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EIGHT HARVARD POETS

  E. ESTLIN CUMMINGS
  S. FOSTER DAMON
  J. R. DOS PASSOS
  ROBERT HILLYER
  R. S. MITCHELL
  WILLIAM A. NORRIS
  DUDLEY POORE
  CUTHBERT WRIGHT

[Illustration]

  NEW YORK
  LAURENCE J. GOMME
  1917




  Copyright, 1917, by
  LAURENCE J. GOMME

  VAIL-BALLOU COMPANY
  BINGHAMTON AND NEW YORK




CONTENTS


                                                          PAGE
  E. ESTLIN CUMMINGS

  Thou in Whose Sword-Great Story Shine the Deeds            3
  A Chorus Girl                                              4
  This is the Garden                                         5
  It May not Always be so                                    6
  Crepuscule                                                 7
  Finis                                                      8
  The Lover Speaks                                           9
  Epitaph                                                   10


  S. FOSTER DAMON

  Incessu Patuit Deus                                       13
  You Thought I had Forgotten                               15
  Venice                                                    16
  The New Macaber                                           18
  To War                                                    20
  Calm Day, with Rollers                                    21
  Phonograph--Tango                                         22
  Decoration                                                24
  Threnody                                                  25


  J. R. DOS PASSOS

  The Bridge                                                29
  Salvation Army                                            30
  Incarnation                                               32
  Memory                                                    34
  Saturnalia                                                37
  "Whan that Aprille"                                       39
  Night Piece                                               40


  ROBERT HILLYER

  Four Sonnets from a Sonnet-Sequence                       45
  A Sea Gull                                                49
  Domesday                                                  50
  To a Passepied by Scarlatti                               52
  Elegy for Antinous                                        53
  Song                                                      54
  "My Peace I Leave with You"                               55
  The Recompense                                            56


  R. S. MITCHELL

  Poppy Song                                                59
  Love Dream                                                62
  The Island of Death                                       64
  From the Arabian Nights                                   66
  Threnody                                                  68
  Helen                                                     70
  Largo                                                     72
  Lazarus                                                   73
  A Crucifix                                                74
  Neith                                                     75
  A Farewell                                                77


  WILLIAM A. NORRIS

  Of Too Much Song                                          81
  Wherever My Dreams Go                                     82
  Out of the Littleness                                     83
  Nahant                                                    84
  Qui Sub Luna Errant                                       85
  Across the Taut Strings                                   86
  Escape                                                    87
  On a Street Corner                                        88
  Sea-burial                                                89


  DUDLEY POORE

  A Renaissance Picture                                     93
  The Philosopher's Garden                                  95
  The Tree of Stars                                         96
  After Rain                                                97
  Cor Cordium                                               99
  The Withered Leaf, the Faded Flower be Mine              105


  CUTHBERT WRIGHT

  The End of It                                            109
  The New Platonist                                        110
  The Room Over the River                                  112
  The Fiddler                                              114
  Falstaff's Page                                          116
  A Dull Sunday                                            117

       *       *       *       *       *




E. ESTLIN CUMMINGS




[THOU IN WHOSE SWORD-GREAT STORY SHINE THE DEEDS]


  Thou in whose sword-great story shine the deeds
  Of history her heroes, sounds the tread
  Of those vast armies of the marching dead,
  With standards and the neighing of great steeds
  Moving to war across the smiling meads;
  Thou by whose page we break the precious bread
  Of dear communion with the past, and wed
  To valor, battle with heroic breeds;

  Thou, Froissart, for that thou didst love the pen
  While others wrote in steel, accept all praise
  Of after ages, and of hungering days
  For whom the old glories move, the old trumpets cry;
  Who gav'st as one of those immortal men
  His life that his fair city might not die.




A CHORUS GIRL


  When thou hast taken thy last applause, and when
  The final curtain strikes the world away,
  Leaving to shadowy silence and dismay
  That stage which shall not know thy smile again,
  Lingering a little while I see thee then
  Ponder the tinsel part they let thee play;
  I see the red mouth tarnished, the face grey,
  And smileless silent eyes of Magdalen.

  The lights have laughed their last; without, the street
  Darkling, awaiteth her whose feet have trod
  The silly souls of men to golden dust.
  She pauses, on the lintel of defeat,
  Her heart breaks in a smile--and she is Lust...
  Mine also, little painted poem of God.

  This is the garden: colors come and go,
  Frail azures fluttering from night's outer wing,
  Strong silent greens serenely lingering,
  Absolute lights like baths of golden snow.
  This is the garden: pursed lips do blow
  Upon cool flutes within wide glooms, and sing,
  Of harps celestial to the quivering string,
  Invisible faces hauntingly and slow.

  This is the garden. Time shall surely reap,
  And on Death's blade lie many a flower curled,
  In other lands where other songs be sung;
  Yet stand They here enraptured, as among
  The slow deep trees perpetual of sleep
  Some silver-fingered fountain steals the world.

  It may not always be so; and I say
  That if your lips, which I have loved, should touch
  Another's, and your dear strong fingers clutch
  His heart, as mine in time not far away;
  If on another's face your sweet hair lay
  In such a silence as I know, or such
  Great writhing words as, uttering overmuch,
  Stand helplessly before the spirit at bay;

  If this should be, I say if this should be--
  You of my heart, send me a little word;
  That I may go unto him, and take his hands,
  Saying, Accept all happiness from me.
  Then shall I turn my face, and hear one bird
  Sing terribly afar in the lost lands.




CREPUSCULE


  I will wade out
                 till my thighs are steeped in burn-
  ing flowers
  I will take the sun in my mouth
  and leap into the ripe air
                             Alive
                                   with closed eyes
  to dash against darkness
                           in the sleeping curves of my
  body
  Shall enter fingers of smooth mastery
  with chasteness of sea-girls
                               Will I complete the mystery
  of my flesh
  I will rise
              After a thousand years
  lipping
  flowers
          And set my teeth in the silver of the moon




FINIS


  Over silent waters
                     day descending
                                    night ascending
  floods the gentle glory of the sunset
  In a golden greeting
                        splendidly to westward
  as pale twilight
                   trem-
                         bles
                              into
                                   Darkness
  comes the last light's gracious exhortation
                                        Lifting up to peace
  so when life shall falter
                            standing on the shores of the
  eternal
  god
      May I behold my sunset
  Flooding
          over silent waters




THE LOVER SPEAKS


  Your