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MANY GODS


OTHER BOOKS BY
CALE YOUNG RICE

    Nirvana Days
    Yolanda of Cyprus
    Plays and Lyrics
    A Night in Avignon
    Charles di Tocca
    David




MANY GODS

BY

CALE YOUNG RICE

NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
MCMX


ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION
INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN

COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
PUBLISHED, FEBRUARY, 1910


TO

FINIS KING FARR

AN OLD

AND DEAR COMRADE




CONTENTS


PAGE

"ALL'S WELL"                    3

THE PROSELYTE RECANTS           6

LOVE IN JAPAN                  10

MAPLE LEAVES ON MIYAJIMA       13

TYPHOON                        15

PENANG                         17

WHEN THE WIND IS LOW           20

THE PAGODA SLAVE               22

THE SHIPS OF THE SEA           25

KINCHINJUNGA                   26

THE BARREN WOMAN               29

BY THE TAJ MAHAL               32

LOVE'S CYNIC                   35

IN A TROPICAL GARDEN           42

THE WIND'S WORD                46

THE SHRINE OF SHRINES          47

FROM A FELUCCA                 48

THE EGYPTIAN WAKES             49

THE IMAM'S PARABLE             50

SONGS OF A SEA-FARER           52

A SONG OF THE SECTS            54

THE CITY                       57

VIA AMOROSA                    58

DUSK AT HIROSHIMA              60

THE WANDERER                   61

IN A SHINTO TEMPLE GARDEN      64

FAR FUJIYAMA                   65

ON MIYAJIMA MOUNTAIN           66

OLD AGE                        68

ON THE YANG-TSE-KIANG          69

THE SEA-ARMIES                 71

THE CHRISTIAN IN EXILE         73

THE PARSEE WOMAN               75

SHAH JEHAN TO MUMTAZ MAHAL     77

PRINCESS JEHANARA              79

A CINGHALESE LOVE LAMENT       80

ON THE ARABIAN GULF            83

THE RAMESSID                   84

IMMORTAL FOES                  85

THE CONSCRIPT                  87

NAVIS IGNOTA                   89

THE CROSS OF THE SEPULCHRE     91

THE NUN                        92

ALPINE CHANT                   94

THE MAN OF MIGHT               96

IN TIME OF AWE                 97

SUNRISE IN UTAH                99

CONSOLATION                   100

WAVES                         102

VIS ULTIMA                    104

MEREDITH                      106




MANY GODS




"ALL'S WELL"


I

The illimitable leaping of the sea,
The mouthing of his madness to the moon,
The seething of his endless sorcery,
His prophecy no power can attune,
Swept over me as, on the sounding prow
Of a great ship that steered into the stars,
I stood and felt the awe upon my brow
Of death and destiny and all that mars.


II

The wind that blew from Cassiopeia cast
Wanly upon my ear a rune that rung;
The sailor in his eyrie on the mast
Sang an "All's well," that to the spirit clung
Like a lost voice from some aerial realm
Where ships sail on forever to no shore,
Where Time gives Immortality the helm,
And fades like a far phantom from life's door.


III

"And is all well, O Thou Unweariable
Launcher of worlds upon bewildered space,"
Rose in me, "All? or did thy hand grow dull
Building this world that bears a piteous race?
O was it launched too soon or launched too late?
Or can it be a derelict that drifts
Beyond thy ken toward some reef of Fate
On which Oblivion's sand forever shifts?"


IV

The sea grew softer as I questioned--calm
With mystery that like an answer moved,
And from infinity there fell a balm,
The old peace that God _is_, tho all unproved.
The old faith that tho gulfs sidereal stun
The soul, and knowledge drown within their deep,
There is no world that wanders, no not one
Of all the millions, that He does not keep.




THE PROSELYTE RECANTS

(_In Japan_)


  Where the fair golden idols
  Sit in darkness and in silence
While the temple drum beats solemnly and slow;
  Where the tall cryptomerias
  Sway in worship round about
And the rain that is falling whispers low;
  I can hear strange voices
  Of the dead and forgotten,
On the dimly rising incense I can see
  The lives I have lived,
  And my lives unbegotten,
_Namu Amida Butsu_ pity me!

  I was born this karma
  Of a mother in Chuzenji,
Where Nantai-zan looks down into the lake;
  Where the white-thronged pilgrims
  Climb to altars in the clouds
And behold the holy eastern dawn awake.
  It was there I wandered
  Till a priest of the Christians
With the crucifix he wore compelled my gaze.
  In grief I had grown,
  So upon its grief I pondered.
_Namu Amida Butsu_, keep my days!

  It was wrong, he told me,
  To pray Jiso for my children,
And Binzuru for healing of my ills.
 