Thoughts in verse for my friends
Bonus, John, 1828-1909
r ■)fM.'mma>smjV!»mscMd<mtm!iiMimwmaimijiimmimmsmm ni-iii'' "'i' ifornia >nal u^jUA*3iW> •«]k..i< .-s;L/-4:*^7».t tv,-v^=*> ii. jK^fflij ■ ' ' -■-■*-- i|»|iiii-i ri ' "' '"'i" ••" '^•' THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES Thoughts in Verse John Bonus, 1828-1909 Thoughts in Verse FOR MY FRIENDS John Bonus, d.ph. et litt. PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 39, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON FOURTH AVENUE AND 30TH STREET, NEW YORK BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS I9I4 [Cofiyrii'he] PRINTED BY BEMROSE AND SONS LIMITED DERBY AND LONDON / / n 3 u •5S"t To My Mother 960?^« NOTE OWING TO THE DEATH OF THE AUTHOR, DECEMBER i6tH, IQCQ, THESE POEMS LACK HIS FINAL REVISION CONTENTS PAGE Felixstowe i Glycine 4 Spring 7 A Contribution to a Schoolgirl's Album - - 8 To A Lady 9 Fragment 12 Good-bye ...---.. 14 Hypermnestra 15 Night 16 An Ideal 17 Chrysis Bodiless ...... 20 Amors Pfeil 24 A Coy Maiden 25 May 27 Evensong 31 No Cure for Love 33 The Lawn, Felixstowe FELIXSTOWE Above my lawns at Felixstowe His giant arms the cedar flings; And circling doves delight to show The gleam and glitter of their wings. And all the air it seems astir With nature's merry rustic din, The bees' deep hum, the chafer's whirr, And all the beetles' kith and km. And scented lilies lift anear To merry bees and butterflies, Their chalices of nectar clear That in their fragrant bosom lies. THOUGHTS IN VERSE And oft the comet swallow darts Athwart the orbit of the dove; And every bush hides little hearts That beat for joy, that beat for love. Ah ! sacred love, no heart so small, No heart so big in sea or shore, But thou dost find a place in all, And thou wilt fill it flowing o'er. Sweet is the scene, the sights, the sounds And memories that come back to rne — Fond memories from yonder mounds Around the sheltering cedar tree. For these show buried 'neath the sod, From earthly vesture now set free, Whose lives, if gathered up in God, Part not from mine, part not from me. FELIXSTOWE But not so far lies Devachan, But we may swing those gates at will, And find in the eternal plan That love dies not, but lives on still. THOUGHTS IN VERSE GLYCINE When sunder'd still by evil fate From sweet Glycine's eyes, What music heard can lift the weight Dull on my heart that lies, Or point a solace save to hate All thmgs the happier prize ! They tell me that with bird and flower The woodland walk is gay : I'll rather seek some gloomy bower, Some songless, bloomless way : Glycine's only was the power That lent the charm to day. B GLYCINE They tell me that the cheer is good, And bright the precious wine : Ah ! strew with ashes all my food, And 611 my cup with brine ! Glycine is the meat I would — Glycine is the wine. They tell me that with pleasant lawn The yielding couch is spread : Ah ! scatter me of reedy awn Some miserable bed ! I care not where, Glycine gone, I fling my sleepless head. For ah ! without Glycine seems Still nought in all the earth, No light in beams, no voice in streams, No merriment in mirth ; In work no pleasure that redeems. Nor life the living worth. THOUGHTS IN VERSE All desolate are all the days That are of love foregone; All wearisome are all the ways That are of love forlorn; While love alone will still atone All other loss or scorn. SPRING SPRING Once more returns the merry May, The early sun, the lengthenmg day, The lark's inspiring hymn; The blossom on the cherry spray. The fragrant breath of new -mown hay, The scented thorn, the lilac bloom. The bees, the chafer's merry tune. 8 THOUGHTS IN VERSE A CONTRIBUTION TO A SCHOOLGIRL'S ALBUM An Album ; 'tis a book to fill, Not thinking lonely by one's self, But garnering the thoughtful pelf. With aid from many a friendly quill, A moral for the spirit's health. With thoughts of others fill life's page, And thou shalt find in later age, Thou'st got thyself a mine of wealth. TO A LADY TO A LADY Faithless ! ah no ! 'twere sure unreason Upon thy lips such words should rise; Nor might'st thou tax the heart with treason, For mere defect of failing eyes. Faithless ! ah no ! 'twere sad misnaming- Harshly to misconceit of sight : I count me blameless for disclaiming Sentence so errant from the right. Paler they fall in life's November Than erst in June the sunbeams shined — Then heed not this, but still remember How Eros' self is symboled blind. lO THOUGHTS IN VERSE Nor time alone the eyes has wrinkled, But many a ciphered secret scanned : I must not mourn their day night-sprinkled Since, by divine Urania's hand. 'Tis not the real but the seeming Deceitful meets the cheated view; And only through the mind's redeeming. Own we true conscience of the true. Fancy will still, so sings the poet. From softer glances frequent rise : Fancy, tho' fancy may not know it, Is still " begotten in the eyes." Light are such loves, all fleeting, shifting. Quick glancing, cloud-shade on the seas, All mist-like, lifting, rifting, drifting With the quick shifting of the breeze. TO A LADY II Full deeper springs the lasting passion; Nought reckons of so light control Another birth lends other fashion To loves begotten in the soul. In prayer's still hush, and in the revel And perfect ecstasy of thought, How vainly at the eye's poor level Were the ideal vision sought. And ah ! when to the long-sought meeting, At last that comes, each lover flies — Heart pressed on heart, responsive beating. For, utter joy seals up the eyes. 12 THOUGHTS IN VERSE FRAGMENT And well you knew, if you had seen Her radiant face of sweet goodwill, All other lives her life had been And good of others sought she still. Ah ! sad their fate for self who live, For self their flitting hours employ, Nor know how sweet the joy to give To other hearts the gift of joy. Alas ! for each dear heart that breaks With pity for all things distressed; Nor fends the fate that overtakes The guileless as the guiltiest. FRAGMENT 1 3 Nor guilt nor innocence are known To Herther's stern unconscious laws, That never yet have mercy shown To pleading of the holiest cause. Alas ! yet more, if there are such As feel no part in alien pain; And oh ! alas for who would clutch From others' hurt some hideous gain. 14 THOUGHTS IN VERSE GOOD-BYE Farewell ! Good fortune shepherd you, From perils safe, from troubles free. Ah ! sometimes think on those you knew Beside this Northern sea ! Your footsteps on the hill we'll trace, And sigh to think you far away; And oft we'll gaze on yonder place, And mourn your too short stay. And to that Power whose mandate stern Has doomed your journey, we will pray To make us blest by your return, Perchance, some happy day ! HYPERMNESTRA 1 5 HYPERMNESTRA " Una de multis." Horace, lii. 11. One of the many, only she Worthy to feel the sacred fire, Broke, ah ! how rightly, Love, for thee The oath sworn to her treacherous sire : And evermore the roll of fame Keeps record of her splendid blame. " Rise and away, Love ! Gods ! how hard The fate that wrests such word from me ! " Still Night's kind shadows lend a guard, Sweet Venus shields thee, danger-free! Long days afar, trac'd on thine urn, My name let lesser mourners learn. l6 THOUGHTS IN VERSE NIGHT (A Fragment) norvia iroivta vv^ Eurip., "Orestes," 174. The grander secret of her story, In veils of daylight, nature seals; But in the night's transcendent glory. To who can reason, all reveals. AN IDEAL 17 AN IDEAL On earth beneath, in heaven above, What shall I liken to my love? Yon sunlit vault is not so blue As are her eyes, and not so true; And not so full the star-strewn sky Of magic and of mystery. And like a wind-sown bank of snow, The untroubled lustre of her brow: — Such stainless whiteness nowhere sleeps Pentelicus, within thy steeps; Nor, Phidias, needs thy chisel's pains. For native there idea reigns. l8 THOUGHTS IN VERSE Her nostrils' curves are lily leaves, And lily breath the breath she breathes; The crimson rose bloom of the South Were colour-reft beside her mouth, That brims with nectar which the bee Has never found on down or lea. Her temple's arch soft tresses furl, Nor veil her ears of curving pearl : Beyond the sculptor's subtlest art To counterfeit their smallest part : And coral fronds from Eastern seas Were dusky hued when set by these. Round Sardis' marble towers of old Pactolus poured his floods of gold : So rises fair her stately throat, Mid golden waves that round it float, But hide beneath their curving crests The richer wonder of her breasts. AN IDEAL 19 Beneath the zone that girds her round I seem to hear a wondrous sound, As though a rustle of soft wings Sang of all sweet and holy things — Sang of some paradise of bliss : And ah ! no fabled Eden this. 20 THOUGHTS IN VERSE CHRYSIS BODILESS One autumn day beneath the vine I sat, and Chrysis at my side; I read a trouble in her eyne, She scarcely seemed to care to hide. " And tell me," presently she said, ' And tell me without fear or ruth ; For I must know " — and here she laid Her hand on mine — ' must know the truth. " Sometimes I fear — forgive the sin — It is this form you love. Confess! But do you love myself within; And would you love me bodiless ? " CHRYSIS BODILESS 21 Chrysis divest of form ! And so I thought: Ah! me, poor puzzled elf! And so the Chrysis that I know, Could be some other in herself ! That golden hair, of life so full — (I fondly thought it Chrysis' hair) : It might be then just silk or wool, For all there is of Chrysis there. Those thoughtful eyes so fond, so true, (I strangely thought them Chrysis' eyes), Might be mere beads of Turkey blue : Not there the soul of Chrysis lies. Those arms, those hands whose clasp, whose touch Set every chord within my frame Athrill in music, are but such As waxen effigies might claim ! 22 THOUGHTS IN VERSE Alas ! for Chrysis has no touch, No eyes, no lips, no breasts, no hair, No arms, no hands, no feet, nor such A thing at all as what or where ! A certain step I used to know. Gave signal sure of Chrysis near : Ah ! me, it could not have been so — A mere illusion of the ear ! There was a voice I surely heard. Or seemed to hear its passing note : Perchance it was some wandering bird — For Chrysis has no voice or throat. So what did mean the Lord's appeal. In that old Tale on yonder shelf. Who bade those doubters touch and feel, For full assurance 'twas Himself? CHRYSIS BODILESS 23 Illusion merely ? Just a dream ? A vision from the phantom shore ? — Return, sweet dream ! Ah ! let her seem Chrysis' ovv^n self as heretofore. 24 THOUGHTS IN VERSE AMORS PFEIL Burger. Eros' dart is barb'd full wide: Should it strike thee, let it bide, Patient bear the gentler smart ! Counsel sure who dares despise. And to draw Love's arrows tries, Will but piecemeal rend his heart. A COY MAIDEN 25 ANACREON A Coy Maiden TTwXe OprjKi'rf il hr] fte Ah ! why wilt thus mistrustful fear me, Art some wild Thracian filly ? say : Why glance askance, should I come near thee, And toss thy head, and bound away ? Yet, could I once lay hand upon thee, Be sure I'd know to change the case; Soon would I have a bridle on thee, And in that mouth a bit I'd place. Then vaulting o'er thy side, I'd make thee Feel in that flank the spur's keen force: What joy, my pretty one, to take thee A merry gallop o'er the course ! 26 THOUGHTS IN VERSE Still crop the scented herb beside thee, And prance the turf in gay career, Disdainful ! Soon there will bestride thee, Trust me, some gallant cavalier. MAY 27 MAY Haste, Zephyr, haste and bring, Beneath thy sheltering wing, Thy store of sweets, and fling Flowers everywhere. Sweet speedwell, ever new; The violet's deeper blue, An emblem sweet and true; The gentian fair. Primrose and pimpernel. And jacinth and jonquil. Crocus and daffodil With golden hair. *^ THOUGHTS IN VERSE Whisper love-kindling breeze Amid the budding trees! And call the drowsy bees To the sunny air. Whisper the butterflies, And ope their darkened eyes, And bid them wake, and rise From wintry graves. And who yet cannot fly. Creepers, who by and by Shall also cleave the sky, The call obey. Forsake, ye swallow bands, Yon distant yellow sands, And spread your gleaming fans For Britain's shore. MAY 29 Ye plumy pilgrims all, Hark to the spring's recall : Spring breaks the wintry thrall, Supreme once more. But ah ! ye must not wait Skylarks, ye laggards late; Soar to the heavenly gate And pour your strain : Sing the grim winter dead ; Sing that his reign of dread Is past and that his dead Live yet again. And horny moths of May Climb upwards to the day. The long and toilsome way, Poor buried things. 30 THOUGHTS IN VERSE How must you long to try, Freed from the earthly sty, Athwart the liquid sky, Unfolded wings. Come forth, ye sleepy things, Whether on feet or wings, Fill with soft mutterings Or earth or air. The Queen of love and joy Means you so sweet employ, That will not tire or cloy Through all the May. EVENSONG 31 EVENSONG The day is gone : the sun's last ray In splendour sinks along the shore, As speeds the earth her gladsome way, Through night, through day, for evermore. Ye far-off suns, ye moons afar, Shed over us your rays' soft light, And banish all that seeks to mar The healing silence of the night. All those who doubt, who fear, who mourn, In peril of the land or sea. Or friend forsaken or forlorn, May find tranquillity m thee. 32 THOUGHTS IN VERSE Or, tempest-Stricken, bid them hear, Through storm's re-echo heaven borne, Eternal music deep and clear, Peace speaking to the anguish-torn. Sweet Hope, descend on pinions strong. With consolation from on high, With story of the countless throng Of pilgrims passed beyond the sky. Renew in me a purer will, And make my sense-spent spirit whole. Life's purpose fitly to fulfil, Through onward striving of the soul. NO CURE FOR LOVE 33 NO CURE FOR LOVE Hei mihi, quod nullis amor est medicabilis herbis. Ovid, "Met.," i. 523. Alas ! — the old-time poet sighed — There still should be no cure for love; No flower in all the valleys wide, No herb upon the mountain side Or snow-clad height above. No juice distilled from rarest trees, Nor gem aglow with mystic fire. Nor agate pure from purple seas, Nor shell in all the depth of these To charm the long desire. 34 THOUGHTS IN VERSE No secret spring, no silent grove, No cavern in the rocky waste, Where in the gloom huge monsters move, Where the grim lion wonts to rove And seek his horrid feast : No, none of these has ever yet Proved antidote or amulet. In vain the smitten man has prayed. And all in vain the heart-sick maid Has fast and vigil kept. FRAGMENT 35 FRAGMENT Thus when the stars of purple even Shall shield us, love, from other eyes; Reveal for me that nearer heaven. Where thy dear heart, my pole-star, lies. 36 THOUGHTS IN VERSE LINES IN PRAISE OF NATURE'S MOODS It is the noon, it is the night, The even, and the dawn, The towering crag, the snow-crowned height, The lowly mead and lawn. There laughs the mirth of May, there hiss The shafts of winter's breath; There clings the lovers' eager kiss. There chills the clutch of death. There spreads the Arctic ice, and there Rise up those fairy isles, Palm-crowned and coral-belted, where Eternal summer smiles. LINES IN PRAISE OF NATURE S MOODS 37 There lightnings flash and thunders roar, The awful storm-cloud lowers; And there the songs of love's sweet lore, Float soft from Eastern bowers. I hear the careless laugh of health, The mournful cry of pain; Swift steps that show of youth and wealth. Slow steps which age sustain. All nature's moods are fair and good, E'en when they seem to err. Seek not to change them, if you could. But live at one with her. 38 THOUGHTS IN VERSE TO MURIEL WITH A BASKET OF APPLES FROM A TREE SHE ADMIRED Take then these apples, maiden, bringing Just a simple sing-song rhyme; For apples have been linked with singing Since the long past of fairy time. Since the far wonder days, when Cheri Fruit of his adventurous toil Brought one to that matchless Peri, Princess Fair-Star, Belle-Etoile. Fear not these the kmd forbidden By dread Javeh's stern decree : Coils no guileful serpent hidden On the branches of my tree. TO MURIEL 39 Nor yet the kind which harsh Dissension Tossed once the immortal guests between, Fateful of that fierce pretension, So woe-fraught for the pearl-shod queen. Ah ! better if he ne'er had sought them, The toil-worn hero Heracles, Nor yet for need so dire had brought them From dragon ward o'er storm-swept seas : A traitor stock that once had tempted The unconquered Calydonian maid, And from love's fetters long exempted Those so swift glancing ankles stayed. These may'st thou eat without suspecting Istkahar's vain, unseemly cheat. With bitterness the halves infecting Of pulps that promised only sweet. 40 THOUGHTS IN VERSE Or such as Siddim yields, blight-smitten : Pass we the story with a sigh, As once the Tuscan seer was bidden The caitiff throng pass silent by. Would these had been divinely grafted — If graceful legends speak in sooth — Like that Amrita stock that wafted Incense of ever during youth. Or those in northern Edens growing, Great Odin's charge to Bragi's wife, On each immortal dame bestowing Unfading loveliness and life. No fruit are mine of mystic planting, Yet claim to own a secret wealth, A gracious boon of heavenly granting, I mean, believe it, maiden, health. FOR MY sister's WEDDING DAY 4 1 WRITTEN IN "BURTON'S ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLLY," FOR MY SISTER'S WEDDING DAY My wallet is ready to take, What gift shall I put in for you ? Any bauble, I fear me, would break, Bought for shillings, as mine are so few. And the shop rubbish is so profuse, Such a litter around me I see — Toys for play, toys for use and no use : Had I gold, 'twere too puzzling for me. Some volume that on my shelf lies — Ah ! there is a far better thought : Who weds with a scholar should prize Any work which a scholar has wrought 42 THOUGHTS IN VERSE Here is one which is next to my side, My touch lingers yet on its page; I will carry this down for our bride; 'Tis the work of a priest and a sage. Start not at the strange chosen text, As its title the cover unfurls; What matter what bobbin comes next For stringmg a chaplet of pearls? Remember the playwright who told How, who the sweet lady would wed, Passed lightly by silver and gold, And found better treasure instead. Is the magic less strange, or less fair Beneath the dull furrow that lies, Than the cloud-woven Alps of the air, Or the breaking of dawn in the skies ? FOR MY sister's WEDDING DAY 43 Come, Burton, 'tis time we were hence; Sweet Emily's book you shall be : Midst your pages of wit and good sense, Let this one bring remembrance of me. January 5th, 1871. 44 THOUGHTS IN VERSE THE OATH Les Chansons de Bilitis. P. Louys. When backward to the mountain snow The stream its course repeals, When men in ocean's furrows sow The harvest of their fields, When springs the pine from the lagoon, The lotus floats on stone, Grows dark the sun, and fades the moon From yonder star-lit zone : Ah ! then, my sweet, but not till then False to thy love I'll prove! This — this, he swore, would happen when He e'er knew other love ! THE OATH 45 All else for me's a broken toy, Or human or divine : Where dost thou hide, insensate joy. That dar'st compare with mine? 46 THOUGHTS IN VERSE THE QUESTION You ask me, Chrysis, why, before The break of early day, I'm known to pace the lonely shore, Or silent wood-side way, And what the gain I count to reap, In cheating thus the claims of sleep ? But what so lonely as his couch Who lies thereon unwed, And comfortless must nightly crouch Sad in a widow'd bed, And toss him restless in despair, And vainly clasp the vacant air ? THE QUESTION 47 Ah ! were it mine this head to lay On Chrysis' fragrant breast, The lonely shore, the silent way, Would miss their pensive guest; For nevermore would break of day Beguile him from that rest. 48 THOUGHTS IN VERSE APOPHTHEGM Ah ! true the word in every age, Erst spoken by the Athenian sage : Or life, or death the happier, known Is this, be sure, to God alone. VICTORIA 49 VICTORIA From the Greek of Dr. J . G. Carageorgiades. Fling open the Pantheon ! Hark ! The chaunt of solemn verse; Another nation comes, Great Queen, To strew with wreaths thy hearse ! But deathless lives thy memory on, And ages still will see The grandeur of a mighty race. Empress, enthroned in thee. Free peoples, slaves but yesterday. How many bless thy name ! And through all time, Victoria, Will, jealous, guard thy fame. 50 THOUGHTS IN VERSE Britons and Hellenes both — Great Queen, How great the debt we owe ! Sweet debt of love and gratitude; Ah ! well we Hellenes know ! Say then, Ionian cygnet isles, And thou, Thessalian strand, Her yearning thought for us, for thee, Ill-fated Fatherland! And ye, fair shores redeem'd, where once Ruled Minos just and wise, And storied Ida veils supreme Her beauty with the skies ! VICTORIA 51 Yes ! to our race she ever gave, Outstretched, a friendly hand; And for worse fortune kindlier still, With wiser counsels plann'd At last to set fair Hellas free From the detested yoke : — Her heart was ever Christ's, and filled With love for Christian folk. 'Tis ever born in royal souls To play a royal part; For noble deeds have ever proved True royalty of heart. 52 THOUGHTS IN VERSE Grand heart, and wide of sympathy, As was her sceptre's sway; No whiter soul of woman yet Has winged the heavenward way. Fling open the Pantheon gates — While o'er her coffin's home Two meeting ages build in time A time-outlasting dome. Fling open the Pantheon gates ! And chaunt the solemn verse : Sad Hellas claims her part and place, Great Queen, beside thy hearse. THE CORONATION OF KING EDWARD VII. 53 THE CORONATION OF KING EDWARD VII. From the Greek of Dr. J. G. Carageorgiades. Hellenes, pluck the sacred laurel Of a country, whence the flame, First of freedom and of glory, To all other races came ! Laurel crown for him whom Britain, Glorious Britain, crowns her king, Freedom's child, and, m his cradle Fann'd asleep by Freedom's wing. Dreaming baby dreams of greatness — Augury of glorious lot. One sweet Presence ever mingling In the visions of that cot. 54 THOUGHTS IN VERSE Pluck the branch of Delphic laurel From Parnassus' sacred hill ; Crown the king, the mighty-hearted, Who shall all our hopes fulfil. Faithful son of his great Mother, Our true champion he shall prove; Heir of all that Mother's wisdom. Steadfast purpose, constant love. Light the torch before his picture : Never shall its brightness dim ! As the rays illume his image — Kingly glory rest on him ! THE CORONATION OF KING EDWARD VII. 55 Royal is his heart and noble, As free England's noble race — England where the faith of freedom Lifts each brow and lights each face ! Faith in self — the free man's charter, Faith in God and heaven above, Sacred faith of Christ, and sacred Manna-dew of Christian love. There the heart-pulse of his people, Beat responsive still shall know; Thence affection, sympathetic, Balm-like o'er all hearts shall flow. 56 THOUGHTS IN VERSE Twine the laurel — wreaths of laurel — As for champions who have stood In the forefront of the battle, Fighting for the right and good ! Crown with bays the royal Chieftain, Leader of the generous race, Which has still befriended Hellas Striving for her ancient place. May this crowning haste the crowning Of the hope we trust alway; Send new glory to the story Of the Monarch crowned to-day. ANNA (BONUS) KINGSFORD 57 ANNA (BONUS) KINGSFORD. NACHRUF From the German of Dr. Aderholt. Rich were heaven's gifts to thee: a body wrought Of gracious beauty and enduring youth; A mind to reach the highest realms of thought, And fire these shadows with the flame of truth. A heart with all-enduring love endued, All creatures drawmg still to thy caress, Aglow with longmg for that world renewed, Where all shall share one common happmess. Ah ! 'twas thy zeal of love, thy zeal of light, Which sped too well the messenger divine. And lent sad swiftness to his sable wings : — Yet full and age-enduring ever shine Their records, hallowed spirit, who so fight Such glorious battle 'gainst all evil things. 58 THOUGHTS IN VERSE SONG OF THE SIRENS From the German of C. Rozencrantz's, " Chymische Hochzeit. There's nothing better here below Than love. By love we like to God may grow, And hurt none. What was it that at first us made ? 'Twas love. And what beside hath grace bestowed, Save love ? What was it to be most forlorn ? Sans love. SONG OF THE SIRENS 59 Who was it that us first conceived? 'Twas love. Who suckled, nursed, and pain relieved? Ah ! love. What do we to our parents owe? 'Tis love. Why do they us such kindness show? From love. Who ever gets the victory ? Ah ! love. Can love by quest e'er gotten be ? By love. How may a man good work perform ? Through love. Who into one can two transform ? Ah ! love. 6o THOUGHTS IN VERSE ETIAM MINIMA Ttt aadevTj tov Koafiov e^eXe^aro 6 deo^ . .. Kai fa /HI] ovTn ivn rh ovja Kajap'-^Tjari, I Cor. i. 27, j8. Through all her wonder-woven scheme What subtle magic nature blends; While things the least we're wont to deem, She uses for the mightiest ends. A pebble on the mountain side That met the streamlet at its source, Avails a thousand miles to guide A mighty river's forward course. The clasping liane's slender aid Will hold aloof the threat'ning branch : A fragile fringe of weeds has stayed The ruin of an avalanche. ETIAM MINIMA 6 1 Within the tube one faulty thread Will send the death-bolt far aslant : And wisely spake he once, who said, That one frail hair of woman's head Might bind the giant elephant. Beneath the furrow's silent clay. The tender blade a pathway cleaves; Soon crumble the dark clods away — Lo ! in their stead the golden sheaves. Unseen beneath the purple tides. The little polyps' work is done Awhile, and lo ! the wave divides, And coral islets see the sun ! The drifting sea-wrack finds reprieve; Glad billows land their far-borne spoil; And winds and sunbeams softly weave The crumbling ruin mto soil. 62 THOUGHTS IN VERSE There folds the ocean bird her wing, And, all unconscious of her deed. Within the margin's glittering ring Sets with her foot its freight of seed. And soon the graceful palm uplifts. To meet the winds, her magic fans, And o'er the shadowed surface sifts The life-germs from a hundred lands. But life is love : and thus again. As once on Hellas' storied shore, Love rises radiant from the main, To reign, to bless for evermore. CARITAS 63 CARITAS 1 Cor. xiii. What though all knowledge I could claim Of things on earth or things above; Or forfeited, the poor to feed, My whole resource; or were there need, Gave up my life amid the flame, If still I knew not love ? What though my tongue were skilled to move The heart of nations; yea, and though My words as angels' speech should flow, If yet I had not love? What though I travelled every land, And every sacred art had scanned, And knew the universe how planned, But had not learnt to love? 64 THOUGHTS IN VERSE What though my power all else surpassed; What though my faith availed to cast Far from its base yon mountain vast, And yet I wanted love ? Ah ! Faith may find a path untried ; And Hope sustain whate'er betide : Our chiefest trust and surest guide Is yet for ever Love. vENi creator! 65 VENI CREATOR ! Creative Spirit, come, descend ! Thy presence now vouchsafe to lend ! Come Thou and fill with grace divine Our human hearts, for these are Thine. The Saviour's promise still redeem, Supremest Gift of God supreme, Thou living Font of fire of love And sacred Unction from above. Sevenfold that gift Thou dost bestow; Thy touch as God's right hand we know Fulfil the promise prophet-sung. Lend utterance to the halting tongue. 60 THOUGHTS IN VERSE Illume our senses from above; Inspire our breasts with heavenly love ! And teach these hearts to bear elate The trials of our mortal state. Father ! to Thee, supreme, adored ; To Him Thy Son, our risen Lord, And holy Paraclete to Thee, Through all the ages glory be ! Amen. POST MORTEM 6-] POST MORTEM Of this be sure, my soul will shun The gravel bed, the prison tomb; Nor shall I linger in the gloom, When this brief earthly course is run. The corse may moulder in the sod. Or feed the greedy, wormy host, Or wither on some rocky coast — Man's spirit still fares forth with God. Fares forth with God; there is no death In other sense than change of mode; Yet break is none along the road Which leads me on, the Spirit saith. 68 THOUGHTS IN VERSE Perchance I shall not leave this earth, Far banished from its living sphere, But though unseen, be ever near This mother-planet of my birth. Then might you find me on the hill At even, in the western breeze, Which stirs and talks among the trees, And fills the soul with mystic thrill ; Or where the bracken, tall and strong. Drinks vigour from deep hidden springs; Or where the meads with wedding rings Are marked by dance of elfin throng ; Or in the heather's waxen bells. Where seeks the bee her golden store, And, wise in nature's wondrous lore, Seals safely in her silver cells ; POST MORTEM 69 Or in the lily's Eden bloom, Or the sweet bosom of the rose; Or where in golden sunlight glows The flaming flower of gorse and broom ; Or by the river's whispering reeds, Or where, with dreadful battle shock, Upon the still defiant rock The billows urge their foaming steeds. — Fares forth with God : so is my faith, Though life for ever changes mode; There is no break upon the road Which leads on past the gates of death. 70 THOUGHTS IN VERSE SENT WITH A BOOK A Book I neither bless nor ban, Yet worth some glance, I trust : Sift out the wheaty grain, and fan, Fan forth the chaff and dust. THE INNOCENTS 71 THE INNOCENTS (By Anna [Bonus] Kingsford, see Note 15). Written at the age of 14. Within a simple cot beside Her father's widow'd bed, A little maiden sat and cried Alone, for he was dead. Save that one friend, consoler meet. Remained to share her lot, A lamb, which with his plaintive bleat Fill'd all the little cot. A stranger there her sire had died. And strangers came and laid His dust beneath the sod, and tried To soothe the orphan maid. 72 THOUGHTS IN VERSE But seeing comfort she would not, Save from the lambkin mild, Pitying, they left them in the cot Together — lamb and child. The lamb had been her father's gift. She loved it for his sake. And with it, day by day, would shift Some scanty meal to make. The lamb consoled her if she wept, And gambol'd if she smiled. And so, through all the spring, they kept Together — lamb and child. A glance but needed at the pair To see how like were they : Yet it might not so quick appear Wherein that likeness lay. THE INNOCENTS 73 Fair was her face, her shoeless feet, Dark like her eyes her hair; While sooty-faced, the lambkin sweet, And footed was, else fair. But it was when you gazed awhile, That something from within Bespoke the lambkin without guile. The maiden without sin. A patch of garden, trim and neat. Before the dwellmg lay; And there the flowers her sire had set Now blossomed, bright and gay. She offer'd nosegays on the road To such as went and came. And what they in return bestowed Fed her and fed her lamb. 74 THOUGHTS IN VERSE So summer passed across the land, With plenty in her train; Next autumn, with industrious hand, Piled up the yellow grain. But then came winter, grim and weird, With heavy step and slow, And hand of ice and grizzly beard, Distilling sleet and snow. His aspect fill'd the air with dread, And, like a scathing flame. His breath lick'd up the flowers that fed The maiden and her lamb. And so she left her summer home. She and the lambkin mild. Abroad in quest of alms to roam Together — lamb and child. THE INNOCENTS 75 Full oft she told her tale of woe To busy passers by; Few cared a hearing to bestow, Still fewer charity. And when three weary days were past, Nor bread she might obtain, Nor shelter from the icy blast. Which swept the wintry plain; Silent she wander'd, sorrowing, Across the cold white snow; Her little lamb still following With weary pace and slow. And so night found her, and she lay Upon the snow to rest : The little lamb, without dismay, Came and lay by her breast. 76 THOUGHTS IN VERSE The frozen day began to peep Athwart the landscape wild, But they slept on— and still they sleep Together — lamb and child. Ah ! thus thro' life may Innocence, Whatever ills betide. Be still my solace and defence. Nor ever quit my side. And though my death-couch none attend, May the all-severing dart Still fail to cleave that one sweet friend Asunder from my heart ! NOTES Note I, page 3. Devachan. The Hindoo equivalent for Paradise, or place of rest for the freed soul. Note 2, page 15. Hypermnestra. She was one of the fifty daughters of Danaus, and was married to Linceus, son of Aegyptus. Danaus had commanded his daughters to murder their husbands on the first night of their nuptials, but Hypermnestra was the only one who disobeyed him. She suffered her husband to escape. Note 3, page 18. Pactolus. A river of Lydia, which watered the city of Sardis. It was in this river that Midas washed himself when he turned into gold what- ever he touched. From this circumstance it ever after rolled golden sands in its stream. Note 4, page 38. Since the far wonder days, when Chert. See the tale of Princess Belle-Etoile and Prince Cheri, in the Countess D'Aulnoy's " Fairy Tales." 77 78 NOTES Note 5, page 39. Dissension. Discordia, the goddess of discord. When the nuptials of Peleus and Thetis were celebrated, she was not invited, and this seeming neglect so irritated her, that she threw an apple into the midst of the assembly of the gods, with the inscription, " detur pulchriori." This was the cause of the ruin of Troy, and of infinite misfortunes to the Greeks. Note 6, page 39. From dragon ward. It was one of the labours of Hercules to procure some of the golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides, which were guarded by a dragon which never slept. Note 7, page 39. The tinconquered Calydonian maid. Atalanta, who determined to live in perpetual celibacy. Her beauty, however, gained her many admirers, and to free herself from their importunities, she, being very swift-footed, proposed to run a race with them. She was to carry a dart in her hand. Her lovers were to start first, and whoever arrived at the goal before her would become her husband, but all those whom she overtook were to be killed with the dart with which she was armed. Many of her suitors perished in the attempt, till Hippomenes proposed himself as her admirer. Venus had given him three golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides, and as soon as he had started in the race, he threw down the apples at some distance the one from the other; and while Atalanta, charmed at the sight, stopped to pick them up, Hippomenes ran on, and arriving first at the goal, obtained Atalanta in marriage. Atalanta was present at the celebrated hunting of the Calydonian boar, which she was the first to wound. NOTES 79 Note 8, page 39. Istkahar's vain, unseemly cheat. Apples of Istkahar, said to be " all sweetness on one side and all bitterness on the other." Note 9, page 40. Siddim. In Genesis xiv. 3, " The vale of Siddim, which is the Salt Sea." This valley is supposed to have been near Sodom and the " cities of the plain." Josephus, in his " Wars of the Jews," iv. 8, 4, speaking of the Salt Sea, or Dead Sea, says : " The country of Sodom borders upon it. It was of old a most happy land, both for the fruits it bore and the riches of its cities, although it be now all burnt up . . . there are still the remainders of that divine fire, and the traces of the five cities are still to be seen, as well as the ashes growing in their fruits, which fruits have a colour as if they were fit to be eaten, but if you pluck them with your hands, they dissolve into smoke and ashes." Byron, " Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," iii. 34 : — " Like to the apples on the Dead Sea's shore. All ashes to the taste." Note 10, page 40. The Tuscan seer. Dante, " Inferno," iii. 51 (Longfellow's translation) : — " That caitiff choir Let us not speak of them, but look, and pass." Note II, page 40. Like that .-imrita stock. Amrita is the nectar which imparts immortality. Sir William Jones speaks of an apple so called, because it bestows immortality on those who partake of it. 80 NOTES Moore, " Lalla Rookh," " The Light of the Haram " :— " In short, all flowerets and all plants. From that divine Amrita tree, That blesses heaven's inhabitants With fruits of immortality." Note 12, page 40. Great Odin's charge to Braqi's wife. In Scandinavian mythology, Iduna, the wife of Bragi, was keeper of the golden apples, the eating of which preserved to the gods their eternal youth. Note 13, page 44. The Oath. Pierre Louys, a French poet and novelist, wrote in 1894 his " Les Chansons de BiUtis, roman lyrique," which purported to be a trans- lation from the Greek, and is a glorification of Sapphic love. Note 14, page 49. The elegy on the death of Queen Victoria and the Ode for the Coronation of King Edward were written in modern Greek by Dr. J. G. Carageorgiades, mayor or r/jfiapxcs of Limassol in Cyprus, and they were there chanted in church after the Doxology. The translations, in accordance with the author's own wishes, were pubhshed in the British Medical Journal. Note 15, page 57. Anna (Bonus) Kingsford. Annie Bonus, sister of the author, and youngest child of John and Elizabeth Anne Bonus, of Stratford, Essex, was born at Stratford, September i6th, 1846, and died in London, February 22nd, 1888. A remarkable personality even as a child, she wrote excellent poems and tales when still quite young. Of the former, one not elsewhere published is appended to this collection. She was married in 1867 to the Rev. A. Kingsford, and later studied medicine in Paris, taking there the degree of M.D. E. Maitland edited in two volumes, 1896, " Anna Kingsford: her Life, Letters, Diary, and Work." BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE The endeavour after Truth, the practice of Justice, these are the chief and constant occupations of the philosophic mind. For Dr. John Bonus, these were the chief aims of life; and as a consequence, the chief characteristics of his personality. Truth, if sincerely and bravely followed, at whatever cost, leads the seeker to those heights of serene thought where tolerance is possible, even towards persons whose disposition unfits them for any such upward climb. Thus it happened that he, after taking in his younger days a notable part in stormy controversies at Oxford, ended by exercising in later years a large tolerance 81 82 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE towards people of every variety of opinion. His warmest sympathies, however, were always reserved for those who had held to their creeds, or no-creeds, in face of the strongest opposition. In fact, what he demanded of his friends was, not that they should believe or disbelieve this, that or the other, but always that in whatever opinions they professed, they should be sincere. This is distinctly an exacting standard of choice in friendship : nevertheless, he possessed a large circle of friends, men widely differing in opinions from each other and from himself. To men like John Bonus, who refused m an age of narrowness and prejudice to accept conventional stan- dards of thought, the Oxford of the present and the Oxford of the future owe a deep debt of gratitude. When we remember that he left Oxford without receiving the degree which had been the object of his studies there, we are reminded that, as Browning tells us, " The high man, aiming at a million. Misses an unit." BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 83 In this case, however, the missing unit, in due time, was supplied by help of the University of Louvam, where he took his degree in 1857 as Doctor of Philosophy and Literature. With his studies there began one of his chief friendships, that with the famous comparative ana- tomist, St. George Mivart, to whom he afterwards acted as assistant and demonstrator. This friendship was terminated only by Mivart's death. Dominant in the character of Dr. Bonus, and con- stantly manifested in his life, was the ethical side of his philosophy. Justice, in its higher aspect, essentially involves Mercy — mercy towards the erring, the suffering, and the helpless. It was this aspect of justice which appealed most powerfully to the mind of John Bonus. This it was which inspired, during his hospital work, that kindly and gentle manner towards the outcasts of the London streets who were brought to him as patients, which' won the special notice and commendation of his medical teachers. This it was which inspired his interest in vegetarianism, m view of the sufferings of animals bred 84 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE and slaughtered for food. This it was that made him stand apart from the majority of medical and scientific workers as an anti-vivisectionist, and inspired his strong protests against experiments on animals. This also in private life inspired numberless acts of kindness which endeared him to those around him. In short, he was genuinely a lover of wisdom; and his philosophy was not a mere ornament of the intellect, it was the reality of a life. Dr. Bonus was the eldest son of a London merchant. The surname is of Italian origin. It is frequent in Italy at this day, and appears in history both in the Italian and in the Latin form. B. LINDSAY. university of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL L ^BARY FACIUT^ --uorANa°s:is;c^ro^NUU.i°i^ir^^ Form 1 AA 000 365 918 2 FR 4149 B9255t ■¥1 Univer Sou Lit. 