



Produced by David Garcia, Joseph R. Hauser and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Kentuckiana Digital Library)





DAYS AND DREAMS

POEMS

BY

MADISON CAWEIN


AUTHOR OF "LYRICS AND IDYLS," "THE TRIUMPH
OF MUSIC," ETC., ETC.




G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK                   LONDON
27 West Twenty-third St.   27 King William St., Strand

The Knickerbocker Press
1891




COPYRIGHT, 1891
BY
MADISON CAWEIN




The Knickerbocker Press, New York
Printed and Bound by
G. P. Putnam's Sons




TO
JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY
WITH
ADMIRATION AND REGARD





    _O lyrist of the lowly and the true,
          The song I sought for you
    Hides yet unsung. What hope for me to find,
          Lost in the daedal mind,
    The living utterance with lovely tongue!
          To say, as erst was sung
    By Ariosto of Knight-errantry,--
          Through lands of Poesy,
    Song's Paladin, knight of the dream and day,
          The wizard shield you sway
    Of that Atlantes power, sweet and terse,
          The skyey-builded verse:
    The shield that dazzles, brilliant with surprise,
          Our unanointed eyes.--
    Oh, had I written as 't were worthy you,
          Each line, a spark of dew,--
    As once Ferdusi shone in Persia,--
          Had strung each rosy spray
    Of the unfolding flower of each song;
          And Iran's bulbul tongue
    Had sobbed its heart out o'er the fountain's slab
          In gardens of Afrasiab._




CONTENTS.


                               PAGE

ONE DAY AND ANOTHER               1

DAYS AND DREAMS                  93

DEITY                            95

SELF                             97

SELF AND SOUL                    99

THE DREAM OF DREAD              102

DEATH IN LIFE                   105

THE EVE OF ALL-SAINTS           110

MATER DOLOROSA                  116

THE OLD INN                     119

LAST DAYS                       121

THE ROMANZA                     123

MY ROMANCE                      125

THE EPIC                        127

THE BLIND HARPER                129

ELPHIN                          131

PRE-ORDINATION                  134

AT THE STILE                    138

THE ALCALDE'S DAUGHTER          140

AT THE CORREGIDOR'S             142

THE PORTRAIT                    145

ISMAEL                          150

A PRE-EXISTENCE                 154

BEHRAM AND EDDETMA              158

THE KHALIF AND THE ARAB         166




ONE DAY AND ANOTHER.

PART I.


1.

_He waits musing._

    Herein the dearness of her is:
      The thirty perfect days of June
    Made one, in beauty and in bliss
    Were not more white to have to kiss,
      To love not more in tune.

    And oft I think she is too true,
      Too innocent for our day;
    For in her eyes her soul looks new--
    Two crowfoot-blossoms watchet-blue
      Are not more soft than they.

    So good, so kind is she to me,
      In darling ways and happy words,
    Sometimes my heart fears she may be
    Too much with God and secretly
      Sweet sister to the birds.


2.

_Becoming impatient._

    The owls are quavering, two, now three,
      And all the green is graying;
    The owls our trysting dials be--
      There is no time for staying.

    I wait you where this buckeye throws
      Its tumbled shadow over
    Wood-violet and the bramble-rose,
      Long lady-fern and clover.

    Spice-seeded sassafras weighs deep
      Rough rail and broken paling,
    Where all day long the lizards sleep
      Like lichen on the railing.

    Behind you you will feel the moon's
      Gold stealing like young laughter;
    And mists--gray ghosts of picaroons--
      Its phantom treasure after.

    And here together, youth and youth,
      Love will be doubly able;
    Each be to each as true as truth,
      And dear as fairy fable.

    The owls are calling and the maize
      With fallen dew is dripping--
    Ah, girlhood, through the dewy haze
      Come like a moonbeam slipping.


3.

_He hums._

    There is a fading inward of the day,
      And all the <DW29> sunset hugs one star;
    To eastward dwindling all the land is gray,
      While barley meadows westward smoulder far.

            Now to your glass will you pass
                For the last time?
                        Pass,
            Humming that ballad we know?--
            Here while I wait it is late
                And is past time--
                        Late,
            And love's hours they go, they go.

    There is a drawing downward of the night;
      The wedded Heaven wends married to the Moon;
    Above, the heights hang golden in her light,
      Below, the woods bathe dewy in the June.

            There through the dew is it you
                Coming lawny?
                        You,
            Or a moth in the vines?
            You!--at your