title: Shrines and shadows (one hundred short poems)
text: ■^vP^'' ^^'l* ^°% .- •^oV* -^AO? U.o« ^^q. • / *» y ^0^ i°-nf-. ♦ •. , ♦ <^^' r 1 1 to SHRINES AND SHADOWS Shrines and Shadows (One hundred short poems) BY JOHN ROLLIN STUART Boston The Four Seas Company 192 1 Copyright, iQ2i, by The Four Seas Company 5-^ ^s^^^^ The Four Seas Press Boston, Mass., U. S. A. JUL -9 '21 (5)CI.A617626 CONTENTS BOOK ONE The Mantle of Eros I. Let This Be My Nirvana ... . n II. The Minstrel to His Love . . 12 III. Our World a Boundless Place . 13 IV. We Walk, My Love and I . . 14 V. Life Shall Be Victory . . . 15 VI. Sufficiency 16 VII. Through Endless Eons ... .17 VIII. Until You Came 18 IX. The River of Peace 19 X. In Sacred Keeping 20 XL No Gale Our Harmony Shall Mar 21 XII. Sailing 22 XIII. Our Love Is Vindicated ... 23 XIV. Though You Walk Not Here . 24 XV. When Thou Art Gone .... 25 XVI. Parted 26 CONTENTS BOOK TWO Gifts of the Magi I. Venice at Night 29 II. Man and the Seasons .... 30 III. Of Friends 31 IV. My Fairyland 32 V. The Scripture of Summer . . 33 VI. What Bounty Gain 34 VII. Of Beautiful Things .... 35 VIII. Oxford 36 IX. At the Swimming-hole ... 37 X. Springtime Melody 38 XL Art 39 XII. Magdalen Tower at Oxford . . 40 XIII. Song in the Sunshine .... 41 XIV. Bells 42 XV. Science Is Not All .... 43 XVI. The Statue 44 XVII. On Seeing the Ruins of the Forum 45 XVIII. Beauty 46 XIX. The Street 47 XX. In Youth's Big Days .... 48 XXI. Spring Optimism 49 XXII. To A Certain Sculptor .... 50 XXIII. In Summer 51 XXIV. The Improviser 52 XXV. Harvard 53 XXVI. The Recruit 54 XXVII. Autumn Reverie 55 XXVIII. Because of the Beauty ... 56 XXIX. Books 57 CONTENTS I. 11. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI. XXII. XXIII. XXIV. XXV. XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII. XXIX. BOOK THREE Jugglers of Values The Brave ' ^ Beauty ^ Loyalty ^3 Anchorage ^4 Yesterdays 05 In Nocte Lumen 66 Youth Invincible 67 Till He Has Worshipped .... 68 Truth ^ Which Things Are Good? ... 70 Mind and Body 7^ Fame and the Builder . . . • 7^ Hope 73 Inconstant Haloes .... 74 Waves of the Sea 75 The Fairy of the Love-of-Life 76 Resolve! 77 Daydreams 7^ The Two Roads 79 Characters ^o Fight On! oi I Am the Truth Who Knows ... 82 The Mode ^3 Failures |4 Despair ^1 The Twisted Skein 86 Redemption ^7 Happiness |^ Till One Stone 89 CONTENTS XXX. Love, Will and Sight. XXXI. But We Are Winning. XXXII. In Valleys Criscrossed XXXIII. I Would Not Sleep .. 90 91 92 93 BOOK FOUR Beyond the Harvest I. We Seek Reunion 97 II. Beyond the Borderland ... 98 III. Vistas 99 IV. Eternal Sorrow 100 V. Trees and Men ...... ioi VI. To the Westwind 102 VII. Lament 103 VIII. Horizons 104 IX. Fantasy 105 X. A Wish 106 XI. Today Is One of the Bright Days 107 XII. Faith 108 XIII. Unhappy Powers 109 XIV. The Dream no XV. Viewpoints in XVI. The Suicide 112 XVII. All Told 113 XVIII. Out of the Desert .... 114 XIX. \lone 115 XX. My Life a Patchwork . . . 116 XXL I Have the Love 117 XXII. The Temple 118 BOOK ONE The Mantle of Eros "Love is a circle, that doth restless move In the same sweet eternity of love." LET THIS BE MY NIRVANA , .. Let this be my nirvana — last release — To know in You, that beauty cannot cease. Then all the uncouth striving and the pain Of pander to a sickly, finite gain, Is vanished with the body of desire : I leave Earth's mausoleum to the fire. I"] THE MINSTREL TO HIS LOVE Now when the flowers from Earth aspire And the blood of youth runs free, And the land of sunset glows in fire — Thy love enraptures me. Whatever wrinkling Time may store My love a deathless butterfly, Ever in friendly skies shall soar * Where death is but an opening eye. And fairy fingers of a constant Spring Through countless morns shall weave our bower. And birds the echoes of our love shall sing — And we, of faith shall sip the dower. [12] OUR WORLD A BOUNDLESS PLACE You have made life's transiency enough — Teacher in sorrow, comrade in joy. You have given me faith of fairest stuff, Which Earth may yet employ. You have brought those dim horizons close to eye The end of longing your embrace. No shudder ours as time goes by — Our world a boundless place. [13] WE WALK, MY LOVE AND I We walk in silence by the moving sea Communing with the waters of our love, The breakers sport and toss their spray above- She is the sun of all the hours to me . .. What poetry could engender Your ardor-brimming eyes Oh how could ties less slender Debar from Paradise! [14] LIFE SHALL BE VICTORY Let us join hands, O spirit of my yearning, That we may rest unmindful of the sea Which surges, tumbhng breakers sighing, Along the margin of a nether lea. Lute of my laughter, we can conquer. For we have Beauty by our side. And youth has boundless years to wander In vales away from time and tide. Ever the moonlight on fair meadows Shall evoke the voice of song, And free from the tether of fancied shadows Life shall be victory, perfect and long. [IS] SUFFICIENCY I look at the flowery woodland — Again at the summer sea — But I want no earthly kingdom : Only the love of thee. The world may roll its thunder With patent-made machine, And toss its toys assunder — We need no tinsel screen. [16] THROUGH ENDLESS EONS . .. Still comes the Spring to wake new minstrelsy, And storm and sunshine crowd the trooping years; Still men are born to weep and laugh, and pass On to the vision of fresh images; Still death renews the coals of quenchless hearths, And concord, strength and beauty grow the more. Just so, our love shall grasp the proffered hand Of time which harbors perfect things — Through endless eons, indestructible, Shall dwell where stars begin. [17] UNTIL YOU CAME Until you came I drank but could not taste The breeze of Summer only brought a sigh; In vain my soul would conjure clouds on high, The mud of Earth would claim them back in haste From golden realms for my poor heart too chaste. And all the numbers that I counted by Turned false, and all my labor stood a lie. My potent heritage a hopeless waste. But in the aimless matter you breathed form And freed my soul from its constricting cage, To try new life in regions ever warm. Your love calmed Nature in her scornful rage And saved the hope of youth from quenching storm; Now, barren years are gone — we turn the page. i8] THE RIVER OF PEACE When the banks of the river are green, O'er the frolicking azure between — Lilly-bespangled with sheen — Forever together we'll float. We will echo the tune in the heart That beauties of Nature impart; Although blossoms may wilt and depart Our Summer sha'n't falter nor wane. Let these bright colors instill In our lives what their death cannot kill, While the shimmering wavelets shall thrill Us, and image sidereal bights. O wherefore the wine and the books Or solace of solitude's nooks. When love like the purposive brooks Can lead to the River of Peace ! [19] IN SACRED KEEPING Breakers of sorrow beating Upon a desolate shore — Thither the tide was drifting In barren years before: Until your hand with guiding, To deep smooth waters bore My life, in sacred keeping, Of your love, evermore. [20] NO GALE OUR HARMONY SHALL MAR In crowned stillnesses above the flight Of little things embroiled in night, Free from the sepulchres of aimless men Survivors of the tumult, we can breathe again. Fair Spirit whose entrancing charm has wrought This miracle that wine from water brought — Love doth unseat all furies by his might, The land of hunger shivers from the sight. The garden which your presence sets me 'round Can catch the echoes of no profane sound; So ever, though winds hurl distress afar, No gale our harmony shall mar. [21] SAILING Fairwell known lands, the sail is set, My bark is trained and trim — And love shall take the tiller yet Beyond the ocean's rim. Then we'll keep sailing, sailing, Beyond the world of ailing — For love must move its strength to prove. By sailing, sailing, sailing. [22] OUR LOVE IS VINDICATED Liberty lends no stronger wing Than this : the freedom to know You — You Dear, who are to me A Phantom germinal that clears The webbed and manifold design of life. You who have made a synthesis of Earth and sky, That I may reckon with entirety: Lest love of man and woman be my scorn — As sullied Nature only — Because I pass the link of ties invisible. Our love is vindicated — all of it: It sh^ll not miss its stars. [23] THOUGH YOU WALK NOT HERE Though Earth's last zephyr has stroked your golden hair And lingered joyfully to touch your cheek, There shall be other breezes yet That reach no mortal sail. Though Death has closed the eyes with youth so clear That merry sunbeams used to caper in, Yet shall they ope' on fairer fields Where there is sweeter laughter. You had outgrown this little circle here — Had seen more stars than mortals were allowed And won the right to leave the stage. So Death has moved the bars. [24] WHEN THOU ART GONE Crumbling are the pillars that support my vernal sphere, Soon the trumpeter of strife shall bid his cohorts wake ; And the peace and majesty of sun and marble Shall alter to an ill-formed, evil thing. Dear One, when thou art gone there is On Earth for me no friendliness or beauty — For Innocence shall wield a harpy sword, And even the sea's great sobbing sympathy Shall seem to mock my loneliness. [25] PARTED And now we are parted who knew no joy- Save in the union of our love. Which laid a carpet for our feet To tread clean ways in unison. What transient cobweb what enduring wall Could check the ardor of our glowing noon ; What strident clarion of strife Could aught inveigle us to leave our sphere. Those were the hours when basest stone Reflected diamond gleamings to our eyes, And the host of voices mingled in one song That made their firmament embrace our peace But now this triumph is to take its place Among the wrecks of other argosies. And I must join my sobbing with the rest The crippled million in the lightening's wake. My tears of anguish o'er the bier of hope Move not the stricken stillness of the tomb ; And Mockery, deriding, plants a flower Atop the quicksands for another lover. [26] BOOK TWO Gifts of the Magi 'Look to the blowing rose about us. VENICE AT NIGHT Stately minions of Romance Whispered music in mine ear; Fancy's Fairies skipped in dance On sky-adoring wavelets clear. Beck'ning mysteries swelled the dark Where waters kissed the age-worn stone, And every ripple held a spark Of fire from the lunar zone. I strained to meet that sweet caress Which everything enjoined to give; The sky and Earth did coalesce — I knew the life that Spirits hve. Sprightly laughter filled the air Peace came, golden morrows shone — Venice conjured from their lair Lotus-bearers for my throne. [39] MAN AND SEASONS How we rejoice to romp with Summertime, Then Body is the sum of all our being. On a Winter evening we sit brooding, Threading with mind a reasoned labyrinth. How different are these mortals of the Seasons Who shun and yet in turn acclaim The fields of Earth, the fields of mind ! [30] OF FRIENDS Close friends — our second selves. Whose sweet communion Redresses our own faults In sympathy and union; This frankest joy to know, That every day we live We do not stand alone, Are privileged to give. [31] MY FAIRYLAND I lay amidst the summer grass and sent My youthful Fancy out to play, With a multitude of singing Shapes I spied Dancing in rythm to my mood, In a far valley I had always sought. But Nature was wroth, and bid me look How she had builded for my joy; So I stroked the flowers and pressed my face against the grass — Loving the youth of all I saw, but still, My heart was in the meadows yet unfound. I could not rest and say, "It is enough — This is the peace my Fancy whispered of." The beauty that I knew could only add To a rapt yearning for the final form Of all of goodness, in my fairyland. [32] THE SCRIPTURE OF SUMMER Hours alone in summer fields — Sweet ministering touch of solitude, When garish pomp to Nature yields And far-off clouds evoke my mood. Then time is ripe to measure life Away from cellars of iniquity — Here in the fields response is rife That Good ordains there ought to be. The wisdom of the ages lies Enscriptured under summer skies- — Go drink of Nature's certain cure For vision-motes that make you poor. [33] WHAT BOUNTY GAIN . .. How great the profit when with open soul, We wait on Nature's teaching by the bank Of some fair stream in Summer decked. Never as then are we so sure What bounty gain concordant hearts, That love has fortressed well with faith. The laws which order subjects into line Constrain to no mean part the willing man — Safe from the bondage of disharmony — Who builds his image where the sun will shine. [34] OF BEAUTIFUL THINGS Things of a day, you tell me, Yes Time is cruel to his handicraft — The builder is the red destroyer too. But only of the flesh of it, ne'r of the soul of it. The light but takes on other color. For the good of the old is the Hfe of the new. Beauty remaineth forever, proof against wearing years. Each rose is one of many and though it fade from sight Will live again in other form — The truth of it the joy of it — For there is no death of lovliness, External things are above a single form. Beauty, thou beacon of this storm-tossed life In thee our Spring shall ever bloom. [35] OXFORD Oxford, beautiful in form and soul, Gothic ecstacy and spiritual bowl — Well do'st thou lead the eager hand of youth To where the palace is of radiant Truth. Thou fair enchantress of the languid mind, Goad of the eager, urging e'er behind — Well moldest thou to potency the clay That slowly moves the barrier away. [36] AT THE SWIMMING-HOLE Tell me, who revel in the waters cool Of this fair woodland's charmed pool — Is this the fabled spring of old Sought that men might evade the mould? How well does Nature court your smiles Which every element beguiles — Never was Freedom's self so free As the lads that dive from this willow tree. Your naked beauty links you in a bond With all that is and hopes beyond — The trees take up your laugh, and I No longer vindicate a sigh . .. Yet why must nature enervate with years What once was so unscarred by tears; Is it best that knowledge wound and grow When the end of wisdom these swimmers know ? Yes, we must traverse Hell to keep The faith of children wrapped in sleep. [37] SPRINGTIME MELODY Come joyful heart, the sun is up The kindred pulse of Spring, Calls forth her Youth to revelry — Lift up your voice and sing! Dance and love and frolick well, The Springtide does not barter Any of her golden charms To men who discount laughter. Grasp the hand she tenders you And join the merry throng That emulates the sportive breeze Which moves the clouds along. The dust of sorrow ne'er shall rise While Springtime woos the Earth; Faster, faster, drink the health Of each new morning's birth. Tomorrow is beyond the wave And out of sight and worry — Today, resplendent, cries to all, ''Be merry, oh be merry!" [38] ART Out of the treasure-house of mind Art builds an idol for mankind — Gathering poppies from arctic ice That hope and love may yet suffice To choke the monster Fear. Ministers of chaste white Truth, Ignorance is the wounding tooth. Tenderest pages of Beauty clear Work that the far may be the near- Art is sorrow because it is love. [39] MAGDALEN TOWER AT OXFORD O Magdalen Tower, each time I look Upon thy beauty-radiant face, Thou seem'st more perfect in thy grace All sordid visions to erase; Thou art indeed a sculptured book — How few these pertect things of life That call the soul and check the strife ! [40] SONG IN THE SUNSHINE Drowsily, drowsily I lie Enfolded by the Summer grass, and lo, Forget the keynote of my train of woe — The memory of a sigh. Some necromancy bids me see: Ships in the harbor Firelight at home, A rose in the hand of a child; On billows wild the fair clear light Of the sun at eventide — Images athwart the moon, That Fancy's fairies ride. Drowsily, happily I lie, And sing with the glad glad breeze. [41] BELLS Oxford chimes that flow and swell In the sullen Winter days — Blithesome voices from each bell Stilling dirges sadness plays. Merry, frolic kindred notes When the Springtide nods in tune, Emissary kindness floats Meting life a double boon. Each of us has inner chimes Answering to the echoed calls — Earth to Heaven fitting rhymes Which shall build and crumble walls. [42] SCIENCE IS NOT ALL Whene'er the city's harsh array Becomes a penthouse for my peace, I pack my cares and go away To take the country's lease. Gentle Spirits meet me in the woods — With rythmic notes adore The glory great of Nature's goods, And my soul wants nothing more. Then I consider the two estates — The fields and the storm-wracked town; How we always pass the smile that waits, To barter blue for brown. Still "Progress" builds an ornate dome And sells new dross for tears, And time yet finds us far from home In the vale of fruitless years. 143] THE STATUE I looked upon the statue with its calm farseeing eyes Perfect in its form, transcending mortal ties; Profaned it seemed amidst the viciousness of men — I looked to see it melt away into its skies again ; I wished to cry and laugh aloud, alike in joy and sorrow — A pain of longing and regret my soul began to harrow ; Why cannot our lives here below know such serene perfection, Spirit of lovliness divine, above all time's direction! I saw the nobleman of dreams, man his greater self, Stand forth on hights of vernal love purged of wish for pelf; Beauty, Justice, Truth, arrayed stood there before me And I trembled in the presence of an awful majesty, And turned away in humbleness as from a thing too holy. Came some great new fact of Nature, vested bright in glory, A flash of vision quick to leave the fingertips of mind — Just as the sun rose up with light my mortal sight went blind. But I felt the sky was nearer and the grass was greener too And inner voices whispered of a good I never knew. [44] ON SEEING THE RUINS OF THE FORUM Thou too hast seen thy tidal-wave — Only in memory, alas, Shall thy greatness reach eternity; O Rome that was beautiful and strong, Thy marble knows the sacrilege — O man why must thou climb only to fall Breaking the image won by toil. How little is all glory if this must be the end — Cities like men, with numbered days. Till the gods frown and cry, "Enough." Someday we yet may build so well We shall be proof against our own destroying hand. O Rome, may all who see thee read thy sign And help to found the tower that shall not fall ! [45] BEAUTY Sweet evanescent voices of that eternal lyre Which Beauty lends to craven Earth to extirpate the mire — No note like thine can raise the head that weariness has bent And wake the soul to seek the goal for which our days are lent. The satin equipage of Pomp can hold the spellbound eye Till thine empuring strains unmask these spectres that belie. A voice in voiceless wilderness, a light in lightless night The shrine of all our imagery the touchstone of our sight. The harp of human virtue reechoes Beauty's chord And straying feet regain the road that leads to Folly's ford. The banner of the Ages that were and are to be Unfolds its glory in a breeze that comes alone from thee. Each purple gown of triumph true was wove' in Beauty's mill, And every flower that leaves the mould in Her name quotes the Will. [46] THE STREET The street was dimly-lighted, dirty, drear, A bit of Earth forsaken by the touch Of all which makes for happiness and love. The people there were abject as its stones. Youth never tuned those listless feet No eyes invoked a promise from the stars — The riven pavement long had held their shrines. The palaced hill where Laughter lived, looked down And spurned the squalor and the seamed brows. And then, as sunlight breaking on a clouded day There passed in all the tatters of ill-destiny, A maid whom Beauty wrought and cast To be a lamp within the wilderness — A radiance Nature gave for tears . .. Ye are not wasted, ye few young who live Within a house of bondage so devised. For ye shall nurse the pinions of the Strong With visions of a mountain paradise — And Some shall see and love and win. [47] IN YOUTH'S BIG DAYS In youth's big days of fiery unrest Come spirit-tappings of a crowding soul, Demanding place within the mortal breast That life may know the fullness of its role. In after times to keep inviolate The strength and wonder of those jewelled days, We turn to Beauty in her high estate — And Youth comes dancing back again and stays. Who loves young things forever young may be — Each mind constructs its own eternity. [48] SPRING OPTIMISM Spring, sweet opiate of all our pains Whereby we reason life in many gains; This Beauty's triumph over cold and dark Attunes expectant souls to hark To the far music of a siren choir, As fresh young buds to broader life aspire; All Earth pours forth a madrigal of joy And the heart of sobered man is that of a carefree boy. Youth of the Springtide, the unfailing cure That makes the faltering grip secure, Fitting the stones and bending the bow That we labor in love as we onward go — Knowing no sign for today of sorrow Strong by the promise of bright tomorrow. [49] TO A CERTAIN SCULPTOR Prophet-handed Artist dear. You caught the Spirit free Which danced hearts to conquest there Upon the moonUt sea. Knit are the fibers of my soul Before with doubt unmeshed; Perish every prowUng ghoul — A knowing heart is blessed! Artist, you have wrought full well My ship of Hfe to clear; Your work has made the music swell I've spent my days to hear. [50] IN SUMMER How well does Nature's pulse become our own When hearing Beauty's breezeborne call, We muse alone in valleys summer-blown And catch the rythm that pervades it all. Forgotten hopes the mood recalls to life, And living seems so big and full of songs We wonder why the past has been so rife With doubts and discords of imagined wrongs. This outward joy becomes our inner guest As breeze and trees besport in ecstasy, By mere existence infinitely blessed — And something says, "You man are also free.'* [SI] THE IMPROVISER Lovingly his fingers wrought A magic call upon the soul, Opening doorways of the mind Into dim all-holy spaces — Giving sight beyond the pale Of fretful little tribulations. No longer saw I keys and player — Only a Beauty hovering near, Offering peace and happiness In youth forever after. I heard the sob of Crushed and Worn Changing to laughter pure and free. The strength of mountains filled my bosom And much-enduring sympathy; A something clothed in perfect form Smoothed all the fears of my soul away; And I crossed by the ray of the music's light Over the torrent of lesser things Into the meadows of Heart's-Desire, Where truth is measured by eternity. [52] HARVARD Thy name is ever first to thrill Whose guiding hand is strongest still, Who gave me the undying thirst The bonds of my own soul to burst. Tenderest of noble nurses, Too beautiful to gloss with lies — How honestly you set the wares of life And questioned peace as well as strife! [S3] THE RECRUIT The World laughs with us when we're young And takes us to her breast, A fair wind strikes the sail we raise As we seek our golden West. 'Tis merry merry, all a song The pride of strength have we, And rather scorn the plodding ones That start with bended knee. But the world goes on without our aid And we win no golden crown; We fill some little unseen nitch — Then the world begins to frown! Oh noble youth of castled hopes. The valley too has gold — Strive on, whatever be thy place. Crowns are not cheaply sold. [54] AUTUMN REVERIE Another year has gathered back her gifts Of lavish splendor set in perfect days; But Summer lingers like a cloud that drifts- Ordered by unseen hands in unknown ways. And with these last caresses of the year, Man sees how full a garrison of joy Nature has stored against dim fear — Her myriad cares his love to cloy. If we take Earth the beautiful, in hand, We cannot fail to keep great hope; We cannot wander from a loving land — With open eyes we cannot grope. [5S] BECAUSE OF THE BEAUTY I've seen the Spring's young glory And heard dim distance call, And sadly read the story Of the golden dying Fall. And I've watched the eager youngsters In their joyful hoHday, And the time-besoftened elders With their visions far away. And I've loved all this about me And worked to fit my stone, Just because I worshipped Beauty In the fields my hands had sown. [56] BOOKS The throb of other hearts, The depth of other souls You oiler for our joy — O matchless treasures, books. To fuller, broader sight You reconcile, inspire — And nurture all who come To bonds of brotherhood With kinship's sympathy — Sweet balm for men of Earth. [57] BOOK THREE Jugglers of Values 'Whatever is good is also beautiful. THE BRAVE The tabernacles of the Brave are far; They crown the hills of progress and the way Unto the sanctuary, clean and fair. Is won with sobbing and by aching feet — Of men who heeded one sweet song That Summer brought from far away. They mingled all their sorrows in a love Which whispered : "Lo, I am enough." [6i] BEAUTY Beauty, you stir the heart-springs stagnated, From outlet stopped, with small cares surfeited. You strand my mind on wondrous hights Bewildering in majesty — Untrammelled seeks my soul the lights That but for thee it could not see. Beauty, you are the means, the end, the all By which we temper lesser things that pall. [62] LOYALTY 'Tis loyalty that builds the palaces Which stand predominant above the years; Loyalty that cherishes one star With love which has a scorn for tears. Wherever shine immortal monuments Of deeds that looked beyond their day, Men who have kept their chosen banner up In loyalty have wrought the clay. No word rings with a sweeter sound Than this, whose rood Earth glories by — It is the garment manifest of Truth In which enrobed, we subjugate the lie. [631 ANCHORAGE Nature can count us with the streams and flowers- We must in substance follow her caprice And suffer limits that her laws may set. So we indeed must voice unanswered cries Unto a calm inexorable mein — A law unto itself and us the part. But happily not all of us is clod And we can loose the circuit of our bonds, And fly in spirit to unearthly fields To glean therefrom the leaven for our bread. [64] YESTERDAYS Bright was the sun of yesteryear And all the hours were May; Each kindly moment swelled the cheer That kept the dark away. Alas, no sun which lights our Earth Can save its rays for long — Full soon must come a springless dearth, And a dirge becomes the song. O moments dead, of happiness, That the wind has swept apart — Though fickle was your soft caress Your progeny still tune my heart! Caches of plenty in a famine-land Where we pause to watch the stars. And grasp dear Hope's creative hand — Then the rainbow's not so far. Sometime, each yesterday of joy, Returns ghostlike to kiss In transient ecstacy its toy — The heart that once knew bliss. Sweet yesterdays shall ever be The future's pact of fealty. [65] IN NOCTE LUMEN The painted china of our cherished dreams We strive to guard with futile means; The agonies of ages past Are still our own sobs, first and last; Time desecrates the fairest things And stunts the spirit's starting wings. Peace has no homestead in this land of men, But Love, his deputy, renews hope's coals again. [66] YOUTH INVINCIBLE Unto the breaking of another day Bearing the roses we have gleaned, Triumphant in vain faith and ardent-eyed, We hold the sceptre of the gods in hand. Leaping to each new conquest even as Through all the ages Youth has done. We make all glory to recur And turn each sunset to a fairer dawn. [67] TILL HE HAS WORSHIPPED . .. Must we the Nomad's solace seek To flee the irony of fears, Which bid us fold our fragile tent of peace Nor wait to nurse the seedlings of our toil? Youth brooks no stately highway for his foot To tread in rythm with the Throng, But seeks to hew through the uncharted wildernes* A path of many changes to his goal. Ah yes, we scorn to cull the jaded flowers, This fear lives in the lifeblood of our love; It is not meet that youth should don a cowl Till he has worshipped well his kindly Gods. [68] TRUTH Semper eadem, white-mantled Truth Ever so old yet ever in youth; Palliative to our aching breast. Although unseen, our fetish blest. Sick pessimism dragging victims down Shall change his nature at thy frown; So manifest are thine extensions seen That all the leaves of Earth are green ; The name, the soul of every virtue bright- The only god in his own right. [69] WHICH THINGS ARE GOOD? So many blessings of this life That find us unawares, Have tabernacles often rife With sight-bewitching tares ! [70] MIND AND BODY Body exists for the mind, Mind is akin to the soul; Mind in extension reaches its goal, Leaves the clay body behind. Mind is unbounded and free Body is flesh that decays; Man and his vehicle we see — Mind that in soiled clothing plays. [71] FAME AND THE BUILDER Man leaves off the minstrelsy Of far, forgotten shores, That once saw perpetuity Through splendor's open doors. Dried is the blood of cities Time checks from her slate ; And of our own dear beauties Someday none shall narrate. Each wind that favors progress Sows also death and shame — The graves are lying countless Of favorites of Fame. And when the cry, "To fray" Shall strike your eager ear, Be not the one to say, *T shall the world unsphere." [73] HOPE Ever the billion voices Of sorrowing uncrowned ones, Shriek and implore the darkness As the river of hope yet runs. O Goddess in shining raiment Smiling that all may endure — Thy vows are not written on parchment Nor the truth of thy promises sure. But man in grasping terror Has only these to trust, And though he feels the error Would think that all is just. How little we hope for is won Yet burnish we the lamp — Failure starts as life's begun But hope outlives all cold and damp. t73] INCONSTANT HALOES Have these Penates I long cherished here Beside my hearth as harbingers of cheer, Have they become but shattered fripperies And shadow-picures for a moment's ease! Alas how ev'ry idol onetime warm, Becomes a blemished monster in deform; And by the excitation of a day The garnered fruits of years decay. Each love-wrought edifice shall know the hand Of realization chill that claims its land. Profane it seems, this impious rupturing — Experience takes tribute for her teaching. But though we mourn our misdirected faith We should not court a futile wraith, Nor cherish counterfeits however sweet To furnish us a shamed retreat. When haloes we endowed have passed along, Truth at least's not victim of a song. [74] WAVES OF THE SEA Fear, hunger, death. These are the Httle things — Waves that fret the bosom-calm Of an unchanging sea. Purpose, labor, love. These are the substance of great things- Of tides that move the waters In accordance with the Will. These immemorial currents Of passion and hatred and pride, Conceal by surface foamings The beauty that waits within. Mind is the only purveyor To the peace beneath the waves Where spirit and matter are wedded To further the organized plan. [75] THE FAIRY OF THE LOVE-OF-LIFE With the touch of fairy fingers You caress away my pain; With the tune of cloudbome singers You awake the Love again. How in this valley straying Could courage pull the van Of all our cares and doubting, Without beauty in the plan? Oh many, many a chilling breast The fire of beauty quickens, All man has worked the very best Was at this fairy's summons. Merrily laugh the 'powered young When a fair sun smiles above, Happy the old lips which have sung : In one name only, we know the Love. (76] RESOLVE! The fleeting moments of a happy day With friendship's joy to burnish April sun — How dear are these rare hours that sweep away The cankered worries with the future spun! But such times are but seldom in our score, The offerings of wine to thirsty hearts. That strength may be to wrestle yet some more And face the hungers each new morning starts. And yet though they are bubbles on the wave — These respite-moments which the seas must claim- No bit of beauty knows a darkened grave, Where joy and pain become the same. Let us not weep to an unheeding fate But strive the bulwarks of our faith to plant So deep that clutching pain will come too late. And find a tempered will of adamant. The grain awaits the harvest, ever old And Reapers work in thunder but glean gold. 177] DAYDREAMS Oh the shining far-flung glory Of our tender homemade clouds, Traversing a friendly vastness To the still frontier of shrouds: Though they tarry but a moment In the treetops of the mind, Yet the heart is wealthy by them In the ray they leave behind. [78] THE TWO ROADS The soul that in the calling void Some hand of kinship grasps, Descends to us with earth alloyed With heaven makes our hasps. Let not mad rush for leaden spoil Bedim our eyes to stone, That martyred mind shall fail in toil To bear its sceptre home. The heart which meets the far stars' ray A super vision knows That makes a warmth on mounts to play And melts away the snows. We need not bide the Mobe hut — Each owns a palace too. When Satyrs pipe its touchstone door to shut, Oh men, first look ye through ! C79] CHARACTERS Four men stood under heaven's dome And each spoke out his view of home: Said one, "All things are well and life is good;" Another cursed the ground whereon he stood; The Third. "Truth said the first and last as well;' A weary-looking one, "We cannot tell" — "O attitude!" I cried, and went my way, With many-patterned thoughts at play. [80] FIGHT ON! I have cast the false gods from me Slain the sorcerer Unrest, Surfeited with wells of folly — Fashion's blazonry unblest. Gone the bleached and bloodless falsehood Of veneering truth with baubles — Pageantry against the Good, Building houses for our troubles. Life's no monograph of woe If we hew the thicket road And hasten lest we be too slow, And diffidence the will corrode. The melody of fruitful lives Nor ease nor trembling makes — In sweating conflict ever strives Who clears his path of snakes. [8i] I AM THE TRUTH WHO KNOWS I am the truth who knows Wherefore the westwind blows— I shall unfold the story To those who seek me. I dwell not in the ken Of wayward mortal men — Let none forsake again What I would offer. The vision through my eyes Is the only paradise That never fades or dies. That has no Winter. My followers must be In very form like me — And they shall bend the knee To my voice only. Mine is the longest road, Mine the heaviest load. Yet mighty is the goad That bids men follow. Your houses built of clay The wind shall sweep away; My roof is your salvation, The final destination. [82] THE MODE You who have sobbed your sorrows to the breeze at dusk, You who have laughed in joy with the renascent mom, You who have known the kiss that love can give — Why can you never say of life, "Enough" ? Ever the thirst insatiate, also to all men high and low, Alike whom wine has warmed or lash has cut, They who condemn the Weak and they who supplicate the Strong — See the far islands of the better things. O men, as years pass into the beyond Your whole lives' doing shall be founded on a creed : You shall be happy in today's forgetfulness and faith. Making the first goal life — this is the only way. [83] FAILURES Come with the wind of ill weather, Gloomy and threadbare and stark Rustling ghouls of endeavor, Of men who struck wide of their mark. I know that these failures must tally Over the span of the years. With surplus that others shall rally Through an effusion of tears. Men who defer their own burdea Suffer the truth to a few, Make all the panoply weaken For millennial peace to ensue. [84] DESPAIR See, misfortune's cunning webs That wait with evil snare, To seize when courage ebbs, New slaves for king Despair! His minions know no rest His court abides the tomb; He sears the eyes of his unblest Forever from the Bloom. [8s] THE TWISTED SKEIN Life comes to us a twisted skein Our duty to untwine again — And in the doing plan with care Lest threads be broke beyond repair. [86] REDEMPTION We men are made for many functionings. The universal plan from many things (Which each is set to definite account , By the Prime-mover on his reflective mount) In devious and untold ways moves on ; And day by day these finite things are won From fluxing temporality of Earth, To participate in everlasting birth — When perfect things can join the sphere of light And share the absolute, in truth bedight. So each small ediface of hand and brain In part accomplishes the final gain — That junction with the infinite regime — Which shall for man the pains of life redeem. [87] HAPPINESS Fairest and dearest of visions, happiness, First in the hearts of all who breathe on Earth — Object and end of every plan and deed Alike to wastrel and to builder too ; Fleeting, ephemeral, indefinite yet ever visible. Sought in the slough of sin and in the voice of fame Since the first sunrise of every heart's desire ! And who, alas, has plucked this filmy star Out of the blackness of his searching-ground: Some win the blessed radiance of proximity But ever and forever comes the sigh, "I found thy mansion but thou had'st moved on." Alas, so ever changes she her biding place, A treasure-bird scarce seen but on the wing again. And so there lives the everlasting quest Of this strange consort of the truth and beauty Above the limits of our understanding. Thus we go down in death still seeking What we have always sought — an island in the flood. [88] TILL ONE STONE . .. You need seek no other setting For your city of the light Than the land on which you're standing, Which is your own by right. No eldorado gleaming Shall greet your straining sight, Till one stone by your setting In this city is laid tight. [89] LOVE, WILL AND SIGHT Love is the plant and Will the flower Whose fragrance sanctifies a bower, Where every man can look and see What he the power has to be. Many stars each day descend Because of some Will's lofty trend; What perseverance yet has sought No tempest fierce has hindered aught. Withered rosebuds strew the ground Where Weariness the spoiler's found — Loveless vision has tender hands That will not fashion hope's demands. [90] BUT WE ARE WINNING With the sea of man's desire so extensive And land above its bosom so diminutive, No wonder that some oft — distraught with question- ing- Discount the land there is, where living, Each day exacts new secrets full of gold Which spread the limits of our fair stronghold. Yes, bitter are the waves and bent on rending. But we are dredging ever: building, winning. [91] IN VALLEYS CRISCROSSED O set me in a wilderness away From valleys criscrossed by the tracks of men — Scarred with weary aimless toil, Broken in beauty, shadowed by fear. Alone with the unpretentious trees Where the cleanest altars of new hope are set; High on the headlands where my view is long And I may measure by a certain scale. Futile and rythmless this life Were I to shun these moments with my soul, Without a care to test the course I take — If I reduce my moves to habitude And stumble through a myriad of hours. Without matching past and future plays In the arena crowded with my kind. It is so easy, merely to laugh and weep and fade! [92] I WOULD NOT SLEEP To sleep is coward's rest: Man's sacrament is in a life of pain Flecked with strange duties, ceasless fires That wound, but wounding give new strength again. We can't transgress this first of laws in peace — But must ourselves sift out the dross. And learn to laugh with hunger at the door. [93] BOOK FOUR Beyond the Harvest "The most glorious fact in our experience is not any- thing that we have done or may hope to do, but a transient thought, or vision, or dream, which we have had." WE SEEK REUNION We seek reunion, ever consciously, With part of us which seems to be afar — That part of us most Uke a happy star — Which knows the beauty of infinity. Sporadic messages endow our Hves — Each one of us a guided sateUite Who does Earth's work, but owes his might To a distant call whereby he strives. [97] BEYOND THE BORDERLAND When the long tryst with Fate is over And Earth takes back her shroud again, Souls shall be free to roam together Where jewelled beauties never wane. Youthful the feet that tread those meadowi Where the eternal flowers bloom; And there shall be no evil shadows That singing Harmony consume. Nor shall there be the frenzied worship Of eyes downtumed to changing seams — Cleansed by truth shall be the slaveship Past the borderland of dreams . .. Surely such must be — is not Fancy Some bird divine from worlds apart, Singer of real true glories waiting In mercy to the earthbound heart? [98] VISTAS Fair vistas that we sometimes see — When music stirs or soft winds sigh — Into a garden-land of flowers Where all the lean and harsh array Of things which hamper willing hands, Live transformed and swell the tune Of hearts that want no truant moon. Then we go out, when we have glimpsed This sun on untrod fields, And wondrous vigor, young and new, Enheartens us to wake and see What course of life can set us free. [99] ETERNAL SORROW Our joys are many, and their colors bright Build gleaming rainbows in a friendly sky; And love comes down from summits far and clear- Then lo, the cup of life is brimming full. But when the smile is freest on our lips How surely shall the chilly wind arise, How surely shall the happiest of feet Stumble to where in greed and sloth. Eternal Sorrow waits their turn to come ! [100] TREES AND MEN Treetops as men, reach tip to touch the sky, And know a pure and perfumed air above ; But still the bonds with Earth are fast, And after growing all they may, Both trees and men through fated days In wistful silence beckon. To stars just out of reach. [loi] TO THE WESTWIND Storied wind of Even* tell my listening ear Tales of far-off places my wondering heart would hear; When you kissed green palmtrees 'side a summer sea, Skimming opal beaches, hovering o'er the lea; Tell me, find men peace there, over Western wave, Do they know, the pearl Content to save? Shriek not, hateful answer — right indeed I guessed: They too, knawed by yearning, seek another West. [102] LAMENT Sweet paragon that years subvert For cold imperfect things — This simple trust in elder Ones Which childhood's beauty sings. When men mature there is no faith Above all questioning, We cannot sleep the war is on The Bluebird takes to wing. We sight far-off Hesperides But steer a circling course; Never after childhood's week Touch we the gold we seek. [103] HORIZONS Ever the role of Tantalus we play. We who have eyes but sightless seek the day ; What profit if our feet tread rosy gold While hearts pine for a story yet untold; Oh stars that watch us from the shrouded hight Thy sun of day is but the mock of night — The finite seeks the infinite design But knowledge stagnates at an ordained line . .. Unkind horizons of the fettered mind Death is the only glory of the Blind. [104] FANTASY Ecstatic bending palmtrees Blue lagoons in southern seas, Waiting to sooth the Seeker With a golden opiate beaker, Who weary, wants a haven His pack of woes to lighten, In distant summer hemispheres Where strife has borne no tears . .. I see a land of constant sunshine Where the Good has gone to play. And the love for which our hearts pine Composes night and day. [los] A WISH As time spins out the thread of years, Who knows but through the rifted blue By the peepholes of the stars We may behold the Ever-New: Spirit of the yearned-for things Serene in fields where Beauty sings. Then back to Earth we'd turn content Knowing for what our bow is bent And whither the shaft of life is sent. [io6] TODAY IS ONE OF THE BRIGHT DAYS .. Today is one of the bright days When I am clasped and borne amain, By chords of music played on some far shore; They greet me with their sweetness of a mom And charm me till I am so free, That sun and flowers make up the total sphere Wherein for one whole day I move — Knowing the peace of which the breakers croon. Those long, unhurried ones bewitched by June. Many fretful hours it needs to breed these few. That catch the spirit fledged to fly For moments sweet, beyond the pale ! [107] FAITH Faith in the wisdom of the Spirit That placed the mountains by his plan- This is the end of all our doubting, The path in the wilderness of fears. Above this world of lesser monarchs There is a never-closing eye, That orders Spring to whisper comforts And stars of night to hint of dawn. 