16731 (#431) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16731
One something sees beyond his reach
From childhood to his journey's end.
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16731
One something sees beyond his reach
From childhood to his journey's end.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v28 - Songs, Hymns, Lyrics
”
Months after, Fohi came along once more,
When the rich woman met him at the door,
And pressed him in, and made him take a seat,
And cooked her very best for him to eat.
Then in the morning, sleep and breakfast done,
Of her fine garments gave she Fohi one,
And journeying with him for a little way,
He said, “May your first work last all the day. ”
So, turning back, but thinking all the while
Her cloth would turn into a mountainous pile,
She heard her cows, thirsting for water, low,
And said, “To fetch you drink, poor beasts, I go. ”
But as she poured into the trough her pail,
It emptied not, nor ever seemed to fail;
She kept on pouring, but it ran all day,
And drowned her cows, and swept her house away.
Her neighbors thought the highest heavens had rained,
And of the ruin to their lands complained -
Yet never ceased the source of all her. ills
Until the sun sank down behind the hills.
JOEL BENTON.
BRUCE AND THE SPIDER
FR
OR Scotland's and for freedom's right,
The Bruce his part had played,
In five successive fields of fight
Been conquered and dismayed;
Once more against the English host
His band he led, and once more lost
The meed for which he fought:
And now from battle, faint and worn,
The homeless fugitive forlorn
A hut's lone shelter sought.
## p. 16714 (#414) ##########################################
16714
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
And cheerless was that resting-place
For him who claimed a throne,-
His canopy, devoid of grace,
The rude, rough beams alone;
The heather couch his only bed, -
Yet well I ween had slumber fed
From couch of eider-down!
Through darksome night till dawn of day,
Absorbed in wakeful thoughts he lay
Of Scotland and her crown.
The sun rose brightly, and its gleam
Fell on that hapless bed,
And tinged with light each shapeless beam
Which roofed the lowly shed:
When, looking up with wistful eye,
The Bruce beheld a spider try
His filmy thread to fling
From beam to beam of that rude cot;
And well the insect's toilsome lot
Taught Scotland's future king.
Six times his gossamery thread
The wary spider threw;
In vain the filmy line was sped,
For powerless or untrue
Each aim appeared, and back recoiled
The patient insect, six times foiled,
And yet unconquered still:
And soon the Bruce, with eager eye,
Saw him prepare once more to try
His courage, strength, and skill.
One effort more, his seventh and last
The hero hailed the sign!
And on the wished-for beam hung fast
That slender silken line!
Slight as it was, his spirit caught
The more than omen, for his thought
The lesson well could trace,
Which even he who runs may read, -
That Perseverance gains its meed,
And Patience wins the race.
BERNARD BARTON.
## p. 16715 (#415) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16715
THE WANTS OF MAN
(
"Man wants but little here below,
Nor wants that little long. ”
- GOLDSMITH
“M
»
AN wants but little here below,
Nor wants that little long. ”
'Tis not with me exactly so —
But 'tis so in the song.
My wants are many, and if told,
Would muster many a score;
And were each wish a mint of gold,
I still should long for more.
What first I want is daily bread,
And canvas-backs and wine;
And all the realms of nature spread
Before me when I dine; -
Four courses scarcely can provide
My appetite to quell,
With four choice cooks from France beside,
To dress my dinner well.
What next I want, at heavy cost,
Is elegant attire:
Black sable furs for winter's frost,
And silks for summer's fire,
And cashmere shawls and Brussels lace
My bosom's front to deck;
And diamond rings my hands to grace,
And rubies for my neck.
And then I want a mansion fair,
A dwelling-house, in style,
Four stories high for wholesome air, -
A massive marble pile:
With halls for banquets and for balls,
All furnished rich and fine;
With stabled studs in fifty stalls,
* And cellars for my wine.
I want a garden and a park
My dwelling to surround;
A thousand acres (bless the mark),
With walls encompassed round,
## p. 16716 (#416) ##########################################
16716
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
Where flocks may range and herds may low,
And kids and lambkins play,
And flowers and fruits commingled grow
All Eden to display.
I want, when summer's foliage falls,
And autumn strips the trees,
A house within the city's walls
For comfort and for ease;-
But here, as space is somewhat scant
And acres rather rare,
My house in town I only want
To occupy — a square.
I want a steward, butler, cooks,
A coachman, footman, grooms,
A library of well-bound books,
And picture-garnished rooms -
Correggio's (Magdalen' and Night,'
The Matron of the Chair,'
Guido's fleet coursers in their Alight,
And Claudes at least a pair.
I want a cabinet profuse
Of medals, coins, and gems;
A printing-press for private use
Of fifty thousand ems;
And plants and minerals and shells,
Worms, insects, fishes, birds,
And every beast on earth that dwells,
In solitude or herds.
I want a board of burnished plate
Of silver and of gold,
Tureens of twenty pounds in weight
With sculpture's richest mold;
Plateaus with chandeliers and lamps,
Plates, dishes all the same;
And porcelain vases with the stamps
Of Sèvres or Angoulême.
And maples of fair glossy stain
Must form my chamber doors,
And carpets of the Wilton grain
Must cover all my floors.
## p. 16717 (#417) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16717
My walls, with tapestry bedecked,
Must never be outdone;
And damask curtains must protect
Their colors from the sun.
And mirrors of the largest pane
From Venice must be brought;
And sandal-wood and bamboo-cane
For chairs and tables bought;
On all the mantelpieces, clocks
Of thrice-gilt bronze must stand,
And screens of ebony and box
Invite the stranger's hand.
I want (who does not want ? ) a wife,
Affectionate and fair;
To solace all the woes of life,
And all its joys to share;
Of temper sweet, of yielding will,
Of firm yet placid mind;
With all my faults to love me still
With sentiment refined.
And as Time's car incessant runs
And Fortune fills my store,
I want of daughters and of sons
From eight to half a score.
I want (alas! can mortal dare
Such bliss on earth to crave ? )
That all the girls be chaste and fair,
The boys all wise and brave.
And when my bosom's darling sings
With melody divine,
A pedal harp of many strings
Must with her voice combine.
A piano, exquisitely wrought,
Must open stand, apart,
That all my daughters may be taught
To win the stranger's heart.
My wife and daughters will desire
Refreshment from perfumes,
Cosmetic for the skin require
And artificial blooms.
## p. 16718 (#418) ##########################################
16718
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
The civet, fragrance shall dispense
And treasured sweets return;
Cologne revive the flagging sense,
And smoking amber burn.
And when, at night, my weary head
Begins to droop and doze,
A southern chamber holds my bed
For nature's soft repose;
With blankets, counterpanes, and sheet,
Mattress and bed of down,
And comfortables for my feet,
And pillows for my crown.
I want a warm and faithful friend
To cheer the adverse hour,
Who ne'er to flatter will descend,
Nor bend the knee to power
A friend to chide me when I'm wrong,
My inmost soul to see;
And that my friendship prove as strong
For him as his for me.
I want a kind and tender heart,
For others' wants to feel;
A soul secure from Fortune's dart,
And bosom armed with steel
To bear divine chastisement's rod;
And mingling in my plan,
Submission to the will of God
With charity to man.
I want a keen, observing eye;
An ever listening ear,
The truth through all disguise to spy,
And wisdom's voice to hear;
A tongue to speak at virtue's need,
In Heaven's sublimest strain;
And lips, the cause of man to plead,
And never plead in vain.
I want uninterrupted health
Throughout my long career;
And streams of never-failing wealth
To scatter far and near,
## p. 16719 (#419) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16719
The destitute to clothe and feed,
Free bounty to bestow,
Supply the helpless orphan's need,
And soothe the widow's woe.
I want the genius to conceive,
The talents to unfold
Designs, the vicious to retrieve,
The virtuous to uphold;
Inventive power, combining skill;
A persevering soul,
Of human hearts to mold the will
And reach from pole to pole.
I want the seals of power and place,
The ensigns of command,
Charged by the people's unbought grace,
To rule my native land:
Nor crown nor sceptre would I ask,
But from my country's will,
By day, by night, to ply the task
Her cup of bliss to fill.
I want the voice of honest praise
To follow me behind;
And to be thought in future days
The friend of human-kind:
That after ages, as they rise,
Exulting may proclaim,
In choral union to the skies,
Their blessings on my name.
-
These are the wants of mortal man;
I cannot want them long –
For life itself is but a span
And earthly bliss a song.
My last great want, absorbing all,
Is, when beneath the sod,
And summoned to my final call
The mercy of my God.
And oh! while circles in my veins
Of life the purple stream,
And yet a fragment small remains
Of nature's transient dream,
## p. 16720 (#420) ##########################################
16720
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
1
My soul, in humble hope unscared,
Forget not thou to pray,
That this thy want may be prepared
To meet the Judgment Day.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
AFTER THE PLAY
M"
ID the tawdry purple and tinsel bright,
With a mimic crowd bowing low at his feet,
In crown and sceptre of gilt bedight,
And a poor robe falling in fold and pleat,
He stalks on the stage and takes a seat.
Ah well, let him prosper while he may:
The curtain's soon down, for the hours are fleet,
And the king's but a beggar after the play.
In his borrowed plumage, poor shallow cheat,
He struts the stage with a strange conceit;
But let him prosper while he may,
The king's but a beggar after the play.
BURTON EGBERT STEVENSON.
THE CLOWN'S SONG
1
“Η"
ERE I am! ” — and the house rejoices;
Forth I tumble from out the slips;
“Here I am! » — and a hundred voices
Welcome me on with laughing lips.
The master, with easy pride,
Treads the sawdust down;
Or quickens the horse's stride,
And calls for his jesting clown.
«What, ho, Mr. Merriman! - Dick,
Here's a lady that wants your place. ”
I throw them a somerset, quick,
And grin in some beauty's face.
I tumble and jump and chaff,
And fill them with wild delights;
Whatever my sorrow, I laugh
Through the summer and winter nights.
## p. 16721 (#421) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16721
I joke with the men, if I dare;
Do they strike, why I cringe and stoop;
And I ride like a bird in air,
And I jump through the blazing hoop.
Whatever they say or do,
I am ready with joke and gibe;
And whenever the jests are new,
I follow, like all my tribe.
But life is not all a jest,
Whatever the wise ones say;
For when I steal home to rest
(And I seek it at dawn of day),
If winter, there is no fire;
If summer, there is no air:
My welcome's a hungry choir
Of children, and scanty fare.
My wife is as lean a scold
As famine can make man's wife;
We are both of us sour and old
With drinking the dregs of life.
Yet why do I sigh? I wonder,
Would the Pit or the Boxes sigh,
Should I wash off my paint, and, under,
Show how a fool must die ?
Author Unknown.
THE FOOLS' WALTZ
EARER and clearer than monarch and minister,
Rabble and gabble, and hypocrites sinister,
Warriors and sages of far-away ages,
Are the Fools that flit through the historical pages.
NET
They gazed somewhat dazed through their patches and powder,
They wondered and blundered and ever laughed louder;
While crown tumbled down, and while creed flew to pieces,
Their range was the change of their daily caprices.
While savage did ravage and bigotry tortured,
They rambled or gambled, or planted an orchard.
They clicked the light heel in the strathspey and reel,
Built castles, held wassails, chased moths, and played tennis;
Broke the lance for fair France, and went masked in gay Venice.
XXVIII-1046
## p. 16722 (#422) ##########################################
16722
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
They spent as they went, and were reckless of rules,
Bade defiance to science, and scoffed at the schools,
Had their flings at their kings, and were pert to the proudest;
Must joke if they spoke, and themselves laughed the loudest;
Winking and wooing, whatever was doing,
Though storms of reforms and rebellions were brewing,
Talking and mocking the age that they grew in,
They quaffed the gay draught round the red fires of ruin.
Smiling and sneering, they fit out of hearing,
They bow themselves airily out of our pages;
No sound underground of their jesting and jeering,
The dear little Fools of the far-away ages!
Can marble rest heavy on all that gay bevy,
Who parted light-hearted, and knew no returning?
Are there ghosts full of laughter that haunt the hereafter,
Too mocking for bliss and too merry for burning ?
Remember - forget them — it never will fret them,
Who gibed at misfortune whenever she met them;
At joust and at revel cast care to the devil,
And lived all their lives on whoever would let them.
Concede them the meed that is due the departed!
Slight thinker, deep drinker, lax friend and light lover;
A tear not too tender, for they were light-hearted;
A laugh not too loud, for their laughter is over;
1
A prayer light as air for the dead and gone Fools,
Too light and too slight to be tyrants or tools!
Who with jest and with zest took the world as they found it; –
Perhaps they did best just by dancing around it!
HELEN THAYER HUTCHESON.
1
A SMILING DEMON OF NOTRE DAME
Q
.
UIET as are the quiet skies,
He watches where the city lies
Floating in vision clear or dim
Through sun or rain beneath his eyes;
Her songs, her laughter, and her cries
Hour after hour drift up to him.
## p. 16723 (#423) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16723
Her days of glory or disgrace
He watches with unchanging face;
He knows what midnight crimes are done;
What horrors under summer sun;
And souls that pass in holy death
Sweep by him on the morning's breath.
Alike to holiness and sin
He feels nor alien nor akin;
Five hundred creeping mortal years
He smiles on human joy and tears,
Man-made, immortal, scorning man;
Serene, grotesque Olympian.
ELLEN BURROUGHS.
AFTER WINGS
T'S
His was your butterfly, you see.
His fine wings made him vain ? .
The caterpillars crawl, but he
Passed them in rich disdain ?
My pretty boy says: "Let him be
Only a worm again” ?
O child, when things have learned to wear
Wings once, they must be fain
To keep them always high and fair.
Think of the creeping pain
Which even a butterfly must bear
To be a worm again!
SARAH M. B. PIATT.
CONTRASTS
S"
TRANGE, that we creatures of the petty ways,
Poor prisoners behind these fleshly bars,
Can sometimes think us thoughts with God ablaze.
Touching the fringes of the outer stars.
And stranger still that, having flown so high,
And stood unshamed in shining presences,
We can resume our smallness, nor imply
In mien or gesture what that memory is.
RICHARD BURTON.
## p. 16724 (#424) ##########################################
16724
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
DREAM-PEDDLERY
I
F THERE were dreams to sell,
What would you buy ?
Some cost a passing-bell;
Some a light sigh,
That shakes from Life's fresh crown
Only a rose-leaf down.
If there were dreams to sell,
Merry and sad to tell,
And the crier rung the beli,
What would you buy? –
-
A cottage lone and still,
With bowers nigh,
Shadowy, my woes to still,
Until I die.
Such pearl from Life's fresh crown
Fain would I shake me down.
Were dreams to have at will,
This would best heal my ill,
This would I buy. -
But there were dreams to sell,
111 didst thou buy:
Life is a dream, they tell,
W ing to die.
Dreaming a dream to prize
Is wishing ghosts to rise;
And if I had the spell
To call the buried well,
Which one would I? -
If there are ghosts to raise,
What shall I call
Out of hell's murky haze,
Heaven's blue pall ? —
Raise my loved long-lost boy
To lead me to his joy. -
There are no ghosts to raise;
Out of death lead no ways:
Vain is the call. -
Know'st thou not ghosts to sue ?
No love thou hast. -
## p. 16725 (#425) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16725
Else lie, as I will do,
And breathe thy last.
So out of Life's fresh crown
Fall like a rose-leaf down.
Thus are the ghosts to woo;
Thus are all dreams made true,
Ever to last!
THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES.
1
ALIEN
WHOR
HOM the great goddess once has kissed
Between the brows,
His heart shall find no dwelling-place
Wherein to house.
The ragged mists shall be his roof,
Where mountains loom,
And swirling winds about his face
With words of doom;
The valleys when he walks therein
Are kind and warm,
Yet ever drift across his soul
Strange gusts of storm.
If, weary, he shall stop beside
An opened door,
Dreaming, “This hearthstone is my goal,
To wend no more,”
A tumult as of snows adrift
Shall fill his ears,
His heart-strings feel the old-time lure
Adown the years,
And he shall turn from that warm light
With still regret
That dreams were made not to endure -
Nor to forget.
WILLIAM CARMAN ROBERTS.
## p. 16726 (#426) ##########################################
16726
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
CINDERELLA
ERE by the kitchen fire I sit ·
Until the generous loaves be brown :
The firelight flickers up and down;
I, waiting. ponder over it.
H
The cat comes purring to my knee,
And, springing in my lap, she lies,
The firelight darting in her eyes,
And old traditions come to me.
« The black cat,” so the legends say,
“The witches ride by night,” forsooth!
The fancy-witchery of youth
Has touched the room with mystery!
The clock ticks slow, the fire burns down.
I see strange faces in the grate-
A hooded monk, a Muse, a Fate,
An ancient knight with armor on!
I see a mask: I know it hides
The smile of one I know by day —
The face behind it drops away
And leaves a pair of burning eyes!
I wait — the firelight glimmers red -
Where is my fairy coach-and-four
To take me from the narrow door,
By eager longing fancy-led ?
The cat is restless where she lies:
The soul of one who lived below
A thousand years and more ago
Looks through me from her narrow eyes!
The clock strikes slowly from the wall
I count the heavy strokes to eight;
The fire burns lower in the grate;
A mouse is stirring in the wall!
I rouse me from my revery -
I strike a match - I kneel before
And open wide the oven door –
King Alfred fared as ill as I!
DORA READ GOODALE.
## p. 16727 (#427) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16727
A WOMAN'S WISH
Wou
COULD I were lying in a field of clover,
Of clover cool and soft, and soft and sweet,
With dusky clouds on deep skies hanging over,
And scented silence at my head and feet.
Just for one hour to slip the leash of Worry,
In eager haste, from Thought's impatient neck,
And watch it coursing, in its heedless hurry
Disdaining Wisdom's call or Duty's beck!
Ah! it were sweet, where clover clumps are meeting
And daisies hiding, so to hide and rest;
No sound except my own heart's steady beating,
Rocking itself to sleep within my breast;-
Just to lie there, filled with the deeper breathing
That comes of listening a wild bird's song!
Our souls require at times this full unsheathing,-
All swords will rust if scabbard-kept too long:
And I am tired,- so tired of rigid duty,
So tired of all my tired hands find to do!
I yearn, I faint, for some of life's free beauty,
Its loose beads with no straight string running through.
Aye, laugh, if laugh you will, at my crude speech;
But women sometimes die of such a greed, -
Die for the small joys held beyond their reach,
And the assurance they have all they need!
MARY ASHLEY TOWNSEND.
OUT OF DOORS
N THE urgent solitudes
Lies the spur to larger moods;
In the friendship of the trees
Dwell all sweet serenities.
IM
ETHELWYN WETHERALD.
## p. 16728 (#428) ##########################################
16728
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
WHY
HUS LONGING ?
WY
THY thus longing, thus forever sighing,
For the far-off, unattained, and dim,
While the beautiful, all round thee lying,
Offers up its low, perpetual hymn ?
Wouldst thou listen to its gentle teaching,
All thy restless yearnings it would still:
Leaf and flower and laden bee are preaching,
Thine own sphere, though humble, first to fill.
Poor indeed thou must be, if around thee
Thou no ray of light and joy canst throw-
If no silken cord of love hath bound thee
To some little world through weal and woe;
If no dear eyes thy fond love can brighten -
No fond voices answer to thine own;
If no brother's sorrow thou canst lighten
By daily sympathy and gentle tone.
Not by deeds that win the crowd's applauses,
Not by works that give thee world-renown,
Not by martyrdom or vaunted crosses
Canst thou win and wear the immortal crown.
Daily struggling, though unloved and lonely,
Every day a rich reward will give;
Thou wilt find by hearty striving only,
And truly loving, thou canst truly live.
Dost thou revel in the rosy morning,
When all nature hails the lord of light,
And his smile, the mountain tops adorning,
Robes yon fragrant fields in radiance bright?
Other hands may grasp the field and forest,
Proud proprietors in pomp may shine;
But with fervent love if thou adorest,
Thou art wealthier — all the world is thine.
Yet if through earth's wide domains thou rovest,
Sighing that they are not thine alone,
Not those fair fields, but thyself thou lovest,
And their beauty and thy wealth are gone.
## p. 16729 (#429) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16729
Nature wears the color of the spirit;
Sweetly to her worshiper she sings;
All the glow, the grace she doth inherit,
Round her trusting child she fondly flings.
HARRIET WINSLOW SEWALL.
LONGING
O
TROUBLED sea, that longest evermore
From out thy cold and sunless depths to rise
To the bright orb that draws thee toward the skies,
And beat'st thy breast against the unyielding shore,
In the vain struggle to unloose the bands
That bind thee down to earth; in thy despair,
With sullen roar now leaping high in air,
Now moaning, sobbing on the insatiate sands,-
Type of the soul art thou: she strives like thee,
By time and circumstance and law bound down;
She beats against the shores of the unknown,
Wrestles with unseen force, doubt, mystery,
And longs forever for the goal afar,
That shines and still retreats, like a receding star.
ANNE C. L. Botta.
AN ANTIQUE INTAGLIO
S°
INFINITELY small we scarce may trace
The magic touches of the graver's hand;
And yet so great that Time himself doth stand
With envious gaze, all powerless to efface.
Here lie the power and skill and wondrous grace
That might the stateliest palaces have planned;
And one soul's lifelong toil perchance is spanned
Within this little circle's narrow space.
Was he content, the artist ? Did he burn
With ardent pride and sweet creative bliss
O'er thy perfected loveliness, nor yearn
For wider spheres and mightier work than this?
Or from thy beauty would he sadly turn,
And sigh, and gaze on the Acropolis ?
SUSAN MARR SPALDING.
## p. 16730 (#430) ##########################################
16730
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
CARCASSONNE
1
'M GROWING old; I'm sixty years:
I've labored all my life in vain;
In all that time of hopes and fears
I've failed my dearest wish to gain:
I see full well that here below
Bliss unalloyed there is for none.
My prayer will ne'er fulfillment know:
I never have seen Carcassonne,
I never have seen Carcassonne !
You see the city from the hill –
It lies beyond the mountains blue;
And yet to reach it one must still
Five long and weary leagues pursue;
And, to return, as many more!
Ah! had the vintage plenteous grown!
The grape withheld its yellow store.
I shall not look on Carcassonne,
I shall not look on Carcassonne!
They tell me every day is there
Not more nor less than Sunday gay;
In shining robes and garments fair
The people walk upon their way;
One gazes there on castle walls
As grand as those of Babylon,
A bishop and two generals!
I do not know fair Carcassonne,
I do not know fair Carcassonne!
The curé's right: he says that we
Are ever wayward, weak, and blind;
He tells us in his homily
Ambition ruins all mankind:
Yet could I there two days have spent,
While still the autumn sweetly shone,
Ah me! I might have died content
When I had looked on Carcassonne,
When I had looked on Carcassonne!
Thy pardon, father, I beseech,
In this my prayer if I offend:
## p.
16731 (#431) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16731
One something sees beyond his reach
From childhood to his journey's end.
My wife, our little boy Aignan,
Have traveled even to Narbonne;
My grandehild has seen Perpignan:
And I have not seen Carcassonne,
And I have not seen Carcassonne!
»
So crooned one day, close by Limoux,
A peasant, double bent with age.
« Rise up, my friend,” said I: “with you
I'll go upon this pilgrimage. ”
We left next morning his abode,
But (Heaven forgive him) half-way on
The old man died upon the road :
He never gazed on Carcassonne.
Each mortal has his Carcassonne!
GUSTAVE NADAUD.
Translation of John R. Thompson.
A RADICAL
H*
E NEVER feared to pry the stable stone
That loving lichens clad with silvery gray:
Torn ivies trembled as they slipped away,
Their empty arms now loose and listless blown.
Then turning, with that ardor all his own,
“Behold my better building! ” he would say.
“I rear as well as raze: nor by decay
Nor foe nor fire can this be overthrown! »
What was it ? Had he keener sight than we?
We saw the ruin, more we could not see;
His blocks were jasper air, a dream his plan.
We called him Stormer: ever he replied,
« Unbroken calm within my breast I hide. ”
Now God be judge betwixt us and this man!
HELEN GRAY CONE.
## p. 16732 (#432) ##########################################
16732
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
FROM DUNSTAN; OR THE POLITICIAN)
«How long, O Lord, how long ? »
N"
ow poor Tom Dunstan's cold,
Our shop is duller:
Scarce a tale is told,
And our talk has lost its old
Red-republican color.
Though he was sickly and thin,
'Twas a sight to see his face,
While, sick of the country's sin,
With a bang of the fist, and chin
Thrust out, he argued the case!
He prophesied men should be free,
And the money-bags be bled!
«She's coming, she's coming! ” said he:
Courage, boys! wait and see!
Freedom's ahead! »
(
All day we sat in the heat,
Like spiders spinning,
Stitching full fine and fleet,
While old Moses on his seat
Sat greasily grinning;
And here Tom said his say,
And prophesied Tyranny's death;
And the tallow burned all day,
And we stitched and stitched away
In the thick smoke of our breath.
Weary, weary were we,
Our hearts as heavy as lead;
But “Patience! she's coming! ” said he:
Courage, boys! wait and see!
Freedom's ahead! »
(
And at night, when we took here
The rest allowed to us,
The paper came, and the beer,
And Tom read, sharp and clear,
The news out loud to us:
And then, in his witty way,
He threw the jests about;—
The cutting things he'd say
Of the wealthy and the gay!
How he turned 'em inside out!
## p. 16733 (#433) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16733
And it made our breath more free
To hearken to what he said -
“She's coming! she's coming! ” said he:
Courage, boys! wait and see!
Freedom's ahead! »
(
But grim Jack Hart, with a sneer,
Would mutter, “Master!
If Freedom means to appear,
I think she might step here
A little faster! »
Then, 'twas fine to see Tom flame,
And argue, and prove, and preach,
Till Jack was silent for shame,
Or a fit of coughing came
O' sudden, to spoil Tom's speech.
Ah! Tom had the eyes to see
When Tyranny should be sped -
«She's coming! she's coming! ” said he:
Courage, boys! wait and see !
Freedom's ahead ! »
But Tom was little and weak,-
The hard hours shook him;
Hollower grew his cheek;
And when he began to speak
The coughing took him:
Ere long the cheery sound
Of his chat among us ceased,
And we made a purse, all round,
That he might not starve, at least.
His pain was sorry to see,
Yet there, on his poor sick-bed,
«She's coming, in spite of me!
Courage, and wait ! » cried he:
"Freedom's ahead! »
A little before he died,
To see his passion!
« Bring me a paper,” he cried,
And then to study it tried,
In his old sharp fashion;
And with eyeballs glittering,
His look on me he bent,
## p. 16734 (#434) ##########################################
16734
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
And said that savage thing
Of the lords o' the Parliament.
Then, dying, smiling on me,
<< What matter if one be dead?
She's coming at last! ” said he:
“Courage, boy! wait and see!
Freedom's ahead! »
Ay, now Tom Dunstan's cold,
The shop feels duller:
Scarce a tale is told,
And our talk has lost the old
Red-republican color.
But we see a figure gray,
And we hear a voice of death,
And the tallow burns all day,
And we stitch and stitch away
In the thick smoke of our breath;
Ay, while in the dark sit we,
Tom seems to call from the dead
«She's coming! she's coming! ” says he:
“Courage, boys! wait and see!
Freedom's ahead! »
How long, O Lord! how long
Must thy handmaid linger-
She who shall right the wrong,
Make the poor sufferer strong ?
Sweet morrow, bring her!
Hasten her over the sea,
O Lord! ere hope be fled!
Bring her to men and to me! -
O slave, pray still on thy knee,
FREEDOM's ahead! »
ROBERT BUCHANAN.
DUTY
I
SLEPT and dreamed that life was Beauty;
I woke, and found that life was Duty.
Was thy dream then a shadowy lie?
Toil on, sad heart, courageously,
And thou shalt find thy dream to be
A noonday light and truth to thee.
ELLEN STURGIS HOOPER.
## p. 16735 (#435) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16735
A DISCOVERY
THE
HE languid world went by me as I found
A jewel on the ground,
Under a silent weed,
A nameless glory set for none to heed.
«Stoop, see, and wonder! ” was my joyful cry,
But still the languid world went only by.
I drew it forth, and set it on a hill:
They passed it still.
Some turned to look,
And said it was a pebble from the brook;
A dewdrop, only made to melt away;
A worthless mirror, with a bordered ray.
Then on my knees I shouted forth its praise
For nights and days.
«See with your eyes
A diamond shining only for the wise!
How is it that you love not at first sight
This unfamiliar treasure of pure light ? ”
I set it on my breast. Then, with a sneer,
The world drew near.
They knew the sign
And secret of my praise: the thing was mine.
They left it to me with a bland disdain,
And hugged their tinsel to their hearts again.
I showed it to the dearest soul I had:
“You are not mad;
Let them go by:
We know it is a diamond, you and I. ”
Coldly he answered, “If you love it so,
You need not me to praise it. Let me go. ”
»
“It is my sin,” I cried with bitter tears,
“That no man hears.
I'll Aling it down:
Some nobler hand shall set it in a crown.
I shall behold it honored ere I die;
But no one could have loved it more than I ! »
MENELLA BUTE SMEDLEY.
## p. 16736 (#436) ##########################################
16736
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
COMBATANTS
H :
E SEEMED to call me, and I shrank dismayed,
Deeming he threatened all I held most dear;
But when at last his summons I obeyed,
Perplexed and full of fear,
I found upon his face no angry frown -
Only a visor down.
Indignant that his voice, so calm and sweet,
In my despite unto my soul appealed,
I cried, “If thou hast courage, turn and meet
A foeman full revealed! »
And with determined zeal that made me strong,
Contended with him long.
.
But oh, the armor he so meekly bore
Was wrought for him in other worlds than ours!
In firm defense of what he battled for
Were leagued eternal powers!
I fell; yet overwhelmed by my disgrace,
At last I saw his face!
And in its matchless beauty I forgot
The constant service to my pledges due;
And with adoring love that sorrowed not,
Entreated, “Tell me who
Hath so o'erthrown my will and pride of youth ? ”
He answered, “I am Truth. ”
C
»
FLORENCE EARLE COATES.
TO-DAY
VOICE
JOICE, with what emulous fire thou singest free hearts of old
fashion,
English scorners of Spain sweeping the blue sea-way:
Sing me the daring of life for life, the magnanimous passion
Of man for man in the mean populous streets of To-day!
Hand, with what color and power thou couldst show in the ring hot-
sanded,
Brown Bestiarius holding the lean, tawn tiger at bay:
Paint me the wrestle of Toil with the wild-beast Want, bare-handed!
Shadow me forth a soul steadily facing To-day!
HELEN GRAY CONE.
## p. 16737 (#437) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16737
UNKNOWN IDEAL
WHOSE
HOSE is the voice that will not let me rest?
I hear it speak.
Where is the shore will gratify my quest,
Show what I seek?
Not yours, weak Muse, to mimic that far voice
With halting tongue;
No peace, sweet land, to bid my heart rejoice
Your groves among.
Whose is the loveliness I know is by,
Yet cannot place?
Is it perfection of the sea or sky,
Or human face?
Not yours, my pencil, to delineate
The splendid smile!
Blind in the sun, we struggle on with fate
That glows the while.
Whose are the feet that pass me, echoing
On unknown ways?
Whose are the lips that only part to sing
Through all my days?
Not yours, fond youth, to fill mine eager eyes
That still adore
Beauty that tarries not, nor satisfies
For evermore.
DORA SIGERSON.
THE SILENCE
From (Les Villages Illusoires)
VER since ending of the summer weather,
When last the thunder and the lightning brcke,
Shattering themselves upon it at one stroke,
The Silence has not stirred there in the heather.
E"
All round about stand steeples straight as stakes,
And each its bell between its fingers shakes;
All round about with their three-storied loads,
The teams prowl down the roads;
All round about where'er the pine woods end,
The wheel creaks on along its rutty bed,
XXVIII-1047
## p. 16738 (#438) ##########################################
16738
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
But not a sound is strong enough to rend
That space intense and dead.
Since summer, thunder laden, last was heard,
The Silence has not stirred;
And the broad heath-land where the nights sink down,
Beyond the sand-hills brown,
Beyond the endless thickets closely set,
To the far borders of the far-away,
Prolongs It yet.
Even the winds disturb not as they go
The boughs of those long larches, bending low
Where the marsh-water lies,
In which Its vacant eyes
Gaze at themselves unceasing, stubbornly;
Only sometimes, as on their way they move,
The noiseless shadows of the clouds above,
Or of some great bird's hovering flight on high,
Brush It in passing by.
Since the last bolt that scored the earth aslant,
Nothing has pierced the Silence dominant.
Of those who cross Its vast immensity,
Whether at twilight or at dawn it be,
There is not one but feels
The dread of the Unknown that It instills;
An ample force supreme, It holds Its sway,
Uninterruptedly the same for aye.
Dark walls of blackest fir-trees bar from sight
The outlook towards the paths of hope and light;
Great pensive junipers
Affright from far the passing travelers;
Long narrow paths stretch their straight lines unbent,
Till they fork off in curves malevolent;
And the sun, ever shifting, ceaseless lends
Fresh aspects to the mirage whither tends
Bewilderment.
Since the last bolt was forged amid the storm,
The polar Silence at the corners four
Of the wide heather-land has stirred no more.
Old shepherds, whom their hundred years have worn
To things all dislocate and out of gear,
And their old dogs, ragged, tired-out, and torn,
Oft watch It, on the soundless lowlands near,
## p. 16739 (#439) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16739
Or downs of gold beflecked with shadows' flight,
Sit down immensely there beside the night.
Then, at the curves and corners of the mere,
The waters creep with fear;
The heather veils itself, grows wan and white;
All the leaves listen upon all the bushes,
And the incendiary sunset hushes
Before Its face his cries of brandished light.
And in the hamlets that about It lie,
Beneath the thatches of their hovels small,
The terror dwells of feeling It is nigh;
And though It stirs not, dominating all,
Broken with dull despair and helplessness,
Beneath Its presence they crouch motionless,
As though upon the watch — and dread to see,
Through rifts of vapor, open suddenly
At evening, in the noon, the argent eyes
Of Its mute mysteries.
EMÉLE VERHÄEREN.
Translation of Alma Strettell.
THE HELMSMAN
W"
HAT shall I ask for the voyage I must sail to the end alone ?
Summer and calms and rest from never a labor done?
Nay, blow, ye life-winds all; curb not for me your blast:
Strain ye my quivering ropes, bend ye my trembling mast,
Then there can be no drifting, thank God! for boat or me, -
Strenuous, swift, our course over a living sea.
Mine is a man's right arm to steer through fog and foam;
Beacons are shining still to guide each farer home.
Give me your worst, () winds! others have met the stress :
E’en if it be to sink, give me no less, no less.
M. A. DE WOLFE HOWE.
## p. 16740 (#440) ##########################################
16740
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
SEALED ORDERS
From (Poems) by Julia C. R. Dorr. Copyright. 1874, 1885, 1892, by Charles
Scribner's Sons
"O"
H, WHITHER bound, my captain ?
The wind is blowing free,
And overhead the white sails spread
As we go out to sea.
»
He looked to north, he looked to south,
Or ever a word he spake;
«With orders sealed my sails I set -
Due east my course I take. ”
“But to what port ? ". — «Nay, nay,” he cried.
“This only do I know,-
That I must sail due eastward
Whatever wind may blow. ”
»
For many a day we sailed east; —
“O captain, tell me true,
When will our good ship come to port? " --
“I cannot answer you! ” —
« Then, prithee, gallant captain,
Let us but drift awhile!
The current setteth southward
Past many a sunny isle,
«Where cocoas grow, and mangoes,
And groves of feathery palm,
And nightingales sing all night long
To roses breathing balm. ” –
“Nay, tempt me not,” he answered:
« This only do I know,-
That I must sail due eastward
Whatever winds may blow! »
(
Then sailed we on, and sailed we east
Into the whirlwind's track;
Wild was the tempest overhead,
The sea was strewn with wrack.
“Oh, turn thee, turn thee, captain —
Thou’rt rushing on to death! ”
But back he answer shouted,
With unabated breath: --
## p. 16741 (#441) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16741
« Turn back who will, I turn not!
For this one thing I know,-
That I must sail due eastward
However winds may blow! ” –
« Oh, art thou fool or madman ?
Thy port is but a dream,
And never on the horizon's rim
Will its fair turrets gleam. ”
Then smiled the captain wisely,
And slowly answered he,
The while his keen glance widened
Over the lonely sea:-
“I carry sealed orders.
This only thing I know,-
That I must sail due eastward
Whatever winds may blow! ”
JULIA C. R. DORR.
THE STAR TO ITS LIGHT
"Gº
0," said the star to its light:
“Follow your fathomless Aight!
Into the dreams of space
Carry the joy of my face.
Go," said the star to its light:
« Tell me the tale of your flight. ”
As the mandate rang
The heavens through,
Quick the ray sprang,
Unheard it flew,
Sped by the touch of an unseen spur.
It crumbled the dusk of the deep
That folds the worlds in sleep,
And shot through night with noiseless stir.
Then came the day;
And all that swift array
Of diamond-sparkles died.
And lo! the far star cried,
“My light has lost its way! »
Ages on ages passed:
The light returned at last.
## p. 16742 (#442) ##########################################
16742
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
« What have you seen,
What have you heard
O ray serene,
O flame-winged bird,
I loosed on endless air ?
Why do you look so faint and white ? »
Said the star to its light.
« O star," said the tremulous ray,
“Grief and struggle I found;
Horror impeded my way.
Many a star and sun
I passed and touched on my round.
Many a life undone
I lit with a tender gleam;
I shone in the lover's eyes,
And soothed the maiden's dream.
But alas for the stifling mist of lies!
Alas, for the wrath of the battle-field
Where my glance was mixed with blood!
Months after, Fohi came along once more,
When the rich woman met him at the door,
And pressed him in, and made him take a seat,
And cooked her very best for him to eat.
Then in the morning, sleep and breakfast done,
Of her fine garments gave she Fohi one,
And journeying with him for a little way,
He said, “May your first work last all the day. ”
So, turning back, but thinking all the while
Her cloth would turn into a mountainous pile,
She heard her cows, thirsting for water, low,
And said, “To fetch you drink, poor beasts, I go. ”
But as she poured into the trough her pail,
It emptied not, nor ever seemed to fail;
She kept on pouring, but it ran all day,
And drowned her cows, and swept her house away.
Her neighbors thought the highest heavens had rained,
And of the ruin to their lands complained -
Yet never ceased the source of all her. ills
Until the sun sank down behind the hills.
JOEL BENTON.
BRUCE AND THE SPIDER
FR
OR Scotland's and for freedom's right,
The Bruce his part had played,
In five successive fields of fight
Been conquered and dismayed;
Once more against the English host
His band he led, and once more lost
The meed for which he fought:
And now from battle, faint and worn,
The homeless fugitive forlorn
A hut's lone shelter sought.
## p. 16714 (#414) ##########################################
16714
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
And cheerless was that resting-place
For him who claimed a throne,-
His canopy, devoid of grace,
The rude, rough beams alone;
The heather couch his only bed, -
Yet well I ween had slumber fed
From couch of eider-down!
Through darksome night till dawn of day,
Absorbed in wakeful thoughts he lay
Of Scotland and her crown.
The sun rose brightly, and its gleam
Fell on that hapless bed,
And tinged with light each shapeless beam
Which roofed the lowly shed:
When, looking up with wistful eye,
The Bruce beheld a spider try
His filmy thread to fling
From beam to beam of that rude cot;
And well the insect's toilsome lot
Taught Scotland's future king.
Six times his gossamery thread
The wary spider threw;
In vain the filmy line was sped,
For powerless or untrue
Each aim appeared, and back recoiled
The patient insect, six times foiled,
And yet unconquered still:
And soon the Bruce, with eager eye,
Saw him prepare once more to try
His courage, strength, and skill.
One effort more, his seventh and last
The hero hailed the sign!
And on the wished-for beam hung fast
That slender silken line!
Slight as it was, his spirit caught
The more than omen, for his thought
The lesson well could trace,
Which even he who runs may read, -
That Perseverance gains its meed,
And Patience wins the race.
BERNARD BARTON.
## p. 16715 (#415) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16715
THE WANTS OF MAN
(
"Man wants but little here below,
Nor wants that little long. ”
- GOLDSMITH
“M
»
AN wants but little here below,
Nor wants that little long. ”
'Tis not with me exactly so —
But 'tis so in the song.
My wants are many, and if told,
Would muster many a score;
And were each wish a mint of gold,
I still should long for more.
What first I want is daily bread,
And canvas-backs and wine;
And all the realms of nature spread
Before me when I dine; -
Four courses scarcely can provide
My appetite to quell,
With four choice cooks from France beside,
To dress my dinner well.
What next I want, at heavy cost,
Is elegant attire:
Black sable furs for winter's frost,
And silks for summer's fire,
And cashmere shawls and Brussels lace
My bosom's front to deck;
And diamond rings my hands to grace,
And rubies for my neck.
And then I want a mansion fair,
A dwelling-house, in style,
Four stories high for wholesome air, -
A massive marble pile:
With halls for banquets and for balls,
All furnished rich and fine;
With stabled studs in fifty stalls,
* And cellars for my wine.
I want a garden and a park
My dwelling to surround;
A thousand acres (bless the mark),
With walls encompassed round,
## p. 16716 (#416) ##########################################
16716
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
Where flocks may range and herds may low,
And kids and lambkins play,
And flowers and fruits commingled grow
All Eden to display.
I want, when summer's foliage falls,
And autumn strips the trees,
A house within the city's walls
For comfort and for ease;-
But here, as space is somewhat scant
And acres rather rare,
My house in town I only want
To occupy — a square.
I want a steward, butler, cooks,
A coachman, footman, grooms,
A library of well-bound books,
And picture-garnished rooms -
Correggio's (Magdalen' and Night,'
The Matron of the Chair,'
Guido's fleet coursers in their Alight,
And Claudes at least a pair.
I want a cabinet profuse
Of medals, coins, and gems;
A printing-press for private use
Of fifty thousand ems;
And plants and minerals and shells,
Worms, insects, fishes, birds,
And every beast on earth that dwells,
In solitude or herds.
I want a board of burnished plate
Of silver and of gold,
Tureens of twenty pounds in weight
With sculpture's richest mold;
Plateaus with chandeliers and lamps,
Plates, dishes all the same;
And porcelain vases with the stamps
Of Sèvres or Angoulême.
And maples of fair glossy stain
Must form my chamber doors,
And carpets of the Wilton grain
Must cover all my floors.
## p. 16717 (#417) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16717
My walls, with tapestry bedecked,
Must never be outdone;
And damask curtains must protect
Their colors from the sun.
And mirrors of the largest pane
From Venice must be brought;
And sandal-wood and bamboo-cane
For chairs and tables bought;
On all the mantelpieces, clocks
Of thrice-gilt bronze must stand,
And screens of ebony and box
Invite the stranger's hand.
I want (who does not want ? ) a wife,
Affectionate and fair;
To solace all the woes of life,
And all its joys to share;
Of temper sweet, of yielding will,
Of firm yet placid mind;
With all my faults to love me still
With sentiment refined.
And as Time's car incessant runs
And Fortune fills my store,
I want of daughters and of sons
From eight to half a score.
I want (alas! can mortal dare
Such bliss on earth to crave ? )
That all the girls be chaste and fair,
The boys all wise and brave.
And when my bosom's darling sings
With melody divine,
A pedal harp of many strings
Must with her voice combine.
A piano, exquisitely wrought,
Must open stand, apart,
That all my daughters may be taught
To win the stranger's heart.
My wife and daughters will desire
Refreshment from perfumes,
Cosmetic for the skin require
And artificial blooms.
## p. 16718 (#418) ##########################################
16718
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
The civet, fragrance shall dispense
And treasured sweets return;
Cologne revive the flagging sense,
And smoking amber burn.
And when, at night, my weary head
Begins to droop and doze,
A southern chamber holds my bed
For nature's soft repose;
With blankets, counterpanes, and sheet,
Mattress and bed of down,
And comfortables for my feet,
And pillows for my crown.
I want a warm and faithful friend
To cheer the adverse hour,
Who ne'er to flatter will descend,
Nor bend the knee to power
A friend to chide me when I'm wrong,
My inmost soul to see;
And that my friendship prove as strong
For him as his for me.
I want a kind and tender heart,
For others' wants to feel;
A soul secure from Fortune's dart,
And bosom armed with steel
To bear divine chastisement's rod;
And mingling in my plan,
Submission to the will of God
With charity to man.
I want a keen, observing eye;
An ever listening ear,
The truth through all disguise to spy,
And wisdom's voice to hear;
A tongue to speak at virtue's need,
In Heaven's sublimest strain;
And lips, the cause of man to plead,
And never plead in vain.
I want uninterrupted health
Throughout my long career;
And streams of never-failing wealth
To scatter far and near,
## p. 16719 (#419) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16719
The destitute to clothe and feed,
Free bounty to bestow,
Supply the helpless orphan's need,
And soothe the widow's woe.
I want the genius to conceive,
The talents to unfold
Designs, the vicious to retrieve,
The virtuous to uphold;
Inventive power, combining skill;
A persevering soul,
Of human hearts to mold the will
And reach from pole to pole.
I want the seals of power and place,
The ensigns of command,
Charged by the people's unbought grace,
To rule my native land:
Nor crown nor sceptre would I ask,
But from my country's will,
By day, by night, to ply the task
Her cup of bliss to fill.
I want the voice of honest praise
To follow me behind;
And to be thought in future days
The friend of human-kind:
That after ages, as they rise,
Exulting may proclaim,
In choral union to the skies,
Their blessings on my name.
-
These are the wants of mortal man;
I cannot want them long –
For life itself is but a span
And earthly bliss a song.
My last great want, absorbing all,
Is, when beneath the sod,
And summoned to my final call
The mercy of my God.
And oh! while circles in my veins
Of life the purple stream,
And yet a fragment small remains
Of nature's transient dream,
## p. 16720 (#420) ##########################################
16720
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
1
My soul, in humble hope unscared,
Forget not thou to pray,
That this thy want may be prepared
To meet the Judgment Day.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
AFTER THE PLAY
M"
ID the tawdry purple and tinsel bright,
With a mimic crowd bowing low at his feet,
In crown and sceptre of gilt bedight,
And a poor robe falling in fold and pleat,
He stalks on the stage and takes a seat.
Ah well, let him prosper while he may:
The curtain's soon down, for the hours are fleet,
And the king's but a beggar after the play.
In his borrowed plumage, poor shallow cheat,
He struts the stage with a strange conceit;
But let him prosper while he may,
The king's but a beggar after the play.
BURTON EGBERT STEVENSON.
THE CLOWN'S SONG
1
“Η"
ERE I am! ” — and the house rejoices;
Forth I tumble from out the slips;
“Here I am! » — and a hundred voices
Welcome me on with laughing lips.
The master, with easy pride,
Treads the sawdust down;
Or quickens the horse's stride,
And calls for his jesting clown.
«What, ho, Mr. Merriman! - Dick,
Here's a lady that wants your place. ”
I throw them a somerset, quick,
And grin in some beauty's face.
I tumble and jump and chaff,
And fill them with wild delights;
Whatever my sorrow, I laugh
Through the summer and winter nights.
## p. 16721 (#421) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16721
I joke with the men, if I dare;
Do they strike, why I cringe and stoop;
And I ride like a bird in air,
And I jump through the blazing hoop.
Whatever they say or do,
I am ready with joke and gibe;
And whenever the jests are new,
I follow, like all my tribe.
But life is not all a jest,
Whatever the wise ones say;
For when I steal home to rest
(And I seek it at dawn of day),
If winter, there is no fire;
If summer, there is no air:
My welcome's a hungry choir
Of children, and scanty fare.
My wife is as lean a scold
As famine can make man's wife;
We are both of us sour and old
With drinking the dregs of life.
Yet why do I sigh? I wonder,
Would the Pit or the Boxes sigh,
Should I wash off my paint, and, under,
Show how a fool must die ?
Author Unknown.
THE FOOLS' WALTZ
EARER and clearer than monarch and minister,
Rabble and gabble, and hypocrites sinister,
Warriors and sages of far-away ages,
Are the Fools that flit through the historical pages.
NET
They gazed somewhat dazed through their patches and powder,
They wondered and blundered and ever laughed louder;
While crown tumbled down, and while creed flew to pieces,
Their range was the change of their daily caprices.
While savage did ravage and bigotry tortured,
They rambled or gambled, or planted an orchard.
They clicked the light heel in the strathspey and reel,
Built castles, held wassails, chased moths, and played tennis;
Broke the lance for fair France, and went masked in gay Venice.
XXVIII-1046
## p. 16722 (#422) ##########################################
16722
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
They spent as they went, and were reckless of rules,
Bade defiance to science, and scoffed at the schools,
Had their flings at their kings, and were pert to the proudest;
Must joke if they spoke, and themselves laughed the loudest;
Winking and wooing, whatever was doing,
Though storms of reforms and rebellions were brewing,
Talking and mocking the age that they grew in,
They quaffed the gay draught round the red fires of ruin.
Smiling and sneering, they fit out of hearing,
They bow themselves airily out of our pages;
No sound underground of their jesting and jeering,
The dear little Fools of the far-away ages!
Can marble rest heavy on all that gay bevy,
Who parted light-hearted, and knew no returning?
Are there ghosts full of laughter that haunt the hereafter,
Too mocking for bliss and too merry for burning ?
Remember - forget them — it never will fret them,
Who gibed at misfortune whenever she met them;
At joust and at revel cast care to the devil,
And lived all their lives on whoever would let them.
Concede them the meed that is due the departed!
Slight thinker, deep drinker, lax friend and light lover;
A tear not too tender, for they were light-hearted;
A laugh not too loud, for their laughter is over;
1
A prayer light as air for the dead and gone Fools,
Too light and too slight to be tyrants or tools!
Who with jest and with zest took the world as they found it; –
Perhaps they did best just by dancing around it!
HELEN THAYER HUTCHESON.
1
A SMILING DEMON OF NOTRE DAME
Q
.
UIET as are the quiet skies,
He watches where the city lies
Floating in vision clear or dim
Through sun or rain beneath his eyes;
Her songs, her laughter, and her cries
Hour after hour drift up to him.
## p. 16723 (#423) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16723
Her days of glory or disgrace
He watches with unchanging face;
He knows what midnight crimes are done;
What horrors under summer sun;
And souls that pass in holy death
Sweep by him on the morning's breath.
Alike to holiness and sin
He feels nor alien nor akin;
Five hundred creeping mortal years
He smiles on human joy and tears,
Man-made, immortal, scorning man;
Serene, grotesque Olympian.
ELLEN BURROUGHS.
AFTER WINGS
T'S
His was your butterfly, you see.
His fine wings made him vain ? .
The caterpillars crawl, but he
Passed them in rich disdain ?
My pretty boy says: "Let him be
Only a worm again” ?
O child, when things have learned to wear
Wings once, they must be fain
To keep them always high and fair.
Think of the creeping pain
Which even a butterfly must bear
To be a worm again!
SARAH M. B. PIATT.
CONTRASTS
S"
TRANGE, that we creatures of the petty ways,
Poor prisoners behind these fleshly bars,
Can sometimes think us thoughts with God ablaze.
Touching the fringes of the outer stars.
And stranger still that, having flown so high,
And stood unshamed in shining presences,
We can resume our smallness, nor imply
In mien or gesture what that memory is.
RICHARD BURTON.
## p. 16724 (#424) ##########################################
16724
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
DREAM-PEDDLERY
I
F THERE were dreams to sell,
What would you buy ?
Some cost a passing-bell;
Some a light sigh,
That shakes from Life's fresh crown
Only a rose-leaf down.
If there were dreams to sell,
Merry and sad to tell,
And the crier rung the beli,
What would you buy? –
-
A cottage lone and still,
With bowers nigh,
Shadowy, my woes to still,
Until I die.
Such pearl from Life's fresh crown
Fain would I shake me down.
Were dreams to have at will,
This would best heal my ill,
This would I buy. -
But there were dreams to sell,
111 didst thou buy:
Life is a dream, they tell,
W ing to die.
Dreaming a dream to prize
Is wishing ghosts to rise;
And if I had the spell
To call the buried well,
Which one would I? -
If there are ghosts to raise,
What shall I call
Out of hell's murky haze,
Heaven's blue pall ? —
Raise my loved long-lost boy
To lead me to his joy. -
There are no ghosts to raise;
Out of death lead no ways:
Vain is the call. -
Know'st thou not ghosts to sue ?
No love thou hast. -
## p. 16725 (#425) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16725
Else lie, as I will do,
And breathe thy last.
So out of Life's fresh crown
Fall like a rose-leaf down.
Thus are the ghosts to woo;
Thus are all dreams made true,
Ever to last!
THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES.
1
ALIEN
WHOR
HOM the great goddess once has kissed
Between the brows,
His heart shall find no dwelling-place
Wherein to house.
The ragged mists shall be his roof,
Where mountains loom,
And swirling winds about his face
With words of doom;
The valleys when he walks therein
Are kind and warm,
Yet ever drift across his soul
Strange gusts of storm.
If, weary, he shall stop beside
An opened door,
Dreaming, “This hearthstone is my goal,
To wend no more,”
A tumult as of snows adrift
Shall fill his ears,
His heart-strings feel the old-time lure
Adown the years,
And he shall turn from that warm light
With still regret
That dreams were made not to endure -
Nor to forget.
WILLIAM CARMAN ROBERTS.
## p. 16726 (#426) ##########################################
16726
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
CINDERELLA
ERE by the kitchen fire I sit ·
Until the generous loaves be brown :
The firelight flickers up and down;
I, waiting. ponder over it.
H
The cat comes purring to my knee,
And, springing in my lap, she lies,
The firelight darting in her eyes,
And old traditions come to me.
« The black cat,” so the legends say,
“The witches ride by night,” forsooth!
The fancy-witchery of youth
Has touched the room with mystery!
The clock ticks slow, the fire burns down.
I see strange faces in the grate-
A hooded monk, a Muse, a Fate,
An ancient knight with armor on!
I see a mask: I know it hides
The smile of one I know by day —
The face behind it drops away
And leaves a pair of burning eyes!
I wait — the firelight glimmers red -
Where is my fairy coach-and-four
To take me from the narrow door,
By eager longing fancy-led ?
The cat is restless where she lies:
The soul of one who lived below
A thousand years and more ago
Looks through me from her narrow eyes!
The clock strikes slowly from the wall
I count the heavy strokes to eight;
The fire burns lower in the grate;
A mouse is stirring in the wall!
I rouse me from my revery -
I strike a match - I kneel before
And open wide the oven door –
King Alfred fared as ill as I!
DORA READ GOODALE.
## p. 16727 (#427) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16727
A WOMAN'S WISH
Wou
COULD I were lying in a field of clover,
Of clover cool and soft, and soft and sweet,
With dusky clouds on deep skies hanging over,
And scented silence at my head and feet.
Just for one hour to slip the leash of Worry,
In eager haste, from Thought's impatient neck,
And watch it coursing, in its heedless hurry
Disdaining Wisdom's call or Duty's beck!
Ah! it were sweet, where clover clumps are meeting
And daisies hiding, so to hide and rest;
No sound except my own heart's steady beating,
Rocking itself to sleep within my breast;-
Just to lie there, filled with the deeper breathing
That comes of listening a wild bird's song!
Our souls require at times this full unsheathing,-
All swords will rust if scabbard-kept too long:
And I am tired,- so tired of rigid duty,
So tired of all my tired hands find to do!
I yearn, I faint, for some of life's free beauty,
Its loose beads with no straight string running through.
Aye, laugh, if laugh you will, at my crude speech;
But women sometimes die of such a greed, -
Die for the small joys held beyond their reach,
And the assurance they have all they need!
MARY ASHLEY TOWNSEND.
OUT OF DOORS
N THE urgent solitudes
Lies the spur to larger moods;
In the friendship of the trees
Dwell all sweet serenities.
IM
ETHELWYN WETHERALD.
## p. 16728 (#428) ##########################################
16728
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
WHY
HUS LONGING ?
WY
THY thus longing, thus forever sighing,
For the far-off, unattained, and dim,
While the beautiful, all round thee lying,
Offers up its low, perpetual hymn ?
Wouldst thou listen to its gentle teaching,
All thy restless yearnings it would still:
Leaf and flower and laden bee are preaching,
Thine own sphere, though humble, first to fill.
Poor indeed thou must be, if around thee
Thou no ray of light and joy canst throw-
If no silken cord of love hath bound thee
To some little world through weal and woe;
If no dear eyes thy fond love can brighten -
No fond voices answer to thine own;
If no brother's sorrow thou canst lighten
By daily sympathy and gentle tone.
Not by deeds that win the crowd's applauses,
Not by works that give thee world-renown,
Not by martyrdom or vaunted crosses
Canst thou win and wear the immortal crown.
Daily struggling, though unloved and lonely,
Every day a rich reward will give;
Thou wilt find by hearty striving only,
And truly loving, thou canst truly live.
Dost thou revel in the rosy morning,
When all nature hails the lord of light,
And his smile, the mountain tops adorning,
Robes yon fragrant fields in radiance bright?
Other hands may grasp the field and forest,
Proud proprietors in pomp may shine;
But with fervent love if thou adorest,
Thou art wealthier — all the world is thine.
Yet if through earth's wide domains thou rovest,
Sighing that they are not thine alone,
Not those fair fields, but thyself thou lovest,
And their beauty and thy wealth are gone.
## p. 16729 (#429) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16729
Nature wears the color of the spirit;
Sweetly to her worshiper she sings;
All the glow, the grace she doth inherit,
Round her trusting child she fondly flings.
HARRIET WINSLOW SEWALL.
LONGING
O
TROUBLED sea, that longest evermore
From out thy cold and sunless depths to rise
To the bright orb that draws thee toward the skies,
And beat'st thy breast against the unyielding shore,
In the vain struggle to unloose the bands
That bind thee down to earth; in thy despair,
With sullen roar now leaping high in air,
Now moaning, sobbing on the insatiate sands,-
Type of the soul art thou: she strives like thee,
By time and circumstance and law bound down;
She beats against the shores of the unknown,
Wrestles with unseen force, doubt, mystery,
And longs forever for the goal afar,
That shines and still retreats, like a receding star.
ANNE C. L. Botta.
AN ANTIQUE INTAGLIO
S°
INFINITELY small we scarce may trace
The magic touches of the graver's hand;
And yet so great that Time himself doth stand
With envious gaze, all powerless to efface.
Here lie the power and skill and wondrous grace
That might the stateliest palaces have planned;
And one soul's lifelong toil perchance is spanned
Within this little circle's narrow space.
Was he content, the artist ? Did he burn
With ardent pride and sweet creative bliss
O'er thy perfected loveliness, nor yearn
For wider spheres and mightier work than this?
Or from thy beauty would he sadly turn,
And sigh, and gaze on the Acropolis ?
SUSAN MARR SPALDING.
## p. 16730 (#430) ##########################################
16730
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
CARCASSONNE
1
'M GROWING old; I'm sixty years:
I've labored all my life in vain;
In all that time of hopes and fears
I've failed my dearest wish to gain:
I see full well that here below
Bliss unalloyed there is for none.
My prayer will ne'er fulfillment know:
I never have seen Carcassonne,
I never have seen Carcassonne !
You see the city from the hill –
It lies beyond the mountains blue;
And yet to reach it one must still
Five long and weary leagues pursue;
And, to return, as many more!
Ah! had the vintage plenteous grown!
The grape withheld its yellow store.
I shall not look on Carcassonne,
I shall not look on Carcassonne!
They tell me every day is there
Not more nor less than Sunday gay;
In shining robes and garments fair
The people walk upon their way;
One gazes there on castle walls
As grand as those of Babylon,
A bishop and two generals!
I do not know fair Carcassonne,
I do not know fair Carcassonne!
The curé's right: he says that we
Are ever wayward, weak, and blind;
He tells us in his homily
Ambition ruins all mankind:
Yet could I there two days have spent,
While still the autumn sweetly shone,
Ah me! I might have died content
When I had looked on Carcassonne,
When I had looked on Carcassonne!
Thy pardon, father, I beseech,
In this my prayer if I offend:
## p.
16731 (#431) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16731
One something sees beyond his reach
From childhood to his journey's end.
My wife, our little boy Aignan,
Have traveled even to Narbonne;
My grandehild has seen Perpignan:
And I have not seen Carcassonne,
And I have not seen Carcassonne!
»
So crooned one day, close by Limoux,
A peasant, double bent with age.
« Rise up, my friend,” said I: “with you
I'll go upon this pilgrimage. ”
We left next morning his abode,
But (Heaven forgive him) half-way on
The old man died upon the road :
He never gazed on Carcassonne.
Each mortal has his Carcassonne!
GUSTAVE NADAUD.
Translation of John R. Thompson.
A RADICAL
H*
E NEVER feared to pry the stable stone
That loving lichens clad with silvery gray:
Torn ivies trembled as they slipped away,
Their empty arms now loose and listless blown.
Then turning, with that ardor all his own,
“Behold my better building! ” he would say.
“I rear as well as raze: nor by decay
Nor foe nor fire can this be overthrown! »
What was it ? Had he keener sight than we?
We saw the ruin, more we could not see;
His blocks were jasper air, a dream his plan.
We called him Stormer: ever he replied,
« Unbroken calm within my breast I hide. ”
Now God be judge betwixt us and this man!
HELEN GRAY CONE.
## p. 16732 (#432) ##########################################
16732
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
FROM DUNSTAN; OR THE POLITICIAN)
«How long, O Lord, how long ? »
N"
ow poor Tom Dunstan's cold,
Our shop is duller:
Scarce a tale is told,
And our talk has lost its old
Red-republican color.
Though he was sickly and thin,
'Twas a sight to see his face,
While, sick of the country's sin,
With a bang of the fist, and chin
Thrust out, he argued the case!
He prophesied men should be free,
And the money-bags be bled!
«She's coming, she's coming! ” said he:
Courage, boys! wait and see!
Freedom's ahead! »
(
All day we sat in the heat,
Like spiders spinning,
Stitching full fine and fleet,
While old Moses on his seat
Sat greasily grinning;
And here Tom said his say,
And prophesied Tyranny's death;
And the tallow burned all day,
And we stitched and stitched away
In the thick smoke of our breath.
Weary, weary were we,
Our hearts as heavy as lead;
But “Patience! she's coming! ” said he:
Courage, boys! wait and see!
Freedom's ahead! »
(
And at night, when we took here
The rest allowed to us,
The paper came, and the beer,
And Tom read, sharp and clear,
The news out loud to us:
And then, in his witty way,
He threw the jests about;—
The cutting things he'd say
Of the wealthy and the gay!
How he turned 'em inside out!
## p. 16733 (#433) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16733
And it made our breath more free
To hearken to what he said -
“She's coming! she's coming! ” said he:
Courage, boys! wait and see!
Freedom's ahead! »
(
But grim Jack Hart, with a sneer,
Would mutter, “Master!
If Freedom means to appear,
I think she might step here
A little faster! »
Then, 'twas fine to see Tom flame,
And argue, and prove, and preach,
Till Jack was silent for shame,
Or a fit of coughing came
O' sudden, to spoil Tom's speech.
Ah! Tom had the eyes to see
When Tyranny should be sped -
«She's coming! she's coming! ” said he:
Courage, boys! wait and see !
Freedom's ahead ! »
But Tom was little and weak,-
The hard hours shook him;
Hollower grew his cheek;
And when he began to speak
The coughing took him:
Ere long the cheery sound
Of his chat among us ceased,
And we made a purse, all round,
That he might not starve, at least.
His pain was sorry to see,
Yet there, on his poor sick-bed,
«She's coming, in spite of me!
Courage, and wait ! » cried he:
"Freedom's ahead! »
A little before he died,
To see his passion!
« Bring me a paper,” he cried,
And then to study it tried,
In his old sharp fashion;
And with eyeballs glittering,
His look on me he bent,
## p. 16734 (#434) ##########################################
16734
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
And said that savage thing
Of the lords o' the Parliament.
Then, dying, smiling on me,
<< What matter if one be dead?
She's coming at last! ” said he:
“Courage, boy! wait and see!
Freedom's ahead! »
Ay, now Tom Dunstan's cold,
The shop feels duller:
Scarce a tale is told,
And our talk has lost the old
Red-republican color.
But we see a figure gray,
And we hear a voice of death,
And the tallow burns all day,
And we stitch and stitch away
In the thick smoke of our breath;
Ay, while in the dark sit we,
Tom seems to call from the dead
«She's coming! she's coming! ” says he:
“Courage, boys! wait and see!
Freedom's ahead! »
How long, O Lord! how long
Must thy handmaid linger-
She who shall right the wrong,
Make the poor sufferer strong ?
Sweet morrow, bring her!
Hasten her over the sea,
O Lord! ere hope be fled!
Bring her to men and to me! -
O slave, pray still on thy knee,
FREEDOM's ahead! »
ROBERT BUCHANAN.
DUTY
I
SLEPT and dreamed that life was Beauty;
I woke, and found that life was Duty.
Was thy dream then a shadowy lie?
Toil on, sad heart, courageously,
And thou shalt find thy dream to be
A noonday light and truth to thee.
ELLEN STURGIS HOOPER.
## p. 16735 (#435) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16735
A DISCOVERY
THE
HE languid world went by me as I found
A jewel on the ground,
Under a silent weed,
A nameless glory set for none to heed.
«Stoop, see, and wonder! ” was my joyful cry,
But still the languid world went only by.
I drew it forth, and set it on a hill:
They passed it still.
Some turned to look,
And said it was a pebble from the brook;
A dewdrop, only made to melt away;
A worthless mirror, with a bordered ray.
Then on my knees I shouted forth its praise
For nights and days.
«See with your eyes
A diamond shining only for the wise!
How is it that you love not at first sight
This unfamiliar treasure of pure light ? ”
I set it on my breast. Then, with a sneer,
The world drew near.
They knew the sign
And secret of my praise: the thing was mine.
They left it to me with a bland disdain,
And hugged their tinsel to their hearts again.
I showed it to the dearest soul I had:
“You are not mad;
Let them go by:
We know it is a diamond, you and I. ”
Coldly he answered, “If you love it so,
You need not me to praise it. Let me go. ”
»
“It is my sin,” I cried with bitter tears,
“That no man hears.
I'll Aling it down:
Some nobler hand shall set it in a crown.
I shall behold it honored ere I die;
But no one could have loved it more than I ! »
MENELLA BUTE SMEDLEY.
## p. 16736 (#436) ##########################################
16736
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
COMBATANTS
H :
E SEEMED to call me, and I shrank dismayed,
Deeming he threatened all I held most dear;
But when at last his summons I obeyed,
Perplexed and full of fear,
I found upon his face no angry frown -
Only a visor down.
Indignant that his voice, so calm and sweet,
In my despite unto my soul appealed,
I cried, “If thou hast courage, turn and meet
A foeman full revealed! »
And with determined zeal that made me strong,
Contended with him long.
.
But oh, the armor he so meekly bore
Was wrought for him in other worlds than ours!
In firm defense of what he battled for
Were leagued eternal powers!
I fell; yet overwhelmed by my disgrace,
At last I saw his face!
And in its matchless beauty I forgot
The constant service to my pledges due;
And with adoring love that sorrowed not,
Entreated, “Tell me who
Hath so o'erthrown my will and pride of youth ? ”
He answered, “I am Truth. ”
C
»
FLORENCE EARLE COATES.
TO-DAY
VOICE
JOICE, with what emulous fire thou singest free hearts of old
fashion,
English scorners of Spain sweeping the blue sea-way:
Sing me the daring of life for life, the magnanimous passion
Of man for man in the mean populous streets of To-day!
Hand, with what color and power thou couldst show in the ring hot-
sanded,
Brown Bestiarius holding the lean, tawn tiger at bay:
Paint me the wrestle of Toil with the wild-beast Want, bare-handed!
Shadow me forth a soul steadily facing To-day!
HELEN GRAY CONE.
## p. 16737 (#437) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16737
UNKNOWN IDEAL
WHOSE
HOSE is the voice that will not let me rest?
I hear it speak.
Where is the shore will gratify my quest,
Show what I seek?
Not yours, weak Muse, to mimic that far voice
With halting tongue;
No peace, sweet land, to bid my heart rejoice
Your groves among.
Whose is the loveliness I know is by,
Yet cannot place?
Is it perfection of the sea or sky,
Or human face?
Not yours, my pencil, to delineate
The splendid smile!
Blind in the sun, we struggle on with fate
That glows the while.
Whose are the feet that pass me, echoing
On unknown ways?
Whose are the lips that only part to sing
Through all my days?
Not yours, fond youth, to fill mine eager eyes
That still adore
Beauty that tarries not, nor satisfies
For evermore.
DORA SIGERSON.
THE SILENCE
From (Les Villages Illusoires)
VER since ending of the summer weather,
When last the thunder and the lightning brcke,
Shattering themselves upon it at one stroke,
The Silence has not stirred there in the heather.
E"
All round about stand steeples straight as stakes,
And each its bell between its fingers shakes;
All round about with their three-storied loads,
The teams prowl down the roads;
All round about where'er the pine woods end,
The wheel creaks on along its rutty bed,
XXVIII-1047
## p. 16738 (#438) ##########################################
16738
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
But not a sound is strong enough to rend
That space intense and dead.
Since summer, thunder laden, last was heard,
The Silence has not stirred;
And the broad heath-land where the nights sink down,
Beyond the sand-hills brown,
Beyond the endless thickets closely set,
To the far borders of the far-away,
Prolongs It yet.
Even the winds disturb not as they go
The boughs of those long larches, bending low
Where the marsh-water lies,
In which Its vacant eyes
Gaze at themselves unceasing, stubbornly;
Only sometimes, as on their way they move,
The noiseless shadows of the clouds above,
Or of some great bird's hovering flight on high,
Brush It in passing by.
Since the last bolt that scored the earth aslant,
Nothing has pierced the Silence dominant.
Of those who cross Its vast immensity,
Whether at twilight or at dawn it be,
There is not one but feels
The dread of the Unknown that It instills;
An ample force supreme, It holds Its sway,
Uninterruptedly the same for aye.
Dark walls of blackest fir-trees bar from sight
The outlook towards the paths of hope and light;
Great pensive junipers
Affright from far the passing travelers;
Long narrow paths stretch their straight lines unbent,
Till they fork off in curves malevolent;
And the sun, ever shifting, ceaseless lends
Fresh aspects to the mirage whither tends
Bewilderment.
Since the last bolt was forged amid the storm,
The polar Silence at the corners four
Of the wide heather-land has stirred no more.
Old shepherds, whom their hundred years have worn
To things all dislocate and out of gear,
And their old dogs, ragged, tired-out, and torn,
Oft watch It, on the soundless lowlands near,
## p. 16739 (#439) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16739
Or downs of gold beflecked with shadows' flight,
Sit down immensely there beside the night.
Then, at the curves and corners of the mere,
The waters creep with fear;
The heather veils itself, grows wan and white;
All the leaves listen upon all the bushes,
And the incendiary sunset hushes
Before Its face his cries of brandished light.
And in the hamlets that about It lie,
Beneath the thatches of their hovels small,
The terror dwells of feeling It is nigh;
And though It stirs not, dominating all,
Broken with dull despair and helplessness,
Beneath Its presence they crouch motionless,
As though upon the watch — and dread to see,
Through rifts of vapor, open suddenly
At evening, in the noon, the argent eyes
Of Its mute mysteries.
EMÉLE VERHÄEREN.
Translation of Alma Strettell.
THE HELMSMAN
W"
HAT shall I ask for the voyage I must sail to the end alone ?
Summer and calms and rest from never a labor done?
Nay, blow, ye life-winds all; curb not for me your blast:
Strain ye my quivering ropes, bend ye my trembling mast,
Then there can be no drifting, thank God! for boat or me, -
Strenuous, swift, our course over a living sea.
Mine is a man's right arm to steer through fog and foam;
Beacons are shining still to guide each farer home.
Give me your worst, () winds! others have met the stress :
E’en if it be to sink, give me no less, no less.
M. A. DE WOLFE HOWE.
## p. 16740 (#440) ##########################################
16740
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
SEALED ORDERS
From (Poems) by Julia C. R. Dorr. Copyright. 1874, 1885, 1892, by Charles
Scribner's Sons
"O"
H, WHITHER bound, my captain ?
The wind is blowing free,
And overhead the white sails spread
As we go out to sea.
»
He looked to north, he looked to south,
Or ever a word he spake;
«With orders sealed my sails I set -
Due east my course I take. ”
“But to what port ? ". — «Nay, nay,” he cried.
“This only do I know,-
That I must sail due eastward
Whatever wind may blow. ”
»
For many a day we sailed east; —
“O captain, tell me true,
When will our good ship come to port? " --
“I cannot answer you! ” —
« Then, prithee, gallant captain,
Let us but drift awhile!
The current setteth southward
Past many a sunny isle,
«Where cocoas grow, and mangoes,
And groves of feathery palm,
And nightingales sing all night long
To roses breathing balm. ” –
“Nay, tempt me not,” he answered:
« This only do I know,-
That I must sail due eastward
Whatever winds may blow! »
(
Then sailed we on, and sailed we east
Into the whirlwind's track;
Wild was the tempest overhead,
The sea was strewn with wrack.
“Oh, turn thee, turn thee, captain —
Thou’rt rushing on to death! ”
But back he answer shouted,
With unabated breath: --
## p. 16741 (#441) ##########################################
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
16741
« Turn back who will, I turn not!
For this one thing I know,-
That I must sail due eastward
However winds may blow! ” –
« Oh, art thou fool or madman ?
Thy port is but a dream,
And never on the horizon's rim
Will its fair turrets gleam. ”
Then smiled the captain wisely,
And slowly answered he,
The while his keen glance widened
Over the lonely sea:-
“I carry sealed orders.
This only thing I know,-
That I must sail due eastward
Whatever winds may blow! ”
JULIA C. R. DORR.
THE STAR TO ITS LIGHT
"Gº
0," said the star to its light:
“Follow your fathomless Aight!
Into the dreams of space
Carry the joy of my face.
Go," said the star to its light:
« Tell me the tale of your flight. ”
As the mandate rang
The heavens through,
Quick the ray sprang,
Unheard it flew,
Sped by the touch of an unseen spur.
It crumbled the dusk of the deep
That folds the worlds in sleep,
And shot through night with noiseless stir.
Then came the day;
And all that swift array
Of diamond-sparkles died.
And lo! the far star cried,
“My light has lost its way! »
Ages on ages passed:
The light returned at last.
## p. 16742 (#442) ##########################################
16742
SONGS HYMNS AND LYRICS
« What have you seen,
What have you heard
O ray serene,
O flame-winged bird,
I loosed on endless air ?
Why do you look so faint and white ? »
Said the star to its light.
« O star," said the tremulous ray,
“Grief and struggle I found;
Horror impeded my way.
Many a star and sun
I passed and touched on my round.
Many a life undone
I lit with a tender gleam;
I shone in the lover's eyes,
And soothed the maiden's dream.
But alas for the stifling mist of lies!
Alas, for the wrath of the battle-field
Where my glance was mixed with blood!
