The Second Book of Modern VersePart 2 out of 5Petals that fell so soft and slowly, Fragrant snows on the grasses lowly, Gathered now would I call you holy Ever to eyes once blind. In the pine-sweet valley of Carmel the cream-cups scatter in foam. Azures of early lupin there! Now the wild lilac floods the air Like a broken honey-comb. So could the flowers of Paradise Pour their souls to the morning skies; So like a ghost your fragrance lies On the path that once led home. On the emerald hills of Carmel the spring and winter have met. Here I find in a gentled spot The frost of the wild forget-me-not, And -- I cannot forget. Heart once light as the floating feather Borne aloft in the sunny weather, Spring and winter have come together -- Shall you and she meet yet? On the rocks and beaches of Carmel the surf is mighty to-day. Breaker and lifting billow call To the high, blue Silence over all With the word no heart can say. Time-to-be, shall I hear it ever? Time-that-is, with the hands that sever, Cry all words but the dreadful "Never"! And name of her far away. Music I heard. [Conrad Aiken] Music I heard with you was more than music, And bread I broke with you was more than bread; Now that I am without you, all is desolate; All that was once so beautiful is dead. Your hands once touched this table and this silver, And I have seen your fingers hold this glass. These things do not remember you, beloved, -- And yet your touch upon them will not pass. For it was in my heart you moved among them, And blessed them with your hands and with your eyes; And in my heart they will remember always, -- They knew you once, O beautiful and wise. Dusk at Sea. [Thomas S. Jones, Jr.] To-night eternity alone is near: The sea, the sunset, and the darkening blue; Within their shelter is no space for fear, Only the wonder that such things are true. The thought of you is like the dusk at sea -- Space and wide freedom and old shores left far, The shelter of a lone immensity Sealed by the sunset and the evening star. Old Ships. [David Morton] There is a memory stays upon old ships, A weightless cargo in the musty hold, -- Of bright lagoons and prow-caressing lips, Of stormy midnights, -- and a tale untold. They have remembered islands in the dawn, And windy capes that tried their slender spars, And tortuous channels where their keels have gone, And calm blue nights of stillness and the stars. Ah, never think that ships forget a shore, Or bitter seas, or winds that made them wise; There is a dream upon them, evermore; -- And there be some who say that sunk ships rise To seek familiar harbors in the night, Blowing in mists, their spectral sails like light. The Wanderer. [Zoe Akins] The ships are lying in the bay, The gulls are swinging round their spars; My soul as eagerly as they Desires the margin of the stars. So much do I love wandering, So much I love the sea and sky, That it will be a piteous thing In one small grave to lie. Harbury. [Louise Driscoll] All the men of Harbury go down to the sea in ships, The wind upon their faces, the salt upon their lips. The little boys of Harbury when they are laid to sleep, Dream of masts and cabins and the wonders of the deep. The women-folk of Harbury have eyes like the sea, Wide with watching wonder, deep with mystery. I met a woman: "Beyond the bar," she said, "Beyond the shallow water where the green lines spread, "Out beyond the sand-bar and the white spray, My three sons wait for the Judgment Day." I saw an old man who goes to sea no more, Watch from morn till evening down on the shore. "The sea's a hard mistress," the old man said; "The sea is always hungry and never full fed. "The sea had my father and took my son from me -- Sometimes I think I see them, walking on the sea! "I'd like to be in Harbury on the Judgment Day, When the word is spoken and the sea is wiped away, "And all the drowned fisher boys, with sea-weed in their hair, Rise and walk to Harbury to greet the women there. "I'd like to be in Harbury to see the souls arise, Son and mother hand in hand, lovers with glad eyes. "I think there would be many who would turn and look with me, Hoping for another glimpse of the cruel sea! "They tell me that in Paradise the fields are green and still, With pleasant flowers everywhere that all may take who will, "And four great rivers flowing from out the Throne of God That no one ever drowns in and souls may cross dry-shod. "I think among those wonders there will be men like me, Who miss the old salt danger of the singing sea. "For in my heart, like some old shell, inland, safe and dry, Any one who harks will still hear the sea cry." A Lynmouth Widow. [Amelia Josephine Burr] He was straight and strong, and his eyes were blue As the summer meeting of sky and sea, And the ruddy cliffs had a colder hue Than flushed his cheek when he married me. We passed the porch where the swallows breed, We left the little brown church behind, And I leaned on his arm, though I had no need, Only to feel him so strong and kind. One thing I never can quite forget; It grips my throat when I try to pray -- The keen salt smell of a drying net That hung on the churchyard wall that day. He would have taken a long, long grave -- A long, long grave, for he stood so tall . . . Oh, God, the crash of a breaking wave, And the smell of the nets on the churchyard wall! City Roofs. [Charles Hanson Towne] Roof-tops, roof-tops, what do you cover? Sad folk, bad folk, and many a glowing lover; Wise people, simple people, children of despair -- Roof-tops, roof-tops, hiding pain and care. Roof-tops, roof-tops, O what sin you're knowing, While above you in the sky the white clouds are blowing; While beneath you, agony and dolor and grim strife Fight the olden battle, the olden war of Life. Roof-tops, roof-tops, cover up their shame -- Wretched souls, prisoned souls too piteous to name; Man himself hath built you all to hide away the stars -- Roof-tops, roof-tops, you hide ten million scars. Roof-tops, roof-tops, well I know you cover Many solemn tragedies and many a lonely lover; But ah, you hide the good that lives in the throbbing city -- Patient wives, and tenderness, forgiveness, faith, and pity. Roof-tops, roof-tops, this is what I wonder: You are thick as poisonous plants, thick the people under; Yet roofless, and homeless, and shelterless they roam, The driftwood of the town who have no roof-top and no home! Eye-Witness. [Ridgely Torrence] Down by the railroad in a green valley By dancing water, there he stayed awhile Singing, and three men with him, listeners, All tramps, all homeless reapers of the wind, Motionless now and while the song went on Transfigured into mages thronged with visions; There with the late light of the sunset on them And on clear water spinning from a spring Through little cones of sand dancing and fading, Close beside pine woods where a hermit thrush Cast, when love dazzled him, shadows of music That lengthened, fluting, through the singer's pauses While the sure earth rolled eastward bringing stars Over the singer and the men that listened There by the roadside, understanding all. A train went by but nothing seemed to be changed. Some eye at a car window must have flashed From the plush world inside the glassy Pullman, Carelessly bearing off the scene forever, With idle wonder what the men were doing, Seeing they were so strangely fixed and seeing Torn papers from their smeary dreary meal Spread on the ground with old tomato cans Muddy with dregs of lukewarm chicory, Neglected while they listened to the song. And while he sang the singer's face was lifted, And the sky shook down a soft light upon him Out of its branches where like fruits there were Many beautiful stars and planets moving, With lands upon them, rising from their seas, Glorious lands with glittering sands upon them, With soils of gold and magic mould for seeding, The shining loam of lands afoam with gardens On mightier stars with giant rains and suns There in the heavens; but on none of all Was there ground better than he stood upon: There was no world there in the sky above him Deeper in promise than the earth beneath him Whose dust had flowered up in him the singer And three men understanding every word. The Tramp Sings: I will sing, I will go, and never ask me "Why?" I was born a rover and a passer-by. I seem to myself like water and sky, A river and a rover and a passer-by. But in the winter three years back We lit us a night fire by the track, And the snow came up and the fire it flew And we couldn't find the warming room for two. One had to suffer, so I left him the fire And I went to the weather from my heart's desire. It was night on the line, it was no more fire, But the zero whistle through the icy wire. As I went suffering through the snow Something like a shadow came moving slow. I went up to it and I said a word; Something flew above it like a kind of bird. I leaned in closer and I saw a face; A light went round me but I kept my place. My heart went open like an apple sliced; I saw my Saviour and I saw my Christ. Well, you may not read it in a book, But it takes a gentle Saviour to give a gentle look. I looked in his eyes and I read the news; His heart was having the railroad blues. Oh, the railroad blues will cost you dear, Keeps you moving on for something that you don't see here. We stood and whispered in a kind of moon; The line was looking like May and June. I found he was a roamer and a journey man Looking for a lodging since the night began. He went to the doors but he didn't have the pay. He went to the windows, then he went away. Says, "We'll walk together and we'll both be fed." Says, "I will give you the `other' bread." Oh, the bread he gave and without money! O drink, O fire, O burning honey! It went all through me like a shining storm: I saw inside me, it was light and warm. I saw deep under and I saw above, I saw the stars weighed down with love. They sang that love to burning birth, They poured that music to the earth. I heard the stars sing low like mothers. He said: "Now look, and help feed others." I looked around, and as close as touch Was everybody that suffered much. They reached out, there was darkness only; They could not see us, they were lonely. I saw the hearts that deaths took hold of, With the wounds bare that were not told of; Hearts with things in them making gashes; Hearts that were choked with their dreams' ashes; Women in front of the rolled-back air, Looking at their breasts and nothing there; Good men wasting and trapped in hells; Hurt lads shivering with the fare-thee-wells. I saw them as if something bound them; I stood there but my heart went round them. I begged him not to let me see them wasted. Says, "Tell them then what you have tasted." Told him I was weak as a rained-on bee; Told him I was lost. -- Says: "Lean on me." Something happened then I could not tell, But I knew I had the water for every hell. Any other thing it was no use bringing; They needed what the stars were singing, What the whole sky sang like waves of light, The tune that it danced to, day and night. Oh, I listened to the sky for the tune to come; The song seemed easy, but I stood there dumb. The stars could feel me reaching through them They let down light and drew me to them. I stood in the sky in a light like day, Drinking in the word that all things say Where the worlds hang growing in clustered shapes Dripping the music like wine from grapes. With "Love, Love, Love," above the pain, -- The vine-like song with its wine-like rain. Through heaven under heaven the song takes root Of the turning, burning, deathless fruit. I came to the earth and the pain so near me, I tried that song but they couldn't hear me. I went down into the ground to grow, A seed for a song that would make men know. Into the ground from my roamer's light I went; he watched me sink to night. Deep in the ground from my human grieving, His pain ploughed in me to believing. Oh, he took earth's pain to be his bride, While the heart of life sang in his side. For I felt that pain, I took its kiss, My heart broke into dust with his. Then sudden through the earth I found life springing; The dust men trampled on was singing. Deep in my dust I felt its tones; The roots of beauty went round my bones. I stirred, I rose like a flame, like a river, I stood on the line, I could sing forever. Love had pierced into my human sheathing, Song came out of me simple as breathing. A freight came by, the line grew colder, He laid his hand upon my shoulder. Says, "Don't stay on the line such nights," And led me by the hand to the station lights. I asked him in front of the station-house wall If he had lodging. Says, "None at all." I pointed to my heart and looked in his face. -- "Here, -- if you haven't got a better place." He looked and he said: "Oh, we still must roam But if you'll keep it open, well, I'll call it `home'." The thrush now slept whose pillow was his wing. So the song ended and the four remained Still in the faint starshine that silvered them, While the low sound went on of broken water Out of the spring and through the darkness flowing Over a stone that held it from the sea. Whether the men spoke after could not be told, A mist from the ground so veiled them, but they waited A little longer till the moon came up; Then on the gilded track leading to the mountains, Against the moon they faded in common gold And earth bore East with all toward the new morning. God's Acre. [Witter Bynner] Because we felt there could not be A mowing in reality So white and feathery-blown and gay With blossoms of wild caraway, I said to Celia, "Let us trace The secret of this pleasant place!" We knew some deeper beauty lay Below the bloom of caraway, And when we bent the white aside We came to paupers who had died: Rough wooden shingles row on row, And God's name written there -- `John Doe'. General William Booth Enters into Heaven. [Vachel Lindsay] (To be sung to the tune of `The Blood of the Lamb' with indicated instrument) I (Bass drum beaten loudly) Booth led boldly with his big bass drum -- (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?) The Saints smiled gravely and they said: "He's come." (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?) Walking lepers followed, rank on rank, Lurching bravoes from the ditches dank, Drabs from the alleyways and drug fiends pale -- Minds still passion-ridden, soul-powers frail: -- Vermin-eaten saints with mouldy breath, Unwashed legions with the ways of Death -- (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?) (Banjos) Every slum had sent its half-a-score The round world over. (Booth had groaned for more.) Every banner that the wide world flies Bloomed with glory and transcendent dyes. Big-voiced lasses made their banjos bang, Tranced, fanatical, they shrieked and sang: -- "Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?" Hallelujah! It was queer to see Bull-necked convicts with that land make free. Loons with trumpets blowed a blare, blare, blare, On, on upward thro' the golden air! (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?) II (Bass drum slower and softer) Booth died blind and still by Faith he trod, Eyes still dazzled by the ways of God. Booth led boldly, and he looked the chief, Eagle countenance in sharp relief, Beard a-flying, air of high command Unabated in that holy land. (Sweet flute music) Jesus came from out the court-house door, Stretched his hands above the passing poor. Booth saw not, but led his queer ones there Round and round the mighty court-house square. Yet in an instant all that blear review Marched on spotless, clad in raiment new. The lame were straightened, withered limbs uncurled And blind eyes opened on a new, sweet world. (Bass drum louder) Drabs and vixens in a flash made whole! Gone was the weasel-head, the snout, the jowl! Sages and sibyls now, and athletes clean, Rulers of empires and of forests green! (Grand chorus of all instruments. Tambourines to the foreground) The hosts were sandalled, and their wings were fire! (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?) But their noise played havoc with the angel-choir (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?) O, shout Salvation! It was good to see Kings and Princes by the Lamb set free. The banjos rattled and the tambourines Jing-jing-jingled in the hands of Queens. (Reverently sung, no instruments) And when Booth halted by the curb for prayer He saw his Master thro' the flag-filled air. Christ came gently with a robe and crown For Booth the soldier, while the throng knelt down. He saw King Jesus. They were face to face, And he knelt a-weeping in that holy place. Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Compensation. [William Ellery Leonard] I know the sorrows of the last abyss: I walked the cold black pools without a star; I lay on rock of unseen flint and spar; I heard the execrable serpent hiss; I dreamed of sun, fruit-tree, and virgin's kiss; I woke alone with midnight near and far, And everlasting hunger, keen to mar; But I arose, and my reward is this: I am no more one more amid the throng: Though name be naught, and lips forever weak, I seem to know at last of mighty song; And with no blush, no tremor on the cheek, I do claim consort with the great and strong Who suffered ill and had the gift to speak. A Girl's Songs. [Mary Carolyn Davies] Borrower I sing of sorrow, I sing of weeping. I have no sorrow. I only borrow From some tomorrow Where it lies sleeping, Enough of sorrow To sing of weeping. Vintage Heartbreak that is too new Can not be used to make Beauty that will startle; That takes an old heartbreak. Old heartbreaks are old wine. Too new to pour is mine. The Kiss Your kiss lies on my face Like the first snow Upon a summer place. Bewildered by that wonder, The grasses tremble under The thing they do not know. I tremble even so. Free Over and over I tell the sky: I am free -- I! Over and over I tell the sea: -- I am free! Over and over I tell my lover I am free, free! Over and over. But when the night comes black and cold, I who am young, with fear grow old; And I know, when the world is clear of sound, I am bound -- bound. The Enchanted Sheepfold. [Josephine Preston Peabody] The hills far-off were blue, blue, The hills at hand were brown; And all the herd-bells called to me As I came by the down. The briars turned to roses, roses; Ever we stayed to pull A white little rose, and a red little rose, And a lock of silver wool. Nobody heeded, -- none, none; And when True Love came by, They thought him naught but the shepherd-boy. Nobody knew but I! The trees were feathered like birds, birds; Birds were in every tree. Yet nobody heeded, nobody heard, Nobody knew, save me. And he is fairer than all -- all. How could a heart go wrong? For his eyes I knew, and his knew mine, Like an old, old song. Where Love is. [Amelia Josephine Burr] By the rosy cliffs of Devon, on a green hill's crest, I would build me a house as a swallow builds its nest; I would curtain it with roses, and the wind should breathe to me The sweetness of the roses and the saltness of the sea. Where the Tuscan olives whiten in the hot blue day, I would hide me from the heat in a little hut of gray, While the singing of the husbandman should scale my lattice green From the golden rows of barley that the poppies blaze between. Narrow is the street, Dear, and dingy are the walls Wherein I wait your coming as the twilight falls. All day with dreams I gild the grime till at your step I start -- Ah Love, my country in your arms -- my home upon your heart! Interlude. [Scudder Middleton] I am not old, but old enough To know that you are very young. It might be said I am the leaf, And you the blossom newly sprung. So I shall grow a while with you, And hear the bee and watch the cloud, Before the dragon on the branch, The caterpillar, weaves a shroud. The Lover envies an Old Man. [Shaemas O Sheel] I envy the feeble old man Dozing there in the sun. When all you can do is done And life is a shattered plan, What is there better than Dozing in the sun? I could grow very still Like an old stone on a hill And content me with the one Thing that is ever kind, The tender sun. I could grow deaf and blind And never hear her voice, Nor think I could rejoice With her in any place; And I could forget her face, And love only the sun. Because when we are tired, Very very tired, And cannot again be fired By any hope, The sun is so comforting! A little bird under the wing Of its mother, is not so warm. Give me only the scope Of an old chair Out in the air, Let me rest there, Moving not, Loving not, Only dozing my days till my days be done, Under the sun. "If you should tire of loving me". [Margaret Widdemer] If you should tire of loving me Some one of our far days, Oh, never start to hide your heart Or cover thought with praise. For every word you would not say Be sure my heart has heard, So go from me all silently Without a kiss or word; For God must give you happiness, And Oh, it may befall In listening long to Heaven-song I may not care at all! The Flower of Mending. [Vachel Lindsay] When Dragon-fly would fix his wings, When Snail would patch his house, When moths have marred the overcoat Of tender Mister Mouse, The pretty creatures go with haste To the sunlit blue-grass hills Where the Flower of Mending yields the wax And webs to help their ills. The hour the coats are waxed and webbed They fall into a dream, And when they wake the ragged robes Are joined without a seam. My heart is but a dragon-fly, My heart is but a mouse, My heart is but a haughty snail In a little stony house. Your hand was honey-comb to heal, Your voice a web to bind. You were a Mending Flower to me To cure my heart and mind. Venus Transiens. [Amy Lowell] Tell me, Was Venus more beautiful Than you are, When she topped The crinkled waves, Drifting shoreward On her plaited shell? Was Botticelli's vision Fairer than mine; And were the painted rosebuds He tossed his lady, Of better worth Than the words I blow about you To cover your too great loveliness As with a gauze Of misted silver? For me, You stand poised In the blue and buoyant air, Cinctured by bright winds, Treading the sunlight. And the waves which precede you Ripple and stir The sands at your feet. The Dream of Aengus Og. [Eleanor Rogers Cox] When the rose of Morn through the Dawn was breaking, And white on the hearth was last night's flame, Thither to me 'twixt sleeping and waking, Singing out of the mists she came. And grey as the mists on the spectre meadows Were the eyes that on my eyes she laid, And her hair's red splendor through the shadows Like to the marsh-fire gleamed and played. And she sang of the wondrous far-off places That a man may only see in dreams, The death-still, odorous, starlit spaces Where Time is lost and no life gleams. And there till the day had its crest uplifted, She stood with her still face bent on me, Then forth with the Dawn departing drifted Light as a foam-fleck on the sea. And now my heart is the heart of a swallow That here no solace of rest may find, Forevermore I follow and follow Her white feet glancing down the wind. And forevermore in my ears are ringing -- (Oh, red lips yet shall I kiss you dumb!) Twain sole words of that May morn's singing, Calling to me "Hither"! and "Come"! From flower-bright fields to the wild lake-sedges Crying my steps when the Day has gone, Till dim and small down the Night's pale edges The stars have fluttered one by one. And light as the thought of a love forgotten, The hours skim past, while before me flies That face of the Sun and Mist begotten, Its singing lips and death-cold eyes. "I am in Love with High Far-Seeing Places". [Arthur Davison Ficke] I am in love with high far-seeing places That look on plains half-sunlight and half-storm, -- In love with hours when from the circling faces Veils pass, and laughing fellowship glows warm. You who look on me with grave eyes where rapture And April love of living burn confessed, -- The Gods are good! The world lies free to capture! Life has no walls. O take me to your breast! Take me, -- be with me for a moment's span! -- I am in love with all unveiled faces. I seek the wonder at the heart of man; I would go up to the far-seeing places. While youth is ours, turn toward me for a space The marvel of your rapture-lighted face! You. [Ruth Guthrie Harding] Deep in the heart of me, Nothing but You! See through the art of me -- Deep in the heart of me Find the best part of me, Changeless and true. Deep in the heart of me, Nothing but You! Choice. [Angela Morgan] I'd rather have the thought of you To hold against my heart, My spirit to be taught of you With west winds blowing, Than all the warm caresses Of another love's bestowing, Or all the glories of the world In which you had no part. I'd rather have the theme of you To thread my nights and days, I'd rather have the dream of you With faint stars glowing, I'd rather have the want of you, The rich, elusive taunt of you Forever and forever and forever unconfessed Than claim the alien comfort Of any other's breast. O lover! O my lover, That this should come to me! I'd rather have the hope for you, Ah, Love, I'd rather grope for you Within the great abyss Than claim another's kiss -- Alone I'd rather go my way Throughout eternity. Song. [Margaret Steele Anderson] The bride, she wears a white, white rose -- the plucking it was mine; The poet wears a laurel wreath -- and I the laurel twine; And oh, the child, your little child, that's clinging close to you, It laughs to wear my violets -- they are so sweet and blue! And I, I have a wreath to wear -- ah, never rue nor thorn! I sometimes think that bitter wreath could be more sweetly worn! For mine is made of ghostly bloom, of what I can't forget -- The fallen leaves of other crowns -- rose, laurel, violet! Romance. [Scudder Middleton] Why should we argue with the falling dust Or tremble in the traffic of the days? Our hearts are music-makers in the clouds, Our feet are running on the heavenly ways. We'll go and find the honey of romance Within the hollow of the sacred tree. There is a spirit in the eastern sky, Calling along the dawn to you and me. She'll lead us to the forest where she hides The yellow wine that keeps the angels young -- We are the chosen lovers of the earth For whom alone the golden comb was hung. Good-Bye. [Norreys Jephson O'Conor] Good-bye to tree and tower, To meadow, stream, and hill, Beneath the white clouds marshalled close At the wind's will. Good-bye to the gay garden, With prim geraniums pied, And spreading yew trees, old, unchanging Tho' men have died. Good-bye to the New Castle, With granite walls and grey, And rooms where faded greatness still Lingers to-day. To every friend in Mallow, When I am gone afar, These words of ancient Celtic hope, "Peace after war." I would return to Erin When all these wars are by, Live long among her hills before My last good-bye. Beyond Rathkelly. [Francis Carlin] As I went over the Far Hill, Just beyond Rathkelly, -- Och, to be on the Far Hill O'er Newtonstewart Town! As I went over the Far Hill With Marget's daughter Nellie, The night was up and the moon was out, And a star was falling down. As I went over the Far Hill, Just beyond Rathkelly, -- Och, to be on the Far Hill Above the Bridge o' Moyle! As I went over the Far Hill, With Marget's daughter Nellie, I made a wish before the star Had fallen in the Foyle. As I went over the Far Hill, Just beyond Rathkelly, -- Och, to be on the Far Hill With the hopes that I had then! As I went over the Far Hill, I wished for little Nellie, And if a star were falling now I'd wish for her again. A Song of Two Wanderers. [Marguerite Wilkinson] Dear, when I went with you To where the town ends, Simple things that Christ loved -- They were our friends; Tree shade and grass blade And meadows in flower; Sun-sparkle, dew-glisten, Star-glow and shower; Cool-flowing song at night Where the river bends, And the shingle croons a tune -- These were our friends. Under us the brown earth Ancient and strong, The best bed for wanderers All the night long; Over us the blue sky Ancient and dear, The best roof to shelter all Glad wanderers here; And racing between them there Falls and ascends The chantey of the clean winds -- These were our friends. By day on the broad road Or on the narrow trail, Angel wings shadowed us, Glimmering pale Through the red heat of noon; In the twilight of dawn Fairies broke fast with us; Prophets led us on, Heroes were kind to us Day after happy day; Many white Madonnas We met on our way -- ~Farmer and longshoreman, Fisherman and wife, Children and laborers Brave enough for Life, Simple folk that Christ loved -- They were our friends. . . .~ Dear, we must go again To where the town ends. . . . In the Mushroom Meadows. [Thomas Walsh] Sun on the dewy grasslands where late the frost hath shone, And lo, what elfin cities are these we come upon! What pigmy domes and thatches, what Arab caravan, What downy-roofed pagodas that have known no touch of man! Are these the oldtime meadows? Yes, the wildgrape scents the air; The breath of ripened orchards still is incense everywhere; Yet do these dawn-encampments bring the lurking memories Of Egypt and of Burma and the shores of China Seas. The Path that leads to Nowhere. [Corinne Roosevelt Robinson] There's a path that leads to Nowhere In a meadow that I know, Where an inland island rises And the stream is still and slow; There it wanders under willows And beneath the silver green Of the birches' silent shadows Where the early violets lean. Other pathways lead to Somewhere, But the one I love so well Had no end and no beginning -- Just the beauty of the dell, Just the windflowers and the lilies Yellow striped as adder's tongue, Seem to satisfy my pathway As it winds their sweets among. There I go to meet the Springtime, When the meadow is aglow, Marigolds amid the marshes, -- And the stream is still and slow. -- There I find my fair oasis, And with care-free feet I tread For the pathway leads to Nowhere, And the blue is overhead! All the ways that lead to Somewhere Echo with the hurrying feet Of the Struggling and the Striving, But the way I find so sweet Bids me dream and bids me linger, Joy and Beauty are its goal, -- On the path that leads to Nowhere I have sometimes found my soul! Days. [Karle Wilson Baker] Some days my thoughts are just cocoons -- all cold, and dull, and blind, They hang from dripping branches in the grey woods of my mind; And other days they drift and shine -- such free and flying things! I find the gold-dust in my hair, left by their brushing wings. Ellis Park. [Helen Hoyt] Little park that I pass through, I carry off a piece of you Every morning hurrying down To my work-day in the town; Carry you for country there To make the city ways more fair. I take your trees, And your breeze, Your greenness, Your cleanness, Some of your shade, some of your sky, Some of your calm as I go by; Your flowers to trim The pavements grim; Your space for room in the jostled street And grass for carpet to my feet. Your fountains take and sweet bird calls To sing me from my office walls. All that I can see I carry off with me. But you never miss my theft, So much treasure you have left. As I find you, fresh at morning, So I find you, home returning -- Nothing lacking from your grace. All your riches wait in place For me to borrow On the morrow. Do you hear this praise of you, Little park that I pass through? A Note from the Pipes. [Leonora Speyer] Pan, blow your pipes and I will be Your fern, your pool, your dream, your tree! I heard you play, caught your swift eye, "A pretty melody!" called I, "Hail, Pan!" And sought to pass you by. Now blow your pipes and I will sing To your sure lips' accompanying! Wild God, who lifted me from earth, Who taught me freedom, wisdom, mirth, Immortalized my body's worth, -- Blow, blow your pipes! And from afar I'll come -- I'll be your bird, your star, Your wood, your nymph, your kiss, your rhyme, And all your godlike summer-time! Afternoon on a Hill. [Edna St. Vincent Millay] I will be the gladdest thing Under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers And not pick one. I will look at cliffs and clouds With quiet eyes, Watch the wind bow down the grass, And the grass rise. And when lights begin to show Up from the town, I will mark which must be mine, And then start down! Open Windows. [Sara Teasdale] Out of the window a sea of green trees Lift their soft boughs like the arms of a dancer; They beckon and call me, "Come out in the sun!" But I cannot answer. I am alone with Weakness and Pain, Sick abed and June is going, I cannot keep her, she hurries by With the silver-green of her garments blowing. Men and women pass in the street Glad of the shining sapphire weather, But we know more of it than they, Pain and I together. They are the runners in the sun, Breathless and blinded by the race, But we are watchers in the shade Who speak with Wonder face to face. Old Amaze. [Mahlon Leonard Fisher] Mine eyes are filled today with old amaze At mountains, and at meadows deftly strewn With bits of the gay jewelry of June And of her splendid vesture; and, agaze, I stand where Spring her bright brocade of days Embroidered o'er, and listen to the flow Of sudden runlets -- the faint blasts they blow, Low, on their stony bugles, in still ways. For wonders are at one, confederate yet: Yea, where the wearied year came to a close, An odor reminiscent of the rose; And everywhere her seal has Summer set; And, as of old, in the horizon-sky, The sun can find a lovely place to die. Voyage a l'Infini. [Walter Conrad Arensberg] The swan existing Is like a song with an accompaniment Imaginary. Across the grassy lake, Across the lake to the shadow of the willows, It is accompanied by an image, -- as by Debussy's "Reflets dans l'eau". The swan that is Reflects Upon the solitary water -- breast to breast With the duplicity: "~The other one!~" And breast to breast it is confused. O visionary wedding! O stateliness of the procession! It is accompanied by the image of itself Alone. At night The lake is a wide silence, Without imagination. After Sunset. [Grace Hazard Conkling] I have an understanding with the hills At evening when the slanted radiance fills Their hollows, and the great winds let them be, And they are quiet and look down at me. Oh, then I see the patience in their eyes Out of the centuries that made them wise. They lend me hoarded memory and I learn Their thoughts of granite and their whims of fern, And why a dream of forests must endure Though every tree be slain: and how the pure, Invisible beauty has a word so brief A flower can say it or a shaken leaf, But few may ever snare it in a song, Though for the quest a life is not too long. When the blue hills grow tender, when they pull The twilight close with gesture beautiful, And shadows are their garments, and the air Deepens, and the wild veery is at prayer, -- Their arms are strong around me; and I know That somehow I shall follow when you go To the still land beyond the evening star, Where everlasting hills and valleys are: And silence may not hurt us any more, And terror shall be past, and grief, and war. Morning Song of Senlin. [Conrad Aiken] It is morning, Senlin says, and in the morning When the light drips through the shutters like the dew, I arise, I face the sunrise, And do the things my fathers learned to do. Stars in the purple dusk above the rooftops Pale in a saffron mist and seem to die, And I myself on a swiftly tilting planet Stand before a glass and tie my tie. Vine leaves tap my window, Dew-drops sing to the garden stones, The robin chirps in the chinaberry tree Repeating three clear tones. It is morning. I stand by the mirror And tie my tie once more. While waves far off in a pale rose twilight Crash on a white sand shore. I stand by a mirror and comb my hair: How small and white my face! -- The green earth tilts through a sphere of air And bathes in a flame of space. There are houses hanging above the stars And stars hung under a sea . . . And a sun far off in a shell of silence Dapples my walls for me . . . It is morning, Senlin says, and in the morning Should I not pause in the light to remember God? Upright and firm I stand on a star unstable, He is immense and lonely as a cloud. I will dedicate this moment before my mirror To him alone, for him I will comb my hair. Accept these humble offerings, cloud of silence! I will think of you as I descend the stair. Vine leaves tap my window, The snail-track shines on the stones, Dew-drops flash from the chinaberry tree Repeating two clear tones. It is morning, I awake from a bed of silence, Shining I rise from the starless waters of sleep. The walls are about me still as in the evening, I am the same, and the same name still I keep. The earth revolves with me, yet makes no motion, The stars pale silently in a coral sky. In a whistling void I stand before my mirror, Unconcerned, and tie my tie. There are horses neighing on far-off hills Tossing their long white manes, And mountains flash in the rose-white dusk, Their shoulders black with rains . . . It is morning. I stand by the mirror And surprise my soul once more; The blue air rushes above my ceiling, There are suns beneath my floor . . . . . . It is morning, Senlin says, I ascend from darkness And depart on the winds of space for I know not where, My watch is wound, a key is in my pocket, And the sky is darkened as I descend the stair. There are shadows across the windows, clouds in heaven, And a god among the stars; and I will go Thinking of him as I might think of daybreak And humming a tune I know . . . Vine-leaves tap at the window, Dew-drops sing to the garden stones, The robin chirps in the chinaberry tree Repeating three clear tones. Good Company. [Karle Wilson Baker] To-day I have grown taller from walking with the trees, The seven sister-poplars who go softly in a line; And I think my heart is whiter for its parley with a star That trembled out at nightfall and hung above the pine. The call-note of a redbird from the cedars in the dusk Woke his happy mate within me to an answer free and fine; And a sudden angel beckoned from a column of blue smoke -- ~Lord, who am I that they should stoop -- these holy folk of thine?~ "Feuerzauber". [Louis Untermeyer] I never knew the earth had so much gold -- The fields run over with it, and this hill, Hoary and old, Is young with buoyant blooms that flame and thrill. Such golden fires, such yellow -- lo, how good This spendthrift world, and what a lavish God -- This fringe of wood, Blazing with buttercup and goldenrod. You too, beloved, are changed. Again I see Your face grow mystical, as on that night You turned to me, And all the trembling world -- and you -- were white. Aye, you are touched; your singing lips grow dumb; The fields absorb you, color you entire . . . And you become A goddess standing in a world of fire! Birches. [Robert Frost] When I see birches bend to left and right Across the lines of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy's been swinging them. But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay. Ice-storms do that. Often you must have seen them Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning After a rain. They click upon themselves As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel. Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells, Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust -- Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen. They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load, And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed So low for long, they never right themselves: You may see their trunks arching in the woods Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair Before them over their heads to dry in the sun. But I was going to say when Truth broke in With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm (Now am I free to be poetical?) I should prefer to have some boy bend them As he went out and in to fetch the cows -- Some boy too far from town to learn baseball, Whose only play was what he found himself, Summer or winter, and could play alone. One by one he subdued his father's trees By riding them down over and over again Until he took the stiffness out of them, And not one but hung limp, not one was left For him to conquer. He learned all there was To learn about not launching out too soon And so not carrying the tree away Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise To the top branches, climbing carefully With the same pains you use to fill a cup Up to the brim, and even above the brim. Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish, Kicking his way down through the air to the ground. So was I once myself a swinger of birches. And so I dream of going back to be. It's when I'm weary of considerations, And life is too much like a pathless wood Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs Broken across it, and one eye is weeping From a twig's having lashed across it open. I'd like to get away from earth awhile And then come back to it and begin over. May no fate willfully misunderstand me And half grant what I wish and snatch me away Not to return. Earth's the right place for love: I don't know where it's likely to go better. I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree, And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk TOWARD heaven, till the tree could bear no more, But dipped its top and set me down again. That would be good both going and coming back. One could do worse than be a swinger of birches. Fifty Years Spent. [Maxwell Struthers Burt] Fifty years spent before I found me, Wind on my mouth and the taste of the rain, Where the great hills circled and swept around me And the torrents leapt to the mist-drenched plain; Ah, it was long this coming of me Back to the hills and the sounding sea. Ye who can go when so it tideth To fallow fields when the Spring is new, Finding the spirit that there abideth, Taking fill of the sun and the dew; Little ye know of the cross of the town And the small pale folk who go up and down. Fifty years spent before I found me A bank knee-deep with climbing rose, Saw, or had space to look around me, Knew how the apple buds and blows; And all the while that I thought me wise I walked as one with blinded eyes. Scarcely a lad who passes twenty But finds him a girl to balm his heart; Only I, who had work so plenty, Bade this loving keep apart: Once I saw a girl in a crowd, But I hushed my heart when it cried out aloud. City courts in January, -- City courts in wilted June, Often ye will catch and carry Echoes of some straying tune; Ah, but underneath the feet Echo stifles in a street. Fifty years spent, and what do they bring me? Now I can buy the meadow and hill: Where is the heart of the boy to sing thee? Where is the life for thy living to fill? And thirty years back in a city crowd I passed a girl when my heart cried loud! The City. [Charles Hanson Towne] When, sick of all the sorrow and distress That flourished in the City like foul weeds, I sought blue rivers and green, opulent meads, And leagues of unregarded loneliness Whereon no foot of man had seemed to press, I did not know how great had been my needs, How wise the woodland's gospels and her creeds, How good her faith to one long comfortless. But in the silence came a Voice to me; In every wind it murmured, and I knew It would not cease though far my heart might roam. It called me in the sunrise and the dew, At noon and twilight, sadly, hungrily, The jealous City, whispering always -- "Home!" The Most-Sacred Mountain. [Eunice Tietjens] Space, and the twelve clean winds of heaven, And this sharp exultation, like a cry, after the slow six thousand steps of climbing! This is Tai Shan, the beautiful, the most holy. Below my feet the foot-hills nestle, brown with flecks of green; and lower down the flat brown plain, the floor of earth, stretches away to blue infinity. Beside me in this airy space the temple roofs cut their slow curves against the sky, And one black bird circles above the void. Space, and the twelve clean winds are here; And with them broods eternity -- a swift, white peace, a presence manifest. The rhythm ceases here. Time has no place. This is the end that has no end. Here, when Confucius came, a half a thousand years before the Nazarene, he stepped, with me, thus into timelessness. The stone beside us waxes old, the carven stone that says: "On this spot once Confucius stood and felt the smallness of the world below." The stone grows old: Eternity is not for stones. But I shall go down from this airy place, this swift white peace, this stinging exultation. And time will close about me, and my soul stir to the rhythm of the daily round. Yet, having known, life will not press so close, and always I shall feel time ravel thin about me; For once I stood In the white windy presence of eternity. The Chant of the Colorado. [Cale Young Rice] (At the Grand Canyon) My brother, man, shapes him a plan And builds him a house in a day, But I have toiled through a million years For a home to last alway. I have flooded the sands and washed them down, I have cut through gneiss and granite. No toiler of earth has wrought as I, Since God's first breath began it. High mountain-buttes I have chiselled, to shade My wanderings to the sea. With the wind's aid, and the cloud's aid, Unweary and mighty and unafraid, I have bodied eternity. My brother, man, builds for a span: His life is a moment's breath. But I have hewn for a million years, Nor a moment dreamt of death. By moons and stars I have measured my task -- And some from the skies have perished: But ever I cut and flashed and foamed, As ever my aim I cherished: My aim to quarry the heart of earth, Till, in the rock's red rise, Its age and birth, through an awful girth Of strata, should show the wonder-worth Of patience to all eyes. My brother, man, builds as he can, And beauty he adds for his joy, But all the hues of sublimity My pinnacled walls employ. Slow shadows iris them all day long, And silvery veils, soul-stilling, The moon drops down their precipices, Soft with a spectral thrilling. For all immutable dreams that sway With beauty the earth and air, Are ever at play, by night and day, My house of eternity to array In visions ever fair. The Water Ouzel. [Harriet Monroe] Little brown surf-bather of the mountains! Spirit of foam, lover of cataracts, shaking your wings in falling waters! Have you no fear of the roar and rush when Nevada plunges -- Nevada, the shapely dancer, feeling her way with slim white fingers? How dare you dash at Yosemite the mighty -- Tall, white limbed Yosemite, leaping down, down over the cliff? Is it not enough to lean on the blue air of mountains? Is it not enough to rest with your mate at timberline, in bushes that hug the rocks? Must you fly through mad waters where the heaped-up granite breaks them? Must you batter your wings in the torrent? Must you plunge for life and death through the foam? Old Manuscript. [Alfred Kreymborg] The sky Is that beautiful old parchment In which the sun And the moon Keep their diary. To read it all, One must be a linguist More learned than Father Wisdom; And a visionary More clairvoyant than Mother Dream. But to feel it, One must be an apostle: One who is more than intimate In having been, always, The only confidant -- Like the earth Or the sky. The Runner in the Skies. [James Oppenheim] Who is the runner in the skies, With her blowing scarf of stars, And our Earth and sun hovering like bees about her blossoming heart? Her feet are on the winds, where space is deep, Her eyes are nebulous and veiled, She hurries through the night to a far lover. Evening Song of Senlin. [Conrad Aiken] It is moonlight. Alone in the silence I ascend my stairs once more, While waves, remote in a pale blue starlight, Crash on a white sand shore. It is moonlight. The garden is silent. I stand in my room alone. Across my wall, from the far-off moon, A rain of fire is thrown . . . There are houses hanging above the stars, And stars hung under a sea: And a wind from the long blue vault of time Waves my curtains for me . . . I wait in the dark once more, Swung between space and space: Before my mirror I lift my hands And face my remembered face. Is it I who stand in a question here, Asking to know my name? . . . It is I, yet I know not whither I go, Nor why, nor whence I came. It is I, who awoke at dawn And arose and descended the stair, Conceiving a god in the eye of the sun, -- In a woman's hands and hair. It is I whose flesh is grey with the stones I builded into a wall: With a mournful melody in my brain Of a tune I cannot recall . . . There are roses to kiss: and mouths to kiss; And the sharp-pained shadow of death. I remember a rain-drop on my cheek, -- A wind like a fragrant breath . . . And the star I laugh on tilts through heaven; And the heavens are dark and steep . . . I will forget these things once more In the silence of sleep. A Thrush in the Moonlight. [Witter Bynner] In came the moon and covered me with wonder, Touched me and was near me and made me very still. In came a rush of song, like rain after thunder, Pouring importunate on my window-sill. I lowered my head, I hid it, I would not see nor hear, The birdsong had stricken me, had brought the moon too near. But when I dared to lift my head, night began to fill With singing in the darkness. And then the thrush grew still. And the moon came in, and silence, on my window-sill. Orchard. [H. D.] I saw the first pear As it fell -- The honey-seeking, golden-banded, The yellow swarm Was not more fleet than I, (Spare us from loveliness) And I fell prostrate Crying: You have flayed us With your blossoms, Spare us the beauty Of fruit-trees. The honey-seeking Paused not, The air thundered their song, And I alone was prostrate. O rough-hewn God of the orchard, I bring you an offering -- Do you, alone unbeautiful, Son of the god, Spare us from loveliness: These fallen hazel-nuts, Stripped late of their green sheaths, Grapes, red-purple, Their berries Dripping with wine, Pomegranates already broken, And shrunken figs And quinces untouched, I bring you as offering. Heat. [H. D.] O wind, rend open the heat, Cut apart the heat, Rend it to tatters. Fruit cannot drop Through this thick air -- Fruit cannot fall into heat That presses up and blunts The points of pears And rounds the grapes. Cut the heat -- Plough through it, Turning it on either side Of your path. Madonna of the Evening Flowers. [Amy Lowell] All day long I have been working, Now I am tired. I call: "Where are you?" But there is only the oak tree rustling in the wind. The house is very quiet, The sun shines in on your books, On your scissors and thimble just put down, But you are not there. Suddenly I am lonely: Where are you? I go about searching. Then I see you, Standing under a spire of pale blue larkspur, With a basket of roses on your arm. You are cool, like silver, And you smile. I think the Canterbury bells are playing little tunes. You tell me that the peonies need spraying, That the columbines have overrun all bounds, That the pyrus japonica should be cut back and rounded. You tell me these things. But I look at you, heart of silver, White heart-flame of polished silver, Burning beneath the blue steeples of the larkspur. And I long to kneel instantly at your feet, While all about us peal the loud, sweet `Te Deums' of the Canterbury bells. The New God. [James Oppenheim] Ye morning-glories, ring in the gale your bells, And with dew water the walk's dust for the burden-bearing ants: Ye swinging spears of the larkspur, open your wells of gold And pay your honey-tax to the hummingbird . . . O now I see by the opening of blossoms,
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