most dainty selfishness</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Himself the choicest honey sips,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">With eager, thirsty, longing lips!</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">And once my heart was like a gem,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Set in a fair betrothal ring;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Content to light the happy darks</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">That shield love’s shy self-wondering.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But now I think my heart is like</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">The lady fair who wears the ring;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Pressed closely to her lips at night</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_2"></a>2</span>
- <div class="verse indent2">With love’s mysterious wondering</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">That hers should be the precious thing!</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">And once my heart was like a nest,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Where singing-birds have made their home;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Set where the apple-boughs in bloom</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Fleck the blue air with flower-foam.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But now it is itself a bird;</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">And if it does not always sing,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The Heavenly Father knows what thoughts,—</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Too strangely sweet for uttering,—</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Stir faintly underneath its wing!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_8" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_3"></a>3</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="PAIN">PAIN.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_m.png" width="156" height="156" alt="M" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad2 indent0"><span class="firstword">My</span> heart was once a folded flower,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Within whose jewel-tinted cup,—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Still hidden even from itself,—</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">A wealth of joy is treasured up.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But now my heart is like a flower</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">From which a dainty humming-bird</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Has rifled all the choicest sweets,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">And left without one last fond word</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">The flower-soul so deeply stirred.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">And once my heart was like a gem,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Set in a rich betrothal ring;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Unconscious in its darkened case</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">How fair it lies there glittering.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But now I think my heart is like</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">The lady who has worn the ring,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And draws it from her finger slight</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_4"></a>4</span>
- <div class="verse indent2">With love’s bewildered wondering</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">That love should be a poor bruised thing.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">And once my heart was like a nest,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">High in the apple branches hung;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Where in the early April dew</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">No happy birds have ever sung.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Now ’tis itself a wounded bird;</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">And though sometimes you hear it sing,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The Heavenly Father knows what pain</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">It tries to hide by uttering</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">The same sweet notes it used to sing.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_9" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_5"></a>5</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="A_STUDY">A STUDY.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad5" src="images/i_idn.png" width="156" height="156" alt="I" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad4 indent0"><span class="firstword">I think,</span> indeed, ’twas only this that made</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Her seem peculiar: namely, she had no</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Peculiarity. The world to-day</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Is disappointed if we are not odd,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And hold decided views on some one point,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Or else unsettled views on all. But she</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Was living simply what she wished to live:</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">A lovely life of rounded womanhood;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With no sharp, salient points for eye or ear</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To seize and pass quick judgment on. Not quite</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Content was she to let the golden days</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Slip from her fingers like the well-worn beads</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of some long rosary, told o’er and o’er</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Each night with dull, mechanical routine;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But yet she had no central purpose; no</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Absorbing aim to which all else must yield;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And so the very sweetness of her life,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_6"></a>6</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">Its exquisite simplicity and calm,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Musical in its silence, smote the ear</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">More sharply than the discords of the rest.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">So do we grow accustomed far at sea</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To jar and clang of harsh machinery,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And sleep profoundly in our narrow berths</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Amid the turmoil; but if suddenly</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The noisy whirr is silent, and the deep</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Low murmur of the moonlit sea is all</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That stirs the air, we waken with a start,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And ask in terror what has happened! Then</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Sink back again upon the pillows; strange,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That silence should have wakened us!</div>
- <div class="verse indent32">Alas!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The world has grown so feverishly hot</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With restless aims and poor ambitious dreams,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That lives which have the cool and temperate flow</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of healthful purpose in their veins, will seem</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Peculiar!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_10" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_7"></a>7</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="MANY_THINGS_THOU_HAST_GIVEN_ME">“MANY THINGS THOU HAST GIVEN ME,
-DEAR HEART.”</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_m.png" width="156" height="156" alt="M" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad5 indent0"><span class="firstword">Many</span> things thou hast given me, dear heart;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But one thing thou hast taken: that high dream</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Of heaven as of a country that should seem</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Beyond all glory that divinest art</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Has pictured:—with this I have had to part</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Since knowing thee;—how long, love, will the gleam</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Of each day’s sunlight on my pathway stream,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Richer than what seemed richest at the start?</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Make my days happy, love; yet I entreat</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Make not each happier than the last for me;</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Lest heaven itself should dawn to me, complete</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In joy, not the surprise I dreamed ’twould be,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">But simply as the natural and sweet</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Continuance of days spent here with thee.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_11" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_8"></a>8</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="BRUTUS_AT_PHILIPPI">BRUTUS AT PHILIPPI.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry lpad">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad1" src="images/i_r.png" width="156" height="156" alt="R" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad3 indent0"><span class="firstword">Rome,</span> for whose haughtier sake proud Cæsar made</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">His legions hers, to win her victories,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Denied him when her gods let Casca’s blade</div>
- <div class="verse rpad indent2">Pierce him who learned to make her legions his.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Still he is mighty; with unchanging dread</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Her people murmur for great Cæsar slain;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Nor value, at the price of Cæsar dead,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Their greater cause lost on Philippi’s plain.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">If haply there are fields, as some pretend,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Beyond the silent Styx, where vaguely grim</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Souls of dead heroes, shadowy and dim,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Awake,—I may find entrance at life’s end,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Not as a hero who freed Rome from him,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">But as a man who once was Cæsar’s friend!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_12" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9"></a>9</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="VINO_SANTO">“VINO SANTO.”<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">TO H. H.</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_idn.png" width="156" height="156" alt="I" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap indent0"><span class="firstword">I taste</span> the cup of sacred wine,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Nor count with you the cost too great</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">For those who steadfastly can wait;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Though grapes of fragrance so divine</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Should ripen to their vintage late.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Gathered when only richest suns</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Pour down a wealth of golden fire;</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Pressed while the holy heart’s desire</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Breathes grateful for these perfect ones,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">And solemn prayer floats high and higher;—</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Type of a love that lets no stain</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Of doubt or dullness mar its creed;</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">But patient through its own great need</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of loving, wins its sure domain,—</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Such love, such wine, is pure indeed.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10"></a>10</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">Yet as I turn to pour for you,—</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Vivid and sparkling at your gaze,—</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">My own heart’s vintage,—let me praise</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">This glowing wine as holy, too;</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Since love may come in many ways.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">And mine came to me as a star</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Shines suddenly from worlds apart;</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">And suddenly my lifted heart</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Caught the rare brightness from afar</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">And mirrored its swift counterpart.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Love born of instant trust and need,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Each heart of each; a love that knew</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">No test of time to prove it true,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">No fostering care; without a seed</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">It seemed as if the flower grew!</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">And you whose tender love was nursed</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">In strong sweet patience, till the wine</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Of joy became for you divine,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11"></a>11</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">Ripened in sunlight from the first,—</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Will not refuse to this of mine</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">A sacredness; remembering,—</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">By miracle changed instantly,—</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">The holy wine of Galilee;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Even so the wine of joy I bring</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">For you to taste, was changed for me!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_13" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12"></a>12</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHARM">CHARM.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_oup.png" width="156" height="156" alt="O" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad1 indent0"><span class="firstword">One</span> day in June a crimson-breasted bird</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Flitted from Heaven through the golden air,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And lit upon an apple-bough, that stirred</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">With rapture of delight to hold her there;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And finding at the same time on its breast</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">A wealth of flowers, rose-red lined with snow,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Believed in joy its graceful little guest</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Had brought them with her, and so murmured low</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In greeting,—“Little bird, a poor old tree</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Scarce can breathe worthily its thanks to thee,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For these sweet flowers thou hast brought to me!”</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">And then the pretty bird whose restless feet</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Danced in and out among the blossoms there,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For very joyousness sent rippling sweet</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">A carol of bright laughter through the air.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13"></a>13</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">Flushing with joy, the blooming sprays swung high,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Responsive to the quiver of her wings;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">As light of heart beneath the summer sky</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Her voice ceased suddenly its twitterings,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To murmur back, “Thou foolish, dear old tree,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">It is not I who bring the flowers to thee,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But thy most tempting flowers that bring me!”</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_14" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14"></a>14</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="A_FACE">A FACE.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent24">We have known</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of many a man whose features were not carved</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">By his own soul to their high nobleness,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But handed down by some far ancestor.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Strange, that a man a generation long</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Should do good deeds that mould his generous lips</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To noble curves, and then should die and leave</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">His son the curves without the nobleness.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">We’ve known of many a woman, many a man,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Whose own soul leaped in passionate high flames;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But locked behind the fatal prison bars</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of cold ancestral dignity of face,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">No glimmer of the light and warmth within</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Creeps to the surface.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent24">But this face of hers</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Is not a face like those we’ve analyzed;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">True to its wearer, it is justly proud</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15"></a>15</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">With her own pride and not her ancestors.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Were you to chide her gently for some fault,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Or promise that whatever grand mistakes</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Her woman’s impulses might lead her to,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">You would judge all with Christian charity,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Tis not impossible that she would say,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">“Sir, I make no mistakes; I have no faults;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I thank you, but I need no charity!”</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Well, what of that? I would that there were more</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of us, who, bidden to confess our sins,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Could say Job’s litany: “May God forbid</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That you be justified! my righteousness</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Will I hold fast and will not let it go;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">My heart shall not reproach me while I live!”</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Humility’s a grace at thirty-nine,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But scarce a virtue in the very young,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Who bend to us from fear, not reverence.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Nor truly humble is the violet</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That keeps its face quite upturned to the sun</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And would grow higher if it could; it cannot.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Better for our young friend the haughtiness</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16"></a>16</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of strong white lilies that refuse to bloom</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Near the dark earth they rose from; eagerly</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">They push aside the lazy weeds that hide</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The upper air; and keeping in their breasts</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The fair white secret of their blossoming,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Rise to the heaven they worship. Suddenly,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Awed at the vast immensity of light</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That wraps the earth as with a garment; awed</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">By the deep silence of that upper air,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">They bend their stately heads, to breathe to earth</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">A murmured penitence for olden pride.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The fair white bells they kept so jealously</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Lifted to heaven, now they overturn,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And let the cherished fragrance of their souls</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Swing censer-like upon the general air.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent16">You’ll look at it again?</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">No, I have put it back; it’s not a face</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I like to argue over with a friend.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">It is a woman’s face; and what is more,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">A face I care for!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_15" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17"></a>17</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="LOVE_WILL_FIND_OUT_A_WAY">“LOVE WILL FIND OUT A WAY.”</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry lpad2">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_t.png" width="156" height="156" alt="T" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad3 indent0"><span class="firstword">That</span> Love should find a way through iron bars</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And close-drawn bolts—this does not seem so <span class="locked">strange;—</span></div>
- <div class="verse indent0">More strange I count it that with wider range,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With naught to mark its course beneath the stars,</div>
- <div class="verse rpad2 indent0">Love finds its sure, swift way. That day when we</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">First parted, Love, how dangerously near</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The chance we never met again! though clear</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In the broad daylight, unrestrained and free</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">As breeze from heaven, naught between us lay</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But the wide, shining, trackless fields of air</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That gave no sign; the lonely vastness, where</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Love saw no clue to guide it, or to stay</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Its course;—well might the lover in despair</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Yield up his search;—and yet Love found a way!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_16" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18"></a>18</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="SUMNER">SUMNER.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
- <h3>I.</h3>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad3" src="images/i_d.png" width="156" height="156" alt="D" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad5 indent0"><span class="firstword">Dead!</span></div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But not where the flashing guns</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Bring in a moment’s glittering space</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Death,—and heaven—and deathless fame—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To Victory’s sons.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Dead!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But not where the crimson flame,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Leaping fierce in a cruel grace,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">From the earthly clod</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Burns away all pitiful dross</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Till a martyr’s soul on fiery cross</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Ascends to God.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Whose life was martyrdom</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Shall be spared a martyr’s death</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In winning a martyr’s crown.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">No struggle for restless breath;—</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19"></a>19</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">A life laid calmly down;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Eloquent lips grown dumb;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Only for us the pain,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And the agony of loss;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Only for us the test;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For him, the wonderful gain,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For him, a longed-for rest.</div>
- </div>
-
- <h3>II.</h3>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Dead!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And the mother state,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Mother of noble sons,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Reaches her yearning arms.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Give him back to her now!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Cold is the kingly brow,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Noblest of noble ones!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">He cannot serve you now;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Unheeding earthly things,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The royal soul, so great</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To shield from threatening harms,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Has passed through a silent gate</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20"></a>20</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">That never outward swings.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Living, the world had need</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of him and his deathless name;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Living, the world had need</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of him and his stainless fame;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Living, we knew her need</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of him, and confessed her claim;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Dead, he is only ours!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Cover his bier with flowers;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Give him back to us now!</div>
- </div>
-
- <h3>III.</h3>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Nay!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Let Massachusetts wait!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In the capitol of the great</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Let the statesman lie in state.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Let the house be draped in woe;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Let the sentinel below</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Pace solemnly to and fro.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">All night let the tireless street</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Echo the sad, slow feet</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21"></a>21</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of those who come and go.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">All day let the voiceless street</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In silence then repeat</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The name we honor so.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Let the Senate chamber ring</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Once more with his eloquence,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The eloquence of his death!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Let choicest flowers bring,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Delicate and intense,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Tribute of fragrant breath.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For ever the gentlest thing</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With strongest love will cling</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To one so grandly great.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Let Massachusetts wait!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Honored by every land,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Around him there shall stand</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The noblest of each state!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And a nation’s tears be shed</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For our Massachusetts’ dead!</div>
- </div>
-
- <h3>IV.</h3>
- <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22"></a>22</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">Living, there was none so poor</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That he need to hesitate</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Loftiest aid from him to claim;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Dead, there is not one so great,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Standing now at his right hand,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But may tremble so to stand;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Lest the touchstone of that pure</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Stainless soul and deathless fame</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Prove all poor who seem so great!</div>
- </div>
-
- <h3>V.</h3>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Now,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To his mother where she stands,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Envied by the childless lands,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Bring him back with reverent hands.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Lonely mother, it is well</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That your sorrowing lips should tell</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Once again repentant woe</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For the wound of long ago,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For rebuke that hurt him so!</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23"></a>23</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">No reproof could alienate</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Patriot soul from patriot state;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Grandly patient, he could wait,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Cancelling reproachful past,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Words that almost came too late!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">“You were right and we were wrong!”</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Strong and clear they came at last;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And his sovereign spirit, great</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In forgiveness for the long</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Silent strain so gently borne,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Hearing Massachusetts mourn</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For the wrong that she had done</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Turned to her, her reverent son.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Ere her last word met his ear,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">He had answered—he is here!</div>
- </div>
-
- <h3>VI.</h3>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Here!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">At the city gates!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And the long procession waits</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To bear him to his bier.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24"></a>24</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">No sound of muffled drums</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Tells that a hero comes;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">No volleying cannon roll</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The loss of a leader’s soul;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Not with the aid of these</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Had he won his victories;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">He never loved such voice;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Let not these be our choice</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To give this pain relief;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For the people’s hearts are mute</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With the passion of their grief.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Break not upon his peace</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With Massachusetts guns!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Only a tolling bell</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To the sorrowing state shall tell</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That the noblest of her sons,—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Highest in the world’s repute,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Lowliest in the toil he gave,—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Given of God this swift release,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Comes at last from her to crave</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For the service that he gave</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The guerdon of a grave!</div>
- </div>
-
- <h3>VII.</h3>
- <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25"></a>25</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">Dark</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Over all,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Falls the twilight like a pall.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Kindle not the restless flare</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of the midnight torches’ glare;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Let the restful stars look down,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Silent through the clear, cold air,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">High and pure as his renown!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Pale against the evening sky</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Burns the banner that ye drape</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With the heavy folds of crape;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And ye have no need to tie</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">All its fluttering crimson back</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With those heavy folds of black;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For the very winds to-day</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Droop with sadness, nor would care</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With their crimson toy to play!</div>
- </div>
-
- <h3>VIII.</h3>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">He is here!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Massachusetts called him back,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26"></a>26</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">And he answered—he is here!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Let the walls be hung with black,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Yet let roses richly red</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">On the casket of the dead</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Be in bright profusion spread;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And all night with solemn tread</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Let the dusky sentinel,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Guarding what he loved so well,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Guarding what he held so dear,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Pace beside the quiet bier!</div>
- </div>
-
- <h3>IX.</h3>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">O beautiful sad day!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">All of earthly must we lay</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In the silent grave away.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And the very Winter, pale</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">At the sight of so much grief,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">From her harshness will relent;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Stoop to brush away the snow</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">From the frozen earth below</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Where the noble dead shall lie.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27"></a>27</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">Let no glorious dome less high</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Than the over-arching sky</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Bend above that royal grave;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And for living monument,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Over it shall rise and wave</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Living flower and living leaf.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Lay your costly roses down,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Civic wreath and cross and crown;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">These are frail!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Spring shall be your sentinel;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Guarding now untiring here</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">All of what we held so dear,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">All of what we loved so well!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Lay your costly roses down,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Civic wreath and crown and cross;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Turn away with hearts made great</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">By the greatness of your loss!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Spring shall wait;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To her sacred care entrust</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">All of what is left us here:—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Dust to dust!</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_28"></a>28</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">Lay your costly roses down,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Civic wreath and cross and crown;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">These are frail!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In the dim, unwonted shade,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">These will fade!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But when next ye come this way,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Ye shall find the Spring still here;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And a grave with violets set;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Purple, living violet,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With the tears of heaven wet.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_17" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_29"></a>29</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="SIGHT">SIGHT.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry lpad">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad4" src="images/i_iup.png" width="156" height="156" alt="I" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad3 indent0"><span class="firstword">I try</span> to make the baby on my knee</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Look at the sunset; pointing where it glows</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Beyond the window-pane in tints of rose</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And violet and gold; when suddenly</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">He dimples with responsive baby-glee,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I think how wonderfully well he knows</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Its beauty; till the changing child-face shows</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">He had not seen the sky, but laughed to see</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The sparkle of my rings;—O baby dear,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">This world of lovely gems and sunsets, bright</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With children’s faces,—is perhaps the near</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Though lesser glory, dazzling our poor sight,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Until we cannot see, for very light,</div>
- <div class="verse rpad indent0">The heaven that shines for us, revealed and clear.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_18" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30"></a>30</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="PURITY">PURITY.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent20">Some souls are white</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With perfectness, like stars full-orbed in heaven,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Silently moving through the stainless blue;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Seeming naught of their nature to have drawn</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">From contact with the earth; and some are white</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With innocence, like daisies that too near</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The ground their fair leaves fearlessly unfold.</div>
- <div class="verse indent20">This woman’s soul</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Is white with purity; the snowy bloom</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of a camelia, that feels no disdain</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In drawing from this common earth of ours</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The sources of its beauty and its life;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Yet with a wise and lofty self-control,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Refuses long to blossom to the sun;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Spreading its glossy leaves to light and air;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Winning a deep, sure knowledge of the world;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Rising with quiet dignity and grace</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31"></a>31</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">Into a higher air; and when at last</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Its stately petals open to the day,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Not with the daisy’s foolish trustfulness,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But with the confidence of slow-won strength,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To the world’s gaze it silently unfolds</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The perfect flower of a royal soul,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Not innocent, and yet forever pure.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_19" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32"></a>32</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="A_ROSE">A ROSE.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry lpad">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_l.png" width="156" height="156" alt="L" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad4 indent0"><span class="firstword">Last</span> night a little rose of love was laid</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Softly in this poor hand, by one who knew</div>
- <div class="verse rpad indent0">Not what most gracious breeze from heaven blew</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The blossom in his path; but since, he said,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">All loveliest things he summoned to his aid</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To win me,—let the fragrant flower that grew</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Surely in Paradise to help him woo</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And gain his wish,—be mine; then half afraid,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Here on my breast I laid it, where it glows</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With such rich sudden beauty, that my eyes,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Quickened by some new instinct, recognize</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">What is indeed my own; for the fair rose,—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The rose of love bewilderingly sweet—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">From my own heart had fallen at his feet!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_20" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33"></a>33</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="RUE_WITH_A_DIFFERENCE">RUE WITH A DIFFERENCE.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent22">It is said</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That women are more curious than men;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I should not put it so: they are more frank.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">A woman who would like to know if this</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Or that be so or so, makes no disguise,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But lifts her clear eyes candidly to yours</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And asks directly, “<em>Is this true?</em>” a man,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">More wise and quite as curious, simply states</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">A fact: “<em>This is so</em>;” knowing well indeed</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That if it is not, no true woman needs</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">A sharper challenge instantly to arm</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Her soul with weapons to defend herself,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Her country, or her friends; and so he gains</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The knowledge that he wished, and yet has shown</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">No idle curiosity!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_21" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_34"></a>34</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="TO_MAY_H_R_mdash">TO MAY H. R——.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry lpad">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad3" src="images/i_m.png" width="156" height="156" alt="M" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad6 indent0"><span class="firstword">Many</span> a lovely dream a poet might</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Weave into fancies round thy lovely name,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Sweetheart; yet I, who surely have no claim</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To be a poet,—(save the holy right</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Love gives me to write poems at the sight</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of a young face whose eager brightness came</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">As part of life’s best gift to me,—) can frame</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">No fitter reason why in such delight</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I hold the one sweet syllable, than this:</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Not for its visions of the field or wood,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But for its wealth of possibilities;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Its hint of undefined, ideal good,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Suggesting all thy soul can scarcely miss,</div>
- <div class="verse rpad indent0">That <em>May</em> one day crown thy rich womanhood.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_22" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35"></a>35</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CYCLES">CYCLES.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad3" src="images/i_s.png" width="156" height="156" alt="S" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad4 indent0"><span class="firstword">Sing</span> cheerily, O bluebird from on high!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Earth will be blue with violets by-and-by,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">More blue than those you came from in the sky.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Haste, butterflies! for radiant Summer brings</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">A crimson rose to match your sunlit wings,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Brighter than violets the blue-bird sings.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Croon, happy insects; violet and rose</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Have faded; yet the autumn corn-field glows</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Where in the golden grain the poppy grows.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Hush, eager voices! for in dreamless sleep,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Wrapped in cool snow, the restless earth would keep</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Forevermore serenity so deep.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Forevermore? nay, tired earth, not so;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Sweet as the violets of long ago</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The pink arbutus rises from the snow.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36"></a>36</span>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Gathered too eagerly, it fades too soon;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Then large white lilies open wide in June</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Their golden hearts up to the golden noon.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">And when the perfect lily in the gleam</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of too much sunlight, fades like a fair dream,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The crimson cardinals fringe the brightening stream.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Then once again the softly falling snow;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">While bright above the ivy green below</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The scarlet berries of the holly glow.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_23" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37"></a>37</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXPERIENCE">EXPERIENCE.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry lpad">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad5" src="images/i_a.png" width="156" height="156" alt="A" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad5 indent0"><span class="firstword">A child</span> laid in the grave ere it had known</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Earth held delight beyond its mother’s <span class="locked">kiss;—</span></div>
- <div class="verse indent0">A fair girl passing from a world like this</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Into God’s vast eternity, alone;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">A brave man’s soul in one brief instant thrown</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To deepest agony from highest bliss;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">A woman steeling her young heart to miss</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">All joys in life, one dear one having flown;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">These have I seen; yet happier these, I said,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Than one who by experience made strong,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Learning to live without the precious dead,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Survive despair, outlive remorse and wrong,</div>
- <div class="verse rpad indent0">Can say when new grief comes, with unbowed head,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">“Let me not mourn! I shall forget ere long!”</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_24" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38"></a>38</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="A_TRUST_IN_GOD">A TRUST IN GOD.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent26">She knew</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">She was not wise; was conscious in herself</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of eager impulses that would have wrecked</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Her whole heart’s happiness a thousand times,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Had not some Power from without herself</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Shut down the sudden gates, and with its stern</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">“<em>Thou shalt not!</em>” left her, stunned perhaps, but saved.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For she was but a woman, and her will</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Hung poised upon her heart, and swayed with each</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Quick-passing impulse, like a humming-bird</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Lit tremulous on some rich-tinted flower.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Rich-tinted, truly; no forget-me-not,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Placid with blue serenity; nor yet</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That regal flower, stately in its calm</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Fair dignity, that hoards its loveliness</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">From common gaze, with instinct to discern</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39"></a>39</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">The presence of unworthy worshippers.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Not till the twilight shadows have shut out</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The common crowd that would have rifled all</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Its queenly beauty,—does it condescend</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For him who with a patient reverence</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Has waited, to unfold with lovely grace</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The royal petals; and it droops and dies</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Before the garish day has ushered in</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Again the curious crowd.</div>
- <div class="verse indent28">This woman’s soul</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Was not so snowy in its purity,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And not so keen in its fine instincts; nay,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But tinted with all splendid hues, intense</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With high enthusiasms, and yet indeed</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Not passionate, but pure as lilies are.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Transparent flames are surely just as pure</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">As icicles; and something of the rich</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And brilliant glow of her own nature fell</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">On everyone about her, till they stood</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Transfigured in her eyes, with glory caught</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">From her own loveliness. She was not keen</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40"></a>40</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">To judge of human nature; she believed</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">All men were noble; and a thousand times</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The poor heart would have offered up its all</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">On some unworthy shrine, had not the fates</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Kindly removed the shrine. How could she help</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Believe that God had stooped from highest heaven,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To save her from herself?</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_25" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41"></a>41</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="FORESIGHT">FORESIGHT.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_u.png" width="156" height="156" alt="U" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad4 indent0"><span class="firstword">Unbar,</span> O heavy clouds, the gated West!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That this most weary day, beholding so</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Her goal, may hasten her sad steps; I know</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">She comes without fair gifts; upon her breast</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Close-clasped, the pale cold hands together pressed</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Hold nothing;—then let some red sunset glow</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Tempt her to seek the unknown world below</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The far horizon where she hopes for rest!</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">At last the day, like some poor toil-worn slave,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Passes, and leaves in sooth no gift for me;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Yet I, who thought my heart could be so brave</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To bear what I had wisdom to foresee,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Sob in despair, as this poor day that gave</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Me nothing, sinks behind the western sea!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_26" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42"></a>42</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="TO_FRANK_S_R_mdash">TO FRANK S. R——.<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">WITH A VIOLIN.</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_t.png" width="156" height="156" alt="T" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad4 indent0"><span class="firstword">The</span> stately trees that in the forest grow</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Are not all destined for the same high thing;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Some burn to useless cinders in the glow</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of the hearth-fire; while some are meant to sing</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">For centuries the never-dying song</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Once caught from wandering breeze or lingering bird</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">So clearly and so surely, that the strong</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Firm wood was quickly seized by one who heard,</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">To fashion his dear violin;—even so</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Our human souls are fashioned; some will fade</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Away to useless ashes, others grow</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Immortal through the sweetness they have made.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_27" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43"></a>43</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_EAGER_SUN_COMES_GLADLY_FROM">“THE EAGER SUN COMES GLADLY FROM
-THE SEA.”</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_t.png" width="156" height="156" alt="T" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad4 indent0"><span class="firstword">The</span> eager sun comes gladly from the sea;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Remembering that one short year ago</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">He rose from unknown worlds of light below</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Those same far waves, to shine on you and me</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Standing together on the shore;—but we</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Are strangely far apart to-day; and so</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The saddened sun with lingering step and slow</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Climbs the horizon, wondering not to see</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Your face beside mine; nor can understand</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">As we do, dear, that you and I to-day,—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Though million miles of ocean or of land</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And centuries of time between us lay,—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Are nearer to each other than when hand</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Touched hand, before we gave our hearts away!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_28" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44"></a>44</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="RESERVE">RESERVE.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent24">I hear you praise</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">What you are pleased to call unsounded depths</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of character; a nature that the world</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Would call reserved; tempting you while it hides—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Or you suspect it hides—a richer wealth</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Deep in some far recesses of the soul.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">As if, indeed, you should approve the host</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Who with most admirable courtesy</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Should throw wide open to your curious gaze</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">His drawing-room, his green-house and his hall;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Yet should not hesitate to let you see</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Certain close-bolted doors of hardest oak,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Upon whose thresholds he informed you, “Here,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Alas! I cannot let you enter.”</div>
- <div class="verse indent24">You</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">At once are filled with curiosity</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To listen at the keyhole.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_45"></a>45</span>
- <div class="verse indent24">So am I;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Yet much I doubt if after all those deep</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Recesses of the soul are filled with aught</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But emptiness. Too thick the cobwebs hang;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The master of the house can scarce himself</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Feel tempted to draw back such heavy bolts;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Although he take an honorable pride,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Leaning at ease in comfortable chair,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To know there are some chambers in his soul</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Unentered even by himself.</div>
- <div class="verse indent24">But him</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I call reserved, whose clear eyes seem a well</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of frank sincerity; whose smiling lips,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Curving with hospitable gayety,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Bid you most welcome to his house and home;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Throwing wide open to your curious gaze</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Each nook and corner; leaving you at ease</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To wander where you will; and if at times</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">You half suspect some hidden sweet retreat</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Where hyacinths are blossoming unseen,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">’Tis not because cold iron-bolted doors</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46"></a>46</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">Whisper of secrets you would fain explore;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But that the tapestries upon the wall</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">So lightly hang, that swaying to and fro,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">They half betray a fragrance from within.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">You never once suspect that secret doors</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Are sliding in the panels underneath;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But when you go, the master of the house</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Lifts easily the soft and shining silk,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To find there sacred silence from you all.</div>
- <div class="verse indent24">’Tis easier</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To read the secrets of a dark, deep pool</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That coldly says, “You cannot fathom me,”</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With unstirred face turned blankly to the sky,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Than catch the meaning of a silver spring,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Though crystal-clear, above whose bright full heart</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Delicate vine-leaves flutter in the sun.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_29" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47"></a>47</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="A_SONG_OF_SUMMER">A SONG OF SUMMER.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_l.png" width="156" height="156" alt="L" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad4 indent0"><span class="firstword">Laden</span> with gifts of your giving,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">O summer of June!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With the rapturous idyl of living</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In perfect attune;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With the sweetness of eve when it closes</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">A day of delight;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With the tremulous breath of the roses</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Entrancing the night;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With the glow of your cardinal flowers</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">On lips that had paled;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And the coolness of silvery showers</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For hands that had failed;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With geraniums vivid with fire</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To wear on my breast,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Where the lilies had paled with desire</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To bring to me rest;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With the joy that was born of your brightness</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Still thrilling my soul,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48"></a>48</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">And a heart whose bewildering lightness</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I cannot control;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Ah! now that your idyl of living</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Is over too soon,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">What gifts can compare with your giving,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">O summer of June?</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Then a wraith of the winter said gently,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">“I will not deceive;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of the brightness you prize so intently</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">No trace shall I leave.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The glow of the cardinal flowers</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Shall pass from the field,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And the softness of silvery showers</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To ice be congealed;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The geraniums vivid with fire</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Shall curl at the heart;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And the lily forget the desire</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Its peace to impart;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Pale as the rose that is dying,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Your whitening cheek;</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_49"></a>49</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">Faint as its tremulous sighing,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Words you would speak;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For a joy that was born of their brightness</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I tremble with you,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">When the gleam and the glory and lightness</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Shall pass with the dew.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Ah! now that your idyl of living</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Is over so soon,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">What gifts will be left of your giving,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">O summer of June?”</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_30" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_50"></a>50</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="THOUGHT">THOUGHT.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry lpad">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad5" src="images/i_a.png" width="156" height="156" alt="A" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad5 indent0"><span class="firstword">A palace</span> richly furnished is the mind,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In whose fair chambers we may walk at will;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And in its cloistered calm, serene and still,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Continual delight and comfort find.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Not only fretful cares we leave behind,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But restless happiness, and hopes that fill</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The eager soul with too much light, until</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Eyes dazzled see less wisely than the blind.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">So perfect is the joy we find therein,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">No pleasures of the outer world compare</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With the divine repose so gladly sought;</div>
- <div class="verse rpad indent0">When from the wearying world we turn to win</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">High mental solitude, and cherish there</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Silent companionship with lofty thought.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_31" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_51"></a>51</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="A_CHANCE_ACQUAINTANCE">A CHANCE ACQUAINTANCE.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry lpad">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad1" src="images/i_idn.png" width="156" height="156" alt="I" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap indent0"><span class="firstword">I thought</span> to hold thy memory as the sea</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Holds in its heart a pale reflected moon,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Lost when the sunny radiance of noon</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Dissolves the moonlight’s tender mystery.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Lo! thou art not her semblance in the seas,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">But the fair moon herself, that near or far,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Orbed high in heaven as a shining star</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Or hid from sight at love’s antipodes;—</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse rpad indent0">Still sways the waters with love’s restless tides;</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Not by her own will; no coquette is she,—</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">The lovely moon to whom I liken thee;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For high above our earthly air she glides,</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Unconscious as the waves that rise to greet</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Her coming, of the mystery of God’s law</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Compelling her those far-off waves to draw</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Forever towards her whom they never meet.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_32" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_52"></a>52</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="A_REMEMBERED_CRITIC">A REMEMBERED CRITIC.<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">TO J. R. D.</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry lpad">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad1" src="images/i_k.png" width="156" height="156" alt="K" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad3 indent0"><span class="firstword">Kind</span> words, that greater kindness still implied</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">From one unused to praise, for one unknown</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">To him and to the world where he had grown</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Less wont to cheer the artist than to chide;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And always in my heart I thought with pride</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Some day to know him, and for him alone</div>
- <div class="verse rpad indent2">Bring the fair finished work, that he might own—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">“O friend, behold my full faith justified!”</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Now he is dead! a man severe, they said</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Who knew the critic; but around the spot</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">We call his grave, by some sweet memory led</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of kindred sweetness, violets have not</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Refused to bloom; and one he had forgot</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Wept suddenly to hear that he was dead.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_33" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_53"></a>53</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="DAWN">DAWN.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad1" src="images/i_w.png" width="156" height="156" alt="W" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad3 indent0"><span class="firstword">Wake,</span> happy heart, O awake!</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">For the mists are flitting away;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And the hawthorn boughs for thy sake</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Are eager and longing to break</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Into garlands of blossoming spray.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Sing, sing it, O gay little linnet!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And hasten, O glad lark, to bring it,</div>
- <div class="verse indent8">The beautiful Day!</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">O Dawn, I am hungry with yearning</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">For gifts thou canst give;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The proud soul within me is burning</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">With new life to live.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I am strong with the strength of long sleeping;</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Fill full now each vein</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With rich crimson wine thou art keeping</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">For glad hearts to drain!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">O hush! for the clouds break asunder;</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Her delicate feet</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Touch the hills with a reverent wonder</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_54"></a>54</span>
- <div class="verse indent2">If earth will be sweet.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And the heart that within me was breaking</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">With longing for her,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Breaks utterly, now that awaking</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">I hear her low stir.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">So frail and so dainty and tender;</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">What heart could foresee</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That the goddess it longed for, a slender</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Young fairy would be?</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Empty-handed, she dreads my displeasure,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">And turns half away;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">’Tis for me then to give of my treasure,</div>
- <div class="verse indent8">O beautiful Day!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Appealing, she waits till I greet her,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">With no gifts for me;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Dear Day, after all it is sweeter</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">For me to crown thee!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">If I am not a happier maiden</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Because of thy stay,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Thou shalt be with bright gifts from me laden,</div>
- <div class="verse indent8">A happier Day!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_34" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_55"></a>55</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="WITH_AN_ANTIQUE">WITH AN ANTIQUE.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry lpad">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad1" src="images/i_t.png" width="156" height="156" alt="T" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad2 indent0"><span class="firstword">The</span> old, old story men would call our love;</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">One cannot think of any time so old</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">That some “I love you” was not gladly told</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To some one listening gladly; each remove</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of the long lingering centuries does but prove</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Its deathlessness;—and we to-day who hold</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Each other dear as if young Love had sold</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To us alone his birthright from above,—</div>
- <div class="verse rpad indent2">Love’s secret ours alone,—turn back to seek</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">In the rich types of Roman art or Greek</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Some fitting gift wherewith to fitly speak</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">A love that each heart to the other drew;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">An old, old story it may seem to you;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To us, each year more beautiful, more new.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_35" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_56"></a>56</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="DOUBT">DOUBT.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent22">Tell me, my friend;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Across your faith (which, pardon me, I know</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To be sincere and honest; else, indeed,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I had not spent this hour with you here;)</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Across your faith, then, does there never creep</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">A haunting doubt it may not all be true?</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For me, although my life were spanned above</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With faith as honest as your own, if once</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">On the horizon there had dawned a doubt</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">No bigger than a pigmy’s little hand,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Then heaven would be always overcast</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With possible untruth, and I should think</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The stars I saw were but poor will-o’-the-wisps</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Created in my brain, beyond which rolled</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The eternal darkness of a blank despair.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Whereas now, living underneath a sky</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Continually clouded,—when a rift</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Shows me a tender heavenly blue beyond,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_57"></a>57</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">I fancy then the darkness overhead</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">May be a gathered mist of my poor brain,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Beyond which rolls, immortal and unstained,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The glory of the everlasting Truth!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_36" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_58"></a>58</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="I_KNOW_MYSELF_THE_BEST-BELOVED">“I KNOW MYSELF THE BEST-BELOVED
-OF ALL.”</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_iup.png" width="156" height="156" alt="I" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap indent0"><span class="firstword">I know</span> myself the best-beloved of all</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">The many dear to him; yet not indeed</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Because of his swift thought for every need</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of my love’s craving; I could scarcely call</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">My very own the power to enthrall</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Such chivalry as his, that turns to heed</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Each slightest claim, nor thinks to ask the meed</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of love returned where love’s sweet offerings fall.</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Not then because of all he is to me;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But by this surer token; when he earns</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The right to his own happiness, or yearns</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">For some sweet, sudden, answering sympathy,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Ah me! with what quick-beating heart I see</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For his own joy it is to me he turns!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_37" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_59"></a>59</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="OCTOBER">OCTOBER.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent24">The very air</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Has grown heroic; a few crimson leaves</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Have fallen here; yet not to yield their breath</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In pitiful sighing at so sad a fate,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But royally, as with spilt blood of kings.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The full life throbs exultant in my veins,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Till half ashamed to wear so high a mood,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Not for some splendid triumph of the soul,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But simply in response to light and air,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Slowly I let it fall.</div>
- <div class="verse indent20">And later, steal</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Down the broad garden-walk, where cool and clear</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The sharp-defined white moonlight marks the path.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Not the young moon that shy and wavering down</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Trembled through leafy tracery of the boughs</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In happy nights of June; the peace that wraps</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Me here is not the warm and golden peace</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of summer afternoons that lull the soul</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_60"></a>60</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">To dreamy indolence; but strong white peace,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Peace that is conscious power in repose.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">No fragrance floats on the autumnal air;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The white chrysanthemums and asters star</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The frosty silence, but their leaves exhale</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">No passion of remembrance or regret.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The perfect calmness and the perfect strength</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">My senses wrap in an enchanted robe</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Woven of frost and fire; while in my soul</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Blend the same mingled sovereignty and rest;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">As if indeed my spirit had drained deep</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Some delicate elixir of rich wine,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Ripened beneath the haughtiest of suns,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Then cooled with flakes of snow.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_38" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_61"></a>61</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="SERENITY">SERENITY.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry lpad">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_h.png" width="156" height="156" alt="H" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad4 indent0"><span class="firstword">Her</span> days are as a silver-flowing stream;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Above, the rippling sunbeams flash and gleam;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Beneath, strong currents noiseless as a dream.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Her heart is like the lilies that bloom wide</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In restful beauty on the restless tide,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Asking not where the eager waters glide.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse rpad indent0">Her thoughts are white-winged birds, that from below</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To the high heavens soar and vanish so—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Alas! mine cannot follow where they go.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Her joys are bright-winged birds that from on high</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Come singing down, and tempt the stream to try</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And sing with them as they flit singing by.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Her sorrows—she has none her heart will own;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The air is silent when the birds have flown;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But the poor stream still sings the song, alone.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_39" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_62"></a>62</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="A_YEAR_AGO_TO-DAY_LOVE">“A YEAR AGO TO-DAY, LOVE.”</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_a.png" width="156" height="156" alt="A" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad2 indent0"><span class="firstword">A year</span> ago to-day, love, for the space</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Of a brief sudden moment, richly fraught</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">With deeper meaning than our light hearts thought,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">You held my hand and looked into the face</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Which, poor in gifts, has since by God’s good grace</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Grown dear to you;—and the full year has brought</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Friendship—and love—and marriage; yet has taught</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">My heart to call you in its sacred place</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Still by the earliest name; for you who are</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">My lover and my husband, and who bring</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Heaven close around me, will not let me cling</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">To that near heaven; but tempt my soul afar</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">By your ideals for me; till life end,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">My calm, dispassionate, sincerest <em>friend</em>.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_40" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_63"></a>63</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="STEADFAST">STEADFAST.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent14">Not like the stars that high in heaven</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Shine so serenely with unchanging rays</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That marveling at their calmness, you believe</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of their “firm-fixed and lasting quality”</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">There is no type upon the earth beneath.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">A few weeks hence look up, and you shall find</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Each steadfast planet steadfastly has moved</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Across the midnight azure of the sky</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With silent rays still tranquil and serene.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Not steadfast like the stars is she I love,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But as this gem I wear upon my breast;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Whose rich rays wander from me through the room,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Sparkling and fading with capricious gleam</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of light and color, like the varying moods</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of my beloved one; those who turn to praise</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The beauty of the gem, admire most</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The changefulness of its most restless rays;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Yet I feel no uneasiness or doubt;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Knowing full well whenever I look down</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Upon my breast, the jewel will be there.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_41" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_64"></a>64</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="WITH_A_CRYSTAL_LION">WITH A CRYSTAL LION.<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">For L. R. W.</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap dcin1" src="images/i_k.png" width="156" height="156" alt="K" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad1 indent0"><span class="firstword">Keep</span> watch and ward,</div>
- <div class="verse dcout1 indent6">In stately guard,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Around my Una’s wayward feet;</div>
- <div class="verse indent6">Not lest she tread</div>
- <div class="verse indent6">False ways instead</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of higher paths, serenely sweet;—</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent6">But lest in care</div>
- <div class="verse indent6">For all who share</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Her tender ministry, too late</div>
- <div class="verse indent6">Her frail strength yield;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent6">Be thou her shield;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">They also serve who sometimes wait!</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent6">Of crystal, clear</div>
- <div class="verse indent6">As in its sphere</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Her lofty spirit moves alway;—</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_65"></a>65</span>
- <div class="verse indent6">Of massive strength</div>
- <div class="verse indent6">As all at length</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Will find who make her soul their stay;—</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent6">With flowers and buds</div>
- <div class="verse indent6">Whose sweetness floods</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The air even when we cannot see;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent6">This gift I send</div>
- <div class="verse indent6">My earliest friend;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Dear type of all she is to me!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_42" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_66"></a>66</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="ABSENT-MINDED">ABSENT-MINDED.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry lpad">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_y.png" width="156" height="156" alt="Y" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad4 indent0"><span class="firstword">You</span> chide me that with self-absorbed, rapt eyes</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I seem to walk apart, nor care to clasp</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Familiar hands once dear; like one whose house</div>
- <div class="verse rpad indent0">Filled with the guests of her own choosing, rings</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With sounds of gladness, yet who steals away</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Up to some silent chamber of her own,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Forgetful of the duties of a host.</div>
- <div class="verse indent26">But is not she</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The truest and most hospitable friend</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Who, noting suddenly among her guests</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">An unexpected comer, one to whom</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">She fain would show high honor and respect,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Hastens away with busy feet awhile</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To throw wide open to the sun and air</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Some long-untenanted fair chamber, rich</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With storied heirlooms of her ancestors,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Bright with long windows looking towards the sun,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Waiting but for an occupant?</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_67"></a>67</span>
- <div class="verse indent28">Even so</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Have I but stolen quietly away,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Within the happy silence of my heart</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">A lovely, sunny chamber to prepare</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For a new-comer.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_43" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_68"></a>68</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="ANSWERED_PRAYER">ANSWERED PRAYER.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry lpad">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_f.png" width="156" height="156" alt="F" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad3 indent0"><span class="firstword">Father,</span> whose tenderness has wrapped me round</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In a great need,—to what shall I compare</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Strength thou hast sent in answer to my prayer?</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Not to the help some falling vine has found,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That trailing listless on the frozen ground</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Clings suddenly to some high trellis there,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Lifting itself once more into the air</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With timid tendrils on the lattice wound.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Rather to help the drooping plant has won,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That weary with the beating of the rains</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Feels quickening in its own responsive veins</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The sudden shining of a distant sun.</div>
- <div class="verse rpad indent0">When from within the strength and gladness are,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">My soul knows that its help comes from afar.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_44" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_69"></a>69</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXPRESSION">EXPRESSION.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent28">A wave</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Throbs restless in the darkness on the sea.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Glorious in heaven shines a strong white star,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Sending long slender lines of level light</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Serenely through the stillness; and the wave</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Takes to its heart the beautiful bright thing,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Unconscious that it now stands self-revealed</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In its own palpitating restlessness.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">“How very strange,” it murmurs to itself,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">“That a great radiant star should tremble so,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Even as I do; and more strange it seems,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That it should be so willing to betray</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Itself by shining.”</div>
- <div class="verse indent14">And meanwhile in heaven</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The star, with eyes fixed only upon God,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Sweeps through the stately circles of the skies</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In motion grand as silence; undisturbed</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And self-contained; not dreaming that below,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_70"></a>70</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">A little wave whose tremulous young heart</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Has caught a little of its brightness, thinks</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To read and to interpret for itself</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The heavenly mysteries.</div>
- <div class="verse indent16">Even so I hear</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Men call it strange that poets should reveal</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The sacred secrets of their inmost souls</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To every idlest reader.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_45" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_71"></a>71</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="FULFILLMENT">FULFILLMENT.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry lpad">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_b.png" width="156" height="156" alt="B" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad4 indent0"><span class="firstword">Burn</span> bright, O sunset sky, with tints like wine!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">From all the west let the glad tidings shine,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">So beautiful a joy is to be mine.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">O little lily, lean into the gloom!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Pour from thy deep cup all its rare perfume,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Sweeter will be my joy when it shall bloom.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Sing gayly, that the richer world with me</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">May so rejoice in joy that is to be,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">O little birds upon the Maple tree!</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">O happy heart, send up to eyes and cheek</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The gladness that I have no words to speak;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The fairest ones too powerless and weak.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Nay, burning sky, hide thy too brilliant glow!</div>
- <div class="verse rpad indent0">I would not that the curious world should know</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The sacred joy that now has blessed me so.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_72"></a>72</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">O little lily, leaning from the gloom,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Hold thy too fragrant breath, that there be room</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In the deep stillness for my heart to bloom.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Hush, little birds upon the Maple tree!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I cannot hear, ye sing so noisily,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The sweeter song my soul would sing to me.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">O happy lids, droop over happy eyes,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Lest all the marvel of their dear surprise</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Escape once more to the far Paradise,</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">From which joy came so gently to my breast,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Forevermore to be its cherished guest;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Not seeking there, but bringing, heavenly rest.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_46" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_73"></a>73</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="THERE_WILL_BE_SILENCE_HERE_LOVE">“THERE WILL BE SILENCE HERE, LOVE.”</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry lpad">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad3" src="images/i_t.png" width="156" height="156" alt="T" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad5 indent0"><span class="firstword">There</span> will be silence here, love, in the slow</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Long summer months when there are none to break</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The stillness with the laugh of those who wake</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">New-born each day to joy; and yet I know</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The stillness cannot be so still, or grow</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">So deeply soundless, but that for my sake</div>
- <div class="verse rpad2 indent0">The memory-haunted, lonely rooms will take</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Some echo of my vanished voice;—even so,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Amid the scenes to which I have no choice</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But go without thee, dearest, there will be</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">No gayety so gay, no glad light glee</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Wherein with others I, too, must rejoice,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But through it all my heart will make for me</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Silence, wherein I shall but hear thy voice.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_47" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_74"></a>74</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="FAITH_IN_WORKS">FAITH IN WORKS.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_m.png" width="156" height="156" alt="M" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad5 indent0"><span class="firstword">My</span> faith begins where your religion ends:</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In service to mankind. This single thread</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Is given to guide us through the maze of life.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">You start at one end, I the other;—you,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With eyes fixed only upon God, begin</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With lofty faith, and seeking but to know</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And do His will who guides the universe,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">You find the slender and mysterious thread</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Leads down to earth, with God’s divine command</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To help your fellow-men; but this to me</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Is something strangely vague; I see alone</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The fellow-men, the suffering fellow-men.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Yet with a cup of water in my hand</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For all who thirst, who knows but I one day,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Following faithfully the slender thread,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">May reach its other end, and kneel at last</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With you in heaven at the feet of God?</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_48" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_75"></a>75</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="No_33_A_PORTRAIT">“No. 33—A PORTRAIT.”<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">FOR R. H. L.</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry lpad">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad3" src="images/i_w.png" width="156" height="156" alt="W" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad6 indent0"><span class="firstword">With</span> careless step I wander through the hall</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Scarce heeding many a work of lovely art;</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Till with a sudden thrill my listless heart</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Leaps up to greet upon a stranger’s wall</div>
- <div class="verse rpad indent0">Those dear remembered eyes;—her face, with all</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">The dreamy charm that made so sweet a part</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Of my life once;—and tender memories start</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To meet her at her unexpected call.</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">True portrait of the unforgotten face,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">How do I thank thee, that dost give me here</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Tidings from her, so distant yet still dear</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To me;—for as I bid the painting tell</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">If all be well with her, its pictured grace</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Answers beyond all doubting, “<em>It is well!</em>”</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_49" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_76"></a>76</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="LONGING">LONGING.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_n.png" width="156" height="156" alt="N" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad4 indent0"><span class="firstword">Not</span> high above us with the pitiless stars,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Nor deep below us in the soundless sea,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Nor far away to east or westward, lie</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The little things we long for.</div>
- <div class="verse indent32">Here they are;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Close to our hands, the eager, restless hands</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That fain would grasp them; and no fetters bind</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The wistful fingers; no relentless fate</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Tells us we must not; we are wholly free</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To take them if we choose.</div>
- <div class="verse indent28">And yet—and yet—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">We dare not! lest the soul should wake some day,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Years hence, perhaps, to sense of other needs.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">God save us ever from those sudden moods</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">When all life narrows to a single point,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And when the poor heart seizes its desire.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Only to wake to deeper restlessness.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But after all, what matter? would it be</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_77"></a>77</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">Harder to wake years hence to sense of thirst</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Than to stand thirsty now? for sunny wine</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Sparkles before us, and a precious pearl,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Eager to lose its life upon our lips,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Waits but our instant grasping to dissolve</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Its costly beauty in the nectar.</div>
- <div class="verse indent32">Nay!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">We have no right to the white lovely pearl.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">God give us strength not to stretch out our hands!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">See! they are slipping slowly from our reach—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Fading into the darkness—</div>
- <div class="verse indent32">They are gone—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The little things we longed for!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_50" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_78"></a>78</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_NEW_DAY">THE NEW DAY.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad3" src="images/i_s.png" width="156" height="156" alt="S" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad4 indent0"><span class="firstword">Supreme</span> through all the hours of the day</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I hold one sweetest: not the day or hour,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Dear, when you came to me; nor yet the flower</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of perfect days, though that is sweet alway,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">When your love came to me; I cannot say</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Why these are not divinest in their power;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Yet as each new day comes, it brings for dower</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">One moment whose rich gladness will outweigh</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">All others: that first moment when the night</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Yields to the daylight’s clear and vivid blue;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And waking to things real from things that seem,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">My eager eyes unclose to the fair light,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Still undeceived; to find their visions true,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And that your love for me was not my dream.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_51" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_79"></a>79</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONFESSION">CONFESSION.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent24">The eager year</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Is passing, with its triumphs and defeats.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Alike earth rests from labor and from joy;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Hushing each tiniest insect, wearing now</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">No careless ornament of flower or leaf;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Reaching her pleading arms up to the sky</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In longing for its silent chrism of snow</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In benediction; like a weary heart,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That worn with spent emotion, sinks at last</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Into exhaustion that almost seems rest.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Not brooding over her lost violets,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">High in her hands upon the leafless trees</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">She holds the woodbine, swaying in the wind,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">A crimson rosary of remembered sins.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">How shall we keep this solemn festival,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Thou, O my heart, and I? have we no sins</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">It would be well, confessing here to-night,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_80"></a>80</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">To know forgiven? Not to some gentle friend</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Whose tenderness ere half the tale were told</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Would silence it with kisses; but before</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">A more severe tribunal in my own</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Exacting soul, that could endure no blot</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Upon the scutcheon of its spotless truth.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Not without hope of pardon; for the soul</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Is sponsor to the heart; if she can tell</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of purest purpose loftily upheld,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">We need not be so sad, my heart and I,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To wear a little while upon our breast</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The crimson rosary.</div>
- <div class="verse indent22">And when the soul</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Shall speak at last the full “<em xml:lang="la" lang="la">Absolvo te</em>,”</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Then will we lay forevermore aside</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">These memories of fault. Earth does not wear</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Her scarlet woodbine all the year, to pain</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Her beating heart with constant self-reproach.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Content with frank and full confession once,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The trembling vine, with sighing of the wind,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Drops slowly, one by one, its deep red leaves.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_81"></a>81</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">So having won forgiveness from myself,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Listening I hear the far-off harmonies</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of solemn chant in heaven: “<em>Though thy sins</em></div>
- <div class="verse indent0"><em>Had been as scarlet, they shall be like wool.</em>”</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">God’s benediction calms my troubled heart,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Pained with its consciousness of frailty,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Even as upon the fading crimson leaves</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Fall tenderly the first white flakes of snow.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_52" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_82"></a>82</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="AMONG_THOSE_JOYS_FOR_WHICH_WE">“AMONG THOSE JOYS FOR WHICH WE
-UTTER PRAISE.”</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_a.png" width="156" height="156" alt="A" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad4 indent0"><span class="firstword">Among</span> those joys for which we utter praise</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That were not in our lives, one year ago;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">(No need to name them, dearest; for you know</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Each one that came, our ignorant hearts to raise</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To love’s high level;) let us count the days</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Before we knew each other; days when no</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Sweet premonition of love’s full rich glow</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Gleamed on the darkness of our separate ways.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">All preludes should be simple; that no dream</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Or hint of this new beauty came to fill</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The unconscious hours with meaning, does but seem</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Fit introduction to the joys that thrill</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Our glad souls now, from love that knew no still</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Awaking,—but dawned instantly supreme.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_53" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_83"></a>83</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="BECAUSE">BECAUSE.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry lpad">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad3" src="images/i_n.png" width="156" height="156" alt="N" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad5 indent0"><span class="firstword">Not</span> because you are gentle of speech,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">O brave knight of mine!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Nor because in the chivalrous list</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With the brightest you shine;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Nor because when you pass on the street</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">All the world turn to praise</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The wonderful charm of your look</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And grace of your ways;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Nor because in your presence I know</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I have but to command,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And the coveted treasures at once</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Will fall from your hand;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Nor because by the glance of your eyes</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That so tenderly drew</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">My whole heart unto yours, I may know</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I am perfect to you;</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">But because in your presence, dear, <em>I</em></div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Grow gentle of speech;</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_84"></a>84</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">The haughty young maiden who once</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Was so wilful to teach;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And because when I pass on the street</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">All the world turn to praise</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">A certain new charm in <em>my</em> look</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And grace in <em>my</em> ways;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And because in your presence I lose</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The proud wish to command;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Contented, nay eager, dear love,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To be led by your hand;</div>
- <div class="verse rpad indent0">And because your eyes full of reproach</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">At some things that I do,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Still show the belief I shall grow</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To be worthy of you;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Do I love you? ’twere idle indeed</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To refuse now to yield;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Quite useless for lips to deny</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">What the eyes have revealed;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Yet not, (let me say it, for fear</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That too vain you should be—)</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Not so much for what you are yourself,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">As for what you make me!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_54" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_85"></a>85</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="IVY">IVY.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry lpad">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad3" src="images/i_t.png" width="156" height="156" alt="T" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad5 indent0"><span class="firstword">Threading</span> its noiseless way among fair things</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Love-chosen to make beautiful my room,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The ivy spreads its tender living gloom,</div>
- <div class="verse rpad indent0">Darkening and brightening the wall; now clings</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Closely around some picture, and now swings</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Some airy shoot of tremulous young bloom</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Into the freer sunlight; till the doom</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of their slow silent fate together brings</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">At last the branches that for long years went</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Their single, separate ways. Did no swift thrill</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of subtle recognition flash, and fill</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Their veins? Oh Ivy, still must we lament</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Thou canst not with our joy in thee have part,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And thyself know how fair a thing thou art!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_55" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_86"></a>86</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="INFLUENCE">INFLUENCE.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent22">Hearts that are glad</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Beat quicker for the smiling of her lips;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Even as the summer air that seems o’ercharged</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With fragrance, will grow even sweeter still</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">At sudden blossoming of one more rose.</div>
- <div class="verse indent22">But the rose, too,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Has her own secret. From the heavenly blue,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Regnant upon his throne of light, the sun</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Sends her his glances; till the timid rose</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Slowly, leaf after leaf, unveils to him</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Her beauty; and the summer air at once</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Takes to itself the soft and fragrant sigh,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Nor dreams she offered to a distant sun</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The incense of her soul.</div>
- <div class="verse indent22">Even so I hear</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">You praise a sudden sweetness in her ways,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Grown strangely kind and tender to us all;</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_87"></a>87</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">For me, I recognize the o’erfull heart,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Trembling and faint with effort to express</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Surcharge of beauty that her soul has drawn</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">From one who stood above her.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_56" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_88"></a>88</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="MIRACLE">MIRACLE.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_idn.png" width="156" height="156" alt="I" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad3 indent0"><span class="firstword">If</span> love had found me in cold cheerless ways</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And led me forth into the light;—if bloom</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of sweet and sudden flowers, instead of gloom</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In the long nights and unillumined days,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Thy love had brought me;—then at love’s high praise</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I had not so much wondered;—if the doom</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of pitiless destiny had given room</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To thy bright presence,—then in swift amaze</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I were less awed than now. No life could be</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">More sweet than that past life of mine, I thought;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And when the changing years in fulness brought</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Another life enriched by love and thee,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That all my beautiful past should seem as naught,—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">This is the miracle Love wrought for me!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_57" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_89"></a>89</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="SHE_CAME_AND_WENT">“SHE CAME AND WENT.”</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_a.png" width="156" height="156" alt="A" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad4 indent0"><span class="firstword">As</span> a shy bird that startled from her nest</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Wings her far way into the highest blue,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Nor dreams that she has left us any clue</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To find which elm tree had been loved the best;</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Though all the while its light boughs, fluttering</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In the deep noonday silence, softly beat</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Their soundless echoes to her flying feet</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Now swiftly in the blue air vanishing:—</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">So haply you would keep a secret, dear,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Your unseen presence in my little room,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That glorified into unwonted bloom</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Betrays to me what fair guest has been here.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Who else, dear, in my absence would have thought</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To close the favorite book, left open here</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Where a disputed passage was made clear</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">By a few words with tedious patience sought;—</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_90"></a>90</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">Then with a sudden and repentant grace</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That all the mischief of its fault bereft,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Have found the very page again, and left</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">A rose in the shut book to mark the place.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_58" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_91"></a>91</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="DREAMERS">DREAMERS.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry lpad">
-
- <h3>I.</h3>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad4" src="images/i_iup.png" width="156" height="156" alt="I" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad3 indent0"><span class="firstword">I saw</span> her, though with earnest eyes bent low,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Unheedful of the violets at her feet,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That clustering in purple fragrance sweet</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Touched her white dress; absorbed in revery so,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">She knew not that the morning sunshine’s glow</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Was for her sake; and robins, fain to greet</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">So fair a lady with a love-song meet,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">No recognition won from her below.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">O dreamer of a dream thy heart shall see</div>
- <div class="verse rpad indent0">Crowned with fulfillment when the dawn of day</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Has deepened into noontide’s richer gleam,—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Lest I too rudely should awaken thee,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With hushed and reverent step I steal away,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Praying God bless the dreamer and the dream!</div>
- </div>
-
- <h3>II.</h3>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">I saw her with her tearful eyes raised high,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Unheedful of the whirling flakes of snow,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That flitting through the sad air to and fro</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_92"></a>92</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">Flecked her dark dress; cold from the leaden sky,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The autumn winds came sobbing restless by,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Wailing to find it still so cold below;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">While faded violets of a year ago,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Pressed to her lips, hushed her own rising cry.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">O lonely dreamer of a dream long flown,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I come to waken thee! for dying day</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In purple twilight shrouds the noontide gleam;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And when the lovely visions that have grown</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">So fair and dear flit vanishing away,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">God blesses dreamers who no longer dream.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_59" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_93"></a>93</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="ANDROMEDA">ANDROMEDA.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry lpad">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_l.png" width="156" height="156" alt="L" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad4 indent0"><span class="firstword">Loosen</span> my arms! leave me one poor hand free,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That I may shut one moment from my sight</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The dreadful heaving of the shuddering sea!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For as it creeps back slowly from my feet,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Rise from its inky depths swift-coming waves</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Big with the terrible and nameless thing</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That soon along the shrinking sands will crawl</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To wrap me in its hideous embrace.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I will not struggle! leave me but one hand</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To shield the poor eyes that refuse to close;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For stretched and wide the fascinated lids</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Deny their office, and I needs must look!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">What have I done, that these fair limbs of mine,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">(Nay, nay; I meant not fair; the gods forbid</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That I should boast!) but young and piteous</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And tender with soft flesh—O mother, take</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Your proud words back! O nymphs, be pitiful!</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_94"></a>94</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">The green waves part, and poisonous is the air!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Red the fangs glitter! save me, O ye gods!</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Nay, what is this that wraps my shuddering limbs</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With sudden coolness?—Can it be that now</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The merciless tall cliff which all day long</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Refused its wonted shadow to protect</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">My burning body from the dazzling sun,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Relents, and spreads its gentle shade around</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To calm my reeling senses? Nay, for more</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">It seems to me like white o’ershadowing wings,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Circling above my head. Alas! so dim</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">My poor eyes are with tears, I cannot see</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">What this may be so near me; yet it seems</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Like some young, gallant knight. Alack, good sir,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">If thou art come to free my quivering limbs,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Know that against the gods contend in vain</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The bravest knights. And yet how like a god</div>
- <div class="verse rpad indent0">Himself he stands! See how he spurns the ground,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Poised with sustaining wings upon the air,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And deals the monster a sharp, sudden blow</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_95"></a>95</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">That sends him reeling from the trembling shore!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Shattered, I hear the chains fall to my feet;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Yet much I fear another gentler fate</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Fetters my heart anew. O valiant knight,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">If in thy sight this tearful face was fair,—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">(Fair dare I call it now; since thou art near</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To shield me ever from the envious hate</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of those less fair!) if worth it seemed to thee</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The dreadful daring of the doubtful fight,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Surely that best should be thy dear reward</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Which prompted thee to struggle; all is thine!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The dim eyes, dull with weeping bitter tears,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Shall brighten at the sound of thy strong voice;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The frail hands, red with struggling to be free,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Once more shall turn to lilies in thy clasp;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Rose-red for thee shall flush with happiness</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The poor, pale cheeks, still white with sickening fear;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The tired feet sustained and strong shall grow,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Walking beside thee; nay, dear love, not yet;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For still they tremble, still I seem to need</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Thy firm supporting arm around me thrown.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_96"></a>96</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">Fold me then, dearest, in thy close embrace;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Bear me across the treacherous, yielding sands,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To that far country which must needs be fair,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Since thou hast followed from its chivalry,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Where I may now forget all else but thee.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_60" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_97"></a>97</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="LOVE_SONG">LOVE SONG.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_d.png" width="156" height="156" alt="D" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad4 indent0"><span class="firstword">Dreaming</span> of love and fame, sweetheart,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I dreamed that a sunbeam shone</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For a wavering instant, and where it played</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">A hundred flowers had grown.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The sunshine flitting so soon away</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Was a smile thou hadst given me;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And the flowers that bloomed in the world for aye,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Were the songs I wrote for thee.</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Waking to love and life, sweetheart,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">I saw fair flowers fade;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">While still from the measureless heavens above</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The flickering sunshine played.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The flowers fading from all men’s sight</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Were the songs they had heard from me;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And the light that illumined the world to them,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Was a single smile from thee!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_61" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_98"></a>98</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CLOSED">CLOSED.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_w.png" width="156" height="156" alt="W" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad5 indent0"><span class="firstword">Within</span> her soul there is a sacred place,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Forever set apart to holy thought;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">There once a miracle divine was wrought,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And common things grew fair with heavenly grace.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Think not to know the secret of that room;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Closed is the door, even to herself; no more</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">She lingers there, though well our hearts are sure</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">It is no spot of shadowy, haunted gloom.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The violets that blossom there unseen</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Were never gathered, and so never fade;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Breathing serenely through the gentle shade</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Their memories of all that once had been.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">When in the thoughtful twilight we, her friends,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Walk with her, and in spirit dimly feel</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">A strange, rare fragrance o’er the senses steal,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Let us speak softly of a Past that sends</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_99"></a>99</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">Through the closed crevice of its silent door,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">No bitterness in those remembered hours;</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But in the delicate breath of such fair flowers</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Only the sweetness of the days of yore.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_62" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_100"></a>100</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="BABY-HOOD">BABY-HOOD.<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">M. W. R.</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry lpad">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad3" src="images/i_d.png" width="156" height="156" alt="D" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad5 indent0"><span class="firstword">Dear</span> bird of mine, with strong and untried wing,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Ignorant yet of restless fluttering,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">How long will you be so content to sing</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">For me alone? when will the world be stirred</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">By notes that even I have scarcely heard,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Since you are still only a mocking-bird?</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">My little Clytie with the constant eyes</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Turned to me ever, though the true sunrise</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Burns far above me in God’s holy skies,—</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">How can you know, my sweet unconscious one,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In the bright days for you but just begun,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">That I am worthy to be held your sun?</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_101"></a>101</span>
- <div class="verse indent0">My little loyal worshipper, the bloom</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of whose fair face makes bright the midnight gloom,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Turned ever steadily to my near room,</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Knowing so well, with instinct fine and true,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The one glad door through which I come to you,</div>
- <div class="verse rpad indent0">Caring for naught but what that hides from <span class="locked">view,—</span></div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">How long, dear one, how many precious years,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Will this fair chamber where I hush your tears</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Be the one Mecca for your hopes and fears?</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">Not long, alas! not long; the mother heart</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Knows well how quickly she will have to part</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With all this wonder;—she who tries each art</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">To lure him on; the first to coax and praise</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Each added grace; then first in sore amaze</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To mourn that he has lost his baby ways!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_63" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_102"></a>102</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="IF_I_COULD_KNOW_LOVE">“IF I COULD KNOW, LOVE.”</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry lpad">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad3" src="images/i_idn.png" width="156" height="156" alt="I" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad3 indent0"><span class="firstword">If</span> I could know, love, that some single prayer</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">From my full heart’s supreme desires for thee,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With rich fulfillment would be granted me</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">By Him who gave us to each other,—where</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Could I find truer wish than this: “O spare</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">My life to him!” For surely love should be</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Love’s best interpreter; an argosy</div>
- <div class="verse rpad indent0">Freighted with all earth’s joy, wert thou not <span class="locked">there,—</span></div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Beside me always—how could I be glad</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">In aught of this? my own great speechless need,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Not only of the love I once have had,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">But of thy presence, teaches me to read</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The deep, unspoken prayer thy heart would add</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">To mine, if highest heaven could lean to heed!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_64" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_103"></a>103</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_DIFFERENCE">THE DIFFERENCE.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad2" src="images/i_odn.png" width="156" height="156" alt="O" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad4 indent0"><span class="firstword">One</span> day I heard a little lady say,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">“O morning-glory, would that I were you!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Twining around the porch that lovely way,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Where you will see my dear one coming through.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">So fair you are, he’ll surely notice you,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And wait perhaps a moment, just to praise</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The clinging prettiness of all your ways,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And tender tint of melting white and blue.</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">O morning-glory, would that I were you!”</div>
- </div>
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">I heard the little lady’s lover say,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">“O rose-white daisy, dying in the dew,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Breathing your half-crushed, fainting life away</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Under her footstep,—would that I were you!</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">For when how cruelly she wounded you,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">She turns to see in pitying distress,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">With murmured words of sorrowing tenderness</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Close to her lips your bruised leaves she will press;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">O drooping daisy, would that I were you!”</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_65" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_104"></a>104</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="INDIAN_SUMMER">INDIAN SUMMER.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent10">Linger, O Day!</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">Let not thy purple haze</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">Fade utterly away!</div>
- <div class="verse indent8">The Indian Summer lays</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Her tender touch upon the emerald hills;</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">Exquisite thrills</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Of delicate gladness fill the blue-veined air.</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">More restful even than rest,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">The passionate sweetness that is everywhere.</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">Soft splendors in the west</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Touch with the charm of coming changefulness</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">The yielding hills.</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">O linger, Day!</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">Let not the dear</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Delicious languor of thy dreamfulness</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">Vanish away!</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">Serene and clear,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">The brooding stillness of the delicate air,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Dreamier than the dreamiest depths of sleep,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_105"></a>105</span>
- <div class="verse indent10">Falls softly everywhere.</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">Still let me keep</div>
- <div class="verse indent4">One little hour longer tryst with thee,</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">O Day of days!</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">Lean down to me,</div>
- <div class="verse indent4">In tender beauty of thy amethyst haze!</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">Upon the vine</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Rich, clinging clusters of the ripening grape</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">Hang silent in the sun;</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">But in each one</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Beats with full throb the quickening purple wine</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Whose pulse shall round the perfect fruit to shape.</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">Too dreamy even to dream,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">I hear the murmuring bee and gliding stream;</div>
- <div class="verse indent6">The singing silence of the afternoon</div>
- <div class="verse indent4">Lulling my drowsy senses till they swoon</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">Into still deeper rest;</div>
- <div class="verse indent8">While soul released from sense,</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">Passionate and intense,</div>
- <div class="verse indent4">With quick, exultant quiver in its wings,</div>
- <div class="verse indent6">Prophetic longing for diviner things,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_106"></a>106</span>
- <div class="verse indent14">Escapes the unthinking breast;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent4">Pierces rejoicing through the shining mist,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">But shrinks before the keen, cold ether, kissed</div>
- <div class="verse indent8">By burning stars: delirious foretaste</div>
- <div class="verse indent6">Of joys the soul—(too eager in its haste</div>
- <div class="verse indent8">To grasp ere won by the diviner right</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of birth through death)—is far too weak to bear!</div>
- <div class="verse indent14">Bathed in earth’s lesser light,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Slipping down slowly through the shining air,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Once more it steals into the dreaming breast,</div>
- <div class="verse indent4">Praying again to be its patient guest;</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">And as my senses wake,</div>
- <div class="verse indent4">The beautiful glad soul again to take,</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">The twilight falls;—</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">A lonely wood-thrush calls</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">The Day away.</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">Thou needst not linger, Day!</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">My soul and I</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Would hold high converse of diviner things</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">Than blossom underneath thy tender sky.</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">Unfold thy wings!</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_107"></a>107</span>
- <div class="verse indent2">Wrap softly round thyself thy delicate haze,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">And gliding down the slowly darkening ways,</div>
- <div class="verse indent10">Vanish away!</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="chap_66" class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_108"></a>108</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="LAST_AN_AMETHYST">“LAST—AN AMETHYST.”</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div><img class="drop-cap pad3" src="images/i_odn.png" width="156" height="156" alt="O" /></div>
- <div class="verse drop-cap pad4 indent0"><span class="firstword">O thou</span> in whom, not knowing, I believe,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">If in these uttered phrases there is naught</div>
- <div class="verse rpad indent0">Of that supreme, deep language of Thy thought</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Men call religion—yet wilt Thou receive</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The finished task; though I have dared to leave</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Unseen, but not unfelt, though best unsought,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">As Thou thyself to my own heart hast taught,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">The solemn truths that so will strongest cleave</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Unto men’s souls. My hand would fain forget</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Its eager cunning, ere the fingers kissed</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">By one whose love Thou gavest me, should yet</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Yield all to joy, uncaring if they list,—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Thy angels—from the heavenly parapet</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Of precious stones: “the twelfth, an amethyst!”</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter"><div class="transnote">
-<h2 class="nobreak p1" id="Transcribers_Note">Transcriber’s Note</h2>
-
-<p>Hyphenation in the Table of Contents was made consistent with
-hyphenation in the titles of the poems.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr class="pgx" />
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