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diff --git a/6667-h/6667-h.htm~ b/6667-h/6667-h.htm~ deleted file mode 100644 index d20bb48..0000000 --- a/6667-h/6667-h.htm~ +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4092 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" -"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> -<head> -<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> -<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> -<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Poems of Power, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox</title> -<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> -<style type="text/css"> - -body { margin-left: 20%; - margin-right: 20%; - text-align: justify; } - - P { margin-top: .75em; - margin-bottom: .75em; - } - P.poetry {margin-left: 3%; } - .GutSmall { font-size: 0.7em; } - H1, H2 { - text-align: center; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - } - H3, H4, H5 { - text-align: center; - margin-top: 1em; - margin-bottom: 1em; - } - - div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} - - .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} - - div.gapspace { height: 0.8em; } - div.gapmediumline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; - border-top: 1px solid; } - -div.fig { display:block; - margin:0 auto; - text-align:center; - margin-top: 1em; - margin-bottom: 1em;} - -a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} -a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} -a:hover {color:red} - - </style> -</head> -<body> - -<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold;'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Poems of Power, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox</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:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Poems of Power</div> -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Ella Wheeler Wilcox</div> -<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Release Date: January 10, 2003 [eBook #6667]<br /> -[Most recently updated: May 18, 2021]</div> -<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> -<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: David Price</div> -<div style='margin-top:2em;margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POEMS OF POWER ***</div> - -<div class="fig" style="width:55%;"> -<img src="images/cover.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="[Illustration]" /> -</div> - -<h1>POEMS OF POWER</h1> - -<div class="gapspace"> </div> - -<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">BY</span><br /> -ELLA WHEELER WILCOX</p> - -<p style="text-align: center"> -<a href="images/tpb.jpg"> -<img alt="Decorative graphic" -title="Decorative graphic" -src="images/tps.jpg" /> -</a></p> - -<p style="text-align: center">GAY AND HANCOCK, LTD.<br /> -21 BEDFORD ROW<br /> -LONDON</p> -<p style="text-align: center">[<i>All rights reserved</i>]</p> - -<div class="gapspace"> </div> - -<p style="text-align: center"><i>Published</i> 1903<br /> -<i>Reprinted</i> 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1908<br /> -1909 (<i>three times</i>), 1910 (<i>four times</i>), 1911,<br /> -1912 (<i>twice</i>), 1913, 1914, 1916, 1917, 1918</p> -<p style="text-align: center"><i>N.B.</i>—<i>The only -volumes of my poems issued</i><br /> -<i>with my approval in the British Empire are</i><br /> -<i>published by</i> <span class="smcap">Messrs. Gay & -Hancock</span>.</p> - -<p style="text-align: right">ELLA WHEELER WILCOX.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2>NOTE</h2> - -<p><i>The final word in the title of this volume refers to the -</i><span class="smcap"><i>Divine Power</i></span><i> in every -human being</i>, <i>the recognition of which is the secret to all -success and happiness</i>. <i>It is this idea which many of -the verses endeavour to illustrate</i>.</p> -<p style="text-align: right"><i>E. W. W.</i></p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2>CONTENTS</h2> - -<table summary="" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto"> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem01">The Queen’s last ride</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem02">The Meeting of the Centuries</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem03">Death has Crowned him a Martyr</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem04">Grief</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem05">Illusion</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem06">Assertion</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem07">I Am</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem08">Wishing</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem09">We two</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem10">The Poet’s Theme</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem11">Song of the Spirit</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem12">Womanhood</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem13">Morning Prayer</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem14">The Voices of the People</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem15">The World grows Better</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem16">A Man’s Ideal</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem17">The Fire Brigade</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem18">The Tides</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem19">When the Regiment came back</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem20">Woman to Man</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem21">The Traveller</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem22">The Earth</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem23">Now</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem24">You and To-day</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem25">The Reason</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem26">Mission</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem27">Repetition</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem28">Begin the Day</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem29">Words</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem30">Fate and I</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem31">Attainment</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem32">A Plea to Peace</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem33">Presumption</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem34">High Noon</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem35">Thought-magnets</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem36">Smiles</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem37">The Undiscovered Country</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem38">The Universal Route</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem39">Unanswered Prayers</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem40">Thanksgiving</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem41">Contrasts</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem42">Thy Ship</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem43">Life</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem44">A Marine Etching</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem45">“Love Thyself Last”</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem46">Christmas Fancies</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem47">The River</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem48">Sorry</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem49">Ambition’s trail</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem50">Uncontrolled</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem51">Will</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem52">To an Astrologer</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem53">The Tendril’s Fate</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem54">The Times</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem55">The Question</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem56">Sorrow’s Uses</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem57">If</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem58">Which are you?</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem59">The Creed to be</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem60">Inspiration</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem61">The Wish</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem62">Three Friends</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem63">You never can tell</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem64">Here and now</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem65">Unconquered</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem66">All that love asks</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem67">“Does it pay?”</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem68">Sestina</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem69">The Optimist</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem70">The Pessimist</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem71">An Inspiration</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem72">Life’s Harmonies</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem73">Preparation</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem74">Gethsemane</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem75">God’s Measure</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem76">Noblesse Oblige</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem77">Through Tears</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem78">What we Need</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem79">Plea to Science</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem80">Respite</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem81">Song</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem82">My Ships</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem83">Her Love</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem84">If</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem85">Love’s burial</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem86">“Love is enough”</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem87">Life is a Privilege</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem88">Insight</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem89">A Woman’s Answer</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> <a href="#poem90">The World’s Need</a></td> -</tr> - -</table> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem01"></a>THE QUEEN’S LAST RIDE</h2> - -<p style="text-align: center">(Written on the day of Queen -Victoria’s funeral)</p> -<p class="poetry">The Queen is taking a drive to-day,<br /> -They have hung with purple the carriage-way,<br /> -They have dressed with purple the royal track<br /> -Where the Queen goes forth and never comes back.</p> -<p class="poetry">Let no man labour as she goes by<br /> -On her last appearance to mortal eye:<br /> -With heads uncovered let all men wait<br /> -For the Queen to pass, in her regal state.</p> -<p class="poetry">Army and Navy shall lead the way<br /> -For that wonderful coach of the Queen’s to-day.<br /> -Kings and Princes and Lords of the land<br /> -Shall ride behind her, a humble band;<br /> -And over the city and over the world<br /> -Shall the Flags of all Nations be half-mast-furled,<br /> -For the silent lady of royal birth<br /> -Who is riding away from the Courts of earth,<br /> -Riding away from the world’s unrest<br /> -To a mystical goal, on a secret quest.</p> -<p class="poetry">Though in royal splendour she drives through -town,<br /> -Her robes are simple, she wears no crown:<br /> -And yet she wears one, for, widowed no more,<br /> -She is crowned with the love that has gone before,<br /> -And crowned with the love she has left behind<br /> -In the hidden depths of each mourner’s mind.</p> -<p class="poetry">Bow low your heads—lift your hearts on -high—<br /> -The Queen in silence is driving by!</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem02"></a>THE MEETING OF THE CENTURIES</h2> - -<p class="poetry">A curious vision on mine eyes unfurled<br /> - In the deep night. I saw, or seemed to see,<br -/> - Two Centuries meet, and sit down vis-à-vis<br -/> -Across the great round table of the world:<br /> -One with suggested sorrows in his mien,<br /> - And on his brow the furrowed lines of thought;<br /> - And one whose glad expectant presence brought<br /> -A glow and radiance from the realms unseen.</p> -<p class="poetry">Hand clasped with hand, in silence for a -space<br /> - The Centuries sat; the sad old eyes of one<br /> - (As grave paternal eyes regard a son)<br /> -Gazing upon that other eager face.<br /> -And then a voice, as cadenceless and gray<br /> - As the sea’s monody in winter time,<br /> - Mingled with tones melodious, as the chime<br /> -Of bird choirs, singing in the dawns of May.</p> -<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry"> -<span class="smcap">The Old Century Speaks</span></p> -<p class="poetry">By you, Hope stands. With me, Experience -walks.<br /> -Like a fair jewel in a faded box,<br /> -In my tear-rusted heart, sweet Pity lies.<br /> -For all the dreams that look forth from your eyes,<br /> -And those bright-hued ambitions, which I know<br /> -Must fall like leaves and perish, in Time’s snow,<br /> -(Even as my soul’s garden stands bereft,)<br /> -I give you pity! ’tis the one gift left.</p> -<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry"><span -class="smcap">The New Century</span></p> -<p class="poetry">Nay, nay, good friend! not pity, but -Godspeed,<br /> -Here in the morning of my life I need.<br /> -Counsel, and not condolence; smiles, not tears,<br /> -To guide me through the channels of the years.<br /> -Oh, I am blinded by the blaze of light<br /> -That shines upon me from the Infinite.<br /> -Blurred is my vision by the close approach<br /> -To unseen shores, whereon the times encroach.</p> -<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry"><span -class="smcap">The Old Century</span></p> -<p class="poetry">Illusion, all illusion. List and hear<br -/> -The Godless cannons, booming far and near.<br /> -Flaunting the flag of Unbelief, with Greed<br /> -For pilot, lo! the pirate age in speed<br /> -Bears on to ruin. War’s most hideous crimes<br /> -Besmirch the record of these modern times.<br /> -Degenerate is the world I leave to you,—<br /> -My happiest speech to earth will be—adieu.</p> -<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry"><span -class="smcap">The New Century</span></p> -<p class="poetry">You speak as one too weary to be just.<br /> -I hear the guns—I see the greed and lust.<br /> -The death throes of a giant evil fill<br /> -The air with riot and confusion. Ill<br /> -Ofttimes makes fallow ground for Good; and Wrong<br /> -Builds Right’s foundation, when it grows too strong.<br /> -Pregnant with promise is the hour, and grand<br /> -The trust you leave in my all-willing hand.</p> -<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry"><span -class="smcap">The Old Century</span></p> -<p class="poetry">As one who throws a flickering taper’s -ray<br /> -To light departing feet, my shadowed way<br /> -You brighten with your faith. Faith makes the man<br /> -Alas, that my poor foolish age outran<br /> -Its early trust in God! The death of art<br /> -And progress follows, when the world’s hard heart<br /> -Casts out religion. ’Tis the human brain<br /> -Men worship now, and heaven, to them, means—gain.</p> -<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry"> -<span class="smcap">The New Century</span></p> -<p class="poetry">Faith is not dead, tho’ priest and creed -may pass,<br /> -For thought has leavened the whole unthinking mass,<br /> -And man looks now to find the God within.<br /> -We shall talk more of love, and less of sin,<br /> -In this new era. We are drawing near<br /> -Unatlassed boundaries of a larger sphere.<br /> -With awe, I wait, till Science leads us on,<br /> -Into the full effulgence of its dawn.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem03"></a>DEATH HAS CROWNED HIM A MARTYR</h2> - -<p>(Written on the day of President McKinley’s death)</p> -<p class="poetry">In the midst of sunny waters, lo! the mighty -Ship of State<br /> -Staggers, bruised and torn and wounded by a derelict of fate,<br -/> -One that drifted from its moorings in the anchorage of hate.</p> -<p class="poetry">On the deck our noble Pilot, in the glory of -his prime,<br /> -Lies in woe-impelling silence, dead before his hour or time,<br -/> -Victim of a mind self-centred in a Godless fool of crime.</p> -<p class="poetry">One of earth’s dissension-breeders, one -of Hate’s unreasoning tools,<br /> -In the annals of the ages, when the world’s hot anger -cools,<br /> -He who sought for Crime’s distinction shall be known as -Chief of Fools.</p> -<p class="poetry">In the annals of the ages, he who had no thought of -fame<br /> -(Keeping on the path of duty, caring not for praise or blame),<br -/> -Close beside the deathless Lincoln, writ in light, will shine his -name.</p> -<p class="poetry">Youth proclaimed him as a hero; time, a -statesman; love, a man;<br /> -Death has crowned him as a martyr,—so from goal to goal he -ran,<br /> -Knowing all the sum of glory that a human life may span.</p> -<p class="poetry">He was chosen by the people; not an accident of -birth<br /> -Made him ruler of a nation, but his own intrinsic worth.<br /> -Fools may govern over kingdoms—not republics of the -earth.</p> -<p class="poetry">He has raised the lovers’ standard by his -loyalty and faith,<br /> -He has shown how virile manhood may keep free from -scandal’s breath.<br /> -He has gazed, with trust unshaken, in the awful eyes of -Death.</p> -<p class="poetry">In the mighty march of progress he has sought to do his -best.<br /> -Let his enemies be silent, as we lay him down to rest,<br /> -And may God assuage the anguish of one suffering woman’s -breast.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem04"></a>GRIEF</h2> - -<p class="poetry">As the funeral train with its honoured dead<br -/> - On its mournful way went sweeping,<br /> -While a sorrowful nation bowed its head<br /> - And the whole world joined in weeping,<br /> -I thought, as I looked on the solemn sight,<br /> - Of the one fond heart despairing,<br /> -And I said to myself, as in truth I might,<br /> - “How sad must be this -<i>sharing</i>.”</p> -<p class="poetry">To share the living with even Fame,<br /> - For a heart that is only human,<br /> -Is hard, when Glory asserts her claim<br /> - Like a bold, insistent woman;<br /> -Yet a great, grand passion can put aside<br /> - Or stay each selfish emotion,<br /> -And watch, with a pleasure that springs from pride,<br /> - Its rival—the world’s devotion.</p> -<p class="poetry">But Death should render to love its own,<br /> - And my heart bowed down and sorrowed<br /> -For the stricken woman who wept alone<br /> - While even her <i>dead</i> was borrowed;<br /> -Borrowed from her, the bride—the wife—<br /> - For the world’s last martial honour,<br /> -As she sat in the gloom of her darkened life,<br /> - With her widow’s grief fresh upon her.</p> -<p class="poetry">He had shed the glory of Love and Fame<br /> - In a golden halo about her;<br /> -She had shared his triumphs and worn his name:<br /> - But, alas! he had died without her.<br /> -He had wandered in many a distant realm,<br /> - And never had left her behind him,<br /> -But now, with a spectral shape at the helm,<br /> - He had sailed where she could not find him.</p> -<p class="poetry">It was only a thought, that came that day<br /> - In the midst of the muffled drumming<br /> -And funeral music and sad display,<br /> - That I knew was right and becoming<br /> -Only a thought as the mourning train<br /> - Moved, column after column,<br /> -Bearing the dead to the burial plain<br /> - With a reverence grand as solemn.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem05"></a>ILLUSION</h2> - -<p class="poetry">God and I in space alone<br /> - And nobody else in view.<br /> -“And where are the people, O Lord,” I said,<br /> -“The earth below, and the sky o’er head,<br /> - And the dead whom once I knew?”</p> -<p class="poetry">“That was a dream,” God smiled and -said—<br /> - “A dream that seemed to be true.<br /> -There were no people, living or dead,<br /> -There was no earth, and no sky o’erhead;<br /> - There was only Myself—in you.”</p> -<p class="poetry">“Why do I feel no fear,” I -asked,<br /> - “Meeting You here this way?<br /> -For I have sinned I know full well?<br /> -And is there heaven, and is there hell,<br /> - And is this the judgment day?”</p> -<p class="poetry">“Say, those were but dreams,” the Great God -said,<br /> - “Dreams, that have ceased to be.<br /> -There are no such things as fear or sin,<br /> -There is no you—you never have been—<br /> - There is nothing at all but <i>Me</i>.”</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem06"></a>ASSERTION</h2> - -<p class="poetry">I am serenity. Though passions beat<br /> - Like mighty billows on my helpless heart,<br /> -I know beyond them lies the perfect sweet<br /> - Serenity, which patience can impart.<br /> -And when wild tempests in my bosom rage,<br /> -“Peace, peace,” I cry, “it is my -heritage.”</p> -<p class="poetry">I am good health. Though fevers rack my -brain<br /> - And rude disorders mutilate my strength,<br /> -A perfect restoration after pain,<br /> - I know shall be my recompense at length.<br /> -And so through grievous day and sleepless night,<br /> -“Health, health,” I cry, “it is my own by -right.”</p> -<p class="poetry">I am success. Though hungry, cold, -ill-clad,<br /> - I wander for awhile, I smile and say,<br /> -“It -is but for a time—I shall be glad<br /> - To-morrow, for good fortune comes my way.<br /> -God is my father, He has wealth untold,<br /> -His wealth is mine, health, happiness, and gold.”</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem07"></a>I AM</h2> - -<p class="poetry">I know not whence I came,<br /> - I know not whither I go;<br /> -But the fact stands clear that I am here<br /> - In this world of pleasure and woe.<br /> -And out of the mist and murk<br /> - Another truth shines plain—<br /> -It is my power each day and hour<br /> - To add to its joy or its pain.</p> -<p class="poetry">I know that the earth exists,<br /> - It is none of my business why;<br /> -I cannot find out what it’s all about,<br /> - I would but waste time to try.<br /> -My life is a brief, brief thing,<br /> - I am here for a little space,<br /> -And while I stay I would like, if I may,<br /> - To brighten and better the place.</p> -<p class="poetry">The trouble, I think, with us all<br /> - Is the lack of a high conceit.<br /> -If each man thought he was sent to this spot<br /> - To make it a bit more sweet,<br /> -How soon we could gladden the world,<br /> - How easily right all wrong,<br /> -If nobody shirked, and each one worked<br /> - To help his fellows along!</p> -<p class="poetry">Cease wondering why you came—<br /> - Stop looking for faults and flaws;<br /> -Rise up to-day in your pride and say,<br /> - “I am part of the First Great Cause!<br /> -However full the world,<br /> - There is room for an earnest man.<br /> -It had need of me, or I would not be—<br /> - I am here to strengthen the plan.”</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem08"></a>WISHING</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Do you wish the world were better?<br /> - Let me tell you what to do:<br /> -Set a watch upon your actions,<br /> - Keep them always straight and true;<br /> -Rid your mind of selfish motives;<br /> - Let your thoughts be clean and high.<br /> -You can make a little Eden<br /> - Of the sphere you occupy.</p> -<p class="poetry">Do you wish the world were wiser?<br /> - Well, suppose you make a start,<br /> -By accumulating wisdom<br /> - In the scrapbook of your heart:<br /> -Do not waste one page on folly;<br /> - Live to learn, and learn to live.<br /> -If you want to give men knowledge<br /> - You must get it, ere you give.</p> -<p class="poetry">Do you wish the world were happy?<br /> - Then remember day by day<br /> -Just to scatter seeds of kindness<br /> - As you pass along the way;<br /> -For the pleasures of the many<br /> - May be ofttimes traced to one,<br /> -As the hand that plants an acorn<br /> - Shelters armies from the sun.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem09"></a>WE TWO</h2> - -<p class="poetry"> We two make home of any place -we go;<br /> -We two find joy in any kind of weather;<br /> - Or if the earth is clothed in bloom or snow,<br /> - If summer days invite, or bleak winds blow,<br /> -What matters it if we two are together?<br /> -We two, we two, we make our world, our weather.</p> -<p class="poetry"> We two make banquets of the -plainest fare;<br /> -In every cup we find the thrill of pleasure;<br /> - We hide with wreaths the furrowed brow of care,<br -/> - And win to smiles the set lips of despair.<br /> -For us life always moves with lilting measure;<br /> -We two, we two, we make our world, our pleasure.</p> -<p class="poetry"> We two find youth renewed -with every dawn;<br /> -Each day holds something of an unknown glory.<br /> - We waste no thought on grief or pleasure gone;<br /> - Tricked out like hope, time leads us on and on,<br -/> -And thrums upon his harp new song or story.<br /> -We two, we two, we find the paths of glory.</p> -<p class="poetry"> We two make heaven here on -this little earth;<br /> -We do not need to wait for realms eternal.<br /> - We know the use of tears, know sorrow’s -worth,<br /> - And pain for us is always love’s rebirth.<br -/> -Our paths lead closely by the paths supernal;<br /> -We two, we two, we live in love eternal.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem10"></a>THE POET’S THEME</h2> - -<blockquote><p>What is the explanation of the strange silence of -American poets concerning American triumphs on sea and land?</p> -<p style="text-align: right"><i>Literary Digest</i>.</p> -</blockquote> -<p class="poetry">Why should the poet of these pregnant times<br -/> -Be asked to sing of war’s unholy crimes?</p> -<p class="poetry">To laud and eulogize the trade which thrives<br -/> -On horrid holocausts of human lives?</p> -<p class="poetry">Man was a fighting beast when earth was -young,<br /> -And war the only theme when Homer sung.</p> -<p class="poetry">’Twixt might and might the equal contest -lay,<br /> -Not so the battles of our modern day.</p> -<p class="poetry">Too often now the conquering hero struts<br /> -A Gulliver among the Liliputs.</p> -<p class="poetry">Success no longer rests on skill or fate,<br /> -But on the movements of a syndicate.</p> -<p class="poetry">Of old men fought and deemed it right and -just.<br /> -To-day the warrior fights because he must,</p> -<p class="poetry">And in his secret soul feels shame because<br -/> -He desecrates the higher manhood’s laws</p> -<p class="poetry">Oh! there are worthier themes for poet’s -pen<br /> -In this great hour, than bloody deeds of men</p> -<p class="poetry">Or triumphs of one hero (though he be<br /> -Deserving song for his humility):</p> -<p class="poetry">The rights of many—not the worth of -one;<br /> -The coming issues—not the battle done;</p> -<p class="poetry">The awful opulence, and awful need;<br /> -The rise of brotherhood—the fall of greed,</p> -<p class="poetry">The soul of man replete with God’s own -force,<br /> -The call “to heights,” and not the cry “to -horse,”—</p> -<p class="poetry">Are there not better themes in this great -age<br /> -For pen of poet, or for voice of sage</p> -<p class="poetry">Than those old tales of killing? Song is dumb<br -/> -Only that greater song in time may come.</p> -<p class="poetry">When comes the bard, he whom the world waits -for,<br /> -He will not sing of War.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem11"></a>SONG OF THE SPIRIT</h2> - -<p class="poetry">All the aim of life is just<br /> - Getting back to God.<br /> -Spirit casting off its dust,<br /> - Getting back to God.<br /> -Every grief we have to bear<br /> -Disappointment, cross, despair<br /> -Each is but another stair<br /> - Climbing back to God.</p> -<p class="poetry">Step by step and mile by mile—<br /> - Getting back to God;<br /> -Nothing else is worth the while—<br /> - Getting back to God.<br /> -Light and shadow fill each day<br /> -Joys and sorrows pass away,<br /> -Smile at all, and smiling, say,<br /> - Getting back to God.</p> -<p class="poetry">Do not wear a mournful face<br /> - Getting back to God;<br /> -Scatter sunshine on the place<br /> - Going back to God;<br /> -Take what pleasure you can find,<br /> -But where’er your paths may wind.<br /> -Keep the purpose well in mind,—<br /> - Getting back to God.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem12"></a>WOMANHOOD</h2> - -<p class="poetry">She must be honest, both in thought and -deed,<br /> -Of generous impulse, and above all greed;<br /> -Not seeking praise, or place, or power, or pelf,<br /> -But life’s best blessings for her higher self,<br /> -Which means the best for all.<br /> - She must have faith,<br /> -To make good friends of Trouble, Pain, and Death,<br /> -And understand their message.<br /> - She should be<br /> -As redolent with tender sympathy<br /> -As is a rose with fragrance.<br /> - Cheerfulness<br /> -Should be her mantle, even though her dress<br /> -May be of Sorrow’s weaving.<br /> - On her face<br /> -A loyal nature leaves its seal of grace,<br /> -And chastity is in her atmosphere.<br /> -Not that chill chastity which seems austere<br /> -(Like untrod snow-peaks, lovely to behold<br /> -Till once attained—then barren, loveless, cold);<br /> -But the white flame that feeds upon the soul<br /> -And lights the pathway to a peaceful goal.<br /> -A sense of humour, and a touch of mirth,<br /> -To brighten up the shadowy spots of earth;<br /> -And pride that passes evil—choosing good.<br /> -All these unite in perfect womanhood.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem13"></a>MORNING PRAYER</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Let me to-day do something that shall take<br -/> - A little sadness from the world’s vast -store,<br /> -And may I be so favoured as to make<br /> - Of joy’s too scanty sum a little more<br /> -Let me not hurt, by any selfish deed<br /> - Or thoughtless word, the heart of foe or friend;<br -/> -Nor would I pass, unseeing, worthy need,<br /> - Or sin by silence when I should defend.<br /> -However meagre be my worldly wealth,<br /> - Let me give something that shall aid my -kind—<br /> -A word of courage, or a thought of health,<br /> - Dropped as I pass for troubled hearts to find.<br /> -Let me to-night look back across the span<br /> - ’Twixt dawn and dark, and to my conscience -say—<br /> -Because of some good act to beast or man—<br /> - “The world is better that I lived -to-day.”</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem14"></a>THE VOICES OF THE PEOPLE</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Oh! I hear the people calling through the day -time and the night time,<br /> -They are calling, they are crying for the coming of the right -time.<br /> -It behooves you, men and women, it behooves you to be heeding,<br -/> -For there lurks a note of menace underneath their plaintive -pleading.</p> -<p class="poetry">Let the land usurpers listen, let the -greedy-hearted ponder,<br /> -On the meaning of the murmur, rising here and swelling yonder,<br -/> -Swelling louder, waxing stronger, like a storm-fed stream that -courses<br /> -Through the valleys, down abysses, growing, gaining with new -forces.</p> -<p class="poetry">Day by day the river widens, that great river of -opinion,<br /> -And its torrent beats and plunges at the base of greed’s -dominion.<br /> -Though you dam it by oppression and fling golden bridges -o’er it,<br /> -Yet the day and hour advances when in fright you’ll flee -before it.</p> -<p class="poetry">Yes, I hear the people calling, through the -night time and the day time,<br /> -Wretched toilers in life’s autumn, weary young ones in -life’s May time—<br /> -They are crying, they are calling for their share of work and -pleasure;<br /> -You are heaping high your coffers while you give them scanty -measure,—<br /> -You have stolen God’s wide acres, just to glut your swollen -purses—<br /> -Oh! restore them to His children ere their pleading turns to -curses.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem15"></a>THE WORLD GROWS BETTER</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Oh! the earth is full of sinning<br /> - And of trouble and of woe,<br /> -But the devil makes an inning<br /> - Every time we say it’s so.<br /> -And the way to set him scowling,<br /> - And to put him back a pace,<br /> -Is to stop this stupid growling,<br /> - And to look things in the face.</p> -<p class="poetry">If you glance at history’s pages,<br /> - In all lands and eras known,<br /> -You will find the buried ages<br /> - Far more wicked than our own.<br /> -As you scan each word and letter.<br /> - You will realise it more,<br /> -That the world to-day is better<br /> - Than it ever was before.</p> -<p class="poetry">There is much that needs amending<br /> - In the present time, no doubt;<br /> -There is right that needs amending,<br /> - There is wrong needs crushing out.<br /> -And we hear the groans and curses<br /> - Of the poor who starve and die,<br /> -While the men with swollen purses<br /> - In the place of hearts go by.</p> -<p class="poetry">But in spite of all the trouble<br /> - That obscures the sun to-day,<br /> -Just remember it was double<br /> - In the ages passed away.<br /> -And those wrongs shall all be righted,<br /> - Good shall dominate the land,<br /> -For the darkness now is lighted<br /> - By the torch in Science’s hand.</p> -<p class="poetry">Forth from little motes in Chaos,<br /> - We have come to what we are;<br /> -And no evil force can stay us—<br /> - We shall mount from star to star,<br /> -We shall break each bond and fetter<br /> - That has bound us heretofore;<br /> -And the earth is surely better<br /> - Than it ever was before.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem16"></a>A MAN’S IDEAL</h2> - -<p class="poetry">A lovely little keeper of the home,<br /> -Absorbed in menu books, yet erudite<br /> -When I need counsel; quick at repartee<br /> -And slow to anger. Modest as a flower,<br /> -Yet scintillant and radiant as a star.<br /> -Unmercenary in her mould of mind,<br /> -While opulent and dainty in her tastes.<br /> -A nature generous and free, albeit<br /> -The incarnation of economy.<br /> -She must be chaste as proud Diana was,<br /> -Yet warm as Venus. To all others cold<br /> -As some white glacier glittering in the sun;<br /> -To me as ardent as the sensuous rose<br /> -That yields its sweetness to the burrowing bee<br /> -All ignorant of evil in the world,<br /> -And innocent as any cloistered nun,<br /> -Yet wise as Phryne in the arts of love<br /> -When I come thirsting to her nectared lips.<br /> -Good as the best, and tempting as the worst,<br /> -A saint, a siren, and a paradox.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem17"></a>THE FIRE BRIGADE</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Hark! high o’er the rattle and clamour -and clatter<br /> - Of traffic-filled streets, do you hear that loud -noise?<br /> -And pushing and rushing to see what’s the matter,<br /> - Like herds of wild cattle, go pell-mell the -boys.</p> -<p class="poetry">There’s a fire in the city! the engines -are coming!<br /> - The bold bells are clanging, “Make way in the -street!”<br /> -The wheels of the hose-cart are spinning and humming<br /> - In time to the music of galloping feet.</p> -<p class="poetry">Make way there! make way there! the horses are -flying,<br /> - The sparks from their swift hoofs shoot higher and -higher,<br /> -The crowds are increasing—the gamins are crying:<br /> - “Hooray, boys!” “Hooray, -boys!” “Come on to the fire!”</p> -<p class="poetry">With clanging and banging and clatter and -rattle<br /> - The long ladders follow the engine and hose.<br /> -The men are all ready to dash into battle;<br /> - But will they come out again? God only -knows.</p> -<p class="poetry">At windows and doorways crowd questioning -faces;<br /> - There’s something about it that quickens -one’s breath.<br /> -How proudly the brave fellows sit in their places—<br /> - And speed to the conflict that may be their -death!</p> -<p class="poetry">Still faster and faster and faster and -faster<br /> - The grand horses thunder and leap on their way<br /> -The red foe is yonder, and may prove the master;<br /> - Turn out there, bold traffic—turn out there, I -say!</p> -<p class="poetry">For once the loud truckman knows oaths will not -matter<br /> - And reins in his horses and yields to his fate.<br -/> -The engines are coming! let pleasure-crowds scatter,<br /> - Let street car and truckman and mail waggon -wait.</p> -<p class="poetry">They speed like a comet—they pass in a -minute;<br /> - The boys follow on like a tail to a kite;<br /> -The commonplace street has but traffic now in it—<br /> - The great fire engines have swept out of sight.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem18"></a>THE TIDES</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Be careful what rubbish you toss in the -tide.<br /> - On outgoing billows it drifts from your sight,<br /> -But back on the incoming waves it may ride<br /> - And land at your threshold again before night.<br /> -Be careful what rubbish you toss in the tide.</p> -<p class="poetry">Be careful what follies you toss in -life’s sea.<br /> - On bright dancing billows they drift far away,<br /> -But back on the Nemesis tides they may be<br /> - Thrown down at your threshold an unwelcome day<br /> -Be careful what follies you toss in youth’s sea.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem19"></a>WHEN THE REGIMENT CAME BACK</h2> - -<p class="poetry">All the uniforms were blue, all the swords were -bright and new,<br /> - When the regiment went marching down the street,<br -/> -All the men were hale and strong as they proudly moved along,<br -/> - Through the cheers that drowned the music of their -feet.<br /> -Oh the music of the feet keeping time to drums that beat,<br /> - Oh the splendour and the glitter of the sight,<br /> -As with swords and rifles new and in uniforms of blue<br /> - The regiment went marching to the fight!</p> -<p class="poetry">When the regiment came back all the guns and -swords were black<br /> - And the uniforms had faded out to gray,<br /> -And the faces of the men who marched through that street again<br /> - Seemed like faces of the dead who lose their way.<br -/> -For the dead who lose their way cannot look more wan and gray.<br -/> - Oh the sorrow and the pity of the sight,<br /> -Oh the weary lagging feet out of step with drums that beat,<br /> - As the regiment comes marching from the fight.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem20"></a>WOMAN TO MAN</h2> - -<blockquote><p>Woman is man’s enemy, rival, and -competitor.—<span class="smcap">John j. Ingalls</span>.</p> -</blockquote> -<p class="poetry">You do but jest, sir, and you jest not well,<br -/> -How could the hand be enemy of the arm,<br /> -Or seed and sod be rivals! How could light<br /> -Feel jealousy of heat, plant of the leaf,<br /> -Or competition dwell ’twixt lip and smile?<br /> -Are we not part and parcel of yourselves?<br /> -Like strands in one great braid we entertwine<br /> -And make the perfect whole. You could not be,<br /> -Unless we gave you birth; we are the soil<br /> -From which you sprang, yet sterile were that soil<br /> -Save as you planted. (Though in the Book we read<br /> -One woman bore a child with no man’s aid,<br /> -We find no record of a man-child born<br /> -Without the aid of woman! Fatherhood<br /> -Is but a small achievement at the best,<br /> -While motherhood comprises heaven and hell.)<br /> -This ever-growing argument of sex<br /> -Is most unseemly, and devoid of sense.<br /> -Why waste more time in controversy, when<br /> -There is not time enough for all of love,<br /> -Our rightful occupation in this life?<br /> -Why prate of our defects, of where we fail,<br /> -When just the story of our worth would need<br /> -Eternity for telling, and our best<br /> -Development comes ever through your praise,<br /> -As through our praise you reach your highest self?<br /> -Oh! had you not been miser of your praise<br /> -And let our virtues be their own reward,<br /> -The old-established order of the world<br /> -Would never have been changed. Small blame is ours<br /> -For this unsexing of ourselves, and worse.<br /> -Effeminising of the male. We were<br /> -Content, sir, till you starved us, heart and brain.<br /> -All we have done, or wise, or otherwise,<br /> -Traced to the root, was done for love of you.<br /> -Let us taboo all vain comparisons,<br /> -And go forth as God meant us, hand in hand,<br /> -Companions, mates, and comrades evermore;<br /> -Two parts of one divinely ordained whole.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem21"></a>THE TRAVELLER</h2> - -<p>Reply to Rudyard Kipling’s “He travels the fastest -who travels alone.”</p> -<p class="poetry">Who travels alone with his eyes on the -heights,<br /> -Though he laughs in the day time oft weeps in the nights;</p> -<p class="poetry">For courage goes down at the set of the sun,<br -/> -When the toil of the journey is all borne by one.</p> -<p class="poetry">He speeds but to grief though full gaily he -ride<br /> -Who travels alone without love at his side.</p> -<p class="poetry">Who travels alone without lover or friend<br /> -But hurries from nothing, to naught at the end.</p> -<p class="poetry">Though great be his winnings and high be his -goal,<br /> -He is bankrupt in wisdom and beggared in soul.</p> -<p class="poetry">Life’s one gift of value to him is denied<br /> -Who travels alone without love at his side.</p> -<p class="poetry">It is easy enough in this world to make -haste<br /> -If one live for that purpose—but think of the waste;</p> -<p class="poetry">For life is a poem to leisurely read,<br /> -And the joy of the journey lies not in its speed.</p> -<p class="poetry">Oh! vain his achievement and petty his pride<br -/> -Who travels alone without love at his side.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem22"></a>THE EARTH</h2> - -<p class="poetry">The earth is yours and mine,<br /> - Our God’s bequest.<br /> -That testament divine<br /> - Who dare contest?</p> -<p class="poetry">Usurpers of the earth,<br /> - We claim our share.<br /> -We are of royal birth.<br /> - Beware! beware!</p> -<p class="poetry">Unloose the hand of greed<br /> - From God’s fair land,<br /> -We claim but what we need—<br /> - That, we demand.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem23"></a>NOW</h2> - -<p class="poetry">I leave with God to-morrow’s where and -how,<br /> -And do concern myself but with the Now,<br /> -That little word, though half the future’s length,<br /> -Well used, holds twice its meaning and its strength.</p> -<p class="poetry">Like one blindfolded groping out his way,<br /> -I will not try to touch beyond to-day.<br /> -Since all the future is concealed from sight<br /> -I need but strive to make the next step right.</p> -<p class="poetry">That done, the next, and so on, till I find<br -/> -Perchance some day I am no longer blind,<br /> -And looking up, behold a radiant Friend<br /> -Who says, “Rest, now, for you have reached the -end.”</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem24"></a>YOU AND TO-DAY</h2> - -<p class="poetry">With every rising of the sun<br /> -Think of your life as just begun.</p> -<p class="poetry">The past has shrived and buried deep<br /> -All yesterdays—there let them sleep,</p> -<p class="poetry">Nor seek to summon back one ghost<br /> -Of that innumerable host.</p> -<p class="poetry">Concern yourself with but to-day;<br /> -Woo it and teach it to obey</p> -<p class="poetry">Your wish and will. Since time began<br -/> -To-day has been the friend of man.</p> -<p class="poetry">But in his blindness and his sorrow<br /> -He looks to yesterday and to-morrow.</p> -<p class="poetry">You and to-day! a soul sublime<br /> -And the great pregnant hour of time.</p> -<p class="poetry">With God between to bind the train,<br /> -Go forth, I say—attain—attain.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem25"></a>THE REASON</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Do you know what moves the tides<br /> - As they swing from low to high?<br /> -’Tis the love, love, love,<br /> - Of the moon within the sky.<br /> -Oh! they follow where she guides,<br /> -Do the faithful-hearted tides.</p> -<p class="poetry">Do you know what moves the earth<br /> - Out of winter into spring?<br /> -’Tis the love, love, love,<br /> - Of the sun, the mighty king.<br /> -Oh the rapture that finds birth<br /> -In the kiss of sun and earth!</p> -<p class="poetry">Do you know what makes sweet songs<br /> - Ring for me above earth’s strife?<br /> -’Tis the love, love, love,<br /> - That you bring into my life,<br /> -Oh the glory of the songs<br /> -In the heart where love belongs!</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem26"></a>MISSION</h2> - -<p class="poetry">If you are sighing for a lofty work,<br /> - If great ambitions dominate your mind,<br /> -Just watch yourself and see you do not shirk<br /> - The common little ways of being kind.</p> -<p class="poetry">If you are dreaming of a future goal,<br /> - When, crowned with glory, men shall own your -power,<br /> -Be careful that you let no struggling soul<br /> - Go by unaided in the present hour.</p> -<p class="poetry">If you are moved to pity for the earth,<br /> - And long to aid it, do not look so high,<br /> -You pass some poor, dumb creature faint with thirst—<br /> - All life is equal in the eternal eye.</p> -<p class="poetry">If you would help to make the wrong things right,<br /> - Begin at home: there lies a lifetime’s -toil.<br /> -Weed your own garden fair for all men’s sight,<br /> - Before you plan to till another’s soil.</p> -<p class="poetry">God chooses His own leaders in the world,<br /> - And from the rest He asks but willing hands.<br /> -As mighty mountains into place are hurled,<br /> - While patient tides may only shape the sands.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem27"></a>REPETITION</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Over and over and over<br /> - These truths I will weave in song—<br /> -That God’s great plan needs you and me,<br /> -That will is greater than destiny,<br /> - And that love moves the world along.</p> -<p class="poetry">However mankind may doubt it,<br /> - It shall listen and hear my creed—<br /> -That God may ever be found within,<br /> -That the worship of self is the only sin,<br /> - And the only devil is greed.</p> -<p class="poetry">Over and over and over<br /> - These truths I will say and sing,<br /> -That love is mightier far than hate,<br /> -That a man’s own thought is a man’s own fate,<br /> - And that life is a goodly thing.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem28"></a>BEGIN THE DAY</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Begin each morning with a talk to God,<br /> -And ask for your divine inheritance<br /> -Of usefulness, contentment, and success.<br /> -Resign all fear, all doubt, and all despair.<br /> -The stars doubt not, and they are undismayed,<br /> -Though whirled through space for countless centuries,<br /> -And told not why or wherefore: and the sea<br /> -With everlasting ebb and flow obeys,<br /> -And leaves the purpose with the unseen Cause.<br /> -The star sheds radiance on a million worlds,<br /> -The sea is prodigal with waves, and yet<br /> -No lustre from the star is lost, and not<br /> -One drop is missing from the ocean tides.<br /> -Oh! brother to the star and sea, know all<br /> -God’s opulence is held in trust for those<br /> -Who wait serenely and who work in faith.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem29"></a>WORDS</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Words are great forces in the realm of life:<br -/> - Be careful of their use. Who talks of hate,<br -/> -Of poverty, of sickness, but sets rife<br /> - These very elements to mar his fate.</p> -<p class="poetry">When love, health, happiness, and plenty -hear<br /> - Their names repeated over day by day,<br /> -They wing their way like answering fairies near,<br /> - Then nestle down within our homes to stay.</p> -<p class="poetry">Who talks of evil conjures into shape<br /> - The formless thing and gives it life and scope.<br -/> -This is the law: then let no word escape<br /> - That does not breathe of everlasting hope.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem30"></a>FATE AND I</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Wise men tell me thou, O Fate,<br /> -Art invincible and great.</p> -<p class="poetry">Well, I own thy prowess; still<br /> -Dare I flout thee with my will</p> -<p class="poetry">Thou canst shatter in a span<br /> -All the earthly pride of man.</p> -<p class="poetry">Outward things thou canst control;<br /> -But stand back—I rule my soul!</p> -<p class="poetry">Death? ’Tis such a little -thing—<br /> -Scarcely worth the mentioning.</p> -<p class="poetry">What has death to do with me,<br /> -Save to set my spirit free?</p> -<p class="poetry">Something in me dwells, O Fate,<br /> -That can rise and dominate</p> -<p class="poetry">Loss, and sorrow, and disaster,—<br /> -How, then, Fate, art thou my master?</p> -<p class="poetry">In the great primeval morn<br /> -My immortal will was born,</p> -<p class="poetry">Part of that stupendous Cause<br /> -Which conceived the Solar Laws,</p> -<p class="poetry">Lit the suns and filled the seas,<br /> -Royalest of pedigrees.</p> -<p class="poetry">That great Cause was Love, the Source<br /> -Who most loves has most of Force.</p> -<p class="poetry">He who harbours Hate one hour<br /> -Saps the soul of Peace and Power.</p> -<p class="poetry">He who will not hate his foe<br /> -Need not dread life’s hardest blow.</p> -<p class="poetry">In the realm of brotherhood<br /> -Wishing no man aught but good,</p> -<p class="poetry">Naught but good can come to me—<br /> -This is Love’s supreme decree.</p> -<p class="poetry">Since I bar my door to Hate,<br /> -What have I to fear, O Fate?</p> -<p class="poetry">Since I fear not—Fate I vow,<br /> -I the ruler am, not thou!</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem31"></a>ATTAINMENT</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Use all your hidden forces. Do not -miss<br /> -The purpose of this life, and do not wait<br /> -For circumstance to mould or change your fate;<br /> -In your own self lies Destiny. Let this<br /> -Vast truth cast out all fear, all prejudice,<br /> -All hesitation. Know that you are great,<br /> -Great with divinity. So dominate<br /> -Environment, and enter into bliss.<br /> -Love largely and hate nothing. Hold no aim<br /> -That does not chord with universal good.<br /> -Hear what the voices of the Silence say—<br /> -All joys are yours if you put forth your claim.<br /> -Once let the spiritual laws be understood,<br /> -Material things must answer and obey.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem32"></a>A PLEA TO PEACE</h2> - -<p class="poetry">When mighty issues loom before us, all<br /> -The petty great men of the day seem small,<br /> -Like pigmies standing in a blaze of light<br /> -Before some grim majestic mountain-height.<br /> -War, with its bloody and impartial hand,<br /> -Reveals the hidden weakness of a land,<br /> -Uncrowns the heroes trusting Peace has made<br /> -Of men whose honour is a thing of trade,<br /> -And turns the searchlight full on many a place<br /> -Where proud conventions long have masked disgrace.<br /> -O lovely Peace! as thou art fair be wise.<br /> -Demand great men, and great men shall arise<br /> -To do thy bidding. Even as warriors come,<br /> -Swift at the call of bugle and of drum,<br /> -So at the voice of Peace, imperative<br /> -As bugle’s call, shall heroes spring to live<br /> -For country and for thee. In every land,<br /> -In every age, men are what times demand.<br /> -Demand the best, O Peace, and teach thy sons<br /> -They need not rush in front of death-charged guns<br /> -With murder in their hearts to prove their worth.<br /> -The grandest heroes who have graced the earth<br /> -Were love-filled souls who did not seek the fray,<br /> -But chose the safe, hard, high, and lonely way<br /> -Of selfless labour for a suffering world.<br /> -Beneath our glorious flag again unfurled<br /> -In victory such heroes wait to be<br /> -Called into bloodless action, Peace, by thee.<br /> -Be thou insistent in thy stern demand,<br /> -And wise, great men shall rise up in the land.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem33"></a>PRESUMPTION</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Whenever I am prone to doubt or -wonder—<br /> - I check myself, and say, “That mighty One<br -/> -Who made the solar system cannot blunder—<br /> - And for the best all things are being -done.”<br /> -Who set the stars on their eternal courses<br /> - Has fashioned this strange earth by some sure -plan.<br /> -Bow low, bow low to those majestic forces,<br /> - Nor dare to doubt their wisdom, puny man.</p> -<p class="poetry">You cannot put one little star in motion,<br /> - You cannot shape one single forest leaf,<br /> -Nor fling a mountain up, nor sink an ocean,<br /> - Presumptuous pigmy, large with unbelief.<br /> -ou cannot bring one dawn of regal splendour,<br /> - Nor bid the day to shadowy twilight fall,<br /> -Nor send the pale moon forth with radiance tender—<br /> - And dare you doubt the One who has done all?</p> -<p class="poetry">“So much is wrong, there is such -pain—such sinning.”<br /> - Yet look again—behold how much is right!<br /> -And He who formed the world from its beginning<br /> - Knows how to guide it upward to the light.<br /> -Your task, O man, is not to carp and cavil<br /> - At God’s achievements, but with purpose -strong<br /> -To cling to good, and turn away from evil.<br /> - That is the way to help the world along.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem34"></a>HIGH NOON</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Time’s finger on the dial of my life<br -/> -Points to high noon! and yet the half-spent day<br /> -Leaves less than half remaining, for the dark,<br /> -Bleak shadows of the grave engulf the end.<br /> -To those who burn the candle to the stick,<br /> -The sputtering socket yields but little light.<br /> -Long life is sadder than an early death.<br /> -We cannot count on ravelled threads of age<br /> -Whereof to weave a fabric. We must use<br /> -The warp and woof the ready present yields<br /> -And toil while daylight lasts. When I bethink<br /> -How brief the past, the future, still more brief<br /> -Calls on to action, action! Not for me<br /> -Is time for retrospection or for dreams,<br /> -Not time for self-laudation or remorse.<br /> -Have I done nobly? Then I must not let<br /> -Dead yesterday unborn to-morrow shame.<br /> -Have I done wrong? Well, let the bitter taste<br /> -Of fruit that turned to ashes on my lip<br /> -Be my reminder in temptation’s hour,<br /> -And keep me silent when I would condemn.<br /> -Sometimes it takes the acid of a sin<br /> -To cleanse the clouded windows of our souls<br /> -So pity may shine through them.</p> -<p class="poetry"> Looking -back,<br /> -My faults and errors seem like stepping-stones<br /> -That led the way to knowledge of the truth<br /> -And made me value virtue; sorrows shine<br /> -In rainbow colours o’er the gulf of years,<br /> -Where lie forgotten pleasures.</p> -<p class="poetry"> Looking -forth,<br /> -Out to the western sky still bright with noon,<br /> -I feel well spurred and booted for the strife<br /> -That ends not till Nirvana is attained.</p> -<p class="poetry">Battling with fate, with men, and with -myself,<br /> -Up the steep summit of my life’s forenoon,<br /> -Three things I learned, three things of precious worth,<br /> -To guide and help me down the western slope.<br /> -I have learned how to pray, and toil, and save:<br /> -To pray for courage to receive what comes,<br /> -Knowing what comes to be divinely sent;<br /> -To toil for universal good, since thus<br /> -And only thus can good come unto me;<br /> -To save, by giving whatsoe’er I have<br /> -To those who have not—this alone is gain.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem35"></a>THOUGHT-MAGNETS</h2> - -<p class="poetry">With each strong thought, with every earnest -longing<br /> - For aught thou deemest needful to thy soul,<br /> -Invisible vast forces are set thronging<br /> - Between thee and that goal</p> -<p class="poetry">’Tis only when some hidden weakness -alters<br /> - And changes thy desire, or makes it less,<br /> -That this mysterious army ever falters<br /> - Or stops short of success.</p> -<p class="poetry">Thought is a magnet; and the longed-for -pleasure,<br /> - Or boon, or aim, or object, is the steel;<br /> -And its attainment hangs but on the measure<br /> - Of what thy soul can feel.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem36"></a>SMILES</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Smile a little, smile a little,<br /> - As you go along,<br /> -Not alone when life is pleasant,<br /> - But when things go wrong.<br /> -Care delights to see you frowning,<br /> - Loves to hear you sigh;<br /> -Turn a smiling face upon her—<br /> - Quick the dame will fly.</p> -<p class="poetry">Smile a little, smile a little,<br /> - All along the road;<br /> -Every life must have its burden,<br /> - Every heart its load.<br /> -Why sit down in gloom and darkness<br /> - With your grief to sup?<br /> -As you drink Fate’s bitter tonic,<br /> - Smile across the cup.</p> -<p class="poetry">Smile upon the troubled pilgrims<br /> - Whom you pass and meet;<br /> -Frowns are thorns, and smiles are blossoms<br /> - Oft for weary feet.<br /> -Do not make the way seem harder<br /> - By a sullen face;<br /> -Smile a little, smile a little,<br /> - Brighten up the place.</p> -<p class="poetry">Smile upon your undone labour;<br /> - Not for one who grieves<br /> -O’er his task waits wealth or glory;<br /> - He who smiles achieves.<br /> -Though you meet with loss and sorrow<br /> - In the passing years,<br /> -Smile a little, smile a little,<br /> - Even through your tears.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem37"></a>THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Man has explored all countries and all -lands,<br /> -And made his own the secrets of each clime.<br /> -Now, ere the world has fully reached its prime,<br /> -The oval earth lies compassed with steel bands,<br /> -The seas are slaves to ships that touch all strands,<br /> - And even the haughty elements, sublime<br /> - And bold, yield him their secrets for all time,<br -/> -And speed like lackeys forth at his commands.</p> -<p class="poetry">Still, though he search from shore to distant -shore,<br /> - And no strange realms, no unlocated plains<br /> -Are left for his attainment and control,<br /> -Yet is there one more kingdom to explore.<br /> - Go, know thyself, O man! there yet remains<br /> -The undiscovered country of thy soul!</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem38"></a>THE UNIVERSAL ROUTE</h2> - -<p class="poetry">As we journey along, with a laugh and a -song,<br /> - We see, on youth’s flower-decked slope,<br /> -Like a beacon of light, shining fair on the sight,<br /> - The beautiful Station of Hope.</p> -<p class="poetry">But the wheels of old Time roll along as we -climb,<br /> - And our youth speeds away on the years;<br /> -And with hearts that are numb with life’s sorrows we -come<br /> - To the mist-covered Station of Tears.</p> -<p class="poetry">Still onward we pass, where the milestones, -alas!<br /> - Are the tombs of our dead, to the West,<br /> -Where glitters and gleams, in the dying sunbeams,<br /> - The sweet, silent Station of Rest.</p> -<p class="poetry">All rest is but change, and no grave can estrange<br /> - The soul from its Parent above;<br /> -And, scorning the rod, it soars back to its God,<br /> - To the limitless City of Love.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem39"></a>UNANSWERED PRAYERS</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Like some schoolmaster, kind in being stern,<br -/> -Who hears the children crying o’er their slates<br /> -And calling, “Help me, master!” yet helps not,<br /> -Since in his silence and refusal lies<br /> -Their self-development, so God abides<br /> -Unheeding many prayers. He is not deaf<br /> -To any cry sent up from earnest hearts;<br /> -He hears and strengthens when He must deny.<br /> -He sees us weeping over life’s hard sums;<br /> -But should He give the key and dry our tears,<br /> -What would it profit us when school were done<br /> -And not one lesson mastered?</p> -<p class="poetry"> What a -world<br /> -Were this if all our prayers were answered. Not<br /> -In famed Pandora’s box were such vast ills<br /> -As lie in human hearts. Should our desires,<br /> -Voiced one by one in prayer, ascend to God<br /> -And come back as events shaped to our wish,<br /> -What chaos would result!</p> -<p class="poetry"> In my -fierce youth<br /> -I sighed out breath enough to move a fleet,<br /> -Voicing wild prayers to heaven for fancied boons<br /> -Which were denied; and that denial bends<br /> -My knee to prayers of gratitude each day<br /> -Of my maturer years. Yet from those prayers<br /> -I rose alway regirded for the strife<br /> -And conscious of new strength. Pray on, sad heart,<br /> -That which thou pleadest for may not be given,<br /> -But in the lofty altitude where souls<br /> -Who supplicate God’s grace are lifted, there<br /> -Thou shalt find help to bear thy daily lot<br /> -Which is not elsewhere found.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem40"></a>THANKSGIVING</h2> - -<p class="poetry">We walk on starry fields of white<br /> - And do not see the daisies,<br /> -For blessings common in our sight<br /> - We rarely offer praises.<br /> -We sigh for some supreme delight<br /> - To crown our lives with splendour,<br /> -And quite ignore our daily store<br /> - Of pleasures sweet and tender.</p> -<p class="poetry">Our cares are bold and push their way<br /> - Upon our thought and feeling;<br /> -They hang about us all the day,<br /> - Our time from pleasure stealing.<br /> -So unobtrusive many a joy<br /> - We pass by and forget it,<br /> -But worry strives to own our lives,<br /> - And conquers if we let it.</p> -<p class="poetry">There’s not a day in all the year<br /> - But holds some hidden pleasure,<br /> -And, looking back, joys oft appear<br /> - To brim the past’s wide measure.<br /> -But blessings are like friends, I hold,<br /> - Who love and labour near us.<br /> -We ought to raise our notes of praise<br /> - While living hearts can hear us.</p> -<p class="poetry">Full many a blessing wears the guise<br /> - Of worry or of trouble;<br /> -Far-seeing is the soul, and wise,<br /> - Who knows the mask is double.<br /> -But he who has the faith and strength<br /> - To thank his God for sorrow<br /> -Has found a joy without alloy<br /> - To gladden every morrow.</p> -<p class="poetry">We ought to make the moments notes<br /> - Of happy, glad Thanksgiving;<br /> -The hours and days a silent phrase<br /> - Of music we are living.<br /> -And so the theme should swell and grow<br /> - As weeks and months pass o’er us,<br /> -And rise sublime at this good time,<br /> - A grand Thanksgiving chorus.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem41"></a>CONTRASTS</h2> - -<p class="poetry">I see the tall church steeples—<br /> - They reach so far, so far;<br /> -But the eyes of my heart see the world’s great mart<br /> -Where the starving people are.</p> -<p class="poetry"> I hear the church bells -ringing<br /> - Their chimes on the morning air;<br /> -But my soul’s sad ear is hurt to hear<br /> - The poor man’s cry of despair.</p> -<p class="poetry">Thicker and thicker the churches,<br /> - Nearer and nearer the sky—<br /> -But alack for their creeds while the poor man’s needs<br /> - Grow deeper as years roll by!</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem42"></a>THY SHIP</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Hadst thou a ship, in whose vast hold lay -stored<br /> -The priceless riches of all climes and lands,<br /> -Say, wouldst thou let it float upon the seas<br /> -Unpiloted, of fickle winds the sport,<br /> -And of wild waves and hidden rocks the prey?</p> -<p class="poetry">Thine is that ship; and in its depths -concealed<br /> -Lies all the wealth of this vast universe—<br /> -Yea, lies some part of God’s omnipotence,<br /> -The legacy divine of every soul.<br /> -Thy will, O man, thy will is that great ship,<br /> -And yet behold it drifting here and there—<br /> -One moment lying motionless in port,<br /> -Then on high seas by sudden impulse flung,<br /> -Then drying on the sands, and yet again<br /> -Sent forth on idle quests to no-man’s land<br /> -To carry nothing and to nothing bring;<br /> -Till, worn and fretted by the aimless strife<br /> -And buffeted by vacillating winds,<br /> -It founders on a rock, or springs a leak,<br /> -With all its unused treasures in the hold.</p> -<p class="poetry">Go save thy ship, thou sluggard; take the -wheel<br /> -And steer to knowledge, glory, and success.<br /> -Great mariners have made the pathway plain<br /> -For thee to follow; hold thou to the course<br /> -Of Concentration Channel, and all things<br /> -Shall come in answer to thy swerveless wish<br /> -As comes the needle to the magnet’s call,<br /> -Or sunlight to the prisoned blade of grass<br /> -That yearns all winter for the kiss of spring.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem43"></a>LIFE</h2> - -<p class="poetry">All in the dark we grope along,<br /> - And if we go amiss<br /> -We learn at least which path is wrong,<br /> - And there is gain in this.</p> -<p class="poetry">We do not always win the race<br /> - By only running right;<br /> -We have to tread the mountain’s base<br /> - Before we reach its height.</p> -<p class="poetry">The Christs alone no errors made;<br /> - So often had they trod<br /> -The paths that lead through light and shade,<br /> - They had become as God.</p> -<p class="poetry">As Krishna, Buddha, Christ again,<br /> - They passed along the way,<br /> -And left those mighty truths which men<br /> - But dimly grasp to-day.</p> -<p class="poetry">But he who loves himself the last<br /> - And knows the use of pain,<br /> -Though strewn with errors all his past,<br /> - He surely shall attain.</p> -<p class="poetry">Some souls there are that needs must taste<br -/> - Of wrong, ere choosing right;<br /> -We should not call those years a waste<br /> - Which led us to the light.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem44"></a>A MARINE ETCHING</h2> - -<p class="poetry">A yacht from its harbour ropes pulled free,<br -/> -And leaped like a steed o’er the race-track blue,<br /> -Then up behind her the dust of the sea,<br /> -A gray fog, drifted, and hid her from view.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem45"></a>“LOVE THYSELF LAST”</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Love thyself last. Look near, behold thy -duty<br /> - To those who walk beside thee down life’s -road.<br /> -Make glad their days by little acts of beauty<br /> - And help them bear the burden of earth’s -load.</p> -<p class="poetry">Love thyself last. Look far and find the -stranger<br /> - Who staggers ’neath his sin and his -despair;<br /> -Go, lend a hand, and lead him out of danger,<br /> - To heights where he may see the world is fair.</p> -<p class="poetry">Love thyself last. The vastnesses above -thee<br /> - Are filled with Spirit-Forces; strong and pure<br /> -And fervently these faithful friends shall love thee<br /> - Keep thou thy watch o’er others and -endure.</p> -<p class="poetry">Love thyself last, and oh! such joy shall thrill thee<br /> - As never yet to selfish souls was given;<br /> -Whate’er thy lot, a perfect peace will fill thee,<br /> - And earth shall seem the ante-room of Heaven.</p> -<p class="poetry">Love thyself last, and thou shalt grow in -spirit<br /> - To see, to hear, to know, and understand.<br /> -The message of the stars, lo, thou shalt hear it,<br /> - And all God’s joys shall be at thy -command.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem46"></a>CHRISTMAS FANCIES</h2> - -<p class="poetry">When Christmas bells are swinging above the -fields of snow,<br /> -We hear sweet voices ringing from lands of long ago,<br /> - And etched on vacant places<br /> - Are half-forgotten faces<br /> -Of friends we used to cherish, and loves we used to -know—<br /> -When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow.</p> -<p class="poetry">Uprising from the ocean of the present surging -near,<br /> -We see, with strange emotion, that is not free from fear,<br /> - That continent Elysian<br /> - Long vanished from our vision,<br /> -Youth’s lovely lost Atlantis, so mourned for and so -dear,<br /> -Uprising from the ocean of the present surging near.</p> -<p class="poetry">When gloomy, gray Decembers are roused to Christmas -mirth,<br /> -The dullest life remembers there once was joy on earth,<br /> - And draws from youth’s recesses<br /> - Some memory it possesses,<br /> -And, gazing through the lens of time, exaggerates its worth,<br -/> -When gloomy, gray December is roused to Christmas mirth.</p> -<p class="poetry">When hanging up the holly or mistletoe, I -wis<br /> -Each heart recalls some folly that lit the world with bliss.<br -/> - Not all the seers and sages<br /> - With wisdom of the ages<br /> -Can give the mind such pleasure as memories of that kiss<br /> -When hanging up the holly or mistletoe, I wis.</p> -<p class="poetry">For life was made for loving, and love alone -repays,<br /> -As passing years are proving, for all of Time’s sad -ways.<br /> - There lies a sting in pleasure,<br /> - And fame gives shallow measure,<br /> -And wealth is but a phantom that mocks the restless days,<br /> -For life was made for loving, and only loving pays.</p> -<p class="poetry">When Christmas bells are pelting the air with silver -chimes,<br /> -And silences are melting to soft, melodious rhymes,<br /> - Let Love, the world’s beginning,<br /> - End fear and hate and sinning;<br /> -Let Love, the God Eternal, be worshipped in all climes<br /> -When Christmas bells are pelting the air with silver chimes.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem47"></a>THE RIVER</h2> - -<p class="poetry">I am a river flowing from God’s sea<br /> -Through devious ways. He mapped my course for me;<br /> -I cannot change it; mine alone the toil<br /> -To keep the waters free from grime and soil.<br /> -The winding river ends where it began;<br /> -And when my life has compassed its brief span<br /> -I must return to that mysterious source.<br /> -So let me gather daily on my course<br /> -The perfume from the blossoms as I pass,<br /> -Balm from the pines, and healing from the grass,<br /> -And carry down my current as I go<br /> -Not common stones but precious gems to show;<br /> -And tears (the holy water from sad eyes)<br /> -Back to God’s sea, from which all rivers rise,<br /> -Let me convey, not blood from wounded hearts,<br /> -Nor poison which the upas tree imparts.<br /> -When over flowery vales I leap with joy,<br /> -Let me not devastate them, nor destroy,<br /> -But rather leave them fairer to the sight;<br /> -Mine be the lot to comfort and delight.<br /> -And if down awful chasms I needs must leap,<br /> -Let me not murmur at my lot, but sweep<br /> -On bravely to the end without one fear,<br /> -Knowing that He who planned my ways stands near.<br /> -Love sent me forth, to Love I go again,<br /> -For Love is all, and over all. Amen.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem48"></a>SORRY</h2> - -<p class="poetry">There is much that makes me sorry as I journey -down life’s way,<br /> -And I seem to see more pathos in poor human lives each day.<br /> -I’m sorry for the strong, brave men who shield the weak -from harm,<br /> -But who, in their own troubled hours, find no protecting arm.</p> -<p class="poetry">I’m sorry for the victors who have -reached success, to stand<br /> -As targets for the arrows shot by envious failure’s -hand.<br /> -I’m sorry for the generous hearts who freely shared their -wine,<br /> -But drink alone the gall of tears in fortune’s drear -decline.</p> -<p class="poetry">I’m sorry for the souls who build their own -fame’s funeral pyre,<br /> -Derided by the scornful throng like ice deriding fire.<br /> -I’m sorry for the conquering ones who know not sin’s -defeat,<br /> -But daily tread down fierce desire ’neath scorched and -bleeding feet.</p> -<p class="poetry">I’m sorry for the anguished hearts that -break with passion’s strain,<br /> -But I’m sorrier for the poor starved souls that never knew -love’s pain,<br /> -Who hunger on through barren years not tasting joys they -crave,<br /> -For sadder far is such a lot than weeping o’er a grave.</p> -<p class="poetry">I’m sorry for the souls that come -unwelcomed into birth,<br /> -I’m sorry for the unloved old who cumber up the earth,<br -/> -I’m sorry for the suffering poor in life’s great -maelstrom hurled—<br /> -In truth, I’m sorry for them all who make this aching -world.</p> -<p class="poetry">But underneath whate’er seems sad and is not -understood,<br /> -I know there lies hid from our sight a mighty germ of good.<br /> -And this belief stands firm by me, my sermon, motto, -text—<br /> -The sorriest things in this life will seem grandest in the -next.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem49"></a>AMBITION’S TRAIL</h2> - -<p class="poetry">If all the end of this continuous striving<br -/> - Were simply <i>to attain</i>,<br /> -How poor would seem the planning and contriving,<br /> -The endless urging and the hurried driving,<br /> - Of body, heart, and brain!</p> -<p class="poetry">But ever in the wake of true achieving<br /> - There shines this glowing trail—<br /> -Some other soul will be spurred on, conceiving<br /> -New strength and hope, in its own power believing,<br /> - Because <i>thou</i> didst not fail.</p> -<p class="poetry">Not thine alone the glory, nor the sorrow,<br -/> - If thou dost miss the goal;<br /> -Undreamed of lives in many a far to-morrow<br /> -From thee their weakness or their force shall borrow—<br /> - On, on, ambitious soul.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem50"></a>UNCONTROLLED</h2> - -<p class="poetry">The mighty forces of mysterious space<br /> - Are one by one subdued by lordly man.<br /> - The awful lightning that for eons ran<br /> - Their devastating and untrammelled race,<br /> -Now bear his messages from place to place<br /> - Like carrier doves. The winds lead on his -van;<br /> - The lawless elements no longer can<br /> -Resist his strength, but yield with sullen grace.</p> -<p class="poetry">His bold feet scaling heights before untrod,<br -/> - Light, darkness, air and water, heat and cold,<br /> - He bids go forth and bring him -power and pelf.<br /> -And yet, though ruler, king and demi-god,<br /> - He walks with his fierce passions uncontrolled,<br -/> - The conqueror of all -things—save himself.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem51"></a>WILL</h2> - -<p class="poetry">You will be what you will to be;<br /> - Let failure find its false content<br /> - In that poor word “environment,”<br /> -But spirit scorns it, and is free.</p> -<p class="poetry">It masters time, it conquers space,<br /> - It cowes that boastful trickster Chance,<br /> - And bids the tyrant Circumstance<br /> -Uncrown and fill a servant’s place.</p> -<p class="poetry">The human Will, that force unseen,<br /> - The offspring of a deathless Soul,<br /> - Can hew the way to any goal,<br /> -Though walls of granite intervene.</p> -<p class="poetry">Be not impatient in delay,<br /> - But wait as one who understands;<br /> - When spirit rises and commands,<br /> -The gods are ready to obey.</p> -<p class="poetry">The river seeking for the sea<br /> - Confronts the dam and precipice,<br /> - Yet knows it cannot fail or miss;<br /> -<i>You will be what you will to be</i>!</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem52"></a>TO AN ASTROLOGER</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Nay, seer, I do not doubt thy mystic lore,<br /> -Nor question that the tenor of my life,<br /> -Past, present, and the future, is revealed<br /> -There in my horoscope. I do believe<br /> -That yon dead moon compels the haughty seas<br /> -To ebb and flow, and that my natal star<br /> -Stands like a stern-browed sentinel in space<br /> -And challenges events; nor lets one grief,<br /> -Or joy, or failure, or success, pass on<br /> -To mar or bless my earthly lot, until<br /> -It proves its Karmic right to come to me.</p> -<p class="poetry">All this I grant, but more than this I -<i>know</i>!<br /> -Before the solar systems were conceived,<br /> -When nothing was but the unnamable,<br /> -My spirit lived, an atom of the Cause.<br /> -Through countless ages and in many forms<br /> -It has existed, ere it entered in<br /> -This human frame to serve its little day<br /> -Upon the earth. The deathless Me of me.<br /> -The spark from that great all-creative fire,<br /> -Is part of that eternal source called God,<br /> -And mightier than the universe.</p> -<p class="poetry"> Why, he<br -/> -Who knows, and knowing, never once forgets<br /> -The pedigree divine of his own soul,<br /> -Can conquer, shape, and govern destiny,<br /> -And use vast space as ’twere a board for chess<br /> -With stars for pawns; can change his horoscope<br /> -To suit his will; turn failure to success,<br /> -And from preordained sorrows, harvest joy.</p> -<p class="poetry">There is no puny planet, sun, or moon,<br /> -Or zodiacal sign which can control<br /> -The God in us! If we bring <i>that</i> to bear<br /> -Upon events, we mould them to our wish;<br /> -’Tis when the infinite ’neath the finite gropes<br /> -That men are governed by their horoscopes.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem53"></a>THE TENDRIL’S FATE</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Under the snow, in the dark and the cold,<br /> - A pale little sprout was humming;<br /> -Sweetly it sang, ’neath the frozen mould,<br /> - Of the beautiful days that were coming.</p> -<p class="poetry">“How foolish your songs!” said a -lump of clay;<br /> - “What is there, I ask, to prove them?<br /> -Just look at the walls between you and the day,<br /> - Now, have you the strength to move them?”</p> -<p class="poetry">But under the ice and under the snow<br /> - The pale little sprout kept singing,<br /> -“I cannot tell how, but I know, I know,<br /> - I know what the days are bringing.</p> -<p class="poetry">“Birds, and blossoms, and buzzing bees,<br /> - Blue, blue skies above me,<br /> -Bloom on the meadows and buds on the trees<br /> - And the great glad sun to love me.”</p> -<p class="poetry">A pebble spoke next: “You are quite -absurd,”<br /> - It said, “with your song’s -insistence;<br /> -For <i>I</i> never saw a tree or a bird,<br /> - So of course there are none in existence.”</p> -<p class="poetry">“But I know, I know,” the tendril -cried,<br /> - In beautiful sweet unreason;<br /> -Till lo! from its prison, glorified,<br /> - It burst in the glad spring season.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem54"></a>THE TIMES</h2> - -<p class="poetry"> The times are not -degenerate. Man’s faith<br /> -Mounts higher than of old. No crumbling creed<br /> -Can take from the immortal soul the need<br /> - Of that supreme Creator, God. The wraith<br /> -Of dead beliefs we cherished in our youth<br /> -Fades but to let us welcome new-born Truth.</p> -<p class="poetry"> Man may not worship at the -ancient shrine<br /> -Prone on his face, in self-accusing scorn.<br /> -That night is past. He hails a fairer morn,<br /> - And knows himself a something all divine;<br /> -Not humble worm whose heritage is sin,<br /> -But, born of God, he feels the Christ withal.</p> -<p class="poetry"> Not loud his prayers, as in the -olden time,<br /> -But deep his reverence for that mighty force,<br /> -That occult working of the great All-Source,<br /> - Which makes the present era so sublime.<br /> -Religion now means something high and broad.<br /> -And man stood never half so near to God.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem55"></a>THE QUESTION</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Beside us in our seeking after pleasures,<br /> - Through all our restless striving after fame,<br /> -Through all our search for worldly gains and treasures,<br /> - There walketh one whom no man likes to name.<br /> -Silent he follows, veiled of form and feature,<br /> - Indifferent if we sorrow or rejoice,<br /> -Yet that day comes when every living creature<br /> - Must look upon his face and hear his voice.</p> -<p class="poetry">When that day comes to you, and Death, -unmasking,<br /> - Shall bar your path, and say, “Behold the -end,”<br /> -What are the questions that he will be asking<br /> - About your past? Have you considered, -friend?<br /> -I think he will not chide you for your sinning,<br /> - Nor for your creeds or dogmas will he care;<br /> -He will but ask, “From your life’s first beginning<br -/> - How many burdens have you helped to bear?”</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem56"></a>SORROW’S USES</h2> - -<p class="poetry">The uses of sorrow I comprehend<br /> -Better and better at each year’s end.</p> -<p class="poetry">Deeper and deeper I seem to see<br /> -Why and wherefore it has to be.</p> -<p class="poetry">Only after the dark, wet days<br /> -Do we fully rejoice in the sun’s bright rays.</p> -<p class="poetry">Sweeter the crust tastes after the fast<br /> -Than the sated gourmand’s finest repast.</p> -<p class="poetry">The faintest cheer sounds never amiss<br /> -To the actor who once has heard a hiss.</p> -<p class="poetry">To one who the sadness of freedom knows,<br /> -Light seem the fetters love may impose.</p> -<p class="poetry">And he who has dwelt with his heart alone,<br -/> -Hears all the music in friendship’s tone.</p> -<p class="poetry">So better and better I comprehend<br /> -How sorrow ever would be our friend.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem57"></a>IF</h2> - -<p class="poetry">’Twixt what thou art, and what thou -wouldst be, let<br /> -No “If” arise on which to lay the blame.<br /> -Man makes a mountain of that puny word,<br /> -But, like a blade of grass before the scythe,<br /> -It falls and withers when a human will,<br /> -Stirred by creative force, sweeps toward its aim.</p> -<p class="poetry">Thou wilt be what thou couldst be. -Circumstance<br /> -Is but the toy of genius. When a soul<br /> -Burns with a god-like purpose to achieve,<br /> -All obstacles between it and its goal<br /> -Must vanish as the dew before the sun.</p> -<p class="poetry">“If” is the motto of the dilettante<br /> -And idle dreamer; ’tis the poor excuse<br /> -Of mediocrity. The truly great<br /> -Know not the word, or know it but to scorn,<br /> -Else had Joan of Arc a peasant died,<br /> -Uncrowned by glory and by men unsung.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem58"></a>WHICH ARE YOU?</h2> - -<p class="poetry">There are two kinds of people on earth -to-day;<br /> -Just two kinds of people, no more, I say.</p> -<p class="poetry">Not the sinner and saint, for it’s well -understood<br /> -The good are half bad, and the bad are half good.</p> -<p class="poetry">Not the rich and the poor, for to rate a -man’s wealth<br /> -You must first know the state of his conscience and health.</p> -<p class="poetry">Not the humble and proud, for, in life’s -little span,<br /> -Who puts on vain airs is not counted a man.</p> -<p class="poetry">Not the happy and sad, for the swift flying -years<br /> -Bring each man his laughter, and each man his tears.</p> -<p class="poetry">No; the two kinds of people on earth I mean<br /> -Are the people who lift, and the people who lean.</p> -<p class="poetry">Wherever you go, you will find the -earth’s masses<br /> -Are always divided in just these two classes.</p> -<p class="poetry">And, oddly enough, you will find too, I -ween,<br /> -There’s only one lifter to twenty who lean.</p> -<p class="poetry">In which class are you? Are you easing -the load<br /> -Of overtaxed lifters, who toil down the road?</p> -<p class="poetry">Or are you a leaner, who lets others share<br -/> -Your portion of labour and worry and care?</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem59"></a>THE CREED TO BE</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Our thoughts are moulding unmade spheres,<br /> - And, like a blessing or a curse,<br /> -They thunder down the formless years,<br /> - And ring throughout the universe.</p> -<p class="poetry">We build our futures by the shape<br /> - Of our desires, and not by acts.<br /> -There is no pathway of escape;<br /> - No priest-made creeds can alter facts.</p> -<p class="poetry">Salvation is not begged or bought;<br /> - Too long this selfish hope sufficed;<br /> -Too long man reeked with lawless thought,<br /> - And leaned upon a tortured Christ.</p> -<p class="poetry">Like shrivelled leaves, these worn-out creeds<br /> - Are dropping from Religion’s tree;<br /> -The world begins to know its needs,<br /> - And souls are crying to be free.</p> -<p class="poetry">Free from the load of fear and grief,<br /> - Man fashioned in an ignorant age;<br /> -Free from the ache of unbelief<br /> - He fled to in rebellious rage.</p> -<p class="poetry">No church can bind him to the things<br /> - That fed the first crude souls, evolved;<br /> -For, mounting up on daring wings,<br /> - He questions mysteries all unsolved.</p> -<p class="poetry">Above the chant of priests, above<br /> - The blatant voice of braying doubt,<br /> -He hears the still, small voice of Love,<br /> - Which sends its simple message out.</p> -<p class="poetry">And clearer, sweeter, day by day,<br /> - Its mandate echoes from the skies,<br /> -“Go roll the stone of self away,<br /> - And let the Christ within thee rise.”</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem60"></a>INSPIRATION</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Not like a daring, bold, aggressive boy,<br /> - Is inspiration, eager to pursue,<br /> -But rather like a maiden, fond, yet coy,<br /> - Who gives herself to him who best doth woo.</p> -<p class="poetry">Once she may smile, or thrice, thy soul to -fire,<br /> - In passing by, but when she turns her face,<br /> -Thou must persist and seek her with desire,<br /> - If thou wouldst win the favour of her grace.</p> -<p class="poetry">And if, like some winged bird, she cleaves the -air,<br /> - And leaves thee spent and stricken on the earth,<br -/> -Still must thou strive to follow even there,<br /> - That she may know thy valour and thy worth.</p> -<p class="poetry">Then shall she come unveiling all her charms,<br /> - Giving thee joy for pain, and smiles for tears;<br -/> -Then shalt thou clasp her with possessing arms,<br /> - The while she murmurs music in thine ears.</p> -<p class="poetry">But ere her kiss has faded from thy cheek,<br -/> - She shall flee from thee over hill and glade,<br /> -So must thou seek and ever seek and seek<br /> - For each new conquest of this phantom maid</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem61"></a>THE WISH</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Should some great angel say to me to-morrow,<br -/> - “Thou must re-tread thy pathway from the -start,<br /> -But God will grant, in pity, for thy sorrow,<br /> - Some one dear wish, the nearest to thy -heart.”</p> -<p class="poetry">This were my wish!—from my life’s -dim beginning<br /> - <i>Let be what has been</i>! wisdom planned the -whole<br /> -My want, my woe, my errors, and my sinning,<br /> - All, all were needed lessons for my soul.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem62"></a>THREE FRIENDS</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Of all the blessings which my life has -known,<br /> -I value most, and most praise God for three:<br /> -Want, Loneliness, and Pain, those comrades true,</p> -<p class="poetry">Who masqueraded in the garb of foes<br /> -For many a year, and filled my heart with dread.<br /> -Yet fickle joys, like false, pretentious friends,<br /> -Have proved less worthy than this trio. First,</p> -<p class="poetry">Want taught me labour, led me up the steep<br -/> -And toilsome paths to hills of pure delight,<br /> -Trod only by the feet that know fatigue,<br /> -And yet press on until the heights appear.</p> -<p class="poetry">Then loneliness and hunger of the heart<br /> -Sent me upreaching to the realms of space,<br /> -Till all the silences grew eloquent,<br /> -And all their loving forces hailed me friend.</p> -<p class="poetry">Last, pain taught prayer! placed in my hand the -staff<br /> -Of close communion with the over-soul,<br /> -That I might lean upon it to the end,<br /> -And find myself made strong for any strife.</p> -<p class="poetry">And then these three who had pursued my -steps<br /> -Like stern, relentless foes, year after year,<br /> -Unmasked, and turned their faces full on me,<br /> -And lo! they were divinely beautiful,<br /> -For through them shone the lustrous eyes of Love.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem63"></a>YOU NEVER CAN TELL</h2> - -<p class="poetry">You never can tell when you send a word,<br /> - Like an arrow shot from a bow<br /> -By an archer blind, be it cruel or kind,<br /> - Just where it may chance to go!<br /> -It may pierce the breast of your dearest friend,<br /> - Tipped with its poison or balm;<br /> -To a stranger’s heart in life’s great mart,<br /> - It may carry its pain or its calm.</p> -<p class="poetry">You never can tell when you do an act<br /> - Just what the result will be;<br /> -But with every deed you are sowing a seed,<br /> - Though the harvest you may not see.<br /> -Each kindly act is an acorn dropped<br /> - In God’s productive soil.<br /> -You may not know, but the tree shall grow,<br /> - With shelter for those who toil.</p> -<p class="poetry">You never can tell what your thoughts will do,<br /> - In bringing you hate or love;<br /> -For thoughts are things, and their airy wings<br /> - Are swifter than carrier doves.<br /> -They follow the law of the universe—<br /> - Each thing must create its kind;<br /> -And they speed o’er the track to bring you back<br /> - <i>Whatever went out from your mind</i>.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem64"></a>HERE AND NOW</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Here, in the heart of the world,<br /> - Here, in the noise and the din,<br /> -Here, where our spirits were hurled<br /> - To battle with sorrow and sin,<br /> -This is the place and the spot<br /> - For knowledge of infinite things<br /> -This is the kingdom where Thought<br /> - Can conquer the prowess of kings</p> -<p class="poetry">Wait for no heavenly life,<br /> - Seek for no temple alone;<br /> -Here, in the midst of the strife,<br /> - Know what the sages have known.<br /> -See what the Perfect Ones saw—<br /> - God in the depth of each soul,<br /> -God as the light and the law,<br /> - God as beginning and goal.</p> -<p class="poetry">Earth is one chamber of Heaven,<br /> - Death is no grander than birth.<br /> -Joy in the life that was given,<br /> - Strive for perfection on earth;<br /> -Here, in the turmoil and roar,<br /> - Show what it is to be calm;<br /> -Show how the spirit can soar<br /> - And bring back its healing and balm.</p> -<p class="poetry">Stand not aloof nor apart,<br /> - Plunge in the thick of the fight;<br /> -There, in the street and the mart,<br /> - That is the place to do right.<br /> -Not in some cloister or cave,<br /> - Not in some kingdom above,<br /> -Here, on this side of the grave,<br /> - Here, should we labour and love.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem65"></a>UNCONQUERED</h2> - -<p class="poetry">However skilled and strong art thou, my foe,<br -/> -However fierce is thy relentless hate,<br /> -Though firm thy hand, and strong thy aim, and straight<br /> -Thy poisoned arrow leaves the bended bow,</p> -<p class="poetry">To pierce the target of my heart, ah! know<br -/> - I am the master yet of my own fate.<br /> - Thou canst not rob me of my best estate,<br /> -Though fortune, fame, and friends, yea, love shall go.</p> -<p class="poetry">Not to the dust shall my true self be -hurled,<br /> - Nor shall I meet thy worst assaults dismayed;<br /> - When all things in the balance are well weighed,<br -/> -There is but one great danger in the world—<br /> - <i>Thou canst not force my soul to wish thee -ill</i>,<br /> - That is the only evil that can kill.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem66"></a>ALL THAT LOVE ASKS</h2> - -<p class="poetry"> “All that I ask,” -says Love, “is just to stand<br /> - And gaze, unchided, deep in thy dear eyes;<br /> - For in their depths lies largest Paradise.<br /> -Yet, if perchance one pressure of thy hand<br /> - Be granted me, then joy I thought complete<br /> - Were still more sweet.</p> -<p class="poetry"> “All that I ask,” -says Love, “all that I ask,<br /> - Is just thy hand-clasp. Could I brush thy -cheek<br /> - As zephyrs brush a rose leaf, words are weak<br /> -To tell the bliss in which my soul would bask.<br /> - There is no language but would desecrate<br /> - A joy so great.</p> -<p class="poetry"> “All that I ask, is just one -tender touch<br /> - Of that soft cheek. Thy pulsing palm in -mine,<br /> - Thy dark eyes lifted in a trust divine,<br /> -And those curled lips that tempt me overmuch<br /> - Turned where I may not seize the supreme bliss<br /> - Of one mad kiss.</p> -<p class="poetry"> “All that I ask,” -says Love, “of life, of death,<br /> - Or of high heaven itself, is just to stand,<br /> - Glance melting into glance, hand twined in hand,<br -/> -The while I drink the nectar of thy breath<br /> - In one sweet kiss, but one, of all thy store,<br /> - I ask no more.”</p> -<p class="poetry"> “All that I -ask”—nay, self-deceiving Love,<br /> - Reverse thy phrase, so thus the words may fall,<br -/> - In place of “all I ask,” say, “I -ask all,”<br /> -All that pertains to earth or soars above,<br /> - All that thou wert, art, will be, body, soul,<br /> - Love asks the whole,</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem67"></a>“DOES IT PAY?”</h2> - -<p class="poetry">If one poor burdened toiler o’er -life’s road,<br /> - Who meets us by the way,<br /> -Goes on less conscious of his galling load,<br /> - Then life, indeed, does pay.</p> -<p class="poetry">If we can show one troubled heart the gain<br -/> - That lies alway in loss,<br /> -Why, then, we too are paid for all the pain<br /> - Of bearing life’s hard cross.</p> -<p class="poetry">If some despondent soul to hope is stirred,<br -/> - Some sad lip made to smile,<br /> -By any act of ours, or any word,<br /> - Then, life has been worth while.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem68"></a>SESTINA</h2> - -<p class="poetry">I wandered o’er the vast green plains of -youth,<br /> -And searched for Pleasure. On a distant height<br /> -Fame’s silhouette stood sharp against the skies.<br /> -Beyond vast crowds that thronged a broad highway<br /> -I caught the glimmer of a golden goal,<br /> -While from a blooming bower smiled siren Love.</p> -<p class="poetry">Straight gazing in her eyes, I laughed at -Love<br /> -With all the haughty insolence of youth,<br /> -As past her bower I strode to seek my goal.<br /> -“Now will I climb to glory’s dizzy height,”<br -/> -I said, “for there above the common way<br /> -Doth pleasure dwell companioned by the skies.”</p> -<p class="poetry">But when I reached that summit near the skies,<br /> -So far from man I seemed, so far from Love—<br /> -“Not here,” I cried, “doth Pleasure find her -way.”<br /> -Seen from the distant borderland of youth,<br /> -Fame smiles upon us from her sun-kissed height,<br /> -But frowns in shadows when we reach the goal.</p> -<p class="poetry">Then were mine eyes fixed on that glittering -goal,<br /> -Dear to all sense—sunk souls beneath the skies.<br /> -Gold tempts the artist from the lofty height,<br /> -Gold lures the maiden from the arms of Love,<br /> -Gold buys the fresh, ingenuous heart of youth,<br /> -“And gold,” I said, “will show me -Pleasure’s way.”</p> -<p class="poetry">But ah! the soil and discord of that way,<br /> -Where savage hordes rushed headlong to the goal,<br /> -Dead to the best impulses of their youth,<br /> -Blind to the azure beauty of the skies;<br /> -Dulled to the voice of conscience and of love,<br /> -They wandered far from Truth’s eternal height.</p> -<p class="poetry">Then Truth spoke to me from that noble -height,<br /> -Saying, “Thou didst pass Pleasure on the way,<br /> -She with the yearning eyes so full of Love,<br /> -Whom thou disdained to seek for glory’s goal.<br /> -Two blending paths beneath God’s arching skies<br /> -Lead straight to Pleasure. Ah! blind heart of youth,<br /> -Not up fame’s height, not toward the base god’s -goal,<br /> -Doth Pleasure make her way, but ’neath calm skies<br /> -Where Duty walks with Love in endless youth.”</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem69"></a>>THE OPTIMIST</h2> - -<p class="poetry">The fields were bleak and sodden.<br /> - Not a wing<br /> -Or note enlivened the depressing wood;<br /> -A soiled and sullen, stubborn snowdrift stood<br /> -Beside the roadway. Winds came muttering<br /> -Of storms to be, and brought the chilly sting<br /> - Of icebergs in their breath. Stalled cattle -mooed<br /> - Forth plaintive pleadings for the earth’s -green food.<br /> -No gleam, no hint of hope in anything.</p> -<p class="poetry">The sky was blank and ashen, like the face<br -/> - Of some poor wretch who drains life’s cup too -fast<br /> -Yet, swaying to and fro, as if to fling<br /> -About chilled Nature its lithe arms of grace,<br /> - Smiling with promise in the wintry blast,<br /> -The optimistic Willow spoke of spring.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem70"></a>THE PESSIMIST</h2> - -<p class="poetry">The pessimistic locust, last to leaf,<br /> -Though all the world is glad, still talks of grief.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem71"></a>AN INSPIRATION</h2> - -<p class="poetry">However the battle is ended,<br /> - Though proudly the victor comes<br /> -With fluttering flags and prancing nags<br /> - And echoing roll of drums,<br /> -Still truth proclaims this motto<br /> - In letters of living light,—<br /> -No question is ever settled<br /> - Until it is settled right.</p> -<p class="poetry">Though the heel of the strong oppressor<br /> - May grind the weak in the dust;<br /> -And the voices of fame with one acclaim<br /> - May call him great and just,<br /> -Let those who applaud take warning.<br /> - And keep this motto in sight,—<br /> -No question is ever settled<br /> - Until it is settled right.</p> -<p class="poetry">Let those who have failed take courage;<br /> - Though the enemy seems to have won,<br /> -Though his ranks are strong, if he be in the wrong<br /> - The battle is not yet done;<br /> -For, sure as the morning follows<br /> - The darkest hour of the night,<br /> -No question is ever settled<br /> - Until it is settled right.</p> -<p class="poetry">O man bowed down with labour!<br /> - O woman young, yet old!<br /> -O heart oppressed in the toiler’s breast<br /> - And crushed by the power of gold<br /> -Keep on with your weary battle<br /> - Against triumphant might;<br /> -No question is ever settled<br /> - Until it is settled right.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem72"></a>LIFE’S HARMONIES</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Let no man pray that he know not sorrow,<br /> - Let no soul ask to be free from pain,<br /> -For the gall of to-day is the sweet of to-morrow,<br /> - And the moment’s loss is the lifetime’s -gain.</p> -<p class="poetry">Through want of a thing does its worth -redouble,<br /> - Through hunger’s pangs does the feast -content,<br /> -And only the heart that has harboured trouble<br /> - Can fully rejoice when joy is sent.</p> -<p class="poetry">Let no man shrink from the bitter tonics<br /> - Of grief, and yearning, and need, and strife,<br /> -For the rarest chords in the soul’s harmonics<br /> - Are found in the minor strains of life.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem73"></a>PREPARATION</h2> - -<p class="poetry">We must not force events, but rather make<br /> -The heart soil ready for their coming, as<br /> -The earth spreads carpets for the feet of Spring,<br /> -Or, with the strengthening tonic of the frost,<br /> -Prepares for winter. Should a July noon<br /> -Burst suddenly upon a frozen world<br /> -Small joy would follow, even though that world<br /> -Were longing for the Summer. Should the sting<br /> -Of sharp December pierce the heart of June,<br /> -What death and devastation would ensue!<br /> -All things are planned. The most majestic sphere<br /> -That whirls through space is governed and controlled<br /> -By supreme law, as is the blade of grass<br /> -Which through the bursting bosom of the earth<br /> -Creeps up to kiss the light. Poor, puny man<br /> -Alone doth strive and battle with the Force<br /> -Which rules all lives and worlds, and he alone<br /> -Demands effect before producing cause.<br /> -How vain the hope! We cannot harvest joy<br /> -Until we sow the seed, and God alone<br /> -Knows when that seed has ripened. Oft we stand<br /> -And watch the ground with anxious, brooding eyes,<br /> -Complaining of the slow, unfruitful yield,<br /> -Not knowing that the shadow of ourselves<br /> -Keeps off the sunlight and delays result.<br /> -Sometimes our fierce impatience of desire<br /> -Doth like a sultry May force tender shoots<br /> -Of half-formed pleasures and unshaped events<br /> -To ripen prematurely, and we reap<br /> -But disappointment; or we rot the germs<br /> -With briny tears ere they have time to grow.<br /> -While stars are born and mighty planets die<br /> -And hissing comets scorch the brow of space,<br /> -The Universe keeps its eternal calm.<br /> -Through patient preparation, year on year,<br /> -The earth endures the travail of the Spring<br /> -And Winter’s desolation. So our souls<br /> -In grand submission to a higher law<br /> -Should move serene through all the ills of life<br /> -Believing them masked joys.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem74"></a></h2> - -<p class="poetry">In golden youth when seems the earth<br /> -A Summer-land of singing mirth,<br /> -When souls are glad and hearts are light,<br /> -And not a shadow lurks in sight,<br /> -We do not know it, but there lieu<br /> -Somewhere veiled under evening skies<br /> -A garden which we all must see—<br /> -The garden of Gethsemane.</p> -<p class="poetry">With joyous steps we go our ways,<br /> -Love lends a halo to our days;<br /> -Light sorrows sail like clouds afar,<br /> -We laugh, and say how strong we are.<br /> -We hurry on; and hurrying, go<br /> -Close to the borderland of woe<br /> -That waits for you, and waits for me—<br /> -Forever waits Gethsemane.</p> -<p class="poetry">Down shadowy lanes, across strange streams,<br /> -Bridged over by our broken dreams;<br /> -Behind the misty caps of years,<br /> -Beyond the great salt fount of tears,<br /> -The garden lies. Strive as you may,<br /> -You cannot miss it in your way;<br /> -All paths that have been, or shall be,<br /> -Pass somewhere through Gethsemane.</p> -<p class="poetry">All those who journey, soon or late,<br /> -Must pass within the garden’s gate;<br /> -Must kneel alone in darkness there,<br /> -And battle with some fierce despair.<br /> -God pity those who cannot say,<br /> -“Not mine but Thine”; who only pray<br /> -“Let this cup pass,” and cannot see<br /> -The <i>purpose</i> in Gethsemane.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem75"></a>GOD’S MEASURE</h2> - -<p class="poetry">God measures souls by their capacity<br /> -For entertaining his best Angel, Love.<br /> -Who loveth most is nearest kin to God,<br /> -Who is all Love, or Nothing.</p> -<p class="poetry"> He who -sits<br /> -And looks out on the palpitating world,<br /> -And feels his heart swell in him large enough<br /> -To hold all men within it, he is near<br /> -His great Creator’s standard, though he dwells<br /> -Outside the pale of churches, and knows not<br /> -A feast-day from a fast-day, or a line<br /> -Of Scripture even. What God wants of us<br /> -Is that outreaching bigness that ignores<br /> -All littleness of aims, or loves, or creeds,<br /> -And clasps all Earth and Heaven in its embrace.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem76"></a>NOBLESSE OBLIGE</h2> - -<p class="poetry">I hold it the duty of one who is gifted<br /> - And specially dowered in all men’s sight,<br -/> -To know no rest till his life is lifted<br /> - Fully up to his great gifts’ height.</p> -<p class="poetry">He must mould the man into rare -completeness,<br /> - For gems are set only in gold refined.<br /> -He must fashion his thoughts into perfect sweetness.<br /> - And cast out folly and pride from his mind.</p> -<p class="poetry">For he who drinks from a god’s gold -fountain<br /> - Of art or music or rhythmic song<br /> -Must sift from his soul the chaff of malice,<br /> - And weed from his heart the roots of wrong.</p> -<p class="poetry">Great gifts should be worn, like a crown -befitting,<br /> - And not like gems in a beggar’s hands!<br /> -And the toil must be constant and unremitting<br /> - Which lifts up the king to the crown’s -demands.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem77"></a>THROUGH TEARS</h2> - -<p class="poetry">An artist toiled over his pictures;<br /> - He laboured by night and by day,<br /> -He struggled for glory and honour<br /> - But the world, it had nothing to say.<br /> -His walls were ablaze with the splendours<br /> - We see in the beautiful skies;<br /> -But the world beheld only the colours<br /> - That were made out of chemical dyes.</p> -<p class="poetry">Time sped. And he lived, loved, and -suffered;<br /> - He passed through the valley of grief.<br /> -Again he toiled over his canvas,<br /> - Since in labour alone was relief.<br /> -It showed not the splendour of colours<br /> - Of those of his earlier years;<br /> -But the world? the world bowed down before it<br /> - Because it was painted with tears.</p> -<p class="poetry">A poet was gifted with genius,<br /> - And he sang, and he sang all the days.<br /> -He wrote for the praise of the people,<br /> - But the people accorded no praise.<br /> -Oh! his songs were as blithe as the morning,<br /> - As sweet as the music of birds;<br /> -But the world had no homage to offer,<br /> - Because they were nothing but words.</p> -<p class="poetry">Time sped. And the poet through sorrow<br -/> - Became like his suffering kind.<br /> -Again he toiled over his poems<br /> - To lighten the grief of his mind.<br /> -They were not so flowing and rhythmic<br /> - As those of his earlier years;<br /> -But the world? lo! it offered its homage,<br /> - Because they were written in tears.</p> -<p class="poetry">So ever the price must be given<br /> - By those seeking glory in art;<br /> -So ever the world is repaying<br /> - The grief-stricken, suffering heart.<br /> -The happy must ever be humble;<br /> - Ambition must wait for the years<br /> -Ere hoping to win the approval<br /> - Of a world that looks on through its tears.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem78"></a>WHAT WE NEED</h2> - -<p class="poetry">What does our country need? No armies -standing<br /> - With sabres gleaming ready for the fight;<br /> -Not increased navies, skilful and commanding,<br /> - To bound the waters with an iron might;<br /> -Not haughty men with glutted purses trying<br /> - To purchase souls, and keep the power of place;<br -/> -Not jewelled dolls with one another vying<br /> - For palms of beauty, elegance, and grace.</p> -<p class="poetry">But we want women, strong of soul, yet -lowly,<br /> - With that rare meekness, born of gentleness;<br /> -Women whose lives are pure and clean and holy,<br /> - The women whom all little children bless;<br /> -Brave, earnest women, helpful to each other,<br /> - With finest scorn for all things low and mean;<br /> -Women who hold the names of wife and mother<br /> - Far nobler than the title of a queen.</p> -<p class="poetry">Oh! these are they who mould the men of -story,<br /> - These mothers, ofttimes shorn of grace and youth,<br -/> -Who, worn and weary, ask no greater glory<br /> - Than making some young soul the home of truth;<br /> -Who sow in hearts all fallow for the sowing<br /> - The seeds of virtue and of scorn for sin,<br /> -And, patient, watch the beauteous harvest growing<br /> - And weed out tares which crafty hands cast in;</p> -<p class="poetry">Women who do not hold the gift of beauty<br /> - As some rare treasure to be bought and sold.<br /> -But guard it as a precious aid to duty—<br /> - The outer framing of the inner gold;<br /> -Women who, low above their cradles bending,<br /> - Let flattery’s voice go by, and give no -heed,<br /> -While their pure prayers like incense are ascending<br /> - <i>These</i> are our country’s pride, our -country’s need,</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem79"></a>PLEA TO SCIENCE</h2> - -<p class="poetry">O Science, reaching backward through the -distance,<br /> - Most earnest child of God,<br /> -Exposing all the secrets of existence,<br /> - With thy divining rod,<br /> -I bid thee speed up to the heights supernal,<br /> - Clear thinker, ne’er sufficed;<br /> -Go seek and bind the laws and truths eternal,<br /> - But leave me Christ.</p> -<p class="poetry">Upon the vanity of pious sages<br /> - Let in the light of day;<br /> -Break down the superstitions of all ages—<br /> - Thrust bigotry away;<br /> -Stride on, and bid all stubborn foes defiance,<br /> - Let Truth and Reason reign:<br /> -But I beseech thee, O Immortal Science,<br /> - Let Christ remain.</p> -<p class="poetry">What canst thou give to help me bear my crosses,<br /> - In place of Him, my Lord?<br /> -And what to recompense for all my losses,<br /> - And bring me sweet reward?<br /> -<i>Thou</i> couldst not with thy clear, cold eyes of reason,<br -/> - Thou couldst not comfort me<br /> -Like One who passed through that tear-blotted season<br /> - In sad Gethsemane!</p> -<p class="poetry">Through all the weary, wearing hour of -sorrow,<br /> - What word that thou hast said<br /> -Would make me strong to wait for some to-morrow<br /> - When I should find my dead?<br /> -When I am weak, and desolate, and lonely—<br /> - And prone to follow wrong?<br /> -Not thou, O Science—Christ, my Saviour, only<br /> - Can make me strong.</p> -<p class="poetry">Thou art so cold, so lofty, and so distant,<br -/> - Though great my need might be,<br /> -No prayer, however constant and persistent,<br /> - Could bring thee down to me.<br /> -Christ stands so near, to help me through each hour,<br /> - To guide me day by day<br /> -O Science, sweeping all before thy power—<br /> - Leave Christ, I pray!</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem80"></a>RESPITE</h2> - -<p class="poetry">The mighty conflict, which we call -existence,<br /> - Doth wear upon the body and the soul,<br /> -Our vital forces wasted in resistance,<br /> - So much there is to conquer and control.</p> -<p class="poetry">The rock which meets the billows with -defiance,<br /> - Undaunted and unshaken day by day,<br /> -In spite of its unyielding self-reliance,<br /> - Is by the warfare surely worn away.</p> -<p class="poetry">And there are depths and heights of strong -emotions<br /> - That surge at times within the human breast,<br /> -More fierce than all the tides of all the oceans<br /> - Which sweep on ever in divine unrest.</p> -<p class="poetry">I sometimes think the rock worn with adventures,<br /> - And sad with thoughts of conflicts yet to be,<br /> -Must envy the frail reed which no one censures,<br /> - When, overcome, ’tis swallowed by the sea.</p> -<p class="poetry">This life is all resistance and repression.<br -/> - Dear God, if in that other world unseen,<br /> -Not rest we find, but new life and progression,<br /> - Grant us a respite in the grave between.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem81"></a>SONG</h2> - -<p class="poetry">O praise me not with your lips, dear one!<br /> - Though your tender words I prize.<br /> -But dearer by far is the soulful gaze<br /> - Of your eyes, your beautiful eyes<br /> - Your tender, loving eyes.</p> -<p class="poetry">O chide me not with your lips, dear one!<br /> - Though I cause your bosom sighs.<br /> -You can make repentance deeper far<br /> - By your sad, reproving eyes,<br /> - Your sorrowful, troubled eyes.</p> -<p class="poetry">Words, at the best, are but hollow sounds;<br -/> - Above, in the beaming skies,<br /> -The constant stars say never a word,<br /> - But only smile with their eyes—<br /> - Smile on with their lustrous -eyes.</p> -<p class="poetry">Then breathe no vow with your lips, dear one;<br /> - On the winged wind speech flies.<br /> -But I read the truth of your noble heart<br /> - In your soulful, speaking eyes—<br /> - In your deep and beautiful -eyes.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem82"></a>MY SHIPS</h2> - -<p class="poetry">If all the ships I have at sea<br /> -Should come a-sailing home to me,<br /> -Ah, well! the harbour could not hold<br /> -So many sails as there would be<br /> -If all my ships came in from sea.</p> -<p class="poetry">If half my ships came home from sea,<br /> -And brought their precious freight to me,<br /> -Ah, well! I should have wealth as great<br /> -As any king who sits in state—<br /> -So rich the treasures that would be<br /> -In half my ships now out at sea.</p> -<p class="poetry">If just one ship I have at sea<br /> -Should come a-sailing home to me,<br /> -Ah, well! the storm-clouds then might frown<br /> -For if the others all went down,<br /> -Still rich and proud and glad I’d be<br /> -If that one ship came back to me.</p> -<p class="poetry">If that one ship went down at sea,<br /> -And all the others came to me,<br /> -Weighed down with gems and wealth untold,<br /> -With glory, honours, riches, gold,<br /> -The poorest soul on earth I’d be<br /> -If that one ship came not to me.</p> -<p class="poetry">O skies, be calm! O winds, blow -free—<br /> -Blow all my ships safe home to me!<br /> -But if thou sendest some a-wrack,<br /> -To never more come sailing back,<br /> -Send any—all that skim the sea,<br /> -But bring my love-ship home to me.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem83"></a>HER LOVE</h2> - -<p class="poetry">The sands upon the ocean side<br /> -That change about with every tide,<br /> -And never true to one abide,<br /> - A woman’s love I liken to.</p> -<p class="poetry">The summer zephyrs, light and vain,<br /> -That sing the same alluring strain<br /> -To every grass blade on the plain—<br /> - A woman’s love is nothing more.</p> -<p class="poetry">The sunshine of an April day<br /> -That comes to warm you with its ray,<br /> -But while you smile has flown away—<br /> - A woman’s love is like to this.</p> -<p class="poetry">God made poor woman with no heart,<br /> -But gave her skill, and tact, and art,<br /> -And so she lives, and plays her part.<br /> - We must not blame, but pity her.</p> -<p class="poetry">She leans to man—but just to hear<br /> -The praise he whispers in her ear;<br /> -Herself, not him, she holdeth dear—<br /> - O fool! to be deceived by her.</p> -<p class="poetry">To sate her selfish thirst she quaffs<br /> -The love of strong hearts in sweet draughts,<br /> -Then throws them lightly by and laughs,<br /> - Too weak to understand their pain.</p> -<p class="poetry">As changeful as the winds that blow<br /> -From every region to and fro,<br /> -Devoid of heart, she cannot know<br /> - The suffering of a human heart.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem84"></a>IF</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Dear love, if you and I could sail away,<br /> - With snowy pennons to the winds unfurled,<br /> -Across the waters of some unknown bay,<br /> - And find some island far from all the world;</p> -<p class="poetry">If we could dwell there, evermore alone,<br /> - While unrecorded years slip by apace,<br /> -Forgetting and forgotten and unknown<br /> - By aught save native song-birds of the place;</p> -<p class="poetry">If Winter never visited that land,<br /> - And Summer’s lap spilled o’er with -fruits and flowers,<br /> -And tropic trees cast shade on every hand,<br /> - And twinèd boughs formed sleep-inviting -bowers;</p> -<p class="poetry">If from the fashions of the world set free,<br /> - And hid away from all its jealous strife,<br /> -I lived alone for you, and you for me—<br /> - Ah! then, dear love, how sweet were wedded life.</p> -<p class="poetry">But since we dwell here in the crowded way,<br -/> - Where hurrying throngs rush by to seek for gold,<br -/> -And all is commonplace and work-a-day<br /> - As soon as love’s young honeymoon grows -old;</p> -<p class="poetry">Since fashion rules and nature yields to -art,<br /> - And life is hurt by daily jar and fret,<br /> -’Tis best to shut such dreams down in the heart<br /> - And go our ways alone, love, and forget.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem85"></a>LOVE’S BURIAL</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Let us clear a little space,<br /> -And make Love a burial-place.</p> -<p class="poetry">He is dead, dear, as you see,<br /> -And he wearies you and me.</p> -<p class="poetry">Growing heavier, day by day,<br /> -Let us bury him, I say.</p> -<p class="poetry">Wings of dead white butterflies,<br /> -These shall shroud him, as he lies</p> -<p class="poetry">In his casket rich and rare,<br /> -Made of finest maiden-hair.</p> -<p class="poetry">With the pollen of the rose<br /> -Let us his white eyelids close.</p> -<p class="poetry">Put the rose thorn in his hand,<br /> -Shorn of leaves—you understand.</p> -<p class="poetry">Let some holy water fall<br /> -On his dead face, tears of gall—</p> -<p class="poetry">As we kneel to him and say,<br /> -“Dreams to dreams,” and turn away.</p> -<p class="poetry">Those gravediggers, Doubt, Distrust,<br /> -They will lower him to the dust.</p> -<p class="poetry">Let us part here with a kiss—<br /> -You go that way, I go this.</p> -<p class="poetry">Since we buried Love to-day<br /> -We will walk a separate way.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem86"></a>“LOVE IS ENOUGH”</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Love is enough. Let us not ask for -gold.<br /> - Wealth breeds false aims, and pride, and -selfishness;<br /> -In those serene, Arcadian days of old<br /> - Men gave no thought to princely homes and dress.<br -/> -The gods who dwelt on fair Olympia’s height<br /> -Lived only for dear love and love’s delight.<br /> - Love is enough.</p> -<p class="poetry">Love is enough. Why should we care for -fame?<br /> - Ambition is a most unpleasant guest:<br /> -It lures us with the glory of a name<br /> - Far from the happy haunts of peace and rest.<br /> -Let us stay here in this secluded place<br /> -Made beautiful by love’s endearing grace!<br /> - Love is enough.</p> -<p class="poetry">Love is enough. Why should we strive for -power?<br /> - It brings men only envy and distrust.<br /> -The poor world’s homage pleases but an hour,<br /> - And earthly honours vanish in the dust.<br /> -The grandest lives are ofttimes desolate;<br /> -Let me be loved, and let who will be great.<br /> - Love is enough.</p> -<p class="poetry">Love is enough. Why should we ask for -more?<br /> - What greater gift have gods vouchsafed to men?<br /> -What better boon of all their precious store<br /> - Than our fond hearts that love and love again?<br /> -Old love may die; new love is just as sweet;<br /> -And life is fair and all the world complete:<br /> - Love is enough!</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem87"></a>LIFE IS A PRIVILEGE</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Life is a privilege. Its youthful days<br -/> -Shine with the radiance of continuous Mays.<br /> -To live, to breathe, to wonder and desire,<br /> -To feed with dreams the heart’s perpetual fire,<br /> -To thrill with virtuous passions, and to glow<br /> -With great ambitions—in one hour to know<br /> -The depths and heights of feeling—God! in truth,<br /> -How beautiful, how beautiful is youth!</p> -<p class="poetry">Life is a privilege. Like some rare -rose<br /> -The mysteries of the human mind unclose.<br /> -What marvels lie in earth, and air, and sea!<br /> -What stores of knowledge wait our opening key!<br /> -What sunny roads of happiness lead out<br /> -Beyond the realms of indolence and doubt!<br /> -And what large pleasures smile upon and bless<br /> -The busy avenues of usefulness!</p> -<p class="poetry">Life is a privilege. Though noontide -fades<br /> -And shadows fall along the winding glades,<br /> -Though joy-blooms wither in the autumn air,<br /> -Yet the sweet scent of sympathy is there.<br /> -Pale sorrow leads us closer to our kind,<br /> -And in the serious hours of life we find<br /> -Depths in the souls of men which lend new worth<br /> -And majesty to this brief span of earth.</p> -<p class="poetry">Life is a privilege. If some sad fate<br -/> -Sends us alone to seek the exit gate,<br /> -If men forsake us and as shadows fall,<br /> -Still does the supreme privilege of all<br /> -Come in that reaching upward of the soul<br /> -To find the welcoming Presence at the goal,<br /> -And in the Knowledge that our feet have trod<br /> -Paths that led from, and must wind back, to God.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem88"></a>INSIGHT</h2> - -<p class="poetry">Sirs, when you pity us, I say<br /> -You waste your pity. Let it stay,<br /> -Well corked and stored upon your shelves,<br /> -Until you need it for yourselves.</p> -<p class="poetry">We do appreciate God’s thought<br /> -In forming you, before He brought<br /> -Us into life. His art was crude,<br /> -But oh! so virile in its rude,</p> -<p class="poetry">Large, elemental strength; and then<br /> -He learned His trade in making men,<br /> -Learned how to mix and mould the clay<br /> -And fashion in a finer way.</p> -<p class="poetry">How fine that skilful way can be<br /> -You need but lift your eyes to see;<br /> -And we are glad God placed you there<br /> -To lift your eyes and find us fair.</p> -<p class="poetry">Apprentice labour though you were,<br /> -He made you great enough to stir<br /> -The best and deepest depths of us,<br /> -And we are glad He made you thus.</p> -<p class="poetry">Aye! we are glad of many things;<br /> -God strung our hearts with such fine strings<br /> -The least breath moves them, and we hear<br /> -Music where silence greets your ear.</p> -<p class="poetry">We suffer so? But women’s souls,<br -/> -Like violet-powder dropped on coals,<br /> -Give forth their best in anguish. Oh<br /> -The subtle secrets that we know</p> -<p class="poetry">Of joy in sorrow, strange delights<br /> -Of ecstasy in pain-filled nights,<br /> -And mysteries of gain in loss<br /> -Known but to Christ upon the cross!</p> -<p class="poetry">Our tears are pitiful to you?<br /> -Look how the heaven-reflecting dew<br /> -Dissolves its life in tears. The sand<br /> -Meanwhile lies hard upon the strand.</p> -<p class="poetry">How could your pity find a place<br /> -For us, the mothers of the race?<br /> -Men may be fathers unaware,<br /> -So poor the title is you wear.</p> -<p class="poetry">But mothers—who that crown adorns<br /> -Knows all its mingled blooms and thorns,<br /> -And she whose feet that pain hath trod<br /> -Hath walked upon the heights with God.</p> -<p class="poetry">No, offer us not pity’s cup.<br /> -There is no looking down or up<br /> -Between us; eye looks straight in eye:<br /> -Born equals, so we live and die.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem89"></a>A WOMAN’S ANSWER</h2> - -<p class="poetry">You call me an angel of love and of light,<br -/> - A being of goodness and heavenly fire,<br /> -Sent out from God’s kingdom to guide you aright,<br /> - In paths where your spirit may mount and aspire,<br -/> -You say that I glow like a star on its course,<br /> -Like a ray from the altar, a spark from the source.</p> -<p class="poetry">Now list to my answer—let all the world -hear it,<br /> - I speak unafraid what I know to be true—<br /> -A pure, faithful love is the creative spirit<br /> - Which make women angels! I live but in you.<br -/> -We are bound soul to soul by life’s holiest laws;<br /> -If I am an angel—why, you are the cause.</p> -<p class="poetry">As my ship skims the sea, I look up from the deck.<br -/> - Fair, firm at the wheel shines Love’s -beautiful form.<br /> -And shall I curse the bark that last night went to wreck<br /> - By the pilot abandoned to darkness and storm?<br /> -My craft is no stauncher, she too had been lost<br /> -Had the wheelman deserted, or slept at his post.</p> -<p class="poetry">I laid down the wealth of my soul at your -feet<br /> - (Some woman does this for some man every day).<br /> -No desperate creature who walks in the street<br /> - Has a wickeder heart than I might have, I say,<br /> -Had you wantonly misused the treasures you won—<br /> -As so many men with heart-riches have done.</p> -<p class="poetry">This fire from God’s altar, this holy -love-flame,<br /> - That burns like sweet incense forever for you,<br /> -Might now be a wild conflagration of shame,<br /> - Had you tortured my heart, or been base or -untrue.<br /> -For angels and devils are cast in one mould,<br /> -Till love guides them upward or downward, I hold.</p> -<p class="poetry">I tell you the women who make fervent wives<br -/> - And sweet tender mothers, had Fate been less -fair,<br /> -Are the women who might have abandoned their lives<br /> - To the madness that springs from and ends in -despair.<br /> -As the fire on the hearth which sheds brightness around,<br /> -Neglected, may level the walls to the ground.</p> -<p class="poetry">The world makes grave errors in judging these -things.<br /> - Great good and great evil are born in one breast:<br -/> -Love horns us and hoofs us, or gives us our wings,<br /> - And the best could be worst, as the worst could be -best.<br /> -You must thank your own worth for what I grew to be,<br /> -For the demon lurked under the angel in me.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2><a name="poem90"></a>THE WORLD’S NEED</h2> - -<p class="poetry">So many gods, so many creeds,<br /> - So many paths that wind and wind,<br /> - While just the art of being kind,<br /> -Is all the sad world needs.</p> - -<div class="gapspace"> </div> - -<div class="gapmediumline"> </div> -<p style="text-align: center"><i>Printed by Hanell</i>, <i>Watson -& Viney</i>, <i>Ld.</i>, <i>London and Aylesbury</i>.</p> - -</div><!--end chapter--> - -<div style='display:block;margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POEMS OF POWER ***</div> -<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0;'>This file should be named 6667-h.htm or 6667-h.zip</div> -<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0;'>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in https://www.gutenberg.org/6/6/6/6667/</div> -<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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