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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..856b00d --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #65571 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65571) diff --git a/old/65571-0.txt b/old/65571-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index fba6788..0000000 --- a/old/65571-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4674 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Near Nature's Heart; A Volume of -Verse, by Crawford Jackson - -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 -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Near Nature's Heart; A Volume of Verse - -Author: Crawford Jackson - -Release Date: June 8, 2021 [eBook #65571] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed Proofreading - Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from - images generously made available by The Internet - Archive/American Libraries.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEAR NATURE'S HEART; A VOLUME -OF VERSE *** - - - - - -Transcriber’s Notes: - - Underscores “_” before and after a word or phrase indicate _italics_ - in the original text. - Small capitals have been converted to SOLID capitals. - Illustrations have been moved so they do not break up paragraphs. - Old or antiquated spellings have been preserved. - Typographical and punctuation errors have been silently corrected. - - - - -[Illustration: THE AUTHOR IN HIS RETREAT. - -Note the string connecting with the camera outside, which captures the -birds and little animals on their well-filled table. - -(See pages 22 and 23.)] - - - - - NEAR NATURE’S HEART - - A VOLUME OF VERSE - - BY - CRAWFORD JACKSON - - ATLANTA, GA. - and - GUILFORD, N. C. - - - FOOTE & DAVIES COMPANY, PRINTERS, ATLANTA - GULBENK ENGRAVING COMPANY, ENGRAVERS, ATLANTA - - COPYRIGHT 1923 - BY - CRAWFORD JACKSON - (ALL RIGHTS RESERVED) - - DEDICATED - TO - EVERY CHILD - - “Philosophy, to an attentive ear, - Clearly points out, not in one part alone, - How Imitative Nature takes her course - From the celestial mind, and from its art; - And when her laws the Stagirite[1] unfolds, - Not many leaves scann’d o’er, observing well - Thou shalt discover, that thy art on her - Obsequious follows, as the learner treads - In his instructor’s steps; so that your art - Deserves the name of second in descent - From God.” - DANTE ALIGHIERI. - -[1] _Aristotle’s Physics._ - - - - -FOREWORD - - -The great artist is one whose whole body becomes a living soul; -whose eye gets glimpses into the heart of Nature, with visions of -the Supernatural; whose ear hears their inner music, and whose hand -produces ecstatic expression of their central force in some revelation -of Beauty. And to make his art more real, more nearly perfect, Beauty -more beautiful, such artist by contrast often depicts or suggests the -deadly but doomed discords of life. - -Any inspiring touch I have with Nature makes me less than half content -with the best I can say of her. Beyond my increasing love for the rich, -old Mother—yet eternally young and myriad formed—I am deeply indebted -to F. Schuyler Mathews and his charming “Field Book of Wild Birds and -Their Music,” especially in suggestions and some illustrations for the -“Birds’ Orchestra.” Other acknowledgements are made elsewhere in this -little volume of verse, which chances to be my first, and therefore -subject to the severer criticism. - - C. J. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - PAGE - The Birds’ Orchestra 7 - My Prayer To Truth 14 - A Scene in Washington, N. C. 16 - Little Naples by the Sea 17 - The Family of My Friend Jones 17 - The King’s Marriage 19 - The Hermit Thrush 19 - My Retreat 23 - The Mocking-Bird 24 - The Jay and I—A Dialogue 26 - Nature’s Heart 27 - A Nigger and a Mule 28 - Virginia’s Natural Bridge 30 - The Might of Matutinal Music 30 - A Perpetual King 31 - The Cotton Gin 32 - The Cotton Mill 32 - My Own Little Girl 32 - My Butterfly 33 - Was That Somebody I? 34 - My Sabbath Sermon 35 - Pilot Mountain 36 - Her Prison Life 37 - Aurelius Augustinus 38 - O, That Income Tax! 40 - In Florida 41 - Two Little Orphans 42 - Trouble and Play 43 - Some Small Surprises 43 - The Rhythm Universal 44 - The Stone Crosses and the Fairies 45 - The Sun Flower 46 - Colonel Diamond and Grand-daughter 47 - The Wild Wood 48 - The Beginning of Things 49 - The End of Things 49 - When the Junco Comes 50 - James Bradley Jackson 51 - A Story of Colonial Times 53 - “Come on wid yer Money fur Me” 55 - Good Out of Evil 56 - Christmas 57 - Mrs. Josephine F. Hamill 58 - A Chick’s Cry 59 - The Kid and the Cop 59 - The Over Favored and The Chanceless Child 61 - The Slanderer 61 - The World’s Greatest Egotist 62 - Little River Royal 63 - Give Me Both 64 - Manifold Beauty and the Man 64 - Chimney Rock 66 - The Elephant Dance 67 - Least Yet Greatest 67 - Old Ship Church 67 - A Little Toast to the Men of the Press 68 - Mother Indeed 68 - Nathan O’Berry 68 - The Bishop’s Garden 69 - My Triolet 70 - Ye Bonny Boys 71 - A Ballade to the Girls 71 - A Mountain Top View 72 - One Aged John Smith and His Youthful Confessions 73 - Ode on Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations 74 - Another Birthday 77 - Oh, Baby Mine 77 - The Snake That’s King 78 - The Heart of France 79 - The Red Maple 81 - A Sonnet to Mrs. O. C. Bullock 81 - The Strikers 81 - November Gloom 82 - James Mitchell Rogers 83 - Erwin Holt 83 - Just an Introduction 83 - Judge Franklin Chase Hoyt 84 - A Little Index of the Coming Day 85 - Winged Tourists 86 - How My Easter Dawned 86 - Helen Keller 88 - The Dancing Tassel 89 - Walter Malone 91 - The Dutiful Flower 92 - My Holiday 92 - The Aeolian Harp 92 - The God-Man and Myself 93 - Death’s Doom 94 - The Dying Year 96 - - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS - - - PAGE - The Author in his Retreat _Frontispiece_ - Bob-White in Colors 6 - Cat Bird 7 - Young Screech Owl 8 - Humming Bird 8 - White Throated Sparrows 9 - Blue-Bird and Family 10 - Young Male Cardinal 11 - Thrasher’s Admiration 12 - Cardinal in Colors 12 - A Scene in Washington, N. C. 16 - Baby Ambitious to Rise 18 - Veery Celebrating the King’s Marriage 19 - Hermit Thrush in Colors 21 - Dove and Bluebirds, Swan, Zebra and Colt, Macaw, - Chipmunk, Young Pet Thrasher 22 - The Author’s Retreat in the Wild Wood 23 - Young Green Heron 23 - The Mocking-Bird in Colors 25 - The Jay Bird and I 26 - A Nigger and a Mule 29 - Virginia’s Natural Bridge 30 - A Perpetual King, Cotton Gin, A Cotton Mill 31 - My Own Little Girl 33 - My Butterfly 33 - A Babe, Later an Imprisoned Boy 34 - Feeding Young Mocking-Bird 35 - Big Pinnacle on Pilot Mountain 36 - Aurelius Augustinus 38 - Two Little Orphans 42 - Trouble and Play 43 - Nature’s Fairy Crosses 46 - Col. Diamond and Grand-daughter 47 - The Wild Wood 48 - A Pre-Revolutionary Stone Mansion, - 7 Years Being Built 53 - “Rock Ribbed Pen” in which Miss Martin - was placed by the Tories 54 - Blind Negro 56 - Mistletoe 57 - The Kid and the Cop 59-60 - New River, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 63 - Water Fall Near Tories’ Den, and Beach Scene 64 - Chimney Rock in North Carolina 66 - The Elephant Dance and Old Ship Church 67 - The Bishop’s Garden 69 - My Triolet 70 - Lookout Mountain 72 - Woodrow Wilson 75 - O Baby Mine 77 - The Snake That’s King 78 - Notre Dame 79 - Miss Cameron and Billy 83 - Judge Franklin Chase Hoyt 84 - Ann Gray and Pet Macaw 85 - The Tots That Turned the Tide 87 - Walter Malone 90 - -[Illustration: BOB-WHITE. - -By F. Schuyler Matthews.] - - - - -_The Birds’ Orchestra_ - - -THE DAWN - - “Start-right, you-hob-bright!” ’Twas fluted so clear, - It wakened the songsters and startled my ear, - - As the King of the morning repelled the dark night, - And the reveille sounded, “All-right! Bob-Bob-White!” - - The Mocking-bird earliest answered the call, - And gladly his echoes were welcomed by all, - - As each took his place in the Nature-trained choir, - And bird after bird began tuning his lyre. - - The songsters had started a sweet roundelay, - When suddenly up bounced a meddlesome Jay. - - He wanted to sing, - This feathered thing; - Or brilliant colors to impress, - With spontaneous wantonness; - With spirit too to over-rule, - Like the self-important fashion fool. - - In soft monotone crooned the Black-billed Cuckoo, - “Tho not much at singing, I’ll surely beat you.” - -[Illustration: Cat Bird. Photo by the Author.] - - And Flicker to Jay proclaimed, - “_No-cheer_ from me, _no-cheer_!” - While the Hooded Warbler, “You-have-no-business-here”! - - “I’m a blooming Jay, - I’ll have my way, - Dj-a-y! dj-a-y! dj-a-y!” - - Then spoke that brave bird, the yellow-breast Chat: - “Cop! Cop! Shut-him-in-prison-and-send-for-the-cat.” - - And King bird commanded with spirit irate, - “Away with you, Blue Jay—or I’ll pounce on your pate.” - - And the Jay slipped away, - With a sure word of peace, - For such glad release: - “Ge-rul-lup! - Jig’s-all-up!” - -[Illustration: YOUNG SCREECH OWL. Photo by Rev. Wallace Rogers.] - - Then Wisdom’s proud bird, that old mystical fake, - While breakfasting late on a daring young snake, - - Cried “Boo to y-o-u, hoot for y-o-u! Who-whoo—are-y-o-u?” - Till down in my heart I felt humbled anew. - - But hope was revived by an echo of Night— - For Night has her echoes and pledges of Light— - - “You can, if you will, a high mission fulfill.” - Insistently whistled the lone Whip-poor-will. - - Then all grew still - O’er vale and hill - And the echo came back: - “You can, if you will.” - - The sun poured forth his flood of pure gold - On Nature’s great chorister birdlings of old, - - When wide circling throngs made the welkin resound - With the liveliest chatter, “Let joy go round.” - - Then flashed through the air a ruby tinged light, - Like an arrow of glory soon lost to my sight. - - When lo! it returned—a bird that ne’er sings, - Though his music is borne in the hum of his wings: - - “I fly, yet rest, - In swiftest quest, - Of flowers best, - With their sweetest, nectared off’rings.” - -[Illustration: HUMMING BIRD. By F. Schuyler Matthews.] - - And my heart sang out with a jubilant cry, - “O for poise and feasting in tension so high.” - - While the Humming bird sipped his choicest wine, - The musicians came to a sudden pause; - Each singer’s eye was a-gaze like mine— - And the wonder of bird-land received their applause. - - The fun-makers followed, the gay Bobolinks, - With comical solo and musical kinks! - - “You’d better think, - Flippant Chewink, - ’Tis the finest of sport,” - Sang Bobolink. - - And said Bob, “Be true to me, be true to me; - Kick your slipper, kick your slipper;[2] - Be true to me—old Nick’s the whipper!” - - And over the pond, on bending cat-tails, - The red-shouldered Black-birds were piping their gales, - - As they swung to and fro with a blithe “Con-quer-ee,” - And their mates made reply—“O’er-the-lea, come-to-me!” - - From the Meadow-lark’s throat came a livelier strain, - “All hail to the bridegroom and those in his train; - - “And greet the fair bride in her gay-feathered veil, - She’ll build a snug nest for the babies—all hail!” - - From Oriole there, like a glad whistling boy, - Came fragments of melody thrilling with joy: - - “I sing as I work— - This vantage men shirk— - And music I blend - With care of the children and house that I tend.” - - Then on came the Finches in rollicking glee, - With Grosbeak and Chippy and plaintive Pewee; - - And every one’s note rang as clear as a bell, - With the swing of love’s passion and deep growing spell. - - “Per-chick-o-ree! - Now, don’t you see - The song in me - Is ecstasy?” - - Thus jingled the Goldfinch in musical run, - As he dipped up and down in the waves of the sun; - - Like golden-robed, sable winged fairy he flew - Across his wide world of cerulean blue. - -[Illustration: WHITE THROATED SPARROWS. Photo by the Author.] - -[2] As heard by John Burroughs. - - The White throated Sparrow, a provident bird, - Revealed deepest wisdom in simplest word; - - “Sow wheat and sow plenty—oh yes, sow a plenty, - Though Peverly’s small he has hunger of twenty.” - - “When the granary’s full, and reapers go feastin’, - I’ll cheer you ag’in, with my fiddle-in’, fiddle-in’, - The long hours through, a-fiddle-in’, fiddle-in’.”[3] - - A versatile singer, an artist o’er shy, - Now uplifted his voice to his Maker on high. - - No pause in the rhythm of the Song Sparrow’s lay; - And I pondered and wondered as on flew the day: - “Is this high Art’s way?” - - While still rolled his “swee-e-t, swee-e-t, bitter”—[4] - The philosophy of life, from a plain, little flitter. - - Pond’ring I lingered and forgot me to eat, - A captive held fast in fair Nature’s retreat. - -[Illustration: BLUEBIRD AND FAMILY. Photo by the Author.] - -[3] This repeated paraphrase is from F. Schuyler Mathews, ornithologist -and musician. - -[4] The words suggested to John Burroughs by the variations of the Song -Sparrow. - - The Oven-bird graceful, misnamed “the preacher,” - Proudly sang out, “I’m-a-teacher, a TEACHER;” - - And Maryland Yellow-throat piped, “What a pity, - You can’t sing a sweet, old-fashioned ditty! - What a pity!” - - From the wayside just then came a mocking “meow;” - “If the rest of you follow, I’ll join in the row; - - “And why not now? - A fuss somehow— - Meow, meow!” - - But lo! the voice softened and turned to a tune, - Repeating the bird’s notes that glad day in June. - - With soft-flowing accent the good Chickadee - Said “dear me,” and added a sweet “amity.” - -[Illustration: YOUNG MALE CARDINAL TRYING TO LIGHT ON BOUQUET OF -FLOWERS. Snapped by the Author.] - - And Blue-Bird’s grave “purity,” Robin’s gay “cheer” - Were songs as delightful as lovers may hear; - - While Red-headed Woodpecker, ever after his rum, - Kept beating and beating his sweet tree drum. - - The Cardinal came with his bright crimson crest, - And sang for his bride as she fashioned her nest; - - But Toxaway’s[5] rival gave forth the echo, - “Kid-dów, Kid-dów, Kid-dów!” - - Now list to the out-flow from the topmost tree, - Coming down from the Thrasher in perfect frenzy; - - The birds and I marvelled as he swept on alone, - Now high, and now low, now a thrilled overtone. - -[Illustration: THRASHER’S ADMIRATION. Photo by Author.] - - And lo! just then, - A voice—a Wren, - From a fern-lit glen, - - Burst forth like a rippling fountain of life, - Rebuking old Mars with his death-dealing strife; - - And it seemed that I caught for the sons of men, - The lost chord of an angel in the song of the Wren. - - Discord now from birds as black as night: - “Caw! Caw! Caw!” - Screamed a full score, - Or even more, - - Till stones by me hurled put them all to flight. - - Again was felt a pause, a silence deep, - When four of the feathered friends who copy song, - Were planning fain their secret, potent word, - Worthy of the wisest of mankind; - The proud quartette then took the airy stage: - -[5] Toxaway, the Indian’s name for the Cardinal. - -[Illustration: CARDINAL - -By courtesy of G. P. Putnam Sons, Publishers, and P. Schuyler Matthews, -Author of “Book of Birds For Young People.”] - - “They call us imitators evermore, - And this forever be our life and joy, - For master angels whispered unto us, - ‘Follow song and God, and rise to life, - Aye, ever, ever more.’” - - -HIGH NOON - - The sun had climbed high and as birdlings should feast, - My morsel I finished and fell fast asleep; - And dreamed a sweet dream, so rich and so deep, - Till arches of gold reached the rose-portaled east, - Aye! West wedded East and their glories increased— - - A dream so sweet, - And marvelous meet; - My soul took wings, - Though captive my feet, - And uplifted high midst eternal springs, - My heart again heard an old, new word: - “Prophetic and incomplete - All earthly things.” - - In bright, celestial realm they sweeter sang, - The happy birds that blessed my spell-bound soul, - Upraised to that high world, without a pang. - I saw a shining One with mystic scroll, - The which He, smiling, waved, in full control - Of birds and beings, translated from the earth, - From every land to a great, inviting Goal. - Enthralled by the mighty throng in sacred mirth— - Ah now, me-thought, has come with joy my highest birth! - - Angels were rising, many and swift and sheen; - While others, likewise moving with rhythmic grace, - Descending in sweetest song, were heard and seen— - All clothed in the beauteous light of the Father’s face. - Those downward-going bore, in charming case, - The melodies which men and birds might make. - The rising throng made perfect the chords apace - Produced below, ecstatic in their wide wake; - I longed to tarry ever there, without a break. - - -TWILIGHT - - But ho! Presto-“Bob-White! Bob, Bob-White!” - “I announced the morn and now the night.” - - Bestirred in the gloaming by Bob-White’s last call, - I awakened to music the sweetest of all. - - The flutelike peals of the Thrush of the wood - Still bound me to the world of angelhood. - - But the depths of my soul had the holiest hush, - As the organ note rose of the Hermit Thrush. - - He climbed to the heights where I too would arise, - But no one may soar with that pride of the skies. - - I then asked my heart, “Pray, what is all this? - Why experience birds such wonderful bliss?” - - My soul was on fire, - From Nature’s great choir, - As the glad mounting symphony - Climbed higher and higher. - - “Is it all of this world, or is it of Heaven? - To birds and to me is this paradise given?” - - I longed to understand, - If ’twas place or state, - For all so harmonious and elate; - When responded a three-fold, wondrous band: - - The birds replied, - “Life, Life be our earth-celestial theme;” - The angels cried, - “Love and Beauty make any place a-gleam;” - The great who’d died, - “In every state, our song and service to redeem.” - - Lo, the shining One waved high his mystic scroll, - And many joined in a sweet but thunderous whole: - “Music flows from a vaster, purer Stream— - Know now, O longing soul, - The vital, eternal scheme - Of Heaven and earth, - From their far off birth, - Is to reach on after the deeper, perfect Goal.” - - And, like the voice of ten thousand trumpeters, - “Alleluia to Him Supreme, - The all-embracing, all-out giving Soul!” - To this from creatures numberless rang out a great “Amen” - And again from every heart that sings - In creation’s vast domain: - “On, forever on, in Heaven’s aureole, - Let praise and power roll— - Alleluia, Amen!” - - -MY PRAYER TO TRUTH - - Take thou my soul, O Truth, and make me whole, - And gently lead me on eternally. - My eager fancy flies from pole to pole, - To singing star and the ever surging sea— - O stay thou me! - - Thru ages past the search has been for thee; - The sage and prophet, vacillating King - And statesmen call aloud for liberty - And light and all beneath thy gracious wing; - To thee the poets sing. - - Yet of inquirers many, whoso finds? - Where hidest thou? Point me thy high abode. - Art thou in books? Ah, no! In these there winds - The dusty road of men. Sing me thy ode, - Thy perfect code. - - Thou art I know; and sweet and pure thy balm, - Which solaced oft my sorrow-burdened soul; - But leavest not the biding, crowning palm, - Nor faultless portion, pointing to thy goal; - While troubles roll. - - Why, when a-thirst and hungry, should I wander, - Some while in want; anon, a feast most fine? - Yet never full; some pressing, ravenous pander - Prepared to steal from me earth’s passing wine; - Pray give me thine. - - Some secrets sweet are mine, but oh how few, - Compared to richest bounty which must be - In thy pure heart and home—why not my due? - Will I some day find hid thy mystic key? - Lead on thou me. - - My youthful joys and heights of yester-year, - Were bright and buoyant, satisfying then; - But they have gone for aye. More calls I hear; - They charm me onward to some larger ken; - But, O Truth, when? - - If all I may not know, then serve will I, - Submissive to each load and yoke thou givest, - Like the plaintless, faithful ox, without a sigh; - But soon I plead: “I poorly live; thou richly livest, - And oft receivest - - “Me for some higher service still—but where? - For whom? Why serve and not be satisfied? - Why toil on land and sea, and burdens bear, - Without thy joy? O be my willing bride!” - My poor heart cried. - - And lo, I saw encaged a joy-filled bird, - And one a-wing in song, as blithe as free; - A cooing babe I caught, in love preferred— - Knowledge, service, song, O Truth, found me; - And I found Thee. - - -A SCENE IN WASHINGTON, N. C. - -[Illustration] - - A modern coach and four, - A kitchen and a store, - With wieners evermore, - In Washington. - - The billies have no speed, - But much of grit and greed, - And goats show grace indeed, - In Washington. - - They pull and butt for Jim, - And else they do for him, - From heart to outer rim, - Of Washington. - - The goats have feet and horns, - And Jim no painful corns; - ’Tis peace and no forlorns, - In Washington. - - No man can get Jim’s “goat,” - For bonds he’ll buy and float— - A scheme not far remote, - In Washington. - - -LITTLE NAPLES BY THE SEA - - In little Naples by the sea - The birds join in their jubilee, - Where long-leaved pine and royal palm - Exhale the breath of their fragrant balm, - In little Naples by the sea. - - The sea responds by day and night, - With a stately choral of life and might; - And when his storms arise and rage, - He spares the hamlet of winsome age, - The modest Naples by the sea. - - And many an eve the sun will make - His matchless glories till men awake - To find the sea, the land, the sky - Reset with gems for the artist’s eye; - In lovely Naples by the sea. - - And so there come to this favored spot - The young and old to cast their lot, - Near Nature’s healing heart, and rest, - Like a child on his loving mother’s breast— - In quiet Naples by the sea. - - Here roamed the happy Seminole, - And peacefully here possessed his soul, - Till thrust away by men of skill, - The conquering whites, with greedy will— - In unborn Naples by the sea. - - E’er Indian came, the troglodyte - Reigned in his cave by a primal right; - And ages and ages remoter still, - Flew monsters of hideous claw and bill - O’er charming Naples yet to be. - - A long ascent from warring snakes, - From reptilian waters and slimy lakes, - To singing birds and mirthful men, - To smiling mothers and sportive children, - In balmy Naples by the sea. - - But higher still to the coming man, - To great sons of Art in her perfect plan; - To the glorious day when hulking clods, - Transmuted to men, are ranked with gods, - In little Naples by the sea! - - -THE FAMILY OF MY FRIEND JONES - - The seven[6] children of my friend Jones, - Have each of them a lot of bones, - To grow and strengthen, or else to break - Beneath life’s burdens or sudden quake, - Mid the wide and varied warring zones, - Of the seven children of my friend Jones. - - But seven, you know, is the perfect plan; - It stands for all that’s the best in man— - In his youthful days and ripest years, - In his joys and sorrows, high hopes and fears; - ’Tis God’s own number—away with groans! - For seven times blessed is my friend Jones. - - In logical order the eighth arrived, - And, take it from me, they all revived; - With one accord and high hearted aim, - They gave to the eighth the greatest name; - They all prepared with love’s sweet loans, - To make him the most famous of my friend Jones. - - But youth is still his, and his good wife’s too, - His only sweetheart forever true; - And the Father’ll be pleased their quiver to fill, - For a heritage large is his manifest will, - If here and hereafter no dullards and drones, - But all active and cheerful like my friend Jones. - -[Illustration: ONE OF THE NINE AMBITIONS TO RISE.] - - On the fifteenth month, and one August morn - The ninth leaps to life, another boy is born. - What the Lord commanded, my friend hath willed, - “Increase” is the law, and the law’s fulfilled; - Yet not ceaseless order, with nine vying tones - In the growing family of my friend Jones. - - Such a happy man, for to all a friend; - Not a Hottentot would Jones offend; - And chiming in church or turning the sod, - My friend is ever the friend of God. - May the buoyant family all mount thrones— - Then eternally blessed, my friend Jones. - - My mind sweeps on to a Kingdom vast, - To numberless children who’ll come at last, - As sons of the Highest on a shining shore, - There to play and sing forever more— - In the temple of God great living stones, - And some from the family of my friend Jones. - -[6] There were only seven children in this family when the first two -stanzas were written three years ago.—C. J. - -[Illustration: Veery celebrating the King’s Marriage. - -The original, with male and female Veery, furnished by courtesy -National Association Audubon Societies, with changes by the Author’s -Artist.] - - -THE KING’S MARRIAGE - - Look, look, look! - My soul, - At that high favored Sun; - With smiling face, - And matchless grace, - The King hath Beauty won. - - Look, look, look! - My longing soul, - My hungry, ravished heart— - Most gorgeous role - In Nature’s whole, - Surpassing man’s high art! - - Look, look, look! - Every open eye and mind, - Every yearning soul of mortal— - The Master’s acme for mankind; - Ye stars, look down and glory find. - Look! - Beauty glides toward the portal. - - With parting day, - I watch the twain as they go; - I watched and sighed, - As heaven and sorrowing earth below, - And hosts of both were heard to say, - “O why may Beauty not abide? - The King and Queen made one at eventide, - And then in secret chambers hide!” - - “Stay, stay, stay!” - My soul out-cries, - “For Beauty fleeth fast, - Nor nuptials last, - And darkening skies”— - And lo, the royal pair had passed; - But left their image in my eyes, - And in my living soul. - - -THE HERMIT THRUSH[7] - -(Published in the Methodist Review, July, 1919). - - O little artist, of rarest modesty, - Why hide thyself and sing? - Thy music fills my soul with ecstasy, - And makes the woodland ring. - - Draw near, draw near, thou shy, yet happy one; - I plead with thee—draw near; - I’d share thy rapture; ’twould be heaven begun; - O Hermit sweet, appear. - - Still thou wilt not, and while I long and dream - Of all that’s best for us— - The King, His primal ministers—what gleam - Of highest genius? - - Sing on, elusive bird, in thy retreat, - Songs to my waiting soul; - Some day inviting rounds will be complete, - Some day, the promised goal. - - And then some disappearing portion high, - Some joy just out of reach; - The more immortals yield to devotion’s tie, - The more must they beseech. - - Sing on, blest bird, beyond my poor purview, - But near my home and heart: - “I love, I _love_, I LOVE; yes I love YOU!”[8] - This, thy crescendo art. - - I find myself quite charmed, yet almost lost, - At the modern opera grand; - What stirs my soul so deep, what I love most, - Thy song—and I understand. - - But O that I could see thy beaming eye— - Mine eye on thee, all song! - Why so secretive, yet seductive—why? - My suit, renewed, so strong. - - That tree, those leaves around thee—if they knew - Their day and honored hour, - Each leaf and branch would homage pay, thy due, - Aflame with joy that bower. - - Such rich and rounded notes proceed from thee, - Enchanting naiveté: - From sleep thou wakest me with highborn glee, - When comes the King of day. - - At eventide thou callest me to prayer, - More clear than churchly chime, - In wood and sky, in pure, perfumed air— - His temple, thine and mine. - - No passing wonder, sing Nightingales - In Russ or Tuscan clime; - No hope have they in these Columbic vales - To match thy tones and time. - -[7] If anyone thinks the author has overdrawn the artistic merits of -the bird, he is referred to the expert opinion of F. Schuyler Mathews -in his “Field Book of Wild Birds and Their Music,” pages 234-246, -wherein this musician and lover of birds convincingly compares and -contrasts, by musical scales and other data, the powers of the Hermit -and Nightingale in favor of the former.—C. J. - -[8] With slight change the interpretation by Mathews of the song of the -Olive Back Thrush. - -[Illustration: THE HERMIT THRUSH.] - - Like cooling streams in a parched, desert land, - To thirsting souls and worn; - Like evening’s changing charms, no artist’s hand - Can set in painted bourn; - - Like sweetest dreams to troubled hearts in slumbers, - Uplift to heaven’s heights— - Just so thy symphonies, heard in rolling numbers, - Thy high and holy flights. - - O anchoret, near Nature’s heart, again - I pray, come forth and sing. - Ah, there—O joy! I glimpsed thee, Hermit fain— - Now gone on gentle wing. - - My eye too piercing, and my quest too keen, - Unfathomable bird. - Once more contented I—remain unseen, - And yet thy harmony heard. - - This I have found, as fast thou holdeth me: - Thou startest full, and risest; - And all doth thrill—sweet, moving melody, - Climbing to the highest. - - No pipe, no flute, organ or organist, - Can reach thine allegro, - And thy cadenza, thou transcendentalist— - ’Tis music with naught of woe. - - Whence come from singers proud their hard-won notes? - In truth from the music master, - By repetition oft and untrained throats— - To hearers, near disaster. - - The master’s whence, the singing pioneer, - Great Haydn or Beethoven? - Sing on, my thrilling thrush, but wilt thou hear? - From thee, and thou from Heaven! - - Long hours I’ve listened lone, in deep delight, - To thy glad musicals; - And when I breathe my last, O anchorite, - Sing soft angelicals. - -[Illustration: Turtle Dove and Bluebirds.] - -[Illustration: Chipmunk—Note his pockets well-filled with grain to be -carried to his granary.] - -[Illustration: “Brownie,” a young pet Thrasher, raised by Artena.] - -[Illustration: At Lunch—Snapped at the Memphis Zoo.] - -[Illustration: Pet Macaw. See p. 84.] - -[Illustration: His Majesty, The Swan.] - -Photos by the Author. - -[Illustration] - - -MY RETREAT - -[Illustration: Young Green Heron. - -Photos by the author.] - - To my retreat now come with me, - And love the place that’s wild and free, - Where Chipmunks play and Wood Thrush sings; - Where a lucid lake invites and brings - The proud offspring of Liberty. - - The Wren is there, the Chickadee, - And many more that come in glee, - On nimble feet or shining wings, - To my retreat— - - The birds of sky and fish of the sea, - The cunning things that charming be; - And there the Cardinal often rings - His notes of joy to songster-lings— - All these and I have bidden thee - To my retreat. - - -THE MOCKING-BIRD - - Hilarious bird, hast thou a soul, - Now here, now there - In tree and air, - So free and fair? - Thy tones rush forth a rounded whole, - Inviting the heart to some sweet goal, - Like poet rare, - Beyond compare. - - Hast thou a mind, a musical mind? - Who answers “nay”? - Or night or day, - Thy tuneful lay - Brings joy and grief; myself I find - In my inmost soul left far behind; - Yet I essay - The wondrous way. - - “Borrowed notes” they dub thy variation; - Nor is that all - In thy charmed call; - I rise, though small, - To laud thy rhythmic re-creation, - Thy prompt and hearty liberation - Of life notes new which me enthrall, - Without man’s pride, and fall. - - I hear thee sing as Lark and Nightingale,[9] - Thy kindred sweet; - Palm Warbler meet - Thou dost repeat, - And modest, tawny Veery of the vale; - Thy music upward leads, and I inhale - Incense replete, - In thy retreat. - - As in a dream I hear all tones combine - In Love’s embrace; - And there I see thy topmost place, - O Psyche of thy race! - -[9] After the author had written this line he was glad to learn that -the late John Burroughs in his “Birds and Poets,” page 17, spoke of the -Mocking-bird as “both Lark and Nightingale in one.” - -[Illustration: MOCKING-BIRD - -By courtesy of G. P. Putnam Sons, Publishers, and F. Schuyler Matthews, -Author of “Book of Birds For Young People.” Sketched originally for -this volume.] - - Ah, let me turn to life all notes so fine; - For this my soul must alway pine, - With upturned face, - For lyric grace. - - Quintessence of event is thine and life; - What soul hath more - On sea or shore, - Now or afore? - Thy keen eye beams; thy self art rife - With music, as no magic flute or fife— - Tis varied lore, - Forever more. - - Thou toilest not to sing like plodding man, - Brave bird and bright; - Harmonic flight - Is thy delight. - Whenever was it thou did’st plan - Sonatas sweet? Who may so sing or can? - Without foresight - Thy runic rite. - - Could I exchange with thee one blissful hour, - Produce thy chart, - Feel thrills of heart - Of thine, nor part - With ecstasy, a-wing from tree to bower, - Returning quick, possessing all thy power, - With no life mart - But music art; - - Ah then, would I thy lithesome measures ken, - And glad bestow - Rich magic flow - On all below. - Vain wish! What hope for a poor earth denizen? - But daring flight, until the poet pen - With thee shall glow - Like a sun-lit bow. - - More sweetly still: thy soul, all song divine, - As thou dost give, - As I love and live, - Is mine; thy nature is forever thine, - But by mutation mystic, yet benign, - As I with joy receive - Thy varied amative, - Is also mine, - In God’s own shrine. - - -THE JAY AND I—A DIALOGUE - - “What’s that you say, you funny Jay? - I like your beauty, but not your way, - Though fond of all the winged tribe. - Is it hoo-ray, - Or some hey-day?” - Then Jay began his varied gibe: - - “I’m a Blue Jay; - That’s what I say; - Dja-ay! dja-ay! dja-ay!” - (How will he myself describe, - With naught from me that he’ll imbibe?) - - “I’ve more display, - More in my yea, - More in my nay, - Than you convey; - Dja-ay! dja-ay!” - “’Tis true, Blue Jay, but too much pride; - You shout and rouse the country side; - - Nor can I see - The fun or glee, - For birds or me - In your vanity. - Whoever is it such can bide? - You dashing Jay, you want my hide?” - - “Never a day; - I’m a Blue-ming Jay - With top-knot gay, - And mine to stay— - Dja-ay! dja-ay!” - -[Illustration] - - “More pomp you have than all your fellows; - All who see you, - All who hear you— - ‘I’m _the_ Jay Blue - With a top-knot too—’ - All wonder why you strain your bellows.” - - “Hoo-ray! hoo-ray!—back to the wall! - When I’m stirred up, I always squall, - Retreat, I say, - You bunch of clay, - Away; away! - I’m King Blue Jay, - A monarch here and lord of all; - Dja-ay! dja-ay! dja-ay!” - - “But listen, Jay, just stop a spell— - On Friday, luckless day, they tell, - That you will dare to visit hell; - ’Tis only Friday, - But always Friday— - If there you stray. - Then why I pray?” - - “It’s not your business, know you well, - Why I on Friday go to hell.[10] - Dja-ay! dja-ay!” - - “My final word you may forestall; - But I tell you plainly pride must fall; - Old Pride is evil, born of the devil.” - - While flouncing so free - In a white oak tree, - Quite noisily, - He answered me, - With piercing eye, and look of evil: - - “Hoo-ray! hoo-ray! - I’m a blooming Jay— - The devil, you say? - It’s all my way— - Dja-ay! dja-ay! dja-ay!” - -[10] A tradition with some says that the Jay goes to the lower regions -every Friday, and carries a grain of sand. - - -NATURE’S HEART - - I search for Nature’s heart beneath her dome, - All free from jarring sounds; - Out there my hungry spirit seeks a home, - Out there, my feasting grounds. - - I love the giant oak, the poplar and the pine, - Aye, balmful to my soul; - I greet my feathered friends, and they combine - To make me captive whole. - - I find no ghoul-like demon of the wood, - Nor siren from the sea; - A spirit high begets my ardent mood, - But yields not me the key. - - And dreaming in the vale, or on a mountain height, - Awed by the great abyss, - My soul doth plead an everlasting right, - “_The secret of all this?_” - - Both wild and winning are Mother Nature’s ways, - Many, varied, one; - In all she sings my soul her mystic lays, - From flower to rolling sun. - - But oh to understand the purpose of her heart, - Her princely, hidden life; - Just what or who unfolds the vital part, - Despite dark death and strife. - - O Faunus tell—return to earth and speak - The word that satisfies; - Or haughty mountain give, or valley meek, - The answer to my cries. - - The gods are silent all! But drink may I - Of Nature’s founts o’er flowing; - I feel her throbs of heart in earth and sky, - And loving leads to knowing. - - Henceforth, of all the wines of gods and men, - To me give Nature’s nectar; - Of all the feeble songs of tongue and pen - From every dull director— - - Oh give me Nature’s rich and ripest lore, - Her palaces and poses; - Her peaceful ways and rest, her fullest store - Of pure Pierian roses. - - Ah, this I know—’tis all I need to know— - The great Mother has her plan; - With God she labors long, at last to show - Her perfect child and man. - - -A NIGGER AND A MULE - - I’ve lived in the city, I’ve sailed the wide sea; - I’ve studied in many and many a school; - I’ve sat at the feet of the bond and free, - And a lot has come to a fellow like me, - Since a new ground I plowed with a balky mule, - But I’ve lived to see balky and a nigger fool. - - No deep-seated scorn of the African fool— - There’s plenty like him from the hills to the sea; - ’Tis the union of nigger and a stubborn mule, - That surpasses the sport of an all-round school, - If not for professor for fun-loving me, - And as long as I’m playful, my play shall be free. - - Aye friend, ’tis a wonderful thing to be free, - Though many a free man I’d call a fool, - And no doubt some of them would thus entitle me, - Though tutored in the city, the college and the sea - Yet the nigger and hybrid, I’d take for a school; - For ’tis hard to beat a pure nigger and a mule. - - But a “coon” in new ground, with a kicking mule! - Just so I am far from his heels and am free - To look, and to listen like a pupil in school; - Though frankly I admit, I at times played the fool, - Till the lessons of life had widened my sea, - And harder experience had deepened me. - - Ye fates, do not bring the worst unto me, - That of trying to handle a nondescript mule, - In a rooty new ground—O the depths of the sea - I’d choose, in the hope with the fish to be free; - However, such choosing would prove me a fool— - No applicant I for a sea-bottom school. - - Since I’ve come to think, ’twas a German-tried school; - And a submarine ship was never for me; - And the proudest old Hun thus out-reached the fool. - But behold, you elect, a nigger and a mule, - In new ground in August—thank God I am free! - I’m only a witness on a smoother sea. - - God bless his wide sea, and the nigger in school; - And all men make free—’twould be heaven for me— - And God bless the poor mule, and the mule-headed fool. - -[Illustration: By L. Gregg] - - -VIRGINIA’S NATURAL BRIDGE - -[Illustration: Photo by The Author.] - - How pleasing the wonders of Nature—how varied and how vast, - And the mystery of all the unknown doth hold me firm and fast; - For so the Creator ordained that men should seek and know; - That the heart of man may ever rise and forever flow, - From pebble small in singing brook to yonder neighboring star; - From star to a wider system and on to worlds afar. - - ’Tis only infinite mind can bridge the space between, - Our planet and greater sun and constellations seen, - Beyond which are stars yet farther, the living and the dead, - And they tell us there are millions larger in the boundless spread. - Imagination wearies of so vast an evolution, - But glories in the love of Him who planned such contribution. - - The spider doth weave and swing his tiny, fragile bridge, - And man in his nobler work doth span from ridge to ridge; - But when men become as gods, and angels as such men, - With dominion of Jehovah and his transcendent ken, - Ah many a mansion shall we visit in our Father’s home, - As we fly beneath his banner, with ages and ages to roam. - - ’Tis a fathomless universe, but the plan eternal is one, - On which good men and angels may forever run, - O’er many a threatening torrent here, chasm, wide and great; - And ever man and gods shall their new links create— - Some for service and for song, and some for wonder and delight; - And some time, somewhere the Bridge—to everlasting light. - - -THE MIGHT OF MATUTINAL MUSIC - - When awaking from dreams completely refresht, - My body reclining still; - With a soul alive and a heart at rest, - And master too of my will— - - When the sun doth cast ambitious rays, - Foretelling afar his race; - And my heart is clothed with the garment of praise - By an all pervading grace— - - When I hear the psalm of the gifted Thrush, - With a song of a mountain stream, - And a child’s sweet laugh, while the morn’s a-flush, - When Nature is all a-gleam— - - Ah, then my soul is thrilled with delight - And my mind sweeps every sea, - ’Tis then I possess my musical might, - And the angels visit me. - -[Illustration: Photos by the Author.] - - -A PERPETUAL KING - - In a King on a throne and a King there to stay, - You’ve a friendly old monarch who’s ever upright. - There are blessings for you and the men far away, - In a King on a throne and a King there to stay. - His robe is pure white, but the proud make it gay; - Ah, what mercy, what power and amazing foresight - In a King on a throne and a King there to stay— - You’ve a friendly old monarch who’s ever upright! - - -THE COTTON GIN - - At a cotton gin the King’s made thin, - Yet never shows the least chagrin, - In his sunny home in Dixie’s land, - That rich and poor may live and win. - - He’s trifled with, but will not sin - Amongst his subjects, nor his kin, - Although he feels the iron band - At a cotton gin. - - More just the King than a mandarin, - And I often think the cherubin - Would like themselves to understand - His long, rich round, and then command - At a cotton gin. - - -THE COTTON MILL - - In Southern climes and the monarch’s mill - Weave many a spindle and loom; - And lake and lawn, with art’s own skill, - In Southern climes and the monarch’s mill; - Yes, church and school and much to fill - The mind with hope and buoyant bloom— - In Southern climes and the monarch’s mill, - Weave many a spindle and loom. - - -MY OWN LITTLE GIRL - - I’ve covered many and many a mile; - I’ve seen the setting of many a sun; - I have oft been charmed by the infant’s smile, - Pondering gladly life’s journey begun. - - I’ve met with the great and small not a few; - I’ve sat at the feet of the learned knight, - I’ve stood on the stage with Gentile and Jew, - Addressing the throng by day and by night. - - I’ve witnessed the way of the meek and wise, - Ah, the vanishing joy of the greedy; - And more has come under my eager eyes, - Seeing the re-filled cup of the needy. - - But never a joy I’ve felt was my own— - Which bachelor old and maiden know not— - Is equal to that when I return home, - My humble home, yet delectable spot, - - And take to my heart my own little girl, - All laughter and love—the joy of my life. - Right here let me rest, far away the mad whirl, - And feast on pure love, free from all strife. - -[Illustration] - - My own little girl, - My priceless pearl, - With dance of delight, - A musical sprite— - My Artena. - - With hair of pure gold, - With heart never cold, - Who learns with a zest, - And strives for the best— - My Artena. - - Ten years old today— - And never to decay— - May she aye be sweet, - And at length complete, - My Artena. - - -MY BUTTERFLY[11] - -[Illustration] - - My Butterfly, my wondrous Butterfly, - Forsaking temple great, thou choosest me, - When form and burnished wings arrive—I see - With joy, as ne’er before, thy glory nigh. - We journey through the city, thou and I, - In store and street with joined hearts and free, - While men admire thy trust and amity, - But wonder not in thee, nor question why. - - At length thy wings bedecked with Heaven’s art, - Begin to wave, as Nature planned, and east - Thou farest forth with grace, but to my heart - Thou ever clingest still. Fly on and feast - On nectar such as men have never wrought; - In thee is trust and love and, why not, thought? - -[11] This particular butterfly was first seen clinging, about three -feet above the pavement, to the large masonic temple in Charlotte, N. -C., and was gently enticed by the author into his hand, later crawling -up his arm and remaining with his new companion for over an hour. - -[Illustration] - - -Was That Somebody I? - - O child of hope, why left to go astray, - And rend this heart of mine? - Some one knew not, nor cared what ruthless way - You wend—once babe benign— - Was that somebody I? - - If God, with perfect heart, loved you, my child, - And to Jesus likened thee— - Why so favored first, now sad and wild? - Who failed to love? Ah me! - Was that somebody I? - - One said he loved the Christ and all of his; - He read the Word and prayed; - Believed that one the cruel creed, “What is, - Is best?” And so you strayed— - Was that somebody I? - - At home neglected, nowhere a faithful friend, - You listless wandered on; - Till fool or knave declared: “You’re bad, your end - Looms dark—a criminal born!” - Was that somebody I? - - Despised yet more—the Christ and thee—then crime! - You bore with shame the chains! - Your training and your arts, in Hell’s own clime, - Went on with damning drains— - Great Heaven! was it I? - - Did I neglect you, child, my Father’s child, - I judge, and send you down? - Myself at ease, while you were curst, reviled— - No aid gave I, no crown? - Then Christ must pass me by! - -[Illustration] - - -MY SABBATH SERMON - - A growing mocker in a maple tree, - Poured forth first notes with youthful glee; - Like an untried poet born to sing, - He’s proving gifts which fame will bring. - - And musing on that Sabbath morn, - With body weary, heart forlorn, - The music of the blithesome bird - Inspired my mind itself to gird - -[Illustration] - - With faith and courage, hope and love, - Beguiling my heart to leap above. - ’Tis ever thus, some primal song - Doth make us gentle, brave and strong; - - And trustful too, till we can see - With eyes of Him of Galilee— - Sweet Sabbath notes from the amateur, - Which filled my soul with a speedy cure. - - The bird will better sing, and I - Shall carol sweetly by and by; - After earth’s songs on vernal sod, - Then high above in the choir of God. - - What wondrous choir—how vast, how bright, - With suns and stars, and yet greater Light. - They also sing, as ever they shine, - With a strength of love that is divine. - - Yon rolling plain and mountain peak, - Or surging sea and bounding creek; - Or budding rose and lustrous star— - All bid us rise to an avatar, - - Above rich valley, and hill’s proud crest, - Above things seen to heaven’s best— - To perfect ones, with the angel throng, - O’er topless hills in endless song! - - -PILOT MOUNTAIN - - O Jomeokee, thou everlasting guide, - Lifting high thyself, a tower strong - For passing men, and deathless hills around; - For Yadkin and on-flowing Ararat, - Bathing thy feet in humblest gratitude; - Thy lofty head, embraced by cooling clouds, - Gives something forth that’s rich, and unto all— - O Pilot old, thy secret bare to me. - - Tell me when thy origin and where; - What hidden womb ambitious gave thee birth; - Bear witness thou to all both seen and heard - By thee from first to last; from primal man, - To Renfro Indian tribe, who spake thy praise - In by-gone years, and poet last who sang - Thy glory—O eternal Pilot speak! - - As mute thou art as mighty and sublime, - Like unto all that’s great and strong and good— - Forever still midst Surrey’s joyful hills; - Yet to men thou bringest a message deep; - To Indian, symbol of the Spirit Great; - To me, the varied, potent word of God. - -[Illustration: A View of “Big Pinnacle” on Pilot Mountain, in Surrey -County, N. C. Picture by the Author.] - - Majestic lord of all, to thee on high, - The struggling towns appear as vying dwarfs; - The rivers like to circling, creeping snakes; - Valleys, rich and broad, thy gardens are - Imperial—and all thine honors sing. - - Sons of chiefs long vanquished played and danced - Before thy face; again the fathers prayed, - Their plea ascending, swift as thought, to Him - Who guided Abram ’mongst Judean hills. - - What heart-breaks knowest thou of sire and son? - Of lover and beloved, of hate and hope? - Deepest depths and uplift to the heights? - I hear the music of thy hidden heart, - Sorrow’s song, in-wrought with joy that’s pure, - The process endless of the urging Cross— - A lofty peak of virtue and of peace - Art thou, O Jomeokee! - - -HER PRISON LIFE[12] - - Her prison life was long and lone - Her kindred buried or unknown; - Of naught had she kept any score, - In truth her mind deprived of lore, - But knew her grief to be her own. - - Another heart had better grown, - Confessing murder had he sown; - “I did the deed, and I deplore - Her prison life.” - - But hope and heart and health had flown; - Why cares she now what winds are blown? - “I guess I’ll stay here as before, - My all is gone and evermore”— - Her living death, one long-drawn moan, - Her prison life. - -[12] Based on a newspaper story of “Aunt” Sarah Wycoff in the North -Carolina Penitentiary. - -[Illustration: Photograph of a rare old painting by the Spanish artist, -Herrera, and owned by Dr. Andrew Anderson of St. Augustine, Fla.] - - -AURELIUS AUGUSTINUS - - O thou, immortal father, - Permit my spirit poor to rise with thine. - Thou didst ascend, high Heaven’s hero, - From thy soft bed of prayer at Hippo, - Centuries agone, - Very Vandals storming thy gates the while. - - Victor art thou still, and higher, - More mighty, honored more. - Amongst men thou didst eat - Of the tree of knowledge, good and evil— - How human as boy and man! - Yet thou didst name thy first born, - In youth begotten of thine unlawful union, - Adeodatus, “a gift from God.” - Again and again thou didst strike - For freedom from thy fetters and thy foes, - Till thou hadst conquered, - Later painting thy life of lust - In color like unto darkest night. - - With hungry heart and spirit high, - Thou oft didst delve into Cicero’s Hortentius, - And give thy faith to Manichaeus, - Seeking to know evil and its source— - The ever pressing problem, eternally inscrutable. - - After God all things good had made, - Yea very good, - A fearless fool hath said, - “He turned Himself into the tempting serpent—” - Shocking diabolism! - - Creators two? - Incredible, impossible. - Then it follows, - One evil became. - But when and where; by whom and why? - With all this thou didst wrestle, - And more bitterly with thyself. - - Yet thou didst give to God - And all the ages - Thy “Confession,” thine and mine; - Thy “De Natura et Gratia”— - The everlasting conflict; - Books fifteen on a single theme, - At once the highest and holiest, - The redeeming Trinity. - Many a tractate and treatise - Thou didst leave to men. - We bless thee for all this, - Thy holy heritage, O Augustine, - More brilliant than Ambrose, - Of truth more jealous than Jerome, - More profound than Gregory the Great; - The super-man of thy day and many, - Thou enthroned son of the Highest. - - Beholding now thy form and face— - Master work of Herera’s hands, - Done a millennium after thy ascent, - A worshipful face toward the Holy Father’s, - With quill in thy skillful hand, - “The City of God”[13] before thee, - My soul astir doth soar - Toward thine and His. - Oft have I gazed and gloried, - Imaging thy topless, hallowed heights, - From deepest, darkest depths— - I too may rise; I will, O God, I will! - -[13] The title of one of his works. - - -O THAT INCOME TAX! - - I struggled with mine till the midnight hour; - My head was that of a fool; - My losses and gains, they’re beyond my power, - And never the like was, in school. - - That minus sign was ever my foe - From earliest years until now; - My modest income, and varied out-go— - O they must be figured somehow! - - I’ll tell you the truth, in the fear of the Lord, - I worried and went “sick abed;” - Six pages of puzzles and all a sworn word— - “O where,” I sighed, “is my head?” - - “If married,” or “single”—I failed to know: - Nor dependent children could tell; - For never my mind received such a blow, - From such unexpected hell. - - I always have cherished my Uncle Sam, - And thought he was oftenest right; - But flooded I was, nor a single dam - To check my downward flight. - - Exhausted I slept, nor just or unjust, - Resolving the next day to seek aid; - For when I awoke ’twas still, “you must - Or penalty dire be paid.” - - To the revenue clerk I took me straight, - And behold, as I looked, I heard - A lot of fond fools at Uncle Sam’s gate, - Despairing like a caged bird. - - The officer smiled, and I smiled out loud, - For misery loves company; - And the smiles were like beams that broke the cloud - Of impending, rank perjury. - - The blanks I filled in from A to O, - But omitted the “profits from sale”— - I once grew rich with a plow and hoe, - When a whistling boy and hale. - - In those olden days no kind of a tax - For City or State revenue - Was imposed on boys except a few whacks, - But now they forever are due. - - I swore and I signed and in full I paid - That puzzling tax return; - Once more I laughed, and again I said, - “’Tis always do, and you learn.” - - And now it is done, and thoroughly done, - Halleluia, I’ll get there yet; - But by all that’s good and true ’neath the sun, - I swear that folly to forget. - - -IN FLORIDA - - They come from everywhere, - By land, by sea and air, - The old, the young and fair— - And all without a care, - In Florida. - - Just pause, my friend, and see - The multitudes that be - O’er lovely shore and lea; - They reach from sea to sea, - In Florida. - - Look at the aged one, - Who shines like a little sun, - And feels himself undone, - If he played not golf and won, - In Florida. - - His gouty feet must dance, - His eye will look askance, - And his mind make glad advance, - To reach five score, perchance, - In Florida. - - Yes, let him have his wish - To feel the line’s quick swish, - And catch his finest fish - For his epicurean dish, - In Florida. - - ’Tis here he makes the stride; - There’s nothing he can’t ride, - With a maiden by his side— - Yet a few things must he hide, - In Florida. - - The birds and trees here sing; - The prigs and plants upspring, - And each gets in the swing, - With Nature all a-wing, - In Florida. - - Behold, my friend, the youth, - The forward, the uncouth; - The gentle and their ruth, - The beauty and the truth, - In Florida. - - It’s like a moving stage, - The folk of every age; - No place nor cause for rage— - Even workless have their wage— - In Florida. - - Then see the females all; - Alack! you rise or fall, - Or else your heart forestall, - In this moving, magic ball, - In Florida. - - One great kaleidoscope, - From silk to dirt and dope, - From puppet to a pope, - This passing throng of hope, - In Florida. - - -TWO LITTLE ORPHANS - - Two orphans in the world are left, - A brother and sister sighing; - Two Vireos aggrieved, bereft, - Two little orphans crying. - -[Illustration: By the Author.] - - Close clinging to their cheerless nest, - Two little birds are trying - To call back joys of mother’s breast, - A mother, lifeless lying. - - God’s two-fold plan for making song— - Some fiend the while defying— - And man’s two friends their whole life long; - Two little orphans crying. - - No answer comes, save from the King, - A King who’s aye supplying - The needs of the great and smallest thing— - His little orphans crying. - -[Illustration: By Courtesy of Briscoe and Arnold.] - - -TROUBLE AND PLAY - - It’s trouble and gladness from first to the last, - Ere joy is quite vanquished some sorrow comes fast; - Yet while old Calamity’s having his way, - For one that’s in trouble, there are others at play. - - What is play to the pup is grief to the child; - What is fun for the boy makes mother go wild; - Some deeds of the mother cause angels to weep; - While God smiles over all, and all He doth keep. - - -SOME SMALL SURPRISES - - We never foreknow, but our hearts were a-glow, - The hearts of Artena and I, - As we walked to and fro by the waters a-flow, - The waters in “the land of the sky.” - - The children see true—they generally do— - The charming things all around; - I followed her view, and I presently knew - A Tanager’s nest was found. - - The boys advanced, as soon as they glanced, - And down came the limb of a tree; - Thus fortune chanced, while little hearts danced, - With four wee fledglings to see. - - With noisy protest, and tumult and zest, - The camera captured all four. - ’Twas the parents’ sure test—they forsook the nest, - Though birdlings a-weeping sore! - - I began to weep, in my heart quite deep, - When the babes kept up their cry; - I ran up the steep like a deer in a leap, - For the best bird food supply. - - They reached and they tried; they ate and they cried, - Till the four had eaten their fill; - The mother aside still motherhood belied, - And the heart in me struggled still. - - I learned in my youth, an old, new truth; - ’Mongst men and beasts and birds, - Some grow uncouth, nor ever show ruth; - And for fools waste not your words. - - Filled oft to the beak, as the days made a week, - The fledglings and I were friends, - And over the creek the folk came to speak - Of their beauty, their cuteness and ends. - - And all the hearts right grew more tender and bright, - As the Tanagers grew apace; - And those of insight, said, “The birds have a right - To partake of our friendly grace.” - - -THE RHYTHM UNIVERSAL - - Give me thy music, O most musical One, - The rhythm that rolls from yonder cycling sun; - Yea more, as heart and soul of all that’s good, - Thy nature gave in vaster plenitude; - Nor time will ever be when thy glad stars - Will cease to sing as one in rhythmic bars; - Nor conscious sons of God go shouting joy; - Nor woodland birds of song their loved employ. - - It’s in the very heart of things; - It’s in our bounds and sweeps and swings; - It’s in the tree and rose that springs— - All Nature sings—— and—— sings. - - The heart of man, his coursing blood through veins; - The very breath of life, his thoughts and reins; - His dreams, devotions, deeds, his all, O soul, - Or great or small beneath divine control. - - The gracious seasons roll in mighty numbers; - The snow, the sleet but falls, that He who slumbers - Not may again awake the earth to life - And stay, for man and all, the winter’s strife. - - The raging storm, the great earthquake and war - Are music bound, if we but see afar; - From heart of heav’n to heart of hell—ah yes; - The prince of darkness is beset, not less— - ’Tis bars and feet, far-reaching leaps and falls, - Through light not seen in His momentous calls. - - Consider Job—upright but proud—at last, - By grinding fate, by every woe held fast, - He turned to highest hills and King of all; - And never more asked he, “_why such a fall?_” - It was the rhythm of God through stops of sin; - ’Twas His own anthems deep, without, within. - - Our Pilgrim fathers, banished by the fates, - Brought out of many ills the United States; - And through each crisis great of all known time, - ’Tis God in love; ’tis music full sublime. - - At last the Lamb and Lion in song shall join; - The Child and Wolf eternal riches coin; - The Night shall sing to Day, and Day to Him, - Who receives the plaudits of the seraphim. - - -THE STONE CROSSES AND THE FAIRIES - - (In Patrick County, Virginia, little stone crosses - have been found and are yet obtainable. Jewelers - of Roanoke and Martinsville, Va., assure inquirers - that the Virginia “Fairy” or “Lucky” stones, - discovered nowhere else in the world, have been a - puzzle to scientists, and are being worn by some of - the crowned heads of Europe. A bulletin of the - U. S. Geological Survey speaks of them as “the most - curious mineral found in the United States,” and - calls them Staurolite or Fairy Stones.) - - In Virginia’s historic hills around a hallowed spot, - There was born a mystic legend which ne’er shall be forgot; - A story true to Nature and to One without a blot— - The divinest story of old! - - For glory bright is round it, which has softened many a heart, - A tale of wise and saintly ones, in universal art; - A story mightiest with men now and ever mighty part - It played in the races of old. - - We yet believe that angels must have wept and good men sighed, - When Gallilee’s great Son with hateful spite was crucified; - But who would ever dream the fairy spirits were allied - In Heaven’s great scheme of old? - - Yet when these blithesome fays were dancing by a mountain spring, - Ere the days of Pocahontas and Powhattan, the fearless King, - In union with the naiads, an elfin, swift of wing, - Came weeping from the East, of old. - - The story sad he told of Christ, the Saviour, and His Cross; - Then joy and laughter sudden ceased, and grieving for their loss, - They shed their tears upon the pebbles and on the velvet moss— - A heaven moved grief of old. - - And lo, when they had flown from the enchanted spring and ground, - Just where the tears had fallen on the pebbles lying round, - The Fairy stony crosses by the thousand there were found, - Sweet Nature’s crosses of old. - -[Illustration: Note the crosses in this clod of earth. - -Photographed in Patrick County, Va.] - - -THE SUN FLOWER - - ’Tis the flower that looms and turns to pure gold, - Yes, the flower that loves, and is loved the best; - For it plans from the first—this is love’s true test— - To give forth its riches to young and to old. - - It o’er reaches men high with its shining crest, - Yet never in climbing unduly bold— - ’Tis the flower that looms and turns to pure gold, - Yes, the flower that loves, and is loved, the best. - - The Gold Finches arrive as its petals unfold, - And the Cardinal’s joy is manifest, - As groom gives to bride the jolly behest - To feast on its wealth and in her heart to hold - The flower that looms and turns to pure gold, - Yes, the flower that loves, and is loved, the best. - - -COLONEL DIAMOND AND GRAND-DAUGHTER - - I would like to attain to my four score and two, - With a joy in my heart and with naught to efface, - Could I dance, or could sing with an energy true, - Could I lighten the load of the populace. - I’d run out in the open for Nature’s embrace, - With a mind ever high, yet my feet on the sod; - While my soul would be set to the music of grace, - With the heart of a child and the gifts of a god. - -[Illustration: Photograph taken when he was 82 years of age.] - - My pursuit would be learning the old and the new; - And whenever I could I would Psyche’s wings chase! - I would speak of high art with my privileged few, - And persuade men below to the nobler race; - In the faith I’d rejoice that the world grows apace. - I would skip on the mountain, or valley’s dull clod, - Having plenty and power, or only an ace, - With the heart of a child and the gifts of a god. - - I would rather, like Diamond, all the way through, - Either poor, or unknown, or with glorious mace, - Make somebody happy—ah, many and you! - And the love of a child with my love interlace; - Yes, content with my lot, and the righteous ukase. - I would work and I’d play, but never more plod; - A glad song in my heart, and a smile on my face, - With the heart of a child and the gifts of a god. - - Envoy - - Here’s to Diamond’s health, to the grand-daughter’s grace; - They are under love’s sway, which surpasses the rod; - So united and happy in every place, - With the heart of a child and the gifts of a god. - - -THE WILD WOOD - - How wonderful the wild wood, - The fresh sweet wood with its hush. - Silent, my soul! Take thou the mood - Of Veery and of Thrush, - ’Way out in the wild wood. - - Give ear to hymn of oak and pine; - Drink, my soul, drink deep; - The master Muse would make it thine, - But who can fully know the sweep - Of music of the wild wood? - - Each tree sings low an old, new song, - Softest lay of life and love; - Unmarred by the daring, prattling throng - Of rushing men—like a dove - My soul in the wild wood. - - The honeysuckle and wild rose— - Purity and balm a-bloom— - Refresh my heart and they transpose - My hungry mind to richer room - And food in the wild wood. - - The violets with their upward look, - The stones beneath my feet, - Make one and all an open book; - Ah, the meditations meet, - With God in the wild wood. - - At length the sun puts on pure gold; - The birds and breezes softer sing, - List! all, within this shrine of old, - Chime symphonies to the King— - High mass in the wild wood! - -[Illustration] - - -THE BEGINNING OF THINGS - - The beginning of things, the first of all men— - It fascinates me, and I’ve wondered when - And what and how the beginning of things. - - Jehovah the first, and Jehovah the last, - But the wisest must think very deep and fast, - To fix in his mind the first of all things. - - All creatures began in the heavens and earth; - The sun and the moon and star had a birth; - But when and where the beginning of things? - - Not yet is the answer, but I hope somewhere, - With Christ and his saints and seraphim fair, - To know more about the advent of things; - - To get better acquainted with Adam the first, - To learn the true source of his deepest thirst, - The wonderful truth of the beginning of things— - - The beginning of thought, and the primals of love; - How a reptile became the soft cooing dove, - And whence the beginning of all present things; - - The ape-grunt to a word, and that word a vast tongue, - And whence the sweet music of mankind has sprung; - Who struck the first note in the beginning of things? - - ’Tis an evolution great, and a marvel to me, - But never have I prayed to our father up a tree; - Aye, no man yet since the origin of things. - - The Alpha, Omega, the First, Last and Whole, - Who, from the small first, had foreseen the vast goal, - He only knows now the beginning of things. - - But will He not somewhere permit me to know, - If I go on with Him in the eternal flow, - The satisfying truth of the first of all things? - - -THE END OF THINGS - - The aim of the heavens, the end of the earth— - What a measureless sweep, what a mighty girth, - From the far off first to the end of all things! - - The end of the rose, which fades in a day, - The purpose of the plant an age on the way— - I dream of Beauty in the end of things. - - The end of all men, and the end of myself, - From the artist great to the smallest elf, - Our thoughts and our deeds in the end of things. - - The fate of the infants who die without ken, - Of their growth and knowledge, God’s super-men— - What developments vast in the end of things! - - The issue of thousands and millions of slain, - The end of all wars, and the victor’s sure gain— - There’s a league worth while, toward the end of things; - - A league of the nations, the long coming star - The prophets of old fore-glimpsed from afar, - A brotherhood true toward the close of things. - - The last of the martyr, who passed with a prayer, - The last for the felon, who died in despair— - All good and all ill in the end of things? - - We know but in part, yet co-workers are we - In a scheme as complete as eternity— - In the far off final, and fulfillment of things. - - It delights one to think, we’re only in school, - That our joys and our woes do not mean mis-rule, - In God’s plan for the race to the end of things. - - In this purpose of His the rose will uncover; - In its family great we’ll at length discover - The sweet Rose of Sharon, the completion of things; - - In the plants by the waters, that quicken and die, - But give out their riches unstinted, nor sigh, - The Lily of the Valley, the Goal of all things. - - The song of the Thrush and of plaintive Nightingale - Will merge with the Master’s glorious “all hail,” - In harmony perfect in the end of things. - - St. John, the inspired, saw horses in heaven, - And I love to believe even they will be given - Some happier part in the end of all things. - - The best of our words and our ways here forgot - Will be gathered and treasured in a hallowed lot, - Exalted in place at the end of things— - - God’s men as the angels and angels as men, - Ah, the little child too shall be received then, - In love of the Highest, in the end of all things. - - -WHEN THE JUNCO COMES - - The Junco comes when warblers go, - When leaves lay dead by a dauntless foe; - Ay, winter plans with all his might - To put in a grave the heart’s delight, - And cover all with a shroud of snow. - - But seasons have a rhythmic flow, - With good in each, and this I know, - Through storm and sleet, in cheerful flight, - The Junco comes. - - This bonny bird has faith to show - To faithless mortals, fearing woe, - How the changeless One, with a changing light - Fore-plans for bird and man aright; - With autumn gone and winter here—lo, - The Junco comes! - - -JAMES BRADLEY JACKSON - - (Written beside his grave in Lake City, Fla., where he - was buried after a tragic death, February 8, 1868, - by railroad accident. - - Dr. Lovick Pierce, when in his prime, once facetiously - remarked to several opposing preachers: “My - brethren, you had better let brother Jackson alone. - He has the most metaphysical mind of any man in - Georgia, myself only excepted.” - - Rev. W. J. Scott, D. D., in “Biographic Etchings” says - of contemporary ministers: “Not one of them was his - equal as a theologian or logician.” - - The late Dr. W. J. Cotter, of Newnan, Ga., wrote: “Your - father was a great and good man.”) - - Father, O my father! - Attend unto the cry - Of this, thy son, - And, though long silent and invisible, - Speak thou to me. - - I stand with uncovered head, - ’Neath giant water oaks, - Thy sleepless body-guard, - Supporting emblems of eternal mourning, - The clinging mosses at half mast, - Nature’s weepers; - Now still, now softly chanting, now waving, - While sympathetic zephyrs flow, - And give them kiss of comfort as they pass— - Calling all, like my hungry heart, - For thee! - - Victimized thy body, - Thy very bones were mangled, - Long since done to dust, - Exalted dust, once indwelt by Deity, - Assuring foretaste of higher life. - - In towering oak a mocking-bird doth sing, - Not doleful dirge, - Nor requiem for the hopeless dead, - But sonatas pure sings he of life and love, - This receiving and out-giving Psyche of every wandering note, - The Sidney Lanier ’mongst birds of the sunny South, - His own “trim Shakespeare on a tree”— - The oak, the moss, the bird and I, - Above all Jehovah, the life of all, - Proclaim thee ever-living, - And glorified. - - I cry unto thee, ascended sire; - Hearest thou me? - Conscious of thy child’s communion? - Meetest thou me as son or spirit? - Yea; closer now than as tender offspring of thy loins, - I sat upon thy knee, inquirer and receiver, - In the long ago. - - Yet fettered I by frailties of the flesh, - With poor and halting language of mortal men, - Miserable makeshift, the spirit’s aphasia, - This spoken or written word— - I will fight through fetters all and fly! - Mine is the inarticulate cry of love, - Plea of a son’s aspiring heart. - Made more and more apt and musical - By what thou wast and art, - During all thy crowning years. - - Again I see thy imaged face, O master man; - Thy penetrating eye, that reads from soul to soul— - Stern, inflexible; - Yet merciful thou, and gentle with men. - I wonder what thou hast become; - What thoughts, what plans, achievements now? - But three short months in a fourth-rate school, - At twenty spelling and struggling on - Through the Book Divine, - Making marvelous mistakes and ludicrous—[14] - What man or angel climbed from less to more? - What god? - - Once teacher, tender, patient, firm; - A preacher powerful of the Gospel everlasting; - College president; thinker, deep and rare, - Holding and molding many from thy conquered heights! - - Whose soul ever sang oratorios - Sweeter, richer in the hierarchy of - Being and becoming? - Who ever possessed more wondrous will, - Power uppermost in God and man? - - Thou didst express God-begotten longing - To return and be guide to some lone, weary one— - It is I—prayer proven. - Oft and again thy fond fatherhood, - One with the eternal Father, - Who sends forth His spirits as ministers, - Has converted my weakness into strength, - My loneliness to fellowship free, - My doubt and darkness to lovely light, - My cup of bitterness to blessing— - What father still, and guardian angel thou! - - Thy spirit ineluctable - Lives, and reigns, and rises ever; - Delving deeper, more divinely - Into glories of love and service; - High above the maddening marts of men, - Of dire machines, for murder built, - That sow and reap the woes of war. - - O immortal man, high grown saint and prophet, - Beloved father, I come—ere long, I come! - Even now and here, earth-bound as I am, I rise - To meet and greet thee, - In God’s pure heights, - And thine! - -[14] Struggling with that simple passage—“This is the heir; come, let -us kill him”—he rendered it, “This is the hair-comb, let us kill him;” -and hence reached his logical interpretation, which is left to the -imagination of the reader. - -[Illustration: This old mansion in Stokes County, N. C., was seven -years in being built by its owner, Col. John Martin, who was the -great-grandfather of Judge W. P. Bynum of Greensboro, N. C. Photo by -the Author.] - - -A STORY OF COLONIAL TIMES - -(With a historical basis never before published.) - - Ride back, my children, in the chariot of Time, - A hundred and sixty-five years; - And we’ll join a fond father, a hero sublime— - A maiden is pleading in tears! - - She was seized by the Tories at a bold mountain spring, - Soon after refusing her heart, - To one who belonged to the enemy’s ring, - A foreign and haughty up-start. - - Away thru the mountains they carried the maid - To their secret and darksome den; - And there the pure daughter of Martin was laid, - The captive of merciless men. - -[Illustration: The “rock ribbed pen” in which Miss Martin was placed by -the Tories. Photograph by author.] - - She’s pleading with them, but her cries are in vain; - They’ve bound her secure and fast; - And vowed she should never see Martin again— - And the lover, “You’re mine at last.” - - Her sleep has departed, her food is refused, - But unto the Father she prayed; - While the body of thieves are greatly amused, - Near a glowing fire they’ve made. - - A brave of the friendly Saura tribe - Soon heard of the stolen girl; - To Martin he went without thought of a bribe, - With plans that proved him no churl. - - To the top of his mansion the father flew, - A mansion of solid gray stone; - It’s standing yet—and ’twas years that it grew— - A tower defiant, though lone. - - The two anxious men looked near and afar, - And at length a glimmer was seen, - A gleam far away, like a dim fallen star, - A token of promising sheen. - - A compass was set, that infallible guide; - At sunrise it pointed the way, - When the father and friend, alert by his side, - Made a silent, complete survey. - - While they searched through the wood some fragments were found, - Torn threads of a girl’s scarlet shawl, - Lying hither and yon on the virgin ground— - Faint hope of success was all. - - Now at length a full score of Tories is spied, - At the mouth of their cave with guns— - “Down, still!” said Martin, “a moment we’ll hide, - Then away for our friends and our sons.” - - Two score are secured and each man is well armed; - They approach the Tories’ dark cave; - But the thieves are alert as well as alarmed, - Before men so mighty and brave. - - Quick shots are exchanged—the maiden still prays; - All the Tories but three take flight, - And these are bound fast, and in Heaven’s own ways, - There’s rapture and holy delight. - - Ah, ne’er such a kiss and ne’er such embrace, - ’Twixt Martin and only daughter; - For the gold of the hills, and the wealth of the race, - Could not, for all, have bought her. - - The Tories still flee, the seven and ten, - Pursued thru the Sauratown hills, - ’Till the last is destroyed or safe in a pen, - And the lovers had a feast that fills. - - -CUM ON WID YER MONEY FUR ME - - I’m pore an’ bline, but I shore kin sing; - And I lubs to hear dat silver ring, - So cum on wid yer money fur me. - - Yer knows, white folks, a nigger’s pore chance; - An’ de best I kin do is ter sing an’ dance; - Now cum on wid yer money fur me. - - Fill up dat cup an’ run hit ober, - An’ I’ll be full like a sheep in de clober; - So cum on wid yer money fur me. - - Dar neber wuz er pull like de money pull, - An’ meny’s bin de day since mer cup wuz full— - O cum on wid yer money fur me! - - While mer song do er about like ole Jim Crow, - Yer hearts will be happy an’ oberflow, - Ef yer cum on wid yer money fur me. - - So cum er-long, cum er long an stan’ er round; - Let smiles on ebery face be found, - An’ cum on wid yer money fur me. - - While I’se jes a nigger, pore an’ bline, - Dis shore am de song of yore race an’ mine; - _O cum on wid yer money fur me!_ - -[Illustration: Snapped by the Author in Tampa, Fla.] - - -GOOD OUT OF EVIL - - O God of power great and endless love, - While dwelling in immensity above. - On highest throne of all, of life and light; - Yet comest down thou gently in thy might, - To succor of the low and heavy laden, - And on thou leadest to a peaceful haven. - - ’Tis ever thine to bring forth love from hate, - O Christ, eternal Wisdom, incarnate; - All good from evil, health from all our pain; - From darkness light—so be it always plain - To men and devils: _Thou alone art king_; - And highest in all worlds thy praises ring! - - Afar Thou dost foresee the certain end. - And cause the strife of nations mad to bend - Their worst, their artful plan and utmost deed, - To bless thine own and be thy servant’s meed; - Rich peace from war; high Heaven from utter hell; - O what a God is ours—let angels tell! - - -CHRISTMAS - - Ho, children, ho! - Ring loud the bells, - In town and dells; - And gladly go, - Thru ice and snow, - For mistletoe, - With merry bells! - - Come, welcome Santy, - In his reindeer sleigh, - On the King’s highway— - He’s never scanty— - So children, ho! - For mistletoe, - With jingling bells! - - Of Christ we’ll sing, - With glad acclaim, - And steadfast aim, - His praises ring— - O children, go, - For mistletoe, - With joyful bells! - - Come young, come old! - Those only live - Who love to give, - With hearts of gold, - All people, ho! - For mistletoe, - With dancing bells! - -[Illustration: MISTLETOE. Photo by the Author.] - - -MRS. JOSEPHINE F. HAMILL[15] - - When I see her face to face, - At home a-front the rolling sea, - A buoyant tide of life flows over me, - With quickened, joyful pace. - - A breath from perfumed hills I inbreathe - That is purer than the breeze - From sun-lit seas; - And I perceive a beauty incarnate, - Not far below the gifted gods, - Who for others mediate, - And to men bequeathe - The best from Him immaculate. - - She is a symphony, - A living, moving harmony, - Where doomed discord would rampant be; - Face to be studied like Art’s masterpiece, and more, - For somehow it charms one beyond self and toil and the beaten shore. - - If I cannot tell, - Nor explain the spell, - In my own heart’s depths - I know why - She has eyes that image, please and edify. - - In smiles which come and go and quick return, - I feel the ebb and flow of a fuller Fount and vaster, - The symbols visible of unseen verities, - For which I yearn, - And those high born, universal sympathies, - Pouring ever forth from the highest Master. - - Her altruistic thoughts and every word, - Like the spontaneous out-burst of a joy-filled bird, - Looking near and far to lighten human needs— - More fruitful than Pomona are her deeds— - All these point to heights where one’s transferred, - Softly, safely, faster. - - Her life is one of many links and spans, - Unbroken and unbreakable— - For joyless mortals joy unspeakable— - Forged links, not made with human hands, - In mystery joining together heaven and earth, - Till the day of fullness and our greatest birth, - Day of fulfillment, - And at-one-ment. - And then? - _Ah Then!_ - -[15] This beautiful character and other proven friends described in -these pages measure up to the standard now, as the author sees it and -them—yet the coveted ideal rises ever higher as we press on toward the -Highest. C. J. - - -A CHICK’S CRY - - At lone midnight, with only the light - Of stars across my bed, - And on my wakeful head, - I prayed for sight, or note though slight, - Of moving melody. - - ’Twas then I heard the call of a bird, - A soft, pathetic cry; - It seemed to ask: “Oh, why, - My pleading word is not yet heard, - And I forsaken be?” - - A motherless chick, and my heart grew quick; - My youngest, sleeping, dreaming girl, - With tender heart and eye like pearl, - Had played love’s trick, when hale or sick, - A devoted mother she. - - With night’s last wane, I heard life’s strain— - A woodland warbler’s song. - The child arose ere long - With love so fain; I caught again - Rich rhythm of amity. - - The chick’s cry ceased—’twas now a feast, - And note of joy it spoke - To the motherly master-stroke— - Glory in the east for the very least, - And smiled the Deity. - - On man’s wide sea there come to me - Still deeper wails; oh, hark! - The children cry—’tis dark! - Ah, when shall we on earth decree - Divinest ecstasy? - - -THE KID AND THE COP[16] - -[Illustration: The illustrations courtesy of Kodakery.] - - He came to a stop, from the hailing cop, - The Kid ’neath the apple tree; - And then the cop went “over the top,” - Pronouncing his decree. - - “Oh yes, ha, ha, a thief you are! - Come tell me quick your name; - Your fun I’ll mar without a scar, - And scribble it down—for fame.” - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - - The Kiddie smiled, like a guileless child; - “Have one, it’s awfully nice.” - Thus reconciled, the cop grew mild, - Beholding the Kid’s device. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - - He seized with joy the fruit and boy, - With both of them enraptured; - “You human toy, you’re some decoy, - For now you have me captured.” - -[16] The illustrations by courtesy of Kodakery. - - -THE OVER-FAVORED AND THE CHANCELESS CHILD - - The favored child was loved indeed - By father, mother, city and state— - All glad to give the highest meed, - The child they’ve blest both soon and late. - Another child did men berate, - And now and then they brought to shame; - They saw and caused a cruel Fate - To damn this child with a felon’s name. - - The happy child of Fortune’s breed - For mind and body had fullest plate; - Of noble flesh, an elect seed, - The child they’ve blest both soon and late. - The chanceless child they chose to hate, - To hinder hands that would reclaim— - Ah, even moved some magistrate - To damn this child with a felon’s name. - - The well-led boy should take the lead, - Have free and ever a high estate— - ’Twas rank injustice to impede - The child they’ve blest both soon and late. - The wayward child could ne’er be great, - And so ’twas meet his mind to flame, - And just his doom to accelerate, - To damn this child with a felon’s name. - - Envoy - - They all sped him to Heaven’s gate, - The child they’ve blest both soon and late. - And the godless waif? ’Twas Hell’s deep aim, - To damn this child with a felon’s name. - - -THE SLANDERER - - Of all things vile beneath the sky, - By night or day that creep or fly; - The spider, bedbug, hated louse; - Or close-coiled rattler, gnawing mouse; - - The buzzard, skunk, or murderous mink, - Hyena mean, whose eye doth blink— - Wherever one may rest or wander, - The vilest he who breedeth slander. - - The rattler warns you—jump or run, - Or give him battle with stick or gun! - The skunk offends you—let him go; - He takes his choice ’twixt friend and foe. - - The blackest buzzards often use - Some others’ victim or refuse. - Bedbugs—Bah! Such creeping things - Do basely vex; still we are kings. - - Hyenas are caged or far away; - The mice entrapped by night and day. - But Slanderer’s base and slimy word - Is fouler far than beast or bird. - - Infectious doubt injects he first, - And defamation’s not his worst; - His victim says: “I’m stript of fame; - If felon then, I’ll play the game.” - - Thus some decide; and who may tell - The dirty depths of this fiend of hell? - And there he’ll go, upwept, unsung— - The vilest monster yet unhung! - - -THE WORLD’S GREATEST EGOTIST - - He made his earth, and scaled his lofty sky; - He spread abroad his universal sea; - He climbed his visioned mountains, towering high, - The cause and course of Wisdom he’d decree. - - ’Gainst man’s accurst and weary, ill-formed world, - All rent apart by fools and their divisions, - His burning anathemas he ever hurled, - His direst doom, and his divine decisions. - - No other man, through years and cycles run, - Was bold enough to say: “God is dead”; - Of all great men, philosopher but one, - Thyself, alone, and madness seized thy head! - - O thou, most blatant babbler, Friedrich Nietzsche, - How thou didst snuffle—how thou didst sneeze thee! - - -LITTLE RIVER ROYAL - -[Illustration: NEW RIVER, FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. - -Snap Shot by the Author.] - - Close nestling on thy bosom, all dreamy and serene, - Thy charms I feel in all their flood, and never ending scheme; - Thy gifts so manifold are of fullest life and love; - Contented guests within three live as in the air above. - - I hear thy praises chorused in the king-fisher’s rattle, - In giant alligator sigh, who prefers his peace to battle; - He sinks beneath thy bosom in perfect ease and calm, - And there within thy shielding heart he sings his grateful psalm - - The mullet and the tarpon, the swift and tremulous trout, - Dash eagerly to mount thy wave, and lithely splash about, - To manifest their joy in thee and their abounding life, - So glad bestowed on them by thee, so free from doubtful strife. - - The mocking-bird and robin both join their sweetest song - With the lowly rune of river flow, alluring, deep and long; - The eagle-hawk doth watch thee with close, unblinking eye, - And for his profit plunges swift, then soars up toward the sky. - - The trim blue heron in thy waves doth lave his weary feet; - From thy cooling water takes his food and feels himself complete - And thou art ever ready to let the mallard ride, - And comfort, too, the mourning dove, who slumbers by thy side. - - That charming bird, the cardinal, in his imperial red, - Himself in thee doth contemplate, and unto thee is wed. - And legion are thy lovers—a noble stream thou art! - And all the more thou givest free the richer is thy part. - - The palm and the palmetto, the lily, dainty sweet, - Their homage humbly before thee bring, and lay it at thy feet; - The water oak that thirsteth, towering long-leaf pine - Drink gratefully thy water pure and sing a praise that’s thine. - - Ah, way-worn mortals turn to thee to worship and abide; - The white winged boats are drawn to thee on every swelling tide; - For thru thy whole long journey it’s always give and give— - What a multitude of creatures thou dost make to live! - - At last thyself thou givest wholly to out-spreading bay; - It beareth thee to shining sea—how wonderful thy way! - With parting kiss to earth, thou risest to thirsty sun, - Who praiseth thee and hasteth thee—another race to run. - - -GIVE ME BOTH - -[Illustration: The nearest water supply to the Tories’ Den. - -(See pages 53-55). Photo by Author.] - - The glad wild hills, - With rushing rills, - Are clothed with glory— - The old, old story, - Yet new, - In the everlasting hills. - - In mountain majesties, - And highborn ecstasies, - Fresh strength may be, - And balm for me - And you, - In the glad, wild hills. - - Then in surf and sea, - With youthful glee— - While waves are dashing, - And swimmers splashing - Around - In the ever-changing sea; - - With wavelets dancing, - The tide advancing; - Breezes kissing— - Ah, no one missing - Life’s bound, - In the wild waves of the sea. - - -MANIFOLD BEAUTY AND THE MAN - -[Illustration] - - It is beautiful to be young, - When youth grows wise at length; - It is beautiful to be strong, - With gentleness in strength. - - It is beautiful to grow old, - When the heart remaineth young; - It is beautiful to be brave, - When mercy’s note is sung. - - It is beautiful to be good, - If filled with knowledge true; - And service is beautiful, - When service maketh new. - - There is beauty in men’s laugh, - When laugh the pure in heart; - It is beautiful to be bright, - With wit for noblest art. - - ’Tis beautiful to see the sun, - And Nature in her courses run; - The wild and healing mountains, - And overflowing fountains; - Her blue unbounded sky, - Which oceans glorify— - - Her silver spray of waterfall; - Eternal rocks, both large and small; - The heavenly hue - Of diamond dew, - On sun-kissed flower, - In morn’s high hour. - - Beauteous to see the sunset’s glory; - God’s secret read in the deep-laid story; - The sleep of butterfly, - From death to life and why; - Jehovah’s predilection, - In every resurrection. - - How beauteous in music of the stars to lave, - With song of the sea from ever rolling wave, - And note of woodland thrush, - Which gives the heart its hush; - Pipe of oriole— - O Beauty of the whole! - - In sweet, divine content, - May mortals ever sing, - The anthems of the soul, - The beauties of the King. - - Ah, Beauty is for all, - If Truth but disenthrall—, - O, yes, ’tis Heaven’s plan, - For Beauty in the man. - - -CHIMNEY ROCK[17] - - Mysterious offspring, rugged son of Fire, - Born from the depths before the birth of years, - When burdened mothers would not grieve nor tire, - And fathers all forbade the cringing fears; - But listened there some one with painful ears, - And the mighty throes foredoomed some heart to pine. - But seen, thy solid form and brow so fine— - Ah, then, who dares to feebly pine or mock? - Men drink, for forthwith flows a mystic wine, - When they thy glory see, eternal Chimney Rock. - -[Illustration: Photo by the Author.] - - Of mountains round about thee some rise higher, - Yet none of them, both near and far, thy peers; - And none of them are led to hate and ire; - I rather think they greet thee with good cheers; - Thy plaudits ring from a multitude of seers, - For thou dost serve for all as Nature’s shrine. - What cynic looks, and yields his pent-up whine? - At once he joins the throng which round thee flock; - No mountain, man or god could thee decline, - When they thy glory see, eternal Chimney Rock. - - I trust I know and love thy primal Sire, - But purer love and lore when twilight clears, - When men and I shall climb a nobler spire, - And all of hate and horror disappears, - With wail and woe of war and cruel spears; - When wolf and lamb shall side by side recline— - O, be it mine to stand secure, yes mine, - Without the thought of harm or deadly shock, - In that glad day and time, as ever thine, - When they thy glory see, eternal Chimney Rock. - - Envoy - - How humble the stream-fed valleys round thee twine; - How praiseful, too, as deep they interline - Thy mates so high, more constant than a clock— - On thee the very gods come down to dine, - When they thy glory see, eternal Chimney Rock! - -[17] In the mountains of North Carolina. - - -THE ELEPHANT DANCE - -[Illustration] - - While reaching for sixty I played a child’s game, - But I leaped to the front in the elephant dance. - From earliest years overlooked by Fame, - While reaching for sixty I played a child’s game. - Old dignified friends, who are more or less lame, - Think me monstrous and strange, in search of mischance— - While reaching for sixty I played a child’s game, - But I leaped to the front in the elephant dance. - - -LEAST YET GREATEST - - We long for thy kingdom, O little child, - Thy kingdom of trust with a reign so mild; - No soaring eagle e’er mounted such crest, - As thou, high enthroned on thy fond mother’s breast; - And, like the sweet song of some innocent bird - Thy cooing is Love reaching after a word. - - -OLD SHIP CHURCH - -[Illustration: Old Ship Church, (First Parish), Hingham, Mass., built -in 1681, said to be the oldest church in the United States, where -continuous services have been held.] - - Be mine thy throb of pulsing heart, Old Ship, - When sermon, song and prayer were wont to hold - And guide the fathers, pioneers of old; - The men who held the truth with steadfast grip— - - Thine own appeal to God from heart and lip, - Inspired by earnest men, who ne’er cajoled, - Who sang their hymns within that saintly fold, - With all their worship free from vulgar slip. - - Old Ship, the Church, that made the ship of State, - Who trained aright thy maidens and thy lads, - And lived thy simple life, all free from fads, - Thou madest America beloved and great. - Sail on, Old Ship, and sweep the farthest sea, - And save the souls of men eternally. - - -TO THE MEN OF THE PRESS - - Here’s to the fellows who scribble with pen, - A busy and buoyant bunch of expert men; - They tell what’s what, and what the thing is for, - From a woman’s hair pin to a world-wide war. - - -MOTHER INDEED - - What word among the sons of men - So uppermost as mother? - What soothing carol ever sung - So musical as mother? - What poem ever came from pen, - So comforting as mother? - What acme of our human tongue - So eloquent as mother? - - Answer, deed of fondest lover, - Answer, men of boasted creed; - Who or what may rise above her— - If she be a mother indeed? - - -NATHAN O’BERRY - - Give me the man that’s trustful and bright, - The man with a soul and a heart that’s right, - Who laughs at trouble and is always cheery; - And one such man is Nathan O’Berry. - - When friends come around, or gloomy or sad, - And another along both worried and mad, - Just watch those fellows, as all grow merry, - In company with brave Nathan O’Berry. - - When the stream gets high and a man must cross, - Yet he knows not how, without serious loss, - There’s one to be found with his good old ferry - To carry him over, ’tis Nathan O’Berry. - - He’s a man who gives for the love of giving; - ’Tis Heaven’s sweet way—high loving and living— - The man whose wife in her heart calls “deary”— - Ah, bless the Lord for Nathan O’Berry! - -[Illustration: Photo by T. P. Robinson, Orlando, Fla.] - - -THE BISHOP’S GARDEN - -(Based on what was seen around the home of Bishop Cameron Mann, -Orlando, Fla.) - - “Come into my garden,” said the Bishop unto me; - ’Tis the greatest little garden that ever you may see. - Behold a sturdy phalanx of the giant bamboo, - Which defends the garden’s side in valiant line and true, - And yonder bunch of bamboo is the prouder Japanese, - The equal in beauty of the trimmest of the trees. - - “My delight is in the palm, the pride of sunny tropics, - The tree in all Nature for the poet’s varied topics; - I here have them all but the gorgeous royal palm— - King Frost is oft unfriendly to his majesty’s balm. - - “And consider, if you please, that rare Australian Oak, - Standing there so lonely, like the greatest of the folk; - And the other generous fellow, the noble camphor tree, - Gives peace and health and hope to many a bird and me. - - “I am sure you must admire my good Banhania plant, - With all the grace and beauty which she doth ever grant; - She’s not unlike a mother who must protect her own; - Her buds she close infolds when dangers are fore-known. - - “My lovely Jacaranda changes Nature’s plan, - As the unlike woman, or like the wilful man, - The blossoms coming first, its verdant foliage last, - But its loveliness in May time will hold you firm and fast. - - “And see the running roses, hugging close my home; - They clasp my heart so sweetly that it never more may roam. - Burbank has none that’s better than my purest Cherokee, - With its dainty white so spotless, and his naive simplicity. - - “And here is the Phevitia, and there the Bottle Brush, - The Myrtle bloom so solemn, and now I can but blush— - The Holy Spirit’s plant, my very humblest flower, - That worships the gracious Father from his lowly bower. - - “Now take your fill of orange, of grape-fruit and of lime; - Your choice, sir, of the kumquat, or the loquart in its prime.” - “Oh, my good sir,” cried I, with gladdest heart and head, - “’Tis Heaven’s own ante-chamber, this brightest Bishop-stead.” - - -MY TRIOLET - - Because you like a triolet, - And joy of youth and love and life, - Ah sure, the child you’ll not forget - Because you like a triolet. - Then soon, ah soon, your wits you’ll whet, - And do your best to get a wife, - Because you like a triolet, - And joy of youth and love and life. - -[Illustration: Photo by the Author.] - - -YE BONNY BOYS - - Ye bonny boys, and fellows brave, - Who ever shun grim Death’s decoys, - And all the habits that enslave - Ye bonny boys. - - So play with duties as with toys, - The higher heights sincerely crave, - Conscious of being the King’s envoys. - - Yes, rise on care as cork on wave, - And climb and climb to nobler joys; - Yet richest heritage, what ye gave, - Ye bonny boys. - - -A BALLADE TO THE GIRLS - - Away with frowns—away with groans! - And give me the girls who are glad and free; - For the wails of woman, they weaken my bones, - And make of a man a quick refugee; - Or else he retorts with a sharp repartee. - And give me the smiles of joy and beauty, - The fellowship joined in a long jubilee— - Yes, the girls who live for love and duty. - - It costs but a little to make such loans, - And dunce is the man who dares disagree. - They’re better than riches and glittering thrones; - They’re better for all and better for thee. - Then scatter the smiles from sea to sea, - Less fleeting than fame and more than booty. - O give me the ones in perpetual glee, - Yes, the girls who live for love and duty. - - The wise man his frowns ever gladly postpones, - And gives of his strength to you and to me; - His sorrow and woe he forever disowns— - The mortal like him treads a Heaven-lit lea, - And the out-lying goal is pleasant to see. - The fellow that frowns is ugly and sooty; - Ah, save me from him, for the good guarantee, - Yes, the girls who live for love and duty. - - Envoy - - All praise to the girls who are busy as a bee, - But fie to the man who’s stoney and rooty; - And the fellow as well who’s too fond of his fee— - Yes, the girls who live for love and duty. - - -A MOUNTAIN TOP VIEW - - Escaping the town with its dust and din, - A wayfarer was asked to come within - A lovely home on a mountain height, - To rest awhile and be sated with sight - Of the beauties within and glories without, - That ever encircle far-famed Lookout. - - From city to summit the walk was far, - But gliding along in the trolley car, - Forsaking the valley and climbing the side, - The city was distanced in a two-fold stride; - Its smoke rolled beneath, its din died away, - With toilers’ tramp at the closing day. - -[Illustration: Part of Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain.] - - This home was “La Brisa;” for pure mountain air - Played around its sides and its frontage fair, - Uplifting yet higher the travel-worn guest, - As he feasted to the full, and enjoyed sweet rest; - While music came forth and fellowship flowed— - With lofty delights the company glowed. - - The low-lying city became all ablaze - With myriad lights and their countless rays, - The moon and the stars were reigning above, - While far-twinkling lights threw kisses of love - To wayfarer and friends, caught up between - The city of light and the heavens serene. - - Ah, ’tis mountain top views that enrich the dull earth, - Where high hopes and deeds have divinest birth; - Where Abram and Moses and prophets of old - The evil and good, yea the best foretold. - And men even now must mount the high hills - To inspire them beneath with conquering wills. - - Here the church up-rose and “the old ship of State,” - Here angels meet men that listen and wait; - The King from his throne will deign to come down - To acclaim his own, and with glory crown - The soul sincere, who cries from his heart - For some new song—some high born art. - - At last the dust and the din of earth’s way - Will shine in rapture of our toiling day; - The narrow path trod, the rugged way too, - Will glow with a beauty we never knew, - In the coming new Morn on the Mountain fair, - Translated with Christ in his glorified air. - - -ONE AGED JOHN SMITH AND HIS YOUTHFUL CONFESSIONS - - Your smiles and love you freely lend— - How old are you, my jolly friend? - “Just seventy-three; but pray don’t tell; - A widower I, out for a spell. - The pretty girls, I love them all; - They bounce my heart like a rubber ball; - One moment I rise and the next I fall— - I cannot help it.” - - “I loved my wife who’s dead and gone, - In the distant days my paragon— - She used to say, ‘O quit your looking,’ - But in spite of her, my neck kept crooking - Around to feast upon the lovely face, - The perfect figure full of grace— - It never seemed to me so base— - I told my wife, sir; - I couldn’t help it.” - - “If God himself told me to quit it, - I’d say, O slay me! or else permit it. - The smiling face, the enchanting eye, - The rosy cheek of the maiden shy— - They grip me, sir, with hooks of steel; - My eyes run fast; my brain will reel, - And my heart will feel— - Frankly, sir, I cannot help it.” - - “’Tis true, my teeth went long ago; - Now painless ones I have, you know. - Yet I visit oft in my tar-heel town - A store and a girl in a showy gown, - To buy her gum and soothing smile; - You scarce believe me, it’s many a mile - I thus have trod with loving guile— - And one day laughing my teeth fell down, - In her presence, sir, - I could not help it.” - - “That winsome girl who serves our table— - I vow that I am quite unable - To keep my eyes from following her, - As tail doth horse, ’neath whip and spur; - I’m honest sir; - I cannot help it. - - “My little dog—he’s just a fice— - Returns my love, his paradise. - I brought him down to Florida; - But the finest dog in all America - Can’t take the place of a girl so sweet— - From crown to sole of her dainty feet, - My love’s complete— - And, it’s all the truth, sir, - I cannot help it.” - - “Just seventy-three— - ’Tis plenty for me, - I wish it were less, - But nevertheless this girl of eighteen - Could rule me as queen; - And have all I possess, - For her sweetest caress— - Sir, by the Lord and His goodness, - I cannot help it!” - - -AN ODE ON WOODROW WILSON AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS - -I. - - In all the cycles past the good and wise - Have dreamed of Wisdom’s way; - The prophets’ eyes - Could see, and they foretold the day, - The glory of the coming paradise; - And higher far than lofty prophets bold, - In every stage - Of human rage, - The God of hosts hath willed his vast, united fold. - -[Illustration: - - Congressman Upshaw, after a personal appeal to Mr. - Wilson on February 17, 1923, wired the author: - “Hard to overcome fixed rule of former President,” - in refusing his photograph and autograph for - publication; but we have the pleasure of presenting - both to his friends. -] - -II. - - And poets great have felt the need, - As plain they saw the greed - Of men and nations waging war, - They knew not why, yet brothers all. - Their voice is heard from heights afar; - They tell us why the peoples rise and fall; - They sang and on the hill tops wrought, - While dupe and knave went down; - They knew the last of Folly’s battles would be fought. - -III. - - Obstructionists abide, alas in State, - The demagogue and fool, - The dullard in his school, - Who far behind the generation plods, - Yet at God’s leader casts rough stones and clods— - Wise men foresee their fate. - Without insight they still refuse to follow - The men inspired, high Heaven’s men; - Preferring far their narrow ken, - To vaunt themselves, though cause of fearful sorrow. - The while the great move on - In God’s high road, - With heavy load; - Becoming weary and living lone, - Oft forced to suffer and to moan— - At last to die! - But Heaven clears away the cloud from the martyr’s sky. - -IV. - - The race of men is a long and wondrous evolution; - The patient soul who kens, and God’s great goal, - Is benefactor best, the man of resolution - To mark and void each shoal, - Like pilots good of worthy ships, - Whose eyes are used far more than lips. - He counter vessels must prevent, - And every vexing accident, - By night and day upon the deep. - Men’s revolutions, small or great, and why, - The leader must discern and know, - And records old, aye currents vital passing by, - To make them rightly flow. - And never was the pregnant day, nor hour, - When one of such transcendent power - Was needed by the race, - With more than human grace. - Let men in church and state be confident, - He was the man of men pre-eminent. - -V. - - The future holds for him the fullest meed, - For best of deeds before he fell a prey, - The patient man, still prophet of the perfect day, - When none shall be a slave; - And none in need. - American, - And cosmopolitan, - He made and mounted the on-sweeping wave. - No ruler with so good and vast a scheme; - In labors so engrossed for noblest creed— - A wide and warring world to win and save, - Fulfillment of the greatest dream, - To give the nations peace and prosperity supreme. - - -ANOTHER BIRTHDAY - - One birthday more has rolled around, - But still my heart is in its youth; - Though sixty fleeting years I’ve found, - One birthday more has rolled around; - Yet not my body underground. - The song is best when sung in truth: - One birthday more has rolled around, - But still my heart is in its youth. - - -OH BABY MINE - - My baby, Oh my laughing, baby child, - What God-like joy you give! - Since I received you, how He has smil’d - And made me love and live, - Oh baby mine! - -[Illustration: Snap shot by the Author.] - - Some sorrow I have had, some deep delight, - And much the even way; - Some views attract of vale and mountain height, - But naught like you, each day, - Oh baby mine! - - Oh baby mine, O sweetest baby mine, - What angel makes you laugh? - What silent tempter makes you cry and whine? - But more of wheat than chaff, - Oh baby mine! - - Your coming days are all unknown to me, - Your pitfall, or your pest; - But God is good; I trust and pray that He - May hold you to His breast, - Oh baby mine! - - -THE SNAKE THAT’S KING - - The snake that’s king deserves his crown, - Above his kind in wood and town; - For man was ne’er bit by the king, - Though snake-fond ones to him will cling; - But I prefer no such renown. - - With boys I frolic up and down, - The playful kids who never frown; - And small respect at times I fling - The snake—that’s king. - - O Muse, tell me the oldest clown; - Why fickle Eve preferred no gown; - And why she ceased at once to sing, - And deigned within her heart to bring - _The Snake that’s king_? - -[Illustration: Picture of a King Snake nearly five feet long, -swallowing a somewhat shorter Rattler, after a struggle which lasted -for two hours. - -Photograph by Mr. Alfred Austell near Atlanta, Ga.] - - -THE HEART OF FRANCE - - O France, beloved; fickle, fearless France! - What heights are thine and what unfathomed depths, - From Roman old and Jupiter the great, - To Notre Dame and her eternal day. - Thy famous little “Ile de la cité,” - Birth place of Paris and a state renowned, - And buoyant bosom of thy ceaseless Seine - Were wronged by Vandal and the vicious Gaul, - Coveted long by kings, and last by cunning Kaiser. - Within, around thy growing heart, now gay, - Now sad, now brave and true, now sick and vile, - Epitome of man and race of men, - Foretaste of Heaven and prelude to Hell— - Thy lovers, far and near, have felt and fought, - O France, for thee, and for thy perfect day. - -[Illustration: NOTRE DAME.] - - Thy Notre Dame of yore and now—behold - What records writ, and deeds unwritten more! - Begun as shrine to gods unknown, but feared, - Again the seat of power of the saints; - Both natal place and tomb of King and priest; - Dream attained of artist pioneer; - And pomp and rites as varied as striking grand, - Which brought the fathers from Jerusalem, - The Romish pope to altars, solemn, high; - When prayer, and priestly pride through chapels rang - With song of marching choir, from narthex bold, - And transept, double bay and nave and vault, - To over-topping spire, ambitious, firm— - What wondrous song from such exalted throng! - - And laughing devils, perched on airy stage; - Stryge, with arms on parapet for ease; - Grim face upheld by hands of demon long, - Tongue out, and worn with everlasting sneer; - And leering ape, and nameless creatures; beasts - Obscene; and unclean birds of prey around, - Above thy true yet hybrid art; a cow, - Half woman, arms of her in comfort crossed, - With evil eye beholds the temples ’neath - St. Etienne, St. Jacque, and St. Denis, - The “Hotel Dieu,” Justice Palace, Law! - See hungry ghouls, and vampires, never sated, - Fiends eyeing Paris, gibing, mocking all; - And cat alive and wild, like devil dead - Revived, hath climbed on precipice of stone, - Creeping, howling, groaning, pained much; - Then plunging far, as if pursued by ghost. - And stories of the garden, curdling blood, - Of lunatic and felon’s leap to death— - The whole a hell around fair Notre Dame, - Her place and portion, part of thine, O France! - - Alas, our boys—let angels weep—our sons - Who went to aid of thee, pure as the Virgin - Mary some, our soldier sons in air, - On earth, and underneath were tempted, caught - By countess cunning, rich but fallen far; - Entrapped, diseased by women, living hells, - That move and search and laugh and win and damn! - Indecencies of men—God save the race, - That human virtue may not die at last! - - O France, all this is not thy nobler heart, - What love and honor thou hast ever shown; - What triumph for thyself, for us and all! - Thy virtue dieth not, nor truth, nor those - Inspired of Heaven through the ages past, - The now and evermore; these lofty hosts - And we, who love aright, will see thy soul, - All torn by vice and mocking devils, whole; - Triumphant over foes without, within. - - Thy Notre Dame, thy little hells, O France; - The good and evil, working both—but God! - - -THE RED MAPLE - - A master artist in the sun-kissed leaves - Of a scarlet maple loved by me for years, - First paints a verdant robe until appears - The autumn time, then marvel great conceives. - Through darkest night, high noon, and splendent eves - His wondrous work goes on, unknown to fears, - Although my maple has her unshed tears, - Until her greatest glory he achieves. - - Then yields she all her riches quite content; - For man and bird and beast her life is spent; - In turn to every tree hath prophesied, - To mortal man hath plainly said, “The best - Waits him who gives his all, then goes to rest; - Thus life and even death are glorified.” - - -A SONNET TO MRS. O. C. BULLOCK - - Again rare riches thou hast gently shown, - And I drink sweetness from thy royal heart. - Again I rise and claim the nobler part, - And bless the friendship in thee made known. - Full forty years, in public or alone, - I’ve studied men, high heaven’s sovereign art - And thee—thy virtue’s smiles, and whence they start, - Adoring Truth’s sweet balm, which is thine own. - - Let turmoils come and go; let fools foment - Disaster dire, till many shall lament - Their natal hour, their present lot and all. - Thy friendship true, which grows from bud to bloom - And fruit eternal, dissipates all gloom— - Again I’ve entered love’s pure banquet hall. - - -THE STRIKERS - - The strikers call for more and more; - For they sail a sea without a shore; - Ah, yes, they’ll strike forever more! - - Let merit go, it were a sin - For any plan but a strike to win; - And hence they strike forever more! - - No brother they to the monied man; - The law of love—“Oh damn the plan! - We’ll vote to strike forever more!” - The public is pleased; ’tis a joy each day - To the folks at home, without a way; - So why not strike forever more? - - For coal and food, let a nation suffer; - Let good and bad be made a buffer— - Yes, plan to strike forever more. - - Our hard-fought war with the hot-headed-Hun - Was children’s play compared to the fun - That strikes produce forever more. - - Their wives and children mustn’t whine - Without their part, ’tis ever so fine, - The strikers’ way forever more. - - Alas, the blind, who makes the broom - Has threatened quits till crack of doom— - Unless he gets a plenty and more. - - And teacher too who trains the child - Is asked to join the force that’s wild, - And close the school forever more! - - Let wisdom go—’tis a by-gone game; - The striker’s god must win his fame— - Ah, strike and strike forever more. - - * * * * * - - “Come now,” says God, “and let us reason, - In every way, in every season, - _Bar strikes of force forever more_.” - - -NOVEMBER’S GLOOM - - With chill November mist in darkened air, - With hearts of men imbued with doubt and gloom; - And in the wide, wide world no couch, no room; - No rest for weary feet; with friends unfair, - Or cannot understand, nor yet can bear - To bring one bud of friendship’s failing bloom; - Affection gone that once hailed bride and groom— - Ah then, ’tis triumph true, or death’s despair. - - And yet November’s night of gloom and grief - Hath unseen power to bring sweet trust, - If men but turn their minds of unbelief - To One whose name is Love, whose ways are just; - Then be the battle sharp and long, or brief, - The soul is safe, that sings, “_I can and must_.” - - -JAMES MITCHEL ROGERS - - While face to face with him I plainly feel - A something in my heart and open mind - That prompts an eager search, perchance to find - The unknown source of such a strong appeal. - A rip’ning fruit, I ask, of earth’s ideal? - Or full blown rose, to all its beauty blind? - Or tree of life within the mad mart’s grind— - Oh what o’er me in power doth sweetly steal? - - In truth his inmost soul is full of light, - A shining constant from afar, yet bright, - An humble, potent life not his nor man’s, - Increasing gently through his crowning years, - And freeing him from all the sinner’s fears— - Ah yes, he’s one of God’s unthwarted plans. - - -ERWIN HOLT - - In life’s highway I meet all sorts of men, - The loud-mouthed man or human thunderbolt; - Then smiles on me a man of head and heart, - A gentle, noble soul like Erwin Holt. - - Another man is ever in a rut, - To self and all a weary, lifeless dolt; - Like showers then to thirsty famished earth - Are spirit life and deeds of Erwin Holt. - - Still other men are working hard for pelf, - And passing give your peaceful heart a jolt; - What joy to turn away from men like these, - And feel the healing balm of Erwin Holt. - - Oh for more men who’re full of highest life, - Who ’gainst all vileness join in strong revolt, - With mind to think and hand to ever bless - Their fellowmen like happy Erwin Holt. - - -JUST AN INTRODUCTION - - Allow me please, to present to you - A queenly girl and a cockatoo— - Sweet Agnes she, and her name means “chase,” - And the bird, in truth, has native grace. - - When captured by their mystic spell, - Which charms me most I cannot tell; - For beauty and goodness at heart are one— - All hail to “Billy” and Miss Cameron! - -[Illustration: Photo by the Author.] - -[Illustration: JUDGE FRANKLIN CHASE HOYT, Presiding Over the Children’s -Court, New York City.] - - -JUDGE FRANKLIN CHASE HOYT - - In cause and city great, a jurist great, - For every mother’s child a kindly heart; - Stern Justice he would join to Mercy’s art, - For sire and son, a vision high create; - For all the hopeless ones the path elate. - Ah, future generations will he start, - Through children now, to choose the better part, - And trustful follow Him immaculate. - - Hark ye, to Christ’s own playful lambs astray, - Who reach the desert place and jungle deep; - From city slum, and far off mountain steep, - They call and plead for everlasting day— - Not bitter night, but some untrodden way, - No matter how they play, nor wide their sweep. - - -A LITTLE INDEX OF THE COMING DAY - - The loveliest sight on the coast I saw, - Was little Ann Gray with her pet macaw, - A trustful bird in the hands of Ann, - But woe to the stranger, or hostile man. - - Though upside down, ’twas the very thing, - When under the rule of his lover’s wing; - Some stunts to do, that he’d never tried, - But that’s all right, when his friend is guide. - -[Illustration: Snapped by the Author at the Home of Paul R. Gray on -Belle Isle, Miami, Fla., March 17, 1920.] - - So every creature, bird and beast, - From animal great to the very least, - Will some day see with different eyes, - When men grow kind and good and wise. - - The lion fierce shall fondle the lamb, - When men shall follow the great I Am, - And wolf shall play with the sportive kid, - When earth of hate and murder is rid— - When the great and small shall learn to be mild, - In the kingdom of Christ and a little child. - - -THE WINGED TOURISTS - - It is time to be revived, - And the tourists have arrived, - The Robins from the land of snow and ice, - By the score and by the hundred; - So many that I’ve wondered - Where plenteous food could be, and paradise. - - But listen to their cheering, - For there’s no profiteering, - In mulberry and stately cabbage palm; - Instead the trees would say: - “We’re ready for this day, - And welcome birds and people to our balm. - - “We’ve endured the blazing sun, - Through the summer for the fun - Of freest song and abundant feasting fine; - While you yourselves employ, - In song and sumptuous joy, - Remember we are drinking Heaven’s wine. - - “’Tis better far to live, - That we may freely give— - Far better and more God-like in us all. - See Black-birds fly around, - Alighting on the ground, - While the Mocking-birds’ hosannahs loudly call. - - “And yonder in the waters free, - Blue Herons and white Egrets see; - Thus far have they escaped the tyrant, Pride. - The Ducks are diving for their food, - And, hit or miss, they still are good— - In all no groom unfriendly to his bride! - - “The Cardinal and Wren, - From farthest hill and glen, - Have joined the busy Downy in a tree; - While other birds delight - In song from morn till night— - Come, sing aloud and join our jubilee!” - - -HOW MY EASTER DAWNED - - In a pullman smoker the tourists sat, - All reading the news of the day, - When suddenly started a lively chat - On the League and the Wilson way. - - The travellers argued with their _pro_ and _con_; - And loudly and fiercely they swore; - While some of them tired, and others looked wan, - And I was silent and sore. - - For the Easter season was drawing nigh, - And I was perusing “Life;” - My soul was nursing an inward cry; - And I hated the oaths and strife— - - The war of words on the blessing of peace, - And taking God’s name in vain; - From the turmoil I craved a quick release, - From the hellish noise on the train; - - When suddenly came two lovely tots, - With the father a-near their side; - Then lo, there ceased the fiery shots; - The children had turned the tide. - - Like a sun-burst bright on a stormy morn, - Like flowers in the valley of death, - The children advanced, and joy was born, - With the sweetness of Heaven’s breath. - - They turned and climbed to the lower berth, - Just over the passage from mine; - And there my ears caught the wisdom of earth, - And the faith from Jehovah’s shrine: - - “_Now I lay me down to sleep;_ - _I pray the Lord my soul to keep._” - -[Illustration: The Tots that Turned the Tide. Photo by the Author.] - - My mind went back to my earliest days, - At the side of my mother’s knee; - My hungry soul sang a fervent praise, - And my heart was happy and free. - - I dreamed of the damnable wars of men, - Of the havoc that Death has made; - Of a Prince who died and arose again, - With power each grave to invade. - - And dreaming I caught a holier note, - No melody born of the sod; - And I blest the old saint who heard and wrote, - “Of such is the kingdom of God.” - - And children I heard, around the throne, - Formed a vast and caroling throng, - With the glorious Prince still leading his own, - All singing their Easter song. - - -HELEN KELLER - - In darkness deep by day and night, - A fettered child without a ray— - No word of speech, no sound, no sight - To lift a soul to Heaven’s day. - But Patience came in Love’s sweet way, - And smiled and wept and wept and smiled, - With failure oft, yet would essay - To lighten the mind of a captive child. - - What mortal e’er in such a plight? - What twain beset with such dismay, - As guide and child in the long drawn fight - To lift a soul to Heaven’s day? - No victor great, no ruler’s sway, - Reveals such triumph, pure and mild; - No leader nobler zeal portray, - To lighten the mind of a captive child. - - And darkness gross and many a blight - Leave other children far astray; - And they call loud for some brave knight - To lift a soul to Heaven’s day. - Then who the priceless pearl will pay, - To lift a soul so dark and wild, - From the deepest pit, as a piece of clay— - To lighten the mind of a captive child? - - Envoy - - ’Tis faith and work, with hope’s delay, - To lift a soul to Heaven’s day, - From Night’s dim depths, by love beguiled, - To lighten the mind of a captive child. - - -MARY GRAY - - Here’s to each Mary from first to last; - To Virgin holy, heaven’s primal queen, - And deepest penitent, the Magdalene; - Hail Marys many through the long, long past, - From proudest princess down to poor outcast. - A myriad of them I’ve heard and seen, - Some strong, some weak and few of sober mien; - How varied they, and fervent hopes how vast! - - At length the Mary comes, delighting me best; - Her head’s safe-guarded by the purest heart, - Enriching childhood’s state with princely zest; - To work devoted, and would ever display - Rule over Mammon for the noblest art— - All honor and long life to Mary Gray! - - -THE DANCING TASSEL - - The female preacher both smiled and exhorted, - While around her fair cheek and back to her ear, - Her long, gay tassel danced and cavorted, - And the more men looked the less they could hear, - For lo, the dancing tassel. - - And the wonderful thing, ’twas a Quaker tassel, - On a Quaker hat, on a _Friend’s_ high head, - Who in pulpit reigned like a queen in a castle, - While the souls of men just longed to be fed— - But there, that dancing tassel. - - As her nose went up the tassel went down; - While ever it flirted, and ever it played - Its prominent part as one with a crown— - In the audience many who might have prayed; - But ho! that dancing tassel. - - Her kid-gloved-hand was constant in motion, - And busy my mind to follow all three, - The tassel, the glove, and the word of devotion; - But most active of all in this trinity, - That ever-dancing tassel. - - I suppose I should be so pious and good, - As to shut my eyes fast to any dancing thing, - And be anywhere in a heavenly mood, - But somehow my soul kept up the swing - Of that flouncing, dancing tassel. - - -WALTER MALONE - -[Illustration: WALTER MALONE. Poet, Jurist and Philosopher.] - - The dreaming lad saw life as intricate, - And learned to solve and sing in buoyant youth; - For fallen ones, was filled with tender ruth, - For all he pondered deeply, soon and late; - A gentle friend and wise, fraternal mate, - Who darkness saw where light should be and truth, - Despite the ways of thief, and heartless sleuth— - A prophet bold to plan and then create. - - Immortal bard, far seeing, earnest man, - Who knew the height and depth of Heaven’s plan, - To turn our feeble wail to sweetest tone— - Thy “Opportunity”[18] thou didst employ - To animate and lead with rhythmic joy, - Thy friends and fellows up to Heaven’s throne. - -[18] The title of his most famous poem. - - -THE DUTIFUL FLOWER - - Bright morning glory, - In brief you tell, - With magic spell, - A wondrous, mystic story - Of life and beauty. - May I please God so well, - Inspiring in the sons of men delight and duty. - - -MY HOLIDAY - - (Inscribed to C. L. Anderson, H. C. Bagley, S. R. Belk, - J. N. McEachern and A. R. Holderby.) - - The month of May for a holiday— - Now what do you think of that? - With Nature to stay for her matinee— - Up high I’ll throw my hat. - - “Quite sick,” they say, in the month of May; - And the doctors all stood pat; - Yes, truly astray, unfit for the fray; - Indeed I had fallen flat, - - Till the month of May, my holiday, - Near Nature’s heart whereat - I’ll doff decay, with all dismay, - And with her grow strong and fat. - - The month of May for peace and play, - When the birds so fondly chat; - When the old and gray must Life obey, - Like a full fledged bouncing brat. - - All hail to May and to friends for aye! - The friends who in council sat, - And said, “We pray, take the month of May, - And live in a beautiful plat.” - - Hooray, hooray, for my holiday! - I’ll be a master at the bat; - Without delay I’ll mount my way, - As high as Ararat. - - -THE AEOLIAN HARP - - What mysterious music is that? - Whence these softest melodies, soothing my inmost soul? - What symphony orchestra over the hills - Sends me its sweetest strains, - These chords of subdued sorrow mingled with joy of gentleness? - Or what angel deigns to float down to me - Such mild, musical waves, - Which captivate yet elude? - What or who and where? - The richest radio this, and the first, of the ascending years? - I ask myself, being alone, and I seek to answer. - I listen still. - My awakened soul is rising; - I look around, all around. - I continue to think, and very gently Truth appears. - What? - Yes, the winds, the winged winds, have joyfully yielded - To the goddess Harmony, - And together they are producing this matchless marvel. - My soul is at peace, yet longs for more, - More of such wooing of the eternally tender goddess, - Brought to me, with approval of Aeolius. - - -THE GOD-MAN AND MYSELF - - I answered truly with both heart and head, - “Not guilty” of the things _they_ said, - My plotting foes, with envy’s cruel rod; - Yet frailties mine oppressively controlled, - And perilous waves o’er me were rolled, - When lo! a symbol of the meek but mighty God. - Again I saw and loved the sinner’s Friend, - From first missteps to abysmal depths of his darkest end— - A friend to even me, a crushed clod. - - But how, O Jesus, how - Can a stainless one, the such as thou, - Again receive a sinner like myself? - With weakened faith in thee, with pride and pelf - I went my way, - And leaned for stay - On feigned things that fell; - And down I dropped to hell, - A bitter burning hell, - A hell of fire, consuming fire within, - In a mind and heart of sin— - A fire which broke out all around, - Because the flame in me was found— - For in the human heart doth heaven and hell begin. - - But I willed, not in such a state to dwell, - If, O Christ, I may return, - And once more learn - The power of thy love and grace. - While I may not behold the glory of thy face, - I only ask to see and to adore, - As many a penitent and I afore, - The prints of spear and nail which with utmost woe were driven, - Till thy life and all thy matchless wealth were given - For captive and vexed sinners like to me, - To set them free, - In hope of peace and heaven. - - Since that awful day the changing seasons have faster flown, - And what must I to men make known? - After the passing of two thousand years - Of man’s bravest fights, greatest victories and fears, - With ofttimes self-imposed torment and tears, - Thy transcendent heights for me are more increased— - Thou savest me, the very least. - - Thou ancient and invisible I Am - Art one with Heaven’s youthful, adorable Lamb, - For looking by faith behind the veil I see - The cross still piercing through thy very heart, - Thy great salvation to impart; - And herein I’ll glory eternally. - Accept my life and this my final, whole-hearted word, - O ever living, ever loving, most glorious Lord. - - -DEATH’S DOOM - - Thou hast no sting, - Terror none, - O doomed Death; - My whole duty done, - I shall welcome thee. - - To the vigilant and victorious, - Thou bringest the better, - Quite unwittingly, - The higher, and yet - The highest. - - Thou art the open gate - To Life, - Thou rapacious mocker, - Thy dark, grim visage - Is transformed into a beacon of light, - Balmy, buoyant, beautiful. - - A new glory has the sun - At his setting, - Giving yet greater beauty to his resplendent light, - For myriads of admiring men, - For sated beasts and singing birds at eventide. - Life-kisses are cast upward - To receiving and ever grateful stars and starlets, - Beneficiaries afar, - In their cosmic course. - All these and more perpetually pass on, - In holy and soft-toned harmonies, - The life-filled fruitage of conquered Death. - - Angels, beyond thy touch, - Sing and dance, - On their winged way, - As ministers of Jehovah, - Bringing to the so-called dead - A chalice of new life. - - And perfected souls and saints, - Giving forth with joy their divinest ministrations, - Are co-workers with the Highest, - For the varied glory and ever increasing fullness - Of eternal life. - - Thou art a misnomer, - O arch Deceiver! - The last lie thou art, - To be bravely faced, denied, disproved. - The serene, - The trustful, - The Christ ones, - Planting their feet - Upon thy bosom, - All shadowy and unreal, - Will proclaim - The paeans of life, - Their holiest halleluiahs. - Hence—my duty done— - O darkest Death, - Come thou for me. - - Oft have I banished thee, - Having come unawares; - Thou didst flee, - Thou cunning coward, - To come again, - Noiselessly by night; - For somber Night is thy craven consort, - As unreal as thyself, - As non-existent— - Driven easily away, - By thy King’s coming. - - The foulest negation thou, - Of all the ages, - Yet universal. - Life’s cessation? - Life’s full possession! - - Both false and elusive, - Thou art unknown, - To shallow souls, - And unknowable; - Dreadful, powerful - Till met and vanquished whole; - When lo! - Life, the Prince of Life, - Holds me fast for aye, - And Death is no more— - For me, no more. - - - - -THE DYING YEAR - - (Written the last of 1922, a dark day with continuous - rain, and published in the Atlanta Constitution, - January 1st, a day of sunshine and life.) - - “My time is up,” bemoaned the dying year, - And Nature wept and freely spread her gloom; - “My record past, and I must now make room - For buoyant youth, another still more dear. - Some comfort mine that weep my friends sincere, - Thus easier I may pass into my tomb; - But joyful more to speak a nobler boon - For those who hope and trust and persevere.” - - And all shall heed the inevitable call, - From fragrant rose to chieftain strong shall fall; - The greater they the more widespread the grief - Of living men, the people great and small, - But list, ye weeping ones—O sweet relief— - It’s Heaven’s plan, through death to Life for all! - -[Illustration] - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEAR NATURE'S HEART; A VOLUME -OF VERSE *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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- color: black; - font-size:smaller; - padding:0.5em; - margin-bottom:5em; - font-family:sans-serif, serif; } - -.ws2 {display: inline; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 2em;} - - </style> - </head> -<body> -<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Near Nature's Heart; A Volume of Verse, by Crawford Jackson</div> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -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="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<div style='display:table; margin-bottom:1em;'> - <div style='display:table-row'> - <div style='display:table-cell; padding-right:0.5em'>Title:</div> - <div style='display:table-cell'>Near Nature's Heart; A Volume of Verse</div> - </div> -</div> -<div style='display:table; margin-bottom:1em;'> -<div style='display:table-row'> - <div style='display:table-cell; padding-right:0.5em'>Author:</div> - <div style='display:table-cell'>Crawford Jackson</div> -</div> -</div> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: June 8, 2021 [eBook #65571]</div> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> -<div style='display:table; margin-bottom:1em;'> - <div style='display:table-row'> - <div style='display:table-cell; padding-right:0.5em; white-space:nowrap;'>Produced by:</div> - <div style='display:table-cell'>Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)</div> - </div> -</div> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEAR NATURE'S HEART; A VOLUME OF VERSE ***</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="FRONTIS" src="images/frontis.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="494" /> - <p class="f120">THE AUTHOR IN HIS RETREAT.</p> - <p class="blockquot2 center">Note the string connecting with the camera outside, - which captures the birds and little animals on their well-filled table.<br /> - (See pages 22 and 23.)</p> -</div> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h1>NEAR NATURE’S HEART</h1> -<p class="f150">A VOLUME OF VERSE</p> - -<p class="center space-above2 space-below2"><small>BY</small><br /><big>CRAWFORD JACKSON</big></p> - -<p class="center">ATLANTA, GA.<br />and<br />GUILFORD, N. C.</p> - -<p class="center space-above2 space-below2">FOOTE & DAVIES COMPANY, PRINTERS, ATLANTA<br /> -GULBENK ENGRAVING COMPANY, ENGRAVERS, ATLANTA</p> - -<p class="center space-above2 space-below2">COPYRIGHT 1923<br />BY<br /> -CRAWFORD JACKSON<br />(ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)</p> -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="f120">DEDICATED<br />TO<br />EVERY CHILD</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent2">“Philosophy, to an attentive ear,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Clearly points out, not in one part alone,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">How Imitative Nature takes her course</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From the celestial mind, and from its art;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And when her laws the Stagirite<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> unfolds,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Not many leaves scann’d o’er, observing well</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou shalt discover, that thy art on her</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Obsequious follows, as the learner treads</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In his instructor’s steps; so that your art</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Deserves the name of second in descent</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From God.”</div> - <div class="verse indent22"><span class="smcap">Dante Alighieri.</span></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<div class="chapter"> - <h2 class="nobreak">FOREWORD</h2> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p>The great artist is one whose whole body becomes a living soul; -whose eye gets glimpses into the heart of Nature, with visions of -the Supernatural; whose ear hears their inner music, and whose hand -produces ecstatic expression of their central force in some revelation -of Beauty. And to make his art more real, more nearly perfect, Beauty -more beautiful, such artist by contrast often depicts or suggests the -deadly but doomed discords of life.</p> - -<p>Any inspiring touch I have with Nature makes me less than half content -with the best I can say of her. Beyond my increasing love for the rich, -old Mother—yet eternally young and myriad formed—I am deeply indebted -to F. Schuyler Mathews and his charming “Field Book of Wild Birds and -Their Music,” especially in suggestions and some illustrations for the -“Birds’ Orchestra.” Other acknowledgements are made elsewhere in this -little volume of verse, which chances to be my first, and therefore -subject to the severer criticism.</p> - -<p class="author">C. J.</p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<div class="chapter"> - <h2 class="nobreak">CONTENTS.</h2> -</div> - -<table border="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents" cellpadding="2" > - <tbody><tr> - <td class="tdr" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Page</span></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Birds’ Orchestra</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_7"> 7</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">My Prayer To Truth</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#PRAYER">14</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">A Scene in Washington, N. C.</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Little Naples by the Sea</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Family of My Friend Jones</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#FAMILY">17</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The King’s Marriage</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Hermit Thrush</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#HERMIT_THRUSH">19</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">My Retreat</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Mocking-Bird</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#MOCK_BIRD">24</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Jay and I—A Dialogue</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Nature’s Heart</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#NATURES_HEART">27</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">A Nigger and a Mule</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#AND_MULE">28</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Virginia’s Natural Bridge</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Might of Matutinal Music</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#MUSIC">30</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">A Perpetual King</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#PERPETUAL">31</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Cotton Gin</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Cotton Mill</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#MILL">32</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">My Own Little Girl</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#OWN_GIRL">32</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">My Butterfly</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#MY_BUTTERFLY">33</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Was That Somebody I?</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">My Sabbath Sermon</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Pilot Mountain</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_36">36</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Her Prison Life</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#PRISON_LIFE">37</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Aurelius Augustinus</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">O, That Income Tax!</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#INCOME_TAX">40</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">In Florida</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#FLORIDA">41</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Two Little Orphans</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#TWO_ORPHANS">42</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Trouble and Play</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Some Small Surprises</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#SURPRISES">43</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Rhythm Universal</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#UNIVERSAL">44</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Stone Crosses and the Fairies</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#FAIRIES">45</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Sun Flower</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#SUN_FLOWER">46</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Colonel Diamond and Grand-daughter</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Wild Wood</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Beginning of Things</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The End of Things</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#END_THINGS">49</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">When the Junco Comes</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#JUNCO">50</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">James Bradley Jackson</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#J_B_JACKSON">51</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">A Story of Colonial Times</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#COLONIAL">53</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">“Come on wid yer Money fur Me”</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#MONEY">55</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Good Out of Evil</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#GOOD_EVIL">56</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Christmas</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Mrs. Josephine F. Hamill</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">A Chick’s Cry</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Kid and the Cop</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#KID_COP">59</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Over Favored and The Chanceless Child</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_61">61</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Slanderer</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#SLANDERER">61</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The World’s Greatest Egotist</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#EGOTIST">62</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Little River Royal</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Give Me Both</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#GIVE_BOTH">64</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Manifold Beauty and the Man</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#MANIFOLD">64</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Chimney Rock</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Elephant Dance</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Least Yet Greatest</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#YET_GREAT">67</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Old Ship Church</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#SHIP_CHURCH">67</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">A Little Toast to the Men of the Press</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#PRESS">68</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Mother Indeed</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#MOTHER">68</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Nathan O’Berry</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#N_OBERRY">68</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Bishop’s Garden</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#BISHOP_GARDEN">69</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">My Triolet</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#MY_TRIO">70</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Ye Bonny Boys</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">A Ballade to the Girls</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#TO_GIRLS">71</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">A Mountain Top View</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">One Aged John Smith and His Youthful Confessions </td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#JOHN_SMITH">73</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Ode on Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#WOODROW">74</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Another Birthday</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#BIRTHDAY">77</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Oh, Baby Mine</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#BABY_MINE">77</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Snake That’s King</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#SNAKE_KING">78</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Heart of France</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Red Maple</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">A Sonnet to Mrs. O. C. Bullock</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#BULLOCK">81</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Strikers</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#STRIKERS">81</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">November Gloom</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#NOVEMBER">82</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">James Mitchell Rogers</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Erwin Holt</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#ERWIN_HOLT">83</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Just an Introduction</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#JUST_INTRO">83</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Judge Franklin Chase Hoyt</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">A Little Index of the Coming Day</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_85">85</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Winged Tourists</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">How My Easter Dawned</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#EASTER">86</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Helen Keller</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_88">88</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Dancing Tassel</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Walter Malone</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#WALTER">91</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Dutiful Flower</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_92">92</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">My Holiday</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#HOLIDAY">92</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Aeolian Harp</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#AEOLIAN">92</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The God-Man and Myself</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#GOD_MAN">93</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Death’s Doom</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#DOOM">94</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Dying Year</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#DYING">96</a></td> - </tr> - </tbody> -</table> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<div class="chapter"> - <h2 class="nobreak">ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> -</div> - -<table border="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Illustrations" cellpadding="2" > - <tbody><tr> - <td class="tdr" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Page</span></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Author in his Retreat</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#FRONTIS"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Bob-White in Colors</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#BOB-WHITE"> 6</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Cat Bird</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#CAT-BIRD"> 7</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Young Screech Owl</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#SCREECH-OWL"> 8</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Humming Bird</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#HUMMER"> 8</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">White Throated Sparrows</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#SPARROWS"> 9</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Blue-Bird and Family</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#BLUEBIRD">10</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Young Male Cardinal</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#CARDINAL">11</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Thrasher’s Admiration</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#THRASHER">12</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Cardinal in Colors</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#CARDINAL2">12</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">A Scene in Washington, N. C.</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#GOATS">16</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Baby Ambitious to Rise</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#BABY">18</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Veery Celebrating the King’s Marriage</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#VEERY">19</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Hermit Thrush in Colors</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#HERMIT">21</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Dove and Bluebirds, Swan, Zebra and Colt,</td> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="ws2">Macaw, Chipmunk, Young Pet Thrasher</span></td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#TURTLEDOVE">22</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Author’s Retreat in the Wild Wood</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#RETREAT">23</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Young Green Heron</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#HERON">23</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Mocking-Bird in Colors</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#MOCKINGBIRD">25</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Jay Bird and I</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#JAY">26</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">A Nigger and a Mule</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#MULE">29</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Virginia’s Natural Bridge</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#BRIDGE">30</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">A Perpetual King, Cotton Gin, A Cotton Mill</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#COTTON">31</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">My Own Little Girl</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#ARTENA">33</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">My Butterfly</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#BUTTERFLY">33</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">A Babe, Later an Imprisoned Boy</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#SOMEBODY">34</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Feeding Young Mocking-Bird</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#SABBATH">35</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Big Pinnacle on Pilot Mountain</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#PILOT">36</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Aurelius Augustinus</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#HERRERA">38</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Two Little Orphans</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#ORPHANS">42</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Trouble and Play</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#TROUBLE">43</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Nature’s Fairy Crosses</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#CROSSES">46</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Col. Diamond and Grand-daughter</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#COLONEL">47</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Wild Wood</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#WILDWOOD">48</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">A Pre-Revolutionary Stone Mansion,</td> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="ws2">7 Years Being Built</span></td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#MANSION">53</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">“Rock Ribbed Pen” in which Miss Martin was placed</td> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="ws2">by the Tories</span></td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#RIBBED">54</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Blind Negro</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#TAMPA">56</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Mistletoe</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#MISTLETOE">57</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Kid and the Cop</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#KID-COP">59-60</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">New River, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#RIVER">63</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Water Fall Near Tories’ Den, and Beach Scene</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#WATER">64</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Chimney Rock in North Carolina</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#CHIMNEY">66</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Elephant Dance and Old Ship Church</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#ELEPHANT">67</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Bishop’s Garden</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#BISHOP">69</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">My Triolet</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#TRIOLET">70</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Lookout Mountain</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#LOOKOUT">72</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Woodrow Wilson</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#WILSON">75</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">O Baby Mine</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#BABY2">77</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Snake That’s King</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#SNAKE">78</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Notre Dame</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#NOTREDAME">79</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Miss Cameron and Billy</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#INTRODUCTION">83</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Judge Franklin Chase Hoyt</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#JUDGE">84</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Ann Gray and Pet Macaw</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#COMING">85</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The Tots That Turned the Tide</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#TOTS">87</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Walter Malone</td> - <td class="tdr_ws1"><a href="#MALONE">90</a></td> - </tr> - </tbody> -</table> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="BOB-WHITE" src="images/facing007.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="671" /> - <p class="f120">BOB-WHITE.</p> - <p class="center">By F. Schuyler Matthews.</p> -</div> -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span></p> - <h2 class="nobreak"><big><i>The Birds’ Orchestra</i></big></h2> -</div> - -<h3>THE DAWN</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">“Start-right, you-hob-bright!” ’Twas fluted so clear,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">It wakened the songsters and startled my ear,</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">As the King of the morning repelled the dark night,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And the reveille sounded, “All-right! Bob-Bob-White!”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">The Mocking-bird earliest answered the call,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And gladly his echoes were welcomed by all,</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">As each took his place in the Nature-trained choir,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And bird after bird began tuning his lyre.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">The songsters had started a sweet roundelay,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">When suddenly up bounced a meddlesome Jay.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent14">He wanted to sing,</div> - <div class="verse indent14">This feathered thing;</div> - <div class="verse indent14">Or brilliant colors to impress,</div> - <div class="verse indent14">With spontaneous wantonness;</div> - <div class="verse indent14">With spirit too to over-rule,</div> - <div class="verse indent14">Like the self-important fashion fool.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">In soft monotone crooned the Black-billed Cuckoo,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">“Tho not much at singing, I’ll surely beat you.”</div> - </div> -</div></div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="figright"> - <img id="CAT-BIRD" src="images/image007.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="183" /> - <p class="center">Cat Bird.<br /> Photo by the Author.</p> -</div> -<div class="poetry2"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And Flicker to Jay proclaimed,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">“<i>No-cheer</i> from me, <i>no-cheer</i>!”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While the Hooded Warbler, “You-have-no-business-here”!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">“I’m a blooming Jay,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">I’ll have my way,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Dj-a-y! dj-a-y! dj-a-y!”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Then spoke that brave bird, the yellow-breast Chat:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“Cop! Cop! Shut-him-in-prison-and-send-for-the-cat.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And King bird commanded with spirit irate,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“Away with you, Blue Jay—or I’ll pounce on your pate.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent10">And the Jay slipped away,</div> - <div class="verse indent10">With a sure word of peace,</div> - <div class="verse indent10">For such glad release:</div> - <div class="verse indent14">“Ge-rul-lup!</div> - <div class="verse indent14">Jig’s-all-up!”</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="figleft"> - <img id="SCREECH-OWL" src="images/image008a.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="291" /> - <p class="center">YOUNG SCREECH OWL.<br /> Photo by Rev. Wallace Rogers.</p> -</div> -<div class="poetry3"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Then Wisdom’s proud bird, that old mystical fake,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While breakfasting late on a daring young snake,</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Cried “Boo to y-o-u, hoot for y-o-u! Who-whoo—are-y-o-u?”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Till down in my heart I felt humbled anew.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But hope was revived by an echo of Night—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For Night has her echoes and pledges of Light—</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“You can, if you will, a high mission fulfill.”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Insistently whistled the lone Whip-poor-will.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent8">Then all grew still</div> - <div class="verse indent8">O’er vale and hill</div> - <div class="verse indent8">And the echo came back:</div> - <div class="verse indent8">“You can, if you will.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">The sun poured forth his flood of pure gold</div> - <div class="verse indent4">On Nature’s great chorister birdlings of old,</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">When wide circling throngs made the welkin resound</div> - <div class="verse indent4">With the liveliest chatter, “Let joy go round.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">Then flashed through the air a ruby tinged light,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Like an arrow of glory soon lost to my sight.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">When lo! it returned—a bird that ne’er sings,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Though his music is borne in the hum of his wings:</div> - </div> -</div></div> - -<div class="figright"> - <img id="HUMMER" src="images/image008b.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="159" /> - <p class="center">HUMMING BIRD.<br /> By F. Schuyler Matthews.</p> -</div> -<p> </p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry2"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent6">“I fly, yet rest,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">In swiftest quest,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Of flowers best,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With their sweetest, nectared off’rings.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And my heart sang out with a jubilant cry,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“O for poise and feasting in tension so high.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">While the Humming bird sipped his choicest wine,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">The musicians came to a sudden pause;</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Each singer’s eye was a-gaze like mine—</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And the wonder of bird-land received their applause.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">The fun-makers followed, the gay Bobolinks,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">With comical solo and musical kinks!</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span> - </div> -</div></div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent14">“You’d better think,</div> - <div class="verse indent14">Flippant Chewink,</div> - <div class="verse indent14">’Tis the finest of sport,”</div> - <div class="verse indent14">Sang Bobolink.</div> - </div> -</div></div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent6">And said Bob, “Be true to me, be true to me;</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Kick your slipper, kick your - slipper;<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></div> - <div class="verse indent6">Be true to me—old Nick’s the whipper!”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And over the pond, on bending cat-tails,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The red-shouldered Black-birds were piping their gales,</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">As they swung to and fro with a blithe “Con-quer-ee,”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And their mates made reply—“O’er-the-lea, come-to-me!”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">From the Meadow-lark’s throat came a livelier strain,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“All hail to the bridegroom and those in his train;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“And greet the fair bride in her gay-feathered veil,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">She’ll build a snug nest for the babies—all hail!”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">From Oriole there, like a glad whistling boy,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Came fragments of melody thrilling with joy:</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent14">“I sing as I work—</div> - <div class="verse indent14">This vantage men shirk—</div> - <div class="verse indent14">And music I blend</div> - <div class="verse indent8">With care of the children and house that I tend.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Then on came the Finches in rollicking glee,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With Grosbeak and Chippy and plaintive Pewee;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And every one’s note rang as clear as a bell,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With the swing of love’s passion and deep growing spell.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent14">“Per-chick-o-ree!</div> - <div class="verse indent14">Now, don’t you see</div> - <div class="verse indent14">The song in me</div> - <div class="verse indent14">Is ecstasy?”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Thus jingled the Goldfinch in musical run,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As he dipped up and down in the waves of the sun;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Like golden-robed, sable winged fairy he flew</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Across his wide world of cerulean blue.</div> - </div> -</div></div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="SPARROWS" src="images/image009.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="208" /> - <p class="center">WHITE THROATED SPARROWS.<br /> Photo by the Author.</p> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The White throated Sparrow, a provident bird,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Revealed deepest wisdom in simplest word;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Sow wheat and sow plenty—oh yes, sow a plenty,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Though Peverly’s small he has hunger of twenty.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“When the granary’s full, and reapers go feastin’,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I’ll cheer you ag’in, with my fiddle-in’, fiddle-in’,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The long hours through, a-fiddle-in’, - fiddle-in’.”<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A versatile singer, an artist o’er shy,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Now uplifted his voice to his Maker on high.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">No pause in the rhythm of the Song Sparrow’s lay;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And I pondered and wondered as on flew the day:</div> - <div class="verse indent14">“Is this high Art’s way?”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">While still rolled his “swee-e-t, swee-e-t, - bitter”—<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></div> - <div class="verse indent0">The philosophy of life, from a plain, little flitter.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Pond’ring I lingered and forgot me to eat,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A captive held fast in fair Nature’s retreat.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="BLUEBIRD" src="images/image010.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="376" /> - <p class="center">BLUEBIRD AND FAMILY.<br /> Photo by the Author.</p> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The Oven-bird graceful, misnamed “the preacher,”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Proudly sang out, “I’m-a-teacher, a TEACHER;”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And Maryland Yellow-throat piped, “What a pity,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">You can’t sing a sweet, old-fashioned ditty!</div> - <div class="verse indent14">What a pity!”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">From the wayside just then came a mocking “meow;”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“If the rest of you follow, I’ll join in the row;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent14">“And why not now?</div> - <div class="verse indent14">A fuss somehow—</div> - <div class="verse indent14">Meow, meow!”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But lo! the voice softened and turned to a tune,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Repeating the bird’s notes that glad day in June.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">With soft-flowing accent the good Chickadee</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Said “dear me,” and added a sweet “amity.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="CARDINAL" src="images/image011.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="395" /> - <p class="center">YOUNG MALE CARDINAL TRYING TO<br /> - LIGHT ON BOUQUET OF FLOWERS.<br />Snapped by the Author.</p> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And Blue-Bird’s grave “purity,” Robin’s gay “cheer”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Were songs as delightful as lovers may hear;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">While Red-headed Woodpecker, ever after his rum,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Kept beating and beating his sweet tree drum.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The Cardinal came with his bright crimson crest,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And sang for his bride as she fashioned her nest;</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But Toxaway’s<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> - rival gave forth the echo,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">“Kid-dów, Kid-dów, Kid-dów!”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Now list to the out-flow from the topmost tree,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Coming down from the Thrasher in perfect frenzy;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The birds and I marvelled as he swept on alone,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Now high, and now low, now a thrilled overtone.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="THRASHER" src="images/image012.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="352" /> - <p class="center">THRASHER’S ADMIRATION.<br /> Photo by Author.</p> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent14">And lo! just then,</div> - <div class="verse indent14">A voice—a Wren,</div> - <div class="verse indent14">From a fern-lit glen,</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Burst forth like a rippling fountain of life,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Rebuking old Mars with his death-dealing strife;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And it seemed that I caught for the sons of men,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The lost chord of an angel in the song of the Wren.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Discord now from birds as black as night:</div> - <div class="verse indent14">“Caw! Caw! Caw!”</div> - <div class="verse indent14">Screamed a full score,</div> - <div class="verse indent14">Or even more,</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Till stones by me hurled put them all to flight.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Again was felt a pause, a silence deep,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When four of the feathered friends who copy song,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Were planning fain their secret, potent word,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Worthy of the wisest of mankind;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The proud quartette then took the airy stage:</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="CARDINAL2" src="images/facing012.jpg" alt="" width="350" height="618" /> - <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Cardinal</span></p> - <div class="blockquot2"> - <p class="center">By courtesy of G. P. Putnam Sons, Publishers, and P. Schuyler - Matthews, Author of “Book of Birds For Young People.”</p> -</div></div> -<p class="space-below1"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent8">“They call us imitators evermore,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">And this forever be our life and joy,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">For master angels whispered unto us,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">‘Follow song and God, and rise to life,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Aye, ever, ever more.’”</div> - </div> -</div></div> - -<h3>HIGH NOON</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The sun had climbed high and as birdlings should feast,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My morsel I finished and fell fast asleep;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And dreamed a sweet dream, so rich and so deep,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Till arches of gold reached the rose-portaled east,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Aye! West wedded East and their glories increased—</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent14">A dream so sweet,</div> - <div class="verse indent14">And marvelous meet;</div> - <div class="verse indent14">My soul took wings,</div> - <div class="verse indent14">Though captive my feet,</div> - <div class="verse indent14">And uplifted high midst eternal springs,</div> - <div class="verse indent14">My heart again heard an old, new word:</div> - <div class="verse indent14">“Prophetic and incomplete</div> - <div class="verse indent18">All earthly things.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In bright, celestial realm they sweeter sang,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The happy birds that blessed my spell-bound soul,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Upraised to that high world, without a pang.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I saw a shining One with mystic scroll,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The which He, smiling, waved, in full control</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of birds and beings, translated from the earth,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From every land to a great, inviting Goal.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Enthralled by the mighty throng in sacred mirth—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah now, me-thought, has come with joy my highest birth!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Angels were rising, many and swift and sheen;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While others, likewise moving with rhythmic grace,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Descending in sweetest song, were heard and seen—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All clothed in the beauteous light of the Father’s face.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Those downward-going bore, in charming case,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The melodies which men and birds might make.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The rising throng made perfect the chords apace</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Produced below, ecstatic in their wide wake;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I longed to tarry ever there, without a break.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<h3>TWILIGHT</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But ho! Presto-“Bob-White! Bob, Bob-White!”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“I announced the morn and now the night.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Bestirred in the gloaming by Bob-White’s last call,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I awakened to music the sweetest of all.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The flutelike peals of the Thrush of the wood</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Still bound me to the world of angelhood.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But the depths of my soul had the holiest hush,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As the organ note rose of the Hermit Thrush.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">He climbed to the heights where I too would arise,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But no one may soar with that pride of the skies.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I then asked my heart, “Pray, what is all this?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Why experience birds such wonderful bliss?”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent14">My soul was on fire,</div> - <div class="verse indent12">From Nature’s great choir,</div> - <div class="verse indent12">As the glad mounting symphony</div> - <div class="verse indent14">Climbed higher and higher.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Is it all of this world, or is it of Heaven?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To birds and to me is this paradise given?”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent14">I longed to understand,</div> - <div class="verse indent14">If ’twas place or state,</div> - <div class="verse indent10">For all so harmonious and elate;</div> - <div class="verse indent8">When responded a three-fold, wondrous band:</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent12">The birds replied,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“Life, Life be our earth-celestial theme;”</div> - <div class="verse indent12">The angels cried,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“Love and Beauty make any place a-gleam;”</div> - <div class="verse indent12">The great who’d died,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“In every state, our song and service to redeem.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Lo, the shining One waved high his mystic scroll,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And many joined in a sweet but thunderous whole:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“Music flows from a vaster, purer Stream—</div> - <div class="verse indent14">Know now, O longing soul,</div> - <div class="verse indent14">The vital, eternal scheme</div> - <div class="verse indent14">Of Heaven and earth,</div> - <div class="verse indent14">From their far off birth,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Is to reach on after the deeper, perfect Goal.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And, like the voice of ten thousand trumpeters,</div> - <div class="verse indent14">“Alleluia to Him Supreme,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">The all-embracing, all-out giving Soul!”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To this from creatures numberless rang out a great “Amen”</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And again from every heart that sings</div> - <div class="verse indent8">In creation’s vast domain:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“On, forever on, in Heaven’s aureole,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Let praise and power roll—</div> - <div class="verse indent14">Alleluia, Amen!”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="PRAYER" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">MY PRAYER TO TRUTH</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Take thou my soul, O Truth, and make me whole,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And gently lead me on eternally.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My eager fancy flies from pole to pole,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To singing star and the ever surging sea—</div> - <div class="verse indent10">O stay thou me!</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Thru ages past the search has been for thee;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The sage and prophet, vacillating King</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And statesmen call aloud for liberty</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And light and all beneath thy gracious wing;</div> - <div class="verse indent12">To thee the poets sing.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet of inquirers many, whoso finds?</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Where hidest thou? Point me thy high abode.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Art thou in books? Ah, no! In these there winds</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The dusty road of men. Sing me thy ode,</div> - <div class="verse indent12">Thy perfect code.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou art I know; and sweet and pure thy balm,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Which solaced oft my sorrow-burdened soul;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But leavest not the biding, crowning palm,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Nor faultless portion, pointing to thy goal;</div> - <div class="verse indent12">While troubles roll.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Why, when a-thirst and hungry, should I wander,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Some while in want; anon, a feast most fine?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet never full; some pressing, ravenous pander</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Prepared to steal from me earth’s passing wine;</div> - <div class="verse indent12">Pray give me thine.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Some secrets sweet are mine, but oh how few,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Compared to richest bounty which must be</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In thy pure heart and home—why not my due?</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Will I some day find hid thy mystic key?</div> - <div class="verse indent12">Lead on thou me.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">My youthful joys and heights of yester-year,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Were bright and buoyant, satisfying then;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But they have gone for aye. More calls I hear;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">They charm me onward to some larger ken;</div> - <div class="verse indent12">But, O Truth, when?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">If all I may not know, then serve will I,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Submissive to each load and yoke thou givest,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Like the plaintless, faithful ox, without a sigh;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">But soon I plead: “I poorly live; thou richly livest,</div> - <div class="verse indent12">And oft receivest</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Me for some higher service still—but where?</div> - <div class="verse indent2">For whom? Why serve and not be satisfied?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Why toil on land and sea, and burdens bear,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Without thy joy? O be my willing bride!”</div> - <div class="verse indent12">My poor heart cried.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And lo, I saw encaged a joy-filled bird,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And one a-wing in song, as blithe as free;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A cooing babe I caught, in love preferred—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Knowledge, service, song, O Truth, found me;</div> - <div class="verse indent12">And I found Thee.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">A SCENE IN WASHINGTON, N. C.</h2> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="GOATS" src="images/image016.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="373" /> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A modern coach and four,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A kitchen and a store,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With wieners evermore,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In Washington.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The billies have no speed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But much of grit and greed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And goats show grace indeed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In Washington.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">They pull and butt for Jim,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And else they do for him,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From heart to outer rim,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of Washington.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The goats have feet and horns,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And Jim no painful corns;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis peace and no forlorns,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In Washington.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">No man can get Jim’s “goat,”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For bonds he’ll buy and float—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A scheme not far remote,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In Washington.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">LITTLE NAPLES BY THE SEA</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In little Naples by the sea</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The birds join in their jubilee,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where long-leaved pine and royal palm</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Exhale the breath of their fragrant balm,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In little Naples by the sea.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The sea responds by day and night,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With a stately choral of life and might;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And when his storms arise and rage,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">He spares the hamlet of winsome age,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The modest Naples by the sea.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And many an eve the sun will make</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His matchless glories till men awake</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To find the sea, the land, the sky</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Reset with gems for the artist’s eye;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In lovely Naples by the sea.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And so there come to this favored spot</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The young and old to cast their lot,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Near Nature’s healing heart, and rest,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Like a child on his loving mother’s breast—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In quiet Naples by the sea.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Here roamed the happy Seminole,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And peacefully here possessed his soul,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Till thrust away by men of skill,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The conquering whites, with greedy will—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In unborn Naples by the sea.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">E’er Indian came, the troglodyte</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Reigned in his cave by a primal right;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And ages and ages remoter still,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Flew monsters of hideous claw and bill</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O’er charming Naples yet to be.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A long ascent from warring snakes,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From reptilian waters and slimy lakes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To singing birds and mirthful men,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To smiling mothers and sportive children,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In balmy Naples by the sea.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But higher still to the coming man,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To great sons of Art in her perfect plan;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To the glorious day when hulking clods,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Transmuted to men, are ranked with gods,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In little Naples by the sea!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="FAMILY" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE FAMILY OF MY FRIEND JONES</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The seven<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> - children of my friend Jones,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Have each of them a lot of bones,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To grow and strengthen, or else to break</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Beneath life’s burdens or sudden quake,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mid the wide and varied warring zones,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of the seven children of my friend Jones.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But seven, you know, is the perfect plan;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">It stands for all that’s the best in man—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In his youthful days and ripest years,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In his joys and sorrows, high hopes and fears;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis God’s own number—away with groans!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For seven times blessed is my friend Jones.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In logical order the eighth arrived,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And, take it from me, they all revived;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With one accord and high hearted aim,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They gave to the eighth the greatest name;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They all prepared with love’s sweet loans,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To make him the most famous of my friend Jones.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But youth is still his, and his good wife’s too,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His only sweetheart forever true;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the Father’ll be pleased their quiver to fill,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For a heritage large is his manifest will,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">If here and hereafter no dullards and drones,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But all active and cheerful like my friend Jones.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="BABY" src="images/image018.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="211" /> - <p class="center">ONE OF THE NINE AMBITIONS TO RISE.</p> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">On the fifteenth month, and one August morn</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The ninth leaps to life, another boy is born.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What the Lord commanded, my friend hath willed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“Increase” is the law, and the law’s fulfilled;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet not ceaseless order, with nine vying tones</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In the growing family of my friend Jones.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Such a happy man, for to all a friend;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Not a Hottentot would Jones offend;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And chiming in church or turning the sod,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My friend is ever the friend of God.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">May the buoyant family all mount thrones—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Then eternally blessed, my friend Jones.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">My mind sweeps on to a Kingdom vast,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To numberless children who’ll come at last,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As sons of the Highest on a shining shore,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There to play and sing forever more—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In the temple of God great living stones,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And some from the family of my friend Jones.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="VEERY" src="images/facing019.jpg" alt="" width="350" height="593" /> - <p class="f110">Veery celebrating the King’s Marriage.</p> - <div class="blockquot2"> - <p class="center">The original, with male and female Veery, furnished by courtesy National - Association Audubon Societies, with changes by the Author’s Artist.</p> -</div></div> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span></p> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE KING’S MARRIAGE</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent12">Look, look, look!</div> - <div class="verse indent16">My soul,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">At that high favored Sun;</div> - <div class="verse indent12">With smiling face,</div> - <div class="verse indent12">And matchless grace,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">The King hath Beauty won.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent12">Look, look, look!</div> - <div class="verse indent12">My longing soul,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">My hungry, ravished heart—</div> - <div class="verse indent12">Most gorgeous role</div> - <div class="verse indent12">In Nature’s whole,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Surpassing man’s high art!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent12">Look, look, look!</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Every open eye and mind,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Every yearning soul of mortal—</div> - <div class="verse indent8">The Master’s acme for mankind;</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Ye stars, look down and glory find.</div> - <div class="verse indent16">Look!</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Beauty glides toward the portal.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent12">With parting day,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">I watch the twain as they go;</div> - <div class="verse indent8">I watched and sighed,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">As heaven and sorrowing earth below,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And hosts of both were heard to say,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">“O why may Beauty not abide?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The King and Queen made one at eventide,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And then in secret chambers hide!”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent12">“Stay, stay, stay!”</div> - <div class="verse indent12">My soul out-cries,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">“For Beauty fleeth fast,</div> - <div class="verse indent12">Nor nuptials last,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">And darkening skies”—</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And lo, the royal pair had passed;</div> - <div class="verse indent4">But left their image in my eyes,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">And in my living soul.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="HERMIT_THRUSH" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE HERMIT THRUSH<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor"><small>[7]</small></a></h2> - -<p class="center">(Published in the Methodist Review, July, 1919).</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O little artist, of rarest modesty,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Why hide thyself and sing?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy music fills my soul with ecstasy,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And makes the woodland ring.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Draw near, draw near, thou shy, yet happy one;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I plead with thee—draw near;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I’d share thy rapture; ’twould be heaven begun;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">O Hermit sweet, appear.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Still thou wilt not, and while I long and dream</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of all that’s best for us—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The King, His primal ministers—what gleam</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of highest genius?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Sing on, elusive bird, in thy retreat,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Songs to my waiting soul;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Some day inviting rounds will be complete,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Some day, the promised goal.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And then some disappearing portion high,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Some joy just out of reach;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The more immortals yield to devotion’s tie,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The more must they beseech.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Sing on, blest bird, beyond my poor purview,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">But near my home and heart:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“I love, I <i>love</i>, <b>I LOVE</b>; yes I love - <b>YOU!</b>”<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></div> - <div class="verse indent2">This, thy crescendo art.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I find myself quite charmed, yet almost lost,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">At the modern opera grand;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What stirs my soul so deep, what I love most,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thy song—and I understand.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But O that I could see thy beaming eye—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Mine eye on thee, all song!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Why so secretive, yet seductive—why?</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My suit, renewed, so strong.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">That tree, those leaves around thee—if they knew</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Their day and honored hour,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Each leaf and branch would homage pay, thy due,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Aflame with joy that bower.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Such rich and rounded notes proceed from thee,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Enchanting naiveté:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From sleep thou wakest me with highborn glee,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">When comes the King of day.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">At eventide thou callest me to prayer,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">More clear than churchly chime,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In wood and sky, in pure, perfumed air—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His temple, thine and mine.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">No passing wonder, sing Nightingales</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In Russ or Tuscan clime;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No hope have they in these Columbic vales</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To match thy tones and time.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="HERMIT" src="images/facing021.jpg" alt="" width="350" height="664" /> - <p class="f110">THE HERMIT THRUSH.</p> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Like cooling streams in a parched, desert land,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To thirsting souls and worn;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Like evening’s changing charms, no artist’s hand</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Can set in painted bourn;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Like sweetest dreams to troubled hearts in slumbers,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Uplift to heaven’s heights—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Just so thy symphonies, heard in rolling numbers,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thy high and holy flights.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O anchoret, near Nature’s heart, again</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I pray, come forth and sing.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah, there—O joy! I glimpsed thee, Hermit fain—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Now gone on gentle wing.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">My eye too piercing, and my quest too keen,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Unfathomable bird.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Once more contented I—remain unseen,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And yet thy harmony heard.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">This I have found, as fast thou holdeth me:</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thou startest full, and risest;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And all doth thrill—sweet, moving melody,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Climbing to the highest.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">No pipe, no flute, organ or organist,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Can reach thine allegro,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And thy cadenza, thou transcendentalist—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">’Tis music with naught of woe.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Whence come from singers proud their hard-won notes?</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In truth from the music master,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By repetition oft and untrained throats—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To hearers, near disaster.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The master’s whence, the singing pioneer,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Great Haydn or Beethoven?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sing on, my thrilling thrush, but wilt thou hear?</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From thee, and thou from Heaven!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Long hours I’ve listened lone, in deep delight,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To thy glad musicals;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And when I breathe my last, O anchorite,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Sing soft angelicals.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcontainer"> - <div class="figsub"> - <img id="TURTLEDOVE" src="images/image022a.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="252" /> - <p class="center">Turtle Dove and Bluebirds.</p> - </div> - <div class="figsub"> - <img src="images/image022b.jpg" alt="" width="265" height="251" /> - <p class="center">Chipmunk—Note his pockets<br /> well-filled with grain to be<br /> - carried to his granary.</p> - </div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/image022c.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="435" /> - <p class="center">“Brownie,” a young pet Thrasher, raised by Artena.</p> -</div> - -<div class="figcontainer"> - <div class="figsub"> - <img src="images/image022d.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="199" /> - <p class="center">At Lunch—Snapped at the Memphis Zoo.</p> - </div> - <div class="figsub"> - <img src="images/image022e.jpg" alt="" width="125" height="206" /> - <p class="center">Pet Macaw. See p. 84.</p> - </div> - <div class="figsub"> - <img src="images/image022f.jpg" alt="" width="125" height="203" /> - <p class="center">His Majesty,<br /> The Swan.</p> - </div> - <p class="f120">Photos by the Author.</p> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span></p> -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<div class="figcontainer"> - <img id="RETREAT" src="images/image023a.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="372" /> -</div> - -<h2 class="nobreak">MY RETREAT</h2> - -<div class="figright"> - <img id="HERON" src="images/image023b.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="376" /> - <p class="center">Young Green Heron.</p> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">To my retreat now come with me,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And love the place that’s wild and free,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where Chipmunks play and Wood Thrush sings;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where a lucid lake invites and brings</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The proud offspring of Liberty.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The Wren is there, the Chickadee,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And many more that come in glee,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On nimble feet or shining wings,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To my retreat—</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The birds of sky and fish of the sea,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The cunning things that charming be;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And there the Cardinal often rings</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His notes of joy to songster-lings—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All these and I have bidden thee</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To my retreat.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> -<p class="center"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span> -Photos by the author.</p> - -<hr id="MOCK_BIRD" class="r25" /> -<h2>THE MOCKING-BIRD</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Hilarious bird, hast thou a soul,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Now here, now there</div> - <div class="verse indent4">In tree and air,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">So free and fair?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy tones rush forth a rounded whole,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Inviting the heart to some sweet goal,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Like poet rare,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Beyond compare.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Hast thou a mind, a musical mind?</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Who answers “nay”?</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Or night or day,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Thy tuneful lay</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Brings joy and grief; myself I find</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In my inmost soul left far behind;</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Yet I essay</div> - <div class="verse indent4">The wondrous way.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Borrowed notes” they dub thy variation;</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Nor is that all</div> - <div class="verse indent4">In thy charmed call;</div> - <div class="verse indent4">I rise, though small,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">To laud thy rhythmic re-creation,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Thy prompt and hearty liberation</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of life notes new which me enthrall,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Without man’s pride, and fall.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I hear thee sing as Lark and - Nightingale,<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></div> - <div class="verse indent4">Thy kindred sweet;</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Palm Warbler meet</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Thou dost repeat,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And modest, tawny Veery of the vale;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy music upward leads, and I inhale</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Incense replete,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">In thy retreat.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">As in a dream I hear all tones combine</div> - <div class="verse indent4">In Love’s embrace;</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And there I see thy topmost place,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">O Psyche of thy race!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcontainer"> - <img id="MOCKINGBIRD" src="images/facing025.jpg" alt="" width="350" height="633" /> - <p class="f120"><span class="smcap">Mocking-bird</span></p> - <div class="blockquot2"> - <p class="center">By courtesy of G. P. Putnam Sons, Publishers, and F. Schuyler Matthews, - Author of “Book of Birds For Young People.”<br /> Sketched originally for - this volume.</p> - </div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah, let me turn to life all notes so fine;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For this my soul must alway pine,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">With upturned face,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">For lyric grace.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Quintessence of event is thine and life;</div> - <div class="verse indent4">What soul hath more</div> - <div class="verse indent4">On sea or shore,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Now or afore?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy keen eye beams; thy self art rife</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With music, as no magic flute or fife—</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Tis varied lore,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Forever more.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou toilest not to sing like plodding man,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Brave bird and bright;</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Harmonic flight</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Is thy delight.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whenever was it thou did’st plan</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sonatas sweet? Who may so sing or can?</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Without foresight</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Thy runic rite.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Could I exchange with thee one blissful hour,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Produce thy chart,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Feel thrills of heart</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Of thine, nor part</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With ecstasy, a-wing from tree to bower,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Returning quick, possessing all thy power,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">With no life mart</div> - <div class="verse indent4">But music art;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah then, would I thy lithesome measures ken,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And glad bestow</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Rich magic flow</div> - <div class="verse indent4">On all below.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Vain wish! What hope for a poor earth denizen?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But daring flight, until the poet pen</div> - <div class="verse indent4">With thee shall glow</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Like a sun-lit bow.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">More sweetly still: thy soul, all song divine,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">As thou dost give,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">As I love and live,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Is mine; thy nature is forever thine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But by mutation mystic, yet benign,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">As I with joy receive</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Thy varied amative,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Is also mine,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">In God’s own shrine.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span></p> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE JAY AND I—A DIALOGUE</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“What’s that you say, you funny Jay?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I like your beauty, but not your way,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Though fond of all the winged tribe.</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Is it hoo-ray,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Or some hey-day?”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Then Jay began his varied gibe:</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent8">“I’m a Blue Jay;</div> - <div class="verse indent8">That’s what I say;</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Dja-ay! dja-ay! dja-ay!”</div> - <div class="verse indent5">(How will he myself describe,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With naught from me that he’ll imbibe?)</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent8">“I’ve more display,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">More in my yea,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">More in my nay,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Than you convey;</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Dja-ay! dja-ay!”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“’Tis true, Blue Jay, but too much pride;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">You shout and rouse the country side;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent8">Nor can I see</div> - <div class="verse indent8">The fun or glee,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">For birds or me</div> - <div class="verse indent8">In your vanity.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whoever is it such can bide?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">You dashing Jay, you want my hide?”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent8">“Never a day;</div> - <div class="verse indent8">I’m a Blue-ming Jay</div> - <div class="verse indent8">With top-knot gay,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">And mine to stay—</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Dja-ay! dja-ay!”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcontainer"> - <img id="JAY" src="images/image026.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="349" /> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“More pomp you have than all your fellows;</div> - <div class="verse indent6">All who see you,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">All who hear you—</div> - <div class="verse indent6">‘I’m <i>the</i> Jay Blue</div> - <div class="verse indent6">With a top-knot too—’</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All wonder why you strain your bellows.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Hoo-ray! hoo-ray!—back to the wall!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When I’m stirred up, I always squall,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Retreat, I say,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">You bunch of clay,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Away; away!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I’m King Blue Jay,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A monarch here and lord of all;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dja-ay! dja-ay! dja-ay!”</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“But listen, Jay, just stop a spell—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On Friday, luckless day, they tell,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That you will dare to visit hell;</div> - <div class="verse indent8">’Tis only Friday,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">But always Friday—</div> - <div class="verse indent8">If there you stray.</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Then why I pray?”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“It’s not your business, know you well,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Why I on Friday go to hell.<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></div> - <div class="verse indent8">Dja-ay! dja-ay!”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“My final word you may forestall;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But I tell you plainly pride must fall;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Old Pride is evil, born of the devil.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent8">While flouncing so free</div> - <div class="verse indent8">In a white oak tree,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Quite noisily,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">He answered me,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With piercing eye, and look of evil:</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent8">“Hoo-ray! hoo-ray!</div> - <div class="verse indent8">I’m a blooming Jay—</div> - <div class="verse indent8">The devil, you say?</div> - <div class="verse indent8">It’s all my way—</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Dja-ay! dja-ay! dja-ay!”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="NATURES_HEART" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">NATURE’S HEART</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I search for Nature’s heart beneath her dome,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All free from jarring sounds;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Out there my hungry spirit seeks a home,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Out there, my feasting grounds.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I love the giant oak, the poplar and the pine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Aye, balmful to my soul;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I greet my feathered friends, and they combine</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To make me captive whole.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I find no ghoul-like demon of the wood,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nor siren from the sea;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A spirit high begets my ardent mood,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But yields not me the key.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And dreaming in the vale, or on a mountain height,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Awed by the great abyss,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My soul doth plead an everlasting right,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“<i>The secret of all this?</i>”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Both wild and winning are Mother Nature’s ways,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Many, varied, one;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In all she sings my soul her mystic lays,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From flower to rolling sun.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But oh to understand the purpose of her heart,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her princely, hidden life;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Just what or who unfolds the vital part,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Despite dark death and strife.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O Faunus tell—return to earth and speak</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The word that satisfies;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or haughty mountain give, or valley meek,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The answer to my cries.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The gods are silent all! But drink may I</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of Nature’s founts o’er flowing;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I feel her throbs of heart in earth and sky,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And loving leads to knowing.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Henceforth, of all the wines of gods and men,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To me give Nature’s nectar;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of all the feeble songs of tongue and pen</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From every dull director—</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Oh give me Nature’s rich and ripest lore,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her palaces and poses;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her peaceful ways and rest, her fullest store</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of pure Pierian roses.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah, this I know—’tis all I need to know—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The great Mother has her plan;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With God she labors long, at last to show</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her perfect child and man.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="AND_MULE" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">A NIGGER AND A MULE</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I’ve lived in the city, I’ve sailed the wide sea;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I’ve studied in many and many a school;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I’ve sat at the feet of the bond and free,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And a lot has come to a fellow like me,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Since a new ground I plowed with a balky mule,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But I’ve lived to see balky and a nigger fool.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">No deep-seated scorn of the African fool—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There’s plenty like him from the hills to the sea;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis the union of nigger and a stubborn mule,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That surpasses the sport of an all-round school,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">If not for professor for fun-loving me,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And as long as I’m playful, my play shall be free.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Aye friend, ’tis a wonderful thing to be free,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Though many a free man I’d call a fool,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And no doubt some of them would thus entitle me,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Though tutored in the city, the college and the sea</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet the nigger and hybrid, I’d take for a school;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For ’tis hard to beat a pure nigger and a mule.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But a “coon” in new ground, with a kicking mule!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Just so I am far from his heels and am free</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To look, and to listen like a pupil in school;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Though frankly I admit, I at times played the fool,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Till the lessons of life had widened my sea,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And harder experience had deepened me.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ye fates, do not bring the worst unto me,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That of trying to handle a nondescript mule,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In a rooty new ground—O the depths of the sea</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I’d choose, in the hope with the fish to be free;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">However, such choosing would prove me a fool—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No applicant I for a sea-bottom school.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Since I’ve come to think, ’twas a German-tried school;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And a submarine ship was never for me;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the proudest old Hun thus out-reached the fool.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But behold, you elect, a nigger and a mule,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In new ground in August—thank God I am free!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I’m only a witness on a smoother sea.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">God bless his wide sea, and the nigger in school;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And all men make free—’twould be heaven for me—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And God bless the poor mule, and the mule-headed fool.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="MULE" src="images/image029.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="417" /> - <p class="author">By L. Gregg</p> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span></p> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">VIRGINIA’S NATURAL BRIDGE</h2> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="BRIDGE" src="images/image030.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="364" /> - <p class="center">Photo by The Author.</p> -</div> -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">How pleasing the wonders of Nature—how varied and how vast,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the mystery of all the unknown doth hold me firm and fast;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For so the Creator ordained that men should seek and know;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That the heart of man may ever rise and forever flow,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From pebble small in singing brook to yonder neighboring star;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From star to a wider system and on to worlds afar.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis only infinite mind can bridge the space between,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Our planet and greater sun and constellations seen,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Beyond which are stars yet farther, the living and the dead,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And they tell us there are millions larger in the boundless spread.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Imagination wearies of so vast an evolution,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But glories in the love of Him who planned such contribution.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The spider doth weave and swing his tiny, fragile bridge,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And man in his nobler work doth span from ridge to ridge;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But when men become as gods, and angels as such men,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With dominion of Jehovah and his transcendent ken,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah many a mansion shall we visit in our Father’s home,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As we fly beneath his banner, with ages and ages to roam.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis a fathomless universe, but the plan eternal is one,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On which good men and angels may forever run,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O’er many a threatening torrent here, chasm, wide and great;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And ever man and gods shall their new links create—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Some for service and for song, and some for wonder and delight;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And some time, somewhere the Bridge—to everlasting light.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="MUSIC" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE MIGHT OF MATUTINAL MUSIC</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">When awaking from dreams completely refresht,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My body reclining still;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With a soul alive and a heart at rest,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And master too of my will—</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">When the sun doth cast ambitious rays,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Foretelling afar his race;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And my heart is clothed with the garment of praise</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By an all pervading grace—</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">When I hear the psalm of the gifted Thrush,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With a song of a mountain stream,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And a child’s sweet laugh, while the morn’s a-flush,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When Nature is all a-gleam—</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah, then my soul is thrilled with delight</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And my mind sweeps every sea,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis then I possess my musical might,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the angels visit me.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="COTTON" src="images/image031a.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="343" /> -</div> - -<div class="figcontainer"> - <div class="figsub"> - <img src="images/image031b.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="144" /> - </div> - <div class="figsub"> - <img src="images/image031c.jpg" alt="" width="230" height="149" /> - </div> - <p class="f120">Photos by the Author.</p> -</div> - -<hr id="PERPETUAL" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">A PERPETUAL KING</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In a King on a throne and a King there to stay,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">You’ve a friendly old monarch who’s ever upright.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There are blessings for you and the men far away,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In a King on a throne and a King there to stay.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His robe is pure white, but the proud make it gay;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah, what mercy, what power and amazing foresight</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In a King on a throne and a King there to stay—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">You’ve a friendly old monarch who’s ever upright!</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<h3>THE COTTON GIN</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">At a cotton gin the King’s made thin,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet never shows the least chagrin,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In his sunny home in Dixie’s land,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That rich and poor may live and win.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">He’s trifled with, but will not sin</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Amongst his subjects, nor his kin,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Although he feels the iron band</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At a cotton gin.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">More just the King than a mandarin,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And I often think the cherubin</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Would like themselves to understand</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His long, rich round, and then command</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At a cotton gin.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<h3 id="MILL" >THE COTTON MILL</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In Southern climes and the monarch’s mill</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Weave many a spindle and loom;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And lake and lawn, with art’s own skill,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In Southern climes and the monarch’s mill;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yes, church and school and much to fill</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The mind with hope and buoyant bloom—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In Southern climes and the monarch’s mill,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Weave many a spindle and loom.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="OWN_GIRL" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">MY OWN LITTLE GIRL</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I’ve covered many and many a mile;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I’ve seen the setting of many a sun;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I have oft been charmed by the infant’s smile,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Pondering gladly life’s journey begun.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I’ve met with the great and small not a few;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I’ve sat at the feet of the learned knight,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I’ve stood on the stage with Gentile and Jew,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Addressing the throng by day and by night.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I’ve witnessed the way of the meek and wise,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Ah, the vanishing joy of the greedy;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And more has come under my eager eyes,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Seeing the re-filled cup of the needy.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But never a joy I’ve felt was my own—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Which bachelor old and maiden know not—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Is equal to that when I return home,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My humble home, yet delectable spot,</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And take to my heart my own little girl,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">All laughter and love—the joy of my life.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Right here let me rest, far away the mad whirl,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And feast on pure love, free from all strife.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span> - </div> -</div></div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="figleft"> - <img id="ARTENA" src="images/image033a.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="262" /> -</div> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">My own little girl,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My priceless pearl,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With dance of delight,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A musical sprite—</div> - <div class="verse indent4">My Artena.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">With hair of pure gold,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With heart never cold,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who learns with a zest,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And strives for the best—</div> - <div class="verse indent4">My Artena.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ten years old today—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And never to decay—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">May she aye be sweet,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And at length complete,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">My Artena.</div> - </div> -</div></div> - -<hr id="MY_BUTTERFLY" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">MY BUTTERFLY<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor"><small>[11]</small></a></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="BUTTERFLY" src="images/image033b.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="370" /> -</div> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">My Butterfly, my wondrous Butterfly,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Forsaking temple great, thou choosest me,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When form and burnished wings arrive—I see</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With joy, as ne’er before, thy glory nigh.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">We journey through the city, thou and I,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In store and street with joined hearts and free,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While men admire thy trust and amity,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But wonder not in thee, nor question why.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">At length thy wings bedecked with Heaven’s art,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Begin to wave, as Nature planned, and east</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou farest forth with grace, but to my heart</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou ever clingest still. Fly on and feast</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On nectar such as men have never wrought;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In thee is trust and love and, why not, thought?</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak"><i>Was That Somebody I?</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="figleft"> - <img id="SOMEBODY" src="images/image034a.jpg" alt="" width="100" height="140" /> -</div> -<div class="poetry2"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O child of hope, why left to go astray,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And rend this heart of mine?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Some one knew not, nor cared what ruthless way</div> - <div class="verse indent2">You wend—once babe benign—</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Was that somebody I?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><br />If God, with perfect heart, loved you, my child,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And to Jesus likened thee—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Why so favored first, now sad and wild?</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Who failed to love? Ah me!</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Was that somebody I?</div> - </div> -</div></div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">One said he loved the Christ and all of his;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">He read the Word and prayed;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Believed that one the cruel creed, “What is,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Is best?” And so you strayed—</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Was that somebody I?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">At home neglected, nowhere a faithful friend,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">You listless wandered on;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Till fool or knave declared: “You’re bad, your end</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Looms dark—a criminal born!”</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Was that somebody I?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Despised yet more—the Christ and thee—then crime!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">You bore with shame the chains!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Your training and your arts, in Hell’s own clime,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Went on with damning drains—</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Great Heaven! was it I?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Did I neglect you, child, my Father’s child,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I judge, and send you down?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Myself at ease, while you were curst, reviled—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">No aid gave I, no crown?</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Then Christ must pass me by!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/image034b.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="367" /> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span></p> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">MY SABBATH SERMON</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A growing mocker in a maple tree,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Poured forth first notes with youthful glee;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Like an untried poet born to sing,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">He’s proving gifts which fame will bring.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And musing on that Sabbath morn,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With body weary, heart forlorn,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The music of the blithesome bird</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Inspired my mind itself to gird</div> - </div> -</div></div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="SABBATH" src="images/image035.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="435" /> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">With faith and courage, hope and love,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Beguiling my heart to leap above.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis ever thus, some primal song</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Doth make us gentle, brave and strong;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And trustful too, till we can see</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With eyes of Him of Galilee—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sweet Sabbath notes from the amateur,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Which filled my soul with a speedy cure.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The bird will better sing, and I</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Shall carol sweetly by and by;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">After earth’s songs on vernal sod,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Then high above in the choir of God.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">What wondrous choir—how vast, how bright,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With suns and stars, and yet greater Light.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They also sing, as ever they shine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With a strength of love that is divine.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Yon rolling plain and mountain peak,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or surging sea and bounding creek;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or budding rose and lustrous star—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All bid us rise to an avatar,</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Above rich valley, and hill’s proud crest,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Above things seen to heaven’s best—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To perfect ones, with the angel throng,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O’er topless hills in endless song!</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">PILOT MOUNTAIN</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O Jomeokee, thou everlasting guide,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lifting high thyself, a tower strong</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For passing men, and deathless hills around;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For Yadkin and on-flowing Ararat,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Bathing thy feet in humblest gratitude;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy lofty head, embraced by cooling clouds,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Gives something forth that’s rich, and unto all—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O Pilot old, thy secret bare to me.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Tell me when thy origin and where;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What hidden womb ambitious gave thee birth;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Bear witness thou to all both seen and heard</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By thee from first to last; from primal man,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To Renfro Indian tribe, who spake thy praise</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In by-gone years, and poet last who sang</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy glory—O eternal Pilot speak!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">As mute thou art as mighty and sublime,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Like unto all that’s great and strong and good—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Forever still midst Surrey’s joyful hills;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet to men thou bringest a message deep;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To Indian, symbol of the Spirit Great;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To me, the varied, potent word of God.</div> - </div> -</div></div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="PILOT" src="images/image036.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="343" /> - <div class="blockquot2"> - <p class="center">A View of “Big Pinnacle” on Pilot Mountain, - in Surrey County, N. C.</p> - <p class="center">Picture by the Author.</p> -</div></div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Majestic lord of all, to thee on high,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The struggling towns appear as vying dwarfs;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The rivers like to circling, creeping snakes;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Valleys, rich and broad, thy gardens are</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Imperial—and all thine honors sing.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Sons of chiefs long vanquished played and danced</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Before thy face; again the fathers prayed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their plea ascending, swift as thought, to Him</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who guided Abram ’mongst Judean hills.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">What heart-breaks knowest thou of sire and son?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of lover and beloved, of hate and hope?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Deepest depths and uplift to the heights?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I hear the music of thy hidden heart,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sorrow’s song, in-wrought with joy that’s pure,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The process endless of the urging Cross—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A lofty peak of virtue and of peace</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Art thou, O Jomeokee!</div> - </div> -</div></div> - -<hr id="PRISON_LIFE" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">HER PRISON LIFE<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor"><small>[12]</small></a></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Her prison life was long and lone</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her kindred buried or unknown;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of naught had she kept any score,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In truth her mind deprived of lore,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But knew her grief to be her own.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Another heart had better grown,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Confessing murder had he sown;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“I did the deed, and I deplore</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her prison life.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But hope and heart and health had flown;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Why cares she now what winds are blown?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“I guess I’ll stay here as before,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My all is gone and evermore”—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her living death, one long-drawn moan,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her prison life.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="HERRERA" src="images/image038.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="658" /> - <div class="blockquot2"> - <p class="center">Photograph of a rare old painting by the Spanish artist, - Herrera, and owned by Dr. Andrew Anderson of St. Augustine, Fla.</p> -</div></div> - -<h2 class="nobreak">AURELIUS AUGUSTINUS</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O thou, immortal father,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Permit my spirit poor to rise with thine.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou didst ascend, high Heaven’s hero,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From thy soft bed of prayer at Hippo,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Centuries agone,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Very Vandals storming thy gates the while.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Victor art thou still, and higher,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">More mighty, honored more.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Amongst men thou didst eat</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of the tree of knowledge, good and evil—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">How human as boy and man!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet thou didst name thy first born,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In youth begotten of thine unlawful union,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Adeodatus, “a gift from God.”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Again and again thou didst strike</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For freedom from thy fetters and thy foes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Till thou hadst conquered,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Later painting thy life of lust</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In color like unto darkest night.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">With hungry heart and spirit high,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou oft didst delve into Cicero’s Hortentius,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And give thy faith to Manichaeus,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Seeking to know evil and its source—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The ever pressing problem, eternally inscrutable.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">After God all things good had made,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yea very good,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A fearless fool hath said,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“He turned Himself into the tempting serpent—”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Shocking diabolism!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Creators two?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Incredible, impossible.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Then it follows,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">One evil became.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But when and where; by whom and why?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With all this thou didst wrestle,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And more bitterly with thyself.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet thou didst give to God</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And all the ages</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy “Confession,” thine and mine;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy “De Natura et Gratia”—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The everlasting conflict;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Books fifteen on a single theme,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At once the highest and holiest,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The redeeming Trinity.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Many a tractate and treatise</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou didst leave to men.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">We bless thee for all this,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy holy heritage, O Augustine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">More brilliant than Ambrose,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of truth more jealous than Jerome,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">More profound than Gregory the Great;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The super-man of thy day and many,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou enthroned son of the Highest.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Beholding now thy form and face—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Master work of Herera’s hands,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Done a millennium after thy ascent,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A worshipful face toward the Holy Father’s,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With quill in thy skillful hand,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“The City of God”<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> - before thee,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My soul astir doth soar</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Toward thine and His.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Oft have I gazed and gloried,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Imaging thy topless, hallowed heights,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From deepest, darkest depths—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I too may rise; I will, O God, I will!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="INCOME_TAX" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">O THAT INCOME TAX!</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I struggled with mine till the midnight hour;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My head was that of a fool;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My losses and gains, they’re beyond my power,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And never the like was, in school.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">That minus sign was ever my foe</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From earliest years until now;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My modest income, and varied out-go—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">O they must be figured somehow!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I’ll tell you the truth, in the fear of the Lord,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I worried and went “sick abed;”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Six pages of puzzles and all a sworn word—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">“O where,” I sighed, “is my head?”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“If married,” or “single”—I failed to know:</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Nor dependent children could tell;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For never my mind received such a blow,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From such unexpected hell.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I always have cherished my Uncle Sam,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And thought he was oftenest right;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But flooded I was, nor a single dam</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To check my downward flight.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Exhausted I slept, nor just or unjust,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Resolving the next day to seek aid;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For when I awoke ’twas still, “you must</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Or penalty dire be paid.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">To the revenue clerk I took me straight,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And behold, as I looked, I heard</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A lot of fond fools at Uncle Sam’s gate,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Despairing like a caged bird.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The officer smiled, and I smiled out loud,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">For misery loves company;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the smiles were like beams that broke the cloud</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of impending, rank perjury.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The blanks I filled in from A to O,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">But omitted the “profits from sale”—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I once grew rich with a plow and hoe,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">When a whistling boy and hale.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In those olden days no kind of a tax</div> - <div class="verse indent2">For City or State revenue</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Was imposed on boys except a few whacks,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">But now they forever are due.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I swore and I signed and in full I paid</div> - <div class="verse indent2">That puzzling tax return;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Once more I laughed, and again I said,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">“’Tis always do, and you learn.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And now it is done, and thoroughly done,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Halleluia, I’ll get there yet;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But by all that’s good and true ’neath the sun,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I swear that folly to forget.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="FLORIDA" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">IN FLORIDA</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">They come from everywhere,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By land, by sea and air,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The old, the young and fair—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And all without a care,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In Florida.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Just pause, my friend, and see</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The multitudes that be</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O’er lovely shore and lea;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They reach from sea to sea,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In Florida.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Look at the aged one,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who shines like a little sun,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And feels himself undone,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">If he played not golf and won,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In Florida.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">His gouty feet must dance,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His eye will look askance,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And his mind make glad advance,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To reach five score, perchance,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In Florida.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Yes, let him have his wish</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To feel the line’s quick swish,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And catch his finest fish</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For his epicurean dish,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In Florida.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis here he makes the stride;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There’s nothing he can’t ride,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With a maiden by his side—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet a few things must he hide,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In Florida.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The birds and trees here sing;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The prigs and plants upspring,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And each gets in the swing,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With Nature all a-wing,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In Florida.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Behold, my friend, the youth,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The forward, the uncouth;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The gentle and their ruth,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The beauty and the truth,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In Florida.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">It’s like a moving stage,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The folk of every age;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No place nor cause for rage—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Even workless have their wage—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In Florida.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Then see the females all;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Alack! you rise or fall,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or else your heart forestall,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In this moving, magic ball,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In Florida.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">One great kaleidoscope,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From silk to dirt and dope,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From puppet to a pope,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">This passing throng of hope,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In Florida.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="TWO_ORPHANS" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">TWO LITTLE ORPHANS</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Two orphans in the world are left,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A brother and sister sighing;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Two Vireos aggrieved, bereft,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Two little orphans crying.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="ORPHANS" src="images/image042.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="333" /> - <p class="center">By the Author.</p> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Close clinging to their cheerless nest,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Two little birds are trying</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To call back joys of mother’s breast,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A mother, lifeless lying.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">God’s two-fold plan for making song—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Some fiend the while defying—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And man’s two friends their whole life long;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Two little orphans crying.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">No answer comes, save from the King,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A King who’s aye supplying</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The needs of the great and smallest thing—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His little orphans crying.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="TROUBLE" src="images/image043.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="359" /> - <p class="center">By Courtesy of Briscoe and Arnold.</p> -</div> - -<h2 class="nobreak">TROUBLE AND PLAY</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">It’s trouble and gladness from first to the last,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ere joy is quite vanquished some sorrow comes fast;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet while old Calamity’s having his way,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For one that’s in trouble, there are others at play.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">What is play to the pup is grief to the child;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What is fun for the boy makes mother go wild;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Some deeds of the mother cause angels to weep;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While God smiles over all, and all He doth keep.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="SURPRISES" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">SOME SMALL SURPRISES</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">We never foreknow, but our hearts were a-glow,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The hearts of Artena and I,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As we walked to and fro by the waters a-flow,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The waters in “the land of the sky.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The children see true—they generally do—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The charming things all around;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I followed her view, and I presently knew</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A Tanager’s nest was found.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The boys advanced, as soon as they glanced,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And down came the limb of a tree;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thus fortune chanced, while little hearts danced,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With four wee fledglings to see.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">With noisy protest, and tumult and zest,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The camera captured all four.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Twas the parents’ sure test—they forsook the nest,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Though birdlings a-weeping sore!</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I began to weep, in my heart quite deep,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When the babes kept up their cry;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I ran up the steep like a deer in a leap,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For the best bird food supply.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">They reached and they tried; they ate and they cried,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Till the four had eaten their fill;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The mother aside still motherhood belied,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the heart in me struggled still.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I learned in my youth, an old, new truth;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Mongst men and beasts and birds,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Some grow uncouth, nor ever show ruth;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And for fools waste not your words.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Filled oft to the beak, as the days made a week,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The fledglings and I were friends,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And over the creek the folk came to speak</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of their beauty, their cuteness and ends.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And all the hearts right grew more tender and bright,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As the Tanagers grew apace;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And those of insight, said, “The birds have a right</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To partake of our friendly grace.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="UNIVERSAL" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE RHYTHM UNIVERSAL</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Give me thy music, O most musical One,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The rhythm that rolls from yonder cycling sun;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yea more, as heart and soul of all that’s good,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy nature gave in vaster plenitude;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nor time will ever be when thy glad stars</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Will cease to sing as one in rhythmic bars;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nor conscious sons of God go shouting joy;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nor woodland birds of song their loved employ.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent6">It’s in the very heart of things;</div> - <div class="verse indent6">It’s in our bounds and sweeps and swings;</div> - <div class="verse indent6">It’s in the tree and rose that springs—</div> - <div class="verse indent6">All Nature sings—— and—— sings.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The heart of man, his coursing blood through veins;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The very breath of life, his thoughts and reins;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His dreams, devotions, deeds, his all, O soul,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or great or small beneath divine control.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The gracious seasons roll in mighty numbers;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The snow, the sleet but falls, that He who slumbers</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Not may again awake the earth to life</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And stay, for man and all, the winter’s strife.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The raging storm, the great earthquake and war</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Are music bound, if we but see afar;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From heart of heav’n to heart of hell—ah yes;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The prince of darkness is beset, not less—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis bars and feet, far-reaching leaps and falls,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Through light not seen in His momentous calls.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Consider Job—upright but proud—at last,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By grinding fate, by every woe held fast,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">He turned to highest hills and King of all;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And never more asked he, “<i>why such a fall?</i>”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">It was the rhythm of God through stops of sin;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Twas His own anthems deep, without, within.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Our Pilgrim fathers, banished by the fates,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Brought out of many ills the United States;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And through each crisis great of all known time,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis God in love; ’tis music full sublime.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">At last the Lamb and Lion in song shall join;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Child and Wolf eternal riches coin;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Night shall sing to Day, and Day to Him,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who receives the plaudits of the seraphim.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="FAIRIES" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE STONE CROSSES<br /> AND THE FAIRIES</h2> - -<p class="blockquot">(In Patrick County, Virginia, little stone -crosses have been found and are yet obtainable. Jewelers of Roanoke -and Martinsville, Va., assure inquirers that the Virginia “Fairy” or -“Lucky” stones, discovered nowhere else in the world, have been a -puzzle to scientists, and are being worn by some of the crowned heads -of Europe. A bulletin of the U. S. Geological Survey speaks of them as -“the most curious mineral found in the United States,” and calls them -Staurolite or Fairy Stones.) </p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In Virginia’s historic hills around a hallowed spot,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There was born a mystic legend which ne’er shall be forgot;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A story true to Nature and to One without a blot—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The divinest story of old!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">For glory bright is round it, which has softened many a heart,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A tale of wise and saintly ones, in universal art;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A story mightiest with men now and ever mighty part</div> - <div class="verse indent0">It played in the races of old.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">We yet believe that angels must have wept and good men sighed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When Gallilee’s great Son with hateful spite was crucified;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But who would ever dream the fairy spirits were allied</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In Heaven’s great scheme of old?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet when these blithesome fays were dancing by a mountain spring,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ere the days of Pocahontas and Powhattan, the fearless King,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In union with the naiads, an elfin, swift of wing,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Came weeping from the East, of old.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The story sad he told of Christ, the Saviour, and His Cross;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Then joy and laughter sudden ceased, and grieving for their loss,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They shed their tears upon the pebbles and on the velvet moss—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A heaven moved grief of old.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And lo, when they had flown from the enchanted spring and ground,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Just where the tears had fallen on the pebbles lying round,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Fairy stony crosses by the thousand there were found,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sweet Nature’s crosses of old.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="CROSSES" src="images/image046.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="350" /> - <p class="center">Note the crosses in this clod of earth.</p> - <p class="center">Photographed in Patrick County, Va.</p> -</div> - -<hr id="SUN_FLOWER" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE SUN FLOWER</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis the flower that looms and turns to pure gold,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yes, the flower that loves, and is loved the best;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For it plans from the first—this is love’s true test—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To give forth its riches to young and to old.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">It o’er reaches men high with its shining crest,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet never in climbing unduly bold—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis the flower that looms and turns to pure gold,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yes, the flower that loves, and is loved, the best.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The Gold Finches arrive as its petals unfold,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the Cardinal’s joy is manifest,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As groom gives to bride the jolly behest</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To feast on its wealth and in her heart to hold</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The flower that looms and turns to pure gold,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yes, the flower that loves, and is loved, the best.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">COLONEL DIAMOND AND<br /> GRAND-DAUGHTER</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I would like to attain to my four score and two,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With a joy in my heart and with naught to efface,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Could I dance, or could sing with an energy true,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Could I lighten the load of the populace.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I’d run out in the open for Nature’s embrace,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With a mind ever high, yet my feet on the sod;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While my soul would be set to the music of grace,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With the heart of a child and the gifts of a god.</div> - </div> -</div></div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="COLONEL" src="images/image047.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="401" /> - <p class="center">Photograph taken when he was<br /> 82 years of age.</p> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">My pursuit would be learning the old and the new;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And whenever I could I would Psyche’s wings chase!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I would speak of high art with my privileged few,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And persuade men below to the nobler race;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In the faith I’d rejoice that the world grows apace.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I would skip on the mountain, or valley’s dull clod,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Having plenty and power, or only an ace,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With the heart of a child and the gifts of a god.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I would rather, like Diamond, all the way through,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Either poor, or unknown, or with glorious mace,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Make somebody happy—ah, many and you!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the love of a child with my love interlace;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yes, content with my lot, and the righteous ukase.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I would work and I’d play, but never more plod;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A glad song in my heart, and a smile on my face,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With the heart of a child and the gifts of a god.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent15"><big><b>Envoy</b></big></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Here’s to Diamond’s health, to the grand-daughter’s grace;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They are under love’s sway, which surpasses the rod;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">So united and happy in every place,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With the heart of a child and the gifts of a god.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE WILD WOOD</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">How wonderful the wild wood,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The fresh sweet wood with its hush.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Silent, my soul! Take thou the mood</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of Veery and of Thrush,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Way out in the wild wood.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Give ear to hymn of oak and pine;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Drink, my soul, drink deep;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The master Muse would make it thine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But who can fully know the sweep</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of music of the wild wood?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Each tree sings low an old, new song,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Softest lay of life and love;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Unmarred by the daring, prattling throng</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of rushing men—like a dove</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My soul in the wild wood.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The honeysuckle and wild rose—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Purity and balm a-bloom—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Refresh my heart and they transpose</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My hungry mind to richer room</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And food in the wild wood.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The violets with their upward look,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The stones beneath my feet,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Make one and all an open book;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah, the meditations meet,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With God in the wild wood.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">At length the sun puts on pure gold;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The birds and breezes softer sing,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">List! all, within this shrine of old,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Chime symphonies to the King—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">High mass in the wild wood!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="WILDWOOD" src="images/image048.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="419" /> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span></p> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE BEGINNING OF THINGS</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The beginning of things, the first of all men—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">It fascinates me, and I’ve wondered when</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And what and how the beginning of things.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Jehovah the first, and Jehovah the last,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But the wisest must think very deep and fast,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To fix in his mind the first of all things.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">All creatures began in the heavens and earth;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The sun and the moon and star had a birth;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But when and where the beginning of things?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Not yet is the answer, but I hope somewhere,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With Christ and his saints and seraphim fair,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To know more about the advent of things;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">To get better acquainted with Adam the first,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To learn the true source of his deepest thirst,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The wonderful truth of the beginning of things—</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The beginning of thought, and the primals of love;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">How a reptile became the soft cooing dove,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And whence the beginning of all present things;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The ape-grunt to a word, and that word a vast tongue,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And whence the sweet music of mankind has sprung;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who struck the first note in the beginning of things?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis an evolution great, and a marvel to me,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But never have I prayed to our father up a tree;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Aye, no man yet since the origin of things.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The Alpha, Omega, the First, Last and Whole,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who, from the small first, had foreseen the vast goal,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">He only knows now the beginning of things.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But will He not somewhere permit me to know,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">If I go on with Him in the eternal flow,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The satisfying truth of the first of all things?</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="END_THINGS" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE END OF THINGS</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The aim of the heavens, the end of the earth—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What a measureless sweep, what a mighty girth,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From the far off first to the end of all things!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The end of the rose, which fades in a day,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The purpose of the plant an age on the way—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I dream of Beauty in the end of things.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The end of all men, and the end of myself,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From the artist great to the smallest elf,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Our thoughts and our deeds in the end of things.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The fate of the infants who die without ken,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of their growth and knowledge, God’s super-men—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What developments vast in the end of things!</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The issue of thousands and millions of slain,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The end of all wars, and the victor’s sure gain—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There’s a league worth while, toward the end of things;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A league of the nations, the long coming star</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The prophets of old fore-glimpsed from afar,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A brotherhood true toward the close of things.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The last of the martyr, who passed with a prayer,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The last for the felon, who died in despair—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All good and all ill in the end of things?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">We know but in part, yet co-workers are we</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In a scheme as complete as eternity—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In the far off final, and fulfillment of things.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">It delights one to think, we’re only in school,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That our joys and our woes do not mean mis-rule,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In God’s plan for the race to the end of things.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In this purpose of His the rose will uncover;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In its family great we’ll at length discover</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The sweet Rose of Sharon, the completion of things;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In the plants by the waters, that quicken and die,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But give out their riches unstinted, nor sigh,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Lily of the Valley, the Goal of all things.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The song of the Thrush and of plaintive Nightingale</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Will merge with the Master’s glorious “all hail,”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In harmony perfect in the end of things.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">St. John, the inspired, saw horses in heaven,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And I love to believe even they will be given</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Some happier part in the end of all things.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The best of our words and our ways here forgot</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Will be gathered and treasured in a hallowed lot,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Exalted in place at the end of things—</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">God’s men as the angels and angels as men,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah, the little child too shall be received then,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In love of the Highest, in the end of all things.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="JUNCO" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">WHEN THE JUNCO COMES</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The Junco comes when warblers go,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When leaves lay dead by a dauntless foe;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ay, winter plans with all his might</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To put in a grave the heart’s delight,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And cover all with a shroud of snow.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But seasons have a rhythmic flow,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With good in each, and this I know,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Through storm and sleet, in cheerful flight,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Junco comes.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">This bonny bird has faith to show</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To faithless mortals, fearing woe,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">How the changeless One, with a changing light</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Fore-plans for bird and man aright;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With autumn gone and winter here—lo,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Junco comes!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="J_B_JACKSON" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">JAMES BRADLEY JACKSON</h2> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="neg-indent">(Written beside his grave in Lake City, Fla., -where he was buried after a tragic death, February 8, 1868, by railroad -accident.</p> - -<p class="neg-indent">Dr. Lovick Pierce, when in his prime, once -facetiously remarked to several opposing preachers: “My brethren, you -had better let brother Jackson alone. He has the most metaphysical mind -of any man in Georgia, myself only excepted.”</p> - -<p class="neg-indent">Rev. W. J. Scott, D. D., in “Biographic Etchings” -says of contemporary ministers: “Not one of them was his equal as a -theologian or logician.”</p> - -<p class="neg-indent">The late Dr. W. J. Cotter, of Newnan, Ga., wrote: -“Your father was a great and good man.”)</p> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Father, O my father!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Attend unto the cry</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of this, thy son,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And, though long silent and invisible,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Speak thou to me.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I stand with uncovered head,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Neath giant water oaks,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy sleepless body-guard,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Supporting emblems of eternal mourning,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The clinging mosses at half mast,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nature’s weepers;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Now still, now softly chanting, now waving,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While sympathetic zephyrs flow,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And give them kiss of comfort as they pass—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Calling all, like my hungry heart,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For thee!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Victimized thy body,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy very bones were mangled,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Long since done to dust,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Exalted dust, once indwelt by Deity,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Assuring foretaste of higher life.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In towering oak a mocking-bird doth sing,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Not doleful dirge,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nor requiem for the hopeless dead,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But sonatas pure sings he of life and love,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">This receiving and out-giving Psyche of every wandering note,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Sidney Lanier ’mongst birds of the sunny South,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His own “trim Shakespeare on a tree”—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The oak, the moss, the bird and I,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Above all Jehovah, the life of all,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Proclaim thee ever-living,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And glorified.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I cry unto thee, ascended sire;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hearest thou me?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Conscious of thy child’s communion?</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Meetest thou me as son or spirit?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yea; closer now than as tender offspring of thy loins,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I sat upon thy knee, inquirer and receiver,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In the long ago.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet fettered I by frailties of the flesh,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With poor and halting language of mortal men,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Miserable makeshift, the spirit’s aphasia,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">This spoken or written word—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I will fight through fetters all and fly!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mine is the inarticulate cry of love,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Plea of a son’s aspiring heart.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Made more and more apt and musical</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By what thou wast and art,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">During all thy crowning years.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Again I see thy imaged face, O master man;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy penetrating eye, that reads from soul to soul—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Stern, inflexible;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet merciful thou, and gentle with men.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I wonder what thou hast become;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What thoughts, what plans, achievements now?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But three short months in a fourth-rate school,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At twenty spelling and struggling on</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Through the Book Divine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Making marvelous mistakes and ludicrous—<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></div> - <div class="verse indent0">What man or angel climbed from less to more?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What god?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Once teacher, tender, patient, firm;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A preacher powerful of the Gospel everlasting;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">College president; thinker, deep and rare,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Holding and molding many from thy conquered heights!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Whose soul ever sang oratorios</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sweeter, richer in the hierarchy of</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Being and becoming?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who ever possessed more wondrous will,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Power uppermost in God and man?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou didst express God-begotten longing</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To return and be guide to some lone, weary one—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">It is I—prayer proven.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Oft and again thy fond fatherhood,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">One with the eternal Father,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who sends forth His spirits as ministers,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Has converted my weakness into strength,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My loneliness to fellowship free,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My doubt and darkness to lovely light,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My cup of bitterness to blessing—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What father still, and guardian angel thou!</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy spirit ineluctable</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lives, and reigns, and rises ever;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Delving deeper, more divinely</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Into glories of love and service;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">High above the maddening marts of men,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of dire machines, for murder built,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That sow and reap the woes of war.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O immortal man, high grown saint and prophet,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Beloved father, I come—ere long, I come!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Even now and here, earth-bound as I am, I rise</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To meet and greet thee,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In God’s pure heights,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And thine!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="MANSION" src="images/image053.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="383" /> - <div class="blockquot2"> - <p class="center">This old mansion in Stokes County, N. C., was seven - years in being built by its owner, Col. John Martin, who was the - great-grandfather of Judge W. P. Bynum of Greensboro, N. C.<br /> Photo by - the Author.</p> -</div></div> - -<hr id="COLONIAL" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">A STORY OF COLONIAL TIMES</h2> - -<p class="center">(With a historical basis never before published.)</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ride back, my children, in the chariot of Time,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A hundred and sixty-five years;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And we’ll join a fond father, a hero sublime—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A maiden is pleading in tears!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">She was seized by the Tories at a bold mountain spring,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Soon after refusing her heart,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To one who belonged to the enemy’s ring,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A foreign and haughty up-start.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Away thru the mountains they carried the maid</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To their secret and darksome den;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And there the pure daughter of Martin was laid,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The captive of merciless men.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="RIBBED" src="images/image054.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="374" /> - <div class="blockquot2"> - <p class="center">The “rock ribbed pen” in which Miss Martin was placed by - the Tories.<br /> Photograph by author.</p> -</div></div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">She’s pleading with them, but her cries are in vain;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They’ve bound her secure and fast;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And vowed she should never see Martin again—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the lover, “You’re mine at last.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Her sleep has departed, her food is refused,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But unto the Father she prayed;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While the body of thieves are greatly amused,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Near a glowing fire they’ve made.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A brave of the friendly Saura tribe</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Soon heard of the stolen girl;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To Martin he went without thought of a bribe,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With plans that proved him no churl.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">To the top of his mansion the father flew,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A mansion of solid gray stone;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">It’s standing yet—and ’twas years that it grew—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A tower defiant, though lone.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The two anxious men looked near and afar,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And at length a glimmer was seen,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A gleam far away, like a dim fallen star,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A token of promising sheen.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A compass was set, that infallible guide;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At sunrise it pointed the way,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When the father and friend, alert by his side,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Made a silent, complete survey.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">While they searched through the wood some fragments were found,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Torn threads of a girl’s scarlet shawl,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lying hither and yon on the virgin ground—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Faint hope of success was all.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Now at length a full score of Tories is spied,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At the mouth of their cave with guns—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“Down, still!” said Martin, “a moment we’ll hide,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Then away for our friends and our sons.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Two score are secured and each man is well armed;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They approach the Tories’ dark cave;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But the thieves are alert as well as alarmed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Before men so mighty and brave.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Quick shots are exchanged—the maiden still prays;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All the Tories but three take flight,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And these are bound fast, and in Heaven’s own ways,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There’s rapture and holy delight.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah, ne’er such a kiss and ne’er such embrace,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Twixt Martin and only daughter;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For the gold of the hills, and the wealth of the race,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Could not, for all, have bought her.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The Tories still flee, the seven and ten,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pursued thru the Sauratown hills,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Till the last is destroyed or safe in a pen,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the lovers had a feast that fills.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="MONEY" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">CUM ON WID YER<br /> MONEY FUR ME</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I’m pore an’ bline, but I shore kin sing;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And I lubs to hear dat silver ring,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">So cum on wid yer money fur me.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Yer knows, white folks, a nigger’s pore chance;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">An’ de best I kin do is ter sing an’ dance;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Now cum on wid yer money fur me.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Fill up dat cup an’ run hit ober,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">An’ I’ll be full like a sheep in de clober;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">So cum on wid yer money fur me.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Dar neber wuz er pull like de money pull,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">An’ meny’s bin de day since mer cup wuz full—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O cum on wid yer money fur me!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">While mer song do er about like ole Jim Crow,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yer hearts will be happy an’ oberflow,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ef yer cum on wid yer money fur me.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">So cum er-long, cum er long an stan’ er round;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Let smiles on ebery face be found,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">An’ cum on wid yer money fur me.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">While I’se jes a nigger, pore an’ bline,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dis shore am de song of yore race an’ mine;</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>O cum on wid yer money fur me!</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="TAMPA" src="images/image056.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="346" /> - <p class="center">Snapped by the Author in Tampa, Fla.</p> -</div> - -<hr id="GOOD_EVIL" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">GOOD OUT OF EVIL</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O God of power great and endless love,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While dwelling in immensity above.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On highest throne of all, of life and light;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet comest down thou gently in thy might,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To succor of the low and heavy laden,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And on thou leadest to a peaceful haven.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis ever thine to bring forth love from hate,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O Christ, eternal Wisdom, incarnate;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All good from evil, health from all our pain;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From darkness light—so be it always plain</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To men and devils: <i>Thou alone art king</i>;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And highest in all worlds thy praises ring!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Afar Thou dost foresee the certain end.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And cause the strife of nations mad to bend</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their worst, their artful plan and utmost deed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To bless thine own and be thy servant’s meed;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Rich peace from war; high Heaven from utter hell;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O what a God is ours—let angels tell!</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">CHRISTMAS</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ho, children, ho!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Ring loud the bells,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In town and dells;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And gladly go,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thru ice and snow,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">For mistletoe,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With merry bells!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Come, welcome Santy,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In his reindeer sleigh,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On the King’s highway—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">He’s never scanty—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">So children, ho!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">For mistletoe,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With jingling bells!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Of Christ we’ll sing,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With glad acclaim,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And steadfast aim,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His praises ring—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O children, go,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">For mistletoe,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With joyful bells!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Come young, come old!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Those only live</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who love to give,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With hearts of gold,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All people, ho!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">For mistletoe,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With dancing bells!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="MISTLETOE" src="images/image057.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="265" /> - <p class="center">MISTLETOE.<br /> Photo by the Author.</p> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span></p> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">MRS. JOSEPHINE F. HAMILL<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor"><small>[15]</small></a></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">When I see her face to face,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At home a-front the rolling sea,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A buoyant tide of life flows over me,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With quickened, joyful pace.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A breath from perfumed hills I inbreathe</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That is purer than the breeze</div> - <div class="verse indent6">From sun-lit seas;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And I perceive a beauty incarnate,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Not far below the gifted gods,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Who for others mediate,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">And to men bequeathe</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The best from Him immaculate.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent6">She is a symphony,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A living, moving harmony,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where doomed discord would rampant be;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Face to be studied like Art’s masterpiece, and more,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For somehow it charms one beyond self and toil and the beaten shore.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent6">If I cannot tell,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Nor explain the spell,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">In my own heart’s depths</div> - <div class="verse indent10">I know why</div> - <div class="verse indent0">She has eyes that image, please and edify.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In smiles which come and go and quick return,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I feel the ebb and flow of a fuller Fount and vaster,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">The symbols visible of unseen verities,</div> - <div class="verse indent10">For which I yearn,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And those high born, universal sympathies,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pouring ever forth from the highest Master.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Her altruistic thoughts and every word,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Like the spontaneous out-burst of a joy-filled bird,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Looking near and far to lighten human needs—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">More fruitful than Pomona are her deeds—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All these point to heights where one’s transferred,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Softly, safely, faster.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Her life is one of many links and spans,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Unbroken and unbreakable—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For joyless mortals joy unspeakable—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Forged links, not made with human hands,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In mystery joining together heaven and earth,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Till the day of fullness and our greatest birth,</div> - <div class="verse indent12">Day of fulfillment,</div> - <div class="verse indent12">And at-one-ment.</div> - <div class="verse indent16">And then?</div> - <div class="verse indent16"><i>Ah Then!</i></div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">A CHICK’S CRY</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">At lone midnight, with only the light</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of stars across my bed,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And on my wakeful head,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I prayed for sight, or note though slight,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of moving melody.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">’Twas then I heard the call of a bird,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A soft, pathetic cry;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">It seemed to ask: “Oh, why,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My pleading word is not yet heard,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And I forsaken be?”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A motherless chick, and my heart grew quick;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My youngest, sleeping, dreaming girl,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With tender heart and eye like pearl,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Had played love’s trick, when hale or sick,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A devoted mother she.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">With night’s last wane, I heard life’s strain—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A woodland warbler’s song.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The child arose ere long</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With love so fain; I caught again</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Rich rhythm of amity.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The chick’s cry ceased—’twas now a feast,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And note of joy it spoke</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To the motherly master-stroke—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Glory in the east for the very least,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And smiled the Deity.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">On man’s wide sea there come to me</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Still deeper wails; oh, hark!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The children cry—’tis dark!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah, when shall we on earth decree</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Divinest ecstasy?</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="KID_COP" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE KID AND THE COP<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor"><small>[16]</small></a></h2> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="KID-COP" src="images/image059.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="445" /> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">He came to a stop, from the hailing cop,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The Kid ’neath the apple tree;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And then the cop went “over the top,”</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Pronouncing his decree.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Oh yes, ha, ha, a thief you are!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Come tell me quick your name;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Your fun I’ll mar without a scar,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And scribble it down—for fame.”</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcontainer"> - <div class="figsub"> - <img src="images/image060a.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="370" /> - </div> - <div class="figsub"> - <img src="images/image060b.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="372" /> - </div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The Kiddie smiled, like a guileless child;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">“Have one, it’s awfully nice.”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thus reconciled, the cop grew mild,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Beholding the Kid’s device.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcontainer"> - <div class="figsub"> - <img src="images/image060c.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="381" /> - </div> - <div class="figsub"> - <img src="images/image060d.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="371" /> - </div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">He seized with joy the fruit and boy,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With both of them enraptured;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“You human toy, you’re some decoy,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">For now you have me captured.”</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE OVER-FAVORED AND<br /> THE CHANCELESS CHILD</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The favored child was loved indeed</div> - <div class="verse indent2">By father, mother, city and state—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All glad to give the highest meed,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The child they’ve blest both soon and late.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Another child did men berate,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And now and then they brought to shame;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">They saw and caused a cruel Fate</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To damn this child with a felon’s name.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The happy child of Fortune’s breed</div> - <div class="verse indent2">For mind and body had fullest plate;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of noble flesh, an elect seed,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The child they’ve blest both soon and late.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The chanceless child they chose to hate,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To hinder hands that would reclaim—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Ah, even moved some magistrate</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To damn this child with a felon’s name.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The well-led boy should take the lead,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Have free and ever a high estate—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Twas rank injustice to impede</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The child they’ve blest both soon and late.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The wayward child could ne’er be great,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And so ’twas meet his mind to flame,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And just his doom to accelerate,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To damn this child with a felon’s name.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent13"><big><b>Envoy</b></big></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">They all sped him to Heaven’s gate,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The child they’ve blest both soon and late.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the godless waif? ’Twas Hell’s deep aim,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To damn this child with a felon’s name.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="SLANDERER" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE SLANDERER</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Of all things vile beneath the sky,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By night or day that creep or fly;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The spider, bedbug, hated louse;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or close-coiled rattler, gnawing mouse;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The buzzard, skunk, or murderous mink,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hyena mean, whose eye doth blink—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Wherever one may rest or wander,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The vilest he who breedeth slander.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The rattler warns you—jump or run,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or give him battle with stick or gun!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The skunk offends you—let him go;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">He takes his choice ’twixt friend and foe.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The blackest buzzards often use</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Some others’ victim or refuse.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Bedbugs—Bah! Such creeping things</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Do basely vex; still we are kings.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Hyenas are caged or far away;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The mice entrapped by night and day.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But Slanderer’s base and slimy word</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Is fouler far than beast or bird.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Infectious doubt injects he first,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And defamation’s not his worst;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His victim says: “I’m stript of fame;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">If felon then, I’ll play the game.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Thus some decide; and who may tell</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The dirty depths of this fiend of hell?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And there he’ll go, upwept, unsung—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The vilest monster yet unhung!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="EGOTIST" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE WORLD’S GREATEST<br /> EGOTIST</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">He made his earth, and scaled his lofty sky;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">He spread abroad his universal sea;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">He climbed his visioned mountains, towering high,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The cause and course of Wisdom he’d decree.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">’Gainst man’s accurst and weary, ill-formed world,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">All rent apart by fools and their divisions,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His burning anathemas he ever hurled,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His direst doom, and his divine decisions.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">No other man, through years and cycles run,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Was bold enough to say: “God is dead”;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of all great men, philosopher but one,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thyself, alone, and madness seized thy head!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O thou, most blatant babbler, Friedrich Nietzsche,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">How thou didst snuffle—how thou didst sneeze thee!</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">LITTLE RIVER ROYAL</h2> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="RIVER" src="images/image063.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="358" /> - <p class="center">NEW RIVER, FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA.<br /> - Snap Shot by the Author.</p> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Close nestling on thy bosom, all dreamy and serene,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy charms I feel in all their flood, and never ending scheme;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy gifts so manifold are of fullest life and love;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Contented guests within three live as in the air above.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I hear thy praises chorused in the king-fisher’s rattle,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In giant alligator sigh, who prefers his peace to battle;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">He sinks beneath thy bosom in perfect ease and calm,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And there within thy shielding heart he sings his grateful psalm</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The mullet and the tarpon, the swift and tremulous trout,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dash eagerly to mount thy wave, and lithely splash about,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To manifest their joy in thee and their abounding life,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">So glad bestowed on them by thee, so free from doubtful strife.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The mocking-bird and robin both join their sweetest song</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With the lowly rune of river flow, alluring, deep and long;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The eagle-hawk doth watch thee with close, unblinking eye,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And for his profit plunges swift, then soars up toward the sky.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The trim blue heron in thy waves doth lave his weary feet;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From thy cooling water takes his food and feels himself complete</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And thou art ever ready to let the mallard ride,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And comfort, too, the mourning dove, who slumbers by thy side.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">That charming bird, the cardinal, in his imperial red,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Himself in thee doth contemplate, and unto thee is wed.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And legion are thy lovers—a noble stream thou art!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And all the more thou givest free the richer is thy part.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The palm and the palmetto, the lily, dainty sweet,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their homage humbly before thee bring, and lay it at thy feet;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The water oak that thirsteth, towering long-leaf pine</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Drink gratefully thy water pure and sing a praise that’s thine.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah, way-worn mortals turn to thee to worship and abide;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The white winged boats are drawn to thee on every swelling tide;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For thru thy whole long journey it’s always give and give—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What a multitude of creatures thou dost make to live!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">At last thyself thou givest wholly to out-spreading bay;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">It beareth thee to shining sea—how wonderful thy way!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With parting kiss to earth, thou risest to thirsty sun,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who praiseth thee and hasteth thee—another race to run.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="GIVE_BOTH" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">GIVE ME BOTH</h2> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="WATER" src="images/image064a.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="502" /> - <p class="center">The nearest water supply to the Tories’ Den.</p> - <p class="center">(See pages 53-55).<br /> Photo by Author.</p> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The glad wild hills,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With rushing rills,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Are clothed with glory—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The old, old story,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Yet new,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In the everlasting hills.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In mountain majesties,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And highborn ecstasies,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Fresh strength may be,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And balm for me</div> - <div class="verse indent6">And you,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In the glad, wild hills.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Then in surf and sea,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With youthful glee—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While waves are dashing,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And swimmers splashing</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Around</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In the ever-changing sea;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">With wavelets dancing,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The tide advancing;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Breezes kissing—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Ah, no one missing</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Life’s bound,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In the wild waves of the sea.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="MANIFOLD" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">MANIFOLD BEAUTY AND THE MAN</h2> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/image064b.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="364" /> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">It is beautiful to be young,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">When youth grows wise at length;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">It is beautiful to be strong,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With gentleness in strength.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">It is beautiful to grow old,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">When the heart remaineth young;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">It is beautiful to be brave,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">When mercy’s note is sung.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">It is beautiful to be good,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">If filled with knowledge true;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And service is beautiful,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">When service maketh new.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">There is beauty in men’s laugh,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">When laugh the pure in heart;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">It is beautiful to be bright,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With wit for noblest art.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis beautiful to see the sun,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And Nature in her courses run;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The wild and healing mountains,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And overflowing fountains;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Her blue unbounded sky,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Which oceans glorify—</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Her silver spray of waterfall;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Eternal rocks, both large and small;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The heavenly hue</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of diamond dew,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">On sun-kissed flower,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In morn’s high hour.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Beauteous to see the sunset’s glory;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">God’s secret read in the deep-laid story;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The sleep of butterfly,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From death to life and why;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Jehovah’s predilection,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In every resurrection.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">How beauteous in music of the stars to lave,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With song of the sea from ever rolling wave,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And note of woodland thrush,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Which gives the heart its hush;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Pipe of oriole—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">O Beauty of the whole!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In sweet, divine content,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">May mortals ever sing,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The anthems of the soul,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The beauties of the King.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah, Beauty is for all,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">If Truth but disenthrall—,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O, yes, ’tis Heaven’s plan,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For Beauty in the man.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">CHIMNEY ROCK<a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor"><small>[17]</small></a></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Mysterious offspring, rugged son of Fire,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Born from the depths before the birth of years,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When burdened mothers would not grieve nor tire,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And fathers all forbade the cringing fears;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But listened there some one with painful ears,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the mighty throes foredoomed some heart to pine.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But seen, thy solid form and brow so fine—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah, then, who dares to feebly pine or mock?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Men drink, for forthwith flows a mystic wine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When they thy glory see, eternal Chimney Rock.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="CHIMNEY" src="images/image066.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="461" /> - <p class="center">Photo by the Author.</p> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Of mountains round about thee some rise higher,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet none of them, both near and far, thy peers;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And none of them are led to hate and ire;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I rather think they greet thee with good cheers;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy plaudits ring from a multitude of seers,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For thou dost serve for all as Nature’s shrine.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What cynic looks, and yields his pent-up whine?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At once he joins the throng which round thee flock;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No mountain, man or god could thee decline,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When they thy glory see, eternal Chimney Rock.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I trust I know and love thy primal Sire,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But purer love and lore when twilight clears,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When men and I shall climb a nobler spire,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And all of hate and horror disappears,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With wail and woe of war and cruel spears;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When wolf and lamb shall side by side recline—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O, be it mine to stand secure, yes mine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Without the thought of harm or deadly shock,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In that glad day and time, as ever thine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When they thy glory see, eternal Chimney Rock.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent15"><big><b>Envoy</b></big></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">How humble the stream-fed valleys round thee twine;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">How praiseful, too, as deep they interline</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy mates so high, more constant than a clock—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On thee the very gods come down to dine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When they thy glory see, eternal Chimney Rock!</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE ELEPHANT DANCE</h2> - -<div class="figleft"> - <img id="ELEPHANT" src="images/image067a.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="144" /> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">While reaching for sixty I played a child’s game,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But I leaped to the front in the elephant dance.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From earliest years overlooked by Fame,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While reaching for sixty I played a child’s game.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Old dignified friends, who are more or less lame,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Think me monstrous and strange, in search of mischance—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While reaching for sixty I played a child’s game,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But I leaped to the front in the elephant dance.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="YET_GREAT" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">LEAST YET GREATEST</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">We long for thy kingdom, O little child,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy kingdom of trust with a reign so mild;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No soaring eagle e’er mounted such crest,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As thou, high enthroned on thy fond mother’s breast;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And, like the sweet song of some innocent bird</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy cooing is Love reaching after a word.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="SHIP_CHURCH" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">OLD SHIP CHURCH</h2> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/image067b.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="351" /> - <div class="blockquot2"> - <p class="center">Old Ship Church, (First Parish), Hingham, Mass., built - in 1681, said to be the oldest church in the United States, - where continuous services have been held.</p> -</div></div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Be mine thy throb of pulsing heart, Old Ship,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When sermon, song and prayer were wont to hold</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And guide the fathers, pioneers of old;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The men who held the truth with steadfast grip—</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Thine own appeal to God from heart and lip,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Inspired by earnest men, who ne’er cajoled,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who sang their hymns within that saintly fold,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With all their worship free from vulgar slip.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Old Ship, the Church, that made the ship of State,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who trained aright thy maidens and thy lads,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And lived thy simple life, all free from fads,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou madest America beloved and great.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sail on, Old Ship, and sweep the farthest sea,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And save the souls of men eternally.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="PRESS" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">TO THE MEN OF<br /> THE PRESS</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Here’s to the fellows who scribble with pen,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A busy and buoyant bunch of expert men;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They tell what’s what, and what the thing is for,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From a woman’s hair pin to a world-wide war.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="MOTHER" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">MOTHER INDEED</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">What word among the sons of men</div> - <div class="verse indent2">So uppermost as mother?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What soothing carol ever sung</div> - <div class="verse indent2">So musical as mother?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What poem ever came from pen,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">So comforting as mother?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What acme of our human tongue</div> - <div class="verse indent2">So eloquent as mother?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Answer, deed of fondest lover,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Answer, men of boasted creed;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who or what may rise above her—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">If she be a mother indeed?</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="N_OBERRY" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">NATHAN O’BERRY</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Give me the man that’s trustful and bright,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The man with a soul and a heart that’s right,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who laughs at trouble and is always cheery;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And one such man is Nathan O’Berry.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">When friends come around, or gloomy or sad,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And another along both worried and mad,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Just watch those fellows, as all grow merry,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In company with brave Nathan O’Berry.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">When the stream gets high and a man must cross,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet he knows not how, without serious loss,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There’s one to be found with his good old ferry</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To carry him over, ’tis Nathan O’Berry.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">He’s a man who gives for the love of giving;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis Heaven’s sweet way—high loving and living—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The man whose wife in her heart calls “deary”—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah, bless the Lord for Nathan O’Berry!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="BISHOP_GARDEN" class="r25" /> -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="BISHOP" src="images/image069.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="478" /> - <p class="center">Photo by T. P. Robinson, Orlando, Fla.</p> -</div> - -<h2 class="nobreak">THE BISHOP’S GARDEN</h2> - -<p class="center">(Based on what was seen around the home of Bishop Cameron Mann, -Orlando, Fla.)</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Come into my garden,” said the Bishop unto me;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis the greatest little garden that ever you may see.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Behold a sturdy phalanx of the giant bamboo,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Which defends the garden’s side in valiant line and true,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And yonder bunch of bamboo is the prouder Japanese,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The equal in beauty of the trimmest of the trees.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“My delight is in the palm, the pride of sunny tropics,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The tree in all Nature for the poet’s varied topics;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I here have them all but the gorgeous royal palm—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">King Frost is oft unfriendly to his majesty’s balm.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“And consider, if you please, that rare Australian Oak,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Standing there so lonely, like the greatest of the folk;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the other generous fellow, the noble camphor tree,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Gives peace and health and hope to many a bird and me.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“I am sure you must admire my good Banhania plant,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With all the grace and beauty which she doth ever grant;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">She’s not unlike a mother who must protect her own;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her buds she close infolds when dangers are fore-known.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“My lovely Jacaranda changes Nature’s plan,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As the unlike woman, or like the wilful man,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The blossoms coming first, its verdant foliage last,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But its loveliness in May time will hold you firm and fast.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“And see the running roses, hugging close my home;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They clasp my heart so sweetly that it never more may roam.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Burbank has none that’s better than my purest Cherokee,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With its dainty white so spotless, and his naive simplicity.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“And here is the Phevitia, and there the Bottle Brush,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Myrtle bloom so solemn, and now I can but blush—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Holy Spirit’s plant, my very humblest flower,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That worships the gracious Father from his lowly bower.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Now take your fill of orange, of grape-fruit and of lime;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Your choice, sir, of the kumquat, or the loquart in its prime.”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“Oh, my good sir,” cried I, with gladdest heart and head,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“’Tis Heaven’s own ante-chamber, this brightest Bishop-stead.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="MY_TRIO" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">MY TRIOLET</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Because you like a triolet,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And joy of youth and love and life,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah sure, the child you’ll not forget</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Because you like a triolet.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Then soon, ah soon, your wits you’ll whet,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And do your best to get a wife,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Because you like a triolet,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And joy of youth and love and life.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="TRIOLET" src="images/image070.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="298" /> - <p class="center">Photo by the Author.</p> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span></p> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">YE BONNY BOYS</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ye bonny boys, and fellows brave,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Who ever shun grim Death’s decoys,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And all the habits that enslave</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Ye bonny boys.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">So play with duties as with toys,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The higher heights sincerely crave,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Conscious of being the King’s envoys.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Yes, rise on care as cork on wave,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And climb and climb to nobler joys;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet richest heritage, what ye gave,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Ye bonny boys.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="TO_GIRLS" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">A BALLADE TO THE GIRLS</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Away with frowns—away with groans!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And give me the girls who are glad and free;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For the wails of woman, they weaken my bones,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And make of a man a quick refugee;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or else he retorts with a sharp repartee.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And give me the smiles of joy and beauty,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The fellowship joined in a long jubilee—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yes, the girls who live for love and duty.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">It costs but a little to make such loans,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And dunce is the man who dares disagree.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They’re better than riches and glittering thrones;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They’re better for all and better for thee.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Then scatter the smiles from sea to sea,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Less fleeting than fame and more than booty.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O give me the ones in perpetual glee,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yes, the girls who live for love and duty.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The wise man his frowns ever gladly postpones,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And gives of his strength to you and to me;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His sorrow and woe he forever disowns—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The mortal like him treads a Heaven-lit lea,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the out-lying goal is pleasant to see.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The fellow that frowns is ugly and sooty;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah, save me from him, for the good guarantee,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yes, the girls who live for love and duty.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent15"><big><b>Envoy</b></big></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">All praise to the girls who are busy as a bee,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But fie to the man who’s stoney and rooty;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the fellow as well who’s too fond of his fee—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yes, the girls who live for love and duty.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">A MOUNTAIN TOP VIEW</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Escaping the town with its dust and din,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A wayfarer was asked to come within</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A lovely home on a mountain height,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To rest awhile and be sated with sight</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of the beauties within and glories without,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That ever encircle far-famed Lookout.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">From city to summit the walk was far,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But gliding along in the trolley car,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Forsaking the valley and climbing the side,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The city was distanced in a two-fold stride;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Its smoke rolled beneath, its din died away,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With toilers’ tramp at the closing day.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="LOOKOUT" src="images/image072.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="455" /> - <p class="center">Part of Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain.</p> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">This home was “La Brisa;” for pure mountain air</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Played around its sides and its frontage fair,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Uplifting yet higher the travel-worn guest,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As he feasted to the full, and enjoyed sweet rest;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While music came forth and fellowship flowed—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With lofty delights the company glowed.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The low-lying city became all ablaze</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With myriad lights and their countless rays,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The moon and the stars were reigning above,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While far-twinkling lights threw kisses of love</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To wayfarer and friends, caught up between</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The city of light and the heavens serene.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah, ’tis mountain top views that enrich the dull earth,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where high hopes and deeds have divinest birth;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where Abram and Moses and prophets of old</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The evil and good, yea the best foretold.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And men even now must mount the high hills</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To inspire them beneath with conquering wills.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Here the church up-rose and “the old ship of State,”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Here angels meet men that listen and wait;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The King from his throne will deign to come down</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To acclaim his own, and with glory crown</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The soul sincere, who cries from his heart</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For some new song—some high born art.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">At last the dust and the din of earth’s way</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Will shine in rapture of our toiling day;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The narrow path trod, the rugged way too,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Will glow with a beauty we never knew,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In the coming new Morn on the Mountain fair,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Translated with Christ in his glorified air.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="JOHN_SMITH" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">ONE AGED JOHN SMITH AND<br /> HIS YOUTHFUL CONFESSIONS</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Your smiles and love you freely lend—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">How old are you, my jolly friend?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“Just seventy-three; but pray don’t tell;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A widower I, out for a spell.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The pretty girls, I love them all;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They bounce my heart like a rubber ball;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">One moment I rise and the next I fall—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I cannot help it.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“I loved my wife who’s dead and gone,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In the distant days my paragon—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">She used to say, ‘O quit your looking,’</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But in spite of her, my neck kept crooking</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Around to feast upon the lovely face,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The perfect figure full of grace—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">It never seemed to me so base—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I told my wife, sir;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I couldn’t help it.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“If God himself told me to quit it,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I’d say, O slay me! or else permit it.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The smiling face, the enchanting eye,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The rosy cheek of the maiden shy—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They grip me, sir, with hooks of steel;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My eyes run fast; my brain will reel,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And my heart will feel—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Frankly, sir, I cannot help it.”</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“’Tis true, my teeth went long ago;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Now painless ones I have, you know.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet I visit oft in my tar-heel town</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A store and a girl in a showy gown,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To buy her gum and soothing smile;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">You scarce believe me, it’s many a mile</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I thus have trod with loving guile—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And one day laughing my teeth fell down,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In her presence, sir,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I could not help it.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“That winsome girl who serves our table—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I vow that I am quite unable</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To keep my eyes from following her,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As tail doth horse, ’neath whip and spur;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I’m honest sir;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I cannot help it.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“My little dog—he’s just a fice—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Returns my love, his paradise.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I brought him down to Florida;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But the finest dog in all America</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Can’t take the place of a girl so sweet—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From crown to sole of her dainty feet,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My love’s complete—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And, it’s all the truth, sir,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I cannot help it.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Just seventy-three—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis plenty for me,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I wish it were less,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But nevertheless this girl of eighteen</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Could rule me as queen;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And have all I possess,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For her sweetest caress—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sir, by the Lord and His goodness,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I cannot help it!”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="WOODROW" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">AN ODE ON WOODROW WILSON<br /> AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS</h2> - -<h3>I.</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In all the cycles past the good and wise</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Have dreamed of Wisdom’s way;</div> - <div class="verse indent6">The prophets’ eyes</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Could see, and they foretold the day,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The glory of the coming paradise;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And higher far than lofty prophets bold,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">In every stage</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Of human rage,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The God of hosts hath willed his vast, united fold.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="WILSON" src="images/image075.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="538" /> - <div class="blockquot2"> - <p class="center">Congressman Upshaw, after a personal appeal to Mr. Wilson on - February 17, 1923, wired the author: “Hard to overcome fixed rule - of former President,” in refusing his photograph and autograph for - publication; but we have the pleasure of presenting both to his friends.</p> -</div></div> - -<h3>II.</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">And poets great have felt the need,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">As plain they saw the greed</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of men and nations waging war,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">They knew not why, yet brothers all.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their voice is heard from heights afar;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They tell us why the peoples rise and fall;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">They sang and on the hill tops wrought,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">While dupe and knave went down;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They knew the last of Folly’s battles would be fought.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<h3>III.</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Obstructionists abide, alas in State,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The demagogue and fool,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The dullard in his school,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who far behind the generation plods,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet at God’s leader casts rough stones and clods—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Wise men foresee their fate.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Without insight they still refuse to follow</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The men inspired, high Heaven’s men;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Preferring far their narrow ken,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To vaunt themselves, though cause of fearful sorrow.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The while the great move on</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In God’s high road,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With heavy load;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Becoming weary and living lone,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Oft forced to suffer and to moan—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">At last to die!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But Heaven clears away the cloud from the martyr’s sky.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<h3>IV.</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The race of men is a long and wondrous evolution;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The patient soul who kens, and God’s great goal,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Is benefactor best, the man of resolution</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To mark and void each shoal,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Like pilots good of worthy ships,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whose eyes are used far more than lips.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">He counter vessels must prevent,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And every vexing accident,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">By night and day upon the deep.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Men’s revolutions, small or great, and why,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The leader must discern and know,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And records old, aye currents vital passing by,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To make them rightly flow.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And never was the pregnant day, nor hour,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When one of such transcendent power</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Was needed by the race,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With more than human grace.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Let men in church and state be confident,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">He was the man of men pre-eminent.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<h3>V.</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The future holds for him the fullest meed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For best of deeds before he fell a prey,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The patient man, still prophet of the perfect day,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">When none shall be a slave;</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And none in need.</div> - <div class="verse indent8">American,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And cosmopolitan,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">He made and mounted the on-sweeping wave.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No ruler with so good and vast a scheme;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In labors so engrossed for noblest creed—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A wide and warring world to win and save,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Fulfillment of the greatest dream,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To give the nations peace and prosperity supreme.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="BIRTHDAY" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">ANOTHER BIRTHDAY</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">One birthday more has rolled around,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But still my heart is in its youth;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Though sixty fleeting years I’ve found,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">One birthday more has rolled around;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet not my body underground.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The song is best when sung in truth:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">One birthday more has rolled around,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But still my heart is in its youth.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="BABY_MINE" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">OH BABY MINE</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">My baby, Oh my laughing, baby child,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What God-like joy you give!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Since I received you, how He has smil’d</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And made me love and live,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Oh baby mine!</div> - </div> -</div></div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="BABY2" src="images/image077.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="153" /> - <p class="center">Snap shot by<br /> the Author.</p> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Some sorrow I have had, some deep delight,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And much the even way;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Some views attract of vale and mountain height,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But naught like you, each day,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Oh baby mine!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Oh baby mine, O sweetest baby mine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What angel makes you laugh?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What silent tempter makes you cry and whine?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But more of wheat than chaff,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Oh baby mine!</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Your coming days are all unknown to me,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Your pitfall, or your pest;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But God is good; I trust and pray that He</div> - <div class="verse indent0">May hold you to His breast,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Oh baby mine!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="SNAKE_KING" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE SNAKE THAT’S KING</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The snake that’s king deserves his crown,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Above his kind in wood and town;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For man was ne’er bit by the king,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Though snake-fond ones to him will cling;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But I prefer no such renown.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">With boys I frolic up and down,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The playful kids who never frown;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And small respect at times I fling</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The snake—that’s king.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O Muse, tell me the oldest clown;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Why fickle Eve preferred no gown;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And why she ceased at once to sing,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And deigned within her heart to bring</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>The Snake that’s king</i>?</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="SNAKE" src="images/image078.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="391" /> - <div class="blockquot2"> - <p class="center">Picture of a King Snake nearly five feet long, swallowing - a somewhat shorter Rattler, after a struggle which lasted - for two hours.</p> - <p class="center">Photograph by Mr. Alfred Austell near Atlanta, Ga.</p> -</div></div> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span></p> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE HEART OF FRANCE</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O France, beloved; fickle, fearless France!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What heights are thine and what unfathomed depths,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From Roman old and Jupiter the great,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To Notre Dame and her eternal day.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy famous little “Ile de la cité,”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Birth place of Paris and a state renowned,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And buoyant bosom of thy ceaseless Seine</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Were wronged by Vandal and the vicious Gaul,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Coveted long by kings, and last by cunning Kaiser.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Within, around thy growing heart, now gay,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Now sad, now brave and true, now sick and vile,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Epitome of man and race of men,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Foretaste of Heaven and prelude to Hell—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy lovers, far and near, have felt and fought,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O France, for thee, and for thy perfect day.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="NOTREDAME" src="images/image079.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="376" /> - <p class="f120">NOTRE DAME.</p> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy Notre Dame of yore and now—behold</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What records writ, and deeds unwritten more!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Begun as shrine to gods unknown, but feared,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Again the seat of power of the saints;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Both natal place and tomb of King and priest;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dream attained of artist pioneer;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And pomp and rites as varied as striking grand,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Which brought the fathers from Jerusalem,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Romish pope to altars, solemn, high;</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">When prayer, and priestly pride through chapels rang</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With song of marching choir, from narthex bold,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And transept, double bay and nave and vault,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To over-topping spire, ambitious, firm—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What wondrous song from such exalted throng!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And laughing devils, perched on airy stage;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Stryge, with arms on parapet for ease;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Grim face upheld by hands of demon long,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tongue out, and worn with everlasting sneer;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And leering ape, and nameless creatures; beasts</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Obscene; and unclean birds of prey around,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Above thy true yet hybrid art; a cow,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Half woman, arms of her in comfort crossed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With evil eye beholds the temples ’neath</div> - <div class="verse indent0">St. Etienne, St. Jacque, and St. Denis,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The “Hotel Dieu,” Justice Palace, Law!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">See hungry ghouls, and vampires, never sated,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Fiends eyeing Paris, gibing, mocking all;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And cat alive and wild, like devil dead</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Revived, hath climbed on precipice of stone,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Creeping, howling, groaning, pained much;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Then plunging far, as if pursued by ghost.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And stories of the garden, curdling blood,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of lunatic and felon’s leap to death—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The whole a hell around fair Notre Dame,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her place and portion, part of thine, O France!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Alas, our boys—let angels weep—our sons</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who went to aid of thee, pure as the Virgin</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mary some, our soldier sons in air,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On earth, and underneath were tempted, caught</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By countess cunning, rich but fallen far;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Entrapped, diseased by women, living hells,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That move and search and laugh and win and damn!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Indecencies of men—God save the race,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That human virtue may not die at last!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O France, all this is not thy nobler heart,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What love and honor thou hast ever shown;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What triumph for thyself, for us and all!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy virtue dieth not, nor truth, nor those</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Inspired of Heaven through the ages past,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The now and evermore; these lofty hosts</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And we, who love aright, will see thy soul,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All torn by vice and mocking devils, whole;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Triumphant over foes without, within.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy Notre Dame, thy little hells, O France;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The good and evil, working both—but God!</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE RED MAPLE</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A master artist in the sun-kissed leaves</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of a scarlet maple loved by me for years,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">First paints a verdant robe until appears</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The autumn time, then marvel great conceives.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Through darkest night, high noon, and splendent eves</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His wondrous work goes on, unknown to fears,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Although my maple has her unshed tears,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Until her greatest glory he achieves.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Then yields she all her riches quite content;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For man and bird and beast her life is spent;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In turn to every tree hath prophesied,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To mortal man hath plainly said, “The best</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Waits him who gives his all, then goes to rest;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thus life and even death are glorified.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="BULLOCK" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">A SONNET TO<br /> MRS. O. C. BULLOCK</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Again rare riches thou hast gently shown,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And I drink sweetness from thy royal heart.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Again I rise and claim the nobler part,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And bless the friendship in thee made known.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Full forty years, in public or alone,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I’ve studied men, high heaven’s sovereign art</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And thee—thy virtue’s smiles, and whence they start,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Adoring Truth’s sweet balm, which is thine own.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Let turmoils come and go; let fools foment</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Disaster dire, till many shall lament</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their natal hour, their present lot and all.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy friendship true, which grows from bud to bloom</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And fruit eternal, dissipates all gloom—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Again I’ve entered love’s pure banquet hall.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="STRIKERS" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE STRIKERS</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The strikers call for more and more;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For they sail a sea without a shore;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah, yes, they’ll strike forever more!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Let merit go, it were a sin</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For any plan but a strike to win;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And hence they strike forever more!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">No brother they to the monied man;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The law of love—“Oh damn the plan!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">We’ll vote to strike forever more!”</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">The public is pleased; ’tis a joy each day</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To the folks at home, without a way;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">So why not strike forever more?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">For coal and food, let a nation suffer;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Let good and bad be made a buffer—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yes, plan to strike forever more.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Our hard-fought war with the hot-headed-Hun</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Was children’s play compared to the fun</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That strikes produce forever more.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Their wives and children mustn’t whine</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Without their part, ’tis ever so fine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The strikers’ way forever more.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Alas, the blind, who makes the broom</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Has threatened quits till crack of doom—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Unless he gets a plenty and more.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And teacher too who trains the child</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Is asked to join the force that’s wild,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And close the school forever more!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Let wisdom go—’tis a by-gone game;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The striker’s god must win his fame—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah, strike and strike forever more.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Come now,” says God, “and let us reason,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In every way, in every season,</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Bar strikes of force forever more</i>.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="NOVEMBER" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">NOVEMBER’S GLOOM</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">With chill November mist in darkened air,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With hearts of men imbued with doubt and gloom;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And in the wide, wide world no couch, no room;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No rest for weary feet; with friends unfair,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or cannot understand, nor yet can bear</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To bring one bud of friendship’s failing bloom;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Affection gone that once hailed bride and groom—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah then, ’tis triumph true, or death’s despair.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And yet November’s night of gloom and grief</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hath unseen power to bring sweet trust,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">If men but turn their minds of unbelief</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To One whose name is Love, whose ways are just;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Then be the battle sharp and long, or brief,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The soul is safe, that sings, “<i>I can and must</i>.”</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">JAMES MITCHEL ROGERS</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">While face to face with him I plainly feel</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A something in my heart and open mind</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That prompts an eager search, perchance to find</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The unknown source of such a strong appeal.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A rip’ning fruit, I ask, of earth’s ideal?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or full blown rose, to all its beauty blind?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or tree of life within the mad mart’s grind—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Oh what o’er me in power doth sweetly steal?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In truth his inmost soul is full of light,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A shining constant from afar, yet bright,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">An humble, potent life not his nor man’s,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Increasing gently through his crowning years,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And freeing him from all the sinner’s fears—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah yes, he’s one of God’s unthwarted plans.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="ERWIN_HOLT" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">ERWIN HOLT</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In life’s highway I meet all sorts of men,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The loud-mouthed man or human thunderbolt;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Then smiles on me a man of head and heart,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A gentle, noble soul like Erwin Holt.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Another man is ever in a rut,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To self and all a weary, lifeless dolt;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Like showers then to thirsty famished earth</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Are spirit life and deeds of Erwin Holt.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Still other men are working hard for pelf,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And passing give your peaceful heart a jolt;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What joy to turn away from men like these,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And feel the healing balm of Erwin Holt.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Oh for more men who’re full of highest life,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Who ’gainst all vileness join in strong revolt,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With mind to think and hand to ever bless</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Their fellowmen like happy Erwin Holt.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="JUST_INTRO" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">JUST AN INTRODUCTION</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Allow me please, to present to you</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A queenly girl and a cockatoo—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sweet Agnes she, and her name means “chase,”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the bird, in truth, has native grace.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">When captured by their mystic spell,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Which charms me most I cannot tell;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For beauty and goodness at heart are one—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All hail to “Billy” and Miss Cameron!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="INTRODUCTION" src="images/image083.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="270" /> - <p class="center">Photo by the Author.</p> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span></p> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="JUDGE" src="images/image084.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="377" /> - <p class="center">JUDGE FRANKLIN CHASE HOYT,<br /> - Presiding Over the Children’s Court, New York City.</p> -</div> - -<h2 class="nobreak">JUDGE FRANKLIN CHASE HOYT</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In cause and city great, a jurist great,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For every mother’s child a kindly heart;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Stern Justice he would join to Mercy’s art,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For sire and son, a vision high create;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For all the hopeless ones the path elate.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah, future generations will he start,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Through children now, to choose the better part,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And trustful follow Him immaculate.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Hark ye, to Christ’s own playful lambs astray,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who reach the desert place and jungle deep;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From city slum, and far off mountain steep,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They call and plead for everlasting day—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Not bitter night, but some untrodden way,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No matter how they play, nor wide their sweep.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">A LITTLE INDEX OF<br /> THE COMING DAY</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The loveliest sight on the coast I saw,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Was little Ann Gray with her pet macaw,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A trustful bird in the hands of Ann,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But woe to the stranger, or hostile man.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Though upside down, ’twas the very thing,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When under the rule of his lover’s wing;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Some stunts to do, that he’d never tried,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But that’s all right, when his friend is guide.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="COMING" src="images/image085.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="323" /> - <p class="center">Snapped by the Author at the Home of Paul R. Gray<br /> - on Belle Isle, Miami, Fla., March 17, 1920.</p> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">So every creature, bird and beast,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From animal great to the very least,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Will some day see with different eyes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When men grow kind and good and wise.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The lion fierce shall fondle the lamb,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When men shall follow the great I Am,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And wolf shall play with the sportive kid,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When earth of hate and murder is rid—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When the great and small shall learn to be mild,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In the kingdom of Christ and a little child.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE WINGED TOURISTS</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">It is time to be revived,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And the tourists have arrived,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Robins from the land of snow and ice,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">By the score and by the hundred;</div> - <div class="verse indent4">So many that I’ve wondered</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where plenteous food could be, and paradise.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">But listen to their cheering,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">For there’s no profiteering,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In mulberry and stately cabbage palm;</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Instead the trees would say:</div> - <div class="verse indent4">“We’re ready for this day,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And welcome birds and people to our balm.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">“We’ve endured the blazing sun,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Through the summer for the fun</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of freest song and abundant feasting fine;</div> - <div class="verse indent4">While you yourselves employ,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">In song and sumptuous joy,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Remember we are drinking Heaven’s wine.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">“’Tis better far to live,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">That we may freely give—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Far better and more God-like in us all.</div> - <div class="verse indent4">See Black-birds fly around,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Alighting on the ground,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While the Mocking-birds’ hosannahs loudly call.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">“And yonder in the waters free,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Blue Herons and white Egrets see;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thus far have they escaped the tyrant, Pride.</div> - <div class="verse indent4">The Ducks are diving for their food,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And, hit or miss, they still are good—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In all no groom unfriendly to his bride!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">“The Cardinal and Wren,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">From farthest hill and glen,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Have joined the busy Downy in a tree;</div> - <div class="verse indent4">While other birds delight</div> - <div class="verse indent4">In song from morn till night—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Come, sing aloud and join our jubilee!”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="EASTER" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">HOW MY EASTER DAWNED</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In a pullman smoker the tourists sat,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All reading the news of the day,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When suddenly started a lively chat</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On the League and the Wilson way.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The travellers argued with their <i>pro</i> and <i>con</i>;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And loudly and fiercely they swore;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While some of them tired, and others looked wan,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And I was silent and sore.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">For the Easter season was drawing nigh,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And I was perusing “Life;”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My soul was nursing an inward cry;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And I hated the oaths and strife—</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The war of words on the blessing of peace,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And taking God’s name in vain;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From the turmoil I craved a quick release,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From the hellish noise on the train;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">When suddenly came two lovely tots,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With the father a-near their side;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Then lo, there ceased the fiery shots;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The children had turned the tide.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Like a sun-burst bright on a stormy morn,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Like flowers in the valley of death,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The children advanced, and joy was born,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With the sweetness of Heaven’s breath.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">They turned and climbed to the lower berth,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Just over the passage from mine;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And there my ears caught the wisdom of earth,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the faith from Jehovah’s shrine:</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">“<i>Now I lay me down to sleep;</i></div> - <div class="verse indent5"><i>I pray the Lord my soul to keep.</i>”</div> - </div> -</div></div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="TOTS" src="images/image087.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="278" /> - <p class="center">The Tots that Turned the Tide.<br /> Photo by the Author.</p> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">My mind went back to my earliest days,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At the side of my mother’s knee;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My hungry soul sang a fervent praise,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And my heart was happy and free.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I dreamed of the damnable wars of men,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of the havoc that Death has made;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of a Prince who died and arose again,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With power each grave to invade.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And dreaming I caught a holier note,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No melody born of the sod;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And I blest the old saint who heard and wrote,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“Of such is the kingdom of God.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And children I heard, around the throne,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Formed a vast and caroling throng,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With the glorious Prince still leading his own,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All singing their Easter song.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">HELEN KELLER</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In darkness deep by day and night,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A fettered child without a ray—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No word of speech, no sound, no sight</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To lift a soul to Heaven’s day.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But Patience came in Love’s sweet way,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And smiled and wept and wept and smiled,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With failure oft, yet would essay</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To lighten the mind of a captive child.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">What mortal e’er in such a plight?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What twain beset with such dismay,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As guide and child in the long drawn fight</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To lift a soul to Heaven’s day?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No victor great, no ruler’s sway,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Reveals such triumph, pure and mild;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No leader nobler zeal portray,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To lighten the mind of a captive child.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And darkness gross and many a blight</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Leave other children far astray;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And they call loud for some brave knight</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To lift a soul to Heaven’s day.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Then who the priceless pearl will pay,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To lift a soul so dark and wild,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From the deepest pit, as a piece of clay—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To lighten the mind of a captive child?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent13"><big><b>Envoy</b></big></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis faith and work, with hope’s delay,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To lift a soul to Heaven’s day,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From Night’s dim depths, by love beguiled,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To lighten the mind of a captive child.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">MARY GRAY</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Here’s to each Mary from first to last;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To Virgin holy, heaven’s primal queen,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And deepest penitent, the Magdalene;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hail Marys many through the long, long past,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From proudest princess down to poor outcast.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A myriad of them I’ve heard and seen,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Some strong, some weak and few of sober mien;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">How varied they, and fervent hopes how vast!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">At length the Mary comes, delighting me best;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her head’s safe-guarded by the purest heart,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Enriching childhood’s state with princely zest;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To work devoted, and would ever display</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Rule over Mammon for the noblest art—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All honor and long life to Mary Gray!</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE DANCING TASSEL</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The female preacher both smiled and exhorted,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While around her fair cheek and back to her ear,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her long, gay tassel danced and cavorted,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the more men looked the less they could hear,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">For lo, the dancing tassel.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And the wonderful thing, ’twas a Quaker tassel,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On a Quaker hat, on a <i>Friend’s</i> high head,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who in pulpit reigned like a queen in a castle,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While the souls of men just longed to be fed—</div> - <div class="verse indent6">But there, that dancing tassel.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">As her nose went up the tassel went down;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While ever it flirted, and ever it played</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Its prominent part as one with a crown—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In the audience many who might have prayed;</div> - <div class="verse indent6">But ho! that dancing tassel.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Her kid-gloved-hand was constant in motion,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And busy my mind to follow all three,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The tassel, the glove, and the word of devotion;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But most active of all in this trinity,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">That ever-dancing tassel.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I suppose I should be so pious and good,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As to shut my eyes fast to any dancing thing,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And be anywhere in a heavenly mood,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But somehow my soul kept up the swing</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Of that flouncing, dancing tassel.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="WALTER" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">WALTER MALONE</h2> -<div class="figcenter"> - <img id="MALONE" src="images/image090.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="572" /> - <p class="center">WALTER MALONE.<br /> Poet, Jurist and Philosopher.</p> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">The dreaming lad saw life as intricate,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And learned to solve and sing in buoyant youth;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For fallen ones, was filled with tender ruth,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For all he pondered deeply, soon and late;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A gentle friend and wise, fraternal mate,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who darkness saw where light should be and truth,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Despite the ways of thief, and heartless sleuth—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A prophet bold to plan and then create.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Immortal bard, far seeing, earnest man,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who knew the height and depth of Heaven’s plan,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To turn our feeble wail to sweetest tone—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy “Opportunity”<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> - thou didst employ</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To animate and lead with rhythmic joy,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy friends and fellows up to Heaven’s throne.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r25 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE DUTIFUL FLOWER</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent8">Bright morning glory,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">In brief you tell,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">With magic spell,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">A wondrous, mystic story</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Of life and beauty.</div> - <div class="verse indent4">May I please God so well,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Inspiring in the sons of men delight and duty.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="HOLIDAY" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">MY HOLIDAY</h2> - -<p class="center">(Inscribed to C. L. Anderson, H. C. Bagley, S. R. Belk, -J. N. McEachern and A. R. Holderby.)</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The month of May for a holiday—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Now what do you think of that?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With Nature to stay for her matinee—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Up high I’ll throw my hat.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Quite sick,” they say, in the month of May;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the doctors all stood pat;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yes, truly astray, unfit for the fray;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Indeed I had fallen flat,</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Till the month of May, my holiday,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Near Nature’s heart whereat</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I’ll doff decay, with all dismay,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And with her grow strong and fat.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The month of May for peace and play,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When the birds so fondly chat;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When the old and gray must Life obey,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Like a full fledged bouncing brat.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">All hail to May and to friends for aye!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The friends who in council sat,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And said, “We pray, take the month of May,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And live in a beautiful plat.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Hooray, hooray, for my holiday!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I’ll be a master at the bat;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Without delay I’ll mount my way,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As high as Ararat.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="AEOLIAN" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE AEOLIAN HARP</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">What mysterious music is that?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whence these softest melodies, soothing my inmost soul?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What symphony orchestra over the hills</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sends me its sweetest strains,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">These chords of subdued sorrow mingled with joy of gentleness?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or what angel deigns to float down to me</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Such mild, musical waves,</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Which captivate yet elude?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What or who and where?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The richest radio this, and the first, of the ascending years?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I ask myself, being alone, and I seek to answer.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I listen still.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My awakened soul is rising;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I look around, all around.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I continue to think, and very gently Truth appears.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yes, the winds, the winged winds, have joyfully yielded</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To the goddess Harmony,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And together they are producing this matchless marvel.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My soul is at peace, yet longs for more,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">More of such wooing of the eternally tender goddess,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Brought to me, with approval of Aeolius.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="GOD_MAN" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE GOD-MAN AND MYSELF</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I answered truly with both heart and head,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">“Not guilty” of the things <i>they</i> said,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My plotting foes, with envy’s cruel rod;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet frailties mine oppressively controlled,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And perilous waves o’er me were rolled,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When lo! a symbol of the meek but mighty God.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Again I saw and loved the sinner’s Friend,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From first missteps to abysmal depths of his darkest end—</div> - <div class="verse indent4">A friend to even me, a crushed clod.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent8">But how, O Jesus, how</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Can a stainless one, the such as thou,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Again receive a sinner like myself?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With weakened faith in thee, with pride and pelf</div> - <div class="verse indent12">I went my way,</div> - <div class="verse indent12">And leaned for stay</div> - <div class="verse indent12">On feigned things that fell;</div> - <div class="verse indent12">And down I dropped to hell,</div> - <div class="verse indent12">A bitter burning hell,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">A hell of fire, consuming fire within,</div> - <div class="verse indent12">In a mind and heart of sin—</div> - <div class="verse indent12">A fire which broke out all around,</div> - <div class="verse indent12">Because the flame in me was found—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For in the human heart doth heaven and hell begin.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent8">But I willed, not in such a state to dwell,</div> - <div class="verse indent12">If, O Christ, I may return,</div> - <div class="verse indent12">And once more learn</div> - <div class="verse indent12">The power of thy love and grace.</div> - <div class="verse indent4">While I may not behold the glory of thy face,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">I only ask to see and to adore,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">As many a penitent and I afore,</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">The prints of spear and nail which with utmost woe were driven,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Till thy life and all thy matchless wealth were given</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For captive and vexed sinners like to me,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">To set them free,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">In hope of peace and heaven.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Since that awful day the changing seasons have faster flown,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And what must I to men make known?</div> - <div class="verse indent4">After the passing of two thousand years</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of man’s bravest fights, greatest victories and fears,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With ofttimes self-imposed torment and tears,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy transcendent heights for me are more increased—</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Thou savest me, the very least.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou ancient and invisible I Am</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Art one with Heaven’s youthful, adorable Lamb,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For looking by faith behind the veil I see</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The cross still piercing through thy very heart,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Thy great salvation to impart;</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And herein I’ll glory eternally.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Accept my life and this my final, whole-hearted word,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O ever living, ever loving, most glorious Lord.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="DOOM" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">DEATH’S DOOM</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent8">Thou hast no sting,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Terror none,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">O doomed Death;</div> - <div class="verse indent8">My whole duty done,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">I shall welcome thee.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent8">To the vigilant and victorious,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Thou bringest the better,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Quite unwittingly,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">The higher, and yet</div> - <div class="verse indent8">The highest.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent8">Thou art the open gate</div> - <div class="verse indent8">To Life,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Thou rapacious mocker,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Thy dark, grim visage</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Is transformed into a beacon of light,</div> - <div class="verse indent8">Balmy, buoyant, beautiful.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent8">A new glory has the sun</div> - <div class="verse indent8">At his setting,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Giving yet greater beauty to his resplendent light,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For myriads of admiring men,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For sated beasts and singing birds at eventide.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Life-kisses are cast upward</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To receiving and ever grateful stars and starlets,</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Beneficiaries afar,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In their cosmic course.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All these and more perpetually pass on,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In holy and soft-toned harmonies,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The life-filled fruitage of conquered Death.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Angels, beyond thy touch,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sing and dance,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On their winged way,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As ministers of Jehovah,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Bringing to the so-called dead</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A chalice of new life.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And perfected souls and saints,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Giving forth with joy their divinest ministrations,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Are co-workers with the Highest,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For the varied glory and ever increasing fullness</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of eternal life.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou art a misnomer,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O arch Deceiver!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The last lie thou art,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To be bravely faced, denied, disproved.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The serene,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The trustful,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Christ ones,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Planting their feet</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Upon thy bosom,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All shadowy and unreal,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Will proclaim</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The paeans of life,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their holiest halleluiahs.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hence—my duty done—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O darkest Death,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Come thou for me.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Oft have I banished thee,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Having come unawares;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou didst flee,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou cunning coward,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To come again,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Noiselessly by night;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For somber Night is thy craven consort,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As unreal as thyself,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As non-existent—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Driven easily away,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By thy King’s coming.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The foulest negation thou,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of all the ages,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet universal.</div> - <span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Life’s cessation?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Life’s full possession!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Both false and elusive,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou art unknown,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To shallow souls,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And unknowable;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dreadful, powerful</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Till met and vanquished whole;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When lo!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Life, the Prince of Life,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Holds me fast for aye,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And Death is no more—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For me, no more.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr id="DYING" class="r25" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE DYING YEAR</h2> - -<p class="center">(Written the last of 1922, a dark day with continuous -rain, and published in the Atlanta Constitution, January 1st, a day of -sunshine and life.)</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“My time is up,” bemoaned the dying year,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And Nature wept and freely spread her gloom;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“My record past, and I must now make room</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For buoyant youth, another still more dear.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Some comfort mine that weep my friends sincere,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thus easier I may pass into my tomb;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But joyful more to speak a nobler boon</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For those who hope and trust and persevere.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And all shall heed the inevitable call,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From fragrant rose to chieftain strong shall fall;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The greater they the more widespread the grief</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of living men, the people great and small,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But list, ye weeping ones—O sweet relief—</div> - <div class="verse indent0 space-below2">It’s Heaven’s plan, through death to Life for all!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/image096.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="104" /> -</div> - -<div class="footnotes space-above2"> - <p class="f150"><b>Footnotes:</b></p> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="indent2"> -<a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> -<i>Aristotle’s Physics.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="indent2"> -<a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> -As heard by John Burroughs.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="indent2"> -<a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> -This repeated paraphrase is from F. Schuyler Mathews, -ornithologist and musician.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="indent2"> -<a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> -The words suggested to John Burroughs by the variations of -the Song Sparrow.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="indent2"> -<a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> -Toxaway, the Indian’s name for the Cardinal.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="indent2"> -<a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> -There were only seven children in this family when the -first two stanzas were written three years ago.—C. J.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="indent2"> -<a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> -If anyone thinks the author has overdrawn the artistic merits of the -bird, he is referred to the expert opinion of F. Schuyler Mathews in -his “Field Book of Wild Birds and Their Music,” pages 234-246, wherein -this musician and lover of birds convincingly compares and contrasts, -by musical scales and other data, the powers of the Hermit and -Nightingale in favor of the former.—C. J.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="indent2"> -<a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> -With slight change the interpretation by Mathews of the -song of the Olive Back Thrush.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="indent2"> -<a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> -After the author had written this line he was glad to learn that the -late John Burroughs in his “Birds and Poets,” page 17, spoke of the -Mocking-bird as “both Lark and Nightingale in one.”</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="indent2"> -<a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> -A tradition with some says that the Jay goes to the lower -regions every Friday, and carries a grain of sand.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="indent2"> -<a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> -This particular butterfly was first seen clinging, about three feet -above the pavement, to the large masonic temple in Charlotte, N. C., -and was gently enticed by the author into his hand, later crawling up -his arm and remaining with his new companion for over an hour.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="indent2"> -<a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> -Based on a newspaper story of “Aunt” Sarah Wycoff in the -North Carolina Penitentiary.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="indent2"> -<a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> -The title of one of his works.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="indent2"> -<a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">[14]</a> -Struggling with that simple passage—“This is the heir; come, let us -kill him”—he rendered it, “This is the hair-comb, let us kill him;” -and hence reached his logical interpretation, which is left to the -imagination of the reader.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="indent2"> -<a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">[15]</a> -This beautiful character and other proven friends described in these -pages measure up to the standard now, as the author sees it and -them—yet the coveted ideal rises ever higher as we press on toward the -Highest. C. J.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="indent2"> -<a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="label">[16]</a> -The illustrations by courtesy of Kodakery.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="indent2"> -<a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="label">[17]</a> -In the mountains of North Carolina.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p class="indent2"> -<a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="label">[18]</a> -The title of his most famous poem.</p></div> -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="transnote bbox space-above2"> -<p class="f120 space-above1">Transcriber’s Notes:</p> -<hr class="r5" /> -<p>The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up - paragraphs and so that they are next to the text they illustrate.</p> -<p>Typographical and punctuation errors have been silently corrected.</p> -</div></div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEAR NATURE'S HEART; A VOLUME OF VERSE ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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